Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would have been more of a certain person in that second movie. Thus, Naruto, still not mine, world domination, still not accomplished.

Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga since I believe the events referenced are in volume 15 of the manga. This contains spoilers for the end of the Chuunin Exam arc.

Warnings --- Uh yeah, umm major warnings on this, it might be a bite more graphic than the other chapter with major warnings

This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 19

Iruka slowed his pace when he got insight of the town. It wouldn't do for people to see through his disguise. This town was frequented by grass shinobi so his headband and light tan uniform went with little notice except street vendors trying to attract his attention in an effort to sell their wares.

Iruka found his way to a bar of very ill repute. More specifically, it was a brothel with a bar as a front. It was a place that catered to every form of diversion, as long as you could pay for it. Sitting in the alleyway behind the bar, he slowly gathered his chakra and calmed it. He stretched out his awareness, careful so as to not alert anyone, just passively reaching. This was one of his only good 'tricks' as a ninja. He could find his teammates. He sensed Izumo and just barely let his chakra flare, centering it on the tattoo on the other man's neck. Only one of the team would know to do that.

He scoped out the building and traced where the electrical wires came from. He stayed to the shadows as the sun set. He remained in the alleyway, hiding behind a dumpster and resting until the sky started to turn orange. Then he took out a blank scroll tag and began to draw on it. Instead of turning it into a standard exploding tag, he made it into one that would have a thirty-minute fuse before blowing. The bad part was during that 30 minutes it would be glowing so he would need to be very careful with his placement.

Iruka had been in this place before and knew that all the backrooms were monitored with close circuit cameras. The main part of the bar had security from former shinobi. The front door was not an option for them to make a break from; the only option was to use the element of surprise.

As the sun set and darkness covered the village, he downed another whole vial of chakra powder and snorted a second half. Under cover of darkness, he made his move. Carefully scaling a telephone pole, he placed the chakra tag between the pole and the transformer for the electric lines. He then set the tag off and jumped to the ground. He made his way into the bar taking in the smell of too much spilt alcohol and the stale smoke. He made his way over to the bar and got a shot of something that the bartended claimed to be whiskey, but tasted much worse.

He made his way over to the grouping of – hell, Iruka didn't remember what they should be called, they were just the pieces of meat this place had for sale. Some money and you get whomever for a while. Men, Women, ones who didn't qualify as either of those. Iruka had seen too much depravity in the world to be bothered by it as he walked over and propositioned one specific man. With an ease he was glad his fellow shinobi back in leaf never saw, he had a room and a male prostitute propositioned.

He closed the door to the room and pressed the whore up against the door to murmur into his ear. The man was slightly shorter than Iruka and of a thinner build with blond hair and looked like he had been beaten severely recently. He leaned over and whispered into his purchase's ear "We're being watched right?"

The blond nodded and pressed up against Iruka, he whispered with his breath hot against Iruka's ear, "Cameras above the mirror and the window." While the battered blond didn't look like Izumo, his voice was still that of the chuunin.

Iruka purred into Izumo's ear as he started to take the other man's shirt off, "The power should go out in ten minutes, we'll break out through the window then."

Izumo licked Iruka's ear, his hands playing through the dark brown hair. He started to whisper the information he had found out. Iruka acted as if whatever Izumo was doing to his ear was incredibly erotic. Incase he couldn't get Izumo out of there; he had to memorize the information the other chuunin breathed into his ear. One of them had to get out, this was too important for Konoha to let either of their lives come between it. Unfortunately, of their four-person team, they were the two with the least lethality in a fight, so it would be hard.

Izumo started to unbuckle the light green vest and then kissed his way down over the shirt. He stopped when he reached right above the belt and started to unbuckle it. The entire time he made sure to keep Iruka's back towards the cameras. The less exposure to film the greater their chances of no one recognizing the other chuunin.

Iruka continued the mental countdown in his mind as to when the blast was going to go off. He was trying not to feel guilty that he was having Izumo act out the part of a male whore. It had to be done. It was a mission. If it wasn't believable then they would be captured and the information wouldn't reach Konoha. Maybe it was time for him to quit working for Ibiki. He was having a harder and harder time separating 'work' from 'not work' and Izumo on his knees in front of him felt too good.

He wasn't acting when he moaned and grunted in response. His hands were gripped into the dyed blond hair as he urged Izumo; at least it was a believable show for the people behind the cameras. Iruka thought that maybe he could blame it on the chakra powder. He had taken two and a half vials of the stuff since noon and normally more than 2 in a 24 hour period would get you bitched out by the medic nins.

Suddenly there was a small explosion outside about a block away and the power went out. Pulling himself away from Izumo, and wishing it wasn't as reluctant as it was, he began whispering orders as he pulled his pants back up. "I got the door; you start on the bars over the window."

A simple seal on the door to delay people and some expertly applied chakra and they were out through the formerly barred window without any sound. They ran as hell-bent as they could while still dodging patrols, only getting into a brief fight with one group of thugs.

Izumo's chakra reserves were in good condition, but the man was running with a noticeable limp from his injuries in the brothel. Iruka's reserves were failing; unfortunately, the fight took out most of what the powder had given him. The first dose of the powder might work great, but it was a lesson in diminishing returns for all doses after that. They ran through the grasslands trying to get to the river where their packs were.

When they got to the cave, Iruka collapsed. Izumo quickly checked him over and made sure there was nothing worse than Chakra depletion. That's when he discovered Iruka had been hurt more than he had let on in the fight with the thugs.

Iruka looked down at the slash on his thigh, "Fuck, I didn't even feel it." He laid back as Izumo bandaged up his leg. The other bad part of the chakra powder was it made wounds difficult to feel. Shinobi had bled to death from wounds they never even felt as a result of the powder, and if not for Izumo, Iruka could have been another one.

They got dressed into their leaf uniforms, Iruka taking the second half of the third vial in order to be able to stand. He was hoping the forth dose would last until he got back to Konoha.

By the time that they crossed the main gates, it was late morning of the next day. The powder was used up and Iruka could feel his imminent collapse coming soon. He had to get Izumo to Anko though. He hurried them to her apartment. Ibiki could come and debrief them there, two beat up shinobi stumbling through the front gate would be something Ibiki would find out about.

By the time they got to Anko's door, he was dizzy and the world was starting to go dark. He knocked but didn't wait before opening the never locked door and walking in.

Asuma POV

Asuma watched the chuunin take off through the trees. To say he was surprised would be an understatement. He had assumed the chuunin was nothing but a paper pusher. Suddenly he was confronted with the man doing a complex seal completely from memory. He knew Genma had always been friendly towards the man, but Genma was just easy going like that.

He'd had to take that chakra powder a few times in his time as a shinobi, and it was brutal. That Ibiki threw four doses of it to Iruka spoke volumes for what had been going on behind their backs. He hadn't even suspected the chuunin worked for Ibiki, evidently, Izumo did as well.

Asuma wasn't as stupid as people assumed he was. Sure, he'd get his butt handed to him at shoji by his student, but not being a genius with an IQ over 200 and being an idiot were two distinct things. He'd bet money that Anko was involved in this as well. If Izumo and Iruka were in something, he was willing to bet Kotetsu and Anko were as well. He hurried back to Anko's apartment to check on Kurenai. They needed to get things situated quickly so they could start patrolling the village. Their students, besides Hinata of course, were assigned to cleanup, and he and Kurenai were supposed to be patrolling the village while the genin worked at clearing out damaged buildings.

He knocked on the door to Anko's apartment. Hinata opened the door, "Asuma-sensei, Kurenai-sensei is with Anko." The shy girl gestured towards an open door leading to what Asuma assumed was a bedroom. The girl quickly resumed cleaning the apartment.

Asuma ignored the empty beer bottles and other trash that the girl was cleaning and walked towards the room where Anko and Kurenai were. He stepped in and saw Kurenai replacing a moist cloth on top of Anko's forehead.

"How is she?"

Kurenai looked up at him, "She seems comfortable at least. Iruka left?"

Asuma nodded. "I told him when he gets back the three of us should clear the air. If he and Kakashi are going to keep seeing each other, we should make sure none of us are operating under incorrect assumptions."

Kurenai frowned, "I am not assuming anything. I know what happened to my student and that no one was there to stop it. He didn't do anything to stop that man from hurting my student."

Asuma nodded, "Iruka told me he killed the man that did that to her."

Kurenai just frowned, "Too little too late."

Asuma sat down, looking at the picture on Anko's nightstand. He picked up the simple frame. It looked like it was from genin graduation day. Instead of a team, it showed Izumo, Kotetsu, Iruka and Anko -- no jônin sensei. The four were smiling a more honest smile than he saw in many graduating pictures. Anko had her head resting on Iruka's and was in the middle. Izumo was on one side holding up rabbit ear fingers over Anko's head and Kotetsu was on the other side, one hand on Iruka's shoulder, the other thrown around Anko. Anko for her part had her arms over the shoulders of both Kotetsu and Izumo. The four looked like they had been friends for a long time.

Asuma put the picture down on the nightstand. "We're going to talk to him." He looked over at Anko. "She still trusts him for some reason."

Kurenai nodded, "I know, I don't know why."

Asuma stood up, "We should get back to patrolling." They left Anko under Hinata's care and assumed by the time they got back from patrolling the apartment would be cleaned.

Kakashi POV

Kakashi for his part started to supervise the three genin assigned to him as they cleared away damage. A few sarcastic comments and quickly the two boys were trying to out do one another and see who could carry away the most rubble. A few hours later, he left the kids to make a quick patrol of the town, maybe stop by the mission desk, and just make sure things were going well.

He ran into Kurenai and Asuma in front of a teashop. As he was talking to them, he noticed something odd about two of the people in the shop, but then they were gone. He decided he'd check in on Iruka later and decided to check around the village some more. Something was definitely wrong. Unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to check in on Iruka that day. He barely was able to stop Itachi and Kisame from killing Asuma and Kurenai. Actually, he wasn't sure he managed that since his entire world quickly became a black coma like existence.

Back to Asuma &&&&&&&&&

Asuma had never been so happy to see Gai as when he showed up at the battle by the river. As they carried the unconscious Kakashi back to the city, he knew how lightly they had gotten off. He was spending too much of his day around unconscious people.

Somehow with how the day was going, it didn't surprise him that when they had the unconscious Kakashi settled in his apartment with Gai promising to stay there with him that Aoba would come barging in screaming about Itachi when Sasuke was there. It also didn't surprise him to find out that Naruto had gone off with Jiraiya and that Sasuke evidently went off after them. Some days just sucked like that.

Asuma and Kurenai walked back to Anko's apartment, and Asuma found himself hoping that Anko hadn't drank all the alcohol in the place, because he sure could use a stiff drink.

He didn't think Iruka would be getting back that night so he grabbed a beer from Anko's fridge and sat down to watch TV while Kurenai fussed over the unconscious woman. At least they were pretty sure that Kurenai would wake up on her own, whether Kakashi would, now that was another question. He didn't know what Itachi had done, but whatever it was, was not good. His last thought before he fell asleep on the couch was that, damn, he'd need to get a leather couch, this thing was comfy.

He pulled a late sentry post and was back mid morning. Just as he was getting ready to watch Anko for a bit so Kurenai could check up on the genin, he heard a knock on the door and Iruka came stumbling through the door looking like hell warmed over. Izumo was right behind him.

Izumo grabbed Iruka by the shoulders and hauled his sorry ass over to the couch. He jerked his head towards Asuma, "Keep an eye on him for a minute, OK?" With that, Izumo limped into the bedroom where Anko was. He was sporting a fair amount of bruises and looked tired, but not exhausted like Iruka. He also had blond hair, which Asuma thought was a little odd.

Iruka looked up at Asuma, obviously too exhausted to get up off the couch. The chuunin's hands were twitching and he had a twitch on the side of his face as well. Asuma had seen enough after effects of too much chakra powder to recognize the signs. He asked, "Can I get you anything?"

Iruka sighed and looked up before asking in a hopeful tone, "Does she have any beer in her fridge? It might be hidden in the crisper."

Asuma shook his head and smirked as he grabbed another beer from the fridge. He walked over to Iruka who had managed to move a bit and be sitting up against the one armrest of the couch, looking for all the world like he was going to fall asleep right there, if only he could stop twitching.

Iruka gladly accepted the beer and took a gulp of it before wincing, "Fuck, I forgot she drinks this crap." That didn't stop him from taking a second and third gulp though. Asuma just chuckled and pulled out a cigarette. Before he had a chance to light it, Iruka was giving him a questioning look.

"What? I've been up too long and need one." He was sick of everyone getting on his case about smoking.

"Oh, Uh, not that, I was going to ask if I could borrow one. Hands are just shaking so bad." Iruka tried to smile as he looked up at Asuma.

Reaching into a pocket to pull out the pack and handed one over to Iruka, "You look like you need it."

Iruka just smiled gratefully and pulled a lighter out of his pocket. He mumbled something about sucking at fire jutsu and lit the cigarette before inhaling deeply. He closed his eyes as the nicotine slowed the shaking a bit. "Do you know when Kakashi and his genin will be done for the day?"

Asuma didn't answer, and just frowned, damn, and today had been better than yesterday.

-------------------- Notes ------------------------

The Itachi scene is skimmed over, for full details see the Anime or read the Manga – assuming you are able to get your hands on something that far ahead what Viz has put out or cartoon network is showing. Events reference chapter 140-144 or so.

Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. Now that I'm back, updates should be back on their every other day or so schedule. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month.