Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue.

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.

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 21

Iruka woke up slowly the next morning. He was sore and tired still. Iruka slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He was in the room alone with Kakashi; he could hear someone out in the main part of the apartment doing something in the kitchen that sounded like cooking.

He stretched and got up to his hands and knees. Kakashi was still unconscious of course, but he looked so peaceful. Iruka crawled over to the side of his bed and gently kissed his forehead. Only the mask was in place, the forehead protector had been taken off since it wasn't needed when he had his eyes closed. Iruka gently ran his fingers through the grey hair before running one finger over the exposed portion of Kakashi's nose. Gently he traced the top of the mask with his finger before leaning over again to kiss the pale forehead.

He heard someone clear their throat behind him. Slowly, he turned and looked over at where Gai was standing in the doorway. Iruka smiled and stood up, "I should be leaving. He's in good hands."

Gai nodded, "I made breakfast. I can't let you go without eating something. Kakashi wouldn't forgive me if I let his … uh, if I let you go without eating."

Iruka just nodded as he grabbed his pack form the floor. He didn't feel like discussing the state of his relationship with Kakashi at this hour of the morning. "Thank you. I am sorry if I was short with you last night."

Gai walked to the kitchen table, "It's perfectly understandable. I am surprised Ibiki is sending you out so quickly. You must be very talented."

Iruka sat down at the table and started to eat the grilled fish and vegetables. "My family has always been more geared towards intelligence work." He paused the eating, with some fish in his mouth he was chewing, and unwrapped his shuriken holster so he could check his thigh wound. He grabbed some salve from his pack and started to treat his thigh wound with it before rebandaging the whole thing.

"You came from a ninja family?" Gai looked over at the chuunin, "I don't remember any Uminos during the war."

"Covert ops. My parents were both ANBU." Iruka shrugged, "My father did assassinations, he wasn't a battle type and my mother was exclusively used undercover. I'm not surprised you never met them." Iruka kept eating breakfast; he wasn't sure when his next meal would be so he didn't want to waste anything in front of him.

Iruka finished eating as much as he could before grabbing his pack, "Thank you for breakfast Gai-sensei. I must be off. Take good care of Kakashi-kun for me." He blushed slightly as he realized he used kun instead of san. With that, Iruka left to change clothes at his apartment and reload his backpack. He was at the headquarters for Torture and Interrogation within an hour of leaving Kakashi's and quickly tracked down Genma and had his lip piercings back in place. They were subtle enough that he doubted anyone would notice as he quickly made his way out of the village. They didn't have the manpower to spare escorting him out under cover of being a grass nin.

This time he wasn't going to grass, he was headed to wave to check out a rumor of a missing nin from sound being seen there. No one knew a lot about her, except that she was a her. Once Iruka reached the outskirts of Fire country, he paused to change. He was going to play the part of someone who was not a ninja, so all of his weapons had to be stashed in his pack along with his uniform. He changed into a pair of low waisted pants with pockets on the legs in a gray/brown camouflage pattern. He pulled on brown boots and a brown tight fitting T-shirt with the name of a relatively obscure band on it. He left his hair down just brushing it away from his face as he grabbed his pack and continued on his way to the town the rumors originated at.

He reached the town before sunset, which was the only requirement that Ibiki had given him. He strolled into town as if he were just another person wandering from one town to another. He walked along the main street, trying to find a place to eat and sleep. He walked by several hotels, those weren't the kind of places he was looking for.

He finally found what he was looking for. In the midst of what seemed to be the bar area of town, there was a small hotel. It obviously didn't have a restaurant or a clientele that didn't make use of it as short-term apartments. It was perfect. He walked in, got himself a room and dropped off his unnecessary stuff before heading out to scope out the bars.

He started going to all the bars in town, one by one. He had developed a cover story of being an out of work musician/bartender. He made conversation with everyone he could. He said he came from the far side of wave, and he had the accent down perfectly so everyone seemed to believe him. He ended up in card games and dart games and made sure to lose slightly more than he won so that no one would suspect him of being anything.

Eventually he found the bar with the greatest concentration of shinobi. Of course, none of them were wearing forehead protectors, but it was very hard to hide the chakra development being a shinobi caused. Iruka had developed exactly that type of control to hide the development of his chakra, and he knew it was a very rare skill. He spent a few hours there without finding out anything and it was getting late so he went back to his room to sleep. He was still exhausted from the depletion he went through on the mission to grass.

The next day, Iruka woke up and carefully dressed. Tan pants just an inch too low at the waist, dark green shirt just a tad too tight, hair just slightly mussed. He went out to scout out the town and try to find the person he was looking for. He knew asking around wouldn't work, if he were a sound missing-nin he would try to make sure no one ever even suspected he was a ninja. He knew he had the skills that he could do it, he doubted his prey had those same skills. She could probably fool townspeople and shinobi not specifically trained, but he doubted that she could fool him.

His daytime searching came up empty, but at least he was feeling better. A couple of meals and just walking around a town at a meander was definitely helping him get his strength back. That night he headed back to the same bar as the night before. He acted out the part of just being out an enjoying his night. He kept his senses up for anyone with unusual chakra though.

Around eleven at night he saw a young woman walk in. Her chakra systems were too controlled to not have training. He kept an eye on her as a potential. The other two potentials that had come in both turned out to not be who he was looking for. One had been a mist academy drop out and the other was a medic at the local hospital who had some chakra training.

He watched the woman for a while. She walked up to the bar, grabbed a drink, and was almost instantly being chatted to by some guy that she obviously didn't have any interest in. She had short black hair and was wearing jeans and a red turtleneck. She didn't look out of place, but she didn't exactly fit either. Her clothing seemed a little bit warm considering the rest of the patrons of the bar. This time of year, sound was warmer than wave though, it could be a sign she was the one he was looking for.

He made his way over to the bar to get another drink, making sure he got it close to where she was standing. As he waited for his drink, he listened carefully to her mannerism and accent. Few shinobi learned how to fully disguise those things. He heard enough words and phrases to make him pretty sure he had found her. He investigated her chakra signature a little more closely. She definitely was a ninja; she was much more organized feeling than the other two had been.

He decided to try to talk to her. He got the bartender's attention and handed him some money. He then got up and walked over to the woman, giving her his best friendly smile. He then spoke to the man trying to pick her up, "Hey, the bartender wanted me to tell you that some chick wanted to buy you a drink."

The drunken man thanked Iruka and walked over to the bar where the bartended gave him a drink and gestured over to the very crowded other side of the bar. The woman looked at Iruka, "Thank You."

He smiled back, "No problem. He didn't seem like he was getting the hint. My name's Shouhei. Can I get you a drink?"

She smiled, "Thank you Shouhei-san. I am Kaeda." They chatted for a while and Iruka made sure to mention some of his travels. He was careful not to act like a ninja. He left his sides undefended, allowed himself to be surprised by people jostling by him to get to the bar. He flirted with her, using his chocolate brown eyes to their fullest uses. As she relaxed and they ended up sitting together at a table drinking, he slowly reached out with his chakra and gently tried to calm hers. It was a risky move, but if it worked, his mission would almost be assured a success.

As he talked about his travels and she relaxed around him, part from the alcohol and part from his chakra influence, she started to comment on some of the towns he mentioned. All the towns she had been to were between here and sound. He had his target for sure. Unfortunately, it was approaching closing time and he wasn't in a position yet where he knew he could get her back to his room. He offered to walk her home, and she accepted. He left her at the front of her apartment on the outskirts of town with a promise to pick her up there at six the next evening for dinner.

He walked back to his room and lay down. He fell asleep, his mind wandering back to Konoha. Why had he really gone to see Kakashi in the state he was in after that mission? He fell asleep, still pondering what his real feelings for Kakashi were.

When he woke up the next morning, he just stretched in the sunbeam falling across the bed. He didn't have anywhere to go until six and the many hours between now and then were more than enough for preparations. He decided to relax. A morning of relaxing in the sun coming through the window soon turned to thinking of relaxing in bed with Kakashi. Why was it when he was tired and vulnerable he wanted to be near the jônin?

Eventually he got up and started to get everything ready for that night. He unlocked the window and left it just enough ajar that it would be easy to get in through the window. He changed the piercing in his lower lip for one containing a knock out agent.

He left the rest of the drugs he had brought in his pack, if this didn't work then he would take out the heavier hitters. He did a few katas, had a nice lunch at a little café a few blocks away. By the time he had to leave to pick the woman up, he was feeling significantly better. He was probably getting more rest on this mission than he would have gotten back in the village – of course, this had every possibility of getting screwed up on a seconds notice.

He made his way to the woman's apartment. From what she said in casual conversation the night before she had been here for nearly two months and was working at a small grocery store. He knocked on her door just a few minutes before six o'clock. She was ready and wearing jeans and a sweater – definitely wasn't used to the colder climate of wave.

She seemed suspicious over dinner so Iruka kept it very simple. He kept his cover story as close to the truth as possible, even telling stories about his little brother 'Naru' who got in trouble at school all the time. She seemed more relaxed by the time dinner was over, but at the same time, something was defiantly bothering her. Iruka was pretty sure whatever that 'something' was that it wasn't him though.

He played it safe and simply walked her to her apartment before heading back to his room. She evidently had to work early the next day, but she agreed to another dinner, but she insisted on cooking it herself. Iruka decided he needed to figure out her work schedule, things were going too slowly for his liking. He wanted to get this done, and get out of there. The only problem was that he didn't know if this woman had a cursed seal and if he would be able to beat her in a fight. He had to keep playing it safe. He was regretting not having any backup.

He paced around his room as he thought. This was going on too long. He had to finish this so he could get out of there and get back to Konoha. He didn't want to be away from Kakashi for this long, especially on a stupid mission that wasn't keeping him occupied constantly. He left the room to go scout out some bars, at least he could try to pick up any gossip and hopefully return to Ibiki with some useful information.

When the bars closed, he made his way through the darkened town. He hadn't learned anything exceedingly useful but any information could potentially be useful. He carefully made his way to the grocery store his target worked in and slipped in through a window. He carefully searched for the employee schedule. After memorizing his target's schedule, he slipped out of the store and headed back to his room. He needed to think of a plan.

The next day he carefully went through his med kit. He took out several of the knock out agents while thinking of the best way to do things. One he carefully put into a capsule and slid it carefully into a pocket that had been carved into the muscle of his tongue. He placed a second drug into the piecing on his lower lip. He carefully put a granular sedative under the nails of his right hand. He'd have to be careful, but he always was.

The knock out agent under his tongue would be the best one, but it had a taste to it. It also had an antidote that could be taken several hours before exposure. An hour before dinner, he started chain smoking. The taste of cigarettes would hide the taste of the drug. He downed a vial of antidote and checked out of his room. This was it; he wouldn't need to come back here.

He carried his pack towards the building she lived in before stashing it in a dumpster a few alleys away from her place. He walked up to her apartment, a bottle of sake in his hands. Sake wasn't his first choice for covering up the taste of drugs, but combined with the cigarettes it should more than suffice.

Her apartment was simple and obviously, she hadn't been there long. Most of the décor screamed of lands farther north than wave, she wasn't doing a very good job of hiding. Bringing the bottle of sake got him a short kiss and soon they were eating dinner and laughing. She seemed much more relaxed on her own turf. Her cooking was good, although that too screamed of lands farther north. Finally, he made his move, gently kissing her. His hands wrapped into her short black hair as he pulled her closer. He felt her relax in his arms as he deepened his kiss.

Iruka was an excellent kisser. He knew when to rush and when to take things slow. Gently he sucked on her lower lip, using the freedom of his mouth to break open the capsule of liquid under his tongue. The taste wasn't noticeable with the sake and cigarettes and he deepened his kiss with her, his tongue seeking entrance to her mouth as he wrapped an arm around her waist. After a minute of deeply kissing her, he backed off and broke the kiss, smiling at her.

Her eyes were half lidded and she was looking very relaxed. He knew the drug would take a good five minutes to kick in and it wasn't the strongest of knock out drugs in his arsenal. He grabbed her cup of sake and making sure to get his fingertips in it when she wasn't watching; he held it up to her lips as she took a sip. He kissed her on the neck, distracting her from the feeling of being knocked out. Carefully he lowered the unconscious body to the floor. He tossed the drugged sake and then proceeded to clean up the remains of dinner.

She should be unconscious for at least six hours so he had plenty of time. He searched her apartment, grabbing anything that seemed like it might be information and shoved it all into a canvas bag. He packed clothes for her as well. Carrying her, it would be about a three-day trip back to Konoha if he hurried, and he did intend on hurrying. He waited until the sunset and then he made his way out under cover of darkness. He had her over his one shoulder and her bag over the other. He grabbed his pack from the dumpster before putting on both packs and then holding her against his chest. He then took off, needing to put as much distance between this village and himself by the time he had to re-drug her.

He reached Konoha without any unexpected difficulty. He replaced his chuunin uniform a few miles out incase they ran into any patrols. When he came strolling in through the south gate with a prisoner in broad daylight, he just waved to the guards. He made his way to the headquarters of Torture and Interrogation before handing over the unconscious woman to Ibiki. As they waited for her to wake up in a cell, they went though all the things he had grabbed form her apartment. Most of the data was out of date, but it was at least useful for deciding which of their information gathering sources were reliable and which weren't.

Finally, when the woman woke up, Ibiki and Iruka went into their good interrogator/bad interrogator routine that normally worked very well. The after affects of the drugs she was on didn't hurt either, nor the drugs Ibiki had given the woman to make questioning her easier. A few hours of questioning and the woman collapsed. They had obtained a lot of information though, especially about some elite fighters that Orochimaru had. Four of the five had been the ones holding the barrier in place when the third had died after the chuunin exams. The fifth member of that group was evidently the most powerful, but according to the woman, there were rumors that he was ill and that was why he didn't take part in the attack.

Iruka and Ibiki were sitting in Ibiki's office when Genma came rushing in without knocking. Ibiki just looked at the jônin with a raised eyebrow, "Jiraiya-sama brought back Tsunade-sama, and she's agreed to be the fifth Hokage."

Iruka smiled and stood up, "If you'll excuse me, I have a place to be."

Ibiki just waved him off, the scared torture specialist even letting a hint of a smile grace his face.

Iruka ran off, not even caring if the two jônin were joking about him acting lovesick. In the time he had been away from the village on his mission, and the days of returning to Konoha, he had realized something. He was falling in love.

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Teaser - Next chapter - what will Iruka do to prove to Kakashi how much he is falling in love?

Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. 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. Sorry this update was a day late