Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, the ending with the girls and their cell phones would never ever ever been seen again.

Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 177(final spoiler warning will be for chapter 228 aka time skip)

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

------------------------- 24 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 24

Kakashi woke up as Iruka slipped his window open. He wasn't sure if the man had gotten that far into his bedroom because he cloaked his chakra that well, or if the sleeping part of Kakashi's mind had started to declare the chuunin 'not a threat'.

Iruka sat on the chair at the desk and unbuckled his boots, pulling them off. Next, he pulled off the white shirt and folded it up; placing it on the chair, he had been sitting on. He removed his pants and folded those, putting them on the chair. He took out the poison and placed it back in it's appropriate section of his pack.

Without a word, Iruka walked over to the bed, stripping down to naked and slid in next to Kakashi. Now fully awake, Kakashi wrapped an arm around the cooler body, pulling him against his own warmth. Kakashi pulled him closer, kissing the scar across the bridge of his nose.

Iruka squirmed, "Hey that tickles."

Kakashi laughed, "Sorry, I don't know how you manage to make a scar sexy and adorable at the same time."

Iruka did something that could best be described as purring, "Sexy and adorable?"

Grunting an affirmative as he pinned the other man under him. "Yeah, very sexy and very adorable." He kissed the scar again, running his hand down the other man's side until his palm rested against a tan hip.

Iruka brought his leg up, stroking the outside of Kakashi's thigh with the inside of his. "I'm supposed to make sure you rest. You're starting to make me think there is only one way to get you to sleep."

Kakashi's voice lowered. "Do you have any idea how sexy you are?"

Iruka smiled, "Want to show me?"

Kakashi pinned the younger man to the bed, his mouth searching out Iruka's warm lips as he pressed him down, tasting the sake on the other man. This is what he had wanted to do for a while now, and he wasn't going to let this opportunity be wasted.

Iruka tasted incredible, once he got past the bitter taste of the sake, he could appreciate the sweet taste of the chuunin. He kissed down the younger man's body, getting harder at the moaning caused by licking Iruka's neck. The tan flesh tasted incredible. Every kiss and touch the jônin did was reciprocated with soft breathy moans.

Kakashi took every opportunity to appreciate the play of the muscles of the man's throat under the tan skin and how his hair fell down without the ever-present ponytail. He sucked and nipped at the other man's collarbone, feeling the strong muscles of Iruka's chest. He traced the network of scars over the other man, licking and sucking each one as he kept Iruka pinned under him.

Kakashi couldn't take any more of the torture of having Iruka so close, but not having him. Every movement the man made under him promised pleasure ad Kakashi was getting impatient to take advantage of it. When Iruka tilted his head to whisper, "Take me" in Kakashi's ear, that was the end of patience. He took the younger man, reveling in the pants and moans. The whimpers and gasps Iruka made were even more intoxicating when he was the one causing them. Kakashi may be the embodiment of cool killer, but Iruka was the embodiment of lust. How his tan flesh rippled as his muscles moved under Kakashi. Finally, after what seemed a blissful eternity they collapsed into each other, vigorous exertion slipping into contented nipping and eventually into relaxed, messy, sleeping.

Kakashi slept soundly until his pillow started to move. His pillow moving on it's own was not a typical morning, so he opened his eye to look around. Iruka was swatting at his shoulder and trying to burrow his head under the actual pillow at the same time. Kakashi sat up and reached over to touch the tattoo on Iruka's back. As suspected, it felt warm to the touch.

Iruka opened one eye and looked up at Kakashi, "I hate being on this leash."

Trying not to laugh, Kakashi leaded against the wall, "Tell me about it." He shook his head, "Least they waited until noon."

Iruka stretched and nodded, "Yeah, but I spent three hours drinking with Tsunade. Its either Izumo or Genma doing the request, probably Izumo since he's being a dick about it. Can I get you anything before I head off?"

Kakashi shook his head, "I'm fine for a bit, I'm going to grab a shower after you then head back to bed."

Iruka padded off to wash the mess off of himself with a yawn. After grabbing a quick, quick shower, he made his way back to the bedroom to throw a uniform on. With an almost too distracting kiss with Kakashi as his lover made his way to the shower, Iruka took off to get to the Torture and Interrogation headquarters.

He strolled into the building and walked down the hall snacking on a skewer of dango. As he entered the normal meeting room, he saw Anko sitting on the table and Izumo in a chair reading a scroll. Kotetsu was going over a map. "Sorry I'm late, guys." He handed over the half-eaten stick of dango to Anko without her even having to say a word.

Izumo gestured at a stack of files, "Found your request this morning. We pulled everything we have done in thunder country. What's this about?"

Kotetsu nodded, "Yeah, Izumo and I have been relegated to assistants to the Hokage starting tomorrow. Evidently once the jônin interviews are over."

Iruka frowned and sat down, "I think we're going to be getting a mission soon, a deep mission. No one will think any thing of two administrative types having their mission room duties changed to assisting the new Hokage. You two know everyone in the village and have an understanding of the behind the scenes better than almost anyone else. Tsunade-sama has been away from the village for a long time, but, and I want to make this clear, it is our job to make sure she gets all the information she needs. I owe a family debt to that woman."

The other three became very serious at that. Kotetsu nodded, "We won't let you down."

Iruka smiled, "None of you guys have ever let me down. Anko, how are the new trainees coming along?"

Anko shook her head, "They still have manners that would make Izumo's grandmother happy. This batch is useless for anything other than infiltrating a court or withstanding a Hyuuga tea ceremony."

Kotetsu nodded, "I saw them earlier. We're going to need to get Ibiki to start recruiting younger, either that or at least tougher."

"Damn it." Iruka frowned, "I want you guys to start thinking of who we could add to the team for a deep undercover mission. I'm not sure which of us will go on it yet, don't know if it'll even happen. I want contingency plans for a trip to thunder via wave. I have a three pm with Tsunade today. I assume she has plans for me since she's scheduling my publicly known appointment so early in the cue. Any developments anyone wants to bring out in the open?"

Kotetsu frowned, "Maybe. I was hanging out at the gate last night, evidently one of the teams out patrolling thought they saw something. Their captain was a Hyuuga and he didn't see anything though, so not sure if it is something or just a sign of an over active imagination."

Anko nodded, "But I also heard the same type of thing from one of the Inuzuka, She thought she smelt something for a second, but wasn't sure what, said it didn't smell human but she hadn't smelt anything like that before and her dogs smelt it too. They investigated but didn't find anything."

Izumo rolled up the scroll, "Ibiki upped the number of patrols, just didn't tell anyone he was upping them and just assumed people wouldn't notice a slight increase."

Iruka nodded, "So there is something to it, but no one is bringing us in on it yet." He frowned, "OK, I need to bring those files to Tsunade at my 3PM. Just everyone keep your ears open to what people are saying and lets meet here for lunch tomorrow whenever Tsunade-sama gives you guys off."

Everyone nodded, before Anko interrupted, "Do you want the list of potentials before then?"

Iruka nodded, "Yeah can you track me down when it's done? If I'm not at my place I'll be at Kakashi's." He suddenly smiled, "Don't look at me like that guys."

Anko scooted over on the table to be closer to Iruka, "Ah, Ruka-kun, you know we just want the juicy details."

Izumo swatted at Anko, "What she means is we like seeing you happy."

Kotetsu chuckled, "Actually I think she means 'where can I install the video recorder'."

Iruka just sat back in his chair and laughed, "See, that's why I need you guys around. I thought she was trying to weasel out an invite."

Things degenerated down into picking on Anko and then picking on everyone else with a good natured humor of people that had been though way too much together to actually fight over anything. Iruka stood up, "I really have to go. I promised Tsunade to keep an eye on Kakashi."

With a smile he left, his bag now full of the reports for Tsunade. After a quick stop into the old archive records rooms of the administrative office, he left to walk towards Kakashi's. He had every intention of grabbing some food and heading back to see how Kakashi was when he spotted an all too familiar orange blur bounding down the street.

He ended up eating ramen with Naruto to distract him from the question about where he was last night when the boy had evidently gone to Iruka's apartment looking for him. He figured telling Naruto he slept at Kakashi's was not following Tsunade's request for discretion since Naruto might just tend to blab. It could have been a lot worse, he was hungry and buying the boy ramen made him happy. Having Iruka there listening to some story about him using Rasengan on a bunch of people meant a lot to the boy.

Part of Iruka felt bad for not paying more attention to Naruto during the meal, but he kept thinking about Kakashi. Finally, with a tussle of some blonde hair he was on his way back to Kakashi's apartment, stopping to pick up some soup and yakatori for the man.

He knocked on the door and then walked in humming to himself, stopping the instant he realized someone else was in there besides Kakashi. He blinked as he saw Gai leaning against the living room wall and Kakashi sitting on the couch.

Gai looked almost uncomfortable at seeing Iruka. Kakashi merely looked over at what Iruka was carrying, "Food?"

"Yeah, I ran into Naruto on the way home so I've eaten already, really I got way too much. Gai-sense, are you hungry?" Without hardly pausing for a breath he started to set the table and dump everything from take out containers into bowls and plates on the table, making sure to put two place settings, "I have to leave for my meeting in about few minutes, but I just wanted to get some of this dust off me first. Why don't you two eat? I'll be gone in a few minutes anyways. Gai-sense? Could you give Kakashi-san a hand?"

He darted off to the bedroom to gather up dirty clothes without another word to either of them, just a quick smile. He went to the bathroom carrying all the dirty clothes and sheets in the place with him. As Iruka had assumed, by asking Gai to help Kakashi it meant that Kakashi had been helped to the table and was being made to eat. Iruka threw laundry into the washer, conveniently located in the bathroom, and jumped in for a quick shower. After getting the dust from the archive rooms off of him, he put his uniform back on and made sure nothing that was dry clean only was in the washer before starting it.

He walked out of the bathroom about ten minutes later, cleaner and carrying a much smaller pack, since his normal pack and near everything in it was in the washing machine.

He stopped by the kitchen table where Gai had evidently already eaten and Kakashi was still poking at food. "Hey, Kashi, you have to eat. I am not going to face twenty questions from Tsunade-sama and admit to her I left without making sure you ate lunch."

Gai was still strangely silent as he watched Iruka move around the kitchen. Iruka gave him a smile, and then tried not to frown as Gai suddenly looked down at the table.

Iruka turned to Kakashi, "I'll be back in maybe an hour and move the laundry from the washer to the dryer, if you can just ignore the weapons pile there, I needed to wash my pack. I must have gotten something itchy on it somewhere in wave country."

Kakashi nodded, "I'm scheduled for four and Gai is at 4:30."

Gai looked at Iruka, "It is curious that you were scheduled amongst the jônin, is it possible you are trying to obtain the rank? Perhaps your youthful energy has been rekindled by the obvious passion of--"

"Or" Iruka cut him off, "Tsunade wants to take a break from all her serious appointments and see how uncomfortable she can make me recounting the most embarrassing moments of my life?"

Both Gai and Kakashi looked surprised at that. Finally, Kakashi asked, "Huh?"

Iruka shook his head, "She was my mother's sponsor for her jônin rank. Unfortunately that corresponded to a very clumsy portion of my childhood." He smiled, "Oh, I did have a few words with her earlier, and since you are here right now, Gai-sensei, this would be a good time to say something." He bowed into his most formal bow, "I am very sorry for my actions at the hospital earlier, and must apologize for any discomfort caused by my actions. I know I am in no position to ask for any favors from you, but I must ask for you to please treat what happened with discretion. Tsunade-sama was not very pleased with the … lack of modesty in my actions."

Gai stood up in a dramatic pose. "Of course I shall treat this delicate matter of love with the utmost of discretion. My eternal rival knows my loyalty has no bounds. I would…" At this point Gai's rant turned into a rather long proclamation of how loyal he would be and what increasingly implausible ways he could prove it. While the Gai was distracted by his speech, Iruka leaned over and kissed the exposed skin below Kakashi's right eye.

While Gai babbled on about such a display of tenderness, Iruka just smiled. He bowed to Gai again and thanked him for being such a loyal friend to Kakashi. With a smile on his face, he left the apartment. He wasn't sure that Gai had been uncomfortable about the relationship he was having with Kakashi, but the man was obviously much better about it now, so not too bad of an afternoon.

He quickly made his way to the administrative building so he wouldn't be late for his appointment. He bowed to the ANBU guards at the door to the Hokage's office and after giving his name was let in. He walked towards Tsunade and bowed deeply as he reached her, "Hokage-sama."

One the doors were shut and they were alone, she gestured to the chair. "Iruka, you have the files?" She just nodded as he handed them over. "Is the Hatake brat doing better?"

Iruka nodded, "He's pretty much slept since being let out of the hospital, but his appetite is returning and when I left to come here he was up and starting to walk around."

She nodded, "Good. I know he'll try to fake being better than he really is when I see him today, so I wanted a second opinion. I went over all the reports on Anko's cursed seal; we can't send her to spy on sound. Its too dangerous for her."

"I agree." Iruka didn't hesitate. Her saying it only saved him from having to try to convince her of that exact fact.

"I also don't only want to send a three person squad. There is too much chance you'll need to split up, so I'd rather send three units each with two people." She frowned, "I took your advice and Izumo and Kotetsu start here tomorrow."

He nodded, "I talked to them today. Our undercover situation is not too good in all honesty. The third was much more of an upfront type of person and didn't put as many resources into the covert…"

"Don't mince words, what are you meaning to say."

"We hardly have any shinobi with deep undercover experience anymore. If you want three teams, the best way as I see it is have Izumo, Kotetsu and I be the undercover half and pair us each with someone to be backup. Ko-kun normally does backup but he's damn good undercover as well."

She nodded, "I'll take that under advisement. I want a list of all the people who have ever done backup for you guys in the past. I'm not sure I'll only pull from that list though if I do take your suggestion." She looked over at him, "If it makes any difference, I don't see what your unit does as dishonorable. We're shinobi, lately people seem to forget that. Flashy jutsus and kick butt physical attacks don't do us any good if we don't know whom to attack. Plus, why use those means when more subtle means will work."

Iruka nodded, "I know. The four of us were talking today and … the progress of the latest girls interested in covert ops… Well, they aren't well suited for the less pretty side of the job."

She nodded, "Any suggestions?"

"Kotetsu thinks we need to start training younger. Our training started when we were fifteen after all. Waiting until they are eighteen seems late. We were going on missions when we were fifteen for Ibiki. Then again we pretty much showed up trained for this." He frowned, "It could also be that we need to aggressively recruit people we feel would adapt to it better."

"Such as?"

"I've started to identify students for Ibiki to keep an eye on. I have a pretty good idea of what makes a good covert op and what doesn't, the people that his advisors recommend are more the dress up fancy and send them to bat their eyes at some minor lord types."

She nodded, "I see. I want a list as well of the students you have recommended. I also want that list to state what about that person you think would make a good choice."

He nodded, "Yes, Tsunade-sama." He then started to go over the thunder country reports with her. Detailing out the villages they had been in before and what cover stories were used. Finally, it was almost four o'clock and he made his way out of the office. The academy was going to remain closed for at least another month, so his time was going to be devoted towards missions.

He took the opportunity of some down time to check on his apartment. He hadn't been back there in longer than he wanted to think about. He absently wandered around his apartment. It always seemed empty, but right now, it seemed even worse. Everything was covered with dust, the sound-sand attack on Konoha combined with being gone since then had made the apartment seem like no one had lived there in years. He let his apartment, not yet ready to check in on Kakashi. He had students to check up on, past and present.

Kakashi

Kakashi entered Tsunade's office. Gai had insisted on walking him there. He bowed as he entered, a slight smile on his lips under the mask, "Tsunade-sama."

She smiled, "Brat." She gestured to a seat, "You take it easy, I need you rested, we're short staffed."

He nodded, "When ever you need my services."

"What is the nature of your relationship with Umino Iruka?"

He paused for a moment before answering, "In all honesty, Hokage-sama, I am not exactly sure and am not exactly sure how to answer that."

She nodded, "Fair enough. I assume he already informed you that I want the both of you to use discretion. Personally, I don't care what you do in your off hours. You're both adults. However, I am not sure how the village would take rumors of their copy-nin dating a male schoolteacher. As I am sure you are aware, my position is tenuous, right now."

He nodded, "Anything I can do in service to Konoha, I will willingly do.

She smiled, "The fourth would have been happy to see you happy like that."

He looked up, raising his visible eyebrow.

"He always said you were too serious for such a young brat. Although having your boyfriend kiss you silly in the hospital with an audience is something that should be not repeated."

He nodded, "Iruka was worried about me. It won't happen again." He paused for a second before adding, "In public."

She rolled her eyes, "You haven't changed much I see. Although I was surprised you took on a team of genin."

"They are very persistent kids."

She laughed, "So I noticed. Now get yourself out of here and get some rest. If that boyfriend of yours is half as high maintenance as his mother, you've got your work cut out for you."

He stood, "Can I take that to mean neither of us will be summoned before morning?"

She nodded, "Unless something major comes up." She smiled to herself as Kakashi left her office.

When Kakashi returned to his apartment, it was empty. The clothes were in the dryer and not the washer and from the position of the dials; it appeared he had missed Iruka by fifteen minutes or less. He decided to relax on the couch for a while. It was hours later when he finally woke up. The sun had set and he heard a knock at the door.

He got up and opened it, letting revealing Iruka leaning in the doorway. The younger man smiled and held up some take out bags, "Hungry?"

Kakashi stepped back from the door and let him in. Dinner was pleasant, although Iruka seemed a little distracted. Afterwards he softly kissed Kakashi's forehead, "I'm going to grab a shower and change into something clean.

Iruka was still in the shower when there was another knock on the door, this time it was Anko. "Is Iruka here?"

Kakashi nodded and let her in, "He's grabbing a shower. Can I help you?"

She smiled, "Can I wait? I have a report he wanted."

He gestured at the couch, "Can I get you anything to drink?"

She shook her head, "No, thank you though."

Kakashi stopped and looked at her, bringing the forehead protector up to look at her with the Sharingan. He then tried to disperse an illusion. "What's going on? You're never polite."

She smirked, "I can be polite if I want to be and if you don't like than then fuck off."

He shook his head, "I've had too much weirdness today. A quiet Gai, a polite Anko, next thing Asuma will show up and proclaim he quit smoking or something."

Anko laughed, "I was just trying to be nice around Ruru-chan's new boyfriend. I didn't realize it would creep you out. Just think, the infamous copy-nin put on edge by a simple thank you."

"You've known Iruka for a long time."

"Since we were three, my mother used to watch him sometimes."

He nodded, "He's hard to figure out."

She nodded, "Layers. But you're the one always spouting off about underneath and all. Funny thing with Iruka though, once you get through all the layers, turns out whatever is down there is normally exactly what he says. None of us have the time or inclination to lie when we don't have to. We also don't tend to go around and be all subtle trying to figure out people."

He nodded, "So my best bet is just to ask him?"

She smiled, "Yep."

When the water turned off, Anko got up and walked over to the bathroom door, "Ruru-chan, I have the file you wanted sweetie."

Kakashi rolled his eyes at the overdone sweetness to Anko's request.

Iruka muttered something from the other side of the door and Anko faked an affronted look, "No! I am shocked. How could you think I'd be over here to install video cameras?" Kakashi quirked an eyebrow at that. "If I were doing anything like that I'd do it when no one is home."

Iruka muttered something else and Anko laughed, "No, don't worry; I didn't lay a hand on your boyfriend. Unless you want me to?"

Iruka walked out of the bathroom, wearing a paid of khaki's that were precariously held up by his hipbones. He grabbed the file from Anko and shook his head, "You are impossible, woman."

He flipped through some pages as he made his way over to the couch. His eyes flicked across the information as he quickly sorted the papers into two piles. "Nice work Anko. He handed one stack to her, Have Izumo do workups on these tomorrow. I don't think we'll need anything before noon at the earliest. The others, keep handy just in case, but these eight are out best bet."

She smiled, "Sure thing sweetness. I'll let you two have some quality time until then." She sauntered off laughing as she waved over her shoulder.

Iruka yawned and looked at Kakashi, "you should be resting."

"You look pretty tired." Kakashi leaned over, pulling down his mask to kiss Iruka softly.

The younger man purred as he took Kakashi's hands. "Bed. Now." He pulled the jônin to the bedroom. Soon their clothes were spread on the bedroom floor as Kakashi caused Iruka to make all those little noises he was growing to love. Finally, the lovers collapsed next to each other completely sated, even if Iruka was now a little sore.

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

If anyone thinks this needs to be censored to be legal on FFN, please tell me. I think this one is OK without that.

Sorry this chapter was a day late. The next one will probably be a late one too since I have a lot to work into the next chapter.

Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in it's final third.