Disclaimer – I don't own Naruto, wish I did, but I don't

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)

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The character cheat sheet for Iruka's little mission:

Umino Iruka – Alias "Yukio" – One of our favorite MABU members

Minamino Natsumi -- alias "Ami" – ANBU woman, black hair, green eyes, age twenty-one. Assigned as backup on the mission.

Kuroda Takumi – Often referred to as 'the mark' Drug dealer in high end merchandise who has had some recent activity in difficult to obtain medical supplies

Dr. Inokuma – Mentioned in conversation

Mr. K – Unknown only referred to in conversation

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 28

Slowly Iruka woke up. The transmitter had died at some insane hour of the morning and he'd been sleeping on the couch ever since. He hadn't slept well; then again, he normally didn't sleep well on these kinds of missions. When he heard Natsumi start to wake, he sat up, "Nothing to report from the transmitter last night."

She sat up on the bed and nodded, "OK, so the plan is still the same, and it's the real plan this time, right?"

He nodded as he started to stretch, "Yep. I meet with him, hand over the drugs, and take the money. You follow him to his contact and then when I get back here I grab a radio unit, contact you and rendezvous with you. We then assess the situation with the contact and figure out the best way to go from there."

He placed his hands together and set his feet apart as he slowly started to move through his morning exercise katas. As he worked through his exercises, she busied herself preparing her weapons. He was grateful for the quiet. He wanted to think, not to talk. Thankfully, he had been trained since he was very little to not talk in his sleep, with his mother in MABU and his father in ANBU; he had been destined for this type of work.

If he did talk in his sleep, any mutterings last night would have been good blackmail material. He could vividly remember his dreams. The two nights of making love with Kakashi had fueled his fantasies into an increased vividness. Every detail of the man's body had been unleashed by his subconscious. The imperfections of the man only making him more real and perfect. He recalled every taste, every sound, and every touch with a detail that astonished him.

Iruka almost missed his timing on a series of kicks because he was so absorbed in remembering the faint network of scars along the jônin's thighs. This was getting in the way of his work -- he hated wondering. He just wanted to know what the other man thought of him. Was he falling in love or was this a simple infatuation for the other man? Iruka didn't think it was anything so simple, this had been going on for a while now and Kakashi definitely did seem serious when he was with Iruka.

He went into a complex pattern of punches and kicks, he had to stop acting like some eight year old with a crush. He was twenty-four and a chuunin for Konoha. He was a member of an elite covert force and he needed to start acting like it.

After his exercises, he started to sketch out a map of the town from memory onto a scroll. After she showered and got dress, she peaked over his shoulder to see what he was doing, "You've been here enough to know the town that well?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I've worked Takumi more than a few times. Plus, this town is convenient for a lot of other places I've gotten sent to, so I tend to stay the night here when it suits the mission as well. They actually have several really good restaurants, speaking of which, are you hungry?"

She nodded, "Sure. Is it safe to go out?"

He shrugged, "It fits with the identities we're using. I'll just throw on something and we can go get some food. Besides, it wouldn't be very in character if Yukio didn't take his Ami-chan out to eat, right?"

She laughed and shook her head, "Of course not." Then in an obviously teasing tone she added, "I hope your girlfriend back in Konoha doesn't get jealous. I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt her if she attacked me"

He grabbed some clothes and walked into the bathroom, "I wouldn't worry about that." He smirked as he closed the door. Mentally he added, 'My boyfriend could kick your ass without even bothering to put his porn down.'

He walked back out wearing a pair of designer cargo pants and a tight brown T-shirt with a loose black dress shirt (unbuttoned of course) over that. He led her to a restaurant on the other side of town, a nice traditional type of place. The food was excellent and the sake to go with it was top notch. Throughout the meal, Iruka was a perfect gentleman. He ordered for her, he poured for her, he showed perfect manners. When the bill came, he took care of it and offered her his arm to leave.

Once they were out of the restaurant, she leaned into his to whisper, "That was more expensive than I had been expecting. Do you think they'll cover that on the expense report?"

He laughed, "I've submitted much worse than that place, got to act in character you know. Anyways. I have a feeling we're going to be bringing back way more money than we go through on this mission."

He paused at a booth where some people were selling flowers to buy her some. Momentarily his brain tried to think of what Kakashi would do if he bought the silver-haired jônin flowers. Natsumi took the flowers when he offered them to her, still looking less than convinced. "What do you mean come back with more money?"

He shrugged as he led them back to the hotel, "Simple, I'm selling Takumi a bunch of stuff tonight. Thus, I'll have the cash from that. When we go and get the contact, I see no reason to not take the items back as well, thus a nice net profit for this mission."

She frowned, "Is that ethical?"

Now that they were back in the hotel room, he sat back down on the couch, grabbing the remote for the TV as he started to try to find a local news show, "Ethical? We're shinobi; ethics get in the way on missions."

"I never thought one of the people that teaches the children would say something like that. I mean, we should act with honor and serve out village with pride."

"I would rather my students stay alive than have some misguided sense of honor." He stopped channel flipping when he reached a news station and made it very obvious that he was going to pointedly ignore her.

She went back to preparing her weapons for tonight and Iruka ignored her for the most part, instead concentrating on the local news. After that, he flipped around until he found some old movie he had seen a few times. Once that was on, he started to go through all the communications equipment. He set aside a pair of the radios that were relatively standard issue. They were much too large for most covert work, but they had the benefit of being two-way and he didn't trust Natsumi to be able to carry this off using only one-way communication.

He also set aside one of the one-way transmitters, just as an added backup. He turned the two two-way devices into each other using a very rarely used frequency. Then he set up the one-way with the same receiver he had used last night.

It took several hours to get everything modified and by the end of it, she was carefully watching what he was doing. "I didn't know the frequencies on those could be field modified like that."

He nodded, "Normally its not needed, and it probably isn't needed this time either, but I'm more than a little paranoid about some things."

"Paranoid isn't necessarily a bad thing."

He nodded, "I know. We should both start to get ready for tonight." He started to arrange several vials and packets of drugs into a small canvas bag.

She nodded and grabbed black clothes and walked into the bathroom. By the time she was done getting ready, he had everything in the canvas bag sorted and arranged as well as a list of what was in there. "I'm not placing a transmitter in the bag since I am fully expecting it to be searched carefully and I wouldn't be surprised if they switched bags at some point."

She nodded as she placed the black band of the two-way device around her neck. "I'll keep the target in sight."

He nodded, handing her the map he had drawn earlier, "This map is marked with a grid pattern, give me the locations off the grid when you hear from me."

She nodded, "No problem."

He grabbed the bag and gestured towards the window. "I'll go out the front and you go out the window."

When she nodded, he made his way to the front door. Once she disappeared through the window, he made his way out the front door and slowly made his way to the same bar as the night before. He didn't see her following him, so that was good. He didn't really stretch his senses out either though, so he didn't have a complete idea of how well she was shadowing him. He walked into the bar, assuming that she was watching the exits.

Takumi was at the same table as the night before. Iruka walked over there and sat down in the seat next to him. He took out the piece of paper that had the contents of the bag written on it and handed it over as Takumi gestured for someone to bring over some beers.

Iruka drank his beer as Takumi read over the list of what he had on him. Then the bickering over price started in. It took a good thirty minutes and another round of beer before details were worked out and the bag was handed over to Takumi. Iruka left with a rather nice satchel of cash.

He carefully made his way back to the hotel room, making sure that no one was following him. He stretched out his senses to make sure he didn't detect anyone and when that check came back clear, he walked into the hotel and quickly made his way to his room.

He threw the money on the bed and grabbed the two-way radio, fastening the black band around his neck quickly as he placed the earpiece in. "Natsumi, can you hear me?" He pulled off his designer pants and pulled on a pair of black uniform pants as he waited for her response.

"This is Natsumi, I am still following Takumi. We are in sector T5 and heading north."

"Affirmative. I'm on my way, keep me updated as possible."

"Roger."

He slipped on black boots and threw the black dress shirt he had been wearing onto the bed as he pulled on a long sleeved black T-shirt. He hid the money under the bed and jumped out the window, flinging himself up to the roof so that he could start making his way to Natsumi's last reported position. He used as little chakra as possible on his way; he didn't want to give away his position when going into an unknown situation.

He quickly made his way to sector T5, as he got there he got an update that they were in V7 now and that Takumi had entered a small house on the outskirts of town. When Iruka arrived, he found her at one of the windows, watching what was going on inside. He slipped in next to her, listening to what the men inside were saying.

The second man was congratulating Takumi. Quickly, Takumi left the building leaving the man he had met inside alone. They watched as he started to gather up his belongs and place them in a pack. Iruka leaned into Natsumi, "You go in through the door, and I'll go in through the window. I sense a developed chakra from him, but I don't detect a cursed seal. He seems to be jônin level. Let's immobilize him and figure out if we'll field interrogate him or bring him back to Ibiki. You have lead."

She nodded and soundlessly made her way over to the door of the house. He waited for her to make the first move, this was definitely a combat situation and he had to admit that she was the lead in that type of situation. When she went in through the door, he broke the window with a quick blast of chakra and jumped through.

At first, the man concentrated on Natsumi, with her Katana and wild chakra she was the obvious target. Iruka came in behind her and used her showy combat display as the perfect cover to nail the other man in the neck with a well-directed senbon. Before the drug on the needle could take affect, the man twisted around and sent a powerful electric shockwave at Iruka. He tried to dodge the broad attack in the confined quarters, but only managed to get mostly out of the way, taking a good hit on his arm.

Natsumi came at the man with a powerful kick and nailed him across the skull with her boot. The drug was seeping into his system and his reactions were obviously slowed as Natsumi followed the kick up with a stiff right punch. The man crumbled to the ground, unconscious -- whether from the drug or from the bruising was hard to say.

Iruka frowned as he field bandaged his arm, "Sorry. The drug should have been quicker acting than that. He must have put up some sort of a jutsu to slow or partially neutralize the poison." He looked down at the unconscious man, "I don't think we can field interrogate another shinobi of his level well enough to make sure we don't miss anything. I think we should bring him back to Ibiki."

She nodded, "I agree. Are you sure your OK, that arm looks pretty bad."

He shrugged, "I'll be fine."

He gathered the man's possessions and started to go around the room and make sure there weren't any clues they were missing. "OK. Do you want to go back to our hotel or should I? We should head back as soon as we gather everything up."

"I'll guard the prisoner and meet up with you on the southern road."

Iruka placed the man's possessions in the backpack and slipped it over his shoulders, "Sounds good, I'll meet up with you, but keep the radios on just in case."

She securely bound the prisoner, slung him over a shoulder, and walked out the door. Iruka quickly ran to the hotel room, gathered up all their stuff, and now loaded down with his pack, her pack and the prisoner's pack he made his way to the meeting spot. "Natsumi, I'm in route to the meeting spot."

When he got there she had the man leaned up against a tree, "Iruka, I'm not sure how much longer he's going to stay unconscious."

Iruka pulled out his med pack, "No worries. I have enough drugs to keep him unconscious until we get to Konoha. He pulled out a syringe and loaded it with a pale blue liquid from one of the vials in his med kit. He then inserted the needle into the man's arm and carefully injected the contents, "I'll need to re-dose him once the sun rises, but until them he'll be unconscious. I can carry him if you'd prefer."

She nodded, "OK, we can switch off when he gets too heavy." She shouldered the cumbersome packs while Iruka pulled the unconscious man onto his back. They took off towards Konoha. Every few hours they switched loads and every eight hours they re-drugged the man. They didn't stop to do more than switch loads or take a quick ration bar as they rushed towards Konoha as quickly as they could. Unfortunately, the trip took longer than planned since they had to be extra careful to avoid people with their prisoner. By the time the walls of Konoha could be seen in the moonlight, Iruka felt like he had been traveling for months, not days.

They went straight to ANBU building and the headquarters of Torture and Interrogation. It was three in the morning so he knew it would take a while for Ibiki to get there. Natsumi wandered off to the ANBU area to grab a shower, Iruka politely declined her offer to bend the rules and let him in since this was a mission for Ibiki. Well, it was a polite decline considering he hadn't really slept in several days and the woman was working his last nerve.

She was still at the showers when Ibiki walked into the building. Iruka was sitting in a chair with the captive lying on the floor at his feet. Ibiki took one look at Iruka and winced. Iruka looked up at the scarred jônin, "Take that woman's report and get her out of my sight or I swear, I am quitting unless I snap first and go missing-nin."

Ibiki nodded, "Yeah, no problem. What's the story with this guy?"

"This guy needs a full interrogation, I didn't think we could do a field job plus he is most likely a sound jounin, no seal on him though. He seems pretty high up in the chain of command of whatever is going on with the drugs."

Just then, Natsumi strolled into the room. She looked much happier now that she was wearing clean clothes and had grabbed a shower.

Ibiki looked at her, "I'm going to debrief you while Iruka accompanies the captive down to an interrogation cell and has that arm looked at." Ibiki gestured for two of his men to carry the unconscious person and Iruka followed, grateful to get away from Natsumi.

Once they got the man secured in a cell, one of the two offered to go and get some coffee. It was an offer Iruka happily accepted. After the ANBU medic performed a healing Jutsu on his arm, Iruka curled up in a corner of the floor. He knew he looked like hell, so what difference did it make if he looked even more worn out by napping in the corner on the floor.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed before Ibiki showed up. When the man got close, Iruka forced himself to sit up. Ibiki looked down at him, "You look like hell."

"Really? And here I thought I was about to win sexiest man in Konoha." Iruka didn't bother getting up to his feet; he figured sitting up was enough.

"I got a very detailed report on how 'impossible' you were and how you didn't seem to realize the differences in ranks and on and on, was she like that on the mission?"

Iruka took a deep breath, "It didn't go well as far as 'teamwork' counts. In her defense, I am in a shitty mood though."

"Really? I thought you looking like you were ready to bite someone's head off was a sign of a good mood. It would make things simpler if you would just take your damn jônin test."

Iruka growled. His look was an obvious 'no' to the jônin testing comment. "Let's get this over with." With that, Iruka went into his report about what happened. Once he was done Ibiki nodded. "Good work. Are you up to helping me interrogate this guy? With what you know, it might go easier if you're here."

Iruka nodded, "Yeah, I can pull it together for a while." Iruka stood up and they went into the cell containing the man. Iruka gave him the drug to counteract the sedative that he had been pumping into him the whole trip.

It took several hours to get all the information they needed out of him. Through the judicious use of truth seals, truth drugs, and other forms of torture, the man told them everything they wanted to know over the course of the nearly day long torture session. His name was Yoshikuni Kazuma and he was working for Dr Inokuma. Evidently, that doctor was located just inside of Rice country and was getting assistance of some sort from a medical-nin in sound. Based on the name of 'Mr. K' and the fact the person was a Sound medical-nin, they both felt pretty confident assuming it was Kabuto

It took some rather interesting methods to get the information out about what the Doctor was doing. Ibiki even paled when they found out what the project was. Dr Inokuma had a member of the branch house of Hyuuga as a captive and was keeping him just barely alive as they tried to unlock the secrets of the Byakugan. Kazuma didn't know as much as they were hoping, but he had a pretty good idea about the location the Hyuuga was being kept. It was nearly sunset when they finished the interrogation. Evidently, the Hyuuga had been in sound's possession for several years.

Tsunade was at her desk when Ibiki barged into her office with Iruka close on his heels. Iruka had never seen her look so worried, and this was before they dropped their bombshell on her.

Iruka collapsed into a chair in front of Tsunade's desk while Ibiki started in on informing the Hokage. She grew even more serious as Ibiki told her the contents of the interrogation. Finally when the man was done explaining, she took a deep breath, "Things are even worse than that."

Even Iruka looked up at her when she said that, "What happened?"

Tsunade sighed, "Sasuke left to join Orochimaru." Both men looked at Tsunade in stunned silence. She continued, "The only forces I had available were genin, so I sent then out to try and bring Sasuke back."

Iruka sat up straighter, "But…"

She looked at Iruka, "Evidently several of the Sound-nin that were detailed by the missing-nin you brought in were accompanying him. We don't know the details yet. Kakashi returned from his mission several hours ago and went after them."

Iruka looked down at the ground and sighed. "So we might be going to sounds to recover two bloodlines instead of just one."

She nodded, "I know this is going to be hard, but…"

Just then, an ANBU ran into the room. He was about to start speaking when he saw Iruka and Ibiki already in the office.

Tsunade nodded, "Report, you can speak freely."

The man nodded, "They're on their way back. The initial reports are of heavy injuries. We're having them go directly to the hospital; they should start ariving there within the hour."

She nodded and stood up. "Ibiki, get reports ready about who we can send."

Ibiki glanced at Iruka, who just sighed, "Preliminary reports are in my desk, top drawer under the false bottom. I had Izumo and Anko do it last week."

Ibiki nodded and left as Tsunade looked at Iruka, "I know it's pointless right now telling you to go and rest. Come with me and stick close, I don't want you dropping from exhaustion."

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

Sorry for another cliff hanger but as things approach the end, the action is going to get faster. Currant estimations are chapter 40 will be the final chapter.

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