Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto the filler would be over

Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238

Reader Notes-

In the next few chapters a lot of countries will be referred to so here is a handy bit of information

Cloud is the hidden village in the Country of Lightning

Mist is the hidden village in the country of Water

Wave is a country without a hidden village

Sound is the hidden village in Rice country; however most often it is simply referred to as Sound as if the country itself were sound

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 31

A few minutes later, after listening to how no one had any clue about MABU, Kakashi left the room with Falcon and Ferret, heading together to the Hokage's office. When they entered, the only people there were the Tsunade, Ibiki, Kotetsu, and Izumo.

The curtains in the room were pulled and the seal on them was obvious. Tsunade stood up, walked over to the door, and closed it. She turned back to the group as she activated a second seal for the door. "Our final member will be here in a second." Falcon and Ferret were watching Izumo and Kotetsu -- obviously wondering what the Hokage's assistants were still doing here.

The door to Tsunade's private area off the office opened and Iruka walked in, still in the MABU uniform, but with the mask clipped to his belt. His eyes were back to normal, and his hair was obviously just towel dried and hanging loose in a damp mess. Several of the buckles of the chest armor were undone with the leg armor and braided cord hung limply in his hands. As he walked in, he looked at Tsunade. "Thank you Tsunade-sama." He moved his neck, cracking the vertebrae.

Tsunade smiled. "Of course. Ferret, Falcon, there will not be masks on this mission." Both men took off their masks at the Hokage's direction, attaching them to their belts.

Tsunade cleared her throat. "Time for introductions. Kamizuki Izumo, Hagane Kotetsu, and Umino Iruka are the three MABU members to head this mission." She indicated each in turn. "Chiba Daisuke," She gestured to Ferret who gave a nod of recognition. "Okabe Tadashi," She glanced to Falcon who also nodded. "And everyone knows the Hatake brat," She waved dismissively to Kakashi who smirked under his mask.

Iruka walked up to the desk, took a scroll out from under his leather armor, and unrolled it to reveal a map. "This is our best intelligence from the interrogation of our most recent capture." He pointed to a spot on the map. "We believe the Hyuuga is being held here."

Izumo reached out a hand. "We've infiltrated this far before." He gestured to a small fishing village near the northern border of Sound, about ten scale miles from Iruka's position. "Unfortunately, my cover got blown there and the result was a rather messy extraction."

Iruka nodded. "The working plan is that we are going to travel to the land of Water posing as traders, avoid any Hidden Mist-nins if possible by going through this small backwater village in Water." He made another tap on the map. "MABU frequently use it since there are trade routes to the land of Lightning." He traced along a path from the Water village to a small village in the country of Lighting, much closer to their eventual target. "From here, we'll infiltrate into Sound. Their defenses seem to be at their highest on the Fire side, so by going in the back door our chances are the best. Any questions?"

Tadashi nodded. "Will we have forged documents?"

Iruka nodded. "Yes, Genma-san will take care of that now that the group is finalized. We're going to be traveling with Water documents."

Izumo glanced at Tadashi. "Can you do a Water accent?" He asked it in a perfect Water accent, imitating the soft t's and h's of a Mist-nin perfectly.

Iruka looked around at the three non-MABU members. "Good question. Can any of you do a Water dialect?"

Daisuke shook his head and Tadashi frowned. "Not well, definitely not well enough for a long conversation. For a few words I could, but …" he glanced at Kakashi who was also shaking his head.

Iruka frowned. "I have to remember to add dialects to academy training."

Kakashi huffed. "You have your hands full keeping those kids from killing themselves with weapons."

Iruka smiled. "True." He frowned down at the map. "OK, we aren't going to teach anyone dialects in the next few hours so we might as well not worry about it. We will team up in pairs. Izumo, you have worked with Daisuke-san before, so you two are a pair. I have worked with Hatake-san before, so I will team with him, and so Tadashi-san that puts you with Kotetsu. This arrangement will make sure no one is without someone that can pull off the dialect."

Tsunade nodded. "I need to get back to the hospital and see how the genin are doing." She walked over to Kakashi and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'll keep an eye on your kids for you."

Ibiki stood up. "I'll have your documents ready for you guys by ten. Someone just stop by my office and pick them up."

Iruka nodded. "OK, Hatake-san has some custom equipment to pick up, so we will pick up the documents as well. Everyone take this time to pack and we will meet at eleven on the road south of town. We'll be going straight through without stopping to get to the shore around sunset so we can catch an early morning boat over to Water." He gave everyone a quick rundown of what their identities would be and how to dress.

With a few nods, everyone split off to get ready for the mission. Iruka and Kakashi left together. Between Iruka dying Kakashi's hair blond (you wouldn't think hair that pale would be so incredibly difficult to dye) and getting packed for the mission, the two shinobi didn't have any time to talk.

They went to the T&I building and picked up all the paperwork as well as funds to use on the trip. Kakashi's contact lens was also ready. To see how it worked, Kakashi took off his forehead protector and slipped the contact in. It was actually a solid material so it stopped the sharingan from activating.

Kakashi blinked and looked at himself in the mirror. He wasn't used to anything in his eye, or Obito's eye, whatever you wanted to call it. He was even less acclimated to the image in the mirror. He had to admit, he didn't look like anyone would recognize him. His dyed blond hair was flopped on top of his head. The repeated dying had softened it so it didn't perform its gravity-defying act. He still had the same scar over his eye, but with two blue/grey eyes looking back at him, it was almost surreal. With only Iruka in the room, he pulled down the mask and looked. He frowned slightly as he looked at his reflection. It was just too weird.

Iruka sat down next to him. "It'll take some getting used to." He placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, gripping him slightly with his fingers.

Kakashi just nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to take it back out for a bit." He removed the contact and placed it back in its case.

Iruka was unusually silent as they got into their outfits for the mission. Simple pants with a yukata styled shirt -- non-descript business clothes. Kakashi had his sleeveless black ANBU tank under his with the mask pulled up. Iruka knew the man wouldn't stop hiding his face until it was absolutely necessary. Instead of the usual forehead protector, he had a simple eye patch.

They made their way quietly to the meeting spot after grabbing some yakatori as they walked through the village. They were the first ones to get there. Kakashi finally broke the silence, "I was surprised you didn't do anything to alter your appearance."

Iruka looked puzzled for a moment. "I guess I didn't, did I? I didn't notice." He frowned. "I guess I am so used to being undercover I don't even know what I really am any more sometimes. Then again, everything seems to be conspiring to make me live a lie every waking moment. I must be getting immune to deception -- danger of the job and all."

Kakashi nodded, hearing the sad tone in his lover's voice, glancing off into the distance as he sensed a chakra signature approaching, "Are you still thinking of quitting MABU?"

Iruka nodded. "I am. I don't know. We need to recruit more people. Maybe with Tsunade-sama in charge it will be easier to get people in. I just don't know if I can take living a lie 24/7, and that's what she wants."

As Iruka was talking, Tadashi landed in the clearing, dressed as he had been instructed. He remained silent, obviously not wanting to interrupt the conversation.

Iruka sighed. "Maybe after this mission things will calm down at least. One night in my own bed in the past how many months isn't good." He looked over at Tadashi. "Tadashi-san" He reached into his pack and handed over the documents that Genma had forged.

"Iruka, Kakashi." Tadashi looked at the two men, returning a nod to Kakashi as the now blond haired man nodded to him. "Iruka was right, Kakashi. A few changes and you really are not as recognizable." He smiled at Iruka. "Please forgive me for Rat's outburst in the meeting. He used to be one of my squad members and I thought I had taught him better than that."

Iruka shrugged. "It's fine. I can't expect people to know how thin MABU is spread right now."

Tadashi smiled. "I hadn't realized you hadn't been in the village for such a long time. I knew you had just gotten back from a mission with Natsumi-san."

Iruka tensed visibly at the mention of that woman.

Kakashi suddenly looked up. "Natsumi, she's Crane, I knew I recognized her voice. That had been bothering me trying to place her."

Tadashi nodded. "She was talking about how she was sent off to Rock with some know it all chuunin who kept trying to boss her around."

Iruka put a hand to his head, messaging the scar across his nose. Iruka looked up as the other three came into sight. Daisuke, Izumo, and Kotetsu were talking like old friends. In an effort to get the conversation off Natsumi, Iruka quickly handed out documents and then shouldered his pack, "Everyone ready?"

When no one said no, he gestured for everyone to follow him and took off towards Water. He took off through the trees at what he assumed was an ANBU type pace. With simple hand gestures, Izumo and Kotetsu took up positions on either side of the group.

Tadashi was looking at Kakashi as the chuunin seemed to take control of the situation, but Kakashi was going along with it. Daisuke made an offhand comment, "Guess keeping a team together since graduation pays off on teamwork."

Kotetsu huffed, "Yeah, if you stay together that long you know your teammates have enough blackmail on you that you have to behave."

"Like that time you got glued to a roof?" Izumo smiled as he helpfully supplied an example.

"Behave sweetie, I got those pictures of you on that mission to Wind, and they are stashed someplace you'll never find them."

And with that, the bantering continued. Kakashi darted forward a bit to speak to Iruka as they ran. "Is it OK for them to talk?"

Iruka just smiled. "We're still in Fire -- it's good for them. They haven't let their guards down. They're as over worked as I am if not worse."

They continued with Izumo and Kotetsu trading friendly barbs. Kakashi was sure the two ANBU would agree with him that they now knew way too much about the men's wardrobe, eating habits, and other embarrassing moments. Nothing truly bad, just the type of things two people that had known each other all their lives could throw at each other. Occasionally Iruka would correct one of them or the other. Things like 'No that happened at Izumo's fifth birthday party not Anko's' and such.

Shortly before sunrise, Izumo's chakra flickered and Kotetsu and him both went quiet. Without a word all three chuunin stopped on tree branches, and closed ranks as the three jônin were left to backtrack a few leaps.

Izumo was pointing off towards the north. "I think there are twelve of them."

Kotetsu was looking at Iruka. "Should I scout it?"

Iruka shook his head. "Give me a moment." He closed his eyes. "It doesn't feel organized, also feels weak. I am pretty sure it's civilians. If we drop a bit to the south we shouldn't add on much more than an hour to our arrival."

Kakashi glanced to the north; now that it was brought to his attention, he could tell someone was that way, actual numbers weren't that certain. Iruka wasn't lying, the chuunin were alert even though they had been talking.

Iruka looked at the jônin. "Anyone have anything against us just ducking down south a bit and ignoring whatever is north of us?"

When no one had a problem with that, they took off towards the south before resuming their westward course. About two hours later, the chuunin resumed their talking. This time Iruka took part in teasing Kotetsu about his singing voice.

Around noon, they stopped in a small clearing by a stream. Kakashi looked around and nodded, it was obvious why Iruka stopped the group there. "How long are we going to rest?"

Iruka shrugged. "Long enough to fill our water bottles and try to swallow some ration bars unless everyone would like a longer stop, and we could hunt up some food, but we'd need to go even faster after the stop."

Kotetsu frowned. "I only have Leaf ration bars left so my vote is for hunt."

"Anko raided my pack last week so I vote for hunt too." Izumo was frowning.

Daisuke shrugged. "I'm a pretty good hunter."

"I have nothing against rounding up some real food; we're still in Fire after all." Tadashi gestured at Daisuke. "Daisuke is always a requested member on long missions since he is good at making sure everyone eats well."

Iruka glanced at Kakashi and getting only a shrug as a response, he nodded. "OK, Daisuke, Kotetsu, and I will hunt. Izumo, fire pit, no smoke. Tadashi, Kakashi, patrol and guard." With that, everyone dispersed to take care of their assignments. Kakashi was the first to make it back to the campsite, a minute or so later Izumo walked in with a pile of dry wood. Kakashi helped him set up the fire.

Before lighting it, Izumo pulled out a kunai and pricked his finger. He did a quick seal in the dirt around the fire pit. Kakashi flipped up his eye patch to look with the Sharingan. "Interesting."

Izumo smiled. "Useful."

"So it stops the fire from smoking and being detected?"

Izumo nodded. "Also stops smells from traveling. That part is not perfect since once you take the food out of the circle it can be smelt."

"Still, really nice."

"Thanks."

Tadashi was the next one back; he walked over to Kakashi and Izumo. "Looks like this was a good place to stop and take a break."

Izumo nodded. "'Ruka is good at spotting clearings."

Tadashi looked down at the scrollwork around the now burning fire pit. "Kakashi? What's this?"

Izumo frowned. "It's a seal I put up to stop smoke and smell from traveling, it makes the fire less of a liability."

Tadashi looked at Kakashi who just nodded. Tadashi looked back at Izumo. "I'm sorry. I assumed. I must say, so far you MABU have surprised me."

Izumo smiled. "Thanks. I guess none of us are really used to working with other people."

Kakashi took the chance at conversation, "You, Kotetsu and Iruka were all on the same Genin team, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, our mother's were teammates, so they kept us together when we managed to graduate."

Iruka laughed as he walked into the clearing holding a rabbit in one hand. "Yeah, I'm surprised after us they didn't change that policy."

Kotetsu came back walking with Daisuke and they both had fish. Izumo started to cook them.

With Iruka's prodding, everyone ate quickly and they were off on their way to Water with only about an hour of a stop. True to his word, Iruka pushed them the entire trip, trying to get them to go faster.

Kakashi couldn't help but to watch how Iruka was flying through the trees. Instead of taking the straightest route he was zigzagging a bit keeping a watch in both directions as the rest of the group stayed in a straight line to maximize speed. Shortly after sunset, Iruka held up a hand signaling everyone to stop.

He dropped to the forest floor. "It's about a half hour walk from here so no more tree-hopping." They paused to make sure their disguises were all right. Kakashi placed the contact in his eye and pocketed the eye patch. The only one in the group who didn't look when Kakashi pulled the mask down to his neck was Iruka. Tadashi for his part only glanced, but then he started watching Iruka with a look of curiosity.

The six men made their way through the forest until they reached the road to the fishing village. They reached the small collection of buildings, Kotetsu and Izumo were carrying on some conversation about a restaurant in wave rather loudly arguing about which dish was better. Iruka seemed content for those two to provide the ambiance of traveling conversation as he led them towards the inn near the docks.

They walked into the inn as a group, with Izumo and Kotetsu still arguing, this time about which beer tastes better. Kakashi didn't miss the eye roll that Iruka had given them when they started into that conversation.

Iruka walked up to the girl at the counter, Kotetsu followed him. As Iruka was talking to the girl about getting rooms, Kotetsu was smiling at her and trying to interrupt Iruka with asking the girl questions about herself.

Finally, after Iruka apologized for about the fourth time for the behavior of his little brother, they had keys for two rooms. They also had several suggestions as to where to go and eat. Kakashi almost grabbed the spiky haired chuunin when the man leaned on the counter and asked the girl, "So where would you like me to take you out to eat?"

The only thing that stopped Kakashi from doing something was that the girl giggled and replied, "I'll think about it, my shift is over in an hour."

Iruka dragged Kotetsu off and they made their way upstairs to where their rooms were. The all walked into the first room. They only had been able to obtain two rooms. Iruka immediately got down to business. "Ko, I want you to report back to me after your dinner. The rest of us will go track down some food. As for room assignments, of the pairs, Kakashi and I will be the one split. Kakashi, I want you to keep watch on Izumo tonight. It's a full moon so he will be dead to the world tonight if anything happens. Let's get some dinner so we can get some sleep." With that, they dropped off excess stuff in each room and everyone except Kotetsu left to go find a restaurant to eat at.

Dinner was quiet with Iruka and Izumo doing most of the talking since they were the only ones who could do the accent. After dinner, the five walked back to the hotel. There was a different girl at the front desk so it was assumed that Kotetsu was out. As they walked up the stairs, Iruka grabbed Izumo's arm and helped him up. When they reached the rooms, Iruka handed over an obviously exhausted Izumo to Daisuke, "Make sure he gets to bed. I need to borrow Kakashi for a few so you're in charge of him."

Iruka, Tadashi and Kakashi walked into the other hotel room. The second the door shut, Iruka was all business. "Kashi, I need you to keep a good eye on Izumo. Ibiki has been working him too hard. If anything happens in the meantime, please get me."

Kakashi nodded. "No problem. The man seems exhausted. Is that normal?"

Iruka sighed. "Normally Izumo isn't sent on missions around the full moon. His sleeping patterns are lunar, full moon he gets tired."

Kakashi stood up. "I'll keep a good eye on your teammate."

Iruka smiled. "Thanks. We had better all get some rest. I'll brief you guys on what Kotetsu finds out in the morning."

Kakashi left, leaving Tadashi and Iruka together. Iruka frowned as the door closed. The first thing he did was take out the med kit from his pack ad start going through it.

Tadashi walked over to him. "Is something wrong?"

Iruka just sighed. "Something is wrong, and I have a bad feeling about this. I shouldn't have let him go off alone without a radio transmitter."

Tadashi nodded. "If there is anything I can do …"

Iruka shook his head. "No." He placed the last of several antitoxins on the desk. "I'm going to grab a shower. Kotetsu probably won't be back for a while anyways."

Tadashi just nodded as Iruka grabbed a pair of shorts and a shirt from his pack and walked into the bathroom. While the chuunin was taking a shower, Tadashi went through the items in the room. It was a very basic hotel room. It was not very traditional and had a small wooden desk, two nightstands and two full sized beds in it. Being the senior in rank he lay claim to the bed closer to the door incase there was any trouble, however unlikely that sounded.

Finally, Iruka came out of the bathroom; He was wearing a pair of loose tan shorts and a long sleeved dark green T-shirt. Tadashi was struck by how tired the chuunin looked. The Jônin frowned. "You really need to get some rest."

Iruka sat down on the bed that Tadashi hadn't claimed. "I'll be fine. The two boat rides should give us all some time to rest."

The jônin nodded and took his turn at grabbing a shower. When he came out, he saw Iruka slowly going through a Kata in slow motion. He was so used to seeing shinobi fly through the moves, trying to do them as fast as possible, but this one was obviously going much slower than he could.

Tadashi walked over to the his bed and sat down, noting an open container of ANBU bruise ointment on the little table between the two beds. He watched the chuunin go through his moves until the other man stopped and sat down on the other bed. Iruka looked at Tadashi. "You haven't asked many questions about this."

Tadashi nodded. "I was honestly hoping to get Kakashi alone and find out what he knew." He looked over at the chuunin. "You've kept a very close watch on … 'Kashi' since this started." For the chuunin's credit, he didn't show any surprise.

Iruka just smiled. "I've worked a lot with the medical nins that help develop various things for our work. Since Hatake's contact was a complex thing, I felt it best that I make sure things went smoothly."

Tadashi frowned. "You are very good at lying."

Iruka smiled. "Thank you." He obviously knew there was no point in pretending he wasn't.

Tadashi frowned. "I'm going to get some rest until that other chuunin gets back." With that, he stretched out on the bed, ignoring Iruka doing the same on the other bed. Tadashi had managed to fall into a light sleep when he was woken by Iruka getting up and opening the window. Iruka reached out the window and soon was helping Kotetsu in.

Tadashi sat up and flicked on the light. He watched as Iruka led and obviously inebriated Kotetsu over to the bed and started doing a quick med check up on him. Kotetsu went into a debrief mode that would have been something expected of an ANBU. Ignoring his own condition, the spiky haired man started to recite off cargo movements in and out of port. There was a long list of names along with how long since they had last been seen. Interspersed with this information was a short list of illegal drugs, evidently the chuunin was not just inebriated.

Iruka took Kotetsu's arm and carefully injected two of the chemicals he had set aside earlier. Finally, the debrief was done. Tadashi was impressed with how much information had been gathered, he just didn't know how much of it was useful.

Suddenly Iruka frowned at Kotetsu. "Don't you ever go out for that long without a transmitter on you ever again. I was about ready to go wasting all my chakra to find you."

Kotetsu looked down at the ground. "Sorry."

Iruka tapped his bare foot "What were you thinking?"

"I didn't expect to luck into a good source."

Iruka just sighed. "I'm giving us all transmitters in the morning to use just in case. I'd do it now, but I don't want to risk waking up Izumo."

"Maybe I should go take Kakashi's place in the other room.

"Hell no, you go get cleaned up. I split everyone up for a reason so everyone is going to sleep tonight."

"Just making the offer."

As Kotetsu walked off to get cleaned up, Iruka looked up at the ceiling. Tadashi looked over at him and Iruka sighed and did a slight bow. "Tadashi-san, sorry my teammate woke you up."

Tadashi shrugged. "I've never had to deal with lovers being on the same team." He noticed an odd look from Iruka for a second, but the other man quickly went back to looking at the ceiling.

"Oh, Kotetsu and Izumo."

"Who did you think I meant?"

Iruka just smiled. "I'm just tired. I can't even keep straight what day it is."

When Kotetsu came out of the shower and crawled into bed with Iruka without a second thought. Tadashi lay back down on his bed. He closed his eyes as the other two shinobi had a rather childish quick fight over who got what blanket and then quieted and went to sleep.

Tadashi replayed the conversations of the night through his mind a few times. Something was there that he was missing, but sleep overtook him before he could figure it out.

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

I really want to know what people think. I have the next 2 chapters written and being edited right now, but for chapter 34 I really want to know what people are thinking. The story is almost over so if anyone has any questions they need answered, remind me of them sooner rather than later :) Also any input on characters on this mission I would love to hear.