Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto the filler would already be over.

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

Special thank you to Chibinecco my ever hard working beta :)

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 32

Come morning, Tadashi woke up as the sun was rising. As soon as the jônin moved, Iruka opened an eye and disentangled himself from Kotetsu's limbs. Instead of getting up, the spiky haired chuunin simply rolled over and pulled a blanket over his head. Iruka twisted around and shoved the other man out of the bed, kicking him in the rear with both feet.

Tadashi simply raised an eyebrow at the thump and "fuck" that came from the chuunin hitting the floor. Iruka got up without comment and pulled on his 'merchant' clothes, while Tadashi threw on his own clothes. As Kotetsu was slowly disentangling himself from the blankets on the floor, Iruka walked over to the med kit. "Tadashi-san, can you make sure the others are awake while I pack this up? The boat leaves in two hours."

Tadashi nodded and left the room to check on the others. He knocked on the door and Kakashi opened it, gesturing him inside. When the door was closed behind him, he nodded to Kakashi. "Iruka says our boat leaves in two hours."

Kakashi nodded, a frown on his unusually visible face. Daisuke stepped out from the bathroom suppressing a yawn as he pulled on his shirt. Kakashi looked over at the still sleeping Izumo. The chuunin was snuggled into his covers wrapped into a fetal position, one fist clenching the blanket to his chest. Kakashi gestured. "He's been out since after dinner. We've been up for a while and nothing has gotten him to move."

Tadashi walked over to the sleeping chuunin as the other two followed him. "No sign of anything actually wrong? MABU sure seem to like their sleep."

Kakashi looked puzzled at that comment for a moment. "He's just sleeping as far as I can tell." He walked over and shook the chuunin's shoulder rather aggressively and Izumo simply rolled a little, entwining himself with the blankets in a most un-shinobi-like manner.

Daisuke looked at the two older jônin setting down a kunai with a bright blue ribbon wrapped around the handle; Kakashi wasn't going to ask. "Should I go and get Iruka?"

Kakashi nodded and Daisuke walked off to get Iruka. It was only a few minutes before Iruka walked in with Kotetsu following behind him.

Iruka frowned and quickly checked over Izumo. Muttering something about Ibiki being a slave driver, he pulled a syringe out of the med kit. As he murmured to Izumo, "You're going to feel a prick." He carefully inserted a needle into the sleeping man's shoulder.

Slowly the man sat up and looked around the room, sleepily yawning. "Sorry, I guess I over did the stimulants the other night when we left town." Iruka just gave him a quick pat on the shoulder as he told him the boat was leaving in two hours.

They quickly gathered up everything and left to find breakfast. As they sat in the back of a small café that Daisuke found, Iruka informed them quickly that Kotetsu's search last night didn't turn up any troop movements in the area and nothing of an unusual nature concerning trade between Water and Lightning.

They ate breakfast and then got to the ship. It was a standard cargo ship, crowded and dirty. They were able to secure a cabin for the trip, unfortunately only one, but the trip was a short one and they would be in port shortly after sunset.

Izumo immediately went back to sleep, which seemed to surprise the jônin, especially considering the amount of stimulants that had been pumped into him. Iruka decided this would be a good opportunity to get the jônin all used to operating the radio equipment, so Kotetsu and Iruka took turns going out onto the deck and talking to the sailors while the jônin got used to operating the receivers.

By the time they reached Water, all three jônin were confident using the specialized one-way radio equipment that MABU normally used. Kotetsu woke up Izumo once they docked without having to resort to injecting him with anything.

With transmitters in place but not activated on all three MABU members, they found a hotel and got two rooms. They made their way up and instead of splitting up; they all went into the first room. Immediately Iruka was all business, "All right. We need to find passage to Lightning. Kotetsu, that is your job and scout out the docks for anything unusual while you are there." The spiky haired man nodded. "Tadashi will monitor your signal. Izumo, you and I have information trolling."

Izumo yawned and nodded, "Which area do you want me to start in on?"

Iruka frowned. "Umm, see what the upper-classes in the town are talking about -- merchants, local government, and bored military wives, that type of thing. I would suggest somewhere that serves strong coffee. I'll start on the other end. Kakashi, you have my signal and Daisuke, you have Izumo."

Izumo grabbed his bag and started to dig through it. Kotetsu ran a quick equipment check with Tadashi before leaving dressed as he was. Izumo pulled out a haori coat and threw it on the one bed as he kept digging in his pack.

While Izumo was searching for clothes, Iruka grabbed some from his pack very quickly. He walked over to the bathroom and closed the door. Izumo remained in the room with the three jônin as he held up two different yukata as if trying to decide which would be better. With a yawn, he put one away and kept the less summery one out. Water country was always a bit colder than Konoha and summer was nearly over anyways.

Iruka walked out of the bathroom wearing a pair of low waisted tan pants with a mesh tank on top. He had a loose white shirt on over the tank, but the shirt was unbuttoned, adding to the casual look, he had also mussed his hair with some sort of product. Iruka walked over to his pack, ignoring the looks the three jônin were giving him and pulled out a tube of topical anesthetic.

Izumo looked up from slipping into the yukata. "Do you really think you'll need to do that?"

Iruka shrugged. "Might as well do it now instead of waiting until we get to our destination."

Izumo just shook his head. "You should have had Genma do it before we left then"

Iruka smirked. "I know, I wasn't thinking." He started to apply the gel to his tongue.

"Tongue? I thought you were supposed to avoid the tongue after the dentist yelled at you for chipping that tooth."

"I don't want to have to keep taking it in and out. I promise to be good." Iruka walked over to a mirror and quickly pierced his own tongue with an ease that could only be explained by having done it many many times before. He quickly placed a piercing in it.

Izumo turned once to make sure he had the yukata hanging right. He started pulling on the haori coat to go over it. "Which poison is in it?"

"One of the neurotoxins I already have a partial immunity to." He smirked. "I promised Tsunade I'd take less preemptive antitoxin and with this one I have enough of a tolerance to that I could last a good five minutes."

Kakashi was frowning. "You have the antitoxin on you?"

Iruka smiled and pulled up his mesh tank, showing he had two piercings at his navel. "Transmitter, Antidote."

Both chuunin were finally dressed and left, after making sure their transmitters were working. The three jônin were left to listen to three very different transmissions.

For the next several hours, they listened to Kotetsu hang around the docks in order to find a ship headed to the right portion of Lightning. Then the man stayed at the harbor for a while and found out various information about who was shipping what to where. Tadashi diligently wrote down all the tidbits.

Izumo was soon in what sounded like an upscale café. He was drawn into conversations about clothing and going into his cover story of being the eldest son of the owner of a trading company. Daisuke diligently wrote down anything that seemed like it might be information, although the majority of the conversation involved clothes and romantic intrigue.

Kakashi was listening to Iruka's transmitter and trying not to imagine the type of places that Iruka was at. He knew why Iruka dressed like that. He also knew Iruka was sexy enough to pull it off. Hell, Iruka was sexy enough it took a bit of willpower to not grab the chuunin and haul him off to the other hotel room.

All eyes turned to Kotetsu's transmitter. Evidently, there were Hidden Mist-nins in the town. There was a ship leaving tomorrow around noon that was transporting several shinobi evidently. It took a while for the chuunin to find any more information on the subject. Eventually he found out which ship they were on and that it was heading to the same Southern fishing village in Lightning.

Izumo's transmitter had gone relatively silent as it sounded like the man was headed back to the hotel. Kakashi was listening intently to Iruka's when he heard the man chatting to someone. Kakashi diligently wrote down the information that Iruka was finding out about troop movements. He was actually surprised how quickly all three men had found sources of information. However, suddenly the woman Iruka was chatting up said something that set Kakashi's blood cold. The female voice nearly whispered, "Yeah, I leave tomorrow, don't know for how long." The voice clicked in Kakashi's head as one of the Hidden Mist jônin that had been with the genin at the chuunin exam.

Kakashi sat up straight. "Fuck, Iruka found a Mist-nin." Both other jônin twisted to look at him. Tadashi continued to listen to Kotetsu's signal, but as Izumo got closer and closer to the hotel, Daisuke was listening more and more to Iruka's transmitter. Kakashi was gripping the edge of the table as Iruka and the Mist-nin left the bar and were walking somewhere quieter. As Iruka and the Mist-nin walked, Iruka gave a few location clues, but even with the map, it wasn't enough for Kakashi to know where he was.

When he heard a door close and Iruka say, "Nice room." He only had the location pinned down to about a ten-block portion of the city. The door opened as Izumo walked in and Daisuke quickly gestured him over and gave him a few sentence updated on what was going on. Then there was a loud slam over the radio. The woman's voice was low and gruff, "What the hell is a Leaf-nin doing here."

Iruka gasped and then growled, "Hiding."

"Like I'm supposed to believe you weren't sent to spy on us, chuunin."

"How do you know my rank?"

Kakashi was about to bolt for the door when Izumo's hand went on his shoulder. "He hasn't said he needed extraction yet. Trust him."

"I was in Konoha for your silly exam. Now answer my question." There was the sound of a body being pushed into something hard.

Iruka let out grunt, "I did answer you. I'm hiding – from Konoha."

"What would a little goody goody academy teacher like you do playing missing-nin."

"Fuck you!"

"Maybe before I kill you."

"Like I care. All you fucking jônin should just die." Iruka's tone was much softer than his words implied, almost challengingly seductive.

She growled low in her throat, "That's not a smart thing to say in your position."

"Fuck that, live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse and all that."

"How can you hide when you show of your body like that?" Her breathy words could hardly be heard over the transmitter.

"What do you mean?" His tone was guarded yet playfully promising.

"You scream Taijutsu expert. That is a body that was made for fighting with those muscles."

Iruka chuckled, "Heh, last jônin who talked to me about my body said I was made for only one thing too…" His voice was dropped into a low purr, "But he said it was sex."

In a husky whisper, she purred, "So why did a little chuunin run away?"

"Like you care."

"Tell me or I'll kill you."

"Because I was tired of being fucked with and fucked by a fucking jônin." His voice was low and angry, but with a hint of something seductive to it. Every syllable the man uttered was caressed with a promise of sex. "I'm not anyone's pet."

"So you want me to think you're worth having as a pet." Her voice had dropped down and there was the sound of rustling against the transmitter.

"I want to show you I'm not made for fighting." There was a definite tease to his voice.

"I'm not stupid enough to fuck an armed enemy ninja."

"What about an unarmed, ex-enemy missing-nin?"

There was the sound of kissing heard over the transmitter and Daisuke and Kakashi exchanged glances. Izumo shook his head. "Fuck." The normally polite chuunin brought a hand to his mouth at what he said.

The jônin all looked at him, Kakashi asking in an obviously too tense tone, "What?"

"He is going to extract information from her instead of just killing her."

Over the transmitter, Iruka purred, "You taste good." When she just laughed deep in her throat, he continued, "Truth serum always has that sweet taste doesn't it."

She did a sharp intake of breath and could be heard stepping away. Iruka just laughed, "I don't care you drugged me. I'm not lying. Want to give me a second dose to be sure?"

Her voice was firm but there was a hard to notice hint of hesitation. "Are you really unarmed?"

His voice was very low. "Let me prove it." The sound of clothes rustling was the only thing heard for the next few minutes. "Want to pat me down, see if you find anything?" There was a definite teasing tone to his question.

Her chuckle was low but got louder as she could be heard walking closer. "Nice, very nice." The sound of hands running over flesh was quickly followed by the transmitter acting up. "This is a surprise."

Iruka purred for lack of a better way to describe the noise he made. Kakashi's death grip on the desk increased. The sound of lips against lips was heard again and Iruka whispered, "Want to find out how good I am?" The slightly drugged sounding giggle at the end of that was impossible to notice.

Izumo frowned. "Sounds like a class C truth drug. Between the sweet taste and 'Ruka giggling"

"Guess it was paranoid of me to think you were sent to spy on what we were doing." Her voice was softer than it had been before.

"Why would Konoha care if you were drinking shots?" He sounded even more inebriated as time went on.

"Sexy, I didn't mean what I was doing in the bar when I found you." She could be heard kissing him again.

Izumo nodded. "I think he got the truth serum he carried with him into her."

Kakashi looked at Izumo. "But she has him drugged up. He took at least a double dose."

Izumo shrugged. "MABU forces are hard to drug. He's not giving up more than he wants to yet."

Iruka snickered. "Damn, if I knew mist-nin could kiss like that I would have gone missing ages ago."

She giggled, and the jônin suddenly believed Izumo's assumption that Iruka had also drugged her. "Sexy, if I had known you could kiss like that I would have spent my time in Konoha getting you to defect."

He purred. "I can do much better things with my tongue than that."

Her breath was a mere whisper. "Show me?"

"To bad you're leaving tomorrow. Wouldn't want to have too much fun tonight if you need to be in top form--" His words were interrupted by the sound of lips against flesh.

She laughed. "Like those med-nin need a jônin squad escort. Who the hell would attack surgeons going to Lightning?" Suddenly she gasped, "You fucker!" The hazy drugged sound of her voice was abruptly gone as she took a deep breath.

There was the sound of a struggle and bodies hitting the ground. The sound of grappling limbs could be heard as someone was knocked into a wall. Suddenly she screamed, then cursed, "Fucker, you'll be dead from poison in two minutes."

Kakashi was on his feet as Iruka laughed, "You'll be dead before that, bitch." Then he called for extraction saying the name of the hotel and a room number. Leaving Daisuke to monitor Kotetsu and leaving Izumo in the room, Tadashi and Kakashi streaked out the window heading towards the hotel room, barely pausing to catch the med kit that Izumo tossed to them.

Two elite of Konoha crossed the town in record time, flying from rooftop to rooftop until they reached the hotel and quickly searched out the right room. Kakashi found Iruka's chakra signature first and quickly entered the hotel room. Tadashi landed besides him with out a single noise as the two jônin surveyed the now demolished room. The mist-nin was obviously dead from the froth coming from her mouth. Unfortunately, Iruka didn't look much better.

Kakashi stretched out Iruka. The man was covered in sweat even though he was only wearing a pair of underwear. His entire body was shaking with his muscles spasming. The chuunin's hands gripped Kakashi's shirt as he struggled to breath. Kakashi was trying to figure out what poison was used. "Tadashi? Any idea on the poison?"

Tadashi listed off the top three possibilities from his inspection of the corpse. Suddenly Iruka spasmed and groaned in pain. Kakashi gathered him up in his arms. "Shhh, we'll figure this out, I won't let you die."

Through parched lips, Iruka whispered, "Med pack. Green Vial number seven. 13 ccs." His voice was so hoarse, Kakashi wasn't sure he had heard his right, and repeated it back. When the chuunin nodded, Tadashi pulled out the indicated vial and measured out 13 ccs and handed it to Kakashi.

Kakashi whispered, "Shhh, this is just going to sting for a minute, then it'll be all better." Gently, he injected the green liquid into Iruka's arm as he used his entire body to hold the spasming chuunin immobile.

Iruka buried his head into Kakashi's chest, still spasming violently as the jônin rocked him and stroked his hair. Tadashi stood up, suddenly realizing he was watching something he probably shouldn't and started to search the mist-nin and the room. Everything he found he placed on the bed. Once Tadashi was done with the room search and had everything, all the papers were photographed and replaced, then he walked over and knelt next to Kakashi.

The chuunin was starting to shake a little less and seemed to be in less pain. "Do you think we can move him?" When Kakashi nodded, Tadashi went and gathered up the chuunin's clothes and waited while Kakashi gently pulled the clothes onto the near unconscious chuunin.

Tadashi's suspicions were confirmed with the gentleness that Kakashi dressed the barely conscious man. He had seen the man do very few things with that type of gentleness, and handling injured comrades normally fell into the efficient and careful realm, not the gentle and hesitant. "Let's get back. I don't want to be here when her comrades come looking for her."

They left the room, racing across darkened rooftops with Kakashi carrying Iruka. When they arrived back at their hotel, the window to the room was open. Izumo had a med kit spread out and gestured Kakashi to put Iruka on the bed that had been stripped of all its blankets. Kotetsu was back and watching the events going on.

Gingerly, Kakashi placed Iruka on the bed. Kotetsu walked up behind him and gently led him over to a chair while Izumo examined Iruka. Izumo looked up. "Someone run a hot bath, almost hot enough to burn."

Daisuke got up to do what Izumo requested, tucking away a piece of blue ribbon. Tadashi placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. Izumo started to inject Iruka with several drugs. "He properly identified the poison the mist-nin used. I think he went conservative on dosing the antidote so I'm upping it. Also, I am slowing his metabolism and using another drug that should cause his body to expel the poison through his skin. It seems to have been inhaled and absorbed through the mucus membranes of the nose, mouth, and eyes."

Izumo continued on explaining what was stable and what was not stable with the chuunin's vitals. Suddenly he was pulling off Iruka's clothes. Daisuke walked back into the room to say the bath was ready, hand shoved deep in his pocket. Izumo nodded. "Kakashi, strip to your underwear."

Without questioning, Kakashi complied. Then he followed Izumo's instructions exactly, picking up Iruka and carrying him into the bathtub and keeping the water as hot as he thought could be handled. He held Iruka in the bathtub, cradling the man against his body and trying to keep him as warm as possible. Izumo said that keeping him warm and overheating would destroy whatever poison wasn't neutralized.

----------------While Kakashi and Iruka were in the bathroom --------------------------------------

Tadashi watched the bathroom door close as Izumo left Kakashi and Iruka in there. Izumo walked up to him, frowning. "The information you gathered from the room. For Iruka to have let things get that far, it must be important."

Tadashi nodded. "I didn't take the time to look at it. I'll start developing the photographs right away. It was all in code though; we'll need to get it to an analyst."

Kotetsu smiled. "No problem, Izumo is one of the quickest of us at analysis."

Izumo grabbed something out of the med kit and put a pill in his mouth, crunching it like a soldier pill. He helped Tadashi to develop the photos of the information then spread them out on the bed, and started to look at them, but from a good three feet away.

Tadashi looked over the paperwork but couldn't make any sense of it. He could tell it was all written in a code, but he couldn't make it out. Kotetsu glanced over at it and muttered, "Stupid Water code."

Izumo nodded, as he tried not to yawn. "This is crucial. The med-nins that are being escorted are surgeons. They may be sailing to Lightning, but they have three squad of Shinobi assigned to watch them, one for each doctor. They are headed to Sound after that. It looks like there is some sort of alliance between Water and Sound -- this isn't good. Our destinations are the same."

Tadashi leaned over the papers. "You mean they are after the Hyuuga's Byakugan too?"

Izumo nodded. "Almost without a doubt."

Daisuke sat down on the other bed in the room. "So we're in a race now to get the Hyuuga away from sound before whatever the doctors have planned can happen?"

Izumo nodded. "Unfortunately yes. And we are down our most experienced person, at least temporarily."

Tadashi walked over to stand closer to the bathroom door. "What is Iruka's condition?"

Izumo shrugged. "If he hadn't been MABU he'd be dead."

Daisuke turned to Izumo. "What does being MABU have to do with it?"

Izumo looked over to Kotetsu who just shrugged and in an almost bitter tone said, "They have a right to know, Izumo. Ibiki and Tsunade be damned. Yet another mission that went up in rank part way through."

The young chuunin nodded, "MABU forces typically start early, or are born into it. All three of us had mothers in MABU. All MABU members have a lot of exposure to poisons. We're third generation MABU, Iruka is forth. We've been exposed to antitoxins and poisons since before we were born. We've been in MABU since we were Genin. If you ever got your hands on Iruka's records, they should show his first successful S-rank completed when he was just shy of his second birthday.

"That's why we can play with poisons most Shinobi would be wise to avoid at all costs. We have a built up immunity. If anyone else had taken that poison blast, they'd be dead. But we don't have a lot of data on how someone like us takes a hit like that, so I won't know how he'll be for a few hours, but don't anyone dare tell Kakashi that. He's worried enough." Izumo frowned as he gathered up the photos and shoved them into a sack.

Daisuke nodded. "Can we ask why Kakashi is acting like he is?"

Tadashi shot Daisuke a look. "We shouldn't meddle in people's personal business."

Izumo sighed. "If we have to leave Iruka and Kakashi behind and continue the mission we will. They are an assigned pair for this mission so if one can't continue then neither can. As for that 'personal business', as stupid as I think this is, the Hokage says it is a no mention no gossip matter, and I've seen her seriously upset -- I wouldn't recommend it."

Daisuke accepted the explanation without question, but Tadashi kept his eyes on Izumo for another few seconds before nodding.

Izumo stood up. "I want to get Iruka out of the water and to bed. We'll have them here and the four of us will be in the other room." Izumo had seamlessly assumed command, and it wasn't until Tadashi was grabbing his bag that he noticed he was following the orders of another chuunin.

Izumo walked into the bathroom and could be heard helping Kakashi get Iruka out of the water and wrapping the unconscious man in a towel. He helped Kakashi get Iruka into the bed and started to pile blankets on. "Keep him as warm as possible. We're going to all be in the other room. I assume you heard everything?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, I want to talk to Tadashi."

Izumo nodded. "We'll see how he is in the morning and see if he can continue. If anything happens, please wake me up."

Izumo, Kotetsu and Daisuke left leaving Kakashi and Tadashi as the only conscious people in the room. "'Dashi, I recommended you for this because I knew I could trust you. We're here to protect these guys, and they are thrown into these situations that no shinobi should be in on almost every mission. If Iruka can't go on, I'm going to need you to take over being their protector."

"What aren't you telling me? We were in ANBU together for a long time."

"The first mission I went on with Iruka… Tadashi, it was horrible. You know what I've seen so for me to say that…"

Tadashi nodded. "They aren't normal chuunin, are they?"

"Not by a long shot."

"He's special to you?"

"More than anyone, yes."

"Take care of him then, hound. Get some rest yourself. If these guys are half as tough as Izumo was saying, then this one will be coming with us in the morning." With that, he left the room to go sleep in the other room.

Once the room was empty, Kakashi curled up into bed with Iruka, snuggling the unconscious man close to him and not carrying how hot it was under the blankets. Izumo said the hotter the better. He held the unconscious man all night, barely drifting into the shallowest of sleeps, just feeling the ghost of breath from Iruka as the air passed his neck. At some point during the night, the breathing got more stable and Kakashi was able to sleep a little deeper. He could feel his lover getting better, as the night progressed,

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

Only a few more chapters. Any unresolved questions or anything please tell me now before the final few chapters are written :)