When Iruka opened his eyes it was dark. So dark that it made it almost irrelevant that his eyes were open at all. He could feel rather than see the presence in the room, but he damn well knew it was there, a vague silvery shape in the far corner. The sound of the ocean and of the generator seemed much louder than before. Unbearably loud. They buzzed and roared clogging his ears with sound. And he was afraid, deathly afraid. But he was shinobi and shinobi were not afraid, not of ghosts. Or… aliens? In his peripheral vision he could tell that the figure was tall and spindly. Its one visible eye glowed red.
He tried to turn towards it, but found that he was frozen, trapped against the bed. Terror tightened in his chest as it moved closer. The noise throbbed.
"I thought you'd be more pleased to see me."
Kakashi? It was his voice but strange, dangerous. His naked white form became recognisable as he climbed onto the bed and climbed up Iruka's body. Stopping only to peer into his eyes, too closely and too coldly. His lover stripped off the few clothes he had been sleeping in, then settled down, seated astride his chest. A mocking half smile lifting the corners of his lips.
"Not even a smile?"
Iruka wanted to tell him to move, to say that he couldn't breathe. The weight on his chest was crushing him, forcing every ounce of air from his body. Kakashi must have understood because he shifted position so that he was crouching low on his thighs. As the pressure eased Iruka felt a surge of desire, despite the arctic chill of his fear, as his body responded automatically to the other man's presence. It was hardly unexpected, they'd been apart for weeks.
He struggled to suck in a deep breath but all he could manage were short sharp gasps. Kakashi tilted his head in amusement.
"I didn't think we'd reached that point yet."
His lover reached to grasp him and leaned in to lick off the tear of sticky liquid, eyes shining with glee.
"So you are pleased to see me."
Iruka tried to speak but he had no air. Kakashi held him immobile with a hand at each shoulder and nudged his head back with his nose, so that he could dance the tip of his tongue in the little hollow under his chin. Changing direction he began to dot tiny kisses down the midline of his chest, and beyond. When he reached the silky black fur he gripped it between his teeth and tugged playfully. Iruka closed his eyes and leaned back, still gasping for air as he felt a familiar tongue, hot, moist, impossibly skillful, unbelievably sweet, caressing him. Ahh, it was good, painfully good. So why did he feel he was about to die?
A moment later Kakashi was sucking and swallowing, as if he intended to drag his orgasm right out of him. Iruka looked up pleadingly, his mind swirling with need, fear, terrifying confusion. The red eye fixed him, and flickered. But not with the familiar black swirls. With flames. Both eyes flickering. Burning red.
The roaring sound became laughter, inhuman laughter. It wasn't a man crouched on his legs. It was a fox. The kyuubi.
Blood red breath poured from its throat as it swiped its long narrow tongue around him, lapping hungrily.
Iruka wasn't surprised when it spoke. Nor that it had Kakashi's voice. "Shall I eat you? You want me to don't you? I can see it in your eyes. I'd forgotten just how good Uminos taste."
Razor sharp teeth cut into his root and he felt the beast's weight pressing him down into the bed. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't speak. All he could do was lie there in absolute cold fear as the dark clouds of death closed in, obscuring more and more of his vision.
Suddenly he jerked up. Grey dawn was streaming through the unshaded window, brightening the room just enough for him to be sure that he was alone. He lay back pulling the sweat-dampened sheets up to his chin, unnerving images from his dream still twisting in his imagination. It had been a long time since he'd had a nightmare about the kyuubi. He didn't like this place at all.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Kakashi stretched a dome of energy above him, sealing out the storm. He shouldn't advertise his presence like this, shouldn't waste chakra this early into a mission, but he damn well wasn't going to drown in the desert before he even got started. And the sudden storm looked as if it had every intention of doing just that. Hail piled around him in little drifts as he pressed lower into the sand to avoid attracting the lightening that was illuminating the sky in brilliant flashes, while thunder cracked like rifle shots in his ears. Just as well he'd had no trail to follow in the first place, it would all be washed out anyway after this. Then he'd be even more pissed off.
The storm swept over as quickly as it had arrived and he scurried for higher ground. It was hard to predict the path a flash flood might follow and he wasn't taking any chances, not with the way his luck was running so far.
From a sandy ridge he surveyed the crescent shaped dunes stretching to the horizon. People lived here? On what, sand? Fishing in his pocket he pulled out the name of his contact, although he knew it already. Dakatsu, The Desert Serpent. He was the chief of a clan of desert nomads, the only inhabitants of the vast stretch of wasteland between Hidden Sand and the ocean, and the man who would know all about the rumours.
Slowly he became aware of another's presence, coming toward him from the bright light that was forcing its way through the clouds, with stealth that would rival the most skillful ninja.
He drew a weapon.
In an instant he was standing between something, someone, and the sun. Holding his blade against a throat. The throat below a head that seemed to be floating about five feet above the sand. By narrowing his eye to a slit he could just make out the cloaked figure under it.
"No need for that dearie, we've been expecting you." A woman's voice.
She slowly turned to face him, squinting so that the happy crinkles etched around her eyes deepened into fleshy ravines. "Name's Dakatsu. Got caught in a nasty bit o' weather didn't you? Best come on inside and have a cup o' tea."
He took a step back, his usual slouch concealing the tightly coiled tension in his body, and folded the kunai into the palm of his hand. The woman shook off her hood and he could see that the head had red hair and a ruddy face to match. The face of a plump middle aged woman.
"You're Dakatsu?"
"Yes dear, sorry to disappoint you. Named after my old dad, he had a funny sense o' humour." Moving slowly, very slowly, she produced a bandage from under her cloak. "Now just let me put this here blindfold on you and we'll be getting right along."
He didn't like to be put at such an obvious disadvantage, but Kakashi was confident that the strange woman wouldn't be much of a threat even if he was completely blind. And if he wanted information he didn't have much choice. So he slowly slipped the kunai back into his thigh holster and stooped down allowing Dakatsu to tie the bandage over his exposed eye. The rasping rustle of the fabric being tied behind his head set his nerves on edge… as if he wasn't unsettled enough already.
Dakastsu chattered cheerfully as she led him over the uneven dunes, warning him as he was about to trip on gulleys and ridges left by the recent downpour. Suddenly she let go of his hand.
"Alright, now jump straight down dearie, 'Sabout ten feet but you look pretty fit. If I can still make it I daresays you can too."
He heard a bump, took a deep breath and leapt blindly, landing as silently as a cat.
The blindfold was snatched off his eyes. "Here we are."
Kakashi found himself standing at the bottom of a deep hole, the sky a circle of blue above his head, and with wide tunnels bored into the coarse sandstone in four directions.
Dakatsu hurried down one of them, calling back to him. Her voice echoed like an effect in a cheesy old movie. "Come along now and I'll make us that tea."
Ooooooooooooooooooooo
Iruka woke up, for the second time that morning, to the smell of fresh coffee. Breakfast was set out on the low table. He got out of bed and staggered over to it. He watched curls of steam rise from the hot liquid and fade into the air as he ate hungrily, but uneasily. How had they entered the room and replaced the dishes without waking him? He knew he was a better shinobi than that. Of course he'd been very tired, but even so… This damn castle was depressing, it deadened his senses. He'd be glad to get away from the place.
When he was dressed and ready, a silent servant escorted him into the garden, where a boy of about thirteen or fourteen was seated on a marble bench. His white hair was tied in a high ponytail and he was simply, but expensively dressed. The pale morning sun caught him at its low angle, making him shine like a visitor from the spirit world. Yoko must have a younger brother. Iruka prepared to greet him politely.
"So Sensei, what do you think?"
"Princess? But… but that's amazing, I've seen true transformations that were less convincing."
"Thank you, but you should call me Yoki now. And I understand transformations are a special skill in your village?"
Iruka looked away, blushing fiercely. "I can't discuss Konoha jutsus."
Yoko blushed too, but there was a sly glint in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean. I was just making conversation." She took his hand and squeezed it gently. "Are you ready to leave Sensei?"
He looked up, her eyes were as round and innocent as ever. "But shouldn't I speak with your father first?"
"He had to leave the Island last night. We should take advantage of the good weather, if a storm blows up we could be trapped here for days."
With a bow of acknowledgement he shouldered his pack and she led him down the long road to the boat.
Two men watched them leave from inside the castle. The frail looking elderly bit a dumpling from the skewer he was holding. "Well it's up to her now."
The one in the star covered robe turned towards him, his expression hidden under his long hair. "Do you doubt her abilities?"
"No, but she's right. There's something different about this one, he's strong." He brushed a lock of his hair, white and wispy, out of the way as he went back to his dumplings.
Somehow the island seemed harsher and wilder than Iruka remembered. The grass was thinner, with patches of rough stone showing through and the trees less majestic, more windswept. It was probably just his mood. He was starting to dislike the whole place. Therefore it was with a sense of relief as well as nervous anticipation that he climbed into the motor launch for a second trip over the tops of the waves, then on to Hidden Waterfall. He hoped Kakashi was home, if not he hoped he was somewhere happier than this island. But wherever he was he just hoped he was safe.
oooooooooooooooooooooo
Kakashi looked around, amazed. The tunnel was like a street, with caverns leading off from it at intervals, carved into the rock. A tavern, shops, even a ramen stall, each with a cluster of customers, there was a whole village under the sand. The woman led him to a doorway and ushered him into a cozy room. She left him sitting on a cushion while she bustled around a small stove, boiling water then whisking up fine green powder to make tea.
Plump and wrinkled as she was, Dakatsu was obviously comfortable in her body and with her age. Her honest self-acceptance gave her a certain radiance that could be called beauty, far more so than Tsunade with her false youth. Kakashi watched her wide solid hips swaying as she moved and he couldn't help feeling something close to affection, although he had known her for less than an hour. Something about this strange woman made him feel unusually safe and relaxed, despite more than two decades of highly trained wariness and his natural paranoia. In the wrong circumstances she would be a formidable enemy.
Finally she put a tray with two cups and a plate of small cakes on the floor in front of him, then sat on a cushion opposite.
"Dig in lovey, don't be shy. You must be hungry coming all the way from Konoha, and you look as if you could use a bit o' meat on those bones."
She picked up her teacup and when she looked back at the copy nin, he was chewing and the plate was half empty.
"Verygoodf, excfellent. He mumbled past his mask.
They were too, honey, almonds and another flavour he couldn't identify. Delicious, and nutritious. The perfect light, compact food to carry in the desert.
Dakatsu laughed easily, her eyes disappearing into her face to become the centres of two circles of radiating lines.
"Finish then off dearie, I'll get you some cheese to cut the sweetness."
Another dozen cakes and some ripe goat cheese later he was starting to like this mission after all. He eased the edge of his mask over the rim of his teacup and drained it.
"I suppose you know why I'm here."
The ruddy face turned serious. It didn't suit her. "Yes, that message I sent to young Gaara. I were down in the port, coupla months ago now, had some stuff to take care of. Trading goods, buying stuff for the clan. Well I heard someone talkin' about a plan to get summat into Konoha. Just a coupla chaps whispering down by the quays, but a rough pair, I didn't like the looks o' them I don't mind telling you. I wouldn't o' thought much of it 'cept a few weeks later I'd been out and around and were on my way back here when I saw Hidden Leaf Village, right out here in the heart o' the desert. 'Sif they'd moved every last brick over here in the night. I came back here for some o' the lads but when we got back to the place it were gone."
Kakashi knew her better already than to suggest she might have gone back to the wrong place. This woman knew her desert. "A genjutsu?"
She shook her head. "Don't think so laddie, solid as stone. Poked around for a good while. And why would anyone go casting illusions on me?"
'They could want this mine, and the stones you find here. Opals?"
The woman looked at him sharply for a moment then the broad grin spread over her face again. "Got sharp eyes haven't you dearie? Or should I say eye." She chuckled at her own joke. "Not so likely. There's no one knows where we are, not even you. Far as anyone's concerned the Clan o' the Desert Snakes still finds their jewels by wondering over the sand. 'Course we still do find a few that way. Too hard a life to attract outsiders."
"This 'village' you saw, there were people in it?"
"Not many, I seed some movement, they was running around with summat, summat right heavy."
"And you're sure it was Konoha."
"Oh yes dear, of that I am sure. I were in Konoha once, a long time ago. Invited to watch the chuunin exam, being the daughter of the clan chief and all. I were a bit lost at first, you know, the little red haired girl from the desert all alone, but a young chappie called Jiyaira took up wi' me. Showed me a real good time."
Kakashi smirked under his mask. "I bet he did."
She didn't seem to catch the snide remark. "Everything about it were exactly the same. I got a good memory for places. You die if you don't out here, where the sands all looks pretty much the same. Konoha's the only village I were ever in 'cept Suna a few times, and the port a'course. I'd have known it anywhere."
"So they were carrying something heavy and you'd heard talk of someone planning to get something into the village."
Dakatsu nodded thoughtfully. "Jus' 'bout sums it all up lovey. Sorry but I can't tell you no more'n that. Now would you like some more tea?"
A dry run. Kakashi thought to himself. A life size model of Konoha, either spun from illusions or created from the sand, out in the desert where they wouldn't expect anyone to stumble on it. To practice a sneak attack with something heavy. Like a bomb. There'd been rumours of explosions. But who and why? He needed more information, and to get that he'd have to go where the rumours had started, the port.
"I've got to go." He said reluctantly.
Dakatsu levered herself to her feet. "Want me to send a couple o' lads with you, to show the way?"
"No, I'll be fine, and I'll travel faster alone."
She laughed, a merry throaty sound. "Daresay's you can dearie. I remember you ninja boys and girls fairly flying over them rooftops. Now that were a sight to see."
She led him back though the tunnels of the mine, bandaged his eyes, then guided him up the ladder at the side of the shaft and out into the desert heat. Even through the blindfold the light was dazzling after the cool dim village under the sand. They walked as before, accompanied by her friendly chatter. Eventually she removed the bandage and looked at him for a moment with kind blue eyes.
"This is the exact same place I found you, you sure you know the way from here?"
"Yes quite sure, I'll be fine."
Suddenly she reached up and ruffled his untidy hair and pulled him against the pillowy softness of her breasts, hugging him surprisingly hard. "Now you be careful mind. That ports a rough place, not safe for a nice looking young man like you."
As she pulled away Kakashi was tempted to laugh, until he saw the genuine concern in her face. "I'll be careful, I promise."
She squeezed his hand one last time and looked up at the sky. "Well at least it won't rain again afore you gets there." She took a flask and a bag that smelled strongly of honey and almond from under her cloak and pushed them into his hands. "Take these lovey, just a bit o' something to help keep you going along the way."
Then she pulled her hood over her face and almost vanished against the dunes, before turning away and walking into the sun without looking back. Leaving him alone on the burning sand.
It was still a long way to the port, but if he hurried he'd be there before moonrise.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooo
Iruka and 'Yoki' crossed the Bridge and headed towards the Fire Country border. He watched her familiar easy grace as she walked ahead of him. Her silver white hair, her boyish build. That must have been just the way Kakashi had looked before he grew into his man's body.
Iruka had been attracted to other males for as long as he could remember. He liked girls, always had, but not that way. His first crush had been on the boy down the street, when he was six. He would rush home from the academy every day to play with him, until his friend's parents had grown nervous about their son getting hurt by the 'little ninja' and had kept him away. He'd been inconsolable for a week. Later, in the dark days after the kyuubi, he'd been the kid who would let the other boys touch him. Girls too sometimes, but just for show. Goofing around, trying to be noticed, but not really. In truth he's thrilled at having their hands on his body, even if it did make him feel used and guilty.
Kakashi was different, the ultimate equal opportunity pervert. He just liked sex, if he found someone attractive and they were willing, he screwed them. Men and women. Plenty of each. At least that had been his reputation and Iruka had no reason to question it. Iruka had no idea why it had been different with him, why by some miracle Kakashi actually loved him back. Because he did. His lover had never been unfaithful to him and nothing else could explain that. God knows he had enough opportunities, every day.
Yoko turned back to look at him. "Isn't this great, it's such a relief to get off that pokey little island." She must have noticed something in his look. "Why? What is it?"
"Oh nothing, just something about you reminded me of someone for a moment." Try as he might he couldn't suppress the blush.
She waited for him to catch up then smirked up at him, eyes shining. "I see."
He looked away reddening further and strode ahead. "Come on Yoki keep up. I want to get to the other side of Fire Country by nightfall."
She fell into step beside him. "Yes Sensei. The other side of Fire Country by nightfall."