Kakashi had never liked the desert, and every time he had to cross it he liked it just a little bit less. His pale skin and remaining blue eye were suited for sunlight filtered through trees, not reflected at full blinding intensity from scorching sand. Why couldn't these rumours have come from Rain Country, or Waterfall? Well at least he couldn't complain about the cold.

It was flat too, and it was hard to scan such a wide horizon with a single eye. So he heard them before he saw them. Of course they were well camouflaged, tucked into hollows under the dunes, covered in their sand-coloured cloaks. They wouldn't have been easy to spot with two eyes, but they had no stealth. By the time he was within a hundred yards of the first he'd marked out the hiding places of seven others. That meant there were probably about twelve in all.

Merging into the bank of sand behind him he stopped and focussed. The heavy smell of oil and the spicier scent of cordite prickled his nose. So they had firearms, probably automatic. Powerful guns, but he'd dodged bullets plenty of times before, silent weapons were much more dangerous to a ninja. And he doubted that they were lying in wait for him, but still, it made sense to be cautious. He knew he shouldn't have been so reckless in that damn storm, if someone had spotted him it was his own damn fault. A lone shinobi would normally be carrying a message, and picking off a courier then selling the message to the highest bidder was an easy way for an outlaw gang to make some quick money.

As he cut across to the east, he heard the pattern of someone's breathing change, becoming harsh and ragged. Poor fool must have discovered he was sharing his hiding place with a snake, or a scorpion. Another rustled with a slight shift in position. Good, so far no sign that they'd seen him. By staying in the shadows of the dunes he should be able to skirt around, and they'd never even know he'd passed.

Then he tripped on the wire.

Fuck. It had been almost invisible against the bright sand. Not that that was any excuse, he hadn't been looking. Since when did desert bandits use traps sprung by chakra wires anyway? He leapt away as the ground caved in under him, So much for slipping past unnoticed. The trap was unsophisticated but solid, it could have caught someone of lesser skill. And it was a live-catch trap too. Very unusual. Desert bandits didn't usually have any interest in prisoners.

He saw the second wire easily but tripped it anyway. Served them right, now they'd have to go to the trouble of setting them both up again. As he scooted away from the steel net, he hopped onto the high point of a dune, deliberately allowing himself to be seen. Now, if that was the end of it he'd be on his way, if not… well they'd soon learn who they were dealing with.

Within a few seconds a staccato blast of automatic gunfire rattled the air. There was his answer. But the shooter, tucked into a hollow less than two hundred feet away and slightly to the left, had fired way above his head. Either he had really lousy aim or he just wasn't trying. Did they really think he'd fall to the ground and grovel in fear? He picked up a pebble and, giving it just enough spin to make it travel in a straight line, flipped it straight into the barrel of the gun. He paused as he heard the weapon explode, along with a more satisfying explosion of curses. One down.

Five figures broke cover and fled in the opposite direction. He let them go. Then angry orders were barked from the far side of a nearby dune. Well that was unwise, but he'd been pretty sure there was someone there anyway. They were followed, seconds later, by a choked yell from the same dune as his shuriken hit. Two down. Maybe now, with their leader gone, the rest would leave too.

None such luck. All hell broke loose. He teleported away before the first bullet pock marked the sand, so they were shooting to kill now, and landed staring down at the toughest looking woman he'd ever set eyes on. If she arm wrestled Tsunade he wouldn't know which one to bet on. Hell if she arm wrestled Gai he wouldn't know which one to bet on. He watched her lob a grenade into the sand where he'd just been standing, idly noticing the scorpion brand on the back of her right hand. As it exploded, sending a jet of sand into the air that sank back as a thick yellow cloud, he slid into position behind her and tapped a shoulder. She turned in confusion and he put a finger to his lips before binding her securely with stout rope. Three down.

The woman sucked in a huge lungful of air. "The fucker's here, over here!"

Well if she was in a loudness contest with Gai he would know which one to bet on, should have used a gag. He shook his head, put his finger to his lips again, and hopped into plain sight at the top of the dune.

As his clone disintegrated under the barrage of fire he unleashed a shower of kunai from his position crouched low on the sand fifty feet away.

Silence.

No not quite, a stifled whimper and a gurgle. So… four kills and a hit.

With a swirl of sand he appeared in front of the woman, squatting down so that they were eye to eye as she sat propped where he'd left her.

"Why did you attack me? What is it you think I might have?"

She turned her head sharply, breaking eye contact. "Get the hell away from me. I never wanted to go after weird fucking freaks like you in the first place,"

Kakashi put his hands over his heart in a mock gesture of hurt. "I hardly think you're in a position to give me orders. So why did you and your, er, friends set up this ambush."

"This is scorpion territory now, anyone who comes to this well is ours. It's none of your goddam business."

He tilted his head to one side and narrowed his eye. "You call me a freak and yet you used ninja traps. Where did you get them from?"

He could smell the fear pouring off her body. "I'm not telling you a damn thing so just go ahead and kill me, get it over with."

Kakashi rolled the handle of a kunai between his fingers. She raised her chin stiffly, bracing for the blow.

He slashed down in a single cut, severing the ropes.

"Two of your comrades are alive but injured. You should help them get back to… to… where the hell did desert bandits live anyway? To your thieves' den."

He wandered away to retrieve his weapons and left her to deal. They'd taken up too much time already. If there was a well here, that explained the position of the ambush, but he was surprised enough travelers came this deep into the desert to make it worthwhile. The port must have got pretty damn rough if people went this far out of their way to avoid it.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

For Iruka, escorting Yoko across Fire Country was a pure delight. They stayed in character, sensei and student, carefully avoiding the few farms and villages where his face was known. Yoko kept the conversation between them lively by asking questions, but no more questions about Konoha. Instead she asked general stuff, about trees, clouds, the different songs of birds they heard in the forest. Exactly the kind of things that he loved to share the most. It was a teacher's holiday. A day spent teaching the stuff of life instead of just how to stay alive.

At midday they stopped to eat at a roadside inn where the owner's pretty young daughter, a girl of about thirteen, waited on them. She fell for Yoko or rather Yoki, like a ton of bricks. Hovering around her, sneaking extra treats onto her plate and casting longing glances in her direction. Iruka wasn't a bit surprised, he was used to Kakashi getting that kind of attention from women all the time and Yoki was a lot like Kakashi. If she really had been male, had looked a few years older, and he wasn't already taken, he might be interested himself. Yoko took it in her stride, flirting back just enough to flatter the girl's ego, but not enough to lead her on. Iruka was impressed. She really was a sweet young woman. If he wasn't gay, and already taken, he would definitely be interested in her himself.

As they moved towards the Fire Country border he became more cautious. This was where he would earn his fee. The old conflicts with Hidden Cloud and the more recent ones with Hidden Sound had made the areas to the Northeast lawless and dangerous. Their old enemies were more than willing to allow bandits a safe place to raid villages and travelers from. It drew resources from Konoha and attention away from them. But so far so good.

The trees thinned as the terrain became rougher and the soil poorer. Iruka felt painfully conspicuous. No mere rabble would dare attack a woman protected by a high ranking Konoha nin wearing the well recognised leaf headband. But a man and a boy alone on the road would look like easy prey. What was The Lord of Wolf Island thinking, setting things up this way? As the sun set behind them his anxiety grew. So it was with considerable relief that, as they rounded a hill, he saw the place he planned to spend the night. A shrine with a small monastery. It couldn't have more than a dozen monks, but the monks were from an ancient order and well versed in martial arts. No one would bother them there. Iruka had stayed at the monastery with Kakashi a few years before. When his lover had arranged to meet him, semi-secretly, on his way home from a mission.

Iruka swallowed hard as they entered the shrine. Despite his relief a distinctly uneasy feeling clawed at the pit of his stomach. At the time neither he nor Kakashi had worried too much about what the monks might think of the sounds coming from the room they were sharing, although he was pretty damn sure they must have known it wasn't meditation. And now he was showing up with a teenage 'boy'. Oh well, maybe they wouldn't recognise him dressed like this.

They did.

"Umino-san, we are honoured that you grace us with your presence again," the abbot said, smiling with professional pleasantness. "And you have a new apprentice I see. It's good that you are passing on your master's skills."

"My master?" Iruka was puzzled, then blushed as understanding washed over him. "Oh." Kakashi was a jounin and not just any jounin. "Er, Hatake-san isn't really my master, although I suppose he has taught me a lot."

"Oh I'm quite sure he has."

Iruka thought he caught the shadow of a smirk cross the monk's passive face. He blushed deeper, desperately hoping that Yoko hadn't picked up on that particular innuendo.

She hadn't. She'd picked up on something much more interesting. So this Konoha sensei had trained with the famous Sharigan Hatake. In that case he had more to offer than she'd dare hope.

After a simple meal they were shown to their rooms. Iruka had absolutely insisted that they did need to sleep separately and the abbot had insisted on explaining, no fewer than three times, that the rooms were next to each other and had a connecting door.

The first time Yoko came into his room was 'just to check it out'. The second time to ask if he had anything she could use to soothe the blisters on her feet. The third time she ran in screaming wearing nothing but her underwear and an unbuttoned shirt. He removed the spider from her mattress and tossed it out of the window.

"Please try to sleep now Princess," he said patting her shoulder cheerfully, "we have a long way to go tomorrow."

She waited until he had closed the door behind him, buttoned the shirt over her breasts, then scowled and tossed a jar containing a much bigger spider out of the window.

Iruka sighed and dragged a large chest, the only furniture in the room, in front of the door. When he turned around the abbot was standing in his doorway watching. For the first time he noticed that the man was much younger than he'd seemed at a first impression. Handsome too, in a classically chiseled, but very bald, kind of way.

"So this woman is just another mission."

Iruka sucked in a breath. "You knew she was a woman all along?"

"Her aura screams 'feminine' more loudly than any I've ever felt. Even some of my monks had a hard time resisting her and they are all highly trained."

Iruka sat on the chest and looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry, I wasn't really trying to deceive you, I just thought it better for us to keep up the disguise."

The abbot walked over and sat next to him. He stretched his arms, then let them fall, one on the chest beside him and the other on Iruka's thigh. Iruka froze. He could feel its heat, a handprint of fire, through the cloth. The monk smiled indifferently, as if he hadn't noticed that the teacher's thigh was between his hand and the chest. Then, without warning, he slid it upwards to land somewhere much more intimate.

"Your aura's screaming too. And I don't want to resist."

Iruka suddenly became aware of the man's strength, the bulk under his monk's robe clear evidence of a powerful well-muscled body. He leapt up, inwardly cursing at the involuntary response that was obvious from the bulge in the front of his pants.

"No! It's just that Kakashi's been away, it doesn't mean that I'll… I'm not that needy."

For the first time an actual expression registered on the monk's face. Surprise. "You mean you're still with Hatake!"

Iruka felt his blood rush to his cheeks. "Yes, I'm his, only his."

The abbot laughed loudly. There was a noise from the other side of the connecting door. Iruka's eyes went round in horror, had Yoko been able to hear them? They both held their breath. Then the monk stood and slowly walked over to the flustered teacher.

He whispered in his ear. "And you really believe that he's yours?"

The answer came without hesitation. "Yes!"

A soft hand stroked over silky dark hair then traced a line behind an ear and down a tan throat. "Umino-san, I've known Kaka-kun since we were boys, he just isn't like that."

Iruka pulled his head away and stepped back, rage swelling inside him. "He is now."

The monk was clearly using all his training to suppress his laughter. "And he's away how often? And for how long?" He allowed himself a long lecherous look at the delectable young man standing beside him, oozing sexual desire and shaking with fury. Then left as silently as a ghost.

Iruka threw himself on the bed fully dressed. Too agitated to sleep but too exhausted to stay awake.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi was almost exactly right. By the time he could see the points of light and outlines of buildings against the dark sky, the moon was just hovering above the horizon. Looking abnormally large and bright in the clear desert air.

Port Kaizoku, the wildest, most outlaw place on the whole continent. Anything or anyone could be bought or sold here. Technically it was in the territory of Hidden Sand, but was too far from anywhere for its inhabitants to be threat to anyone but each other. So for generations there had been a tacit agreement among the Villages to leave the place alone. Flushing out the human vermin who lived here would just make them more of a problem closer to home.

Kakashi entered the outskirts, past dark shuttered warehouses guarded by fierce half-feral dogs. Already the air was filled with the distinctive smells of a busy port: rust, tar, salt, sewage, rotting fish and vegetables, and the sulfurous odour that clung to all desert cities. As he wound his way towards the quays the open doors of other buildings added their contribution to the heady mix. The tobacco smoke and alcohol of the bars, the burned poppy of the opium dens and the cheap perfume of the brothels.

He was here for information, reliable information. Where the hell would he start? Unexpectedly he caught another, sweeter scent in the air. Incense. So someone was trying to bring God to even this godless place. Giving in to his curiosity he followed it to a small shrine set back from the road between a casino and a boarded up, burned out shell that had once been a bar. There was a large bronze Buddha with a screen beside it, through which he could see the outline of a man deep in meditation. This looked like someone whose information could be depended on. Kakashi sat down silently and waited.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It was dark when the abbot's presence in his room woke Iruka from his fitful sleep. He got ready to reject another sexual advance but the other man's intent told him that there was a much greater danger.

"Who is the woman you brought here?'

Iruka knew that he had to tell the truth. He sat up on his mattress, pulling his feet under him. "She's the Princess of Wolf Island in Wave Country. We're on our way to Hidden Waterfall."

"Who knows you're here?"

"No one. A few in Konoha know about the mission and I suppose her family too, but no one knows exactly where we'd be and when. I didn't know myself."

The abbot frowned. "Wolf Island? Even so, this just doesn't add up. Someone has cast a genjutsu around the shrine, we're surrounded by strange mist."

"A genjutsu? But who'd attack us here? Why not wait until we're on the road again tomorrow?"

The other man shook his shaved head. "You say you brought her, not the other way round?"

"Yes, of course. Why would she come here?"

"Because this place is where the legend of Wolf Island began."

The Abbot sat on the floor next to him, eager to share the shrine's history. This particular legend was the reason he'd come here himself. His eyes shone in the darkness.

"It's an old legend, not well known to anyone but the monks here, about a monk and a wolf. It starts with the monk finding a wounded she-wolf, out there by the roadside. Because he was a gentle and kindhearted man he took her back to his shrine, this shrine, and nursed her back to health. Then, when she was strong enough he released her in the mountains. But that night he saw a white shadow prowling around the grounds. She'd followed him back home."

Iruka grinned nervously, but politely. If they were under attack it hardly seemed the time to tell fairy stories. But the abbot had an urgent edge to his voice, as if he felt this was something that needed to be told. "Did the wolf want to stay? Had he tamed it?"

"No the wolf was the wildest creature in these mountains. She came back because she wanted to be human."

"Human?"

"Yes, she was lonely, she was the only survivor of her pack, the rest had been killed by hunters. So she decided to become human so she would never be alone again. But wolves can't transform the way foxes can, to take human form she needed to steal a human soul. She'd planned to seduce the young monk and to rip out his throat while his defenses were down, while they were making love."

"But she didn't."

"She couldn't. The time she'd spent lying in his arms as he'd cared for her had caused her to respond to some of his human emotions. She closed her jaws against the skin of his neck, but couldn't tighten them. You see, at that very moment she realised that she'd fallen in love with the young monk."

"So the legend says that the she-wolf and the monk became lovers?"

"Yes, but only in his dreams. The wolf came back every night and they loved each other as a man and a woman, but only while he slept, it was the only place they could be together. The monk's waking life became a nightmare for him, he lived in desperate fear of the wolf being killed, but she was still a wild animal and wouldn't stay where she'd be safe. The monk drew on his spiritual powers, he summoned spirits and demons, and made all kinds of forbidden promises if they would only make her human, but to no avail. Eventually she couldn't stand the heartbreak of waking each morning still in her wolf's skin. She left their newborn son at his door and disappeared."

"So what happened to the monk?"

"He left this shrine and secluded himself on a wild island in what is now Wave Country."

Iruka's eyes opened wide in understanding. "Wolf Island."

"Yes. Their son became the first Lord of Wolf Island, the leader of a great clan. But a clan equally cursed and blessed by his mother's fierce wildness, and his fathers meddling in dark sorcery. They fought amongst themselves, shed each other's blood, and their own. Eventually they dispersed all over the continent, I didn't know that they were still on the island too. But it's said that all wolf clan descendents wherever they are, still bear the mark of the she wolf, her silver-white hair."

Iruka traced a finger around one of the buttons on his mattress in a lazy spiral. "So that's why Ookami Yoko has white hair."

"Yes. They're beautiful aren't they? These wolf descendents. Well you'd better go in there and do your job. Isn't protecting her your mission?"

Iruka nodded. He unblocked the door, opened it, and silently sat on the floor next to the sleeping woman.