Kakashi left Yoko's corpse in a pool of blood, hers and her ancestor's, soaking slowly into Ookami Island. Iruka was lying where he'd left him, he crouched at his side, not sure what to do. The teacher pulled himself up onto his knees, staring hard at the rocky soil.

"Kakashi?" The voice was so faint that he could barely hear.

He leaned closer, pulling down his mask "Yes I'm here."

"It is you? The real you?"

"Yes it's me."

Iruka's eyes were still fixed on the ground. Kakashi had never seen anything look so defeated, not even a whipped dog. But then he'd never seen a dog whipped so savagely.

"I saw her, at the end. It was Yoko wasn't it?"

"Yes. She's dead. She hurt you so I killed her."

Iruka bent closer to the ground and covered his face with his hands. Kakashi could feel his anguish as if it was his own. His blood ran cold. Not for her, please, don't let Iruka be grieving for her. He felt like fleeing straight back to Fire Country.

Instead he took a deep breath to steady his voice. "Are you sorry that she'd dead?"

The teacher shook his head but didn't look up. "When I thought she was you I… we…" he stopped as his voice cracked, "I feel… I just feel so…"

Thank god, that was all. "I know. I saw you."

Iruka froze. Every muscle locked and rigid. Kakashi felt raw tension coming off him in waves.

"A week ago. I saw you together, I thought that's why you hadn't come home."

A tremor passed through the teacher's body. "You must hate me."

"No, I could never hate you. I just love you too damn much."

Iruka raised his head just enough to shoot a tentative look in his direction. "Will you… will you hold me?"

It was all Kakashi could do to keep from crushing him against his chest and drowning him in kisses. "But won't that hurt?"

The look in Iruka's eyes would have broken a heart of stone. "Not as much as you not holding me."

Kakashi gently snaked his arms around the other man and pulled his head against his shoulder. "It's alright now, she's dead, we're together. I'm going to take you home."

Despite his soft words, Iruka could see the hurt in Kakashi's face. He shuddered one more time then let go. Screaming like a wounded animal in his fury at those who'd injured both his body and his soul, and at himself for letting them.

Finally he was spent, curled into his lover's chest, quiet but for the occasional sob that still racked through him. Kakashi hushed and petted him like an injured child. Kissing the tears off his face. Not sure if he could ever heal the cursed woman's betrayal.

"I'm sorry Kakashi. If…" sniff, "if I was strong like you this never would have happened. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I'm so pathetic. You deserve so much more, someone better than me."

"Iruka no. Shush, listen to me, just listen. You are strong, you're incredible. That woman was the Succubus, from mist. I've heard of her even if you haven't. She's killed plenty of men stronger than you. Stronger than me. No one's ever held out against her for a full night, but you survived for more than two weeks. So no more tears ok." He cradled his face in his hands and placed a kiss on each hot swollen eye. "You're making me all wet."

"Wet!" Iruka opened his eyes wide and looked around. "It isn't raining. It's been pouring for days, weeks, but nothing is even wet."

Talking about the weather wasn't high on Kakashi's priorities, but it was a good enough distraction. "Mmm, must have been part of her genjutsu, to keep you on this island by making you think there was a storm."

"But it wasn't a genjutsu, it couldn't have been. I tried dispel several times, just to be sure. To think I've been cooped up in that castle with its stink of blood all this time… It's all been one huge deception hasn't it? And I fell for it, hook line and sinker."

Kakashi looked at him hard. "Blood." He lifted his headband and recreated the image of the swirling red mist. "You're right, it wasn't a genjutsu, that's why the sharingan couldn't see through it. It was blood, real blood, in the mist. This whole island is soaked with blood. That bitch used it the way the Nara clan uses shadows. Somehow the blood in that red mist controls everyone covered by it. But it doesn't control their bodies, it controls their minds."

"You mean it got into my brain? Made me see things and feel things?" He pulled back far enough to shoot a glance between Kakashi's thighs, which were spread wide as he knelt holding him. "Even things that weren't there?"

A smirk spread over Kakashi's face. He yanked Iruka's arm, so that he fell against him again, then thrust his hips forward so that the part in question dug into his stomach. "I hope it's not that easy to miss."

Iruka felt hot blood rising in his face. His fingers itched to strip his lover naked. Kakashi was hard from fighting, and from the way they were clinched together. He wanted to see him, touch him, taste him. He fought to control his neediness, blushing fiercely. This was crazy, thinking about sex at a time like this.

"But it didn't control you Kakashi."

"No it didn't."

Kakashi thought back to his first encounter with red mist. The two missing nins, Aya and her husband back on the boarder of Cloud, with Naruto and Sakura. Had the Succubus been there too? He hadn't sensed her, but it would explain why Naruto had messed up during the fight. But then why hadn't he? He wasn't egotistical enough to think it had anything to do with training, or power. There had to be a simple answer.

"You breath it in. It was the mask, the mist didn't go through my mask. That's why I was immune to it." He brushed back Iruka's tangled hair and kissed his forehead. "But she's dead now, we won't have to worry about that anymore. Come on, let's get away from here."

He pulled the smaller man to his feet then staggered and almost fell under the strain. "And when I carried you out of that castle I was afraid you'd lost weight."

Iruka caught him. "You are an idiot Kakashi, you've overdone it with the sharingan again haven't you?"

"Sorry, guess you're right. Are you ok?"

"Kakashi I was whipped, and yes it hurts. But I'm a shinobi, I think I can still carry your sorry arse back down that cliff."

They both collapsed in a heap.

"Or I would be able to, if someone hadn't just hit me hard enough to give me a concussion."

"You're still dizzy? Let me see." Kakashi used a gloved hand to tilt his head to the light and peered into his brown eyes. One glance was sufficient confirmation.

"Well if you hadn't fought like a tiger I wouldn't have had to hit you."

Iruka shot him a dirty look. "You should be glad I'm willing to fight for my honour." He grinned at the stunned look on the other man's face and kissed his cheek.

Kakashi looked back at him softly.

Iruka's heart melted, but he couldn't let such a mushy expression go without comment. "What?"

"That's the first time you've smiled since I found you. I'm glad you still can."

For the first time in weeks Iruka felt a glow of true happiness, blossoming somewhere deep inside. Kakashi had accepted everything that had happened, he'd analysed it, understood it, and had already dealt with it. His lover was ok. He pulled the copy nin unsteadily to his feet. "Damn jounins who don't know their own damn strength."

Kakashi wobbled and gripped him around the upper arm, trying to avoid his lacerated back. "Maybe I did hit you harder than I needed to. Sorry I was upset."

They staggered towards the break in the cliff supporting each other like two drunken sailors. "Enough apologies ok. You're just lucky that I love you."

Kakashi felt his heart flutter. "Yes I am."

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

The frail white haired man stabbed his skewer into a sweet dumpling, hitting it hard enough to make the plate rock on the low table. "Damn. The connection's gone, he's killed her. I told you he was good."

The younger man beside him watched through his long black hair, dark eyes showing a hint of amusement. "But he'll make an even better replacement, so maybe fate is on our side after all. It's not as if they can go anywhere, use blood."

"No chance." This time he ground his wooden skewer into the plate until it snapped. "Don't get me wrong, I'll do what I can but most jounins are too complex, the blood has to work on too many levels at once. Unless he accepts it willingly he'll destroy himself in no time, burn out his synapses fighting it."

"But if you're right about Hatake he'll be compatible, can't you use it as a graft, like you did on the girl?"

The old man sighed. "I wish I could, don't think I'm not drooling at the thought of what we could do with his power. Control's the problem. If he can master the blood limit, transform his own blood the way Yoko never could, we'd just be giving him another weapon to use against us." He pulled a face and pushed the plate away, as if suddenly sickened.

"You mean he'd have the power to create and control the mist without you."

"Exactly."

"And he has overcome a blood limit before." The younger man picked up a dumpling with his fingers, pulled it in half and licked out its sweet bean filling. "So we have to get control of him first, like you did with Yoko. Everyone has a weakness."

Ketsuekimusha grinned. Slowly the grin turned into a leer. "Yes they do. And you know, I know his."

Dark eyes flashed back to him, showing instant comprehension. "Can you find them?"

"Of course, the island's still covered in my mist. There's so much blood here that it's easy, I'll be sorry to give it up." Picking up the broken skewer he speared another delicacy and popped it into his mouth whole. "Don't worry, I'll feel the surge in chakra as soon as one of them uses a jutsu. And they're Konoha nins, we won't have to wait for long."

Oooooooooooooooooooooo

By the time the two Leaf shinobi were halfway down the cliff they could see that this wasn't going to be quite so easy.

"Fuck, the boat's gone. They already destroyed it or hid it. They really don't want you to leave do they."

Iruka sat down on the path, watching white fingers of foam splat against the rocks. "There's something going on Kakashi, they've been trying to get information about Konoha from me this whole time. We have to get home to warn the Hokage."

Kakashi sat next to him and considered. Red mist, threats to Konoha, there had to be a connection. "Mmm. Well there must be boats. There are at least a dozen people here so they must bring in supplies on a regular basis. We'll circle around on the rocks, are you up for it?"

"No!" Iruka gave him his strictest teacher look. "Kakashi! You've already overdone it, you can barely stand upright. If you fall into the water I don't think I have the speed or the coordination right now to pull you out before you get smashed to pieces on these rocks. And don't even think of trying to use chakra. If you drain yourself anymore you'll be helpless for a week."

Kakashi pouted. He didn't like being wrong. "Ok I'll take it easy, and we should wait a little while for your head to clear, but not here, it isn't safe. We should go back up onto the island. It's too easy for us to get trapped if we're outnumbered."

Iruka looked at the daunting, almost vertical, path they'd just descended. He stood up quickly, hoping that Kakashi wouldn't guess how much it made his head throb. "Come on then, I'll help you climb."

Throwing caution to the wind they went straight back to the little ruined house.Normally they would have covered the distance in minutes, ittook nearly an hour. There was a small room at the back where the roof was almost intact and where leaves had collected in great drifts. Iruka lay his partner in the natural nest, then sat next to him. Thin autumn sunlight shone through a windowless opening and the breaks in the roof, brightening the interior to a dull gloom and scattering irregular patches of light all around. Kakashi shot out an arm, pulling the other man down to his level. He liked the smell of leaves, it reminded him of home. He liked the smell of Iruka too.

"I've got painkillers and bandages, I'll bind you up."

"Ok thanks. That should help." Iruka narrowed his eyes. "But keep that eye covered, if you want to know how it feels just ask me."

He dug into the other man's pack, swallowed a few of the pills he found there, then pulled out rolls of white gauze and took off his shirt. He didn't want Kakashi to see how much they'd hurt him, he knew he'd blame himself, feel that he'd failed to protect someone he cared for yet again. But they were professionals and he had no choice but to accept the help available. And they still had a mission to complete.

It took all Kakashi's famous control to keep the sharingan covered because the light was too dim to see well without it. But he didn't need his eye to smell the blood and the heat. Iruka's cuts were deep, and savage enough for the flesh to seem scorched. Whoever did this was no stranger to inflicting pain. He could smell something else too, antibiotic ointment.

"They treated this?"

Iruka shrugged. "They weren't done with me. They hadn't got what they wanted."

Kakashi applied more ointment then started to unwind the bandages around him. Touching as gently as he could, heartsick that he had no chakra to help heal or even to ease the pain properly.

"If they went to all this trouble to deceive you they won't give up until they've got what they want. They'll come for you. We've got to get off this island as soon as we can."

Kakashi pulled Iruka closer, inspecting his handiwork. His chest suddenly felt tight and chokedwith emotion.

"It's good to be this close to you again." He ran a finger along the line ofthe other'sjaw, then nibbled on his earlobe.

Iruka nudged him away. "Kakashi! If you're finished lie down and rest for goodness sake. If I have to I'll use a jutsu to knock you out. You don't have the strength to stop me."

He leaned back into the leaves obediently. "No I don't. Can you mask us both? And as you said, I don't have the chakra for it."

"Sure. It's not much of a challenge you've got nothing to mask. Go to sleep."

"Can't. I'm exhausted but too wired. I told you I've been thinking about you, don't you want to know what I've been thinking?" His visible eye was as deep and dark as the water at the bottom of a well.

Iruka gave in to a chuckle, then crawled onto him, feeling a hard erection dig into him for the second time that day. "You're impossible Hatake Kakashi. Has anyone ever told you that you're a horny bastard?"

Kakashi ran his hand over the increasing bulk at Iruka's crotch. "It's been a long time, too long. But you'll have to go on top. With those welts."

He felt Iruka roll off abruptly.

When the silence had stretched from tense to painful, Kakashi sat back up and took Iruka's hands in his. "What's wrong?"

"I… I suppose I've been on top too much recently." Iruka turned slightly, keeping his face shadowed.

"No kidding." He felt Iruka flinch, and mentally kicked himself.

Iruka felt the world spinning out of control, pulling him down to a place he thought he'd escaped from long ago. As if the secure foundations of his life were about to be ripped from under him again as they had when he was a child, by the kyuubi. When he was able to speak his voice was rough and shaky.

"It was you Kakashi, exactly you. I don't know if I'll be able to trust anyone ever again. I don't know if I can ever trust myself again."

"Iruka, come here." Kakashi guided him onto his lap, one leg on either side, and carefully rested his chin on his shoulder.Sucking in his heat and scent, and delighting in the tickles from the loose strands of silky hair against his face.

"I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry. I admit I was hurt, but I know it wasn't your fault."

He hesitated, then went on. Iruka deserved to know this too. "I did doubt you for a little while, but it wasn't really you I doubted, it was me. I've never understood why someone as good as you would want someone like me. Please, don't let it come between us. Don't let her come between us, I promise I don't love you any less."

Iroka's ear was so deliciously close that he couldn't resist letting the tip of his tongue explore its ridges and furrows. "Don't sweat it ok? I've gone this long, I can wait another day or two." He blew a puff of hot air and smirked at the little jump he got in response. "But as soon as I've got the strength I'm gonna fuck you senseless. I'm sure you haven't had that in a while."

Suddenly a hand in the centre of his chest pushed him back into the leaves and he felt Iruka working at the buttons and zipper on his pants. Unleashed from its confines his hardness straightened to its full length. Familiar warm wetness engulfed it and he bucked, hard.

Strong hands pressed into his hips. "Keep still. Please. Just let me, I haven't done this in a while either."

Kakashi melted with pleasure. His desire flooding him with white fire as he focussed on the delectable sensation of his lover's lips and tongue, stroking, sucking, swallowing. It had been a long time, much too long. And until now even he hadn't realised just how much he had needed this man's touch. Sex was sex, and it was always good, but this was love and it was something else entirely.

"Ruka, ah aah! So good."

Iruka smiled. He knew that he needed this even more than Kakashi. Right now this was all that mattered, reaffirming their love for each other, the bedrock to his world. The danger threatening them, their duty to their home, those things could wait.

Kakashi felt the sharingan activate beneath his closed eyelid and headband and knew that he was powerless to reign it in. Spirals of white light filled his consciousness, found Iruka's wide open and wound around that too, linking them with a bond much stronger than either of them. As he let go abandoning all sense of self, he overflowed, barely aware of Iruka gagging, as his orgasm exploded through him.

Slowly the world came back into focus. "You ok?"

"Yeah, you nearly drowned me. But yeah, I'm fine. Feel better now?"

"I love you."

"Love you too. Now go to sleep."

Kakashi sighed and gave in to the black veil of exhaustion as it descended over him.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Tsunade's messenger hawk found team Gai ridiculously easily. The big man was just so… visible.

He read the tiny scroll he'd taken from the pouch tied to its foot and frowned. So Kakashi had left on a mission to wave country more than a week ago and hadn't returned. Even more disturbing, his mission had been to retrieve Iruka-sensei, who had left for Wave country two weeks before that and hadn't returned yet either.

Gai called his young teammates around him.

"My worthy rival and his beloved Iruka-sensei are lost in Wave country. It is for us, my dear young people, to find them and escort them home to the bosom of Konoha.

Tenten braced herself for the group hug.

"But what about our mission Gai-sensei?" Lee asked, wide eyed.

Neiji silently mused that if his eyes opened any wider surely his eyeballs would fall out. He just hoped Lee wasn't standing in his blind spot when it happened.

"Ah dear Lee, a noble question. We will return to our current mission, just as soon as we have assured that our own comrades are safe."

As team Gai turned away from Cloud and headed towards Wave Country Maitai Gai felt a warm glow of satisfaction. This was the best kind of mission. One to aid and protect, to use his great strength as a shield for the village and the people he loved. To him Iruka-sensei represented the very heart of Konoha. Gai understood how the unconditional but uncompromising love the teacher had for its children provided them with an unshakable core of stability. An essential foundation for those destined to live as shadows. A ninjas life was one of deception, misdirection and deceit, and he had known far too many who had lost their humanity to their own deceptions.

His eternal rival had come perilously close to this fate. With the death of his father, his teammates and his sensei in such a short time, the brilliant but elusive young shinobi had almost vanished within the folds of his own many layers. That was why Gai had issued his first challenge, although he'd been widely ridiculed for it at the time. Kakashi was barely more than a child and, although Gai was only a few years older, he was already the tallest, fastest and strongest of his generation. Winning would bring him no glory and losing would earn him nothing but scorn. But it had worked. Because when he'd mockingly accepted the challenge, Kakashi had accepted a link to another human being. A bond that had gradually developed into their offhand friendship and, at the time, his only anchor.

Gai glanced back at the fine young people Iruka-sensei had trained for him. Chasing after missing Cloud nins wasn't something he'd wanted to do in the first place, even if they had disappeared on the way back from Konoha. But this would be a worthy challenge, a chance for his team to prove themselves. Anything that was a serious enough threat to delay his rival must be a force to be reckoned with. And defeating it he would make him and his team stronger.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A.N. Regretfully I can't keep up with weekly updates right now. So I'll take advantage of the guys being in a happy, if precarious, place. I'll be back in two or three weeks, or when the A.P. Biology exam is over. Bye for now :) T.