Jaiyira swung open the door and walked into the Hokage's office. "Bit early in the day for that isn't it Baba?"

Tsunade refilled her teacup from the sake flask in the bottom draw of her desk and offered it to him. "It's about time I was early with something."

When he didn't take it she drained the cup herself. "I was late sending Kakashi out to Sand, late sending him after Iruka-sensei, late sending Gai after both of them."

She slammed her fist onto the desk, causing an avalanche in the towers of paper and scrolls piled on it. White sheets slid silently against each other, then fluttered to the floor, spilling around her like a pool of milk.

"By the time we find out what the hell is going on it will be too damn late for all of us. I'm failing Jijii, failing all of them. I'll just end up getting more of these poor kids killed. "

He moved behind her slowly, keeping in plain sight, and placed his hands at the back of her neck massaging gently. "What is it?"

She sighed, relaxing against him. "Got another message from that desert woman, Dakatsu. She said the pirates from Port Kaizoku have been seen in the desert again, making another delivery. Something heavy, it took six of them to carry it."

"You think it's a bomb?"

"That's what Kakashi thought before. Ordinary explosives don't have chakra, so if Orochimaru could get one into Konoha we'd have no way of finding where it was hidden, we'd be at his mercy."

"Orochimaru's mercy, now that's a rare commodity. Well we can't afford to ignore it, she's been reliable so far. Did she say anything else?"

"Not much, just asked if Kakashi got home safely. The brat's a charmer, I'll give him that."

"So you've noticed too."

Tsunade's eyes flashed danger. "Careful old man."

Jaiyira slid his hands over her shoulders, down her throat, and towards the beckoning expanse of pale cleavage. "It takes one to know one."

The back of her hand connected with his cheek, moments before he hit the far wall of the room. He suppressed a smile as he pulled himself up, working his jaw with one hand. That should have jolted her out of her funk. But pow! The old lady could still pack a punch. Part of him was almost relieved that he hadn't reached her breasts.

"This is what I came in here for. To give you this back." Jaiyira smiled sheepishly and tossed a small scroll onto the piles of papers still littering her desk. "It's a chakra seal alright. Created by someone who knows what the hell he's doing. But I agree, it's definitely not the work of our old friend Orochimaru."

Tsunade looked at him very hard. "You're quite sure about that?"

"You know him as well as I do old girl. This is written in blood, he'd have burned it into the paper with poison, poison that transfers to skin at a touch. This seal will break the moment the paper's removed, I've made something similar myself."

"So it's a temporary seal?"

"Exactly. When did Orochimaru ever do anything that wasn't supposed to be permanent?"

She sighed. "You've got a point, the bastard plays for keeps. But what puzzles me is that if Kakashi's right, and someone is building a ninja army, why seal them at all? Surely the whole point of having ninjas is for their ability to use chakra. Otherwise you're better off with well trained soldiers."

"Unless being temporary is the point. To suppress their power until they can controlled another way, maybe by some kind of brainwashing. And our snake friend doesn't need that. His poison curses give him all the control he needs."

She closed her eyes, letting the buzz from the sake wash over her brain. "So it isn't Sound. But now I almost wish it was."

Jaiyira raised his eyebrows in a question.

"We know him Jijii, know how to fight him. This is something completely new. Which makes it something much more dangerous."

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

As soon as he was sure that Kakashi was fully asleep, Iruka rifled through his pack for more painkillers. Then he settled down to watch over his sleeping lover. The back of his head really did hurt, and if Kakashi knew how much he'd have ordered him to sleep first. So did his back, but that had subsided to a dull ache now that it was properly bandaged. The fact that Kakashi had such total faith in his abilities, trusted him so completely, was worth any amount of fatigue. They were safe, Kakashi had rescued him, but right now it was up to him to guard and protect, he was the strong one. So he sat and watched, fine-tuned to the slightest hint of danger.

Iruka adjusted his legs into a meditation position and tried to relax. Maybe he'd been on this island so long that he'd reached the point where his nerves were permanently stretched thin, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was out there. As he waited through the hours of evening and into the night the feeling didn't change. There was nothing definite, certainly not an actual threat, and nothing that he really needed to be concerned about. But there was just the hint of a presence, all around. Maybe it was the cursed bloody island itself, and Yoko's blood, still lusting after him.

It was the darkest hour, between midnight and dawn, and their hiding place with its bed of leaves was as black as a tomb inside when he heard Kakashi stir.

"Iruka?"

"Right here. Need something?"

"Anything suspicious?"

"No not a peep."

"I'll take over, you should sleep now. You're exhausted too aren't you?"

Damn he was as perceptive as ever. Iruka knew he couldn't lie, but a half-truth might work. " I'll be ok. I passed out for quite a while after you… after she… Just get strong for both of us."

Kakashi felt a fresh wave of guilt wash over him. It was his fault that that Iruka had been whipped. And savagely enough for him to pass out from the pain. Shinobi didn't pass out from pain easily.

"They aren't looking for you yet, if they were we'd know by now. They think they have us trapped." He rolled to his side and stretched out an arm. "Come here and sleep with me."

Iruka released the tension in his body with a long sigh. "You know that's the very best offer I've had in a long time."

He rested his head against Kakshi's chest and stretched to kiss his neck, just above the rumpled mask.

"We fit together well like this. Usually you're lying on me.'

"Mmm really, I didn't know we had a 'usual' position."

Iruka snorted softly. "Of course we do. You like to snuggle into my throat. It always seems weird because you're taller than me and your waist is narrower. Your arm must go dead tucked underneath me but I've got lots of space, and your hair gets in my face and makes me sneeze. This is better."

"Perhaps you're right, this is better. A more natural fit."

They lay in silence, in the silent night. Outside no leaves rustled and no insects chirped. The hum of summer had given way to the brittle quiet of the approaching winter. Kakashi looped his arms loosely around Iruka's neck.

It prompted him to wriggle a little closer. "As soon as I can lie flat you're going to go right back to sleeping sprawled all over me as usual, aren't you?"

Kakashi's lips twitched, unseen in the darkness. "You bet."

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Team Gai had run through the night and arrived at the border with Mist with the first rays of daylight. They sat on the twisted roots of a leafless tree, eating ration bars and catching a few minutes of much needed rest.

"Gai-sensei?"

"Yes Lee."

"I've been thinking, Wave country is pretty big. How do you plan to find Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei?"

"An excellent and intelligent question Lee. They were headed for Wolf Island. We'll start there then follow whatever leads we can find. If necessary we will search every inch of foreign soil until we have brought our comrades safely home."

As he was speaking a man approached through the mist, which was stained red by the early morning light. Gai beamed and struck a pose.

"Iruka-sensei! There you are. And we were just saying we might have to search the length and breadth of Wave Country for you." A stray sunbeam glanced off his smile. "Is my worthy rival here too?"

Lee looked at the large red haired man wearing an unmarked headband. Was Iruka-sensei working undercover? He slid along the root to Tenten.

"Is that really Iruka-sensei?"

"I… I don't think so." She hastily formed the seals for dispel. "I don't think it's a henge. It kind of looks like him, but Iruka-sensei never made me feel all creeped out like this."

Lee's eyes opened wide. Kind of looked like him? Was he missing something? But he had to agree about the creepiness.

"It's not." Neji confirmed arriving silently from behind. "There are two chakras there, and neither of them's Iruka-sensei's." He shivered and clutched at his stomach as if sickened.

Tenten grabbed his arm. "What is it Neji? Tell us, what can you see?"

Neji looked at the dark chakra tendrils snaking inside the mystery nin's veins, spreading throughout his body, through his blood, and pouring into a cloud that threatened to swallow them all.

"That man has powerful chakra, he's chuunin at least, but there's something evil inside him, controlling him."

"Is he a demon vessel, a jinchuuriki, like Naruto and Gaara?"

Neji shook his head slowly. "No. It's not demon chakra, it's human, but dark, foul. Just looking at it makes me feel…"

Without warning he lunged at the unknown ninja, aiming for his chakra points. "Get away from Gai-sensei, leave him alone you sick creep!"

Lee was with him just as fast, a roundhouse kick aimed at the man's head. Gai grabbed them both just as Lee connected and the man staggered back out of Neji's reach.

"That's not Iruka-sensei!" Neji screamed as Gai held him by the back of his shirt. "Don't trust him, it's some kind of trick!"

Tenten looked at the three of them, holding two kunai in one hand and six shuriken in the other, frozen by indecision.

"Of course it is. Do you think I don't know my eternal rival's most precious person."

Gai deposited his young teammates in two low branches of the tree. "Now wait here and rest while I go with him to get Kakashi-sensei. We have a long way to go back to Konoha and don't forget we still have a mission to finish after that." With a flash of teeth and a striking pose, he was gone.

"What happened?" Tenten asked, as she put her weapons away.

The two teens slid out of the tree to land one on either side of her.

"The evil was getting into Gai-sensei, through his lungs. I could see it."

Lee drooped like a rag doll. "And I ruined your chance of sealing it. I'm sorry."

Neji shook his head again. "It wasn't coming out of his chakra points. Up close I could see that the mist was coming from a cut on the back of his hand. It was blood."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A ray of light shining through the small window opening woke Iruka soon after dawn. He lay quietly on his stomach, with his arm stretched across Kakashi's chest and his face buried in his shirt. Just drinking in the pleasure of being close to him. It was as if they'd never been apart and as if he'd been away for a hundred years.

He lay completely still, aware of the sunbeams shining through the broken roof, as the light angled steadily steeper. Feeling the slight breeze of Kakashi's breath over his hair. Listening to the regular beat of his heart, the faint gurgles from within his body, and the steady ebb and flow of his breathing. Kakashi would wake at the slightest movement, and although he could tell that his chakra had recouped significantly, for him it was still pitifully weak. So he let him sleep, determined that he wouldn't be the one to pull him back to whatever danger they still faced.

This was reality. From where he was now, he could tell that Yoko's deception had been just that. A perfect three dimensional fake, like a clone of everything he thought Kakashi should be. A clone that he might have created, just to keep himself company. The man pressed against him, still smelling of sweat, blood and grime from his battle, had dimensions he couldn't imagine, that he could barely even sense. He was the ultimate ninja, a shadow, and that was a reality far beyond anyone's imagination.

It was late morning by the time Kakashi finally woke. Iruka was dozing lightly and opened his eyes to see blue and red gazing at him with so much lustful affection that he felt embarrassed. Blood rose to his cheeks but before he had a chance to speak he'd been rolled over and Kakashi's hands and lips were all over him. He cried out at the sudden pressure on his back. Kakashi startled and pulled up his mask as a reflex. He sat up and watched Iruka roll back to his stomach, his face twisted in pain.

"Ruka, I hurt you? What happened? When did you get dressed?"

"I… I never got undressed Kakashi. Were you dreaming?"

Kakashi felt for the edge of his mask, trying to reconcile the naked breathless lover he'd just had in his arms with the fully dressed, heavily bandaged man in front of him. "The mist, it's still here. It didn't die with that woman."

He pulled Iruka's shirt over his mouth and nose. "Cover your face before it gets to you too."

Iruka sat up and hacked off a length of his leg binding with a kunai to make a more permanent mask.

"You're sure? You think someone else is controlling it?"

Kakashu considered his loss of control, the disturbing feeling of not quite reality. Just how many threads led back to the woman Aya? The bloated corpses and the stench of death he'd left in the dark belly of that cave?

"Oh yes. This happened before, when I was in Cloud Country with the kids. It felt exactly the same. And there was red mist there too."

"What! With the kids! Kakashi, you didn't do anything did you? To Naruto or Sakura?"

Kakashi looked at the visible part of Iruka's face, getting redder by the second until it was verging on purple, and collapsed spluttering with laughter.

"God no! What me with Sakura… or Naruto?" He sucked in a deep lungful of air, choking to keep the laughter inside.

Suddenly his voice became deadly serious. "But I suppose I might have, if they'd been under my blanket with me, like you did with that woman." He shook his head. "No, I knew it was a dream as soon as I woke up. Or as soon as I pulled up the mask more likely."

"This mist is completely evil."

"Yes but interesting. It seems to work on different levels. It can be controlled directly to make you see and feel particular things, or it weakens your own control so that you see what want to see, or expect to see. Makes you make mistakes."

"Kakashi, do you have to analyse everything? Can't we just call it evil and get out of here?"

"You bet. We're leaving here today, now."

Kakashi started piecing together what he knew. The big picture was there somewhere, buried within the fragments. His team had been hunting the missing Cloud nins because they'd broken into the mission room. And with them they'd found red mist. Red mist and this elaborate charade had been used to ensnare Iruka. Where was the connection?

"On the mission, to come here, you were supposed to be a tutor. So what did you teach that woman?"

Iruka turned from pulling dry leaves out of his uniform. "Nothing. I was her escort. They just wanted someone who could pass as a tutor, you know, to make the disguise more convincing."

Kakashi shook his head. "Any Konoha nin can do a henge that's one hundred percent convincing. You wouldn't let them graduate if they couldn't." He paused, letting his mind find its own way to the answer. "They wanted one of our teachers."

"A teacher! Whatever for? To show them how to throw their shuriken straight?"

The connection was almost there. Kakashi could feel it coming together in his brain. "You work in the mission room too don't you?"

"Well, duh…yes!"

It was strange seeing those expressive brown eyes above a mask, disconnected from the rest of the emotions on Iruka's face.

"I have been handing you missions across that desk and complaining about your crappy reports for the past five or six years now"

Was it really that long since he'd first become aware of those eyes? "Bitching about them you mean. You don't just complain about my reports, you bitch about them. Just because they're a little late sometimes… What about the other academy senseis, do they take shifts in the mission room too."

Iruka thought for a moment. "Most of them. It works out well that way because the mission room is busiest after school has finished. That's when everyone is getting back home and picking up missions for the following day. And it keeps us in touch, and gives us a chance to talk to someone over the age of twelve. Maybe even make some new friends." He paused as his eyes softened. "Or more than friends, by helping someone to sneak in a particularly late report perhaps."

Kakashi felt his cheeks prickle and fought back the urge to kiss him. Now if he was planning an attack on Konoha, taking out the mission room would be a good start. Tsunade's office was right there, and the ANBU meeting room, and it always seemed that half the top jounins were hanging around. But timing would be critical. If say, a bomb, was to go off at the wrong time, it was just as likely to destroy a nearly empty building.

He stole a glance at his sweet lover. The most modest, competent, efficient man he knew. Iruka knew exactly when the mission room was busiest and he probably set up most of the schedules for the ANBU and jounin meetings too. And the mission request that had brought him here had practically asked for him by name.

"I'll get you off this island if I have to run over the ocean carrying you."

Iruka nuzzled his cheek and stroked his fluffy hair. "But you can't, you don't have enough chakra, not yet." The teacher's stomach chose that moment to growl, loudly.

It made Kakashi jump. "Poor Ruka, I'm making wild reckless plans and letting you starve. Did you eat anything at all yesterday?"

He rifled through his pack and produced a small cloth bundle. Inside were two little cakes, wrapped in wax paper. "Have some breakfast, or is it lunch. I've been saving these for you, and I have chocolate as well, and standard rations if you're desperate enough." He pulled out a flask, "and try this, it will perk you up. Better than coffee."

Iruka eased down his mask and bit into one of the cakes. "This is really good. Where did you get it? Do you think we could get these instead of those horrible bars?"

Kakashi watched him eat. Hell, he'd have watched him do anything. His eyes had been starved of Iruka for weeks and they needed a good feed too. He sighed happily, taking far too much pleasure in studying the way the pink tip of the teacher's tongue chased around his lips for errant crumbs.

"Hurry up and finish. I don't want you breathing in this stuff."

Iruka shot him a sneaky look. "Yes Dad."

Kakashi was on him in an instant, his own mask down, savouring the taste of honey, almonds and Iruka in that delicious mouth. "Fathers don't think the things I'm thinking about you."

"No, perverts do."

"And you love it."

"Well… I love you."

"Close enough."

Kakashi let him finish unmolested, whilst fighting to suppress his growing anxiety. His instincts were screaming at him to go outside, to get away, but could he trust them? Especially after breathing that mist all night? He hated this island.