Wind blown rain fell in great curtains, rippling the air with grey and splattering their legs and feet with wet sand. So it wasn't surprising that the two Konoha ninjas were almost on top of the change in the landscape by the time they noticed it. Up ahead the dunes dropped off to a flat scoop in the sand, obviously the bed of an ancient lake. Although right now the heavens seemed intent on reviving it to its former glory.

Kakashi squeezed Iruka's hand, signaling for him to stop. Although they hadn't spoken of it, he hadn't released his hold once since the 'Gai' incident. They both knew why. Then he peered into the pelting rain, estimating distance and trying to judge the depth of the pools and puddles forming on the lakebed. The only good thing that he could say about this weather was that at least he wasn't blinded by glare of the sun.

Right the sun. He now realised that it had already set. It wasn't easy to tell because the pewter dark clouds had been smothering it for hours. In fact the most obvious change was the drop in temperature, from unpleasantly cool to downright cold. Well at least that made his decision easy.

He blasted a hollow in the leeward side of a dune and led Iruka inside. It was shallow, more like a closet than a cave, but as deep as he dared without too much risk of it collapsing on them. The last thing he needed right now was to be covered in more sand. And at least it would keep them fairly dry and out of the wind.

"We'll sleep here. It will be dark soon and any progress we make in this weather won't be worth the effort. With any luck it will have cleared up by morning."

Inside the hollow it was even gloomier than out in the storm, and although there was no actual rain, the air was still saturated with moisture. Kakashi took off his jacket, it felt like lead with the weight from the water it had absorbed, and shivered at the loss of warmth.

"Strip and give me your clothes. I'll use a fire jutsu to dry them so we won't be too cold to sleep.

Iruka nodded, shedding large drops of water from his wet hair as he started to peel off his wetter shirt.

"Kakashi, I shouldn't need to tell you this but you'll have to tie me up tonight. Tight. He's probably better at getting out of ropes than I am, maybe better than you. And it won't be me untying them, you understand that."

Kakshi felt sick. Bondage was for fun and games, fooling around. Never serious enough that either of them couldn't get out with a flick of a wrist. "Ok if you think it's necessary. But I won't make it tight enough to hurt you."

"Iruka felt heat rising to his face, though God alone knew where from, his whole body was like ice. Wherever it was, it must have fueled his temper too.

"You'll damn well do what you have to whether it hurts me or not. I have no control when he takes over, no control at all. You think I'm willing to risk waking up in a pool of blood to find that I slit your throat while you were sleeping. You think I'm too stupid to have worked out why he did this to me? He wants to take over my brain so that he can pick through everything I know about Konoha, doesn't he? I didn't let myself be whipped unconscious without giving up a single word so that I could end up betraying my village anyway. You'll tie me just as tight as you know how, with chakra rope, and with a ward on it too. One that will knock me out or kill me if I get free."

Kakashi took a step back, cowering just very slightly. Thank the stars, it was his Iruka, he was still there. And yes, he'd do what he had to.

"There's another way, at this point maybe it's the best way." Kakashi reached for the jacket he'd just taken off and pulled a small scroll from the front pouch.

"Here, it's the seal I took of the Sound woman on the pirate ship. It should seal up the blood jutsu, but of course it will seal your chakra too."

"It's what?" Iruka snatched it out of his hand, uncurled it and slapped it against his bare chest.

"Aah yes he's gone. That awful feeling of someone sharing my body, sealed out, or sealed in, I don't care which. Do you have a roll of bandage?"

Kakashi stepped over to his pack, took out a roll of gauze and tossed it to him. Then watched as Iruka wound it around his body, carefully securing the seal in place. What he didn't notice was Iruka's cheeks slowly colouring again. First pink, then red, then something closer to purple. By the time he looked up he was back to full screaming fury mode.

"Dammit Kakashi, I can't believe you've had this with you the whole time. Why the hell didn't you use it right away? Have you any idea of what I've been going through?"

Kakashi recoiled at the new onslaught. "Iruka, it's not that simple. You don't know what it's like. You've never been without chakra, I have. I go through it every time I overuse this damn eye." He pulled up his headband to reveal the black on scarlet whirls of the sharingan. "We've both grown up using chakra, having it suddenly cut off is like losing an arm or a leg. It leaves you weak, helpless. I've had enough experience to adapt, a little, but you haven't."

He was lucky the sharingan was uncovered. It gave him time to see the blow without blocking as a reflex. Without the protective force of his chakra Iruka would have broken his hand.

Kakashi pulled down his mask, he wouldn't need it now, and rubbed at his bruised jaw, grinning from ear to ear. He'd considered repressing it, he knew it would only get him into worse trouble, but he just felt so damn happy.

Although he was slightly shorter, Iruka seemed to tower over him. "Damn pompous jounin. I'm also free… free of that horrible creep. Have you any idea what that means to me? Not everything is about being stronger, better. There are plenty of other things in life that are just as important you know."

He launched himself at the other man, diving his hands under his shirt, raking them over the cold firm flesh he found there. Sucking in great gasps of air like a man just saved from drowning

Kakashi went down, twisting so that he cushioned Iruka's fall, and to protect his damaged back from jarring. "Ruka…mmph… sand, wet sand…lurp… there's sand everywhere. Let me get my… aah… blanket."

His odd noises were caused by a tongue, not his own, that was being shoved halfway down his throat. "You bet there's sand everywhere. By the time I'm finished with you you'll have sand in places you had no idea sand could get."

"No please Ruka, I'm begging you. The blanket. Let me get the blanket. I really really hate sand."

Iruka pulled himself to his knees, then sat back on his haunches, narrowing his eyes to slits. He was impatient and shinobi rules be damned, he didn't care how much it showed. "Ok, get your blanket. I would have thought a jounin could handle some discomfort."

Kakshi stood up and pulled the blanket from his pack, then pouted as he carefully removed his sand crusted clothes. "I can if I have to, but I don't have to like it."

He watched as Iruka undressed too, brushing as much of the clinging sand off his body as he could with his hands. Then he was behind him in an instant, his arms around his heart. He tweaked his nipples then slid his fingertips down over the gauze wrappings, pausing to relish the thundering heartbeat he could feel echoing through tight abs. Then down further, to brush along the length of the hard hot organ they discovered there.

Iruka hissed at the contact and leaned back to whisper in his ear. "This is very important too. I want to prove that I'm yours, that no one else can have me."

Kakashi slowly closed one hand, feeling his own pulse quicken to match the hot throbbing he could feel in his palm. "You're too good to be true you know. I'll never really believe that this is mine."

Iruka turned to face him. "Believe it. That's what I hated most, the feeling that he could just take me away from you."

He reached to make their lips meet and kissed, but tenderly this time. In the half dark, anyone less observant than Sharingan Kakashi, might have missed the wicked sparkle in his eyes.

"So now that you've got your damn blanket… I'm cold." He rocked his hips so that their groins were ground into each other. "I've heard that rubbing two sticks together can make some heat."

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Naruto grinned in satisfaction as he patted his full stomach.

"Now I know there's something better than ramen. Free ramen."

Sakura gave him a friendly cuff to the ear. "Yeah, for as often as you ever pay your own way."

His whisker marks twitched into a happy grin. "Can't help it if everyone loves me."

Even Neiji spluttered at that. The kyuubi vessel may not be as universally hated as he once was, but he was still treated with about as much affection as a particularly nasty infectious disease by most of the village.

Naruto continued as if he hadn't noticed. 'Course Iruka-sensei's always been extra good to me, and I guess I did pretty good off Sasuske too… you know before…"

Sakura resisted the urge to hit him again… harder. Or maybe just grab hold of him and cry.

It was Tenten who broke the dismal tension. "So, Shikamaru. I've been meaning to ask. What's your take on this emergency? And did we tell you we ran into Jiraiya-sama in the forest on the way home? I don't really think it's a coincidence, do you?"

That news was enough to make all the young ninja's stop eating and listen. Well all except Chouji.

Shikamaru took his time to consider. "I'm glad they've got enough sense to have someone good snooping around. My Dad's been doing patrol duties, he says that there's definitely something odd out there."

Ino stopped tracing little hearts in the water droplets that had gathered on her glass. "Really? My Dad didn't mention anything, what did he see?"

"Oh he didn't see anything. But he said that there were too many shadows."

"Too many shadows? What the hell does that mean?" They were all thinking it, but Naruto was the only one blunt enough to ask.

Neiji answered for him. "Sometimes, when you can't see what's there, it's still possible to see what's not there. Even when we mask our presence we still block the sun. We've been taught to hide our shadow within another shadow. In the forest it's easy because it's full of shadows, but a Nara would still notice the difference."

"You know my Dad said something too. "Chouji offered, around a mouthful of noodles. He said the forest smelled like the butcher's when he's cutting up pork chops."

Sakura stared him. "He could smell blood?"

"I guess, but not blood like from a wound. Meat. It smells cold, dead, there's a big difference."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Only one of the Akimichi clan would think of that odour in terms of what was food and what wasn't. "So the real question is, who's out there, and what are they waiting for?"

Naruto stood up, slapping his hands on the counter loudly. "No! The real question is… what the hell are we all going to do about it?"

Sakura's voice was so quiet that if everyone hadn't just fallen silent, they wouldn't have heard it at all. "Kakashi-sensei would know what to do."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes... again. "Kakashi-sensei does seem to at the centre of this doesn't he?"

In response to the puzzled looks from Naruto and Sakura he continued. "Well everyone in the mission room has been acting strange since you went off on that long mission with him. Then he went straight back out again on his own. Then as soon as he got back from that he went running off to find Iruka-sensei. Doesn't it seem as if someone is trying to keep him out of Konoha?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "Nah, it's just a bunch of coincidences. Kakashi-sensei's just good. That's why he gets sent out so much. And Iruka-sensei's his friend, so of course he was worried when he found out there was something weird about that Island he went to."

Neiji may have rolled his eyes too, it was hard to tell. "Yeah right, friends. I think we all know why threatening Iruka-sensei is the easiest way to get Sharigan Kakashi involved."

Naruto scrunched his face as if he was thinking hard, but his eyes still registered a blank. "Well yeah, they're friends. Like we are. I'd do the same for you."

Neili edged away. "Hey don't even think about it fox-boy. No one's doing that to me."

Ino caught Sakura's eye and drew a heart pierced by an arrow on the counter with the pool of condensation. They both grinned as she wrote K+I in the middle. If there was one thing they could still agree on, it was that Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei made a really cute couple.

Tenten stepped over and wiped off the heart with the palm of he hand. Sakura came to join them and the young women huddled with their arms over each other's shoulders, giggling like schoolgirls.

Naruto stared at the threesome with a look of gobsmacked incomprehension that could surely be seen nowhere else. "What the hell's got into them? Do you know Hinata?"

The shy Hyuuga turned crimson and bowed her head almost to her knees. Twisting away from him on her stool at the same time.

"God what is it with these women? Just because I said Kakshi-sensei and Iruka-sensei are really good friends."

That provoked another peel of laughter. Even Hinata was visibly shaking with the effort to control herself.

Shikamaru sighed. "Ignore them Naruto, they're just being troublesome. But I think you may be onto something useful with the idea of friends."

There was a sparkle from the far end of the counter as Lee flashed a smile. "Ah yes, friends. Gai-sensei is always saying that friends bring the warmth of sunlight and springtime into our lives."

Kiba scatched his constant canine companion, who took the opportunity to slurp the noodles from Shikamaru's bowl. "I know who my best friend is, don't I old buddy?"

For some reason the girls laughed even louder.

Shikamaru pointedly ignored them and continued. "What I mean is, we've been concentrating on Kakashi-sensei's enemies. Maybe that's a mistake. If we really want to help him maybe we should be looking for his friends."

"Yes, the bigger the swarm, the bigger it's effect."

They all looked at the quiet dark boy who'd been there all along, but who no one had noticed until now. Shino smiled behind his tall collar.

"A few bugs like us are easily swotted away. There's not much we can do to help someone like Sharingan Kakashi, but a cloud of insects can take down the most powerful foe."

"You mean…" Naruto's face brightened like a rising sun.

Shikamaru looked almost excited. "Yes. We aren't the strongest shinobi in Konoha, they're all being kept in the village right now, but we can make up for that in numbers. We're looking at the wrong scrolls. The ones we really want are the ones we've been filing away."

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Iruka was sleeping, apparently quite soundly. A fact not unrelated to the sticky stains on the rough field blanket wrapped around him. But despite the woolen blanket, and despite being fully dressed in his jutsu dried uniform, he was still shivering with cold. His body just wasn't accustomed to keeping warm in this weather without chakra. Just as anyone used to a warm climate had to adapt to a cooler one, so did he. But it wouldn't happen overnight, and Kakashi, watching over him protectively, knew that he was using too much of the energy he'd need the following day, just to fight off the cold.

He was tempted to lie beside him and warm him with his body heat, but he dare not risk falling asleep. Although he was sure Itachi and the old sennin could no longer track them directly, he also knew that they knew exactly where they were going. And that neither of them would let go of their prize so easily.

So he sat beside the teacher and worried. About Iruka's chattering teeth and the discomfort that seemed about to rouse him from his much-needed sleep. About the unrelenting hiss of falling rain that promised another slow soggy day of travel. About the risk of Itachi catching up to them and taking Iruka by force. And looming over everything was his greatest worry, that they would reach Konoha too late.

When the rainy world beyond their temporary nook had brightened from black to grey, he shook Iruka awake. He watched in silent detachment as the startled man's hand darted to his weapon pouch and then faltered.

"Come on, eat something then let's go. I'd like to make it at least halfway home if we can."

Iruka blinked for a moment. His reflex to reach for a weapon was there, but his speed was not. Then he remembered… the seal… no chakra. He'd be an even bigger liability now.

"Ok, let's push on. We can eat on the run."

Run, however, was hopelessly overoptimistic. Overnight the lake-bed had become a lethal mix of standing water, quicksand and mud. In the still-driving rain, even with the occasional aid of the sharingan, it was impossible to see more than a few dozen yards ahead. So they picked their way cautiously across the uncertain ground.

There was no way of judging the depth of the muddy water, so they skirted around it. Mud dragged at them, sucking sands swallowed them up to their knees, the whole place was one big death trap. By the time they stopped to eat again, and they knew they had to, although neither had any appetite for their nutrition bars and even less for the water they forced down their throats, they were both exhausted. Iruka physically, and Kakashi mentally.

They huddled together, backs to the wind, finding comfort if not warmth in the contact with each other. Kakashi braced himself for what he knew he had to say.

"I'm sorry Iruka, but you have to take off that seal. If we had good weather, if we didn't have to cross this damn lake… "

Iruka took in a sharp breath. "No! I can't. I just can't let him get hold of me again. I know I'm slowing you down, but I'll try harder. I'm young and strong, I can do better. Give me another chance."

Kakashi looked at his face, it was so wet with rain that it was impossible to tell if there were tears as well. But from the crack in Iruka's voice he was sure there must be. He kissed him and smiled, forcing his eye into its happy arc.

"Ok, if you say so."

But even before they started he knew it wasn't true. Iruka had already been pushing himself past his limit. Partly from raw determination, and partly because he had no real idea of what his limit was without chakra. And the wet desert seemed more anxious to claim them than ever.

As they reached the deepest part of the lake-bed, there was almost no solid ground. Iruka was following Kakashi's footprints around a large pool when he slipped. Almost instantly he felt himself sinking. Suddenly it seemed like the perfect solution, he'd just relax and let the sand take him. He wouldn't have to run, he wouldn't be a burden, without him Kakashi would be home before dark. The cold wet sand felt almost like a warm embrace to his exhausted befuddled mind, as it crept up his body.

Then he heard someone screaming at him and slapping his face. He knew because he felt his head jerk back with the blow, but there was no sting. He opened his eyes and Kakashi was kneeling over him, which meant that he was lying down. Rain was still pouring from the heavens and he watched for a while, fascinated by the rods of water aiming themselves at him from a place somewhere just beyond his range of vision.

"Iruka! Iruka! Don't you pass out on me again. Can you hold on to me? I'll carry you the rest of the way across."

He nodded and found himself hoisted onto a strong back, the way his father had carried him when he was a small boy. He knotted his hands together across the hard wet jacket and nestled his face into soft wet hair, which after several days of going unwashed, smelled a little like wet dog. As he stared at the ground flashing past under him, he saw the trail of wide circles created by Kakashi's feet. That was the way a shinobi should move. Fast and silent as an arrow, skimming over the surface of the water, not trying to creep around it like a mouse. Without chakra he was no ninja, with it he wasn't even himself. But he still had his reflexes at least, so he balanced himself to minimise his weight, and dozed to recoup his strength, lulled by the rhythmic flex of strong muscles.

It was dark by the time they stopped, under the overhang of a huge mushroom shaped rock. Kakshi set Iruka down and then collapsed onto the sand. Too spent to care how much sand stuck to his wet clothes. Iruka took a ration bar from Kkashi's pack and crunbled it into his tin cup with some water.

"Here, warm this with chakra then drink it." He handed him a twist of orange paper. "Put some of this in it too, it will help you sleep."

Kakashi sniffed at the paper. "Opium?"

"Yes. That pirate had a ton of it in his cabin. I threw most of it overboard but kept a few. Well it's a decent painkiller and I left my med kit back at that castle, along with…"

He noticed the look Kakashi was giving him and sat beside him, wrapping his arms around his waist.

"Please?" You're exhausted. If I'd been in my right mind I'd never have let you carry me so far, and you haven't slept in three days, don't think I can't tell. Let me keep watch tonight. The way you used to."

Kakshi looked deep into his eyes, seeing nothing there but love. "Will it make you happy?"

"Yes."

He untwisted the paper and watched as the brown powder fell into his cup. "Then you don't have to ask."

Iruka watched his sleeping lover as he'd promised. Feeling his emotions ebb and flow with the other's deep breaths. He ran his fingers through the silver hair. And whispered, more to himself and to the night, than to the man he loved too much. At least it had stopped raining at last.

"I'm sorry but I have to go. I know that you do understand, really. This isn't just you and me Kakashi, it's Konoha. Whoever took those bombs has at least two days lead on us and you can't catch up if you're dragging me along with you."

He moved to stand, then bent over to brush his lips against Kakashi's, leached of all colour in the few pale streaks of moonlight that made their way past the thinning cloud cover. Then he stood, feeling surprisingly strong, hardened by his resolve. This was the right thing for him to do, and they both knew it.