A/N Sorry to interrupt again, but just a warning that the last scene here is kind of limey. I slipped in a break to let you know so you can skip it if you prefer :) Trying to pick up the pace and get this finished so i apologise in advance for bad spelling.

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Chap 24 Here.

Naruto woke up and squinted past his potted plant at the November sky, scraping his hand through his unruly hair. The sun was completely hidden behind a sheet of silver-grey. If clouds had silver linings then these needed a damn good tailoring job, their linings were hanging out all over.

Kakashi-sensei had shown them how to read the time from the sky when there was no sun and no shadows a long time ago. He wouldn't let them eat lunch until they could and they'd starved three days in a row. The fourth day they'd pinpointed noon exactly and he'd rewarded them with not only ramen for lunch, but ice-cream sundaes as well.

So that meant it was… damn, nearly ten 'o clock. He glanced at his alarm clock for confirmation. Damn, the traitor hadn't woken him, or had he forgotten to set it? Damn, he knew that lazy jounin would rub off on him sooner or later. Well, at least he wasn't reading porn on missions yet, if he tried that Sakura would kill him.

He burst into the mission room ten minutes later. Everyone else was already there and from the looks he was getting they'd been there for a while.

"Oh Naruto, you really are dead last aren't you? But I'm really happy that you made it."

He just knew that someone would say it, but he hadn't expected it to be Hinata.

Before he had a chance to explain, Sakura had grabbed his arm roughly and dragged him with her to the ANBU guard on duty.

"Team Kakashi, we have a nine thirty appointment to see Hokage-sama." The dangerous light in her eyes defied him to make a crack about 'Kakashi's team' being late.

As the little congregation was ushered into Tsunade's office, she took them in with a single sweep of her eyes. And was almost tempted to hitch up the front of her shirt, the way that Hyuuga boy was staring reminded her way too much of Jiraiya. But decided not to bother, since he was a Hyuuga it wouldn't make any difference anyway. She tented her fingers under her chin and leaned forward.

"So what is this? A chuunin exam reunion?"

Sakura felt an elbow in the back of her ribs and stepped forward. She smudged away the beads of sweat prickling her brow, under cover of brushing a strand of hair away from her face. When she was alone with Tsunade she never felt like this. Why did addressing her as Hokage-sama make her so nervous?

"Hakage-sama, you know that we've been going through Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei's old mission reports. Well, you see, we've been thinking. Kakashi-sensei has a lot of enemies. I mean a lot. Too many really for us to narrow down… but he has a lot of friends too…"

Tsunade smiled, curious to see where this was going. True there were people in the village who were fiercely loyal to the annoying brat, she was looking at some of them, but Hatakes were admired, not loved. She'd been Sakumo's friend, but she couldn't think of enough others to use up more than a few fingers on one hand. Not true friends.

"Yes I'm sure he has friends."

Sakura took a deep breath.

"Well you're always talking about the importance of allies. There seem to be a lot of people who would like the chance to help Kakashi-sensei, and Iruka-sensei too, because… you know they… Well we thought that if we could get in touch with some of them, find out if they've heard anything…"

Tsunade scanned the eager young faces, Naruto's and Sakura's shining particularly bright. So Hatake's team did care about him, at least as much as they admired him. Who'd have thought it? Sakumo had always been such a lone wolf.

"Help is always… helpful. If you feel that there are people outside the village who might be willing to work with us to track them down, then I don't see why not. I take it you have some particular individuals in mind?"

"Er, yes. We wrote them down off the mission reports. While we were going through them."

So there were enough names to need writing down, she was surprised. Tsunade held out her hand.

When Naruto produced a stack… a stack, of paper, she almost fell off her chair.

She flicked through the pages, scanning the columns of names. If only Sakumo had had half, a tenth, this many people to rely on, surely he'd still be here to help her with this mess. "So you really think that all of these people like Kakashi?"

Naruto rested the palm of one hand on Tsunade's desk and leaned towards her with a big foxy grin. Sakura couldn't help notice the trickle of perspiration from under his headband. So he was feeling nervous too.

"Hell yes. I mean, I know he's an annoying lazy bastard and a pervert and everything. And he doesn't say very much, but he sorta understands people and he's got a weird way of making them understand themselves too. So he's really kind of… great in his own way. Well he must be, or Iruka-sensei wouldn't like him so much would he?"

Naruto turned back to look at the others. They nodded their support like so many bobblehead ninjas, and suddenly everyone had a Kakashi-sensei story.

"…saved us all with his sharingan… a worthy rival to Gai-sensei… understands that relaxing and taking the time to think… takes fate in his own hands and shapes his own destiny… eats faster than anyone I know… that dogs are the most important… can throw a shuriken further and faster… that teamwork means working together like insects in a hive…"

Tsunade held up her hand for silence.

"And I bet he's really very cute under that mask." Ino slapped her hand over her mouth as she realised that everyone else had already stopped talking. Tsunade gave her a cursory glare for good measure.

"Ok, I get it. Shizune will work with you to contact as many of these people as we can without unnecessary risks. But I want team Kakashi to stay here and continue with the work they've been doing."

Naruto spun back around to face her. It was hard to say which was open wider, his gaping mouth or his incredulous eyes. "But we're his…"

"Yes I know, his teammates." She shot Sakura a meaningful, almost pleading look."

Sakura put her hand on Naruto's tense shoulder. "S'ok I've gotta stick around anyway. I'm a med-nin. We're in a state of emergency remember, and if we get attacked there'll be casualties. Besides we've still got a lot of scrolls to go through." She returned Tsunade's look with a plea of her own. "Maybe with just the two of us we can get the clearance to check out some of the classified ones."

Naruto punched the air triumphantly. "Way cool. Let's get to it Sakura."

As the ANBU ushered them out Tenten whispered in Neiji's ear. "I hope we get the chance to look for Gai-sensei too."

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Iruka sneezed, then he sneezed again. He tried to raise a hand to brush the fluffy hair away from his face, but there was an unbreakable grip around his chest, trapping his arms. He felt lips curve into a smile against his throat through the fabric of his shirt, and the hard metal of a headband pressed into his jaw. That was odd, why was he in bed fully dressed? Why were they both fully dressed?

He shifted against the weight of the long muscular body that was pinning him down.

"Kakashi?"

"Mmm."

"Why do we have all our clothes on? You're even wearing your forehead protector and you never sleep in it."

There seemed to be something missing from his memory. Not so much a gap as a discontinuity, like in a movie when the DVD jumps from one scene to another without a proper cut. He thought back, testing the logic of various scenarios.

"Did we go out and get drunk or something?"

Kakashi ignored all but the first part of the question. He slipped off the cloth and metal band and set to work removing Iruka's shirt. "Easy enough to fix, anything to make you more comfortable Iruka-sensei."

Strange Iruka didn't feel hungover. In fact he felt wonderful, better than he could ever remember, almost… reborn. He stretched out and relaxed, feeling precise nimble fingers working at the buttons on his uniform. It was a nice feeling, very nice. And it held the promise of something nicer still.

"And where are we anyway, this isn't your bed, or mine. The last thing I remember is the desert, in the rain, with the wind and the mud."

Kakashi flicked on a light at the bedside.

Iruka saw the long dress hanging next to the mirror, the silver-backed hairbrushes and opal jewelery on the dressing table. The large, that is exceedingly large, old-fashioned bra casually discarded into the laundry hamper. Even Tsunade's breasts would rattle around inside that thing.

"This is a woman's room."

A vision of a blond with breast three times as big as Tsunade's floated into his brain, and he jumped as if he'd just been shocked with a cattle prod. "You haven't set me up for some kind of pervy threesome have you?"

Kakashi raised a white eyebrow. "Mmm, would you like that Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up. Another time he'd have laughed, but this wasn't one of those times, he was feeling way to unsettled and unsure. He raked a hand through his hair to pull it back from his eyes.

"Dammit Kakashi, sometimes I wonder if you really love me at all."

Kakashi chuckled under his breath and pulled him back in, folding him into his aura, running a hand through his loose hair and dotting a line of kisses along his scar. "If I didn't, I really don't think there's any way you'd be here today, with me."

Iruka felt Kakashi's flood of true emotion pour over him. He rolled unto his back and stretched out. "No. I suppose I'd still be waiting in line along with everyone else."

Kakashi hid his surprise perfectly. That wasn't the answer he'd expected. Maybe Iruka truly didn't remember anything. Maybe he simply didn't know that he'd been brought back from the dead. If so it was probably just as well.

And he had just enough decency to blush very slightly. "Waiting in line? Was my reputation really that bad?"

He felt a tongue probing the ridges of his ear, teeth nibbling at his earlobe, and a hot breathy whisper. "No, it was that good."

The hand still combing through Iruka's hair caught on a snag, just as the other was starting to work its way down under his pants. "Your hair does tangle easily doesn't it? Maybe Dakatsu has some sporks."

"Dakatsu?" Iruka mumbled into the nape of his lover's neck between kisses.

"Yes. This is her place. We're with the clan of the desert snakes, they found us out in the desert. She's their leader, kind of their Tsunade."

Iruka sat up as the vision made an abrupt reappearance. His heightened colour would have been obvious even without the sudden flare in his chakra. "And this is her bed, like their Tsunade's bed."

Looked at that way it was a bit of a passion killer. "Iruka wait, she's not a bit like Tsunade, I promise. She won't mind, she offered…"

But Iruka was already by the door, straightening and refastening his clothes and searching his pockets for a hairband. As he reached for the handle there was a knock on the other side. He opened it cautiously. A short plump middle-aged woman, with surprisingly red hair, stood in the doorway holding a bundle of fluffy white towels.

She looked him over fondly, then beamed past him to Kakashi and winked.

"Well you two boys be looking right chirpy today. Just brought you along some towels and other stuff you might be needing. The bathroom's right behind that there door. 'I b'ain't really set up for houseguests."

She shrugged as she grinned wider and her eyes almost vanished behind the deep wrinkles surrounding them.

"Ain't never had none afore. So just go on ahead and use whatever soap and shampoo and stuff as you can find. Then when you're all done come join me for a cup 'o tea and a bite to eat. Right at the end 'o this short passage you can't miss it. But take your time, I's got plenty to do and I ain't going nowhere."

She set down her bundle and left, closing the door carefully behind her.

Iruka picked up the comb, hair-band, pack of razors and men's deodorant, that were lying on the top towel. "Was that…"

"Yes, that's Dakatsu."

"I thought you said she was like Tsunade? I don't think I can imagine anyone more different."

"Did I? Then I must have lied. Strip. I want to take a look at you."

Kakashi's change in tone, as well as his natural modesty made Iruka's guts tighten uneasily at the direct order.

"I hope this is a check for damage by my team leader, not just you being a pervert."

Kakashi smirked lecherously. "Can't I enjoy my work?"

It was the answer he'd expected, but Iruka was sure he could see something deeper beneath it. He took off his shirt.

"Why are my wrists bandaged?"

Kakshi ignored him. "Now take the rest off."

Iruka shucked off the rest of his clothes and kicked them aside. He stood straight, to attention, looking the other man in the eye.

"Kakashi, why are my wrists bandaged."

So he wouldn't just let it drop, Kakashi had to think fast. He smiled, making his eye curve and added another even more lecherous smirk.

"It was your turn to be tied up."

"Oh."

Iruka unwound the gauze, letting it fall to the ground in pleated folds.

"Strange, look here. There are lines on my wrists."

Kakashi took hold of a wrist and ran his finger over the white mark. For the first time in his life he wished Iruka was less tan. The line would have been almost invisible on paler skin.

"Scars?"

"Could be, but they're smooth and faint, as if they're really old. And I swear I didn't have them yesterday. I mean I was a troubled teen in my own way, but I never tried to slash my wrists."

"Mmm, maybe from another lifetime. Let me see your back now."

Another lifetime? Fleetingly Iruka started to form a question, but then let it go. He'd never understand Kakashi's mind.

"Right, my back, I'd forgotten. It feels fine, as if nothing had ever happened."

"I know it is fine, I checked before I went to sleep. But I want to see it again anyway."

"Something clicked into place in Iruka's brain. So that's how come I woke up with you lying all over me. You're impossible, you know that?"

"I do my best."

Iruka could have just as easily kissed him, if he's stopped the think about it. His emotions were equally divided between familiar affection and familiar irritation. But he didn't think, he just hit him.

Kakashi grabbed his arm and went with the follow through, pulling them both onto the floor in a sprawling heap. They wrestled briefly to get in top. Very briefly. Kakashi didn't want to win.

Iruka pinned him down, flushed with victory. "They healed me didn't they, these snake people. I feel all sparkly new, even the blisters on my feet are gone."

Sparkly new, it was a good description. Kakashi felt stronger than he had in weeks, months. There was obviously nothing quite like dying to give you a new lease on life.

"They have their secrets just as we have ours. The blood's gone too, the blood jutsu. Didn't you notice that they took off the seal?"

Iruka slammed one palm onto his chest, where the seal had been, eyes as wide as saucers.

"You mean you found a cure, a way to get rid of it?"

Kakashi shook his head, avoiding Iruka's eyes. "Just for you. It can't be done that way again."

"So you think there are others under the curse? How many?"

"Enough to get the job done." He smiled to cover the uneasiness he's allowed to creep into his voice, and slapped Iruka's buttock. "Come on, let's take a shower."

Iruka stared down at him, eyes clouded by dark lust. Rolling around together had stirred a rather obvious response, especially since he was naked.

"Together, you and me?"

Kakashi reached his mouth up and his hands down, to lay claim to his two favourite parts of his favourite person. "Unless you want to invite Dakatsu to join us? For a threesome."

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Gai slackened his pace yet further, if he didn't know him better he'd have sworn Iruka-sensei was deliberately slowing them down.

"So Sensei, how long before we reach this island?"

Ookami Ketsuekimusha bit into another dumpling and watched them through the window in his mind. There was something about this particular Leaf jounin that was different. Hell, everything about him was 'different', but this one he could use! Even the modest penetration the blood mist gave him into his mind allowed him to see how straightforward and uncomplicated Maitai Gai really was. And the Uchiha brat had expected him to be able to use Sharingan Hataki. He'd have lost his own sanity trying to probe through all those layers.

Instead he'd taken matters into his own hands and brought the big jounin back from the forests of Konoha, there were plenty of others still there, waiting for their signal. A little prick, a few drops of blood, and this powerful man would be his ace in the hole. He already had the other one primed and ready to go. The two of them were all he needed to take back what was his, with or without the help of the Atakzuki.

Without a pause in his constant browsing, he mouthed the words for his tool, his living puppet, as it struggled to keep up with Konoha's green beast.

"We'll be there within an hour at this pace. Kakashi will be ready by then and we'll go back with him to Konoha."

The sennin smiled at his own cleverness. Yes his Kakashi would be ready, then they'd all go to Konoha. He turned to the large white haired man stretched out on the silk covered bed.

"So you're sure you understand how this will work? I'll be there, in your mind, all the time. But you will have control of the mist. Everyone who breaths the mist will be yours, but don't try to control them one at a time or you'll be overwhelmed. Use general commands like 'these are enemies kill them' or 'these are friends protect them'. They're all well trained fighters, they'll take care of the rest by themselves."

"But I can make them do exactly what I want, right?"

"If you focus on one of them, your thoughts will be his thoughts. He will be your tool."

The pirate boss watched the tip of the needle sink into his vein, and the crimson liquid disappear into his arm. Perfect. Now he'd be able to show that white haired ninja freak. He'd have him, his cute chuunin 'friend', and get Gep back where he belonged. Hell he'd make them stand in line waiting for him.

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A/N gets a bit graphic from here on. You won't lose much of the story if you skip it. Reaffirmation of life type stuff :)

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Iruka pulled his mouth away from Kakshi's long enough to suck in a few breaths. "Dammit Kakashi, you could be a bit more helpful.

Kakashi let his arms hang loose by his sides and pouted at the loss of lip to lip contact. "Don't want to help, I want you to undress me."

Steam from the shower had already filled the tiny room with billows of white. It settled in their hair, making Iruka's hang limp and Kakshi's fluff out more wildly than ever. Iruka worked the jounin's shirt over his head.

"So I suppose they cleaned our clothes for us too, these desert snake people… no sand."

"Bet you get pretty good at dealing with sand, living here, after the first couple of dozen centuries." He stole a quick peck before Iruka leaned down to work on removing his pants.

Iruka's heart drummed in his ears as he reached past the open zipper to release Kakashi from his tangle of underwear. For a moment he felt he would pass out with sheer anticipation. He licked a quick swipe along the too enticing organ as he crouched to loosen his leg bindings. It was too slow. Feeding chakra to his hands he ripped them off.

Kakashi grinned in satisfaction as he stepped out of his pants. Iruka was as impetuous as ever.

"You'll need something for lube."

"I will?"

Kakashi's voice was a low purr. "Yes you. You're as tense as piano wire, you won't be happy letting me set the pace." He licked his lips with the tip of his tongue. "But I warn you, I'll expect a damn good reach around."

Iruka blushed. It was what he wanted, but he'd have been too shy to insist. "Ok lube, what do you think…"

"Improvise Sensei. This is a woman's bathroom. There are probably a hundred different lotions here."

He scanned the bottles on the open shelves, trying to read labels past the steam and condensation. Baby oil, perfect. Dry skin must be a real problem in this climate. He held it up.

"Good."

Kakashi opened the shower door and pulled him in, ignoring the warm water pouring down on them. He took the bottle and poured a little oil in each of their palms before recapping it and carefully setting it in a corner. It wouldn't do for it to get knocked over and spilt. To die from slipping in the shower would be just too embarrassing after everything they'd just been through.

They smeared each other, gently, barely touching, careful not to let it develop into more. That was good too, but not what either of them wanted right now.

Kakashi stretched up into the stream of water, letting it flow through his hair and over his skin. Relishing the stimulation of the tiny jets. He turned around and leaned back into Iruka, deliberately brushing against him.

"Hurry."

"Ah, getting impatient. Now you know how I feel when you take your time."

But in truth he was just as impatient. He guided Kakshi's feet slightly apart.

Kakashi bent his elbows and leaned into the cold stone of the shower wall, his forehead resting against the back of his hands. He felt its hardness in front of him, the hardness of Iruka's muscular body behind him. Kakashi didn't need to be told what to do. He took a deep breath and relaxed, allowing Iruka access. He gasped, then gasped again, as an oil slick hand ran along his length.

"Aah Ruka, more, faster, please."

If he hadn't been so lost in his own pleasure Iruka might have stopped in surprise. Was Kakashi begging him? He obeyed, matching his spikes in pleasure to the movements of his hand. Water ran over them so that their wet bodies sucked together, and slid against each other. Kakashi was part of him, the best part. They were one, a single entity of throbbing pleasure. Reaching forward, one thrust at a time to the ultimate pleasure they could only find together.

Kakashi gave up all control and melted into the man behind, around, inside him. Right now Iruka owned him completely. He was nothing more than a shapeless mass of need, desire and exquisite pleasure. A guttural sound rose through his throat from some deep place and he felt Iruka's teeth pressed against his shoulder as he grinned in acknowledgement. He never made much noise during sex, unlike Iruka, who would sigh and gasp and moan, but who was unusually silent now, locked into the intensity of the moment.

Iruka started to suck at the air in short sharp breaths. This was it, he had to let go. They came together, as one. Then collapsed onto each other on the floor of the shower, panting and gasping.

"Ah, I must have really needed that."

Kakshi turned to face him, one eye open, the red one, spinning and whirling. "Me too. I'll always need you iruka, I can't live without you." He pushed back his dark hair, letting the stream of water mold it into place then licked the water from his lips. "Come on, let's finish and get dressed. My instincts and my nose are telling me that Dakatsu's been cooking up a feast."