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An Entanglement of Odds
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Pairing: Kakashi x Iruka
(Hints of Lee x Sakura, Naruto x Sasuke, Hinata x Kiba, Ino x Shikamaru, Neji x Ten-ten)
Warning: Shounen ai
Summary: They were just two people who happened to be at the same place at the same time. They were simply two strangers who fell in love with each other, although neither would ever admit it. Then one day, fate tore them apart… IruKaka
Inspired by: a really sappy soap opera my parents watch and the plot bunny (it bit me really hard this time)
Please forgive my bad usages of Japanese terms; I don't speak the language so I have almost no idea how to use them.
Disclaimer: Naruto and anything related does not belong to me. Don't sue.
"talking" 'thinking'
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The Wind of Misfortune
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(Second week in Beijing, China)
It was a wonderful day; the sun was shining happily and golden rays of light made everything seem brighter. The grass was greener, the water in foundations looked clearer and the birds warbled their songs. The day was warm and somewhat humid. The cool breeze made it the perfect day to venture outside. However, a brown haired man found there was nothing to do. He was completely oblivious of the beautiful day, lost in his thoughts and boredom.
Iruka is sitting by the window, his head comfortably resting where the cool wind can reach him. He sighs, a simple happy puff of air rising out of his throat. It was a lazy Sunday and he wasn't planning on doing much. There wasn't must to do actually. His host was no where to be found, not that the younger man was surprised.
Kakashi isn't exactly considered the talkative type and Iruka found the conversations to be awkward and too formal. It didn't help matters much when the brown haired man started to develop strange feelings in the pit of his stomach whenever Kakashi was in the same room as him. Iruka simply shrugged away the feeling. It was too hot and he was too busy being miserable (and bored) in Beijing to be thinking about those confusing matters.
- - -
Gai is still determined. After his failed "make out in power out" operation, he had been busy raking his brain for more romantic ideas. Now, Gai thought himself to be a great romancer but he figured most of his ideas must be too "complex" for Kakashi and his modest guest.
Maito Gai had not failed to notice the marvelous weather in Beijing today. 'It was too bad that Kakashi and Iruka are stuck inside. If they could come outside I am sure they will find their spring of youth and realize that they are both of the age of where marriage should be considered.' Gai thought, sitting on the vibrant grass at the base of a tree. He stared up at the apartment building in front of him. It looked so dull. Not to mention hot.
Gai figured that Kakashi needed all the help he can get in the love department. 'In all the years I've known him,' Gai silently said to himself, 'Kakashi wouldn't know a good time if it came and hit him in the face…'
Suddenly Gai stood up from his sitting position and flashed again his trademark pose, (probably sending some other unsuspecting lady to a dead faint and a room in the hospital). He grinned and sprinted away. He couldn't wait to get started on his idea.
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Kakashi was busy too. He was trying to sleep till noon, but it wasn't working. The pesky sun was shining in his one visible eye. He was irritated and annoyed beyond describing. Kakashi turned to his side, away from the sun and shut his eyes. It didn't work.
With a grunt, Kakashi rolled off his bed and dragged his semi-conscious body towards the bathroom. A hot shower later, a still dripping in water Kakashi wrapped in a towel around the waist came out. He looked grumpy, which was better than annoyed or irritated.
Kakashi's visible eye roamed around the room and rested on the window. He thought something looked too happy and he was sure it wasn't his furniture smiling at him. It was a beautiful day. Kakashi gave another grunt and walked towards the window, intent on shutting the blinds and getting more sleep.
That was when something smacked him on the face. If he had been more alert and it wasn't morning, he would have caught that thing long before it came close to his face. But Kakashi wasn't a morning person and he was still only half awake. So the paper slapped into him, blocking his sight and another slap followed the first.
Kakashi tore the papers off his face, slightly more annoyed now and scowled. Wasn't there a law or something against slapping half-asleep people in the morning with paper? 'If there isn't,' Kakashi decided, 'there should be.'
Kakashi found that the first paper was actually not a paper, it was an envelope. In the envelope were two green tickets for Beijing's First Culture Festival. The silver haired man's eyes squinted at the tickets. Since when did free festival tickets fly out of nowhere? They looked pretty legal to him.
The second paper was a note, written in bold green ink. It said, "Take Umino-san to the festival. He'll love it. Signed: The Green Beast." Kakashi smiled, his eye turning into an upside down "U" at the crudely drawn picture of a green beast at the bottom. Whoever this Green Beast was, it seemed he (Kakashi assumed it was a he, since he didn't think females would use a name like "The Green Beast") was only trying to help.
Kakashi changed into his clothes, adjusted his mask and bandana. He stalked out of the room, still in his relaxed slouch and made his way across the hall to the guest room. The damned butterflies were still dancing in his stomach, except this time they were wearing tap dancing shoes.
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Iruka waited patiently outside the apartment building. The courtyard was beautifully shining in the sunlight. He's back was being comfortably warmed by the sun and he was tempted to stretch out on his stomach on the soft grass. Like he did in Konoha on lazy Sunday mornings, Iruka felt a twist in his stomach at the mention of his home.
Insects buzzed around him, smashing into his tanned skin. He swatted at them, not quite annoyed yet but getting close to that point. This was definitely destroying the beauty of the full bloomed flowers all around him. That and the nagging feeling Kakashi had something…perverted planned. Iruka tried to brush off this feeling, but it continued to bug him.
About forty-five minutes later, a smiling Kakashi came around the corner. 'He's late.' By now, Iruka was slightly more annoyed, but being the good sensei that he was forced a fake smile onto his face.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow inwardly, seeing through Iruka's plastered smile immediately. He had been very early after all….
"Hop on Umino-san," Kakashi said, indicating to the black bike beside him.
"uh…" Iruka began, thoroughly confused. There was only one bike and two of them, unless Kakashi planned on running, but the Iruka seriously doubted this. "Hatake-san, there's only one bike."
Kakashi nodded vigorously and smiled. Iruka felt his eyebrow twitch the slightest; the feeling of something being planned increased tenfold. Alarms were blaring at the back of his head. The brown haired man continued to gap and did not move.
Kakashi's smiling eye faded and was replaced with an inquiring stone coloured orb. "oh, you don't know?" Iruka felt a blush coming over his face under Kakashi's gaze and averted his own stare to a nearby ruby red flower.
"Ah, Gomen Umino-san, I forgot that you aren't from Beijing." Iruka looked up and gave Kakashi a questioning look. "Here, you sit at the back and I'll pedal the bike," Kakashi continued, letting a small pause between the sentences. Iruka waited impatiently, bracing himself for the worst. "And, of course if you don't want to fall, I suggest you hold onto me."
Iruka gapped, "Wh-what?"
"Around the waist is preferable, but if you wish to hold anywhere else…." Kakashi shrugged; secretly delighted by the different shades of tomato red Iruka's face was turning.
Iruka gapped and stared, but realized it wasn't going to help his situation. He needed a way to get to both himself and Kakashi to the culture festival, which he had been invited to earlier in the morning. He calmly walked towards the bike and waited until the silver haired man was seated in front of him. He sat down on the metal seat behind Kakashi and, forcefully wrapped his arms around the older man's waist. Iruka was still blushing, but he didn't notice. His attention was tuned onto how pleasantly nice Kakashi smelled.
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All during the frustrating bike ride to the festival, which was about twenty minutes of mental debates between his subconscious self, Iruka-sensei still couldn't decide whether or not he liked having to hold onto Kakashi.
On one side, it was a perverted idea and should not be encouraged. But on the other, damn he smelled nice. Irula-sensei cringed inwardly, mentally slapping himself on the forehead for thinking such thoughts.
The festival was to start at 3:45pm and was to end at 10:30pm. There was suppose to be a surprise at the end and Iruka briefly wondered what it was before trying to keep up with Kakashi through the giant crowd of people. Surprisingly Kakashi walks very fast and is currently weaving skillfully around everyone, still maintaining his relaxed slouch.
Once they had gotten to the festival, Kakashi locked his bike by a fence and together they paid their tickets and went through the gates. The first thought Iruka had was, 'Wow.' Everything was so friendly. And everyone seemed to be having fun, laughter floated into the air seemingly endless and there were smiles everywhere. Iruka felt a smile of his own creep onto his face, tugging at his open mouth. This reminded him of the first snow festival in Konoha. His smile faltered; as much as he didn't want to admit it, he was still homesick.
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Iruka watched as Kakashi spoke a strange language, different than Japanese, to the vender. A few moments later, the silver haired man was handed two big wads of pink cotton candy. His visible eye was beaming as he slouched his way towards Iruka, still weaving through the crowds of people skillfully.
"Thank you," Iruka said politely, taking the pink thing that was offered to him. The brown haired man gazed down uncertainly at the cotton candy in front of him. A frown was starting to form, much to his embarrassment. He didn't like cotton candy, but he didn't want to admit it to Hatake-san. After all, he had been nice to buy one for him…
"Something wrong Umino-san?" Kakashi's low voice interrupted his thoughts. Iruka glanced up, but averted his gaze somewhere else. He fidgeted under Kakashi's piercing eye, wondering if the older man could read minds.
"No, nothing wrong," Iruka mumbled, feeling somewhat like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Then why aren't you eating your cotton candy?"
"I…uh…I was eating it!" Iruka cringed inwardly at the lie.
"No, I'm pretty sure you weren't."
Iruka sat up straighter and stared Kakashi in the eyes (er, eye) and said with as much confidence he could muster at the moment, "Show me proof…." And after a pause, Iruka added in a quieter voice, "Please Hatake-san, I already ate some."
"No, you didn't. If you don't like cotton candy just say so, Umino-san." Kakashi's stone eye bore into Iruka's and for a second, the same thought crossed over both men's minds. Each glared and childishly turned away. Iruka pouted, and thought 'I'm acting more like Naruto every day…'
"I don't like cotton candy, okay?" Iruka huffed, exasperated at his behaviour. The sun must have been frying his brain and he put a hand to his forehead warily. He wondered if he was going to have hallucinations next.
Kakashi had turned around and was smiling again. Iruka's neck pricked with the strange feeling again. "Well, Umino-san, we can't have that can we?" The mask twitched into a grin.
Kakashi quickly ripped a piece of the cotton candy off his stick and taking chance of Iruka's open mouth (he was getting ready to say something), stuck it in the other man's mouth. The sugary candy quickly melted on his tongue and Iruka gave Kakashi a dirty look. He opened his mouth to say something else and had another piece of the pink evilness stuffed into his face.
Kakashi was almost to the point of laughing. He was enjoying this immensely. The brown haired looked so cute when he was helplessly lost.
Iruka clamped his mouth shut after the forth of fifith time Kakashi had jammed cotton candy into his mouth. The sweet and sugary taste lingered on his tongue, completely unwelcome. Iruka glared again at the still smiling Kakashi, but kept his mouth well shut.
"Oh, come on Umino-san" Kakashi sang teasingly," open up!"
Iruka shook his head and his hands flew to his mouth defensively. A muffled sound came from behind the tanned fingers that sounded like, "Kakashi, you're a goat-bearded leprechaun!" or "Kakashi, hentai, you're enjoying this aren't you?"
Iruka's eyes widened, he noticed that Kakashi was now very close. And he was leaning in closer! A delicate nose covered by a jet black mask was almost touching his clasped hands. Iruka could feel a blush coming on which increased ten fold after Kakashi landed a quick kiss on his fingers. His hands dropped to his sides and the younger man started to stutter. Kakashi merely smiled and shoved another piece of pink cotton candy into Iruka's mouth.
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"Joseph," a man said, poking at his companion with a stubby finger, "eh, isn't that the toy who got away?"
"What," the blonde man answered back sharply, a spoon full of chocolate ice cream centimeters away from his mouth. The corners of his mouth twitched and he angrily set down the spoon.
Gore shuddered with fear, cringing away from the taller man. He clamped his mouth shut and shrank down in his seat. He whimpered to himself. He knew not to interrupt Joseph when he was clearly thinking, or to ever touch the man. Sometimes Gore forgot, most of the time he forgot a lot of things and he would always pay for it later.
Joseph was quite handsome, with wavy golden hair tied in a low ponytail and sea foam green eyes that seemed glean with kindness. Gore could not think that anything nice would ever come out of trusting Joseph, for the eyes that seem so innocent the man was the complete opposite.
"Well, speak up dimwit tell me who was it you saw?" The words were stressed with anger.
Gore shrank further into his seat, which for a man of his size wasn't easy. He was very uncomfortable, but if it meant getting as far away as possible from Joseph right now…. Gore found his voice and shoved it into his throat. His voice came out high and squeaking, "The toy, the one that ran from the bar when Lucas caught him."
Joseph sighed, delicate fingers moving to massage his temples, 'how could I forget. That was the day Paine was so drunk he couldn't tell sky from land and Lucas kept going on about the cute brown haired man he tasted earlier.' "What about the toy Gore?" The blonde drawled, as lazily as a cat playing with his prey.
"Y-your brother would…like it if you caught his runaway toy, boss." Gore whispered, still cringing away from Joseph.
"How many times have I told you Gore? It is Joseph-sama here! Do not make me repeat myself, Gore. Do you remember what happened the last time? Hn?" Joseph snapped. Gore twitched, his hand unconsciously touching the long scar running down his arm.
"Don't tell me what I should do and what my pathetic brother would like Gore, do not correct me. Understand dimwit? Is this getting through at all?" Joseph went on, his sea foam green eyes flashing, cold as emerald and twice as dark, "What do we do after we caught Lucas's toy hn Gore? Any ideas? Should I start calling you the boss around here then?"
Gore whimpered again, he wanted to run far away from Joseph and wait for the sun to set. That always calms him, and then maybe when he's calm and not frightened, he could start thinking more clearly. "N-no, Joseph-sama. I'm wrong, Gore wrong. Sorry, sorry, sorry…."
Joseph smirked and reached out to pet Gore's curly flame red hair covered head. "Good, Gore. Remember who your master is." Gore stopped cringing away, he knew better than to move at all when Joseph showed signs of "affection" towards him. He still had a bruise on his face to remind him.
Joseph lifted the spoon towards his mouth again, and savored in the sweet taste of ice cream on such as hot day. He sat and thought.
Gore did not move, he didn't dare, Joseph's other hand was still buried in his hair, unconsciously entangling themselves with strands of fiery red. Gore stayed still.
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Iruka watched yet again as Kakashi weaved through the crowds to buy more food for them to eat. The silver haired man had declared that there was really not much to do at the festival except to chow down on Chinese food. (Iruka strongly disagreed with this).
"I'm sure you'll love the new taste, Umino-san" Kakashi had reassured a disgruntled Iruka after the cotton candy episode. The brown haired man had gotten cutely sulky after Kakashi had decided to have some fun. (The silver haired man secretly though the look on the younger man's face was adorable.)
Iruka smiled, he like this happier and more talkative side of Hatake-san much better. He sighed contently and gazed at the crowds of people rushing around in front of this. They've seen many things today; traditional Chinese clothes, a dragon dance and have been to many booths selling different things. (Iruka's favourite being the book store where Kakashi had to drag him away from. He had caught the older man eyeing a series of orange clad books on a nearby shelf). Now night has fallen and the bright lights of the festival shown everywhere. The day had been fun and Iruka was exhausted. The only reason he wanted to stay was to see the surprise waiting at the end of the night.
A pair of unfamiliar hands grabbed at his legs and another hooked onto his wrists. He opened his mouth but at that instant another hand reached up to cover his mouth. A muffled sound was released but was quickly drowned out in the sea of noise at the festival. Iruka squirmed and fought but it was no use. The hands that held him grasped on tight and everything went dark as something was slipped over his eyes.
Iruka felt them bound his hands and feet. He felt them stuff a rag into his mouth and fought the tears stinging the back of his eyes.
Kakashi-san…
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The room was bare and small; Iruka soon discovered this after attempting to find an exit. There didn't seem to be any doors or windows. There didn't seem to be any light either. The mossy smell of rotting wood was still lingering in the air. They must have cleared the room recently. The sound of water dripping onto the ground resounded throughout the room.
Iruka laid his head against the cool stone floor. He coughed, hoping to get rid of that horrible taste of the rag in his mouth. Apparently the people who kidnapped him decided that escape was futile. Whatever the reason, Iruka was just glad the damn rag was gone.
The brown haired man stayed like that for what seemed like forever. He considered his options. There was no way out of the room, or at least there wasn't any that he could reach because after all there had to be some way of getting him into the room. Since his hands and legs were still bound, his chances of escape were even less. Not to mention he had this damn blindfold still over his eye. Not that he would be able to see in this room anyway. Iruka grunted and tried to roll over to his back. There was really nothing he could do. There was nothing to cut the binds with, no way someone could hear him calling for help and no chance in hell that his capturers would just let him go.
Iruka-sensei sighed, his breath wavering a bit. The only thing left to do now was to wait. He wasn't panicking. Instead he was lost in a daydreaming fantasy of his Prince Charming coming to save him. Even in this hopeless situation, Iruka blushed. He knew exactly who he wanted his Prince Charming to be.
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I actually started late on this chapter. Now that March break is over, I am being kept busy by homework which kills almost all of my spare time. I do hope that the length of this chapter will make up for the slow update rate.
I had meant for this chapter to have more action, but I'm stuck with a writer's block. Plus, the ending does make a nice cliffhanger. Expect more to happen next chapter.
Warble – to sing with trills, etc
Horologii.