An: Short chapter. Sorry. I'm halfway done with the next one and it should be posted by Saturday at the latest, but this had to stop here. Any longer and it would have lost the tiny bit of dramatic suspense that I haven't been building. Enjoy.
Iruka was pretty sure he just pissed off the Copy Nin.
The man didn't show any anger on the visible part of his face, but no proper jounin would. Even his usually masked lips didn't twitch.
He just stared at Iruka with that blood red eye, tomoes(1) rotating slowly.
"You have a point there, little Iruka," the man stated slowly, his voice stiff. It reminded Iruka of when he asked if he was a rogue ninja.
It was the voice of an ANBU.
"So, tell me how you one upped the Copy Nin."
This was the opening the chuunin was waiting for.
"You tell me what you want from me," He was pretty sure Kakashi had no intention of doing so when he brought it up earlier; hopefully this would get it out of him, "and I'll tell you how I gave you the slip for a few seconds."
For a moment, Kakashi's eye hardened and Iruka knew what that meant. That eye promised pain and death and…
And Kakashi was suddenly grinning and flopping down into one of the few armchairs Iruka had.
"You've got guts. Seriously. I like that. Means this thing won't be boring."
The tension in Iruka's shoulders was the only thing that betrayed his relaxed pose. As calmly as he could, the chuunin cocked an eyebrow in question.
Kakashi recognized it for the question it was and motioned for Iruka to come closer. He didn't, of course. Crazy ANBU wasn't making any sense yet.
"I'll accept your deal, but first you have to tell me how you did that. I think I could have figured it out with my Sharingan had it been uncovered, but I honestly never expected you to be that good."
His expression said kudos, but all Iruka heard was 'I can't believe a chuunin surprised me.'
He tried to be offended by that, but the little boy still within jumped in glee at being acknowledged in such a way. And by his generation's most famous nin!
"You first," he found himself saying, but relented enough to move towards the other armchair. It was far enough away that Kakashi couldn't hit or grab him.
Well, unless he left his seat. Which he could do long before Iruka's brain could react. But that wasn't the point.
Kakashi raised an eye brow, but there was a hint of a nod in how he tilted his head forward. He stretched, somehow sprawling himself even more across the chair he was in. That couldn't be comfortable
"I couldn't believe someone broke my mask," Kakashi started amiably. "I wasn't expecting that second kunai."
If he was being completely honest, he wasn't really expecting the first one either. He wouldn't have even stopped if he hadn't been so curious about what was lurking in the forest. That's why he snapped that twig. The shuriken was just a reflex, one he wasn't proud of not controlling properly.
"I had thought it must have been another ABU or a really lucky jounin. But then you stood up and I didn't recognize you. Even though you smelled like Konoha, you had to have been a missing nin. That's the only way that you could have hit me."
The tomoes in Kakashi's sharingan were spinning rapidly now. Iruka was sure if he got close enough, he could hear them whirring. Kakashi, noticing him tense, pulled his headband over it stiffly and opened his black eye again.
The teen couldn't help but visibly relax.
"But you said you were a chuunin."
Kakashi suddenly let out a bark of a laugh, startling Iruka. The jounin was sitting up now, perched on the edge of his seat, elbows on his knees. He was staring at Iruka so intently and the young man couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched by a predator.
"You were a chuunin. A chuunin! I haven't been one upped by a chuunin since I was a preteen! And you just flicked a kunai and I was unmasked. If the third wasn't so flustered, I would have had hell to pay for a whole group of chuunin knowing I was ANBU."
Iruka didn't think he liked the intensity of the man's stare.
"You want to know what I want, little Iruka?"
He didn't, actually. Not anymore. He was afraid of what the Hound would do to him now.
"I want you."
Huh.
With a small gasp, Iruka fainted.
1- A tomoe is the comma like black mark that expresses the power behind the Sharingan.