Thank you for reviewing! People here and on livejournal all are asking me when Kakashi and Iruka are actually going to talk to each other. Well, that does happen VERY soon, but Iruka doesn't find out about what Kakashi's doing just yet. He does eventually, but not right now- that happens in ~5 chapters. Well, I'm off to go take my wellness exam. Goodbye, bitchy wellness instructor! Everybody else- enjoy!

Kakashi didn't wait to be summoned on his fourth day home. He shifted back into his ANBU habits as easily as a snake shedding its skin. He dropped his jounin vest and his name, replacing them with hard, impeccably shiny ANBU gear and a codename. The comfortable weight of a katana dropped against his back, along with a transportation scroll in his weapon's pouch holding all the rations bars he would need. His uniform shirt dropped onto the floor in favor for white, form-fitting armor, and then a bone white mask emblazoned with scarlet swirls slid into place over his cloth one, and Hound left a spotless apartment via the window. He exited a home so cold and clean it looked as if it wasn't even lived in.

Hound headed soundlessly towards ANBU headquarters, chewing on a bland rations bar as he went. He would be leaving on a mission soon, and while there was certainly nothing he loved more than leaving on a mission on an empty stomach, long years in ANBU had forged Hound into an effective weapon. This would make him into a better weapon, and so this was what he did.

Hound arrived at ANBU headquarters to an emotionless messenger telling him that the commander wanted to see him. That wasn't really a huge surprise; after three days leave, of course he would have an important mission waiting for him, a mission so critical the commander himself was involved. He moved through dark hallways, passing bone white faces and black swishing cloaks, mere soldiers impossible to get attached to because they were all nothing more than animals.

Lion was waiting for him, along with the rest of his three man squad. Hound just looked at them through dark eyeholes, then turned to face the commander. The beastial mask nodded at him in greeting. "Hound. We've all been waiting for you."

"I'm not late."

"And that's a first," remarked a surly guard, who quickly bore the brunt of several glares. Hound just glanced at him before looking back at the ANBU commander.

Lion sighed quietly. "Hound, Cat, Turtle, Sparrow, you are ideally suited for this mission. We have received reports of a missing nin encampment in the neutral Country of Tea. Until recently, they have been dormant and causing no harm to anyone, which is why they have been ignored until now. But we have traced them as the source of several security leaks and disputes between nations; in a recent settlement between us and Suna, we will handle the missing nin if they will allow us to extend our borders closer to theirs."

"That's not exactly a fair deal," Sparrow remarked quietly, and Lion just glared at him.

"I was not present in the meeting when this was decided. Originally, ROOT was to handle this, but the the operatives are either too young to successfully infiltrate without suspicion or already on a mission. That, and I don't trust those lying bastards. But enough of that. Your mission is to infiltrate, not to attack or kill. I'll give Hound files to memorize with his Sharingan so he can tell you more about their known abilities and location on the way, but you need to watch out in particular for this man here- Yuki Taiyo." Lion flipped open a small file on his desk, pointing to a picture of the missing nin. He looked relatively nonthreatening and common, his only distinguishing feature being a thin scar that arced from his forehead to his chin, obscured by thin brown hair in several places.

"Taiyo was an ANBU captain in Kiri. He was a candidate for ANBU commander but the Fourth Mizukage didn't trust him because his parents were not natives of the Land of Water- obviously, since he doesn't look like a native of Mist. Then he went missing nin. Rumor is he is the leader of the group, and he has a kekkei genkai- Ice Release. Not much is known about it, so, if you get the opportunity, Hound-"

"Of course; unravel its secrets with the Sharingan. As always, Lion-sama."

The ANBU commander nodded slightly as he dropped a thick stack of files on his desk. "Right. Hound, these are what you need to memorize. As soon as you have done so, leave. I expect you to take three days, no longer, watching this camp. Send no more than two undercover."

Hound scowled at the pile of at over twenty thick files but said nothing. "Understood. Sparrow, Turtle, Cat, go on and wait for me at the gates. I'll be there soon."

His team disappeared literally silently; if he hadn't been looking at them, he wouldn't have known his order had been followed. Lion signaled for his guards to follow and left as well, presumably to continue with some other ANBU business, leaving him alone with his assignment.

Hound took a moment to glare at the papers. Sometimes, he thought the ANBU commander assumed he could read at the speed of light just because he had the Sharingan. He read at normal speed- actually, a bit slower; he hadn't learned to read until he was seven and even then, only the basics- the Sharingan made his eye see faster, it didn't make his brain process the letters as words any quicker. He would just memorize what the page looked like and read it mentally later.

It would be nice, he reflected, to be a regular jounin who didn't have to do anything as ridiculous as this.

It only took a bit more than five minutes for him to memorize each page of the files. It would take hours for him to read, but only a few seconds to take a glance at a page with an eye that recorded everything it saw. Mission now complete, Hound left the dark, drab ANBU headquarters- already reading the files he had just memorized. He met up with his team at the gate and the four left immediately, like a quartet of dark phantoms in the early morning light. They were silent and fleeting as ghosts.

All thoughts of a certain brown-haired sensei dropped from his mind like water off of a leaf. He was an ANBU captain whose only business with chuunin was to interrogate or kill them. All the sensei was to him now was a way to hold together the already broken shards of his mask when they were trying to fall apart and render an ANBU soldier unusable.

It wasn't until noon that Hound had finished reading the files, and the journey to the Country of Tea would last at least four days. He gave his team the rundown, then gave them a few minutes to process exactly who they were up against. He had to admit, it wasn't good, even if their mission was to spy and not attack. The majority of the missing nin were ex-ANBU, and some were even ex-ANBU captains. The rest were jounin, with the three exceptions of two chuunin and one genin. With the number of high level shinobi they were up against, spying would be difficult just in and of itself.

But the four of them were an ANBU team, and they wouldn't have been assigned this mission if it weren't difficult.

"I fold."

"Yes, you do. Your cards suck."

"Stop cheating, Senpai!"

Hound smirked. "It's not my fault that you flash your cards to everybody, Cat."

His kohai slumped sulkily, tossing his cards forward to the dirt. "Just because I don't have a magic eye that sees everything at the sped of light doesn't mean I should act like everyone else does, Senpai. No one else on this team knew what cards I had."

Hound just shrugged. "You're lucky that there's no Hyuuga here, or you'd really be screwed."

"Maybe, if they were as honorable as you."

Turtle pulled Hound's attention back to the cards. "Enough procrastinating; you are simply afraid that you will lose to me, eternal rival! Well, I won't have it! Let us raise the stakes tenfold! No, a hundredfold! No, a thousand-"

"Turtle, before you get ahead of yourself, Hound's probably seen your cards, too. He's only still in the game because he knows he can beat you, since we both know you will never fold."

Hound frowned darkly beneath his mask and tossed his cards forward, face up. "Thanks, Cat. I was about to get a personal slave for the month. You could have benefited from that arrangement, too, I wouldn't have had to use my favorite kohai for all my needs. Or my least favorite kohai, now."

"I'm not too happy with you either, Senpai. What do you mean, I have an innocent face?"

"Maa, it's not an insult. It's just a fact of life."

"You said I couldn't go undercover because I, and I quote, 'have a nice face'."

"What?" Hound protested. "Missing nin don't look as nice as you do. Plus, what if Konoha needed your Mokuton and you were undercover? Sparrow was the only logical choice."

Cat huffed. He lay back on the grass and shoved his mask to the side, breathing in a lungful of fresh air. "ANBU aren't supposed to look nice."

"Well, we wear masks," Hound pointed out. "There's a reason for that."

"The reason is to hide our identity, not make us look mean."

Hound sat back against a tree next to Cat's prostrate form. "It's okay, Cat. You can be plenty mean when you want to be. Besides, you can't deny that Sparrow just looks tougher than you. No offense."

"How can I not take offense to that? How is he tougher than me?"

"He just is."

The small group of three lapsed into a bored silence, then. No one complained- after all, for an ANBU mission, this was a piece of cake. Sparrow was the only one in any kind of danger right now, and that was only if he greatly fucked up and led the group to believe he wasn't really a missing nin. The files didn't indicate any particularly sadistic or paranoid members of the missing nin encampment, so it was likely that Sparrow was safe.

Sure enough, the next two days passed in relative silence and ease. They discarded their masks and reverted to their real names out of simple convenience, polishing and sharpening kunai or drawing aimlessly in the dirt. Gai and Tenzou mostly slept, and Kakashi, having three days leave before this, kept watch. It was during one of those times when two thirds of the team was catching up on extra sleep when a dark sparrow began to circle overhead, a tiny scroll wrapped around its leg. Kakashi sent a glance skyward and immediately pushed his mask back over his face, reaching out to wake his teammates.

"Turtle, Cat," Hound warned, sitting up straight. "Message from Sparrow."

The use of their ANBU codenames, more than anything else, woke Cat and Turtle, jerking them out of a fitful slumber into tense postures of awareness. The bird descended in a steep dive towards them, landing right on Hound's outstretched arm with a soft caw. He made quick work of the bindings and freed the note, and his two subordinates appeared behind him to read over his shoulder. It was written in an old, cryptic ANBU code that they were all fluent in that took only a few quick seconds to decode.

Infiltration successful. Been welcomed into group. Met Taiyo; doubtful that he suspects anything. Not been assigned anything yet. Safe for you to return home and leave me with handler. -Sparrow

Short and to the point. Concise in a way that only an ANBU operative could be.

"Right," Hound remarked quietly. "Mission success. I've been thinking; Turtle, you can move the fastest, so you serve as his handler. Cat and I will return to the village so you two can handle this however you see fit Don't attack unless you get word from me- or if they attack you first."

Turtle nodded, and with a flick of Hound's hand the Blue Beast of Konoha was left standing alone in the clearing, not even a leaf rustling from the ANBUs' departure.

The journey home was just as boring as the journey to. Hound wasn't quite as talkative as Kakashi, who wasn't very talkative in the first place, and Cat didn't care enough to try and start a conversation. Nothing meaningful passed between them but who would take the next watch at night until, finally, the pair returned to Konoha, a bit dirty but whole- and then Cat turned to Hound and spoke.

"I can report, if you want to go visit your interesting sensei…"

Hound frowned. "Why? He's just my fix. Did we do anything on this mission that would require him to fix me?"

"…You found him interesting, didn't you? Doesn't that mean-"

"I find Orochimaru interesting; doesn't mean I'm going to go anywhere near him unless I have to."

Cat blinked as the pair finally entered the gates to Konoha, then just shook his head at Hound's characteristically ludicrous attitude. "Sometimes, I just don't understand you, Senpai. You go file the report, then; I'm going home."

"Have fun."

Cat waved him off as they separated, the Mokuton user vanishing down the street while Hound continued on his path towards the Hokage tower. It was only when his kohai was long gone that he sent a glance over his shoulder, at the Academy, and smiled beneath his mask. It was midday. Classes were in session. His sensei would be there.

He didn't stop and retreat to see Iruka; it was enough just letting the thought of the sensei cross his mind.

For now.

Hound's peace of mind only lasted as far as the Hokage tower, however; the moment he was inside, it was stolen by the short ANBU who accosted him the very second he saw him. "Hound-sama!" the little thing cried, and he resisted the urge to groan, at both the suffix and what this probably meant. "Hound-sama, the commander has an emergency mission for you and your team!"

He scowled. "Pick somebody else. Half my team is still in the field-"

"No, it's a two-man mission- you have to hurry! Lion-sama said it was critical that you depart as soon as possible!"

This time, Hound didn't bother holding back a loud groan. No Iruka spying for Kakashi, huh? No nice food, no sleeping in an actual bed- nope, wasn't even given five minutes in between missions anymore. What happened to common courtesy?

"Fine," he eventually said reluctantly, resigning himself to another mission. "Where is the commander? His office?"

"Yes, Hound-sama!"

Okay, enough of that. "My name," Hound said carefully, "is Hound. Not Hound-sama. I'm not a god. Now go find Cat and tell him to get his ass back here. He should be at his apartment."

"Y-yes Hound-sa… Hound."

"Good."

ANBU emergency missions were not boring scouting missions. ANBU emergency missions were always S-rank, always dangerous, and always involved killing. Whether is the ANBU doing the killing or the ANBU being killed… that depended on often little more than luck.

This time, it was the ANBU doing the killing and being killed. Almost, anyway.

Hound bounded through the trees, limbs shaking with exhaustion and armor literally dripping with scarlet blood. His teammate's limp form was draped across his back, head pillowed on his shoulder, his blood falling onto his uniform and his wheezy breaths sounding in his ear. The solider pill's effect's coursed through his body, giving him the strength to move, to put one foot in front of the other.

The men who had done this to Cat were dead. One had been stabbed through the skull with a bolt of lightening, another had been burned alive, and still another's heart was splattered across Hound's half-gloved hand. Their first mistake had been kidnapping the daughter of the feudal lord of Fire Country. Their second mistake had been hurting Hound's teammate.

"Hang on, Cat," he whispered, tightening the hand that grasped the Mokuton user's wrist. "We're in Konoha. Be at the hospital soon."

Cat was out cold, and Hound swallowed at how cold his skins as to the touch. This wasn't good.

Stupid, stupid. I saw what the enemy was doing. I could've created a clone to protect him. I could've just fought my enemy and had my clone shield him. Why didn't I think of that during the fight? Why didn't I move fast enough?!

Cat shivered, and Hound gripped his hand tighter. He jumped faster over the roofs, pushing his exhausted body further past limits he had crossed long ago. Thunder boomed ominously overhead, and rain began to fall. Droplets leaked through the cracks in his ANBU mask, mixing with the blood on his face and soaking through his cloth mask.

Hound dropped into the entrance to the hospital, armored boots squelching against the floor as he ran forward, panting from the exertion. He pulled Cat off his back and into his arms, and the sight of two bleeding ANBU was enough to get two doctors and six nurses sprinting to his side in ten seconds. "Hit by a wind jutsu," he gasped to no one in particular, staring down at his kohai as the man was dropped onto a hospital gurney. "Injury happened approximately four and a half hours ago. His name is Tenzou."

"We've got it from here, ANBU-san," one of the doctors said while the other began attending to Cat immediately. "Are you injured?"

Hound just shook his head. One pushy nurse reached out, presumably to test his answer, but he moved out of the way and was halfway to the door before she completed the gesture.

He could smell calm from here. Lingering among the stifling scents of blood and sweat was calm, an easy, soothing smell that pulled him away from Cat's side, because seeing Cat like this hurt. It physically hurt and the sight of him falling, core ripped through by nothing more than a hardened blow of air, dark blood spraying forward replayed in his Sharingan over and over, and Hound wanted nothing more than to gouge the eye out of his head and never see anything again.

But he could smell peace and images, unbidden, of tan scars and brown ponytails rose to his mind, papers to grade and chocolate chip cookies. His limbs shook and protested when he began to run again, but his Sharingan calmed down when it realized that Hound's work wasn't done yet, that he was on another mission- even if it was of a much more personal nature.

It was pouring now, buckets of rain dumping onto his head that he paid no heed to. Hound jumped up to the rooftops and ran, moving straight for the home he could only hope was inhabited at the present. If his fix wasn't there, then he didn't want to know what would happen.

Thank god, the lights were on, and when Hound got closer he could see Iruka inside. Heaving a mighty sigh of relief, Hound sprinted forward and leaped down to rest in the tree, clasping one hand over his violently spiraling Sharingan so he could just see Iruka without fighting the memories his eye wanted to see.

Iruka was just sitting there, grading papers and occasionally eating the ramen before him. The pen he was using was red, a bright, vibrant red like Cat's blood, and Hound half expected it to burst and splatter the whole room in scarlet every time it made contact with the paper. Hound shook his head violently and focused in on the faint rise and fall of Iruka's chest, matching his own to it, forcing his breaths to grow longer and more even. In and out, in and out, just like Iruka.

Hound felt the soldier pill's effects began to fade and a cold emptiness filled him, arms suddenly aching at the effort of holding himself in the tree, neck suddenly straining from the weight of his head, breaths turning into wheezes as his body tried to run on energy he didn't have. But he didn't care; his fix was here and that was all he cared about.

Iruka eventually stretched and stood, setting aside that red, red pen and straightening the stack of papers. Hound watched as the papers were slid into the satchel and inhaled deeply. There was that smell. Pure, blissful peace. It was worth it. Right. It was worth it. Everything he did was to keep these people safe and alive and happy, and it was working, and some day he would die and this would all be over. Right now, all that mattered was that what he was doing was worth it. He and Cat weren't worthless, Cat's sacrifice meant something, if Cat died right now then he still would've died for a purpose and even if it would just shatter Hound all over again, what they were doing still had a purpose. It was still needed. They were still needed.

This conviction, the remembrance of this belief, it was all he needed. It kept him calm as Iruka headed back to his bedroom, changing his uniform shirt out for an oversized Academy sweatshirt and removing his pants in favor for just his boxers. Hound leaned forward, straining to watch until Iruka was well and truly out of his sight.

When his sapped strength well and truly vanished and Hound collapsed, falling the remaining seven feet to the ground, it was with a smile. A smile hidden by two masks and in a mouth filled with blood, but it was a smile nonetheless. It remained plastered all over his face even when he passed out.