Disclaimer: While the idea of MABU is mine, the characters are not my creation as much as I wish they were. I do not own Naruto
Time Line / Spoilers: This takes place during the time skip and contains spoilers for events pre time skip as well as a few just slightly post time skip. If the MABU universe does diverge from cannon (Manga) possibility, I will make note of it when it happens.
Warnings: Language, Violence, Sexual situations, Sex of a probably Hentai and Yaoi nature. Same basic warnings as Water Runs Red.
Beta by: HGirl69
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Sand Stained Red – Chapter 5
Three days earlier in Konohagakure:
Hatake Kakashi awoke from a deep sleep. There were few places where an elite shinobi could sleep and feel safe, and for him, all of them involved being in his husband's arms. He may have been naked, but he was far from unarmed. Kunai were in strategic places all within arm's reach. Senbon were stashed as well-- those were his husband's weapon of choice.
He had gone from sound asleep to wide-awake, but nothing changed on his outward appearance. However, as soon as he recognized the chakra flare outside that had woken him, he began to sit up. It was familiar and non-hostile. The only reason for someone to be announcing their presence like that at this time of night meant that there was an ANBU mission for him.
What he did not expect was that his husband was also suddenly sitting up. Without an ounce of modesty, not that Kakashi thought his husband had anything to be modest about, Hatake-Umino Iruka slid out of bed and walked naked over to the window to disarm the traps and open it. This was unusual. Normally, Kakashi would leave on an ANBU mission with Iruka doing little more than getting a few last kisses and a whispered 'I love you'. When Kakashi saw Iruka rub the Kanji Tattoo on his back shoulder, that was when he realized -- this was not an ANBU mission.
Hagane Kotetsu slipped in through the open window. The man was wearing his Chuunin uniform as he landed on the floor next to the very naked Iruka. With a nod to both of them, he frowned. "The three of us are to meet in Ibiki's office, ASAP."
Without pausing to think, Iruka started getting dressed into his jônin uniform. With a quick toss, Kakashi's clothes were thrown to him and he started getting dressed as well. Kotetsu was one of Iruka's closest friends. The two had been on the same genin team, and had been MABU together for years, undercover agents working directly for the Torture and Interrogation head.
Iruka noticed the worried look on Kotetsu's face. Throwing on his shirt, he walked over to the spiky haired man, "I'm sure it's all right. No one else is missing that could have been found in Wind country. It has to be him." With a squeeze of his hand on the chuunin's shoulder, Iruka tried to reassure him, but knew it was impossible. Kotetsu's lover, Izumo, had been on an A-rank mission on the border of Rain and Grass when they lost contact with him over a month ago.
Kakashi didn't ask why he was being asked to meet with Ibiki; he knew whatever was going on had to be big for this meeting to be called. The three crossed the rooftops of Konoha in the sharp light of the full moon. Those shinobi and ANBU watching the town occasionally faded into view and then disappeared back into shadows as the three ran towards Ibiki's office. The apartment that Kakashi and Iruka had obtained after their marriage was located a good distance from the administrative area, somewhere more peaceful where both men could relax. It was hell for 3AM mission summons though.
The stress eating away at Kotetsu was obvious as the three landed in front of the building marked Torture and Interrogation. Confidently, they strode through the front door. The ANBU guard not even looking at the three – they were expected. They quickly made their way past unmarked doors and secured corridors to the office of the head of the T&I unit. Morino Ibiki was in his office with a large map spread over his desk, and a scroll written in blood spread out over that. What was not expected was the presence of the Hokage.
Kotetsu breathed in quickly as he advanced to the table with the map and the scroll. Kakashi and Iruka were right behind him. Without a word being said, Kotetsu was looking at the scroll, "That is from Izumo."
Tsunade reached out a hand to touch the chuunin's shoulder. "He's safe. Relax. One of the patrols from Sunagakure found him and he is safe in their hospital." The Hokage kept a firm grip on his shoulder as the other two looked down at the scroll. All of them had seen plenty of Izumo's normal penmanship to know how horribly rushed this scroll was.
Ibiki started to gesture to the map, explaining what was in the scroll. As expected, Izumo had written it in code; even though it had been sealed with a strong jutsu that would have destroyed the contents if anyone had tampered with it. The essentials were quickly explained. Izumo had been sent to check out rumors of activity of rock ninja in the land of grass. What he had uncovered was an alliance between Rock and Sound operating in Rain and Grass in order to obtain the power of a Bijuu for Orochimaru. The forces seemed to be working through two towns, one in Rain and One in Grass. It also appeared that sound has spies working in both Konoha and Suna.
Tsunade took over the explanation, "I will dispatch a scroll back to Izumo instructing him to inform the Kazekage of the danger that he is in. In addition, I told him to do his best to set up a joint Sand and Leaf force to investigate the village closest to Sunagakure. The three of you are the force I am sending to the second village to find out what we can. I believe Izumo can work with what resources he has. The mission will start in 10 days. That should give Izumo enough time to recover and for his powers to approach peak, and for your team to get in position. I will be sending a medic-nin with you as well. When you get to Suna I want one of our own to verify his condition as well as your team will need a medic on this mission."
The meeting fell into details then and eventually the scroll was written that would explain the decisions to Izumo. One of Kakashi's dogs was summoned and given the important task of delivering it to Izumo in Suna. Logistics were worked out. Izumo had team Gai to work with and the other team would be Kotetsu, Iruka and Kakashi. Tsunade was also going to add a medic nin of her choosing to their team. The three men were to meet in her office later that morning.
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Haruno Sakura walked into her sensei's office. She had been studying medicine under the new Hokage for nearly two years as well as learning the chakra control and ability to maximize her strength. She was still a genin, but she was hopeful that this meeting had to do with the upcoming chuunin testing in Suna in two months. "Tsunade-sama, you wanted to see me?"
Looking around the room, she was surprised to see two of her former teachers in the room. Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei were near the window. The only other person in the room was one of the Hokage's assistants, Kotetsu. Not sure as to why she had been called to the office considering who else was here, she attempted to look as serious and capable as possible.
Iruka straightened up as the pink haired girl walked in. Granted, she was fifteen now and not the little girl he had taught but there was no way Tsunade could be serious about sending the girl on the mission with them. He turned to Tsunade, "Why is Sakura-chan here?" He had been her teacher when she was still a boy crazy pre-teen, he felt justified in the use of the 'chan' suffix.
Tsunade looked over at the three obviously uncomfortable male shinobi. "Sakura is going with you three." She stated it as if there was nothing left to discuss and motioned the girl over towards the desk. As Sakura crossed the room, the Hokage continued. "She will be entering the Suna chuunin exams with Ten-Ten and Lee as the other members of a put together team."
Kakashi cleared his throat, "Perhaps it would be better if—"
Sakura cut off her old teacher, "Kakashi-sensei, with all due respect I am ready to enter the chuunin test." She looked at her two former sensei, both of whom looked like they did not want her to be going.
Iruka shook his head, "Sakura-chan, it isn't that. It is just—"
Tsunade slammed her fist onto the desk. "Iruka-kun." The man froze, when she started calling him 'kun' there was no hope of winning an argument. "I am not sending you on this mission without a medic with you, and Kotetsu, you are not to take any unnecessary risks. Kakashi, you are appointed in charge. This is officially a joint ANBU and MABU mission. You leave in the morning. The team is final." She stood up and walked to the window. "After the conclusion of the initial stage of the mission, you will meet up with the other half of the team in Sunagakure. Official reasons will be Iruka and Kotetsu are helping with the administrative aspects of the Chuunin exam, and Kakashi is accompanying his genin student since she will be taking the test."
When there was no more disagreement since she made it official, Tsunade continued. "Sakura is a capable medical ninja. She may have the rank of genin, but I can assure you that will not be the case after the next chuunin testing. She has been personally taught by myself and will be able to back up the three of you. However, she is to remain back-up. If I even hear rumor of her going in undercover, it would be best if the three of you went missing and I never found you." The threat was clear in her voice.
"Hokage-sama." Iruka kneeled down on one knee fingers flexed on the ground, this was his Hokage in serious mode and he reacted by showing the proper respect as expected from the ranking member of MABU. "How much are we allowed to tell her?"
Sakura stepped back; she had not expected this at all. Suddenly, cheerful good-natured Iruka was kneeling as if he were a masked ANBU getting his permission to depart. Tsunade nodded, evidently pleased with how her orders were being taken. "She'll discover it all anyway on this mission. She will be your unit's medical backup after this is over though, so I leave it to your discretion… Faith." The implications of using his MABU code name made everything clear. It was the same as if she had dismissed an ANBU by their mask name. He bowed his head and then stood. With a nod, she dismissed all four of them.
As a group, the four shinobi left, Iruka carefully guiding the confused girl from the office. In a flash of chakra smoke, Kotetsu and Kakashi disappeared, leaving her with only this strangely serious Iruka. He led her from the building and into the building that housed ANBU and the Torture and Interrogation offices. He girl looked around, she had rarely been here, and never past the front areas. Masked ANBU and jônin walked back and forth, serious as possible in this place. No one ever seemed to talk unnecessarily in the building.
Iruka led her down halls, not giving a glance at anyone else, until they reach a relatively unused corridor. She had not seen anyone not in an ANBU mask for several minutes. He opened a door and led her into the room with a hand on her shoulder. "Sakura, everything you see from here on in is classified. You don't have the rank to be seeing this; however, Tsunade-sama has chosen to make an exception."
She looked at him as they walked down the empty hallway, "I won't tell anyone, sensei." This version of Iruka was making her nervous. He was much too quiet and unlike the loud, passionate man who had taught her class. They reached a room at the end of the corridor and he opened the door, leading her into what appeared to be a cross between a waiting room, a doctor's examination room, and a locker room.
Once late at night, she had been training through some chakra control exercises with Tsunade-sensei and an ANBU party had come back badly injured. This almost reminded her of the room Tsunade had brought her to as she assisted the Hokage in saving the lives of the mangled operatives. As she glanced across the medical area, she noticed the lack of most medical supplies and the state of disuse of the remaining equipment, "What is this place?"
Iruka opened up a locker and handed her a hair tie, "Here, we won't want your hair showing. You do not want any sort of a stigma to be attached to you by being seen." She wordlessly collected her pink tresses back into a ponytail as he took his own ponytail out. It made sense. She was recognizable for her pink locks and he for his ever-present ponytail.
Once her hair was up, he handed her a black, full-length cloak and ANBU style black gloves. "You are of course familiar with ANBU; this is the ready room for a similar organization called MABU. I doubt you have heard of it, not many below the rank of jônin know that we exist." His use of the pronoun 'we' did not go unnoticed. He pulled on his own black gloves and full-length cloak. The only thing visible on him now was his face and a few dark tresses that escaped the hood of the cloak.
He tossed a blank white mask to her with the Kana characters 'Ma' and 'Bu' written on it. With a sigh, he gestured for her to follow him; he slipped his own much more worn mask over his face as he led her through the halls and through an intricate maze of corridors. As they approached people, ANBU quickly put masks in place, but even with faces hidden by porcelain, Sakura couldn't loose the impression they were watching the two figures. Conversations stopped as the two walked through the halls and whispered conversations started up in their wake.
The only exception to this was when they reached a room at the end of a corridor and walked in. There were three ANBU in the room, and while two of them acted the same, the taller one in a Falcon mask nodded to Iruka, "MABU-san." As he said it, he stepped away from the window that Iruka was heading towards.
Iruka nodded behind his mask, "Falcon-san" These were the first words he had spoken since leaving the ready room. They slipped out the window. He led her across the maze of often-traveled rooftops. Any shinobi they saw either looked in confusion or avoided them. The reason for her hiding her identity so fully was becoming incredibly apparent.
They came to rest near the memorial stone and Iruka walked towards it, placing a gloved hand on the smooth black surface. It was then he explained, "MABU operates in the shadows that ANBU will not tread. You have had kunoichi training, but we have much more training than that. MABU is the Mayakashi Senjutsu Tokushu Butai and as the name indicates, we use deception in all its forms in order to protect Konoha. The extent we are willing to go to will become apparent during the course of this mission. I must ask you to remember that what we do is for the village and to keep her citizens safe."
He turned to face her. "I know this is going to destroy the impression you have of me, but it can't be helped. This is going to be a very horrible mission and we will need a medic to patch us back together so that we can continue on." He started to walk back towards the direction they had arrived from, "I know this is not placing you in an easy position, and I am sorry for that. If you must address me while I am in this uniform, please refer to me as Faith or MABU-san. Secrecy is often the only thing keeping us alive." With that, he took off through the trees; leading her back to the same window they had left a short time ago.
Removing the cloaks and masks, they left the building. She had been given directions as to what to pack and what time to meet the rest of the team at the main gates. She was not sure about this. When she had entered the Hokage's office, she had thought this was going to be her chance to prove herself and take the chuunin exam again. She was getting her chance; she just did not know it was going to come with all of this extra responsibility and knowledge.
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When Iruka finally walked into his apartment, Kotetsu was sitting on the couch and Kakashi was in the kitchen making tea. He walked over to the spiky haired chuunin, "Least we know Izumo is all right." He put a hand on the other man's shoulder. In the three months Izumo had been on the mission, he had gotten all the details about the fight the two men had had before the mission. He knew Kotetsu blamed himself, and in Iruka's opinion, the blame was not misplaced. However, the chuunin was eating himself up about the indiscretion so badly that Iruka felt to say anything would be cruel.
He sat down next to Kotetsu, "We'll be in Suna within the month. A two to three week information gathering mission and then off to Suna and you'll get to talk to him." Iruka looked up as Kakashi walked in with a small tray with three teacups on it. Picking up one of the teacups, Iruka added, "When we get to Suna, I will make sure the two of you have some privacy to talk."
Kotetsu picked up a cup and starred into it before taking a sip, "What if he doesn't want to talk to me, I know I wouldn't want to talk to me. I just …" The chuunin shook his head, "Iruka, you wouldn't understand. When Izumo and I are on missions, he is almost always the one undercover with me being the one running the monitoring. That's hell."
Kakashi held up a hand, "'Ruka, why don't you get ready for bed, I'll handle this." Before Iruka could protest, Kakashi looked at him as if to ask for his love to trust him. With a nod, Iruka stood, "Of course. We have to leave early in the morning." With a last glance to the two other men, he walked into the bathroom to grab a shower. Even just wearing the MABU mask made him feel like he needed to wash something off of him.
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Kakashi turned to Kotetsu. "Look. What you did was wrong. You cheated on Izumo." Cutting short any protest from the chuunin, Kakashi continued. "At the same time, I understand how hard it is to listen to them work. I hate being teamed with Iruka, but I do it because I know he needs me and I would rather it be me covering his back than anyone else."
"Kakashi, how can you handle it? Hearing him have sex with another person and then making those same noises when he's in bed with you?" The chuunin's eyes were narrowed as he glared at the silver-haired jônin. "Why is that perfectly fine but I have one little fling while drunk, suddenly he's leaving me."
Kakashi frowned, "It's the same as if I walked into the village and killed someone. When it is the job, it is one thing. If you can't understand that, than maybe Izumo was right to leave."
Kotetsu's eyes widened as if he had been struck. Without a word, he stood up and walked out of the apartment, slamming the door on his way out. Kakashi stood and walked into his bedroom. He could only hope the chuunin was going to think over what he had said. This mission was going to be much too dangerous to have the other man distracted through it.
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Thank you for reading. As always, I would appreciate if you took a moment to write a review.
