Enough of This

Chapter Four: Of Teahouses and Stray Cats

"He's so...stiff!"

Hatsumi Suzuki, the elder sister of Akari Suzuki, turned from the fish she was frying to gaze at her younger sister. She arched a brow at her smiling slightly. "Can you blame him? After all to live without any relief for two, nearly three, years is a lot for anyone to take."

Akari, who was pacing about the kitchen angrily, nodded. "Exactly, without relief--" She cut herself off, an almost comical look crossing her face. "Relief! What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Hatsumi laughed, turning the burner of her stove off and moving the fish to the side, then turing about to face her pacing sister, a look of amusement on her face. "Well, after a certain amount of time, a man will feel a build up of his natural hormones resulting in an erec--"

"Urusai!"

Hatsumi laughed. "Take my advice, Akari. Go have fun tonight. Get over you prudish feelings, maybe get a little drunk. Mess around. And go sleep with Morino Ibiki."

"He's my boss." Akari finally stopped pacing and dropped into a kitchen chair with a sigh.

"He's hot for you."

Akari barked out a sharp laugh. "God, Hatsumi. You're so eloquent." She shook her head, crossing and uncrossing her legs. "Besides he's not going to be there. He's too high class for that."

Hatsumi raised her eyebrows. "High class? He's not some squeaky clean, by-the-book anbu cell leader, Akari. He's the leader of T&I, a sadist. He's made no attempt to staunch the rumors about him and his likes and dislikes."

Making a face Akari answered her sister, "I didn't mean that type of high class. I meant he would never be so obvious about his personal life." Her sisters words from minutes before sank in fully, causing her to miss the knowing look the older kunoichi sent her. "Wait-- You mean he hasn't slept with anyone for three years? No one?"

"So far as the rumors say. If he has, it hasn't got out."

Akari's sister Hatsumi was a medic nin who worked at Konoha Hospital, and everyone knew the nurses there were notorious gossips. Hatusmi was probably the worst gossip of them all. She knew something of over half the ninja's that worked openly, a quite a bit about a few known members of anbu. If she said that no one knew if Ibiki had slept with anyone, no one did know.

"Anyway, Kotetsu isn't bad himself. He's cute and he's supposed to be well--proportioned. And none of your other co-workers are a complete waste."

Akari snorted at this. Most of her colleagues were rowdy young men, loyal to their village, but with only two things in their heads- sex and missions. "I don't even really want to go."

Hatsumi walked over and set herself down across form her sister. Reaching and taking hold of one of Akari's hands she spoke. "I'm not saying that you have to go Matsumoto's and sleep with Ibiki. I'm saying that you can. And if you're too shy to make the first move, Matsumoto's is a great place to make him jealous."

Frowning, the younger Suzuki sister looked up at the elder and asked "Jealous?"

Matsumoto's teahouse was packed when Akari arrived. She was dressed simply in a dark blue yukata, the sleeves tied back to reveal to tattoos that adorned her upper arms. The tattoos were a fairly new addition to Akari's physiology. Ibiki didn't know about them yet. The kunoichi wore her long, dark brown hair free, having left her hitai-ite(??) back at her sister's place. She wore black staw sandles and a scarlet sash around her waist.

She was also ifinitly uncomfortable. The air inside the infamous teahouse was smoky and ill-lit. The strong smell of tobacco and alcohol and sweat was swamping. Akari's smokey grey eyes scanned the room seeking out her male chuunin counter parts. She saw them and fixed a smile, an unfelt smile, on her face, as she sauntered over to them. This was going to be a long, long night.

Iruka was walking home, an armful of reports in one arm, a bucket of practice shuriken in the other. The reports needed to be graded and the shiriken sharpened. His apartment was close enough to the acadamy for him to walk to and from work with ease, but it was also close enough to Matsumoto's Teahouse to be a bother. The rowdy shinobi hangout was as loud and crowded as it ever was, but tonight it held something more. A slightly familiar face wearing a dark yukata entering the establishment, as well as a flash of silvery hair in the alley behind the teahouse.

Hatake Kakashi.

Iruka made sure the older nin say him before he moved on. It would do the arrogant jonin some good to know that not everyone would hang onto the awe of being in his presence. The chunin could have sworn the Copy Ninja smiled.

It was just a few short minutes till Iruka reached his apartment, and he realized that the figure in the dark yukata was the kunoichi from this morning.

"Damn," he swore softly as he manuvered his keys into his hands and to then to the locked door. The lock clicked and Iruka reached down to turn the handle when a metal-backed glove came into his field of vission and locked onto the door handle in front of him.

"You know," a drawling voice said close to his ear, "most men would take that little attitude of yours as a challenge. Or an invitation."

The sound of crashing metal and fluttering paper echoed in the hallway outside Iruka's apartment as the teacher dropped his load in the shock of being so completely taken by surprise. Slowly he turned his head and found to jonin's face a bare inch away from his own. Kakashi Hatake usually wore a bored and relaxed expression, but now there was nothing even remotle relaxed or bored on the older man's face.

"May I help you, Hatake-san?"

Kakashi leaned out and moved his hand from the door knob. "Depends. What was it? Invitation or Challenge? Or maybe both?"

Kakashi leaned back in, crowding the teacher and letting him know that he was slightly bigger than Iruka, and also stronger. But there was something else to the motion. Something...primative.

"Whatever offer you are making, I fear I must decline," Iruka said, as he stepped away from Kakashi and bent down to scoop up his reports and shuriken.

Kakashi stepped closer, following Irika's retreat. "You still haven't answered me, Umino."

The chunin paused in his actions and titlted his head up to gaze up the jonin's body and to his face as a thought occured to him. "Who is that girl? The one in the yukata?"

"Why do you want to know?" Kakashi stepped back and reached behind him...

"Mrrrr-ooooww!"

Iruka jerked his gaze to the pregnant tabby as she appeared at the end of the hall. Kakashi had also stopped his movements to look at the cat. The tension of the previous moment melted away. Iruka looked back at Kakashi. His face was still anything but relaxed, but some of the intensity was gone.

"Stray cat..."

"She's hungry." Iruka supplied.

Kakashi nodded and slowly turned aboot, opening the door to Iruka's apartment, then turned back to look at Iruka. The darkness of the room behind framing the Copy Ninja perfectly, a stark contrast to the silvery liht of Kakashi's hair. Settling a very penetrating gaze on Iruka, Kakashi stepped into his apartment.

"Are you coming?" Kakashi's voice floated out the door.

Iruka scrambled at the reports and shuriken, and dashed inside.

A/N: My God, it's been a long time hasn't it? Hmmm, anyway tell me what you think. I have the next chapter planned out, now all I have to do is get over my squeemishness and actually write a sex scene...maybe. I don't know.