During the course of the get together, a few notice a few things. Whenever Iruka looked at Kakashi, a flash of hurt passed through his eyes before the chuunin looked away again. Every time that that happened, a few wondered how they'd never noticed that before. How that could have possibly slipped by unnoticed for who knew how long.
As soon as Iruka left, stating that he had had a long day and needed to get some rest, the jounin of the group turned to Kakashi.
The two chuunin that were left after Iruka had departed, also turned to Kakashi, though they were a little lost as to why.
The man looked around, seemingly surprised about the attention directed towards him.
"Kakashi." Asuma started, catching the other's attention immediately. "Why has Iruka been avoiding you? And why have you been avoiding him?"
"Maa, I don't know what you're talking about..." Kakashi hedged, clearing his throat.
"Bullshit!" Genma called, earning a few looks from the other customers. "Stop lying and just tell us!"
Kakashi looked at the group around him, before sinking into his seat slightly, knowing that he wasn't going to get out of the current situation.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"You wanted to see me, Lady Tsunade?" Iruka pushed the door closed behind him, and walked over to stand a few feet from the desk.
He'd just barely been leaving the barbecue restaurant when a hawk had flown down to him with a message to head straight to the Hokage Tower asap. That only happened during emergencies, never before had Iruka had one of those.
In a way, Iruka was thankful for the distraction. Being in Kakashi's company, being so close to him... It brought back memories, but it also brought pain. Pain that he didn't need.
It had been months, shouldn't have he gotten over it already? Apparently he wasn't so lucky.
The blond Hokage looked worried, and Iruka suddenly had the feeling that he would be leaving sooner than expected.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The woods were brightly lit, and the hidden shinobi could see dozens of what looked like bandits roaming the forest. The camp had been difficult to find, had taken longer than Iruka had wanted. The little bit of information that they'd managed to gather had been wrong. Every single bit of it. That alone lead Iruka to believe that these men and women were more than just regular bandits. They were the one's that Iruka had been sent to get information on.
A snap of a twig somewhere in the distance, and Iruka packed his chakra a little more tightly, making it smaller. Carefully, he peered over, eyes flickering from one area to the other.
Whoever it was, headed away from Iruka's immediate area. Once the danger of discovery lessoned, Iruka made his way carefully to the edge of the camp, making sure to keep his chakra hidden. If he was right, some of the bandits weren't just that.
For the moment, the level of activity over the whole place was sparse. From what Iruka could sense, there was chakra signatures closer to the middle of the camp than the edges of it. Those at the edge were spread out, and into the forest as well.
Iruka frowned, he needed to get into the center of the camp. That was where the information he needed was kept. Lady Tsunade had said that they'd been getting reports of a a small number of missing-nin planning an attack. What they weren't sure about was who they would be attacking.
Konoha couldn't risk sending more than one person. Iruka was one of the few shinobi that was excellent at infiltration. That he could completely cloak his chakra signature helped immensely. He could always make it smaller, or make it disappear completely in areas where there wasn't supposed to be any chakra signatures. That was harder then pretending to be a small animal or a civilian, so Iruka didn't do that as much.
Iruka remembered the day that his jounin sensei had noticed his skills. He'd been at the training grounds with his team, they'd been tasked with locating, and capturing their sensei as a test to assess how far they'd come from their first day as genin.
His team mates, Kotetsu and Izumo had stated that they would be a distraction once they found the sensei. Iruka had been tasked with trapping their sensei when he was occupied with the other two.
Iruka had apparently surprised his sensei, and that was when Iruka had gotten extra training in Infiltration and Sabotage.
He'd done well those first few years, but then Iruka had gotten a taste for teaching. Iruka found that he enjoyed it. He loved training each new set of students ways to protect and fight for those they loved. For their precious people. For Konoha.
Sometimes, the children weren't meant for the life of a shinobi, and Iruka showed them that and lead them to a different path. One that would fit better with who they were and wanted to be.
Iruka pulled himself out of his throats as an alarm sounded somewhere on the other side of the compound. That was his cue, he hadn't even noticed how much time had passed already. Henging into one of the scouts, Iruka dropped down from the tree tops as soon as most of the bandit left towards the disturbance.
Carefully, Iruka made his way through the tents. He needed to find information and he needed to find it fast.
If he didn't, Iruka would need to pretend to want to join up. Getting information that way would take longer. It the rumors were correct, Iruka didn't have much time at all.
A/N: Sorry it's so short! I had writer's block and I thought writing a short chapter would help jump start my mind. Next chapter should be longer and will be the last one. Thank you for the reviews: Alublad and Lala Em! Sorry its so short and took a while!