Day 10: Matters of importance and problematic preferences
The rain had finally stopped, and the chill morning air gathered its children to slip and slide over the still wet and dripping roof tiles on the houses of Konoha. Amidst their play, the tiny ghosts greeted the light which was tinted with silver and gave them a promise of a partially sunny day in the beginning of a warm summertime on it's passing way over the serene landscape. The difference in the temperature between the day and the past night had created a snake of fog that circled and flowed silently down the deserted streets in its slumbering grace while the peaceful silence held its breath as it suddenly heard the first sounds of awakening arising from a light gray house as it was floating by.
True to his pedantic nature, Umino Iruka had distinct preferences when it came to waking up in the mornings.
Waking up to sunlight was always the most preferred choice. If it happened during a day off, all the better.
Waking up to an alarm wasn't too bad, either. What awaited after the beep was to be dealt with only after the first cup of tea for that day, and nothing could make him discard that little heaven of his before hitting the usually very hectic and tiring day. Not even ANBU.
Waking up to a combination of an infernal hangover and vivid Naruto was never nice, but he lived.
Waking up to an unnervingly deep silence that had taken over the household he was currently forced to share with an ex-ANBU captain was never even an option on his mental list of mundane morning scenarios, and when his bleary eyes spotted the other's empty bed, his nerves were far from being sleep-induced and lax. They had called it a night shortly after the uncomfortable incident with the oddly behaving ANBU operative, and Iruka was grateful for that small morsel of mercy on Kakashi's part. Not that he got any good sleep because of the agitated body of his.
..That ANBU. With a small groan, the tan sensei turned on his back and rubbed his tired eyes before giving a brief glare towards the ceiling, the narrow eyes noticing the line of light that traveled across it. The glare turned into troubled frown, and Iruka let a small, frustrated huff leave his lips. What had the ANBU been thinking? Not much, obviously, at least not with the head the man should have been using the second Iruka had given out the first warning. A tan hand rose to wipe the stray strands of hair from the tan forehead before lowering to cover the pensive eyes, and a more distressed sigh was heard in the silent bedroom.
"Are you, by chance, taken yet...Umino-san...?"
The tan hand found its twin on the chuunin's bare chest and crossed paths with it as the brown-haired head tilted a bit to the side, the dark orbs thoughtful and the full lips drawn into a downcast line.
...How did the ANBU know?
He didn't exactly yell his preferences out in the open, since many parents might be more than just merely narrow-minded on those matters, and he didn't want to put his students through any more trouble than handling a kunai without accidentally disemboweling themselves (or him) was already giving them. Furthermore, he was fairly sure that there was no slot in the record sheets for pointing out the shinobi's sexuality, at least he hadn't spotted any when he had updated their shinobi register with Shizune-san. One couldn't be sure about Tsunade's ways of handling things, though. A small, dry chuckle left his mouth at the thought of poor Shizune-san being sent to gather the intel on Konoha's shinobis' bedroom activities. Genma and others would have put the kunoichi through hell and more if she had ever made the mistake on asking them about that. She had already looked ready to pass out while they had talked about their misbehaving elements with the Hokage. The chuckling mouth fell back into frown on that passing idea.
Could that have given him away?
...Then again, the state he had been in when he was shoved out of the bathroom where the other male of their team was unmistakably showering could have clued even Naruto that perhaps Iruka wasn't one meant for the ladies' entertainment.
If given any better thought, his pheromones could have easily been smelled a mile away at that particular moment.
The tan hands found themselves back on the sun-kissed face, and Iruka took in a deep breath through his nose as he pressed the cool palms against his forehead. He really needed to gather his shit now. He couldn't risk to jeopardize their mission with his intimate problems, at least not with adding any more to the already growing list of things gone awry, starting with his ass of an element. Moreover he had to avoid pulling Kakashi into this mess, although if he didn't know better, one could have thought that the man was more than putting an effort on keeping him on the edge and the things becoming more than bizarre between them.
Namely, what the masked jounin had asked as the compensation for literally saving his ass wasn't exactly keeping things straight on any scale considering their mission.
His karma was apparently having a blast in a gangbang with his sins somewhere.
Then, slowly, the thought of the other man made the chuunin's lips pull themselves into a small, almost rueful smile and the dark eyes gave the ceiling above him a slightly sorrowful look.
...It...had been a while for him...neh.
Then a flicker of shadow caught his attention, and being alerted back to present from his swirling thoughts, the young sensei whipped his head to the side on his pillow to observe the double doors that led to their training room, the wooden barriers between the two rooms being left slightly ajar and therefore permitting the morning light into the otherwise rather dark bedroom. Slowly and carefully, while ignoring the dull pain that became noticeable on his sides, shoulders, upper back and thighs, Iruka peeled the covers off of him and rose to sit on his futon, the cinnamon-colored ears listening intensely to the sounds around him. The rain had stopped during the night, and both the narrow ray of light as well the shushed ambiance that surrounded him indicated it to be rather early still. Approximately six-thirty, if the intensity of the light was anything to go by.
Now what did a jounin with a lethargic reputation do at that hour?
As an afterthought, the dark eyes searched out the pile of the garishly colored perverted books of the silver-haired man, and after comparing the counted quantity with the known figures in his mind, the scarred cheeks lost some of their sunny color as the numbers didn't match.
Ah hell no.
To a man who had been said to have quite a wild imagination, the hypothesis he now faced could have been described more accurately with the words 'downright disturbing and deeply traumatizing for a lesser shinobi'.
The flickering motion happened again, and as the awakened curiosity took the best of the rising hysterics, Iruka silently crept on his knees and then ever so nimbly rose to his feet, the shapely legs carrying the boxer-clad chuunin to the doors without making a sound. As he held his breath, the teacher leaned closer to the gap, the dark eye peering through the narrow slit in order to see what it was that had awoken him from the light sleep he had been enjoying after several hours of tossing and turning on his mattress.
He could only see the spacious training room that bathed in the cold morning light, and not a sound was caught by his ears. A small frown started to form on the tan face, as Iruka was sure that he had sensed there to be someone, and furthermore his eyes rarely played tricks on him. Then his alerted senses spotted it.
A hint of movement traveled through the air.
He didn't see it, but the sound of silent feet landing on the woven mats was clear indication enough. The dark eyes squinted more to catch the movement, and even though somewhere in the back of his head he knew it to be actually more than just silly to spy on one's mission partner, moreover a nin with far more field experience than the sensei could ever gather even if he had worked sixty years after his death, the thrill of witnessing something private concerning Hatake Kakashi was sufficient to root him on the spot.
Even the reminding thought of one missing porn book didn't lessen his desire to peek a bit more, although he could feel his cheeks burn a bit on the possibility of seeing way more and something very different than he had intended.
Then again, if the prick was obnoxious enough to jerk off in their training grounds, he was more than justified to catch the man cum-handed and give him a taste of his knuckles. Their matches were challenging enough without him slipping on something that certainly didn't have its place in their current assignment. At least not in that room and moreover wasted on some mere tatami mats. The passing odd thought made his pulse beat a bit faster and he had to resist the urge to bang his head against the door in order to discard the uninvited idea.
This wasn't the time nor place.
A sudden series of silent steps swishing against the matted floor made the dark eyes focus back to the gap. To his disappointment, he still didn't see enough. Damn. He had to open the gap a bit...but that would risk Kakashi to spot him. The sound of the movement turned into more fluid thumps of feet falling on the floor, and if he strained his hearing a bit, he could pick up the pattern of the controlled breathing from the direction of the rhythmically falling steps. The teacher hesitated between his now raging curiosity and the sense of propriety between colleagues, the former gaining more points with every missed sound made by the pale body behind the wooden doors. Maybe if he could shift to look from the other side of the gap...silent like a falling feather, the sensei shifted his body to the other side and at the same time, ever so subtly, pushed the other door just half and inch more open in order to gain a better view to the room, his interest having turned into outright want to see what the hell the other man was up to while Iruka should have been sleeping. Once more, the dark eye peered through the now more opened gap between the double doors, and Iruka focused his gaze in the other room.
What he saw made his salivation triple.
A thin sheet of sweat glistened on the pale, broad and perfectly sculpted back and shoulders as they twisted and turned while the pale, diligently trained arms punched the air and wove their way through the imaginary opponents. The lean legs and the firm buttocks showed their true shapes in the strong contrast of cold light against the dark fabric as the agile limbs traced their patterns on the floor with deadly ease when one of the most feared jounin's performed what seemed to be his own, modified version of the regular morning exercises designed for Konoha's shinobi. The dark eye was narrow and focused over the dark mask, and Iruka could bet that he saw the hidden lips being parted for breath under the fabric as a sliver of light traveled across the jounin's face. The man before Iruka's wide, staring eyes was a well-built, divinely packed and tightly wrapped package of one fabulously proportioned copy-nin, and Iruka had to bite his lip as he felt his body respond to the visual stimulus he found himself enjoying. The jounin was sheer skill and sexual attraction in one body, which was something the sensei had gotten the questionably chance to confirm when he had had his first admittedly good and literally closer look at the naked bastard during the last night's shower showdown.
In a blink, Iruka had his back pressed against the door, a hand was lifted to his mouth to keep him silent and his lungs worked overtime in order to prevent him from hyperventilating. As the things stood, they had already their hands full with this research without Iruka starting to develop any strange desires towards his arrogant mission partner. That resolve didn't lessen the tightness in his black boxers, though, and the tan jaw tightened as the chuunin grit his teeth together to hold in a rising moan that was stalking its opportunity to crawl out of his throat.
Be careful now, don't let it take over you-
As an opposing argument against his logic, the tan hips pressed more firmly against the wooden door, and the sense of weight settling against his buttocks made him to bite his palm in order to keep silent as the feeling of something solid against his body made his senses burn with a blue flame. With a shaky breath, the chuunin forced his legs to move and stepped away from the enticing hard surface, his head swimming with a mixture of distant memories and suddenly surfacing desires. Only one thing that kept him from striding into the training room and claiming the silver-haired man as his own was the same thought he had had running in his head like a mantra after the ANBU had vanished and he could have felt the intense gaze of the older man on his restless body.
The shinobi is as strong as his will. You have a will of fire. A will of fire, Iruka, with an iron control to boot.
Fire and iron.
Fire and iron.
Unconsciously, the other tan hand rose to rub the spot where he once had had an imprint of a set of teeth, the once healed mark giving a small throb at the memory and thus causing a shudder to travel down the chuunin's spine, while the other hand was removed from the trembling lips and it wiped the now sweating face and throat as Iruka balanced his breathing and willed the burning ache away from his hips with great difficulty.
What he needed was his tea.
Preferably iced.
Iruka took a deep breath through his nose and resisted the urge to rip the gray-colored, small machine into rather large pieces. Who in their right mind invents a machine that extracts the drink in mere tiny drops? The merry concert consisting of dripping, chugging, gurgling and fizzing was driving him insane. After a final glare towards the innocently percolating coffee maker that was clearly enjoying itself more than was written in its manual, the teacher reached for his tea box, and with practiced efficiency the deft fingers searched out the tea he needed and put the right amount of dry leaves into the prepared sieve, the tiny metal net then being fluidly dipped into the perfectly tempered water for a steep.
A strict look was passed towards the chugging machine next to him, and as if sensing the looming danger, the coffee maker went silent. As a result a bright, bit smug chuckle escaped the sun-kissed lips while the tan hands reached for a bunch of apricots. Apparently he still had what it took to silence the troublemakers.
The rhythmical chopping echoed from the kitchen walls as the tiny orange fruits met their deaths in the hands of the well-trained younger nin, the slices of fish and bread already waiting on their own plates on the tray. Being dressed up on his regular black top and slacks and after having tamed the tangled hair into a pointy ponytail, the teacher felt his mood having slightly improved from what it was when he had woken up. The laundry would still need their attention, since they had forgotten to take care of that during the couple of days with more or less...pressing matters at hand. The apricots were dropped from the chopping board on the plate next to the chopped pears and melons, and to his pleasure he had even found some figs from the far corner in one cupboard. The sweet scent of his morning oolong gradually managed to put his mind at ease, and the bright sunlight that teased him from the narrow window next to the backyard's door made his whole being itch on hitting the terrace for sunny breakfast.
All in all, he could happily proclaim to be a content little chuunin with all of the life's priorities put back to their rightful places.
A calm hum escaped the full-lipped mouth as the teacher poured the jounin's coffee in the man's mug and put it on the tray next to his tea. Then, as the tan hands took hold on the heap of a wholesome breakfast, the dark ears listened carefully in search for the other's location.
The man was still in the training room.
The teacher set towards the door leading to the wooden terrace at the backyard and managed to maneuver the door open with his legs and hip. The sunlight hitting his eyes with full force and the scent of fresh air caressing his nose made the small smile widen on his face, since after so many days of rain it was a delight for him to see something else than grayness and wetness in the surrounding scenery. The doors to the training room were left wide open, as it had formed into a habit for them after a while, and the closer he slank on the balls of his feet, the more he could hear the noises of the other man's movements echoing in the spacious the room. The moment he reached the edge of the door, the chuunin took in a calm breath.
"Fire and iron", the encouraging whisper was silently mouthed and Iruka stepped in sight to the opened doors while automatically casting a beaming look inside the room accompanied with the sunniest smile he ever could muster. Naruto did take after his sensei on some matters, after all. "Good morning, Kakashi-san." Despite the steel-hard grip he had on his present demeanor, his voice sounded strange in his own ears, and he was grateful of having his hands occupied and therefore making it more challenging to slap himself. He was not feeling giddy.
"Ah. Good morning, sensei." The second he had heard the sensei's greeting, Kakashi had stopped in the middle of a sharp punch meant to split an opponent's face in half and had turned his head in the other's direction to give a brightly smiling nod on his behalf...
...the sleeveless, dark singlet covering the pale body.
If anyone had as much as even dared to imply that Iruka felt a bit disappointed at the current view he was presented with, they would soon have ended up with ignited gunpowder in uncomfortable places. Although the silver-haired nin didn't seem to pay attention to the slightly fallen smile on the other's face since he had spotted what the tan man was carrying, more precisely the familiar mug with enticing dark liquid in it. "Coffee?"
The question appeared to pull the oddly looking chuunin back to present. "Oh, yes, it is. Though I didn't mean to interrupt you, whatever it was that you were doing, Kakashi-san. Apologies. I'll go to the terrace if you need to finish up." With that the teacher gave a small bow. At least he still had his manners to back him up if everything else failed. The older man turned fully to face him and waved his hand nonchalantly, the mismatched eyes turning into one more smile on the masked face and thus missing the keen glance his bare biceps were given.
"Maa, I was done here anyway, plus I can't let the coffee go to waste, neh? Especially if it's made by you, sensei", the teasing wink he gave to the chuunin made a sly smirk creep on Kakashi's hidden lips as he noticed the slightly wary look creep in the younger man's dark eyes. Thus he couldn't help but give an even more evil smile as he spotted the opportunity to tease the tan man, which was more than justified in his opinion. His ass felt still a bit chilly after the last night's cold shower. "Unless of course you wish to join me. Perhaps I could show you a couple of cool moves I've come up with for using only the lower body."
If not for the wry smile that pulled on the cinnamon-colored lips, Kakashi could have bet to have his ass feeling more than chilled after a beat if the briefly passing, intense glint in the sensei's eyes was any indication.
"Keep your pants on, pervert." With those words the smirking chuunin calmly turned his back to the sweaty jounin and sat down on the terrace, the nimble fingers setting the tray down next to the man and picking up the steaming tea. "If you wish to have breakfast, then I suggest you put that lazy ass into action and dig up our laundry for washing. I'm out of fresh clothes and I'm pretty sure your situation isn't peachy either, if the current reek is anything to go by." The chuunin gave the masked man a sharp, teasing look over his shoulder as an emphasis on the last words.
The sly rise of the silvery eyebrow was not the reaction Iruka had wished for, though. "Do you want to come and scrub me squeaky clean as well in case I forget to wash my hands?"
"It's hard to appreciate clean clothes if one doesn't have the hands to pull them on, Kakashi-san."
Unlike his kohai, Kakashi knew when he was given a valid warning.
"How do you do it?"
"Hmm?" Iruka lifted his eyes from the fish sandwich and turned to give the jounin next to him a wondering look. "Do what?"
"Make the aftertaste so full." The jounin swirled what was already his third cup of coffee and gave the beverage a pensive, almost suspicious look over the dark mask. "One could think that you drink tea just to hold up the appearances. You're full of surprises, sensei."
A snort met the amused pondering, and Kakashi saw the teacher shook his head with a wide grin on his face while the smiling eyes cast a playful look at the jounin's direction. "Well, I've never met a man so diligent in making tea if not for being a teaholic himself, so I guess we're even. One could think that you're trying to seduce me, Kakashi-san." The grin took a turn into more feral one, and for the briefest moment Kakashi found himself wondering if Iruka's canines had always been so sharp.
"Maa, you certainly don't seem like an easy prey should anyone try that, if the incident with Shiranui was any indication." Kakashi chuckled and was pleased at the loud bark of laughter heard from the other's direction, since he had been expecting a fist. "Even the ANBU is sure to remember that from now on." The warm laughter died and for a passing moment, an awkward silence took over the two men on the sunny terrace as soon as the words were said, and Kakashi smothered an annoyed groan at his slip. He had meant to tease the prudish man later with the note, true, but now as he felt the stretching silence gain some weight, yawn and fall in content sleep right between them, he wasn't so sure if that was all there was to it. Then there was also the more interesting question of how the sensei had taken what had happened the previous night. The jounin watched as the brown, narrowed eyes darkened ever so slightly at the mention of the masked kohai, and when the keen look turned into more unreadable one, as an afterthought Kakashi's muscles set themselves ready to bolt should the now seemingly more agitated man decide to lunge himself at the jounin.
Then, the chuunin's mouth twisted into a lopsided smirk and the teacher sipped his tea while the brown eyes turned to look elsewhere over the slowly drying wet grass that shimmered in the summery light. "..Good to know, Kakashi-san."
As the ambiance slipped back in being more comfortable among them and they concentrated on their breakfast, Iruka couldn't help but sneak a glance at the silver-haired man who was munching on a bite underneath the dark mask, the mismatched eyes closed against the bright light and the man's freshly showered body slouched at ease, at least on the surface. The dark eyes turned back on the fourth cup of yellow oolong that the tan hands cradled on his lap, and as the sliver of a strange sensation traveled through his system, the teacher had to take a long sip in order to swallow down the surfacing odd feeling with the sweet tea, the sun feeling a tad bit warmer against his skin as the last, sweet drops of the slightly chilled drink lingered on his tongue.
Fire and iron.
Iruka felt his calves wail as he spun and dashed away from the surprising counterattack the other had managed to pull at his wide swing, not having anticipated the jounin to rely so readily on the long legs to drive his opponent away from close range. The jounin balanced himself on one leg, then landed down the second leg as well, shifted his weight more solidly against the matted floor and leaped after the tan teacher, the silver bell giving a sharp chime on the sudden turns the pale shinobi made during his pursuit after the target, the racing feet of the men thumping against the fibers of the woven mats as they circled each other, their fingers ready to catch the glinting goal when the most suitable opening presented itself. The sun crept over the abandoned breakfast tray and reached the matching pair in the now more illuminated training room, the rays of light dancing on the dark clothing and the contours of two well-shaped bodies hidden underneath them, it catching eagerly on the drops of sweat on both the tanned and pale skin and making them gleam like pearls on the quickly moving nins.
He could see the other's plan the moment the jounin's left leg landed on the floor, and a smirk splayed itself on the tan face. The chuunin plunged down to the side away from the advancing assault of a wide grab, one of the strong hands flexing beneath himself as the other supported his balance against the floor mat as he felt his body roll over its axle and repeating it a few times, the maneuver increasing the distance between him and the sneaky jounin.
The warning shout came too late for him, though, as his nose suddenly collided with a rather solid obstacle that stopped his momentum quite efficiently, hence making him fall backwards from the force of impact the moment his moving energy took one-hundred-an-eighty on him and with most of his thoughts being suddenly concentrated on the sharp wave of fresh pain on his now maimed nose.
Well that was embarrassing.
Except before he fell completely on his back on the floor, a pair of firm arms took a hold of him and yanked him up against whoever it was that was unfortunate enough to collide on hip-level with his swift rolling tactic. Knowing that not even Kakashi didn't have a mind suicidal enough to teleport himself to the other side of the room just for the hell of it since neither of them had enough chakra to even dare to consider that move, Iruka, with his healing chakra already tending his nose to lessen the excruciating pain it was effectively emitting, quickly took in the facts that suddenly made his neck prickle.
He had been acquainted with those arms and the armored body before.
"Good morning, sensei. That was a nasty bump. Isn't a shinobi supposed to remember to keep their eyes always open in the battle?" A mellow, amused voice filtered through the porcelain mask next to his ear.
The instant after the words spoken by the ANBU had wafted against his skin, the arms holding Iruka became intrusive on his quickly tensing body, and with the throbbing nasal pain promptly forgotten, the teacher quickly removed the armored hands off of him and stepped a few feet away from the masked assassin, in his haste missing the slow, subtle way Kakashi ambled towards them from his side of the training room, the narrow eye set in a bored yet stern look at the abruptly appeared ANBU. As his upbringing had it, Iruka, against his initial urge, held his curling fists down despite the fact that the elite nin's hands had clearly itched for more than just a steadying hold on his body.
One did not simply slap an ANBU and walk away from it on their own feet.
"It does look like the sensei's nose could disagree on the relevancy of that sentence, since the way I saw it it wasn't his to know that he might have a potential shinobi collision in his hands, don't you think?" The deep, calm voice inquired from Iruka's other side, and the sensei turned to give a slightly wary look at the silver-haired nin who had silently appeared beside him. Something was off in the air around the older shinobi, and as the beep of the alarm pierced the air, the timid silence bared its fangs to the three men. Kakashi was the first to break the heavy ambiance, the gray eye narrowing a fraction at the ANBU who gave nothing away with his almost relaxed posture as the kohai answered his former captain's strict look. "Am I just old-fashioned or isn't interrupting a match considered as bad manners nowadays, kohai?"
"Not if you were given the order to, brat."
Both Kakashi and Iruka spun around to meet the amber eyes of Tsunade who was observing them with a small purse of her lips, the inhumanly strong arms crossed under the ample cleavage. The Hokage gave a sharp look at them both and then nudged her head at her masked guard behind the jounin's and the chuunin's backs. "Make us something to drink, will you."
The manicured fingers traced the recently healed nasal area and the amber eyes scanned through the map of bruises on the teacher's body. "How are we doing over here, Iruka-kun?"
"Generally fine, Hokage-sama. Thank you", Iruka said and gave a tentative rub at the scar on his nose after the fair-haired medic had scooted back to her tea. To his relief, no stinging pain was detected. Sneezing was utterly horrifying when dealing with an injured nose.
"We're progressing, Tsunade-sama", Kakashi said with a curt nod and gave the pensive chuunin who poked his nose with great interest a brief, amused glance.
A groomed eyebrow was cocked at that answer. "Care to report a bit more, Hatake?"
Kakashi gave a small shrug, but nevertheless, feeling the interested gaze of the younger man on him did make him more aware of his body language. "Iruka-sensei has improved with his skills as a chuunin. His stamina has increased a notch and currently I find him a very resourceful opponent. He manages to land hits more than he was able at the beginning of this mission and does value the given advices in order to polish his moves." The gray eye turned to give a short smile at the now seemingly speechless teacher as the infamous Hound went for his prize. "Despite not sensing any particular changes in my own performance, I have gotten a chance to hone my own combat tactics. Iruka-sensei seems to be an appraised teacher for more than just taming Naruto into obedience."
And there was the heat on the horizontal scar that made his mornings.
"Is that so?" Tsunade's tone was impressed, but Kakashi did notice the surprising lack of surprise in the Hokage's words. Then the painted lips turned into a sunny smile as their leader turned her focus on the tanned sensei who currently pondered on life and its twist by staring at his tea leaves. "Do you wish to add anything on Hatake's report, Iruka-kun?"
In Iruka's silent opinion, the woman's voice was sweet as honey and thrice as stingy as the bees that had made it. In any case, he had a motherly interrogating question to answer, and with a quick glance at the jounin on his side, the teacher nodded his head. "Kakashi-san has been good both as a training partner and as a mentor for what it comes to developing my fighting skills. I have noticed that some areas, especially the ones that need speed and physical strength, have improved on much firmer ground if compared to the situation when we trained only occasionally." He could sense the gray eye on him as he continued, and did his best to concentrate on the feeling of cool porcelain under his fingers. "As for Kakashi-san's own skills, I can't form any coherent picture on that since he has never used his whole arsenal during our sessions. On the more personal level, we have gotten better acquainted, which has undoubtedly given its impact on our mission as I have gotten the privilege to be considered as a compatible comrade to him." A teasing smirk tugged at his lips. " He's still a prick, though." Suddenly an abrupt gurgling chortle left the masked nin, a sound which resembled choking on one's coffee when suppressing a surprised laughter. When he turned to meet the gray eye, he was pleased to find it staring right back with an air of hilarity around the jounin rather than the man's ambiance being tainted with the earlier odd and dark intent.
Even Tsunade gave a snort at that entertaining jab. "Well, as I see that our sensei can still crack up a joke at our copy-nin's expense and neither is on the verge of committing any capital crimes, may it be safe for me to assume that you've gotten your elements back into control?"
She someday had to mention to Iruka that the pale colors really didn't suit him.
"...They have acted, Hokage-sama", came the calm reply from Kakashi's side, and for a moment Tsunade was almost sure that she saw a look of hesitation pass the jounin's gray eye, not to mention noticing the sharp glare that was sent at the masked man's direction from the teacher's side. This was interesting.
The painted lips twisted into more official frown as the leading medic crossed her hands over her bosom. "Acted exactly on what level, Hatake?"
The darkened scowl that was thrown at Kakashi from the chuunin's direction made the darkly clothed jaw snap shut before even a syllable was mulled on the jounin's tongue. If the teacher wished to take the lead, he wasn't against it. After all, now it wasn't his ass that would be the first getting roasted on low heat if Tsunade decided to go berserk on them.
"We have gotten...reactions, Hokage-sama", continued the rich baritone of the cinnamon-colored man, and as Kakashi risked a glance at the younger nin, he became fairly aware that it might not be even Tsunade who would snap first, and that it was more than relevant for him to count his steps to the nearest exit should the situation take a turn for worse. More precicely, the dark eyes were beyond discomfort and already reaching for the level of mayhem should their leader press any more on the matter.
As the things stood and her physical superiority allowed, she pressed. "If it's your element that 's causing problems, I think it's in everybody's best interest that you spill out whatever it is that's making your tongue to curl into itself, Iruka-sensei." The tone that left the woman's pursed lips matched the look in Iruka's eyes, and for a moment both Kakashi and the kohai who stood behind Tsunade's back were doubting if it really was ANBU and Root that were the ones to be feared after all.
Having its endless curiosity piqued, the silence scooted a bit closer to the four persons from its perch on the high fence wall, it allowing the morning noises tag along if they promised to behave, and waited patiently as Iruka took a slow sip of his tea and then turned to give a small look at Kakashi, the men undoubtedly debating over how to approach the subject.
To Kakashi's surprise, bluntness became a new feature to add on his list about the tanned sensei.
"The elements have clashed when either of us has been under emotional stress, and as they have mixed, I have gotten physiological reactions, their nature having already been established in our previous discussion. Moreover Kakashi-san has electrified himself a couple of times, I think."
The gray eye gave small twitch on that painful memory, and Kakashi couldn't hold his tongue on that matter. He still had his scores to be settled with the crafty chuunin, never mind that he had been impressed with the man's moves after he had cleared his spinning head and had had time to analyze what the hell it was that had happened to him in those agonizing minutes. "And whose fault was that, sensei?" As the bronze-skinned man turned his icy attention towards him, Kakashi figured that on a hot day it might not be so bad to have his coffee a bit more chilled.
"You're in no position to bark about what was only justifiably deserved, asshole", answered the chuunin's calm voice while the darkly scowling eyes were leaving no room for redeeming his ego on the discussed issue.
"Alright, break it up you two." The annoyed bark made them both snap their mouths shut and turn from their thundering staring contest towards their leader, moreover at the exasperated sigh that left her lips as a slender hand rose to rub her temple. These two would be the death of her someday. As Iruka opened his mouth to speak, a sharp snap on her fingers made the man think twice. "Just shut it for now. Any more words from either of you and I would need to take a sedative in order not to mangle your asses into hospital." Then the perceptive eyes observed keenly the two nins before her. "What kind of situations are we talking about here?"
She could almost taste the calm before storm as the men exchanged menacing glares. The second the sensei's full-lipped mouth opened, she knew she'd get more than an earful on the probed subject. Oh sweet joy.
"The ass groped me." The blonde eyebrows rose up at that.
"You slapped me first." The eye-roll was missed by both of her subordinates.
"You harassed me twice." A sliver of intrigued curiosity passed the Hokage's face.
"You maimed me with a shower." A poorly stifled snort was heard from behind her back.
"And I will do it again if you ever do those things to me ever again, pervert-" She couldn't help herself any longer.
"Considering the fact that the brat's lightning has obviously struck more than once in your pants and seeing the way you are going on about it I must say I'm surprised to discover that you haven't already worked through every hard surface there is in this house, Iruka-kun."
"HOKAGE-SAMA!"
"I'm joking, joking!" Tsunade laughed and waved her hand teasingly at the now furiously blushing chuunin in a way that reminded all of them about an other sannin who was currently out of the village. To her smugly gleeful note, even Kakashi seemed a bit stricken at her words. It seemed that this was getting more than just a peculiar mission in her betting books. The way the ANBU tensed in mid-snort behind her back when Kakashi cast the man a sharp, quick look was registered as a slightly odd sidenote in them, but she let the detail be for now.
They had more acute matters at hand to concentrate on.
"Let's change the outlines for this mission a bit." The two men saw the change in the look she was giving them, the earlier, playful gaze turning into more serious one as the woman clearly counted her next words and the possible consequences they may cause. The amber eyes gave a sharp look at Kakashi, who by the unwritten protocol was closest to being the mission leader in their two-man cell. "Beside still concentrating on improving yourselves as you have so far, I want you to focus more proactively on your elements as well. Not by abusing them", on that she pointed a sharp fingernail on both of her subordinates and for a moment she thought she heard the air crack between them as they shared a challenging look, "but doing the things the way you usually would and then reflecting and repeating immediately the situation where your elemental bases act strangely or cause something to happen. We need to find out the trigger, because labeling it under 'emotional stress' gives us too wide range to work with. I'll look into your latest samples to see if there's anything to help us out, since your earliest ones didn't show anything out of ordinary as they were taken before this all happened, but right now you're the most valid walking samples to figure out how those rebellious elements function in different settings, especially during the sparring sessions." The sun tickled her cheeks, and Tsunade turned her face towards the sunny yard that was expanding in front of the terrace, the now dried, muddy lines still crossing it as a reminder of a fierce match once fought on that particular soil. "The phenomenon is interesting to me as a shinobi as well, since none of us seem to have experienced anything alike before. Understanding our elements could give more valuable clues for polishing up the current training curriculum, but problems were to arise if they activate only under certain circumstances. Catch my drift, sensei?" The piercing look was turned at her most trustworthy chuunin who seemed to have already caught on her thinking if the firm line crossing the bronze-skinned features was anything to go by.
A mere nod was all the confirmation she needed even before Iruka continued her assumption. "That sounds like a potential dilemma, Tsunade-sama. It doesn't benefit anyone to get emotional in a battle situation, so if losing the calm mind is the key to unleash the elements, they could become dangerous not only for the target but the users themselves." Hearing a pensive hum from Kakashi's side made him give an exasperated sigh. What now?
"True, sensei, but so does any jutsu work as a double-edged sword in every combat where they are used", stated the deep voice of the older nin, and Iruka leveled the silver-haired man with a flat look, him knowing very well that the slightly offensive thought that rang in his mind didn't go unnoticed by the other man if the tiny twitch of the gray eye over the dark mask was giving any hints on that.
Well thank you, Sharingan-no-Obvious.
His mouth, to their surprise, decided to go for diplomacy. "Of course, Kakashi-san, but the question between an element and a jutsu is not about its effectiveness but in the problem of control", Iruka argued, and took a sip of his tea to discard the oddly stirring excitement that the debate was bringing up within him. The hesitant sense of ease he felt between him and the older man was something he had already thought to have been lost after the incidents they've had encountered so far, and judging from the look the silver-haired nin gave him, he hadn't been the only one struggling with the particular thought.
"Maa, you did seem able to control your attack quite well yesterday, sensei", the pale-skinned man mused with a more teasing voice.
The unfair blow made Iruka narrow his gaze at the verbal lashing he was now facing, his temper flaring lightly under the restraints of his iron will. "You only saw one side of it, Kakashi-san, and I'm fairly confident in assuming that to be the case with you as well." All other three residents could sense the change that took over Iruka as he slipped into his teaching mode. "An element is not something one learns by hand signs but something that is already coded within a shinobi's system. It's designed for enhancing the skills and combat performance, and therefore I would think twice to use something that I have grown with rather than gotten trained into, since it can be easily connected to some of my other personal traits such as fear, anger, love or arrogance. It could be a gamble with too much at stake, since there's no saying that it wouldn't turn against its user at some point if the goals and the fundamental being of the shinobi conflicts. We control the jutsu, at least in theory, but the element controls the body that controls the jutsu. There can be no counter-control in this case, in other words the fire can't be done if the element is earth. If the element isn't cooperative and one doesn't know how to use it to the best advantage, the shinobi is at loss and we all know the final result when that happens."
The silence that fell over the four occupants on the terrace was long and spoke volumes when the three shinobis pondered on what the chuunin had said, both the ANBU and the Hokage keeping their eyes on the pensive academy teacher.
Kakashi, on the other hand, was keeping his eye on an other shinobi.
"...That's settled, then." As all three men turned their attention at her, Tsunade gulped down the rest of her already cold tea and stood up. Then the medic turned to nod at the ANBU who was already waiting for her orders. "Take their samples and leave the new sample box on the counter. Deliver them to Shizune at the Hokage Tower and say that I'll accompany her shortly." With a curt nod, the ANBU left to the kitchen and then Tsunade gave a smile at the two men who had already stood up to hear her final instructions for their mission. "You really have a resourceful mission partner, brat." She couldn't help but smile at the slightly awkward look that crossed Iruka's face, moreover when Kakashi nodded and gave the sensei a brightly smiling look which made the man look away with a sliver of red hue on the scarred features. "Continue where you were left off and report again should anything out of the ordinary happen. This research starts to get more twists than was planned, but if all goes well then I say that I'm very happy that you decided to go with my request. In the meantime, don't kill each other while at it." A ring of laughter could be heard in her last words before her hands went through the signs for the needed jutsu. "And brat, please take a shower. You could be smelled two miles away."
And with that, the chuunin and jounin were left behind to watch the dissolving smoke from her elegant disappearance.
"...It's the clothes."
The bright laughter of one chuunin rang along the barriers into the clear sky.
"...Now, now, there's no need to use so crude words...I call it making the game more interesting. There's nothing to worry if you play nicely along, sensei."
The tanned body bristled visibly on the words, and Iruka took quiet, slow and deadly precise steps towards his opponent, the narrow hips swaying on his way while the fire turned up the heat in the deep brown eyes as they followed the pale hands that played with their prized prey. "Oh, I would worry if I were you, since if that box gets even a speck of dust on it I'm going to rip you several new ones, Kakashi-san."
The slender, silvery eyebrow was cocked at that choice of words. "So inventive threats yet so little actual action, sensei. Does that apply in your battles only or is that one of the reasons as to why your crotch is so tense?"
The chime of a silver bell wasn't quick enough to keep up with the chuunin's moves, and as he dashed madly down the corridor with the now extremely peeved sensei's tea collection in a firm grip under his arm, ran through their bedroom into their training room and just narrowly avoided being tackled to the ground by the teacher who had rounded to the other side of the house and lunged at him through the terrace doors, Kakashi felt a wide grin fix itself on his masked lips.
The bright spark of joy that could be spotted in the otherwise menacingly glaring dark eyes was something he could have watched longer if the imminent danger of losing his family jewels hadn't been so hot on his heels.
"Maa, sensei, who would have thought that those pillars weren't actually so easy to pinpoint?"
The laughter was clear in the deep voice of the silver-haired male that rang over the sounds coming from their kitchen, and on that note Iruka felt the small, insistent tug of smile already crawl on his lips as he enjoyed the sunlight on his skin. "Who knows. You should ask the same idiot who hit his head on one of them", Iruka chuckled and gave the pillar in question a quick once-over, especially the spot that had suddenly lost some of its paint. Then again, the hint of red did match well with the silver hair. As long as it wasn't the copy-nin's own blood, that is.
"That was cruel, Iruka-sensei. I thought teachers were to be supportive when their students trip and stumble." From the way the jounin took his defeat (and the propable headache), he could have doubted that the man had let him win their latest game of tag on purpose.
"Spare me, you were a jounin instructor and based on what I heard from Naruto I have more reasons to make my students to learn the harsh reality before unleashing them on your elite neck."
"It's always a pleasure to give my humble contribution to your curriculum, Iruka-sensei." The deep, teasingly rumbling bass came closer as the jounin set his foot on the terrace with their lunch on the wooden tray held by the strong hands.
"Always thinking so highly of yourself, aren't you. Are you sure you hit your head properly enough or should we give another go with it?" With a sunny grin plastered on his lips on the loud laughter he heard from the masked assassin, Iruka gave the approaching man a suspecting, if a bit excited, glance. "What did you brew for me this time?"
Kakashi gave a nonchalant shrug. "I found this odd, roasted type. Smoky, if I have to hazard a guess." Although the lightning user couldn't help but feel just slightly annoyed, since he could very well distinct the roasts of his coffees and the levels of bitterness in his cup, but the sheer variety of scents and visual differences between the tanned nuisance's teas were giving him a bigger challenge than he liked to admit. Even on his third time rummaging through the tea addict's vast collection he had still been surprised by the amount the man had hogged up in his wooden tea box that was put back into its rightful place after his narrow escape from death. He had never thought to be literally saved by the bell during his years as an active shinobi. Not to mention being ambushed by a meddling pillar, but that was merely a fluke on the architectonic structure's side. As he spotted the warm smile that splayed itself on the bronze-skinned man's features, the mental complaints about a bunch of dry leaves and hard, wooden beams were quickly discarded.
"Sounds like hojicha. Which pouch?"
Against his reputation, Kakashi had to take second to remember. "White one with a wooden clip." ...I think.
A low, richly vibrating hum left the tan body, and as he sat next to the man, Kakashi observed the way the meticulous tea drinker sniffed long and deeply his tea after receiving it from the older man, the tan man letting out a sigh that did interesting things to Kakashi's gut. And they say that he's the perverted one. "Hojicha it is. Interesting choice, must say. How long did you steep it?"
This part was always tricky in Kakashi's opinion. Why wasn't there just one standard system for the teacher's teas? "Four minutes." To his surprise, Iruka cast him a playful look over his cup, the brightly glinting eyes accompanied with a coy grin, and the rich baritone turned a bit smoother and more sensual as the man's skilled tongue rolled the words from the witty mouth before Kakashi's mind was actually registering what he was saying. "You know how to make my tea. A genius, undoubtedly."
Iruka could already feel his blood rush a bit faster in his veins as he recognized the same foreign gleam he had so many times witnessed to pass the gray eye, and the warm, aromatic beverage made warmth spread into his whole body as he thickly swallowed his first sip. Suddenly something cold and hard touched his thigh, and being startled from his restless thoughts enough to almost spill his tea, he jerked himself a bit backwards while his wide eyes searched out the source of the sudden interference.
An innocent-looking bottle of massage oil was slowly lifted better in sight.
Kakashi gave the baffled man a smiling pair of eyes before gingerly placing the bottle between him and the positively stunned teacher. The dark brown eyes stayed on the bottle for a moment that felt like a small eternity before they were narrowed and lifted to send quite a sharpened look at his still smiling mismatched ones. He should have seen it coming, really.
"You sneaky bastard." Well, the man could have used more offending definitions, so Kakashi chose not to retort at that verbal slap. Much.
"Now, now. It wouldn't be a favor if the time and the place suited you, neh, sensei?" The voice of the masked nin was a bit too smug for Iruka's liking.
"And what's so special about this particular time of day, Kakashi-san?" The unimpressed tone was a clear clue to Kakashi that the chuunin didn't bite the bait without him forcing it down the man's throat. Iruka's neck prickled as the hidden lips pulled in what clearly was a wide smirk stretching the dark cloth as the one-eyed wonder leaned casually back on his hands.
"As our mutual friend in green would put it, one should indulge themselves in the most straining exercises in the times when the shinobi feels most youthful and high-spirited."
A laconic, if a bit entertained eyebrow was cocked at the smirking jounin. "It's cheap to use Gai-san on an unarmed man, Kakashi-san. Besides, I think you just made me lose my appetite with that."
The deeply rumbling bark of laughter rang nicely to his ears, and Iruka couldn't help his own smirk from widening despite the nauseating tremor of dread that started to settle into his gut as his eyes once more passed over the tiny glass vessel that held its ground with an air of defiance circling it.
While being lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the gray eye's intense gaze on him.
A bowl slipped back into the hot water and Iruka cursed as the number of damp spots increased on his pants. While taking a calming breath, the sensei snatched the bowl back from the depths of the sink, spilled even more water on himself in the process, gave the infuriating piece of pottery a scalding hot rinse and shoved it into the cupboard with the rest of the annoying bunch. As the water drained down the sewer, Iruka rubbed his face tiredly, the timid tension taking its toll on him even though it was only early afternoon.
Damn that jounin.
The bastard in question had went to clean his face in the bathroom after having spewed some of his coffee inside his mask (he could only blame himself on that, since he should have seen the opening he had given to Iruka with that one joke about Raikage and washcloths) and left Iruka to handle the dirty dishes after they had finished the lunch, which he didn't mind.
What he did mind was the torture that awaited him after the dishes were done.
With that the brown eyes turned to stare with growing frustration at the imprisoned oily substance that had the nerve to stare right back at him from its glass cage.
Despite using all of the time that was mercifully given to him for forming a plan to escape, to his dismay Iruka had come up with nothing, if one didn't count the temptation to tie up and knock the bastard out cold until the end of their mission.
"I think the bottle is half full in this case, sensei", purred the deep voice suddenly very close to his ear, and Iruka had to use all of his training in order to suppress his honed instincts that decided to forget the reasoning and go straight for the killing.
To make up to his ego for that magnificent yet sadly dissatisfying performance of self-control, he spun around and aimed his fiery temper at the unnerving bastard in order to replace the lacking (although so, so tempting) blows at the arrogant idiot's masked face. "Do not sneak on other shinobi, asshole!"
Although the second his eyes truly took in what exactly he was facing, it was something completely else than his temper that flared inside him.
Broad, bare chest greeted him from just two feet away, and to his further discomfort, Iruka could feel the heat of the body he had almost touched as he had turned around, and as he calculated the distance between his suddenly very tightly curled fists and the muscular, smooth flesh that teased him on close range, the teacher had to resist the skyrocketed urge to reach out and feel the skin under his fingertips. The rosy nipple that could be seen just barely in the periphery of his vision as he concentrated extremely hard on looking at the gray eye wasn't helping the matters on any level.
Thankfully, despite the rapidly pooling drool that was making it hard to move his tongue, his mouth was the first to recover. "What the hell are you up to now?"
The smile in the mismatched eyes was setting a new record on evil smugness, and Iruka had to swallow a couple of times extra when the jounin took a step closer to him, that way cornering one distressed chuunin quite effectively against the kitchen counter. "Well, isn't this usually the standard requirement for it?"
"...For what?" While his brain was still recovering from falling a victim to a prompt short-circuiting, the chuunin wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer, a particular part of him being highly aware by now that if the half-naked jounin as much as even coughed the word 'ass', the wooden counter would in a beat have more than just kitchen machinery on it. A trickle of sweat begun its way down the tanned temple, and Iruka could feel its ticklish path on his skin as it crossed the cheek, the jaw, curved along the strong bone and then slipped downwards on his throat and caressed his collarbones before disappearing under his black top. The counter pressed heavily against the small of his back, and Iruka forced his hands to take a hold on the edge of the wooden board to stop his fingers from digging bleeding holes into his palms. He really needed his whole system functional to pull through the current situation, which was proving to be quite a challenge with his neck muscles that were providing a plethora of arguments for just briefly dipping...his..gaze..lower-
The smooth, low voice made a couple of more drops of sweat travel down his skin as the jounin leveled the teacher with a conniving look. "I did say that you owe me a massage, didn't I, sensei?" The jounin stepped a bit back and lifted his arms more in the air on his sides to show his upper torso more properly, much to the delight of the unfortunate chuunin's libido that was currently planning a coup d'état in Iruka's pants with the rest of his dark desires. "I also know that you want solid arguments on the things that are asked from you. So here you have it, the request laid out plain and honest, just the way you prefer it."
Oh, he preferred a lot of things right now.
While Iruka carefully schooled the mask of a strict professional back on his face and fought against the threatening blush that pinched his cheeks with the help of the passing thought on the things he could do with a willing jounin if things ever were to progress that way, he grudgingly gave the mass of strong muscles in front of him a brief glance. Although, when he finally understood what the other had meant, his head was promptly picked up from the gutter and the scorching burn that had started to increase his body heat dissolved into nothing as it was forced to make way to the deep concern that took over his once again cleared consciousness.
The sight of three large bruises that adorned the muscular body made the pang of guilt give his libido a cruel hit on the head while his sense of duty effectively disbanded the starting party from his boxers. Based on the sheer size of the damaged areas, he could easily imagine the amount of pain being equal with the visual aspect.
Had he caused that last night?
"I would really appreciate the massage now, sensei. Plus it's getting a bit chilly here." When hearing the quietly spoken words, Iruka lifted his eyes from the maimed skin and saw Kakashi give him a sheepish smile beneath his mask and the jounin scratching his neck in an awkward manner. Then again, if he heard it right, the voice of the masked man had a more serious layer in it, and as the smiling, gray eye opened to give him a look, the skillfully concealed pain became visible to him for the first time.
The following silence was long, thick and awkward.
Then, without giving any more thoughts on the matter, Iruka reached for the small glass bottle beside him on the counter and stepped closer to the masked, bruised jounin. With a firm yet gentle hand, the chuunin took hold on the pale shoulder and slowly turned the unresisting ex-ANBU around. His eyes scanned over the revealed damage done to the older man's back, every counted bruise and scratch making the lump in his throat grow bigger and sharper on each breath he forced down his lungs when he realized that what he was seeing was actually just a fragment of the whole picture, since he was sure he had hit the man's whole body with his creative punishment method.
That plan had backfired more than he had gambled for.
With that thought giving him the needed push to see beyond their troublesome tongue-lashing on the subject, Iruka gave the man's shoulder a light squeeze with his hand, and as the jounin took the subtle hint, the pair made their way to the bedroom with the uneasy silence following their each step. Then, as they stepped into the modestly furnished space, Kakashi turned around and gave Iruka a wondering look. "Where should I sit?"
The chuunin looked around for the suitable spot. Then he reached and tucked off the blanket from his futon and folded it on the floor in a neat square big enough for both of them. "Here. This should do." Obediently, Kakashi sat on the pointed fabric and as the jounin turned his broad, well sculpted back to Iruka, the chuunin felt his hold on the oil bottle tighten on the disarming sign of trust that one of their village's best assassins was giving him. For Hatake Kakashi to turn his naked back to a trained shinobi who just the other day had made him howl in pain, that decision wasn't just a tiny footnote to be quickly looked over. Calmly, Iruka counted the big bruises on the other's back once more in order to force the surfacing, completely irrelevant thoughts away from his head. Seeing naked skin on his blanket was stirring trouble within his systems, which was not the issue he wanted to concentrate on at that moment. The copy-nin was seemingly in pain, and it was his mission to ease it. He could do this. He had interacted with scantily dressed men before.
Public baths did count.
As if sensing his battling thoughts, the pervert in question turned his gray eye to give a wink over the pale shoulder to the troubled, tanned man. "Maa, would it be more comfortable for you to do it on the futon?" The bastard didn't do anything to hide the lecherous tone that also sneaked into his gaze while he glanced at his futon as an emphasis for the teasing words.
The flat look that answered his innocent innuendo spoke volumes, and the sharp click of the oil bottle's lid did remind him of the temperamental nature of his current, seemingly a bit miffed masseur. "I'd be caught dead dressed in a pink uniform before going near any rumpled bed sheets with you, Kakashi-san."
"Yet another polite rejection", Kakashi chuckled to the snort that left the man who settled on his knees behind the copy-nin's back. "But you know, even the seven hells can freeze over if given the right maneuver."
The slippery sounds of warmed-up oil ceased for a minute, and Kakashi could feel the other's piercing eyes on his neck. "That must be one hell of a jutsu then, copy-nin-san."
"You'd be surprised about the things one can learn when being sent on very bizarre missions", and with that last light note, Kakashi focused to look forward, the gray eye settling to watch their training room that bathed in the bright sunlight. Surprisingly enough, the tan hands that have already been prepared for mangling him didn't appear on his body, and his skin gave a small tremor of anticipation on the lacking touch. Then, after a moment of considering the occurred oddity, a small, warm smile tugged at his hidden lips. "I know it's you behind my back, sensei. Please, do begin."
A small silence greeted his words. "You gossip, you die. Understood?"
Kakashi gave a surprised laugh at that one. Apparently he had badly misinterpreted the reason for the man's hesitation. Nevertheless, he felt the tense air being lifted off them, and not long after that the first, if a bit hesitant roll was given to his shoulders. Gradually, the tan hands became bolder and started to diligently work through the map of damaged areas on his back, making the jounin close his always perceptive eye on the nice feeling of someone tending his body. With his eyesight taken out of the game for a while, his other senses took over. He could smell the fresh scent of the oil, smell the hands that were working on a particularly nasty knot below his shoulder blade, felt the other's light breathing brushing against the skin areas that were a bit chilly with the first drops of oil being smeared over them and felt every flex of the deft fingers that traveled up and down his body, the tanned, perfectly controlled hands running over his now slippery skin while pressing, rubbing and rolling on the expertly targeted spots. The teacher had obviously given a massage before. The soothing tingle of chakra wasn't bad either.
All in all, the man of thousand jutsus was very pleased with his situation right now.
Iruka, on the other hand, was having troubles with his ethics. The glistening oil made the already distinct bruises stand out even more, and as he mapped the injuries both with his hands and eyes, to his unpleasant surprise he saw some very fresh, deep purple areas within the older, larger ones. Without knowing, he had obviously increased the man's agony during their first matches for the day. Why on earth the jounin didn't say anything to Tsunade? She could have easily healed the worst of them, as in now, as capable aid as the chakra-infused oil was, the man had to deal with a sore torso for a few days, possibly even a week. He had meant to make the man suffer from the lewd stunts he had pulled, and by all means, the bastard had deserved it in his opinion, but seeing the evidence of his rather violently performed retribution did make his conscience a bit bitchy.
Sometimes it really was a pain to be raised as a good boy.
Gradually, a tingle of different, pale green chakra took over his hands that worked on the pale skin.
"Don't waste your own chakra, sensei", the jounin's voice was suddenly very sharp and commanding, and Iruka, true to his nature, had none of it at that moment once he had his mind set to it. He was also more than willing to let the man know that.
"Save the idiotic bravery for something that actually counts, Kakashi-san", dropped the irritated reply from the chuunin's mouth, and to emphasize his point, the amount of healing chakra increased momentarily on a particularly nasty-looking spot. "It won't benefit our mission if one of us can't function properly, which is something that all cell leaders should understand."
"It also doesn't benefit us if you tire yourself now", the rumbling voice had taken a new note in it, and after a beat, Iruka recognized it as Kakashi's most formal one. The man was turning their ranks once again at him.
That prick. "I can regulate the use of my chakra, unlike someone I know."
Kakashi's eyebrow gave a twitch. Now that was a low punch. "As your superior-" A gasp of pain took Kakashi by surprise when the chuunin dug his knuckles in a surprisingly painful spot between his ribs. Hell that hurt!
"Wasn't it you who just yesterday dared to lecture me about merging myself into the team and to view the others as my own hands and legs? I don't know how you guys get trained to work on the field, but I could hardly imagine gaining any glory out of the battle if half of my body is crippled." Iruka's temper had somehow snuck up on him and he could already feel the hair on his neck stand on its ends as the familiar crackle of an oncoming verbal match struck a cord in him. Damn that man's ways of constantly rubbing him the wrong direction. The second he felt the muscles on the other man shift and roll, Iruka slammed his hands on the broad shoulders and focused all of his strength on those two specific areas in order to keep the other still. Then, after a deep breath, he gambled his game. "Kakashi-san."
The inquiring sound that left the other man was clearly out for blood.
"Please stop being a stubborn ass and let me heal you."
An intense wall of silence was dropped on them, and for a moment Iruka was sure he'd get thrown out of the room as the whole being of the copy-nin stiffened under his palms. It obviously wasn't everyday for the infamous Sharingan user that a lower rank forced medical care upon him. Then, slowly, the silver-haired nin's muscles slumped and turned pliant under his fingers, and the voice that carried over the pale shoulder was calm, but also holding something else that was hard for Iruka to decipher. "...I swear the boy is taking after you on more levels than it really is healthy, sensei."
Iruka couldn't stop the victorious grin from forming on his lips. "At least I asked nicely."
The amusement rang in the jounin's humming voice as the silver-haired head nodded. Iruka should have anticipated the following question, though. "Does that mean that you'd feel up my chest as well?"
Swatting one's patients on the head wasn't the way professional medics were supposed to handle things if the ones being healed turned out to be difficult cases. The loud smack that came from an oiled hand meeting with a mane of silver hair was a stinging reminder for Kakashi that Iruka wasn't tied to the medic's ethics, and apparently the ethical instructions for the Ninja Academy teachers had all the physical punishments highlighted in neon colors. "An active jounin should understand by now that healing the injuries does not mean increasing their amount, Kakashi-san."
Speaking of which. "Maa. You seem to know quite a lot about things concerning our profession, Iruka-sensei."
A dry snort was given at that. "It's a standard requirement to know quite a lot of things if one is a teacher in an academy, you know." Iruka wiped his forehead clear from sweat, since his body hadn't used that much of chakra in a long time and it began to show, and after deeming the pale back being in better condition than it had been as the intensity of the marks was reduced to half, the green-hued chakra vanished from covering his palms and all that was left was the pale blue glow of the massage oil. Now, back to the matters at hand.
"I know that noticing the rank and position rarely tells much about the person possessing them", Kakashi said and gave the skilled hands more space to work on his right shoulder by turning his head a bit. Ah, that was a sore spot there. "Hearing them discussing on interesting matters is what counts usually. After all, all teams are formed by a good reason, at least in theory, so it's only natural that team members wish to know something more detailed about their comrades than just the name and face. Even the ones that wear a mask over their faces."
Iruka's attention was clearly snatched back to the conversation on that sentence, and as the massaging hands slowed for a moment on the jounin's spine, it was all Kakashi needed to keep going. "It's also rare to meet so practice-oriented teacher in the times of peace."
Iruka wasn't sure if he liked where the discussion was heading, and gave the man's lower back a firm squeeze, although his eyes were trained on the pale nape of the muscular neck in front of him. "I wouldn't say that, Kakashi-san. Even though the peaceful era has lasted longer than any of us may have anticipated, we're still shinobi. Our ranks will still kill and get killed on the field. Isn't that what our training aims for?"
"You answered the question yourself already, sensei." Kakashi took a better position on the floor before turning back on track. "It's the way you both study and work, basically. If I try to explain you something, the mere theory isn't adequate enough to provide you with the feel and sense of the taught move. On the other hand, if I show it to you, or better yet, beat you with it", he wasn't sure if that was a light punch or just a stronger push given to his upper back, but nevertheless, it made him chuckle, "you've covered it by the third match." Then, a more serious tone took over his musings. "Besides, none of the things the trouble trio actually had learned from you weren't from the beloved lectures you frequently bestow upon your higher-ups as well...well, save for Sakura on some parts." Even though the following thoughtful silence was interesting in itself, Kakashi was particularly intrigued by the hesitant changes of pressure happening on Iruka's right hand fingers.
As no answer nor retort came, Kakashi went forward. "Same for this mission-"
"Turn around, Kakashi-san." The hands had disappeared from his back, and Kakashi turned to look over his shoulder at the surprisingly subdued sensei. The chuunin answered his eye with the dark pair of his own and then rolled them in a full circle before crossing the well-built arms on the equally nicely sculpted, albeit clothed, chest. "You wanted me to heal your other side as well, am I correct?"
Now it was his turn to hesitate. There was an odd layer in the teacher's words. "Ah. Well. If it isn't too much to ask."
"Keep stalling and soon it will be", came the calm retort. Quickly, the jounin turned around on the spot and Iruka had to bite his tongue to keep it from commenting on the rather tasty piece of a man he was now watching as his eyes swept over the bunching and smoothing muscles when the other man sat back down and settled into a comfy posture. Then, after a long, deep breath to calm his muscles from trembling, Iruka reached his hands towards the jounin and a green glow took over his palms once more as he focused his gaze on one very mean-looking bruise. Then, he placed the bets. "You were saying something about this mission?"
"Why are you keeping your hands so far away, sensei?"
That change of subject did nothing to lower his stress levels and he gave the infuriating man a patient glare he usually received only for Konohamaru and his gang. "We didn't agree on me giving a massage to your chest, just the healing. That's all I'll do." Unless he was asked nicely...he really should focus on the bruise now.
As tempting as continuing their earlier dialogue was, Kakashi really couldn't disregard the opening he was given. "Maa, but isn't it said that it's exactly the loving touch that heals the best?"
He was fairly sure that the chuunin's shoulders tensed for other reasons as well than just holding in a mean punch. "Firstly, that only applies between people who are actually acquainted with the mentioned emotion, which I hardly believe for either of us, and secondly, lean one more inch closer than you already have and you'll be missing a nipple, bastard." The low voice was strict and meant every word, and Kakashi was sure it applied even on the ones hidden between the lines.
A silvery eyebrow rose a bit at the undoubtedly rather painful idea. "Well that wouldn't be nice."
The look on the dark brown eyes was hard and definite. "No, I imagine it wouldn't."
When Iruka saw the masked smirk it was already too late to react.
Out of clear blue, he found pale hands slamming around both his neck and left upper arm and his whole body abruptly changing its angle as he was roughly manhandled to the ground on his back with his arms pushed to the floor above his head before a very familiar weight settled on his pinned body. As he quickly understood the proximity of the other man's certain body parts when compared to the location of his own and then registered how close to his face the masked nose actually was, the sight of the darkened, gray eye sending fits of tremors running over his body, he was more than temped to find out the deity that was on guard duty and beat the shit out of its ethereal being. The deep, rumbling voice sent heated shivers dancing on his skin and the gust of air coming from the masked mouth made him smell the dark roast and sliver of sweet melon in the jounin's breath, his mind turning hazy on the given stimuli so fast that he almost thought he had misheard the words that were murmured near his lips.
"Then you shouldn't have let me to get into your close range, sensei."
...Come again?
The dark, wide and stunned eyes fixed themselves to look back at the intense gray, and, within seconds, Iruka realized there to be no trace of the familiar yet undefined glint that had usually flashed in the jounin's sharp eye in moments like this.
In other words, the prick knew exactly what he was doing.
On that rather illuminating realization, Iruka's skyrocketing temper was given its eagerly awaited permission to shake off the shackles of control.
A sharp slap echoed through the air and Kakashi barely managed to catch his fall to his side while a sting of burning pain took over his masked jaw and cheek.
Not only that, but he was pretty sure they didn't have any buckets of ice cold water conveniently located in the bedroom.
The voice of the teacher sounded distant and strangely detached as his still ringing ears picked up only the monotonous sounds of the water drops hitting the floor. What the man had said before he picked himself up, gave Kakashi one last furious look and then stalked to the kitchen, Kakashi couldn't say.
A drink.
He needed something to drink.
Actually, what he really needed was one of his katanas to cut one asshole in half and save the others from the trouble.
The shaking hands worked vigorously over the pouch of black tea, and an aggravated curse was hissed between the gritted teeth as some of the dry leaves missed the sieve and scattered over the kitchen counter. The water boiler didn't even manage to give out the click before it was taken and the hot water was dumped into the awaiting cup, while Iruka, somewhere in the back of his fiercely spinning head, knew that the machine had done nothing against him and therefore it was a bit rude to slam it hard on the table surface after using it. But, as the situation was, he didn't give a fuck at the idea of propriety as he was itching for more than just abusing some non-living objects.
A trap.
A mere fucking trap.
And he had walked right into it.
The sieve was aggressively pulled out of the water and the moment his nose finally picked up the scent of what he had steeped, the metal net found itself suddenly flung against the nearest wall, the wet leaves exploding in a heap of wet clumps against it and then sliding down the painted surface. The wailing clink of metal hitting the wooden floor was only a mere distant echo in Iruka's ears while the thrumming roar of his boiling blood took most of his attention.
"Then you shouldn't have let me to get into your close range, sensei."
A fierce fist made the cupboard door splinter.
That fucker had contaminated his pu'erh.
The freshly brewed tea was unceremoniously throwed down the sink and a feral growl rose from the man's throat as the teacher felt his whole being tremble in rage at the sight of wasted tea. That conniving jerk in a mask would pay. As steeping yet another cup was currently out of question, if the massacre by the wall was any indication, Iruka quickly filled the cup with cold water, for his need to drink and hydrate his body was pressing on his consciousness with every passing second. The attack he had hit the jounin with had surprised him as much as the recipient of his wrath, but currently he was more concerned about the black edges that crept closer to his vision the longer he delayed the replenishing of his element.
Without giving any toasts to the surrounding silence, he took a greedy swig from the cup.
As the cold liquid touched his lips and the taken gulp flowed down the bronze-skinned throat, an odd wave of shivers ran down his figure and made him place the other hand on the counter. The dark eyes narrowed at the sensation, and after a moment of consideration the tanned man took a second, deliberately slower sip. As the water brushed past his lips, not a second was wasted before a new, even stronger wave of tremors raked down his whole body, all the way from his head to toes, and it took all of Iruka's willpower not to spill the taken mouthful out the same way it had went in. Suddenly his body felt like being caught on fire and his eyesight disappeared, leaving him with only a chaos of blue shadows surrounding him. His gut twisted and turned in a fit of what felt like a very nasty temper tantrum and his lungs felt like they were crushed under a weight that curled around his internal organs like a snake. As he blindly steadied himself against the counter and fought to stay standing on way too wobbly legs, Iruka dazedly realized his breathing coming in shallow pants, making it more difficult to calm himself down without the possibility to take a deep breath, and with growing nausea he realized there to be only one action he should take in order to survive the asphyxiating assault that had taken over his already spasming body.
They had to summon-
"..ei? Sensei?"
He wasn't sure if those were his own words he was hearing. His vision reeled violently and was suddenly wrapped tightly in a bright blue cocoon that intensified with each passing heave his lungs barely managed to pull through his constricting throat. Numbly, as he turned to look in the direction of the heard noise and felt his hand to let go of the counter, his eyes stared unseeing at the electric blue, blurry figure who moved towards him. When he understood that he could no longer feel his legs, he more felt than heard his mouth move to form the last coherent sentence he was somehow sure that the strange shadow understood.
A clear, simple request, really.
"...Catch me."
The tea cup shattered as it fell to the hard floor from his limp hand, and as his mind slipped into the dark void that enclosed him inside its soothing silence, Iruka smiled ruefully as the last, weak thoughts that made all of his barriers shatter around him like the frail porcelain that gave out its last, sharp cry as it cracked and lost its particles' balance in its impact with the unyielding wooden boards, disappeared into nothingness.
Nothing important, apparently.
