AN: Mature, explicit-ish stuff is contained in this chapter, so I advice you to use your own discretion and skip the parts that you don't like. As for how to spot the mentioned parts, well, I think you'll notice when things start to heat up.

Have fun ~

Day 11: The argumentation over sealed lips and suddenly found missing notes

The door to the bedroom slid open, and as the soft clicks of the heels followed her steps, Shizune walked slowly into the dark, closed training room. With a small yawn, the medical jounin stretched her back and heard a couple of pops coming from her spine, knowing that she'd need to take a look at those particular points based on the volume of the sound. Right now, though, she had a more important matter to focus on. Looking back in the bedroom, the dark eyes swept over the still form of the chuunin they had come to check up soon after they had received Kakashi's urgent call saying that Iruka had woken up before being knocked out again for a reason yet unknown. Although the way Kakashi had looked at the man when he had reported did make Shizune's eyebrows rise a bit.

She did know better than to pry about the seemingly timid jounin, though, and sensing that Tsunade had spotted the same was all she needed to know on that matter.

With a small, exasperated sigh directed at the two idiots who were currently making it harder for her to keep her superior away from alcohol, the young woman turned her attention towards the shutted doors that led to the terrace, her keen instincts picking up the other two presences behind them. The first rays of light should have reached the house by now if the fatigue she felt in her muscles was anything to consider. Then, the silent heels took her back through the silent bedroom and into the corridor that led her way to the kitchen. While filling her cup of coffee for the fifth time, the woman made a mental note to check on her caffeine levels while at it.

With those last, relaxed thoughts in mind, she walked back to her sleeping patient.


"...Is that so." The subtle nod was registered even though Tsunade didn't look at the jounin who was sitting on her side. The brief glance at the unreadable, gray eye that peered over the dark mask was what she needed in order to press forward. "I always hated to fight against stubborn kids, so I advice you to spill it all out before you force me to loosen up that tongue of yours starting with your jaw bones."

The shift of the tired, pale-skinned body spoke of more than just lack of sleep, and the warm mahogany eyes narrowed a fraction on that note. The Hokage could sense that her shinobi was agitated to the tiniest nerve, and she was reluctant to think that the remark of fighting might just become reality if she didn't keep herself alert. The lazy drawl gave nothing away, but she knew better than to rely on that illusion.

"Maa, you make it sound as if you cared, Hokage-sama."

A challenging rise of an eyebrow was given to that. The silence that sealed the hidden lips of the silver-haired jounin made the blonde woman give a long, pensive look at the village surrounding them, and for a moment, the S-class assassin and the legendary sannin measured the wall of hushed information and lacking reports between them. Knowing that Kakashi had more than sufficiently practiced the tricks and traps of trading information, and hoping that she could ease up some of that odd air that had enveloped one of her finest men, Tsunade decided to offer the silver-haired man a rare exception of a Hokage giving the asked intel first."...You've seen his back, Kakashi."

After a small beat of heavy silence, a slow nod was given before the gray eye gave a narrowed look at the backyard and the long, dark shadows of the fence wall crossing it. Her offer had been received and accepted, apparently. "...That I have, Hokage-sama."

"Good. Then this mission hasn't been all wasted", came the dryly chuckling response, and as Kakashi turned to look at the amber eyes he felt on him, he could see the tiny spark of amusement in the golden pools. Before he could inquire further about the odd note in his leader's words, the spark disappeared as the Hokage narrowed her eyes, hence making the ex-ANBU captain aware of his now more vulnerable position against the following interrogation as the leading medic had caught on the interested look in his gray eye. Damn that woman and her ways of knowing her shinobi. "How are you feeling at the moment?"

After a fleeting moment of consideration, Kakashi gave the healer who sat close to him a smiling, yet carefully composed look. "Maa, in higher spirits than usually, I guess." Unless one counted in the latest moments that still made his thoughts freeze, his groin twitch and chest give a dull ache as he replayed the details over and over on the perplexing occurrence, the still missing pieces making his head hurt. What the hell had happened between him and the fiery-tempered chuunin?

As his luck had it, he knew Tsunade to be well aware of the fact that something was being held from her. He should have also known what she could do with the gained knowledge. "Nothing beside giving your teammate an almost lethal heart failure by being an ass and then knocking him out once more just after being awakened by giving him the same substance which seemed to have caused the earlier collapse as well, only to give half-assed intel on the situation and treating your Hokage like an idiot on the matter, I gather? I'd say that you're on fire at the moment, Hatake."

The imaginary kunai that was sent at her head by the steel-hard gray eye could have made even Danzo cower.

A light wave of a well-manicured hand made the gathered retort trip on itself on the man's snappy tongue. "I know, I know, just asking you to humor your superior a bit here, brat. Although I'd love to hear our prim and proper sensei's reaction when he hears how he had managed to shock our finest elite out of his wits by doing something that even the great Hatake Kakashi is afraid of revealing to his highest nin in command. " A feline, almost lecherous grin spread on the woman's face when more than just a few entertaining scenarios on the spoken relationship between the two men popped into her slightly miffed mind. After being alerted from her quarters more than enough for a while and being constantly challenged with half-censored information and bratty attitude, she did feel a bit justified to test the adrenaline levels of the source of her current migraine. "You know, there's always a risk in hindering information. To me it starts to look as if the man had sexually harassed you or something akin to it."

The shade of paleness that took over the masked features did make her itch for checking the jounin's blood pressure, though. Awkwardly, Kakashi cleared his throat and cast an uncomfortable look over the high fence, his shoulders more tense and the whole body way readier to bolt than a second ago, a note that was carefully tucked away in Tsunade's mind for a later look. "I would appreciate if you kindly kept your lips sealed about this around him, Hokage-sama."

"I bet you would." The words were clearly off note with the meaning the blonde woman had put inside them, and as the intense silence crept up on them, Kakashi started to understand there to be more than just the want to tease him with the questions and suggestions. Before he could ask, Tsunade gave a small sigh and provided him with the wanted answer. "...We're not that far to distinguish anything specific, but it seems that the possibility of contamination is now ruled out. We'll continue our work with it now that the situation is stabilized here...but I can't give any promises, brat." Tsunade cast the jounin an assessing look, as if she was tempted to tell more, but her sense of ethics was voting against it. Kakashi couldn't blame her for it, though, he of all experienced squad leaders knew the danger of passing out inaccurate information and causing the panic it usually did. Nevertheless, the feeling of ice cold dread pushed itself through his barriers and tore his gut with its freezing claw. Having the Hokage address him with way more sober words than usual was always something that set his systems on the edge. Being an ANBU and one of the most feared field nins wasn't a guarantee of any kind to escape the imminent decay and death of his body, but that didn't mean he would go down without fighting with his nails and teeth until the unavoidable end. He had learned his father's last lesson to him.

As if sensing the thoughts of the ex-ANBU, Tsunade gave the pensive figure beside her an understanding, softer look before turning to face the chill dawn.

"Fear...is a complicated thing, really." Kakashi's narrow, gray eye snapped wide open at the quietly spoken words, and the jounin turned his head to look at the calmly sitting woman on his side. A sorrowful smile tilted the painted lips, and as the light in the amber eyes faded into something deeper, Kakashi knew that the woman he was watching was no longer present on the terrace, but lost in her own memories. "Some of them will hold the person back, but some will make one even more determined with their actions. Having fear is natural and sometimes even recommended...and an excellent shinobi knows that." The skilled healer's fingers fiddled the hem of the green overcoat that had become one of her most know trademarks beside the obvious physical ones, and Tsunade directed a small, passing glance at the jounin on her side before looking at the clear sky that slowly turned into deep blue hue as the morning passed by towards noon.

The sliding doors to the terrace opened and Shizune peeked out from the created gap, clearly giving Tsunade the sign for them to leave for now. With a curt nod at her assistant, Tsunade directed her words at the former Hound. "Lay low for today, Kakashi. Yesterday was bad for you as well, from what I can tell considering the strain in your body. You should get some sleep and then do some light exercise, but not more than just keeping your muscles warm and accustomed to the training. Maybe even eat a bit more than usually." With a tiny sigh, the older woman stood up and gave the silver-haired assassin one last glance before she walked to her assistant on her clicking heels, her voice having gained back its usual strict tone, more for herself than Kakashi, that the jounin couldn't tell. "I trust you to execute your orders with professional attitude, shinobi."

A tiny, dryly amused smile crept on the hidden lips. It appeared that Tsunade knew the right words to keep him under control. "Understood, Hokage-sama", Kakashi said quietly and pulled himself into a crouching position in order to stand up as well and to escort the women out.

The sudden wall of ice cold water that hit his face and body made him stumble both in his steps as with his intentions.

The pregnant silence waddled away as it came into second thoughts on approaching the now very still and wide-eyed jounin who stared long and hard at the leader of his village, especially the hefty and now empty porcelain jug she held in her hand. The last droplets of icy water dripped from it on the wooden boards in a same rhythm as their kin that dropped from the darkly clothed man, the echoing tips and taps being the only sounds between the three persons standing in the shy sunlight that wasn't so sure anymore if it had been safe to descend on the light gray house that had earlier looked so nice and inviting.

"My, and here I had a bet that he'd react to that", Tsunade clicked her tongue and sighed with light mock in her voice, the clearly visible amusement pulling the corners of her red lips as she passed the porcelain dish back to mutely gawking Shizune. "Sadly, no. Just getting lost in the road of life again, apparently." And with that, not paying any attention to the two set of eyes that were staring at her in open bewilderment, the Hokage turned on her heels and walked into the dimly lit bedroom. On her passing way through the room, the amber eyes gave a fleeting, comforting look at the resting, cinnamon-skinned teacher that laid sprawled on the mattress, the usually very active and bright man seemingly comatose and still as the dead. Regrettably, she wasn't designated as the fifth Hokage for sympathizing Konoha's shinobis, and the eyes of the leading healer took back their accustomed hardness as the pigtailed woman snapped her command at her aide. "Come along now, Shizune, we have a village to pull through the day."

The eyes of the dark-haired woman snapped back into present on the stern words and soon enough Kakashi found himself holding a white porcelain jug in his hands and staring at an empty house after the front door's lock had clicked into place. The gradually warming sun caressed his back and made the slightly wet singlet become damp and clingy against his skin, which was the initial factor to pull the puzzled jounin back to the present. After two rather slow seconds, the mismatched eyes gave a blink.

Why exactly was he wet again?

As the reason for the rather unconventional morning muddled his mind, Kakashi found his legs carry him standing next to the sleeping man. Silently, the jounin observed the subtle rise and fall of the dark-skinned chest, and his ears were filled with the raspy sounds from the man's throat as the shallow breaths flowed past the lightly parted full lips. Before he knew it, though, the silver-haired man soon realized his eye having settled on looking keenly on one particular spot on the chuunin's upper body. More accurately one specific spot on the man's neck.

The discovery made Kakashi stop sorting through his scattered thoughts and made it all form into a more simple solution he knew he should act upon at that moment.

He really needed his coffee.


...67...68...69...no, no dirty thoughts now...70...

Drops of sweat fell on the matted floor and the training room's walls resounded with small grunts and hisses as trembling, pale arms pushed a well-built body up from the floor in rhythmical intervals.

..75...

Kakashi gave a tiny gasp as his left shoulder gave a twinge of pain. Nevertheless, he pushed himself up on his arms which were already weeping under the weight of his body, the jounin ignoring the discomfort and continuing the task. As always.

..76...

His thighs twitched and trembled as they struggled to hold straight, and his toes were clearly against his idea of fun about being pressed against the floor while doing the push-ups. He would have a nice chat with his ungrateful body the moment he had regained his full chakra reserves back. They would have a hoot.

..77...

Almost..there..78...79...

The hidden lips twisted into a snarl and Kakashi could feel the strength leave his shaking arms, but even if it would kill him, he had to pull the finishing move all the same. Gai would never let him hear the end of it if the man ever found out that not only wasn't he able to pull through more than only half of the amount in push-ups when compared to their usual muscle training but also skipped the last move due to some minor and petty reason such as severe muscle cramps. Feeling his whole body tense up and his tendons letting out a very pained whine concerning his following move, Kakashi once more relied on his training of withstanding pain when needed and, with an effort that made him briefly wonder if he was indeed getting too old for this shit, pushed his lower body up to stretch vertically above the sweating torso, his jerking calves setting themselves straight and giving space for the following thighs and knees while his toes wiggled towards the ceiling. A foul curse escaped the jounin's masked mouth as he agonizingly slowly pushed and maneuvered his body to stand on his outstretched hands, pale fingers digging into the woven mat that was already soaked with sweat. The falling, cooling drops that traveled over his face were making it harder to see and breath through the dark fabric that was still covering both his nose and mouth as they wiggled their way between his frowning eyebrows down to the tip of his wrinkling nose and seeped into the fabric while some of them took a detour across his eyes and cheeks and were unnervingly uncooperative for letting go of his eyelashes. Tilting the face upside down for a moment after regaining the feeble balance was clearly not the sharpest idea in the shinobi codex, as the almost soaked mask fabric suddenly released its excessive water down his shocked nostrils and the moisture on his lashes slipped underneath his eyelids.

Who said it was wise to train with a mask?

The passing mental whine made the ex-ANBU chuckle darkly and thus he almost sneezed when yet another assault of water drops hit his nose. Quickly, the spluttering man turned his face down to meet the floor in order to prevent from soiling his mask with something very different than skinpore-produced body fluids, and amidst his rising black humor for the whole situation, the gray eye turned steel-hard on a small, passing thought that flipped off at one of his nerves on its way out.

Apparently the same idiot who had severely underestimated his opponent in their game.

Once having his complaining body finally settled straight up in the air, the jounin started his descending to the floor. He could feel his legs sway dangerously to all sides as he continuously sought out his balance point, and let out a heavy heave as his nose finally touched the rough mat underneath him. Sadly, that was only half of it. A mixture of disbelieving laughter and aggravated cursing left the man's mouth as he painstakingly slowly started to straighten his arms once more, feeling his triceps scream in agony at the irrational manoeuvre he was clearly pulling just to piss his muscles off-

-just like he did with the sensei in the other room.

The passing thought made his gut feel as if it had been hit by a heavy punch, and the lips behind the dark mask pulled themselves back to reveal the gritting teeth behind them. An aggressive growl echoed in the training room as Kakashi with a final, desperate push heaved himself standing on straight arms and forced his mouth to form the last, final number he was currently all too willing to annihilate from their numeral system.

"..Eighty."

As his muscles took the permission to collapse under him, the infamous assassin fluidly rolled from his arms on his back and laid down on the woven mats, the man breathing deep and slow for a few minutes as he set his pulse down on a calmer level. The dark eye opened to observe the ceiling above his panting figure, and a pale hand rose to peel off the dark, damp fabric from the exhausted man's face. A trickle of sweat tickled the thin lips, and the fingers that trembled from the over-exertion slowly chased the drops away from the soft skin. The tingling moistness remained on the usually hidden mouth, though, and as his skin started to cool off after the straining exercise, Kakashi could feel his whole body being covered in a distinct layer of dampness that was merrily seeping into his clothes. A tentative tongue ran over the salty aftertaste on his upper lip, and with a quiet inhale, the lithe body rolled on its side while the gray, sharp eye cast a long look at the dim bedroom just dozen feet away.

The alarm began its beeping, and as he willed the blasted machine to die away and leave him be for now with no luck for the wish getting granted, the jounin picked himself up from the floor and promptly whacked the beeping nuisance silent before ambling towards the kitchen.


Tsunade gave a tired sigh and felt the cool surface of the table press against her forehead as she laid her head down for a brief break. Somewhere in the background she could sense Shizune roll her eyes, the younger woman being surprisingly quiet after they had returned into the Hokage Tower and had continued their work with the odd sample, a task which was proving to take longer than she would have liked it.

The sake bottle she held in her hand was just for stimulating her vigorously thinking mind, of course.

The pensive eyes fell shut for a while and a more pronounced sigh left the painted lips. Those two troublemakers were really giving their all to make this mission memorable. It also seemed that the notion applied on more levels than one as well, and the blonde woman tilted her head up to rest her chin on the hard wood, a thoughtful frown pressing the light eyebrows down on the youthful face. Before the present mission the two men had been worlds apart for what it came to their personal histories, but she could bet all her sake for that to be one of the reasons they still put up with each other. But, as her latest discussion with the arrogant blockhead had it, she had begun to sense there to be more to it than mere professional curiosity when the two shinobis were considered.

The dark look in the gray eye had carried something else than just concern in it, just like the brown eyes had when the Hatake brat had given them all a heart-attack for the first time.

The hypothesis of the ANBU's part in the whole mess had still remained as an odd question, to which she hoped to get an answer rather sooner than with yet another close call from death. For now, though, it seemed to be the best to let the men set the pace of sharing their information, as irritating as it was for her to be the last to know about the things happening during the mission. At least they had all learned many new things that had been immediately put under further inspection, so technically she couldn't complain. That didn't mean she would decrease the number of empty bottles on her study's floor anytime soon, though.

"Tsunade-sama."

The alarming undertone in her loyal assistant's voice was enough to make the hold on the bottle tighten for just a fleeting second.

It had been only a matter of when, hadn't it.


A mane of silver hair thunked against the kitchen cupboard and a pitiful groan escaped the masked lips.

The gray eye stared irritatedly at the almost empty coffee tin, and the lonely, almost apologetic chugs of one tiny coffee maker filled the desperate void of sounds that had taken over the sunny kitchen. Then the narrow eye shifted to look to the side of the currently hurting silver-haired head, and as the perceptive orb traced over the still splintered other cupboard door which didn't currently have an infamous jounin hitting his head against it, the deadly fingers tightened their hold on the unfortunate metal box.

By the time the wandering eye reached the wooden tea box that sat on the counter with a thin layer of dust on it, the silence had slowly snuck out of the back door.


A quiet huff left the painted lips as the amber eyes turned away from the riddle before them, and Shizune knew her leader well enough to wait patiently for the following order. Even Ton Ton was attentive and seemed to sense the twirling thoughts of her friends as the tiny piglet stood by the women and looked back and forth between their unreadable faces.

The voice that carried the order was sharp and left nothing to argue about. "Run the tests once more."


The daylight passed over the vast sky towards the evening, the rays gaining orange glow with passing minutes and the retreating light lengthening the shadows throughout the bustling village. As it crossed paths with an other shade of orange on its way, the shy rays blushed and scurried over the well-worn pages that had seen both peaceful nights and bloody battles, the words written on them bringing solace to many masked soldiers and comfort for the lonely minds while the lush illustrations made the pulse or a warrior beat a bit faster and providing the guarded souls the craved act of letting go of themselves just for a brief moment.

Softly, a pale finger traveled on one of those described pages, the deft digit tracing the forms of letters printed in coherent order while the unseeing eye stared at the paths it created on the off-white sheet.

Abruptly, the book covers were snapped closed and a lithe, strong body stood up from the wooden floor. Silently, a pair of legs made their way into a dark, ascetic room and to the small alarm leaning against one of its walls. Gently, the orange travel-sized volume was put down next to the alarm which was taken in the nimble hands and set for twenty minutes. For a beat, the subtle tick of its clock-precise mechanism filled the heavy air between it and the one holding it before it was put back to its place next to the abandoned book.

Without a sound, the silver-haired man, one of the most feared assassins of his time, the man of thousand jutsus and the Konoha's leading former ANBU captain (after one specific Uchiha) turned on the balls of his feet and slowly, ever so slowly slid his legs on the matted floor in patterns so familiar to him. Patterns he knew by heart and mind ever since he had been welcomed in his ranks. The right leg stopped and the left leg was fluidly lifted in a high spin kick once, twice, thrice, the pale-skinned body shifting its angles based on the body parts the shinobi yielding the deadly limbs wanted to damage and destroy. The strong arms were pulled close to the gradually warming body, the tightly curled fists ready to lash out whenever given permission to by the mind commanding the synapses that were connected to the working muscle tissues.

Sharply, the fists flew through the air, the gusts of air whooshing around the swiftly moving hands that wove their ways by swinging, jabbing, piercing and cutting, thus rendering their thought targets immobile. The movement of the jounin's upper body picked up the speed and slowly matching the shapely legs that turned, twisted, kicked, slid and crushed with their heels, calves and shins, and the mismatched eyes were closed as the physical dimension of the moving man narrowed into one and only being of Hatake Kakashi, the Konoha's infamous lightning user. A tiny, crooked smile tilted the masked lips.

No longer the one under the name Hound. The Third had known what he was doing.

Stretching out with his senses, the jounin could feel the rough fibers of the mats under his bare feet, felt the cool air caress his rapidly attacking hands and legs, could count each of his muscles working for him on each taught and copied move he was sure to remember until his death, whether he wished it or not. His life had been a harsh teacher, after all, and as all other nins, he knew that their strict teacher would eventually devour them all, just like the generations before them.

He could also bet that they didn't get any grades while being taken away from their reality, unless the gods of a shinobi took after one peculiar chuunin teacher and the man's obsession for red markers. Although, if they would, Kakashi was fairly sure his wouldn't be anything to brag about if the dark-skinned office dictator had anything to say to it. A chuckle escaped the lightly panting mouth, and the mismatched eyes turned into smiling crescents on the thought idea.

He would be undoubtedly scolded before being sent for some after-school lessons to polish up some of his marks.

The broad back rolled forward as Kakashi delivered a heavy blow against the empty room with both of his hands, the pale fists slamming sharply into nothing. He could count the beats of his heart that still, after so many years of serving his village, felt up for keeping him breathing and functioning. As his body shifted into yet another offensive posture in a low crouch with his fists held tightly against his sides, the Sharingan user didn't pay any longer attention at the almost automatic moves his body performed, but on the inner peace that slowly fell upon his mostly never resting mind.

Whoever thought that meditating should only consist of sitting still and breathing in dull monotonous rhythm hadn't clearly visited a hidden village.

Inhaling deeply, Kakashi let go of the last threads of lonely thoughts in his mind and let his bodily reality take over his inner world. One beat after another, the genius mind slipped into soothing blankness the further he reached inside himself, the more his lungs started to pull in deeper breaths and worked together with his diaphragm, the faster his feet and fists reacted to the tiniest stimulus given by the silence, his location in the room, even the changes of light itself. While dropping down to deliver a low, cutting kick and then spinning back up on his heels before performing the combo of six cuts and two high kicks, the jounin felt his mind still completely and his being becoming whole once again.

Now there was only him.

"You're a jounin and an ex-ANBU, Kakashi-san, and I expect you to act as your rank dictates. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less."

Bad timing for a flashback, really. The silver brows furrowed on the persistent thought that repeated itself in his mind and resisted to be pushed aside for now. To his unpleasant surprise, once one had managed to push through and had found out that the playground was currently deserted from other meddling thoughts, it didn't take long for others to join it.

"...It was only Iruka-sensei who got the reaction."

His mind was apparently running out of material for it to put such old thoughts into repeat. A horizontally cutting kick spun the assassin's body around on its heel, but as the body worked for its leisure, the mind worked suddenly for a very different goal. The dark gray, narrow eye peered open when the jounin's previously acquired meditative trance vanished in a couple of beats as the gears in his head turned forward against his will. Something was picking his mind, something he had missed earlier...something that made his insides stir and blood rush a bit faster through his veins as the genius mind mulled over the given options and questions on the matter the jounin seemed to face head on now that he had once created an opening for them.

The jounin's legs traveled above him when he rolled on his back as the low windmill kick swung at the immaterial opponents within a wide range-

"Then you shouldn't have let me to get into your close range, sensei."

As he straightened himself back up and punctured the air with sharp blows, the gray eye wasn't any longer focused on the things happening around it nor was it clouded from the absence of his mind as the eccentric jounin took a look inside his head. The securely locked mental archives were suddenly pulled wide open and different memory fragments flooded all over the neatly organized shelves the deeper he examined his common past with the team seven's former teacher.

Their collegial camaraderie had been the focus of many rumors for a while in the village ever since they had acknowledged each other on a firmer ground after the chuunin exams and had soon developed a unique way of communicating by combining both verbal and physical jabs with their normal vocabulary. A passing chortle left the masked mouth when Kakashi remembered how happy he had been to see the chuunin welcome him back from his mission by giving him a finger with a bright blush adorning the high cheekbones before the ex-ANBU had found himself dodging flying pens that were thrown in pairs with a speed which shouldn't have been even possible for projectiles consisting of mere wood and lead, the spontaneous attack being later labeled as the Pen Penalty n:o 32. Then again, the joke about securing the borders for Iruka's ass to feel safer again might have had something to do with that rather sizzling welcoming. It didn't take long for others to understand the explosive nature of their social encounters, not to mention the needed safety measures whenever they crossed their paths. When they met privately for training, though, they could discuss deeply over various topics, even joke around in different manner than in public, albeit the jounin also knew for a fact that the lightly bickering undertone they always seemed to have in their conversations would follow them to their graves.

"...Saa, you're demanding a straight answer from a shinobi? Is this something you picked up along the way when adventuring in the road of life?"

It also went for the hidden tones they both seemed determined to include in their shared thoughts. Then again, they were both trained to know that one shouldn't share the information that would most likely have them end up dead, so on the professional level he had nothing against it.

"...Well, for one, I'm fairly sure that there are smoother ways to seduce a person..."

A pale hand slowed its way through the air for a blink before the jounin's whole body picked up the earlier pace for his blows.

The personal level, on the other hand, was a completely different matter.

"If I had known the way you treat your body and mind I would have refused to work as your partner on this mission, jounin-san."

Paradoxically, one of the most mysterious jounins didn't like it when information was kept from him, moreover the lacking intel being rubbed in his face and it followed by a swamp of riddles to boot. He had meant the lecturing words he had told the infuriating bugger the other morning, and he could easily count the missions that had went very efficiently downhill because of the hindered information between the team members.

"And how does that give you the impression that I'm not afraid of you?"

They weren't sent to the front lines with the ongoing mission, granted, and everyone within their ranks were holding a thing or five from the others on regular basis, but the situation tended to change if two reserved individuals were to suddenly interact between one another for an extended period of time, moreover with an order to look after one another. Things were bound to start revolving around a few delicate subjects, intentional or not.

"Are you, by any chance, taken yet..Umino-san..?"

The meddling behavior from a third, uninvited party wasn't exactly helping either.

"This mission doesn't need your personal dilemmas to twist the results, Tsunade-sama doesn't need our disputes to wreck her precious work and as long as there's even an ounce of strength in my muscles and a capable tongue in my mouth I don't need to tolerate this fucking immature shit from you, superior or not. You're endangering our assignment only because you can't handle it when you're denied from something you want and you're forced to make an effort on the things you need."

Suddenly his nose gave a tiny twitch on the lingering sensation it had caught on amidst his vigilant brainstorming, and the jounin's mind reeled to an abrupt halt as it pecked down the odd note that had been causing havoc in his books for a good while now.

"- - the things you need."

It was the same damn odor that had made him lose it the previous times, the smell that had made him fight down the strange, sudden urges to reach for the younger man and make the brown-haired loudmouth scream for a whole another reason than general misbehavior. The scent that had been circling around them ever since he had woken up with the damp spot on his shirt's chest and what had gradually made it increasingly hard to refrain himself around the younger man.

The scent that had been the final push for him to jump over the edge of his self-control during the last night.

"- - need."

The deadly fist stopped in mid-blow while the gray eye fixed its stare at the dark wall before it, and all that could be heard in the dark and scarcely furnished space was a deeply breathing jounin whose thoughts were now running two hundred miles per minute.

By the time the alarm went off, the loud buzz was registered too late for him to react.


The room was silent, and only the quiet tick of a distant clock was heard between the room's silent occupants.

On the wooden table, a clipboard with four orderly spread sheets of paper laid between two women. The amber eyes stared at the figures that were written carefully on the slots of the diagrams, the explanations and footnotes littering the blank spaces between the numbers and lines, them creating a web of information that could only be understood by the ones specialized in reading it.


Quickly, a pair of sliding doors were pulled open as a half-naked jounin scrambled in with fast, stiff and long steps while at the same time the pale hands did their best to relieve the muscular body from the black slacks in the same swift way they had already dealt with the sweaty singlet. The shapely legs stumbled and slipped on the tiled floor as the heavily panting silver-haired man twisted the shower's faucets with trembling hands before they were slammed against the tiled wall and the silver-haired head dove under the chill water that descended on his heated skin, the already soaking remnants of the training gear being harshly kicked to the farthest corner of the bathroom the moment they had pooled around the man's ankles.

Unfortunately, the idea of a cold shower turned out to be the worst solution for his currently forming condition, and Kakashi had to muffle the arising loud groan against his upper arm as his skin turned feverish under the assault of pleasurable liquid needles that hit his body and made the once hesitant erection double both its length and hardness in seconds. The revealed rows of teeth were gritted tightly together and Kakashi could feel his jaw nerves wail under the painful strain, but as the gray eye glared hard at the present problem the jounin was facing, and seeing that there was little hope for him to escape the dilemma as yet another, stonger wave of dizzying desire pinched all over his body, the last coherent thoughts vanished into thin air as the man was hit on the head with the memories of what was last night.

The strong hands digging into his flesh through the fabric, the keen sounds of pleasure falling from the full lips that devoured his hidden ones, the feel of strong hips pushing upwards against his-

"..Fuck..more..!"

The scorching, rapidly advancing heat ravished his nether regions the moment when his pale hand took a hold of his already leaking flesh while his nose was once more drowned in the intoxicating smell, and he arched his back on sheer over-stimulus raking up and down his spine. In his wildly whirling mind, Kakashi knew what to expect and embraced himself as the final, missing piece of the puzzle fell to its place in his chaotic memory, the name all too familiar to him vibrating suddenly throughout his quivering body and thus pushing his hand to jerk sharply on each syllable that had been screamed against his lips by the richly rumbling baritone.


After the ticking minutes had turned into half an hour, a small gleam passed the amber eyes, and Shizune could sense the shift of ambiance in the study room even before her leader had uttered a single word on the matter.

"Shizune." The calm voice gave nothing away, but the younger jounin knew not to fall for that.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"

"Bring me the seal book."


The pale fist cracked an innocent walltile in half as the first course of electricity ran through the colorfully cursing man's body. The mutinous body saw its chance then and the hissing man almost bit through his bottom lip as the first, violent climax took what was its to have and made the jounin grit his teeth roughly together in order not to howl in sweet abandon.

"Kakashi!"

Bronze-skinned and attractive man with a horizontal scar running across his nose flashed before the hazy mismatched eyes in an unashamed mixture of blurry memories and lewd fantasies that could have made even Icha Icha look like a children's picture book, the deep brown, lust-filled eyes tearing a fiery hole into his burning gut and the ghosts of the heated whispers, moans, whimpers and groans kicking his whole system into overdrive when his hand picked up speed and the loud schreech of his raikiri surged through the air with the pulse of a lightning bolt that caressed his throbbing cock all the way from the base to the very tip in a storm of blinding pleasure.

"Kakashi!"

Oh how he could taste the man, hear the screams which left his ears ringing, see the willing and oh-so-fuckable body offer itself to him, feel the heat, feel the slick, hard, pulsing flesh in his hands, feel the tight, hot walls squeeze around him as he would pound mercilessly in and out of the delicious, firm, round-"Ah! Ahh! AH! H-Harder, harder, please- KA-AAH-KASHI!"

It was getting increasingly hard to breathe properly, his whole body shook from the inside and the trembling arm and legs worked overtime in their attempt to keep the heavily breathing and moaning man still upright and leaning against the wet wall amidst his pleasure as he rolled his hips frantically forward into his squeezing palm. The jounin's vision resigned itself from functioning properly and exploded into bright electric blue fireworks, making him miss the animalistic, keen shout that tore out of his own throat.

By the time the fifth release made his blindly staring eyes cross Kakashi had already forgotten why he had learned to count in the first place.


As Shizune nodded and left the desk for a short moment to retrieve the requested item, she couldn't help but feel a small chill of dread settle in her gut as she caught a glimpse of the suspiciously smug look in her superior's eyes.


Numbly, as the final tremors of the last, painfully fantastic orgasm died away, the pale jounin slumped flush against the cool tiles, and after a couple of weak beats, the shaking hands reached over and turned off the freezing shower.

Quietly, as the sounds of dripping water drops were registered in his almost deaf ears, the ex-ANBU counted his deep gulps of breath and the beats of his erratic pulse while his head refused to acknowledge its existence for the moment. The room was no longer in the same gravity field where he seemed to be, and the gray eye started to hurt dully as it tried to focus on the blurry surroundings that felt more than inclined on dodging his eyesight every time he thought he had gotten the hang of it.

The pale knuckles lost all of their color as the skilled killer's hands curled into tight grip on the smooth metal surface.


The moment she sensed her aide having left the room, Tsunade gave the test results in front of her one last look before reclining in her chair and crossing her arms resting on her chest. The woman's eyes sought out one particular note that was highlighted among the others, and the fair-haired medic felt her painted lips pull themselves into a wry, cunning smile.

It seemed that the life in the light gray house would soon take a turn in a direction which hopefully didn't leave her with two dead bodies in its wake.


Silently, a pair of freshly washed legs stepped over the threshold, leaving a trace of minuscule water puddles on the floor boards as the pale, half-naked body slunk in to the shared, small bedroom and stopped to stand near the room's other occupant.

Then, smoothly due to the years of training, the towel-covered body crouched down next to the tan sleeper who hadn't shown any signs of waking up during the whole day. The sharp gray and red eye observed when the full lips parted with a light exhale and the dark eyebrows furrowed ever so briefly before they smoothed again on the tan forehead, the chuunin's facial expressions dissolving away into the healing sleep that Shizune had cast upon the academy teacher.

As the older nin painstakingly slowly stood up on his hurting legs and made his uncharacteristically unstable way to his own bed, the gray eye gave the slumbering younger man a short look before closing up for the night when the jounin pulled the covers over himself after having dressed up in his mask and pajama pants. While the exhausted and still hazy-minded genius concentrated on the serene sounds of the night rain against the ceiling and willed his restless mind to take a break for now, the well-trained ears of the elite nin didn't catch the subtle pop that was heard beneath a hefty pile of clean yet unsorted laundry, the black, tiny notebook seemingly forgotten due to the other things that had demanded their attention for the past few days.

Nor did he sense the sharp look he was given by a pair of dark brown eyes.