AN: I hope you all enjoy this one.
Day 14, part 2: The consequences of avoiding the issue
With a sudden start, a pair of dark eyes snapped open to stare blindly at the dim ceiling that stretched above them, the corners of the vast, empty space shifting their locations in a disoriented spin around the shallowly, almost barely breathing body that laid on the narrow futon. After a second, the thickly and tightly dressed silence whose gentle touch lingered on the dark, tousled mid-long hair was registered by a pair of keenly listening ears that twitched in anticipation when they were suddenly pulled away from the deafening depths of what felt like twenty-inch thick cotton where they had been tucked in just a second ago.
A moment later, the rapidly thumping heart was given a permission to calm down and stay inside the now gradually more deeply breathing chest, as its thrumming had been blocking out every other sound that the owner of the mentioned sharp ears somehow knew that he should really be able to pick up.
Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the tan, well-sculpted body moved itself on the soft mattress, and the dark eyes were closed when a thin ray of light found its way across the honey-toned face. Letting the bright assailant take its time on the scarred nose and cheekbones, the man on the mattress carefully counted each of his limbs, each of his fingers and toes, counted the beats of his thankfully calmer heart, counted the deep yet quiet breaths that flowed past his nostrils and filled his lungs, only to flow back up and out past the parted lips. Finding that the number of the expected appendages matched with his last memories, the lean body shifted again, and a sigh flowed past the full lips, only to turn into a quiet hiss when an unexpected, dull ache flared all across the broad back and the narrow hips. The dark eyes were opened once more.
It seemed that it was time to move.
Moving like he had been trained to, the lean muscles rolled and pulled beneath the dark clothes they were covered with as the man heaved himself up on the futon and then fluidly stood up on the hardwood floor. The tentative shuffle of feet let him know that it was alright to take the first step without finding himself frenching the fibers of the wooden planks. At the thought of engaging into romantic actions with wooden surfaces, the dark body went rigid while the pony-tailed head almost gave itself a whiplash for looking around a tad too quickly. Seeing that there was nobody accompanying him, yet not being entirely sure if that was indeed a good sign, in silence, the dark-haired man chose his course, not to the kitchen as some might have guessed, but towards the source of the sensations that had started to make his skin tingle. As the man opened the doors to the training room, the mocha-skinned legs carried him inside the large space, only to stop almost instantly in their tracks. In a blink, the deafening silence overwhelmed his furiously tickling senses as Iruka took in the sight that greeted him in the ascetic training room when his legs started to move again, one tentative step at a time taking him further onto the matted floor that bathed in the eerily cold light. Pulling themselves out of the stupefied stare that they were suddenly frozen in, the narrow eyes quickly scanned the area to the man's left where the bathroom was, not so sure what to find from that direction.
What they did settle onto was enough to make his already settled heart miss three beats in an alerted stumble.
On the spot where they just that morning had had double doors leading to the bathroom, the remnants of splintered wood hung limply from their rails, the rest of the now annihilated sliding doors having scattered all across the tatami mats on which Iruka stood staring at the sight of destruction. A more cautious step brought the man closer to the large doorway, and with a peek inside the bathroom, he had his thoughts confirmed that it wasn't only the doors that had decided to re-decorate the two rooms. Slowly, the teacher's eyes swept their careful way back to the damaged floor, finally settling over the black-edged, scorched path cutting through the fibers of the tatami mats, the steady line crossing the floormats resembling a fatally accurate blade made of pure lightning and miscalculated use of chakra. As the chuunin's gaze followed the darkened path, he could feel his pulse reaching the regular mission levels the faster the longer the path went, crossing the mats all the way to the other side of the spacious training room, only to stop the journey on a considerately large crack that had appeared on one of the thick walls now facing the internally gawking chuunin. As much as it made his skin crawl, Iruka found himself searching for any tell-tale splatters among the crumbled, darkened patches of wood and plaster. Finding none, he cursed his training for suspecting that outcome. After a slow, hesitant minute, the academy instructor's body turned away from the large dent, and the keenly observing eyes were again brought back to the pitiful sight of what once were a couple of wooden doors. The bright lamps still lightening the bathroom created shadows over the splintered and shattered surfaces, so sharp, so inauspicious, that for a moment, the young chuunin couldn't decide whether or not he had been extremely lucky to be unconscious throughout the events that had happened after he had slipped out of this particular reality.
Then, gradually, Iruka shifted his attention towards what still were thankfully a fully functional pair of sliding doors that stood between him and the terrace.
Cautiously, the tan, lean legs shifted and stepped over the clear evidence of a struggle when Iruka strolled towards what he had sensed all the while during his examinations over the conflict area. The closed barriers still keeping him mostly shielded from the light outside had been left ajar, permitting the eager rays of light splay themselves all over the matted floor and modest walls, even climb daringly enough up on the dark skin of the brown-haired shinobi. As he took in a light breath, Iruka's nose was thrilled to detect the scent of fresh summer air of early noon among the soothing aroma of a passed rain. The tan, nimble fingers smoothed their way over the lightly worn hard wood, betraying a blink of uncertainty in their twitch, then took a better hold of the frames and then gave it to the honey-toned hands and strong arms to take care of the rest. With a smooth roll, rattle and clack, the doors slid in their rails as they gave way to the tan man left standing in between them, the otherwise rather quiet sounds suddenly bellowing like the army of thousand into the bit chilly air that greeted the chuunin's sun-kissed cheeks and briefly blinded eyes. Only that none of his senses were currently interested in anything else than a certain silver-haired man who had been standing in the warming sun and now slowly turned to meet his gaze at the tact announcement of his presence.
When the look passing the narrow, gray eye was detected as their eyes met in the shimmering sunlight, in an instant of a heartbeat, it felt as if the time had suddenly forgotten that it should move forward at all, which was enough for Iruka's tongue to take on action before his body and mind could even fathom that they should decide what to do next.
"...We seem to be missing a pair of bathroom doors, Kakashi-san."
His voice reverberated low in his chest and felt raspy in his throat when the words flowed through his lips, and when the look on the masked jounin's face changed into something more than just vague surprise, to Iruka it seemed that like him, the time either didn't even dare to breathe at that moment.
Then, as if facing a dangerous decision and then taking it before giving himself time to regret it, the gray eye curved into a familiar, light smile and the silver-haired head dipped as an affirmative. "...So it seems, Iruka-sensei."
"That isn't the only thing you'll be missing after a minute, Iruka-kun", a chilled, more feminine voice said in a leveled tone behind his back, and Iruka spun on his heels only to come face to face with an unimpressed, pursed pair of painted lips and scathingly glaring amber eyes, the owner of the said eyes having crossed her illegally strong arms over the ample bosom hidden beneath the light-gray tunic and green jacket.
The stiff presence of the older man that suddenly hit his scarred back did very little to ease Iruka's itching reflexes from taking the appealing option of fleeing on sight. "H..Hokage-sama.."
If possible, the glare in the amber eyes turned into a direct promise of making both of Iruka's lower cheeks to remember the upcoming scolding for his entire lifetime. "I'm making us some tea. Then we'll discuss." With that, the woman turned on her high heels and walked calmly into the kitchen, the aggressive, sharp clack of the hard heels leaving both men effectively silenced for now on the sunny terrace.
An almost inaudible cough caught Iruka's attention, and discarding the nervous feeling settling into his stomach, the chuunin turned to regard the man who was unexpectedly standing a few feet further away from him. The sheepish look crossing the jounin's masked face spoke volumes. "...Well. Shall we sit down?"
His only option was to comply.
Having tea or coffee with the Hokage was normally considered as a privilege not many got to enjoy during their career, no matter which rank they represented. Should it be rich and dark black roast with a bitter bite, cultivated green or ever sophisticated white with the slightest hint of jasmine, getting a summons for a cup was usually all it needed for the shinobi to both feel proud of themselves and regrettably also suspect that they had done something that their superior commander had troubles to understand and what they wished to hear more about. It also meant that the rules concerning the almost rather intimate meetings were always formed by each leading nin, a procedure which usually started with a certain amount of awkwardness when both the inferior and the superior rank tried to figure the appropriate ways to enjoy the offered hot beverage. In Tsunade's case, it took a bit of effort from Iruka to actually sit and let his leader make a cup for him, the chuunin having steeped all of their teas when he had sat with the Sandaime in the same manner. As the things were, both Kakashi and Iruka had gotten their fair share of the calm discussions with their Hokages, former and present. For a jounin and a chuunin to share a pot together with the Godaime, though, was an exception in the rules many didn't even know that existed in the first place.
"I suppose you wish to clear a few matters now that you are awake." One other rule that took them both a bit of time to understand in Tsunade's way of working was that she wasn't one to waste her energy on pleasantries when it came to the things she wanted the most. It was a good feature in her, both the ex-ANBU and the teacher agreed on that, but that didn't mean they wanted to be the targets for that particular characteristic.
The other thing was that they were both quite fluent in reading her mood based on the drinks she made. When it was green tea or mellow medium roast with creamy milk, things were well and nobody had been closely introduced to death. White tea meant that she was happy, usually for winning in a gamble or beating the others in negotiations concerning the well-being of her village. Mostly in those cases, Kakashi got his share of the more expensive roasts. Serving plain black, both tea and coffee, meant that she was tired and just heard something that made her summon her subordinates to humor her a little. Serving something that had been badly brewed, no matter if it was any of the aforementioned drink types or something else, meant that she would also serve them a solid fist after lecturing their spines so straight that even the copy-nin stayed stiff for a couple of hours.
Seeing the yellow color of the tea and smelling that the given odor was not what the poor sencha should have been adorning was enough for Iruka to rethink his shortly lasted relieve of having survived this far in his life. Judging from the surprisingly subdued aura coming from the jounin sitting next to him, it seemed that Kakashi was no stranger either to the subtle warning they were given. That or the man was just sulking for not getting any coffee, which, Iruka hoped, was just as propable, as the man seemed to have no inclination to touch the steaming mug before him.
After the slow beats of heavy silence, a frustrated sigh was heard from the woman's direction. "Umino Iruka, chuunin of Konohagakure. Report."
If Iruka flinched at the icy mention of his name, Kakashi was professional enough not to show that he saw it. The dark brown eyes met the amber ones, neither seeing the narrow gray cutting in between their staring competition, measuring both of them on its own scale before turning to squint at the sun beaming over them.
Lowering his gaze, Iruka watched as the reflects of light danced on the surface of the yellow-ish tea while he took a moment to contemplate his position. His Hokage wasn't amused, and with all things considered, the chuunin was determined to show that neither was he. Nevertheless, he knew his duties, and wasn't too keen to see how thinly Tsunade's patience was really running when it came to their current mission. The bitterly biting tea didn't ease his nerves, but was awakening enough to loosen his tongue. "Umino Iruka, reporting mission status. There has been an unexpected attack on the mission grounds. By the feel of it, it seems that minor injuries were inflicted, mostly on the victims back, due to an encounter with an unstable ANBU operative. Also having a minor headache, either from the hangover that was suffered earlier in the morning, or from the said attack. Due to the illogical nature of the assault and the unconsciousness resulting from it, the amount of information I managed to gather is unfortunately lacking on several areas, but one factor was confirmed to be the reason behind the attack." With that, the dark eyes were lifted to look through the terrace doors at the matted floor in the room next to the three shinobis, the chuunin's gaze narrowing at the sight of the scorch marks and splintered wood. "It wasn't the ANBU that attacked me. It was his element." Then the pony-tailed head turned to face the silver-haired one on his other side, meeting the lone eye peering over the dark mask. "I also heard an other elemental attack occurring in that moment."
"The ANBU suffered minor bruises, nothing that he couldn't handle with a couple of days' rest, if that's your concern, Iruka-sensei. I'd say that his ego suffered more than his physique", Tsunade's voice cut in before Kakashi could reply, but the look of hardened challenge passing in the gray eye wasn't missed by Iruka.
The exasperated sigh from Tsunade's side drew the men's attention back from the short-lived battle of wills. "Yet therein lies the problem we have with it. Even though it was his element, as you say, it still was the highly trained ANBU who suddenly forgot all rules of their professional etiquette and assaulted one of his comrades, not to mention someone of lower rank. The attack's intimate nature isn't certainly putting any pressure off his case, whether or not it was intentional. The elders will demand a full explanation on this once it enters the records, not to mention Ibiki isn't too happy with me at the moment."
A frown formed on Iruka's face at his superior's words. It seemed that the incident was gaining more serious consequences than he had thought. Whether they liked it or not, some shinobis snapped once in every two weeks in their village, and an assault that had been defected on time wasn't mostly even recorded, depending on the nature of the incident and the intentionality of it, of course. Then again, having an ANBU lose control poses a very high risk for the whole population, so he could easily follow Tsunade's logical concern in that. That didn't mean he couldn't still question it, though. "You couldn't have predicted that, Tsu-"
A single look from the woman's eyes made his tongue reconsider its existence. By the time the red lips started to form words, so did Iruka's ears complain about their unfair position for a second. "I could have, and both you and the masked mute over there know it very well, which leads us to the more pressing matters, Iruka-sensei", answered the slowly darkening voice of the blond medic, and the genin instructor was finally certain then that their discussion had more in it than just reporting and debating over the fate of one misbehaving ANBU operative.
To the chuunin's surprise, Kakashi's voice drifted over from his right in order to diffuse the ignited explosive tag that was their current conversation topic. "Hokage-sama-" However, before the man could speak past the honorific, the sharp crack of the wooden floor boards cut down the forming argument and almost made Iruka spill his tea.
Tsunade's voice was calm and collected, but not a single drop of warmth could be detected in it as the amber eyes looked down at the tea cup standing next to her right fist, the small ripples in the yellow liquid glittering in the sun. "I know what you're about to say, Kakashi, and you'll be sadly mistaken if you think that I let you act upon that suggestion. My intention is not to be rude, and we all know that me blowing my top at you two doesn't serve this situation that we have right now, but as your Hokage it's my duty to say when enough is enough. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I see the things are." The gradually gathered heat in the amber eyes turned into finest cold steel as they were lifted to regard both of the silent men. "You haven't focused on the mission at all. Based on what I have seen and heard so far, it would take a moment for an outsider even to understand that you actually have a common task that needs to be focused on. I'd say that you have both all but avoided this mission. Had you actually paid any attention to it, it would have been so obvious what will happen with the fucking ANBU that you would have had troubles to see past the fact staring at you in the eye." The hard glint in the narrowed eyes sharpened their focus on Iruka, and the chuunin felt his ears turn hot under the heavy scrutiny. "In our line of work, information exists to be shared, and you both have failed in what I doubted that you ever could fail to deliver. Keeping me in the dark for whatever reason concerning whatever it is that is happening between you two has so far endangered three finest soldiers that I have. You have somehow managed to mock both me and our fundamental rules that are the sole reason for our clans and children to survive by not acting like you're supposed to as two Konoha's shinobis but like a pair of irresponsible troublemakers who, by the looks of it, don't seem to know when personal matters become the village's matters. I will not tolerate selfishness, as you very well know, Kakashi."
On that choice of words, Iruka gave a confused blink and then turned his slightly widened eyes to regard the silent jounin next to him. "What is she referring to, Kakashi-san?"
"I'm referring to him not fulfilling his duties when asked to be a responsible adult, which is something that you have been found guilty as well, Iruka-sensei. I know that working with children sometimes rubs off on their teachers, but I still expected more from you...well, more than from the brat here", Tsunade said, and for a moment, Iruka actually saw the jounin's shoulders sag more than usual.
He wasn't sure if it was the sight of the defeated man or the blow to his own ego, but before he could stop it, Iruka had already opened his mouth. "Tsunade-sama, I think you're being unreasonable." Both the amber and the gray eye widened at the quietly spoken words, and Iruka sensed the air thickening around him, almost squeezing with the tightness rivaling Mitarashi's snake summons when he carefully weighed his words. "I can't speak on behalf of Kakashi-san, since I'm clearly also dismissed regarding some matters that only you and him seem to know about, but I also cannot sit and watch as my mission partner is excessively punished." If Tsunade was surprised by the hard, professional glint that he could sense taking over his dark eyes, Iruka allowed himself to be a bit pleased about it. "There are things that could have been avoided had the intel not been incomplete, true, and we both do apologize for that inconvenience. However, all of us know how dangerous it is also to give wrong intel which determines the next actions performed on a mission, the worst case scenario leading to someone's injury or death. Therefore I would rather listen to Kakashi-san's reasons for keeping some information to himself rather than reporting it to you, Tsunade-sama, before needlessly reprimanding a smart man for making poor decisions and for not using any other way of handling this mess. For myself, I do acknowledge that my decisions on some matters could have been more carefully evaluated and even replaced by better ones, but before the incidents that happened the night before and this morning, I can also say that we both have expressed interest on working for the benefit of this mission. As for the ANBU..." While taking a deep breath, Iruka clearly sensed the sharp look in the gray eye boring into his head. If that was supposed to silence him, the jounin clearly didn't know him very well. "..it would be a waste to condemn a man for falling prey for something he had very little control over."
The silence that fell on their leader's side was surprising, but what took both men by even more surprise was the sudden tilt of the painted lips as they turned into a dry smile. Then, as if she was just enjoying the unwavering attention she got from her audience and even more of throwing them off balance, a light huff left the now smiling mouth. "My, my. What a mess indeed." When the smile turned into a sharp smirk on the fair-skinned face, Tsunade was pleased to note that Iruka's hands jerked for a genjutsu dispelling seal while the unnervingly bored gray eye didn't look so bored anymore. "That was an interesting choice of words you had there, sensei."
Iruka decided that he already disliked the look on his leader's face, and judging from the uneasy grunt heard from the masked assassin, apparently the jounin next to him seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
The rise of one blond eyebrow was all the two trained killers needed in order to steel themselves for whatever it was that was on their way. "Sensing the unease from you makes me think that I am right to assume that the incidents about which Iruka-sensei spoke about are connected." Although, now that she wasn't any longer wallowing in the deep pits of being mightily pissed at the two idiots for increasing the amount of her paperwork, Tsunade also had time to really take a look at the men sitting before her. After a moment, the long look turned into a baffled blink. Then, all of a sudden, the blink turned into loud laughter. Had the men expected some sort of reaction towards their shy tongues, deducting from the positively pole-axed looks crossing their faces, that apparently wasn't it.
While ignoring the slightly alarming sight of his leader losing it once and for all, Kakashi turned to the younger man who was alarmingly silent on his behalf. Pointing at the now undoubtedly officially crazy Hokage, he was fairly sure the sharp-minded teacher knew what he was referring to. "Was it something you said?"
The fierce blush decorating the high cheekbones wasn't dark enough to compete with the scalding hot scowl he received form the other man. On a second look, though, the eyes of the chuunin softened into speculative kind, and Kakashi knew then that the conflict in the bathroom was far from being settled. He might as well start sharing the information right then rather than postponing the inevitable confrontation with the self-proclaimed dark-haired dictator of report stamps. The annoyed huff that was drowned into the loud giggles somewhere in the background was all he needed to give to the dark-skinned man to know that he had the other's full attention. "It didn't hit him." The gray eye was briefly closed and the tiniest shrug lifted the darkly clothed shoulders. "Badly, at least."
If possible, the stern look in the narrowing, dark brown eyes only intensified. "You cut through the tatami mats with it, Kakashi-san. How do you define 'badly' in this case?"
"Not enough to kill on spot and get me sentenced for murder", the almost hushed, low voice of the masked man murmured, "...but convincingly enough to stop his advance." With those words, the gray, narrow eye peered once again over the dark mask to its counterparts, and the jounin felt a sharp flare of presence pinch him from the chuunin's side. Slowly, his gaze traced the red tinge holding its ground on the sun-kissed, high cheekbones as the given intel was calmly contemplated in the now troubled-looking genin instructor's mind. "...It wasn't my raikiri that I hit the kohai with, sensei." If the teacher felt uncomfortable to be spotted on speculating things, at least the man didn't give Kakashi any reason to think that way. The dark-skinned fingers flicked some imaginary dust from the man's dark uniform shirt before the chuunin turned to meet the gaze Kakashi was sure the man had felt on him.
"It still was your element. I clearly heard the screech."
Kakashi saw the sharp point when it was pointing at him with fatal accuracy, the man also absently noting that there could be no laughter heard from the third nin's direction anymore. "That's true, but I used that to get rid of the cabinet doors." The pale fingers stopped the drumming they were performing against the still abandoned mug that now had less warmer content in it, and then moved to point vaguely at one certain wall behind the dark-skinned chuunin. "That came from my fist."
The confusion showing in the dark eyes would only last a couple of seconds, the jounin was sure of it. "Your fist? But won't that require-" And there it was, the dawning of realization. "You idiot!"
"Maa, it isn't that simple actually, Iruka-sen-"
"I'm pleased to hear that you are finally agreeing with me, Iruka-kun." The dark eyes were turned back to Tsunade, but not without treating Kakashi with the last withering scowl dark enough to make the jounin's mind halt in mid-thought. After a slow beat, Kakashi also realized that the laughter had been replaced with more indistinguishable layers of amusement now drifting around their Hokage's persona. Before he could turn to the woman, she beat him to it.
"I'll go make us another pot. Maybe now I'll be able to brew the tea well-enough to make it somewhat swallowable. Care to join me and show me which teas I can use from your box without getting you on my neck, Iruka-sensei?" Tsunade inquired with a tiny grin adorning the painted lips, her voice having gained far more warmth and a more pleasant ring than earlier in the noon. Not waiting the reply, the tray was taken with a graceful sweep in the strong hands and the cups, still full mug and pot were gently picked on it.
If Kakashi had registered the wave of liquified electric current traveling all over his left side when the tan chuunin had stood up and obediently followed their leader to the kitchen, the jounin regarding the sunny yard hid it well.
"The brat's discipline is cracking a bit."
From watching over the steeping jasmine tea, Iruka whipped his head around to look at the woman leaning against the counter next to him. "Excuse me, Hokage-sama?"
A faint smile tugged the painted lips, and the small nudge of the blond head told the teacher what was it that the woman was referring to. "He's having troubles sitting there by himself as we speak, knowing that you're at my mercy over here and he can't do anything about it. Well, nothing that won't get him spanked for disobeying an order, that is."
"I'm afraid that I don't follow, Tsunade-sama." Truth to be told, the academy instructor wasn't sure if he even wanted to. The pointed look from his leader made him realize that he had been holding the sieve a bit too tightly, though, so he would also be a fool to think that his internal debate hadn't been detected by her.
The amused hum leaving the woman did little to ease the tension. "That seems to be the nowadays' trend, apparently."
Iruka let the sieve land on its holder with more force than intended, but he was sure it could handle it. "May I speak directly, Tsunade-sama?" Letting his eyes turn downwards to the awaiting tray, the teacher counted the seconds he knew the woman was more than ready to use in order to lengthen answering his request. He managed to count five.
"I didn't know that you would ever need my permission to speak directly, Iruka-kun. At this point it's even recommendable that you do so." The lilt in the woman's words spoke volumes.
"Then I expect the same from you, Hokage-sama." Lifting his gaze to meet the other, the dark-haired man knew then that speaking was now only a formality needed to make things absolutely clear. "A Kage doesn't interfere with a mission unless the help is urgently or desperately needed, and even then things are handled without any excessive fuss. So why change the protocol now?" Seeing the frown forming on the fair-skinned forehead, Iruka was fairly certain that the implications behind his question did hit the mark.
As the frown softened into an unreadable mask on his Hokage's face, Iruka took the tray and headed back to the terrace without waiting for a reply. After all, he was pretty sure he will get one in just two minutes. Besides, the blink from the jounin who was still sitting on the terrace and who by the looks of it managed to sense a familiar scent of dark roast in the air made him briefly stop worrying about the possibly peeved Hokage behind his unguarded back. "I made you some coffee, Kakashi-san."
The pale-skinned man appeared to have lost his tongue yet again.
With a passing, albeit a bit uneasy smile gracing his lips, Iruka sat down and while he heard the clack of familiar high heels heading towards them, the honey-toned hands offered the mug to the staring jounin and the pony-tailed head nodded at the mug's direction just to make sure that the pale man hadn't suddenly become deaf and blind as well. That would be detrimental for their continuing confrontations in the mission room, the chuunin was sure of that. "You had some new type so I hope it's alright."
The gray eye slid over to the mug, and then the mismatched pair quirked into smiling crescents with a sliver of strange unease. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei."
"You really do have a resourceful mission partner, Kakashi." Tsunade's words made them both turn to the woman who stepped over and sat down facing the men. "All he needed was one question to annihilate my plans to make you squirm like the little misbehaving mental miscreant you are." If the dry smile was meant to humor them, Tsunade clearly didn't care if it failed to do so. "In any case, he also makes me wonder why I haven't forced him into a jounin rank yet", the eye-roll from the chuunin made her chuckle, "which, I know, we have debated over many times already, and I'm not getting into that miserable attempt of subtle persuasion now." What she was getting into, though, might soon enough make Iruka consider turning himself into the wondrous insanity of jounins. One could never tell with the polite and well-behaving ones.
Then again, her bets on the question of who will crumble first were on the silver-haired one. "Although, seeing that the result from my gifts was only you both having one hell of a hangover according to brat here and then Iruka-sensei being molested against the nearest sturdy piece of furniture by a man who was not part of my equations, I'm starting to think that even if I tossed you two into a narrow closet after having stripped you stark naked and tied up skin to skin, it would still be me who is left with the biggest headache and no happy endings in sight."
Hearing the sudden mixture of pained gurgling and coughing made Kakashi turn to look at the choking, currently crimson-colored chuunin who apparently had a quirk of drowning himself with beverages, and without further thought shared on what was and what wasn't wise in their situation, on reflex, the pale hand rose, aimed and whacked the broad, scarred back-
-only for Kakashi to gain a shocked shout and a cold slap of water splashing across his face.
The sudden, quite painfully obvious and steel-hard erection roaring for freedom inside his training pants while he numbly listened to the taps of water hitting the wood beneath him was only the prelude for what the copy-nin, the man of thousand jutsus and the infamous former Hound, little by little, understood to be the worst coffee time with his Hokage.
Ever.
During her long and adventurous career as the infamous kunoichi of Konohagakure and one of the troublesome triplets also known as legendary sannins, Tsunade-hime, the Hokage of the Hidden Village of Konoha, was about to make medical history. Most probably something that will be instantly forbidden to ever be tried again and boosted with a severe threat to visit Ibiki for an afternoon talk should anyone even dare to consider trying it, but a breakthrough nevertheless.
As she calmly observed two of her favorite shinobis, a chuunin and a jounin, sitting in more or less stiff attention, both fully alerted to either hide in the nearest bathroom in two seconds or escaping over the high fence wall judging by the stricken look in one particular gray eye, Tsunade became also very aware that the said breakthrough might also force her to allow these two unfortunate individuals to have an extended leave from work and give them a hefty paycheck with a certificate to the hot springs, all expenses paid.
However, since the tense ambiance that had settled among them had no intention to dissolve itself without a gentle push, the blond busty medic knew when to take the initiative. It was her duty, after all. The rustle of green jacket ushered the silence away as the pig-tailed woman reached for the pot and filled both hers and the currently speechless chuunin's cup, and then scooted to settle leaning her back against the warm terrace wall. She let a wry smile slither its way to her lips at the sight of the two men who apparently couldn't fathom what had just happened between them. "I see that it has progressed further than from what I saw last time."
With the spell efficiently broken between them, Iruka was the first to catch up with the situation, the tan hand being hastily lowered back to the ground from the air it had been wavering after having delivered the wet comeback to the silver-haired jounin who seemed to take a while longer to pull his head back to the terrace they were sitting on. After a beat, Kakashi ran a pale hand through the now damp hair before squinting accusingly at Tsunade with the narrow, gray eye. Not long after, as Iruka caught the look on the jounin's face, the dark brown eyes narrowed into speculative, peeved slits on the honey-skinned face and were turned to meet the challenging golden-brown ones.
A snort was what Tsunade gave at that. About time those two started to act their age. "That was the punishment for keeping me uninformed. You're not the only ones who can play this game." Then she took a swig from her lukewarm tea before dangling the cup loosely in her hands, her eyes casting a look to the village behind the high fence. "But that tease was still valid and liable, since it withholds the key factors to your situation. " The tea cup stilled in one hand. "Iruka-sensei. You said that it was the ANBU's element that attacked you rather than the man himself."
Glancing up from the precariously tilting cup that he had been watching, the dark-haired man gave a nod. "Yes, Hokage-sama." The woman holding the cup didn't need to tell him to continue. "I noticed that the ANBU behaved very differently with me when compared to his interaction with Kakashi-san, whom he usually addressed as 'senpai'. First, my initial thoughts were that he was either genuinely insane or actually interested in me in more than just collegial way, considering how the first two encounters went with him." The quick glance at the silent jounin wasn't missed by the amber eyes. "For the third time, well, we can all see the result of that." The strong, bronze-skinned arms were crossed over the broad chest, and the sannin was relatively pleased to see a familiar, thoughtful frown forming on the man's face. She had missed that look. "It took until the third time for me to put my finger on it, though, so for his defense I have to say that he still might not know what happened to him. It appears that the way the elements behave and take room from our consciousness is more devious than we first thought. This could have been happening ever since the first day we started the mission without us even realizing it."
"Then why is it that a man with no apparent connection to you has a reaction to your element?" Judging from the voice of the Hokage, which was as unreadable as ever, Iruka understood that his answer was only meant to confirm what the woman had already thought. Lifting a finger to rub the bridge of his nose, he was fairly sure that she got the message.
"In the map of the elemental chakra nature transformations [1], there are five elements: fire, wind, earth, water and lightning. This is what we've been taught since genin. It is also taught that all of these elements have their counterparts towards which they have the advantage, and then of course the ones that they're weak against. In our case, the elements that were mingling together were lightning, water and earth." A cough from some dust interrupted the lecture, and Iruka took a sip from the tea which, he was sad to notice, had gotten cold. "That means we already had a certain power balance created between us three on the elemental level, on which I was largely at disadvantage towards the ANBU as his element was dominant over mine, in other words earth beats water, whereas he and Kakashi-san have a very different situation since earth is weak against lightning."
Apparently the topic was interesting enough for Kakashi to put his mouth in use. "But most of the jounins have several elements at their disposal. That would affect the balance surely."
As much as he would have loved to agree with the man and get things done quicker, Iruka shook his head. "It would seem logical, Kakashi-san, but apparently this occurrence is tied to the innate nature character of the shinobi; in your case, lightning. Some of us do have the tendency for more than one nature affinity, and the ANBU seemed to have some strange advanced form where he could make wooden things react to him",on those words, the gray and the amber eyes exchanged a calculating look without Iruka noticing, "but most of our encounters have had only one element per each individual reacting to the other. In my case, water conducts electricity, so it's not completely useless against it as it is towards earth, but the only element mixing to it has been your lightning and not the others that you are capable to use. We haven't started any fires here yet."
"And I certainly hope that you don't", Tsunade's amused remark cut in, after which a moment of silence fell upon them. "What do you make of that, Kakashi?"
Sensing the surprised look given to him by the younger man didn't make the jounin any less self-conscious than he already was. "It fits to what I have been able to deduct so far, Hokage-sama. It could also be either the cause or the symptom for the chakra disturbance that we spoke about earlier."
Apparently the chuunin took that as his cue to join in the discussion. "Wait, you already talked about that?"
"Yes, we did. It became somewhat imperative to do so after what happened here this morning", Tsunade said and gave a pointed look in the direction of the training room. "I don't know how we even managed to overlook that matter at all, because usually the things that have Kakashi involved are somehow always ending up with him screwing up things concerning chakra. Maybe I had hoped that putting him on a mission where he wouldn't have much to begin with would give me a different result." The displeased note in the spoken words was enough to keep Iruka from choking on his tea the second time. He remembered more than one time when they had discussed about that possibility in the Hokage Tower. On a hindsight, had he known that he were to be assigned to witness the failure of the said hypothesis, he would have snatched the first long-term mission offered outside the village's gates on that fatal morning when they had received their summons.
"In any case, it seems that our chakras are indeed somehow involved in this, sensei." Albeit annoyed from the offhand remark, Kakashi steered their conversation back on track. "The blue color matched the color of our regular chakra, and remembering the fight where you said it all just suddenly intensified for you, one can clearly see the connection now that it occurred today." Without waiting the question, the gray eye turned to look at the staring brown. "I happened to experience the same thing with the kohai."
Well that explained the crack in the wall, indeed.
"When the elements mix, so do the chakra levels on certain degree, though we cannot be sure what those levels are and in what conditions it happens, but it happening twice means that it will not stop from happening", Tsunade said and gave a tired sigh. "I can't say if it shares any connection to the power balance of the elements-"
"I believe it does, Hokage-sama." The level of certainty in the chuunin's rich baritone was convincing. "I was already struggling with the ANBU when he came onto me, granted, because a chuunin against the elite is just a catastrophe waiting to happen on the chuunin's side", he allowed himself the tiny ramble there, most likely to comfort his bruised ego, "but the instant when my element clashed with him, it felt almost as if he was...draining me. 'Eating' would hit closer to the feeling I had, but knowing the sensitive nature of the things that have happened here so far that just sounds like picking a fight with the pervert." The awkward cough he received from the jounin spoke volumes, which did ease the rising blush from his face. "He was taking my chakra, or so I felt at least."
"...The chakra that Kakashi took from him in order to beat some sense into the porcelain mask, apparently. I see." The speculative rise of the blond eyebrow did agree with him. The gathered information left all three of them sitting in silence, since they all knew that they had only scratched the surface of the most important aspects on the things gone awry. The pursed lips turned into a thoughtful pout on the youthful face of blond-haired lady, and the amber eyes gave the cup she still held in her hands a pensive look. "...I'm asking you to listen and obey carefully for what is about to happen."
The men weren't really given any options there.
Knowing that she had their more or less willing consent, Tsunade swirled the tea in her cup when the words started to flow. "In order to understand what is happening between you two, we need to understand how the human brain and body works altogether. Both autonomous yet tightly wrapped up in the necessary cooperation in order to stay functional in the long run, our minds and bodies create a complicated system that is coded to work in certain ways. That particular coding is the key as to why we act the way we do, a combination of our genetic inheritance and then the effects of the environment and innate tendencies which either are activated or deactivated based on what happens to the individual carrying it. Due to the said code, our society ends up having both geniuses", Kakashi gave her a sharp glance on that, which made her smile for a fraction, "and so-called average persons, among which the different levels of intelligence and such can vary a lot." With those words, Tsunade pushed herself off the wall and turned to sit face to face with her two best men. "But this has nothing to do with the actual intelligence itself which is usually related to the logical frontal lobes of the brain, but the more complex system what we call the limbic section, which also has its role in shaping the individual's intelligence. Ever heard of that?"
Not waiting for the former Hound to fill in the blanks, the bronze-skinned sensei was already providing an answer. "It's the part of the brain that is more connected to the emotional decisions that are made, thus also affecting our social behavior."
"Correct in one go, sensei, not that it's surprising", Tsunade chuckled and then waved her hand vaguely in a circular motion through the air. "The limbic system of the human brain is the most crucial part for what we're currently having, since that specific system makes us to do impulsive and instantaneous, even unconscious decisions whenever we're stressed, nervous, scared and so on. The most fascinating thing about it is that it doesn't necessarily require any effort from the conscious frontal lobe of the brain to ignite the needed actions, whether or not they fit the current situation. This means that sometimes people get beyond the point where they themselves understand what they're doing, not to mention remembering it afterwards." The waving hand was put to support the narrow chin when, for a brief moment, the tired amber eyes turned to look at the sky above them. "But in the case of a shinobi, there is a dilemma in that." The sharp clack of the tea cup hitting the floorboards told the men that the woman had turned her focus on them and was picking up the pace, most likely out of irritation. After a sigh of silence, a stern look took place in the keen eyes. Without further warning given, Iruka suddenly found his hand taken into his leader's rather tight grip and turned palm upwards. "Kakashi."
Before the baffled academy instructor could catch onto what was happening, a pale hand took a firm hold of the tan wrist, sending a massive jolt of electricity stinging the honey-toned forearm all the way from the fingertips to the elbow and then traveling a straight line through the whole body that tensed up instantly at the electric touch. After the shock died and the hold on his arm was released, it was only then that Iruka realized that to be his shocked shout that was echoing in the barriers around them. Not waiting to be caught the second time, the tan hand was snatched back from the loosened hold and cradled protectively against the heaving chest of one immensely peeved and blushing mission room worker. Noticing that both of the other nins had already seen what felt like a very vivid erection tenting and already leaking precum against the fabric of his slacks wasn't really making him feel any better about his new embarrassing status update. "What the hell did you just-"
"We're not done yet, now I need you to touch the brat with the same hand." At the incredulous look she was given, a challenging frown gathered on Tsunade's forehead. "Well?" Grudgingly, the younger man turned towards the older, though the cautious, even worried look the sensei gave to the masked male was an odd factor in the equation.
The jounin didn't at first seem like he had even noticed the man, but after a moment, a nod with an encouraging, masked smile was given while the jounin offered his arm to the chuunin. "Aim well."
Tsunade couldn't decide whether the eye-roll the chuunin gave was meant for the whole situation or solely at the jounin's words, but still, the tan hand reached out and took a hold of the pale wrist.
Barriers or not, the passing flock of birds did change their course quite briskly to somewhere else above the light-gray house.
Not that any of the stunned shinobis could see that happen, since all of them were at that moment far too interested in taking in at the sight that was one silver-haired jounin straddling one gaping chuunin against the terrace floor. Frozen in place, the tan hand was still holding tightly onto the pale wrist that was now visibly shaking beside the tan man's head, while the other quintet of honey-toned fingers were currently keeping their iron hold onto a soaked, masked chin and pushing it at arms-length away from the man beneath the equally aghast-looking pale assassin, making the cold drops of water rain down onto the gasping man caught between floor and the said male body. Where the jounin's mouth and other hand might have located itself if an other pair of hands hadn't also taken a good hold of the stilled man behind his well-sculpted back was a thought that not one of them was sure enough to say out loud.
Slowly and as gracefully as a thoroughly wet and even more aroused male body could, Kakashi untangled himself both from sitting on top of the other man and from the hold of his leader, and scooted slowly back on his spot before directing his gaze to the yard facing an other direction from the others. Cursing his sense of loyalty, the jounin had to wonder how it was still keeping him from becoming a missing nin right on the spot when he found himself sitting on a sunny terrace under the eyes of his recently jumped colleague who undeniably had felt his eager lower section pressing against the man's own and the Hokage who was revealing a side of her that he certainly wasn't willing to meet anytime soon.
"Regardless of what I've heard and seen so far, what happened now makes me doubt if the claim of you two not having sex on this mission is accurate at all."
On a second thought, maybe the rogue nins that the copy-nin had encountered on his missions did have a well-thought point for leaving their villages for good and facing the violent consequences. Ignoring the shocked silence from the pounced man next to him, the jounin turned his head to give his leader a strained smile behind the dark mask while a pale finger rose to scratch the dark fabric covering the man's cheek. "Maa, when you say 'have sex'..."
For the shortest minute, Tsunade asked herself if all of this was actually worth her troubles.
What a silly question.
And then the metaphorical dice began their roll. "An event where two consenting individuals normally have an intercourse, which usually aims for them both having an orgasm, which in heterosexual affairs often but not always leads to the female becoming pregnant, while as with-"
Cursing the mission to hell not for the first time during the eternally long and torturous weeks, Kakashi sat straighter on the floor, and after giving one final look of provocative silent insults to the blond pest for forcing him to speak out the unspoken before he could dig himself any deeper pit of humiliation, the masked mouth was opened. "We had sex twice, Hokage-sama." If anything, the bright fuchsia abruptly occupying the silently staring younger man's face to his left was the much needed last push for him to fix and detonate the awaiting tag he knew had just been a matter of when. "Iruka-sensei was also the one taking the initiative in both occasions."
Whether it was relief or poorly hidden disappointment crossing the blond-haired Hokage's face, Kakashi wasn't paying much of attention to it concerning how his existence was now put on a very sharp and thin edge of a quivering kunai. The pull of the painted lips did make his silvery brow twitch a fraction, though. "Is that really all-"
"HOLD IT."
As both the infamous S-class assassin and the legendary sannin turned to regard at the finely trembling young nin who had sat up from the floor and whose tea cup was now only a cough away from being annihilated in the tan hands squeezing it, Iruka took a deep breath he knew he needed to keep himself from unleashing his worst temper out to play as the words of the masked prick echoed throughout his head. The unreadable look taking over the mismatched eyes did very little to make him discard the strong urge to maim the man who had all but blurted out the things they hadn't dared to cough up all week, even less the past morning before it all had been shot to hell. All he could think of as a reason for it was that the ex-ANBU had finally thought out the perfect way to get back to him for what he had accidentally seen while they were in the toilet – which was a topic that his visual memory really shouldn't pull out to ogle while having tea with his superior commander and the bastard in question, especially since the currently burning desire in his pants didn't need any more fuel in that fire. "What do you mean with me taking the initiative, Kakashi-san?"
Unnervingly enough, the one-eyed nuisance was all up for dodging the question. "...Well, we could also count the other two times, since I did give you quite a hard-on during the massage and before that in the kitchen-"
The man was dead. "Forcing an elemental dysfunction that causes an erection on someone doesn't translate into having sex with the said person! All I know from that night is that you TRICKED me!" The twinge in Iruka's groin was apparently remembering that one.
"Wait, you tricked him into having an unwilling erection?" The look passing their Hokage's face made Kakashi's future uncomfortably long queue of D-rank missions seem quite tolerable. For couple of months, at least. Then again, sensing the quite determined killing intent radiating from close proximity where his mission partner was sitting, keeping himself away from the village for more than just couple of months started to feel also quite appealing.
"Who said ANYTHING about having A 'WILLING' ONE in the first place?!"
Not sure if he should be glad to see that the seething man shifted his annoyance towards an other target, Kakashi made a note that at least Iruka's volume levels were still as unmonitored as ever. The second when the narrowed, burning eyes that promised him hell and beyond turned back to him and were furthermore accompanied with a sharply pointing tan finger, though, he found himself being even more worried for himself when the previous yelling tuned out into a leveled, well-punctuated begin of a lecture. "Furthermore, I don't know what kind of training you jounins get with applied psychology, but-"
"Well then, did you have a different story in mind as to how many times have you had these, say, intimate situations, sensei?" Tsunade's words sharply interrupted the rising lecture, and as if suddenly falling short with the amount of synapses needed to form a coherent logical answer to that question, the witty tongue suffered a stroke behind the open sun-kissed lips while the whole honey-toned body decided to pick that exact moment for practicing muscle control, the ranting chuunin halting in mid-scold in a way that made both the jounin and the sannin hope that the man hadn't injured himself in the process.
As quickly as it had been frozen open, the tan jaw snapped shut with an audible click of the verbal fangs. The quick, hesitant glare that was then shot at the jounin's vicinity made the leading medic's blond eyebrows rise up to meet the equally blond hairline. "..Well...uh..." Never before had the ex-ANBU and the legendary kunoichi seen a man grow so red so fast. The tea cup was squeaking for help through the abrupt silence, yet nobody heard its pleas.
A wide, evil grin spread on the painted lips so quickly that both shinobis realized instantly just how grave mistake the younger nin had done with his lacking reply. However, to Tsunade watching them catching onto her train of thought wasn't nearly as entertaining as seeing the tormented and embarrassed look passing the older shinobi's masked face. "Then is your mission partner correct with these numbers, Iruka-sensei?"
Fascinated, Tsunade observed as a fleeting, uneasy look was shared between the men before they both got pointedly interested in the immaterial dustbunnies waving at them on the terrace floor, since by now the two interrogated men had more than just confirmed that they were punished in so sadistic way that the merciless knuckles of their leader had started to resemble wings of a butterfly just gently caressing their now reddened cheeks on its way to the nearest dandelion. By the time the dark-haired and profoundly blushing chuunin academy teacher nodded, the needed data had already been collected and deciphered by one blond Hokage.
It was time to cut the chase. "Do you know what a trigger is, Iruka-sensei?"
The confused look passing the blinking chuunin's eyes made it difficult for her not to roll eyes to her admittedly stupid and self-explanatory question, but Tsunade held her poker face. Seeing the younger man realize that he was indeed waited to answer and then for him to search the correct words in order to answer without sounding demeaning towards his leader's IQ, Tsunade was also fairly impressed how well-composed the tan man was still acting despite unwillingly revealing things about his sex life to his leader while his partner in crime was glaring daggers at the floorboards next to him.
"...Um...in standard shinobi codex, a trigger is defined as a device or means to activate a wanted series of events, and the methods for creating it varies depending on the purpose and the situation where it's needed. It can be snapped, tweaked, pushed, pulled", by that moment the teacher had noticed that there were two pairs of eyes staring at him, which really didn't ease the cherry red blush from his heating cheeks as he continued the ramble, "kicked, stepped on, pressed, activated from a distance, hidden in a seal or done with a chakra wire and a bit of creative thinking, for its sole purpose is to catch or injure the wanted target and provide the needed distance for the operating cell to stay safe."
Mentally shaking herself out of the trance from listening the rather impressive definition of their basic combat tactics, and noting that apparently nervous academy instructors had their unique ways of handling stress and unexpected verbal minefields, Tsunade gave a nod and crossed her arms on her chest. "I see that Konoha's children are in good hands." Judging from the look on the bronze-skinned face, the Hokage also guessed that the chuunin was determined not to elaborate any further in order not to trigger anything else that might embarrass him any more than he himself was capable of handling. "However, beside it being what you just said, a trigger in medical sense is a factor that activates physical reactions in the individual, either good or bad, and is sometimes even harder to detect rather than a chakra wire going between your feet while strolling in the woods." Calmly, Tsunade leaned over the pot and filled her cup, tilting the already cold liquid towards the sun, thus making the rays reflect themselves from the wavering surface while the hint of delicate flowers tickled her nose. "What makes them hard to detect and pinpoint is mostly because they don't happen instantly but within a time frame that can stretch from a week to years, even decades. The damage could be happening within the one's body even as they don't consciously register it, especially without any visible symptoms that could have warned them in advance that something was up. Needless to say, this is the type that I'm the most concerned about, especially when the limbic system comes to the picture." Lifting her gaze to meet a pair of silent shinobis, she knew the both men knew when they've reached the final conclusive point. For a moment, Tsunade almost felt a bit bad for the silver-haired jounin.
Too bad they couldn't afford sympathy right now.
"You're in heat, brat."
[1] An existing diagram which can be found from the Narutopedia with the key words 'chakra nature'.
