AN: I have no words left in me to beg for forgiveness for being this late with this. Then again, I will graduate this spring if all goes according to plan, so I have a good reason for having kept my distance with this story for some time. But, I assure the ones who have been worrying about it that this story will not be abandoned! It may suffer from a few months' hiatus because of me finishing my master's studies, but this snippet will be finished most certainly.

Without further rambling, here's the chapter many have waited for. I sincerely hope it to please you, and even though I'm not a fan for spoiling a plot, I'll just remind you young ones that this story has the mature rating for a reason. Enjoy.


Day 14, part 3: Three rounds on a limbic limbo.

As they trained to be the best soldiers, spies and escorts, the shinobis of each hidden village had to learn the very basics of their combat tactics, clan specialties and traditions. Each village had given different values to the different fields of both offense and defense, depending on what kind of traditions their history withheld and how they were changed as the time went by – but none of the villages saw it beneficial to have a nin who couldn't recognize a trigger when dancing polka on it. For the genins, unfortunately, such misconceptions were natural to happen occasionally, although one blonde genin in particular had somehow made it his unofficial mission to set a new record on just how many times one could walk into an obvious trap without getting anyone killed in the process, while in the same process making their jounin sensei remind himself that killing the Jinchuuriki of his own village with only the proof of sheer stupidity justifying it didn't look good in his résumé. That said, Hatake Kakashi was a man who didn't take shinobi's equivalent of trigger-sensitive lightly, which not only made him one of the best cell leaders in Konohagakure but also a jounin who would vehemently deny of having more gray rather than silver hair adorning his head after his pedagogical disaster with his first terror-toddler team.

A jounin who, at the current moment, sat under warm sunlight on a small terrace behind a light-gray house and who felt his world narrow down to the only source of warmth his suddenly numb hands still could sense, his whole being focusing down to the steaming mug of coffee held tightly in his pale fingers. A jounin who, despite known as a genius capable of hiding his thoughts even from himself if tried hard enough, was in that current moment, as much as he hated to admit, missing the three scatterbrains that were his Team Seven and the simple days of slowly forming wrinkles of worry that came with that particular territory.

"What do you mean by it, Tsunade-sama?" Like a snap of proverbial fingers, Iruka's voice pulled Kakashi back to the reality he had shortly ventured away from, the narrow gray eye giving a blink and finding itself drawn to the spoken man who had been sitting by his side for the whole discussion. The pink tinge on the high, honey-toned cheekbones was already lessening, but the way the man's mouth had set itself into a thin line was enough to tattle on Iruka's opinion about the whole situation, and the flick of the dark eyes towards his staring one made it perfectly clear that the chuunin had every intention to show his dislike concerning the newest development in their mission.

"I mean exactly what it sounds to be, Iruka-sensei." Hearing the lack of emotions in Tsunade's voice was the cue for the ex-ANBU to truly reel himself back on track, and the narrow eye peered its amber counterparts over the dark mask. Judging by the look he received from the blond woman, he knew that his silent plea for her to continue was heard and acknowledged. "Due to the frequent uncontrolled electric current running through his veins, Kakashi's body has suffered a blow to its chemical balance, which has caused certain hormonal and neurological changes to happen within his systems, particularly the ones connected to sexual behavior, analytical thinking and the limbic system."

"Maa...that doesn't make sense." His voice sounded fainter to his ears than he would have liked, but Kakashi didn't dwell long on that as he was far more interested in the conundrum that was presented to him. "If I'm the one affected by all of this, then how can it be that Iruka-sensei is the one who was almost shoved into the shower supply cabinet?" A small noise which sounded like the said teacher had swallowed his own tongue was caught by his keen ears, but the jounin wasn't given an opportunity to look at the other man when his village's superior nin fixed him with a look that in some social circles could have been considered as means to provoke war between nations.

Tsunade held her steely gaze on the jounin before her, perhaps trying to decide whether or not it was beneficial for her nerves to punch him through the fence wall and beyond into the great yonder. After what felt like a small eternity, the rise of one well-plucked eyebrow could have been described as amused, if one thought that glaciers had humane emotions to begin with. "As it's known, pheromones are connected to the social behavior between individuals of the same species, as they act as chemical triggers to launch certain actions that are connected to certain goals. Due to the said goals, the variety of pheromones is vast and also in many cases related to certain species. In human's case, they don't have as tangible role to our behavior when compared to insects for instance, as our species tend to be more visually oriented in their relations, but they still carry their role within our cultural codes. Yet despite knowing all of that it was hard for me to even believe that the results which we received from your samples weren't caused by contamination." Tsunade gave a look at the small tea cup in her hands, looking like the answers to their current problem could have been detected from the fragrant liquid if one squinted hard enough. After a beat, the amber eyes locked themselves on the silver-haired nin. "Kami knows how or even why, but it seems that your body has started to produce not only hormones like testosterone, adrenaline, oxytocin and vasopressin but also axillary steroids such as Androstenone and Androstatienone in excessive quantities [1], only that it doesn't end there. Your system has also managed to manipulate itself so that your analytic frontal lobes of the brain have lost some of their dominance over the limbic system, which is directly connected to the problem we're facing. I wouldn't be surprised if your disinterest of informing me about the things happening here weren't actually from the reluctance of doing so but from the mere fact that you yourself didn't even know what had happened whenever one of you collapsed, and, as Iruka-sensei here mentioned, being too well trained to offer badly gathered intel to your superior." If she wanted to give their situation more drama than it already had by taking a sip from her tea before piercing her loyal jounin with a strict look, neither Kakashi nor Iruka were paying attention to it as they were too busy mentally preparing themselves for whatever the verdict was that was pushing its way past the painted lips. "In other words, your body is trying to convince you that you should mate with the closest suitable member of the same species, namely Iruka-sensei whose own body is responding to the given signals with its own rather unorthodox methods."

After a few moments, a courageous cricket decided to humor the silence that had made itself present on the terrace with three shinobis staring at each other with more or less tensed up shoulders.

"Personally projected reaction. Isn't that what was once said?" Listening to his voice putting out the words that now sat down in the middle of them three, Iruka was highly aware of the level of focus he found himself regarded with after a couple of seconds since the jounin and his commander had caught up with his murmur, and spent a moment to decide whether or not it was safe for him to lift his eyes from his empty cup to look at his leader, not being exactly sure if he would like what he saw on the woman's face. "Tsunade-sama, am I correct in assuming that my body reflects Kakashi-san's bodily experiences to some extent, if we view those spoken words more closely?"

"You may also assume that it may not be the brat who's the genius of us three," piped the amused voice of the said medic. The peeved scowl she received from the silver-haired man sitting next to the now very silent chuunin fell to the very bottom of her priority list as her keen eyes kept their gaze on the youngest of the trio. "But you are correct with that assumption, sensei. Based on what I witnessed during the first time you both gave us hell with your elements, it is safe to say that your elemental connection is way past its platonic phase since whenever Kakashi's lightning gave a reaction, it reached for your water and caused the aforementioned physical reactions. You were both unconscious at that time, so your bodies were dominant over your minds, which basically meant diminishing every social inhibition that you may otherwise possess and act upon." The men in front of her sat in silence, both the brown and the silver eyebrows furrowed as the men mulled over her report on their own as the minutes ticked by, and Tsunade leaned once more against the warm wall, noting that the sun was already pulling its course towards late afternoon. A small frown pulled the woman's brows when a very different question rose into her mind. "When was the last time you two have eaten a meal?" The puzzled looks of the two men gave swiftly way to the growls of their empty stomachs, and as well as she knew that they were in for a long day with hard decisions yet to be made, Tsunade felt a sliver of a smile grace her lips at the sheepish looks coming from her apparently famished soldiers.

Maybe they still were on the good side of the coin.


"It's only leftovers from yesterday's soup, but it should still taste good," Iruka said with an apologetic tilt of his eyebrows as he came back from the kitchen carrying a tray with three steaming bowls on it. As soon as the bowls were put on the terrace boards, the man took another visit to the kitchen in order to fetch the other ingredients for the late lunch, more driven by the hunger itself than the thought of actually fitting all of the food into their stomachs in Tsunade's amused opinion.

In any case, the soup smelled delicious. "You're too humble for your culinary skills, Iruka-kun," Tsunade called after the man's retreating back and was surprised to hear a humoring noise coming from the jounin's direction. Turning her growing smile towards the copy-nin, she was equally sweet with her sharply cut notion. "He does all the cooking here, doesn't he?"

The answering smile of the mismatched eyes sharpened the tip of the steely verbal blade wrapped in immaterial pink lace that could be heard in the copy-nin's countering question. "Are you insinuating that the soup doesn't suite your taste, Hokage-sama?"

"Is there something wrong with the food, Tsunade-sama?"

Sitting onto the immediate urge to start shedding blood, sweat and tears of the silver-haired brat's physical existence and reminding herself that their bio sample laboratories were more than well-provided with the said substances at the moment, the Hokage pulled a warm smile on her painted lips and then turned to appease the worried-looking sensei standing behind her back while making a mental note to ask Shizune check on the chuunin's current wage level. They clearly didn't pay the man enough for tolerating the bratty elite. "The soup is wonderful, sensei. Now sit down, I haven't finished with you two."

Torn between feeling both flattered and scolded, the chuunin put the tray of food down on the terrace, plopped down on his spot on Kakashi's left side and started wolfing down his soup without a second word or a look at the two others sitting with him.

The look on his Hokage's face was a clear question for Kakashi as to why was it that others seemed to get it without a fuss while he didn't even after the twentieth time. As a clear answer to that, he chose to ignore it in favor of more interesting topics – such as why he had ended up all wet and horny on an unassuming mission and moreover in the presence of his two colleagues. "Maa. Let's say that my element is the key factor here, and therefore Iruka-sensei's problems are only what we could call collateral damage coming from it," his small nod towards the tan man was registered and accepted by the dining chuunin, albeit a bit hesitantly, "yet I fail to see the true connection between it and the rest of the occurrences there have been until now.." If the others noticed that his fading voice became void of unnecessary lines in between which one should every now and then peek, the jounin didn't pay any mind to it since he was suddenly caught up inside the torrent of facts and clues. After a blink, the pale hands put down the untouched bowl of soup, and in a few moments, the renowned man of rumored thousand jutsus reminded the world why his head had earned its bounty in the Bingo Book. Kakashi, as many had learned, didn't mind the stares of others when he had more than just soup on his proverbial plate, and was about to start going through the ingredients one at a time, just like the both admired and scorned genius he was. Looking down at the assortment of food on the tray set between them three, a silvery eyebrow rose and the head having all silvery shades of gray tilted in silent question. After a moment, a familiar coffee mug found itself nudged in between a few unsuspecting rice balls, and a small huff was given beneath the mask at the sight.

The questioning hum rose from Iruka's throat before he could reign it in properly, and knowing the older man well enough to know when his comments weren't frowned upon, the chuunin lowered the chopsticks from his lips and pointed at the morosely standing mug that looked well out-of-place in the middle of yesterday's brunch. "What did you come up with now, Kakashi-san?"

The pale, bare arms were crossed over a darkly clad chest, and the narrow gray eye held its gaze on the plate of delicacies. "...I believe it to be some strange version of dietary mahjong, sensei," came the ridiculously seriously spoken answer from the silver-haired shinobi's side, and soon enough, the tangible hush of silence that fell between the two men was shattered by a loud bark of laughter spilling from sun-kissed lips that mixed with a few coughs of misplaced soup in the tan throat.

"I'll kill you, I'll seriously kill you one of these days, bastard," Iruka wheezed while catching his breath from his impromptu hysterics, the wide grin that was stretching his lips almost making his cheeks hurt. Dark fingers rose to wipe the tears from the dark eyes, and catching onto the passing pleased look on the jounin's masked face made a last amused snort leave the grinning man. "Don't look so damn proud of yourself, it wasn't that funny."

"Alright, seeing that Kakashi can still make a joke I can say to the psyche-nins that they can use the ward for someone else. Truly, that was underhanded, Kakashi-san." Catching the glint of mischief and amusement in the gray eye when the masked assassin turned to look at the widely grinning dark-skinned man next to him, Tsunade was palpably surprised yet immensely pleased to see that the two men still were capable of being somewhat friendly with each other, no matter how threatened their cautious friendship had become in the passing two weeks when things had gotten pear-shaped with alarming frequency.

"Ah, but it did grant me with your undivided attention, so it did serve its purpose," Kakashi replied with a smirk of his own and thus gaining an amused snort from the chuunin, alas knowing perfectly well that the bright smile he was pleased to see stretching the other's full lips may not last for very long. As if catching onto his shifting mood, both of his current companions settled their eyes upon his creation, the silence making itself once again comfortable among them now that the peals of laughter had taken the hint and died from the air. They always say that the music begins with silence, Kakashi found himself musing and gave a dry smile at that. Let the drums begin. "Maa. Drawing conclusions is never fun with incomplete information, but one can always try. This here," the pale finger tapped at the rim of the mug, "is my persona. Then these," the stage was given to the rice balls, "are the assumed possibilities for triggers." Without wasting his breath on checking if the others were on the same track with him, the jounin took the topic from food to abstract. "It isn't all one-sided." Kakashi was interested to see if the had indeed hit the proverbial nail with his idea, the jounin directing a studying glance to his Hokage sitting across them.

He wasn't disappointed, when manicured fingernails tapped the edge of the mug and the blond medic nodded her head. "That's true. Until now, the pattern had stayed hidden and after this morning it is clear what has been happening here, but now the elements have interlaced with each other so thoroughly that there's no longer distinguishing of the primary impulse that drives you to have these things happening to you. In other words, even though you're the one with physiological changes it doesn't leave Iruka out of the equation merely as a passive factor." Snatching one rice ball to herself, the Hokage spent a moment to contemplate the small lump of rice in her hand before taking a bite from it and then continuing from where she had left off. "You two already showed me that it has become unwise for you to even touch each other. That means that the dynamics of this phenomenon are shifting from active-passive stage to where both participants both cause and receive reactions in fairly equal terms. There still lingers the fact that it mostly has to be seemingly started by the lighting element, which may be just because of the discussed elemental power balance between you two." The sensation of sharp attention given to her figure did make her pause for a moment. "However, the 'heat' to which I'm referring to in your case may not actually be caused merely by your own element, but the combination of both lightning and water. As we have already established the fact that water conducts electricity, thus it being counterproductive against it, this could mean that your elements have linked with each other from the start. If that is the case then it would make it so that as opposed to the situation at the beginning, your reactions have affected Iruka's element so strongly through the continuous projections so that Iruka, who hasn't been aware of the changes happening inside him, has already also started to act on the impulses without his conscious knowledge, furthermore develop triggers of his own, as it appeared when you told me about his reaction to drinking water. That's why I actually doused you back then, in case you were still wondering." The completely bewildered look from Iruka focusing on the rather appalled-looking copy-nin who had fixed his scowl on her made the Hokage scribble a tiny mental note to look into in a few moments. That was an interesting slip of a mask if she ever saw one. Nevertheless, she had a briefing to conclude. "At some point, the balance between the elements has leveled down considerately and therefore you have started to have both individual reactions without the other's contribution to it and also experiencing them simultaneously. In some sense, the ANBU does fit into this. If we think that Iruka's element has started to, say, "leak" out for other elements to reach because of Kakashi's lightning constantly pushing it over its boundaries, it therefore happened to provoke the unfortunate ANBU, who, as has been found out, was the worst target ever for Iruka to engage with. Though we can't be completely sure about that, because we still have to look into the odd chakra channeling that happened between the brat and the ANBU, not to mention the one that has happened between you two earlier if I understood correctly."

"But how come my interaction with the ANBU was so different when compared to what I have experienced with Kakashi-san?" The dark eyebrow rose questioningly on the tan forehead and Iruka gave the silver-haired man next to him a pensive glance. "In most cases, even if the ANBU's element was hitting it off with mine, I didn't get any symptoms from it until this morning, and even then the result was at odds with what has happened so far. Moreover, that doesn't explain why is it that our elements don't react to yours, Hokage-sama."

"It could be the power balance, perhaps the stars aren't aligned straight enough, or I'm just not compatible with your charming personality," Tsunade said with a faint shrug while downing the rest of her tea, enjoying the baffled silence that lasted for the precious two seconds it took her to hide her self-congratulatory smirk behind the cup. Shizune would have had a fit for that throw. "Whatever it is, I don't have an answer to that yet, unfortunately, since the man who can give me some answers is still a bit under the weather thanks to some wannabe-Icha-Icha-hero punching him not only through some wooden doors but almost through a wall." The sound of strangled cough made both the tan mission desk tyrant and his sake-oriented commander look at the man trying to hold in his coffee from staining the insides of his dark mask. Deeming that the jounin will live as well spotting the light red flush creeping over the scarred cheeks of the other man, the words continued their flow from Tsunade's mouth while she filled her cup once more, albeit with more somber note that soon enough caught the males attention. "What I can say is that it can be connected to the relationship you two already have formed between yourselves and the ANBU's relation to you, Iruka-sensei, and this is where the limbic system has the crucial role. Like I said before, it affects our behavior, even so much sometimes that our emotions can get out of control whenever the individual gets pushed over their limits. Yet it is also the glue that keeps people together by the way we learn to read one another and adjust our own social skills to work with others, seek the ways to work with our emotions that we feel towards one another. You may think that that's how empathy is created, for instance. However, there we have a problem in that." Admiring the way the sunlight wavered against the light-colored tea's surface, the ruefully smiling lady let her mouth carry on speaking. "As you both surely know, when it comes to training a shinobi, the first things that are learned beside knowing how to kill is to know how to control oneself. We're always told that nothing else is important but completing the mission, and as one result the bonds between mission operatives are commonly forced to be as neutral as possible to avoid disastrous breakdowns should something happen in combat. Moreover, we're being held responsible and loyal ultimately to nothing else than our village, which can be sensed in the everyday encounters where there's always something that is left to be unsaid between friends and colleagues, even lovers. We are forbidden to share too much of ourselves, to show emotions during a mission, and even back home it takes time for some to even remember how it felt to smile and speak relatively freely without having a constant goal to figure out the underlying webs of deception that come like second nature for all of us." Despite the saddened chuckle easing itself past her lips, the hint of regret and resignation in her words didn't change. "It could be even claimed that there is only one fear for a shinobi, and that is showing the others what one really thinks and feels."

"Unless you're Uzumaki Naruto."

Both Kakashi and Tsunade turned to stare at the softly smiling Iruka who gave his scar a passing rub, a social gesture all too well-known for others acquainted with the man. "Well..that is, all you said is written in my curriculum in the academy as it is repeated throughout our profession, but I'm quite sure the number one most surprising ninja in Konoha would have a few words to say to that claim. Fair enough, I doubt that he would be in this kind of situation to begin with if I understand what you're implying, Tsunade-sama." After giving a fleeting look to the ex-ANBU next to him, glad that he was able to lighten their moods somewhat judging from the quiet huff being heard beneath the silver-haired man's dark mask, the dark-haired chuunin turned his unreadable eyes towards his superior nin.

"It's the ingrained sense of self-control for a shinobi which we have that is the actual primary trigger, isn't it?" Kakashi's low bass resounded around the calmly spoken words before Iruka could say them aloud himself, and the three nins spent a moment on letting the words float above their heads. Slowly, a pale hand reached to pluck a rice ball next to the forgotten coffee mug, and the deft fingers twirled the food between them as the silver-haired nin continued to further peruse this phenomenon that had caught him into its own web. "Maa, in that case we were partially right about the emotional stress being a trigger here, but just didn't see the whole picture because it wasn't what either of us could figure out because of our traditional training. Then of course there are the subjective triggers, which weren't making it any easier to pinpoint what exactly caused the elements to behave as they did." Suddenly, the jounin's gray eye turned down to stare straight at the tray of food still left at their feet, the pale fingers still holding the solid rice ball in their tightening grasp. Soon enough, a sharp intake of breath was heard beneath the mask as the elite shinobi seemed to pull himself back to the surface from the depths of his thoughts. "Maa...An ANBU operative shouldn't have any emotions to begin with while on duty. In other words, the more we fight against the primal instincts, the more the elements get fueled up against us and cause new symptoms." A gasp of understanding was heard from Iruka's side at that, but Kakashi was already directing his next thoughts into a far more hostile territory that opened up its borders, and sooner than she had anticipated, Tsunade was reminded exactly how sharp minds Konoha shinobis had from cradle to grave when the lone eye searched out her own. "That fits with the odd delivery we had yesterday."

After a moment of silent puzzlement, a pair of dark brown eyes on a sun-kissed face gave a blink of a dawning conclusion before serving the Hokage a pointy glare sharp enough to pierce her forehead.

"Took you long enough to click the pieces together," Tsunade mused with a thoughtful frown on her young face, which soon turned into a speculative glare. "Do you wish to say anything else, brat?" Judging from the flashing mixture of pride, shame and unease in the narrow eye, she sensed that the lightning user in question may not have thought through the situation he just put both himself and his teammate. When facing the music, Tsunade always thought that she had a rather good sense of rhythm. "Yes, the charts that we were able to draw from your samples were indicating to the same direction, that there was happening a clash of interest and your body didn't seem able to discern what would be the best course of action for it. As your medical supervisor, I decided to put you into a...test, if you wish to call it that, to see what would happen when the ongoing process was given a push to one certain direction. In this case, lessening your social inhibitions over some good food and drinks. Not to worry, though, I didn't use anything with lasting effects, rather than just some mild mixture of medicine to help the alcohol buzz much more pleasantly in your systems that I told Teuchi-san to mix into your ramen portions – and he thinks it was only some stomach medicine and vitamins so keep your mouths to yourselves around him on that. However, I hadn't anticipated that you two had actually started a small war here with the elements rather than being the smart ones of the lot who would have patiently observed the occurring changes in your relationship, which has lead us to this point of discussion." At the look passing Iruka's eyes, a finger was lifted to silence the probable objection to her phrasing. "You two are in a relation to one another at the moment on some levels and this ship is about to sink if we don't find the leak and fix it, hence I will call this a relationship if I want, Iruka-sensei, no matter how much you dislike my choice of words." After a rather incredulous look given at her words, what sounded like a mutter for getting more tea and coffee drifted from the chuunin's mumbling mouth and as gracefully as he had been trained, Iruka swept the tea pot and the mug in tow on his way into the kitchen. Tsunade let her eyes sweep over the food still untouched on the tray, knowing that she didn't need to watch her other subordinate to confirm where the gray eye was looking. Neither of them needed to wait for the chuunin to reappear, as it took one spy to know the other and respect the art of listening discreetly from a safe distance.

"So basically you had us both drugged and drunk in order to see who tops who here." On the other hand, Kakashi was never the ace with overly polite behavior. The loud clink of porcelain disturbed the otherwise steady thrum of white background noise, but wasn't speculated over, as Kakashi also could distinctively pinpoint when his intestines dropped themselves through the terrace floor, making room for the rush of adrenaline that filled the void that was left inside him when he had finally caught up to a thread of clues that seemed to be the tied tightly to his impending demise. On an other note, the jounin recognized yet another familiar feeling rising inside himself, something he was also fairly well acquainted and rather keen on letting loose – rightful indignation.

"If you wish to put it that way then yes, I did." Before the situation could escalate into what the blonde medic could sense to be the greatest display of fireworks their village had yet to see, the fuse was promptly stomped beneath her sharply barked words, which seemed not only to be meant to put her jounin back into his rank but also to be clearly heard by the tan man still eavesdropping them from the water boiler's vicinity. "As the head operative for this research mission, I am fully aware of the risks included in intervening a natural process, but if you failed to see, we may also be running out of time to clearly distinct what is the mechanism that had driven you to this point and if this point is already beyond repair."

Now even the kitchen area was void of even a shush of noise, and over Tsunade's shoulder, Kakashi could clearly see the moment when Iruka's body froze every movement by the counter over the brewing beverages. The jounin swallowed a curse as the dark brown eyes turned to look directly at him, knowing that he had the chuunin hanging onto every syllable coming from his mouth. "...Are you saying that this might not get reversed once we get out chakra back, Hokage-sama?"

"Unfortunately the possibility for that does exist. We don't know how permanently this has affected your bodies, so it would be rather stupid of me to assume that everything would just miraculously fall back into normalcy the moment we unseal you. The worst-case scenarios of this mission have already given me an arrhythmia to last a lifetime and I happen to value my intestines enough to make sure that the eagerly forming ulcer will not be encouraged any further." As for what kind of story it may have been for her liver, they all decided to leave it unmentioned. Her thoughtful eyes wandered over the empty soup bowls while the painted lips pursed in a small frown, as if they had trouble deciding whether or not to let the words through them. "When you admitted to have had sex twice, what exactly did you mean by it?" The deafening silence hitting her back made the Hokage first to look up at her jounin, who kept his rather terrified-looking eye solely fixed over her shoulder, and slowly the woman turned to follow the path of the gray eye, witnessing a sight of a very tense Umino gripping the pot and the mug in his tan hands like a rookie samurai would be gripping a wakizashi and shield when facing the shogun's thousand men while standing on a cliff and wearing only his getas. Knowing that both of the men had surely survived worse than that mental image could provide, Tsunade carried on, reminding them why exactly some people in their ranks thought Godaime to be more ruthless than any other Hokage before her. "Let's cut the chase, shall we? I have now told you where we stand considering your laboratory results and we need to draw some decisions from this discussion." Two strong arms were crossed under her bosom, and a sharp look was served at both subordinates when Tsunade looked both the jounin and the chuunin. "Are you willing to make me assume, based on your input so far, that you've actually had an intercourse during these past days when obviously neither of you know what to do with yourselves when your elements act on the impulses if we look more closely on what happened just a few moments ago, not to mention being merely just hung-over due to the drinking and embarrassed from today's events? Like I said, I'm willing to believe that there's more to this than you have been determined to tell me, but I'm also not an idiot. I can see when things aren't adding up accordingly." The steadily suffocating darkness in their leader's eyes didn't leave any room for survivors to escape. "Whoever feels like going first can start."

Like the men frozen on their places, the silence that fell over them didn't know where to look at either.

After a few slow beats, a silent sigh left the lady sitting in between. "I see." The lacking emotion in the notion was a loud and clear declaration growing frustration, as if that had been the only outcome possible for the earlier demand.

The click of high heels pulled the men from their thoughts, and they found their leader standing up and smoothing her green overcoat with a pensive expression etched on her youthful visage. Kakashi cast a fleeting look at the worried-looking younger nin before standing up as well. It appeared that their audience with the Hokage was nearing its end, but that would be odd as they still seemed to have dozens of issues to debate over and have answers to the questions plaguing their shared mission. "Hokage-sama?" The masked man almost flinched at the hesitant note his words had, but held his posture without a single twitch of a muscle.

The addressed lady gave a calm look over the sunny garden, noting the lingering humidity in the air and the still glinting puddles on the muddy ground. The next words were spoken peacefully yet with so strong ring of authority that Iruka found himself reflexively tightening his hold on the still warm china. "Based on what has been said and done, I can either force you to cooperate with me in this situation or abort this mission altogether, but as you both have already observed, it is unusual for a Hokage to mess with the mission parameters unless they're exclusively needed to. This is the point where that decision is made." There was no need to put the brewing doubt into words. Neither was there any desire in her to re-ignite animosities on her behalf. "I will come back tomorrow with two more medics, hopefully one of them a Hyuuga if can get one of them re-scheduled, and we'll give you both a thorough screening to see more clearly what should be done considering the rest of the mission. I expect to get good answers then. Therefore I would suggest that you use the rest of the day for cleaning up the mess and doing some heavy thinking in order to give me a proper report, since I won't be this lenient the next time we meet under these circumstances. I do not need any extra drama in this village and that blonde brat won't be too happy if he ever found out that his both senseis inexplicably disappeared during his absence." There was also a hidden hope that she wouldn't stumble upon a homicide the next day. With those last thoughts and threats left lingering, a flash of hand signs later there were only two very quiet men standing on a terrace behind the light-gray house.

The expression on Iruka's face looked like the stripped samurai had finally discovered that the odds against him were anything but fair, and to be fairly honest, Kakashi didn't feel like he was handling the suddenly granted privacy any better at that moment.

Even without the careful clearing of the throat echoing like an earth jutsu gone awry, they both knew that the older man was listening what the younger tried to say in hopes of dispersing the rapidly accumulating awkwardness. "...I'll clean the splinters and see what I can do to the floor, Kakashi-san. You can finish your coffee and soup in the meantime. We can both see to the doors and clean the bathroom after that." Alas, try as he might, Iruka wasn't so sure if the muscles on his face were on the same page with him for forming a disarming smile.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the copy-nin spent a minute considering how well Naruto would take the news about his sudden death in the hands of the boy's former sensei. Ah well, this time was as good as any that they were going to get. "I hardly believe that the training room's current condition was the mess that Tsunade-sama was referring to, Iruka-sensei." In an instant, the uncertain smile disappeared from the tan face, and the jounin swore that the chuunin's suddenly straightened spine resembled an iron pole for a fleeting second. It was also the very second the spoken Sharingan user needed to know that the final spark to ignite the barrel of gunpowder that had long ago been buried between the two nins had finally flickered back into life.

"You really wish to start a fight with me, Kakashi-san?" While speaking, the tan man's dark brown eyes drilled their gaze into his lone gray. The clear sighting of surfacing fury on Iruka's face had cooled itself down to a hard mask of unabashed intention to hit where it definitely hurt, or more preferably incapacitated, and for the shortest moment, Kakashi mused if the coffee mug was still held in the honey-toned hands just to make it easier for Iruka to behead the jounin with it.

It seemed that his life would soon shorten remarkably if the heated look burning his masked face by the younger nin was anything to go by. Seeing that he was still breathing, though, and wasn't already half-way decked through the floor head first, the copy-nin of thousand survival one-liners fixed the silently fuming man with a deceivingly calm look and chose to use what may be his last breath to change the severe death sentence hanging above his head to only light pummeling. "What has given you such an impression on my motives, sensei?"

"There's no point in trying to open a game when you know you're already being figured out," came the smoothly spoken answer, and Kakashi could already spot the slow tensing of the arm muscles on the tan body. "Mind you, I have interacted with genin who are more subtle in their effort of evoking aggression than what you have shown me today. Maybe you should have copied one of those methods with that eye of yours. Then you would know that baiting and provoking someone who has been able to closely observe you the whole time when Tsunade-sama was here is a futile attempt to try make me lose my cool and that way give you an upper hand."

Inch by inch, the accusing tongue of the younger man forced itself under Kakashi's prickling skin, and the jounin was able to physically tell his patience growing alarmingly thin on every tick counted. "Maa, I have done nothing of that sort and you know it perfectly well, Iruka-sensei. If you are referring to what I assume you are, as a cell unit leader I had to give my report to Tsunade-sama when she demanded it, no matter how piss-poor information we had managed to scrape together, and forgive me for bypassing your valuable opinion about it but you yourself haven't exactly been the "Chuunin of The Year" regarding what has happened on this mission when it came down to certain things. I had no other choice but to give her my own answer no matter how one-sided and subjective it was. It was either telling her what has happened or risking on getting us both a penalty for disobedience." If possible, the chuunin's grip on the coffee mug tightened even more on every passing word, but Kakashi knew the other man relatively well enough to know when the signs were an actual warning preceding an assault. What he was seeing was a mere social signal of growing distress, and for his surprise he was rather much welcoming it. More than that, he suddenly had the urge to, as had been said, provoke the situation some more. He gave a brief pause in a mock display of having an abrupt revelation, and was quite pleased to see the flash of unease in the other's eyes. "You know...I had a couple of days to myself when you were out of it for a while, and after doing some thinking on my genius part I'm tempted to suspect that you're not so much afraid of me as a man but rather as something that I more likely represent." Even when they were levelly spoken, the words struck the budding argument like a killing blow, diffusing the gathered heat from the air and making way to a sense of ominous foreboding that took it upon itself to sharpen the claws of chaos. Brown eyes were fixed on the narrow gray, nothing giving away the shock their owner was experiencing except for the slight widening of them.

Then, gradually, the darkening brown transformed into finest steel, and when the smoothly ringing voice of the warm baritone made the air thicken between the men, the former ANBU saw the shift happening in the other man's body towards readiness to an assault as the tan legs slid into a better position for a quick charge and the lean back tensing like a carnivore on the hunt. "That was a bark I wasn't anticipating from you, Kakashi-san."

Kakashi's combat instincts perked up attentively at that and the copy-nin wasn't so surprised to see that he had already shifted his weight more evenly on his both legs. His body was gearing up. Apparently so was his mouth as well. "I have many things in me that you won't be anticipating, sensei."

In slow motion, Iruka's broad shoulders flexed ready to pull the large back muscles into action, yet the most interesting detail was the gleaming eyes matching the voice that had been dropped in octaves and risen in temperature, the words formed by the scalding heat permeating the silence one by one. "Let me be clear here on one thing, Kakashi-san. The amount of money from my head may not be much when it comes to our ranks, but as a man I'm way more worth than what you're currently bargaining for. We may not be trained to be humans, our missions do not rely on our sense of empathy and our rules forbid to mix-breed emotion with duty, but it shouldn't take shinobi training to discern what happens when one pushes the trigger one too many times." The ring of the drawn blade was unmistakable, and the very air solidified into a thick wall between the quiet men, curling like a tight cocoon around them and hushing all noise away from inside it, creating what one could describe like an immaterial barrier designed for private combat matches.

On one side, the gray narrow eye kept its unwavering focus on the target before it, the pale body twitching one nerve at a time back into life after so many hours of lax submission under a superior command, the rising blue lightning gaining power from all that had happened to the body harboring it; all the confusion, humiliation, desire and uncertainty piling in a heap, one unresolved riddle on top of the other. On the other side, one nerve, vertebrae, vein and muscle at a time, the tan body let go of the control it had held onto for so long, so many years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds, so many moments when the odds have been amazed on how it had always been regained, no matter the circumstances.

Inhale.

A faint buzz of electricity crackled high against the barriers, but both the dark-haired chuunin and pale-skinned jounin held onto their unrelenting eye-contact.

The gong of nearby shrine echoed in the distance and reverberated like a sonic wave against the silent walls surrounding them.

Exhale.

A release of tan fingers, and the coffee mug dropped from the hand holding it, soon meeting a quick foot that caught it in the air before flinging it towards the fixed target that was already on the move, the pale body launching itself into action the moment the porcelain projectile made its whistling way through the air. Loud clinks of shattering ceramics and blobs of food spilling from their dishes destroyed the remaining silent ambiance as sharply as the smashing object that hit the wooden food tray that was grabbed and lifted to meet it before it could reach its silvery goal.

A moment of shush, then, "You're going to pay for that one, sensei. I liked that mug."

"Saa, had I known you'd get sentimental over one mug, trust me, I would have thrown the whole set at you," teased the voice of the younger nin and that was all Kakashi needed in order to know the other's position behind the tray, which provided him not only a suitable range but the needed tactic. Not relinquishing his hold on the tray, the jounin spun on his heels, tilted the tray into horizontal position and forced the other man to duck down in order to avoid losing his head when the wooden makeshift blade whooshed through the air in a wide swing. The tan body crouched down under the traveling tray, and with a lunge and roll forward with the pot still dangling from one hand the chuunin went past the striking jounin and ended up amidst the abandoned soup bowls and scattered remains of what had been their lunch. A pair of chopsticks was snatched in tow by the honey-toned fingers before the chuunin was forced to retreat with hurry away from a viciously slashing tray cutting the air like a demonstration blade for a wind affinity. Iruka kept himself low yet moved with sharp jabs from side to side as he danced away from the lethal kitchen object. He would need to change his tactics of offense as it seemed that they had now picked their weapons of choice.

What he didn't anticipate, though, was for the jounin to show him just how resourceful their rank was for treating everything as a weapon, and soon enough the chuunin understood why the other had been so keen to drive him away from the food mayhem. With a graceful crouch and sweep, Kakashi scooped the clattered dishes and food as best as his could back on the tray, and before the briefly stunned chuunin could figure out the best countering move for it, without stopping his sweeping momentum the former ANBU captain spun around yet again to gain enough speed for the tray, and just before it would have left his hands the silver-haired man thrust the tray forward and then suddenly stopped it in his grasp, thus letting the items on it continue their fly and all but serving the mistreated food items and dishes through the air as an impressive aerial attack that Iruka put in his mind to study and cultivate if he survived what was yet to come. If that maneuver could be adapted to suit a pencil case – well. Soon enough, a hurtling piece of onigiri slapped the sun-kissed forehead and thus the teacher was forced to get back on track, the downpour of food not only obscuring his vision and forcing him on defense by blocking and dodging the day's menu but being a downright nasty trick considering the state of the recipient afterwards. Not paying any attention to something that smeared itself onto his ponytail as he duck his head and dashed to the side, Iruka spied a movement happening a bit closer than was healthy and flipped his body on its back on the floor, just barely avoiding from getting knocked to the head with a miso soup bowl that zipped over him. Too bad it didn't keep him from being soaked in the cold soup that Kakashi had never gotten around to eat. That insufferable bastard. With reflexes that many senseis had obtained during their teaching careers, the tan teacher's hand followed the path of the tossed bowl, grabbed it in the air while suppressing a growl when his fingers sloshed in the remaining soup and then made it take a sharp change of direction to where he had spotted the certain silver-haired nuisance moving. He didn't stay put to listen and see if the ammo hit the target, knowing how stupid that always was, but scrambled back on his feet, the pot and the chopsticks held in the same hand, and looked over the carnage of edibles – his spine crawling with unease when there was no sight of his opponent.

Where -

Suddenly, a hum of lightning grazed his right side from behind and broke the dark-haired man's body into minute tremors, but now he had the direction to dodge at and by stepping to the left and turning around to deliver his blocks his upper arm met with the flat surface of a tray as he let the pale man's kicking leg hit the back of a thigh instead of his kidneys – the erupting flash of blue blinded the men for a short moment when the two bodies made contact, and strings of loud and colorful curses drowned the groans of distracting physical reactions. Seeing his opportunity, Iruka seized the tray he had managed to take a hold on and threw it to the sunny yard like a disc, the splashes of puddles counting the bounces neither men were keeping tab of. With another kick to the pale legs and a few running steps steering away from the other, Iruka disengaged himself from the physical contact and took a path towards the kitchen area, his keen ears distinguishing the steps of the other following from the thumping of his accelerated heart beat. Deeming that he would not make it in one go, the chuunin dropped into a low crouch and spun around to face his pale-skinned shadow, feeling passingly smug in seeing the surprise glinting in the gray eye before swinging the tea pot upwards to hit the silver-haired man's masked jawline. He wasn't disappointed to see the man dodge it in a nick of time, since the following counter-move where the pale hand took a hold onto the pot and yanked it towards the older nin was all the cunning chuunin had hoped for. A blink of the gray eye met the smug brown, and feeling a grin tug at his lips, Iruka slid the chopsticks through the small hole on the pot's lid and then nimbly turned the pot upside-down and opened the lid by yanking the sticks while on the move, letting all the lukewarm reddish-brown tea flow out in an arc that splashed delightedly on the tight dark singlet the masked man was wearing. Flinging the dangling pot lid from the sticks at the cursing jounin made sure that the coffee drinker knew the hot-tempered tea addict didn't take wasting his brews lightly. Then, a sudden surge of temptation tickled his body at the sight of the strong-scented tea hitting the taut muscular body, and acting on instinct more than an actual plan at that point, Iruka passed his hand on the droplets still lingering in their fall and felt his insides heave a long breath before a bruising wave of water materialized wide and long from the touched droplets and hit the ambushed jounin's chest before the man could react, sending the other fall back from the force a good feet away.

Without waiting for the imminent retaliation once the other had gained his slippery footing, the chuunin adjusted his tightening pants with a hissed curse, turned and ran into the kitchen, his mind already pushing away the ache in his boxers and categorizing the possible items he could weaponize within seconds if needed. Spotting the golden-colored box was all he could manage before his senses screamed in alarm and he spun around only to be greeted with a pair of chopsticks pointing straight at the tip of his scarred nose.

"I think the fridge and the kitchen cupboards don't need to be emptied to make this scene any more ridiculous as it is, don't you agree, sensei?" The cool, low voice of the jounin holding the chopsticks made a shiver travel down Iruka's spine, and the chuunin's hands and legs gave a twitch on a sudden desire to flee from the steel-hard look in the gray eye. For a moment, only the sounds of heaving breaths and tea drops dripping on the floor were heard. The happy crinkle of the mismatched eyes did very little to fool the frown on the copy-nin's masked lips. "On the other hand, there are only a few who had ever managed to soak my gear this often as you have these past days. To be honest, though, it's getting a bit old."

"Yet you still fall for it every single time, Kakashi-san," Iruka heard himself taunt with a mocking smile while at the same time felt his back flex in preparation for a move, be it either offense or defense. Unfortunately his mouth had already thrown the caution to the wind. "Then again, seeing how you look in the wet gear I would hardly complain about it if I were you."

The passing glint in the jounin's eye was all but innocent at that point. "Maa...if you're fishing for compliments, let it be said that you don't look so bad yourself with that mix of bean paste and rice in your hair, Iruka-sensei."

The chopsticks snapped into readiness behind the broad, tan back, but the grin pulling the full lips was deceivingly lax. "Saa, I certainly hope it to be only that, since I was sure at one point there to be something more solid lodged in by the feel of it. One never knows when dealing with masked men." Then, a rush of intensifying focus made them both suddenly aware of the shift happening in the room's ambiance. As always, Iruka's tongue was first to react on it. "...Did you actually hear what the ANBU said to me the evening when you saw him cornering me in the kitchen? He said that you're 'also a man'." A raise of a dark brow met frowning silver ones. "Peculiar phrase, isn't it? At first I thought that it had something to do with him finding out some..facts...but the longer I thought about it, the more I began wondering what else he could have meant by that slip." A change in balance from right to left, a tilt of the dark-haired head, and Iruka slowly took a step to one side, noting the quiet jounin mirroring him on reflex.

The Sharingan user was focused and his body stretched taut in both muscle and nerves, the chopsticks held unwaveringly in one hand towards their designated point at the sun-kissed nose. Behind his mask, Kakashi was silently counting.

Noticing it, Iruka took yet another step, then another, making them slowly circle each other in the small kitchen, their very beings not paying mind to anything else than the thrumming tension vibrating and snapping between them. The look in the teacher's eyes was heavier than his running mouth made his thoughts appear. "A shinobi isn't supposed to pursue his own goals.[2] A mission doesn't need an individual who thrives for his own reasons, as well as the Hokage doesn't need a shinobi who cannot distinguish his own interests from village's own, just like Tsunade-sama herself told us. What we need isn't more than the completion of the mission. But in the case of the unfortunate ANBU...as you said, the Black Ops should be the last to view themselves as human rather than mere tools – yet this one man created himself a need and acted on it. But, even though we did speculate on it, I could put my money on saying that he himself may not know what he ultimately needed." Four more steps.

Three. A snake of lightning coiled tight in the pit of Kakashi's stomach at what was said. The gray eye peered over the dark mask, the look in it rivaling the steel the jounin had learned to master since he was five. "That was an intriguing analysis, but it still leaves out the fact that I think you know exactly what you need, sensei."

A faltering step matched the irregular thump of Iruka's heart. The chopsticks behind his back slid into a position like a kunai. Two more left. A sliver of a smirk was forced to appear, buying time and patience. "Baiting me again, are we. Ah, but then again, thinking of getting it isn't the same as actually getting it, neh, Kakashi-san?"[3]

A pause. "Naruto really did report every single thing to you."

Slowing in step. A twitch of the hand not holding the chopsticks. Easy now. "Three bowls of ramen and that boy tells me not only which eye you leave open when feigning sleep but all of his theories concerning your masked face as well."

A shallow chuckle, more meant to taunt than humor and the silver-haired head cocked to one side when a calculating look was given at the suddenly stilled man at the other end of the bamboo sticks. "Ah yes, he showed remarkable concentration on that personal quest. Though even when this mask is driving half the village insane, I didn't know that there were people who would run away and fortify themselves into a bathroom the moment when they see what's under there."

Surely enough, the tease hit the mark this time, turning the dark brown eyes from smoldering coal into blazing fire despite the other's obvious efforts to play it cool, but instead of lashing out like he would be predicted, Iruka reached behind himself, and a clack of polished wood was all Kakashi got as a polite heads up before a golden-colored tea box tossed by a honey-toned hand sailed towards his silvery head. Using the hand holding the sticks, the jounin struck to the side and put the box on a new path while the pale body continued the hand's momentum and spun on the balls of bare feet in an attempt to round on the stumbling sensei – only to jerk backwards when another pair of bamboo sticks almost skewered his temple when the younger man continued his attack after what appeared to be a clever ruse. When the pointed utensils flew past his head, a familiar scent traced its nails over the masked nose and made the jounin's breath hitch at the same time when his blood flow was hijacked going straight to south. A haze of blue flashed before the gray eye, but the jounin knew now enough about the happening occurrences in him to regain his senses and answer the other man's stabbing sticks with a vicious cut, the clatter of wood ringing like a match bell. The following sounds of scuffle bounced off the walls and furniture as the trained professionals of espionage started the wordlessly declared second round on matters that had started to surface both despite and because of their efforts, throwing the kitchen area into a frenzy as thin and pointy utensils, usually used for eating, met with loud snaps of bamboo during the exchanged blows, cuts, strikes and blocks – the scene of the brawl flashing in blue on every occasion a skin contact was made and the sparks of chakra clashed between two wildly battling elements, the freely flowing sweat drawing electric, buzzing arcs of light in the air all around the fighting pair by following the paths of the swinging hands and twisting bodies.

A stomp, a cut, a strike, a kick, a blow, a feint – the battling hands and stepping feet blurred into sounds of hitting blows and sizzling blue, the steady flow of grunts, groans, curses and shouts having a cutting edge equally sharp like the delivered hits. In Kakashi's faintly amused notes, Iruka seemed to have something to share about their kenjutsu curriculum for teachers, the sensei making the jounin work for his fame with accurate stabs of the chopsticks hitting from all sides while the dark-haired man kept him on his toes with precise footwork, showing skill that had not been visible for the copy-nin during the Twenty Cups. Then again, being drunk and all that may have had something to do with that one. Forced out of his swirling thoughts with a stab that went a bit too close to home down there and thus needed to be definitely blocked, the men stilling over the locked chopsticks with wood grinding against wood, Kakashi took an opportunistic moment to observe his counterpart. Iruka's eyes were more alive than he had seen in the past few days and full of mixing emotions, the main ingredient being indignation apparently, the high cheeks were flushed, full lips parted to pass air more freely in the lungs. Not to mention the man was looking like someone who had decided to slide through a banquet, the rainbow of the more or less sticky, clumpy and colorful substances spotting the man's dark clothes and the grains of rice striking a strong contrast against the man's dark hair and skin. Not to mention the pieces of a rolled omelet tangled in the hair made the clumped ponytail look like a rather cute headpiece instead of a hair-do, but supposedly the younger man wouldn't agree on that if he said it out loud. Then again, the copy-nin was hardly in any better condition with his soaked shirt, now smelling of a baffling yet not so pleasant mixture of strong pu'erh and sweat, his hair in disarray with half drooping limply over his Sharingan and half pointing in every direction of the wind, the face mask was damp and irritating again – and his muscles were complaining loudly about their mistreatment, adding a few mild sprains and twists aching on his ankles and calves.

Breathless panting permeated the air as the men measured one another over their crossed makeshift weapons, fatigue and aggravation mixing in equal measures with every breath taken greedily by the adrenaline-driven killers. Tan hands held their ground against strong pale ones, the wood wailing under duress. Iruka's lips were drawn into a firm, serious line, matching the dark, burning eyes that Kakashi could feel burning his skin as he kept contact with his gray eye, neither of the men pulling away nor pushing any further, their arms holding the sticks pressed together in a steady flow of strength and weight between them – the ripples of enticing blue-tinted desire coursing through their joined link, making their breaths longer, heavier, the time and space distorting and reconstructing into what matched a slow thud of a heart beat, every tick and wisp of air pulsating like the very blood running through the veins of the two shinobis - - then, a hush of calm washed over them, as if the world they lived in had ended as abruptly as it had once began.

They say that the momentarily hush right before the storm hits is when one can sense the time stop in quivering anticipation.

Then, gracefully like it had been trained to, the pale body pushed itself into motion, and Iruka's skin erupted into the creeping tremors of desire traveling up his legs and the rest of his already longing body when his eyes drank in the sight of the bunching and smoothing muscles of the man he had so many times already touched, shared a lunch with, showered with, so many times threatened with bodily harm should he disobey the orders of their ranks. The spark of blue electricity nipped at the tan calves that were frozen on the spot, it filling the younger man's body with an adrenaline high and he more felt than realized his body jumping into action, the chopsticks swinging down while his other hand shot up.

Now, the shinobis were thought to be many things, both respected and detested, admired and feared, and they, as the samurai clans, were referred to as masters of armored weaponry, their masks and ninjutsu replacing the helmets and metal chest pieces, but sometimes both of the warring professions were given the reminder of times when the best course of action is to lose the masks and put down the weapons – because when they fall, the man hiding behind them falls as well if he can't stand baring himself in front of his life.

A clink of bamboo meeting something solid and smooth preceded the stunned silence, and the widened gray eye found itself staring at a shard of neatly wrapped porcelain shielding the expressive dark eyes, the tips of the stopped chopsticks pressed against the tiny piece of china held confidently in a honey-toned hand. Kakashi's heart gave an unsteady thud as he recognized the wrapped parcel, but took up the lost speed once the implications and intentions were thrown into the mix. Gradually, little by little, the gray eye drew its focus back and gained a familiar gleam in it, and the clothed, broad chest expanded on a deep inhale of air, the sound of long breath echoing in the deafening silence like a strong explosion of wind while the buzz of lightning crackled in the background ever so subtly. In silence, without moving a single muscle, Kakashi observed the man in front of him.

Unarmed.

The shift that overtook the tan, attractive body, the look of indecision that passed in the dark, deep brown eyes, the pull of the full lips as they seemingly couldn't decide whether to open or stay forever closed. Then, shortly, the eye contact he had kept with the chuunin broke as the expressive eyes were closed, and for a moment, Kakashi felt his heart stumble over its beats. However, as they opened, it was like a new set of eyes was looking at the masked man, who felt his pulse quicken when the piercing, heated gaze captured his masked features in a hold of molten iron.

Then, a coy, soft smile completely at odds with the look in his eyes spread like wildfire on Iruka's lips, and while his muscles flexed and twitched back into life after the moment that seemed like eternity with an anticipation that threatened to break his very core with its tight squeeze, the dark-skinned teacher felt his stomach flutter almost violently as the quietly whispered question left him with one shuddering breath.

"..Did you catch me, you idiot..?"

Unmasked.

With a snap of the pale wrist, a pair of chopsticks embedded themselves into a nearby wall, the chinks of cracking wall plaster pinging on the hard wood floor like a dropped wind chime, not that either of the men were interested in that small detail as the other pale hand stole the show by ripping off a piece of dark fabric from covering something that made Iruka's lungs stop their functions and his libido to skyrocket into frightening heights, making him almost miss it when the rarely seen lips formed a syllable and the pale, strong jaw moved around a single word. "Foul."

"Trade -" The instinctive reply was barely out of Iruka's mouth before it was claimed in a heated kiss and his mind exploded into thousand pieces when the entourage of carnal lust, raw attraction and burning desire crashed the party of his common logic, pouncing on every single sane thought too slow to escape the beasts that had been kept at bay too long and were well on their way on making their freedom count. A long, starved groan rumbled from the tan throat and within a blink, the tightly held shard of china was dropped to the floor from fingers that buried themselves into silvery mane, pulling, twisting and holding onto the fair hair like a lifeline. He wasn't so sure who slipped whose tongue into whose mouth first but knew he didn't care one smidgen, as all the teacher could feel was how agonizingly hard he was, how every single synapse in his body was singing high and low at the same time, the nerve connections flaring in a white flame when a lightning bolt surged inside him and overcharged his systems. Iruka felt his barriers cave in around him one by one, felt his body readily giving up on feigning the defiance that had finally worn him down, the stubborn denial finally surrendering itself to the flood of sensations that had so many times already asked to be acknowledged.

A roar of electric thunder arose from around the passionately embracing men, not that Kakashi was paying it any attention when all he could see behind his closed eyelids was flickering blue and sense the intoxicating scent of sexual appetite matching his, the smell of heavy musk mixed with strong black tea and the sweet aroma of aroused male hitting the deepest corners of his nostrils and making him shiver on each inhale. The strong hands roamed all around the willing body held in his grasp, appreciating the well-trained back muscles, firm buttocks, broad shoulders, narrow waist and the rather sticky hair-do. Passing that thought along, the pale fingers snapped the hair tie from caging the brown hair before taking a good hold on the long tresses and pulling the fervently kissing man off his swollen and bitten lips, the raging urge rattling his very being making him attack the tan throat with his lips, teeth and tongue.

A cry of ecstasy left Iruka when a set of teeth grazed the side of his throat, leaving a sizzling path on their way to his ear, and he knew he wasn't red only on his face the moment when a slide of a tongue moistened his burning ear lobe and made a him discover whole new octaves in his voice scale. A sudden turn tilting his blurry vision didn't first even register in his mushy mind, but the solid wall hitting his back did. The slam of hips against his made him forget the wall and the house it belonged to altogether, and very distantly he could hear both himself and the man ravishing him release a mutual rather vocal expression of appreciating the provided friction as the first shock wave of release took them both by surprise. Not that their enthusiasm was deterred by such a thing. If anything, legs and hands re-positioned themselves in better positions without further thought and the following steady roll and bucking of clothed hips grinding together picked up pace and the echoing pants, growls, mewls and moans replaced the oxygen in the room, the saliva mixing in the kissing mouths by the shameless tongues slipping and curling against each other. When Iruka finally managed to hitch his legs up and around the jounin's hips and not only press them even closer so that the delicious throbbing of the other's cock felt like it was a part of him – oh, yes – but angle himself so that the throbbing organ in question could introduce itself to another place in him that needed some attention – a small part of his mind miraculously sobered up on that idea. "Ka-"

Apparently the man humping against him was indeed a genius to his name. Without an uttered word, the jounin dislodged them from the sturdy wall and let Iruka set his trembling feet to the ground before grabbing a good hold on the flushed sensei's ruined shirt and pulling it over the dark-haired head and tossing it to someplace neither of them cared, the jounin's own top meeting the same fate. At the sight of the pale well-sculpted chest and the hardener rosy nipples, an animalistic rumble rose from the tan chest and before anyone could blink, the jounin found himself cornered against the bedroom door by heated kisses and rough gropes marking his bodily map.

Kakashi's mind, at this point, was useless. Utterly useless, reduced to only blips of dazed consciousness keeping him still breathing, informing that he was still fully hard and desperately ready for what was on its way after some rather wild orgasms, and not concentrating on anything else but the writhing man in his arms who gave his both lower cheeks a bruising squeeze. And he was thrilled to bits by every second it lasted. Pushing the frisky academy sensei away from nibbling his Adam's apple before turning them both around and pressing them against the wall next to the bedroom's closed door, Kakashi got his mind cleared enough to remember how to turn a doorknob and pull open the door to let them continue their match in an other setting. Once the road was clear, a pang of lightning bolt later that left them both panting, the jounin took a good hold onto the fervently kissing sensei's shoulders and lead them blindly through the doorway.

A rather delightful twist on his both nipples made the jounin growl.

Fingers hooking onto his waist bands and pulling both the pants and dirtied boxers off enough for a steady hand to take a good hold on him made him bite back a howl.

The teeth biting into the curve of his neck and shoulder made the howl tore itself free from his throat.

A chuckle, a turn, and Kakashi's swimming vision took a new angle as he was shoved on something with a soft thud. A pair of hands let a flow of electricity dance on his stomach, hips and across his legs, all the way to the nails of his smallest toes as his pants were pulled off in one swift pull. Soon enough, a warm, naked body landed on top of him, embracing him in the slide of sweaty skin as a hot mouth claimed its ownership on his tongue, the battle for dominance still ongoing with the press and slide of tongues, caressing hands and entangling feet, the men on the futon disappearing into the feel of the other's body, losing their individual outlines and merging into one being humming in high-charged energy.

A grip on the flexing hips, a slide of slippery fingers in between with a keen cry resulting from the progress of things, and Iruka felt his insides let the control snap in one go as he pushed eagerly down on the new sensations, the wetness inside him slipping and sliding on every roll and snap of the tan hips, his lungs struggling for every pant leaving his mouth that was hanging open and his heart pumping in the same rhythm as he was riding the pleasure. The tan body jerked and twitched on every pulse of mind-numbing electric impulses, the weight of the man lost in his high leaning on tan arms that were pressed against a shallowly breathing smooth chest of the man beneath the other, the man whose fingers were as deadly in bed as they were on the field.

A dazed dark brown met the molten steel gray, a devious grin on flushed face making the revealed teeth bite on a reddened bottom lip, a grasp of a hand twisting the other away, a pump and a second following with an exlaimed vowel, and finally the tight wet heat of one enveloping the other making the room echo with simultaneous cries of climax washing over the battle grounds. A thrust, a roll, a bounce, a cry, wave after wave they crashed the shores of indescribable sensations and rose together into the unknown stratospheres, the movements of the quivering stomachs, pushing hips and tensing legs never ceasing – a wrestling grip of the pale hands on strong, tan arms and a flip with a smooth roll to the side, and the barriers surrounding the light-gray house vibrated in the setting sun with the following loud crackle of thunder overcharging itself with a string of screamed incoherencies and profanities encouraging it. The slaps of skin hitting skin in maddening staccato punctuated every gasp and pant leaving the two men lost in the throes of their passionate match, the tan trembling legs holding onto the moving body above them like letting go would be the end of them both, the strong hands clawing the sweaty and hot back, adding scratches among scars, the redder the higher they climbed, the stronger their hearts beat together, the closer they were at the silver bells that started to chime in their jumbled minds, mixing with the sounds of their bodies and souls that were so tightly wrapped around each other, so tightly, so closely, so close, so close, so close – a hoarse cry erupted from the dark-haired man's throat as a sting of teeth biting into the aching spot on his shoulder hit where it mattered, shoving him over the edge when pure need and darkest want conquered his mind, and he didn't care, he rode the tidal wave that begun from his toes and ended up crashing inside his feverish mind that became undone, bursting through him like the release exploding from inside his loins, hard, forceful and oh so satisfying, his gaping mouth releasing a soundless roar at the hot fluids hitting their mark deep within him.

Like a machine that finally ran out of steam, there was a common release of breath when the pair came to a stop, the naked bodies left entwined together in one heaving heap of muscle, bones and hammering pulse.

After what felt like the small death releasing its suffocating hold on his jugular, Kakashi crashed back to the reality with a long, hoarse sound that was a distant cousin to a growl and a whimper. His ears were ringing, his eyes did't seem to get the hold on blinking synchronically, his brain gave a pathetic peep before shutting itself down for an indefinite time, and not only did he gasp for air like a fish on dry land but his intestines felt like they had played the chair game without his permission. The gray, narrow eye squinted in agony as he tried to focus it on nothing in particular.

He, to put it bluntly, was an utter mess.

"..Ka...oh..kami..Kakashi..san..?"

Not that the heaving body under him sounded like faring any better.

Making his physique to give a new try, the jounin scraped enough energy together to slowly ease himself on his trembling elbows and peer down at his partner who was well on his way on drying his damp hair by puffing air at his neck. What Kakashi saw when the gray eye eventually found its focus made him summon a quiet chuckle from somewhere in him despite his own physical and mental state. The sensei, the average nin's common model boy for propriety and professional performance, looked like a victim of a food orgy gone terribly sideways at some point. The dark hair spilled all over the futon they had fallen on, bits and pieces of what used to be parts of something recognizable smudging the linen and tangling the long hair into bushy clumps and stick it in every direction possible on the horizontal plane. The flushed face was drenched in sweat and accentuated with what seemed to be some sort of marinade, the full lips were bruised and swollen, and as the final cherry on top, the dark eyes peering up at him were well fighting a losing battle on keeping focus on the unmasked face they were staring.

Though the chuunin seemed to catch onto the jounin's rising humor as a bright, if a bit smug grin spread on the blushing face and the words were quietly spoken in between heavy breaths. "You..don't..look like..a cover boy..yourself...bastard."

Now Kakashi couldn't prevent the faint chuckle from coming. "That bad, huh."

An answering chuckle from beneath met his own. "That bad." Then a grunt came from the tan man and the jounin took the hint, easing himself off and out of the other with a hiss coming from them both before slumping bonelessly next to the sprawled man who slowly stretched his cramping limbs into a better position now that there wasn't a pale body lounging between the tan legs.

During the following few minutes, all that was heard was the attempts to steady the breaths and hearts for them both, the brown and gray eyes unseeing as the men spent the silence to replay the events leading to their present situation. Not a look was shared, not a comment was made, the faintest sounds of evening traffic making their way into the household through the open doors.

"..Well...I think we can ditch the 'san' now..." The words were out of Kakashi's mouth before he even caught himself thinking of them, but wasn't so surprised to feel the lacking of nerves. However, when he gave a look at his side where the chuunin was, the jounin was surprised to catch a rush of red on the high cheeks. A silvery eyebrow rose on the pale forehead and Kakashi mused that it wasn't everyday when he himself felt like blushing at the sight of someone blushing in bed with him. "...Maa, you can't possibly be blushing over an offered drop of the honorific after -"

"Finish that sentence and there is no 'after' for you," snapped Iruka's sharp tongue with a tone familiar to them both, which did ease the sliver of tension that had sneaked up on them. After a minute, the chuunin turned to look properly at the hesitantly smiling jounin, the bronze-skinned body soon following the turning gaze and rolling on its side facing the silver-haired man lying on the same mattress.

Kakashi gave a blink at the swirl of emotion he spotted underlying beneath the unreadable look in the other's eyes. After a beat, he turned on his side and fixed a long good look at the man in front of him.

Then, as if asking for permission, a tan hand cupped the unmasked cheek and held it.

With a smile splaying on the rumoured hidden lips, the man who the smile belonged to leaned into the touch. "..Draw..?"

After a beat, a small smile reached the corners of the dark eyes. "..Draw."


[1] Ah, well, this is one reason why I took so long. I have made no further studies on biology after high school, other than looking into things out of pure interest, so I made some research to make some sense to what may be the physiological terms for what happens in the body..and then just had some fun with it. If you spot some bad mistakes there, please do notify me so I can correct it.
[2] This is said after their encounter with Zabuza, Chapter 33, page 117 in the manga.
[3] A well-known quote from Kakashi which will definitely end up on my classroom wall.

AN: ...So. Bones?