*Author's notes: Hello again, here is chapter five! The more I get into this little story, the more I fall in love with it, and I desperately hope that you all are enjoying reading it just as much as I am enjoying writing. Please feel free to drop me a note or write a review; the feedback and advice means a lot to me. As always, Naruto and characters belong to Masashi. Here we go!
It was the crash of thunder and continuous pelting of rain on the rickety tiles of the roof that pulled Iruka from his slumber. He rolled and drew the pillow over his head, only to be accosted by the memory of coming home, Mizuki antagonizing Genma, and then falling asleep in the living room. He fluffed the pillow and curled his feet under the blanket, slouching into the mattress briefly before moving to sit up. This, decidedly, was not the living room. This was also increasingly strange weather for summertime in Konoha. Another thing that was strange was the fact that the teen felt very little soreness in his hands, but he was in no way complaining.
He stood and made his way down the hall into the combined kitchen/living room area and wasn't all that surprised to find Genma asleep on the couch. Over the course of their brief friendship, the young tokujo had become quite protective over Iruka, and though Iruka didn't know whether Genma was like that with all his friends or not, it brought a small grin to his face anyway. Mizuki was Iruka's friend without a doubt, and had been since before their days at the academy, but he was very independent and elusive by nature. He had never really shown any protectiveness over Iruka, and had never been around when he'd needed defending from bullies. Sometimes the other boy would disappear for days, even weeks at a time, and then show up in Iruka's kitchen as if he'd been gone only a few minutes and proceed to eat him out of house and home. That had been the silver haired teen's plan last night, no doubt, when Genma's fighting instinct had interrupted his search for snacks. Iruka had been amused at the time, but now that he was more awake he frowned at the memory. Mizuki hadn't visited him in the hospital even once, and even though Iruka hadn't expected him to, he had expected some form of acknowledgement of it upon their first meeting since before that shotty mission. But Mizuki had made no mention of the fact, not even to chastise Iruka for being careless and letting himself be captured. Not even to tease him about the sorry state of his hands.
What he had done, though, was go out of his way to irritate Genma, and that caused a furrow in Iruka's brow.
The teen didn't dwell on it too much though, as his new friend began to stir under his gaze, and Iruka ducked underneath the handful of senbon that had been tossed in his direction with ease. Once he righted himself, he laughed when he saw Genma's bleary eyes and the way he searched his vest pockets. Iruka's Jonin-sensei had reacted similarly when awoken from naps, as if in his sleep he'd been robbed. Being shinobi, Iruka guessed that that probably wasn't unlikely. "Morning to you too, Genma-san," Iruka tittered as he wandered toward the stove, his hand reaching for the cupboard that hung above it.
The older blond mumbled something incoherently as he rubbed at his eyes, wondering why he let himself fall asleep in unfamiliar places.
"I would've been fine on my own, ya know," Iruka informed him good naturedly as he put a kettle on to boil and began preparing two mugs of tea, "but thank you for not letting Mizuki eat anything. I'd never hear the end of it if he'd gotten food poisoning."
Iruka's chatter reminded Genma of last night, and his features drew into an unconscious frown. "Who is that kid anyway? He was acting pretty strangely."
"Mizuki? Our mothers had been friends, I've known him forever. He's not usually like that, I don't know what was up last night. Maybe a bad mission."
Genma snorted. "Couldn't have been as bad as your last one. And that didn't seem like any case of post-mission grumps I've ever seen."
Iruka just gave his usual single shoulder shrug, and Genma knew the teen would be scratching at his scar if his hands hadn't been preoccupied with tea. Genma wasn't much of a tea drinker (he stuck mostly to strong coffee and stronger sake), but he didn't turn it down as Iruka handed him a mug. Genma was many things; loud, brash, even vulgar at times, but he would never be accused of being impolite, so he would accept anything that the teen put in front of him without a word. Accept maybe eggs. Genma might cross the line at eggs.
"How are your hands feeling?" the blond asked as he sniffed at the tea. "You fell asleep, but I used that cream on your hands anyway. The doctors said you had to apply it often."
"They feel a lot better than yesterday," Iruka replied with a smile, "thank you."
The rest of the morning progressed as if Genma spending the night was something that had been happening for years, as if it was routine for them, and Genma was surprised by just how easy being around the teen was. Though it often seemed that Genma and Raido were attached at the hip, and they were truly very good friends, Genma often spent a fair bit of time alone. It seemed though that that morning was the beginning of the tokujo's personal revolution. He and the Chuunin were practically inseparable from then on.
Nearly a year later, on Iruka's seventeenth birthday, the teen had big news. It was midday and he had just been released from Sandaime-sama's office. Iruka's customary easy grin seemed even larger than usual as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, his eyes scanning for a bandanna over pale blond hair. Genma had recently begun pulling shifts at the mission room, and he'd probably be on his lunch break with Raido right now. Iruka rolled his eyes and doubled back toward the Hokage tower. He often forgot Genma ate lunch right atop the missions reports, Raido turning the rumpled pages into origami when he got too bored.
The excited teen burst into the mission room with an excited whoop, then slid across the desk, sending papers scattering to the floor. "Guys, guys, guys!"
Raido raised a dark eyebrow and leaned back out of the rambunctious teen's way, but smirked at Genma over the ponytailed head. Genma growled at the teen, but couldn't keep the amusement from his eyes. "The fuck, kid? I'm gonna have to clean all this up!"
"I got in! I actually got in!" Iruka babbled, too excited to react to Genma's teasing.
"Got in where?" Raido asked, a lecherous tone to his voice.
"The academy, asshole," Iruka responded, laughing as he cuffed Raido's ear.
"You made such a bad ninja that they sent you back to school?" Genma gasped, feigning shock.
"You're both dickwads!" the youngest of the trio exclaimed as he slid all the way over the desk and landed practically in Genma's lap before scrambling, oblivious to the look his companions were sharing over the table, into the chair beside Genma's. "I got into the academy training program! Starting Monday, I get to shadow one of the senseis during the school day and help with the kids and stuff for the rest of the school year. If I do well, I might get my own class come September!"
Raido patted the teen on the shoulder and smiled warmly at him while Genma just shook his head. "You are the only person I know who thinks that that sounds exciting." But the pride in his eyes gave the blond away and he planted and friendly kiss on the metal of Iruka's hitai-ate.
Iruka just grinned and went babbling on with Genma listening much more attentively than he let on while Raido smirked at his blond friend and watched. The teen had grown on Raido exponentially and the three of them could often be found together, but Raido's favourite part of being in this trio was watching the other two interact with each other. Genma had always been a very physical person, reacting to everything very much with his body instead of his brain, so when Raido noticed the arm slung affectionately over a slender young shoulder as they walked down the street shortly after the teen became a prominent part of Genma's life, the elder of the three wasn't surprised. When the forehead kisses started a few months back, that had caught Raido a bit off guard, but Iruka flourished under Genma's unexpected way of showing his support. Iruka, who had been very much alone after the death of his parents, thrived when given any sort of physical contact; he always leaned into Raido's pats on the back and post-mission hugs, and these kisses to his hitai-ate from Genma just lit the kid right up. But Raido loved sitting back and watching because both younger nin, though neither seemed to notice yet, were quite interested and drawn in by the other.
Genma was undeniably physically attracted to the teen. Even over the ten months that Genma and Raido had known him, Iruka had gotten taller, broader, and his muscles more defined. His face had lost it's boyish roundness, his chin and cheekbones becoming more defined, his scar molding to his face in a way that only served to highlight the expressiveness of his eyes. But Rai had noticed that it was more than physical attraction that had struck Genma. The blond often talked of the teen when Iruka wasn't around, and his protective streak had grown to be about a kilometer wide. He would set Iruka up on these blind dates with kunoichi that he knew, but then would act jealous and grumpy, moping around Raido, when the teen would go on them. Raido knew Genma didn't notice he was doing it, and that made it all the more funny.
Iruka, too, showed almost an over interest in his blond friend. He always sat very close to Genma, walked almost too closely to him when they went out. He tried to make Genma laugh multiple times a conversation, and, less obviously, was quite concerned about making decisions that Genma would approve of. He often asked for the blond's advice and opinion, and though Asuma was convinced that it was in a similar way to how Kotetsu looked up to him, Raido was certain of otherwise. He wondered when either of his friends would notice or acknowledge the romantic relationship that was trying to build up between them.