Author's Notes: Hello! So sorry for keeping you all waiting. I don't really have any excuse for it this time. But I like this chapter a lot, and I hope that you will too. Please feel free to leave me any feedback/advice/criticisms. Happy reading! Naruto and characters belong to Masashi.
The Wednesday of the picnic was sweltering. Iruka hadn't been able to find Mizuki to tell him of his change of plans, but didn't let that bother him. Genma had popped by in the morning and was now lying on the living room floor, a bag of ice on his chest and another on his forehead on top of his hitai-ate. Neither young man were wearing shirts, as it was just too damn hot.
"Does that help?" Iruka asked curiously from the kitchen. He'd had his head in the freezer in a desperate attempt to cool himself down. "I mean, can you feel the coolness through the metal and the fabric?"
Genma grunted, but Iruka couldn't discern whether it'd been an affirmative or not. "It'll be nice by the lake. Raido got back yesterday, so we'll have a good time. Kanden said he'd be bringing all the booze, so you can count on some good quality shit."
Iruka hummed as he closed the freezer door and wandered into the living room, lying himself down beside his friend. They were close enough to touch, but not quite touching, their body heat mingling. Iruka didn't seem to notice just how close they were, but Genma was having a hard time focusing on anything else. If he just moved his arm even a centimeter, he'd be flush against Iruka's golden skin. He had to fight to keep that from happening.
"What time do you want to head out, then?" The Chuunin's eyes were closed, the heat causing a heavy flush to come over his cheeks and bare chest. He sounded tired, but such hot weather had sucked the energy out of pretty much everyone. Genma stared intently at the water damage on the ceiling. A shirtless, heavily flushed, sleepy Iruka was a dangerous Iruka to be around. More and more, Genma was finding himself having to make a conscious effort to keep his hands to himself, to keep his eyes from roving over any visible bronze skin. Raido had been telling him, "He is a little young for you, but I still think you should go for it. He balances you out quite well. But not just a fuck n' dump, Gen. Kid's too good for that, ya know." But Genma hadn't wanted to listen. He didn't want Iruka as anything more than the good friend he was, right? The last couple days, though, Genma had begun to prove himself wrong. He was starting to see what Raido had seen from the beginning. "Gen? What time?"
"Oh, sorry, what? Uh, two? Is two good?" Genma sputtered, embarrassed of being caught daydreaming.
Iruka cocked his head and gave Genma a look, but nodded. "If that's about when everyone else'll get there. I don't want to be out there during the hottest part of the day if nobody else shows up 'til dinner."
Genma sort of laughed and his head lolled to the side in some sort of sad attempt of a nod. It was already around one; just one more hour before Iruka would put on a shirt and they would be surrounded by people who didn't know him, people Genma knew would be interested in the Chuunin's presence. The Tokujo was glad for that. Much longer with Iruka like this and he might lose his mind a little. He closed his eyes as Iruka sighed and shifted beside him, his arm pressing against Genma's paler one for only a moment. That one moment, though, had been enough for Genma and he chewed hard on his senbon. It would be a pretty tough day if he didn't get out of here pretty quick.
The party had already started by the time Genma and Iruka had wandered into the clearing by the lake. Kanden Tekuno had brought a cooler full of alcohol as promised, and was lazing beside it under the shade of a large oak tree. Mitarashi Anko and Gekko Hayate, both newly promoted and close to Iruka's age, were sprawled out together under a maple near Kanden-san's oak. Raido and Asuma were sitting on the bank of the lake, their pant legs rolled up and their feet in the water. A small group consisting of Inuzuka Tsume, Taji the medic-nin, Might Gai, and a seemingly reluctant Morino Ibiki were clustered around a fire pit cooking an assortment of fish and sliced meats.
Genma immediately went to Raido and Asuma and was pulled into the conversation. Iruka had gone over as well to say hello, but had been subsequently flagged down by Anko. He and the kunoichi had known each other for years and had a mutual friend in Mizuki, so it only seemed natural that if he were to leave Genma's side during this gathering, it would be to sit with her.
"Hey Iru-kun! I didn't know you'd been promoted to Jonin too! That was pretty quick, huh?" Anko's voice screeched as Iruka sat himself down beside her.
"Oh, I haven't been," he responded almost sheepishly, rubbing the scar over his nose. "Genma asked me to come along with him. I actually don't plan on advancing any further; I'm an academy sensei now."
Hayate coughed. Being close in age, the two teens had often seen each other and had exchanged brief words in passing or over missions, but had never developed any sort of relationship beyond that. He smiled at Iruka now though. "That's really interesting Iruka-san. After all the trouble you caused in our school days I would never have pegged you as the teacherly type. When did you start there?"
"Well, I started assisting in May, but come the start of the school year I'll have my own class."
"So soon?" Anko asked, surprised. "But isn't the assistant period usually longer than that? And isn't there an exam or something?"
"Usually, yeah," Iruka replied, already feeling far more lively being able to talk about something that excited him. He hadn't expected Anko or Hayate to be interested in his career choice. "Generally you're supposed to be a teacher's aid for at least a school year, and then you take the exam. But I was the only aid this year, and I was admitted pretty late. They were expecting to not have me take the exam until next May, but we lost one of our teachers. They didn't have anyone to replace him, and I guess I'd been doing pretty well because they asked me to take the exam early, and I passed. But they gave me the exam more out of desperation than anything else," Iruka finished with a laugh and Hayate nodded with a smile, followed by a cough.
Anko pulled some grass up and started twirling the roots in between her fingers. "Well, good for you Iru-kun. That's really exciting, to be moving up so quickly like that."
"You should know," he said as he bumped his shoulder into hers, "going for Jonin at nineteen. That's impressive! You too, Hayate-san," he shot a winning smile passed Anko at Hayate. "Really impressive."
Anko laughed. "Cut the crap, I'd been a Chuunin since I was twelve, and I only made Tokubetsu! Besides, a lot of the people here made Jonin a lot younger than we did, hey Haya-kun?"
Hayate shrugged. "That's true, but we both made Chuunin pretty early in comparison to some of the others in our age bracket, and it was a different time when most of the others here were promoted up. Thank you for your praise Iruka-san, reaching Tokubetsu was difficult for me," and as if to punctuate his point, Hayate found himself in a fit of coughs. Anko rubbed his back, and Iruka noticed that Morino Ibiki had his eyes trained on them from the campfire. His face was expressionless, but it had been Hayate's coughing that drew his attention, of that Iruka was sure.
Before he could dwell on that though, they heard a shout and a large splash, and when they looked to the lake they saw Genma and Raido seemingly trying to drown each other. If it hadn't been for the obvious sounds of laughter and the fact that he knew those two could never have anything but affection for the other, Iruka would have been worried. As it was, he just grinned that mischievous grin of his.
"Uh oh," Anko laughed when she saw that look on Iruka's face. "I sense trouble!"
And then, in the blink of an eye, Iruka was stripped of his shirt and was waist deep in the lake, pulling Raido under the surface and splashing Genma almost brutally. The other elites in the clearing watched with surprise and amusement as a Chuunin bested two of their own. It was a brief and fleeting moment though, as as soon as Raido was under and had figured out what happened, Iruka was dragged underneath by the ankle and Genma was on top of him, dunking him with playful hands.
It wasn't long before Gai declared that this show of youthfulness was to be admired, and that it would be very unyouthful of himself to not participate. He then proceeded to challenge one Hatake Kakashi, who had been reading Icha Icha Paradise in one of the branches of Kanden's oak tree and completely ignoring everyone and everything, to a battle of water jutsu. That had been all it took. With a chorus of whoops and cheers that reminded Iruka of the class of ten year olds he'd been assisting in, all the Tokujo and Jonin assembled had stampeded into the lake, splashing at each other and hitting each other with low level water jutsu that were flashy and playful more than anything else.
When later asked about that day, Hatake-san would reply that he couldn't risk his reputation by turning down a challenge, and Morino-san would mumble something about the unbearable heat and it not being his fault that a water fight broke out around him. Others would say that it had been quite a while since they'd seen such playfulness in the great Copy nin and that the fledgling torture specialist had the loudest, most infectious laughter. Everyone would conclude with the fact that the Chuunin with the boyish grin had made a nice addition to the picnic, even if he hadn't really talked to most of them, and even if they weren't sure exactly why Genma had brought him along in the first place.
As the group floundered around in the cool water of the lake and bodies shed obtrusive articles of clothes, Genma lost track of trying to stay away from his young friend. Aoba and Anko were ganging up on the kid and Genma felt a swell of protectiveness overtake him. He popped up and countered their attacks of bubbles and foam with a spray of water and grabbed Iruka by the arm, pulling him under the surface and swimming away from the fray with him. They surfaced together near the opposite bank, as far away from the chaos as possible. Iruka smirked at his blond companion, and sent a small splash into his face as Genma spat water at him. And then the feeling that he'd been fighting back at Iruka's apartment hit Genma again full force.
Iruka had lost his hair tie in the water fight somehow, and now his dark locks hung around his broad shoulders and down his back, heavy and almost black with moisture. The water gleamed under the sun on his tan skin, giving him a golden glow that Genma had seen in warm molasses and honey covered candied apples. He looked positively delicious, and the damned grin did nothing but add to Iruka's good looks. But as Iruka grabbed his arm and pulled him into a headlock, laughing and saying something along the lines of, "Was that supposed to be a rescue, or a way to get me alone? Because you know I'll give you a run for your money Shiranui," Genma knew he wasn't fighting his physical attraction to the Chuunin. He was fighting against the kid's playfulness, his intelligence, his inclination to mischief, and his big heart.
Genma was ANBU. He went on missions that should get him killed, that probably would one day. He was loud and brash, he had a reputation of being insensitive, of being a gossip, of being a bit of a slut. He was older than Iruka by a fair bit and he shouldn't get involved with someone who was pursuing a respectable, responsible career when he was sort of lazy and plenty irresponsible when that porcelain mask wasn't on his face. Even though Raido was not so subtly pushing Genma into having a relationship of something more than was already there with Iruka, Genma knew he couldn't. Iruka was young, bright, full of light. He'd never killed anyone, not even when he and his teammates had been trapped last summer. Genma was ANBU. It wouldn't work.
But feeling Iruka's hands on him, knowing that Iruka's laugh, his smile, was there because the boy enjoyed Genma's company, pondering the fact that he was never more himself than when Iruka was around, Genma wondered if maybe it could work. Maybe he was fighting a losing battle.
The clouds had come suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere. The boom of thunder had surprised everybody into stillness, and when the downpour started with absolutely no buildup whatsoever, the elites went scrambling for cover. Iruka let go of his hold on Genma and spread his arms wide, face to the sky, mouth open and catching raindrops. He welcomed the water pelting against his skin and stinging his eyes. Genma watched, completely awed. He had never liked the rain much, but if Iruka loved it so much it couldn't be that bad. Then Genma laughed. Maybe he was fighting a losing battle? No. Apparently he had already lost. He'd just been too stubborn to admit it.
And then Iruka was out of the lake and standing on the bank, his laughter louder than the thunder. "Spar with me!" he shouted as he hopped back into the clearing, toward his clothes and weapons pouch. Genma clambered from the water and followed, a soft smile on his lips.
"Sure," he murmured.