Author's Notes: If you love IruGen/GenIru, I enthusiastically suggest reading the fic Simply Begin by Lecanis. It's the prequel to a series that focuses on KakaIru and GenRai, so if you're into those pairings do continue on to the rest of the series, but if not, Simply Begin literally stole my heart. Now, in regards to my fic, I do have it rated M for a reason. That reason will be clear from this chapter on, and the warning is for sexual situations between men. Now, if you've made it through the last eight chapters I'm sure you realized I was bringing it in that direction, but this is just a reminder. Also, it is my first time writing anything of a sexually explicit nature, so any tips or feedback will be welcomed with open arms. Thank you for all the kind words and attention Weather Patterns has been bringing in; I hope the rest of it will please you all just as much. Moving forward, Naruto and characters belong to Masashi.

That Wednesday of the Jonin Picnic had changed everything, and somehow changed nothing. The flow of missions were still slow, but that was normal for this time of year. Iruka was still doing his best to prepare for his first class. Raido still folded origami when he had lunch with Genma in the mission room. Genma still spent most nights at Iruka's. Iruka still saw Mizuki in fits and starts, and Genma still thought something was wrong with him.

It was the few small, select things that made Genma feel like his whole life had turned upside down.

For instance, when Genma saw the bare skin of Iruka's wrist and felt the urge to brush his fingers across it, he didn't stop himself. When Iruka wiped his face with his shirt in the midst of a sparring match, Genma didn't tell himself that he couldn't drop a kiss on the patch of sweaty skin between the young man's shoulder blades anymore, because now he could. When he stayed the night, he had moved from the couch to Iruka's bed.

And that is how the rest of August bled into the start of September without Genma really noticing. The blond man spent a lot of time in Iruka's bed, whether his young boyfriend was with him or not, and he often lost track of what day it was when he wasn't working the mission desk or running the occasional mission. He surrounded himself with the warmth of Iruka's smell, and threw a sheet over the window when the sunlight bothered his eyes too much. As September started though, lying in bed and waiting for his Chuunin's return became less relaxing and far more tedious, as Iruka was spending more and more time out of the house.

School had started. The young brunet would wake up early and head down to the academy to make sure his lesson plans were ready and that the room was set up accordingly. He would stay after hours to make sure everything was cleaned up properly, practically doing the janitorial staff's job for them. He would come home and agonize over the next set of lesson plans, fretting about whether he was moving the children along at the right pace, whether the lesson would be interesting enough to engage them. It would then take him at least an hour, often longer, before he could wind down enough to climb into bed with Genma, curling up tight against his side and falling almost instantly into an exhausted, nervous slumber. But Iruka was loving his new job, and there was joy and excitement underneath his tired anxiety, so Genma never complained, and never asked him to come to bed early.

It wasn't until nearly October that Genma realized that they hadn't progressed the physical aspect of their relationship beyond heavy make out sessions and long bouts of half dressed cuddling. And that realization had been almost accidental, and quite surprising to the tokujo who had never really 'taken it slow' with anyone before.

Genma had gone to his own apartment for a quick shower before running over to Iruka's. He had spent the last eight hours bored out of his mind in the mission room, and he knew that his boyfriend would have made it back from the academy right about then. And though he'd been correct, the scene he walked into was not one he had been expecting.

Iruka had always been a gentle person. Though he would sometimes show frustration by a purse of those full lips or a roll of dark eyes, Genma had never seen Iruka actually lose his temper before. That evening though, Genma had walked in on a storm. Iruka was standing in the middle of the front room, his whole body tense and trembling. It looked like he was blinking back frustrated tears. His work satchel had been thrown on the floor, papers and pens spilling out of it and across the laminate. His vest was crumpled in the corner of the room, his hitai-ate down around his neck, and a couch cushion pressed firmly against his chest.

"Iruka?"

The young brunet's head jerked up and his eyes locked with Genma's before he tossed the cushion aside with much more force than necessary. He growled, "Hurry up and hold me, damnit, or get the hell out of here."

Genma was beside him in an instant, wrapping his arms around the slightly smaller frame and pulling him to sit on the couch. He tucked Iruka's head under his chin and let his fingers trace absent minded patterns on Iruka's bare bicep. "What happened?"

"What happened?" Iruka asked, his voice muffled against the skin of Genma's shoulder. He paused and took a breath, a sign of embarrassment, Genma knew, before continuing. "It's stupid. I shouldn't even be upset."

"But you are," Genma prodded, "so you might as well tell me about it."

Iruka sighed and pulled away, leaning back against the arm of the couch and draping Genma over top of him as if the tokujo was an ultrasoft throw or a patterned afghan. Genma pillowed his chin on his hands and looked up at his Chuunin. Iruka pushed Genma's bandannaed hitai-ate off his head and onto the floor, running his fingers through the pale blond hair. "Today was just so shitty," he murmured as he massaged his boyfriend's scalp. "The other teachers were teasing me in the staff room, they said I cared too much. Isn't that weird though? Aren't we supposed to care? We have the future shinobi of Konoha in our classrooms, looking up to us, expecting us to teach them something. Don't we have to care about that? They said that after I'd been teaching for a few years I'll simmer down about my lesson plans and stuff. But that's just so... So... I mean, come on!" Genma could feel Iruka's body tensing up underneath him. "If we're not passionate about teaching these kids something, if we're not serious about it, none of them will graduate to be Genin. Or worse, they'll graduate, and when the Jonin get their hands on those kids, they'll be crushed. They'll be killed on the field. Isn't it important that, as academy sensei, and as citizens of Konoha just in general, we try to give those kids as much of a jumpstart as possible? We're dealing with their very survival out there! And then in class today after lunch, Naruto-kun... Asked me about my parents."

Genma let out a small whoosh of air and dropped a kiss on Iruka's collar. "What did he want to know?" he murmured, his lips never leaving Iruka's skin.

"He said, 'Sensei, what kind of shinobi are your parents?' We'd been talking about the different jobs that ninja can have, ya know? Like, Rai's a personal guard of the hokage, I'm a teacher, there are medic-nin and classified paper filers down at T&I and mission runners and stuff? And he just wanted to know what my parents did, so he asked, 'what kind of shinobi are your parents?' and all I could think was, 'my parents are dead shinobi. They're dead.' And I didn't know what to tell him and he just kept looking at me with those big blue eyes and he's containing the fox, ya know? And he was so fucking curious about my parents and I just..."

"It made you mad," Genma whispered as his hands started massaging Iruka's arms. He hated the tenseness he felt in Iruka and he wanted to drive it away.

"Yeah, it made me mad. But not at him. He's just a kid, and he was just curious. I'm just so pissed at myself. Like, I shouldn't be so fucking scared of a little boy, ya know? He's really a sweet kid and he hasn't done anything to anyone, but I'm scared to look him in the fucking eyes. Anyway, that threw me for a loop and I was off my game for the rest of the day and Kiba-kun just kept trying to pull pranks on me and Naruto-kun wouldn't stop asking questions without raising his hand and Shikamaru-kun kept falling asleep and I just lost it. I yelled at them and I shouldn't have, and poor little Hinata-chan started crying. So Hyuuga Hiashi came in after class and really chewed me out, and I couldn't even really defend myself, and it was so fucking embarrassing, and damn Mizuki heard the whole fucking thing!"

"Mizuki?" Genma's head lifted and he looked at Iruka.

"Yeah. He's started assisting at the academy. Didn't I tell you? Anyway, he heard the whole thing and went on about how I need to control my temper and that the kids won't respect me if I just yell at them and maybe I should go back to assisting because I'm clearly not ready to have my own class. He actually said to me, 'it's not your fault they pushed you too fast, there's no shame in demoting yourself until you feel ready.' I mean, I guess he's right and I am the youngest teacher they have, but today was just a bad day; I'm not bad at my job, am I?"

Genma sat up at looked at Iruka for a long time, weighing his words in his head before speaking. "Did he let you tell him about your day? Did he hear your side of things?"

"Well, he was on his way out when he stopped by my room, he's always pretty busy, so he just said his piece and left. But you know how he is and-,"

Genma cut Iruka off before the teen could try to defend the other boy. "I don't think it's right for him to be making those judgements when he doesn't know what happened. You probably shouldn't have yelled at the kids, but they shouldn't have been doing what they were doing and Hyuuga-san can't blame you for Hinata crying. He's raising a shinobi, ne? If she cries whenever someone raises their voice in her presence, she isn't going to do very well."

Iruka pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. Though he appeared relaxed with his body draped across the couch and his head tossed back, he was anything but. An undercurrent of tension corded its way through all his muscles, making his body hard under Genma's roaming fingers. Genma had never seen Iruka like this before. Iruka was happy-go-lucky, mischievous, playful, forgiving. He didn't hold grudges, and Genma had never seen this much tension in the teen's body outside of sparring. It seemed, he thought, excitement shooting through him at the idea, that a massage was in order. He rolled off the couch and Iruka whined at the loss of contact. Genma laughed, then grabbed Iruka's hand and dragged him down to the floor, laying him out on his stomach.

"What are you doing?" the younger man asked as Genma slid his hands up under his shirt. "Gen?"

"Shh," the tokujo responded as he peeled the dark tank top off the tanned skin and over the head of dark hair. "I'm helping." With that, Genma straddled Iruka and settled his weight on the backs of the teen's thighs. He pressed the heels of his hands into the bronze skin at the base of Iruka's neck, where neck and shoulder meet. The teen let out a groan of satisfaction as the older man kneaded his tense shoulders, and then the tight muscles around his spinal column. Genma meticulously massaged every centimeter of Iruka down until he hit the waistband of his pants, then worked his way back up just as slowly, just as carefully. He then moved up farther and paid great attention to Iruka's neck, and then his scalp, pulling Iruka's hair free from it's tie and weaving his fingers through it as he massaged the back of the teen's head and then his temples. When Genma was satisfied with the way his Chuunin was responding to him, he leaned over and pressed soft kisses along the back of Iruka's neck, then lifted himself onto his knees and rolled Iruka over underneath him so that the younger man was now on his back. He settled himself back down and ran nimble hands over toned arms and pectoral muscles, soft caresses turning into the intense kneading that had been employed on the teen's back.

Genma was working on Iruka's abdominal muscles when he brushed over a sensitive spot on the younger man's ribs. Iruka's skin broke out in goosebumps and he let out a sigh, then grabbed for Genma's face and pulled him into a fierce kiss. Their tongues tangled together and Iruka tried to pull his boyfriend impossibly closer. Genma growled into the kiss and rubbed his whole body against the one underneath him. Iruka groaned. His body felt hot all over, he could feel Genma's growing hardness pressing down on him, and he needed... Something. Anything. He didn't know what. He slowed their kiss and caressed Genma's tongue with his own, coaxing it into his mouth. Just as Genma adjusted to the gentle pace the kiss had taken, Iruka sucked on his tongue almost brutally. The older shinobi moaned and then pulled away, sitting back on his haunches and pulling his shirt up and over his head.

Pale hands travelled over a pale chest, and Iruka's eyes widened at the show Genma was putting on for him. His own hands reached out, but Genma caught them and then pinned them to the floor above the head of dark hair. His lips hovered over Iruka's, but when the teen tried to make contact Genma pulled his face away and smirked down at him. "Kiss me," Iruka whispered, somewhere between a demand and a plea. Genma did as he was told.

Their grinding hips set a fast pace, and Genma had to remind himself to hold back. This was the most intense physical experience he'd had with Iruka in the month and a bit that they'd been together, and the words "completely virginal" rang in his ears. It wasn't a bad thing, but it did make him approach things differently than he normally would. He leaned back again, releasing Iruka's hands and letting them touch wherever they wanted. "Wanna suck my dick?" he asked, his voice a seductive purr.

Iruka's hands faltered and he chewed on his lower lip, his eyes wide and hesitant. "Well yeah," he murmured finally, "but I've never... I don't know how, and I'd want it to be good for you so...,"

Genma laughed and kissed his Chuunin hard. "Want me to show you?" He whispered the question against the sensitive patch of skin on the underside of Iruka's jaw. Iruka's whole body shuddered and he only managed a nod, his fingers weaving into Genma's blond hair. Genma smirked and gave a quick, gentle nip to Iruka's throat before snaking down the tanned, toned body. He nipped at the dip of Iruka's hip, and was pleased by the keen the action drew from his partner. He then pressed rough, open mouthed kisses against Iruka's clothed erection. The teen squirmed, and Genma knew that if he didn't pick his pace up at least a little, Iruka's need would overwhelm him and he'd finish himself off. And as much as watching Iruka jerk himself off was something that Genma was very much interested in, that was something for another day. Today, he wanted to taste his lithe lover.

The tokujo made quick work of the fastenings on Iruka's work pants, then pushed them down and over thin, tanned hips. He took the less clothed erection ever so gently between this teeth and pressed his tongue against it, and Iruka's fingers tightened in the blond hair as his body shook. Genma's left hand massaged Iruka's thigh as his right hand slid under the damp fabric of Iruka's boxer briefs and finally, finally, pulled Iruka's ridiculously hard cock free from its confines.

"Gen," Iruka choked out, a whine tugging at the edges of his words. "Quit staring at it."

"As you wish, Koi," Genma murmured around a lecherous grin before swallowing the cock in question down to the hilt. Iruka gasped and his whole body jerked, putting him briefly into a sitting position before Genma pushed him back down.

Genma's tongue dragged slowly against the underside of Iruka's cock as he bobbed his head, the pace he set slow. Iruka moaned as genma flicked his tongue over the head of the teen's cock, and grinned around the hot, swollen flesh as he tasted pre-cum. Iruka squirmed. This was... This was so much better than his hand, so much better than he imagined. And Genma, fuck, Genma looked so good doing it. A groan was pulled from plump lips as Genma's fingers came into play, massaging Iruka's balls as he continued licking and sucking at his erection. It was too much, and as much as Iruka didn't want it to end, he knew he couldn't last. "Gen,"

Genma trembled at the sound of his name spilling from Iruka's lips like that. That sound had been completely sinful. The tokujo had never loved the sound of his name more than he did right then. He tilted his head and looked up at Iruka, his lips and tongue never even pausing in their work. Iruka's hair was a tangled, sweaty mess. His eyes were glazed, his lips were swollen and held captive between his teeth, and his skin was flushed. He looked like some sort of sex god pulled right from the heavens. "Hmm?" He hummed in response around the flesh in his mouth.

A shudder wracked through Iruka's whole body and he moaned. "I... Gen...,"

Iruka came with a desperate keen, his fingers tugging almost painfully on Genma's hair, and the blond swallowed it down with an ease that only comes from experience. Once he milked Iruka for all he was worth, he crawled back up the teen's body and settled down half beside him, half on top of him. His fingers still gently stroked at Iruka's oversensitized flesh as he kissed the Chuunin long and soft. "You taste so good, Koi," he murmured against the teen's jaw.

The tanned teen groaned. "Take me to bed," he mumbled. "I'm too spent to move."

Genma laughed and stood, pulling his young lover into his arms. He ignored the painful throb of his own erection as he held his lover tenderly to his chest and started slowly for the bedroom, but Iruka was only too aware of the fact that the tokujo hadn't gotten off. "When we get there," he whispered, his lips pressed to Genma's chest, "do you think I could try doing that for you?"

Genma froze momentarily, and then ran the rest of the way down the hall.