Despite his night spent on damp ground, Iruka woke on Sunday morning in high spirits. The feeling of being followed had not returned, and though he continued to exercise extra caution in covering his tracks, he felt fairly confident that it really had been his imagination or a childish prank by one of his better students. 'Or former students,' he thought with a wry grin, a blond, spiky-haired, impishly grinning face filling his inner vision unbidden. He pulled a bamboo-shoot rice ball from his pack and munched happily, offering thanks to the god of convenience foods for the foil pouch of coffee he washed it down with. 'Sure is great to live in modern times,' he mused.

He contemplated the drink container in his hand, 'I better make sure to save a milk-tea for Kashi-kun. I'll bet I can get a lot of milage out of it if I play my cards right.' He grinned deviously, planning things to make his pet jounin do in order to get the sweet beverage.

'It's kind of funny, when you think about it,' he reflected, 'The ultra-deadly Copy Nin of Konoha sipping the genteel refreshment. I bet if you asked a hundred civilians to tell you what a ninja assassin likes to drink, not one would come up with milk-tea.' He laughed aloud at his train of thought, 'And they certainly wouldn't come up with the way he likes it.' The memory of Kakashi's silver head bowed, lapping the sticky substance from Iruka's navel the last time they had played together made him feel almost lightheaded. "... Look, Ruru-kun, your skin's the same color as my tea..." Oh yeah, he was definitely gonna get some milage out of it. Shaking his head to clear the distractingly delicious vision, and subtly adjusting his suddenly tight trousers, the libidinous chuunin stretched and shouldered his pack. The sooner he got on the road, the sooner he'd have the real thing in front of him.

With a glance back to be sure his sleeping place could not be detected, Iruka headed east into the morning light. Alas, his confidence that he had ditched his pursuers was undeserved, though not through any fault of his own. He was simply outclassed. A shadowy figure detached itself from the base of an evergreen near the road and melted into the flickering umbrage beneath the trees, keeping silent pace with the striding chuunin. "That's right, Fool, lead me to him."

ooo ooo ooo

The sun was high, and he was nearing the border of the Fire Country when Kakashi spotted a tiny silvery flicker in the distance ahead. His hands flew through the motions of the Himitsu Kage no Jutsu as he made himself one with the shadows of the fragrant Cryptomeria trees bordering the road. The Azumatora, the Eastern Tiger Road, was a military track, hidden and used exclusively by the ninjas of Konoha; there shouldn't be anyone on the road, unless... He invoked the Inu no Hana no Jutsu and sniffed the air, hoping for - yes, there it was. A fresh, sea-salt scent, slightly musky, earthy, masculine, mingled with the sweat of two-days hiking, the pines he had slept under, the grass he'd lain upon, and a trace of smokey fire, the scent of Konohagakure. It was Umino Iruka, answering his summons, coming to meet him. Kakashi grinned up at the squirrels in the tree above him. Oh, life could be so good sometimes! He debated how to greet his lover. He could wait here in ambush and take him by surprise, he could rush out onto the road and tackle him to the ground, he could walk sedately forward as if he hadn't noticed the approaching ninja - not that Iruka would believe for even a second that that were true - Copy-Nin Kakashi not notice an approaching ninja - absurd! In the end his impatience to be with the object of his affection won out, and with a flurry of fingers and rush of murmured syllables, the tall, silver-haired shinobi teleported himself to a spot not ten inches from a startled Iruka's face.

"Gah! Ka-! Kakashi-kun!" Iruka's eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open.

"Miss me?" asked the grinning jounin.

"Well... yeah. Of course I did. Baka." He returned the grin, drawing out the sounds of the last word. Stepping back slightly, Iruka took in the sight in front of him; it wasn't too far from what he'd expected. The lanky, acrobatic man looked a little worse for the wear - clothes stained with blood, a purple-greenish bruise rising above the edge of his mask on his right cheek, greyish hollow beneath his visible eye. His hair fell in greasy silver hanks over the top of his hitai-ate. Iruka wrapped his arms around the jounin's muscular torso and was immediately sorry when he felt Kakashi flinch and suck in a rasping breath before hugging Iruka back.

"Oh, gods, I'm sorry, Kashi-kun! Are you injured? Did you break a rib or something?"

"Mah, mah. It's nothing. Just a little bruise. I'm fine." He pulled Iruka to his chest, tilting the chuunin's head down and kissing his hairline through the thin cloth of his mask. "Did you bring something to eat? I'm starved!"

"I can tell. You look like hell. When's the last time you ate anything decent?"

"Mmm - I think it was the night before I left on this mission, in bed with you, Sensei." His dark eye twinkled as Iruka blushed. "Ne, you're so much fun, Ruru-kun," he cooed, turning Iruka's face an even deeper red.

'You're not, "fine" though, you idiot,' Iruka thought to himself. He'd have to get a look under the jounin's shirt, and not just for fun and games either. 'I know you've got a fractured rib or two - you wouldn't have made that face for just a bruise.' He sighed. Well, that was the life of a ninja for you. And really, all in all he looked pretty good. He was now five days overdue from the mission, so something had probably gone not quite right. Given that he wasn't limping, didn't look poisoned or feverish, and was no paler than usual, Kakashi was in remarkably good shape.

"So, how was your trip?" Kakashi was asking, as he slung an arm about the chuunin's shoulders, heading him back up the road in the direction from which he'd come.

"Mmm, it was fine. Beautiful hike, great weather; I've always loved this road." Iruka grinned. "I had a bit of a rough start though - thought Naruto or one of my kids was trying to tail me. I thought I caught a flash of orange early on, but when I went back to look I couldn't find any trace of anything. I was probably just being paranoid."

"Oh?" Kakashi looked serious. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. None of my current students is good enough to evade me yet, and even if it were Naruto I would have caught him if he'd really been there; that orange coat is such a dead giveaway." Iruka looked at his feet, a little embarrassed that his lessons in concealment had so stunningly failed to make an impression on the hyperactive boy. "I upped my stealth anyway, to be on the safe side. Took to the shadows and treetops, you know? If he was tailing, I lost him or he gave up. It all happened before noon yesterday."

"Aa, good. Don't need any little spies around." The hand on Iruka's shoulder dropped down and gave his ass a squeeze.

Iruka licked his lips and smirked, glancing at his companion from the corner of his eye. "Don't tell me the great pervert Kakashi is concerned about corrupting impressionable young minds?"

"Hell yeah! You bet I am!" The tall man swooped down on Iruka, mask down, enveloping him in a predatory and possessive kiss.

"Ne, you need a shave, Kashi-kun," Iruka complained, squirming away when they broke for air.

"That's not the only thing I need..." The groping hand reached for Iruka again.

"Oh, you're impossible!" he grabbed Kakashi's wrist, then dropped it like a hot potato when Kakashi stiffened and hissed in pain.

"Let me see."

"It's nothing."

"Let me see, dammit!" Iruka, planted himself in front of Kakashi, glaring up into the taller man's face.

"Fine. Here." He held out his hand, palm up, "But I'm telling you, it's nothing."

Iruka bit the inside of his cheek to keep in first the angry retort, then the shocked little cry of empathy. His nostrils flared and his eyes widened as he took in the scabbed, crusted mess that was the skin over Kakashi's wrist.

"Give me the other one," he said through tight lips.

Kakashi sighed and offered his right hand to Iruka as well.

"What the fuck did they tie you up with?" he demanded.

"Rope."

"Rope doesn't do this!"

"Rope studded with broken glass." Kakashi's voice was soft, almost apologetic.

"How'd you get away?" Iruka asked more quietly

"I... Do we have to talk about it right now?" His voice was a near whisper.

Iruka said nothing, staring at the ugly wounds. He kicked himself for having asked. It was obvious Kakashi didn't want to, wasn't ready to talk about it. He wanted to take the man in his arms, but was afraid to, afraid of hurting him again, afraid it would be the wrong thing to do.

"Iruka."

No response.

"Iruka, look at me."

Liquid brown eyes wrenched away from the ravaged wrists to look up at their quiet owner.

"I'm o.k. Really." More firmly, "Really." A pause, then very quietly, "Are you mad at me?"

"Mad at you? Gods no, why would I be...?" Iruka was completely unprepared for the question. If anything, it would have been Kakashi's place to be angry, not his.

"Then, could you... uh... fix me up a little? You know?" he offered the damaged wrists to his lover.

"Oh, gods, Kakashi. Of course. Hang on, let's sit down for a minute."

They ambled towards the edge of a sunny clearing near the road. Kakashi perched on a fallen log while Iruka squatted on the grass and opened his knapsack.

"No wonder you weren't wearing your gloves."

"Hnh, yeah." Kakashi snorted. "You noticed that, did you? Pretty good." He kissed the top of Iruka's head. "For a chuunin." He winked.

"Jerk. You want me to use alcohol to clean those?"

"Sadist." Kakashi grinned. He was relieved he'd been able to cajole Iruka back into a better mood. If he was threatening him then he couldn't be too mad. He'd known the wrists weren't going to go over too well, and he doubted his cracked ribs were going to win him joyous smiles from his lover either. He tried to put himself in Iruka's shoes. Fucking Hell! If Iruka ever showed up from a mission, (thank god he didn't have to go on many missions, what with being an academy teacher and all,) looking like Kakashi guessed he looked right now, well, he'd probably have to kill someone, provided they weren't dead already. So maybe... Was Iruka worried about him?

"Here, let me see again." Iruka knelt between his legs, having pulled a first-aid kit from his pack and dug out salve and bandages. He winced, looking again at the mangled flesh.

"Yeah, pretty icky, huh? I'm gonna have to remember that trick. Glass in the ropes." Kakashi sounded nonchalant.

"And you're calling me a sadist?"

"Well, only for use on enemies, of course!"

Iruka spread the antiseptic salve thickly over the raw wounds, doing his best not to disturb the scabs. He glanced up, but couldn't read Kakashi's expression, the black mask back in place. The tense look in his eye was enough to tell Iruka that it did hurt, though, whatever the stoic fool might claim. He wrapped white gauze around Kakashi's wrists, anchoring it around his thumbs. "There. You can put your gloves on again, if you want."

"Mmm. After we eat. You did say you brought food, right?"

END Chapter 3

Jutsu (from my imagination, not in original source material)

Himitsu Kage no Jutsu - Secret Shadow Jutsu - allows the invoker to become invisibly hidden in a shadow. The shadow must be sufficiently large in composite area to contain the user's body, but it doesn't have to be solid. For example, a shinobi could use this jutsu to hide in the slatted shadow of a picket fence.

Inu no Hana no Jutsu - Dog's Nose Jutsu - Briefly increases the user's sense of smell to the level of sensitivity of a dog's.

Japanese words:

Baka - idiot, fool

Sensei - teacher (you already knew this one, I hope)

Hitai-ate - forehead protector. In Kishimoto-sensei's world, this is a special-purpose bandanna with a metal plate affixed, worn by all adult shinobi who have graduated from a Ninja Academy. Engraved on the metal plate is the symbol of the ninja's village - for Konoha it is a leaf made from a spiral. Kakashi wears his pulled down over the left eye, hiding his Sharingan Eye.

Other notes:

Timeframe is a few years after the current manga, so possible spoilers if you aren't there yet.

Attitude about sex (borrowed from Paxnirvana, whose explanation makes perfect sense. Read her short, "Sharing Sake") - Ninjas mostly die young, and having children can be a serious liability both to the parent and child. "Live for today, for tomorrow you will surely die," is taken very much to heart. For this reason, it is common for ninjas to have same-sex as well as het relationships, and for high-profile shinobi to conceal the existence of any offspring.

Thank you for your reviews, I am truly honored. I had no idea how exciting it would be to know that someone is reading, and likes, my writing! Please feel free to offer specific praise or criticism. This is my first fanfic, in fact, my first major work of fiction. Prior to this I wrote only poetry and essays.

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