They crashed to the forest floor, dirty and sweaty and sore, panting harshly. The birds nearby had gone silent, watching them with suspicion.

Genma turned to look at Raidou, the senbon in his mouth somehow remaining in place despite his breathing, and said, "Wanna fuck?"

Suddenly, Raidou was glad he hadn't followed his initial inclination to pull out his flask and start drinking. He was certain he'd have spit it all over. "I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head and very studiously not looking at Genma. "What?"

When the silence stretched, he risked a glance sideways.

Genma was looking at him with one of those Genma-smirks that said, without uttering a word, 'You know exactly what I said, so stop being stupid.'

Raidou swallowed. "Fuck who?"

The look changed to, 'Now you're just being deliberately obtuse.' "Well," Genma said out loud, "unless there're some really attractive squirrels around--"

Raidou groaned and looked away.

"I suppose it could be a little dick-muff . . ."

"Genma!" Raidou yelled, the image suddenly emblazoned in his mind, "did you have to go there?"

Genma grinned and tongued his senbon.

Raidou smiled and looked away again.

"So. Wanna?"

In the three years they'd been working together, Raidou had learned Genma was a slut. Not that Genma bragged, because he didn't, but he rarely slept at his own apartment. It sometimes made finding the man difficult.

He hadn't realized Genma was screwing other men. Raidou licked his lips and laughed nervously. "I, uh . . . haven't . . . done that."

Genma's eyebrows rose. His teeth clicked shut on the senbon.

"With a man," Raidou correctly quickly. "I haven't done that with a man."

Genma smirked. "Well, don't worry. I have." He rose fluidly, twisting and shifting, senbon out of his mouth and tucked away somewhere safe before Raidou even realized he was reaching for it. Genma threw a leg over Raidou's, straddling his lap carefully, still grinning. "Just . . ." Hands landed on his chest and drifted almost immediately downward. "Relax."

Raidou breathed an anxious laugh and let his hands settle on Genma's thighs. Relax. Right.

**

Two days later found him walking Iruka home, listening to the sixteen-year-old describe his most recent antics with his friends.

"So Hayate says, 'Who? The girl or the dog?'" Iruka grinned impishly as he delivered the punchline.

Raidou groaned. "That's awful. All right, you. Go shower. You smell."

Iruka snorted and trotted deeper into the house, waving at Raidou's mother--and his own foster mother--as he passed.

Raidou closed the front door and toed off his shoes, walking silently inside.

"How'd training go?" Hanayo asked, setting bowls out on the dining table.

"It's going. He's gotten better." The daily training sessions had turned into weekly training sessions after Iruka had made Chuunin; neither of them had as much time as they once did.

"That's good," his mother said, and bustled back into the kitchen. When she came out again with chopsticks, she glanced up and said, "So what's wrong?"

Raidou jumped. "Wrong? Nothing's wrong."

His mother made a disapproving noise, planted her hands on her hips, and stared at him. "You have that twitch to your eyebrow your father used to get."

Raidou smiled slightly. "Oh." He knelt at the table, shifting until a leg was up and he could brace his elbow on his knee. He leaned his chin on one hand and stared at the dinnerware. "You know Genma?"

"Your partner for three years who eats here almost as often as you do? I think I remember him," his mother said dryly.

Raidou glanced toward the doorway and the back of the house, where he knew the rest of his siblings--blood and foster--were. "We had sex."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother sit down. "Oh."

He looked at her. "I mean, on a mission. And it's not like it's uncommon anymore . . ." he trailed off, almost cringing. She still hadn't spoken.

Not all of the older ninja thought same sex intimacy was even remotely appropriate, but it was getting more and more frequent. Customs changed fast when nearly a whole generation was wiped out.

His generation, he realized suddenly.

His mother still hadn't spoken. "Mom? Is this . . . are you . . . okay?"

She smiled slightly, almost sad. "You need my permission to have sex now?"

"No, but . . ." Raidou twiddled with a chopstick, put it down and straightened it out. "It'd be nice to know it's okay."

"It's okay," she said softly. "It's not what I would have chosen for you. But if you've found someone you can love--"

"Mom!" Raidou yelled, indignant. "This isn't love! It's just sex!" Sometimes, it seemed like she was ready to marry him off to every person he slept with.

"Yes, well, a mother can hope her children find partners, can't she?" Hanayo sniffed.

"Mother--"

"I know, I know. Just sex." She sighed and pushed herself to her feet.

"And it's probably not going to happen again," Raidou added, just for good measure.

"All right. Are you staying for dinner?"

He shook his head, exhaustion setting in. "I have paperwork to do," he muttered unhappily.

"Tomorrow, then. It's Ichiro's birthday."

Raidou nodded. "I know. I'll be here. He's--what? Sixteen?"

His mother nodded, smiling.

"Man, the little snotstains are getting older all the time . . ."

"Be nice to your siblings," his mother scolded.

Raidou grinned impishly. "They're my siblings. I don't have to."

"Tell Genma he's invited, too."

Raidou paused, putting on his shoes. "Even though . . ?"

His mother smiled at him. "Especially if you two are having sex."

Raidou rolled his eyes. "I'm telling him to run for cover," he muttered.

He heard his mother laugh as he headed home.

**

Hanayo drizzled dressing over salad, mind chewing on the information her second oldest had given her.

Raidou and Genma. It wasn't what she would have chosen for him. Growing up, she'd been raised to believe a man married a woman, and there was no room for anything else. But at that time, there had been enough people of an age to do that. Now--

Now, people Raidou's age were hard to find. The Fox had killed most of them. Raidou had escaped with his life and sanity intact, but so many others hadn't. The village was only recently, after five years, beginning to fill empty houses again.

So many dead.

She'd told the truth. It wasn't what she would have chosen for her oldest living child. But if he could find someone to love, who would understand the life of a ninja, who wouldn't question or beg him to quit--better another man than a civilian.

She just hoped it worked out. Raidou loved too easily, and too hard. Hanayo wasn't sure Genma could.

**

They crashed into the forest floor, slicked with blood, starting to smell. Wet with sweat and fluids and swamp water.

Damn, but Raidou hated jobs out here. It took hours to get the stink out of your clothes.

Genma looked at him, breathing hard, senbon drooping in his mouth. "Wanna fuck?"

Raidou blinked. He licked his lips and nodded. Why not?

That was all, and Genma was on him, kissing and biting and tearing at clothes.

Raidou's fingers fumbled at straps and buckles before finally dropping to the other man's pants. Forget the shirt. It didn't matter.

Genma had gotten his pants undone and was stroking, hot and rough and fast. The Chuunin grabbed Raidou by the collar, twisting and dropping them both.

Raidou landed hard, the other man straddling him, tearing down his body and swallowing his cock. Raidou hissed and forgot about the rock digging into his spine, watching as Genma sucked him down and--gods above, he really might just come that fast.

Then Genma came back up, shifting and positioning and Raidou grabbed the man's hips and held on. Genma slid his body down onto Raidou's dick, biting back a groan or a yelp or something as he did so.

He was tight, and hot, and it was the best thing short of--short of nothing, it was just the best thing ever.

Raidou grabbed the smaller man and flipped them, driving harder into the body under him.

Genma looked shocked. Then he grinned, winced, and groaned something like, "Fuck, yeah."

It was all the encouragement Raidou needed. He pushed again, harder, faster, Genma's legs hitched above his waist, watching the man whimper and bite down on his lip, eyes closed like it was just the best feeling in the world, ever.

Tension built and crested, breaking over him suddenly, almost frighteningly powerful. Genma swore and cursed, hissing through his teeth as he came just as hard.

Raidou was shaking. They were still in enemy territory. "Are you--" he started to ask, realizing how very fast that had gone.

"We need to go," Genma said, pushing Raidou up and off. He grinned wickedly and wrapped a hand around Raidou's dick, wiping off the slick mess they'd made.

Raidou hissed and jumped back. "Watch it! That's tender, asshole!"

Genma just laughed and did up his pants, senbon back in his mouth from wherever it had gone. He looked up, toward the treetops, slinging his pack over his shoulders again. "Night's coming. Think we can make home?"

"We can make home territory," Raidou said, glancing around. He looked at Genma cautiously, but the man was acting like nothing had happened.

Raidou gave a mental shrug. Sex, then. He could do sex.

**

"What the hell are you doing?" Iruka yelped, recoiling.

Mizuki rolled his eyes and shifted closer. "Relax. It's just screwing. Everyone does it."

Iruka yanked his leg away when Mizuki's hand tried to land there again. "I don't!"

"Who's gonna know? No big deal," Mizuki said smoothly. "We're in the middle of the fucking forest." He edged closer.

Iruka shifted away, but had to stop. The branch ended. "Mizuki--"

Mizuki leaned over and tried to kiss him. "Relax."

"Get off!" Iruka snapped, and shoved the other teenager.

Mizuki rocked back, looking at him thoughtfully. Carefully, he reached out with one hand and tugged on Iruka's earlobe. He offered a smile.

Iruka batted his hand away and looked at him in disgruntlement.

The other boy rose to his knees, settling so he was facing Iruka. "What's the problem?"

"I don't like guys," Iruka said through gritted teeth.

"So? You don't have to like guys. It's sex." His eyes narrowed slightly, just before his gaze dropped. "I thought we were friends . . ."

"We are," Iruka muttered, guilt stirring in the pit of his stomach.

"You don't trust me."

"I do trust you--"

Mizuki put his hand back on Iruka's knee, sliding it upward.

Iruka swallowed hard and held himself still. Mizuki was his friend. Mizuki--Mizuki was his friend. Iruka grabbed the boy's hand before it got any higher, and stared at him until he looked up. "And because I trust you, I'm going to assume you'll stop when I ask and aren't going to rape me."

The words worked. Mizuki snapped his hand back. "That's a foul word." He was silent for a moment. Then, "If you were actually my friend, you'd help me out instead of being a prude. Are you my friend, Iruka?" Mizuki asked slyly.

Iruka looked away. "Yes." He felt Mizuki move nearer again, body hovering over his. Iruka planted both hands on the trunk of the tree and pushed up, standing.

Mizuki glared up at him.

"And as my friend, you'll respect that I don't want to do this and knock it off." He felt silly saying it, like he'd stepped out of an after-school special.

But he wasn't going to have sex with Mizuki. He didn't want to have sex with Mizuki. His foster family would be proud of him for standing up for himself.

Mizuki stood as well, looking mulish and angry. "So, that's it? You're willing to stop being friends over this?"

"Are you?" Iruka hoped not. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe if Mizuki said yes, Iruka could apologize and just suck him or something, and that would be okay because they were friends. Screw the after-school specials. They didn't know everything.

Mizuki looked away. "Fine. I guess it doesn't matter. We don't have to."

Iruka sagged with relief. "Okay. Good."

"We should get back. Mission's over."

"Yeah," Iruka said. He grabbed his things, shoving them into his bag haphazardly.

He didn't want to have sex with Mizuki. He didn't understand anyone who would want to have sex with another guy. Sometimes, he even thought he didn't understand women.

**

He really wasn't sure how he found himself screwing Genma again, the younger man bent over a damn tree limb and pushing back onto him with every fucking thrust.

He really wasn't sure it mattered, either. It was becoming a ritual, almost. Finish the mission. Get toward home. Screw. Go home.

The body around him clenched suddenly, squeezing. Raidou gasped in an effort not to scream and came, fingers digging deeply into Genma's hips, pulling him closer. He released the other man after a minute, when he could breathe again and the world had come back into focus.

"Oh, fuck," Genma murmured against the tree.

Raidou nodded. Carefully, he pulled out, a hand steadying Genma.

"We should go," Genma said. He buckled up his pants, not quite looking at Raidou.

Raidou nodded again. "You okay?" Genma was persuasive when they started, but after--well, Raidou always wondered. It was fast, and half the time the only lube they had was spit, and it really didn't seem like enough.

Genma nodded. "Much better. Thanks." He leered at Raidou, then slung his pack over his shoulder. "We should go."

Raidou frowned. "Yeah. Guess so."

**

He'd been off his last mission for a grand total of a day when he was assigned another one. It gave him eight hours to train with Iruka, and he took those happily.

It was a good day for it; not too hot, certainly not cold. The breeze danced through his hair as he flopped down under a tree, winded. "So, what's wrong?" he asked, just before uncapping his water flask and pulling from it.

Iruka winced and looked at him. "Wrong?"

Raidou was still swallowing, but somehow he managed to give the teenager a "Get on with it," look.

Iruka shrugged and picked at the ends of his laces. "It's Mizuki."

Raidou put down his flask, watching the young man beside him carefully. "What about him?" None of Raidou's family cared for the other boy; they tolerated him for Iruka's sake. He was angry and belligerent and--worst of all in Raidou's mind--sly. He had a way of looking at someone that made you think he was trying to decide how best to screw you over.

Iruka would hear none of it. "He hit on me," he said, finally. His laces started to unravel under his careful onslaught.

"Oh."

"I'm sure it's nothing, and he stopped when I told him to--" Iruka said quickly, looking up.

Raidou nodded. "Sure."

Iruka wiped sweat away from his forehead before it dripped into his eyes. "He said I was a prude."

"You're not a prude," Raidou said firmly.

"You're supposed to say that," Iruka muttered. "You're my--" he stopped, looked sidelong at Raidou, and finished, "--Raidou."

"I'm your Raidou?" he asked with a laugh.

"Shut up," Iruka said, but he was smiling.

The boy still had problems deciding what to call his foster family. Raidou always introduced Iruka as his brother, and figured eventually Iruka might reciprocate. It had only been three years, after all.

The Jounin set his flask aside and ruffled the teenager's hair, smiling. "You're not a prude, and I would say that even if I weren't your Raidou."

Iruka rolled his eyes.

Raidou dropped his hand, and considered his next words very carefully. "Mizuki probably has . . . a lot of problems. He may not have your best interests at heart--not because he's a bad person," Raidou corrected quickly, watching Iruka gather himself to defend his best friend. "But because he's trying to work through his own troubles, and can't afford to see yours right now."

Iruka thought about that for a moment, rubbing the scar along his nose absently. "Maybe."

"All you can do is do what's right for you, and give him the space he needs." Preferably a lot of space.

Iruka chewed on the inside of his lip. "Yeah. Okay."

**

Three days later Raidou opened his door to see Genma there, bag slung over his shoulder, sprawled against the jamb like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Mostly, it was.

Raidou stepped back, a smile playing along his lips. "What's up?"

The bag was nearly as big as Genma was. Genma tongued his senbon, switching it from one side of his mouth to the other. "Got evicted."

Raidou's eyebrows rose. "Evicted? There's a six-month grace period for Chuunin and above--"

"I know."

Raidou stared. "How did you get evicted?"

"Didn't pay." Genma smiled toothily, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Broke a wall. And a door." He looked thoughtful. "The bathtub . . ."

Raidou snorted. "Come in."

"Can I stay here?"

"I just said that," Raidou answered, shaking his head and closing the door behind the other man.

"You said 'come in.'" Genma dropped his bag on the floor, balancing on one foot while unlacing his boot. He pulled it off and dropped it, the other boot following shortly. They sat together in a messy pile, tipped haphazardly across Raidou's row of shoes.

"You'll have to sleep on the couch. I only have one bed."

Genma slanted him a look, a smile playing across his face. "We could share . . ."

Raidou looked at him. Something fluttered in his stomach, something whispering in the back of his mind. If they shared, they would screw. Not on a mission. They would screw in Raidou's apartment, in Raidou's bed, and it would be much more real.

"All right," he heard himself say.

Genma's smile grew. He turned, slowly, lazy and long.

Raidou smiled and shook his head, already knowing what the question was going to be. He stepped forward and took the senbon out of Genma's mouth. "Give me this," he muttered.

Genma let it go, but trailed his tongue along it all the way out.

Raidou dropped it on the desk with a clink. They'd find it later.

One of Genma's eyebrows twitched upward, the corner of his lips tugging up with it. He opened his mouth to say something, but Raidou knew that look, and already knew the words that were going to come out.

He leaned in and kissed the other man, tongue stroking into Genma's mouth like it belonged. Genma just pushed back, already unbuttoning Raidou's shirt, fingers whispering over his skin.

"Bed?" Raidou suggested, stepping into Genma.

Genma grinned against Raidou's mouth. "Sure." His hands slipped under the waistband of Raidou's pants, pulling him along toward the doorway.

By the time they got there Raidou was half-naked, deft fingers around his cock. He groaned into the other man's skin, tasting Genma's neck, smelling salt and orange. His hands slid under the Chuunin's shirt, up along scarred skin, hot and soft. Raidou's pants hit the floor.

"Fuck me," Genma murmured, tongue stroking a path from Raidou's ear down to his collarbones.

"Sure. Relax. Slow down," Raidou laughed, bending to capture Genma's mouth again in a kiss.

Genma pulled back, hands tugging at Raidou's pants. "Don't wanna slow down."

"We're not on a time schedule here," Raidou pointed out. He caught the younger man's hands with a smile, bringing them up and sucking carefully on Genma's index finger.

Genma's eyes had narrowed. He leaned in, breath whispering across Raidou's cheek. "I don't want to slow down," he said softly, the words a caress. "I want you inside me. I want you fucking me. I want to feel you stretch me and fill me, and I want to feel your cock pushing against--"

Raidou closed his eyes and swallowed. "You've got the filthiest mouth."

He felt Genma smile against him. "And you're hard." He licked Raidou's earlobe, sucking again, hands free and stroking Raidou's cock. "Fuck me."

Raidou nodded and shoved the smaller man. Genma staggered, surprise on his face, hit the bed and plopped down. Raidou straddled him. "Right. Fuck you."

Genma stripped down faster than Raidou'd ever seen anyone do it, biting and kissing the whole time, tongue tracing patterns across Raidou's reasonably smooth chest, sucking on a nipple, hand stroking his cock. Raidou grasped at his escaping thoughts long enough to ask, "Genma--lube?"

"Fuck," Genma muttered, and this time it obviously wasn't a request. "Pants. Front pocket."

Raidou's eyebrows rose.

Genma sprawled back on the bed and shrugged, smiling.

Raidou dug through the pile of clothing until he'd found it, then crawled back over Genma, who stretched like a cat in heat and hitched a leg up on his hip.

"How do you not have scars?" Genma asked absently, tracing one of the few lines that danced across Raidou's chest.

"I'm careful," Raidou snorted.

"Mm. Stop being so careful and fuck me already," Genma muttered back, the leg that wasn't on Raidou's hip shifting open.

Even with the slick all over his fingers, Genma was tight. Raidou watched the other man's eyes close, his breath hitching as a finger sank into him. Raidou pushed, feeling heat and softness, trying to go slowly enough that he wouldn't hurt the other man--

Genma muttered something and thrust back onto his finger. "Fuck me," he said again, almost a growl.

"You're too damn tight," Raidou began, only to be interrupted.

"Am not. Fuck me." Genma shifted, reaching between them to stroke Raidou's cock, pulling the man closer. "Now. Please."

Raidou hesitated for another minute, but if anyone knew a body it would be the person in it . . . He lined himself up and pushed in carefully and it was hot and tight and perfect. He was going to move slowly, but Genma locked his ankles around the other man's back and pulled, crying out, head back, eyes closed as Raidou's cock slid further in. "Fuck--that--" Genma nearly whimpered.

Raidou pushed in response, driving deeper into the ninja, everything friction and heat.

"Harder," Genma said, the tendons in his neck standing out, a hand between them sliding up and down his cock.

Raidou thrust harder, closing his eyes, trying to breathe, but everything was liquid and silk, his heart thundering and his cock sliding in and out--

He came almost painfully, pulling Genma's hips into him, driving deeper into the man one final time.

He felt it when Genma orgasmed, body spasming around him, muscles milking him further, semen spilling over his fingers, still digging into the man's hips. Slowly, Raidou pulled out and rolled off, breathing like a steam train, arms flung to either side. Genma lay beside him, panting nearly as hard, licking his lips, his eyes still closed.

"Needed that," Genma said.

Raidou could only grunt. "It doesn't always have to be fast," he said after a minute.

"I like fast. What, you need to be wooed?" Genma rolled his head to peer at Raidou, grinning.

Raidou laughed and refused to give into the baiting. "Once in a while, yeah."

Genma snorted. "Okay. Tomorrow I'll woo you."

**

Genma had left to go jogging before Raidou woke. What Raidou had in talent, Genma had to work for--he did everything the hard way, Raidou thought, brushing his teeth.

Genma pushed himself harder than anyone else Raidou knew, driving his body to exhaustion before going out and screwing whatever he could find. Lately, that was Raidou.

If every night was going to be like the last, he was going to have to start taking naps during the day. He didn't know how Genma did it.

Raidou spit out his toothpaste, rinsed out his mouth, and staggered back into the bedroom. Things still seemed fast for him--he couldn't decide if he was comfortable having sex like they had to hurry before they got caught--but Genma seemed to like it, and since most of Raidou's discomfort came from fear of hurting the other man, he supposed he should stop worrying about it.

Raidou frowned, looking around for his hitai-ate. He had a mission later, and he'd need it . . . Not on the nightstand where it should be, and not knocked to the floor . . .

He scowled and dug through his laundry, looked through the drawers, and finally yanked the blankets off the bed.

He frowned.

His sheets were bloody.

Not terribly so; not more than a few drips here and there. But bloody. He checked his hands quickly, then realized the spots were lower than that and checked his legs. It wouldn't be the first time a scab came open, or he'd scraped himself against something and hadn't realized it.

But his skin was whole.

He stared at the nearly black stain for a moment, uneasiness congealing in his stomach. Things had gone fast the night before, but no faster than often happened. Genma would have told him to stop if it hurt, and if there was blood from that, it would have hurt. Genma would have told him. Surely.

He tossed the blankets back over the spot and left the room. He needed to find his hitai-ate.

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