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Another Perfect Wonder	By : jaded_priceless Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Kakashi/Iruka Views: 10014 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
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Chapter List
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Chapter 27

Once breakfast was over Kakashi decided a nice long soak should help work some of the stiffness out of his injuries and clear his lungs. Iruka stoked the fire beneath the tub and left a few of the smaller pieces where Kakashi could reach them without letting the steam out of room.

While Kakashi was bathing Iruka did chores. He had changed the water on the fish and restocked the snow pots so they’d have water when he felt an approaching chakra signature. He rolled his eyes and decided it would be best to be inside with Kakashi when their visitor arrived.

Unlike the others who at least knocked before intruding, Tetsuryuu let herself in. She looked around the cabin a few times before her gaze settled on Iruka. She smiled at him, “I see you’ve found what you were looking for.”

Iruka groaned. This was the third time in as many days his quiet rented domicile had been invaded by ninja. “Ryuu-sama, how surprising to see you.”

The woman walked closer to him and smirked, “Are you really surprised or are you pretending for my benefit?”

This time Iruka’s eyes widened in genuine shock; he made an effort to school his features while calculating the best way to get to Kakashi and teleport to the safe house. He’d once had a cat that liked to play with mice before it ate them. He felt remarkably like a mouse at the moment.

“No need to look so constipated, Little One,” the Cloud jounin laughed. “I heard a rumor you found something special and brought it home with you. I wanted to see if it was true.”

Iruka nodded dumbly.

“That’s strange considering Mama-san and Shibata-san both said you were in town alone and participated in this year’s match-making event. Does your lover mean so little to you?” She asked pointedly.

“No, I didn’t know what it was. I just went to get some medicine,” Iruka blurted out then stopped abruptly. He didn’t know why his instincts told him to both trust this woman and to run away as fast as he could. His glanced down the hallway when he heard the bathroom door open and the tub filtration system turn on.

“That makes even worse,” she stated shaking her head in disappointment and stepping closer to Iruka. “Only a fool would leave their treasure unguarded where anyone could snatch it away from them.”

Tetsuryuu watched Rui tense when she mentioned someone snatching away his companion and the furtive looks he was stealing around the room. He hid it very well but she could tell he was frightened.

Kakashi felt the presence of someone in the cabin when he stepped out of the tub. He knew if he lived to be 100 he would never forget that signature. Her chakra was calm and strangely disconcerting. She reminded him of the false oases on the Wind Country border; the still waters appeared calm but they were filled with loosely shifting sand just waiting to suck you in. He hurriedly dried off and dressed knowing Iruka was no match for that woman.

He made it down the hall in time to hear her tell Iruka “the two of them would be just fine” and see her tap Iruka’s nose lightly.

Kakashi froze when she looked right in his eye and smiled predatorily at him.

She draped her arm around Iruka’s shoulder, “Rui, who is your friend?”

“That’s my boyfriend, Shishi,” Iruka stammered feeling more like a mouse than ever. Only this time a wolverine was staring at both him and the cat now that Kakashi’s murderous intent was slowing filling the cabin. “Shishi this is Tetsuryuu, I think she’s the commanding officer of the ones who visited yesterday.”

“You too may call me Ryuu-sama. It is nice to meet you Shishi,” Tetsuryuu smirked letting go of Iruka and addressing Kakashi.

“Shishi, king of the jungle. Large beasts often perish outside of their territory due to their inability to adapt. I wonder how you’ll fare outside of the lush forest or locked in a cage at the zoo?”

“Many times little nobles don’t know how to relate commoners and wind up getting themselves in trouble. You would do well to listen to this little one. His guidance could be the very thing that saves you,” the woman admonished cryptically before leaving.

Kakashi didn’t say anything he just looked at Iruka for confirmation. For once the chuunin was unreadable.

He’d spent so many years looking underneath the underneath he was often told he treated life like a mission to the point he over analyzed everything but if he wasn’t mistaken the woman did recognize him and had just given them a warning.

Iruka watched Ryuu-sama leave. She’d smacked his nose. She’d reached out and used her thumb to smack his nose then pulled him into a one armed hug. His mother would do that to him and his father. Smack their noses with her thumb then pull them into a single arm embrace or headlock.

She always used her thumb. That was the one finger necessary for life and without it you couldn’t hold onto anything important. A soft blow as a sign of affection; it was harder when she wanted to convey a message, usually that in his impatience he’d missed something as obvious as the nose on his face.

Ryuu’s blow was rather hard. At that moment her eyes seemed darker, her lips fuller and her face softer, rounder and showing slight hints of her age…

“Rui. Rui,” Kakashi had been calling the chuunin’s pseudonym but was unable to reach him so he decided to use what he’d heard the man sometimes called in the mission room. “Hey Fishman”

“Wha…I…oh…hey,” Iruka fumbled.

Kakashi’s nose was inches from his and the man’s hands were moving over his face and head checking for signs of a genjutsu.

“I’m fine. Really you don’t have to do that,” he insisted.

Kakashi’s eyes narrowed as he pressed his index finger against Iruka’ temples to make sure his pulse wasn’t sluggish. “Are you sure? You seemed out of it. Ninja have all kinds of mind tricks. Are you sure she didn’t do something strange to you?”

“Yes, I’m fine. She didn’t hurt me or use any ninja mind tricks or whatever you asked about,” Iruka smiled letting Kakashi know he wasn’t under the influence of a genjutsu. “It’s just that…Have you ever run across someone whose actions and mannerisms remind you of another person?”

Kakashi nodded not sure where Iruka was headed but he’d had that feeling before. If you took away the bad hair, green jumpsuit and obsession with youth, sometimes the way Gai interacted with his students reminded him of the Fourth.

Iruka eyes closed and his lips twisted upward before he responded softly, “For a moment she reminded me of someone very important that I’ve lost.”

Kakashi let go of Iruka and went to the kitchen. He wasn’t sure if that woman reminding Iruka of someone else was good or bad or if he even believed the chuunin’s excuse. He looked at the last fish swimming in the sink trying to recall everything he’d ever heard about the man.

He knew that the older Uminos had died in the fox attack which made it all the more amazing he treated Naruto like his own flesh. He’d been a favorite of Sandaime and Asuma still sometimes referred to him as his illegitimate half sibling.

Genma didn’t dislike him but he wasn’t overly fond of him either, but that wasn’t saying much. He’d long ago learned the senbon sucker sometimes held grudges against those he wanted but was unable to get inside their pants.

Anko loved Iruka as much as she loved dango. Naruto thought he was the greatest person in the world ranking even higher than Ichiraku Teuchi and Ayame. All of his students and most of their parents held him in high regard. The original Ino-Shika-Chou and Hi-Tsu-Shi considered him a saint for dealing with Team 8 and Team 10 in one classroom without rendering any of them childless.

Kakashi’s eye narrowed and he inspected the chuunin with a higher level of scrutiny. Iruka was just the type of person no one would suspect of being a traitor. The person Tetsuryuu reminded him of could have just been Tetsuryruu. What she did could have been the trigger to change him from sleeper to active status.

Kakashi realized the ridiculous nature of what he was thinking and pushed that thought aside. If Iruka was a traitor, he’d still be in that dungeon. But just as a precaution he observed Iruka for the rest of the afternoon. There were no obvious signs he’d been tampered with but with genjutsu one could never be sure.

Unfortunately using the Sharingan was out of the question. The swelling around his natural eye was gone although it was still surrounded by a ring of purplish yellow but the Sharingan was still swollen shut. He couldn’t lie on that side of his face without feeling his broken bones shifting. Iruka had set the ones in other parts of his body but admitted to being afraid to do more to his broken orbital bones than place a cold pack over the swelling.

After a game of cards that Iruka won Kakashi still wasn’t 100% sure Iruka had not been compromised in some status. He seemed distracted. They played a second game, which Iruka also won and Kakashi knew the Cloud jounin’s visit had left him off kilter.

Both games had ended with less than a 2 book difference. Both should have been one-sided victories in the chuunin’s favor.

It was well known in the jounin circles to leave the card table the moment the innocent academy teacher sat down. According to reliable sources Shizune sent Iruka and a team of undercover Anbu to every gambling den a few days after Tsunade’s visits to recuperate all of the money she’d lost with interest.

According to the rumor mill Uchiha Fumie, Fugaku’s mother, had once used her status as clan matron to order the entire police force to observe him for signs of cheating. Even with the additional insight of the Sharingan the results were inconclusive. Since they played for chores vs cookies and Iruka never had a weight problem he doubted it. He had seriously considered giving back Obito’s Sharingan for the promise of a weekly platter.

Iruka picked up the deck again and began mindlessly shuffling the cards removing all doubts there was something wrong with him. Kakashi could see the suites and numbers on the cards as they slowly moved through his fingers. He couldn’t feel any ninja over head so he took a gamble on summoning a little bit of chakra and touching Iruka’s hand with it.

“:Are you stupid:?” the chuunin signed furiously “:Every ninja from Kumogakure to Konoha is looking for you and you try to test if I’m under a genjustu using chakra? You could have just hit me, bit me or screwed me if my word wasn’t good enough and you just had to be certain:”

Kakashi’s eyes bugged; he had not known one could be chastised using scout signals. He scratched behind his ears and replied verbally, “I’m not really into hitting my partners but biting and screwing are fine. I’m rather partial to doing both at the same time; do you have a preference?”

Iruka shook his head and laughed, “You are incorrigible you know that?”

“But you love me,” Kakashi said dealing another round of cards.

This time Iruka whipped him soundly. He was bit upset the score was 13 to four but knowing Iruka was back to himself somehow made him feel better about losing in such a horrible fashion
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Another Perfect Wonder