Trapped Dolphin

Title: Trapped Dolphin
Author: Somnambulist_dreams
Summary: Iruka has suicidal issues, and Kakashi seems to be out to get him.
Rating: NC-17 (for later chapters)
Pairing(s): Kakashi x Iruka
Feedback: Oh yes please!
Characters: mainly Kakashi and Iruka … and Naruto and the gang, and the other teachers
Betas: None. Would you like to be one? Hehe… feel free to tell me. ^_^
Disclaimer: I'm not filthy rich and I don't own Naruto or any other characters in the anime. I'm not gettin' any money from doin' this either, awright? Though, if I did, I'd be living in paradise...
Author's Notes:
Warning: This is a YAOI fanfic, hence the kakairu pairing, so if you're not into those kinds of stuff, well, it's not my fault anymore if you read on.
One other thing, this is my first fic I had the courage to post on the net, since there is noticeably few kakairu fics out there. Any comments, suggestions, or violent reactions are very much appreciated.
By the way, I tend to write long chapters since in my experience as an avid fanfic fan, I absolutely despise having to wait for the page to load and then suddenly seeing only about ten lines per chapter. If you're the type who likes to read only notoriously short chapters, well, you're just going to have to endure this- or not at all.
Also, sorry, no lemon here, although Kakashi seems to be thinking some less-than-chaste thoughts somewhere here. Well, enjoy. :)

Hehehe, sorry it took sooooo long. I was very busy with school, then I got sick... and well I'm not going to delay it further. I tried to make it longer than usual (I could almost hear scattered "Oh no's") to make up for all the lost time. Anyway, here it is. :)

Code: three-line skips between paragraphs indicate a change in scene or a shift in point of view. Thoughts are indicated by ' ', and speech is, obviously, indicated by " ".

Chapter 3: A What?!

“Tsunade-sama! I have something to say to you,” Iruka said, urgency evident in his voice, as he stood up and walked quickly towards Tsunade’s table.

Tsunade waved a dismissive hand. “I know already,” she said.

“You what?!” Iruka asked.

“Kakashi come in,” she called out, and Kakashi suddenly appeared perched on her windowsill, the same silly upturn of his visible eye.

Iruka immediately went into a fighting stance, but Tsunade stopped him. “Relax, Iruka. Kakashi hasn’t betrayed Konoha,” she explained.

“What do you mean?” Iruka asked, utter bewilderment evident on his tired face.

“What she means is…” Kakashi said as he reached one hand to his hitai-ate and smoothed the metal once more, and revealed the insignia of Konoha again.

“But… I don’t understand!” Iruka said. “What does this all mean, Hokage-sama? Is this all some kind of a joke?”

“No it isn’t, Iruka. Call it a simulation.”

Iruka’s anger was boiling to a point where he could almost wring Tsunade’s neck. “A what?! Simulation?” he protested. “With all due respect, hokage-sama,” he said through gritted teeth. “This doesn’t feel like a simulation to me,” he said pointing to the nasty slash on his chest and the deep wound on his abdomen.

“Well, we wanted to put you in a life or death situation, and test your capabilities as a ninja. Just wanted to make sure if you teachers weren’t growing rusty,” she explained.

“Couldn’t you have just warned me, so I could’ve at least dressed up for this ‘simulation’ of yours, hokage-sama,” he complained.

Tsunade looked at him once more, and could barely stifle a small laugh. Iruka’s hair was still damp and disheveled, and he was literally only wearing his boxers, which were now riding low on his waist and soaked with blood. “Did you just get out of the shower, Iruka-sensei?” she asked with much amusement.

Iruka nodded angrily.

Tsunade burst into peels of laughter. “You do have a point,” she said in between laughs. “At least you had the presence of mind to put on some underwear,” she said.

“I didn’t realize this was so funny, hokage-sama. I thought I was going to die tonight. I might as well have died,” Iruka said.

“I had no intention of killing you anyway, Iruka-sensei,” Kakashi explained.

“He’s right, Iruka. This was a test. I wanted to find out what you would do if you found one of your comrades had turned against the country. These are very tough times, Iruka. We need to be prepared for anything. But, as I said, this is only a simulation of a very likely possibility. Certainly, I did not want you dead,” Tsunade explained further.

“Besides, don’t you trust my precision hitting? I didn’t hit any internal organs or anything like that at all,” Kakashi said.

Iruka felt like the world had just conspired against him. He did not know if this was real or just a very cruel joke. Iruka sighed. “So, how did I do then? Did I fail? Would I have to take a make-up test for this then?” Iruka asked.

“No, not at all. You passed. Although I noticed you guys did quite a lot of damage outside. Don’t worry, we will fund the repairs on your apartment, as well as those barrels you emptied,” she told Iruka. “By the way, this testing is a very confidential matter, so as not to alert the other ninjas whom I’ll be testing as well, is that clear Sir Iruka?” she asked.

“Yes, hokage-sama. But people would be wondering why I got so beat up, won’t they?” he said.

“Oh yes, that. Well, tell them you fell down your roof when it collapsed,” she explained.

Iruka was still very angry inside. ‘So the hokage was watching all this time.’ Nevertheless, he managed his usual kind and mild-mannered mask and nodded in agreement.

“And you can go to the hospital to get those checked before you go home. You have a class tomorrow, remember?”

Iruka’s eyebrow twitched with vexation. “Yes, hokage-sama,” he said as he stepped out of the room.

“So, what did you think?” Tsunade asked Kakashi.
“He handled himself pretty well. I thought at first he’d surrender and just let me kill him, but then he fought back, and well, you saw what happened,” he told her.

“And did you find out about the other thing?” she asked.

Kakashi’s eye darkened. “No. Nothing. Even when I pretended to be Naruto, he insisted there was nothing wrong,” he said. He then remembered the slashes on Iruka’s arms. That was what Tsunade wanted him to find out. However, he thought it better to confront Iruka about them first, rather than reveal his secret to the hokage.

He had to admit he was quite startled when Tsunade told him he had a special mission that morning.

“What special mission?”

“Treat this as a class T mission,” Tsunade told him.

“A class what? Class T?” Kakashi asked.

“Yeah, a Class Tsunade mission.”

Kakashi’s droopy eye drooped even more. “Couldn’t you have picked a better name for it?”

A cross-shaped vein appeared at Tsunade’s temple. “It’s none of your business, Hatake,” she retorted. “Now,” she began, her tone growing more serious, “Read this and we’ll talk about it,” she said handing him a folder, with a big, red, sign stamped across it that read, CLASS T MISSION.

“Umino Iruka?” Kakashi asked upon reading the file. Inside was Iruka’s file with information dating to as far back as his ninja academy days “Why him?” he asked.

“I’ve been having a weird feeling about him since the moment I saw him. I think something might be wrong with him. From what I’ve heard he used to be a vibrant, and mischievous little kid. Now, I just notice he’s a bit more, hmm… shall we say subdued? I’ve asked around and from what I’ve gathered he has no real close friends, except maybe Naruto, and has a non-existent social life. It seems his life revolves around teaching students in the ninja academy, and nothing more.”

“So the guy’s a bit reclusive. So am I,” Kakashi replied.

“And look at you, you’re pretty screwed up, that’s for sure. Ever thought that maybe he’s as screwed up as you?” Tsunade replied.

Kakashi thought for a moment. “Point taken. So what your saying is this test will double as a way for me to find out his dirty, little secrets, am I right?”

“You got it,” Tsunade said.

“But what if he’s got none? The guy seems amiable most of the time, always eager to help others out, workaholic bastard, too. Maybe that’s just the way he is,” Kakashi insisted.

“Ah but, your forgetting one thing, Kakashi-sensei… the person who is always ready to answer the pleas of others, is most often than not, the one person whose cries of help are always left unheard.”

“Who knew that Tsunade had a philosophical bone in her body,” Kakashi grumbled as he walked towards the emergency room of the hospital, where if he’s lucky, he could still catch Iruka, and maybe try to make amends with the man.

He really didn’t want to hurt the chuunin in any way. He had been hesitant, had thought of throwing the Class T mission in Tsunade’s face, but he restrained himself since it was his mission and he had to do it. He almost backed out the moment he saw Iruka burst out of his bathroom, looking absolutely immaculate with his hair unbound and still dripping with water, his gorgeous chest bare and his abs rippling with every movement, the only article of clothing on him, his blue boxers riding enticingly low on his hips. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wished Iruka had come out with no clothes on.

Kakashi sighed. It seemed that for a short while now Kakashi had been eying the younger man. Okay, maybe quite a long while now. Ever since Kakashi first met him, when Iruka had confronted him about his trend of failing his students. He could never forget the anger and intense emotion burning in Iruka’s deep brown eyes, and from that moment on he knew he had it bad.

At first he was content with just seeing him once or twice a week, but as time progressed, he wanted to see Iruka more often, sometimes he even made unscheduled trips to the ninja academy or to the mission room, in the pretense of finding a runaway Naruto who conveniently appears a few moments after. He knew Naruto couldn’t resist the urge to go to his favorite teacher to ask for a free ramen meal at Ichiraku’s, and so sometimes during practice session, he would forbid them to eat lunch and ask them to continue practicing. He would then pretend to sleep, and when Naruto sneaks away, he springs into action.

It also seemed that his dreams as of late turned sexual in nature. Tangled limbs under the sheets, sweaty bodies and skin against skin, Iruka’s sensual lips upon his own, Kakashi’s hands running through shoulder-length silky brown hair, moans and pants that turn to screams of pleasure, the object of Kakashi’s desires crying his name over and over again as he pounded repeatedly into that painfully tight---

Kakashi faked a cough. Thank goodness he wore a mask, or the blush on his face would be all too obvious. “Okay, enough thoughts about that now. Focus, Kakashi, focus,” Kakashi reminded himself as he continued to walk.

Of course there were more pressing matters troubling Kakashi’s mind, most especially those slashes he saw on Iruka’s arms. It looked like the chuunin was hacking his flesh in the bathroom when he snuck into his apartment. He was deeply troubled with this revelation. “Tsunade’s right. There is something seriously wrong with Iruka.”

“You should be a little more careful, Iruka-sensei,” the nurse giggled at the hospital emergency room. Iruka was surprised at the energetic and ditzy nurse, and just managed a sheepish smile on his face, and he hoped that it was believable enough to her. He must look like a big klutz right now, falling from a hole in his roof.

“I should never have waited that long to get that roof fixed,” Iruka reasoned out.

“Well, the wound on your chest should start to heal within the next couple of days. This, however,” she said, pointing towards the wound on his abdomen, “would probably make you feel very uncomfortable for weeks,” the nurse informed him.
“It’s not that serious anyway, is it?” he asked.

“Oh no. It’s a good thing no vital organs were hit, or else you’d need more than three stitches,” she said.

“Hey,” a familiar voice greeted. Iruka didn’t even bother to look at the person’s direction.

“Oh, what are you doing here, Kakashi-sensei?” the nurse asked.

“Was just passing by,” Kakashi said, a very stupid reason, he realized. But then the nurse just smiled and flashed all her pearly white teeth, believing every word he said. When he walked towards Iruka’s field of vision, Iruka saw that Kakashi held no telltale signs of the battle that just ensued, and Iruka felt a little bitter that he didn’t even scratch the man.

“That’s good then, you don’t mind accompanying Iruka-sensei to his home tonight? He insists that he doesn’t need---”

“That’s not necessary,” Iruka interrupted.

“I don’t mind at all. You could suddenly collapse out in the street if you go home by yourself,” Kakashi reasoned out.

“Yey!” the nurse squealed. “That’s settled then. So, remember Iruka-sensei to change the bandages as often as possible. Are you sure you don’t want to stay the night?” she asked, her unusually long eyelashes batting with the request.

“No. I still have a class early tomorrow. I have to prepare,” he said.

She pouted. “Alright, if you say so.”

Iruka staggered out of the building in a matching blue patient’s clothes and a pair of slippers he loaned from the hospital, his blood-soaked boxers in a plastic bag. Kakashi was just a few steps behind.

“You sure you don’t need me to …uh… assist you?” Kakashi said in a teasing tone.

“No,” Iruka snapped at him.

“That nurse…” Kakashi began, “she seems smitten with you.”

Iruka’s frown deepened. Is this Kakashi’s idea of small talk? Well, he wasn’t to eager to converse with the person he thought was out to kill him just a while ago. “Oh? Funny I didn’t notice that since I had all my attention on the gaping hole on my stomach,” Iruka replied.

Kakashi chuckled. “Come on, Iruka-sensei. Why are you still mad? The test is over now, you can relax.”

“Easy for you to say, you were the one trying to kill me,” Iruka grumbled.

“Now, now, Iruka-sensei. There’s no need to get angry. You do understand the purpose of the test, right?” Kakashi asked.

Iruka spun around to face Kakashi, who stopped dead in his tracks when he was almost nose-to-nose with a very irate Iruka. “Let me tell you something, Mr. High-and-mighty-jounin, yes I understand it quite well but it’s not really that easy to accept what just happened especially when you’re the one in the receiving end of that whole goddamn test!” Iruka said all in one breath.

Kakashi’s one visible eye was wide with surprise at the sudden outburst of the chuunin. ‘Wow,’ Kakashi thought, ‘he looks so cute when he’s angry.’

“I’ve never seen you this angry before,” Kakashi said with slight amusement in his voice.

Iruka’s eyebrow twitched with vexation again. “Argh!” he growled and turned around, walking, or rather, staggering faster than before.

Kakashi quickened his pace a bit to catch up with Iruka. “Alright, alright. I admit Tsunade’s methods are a bit harsh,” Kakashi said.

Iruka gave him a death glare that would send any man to the farthest corners of the globe. Kakashi gave a nervous chuckle. “Okay then, so they are really harsh, and very disturbing. But I suppose she’s the hokage. A very sadistic hokage, but still a hokage. She has to know what she’s doing, right?” Kakashi said.

Iruka fell silent for a while. After a few paces, he spoke again. “So, impersonating Naruto, was it her idea or yours?” he asked.

Kakashi scratched his head guiltily. “That would be me,” he said, but quickly regretting his confession when Iruka walked even faster, “But…” Kakashi began as he caught up with Iruka again, “it seemed like a fairly logical strategy to use Naruto against you, well, you being like a mo- I mean, father to the kid. You really can’t help it. An enemy could exploit your relationship with him at any moment,” Kakashi reasoned out.

Iruka sighed and combed his hand through his hair. “Your right,” he finally admitted. “It’s just that…” he began, stopping again and turning slightly to Kakashi’s direction.

Kakashi stopped dead in his tracks. He was startled with the deeply gloomy expression in Iruka’s face. Suddenly it wasn’t so impossible for him that Iruka would inflict pain on himself. He always saw the younger ninja to be so cheerful and vibrant, that’s why he had been attracted to him in the first place – he seemed almost too perfect for him. But now, now that he had a glimpse of another side of Iruka, a side that was dark and at the same time very vulnerable, he found that Iruka was flawed after all, and the idea only made his feelings for the man increase tenfold.

“…Well, I … never mind,” Iruka said before turning back around and walking up to the stairs towards his apartment.

Kakashi didn’t even realize they were already in front of his apartment. Iruka was about to tell him something important damn it! Why did he back out all of a sudden? “So… does that mean you won’t be harboring any bad feelings?” He asked, an all too eager tone in his voice.

“I… need some rest,” Iruka just said, without even turning around to look at Kakashi.

Kakashi watched from the foot of the stairs as Iruka disappeared into the dark apartment and closed the door. Somehow he loathed himself for even accepting the mission, but at the same time he knew he couldn’t have refused the hokage. Yet, he felt he wounded the chuunin more on the inside than out, and he could never forgive himself for that.

AN:
Hehe... not a cliff-hanger this time. Will try to update soon. Again, thanks to those who review, or even read this story at least. If anyone has comments, reactions, and violent reactions, feel free to voice them out to me. I'd be happy to read them all.

Until the next chapter...

somnambulist_dreams ^_^