Truth

kakashi stretched in bed, iruka was still asleep something he would have to change if they were to get to training on time, but he took a few moments to take in the sight of the sleeping chunin.

iruka lay his arm draped across kakashis lap, his head turned inwards to snuggle closer to him, his hair was down like it always was during sleep and he was calm, compeley calm. smiling kakashi leaned over and whispered.

"time to get up"

iruka frowned and burrowed more against him. smiling he stroked the mans head and whispered again.

"come on iruka, time to get up we have training in 30"

the man groaned but turned around facing him more before squinting open his eyes.

"there ya go"

iruka frowned at him before muttering

"i was having a good dream"

kakashi's smile brightened at that, he knew the man suffered from nightmares and was glad that he had apparently not been plagued by another one.

"did it involve me and whip cream?"

iruka burst out laughing against him, glad that the man could take a joke even if it was about sex he smiled as iruka hit his arm.

"no, there was no whip cream"

"ah, but i was there"

"maybe"

smiling he leaned in close to the man.

"tell me"

iruka smiled before shaking his head, their noses practically touching.reaching out he wiggled his fingers and darted out to try and see if iruka was ticklish, he truly hoped he was.

"ah, no kakashi no fair"

the man buckled trying to get away from the nin's skilled hands. kakashi kept it up a couple minutes more before allowing the panting man to catch his breath.

"want to tell me now?"

iruka smiled breathless at the man above him. before deciding to play a different card he had up his sleeve.

"were going to be late"

kakashi frowned and looked to the bedside table and cursed much to the laughing iruka's amusement. kakashi darted off the bed to throw on clothes and while scrambling around told iruka to get moving. shaking his head iruka made his way into his own bedroom which he hadnt used in the last three days to find some clothes. musing about it a moment he smiled when he heard kakashi racing towards the front of the house calling after him to hurry.

they were ten minutes late, but by the looks on kakashi's team members faces, it was enough. as they approached kakashi muttered.

"all your fault"

iruka smiled before saying.

"cheer up, whats the worst they could do to you?"

"you have no idea"

coming to stand before the group even iruka was a little shocked at the smiles on the anbu's faces.

"so kakashi, there any particular reason why your late to meet us?"

kakashi just groaned at genma which caused his teammates to laugh. genma shifted his attention to iruka who was laughing.

"and what about you hmm? did you keep kakashi up late?"

the anbu team were about to yell at genma for being insensitive around the abused man when iruka laughed and said.

"i have no idea how late he stayed up, i was drugged and in  bed a couple hours later. those pain pills knocked me on my ass like raidou does"

the team smiled glad that not only had iruka not taken genma's words to heart but that he also seemed to be in bright spirits.

"speaking of that, come on"

raidou moved to go into the field and iruka followed suit. leaving a weary kakashi alone with his teammates.

"so what happened?"

genma probed. kakashi glared at him before stating.

"nothing happened you pervert, i got him the pain pills he started cracking up like he was on truth serum and i put him to bed"

genma frowned, he had been hoping for some other juicy details.

"well thats boring"

kakashi smiled at the senbon sucking man.

"sorry to dissapoint."

"then why were you late?"

kurenai asked skeptically. the glare shifted to her which just made her smile all the more.

"i had a hard time getting him out of bed this morning, the pain pills made him groggy and all he seemed to want to do was pull me back to bed"

turning at the sound of iruka falling to the ground he missed the shocked looks of his team.

"you sleep together? like in the same bed"

"thats normally what sleep together means genma"

he muttered as he watched iruka get back to his feet and charge at raidou.

"how long has this been going on?"

kurenai asked curiously. turning back around at them he shrugged which they knew meant he wasnt about to answer them.

"and he doesnt mind sharing a bed with you?"

asuma asked, speaking up for the first time.

"was his idea actually"

that made them smile, they were glad to know that iruka was actually starting to reach out to another person.

"thats good-so he wouldnt let you leave this morning?"

shaking his head kakashi smiled before answering.

"no, tried to just keep turning away from me, like that would stop me, but after i found out he was rather ticklish i was able to get him out of bed, of course the brat had to go and be cocky about us being late."

they laughed at their teammembers expense. it wasnt too much longer before they heard iruka shout, turning around they smiled as they saw raidou had him in a hold and the chunin was having a hell of a time trying to get out of it. they watched as iruka struggled before sagging against raidou and flopping his hands out in defeat. raidou just smiled at him and let him out. once they were both standing again iruka rubbed his shoulder before trying to kick at the more experienced ninja. that got him swiftly thrown to the ground again. charging again iruka was brought once more to the ground in a completley different hold, the chunin growled much to the audiences amusement as he tried to get raidous leg from around his torso while struggling with the man's arm wrapped around his neck. in the end all he was able to do was move his head a bit, but that was enough. smiling to himself he shrugged in raidous grasp before doing the one thing he was sure raidou wasnt counting on. he bit the arm infront of him. raidou cursed and released the hold to hold onto his bleeding forearm. iruka stood up and smiled at the man, wiping the blood from his mouth.

"what is with you and biting all of the sudden?"

raidou cursed flexing his arm to get circulation moving again. iruka shrugged before stating

"it worked didnt it?"

"this time, other people might just bash your teeth out for doing that"

iruka paled at that before muttering 'no more biting, got it' raidou smiled before walking up to the chunin and pulling him back to the group.

they watched as raidou had the younger man in another hold, they didnt expect iruka to be get out of that one either but were pleasently surprised when raidou yelped and the chunin was released. they watched the two return and laughed when they saw the teeth marked wound on raidous arm. genma was the first to ask.

"so now your biting people?"

iruka shrugged as he took a minute to catch his breath.

"he's the one that put his arm near my face, i was out of options"

genma shook his head as he examined the wound, raidou just moved the arm away and pulled genma to him, stopping the man from worrying. asuma was the next to stand and call iruka back to the field. watching the men go raidou commented to kakashi.

"i warned him that some oppenents might crack his teeth out if he tried that with them"

kakashi nodded, at least someone had warned the chunin against the results of using your mouth as a weapon.  they turned their attention back to the field to find iruka dodging asuma's trench blades but not trying to hard to get a good offensive going. they all sighed, iruka was still holding back, they were sure he could figure out a way to get around the blades and fight one on one, he was a teacher after all and had to have knowledge on different techniques, but he still refused to come at them with any force.

"what are we going to do with him?"

kakashi shook his head, he wasnt sure how to get through to iruka about using deadly intent, he understood the mans reservations against it having been on the opposing side of it one too many times, but it could mean his life one day. he didnt even want to think about iruka being out on a life or death mission and him refusing to defend himself for the sake of his enemies life.

they continued to watch the match until asuma called it after making a couple shallow cuts on iruka. iruka didnt seem to happy about it, but didnt argue. returning to the group iruka waited to be told who was going to be facing next. genma hoped up and smiled at the chunin before commenting.

"dont even try to bite me"

iruka laughed before nodding his head. the two wandered off to start their match and the group watching continued to talk about various things as the match grew more heated if the explosions and tree's crashing to the ground were any indication.

"well at least he's getting a work out with genma"

they chuckled, it was asuma who asked kurenai what she had planned for him today.

"im not really sure, there's still pieces missing from the one memory, but even im beginning to doubt if i really want to know what happened. he resists too much as it is, but putting the strain on him that way wont help him beat a genjitsu artist anyways, so i figured i'd try something new"

they nodded their heads, silently glad that kurenai wasnt going to put herself or iruka through more torture from that event in the man's past. a loud crashing sound got their attention and they turned to see one of the bigger tree's in front of them crash to the ground suddenly. genma walked out a minute later looking around before cursing.

"problem?"

kakashi called out smiling. genma scowled before pointing at him.

"did you tell him to do that?"

puzzled kakashi asked what he meant. genma scowled deeper for a moment before twisting around and reentering the forest. looking to one another they shrugged. whatever iruka had done had gotten on genma's nerves. it was only a couple minutes later that  smoke plumed up into the sky. they figured genma was trying to literally smoke iruka out of the forest.

"think it will work?"

"he's never told me how he breaths while in the tree's might be a seperate air supply, if so thats not going to work"

they nodded, curious to find out the answer. a large explosion rocked the forest followed by the shock wave from the blast clearing the dense smoke genma had set off.

"well thats not going to make genma happy"

they nodded, genma liked being able to use his smoke to either draw the enemy out, or to hide his own actions. now that he couldnt do that they were sure the mans ire would be sparked. they were more unerved by the fact that it had grown quiet, much too quiet. looking to one another they werent sure whether to think something had gone wrong or the two were just playing cat and mouse with each other.

they got their answer a couple minutes later with genma walking through the tree's with iruka on his back, kurenai gasped and they ran over to see what had happened. iruka was awake but seemed quite out of it. they helped genma back to their sitting area before lowering iruka to the ground.

"what happened?"

genma shook his head.

"i was hunting for him and set off a couple tags and the next thing i new i could sense his chakra and it had gone all crazy for a couple seconds, when i finally found him he was just laying there"

kakashi tried to shake iruka into a more alert state, but the chunin didnt seem to notice.

"iruka? what happened?"

the chunin was staring right at him, but it was more like he was looking straight through him. frowning kakashi asked.

"nothing else happened?"

genma shook his head.

"i hadnt even landed a solid punch on him, i have no idea"

the group stayed surrounding the chunin, waiting to see if he would respond to anything. kurenai was about to suggest that they take him to the hospital when iruka suddenly gasped and started coughing. kakashi started calling his name and trying to figure out why iruka seemed to be reacting so oddly. it wasnt until iruka had calmed his coughing that his eyes opened again and he took in the people around him.

"hey guys"

they all let out a collective sigh. kakashi helped the struggling chunin to sit up against him and immidietly asked what had happened.

"he got lucky"

they frowned at him and genma sputtered.

"i didnt do anything"

iruka shook his head before explaining.

"one of your tags, it was on the tree i was hiding in, forced me out from the blast"

"are you ok"

kurenai asked concerned, explosive tags were a very volotile thing, but iruka didnt seem to be burnt anywhere.

"i'll be fine, just not used to people getting lucky enough to find the actual tree im hiding in."

kakashi frowned, nothing he had read about iruka's kekkai genkai had mentioned ill effects from finding the object the man was hiding in.

"i read about your ability, it didnt say anything about-"

"it wouldnt, only people in the umino clan know about it. most of the time they die on contact from the person damaging the tree so much"

their eyes widened and genma started to apologize profusely. iruka just smiled.

"im fine genma, the shockwave forced me out of the tree before i could take any actual damage."

kakashi still didnt like what he was hearing, sure iruka's ability to hide was a great asset, but if someone got lucky enough like genma had-to have such a fatal response.

"so you could die from someone hurting the tree your hiding in"

asuma asked. iruka nodded before trying to calm their nerves.

"but like i said its such a rare thing, i move as soon as i phase through one tree that way if weapons were thrown at the tree they wont hurt me. i never stay in the same tree long for that very reason, im constantly moving."

"what about other kekkai genkai's we know the sharingan doesnt work against see you, but what about the byugkan would that see you?"

iruka thought a moment before nodding.

"more than likely, it would be confusing as hell to its owner though. i doubt i would look like myself when im inside the tree. we should test that with one of the kids someday"

the group frowned before raidou commented.

"the less people who know about that, the better"

the group nodded and iruka just shrugged.

"im not too worried about people finding out about it now, its only a matter of time before the hokage has to tell the council about it. once thats out the whole village will know."

iruka had a point, there was no way the council were just going to keep it a secret. soon the whole village would know that iruka had this rare ability and then the questions about what it could and couldnt do would start to rise up. deciding to get things back in order kurenai got irukas attention and asked if he was ok to try some genjitsu, the man nodded.

"alright, just relax"

he was already leaning against kakashi so he didnt figure he could get much more relaxed, but he didnt say that out loud of course. soon he fell under the illusions grasp.

***********

opening his eyes, iruka found himself to be in the center of town. he was surrounded by people and they were just staring at him. not a single word was spoken, but they wouldnt look away from him. frowning he looked around to try and figure out what kurenai's game was. looking down at himself he brought his hands up to see them covered in blood. jolting he took in the appearence of his blood stained clothing, going to look back at the people he nearly screamed when he saw all of them lying on the ground dead. pulling away he tried to figure out what had happened, had he done this?  his face twisted around as he tried to figure out just what was happening, finally something caught his eye, looking into the shop window he gasped. looking back at him was an anbu. raising his arms up he saw the new additions to the illusion, the typical arm gear of all anbu warriors. frowning he looked back into the window to see that the mask had morphed into that of a wolf. he knew that mask, it belonged to kakashi. frowning he looked around to find that all the bodies were gone and he was left alone in the middle of the village, bloodstained.

pulling away from the illusion was easier than he thought it would be, he wasnt a part of this one, it didnt revolve around a memory of his so he was easily able to pull himself back from it. the only question on his mind was why was kurenai showing him this?

*********

the group watched as iruka frowned, his body jumping a couple times. kakashi held him close and waited, he like all of his teammates had no idea what he was seeing, but was hoping that the chunin could break its hold.

a couple minutes passed before iruka blinked followed shortly by kurenai. she smiled at the frowning man.

"whats wrong? you did beautifully"

"its just-im confused why you chose that?"

"i wanted to see how you would react being put in another persons shoes so to say"

iruka nodded but before he could ask anymore questions she asked if he was ready to continue. nodding his head he was able to smile at her, he could feel kakashi's strong arms around him and no matter what she showed him, he knew he'd be coming back to this.

************

iruka found himself in darkness, it only lasted a second before he realized the cloth over his eyes was being removed to show him where he was. the man in front of him was a ninja from a neighboring village, not on good terms with konoha. looking around he found himself to be chained to the ceiling in much the same way as mizuki had done to him. frowning he turned his attention back to the man glaring at him coldly.

"where is it?"

"where's what?"

iruka called out, the man in front of him didnt seem to like the answer because he raised up a burly fist and struck him hard in the face.

"where is it?"

frowning throught he tears as his nose was know broken he sputtered out to the angry man.

"what are you looking for?"

again he was struck, jerking his head back forcefully.

"where is it?"

spitting out some blood iruka was beginning to catch on. it didnt matter what he asked he wasnt going to get an answer, so he did the only thing he could think of at the time.

"where is it?"

"did you check your sock drawer"

bam another hit to the head. groaning iruka idly wondered if he was supposed to feel this much pain in an illusion. he hadnt tried to break it yet, but he knew it was too early for that. kurenai wouldnt let him go that easily.

"where is it?"

"mah i left it at home"

bam another hit jerking his head to the side. spitting out more blood iruka couldnt help but laugh, he didnt know why she was doing this, but she had a long way to go before this effected him. deciding to have some fun, because he really couldnt do anything he wondered if he could make kurenai break the jutsu just because of his answers.

"where is it?"

"check genma's senbon pouch"

bam

"not there, ok try his underwear drawer i hear there's some really kinky things there"

bam, he felt the waver in the illusion, smiling he continued.

"where is it?"

"still lost huh, did you check with the missions desk?"

bam

"no not there huh? oh i know ask kakashi his nin dogs could find it for you"

bam

"where is it?"

"i heard once that anko went out with ibiki talk about some sick twisted sex right?"

bam, again he felt the waver in the illusion.

"where is it?"

"you know, i think i know where it is, you should go ask my sensei orochimaru, he's got so many damn things crammed down his throat its propably there"

iruka smiled as he felt the illusion collapse in on itself.

***********

the group winced as they saw iruka's body jerk again, whatever was going on iruka was taking some hits by something. then they noticed the smile on their teammates face.

"is she enjoying this?"

genma called out, asuma leaned around his lover and watched as her expression changed over the course of a couple minutes.

"yeah i think she is?"

"sick dude"

asuma shrugged, he was about to say something when all of the sudden the illusion broke and both iruka and kurenai were laughing hysterically, much to the confusion of the men around them.

"god dammit iruka"

they heard her snort out

"what you never said how"

shaking her head she wiped away some tears from her eyes.

"besides its all true"

that just made her laugh harder. leaning against asuma she replied.

"that may be so, but that was too much information, i did not need to know those things"

iruka shrugged leaning back against kakashi. he felt the mans arms come around his waist.

"besides your the one that put me in an endless loop, i just thought i'd make it interesting"

again kurenai shook her head. by now the group was thoughourly confused. it was raidou who asked what had happened. iruka answered.

"she put me in a loop with some guy hitting me in the head over and over again when i answered his question wrong. so i just started getting creative with my answers to see if i could throw her off. it worked"

the group smiled at the chunin, he was an inventive son of a bitch. kakashi leaned down and asked what some of his answers were.

"oh well at first i tried the typical responses of asking what they were looking for, when that didnt work i just started naming off random gossip from the mission desk."

"gossip huh?"

genma smiled, it was kurenai who spoke up to disuade her teammate from continuing.

"i wouldnt ask, one of them was about you"

genma looked afronted at that before demanding to know what iruka had said. the chunin just smiled at him, turning to kurenai he was shocked when she replied.

"not in a thousand years am i going to say that out loud"

iruka laughed, the group decided to go out for a late lunch and to plan what they were going to do the next day in training. they were running out of time, irukas test was just days away.

sitting in a booth the group started asking iruka what he thought he would most likely do with his head start at the beginning of the test.

"run"

they laughed and asked him to elaborate.

"well depends on where we are in the forest, if i can set traps as i go that would be great, but if the area is too trecherous for that i'll just have to  book it to a better area before doing that."

the group nodded, it was irukas turn to ask them.

"what are you guys going to do while waiting around to see me fight?"

"well we will follow you, keep tabs on the examiners and what not, mostly we'll propably be scoring you ourselves, not that we can turn in our scores though"

iruka nodded, he trusted their scoring system better than whoever was going to be going against him for real in the forest. eating together they relaxed after a hard day of training. it wasnt until after they had left the restaraunt that iruka said he wanted to go check out the bookstore down the street. the group followed along and watched as the teacher picked out a handful of books before paying and rejoining them outside. genma whistled at the bag of books before asking.

"what are all of those for, your not going to have room in your pack to carry books with you"

iruka snorted before shaking his head, he knew it would be foolish of him to try and bring along something to read while in the forest of death. one he would be weighed down by it and two when the hell was he going to have time to read with people chasing him.

"these are for after"

"after the test?"

kakashi asked.

"yeah, i figure im going to need something while im recuperatting from whatever they put me through. i just hope i can avoid another stay at the hospital"

the group smiled sadly at the ninja before them, he truly didnt believe in his own skills to keep himself alive. he had too many doubts driven into him over the years by an abusive lover and a psychotic sensei. walking ahead of them he never saw them glance to one another, silent words taking place. they followed the chunin down the street before coming to the split in the road where they would go their sepperate ways. nodding to one another they said they would see them in the morning before continueing on their way home. kakashi watched the chunin swing his bag of books around like a happy child, shaking his head he caught up with him and took the man's hand into his own, he felt the man tense initially before he felt the mans hand relax in his grasp.

arriving back at the apartment the two entered and were greeted by an energentic  mayonaka who iruka wrestled with on the floor rubbing her belly and talking babyish to her, kakashi just shook his head at the chunin. stepping over his crouched form to go start some tea for them.

kakashi heard iruka come into the kitchen behind him, but didnt say anything he figured the man would talk if he wanted to talk. just about done with the tea he was rather surprised when arms wrapped around his torso, smiling he let the chunin embrace him for a minute before asking if he'd like a cup of tea. he felt the nod against his back and poured two cups before shiftiing in the mans embrace. holding the two cups up so as not to spill them on the chunin.

"come on, back to the living room"

iruka nodded and pulled away from kakashi, once they were in the living room and the tea cups were set down, iruka let out a squeek as he was pulled backwards onto kakashi's lap. smiling up to the copy nin, he asked what that was about.

"i could ask the same about your attack in the kitchen"

"attack, come now i hardly think that as an attack. what you did this morning was an attack"

kakashi smiled before stating.

"its not my fault if your ticklish"

iruka pouted before asking.

"are you?"

"am i what?"

"ticklish?"

kakashi shook his head, iruka frowned before asking.

"would you tell me if you were?"

"probably not"

sighing iruka stuck out his tongue at the man, much to kakashi's amusement. sitting in the same chair together, pressed up against one another they were warm and it was nice to be this close to someone. iruka put his head against kakashi's chest listening to the steady beat of the man's heart. it was soothing.  it wasnt long before iruka felt himself drifting off to sleep on kakashi's lap. he just hoped that the ninja didnt mind too much.

leaning back in his chair he let iruka do as he pleased, pulling out his book he started to read. they stayed like that for a couple minutes before he asked.

"what do you want to do tonight for dinner?"

when there was no response he asked.

"iruka?"

tilting his head to the side he was just barely able to see the sleeping figure of the chunin laying against his chest. smiling he went back to reading.

iruka woke up warm and he felt safe, he could feel an arm around him and he knew it was kakashi, he could smell the man's scent through the flak jacket he still wore. he felt some slight movement and saw out of the corner of his eye as kakashi turned the page in the book he was reading. smiling he let himself stay snuggled up against the man for a couple minutes more before asking in a sleepy tone.

"how long was i out?"

looking to the clock kakashi stated

"two hours"

before going back to his book. iruka nodded against his chest and sat up a little more in the chair. he couldnt believe kakashi had just let him sleep on him for two hours in the chair, it had to be uncomfortable.

"sorry for falling asleep on you"

"you didnt bother me"

smiling he was glad he hadnt been a nuisince to the man.

"come on, we better get up and start dinner"

kakashi was reluctant to let the chunin go, but unwrapped his arms anyways. he followed the man into the kitchen and they prepared a simple dinner of fish and rice. back in the living room the two enjoyed each others company while they ate. it was kakashi who brought up training.

"so what were some of the rumors you used against kurenai today?"

iruka smiled around his bite of rice before shaking his head.

"wouldnt you like to know"

"i would"

"cant its top secret stuff, only mission room employees get to know"

kakashi smiled at him, he was sure he could figure out a way to get iruka to tell him what he wanted to know and none of it involved torture techniques or at least the traditional kinds of torture. leaning acrossed the table he spoke in a husky voice.

"i can be very pursuasive"

iruka smiled at him before leaning forward and saying.

"do your worst"

without giving the chunin a chance to blink he tackled the smaller man to the floor and sat astride his body. he had two of irukas hands in one of his own and was smiling evily at the now restrained chunin. iruka tugged at his hands, but kakashi wasnt about to let go. frowning he pouted.

"no fair, your stronger than me"

kakashi shrugged before leaning down and asking.

"you going to tell me what i want to know?"

getting a michevious gleam in his eyes iruka shook his head. shrugging kakashi reached down and pulled the man's shirt up exposing plenty of flesh.

"kakashi what are you doing!"

he had his answer a minute later when he was bucking and laughing hysterically under the copy nin. kakashi took the time to watch iruka's reactions, it was obvious the man was very sensititive to touch and he catalogued every reaction he got from the man below him. finally stopping his torture he looked down to the tan skin beneath his hand. it had a myraid of scars, more than the chunin should have for as few missions he had actually done during his career.

iruka caught his breath, glad that he'd been able to endure the torture kakashi had placed him under. opening his eyes he watched kakashi carefully, the silver haired nin was looking at his stomache. glancing down at his exposed skin he saw what the man was looking at.his scars. allowing the man his curiousity. pulling gently at his hands, he felt kakashi loosen his grip allowing the man to escape his hold. he watched as kakashi reached out to tentivly touch a scar just under his ribcage. sucking in a breath at the contact their eyes met, before kakashi went back to what he was doing. slowly tracing the raised line on his flesh. with his hands free he decided to do a little exploring of his own, reaching out he got his hands under kakashi's flak jacket and moved his shirt out of the way as well, letting his hands trail across the well defined muscles, feeling kakashi's own set of raised lines, the man had his own scars, his own memories he would propably rather forget.

kakashi loosened his grip on irukas hands, knowing that if iruka didnt like what he was doing the chunin would tell him so. instead he allowed himself a couple more moments to trail a finger down the raised line of a scar under the man's ribcage. how had he gotten it, was it from a mission or was it from him. before he could continue his own explorations he felt tentitive hands come under his jacket to slide under his own shirt. smiling he made it easier for the chunin by shrugging out of the heavy jacket and pulling his shirt off, leaving him bare for the man to explore.

iruka was shocked when kakashi started stripping in front of him, sure they had both been in only their boxers before, but that had been in  a dark room when they were going to sleep. now he had the full view of the man infront of him. leaning up onto his elbows he started to try and get his own shirt off but it was too hard to do at this angle. he felt hands come around to help him and soon the shirt was going over his head and leaving him just as bare as kakashi was. the two just starred at one another for a minute, their eyes watching one another closely before they broke eye contact and began to explore one another's bodies. kakashi adjusted himself across the mans hips making sure he wasnt putting to much weight on the smaller man before letting his hands start at the man's neck and slowly trail downwards, following the natural curves of the mans chiseled body only diverting to trace the scars he came across. he wished he could take them all away from the kind hearted man. continueing his path down the mans chest he stopped just at the border to the mans pants, he didnt want to scare iruka so he let his hands wander back to the mans shoulders, there were identical scars on either side of the mans shoulders, a rare thing in the shinobi world. rubbing his thumbs over them he frowned. they were obviously made from a senbon or other thin sharp object and had gone deep by the amount of scar tissue he could feel. at the same time that he was anaylyzing iruka, iruka was doing the same to him.

he felt kakashi adjust himself across his hips and smiled before letting his own hands trail up the man's arms his right arm stopped when he felt the anbu tattoo on the mans shoulder, forever emblazing him as an anbu of the leaf village. trailing his hands across the man's shoulders he followed the mans collar bone, a couple neat lines of scars were present, but they didnt appear to be too deep, just shallow cuts really, but for them to have scarred the way they did, it must have been poison. trailing his fingertips over the raised edges he let his hands move down to the mans pectorals which had different scars crisscrossing over each other, obviously from different times throughout the nin's life. some deeper than others they all caught irukas attention and he wondered how he had gotten so many. letting his hands slowly trail down the mans sides, he stopped his hands to rest on the man's hips, seemingly holding him in place. iruka smiled, not many people would allow such close contact especially when dealing with their scars, the tissue could be sensititve and send phantom sparks of pain occasionally.

looking up iruka wasnt surprised to find kakashi watching him, but was rather shocked when kakashi reached up and moved his hitae away to uncover the sharingan. blushing a little he wasnt sure why he was bothering to waste energy staring at him. kakashi just smiled, his eyes crinkling as he took in the sight of the man below him. he wanted to memorize every detail of the blushing man to make sure he never forgot it. he could feel irukas fingers twitch occasionally at his hips, the man was nervous by all the attention, he'd propably never had something so personal done between himself and mizuki. the rat had only had a one track mind when it came to iruka and kakashi was determined to show the man that things could be different with the right partner.

leaning down so that they were inches apart from one another kakashi spoke quietly.

"would you sate the curiousity of this crazy jounin?"

iruka blushed all the more but nodded. kakashi smiled down to iruka before letting his hands which had been bracing him off of the chunin come down to trace the identical scars on the mans shoulders, he felt iruka tense and was about to pull away when iruka stated.

"senbon"

kakashi nodded, he had figured as much. looking into the hazel eyes watching him he asked.

"how?"

"sensei"

he was really beginning to have a large list of things to do to that snake bastard when they crossed paths again.

"they're identical"

iruka nodded his head before speaking quietly.

"he has great precision"

kakashi nodded his head again, he didnt doubt that orochimaru could have the skill to make identical wounds on someone the real question was why did iruka hold still to allow him to do so?

"why?"

iruka took a minute to look down at the mans hands gently rubbing around the area of his scars. before returning his gaze back to the mismatched eyes of kakashi.

"i wasnt a very good listener, he was trying to drive home a very specific point"

kakashi sighed as he stopped tracing the scars with his fingers. leaning back he observed the chunin, he didnt seem upset by his questions, but he didnt doubt that they had made the man uncomfortable. reaching down he took one of irukas hands and brough it up to a slash on the left side of his chest just under his nipple.

"kunai, was able to dodge the first one but not so much the second one"

he smiled at the chunin, iruka looked to the scar, it was thin showing that the blade had been tilted when it cut him. deciding to play along he grabbed kakashi's hand and brought it to a rather peculour scar on his  upper shoulder.

"chain burn"

he saw the wince on kakashis face and continued before the man could ask.

"my chunin exam, had to learn the hard way that some traps cant be undone safely"

kakashi nodded his head, lightly tracing the scar. iruka broke him out of his thoughts though by saying.

"i still kicked his ass though"

kakashi let out a bark of a laugh at the chunin and grabbed irukas hand and brought it to the top of his hip, pushing the edge of his pants down to expose it.

"axe"

iruka winced this time, axes werent commenly used by shinobi.

"he nearly severed the major artery, but my teammates got to him first. took almost three days to get back to konoha, i was delerious by then."

iruka nodded allowing himself to trace over the wound, deciding to have a bit more fun iruka sat up on his elbows again and used one arm to direct kakashi hand just around his back to behind his ribs. when kakashi nodded he spoke.

"poison barbs from a iwa arrow"

kakashi made an impressed face, not many people encountered something like that.

"was on a mission right after being promoted to chunin, we ran into trouble and i had to pick up a comrade and run. didnt get very far before that got stuck in me, but we were able to esccape. the rest of the trip home is a blur, i was completely out of it."

kakashi stroked the mans side before bringing irukas hand around to his own back, finding the right scar he waited for iruka to nod.

"dont know if you've seen one, but its one of those curved blades that suna used to use"

irukas eyes widened, he'd seen those before, nodding he let kakashi continue.

"i got my target, but he had one more guard i didnt see, bastard tried to gut me with it from behind but i was able to twist before he could get it in too deep"

iruka smiled at him rubbing the man's back a moment before grasping kakashi's hand and thinking a moment, he had plenty of scars, but he wasnt willing to talk about all of them, he was sure that kakashi had a few of the same. deciding that he had stalled enough while thinking, he brought kakashi's hand to just above his heart where a jagged scar was, it wasnt big by any means, being about the same size as a single coin, but its location of course made it deadly, kakashi waited with baited breath to hear the tale about that particular scar.

"kunai"

kakashi nodded, even though it didnt look like a kunai wound he didnt doubt that iruka would tell the truth.

"i was tied up, couldnt do anything about it, the kunai was dull"

kakashi frowned, a dull kunai was just torture, it would take a long while to make a wound that deep with a blade that couldnt cut skin.

"all i can remember it how much it bled, i thought it had gone through my heart at first, but my heartbeat didnt change so i just figured it was cause of how fast it was beating, either way i ended up passing out. stitched myself up in the morning"

kakashi looked into the brown eyes skeptically.

"you stitched yourself closed?"

iruka nodded before stating.

"it wasnt like mizuki was going too"

ah that explained it then. he really needed to pay another visit to that prison. as if iruka knew what he was thinking about the man's hands came up to grab his face catching his attention right away.

"no going back to beat mizuki up-i think you guys gave him enough head trauma for a while"

kakashi smiled as the mans hands fell away from his face. reaching out he brought iruka's hand up to his face, closing his sharigan for a moment to place iruka's hand over the jagged scar that had taken his eye.

"iwa nin, blocked an attack meant for my teammate, cost me my eye, but i managed to save him-for the moment, he died later during the mission and gave me his sharingan"

iruka pulled his hand back so kakashi could reopen his eye, smiling at him he spoke.

"im sure he's happy to know how well its served you"

kakashi gave a faint smile, just watching the chunin for a moment.

"i'd like to think so"

thinking a moment kakashi leaned forward so their forheads touched, just staring into the hazel eyes. iruka was blushing at the closeness much to his amusement.

"mah, would you indulge me"

confused with what the ninja meant he asked.

"with?"

kakashi closed the gap between them suddenly capturing irukas lips with his own. he felt iruka tense, but he watched as all iruka did was widen his eyes and stare back at him. pulling away he smiled at the man.

"thank you"

iruka turned bright red before stuttering out.

"why?"

"because i wanted to"

iruka frowned suddenly and kakashi was wondering if he had crossed the line with the chunin.

"ano iruka im-mmph"

he found his lips covered by the chunin's and didnt bother to fight it, simply wrapped his arm around the chunin to cradle the back of the mans head. iruka brought up his own arm to wrap around kakashi and keep the nin in place for a little while longer before the need for air became too important for them to ignore. breaking apart they both gasped, just staring at one another as they caught their breaths. this time it was kakashi's turn to ask.

"why'd you-"

"because i wanted to"

kakashi smiled at the chunin before darting forward for another quick kiss. the chunin didnt react other than to smile at him once he pulled back. leaning back from the chunin kakashi glanced to the clock to see it was getting quite late and as much as he would love to continue with their explorations he knew they had to get up early for training. iruka followed his gaze to the clock before leaning forward to embrace kakashi, the copy ninja looked down as iruka wrapped his arms around his torso. wrapping his arms around the other nin before saying.

"we need to get to bed"

he felt the chunin nod and let go of the chunin so he could climb off of the man below him. he however encountered some difficulty when iruka refused to let go of him.

"iruka"

"hmm"

"you have to let me go for this to work"

he could feel iruka chuckle against his chest.

"come on i promise you can attack me again in bed"

iruka nodded and actually allowed kakashi to get up. he took the hand that was given to help him up off the floor and the pair of them walked back to kakashi's room, mayonaka followed loyally behiind them. climbing into bed once they had rid themselves of their pants kakashi held his arms open to allow the chunin to crawl closer to him. iruka took the opportunity and easily climbed across the bed to snuggle against the taller nin. the pair settled in for the night and were both soon asleep.