Escort

VIII

Iruka bounded lightly over the roofs of sleeping citizens of Iiga, heading toward the Abeko. He’d been careful in choosing his outfit, taking a page out of Kakashi’s book and making a mask to cover his face. The less his identity was seen, the more he could wander around as Ruka within the establishment and find clues to Yukari's whereabouts. He landed gently outside the door, pulling out a fuda that would silently unlock the door and leave no trace, creaking open the door and slipping inside, removing the fuda and tucking it into the pouch on his thigh again. The restaurant was so different at night, dead except for a soft light that shone from beneath the door that led to the back rooms. That was his goal and so he crept along, pausing for a long moment to listen at the door for sounds that could be a particular threat. Hearing no such sound, Iruka tried the door and found it unlocked. He grew suspicious then and shifted to pull a small mirror out of his leg-pouch, along with a small telescoping rod. He attached the mirror to the rod and slipped it through the small crack he created as he eased the door open. The mirror showed him an empty hallway, the walls covered in soft carpet. Iruka shuddered, knowing exactly what the carpet did, but he filed that away for later and extended the rod a little more, trying to get a full view of the hall. There was nothing he could see, nothing that would pose a danger to him, and so he retracted the rod and slipped all the pieces away, easing open the door wide enough to let him inside. He closed the door behind him and crept down the hallway, looking everywhere for cameras. A simple locating jutsu confirmed there were no hidden cameras and so he continued on his way, creeping step by easing step until he came to the first door set on the left side of the hall. He peeked into the window and saw a girl lying on a bed within the room. She was naked, one shapely leg bent beneath her as she rose up, arching her back to display her breasts, dancing on the bed for the benefit of whoever was in the room with her. Her head rolled to the side and Iruka shuddered, ducked his head and moved on. She wasn’t Yukari.

He passed a few more doors on the right and left sides of the hallway, peeking into each one and seeing men riding the girls or the girls riding the men or girls sleeping in their beds with a red blanket pulled over them. None of these rooms held the girl he was looking for. The last door led to yet another hallway, this one again blanketed by soft carpet on the walls and floors, but something about this hall was odd. These rooms had clipboards beside the doors, like a hospital room would. He didn’t see anyone in the hall and bent to unlock the door, slipping to the other side and locking the door again. No need to leave a trace. Iruka skittered past doors that were dark and whose clipboards were blank, pausing when he heard voices. They were growing louder, nearing the door he stood next to. He flashed through a few hand seals and transformed himself into a potted plant just in time as the door opened a few seconds later, two men exiting the room speaking amongst each other. Iruka couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it didn’t bode well, he was sure. He waited until he was sure they were gone before he released the jutsu, pressing against the wall and listening for any more movement.

He shifted to the other side of the door to examine the clipboard and managed to keep his sigh of relief quiet. This was her room, the room that belonged to Yukari. Now all he needed to do was slip in and get her out. If only it was that easy. He shifted to unlock the door and slipped inside the room. The sterile smell was what got to him first, making him shiver. That scent proved something was wrong and soon he knew exactly what when he saw the bed and the girl lying in it. Yukari’s eyes were closed, her chest rising and falling with even breath, her body covered with dark blankets. She appeared to just be sleeping, but when Iruka’s first few attempts to wake her failed, he soon saw why. An IV ran from her left arm to a fluid packet hanging above her bed from a hook, dripping clear liquid into her system. Iruka needed to take a sample of that fluid, he knew, because if it were a drug of some kind he would need to figure out how to defeat it. The only problem then was taking a sample without alerting anyone there was a stranger in Yukari’s room. If he managed to get this sample, he could take it to Shigure and see if Shigure could get to the resources to analyze it. Carefully, Iruka reached up to the bag and sliced a little hole in the top of the back, furthest away from the fluid. A small tube then was pulled out of the pouch on his thigh, moving to insert the tube into the bag down into the fluid.

Just a little bit of breath exhaled and Iruka put the other end of the tube into his mouth, sucking lightly to get a decent sample. He pulled away from the tube and stoppered it with his thumb as he extricated the tube from the bag, a vial catching the other end as the liquid was deposited into the glass vial. Iruka soon slipped everything away and shifted to try and free Yukari. Then the lights in the hallway began to flash, a warning that someone had broken in. Iruka panicked a little bit, because he had taken such care in avoiding those alarms and traps that would alert the muscle that patrolled the back rooms during business hours. Iruka had to escape and escape quickly. He looked down at the little girl who lay so limply under the blankets. He’d finally found her and now he had to leave her again. Footsteps alerted him that trouble was coming and Iruka hurried to erase all evidence of his presence in the room. He moved to the door and slipped out, hurrying down the hall. Now that the alarms were going off, there was no more reason for stealth, so Iruka ran as fast as he could to get back to the main restaurant and outside.

He made it, just before one of the bounces caught sight of him. Iruka didn’t stop running though, because he didn’t know if he was being followed or not. And he was, just not by someone who really wanted to hurt him. He glanced behind him for the sake of seeing if anyone was behind him and saw a flash of silver just a few feet behind him. Iruka dodged and felt the wind of Kakashi’s passing against his back. Iruka dove to the rooftop and rolled as Kakashi made another pass at him and used the momentum of his roll to launch him back to his feet to keep running. There was no way he’d be able to fight Kakashi and if Kakashi caught him everything would be over. He didn’t want it to end, because he knew Kakashi wouldn’t care about the little girl lying so helplessly in the very back of a brothel. Iruka leapt to the ground and just kept running, knowing Kakashi was right behind him, he did his best to lose him.

His hands flashed through seals and three clones bounded off in opposite directions as the real Iruka ran toward his apartment. Maybe he’d get lucky and the clones, which would give Iruka a head start in getting back to his apartment and hiding everything before Kakashi arrived to spy, would fool Kakashi.

There was a flux in his chakra and Iruka knew a clone of his had been attacked. The clones weren’t meant for combat, nor were they meant to be caught by a grip harder than a lover’s caress. It hadn’t cost Iruka much chakra to make them, so that was why they were so weak. Iruka rounded the corner when he felt another clone disappear and he was just about to hurry down the alley next to his building that would take him to the back stairs when he felt the final clone die. He extended his hand to grab onto the bar that ran up the side of the stairwell when his wrist was grabbed, Kakashi pulling him close and then shoving him against the wall.

Iruka panicked. His mask concealed his face so Kakashi wouldn’t recognize him right away, but the jounin would recognize his voice as soon as he spoke. So he did the only thing his panicking brain could come up with. He lunged toward Kakashi and kissed him hard. The jounin hadn’t been expecting that and his grip went slack, allowing Iruka to extricate his wrist and escape up the stairs, pulling off his costume as he went, managing only by some miracle to take refuge in his apartment before Kakashi regained his wits. He leaned against the door and caught his breath, before he moved to change his clothes from his black costume to his pajamas, hiding his thigh-pouch in his nightstand as he picked up the charm bag that he’d left on the tabletop before head left. The chuunin curled up in bed and tried to sleep, waking briefly when the white dog hopped up on the bed with him, curling up at his feet and falling back to sleep.

Iruka shivered and finally fell asleep, dreaming about Kakashi and another time and place where they could actually be together, in some sort of perfect world. Because, despite the kiss, Kakashi wasn’t here for him, because he missed him, and if Kakashi knew that Iruka was the one who had kissed him, Iruka would probably die. It had been impulse, really, to kiss Kakashi, a deep desire brought up by panic, and Iruka cried harder because the action would never be repeated. Kakashi wasn’t here for a confession of love, like the prince who chases after his stubborn princess to tell her that he was in love with her; he was here to bring Iruka back to Konoha where the mission would be then undertaken by another shinobi or even a kunoichi that was better qualified for being out in the field. Iruka wasn’t aware of the wet tongue that crossed his cheek, licking away the tears that fell. Akiko heaved a sigh and settled down beside Iruka, wishing she could do something more for the poor chuunin.