Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Indecent Exposure ~ A Naruto Fan-Fic (K/I) ❯ Chapter 15

Indecent Exposure

A 'Naruto' fan-fiction by Ookami Kasumi

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~ Fifteen ~

 

Kakashi turned around and dropped into the submerged seat on Iruka's right, sinking into the bath's water to the neck. "You weren't in the mission office."

 

Iruka didn't quite hide his shiver. He was heartily glad that the hot water had already flushed his cheeks, and that the pool was too misty to see through. He was getting hard at a rate that was making it difficult to think straight. He pasted on a smile. "Tsunade gave me the week off for the exams, and next week too." He just barely stopped himself from visibly wincing. Why the hell did I tell him about next week?

 

Kakashi's one visible brow lifted. "Were the exams that bad this year?"

 

Iruka shrugged. "A little...rushed."

 

Shikamaru snorted. "He had to grade the exams the same night the little rug-rats took them so he could have them done by today."

 

Neji leaned forward. "I thought you had another whole week to turn them in?"

 

Iruka took slow careful breaths, hoping to get a bit more oxygen to his brain. It was the only real weapon he had, and he needed it. "I, uh...do, but..." Oh yes, that was clever. He winced in embarrassment.

 

Shikamaru turned to Neji. "He promised the kids he'd give them a secret lesson on the henge tomorrow if they all passed."

 

Neji frowned. "Don't they have to learn that anyway?"

 

Shikamaru grinned. "He offered to teach them early, before all the other kids learned it."

 

Iruka forcibly kicked his brain back into functioning. He smiled toward Neji. "It'll give them something to play with during their summer vacation."

 

Neji pursed his lips and tilted his head. "I can see the appeal..."

 

Shikamaru burst into laughter. "It's a fucking homework assignment and not one of them has any idea!"

 

Kakashi touched Iruka lightly on the shoulder. "Did they all pass?"

 

Iruka's shoulder burned where Kakashi's fingers had touched, but pride burned hotter. Iruka turned to Kakashi with broad smile. "Yes! The lowest score was 75, and only two were that low."

 

Shikamaru leaned forward. "I watched the kata and weapons forms exam." He smiled. "The little rug-rats did well." He rolled his eyes. "Especially compared to all the other classes I saw."

 

Neji frowned. "Were the students that brilliant?"

 

Shikamaru shook his head. "Not really." He turned to Neji. "Iruka-sensei is just that good at teaching."

 

Iruka ducked his head. "I just want them to...survive. That's all." He looked over at Neji. "I'll do anything to get those skills drilled into their hard little heads." His gaze narrowed and his jaw set. "Whatever it takes."

 

Shikamaru frowned slightly at Iruka then nudged him. "Our class is doing good, so far."

 

Neji sighed. "Except for one."

 

Depression crashed down on Iruka's head and heart. Sasuke had left the village and turned traitor -- for revenge.

 

Shikamaru swung his hand at Neji's head. "You missed the point!"

 

Neji ducked and frowned. "What?"

 

Shikamaru bared his teeth. "Yeah, maybe he's not here anymore, but he's still walking around! We haven't lost anyone from our class. Not one!"

 

Neji leaned forward to look at Iruka, a slight wince flickered across his features, then he smiled. "He has a point. We have all survived."

 

Next to Iruka, Kakashi was utterly silent.

 

Iruka swept his hands down his face. "I just wish I could have done something..."

 

Kakashi's voice was soft, but vehement. "I tried. I tried everything. Nothing worked."

 

Iruka looked over at Kakashi and a pang echoed in his heart. If anyone felt worse about Sasuke, it was Kakashi.

 

Kakashi scowled at the water. "I practically abandoned both Naruto and Sakura so I could get into that stubborn brain of his, but not a god damned thing worked!" He rolled his eyes. "I should have never given him the chidori."

 

Iruka swallowed, not sure what to do or say. The chidori technique Kakashi had given Sasuke had been used to burn a hole through Naruto's chest. The only reason Naruto survived was because the demon sealed within the boy had kept him alive long enough to get him to the hospital and Tsunade -- and Kakashi had been the one who'd brought him there.

 

Shikamaru cleared his throat. "He was obsessed with killing his brother -- end of story."

 

Neji leaned forward. "From what I understand, that obsession was planted in Sasuke's head by his brother using the most advanced Sharingan technique in existence -- before he even left primary school. By the time he got into the academy, it was firmly and irrevocably ingrained."

 

Shikamaru scowled. "If he was fucked up that early, why the hell did they let him into the academy to begin with?"

 

Iruka sighed. "I was told that it was the council's decision."

 

Neji shook his head. "Once they put him in the academy, the outcome was clearly inevitable." He shot a narrow-eyed look at Iruka and Kakashi. "That Sasuke left to pursue his brother was not anyone's fault but Sasuke's brother."

 

Kakashi curled his lip in self disgust. "Fuck! I didn't even think to use my Sharingan to try to reverse the process!"

 

Neji lifted his brow. "Have you mastered the Sharingan technique that actually enters a target's mind?"

 

Kakashi's frown deepened. "No, but I could have planted some firm suggestions."

 

Neji shook his head. "You know that would not have worked. The technique used on Sasuke literally reprogrammed his brain on the inside. Suggestions cannot change the true core personality, and that is precisely what his brother did."

 

Shikamaru frowned. "Now that I think about it, you're right. Sasuke wasn't like that, before." He looked over at Iruka. "I used to play with him when we were little." He snorted. "He was something of a cry-baby back then."

 

Neji smiled. "I remember that."

 

Iruka blinked, unable to fathom the cold, callous Uchiha, Sasuke as a cry-baby.

 

Staring hard at the steaming water, Kakashi's body tensed, his muscles standing out in clear relief. "I should have tried the Sharingan anyway."

 

Neji sighed and shook his head. "Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke's programming to pursue his brother was ingrained too deeply. Sooner or later, it would have overruled any suggestions you planted. You might have been able to put off his leaving a little longer, but he still would have left, and with the additional time and training -- possibly with far deadlier results."

 

Kakashi sighed heavily, his body slumping. "So, Sasuke was a hopeless cause all along."

 

Neji lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "I'm afraid so."

 

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Wonderful... Now I feel even better about abandoning Naruto and Sakura."

 

Iruka bit his lip. "Well, since Sakura is currently being trained by the Hokage, Tsunade and Naruto is with the toad sage Jiraiya, both of whom are Sannin, I wouldn't call that all bad."

 

Kakashi lifted a silver brow and snorted. "So my abandoning them was a good thing?"

 

Iruka looked away. "I wouldn't say that either, but it's...understandable how it happened." He gave Kakashi a slight smile. "You were trying to save a life."

 

Kakashi's brow lifted. "So, you believe that survival outweighs happiness?"

 

Iruka's temper flared cold and hard. He narrowed his eyes and set his jaw. "Always." The things he made his kids do didn't always make them happy, but he'd make every last child under his care do them over, and over again 'till their fingers bled and their bodies broke if it meant they'd live to see even one more day.

 

Kakashi blinked then smiled, just a little. "Funny, so do I."

 

Between Iruka and Neji, Shikamaru folded his arms and scowled. "Can we change the subject now? It's fucking depressing."

 

Neji nudged him. "What do you suggest?"

 

Shikamaru turned to Iruka. "Tell us about one of your pranks."

 

Iruka lifted his chin and folded his arms dramatically. "I'm a nice quiet schoolteacher. Pranks are beneath me."

 

All three men spoke in chorus. "Since when?"

 

Iruka playfully scowled. "Hey!"

 

Kakashi leaned forward on his bench. "That knife-oil stunt was only last year."

 

Iruka stuck out his bottom lip in an obvious pout. "I was correcting exams, okay? The window breeze kept blowing my papers everywhere."

 

Shikamaru frowned. "So you dumped two gallons of oil down the windows?"

 

Iruka shook his head. "I posted a note: Work in progress, please use other window."

 

Neji shook his head in open confusion. "So where does the oil come in?"

 

Kakashi leaned forward. "Someone posted another note on the wall beside it: Warning, irate Iruka. Proceed at your own risk." His gaze slid to Iruka. "Apparently, Iruka-sensei took exception to it."

 

Iruka winced then shot a narrow-eyed look at Kakashi. "How do you know what that note said?"

 

Kakashi shrugged and glanced away. "I just...happened to see it."

 

Shikamaru's brows lifted. "Did you go through the window?"

 

Kakashi's visible eye creased with humor. "I took the stairs because that window and the one next to it had already been greased -- for about two stories straight down." He shrugged. "Of course not everybody noticed that the wall had been greased."

 

Neji frowned. "How could they have missed it? Knife oil is clear, but the spill would have at least darkened the wall enough to be clearly visible, even at night."

 

Iruka slowly sank into the water to almost his nose.

 

Kakashi cheerfully folded his arms across his chest. "Well, it seems that there was some sort of light henge hiding the spill. Apparently, quite a number of jumpers slid rather nastily." His gaze slid to Iruka. "The results being more than a few broken arms."

 

Neji's mouth fell open. "Good god..."

 

Shikamaru tisked but a smile curled the edges of his mouth. "That's one hell of a temper you've got there, Iruka-sensei."

 

Iruka lifted from the water just enough to clear his lips. "I um, use bricks as paper weights these days."

 

Kakashi snorted. "You've mashed a few fingers with those paperweights too."

 

Iruka rose a bit higher in the water and scowled. "If they can't write legibly on their reports...!"

 

Neji blinked. "Iruka-sensei?"

 

Iruka shot Neji a glare. "My kids write better than some of these jounin!" He turned sharply to glare at Kakashi. "That includes you!"

 

Kakashi chuckled and put up his hands in mock surrender. "Guilty as charged."

 

Neji leaned forward. "Iruka-sensei, aren't you worried about someone pranking you back?"

 

Iruka smiled ever so sweetly. "Oh, they've tried..."

 

Shikamaru frowned. "Tried. No successes?"

 

Iruka shook his head, his smile broadening. "A prank is only successful if it's sprung. If it's detected and avoided, it's a miss."

 

Shikamaru's brows lowered and his lip curled in obvious confusion. "You've detected them all?"

 

Iruka shrugged and smiled. "Naruto's sexy jutsu is the only prank that has succeeded so far, and that's because it was done instantly. If the prank is set up and waiting, I'll know it's there."

 

Neji scowled in open skepticism. "Iruka-sensei, I am having a great deal of difficulty believing that you can see traps. You simply don't have the chakra."

 

Kakashi snorted. "Or the right kind of eyes."

 

"Well, you see..." Iruka looked to either side, giving Kakashi and the boys a lofty smile. "The thing about having such a small amount of chakra..." Well, small as compared to the chakra power-houses currently sharing the pool. "...Is that it makes one very sensitive to its presence, especially when there's a lot of it. It's simply a matter of paying attention."

 

An absolute bald-faced lie. Iruka had worked long and hard to train his sensitivity to the chakra of those around him. If it was strong, he had no difficulty feeling it. However, if there were only trace amounts, such as on an object only briefly touched, he still had to resort to the ninjutsu technique he'd secretly developed as a genin to detect its presence.

 

Iruka's smile turned ever so sweet. "A henge, the number one most common cover-up for a trap, reeks of chakra."

 

Neji frowned. "You can detect a henge?"

 

Iruka shrugged casually. "I can't see through one to tell what its covering, but I can definitely tell when chakra is in use -- or has been used recently, especially when it's concentrated." An absolutely essential skill to have when one's jounin instructor simply loved to ambush his genin students with extremely nasty traps.

 

Kakashi's brows lifted, he blinked then shook his head. "I was wondering how you always knew!"

 

Iruka turned to lift a suspicious brow at Kakashi. "Oh?" And how many pranks of those were yours mister?

 

"Not me!" Kakashi dramatically threw up an arm to cover his head and peeked under it. "I didn't prank you!" He lowered his arm. "But I have seen a few of the traps set for you." He shook his head. "I was wondering how you kept avoiding them."

 

Neji's pale eyes narrowed. "How sensitive to chakra are you?"

 

Iruka pursed his lips in thought then smiled. "Very, and that's all you're getting out of me." He lifted a finger. "I will say this though, the more chakra used, the easier it is for me to know its there."

 

Shikamaru smiled grimly. "And jounin just love using their chakra tricks."

 

Neji's brow lifted. "I have noticed that the more they have, the more they tend to rely on it."

 

Kakashi rolled his eyes toward the feeling. "Why do I feel like the only jounin at a chuunin party?"

 

The three chuunin stared at him.

 

Iruka smiled. "No reason I can think of." He turned to Shikamaru. "How about you?"

 

Shikamaru shrugged and looked away. "Not a clue."

 

Neji smiled sweetly. "I have no idea why you'd feel that way."

 

Kakashi crossed his arms and snorted. "Now you're openly ganging up on me."

 

Shikamaru snorted. "Actually, this is more of a genius party."

 

Iruka leveled a glare on Shikamaru and shook his head. "I'm not a genius."

 

Shikamaru grinned. "Only by two or three points."

 

Iruka ground his teeth and crossed his arms. Oh, you rat bastard!

 

Neji frowned at Shikamaru. "What?" He turned his frown on Iruka.

 

Kakashi stared at Iruka, one brow lifted. "Oh, really?"

 

Iruka lifted his brow at Shikamaru and his voice dropped to a growl. "Don't make me regret taking you on as my assistant-teacher."

 

"Oops, was that a secret?" Shikamaru grinned shamelessly. "My bad."

 

Iruka rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh.

 

Kakashi's dropped his head and chuckled. "That does explain a lot."

 

Neji frowned in thought. "Because of your low chakra and chuunin status, they assume... Yet you..." A slow nasty smile played on his lips. "He's right, you are a sneak."

 

Iruka lifted his chin. "I prefer...subtle."

 

Shikamaru snorted. "Subtle, right." He looked over at Neji. "He's like, the king of misdirection."

 

Kakashi lifted his chin and eyed Iruka. "You should see him on missions. His manipulation skills are pretty impressive too."

 

Iruka looked over at Kakashi in alarm. Please, gods... Don't say what I do on missions! He really didn't want Neji to know. Well, technically, Shikamaru already knew so it was very possible that Neji knew already -- but that was beside the point! Most battle-trained ninja sneered at seduction work, especially if a man was doing it. Neji tended to sneer just for the hell of it. He really, really didn't want to see Neji's sneer trained on him. Or does Kakashi think I manipulated him that night in the woods...? Oh, gods that was an even worse thought.

 

Kakashi's arm brushed against Iruka's and he nodded very briefly.

 

Iruka wasn't sure what Kakashi meant by it, but it eased his mind -- and sent heat flooding downward.

 

Shikamaru nodded. "He manipulates the hell out of the kids, but it works." He smiled sourly. "The little rug rats will do or try anything he asks." He shot a narrowed-eyed look at Iruka. "No matter how crazy -- or muddy."

 

Kakashi cleared his throat. "He manipulates the hell out of everyone in the mission office too." He eyed Iruka. "Though that's more like bullying."

 

Iruka dropped his chin and scowled. "If they just did what they were supposed to the first time..."

 

Neji shook his head and smiled. "I'm surprised Ibiki hasn't recruited you."

 

Iruka ducked his head and lifted both hands. "No thank you! I'm perfectly happy as a teacher."

 

Shikamaru snorted. "He prefers torturing people for their own good."

 

Iruka shot a mock glare at the Nara. "Hey...!"

 

The Nara shot a glare right back. "Explain to me again why the kids did that obstacle course in the rain?"

 

Iruka rolled his eyes. "It's closer to the conditions of a real mission than that dry plastic jungle-gym down in the basement." He lifted his brow at Shikamaru. "It builds self-confidence."

 

Kakashi frowned. "The one in the back training field? I think that's the one I went through."

 

Shikamaru shot a glare at Kakashi. "In the rain?"

 

Kakashi tilted his head in thought. "No, I think it was sunny that day."

 

Shikamaru flopped back and folded his arms. "Fine, rub it in."

 

Neji snorted. "I think you had enough rubbed in." He rolled his eyes. "I didn't think the mud would ever come off."

 

Iruka's brows rose and he smiled. Oh yes, they are definitely dating.

 

Shikamaru's eyes widened on Iruka.

 

Iruka smile curled into one of pure evil. You can hide nothing from me.

 

Kakashi leaned forward to catch the smile on Iruka's face. "What is going through that sneaky little head of yours now?"

 

Shikamaru swallowed.

 

Iruka's evil smile remained. "Oh, nothing of importance." He dropped the evil act and sighed. "Nothing I can use, anyway."

 

Shikamaru blew out a breath.

 

Neji frowned from Shikamaru to Iruka and back. "Do I want to know?"

 

Shikamaru glanced over at Neji and spoke softly. "Later."

 

Iruka pasted his evil smile right back on. "Yeah, you might want to warn him, before a certain young lady comes to...practice." He winked.

 

Neji's eyes widened drastically. He looked over at Shikamaru. "You told him?"

 

Shikamaru scowled. "Didn't have to."

 

Focused on Iruka, Neji lifted his chin and set his jaw. "One would hope you plan to keep that knowledge to yourself?"

 

Iruka lifted his hands and ducked his head. "I haven't told anyone, and I don't plan to tell anyone...!"

 

Kakashi frowned. "What, that you two and Tamari are one happy threesome?"

 

Neji's face went white.

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Does everyone know?"

 

Kakashi chuckled. "Well, your chuunin exam was pretty...obvious."

 

Iruka nodded.

 

Shikamaru scowled and stood up. "Well, I think my nuts have been roasted long enough."

 

Neji rose. "They'll be serving dinner soon, so I might as well go too." He stepped away from the benches.

 

Iruka rose to his feet with a grimace, the water retreating to his hips. "Oh come on, I wasn't that mean!"

 

Shikamaru huffed, rolled his eyes, then smiled. "Oh, don't worry, I plan on returning the favor." His glance slid beyond him, to Kakashi.

 

Iruka frowned. What is he implying?

 

"See you at nine on the playground." Shikamaru waved and followed Neji out of the pool to collect his robe.

 

Iruka sighed, perhaps a bit dramatically.

 

Kakashi cleared his throat. "You still have me?"

 

Iruka turned to face Kakashi and it suddenly dawned on him that he was alone with the object of his obsession. I am so doomed.

 

~ * ~