Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shinnen ❯ Kibou ( Chapter 3 )

"Sometimes you've got to get away

To want to go back home again."

Sheryl Crow

Chapter 3: Kibou

Kakashi looked from the house to Iruka and smiled. "Looks cozy."

Iruka was silent, not sure how to respond to that. They walked the rest of the way down the road and up the path to the front door.

"You can come in for a while if you want and warm up. It's kind of chilly outside."

"Thanks."

Iruka opened the door and stepped inside, Kakashi following close behind.

"Nice place you got here." Kakashi commented, looking around. The house itself was medium sized, built for probably at least four people. It seemed to follow a theme of a brown wood and crème colored walls. It was sparsely decorated, almost looking as if the entire interior décor had been merely an afterthought. There were very few pictures on the walls within sight of the door, and those there were seemed to consist of mainly of the major points in Iruka's life, starting with his youth and moving steadily forward. Kakashi spared them a cursory glance. One of Iruka wearing his hitai-ate, obviously newly earned, one of him standing beside a small group of people wearing Chuunin uniforms, also obviously newly earned. Several pictures of a bunch of children outside the Academy, which Kakashi thought to be graduating classes. In total, walking into the house, you were aware of a totally normal and un-unique household. He wondered briefly why Iruka lived all alone in it after he glanced to a hallway to the right that led to the bedrooms, three of them if he was staring at all the doors there were.

Straight ahead was the kitchen and, from what Kakashi could see from his obscured view, Iruka was not a neat freak, judging by the dirty pans and dishes lying around.

Kakashi walked a bit further into the house, and was able to see fully into a room to the left of that, which contained a low table that looked at the perfect height to be a footrest for the grayish hued couch that sat directly behind it, and there were also few comfy looking chairs flanking the table, each following the pattern of wood and dusty colors. Books were lying randomly around the room and a pile of papers sat on the table. There were few pictures on the wall. One caught Kakashi's eye, resting above the fireplace. It showed a young Iruka, five years old he guessed, sitting on his father's shoulders, his beautiful smiling mother standing in her husband's embrace. All of them were smiling. Iruka had a huge ridiculous grin on his face. A huge waterfall poured in the background and Kakashi noticed, upon closer inspection as he took a few steps forward, that the trio in the picture was fairly wet.

"It's not much, but its home." Iruka said from behind him.

"Lived here long?" Kakashi inquired.

"Ever since I was little." He answered. He pulled off his shoes, setting them next to the front door.

"Bedrooms are this way. It'll only take me a minute to put Naruto down." He said, and walked down the hallway to the right. Kakashi laughed inwardly at Iruka's choice of words. Iruka opened one of the doors and stepped inside. Curious, Kakashi followed behind him. He had been right in his first assessment that there were only three bedrooms.

It was a large bedroom they walked into, with a typical bed and a nightstand made of the same wood as everything else against the left wall. A table sat in one corner, surrounded by two chairs. A closet stayed closed off to the right and a small window was placed in the wall straight across from the door they had just entered. A fireplace, a rarity in a room by itself, was built next to the window. It reminded Kakashi vaguely of a hotel room.

"Do you sleep in here?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka shook his head. "I sleep one room over. This is the guest bedroom. Naruto keeps a few of his things here, so I guess you could call this his room."

"It's kind of nice for a guest bedroom. Why don't you sleep in here?" Kakashi wondered.

Iruka sighed and walked over to the bed, pulling the covers back in one swift movement. He carefully laid Naruto down and set to the task of taking his shoes and jacket off without waking him.

"This used to be my parent's bedroom." He explained. "After they were killed, I couldn't bare sleeping in here. Too many memories I guess." He tossed Naruto's jacket onto one of the chairs by the table and put his shoes on the floor at the foot of the bed. He turned to face Kakashi.

"Ironic, I know, but I can't blame Naruto for something he didn't do. He isn't the demon fox, as I realized a while ago, and despite what other people may think, I don't have a problem with it." He said, more sharply than he had intended.

Kakashi gazed silently at the sleeping child and then quietly left the room. Iruka sighed and rubbed his hand across his eyes wearily. "Nice one, Iruka." He muttered to himself. He tucked Naruto in the covers and left the room, pausing at the doorway to flick off the lights.

He found Kakashi leaning against the front door, staring off into space. As soon as he came into view, Kakashi turned to him and said. "It's late, I should be going."

Iruka pulled off his hitai-ate and gently tugged off his hair tie, letting his hair fall around his face.

"You… you can stay if you want. I mean- there's an extra bedroom you can stay in. It's getting late. Why not stay the night?" Iruka asked nervously.

Kakashi stared into his eyes for a moment, as if thinking, then nodded. Inwardly he smiled. Iruka was too kind for his own good.

"Thanks, I would like that."

Iruka smiled. "You can take the room at the end of the hall."

"Oh, so I don't get to share a room with you?" Kakashi asked mournfully. The effect was ruined when he waggled his eyebrows.

Iruka rolled his eyes. "I never share my room with anybody." He declared, and then ruined the effect by winking.

Kakashi and Iruka grinned at each other. "So are you just going to go to your room like a good little boy or am I going to have to tie you up and drag you there?" Iruka asked.

"You can tie me up anytime Iruka." He purred.

Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Scary…"

Kakashi grinned wickedly, but that was quickly followed by a yawn.

"I think I'm rather tired, but I'm not in sleep-mode yet. Do you have coffee here, or am I going to have to wander over to another hot young male's house and beg?"

"Oh, sit your firm little butt on that couch and I'll make you some coffee, you freeloader."

Kakashi winced. "Harsh, Iruka, harsh."

Iruka winked and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Do you mind if I wander a bit?" Kakashi called after him.

"As long as you don't break, crack, burn, or otherwise destroy anything. And if I catch you in my room, I'm going to attack you, give you a scar to match mine, torture you, learn all your dirty secrets, spread said secrets all over the entire village kill you after your humiliation is complete, and hang your mangled corpse next to my front door as a warning."

"Roger!" Kakashi said sharply, and snapped off a salute, even though he knew Iruka couldn't see it.

He wandered around the living room, first taking a seat on the couch, which he noticed was rather comfortable. He leaned forward and began to thumb through the papers sitting on the coffee table. Other people may be hesitant to go through another person's things, or snoop around someone else's house, but Kakashi had no such qualms. In fact, he loved doing it, because he learned things he might have not ordinarily learned. There was a stack of school papers on one end of the table. He picked those up and flipped through them. A lot of red marks, he thought. He stopped when he spotted Konohamaru's name at the top of the paper. He glanced over the paper, noting the lack of even a single red mark. Look's like someone is finally getting serious about being a shinobi.

Finding nothing interesting, Kakashi put the papers back on the table and picked up the next object, a book, which turned out to be a detailed book of advanced jutsus, one he recognized because he had read it before, and had personally been mentioned in it. It was a closely guarded book, since it contained things not meant to be advertised outside of the village. It was incredibly detailed, but still omitted certain facts. Why does he have this? Kakashi wondered, and noticed that several pages of the book were dog-eared. He opened up to the first dog-eared page. It was a detailed description about the various abilities of the Byakugan. A few things were underlined, including a sentence describing that there was a weakness to the ability, but due to military secrecy it could not be disclosed. A paragraph was circled that described in detail what exactly a Byakugan user saw when using the ability.

Kakashi flipped to the next section, which contained information about the Shishienjin no jutsu. Kakashi recognized the skill. Four people, standing apart from each other in any shape, could combine and focus their chakra together to strengthen the atmosphere around them, creating an impenetrable wall. It appears as a violet color because of it's interaction of the atmosphere. The chakra of the four shinobi are focused to appear as a white light, or light which science defines as containing every color. This is why there is a bright flash just before the barrier is erected. The white chakra-enhanced light reacts with the oxygen in the air, which scatters the light molecules within the white light. On the color scale, violet has the shortest wavelength and thereby violet particles of light scatter the most. The chakra fuses with those scattered violet particles to create the barrier. You'd need an attack on the atomic level to dispel the barrier. That, or the death of one of the four shinobi contributing chakra.

Below the interesting description, there was a note claiming that the jutsu was a specialty of the newly formed Sound Country. It listed all the known past instances where the barrier had been effectively used and who used it. The last, Kakashi noted, had been during the battle of the Kyuubi. It listed the four people involved in the barrier.

Kamiwara Anotsu (deceased)

Umino Kyokuho (deceased)

Harume Geiko (deceased)

Minamo Eiji (deceased)

Kakashi was startled at the second name, oddly feeling as if he were intruding on something he shouldn't be. So that's how Iruka's motherdied, Kakashi thought. His curiosity about the book was waning away under his feeling of discomfort, so he browsed through the rest of it quickly, noting the remaining dog-eared pages included the Sharingan and the Youmi. The page on the Kyubi was worn, as compared to the unmarred page of the Tanuki. Kakashi briefly stared at the picture of the Kyuubi, its eyes alight with a demonic fire that the picture didn't quite do justice, before he slammed the book shut and set it back down on the table.

His gaze traveled over the remaining item on the table. There was nothing of further interest, only school papers and empty food containers.

Kakashi stood up and began to wander around the room. Some of his thoughts remained on the book lying on the table, but he stifled his remaining curiosity. It was none of his business if Iruka was interested in the Youmi, the demon monsters. If anyone had a right to be, it was Iruka.

Kakashi found himself facing the picture he had noticed when he first arrived at Iruka's house, the one of Iruka and his parents next to the waterfall. He stared at it, taking in the ridiculous grin on Iruka's face. He looks so happy. The older version of Iruka now messing around in the kitchen still looked remarkably similar to the younger Iruka in the picture. Only a few more lines, longer hair, and a weariness of the eyes betrayed Iruka's age. Kakashi peered at Iruka's mother. She was a plain sort of woman, with an ordinary beauty, a face you wouldn't glance at twice. It was her smile that caught Kakashi's attention, the same contagious expression that was mirrored by her son. In fact, looking between the young Iruka and his mother, Kakashi noticed the remarkable similarity between the two. Iruka had obviously inherited most of his mother's traits. Their eyes were different, however, and Kakashi's gaze traveled over to the father. Yes, those were Iruka's eyes, but on a face that was only slightly similar to Iruka's. The similarities between Iruka and his father weren't obvious. You had too look deeper for the connection, and Kakashi saw it in the way Iruka sat so comfortably on his father's shoulders, the way his father looked to pleased to have his son sitting there, and it almost looked as if they fit together. Yes, there were father and son, in a way Kakashi couldn't quite put his finger on.

Smiling to himself, Kakashi continued his wandering around the room. Next to the mantle was a plaque, and on that plaque there was attached a sword. Kakashi leaned forward to read the inscription.

In honor of Umino Kujira, decorated ANBU squad leader and shinobi of Konohagakure, who died honorably in battle protecting his village, XX month, XX day, XX year.

I am the son of heroes.

Tracing a finger over the final inscription, Kakashi whispered the words to himself softly. "I am the son of heroes."

"My father was very proud of his lineage." said a voice behind him. Kakashi turned to find Iruka standing behind him, holding two steaming mugs of coffee. "He always told me that he was honored by his ancestors, that we came from a noble, honorable bloodline." Iruka handed a mug to Kakashi, who took it gratefully. With his free hand, Iruka pointed to his eyes. "This, he told me, is my gift from him. He always laughed at me for looking like my mother, but he always reminded me that my eyes were his."

It was with a wry smile that Iruka reached forward and traced the inscription, Kakashi's hand having fallen away. Iruka's voice became deeper, mimicking his father, "Iruka, you may have gotten your mom's pansy hair, her chin, her nose, and her face, but those beautiful eyes of yours that you see in the mirror, those you should be proud of, because those are mine." Iruka chuckled. "They were both beautiful people in their own right. And they knew it too. That's probably why they always reminded me of my looks. What was it my mother always said? `When you look into the mirror, Iruka, it's the loving face of your mother you see, and don't you ever forget it." That wry smile on his face widened. "I always got irritated when they told me things like that, so I always told them it that it was always my father staring at my mother in the mirror, and never just me. They'd roar with laughter…"

Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment, then grinned. "Oh, I see. Your father's eyes looking at your mother's face." He paused. "Sounds like they really loved each other." Kakashi commented.

"Yeah, they did. Still madly in love after all those years being married. Oh, and such pranksters too! Never satisfied to let the other get ahead of them. If my father pulled a joke, my mother had to get him back ten times better. It carried on for years…" here he drifted off, his eyes growing distant as if he were imagining some long ago memory. Kakashi saw his eyes shift in the direction of the bedrooms, before he seemed to come back to himself. He gestured to the couch.

Kakashi and Iruka walked over to the couch and sat down. Iruka's gaze shifted from Kakashi's cup of coffee to Kakashi's face. Then he turned away pointedly and stared at the sword on the wall. Smiling, Kakashi reached up and tugged down his mask.

"Keep telling me about your parents, Iruka. It's really interesting."

Iruka almost turned around to stare at him incredulously, but caught himself in time. "Are you serious?" he asked, keeping his gaze on the sword. The couch was too far away to read the inscription, but Iruka knew it by heart anyway.

"Yeah, serious. Not a whole lot of people actually sit down and talk to me about themselves. It's a tad bit more useful than snooping around or guessing." Kakashi sipped the coffee. It was fresh, too hot for him to drink really, but he let it burn his tongue and slide down his throat. It was so hot he could feel it in his chest when he took a deep sip. It tasted good too, and he wondered what flavor it was.

Iruka, uncertain, cast about for something more he could say about his parents. He had never really talked about them with anyone, except on occasion with the Hokage. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"If your parents were such pranksters, that probably carried on over to you, didn't it?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka groaned. "It did, with a vengeance. Honestly, being a teacher now, I wonder how my academy instructor ever managed to put with me. Looking back, I wouldn't have blamed Anotsu if he had given in and finally just kicked me out, or even killed me. I was a truly a terror.

"I was way worse than Naruto. I had experts to learn from; Naruto had to make it up as he went along. Granted, he did rather well in that respect, but I still have him beaten when it comes to pulling pranks."

Kakashi detected an undercurrent of pride when Iruka said that, and smiled. Somehow it fit in perfectly with what he thought of Iruka.

"After my parents died," he continued, "I sort of set about recreating every prank they had ever done to each other, like a homage of some sort. I think some of the teachers actually feared me during that time. If I was a terror before, I became a demon then."

"I think I'm definitely going to need an example for this." Kakashi laughed. "What kind of stuff did you do?"

Iruka laughed nervously. "I did a few things in my time, and I don't really like recounting them. It's kind of embarrassing, looking back at it. I was young and rebellious…"

"Come on, just name one." Kakashi pushed.

Iruka cleared his throat, his eyes shifting around the room nervously. He murmured something under his breath that was too quiet for Kakashi to hear.

"Could you say that again, just a little louder this time?" Kakashi asked, amused.

Running a frustrated hand through his hair, Iruka sighed. "I said they used to call me the Yuuku no Kokei."

"What?!" Kakashi asked in shock. "So you're--?"

A blush was rising to Iruka's cheeks. "Errr, yeah…"

Kakashi leaned back on the couch and whistled. "Yuuku no Kokei huh… sweet, innocent Iruka…"

He paused. Then burst out laughing. "Oh, this is too good to be true." Kakashi doubled over in laughter. "And to think, I had always wondered who the mysterious identity of that troublemaker was, and it turns out to be sweet little Iruka…"

Iruka could feel his ears burning. "Yeah, well I was young, and my parents had always joked about that one…"

Kakashi had to set his coffee on the table, or else it would have spilled everywhere. Great whoops of laugher sounded loudly around the room, and Iruka could have sworn he heard Kakashi fall off of the couch and onto the floor.

"It's not that funny. I got in a lot of trouble for that one…"

This only seemed to make Kakashi laugh even harder. "I'm sorry," he choked out between laughs, "but I keep thinking of you setting up the explosives, and you standing there, and one of them goes off, the look on your face must've been…" Kakashi couldn't continue. Great gales of laughter emerged from his mouth, and Iruka, hearing Kakashi lost in the humor of the situation, was almost inclined to start laughing himself. Only the memory of the severe punishment he had received took the laughter away. In fact, it made him shudder when he thought of it…

Iruka sat impatiently while Kakashi laughed himself weary. It took a decidedly long time, and Iruka had nothing to do but sit there and listen to Kakashi's surprisingly clear laughter, for his mask was off and his voice no longer had that muffled sound to it. It wasn't a bad way to pass the time, but even Iruka, who had been the center of laughter for a long time, began to grow annoyed after a while. Finally, when it didn't sound like Kakashi was going to stop anytime soon, Iruka whirled around without warning. Instead of stopping laughing and pulling up his mask, Kakashi had grabbed a pillow and put it in front of his face, the laughter now muffled, but as loud as ever.

Iruka eyed him wearily, and stood up. "I'm going to get more coffee." He muttered, and walked off to the kitchen.

After Iruka had wandered off, Kakashi eventually quieted. He sat up, wiped his eyes, drained the rest of the coffee, burning his tongue even more in the process, and pulled up his mask. Repositioning himself on the couch, he tried to regain some semblance of dignity. He ran a hand through his hair, and was satisfied that it was as wild as ever. He could hear Iruka rummaging around in the kitchen, so he stood and wandered over to find Iruka heating up some coffee.

"Are we ever going to sleep, or are we going to stay on a caffeine high all night?" Kakashi wondered out loud.

Iruka waved the pair of chopsticks he was using to stir the coffee at him menacingly. "I got thirsty waiting for you to get control of yourself, you impossible Jounin."

Sticking his tongue out, Kakashi struck a ridiculous pose. Iruka tried to smother a grin as Kakashi had one arm poised over his head, the other making a decidedly rude gesture in Iruka's direction. He stood on one leg, the other one bent across the knee of the one standing. He looked ridiculous, a mockery of one of the fighting poses. He reminded Iruka of Naruto.

"Idiot." Iruka threw the chopsticks at Kakashi's face. They hit with a soft whack, and felt to the floor with a clatter.

There was a moment of silence. Kakashi was frozen in place, and Iruka could tell his mouth was hanging open under the mask. Then, Kakashi's visible eye teared up, and he pointed an accusing finger at Iruka. "You're mean!" he wailed.

Another pair of chopsticks sailed through the air and hit Kakashi in the chest. One fell to the ground, the other got stuck on one of the scroll pouches on his flak jacket. Iruka reached into a drawer and drew out another pair. Neither of them made any move. They eyed each other, measuring the will of the shinobi before them.

"Put down the chopsticks, Iruka, before someone gets hurt." Kakashi warned. His hand strayed towards his shuriken holder.

"Why would I do that, Kakashi-sempai?" Iruka wondered out loud, innocently.

In a split second, Kakashi rushed forward, his hand gripping Iruka's wrist, trying to wrench away the chopsticks. Iruka only gripped the chopsticks tighter, and promptly proceeded to elbow Kakashi in the face. The Jounin, caught off guard, staggered back, clutching his nose, howling.

"ITE! AGH, DAMMIT IRUKA! THAT HURT!"

Iruka lowered his elbow uncertainly. "It did? I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

The moment Iruka's guard was down, Kakashi shot forward, grabbed the chopsticks from Iruka's hand, kicked the teacher solidly in the chest, and watching him go flying into the wall.

In that fraction of a second in which he acted, he had forgotten to hold back his strength. After all those endless taijutsu fights with Gai, he momentarily forgot that this was Iruka, and Iruka certainly wasn't an advanced taijutsu specialist. And, belatedly, he realized that Iruka wasn't going to be happy with these turn of events.

Iruka's back crashed into the wall, causing cracks to radiate out from the wall where he hit it. His body bounced back off with the force of the throw and Iruka somehow managed to screw up enough dignity to land on his feet instead of a heap on the floor.

He hovered there, wobbling uncertainly, a momentary look of confusion on his face as if he couldn't quite figure out what had just happened. Then Kakashi coughed, and a look of rage flashed across Iruka's face.

Kakashi winced.

And the chase ensued.

Iruka was the first to move, tilting his body forward and breaking into a mad dash. Kakashi, by the grace of observation, knew what that forward tilting meant, and by the time Iruka had taken that first step, Kakashi was off and running.

Kakashi raced out of the kitchen with Iruka hot on his heels. The house was small, so he had to cut back on his speed for accurate maneuverability. Iruka, however, seemed to have no qualms about crashing into objects. In fact, he showed a frightening disregard for objects in general, for every time he passed one, he picked it up and chucked it in the general direction of the fleeing Jounin.

"I'm going to kill you!" the Chuunin threatened in a decidedly dangerous screech, which had obviously been honed to perfection from frequent use while teaching. As he narrowly dodged a flying notebook, Kakashi added apparent disregard for the persons of others to the growing list of how an angry Iruka acted.

Several broken pieces of furniture, decorations, teaching apparatuses, and miscellaneous kitchenware later, a tired Iruka sat on the floor, his back against the wall, and his eyes fixed on the wary form of Kakashi.

"That was…" Kakashi said.

"Fun?" Iruka asked.

There was a momentary pause, than a nod of assent. "Yes, fun is a good word."

Iruka's lips twisted into a smile. "That was a bit uncommon for me--"

"Really? I would never have guessed."

"Careful, I can see the sarcasm dripping from your mouth."

"That was almost witty."

"I try."

A silence.

"I think that should just about cover it for the day." Iruka stated, wiping his hands absentmindedly on his flak jacket. "Shall we travel to our respective bedrooms now? Or do we feel the need to destroy more of my house?"

Grumbling a quiet `We?' Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm ready to call it a night." He said. Kakashi's eyes traveled to small swash of blood on Iruka's head that had previously gone unnoticed. It could have come from any number of things, but Kakashi felt a small bit of guilt. He reached into the pouch on his side and pulled out a length of bandage. "Here." Kakashi said, and grabbed Iruka's arm, tugging him out of the kitchen and into the living room. He pushed him gently onto the couch.

"What are you doing?" Iruka asked, shying away from the Jounin as if he expected him to pull another stunt.

"You're bleeding. Tie up your hair." Kakashi commanded. Iruka frowned, reached up with a hand to touch his temple. When he pulled the fingers away, there was a small spot of blood on them.

"Oh." He said.

Kakashi thought to himself that this was the first time he had seen Iruka with his hair down. It made him look… different. Younger, somehow, or more innocent. Certainly more handsome. He wondered why the Chuunin didn't keep it down more often. The woman would be after him like white on rice. Or maybe that was why he kept it up in the first place.

Iruka obeyed, reaching forward onto the table and rummaging around until he found a hair tie. Kakashi grabbed it out of his hand before he could move to use it. "Let me, it'll go faster," he said. He ran his hands along the back Iruka's neck, gathering up all his hair, feeling the soft strands slide easily through his fingers. He felt Iruka shiver under his touch, and grinned. He gathered the hair into a decent ponytail and tied it off. Then he placed one hand on Iruka's chin and turned his face to the side, examining the cut on the temple.

"Nothing serious, just a scratch. Head wounds always bleed pretty bad, but it's mostly superficial. You'll probably have a headache in the morning though." Kakashi said as he gently wiped away the blood on Iruka's face and unraveled the bandage, carefully starting to wrap it around Iruka's forehead.

Iruka shrugged. "Can't be helped I guess. I suppose I've learned not to try and keep chopsticks from you. It could be deadly."

Kakashi, tying off the bandage, laughed. "Yes, I'm a rather dangerous individual. Be careful, I take my chopsticks very seriously."

Iruka laughed along with him and they both rose from the couch. Iruka led the way over to the hallway with the bedrooms. "Sorry about the wall. Didn't really mean to do that." Kakashi said as they walked.

Iruka was desperately tempted to say `happens all the time'. So tempted, in fact, that he decided to say it out loud. He was rewarded with a deep, honest laugh from the Jounin, that quieted when they passed by Naruto's room.

Iruka stopped at his bedroom and placed his hand on the doorknob. "I trust you'll keep quiet like a good boy tonight? I'm not going to have to go in there and look under your bed for monsters, am I?"

Kakashi waggled his eyebrows. "There are a few monsters under the covers with me, if you want to spend the night there to make sure they don't eat me."

Iruka flashed him a wane smile. "I'm afraid the monsters will be the only one's eating tonight."

"Ooo, dirty Iruka." Kakashi marveled.

Iruka yawned. "As much as I would like to exchange sexual banter with you all night, I'm going to have to leave you now."

"Alas, my man is leaving me. I suppose that's enough sexual innuendo for one night. I think I'll go drop dead now. I trust there's a tree in my room for me to sleep on. Wouldn't want to crush any rumors about my sleeping habits. Honestly, me, sleeping in a tree…" He said and drifted down the hallway. Iruka turned when Kakashi called down to him.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

It seemed as if there were a million underlying questions buried in that inquiry, but Iruka was much too tired to give it any thought. He nodded, absently rubbing the bandage wrapped around his head. "Tomorrow." He said, and there was a small smile on his face as Kakashi opened the door to his room and stepped inside. Iruka opened the door to his bedroom and wearily entered, then shut the door quietly behind himself.

Kakashi, standing at his doorframe, gazed at Iruka's closed door for a second before closing his own door. It was a miniature version of Naruto's room, if a little less nice and without a fireplace. Kakashi yawned and pulled off his vest, tossing it carelessly on the floor along with his hitai-ate. He pulled down his mask and that was when he noticed the utter lack of a bed in the room. Kakashi stared at the bare spot of the room where the bed obviously used to be. And there, on the floor, was a tiny bonsai tree. "When on earth did he do that?" Kakashi wondered out loud. He had been with Iruka the entire night. Sneaky little bastard, Kakashi mused to himself. Touché Iruka.

He walked over to the bonsai tree, shoved it out of the way, and laid himself down on the floor in its place. He considered going into the living room to sleep on the couch, but discarded the idea. He decided to regard this situation as his punishment for the damage done to Iruka's house. Kakashi stretched out on the floor, using his arms as a pillow. His gaze wandered over the ceiling, not looking for anything, just letting his mind cycle through his thoughts aimlessly.

He thought back to everything that had happened that day. Mostly, he thought about the strange thing Iruka had admitted to him, that he could see things, he could see colors, auras, and could make his way past barriers erected by Kakashi that no one else had penetrated. What thought bothered him the most, however, was what Iruka had said about him.

"You though… your color is different than what I normally associate with someone. It's a deep red, but there is something in it. Something underneathit." Iruka's eyes flicked to Kakashi's hair. "Not quite white, but not purely gray either. The color of your hair. It's as if… the red isn't your color. It feels…" Iruka hesitated. "It feels as if you stole it, and you're trying to hide behind it."

The words rang through his mind, endless, repeating over and over in a mantra that didn't allow him to fall asleep until the sun had almost risen over the horizon. He whispered the words to himself.

"You stole it…"

~*~

Sorta… tired… sooooo… THANK YOU everyone for your wonderful reviews. Very inspirational. Since I'm just dieing to please you people.

Uhh, let me just say here and now that my Japanese sucks. I'm only in Japanese 1 at my school, so as near as I can tell Yuuku no Kokei means something like Successor of Trouble. And I figure `Ehh, what the hell, close enough'. ^_^*

Ok, the story of the Yuuku no Kokei is actually a side story that I'm working on. For the sake of understanding, I'll just paraphrase what it's about so you can understand. Iruka, after his parents are murdered, decides to recreate a prank his parents had always joked about. He holds the Hokage Monument hostage, planting explosives around it and threatening to blow it up. It's WAY more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea. The stunt was pretty infamous, and the identity of the one who masterminded it isn't common knowledge. So for Iruka to be the Yuuku no Kokei is pretty… well… surprising. And a lot of people are going to feel that way in this fic.