Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ What He Wants ❯ Part 1 ( Chapter 1 )

This is a story based on the drabble “Scroll Darling” by Hey Diddle Diddle, which is published on this site. I have received permission from Hey Diddle Diddle to write this, which is basically a continuation of the drabble, but I don't think it's necessary to read the drabble in order to understand the story.

 

 

 

What He Wants

 

Part 1

 

 

Iruka wakes up with adrenaline spilling into his system and Predator! shrieking through his brain.

 

Like any well-trained ninja, he doesn't startle or gasp. He continues the rhythmic breathing of sleep and uses biofeedback to control his heart rate, reaching out with all senses other than sight to take stock of the situation. His circumstances, though, prove more confusing than informative.

 

He is at home, in bed, with a bare body pressed warmly against his side, and his feeling of imminent danger keeps increasing.

 

He opens his eyes to meet both of his lover's, the Sharingan spinning, as Kakashi rests on an elbow and looks down at Iruka, smiling gently.

 

“Kakashi...?” Iruka releases the kunai he's been gripping, settling it into the thigh holster he wears to bed. He sweeps the room quickly with his eyes; nothing seems out of place.

 

“Nightmare?” Kakashi murmurs, Iruka's eyes snapping back to his face. His left eye is closed now, as usual.

 

The adrenaline begins to fade, leaving him feeling both jittery and drained. He runs a hand over his face and grunts noncommittally. “Time `sit?”

 

His alarm goes off behind him as soon as the words leave his mouth. Kakashi reaches over and clicks it off. “It's about that time.”

 

Iruka groans, slowly becoming aware of a throbbing headache. He wakes up with them more often than not, these days, and they aren't at all easy to get rid of. He doesn't like going to the doctor, but he will have to soon, if these keep recurring with the frequency they have been. Plus headaches do nothing for his notoriously short fuse.

 

He feels Kakashi slip out of bed, and sits up carefully. He refuses to do something as telling as rub his temples, but his movements as he gets dressed are uncharacteristically slow. He turns to leave the bedroom and almost walks right into Kakashi, who is holding out a cup of tea and some pills. Iruka smiles and takes them, scalding his tongue as he washes down the medicine, sets the tea on his dresser and wraps his arms around his still-naked lover. “Thanks.”

 

Kakashi's arms slip tightly around his waist. “I don't like it when you hurt.”

 

Iruka snorts, kissing his neck. “Me neither.”

 

Breakfast is a quiet, comfortable affair, and by the time Iruka finishes his rice and salmon he's dismissed his unsettling awakening as a reaction to Kakashi's uncovered Sharingan. Just another consequence of being the lover of an eccentric ANBU-level nin. If it wasn't scary sometimes, it wouldn't be interesting.

 

“How's your head?” Kakashi asks, mask around his chin as he swills coffee that resembles the detritus at the bottom of a swamp.

 

Iruka shrugs. “It's been worse. I'm still really thankful that Naruto and Konohamaru have graduated already. I've got troublemakers, but none quite so ear-splitting.”

 

Kakashi smiles, though his open eye clouds a little at the mention of Naruto. Iruka forces himself not to apologize; Kakashi hates it when he apologizes for mentioning anything regarding his three former students.

 

“I'll bring you some more pills at lunch, in case you need them,” Kakashi is saying.

 

“You don't have to do that; I'll just take some with me when I leave.”

 

Kakashi stares into the nearly-solid sludge in his cup. “We can eat together,” he says pointedly. “I'll make crab cakes.”

 

Iruka laughs. Kakashi's crab cakes are worth any amount of headache suffering, and the bastard knows it, but he usually only makes them when he wants Iruka to do something he doesn't want to do. “You don't have to bribe me, you know. I'm happy to eat with you any day.” He raises a brow, smirking. “Unless there's more to this than just lunch?”

 

Kakashi finally looks at him, and his smile is toothy and brilliant, very rare. Iruka feels terribly privileged to see it. “You know me too well, Sensei. But today I just feel like making them for you.”

 

“Don't be late, then,” Iruka says softly, unnecessarily. Kakashi's lateness seems to be reserved for other people, because he's never been late to meet Iruka for anything.

 

Kakashi reaches across the table and squeezes his hand. “Wouldn't dream of it, Sensei.”

 

He squeezes back, lets go and gets up to clear the table and finish getting ready.

 

Kakashi kisses him fiercely, possessively, as he leaves for the Academy. When Iruka tears himself away he knows his lips are visibly kiss-swollen and the fire he feels under his skin is probably showing in his thrice-cursed face that blushes too easily, but even with his head still throbbing his grin is wide and his mood is very much improved.

 

It stays improved until he catches sight of her out of the corner of his eye, and sighs unhappily.

 

She is a young woman, about 5'3”, with a pixie face and short dark hair. Pretty enough. A civilian named Shiko who was caught in a collapsing building during Orochimaru's attack over a year ago. She is slightly brain-damaged, slightly crazy—not enough for her to be locked up, but enough that she has been causing Iruka quite a bit of grief lately.

 

She believes that she and Iruka were in a relationship for several months, when he suddenly stopped coming around for no reason and claimed he couldn't remember her. She has obviously been spying on him and Kakashi for a long time, because the arguments she uses to try and convince Iruka of the truth of her story often involve conversations, experiences he had with Kakashi. The only real puzzle for Iruka is how she, a civilian, managed to gather so much information on two ninja, one of whom is nearly the most powerful in Konoha. The only explanation he can come up with is that she just slipped under their radar, which isn't very satisfying.

 

He has a restraining order out on her, and she knows she shouldn't be within fifty yards of him, but she seems very desperate and often won't leave him alone until he's forced to summon the authorities. Even so, he feels strangely compassionate towards her, and usually tries to reason with her for a little while first, even though he knows it's futile.

 

“Iruka, wait,” she calls nervously, her gaze furtive and almost fearful. He wants to keep walking, but his compassion prevents him. The poor woman doesn't know any better, after all. “Iruka, please, look,” she pleads, holding out a ceramic mug with a beautiful blue glaze. The handle is shaped like a dolphin.

 

Iruka's heart almost stops. Kakashi bought him that mug. “Shiko-san, where did you get that?” If she's broken into his house—but no, he saw that mug in his cabinet this morning, and Kakashi should still be in his apartment. It has to be a different mug; the artist who made them had several on display.

 

Shiko's eyes light up. “Do you remember something? I bought this for you from that shop in the Southern district. You groaned and said you'd had quite enough of people giving you dolphin-themed gifts, but the glazing was so pretty that I bought it anyway…” She trails off as Iruka's mouth falls open and his eyes narrow. “Iruka? Can you remember?”

 

Iruka does remember. He remembers the shop, and he remembers saying that—to Kakashi. Perhaps she really should be a ninja, with information-gathering skills like that. “Listen, Shiko-san,” he sighs wearily. “I feel like I've been pretty tolerant so far, but this obsession with me has got to stop, or I'm going to be forced to have you arrested.”

 

Shiko drops the mug, which shatters on the road. Her head falls back, her eyes full of despair. “It's not an obsession, damn it! You have to remember! I love you, Iruka! We were…we were…” Frustrated sobs choke her off, and suddenly her hands claw and her face distorts with rage. “Damn him. Fucking son of a bitch. Son of a bitch! Kakashi!!!”

 

As though her snarl-scream has summoned him, the jounin appears in front of Iruka, blocking the madwoman from view. Iruka can feel the rage in his chakra, and knows better than to touch his lover or say anything to him, but he fears for the woman's life.

 

“What have I told you,” Kakashi says, his voice deceptively low and calm, “about bothering Iruka with your nonsense?”

 

Shiko lunges at Kakashi, but she might as well be moving in slow-motion. Within the space of a blink, she is on the ground, wrists broken. “How are you doing this?!” she screams, and her noise has now brought spectators. “Fuck you, how is this possible?! You bastard son of a bitch!!!”

 

Another blink, and two ANBU have shown up with a medic, and they whisk the woman away, still screeching like a banshee, cursing Kakashi.

 

When there is merciful silence once again, and the crowd has shuffled away under the copy-nin's formidable glare, Kakashi turns to Iruka. “You okay?” he asks, rubbing his hands up and down Iruka's arms solicitously.

 

Iruka takes a slightly shaky breath. “Yeah. I feel sorry for her, but, shit…she needs some serious help, Kakashi. If she was a ninja, or you weren't, I'd be worried about you.”

 

“Don't indulge her,” Kakashi says. “If you don't talk to her, she won't get so worked up. I feel sorry for her too, but you're not doing her any favors by letting her talk to you, you know? If you demonstrate that you're not willing to let her have any contact with you, it's more likely that this will blow over sooner rather than later.”

 

“I just don't understand why she picked me. I mean, before she started coming up to me insisting we were a couple, I'd never seen her before in my life.”

 

“Well, she'd obviously seen you, Sensei,” Kakashi says, and Iruka can see his wry smile even under his mask.

 

“Obviously.” Iruka rolls his eyes and sighs. “You going after them?”

 

“Yeah, I'll need to fill out the paperwork. She'll be detained this time, you know. Probably sent to a psychiatric ward, after. I mean, a civilian attacking Hatake Kakashi must be totally nuts, right?” He grins, grabbing Iruka's hands.

 

“You still coming for lunch?”

 

“Of course. This won't take long. But you're late now, Sensei.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” he says, leaning over to kiss Kakashi, who leans into it, and then teleports away.

 

Iruka stares down at the remains of the dolphin-handled mug, and frowns. He feels like he's overlooking something vital, but he can't begin to imagine what. Eventually he shakes his head and continues on his way to the Academy, mentally preparing to have to shout down his little hellions, who like to cause mischief when he's late. Thankfully, by the time he reaches the Academy gates his headache isn't nearly so bad anymore.