lecanis

Iruka arrived at the mission room early, thinking to get some things done before Kakashi got there, like checking out his schedule and finding out about that party, which he’d forgotten to mention to Kakashi. It seemed a little crowded when he arrived, but Yori was alone at the desk, and didn’t look busy, which should mean there was either big gossip or missions were being delayed for some reason. Iruka’s first instinct was to look around for Genma, but he was in the middle of a group of people, and looked quite a bit busy himself, so Iruka turned and went up to Yori at the desk instead.

“Yori-san, nice to see you,” he said politely with a small bow.

The fair-skinned blonde blushed slightly, and then smiled at him, a real brilliant smile for the first time since he’d met her. “Nice to see you, Iruka-san. Come to see what the Hokage plans for you?” she asked.

Iruka nodded. “Yeah, I figure it’s probably pretty evil, but of course since you’re my henchman, er, henchwoman, I’ll give you all the dirty work,” he said with a wink. “Seriously, though, what’s going on here?”

Yori shook her head. “Everything’s backed up. There was some kind of confusion with false clients, apparently, but I couldn’t get the details of course.”

Iruka rolled his eyes. “Where’s someone who would have those details?” he asked.

The young woman raised an eyebrow, as if to say “Why would they tell you?” but kept her mouth shut. She was starting to realize that when it came to Umino Iruka, nothing was ever as it seemed. “Tsunade-sama and Shizune-san are in her office, closeted with a few Council members and some Jounin and ANBU. Kotetsu-san and Izumo-san have guard duty today, so they aren’t around, and I don’t know if they would have heard anything. I suppose some of the Jounin might know something, but otherwise, anyone with that kind of clearance is probably in the office with Tsunade-sama anyway.”

Iruka sighed, thinking he might have to bother Genma after all. “Thanks anyway, Yori-san. Hey, what happened to that party, anyway? And I still need my schedule; did Tsunade leave it around here somewhere for me?”

Yori nodded and pulled a scroll out of a drawer in the desk. “Here are all your orders; I’m assuming your schedule for the mission desk and your other duties is in there. As for the party, Tsunade was hoping to have it tonight, if you were okay with that.”

Iruka smiled at her. “Are you going?”

Yori hadn’t been planning on going to any party. She didn’t really feel she’d likely be welcome there, since Tsunade had shown she wasn’t fond of her, and in general she didn’t feel too welcome among the mission desk staff. However, Iruka was asking her himself, and he had made sure she kept her job, so she should probably at least give it a chance. “Yes, I think I will attend,” she said.

Iruka clapped and jumped around like a little kid. It was ridiculous, a man his age acting that way, but somehow it suited him. “Great! I was worried you might feel out of place since you’re still fairly new, but I want to make sure you feel like part of the team.” He blushed, realizing how he was behaving. “You realize, I teach small children most of the time. It’s hard not to pick up their habits sometimes,” he said with a sheepish grin.

After his talk with Yori, Iruka slipped away to try to get Genma’s attention. Rather than actually walk up to the man and obviously butt into his conversation, he stationed himself at one of Genma’s favorite lounging spots and found the hidden seal on the wall there, channeling a very tiny amount of chakra into it. Across the room, Genma didn’t bat an eye, but he pulled his senbon out of his mouth and flipped it around his fingers for a moment, and Iruka knew the message had been received. Five minutes later, his friend was at his side.

“I thought you weren’t starting back quite this soon,” said Genma quietly, taking in the fact that Iruka was not only in the mission room, but also in uniform, while he was still on his break from classes.

Iruka shook his head. “I’m not starting quite yet, though I haven’t looked at the message Tsunade left for me, so I don’t know exactly when I am starting. I just came by to pick up my orders, and find out about the ‘welcome back’ party Tsunade is determined to have, and see you, of course,” he replied.

Genma frowned. “You should have started at the other end of that list, because obviously seeing me should be the most important thing!”

“Well, it is, but I wouldn’t want to give you any more of an ego than you already have, Gen-chan!” came the merry reply, and then… “Oh, Genma, I have gossip for you! It’s fun!”

“Oh really?” said Genma, leaning forward eagerly.

“So today Kakashi and I were talking, and he said that… get this… I’m the first person to ever top him!”

Genma looked at Iruka quizzically. “Gossip about yourself?? Why would you want that to get out?” Iruka just stood there, watching him for a moment, waiting for all the pieces to click into place. When they did, Genma gaped, grabbing his senbon from his mouth to save it from falling. “You mean Iruka-sensei, beloved and respected scion of purity, being the first person to ever fuck Hatake Kakashi, infamous Copy-Nin, Jounin extraordinaire, and notorious pervert? It’s ridiculous, insane… is it really TRUE?”

Iruka rolled his eyes. “He certainly didn’t seem to be lying to me, and he was pretty serious about the whole thing… until I mentioned how funny it was, and he was the one who suggested we leak it just for fun…”

Genma laughed until he felt like his sides were going to split, and Iruka plucked the senbon from his fingers just to be careful, even though he knew his friend had really only hurt himself with it very rarely, and usually on purpose to get out of something or get some kind of sympathy or attention. Had the room not been full of ticked-off, ranting shinobi, they would have called quite a bit of attention to themselves with this behavior, but as it was, no one really seemed to notice.

Iruka finally managed to calm Genma down, and once he had, he asked casually, “Oh, by the way, did you happen to let Kakashi get caught in my traps this morning on purpose?”

Genma grinned. “Of course I did. It was for your own good, you know. You need him to realize you’re not some kind of wimp just because you’re not a Jounin, don’t you? He’ll think twice before acting all superior after the pathetic showing he put up against your traps, don’t you think?”

“Oh, that’s a great idea, thanks!” Iruka said brightly… too brightly.

Genma gulped and wished he had his senbon, but realized Iruka was still holding it. There were more in his vest, but he couldn’t exactly pull another one out without it being an obvious sign on discomfort. “Um, how much trouble exactly am I in here, Ruka?” he asked softly.

“Trouble? Why would you be in trouble, Gen-chan? It’s not like my boyfriend got injured because of you or anything, is it?” Iruka’s smile was very warm and very sweet.

“It was just a scratch!” Genma said defensively. “I would have helped him bandage it, too, but he said it was fine. He didn’t seem to be worried about it at all.”

“He wasn’t worried about it. Neither am I. It’s fine,” said Iruka, still smiling. He handed Genma back his senbon, and Genma carefully placed it back in his mouth. He was still watching Iruka, wondering what he was planning, wondering when and how he was going to make Genma pay. But Genma didn’t have long to brood on it, because the next thing he knew Kakashi was striding toward them, and Iruka turned to greet him.

“So, Genma, I’ve decided I’m not going to kill you after all,” said Kakashi casually.

This caught Genma off guard. Kakashi hadn’t seem upset about the traps, and had in fact seemed grateful to have them turned off when he did, not seeming to realize that Genma could have done so earlier. Genma couldn’t think of anything else he had done to upset Kakashi either, for that matter. Shrugging, he chalked it up to “Kakashi being Kakashi” and replied, “That’s good news.”

Kakashi moved to stand beside Iruka and put his arm around his lover’s shoulders. “Anyway, did I miss anything fun?”

Notes: Yes, I did say that this story will be over in a couple of chapters in a comment on the past one. This one isn't the end, but it will be in a couple chapters. Anyone hoping to see particular things tied up better, don't fear, I have at least one sequel and a couple of side stories in my head, so you WILL be seeing more of me with this timeline and these versions of the characters.

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