Chapter Text
Kakashi has mixed feelings about guard duty. Sometimes he considers it a waste of effort, to put ANBU on patrol around the village when so little ever happens. He does understand that they, out of everyone, would be the best to respond to or investigate anything untoward going's-on in the dark when the village should be asleep. But nighttime gate patrols are so boring.
He's got three more hours of solo watch before his relief arrives at the crack of dawn, and he can go home and get a single day to rest, eat, and do the chores he's been putting off before he has to depart on a two week long mission. Comparatively speaking, guard duty is considered to be when ANBU can catch a break from their normal rhythm, because it's usually such a cake-walk. Kakashi visits all his normal rounds, stopping on a few of his usual rooftops to watch the quiet streets before heading to each of the three gates in turn. At each one, he verifies the sensing barrier is still intact and functioning with a small pulse of chakra to the seals on the exterior walls. He wonders what the barrier team sees when he does this, besides the small and familiar ping of his chakra that lets them know where he is. Even at this hour, someone will be present to monitor movement in and out of the village. He does a lap around the perimeter on foot just because he can, stopping at the small stream that exits the gate through the wall and which eventually dumps into the river that bisects the Nara clan lands just a few miles east.
He keeps going further around the wall and winds up outside the Hyuuga clan properties, which abut the eastern side of the cliff forming the Hokage rock. The tallest building of the compound is barely visible over the top of the gate. Kakashi walks up the wall and sits atop it, peering into the grounds to watch the solitary figures mill about in the waning pre-dawn as they ready for whatever they plan to do that day. Kakashi keeps his chakra hidden and stays still, even if any one of the prying eyes below might see him if they thought to look. Most of the large clans don't like to be 'monitored', but no one is above the scrutiny of the nightly patrols.
Which is why it's curious when he sees a shadowy figure slip between two buildings. They silently head towards the wall, scaling the side under the cover of shadows. Kakashi opens his sharingan to watch as they breach the invisible barrier around the village - but the quiet ping never happens. Instead what he sees is the quick flash of chakra as a seal, likely on a tag concealed somewhere on their person, briefly activates and then fades, and they pass through the barrier without disturbing it by even a little. They quickly jump down from the wall and land amidst the forest, not even bothering to throw a glance around to make sure they aren't being watched. But it's definitely a Hyuuga. The long hair and the loose-fitting kimono style clothing the main branch prefers are both a dead giveaway. Just a few paces outside the wall they slow to a stop, and a second figure steps out from between the trees to greet them. It's too dark to say with certainty who it is, though the build and height of their silhouette is at least somewhat familiar. It's not until they take another step into the dim moonlight that Kakashi recognizes them - Iruka.
Yes, this has Iruka's name all over it. Resident troublemaker even at fifteen, Kakashi - or Hound, rather - has been chasing Iruka all over the damn village since the latter was eleven years old and way too cocky for his own good. His shenanigans don't seem to have gotten any less convoluted over the years, not considering he's apparently just helped a Hyuuga main branch member sneak out of the compound without being detected by the barrier, which is such a ridiculous breach of security that Kakashi is almost impressed. He's known that Iruka's tinkering with seal tags and fūinjutsu recently was always going to spell trouble in the very near future, and it seems it already has. Clearly he figured out a way to bypass the barrier, but to what end, Kakashi isn't sure. Not until Iruka steps into the Hyuuga's space and they share a very brief embrace, and then both disappear further into the trees.
Kakashi has to try not to groan in annoyance. Of course Iruka is flaunting village security to entertain his stupid teenage crush. It doesn't take long to wonder why all the secrecy is necessary, either, not considering there's no way in hell that Hiashi Hyuuga would approve of one of his star pupil main branch members falling in with the likes of Iruka, a clanless orphan with a reputation for leaving a mess in his wake wherever he goes. Briefly Kakashi entertains the idea of following them, but aside from the fact that the Hyuuga would eventually spot him on their tail, his curiosity has been sated. He's certain that this is nothing more than an escapade of two teenagers wanting an hour alone, and not something more sinister in nature. And Kakashi has no desire to stir up trouble or animosity. So he goes back to his patrol, and the next time he sees Hiashi, he says nothing.
But he does keep an eye out. Iruka possessing seal tags that allow him to bypass the barrier is innocent in his hands - relatively speaking, that is - but poses a potential risk if anyone else less honest were to come across them or figure out how they work. So once he's back from his mission and is again assigned the very boring duty of patrols overnight, he hangs around the Hyuuga compound a little more than he should, just in case.
Though it isn't here that Kakashi sees Iruka again - instead it's closer to one of the training fields near the southern wall. There's the tiniest shimmer of chakra as Kakashi sees him slip through the barrier over top of the gate. This time Iruka doesn't stop outside the Hyuuga compound to meet up with anyone. This time he continues out of the village and into the woods, heading in a straight line away from the wall under the dark cover of trees. And this time, Kakashi follows. It doesn't take long for them to reach their destination, either. Kakashi recognizes one of the very old, very dilapidated supply stations a few miles outside the wall, one that has clearly fallen off the list of caches to be maintained. But Iruka is familiar with the place, walking across the small pond in front of it to get to the door and letting himself inside. As silently as possible Kakashi lands on a branch nearby, close enough that he can hear the sound of voices, nearly obscured by the shrill cry of the summer cicadas.
"...to meet so suddenly?" Iruka asks. "Don't you have a mission in a few hours?"
"I told you we need to talk," is the quiet reply. It seems the Hyuuga is already here.
"Alright." The hesitance in Iruka's reply is obvious, even from afar. "What's the matter?"
"Iruka, my promotion is in a month," the Hyuuga says bluntly. "I'm going to be a jounin soon, I can't keep sneaking out of the compound like this."
"So what?" Iruka asks. "Why don't you stop lying to your dad about this and we-"
"You know that the clanhead would never approve." Kakashi unfortunately already agrees, even if it feels unfair. "And my dad would kill me if he found out."
"Why, 'cause I'm not good enough for your stupid family?" Iruka asks with clear anger in his tone. "Well sorry you're so embarrassed to be seen with me."
"...Iruka, it's not like that."
"Whatever, Tokuma." Iruka sounds more frustrated than anything else, but Kakashi can hear the hurt in his tone. "If it wasn't like that you wouldn't be doing this, and I don't want to hear it. Give me back my tag and just... leave me alone."
"But the barrier team will know when I-"
"You're smart. You can figure it out."
Then there's a silent pause, and a minute later Tokuma exits and starts heading back to the village. Kakashi hangs back, not wanting to move in case Iruka happens to see his departure. He hadn't meant to get in the middle of what turned out to be a bit of a lover's spat, and kind of feels bad for Iruka at the moment. He knows what it's like to be looked down upon for a name and a history that you can do very little about. Iruka comes out of the building and lets the door slam behind him as he approaches the little pond and walks out to the middle of it. There's a paper tag in his hand, which he folds in half and shoves in his pocket. Kakashi will have to figure out what, if anything, to do about their existence, but for now he's not going to bother. He has a feeling Iruka isn't going to be sneaking out of the village like this any time soon, at least not for this reason. Iruka crouches down and dips one hand into the water, stirring it around with his fingers and watching the ripples lap against his shoes and the nearby shore. Kakashi decides to leave him to his moping, and as quietly as he can, he turns and heads back. With luck whoever Iruka decides to fancy next won't be someone that he has to sneak out of the village just to spend time with.
Iruka turns sixteen the following summer, and slowly the quantity of his pranks diminishes, though the quality surely suffers none. A week before the chuunin exams, which Iruka is due to participate in for the third time, Kakashi walks right into one of his well placed paper-tag snares and has to spend an entire hour washing glitter out of his uniform and hair. Kakashi is sure to chase him down a few days after this, to give him a good telling-off with the usual spiel of 'if you put half as much effort into your training as you did your pranks you might already be chuunin', which does the same thing it always does and makes Iruka ridiculously angry at the barb. The reprimand probably doesn't land as hard as it could when Kakashi is still a bit iridescent in the sunlight. But he does wind up eating his words. He's out of the village when the exams happen, but out of curiosity he reads the roster of participants and graduations, and Iruka is one of fifteen brand new chuunin to join the ranks. Despite the sporadic and volatile contention that exists between them, he is proud of Iruka for passing and finally putting his energy and his smarts into something productive.
One evening he decides to hang back after his patrol ends and wait at Iruka's building for him to return. He has a fairly predictable routine, and usually spends the last few hours of the day volunteering at the orphanage to help entertain the kids, if he's not on a mission. Kakashi lands on the rear balcony of Iruka's apartment and tries the door, which he almost never remembers to lock properly. He's lucky that the presence of so many shinobi in this apartment block discourages theft, or his tiny one-bedroom would have been broken into months ago. Iruka arrives as Kakashi is helping himself to the pitiful contents of Iruka's refrigerator. Kakashi is still wearing most of his ANBU uniform besides the porcelain mask. It's definitely improper for him to allow Iruka to know who he is beneath it, but after so many years it's become hard to avoid.
Iruka startles momentarily when he steps into his genkan and there's someone in his house, but his surprise quickly melts away into annoyance.
"You know I don't like it when you let yourself in." Iruka kicks off his shoes and sets down a bag of take-out on the tiny island that divides the living room-slash-bedroom and the kitchenette.
"You didn't lock your door," Kakashi points out.
"I did! This time!"
"Not well."
"Oh, whatever." Iruka waves his hand dismissively. "No one ever breaks in besides you. What are you doing, anyway? I haven't seen you in ages."
"I've been busy," Kakashi says simply, not divulging more than that. "But I heard about the exams."
Iruka grins victoriously and proudly puffs up his chest, resting his fists on his hips.
"I told ya I'd make chuunin. You owe me a hundred ryo."
"That was not a serious bet."
"Sore loser."
"I never doubted you," Kakashi says, and Iruka rolls his eyes. "In fact, I came here to congratulate you."
"Oh, you mean you're here to rub in my face how much more I still have to go before I catch up to you?"
"Please, you could never make ANBU."
Iruka scowls. He pulls a glass down from the cabinet and slams it a little too hard.
"Congratulate me or leave, you ass," he says. Kakashi decides to play nice, and he gestures towards a small box resting on the island, which Iruka hadn't noticed until now. When he does, he flashes a disbelieving frown.
"You got me a gift? Is it booby-trapped or something?"
"And just who do you think I am?" Kakashi asks. "You're the one who would pull something like that, not me."
Iruka grins once he realizes Kakashi's offer is genuine and reaches for the box, tearing off the thin paper wrapping to reveal a compact kit which he eagerly opens.
"A calligraphy set!" He takes out each of the components - the small well of good quality ink, the bamboo-handle brush, and the crisp stack of white paper tags in a bundle, which he thumbs through like you might a wad of bills. "Wow, sick! This is really nice. I was running out of this stuff."
"Could have fooled me. I'm still washing glitter out of my uniforms."
"Pink is a nice color on you," Iruka teases, but then he looks up with a wide smile. "Thank you for this. I like it."
"Congratulations on your promotion, Iruka. Though, I do have to warn you. As a chuunin, your antics will probably be tolerated much less from now on."
Iruka rolls his eyes again and scoffs.
"C'mon, I haven't pulled a prank on anyone besides you in a while."
"Uh-huh... or snuck out of the village?"
Iruka gapes, jaw dropping to his chin and face going beet red. He sets down his gift so his hands are free to instead smack Kakashi on the arm.
"You nosy ANBU creep!" He yells. "How do you know about that? Who did you tell?"
"No one," Kakashi says with faux-innocence, even though it's true. "Your secret is safe with me."
"Did you follow me?"
Kakashi shrugs.
"Only the second time."
"Oh my gosh, I hate you," Iruka says in dismay. "I can't have anything, you're such a goody two-shoes."
"I should have reported you for sneaking yourself and someone else out of the village, but I didn't." Iruka's face manages to get that much redder. "Because I know you're all bark and you don't actually mean any harm. You're welcome, you can thank me later."
Iruka huffs and his blush slowly fades as he turns and busies himself by fixing his dinner. Kakashi always declines, so Iruka stopped asking if he'd like to share, and doesn't - or maybe this time it's because he's a little angry.
"Yeah, well, you don't gotta worry about that anymore anyway." He sits down at the island and props his chin in one hand, angrily popping dumplings into his mouth with his chopsticks. "Now I'm a chuunin, I can leave the village if I damn well feel like it."
"Sure." Kakashi leans against the counter and crosses his arms. "And maybe now you know better than to pick from a founding clan."
"The Hyuuga aren't a founding clan, they just act like it," Iruka immediately retorts, but snaps his mouth closed when he realizes he said more than he meant to. "Oh, you're so nosy, Kakashi. Why do you always have to be in my business? I don't need your commentary on my dating life."
"Not much of one, apparently," Kakashi taunts. Iruka picks up a napkin from the takeout bag and crumples it into a ball to throw at him.
"Get outta my house."
Kakashi decides to relent, thinking maybe he teased just a little too hard.
"Hey," he says more sincerely. Iruka looks up, preparing another napkin projectile until Kakashi continues. "You can do better than that guy anyway."
Iruka frowns slightly, but another, slighter blush touches his cheeks. Kakashi takes this as his cue to leave for the evening. Iruka speaks to his receding back.
"Thanks for the tags. I'll be sure not to cause too much trouble with them."
"And I look forward to not having to deal with it," Kakashi says. And with that he leaves the way he came, catching the tail end of Iruka's grin as he leaps off the balcony and onto the rooftops.
True to his word, Iruka's now-rare pranks and troublemaking continue to taper off into a negligible amount over the next year. Kakashi hears nothing of any glitter bombs or paintball fiasco's, as it seems Iruka stays relatively busy taking missions and slowly building up his number of C-ranks, with the occasional B-rank every so often. Kakashi, meanwhile, stays busy in ANBU. As much as he might lament guard duty, it really is the easiest part of his job on any given day, and he spends long spans of time out of the village entirely. Usually he's given solo missions, sometimes taking him weeks away from Konoha's gates. The village is just a little different every time he comes back, noticeable in ways only someone with a neurotic penchant for observation might even see.
Occasionally he gets a break from his ANBU duties and instead he takes normal A-rank missions with a team. On one such occasion he's surprised to see Iruka among the others waiting impatiently for him at the gate to leave. He hadn't bothered to check the roster. Usually when a jounin gets put on a mission like this with such green chuunin, it's because they need help, not the other way around. Probably one of them is going for promotion, and needs to fill out their list of B and A rank missions. As such Kakashi is in charge on seniority alone, and lets the others take the front so he can hang back and see how they do. He's especially curious about Iruka. It's been more than a year that he's been a chuunin now, and they've never been on a mission together. Kakashi's familiarity with Iruka's specific skill set is limited to childish pranks, intricate though they might have always been.
But he shouldn't be surprised that the mission goes so terribly sideways.
He's separated from the group on the return trip and there is a too-obvious tail following him as he catches up with the others, an enemy seriously outranked even if Kakashi's current group is a bunch of relatively new chuunin. After a mile of this very sloppy attempt at subterfuge from the enemy he forces a confrontation, concealing his chakra to hide in wait for them to pass right below him where he can easily strike. He readies a weapon, thinking that this is concerningly easy, and the moment the enemy breaks through the underbrush he understands why. His kunai sails between the trees, and sinks directly into the throat of a child.
No, an Iwa genin, the red headband clear around their arm, and god only knows what the hell they're doing so far removed from their own country to be halfway to Konoha. Kakashi's hit is direct and slices clean through the spinal cord. They keel over midstep, unmoving. With any luck they didn't even suffer. He stands overtop of the corpse for several tense moments, deciding on what to do. It shouldn't matter that this shinobi was just a child. He'd been a child at some point too, and any one of the enemies he encountered during the war or any mission before or after it would have taken every available opportunity to do the same to him. Many had tried, after all, though none had succeeded. In less fortunate circumstances, if Kakashi wasn't as skilled as he was even at ten years old, this could have been him. Yet another nameless soldier thrown to the trenches simply because they strived to prove their place in the world and didn't even realize how big it was.
With a sigh of defeat he collects the small body into a storage scroll, and tucks it safely away in his vest. The very least he can do is not leave it here to rot. It takes another few miles for him to catch up to the rest of his squad, and the first person he finds is Iruka. Iruka is between two trees, hunched forward with a bracing hand against a branch to keep him upright, and his arm is coated in blood. Kakashi immediately assumes he's hurt, and quickly lands next to him and begins to pull out his med-kit. Iruka startles violently when Kakashi touches him, jerking his hand back in alarm until he realizes who stands in front of him and that it isn't an enemy.
"Are you injured?" Kakashi asks. He can't tell where the blood is from, there's no obvious wounds on Iruka's person. His clothes aren't torn and it doesn't seem like he was even in a fight. His inhales heave in his chest as he fights for control of himself, though for what Kakashi doesn't understand, because as far as he can tell nothing has happened. But then he spares a glance around, and he sees over Iruka's shoulder at the clearing a few feet behind him. Where another too-small body lays dead on the ground.
"What the fuck are they doing here?" Iruka asks in disbelief, speaking through a shaking breath. "Oh my god, I- Kakashi, that's- I just killed a child, I can't-"
Kakashi puts a hand on his arm and leads him a few steps away from the clearing, but Iruka doesn't make it more than ten feet before he has to stop to empty his stomach. Kakashi kneels down and puts a hand on his back.
"You have to get it together." He hates to be harsh, because honest-to-god he understands Iruka's distress, but they really can't let sentiment be the reason they create an opportunity for any Konoha shinobi to be injured, and the others are still unaccounted for. "Where is the rest of the team?"
Iruka struggles to compose himself, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and pressing a hand to his chest. He takes shallow breaths in and out, and tears gather against his lashes when he closes his eyes. Kakashi takes his arm again and tries to speak quietly, but it's hard to keep the urgency out of his tone.
"Iruka," he insists. "Your team. We need to find them."
"I know, I know." Iruka takes a deep inhale, swipes at his face, and stands. Kakashi lets him go. "They're a- they're behind us, at the rendezvous."
Kakashi pauses, and he makes a decision.
"Stay here," he says. Iruka doesn't even question the order, he simply nods and stands still as Kakashi goes and collects the second body, adding it to another scroll to take with him. Then he comes back, and Iruka silently follows him to the rendezvous. Kakashi can hear him just a few paces behind, the hitch in his breath too obvious as he quietly cries, but Kakashi allows him his privacy, and says nothing.
They stop that night, still a few hours outside of Konoha. Only Kakashi and Iruka faced any enemy resistance, and if there's another Iwa genin or squad leader somewhere, they are hopefully smart enough to stay far away from here. Kakashi excuses himself to take the corpses somewhere discreet to burn them, but Iruka seems to know what he intends to do. He catches Kakashi's arm as he exits their small encampment, and holds out a hand.
"Let me."
Kakashi doesn't have it in him to argue. He gives over the scrolls, and with a nod to the others, he follows Iruka further into the woods.
They run until they find the edge of the forest, the trees opening up to grasslands dotted with rocks surrounding a wide, slow stream. Iruka picks one of the largest boulders, and before he does anything else, he claps his hands together and he erects an enormous barrier that Kakashi can only see because he uncovers his sharingan to watch. He's not sure what it does, but it's probably to cover light and sound, to hide them from the night. This would be stupid otherwise, and Iruka is many things, but he's not an idiot. Then he unfurls both scrolls, and summons their contents. He carefully lays out the two bodies on the stone, and he takes their headbands to set them aside as if to make it obvious what happened if someone were to stumble upon this scene later.
"They're not going to care," Kakashi says. Shinobi don't collect the bodies or possessions of comrades fallen on missions, not unless they're of someone important. And these two kids... if they were that important, they wouldn't have been here.
"I care," Iruka counters harshly. Kakashi falls silent after that. He gives Iruka space as he recites a very short prayer, not even ten words, and then he stands and backs away from the stone.
The fireball he casts is large and encompassing. Kakashi can feel the blazing heat of it from a distance as it quickly engulfs the two small corpses, the chakra-powered flames taking no time at all to burn them to ash. Kakashi has never gotten over how horrible the acrid smell of burning flesh is. Iruka stands and watches the remains smolder for a long time.
"I'm sure you think I'm a soft-hearted fool for this." Iruka speaks quietly, unsure of himself, like he's embarrassed or ashamed to admit it. Kakashi doesn't think anything like that at all. He could say plenty about what his opinion of Iruka is, but it's not what's important right now.
"Don't care about my opinion," he says pointedly. Because regardless of what it is, it doesn't matter. "Or anyone else's. Stick to your own principles, Iruka."
Iruka crosses his arms in front of his chest and takes a deep breath, and he doesn't say another word the rest of the mission.
Kakashi finds he's not too surprised to hear that Iruka requests to be removed from active field work. Instead he wants to teach. Kakashi has always known him to be patient and caring for children, even before now, and considers it a good fit for him. He decides to give Iruka some space, after that. But the space doesn't last long - again Kakashi is on patrol around the wall on one of his 'off' days, and he sees a familiar silhouette heading towards the gate.
But this time Iruka doesn't sneak his way out. He strides past the gate like he's got somewhere to be, even though it's the middle of the night, and he walks instead of leaping through the trees. Kakashi almost leaves him be, but his curiosity gets the better of him, and because he still has four more hours on patrol and time to kill he follows Iruka through the woods. Eventually Iruka gives up on foot travel and runs across the branches instead, and he continues like this for several miles without checking his direction as if he knows exactly where he's going. Kakashi is surprised to see their destination is the dilapidated building outside the village, because as far as he knows Iruka hasn't come here in a while, or at least had no reason to do so. But Iruka approaches the building, and as he does so and he gets within spitting distance of the small pond, he abruptly stops. Kakashi pauses in the branch where he's perched, and is not prepared for Iruka to turn around and single him out so easily.
"Come down from there," he chides, like Kakashi is one of the children he used to watch at the orphanage, climbing on something they shouldn't. Kakashi leaps down and lands at the base of the tree, non-chalantly tucking his hands in his pocket.
"Maa, you caught me," he says. Iruka rolls his eyes and turns back around to face the water. "How'd you know I was up there?"
"I put wards around the building," Iruka answers. "I'm surprised you didn't see them."
"I wasn't looking," Kakashi admits. "I didn't realize you still hang out at this place. Aren't you a little old to have a secret hideout?"
Iruka shrugs, and he crouches down at the edge of the water, dipping his hand in just like he used to do as a kid. It's been a while since he was that young. He turned eighteen just a month prior.
"I like it here," he says. "It's peaceful. Secluded. Not many people know about it. Present company notwithstanding."
"Guilty."
Kakashi gazes out over the water, at the small ripples that Iruka's hand creates in the still surface. There's enough of a gap in the canopy overhead that the sky and the stars are visible, and on all sides they're surrounded by the sounds of the night creatures, crickets and owls mostly, and the soft crunch of leaves and twigs as a deer cautiously steps through the underbrush every so often. It's definitely peaceful. Kakashi can agree with that.
"How's teaching going?" He decides to ask.
"Good." Iruka sounds only marginally more cheerful when he replies. "But hectic. Keeps me busy, but I like it. I love kids, I love working with them. I like to think I'll be able to make a difference in their career as shinobi. At least I hope so."
"I have faith," Kakashi says honestly. Iruka stands and regards him with a curious expression.
"How come you followed me?" He asks.
"Curiosity."
"Nosy, more like," Iruka scoffs. "I could have been meeting someone."
"Weren't though. You'll be too busy, anyway."
"To date?" Iruka asks incredulously. "Oh, I take it that's your excuse?"
"You don't know anything about my love life."
"Sorry, does one exist?" Iruka mocks. "You do a lot of circulating in the rumor mill, but it's never about you being taken."
"We're getting vastly off topic here."
"You started it!"
"Alright, then I'll finish it," Kakashi says. "I leave you to whatever you get up to out here in the woods. But just so you know, sensei's have strict rules against fraternization. You teach a lot of potential future clan heads right now."
Iruka puts his fist on his hips and goes slightly red in the face but he's fighting a begrudging smile. Kakashi is pleased that his sour mood has been chased away even a little.
"Mind your own business, for once in your damn life," he says. So Kakashi obliges, and he leaps back into the trees.