Author's Notes

- Thanks so much to everyone who read Tolerant Intolerance!!!

- If anyone is interested in Genma and Raidou's situations, they each have their own little pieces. You can go to my profile page to find them, the titles start with Boku no...

- This will be a series of short pieces that tie into the Tolerant Intolerance stories. Mostly the plot bunnies. I mentioned a lot of life altering events without explaining any of them, so now I am :) Plus, this helps me vent during my thesis classes.

- Please enjoy!!! Hopefully...

Story Notes

- Takes place shortly after the events in Comfort After the Fact, Chapter 4 of TI. Like maybe a few weeks later.

- This was prompted by 1) I love scars and the stories behind them, 2) Kakashi mentions the first scar in Comfort After the Fact while he's consoling Iruka in the bath. I thought that would be a good start.

Warnings: Coarse language, shounen-ai, some sad stuff, etc.

Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Along the Way: Scars

" How did you get this here?"

" Uh, that was a close call during shuriken practice. It was my first semester of student teaching. "

Kakashi ran a finger along the thin mark on the back of his lover's neck, just below the dark hairline. The tan skin was warm against him and smelled of vanilla and cinnamon and the light musk that accompanied every warm body. The jounin couldn't detect any lingering scent of their passionate night together; when they woke up that morning Iruka insisted they take a shower and made Kakashi wait while he changed the sheets before letting the older man pull him back into bed. They had been dozing and touching and talking for several hours.

Midmorning sunshine poured through the cracks between the blinds, giving more than enough light to see the muscular bodies lazing in bed. I'm going to request more Sundays off from now on. Maybe every Sunday. Kakashi smirked at his wish, knowing too well that long missions were inescapable and he would eventually have to spend his Sundays in less pleasant surroundings. But for now..." What about this one here?"

" Uhm, what does it look like?" Iruka actually twisted his head around in an attempt to see the bottom of his shoulder blade.

The jounin pecked him on the nose and pushed him back onto his stomach on the soft sheets. " Right here," He traced the thin curved line with a calloused fingertip. " , it's clean with a hook at the top of it and it gets slightly thicker at the other end. Like a cut and a burn. What would do that?"

" Oh, that's two scars. I got hit twice in the same spot." The brunette mumbled into his pillow.

" That's not a good spot to get hit. Much less repeatedly." Not that anywhere is a good place to be hit. Kakashi continued to run his fingers up and down the length of raised flesh.

" No spot is a " good" spot, 'Kashi."

" Whatever. So, how did this happen?"

" The first cut is a training injury I got when I was a genin. I stepped into Hayate's swipe and he got me with a kunai. He couldn't apologize enough. It was weeks before I could get him to spar with me again." Iruka's voice softened quite a bit when he spoke the deceased's name. Kakashi noticed it, but decided to leave his questions on that matter for another Sunday. He didn't use quite the same tone when he continued." The burn is from a heated kunai when I was eighteen that just happened to catch me in the same place."

Kakashi's inner shinobi envisioned the blades' trajectory and movement, how the specific marks had been carved into the tan flesh. His more sensitive side flinched at the pain that had been caused. " Was that from a mission?"

The body beside him stiffened. " No. I got that from Mizuki. He was...unpredictable. "

Mizuki? You mean...Kakashi swallowed the fury that immediately flared at the man's name and only increased when he realized that this mark had been gained during the chuunin's ' relationship' with the silver haired traitor. Iruka let that bastard hurt him, most likely in an effort to keep him from injuring Naruto, or worse, Iruka was trying to handle him gently and got this for his troubles. The pale man moved on, fingers stroking across a large patch of puckered flesh in the middle of Iruka's back. " What about this one?"

Iruka stiffened again. " Windmill shuriken."

" Mizuki?"

" Yeah. He meant it for Naruto. "

Just as I thought. Moving on. " This big one here. It looks really old." Kakashi eyed the irregular shape of raised skin, only slightly darker than his normal skin tone. He nearly sighed with relief when Iruka's form relaxed back into the mattress.

There was a hint of laughter in his voice as he spoke. " I fell on a rock when I was nine."

" You fell on a rock?" Kakashi asked, incredulous.

" Unlike the Great Hatake Prodigy, grace was never one of my innate abilities. I had to train to get the cat like reflexes I display now. " Iruka turned his head towards his lover, smile evident beneath the loose strands of dark hair. " Sorry, but even if every scar tells a story, they're not all interesting stories. "

" Fair enough." Kakashi trailed his hands over the athletic body, finding new scars with different origins. A circle of tiny dots below his last rib; cluster of poisoned needles in Grass. A series of small slashes on the back of one thigh; shuriken in Mist. Stab wound on right bicep, slash across left calf, slash across right calf, countless smaller lighter scars; Mizuki. Nick on the underside of one muscular buttock; an undisclosed dare made by Anko when he was twelve. Puncture wound on bottom of right foot; a rusty nail when he was three.

One lengthy line stretched from the base of the first finger on his right hand back across the meat between the index and thumb and ended at his wrist. It was very thin. " Was this a wire injury?" Kakashi knew the chuunin had a passion for wire work and had already found other marks left by the tool of the trade.

" Paper cut. Again, my first semester of student teaching." Iruka chuckled. He rolled over, stretching along the length of the bed, arms arced above his head and fingers entwined. " I've got a lot of scars from that autumn. "

" Teaching shouldn't be that dangerous." Kakashi smirked, his fingers creeping back over the tan body to find more milestones carved in flesh.

" You've never dealt with pre-genin. They are tiny little packages of explosive surprise." Dark eyes squinted in gleeful amusement, then Iruka began to groan appreciatively in response to the pale man's searching touches, moving under Kakashi's hands.

" Feels good? "

" Mmmm, yeah."

Kakashi didn't reply. He smiled softly as his attention was drawn to a dark spot on his lover's left shin. The jounin smoothed over the discoloration a few times.

" Broken leg, bone went all the way through. Bodyguard mission to Lightning. " Iruka's low voice spoke up.

Kakashi didn't speak, letting his fingers ask his questions, Iruka responding easily. Puncture wounds on either side of his left knee; arrow in Lightning. Rope burn around right thigh; one night stand in Grass. Slim crescent shaped mark just below his navel; wire trap during a missing nin ambush. He tickled the sensitive skin of Iruka's belly and delighted in the dolphin's deep throated chuckles.

Pale fingers tip-toed over a well defined chest, focusing on the left pectoral which had a chunk of flesh cut out near the top of the muscle, close to the breastbone. Kakashi pondered its probable causes, his ninja brain providing all sorts of weaponry and angles and attacks. Iruka was still purring under his ministrations, apparently too relaxed to sense the other man's questioning touch. " What's this one from?"

Iruka opened his eyes at the silky voice and stopped purring. His smile lost a little of its brightness as he placed his hand over the scarecrow's and the scar. " Mizuki tried to cut out my heart."

" What?" I didn't just hear that.

" Mizuki." Iruka repeated, gently stroking the pale fingers. " He was angry with me and tried to cut my heart out with a kunai. He said it was only fair since I had broken his. " There was a pause and rueful laughter. " He was always a bit melodramatic."

What the fuck... Kakashi couldn't even give an intelligent response to that bit of information. His imagination was giving him horrific scenarios, each one bloodier than the last until he had to shut his eyes to physically block the mental images. He must have pulled quite an expression, because he felt Iruka's hand slide up his arm and come to rest on the side of his neck.

" Don't think so much about it, 'Kashi love. I don't." The dolphin's thumb began to trace the delicate jaw line.

Kakashi didn't open his eyes, but took Iruka's hand in his own and moved them away from the marred flesh. Leaning down, the jounin pressed his lips to the uneven patch of skin. It was a tender kiss, meaningful and chaste. When Kakashi did reveal the mismatched irises, he only saw his own emotions reflected in the rich sable. " Beloved." The whisper drifted over golden skin. " I promise if you break my heart, I won't have the will to breathe, much less lift a kunai. "

" Kami-sama, don't say shit like that!" Iruka rolled his eyes and playfully slapped his lover on the cheek.

" Oh sensei! Such language!" Kakashi shrieked. He shifted so his lips were on level with Iruka's, hovering a breath above the sligthly opened mouth. " I can think of much more wholesome activities for that pretty mouth of yours."

" Why do I doubt the ' wholesome' part of that statement?" Iruka tried to lift his head, to make contact, but Kakashi pulled away, much to the chuunin's frustration. " I thought you were going to show me ' wholesome' stuff."

" Maybe later." Kakashi moved further away, then swooped in for a brief kiss. " Well, definitely later. Maybe in just a few minutes, but I haven't finished exploring yet. " Lips moved from lips to nose, feather light kisses peppering the line of Iruka's prominent facial scar. " What about this one?" The one that made me stop and take notice. The one that I fell in love with.

" I stumbled into the Forest of Death when I was five. A plant tried to eat me."

" But the Forest of Death has more security measures than even the Hokage Tower."

" Yeah, it does NOW."

Owari...