Title: Secret Lives
Author: SirenM
Genre: Angst, romance? Not sure yet. Spoilers: I can't remember which chapter... it's after finding Tsunade but before Sasuke leaves Konoha.Warning: YAOI KakaIru, (Male)OCIru and possibly more...
Summary: In an A mission, Kakashi, Genma, Gai and Raidou is sent to protect a young lord. In the process, they meet a young male courtesan with long dark hair and a constant veil on his face. More suspicious than curious, they find out that the young lord's companion is more than he seems. In more ways than they've had possibly ever thought.
CHAPTER ONE - Mission
Kakashi, Gai Genma and Raidou were gathered at Hokage's office at three in afternoon. Originally, the briefing was supposed to be at one but...
Tsunade glared at the perpetually late Kakashi, who looked sleepy and totally unrepentant.
"Uh, Hokage-sama," Kotetsu interrupted the glaring fest hesitantly.
"What!?" Tsunade snapped impatiently. What do I have to do here to get a little respect!?
"Can we get to the briefing?" Izumo asked disinterestedly as Kotetsu quailed at the look the 6th Hokage was shooting him.
"Yeah, yeah," Tsunade snapped, and then begin mumbling to herself something about the lack of respect from subordinates.
Izumo bravely ignored her, opening his files. Then he started.
"You are aware that the south Daimyo has been killed a month ago?"
The four of them nodded, taking the files that Kotetsu was handing them.
"His nephew Kitamoto Shouryu is the one succeeding him now." Tsunade continued from where Izumo ended.
The four nodded again. This news had already circulated around the village less than a week after the Lord's death. It has already been a month now, everyone in the whole damn country would have known something like that by now.
"Well, the new Lord will be here to negotiate with about our..." Tsunade coughed "...agreements and uh... sponsorships..."
Some of them raised their eyebrows at the choice of words but Tsunade couldn't care less. She wasn't born or trained for diplomacy. The Rokudaime gestured for Izumo to continue.
"This is an A-class mission," bandanna-ed Chuunin explained, "Your main purpose is to protect the young Daimyo that will be here until the negotiations are done."
"We've gotten news that apparently there've been assassination attempts on the boy's life," Tsunade continued, "So your job is to ensure that he doesn't even get a scratch while he's on our turf."
The four of them nodded again.
"Your mission will start in two days when the Daimyo arrive then," Tsunade delivered, "Good Luck."
Again, like puppets strung on the same string, the four of them nodded. There simply wasn't anything for them to say. The mission instructions were simple enough and it seemed like overkill for the four of them to be in this A-mission. Or so they thought.
"Hokage-sama, do you really think it's really such a good idea for them to be there?"
Tsunade looked at the messenger and sighed.
"I really have no choice," she explained, "It will seem very suspicious if I don't arrange for the protection of the Daimyo."
"But Iruka-"
"I know," she interrupted, "And I also know that it may not be such a good idea for choosing these Jounins but if I settle for anything less it WILL be very suspicious. Not only to the person sending the assassins, but also to our own Shinobis. This is a very dangerous position to be in for Iruka but if I don't do this, he'll be under suspicion. And he can't."
"Maybe if you pull him out of his mission..."
"I can't." Tsunade intercepted, resolve apparent in her tone of voice and expression. "He's too important for this mission."
"But if the others find out..."
"Then you'll have to warn him first," the Rokudaime instructed him, "so that he'll be ready. I have total confidence that he'll able to take care of this. He has before."
The Shinobi kneeling in front of her nodded but he looked extremely worried.
"Tell him good luck for me."
Iruka closed his eyes and counted from 1 to 10 over and over again. He tried to quail his urge to scream in boredom and frustration. For almost four hours, he had been sitting in the chair, staring at the same mirror reflection since he woke up at 4 this morning.
The women tittered and giggled as they pulled at his hair. They've been doing that for the past two hours. If they don't finish soon, he was going to go insane.This is the reason why he never got married till now. Not for the lack of trying or for the lack of suitable candidates... Ok, maybe that too. It's just that...
Women are scary... he thought to himself. Finally, he opened his eyes, glaring at the image that greeted.
Who are you...?
The door to the chamber opened, and a handsome young man in royal blue silk robes strode in. He surveyed the women that were trying to outdo each other in an attempt to so-called beautify his companion and sighed defeatedly.
"Ladies, if you'd kindly stop torturing Miyuki-san," the young man said to the women.
"Mou," one of the girls with long blonde hair protested indignantly, "We are just trying to make Miyuki-san look better."
"He looks better that way he was," the young man whispered to himself, eyes shifting to the side to avoid their glares. Then, he conceded, "Honestly, all of you did very well. Miyuki looks very beautiful."
The said person blushed and looked down shyly. The girls giggled at the antics.
"Just like he always does," the young Daimyo, Kitamoto Shouryu continued, deadpanned. He ignored the looks the women were shooting him and offered a hand to his companion.
Miyuki took his hand and gracefully stood up from his seat, smiling gently at the other young man.
"Now, if you'd please excuse us," Shouryu said.
"But we haven't finished-"
"We'll see you ladies later, thank you for your assistance," the young Daimyo said, disregarding the way the young women pouted at the lack of gratefulness from their young lord.
Hand in hand with his traveling companion, he quickly left the room. He sighed in relief the moment he stepped out of the room. Miyuki looked at him enquiringly, head tilted to the left adorably. For a moment, Shouryu wondered at the amazing patience that this person had for those resilient and persistently annoying women in the chamber.
"Is something wrong, Daimyo-sama," the soft voice interrupted his daze.
"Ah, no. Sorry," the young lord blushed at having been caught staring. He didn't know why he was acting like a teenage boy with a crush but he had the feeling that Miyuki-san had that type of influence on people. The women couldn't stop blushing and stammering whenever he was around. And he had seen servant boys tripping over their feet and breaking things whenever the long haired lad so much as smiled at them. It has only been a few weeks but all the occupants in the manor seemed to have already developed affection for the young man.
The long haired young man didn't say anything about his awkwardness as they continued down the hallway towards the main door.
He's too polite for that, Shouryu thought to himself. Refined, educated, charming, intelligent, resourceful, not to mention beautiful...
Miyuki smiled at him. Shouryu returned his smile, a blush colouring his cheeks again as his heart accelerated.
Something flitted out of the corner of Iruka's eyes.
"Ah!"
"Is something wrong?" Shouryu asked, turning to look at him.
"I left my fan in the bed chamber," Iruka replied without hesitation, "It'll just take a while. I'll meet you in the hall?"
"Alright," the green eyed young lord kissed his hand and let it slip out of his grip. He didn't move until Iruka disappeared behind a corner.
Iruka uncharacteristically cursed. He cursed the seven hells, all human beings on earth, the jounins, his life and most of all, Godaime. He begin to pace around the room, thinking and ranting to himself.
How could she do this to me?!! She knows-!
What am I going to do?!!
They'll know it's me. With Kakashi's Sharingan and all? Not that I was planning on using illusions while I'm in Konoha. I don't really need it but they'll know it's me anyway. Okay, maybe not straight away especially with all this make up and everything. But it's bound to give way. The Daimyo will be in Konoha for about a week or two!
"Iruka-san," the messenger interrupted his cluttered thoughts.
"Yes?" Iruka turned back to the other Shinobi, the one that was always assigned to deliver instructions to him, whether on a mission or in the village. The only one who knew what he truly was.
Iruka snapped his concentration back to the topic at hand.
"When are they getting here?" he asked desperately.
"When the entourage gets to Konoha," the reply.
Iruka made a mental calculation. That means he had up to 36 hours to think of what to do.
"Alright," Iruka forced out, rubbing his temple. "Thank you."
"Good Luck."
Iruka nodded in response distractedly, not noticing the look of sympathy his messenger gave him. The dolphin named Shinobi turned away, striding towards the door. He's taken too long. If he stayed longer, they'll suspect something, the paranoid bastards that they are. Who ever 'they' are.
Iruka frowned. Up until now he still hasn't found out even a hint of who was threatening the life of the young lord. But the problem at hand...
In truth, he had already decided that he would be wearing a veil when he was in Konoha. But he had counted on being in the manor with the Lord and investigating when the Daimyo is in meetings (because there'll be people protecting him and the Hokage then). But with a team of four jounins following them in and out of the manor... Iruka honestly doesn't know how long he'll last.
"Thanks. I'm going to need lots of it."
"Oi, Kakashi, you're late again," Genma grumbled through his straw. The three jounins was waiting in the elaborate hall of the temporary Konoha manor of the new Daimyo when the Copy Cat Sharingan Kakashi appeared out of nowhere. Three hours late.
"Ah, sorry. There was this old lady that asked me for help to save her stranded daughter from a tree," the silver haired Jounin said nonchalantly.
Raidou and Genma rolled their eyes in disbelief. Gai's eyes sparkled and burned.
"Ah! That's my rival!" Gai proclaimed to Kakashi's unimpressed covered face. "Such excuse! Such style! Such creativity-"
"So, where is he?" Kakashi interrupted. Genma smirked smugly at the annoyed tone.
"They're inside," Raidou replied, pointing into one of the wide doors.
"They?" Kakashi asked, with a raised brow. At least, that was what can be seen from his perpetual masked face.
"The Daimyo and his companion," Genma replied this time with a further tilt to his usual smirk.
"Oh?"
A nod from the perpetually straw-chewing Jounin.
"Pretty?" came the question after a short pause.
"Wouldn't know," Raidou said quickly while Genma gave a shrug. Gai exploded homily.
"Ah, the spring of youth," the bowl-cut haired man spouted, "So vibrant, so-"
"The daimyo is older than you, Gai," Kakashi said after wincing unnoticeably. Gai and his speeches. "Hardly youthful."
"Or old," Raidou shot back playfully.
"Shh," Genma hissed at them. They turned to the door moments before it opened.
Tsuzuku...
Let it be said that Gai is exhausting. I don't know how to write him. Iruka is, simply put, a piece of cake because 1) I like him (not that I don't like Gai but... he's... just too unique to hate of love) and 2) Iruka's too much like me. I kinda react the same way to my students (when I was still teaching and they were in some stupid trouble) as Iruka did to Naruto. For example, I was screaming my lungs out when one of them nearly drown because he thought it was a freaking good idea to swim alone in the middle of the night without supervision. Stupid brat. Cuffed him good and hard too.
Anyway, I'm digressing again.
At first, I wasn't thinking about continuing this story but the Hong Kong made tv series entitled 'Better Halves' had given me some good ideas. If you know what it's about, then you'll know where the ideas for some of the parts come from.
Also, if you think the conversation between the jounins were sleazy. Trust me, I think so too. I'm not too familiar with what guys talk about when referring to women but I kinda have a feeling that it might be something like this.
The whole plan for this fic is not formed yet but for some reason I have more mood to write than Of Sea and Land. Sumimasen... I think I'm suffering from writer's block (you'd think that it shouldn't be a problem when everything's already planned there, damnit). TT.TT Gomen Nasai, I guess you guys will have to wait a little while. Small voice... don't lynch me...
p.s. a little note when the topic of the Daimyo's age came out, he is actually older than Gai because he is 28. Is Gai 26, right? If I'm wrong, tell me. And the referral to the part where Tsunade refers him as a boy is because she's older than him, she has the right to.