Suspicion of the dolphin

Iruka gasped for breath as he shoot thought the door of his apartment and locked it tightly behind himself. He leaned against it gasping for breath as he felt pain traveling on the side of his neck, signaling the first stage of the change. Iruka cursed everything in his mind, all from his ancestors to the current Hokage as he slid down the door, the sound of rain splashing heavily outside. Iruka glared at the now wet window, his eyes leaking 'its all the rains fault' He cried out mentally. If it hadn't been for the rain he wouldn't have had to run so fast, leaving Genma and Raidou confused and suspicious.

Iruka thumped his head against the door in despair, he hadn't even known about the rain coming or he would have been sure to stay inside or at least not agree to go out with Genma and Raidou for a drink. He groaned softly as he thumped his head a little to hard on the door and moved from his spot on the floor, slumping down on the couch, waiting for the transforming to be complete its first stage.

'Every freaking time' He fumed to himself as he stared at the window but then he sighed and moved to stare at the ceiling, his eyes misty as his mind traveled back to the time he found out about his….power.

Flashback no jutsu!

Five year old Iruka was playing happily along the river, not far from where his parents where setting up a blanket for a picnic. They had arrived at Konoha about five months earlier when the upraise against the bloodlimits in Mist had started. The Umino line had a bloodlimit but it had been dormant for years and only seemed to appear in females… of course that could have something with what the bloodlimit was.

Iruka was happily unaware of this as he jumped around by the river, giggling happily as he played. His parents smiled softly at seeing the small boy so happy and carefree, not as it had been the few last months in Mist as the tension rose among all.

Iruka's parents where grateful that they at least had escaped the destiny that so many of the other bloodlimit bearers from Mist had been dealt. They both shook the depressing thought from their mind and concentrated on their current life's…their happy lives. Iruka suddenly lost balance as he was playing and everything seemed to go in slow motion as he fell towards the river, and he just fell and fell until a splash sounded thought the clearing.

Iruka sat dumbfounded in the stream as his parents notice where he was and started to chuckle at the look on Iruka's face "oh dear…what are you doing" his mother called out, laughter oozing from her voice, Iruka just giggled and played around with the water. His parents shook his head smiling as they could easily change on the boy and he seemed so happy in the water, so they let him be where he was.

Iruka giggled more and splashed his hands around, his slightly chubby and awkward hands making the water fly high in the air before falling down like droplets from a rain cloud. Then the tingling came, making Iruka shiver and go quiet. The tingling turned into small waves of pain, as when you fall and scrape up your knee. But from there it started to hurt more. Iruka whimpered and started to shake harder. His whimpers alerted his parents to his distress and they quickly rushed over to see what was wrong with their little son.

But as they approached a glint of light went of, blinding them thoroughly before pulling back. His parents blinked the light out of their eyes before staring at their child, their child who was showing the biggest sign of the Umino line…

Flashback Kai

Iruka sighed as he remembered his first change…his first change into a merman, the bloodlimit of the Umino's. And of course he was the first male ever to have the bloodlimit but it had consequences for him, like every time he got wet he would turn and how wet he got determined how far the change would go. Iruka hated it. He hated the fact that when it was raining he had to use a hakta shield to avoid getting wet, that he couldn't go with the children to the lake for swimming. He hated that he almost never went on missions because the danger of getting wet and helpless on land was always the risk…and Iruka could not be risked.

He was too deep in the secrets of Konoha as he had the Sandaime's favor and trust; he daily handle documents that most ANUB ninja don't even know exist. No…he could not be risked and the Sandaime knew it and acted accordantly. Iruka may only be a chuunin but he was as important as Ibiki Morino if not even more because of the sensitive files that Iruka handled and so the old Hokage had gotten him the one job that all ninja hated…desk job…the fear of every sane or insane ninja.

Iruka snorted to himself at the thought of the hokage himself fidgeting against small paper men that in the end won over the powerful man. But his mood rose slightly at the thought as he rolled himself onto his stomach on the couch and pulled out the hair tie to let his hair flow freely, covering up the gills on his neck that had formed. Iruka made a face 'at least I'm not blue…now that would be bad'

Miles away

"A-A-ACHOO!" Kisame sneezed loudly in the clearing he and Itachi was resting in. He rubbed his nose with a deep frown as Itachi raised an eyebrow at his shark looking partner"….something wrong Kisame?" Kisame growled softly and shifted the sword on his back" I don't know….I think someone was mocking me or at least thinking something not so nice about me" Itachi smirked slowly" its not so difficult….fish breath". Kisame twitched and roared"YOUR GONNA DIE!!"

Back in Konoha

Iruka smiled drowsily to himself at the thought of him being blue, "blue like a berry" he muttered and buried deeper into the couch, yawning softly. It didn't take long for Iruka to fall asleep where he was, forgetting to remove either sandals or his vest as he was content to sleep on the couch. He never heard the quiet picking of the lock nor the click when the lock opened. He never heard the door slide open or two pars of feet's quietly and quickly walking into his small apartment.

"…this doesn't really look like grading papers to me" one of them whispered wile moving a senbon from one side of his mouth to the other. The other shrugged and quietly padded through the room to find a blanket to cover the sleeping man. Genma sighed and stared at Iruka, waiting for Raidou to return, "What are you hiding Iru-chan?" he muttered as he gently tucked a lock of hair away from the brunettes face.

Raidou soon returned with a spare blanket he found and covered up Iruka's sleeping form to keep him from getting cold and sick. None of the two jounin's noticed the gills on Iruka's neck as they started to disappear into the tan skin.

………………………………...

The next day came warm and sunny as if to make up for the rainy afternoon and night from last day. Iruka moaned softly as he tried to avoid the sunbeams shining on his face but it was to no avail as his dazed chocolate eyes slowly opened. But they quickly slammed shut as the sun was sharp coming in from the living room window and Iruka pulled the blanket over his head to hide from the brightness…wait….blanket?!

Iruka's eyes flew up as he sat up, staring at the piece of fabric that had kept him warm all night 'okaaay…I KNOW I did not get a blanket last night…so how…' his eyes narrowed as he looked around for anything suspicious. He sighed in relief as he found no one there or anything out of order, his eyes fell on the clock hanging on his wall. His eyes widened and he gave a muffled whimper before shooting up from the couch "I'M LATE!!" his yell tore through the apartment as he fumbled around, trying to not fall as he quickly found clean clothes and his paper. He was grateful that he didn't have the academy today as he surly would have missed the whole day there.

Iruka jumped out one of the window, landing neatly on the roof beside before taking off quickly towards the mission room. It took him less then five minutes to reach the doors of the mission room as he jumped the roofs to avoid meeting anyone. He walked through the halls with his head bent down, trying not to catch anyone's eyes as he hurried to his desk.

The minute he stepped into the main room someone called out to him and that someone was a dead person Iruka decided as all the ninjas in the mission room moved there attention to him "IRUKA! Finally, I didn't think you show" Genma smirked across the room. Iruka gave him a withering glare before hurrying over to his desk and sitting down, all the ninja's eyes still on him…wait…why where they gawking at him?

Genma, grinning like a Cheshire cat, leaned from his seat beside Iruka and reached over to him " you should wear your hair down more often Iruka" he drawled slowly as he twirled some of Iruka's dark hair around his finger. "You look good with it down" the senbon chewing man smirked at the shell shocked face of Iruka, even as a tan hand flew to the lose hair.

Iruka swallowed heavily as he felt the lose strands he forgot to tie up when he left his apartment, "o-oh!" Genma snickered as a heavy flush crawled its way up Iruka's neck and onto his cheeks "forgot your hair tie eh?" he lent back into his seat as he moved the senbon around, watching Iruka as he began fumbling around in his pocket for a spare one "y-yeah…I overslept and had to hurry".

Iruka held his head bowed as he searched through everywhere he could have put anyone of his hair ties but he had none. He bowed his head a few notch lower as he knew that they where STILL staring at him, "Iruka! Why will wonders never stop! You hair is actually not tied up!" Iruka groaned inside of his head at the loud voice. Anko… crazy Anko who used to and still did tease Iruka until he almost blew. "Anko-san" he greeted with a nod. Anko grinned as she leaned her palms on his desk and moved close to him, his face moving backwards as her got closer, his eyes going wide as the oh so hated blush crawled deeper over his face. "You know…" her voice was sultry as she gazed at him with lidded eyes, "You are very cute like that…you would make a fine uke" she grinned.

Iruka sputtered even as he dug his back into the chair he was sitting in, trying to make more distance from the female ninja. Anko laughed, "Aw relax Iruka-sensei…your not my kind of man" she grinned and dropped something on his desk. A hair tie! Oh how he could have kissed her at the moment. He muttered a quick thanks as he did up his hair in that old familiar ponytail, as he did there was a few groans of disappointment that made his cheeks colour in a different shade of red 'gods…if I blush more now there wont be any blood left in my body!'

Iruka quickly set out on the papers left on his desk, trying to get them done fast but properly and for a little while he managed to do that even with some of the ninja's in the room still staring at him. But in the end his concentration was lost as a lone finger traced his neck. He did the only reasonable thing…he yelped and fell of his chair like a damn idiot as he stared up at the person who had touched him. Genma. A Genma who was staring down at him with dumbfounded eyes, but soon his eyebrows started to twitch and he laughed, along with the rest of the ninja's "damn your jumpy Iruka" he chortled as Iruka got into his seat again, the red now a permanent colour of his face.

Genma lent back in his chair observing Iruka for a few seconds before speaking up. "But I was just wondering about that slit on your neck…hit yourself or something?" Iruka stiffened at Genma's words and before he could stop himself, he found his hand snapping up to his neck and clamping down on its side, confirming his worst fear. Some of the gills were still there. Genma was watching him the whole time as this happened, along with few of the others "o-oh well I guess I must have fallen" Iruka gave Genma a strained smile before burrowing down in his papers, trying to ignore Genma's intense stare on him…and his neck.

Iruka cursed inside himself as he shifted through his work, trying to keep his calm and stop his hands from shaking to much as more and more nerves kept popping up. He should have remembered that it took time for it to completely disappear, should have remembered to hide it in some way like so many times before, no one would have question if he covered it with a scarf or something. And then there was the fact that Genma touched it…oh Iruka hoped that Genma had not felt how different it was from a normal wound.

Genma who had kept his eyes discreetly on Iruka the whole time noted how tense he was. He now knew something was up with the younger chuunin and it had something with the slit on his neck to do. Genma's eyes suddenly narrowed as he took a closer look. Was it just him or…did the thing just move before becoming smaller? Genma shook his head as if to clear his vision but it was still smaller then before. What could this mean? Genma was handed a mission report that he quickly looked over, thinking all the way 'Iru…I'm going to figure out those secrets of yours…count on it'.

Iruka suddenly felt a shiver running up his back as dread settled in his stomach, making it flop unpleasantly 'I got a bad feeling…'he rose his eyes to the left side of him and clashed with Genma's dark, thoughtful eyes, sending a jolt of emotions thought his body. The main one…fear '…I'm screwed' was all that came to him as he couldn't move his gaze. Vulnerable, uneasy chocolate eyes meet with thoughtful, captivating eyes as the two stared at each other both with the same thought running over in there heads 'let the game begin'