Epilogue

Mizuki wrinkled his nose against the smell and kept shoveling, the pig nearest to him snorting and nuzzling his face. He groaned and pushed the animal away, trudging out of the pen and over to the water pump. He was washing his face when a shadow fell over him. he glanced up and smiled at the woman who had taken him in a few months ago after he'd showed up on her doorstep with no inclination of who he was.

She was such a nice girl and he'd been happy to work for her in exchange for food and shelter, determined in making Tsubaki more than just his employer one day and he didn't see himself anywhere else.

X_X

Sasuke frowned, seeing the welcome that was waiting for him. A blond boy with shimmering blue eyes was waiting for him on the steps, giving him a wide grin and the new comer couldn't help but smile back and head closer to the castle.

X-X

Iruka was frowning. He was frowning really hard. It was easy to find a Naruto, that had been the easy part. After all when he called 'Sasuke's here!' from Kakashi's room, the blond had went running down the steps and flying out the door in nothing but a pair of undergarments and slippers. The idiot was probably still out there.

Being summer, it really didn't matter but Iruka was still trying to drill a bit of decency into the boy's head.

That wasn't why he was frowning, though. He was frowning because he couldn't find a certain silver-haired man, a silver-haired man who had yet to be informed of his apprentice's arrival from studying abroad. Iruka had scoured the whole mansion and hadn't found a single hair of a clue, moving his search outdoors after a good ten minutes.

He didn't have to walk far along the path in the woods to glance a flash of hair in the distance. Hopping over, Iruka slipped off the path and into the little grass patch where Kakashi was dozed off in, the book he'd been reading lying on his face while his arms were tucked under his head and his ankles were crossed.

For a few moments, the brunet stopped and studied the man, admiring him from a distance before creeping up and kneeling by his head. Snatching the book off the man's head, Iruka quickly bent over and licked his nose, effectively waking him up with a snort and a wrinkle of his nose.

"Mmmh," he wiped his nose and frowned up at his lover, "what was that for?"

The brunet shrugged, "oh, I don't know, because I felt like it maybe or perhaps because your apprentice has arrived."

Even though Kakashi tried to seem unresponsive, Iruka saw the glimmer of delight in his visible eye. "Oh? Really, now?"

Smiling, the younger man nodded and ran his hands through the other man's downy hair, "yup,"

Kakashi hummed and got lost briefly in his thoughts with Iruka still petting his hair. Eyes wandered and the brunet found himself staring at the man's pale, human face, the one that Tsunade had shrugged at and said 'he needed to be king' at. Truthfully, the woman had some debts that had accumulated while she was queen and she said he could pay her back through those debts. Drifting down, he couldn't help but stare at the smooth expanse of strong abdomen that was on display, the man's dress shirt unbuttoned.

As quickly as he had woken up, Kakashi said abruptly, "You know, I had the strangest dream a few moments ago."

"Oh?" the older man sat up and stood, pulling Iruka up to his feet too.

"Yes, I dreamt that, instead of having one king to rule the whole country, there was a whole round table of kings who all took votes to decide the country's fate and each king was the representative of a certain part of the population." Kakashi's eyes drifted off again in thought and Iruka tugged on his sleeve, pulling him towards the path to get him to come back to earth.

"Well, I'm sure that's all fine and dandy and that it would make an interesting book one day but there's a boy waiting to greet you in the dining room," the older man sighed and gave Iruka an exasperated look as he wound his arm around the other man's waist.

"Can you be a little serious with me now, Ru," Kakashi pleaded, stopping them on the path and putting on his hurt face that made Iruka frown. "Imagine how this could change us, the world,"

"Kakashi, you know I hate politics because I don't understand it," the silver-haired man frowned as well and sighed, making Iruka's inside churn from guilt. "But…. I guess I can try…."

Face lighting up with a grin, Kakashi tightened his hold on the brunet, his face becoming mischievous quickly after. His lips had turned up in a sultry smirk that made onlookers shiver for miles and his visible, steel eye had dimmed with wickedness. Tone dropping, he murmured into Iruka's ear, "then let us talk….politics."

The brunet's eyes widened and he frowned, knowing that all those symptoms led usually to things that definitely didn't involve politics. He pouted impishly at the older man who had snaked both arms around his waist, pulling him closer and closer into the depths of the trees, "Aw, I was hoping we'd make sweet music together instead."

Kakashi chuckled and bumped their noses together, "oh, trust me, we'll be doing both, love."

The End