A shinobi is a high school student like another - 17

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I didn't had all the time to over-think about Iruka and me this Monday morning, since the door to the french class closed just after my ass. Understand by that that I got to school late - again- because of an alarm call which hadn't called anyone and of one sleepy head I don't need to name. At least, I had my clothes on. No, seriously, one of these days I'd be so late that I would ran to catch my bus clad only in my boxers. Could the peanut gallery stop laughing please?

Iruka's eyes hidden behind his hair smiled at me and I smiled back to him  before the teacher breathing down my neck urged me to sit on the first seat available.

The ten o'clock break never come quickly enough. This morning, it seemed to me that an eternity passed before I could finally unfold my skeleton and get out to breath. I was still aching from yesterday training, and Zabuza knew it, given how he was looking at me with a smirk.

"Still feeling the aftereffects of Sensei's attempt on your life?"

"Eh," I said, making my vertebras pop back into place, "If sensei had been serious, I sure wouldn't still be there to complain about it..."

"That's the point of saying "attempt"..."

We hadn't took two steps out of the classroom into the corridor that Emily appeared in front of me, hands on her stripped knees, breathing short - a sure hint she had ran to our classroom.

" 'Akashi... I wanted... I wanted to..."

"Er, breathe Emily, I'll still be there in a second."

She made a strange face, her head still lowered, but she waited till her breathing got back to normal. Then she rose her head and face in all their vampiric glory, and stared at me straight in the eye, totally uncaring of who could be around ; namely Zabuza, an eyebrow raised out of what I could now identify as interrogation and curiosity. The supposed part of mankind trolling around counted for nothing.

"i wanted to apologize for yesterday, I had no right to tell you that like this, and to yell at you, and I'm very sorry I lost it like I did," she said in one breathe.

I smiled at her. "Well, a part of that is ou-my fault really..."

She smiled back to me. ''...Oh, if you don't know where to go at lunch, our table is always free to new members... See you!''

And she left, easily drowned into the dark shades of the cloaked high school masses.

Iruka had got out of the class to the ''See you'' of his cousin, and got closer from where Zabuza and I had froze.

''Is there a problem?''

Zabuza turned toward me, an expression of the most certain certainty painted on his face.

''You did the goth.''

''Are you going to stop with that or what!?''

Iruka was choking himself with laughter behind.

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I really curse teachers and their habit to assign work over work the one week just before the holidays. It never misses. It was not only kind of stressful, but it was also keeping me from having a moment of quiet with Iruka, since he was working at the ten o'clock break, at lunch break, at the 3p.m. break... Maybe had I to work a bit too, but right at the moment it was mostly bothering me since I couldn't find the time to talk to him.

Well, okay, what I had to say was maybe not fit to be told at school, but it was kind of  itching me; much in the same fashion that wanting to kiss him had itched me all Monday till we met at the end of the lunch break into the toilets behind the library – the ones no-one used -, where we spent the last minutes of the break kissing each other senseless. We had a fright when the door half-opened, but the person behind didn't step in, and left before being able to see anything. I thought I saw long dark hair -coughItachicough-, but it could have been a trick of the light.

That was to say how it was itching ; though I'd like to note that the toilets were his idea.

I wanted to ask him where we were standing, what was your relation, what he was thinking about it. The toilets' episode had gave me some hints, but I wanted to talk to him anyway. I was hoping that talking would help me understand what had happened to make his friends so protective of him.

It was weird, truth to be told, that I was thinking so hard about all that... I hadn't done it while I was with the girl from last year.

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It began to snow again as we were exiting school Tuesday late afternoon.

''Fuck,'' I said, the last bus disappearing at the end of the street.

''You said it,'' agreed Iruka.

We had stayed late in our last class to finish work, late enough for us to miss the last bus which would agree on passing by the school.

''I should have thought of taking an umbrella, I'm gonna catch death before getting home,'' I muttered for me.

''You just have to come to my place then, it's closer.''

I turned toward iruka. He had his face lifted toward the sky, watching the light gray clouds which were throwing their snowflakes at us. He smiled imperceptibly.

''And we'll always manage to find an umbrella if you really want – I'm not working tonight,'' he added lower.

''Sounds like a plan,'' I smiled.

That, that was an opportunity made of gold I wasn't about to drop.

We walked for a good twenty minutes before arriving in sight of the european district, and we felt every single second of said minutes. They were very cold and wet. We entered in the blessedly warm and dry ''Ocean's Shore'' by the backdoor; Iruka opened the door leading to the pub just enough to catch his uncle's eye and nod to him.

This time, no surprise guest in his place. He dropped his bag under the kitchen counter, mine following close. he had just shrugged off jacket and pull-over, his hair mussed in his face in a definitely very sexy way, his cheeks still flushed by the cold, when he said: " Shower?"

I closed the space between us, lips against lips, my clothes joining quickly his on the floor.

"How could I say no to such an invite?"

"Your hands are cold..."

"Warm them up for me then..."

What do you want, we're both teenagers. His shower was just large enough for both of us to fit in, and soon his small bathroom was full of stream... alongside other less palpable things.

When we got out of the shower, a long moment after, we realized that putting back our clothes on was out of the question - they were still on the floor, and they were still cold and wet. We hang them as well as we managed on his desk chair and kitchen counter.

''Hm," made Iruka, sizing me u, his hair sneaking wetly on his golden skin,"I could lend you some clothes if you want..."

His place was warm enough to be able to walk around with just a towel on. I said so, from where I was sitting on his bed. I noted somewhere in my mind that he could not have not noticed all the scars running everywhere on me, between the bathroom and the lights on everywhere in his place, but he hadn't said anything, nor did he stare.

"You won't come complaining when you'll be freezing your ass off in a second," he answered, loosening the towel that was slipping past his hips and sneaking into his half made bed.

I leaned down on him, forgetting my towel where it decided to stay. And then finally, we found ourselves warm under the sheets, my arms around him, his head against my shoulder.

The snow was still falling down behind the window.

My hand slide innocently on every detail in their reach. He began to laugh.

"You're tickling me!"

"Sorry, can't help it, you're good enough to eat... you're in a sport team?"

He stopped laughing - I could even feel the change of mood; he suddenly tensed in my arms.

"I was in the high school volley team. I left two years ago."

"Sorry if I..."

"Don't be, it's nothing..."

There was a blank. His still wet hair was beginning to drop water on me.

"Can I ask you... why? Why you left the team?"

He took his time to answer, his eyes half-shut.

"The marks, on my back... not very discreet in the lockers."

The silence was less tense than before. Being here doing nothing was calling for laziness to settle in. Iruka had his eyes closed when he spoke again.

"You should tell your parents where you are, no?"

"I'm living on my own Iruka."

He opened his eyes, frowned and lifted his head from my shoulder just enough to look at me, seemingly not understanding. I elaborated.
"My father died ten years ago, and I've got no memories of my mother."

It was really the first time I had no problem saying that, and saying it out of my own will. Iruka was silent. I continued.

"Remember the picture I shown you. The blond guy is my guardian."

He fell back against me and hugged me tight, his face hidden in my shoulder. His voice came out muffled.

"I am sorry..."

"... don't be... I'm going to sound heartless, but I prefer things to be that way."

How many times I had though about what could have happened if my father hadn't gutted himself ten years ago, about what could have happened to me. I would certainly not have been here with Iruka. I would maybe since long gone crazy. I would maybe never have accepted Obito, and I would maybe have got killed on this mission. I had never dared say it to anyone, even if I thought Sensei knew parts of it.

I could feel Iruka had no ideas what to think or to say.

"I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, sorry," I said, kissing the top of his head.

It seemed he put the last moments in a corner of his mind. He lifted his head back from my shoulder.

"You're weird."

"And proud to be," I replied, kissing him.

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A bit later, when we got back into dry clothes, we ended agreeing that, yeah, maybe it was time to begin the homework we had for the next day. Iruka was sitting on my lap, I had my chin on his shoulder and my arms around his waist, notebooks, books and exercises spread on his desk, closely followed by empty cookies' boxes and equally empty bottles.

"... and there, I had told you!"

"I would have never thought about something so twisted to resolve that... spill, what's your IQ?"

"No idea - I never tested. But I've only been in school for three years."

Iruka twisted around enough to look at me.

"Just three years? You're joking, right?"

"No," I shrugged a half-shoulder, "I was home-schooled."

With a rather loose definition of home-schooling I might add. Iruka shut back the algebra textbook.

"That explains why I never saw you before high-school."

I "mhm"-ed in his shoulder. Night had fall, the passing of time not impeding in the slightest the snow falls. The snowflakes were dancing in the light of the lampposts below in the street, and they were piling down mercilessly along the rim of the window, behind us, above the bed. We could hear the sounds coming up from the pub below, the murmur of the conversations and the low bass of the music muffled by one story. I had not any desire to go sleep anywhere else.

A low buzzing came from my bag, laying at the same place as where I had dropped it when we came in. Fuck. I tried to hide into Iruka's shoulder. The buzzing came up once more.

"Hey Kakashi, isn't that your phone?"

I made some kind of noise in his shoulder, sounding a bit like "grmffuckyeah", then I sighed before leaving Iruka to get up. The bag buzzed angrily. I fished my phone from its dark recesses and opened it - the screen was showing "Shiranui Genma..."

"Hatake."

"Finally! Get your ass down here Hatake, there's both new and bad!"

"... You've seen what's like outside?"

"...What's happening to you? You're stone? Oh, I got it, you're with your girlfriend! Sorry to disturb you, but there's an emergency meeting, you'll go snuggle later..."

And I hang down to his face. What a shitty timing. I stared an instant at the closed phone, nibbling on my lower lip. There had a plastic noise behind me, and a chair dragged on the floor. I turned to the desk - Iruka had got up to trow out the empty boxes and bottles. I scratched at my head. What could I tell him?

"Iruka? I... I got to go."

Okay, I admit it, that was pretty pathetic. He just nodded, avoiding my eye.

"Okay."

The silence stretched uncomfortably while I was getting back up. My pull-over was still sprawled across the counter, disagreeably wet to the point I was tempted to dare the weather and run to the HQ with just a tee-shirt under the anorak. A thick and dry jumper appeared in my vision field, Iruka at its other end.

"You'll get it back to me tomorrow."

"Thanks a lot."

I missed his hand when I took the garment.

"Iruka..."

He had his back to me, busy straightening out his school stuff. He didn't turn when I put the jumper on, nor when I zipped shut my bag and put it on my back. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore; I got to him, grabbed him and took his face between my hands to kiss him. He answered to the kiss after a second of surprise, and suddenly the very relative silence wasn't so uncomfortable anymore.

"See you tomorrow then," I said, when we broke the kiss and I could breathe again.

He just nodded before claiming back my lips.

I was about to open the door when he asked: "Can I ask you a question?"

I turned toward him.

"Sure."

Iruka looked me straight in the eyes.

"Are you in a gang?"

I couldn't help myself but I snorted.

" 'would rather be quite the contrary. See you tomorrow."

On a last half-smile, I stepped out and climbed down the stairs to soon find myself outside.

I glanced at my watch under the pale light of the lampposts - barely seven p.m.. I sighed. I was afraid I had said too much to Iruka already, but if he asked me what I was doing, I wasn't about to lie to him. I wanted him to trust me; and I wanted me to trust him. I shook my head and walked down the street. If I was beginning to think like that now, I was on a bad way.

The snow was still falling down.

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Musical background for the translation: my everyday train ride, school and Janus 'Vater'.