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Iruka never wanted tattoos. His first tattoo, admittedly, had been his own fault. He hadn’t realized that once he was a genin, he was legally considered an adult, and the penalties for stealing would become much more harsh. In addition to paying back double what he owed for a few sheafs of chakra paper, Iruka had been informed on no uncertain terms that he was also going to be punished with bokkei, which involved receiving a painful, ink-black tattoo band around his upper arm, marking him as a thief. It was embarrassing, but at least his shinobi blues kept the arm covered, so he didn’t have to advertise his troubled childhood. After some time, he got used to it, aside from the unfortunate reality that would no longer be welcomed at most onsens anymore. Iruka had always loved going to the onsen, before the criminal tattoo.
He’d mistakenly believed that would be the end of it, until one day he peeled his clothes off at the end of the day to see part of one shoulder had been marked with some sort of artful, scalloped edging around flowers and what appeared to be the figure of a koi fish . It was more than a little surprising, not only because the new tattoo concealed his criminal tattoo well, but because he hadn’t been the one to go to a tattoo parlor. So how had he ended up with a shoulder tattoo?
His first step in attempting to solve the mystery had been to ask around, but irezumi was still an art form that many looked down upon, which made it more difficult to find people willing to talk about it. When he didn’t have much luck in crowdsourcing an answer, he turned to his books. As a self-taught seals user, he didn’t have a master to work with, but he figured that ink was ink, right? Surely there would be something about tattoos in his fuuinjutsu reference materials!
Except, it turned out, there weren’t many details at all. The closest he got was one, solitary reference to something called unmei no irezumi , which was implied to share a similar property to that of the unmei no akai ito, the red thread of fate that was said to tie two lovers together across both time and space. Iruka wasn’t sure exactly how a tattoo factored into that concept. Based on what he’d experienced, his best guess was that somehow, his skin was linked, or maybe shared, with some other person.
Clearly, that person hadn’t been impressed with bearing the unearned mark of a criminal, and they’d gotten a tattoo in order to hide it. Since technically the other person hadn’t earned the criminal tattoo, Iruka figured they were within their right to make that choice. But now he was in a bit of a tough place, because he hadn’t chosen to cover his tattoo, but now it was covered anyway.
It took a few more days for him to notice the ANBU tattoo on his other shoulder, and then he was really concerned. He didn’t have any friends to talk with about something so serious, so he just worked even harder to keep his shoulders invisible.
Years passed, and Iruka’s tattoo partner seemed determined to make life difficult for Iruka, getting more and more tattoos, an entire back piece that covered even his buttocks, extending the shoulder until it branched over one side of his chest, and then the other side of his chest had been tattooed, too. The shoulder with the ANBU tattoo remained visible, but nearly everywhere else, it seemed, was layered in beautiful ink.
In the meantime, Iruka did his best to appear more presentable in the public eye, hoping that if he could behave enough, people might forget his troubled past. After some trouble, he passed the chunin exams, and in the process, found himself a fuuinjutsu master who was willing to teach him. Eventually, he went into teaching at the Ninja Academy, though he continued to study seals and barriers on the side, when he had the time.
He’d kept an eye out for an ANBU with a tattooed shoulder all the while, but it seemed like maybe the individual in question was being cautious not to be caught out. This was a little bit annoying because it meant Iruka had no way of knowing who this mysterious tattoo-bearer could be.
Eventually, Iruka built up the courage to ask his seals master about mysterious, possibly-soul-bonded tattoos.
“You know who you should ask,” the old man said thoughtfully, “Is Hyuuga Eiji.”
Iruka frowned, as the name wasn’t familiar to him. “Is he a shinobi?”
“He’s a jonin, but long since retired from fieldwork,” Iruka’s seals master explained. “He specializes in human seals research, and apprenticed under a horiboshi for a very long time to earn his mastery. If anyone will know about a bond formed through irezumi, it would be him.”
“So he’s a tattoo artist and a seals master?” Iruka asked.
“Yes,” the old man said. “He’s very private about his skills, though. I’ll write you a letter of recommendation. He’ll likely be very interested to hear your story.”
And so, Iruka went to meet Hyuuga Eiji, an indeed very secretive man who not only knew a lot about seals and tattoos, but also many other forbidden techniques.
“This is fascinating,” Eiji said when he examined Iruka’s tattoos. “They look as if they’re real.”
“They didn’t hurt,” Iruka said.
“That’s a blessing,” Eiji commented, continuing to inspect Iruka’s body with a professional eye. “And you say that the tattoos appearing has happened more than once?”
“I think that the owner of the tattoos gets them when he has time,” Iruka explained. “There’s no real rhyme or reason to when they appear, so that’s my best guess.”
“Hm, I see.” Eiji considered. “The fascinating thing is that I don’t recognize the artist signature of these tattoos.”
Iruka frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means that whoever your mysterious irezumi partner is, his artist is likely very new or relatively unknown.”
“You can identify an artist just by looking at their work?” Iruka asked.
“I can,” the man said. “If I know the artist’s work.”
“So I’m back to square one?” Iruka sighed.
“Perhaps,” Eiji said. “I am sorry.”
It was still more of a lead than Iruka had been given before.
His next lead came several years later, though he didn’t realize it at the time. It came from an unexpected quarter, and there were extenuating circumstances that led to his ignorance. It happened after work. He was unwinding after a long week, knocking back a beer at a small, cheap bar where shinobi often spent their time and hard-earned ryo after wrapping up their missions.
“Heyyy Iruka!” Genma called, sloshing up to the bar, clearly one too many drinks along to be throwing his weight around so freely. “You like onsens, right?”
“Right,” Iruka agreed cautiously.
“How come people are saying you only ever use the private baths?” Genma demanded.
Iruka cringed, noting the way several patrons turned to look at him. He’d worked very hard to conceal his checkered past, and here Genma was advertising it to the room. “I just prefer being alone in the bath.”
“Aww, come on!” Genma said. “You can share with me, though, right?”
Iruka grimaced. “I’d rather have a private–”
“Oh!” Genma exclaimed, “or maybe you and Kakashi could share! He’s always hiding in the private baths, too.”
“The whole point of a private bath is privacy, Genma,” Kakashi drawled from the end of the counter. His drink was half-gone, but Iruka could have sworn the man’s mask had never left his face. One of those great mysteries of Konoha was how Kakashi had kept his face concealed for so long. He had no doubt this was why he used the private baths - surely it would be difficult to wear a mask in the bath, so the obvious solution was a private onsen, instead.
“It’s okay, buddy, we all know the real reason,” Genma said. “You’re so horrifically ugly you don’t want to inflict your features on the world.”
Kakashi just blinked once at him, clearly unamused.
“Seriously though,” Genma turned back to Iruka. “Hot spring trip?”
“As long as there’s a private bath,” Iruka said firmly.
Genma scowled, sighing dramatically. “You’re no fun,” he said, including Iruka and Kakashi in this accusation.
“Of course not,” Iruka said primly. “I’m a schoolteacher.”
Genma scowled harder, but left it there, allowing Iruka to finish his drink in peace.
Iruka did end up going on the hot spring trip. They’d booked a shared room, which made Iruka rather nervous, since he didn’t want to risk exposing his tattoos in the shared room. Genma, Izumo, and Kotetsu instantly changed into yukatas, pale green cotton with dark green leafy patterns overlaid. Their obi were a bright saffron-yellow, and the onsen towels matched them almost precisely. They looked very dashing, and they gave Kakashi and Iruka no end of grief over their insistence in not changing.
Eventually, Iruka buckled under the peer pressure, though he wore a long sleeve undershirt and bike shorts under the yukata, which fortunately covered his tattoos completely.
Kakashi just kept wearing his shinobi blues, utterly impervious to the other men’s teasing.
“The private baths are already reserved for the night, since you have to reserve them in the morning,” Genma said to the room at large, though of course he was really addressing Iruka and Kakashi. “Have you reconsidered joining us plebians in the public bath?”
“I’ve reconsidered nothing,” Kakashi said flatly, just a hint of amusement in his tone. “Go have fun washing each others’ backs.”
“We will, thank you very much,” Genma said, sticking his nose in the air. A gleam caught in his eye, and he turned to Iruka. “Do you think if Gai challenges him to an onsen…?”
“I’ll concede,” Kakashi said. “He hates it when I do that.”
Genma sighed. “Fine, fine.” He stared hard at Iruka, then. “What about you? Can I convince you?”
“You mean bully me? Absolutely not,” Iruka shot back.
“Well then,” Genma said, “It’s a good thing we booked a room with an attached outdoor bath, huh?”
Iruka blinked. “We did?”
Genma smirked. “You can lock us out, if you must.” He glanced between Iruka and Kakashi. “As long as you two are able to share like big kids, anyway.”
“You can go first,” Kakashi told Iruka.
Genma looked vaguely disappointed that there was no dramatic debate over the order of bathing. “Enjoy your little ceramic pot,” he said, moving towards the door, where Izumo and Kotetsu were shooting him annoyed looks, as they’d been hoping to be gone already. “I’ll be stretching out in the big outdoor bath downstairs.”
“You do that,” Kakashi said.
“Enjoy your bath,” Iruka echoed, and shooed him off.
As the door closed behind the trio, Iruka turned to Kakashi. “What are the odds they sneak out of the building and try to catch a glimpse from the roof?”
“I’d say there’s a 100% chance of that happening,” Kakashi said, eyeing Iruka with amusement. “Glad you picked up on it.”
Iruka sighed. “Would it be silly of me to siphon the hot spring water into the bathtub inside the room?”
“Not at all,” Kakashi said. “Do you have a way of doing that?”
Iruka grinned. “I’m not a seals master for nothing, you know.”
Kakashi raised a solitary brow, appearing impressed. “I suppose I’m honored to witness a master at work.”
Iruka felt his face heat. “Oh, well, technically I’m only the lowest rank,” he said. “I still have a lot of learning to do. But I can definitely rig a system that pulls the hot spring water from that spigot,” he pointed outside, “and deposits it in there,” he pointed to the small unit bath built into the hotel room.
“It’s not quite gensen kakenagashi, ” Kakashi murmured, “but close enough.”
Iruka chuckled. “Close enough! It’s practically the same thing.”
Kakashi shrugged. “So. You’re welcome to take the first bath, like I said.”
Iruka threaded his fingers together, cracking the knuckles. “Just let me get my inks, and we’ll be good to go.”
If Iruka hadn’t been an idiot and forgotten his undershirt, he wasn’t sure the truth ever would have come out. He’d told Kakashi he’d be out of the bath and dressed by a certain time, and the man had agreed to knock on the unit bath door when he returned. It was bad timing that meant Iruka was just stepping out of the unit bath, hair wrapped in a saffron-yellow towel, yukata haphazardly tied closed, but without his undershirt to hide the edges of his tattoos, when Kakashi pulled the room door back open, clearly intending to knock on the bathroom door.
“Oh!” Iruka said, turning quickly to conceal the edges of tattoo peeking above the deep vee of his yukata. “Sorry, I’m not fully dressed.”
Kakashi didn’t say anything for a very long moment. Then, with a hesitance that Iruka hadn’t heard in his voice before, he said, “Is that a… tattoo?”
Iruka felt his face heat. “Don’t laugh,” he said. “I know it’s not really expected that a schoolteacher would be so… inked.”
“I’m not laughing,” Kakashi said slowly. “I’m… curious.
“About what?”
“Is it just the one?” he asked.
Sighing, Iruka turned. “It’s not,” he said, and shrugged the yukata off his shoulders to reveal the full spread across his back before turning around to face Kakashi, “It’s why I can’t go to the public bath,” he said tiredly.
“When did – where did you–” Kakashi seemed to be stumbling over which question to ask first, and the worst part was that Iruka couldn’t answer his questions.
“I didn’t,” he said, laughing nervously, pulling the yukata back up so he could cover most of the tattoo with the soft cotton once more. “I only ever got one tattoo. A bokkei. For stealing.”
Kakashi’s eye widened. “Was it a band?” he asked, and reached up, covering a part of his bicep with his palm, “Around here?”
Iruka nodded. “Pretty standard,” he said. “The weird thing is that a few months later, I woke up with this,” he shrugged one of the yukata shoulders off, revealing the koi fish. “And I have no idea where it came from.”
“You just woke up with a tattoo?” Kakashi asked.
“I realized, after some research, that for some reason, the tattoo on my shoulder must be transferred from another person,” Iruka said. “It’s called unmei no irezumi, some sort of connection between two people that is reflected in the ink.”
“That’s,” Kakashi frowned. “I’ve heard of it. But I didn’t realize…”
“Yes, well, I’ve worked very hard to keep a clean image,” Iruka said. “After that bokkei was covered by the new tattoo, I didn’t want to get caught having covered it, even if it wasn’t my doing.”
Kakashi nodded slowly. “At least it wasn’t a face tattoo,” he said.
Iruka felt his face heat at the thought. “I already have the scar,” he said, pointing to his face. “Can you imagine if it was inked? People would flee at the sight of me.”
“They do tend to reserve those for murderers,” Kakashi acknowledged. “The fear would be warranted. Though you tend to do a fine job of striking fear in the hearts of pre-genin without any tattoos.”
“They’re just kids,” Iruka said dismissively.
“Still impressive,” Kakashi said.
“I do what I can,” Iruka said, “Given my circumstances.”
“Yes, right, circumstances,” Kakashi said, sounding nervous. “About those tattoos…”
Iruka glanced at him. “Yes?”
Kakashi coughed lightly, then, swiftly pulled off his shirt, revealing not the swaths of pale white skin Iruka expected, but instead lines and shades and rippling tattoos. And not just any tattoos. They were intimately familiar to Iruka, because they were the same ones he saw in the mirror every day. Not similar – identical.
“Those are my tattoos,” Iruka said idiotically.
“These are my tattoos,” Kakashi countered. “When I was just about to be promoted to ANBU squad captain, I woke up to a black criminal band tattooed around my bicep.”
Iruka blinked. “Wait. My tattoo started this?”
“I suppose the ink in our skins is really linked,” Kakashi said. “It goes both directions, apparently.” He scrubbed the back of his head, sounding awkward as he explained, “I didn’t think about whether it would affect you, too. I just wanted to cover the band, and then, well, I really liked the tattoos, so I kept getting more…”
“Clearly,” Iruka said, and laughed despite himself. “I thought I’d never solve this mystery,” he confessed. “And I certainly didn’t expect it to be solved by an onsen.”
“Maybe we should have just taken Genma’s advice and shared that bath in the first place,” Kakashi muttered.
Iruka felt both his eyebrows rise. “Pardon?”
Kakashi’s face, at least what bit of it was visible, turned bright red. “Never mind.”
“No, do go on,” Iruka said. “You want to share a bath with me?”
“Who wouldn’t?” Kakashi retorted.
Things proceeded most favorably from that point.