Chapter Text
Kakashi watched the glow of the sunset on Iruka's face from a nearby tree. Beside him sat Tenten, who turned a page in a dusty tome with no enthusiasm. He'd tracked down the pair a little while ago but hesitated to join them. With a resigned exhale, he decided he'd put it off long enough.
As he jumped down, Iruka turned abruptly and threw a kunai at his feet. Instinctively, Kakashi used it to jump back up, landing on a different tree branch.
Tenten's book dropped to the ground as she jumped into a defensive stance.
"I wouldn't land there, Kakashi-san." Iruka warned.
"K- Kakashi-sensei! What are you doing here?" Tenten exclaimed a second later.
From his new tree branch, he scanned the ground, only then noticing the nearly invisible network of fine threads woven into the ground. "Oh, I was just passing by and thought I'd say hello to my favorite sensei and his new student."
"Passing by?" Tenten raised one eyebrow. "Halfway to tea country?"
Kakashi shrugged. Just before he was about to give up and use his Sharingan, he clocked a safe spot to land and hopped down.
Iruka still hadn't moved to stand from his spot. He even winced slightly when he turned to face Kakashi more fully. From closer up, there was a subtle stiffness to Iruka's posture and tension in his face.
"I assume it's nothing urgent." Iruka said, a slight playful smile tugging at his lips despite whatever was causing him discomfort. "Or you would've come out of hiding much sooner."
Tenten turned to Iruka, shocked again. "You knew?! How long has he been stalking us?"
Kakashi pouted, "I wouldn't say stalking."
Iruka smiled wider and, in this light, he looked golden. Kakashi rocked on the balls of his feet.
"So?" Iruka finally prompted, "What's going on?"
Kakashi swallowed, he had been stalling precisely to put off answering this question. The safest approach seemed to be looking at Tenten while he answered, "I'm to escort you for the rest of your journey."
The shock on both their faces was welcome, what he had really been dreading was-
"Escort us?" Iruka asked, thinly veiling the umbrage in his voice.
Of course this was going to offend him. Kakashi had told Tsunade as much, but she waved him off. The day's journey hadn't been enough time to craft an acceptable excuse.
"Ah, accompany you," he corrected himself, already screwing up the script he'd scrounged together. Kakashi kept cool under the most heated circumstances, but Iruka's sharpening stare was dulling his thoughts. "I'm heading the same way. Tsunade-sama had one more pick-up she forgot to mention."
Iruka looked unimpressed. "So she sent you?"
Kakashi shrugged again.
"What's the pickup?" Tenten asked, pulling out a small notebook from her pocket.
"Oh, nothing I can't handle," he assured.
Lowering her pen at that, Tenten turned back to Iruka, who sighed and turned back to the sky.
Checking the ground as he went, Kakashi leisurely made his way to the pair. Once beside Iruka, he sat down on their blanket by the cliffside.
"We're camping here tonight," Iruka said after a quiet stretch. "Did you bring a tent? We only have two."
"I can tie-in to a tree."
Iruka shook his head. "It's going to storm tonight. It's two, maybe three hours away."
The sky was perfectly clear except for a few wispy clouds along the horizon. Kakashi closed his eyes. Only after a moment of deep concentration did he notice the subtle static of the atmosphere prickling his chakra.
Tenten, who had sat back down on the other side of Iruka, lowered her book again. "How can you tell?"
Iruka shifted his posture and the muscles of his back seemed to resist. "When you get to be my age, you can feel it in your joints."
This made Kakashi huff in amusement. "Maa, Sensei, if you're an old man, what does that make me?"
Iruka's pointed silence was answer enough. He chuckled.
"Well then, Tenten-san," Iruka prompted. "Are you up for learning a new barrier type?"
She sat up straighter. "Now?"
Iruka nodded. "We can't have our bodyguard getting drenched in his sleep, can we?"
"Mmm, I prefer teammate," Kakashi corrected, then leaned closer to Iruka’s shoulder and lowered the pitch of his voice. "Or, perhaps companion."
Iruka rolled his eyes and looked away to hide the riveting blush crawling over his cheeks.
While Tenten busied herself pulling out blank tags and various ink sets, Kakashi lingered close and whispered, "Will you tell me, Sensei?"
Iruka furrowed his brow and looked back. "Tell you what?"
"How you predict the weather." Kakashi tilted his head down collusively.
This made Iruka throw his head back with a laugh, which also made him wince and then roll his shoulders. "The pressure changes affect my spine."
Kakashi hummed but clenched his jaw. Of course. Iruka couldn't have taken a shuriken to the back and left completely unscathed, even with the most advanced medical ninjutsu. Mizuki was quite lucky to be in jail; Kakashi's "the friend-killer" epithet hadn't come from nowhere.
"Don't look at me like that," Iruka said. Kakashi startled a bit. He hadn't been aware he was looking at Iruka any type of way. "I'm still fully capable of doing my job."
"I have no doubt about that," he assured.
Iruka scoffed. "Right. So, why are you here then?"
"Would you believe it's to spend alone time with you?" Kakashi asked. He buzzed as the blush returned to Iruka’s face.
"Gross," Tenten said, finally paying attention again with all her materials ready. "I'm still here, remember?"
Iruka pulled away and Kakashi watched him explain elemental barriers and how to set them up. Their interactions were typically limited to the missions room and the occasional dinner with Naruto. So, unless he just so happened to be outside Iruka's classroom, seeing him in teacher mode was rare. Now with summer break at the academy, the experience was even rarer.
In fact, he hadn't seen the teacher much at all lately. Between the back-to-back classified solo missions tracking the Akatsuki and Naruto away with Jiraiya, Kakashi had reverted to his more reclusive disposition. Moping was a strong word, but that was what Guy kept throwing around. He appreciated his friend's concern, but now, with this current assignment, Kakashi suspected he'd taken it all the way to the Hokage.
"I'll activate the barrier this time, until you've grasped yin release," Iruka said. "If we had more time, I'd have you alter the formula for your wind chakra but it's getting late."
"You don't have to do all this for me. I can make an earth wall." Kakashi offered, but Iruka waved him off.
"This is a perfect practice exercise." Iruka paused then smirked. "Unless you're keen to wake up under a mud mound."
Tenten eyed the darkening sky. "It's really going to rain that hard?"
After selecting his choice materials from Tenten's collection, Iruka instructed, "Watch me do the first and then help with the rest. We need four."
The two got to work. As dusk settled in, Kakashi contributed by building a small fire for lighting.
All this seemed excessive for the sake of Kakashi's slight discomfort, but he wasn't going to argue with Iruka. He eventually took out his book but couldn't focus on the words. Instead, his eye kept catching on the twitches in Iruka's back.
Medical Ninjutsu wasn't one of his thousand jutsu, but he briefly wondered if he was capable of relieving any of Iruka's pain. Surely, lightning shocks could be manipulated to signal muscle release and ease the tension. Though, it was much more likely he'd hurt Iruka instead, so he kept the thought to himself.
A barrier flashed over the clearing they'd claimed. Though translucent, the boundary had a subtle reflectivity that would surely draw the attention of passersby. That was another thought Kakashi kept to himself. He could almost hear Iruka in his head 'and why should we be worried about drawing attention?'
Iruka was pointing at something and Tenten was squinting in that direction. Her pen hovered readily over her notebook but didn’t make any notes. Even Kakashi couldn't see whatever flaw Iruka was explaining, he was too focused on the subtle slump of Iruka's shoulders.
Erecting a barrier of this size, on his own, was no simple feat.
And yet, after the teaching part of the night ended, Iruka stopped Tenten from setting up their tents. "We went through the effort of a barrier, might as well reap the benefits."
"Don't deny yourself comfort on my behalf," Kakashi urged.
He'd expected a dismissive eye roll, but Iruka actually seemed confused. His gaze flicked up. "There are very few nights to sleep under stars like these."
Kakashi hadn't even noticed the vast array that had expanded overhead. Up on the cliff, far from any light pollution, the view of the cosmos was almost unreal.
Iruka was the first to pass out. Tenten followed shortly after, though reluctantly. She kept searching the seemingly flawless barrier and clear sky in frustration.
Kakashi was the last awake and the only one who saw the dark clouds drift in to block the starlight.
And then, the first bolt of lightning.