Title: Secret Lives
Auhor: SirenM
Genre: Angst, romance? Not sure yet.
Spoilers: I can't remember which chapter... it's after finding Tsunade but before Sasuke leaves Konoha.Warning: YAOI KakaIru, (Male)OCIru and possibly more...
Summary: In an A mission, Kakashi, Genma, Gai and Raidou is sent to protect a young lord. In the process, they meet a young male courtesan with long dark hair and a constant veil on his face. More suspicious than curious, they find out that the young lord's companion is more than he seems. In more ways than they've had possibly ever thought.
PROLOGUE - Himitsu
The mansion was silent despite the roaming of the guards and its residents. He moved easily in the comforting cover of darkness, his movements barely if at all detectable in the dead of the night. He stopped, silent, peering through his mask as he willed his body to slow its functions and blend with the surrounding.
Three other shinobis had moved nearby, barely noticeable, but enough. He sensed them pausing, but then they moved on, into the mansion. Evidently, they did not notice him.
Rock Shinobis. He had noticed even without a glance at their headbands. They movements and stance was already a representation of their own. It was too easy.
He moved stealthily, entering the mansion with caution yet with simple ease. But it took him a while to find the room where the person he was looking for was residing in. The Daimyo was a paranoid bastard who moved his room as frequently as he moved his residence from mansion to mansion.
Paranoid for all the right reasons.
He was hated and envied by many. Ranging from being a pure bastard to the fact that he was rich like no one would believe. The number of mansion he possessed was symbol of how rich he was and he didn't spare from purchasing more if he wanted. Just so he could boast his affluence to the other lords.
And inside the room, was another proof of his boasting. His 'prize'.
The Konoha shinobi only took a look around the room to ensure that there was no other being within the room before stepping into the room silently. He regarded the person he was to contact, taking in the heavy swathe of colourful rich silk kimono, long unbound midnight black hair pooling onto the cushions and from his vantage point of view, a long pale neck.
Prize indeed.
A soft rustle of silk was all the shinobi heard before he was pinned by a golden gaze from the only other occupant in the room. The messenger froze, shocked by both the unusual colour of the person's eyes and by the alertness and danger that the other projected. He hadn't expected to be found so easily, especially not in this complete darkness.
"Yes?"
The soft alto, discernibly male, snapped him out of his astonishment. The question came softly, almost inaudible but the meaning behind it was clear; 'What news or orders did you bring?'
"Move tonight," he replied, straight forward and business-like. He had to move quickly and efficiently before the Daimyo retired to the room for the night.
The Hokage had given him a scroll to be given to the golden eyed occupant. He took it out and the other got took it easily, only a stifled rustle of clothing marking the swift yet gentle movement. The shinobi wondered briefly when the golden eyed person had gotten up and walked to him.
But before he had gotten a good look at the face which supposedly belonged to a famed beauty, the receiver of the Hokage's message turned away.
"Thank you," once again, came the soft voice.
The shinobi nodded, knowing that he was being dismissed. He faded into his surrounding, just as muffled footsteps outside reached his ears.
The door opened and a strident voice resounded in the once quiet room.
"My beauty, how are you feeling?" the Daimyo, a large middle aged man asked, the moment he stepped into the room.
The referred occupant stirred gently from the reclining bed. Long dark strands framing a pale heart shaped face inset with a pair of gentle golden eyes, a small high nose, flushed cheeks and pale pinkish lips, the beauty smiled weakly at the Daimyo.
"My Lord."
"Is your headache gone, my love?" the large man asked gently, reaching out to hold a pale hand.
The shinobi messenger sneaked out quickly unnoticed by the Daimyo or his guards outside of his chambers. But before that, he heard once again the soft indiscernible alto voice replying that yes, it was gone, now. Raidou returned to the village that night as instructed as the Hokage awaited for news that would come in the morning.
In the morning, the servants of the Daimyo, who entered daily to help the lord and his companion dress, knocked at the large door chamber. There was no answer.
When the head servant tried again, there was still no reply.
The guards finally burst into the room when the occupants failed to respond to their banging. In the room, they found their Lord lying in a pool of blood on the floor beside his bed, as naked as the day he was born, only, with a blood katana gutted into his stomach. The guards blanched when they saw that he was missing a certain organ, only to be found later on the bed, bloodying the pale sheets.
Not far from him, lying on the bed, was his recent companion, also dead. But it seemed as if the one who killed them was by far kinder to the smaller being. A clean slice across the neck and the beautiful long haired young man, who shared the Daimyo's bed nightly, was dead.
No one really mourned the death of the Lord, not even his people. He had treated them badly, taxing them heavily on their hard-earned money, kidnapping young girls and boys for his mansions and ill-treating them.
If anything, more mourned the lost of the beautiful young man that had died with him rather than the Daimyo himself.
The other Lords for the lost of the rare beauty. The local residents for the kindness he had shown by persuading the late Lord to lower the taxes. Only a few remembered seeing the pale young man that walked into their village only but a year ago, smiling gently and kindly, before he had caught the eye of the Lord.
Hidden in the shades of the trees, a shinobi watched as the people received the news of the death of their Daimyo. The rest is up to you guys, he thought to himself, brushing his hair away from his face and brown eyes to the top of his head in a high ponytail.
As the people stormed up to the mansions of the late Daimyo to retrieve what rightly belonged to them, the shinobi disappeared into the wind just as the ruling establishment crumbled to the hands of the people.
The new Hokage, the Godaime, frowned at his report as he knelt in front of her. Idly, he counted the seconds until he could leave. He felt uncomfortable in front of this Hokage, not only because she was new but also because she was a woman. Experience told him that women were far too perceptive, far too dangerous, and even more so when she was a kunoichi double his age.
Finally, Tsunade laid the report down.
"Did you really have to castrate him?" she asked with a sigh.
He just shrugged. Then with an after thought; "A rough total of a three hundred young girls, excluding young men and boys below the age of 15, kidnapped from the villages was his doing or has something to do with him."
He continued, quickly interrupting the Kunoichi when she opened her mouth, "Partly for the flesh trade going about in the larger cities but mostly for his 'enjoyment'." Tsunade's expression darkened, but he wasn't finished. "And then some."
The blonde woman raised an eyebrow.
"Experiments," he answered, facial expression never changing. His reaction towards what he had found had been long due.
"Ah," the Godaime answered, her voice sounded as if she had choked, "Well done then."
He bowed. Briefly, he wondered if he was being dismissed.
Tsunade withheld the sigh that was trying to make it self known, instead rubbed at her temple. What is the world becoming? By the corner of her eyes, she noticed Shizune scowling at the floor. Then she focused on the young man still kneeling in front of her.
A talented shinobi specializing in espionage, she remembered reading from his file. Talented indeed. Very deceiving as well.
"Take two days of rest, and then I'll send someone to inform you for your briefing of the next mission," she said after a brief pause. Tsunade gestured in dismissal.
The long-haired shinobi nodded and then disappeared.
The first thing he did was to go home. He needed a shower, a good cup of coffee but most important of all, he needed to go pay his respects. So he reached his apartment, taking note of the kempt condition of his uninhabited home, making a note to thank his 'keeper' for the tip-top condition of his apartment.
Unlike his own, he thought wryly to himself. With all those empty ramen cups and scrolls lying around on the floor... he'll trip over them one day and crack his head open.
He took of his headband and hair tie, letting his long hair tumble down his back freely. I have to cut them soon, he thought to himself. Leaving it this long is such a hassle.
He always said but never did anything of that sort. Long hair suited him and it was kind of useful in certain missions.
He looked up to catch a glimpse of his mirror, and grimaced, brushing his hair away from his face. His complexion had gotten paler these days and he constantly felt drained from the continuous Genjutsu that he used for the mission.
I'm so useless...
Shaking himself from that thought, the dark haired man sighed, grabbed his robe and headed for the bathroom.
After a shower and a much needed cup of coffee, he dug out his kimonos, glad that moths had not gotten to the expensive materials.
Dressing quickly in a black kimono, he ran on hand through his long dark hair. After he brushed the tangled tresses, he pondered; his hand paused in mid motion of retrieving his headband. Leave it, his mind told him, some still soft part of his mind, let him see you as you were once, it told him.
Then, he left his headband where it sat on the dressing table, gleaming innocently.
Kakashi sighed, shoving his hands into his pocket as he walked towards the clearing. He had received a message from the Hokage that morning telling him of a briefing in the afternoon. With no meeting with his genins and nothing to do at the moment, and having rested more than enough for the last few days, he decided to do his daily ritual.
He stopped the moment the clearing where the monument laid came to sight.
From his vantage point of view, kneeling in front of the memorial was a long haired person dressed in a black kimono decorated with embroidered golden thread.
As if sensing his presence, the woman tilted her head, and then she slowly got up, her back still facing him. She brushed the smooth surface of the monument with her hand across the names of the late shinobis reverently. Then she was gone.
Kakashi tilted his head, his only visible eye narrowing. Wondering who the woman is, he headed towards the memorial, noticing that she had left a bouquet of fresh golden chrysanthemums in front of the cenotaph.
Naruto yawned loudly, stretching widely as he walked through the street. He ignored the looks that the onlookers where giving him, having only half a mind to flip them off.
He was bored. He was done with practice, sparring with a kage bunshin of his till his shadow copy had puffed away from exhaustion. He had gone for grocery shopping, house chores even! Now he had totally nothing to do! And it was only midday! To top it all off, that dumb perverted Sennin is no where to be seen.
If he is avoiding me.... Sky blue eyes narrowed at that thought.
He sighed. Too bad Iruka-sensei is out in a mission. Who knows how long he'll be gone before he would be back.
Ah! Might as well head to Ichiraku to have a bowl of Ramen, he thought, trudging towards the ramen stall.
Head down, he didn't notice as a long sleeve of a black and gold silk kimono brush pass the side of his face. The other however instantly recognized his head of bright blond hair.
"Naru-"
Naruto stopped, hearing the fist two syllabuses of his name and the familiar voice. He turned quickly to greet his caller, only to see someone in a black elaborate kimono turn away and disappear behind a corner.
"Iruka-sensei?"
Iruka slumped against the wall, horrified at what he had almost done. He was just heading back towards his home when he saw Naruto, looking dejected and sad.
His first reaction was to call the boy, to comfort the normally smiling boy. Not remembering what he currently looked like, he had almost let Naruto see him like this.
If he did... if he sees me on one of my mission one day, he'll know... Naruto isn't stupid, he would have been able to put two and two together...
Iruka hit himself on the forehead in despair.
I have to take the shortcut and avoid others, just in case.
He headed into the dark alley.
If they knew...
Umino Iruka has led a normal life. An academic teacher with a nice and unassuming background, he is known in the Konohagakure village as an all around pleasant young man. But it is all in the face value of everything that he had done. Iruka is someone greatly trusted by the Sandaime. Intelligent, loyal, talented, skillful and also incredibly deceptive.
No one knows. No one is supposed to. Not even the closest person to him. Naruto.
For if they did find out what he had done, they would despise him and loathe him. And the knowledge of his past and present would shame his family's name. But most of all, if Naruto hated him for what he had done... for keeping his secret... Iruka could never bear that, could never have been able to tell Naruto the truth about himself.
So, he kept the dark secret in his heart, ever so eroding and poisoning till it threatened to swallow him whole. And it would have, if someone hadn't discovered it.
Author's Note:
This is the longest prologue I've ever written.
I know, I know, I was supposed to get my other stories done first... It's been way due... datte...
This little chapter has been sitting in my computer for longer than Of Sea and Land, so I decided to push this out first. Or maybe not...
My reasoning: I'm afraid of starting because I'm afraid I won't have the persistency of ending it. In other words, I'm afraid I'll end up too lazy writing its continuation. But you can help, if you review, I'll be motivated enough to write the next chapter. Heh heh heh.
Anyway, just drop in a review on whether or not I should continue this. Confused... very confused....