The Mission

Kakashi had gotten to the girls sometime after Itachi had left and Guy was gone. Immediately, he noticed something was wrong, “I can smell Itachi’s scent in the air…what happened, Ino.”

She clenched her fists in response making Hinata take notice. Thinking she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to answer, she took over from here, “Ino smelled Itachi’s scent in the air when she was coming over to my place…at least, I think that was her intention. I saw her outside and then she ran off for no reason—she was unarmed so I followed her. She said she smelled Itachi’s scent in the air and that he’s here with someone else. We never found out this person’s name.”

Kakashi didn’t ask why Ino wasn’t answering his question; he could tell she was in no proper state of mind to recall everything without getting angry again. As such, he allows Hinata to speak in her place for now, “I went with her because she was unarmed and alone. I couldn’t leave her like that, but I also went because I didn’t want her to do anything too reckless…then she found Itachi and his partner. She took over his body so easily, but she got out of it a lot faster than she did during her battle against Sakura.”

He notices Hinata’s scent changes, it becomes too strong and burnt in notes, “He said he’s mated to Deidara and he kept talking about how he said he wouldn’t hurt her because of what he promised Deidara, acting like he was so close with him, and claiming their mating was consensual…Ino got mad so she tried to strike at him, but then Guy sensei came in and stopped her from attacking. They both left after he brought up calling in the ANBU to come over to stop them.”

His attention goes back to Ino with a stern, “You should’ve known better than to let your anger get the better of you like that. Had it not been for Hinata, you could have been killed or kidnapped, Ino.” she shot him an annoyed glance (looking so much like her brother in the process) and he went on, “You want to bring your brother back—there’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to be smart about it or else you’ll die at the hands of an opponent too powerful for you to handle. Next time he’s here and you’re unarmed, don’t go charging at him alone—get someone else involved so you will survive…even if you are armed, you should get someone else involved, actually. Itachi is a powerful foe not many could defeat alone; in a group setting such a victory is still uncertain given how prolific his skills as a shinobi are. You should consider this before you make any move to take him on in battle.”

She still says nothing in response, simmering in rage at the memory of Itachi acting so confident and calm the entire they spoke. To think of the nerve he had to dare make any comment about being mated to her brother consensually was enough to make her want to hunt him down again and kill him!

Kakashi gives up lecturing, but before he can do much else, Inoichi arrives with Asuma and Jiraiya in tow, “Kakashi, you found her? I thought you had something else to do.”

“Sorry Inoichi—I thought I smelled Itachi in the air and I went to investigate. Turns out I didn’t get here in time to stop him from doing whatever it was he had been here for.” he then asks, “What are you three doing here?”

Asuma takes over for Inoichi, “We have been trying to find Ino. Had it not been for your scent, we wouldn’t have regrouped to find you and we wouldn’t have found Ino here.”

He eyes him up, asking himself, “What did she do to piss you off that badly anyway?”

“She went into battle against Itachi Uchiha unarmed and with only Hinata as her backup.”

“…Damn kid, that’s just dumb.” Jiraiya whistles, while Asuma gives her a firm, “Ino you had no right to take him on like that! How could you—”

“What, was I supposed to let him leave? Was I supposed to do nothing while he just did whatever he wanted to do here?” she growled then, “I almost had him too—but his spirit was too powerful and I couldn’t control his body! Then he kept talking about how he promised Deidara he wouldn’t harm me or use his Sharingan on me—the monster had the nerve to say he is in a consensual mating with my brother… Was I supposed to not be mad at him? Was I supposed to just run after he had the nerve to say that slander to me?”

Inoichi paused as did everyone else when they heard this from her. Slowly, he meets her eyes in a sad yet desperate motion, “He is mated to Deidara? How do you know this?”

“He showed me his neck and it had Deidara’s bite mark on it. He showed it to me when I took over his body and when I was back in my own.” she admits with a sad sigh, “I’m sorry dad…I shouldn’t have ever taken him on alone, but I really thought this was my best chance to kill him and bring Deidara back. I let my anger get the better of me…that’s all my fault.”

Asuma asks her then, “Listen Ino, your punishment will not be that severe if you just tell us a few things about your brother.”

“Is this to do with the investigation into him?” she replies, clarifying when she’s shot with surprised glances, “I overheard you talking this morning to mom, dad. I tried to follow you, but I was too late to catch up to you, so I decided to go see Hinata instead. That’s when I smelt that monster’s scent in the air and tried to go after him myself.”

“…Well, that explains it.” Kakashi mutters, but it’s ignored for Asuma’s questioning, “Did your brother ever keep any journal or diary of sorts?”

“No, he never did. Deidara was too paranoid about mom reading his entries for that to ever happen.”

“Okay, what about friends? Did he have any friends?”

She raised a brow to this, “Of course he didn’t and it’s all because of that stupid Uchiha bastard making him look bad in front of everyone. I was his only friend, much like how he was my only friend for the longest time before I met Sakura.”

Jiraiya chimes in then, “What about the name ‘Shisui Uchiha’? have you ever seen or heard your brother mention that name or person before?”

“…Who’s Shisui?” she’s genuinely confused on this question, making the others who were present for the talk with Sasuke and Naruto to feel more lost than they originally were, “I have never heard him mention that name to anyone and I have never seen him speak kindly to anyone with that name in public or private.”

Inoichi asks her something that has been bothering him ever since learning of Naruto’s memories with his son, “Has Deidara ever spoken to you about leaving the village to go to Suna? Did he ever want to run away there and take you with him?”

Now she’s wondering where they’re getting this from, “No, he never talked about doing that! He always said he’d wait until he was eighteen before moving out to Suna to go to some art school, but he never talked about bringing me with him. He always said I shouldn’t run away from here if I wanted to fulfill my dream of becoming the first ever omega kunoichi. Where are you coming up with this stuff anyway? Did you learn something weird from your investigation?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re home.” Inoichi responds then, “Come on, Ino. Let’s go home; we have a lot to talk about concerning your brother.”

Ino doesn’t know why she was asked all these questions, but if going home with her father, facing a good chew out from him, and getting punished for her actions is what it takes to learn what information he had obtained from this meeting with Deidara, then she’ll accept it as is.

“Okay.” she gave Hinata a quiet, “Goodbye, Hinata. Thanks for being there for me today.”

“It wasn’t a big deal, I wanted to be sure you were safe, that’s all.” she replies in her soft tone of voice as Ino leaves with her father and she’s left wondering when she’ll learn more information about Deidara again.

It was sometime when Sasuke dropped Naruto off after their date he had heard the knock on his door that would upend his entire day, “Pervy sage? What are you doing here?”

“Ah, nothing much—just letting you know that I am going to be taking over your training for a while.”

He raised a brow and it led Iruka to come to the door, hand on his hip while glaring the man down, “What do you mean ‘taking over his training for a while’? I wasn’t informed of this by anyone until just now and as his father, I have the right to know immediately when changes to his training routine will be happening.”

Jiraiya paused then and sighed, “Okay, Naruto, can you give us some space for a moment? I need to talk to your dad about something pretty damn important.”

“Mm…alright, but don’t take too long! If this will help me get closer to becoming hokage then I don’t wanna wait forever!”

“Trust me, you won’t. Now go wait out in the hall; I have to talk a with your dad.”

Naruto did as he was told, though he was taken aback by it… The random questioning Sasuke had to endure today when they were supposed to go out on their date, the way Kakashi sensei left at random before the questioning could start, and the fact that Iruka didn’t know a thing about the sudden change up in his training regimen has him wondering if there’s something else going on that he doesn’t know about.

Little did he know how on track he was with this thought.

When alone with Iruka, Jiraiya began things simply, “I know you don’t think much of me, but this is a dire topic that as his father, you deserve to know about.”

He was about to rip into the man but held off on it when he saw how grim his expression had become, “Naruto has the nine tailed fox demon sealed away inside of him and usually this wouldn’t be as much of a detriment to him as it is now.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is the Akatsuki are after your son because of the demon within him.” Jiraiya is honest while continuing, “I don’t know what they want to do with the demon, but I know they wish to take him away because of it. Today we had a confirmed sighting of Itachi Uchiha and another man I have confirmed as Kisame Hoshikage after looking him up in my bingo book by Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuuga. It stands to reason that whatever the Akatsuki are planning it must be serious to send someone as powerful as Itachi here to obtain Naruto for them.”

Iruka grew grim along with the man after hearing this, his first thought being, “I know why Kakashi had to meet you today… He told me to keep Naruto out of the apartment and away from Ino Yamanaka because of a meeting he was going with you and others about Deidara. I may not know what it was actually about or what was said, but I don’t like to write him off without good evidence to first… Tell me, is Deidara on our side? If he is, could we not use him as an ally to find out their plans or spy on the group?”

He doesn’t mince his words here when giving him his thoughts on the taken omega, “Deidara Yamanaka is an enigma in my eyes. A loner omega who was bold for his generation in standing up for omega rights, but also lethal and feared by all as much as he was praised and loved for his beauty. We have discovered more information on him, but all of it is contradictory: on one end, Sasuke, Inoichi, and Ino herself all have given accounts of Deidara hating Itachi with every fiber of his being to the point of trying to kill him in nearly every encounter they’ve ever had. Then there’s the account of Naruto showing a viable reason to assume Deidara is indeed on our side—the reason being that he believed Itachi had killed his only friend, Shisui Uchiha, before he had massacred the clan.”

“Where’s the contradiction then?”

“The contradiction is from what Ino had heard Itachi claim today: claims of not harming or using his Sharingan on her due to a promise he made to Deidara, acting as though they are a loving couple, and claiming their mating was consensual after showing a mark from him on his neck. Then there’s the possible lies that were told by him with no true way to confirm if they are or not making it a bigger mess yet with that kid. My two cents on the matter is Deidara only acted out because he was afraid of Itachi finding out about a secret relationship he had with Shisui and after the bastard killed him, the omega kid said things he shouldn’t have out of the heartbreak he felt that provoked him into kidnapping him after massacring his entire clan.”

“Wouldn’t he be on our side then?”

“Not necessarily. I believe that he is under the control of Itachi’s Sharingan, making him docile and obedient towards him in a manner he cannot break out of without killing that young man first. I’m sorry to tell you this, but Deidara Yamanaka—while a victim in my eyes—isn’t our ally any longer. He won’t be until we free him from Itachi’s grasp on him.”

Hearing this honestly broke Iruka’s heart.

He had always seen Deidara as a strong young omega who wanted better than what the sexist society surrounding him was willing to give. He stood up for many omegas and betas who were wronged by alphas and betas. He fought so hard for omegas to be taken seriously in the Konoha art scene that without his work, they wouldn’t be in it today. Sure, he may have snapped at alphas and betas in a violent manner, but he saw that as more of a defensive mechanism from a kid too ahead of his society’s time who didn’t know how to better deal with the anger and frustration within himself.

He had always wanted Deidara to come back and prove his innocence because he had always believed the young omega to be both an innocent victim of Itachi’s tricks and the slandering of a sexist conservative society that sought to discourage any omegas from being as independent and strong as him.

The idea that he could be under control of Itachi’s Sharingan all while being mated, docile, and obedient to the young murderer has him wanting to puke and cry at the same for the artist who did his best to make things better for his own gender.

As heartbroken as he is over the news of Deidara’s condition, he has to learn to accept it for Naruto’s sake and do what’s best for him now, “That’s truly terrible to hear. He really was such a strong omega…for this to have happened to him, it really does break my heart.”

Jiraiya appeared to be a bit impatient and Iruka couldn’t blame him, “Since time is of the essence here, I won’t refuse it. You and Naruto can leave immediately. Just let me say goodbye to him first.”

“I wouldn’t ever stop you.”

He went out of the apartment and met with Naruto in the hallway, doing his best to keep his composure so as to not scare the boy, “I agreed to allow Jiraiya to train you, Naruto, but I want you to be extra careful and vigilant of your surroundings while you’re gone. Do you think you can do that for me?”

“You mean it? You’re okay with me going?”

“Only if you’re extra careful and vigilant of your surroundings while you’re gone.”

Naruto cheered then hugged his adoptive father tightly, “Thanks a bunch, Iruka! Don’t worry, I’ll be extra, extra careful and vigilant of my surroundings and I’ll come back strong enough to become hokage someday, I promise I will!”

“I know you will.” Iruka smiled, trying to fight the further heartbreak he’s going to face when his son is gone, “Goodbye, Naruto.”

“Goodbye, Iruka sensei.” Naruto said in response when freeing him the hug.

Jiraiya then entered the hall, facing Naruto with a laidback grin, “You ready, kid?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be!” the young omega beams in joy while exiting the apartment with the pervy sage and his father, who is later on waving him off with a smile on his face.

Iruka could feel himself wanting to go along with them, wanting to keep Naruto safe at all costs, and fighting such an instinct was the hardest battle of his life when he stood there waving goodbye to him.

…At least, it had been hard until Naruto came rushing back to him with a sense of urgency he didn’t expect as he fished through his pocket, “Wait—I cannot leave you without this! It’s super important!”

He had thought it was going to be a charm or something sentimental, “Naruto, you didn’t have—” he paused when he slapped it on his palm, looking down at the object in it, “W-Where did you get this!”

“They’re called ‘condoms’. You taught me all about them when we had that talk about sex and consent, remember?”

“I know what they are, but why are giving this to me? Where did you even get this from!”

Naruto states it like he is reading his future itself, “I got it from Shikamaru’s dad when he saw Sasuke and I making out underneath the trees. He said to not do stuff like that in public and that if we were to have sex in private, then at least we could be safe about it. Sasuke was so embarrassed, it made me laugh really hard until he gave them to me instead because apparently I’m ‘too open’ about this sorta thing.”

Why does that sound like something his son would do?

Never mind that, what really matters now is, “Why are you giving this to me? Don’t you think I can get my own condoms?”

“I know you could, but I also know that you’re going to be in a home alone with Kakashi sensei who is a shameless perv. I don’t wanna come home to you being pregnant with his kid. I’m not really ready to be a big brother yet, and if you’re gonna have a kid, I’d rather you have one with Asuma sensei because he’s loaded and generous about it, unlike the tightwad we live with.”

“N…Na…Naruto!” he’s shaking in pure humiliation, his face red when countering him, “You have no right to comment on my sex life or my family planning! I’m a grown omega who can refuse the utterly pathetic advances of Kakashi Hatake—”

“Nice try, sensei, but I’m only looking out for you like a good son would!” Naruto smirks, “If I’m not careful, you could be seduced by him in like, a day or so when I’m gone and I figure if I have to make a promise to you when I’m gone, then you have to make one to me: no sex with Kakashi sensei no matter what!”

“You cannot make me—”

“So you wanna have sex with him then? Wow, I thought you had better standards than that, sensei.”

Iruka is gritting his teeth and slowly, he responds to the goading, “…I don’t want to have sex with him and I’ll prove it by keeping my promise to you: I will not have sex with Kakashi Hatake while you’re gone.”

He cheered to this, “Great! I’ll see you soon, sensei! Keep it in your pants around Kakashi sensei!”

As he hurries back to a laughing Jiraiya’s side, Iruka finds it a lot easier to be okay with Naruto leaving with the man.