Bathhouse revelations

Chapter 11

“So, where did you put your money?”

“On Iruka-sensei, of course.”

In the hallway leading to class B-31, three academy teachers were chatting together. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the students were happily playing outside; their laugh and cries could be heard clearly by the teachers, who wanted nothing else but to join them and make the most of the beautiful day. But instead they stood patiently by class B-31, talking together to pass time as they waited for their newfound favorite subject of speculation to show up.

“That’s awfully risky,” the purple-haired woman said placidly, “I doubt he has much chance winning the Copy nin’s heart.”

“So you bet they wouldn’t end up together?” her long-nosed friend asked incredulously and the purple-haired woman nodded.

“How can you think something like that?!” a tanned blond man almost scolded her. “I, too, thought he didn’t stand a chance at first, but it would be plain stupid not to realize he does with every thing that happened!”

“I tend to agree. Kakashi taking care of Yumo’s class, their dinner at the Yakitori stand... It could have meant nothing, but the way he stormed into the Hokage tower to contest Iruka-sensei’s dismissal, and the dinner at the restaurant that followed... Those are signs that don’t lie, Uutaru-sensei.”

“Ryoko-sensei’s right; those signs don’t lie!”

“I don’t see what’s so irrefutable about them,” Uutaru argued coolly, “It’s not because he got angry after the Principal for firing Iruka that it means he likes the guy. For all we know, he could have invited the chuunin out to clarify the whole misunderstanding and turn him down gently.”

“Then what do you say about the witnesses who say they were acting all lovey-dovey?” the blonde asked triumphantly and his colleague rolled her eyes.

“If they had such a nice time together, then why hadn’t they been seen together for the past three days?”

At those sharp words, the man looked put down; obviously, he had given it some thoughts as well.

“It doesn’t mean anything...” he hazarded hesitantly, “Kakashi-sensei may be out for a mission, for all we know.”

Obviously, he was not convinced, and the purple-haired woman must had noticed it because she smirked at him teasingly. “Not so sure about your money being safe anymore, Deremi-kun?”

“Shut up, both of you!” the woman named Ryoko suddenly hissed, “he’s coming this way!”

Iruka was heading to his designated classroom, the sound of children playing outside making him smile fondly as he walked; their enthusiasm and seemingly endless energy was so cute... out of working hours, of course. Because inside a classroom, it was another story, and Iruka couldn’t help but smirk darkly at the thought. The same children who were laughing and playing so carelessly would probably be a hell to live with in the afternoon, caught in a small and hot classroom reviewing chakra theories while it was such a beautiful day outside... But it did not stress Umino Iruka. He’d known worse.

As the chuunin was walking down to his classroom to prepare the blackboard for the afternoon lessons, he could not miss to notice that he was not the only person who was foolish enough to stay inside on such a beautiful weather – some of his colleagues were standing right next to his classroom, seemingly caught in a discussion about their students. Again. At that sight, Iruka’s features darkened and he fought back a groan of annoyance.

They thought they were subtle, standing there as if it was the best place to do some small talk? Creating occasions to talk to him, asking him questions about his well-being that were hardly innocent...? Who did they think they were fooling? And more importantly, didn’t they have anything better to do than constantly trying to pry out of him some information about his love life?! It was really getting ridiculous...!

Because Umino Iruka wasn’t fooled by their kind words and sudden friendly and caring attitude; he knew pretty well his colleagues – and all the other people who started acting friendly with him lately – only hoped to find out how things were going between Kakashi and him because they 1) were curious as hell and/or 2) wanted to know if their money was safe and what they should bet on next.

Iruka felt a fresh wave of frustration soar in him at the thought; it seemed like most of the academy staff had put some money on Genma’s betting pool... Cross that out, it seemed most of the village had bet some money on that damned stupid pool! If he ever put his hands on that damned jounin...! But the academy teacher knew only too well it was not going to happen. The senbon user may be a careless bastard, but he was not stupid; he knew better than to hang out anywhere he could run into an angry Umino Iruka. Which was a shame really, because the chuunin’s fist was dying to meet with the honey-haired man’s face... That thought brought a disappointed sigh to Iruka’s lips. At least, he stopped using the mission room as a betting lounge... It was already an improvement of some sort, right?

As Iruka approached his classroom, his coworkers faked surprise to see him.

“Hey, it’s Iruka-sensei!”

“How are you, sensei?”

“Funny, we were happening to be thinking about you! What do you think about-?”

But the chuunin wasn’t going to let them have their way. He passed by his coworkers without even looking at them and excused himself curtly, pretending to have homework to correct. The next thing the three chuunin knew, Iruka was shutting the classroom’s door in their mildly shocked faces and abandoning them in the hallway. Once sheltered inside the deserted room B-31, the brown-haired man let out a shaky sigh. He knew what he had done was awfully rude, but he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore – anything was good to get rid of those vultures...! Oh, how he wished people would stop taking so much interest for his private life so that he could go back to anonymity... He would have never thought he’d long to be just another random and average chuunin before.

Really, people never appreciated enough the good things in their life before they were gone.

With that thought in mind, the academy teacher started to write the afternoon lesson on the black board. Minutes slowly passed by and he soon lost track of time as he traced lines and made illustrations on the board. He was almost done his taijutsu graphic when he felt someone’s presence behind him. Quickly turning around, the chuunin’s tense muscles relaxed at the sight of the silver mass of air and the infamous orange book that followed it everywhere.

Smirking, Iruka turned around to finish his graphic. “Can’t you enter by the door, like normal people do, Kakashi-sensei?”

“What would be the point of being a genius if I would have to act like a normal person?”

Finishing his example, the tan man snorted and turned around to face his visitor. The jounin was slouched against a desk two meters away from him, looking as casual as ever with his bright orange book in his hand. “What brings you here on such a nice day, Kakashi-sensei?”

“Well, I was passing by and I thought I’d come and say ‘hi’,” the jounin explained lazily, but somehow Iruka wasn’t convinced. He raised his eyebrow skeptically.

“Really? You sneaked inside the academy under the nose of a dozen chuunins who spend most of their lunchtime looking out for any clue of your presence just to say ‘hi’?”

The jounin looked a bit embarrassed, but his unmasked eye curved happily. “Maa, I don’t want to speak badly of your coworkers, sensei, but it wasn’t exactly that difficult. They were so caught up talking about you that I doubt they could have noticed me even if I had asked them my way to your class.”

Surprisingly, those words made the chuunin laughed softly; it was funny how people’s interest for him, which had annoyed him only moments ago, now sounded oddly amusing out of the Copy nin’s mouth.

“At least they were not stalking me,” the chuunin joked and Kakashi chuckled under his breath. Then, there was a short silence between the two men, as neither of them knew what to say next. Iruka silently watched the Copy nin, who was staring back at him funnily. Was Iruka’s mind tricking him or was the jounin looking hesitant all of a sudden...? The chuunin's doubts were confirmed when the Sharigan user suddenly looked away, avoiding his eyes.

“Sensei,” the Copy nin spoke up quietly, “I was wondering...”

Looking embarrassed, Kakashi paused and rubbed the back of his neck shyly, his gaze glued to his feet. Iruka felt his heart beating faster in his ribcage; he knew only too well what that shy hesitation meant... Swallowing uneasily, the chuunin stood against his teacher desk nervously, waiting with anticipation for the unavoidable words to be finally out of the masked man’s mouth. Some part of his mind reasoned out that since he didn’t know exactly what he was supposed to answer the jounin, he should have felt more anxious than nervous about it, but somehow he wasn’t.

“... well, maybe we could, you know...”

A blush appeared on the borders of the Sharigan user’s mask and Iruka felt his heart pounding so hard in his chest it was hard for him to think, his brain strangely frozen as the man opened his mouth...

And just then, the classroom door burst open loudly and a dozen loud and excited seven year-olds dashed in energetically. Both men stared at them, surprised by the little hellions’ sudden appearance, and the children stared back, puzzled by the weird tense expression on their teacher’s face and the presence of the masked jounin in the classroom. Some kids eyed them with curious and mildly wary eyes, obviously oblivious to what was going, while a few others seemed to have realized what they had walked in to; a brown-haired boy grimaced and four little girls started giggling together at the sight of them.

Yes, giggling.

Now, if a bunch of seven year-olds showing up hadn’t quite done it, the giggling certainly killed the mood. But as if things were not bad enough already, more children rushed into the classroom and joined their staring little friends, eying them with wide, puzzled eyes, and Iruka inwardly groaned, knowing that things were going to go downward. And sure enough, staring soon proved to be not sufficient for the curious kids and a flood of questions rapidly filled the silent classroom.

“What is HE doing here?”

“Are you leaving again, sensei?”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“Is the afternoon class cancelled?!”

“Is he going to watch over us again?”

“Where are you going, Iruka-sensei?”

“Can we come with you?”

“Now, calm down,” the chuunin reassured them hastily, trying his best to stay calm and collected. “I’m not going anywhere and yes, you do still have class this afternoon. Now go back to your seats, everyone.”

The kids let out a low moan of protest but listened to their teacher and went back to their desks reluctantly, sending curious glances – and amused knowing looks - to the silver-haired jounin standing in front of the class as they did so. Iruka sent a sorry smile to Hatake Kakashi, who was slouched casually against one of the desk, looking a bit lost. When the chuunin’s eyes fell on him, his uncovered eye curved up again.

“Sorry to cause you trouble, sensei,” he excused himself with a hidden apologetic smile, “I’ll be going. See you around.”

Before the chuunin could even protest or answer, the Copy nin was already gone, the small cloud of smoke lingering in front of him being the only proof of the jounin’s presence in class B-31.

Staring at the place where Hatake Kakashi had been stading only moments ago, Iruka for some reason felt annoyed by the unfortunate turn out of his meeting with the silver-haired man. In fact, it downright irritated him. To think that Kakashi had been about to...! But nooo, his students had to come out of nowhere and ruin the mood! And now Kakashi was gone, scared off by a bunch of inquisitive seven year olds! He had been –this- close to finally saying it, but he backed down at the last moment again like some scared twelve year-old with his first crush! It was infuriating... But to say the truth, Iruka didn’t know what was pissing him off the most: the jounin’s lack of gust or his students’ horrible timing and inconsiderate meddling. Both were actually quite frustrating...

Eying his students darkly, Iruka decided he was in a fool mood.

And somebody was going to pay for that.

“Take out a sheet of paper everyone!” he belowed to his students, “Pop-quiz!”

Another low moan echoed through the small classroom, but the sever year-olds did not protest; they knew better than to when their beloved sensei made that kind of face.

--

“Are you alright, Iruka-sensei? You look... preoccupied?”

Looking up, the chuunin stared at the blond young man sitting beside him, who was frowning slightly at him.

“I’m fine, Naruto,” Iruka reassured the teen with a sorry smile, “I just had a rough day.”

The blonde did not look entirely satisfied with that answer, but didn’t say anything about it and his ex-teacher was quite glad, because he wouldn’t have known what to answer the teen. Inwardly sighing, the brown-haired man thought back of his day and wondered why he was feeling so exhausted. Despite the fact that the kids had been abnormally energetic and loud, it hadn’t been such a rough day, unlike he had told his favorite ex-student... Of course, the whole village had seemed to go out of its way to annoy him, but it wasn’t anything new either. And it took more than that to tire him out.

But now that he thought about it, ‘exhausted’ wasn’t quite right to describe how he was feeling. Frowning thoughtfully, the academy teacher tried to find the right word to describe his strange mind state, but he rapidly gave up and pushed the whole matter aside. It was pointless to wonder about such an useless thing. Because if he didn’t know how exactly he was feeling, Umino Iruka had pretty good idea why he was feeling like crap. Because if it wasn’t his students nor his colleages’ fault, then it was ought to be Hatake Kakashi’s. Again.

Scolding, the chuunin wondered why the Copy nin always managed to stir such strange mixed feelings in him. He found the jounin’s shyness cute, but intimidating at the same time because he was uneasy with the idea that he had such a strong effect on Sharigan Kakashi... And recently, the silver-haired man’s shyness started to annoy him as well. What a mess...!

Did it mean he had some feelings for Hatake Kakashi? He thought over that first option carefully. Well, he did know for a fact that he was attracted to some point to the man – he had come to that conclusion not without some surprise long ago. Sure, he liked to spend time with him and enjoyed a lot his presence... But did it mean he was ready to take the next step? If the jounin would have finished that sentence back in the classroom, what would he have answered?

Strangely enough, he honestly didn’t know what to answer to that question. Then, why was he feeling so frustrated and annoyed at the Copy nin for running away and not asking him out like he was supposed to? Was that supposed to mean something...?

Sighing, Iruka pushed away those messy thoughts; he was tired already of asking himself all those questions over and over again. Until he found out what his true feelings were, he was better off not thinking too much about it, he decided tiredly.

At that moment, their orders arrived and the chuunin tucked in silently, chasing all those preoccupations out of his mind and focusing his thoughts back to the present, that is to say, his meeting with his favorite ex-pupil.

“And you, Naruto? How have you been? I haven’t seen you much lately.”

“Fine,” the teen grunted, and mild worry stirred inside Iruka; he had never heard the blonde sounding so gloomy before. There was ought to be something wrong there. His suspicions were confirmed when he looked up from his ramen bowl to stare at his ex-student, who was eating his noodles at a strangely slow pace, a thoughtful expression on his scowling face - obviously, there was something wrong. The chuunin couldn’t remember the last time he had seen the blonde tornado looking so grim and it worried him. Staring at the young man sitting beside him, Umino Iruka felt guilt spread through him; he had been so engrossed with his own thoughts and worries that he had, shamefully enough, missed to notice that something was upsetting his favorite ex-student. What a lousy parental figure he made!

“Is there something worrying you, Naruto?” the brown-haired man asked him quietly. Looking up, the blonde stared at the academy teacher, looking mildly surprised by the question, but quickly adverted his gaze to his ramen again.

“’Doesn’t matter,” he finally answered, shrugging.

“It does matter if it affects you this much - you’re barely eating your ramen,” the chuunin joked lightly, hoping to lighten up the mood. He was rewarded with a tiny laugh coming from the teen, some life stirring back in the blonde’s eyes. But the small smile that graced the teen’s features soon slipped off as Naruto started to stare at his food bitterly.

“It’s Sasuke,” he explained half-heatedly. “He’s being an ass.”

“And how is that different from any other day?” Iruka said again, but his joke didn’t seen to amuse the teen much; on the opposite, it seemed to only aggravate him.

“No, it’s different! Ever since she showed up, he’s been acting like a real moron-!”

“Wait, she?” the chuunin cut him curiously and to his surprise, the teen looked a bit embarrassed.

“Yeah, well, there’s that girl...”

Looking away, the blonde rubbed his neck shyly and Iruka stared at him with wide eyes, not believing his ears.

“Naruto! You never told me you had a girlfriend!”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” the teen protested with something of his usual energy, his cheeks turning into a cute shade of pink. “We’re not going out yet, but... She’s really nice to me, and we started spending time together recently...”

Iruka smiled at the teen’s obvious embarrassment, feeling happy that Naruto had found somebody special to him. But soon enough, his smile faltered and the chuunin felt something sink in his stomach as his brain caught up with his heart. Naruto met with a girl and Sasuke started acting weirdly. Somehow, Iruka had a pretty good idea what was going on...

Putting his smile back on, the chuunin eyed his ex-students with fake mild curiosity. “Then, what’s the problem?”

“Sasuke!” Naruto said angrily, “He’s acting like a real ass, I’ve never seen him being so moody before! He keeps on snapping at me and bitching about her all the time!”

“Maybe he’s just afraid that you won't be around as often if you go out with her?” Iruka hazarded hopefully, but the teen shook his head.

“I thought it was that at first too, but we had that talk already. I told him it wouldn’t change anything between us and that he’d still be my best bud and everything. But he just sneered at me and said that I didn’t understand!”

The teen moodily took a mouthful of ramen and swallowed it, obviously angry after his best friend for acting weirdly, and Iruka inwardly sighed. Somehow, he had known he would hear something like that, yet he wished he hadn’t. Dealing with a clueless teenager’s love issues was really not his thing. But he knew it couldn’t really be avoided; Naruto had grown over the years into a fine-looking and charming young man - it was, afterall, bound to happen one day or another.

With some irony, the chuunin thought that his little speculations about the raven-haired teen’s true feelings for his best friend had just been confirmed, in the end. Not that he was happy about it; it only complicated things for him, because Iruka highly doubted that Naruto knew what was truly going on, no matter how obvious it could be. Which meant he was going to have to explain it to him, something he felt very reluctant to do because he didn’t want to reveal Sasuke’s secret and had no idea how he was supposed to explain to Naruto that the reason why his best friend was acting like a moron was because he had a secret crush on him and was jealous. Moreover, he had no idea how Naruto would react to such news, so the prospect of breaking the news to the teen didn’t quite rejoice him much.

But Iruka had to explain what was going on to Naruto. He had to explain it to him before he did something out of place that could ruin his friendship with the Uchiha heir – and the chuunin knew Naruto was fully capable of it. Because he would never forgive himself if he kept is mouth shut and that it caused more trouble between his ex-students. But at the same time, he’d never forgive himself if his revelations ended up messing up Naruto’s relationship with Sasuke either...

“’I don’t understand, I don’t understand!’ Like hell I don’t understand!” the teen mumbled angrily, breaking Iruka’s chain of thoughts. “Sasuke’s a jerk. An egoist, selfish and jealous jerk!”

Those words surprised Iruka; he started to doubt Naruto’s obliviousness to his best friend’s feelings. Saying that Sasuke was jealous... the teen sounded like he had a pretty good idea of what was going on, afterall. But surely enough, if Naruto knew about Sasuke’s secret, then he wouldn’t make such acid comments about him, wouldn’t he? Naruto wasn’t an heartless person - he’d never be pissed after somebody for having unwanted feelings for him. Naruto wasn’t like that.

“Jealous? Why are you saying that?”

“Isn’t that obvious, Iruka-sensei?” the blonde asked him incredulously, as if it was the most obvious thing on heart. “He’s jealous of me!”

Iruka openly stared at his ex-pupil, bewildered by such an unexpected revelation.

“What do you mean, he’s jealous of you? Does he have feelings for her?”

“Of course not! He’s just jealous because for once, there’s a girl who’s interested in me instead of him! Mister ‘Uchiha heir’ Sasuke, who has most of the female single population at his feet, can’t stand the thought that he can’t have them all and that I could have a girlfriend!”

Iruka blinked stupidly at the teen, feeling overwhelmed by incredulity. Surely enough, Naruto couldn’t think something like that? This had to be one of the most ridiculous explanation he’d never heard! Couldn’t he see that such a reflexion was lacking of common sense?!

“Naruto...” the chuunin started off hesitantly, unsure about how he was supposed to address the matter, “Don’t you think you overlooked a few elements in your analysis?” The teen stared at his ex-teacher silently, as if he didn’t know where the man was heading, and Iruka sighed. “I mean, I might be wrong, but Sasuke-kun never really showed kind of interest for girls in general before, right...?”

“My point exactly! He doesn’t like any of them, yet he can’t stand the thought that I can have an admirer for myself! He’s such a selfish bastard!”

Iruka felt exasperation grow in him; obviously, this was going to be harder than he first thought. As if it was not already hard enough, the teenager had to be so oblivious about it...! Him, who was usually so fast at catching up! But to Naruto’s defense, it wasn’t exactly easy to imagine that a male colleague or friend could have feelings for you – if Iruka hadn’t overheard this discussion in the bathhouse weeks ago, he probably would have never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that Kakashi-sensei had a soft spot for him.

Summoning all his courage, the chuunin decided to be a bit bolder.

“Can I ask you a question, Naruto?”

The blonde looked mildly puzzled by the sudden seriousness of that question. “Sure.”

“What do you think about homosexuality?”

“Homosexuality?” the teen asked him incredulously. “What does it have to do with Sasuke?”

“Just answer the question, will you?”

Frowning slightly, Naruto stared at his ex-teacher thoughtfully, an unreadable expression on his still boyish face. “...Well, I guess I’m okay with it.”

“You’re ‘okay’ with it?”

“Yeah, I’m okay with it,” the teen shrugged, “I mean, people should not pretend to be what they’re not and live the way they want to live, or so I think.”

“... So, hypothetically, if you were to have a male friend who preferred men, you wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not!” Naruto protested, as if the mere thought of it was ridiculous.

“But what if, hypothetically, a male friend of yours had feelings for you?” the chuunin asked carefully, expecting the young man to finally understand the message lying underneath all those questions. He presumed the blonde would look puzzled. Or shocked. Or put off, maybe. In fact, he was ready for any kind of reaction. But strangely enough, the teen did not react. He simply stared at the brown-haired with mild interest, as if encouraging him to talk, which disconcerted the chuunin.

“Would you be okay with that...? With the possibility... of being liked by a man?” he hesitantly pushed the issue a bit further, carefully watching for any kind of reaction coming from the blue-eyed teen. “Or even with the possibility of liking men yourself...?”

Then, the teenager did something that completely overthrew Iruka. His lips twisted into an amused knowing grin.

“You know Iruka-sensei, you don’t have to go all ‘hypothetically’ with me, I have no problem with you liking men and going out with Kakashi-sensei. As long as you’re happy, then you should go for it, really, and don’t give a shit about what people may think! And it’s about time that you find yourself a nice little boyfriend, if you want my advice.”

Iruka blinked stupidly at his ex-pupil before catching up the misunderstanding and then, he felt his cheeks heat up. Naruto thought he was looking for some guidance about his own love life! Looking away, the scarred man inwardly groaned, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed by Naruto’s previous comment.

“I’m not talking about me and Kakashi-sensei!” he snapped with exasperation.

To Iruka’s growing frustration, Naruto gave him a flat, dubious look. “Come on sensei, there’s no point denying it.”

“Naruto,” the brown-haired man said on a controlled voice, doing his best to stay focused on his unpleasant self-imposed mission and put aside his exasperation. “Did it ever come to your mind that Sasuke-kun might not be jealous of you?”

“What do you mean?” the teen asked, frowning. “Sasuke, not jealous?”

“I’m not saying that Sasuke-kun is not jealous,” Iruka said quietly, carefully choosing his words, “But he might not be jealous of you, but rather... of her.”

“Jealous of her...?” Naruto frowned, looking a bit lost. But then, his eyes widened as realization fell on him and he gaped at the academy teacher. Iruka couldn’t quite tell if he was looking more like an over-sized fish out of water or a lost four year-old in the middle of a crowded market place, but either way, he felt bad for the shocked teen. Obviously, the possibility of his best friend having a crush on him had never even crossed his mind, and more than before, Iruka wished he hadn’t been the one breaking the news to him. The poor Naruto was looking so upset...

“So you think Sasuke...?” he trailed on with a chocked voice, obviously unable to express the news into words.

“I never said I thought such a thing,” Iruka hastily denied, trying to reassure him a bit. “But... but it’s a possibility.”

“So you do think Sasuke does,” the blonde concluded on a white voice and the chuunin inwardly cursed his very poor lying skills. Turning around slowly, Naruto stared at his mostly untouched ramen bowl with a distant, blank expression on his face that worried Iruka.

“... Does it... bother you?” Iruka asked soflty.

“No...! Well, I mean... This is just so sudden,” the teenager mumbled into his ramen, “I never thought Sasuke... saw me that way.”

Iruka remained silent; he understood only too well what his ex-pupil meant. Silence stretched between them, and the chuunin realized after a while that they must have made a strange sight; a grown up man and a fifteen year-old teenager together at Ichiraku’s, both staring gravely at their cold ramen bowls. Not that he minded – at the moment, of his thoughts were directed toward the troubled teenager sitting beside him and somehow, nothing else seemed to matter. Even Kakashi-sensei’s failed attempt to ask him out didn’t seem so bothersome anymore.

After a while, Naruto sighed heavily and took his head into his hands, looking distraught.

“What a mess...!” Naruto whined under his breath.

“Come on,” Iruka comforted him weakly, “It’s not that bad...”

Predictably, those words did not seem to cheer Naruto up much and Iruka sighed. The chuunin did not know when he decided he was going to do it. Because he honestly did not want to torture the young man any more than he already had. But the teacher in him didn’t allow him to remain silent. Not when it was obvious that the blonde needed guidance.

“You know, Naruto... Before you do anything, I think you should ask yourself two questions,” Iruka said quietly and the blonde looked up at him, listening to him attentively. “First: Are you interested in men and if so, would you be able to see Sasuke ‘that’ way?”

Predictably, those two questions upset the fifteen year-old even more. As soon as they were out of Iruka’s mouth, a funny stunned expression appeared on Naruto’s face, but gradually doubts started to cloud his face as the teen pondered about the questions stated by his ex-teacher. “I don’t know... I – I never really thought about that before...” he muttered with confusion, and once again the chuunin understood only too well the blonde’s inner turmoil.

“It’s okay to be confused, Naruto. When it come down to such questions, sometimes the answer doesn’t appear magically... and you’ve got to figure out on your own,” Iruka said quietly, trying to find some advice coming from his experience to reassure the troubled teen. Not that his own experience on the matter could honestly be of any help to anyone; he had no idea himself where he was standing with Kakashi-sensei and still couldn’t decide whether or not he wanted to go out with him. Worse yet, he tried to avoid questioning himself rather than facing his doubts like an adult...! He had no right to give advice to anyone when it came down to love, but on the other hand, he could not let Naruto down, especially when he was obviously so confused. His words, which had sounded empty and meaningless to the academy teacher, seemed to comfort a bit the blonde young man, who nodded slowly, staring at his ramen bowl thoughtfully. Then, they remained silent for a long moment, and Iruka let his ex-student quietly digest all this new information.

“And you,” Naruto suddenly asked aften long minutes of silence, looking up at his ex-teacher with something of his usual playfulness, “did you figure it out already? With Kakashi-sensei, I mean?”

Iruka raised his eyebrows, surprised by the sudden reorientation of the discussion to his own love issues. Surprised and bothered, since it was not a subject he felt like discussing with anyone – and especially not with Naruto. But after what had been said, the brown-haired man guessed it was only natural for the Kyuubi holder to want to talk about something else to take his mind off things and chase his confusion away, if only for a small while. So the chuunin reluctantly played the game, for Naruto’s sake.

“I wish I had,” he answered with a small laugh, feeling uneasy.

“But didn’t you have a date already?”

“No,” Iruka corrected the teen with a frown, “Kakashi-sensei and I ate together simply because I owed him a lunch, but we never had a date per see.” He was a bit surprised to be asked such a question by Naruto, since most of the town already knew that information.

“You mean he haven’t asked you out yet?” the blonde asked a bit incredulously.

“No, he hasn’t...” Iruka trailed on, watching his ex-pupil closely. Somehow, his sixth sense told him that there was something off with the teenager. Yet Naruto was watching him with honest curiosity and listening attentively to him...

Maybe a bit too attentively.

“Naruto...” the chuunin said on a low, serious voice – the kind of voice he used when he wanted misbehaving students to spill the beans. “You put money on that betting pool, didn’t you?”

The effect was instantaneous; at those words, the young man’s features froze comically and he eyed his ex-teacher nervously in a way that was far too similar to the way a dog looked at its master when caught doing something wrong for Iruka’s taste. It could have been written ‘guilty’ on his forehead for what that expression meant, and even Naruto must have know it, because he didn’t even try to deny having done it.

“I didn’t intend to!” he defended himself with agitation. “It was Sasuke who-”

“I don’t even want to know,” the brown-haired man answered flatly. But then, a playful smirk appeared on his face, and he eyed his ex-pupil mischievously. “But if you’ve got enough money to bet, then you’ve got enough to pay for your own meal, don’t you?”

“WHAT! You can’t be serious?! I didn’t even get to eat it and it’s all cold now!”

“And how is that my problem?” the chuunin asked playfully as he started to eat his long-cold noodles and Naruto stared helplessly at the joyful brown-haired man, wondering if it had been such a good idea to match him up with their team leader afterall.


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To be continued.