Found You

A/N: If you are reading this… then my internet has been proven a success, and I am no long dependent on the MINGSNOT to post these chapters.

Here’s crossing fingers.

Pairing: Kakashi / Sasuke, allusion to Kakashi / Iruka
Lemon: =D You'll have to read to find out!
Spoilers: Irrelivent.
Canon Placement: after the Wave mission / before Chuunin Exam
Update: 1% Some grammar corrections, but otherwise, still one of my favorite chapter interactions between these two awkward guys.

Thanks to aintidrug for pointing out the tag that damn usuratonkachi failed to edit. Lazy ass. Now if it happens again, it'll be strictly my fault and mine alone. Yay.

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Toilet Play.

Is that...? A chocolate bush flopped at the tilting of his head when he spotted a familiar figure down the aisle.

"...Kakashi-san?" he inquired gently as he approached.

Snowy fluff stirred from his thoughts at the calling and lifting his cool grey-blue eye off the hand soap he was reading. "Hm...? Oh, Iruka-sensei." His eye quirked shut in to a smile as the chuunin stopped beside him. "Yo."

With that brilliant shock of hair and the mask that had diluted Team Seven's mission reports numerous times, it was... difficult to conceive Kakashi reading anything other than Icha Icha. Even if it was soap. "... 'Citrus Breeze'?"

"Ah-- it's... Yeah," he chuckled, putting the soap back as soon as he noticed Iruka did not simply continue on his way.

The teacher busted in to a reserved version of Naruto's wide grin. "That doesn't sound like you."

Such a statement intrigued him, parting his gaze from the shelves to watch Iruka for a long moment. "I guess not," he agreed simply. Then he picked up 'Rose & Basil', flipping the cap with his thumb and giving a weak sniff. With his nose, it didn't take much.

He had been sniffing soaps for twenty minutes, and still none of them smelled like 'Uchiha'. "It'd just be nice, to have something new every once in a while."

"That explains the pillows," the chuunin beside him chuckled, rubbing the back of his own head. The basket on Kakashi's shoulders carrying a pair of the fluffy items had left him curious.

Mayhaps Team Seven was turning the distant man around? ...God, he hoped it wasn't that Naruto was driving him to sleep badly.

"Hm...?" Catching on, a lone pale eye darted to the strap on his shoulder, then back to the concoction of 'Mixed Berries'. ...Too fruity. "Mm. I noticed I didn't have a guest set."

All too quickly the teacher caught on, giving him a pair of large, puppy-warm eyes glazed with curiosity. "You're expecting someone..?"

'Ocean Mist' could wait, nose hovering just out of range as he slanted the faded azure disk to him. Suddenly Iruka became demanding with his features, the tender-hearted chuunin revealing a shred of the discipline that had gotten him the rank. He wanted an answer.

Straightening from the blue bottle in his hand the older man gave a chuckle and a limp-wristed swat of the topic with his available hand, desperate to shoo the thought away as his eye smiled next to a creeping bead of sweat. "Ah, hahaha! Haha. It's not like that!"

Doing his best to scold the pain out of his face, vested shoulders sagged heavily. "Is that so..."

When the other wasn't buying it Kakashi's head flopped, staring to the opposite shelves of balms and lotions. Shelves he had spent another half-hour on. Evenly he gave an unconcerned coating on his high baritone. "Sasuke's sick."

Eyes narrowed, unconvinced. His proud chin shifted to accommodate the pout. "Sasuke's never been sick."

"Ah, it was my fault..."

Iruka chose how to respond to such a statement in the silence between them as a lone cart squeaked along, turning down to the mouthwash.

"...I see..."

Attempting to dart in to the clear through the thick tension that had bogged down the pair of them, he at last took a whiff of the blue stuff. He choked back a cough right after, rubbing the stink out of his mask with the back of his glove as he put the bottle back.

"His house is a good ways away, isn't it? How did you find out?" Give himself room to doubt the darker implications. That Kakashi might be lying to him - or worse, telling the truth.

"He spent the night." Feeling the burn of inquisition on his neck his eye fell shut. Easily he sighed, "I wasn't expecting him to drink the milk."

A few tense threads in his chest were forgotten about at that, Iruka forcing a tender smile in to his features. "I see."

"You're not very photogenic when you do that." Kakashi hated staring in to that face when stress whitened the broad scar, destroying otherwise pleasant features. He busied himself with the private world of 'Mango Passion'.

"S...sorry..." squirmed from his lips, eyes falling to the other's sandals. The younger shinobi fidgeted from one heel to the other, hands awkwardly finding his pockets. Now unfit with himself, he struggled for a way to stabilize the conversation. "Seems a long way to go, if he's just spending the night...?"

Iruka couldn't help but think back on the words the Hokage had soothed him with, regarding this man. Ever since, when he had a spare moment in their exchange of paperwork he was starving for details. 'How's Naruto coming along? He doesn't really say anything over ramen.' 'He never shuts up around us...'

'No... He talks a lot. But he doesn't really... say, anything.' Thus, Kakashi would speak - at length - and still he would glean nothing more than his endeavors with Naruto.

It had never occurred to him what might be developing from the other two, as they had never been a horrendous problem in his class. So well-behaved, he had never thought one of them...

...Never thought Uchiha Sasuke - who was all but mute unless he was called upon for something demanding an answer - would be the type...

...Correct that. Uchiha Sasuke was exactly the type to make even a jounin uncomfortable in dealing with him. Iruka had handled his grief in a much different manner. That student, shy to begin with, had completely introverted in to a boy... that wasn't the type to spend the night at someone's house.

Not without some greater purpose in mind. He had the blood of grand shinobi in his veins.

Little by little he took notice of the way Kakashi inflated his personality to the point of aloof comedy in their visits. The chuunin eventually sighted the flecks of mourning, internal disappointment - and self-hatred that the man refused to publicly drown in.

The tragic solemnity, the likeness to himself, had led Iruka to his apartment one evening with leftover ramen from one of his many nights out with an easily excitable ball of orange.

He hadn't left until late in the morning.

Since, he berated himself every time Kakashi convinced him in to a post-dawn snuggle that cost Team Seven its schedule. He hated knowing that it must drive his favorite student up a wall, having to learn from a man that did not give in to loud annoyances and seemed to have little ambition in turning them in to noble shinobi.

Dark eyes fluttered wide as he was snapped from his thoughts with the tail end of Kakashi's mumbling. "...What?"

"I said he's turned it in to a habit. ...Staying over."

Flushing despite himself, Iruka's shoulders balled tersely. "How... many times?" Hearing that a boy he had figured was harder to get open than a clam was doing this repeatedly - and the jounin not exactly a boiling pot of water - made him worry. Deeply. So much that the frown knitted his eyebrows.

"Twice, now. Last time was... about a week? --after the Wave mission." He wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. Making a big deal out of anything tended to turn anything in to a big deal. Bothersome. Really. The cap to 'Lemon Zest' clapped shut, making a tab of it. Uchiha were pretty sour.

In some masochistic streak, people still ate lemons anyway.

The ring of silence made his head lift, a sleepy gaze rising to the look of...

...He didn't know that look. "What's wrong?" he prodded carefully.

His chin wobbled as he swallowed the knot of fear in his throat. "You mean... after...?"

Now he got it, realization smoking his eye as it narrowed. "...Yeah."

"Don't you wanna know how I found your place?"

Back then, to avoid letting his curiosity get the better of him he had brushed it off. "Not really."

Just to keep his student from getting too puffed up with himself...

The silver shrub lowered with a whining sigh of afterthought.

Iruka's head fell as well, more to contain the blush of shame that was making his ears sting and the hairs on his neck prickle.

He could only manage a deadened, "Huh." Then he smiled to the burdened, weakly disgusted and nauseas expression in the other's face as heavy eyes lifted to meet him. "Guess he knows about us, then."

"You guess?!" strained through his voice, wanting to yell at him. How could Kakashi be calm about this?! It made him want to cry with frustration, taking in the jounin's devoid acceptance of the situation. Fingers clenched at the few loose strands of dark hair at his temple, fisting a restraint on his building headache. "You guess! I'm a teacher! You're his teacher! What kind of thing is that for him to 'know about'! This is shameful! He must hate me... And you! This isn't the kind of thing--"

"The whole store's going to know if you keep bragging." The pin-drop, mortified quiet that hung in the air afterwards gave him the assurance to continue as he examined a bottle of 'Spring Rain'.

If only to appease the panicked man beside him he folded his arms and shut his eye, proving he wasn't going to multi-task. "He's not the kind of kid to worry about little stuff like this. You said it yourself, right? We're both teachers. For all he knows you were just stopping by like some parent-conference. You're allowed to do that, aren't you?"

"But...!!" He didn't have any argument in place against Kakashi's reasoning. That did not change the fact that the knot he swallowed was beginning to roll his stomach with doubt.

There was finality in his voice, not wanting to think about it himself. "He hasn't brought it up. I can ask him, if it'll make you relax?"

"Don't!" Iruka would have gladly strangled him at the offer, stopping himself when stretched talons were level with his shoulders. Turning them in to a gesture of pleading explanation his mother-hen worry continued. "That's not the kind of thing you expose them to! If--if he doesn't know - telling him like that could upset him!"

But, he already knew...

"You're not falling asleep there."

"And why not?"

"Because I said so. Unless you can explain to me what's so bad about my bed?"

"...It's tainted."

Though Sasuke had quickly dragged his innocent, wonderful books in to the fray, it had stuck out even then that the youth had to think of something better.

Better than 'I saw your toss in those sheets with Iruka-sensei'.

Upset Sasuke. Hah. The idea amused him, a snort falling out before he could stop himself. "He's not Naruto, you know."

"...I know..."

Scratching his cheek thoughtfully he let his gaze rise to the ceiling lights. "If anything, he would just ignore it. So long as he didn't have to be part of it, eh? Haha..."

Iruka scolded him, fists on his hips. "This isn't something to laugh about."

The vision of that man giving the same look to a classroom full of children made him bubble in to gentle laughter, the chuunin fully aware of what must be so funny. He didn't really have some other look to chastise full-grown men and some dirty joke.

There was a slight chance that the man didn't want to accept one of his students, no matter how terrible his background, was somehow more than just a child.

When his laughter wasn't joined it faded away, leaving him in wordless berating. "Ah... I guess not..."

"...Kakashi-san," he broached sternly, squaring his figure to bring authority in to the olive jacket. "He's still just a kid."

"Try telling him that." No offer came to do just that, so he shifted his gaze at last back to the soaps, adding 'Milk&Honey' to the basket that had been at his ankle the entire time. "He's capable of making his own decisions."

"Doesn't your conscience tell you anything..?" He was not intimately familiar with the rituals of Uchiha, save what few had surfaced in his classroom; that amounted to little more than perfection, and the absence one day a year.

Never talking to anyone, Iruka couldn't help but feel...

...jealous. Not only in that his student couldn't speak with him - trust him, but that this man was willing to make no objection towards Sasuke mistaking confiding in someone. It went against... everything Umino Iruka stood for.

"It's telling me that he's my responsibility. And if he asks, should I just 'tell him when he's older'? He'll get his answers somewhere. Better me than some weirdo right?"

He couldn't manage better than a mute nod, refusing to lift his eyes from taking in 'made with vitamin E and cocoa extract to guarantee an even tan!'

"...You think I'm going to do a bad job."

Another mute nod.

" . . . I'm going to draw on your stomach with strawberry jelly."

Another mute nod. A blink, lifting his head. "...Strawberry..? Wait, what?"

Now he understood just how Gai felt. A gruff sigh tumbled out of him as his head fell. "Nothing. I'll see you when I see you, hm?"

"...Sure..." Despite himself a tense smile worked in to caramel features.

More than once Kakashi had been tempted to take a bite, just to see if the guy was made out of sugar like his demeanor implied. Without adding any severity he drawled, "He'll grow out of it. He's a pretty quick learner, you know."

"Then what about you?"

A lazy eye fell on the way the chuunin worried his cheek in his teeth. "What about me...?"

Insulted by how careless the man could be he fisted his hips all over again with a clatter of the basket's lone occupant, toothpaste, as it hung to his elbow for dear life. "You didn't buy pillows when I was over."

He looked away, not wanting to incur some almighty, yardstick slap on his desk. Never did he notice the way his empty hand fled in to his pocket. "You didn't hog the only one I have."

In some distant manner, Iruka had been referring to the way those three genin were cruel to a person's sleep. Had wanted to ask and make sure the man was getting enough rest to handle both a hyperactive Kyuubi and an elite Uchiha.

There was no way he could know what to make of the information that said elite Uchiha had already been...

Tenderly his breath left him, hands falling to his sides dumbly. "He slept in your bed...?"

A dry blue eye disappeared in silver lashes, bending to collect his basket off the floor. "Yeah." It probably wasn't as important to the boy's former teacher like it was to him - and probably wouldn't help him if he went cooing about how adorable -- and unchildish -- the youth could be in his arms and breathing so deeply.

Somehow, he felt it important to add, "Nothing happened."

"It had better stay that way."

Kakashi had never imagined that this guy was someone he would become irate with. In fact, the way he put so much concern in to his students had often been considered a rather charming quality. Now, that quality was grating his nerves; Iruka was trying to treat the boy like Naruto. He wasn't to blame; the man had only Naruto to go by, considering Sasuke spoke or did so very little to reveal himself.

Unless he was trapped under a towel or backed against the wall.

--The point was: it was beginning to look like everyone except himself and the Hokage were willing to underestimate his team. Here, Iruka was working so hard to think of the blond bundle of ramen-love as nothing more than a student - and in so doing, continued to think he would remain just a student.

"If I remember right, you weren't much older than him when you and Mizuki--" He didn't finish at the sound of a choked noise, able to feel the speed with which eyes tore away from him. "...I'm simply saying... that he has as much right to screw up as you. Who are you to take that away?"

"Who are you to give that to him," hissed a voice fresh with wounds. He had never thought Kakashi could say something so... hurtful. What hurt more - was that thinking the man was nothing like that, compared to what he actually knew about the ex-ANBU known as Hatake Kakashi...

Pondering the answer for a long moment, the jounin eventually shrugged. "Someone he'll hate if it goes wrong. Someone he'll grow out of if it goes right."

There was only one bittersweet thing he could say to that. " 'Two people sharing the same space', huh..."

He didn't know whether to cry or laugh at the smiling eye that settled in his direction, answering the question with it. He could only look away, fingers closing and turning knuckles white on the grip of basket handles that had almost gotten away from his limp arm.

"You're so irresponsible."

Sidestepping the topic of himself (which Iruka noticed he did frequently) he made another sniff at the soap he had placed in his basket. One could never be too sure of what 'Uchiha' smelled like, considering if it was really something he wanted in his pillows.

Better than 'Ocean Breeze' for sure.

"Iruka-sensei?"

The entire thing had made him tired, from the numb 'hm?' that surfaced.

"...Is Mr. Ukki... a bad name for a house plant?"

Just maybe, maybe Sasuke would be alright. The boy was tough, and even if he did end up scarred, it was unlikely he would let that interfere with his duties to this village.

...Besides.

They were just two people sharing the same space. Iruka genuinely couldn't think of anyone else that should teach someone like Sasuke about liking someone.

He became dizzy with blushing, both at the unexpected and silly question - and the concept of Uchiha Sasuke, who was wanted by every girl in their grade and then some (then some being a growing male fanbase), actually preferring company. In some off chance, by choosing Kakashi -- male company.

The way the boy always acted, he had logically assumed he was asexual. Yeah...

He'd always imagined Uchiha spawning in more of a bud manner. No mate required.

Dark eyes clamped shut at more images. What Kakashi could have in store for him, if he ever got that far...

Before, he could not recognize the indecipherable expression of shocked pain that had visited Iruka's face. Now, he could definitely recognize that look.

That look that said he was thinking.

Thinking dirty things.

Thinking dirty, dirty things.

And not about the question he had given him. "...You'll faint if you keep thinking about it." What 'it' was he didn't know exactly, but he certainly didn't want to have to carry the other man out of here.

He had a very sick Uchiha to get back to.

The last item on his grocery list flashed through the back of his mind. "Maybe it is a bad name," he concluded for the both of them, scratching at the base of his skull.

Gaining some level of control over himself the teacher looked away. "It says a lot about you, when you name a plant 'melancholy'." Some realization, nose wrinkling with his misplaced grin. "...It says a lot about you when you name a plant."

"I don't need to hear that from you," the jounin grouched with a flat brow. It didn't take long to dismiss the topic, gaze drifting as if to see through the aisles for the one he had to go visit. "I've still got a couple things to pick up. ...See you when I see you, hm?"

"Please... don't do anything reckless, Kakashi-san." The pleading look in his puppy-wet eyes said he'd been kicked enough for today. He deserved some sort of console.

All he got was a soft hum, Kakashi giving a wave over his shoulder as he slinked out of the aisle.

"Tell him to get better for me alright?"

Not that Sasuke was the type to listen to someone else's requests... He would get better because he wanted to. Not because someone else wanted him to. "Yeah, sure. I guess I could tell the other two they can go home today..."

Iruka's heart sank in to his feet, as well as the color in his face. "Don't... tell me... --You didn't dismiss them..."

"I haven't had time to go to the bridge yet. What is it...? Eleven?"

"They're still waiting for you?!" screeched through the surrounding aisles.

All that could be simpered was a high wail of, "Well this dolphin beached himself on my way to go see them and I just couldn't leave him stranded~!"

"You're so irresponsible!"

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Nothing reckless.

"So, are you ready to answer my question yet...?"

A strangled grunt sounded from the other side of the door.

"Alright then... But I have to remind you, I was in ANBU. Interrogation is a specialty." With a mind-setting cough he cracked open the book in his grasp once more, finding where he had left off.

Really, he was impressed. Most men couldn't sit through the first ten pages of a trashy check-out romance novel. Sasuke had lasted to the third chapter so far and was halfway through the fourth.

Not that he had much of a choice. He was trapped in the bathroom - as much as the lock might say he simply didn't want anyone coming in.

" Charlene gasped as she was swept in to the arms of her debonair stranger, rich auburn curls tossing over her ample bosoms. Over her glowed the bronze visage of her new god, his chin strong and hair dark, waves like the sea tossing their boat lapping his roguish stubble. Stormy eyes crashed lightning through her being and reminding her of the tight corset restraining her impassioned heart..."

He stopped long enough to turn the page and adjust his feet as he remained leaned against the wall.

"Why are you doing this?" sounded weakly beyond the door.

"I've always found that reading something helps a stubborn stomach."

From his spot on the toilet ebon eyes could only glare at where he had pinpointed the man to be. Part of him couldn't believe the bastard didn't have the decency to leave him in peace.

"Out loud?!"

"I'm not the one with a stubborn stomach."

Though, it'd be nice if the Uchiha could get out for just two minutes to let him have a potty break. "Can I continue or are you going to keep interrupting?"

The other part of Sasuke wanted to know...

"...What's a corset?"

His silver brow hiked, attempting to look through the door skeptically at his pupil. At least he was paying attention. ...The fact he was paying attention kind of made him want to giggle. Uchiha only paid attention to what they considered personally relevant.

Or he was taking advantage of the only distraction in the house. One could only look at a wall scroll so many times before there was nothing new to notice.

"It's something women wear," he explained helpfully.

It wasn't that helpful, hearing the annoyed growl on the other side. "I figured."

With a mild chuckle he closed the paperback around his thumb, resting the side of his head on the doorjamb. "It's a top. I guess guys could wear it too if they wanted. Be kinda weird... It's a suspension vest. Very uncomfortable from what I've read."

The all-mighty, omniscient Kakashi was reduced to knowing about something only through his pervert books..? "You've never seen one?"

Aside that one conversation with Gai, back in the days before he knew 'green was in' and clad himself with the burning image of spandex all knew him with today - this had to be one of the strangest. Sasuke was not the type to be inquisitive about useless things.

Sasuke also wasn't the type to be on the brink of snoring in a foreign bed.

Or to squeak.

"I'm the one asking the questions here," he reminded quickly, worming out of the conversation and reclaiming his eye on the page. "Now, talk, or I'll have to mimic Ferdinand."

In younger days, when other children were given the option of being read goodnight fairy-tales like the princess and the koi pond, or the tiger in the snow - Sasuke had always treated himself to a page of shinobi rule, or a simple hug from his mother.

...This was as close to a childhood as he had been allowed to have in quite literally years.

Even if he was being held hostage on an enemy's toilet after being poisoned - and now tortured. He refused to relinquish his information, scrounging an unseeable smirk. "Are you gonna do the accent too?"

Damn. "You have to talk sometime, Sasuke-kun."

"I don't have to tell you anything," snorted loudly in defiance.

A grown man wouldn't sit through even ten pages of one of these books.

A grown man wouldn't have to. Confirming it to himself he gave a tap of his heel against the new stock of toilet paper that was being held ransom. Refusal to betray information was admirable most times.

Kakashi's bladder was less patient than he was. He sighed. "It's a simple question." No response came. Maybe Sasuke had forgotten what the question was...? "How long were you out there when you followed Iruka-sensei here?"

Another one of those strange, hellish squeals made his eyebrow lift. That... had to be pretty painful.

"Where were we... Oh, here we go, Ferdinand..." He eased the book open once more, drearily staring at the page. It would be nice to pee without having to go to the back yard...

It was feeble, but he heard it. If he had been sitting at the door, he just may not have.

"Until morning..."

Quietly he folded the book shut.

There was no doubt in Hatake Kakashi's mind that his pupil was not as young as Iruka wanted him to be.

Later, when the boy's initial fury had burned off, as well as much of his bug, they had found themselves napping away the afternoon heat and breaking in the new pillows. While Kakashi drifted in and out of reciting literary-fantasia and his long strings of internal thought, Sasuke was for the most part in a fitful coma between his bathroom visits.

There was some tiny shred of truth in Iruka's belief that the Uchiha might be too young to learn the way of things. If it was any proof, against him was a boy that sooner chose to sleep than ask in his demanding little way to explain everything he could have seen on that night.

...And what a pleasant night that had been, too.