Bathhouse revelations

Chapter 2

“Have you noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

The four children were sitting on the sun-bathed grass outside the ninja academy, eating their home-made lunch while chatting sociably. They preferred eating outside when the weather was nice like that. Plus, the cafeteria was always so full it was hard to find a place to eat anyway.

“Iruka-sensei,” the red-haired girl explained quietly, “He’s acting weird today.”

“Of course I have. It’s so obvious!” her friend answered in an exasperated tone and the dark-haired boy sitting beside her nodded seriously. The fourth child stared at them in turn, a puzzled expression showing on his boyish face.

“Heh? Really!? I’ve noticed nothing!”

“You would have if you hadn’t slept all the time, Taro!”

“Heh heh, I guess so,” the boy named Taro laughed sheepishly.

“You only woke up when the bell rang too! And after that, you wanted to borrow my notes again!” the brown-haired girl added on an annoyed tone.

“It’s not my fault!” the boy protested weakly, “Iruka-sensei didn’t wake me up!”

“See? I told you he’s been acting weird! Iruka-sensei usually doesn’t let a-ny-one sleep in his classes! There’s definitely something wrong with him!”

“You think he’s sick?” the soft-spoken girl asked anxiously.

“He’s not sick, he’s just distracted.”

“Heh? Distracted? Our Iruka-sensei?” Taro asked incredulously.

“Yeah. He spaces out a lot and keeps on looking through the window.”

“What do you guys think’s going on?”

“Hum... Maybe he just wants to go play outside as well?”

“Stop saying stupid things already, Taro!” the brown-haired girl snapped at her friend with annoyance.

“Hey, do you think he would notice if we skipped class this afternoon?” the dark-haired boy suddenly spoke up hopefully.

“Heh?! You’re crazy Yaruha!”

“What? In his state, he probably wouldn’t even notice we’re not there!”

“And what if he caught us?”

“Caught you doing what?”

The four children sprang around, breath taken in their little throats. Leaning over them, Umino Iruka was watching them sternly, his hands on his hips and a scowl on his mouth.

“N-nothing!” they tried to convince him uneasily, fidgeting guiltily under the brown-haired man’s piercing stare. Their teacher gave them a skeptical look.

“I hope so for you,” the man commented dryly. At the sight of the obviously guilty faces the children gave him, Iruka had to suppress an amused smirk. Children were so cute sometimes.

“What are you doing outside? It’s chilly. Shouldn’t you be eating at the cafeteria with the others?” he asked them with mock suspicion and the children visibly relaxed.

“Hugh, no!”

“The cafeteria’s always loaded!”

“Plus, they’re serving fish today and their fish smells like boiled socks!” the brown-haired girl grimaced and her friends voiced fervently their agreement. Iruka’s eyebrow raised with amusement at the original expression. Deciding to ignore the small voice in him that wanted to ask the child what did boiled socks smell like, Iruka told the kids to watch out not to catch a cold and the four student nodded seriously, obviously relieved of the turn out of the discussion. The academy teacher was about to walk away when the red-haired girl spoke up.

“Ano, Iruka-sensei?” the girl asked hesitantly.

“What is it, Juuri?” the brown-haired man replied on an encouraging voice.

“I wanted to know... Are you sick, sensei?”

“Sick?” Iruka stared at the small girl, surprised. “No, I’m not. Why do you ask?”

“Well, you look a little weird today...” the shy girl explained quietly.

“Yeah!” her friends agreed at once, suddenly looking both excited and curious.

“Yeah, you’ve got this blank look on your face - as if you were thinking about something very very far away!”

“Really?”

“And you keep on staring at the big tree outside!”

That last comment took Iruka aback and a small blush rose to his cheeks. “The tree...?” he muttered to himself. “Was I...?”

“Heh? Why are you blushing, Iruka-sensei?” his student asked him, confusion and mild worry showing on their young faces. At the sight of their perky faces, Iruka fought his blush away, determined not to worry his students over such stupid issues.

“You don’t have to worry, I’m fine. I’m just a bit tired, that’s all,” the academy teacher answered casually, giving them his most honest smile and it seemed to convince the kids, to Iruka’s relief. Before his students could ask him anything else, the chuunin smiled and walked away, intending to go back to his classroom to eat his own lunch and prepare his afternoon classes. Just before entering the academy, the teacher looked back at the kids, who where whispering to one another in a quite suspicious way.

“You guys better not try to skip class!” he warned them loudly through the recess yard, glaring sternly at them. With some satisfaction, he saw them stop whispering and turn around to look at him with guilty eyes, squirming uneasily under his gaze.

“N-no!”

“We won’t!”

“I hope so for you,” Iruka warned them as he entered the academy.

Closing the door behind him, Iruka couldn’t fight back a small smile; kids never learned... If he ever was to show any sign of weakness, they tried to use it against him, as if they thought that they honestly stood a chance against their chuunin teacher when he was tired or had a cold. It was kinda cute, when you put aside the fact that what they had in mind was probably far from innocent. That thought brought a bitter grimace to his lips. He was going to have a rough afternoon, that was for sure. Especially now that he had shown weakness by looking so distracted. In his profession, showing weakness usually meant a good deal of trouble and a serious case of headache by the end of the day. Iruka sighed at the thought.

Thinking back of the discussion he just had with his students, Iruka felt ashamed of his unusual lack of self-control and professionalism. Even the kids had noticed something was troubling him, and that was a bad sign. True, he did have trouble to concentrate all morning long, but he had never imagined it showed so much...! Especially since he usually was good at hiding those kind of things to his students - years of working with those little hellions obliged. But on this defense, he had never felt this tormented by his own thoughts before.

Damn those gossipers for messing with his mind! Ever since he had overheard their stupid discussion the night before, he hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind. Their words were following him everywhere, haunting him like the plague. They brought up questions that kept on torturing his mind and made him both restless and distracted - he had said the truth when he had told the kids he was tired, since he had barely slept at all the night before. In the morning, he had stared at his cereal bowl for twenty minutes, his head so full of questions that he even forgot to eat them. When he finally snapped out of his reverie, his cereal where so soaked with milk that the thing was barely still eatable. He had thought that he would get an hold of himself back at work, but even in his own classroom, Iruka couldn’t concentrate on the lesson he was supposed to teach. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t help but think again of what he had heard those strangers say.

He couldn’t help thinking of Hatake Kakashi.

The chuunin sighed at the thought. Well, the very idea of Kakashi-sensei being in love with him was disturbing enough to start with, it was no wonder he was so upset...! Iruka still couldn’t get used to that idea. Some part of him refused to accept it, refused to think it was even possible. But then again, the women’s arguments had been so convincing... It all made so much sense. The brown-haired man had tried to persuade himself during the night that those arguments didn’t mean anything, but he knew the only one he was trying to kid was himself - the thought of Kakashi-sensei liking him and everything it implied made him so uneasy! He had never been placed in such a situation before and had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to act toward the silver-haired man now. Should he do as if nothing happened? Should he ignore him? Or should he confront him? And if he did, what was he supposed to tell him? He... He didn’t even know what he felt about the whole thing... So how was he supposed to know what to do about it?

Iruka sighed with frustration at the thought. The more he thought about it, the less he knew what to do... And unfortunately for him, it was not the kind of thing you can stop thinking about so easily. Heh, you didn’t learn everyday that someone - someone you believed hated you - was head over heels in love with you. Iruka kept on telling himself that it was only normal to be thrown off balance by such news. Yes, it was probably a normal thing.

He jus hoped it would end up soon.

Feeling mentally exhausted by all that thinking, the academy teacher entered the deserted classroom and sat heavily on his wooden chair, rubbing his temples. Looking up, he saw his home-made bento waiting for him on the corner of the desk and felt something sink in him as he remembered he had come back to the classroom to eat his own dinner. Somehow, all this thinking drained him not only of his energy and concentration, but of his appetite as well. He gave a half-hearted regretful look to his lunch. The truth was he wasn’t feeling like eating at all... On the other hand, he couldn’t let it go to waste like that, that would be wrong.

Iruka contemplated eating it for supper. That way, he wouldn’t have to cook. But he didn’t like much eating a cold lunch for supper; it didn’t seem appropriate. Then, the thought of sharing it with his coworkers came to his mind. His fellow academy teachers were probably eating together at the teacher lounge, sharing anecdotes and thoughtless blah blah as they usually did during the lunch break. He could pay them a visit. Not that visiting them tempted him a lot, but it might distract him a bit from his never ending questioning... Definitely, it was worth a try, he thought as he got up and took his bento with him to the teachers’ lounge. At this point, any distraction was more than welcome.

As he passed in front the classroom’s immense window, his eyes drifted to the landscape, stopping absent-mindedly on the big Oat tree that was standing in the middle of the courtyard. When he realized he was staring at the said tree, he mentally slapped himself, feeling a bit ashamed for some unexplainable reason. He didn’t know why, but since he learned that Kakashi used it to... spy on him, he had felt an irresistible longing to look at it. Even the kids had noticed it. Maybe he secretly wished to see Kakashi hiding in it... Wait, that was just ridiculous.

Iruka tore his eyes away from the tree and left the classroom, heading for his coworkers’ hideout. As he approached his destination, he heard his fellow academy teachers’ voices getting louder and louder in the student-free academy even thought they were obviously trying to keep their voices low. They were probably shamelessly ruining someone’s reputation again... The thought brought an amused smirk to Iruka’s lips. Oh, what they said was not exactly mean or dangerous! Well, most of the time, it wasn’t... it was just gossip after all. Whatever unbelievable or shameful story they came up with, it only interested them for a short while and was soon forgotten afterward. You could say that it was kind of their hobby. Some people liked to do ikebana, other enjoyed gardening. Iruka preferred reading books. As for the academy teachers of Konoha, they just loved to share rumors and speculate about people’s private lives. It was their thing. Iruka had never been much of a gossiper himself and preferred staying away from their discussions, so they wouldn’t force him to voice out his opinion concerning the latest juicy news they’d heard. That was one of the reasons why he used not to eat lunch with them to start with.

He knew pretty well that by not staying at the teacher lounge on lunch time, he gave his colleagues the occasion to talk about him behind his back but he couldn’t care less. It wasn’t like there was anything to say about him to start with; he was probably the most normal and ordinary chuunin in the whole village. Some even qualified his lifestyle to be “dull” or “boring”. The brown-haired man hardly ever did or said anything that could raise suspicion or shock anyone. He would be damned if they found something scandalous to say about him! And even if they did, Iruka liked to think that what people thought of him didn’t matter much to him anyway.

He was about to knock when he clearly heard his name somewhere in their discussion, which suprised him. They were talking about him? What for? At once, his amused smile was replaced by a slight frown as he stopped dead on his track. He had not intended to eavesdrop - especially after what happened yesterday evening! - he couldn’t help but listen to what they were saying, his curiosity getting the best of him.

“...That’s so unlike him!”

“You think he’s sick or something?”

“Umino Iruka, sick? You must be dreaming!” someone commented dryly and a few people could be heard snorting.

“Maybe he overdid it… He snapped. He burns the candle at both ends, that Iruka. It was bound to happen one day or another...”

“Don’t draw a conclusion from it too fast. He might just be a little tired for all we know. It’s human after all.”

“Since you’re talking about it, have you ever seen him tired before? I tell you, that guy’s not normal-” There was an annoyed sigh.

“Oh, don’t bring it up again! I’ve had enough of it already!”

“No, seriously! We are in the best position to know how watching over pre-genin is demanding, right? All of us, we all snapped at a time or another. Right?” There was a murmur of agreement. “But that Umino guy hasn’t! He’s never lost it! In 9 years of teaching, he has never lost it! Always so controlled and strict! Always well-organized and fresh-looking, even when everybody else is overworked... That’s definitely not normal! Nobody could endure that much and still be nice and everything! I tell you, there’s something out of place with him.”

Iruka’s eyebrow rose in the air skeptically. He never thought Higari-sensei - because he was pretty sure that was Higari-sensei’s voice - felt that way about him. Not that he truly cared of what that guy thought of him - he has always considered him to be a moron anyway. Iruka felt sorry for the students Higari was assigned to.

“Yeah, I always thought he was a bit fishy...”

“Are you listening to yourselves? You’re talking about Iruka like he’s unpleasant just because he can cope better than you do with this job’s stress. I think he’s a nice guy.”

“We’re not saying that he’s not nice, but... Now that you said it, Higari-kun... Iruka always seem so perfect, so in-control... And not only him, but his classes too. It’s annoying somehow...”

“And he’s never slipped before too... Unbelievable, isn’t...?”

“Well that might explain why he’s acting so weird today,” someone muttered in a mysterious voice. “Being distracted, spacing out like that... He might be about to snap...” Iruka’s frown deepened; was he as distracted as his coworkers were alluding? Did it show that much? It was one thing for his students to notice, but his coworkers...

“You think so?” inquired an obviously worried woman.

“I bet he’s not able to keep his mask in place anymore... I tell you, we’ll see the true Iruka soon!” Higari-sensei burst out almost proudly. Behind the lounge door, Iruka rolled his eyes with exasperation. Oh God, that guy was such a jerk!

“Don’t you think you’re pushing it too much?” said a voice Iruka recognized to be Uutaru’s, the purple-haired woman teaching in the classroom next to his. “You make him sound like he’s a monster or something. Okay, he’s a bit strange, but he seems to be a nice and caring person on the whole. His students seem to love him too.” The brown-haired chuunin eavesdropping outside the teacher lounge suddenly felt his appreciation of Uutaru-sensei raise of a few notches.

“But we don’t know what he does to them in the classroom, don’t we?” Higari muttered sneakily.

“Are you trying to say...?”

“Oh, come on!”

“You’re overdoing it. Afterall, Sandaime had the highest esteem of him.”

“Well, it never came to your mind that it might be the reason why he got his post to begin with-?” Iruka had heard enough. Just then, he knocked on the door and, without further warning, entered the room. In the teachers’ lounge, everyone froze and a tense silence fell on the small group of chuunins at his sudden and quite unexpected appearance. Everybody seemed to hold their breath, waiting for something - the fact that they didn’t even know what they were waiting for only increasing their wariness. A question was written all over their faces: What had he heard exactly?

So they wouldn’t imagine he had been spying on them, Iruka did his best to look totally normal and unconcerned as he greeted them - although it was hard to resist the urge to burst out laughing when he looked at Higari-sensei’s shaken face, which was suddenly suspiciously pale. Not so courageous anymore, was he?

If he wouldn’t have been aggravated by their immaturity, he would have felt sorry for them, seeing their obvious uneasiness. But, if they wouldn’t have been so absorbed by their discussion, they would have felt him coming. There were supposed to be shinobi, afterall. As far as he was concerned, they had it coming.

“What’s wrong?” Iruka asked with faked confusion at the strange ambiance.

“Ah, nothing’s wrong Iruka-sensei,” Uutaru answered him with a hypocrite smile and she just lost the esteem she had previously gained. “We’re just surprised to see you here; you don’t eat lunch with us often.”

“No, I don’t,” The chuunin admitted with a small smile before putting his bento on the nearest desk. “In fact, I only came to share my lunch with you. I’m not hungry and I thought it would be a shame to put it to waste without even touching it.”

“That’s nice of you.” Iruka saw in the corner of his eyes Higari staring cautiously at the innocent box. The chuunin was about to say them goodbye when Kimishito-sensei, a young and usually silent teacher, spoke up from behind his peers.

“Iruka-sensei... Are you okay? You don’t look like yourself today.” At his words, everyone set their avid eyes on the said chuunin, analyzing him with a disturbingly piercing curiosity. Iruka gulped nervously, uneasy with the sudden hungry attention he was given.

“Do I?” he tried to sound surprised. “No, I’m fine Kimishito-sensei.”

“Don’t try to fool us, you’ve been acting strangely all day long. Even your students have noticed it,” someone replied him. Iruka sighed, rubbing absent-mindedly the bridge of his nose. Why did they all have to make a big story out of it? They needed to get themselves a life...

“You know, you can go home if you feel you’re about to... slip,” Kimishito said tactfully, eyeing him cautiously. “I’m free this afternoon, so I can watch over your class.”

“Oh, no no, that won’t be necessary,” he assured him hastily, overwhelmed by the stupidity of the situation. “It’s nothing like that! I’m not going to lose it or anything,” He could have sworn he saw disappointment on some of their faces.

“So what’s bothering you?” someone asked frankly.

“Hum...” Iruka hesitated. There was no way the brown-haired chuunin could tell them he was distracted because he just overheard the most mysterious and famous jounin in town was in love with him. He could have told them some quick lie to escape that awkward situation - for example, that he hadn’t had enough sleep last night, which was true to some extent - but then he decided against it. Why did they need to know what was bothering him anyway? It wasn’t their business. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to satisfy their curiosity, even with made-up excuses.

“Let’s say personal matters,” the chuunin answered impassively, hoping they would be satisfied with that explanation and wouldn’t harass him further. Some part of him doubted it, though.

“Is that so?”

“Is there anything we can do to help you?” Kimishito-sensei asked him.

“No, I don’t think so,” Iruka answered shortly, frowning at their annoying insistence. He hoped they wouldn’t imagine themselves some far-fetched scenario with what he just told them, but judging by the aroused curiosity that was lighting up their faces, his situation was already beyond repair. Iruka inwardly sighed. At least speculating on which aspect of his private life was disturbing him would keep them busy all the afternoon long, and even the next day if he was lucky enough. And it wasn’t like he cared of whatever story they could come up with. Their innocent gossips could not affect him anyway.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” a colleague asked on a mildly hopeful tone.

“Aw, come on Iruka-sensei! Don’t be so secretive about it! You sound like a school girl with her first crush!”

These words had a strange effect on Iruka, who somehow found himself associating the words “first crush” and “Kakashi-sensei” together. For some unknown reason, this disturbing association didn’t go unnoticed in his head. His eyes suddenly shot wide open and he felt heat rise to his tanned cheeks at the very thought of what had just crossed his mind - whatever it was.

“Iruka-sensei? You’re... blushing,” someone was kind enough to point out.

“N-no, I’m not! I’m just-”

“Ohhhhhh!” The feminine members of the staff giggled quietly.

“Oh ho ho! Who’s the lucky girl, Iruka-sensei?” someone male coworker punched him on the arm, a knowing smirk on his lips.

“Heh? N-no, it’s nothing like that-!” Iruka started to protest, but just then, the bell could be heard through the academy, announcing the end of the lunch break. Was it already 1 o’clock? But he had wanted to illustrate the blackboard with graphics for the afternoon class during that break! He was running late! All protestations forgotten, Iruka apologized briefly for his hasty departure and positively ran out of the teachers’ lounge to his class, hoping he would be able to make it on time. The other chuunins could only watch him as he flew away, adorning a little knowing smile.

“Well, well! Who woul have imagined? Our little Iruka-sensei finally finding love...!”

“I always thought he would stay a bachelor all his life long, too.”

“I hope the girl he likes won’t turn him down...!” Kimishito declared softly.

“Girl? I don’t remember hearing him saying something about a woman.”

“Heh? What are you trying to say?”

“Ew, Matsuba! That would be just sick!”

“I always thought he swung that way myself...” Higari commented with an amused smirk.

“Oh, we’re not going to talk about that again!”

“Hurry up guys if you don’t want to be late for your classes...!”

--

“Sorry for my lateness!”

Those were words Iruka had not heard himself say often - obviously, neither had his coworkers, judging by the surprised look on their faces. And not only them; somehow, the whole mission room found itself staring at the helplessly late chuunin like there was something Wrong. Embarrassed by those slightly worried or curious glances people were giving him, the chuunin did his best not to bring too much attention to himself as he hastily made his way through the files of tired nins awaiting to dispose of their mission reports to install himself at his designated desk. At once, he started receiving and checking reports, trying to ignore the sidelong glances his coworkers were giving him.

He couldn’t believe he arrived late! Him, who was always on time! Plus, his class had finished earlier than usual - in his current state of mind, he hadn’t been able to stand his students’ turbulence, which only seemed to increase their boldness and he ended up sending them back home earlier than usual. He had therefore found himself with more free time than usual before his shift at the mission room started, yet he had still managed to spend so much time fussing over his awkward situation to arrive late at work nonetheless! He felt so ashamed...!

When the 5 o’clock rush finally came to an end, Iruka let himself sink in his chair, sighing. He closed his sore eyes - he was starting to suffer from staying up all night thinking instead of sleeping - and rubbed them in slow patterns. It had been such a long day...

“...Iruka-san?” the chuunin opened his burning eyes, advertising his gaze to his fellow coworkers, who were staring at him with mildly worried faces. He closed his eyes again tiredly, knowing far too well what was coming.

“...What is it?” he asked roughly.

“Are you okay? You don’t look like yourself today...” For some reason, it was starting to annoy him. So what if he looked a little bit unfocused? It happened to everybody to have bad days! What did they all think he was, a robot? He wasn’t invulnerable, for God’s sake...! To think that all this fuss had started because of some stupid gossips he had overheard at the bathhouse... Gossips...!

“I’m fine,” he sighed lifelessly.

“You’re sure? You look-”

“Please, spare me that not-looking-like-yourself crap already, I’ve had it all day long,” Iruka breathed in what he had intended to be an imperative tone, but it sounded more pleading than anything else. Great, now he managed to look even weaker. His eyes still closed, the brown-haired man sighed again, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. The room was mostly silent - exept for the mouthed words his coworkers were exchanging in an almost secretive way. Hmph. As if Iruka couldn’t tell they were speaking of him. They could at least wait until he left to start gossiping on him like that. Bunch of disrespectful idiots... But for now, he had other matters in mind. Or, to be accurate, he had one big silver-haired problem in mind.

What was he supposed to think of all of this? And what if he was fussing over some made-up story? Afterall, it was only a gossip... But, with all the details he had heard, Iruka had to admit it was pretty unlikely to be false... Damn. Damn damn damn! What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to react when he saw Kakashi again? What was he supposed to think...? Ahh, it was so troublesome! Iruka almost wished he had had the presence of mind to leave the bathhouse when those noisy girls had appeared. If only...

Just then, Iruka heard something being set down quietly on his desk. He opened his eyes and stared blankly at a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. Somebody had misinterpreted his emotional distress for tiredness and had been thoughtful enough to bring him a coffee. How cute. That surprising and somewhat very sweet attention brought a small tired smile to his lips as he looked up to thank his coworker for his/her kindness. He did not, however, expect to see a mask and a mass of unmanageable silver hair where was supposed to stand one of his coworkers.

“K-Kakashi-sensei!” the chuunin croaked, startled. Unfortunately for him, jumping when you were half-lying in a mission-room wooden chair didn’t do well. Iruka learned it the hard way when he and the said chair gracelessly fell on the floor in an ear breaking racket. Mentally cursing his sudden clumsiness, the brown-haired man hastily got to his feet, his cheeks burning in embarrassment.

He couldn’t believe he had fell on the floor just like that! He was a ninja goddammit! Ninja did not fall of their chairs because they were surprised! That was so humiliating! Now the whole mission room was staring at him like he had grown a second head...!

“You alright, Iruka?” he heard someone ask him not too far away.

“Y-yes! I’m sorry. I guess I’m a bit stressed,” the brown-haired man explained weakly, a little nervous laugh escaping his mouth. Carefully avoiding the jounin’s gaze, the brown-haired man nervously put up his chair from the floor and sat on it slowly, trying to regain some composure. Inside his chest, his heart was beating so fast it seemed like it wanted to break through his rib cage. Calm down, Iruka! You meet with him almost everyday, there’s nothing to be afraid of!

Nervously, Iruka advertised his gaze to the man standing in front of him. Hatake Kakashi was staring blankly at him, his only visible eyebrow raised high to show his bewilderment and Iruka felt his cheeks heating up once again. Glancing down from the man’s somehow unnerving gray eye, Iruka noticed that his uniform looked torn and stained - some blots looked suspiciously like blood. The jounin was probably coming back from a long mission again, Iruka guessed. Another B-ranked mission that turned out uglily - the Copy nin seemed to always get those somehow.

“G-good afternoon, Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka spluttered, smiling uneasily at the silver-haired man.

“Yo,” the jounin answered casually, looking like his nonchalant self.

There was a short uneasy silence.

“Erm, thanks a lot for the coffee,” the chuunin managed to say half-heartfully, a painful polite smile on his lips.

The Sharigan user said nothing. Silence stretched on between them once again and when Kakashi realized that Iruka was waiting for him to say something back, he looked away.

“... I decided to grab a coffee on my way here, but you look like you need it more than me,” the ex-anbu said on his usual bored tone, as if it was the most trivial thing in the world. As if! Nobody would think of grabbing a coffee just after coming back from a long mission! They usually went straight home, took a shower and went to bed. Kakashi-sensei probably showed up to hand in his mission report and, seeing the state he was in, decided to go buy him a coffee... That simple idea made Iruka’s guts flutter in the weirdest way. And why did it sound to him like Kakashi was trying to justify himself? Was he imagining things? And why was he looking away like that anyway? Could it be that he was... embarrassed? Then... Then...!

“Y-you shouldn’t have,” Iruka said uneasily, willing all those questions and speculations away from his mind.

There was another shy silence. Then Kakashi dig from one of his pocket a mission report and handed it to him. Iruka took it silently, checking it absent-mindedly. A long-mission, just like he had thought. For those, nins were usually given extra time to back home and rest a bit before submitting them in... And Hatake Kakashi wasn’t exactly known for submitting his reports on time either... Moreover, that report obviously looked like it had been done in a hurry very recently - like on the corner of a coffee table, as its owner was passing his order... Was that a coffee strain on the corner...? Iruka’s throat tightened painfully and his heart pounded harder in his chest.

“Everything looks in order. Thank you for your hard work,” he declared quietly, his eyes never leaving the sheet. He felt more than he saw Kakashi nod slowly. The jounin stayed there a moment silently, as if he was about to say something. In the end, he turned around and left without saying a word.

Okay. It was now official. The verdict fell on Iruka like a ton, leaving him breathless as he watched helplessly the jounin’s back go away.

Hatake Kakashi was in love with him.

... How could he have been so blind all that time? It was obvious...! So obvious he felt a bit shameful for not noticing it before now. All those clues and strange reactions pointed toward the same logical conclusion - a very sudden conclusion Iruka found himself trying to digest on his mission room wooden chair on a sunny Tuesday evening. He was staring distantly at the not-so-warm-anymore coffee the Copy nin had just so kindly given him, his cheeks still wearing a slight blush, unaware of the agitated whispers and the long amused glances his coworkers were already exchanging.

The rest of the shift passed under his eyes and, before he knew it, he was standing outside his apartment’s door, staring at it blankly. Sighing, he leaned his back against it, looking at the stars absent-mindedly. So what now...?

Somewhere in Konoha, another man was sighing as he stared at the sky, the soft caress of the wind making him shiver lightly under his soaked bathrobe. If only...


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To be continued.