The Dance

There was a polite knock on his door, and Iruka sighed as he pushed himself to his feet to answer it. "Why is it whenever I want to be left alone..." he muttered, not even bothering to finish the thought. He recognized Aoba's chakra and sighed. "Great, somebody probably called in. Just what I needed."

Forcing himself to smile, he slid the door open. "Hello, Aoba-san."

"Hello, Iruka-san. Tsunade-sama sent me to deliver this." He handed over a scroll. "You don't look so good. Are you sick, Iruka-san?"

"I'm fine." Iruka opened the scroll and sighed before scribbling a response and handing it back. "What?" He asked when the other man stood there and stared at him.

"Are you sure..."

"I'm fine, already!" Okay, maybe glowering at Aoba wasn't a good idea, Iruka decided, and sighed again. "I've got a hang-over, okay." He pinched the bridge of his nose, wishing the other man would just go away.

"Oh." Aoba seemed to decide he was probably safer elsewhere. "Excuse me then." As the tokubetsu disappeared, Iruka wondered if he was excusing himself or appologizing for the inquiry.

------

Iruka pulled a box from the closet and headed for the hokage's office. He forced himself to smile whenever he passed somebody he knew, which was far too often for him today.

When he finally reached Tsunade's office, Izumo and Kotetsu were outside playing 'darts' with kunai and a badly drawn picture of Anko in a bikini. The object of the game seemed to be seeing how many kunai they could get on the paper but not actually hit the sketch. That, or, maybe they really were worse than his students, he doubted it though.

"Hi," he said, forcing a smile to his lips. It was a little easier with his friends, he realized. "You could probably get Anko to pose for you, if just asked."

"Anko in a bikini would be too distracting. I'd miss and actually hit her, and then she'd kill us." Kotetsu said as he tossed another kunai at the piece of paper.

"Like you could hit her," Iruka goaded.

"I might not be able to hit her, but I could nail her," Izumo chimed in.

"Oh, real challenge there. Everyone knows you three spend far too many weekends together to not be screwing around." Iruka tried not to look at the door. He was procrastinating and he knew it; but, he knew Tsunade would know he was upset, and he really didn't want her to. Really, it was probably better to get it over with.

"Don't let Anko catch you two doing that, she'll kill you," he said, still pointedly ignoring the door.

"Don't let me catch them doing what?" A voice asked from behind him.

Izumo ran and stood in front of the picture while Kotetsu hurridly pulled Kunai free. "Nothing, Anko-chan..."

"Chan? Oh yeah, like I'm going to believe you now." There was a puff of smoke and she was suddenly behind Kotetsu and peering over his shoulder.

"I have far too many clothes on!" She shook her head disapprovingly then hit both of them on the head. "And, you guys shouldn't try drawing ever again. You made me look fat, and my hair is a much darker shade of purple. And, that is some seriously bad hair."

They rubbed their heads and backed away from the glaring kunoichi. "I can't help it I'm a ninja, not an artist," Izumo pouted.

"It does look like you when you wake up in the morning..." Kotetsu supplied as he took a step back.

"Do I need to get the whip out?" She said, glowering at them.

"No!" They both squeaked simultaneously.

"As entertaining as you three are... I think I'd better head in." Iruka practically ran through the door, his reluctance surprisingly gone for the moment.

-------

Tsunade sat at her desk, staring at a folder intently. She didn't look up when he entered.

"Tsunade-sama, you asked to see me," he said, stopping a few feet in front of her desk and bowing.

"Just have a seat. Still waiting on Kakashi to get here, and for Shizune and Sakura to get back from getting the food and drinks."

Iruka held up the box. "Where should I put this?"

Tsunade waved a hand towards one side of her desk and continued working. So, he set the gift down and took a seat.

A soft knock at the door drew his attention, but the hokage ignored the sound. After a moment, Aoba entered carrying a box

"Hokage sama... Hatake-sama sent this and said to let you know he's not coming." The jounin seemed extremly uncomfortable and looked at Iruka for help.

Tsunade looked up and, at the glare, Aoba took a step back. "I'll be right back, Iruka-sensei," she said as she stood, made a quick handsign, and disappeared.

Iruka felt the guilt twist in his stomach, realizing that Kakashi refusing to come was most likely entirely his fault. He felt worse at the idea that Kakashi was angry enough at him to refuse to come to his students graduation party.

He was contemplating ways of getting away, so that Kakashi would be able to stay and not have to deal with him, when another pop of chakra and puff of smoke announced the hokage's return; and, beside her was Kakashi.

"I don't care what your excuse is, you are coming to her party if I have to knock you unconsious to keep you here!" She screamed the words into the silver-haired man's ear, which she had a nice firm grip on.

"Ow!" Kakashi said, rubbing at his ear as she finally released it.

"I just remembered I promised to..." Iruka started.

"Don't you start with me, Umino." She glared at him before returning the look to Kakashi. "And, you had both better be on your best behavior, or I will make you regret it."

Iruka wanted to protest but decided it would likely not do any good. Except, of course, she might knock him unconscious for several days, and he could spend it in the hospital; and, maybe Kakashi would be less angry at him by then.

Kakashi took a seat on the windowsill and pulled out his orange book. Sighing, Iruka figetted while he waited for Shizune and Sakura to get there. It was a good fifteen to twenty minutes before they made it back.

"You're here! Finally, I can stop staring at these stupid reports and we can celebrate." She smiled warmly at her student as she shoved the folder she'd been reading, along with several others, into a drawer. "And, look, both Iruka and Kakashi came."

Sakura rushed over and wrapped her arms around Iruka. "Thank you! It means a lot to me," she said as she stepped back and smiled over at Kakashi. "With both Sasuke and Naruto gone, I'm glad you both came. Thank you."

"Of course, Sakura-chan," Iruka said, feeling even guiltier, this time over trying to excuse himself.

----

"And then, Naruto tried to grab her to keep her from falling, but he..." Kakashi paused, obviously for dramatic effect. "He missed." Sakura's face was a bright crimson, but she was smiling. "So, not only did our clumsy, dense blonde end up fondling his teammate, he also managed to shove her into the trash laden pond," he finished, his visible eye curving into a cresent.

The room filled with the sound of laughter as the target of the teasing blushed as pink as her hair. "Kaka-sensei..." she whined, burying her face in her hands.

Iruka felt himself smiling, despite his current troubles. He began to believe, in this calm moment of happiness, that things would be okay. He and Kakashi could go back to being just friends and things would go back to normal. The sharingan user was a genius, he'd probably already realized Iruka hadn't meant to insult him.

"It's your turn, Iruka-san, so what truly embarrasing thing do you know about our girl? You must know all kinds of things." Shizune was smiling at him and batting her eyes in a way that made Iruka want to ask her if they were dry. He would never understand why girls did that. Really, it was disturbing to see the usually serious kunoichi acting... well like Sakura did around Sasuke.

"I might know a few," he said, deciding it was best to just ignore the odd behavior. "Like the time her and Ino started wearing make-up." Iruka didn't fail to notice that the moment everyone else's eyes turned on him, the copy-nin pulled out his book and pointedly stopped paying attention. Iruka's heart sank as he realized Kakashi had only been being polite, not understanding.

He hoped his smile didn't faulter as he continued. "I don't know how they found out the other was going to wear it, but let's just say even Ino had to learn the hard way how to put on make-up."

"Sensei!" Sakura squeaked, looking utterly mortified by the memory.

"Ino had almost no eyebrows, and her lipstick was so bright it was practically blinding. And, Sakura..." Iruka smiled softly at his ex-student, whose blush was starting to rival one of Hinata's. "Well, her cheeks matched her hair, her face was three shades darker than the rest of her, and she had more eye-shadow on than a geisha."

"Oh yeah! Well tell them who showed me and Ino how to put make-up on!" Sakara said, smiling triumphantly.

"It wasn't... I mean I did, but..." he spluttered. He could feel the heat on his cheeks and knew he probably looked even more like Hinata than Sakura had a minute ago. "It's not like you're thinking..."

"Oh? Then how is it, Iruka-sensei?" Kakashi drawled, not bothering to look up from his book. "You have such an amazing way of turning things around so it looks like something completely different than what it actually is. I'd love to hear how you know how to put make-up on is... Anko's fault? Izumo's?" The tone was light, amused, and to everyone but Iruka, it probably sounded like the jounin was simply teasing him.

"Actually..." Iruka ground out through clenched teeth. "It's my old teammate, Tsubaki's, fault. She... wanted to impress Mizuki for their first date." He sighed slightly at the memory. "Her mother was part of my parents' team, and her father... well he just never knew what to do with a daughter. So, we spent three days digging through magazines trying to figure it out."

"Aw! That's so sweet!" Shizune cooed at him.

"Wow, I didn't know that, Iruka-sensei!" Sakura was grinning at him. "I bet you two are really close."

"You're so 'nice,' sensei..." The words stung even if no one else seemed to hear them.
The rest of the party went okay, and Iruka said goodbye to Sakura, telling her that he was very proud of her. Kakashi had disappeared with some suitably lame excuse about having to meet a dragon about the coming rain. Sighing, he decided to head for Ichiraku. Maybe a nice bowl of pork ramen would help cheer him up, or at least make it a little easier to fall asleep.