Trapped Dolphin

Title: Trapped Dolphin
Author: Somnambulist_dreams
Summary: Iruka has suicidal issues, and Kakashi seems to be out to get him.
Rating: NC-17 (for later chapters)
Pairing(s): Kakashi x Iruka
Feedback: Oh yes please!
Characters: mainly Kakashi and Iruka … and Naruto and the gang, and the other teachers
Betas: On the lookout for one, or two, or three. Interested? Hehe… feel free to tell me. ^_^
Disclaimer: I'm not filthy rich and I don't own Naruto or any other characters in the anime. I'm not gettin' any money from doin' this either, awright? ‘Coz if I did own Naruto, there’d surely be more half naked guys, and lots more Kakairu action going on… hehehe.

A/N To commemorate the one-year anniversary of my first posting of this fic on the net, I made this chapter a little longer than usual just for you. Enjoy. J

Chapter 7: The Dolphin, the Scarecrow, the Senbon-sucker, and the Human Inflatable

Iruka stacked the mission reports on the desk as neatly as he could and heaved a heavy sigh. If he what he heard was correct, Team 7 returned from their mission early that day. But he has yet to see Naruto and the others. He was worried that one of them could have been seriously injured, however, if one of them were sent to the hospital, he would’ve heard of it already.

Then there was that nagging thought at the back of his head that Naruto forgot about their little agreement to get ramen. It used to be that every after each mission, Naruto would rush to wherever Iruka was and spend as much time as possible narrating his newest adventures, then after some pleading from the blonde boy, they would head on over to Ichiraku’s for a hearty ramen meal. But lately… they haven’t been spending as much time as they used to. To know that he was assuming a smaller and smaller role in the boy’s life was slowly breaking his heart. He felt even more insignificant. More worthless.

He felt the itch of the wounds on his arms and his eyes were drawn to a small smudge of blood on the bandages on his right arm. A particularly deep slash near his wrist reopened slightly from all the writing he was doing. It has been a couple of days since he last cut himself… and he suddenly found himself greatly missing the stinging sensation. The urge to see more of his blood grew by the second and he contemplated retreating to the comfort room for a few moments to indulge his desire for pain… something to overtake the aching in his chest…

…When suddenly, a typhoon in orange ran straight into his desk and toppled over the other side, taking everything down with him, including a very confused Iruka.

‘Naruto?’ he thought. Iruka cleared his mind of all previous thoughts and looked at the blonde-haired boy that just crashed into him. ‘He’s here! He didn’t forget…’ he thought as he felt his joy bubbling up, only to be interrupted by a sickening feeling that crept up to him, ‘wait a sec…is this really Naruto, or just another one of Kakashi-sensei’s sick jokes?’ he asked himself.

“Iruka-sensei! I’m Ba-aack!” Naruto said with enough enthusiasm to scare Gai out of his sickly-green spandex, an incredible feat in itself.

Iruka grinned. That sealed it. This was definitely Naruto. Not even Kakashi could conjure up that much enthusiasm. Although Iruka wasn’t happy with now having to doubt if Naruto was really Naruto every time they met, he was, for the time being, ecstatic to see the boy once again. Iruka just shook those thoughts away and chuckled at the boy sitting on the floor beside him. “I can see that. Would you mind getting off of the mission reports?” he asked with amusement.

“Oh! Right,” Naruto said, jumping to his feet and taking a handful of papers and dumping them on the desk.

His former teacher just smiled as he stood up as well, righting his chair, and sitting back down, intent on trying to return some semblance of order to his desk. “How did the mission go?” he asked as he sifted through the various papers.

“Great! Naturally, I did better than Sasuke!” he boasted, and continued on retelling the whole story of their mission in vivid detail, even reenacting just exactly how Sasuke looked when one of the bad guys managed to punch him in the gut. “Anyway, training was like hell today. Kakashi-sensei didn’t even let us eat!” he complained.

Iruka chuckled, knowing where Naruto’s train of thought was leading. “So, are you hungry?” Iruka asked.

“You bet! How ‘bout that ramen you promised me, Iruka-sensei?” Naruto asked, almost giddy with anticipation.

“Sure? Why not?” Iruka agreed happily. He was wrong to doubt Naruto when it came to ramen. The boy would die without it! “I’m due for a break anyway. Just gimme a second to rearrange this, okay?” he told Naruto.

“’Kay. Hurry up, Iruka-sensei. I haven’t had ramen in days!”

“Okay, okay. I’m hurrying,” Iruka said with another chuckle.

0.0.0.0.0

Iruka and his vibrant ex-student trudged down the road towards Ichiraku. He was thankful Naruto and the others were back from their mission. He couldn’t explain why, but Naruto always managed to lift his spirits up. It seemed that the boy’s happy-go-lucky attitude was infectious.

They laughed together as they approached their destination, but Iruka stopped dead in his tracks, his laughter fading completely at the first sight of silver hair.

“He-ey Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto said excitedly, bouncing onto the seat next to the copy-nin.

“Oh hey, Naruto. You alone?” Kakashi asked.

“No.”

Kakashi turned around to see Iruka taking a seat next to Naruto.

“It’s nice to see you again, Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka greeted with a smile.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. ‘Oh, he’s good. That smile almost looked real,’ he thought.
“Always a pleasure, Iruka,” he replied with as much sugar as he could muster, watching Iruka’s face intently to see if he could catch even a single shred of evidence of what transpired the night before. But once again, Iruka just stared back at him with the same smile.

Naruto looked at Kakashi then Iruka and then back at Kakashi and wondered why there was something off with the way they looked at each other, despite the pleasantries they just shared. Shrugging it off as a product of his weariness, and the fact that he was really hungry and in dire need of his ramen fix, Naruto banged his fists on the table and declared, “I’VE GOT A GREAT IDEA!”

Iruka shifted his attention back to his ex-student and did his best to pretend the other teacher did not exist. “What’s this about now, Naruto?” he asked.

“Let’s see who can eat more bowls of ramen, Iruka-sensei. Whoever loses has to pay the bill!” he said, his grin stretching from ear to ear.

“Oh, no!” Iruka said, shaking his head. “Not that game!”

“Aww, why not?” Naruto whined, standing up from his seat in protest.

“Because,” Iruka began, placing a hand on top of Naruto’s head to urge him to sit down, “I’m not willing to go a week without cash, coz’ that’s about as much ramen you ALONE could eat.”

“Come on, Iruka-sensei! Afraid you’ll lose again?” Naruto challenged.

“You’ll have to do better than that to convince me,” Iruka declared.

“But you said you’ll treat me to ramen today, did you forget?”

“No I did not forget. I WILL treat you to maybe a couple of bowls, but if you want more, you’ll have to buy them yourself…”

“Aww, Iruka-sensei! Two bowls?!” Naruto whined again.

Kakashi watched the two arguing and felt like he was an outsider. Not that he minded the slight feeling of alienation. It was actually kind of nice to witness them debate over as simple a thing as paying for ramen. It was quite… endearing. Things like this really showed just how close one person was to another, and Kakashi found himself silently wishing that he could be as close to Iruka as Naruto was, to be able to engage him in a debate over trivial matters just like that, without worrying about repercussions. He knew that it would take time, and a lot of hard work, and maybe not so many rejections in the future, but he was more than willing to go through all of that and more, if only to get that crucial inch closer to Iruka.

Kakashi had to blink a couple of times when he realized he’d been thinking too much that he almost did not catch the two get into an agreement: Iruka was going to pay for three bowls of ramen for Naruto, instead of just two, a compromise Naruto was a bit short of ecstatic about. They made their order, and Naruto turned to Kakashi again.

“So, Kakashi-sensei, have you ordered already?” Naruto asked.

“Yes, just before the two of you arrived,” Kakashi replied, glancing at Iruka to see he was tracing an invisible circle on the table with his finger. He could tell Iruka was far from comfortable with him being there. He almost felt guilty for somehow intruding on Iruka’s ‘alone time’ with Naruto. “But I’m afraid I’ll have it to-go instead. I just remembered there’s somewhere I have to be right now,” he added.

Iruka’s eyes grew wide when he heard what the jounin said. He couldn’t help but feel relieved that he was being spared the torture of acting amicable with Kakashi, however, the fact that it was Kakashi himself who was saving him the trouble; well he didn’t know what to think of it. “You can stay if you want to. We don’t want you to think you’re intruding or anything,” Iruka blurted out, to his great surprise, as well as Kakashi’s. ‘Oh crap, what if he DOES stay?’ Iruka worried.

Kakashi thought it was a nice gesture, despite that fleeting look on Iruka’s face that clearly read, ‘Please say “no”!’ He thought about staying just to see what Iruka’s reaction would be, but he realized it was too early to be getting on Iruka’s bad side again, and just opted to stick to his story instead. “Oh, I didn’t think I was intruding,” he lied. “I believe the hokage requested an audience with me about an hour ago. It’d be fun to eat on the rooftop while I watch her harassing Shizune, or vice versa, before I report at her office,” he said with a chuckle. He had to admit, that idea just popped into his head, but it seemed quite appealing.

“If you insist,” Iruka said, trying his best not to sound relieved.

0.0.0.0.0

Iruka stopped at the grocery store to get a few things he needed for dinner that night. On days when take-home paperwork was light, he would cook for himself instead of getting a delivery. It was a welcome distraction, and it helped him relax a bit. The moment he stopped in front of his door, however, all thoughts of cooking dinner flew out the proverbial window. There was something off, and he knew it. Someone was in his apartment! Talk about déjà vu. He opened the door with a quick swing, ready to lunge at the intruder with a kunai.

And found an unmasked Kakashi hanging upside down from the hole on his roof.

“KAKASHI-SENSEI!!!” He yelled.

“Yo, Iruka!” he said, jumping down from the ceiling and landing a couple of feet away from the still-in-shock chuunin. “How was work?” he said in a pleasant tone.

“What are you doing?! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” he scolded, placing the kunai back into his bag.

“Aww, don’t be like that…” Kakashi said with a pout.

Iruka had to blink to get his focus away from those lips. He wasn’t used to seeing Kakashi without his mask. He almost looked naked. And damn, why did he have to look like a cute little kid when he pouted?

“What is wrong with you, Kakashi-sensei? Have you forgotten what happened last night?” he blurted out before he could think, and he silently cursed himself for bringing the mood back to ‘awkward and unbearable’.

“No, I haven’t,” Kakashi said in a serious tone. “And I don’t take rejection very well, Iruka,” he said, stepping a little closer to Iruka.

Iruka couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. He braced himself for what would happen next.

And was in another form of shock when Kakashi grinned. “But, hey, thanks for reminding me why I am here,” he said, holding a hammer up. “I promised I’d help you fix your roof, didn’t I? So, treat this as a sort of… peace offering,” he said.

“Peace offering?” Iruka repeated.

“Yeah. I admit I kinda went a little overboard last night…” he stopped to gauge the expression on Iruka’s face. When it seemed he was still on safe grounds, he continued with a much more lighthearted tone, “but I blame it solely on alcohol and stupidity. So could we just put it all behind us, and get to fixing your roof?” he asked, waving the hammer in front of Iruka’s face.

A few seconds passed and Iruka just stared at him. Then he spoke, “You really can’t stay serious for too long, can you?” Iruka asked, this time he didn’t seem as apprehensive as before, and Kakashi was relieved.

“Heh, being too serious just isn’t me,” Kakashi said shaking his head. “Besides, as much as I enjoy making you angry,” he paused, then he smiled and added, “I enjoy making you smile a whole lot more.”

And there it was.

Umino Iruka.

Red as a tomato.

And Kakashi smiling like an idiot.

Iruka immediately lowered his head, hoping the jounin didn’t notice, and cursing himself at the same time for letting Kakashi’s words affect him. Kakashi was, after all, only joking with him again.

“Hey, Kakashi-sensei…” Iruka began, gluing his gaze on the part of the floor between their feet.

Kakashi, sensing something serious again, cleared his throat and replied, “Yeah?”

“Could you… answer me honestly… and as seriously as you can?” Iruka asked.

‘He’s looks so nervous and unsure… it’s so cute,’ Kakashi thought. “I give you my word,” Kakashi replied. “What is it about?” he asked.

“…”

“Well?” Kakashi urged on. He had an idea of what Iruka was going to tell him, and his suspicions were proven correct when he saw Iruka rubbing his right wrist with his left hand.

“…You didn’t tell anyone, did you?” Iruka asked, his voice almost a whisper.

“I promised you I wouldn’t, didn’t I?” Kakashi replied. “And I would never break a promise… especially one I made to you,” he said, reaching out a hand to Iruka’s chin, and slowly lifting Iruka’s head up to look at him. He smiled when he saw Iruka’s eyes wide and unsure. He moved his hand on Iruka’s shoulder in a reassuring gesture and bent a little forward, until their noses were almost touching each other. Iruka suddenly grew nervous. He’s not going to kiss him again, is he? “Don’t worry about it, alright? Worrying will cause you lots of wrinkles, and we don’t want that now, do we?” he asked with a wink.

Iruka shook his head slightly.

“Ah! Look, you’ve got lines on your forehead already, tsk, tsk, tsk,” Kakashi said, shaking his own head.

Iruka’s eyes grew wider and he pushed Kakashi away. “I DO NOT!” he growled, hands flying to his forehead, only to realize he was wearing his forehead protector and Kakashi could not have possibly seen any lines even if there were. He pouted, and grumbled, “Jerk.”

Kakashi just laughed at him. “You wouldn’t be the first to tell me that.”

“Let’s just get the fixing over, all right?” Iruka said.

“Aye, aye, captain,” Kakashi answered, turning around intending to climb back up on the roof through the hole.

“Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka called out again, effectively stopping Kakashi in his tracks.

Kakashi turned around to see Iruka’s head bowed down once again, his eyes boring holes on the floor. “Yeah?” Kakashi asked.

“Thank you,” Iruka said softly, shyly.

Kakashi could not help the triumphant grin forming on his face. Iruka might still be a little bit confused and uncomfortable with him, but at least he was not mad anymore. Just a single victory, but still a victory nonetheless. “You’re welcome,” Kakashi answered.

0.0.0.0.0

A moment later, when the groceries were safely stored in the refrigerator, both ninjas were on the roof, Iruka removing broken tiles, and Kakashi happily pounding away on his hammer. “So… how was work, Iruka?” Kakashi asked.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he replied quietly.

Kakashi sensed Iruka was still a bit reluctant to talk to him, much less be with him. He knew gaining Iruka’s trust and friendship would take some time. He can’t expect to be close to Iruka and for things to drastically change just like that. But he had to be persistent. If not, Iruka would just push him away even more. “I see, so you hold paper-shuriken throwing practices everyday?” Kakashi asked.

“How did you know---?” Iruka asked.

Kakashi felt like punching himself on the face repeatedly. ‘Way to go. Why don’t I just confess that I stalk him almost everyday while I’m at it,’ he scolded himself mentally. “Uh, I heard one of the kids talking about it on my way to see the hokage,” he lied.

Iruka looked at him critically, realizing that if he was lying, Kakashi had a foolproof way of not showing it, even if he wasn’t wearing the mask. “I thought it would be nice for the kids to go out and have some fun once in a while. I have been a bit negligent lately,” he explained.

“Negligent? Seriously Iruka, anyone who can stand to be with those little devils for more than ten seconds is far from negligent. If anything, they help keep you alert, am I right? Who knows what those little minds of theirs are plotting to do next,” Kakashi said.

Iruka chuckled lightly. “I suppose you’re right,” he said.

Kakashi smiled. “There, see? Smiling suits you far more than that gloomy face,” he said.

“Stop the flattery, Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka said.

“It’s not pure flattery. It’s the truth!” Kakashi defended. “And by the way, great job on collapsing your roof. I really didn’t expect that,” he commended. “How did you get it to cave in so easily? You hardly used any chakra!”

Iruka arched an eyebrow. “Is that your idea of making me feel better, Kakashi-sensei? If you must know, I used up almost all my chakra trying to defend myself!”

Kakashi couldn’t help but feel relieved by the moment. Iruka was out of gloomy mode and back to bantering mode instead. This was a good sign. “Hey, you’re taking it the wrong way again. I only want to know.”

Iruka sighed. “It’s because of Naruto,” he replied.

Kakashi blinked. Ah yes, the answer to all Iruka’s problems. Naruto. “You’ll do anything for him, won’t you?” Kakashi asked, feeling a tinge of jealousy that the boy affected Iruka so much.

“Yeah, that and because he stuck an explosion tag on my living room ceiling when he was still in the ninja academy. He said he was trying to get to a fly… and well, ended up creating quite a large sunroof instead. I fixed it but the support beams became pretty weak after that. I just remembered that when we were fighting, and thought I’d use it against you,” he explained.

Kakashi’s eyes grew wide in amazement. Iruka was truly something else! It seemed his intelligence was beyond mere chuunin level. He knew just the right concentration of chakra to use, and the exact position to focus it on the roof so that it only caved in where Kakashi was standing, and not where he himself was. “Sometimes I forget you’re just a chuunin, Iruka,” Kakashi said with a wide grin.

Iruka’s eyebrow twitched again, “Yeah, just a chuunin. Sorry I’m not a jounin like you.”

Kakashi merely chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. We can’t all be jounins,” he said.

“Nah, I disagree. I think Iruka-sensei could be a jounin if he wanted to,” a voice suddenly interjected.

Both men turned around to see a glint of a senbon in the moonlight.

“Genma-san!” Iruka said in surprise. He stood up before taking a quick glance at Kakashi and was even more surprised to see that mask back on his face. He didn’t even see him put it on!

“Hi. It’s so nice to see you, Iruka-sensei!” he said cheerfully. “Kakashi-sensei,” he acknowledged with significantly less enthusiasm. “Did I interrupt something important?” he asked, noticing the death glare coming from Kakashi.

‘Yeah, my alone-time with Iruka!’ Kakashi wanted to yell. “What do you want?” he asked, not caring to mask the irritation in his voice. ‘Go away. Everything was going so well!’ Kakashi wanted to say.

Genma just gave a knowing smile. “The hokage wants a word with both of you,” he informed them.

“A word with us? Do you know what for?” Iruka asked.

“Yeah I know, but I think it’s best if you hear it from her, right?” he said with a sweet little wink at Iruka. And before Genma knew it, there was a hammer flying his direction, and his foot almost suffered a gruesome death if not for his quick hop a split-second earlier. “What the fuck?!” Genma cursed.

Both Genma and Iruka turned to Kakashi, who was looking at his hand with curious, wide eyes. “Oops… that hammer just slipped from my hand!” he said in feigned innocence and disbelief. “I wonder why?” he said, letting his smile show on his visible eye.

Genma was just itching to bury his senbon in Kakashi’s throat, or better yet, where the sun don’t shine. Instead, he chose his strategy carefully, and walked towards Iruka, taking the chuunin’s arm and hooking it on his own. “Well, shall we go to the hokage?” he asked.

Iruka stared wide-eyed at him. What the heck was wrong with Genma? But before he realized it, he was already nodding, and was poofed straight into the hokage’s office.

A very annoyed Kakashi followed a second after.

“Oh! Oh! Kakashi-sensei!”

Kakashi felt his blood curdle at the sound of that shrill voice.

A tall woman with pink hair in pigtails and a chest that were more like inflatable water floaters, came bounding towards Kakashi, and immediately attached herself to Kakashi’s arm.

“Yuiko-san,” Kakashi said through gritted teeth. Things were quickly getting from bad to worse.

‘Yuiko-san?’ Iruka thought. ‘Ah, I remember now. She’s a chuunin! And obviously another one of Kakashi’s crazy fan girls,’ Iruka thought with slight annoyance.

“I’m so glad! When they told me I’d be working with two jounins and another chuunin, I never expected you’d be one of the jounins! This is so great!” she squealed.

“Work?” Kakashi asked, feeling his face pale at the very thought of working with this breasts with legs.

“Yes. Work,” Tsunade finally spoke. “I’m sending the four of you on a mission,” she informed them.

“A mission?” Iruka repeated mechanically. A thousand and one doubts came rushing into his mind. He was going to be sent on a mission. A mission. After months of not being in action. Well, not counting of course Tsunade’s little test. And he didn’t fare quite well, if the uncomfortable wound on his abdomen was any indication. What if he failed this time?

Tsunade’s voice knocked Iruka back to reality, and he shoved his thoughts away for the moment.

“It’s not that dangerous, mainly just a retrieval mission, but the client insisted that we send as many ninjas as we can spare… and for the hefty amount they’re paying us, we can afford to send the four of you,” Tsunade explained.

“If it’s not that dangerous, then wouldn’t four be an overkill?” Kakashi asked.

“Overkill, likely. But, as of now, we need to keep many, if not all our clients satisfied or the other villages would think we’re vulnerable. I don’t want to give them any ideas. If the client asked for as many ninjas as we can spare, and we only send one or two, then how would that look?”

“I see. Sending the four of us for this mission will show the other villages that we are still in full force,” Iruka nodded in comprehension.

“I’m glad you understand,” Tsunade said.

“But why the four of us? Isn’t there anyone else available?” Kakashi asked. Sure he was looking forward to working with Iruka, but it’d be even better if he got rid of the senbon-sucker and the inflatable.

“Aawww, Kakashi-sensei!” Yuiko whined. “Don’t you want to go on a mission with me?” she asked.

‘Not in a million Icha-Ichas!’ Kakashi thought.

“Why Kakashi, are you refusing a mission?” Tsunade said with a smirk.

“No. I’m just asking why we were chosen,” Kakashi replied.

“Well, for starters, there are only very few who are available right now, and most are not on missions because they have just *returned* from missions. You four are the only ones who have not had any missions for at least three days,” she paused, waiting for another protest from Kakashi, and hearing none, she continued, “If you don’t have any more questions, here is the mission in detail,” she said, placing a scroll on top of her desk. “Kakashi will be the team leader. Proceed as soon as all arrangements have been made. Oh, and one more thing, don’t go overboard with the pomp and fanfare, all right? We can’t have the clients think we sent them a bunch of ninjas straight from the Konoha loony bin.”

“Understood,” Kakashi acknowledged.

0.0.0.0.0

“Camarón… a port town east of Konoha…” Iruka read aloud. They were at the hall outside the hokage’s office. As soon as they got out of the room, Kakashi handed him the scroll to read because he said he didn’t want to strain his non-sharingan eye. This, of course, led to a discussion as to how exactly he managed to read all those Icha-ichas without straining his eye. Eventually, they all came to the agreement that Kakashi was just feeling particularly lazy that night, mainly due to the fact that he had a full-grown woman attached to his left arm. A full-grown, shrill and whiney woman to be exact.

“… Meet up first with the client, the Oro clan. The head will inform you of a clan treasure you are to retrieve for them… stolen by their long-time rival, the Platino clan a week ago. Proceed to the Platino fortress at the next town called Gorrión, just north beyond the mountain range,” he continued to read.

“Why do they have to have names that are sooo weird?!” Yuiko whined. “Why couldn’t they have just named themselves Doggy and Kitty?”

“Heh, wouldn’t that be nice?” Genma said sarcastically. He, too, was wondering just how this ditz even ever managed to graduate from the ninja academy.

“I’m glad you agree!” she squealed.

“Anyway,” Kakashi said, using that momentary lapse in her iron-grip hold on him to yank his arm away and immediately jump in between Genma and Iruka, who by the way were standing a little too close together for comfort, damn that senbon-sucker! “It seems mundane enough. Does it say what time we should meet up with mister clan leader?” Kakashi asked, peering at the scroll from behind Iruka’s shoulder.

“No. It just says here we should be there by tomorrow afternoon,” Iruka replied.

“Then the sooner we can leave, the better. I say we head out first thing tomorrow morning,” Kakashi suggested.

“That’s soooo grrreat! I’m so excited. I’ll pack my bags now!” Yuiko squealed as she ran down the hall and out of sight.

“Simple people have simple joys,” Genma noted. Then, as if a brilliant idea just popped into his mind, he turned and, completely ignoring Kakashi, he gave Iruka a broad grin. “Hey, Iruka-sensei, have you eaten dinner yet? Wanna grab a bite to eat?” he asked.

Kakashi was silently grumbling. ‘He’s not gonna go out with you, dumb ass.’

Iruka smiled. “Thanks a lot, but I’ve got other plans tonight. Maybe some other time,” he turned down politely.

‘Ha! I knew it!’ Kakashi gloated inside.

“How about next Sunday then?” Genma asked.

‘Get a clue, Genma. He’s not interested in you,’ Kakashi thought.

“Sure. Why not?” Iruka replied.

And immediately Kakashi felt his world crumbling. “Are you serious?” Kakashi blurted out.

“It’s just dinner, Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka said with a shrug.

“Yeah, it’s just dinner,” Genma agreed with a smirk, earning another death glare directed at him. “I should probably get going then. The steak house closes in half an hour,” he said before excusing himself from the two.

“So… where are we eating dinner?” Kakashi asked boldly.

“Excuse me, uh, WE? I don’t know with you, but I’m eating at home, ALONE,” Iruka replied.

“Oh? So you would go out with Genma-san on a date, but you won’t go out with me?” Kakashi said with a frown.

“I’m not going out with Genma-san on a date. How many times do I have to repeat that it’s just dinner? Besides, YOU never asked me to go out with you…” Iruka explained.

“So, then, if I asked you to go out with me, does this mean you’ll say ‘yes’?” Kakashi asked expectantly.

“I never said I would. Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Iruka said. “I’m not interested in you like that.”

“Aww… Iruka is so mean. I’m hurt,” Kakashi said, and if Iruka could see his face, he’d be pouting like a five year old right now.

“Can we please just focus on the mission right now?” Iruka asked, tapping the scroll with his finger for emphasis.

Kakashi shrugged, “What’s the point. Genma-san and that pink-haired inflatable—“

“Yuiko-san,” Iruka corrected.

“…yeah, okay, Yuiko-san, are both gone. Besides what’s there to explain? It’s all there. Anything else we need will be given to us by the clan leader. You should learn to relax a bit more, Iruka,” Kakashi said.

Iruka refused to look at Kakashi as he spoke. “It’s just… I…,” he began. ‘Should I tell him? I don’t think, after all he’s found out about me, that I can hide anything from him anymore,’ he thought. “…After all that happened, I don’t think I’m an efficient ninja anymore. Well, as efficient as I should be…” he said softly.

“Hey, what did I tell you about worrying so much?” Kakashi asked. “Come on, you’re a brilliant ninja. Don’t think otherwise. Besides, the hokage gave you this mission. Do you think she would give a mission to someone whom she thought isn’t fit to accomplish it?”

Iruka sighed and closed the scroll. “I guess you’re right,” Iruka said.

“There! Now that mission planning is over, I’m really hungry,” Kakashi declared.

Iruka placed the scroll in his bag and started to walk down the hall, leaving Kakashi just standing there. Kakashi watched Iruka walking away in disappointment.

The Iruka stopped and turned around.

“What are you standing there for? Are you up for barbecue tonight?” Iruka said.

Kakashi’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. Iruka was inviting him to eat dinner with him! “Hell yeah!” Kakashi said as he moved to catch up with Iruka.

“This isn’t a date, all right?” Iruka cleared out.

“Oh sure, if you say so,” Kakashi said with a particularly giddy bounce in his step as he walked side-by-side with Iruka. No one could possibly ruin his night now!

A/N:

1. Yuiko is from, yup, you guessed it, Loveless. You don’t need knowledge about Loveless to understand the story, so don’t worry. J She’s just an annoying ditz. That’s all. I needed a really annoying female character, and no one made the cut in the Naruto universe, so I thought I’d borrow her for a while. I made her a little older than both Kakashi and Iruka here, and since she’s a big girl, she’s about as tall as Iruka. Oh and those inflatables of hers are bigger as well (is that even possible?).


Anyway, hi! Yey. It’s already a whole year since I gathered enough courage and finally decided to first post this fanfic. I’ve gone through numerous writer’s blocks, three computers (I’m now using a brand new laptop, yey!), and lots of unwanted interruptions. I’m so happy I’m still alive after one year. And here’s to a year more!!!

Just kidding!

Thanks a million to those who reviewed, and who continue to read my fic even after all this time and despite long waiting periods in between chapters. I do hope you could find it in you to forgive me. I have been getting around to thanking reviewers. Please keep those reviews coming. You know how important your opinions are! If there’s anything you did not like about this chapter, or if you do not like how the story’s going, please inform me. Your opinions could only help me improve this story.

To Sir Magus: Thanks a lot for the offer to help. My ym is my email add, so just look it up in my profile. I don't hide my ym specifically so that people can ask me questions, or I could ask THEM questions. I'd be glad to get all the help you can give!

To MAster Lenx (or Len led): Hihi, both names sound cool. I didn't think it was your real name. Would be shocked and eternally sorry if it was, because I wrote it last time for everyone to see. Anyway, once again, thanks for all the support.

To All:

Next update will be a little after one month. If I have extra time, I can maybe finish it a bit earlier, but don’t keep your hopes up too high. I’ve got exams AND reports I have to do. College is still hell. What’s new?

Again, thanks for all the support. Toodles!

SD (sexy dolphin, hehehe)