Bathhouse revelations

Chapter 7

Iruka woke up with a start, alert and ready to defend himself if needed even though he had just been sleeping seconds ago. Silently, the chuunin scanned his surroundings, watching out for possible threats. His bedroom was dark and silent. His sandals, weapon pouch and chuunin vest were resting on the floor motionlessly where he had thrown them before tucking in. His clock’s digital numbers flashed rapidly on his bed table, showing that the village had known an electric breakdown somewhere during the morning. One hour and forty six minutes ago, judging by the hour the cheap clock indicated. Outside, Iruka could hear the distant sound of a thunderstorm dying away. Rain poured savagely on his closed windows, creating a soft, relaxing melody that did not bury the alarmingly close sound of the growling and dark sky above.

Iruka relaxed as he realized there were no signs of danger around him. The thunderstorm had probably woken him up... Sighing, he got to his feet, knowing far too well he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep even if he wanted to. Stretching his arms lazily, Iruka yawned. He was still feeling sleepy, but he felt rested nonetheless. Hopefully, he was rested enough to take care of around sixty little hellions that, he was sure, would await him once again that morning in his small and already wrecked classroom. That sinister thought did not cheer him up at all, nor did the prospect of facing the little army of troublemakers, but Iruka highly doubted that someone else would be assigned take care of his colleague’s class today – he even doubted the Principal had even bothered to try finding a substitute to start with. Hopefully, the brown-haired man would be able to clean up the mess they had previously done and think of a good strategy to keep those little monsters under control and, if possible, punish them for their unacceptable behavior before the beginning of the class. He’d have to leave early for the Academy, though. And he needed to hurry up if he wanted to arrive early, because he badly needed to take a shower – he hadn’t even cared to change from his sweaty and dirty ninja uniform before going to bed yesterday.

Checking his watch, Iruka was stunned to discover that classes were supposed to begin in six minutes. Six minutes! Swearing loudly, he removed rapidly his stinky, dirty and crumpled uniform and put on a new one hastily, put on his sandals and his weapon pouch, grabbed his green chuunin vest and ran out of his apartment, sprinting toward the Academy, jumping front roof to roof to win time, not minding the icy rain pouring on him.

When he arrived at the Academy, panting slightly and his clothes drenched, he still had two minutes left before the beginning of the class. With rapid strides, Iruka hurried to his classroom, dreading the sight that was awaiting him inside the messy, hellion-filled classroom, which was probably already out of control... He wished he could come up with a brilliant idea to keep all those misbehaved and excited children from causing more racket than they already have and – possibly – try to teach them something as he did so. But unfortunately, when he arrived to his classroom, he still had no clue of how he was supposed to force 60 hellions to behave, and less to actually listen to him, even just for five little minutes. And, as if it wasn’t enough, he was bone-soaked. It seemed that today would be another bad day, Iruka mused darkly.

Bracing himself, prepared for the worst, Iruka entered the classroom. But to his utter astonishment, his classroom was not overcrowded like he had thought it would be; his colleague’s students could be nowhere to be seen. His students were there, sitting on the few desks that were not too dirty - not even bothering to pick up the junk on the floor, Iruka noticed with some annoyance. But where were the 6 year olds? Puzzled, the chuunin hurried toward the teacher office, but was lucky enough to run into one of his colleague on his way.

“Deremi-sensei,” Iruka called out to the man, “Do you know what happened with Yumo-sensei’s class? Is she back-?”

“No, she’s still sick,” the blond-haired man said rapidly as he almost ran toward his own class not to be late. “But I heard someone volunteered to take care of ‘em, so don’t worry!”

Iruka stared at the man’s retreating back, still trying to absorb the man’s words. Somebody volunteered to take care of that class? The chuunin couldn’t believe his ears; who would be crazy enough among the other chuunins and jounins of the village to actually want to take care of thirty excited 6 year olds holding sharp objects and wanting to set fire to anything within reach? Half of the chuunin working full time at the Academy weren’t even there because they truly liked the job, so Iruka could barely imagine anyone from the outside deciding to come of his or her own authority to help them! And of course, the possibility that the Principal decided to request someone’s help could be ruled out as well, since the man would have been only too happy to ask Iruka to take care of the hellions for another day. But then again, Deremi-sensei had just said that the new substitute volunteered to stand in for Yumo-sensei, so the Principal probably didn’t even have the choice to let him or her do it...

Snapping out of his reverie, Iruka hurried to his own classroom, suddenly relieved. Whoever had been crazy enough to ask for Yumo-sensei’s job had the brown-haired man’s eternal gratitude, for it meant he only had his normal class to teach. And that meant he wouldn’t have to go through another nightmarish day like the previous one, because he knew for sure that he would be able to make his students behave now. And he would make them pay for their unacceptable behaviour, oh yes...!

When Iruka’s students saw their teacher enter the classroom, they suddenly felt silent. Iruka couldn’t tell if they calmed down because they knew they had done something bad or because of the expression on his face. But it truly didn’t matter.

“Today,” he called with his powerful teacher voice, “since it appeared yesterday that you know the basic theory and skills by heart, we will have an exam!” His students groaned. “Those who will have less than 80 on the test will have to do extra lessons at home during the weekend. But it shouldn’t concern you, since you all seemed to have mastered the basics long ago.” His students seemed worried by then; they knew what their teacher’s extra lessons were like.

“Afterward we will be doing some chakra theory together. Yes, once again, Kikere-kun! And during the lunch break, all of you will have to clean up the mess you did yesterday,” the chuunin gaze’s went to the junk lying around and the dried ink on the desks, walls and the floor. The seven year old gasped, looking horrified. “And you will have to wash the ink on the Academy outside walls as well. Yes, even if it’s raining outside! I won’t let you go home until everything is clean once again, even if I have to keep you here until midnight!” The horrified murmurs turned into rebellious protestations.

“It’s not fair!” some dark-haired boy cried, “The others wrecked the class too!”

“Yeah!”

“They were the one who threw the ink bottles-!”

“I don’t care!” their teacher spoke louder, his tone imperative, and all the little protesting voices died out at once. “You are older than them, you should have set an example for them. Instead, you incited them to misbehave and that’s not acceptable. I want you to think it over tonight and explain to me why what you did yesterday is wrong in a 500 word essay – and write something else than what I just told you. And if you copy one of your friends’ essay, I will know and you’ll have to do it again with even more words! I want those essays on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. And consider yourself lucky I don’t give you all a detention! Now, take out a sheet of paper and a pen in silence as I write the questions for your exam on the board.”

Iruka heard another collective groan and smiled to himself as he started writing improvised questions on the big black board.

--

“Okay, cleaning time everyone!” Iruka called to his students when the bell announced the lunch break. “I want to see this room shining! And don’t forget about the Academy wall as well! Nobody’s leaving the class to eat or even to go home as long as I’m not happy with your work!” He heard several moans and received a couple of dark glares, but everyone complied to his orders. Iruka sighed as he sat back on his chair. His clothes were still damp, even though he had tried to sponge them up with a towel while his students were writing down their answers for the exam and he was feeling a bit cold. He hoped he wouldn’t catch a cold...

To Iruka’s relief and satisfaction, his students had been calm so far – nobody had tried to escape yet, which was truly impressive. But Iruka knew that if he was to leave them by themselves for even less than a minute, their new-found docility would disappear as fast as it had showed up. Which annoyed Iruka, since he was starving; his stomach had been growling and hurting for a couple hours now. It had to be expected afterall – he hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning. Iruka inwardly groaned, cursing at himself for forgetting to bring something to eat with him in his haste to arrive on time at the Academy. In a normal situation, he would have been able to grab something to eat at the cafeteria, but he couldn’t leave his students unsupervised now – especially since what they were doing was supposed to be a punishment. If he was lucky, he might be able to buy something to eat on his way to the mission room after the end of the classes... Sighing, Iruka tried to ignore his growling stomach and started correcting the exam his students had done in the morning, keeping an eye all the same on a few students who had taken the bad habit of trying to flee from his most tedious classes.

After several minutes of correcting – and a few appointment of make-up lessons – Iruka was glad to see his students were starting to get organized and to do some real cleaning. With team work like that, they’d be able to finish cleaning the whole mess before the end of the lunch break. They might even be lucky enough to have time to eat before the class started again. As Iruka’s stomach growled louder, the chuunin started to feel a little envious of them.

“You seem to have well-trained them,” a voice came from the nearest window. Looking around, the academy teacher was surprised to find no other than Hatake Kakashi slouching over the window, holding loosely a dripping umbrella over his head.

“Kakashi-sensei?” Iruka sat up and walked to the opened window, bemused. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I just thought I’d stop by your class to say hi,” the jounin answered lazily, his eye curving happily. As Iruka approached the window, he noticed that, a few meters away, there seemed to be a lot of people on the Academy grounds, which was surprising since it was still raining. Stretching his neck to have a better look, the chuunin saw thirty or so students wearing small raincoats and running in circles, supervised by what looked like a dozen silver-haired and very wet jounins. Among the pre-genin, Iruka recognized the little girl who had been hanging from the fan and who had called him a gay moron the previous day, now looking flustered.

Kakashi seemed to have seen him staring at the young girl. “Out of all those little monsters, I’d say she’s the worst. She bit two clones, tried to escape three times and keeps on telling me her dad’s gonna kick my ass.” The jounin gave a low sarcastic chuckle that made it obvious he’d like to see the said dad try.

Iruka’s eyes went back to the silver-haired man, who was staring at the little hellions peacefully. Suddenly, the chuunin felt breathless. So it had been Kakashi who had volunteered to take care of his colleague’s class...? But why would he...? Butterflies were suddenly fluttering in a weird way in his previously aching stomach as the obvious answer to that question hit him. There was no way he had volunteered to take care of 30 dangerous little monsters like those only because he was feeling like it; the jounin was known to be bizarre at times, but not that bizarre. He remembered how Kakashi had approached him the previous day at the mission room, asking him if he had had a nice day and if there was a shortage of teachers at the academy... So he had known all along for Yumo-sensei’s absence and he... had done it for him...? The butterflies fluttered madly in his empty stomach.

Iruka didn’t know what to say. He felt confused, several feelings battling for dominance in his chest. He felt embarrassed and remorseful to have snapped so harshly at the man the previous day, but he also was feeling oddly uneasy and slightly pleased by the man’s sweet attention. He didn’t know what to say - hell, he didn’t even know what to feel anymore. The Copy nin was still watching the six year olds from under his umbrella, but Iruka could see faint pink slowly creeping on the only exposed part of his face. To his utter embarrassment, he felt a blush creep to his own tanned cheeks and looked away, feeling stupid and oddly annoyed at himself for blushing for no reason like that. As he turned his head around, he realized that the classroom had fallen silent and that all the little pre-genins were staring at them, looking confused, although a few of them – mostly girls – were grimacing or giggling silently at the sight of them.

“What are you doing?” their teacher snapped loudly at them, his cheeks burning with embarrassment. “Go back to cleaning, all of you! Hurry up if you want to have finished before the class starts again! You won’t be allowed to eat or to go home until it’s done!”

At once, the thirty or so seven year olds dashed to the wastebaskets and the ink-splashed walls and desks, their little hands working fast to try to remove as much dirt as possible. Beside him, Iruka heard the jounin chuckle.

“They really seem to like you a lot.”

“Yeah.”

“They might be a little restless in the afternoon if they don’t eat though.”

“Oh, I’m confident they’ll behave,” Iruka answered simply, smiling at the busy classroom. “They know it’s in their best interest.” The jounin chuckled again at the silent threat in the brown-haired man’s voice.

“But shouldn’t you be watching over your class?” Iruka asked in a causal voice, giving the Sharigan user an amused look.

“Mmm? But I do,” answered the jounin lazily, looking over his shoulder at his clones still watching over the six year olds.

Iruka was about to say something, but just then they both froze at the sound of his stomach growling loudly. Looking away, Iruka fought back a blush, cursing at his stupid stomach for such bad timing. There was a short, uneasy silence between the two men.

“Hum... Hungry?”

Iruka laughed a bit nervously, scratching the bridge of his nose out of habit. “I woke up late and I forgot to bring a lunch.” There was a short silence; the silver-haired man seemed to be hesitating somehow.

“You know, I was about to go out to eat myself,” the jounin said on a casual tone, his gray eye carefully avoiding Iruka’s as he did so. “If you’re hungry, we could... go together.”

At those words, Iruka started to feel uneasy and slightly panicked. Was Kakashi... asking him out?

“Ah, thanks, but I can’t leave the class unsupervised...”

“That’s not a problem,” the Copy nin replied, a clone suddenly appeared out of nowhere beside him and waving at Iruka, who was all of a sudden feeling very anxious.

That was an invitation, right? Not a date, surely not... Kakashi was merely proposing him to eat together, right? But Iruka had a feeling the jounin hadn’t really planned to eat out until now... They would be alone together. No boisterous Naruto around. Just the two of them. Iruka imagined them sitting face to face on a small, candle-lit round table in a dark corner isolated from indiscreet ears and felt his heart pounding faster in his rib cage, a mixture of feelings he didn’t quite recognize washing through him. Suddenly, the chuunin felt very small in front of the older man, who seemed too close for comfort.

On the other hand, he did feel very hungry... Okay, he was positively starving, but... he didn’t know about it... The more he thought about it, the more nervous and panicked he felt.

But he was being silly, really! What did it matter if they ate together? It wasn’t like Kakashi was going to jump on him and try to rape him in the nearest dark alley when they got out of the restaurant! There was absolutely no reason why he should be scared of eating alone with Kakashi-sensei to start with; it wouldn’t make a big difference from when they ate together at Ichiraku a few days ago, since Naruto and Sasuke argued together most of the time and almost took no notice of them.

His stomach decided to manifest itself at that precise moment, growling yet louder.

“I take it as a yes,” the jounin said in a low, amused voice as he backed away to let his clone enter the busy classroom. Iruka stared at the clone, who winked at him, walked to his desk and made himself comfortable on his chair. For a second he wanted to protest, but then the chuunin decided to give up and just go with it. To see where it’d take him.

“Sure, let’s meet at the entrance,” the academy teacher said, smiling slightly. The jounin nodded and waved at him before turning around, heading for the entrance doors.

“Okay everyone!” Iruka called loudly to the busy classroom, thirty little heads turning around to gaze at him. “I’m leaving, but Kakashi-sensei here,” he pointed at the clone smiling behind his desk, “will keep an eye on you to make sure you behave. If even only one of you tries something funny while I’m gone, I’ll keep you all after class all week long for detention! Have I made myself clear?” His students nodded silently, stealing curious glances at the weird man sitting behind their teacher’s desk.

Satisfied, Iruka hurried out of the classroom, but then it hit him. He turned around and, instead of heading to the entrance, he made his way to the staff room. As he approached, he could hear his colleague’s faint voices getting louder and louder and he could not help but think they were probably talking about him. Which was quite ironic, since the last time he had come there at lunch hour, he had thought for sure they couldn’t possibly talk about him, since he was so normal. Funny how things changed...

Not bothering to knock, Iruka entered the staff room and everybody froze on the spot, looking like children caught stealing cookies ten minutes before dinner. Obviously, they had been talking about him.

“Sorry to interrupt your little chat, but could I please borrow someone’s umbrella for the lunch break?” he asked his colleagues, who stared at him blankly.

“Ehh? You’re eating out, Iruka-sensei?” someone asked on a incredulous tone, as if it was the last thing he thought the chuunin would be. Iruka couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Why yes, I guess I am. Something wrong with that?”

“N-no!”

“We just thought it was, erm, quite rare for you to leave the academy grounds during breaks,” the purple-haired woman teaching in the class right next to his, Uutaru-sensei, said quietly, eying him suspiciously.

“Yeah!”

“Are you having a date with someone, sensei?” he heard someone ask swiftly.

“Wha- I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, come on! It’s gotta be it! You never eat out!” came the jubilant answer and Iruka could feel the other teachers closing in, a hungry expression on their faces, their eyes shining hopefully at the prospect of the information they might get out of him. Or more like the new rumors they could spread around the village. Iruka never knew his love life could be this interesting; he was mildly annoyed and a little freaked out by his colleagues sudden greediness. Then, a torrent of questions rushed down on him.

“Who’s the girl, sensei?”

“Is it a girl?”

“Have you gotten over Kakashi-sensei yet?”

“Is it true you’re dating?”

“Are you seeing Kakashi-sensei?”

“Is it a girl?”

“That’s none of your business,” Iruka spoke coolly, now truly annoyed, “If you’re so curious, why don’t you go and ask your questions to Kakashi-sensei instead?”

The staff room fell silent - they needed not to answer the brown-haired man’s question, for everybody in the room, Iruka included, knew perfectly well they’d never have the nerve to.

“Now can anyone lend me their umbrella, please?” Iruka asked again, as if nothing happened.

“Y-you can have this one, Iruka-sensei. We found it months ago but nobody never claimed it. Here.” A young chuunin whose name Iruka couldn’t quite recall motioned a dark umbrella toward him and Iruka took it, quietly thanking him before turning on his heels and leaving the room as quickly as he had come, not minding the least all the murmurs he heard the teachers exchange at the precise moment he set a foot out of the room. As his colleagues’ whisper died away, Iruka couldn’t help but feel that, even though he would have preferred avoiding it, his little trip to the staff room had been worth it. Because there was no way he was going to walk through the village under Kakashi’s umbrella! This was definitely worth a couple more rumors. Yes, definitely.

Anyway, with what he had just told them, the rumors his colleagues could come up with didn’t even compare to what people would say if they saw them walking together under the same umbrella. The chuunin shuddered at the thought.

Walking out of the Academy, Iruka joined the silver-haired man, who was waiting for him under the shelter of his dripping umbrella, standing abnormally still, Iruka noticed.

“Sorry I made you wait,” Iruka apologized with a small sorry smile, opening his own umbrella as he did so.

“Ma, I don’t mind, sensei,” the jounin said back casually. “Shall we go then?”

Iruka nodded and the Copy nin led the way, the chuunin walking alongside of the older nin. The air was cold and water was pouring over their heads steadily, droplets falling with faint splashing sounds on the wet and mostly deserted roads. They walked in silence for a moment, and Iruka mused that they must have been a strange sight, walking together silently under the torrential rain like that. He was pretty sure that, before the end of the day, the whole village would know he ate with Hatake Kakashi, but it wasn’t like he cared anymore about those stupid gossips.

Iruka then realized he had still no clue where the other man was taking him. Of course, it couldn’t be too far from the Academy, since they needed to head back to their classes in 40 minutes...

For a dreadful second, Iruka feared the jounin would take him to one of those small, discreet and definitely romantic restaurants young couples were so fond of and the brown-haired man felt his throat tighten painfully, panic taking over him as he imagined himself once again sitting face to face with the Copy nin by a small candle-lit table. But then again, they only had 40 minutes to order their lunch, eat and head back to the Academy, so they truly didn’t have the choice to go somewhere they could eat fast. Like take out restaurants. The chuunin felt greatly relieved at that thought. Nonetheless, he wondered where the man was taking him. But he didn’t ask and they kept on walking silently.

... As they walked, the brown-haired man mildly wondered if the Sharigan user was nervous. Not that he let it show, of course... But still, Iruka was sure he would be nervous if he was about to eat alone with his crush for the first time. That thought made his heart beat a little faster.

After only a few minutes of walk, Kakashi motioned Iruka toward a small, cheap-looking but welcoming yakitori bar. They sat down at the empty bar and Iruka felt the warmth the whole place emitted warming up his cold muscles at once, glad to be sheltered at last from the cold rain. Obviously, Kakashi seemed to be a well-known customer of the place, since he ordered the cook, a skinny old lady, to serve him and his “friend” the same as usual. The woman’s eyes narrowed on Iruka for a minute, but she didn’t say anything and started to work on their order instead.

Both men remained silent for a moment, staring at their hands a bit shyly. The silence was starting to make Iruka feel slightly uneasy; he wanted to say something, anything, to break it. But words seemed to be caught on the back of his throat, leaving him speechless. Beside him, Kakashi-sensei seemed to feel the same way he did. With every second that passed, the silence between them seemed to become tenser, until the Copy nin, looking nervous, couldn’t stand it anymore.

“So, hum...” he spoke up quietly, obviously at a loss about what to say.

“Thank you,” Iruka breathed softly, finally managing to find back his voice. Beside him, the jounin seemed to be puzzled. “You know, for taking care of the kids.”

“Oh,” The Copy nin let out as understanding washed through him. “Well, I didn’t-”

“Don’t,” Iruka cut him, staring seriously at the other man. “I know you didn’t do it because you didn’t have anything better to do.”

At those words, Kakashi looked up and both men stared at each other. They didn’t say anything, for there was nothing else to say; Iruka felt as if their silence spoke of things that mere words could not express. Although he was not truly sure how it happened, he knew one thing for sure: for that short, silent moment, they understood each other. As they both stared intensely at each other, he felt it - he knew understood, somehow, how he felt. He didn’t know how, but Iruka realized he Copy nin was aware he knew what he felt for him, just how he loved him, how difficult it was for him to express it, how the brown-haired man’s presence made him lose his head... But at the moment, the jounin didn’t seem to mind the chuunin knew; he simply stared back the chuunin, and somehow Iruka felt he meant to tell him he simply understood. Understood the rumors were false. Understood how the knowledge of the silver-haired man’s feelings had stirred doubt and confusion in him. Understood how he couldn’t figure out his own feelings anymore, how it scared him...

Iruka couldn’t understand why he wasn’t running away from the man’s intense gaze, a gaze that told him the jounin knew things about himself so personal, so intimate he didn’t even want to analyze them himself. Yet Iruka was still there, staring back at the man silently. He was not scared, embarrassed or even disturbed by the news. In fact, it felt oddly right, as if a big misunderstanding had just been solved between them.

Some part of himself told him that they both knew the other had understood, and that thought made the chuunin feel oddly at ease, a pressure he hadn’t known he had to endure suddenly lifting from his shoulders. How strange.

And then, the cook set down their orders in front of them and the charm seemed to lift. Iruka felt confused; he didn’t understand what had happened exactly. Had he imagined it? But as he stared at his meal - chicken yakitori with chopped vegetables and white rice - he knew he had not dreamed it. At that thought, the chuunin felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment. Suddenly, the idea of running away seemed a lot more appealing... The jounin beside him seemed to be thinking something along the same lines, as Iruka saw from the corner of his eyes that the man was staring wide-eyed at his meal, his face beet red. He probably was also wondering how it had happened, Iruka mused. The brown-haired man suddenly felt bad for the poor jounin; there was no way the man would be able to pretend being nice to Iruka only by chance, and although he had known all along Iruka knew he loved him, the chuunin was pretty sure faking he didn’t know had given him courage. But then again, the fact that he, Umino Iruka, was still here even if he knew all of this probably encouraged and helped him a lot to open up. That, and the fact that it was not really a date.

Not officially, at least.

To try to change the subject, Iruka tucked in.

“Mm,” Iruka hummed, happily surprised as he chew on his food. “This is good!”

“Of course it is,” the jounin spoke up, seeming glad for the distraction. “Nimio-san makes the best yakitori in the whole village.”

“Ahh,” the chuunin answered, feeling a bit sheepish. “I wouldn’t know, I don’t eat out much.” He took another bite of the yakitori chicken and, remembering just how hungry he was, started eating with great enthusiasm. The cook gave him an approving look from behind the bar.

“Funny, I never thought you’d be a house-wife kind of guy.”

Iruka froze as he was about to bring to his mouth a mouthful of white rice. “A house-wife kind of guy?”

“You know, good at house cores and cooking and stuff,” the silver-haired man explained simply, smiling at the water pint between them.

“So you thought what, that I could make water burn?” Iruka asked on a mock insulted tone and the jounin chuckled beside him.

“Do you?”

“Well, it’s true I used to be an awful cook,” the chuunin finally admitted with an easy smile, taking a mouthful of rice. “Thank God I’ve improved, I could barely cook eggs when my parents died.” That thought suddenly made him feel uneasy. To distract himself from his own sorrowful thoughts, Iruka added “I’m not fabulous, but I’ve never poisoned myself yet.” Kakashi chuckled.

“And you?”

“What?” the silver-haired man looked puzzled.

“Are you a house-wife kind of guy?” Iruka asked with a smirk.

“Oh... Well, I’m rather good at cooking, I guess... But I’m not exactly that much of a house chore guy, to say the truth.”

“Really?” Iruka sounded a bit surprised. “I had thought you’d be a kind of neat freak.”

“Me?” It was Kakashi’s turn to look mildly surprised.

“Yeah, I can just imagine you washing your bathroom twice a day with big yellow rubber gloves and a lilac apron and getting hysteric when someone leaves footprints on your entrance carpet.”

At Iruka’s words, Kakashi laughed. It was not one of his low amused chuckles; the Sharigan user’s laugh was frank and cheerful and it echoed through the small empty room powerfully, resonant inside Iruka’s body, making his heart beat faster. For a moment, the brown-haired man wondered if it was truly the jounin beside him who was laughing so openly, and why it made his breath itch like that.

“I hardly do,” the jounin finally answered, his voice unusually warm. “But I’m not messy either. I do own yellow rubber gloves and a baby blue apron with pink little flowers, though. Birthday gift from Gai - doubt he ever realized it was a woman’s.”

Their light discussion went on and Iruka soon lost track of time. He had not imagined being with the Copy nin could be so relaxing. He was not feeling nervous or awkward anymore. He was just feeling... at ease. It somehow surprised the chuunin, who hadn’t felt this good around someone for quite a long time. Maybe it had something to do with that strange moment of total comprehension they had previously shared, but Iruka doubted it.

“Iruka...” Kakashi’s tone was suddenly devoid of his previous cheerfulness and was slightly tense.

“What is it?”

“I think we should head back to the Academy.”

“Heh? What hour is it-?” Turning around, Iruka’s eyes caught sight of an old-fashioned clock on the wall in front of them and he swore loudly, brutally got to his feet and dashed toward his workplace, cursing himself for his recklessness. He couldn’t believe it! The lunch break finished nearly twenty minutes ago!


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To be continued.

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