Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am, however, a KakaIru fanatic, and have been for 6 years now.

A/N: I hope you enjoy the beginning of my new KakaIru fanfic, and PLEASE REVIEW with your thoughts and criticism, etc.

I plan to make this around 20 chapters long. I'll be able to tell you more once I get into the story!

This is my first serious attempt at making a multi-chapter fanfic, so please be patient with me!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Catching Feelings

Chapter One: And It Begins.

Iruka sat at his desk at the Academy after a typical Monday of school, grading tests taken earlier that day. To his disappointment, the majority of the class had failed the test. But then again, it wasn't that much of a surprise to him. The particular class happened to be filled with troublemakers, and about two serious students; so this was the usual performance of the group.

'At least the entire class didn't fail it,' Iruka thought glumly, grading the last few tests without even paying attention, already knowing what every letter in the multiple choices should be by memory.

I'll need to do something to make sure the majority of the class doesn't end up failing to become a Genin…

Iruka sighed and propped his elbow on the desk, leaning his chin on his hand. Ever since the attack on the village, his mood seemed to be gloomy, which was not normal for the tanned Academy teacher. There was a war coming, and it made the Chuunin worried for the children and the village- his village.

It was true that the attack brought everyone closer together, which was one of the few benefits of the disaster. But he was not only worried about the village. It was a particular villager that had been on his mind lately. Naruto.

The advancement of the Genin's abilities scared Iruka, although he hadn't been able to talk about it with anyone. Letting Naruto know that he was worried would be an unnecessary weight to put on the young boy's back. Being the selfless person Iruka was, he tended to never talk to anyone about issues that might burden the other.

The blonde haired boy was off training as usual, and no one had heard from him in weeks. The entire village was either working on preparing for the war or rebuilding, and little concerns such as Naruto's training didn't particularly cross anyone's mind in the process. Everyone was now calling Naruto the hero of the village, and while Iruka was happy for the boy, he was worried about the expectations he would be pressured to live up to.

Mostly all of the Jounins were being kept in the village in case of an attack, and they were trying to send out the higher ranked ninjas only when absolutely necessary. This meant that the Chuunins were getting called upon to do missions much more than usual, meaning Iruka had already been on two missions in the past month.

While that might not be a lot for the average ninja, Iruka- being an Academy teacher- hadn't previously been on a mission for at least two years. He was very out of shape, and therefore had to spend all his extra time training; not only for missions, but also for the war to one day soon come.

…

Iruka left the Academy around 6 o'clock, and went straight to where he had been going every day after he finished his Academy duties: the training grounds, or at least what used to be of them. New trees had been grown in the area thanks to the ninja who specialized in earth, and there were dummies and targets scattered across the grounds.

Usually there was a ninja or two around who would be more than willing to practice sparring. But before Iruka started fighting training, he always ran for a while. Speed was essential for a ninja, and to Iruka it was just as important as fighting. Anyway, there was no one in the training grounds at the moment, so Iruka wouldn't be able to spar even if he wanted to.

The tanned sensei set his belongings by a tree, and already sweating from the August heat, took his vest and long sleeved shirt off. Ever since he started working out a month ago, he had to admit that his body had become more defined and in shape. Sure, he was no body builder, but at least he wasn't as self-conscious as he was before.

Not that he wasn't anymore…

It was only a week ago that Iruka had given into the heat and started taking off his shirt when he ran- before he had been too embarrassed.

Once the Chuunin was ready, he set off in a steady jog away from the training grounds and towards the edge of the village.

Running was peaceful to him. It let him clear his mind and gave him the opportunity in his usually busy day to sort all of his thoughts out. Iruka looked out into the distance at the Hokage monuments and sighed, speeding up into a run from his jog.

The closer the war got, the more upset he was starting to get. Not only was he worried for the village and Naruto, but it also brought a very unhappy memory to the surface. The last war- and only war- he witnessed was the one where the Kyuubi killed his parents, along with many other villagers and ninjas.

Basically the entire village loved Iruka, but even then, he didn't have any friends close enough that he would talk to about all of his recent troubles. Even if he did, he wouldn't want to burden them. The only person who was ever truly close to him was dead: the 3rd Hokage, Sandaime.

And the worst part was that no one knew for certain when the war would come and where it would happen. Would his beloved village be destroyed again?

Iruka pushed those thoughts out of his head as he ran faster, halfway around his lap of the village. At the speed he was running, he returned to the training grounds in half the amount of time it took him to get to the halfway point earlier in his run.

He slowed to a stop near the tree where he left his belongings, and rummaged through his vest to pull out a metal water canister. Tilting his head back, he let the now warm- but still refreshing- contents pool into his mouth and down his throat.

It was only after he removed the metal ring from his lips that he realized he wasn't alone.

If Iruka had still been drinking his water when he realized this, he would have choked on it. But luckily he was saved from the embarrassment, and he thanked whatever God was out there that he didn't embarrass himself in front of the infamous Copy Ninja.

It wasn't unusual to not be the only one out in the training grounds, but it was unusual for Hatake Kakashi to be there.

When the silver haired man realized he had the Chuunin's attention, he held up a gloved hand in greeting.

"Yo."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Iruka said, trying to keep the heat from rising to his face.

Why was it that heat was trying to rise to his face anyway?

He didn't know why the older man got him so nervous, and although it wasn't uncommon for Iruka to blush, it wasn't usually this noticeable to him.

The Chuunin mentally scowled at himself. It was just Kakashi-sensei for heaven's sake. Since when did he get flustered around Jounins? He dealt with them most days in the mission room, taking their mission reports and even having to make them re-write them for making them illegible. Hell, he had made Kakashi re-do his mission reports multiple times for scrawling it in illegible handwriting and drawing his descriptions instead of writing them!

Maybe that was it? Maybe his subconscious knew that Kakashi had some sort of weird revenge against him for all the times he had made the Jounin re-write his mission reports. Maybe all the Jounins had teamed up and had Kakashi come to Iruka to get revenge on him for all of the times he had made them re-write their reports, or all the times he had made them settle down and stop talking so animatedly and/or misbehaving.

Iruka visibly gulped, starting to feel even more nervous than he had before. If the infamous Copy Ninja was out to get him, how would Iruka get out of it? He couldn't! It was impossible!

Stop being paranoid and ridiculous.

There had to be some other reason Iruka felt so nervous around the Jounin. And it wasn't because the Jounin had some sort of 'Jounin revenge' for him. He would figure it out, and if anyone knew the answer already he wouldn't object to knowing it.

Seeing the Jounin waiting expectedly for a response, the Chuunin flushed once again.

STOP BLUSHING LIKE AN IDIOT AND SAY SOMETHING! YOU'RE AN ACADEMY TEACHER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, SO I KNOW YOU AREN'T ONE!

"What are you doing here?" He then realized that might have come out sounding rude, and a light blush spread across his face once again.

REALLY? AGAIN?

Kakashi, however, showed no visible signs of noticing the blushing. But then again, who knew what the perverted Jounin was thinking under that silver mess he called hair?

"Maa, isn't it obvious? These are the training grounds aren't they?" Kakashi's single visible eye curved into his famous one-eyed smile.

"Y-yes, I suppose they are," Iruka stammered, getting upset at himself for getting so flustered for the 'who-knows-how-many'ith time.

He didn't even really like the guy, although he had to admit that he liked him more than he had in the past.

Naruto had turned out to be a great ninja due to Kakashi's guidance, and while the Jounin had put Team 7 in the Chuunin Exams rather too quickly for Iruka's liking, the team had ended up being okay and prospered from the experience.

Not to mention the most recent event where Kakashi had saved Iruka's life. If the Copy Nin hadn't have showed up when he had, Pein would have surely killed him along with a fellow ninja Iruka had been trying to help.

Seeing as Kakashi was the only one around, Iruka decided asking him to spar wouldn't hurt. Sure, the Jounin would probably kick his ass, but fighting stronger ninjas- especially ones that wouldn't kill you in the process- had its learning benefits.

You're going to embarrass yourself…

Don't just stand there contemplating it, say something!

He's waiting…!

"Would you like to spar?"

At Kakashi's surprised expression, Iruka fell into a stammer of embarrassed apologies.

"I'm sorry- I'm sure you have better and more important things to do than spar with a Chuunin, and-"

"Calm down, calm down- I'll spar with you," Kakashi interrupted the now flushed Chuunin, looking rather amused and holding up his hands in a calming matter. "Why else would I be in the training grounds but to train? I'm growing rather bored, being missionless all the time."

Iruka's mouth dropped open only to have it shut just as quickly as it had dropped.

He agreed? He wanted to spar with him?

Wait, I wasn't planning on him saying yes!

"Ah… Right," Iruka said, laughing off his embarrassment. "Well I just assumed you would rather have more of a challenge than me- I mean, I'm pretty out of shape as it is."

"Maa, well shockingly I have rather missed having someone to train." Kakashi smiled his one-eyed smile, though it had become less dramatically curved, making it seem more genuine. "And what good would I be providing to the village by sitting around all day reading Icha Icha, eh?"

At the name of the orange, and occasionally green, porn book the Jounin always had his face buried in, Iruka tried not to become the uptight teacher he could be and scold the older man for reading such perverted trash. He had almost forgotten how flustered he had been getting by becoming disgusted instead by the mention of the stupid book. Almost.

It was with a strenuous amount of self-control that Iruka kept his mouth shut about what he wanted to say of the book. He didn't want to scare the Jounin away- who had actually been quite nice and friendly to the stupidly flustered Chuunin.

"Well as much as I hate to admit it, I do need training..." Iruka said, itching the back of his head and smiling nervously. "But I have to warn you, I'm pretty rusty. As of one month ago, my last mission was two years ago. And my performance on the two missions I've been on this past month wasn't very impressive."

The Jounin only continued to smile his one-eyed smile, and Iruka noted that it was kind of creepy how it never seemed to falter.

"Not to worry Sensei, the more fun for me!"

Iruka instantly decided the Jounin sounded way too happy about that statement. He gave a nervous chuckle, itching the back of his head nervously once again.

'What am I getting myself into?' Iruka mentally groaned.

A/N: I hope you liked the first chapter! Please leave a review; your thoughts help me a lot!