Ch. 1: Almost

Iruka had been my best friend for fifteen years, and I guess I always thought it would be like that forever, but one night everything changed...

"Hey Kahari-sama?"

"Yeah?"

I looked up from the paper I was grading; Iruka looked at me then quickly looked away. "Nothing..." He went back to his lesson plan, attempted to write something down but was distracted by something. "... Kahari-sama..." I looked up at him expectantly. "Nothing, just... Nothing..."

I almost shrugged off his strange behavior, but something about it bothered me. "Iruka, is there something you need to tell me?"

"N-no." he stuttered. He made the mistake of looking into my eyes, I could tell he was getting nervous. "No... No, there's—there's nothing I need to tell you." He flashed his trademark childlike grin. "Why do you ask, Kahari-sama?"

I kept my tone even, being careful not to show any emotion. "Well, for one thing, you've called me 'sama' three times since we've started talking even though there's no one else around."

"S-so?"

"So... You normally only call me that when we're with other shinobi. You almost never add a suffix to my name when it's just us."

"Is there a law against showing respect for those who are of a higher rank than you?"

"Well no, I'll admit there isn't." he nodded, satisfied, returning to his papers. "But if I remember correctly, you weren't exactly the most respectful young man. The only person you ever called 'sama' or any other honorable was Lord Hokage. Why would you start calling me that when there's no one around to criticize you if you didn't? Why won't you just call me Kahari."

He hesitated; pushing away his paperwork, he turned to face me. "Because, Kahari, I respect you, more than the other Jonin. I think you're..." he realized what he was saying and stopped suddenly.

Immediately I was intrigued. "What?"

Iruka jumped, as though he'd been caught doing something wrong. He quickly gathered up his things. "I'd better get home. Kakashi will burn down the apartment if I'm not home in time to cook dinner." (They're roommates, not boyfriend/boyfriend. They're both straight. cough pervert cough) Iruka picked up his jacket from the floor. "See you tomorrow, Kahari-sama!" he called through the door.

"Four..." I muttered to myself. "That's four times he said my name with an honorable." I shook my head, as if to clear away distracting thoughts, and went back to my papers. "Strange man..."

(Iruka's POV)

"Damn it!" I whispered, mentally kicking myself for not telling her. "What's wrong with you, Iruka?" I asked myself aloud. "You've never had trouble talking to Kahari before—why is it so hard now?" An image of Kahari, in that shirt; the pale green shirt that she wore a little tight, just tight enough so that her breasts nearly fell out of it, flashed in front of my eyes—making me remember I was a man. I looked down at my now tight pants, "You stay out of this!"

"Stay out of what?" I jumped, not expecting to hear Kakashi's voice. I had been so deep in thought that I hadn't noticed where I was.

"Nothing, it's not important."

"You sure? You seem upset about something."

"I'm fine. It's none of your business anyway."

Kakashi gave me that "I'm going to make it my business" look. "Iruka, you just spoke to your penis... rather irreverently if you ask me."

I sighed, Kakashi could be such an idiot sometimes. "Look. It's my penis, so it's my problem. I don't need your input. And another thing- "

"Kahari was wearing the pale green shirt she got for Christmas, wasn't she?"

I sank down into a chair, giving up the argument. "Oh yeah. I think she's washed it a few times to get it tighter." Thinking about it made my pants become uncomfortably tighter around my crotch.

"You want me to stay away from the bathroom so you can masturbate?"

"No, I'm okay..."

Kakashi leaned down, "You know I heard she's worn a C cup since the 9th grade..."

I stood up quickly, walking down the hallway. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Hey Iruka?"

I held back a moan, "Yeah, Kakashi?"

"Did you tell Kahari how you feel about her?"

I jerked my head back, hitting it soundly against the wall. "Ouch!" I cried, rubbing the back of my head with my free hand. "No, I didn't tell her... I almost did though." ...Almost...