Title
Anime: Naruto
Pairings: KakaIru! (if you don't like, please leave now)
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters sigh I also have no money, so don't bother suing me
Warning: Not beta-ed. Please ignore any spelling/word errors! Thanks!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Kakashi reached his house, darted in and slammed the door behind him. Idiot! He berated himself. Just what the hell were you thinking?!
Ummm… The rest of his brain replied, intelligently. I don't think we were thinking. And then it went back to trying to memorize the feeling of soft, adorable, blushing Chuunin in his arms. Kakashi slammed his head down on the counter and swore silently. Forget it. He's never going to want to see me again. If I hadn't….
OOOOO
A few short moments before….
Kakashi was making his way through downtown Konoha. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, but you couldn't really blame him for that. The new volume of Icha Icha had arrived that day, and, considering he'd read the past volumes so many times that they were in danger of falling apart, you could forgive him for thoroughly burying his nose in the book the minute he was out of the bookstore. Unfortunately, he was not the only one moving through Konoha without paying attention, and as he rounded the corner, he ran smack into someone, knocking the other person flat on his ass. Kakashi sighed, mildly put off that his reading had been interrupted, but put Icha Icha into his pocket and went to offer the stranger a hand.
…..
Or not so much of a stranger. Sitting on his butt, in the midst of scattered papers, scrolls and books, was his team's former teacher. Iruka looked so surprised that Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle. "Iruka-sensei." He said, offering the Chuunin a hand, "Sorry, I didn't see you."
Iruka looked up at him, then took the proffered hand. He thought about yelling at the Jounin for not watching where he was going. Honestly! He's a Jounin; he should be able to avoid people even if he is reading some stupid, orange porn book. On the other hand, he had to fight down laughter, since Kakashi managed looked so contrite. He settled on the latter, andflashed the other man a sheepish smile."Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei. No harm, no…." As he pulled himself to his feet using the other man's arm as leverage, his foot snagged on one of the books he'd been carrying. He stumbled forward and fell heavily against Kakashi's chest. Kakashi instinctively wrapped his arms around the Chuunin to keep him from collapsing to the ground.
They both froze. Iruka was leaning heavily against Kakashi, and his hands were splayed across the Jounin's chest. His head tilted back to meet the one uncovered eye, and Iruka felt the arms around his back and waist tighten, instead of letting him go.
Kakashi stared down into the warm brown eyes. He was falling; falling forever. A faint blush spread across Iruka's cheeks as the Chuunin became aware of the prolonged contact and the unwavering stare that had captured his gaze. Kakashi's mind let out a low moan: Does this man have any idea how cute he is when he blushes? Kakashi felt his weight shift forward, and he realized with a start that his brain was no longer in control. His head dropped down; his heart ignoring the screams from his brain that said that this was really not a good idea.
Iruka nearly jumped out of his skin as warm lips shrouded in black fabric pressed against his own. The kiss was brief, and then contact was broken. Arms disentangled from his waist and shoulders, and Iruka got one brief look at a very startled Kakashi before the Jounin turned tail and fled. Literally.
Iruka's legs gave out from underneath him, and he sank to the ground. One hand rose involuntarily to touch his lips, while the other fisted over his heart. The kiss had been brief, but it had left him weak in the knees, unable to stand. The spots on either side of his neck where Kakashi's hands had brushed as he'd pulled away felt like they were on fire. Kakashi had…..Kakashi had….
"Oi, Iruka-sensei!" The shout startled him out of his daze, and he turned to see Naruto tearing down the street. "Iruka-sensei? Why are you sitting on the ground?"
Iruka just blinked at him. His mind was still replaying the memory of Kakashi leaning into him and pressing his lips against his own. His mind was still wrapped up in the feeling of being held tight against the Jounin's body. His mind was definitely not paying attention to what Naruto was saying or doing. He focused on the kyuubi boy when Naruto offered him a stack of papers that he'd gathered up. "A-ano, Iruka-sensei? Are you alright?"
Iruka slowly pushed himself to his feet and gathered up the scrolls, books and papers he'd dropped. "I'm fine, Naruto." He said, absently-mindedly, dropping his hand onto the boy's head. "I'll take you out to eat tomorrow." Had he been in the right state of mind would have realized that he shouldn't volunteer to feed Naruto - he'd gotten into the habit of only giving in if Naruto brought it up first. However, Iruka was not in his right state of mind, and he was really only concerned with one thing. Finding Kakashi and finding out whether this had meant what he desperately hoped it meant.
Naruto watched Iruka move off down the street and shook his head. Adults are so weird….
OOOOOOO
Back in the present….Kakashi collapsed onto his couch and dropped his head into his hands. Note to self: Next time you're in the Mission Room, steal the schedule. There was no way he could face Iruka after this. The thought made his heart clench; the last thing he wanted to do was stop seeing Iruka. It was like asking him to remove a piece of his soul. I've fallen… Kakashi realized with a start. I've fallen for him…
And it had all started out so innocently, too! Kakashi had not been looking for a friend, let alone someone he would fall in love with; he'd simply been looking for information on his new team. While all of the genin had files about their various strengths and weaknesses, he knew that teachers of students always possessed some innate knowledge that never made it into the files. And if he was going to make Team 7 work, he was going to need the information that wouldn't be in the files. So he'd sought out their former teacher.
OOOOOOOO
Several weeks ago….
Kakashi wandered slowly through the halls in the Academy, searching for the right room. He'd gleaned the information about Team 7's former teacher's name and general description from Naruto during that morning's practice; now he just had to find him.
One door towards the end of the hall stood open, and Kakashi moved silently into the doorway and stuck his head into the room. At the far end of the room, a dark-haired Chuunin with a long scar that ran straight across his nose was hunched over the desk and surrounded by several large stacks of paper. Must be him. Kakashi mused. ….Oh, yeah. I've seen him in the Mission room before. For some reason that he couldn't fathom at the time, he stopped in the doorway and waited for a moment, studying the man behind the desk.
Kakashi's lips curled up slightly. This man was handsome; perhaps not strikingly so, but there was something about him that seemed to shine out through his eyes as they studied the sheets of paper before him. It surprised him, that this man was so attractive. He'd learned a little bit about the teacher before coming here, and almost all of the information suggested that Umino Iruka was a loner, no friends, no family, no significant other. In fact, the only friend he seemed to have was Naruto, and Kakashi's brief acquaintance with Naruto had led him to the conclusion that Iruka must have extremely bad taste if he actually preferred Naruto's company.
As he watched, Iruka's brows drew together, and one hand rose up to absentmindedly scratch at his scar. He lifted the paper to scrutinize it more closely, then shook his head and heaved an enormous sigh. He set the paper back on the desk and made a few quick marks on it before moving it to the smaller pile of 'Already graded papers.' Iruka grabbed the next paper from the stack, and after a couple of minutes, he smiled broadly and made a single mark on the paper before moving it to the completed pile. Kakashi felt a smile tugging at his lips as he watched. Do you care so much about you students, Iruka-sensei?
Kakashi made his way from the door to the desk and stopped a few feet from the front. "Iruka-sensei?"
"Yes." Iruka stacked the papers, put the cap on his pen, and rested his hands on his desk. "Can I help you?" It came out sharper than he'd intended, but the giant stack of papers on his desk should have warned any sane person not to bother him.
Iruka had responded without looking up. As he finished speaking, he raised his head and met the eyes – well, eye – of his visitor. He recognized the infamous copy-nin immediately; it was hard not to. Well that explains why he was brave enough to bother me. I don't think anyone has ever accused Hatake Kakashi of being sane.
Kakashi smiled at him, "Well, I was actually hoping to pick your brains about my students."
Iruka didn't bother to hide his impatience. "You have their files." And he reached for the next paper he needed to grade.
Kakashi reached out and put his hand gently on top of the paper. "Maaa, but I was hoping to hear your opinions. There's got to be stuff about these students that's not in their files."
Iruka studied Kakashi. For a Jounin who had never passed a single class, he seemed to have a pretty good idea of how to get a team to work together. And he was right. Iruka knew things about this particular group of genin that would definitely help out their training. But he was on the verge of beating Kakashi for daring to interrupt his grading particularly when he was this pressed. Of course, Iruka didn't stand a chance of landing a hit on the copy-nin…. He settled for a less-than-polite verbal response. "I really don't have time." Man, that didn't sound nasty at all! Iruka'd built up way too much patience with little kids over the years; he rubbed at the scar across the bridge of his nose in an attempt to cover the blush that was spreading across his face.
Kakashi heard the tone of dismissal in the Chuunin's voice and was about to leave him in peace when the other man reached up for his scar again and started to blush. Kakashi had no idea what he was embarrassed about, but the Chuunin was starting to fascinate him, and so, against his better judgment, he tried one more time before leaving. "Later then. Maybe over dinner? You have to eat sometime, you know."
"Dinner?" Iruka looked like he'd never heard the word before.
"Maa, maybe ramen?" Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle at the panicked look on Iruka's face, and he raised his hands to hold off any protests. "Don't worry, I'm buying. I heard that Naruto's been trying to eat you out of house and home."
Iruka opened his mouth to protest, "I can pay for myself…" But the words trailed off. Kakashi was already in the doorway.
"See you at six?" Kakashi called over his shoulder.
"Yeah, six…" Iruka muttered. He'd already returned to grading papers.
Kakashi paused at the door to watch the Chuunin. Iruka's brows drew down again as he stared at the paper in front of him, and his hand rose back up to scratch absentmindedly at his scar. Dinner is definitely going to be interesting….
OOOOOOOOOOO
AN: More to come. I'm switching back and forth between writing this and writing my royai fic, which also isn't finished, so which ever I get more reviews for, I'll update sooner ((bribery!)). REVIEW REVIEW! But don't flame the couple! Ummmm, I kinda wanted to write a fic talking about Kakashi and Iruka getting to know each other, instead of just falling for each other like a lot of the fics do (not that those fics aren't great 8D). Anyway, like it? Hate it? Let me know what you think!
Sunlight through Leaves