1

"Ah, Kakashi, there you are!" Gai said, running up and putting an arm around the mask ninja.

"Hello Gai!" Kakashi replied, he was really too tired to deal with him at this moment, as he had just gotten back from a mission, but when it came to Gai…

"So, Kakashi, as strange as it seems, but I've set up a date for you!"

"You what?"

"My cousin's visiting from right outside the village. You'd like her!"

"No thanks, Gai, I'd rather not." Kakashi sighed.

"Eh? Come on Kakashi! When's the last time you had a date?" Gai asked his friend. Like most of Kakashi's friends, he had noticed that the jounin had never once been on a date.

"I'm just not feeling well, alright?" It was true, Kakashi had been sick on the mission, and still was. "I'm going to go see Lady Tsunade…" he mumbled.

What bothered Kakashi about all his friends is that they all seemed to think he was gay. But really he wasn't gay, sure he was attracted to men, but that didn't make him gay. In fact, that made him straight.

Yes, Kakashi was attracted to men, and straight. For 'he' was actually a 'she'…

Only two people in the village (she hoped) knew that Kakashi was actually female. His doctor, and Lady Tsunade.

"Ah, Kakashi! Back so soon?" the Hokage teased. She often teased the silver-haired ninja. But just when they were alone.

"You know why…"

"Yes, I know, you've fallen ill, but honestly Kakashi-" the blonde woman yawned, "this is the second mission you've gotten sick on…Is everything all right?"

The masked jounin smiled, or what would have been perceived as a smile, the mask made it hard to tell. "Everything is fine! I just haven't been able to sleep lately, on or off missions, nothing to worry about!"

"All right… Would you like me to give you a break from missions?" the Hokage asked, a little annoyed that Kakashi needed this break, they needed everyone working at the same time, there was a flood of new missions.

Kakashi was having trouble sleeping. She was torn. For she had begun noticing someone in a way that two male collages should not notice each other. But she wasn't male, and he didn't return the feelings. She knew, he had a girlfriend.

But still, he was keeping her up each night. She couldn't stop thinking about him. And it was driving her crazy.

Yet, even with much she noticed him, she knew it couldn't work. The age difference wasn't much, he was only two years younger, but… But he thought she was a he. Nearly everyone did. That's why it had never worked when she had been in love with Gai. Boys just don't get it when their friends start liking them.

She hadn't told Gai, she hadn't really noticed him until graduation, then it hit her, she really liked him. But it was too late, he wouldn't have cared. They were rivals, and as far as Gai knew, both boys.

But maybe, just maybe, Kakashi thought, Iruka would be different…But no, he won't…

2

Kakashi still felt bad, and the medical ninja who also treated 'him', prescribed bed rest. As in, Kakashi wasn't allowed to leave the house for two days.

Kakashi was miserable.

"Ah, hello Iruka!" Gai said, throwing an arm around the young chunin. "Have I got a date for you!"

"Hello Gai, nice to see you, but I'm not really looking for a date right now…" The younger man said.

"But you broke up with what's-her-face ages ago!" Gai whined at the younger ninja.

"I know, but I'm planning on asking out someone special, and I want to find the perfect moment!"

"Well at least it's better than Kakashi's excuss, claiming to be 'sick'" the jounin sighed.

Iruka smiled, Gai was desperate to find his cousin a date, wasn't he? Then it hit him like a semi hits someone crossing the street too slowly. "Kakashi's sick?!"

Kakashi, the copy-nin, had always been good at looking like a boy. She had been practicing her whole life.

She would use a little chakra to make her face look male when she couldn't use her mask. She would use a little chakra to make her body look male when nesisary. But the bottom line is that her disguise used chakra, and when she was this exhausted, it was too much. So when Iruka showed up at her door, Kakashi panicked.

Kakashi threw on loose clothing, and grabbed her mask. She was hoping he'd leave quickly, that this was just about her misfiled mission report, but deep down, she knew it wasn't.

"Hello Kakashi sensei, I hear that you have fallen ill." Iruka said, standing in the doorway.

"Ah, yes I am…" Kakashi murmured, her voice always sounded male, it was just a tendency.

"Hm, so Gai wasn't lying… Well, anyway, I thought you might like this." Iruka pulled a small book from his pocket. "I know that it just came out, and you're not allowed to leave the house yet, so I thought you might enjoy some new reading material…" The chunin blushed.

"Is that the new Icha Icha book?" Kakashi asked slyly.

Iruka blushed more profusely. "Yes, I can't see how you can stand going into that store, it's… disturbing…"

"Oh Iruka!" Kakashi threw 'his' arms around the man in the doorway. She held on, could you blame her for hugging some one she was in love with?

"Ah, Ka-" Iruka mumbled, but he wasn't going to break up the hug just because it was starting to snow. He would never admit it, but he was really quite fond of the junin, a little too fond for a friend to be…

It embarrassed Iruka, but he never quite hit it off with girls, and he wasn't really attracted to most boys. Just Kakashi, always just Kakashi. It was strange, how he had never found himself looking at anyone else, never dreaming about anyone else. He just really loved the scarecrow that was now wrapped around him.

Kakashi snuggled into Iruka's shoulder, hiding her face in the folds of blue cloth of the man's shirt. Slightly embarrassed, and feeling like he was he was taking advantage of his sick collage, Iruka ran his hands down Kakashi's thin body. The body Iruka had spent years fantasizing about.

It was more curved then he had thought any man's body should be, but it didn't bother him. But the snow piling up on both of them did, if Kakashi was sick, he shouldn't be getting snowed on.

"Kakashi, we should move…"

"Oh right! Sorry!" the masked ninja pulled Iruka inside the messy apartment. "Would you like some tea?"

"I'd say yes, but you'd probably spike it…" Iruka said as Kakashi put the Icha Icha book down on one of the free spaces in the room.

"I'd never!" Kakashi handed him a cup. Iruka took a long sip. "Or maybe I would…" the silver haired ninja shrugged.

Iruka glared, "Did you?"

"Yes…" Iruka shrugged, but drank anyway. "Aren't you having any tea?" he asked, but Kakashi's one eyes was staring at the younger ninja, brimming with tears. "Kakashi, are you all right?"

"Yeah, sorry, no I'm-I'm not thirsty."

"Kakashi, are you all right? I think you've been avoiding me…" The brown haired man said, putting his cup of tea down and standing to embrace the older 'man'.

"Maybe, um, maybe you should go, thank you for the book…" Kakashi pulled away from the dolphin's touch. Then the scarecrow turned and ran into the 'his' small bedroom in the back of the apartment.

"Kakashi?"

"Iruka?"

"Are you mad at me?"

"Yes…"

"Why?"

"Because I'm in love with you…"

"Wh-what?" Had he just said that? Had Kakashi just said that?? "K-Kakashi?"

"Hm?"

"I love you too."

"No you don't…" Kakashi sighed.

"Why wouldn't I love you?"

"Because I've been lying to you… You should leave…"

A shocked Iruka walked back to the main room of the apartment.

Having been snowed in, Iruka thought that he would have to talk to Kakashi again.

"I've been snowed in…"

"You can take my bed; I'll sleep on the couch…" Kakashi stood and began to leave the room. Then Iruka did something very un-Iruka-ish.

He caught the other ninja's wrist, far more slender then he imagined. Then he pulled down the mask that hid Kakashi's face, and crushed his lips to Kakashi's.

3

Kakashi stood up, taking one last glance at the sleeping brunette. She kissed his hair slightly, then went about trying to find his clothes, as they had been thrown about, and were mixed with her own.

She walked into the messy bathroom and turned on the shower head. Kakashi let the warm water run over her.

Iruka woke up alone in a very strange room, one he didn't recognize, at first that is. Then he remembered. He smiled quietly to himself.

He walked to the bathroom; he could hear the shower running. It would have seemed less dirty had Kakashi been male, but after last night, Iruaka knew that his friend was most defiantly not male.

Iruka slid into the bathroom, too quiet even for the ultra-sensitive copy-nin of the hidden leaf, to hear. He watched as she washed her thin body, and smiled quietly to himself again.

The water shut off, and Kakashi found a towel that was messily hanging from a towel rack. She wrapped it around her, and stepped out of the shower, eyes closed, and hum-ing softly to herself.

Kakashi let out a slight yelp as Iruka wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. He let her move her tongue along his lips, and opened his mouth. Then he let her go, and took a step away.

"Bastard…" Kakashi said, in that familiar male voice, which is what confused Iruka, why did it seem so right that this woman should have Kakashi's voice?

"Thank you…" Iruka said sarcastically. This was definitely his Kakashi, but a girl? Since when was Kakashi a girl?

"Can you hand me my clothes?" Kakashi asked him, "and perhaps put your clothes on?"

"Hm, you seemed to like it last night." Iruka teased, God, when did I get this obnoxious? He thought.

"Iruka, stop, it's not funny!" Kakashi said, sounding for once in the years Iruka had known him (her? I'm confused), like a girl.

"I will, but please, Kakashi, why didn't you tell me?"

"I can't even tell you that!"

FLASHBACK!!

"Now honey, I don't want you to cry…"

"I won't Daddy…" A young silver haired girl whispered.

"Sweetheart, you're mummy's dead."

"Oh…"

"She died because she was on a dangerous mission, and because she was…"

"A girl?" she finished her father's sentence.

"Yes…So now sweetheart, I want us to do something, k?"

"Okay!"

"It is mostly your responsibility, kay?"

"Yeah, okay Daddy…"

"You're going to start being a boy from now on, okay?"

"All right, I'll be a boy, if that's what you want…"

"Good girl, I mean, Good boy…"

"Daddy…" Kakashi murmured.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing Iruka, hey, shall we see if there is any food in this place?" Kakashi suggested.

"Wouldn't you know?" Iruka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would I know?"

FLASHBACK!!

"All right" the strange, awkward substitute said. "Boys stay in here, girls head over to the classroom across the hall, it seems we're starting sex education today…"

Kakashi stopped herself from standing, she would have to stay in here and endure the male video.

But she wasn't paying attention. Why would she? She didn't need to know this, what she needed to know was on a video playing in the classroom across the hall…

Boys in the room were shocked, twitching, laughing awkwardly. But when the video ended, they all stared blankly at the screen. All except Kakashi, she was drawing in her notebook. Or as the sub put it "Kakashi was cool, calm, collected, and taking notes."

Gai stood up in the middle of class. "Being the rival of said person, I swear that I shall no longer be ashamed of my manly ways." Kakashi hid her head in a book.

"Kakashi?" Iruka said, they were both dressed now and digging through Kakashi's cupboard.

"Hm?"

"Nothing…"

"All right then…"

Suddenly, they were kissing again.

FLASHBACK!!

"Kakashi, unless this is about your mission report, I'm not interested."

"Iruka, do you want to join me for lunch?"

"What?"

"Nevermind…"

"No, what did you say?"

"Forget about it…"

"Um, all right…"

"You're really cute when you blush…"

"Thank you…?"

"You're welcome!"

"…"

"Iruka, I love you…"

"I love you too, Kakashi…"

Hm, dolphin love...