Being a top ninja was more than a test of skill. It also centered around your circumstances. Having a bloodline limit, for example, increased your chances of being at the top of the game. Having money to buy equipment and the time to train also increased one's chances of fulfilling your greatest potential. Having a supportive home to remove pressure and crossing circumstances from ninja training was another factor.
If you took all these things into account, Hakate Kakashi and Umino Iruka were drastically different people. Even as such, Umino Iruka had a good shot at making jounin one day. While not being a genius, he was competent and easy to teach. He was motivated, determined, adn knew how to ask good questions. More than that he was likable, gregarious, and loyal. He was never ANBU material, but he was primed for being given a group of genin to teach. As it were, the academy was a high position to have for a chuunin. It was considered a training for people who will eventually become jounin. On school vacations, he was tutored by some of the best.
However, not by Kakashi. Not until recently.
Iruka hadn't felt this kind of consternation about being trained since he was assigned his first sensei as a fresh genin. Hatake Kakashi was a legend, perhaps someday to be a future Hokage. He hadn't ever seen him with a group of genin. Either he was considered too important or they passed too quickly. He had never had the time to stalk the older man (nor the compulsion to), so he couldn't say one way or the other.
What was up with that mask? In Konoha, it wasn't customary to cover your face with a mask or wrappings. Other villages used it as a form of intense emotional training. A physical barrier to separate yourself with the rest of the world to make killing strangers and missing-nin easier. Through the material you could not be kissed in surprise by a lover or complimented on your dazzling smile. It was speculated that Kakashi had scarring, one of the few reasons binding on the face was seen as something socially acceptable.
Iruka himself had gone with a small wrapping for the first year he had had his scar. Eventually, when the swelling went down and his nose was stitched back up he didn't feel the need for it anymore, but what had happened to Kakashi? Iruka spent days speculating on the cavern's width between him and Kakashi.
Assumedly bad past, genius, tragic father figure, bloodline limit, mysterious. Of what value would Iruka be to him? Would they meet somewhere and say hello in greeting or was it expected that he generally ignore his presence. Iruka was nervous, this man might have the final say in his final examination to be a jounin. Jounin were mysterious creatures still to him. There were rumors that copy-eye Kakashi could see right through your eyes into your mind.
Iruka feared anyone that had this power. Was it really that impossible that a ninja could summon monsters and seal demons, but not look into the mind of a simple teacher? He feared that Kakashi would be able to see straight into him. Through his skin and into his tightly knit heart. Through the bindings on his organs and the jokes, to the center of his scarring.
Perhaps a genius like Kakashi could unravel him with a simple pull. The Sharingan analyzing all his little quirks and cutting into him like a clawed hand, pulling his strings exactly as he hoped. Reaching for his level felt like trying to climb an impossible cliff.
What did Iruka look like to him, so high in the air from him that he might as well have sprouted wings to match his silver hair. iI bet he never even thinks about it./i Iruka thought he might not. The child of a genius ninja had a legacy to follow. He didn't have time to wallow around in his thoughts. The end came when he stopped flapping his wings.
strongFirst impression/strong - iConsider this the section where the story begins. The themes have been set, a rift between them. You know how it ends up, but it's the coming together that makes everything enjoyable, ne? So we start at the real beginning when the relationship between our protagonist and a special someone moves from potential to kinetic./i
"Umino Iruka reporting for duty, Kakashi-san!" Whoooosh went the wind across the empty glade. The wind through his hair. The wind across his exposed toes. The wind cutting a chill with the moisture on his smiling exposed teeth. Up. Right. Left. Back. Down?
Where the hell was he? This must be some kind of test, Iruka thought, quieting his chakra. His students knew from experience that Umino Iruka could see behind his back. This was because Umino Iruka had a distinct specialty in genjutsu that had been growing stronger over the past year. He'd finally hit his stride and had made great progress improving his skills. He felt around for Kakashi and could sense no presence.
There was nothing else to think. Hatake Kakashi, elite ninja of Konoha...was late.
At first Iruka told himself that Kakashi was a VERY important person. VIP was a term practically made for him. Genius child of a genius ninja had genius things to do other than teach him. He waited anyhow. He ate his energy bar and drank his water, doing stretches and light calisthenics so he'd be ready if Kakashi were to show up.
Some hours later, a grumbling stomach signaled the end of his waiting. Dejected, Umino Iruka unreported himself for duty and dragged his feet all the way home. iWhat an annoying day. He probably just forgot about me. It must be nice being someone as important as that once in a while./i
Even his door sounded dejected with its slight whine. He needed to oil that, he accepted with a forlorn sigh. His legs felt like they were made of lead, lugging him into his empty home and closing the door again to the tune of his depressed portal. He should make himself something to eat or go straight to bed. Forget the awful day. Hope tomorrow was something better (slim chance!). He kicked off his nin sandals haphazardly by his doorway, using the toe of one foot to remove the other.
He opted for a little of both. He grabbed a muffin he'd been saving for the morning and munched on it, letting the sweet taste of it drench his mouth in at least one pleasurable sensation. He marched straight for his bedroom, shucking clothing along the way, letting it fall where it may behind him until he was left only in his cotton briefs with half of a cranberry muffin in his hand.
He tossed himself carelessly onto his bed to lay on his back, taking another bite of his muffin. "Hmph." He pulled his forgotten hitae-ate off of his head and tossed it aside. It hit the wall with a small clang. Small wonder, his bedroom was hardly more than a glorified closet with a bed, dresser, endtable, hole for a closet, and barely enough space between it all to squeeze out sideways.
Iruka ignored the mess he was making. The apartment was so small he kept it clean out of necessity, not any real desire to appear cleanly. Alright, so maybe a little bit of that last part, but that was besides the point. No clean apartment would make him feel like a better person. His mental state was steadily spiraling downwards in the dark room with his cranberry muffin.
He chewed thoughtfully on another piece and blinked into the darkness. His one saving grace had been his ability to go to sleep and forget all the events of the previous day. Blissfully, he felt the familiar tugs of sleep (made so much easier by his inability to properly sleep the night before) pull at him as his blinks became more prolonged.
Tomorrow...tomorrow would be better.
"wha? Class dismissed!" Iruka called sleepily as his arms waved in the air before him. He must have dozed off for a second and left a window open. He pushed himself through his sleepy daze when he realized he had never opened up the window. Why would he when it was supposed to storm that night? He grabbed for his kunai holster and realized in shock that it wasn't on his nightstand where it usually was. Where had he-
Kuso! The living room! Iruka creeped out of bed at a crouch, staying near the ground and looking around him with eyes still tired from being pulled out of rest. In his haste, he rolled over the uneaten portion of his muffin he had dropped and now lay mostly smeared over his side, dripping a piece of cooked cranberry here and there.
His eyes darting from side to side, Iruka looked out into his miniscule hallway. He glanced across the ceilings and underneath furnitures and into deep shadows. Not seeing anything in particular and not sensing any battle chakra, he rolled out of the doorway to his couch, the recipient of his wrappings and kunai holster.
His hand reached out for his trusty friend and life protector, only to feel it slightly larger than what he was used to. Stop. Something was wrong. Iruka glanced up through the rifling smoke of the broken henge into the curved eyes of a masked, silver-haired ninja.
"Yare! Yare! I didn't know you were that kind of man!" iGuh/i If the break-in wasn't enough to wake the man up, this certainly was. kakashi turned on the small lamp beside him, sending blinding rays of artifical light into Iruka's squinting eyes.
"Gah!" Iruka's exclamations were at least still manly. He jumped up like an ape, looking at his hand as if it had betrayed him, then at the whimsical jounin. "Gah!" Again! Kakashi was definitely worth two. Breaking into his home and playing a trick like that while he was still in his underwear! "Gah!' He was still in his underwear!
Iruka wasn't a rich man by any stretch of the matter. While teaching genin was a good way to fully master the basics yourself (as well as learn a lot about different shinobi in their basic forms), it didn't pay as well as going on missions. The underwear Iruka could afford was threadbare from poor quality, years possession, and washing. In other words, it certainly wasn't something he wanted to be seen in. He grabbed his shirt off the nearby floor and draped it embarrassingly in front of him. "Wh-what are you doing here?" He stammered, a strong blush crossing his cheeks and down his very visible body.
Impossibly, Kakashi shrugged. He looked terribly at ease on Iruka's couch. He had his hands folded on his stomach and slouched far back, both legs extended out fully in front of him. He had even taken his sandals off before entering! "I figured I ought to apologize for missing our training today. I, uh, was meditating and forgot myself in the infinity." Satisfied with this explanation, he nodded to himself.
He wasn't even pretending to have a good excuse! He had - he had just forgotten! The. Nerve! Iruka's blush was quickly turning into a flush of anger. Jounin or not, Iruka-sensei was known for disliking tardiness and leniency such as this. He had broken many students, some of them extremely problematic (Naruto, for example). He wouldn't sit here and let this jounin provide a bad example for a school teacher. "That is. the worst. excuse. I have ever heard." Iruka's voice shook with his hands. The realization was dawning over his entire body, starting from his mouth down his arms then chest, that Kakashi had ruined his entire day because he was just that lackadaisical.
Kakashi lifted a single eyebrow at the teacher and put a finger to his masked lips. "Oro? I thought it was okay." He admitted nonchalantly, looking up at the ceiling for a moment. What an annoying man. If he thought he could just march in...If he thought he could just strongsit/strongthere like that, well...he could. He would! He just!
"If you're going to be like that, I don't have time for your games. You are either here to be serious, or you can go home and your pa-SUPERIORS!" He enunciated loudly to cover the hole his slip-up might have made to not be taken seriously, "will be notified. Which will it be?" Iruka waved a finger in the air. If he had been wearing more clothing, he might have been imposing rather than oddly sexy. A caring man of authority wearing next to nothing, loaded with muscle, making adorable proclamations in his living room.
it was enough to make Kakashi blush! Common sense persisted that that would be the worst course of action, so Kakashi shrugged and stood up lazily. "yare yare." He replied, waving a single hand in Iruka's direction as he walked past. "I'm sure I'll see you later. Ja!" He sounded distinctly cheery, picking up his nin sandals and walking out of Iruka's house with a little wave. Like he was a guest and didn't just break in!
It was clear he had done what he had come there to do. Those objectives apparently being: wake up a sleeping Iruka after making him have a bad day and annoy him utterly with enough shameful memories to last him another week.
His first impression of actually meeting Kakashi was annoyance. The man was impossible, cruel, unthoughtful, distasteful, RUDE, and probably highly improper to have around anyone under the age of 21!
Picking up his clothing in a huff, Iruka deposited them in their proper places. He put his nin sandals at perfect parrallels by the door and spent the twenty minutes necessary to find his actual kunai holster. Fittingly, it was in the cupboard behind a cereal box. He cleaned up the mess Kakashi (he hoped!) had made making some bizarre form of sandwich and tromped off to bed. He literally threw himself onto the mattress and commanded his whirling mind to sleep.
iSleep/i It was going to be a long night.