A/N: English is not my first language. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


"Hey, you better watch where you're going," Shiranui Genma said as he jumped out of the way, near hitting the front window of a restaurant as he came out of it.

Genma was clearly drunk. The masked ninja standing next to him didn't seem to pay the Special Jōnin any attention. Hatake Kakashi stood there, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a small orange book. But his single exposed eye moved to look at the person that had almost bumped into his friend and hadn't stopped or even turned to apologize.

"Oi! You about to get fucked up if you don't watch where you're going" Genma yelled a little too loud, in a deep, booming voice that would have carried up and down the street no matter how loud he tried to be. Heads turned in a flash, and for a brief second the Special Jōnin regretted he had yelled like he did.

It only took another second for Genma to get even more pissed when he realized that the one person whose attention he was trying to get hadn't even heard him.

Kakashi couldn't help but to notice the whole scene, especially the ninja who was in his own little world, and had made Genma jump out of the way. The ninja wasn't familiar to Kakashi, and he could be easily be mistaken for a civilian, if he wasn't wearing the village's standard uniform and forehead protector. He was totally unaware of his surroundings. No ninja should be that distracted; they should always be alert, even when they thought they were in a 'safe' place.

The distracted ninja was holding a catalog envelope like his life depended on it. He was short (Probably 3 or 4 inches shorter than Kakashi), his skin was naturally tanned and his hair, which was combed into a ponytail, was brown...Kakashi somehow couldn't stop staring at him.

"Look if it isn't Iruka," said Raidō (who was also drunk) "Genma , that guy just walked over your ass and he didn't even apologized. That's fucked up!"

It seemed like the scarred Jōnin was good in getting under Genma's skin. Raidō didn't know what was more amazing to him, that he saw Genma having to jump out of the way like a second-class civilian, or that Umino Iruka, a Chūnin, was still ignoring Genma as he was calling him out in front of half the people in the village!

"Oh, this is not over yet." Genma said as he regained his composure and started walking with a purpose toward Iruka.

Iruka was walking way too slow totally unaware of what was going on around him. Human nature makes you slow down a bit when your instincts tell you that you're doing something that is about to cause you harm. Iruka just didn't know how much harm was stomping its way towards him at that moment.

He felt a hard slap on the back of his head and he half-jumped and half-fell forward. The envelope he was carrying was catapulted out of his hands into the crowd of people in front of him.

He was about to fall flat on his face, but that envelope was still on his mind. It never occurred to Iruka that there was more to worry about right behind him. He just wasn't afraid of anything, at least not anything in the village. His mind was elsewhere.

"Hey, Iruka" Genma caught up with Iruka and grabbed him by the collar, pulling hard and spinning him around. "Or should I call you 'sensei' now?" The Special Jōnin grinned.

"Shiranui-san...can-can I help you?" The look of surprise on Iruka's face was unmistakable.

The commotion and the slap had drawn attention and the people who had been walking, laughing and talking with their friends and family were now focused on what was happening. Iruka just realized he was in the middle of what looked like a fight ring, all eyes were on him and Genma. His Sunday night was getting strange really fast.

Ibiki, who was passing close by, came running up. "What is going on here?" he asked.

"Nothing," Genma said releasing Iruka's collar. He knew Ibiki didn't tolerate fights between ninjas, though he wasn't going to fight, but just play a little with the Chūnin. "I was just talking with Iruka. I heard he just started teaching at the Academy...I was asking him about that, isn't that right Iruka?"

Iruka looked at Genma who was now smiling at him, not sure what say. He really didn't know what was happening. He'd done something that made the Special Jōnin upset. But what it was, he didn't know. So he decided just to nod instead of giving a proper answer.

Ibiki sighed. He could see that Genma was drunk. And when a ninja is drunk, he's dangerous even to himself. Ibiki walked up to Genma and the other Jōnins and told them to go home, and at the same time announced "there's nothing to see here" to the crowd.

Iruka paused a moment or two longer, and finally turned and started walking away, but then noticed someone staring at him.

Kakashi had stood there, watching the whole scene. He broke eye contact with Iruka long enough to look around, noticing people starting to move along, back to their lives and ignoring what just had happened. He looked back at Iruka, who had never moved from his original position. He got a good long unhurried look at him for the first time. Iruka looked young. Kakashi guessed that he was probably 19 or 20. He had a scar across his nose that made him look kinda cute, an absolute gorgeous slim body, and the deepest dark-brown eyes he'd ever seen. Kakashi felt like he could lose himself in those chocolate pools if he stared long enough.

After he had looked him up from head to toe a couple of times, Kakashi looked Iruka dead in the face. Their eyes were locked. There was something about Iruka's blank expression and the way he stared right back, that Kakashi liked for some reason, although he couldn't put his finger on it. He was the center of Iruka's attention now. The tanned ninja was focused just on him.

Kakashi kept his eyes on Iruka's ass as he slowly walked away, and he felt the hairs on his arms prick up a little. About ten feet away Iruka stopped and slowly turned back to look at Kakashi. Those hairs pricked up a little more. What the hell, Kakashi thought to himself. But he couldn't take his eye away.

He sighed as he jutsu'ed himself to the restaurant's roof. He couldn't understand why he'd stared at that Chūnin the way he did. He couldn't deny, the Chūnin was very attractive, and there was something in those dark-brown eyes that made Kakashi's body tremble.

Kakashi had his share of lovers in his 25 years. He'd lost his virginity at the age of 13. He'd slept with both man and woman. So he wasn't surprised of his attraction towards the Chūnin.

But there was more. More than just attraction. Those dark-brown eyes were awakening something in Kakashi he thought had buried a long time ago...maa, maybe I drunk a little bit too much. He sighed again. He took his book out of his pocket and started reading. He didn't want to go home yet.

He tried to focus on the words in the book but his eye caught something else. There, in the middle of the crowd was that Chūnin again. He wanted to go down and maybe talk with him, but there he sat. He couldn't take his eyes off Iruka, even though he didn't even know anything about the younger man.

Kakashi felt rain falling lightly. He was starting to get wet but he didn't move. He put his book back in his pocket as he kept watching Iruka walking in the middle of the crowd. 5 minutes later Iruka slowed and started searching the ground of the street for something. He was looking at the ground, ducking around people that were passing by. Kakashi knew what he was looking for. That envelope. Iruka was back in the spot where the slapdown had happened. Iruka was so intent on looking around that he nearly ran into a few people who didn't seem to appreciate him slowly moving and looking at the floor instead of where he was going.

Maa, what the hell he's doing? He's going to trip up somebody else, all because of that envelope again. Kakashi watched Iruka's movements, noticing how intently the Chūnin scanned the floor, and continued to notice how he wasn't paying a damn bit of attention to the people who he kept bumping into.

But then Kakashi saw it. Right under the vases of the flower shop was the envelope, right there beside were Iruka was searching. From that angle the Copy-nin could tell that the Chūnin wouldn't be able to see it, unless he got down on his hands and knees and looked underneath. Iruka kept moving, and by the time Kakashi left the roof and walked over there, Iruka was 10 or 15 feet away. Kakashi reached down and pulled out the envelope. It was a little bit dirty and wet from the light rain, but remarkably it looked intact. He slipped it in to his pocket and turned around. He took two steps and went home.


Kakashi took off his flak jacket and sat on his bed. He looked at the envelope. It was written a name and an address on it.

Umino Iruka.

He sighed softly and put the envelope in the bottom of his desk drawer and threw himself back on his bed. He gave a quick look at clock and groaned. He should be sleeping. He couldn't. It was four in the morning. He was off duty for at least another week, which meant a full week without worrying about someone trying to kill him in his sleep. Well, a full week where it was much less likely that someone would try to kill him in his sleep.

Every time he closed his eyes, the Chūnin, Umino Iruka would appear in his mind. He really didn't know why.

Iruka was a just a Chūnin. He should be beneath Kakashi's notice but instead he seemed to be all the Jōnin could notice. He kept thinking about the him. He kept remembering how Iruka had stared at him with those big dark-brown eyes.

He wanted to give the envelope back, but at the same time he was curious to know what was inside of it. No, It's wrong. He thought to himself, curiosity killed the cat.

He should go to Umino's house and leave the envelope by the door or something and forget all about it. But he didn't want that. He didn't want to forget. He wanted to see and talk with Iruka and know the reason of the emptiness behind his eyes.

He stood up, took out a kunai from his back pouch and pressed the blade against his thump until blood came, then he formed the seals for the summoning jutsu and pressed his hand flat onto the floor. Immediately, a cloud of smoke rose and the silhouette of his pug appeared.

"What is it boss? Can't sleep?" Pakkun asked a little bit annoyed. It was clear that his sleep was interrupted, but as always Kakashi ignored it.

"I want you to deliver a message to someone."

Pakkun yawned. "Whom?"

"Umino Iruka. Here's the address." Kakashi took the envelope out of his drawer and showed it to Pakkun to read Iruka's address. "Tell him that I want to meet him tomorrow at the Academy. I have his envelope."

The nin-dog nodded and disappeared. Kakashi laid back on his bed and looked over at his clock. Five hours to go.


Iruka was sitting in his bedroom at his small apartment. He had a desk that looked out through a picture window, past a small balcony. Iruka sat at that desk, his view switching back and forth from the silver moonlight of the summer night outside to the inky blackness of his bedroom.

He'd spent a lot of time on that desk, studying, reading scrolls and books, planing missions...but now he would use it to correct homeworks and planing lessons.

He knew he should be more excited about his work at the Academy, but he wasn't. When Sarutobi had ask him to stop taking missions and start work as a teacher instead, Iruka knew for sure that the Hokage was practically saying that he'd failed as a ninja.

He let out a loud sigh. He wasn't comfortable sitting there, as he had been so many hundreds of hours in the past. He breathed deeply and once again stared out the window.

The lights from the street cast a glow on the Weeping Willow branches that hung along one side of his balcony, as a slight breeze caused the branches to sway gently. The branches crossed over one another as they swayed back and forth, creating layers of shadows - layers of darkness streaming down. He watched those dark branches swaying and as his focus softened, the image in his mind slowly melded in to silver spiky hair.

His mind took him straight to Hatake Kakashi. Yeah, he knew the man. Who didn't? He was famous inside and outside of village. But what Iruka couldn't understand was the way the Copy-nin was staring at him. What was it about him? Iruka wondered.

He also wouldn't deny it. Kakashi was sexy, of that Iruka now had no doubt. This week had proven to him that men could be attractive, and that he could take pleasure from being with a man - take pleasure in ways he had never experienced with any of the girls he had made love to in the past. This week had also proven to him that the forbidden fruit was forbidden for a reason, and breaking the rules can lead you on the line.

He started to think back on Kakashi staring at him so intently, that fierce look in his single exposed eye, that later didn't look so fierce, but looked more intent and serious and important as the night went on. Iruka felt a chill down his neck.

He knew he was frozen that night, not out of fear from the Copy-nin, but out of fear from another man. A man he'd always considered as a best friend.

Today when he was about to leave home and go to the market with a what-to-buy list, he'd found a catalog envelope by his door. He grabbed it and took it with him. As he was walking through the street, he started to read the list of things he needed to buy. There's was no possible distraction big enough to pull him away from what he was reading, no obstacles he wouldn't have walked straight through as he marched forward slowly. He was in his own world, there's no doubt...when he finished reading the list, he mentally started planning what to buy first and where. As he was about to put the list in his pocket he felt the brown envelope. He'd almost forgotten about it.

He knew he should wait to get home to open it, but curiosity spoke louder. He wondered what was inside and who had sent it. Hr took the envelope out of his pocket and scanned for some minutes. When he opened it and saw what it contained, it cast a shroud over Iruka's body that blocked out everything else happening around him. Nothing could have broken that miserable spell. Nothing could get his attention.

Nothing.

Nothing, except the Jōnins that were probably on their day off and went out to drink at that hour.

What Iruka was dealing with that night totally eclipsed the world around him. He was sure if he didn't bumped into Genma, he would have slammed head first into a wall. And although he didn't know it, in a way, Genma's attack might have saved him from a worse fate. God only knows what would have happened if he had tried to go home with his mind locked up like it was earlier than same evening.

That week Iruka had learned that a part of him craved the strength and power of a man. Part of him needed the relief and peace that comes from shedding the responsibilities and obligations of manhood, if only for an hour, and placing yourself entirely in the control of another. He didn't really understand it, the thoughts were still too new, too untested, too unrefined and too raw. He realized he could get pleasure from providing pleasure to another. He discovered that by submitting himself to a man, by lowering himself, he raised himself up somehow and felt satisfaction and comfort and purpose. Contentment.

Masculinity wasn't a concept that occupied Iruka's thoughts until this week. It was something he took for granted, a force like gravity that no one questions and everyone depends on.

Iruka wasn't weak or feminine. There was no swish to his walk, no limp-wristed mannerisms, and no fake bravado either. He was a man. But somehow he started feeling things he shouldn't feel towards other men, leaving him confused about his sexualliy and that made him commit a huge mistake.

He sighed as he looked at his clock. 4:35am. He wanted to sleep but couldn't. He stood up and padded into the kitchen. Maybe a cup of tea will make me feel better. He was rooting around in the cupboard for some tealeaves when he heard the unmistakable sound of someone clearing their throat behind him. Whirling around in surprise he let go of the glass jar in his hand, wincing as it shattered on the ground near his bare foot.

"What…how...?" It was all what Iruka could stammer as he looked widely at the intruder.

There was a dog in his apartment. A dog dressed as ninja. A nin-dog? Iruka stared at the dog amazingly. He'd never seen a nin-dog before. He wondered if he could touch it

"Umino Iruka?" the little pug said with a very human sounding voice.

Iruka nodded slowly. "Yes..."

"I have a message for you, from my boss." Iruka nodded again wondering who was the pug's Boss. "he wants to meet with you, in the Academy. He has your envelope."

Before Iruka could say something the nin-dog disappeared in a puff of smoke. He stared at the spot where the pug was for a long time. Then all of the sudden he started panicking. Someone had his envelope. Someone knew about him. Oh Kami what am I going to do? He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. His life was ruined.