AN: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto (And he can keep him. I just want Iruka). This ficlet is dedicated to chibinecco who is still waiting for her birthday present from me. I'm working on it, chibi, I swear!

Ah, such a wonderful day. Iruka was happily walking home from the academy, taking the long way around. In his arms he held a thick stack of papers. He'd given his students a history test that morning. During his break he'd managed to correct all of the test papers already, and now he only had to add up their points and grade them. It would take him half an hour at the very most and he had the entire weekend to do it.

It seemed like everything was going perfect today. His students had been on their best behaviour, at first because they had the history test and they knew Iruka's wrath better than to make trouble during tests, and then because Iruka had promised them an outdoor biology lesson on Monday if they behaved the rest of the day.

Iruka's outdoor lessons were very popular, mostly because they were more like educational picnics then real lessons. They learned about poisonous plants and edible plants and about how to build a good shelter in a storm, but they had a lot of fun while doing it, and somehow Iruka always found a reason to end their little excursion by the river. All the kids knew that outdoor lessons meant swimming.

Iruka sighed blissfully. The sun warmed him as he leisurely walked through the almost empty streets of the village. Somewhere ahead of him he heard the familiar sounds of a battle. He had to admit that it was a beautiful day for a spar, if a little on the warm side.

The far away sounds of flesh hitting flesh told him that it was a taijutsu match. Maybe he could watch for a bit if the fighters didn't mind.

He turned the corner and was temporarily blinded by bright sunlight.

Wham! The air was knocked from his lungs as something large and green slammed into him with great speed.

He flew backwards a few paces before landing painfully on his bum. The thing that hit him bounced off and flew elsewhere. The friction between Iruka's butt and the pavement slowed the chuunin down considerably, causing his legs to come up over his head, making him roll ass over teakettle until his back hit the ground and he slid a short distance before finally coming to a stop.

Ow Dazedly he lay there trying to figure out what had happened and whether he had any serious injuries. He was hurting alright, but it seemed to be the non-serious kind of hurt, the type that meant scrapes and bruises, not broken bones.

Something green appeared at the edge of his vision.

"Are you alright Iruka-sensei? I'm so sorry I hurt you. I shall do 2000 sit-ups in repentance. No! 3000! Do you need to go to the hospital? Don't worry I shall carry you there. Our beloved and talented Hokage will surely be able to heal you."

Gai. Iruka blinked at the barrage of words, wanting the man to shut up and go away so he could gather his wits in peace.

Suddenly Gai disappeared from his field of vision. He faintly heard a protesting "so hip", and then everything went blissfully quiet.

Carefully he moved his neck from side to side. When that didn't hurt he lifted his head up and looked down on himself. Nothing seemed out of place, which was always a good sign.

He started pushing himself up when suddenly a hand appeared in front of him. His gaze travelled up the arm to find the owner of the hand. It was Kakashi-san, which he should have guessed since the masked jounin was just about the only one who was willing to spar with Gai.

Kakashi's sharingan eye was still uncovered and Iruka stared at it curiously, he'd never seen the red eye before, not up close anyway. A long moment passed before Kakashi quickly pulled his hand back, drew down his hitai-ate and reached out to Iruka again. With the spell broken Iruka grasped the jounin's hand and let himself be pulled up until he was sitting.

Ouch. His behind was definitely hurting and his tailbone wasn't too happy either. It wasn't broken though. He'd had a broken tailbone before and it had felt much worse than it did right now.

"Are you okay, Iruka-sensei?" For once the jounin didn't sound bored.

Iruka nodded and used Kakashi's shoulder to haul himself up to his feet. Aside from being bruised and scraped up, he was fine, although the adrenaline rush had left him feeling a bit shaky.

He looked around to see where Gai had gone off to, and saw the man a short distance away carefully collecting Iruka's test papers. They were spread everywhere; it must have looked like a veritable paper explosion when Gai hit him.

Iruka waited silently for the man to finish, happy to stand still and recover from the shock. When the green beast of Konoha finished, he walked towards them. It was astonishing how much enthusiasm Gai could put into a simple thing like walking. Before the man could start talking again, Kakashi-san cut him off. "I'll take those," he said, pulling the papers out of Gai's hands. "Maybe you should get started on your sit-ups, neh?

"Only if you're sure Iru-" Gai started

"I'm fine Gai-san," Iruka interrupted the man.

"Alright, then I shall go and do my duty. If I do not finish the 3000 sit-ups before sundown I will run to-"

"Yes, yes," Kakashi said, waving with the stack of papers. "Don't do it here though, you don't want to disturb anyone."

Iruka looked around; aside from the three of them the street was deserted. That didn't seem to stop Gai from listening to his eternal rival though. After a final enthusiastic goodbye the Green Beast of Konoha dashed away.

Iruka reached out to take the stack of papers from Kakashi. "I think I'll go home now, Kakashi-san, thank you for your help."

The jounin handed the papers over without protest and Iruka slowly began walking home. It was probably because of the shock and the pain from his various scrapes and bruises, but the day suddenly seemed a lot less bright than it had before.

He'd taken only a few steps when Kakashi called after him. "Iruka-sensei"

Iruka turned his head and looked curiously at the slouching jounin. "Yes, Kakashi-san?"

"You're bleeding."

Iruka's mouth twitched when he saw exactly where Kakashi was looking. He craned his neck to look for himself. He couldn't see much, but the part he did see was disconcertingly bare. Bare and bleeding. The bleeding wasn't anything serious, but he'd sure managed to get scraped up nicely. He reached back with his hand and felt the extent of the damage. The seat of his pants was completely in tatters. Shit, why did he have to go commando today of all days? He'd just been so busy lately and the laundry was piling up and he'd kind of run out of clean underwear.

He felt his face flush. He couldn't go walking through the village like this! What would people think?! He quickly looked around. Thank the gods that this part of town was usually quiet.

Iruka was distracted from his worries when Kakashi moved. He watched curiously as the jounin took off his flak jacket and then proceeded to remove his shirt.

Oh wow Now that, Iruka had to admit, was a nice chest. Smooth and pale with great muscle definition. The chuunin had only a few moments to ogle him, before the jounin pulled his flak jacket back on, without the shirt underneath it this time.

Kakashi walked closer, seemingly unfamiliar with the concept of personal space, until finally they were standing almost nose to nose. Iruka wondered what the other man had in mind; it was almost like Kakashi was going to kiss him. Iruka wondered what he should do if he did. Kakashi was a very attractive man, not only because he had a very nice body, but also because he looked so bloody bored all the time. It was a huge turn on. It made Iruka want to push him down on a flat surface, any flat surface, and just make the jounin react. He wanted to have the man moaning and begging beneath him. What a challenge it would be to have the porn addicted-

"There."

Iruka looked down in surprise when the jounin stepped away from him. The man's shirt was now tugged in at the sides and back of Iruka's pants, hanging down and neatly covering his ruined pants. He should have thought of that, he was wearing a shirt himself; he could have used his own.

"Thank you," he muttered.

Kakashi scratched his head. "Yeah, well it's my fault you're bleeding in the first place. I kicked Gai in that direction, there's no way he could have avoided hitting you."

Iruka grinned at the jounin. "And yet you're letting him do 3000 sit-ups as punishment?"

Kakashi shrugged. "He would have made up some kind of challenge anyway. He always does."

They were silent for awhile until Iruka spoke up. "Well, I really ought to get home, Kakashi-san."

"I could walk with you," Kakashi offered.

Surprised, Iruka looked at the jounin. "It's really not necessary." But if Kakashi wanted to keep him company Iruka sure as hell wasn't going to stop him.

"I want to. Let me walk you home, Iruka-sensei, if only to appease my guilty conscience."

Iruka smiled and nodded. Together they slowly walked to Iruka's home. Kakashi pleasantly surprised him by volunteering information about Naruto. Iruka was glad to hear his favourite student was doing okay.

"Would you like to come in?" Iruka asked when they reached his doorstep. He was enjoying Kakashi's company and was reluctant to let the man leave.

Kakashi nodded and followed Iruka into the house.

The chuunin poured two cups of sake and gave one to Kakashi. He was about to sit down when he remembered why the jounin had come to his house in the first place. He stood next to the couch a little helplessly, not knowing what he should do know. He really ought to take care of his behind, but he didn't want to be impolite and leave the jounin to fend for himself in the living room.

Just then he became aware of Kakashi eying him speculatively. "You know, Iruka-sensei," the jounin said innocently, "I have some experience with medical jutsu. It's always good to take care of small wounds in the field, you know? Helps prevent infection."

Iruka had to fight to keep a grin off his face. "Oh. That's interesting Kakashi-san. I don't want to impose, but do you think you could help me out?"

Iruka loved how his question made Kakashi's eye twinkle.

He was so getting laid tonight.

That evening two minutes before sundown Gai finished his sit-ups and contemplated his failure of that day. A fellow ninja had gotten hurt today because of his pride. He had been determined to show off his new technique, Canonball backflips, to Kakashi-san, even though he should have realised that his powerfully energetic movements could be dangerous to passer-by's. His self-importance had probably ruined poor Iruka-sensei's evening. He would run around Konoha 20 times in repentance. No! 30 times!