z 1 z

There were plenty of people in mission room. Kakashi stood in the corner with Genma and Asuma, listening to Genma's blabbering, but not paying much attention to what exactly he said. His distraction sat at the mission desk taking reports, barely checking them, but without fail smiling and saying the standard phrase of thanks to every shinobi. And almost every minute this guy glimpsed at Kakashi expressively, and then returned to his job. What was amusing is that facial expression changed each time, so Kakashi saw already fear, fury, sympathy, shyness, rage, anger, wrath, hesitation, empathy and wondered which emotion will be the next.

"What the hell happened to Iruka?" mumbled Kakashi, a little bit shocked.

"To Iruka?" Genma stopped his story-telling and looked at the chuunin fluently. "Oh, he's not himself since he started to get these strange letters. It's been almost a week."

"What kind of letters?" frowned Kakashi. "Blackmail? Treat?"

"No!" Genma laughed loudly. "Love letters!"

"Love…?"

"Very silly and childish love-letters, performed in completely terrible handwriting" Genma spit his senbon at his palm and grinned at Kakashi. "He knows all his student's handwritings pretty well and he is quiet sure it's not them. But he still wonders who leaves the letters. So recently, starting to look thru shinobi's reports, he came to some conclusions" the speech ended with very expressive wink.

Kakashi's eyes – at least his visible eye - widened with realization.

"You mean he thinks it's me who's writing them?" he turned to look at Iruka. This time chuunin's eyes were cunning. Kakashi coughed and quickly turned back to Genma.

"I told him it is nonsense, you know. But our Iruka is rather stubborn" said Genma. "That's why we made some nice bets…"

"Why didn't you tell me in first place?" whined Kakashi, interrupting Genma. "Wait! You made bets?" he narrowed his eye. "What kind of bets?"

"I told you now, didn't I?" asked Genma calmly, taking senbon back to his mouth. "It just seems Iruka doesn't know how to react, you see" he pointed a finger in chuunin's direction.

Kakashi squinted at Iruka again and saw a bloodlust in his eyes.

"Shit, he'll eat me alive!"

"Not for sure" declared Genma in a know-it-all tone. "We bet what he'll do when he comes at you finally".

Kakashi winced.

"Shall I make a fair bet to provide enough money for my funeral?"

"Don't be silly, Kakashi, it's 50 x 50 now" laughed Asuma.

"What's 50 x 50 now?"

"50% for him murdering you, and 50% for him molesting you. You see, there is a very good chance to live and enjoy!"

Kakashi stunned.

"Great!" he said finally, turning to look at Iruka. There was a kindness written on his face. Kakashi whined.

"Better make it molestation, Kakashi" Genma winked at him.

"Why – because you bet it?"

"Of course, I believe in you, you see!" Genma grinned widely.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and turned to leave.

Before coming out of the mission room he squinted at Iruka again, but chuunin was busy this time and was not staring at him. Kakashi frowned. He felt… disappointed? Incredible! He'd better think of a strategy to manage this situation, he was a genius, wasn't he?

z z z

Kakashi overtook Genma near the gate.

"Hey, Genma, wait a minute!" he cried.

Genma stopped and turned to Kakashi.

"I have an urgent mission, for you to know" he said slowly, not in a hurry at all.

"Right. You'll catch up, you are the special jounin" said Kakashi, smiling at him sheepishly.

"Very funny indeed, Hatake" spit Genma. "Now, what is it you want?"

"Did Iruka show you the letters? I want to know what they were about" declared Kakashi.

"No, of course he didn't show them. But I'm a special jounin indeed" Genma grinned.

"So…"

"Yes, I can tell you" Genma shut his eyes, remembering the contents of the letters. "The first one was something like 'THE ROSES ARE RED, THE VIOLETS ARE BLUE, IRUKA-SENSEI I LOVE YOU'" Genma opened his eyes. "Nice, isn't it?"

Kakashi growled something unintelligible. He saw Raido coming and waved him a short greeting.

"Hi to you too, Kakashi!" smiled Raido politely. "Gen, we are late, aren't we?"

Genma winced.

"Hey, do you remember the second letter Iruka got this week?" he asked Raido instead of answering his question.

"Yes, it was great! 'I LIKE WHEN YOU SHOUT, I LIKE WHEN YOU YELL, JUST PAY ME ATTENTION AND THEN I WON'T FAIL'" recited Raido. "You know, Kakashi, one can really think it was you, if one didn't know better" he added after hesitating a little.

Kakashi nodded.

"Was there something else?" he asked.

"Three or four more, the same style" said Genma.

Raido rolled his eyes.

"The style got better I think, as if the author started to really enjoy those writings! I liked this one particularly: 'WHILE YOU ARE A BEAUTY I FEEL LIKE A BEAST, BUT I CAN OBSERVE YOU AT LEAST'" Raido stopped. "I wonder why I don't get such nice poems?" he added, shoving Genma with his shoulder.

Genma shuddered.

"Because I'll kill the poet if you do?"

Kakashi coughed, interrupting the eye-conversation between the two.

"Maybe Iruka has a girlfriend or a boyfriend who can write him something like this?"

"Iruka is single since I don't remember when and has no idea of who that anonym person is" said Genma absent-mindedly, still observing Raido with narrowed eyes.

"Then I'll better go to find and kill them" decided Kakashi.

"Why, not kill, but reveal" said Raido, breaking his eye-contact with Genma. "To get them to Iruka and make them happy together for the rest of their lifes".

Kakashi frowned at this idea and thought that he doesn't like it at all. Lost in uneasy thoughts, he waved his goodbye to Genma and Raido and went away, planning the stalking as the first measure.

"He is upset I see" Raido shrugged. "But I don't get why".

Genma grinned and pulled him to the gates by the sleeve.

"C'mon, Rai, we are late for a mission and we have to talk about the poesy along the way" he pointed. "Two times minimum I think".

z z z

Kakashi watched a little girl, one of Iruka's younger students: she got to teacher's table and put a small letter inside. 'She is a real stealth monster, doing this while Iruka is in the classroom', thought Kakashi amazed.

He was under the henge, but chose to sit near the windowsill just in case…

"Kai!" said Iruka in a strict voice right above his ear.

"Shit!" cursed Kakashi, realizing that the whole Iruka's class was staring at him.

"Don't you dare to swear in front of the kids!" hissed Iruka. "Stay where you are!" he added, pointing at Kakashi and turning to the class.

"Now you see how simple it is to take someone's henge off. I think we can train this a little bit and Kakashi-san will help us" Iruka looked at Kakashi furiously.

"Of course Iruka-sensei!" answered Kakashi politely. "Glad to help you" he was caught and deserved it.

So for three hours Kakashi trained little monsters, each time letting them detect and reveal and everything in between.

At the end Iruka dismissed the class and came to Kakashi with a piece of paper in his hand.

"You… You…" started Iruka.

"Yes?" wondered Kakashi.

"Get out of here! Now!" yelled Iruka and threw the crumpled paper in his face.

Completely amazed, Kakashi hurried to oblige, catching the piece of paper unconsciously and squeezing it tightly in his hand. He reached the nearest windowsill and stepped into the empty space outside. As soon as he was down and safe, he opened the note, to read terrible handwriting, almost identical to his own – 'BELIEVE ME OR NOT, BUT I'VE MADE A PLOT MY DREAMS TO COME TRUE, SO YOU'LL LOVE ME TOO'.

A little bit shocked, Kakashi raised his eye back to the classroom's window and found Iruka there, looking right at him. After Iruka realized Kakashi was staring at him too, he turned around sharply, his ponytail swinging in anger.