It had been a long mission and like always a certain masked ninja wanted his peace and his favorite book. It was always a pain to give reports but after a particular person had been given the duty of mission desk it had become unbearable. Currently he was sitting on a seat in the mission room re-writing his mission report and occasionally glaring at the person who was coming between his plans for recreation. At first it had been a rare occasion to meet this person in mission room but recently it looked as though some body was conspiring against him, he would always end up in the mission room when he would be on duty. He would make him write his report again and again until it was perfect. So today was no exception, as Kakashi was lazy enough to not write it properly in his first attempt he was writing it all over again.

On the other hand, the same was true for Iruka; the young chunin somehow had to face the masked man after every mission he would carry out. Iruka never had a faintest idea that the man he had admired was nothing but pain in the backside. If he had known that the man who was his role model was in fact a lazy pervert he would have never considered him one. This realization did not come to him without experience. As a matter of fact he had gone through many tortures that the kids in the academy had put him through but that was nothing in front of what this jounin had put him through. The said jounin would not give reports on time; if the reports did arrive they would be illegible. Iruka had scolded him for every report he would give hoping that Kakashi would grow tired of it and take his reports seriously, but that day is yet to arrive. So today was no exception, Kakashi had arrived with a shabby report, got Iruka to his nerves end and had ended up with him shouting at the jonin and a very sulky Kakashi was now writing his report-again. The only difference was that Iruka was not alone today; his friends, Genma and Raidou were with him. After calming his nerves down he sat down and let out a long sigh.

He had a lot of workload and he could not loaf around like his friends who at that movement were whispering about how some jounins had become murderers. And as his luck was against him the topic changed from murders to juicy gossip about couples in the village. He always tried to avoid this topic; it started after Mizuki had turned out a traitor. They were in a relationship and this fact had automatically ended Iruka single and heart-broken. Ever since then he had not trusted himself about judging people and had remained single and alone. Soon his thoughts got interrupted by whispering of his friends, who had all but forgotten about his presence next to them. "Why would he make him write that report again when you can clearly read what he wrote? It's too fishy…" that was Genma, whispering to Raidou who answered by nodding his head and both the heads turn to see an angry Iruka glaring at them. Genma and Raidou have tried to get Iruka into a relationship, but all the attempts had told them that Iruka was not interested; while this was true his friends also knew that Iruka had become very lonely after the Mizuki incident followed by Naruto leaving to train with Jiraya.

The room had fallen silent except for the sound of a pen scratching on the paper, the silence was by Genma "h-hey Iruka we were wondering why you detain Kakashi only…. I mean even I write bad reports but you never do this to me…." "Only you are wondering that…I am out of this…..really Iruka" giving Iruka his best puppy dog eyes after seeing Iruka turn red from anger and embarrassment. It was true that Iruka never punished anyone else other than Kakashi to write the report again but apart from Kakashi, bad reports are seldom.

But when Iruka was lost in his thoughts, Kakashi was looking straight at the young man. Thinking of a possible reason that would explain the special treatment given to him exclusively, Kakashi looked carefully at the flushed face and realized that though he had glared at that face, he never really noticed it until now. It really surprised him that he had never noticed such a cute face. Iruka's dark complexion contrasted with the red that was present on his cheek. His brown eyes told him that they were showing the emotions that came straight from heart. But it was that scar which gave his face its definition, without that scar his face would look like a blurred picture, at last Kakashi's eyes fell on his pink lips, they looked so inviting that he wanted to kiss them senseless.

Those pink lips parted to let out a sigh, forcing Kakashi to come out of his dreamland. "I know what you guys mean…really but it's nothing like that" Iruka said pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to calm himself down. "Up to this point, I hate him, he makes fun of me, thinks that I am some toy he can play with…I just want to teach him a lesson that I am not a toy,that if he presses a button I will start providing him amusement…and for every ones information" pointing towards Kakashi he said "even if you are the last man alive on this planet who is capable of loving me, even then we will have no such relationship".

Having said that and gathered his things Iruka walked out of the mission room, leaving everyone silent. Kakashi couldn't help but flinch by the coldness of Iruka's voice. It did not match with the cute face which had said those words. Raidou and Genma were stunned by the bitterness of Iruka's voice even though it was not directed towards them. They looked at the jounin and wondered how he was capable in making Iruka blurt words which would hurt somebody without apologizing. Shock was replaced by anger when Kakashi started comprehending what those words meant. 'Who the hell does he think he is…women could kill to have a piece of me…even men, I will make you regret it Iruka-sensei'. And while devising best way to torture Iruka, he didn't even pay attention that he broke the pen he had in his hand. The sound of breaking put Kakashi into motion, he went up to the mission desk where two men were looking at him in horror, placed his report on the desk while giving his in infamous one eyed smile. After scaring the already afraid men Kakashi vanished in puff of smoke and left behind Genma and Raidou with the report.

They looked at the report stunned "did Kakashi write this report?" Genma said who had seen Kakashi's reports and could not make any connections with those reports and this one. "I think so…"

~~~~~~xXxXxXx~~~~~~

Finding Iruka after he had rushed out of the mission room was easy. But what astonished Kakashi was how he behaved with the civilians and other shinobi. It felt as though nothing had happened in the mission room, he greeted people with a polite smile, purchased grocery-completely different person. This really puzzled Kakashi but at the same time he became curious. You see all the time he had spent with the chunin in the mission room he acted differently and Kakashi thought that he had figured out the man…but when he behaved like this he thought what else is this person hiding?

So from that day a very curious Kakashi stared following Iruka to academy, his apartment or even to club where shinobi went on weekends. In a month Kakashi found out that Iruka had two sides, one his real self which for some reason Kakashi liked and the second one which Iruka used with strangers. This second side of his astonished Kakashi, he acted so fake that he only wondered how people were not able to see it and if that was not enough for Kakashi he observed that Iruka used this side most of the time. But also some time in this period Kakashi found out that his curiosity had actually turned into something deep, it took him time to understand that feeling. He had heard about it, he had seen it but he never felt it. It was love. Standing by the memorial stone he thought how Rin must have felt, he even told her how he discovered this feeling.

~~flashback~~

It was dark night. A very dark night for there was no moon, and because Iruka was having a nightmare. In his dream Iruka found himself back in his home, a home which got destroyed by the nine tailed demon. He opened his eyes and immediately felt something was wrong. He called out for his mother but no one answered. He walked out of his room and caught a sent he could not place. As soon he came down the stairs he realized the sent was of non-other than smoke. He moved out of his house only to find that the village was on fire. His mother rushed to him and asked him to go somewhere safe but he would not go, his mother was called and she rushed in that direction, young Iruka tried to stop her but his voice was not heard and soon it turned dark, so dark that he could not see anything. Then a ray of light appeared. The light became a beam, directed straight at Iruka's face. Then he saw a face he remembered so well. It was Mizuki. He came close with a smirk on his face. This disturbed Iruka more than necessary. He hated this man and as he approached this hatred grew. When only a feet's distance was left a strong feeling of fear griped him, he could only stretch out his hand as if to stop him and utter words like "don't …Mizuki". But just when Mizuki was about to embrace him, he vanished. It was dark again, this time it was peaceful and Iruka welcomed it and slept peacefully.

Kakashi felt a searing pain in his heart. He was sitting on the window sill near Iruka's bed which was not his usual place, but well today was not a normal day. Kakashi had a habit of staying up the night on a tree near Iruka's bedroom window and watch him sleep. Toady rather tonight Kakashi heard Iruka calling for his mother. Hearing Iruka's distress Kakashi came and sat on the window sill. Eventually Iruka quieted and started to quiver in fear, making Kakashi worried. Then Iruka had suddenly stretched his hand toward the celling as if to stop someone and said "don't…Mizuki". The ache was more painful than any wound had caused, only the loss of his friends and family had brought such pain. At that moment Kakashi wanted nothing more than claiming Iruka as his own and beat crap out of Mizuki. When his first thoughts subsided, he started to question his thought. Why did he want to claim Iruka that way? What was this feeling? Why was he so possessive of Iruka?

~~end of flashback~~

After that night Kakashi really took his time to understand his feelings. And the result was that he realized that he had fallen for Iruka. It had not dawned upon him until this evening and Kakashi had been looking forward to watch Iruka sleep again. The only thing was that Iruka himself was not present in the house. "what could he be doing at this hour, he is usually in bed by this time…he is never this late even on club nights….where-" before Kakashi could complete his own thought his heard the lock in the main door to click open. Kakashi let out a sigh "he is home-" and for the second time that night he could not complete his thought, much to his frustration. The reason for this interruption was simple "and brought some other guy with him" Kakashi thought with a grimace. He felt betrayed, it hurt a lot. It hurt when that t guy would touch Iruka as if he were a slut…and to add it all up Iruka would respond to that with desperation…with need. Kakashi felt sick, he could not see Iruka in someone else hands. He could not see as the stranger sucked on Iruka's member, it only angered him. So making a wise choice Kakashi made some hand seals and disappeared in puff of smoke and reappeared in his apartment. He felt exhausted, as if he had come home from five continuous s-rank missions. "If this is how loving feels then I doubt this is a wonderful feeling…this feeling is bad…it is cruel…I think Tsunade wanted to torture me that's why she always encouraged me to fall in love…that…that…" Kakashi let out a sigh. This was really frustrating; he couldn't understand why Iruka would bring another guy to his place when Kakashi was there, when he could satisfy Iruka like that stranger if not better.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he did not realize that he had slumped down on the floor with his back leaned on the wall, neither did he hear the tapping sound coming from the window. Only when the tapping sound grew impatient did Kakashi come out of his thoughts to find Tenzou waiting for him to open the window. He opened the window and let Tenzou come in.

Sensing the gloomy atmosphere that his senpai was carrying around with him Tenzou asked if everything was alright. And when the reply that he got from the older man was negative he tried to pry on the reason for this. It came out that his elder was upset because he supposedly thinks that he has lost his first and maybe only love. He tried to make Kakashi see from a different angle and was surprised that this perspective, Iruka's perspective, never crossed in the older man's mind.

"Senpai, think about it, if you were in Iruka's place would you think that someone like Kakashi Hatake, the copy Nin be watching him? How would Iruka ever know that you are looking over him? Have you ever told him about this? Think senpai…there has to be a day when you confess your feelings towards Iruka…you have to come out of the shadows…and tell him the truth." He let his words sink in…and waited till his senpai processed the advice given. "So you mean that I show myself…and tell Iruka that I love him…but what if he rejects me…then what?" "Well then nothing will be lost, Iruka would see that you love him and even if he rejects you, at least you can say that you tried…"at these words Kakashi frowned and Tenzou knew what it meant… Kakashi was considering his advice. "I think you are right…but why are you here anyway?" "Ah, yes I forgot we got a mission…"Kakashi could only grimace.

~~xxXxxXxxXxx~~

Iruka got up from his slumber. If there was any immediate reason for his sleep to break like this then it was not visible. This was the second time in his life that his unconscious mind had woken him up like this and what had happened after that was not pleasant at all. So the first thing he did was that he opened his window and peeped out. The night breeze brushed past his face and at that movement he sensed rather than saw something move above the roof, which was directly in front of his window. The silhouette that had been kneeling stood up in one fluid movement making the full moon shine behind him like a crown. Something told him that the silhouette was of an ANBU and that it was staring right at him, it made him swallow even though his mouth had gone dry. After a bit of a staring contest, the silhouette moved. It kneeled down again and then moved forward, it was slow as if to warn him that it was coming in his apartment through the window.

The muscles on the silhouette flex and the next movement he was inside Iruka's house. Iruka at the very last second backed away from the window. The shadow was standing gracefully and as its eyes fell on iruka it started to close the distance, like a predator does to its prey. The ANBU came so close to iruka that their chests brushed each other. Iruka had held his breath, from the entry of the shadow till its chest brushed against his. Conscious of the closeness iruka tried to take a step back but two strong hands looped around his waist and fixed him to the spot. Iruka could have screamed but there was a sense of undefined safety and comfort this person provided. The deafening silence, shattered by the silhouette whose identity still remained a mystery only its gender stood out saying it was a man,said "I have waited for this movement for long, and I wanted you this close since when I started watching over you. So close to touch you, to smell you, to…kiss you…"