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OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka crawled out of bed and slammed his hand down on the poor, beaten-up alarm clock that rested on his bedside table. He'd spent most of yesterday trying to avoid running into Genma or the Hokage. As he'd made his way home (through the most unlikely route he could think of), he'd been almost positive that a faint flicker of chakra was following him around. The chakra had remained as he'd gotten ready for bed, and it had taken him forever to fall asleep with it hovering outside his window. I hate my life.

He fumbled his way down the hall, one hand rubbing at his eyes as he tried to wake himself up. Another day, another attempt at teaching chakra control to mini-nins. He turned on the shower and climbed slowly in, stretching under the water until all of his joints popped. It was a few seconds before the fog in his mind cleared enough that he realized that faint chakra signature was in the shower…with him.

Iruka shrieked and leapt back against the far wall, hands dropping to cover essential bits.

"Oi." The little tan dog said from where he was sitting at the far end of the shower.

"W-w-w…" Iruka choked and spluttered, "What the HELL are you doing here!?"

Pakkun shrugged, "Spying for Genma-san."

Iruka stared at the nin-dog, waiting for his brain to catch up with the dog's reasoning. "You're…spying….for Genma-san?"

Pakkun nodded, jumping down lightly onto the shower floor and walking forward until he could stick his head under the water, "Getting clean is just a bonus."

"But you're spying for Genma-san." Iruka ground the words out between clenched teeth.

The nin-dog tilted his head back until he could look up at Iruka. "You sound like a broken record, Iruka-kun."

Iruka closed his eyes and counted to ten. Several times. It didn't work. "YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO I'M DATING!"

The dog shrugged again. "Yeah, but he promised me a bag of treats if I did it."

"And how exactly is he going to know if you spy or not?"

Another shrug. "He won't." Iruka could have sworn that the little brown dog at his feet grinned up at him. "And it's just so much fun to embarrass you…."

Pakkun was tossed out of the shower and face first onto the rug. He snickered to himself as he shook off the last of the water that had not been dislodged by his flight out of the shower. Iruka buried his face under the stream of water, his expression saying so clearly: I hate my life.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka sensed a rapidly waving hand behind his back as he tried to give his lecture about why chakra control was so important. He'd been ignoring it for the past five minutes, but the waving was getting more and more frantic, and Iruka didn't want to have to deal with a mess in the classroom because he didn't let one of his students go to the bathroom. "Yes." He said as he turned around, but then trailed off, glaring at the student in the front row with his hand up and his eyes innocently wide. "…."

"Iruka-sensei!" The hand waved a little bit faster.

Iruka planted both of his hands on his hips and glared at the student. "I don't remember seeing you in my class before."

"Ano-sa, ano-sa, Iruka-sensei." The kid yelped it out, ignoring Iruka's statement. "Is it true you have a girlfriend?"

With a snarl, Iruka grabbed the eraser and flung in at the kid (but not before he added some chakra to it), effectively dispelling the henge and revealing a very pleased looking Jounin squeezed into one of the desks in the front row, senbon ticking between his lips. Iruka drew in a breath to yell at Genma, but was interrupted by squeals from his class.

"Iruka-sensei has a girlfriend?"

"Kaaaawaaaaiiii."

"I bet she's real pretty!"

"Ne, Iruka-sensei, can she come visit us?"

All of this from the girls. The boys were glaring at him, as if he'd betrayed them by becoming entangled with one of the annoying, cootie-carrying members of the opposite sex. Iruka ducked his head, turning several different shades of red, and briefly wondered how boys of the class would react if he told that he hadn't deserted them, since he had no romantic contact with any members of the opposite sex. Oh, god. Their parents would kill me.

After a few minutes of clenching and unclenching his fists, Iruka managed to bring his emotions under control, and, when he looked back at his class, his face was a slightly more normal color. "Class." He clenched his jaw. "I'm going to step out for a moment. If anyone so much as twitches while I'm gone, you're all getting F's. Got it?" His class nodded mutely. Genma grinned up at him, looking for all the world like he was completely innocent and was just sitting around enjoying the show.

Iruka snagged the Jounin by the back of his vest and dragged him out into the hall. Genma freed himself from Iruka's grasp easily and faced the Chuunin, watching the other man's eyes darken and his face take on the most interesting shade of red. 5….4…3…2…1…

"YOU….YOU….YOU BASTARD!" Iruka finally exploded, looking like he was about to punch Genma. "Can't you just stay out of my business?"

Genma's eyebrows waggled up and down suggestively, "I could if you tell me who you're dating…."

Iruka let out an unintelligible growl, threw open the door of his classroom, and stomped back inside. As the door slide shut, Genma heard him snap, "I thought I said no moving…!"

Genma whistled quietly as he walked away, inordinately pleased with himself. By tonight, all of those student's parents would know about Iruka's girlfriend. Now he just had to spread the word throughout the various nins. He figured, if enough people knew, that Iruka would spill to someone, and the good old grapevine would bring it back to him. A few people shied away from him as he strode through the halls with an evil smile on his face. Something about a special Jounin grinning from ear to ear just made people really nervous.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka stood frozen in the center of the street like a deer in the headlights. Several people around him were chuckling. The little old lady that he brought his groceries from was shooting him sympathetic looks from outside her storefront, then turning to giggle with her friend. Iruka fervently wished that he could think of a jutsu that allowed him to disappear into the ground, but it wasn't forthcoming.

"THIS IS TRULY THE GLORY OF THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!" Konoha's blue beast was extolling at the top of his lungs, tears of joy streaming down his face as he advanced on the hapless Iruka. "I AM JOYFUL BEYOND ALL MEASUREMENT THAT YOU HAVE FOUND SOMEONE TO GIVE YOUR HEART TO….." Gai carried on like this for some time, but Iruka just ducked his head and closed his ears and hoped that when he looked up again, Gai would have disappeared.

No. such. luck.

"IRUKA-SENSEI. YOU MUST TELL ME WHO THIS MAN IS WHO HAS STOLEN YOUR HEART!" That got Iruka's attention, and the attention of most of the people watching from the sidelines. A few of the women tittered to each other, and most of the men just stared at Iruka.

Iruka sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. I hate my life. "Gai-sensei. What make you think that my significant other is male?" The words were said very slowly and carefully so as not to suggest what the answer should be.

Gai struck pose #42 (thumbs up, twinkling smile, and hand on hip….very similar to many other Gai poses, but it can be distinguished by people who actually study Gai's poses. Iruka, of course, was not one of those people, so the subtle nuances in the pose went right over his head). "BECAUSE I AM A MODERN NINJA AND DO NOT BELIEVE THAT LOVE SHOULD BE BOUND BY GENDER!" Before Iruka could ask, 'but why me,' Gai continued. "AND BECAUSE THE GLOW THAT EXUDES FROM YOUR YOUTHFUL FACE TELLS ME THAT YOU ARE AS MODERN AS ME."

Iruka just stared at him, slack-jawed. Even though he'd managed to translate the sentence into non-Gai speak, he still couldn't quite believe that Gai was claiming to have gaydar.

"Well, Iruka-sensei? Do you have a boyfriend?" One of the women called out, after being edged on by her friends.

Something inside Iruka snapped. "Alright, yes! I. Have. A. Boyfriend." Got a problem with it?

The tears streaming from Gai's eyes doubled in intensity, if that was possible. "TRUE LOVE REIGNS!" Iruka seriously thought about grabbing his kunai and driving it in under a rib. Anything might be better than listening to more of Gai talking about shouen-ai relationships. "IRUKA-SENSEI, YOU MUST TELL ME HIS NAME!"

"Why?" Iruka growled.

"YOU ARE A TRUE RARITY, IRUKA-SENSEI. YOUR YOUTHFUL VIGOR INSPIRES ALL THE STUDENTS OF THE VILLAGE TO MAKE THE MOST OF THEIR SPRINGTIME OF LIFE!" Gai paused briefly for breath, but not long enough for Iruka to get a word in edgewise. "AND I MUST CHALLENGE YOUR BOYFRIEND TO COMBAT TO MAKE SURE HE IS WORTHY OF YOU. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME THAT I WILL SUSPEND MY COMPETITIONS WITH THE ETERNAL RIVAL, KAKASHI, UNTIL I CAN DETERMINE WHETHER YOUR BOYFRIEND IS SUITABLE OR NOT!" Gai finished with pose #35. As explained before, the nuances were lost on Iruka.

It didn't help that Iruka was trying very hard not to burst out laughing in Gai's face. He almost wanted to tell Gai that he was dating Kakashi just to see Gai's expression. Iruka bent his legs slightly and shot straight up into the air, landing gracefully on a roof and speeding away across the houses of Konoha before his desire to torment Gai got the better of his good judgment.

As he dove into his apartment and slammed the door shut, Pakkun looked up at him from where he was curled on Iruka's couch. "You alright?" Pakkun paused for a second, as if debating on whether he wanted to actually tell the Chuunin this. "Cause Kakashi'd kill me if I let anything happen to you."

Iruka had collapsed onto the couch, his head tilted back against the cushions. Pakkun's comment, however, made him sit up. "What?"

Pakkun twisted to stare out the window, ignoring Iruka's question.

"Pakkun, why, exactly, have you been following me around?"

"Genma…" Iruka's snort cut him off. "Alright, Kakashi asked me to check in on you while he was away. Genma found me later and asked me to spy…."

"Well, I'm okay." Pakkun didn't move, just sat there glaring at his feet. Iruka felt his lips twist up into the first real smile he'd had all day. Pakkun rose to his feet, turned so that his back was to the Chuunin and flopped back down again, giving Iruka the proverbial cold shoulder. Iruka reached out and gently dropped his hand onto Pakkun's head, scratching lightly behind the ears. "I miss him too."

"….."

"Did you want to say something?"

"…you tell anyone about this, you die."

"Yeah, well, if you tell Genma who I'm dating, I'll personally see to it that you get neutered."

"I won't tell if you won't."

"Deal." Iruka's smile spread as Pakkun wiggled over until he was snuggled up against Iruka's hip. The Chuunin reached over the edge of the couch and rescued his lesson plan for tomorrow, determined to go over it before he fell asleep.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi was deliberately avoiding his team. He was moving at the same speed as them, just remaining hidden in the surrounding forest so that they wouldn't spot him and ask him awkward questions. When they stopped for the night, he remained up in the tree branches, watching them set up camp. Sakura was alternating between whining that he shouldn't just go around deserting them and speculating on who he was dating.

Naruto stuck out his lower lip. "I don't care who pervert-sensei is dating." But Kakashi could tell he was lying. As he and Sakura argued about whether it could be Kotetsu or Izumo (Kakashi shuddered inwardly at the thought), Sasuke slipped away from them and made his way out into the forest, until he was almost directly below Kakashi.

"You should really tell Naruto before Sakura figures it out." Sasuke said quietly, but loud enough that he knew Kakashi could hear him. "Iruka-sensei means a lot to him, and I don't know how Naruto will react if he thinks that Iruka-sensi's been hiding something from him." With that, Sasuke turned and rejoined the rest of Team 7. Kakashi leaned back in the saddle of the tree, pulling Icha Icha out of his pocket and puzzling over two things: 1, how long Sasuke'd known, and 2, whether or not he should follow the genin's advice.

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Maaaaaa, second chapter. This is for all the people who are waiting; I hope I didn't disappoint! Sorry about Gai, I tried to write him well, but I'm not sure if I succeed. It amused me tho…..Aaaanyway, you know the drill, read and REVIEW. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase let me know what you think, since it inspires me to write more (and makes what I write much more enjoyable)!

Sunlight Through Leaves.