Warning: Spoilers ahead!!



Chapter two - A heavy heart.

Iruka sighed heavily, the sound of his exhale had surprised, and awakened, him – as if he was now fully aware that he was still standing there in the hallway, in front of his hotel room with his head still lightly pressed against the already-open wooden door. He raised his head ever so slightly, pushing it further against the door, causing it to slide a few millimeters open, as he looked through the corners of his eye, checking if his surroundings were empty, lonely, cold – if there had been no one watching him. And no one had, according to him as he felt no Chakra signals anywhere near him.

He tried to look through the small opening, but it was in vain – it had been too small to notice anything from the room and if he would push the door open any further, Iruka was positive that it would make a small cracking sound, seeing as the hotels in this area weren't build recently.

He placed his head back into the previous position he had held it and closed his eyes again as a few more strains of hair had broken free from his elastic band and started to fall downwards and cover small pieces of his face.

Why was hé forced into this situation? Why hadn't he protested when Tsunade-sama had obligated him and Kakashi-sensei to share a room? Why didn't he just get his feet started and walk to Naruto's room, hoping Naruto would let him crash there?Iruka sighed again, this time with a heavy heart.

What had actually happened?

-x-oh-noes-it's-a-pretty-flash-back-x-

It started when Pein had decided to invade and attack Konohagakure. Quite frankly, the Hidden Leaf Village had been doomed from the start.

Iruka had been quickly passing through the village, trying to figure out what was going on. During his search for knowledge, he had noticed a faint Chakra signal –desperate in the need for help, any kind of help. Iruka immediately acknowledged it as one of his colleagues, a fellow Hidden Leaf Chuunin. He quickly made his way towards his friend, almost rushing himself to the most extreme speed he possessed.

As his feet finally touched the hard earth somewhere close by the signal, he ran towards his friend as smoke surrounded him, making it difficult for him to make his way through it as only a mere, and faint, Chakra signal was guiding him to his goal.

When he arrived near his friend, Iruka immediately noticed that he wasn't in the best shape, considering that the older man was groaning loudly in dismay, clearly showing how much in pain he was.

'' Are you okay?'', Iruka had asked worriedly, clearly not liking the state in which the man before him was.

A sudden change of the wind hit Iruka in the face, it had moved – not because it was rather windy, no. Someone had teleported himself beside him, this peeked Iruka's interest as he didn't even notice a sudden swift in Chakra signals. Slowly, but steadily, he started to move his face - all the way up to the point where he could look over his shoulder.

Then, it hit him right in the face and quite hard, too. Panic and fear had been awakened, eyes sharply widened and sweat started to form on his forehead, making him feel feverish as he noticed the black cloak with red clouds printed upon it. Akatsuki.

Iruka's widened eyes locked with the cold, relaxed and utterly bored Rinnegan's. The first thing that immediately caught his eyes, aside from the cloak, was the fact that the man before him was wearing many piercings in his ears, in his nose and such. The piercing gaze made the sweat upon his forehead change into a more solid form.

'' Where is the nine-tailed beast's host?!'', the man before him had almost shouted, making the sweat upon Iruka's forehead follow a trail downwards his face. Iruka had been stroked with fear, frozen to the ground and the silence wasn't very much to the Akatsuki's liking.

'' Spit it out!,''he demanded, '' If you don't, I'll kill you!'

Finally, as if the threat had been a wake-up call, Iruka regained a small piece of his consciousness , '… So, that's it. He's…'Akatsuki'…'.

'' Tell me'', the man said. However –this time, he had sounded rather calm as if he had taken control over his previous 'anger' issues.

Iruka would never rat out on Naruto, nor would he even dare to betray the boy. Even imagining such a horrible thing pained him. Naruto had been through a lot, had suffered so much in his young and short life – too much to Iruka's liking. He couldn't bare it to hurt Naruto, not while Naruto had trusted him and loved him as if he had been his father, his biological father.

Iruka would never be able to face his comrades, colleagues and Academy students ever again without feeling utter shame, dishonesty, disloyalty and many more conflicted emotions if he would. No, he couldn't. Naruto had always been a surprising Ninja, even so, Iruka had grown very fond of him, more than with all the other, and normal, students. Naruto had even made him proud when he noticed how far and well Naruto had progressed, willing to show everyone who cared of what he was capable off. That he truly could ánd would become the Hokage one day.

As he thought about Naruto, the will to protest grew larger, '' I won't tell you anything!''

'I see', the man before him said coolly, yet calmly and immediately moved, too rapidly for Iruka to keep up with or ran away from. But how could he move when he was still frozen to the ground? Iruka could simply stare as he was about to die, he was certain.

Until someone grabbed the object with his hand and stopped it from moving.

Above everyone in Konoha who could've saved him, It had been Kakashi. Iruka figured that Kakashi had noticed the faint Chakra signal as well – but still, Kakashi had been the one to give his life for someone as Iruka, someone who was below him in rank, someone who wasn't qualified in jutsu's as him, someone who wasn't as special as him – someone who wasn't worthy of being rescued.

Iruka let out a sigh, noticing that he had been holding his breath ever since he had told the man he wouldn't give him what he wanted. He was obviously relieved as he felt how the sweat started to follow it's trail a bit quicker.

When Iruka looked up to regard his savior, he noticed that Kakashi had been staring intensely towards his opponent with his Sharingan as he still held the object right before Iruka's scarred nose.

'' Kakashi!'', Iruka panted, trying to get his breathing steady as he tried to show his gratitude towards the older man, but he could only mention his name as Kakashi cut him off.

'' Take that injured man and get out of here, '' he paused to look over his shoulder, giving a faint smile, as if he was trying to reassure the younger man and lowered the object, '' Leave this to me''.

Iruka did as he was told and grabbed the man by his arm, putting his own hand onto his colleague's waist and held him up.

'' Good luck, Kakashi'', Iruka could only mutter before he left his savior and his opponent alone.

As Iruka had jumped up to leave and help the injured man, he couldn't help himself and looked over his shoulder as the battle between the Akatsuki and the Copy Nin' begun. He knew he was in great depth with Kakashi now, that was certain. He wasn't sure how he could re-pay the man, though.

-x-x-x-x-x-

After Naruto had showed up and saved the day on the remarkable way that only he could and Iruka had been released from his duties, Iruka immediately started a search for Kakashi, because he had been worried ánd thinking about the Copy Ninja ever since he was told to leave them.

At one point, before Naruto had came, Iruka had noticed that Kakashi's Chakra had fainted completely and it had worried, as well as scared and panicked, him.

That was why his search was desperate as he had been asking everyone, who crossed his path that is, if they had either seen or heard where Kakashi was. After asking and running for a long time, he finally found someone who was taking care of his injured father – Chouji.

Chouji had given him specific details as to Kakashi's whereabouts – though, he said that the Copy Nin's state was uncertain. And even though Iruka had been very tired from his precious running, he immediately started to run as fast he could to, hopefully, make it in time. He had to thank Kakashi, show him how much he had appreciated him sacrificing his own life – sure, it's a Shinobi's job to sacrifice their life during missions, but he didn't have to. Many Jonin would pick and value their own lives above some Chuunin brat. Still, he had decided to be different and rescue him, putting his very own life on the line while doing so.

As Iruka made his way, bumping against all sorts of people while doing so, he noticed that tears started to swell up in his eyes. In fact, he was at the verge of crying a few minutes before he reached his savior. When he finally did reach Kakashi, one who was lying under and covered with dust, bricks and so on, he was all alone – as if they had given up hope.

As if it was pure instinct, Iruka immediately grabbed Kakashi by his vest and pulled him up, embracing him as the tears started to build up again and, eventually, flow down his face. Due to the embrace, he never noticed how Kakashi started to slowly wake up and smile in return.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Not much later after that, every Shinobi and villager had assembled before the Hokage. Seeing as Konohagakure was completely destroyed, they had no place to sleep. That's why Tsunade had decided to go to a neighboring village, knock on their door and ask them if they could stay there. And luckily for her, after many attempts that resulted in vain, one actually happily agreed.

They could stay in several, and old, hotels. People were placed in pairs, because most of the rooms were double-rooms, not single ones. Most people had started to form their own pair, but some were left over – including Iruka and Kakashi. Thén, Kakashi had walked up to him and asked him if he wanted to share a room with him – it was blunt, surprising and completely á la Hatake Kakashi style. Tsunade had agreed with them, ushering Iruka to agree – he still didn't know why she had done so, but, as he had looked around him and considered the left-over of men and woman, Kakashi didn't seem so wrong to share a hotel room with.

That was until Naruto had informed him, under the delight of a few sake bottles and his adventurous story of how he defeated Nagato, all about Kakashi's personality and character traits. The most mentioned word had been 'pervert-that-will-rape-you-in-the-middle-of-the-night-when-you're-asleep'.

-x-oh-noes-the-pretty-flash-back-ends-here-x-

And this was why he had been matched-up with Kakashi in the first place. It was also exactly why he was scared to go into the damn room. He díd not need a hungry, lustful and perverted man behind him, sort of speak.

All of the sudden, Iruka's thoughts were interrupted.

'' Mah, Iruka...,'' the man paused as he lifted the said person's head up with his slick fingers, '' I'm flattered, but really, you shouldn't have''.

Iruka's eyes widened and his gaze locked with Kakashi's lazy one.

'What's he talking about?', Iruka thought desperately as panic once more took control over his body. As a result, Iruka started to sputter and kick his way out of the fierce grip from the Copy Ninja – he clawed forcefully and after a while, the Ninja decided to simply let go off him, obviously seeing the humor in this as he chuckled loudly. Iruka immediately jumped a meter, or so, behind his previous stand, hoping to distance himself from the silver-haired pervert.

However, the silver-haired pervert did nothing as Iruka had suspected. Quite frankly, he simply started to lean against the doorframe ever so casually and lazily with his right hand pressed against it, showing off his delicious and fit body. Iruka could only admire him for it and found himself slightly, yet uncontrollably, drooling as a result.

As he whipped it off with the back off his hand, Kakashi only gave him a small smile, his face slightly crocked and his eyes very narrow – despite what had happened, he was in a very happy mood.

'' I heard you coming and turning the key in it's lock. I was a bit worried when you didn't continue to open the door, thinking something had happened to you. That's why I got up and opened the door. Apparently, you were so caught-up with whatever it is that you were doing, that you didn't even notice yourself falling down against me and drooling on my shirt'', Kakashi said and he, eventually, pointed to a small and wet said place on his shirt on his chest, next to his collarbone – he was still smiling ever so politely and friendly, it had a certain appeal and warmth to it.

However, Iruka was still fixated at checking out the older man's body, trying to find every hidden muscle underneath his clothes and ogling every inch of the delicate skin that the man possessed.

'Shit', Iruka thought as it occurred to him, a blush appearing and warming his own cheeks.


A/N:The ending of this chapter sucks a little bit, but it's a long chapter to compensate for the first chapter's shortness.

What occurred to Iruka?

I hope you all enjoyed reading it thus far and lemme know what you think, what your thoughts are and what's going to happen :o! Will Kakashi notice or will he be very blunt towards all of this?

The next chapter will probably come around Monday/Tuesday.

p.s. Tsunade is widely awake here and Tenzou is still lost in the forest, so Konoha can't be easily re-build. Aside from that, I used the real dialog of the Manga.

Happy Saturday eve'/Sunday morning y'all! ^^