Chapter 2: Unseen Crack

The alarm went off and Iruka groaned as he reached out to switch off the alarm. He briefly noted that his partner was no longer in bed. He never had. Kakashi always left before dawn breaks. And he knew that Kakashi was keeping to Iruka's request that their relationship will remain under wraps for the time being.

For a brief moment, Iruka felt guilt washing over him. It had been a week since the incident at the mission room and he had somehow managed to convince Kakashi that they should reduce the frequency of appearing in public together. And Kakashi had been keeping to his promise.

He sighed. 'Can't have people seeing him coming in and out of my house. They are going to suspect something is going on.'

Iruka pulled himself out of bed and got ready for the day's work.


Kakashi stood in front of the memorial stone and sigh, having been there since dawn breaks.

'Tell me what I should do, Obito.'

Kakashi was contemplating. He wasn't sure if he could hold out longer in the relationship. Hell, he wasn't even sure if his lover really loves him back. His meetings with the tanned chunin were getting lesser because Iruka didn't want to be seen so often in public with him.

'Can you believe it, Obito? I'm almost becoming a midnight lover. Arriving at midnight and leaving before dawn.' Kakashi smiled bitterly.

He stood there, staring at the memorial stone a while more and decided that it was time for him to meet his team before they scream at him for being late again.


"You are late, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura glared at him when he appeared at the meeting point.

"Gomen. I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi smiled at his two subordinates.

"Liar!!" Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison.

Kakashi laughed and scratched the side of his head. His two subordinates began to exchange some remarks and his mind soon drifted off to the questions he was contemplating earlier that morning.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi snapped back from his chain of thoughts.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you listening to what we are saying?" Naruto frowned at the silver-haired jounin in front of him.

"Well, sorry. I got lost on the road of life again." Kakashi smiled and raised an eyebrow.

Naruto was about to complain when Sakura held him back. He turned to look at Sakura who just glanced at their teacher. Naruto turned back to their sensei and almost flinched at what he saw. He decided that he did not like his sensei's smile at that point in time.

As much as Naruto was dense and oblivious to his surroundings, he could see the pain in his teacher's one visible eye. In fact, he could almost feel it.

"Well, Naruto, what were you saying?" Kakashi turned away and pulled out his book to read.

"Erm… Well, we were just saying that we haven't gone on missions in a while."

"Hmm… Actually, the purpose of the meeting this morning is to tell you to get ready for the upcoming mission. We will meet in the mission room this afternoon for the details." Kakashi did not look up from his book as he flipped to the next page.

"Why can't we get the details now?" Naruto scowled.

"Tsunade-sama is in the midst of a meeting now. She will only be available to meet us later this afternoon. But I've been told it's an A-rank mission." Kakashi closed his book and looked at his team. "I will see you later. Ja na!" A puff of smoke, and he was gone, leaving Sakura and Naruto looking at each other.