A little after 6….

Kakashi scrambled down the street, heading for Ichiraku. Anyone who knew of the copy-nin knew of his decided lack of respect for being on time and would therefore believe that the copy-nin never scrambled anywhere. But Kakashi was scrambling now. The rest of the afternoon had crawled by; Kakashi had tried to pass the time by reading Icha Icha while Sasuke and Naruto attempted to beat each other up. But it was really hard to read with Sakura screaming praises for Sasuke practically in his ears. It was also really hard to read because his mind kept drifting back to the Chuunin he'd met this afternoon.

He wasn't afraid of me. Kakashi shook his head in vague astonishment. There were few people who reacted to him as if he was a normal person. Gai treated him as an elite ninja, but the two didn't really interact outside of their competitions. Even Kurenai and Asuma, though he considered them his friends, interacted with him from a distance. It was almost as if an invisible wall was placed between him and everyone else. But Umino Iruka….The man had just brushed him off as if he didn't care that Kakashi knew several hundred ways to kill someone with his bare hands. It was fascinating. Kakashi wanted to spend more time with this man, if only so that he could feel human for the short time that he spent with the Chuunin. Of course, he had no idea if Iruka would behave the same way when he wasn't in his own classroom and safely hidden behind a stack of papers. He had no idea if Iruka would be the same person when he wasn't thoroughly distracted by something else. But he wanted to find out.

At ten to six, Kakashi was about to dismiss Team 7 and head out to Ichiraku. As he opened his mouth to speak, Naruto made some comment about beating Sasuke in the last exercise. Sakura's face turned black, and she pulled back her fist and decked Naruto. Ten minutes later, Kakashi'd separated them and smacked all three of them around a little. "You have to work together, or your team will not survive. The most important part of…." He trailed off as the bells in the village started to ring. 6? Kakashi let out a brief mental yelp, muttered something at his students about continuing tomorrow morning and disappeared in a cloud of chakra smoke.

Just outside of Ichiraku, Kakashi slowed down and rearranged his body into its customary slump. He entered the ramen stand at a much slower pace than he'd approached it, and was utterly relieved to discover that the Chuunin was still at the counter. Okay, so he'd only been ten minutes late, but he'd figured that Iruka – since he had so blatantly pointed out that he had other things to do than eat dinner with Kakashi - wouldn't wait around for him. He knew that if Iruka left before he got there, Kakashi would have no chance of spending time with the Chuunin again. But he was still here.

Kakashi smiled. Iruka's left elbow was propped up on a stack of papers, and his head was bent over what had to be an assignment. Kakashi cleared his throat, then, "Gomen, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka jumped slightly, then spun around, looked blankly at Kakashi and then looked at the clock on the back wall of Ichiraku. "Kakashi-sensei? You're early…" Iruka gave him a lopsided smile. "I even brought my work so I could keep myself busy until you showed up."

Kakashi looked at him in disbelief; his face falling, "Is my lack of punctuality that famous?"

Iruka shrugged, "Naruto's mentioned it a few times." Iruka's face softened, and he smiled again. "Quite a few times."

Kakashi couldn't help but smile back. "Maaa, he exaggerates." He settled into a seat next to Iruka and waited as the Chuunin cleared the papers off the counter and slipped them into the shoulder bag that was hanging over the back of the chair.

"So…" Iruka laced his fingers together and leaned his elbows against the counter, "Kakashi-sensei, what do you want to know?"

Kakashi's single visible eye curved upwards, "Anything you can think of."

"Ummm…" Iruka's hand went up to his scar. "Well, I…I'm not really sure where to start."

Kakashi shrugged. "Why don't you just tell me some stories?"

Iruka leaned back, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Well…." Kakashi spent the next few hours being completely entertained by the man sitting next to him. He'd always heard that teachers could see everything from the front of the class, but he had no idea of just how much they could see. He learned more than he ever thought he would about his students and was starting to get a clearer picture of just who they were. The amusing stories of his students – like Naruto painting the Hokage monument. Kakashi remembered hearing about that, but had no idea that Naruto had been behind that – were interspersed with sadder stories about how hard it was for Naruto and Sasuke to grow up alone.

Iruka fell silent and studied his ramen before a smile started to tug at his lips. Kakashi prodded him with a finger as the silence between them lengthened, "What's so funny?"

Iruka started, " Oh, I just…I was just remembering." He shook his head, the smile growing. "The day they were assigned to you, Sasuke and Naruto kissed."

Kakashi gaped at him. "What?!"

Iruka grinned at him. "Yeah, when I came in, it looked like Sakura was on the verge of killing Naruto. It didn't take much prodding later to find out what had happened. Apparently, Naruto was standing on the desk glaring at Sasuke, and someone bumped him into Sasuke, and…." Iruka's hand gestures made the rest of the story obvious, and Kakashi dissolved into helpless laughter.

Kakashi gasped and got himself under control. "Weeell, that explains a lot." He looked over at the man beside him. "Any more?" He asked hopefully. While he was loathe to admit it, he was actually enjoying himself, and he didn't really want to give up the time he was spending with Iruka.

Again, the customary hand raised to his scar as Iruka thought it over, then slowly shook his head. "You know, I can't think of anything else."

"What about you?" The words were out of Kakashi's mouth before he could stop them. He hadn't meant to invade Iruka's privacy like that, but he didn't want the Chuunin to stop talking. There was something incredibly…human…about Iruka.

Iruka looked over at him, surprise written all over his face. "What about me?"

Kakashi realized that he didn't really know where to start, but he remembered the overwhelmed look on Iruka's face when he'd been looking at the stack of papers on his desk, and he had to ask. "Why do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Teach."

Iruka opened his mouth, closed it, then answered with a sheepish smile. "It's about all I'm good at." Then he grabbed his bag off the back of the chair and stood quickly. "Gomen, Kakashi-sensei. I really need to get to work." And he ducked out under the door and out into the street.

Kakashi sat, stunned, at the counter. What did I say?And why did he lie to me? The way Iruka's eyes had dropped and the way he'd shifted his weight before answering all pointed to the fact that he was lying. Well, maybe not lying, but certainly not telling the whole truth. After divulging a myriad of stories about three of his students, the Chuunin had fled at the mere mention of his own life. Kakashi turned to mark the escape route of the other man, his mind whirling as he contemplated what to do next. Then his eye curled up into a smile, and he left Ichiraku after paying the bill and walked back to his apartment. Tomorrow he would start up a routine activity that would quickly become his favorite part of the day – Iruka-stalking.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka tugged at the strap of his bag, pulling it higher onto his shoulder. He couldn't remember many times that he had felt so uncomfortable. He never talked to anyone about his personal life. The Sandaime sometimes managed to pry one-word answers to direct questions out of him, but Iruka never volunteered the information. He sighed, wishing he hadn't said anything at all. Telling the partial truth had bothered him, admitting that the only thing he was good at was teaching – at least he believed that – to one of the best ninjas in Konoha was even worse.

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. Spending time with Kakashi had been more fun than he'd expected. He realized, about half-way through dinner, that he was rambling, but Kakashi had watched him the entire time, with a slight curl to his eye that indicated he was smiling. Iruka didn't make friends easily and, while spending time with Naruto was fun, the boy was still several years his junior, and Iruka couldn't really relate to him. He'd blurted out something about himself, about his personal life, after only a few hours in Kakashi's presence. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he still wanted to spend more time with the enigmatic copy-nin. But he couldn't fathom how he could possibly approach the Jounin. He was pretty sure that Kakashi wouldn't want to see him again now that he had all the information that Iruka could provide. Iruka heaved an enormous sigh, unlocked his apartment and collapsed onto the couch with his ever present stack of papers and buried himself in grading, hoping to forget about the whole evening.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Read and Respond! Pleasepleasepleaseplease (begging). Let me know what you think and let me know about anything I can do to make this better. Next time: Kakashi takes up Iruka-stalking!

I hope you're enjoying this so far!

- Sunlight Through Leaves