Kakashi did set Iruka's mind on a rush need in serious partner. It could be his chance! Only, the very next hour he had got a long-termed urgent mission. Therefore, for him there was no choice, but to leave the village under hokage's strict orders.
*- phase 2.0 -*
When Iruka left the interrogation room, he was a bit inspired.
Several hours later, he began to feel restless.
In two days, he became desperate.
Now he was simply in panic. Because tomorrow his time for improvement will be over. And he didn't figure out how to complete the task and get himself a partner.
He talked with his trusted friends, he visited several bars, and he even consulted one agency!
Requests and pleas of content like: 'Hey, friend, be my partner, even if for a short while or pretense' went for nothing, producing responses like 'Go find yourself someone unattached, some Hatake Kakashi' in all variety of courtesy.
For Iruka, that 'some Hatake Kakashi' became sort of a curse. He didn't pay attention to the mentioned person, he simply knew it was impossible. 'Some Hatake Kakashi' was like a human out of Iruka's league, unapproachable and inaccessible.
Ever hard-working, Iruka still did all these procedures, as he did them before, quite regularly and always in vain. It looked hopeless and impracticable.
For starters, Iruka never ever managed to formulate what his dream partner must look like.
During his whole life, he never gave himself a time to think about it, as if on purpose avoiding all private questions. The reality impressed and almost killed him: he didn't try to approach someone, and no one tried to approach him with serious intentions, silly one night stands and friends' jokes aside.
Either Iruka was too good to be true, or no good for anyone.
Iruka speculated how he would like it, if he had to choose from these two options. And the truth was enormously depressing.
As Iruka walked home after the pretty hard day of work in the academy, the sky darkened with every passing second, slowly transforming the evening into the night. Iruka didn't have either inspiration nor craft to try anything at this last day. He became assured he was hopeless at this end. Good for nothing. Retreatant. Lone wolf.
He wished he could openly howl, such misery he felt.
He didn't pay attention to his surroundings, that's why, when he bumped into someone, he simply sat down at the ground and stood there, blinking at the dark mounting figure above him in amazement. Couple of seconds of staring passed, and Iruka was first to remember his manners.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to stump into you," he said politely.
The person in front of him visibly started and bent over to him. Iruka saw two mismatched eyes and the masked lower half of the face and gave out a sad smile.
"Good evening, Kakashi-san."
"Yo." Kakashi nodded to him and offered him a hand.
Iruka noticed he panted hard, the man must be late somewhere again.
"It's me. I'm sorry. I was in a hurry, because there was that mission suddenly, and I had no choice but to..."
"It's okay," Iruka interrupted him, not in a mood to listen to his unbelievable explanations. "No harm done."
He accepted an offered hand, but stood up, following his usual habit, without really leaning on it. As he rubbed his backside after, he thought that maybe there was a minor harm after all.
"Iruka... sensei..."
Iruka shook his head.
"No, I'm really sorry to interrupt. You were going somewhere."
"Sensei, your eyes are strange."
When Iruka looked up, his eyes met the pair of mismatched ones.
"So are yours," he mumbled.
Kakashi smiled at him his usual pretentious smile.
"No, I mean your eyes are both red. That's a little unusual."
Iruka shrugged and purposefully averted his eyes.
"No, I must have just rubbed them." He didn't want to make public the fact that the last three nights in a row he was doing nothing but crying. Because men don't cry. Especially strong ones like Hatake Kakashi.
"Did someone hurt you?" Kakashi asked, notes of threat in his voice. And received a short response in form of a sad grunt. "Who?" he insisted.
Iruka waved his hand.
"No one. I did my best trying, and only managed to hurt myself. So, it's like that." He looked at Kakashi and noticed the man stared at him without getting the clue what he was talking about. Iruka thought he didn't understand it either. He didn't understand himself at all.
"How can I help you?" Kakashi asked accurately.
All of a sudden, a wave of relief washed through Iruka. He never felt something like this before - so enormously glad there was someone who wished to help him.
"You don't really have to," he said quietly.
"Still, I want to," Kakashi continued to insist.
Iruka shrugged.
"You can't help me," Iruka laughed sadly and, to show the man he was okay, suddenly decided to make a joke. "Until you want to become my special someone."
Immediately, he felt heavy blush spread across his cheeks and closed his eyes, thinking about sinking through the ground. How silly of him, to embarrass himself like this...
"Deal," he heard.
Iruka's head darted up, and, once again, his eyes met Kakashi's mismatched eyes. Dead serious eyes.
"What?" Iruka mumbled, sure he misheard the word.
"I'll do it!" Kakashi said quickly, and, even though it was already dark, Iruka noticed the visible part of the man's pale face gain slightly pink color. He was definitely nervous.
"I mean, I'd like to," Kakashi added, "However, now I need to go meet hokage. Hokage awaits me. Not until next week, but I returned earlier, because you... Well... I'll go and then..."
"Oh!" Iruka nodded several times and pushed Kakashi's forearm to move him towards the tower. "Yes, you should go. Hokage comes first."
Kakashi made a step in direction Iruka pushed him, but he looked over the shoulder to ask him another question.
"Just for now, and then - it's a deal, right? You said."
Iruka couldn't help a smile.
"It's a deal," he assured Kakashi. "Now go there quickly."
Kakashi gave him another trade smile and ran away.
Left in complete darkness, Iruka stood still for a while, not quite sure what just happened to him.
*- phase 2.1 -*
The very next morning, Iruka stood in front of Ibiki's desk, smiling quite happily.
"Good morning, Ibiki-san," he said politely. "Welcome back."
Ibiki nodded, and even smiled a little back at him.
"Good morning, Iruka. There was an urgent mission for me, under extremely suspicious circumstances. Therefore, I'm really glad to be back home. I'm sorry I couldn't certificate you personally."
The smile on Iruka's face widened.
"Yes. About my certification..."
Ibiki frowned.
"Was there a problem with it?"
Iruka's smile disappeared, as if washed away, and he frowned in his turn.
"Wasn't there?"
Ibiki gave him a strange look and reached for one of the folders in the nearest shelf.
"Let's see," he opened the folder and looked through the most recent papers. "You stood very well during certification. Hatake was pleased, and you have the best notes here."
Iruka immediately sank into a state of utter shock.
"Hatake Kakashi was my Anbu interrogator?" he mumbled weakly.
"Yes. You didn't recognize him?"
Iruka swallowed a lump and shook his head.
"I... I guess I was too nervous to notice."
Ibiki hummed.
"Hatake can be an ass when he wants to. But he certificated you, so everything is alright?"
Iruka nodded.
"Yes, everything is alright. See you around, Ibiki-san."
He turned around on his heels and quickly left the room.
Ibiki's squinted eyes followed Iruka's back with attention, until it disappeared behind the door. Something was strange about it.
"Why did Iruka come here?" he wondered aloud. "To wish me a good morning?"