This is not a new chapter, but the second half of chapter 3. I realized that the last chapter was ridiculously longer than all the others and decided to split it up. So if you've already read all of chapter 3 when it first came out, you've already read this.

The next morning, Iruka was pleasantly surprised to hear a knock on his door at 9:30. Not too early, not too late. At least the jounin seemed to learn some things quickly. He cheerily opened the door to Kakashi…

And what looked like everything Kakashi owned…

He blinked in surprise, trying to take in the picture of the copy-ninja surrounded by several large suitcases. The other man smiled cheerfully at him over the top of the potted plant in his arms. "Good morning, Iruka-sensei."

"Kakashi…" his voice halted, not sure how to ask the obvious question. "What…?"

"Ah, yes." Kakashi glanced down at his stuff. "I need to move in."

"Say what?"

The other man brushed past the confused chuunin, dragging one of the suitcases behind him. "Early this morning, one of my neighbors had a nightmare and activated a water jutsu in his sleep. Half the building is flooded. It's gonna be a few days before they can get it all out and fix the water damage. I need a place to stay until then."

Iruka kept glancing back and forth between the jounin and his overabundance of stuff. "And… and you want to stay here?"

Kakashi placed his plant down on the coffee table. "Well, I figured as long as you're helping me, I'm going to be spending most of my time here with you anyway, and you have that spare bedroom that Naruto used to stay in, so…" He trailed off as he noticed the twitch starting to form in the teacher's eye. "Uh…I mean, wait, hold on." He held up a hand, stopping whatever outburst Iruka was about to unleash. He quickly picked up his plant, grabbed ahold of his suitcase, and walked back out again, closing the door behind him.

Iruka stared at the painted wood, utterly perplexed. A knock came from the other side. He tentatively reached out and turned the handle again. Kakashi smiled happily at him. "Good morning, Iruka-sensei!" he chirped as though they hadn't just had this conversation. "Last night there was some damage to my apartment, and I need a place to stay for a few days, so I was wondering if I could stay here? But if that's not ok, I will find a hotel to stay at. I just thought I would ask… politely…"

Iruka blinked dumbly, his previous anger dissipating. It took a few seconds for it to click that the man in front of him was trying to follow his teachings from the first day he had scolded him on proper procedure for asking for favors. A small smile came over his features and he couldn't help but chuckle at the somewhat adorable awkwardness of the infamous copy-cat ninja trying so hard to impress him with his manners. He smirked at the jounin good-naturedly. "Sure, you can stay with me, Kakashi."

He stepped aside to allow the jounin access to the apartment again, and Kakashi happily strode inside.

Iruka looked out at the mountain of suitcases that still needed to be brought in.

"Uhh… Kakashi?"

"Hm?" The other nin was back to occupying himself with trying to find the perfect spot for his plant.

"How long did you say you were staying? Do you really need this much stuff?"

Kakashi barely spared a glance at the rest of his luggage. "Only a few days. But I told there, the place was flooded. I had to pack up all my things."

"Oh… I guess that makes sense." Iruka started to haul in the rest of the load. "What is that?" he finally asked as Kakashi continued to futz with his plant.

The silver-haired man finally looked at him again, grinning proudly. "This is Mr. Ukki. Mr. Ukki, Iruka-sensei. Iruka-sensei, Mr. Ukki." He finished up the introductions and then stood there as though waiting for something.

One of Iruka's eyes squinted in mild disturbance as he tried to figure out if the other man was serious. But when it seemed obvious that Kakashi was waiting for some sort of acknowledgement to his plant, he finally turned to it. "Uh… hi… Mr. Ukki…" He felt incredibly silly, but it seemed to make the jounin happy as he turned back to adjusting the plan – Mr. Ukki's – positioning. The teacher watched on with morbid fascination.

"Hmm…" Kakashi frowned beneath his mask. "I'm just worried he got hit with too much water when the jutsu came down through the ceiling. I want to put him somewhere with a lot of sun so he dries out quickly." He looked at the tan man imploringly

Iruka tried to shake himself out of the shock at seeing the usually aloof jounin so concerned with a living thing. "Well, um… you could put… him – " he stumbled over using a proper pronoun for a plant. "- in my room. It gets the most sun."

Kakashi's face brightened again and Iruka felt his heart swell a little at seeing him so happy. "Thanks so much, Iruka-sensei! It'll be good for him too, to be in a bedroom with someone. I was worried about him being lonely at night out here in the living room." He gazed adoringly at his plant, oblivious to the odd look he was receiving from the chuunin.

"Uh… sure… here…" The teacher held out his hands, and Kakashi relinquished Mr. Ukki so Iruka could find him a proper spot in his room.

By the time they had finished setting Kakashi up in the now-spare bedroom (though the jounin still had to make do with the bright orange sheets that used to belong to Naruto), it was near lunchtime again. The copy-nin had suggested that Iruka demonstrate his kitchen skills again, (since he hadn't gotten to taste the tan man's delicious food since that first night), but the chuunin had smiled at him, somewhat evilly. "Actually, it's about time for lunch break at the academy. I was thinking we could stop by there."

"Iruka-sensei, you're supposed to be on vacation… surely, you can leave things to your substitute for longer than two days without having to go check up on things," Kakashi scolded.

Iruka blushed lightly. "That's not what I was thinking!" he insisted. "I was thinking it would be a good time to introduce you to some of the female chuunin teachers."

"Oh."

"And if I happen to find out how my classes have been going the past couple days, so be it," he rushed the last sentence out of his mouth and hurried out the door before his student could protest.

Kakashi rolled his eye at the anal academy teacher, but followed anyway.

"IRUKA-SENSEI!" Kakashi winced at the unnaturally loud sound. A few students ran up to the duo, clutching at Iruka's shirt and pants excitedly. "Iruka-sensei!"

"Where have you been?"

"Are you sick?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Are you coming back to work?"

"Hey, hey, quiet down!" Iruka hushed the children but there was a wide smile stretched across his face and laughter in his voice. He patted the closest child on the head. "I'm fine. I'm just taking some vacation time."

The kids looked at him strangely. "You've never missed a day of work, Iruka-sensei," one spoke up.

"Iruka-sensei, are you dying?" a little girl queried, her voice trembling with worry.

"Jeez, sensei," Kakashi drawled from behind him. "How much of a workaholic are you if even your pint-sized ninja wannabes think the world is ending if you miss work?"

The children's eyes snapped to him, just registering his presence, and the jounin instantly regretted drawing attention to himself. "Who are you?" one of the bolder kids demanded.

"What's with your hair?"

"What's with your eye?"

"Are you deformed under that mask or something?"

Kakashi looked put out that the younger generation clearly did not know him well enough for his presence to inspire awe and respect, and Iruka snickered at him unashamedly. He shot the sensei a look. "Can we go inside?"

"Iruka-sensei, is this your boyfriend?" one of the little girls sang and the rest of the kids 'oooh-ed' in dawning.

Iruka bonked the girl on the head. "Kakashi-sensei is just a friend. Now, get back to your lunch."

"Yes, Iruka-sensei!" the kids chorused before running off again, probably to tell all their friends about Iruka-sensei and his new 'boyfriend' with the funny hair.

The chuunin turned his attention back to the other man as his students disappeared. The sweet smile lingered on his face, Kakashi noticed. "Well, let's introduce you to some available kunoichi."

"Well, that was a disaster." Kakashi shuffled into the apartment and wilted into the couch.

Iruka followed after him, looking weary. "It wasn't… that bad," he tried to console, but his own voice didn't sound convincing, and the jounin's shoulders slumped further. "Well, I mean, at least you didn't say anything perverted or particularly weird…"

The silver-haired man sighed. "I made one of them cry. I had to have said something wrong."

"Oh, no," Iruka waved a hand, coming to sit next to him. "Suzume? She cries about everything."

"I still scared everyone…"

"No, you didn't. They were just – "He cut himself off as Kakashi turned to glare at him. "Ok, yeah, they were scared of you." The jounin crossed his arms. "Oh, Kakashi, it's not that bad. They're just not used to… you… talking to them, let alone showing up at the academy. I bet the only reason they were even so flustered was because they were in the middle of talking about your butt."

The jounin blinked. "They talk about my butt…?"

"Oh yeah, all the time."

"Is this supposed to make me feel better?"

Iruka shrugged. "Is it working?"

Kakashi sat up a little straighter and peered down at his own backside. "Huh… I guess…"

"Good."

The older man leaned back again. "Still doesn't change the fact that they're scared of me." He almost sounded sad.

Iruka frowned. He hadn't thought of the possibility that his fellow chuunin teachers would be so terrified of the legendary copy-ninja that they wouldn't be able to converse properly with him. He definitely hadn't thought that they might even start to cry when Kakashi had looked straight at them just to ask how classes were going. Then again, none of the other teachers had probably ever been graced with the full attention of such an elite and elusive superstar.

The chuunin bit his lip. This unsuccessful outing definitely hadn't helped the other man's confidence, especially since Kakashi had actually managed to make decent conversation until the female teachers started melting down. How was he supposed to teach him that the things he said were actually correct if all evidence pointed to the contrary just because of some silly frightened chuunin?

"I'm taking a nap," the jounin announced abruptly.

Iruka stared after him despondently as he shuffled to his new room.

The jounin did not emerge again until it was dark out, though Iruka was sure he hadn't been sleeping the entire time… in fact, he was pretty positive that he had felt Kakashi sneak out his bedroom window for several hours, though why he wouldn't just use the front door was beyond him.

His current guests quickly shushed themselves as they heard the door creak open down the hall. He had tracked down Izumo and Kotetsu in the mission room and asked them to come over after their shift. Iruka didn't have a ton of chuunin friends – even less female chuunin friends. But he had been close to the two rambunctious desk workers for years, and they were a lot more social (aka: they went out a lot more) than Iruka did. And he knew he had seen them interact with Kakashi on at least a couple occasions, so having them around might prove that not all chuunin (besides him) were scared of the elite shinobi.

Of course, in his ultimate naivety, he had failed to foresee the lewd looks and insistent questioning that followed the revelation that Kakashi was not only staying in his apartment, but that Iruka was looking for available chuunin women that he could introduce the copy-nin to. It took almost a good hour to convince the other two men that he and the jounin were not a couple who were looking to add a woman to a threesome for variety. He wondered if it was possible to actually die of heatstroke caused by blushing…

Kakashi paused in the doorway of the kitchen as he realized they had company. Iruka shot his two friends a pointed look, and they smiled brightly – a little too brightly – at the silver-haired nin. "Good evening, Kakashi-sensei!" Izumo chirped. Kotetsu beamed and waved.

"Kamizuki… Hagane…" Kakashi greeted each in turn, looking a little uneasy at the overexcited smiles on their faces. Then he turned to Iruka. "I'm going out." Without expounding upon that statement, he strode out the door.

Iruka sat rooted to the spot for a second before leaping after the jounin. "Kakashi! Wait!"

Izumo glared at his friend and lover. "Great," he droned sarcastically. "He knows we're not scared of him, but now he's scared of you."

"Me!?" The bandaged man looked indignant. "You were all 'Oh, Kakashi-sensei!'" he imitated Izumo in a high-pitched, fangirl voice.

"I do not sound like that!"

The copy-nin hadn't gotten far, and he stopped and turned his head just slightly when the chuunin burst out the door after him. "Where are you going?" the teacher demanded

"I just said – out."

Iruka scowled at him.

Kakashi sighed, eye taking on a glint of irritation. "Surely just because I'm living here doesn't mean I have to tell you every time I go somewhere. What? Do I have a curfew too?"

The tan man turned red and sighed disgustedly. "Fine, do what you want," he grumbled "Just don't wake me when you come home."

He stormed back inside. The two chuunin still at the table gazed up at him. "What's wrong?" Kotetsu asked.

Iruka shook his head. "Three days of no results and he's being all mopey already." He plopped back into his chair and crossed his arms. "Man's a big baby," he grumbled petulantly.

"Well, give him a break, Iruka." Izumo rested a hand on his shoulder. "It can't be easy to discover that you're so bad at talking to people that even after someone's been teaching you how, you still can't get a girl to sit with you for five minutes without running away."

Kotetsu snorted, and Iruka shot him a dirty look. The other chuunin quickly became fascinated with the floor. "You know, this is partially your fault," he snapped, glaring between the two.

His fellow chuunin looked taken aback. "The hell did we do?" Kotetsu demanded.

"Part of the reason he's all dead-set on finding someone is because you two were being all nauseating in the mission room the other day," Iruka shot at him.

"What? When?" The two men looked at each other, confused.

"Four days ago…" Iruka looked at them expectantly, but they just stared back, not recalling what they had done. "You guys were working the mission room together and having a tickle-fight…" he pressed.

Both men scrunched their faces up in confusion. "Not possible," Kotetsu stated matter-of-factly.

Iruka cocked his head at him.

Kotetsu sighed. "First of all, today was the first day we worked the mission room in a week. We've been on guard duty. Secondly, the last time we had a, quote-unquote, 'tickle-fight' in the mission room was almost a month ago. The last time we did that, we got in trouble for ripping some important documents."

Izumo nodded. "Tsunade made it pretty clear that if we screwed around in there again there would be some… well… not-so-happy punishments."

"She threatened to castrate us," Kotetsu supplied bluntly.

Iruka blinked. "But…" His head hurt. "Kakashi-sensei specifically said he saw you two the other day when he went to try to get a mission…"

His friends shared a look. "Well, maybe he just got his days mixed up." Izumo shrugged. "Or maybe he's been thinking about this whole girlfriend thing for longer than he wants to admit…"

Iruka nodded unsurely. "Yeah… maybe…"

"Well, hey," Kotetsu suddenly looked enthusiastic, trying to break the overthinking teacher out of his reverie. "I know how we can help! He's probably heading to a bar, right? We can go round up a few girls we know, find out where he's skulking around, and bring the party to him. I'll bet he's not so scary to girls once they've got a few drinks in them."

Iruka groaned. "I'm really not in the mood to drink tonight, Ko." He blushed, remembering his sake-at-lunch incident the other day.

"Well, you don't have to come. 'Zumo and I will handle it. Right?" He grinned widely at his partner who glowered back at him.

"We have work in the morning," he shot defiantly.

"Aww, come on." The more irresponsible chuunin poked at his boyfriend from across the table. "We're doing this for 'Ruka. The faster we help him help Kakashi get a girlfriend, the sooner our poor friend will be put out of his misery."

Izumo turned to Iruka, silently begging him to side with him, but the sensei gave him a sheepish grin. "Well…" he trailed off, not wanting to agree with Kotetsu out loud, but the spiky-haired man had a point.

Izumo sighed. "Fine." He stood and snatched Iruka's wallet off the kitchen counter where he had thrown it. "But you're paying." He grabbed a handful of money out before tossing the empty wallet back to its owner.

"Yes!" Kotetsu cried, jumping up excitedly.

"Hey!" Iruka shouted, flustered, but the two other chuunin were already out the door.

Iruka blinked his eyes open slowly at the rising sun, wondering why his blinds were open so early in the morning. His bleary brown orbs finally focused on the… Mr. Ukki… sitting on his windowsill. Oh yeah. He had promised Kakashi maximum exposure to the sun for his… friend…

He rolled over and was about to try falling back asleep when he heard a small crash in the hallway and… was that a giggle? Since when did Kakashi giggle? Then the jounin's rough timbre floated through the door followed by more girlish giggling. Ok, that definitely wasn't Kakashi…

Iruka pulled himself out of bed and flung open his bedroom door… Kakashi in nothing but sweatpants and his mask was standing in the hallway near the front door with a scantily-dressed woman who held her high-heels in her hands. They both turned to look at him. The teacher blinked back owlishly, trying to process the scene.

The girl's giggle cut through the otherwise silent apartment again. "Sorry," she twittered from behind her hand. Iruka's eyebrow twitched.

Kakashi placed a hand on her back and opened the door, quickly ushering her out. "Well, you should go."

"Call me?"

"Uh-huh." The jounin slammed the door in her face. He turned back to the stunned teacher who was starting to look angry. He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and smiled slightly. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake – "

Iruka's bedroom door slammed.

"- you…" Kakashi stared at the closed entryway to the chuunin's bedroom, wondering what he had done wrong.

DixieGoddess