So why did Kakashi get such an evil gleam in his eye last chapter? Why was he so eager to target poor, innocent Iruka? To discover the answer, we'll have to go back a week in time, and we just might find out that Iruka is not as innocent as he may have seemed…

-…-

Kakashi –poofed- on the bridge to discover Sakura and Sasuke kneeling with their foreheads together, murmuring to each other. Had Sasuke finally given in to teenage hormones and submitted to Sakura? Naruto would be devasta—

Where was Naruto, anyway? Kakashi's students were not allowed to be later than him! Why were Sasuke and Sakura just sitting there talking when this was going on?

Oh. Yes. They were talking about Naruto. Kakashi knew that. Really.

He lifted both of them up by the scruffs of their scrawny little genin necks and hauled them to eye level. Sasuke immediately started to kick his little legs around in the air. Kakashi considered telling him just how many kinds of idiot doing that made him look like, but decided that finding and slaughtering Naruto was more urgent.

"Where's Naruto?" he growled. Sasuke stopped struggling immediately, and Sakura also froze. Kakashi had his "I'm going to kill you slowly and relish every moment" look. They shrugged as best they could while being suspended in the air that way.

"We don't know, sensei!" whined Sakura. She did that a lot. "We were just talking about it, and we just can't think of where he might be!"

Kakashi dropped them. A loud thump ensued, which he ignored. He was thinking….

-…-

Two hours later, Kakashi was still thinking, and Sasuke immediately stood up when he saw a cloud on the horizon, glad for the distraction from the card game with Sakura that he was losing rather badly. He suspected her of cheating, but couldn't figure out how.

A moment later, Kakashi and Sakura noticed, too. They stood up to stand by him, showing a unified front which would have been more impressive if a cascade of playing cards hadn't tumbled out of Sakura's shorts the moment she stood up. Sasuke gave her a look, but decided it was cooler not to say anything.

The dust cloud materialized into a small, dirty vehicle that looked remarkably like a green, heavy-duty metal, souped-up golf cart with no top. It went frighteningly fast, and the passenger had spiky hair, though you couldn't tell what color it was beneath all the dirt.

The vehicle roared up to the bridge and halted so fast both the driver's and passenger's heads were flung forwards at neck-snapping speed. The passenger hopped out and pumped his fists while the driver grinned beneath a pair of goggles.

"YES! That was so awesome! I love this gator!" He turned to Sakura. "Sakura-chan! Did you see how fast we were going? And that wasn't even top speed! You should see it on a flat stretch, like it was earlier when I was driving, and when I floored it, MAN! IT WENT SO FAST!"

Naruto finally noticed the three pairs of glares as the driver, as yet still unidentified, hopped out of the gator and started dusting off his pants. Naruto blinked and counted glares again. Yep, three.

"Hey, Kakashi, you're actually here on time for once!"

Kakashi twitched. "No, Naruto, I was here three hours late."

Naruto blinked. "Er, I'm three hours late?"

"No, Naruto, you're five hours late. Kakashi got here two hours ago." Sasuke turned on his death-glare and Naruto stepped back.

Sakura turned on the driver. "You! What kind of jerk are you, making us wait this long? You're worse than Kakashi-sensei!"

The driver stepped back, surprised.

"H-hey, Sakura, don't yell at him, he's—" Naruto tried to say, but Sakura brushed him aside.

"Just who do you think you are, anyway?" she demanded.

He reached up and took off the goggles, showing a pair of chocolate brown eyes.

It also showed just enough of the scar across his nose for Sakura to realize her mistake.

I just chewed out my academy sensei. I JUST CHEWED OUT IRUKA-SENSEI!

She sprinted to the other side of the bridge and collapsed in a nervous heap. Naruto and Sasuke joined her as Iruka attempted to placate Kakashi.

"I'm so sorry, Kakashi-sama, it's just that we lost track of time…"

Naruto stretched tiredly. "Man. Day's almost over anyway. Might as well just ditch."

Sasuke blinked in horror. Sakura sat up. Naruto stared at them. They were staring at something behind him, and suddenly Naruto remembered that he'd just said the d-word around two teachers.

He turned around slowly. "Er…"

Kakashi and Iruka narrowed their eyes. Oh. Man. Naruto rarely saw Kakashi's face reach the level of "my very gaze will smite thee, and then I will kill you slowly and relish every moment, laughing insanely before I cart myself off to the mental hospital for long term treatment of my newly found homicidal insanity", and he hadn't even known Iruka had a face like that. He really couldn't describe it. It was almost "I'm going to tie you to a wall and you use for target practice with rotten peaches" with a touch of "I'm going to go get a sledgehammer and do terrible things to your kneecaps", but then again, it seemed more like a mix of "you're gonna to be a permanent soprano when I'm done with this croquet mallet" and "CENSORED". He wasn't sure.

Inspiration struck. A rare occurrence with Naruto, and one that rarely turned out to be any good, so this might backfire on him totally. He decided to jump on it anyway. Why not? He was dead anyway.

"Hey, Iruka, wanna get back in the gator? I'll let you take my turn driving!"

Kakashi blinked as a roaring faded into the distance.

"Did…did a lower ranking teacher-nin just make off with my student?" he asked, dazed. Sakura and Sasuke nodded solemnly, shocked.

Kakashi tilted his head back to direct his gaze at the sky.

"Iruka…you die. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not for years. But I'll be waiting, and you will die."

Sasuke and Sakura back away slowly.

Little did Kakashi know he'd only have to wait till next week.