Kakashi made his way carefully down the stairs, balancing the laundry basket on his hip, as he'd seen many women do. He muttered a curse at Shizune for assigning him a seventh-floor flat. Finally stepping out into the street, he turned left and went straight into the Laundromat and eased the basket onto the floor.

He suppressed a sigh. When he had agreed to do both his and Iruka's laundry in exchange for the teacher cooking three times a day, he'd expected that the laundry would double, not quintuple.

As he discovered soon after they'd made their deal, children saw Iruka as a mentor, a role model and a handkerchief. Kakashi could hardly believe it the first time he saw Iruka's snot- and grass-stained shirt. And it was sticky, as if someone had spilled a soda on it.

Unwilling to believe that Iruka had poor hygiene habits after the row they had over Suugo, Kakashi decided to do some research. So he went to the playground during recess. A lot of brats screaming around, some eating their lunch and some throwing it, some crying because it was on the ground, and there was Iruka trying to maintain some semblance of order. Kakashi decided to keep a respectful distance and silently wished his roommate good luck, because two boys were starting another fight.

Just then, a brown-haired girl who was playing tag fell and scraped her knee. From his tree, Kakashi couldn't see if she was badly injured, but it didn't look like it. She started to cry, though. Iruka came over to her and wiped her injured knee with his shirt. Ah-ha...

The dolphin produced a band-aid from his vest, and two minutes later, the girl was running around again, and Iruka was giving a hug to the kid who lost the fight, getting snot on the front of his vest. Kakashi shook his head and returned home.

That had been shortly after Iruka had moved in. Now Kakashi sorted through the clothes whenever doing his roommate's laundry. Ketchup stain: urgent; grass stain: urgent; caked mud: can wait; blood: maybe too late; snot: probably urgent...and this?

The jounin held up a shirt that appeared to have every possible stain and more. The sleeves had sand, the front was sticky with some sort of candy, and the back looked like it had seen better days in a swamp.

Anyone else would probably have cried with frustration, but Kakashi smiled. All ninjas got their clothes dirty, but this was somehow uniquely Iruka. His Iruka. Even through his half-gloves, Kakashi could tell it had been worn recently; it was warm. Unable to contain himself, he sniffed it. Hmm, a bit of sweat and some other substances, but still undeniably a certain teacher's. He sniffed again, trying to memorize the aroma, even though he already had.

"Oi, Kakashi I forgot to give you my ve--" The subject of his fantasies had just walked in. Kakashi turned around while trying to put down the shirt and discovered that it had become stuck to his own shirt. Oh, shit.

"What are you doing?"
"Um...I was looking at this shirt...what did you DO to it, ask the children to dirty it especially just to annoy me?"
An unexpected blush came over the teacher's cheeks. Kakashi worked hard on not blushing also, but then he remembered he had the mask on because he was outside.

"Well, what did you expect? We had a field trip and at the end everyone was tired and cranky! At least Haru had the good idea of giving the children lollies to keep them quiet during the walk home!"

Kakashi's voice unexpectedly rose at the mention of Haru. The jounin unintentionally drew himself up. "So you're telling me a kid stuck his or hers on your shirt for a keepsake?"

Iruka suddenly felt a bit smaller "No, it was sort of an accident, actually..."
"Hmph, well remember that I'm the one suffering for this next time you give out candy!" Kakashi unstuck his shirt and shoved Iruka's in the machine.

"Listen yo--" Iruka never got to finish his sentence, because as he stepped forward he slipped on some spilled detergent. He tripped over a wheeled laundry basket, landed inside it, and scooted down the aisle of washing machines, his butt in the basket. He avoided completely crashing into the wall by kicking his legs out to hit it. Once he stopped, he scrambled off the cart, blushing crimson from embarrassment.

"Iruka, Iruka, are you all right?" To the dolphin's surprise, the person he expected would be laughing his guts out was now next to him, looking fairly concerned. He himself, however was not feeling too jolly. He faced his room-mate with the angriest expression he could muster while feeling he could die of embarrassment.

"This is all your fault! You make me do stupid things!"
"Iruka...?"
"Hmph!" Iruka turned tail and walked-ran out of the place. It wasn't until he was back in his room that he stopped to analyze things properly.

Why did I blame Kakashi because I made an ass of myself? So childish…of course, he was being stupid about the shirt and the candy, but I didn't have to lower myself to his level;. I just thought I would die, letting him see me in such an embarrassing position…WHAT? No…I don't care what he thinks of me or how he sees me. RIGHT? Right.

Iruka woke up with a smile. He arched his back until he heard a crack and swung his legs over his bed. He walked out of his bedroom feeling happier than he had since...last year around this time, actually.

He turned on the rice cooker and cracked a pair of eggs over the hot frying pan whilst humming to himself. Just then, Kakashi walked in, stifling a big yawn. Without missing a beat, Iruka put down the pan, turned and gave his roommate a bone-crushing hug.

Kakashi's brain stopped processing the details of his last mission. What the--?

"Happy last day of school!!" Iruka doubled the strength of his hug, setting a new high on Kakashi's meter, which must be something, since he had been a partner of Gai's.

"Ugh! Nice to...see you so excited...Iruka..." The jounin was forced to gasp between words.
"No more marks, no more tests! No more detentions!"
"Yes..."
"And think about it! It's finally summer! I can get some money saved at last!"
"What...do you...mean?"

Realizing the conversation might otherwise take all morning, Iruka released the jounin.
"On summers I get to do regular ninja stuff, just like you!"
"So you're not staying home?"
"Are you kidding? And miss out on the opportunity of having adult conversations with mature people? I mean I love kids, but I live for summer!"
"What then, so I don't count?"

Iruka ignored him and continued to make breakfast with a goofy smile on his face. Kakashi was torn between being mad for being called immature and gloating over seeing his sensei so happy. He decided not to commit and read Icha Icha instead. Coward, Obito mocked distantly.

Genma strolled casually towards the village gates, clicking his senbon between his teeth. Once he had considered having a cigarette instead, but decided against it when a doctor described the sound of his smoking father's lungs as like "a barn full of howling owls." Doctors were weird.

Regardless, Genma worked hard to have a cool image, and he was convinced that carrying the needle-like weapon around gave him a sharp edge. Add in the perpetual half-frown and slump, and you had the second coolest ninja of Konoha.

Since the Ninja Academy he'd learned he'd never top Kakashi, and since becoming a jounin he'd stopped being bitter about it. Now they were even friends of sorts. Shortly after giving up his hobby of hating the infamous silver-haired nin, he had met Izumo and Kotetsu and took up a new after-hours hobby: set up unlikely couples, and if it doesn't work out, gossip mercilessly about them.

Kotizu, as he called them, were more into this "hobby" than he was, but he still enjoyed being a channel of dubious information for the ninja half of the village.

As he neared the gates, he smirked as he saw his partners in crime, heads hunched together, deep in conversation. Plotting again, no doubt. He slowed his pace so his footsteps wouldn't be too obvious, and he could hear better.

"...and we set up Asuma's and Kurenai's 'blind date'..."
"Do we just tell them we need to meet and not show up, so they're alone?"
"Basically."
"Should we be there in disguise?"

"What are you two scheming?" Genma decided to make his presence known.
Izumo looked up and smiled conspiratorially. "Come scheme with us."
"I would love to, but I'm busy doing some actual work."
"What, guarding the gates doesn't count?"
"It would count if you guys paid any actual attention to the road, which you don't."
"Details, details. You have anything to tell us?"
"Yes, Sen-kun, any recent dirt?"

Genma made a pause before answering, just to annoy them. He moved his senbon from side to side in his mouth and absentmindedly looked at the foliage of the nearby trees.
Kotetsu couldn't take it. "Is it that good?"
"It has the potential to be."
"Oh?""Well...how to put this? You remember Iruka sensei?"
"We had some stuff going on about him and Kakashi not long ago, yes."
"Turns out I have fresh stuff on him."

"Go on."
"Well this morning our sensei was really happy; in fact, he was positively glowing. It was hard to look at him without eye protection."
"He did it with Hound?" Izumo exclaimed with fangirlish stars in his eyes.
"Shut up, I'm not done yet. So Iruka sees the nuisance coming down the stairs and jumps up and gives him this huge hug."

"So now he's a pedo?"
"I'm not done, Kotetsu! So we see Kakashi come out of their flat as well, looking positively annoyed. He glares at the nuisance and ask Iruka 'Are you going to give everyone a free hug today then?' "

Izumo slammed his palm on the table with a big smile on his face now. "That means Hound got one too! This IS news indeed! Wait 'til everyone knows..."
Kotestu looked happy too, but he continued to analyze the situation. "But then our sensei hugged Kankuro too, so does that mean he was giving out free hugs?"

It was Genma's turn to smile importantly.
"I had that theory too, so I set out to test it. I asked Iruka if I could get one, and you couldn't imagine the look he gave me."
Izumo didn't suppress his laugh. "Did he tell you that he was worried that Mai would punch him or something?"
"Sort of. My attention was taken up by trying to gesture to Kakashi that I was joking; he looked ready to Chidori my ass."

The conversation went on long enough for the sun to set, by which time only food stalls remained open. When the jounin finally left, the two guards discussed amongst themselves once more.

"So now we're looking at throwing Hound, Iruka and this new kid named Haru together, hmmm..."
"The most likely strategy is a mission, now that those two are done with school."
"True that, and then Hound could come in, too..."
"But we need someone to relay the events to us..."

They looked at each other and smiled at the same time. "Methinks it's time to use our influence around the Mission Room once more."
"I quite agree."

Neji took a sip of his Oolong tea. A long sip. He let the bitter yet refreshing liquid pour down his throat without rush. He did his best to enjoy it. Because right now, that tea was the only thing giving him any kind of pleasure

The room was full of drunken, half-naked, laughing adults. The atmosphere reminded him of that time when he had to escort a girl to a concert as a mission. It had been incredibly crowded and noisy, and someone had spilled beer on him. Well, nobody had spilled beer on him so far tonight, but it was still early. Neji suppressed a scowl of annoyance. He'd been flattered to be able to go to a jounin party with his boyfriend, but now Kankuro was gone, and he was the only under-aged ninja around.

He'd never known adults could be this loud; the roar of conversation drowned out the music on the stereo. He took some chips from the table bowl and ate them, bored out of his mind in the middle of a wild party. Two of his formers teachers were present, Ayaha-sensei and Iruka-sensei. Iruka had seen him enter the Academy, but it was Ayaha who had seen him graduate. They'd both greeted him, and Iruka had forbidden him to go anywhere near the now-empty beer cases. Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi, who he knew were jounins and leaders of a three-man squad each, were also present. Aside from them, there had been the exam proctors, but two of them had disappeared early on.

The only person he didn't know at all was a younger chuunin, perhaps three or four years older than him, who, according to Iruka, was a teacher-in training. If anything, he looked as if he felt even more awkward than Neji, and had been nursing the same can of beer since the party started. He seemed as if he wanted to sit near Iruka and Ayaha, which was logical, since they were his colleagues, but was somehow intimidated by the jounins, which didn't make sense, because there was no reason for hostility.

Neji decided that if Kankuro didn't arrive in the next five minutes, he'd investigate the scared-chuunin situation, because there didn't seem to be anything else to do. At that moment, the door burst open.

"More beer!" Mai, who was Genma's date, proclaimed as she entered the room. Kankuro had said he was male, and Neji had confirmed that, but for all intents and purposes he'd decided to think of that person as female. It was easier to talk to her that way. Neji jumped up, not because he wanted the bitter beverage--he'd sneaked some and hated it-- but because his boyfriend had gone with Mai to the store.

Kankuro tried not to make it too obvious that he was happy to see his boyfriend. They'd both agreed that it would be a very bad idea to let Neji's uncle find out anything about them. He set down the beer case he'd been carrying and walked casually toward the long-haired youth. Between the music and the talking, he doubted he'd be able to make himself heard, so he motioned him toward his room with his head.

He opened the door and immediately began nudging his cat back into the room with his foot because the kitten was trying to make a desperate dash for freedom.

"Get in!"

Pushing the cat with his foot and grabbing Neji by the elbow, he walked in and closed the door behind them before anyone noticed they were gone.

His escape foiled, the kitten began to meow pathetically.
"Oh shush, you; if I let you out, somebody'll step on you, and then I'll have to kill that person."
"So, this is your new cat? He's quite small."
"Eh, he'll grow."

"What's his name?"
"Not sure..."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well I call him 'Fag Kitty' in front of Genma, because it makes him mad; Genma just calls him 'stupid cat,' and for the past week Mai's been calling him 'Strawberry'."
"Strawberry?"

"See how he has sort of brown stripes on the orange fur? But they're not really stripes; they're more like a dot pattern...anyway, Mai says it reminds her of the little dots on strawberries."
"Right..."
"Yeah, I don't get it either."

Neji stroked the kitten's fur with casual interest. Kankuro stared at both and wished he had something witty to say or at least a name for his cat. For some reason, now that Neji was there, actually sitting at the foot of his bed, he had become inexplicably tongue-tied. Fortunately, the Hyuuga teen didn't seem to notice, engrossed as he was in becoming friends with the little no-name cat.

"If the goal is annoy Genma, why not call him Kyatto or Neko?"
Kankuro shook his head to clear his mind from the murky depths into which it had been sinking and refocused on the present.

"That wouldn't really annoy him; he'd just call me stupid for naming a cat 'cat'."
"Hmmm, how about Noraneko?"
"'Alley cat'? But he was found in the garbage..."
"There's no Kanji for garbage..."

During their conversation, Neji had picked up the cat. Now annoyed at being held too long, he swiped at his holder's fingers.
"Ow!"
"Hey, don't do that!" Kankuro chastised.
The side of the Hyuuga's index finger was bleeding. "Damn, his claws are sharp."

Kankuro examined the cut. "Tell me about it, they're like little needles." He considered going to the washroom for something like a band-aid, but he had a better idea. Leaning forward a bit he licked Neji's finger.
"Hey..."

Seeing as the protest was half-hearted, he inserted the whole digit into his mouth. The blood tasted coppery, which he expected, but what surprised him was the lingering shirmp-flavour of the chips. For some reason it made him laugh, and he had to let go.

Neji blushed and half-turned to fiddle with the woodworking tools Kankuro had on his desk. Still a bit shy, Kankuro wrapped his arm around Neji's shoulders.

The Suna nin felt a hand on his own and smiled. After a moment's thought, Neji had an idea.
"How about Seika?"
"Like the flower?"
"Yeah. His fur pattern is unusual, black mixed with white, orange and brown. As if he's a half-half-breed."
"How does the flower come in?"
"Well, flowers usually have one colour and are considered pure and stuff, so it's ironic."

Kankuro stared at his cat, who was now bent in two, licking its hind legs. "It fits...or it would, if he wasn't a male."

He was silent for a moment. "I know! What's the name of that flower cluster that we saw near the river? I said that it looked like the tail of some animal, and you said the name had to do with tail or something..."

"Spiketail? Kinofuji?"
"That's it! C'mere Kinofuji, you have a real name now!"

Kinofuji, for his part, ignored his master and batted a piece of string he'd found like it was the most exciting thing he'd done it his short life. Kankuro shook his head and nuzzled against Neji's shoulder. He wondered how many opportunities he would have to see Neji like this before returning to Suna. It was easy not to think about it, but he knew that eventually he would have to face that decision.

"Neji...when do you think this war'll be over?"
"Hn? Why do you--"

He never got to finish his question because at that moment the door banged open. One of the exam proctors, the tall, scary one, was smiling at the two teens in a way that reminded Kankuro of why he usually avoided his brother.

"Ha! I guessed you two were hiding in here! Out! Out! We're starting the King Game!" His breath smelled like sake.

Ibiki shoved them out of Kankuro's room. Kankuro began to worry about Kinofuji and was relieved to see that the kitten was so scared of the jounin that it hid in the narrow space beneath his bed.
"Um...I don't know what the King Game is..." began the Suna nin.
Neji made a face as he tried to twist out of Ibiki's powerful grip. "Are you familiar with the game 'spin the bottle'"?

Kankuro's stomach dropped. He knew "spin the bottle." And he knew that the living room was full of drunk adults, two thirds of them male. Now he understood why Neji was trying to break away.

"Er...is it really what I'm thinking?"

Neji weighed the trouble he'd get in for attacking a superior with the Gentle Fist against the potential humiliation. Too late; they were already in the living room.

"Kind of like that but more risqué."

A/N: sorry for the complete and utter lack of Haru vs Kakashi that some people were expecting...thought it DID start (sort of)
this chapter ties up some loose ends, so we can expect some full-blown fight next time (I hope...)