Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto land. Reviews are appreciated.

"I'm positive that he walked into that alley…But he suddenly just disappeared."

"Hmm…"

"Maybe it was just my imagination, but still…"

"Mhm…"

"Do you think he's avoiding me? But that would make no sense, because--"

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"You're wasting the precious time I offered you in this delightful hot water. Stop worrying so much and start enjoying your free day." Kurenai ordered me in a stern voice as she sank deeper into the steamy water until it reached her neck.

I let out a slightly irritated sigh, grimacing childishly. I knew she was right, really.

After all she did invite me to come with her to the local hot springs to relax. But pushing away the doubtful thoughts I was having about Iruka seemed like an impossible task.

"Maybe he is going deaf? I think I once read something about that happening to middle-aged men when they--"

SPLASH!

I was forced to shut up when without warning a huge wave of water crashed down on me and a couple of women at the other side of the water giggled at me amusedly, annoyingly.

Damn these public baths.

Kurenai, the cause of the little tsunami, gave me a suggestive smile which I wisely took as a hint to stop talking about the chuunin or risk being drowned.

"Okay fine, no more complaining about Iruka…"

"Excellent."

The next five minutes was spent with me blowing bubbles under water, me humming annoying tunes from random 'Spice Girls' songs, me counting clouds out loud and Kurenai occasionally sending me semi-ticked off looks.

The end result wasn't very surprising.

"Alright…What else about Iruka bothers you…" The raven haired woman finally gave in with a weary sigh, brushing away a few long wet hairs that clung to her damp cheek.

I instantly stopped counting clouds (I'd just reached number 239) and turned back to face her, leaning forward while humming thoughtfully.

"What should I do about this?"

"Talk to him?"

"But what if he is avoiding me? I can't keep up with that crazy super ninja speed."

At this retort Kurenai didn't answer for a moment, considering her options quietly.

"I suppose I could ask Asuma to pay him a visit…"

"Really? Thanks, that would help a lot!" I sat up, my eyes glittering hopefully.

"Though I can't guarantee that it will make much of a difference. After all, if Iruka is really avoiding you the reason must have something to do withyou." She reminded me quickly.

There was a long pause.

"…But I didn't do anything."

And then Kurenai was subjected to yet another annoying round of endless questions for the rest of her supposedly relaxing day at the hot springs.

You just couldn't your big mouth shut, now could you? I bet you ruined her mood for the rest of the day with your stupid nagging. I dropped my head forward in the water, blowing angry bubbles at my troublesome, annoyingly honest inner voice.

I was still at the hot springs, but Kurenai, after having to endure the endless blabbing of my mouth, had left a while ago with a gloomy expression.

You'll probably be washing twice more dishes than usual when you go to her house tomorrow. Oh and what a wonderful experience the cooking shall be.

I banged my head on the water, making it splash around wildly and not caring about the weird looks I received from the more mature women in the pool.

If there's gonna be any cooking that is. Maybe she'll make you starve. Pregnant women can be quite sadistic with their sudden mood swings and stuff. Oh you're really in for it now--

"SHUT UP!" I swung my arms around frustratedly, not paying attention to a small group of women who were slowly but gradually trying to escape to the exit, before I ended my childish tantrum.

By the time that I finally calmed down, I noticed that for some odd reason I was the only one left in the water. I sighed and tugged up the towel around my chest a bit because it'd sank down slightly after making so many wild movements.

Then I dipped myself down until the water reached my chin.

"Oh shoot! They've all left…Damn…"

A hushed low voice suddenly grumbled quietly, snapping me out of my daze. "Who's there?!"

I whirled out, narrowing my eyes at the tall wooden planks that served as a fence around the pool, until my eyes fell onto a detail I hadn't noticed before.

Near a few bushes, were two suspicious holes in a plank that appeared to be just the right size to allow a pair of eyes to peek through them.

"Oh crap!" The hushed voice spoke again, only this time louder and I could footsteps trying to scramble away.

That sounds familiar somehow…Could it be?

"ERO-SENNIN!" I accused loudly, causing the footsteps to halt with a hard shrieking noise.

Silence.

"…Naruto? Is that you? How did you get in the women's bathing house?" Jiraiya's voice questioned suspiciously as his face popped up over the fence with caution.

I rolled my eyes at his stupid comment, feeling the urge to slap myself.

"It's not Naruto, you baka-sannin! I'm Miraiko. Sorano Miraiko, remember?"

"Ah yes…"

The sannin's eyes finally fell on me, widening with interest, before a rush of bright red claimed his now thoughtful looking face.

I frowned at him, looking down and gasping when I saw that I'd let the towel slip again and it now revealed more cleavage than was appropriate. …Especially now my only company was a legendary pervert.

"Oi perverted old man, stop gawking at me and tell me where Iruka is. You know where he lives or something right?" I demanded after firmly pulling up my towel to shield my chest from his perverse eyes.

He immediately snapped back to reality and looked startled. "Uh…maybe."

"Don't lie to me! You know he's been avoiding me for whatever reason right? You'd better tell me why or else!" I yelled at him, shaking my fist at him threateningly.

His expression changed again, his eyes glinting at me daringly as if he'd just found a way to escape his unfortunate fate. "Or else what?"

"Or else I'm going to tell Asuma that you were ogling Kurenai!"

"…"

Jiraiya stared me intently as we took our seats at one of the local bars he'd suggested.

"Well?" I asked impatiently, folding my arms over my chest while a waitress placed a glass of fruity lemonade in front of me and quite large glass of sake Japanese liquor in front of the old sannin.

He reached for his glass, took in a deep breath and then threw back his drink in one big gulp before he exhaled deeply. I kept staring at him with the same little amount of patience.

Jiraiya, realizing that I wasn't going to let him take his time, then scratched the back of his neck and returned his gaze to me.

"Okay, I won't bother with stupid excuses and such…But promise me that you will not freak out after I've told you this." He said slowly, not looking very eager for my reaction.

"Just tell me." I replied, unwilling to wait any longer.

"Alright. I'm going to keep this as short as possible. You ready?"

"Yes…"

"Iruka thinks that you are in a romantic relationship with Hatake Kakashi."

"…"

"…Sorano-san?"

"…"

"Oi, are you hearing what I'm saying--"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

Jiraiya backed away with a horrified expression as if he just witnessed the gates of Hell opening to swallow him whole, when I slammed my fists on the table and jumped up from my seat, knocking over my strawberry lemonade.

"S-So…Sorano-san?" He stuttered fearfully, clawing at the back of his seat as if he was trying to dig a hole through it so he could crawl away.

The look on my face would've appeared normal, had it not been for the maniacal smile that twitched uncontrollably and intense hate burning in my eyes.

"What…did you just say?"

"Uhm…Iruka…He…You…Kakashi…"

"Romantic relationship? Kakashi?! I can't believe this, this is unacceptable! What the hell does he think I am?! I swear if I get my hands on him..!"

I whirled around swiftly as I began to mutter random threats to myself, leaving the people at bar to stare at my back fearsomely until I disappeared out of the bar and out of sight.

It was only then that Jiraiya thought of something very important.

"Oi! You're going to leave me with the bill?!"

You should've at least asked him where Iruka lives before storming off like that.

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Oh right, ignore me. Why not.

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Someone's being a drama queen…

"Ugh!" I grunted in annoyance as I paced around a little faster.

In my outburst of anger I had forgotten to beat (talk) Jiraiya into admitting Iruka's whereabouts and now I had somehow ended up at some deserted part of the town that was close to the local forest.

My feet dragged me over to a large flat rock where I roughly dropped my weight, then rested my elbows on my knees and lowered my chin onto my knuckles.

"Okay…What now, Einstein…" I muttered to myself under my breath although I knew that my options weren't exactly helpful.

Basically I could either go back to the bar and hope that Jiraiya hadn't run off yet (a very non-existent possibility) or go back home to try and relieve myself of my irritation by devouring a very big bucket of chocolate…

The decision wasn't very hard to make.

"I guess I'll just hunt down Ero-sennin again tomorrow…Shouldn't be too hard when he's always spying on half naked-women…" I sighed as I leaned forward and stretched my arms to relax my muscles.

Then I leaned back again, placing my hands behind my back to support my weight and I simply sat there quietly. It felt a bit strange when my mind became completely empty and not a single thought of Iruka or Kakashi forced itself into my head.

I smiled a bit at the irony of it; if only this had happened while I'd been at the hot springs with Kurenai then maybe I could've relaxed more.

But no, I just had to run into Jiraiya who'd told me some crazy story about--

"..Miraiko?"

"Eh?" I looked up at the person who'd uttered my name.

Iruka was standing a few meters away from me with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his pants and he was wearing a slightly taken aback look on his face.

"Iruka?" I answered with the same surprise lingering in my voice as I stared at him blankly.

He blinked at me a couple of times before the look in his eyes grew visibly colder and he glanced away, his dark eyes facing the mossy ground.

"What are you doing here? This isn't a place to be wandering around alone--" He began to speak in that all too familiar belittling 'teacher' tone.

"You baka! What kind of a moron do you think I am?! Why didn't you tell me anything?!" I cut him off harshly, clearly catching him off guard because he nearly jumped at the sudden rise of my temper.

"Baka..? What are you talking about?!" He snapped back, looking slightly offended.

"You-You thought I was…God this is just too disgusting for words!" I trailed off with a bitter taste in my mouth, looking away distastefully.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about." He pressured irritably, frowning at me.

I glared at him, before closing my eyes and gritting my teeth. His frown deepened and he sent me an incredulous look.

"Well if you're not going to explain it, then I'm going to assume that you've just insulted me for no good reason and I don't find that very--"

"You thought Kakashi and I had a thing going on!"

At that statement, his dark eyes, if possible, darkened even further. "Who told you that?"

"Jiraiya did. And I still can't believe you actually thought that!" I replied in a disdainful tone, not bothering to pretend that I didn't find him an idiot for having those weird ideas.

He didn't appear to be very convinced of my truthful dislike towards the grey haired jounin, instead it seemed like my words only enhanced his scepticism.

"Are you denying it then?" He asked in a sarcastic voice, making me narrow my eyes at him.

"Of course it's not true. Do you honestly believe that I would get involved with him like THAT? That's just…ew." I bit back, disgust written all over my face.

"It didn't seem like you were thinking 'ew' when you were together at Ichiraku." He responded coldly, turning his head away.

I gasped and nearly fell off the rock I was sitting on. "You were spying on me?!"

"I wasn't spying on you! I just happened to notice you two together after you rejected my offer to go have ramen with me. And by the way you just responded, my suspicions must be true after all." He shot back bitterly.

I gaped at him, unable to comprehend why he was making such a big deal out this.

"So you're assuming that just because I had ramen with him it automatically means that he's also sharing his bed with me?" I inquired incredulously.

He wasn't so quick with his snappy remarks after that question, as if he had to take his time to come up with a good excuse.

Though I hadn't really expected his next words to be so harsh.

"Well, as I remember it, you once said that running off with Deidara didn't appear such a bad idea so how am I supposed to know where your boundaries lie?" He answered monotonously, locking eyes with me again.

I was shocked into silence and for a moment I wasn't sure if I'd heard his words correctly.

"You seriously think that? What's next? You'll say that you think that I spent a 'romantic' night with that Akatsuki jerk too?" I hissed back before letting out a bitter laugh.

His expression alone was enough to put a halt to my laughter.

My eyes narrowed further at him, then widened again after confirming that either he did think that I'd had a little 'fun' with the enemy while being away from Konoha, or he at least had some suspicions about it.

"Oh this is just great. Freaking unbelievable…You know, I've always known that men occasionally can be thick-headed morons but for you to be this stupid...Oh this is just freaking wonderful!"

I threw my hands up in the air, shaking my head disbelievingly.

Iruka remained silent, just watching me with those dark, piercing eyes of his. I also kept quiet, continuing to shake my head to myself frustratedly. After about ten minutes of just standing there, he spoke again.

"I'm going back now. You should go home too."

"Brendan Tanner."

He raised his eyebrows slightly. "…Excuse me?"

"The guy I gave my virginity to." I replied as I raised my head to face him again, calmly.

"What?--"

"It happened about a year and a half ago, when I was sixteen and he was eighteen. We just came back from celebrating our anniversary of being a couple for one year and we had the house all to ourselves." I continued, ignoring Iruka's confused rattling.

"He was a very nice boyfriend, my first one too. He was always very gentle with me and I loved him more than anyone else in the world. But a few months later we had to break up because his father had to move to a different country for his job."

I looked up at the sky as I went on, memories flooding through my mind.

"We did keep in touch by sending each other letters and stuff for a while, but it didn't work out in the end. The last thing I remember being told by him was that he had gotten a new girlfriend and that it would be better if we stopped talking to each other."

I paused for a moment.

"I haven't dated anyone ever since."

I looked away from the sky, turning my head to face Iruka.

"I'm sorry…" He murmured, looking like he wasn't sure what to say.

"Maa na, I just thought I'd share this with you." I said in a casual manner, smiling faintly.

"You still…?" He trailed off, though I could finish his question for him.

"Love him? Yeah, a little maybe, but not as much as before. I mean, it's sad that it didn't work out but I'm happy that he found someone new." I explained, nodding a bit to myself.

Iruka didn't say anything in response, so I continued. "Hmm…I guess we should head back now. Kakashi and Naruto are probably coming back from training soon anyway and I--"

"Wait." He cut in before I could finish my sentence, making me look at him curiously.

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry."

"Iruka, you already apologized. It's okay, it was just a misunderstanding and we were both too angry to--"

"No not for that…I…" He hung his head low, muttering something to himself that I couldn't hear because it was too soft.

"Uhm…What?" I asked as I slid off the rock that had served as my seat for the past moment and I approached him curiously.

"Miraiko?"

"Uh yeah?" I said slowly as he raised his head again.

"I'm sorry, but I think I'm in love with you."

I didn't even get the chance to fully process the meaning of his (love) confession when he cupped one of my cheeks and brought my face closer to his…