Disclaimer: Said a billion times before by writers everywhere, repeated again here: I don't own any of the characters from Naruto…or Naruto. I think the point of disclaimers is just to rub it in your face…--; …Iruka blushes a lot.

Chapter Three!: Icha Icha for the sentimental soul!

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Iruka was almost finished, but about ready to give up. Most of his students were failing the written part of these tests, though most did fine in performing their taught arts. The chuunin's eyelids were growing heavy, and his head nodded. He closed his eyes and rested his cheek against the papers, yawning and allowing his shoulders to slump. Before Iruka was able to doze off into sleep, however, someone yanked his pony-tail causing his head to jerk upwards and sleepiness to disappear.

"OW!!" Iruka clenched at the hands of the stranger, who chuckled and released the poor sensei. "Don't be getting lazy, Iruka." Kakashi? Iruka blushed lightly. "I-I'm not!" A pause. "I'm just...getting really bored and tired?" Kakashi laughed and crouched lightly beside Iruka, glancing over his work. "Let me see..." Iruka shyly glanced towards Kakashi, as he flipped through tests, who had just finished bathing, and therefore didn't have his mask or forehead protector on. Again - Iruka's cheeks heated and turned red. Sou na~...Iruka found Kakashi attractive after all! Who couldn't? Without that mask (A/N: or his shirt o-O;;)...Iruka found himself glancing at the Sharingan eye, and then the rough scar that traveled from Kakashi's brow to his cheek-bone. Iruka even found himself quickly glancing at Kakashi's lips, but just as quickly looked away with a heavy blush, feeling a little guilty, and surprised with himself.

Iruka's guilt and blush deepened and Kakashi nudged him. "Hey, Iruka, I'm talking to you! Snap out of it." Kakashi spoke sternly, but wasn't necessarily serious. "Oh -- ah...s-sorry," Iruka stuttered in reply. Kakashi tilted his head to the side. "It's fine..." he furrowed a brow. "Are you feeling alright, Iruka?" Iruka nodded, still blushing. "Y-yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, I see your problem," Kakashi concluded. Iruka blinked. "What is it?" "Your students are morons! Sheesh! I at least hoped you'd have a few more like Sasuke and Sakura!" Iruka laughed a bit nervously - secretly irritated. "Oh...they're not all stupid...Sasuke wasn't even that great on the hand-written tests. They all perform accurately..." Kakashi stared blankly at Iruka. Fidgeting, a bit uncomfortable, Iruka began to blush again. "A-ah..." Kakashi blinked. "Oh. Sorry. Right then...do you go over everything? Or just show them what to do?" Iruka cleared his throat. "Both, of course...just because this work isn't exactly impressive doesn't mean I'm a bad teacher," Iruka pointed out, glancing at Kakashi through the corner of his eye. This time, it was Iruka who was staring, and Kakashi who became mildly uncomfortable. Not that it really showed. "Ehh...I never said you were..." Kakashi countered wisely. Iruka frowned. It was useless to argue, but they both knew Kakashi was implying just that. Sometimes Kakashi was a bit too arrogant, but he never really meant any of what he said about Iruka. Well, not always.

Iruka sighed. "I think I'll finish the rest of the work tomorrow...I'm exhausted," Kakashi grinned. "Alright." With that, Kakashi plopped himself onto Iruka's couch, casually patting the cushion beside him - motioning Iruka to join him. The chuunin did so with a bit of a bushed sigh.

Kakashi slid out an issue of Icha Icha Paradise from his back pocket and chuckled craftily, opening it up. "The newest issue just came out. I'm so happy. It was delayed a few times - I couldn't take the suspense." Iruka blinked. "...Why do those books matter so much to you?" Iruka furrowed a brow. Erotic novels..blegh. Perverted Kakashi... "They're really well written," the ecchi sensei replied happily, smiling with each of his eyes turned to upward crescents. Iruka blushed at seeing Kakashi smile with all of his face visible. He had an attractive smile... "Even so, it's just ... --" "Oh, you just don't like it because it's sexually explicit most the time," Kakashi said in a sing song voice. The jounin had apparently been reading already throughout their conversation, and flipped to the next page. "..." Iruka frowned.

"I bet if you'd grow up and read it, you'd like it." Kakashi stated, not looking up from his book.

Iruka ground his teeth. "I would not, because I just don't like those sort of books!"

"Have you ever read one in this genre...?"

"Well...no..."

"Exactly!"

Kakashi grinned and threw an arm around Iruka's shoulders, hugging him shoulder to shoulder so he could look over the pages with him. "Here, read. It's nothing bad yet, so you're safe." Iruka stammered nervously, blushed, and felt his heart quicken by an insane rate. The young chuunin began to sweat nervously from being so close to the older male, and much to his displeasure, began to read to distract himself from the uncomfortably comfortableness of Kakashi's body.

Iruka discovered he was breathing heavily since his heart was going so quickly and had to stifle his panting. Was he having a panic attack or something? Iruka tried to focused more on the book to lose calm down a bit.

Iruka was soon engrossed into the book. It was very well written, much to Iruka's surprise. Kakashi turned the page, as if he'd somehow known Iruka was finished with the page, and the jounin's grin grew ear to ear. Iruka's face went completely red as he encountered the beginning of a classic Icha Icha paradise scene in the middle of the paragraph he'd just been reading. Furthermore - it was making Iruka extremely uncomfortable because Kakashi was still reading. Iruka was worried it would affect his mood for the worse...

Kakashi folded the corner of the page and closed the book, sensing how uncomfortable Iruka had suddenly become. Though, Kakashi knew that Iruka was uncomfortable all along. He just chose now to acknowledge it. After closing the book, he also released Iruka, and the said man felt a wave of relief. Kakashi was amused to see Iruka wasn't blushing for once, and he chuckled. "I guess it was a bit too much for you. But as you can see, it's not only sex...there's romance and ...stuff." Stuff meaning more sex. Iruka looked unamused. "...That was only page four, and there was already sex. I wouldn't call that romantic..." Kakashi shrugged. "Alot of romance can happen in a short amount of time. Furthermore, you don't need romance for sex." Iruka gave Kakashi another blank stare. It was then Kakashi realized he'd practically chased his own tail in a circle, and continued after clearing his throat: Anyways, in the previous issue, it was like...a chapter dedicated to just romantic mushy stuff."

Wow, a whole, full chapter… Iruka folded his arms across his chest. "Oh? Define romantic...what exactly is your definition?" Kakashi placed the book down on Iruka's small coffee-table, and slouched against his couch. "Hmm...well, of coarse, in novels, I'd have to say it's usually when two characters admit their feelings to each other. Even if it's just blurting it out while they're drunk, it gets into nice little details on how they feel about each other descriptively..." Iruka blushed lightly and nodded. "...Well, let me rephrase: I meant, what do you find romantic?" Kakashi shrugged again. "I dunno. I'm not a romantic guy." Iruka smiled, his eyes turning to cheerful crescents. "I might have guessed." Kakashi smirked. Iruka was a pretty cute guy, sometimes.

"Well..." Kakashi started, looking towards Iruka, who wasn't sitting far from him. Iruka blinked. "Hm?" "..What do you find romantic?" Iruka's face flushed red and he placed his hands on his lap. "I-I don't know. Alot of stuff, I guess..." "Name one," Kakashi suggested. Iruka furrowed his brows and looked towards Kakashi.

What did he find romantic? Alot of stuff...rain, snow, and a bunch of other ridiculous things he didn't feel like sharing with Kakashi. Iruka only found the snow romantic when he saw Kakashi, actually... Mysteriously standing in the misted snow and heavy banks, just as pale, almost glowing; beautiful. It was most unexpected, but Iruka was grateful that Kakashi happened to be there so suddenly so as to uphold the amazing sight. Iruka blushed faintly, briefly, and leaned in towards Kakashi and softly applied his lips to his.

Kakashi's eyes widened, and for once he was shocked and the one left blushing. Ooouuu, Kakashi thought as he began to kiss back. The element of surprise, perhaps? Is that what he finds romantic...? The softness of Iruka's lips relaxed him, and he was able to kiss back without hesitation. Though - why was he kissing back in the first place? Iruka added pressure to the kiss every now and then, creating almost a massaging sensation that Kakashi quite enjoyed.

As soon as Kakashi was about to make the kiss a bit more interesting, it ended, and Iruka broke it off with a sudden jerking movement. Kakashi blinked his lazy, half-lidded gaze questionably. Iruka's face turned completely red again and he glanced to his side through the corner of his eyes. "..." Aa... Kakashi resisted giggling like some sort of school-girl. He's shy...of course.

Iruka's eyes lidded half way and then closed as he thudded against the couch. Again, Kakashi blinked as Iruka yawned and was still. Did he just fall asleep?! Kakashi screamed mentally, sitting up straight. That's cheap! Damn it, wake up! Kakashi sweat-dropped. If he wanted Iruka to wake, he probably wouldn't be yelling at him mentally.

Kakashi craned his neck so he was facing Iruka and wrapped his arm around his neck, bringing his lips inches away from Iruka's. He paused and then let the young sensei go with a sigh. I shouldn't steal Iruka's idea's, he thought with a light smile and opened up to page four of Icha Icha Paradise. "I'll probably just steal some of Jiraiya's..." he chuckled evilly.

Steal some of Jiraiya's what?, Iruka wondered to himself. Iruka opened one of his dark eyes and watched Kakashi briefly, but closed it again. Well, whatever it was, it probably didn't matter. Iruka was a bit disappointed that Kakashi was about to kiss him and didn't, but was satisfied that Kakashi kissed back when Iruka brought their lips together in the first place.