Well Here I am once again after a very busy ...month? I don't know how long its been since I've updated ;;; heh...I actually had most of this done I just needed to get my butt in gear and type what was left of it...and now here it is. So hopefully you'll all enjoy this.

Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine, don't sue I'm monetarily challenged.

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Kakashi sighed; standing outside of the Yamanaka flower shop, wondering why he was even going to bother following Genma's seemingly misguided advice. While a mocking voice in the back of his mind suggested that it was because he was clueless.

For the past five minutes he had been debating going into the shop. The whole concept of giving Iruka flowers seemed rather pointless. They were just going to die eventually, they were not edible, and they served no real purpose.

Maybe his attitude towards the "romantic" ritual of flower giving was due to the fact that most of his youth had been spent training hard to become a stronger warrior. He had missed out on quite a lot of life's mundane experiences.

Even so Kakashi did not regret spending his life as such. He was a respected and feared shinobi. He was master of over 1,000 jutsus... And he was hopelessly lost when it came to relationships.

He really hated it when Genma was right. This thankfully did not happen very often.

Kakashi sighed once again, resigned to go into the shop with the purpose of buying some sort of plant. Gathering his courage he made his way to the door and entered.

He was lost as soon as he had set foot inside the store. The sheer quantities of flowers were intimidating, not to mention the variety.

The dozens upon dozens of multicolored roses sent chills down his back. This had been a bad idea. He would be here forever, not able to decide which type of flower to buy for Iruka.

Just as he had begun to take a few steps back he was stopped by a young girl's voice.

"Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop."

He turned his head slowly, dreading to confirm with his eyes what his ears already knew.

Sure enough, the young blonde haired kunochi of team ten, Yamanaka Ino, was sitting at the counter. So immersed in a magazine, she had not even bother to look up as he entered.

"Please feel free to look around, and ask if you need help with..." She had finally put the magazine down and looked up, his visible eye locking with hers.

"Hey you're...Kakashi Sensei, right?" She smiled sweetly, and he nodded slowly.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, and even more awkward staring, Ino spoke again.

"Um...do you need help finding anything?"

Kakashi considered this for a moment. Then grabbing for the nearest bouquet he presented it to the young kunochi at the counter. "I'll just take these."

She smiled pleasantly and told him the price, which turned out to be fairly high for the reproductive organs of a plant.

It did not matter, all he wanted was to leave the infernal place. So he paid for them, and after getting his change, walked out with a barely audible thanks.

If he had his way, it would be a long time before he visited any flower shops again. The choices were too overwhelming.

Staring at his bouquet he finally understood why it had been so pricey; it was a dozen of red roses. Which were probably the most commonly given variety of flowers available. But at least they smelled good, that alone made them a bit less worthless.

If deciding weather to buy flowers had taken him long. Deciding weather to go thru with giving them to Iruka took even longer.

He was usually quick with his decisions when it came to missions, he was also a master tactician, and extremely confident in his abilities as a shonobi.

He knew his physical strengths and weaknesses. But this whole dating thing was guesswork at best. He had no way of telling how Iruka would take his advances, and no way of knowing how he would react. If love were like a shinobi battle he could counter whatever it threw at him with his sharingan. But alas not everything in life was that easy.

Taking a deep breath Kakashi walked to the door, and with all the bravery and determination of a matador about to face the fiercest of bulls, knocked on it steadily with one very sweaty gloved fist.

That was when he finally noticed the voice of a female coming from inside Iruka's apartment, and before he even had a chance to panic, the door swung open revealing a smiling Anko.

His earlier thoughts and worries about giving flowers to Iruka vanished, and suddenly he felt very lightheaded. How could he have missed the fact that Anko was in Iruka's house. Why was Anko in Iruka's house? Were Iruka and Anko seeing each other!?

Kakashi's mind continue to be filled with these same thoughts as the kunochi before him began to stare at him as if he was some sort of odd bug.

The brief yet uncomfortable silence was broken by another female voice asking "Who was it and what's taking you so long?"

It was now that Kakashi's mind snapped back to his surroundings and noticed the two other people in the room. Sitting on a sofa only a few feet from where he stood were Kurenai and Iruka. They too stared at him as if he had just shown up naked.

Kakashi calculated the consequences of going thru with his plan, and giving Iruka the flowers in front of Anko and Kurenai, then decided that the only intelligent course of action was to abort the mission. He really couldn't risk being rejected in public.

But before he could disappear in a cloud of smoke Iruka called out his name.

"Kakashi?"

It was amazing how the lack of honorifics made his name sound so differently while coming out of Iruka's lips. The blood that had drained from his face as Anko had answered the door was now gathering at another more interesting part of his anatomy.

All thoughts of escape forgotten, Kakashi stood at Iruka's door, acting like a more of a nut than at any other time in his life, while thoughts of ravishing the chunin ran thru his mind.

Then Anko had to ruin it all by finally noticing the bouquet of flowers which was firmly held in his hand. "Ooh Kakashi-san, who are the Flowers for?" She smiled the most mischievous smile Kakashi had ever seen on anyone but Naruto as she continued to tease him. "Could they be for me?" Her smile now widened dangerously threatening to tear her face in half if her lips stretched anymore. "Or maybe they're for Iruka?"

Alarms went off in Kakashi's head as he tried to come up with a way to dodge the question while Anko grinned slyly up at him, satisfied with her work. Then like lightning a brilliant idea hit him, and he finally ventured to speak.

"Actually." He pushed Anko aside, not too gently, and made a beeline for Kurenai. Who immediately took on the expression of a deer caught in headlights. Holding the oversized bouquet of flowers out towards her, Kakashi waited for the red eyed kunochi to take them.

Kurenai's eyes looked towards Iruka desperately begging for help. His earlier thoughts of Iruka being involved with Anko were now replaced by thoughts of Iruka and Kurenai.

It was even easier to picture the two of them together, and by the way Kurenai was staring at the chunin Kakashi began to feel that maybe there was something between the two after all.

It was common knowledge that Asuma had a thing for Kurenai, and he had not expected Iruka to be the type to steal some one else's potential partner. That was a silly thought, if Kurenai had chosen Iruka over Asuma that was her choice...but still.

A deep feeling of anger and jealousy began to build up within his body. He could feel his insides clench painfully and decided that it had to be something he had eaten.

With a slightly irritated tone he shoved the flowers closer to Kurenai and said. "They're not from me. They're from Asuma."

All the tension seemed to pour out of the kunochi, and if he didn't know better he could have sworn Anko and Iruka had breathed a sigh of relief. Kurenai was now blushing while looking at him doubtfully. "How did you become 'flower delivery boy' so suddenly?"

"I lost a bet." Was the quick answer Kakashi gave, as he made his way out the door.

Once outside on Iruka's porch, He breathed a long sigh of relief. That had been too close for comfort.

Kakashi could not believe he had just spent all that money for nothing. All he had really managed to do was complicate his life further.

He now had to find Asuma and explain to him why he had given his 'secret' crush flowers in his name, and ask the jounin to cover for him. He really owed Asuma one, and hoped the other jounin would not maul him too badly when he found out what he had done.

On the upside of things at least Asuma was reliable, and would be too indifferent to mock him about his predicament with Iruka, and if he did, it would all be between them.

Why couldn't he be attracted to someone he actually understood? Like Asuma. Things would have been a lot simpler.

With one last disturbing thought of romantic go filled evenings with Asuma, Kakashi set off towards the Jounin's apartment.

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This is so Kakashi centric...next chapter I'll try writing some more Iruka into it... I'm actually holding back on writing him into the story too much because I want the whole affection to be gradual...so the closer they become the more of Iruka there will be...Then again if this is too slow and boring please say so and I'll try and speed things up a bit.