A brief author's note, if I may be permitted. I wrote the first of these snapshots 'The Smile', with the film Rashomon by Akira Kurasawa in Mind. In it four witnesses all describe the same crime, and of course their descriptions are all completely different. I wanted to do a 'first' meeting between the guys with two very different takes.

The Rival.

Hatake Kakashi was crouched in the tree outside the ninja academy. Again. After three weeks. The mission he'd just returned from, reconnoiter and report on an apparent flurry of activity in the Hidden Sound vicinity, had been fairly straightforward and shouldn't have taken more than two. But the one time he was anxious to rush home he'd run into… complications, on the way back. An old enemy from Cloud looking to make a name for himself. Along with a couple of apprentices, who, as he had suspected, were more slaves than willing recruits. It had taken time to defeat the one without harming the others. Now that he was back he should go and check in with the Hokage, file his report. Fuck. So what if it was late, it wouldn't be the first time. Right now this was more important.

Kakashi was there watching. Waiting and watching the movements of the man inside, as he appeared and disappeared in and out of his line of sight. Away for three weeks and back for an hour and this was where he'd ended up. The classroom where Umino Iruka had kissed him. That one unforgettable kiss that had drawn him back to this place like an irresistible force. The memory of the other man's taste and touch started tingling on his lips and tongue, just from seeing him again. He licked his lips as if he could recapture it, continue backwards in time to where he'd left off three weeks ago.

His attraction to this teacher… intrigued him, his intensely analytic mind just could not come to grips with it. Of course Iruka was attracted to him, he'd been slow on the uptake but he knew that now. In his defense many people were attracted to him, for his so called 'fame' and so called 'mystery', and he'd become accustomed to filtering out that aspect of any human interaction long ago. But dammit, Iruka was different. The dull ache of yearning in the centre of his chest throbbed every time the teacher stepped into view. He wanted him, God how he wanted him. But was this budding relationship really such a good idea? His life was dangerous. Did Iruka really understand that? Could a chuunin schoolteacher understand the dangers a jounin faced on an A class mission? If he let the man love him the way he wanted to be loved, what would happen if… when he died? Perhaps it was just as well that he'd been sent away right after that first kiss.

So right now he had to see Iruka and explain, make him understand, for both their sakes. And he would, as soon as he came out of that classroom. Inside was far too private. If they were alone together, well, he could feel the flame that had been kindled inside him. He hadn't wanted anyone this much in a very long time and love was a cunning monster, he knew he shouldn't give it such an easy opportunity. Because he was a cunning bastard too. With him as its tool the poor guy wouldn't have a chance.

As he waited, quiet and still as a midday owl, he saw someone enter the classroom from an inside door. It was a tall white-haired man, that other chuunin teacher who worked the mission room sometimes, Mizuki. He could sense the tension in Iruka's body from a hundred yards away. The two teachers talked for a few minutes. Then Mezuki grabbed Iruka's arm, Kakashi bristled with outrage. Sliding out of the tree, he appeared at the classroom's outer door, poised to strike if he needed to. No one manhandled his Iruka like that. The door swung open in his face and Mizuki stepped out.

They stared at each other, Kakashi lazily with a calculated hint of amusement, Mizuki with chilling intensity. Kakashi understood. They were rivals for Iruka's love, a contest that he had already won. The look on Mizuki's face, the hardness around the eyes and the mouth reduced to a thin white line, told him that he knew it too. Kakashi almost laughed. This man wasn't used to losing, but there was nothing the chuunin could do to threaten him. Mizuki would just have to deal with it, suck it up. The beast could be a cruel monster, no one ever claimed that love was fair.

Kakashi caught the door before it closed and stepped into the classroom, just as Iruka was lowering himself onto the corner of a bench. He sighed wearily and looked up, and as he did all the conflicted emotions on his scarred face gave way to happiness.

"Hatake-san, when…? I didn't know you were back."

So he wasn't about to discuss Mizuki. It didn't matter, he could guess most of it and village gossip would supply the rest of the details soon enough. "No one does."

"You mean you haven't reported in? Then you have to go, you're three days late, they'll be waiting for you."

Kakashi smiled behind his mask at the shocked tone. Coming from anyone else he'd have considered the remark pathetically tight arsed, but when Iruka said it, it just sounded sweet. "I wanted to talk to you first."

"Me! But why on earth…?"

Did he really have to explain everything? "It was a good kiss."

The teacher blushed delightfully. "I thought so too."

Kakashi could feel the golden beast standing over them ready to pounce, he had to act now. "You shouldn't get involved with a jounin, it's too dangerous."

The teacher's voice trembled slightly. "But you wouldn't… No Leaf ninja would ever harm one of his comrades."

Kakashi didn't smile this time. Was the man being deliberately dense? He crouched next to him, resisting the urge to kiss some sense into the lovely fool. "Of course not. But my life is dangerous, if you… if we… It could cause you… grief."

"Oh that. Don't you think it should be for me to decide?"

That was unexpected, so he had thought about it. He looked at Iruka's face closely, noting the small furrow between his brows and the same shadow of sadness in the eyes that he saw in his mirror. It was the face of a man who had already suffered tragic loss. Apparently the teacher did understand, did know what he was talking about. "You think you can live with that?"

Iruka nodded.

Kakaski felt his carefully reined in hopes break free. The beast had moved too fast, even for him, it had already swallowed them both. Whole. He wrapped his arms around the chuunin and stood up, pulling them both to their feet. The other man took a step closer and pressed into him, thighs to thighs, hips to hips, chest to chest. The shimmer in Iruka's chakra was as enticing and as inviting as the growing heat he could feel from his groin.

Kakashi adjusted his position so that they each had a thigh between the other's legs, creating deliciously intimate friction. When he spoke his voice came out much deeper than he had intended.

"So where do we go from here?"

He could feel Iruka's heart pounding against his chest, the glow of his flushed skin through the fabric of his mask. The shimmer in his chakra threatening to become a raging tempest.

Hot breath rasped the answer into his ear. "We aren't going anywhere, you are going to go and report in to the Hokage."

Kakashi's eye curved up in an indulgent smile. Uh oh, the man was strict. Getting involved with a schoolteacher was going to have its hazards too.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Umino Uruka had too much work and too little time. There were class rankings, scoring rubrics and a seemingly unending list of other tasks that had to be finished before the graduation exam in two days. Normally he would be on top of all this paperwork, but Naruto had been especially difficult. Sneaking out of class and causing trouble every day for the past week. He supposed it was partly his fault for being so distracted, giving the boy the chance to get past him. Kakashi should be back by now.

Iruka had worked out the specs for that mission himself. Eighteen days estimated duration, for a normal shinobi. Kakashi should have completed it in at least two days less. But now the twenty first day was more than half over. Why was Kakashi late? Was he avoiding him because he'd kissed him? He'd seemed willing enough at the time but Hakate Kakashi was notoriously shy of personal involvement on anything more than a professional level. Iruka wished his workload hadn't forced him to give up his shift in the mission room. He wanted to be there, to watch for the other man's return. The other possible reason for him being late kept niggling in the back of his brain. Maybe the mission was more difficult than he'd estimated, maybe it should have been a two-man team, maybe Kakashi was hurt. And the thought he tried to crush hardest of all, maybe something terrible had happened and he wouldn't come back at all this time.

Suddenly his heart skipped a beat as a tall white-haired figure walked into the room. His disappointment, when he realized that it wasn't the man he'd been hoping for, must have shown because he noticed Mizuki quickly suppress a scowl and replace it with his pretty, sunny smile.

"Still working on all this stuff? How about taking a break in a little while and getting something to eat?"

Iruka shifted uneasily, why was Mizuki asking him now? They'd worked together for a couple of years already and he'd never asked him to share a meal before. "Er thanks but no thanks. There's just too much to do. I'm going to work straight through."

Mizuki stood close, too close. "Iruka, don't you realise that I know what it means when you start working yourself silly. I flatter myself that I'm the reason you ended up doing as well at school as you did. Who is it this time?"

Iruka stared at the ground, damn this blushing. "I really don't think it's any of your business."

Mizuki's voice took on a harder edge. "Iruka look at me. I still care about you, I always have. We were good together. Letting you go was the biggest mistake I ever made."

He didn't look up, he could feel a knot of anger and hurt forming in the center of his chest. "Anything between us was over a long time ago, and you were the one that ended it."

Muzuki grabbed his arm and jerked it, making him look up at last. "Just because I haven't fucked you in a few years doesn't mean that you're not still mine. I damn well won't let anyone else have you."

Iruka pulled his arm away. "Dammit, I'm not the needy kid I was in school. I'm a successful teacher, a very successful teacher and it's not up to you to decide who does or doesn't 'have' me." He took a deep breath while he tried to control his rage. "But… we still work together. As far as I'm concerned this conversation never took place."

His fear and uncertainty about Kakashi, combined with this old pain and anger, was almost more than he could stand. Iruka sat on the edge of the front bench before his knees gave out under him. Mizuki was still there, he could feel him standing over him. Why did the man insist on making this worse than it had to be? He formed the resolve to tell him to get out one more time, and looked up into a masked face and a single blue eye.

All thought of Mizuki vanished, as if the man himself had vanished, had never existed. "Hatake-san, when…? I didn't know you were back."

"No one does."

Iruka was shocked, didn't he know that he was late, that people were worried about him? "You mean you haven't reported in? Then you have to go, you're three days late, they'll be waiting for you."

"I wanted to talk to you first."

Talk to him! That was ridiculous, the Hokage was waiting. "Me! But why on earth…?"

"It was a good kiss."

Oh. Iruka felt blood rushing to his cheeks. "I thought so too."

Kakashi's barely visible face seemed different suddenly, or maybe it was the tone of his voice. "You shouldn't get involved with a jounin, it's too dangerous."

Surely he wasn't suggesting that he might get violent. Mizuki had become quite threatening a few times when he was jealous but had never actually hurt him, and a jounin should have more control. "But you wouldn't... No Leaf ninja would ever harm one of his comrades."

Kakshi crouched down to his level, staring eye to eyes. "Of course not. But my life is dangerous, if you… if we… It could cause you… grief."

That was all? Thank God. "Oh that. Don't you think it should be for me to decide?"

"You think you can live with that?"

Hell yes, he'd been living with it for a long time now. But Kakashi was strong, a genius, the best, no one could defeat him. It was a mantra Iruka repeated every time he was away. He nodded.

Suddenly he was on his feet, wrapped in an embrace, folded into the other man's aura, his body on fire with desire. He heard a growl in his ear.

"So where do we go from here?"

Where? He didn't care where, the floor, the desk. Maybe, just maybe Kakashi could be his. Except. Kakashi was Konoha's first, he desperately struggled against the need radiating from his rapidly hardening crotch, intensified by Kakashi rubbing his thigh against it, and at the same time rubbing a distinctive hardness against the soft inner part of his thigh.

He closed his eyes trying to ignore the little flashes of coloured lights behind them. He may not be a jounin but he had control when he needed it. This called for his strictest 'teacher voice'. "We aren't going anywhere, you are going to go and report in to the Hokage."

His eyes were still closed tight, but somehow he just knew that Kakashi was smiling.