Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Naruto is a creation of Masashi Kishamoto-sensei.

Note: This chapter was edited on May 26, 2006. Some previous content that came before and after the chapter may have been removed or replaced.

Since When Was Boredom The First Step To Love?

Chapter three-Medicine and school papers

By Riyo-sama

Iruka was thankful for the fact that hardly anyone was out on the street as Kakashi walked him home. He didn't want to explain to anyone why Kakashi was half carrying him. The thrill he had gotten from the fight was wearing off, and he was slowly starting to feel more and more embarrassed about the whole thing, not only because he had lost the fight and Kakashi was helping him get home, but also because he had childishly given into his pride. Surprisingly though, he couldn't bring himself to feel irritated or bitter towards Kakashi.

They arrived at Iruka's one level house without incident, and Iruka pulled the key out of his pocket while Kakashi continued to support him. After Iruka somewhat clumsily unlocked and opened the door, Kakashi walked him into the living room and helped him lay down on the couch. After stretching out his back which made a few popping sounds, Kakashi removed Iruka's foot ware and went to put it by the door along with his own. Without a word he returned and started removing his leg bindings.

Iruka felt a slight bit of relief when the bindings came off. The sprain had caused swelling in the leg, and this had made the tight bindings feel painfully tighter.

Kakashi checked the leg again more carefully to make sure that it was indeed just a sprain and not a hairline fracture. He then went to Iruka's arm which had been cut and rolled up the sleeve in order to bandage it more easily. The wound was shallow and had stopped bleeding already. Kakashi cleaned the cut carefully so it wouldn't open again and wrapped it in bandages from his pouch.

Kakashi was in his injury-repair mode, so he didn't say a single word, and if Iruka had tried to say anything he probably would have been ignored. As it was though, Iruka didn't say anything or even try moving for that matter. Iruka was struggling to stay awake. It had taken almost every ounce of energy he possessed to keep up with Kakashi, and he knew that Kakashi wasn't even going at his full speed. He knew that if it had been an all out battle that he would have been in even worse shape than he was. He was thankful he hadn't had to face the sharingan eye. Before Kakashi had finished with bandaging his arm, Iruka gave into fatigue and closed his eyes, soon going into a restful sleep.

Kakashi didn't notice that his patient was asleep until he had finished securely tying the bandages. Kakashi blinked. He really gave that fight his all I guess. Kakashi studied his peaceful face for a moment. …, he looks kind of cute when he's asleep. Immediately after having this thought Kakashi furiously shook his head, causing his spiky hair to flare up and sending pain which he ignored through his jaw. Did I just think that Iruka was CUTE?

Desperate to distract himself from the thoughts he was having about his fellow male shinobi, he went into the kitchen to get some ice for Iruka's leg to bring the swelling down. He propped the leg up with a pillow and placed the ice over the leg carefully.

Kakashi stood for a moment after having done this, trying to decide what to do next. He then remembered the school papers.

It didn't take him long to fetch them. Iruka's house was within easy walking distance of the academy. Kakashi found Iruka just as he had left him, asleep, breath slow and even. He set the papers on the long table in front of the couch, and being unable to think of anything else to do at the moment, decided to inspect his surroundings.

Two armchairs sat to either side of the couch. A bookcase stood behind the couch, neatly packed with books of a mostly educational nature, with a few fictional books here and there. A table with three framed photographs standing on it stood next to the bookcase, and there were photo's hanging on the wall over the table as well. Kakashi came around the couch to get a better look at the pictures.

He scanned the photos on the wall first, none really holding his interest as they all seemed to be of former students and one that seemed to be of Iruka's team mates and jounin-sensei. He turned to the first photograph on the table which was of Naruto and Iruka. Naruto had his eye's squinted shut and a big toothy grin plastered on his face, his arms crossed with his hands giving off peace signs. Iruka was standing behind Naruto with his hands on the blonde genins shoulders, a huge smile on his own face and his brown eyes glowing with warmth. The happiness displayed in the picture made Kakashi feel warm and fuzzy inside.

The next photo was familiar to Kakashi and it made him grin with amusement to find it in Iruka's house. Kakashi was crouched down behind his team with each of his hands placed on Naruto and Sasuke's heads and his characteristic happy face in place. Sasuke and Naruto didn't look thrilled to be having a picture taken together, and Sakura was sitting in front, blushing and beaming. Naruto must have given him a copy.

The last photo was of a woman, man, and what Kakashi thought to be a little girl. The woman was a slender and pale beauty with long dark hair and gray eyes. Her mouth was set in a gentle smile. The man was stern looking with strong facial features and dark brown hair and light brown eyes. His eyes shone with hidden emotion. Kakashi looked to the little girl last. She had dark brown hair and light brown eyes like the man, but resembled the woman in facial features. A scar went across her nose…….

Kakashi had to slap a hand over his mouth to stop the laughter that threatened to spill out of him. The 'little girl' was actually a little Iruka! He must have been about five or six years old and was wearing a dark blue kimono with a black sash and his hair was down. He had a happy smile on his face. Guess it's true that boys look like their mothers and girls look like their fathers, thought Kakashi as he shook with suppressed laughter. Kakashi regained his composure and checked to make sure he hadn't awoken Iruka.

Iruka was still sound asleep, and Kakashi took another chance to observe him. Iruka didn't look like a girl anymore, but there was just the slightest hint of femininity to his features. Kakashi could tell that he probably did a lot of tai-jutsu training, so he was probably more well built than his slender appearance suggested. He's good looking by anyone's standards. When Kakashi realized what he was thinking, he scowled and resolutely whipped around so that he wouldn't be facing the sleeping sensei.

Kakashi decided to check out the rooms that the hallway led to. Kakashi justified the fact that he was deliberately investigating Iruka's home without permission by telling himself that a good shinobi should always know where all the best defensive positions and escape routes were. Kakashi was inquisitive by nature, and was used to coming up with excuses for the actions that resulted from this inquisitiveness.

There were two doors on the right and two doors on the left, as well as a door at the end of the hall. Kakashi decided to go clockwise and started with the first door on the right. This door lead to what he guessed was Iruka's bedroom by the bed and open closet full of uniforms.

The next room proved to be another bedroom. However, it was apparent that this bedroom hadn't been used in quiet a long time despite the evidence that it was cleaned on a regular basis. There was absolutely no sign that anyone was currently inhabiting the room.

When he opened the door at the end of the hall he found a traditional Japanese bath with separate shower and bath facilitates.

The next door on the left was some sort of storage room, with shelves full of boxes, extra blankets, and various other odd items. Very odd items, Kakashi thought as he briefly stared at a full suit of rusted samurai armor. He made a mental note to himself to ask Iruka what was up with the suit of armor, but he scratched it out when he remembered that he would have to tell Iruka that he had snooped. No good shinobi got caught snooping if he could help it. He decided to wait until he knew Iruka better and had an excuse to look in the storage room to ask.

Wait a minute. When did I decide that we would get to now each other better? Kakashi asked himself. His subconscious answered for him.

When you challenged him to a fight of course.

Okay, but why do I want to get to now him better?

Because you're a very, very lonely man, even though you won't admit it. You want a friend.

………, what about my team? And there is Kunrei, Asuma, and Gai.

You want someone who is normal for a friend.

But there's nothing normal about a shinobi.

He's normal compared to most shinobi, especially when compared to the ones that you consider friends. Plus, he's not a twelve year old.

You make a good point.

Of course I do, I'm you after all. Having finished his little conversation with himself, he left the storage room.

Upon opening the last door Kakashi found himself in a large study. The wall the door was set in and the opposite wall had display cases full of weapons. There were katanas, kodachis, wakazashis, kunai's of various sizes and makes, sebon, and shurikens. The largest case even had a nagitana. The walls above the display cases had an assortment of maps, body charts that showed various body systems (many involving chakra functions), and a variety of shinobi sayings. Kakashi was surprised to see a chart with detailed information on the sharingan eye among the body charts. It was completely hand written, and the diagrams appeared to be hand sketched as well. Kakashi studied it for a moment. Wonder who made it?

The other two walls were lined with bookcases full of scrolls of various sizes, neatly stacked and ordered. One bookcase seemed to be entirely filled with textbooks on jutsu's, weapons, chakra, fighting styles and strategies, and Konoha history. A large desk with a chair on either side and work spaces for two people stood in the middle of the study.

Having concluded his investigation, Kakashi returned to the living room. He was trying to decide what to do next when his stomach demandingly growled at him. He blushed a bit, and was thankful that the only other person in the room was a sleep and didn't seem to hear his very loud stomach. I guess that decided what I'm going to do next. He then went into the kitchen to make some coffee and find something that he could easily make to eat. He'd wake Iruka up when he had the food ready.

Iruka woke up from a dream in which Naruto and Kakashi were battling it out over a bowl of ramen the size of the Hokage monuments. Iruka sat up and winced at the pain in his leg. He hazily remembered that he had fought with Kakashi, and afterwards Kakashi had helped him home. He fingered the bandages on his arm and wondered where Kakashi had gotten to since he was apparently not in the room. He noticed the bag of ice on his leg and the papers on the table, and then wondered what the time was. The clock next to the kitchen entrance read 9:00 P.M.

At that moment, Kakashi came from the kitchen with two steaming mugs in his hands. When he saw Iruka awake he asked with an amused glint in his eye, "Did you have a nice nap?" Iruka blushed and would have said something if Kakashi hadn't placed a mug of hot steaming coffee in his hands. Iruka immediately had all his attention on the hot, fragrant liquid that he considered the most heavenly beverage on earth. He inhaled the wonderful scent of coffee deeply before carefully sipping the invigorating beverage. Kakashi makes good coffee. noted Iruka as he happily started taking larger sips of the coffee.

Kakashi watched him amusedly before returning to the kitchen and coming back with two bowls of pork ramen. Iruka gratefully accepted the bowl Kakashi offered him. He had noticed that he was ravenously hungry as soon as he tasted the coffee. Despite his hunger though he forced himself to eat slowly so as to not look sloppy in front of Kakashi. Kakashi sat in the armchair that was behind Iruka's head and out of his line of vision.

They both ate in silence. When Iruka was finished he carefully placed his bowl on the table without turning his head. He wanted to see what Kakashi looked like under his mask just like everyone else did, but Iruka wasn't going to be rude by trying to sneak peeks at the man while he was eating. Kakashi probably had a personal reason for not wanting anyone to see his face. Iruka started to slowly sip his coffee again, once again noting that it was really quiet good.

Kakashi noted Iruka's little effort to give him some privacy while he ate with amusement. Iruka really was a good person like he had heard so many people say. When he finally finished his own ramen and coffee, he took the empty bowls and mugs back into the kitchen. He broke the silence when he returned by saying, "Let's take another look at that leg now." Suiting action to word, he knelt down and removed the ice pack. The swelling had gone down and the leg wasn't twice it's normal size anymore. Kakashi felt rested now, so he decided that he could go ahead and use a healing jutsu. Kakashi took off a glove and placed his hand on Iruka's leg. He started performing seals with the still gloved hand and chakra started to gather in the hand on the leg. With the last seal, the chakra started to flow into the leg. Iruka felt the pain in his leg subside and the remaining swelling go down. When the leg looked normal again and Kakashi felt that it was healed enough, he released the chakra remaining in his hand and let it slowly disperse before standing up and replacing his glove.

Iruka slowly sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the couch. He flexed the muscles in his legs. They didn't hurt, but there was a slight resistance in them.

"So how does it feel now?" inquired Kakashi.

"A little stiff, but I'll manage." replied Iruka. It was then that Iruka noticed that Kakashi's mask still had a blood stain on it. "Kakashi-sensei, how's your jaw?" asked Iruka with a look of concern.

Kakashi was suddenly reminded of the upper-cut he received from Iruka and he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Ehh, I guess I forgot about that." A smile twitched at Iruka's lips while he shook his head at Kakashi.

"You should go wash your face. There's some ointment under the bathroom sink that I recommend you use. I'm sure you have already looked around the house so you can find the bathroom on your own." Having said that, Iruka picked up the papers on the table and stood up.

"How did you know I looked around?" asked Kakashi. He was sure Iruka had been asleep when he performed his self appointed little investigation.

Iruka gave Kakashi an amused grin, "Every good shinobi checks for defensive positions and escape routes, correct?" He added with a teasing note to his voice, "Besides, you have a reputation for being the most inquisitive shinobi in Konoha."

Kakashi blinked at Iruka's bluntness before chuckling lightly. "Looks like you got me."

Iruka smiled again and then slowly limped his way past Kakashi to the hallway. Kakashi waited till Iruka had disappeared into the hallway before following. He saw the light in the study on and the door slightly open. Kakashi paused at the opening long enough to see Iruka take a seat at the desk and take out some writing utensils in order to start grading the papers. Kakashi continued his way to the bathroom and slid the door open (all the doors in Iruka's house except for the front door were sliding rice paper doors. The kitchen was an open entrance with a curtain hanging across.). After entering he made sure the door was securely closed before moving to the sink and mirror.

He removed his gloves first, and then slowly peeled off his mask. His chin was covered in dried blood, and there was a dark stain on his mask. He proceeded to wash his face with warm water and soap, slightly wincing at the sting in the large split on his now puffy lip. Kakashi took a minute to examine the damage before doing anything else once his face was clean and dry. An ugly bruise contrasted darkly with the pale skin surrounding his chin. Eating had been painful, and now he knew why. It's a wonder my jaw works at all.

He looked in the cabinet under the sink and found a green glass jar marked 'For bruises, cuts, burns, and stress.' Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the 'stress' part, but decided to trust Iruka and give it a try. Kakashi removed the lid, and was immediately assailed by the pungent smell of herbs. The smell was wholesome and Kakashi felt some of the tension go out of his body, tension he didn't even now was there. He took a small dab and started to gently rub it into the bruise, and then his split lip. The pain had disappeared by the time he finished and put away the ointment. He could move his jaw more freely know. I wonder were he got a medicine like that? He's sure got quiet a few interesting things in his house.

Kakashi looked at his blood stained mask. He could wash it now and wear a damp mask until he got home to his apartment, or he could leave it be and deal with it when he got home. However, if he left it until later, it would be harder to clean.

He decided to clean it. It took him fifteen minutes to get all the soaked in blood out. Kakashi hadn't thought that the material of his mask was that absorbent. When he finished washing and rinsing the blood away he thoroughly squeezed out as much moisture as possible. When he was satisfied that it was as dry as he could get it, he put it back on along with his gloves.

He exited the bathroom and walked back to the study. Iruka was still sitting at the desk, a tiny pile of graded papers sat next to the larger stack of papers that had yet to be graded. Kakashi went further down the hall to were the clock was and checked the time. 10:30 P.M. He looked back to the lit up door. He came to a decision and went into the kitchen.

Iruka was struggling to stay awake. He had to get these papers done tonight. He couldn't concentrate though. He put his head down on the desk and sighed. He didn't notice that he wasn't alone anymore until a mug was placed in front of him. He looked up to see Kakashi with an amused face and his own mug in hand. "You looked so dedicated that I thought I better come give you a hand. But then here I find you ready to give up and fall asleep." Kakashi teased.

Iruka blushed a bit. "I was just resting for a minute. I wasn't going to do it too long."

He looks cute when he blushes. Gaahh! Why do I keep thinking these thoughts? He pushed the thought away and watched as Iruka's blush faded and he took a swallow of coffee.

Iruka looked at Kakashi over his coffee mug and smiled, "You know, you make really good coffee."

Kakashi mentally threw shurikens at the thought that tried to get to the front of his mind. He has a cute smile. He decided to stop fighting the 'cute' thoughts that kept popping up in his head. He would just have to sort out the reasons for why he was having them later. It would be less stressing if he just let himself have them. Trying to stop them just wasn't working anyways.

Finally regaining his composure he managed to reply to a puzzled Iruka, who was wondering what had caused Kakashi to zone out, "Arigatou. It's not that great though. I've had coffee that tasted better than mine."

"Mmm, no, its good, trust me."

"If you say so." Kakashi then reached over and before Iruka could stop him picked up the stack of papers. He divided it in half, handed one stack to Iruka, and walked around to sit in the chair on the other side of the desk.

"Kakashi-sensei, its late and I'm sure your tie-", Kakashi waved Iruka's protest off as he searched for and found a writing utensil to grade his stack of papers with.

"I'm not tired at all." and then adding in a teasing voice, "If I leave you alone you'll fall asleep again."

"I wasn't sleeping!" Iruka tried to glare but ended up pouting instead.

Why is he so adorable for a grown man? Why do I find him so adorable? wondered Kakashi mournfully, before he started reading and grading the papers in front of him.

Iruka watched Kakashi for a minute before starting on his own stack. He noticed that Kakashi's mask was clean now. The dampness made it cling to Kakashi's face even more, showing the outline of his facial features more sharply. I wonder if Kakashi is good looking? Iruka blushed at this thought. This isn't something I should be wondering about my superior. Especially since it's a guy. And Kakashi of all people! He bent over his stack of papers and got to work while still blushing.

At around 11:30, they finally finished. Iruka shuffled the papers together before picking up the coffee mugs and heading out of the study into the kitchen. Kakashi followed after turning out the light. He reached the entrance to the kitchen just as Iruka came out.

"Domo arigatou gozaimasu Kakashi-sensei for all your help." said Iruka as he gave a slight bow.

"Ah, no problem. I was the reason you needed help in the first place remember? Don't forget that you owe me to two favors." Iruka pouted adorably at this and Kakashi decided it was time to go before he said something out loud. "Well I better go home now." Kakashi wished Iruka a good night and was out the door so quickly that Iruka barely had time to say good night in return.

Iruka sighed as he wondered what had gotten Kakashi into such a hurry so suddenly. Sure it was late, but that didn't explain why Kakashi had practically ran out the door. Deciding that Kakashi was just unfathomable, he went into his bedroom and started to remove the rest of his outer gear. Not bothering to change out of the pants and shirt from his uniform, he flopped down on his bed and yawned.

What had started out as a quiet Sunday had ended up being an exciting and tiring day. He smiled a bit and said out loud, "Kakashi-sensei, your way of spending a day off may be more exciting, but it does use up a lot of energy." He was surprised though. Kakashi had actually been very kind and considerate when he was injured, and he even stayed and helped him with the paperwork after his leg was healed.

He had enjoyed the his company too. He had thought that the Kakashi would annoy him to no end, but was surprised to find that the his teasing didn't really bother him that much. It would be nice if we could be friends, but he probably wouldn't want to be friends with a lowly chunin…..It would still be nice though. Iruka didn't have many friends his own age, and Kakashi was only a few years older. There was Naruto, but he was starting to make friends his own age now. It would be nice to become friends… thought Iruka as he finally drifted off to sleep.

Thanks to the following readers for reviewing: Iceheart19, saria almasy albotou kinneas, Lady Geuna, Evil Kasumi, Isolde1, MoonSweet, dokidoki, Game-kid 17, SirenM, Sadistic Demon, hotaruchan27, RukaIayLomperGay, and KakashiLvr.

Jaa ne!