Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishamoto-sensei does.

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

Since When Was Boredom The First Step To Love?

Chapter six-Coffee and self-admittance

By Riyo-sama

Kakashi didn't recognize his surroundings at first when he woke up the next morning. He didn't panic though. The events of the previous day came back to him as he looked at the clothes he was wearing and glanced at the nightstand. That's right. My apartment turned into a pile of charcoal and Iruka agreed to let me move in.

Kakashi sat up in the bed and stretched with a yawn. He had slept really well, and his dreams had been really good. He couldn't remember what kind of dreams they had been, he just knew they were really good.

He wanted to know what time it was, but there wasn't a clock in this room. My room. he corrected himself. This would be his room from now on. He decided to go down the hall and check the clock by the kitchen. He left his hiate-ae on the nightstand and walked out of his room. When he got to the clock it read 7:00 A.M. He glanced into the kitchen and saw that Iruka was up and about already. Iruka was wearing the chunin uniform today, minus the outer gear and with his hair down. He had his back to Kakashi and didn't seem to notice him. He was currently attempting to grab a coffee can that had somehow gotten pushed all the way to the back of the top shelf of the cupboard over the coffeemaker.

Damnit! I really need coffee right now too! thought Iruka as he stood on the tips of his toes and stretched his fingers out towards the can. His fingers brushed against the can, but this only served to push the can back even further. Iruka was about to release a growl of frustration and resort to standing on a chair when he felt a lean muscled body press against his back and saw a pale hand reach up over his own and pull the can of coffee down. He took the proffered can that was being held in front of his face with both hands and felt the body move away. He turned around to find Kakashi standing inches away with a huge grin on his face.

"Ohayou." said Kakashi very cheerfully.

"O-Ohayou." said Iruka as he slowly turned red. He felt painfully shy all of the sudden. He could see more of Kakashi's face now that he had the hiate-ae off as well. Some of his hair fell over the Sharingan eye, but it was still surprising what a difference having the hiate-ae off made. Seeing Kakashi's handsome face like this every morning would take getting used to. "Um, did you sleep well?" Iruka asked, still holding the coffee can in front of himself.

"Yup. Slept great." said Kakashi, still grinning.

They stood there like that for another minute before Iruka turned around to start up the coffeemaker, his blush still in place. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"mmm, yeah. I'll have whatever your having."

"Okay. I washed your clothes for you, they're over on the dryer." indicated Iruka as he finished setting up the coffeemaker and started taking out what he would need to make breakfast. Kakashi picked up the neatly folded pile of clothes which also included his mask and other personal effects which he had discarded last night. "Thanks, you didn't have to."

"Oh, it wasn't any trouble. Feel free to use the shower while I get breakfast ready." said Iruka as he placed a pan on the stove and turned the burner on.

Kakashi nodded his head and left the kitchen without a word. He showered and dressed quickly, and made sure to drop Iruka's clothes in the hamper before leaving the bathroom. He didn't fail to notice the places where his shirt had been ripped were now mended. He can sew? Is there anything he can't do? Kakashi was starting to wonder how someone as dependable and well established as Iruka could put up with someone as lazy and flighty as himself.

"Kakashi-san, I'm really sorry about the coffee. I guess I was so used to drinking it myself that I forgot how awful it really was." apologized Iruka yet again. They had finished there breakfast and Kakashi was brewing a fresh pot of coffee.

"Really, how can such a good cook make such bad coffee?" said Kakashi with a shake of his head. Iruka, it had turned out, could not make good coffee even to save his life. "I forbid you to touch the coffeemaker as long as I'm living here."

"Hai." said Iruka gloomily as Kakashi brought him a mug of freshly prepared coffee. He brightened and hummed happily as he carefully sipped the hot caffeinated beverage.

"It's no surprise you think my coffee tastes good if it tastes like that when you make it." said Kakashi as he started to drink from his own cup. Iruka didn't say anything and continued to sip his coffee while trying not to look like he was a deprived coffee addict.

They cleaned up the kitchen and afterwards decided that it would be a good idea to pick up Kakashi's laundry so that he wouldn't have to barrow anymore of Iruka's clothes.

They walked along for several minutes in silence until Iruka broke it with a question. "Ne, Kakashi-san?"

"Hm?" was Kakashi's reply as he looked away from Come Come Violence to look at Iruka who had stopped walking.

"I was wondering, do you have a girlfriend?" Iruka was faintly blushing and avoiding all eye contact. He had been wondering about it for a while, but had thought it would be rude to ask. Realizing his feelings for Kakashi made him want to know even more than before however, so he felt no regrets in asking.

Kakashi was surprised at the question, he hadn't expected Iruka to ask him that. And just yesterday I was going to ask him that. Despite his surprise he managed to maintain a calm exterior and gave an answer. "No. Why do you ask?"

Iruka gave what could only be considered a sigh of relief. "I was, um, just curious." said Iruka quickly, still trying to avoid eye contact.

Is it just me, or does he seem relived that I don't have a girlfriend? Does that mean that he might… Kakashi's subconscious tried to give him suggestions on how to find out what it meant, but Kakashi thoroughly ignored it. He decided to return Iruka's question to him. "So, do you have a girlfriend, Iruka-kun?"

Iruka didn't hide his surprise as well as Kakashi did. He blushed and stuttered before finally giving a clear response of no.

"Ah." was the simple response of Kakashi, although on the inside he was shouting Yes! He's single!

After that they resumed walking and didn't stop again until they reached their destination. Obaa-san was the same as Kakashi had found her yesterday, only this time there were two baskets of clean folded laundry behind her.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, Obaa-san." Iruka said.

She looked up and gave a very happy smile, "Ah, Iruka-kun! I haven't seen you in ages. How are you? Are your students behaving themselves?"

"Hai. I'm doing very well. The only students I have trouble with are Konohamaru and his friends. They're not as bad as Naruto though." said Iruka with a fond chuckle.

"That's good to hear. Kakashi-kun, I heard what happened, are you alright?" asked Obaa-san with a look of concern in his direction.

Kakashi waved a hand as if to dismiss the situation as nothing serious. "Yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't inside the building when it blew up." He chose to leave out the fact that he got thrown across the street by the force of the explosion, and had also gone through a fence. He threw an arm over Iruka's shoulders and said with a happy face, "I already found a place to stay too. Iruka is letting me move in with him."

Iruka couldn't hide the blush on his face. The person he had a rapidly growing crush on was practically draping himself on him. It was the second time that day that he had made physical contact with him, and he had to admit that he liked it.

"I'm glad for that. I think it will be good for the two of you to live together, since your both alone. Iruka might even be able to get you to be on time, Kakashi-kun." said Obaa-san with a twinkle of amusement in her eye.

Kakashi rolled his visible eye at her as if to say 'It'll never happen.'

"Jaa, mata." said Iruka and Kakashi together, Iruka returning Obaa-san's bow before leaving with Kakashi's laundry. Kakashi had promised to pay his tab next time he got paid since he wouldn't be needing to use her services anymore. She made him promise to come visit her from time to time, and to make sure he brought Iruka with him.

"How do you know Obaa-san? You have a washer and dryer, so you wouldn't need her to do your laundry." Kakashi asked Iruka with curiosity.

"I didn't always live in the house I do now. I lived in a much bigger house with my parents when I was younger, but when they died I couldn't afford to keep it. I had to sell it and move into an apartment. That's when I met Obaa-san. She lived in the same apartment building. I was still a kid and I had a hard time living on my own. I guess you could say she took me under her wing. She helped me learn how to cook and sew, and how to do laundry of course." Iruka suddenly laughed, "She also scolded me whenever I got in trouble for pulling one of my pranks."

"Eh? You pulled pranks!" said Kakashi incredulously.

"Nothing as bad as painting graffiti on the Hokage monuments, but I did some pretty wild and foolish things." said Iruka with a reminiscent and embarrassed smile.

"Like what?" asked Kakashi skeptically. He had a very hard time picturing Iruka as the mischievous type, although there were times when his eyes would light up with a look of fun and merriment. Iruka motioned him to move his head down so he could whisper in his ear and Kakashi obliged, liking the sensation of Iruka's breath tickling against his ear. Kakashi's eye widened comically as he listened to Iruka, and he pulled his head away to stare at him with a look of disbelief, "You did that?"

Iruka laughed, the look on Kakashi's face was priceless. "That was my best prank ever, and one of the few times I didn't get caught. No one ever found out it was me except Obaa-san. I can almost swear that she has telepathic powers or something like that. I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else about it."

"Heh. I never would have pegged you as the prankster type." said Kakashi as they finally reached Iruka's house and approached the door. Iruka shifted the basket he was holding so that it was resting on his hip. He fished the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.

After removing their sandals they both carried the baskets into Kakashi's room and set them on the bed. Iruka looked at his watch and frowned. "I'm sorry Kakashi-san, but I have a teacher's meeting at the academy in half and hour. I'm not sure how long it'll be."

"No worry's, I'll be fine." said Kakashi despite his disappointment at not being able to spend more time with Iruka.

"Feel free to raid the fridge if you're hungry, it's well stocked. I'll be going now. Jaa, ne."

Iruka left Kakashi in the room. Kakashi waited until he heard the front door close before he got to work on putting his clean laundry away in the empty closet and dresser.

"Bored!" complained Kakashi as he flopped down into an armchair in the living room. It was now 4:00 P.M., and Iruka hadn't returned yet. Kakashi had finished putting away his laundry and had lunch long ago. He finished reading his book and poked around the study, making mental notes of which books looked interesting, and scrolls that might be useful. He looked more closely at the weapon's cases, reading the little cards next to each one that gave information on the maker, where it came from, and how it was acquired. The weapons he had noted were well cared for. There wasn't a spot of rust or tarnish to be found. He had considered exploring the storage room, but decided against it when he saw how dusty it was.

The boredom he felt now reminded him of the day he first got to know Iruka. Just like now, he was so bored out of his mind that he would have given just about anything for something fun to do or see.

Looking back, he probably wouldn't have ended up were he was now if he hadn't gotten it into his head to challenge Iruka for fun. Now that he thought about it, he had encountered Iruka before that, but he had just dismissed him as unimportant, just another chunin. That was up until he passed team seven.

He'd done some minor information gathering on him to satisfy himself as to the character and standards of his student's previous sensei. He almost hadn't believed what he heard people say about him. You would of thought they were talking about a saint the way some people went on about him. How could a shinobi be anything like a saint?

He wanted to know more, satisfy his curiosity and find out if he really was what everyone made him out to be. He never in his wildest dreams would have imagined that something as simple as a challenge would have lead to him falling in-

Kakashi's musing's were interpreted by the sound of the door opening, signaling Iruka's return. Kakashi turned in the chair to look in the direction of the door from were he heard Iruka call out "Tadaima." before emerging into the living room with his three students following behind. Naruto gave Kakashi an angry stare, "It's true! You did move in!"

Kakashi chose to ignore Naruto's outburst. He listened to Iruka's explanation of how he had run into them on the way back from the academy and how he had explained Kakashi's situation to them.

"Kakashi-sensei no baka! You never showed up this morning or yesterday! You could have at least sent a message or something if you weren't going to come!" fumed Naruto.

"I've been a bit busy with other things." said Kakashi with a bored look on his face, unperturbed by Naruto's anger. Naruto opened his mouth to make a retort, but stopped when Sakura whispered in his ear. His anger deflated and he gave out a soft "Oh, I almost forgot." almost too quite to hear.

Kakashi was going to ask what he almost forgot when Sasuke gave a slight cough. "Iruka-sensei, I wanted to return the books and scrolls you lent to me. I was wondering if I may barrow some more from you."

"Of course you may Uchiha-san. I found that scroll you said you wanted to see but couldn't find in the library. Do you still want it?"

Sasuke nodded a yes and followed Iruka to the study. Sakura nudged Naruto, flicked a glance at Kakashi and gave Naruto a meaningful glare before running off to follow Sasuke and Iruka.

Kakashi looked at the hallway were the three had disappeared, puzzled at the actions of his students. He turned to Naruto who was now standing next to his chair and was considering Kakashi with a serious look in his eyes.

Naruto didn't say anything for several minutes, he just stared. Kakashi was starting to get annoyed with the staring when Naruto said in a very matter of fact voice, "You like Iruka-sensei."

Kakashi was surprised that having someone confront him with this fact didn't freak him out as much as he thought it would. Maybe it was because it was Naruto doing the confronting. He didn't want to jump to conclusions though and decided to see just how much Naruto thought he liked Iruka. "So, what brought you to this conclusion of yours, that I like Iruka?"

Naruto started to explain as if the reasons where blaringly obvious, "You get the most ridiculously happy expression on your face when he's around and you think no one's looking. You're dazed during our training. You make excuses and go out of your way to spend time with him. You get irritated when you haven't seen him all day. Your eyes are always on him when he's within sight. You've also been asking me a lot of questions about him lately. Sakura-chan says that these are all symptoms of a man in love."

A thunderbolt could have struck and he wouldn't have noticed. I didn't think I had it that bad. I wonder how many people have noticed? Kakashi suddenly started to feel defensive. He crossed his arms and pinned a defiant gaze on Naruto. "Yeah, I like him. If you must know, I think I've fallen in love with him. Got a problem with it?" Kakashi hadn't realized how much tension he had built up inside him over the whole thing. Saying how he felt out loud to another person seemed to lift a weight off his shoulders.

Naruto didn't seem fazed at all, in fact he smiled. "Iruka-sensei told me that things like gender shouldn't matter. It's if you really love a person that counts. So if you really love him it's okay."

Kakashi stared at him. "Iruka said that?"

"Yeah. When I was eight, I saw two guys kissing. I asked Iruka-sensei if it was alright for them to be kissing each other when their both guys. He got really red in the face and wanted to know why I was asking him about it. I think he didn't know what to say. He took a while to think about it before coming up with an answer."

At least I know that he isn't against same gender relationships. How he feels about being in one himself is another story. Kakashi tilted his head and gave Naruto a thoughtful look. "So you're not opposed to me, your male instructor, being in love with your former male instructor?"

Naruto thought about this for a moment. "If you make Iruka-sensei happy, it's okay. I think he's kind of lonely, he needs to get together with someone." Naruto suddenly got a threatening look in his eyes. "If you do anything to hurt or upset Iruka-sensei however, than the three of us will make your life a living hell."

Kakashi sweatdropped and did his best to sound reassuring, "Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep him happy."

"Are we going to train tomorrow?" asked Naruto. Kakashi's eye twitched. Only Naruto could go from confronting someone about their sexual orientation to training without batting an eye. He decided to tease Naruto a bit.

"Hmm, I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know!" shouted Naruto.

Kakashi ignored Naruto's angry glare and got up from the chair and walked over to the couch. "I've been enjoying not having to give you three orders for the last two days." Kakashi stretched himself out on the couch and made himself comfortable. "I was thinking that maybe I should just cancel training for the rest of the week." Kakashi closed his eye and pretended to be thinking about it. He didn't see the slowly growing twitch in Naruto's eye.

The only warning he had was Naruto's incredulous yell of "You lazy-assed excuse of a sensei!"

Before he felt two knees slam down into his stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs in a loud 'oomph!'.

The little fox needs a lesson in respecting his elders. thought Kakashi as he started molding charka.

When Sasuke, Sakura, and Iruka returned, they found Kakashi holding Naruto upside down by the ankles in one hand while reading his book in the other. A clone was tickling the living daylights out of Naruto. Naruto's face was red and there were tears streaming from his eyes as he laughed and giggled hysterically.

Kakashi suddenly realized that he had an audience and immediately released Naruto and his charka. This caused the clone to disappear and Naruto to land head first on the couch where he fell over onto his back and clutched his sides. He sucked in great gulps of air while trying to regain control of himself and giving out random giggles.

"Find any good books?" Kakashi asked Sasuke cheerfully with his face scrunched up in a smile. Sasuke nodded dumbly, shifting the stack of books and scrolls in his arms.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei, why were you tickling Naruto?" asked Sakura.

"Oh, that was just a punishment." Kakashi said, smile still in place.

Sasuke and Sakura both stared at him as if they thought he would lunge at them any minute. I hope he never punishes me like that. was what they were both thinking.

Kakashi glanced over at Iruka, wondering why he wasn't saying anything. Iruka was leaning against the wall and seemed to be very deep in thought. Sasuke said farewell and left without further comment. To Kakashi's surprise, Sakura didn't go after him. Instead she went over to Naruto who had regained enough of his composure to sit up and was slowly getting his breath back. She started a whispered conversation with him, sometimes looking up at Kakashi or Iruka.

A conspiracy perhaps? thought Kakashi as he raised an eyebrow at his students' unusual behavior. He shrugged to himself and decided to let it be. Whatever they were plotting probably wouldn't cause to much harm. Or at least he hoped it wouldn't.

Kakashi walked over to Iruka and stood directly in front of him. Iruka was still lost in thought and didn't seem to notice Kakashi looming over him. Kakashi waited a bit before clearing his throat loudly. No response. He waved a hand in front of Iruka's face. Nothing. Did he fall asleep? wondered Kakashi. Kakashi put a hand on Iruka's shoulder and shook it lightly while softly calling his name. Iruka came out of his reverie with a start. He blushed when he saw who had brought him out of it.

"Kakashi-san! Gomen nasai, did you need something?"

"Not really. What were you thinking about so hard that you didn't notice someone standing in front of you?"

Iruka's blush deepened and spread further over his face. "Well, um, that is, I, uh," he was desperately looking everywhere but at Kakashi, "Oh, when did Uchiha-san leave?"

"A few minutes ago." replied Kakashi, who was puzzled as to why Iruka was evading his question.

"Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei." They turned to Sakura who was standing next to them. "I promised Okaa-san that I would help her go shopping today, so I'll be going now. Iruka-sensei, it was nice talking with you today." Iruka gave a nervous laugh. "Kakashi-sensei, will you be meeting with us tomorrow?" Sakura asked sweetly with a gleam in her eye that told Kakashi if he didn't say yes that he would learn what woman's fury truly was. He quickly nodded yes, to which she responded with a beaming face before saying farewell to both sensei's and running out the door.

Just as the door shut behind her, Naruto jumped up onto Iruka's back and flung his arms around his neck, nearly choking him. Iruka brought his arms behind himself to help support Naruto's weight in an effort to relieve the pressure on his neck. "Iruka-sensei, can I sleepover tonight?"

A smile flickered across Iruka's face, "Only if you stop trying to choke me."

"Yay!" Naruto released his strangle hold and held onto Iruka's shoulders instead. "Can we have ramen for dinner?"

"If you eat some vegetables." said Iruka with a full smile on his face now.

"Nani! I hate vegetables!" cried Naruto. The expression on his face plainly said that he thought the existence of vegetables in the world was completely unnecessary.

"No veggies, no ramen."

Naruto stuck out his lower lip in a pout. "Fine."

Kakashi started to laugh, which made Naruto angry. In his excitement he released his hold on Iruka and would have fallen to the floor if Iruka hadn't been holding on to him.

He righted himself and started to sulk. He stuck his tongue out at Iruka who was laughing too.

Iruka laid back in his bed with a tired sigh. He glanced at Naruto who was sprawled out next to him and already snoring like there was no tomorrow. Ame was resting on Naruto's stomach in such a tightly curled ball that she could have passed for a large fluffy cotton ball if not for her ears sticking up.

Naruto was out of his usual orange and wearing white cotton pajamas with red spirals splattered all over. Iruka was also in pajamas, having actually taken the time to change before bed for once. They were another one of Naruto's many dolphin themed gifts. They were light blue with dolphins on the lapels, and also on the cuffs of the sleeves and pants.

Iruka smiled as he looked at his two sleeping companions. Naruto had spent the evening after dinner playing with Ame and trying to teach her tricks. He suspected that Naruto might have actually succeeded in teaching her something, but wasn't sure he wanted to know what.

He sighed again as he looked back up at the ceiling and recalled the conversation he had with Sakura earlier.

"Ne, Iruka-sensei, I need to talk to you about something."

Iruka gave her a warm smile and turned his attention to Sakura while Sasuke started to look over the book shelves. "What do you need to talk about?"

Sakura smiled at him sweetly, "About you liking Kakashi-sensei."

Iruka went as red as a tomato and didn't say anything. How did she find out! I didn't tell anyone. Have I been acting strangely?

"Iruka-sensei, a girl can always tell when someone is in love." said Sakura, somehow guessing Iruka's thoughts.

"I, I, I…" stuttered Iruka, before gaining control of himself. "Um, do you really think it's love?"

Sakura smiled warmly, "Defiantly! You get so incredibly happy looking when he's around. You blush so easily at everything he says and does. Konohamaru told Naruto that you've been distracted during lessons lately. Plus, why else would you let someone you've only known for three weeks move in with you on such short notice?"

"Maybe your right." said Iruka slowly. "Um, does Naruto know?"

"Hai. He looked so adorable when I told him. He's so cute when he's in protective little brother mode. 'What could he possibly see in that lazy hentai! He deserves better.' was what he said." Sakura winked and put a finger up to her lips, "Don't' tell him I said that, ne?"

Iruka smiled, "Our secret."

"Don't worry, the three of us will support you all the way. Ne, Sasuke-kun?" said Sakura to Sasuke who had finished collecting the books and scrolls he wanted and finally joined them.

Sasuke gave a small nod, "If Kakashi-sensei does something stupid, let us know and we'll take care of him."

Iruka and Sakura were both surprised by how vehement Sasuke's response was. Deep down, Sasuke looked up to Iruka as a brother like figure, just like Naruto. He didn't like to show it though unlike Naruto.

Iruka gave them a soft smile. "Arigato."

Iruka was smiling, but he sighed once again as he turned over onto his side and closed his eyes. He remembered the last thing Sakura had asked him before leaving the study.
"Iruka-sensei, when are you going to confess your love?"
Thanks go to the following readers for reviewing: Dream Fox, Sei the purple ryu, Alana Quinn, chibified Kitsunes, Sasukara(), Renn, Maliciously Creative, Silverone, Yuen-chan

Jaa, ne.