Chapter 2
About a half hour later
"What are we going to eat again?" Kakashi asked for the tenth time, driving Iruka mad. It was bad enough he simply had pushed him aside (which was a little embarrassing, since he seemed to do it with ease) and entered his apartment without asking, but now he was constantly nagging and complaining and just.. well, just being annoying. Not that that was anything different from the usual Kakashi, but still. Why did Iruka went for lunch with him?
"For the twelve-hundredth time, we are going to get some ramen! God, why did you ask me for lunch anyway? You don't seem to enjoy yourself at all."
"It's your fault!" Kakashi replied. "You're the one being boring… besides, I don't like ramen that much." Iruka let out a deep sigh, let the anger wash away, before he could answer that.
"Then why," he spoke slowly again, as if talking to one of his students. "Didn't you say that before?" Kakashi seemed to smile, at least Iruka thought that he was smiling (it was hard to see with that mask), when he looked up at Kakashi.
"Because it's so much fun to get on peoples nerves," Kakashi simply replied. Iruka looked irritated again.
"Well, I don't like it," he said. "I think I'm gonna have a migraine after lunch because of you… but we're still getting ramen. We're here," Iruka noticed, entering the little restaurant. They ordered some ramen and sat down. "So, why is it exactly you want to have lunch with me? I mean, the only time we ever talk is at the mission's office when I hand you your mission or you give me your report, so what's going on?
"Hmm," Kakashi replied, trying to think of something. He usually was pretty good at coming up with excuses, though his talent seemed to have disappeared somehow.
"Is there a reason?" Reason? Yeah, Tsunade said I should follow- No, wait, he couldn't say that.
"Hmm," he replied again. "No, not really. You just seemed like a nice guy and the Third always said I should try to make some friends around the village. So guess you're stuck with me." He grinned behind his mask, his visible eye crinkling a bit. Well, that wasn't too hard and part of it was even true (the Third really had said that he should find some friends). "So, I heard about what happened yesterday in the forest. Is that why you aren't teaching today?"
"Yeah, they gave me and the class the day off, to get the chance to relax a bit. I have to go back tomorrow though, since nobody really got hurt." Kakashi nodded.
"What happened then? I only heard some rumours. You won't believe how people can change the story- I heard Gai say that there were twenty missing ninja and you killed them with only one kunai and one hand in your pocket, after drinking two bottles of sake!" Iruka broke into a laugh, before looking very serious at Kakashi.
"Well, who says that didn't actually happen?" Kakashi glared at him. "Alright, I'll tell you then, though I am kinda getting tired of telling the story (since every single parent of my students had to hear it too). We went to the lake for swimming ( a ninja needs to relax sometimes, too) and I was lecturing Konohamaru and his gang about not jumping off the cliffs when I suddenly saw something moving in a tree. Before I knew it, we were all surrounded by seven missing ninja. Everybody was scared, of course, but luckily an assistant went to the bathroom right before that and I guess they didn't exactly know there was somebody else. Anyway, when I saw the assistant - Meko by the way- hiding in the bushes, I attacked the biggest one with a kunai I was holding. I was aiming for his neck of course, but I knew he would see it on time. He got hit in the shoulder, luckily, and it appeared he wasn't able to fight - with that little diversion, Meko was able to take down two more while I was trying to keep the others away from the children. I took out one more with a shuriken, but while I was doing that, I got one in my leg. There were only three left and they gave up after seeing we had taken more than half of them down. Those three escaped, the big guy is in prison right now, one is dead and two were wounded pretty badly, but they're in the prison's hospital."
"And the Hyuuga-girl?" Iruka thought for a moment.
"Oh right, forgot about her. I guess she just panicked, while Meko and I were fighting, she ran away from the group and got hit on the head by one of the missing nin. She's still in the hospital, but they say she'll be alright." While Iruka had told the whole story to Kakashi, the waiter had already given them their ramen and they had started eating. Iruka tried to look at Kakashi while he was eating - to see if he could see his face whenever he took a bite- but amazingly enough, the man couldn't even see part of his nose, let alone see his whole face.
"Any idea why they attacked?" Kakashi was rather interested in the story, he had to admit.
"Well, I suppose they wanted ransom for the kids, that's the only logical explanation, but I don't know." He grinned again. "Or maybe some big shot thought I was a threat and wanted to kill me." Kakashi ignored this, looking rather bored (Iruka really thought the man didn't have a sense of humour).
"So, you going into the forest again soon?" Kakashi asked him, after finishing his ramen.
"Yeah, I suppose we have to," Kakashi glared at him, waiting to get a reason from Iruka. "First of all, the kids are obviously afraid of going into the forest again, so they need to get over that fear. It seems pretty hard, but if they don't, it'll get even harder to enter the forest again." The silver-haired man nodded- he agreed on that. "Besides that," Iruka gave him a grin. "I never had the chance to swim myself." Kakashi smiled (Iruka noticed this by the way his eye crinkled slightly). He kind of started to like the Jounin, crazy as it sounds. He was somehow different than the Kakashi he knew from the mission's office and the annoying Kakashi who actually put his students in the chuunin exam, something Iruka knew they hadn't been ready for.
"When are you going?" Kakashi took a sip from his sake and again he was able to hide his face, damn him.
"Probably tomorrow- or the day after that, I'm not exactly sure, depends on the weather I suppose." Kakashi nodded. He hesitated a moment, decided he wasn't going to ask Iruka if he could come with them (he would seem like a stalker and he didn't want that, it was way more easier to just follow them) and stood up from his seat.
"This was nice Iruka," he said, giving the man a smile (again, Iruka could see it because of his eye crinkling). "I have to be somewhere now, so we'll do this again. Later," he raised two fingers and walked out of the restaurant. Iruka had expected it to go pretty bad, but all in all, Kakashi was a pretty nice guy.
"Here's your bill," the waiter said, putting the bill next to Iruka's empty bowl. He had just realised Kakashi had left him with the bill. Damn that Jounin.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
The next day
"Alright," Kakashi said to himself, settling himself in a tree. He had a perfect view of Iruka's classroom from the branch he was sitting on, and even if Iruka wouldn't go into the forest, he still had his new Make Out Paradise novel he had been wanting to read. He was actually hoping he would be able to read, since sitting in a tree on a hot day in the forest, looking at others swimming in the cool water wasn't really any fun. Maybe he should've asked Iruka if he could come, but Kakashi figured it was too late for that now.
Iruka was sitting behind his desk, while the class slowly filled with little children- maybe 8 years old-, settling themselves on their regular places. When everybody -besides Hyuuga Aiko, who was still in the hospital for observation- was sitting quietly, Iruka opened a window (Kakashi was pleased by this, as he could listen now) and walked to the blackboard.
He sighed slightly, seeing the faces of his beloved students again. "I want to talk to you about what happened in the forest," he said to them, looking very serious at them. Konohamaru was whispering something, but after one angry glance from his teacher, he quickly focused on him instead. "I know you were all frightened by those missing nin, but I want to take you all out to swim again." The class was very silent, not knowing how to react to this news. On the one hand, they were terribly afraid it would happen again but on the other they knew they couldn't stay in the village forever. "So I want to go swimming this afternoon, I can't promise you everything will be okay from now on, 'cause I could never guarantee that. However, I can promise you that I will protect you all no matter what happens and I won't let them hurt any of you as long as I live." The kids seemed to get a little more cheerful, hearing this from their teacher. "So," Iruka looked around his classroom. "You wanna go swimming?" For a while, nobody spoke and Iruka was starting to get worried they really didn't want to go back.
"Heck yeah, sensei!" The brown-haired man smiled. It was Konohamaru who had spoken first, while standing up from his seat. He somehow reminded him a bit of Naruto- just as determined, just as hyperactive, just as loud. After Konohamaru's outburst, the rest of the class started to mumble a bit. Iruka grinned- they were braver than he thought. He could hear some boys already talking about waterfights and jumping off cliffs (though their 'boring teacher' would probably stop them from doing so), some were still a bit anxious on going, but they didn't want to seem scared so they agreed on going too.
"Good, then let's get our things and go!" Kakashi chuckled, looking down at the man. His students really trusted him and even respected him, something Kakashi hadn't managed when training Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Well, maybe Sakura just a bit, but Naruto and Sasuke still called him an 'idiot' and 'asshole' before they went away. He even envied Iruka a bit.
Kakashi shrugged and put his book back in his pocket. Guess he wouldn't be able to read today.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Not long after that
Where are they? He couldn't believe he actually lost a group of eight year olds and a chuunin, who were simply walking. They weren't even running! He really did have to start training again…
"Guess I just have to go to the lake then, I'll see 'em there," Kakashi mumbled. He wasn't really taking his mission seriously, something he actually should do. It was after all a mission from the Hokage, but still he found it to be a rather useless one. "Ah, there they are," he said to himself, as he was jumping on a tree, rather close to the lake. He saw the children already in their swimming suits, some had probably even forgotten all about the missing nin now that they were there having fun. After a few seconds Kakashi saw Iruka coming from behind some bushes, with his trunks on. The Jounin chuckled- was he scared of being seen by anyone? Kakashi thought about that thought… and came to the conclusion it was probably a smart thing, changing behind the bushes.
"Sensei!" A small, black-haired girl followed by two boys ran up to Iruka and hid behind his legs, looking for shelter from the boys. "They want to throw me into the water!" He raised an eyebrow.
"Well Fuuko, isn't that the whole point of swimming, getting in the water?" He laughed as the girl shook her head, before lifting her up and taking her to the lake. The girl tried to resist, but she was no match for her sensei. He threw her in (she was screaming of course) and then before he knew it, the rest of his class were all over him, trying to push him into the water too. And in the end they succeeded, while Kakashi watched them and grinned and smiled and chuckled at the sight of Iruka being pushed into the water by a group of midgets.
However, while Kakashi was laughing, he didn't notice Iruka who was holding a kunai after he stood up. While he was in the water, he saw someone sitting in a big tree nearby- someone with silver hair and a mask on, someone very familiar. He didn't want to hit him with the kunai of course, just frighten him a bit, maybe make him fall out of the tree and then ask him why he was stalking him and his class.
"What the-" Kakashi yelled, after the kunai hit the tree, right next to his head. He was so shocked that at this, that he lost his grip and fell into the bushes below. The kids seeing this, were of course afraid at first, since they thought it was another attack.
"Don't worry kids, it's just a scarecrow," Iruka laughed, looking at the cursing Kakashi, getting out of the bushes. "You know, when you're following someone you should really try looking for a better hiding place." He pointed out to him, while walking towards the silver-haired man, offering him his hand. The Jounin took it.
"It was good, until you saw me," he muttered, a bit embarrassed by his fall.
"So would you mind telling me why you're following me?" Iruka asked, taking out his "Watch It Or I'll Give You A Detention"- face. Kakashi thought about it. And thought about it some more. And he really couldn't find any excuse.