A/N: Thanks for all the reviews everyone!

Anonymous: It didn't sound insulting, lol. But yah, the answer is no xD … No offence though o.o and thanks for the offer.

Ori-sama: …Gai developing a crush for Iruka? O.o… no way! He's meant to be with Lee! -grins-

Enjoy the 6th chapter!

Chapter 6

A week later

"You've healed well, Kakashi-san," the Hokage said from behind her desk. Kakashi nodded, jumping from the window sill he had been sitting on.

"You summoned me, Tsunade-sama?" Kakashi merely said. He was in a bad mood- a very bad mood. For the past week he had been waking up from nightmares, sweating and panting heavily. It was because of that damn Iruka.

After the Jounin had been operated for the second time, Iruka had visited him daily until yesterday when he could finally leave the hospital. About two days after the battle with the last remaining missing nin, Kakashi had been starting to have nightmares about Iruka. He got killed in every single one of them, and in every single one of them Kakashi could not do anything. It was so frustrating, he didn't want to feel this way anymore.

The man really did seem to have a certain effect on Kakashi. The only time when he had such nightmares, were right after his father, the Fourth and Obito had died. He had them for about one year, and then they gradually would stop. This was different though- Iruka wasn't dead and he was a teacher so he didn't do a lot of missions that would get him killed. So why did he have these dreams? Kakashi even was afraid of going to sleep again, so he stayed up most of the night, reading his books or jogging through the forest.

So, due to a lack of sleep and because he simply hated the Hokage for giving him this mission, he was in a bad mood. "Yes, I'd like it if you would give me your report about the Iruka-mission," she said, putting some papers in a drawer, before looking at him. "I heard the remaining missing nin were all killed last week?" Kakashi nodded.

"Yes, Iruka and I killed them when we were in the forest," he replied.

"And what were you doing in the forest, Hatake?" She asked, looking very stern.

"Gai wasn't able to look after Iruka, so I felt like I had to do it, since it was my mission." She closed her eyes for a second, thinking things through. "My mission is over now, I hope?"

"Yes, it is," she said, opening them again. Kakashi nodded and was about to jump out of the window again. "But," he stopped, one foot already on the window sill. "I'd like it if you stayed in Konoha for a while. You are not allowed to do any missions, perhaps a D-rank mission once in a while, but you are to stay here for the time being." Kakashi was about to protest to this- what the hell did that woman drink? "It's because you are still weak from the battle-" she explained to him, after catching his very angry look. "- so I want you to stay in the village for a month, maybe even more, and relax. Things are going slow anyway at the moment, so I think it is in order to give you a little time to heal completely. You are dismissed." Kakashi bowed very stiffly, angry at her. He didn't want to relax- it was really the opposite of what he wanted. He wanted to get out of the village. He wanted to stay away from Iruka.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day

Someone knocked on his door, but he didn't feel like opening. After a hard day teaching those brats (they had actually thrown water balloons at him- of course they got detention for that), he deserved some peace and quiet. So he decided not to answer the knock on his door. After a minute or so, Iruka figured the person had left. Good. He could just grab some junkfood and read a book, or something else that would relax him. Eating junkfood alone would be better.

"Yo," Iruka jumped up from his couch, startled, only to find Kakashi standing in front of the window with his hands in his pocket.

"You didn't open the door," he pointed out. Iruka simply rolled his eyes.

"I had a long day, so I didn't really feel like company," he explained, walking to the kitchen. "And how did you open my window? I'm pretty sure I locked it." Kakashi grinned.

"Your window is easy to open, I did it before when you didn't answer the door yesterday. I took some of your ice cream from the fridge, hope you don't mind." So that's what happened to his ice cream. He had been fairly sure he hadn't eaten it himself and he knew he had bought the ice cream, so it was a mystery where it had gone. Iruka would definitely get him back for stealing his ice cream. Nobody steals ice cream from Iruka, even Naruto knew that. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something," he continued, not noticing Iruka's flaming eyes ( I would go mad too, if it had been my ice cream). "I don't think we should hang out anymore." It sounded very casual when it came from his mouth- as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. Iruka frowned at the Jounin, who settled himself on the couch.

"And why do you think that?" Iruka asked, sitting down in the chair opposite to the couch. He certainly thought it was very weird of him to say that. "I thought you said we were friends? Does this mean the mission is over or something?" Kakashi sighed.

"Yes and no- the mission is over, but I suppose it's not the reason why I tell you this," he replied. Iruka was still frowning.

"Well, what is the reason then?"

"I… well, it's more or less… I… I don't know how to explain," he muttered eventually. Iruka still frowned, eyeing the Jounin. "I guess it's because it's a lot easier for me to not have any close friends and since you have started to become my friend… I mean, a lot of them have died in the past and I don't really want to go through that again, so it's easier for the both of us," he said, looking very pleased with himself that he could express it with words.

He wasn't looking forward to not having Iruka's company of course, but he did like his sleep- and he didn't want to think about the Chuunin that often anymore. It had started to look like his whole life was about Iruka: he thought about Iruka when he was training, sleeping, eating and showering (not any naughty thoughts though!) and he asked about Iruka when he saw Genma or Asuma (and, as you could have guessed, their suspicion of Kakashi's crush grew even bigger). Besides, he didn't want to get hurt. He didn't want to have someone that would die or perhaps abandon him like his father had done. Hell no. He was better off on his own.

"Well, that's stupid," Iruka said, eyes closed. He was scratching his scar thoughtfully at what the Jounin had said. "I mean, do you think that I don't know how it feels to lose somebody? It hurts like hell, but you can't shut yourself out just because of that, you have to try again and simply hope for the best." The silver-haired man thought about it: he didn't know what to do. It was true what Iruka had said, but he didn't want to get hurt, and then again he did wanted to be friends with Iruka- heck, he probably wanted more than.

Wait, he thought, I want more than that? As he looked into Iruka's eyes, he thought about this some more. He liked Iruka, but did he like him that much? Kakashi had never actually had a girlfriend and he really did prefer men, though he had never actually felt anything towards the men in the village. He found them attractive, but nothing more- he had never had the I-Want-To-Be-With-You-Forever-Because-I'm-Madly-In-Love-With-You- feeling, though he was pretty sure he had that feeling now with Iruka. He couldn't stay away from the man.

But does Iruka like men?

He kind of thought Iruka did like them, just by the way he acted, so maybe he did like them? But even if he did, Iruka wouldn't be attracted to him. How could he be? He had never seen him without his mask, he had a scar on his left eye and he looked like an old man with that silver hair of his. Besides that, he was sure his personality wouldn't attract him either.

"Well, aren't you going to say anything?" Iruka asked, ripping Kakashi out of his train of thoughts. Kakashi looked at him again.

"I'm sorry Iruka, I don't think we should see each other again," he stood up, taking his eyes off the Chuunin, who looked rather hurt by this, and jumped out of the open window and landed on his feet. He couldn't continue seeing Iruka- his feelings would only get deeper and deeper until he would drown in them. And he wouldn't let that happen.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Not long after that

Iruka looked at the open window, while sitting on a chair. What the hell was wrong with that man? They were getting along fine- actually, they had been getting along better than he had expected when Kakashi first asked him out for lunch. And now Kakashi seemed to ruin it- or perhaps he really had been saying they were friends just for the mission's sake?

"Iruka-san!" Someone came through the window again. For a moment, Iruka's heart started to beat faster, as he was thinking Kakashi had come back to say that they should get some ramen- but it was Asuma. At first sight it looked as if the Jounin had something urgent to say, but when Iruka looked closer, he noticed he was laughing and grinning. "Come quickly, Kakashi-san's apartment! It's-it's-" he laughed again. Iruka frowned- would the man just hurry up and tell him what was going on? "- its burned to the ground!"

"What?" Iruka didn't seem to think it was that funny. Not at all, actually (though it did seem an appropriate punishment for his actions, an inner- Iruka thought). The Jounin couldn't stop laughing, and Iruka thought it was getting pretty annoying.

"Yeah," he said between laughs. "You- you should come- you should come and see it!" He was still laughing, and grabbed Iruka's arm and jumped out of the window, taking Iruka with him. Iruka wanted to see this too- not that he thought it was funny, but he just wanted to… gloat. A little.

When they arrived at Kakashi's apartment, half the village already stood around the apartment. Some were helping with moving some junk out of the way and even the Hokage had come to take a look. Asuma and Iruka pushed themselves through the crowd so they could stand in front to see the people who lived there. Kakashi was there, of course, and four other people were standing in front of the complete mess that was once their home, looking accusingly at Kakashi, who looked horrified. Asuma chuckled.

"You see, it was actually Kakashi's fault," he said, grinning. "He was cooking and then he had gone out of the house, forgetting he left the stove on, so it caught flames. By the time anyone noticed there was a fire, it was already too late!" He laughed again. "Not only that- do you see the look on his face?" Iruka quickly glanced at the Jounin, who was staring at the pile and nodded- he looked like he was going to be sick. "His precious Icha Icha novels were in the apartment and got burned along with it!" Iruka couldn't fight back a chuckle this time- he always knew Kakashi would somehow get punished for reading those filthy porn novels. Though one look at the face of Kakashi, made him regret the fact he laughed at this- he really did look quite depressed about it. Maybe he could buy him another book?

Iruka walked up to him, really not knowing what he would say when he got there- he was mad at him, but he doubted Kakashi would get happier if Iruka started a fight with him right now. "Kakashi?" he asked him. Kakashi merely looked at him. "I, eh… heard what happened to your books," he turned a bit red now- even the thought of those books made him blush. Damn, he's cute when he blushes like that. Ok, so Kakashi wasn't that shaken up over his books- in fact, with Iruka standing in front of him, he could hardly even think about that. He felt regret for saying the things he said to him, but was still scared. And even though he had acted like a jerk in the man's house, the Chuunin had still come and watch him, looking sincerely concerned about him. He didn't know what to do.

"Everybody who lived in this building, will you please come here for a moment?" Tsunade said loud enough, so everyone could hear it. Kakashi quickly nodded to Iruka, before turning away from him. Iruka went back to Asuma, who had gone back to laughing again. "Alright," she said, looking at the five people who had gathered around her. "Let me first say how deeply sorry I am for this," she looked angrily at Kakashi, who blushed slightly behind his mask. "Of course, I've already arranged for temporary apartments, that the village will pay for, though there is a slight problem. We only have enough for four people, so one of you will have to stay with someone." Several people mumbled something. "Kakashi? How about you?"

"What? Why me?" He replied- he didn't even know who to stay with, so how could he?

"Because you're the one who caused this mess and I don't want other people to pay even more because of your stupidity!" She barked, her temper rising a bit.

"But I don't know-" He started, before getting interrupted by her.

"I don't care who it is, but we can't provide any shelter for you. How about Iruka? I'm sure he's willing to share his apartment with you." Iruka? Now there was an interesting thought, maybe he could sleep in Iruka's bed and- No, wait, he couldn't think like that. He couldn't see him anymore, that's what he had said to him.

"I don't think that's-" he started again.

"Iruka!" She interrupted him again. He really hated that. It took Iruka 2 seconds to get to the Hokage (after all, she was really scary when she yelled like that) and looked curiously at Tsunade. "Since Kakashi here was responsible for this mess, I've decided he should stay with you until the apartments get rebuild, which should take about three weeks." Iruka was about to object to this (why did he have to pay for Kakashi's clumsiness as well? It didn't seem fair), but even before he could say anything, the Hokage gave him a foul look which would make anyone cringe. All right, so he wouldn't object. "Good," she turned to the others. "If you would follow Shizune, she will take you all to your new apartments. We'll have this rebuild in no time, there are already a dozen volunteers willing to work on it, so it shouldn't take long." After that, she quickly ran to her office. There were still two-thousand things to do.

Kakashi smiled nervously. "So- eh… I can cook if you want!" Iruka glanced at him, before turning around and passing Asuma, who was still laughing. Kakashi walked after him, hands in his pocket.