Disclaimer: Naruto and all it's characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto-sensei, not me!
Warning: Yaoi!
The next day was a typical day. Kakashi got up, went through his morning rituals and headed over, three hours late, to train and go on a mission or two with his team. Soon enough their missions were finished and the reports written up, Kakashi sent Sakura to hand them in and he headed on his way.
He tried desperately to avoid the missions room, he wanted to stick to giving Iruka the room he needed and ended up peering in the missions room window to secretly watch the chuunin. He sighed in relief when Iruka came into view, like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. The jounin watched as the object of his affections smiled at his pink haired student. Suddenly a hand landed on his shoulder and he jumped, startled.
"What are you doing?" Gai asked, looking at him suspiciously.
"Hmm? Me? I wasn't doing anything." Kakashi turned back to face the green beast, his expression blank.
"Ah, sure you weren't!" He laughed heartily and turned away a moment, clenching his hands into fists, fire blazing in his eyes. 'Damn you Kakashi! I know you're spying on Iruka-sensei and you just reply with that hip and modern attitude!' He spun around suddenly, eyes wide in mock horror. His eyes locked on the window, "Iruka-sensei!"
Kakashi whirled around, panic visible in his eye. "What!" Iruka wasn't at the window, but still at his desk happily working away. The silver haired man glared over his shoulder. Gai chuckled.
"Is there some reason you don't want him to see you doing nothing?" Gai asked with a wink. Kakashi's glared intensified, 'Damn him for being so perceptive.'
"No." He stood calmly on the branch. "Did you want something?"
"Well, I just wanted to tell you that I still have feelings for you, even if I'm courting another!" He posed dramatically, "But if ever you change your mind I will be there!"
"Oh?" Kakashi's eye lit up. Iruka's advice was working better then he had hoped. Thinking back on it if he would have been cruel to Gai and basically broken the other man's heart as he had originally wanted to then Gai would have never been interested in anyone else so soon. And Kakashi would have been stuck with a desperate man longer.
"Yes! I've noticed a lovely youthful woman recently watching me! She seems interested!" He grinned, glint shining even in the shadow of the tree they were standing in. Kakashi forced a grin and patted the other man on the arm.
"Good for you! Now if you'll excuse me I have to make sure Iruka-sensei doesn't get attacked by the rogue ninja kittens. So bye." He made shooing motions with his hands.
"Right! Protect our fellow youthful shinobi in their times of need!" Gai dashed off, probably to 'court' the woman he was speaking of.
Kakashi turned his attention back to Iruka who was still working quietly at his desk. The jounin sighed dejectedly. How could he give Iruka the space he needed when he couldn't even go a day without desperately wanting to at least see the chuunin. He watched, entranced as someone arrived to hand in a mission report and ended up surprising Iruka. He had been working intently, too distracted to notice the shinobi walk in. He sighed sadly, watching those cheeks he longed to hold turn pink in embarrassment.
Iruka apologized and accepted the mission report, smiling and laughing at his own embarrassment. Kakashi leaned both arms on the sill outside the window, sitting with either leg on each side of the branch he was on. He swung them childishly. He noticed how Iruka would check the clock anxiously every so often. He rose a brow in confusion, the jounin knew Iruka never had anything to be on time for outside of his work besides his lunches with Naruto. And Naruto was so tired after the missions that he went straight home.
Soon enough Iruka's shift was over and he headed out, walking quickly. Kakashi watched him for a moment before realizing what time it was. He was supposed to meet that mystery person in a few minutes! He went home to change his uniform to a new one. Naruto had fallen out of a tree and landed on him and he knew that he smelt like ramen now. He took a shower, knowing that he was probably making whoever it was wait for him.
He walked at his usual leisurely pace to the restaurant. He was already ten minutes late, surely whoever it was knew about his habits. So they would be patiently waiting for him, he had no worries about missing him.
The restaurant was a very popular one. Popular among aspiring couple at least. The tables were set up for maximum romantic atmosphere. Whoever this mystery fellow was, Kakashi was hoping is wasn't Gai, was into him. He'd just have to tell them he was interested. The note had mentioned that there were reservations made and to just state his name to the host. The host, a young woman, greeted him at the door.
"Welcome, Do you have reservations?" She asked with a giggle.
"Hatake Kakashi." He replied, following the note's orders. She beamed at him.
"Right this way!" She led him to a table by a window near the front. He could see a tuft of brown hair over the plant dividers. He sat down across from the other man only to discover he already knew him. It was Iruka.
"You're Shinbo!" Iruka blurted, his eyes wide.
"Huh?" Kakashi stared at him confused.
"You, oh you sneaky bastard!" Iruka's eye twitched.
"What?" Kakashi shook his head, "I was supposed to meet some person named Shinbo here.
"Ooooh sure! This was probably some elaborate scheme to get me on a date with you!" He glared at the jounin.
"What? No! I received a note from an ANBU to meet Shinbo here." Kakashi shot back indignantly.
"What? An ANBU gave me the note as well." Iruka blinked.
"I think we've been had." Kakashi said ominously. 'Tsunade-sama!'
"Who would want to set us..on...a...oh." Iruka finally caught up. He was once again hit with the fact that he'd been giving advice to Kakashi on how the jounin could win him over. And Tsunade was trying to set them up! "Tsunade-sama! Ugh."
"Mm." Kakashi nodded while Iruka buried his head in his hands. "Well as long as we're here I might as well treat you to dinner."
"Uh?" Iruka looked up in surprise. The jounin was looking off to the side, anywhere but at Iruka. What was visible of his cheek was pink. Iruka felt a pang of guilt and that strange feeling. He wanted to groan but the guilt made him reply instead, "Oh, thank you."
"No problem." Kakashi gazed at the other man, beaming at his red face. 'Your plan, however obvious went swimmingly, Tsunade-sama.'
They ordered their meals and talked, Kakashi felt like he was going to explode with happiness. Although he didn't show it. Iruka reveled in the comfort of being with his friend again, he hoped desperately that Kakashi wouldn't mention his avoidance.
"Naruto you idiot, that's not how it goes!" Sakura bellowed, hitting the blonde over the head.
"Ouch...Sakura-chan!" Naruto glared at the pink haired girl.
"Look over there." Sasuke said suddenly, pointing to the nearby restaurant. "Kakashi-sensei."
"Hm?" They looked to where he was pointing and sure enough there was Kakashi. The couldn't see much through the window, Kakashi was sitting at a table with another person but they couldn't see who.
"He's on a date!" Sakura exclaimed with a squeal, as much as Kakashi disturbed her he was still her sensei and she was still happy for him. "Who's his date?"
"Let's go see." They followed Sasuke to the window and Sakura peered in. She gaped into the window a moment before ducking.
"It's Iruka-sensei!" She said and the boys scrambled to see as well. Once confirmed they sat below the window sill with blank expressions. "That was...unexpected."
"Mm." They agreed. Suddenly they heard footsteps behind them, they froze. The footsteps came closer and stopped.
"What are you three doing?" Iruka asked, having just come from the restaurant. Kakashi was standing silently behind him, a curious look on his face.
"Uh, well. Um..n-n-nothing! Nothing at all!" Sakura stuttered, smiling hugely and waving a hand.
"R-r-right, we weren't spying on you and Kakashi-sensei at all..Ouch!" Naruto landed face first on the ground, Sakura standing over him with her fist clenched.
"Idiot!" She yelled, Sasuke stared blankly at his former teacher, who had gone red in the face.
"What?" He blurted. "Kakashi-sensei and I aren't...er It's not what it looks like!"
"We're just friends." Kakashi cleared up, his voice sounding a slight bit off.
"Then what were you doing in that restaurant?" Naruto asked confused. Iruka smacked himself on the forehead.
"Tsunade-sama is interfering." Kakashi replied with an air of finality. The genin nodded in understanding even though Naruto had no idea what he meant by that.
"We're sorry Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said with a sugary voice. Sasuke twitched and began walking away, the other two genin hurried after him calling good-byes to the teachers.
"So, Iruka-sensei." Kakashi began.
"Hm?" Iruka turned to face the silver haired man.
"Are you going to keep avoiding me?" He asked with a neutral tone, Iruka cringed.
"I, uh...well."
"I see. It's alright, I'll stay away." Kakashi sighed, "Good-bye, Iruka-sensei."
"Kakashi-sensei, wait." Iruka said, but it was too late. Kakashi disappeared with a silent poof. "Damn it, I didn't mean..." Iruka glared at the spot the jounin had just been.. He rolled his eyes at himself and walked home. Kakashi complicated everything. Messing you up was what he did best, Iruka guessed.
Iruka thought back to days before, when he wasn't friends with Kakashi and his life was normal. When it came to romance, he'd always assumed he was going to find a nice homely woman, get married and have a couple kids. He'd always assumed that was the way is was going to be, that was what was expected of him, right? When he thought about it, he never really wanted kids, he had enough at the academy. He'd never been interested in women either, not since he'd been on a genin team.
Iruka groaned, entering h is home and sitting down on the couch. He thought he'd had everything thought out. Now his world was being turned upside down, it was because of Kakashi. What did he feel for Kakashi? He was his friend, his best friend really. Iruka hadn't had anything but friendly acquaintances since he was young. He liked being with Kakashi, and this last week when he'd been avoiding the jounin, he'd missed him a lot more then he thought he would.
"I can't keep avoiding him, I've been selfish. Just because I'm confused doesn't mean I should confuse him. I'll search him out tomorrow and ask him over for dinner." Iruka said out loud to himself. He felt lighthearted then and went to bed with a smile.
AHA! Only one more week and then I can hermit myself away and type these stories all day! XD That is my second rhyme today! o.O ANYways, I hope you liked this chapter, I would have had it out yesterday but my friend Thomas came over and yeah...I had only had a couple paragraphs to go too! Yep, so next few days I'm writing my exams. Ugh, and I've got a project due, so I'm pretty sure I'll be late with the next chapter. Thank you for reading, now review :)