Alright took me awhile but I finally got this chapter finished.

Disclaimer:I Don't Own Naruto!

The rest of the day went by rather quitely. While Iruka and Kakashi worked on their project, with Iruka doing all the talking and Kakashi making noncommittal grunts every once in awhile, Naruto played all the old video games that Kakashi hadn't touched in years.

Kakashi glanced over to where the boy was completely absorbed in the low-tech graphics and couldn't help but remember the last time he played them.

Obito had challenged him to a game of Mortal Kombat, Kakashi had grudgingly accepted, already knowing the outcome. He had won, like always, and like always Obito tried to beat him up in real life. Arashi had come in and seperated them, then Kei had hit them both on their heads for acting like idiots.

He couldn't help feeling the pain that remembering always caused, which inevitably lead to the guilt. Why had he survived and the others hadn't? Why couldn't he have died with them? The only conclusion he could ever draw from this line of thinking was that fate was a real bitch.

"…Ashi? Are you alright?" Iruka's voice broke into his thoughts.

Kakashi shrugged and turned back their work. Iruka had insisted that they work in the same room as Naruto so he could keep an eye him, as it was a rather large house and he didn't want the boy getting into anything he wasn't supposed to.

It was just starting to get dark when Tsunade and her assistant Shizune came downstairs. "Well congratulations Kakashi you're the proud new owner of five baby puppies!" The blonde woman beamed.

Naruto bolted to his feet. "Yay Puppies!" He screamed. "Can I see them? Can I, can I, can I?"

Tsunade grabbed his shirt as he tried to run past her to the stairs. "Not now kid, later."

"We'd better be heading home anyways Naruto." Iruka said as he stood and stretched.

"Did you dive here?" Shizune asked.

"No, walked." Iruka replied as he tried to remember where he'd left his coat.

Tsunade crossed her arms and glared at him. "While you not walking at this time of night or in this weather." The snow falling outside had thickened considerably. "I'd give you a ride but my car's only a two seater. So you'll have to stay the night here."

"Oh I wouldn't want to impose on Kakashi." Iruka said.

"I don't take no for an answer young man." The bonde woman growled. "Just ask Kakashi."

Iruka turned to where Kakashi had been seated, had been seated. He was now nowhere to be seen.

"Well okay, bad example, but I still don't take no for an answer." Tsunade said as she walked off in search of the silver haired teen to inform him of his guests, leaving Iruka, Naruto, and Shizune alone.

"Why doesn't Kakashi like me?" Naruto asked abruptly.

"Oh I'm sure Kakashi like you just fine, Naruto." Iruka ruffled his little brother's hair.

Naruto growled and slapped at the offending hand. "Then why does he keep looking at me funny?"

"Because you remind him of somebody he once knew." Shizune spoke softly. "You remind us all of him."

Tsunade found Kakashi in the study inspecting the puppies. "Fine pups, are you going to keep any of them?" She asked.

Kakashi shrugged.

"I'm having Iruka and Naruto stay here for the night. It's snowing heavily, my car only has two seats, and only your motorcycle is running properly." She informed him.

Kakashi shrugged again.

"It hurts looking at that boy doesn't it?" When he didn't answer she continued. "Ever since I saw him I've been trying to figure out if Arashi was seeing anyone back then." Even from behind she could see him wince at the name. "Of course even a one night stand can produce a child." She paused. "It also could just be a coincidence."

She stepped foreward and wrapped her arms around him. Kakashi's only response was to tilt his head back slightly. "Now make sure that two of the guest rooms have bedding and the heat turned up." She murmerd. "And be a good host and cook them dinner." She let him go and walked out of the room.

Kakashi listened as she walked down the hall and to the stairs. He'd never admit it but she and Jiraiya were probably the only thing that kept him from suicide all those years ago. For the first few months when he got out of the hospital he was never left alone for more than a second, one of them had always been there.

He'd never really known them before, they were friends of Arashi, and he had only met them on a few different occasions. Now they were as close to him as he allowed anyone.

He didn't have a very good track record with people he let get close to him. They all eventually left him one way or another. His mother had left him when he was very young, just four, and he only just vaguely remembered her face. His father lasted longer, he was a homicide detective. He didn't remember exactly what happened but eventually the man he loved respected ate his own bullet. After that, at the age of eight, he lived on the streets where he meet Obito and Kei, the three of them became best friends and were eventually adopted by Arashi not more than a year later, the rest is history.

Kakashi left the study to prepare two of the abandoned rooms for habitation.

After making sure the beds were made and the heat turned up he made his way back down stairs to see what his guest were up to.

When Tsunade and Shizune left. Iruka started picking up all the papers and books he and Kakashi had been using and told Naruto to put the video games away.

"Now I can see the puppies later, huh Iruka?" Naruto grinned at his brother.

Iruka chuckled. "I suppose so, but only if it's alright with Kakashi."

Kakashi was standing just around the corner, listening to the brothers talk about the puppies. Mostly it was Naruto doing the talking, trying to convince Iruka to let him keep one.

"Even if Kakashi is selling them, we live in an apartment, Naruto. That's not the ideal environment for a dog." Iruka argued. "Plus, Aunt Kaya has a cat."

"The cat's evil!" Naruto whined.

The corners of Kakashi's lip twitched up a bit. In his opinion cats were the vilest creatures known to man. Both Arashi and Obito had been allergic to cats.

"Once I get a job and our own place to live, I'll get you a dog, okay?" Iruka said.

"When will that be?" Naruto asked.

Iruka sighed. "Hopefully soon."

Kakashi pushed away from the wall and walked to the kitchen to see what Jiraiya had bought him. The old man usually got things that didn't take much effort to make, but they were always somewhat healthy. The first time he had bought Kakashi food it had been nothing but TV dinners, microwave popcorn, and junk food. Tsunade had bashed him over the head with a TV dinner and made him go back to the store. Since then most of it had at least a little nutritional value with the occasonal package of cookies hidden from the wrath of Tsunade.

He pulled open the fridge. Milk, eggs, juice, vegetabales, fruit, and behind all that was a small piece of cake in a clear plastic container. In the freezer was meat, french fries, a few bags of frozen stir-fry mix, and ice cream. He pulled out a bag of the stir-fry mix.

After a brief search through the cupboards he found some rice, then got out a pot and a frying pan, and began to cook.

Naruto had taken it upon himself to explore the large house while both his brother was still cleaning up and the weird silver haired one was in the kitchen. If he happened to come across the puppies in his expedition, who was he not to take a quick peek? It couldn't hurt.

He started with the very top floor. There wasn't much, just a lot of old junk with sheets thrown over it all. Every room he went into was cold and dark. It was a lot like a horror movie. One room was cluttered with papers and jam packed filing cabinets, there was a desk at the far end that was stacked nearly to the ceiling with file folders.

Giving up the third floor as a lost and boring cause he moved back down to the second floor.

The first room he looked in was obviously meant for a girl. Didn't Iruka mention that Kakashi lived alone? But this room looked like it's occupant would return at any moment, the bed wasn't made, there were clothes on the floor, there was even a half eaten candy bar on the night stand. Like all the other rooms he'd looked into this one was also cold and dark. To Naruto, it seemed lonely.

He silently shut the door and moved on to the room across the hall. This one was a lot tidier. The large king size bed was made, there was nothing on the floor, even the picture frames on the dresser were organized from smallest to largest. The only thing that looked out of place was a tuxedo lying on the bed like someone was getting ready to put it on and go somwhere important. Naruto briefly wondered if all the rooms in this house would be like this, lonely, and waiting for its occupant to return.

The next room he looked into was a bathroom, just a plain ordinary bathroom. He was almost relieved.

In the next room he reached his true goal, the puppies! He was glad he wasn't going to look into anymore lonely rooms.

In the study there was only the Mommy doggie, her puppies and that old pug that had always been next to Kakashi. "Hi, I'm just gonna have a quick peek okay?" He said.

"No your not young man you're going to get your little butt back downstairs!" An angry voice said right behind him.

The little blonde jumped and spun around to come face to stomach with his older brother, and it was a very angry looking stomach.

"Now!" Iruka growled.

Naruto meeped and ran for his life. He ran strait down the stairs and into the kitchen where slammed right into the biggest rottweiler he'd ever seen. He was sure it wasn't that big when he had been hiding behind Iruka.

The dog looked at him for a moment before leaning down to lick him on the face.

Kakashi had finished setting the food out on the table and had come back into the kitchen to get the salt and pepper. He stopped at the door to watch his largest dog, Brux, give Naruto a bath in drool.

"Naruto." Iruka called as he came up behind Kakashi.

Kakashi sidestepped to let the slightly shorter boy through.

"Quite playing with the dog and wash you hands." Iruka turned to Kakashi. "Can I use you phone to call our Aunt? She's probably worried about us."

Kakashi nodded slightly and pointed to the far wall of the kitchen.

"Yeah right." Naruto complained as he stood on his toes in front of the sink to reach the water.

Kakashi grabbed the salt and pepper shakers and went back to the dining room with Brux and then Naruto trailing behind him.

Two dogs had already made their way into the dining room and were patiently awaiting table scraps, Brux went to join them.

The table was large, seating eight, three on each side and one on each end. Kakashi sat alone on one side and Naruto took a seat opposite him leaving the seat to his left open for his brother.

The two stared at each other. "How come your house is so lonely?" Naruto asked bluntly.

"Naruto eat your food." Iruka said as he walked in and took his seat.

After Kakashi had eaten all he wanted he began tossing pieces to the three dogs, none of the others had come.

Naruto also started to toss his carrots to the dogs until Iruka told him to stop and eat his food.

"But he's feeding them." Naruto pointed an accusing finger at the silver haired teen across from him who just tossed the last piece to Brux.

"Well they're his dogs, this is his house, and I'm not his older brother. Now finish your dinner." Iruka said sternly.

The rest of the dinner went by quietly. Kakashi had taken his plate into the kitchen and had gone upstairs to inspect the puppies once more, leaving the brothers to finish their meal by themselves.

After carefully examining each puppy, Kakashi had decided that two of them looked like Brux, one looked like Shanks, one like Neko, and the last one, the runt, looked like Khaos.

This was Neko's third litter. He'd probably sell all but the runt, then get Neko fixed. Kiko was already fixed, she had been one of Arashi's original dogs. The rest were male, of which only the three he had taken in after that night weren't fixed.

He found taking them to the vet was a real hassle when he was under age so he never went unless the dogs needed care beyond which Tsunade could provide, which had only happened once.

Back in the dining room Iruka and Naruto had finished their food and were washing the dishes.

"Why do we have to wash his dishes?" Naruto whined.

"Because we're his guests, so quite complaining and start drying. Besides, you're going to bed once we're finished here." Iruka informed his brother sweetly.

"What! Why?" The little blonde yelled.

"For snooping around someone elses house for starters" Iruka said.

Naruto grumbled something under his breath and continued to dry.

After they'd cleaned, dryed, and put away everything used for dinner Iruka dragged Naruto upstairs.

Kakashi was just leaving the study when Iruka reached the top of the stairs with a very disgruntled little blonde in tow.

"Where will we be sleeping?" Iruka asked. "Naruto will be going to bed early."

The silver haired teen turned down the hall and beckoned them to follow him. He stopped and opened a door, then the one across the hall from it, and pointed into both of them.

Iruka looked into them before giving Naruto a little push into the one Kakashi had first opened.

Kakashi went back downstairs intending to wash the dishes. He was mildly surprised to find them done already. The table was cleared and the leftover food was put away. What teenager cleans up at somebody elses house?

He refilled the dog bowels with food and water before flopping down on the couch to watch Tv. He had never really found Tv all that entertaining, but every once in a while a documentary would catch his interest. Tonight he lucked out, there was one on lemmings.

After much work, and threats, Iruka had been able to get Naruto to stay in bed. Then he wandered downstairs where he was sure Kakashi had gone. The silver haired boy intrigued him, here he was under the assumption that he'd never spoken a word since that incident, and then he goes and speaks, granted not that much, but he still spoke.

Iruka wanted get to know the other boy better. It seemed to him that they were a lot alike yet completely different. They both had people they loved taken away from them but they delt with it in different ways. Mabey he'd be more introverted like Kakashi if he didn't have Naruto to take care of. Or Kakashi more like him if he had someone to take care of.

He found Kakashi watching Tv. "Mind if I join you?" He asked.

Kakashi motioned to the couch without taking his eyes off the suicidal little creatures on the screen.

"Is this all you do on Saturday nights?" The brunette asked.

This time Kakashi did look away from the sceen, it was a commercial break anyways. He shrugged but continued to stare at the other boy.

It probably wasn't the most polite question to ask and now he was starting to get a bit fidgety under gaze of the others dual colored eyes. "Uh, sorry that was kind of rude of me to ask." Iruka scratched at the bridge of his nose sheepishly.

Kakashi merely shrugged and flicked his earrings a bit.

Iruka sighed. "I mean, we're going to be working together for the next month. So I just wanted to get to know you better, mabey become friends."

Kakashi blinked. Why would Iruka want to be friends with him? Didn't the whole no talking thing drive people away? Though he hadn't really been sticking to it much lately. Must've been that blonde boy. He just threw him off, looking so much like Arashi, threw Jiraiya off too, didn't throw Tsunade off, but then there's not really all that much that does throw her off, except mabey that night.

It seemed to Iruka that Kakashi had spaced off. Though he was staring right at him, he had this sort of far off look. Should he snap his fingers in front of his face? Pinch him mabey? His mischievous inn self told him to lean forward and kiss him, that outta snap him out of it!

Instead he settled for snapping his fingers. Kakashi blinked and twitched a bit. The far off look was gone. "You know you tend to space off an awful lot." Iruka informed his silver haired host.

Kakashi rubbed his left eye. "Sorry." He mumbled. Then turned back to the Tv, the commercial break had ended.

Iruka sighed again. This is going to be a fun month. He thought sarcastically. Mabey I should just say something completely off the wall and see how he reacts. If he reacts. He smirked. Now what to say.

He discreetly watched the other teen out of the corner of his eye. Kakashi sat watching the Tv, one hand holding the remote, the other resting on his thigh. Slouched into the couch, perfectly relaxed. And hot! That's it!

He turned so he was sitting facing Kakashi. "You know you're really hot." Iruka said smirking slightly.

Kakashi turned his head and reguarded the other boredly. "I'm perfectly aware of that, thank you. You're not so bad yourself." He said neutrally then turned back to the Tv.

Iruka was only tripped up for a moment. "So, are you into guys or are you just repaying the complement?" Mabey this will be fun. He smirked.

The silver haired boy tilted his head back without taking his eyes off the screen. "I'm into anything of the human variety." He said, still keeping his voice neutral. "That is, if they can make it worth my while." He added. Bigger men have tried and failed to trip me up Iruka. He thought. Though he was loathed to admit it, part of him was having fun, nobody had ever continued with this tactic after he had calmy shot them down. The question was, what's Iruka really after? Mabey he should go on the offensive.

Iruka could think of many things to say to that but didn't get the chance.

Kakashi turned to Iruka. "You wanna go have sex?" He asked, perfectly serious.

A/N

Probably shouldn't have ended it there but I figured that since this is most likely my longest chapter yet, I could get away with it
Just so you know Kei is Rin in this story. I started this before Kakashi Gaiden and I don't feel like going back and changing it. I'm not sure if anybody else does this, but when I'm bored I flick my earrings (Provided I'm wearing earrings.) So I made Kakashi do the same thing

Not Really all that much IruKaka like I said I'd write, sorry. They are flirting however. And I had to make Kakashi talk a little more than usual because there's only so much flirting one can do without talking.

Review Please!