AN: Okay, I really shouldn't be posting this yet because I haven't had it properly beta'd but I just can't wait any longer. And I'm probably screwing myself over because I don't want to stick myself with this plot but I've already done it so you all best appreciate it.
This fic is officially IN PROGRESS!
Oh, and I just started up a fanfic blog. I'll be posting things I'm working on there. Hopefully I'll get a bit of a following who will help me with ideas and the such. My blog is at http : // notmyfiction . blogspot . com /
You know the drill, just remove the spaces. (And no, there is no www, it just starts as notmyfiction).
Iruka didn't think of the kiss while he was wrestling with Kotetsu. It was probably for the best, because ten seconds in and Izumo had launched himself on top of the two. The other chuunin went back to their training (Although, thinking back, Iruka was sure they were really spreading the news as far as possible because there really is no such thing as secrets in a village of ninja. They were all such gossips). Anko spent a few minutes cheering on the fight before she, too, got bored with it.
Iruka was winning and that really was no fun for her.
Eventually, the fight fizzled out. It became less real after Izumo joined in anyway; the other two didn't want to hurt Iruka, after all, even if at first he wanted to hurt them.
In the end, they were reduced to a pile of laughing teenage boys. Iruka pushed himself up and found that he was now on the bottom of the pile. Jabbing Kotetsu in the ribs with his elbow, he got up.
"Now, Iruka, have you got that out of your system?"
The teen snorted.
"If you two don't tell the other chuunin that I completed the third task, I'm telling your parents that you guys are using your training time to 'get to know' each other better."
Kotetsu's jaw dropped, the boy apparently speechless while Izumo spluttered, "That only happened once!"
"Whatever. I have to get home. Apparently, I need to put an ANBU mask back together." He sighed, picking up the discarded shuriken pouch. "Wish I knew what it had looked like before I broke it."
"Man, I can't believe you broke Kakashi Hatake's mask!" Izumo whistled. Iruka couldn't help but notice how different it was from Kakashi's. Didn't sound at all like a howl. "How'd you manage that?"
"Threw a kunai at him," was all Iruka gave in way of explanation.
He left them then to ponder that statement.
Iruka didn't think about the kiss on the way home, either. The journey was delayed by having to stop to buy super glue and something to eat for dinner, but all too quickly he had what was probably hundreds of shards of porcelain spread across his table.
This was going to take hours.
It took all his concentration to fit the small ceramic bits together, so he didn't think about the kiss then either. It really was hard to put together a puzzle without a picture of what it is supposed to look like - it probably didn't help that all of the pieces wanted to fit together, either.
Afterwards, he was tired and hungry (it had been a rather eventful day, after all) and his brain couldn't be bothered with anything other than food or sleep.
He did have to think about it when his sleep was interrupted by his bedroom window slidding open.
"Is a kunai to the face your go to move?"
"I don't expect to be attacked this often by the same person," Iruka explained, throwing his pillow at the Copy Nin instead.
The man easily caught that too. Unlike the kunai, which he stabbed into the window sill were several other sharp objects resided, Kakashi tossed the pillow back onto the bed before flopping down next to Iruka. The teen, in the meantime, had buried his face in his other pillow.
"So, how's my mask looking?" Kakashi asked, putting his arms behind his head and getting comfortable.
"You know, I thought it would be different, meeting one of Konoha's legends. It's really just annoying and kind of tiring."
"You left out sexy."
Iruka propped himself up so he could look down at the man. He had changed into the generic uniform worn by many chuunin and jounin. Iruka imagined someday he would wear it, but he couldn't bring himself to give up the t-shirts and mesh of his academy days quite yet.
At some point after entering the bedroom Kakashi had pulled down his mask, but that didn't impress Iruka all that much. He had only known the man for six hours, after all, and half the time they were face to face, his mask was down anyway.
His face annoyed Iruka right now.
"Is this what you do? Meet young ninja and take advantage of their inexperience so you can harass them?"
"Helps if they're orphans that live by themselves."
Iruka, for once, didn't rise to the bait. It took all his self control and stuffing his face into the pillow, of course. There might have been screaming into the plush object, but that wasn't important.
He wasn't as angry after that, and he chanced propping himself back up.
Kakashi was grinning.
Iruka decided to ignore their previous topic.
"Your mask is out on the table in the kitchen. Not sure if it's good as new, considering I didn't know what it was supposed to look like, but it's put together."
"I'm sure you did as well as can be expected. I mean, I would have just stolen someone else's by now anyway." The Copy Nin's grin widened. "You're saving me a lot of work, little Iruka."
"Little?! You can't be more than two years older than me!"
"Actually," Kakashi said, looking up thoughtfully, "unless I'm wrong, which I absolutely never am, I'm four years older than you. And, considering I've been a chuunin for seven years, I could argue that I am in fact, seven years older in maturity."
Iruka couldn't help but snort.
"You must mean maturity in the respect to being a ninja, because you're acting like a boy with a school yard crus- OW!"
Chocolate brown eyes stared down at the man, disbelief dancing below the surface.
"Did you just pull my hair?" Iruka asked slowly, voice very strained.
"You were saying that I was acting like a boy with a school yard crush," Kakashi explained gleefully. "I just thought I'd agree with you. You know, play along."
"Play along."
Iruka stared at him, long and hard, before sighing.
"You want something from me, don't you?"
"Now, why would you think that Iruka?"
His single black eye curved happily, though, telling Iruka he had come to the correct conclusion.
"Because you're apparently a manipulative jerk."
With that, he shoved the man off the bed. Kakashi dodged the shove, of course, but the end result was the same. The man stood by the door leading out to the rest of the apartment, waiting.
Iruka got up, walking toward the doorway and pretending to ignore the man standing in it.
His intention was to shoulder past the man to show his irritation. Kakashi, in his completely inappropriate and unfunny humor, decided it would be best to not let him get away with this. Iruka found himself bouncing backwards as if the man before him had been a wall.
Oh, that was it.
The chuunin dropped to the floor, kicking out at the man. Kakashi, of course, dodged again. The point, however, was that in dodging he left the room.
Iruka bolted after him, feinting to the left, feinting to the right, before finally leaping at Kakashi head on.
The ANBU would have seen this a mile off, but the point wasn't to tackle the man.
Kakashi didn't want to hurt Iruka, after all. So Iruka knew exactly how he would react.
The chuunin was flipped onto his small couch. Which promptly disappeared into a puff of smoke.
That surprised the ANBU.
He looked around, closing his natural eye as he lifted his headband to scan the small apartment with his Sharingan.
"Iruka?" Kakashi called out, turning away from where the little couch had been. "Iruka, we really shouldn't fight. I'm going to win. It's not at all fair."
"Don't know about that," said a voice to his right.
The man turned to see Iruka standing in the doorway to what had to be the bathroom.
"I seem to have thrown you for a loop. I say this one goes to me," he explained, stretching and looking far too smug for his age and station. "I made you use your Sharingan after all."
Iruka, despite his smug look, was fighting the intense urge to twitch under that gaze.
He was pretty sure he just pissed off the Copy Nin, renowned for his genius.
And his insanity.