Ok, I know some people hate author's notes, but if all you read is just one section, take a look at the paragraph labeled (3) down at the bottom, please.

Once again, I am so happy with all the positive feedback! And it especially makes me happy when I notice people who come back chapter after chapter! Makes me feel like I'm doing something right.

I hope this chapter is good enough and long enough to tide you over for awhile. I worked many hours to get it up before I have to leave for camp (counseling little kids - fun times, yes?) Yeah, I would've felt really bad leaving this sit for a whole week more. Enthusiastic reviews make me feel guilty.

Iruka was a mess.

That was an understatement. Iruka was a horrible blob of discombobulated thoughts with terrible tremors barely allowing him to make his way to the bathroom to clean up and change his pants.

He had to get that mission scroll back. Kakashi was probably already upset with Iruka for leaving him hot and bothered. What would his reaction be if he found out that Iruka was only using him to complete a mission? And that the results of their kiss(es) would be written down in a mission report? The private jounin would most likely not take too kindly to that. He would probably end up hating Iruka even more than before. Could it get any worse?

Iruka whined to himself, wondering how his relationship with the copy-ninja had gotten so screwed up. First, they had been building up a steady friendship, then the chuunin exams had thrown Kakashi into the mindset of detesting him for speaking out, then the jounin decided to harass Iruka on a daily basis by pretending that he was trying to make nice with him, and now… Iruka had just come from a forceful make-out session with him. Was Kakashi thinking he was now going to turn Iruka into his own personal screw-toy or something?

One could only imagine where the sharingan user would lead this relationship next - probably to Iruka's death if he found out he was being mocked by being a part of Iruka's depraved mission.

The teacher banged his head against the wall, quickly losing his normal demeanor of a well-composed shinobi. And he didn't think anyone could really blame him. It was only his first day of this stupid mission and he had already gotten himself in way over his head. And what was even worse was that he could think of only one way to get his own vest back from Kakashi.

Perhaps if he had had more time, Iruka could have thought up a better, more strategic, and far less dangerous plan… but as it was, he didn't even know if Kakashi hadn't already discovered the scroll. But if he hadn't, he needed to hurry up, because it wouldn't be long before he did. After all, Kakashi was almost addicted to his stupid Ichaicha Paradise novels. He wouldn't, or couldn't, go long without reaching into his pocket for one.

Finally cleaned up, with fresh clothes and headband on, and his hair neatly up again, Iruka locked eyes with his reflection in the bathroom mirror. "You're a shinobi, Iruka Umino. It doesn't matter what mission you are handed, you do everything in your power to complete it. And when it's in jeopardy, you put your life on the line to fix it… no matter what… No matter what… No matter what…" His posture slumped. "But dammit, this is just so humiliating!"

Kakashi hummed loudly, thoroughly enjoying his students' disturbed looks. According to Naruto, he was 'too damn happy', and Sasuke added that it meant he was 'probably planning something'. Sakura had merely made some remark about how his nose wasn't buried in its usual book – which was pretty much cause for concern all on its own. But Kakashi hadn't responded to any of these voiced-aloud thoughts from his trainees. And that scared them even more. Usually, their sensei would at least grace them with some line about how they were being too paranoid of their "trustworthy instructor". He wasn't even taking the time to lie to them today!

He hadn't even told them his excuse for being late! And that was strange. He had seemed so proud of himself when he first stepped into the clearing and announced that he had a good excuse for being late. But although his students glared at him expectantly, Kakashi had merely smiled wider and given them the day's task.

"But you didn't tell us why you're late, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto had a mixed look on his face between being pissed off and being shocked and curious.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Trust me; it's a good reason."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Why won't you tell us then? Maybe this time we'll actually believe you if it's so good." Despite the words, there was skepticism lacing her tone.

Kakashi merely smiled again and waggled a finger at his students. "Now, now. You're all wasting precious time that could be devoted to your mission. If you really want to waste time, I suppose we could all stay later into the night."

Naruto squeaked. He had plans with Iruka-sensei for ramen tonight! Nobody was going to deprive him of his Free Ramen Night! "Heh heh… we'll get right on it!"

As the blonde yanked up another piece of garbage from the lake they were supposed to be cleaning, he glanced back at Kakashi's jovial form lounging against a nearby tree. "You don't think that… maybe that's not really him, do you?" he whispered to Sakura a few feet away.

Sakura slipped on the mucky ground of the lake and successfully drenched everything but her hair before she was able to regain her footing. "Dammit, Naruto!" she hissed even though it wasn't his fault. "What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke quirked his head on the other side of the blonde boy.

"Come on, you guys!" Naruto proceeded to whisper frantically. "He's acting so weird! What if that's somebody pretending to be him?"

Sakura sighed. "Kakashi-sensei always acts weird, Naruto. And nothing strange in his chakra signature or appearance has indicated that it's anyone but him."

"She's right," Sasuke contributed, and then returned to his chore.

Naruto huffed. "Ok, so he always acts weird, but now he's acting… like… normal. Normal people go around smiling and humming. So he may be acting normal but that's weird for him cuz he usually acts weird and not normal!"

His two teammates blinked a bit, trying to process the boy's explanation. Finally, Sakura shook her head, annoyed, and glanced back at their sensei herself. "Maybe he's just happy, Naruto. Ever think of that? Maybe the reason he's so late is because something good happened to him on the way over."

"And that's another thing," the rambunctious ninja continued. "Why wouldn't he tell us why he was late? It's not like he ever tells us the truth anyway… why is today so different?"

Sakura ground her teeth together as she slipped again. It may not have been Naruto's fault, but he was the one who was speaking when her predicament was ticking her off, so the anger was to be pushed off onto him. She turned to him with a sharp look in her eye, but before the threatening words could cross her lips, a loud, booming laughter made all three trainees jump. They glanced back at Kakashi cautiously, as though he might go mad and attack them at any second.

But he merely leaned back against his tree and laughed to himself some more. Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "See? He's lost it!"

"A-HA-HA-HA-HA- Hey!" The three youngsters jerked out of their disturbed stare to catch their sensei staring right back. "Why aren't you three working?"

Sakura tittered nervously. "We are!" And with that, she reached over to smack Naruto into submission and get the two boys to keep looking busy.

A few moments later, Kakashi began humming again. He peeked over at his more-than-frightened-now students and shook slightly with silent laughter. There was actually no reason for him to be laughing. His students just looked so scared of him, he decided to throw that one in for kicks. Yes… he was in an easily amused mood today.

In fact, he was so easily amused – by his students, his surroundings, his own thoughts – that he hadn't even felt the need to pull out Ichaicha Paradise yet. He knew that wouldn't last much longer, but it was fun to see how long he could be content with simply replaying the scene in his apartment without having to resort to his written porn for pleasure. It was a good day for Kakashi Hatake…

At least… it was… until the unmistakable cry of "Springtime of Youth!" rang out through the forest. And he couldn't quite prepare himself for the drastic dip in his pleasant mood before none other than Gai Maito appeared before him in all his green spandex-y glory. "My Eternal Rival!" seemed to pop automatically out of his mouth. (Yet he could still do the Nice Guy Pose as he said those words – Kakashi could never quite figure that one out.)

Kakashi raised a lazy eye to him, his previous happy-go-lucky appearance gone in an instant. "Yo."

Gai looked put out. "Ah! My Eternal Rival! Hip and cool as always! Nothing sways you!"

Kakashi stared.

Gai ground his teeth together and fire flashed in his eyes. "But you shall soon be swayed by my awesomeness as I beat you in our next challenge!"

Kakashi raised an uninterested eyebrow. "I'm in the middle of training my team right now. Don't you have a team to be training?"

Gai blinked and turned to acknowledge the three students in the dirty lake water, looking at him as though he were from another planet. Usually, Gai did not pop up until after they left. They sometimes heard his shouts as they wandered away, but they were never so unlucky as to actually still be around when he made his dramatic appearance. "Training?"

"Working," Naruto grumped, being the only one who had already recovered from the eerie green-clad entrance.

"Work is training," Kakashi corrected his irate student.

Gai turned back to the other jounin. "Unlike you, Kakashi-sensei, I arrive on time to instruct my students. We're finished for the day."

Kakashi slowly glanced up at the sky. "Yes, I suppose it is fairly late afternoon, isn't it? I hadn't noticed."

"That's because you've been too busy being later than usual and acting creepy!" Naruto accused loudly.

Gai dropped his 'challenging' demeanor and looked at the silver-haired jounin with some concern. "Are you not feeling well, Kakashi? Has something happened?"

Kakashi could feel the muscles in his eye spasm. Normal Gai was bad enough, but literally normal Gai was completely awkward. "I'm fine," he droned, allowing some annoyed, just-drop-it tone to slip out. Gai still didn't look convinced, so Kakashi sighed and tried to turn his rival's attention away from the matter. "So…what's the challenge of the day?" Not that he really wanted to do anything but if it would keep Gai occupied…

The green-clad man instantly reverted back to his typical self and began shouting declarations of how he was going to pull ahead in the score again, since yesterday Kakashi had evened it out.

Kakashi leaned back against the tree with a worn-out 'thump'. So much for his good mood. Not that he hated Gai or anything… it was just that, Gai was no Iruka. And now Gai was rolling around inside his head instead of the academy teacher and throwing off Kakashi's previous perverted thoughts.

As the other jounin continued to ramble about beating Kakashi and trying to decide what their challenge should be this fine afternoon, Kakashi decided it was time to bust out the Ichaicha Paradise. It didn't seem as though Gai would be done with his speech any time soon.

Smiling slightly at the thought of his porn, and also feeling a small sense of pride in being able to avoid it this long by simply thinking of Iruka, Kakashi reached into the pocket that he had placed his book in earlier. His fingers had just brushed the edge of a sold object when -

"I'VE GOT IT!"

Kakashi found himself jumping slightly as Gai suddenly appeared in front of his face, an enthusiastic smile almost blinding everyone it turned on. Kakashi quirked an eyebrow.

"We shall have a swimming race!" Gai declared as though this was the greatest idea one had ever come up with.

"Swim?" Kakashi repeated.

Gai pointed to the lake behind him where the three students were still watching the whole scene with, what could only be described as, morbid curiosity. "Fifty laps around the lake! If I lose, I shall proceed to do three-hundred more laps!"

Kakashi pretended to contemplate this offer, though in reality he was simply thinking to himself how funny it was that if Gai lost a challenge, he gave himself a penalty while the same consequence was never applied to him. Of course, he wasn't quite as crazy as Gai was… at least, he liked to tell himself that. He pulled his hand from his pocket and stood, turning to his students first. "You three are free to go. Good job today." Then, without a word, he began stripping down to only his pants and mask, a silent acceptance of the challenge. Gai smiled wider – a physical impossibility had it been anyone else but Gai Maito.

Naruto bounded out of the lake as quickly as he could, Sasuke following at a slower pace, and Sakura behind them both. Naruto started to sing a made-up song about Ramen and Iruka-sensei and the joys of Free Ramen Night with said chuunin. Sakura was just about to smack him upside the head and tell him to shut up, but the words died in her throat as Kakashi-sensei stripped off his shirt. The pink-haired girl's hormonal teenage eyes stared without shame, not realizing that they were doing so. 'Whoa… and I thought Sasuke was the epitome of hot…'

"Sakura, what are you staring at?" Sakura snapped out of her daydream to find a quizzical Naruto right in front of her.

She blushed hotly. "Nothing! Get the hell away from me!" She punched him in the arm (Naruto squealed in pain), and stalked off, trying to rid her mind of twisted thoughts about her (damn sexy!) sensei.

Kakashi, oblivious to the exchange between his students, cast off his sandals and headband (he figured he should be fine if it was only for a quick swim), and nodded to Gai who now stood only in his boxers. (Well, the damn spandex doesn't come in pieces - At least he wore underwear at all.)

Gai gave Kakashi one last Nice Guy Pose as they prepared themselves by the edge of the water. With a quick signal, the two jounin were off in a flash.

Iruka was in a panic. Team Seven was not at their usual training grounds, which meant they were on a mission today. Which meant that poor Iruka had no idea where to start looking for them. And which also meant that Kakashi was not preoccupied with training his students, so he was most likely looking for something to read. Yeah… Iruka wanted to die.

He had wandered the village for a good… how many hours had he been at it now? Who knew? All he knew was that it had been plenty of time for Kakashi to discover the truth and enough time for the stress to make Iruka try to pull his hair out. Although, he had quickly switched this plan to simply 'messing his hair up a great deal' after he realized just how much it hurt, and how ridiculous it looked, to yank a clump of hair out. He looked like a deranged scientist.

"IRUKA-SENSEI!" An orange blur successfully bowled the chuunin over before his muddled brain could comprehend what the yell meant. The force knocked the wind out of the teacher and he lay stock still on the ground, hoping maybe it had been enough to kill him. No such luck as his lungs began working again and a worried blonde head came into focus. "Iruka-sensei?" Naruto looked concerned and confused all at once. He was never able to surprise the older man like that. "Are you okay? Whoa, what happened to your hair?"

Iruka tried to act normal, and pushed himself up, bringing the boy along with him. "Nothing," he chirped, sounding more creepy than normal.

Naruto poked a finger at the tiny bare patch on the left side of Iruka's head. "Dude, it's like… gone."

Iruka swatted the hand away.

Naruto gazed up at his former teacher. Something wasn't right. The chuunin looked half-angry, and half on the verge of breaking down into tears. He was breathing heavily even though he hadn't been doing any strenuous activity for at least the past two minutes since they crossed paths. And his usually perfect hair was missing a chunk, and the rest was strewn over his head in crazy-looking wisps. The blonde blinked. "Did you get beat up or something?"

An eye spasm was added to the list of 'Things Wrong With Iruka-sensei'. What was with everyone thinking he was getting beat up? Did people think he was that weak that if his appearance was messed up even a little, they just automatically assumed that it was because someone got the better of him? "No, Naruto… I did not get beat up." Naruto continued to stare at him as though there was something amiss. "Look," Iruka ran a hand through the stray strands of hair in an attempt to make himself appear a little more decent. "Do you know where Kakashi-sensei is?"

Naruto frowned a bit at the mention of his strange instructor. "Yeah, he and Gai-sensei are having a 'swimming match' or something in the lake. You know we had to clean that stupid lake today? That was our mission! Can you believe that? We are so past having to do amateur missions like that! Of course, we really didn't have time to do anything else cuz Kakashi-sensei was so late today! And then he wouldn't even tell us why!"

Iruka blushed, knowing full well why Kakashi had been extra late meeting his team. But all he stuttered out was a pathetic "I see."

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, he's been acting really weird today! He's all smiling and humming and laughing out loud for no reason. He hasn't even had time to read his perverted book all day, what with acting like a weirdo and all! It's really creepy! Iruka-sensei! Where are you going?"

As soon as Naruto had mentioned Kakashi's lack of interest in his porn, Iruka had slowly begun edging away from the ranting boy and toward the direction of the lakefront. He still had a chance! And if he hurried, he may be able to switch the vests while Kakashi was preoccupied with Gai! However, Naruto's shout made him freeze and he tried to play dumb. "Hmm?"

Naruto looked a little hurt. "You're taking me out for ramen tonight!"

Iruka's eyes widened. 'Oh shit! I completely forgot! Damn Kakashi! This is all his fault!' He plastered a reassuring smile on his face. "Oh, yeah, I am! I just really need to talk to Kakashi-sensei first."

Naruto stared at the brunette with an indiscernible look on his face. He pointed one finger semi-accusingly at Iruka. "You're acting really weird too," he monotoned.

"No I'm not."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Oh yeah? Since when do you talk to Kakashi-sensei? You hate him."

Iruka tried to tame his glare. Damn observant kid! Why couldn't he be this focused when studying? "I do not hate Kakashi-sensei, Naruto. And even if I did, what I have to talk to him about is very important, and our personal differences need to be put aside for the sake of the… conversation…" he trailed off his lie lamely.

Naruto continued to look unconvinced. "Yeah… sure."

"Look, just go to the ramen stand and order your first bowl. I'll be there soon, okay?" And, not risking wasting any more time, Iruka leapt off toward the lake.

The blonde, nine-tailed fox holder stared after him. "Weirdos…"

As Iruka stepped into the clearing by the lakefront, he nearly cried out in joy as he spotted the two neglected vests lying unprotected on the shore, and two small blurs on the other side of the lake. After all the hell he went through, at least he wasn't going to have to make it worse. And although he was still stuck with the consequences of the original encounter with Kakashi, right now, he was going to count his blessings. He stared at the two vests with teary (out of happiness) eyes for a few moments and then began making his way toward them.

But just as he was about to crouch down to check which vest held his precious mission scroll, he ran headfirst into a wet Kakashi's chest. He was still for a moment, then a blush rose quickly on his face. "Uhhhhhhh…"

"Very articulate today, aren't you Iruka?" A soft, deep chuckle reverberated through Iruka as well, sending a slight shiver through his body.

"Uhhhh…"

"Whoa… what happened to your hair?" Kakashi reached up to prod the bare patch.

Iruka jerked away and took a few steps back.

Dropping his hand, Kakashi's eyes crinkled. "Was there something you needed?" He tried to keep his voice friendly and not at all like he wanted to throw Iruka against the nearest tree and ravish him. No… no ravishing thoughts, otherwise he'd do something stupid and scare the teacher off again.

"Uhh… um… talk…" Iruka finally managed to get out. A touch of relief flowed through him that he was able to form full words at all. Kakashi in nothing but pants was bringing back memories that weren't far enough away yet to be hazy and non-distracting.

"Sure." He spun Iruka and gave him a slight push toward the foliage so they could get away from Gai's shouts on the other side of the lake where Kakashi had ditched him once he sensed Iruka's energy. Screw that – he had been losing anyway. This was the perfect excuse to leave. He began following the brunette, but as an afterthought, turned and grabbed the nearest vest and headband. He then trailed after Iruka.

Once they reached a suitable spot, Iruka stopped and attempted to collect his thoughts before turning around. He could do this. This is what he had been planning to do all along before he heard about the swimming match. This turn of events shouldn't really change anything. He'd done it before – he could do it again! He spun to Kakashi, determined, but halted at the sight of the jounin.

Kakashi had thrown the vest on over his bare chest, and was now attempting to adjust the headband. He had also removed his mask.

Iruka felt his face heat up again. The first time he had yanked off Kakashi's mask, he had been so befuddled and preoccupied that he hadn't really looked at the other man's bare face. And now he was wondering why the hell he hadn't! First of all, it was practically a once-in-ten-lifetimes opportunity to be able to see the copy-nin's face. And secondly… well, let's just say that Iruka had never spent much time thinking about what Kakashi looked like under the mask, but it was much better than anything he ever had imagined. Iruka knew the Unofficial Kakashi Fanclub to be quite large as it was. How many people would there be if they actually knew how attractive the man really was? Perhaps that's why he wore the mask in the first place?

Kakashi chuckled again, noticing Iruka's line of vision. "Sorry. It was all wet and uncomfortable on my face… and I figured… since you've already seen it…"

"Not… really…"

"Too busy beforehand, huh?" Kakashi joked lightly.

Iruka remained silent out of embarrassment. But also because his mind was awhirl with too many thoughts. He was trying to process Kakashi's handsome face, previous lustful memories, the thoughts of what he was about to do, and the fact that Kakashi was acting quite… pleasant and, dare he say, flirty. It was completely out of character for the man that usually acted as though he wouldn't care if Iruka was dead. Oh well… all the easier for Iruka to implement his 'Get Back The Vest and Mission Scroll' plan. (The title is a work in progress.)

Meanwhile, Kakashi struggled with trying to readjust Gai's headband. Iruka seemed flustered already with the revealing of the rest of his face. He didn't want to make the teacher any more uncomfortable with his sharingan. He growled softly as the headband refused to cooperate. Perhaps he should have actually looked and made sure that he was grabbing his own supplies – but this was just temporary. He would return Gai's vest and headband after he was through talking with Iruka.

He gave a small noise of success as he finally got it the right size and slipped it over his left eye. Catching the bright oddly-colored headband out of the peripheral vision of his free eye, Kakashi officially decided that Gai had horrible fashion sense with his bright red forehead protector. (Not that Kakashi had ever thought anything else of the man's sense of fashion.)

He turned his attention back to Iruka who was now staring at his chest with a strange look in his eye. Figuring it was because he merely had a vest on and nothing else underneath, Kakashi scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah… sorry about that too. My shirt was completely soaked by our beginning splash." He waved his hands around a bit, trying to pantomime the occurrence. "And I figured… you were a little flustered with my bare chest… so this was better than nothing." He looked to Iruka with a hopeful eye. He prayed he had done enough to make him comfortable.

Iruka snapped out of his daydream, the blush still covering his face. He was glad Kakashi had grabbed his vest. That's what he came for after all. But he smiled shyly and nodded that he was grateful.

This was it. The only way to get that vest back without trying to wrestle it off the jounin, (which probably wouldn't work anyway), was to seduce him into another make-out session and switch the vests again. The teacher was terrified – terrified that Kakashi would see through the ruse, terrified that Kakashi would take too much advantage of the situation again… terrified that he wouldn't be able to stop, like last time…

But there was no other choice at this point. Iruka was a shinobi, dammit! And he could put on an acting mask if he needed to. Still slightly pink in the face, but hoping that it added to his character, Iruka slowly approached the jounin, going into Shinobi Acting Mode.

Kakashi stayed perfectly still, waiting to see what Iruka would do. The teacher reached a tentative hand up and brushed some of the dripping silver-haired locks out of the jounin's face. He bit his lip. "Heh… I've never seen you with your hair down like this," he commented in a would-be off-hand voice.

Kakashi's mind was mush. "Ah… yeah… wet and all…" 'Yeah – that made a whole lot of sense!'

Iruka wet his lips. "Sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have done that…" he whispered.

Kakashi gained a bit of his senses back and grabbed the retreating wrist near his head. "Which part?" he asked, teasingly. "The kissing me or the leaving me?"

It was Iruka's turn to shut his brain off. Dammit! Kakashi knew what was going on! He had to! There was no other explanation for this behavior! He was screwing with his mind – just like all jounin liked to do. But a little part of Iruka argued against this theory when he looked into Kakashi's eye. For one eye, it could speak volumes. And the intuitive side of Iruka's brain was telling him to pay attention to the emotion in that eye. However, he shook himself from his thoughts and continued his plans to seduce Kakashi. And if Kakashi knew what he was doing… fine. But Iruka was not going to back down first. He smiled softly. "Which part do you want me to be sorry for?" At the same time he hoped to himself that he didn't sound too fake, he trembled with the realization that he didn't sound fake at all.

Kakashi stepped forward suddenly, forcing Iruka back against the tree that was right behind him, trapping him there and pinning his captured hand above his head. Iruka's breath hitched. This seemed awfully familiar… but this was good – he tried to remind himself. This was right where he wanted Kakashi. But he hadn't expected Kakashi to do the initiating this time around. He really must have riled up his libido earlier.

Kakashi's lips hovered just in front of his. He could feel the jounin was trembling slightly as well. Or was that still just him? He couldn't tell anymore. He didn't even care anymore. He was drowning in the moment, and he didn't give a damn! When was the last time Iruka had gotten a good lay? A very long time considering his goddamn 'decentness'. He really needed to work on being more of a whore. "Iruka…" The brunette was snapped from his thoughts and stared into Kakashi's eye that was mere centimeters away from his own. "Is this… okay?"

Okay? Was what okay? Iruka's brain struggled to make sense of the situation. Okay? Yes, everything seemed to be quite okay. Why not? He nodded dumbly, and in a split second found the jounin's lips firmly against his own for the nth time that day. 'Oh! Was that okay…' As soon as Kakashi's tongue forced its way past Iruka's slack lips, not bothering to waste any time this time around, he decided that yes, it was very okay.

Iruka drove his head forward, deepening the kiss, and Kakashi reached up his free hand to rid Iruka of that stupid (and now almost useless) hair tie once again. The teacher's hair fell free and the silver-haired man brushed it out with his fingers, reveling in its smoothness. He decided that he liked Iruka's hair down a lot better than the usual style.

He groaned in mild surprise as Iruka curled one lean leg around Kakashi's own, rubbing enticingly and giving himself extra leverage to Kakashi's mouth. Kakashi broke the kiss and attacked the chuunin's jaw and chin and other such parts of his face instead. Iruka whimpered and continued pushing himself into Kakashi. The jounin kissed the tip of Iruka's nose then licked lightly across his scar. The chuunin gave a great shudder. No one had ever thought of that place as a pleasure point before. Kakashi smirked at the reaction.

Iruka was just starting to heat up in certain places again when Kakashi reached for the zipper on his vest. As the jounin was busy with nibbling on his earlobe, the chuunin's eyes snapped open. 'Dammit! How could I have fallen into this trap again? What the hell happened to learning from your mistakes? Argh! The vest! I'm here for the vest! That is it!'

As his own (or actually Kakashi's) vest dropped to the ground, Iruka reached out bold hands for the vest on the jounin. Kakashi's eye widened in surprise, but he moaned happily, egging Iruka on. As the second vest dropped to the ground, Iruka made a mental note of which vest had landed where, and then proceeded to respond eagerly to Kakashi's ministrations.

Kakashi let a grin spread across his face as Iruka braced his free hand against Kakashi's bare chest and the next push from Iruka revealed the chuunin's excitement. This was progressing much faster than before – which was good because he didn't think either of them had been completely satiated the first round. He enthusiastically pressed his thigh back against Iruka's erection, and rubbed it gently with what little movement he possessed (what with Iruka clinging all over him and everything).

Growling, Iruka suddenly pushed against Kakashi with all his might, using his leg as extra force. Completely caught off guard, Kakashi flew back, sprawling unceremoniously on the hard forest floor. By the time he regained his equilibrium, Iruka had disappeared again.

He bared his teeth and grabbed fistfuls of hair in both hands, trying to suppress the urge to give out a loud animal-like cry. Did he move too fast again? No… Iruka was the one who practically started humping his leg. Grrr… were all chuunin such teases? Iruka must be one of those people who gets excited easily but then freaks out when anything good starts happening. This did not bode well for Kakashi and his horniness.

Sighing loudly through his nose, Kakashi fastened his mask back on, pushed himself up and snatched up his vest, deciding then and there that next time, Iruka wasn't getting away so easily.

Iruka sprawled on his bed, breathing heavily. Not even bothering to put any thought into it, he quickly reached into his pants and finished himself off for the second time that day. Guess it was time for another pair of pants – pajama pants he supposed, considering the sun was almost completely below the horizon now, and he felt as though he had experienced about fifty days in the past few hours.

He rolled off the bed and made his way to the bathroom, where he once again cleaned himself off and put on a pair of baggy pajama pants, leaving his chest bare. He brushed out his already let-down hair, noticing again how deranged the clump of missing hair really looked. No wonder everyone had been intrigued. As he tiredly flipped his hair over his shoulder, he did a double take in the mirror at a little spot on his neck. A little red, suspiciously hickey-looking spot. Gross! Damn Kakashi! Did the jounin not realize that Iruka had children to teach tomorrow? Stupid bastard! Stupid… talented… sexy… bastard… 'Knock it off!' He shook his head and wandered back to his bedroom. It looked like a genjutsu would be in order tomorrow morning.

He yanked his vest off the floor and plopped onto his bed, sighing softly. At least he had gotten the scroll back. That's all that mattered at the moment. And now it was time to finally lock that scroll away where no one would ever find it. He reached into the hidden pocket and couldn't stop the relieved smile when his fingers closed around a scroll. 'Yes! I am so good!'

He pulled the scroll out triumphantly and unrolled it to check Kakashi off the list. But when the scroll was unrolled, Iruka's jaw went slack and his eyes gazed bewildered at the piece of paper that was, remarkably, not his piece of paper. True enough, Kakashi's name was on there, but nobody else's was… except 'Me' - whoever the hell that was! "What the…?" There were little tally-marks under each name heading.

Iruka dropped the scroll and frantically searched through the other pockets. No… no… NO! This was not where he kept things in his vest! He dropped the entire thing to the floor, looking for all the world like he was going to pass out again. Who's fucking vest did he have now?

Kakashi stepped back into the clearing by the lakeshore where Gai was sitting in the sand, still in his boxers, but looking serious. Somehow, that combination didn't quite mix. The usually exuberant jounin stared into Kakashi's face as the sharingan user slunk over to him and their discarded clothing. "Is everything alright, Kakashi? You've been acting strange today," Gai spoke somberly.

Kakashi resisted the urge to snort. Since when was Gai one to talk about strangeness? "Everything is fine, Gai. Stop trying to psycho-analyze me." He pulled off his headband and tossed it back to its owner. He then made to throw back the vest too. "Here – oh…" A little orange book slipped from an inside pocket and landed in the dirt. 'Huh… I guess I did grab the right vest… weird…oh well.' He shrugged and picked his book back up, along with his still damp shirt and headband. "See ya."

"Wait!"

Kakashi raised his eyebrows at Gai.

"Can I count this as a win?"

Kakashi sighed softly, amazed at how quickly the man could change gears. "Sure, Gai – count it as a win." With that, Kakashi teleported himself back home, thankful that Gai was so into staring at his face that he hadn't noticed 'other areas' that were in dire need of attention. Time for a cold shower… or maybe just a regular shower - orgasms were fun after all.

Back on the beach, Gai grinned to himself and jumped up into a Nice Guy Pose even though no one was around to see it. Full of happiness at pulling ahead of his rival, he picked up the remaining vest and reached into the pocket for the tally sheet that held the records of all of his and Kakashi's challenges. However, he froze and a mildly confused look crossed his face when he unraveled it. He glanced the scroll up and down and mumbled to himself. "Kiss and record… 1-10 rating… who's is this?"

At the Ramen Stand, Naruto scrubbed angrily at the dishes he was being forced to wash to pay for his twelve bowls of ramen, since Iruka-sensei never had shown up!

Mwa-ha-ha! I love throwing the characters for a loop! And poor Naruto!

Anway, just a few things I need to mention:

(1): My friend asked me how Kakashi and Iruka could not have noticed that their vests got switched since they're not the same size so their vests would be different sizes. Actually, if you look at pictures of Iruka and Kakashi standing next to eachother, they're really not that different in the height department. And I figured that the shinobi vests, for the most part, are 'one size fits all' or at least go 'small, medium, large' and Iruka and Kakashi would be the same size. I doubt they're specially crafted for each ninja, so I find it perfectly logical that two shinobi of relatively the same size could accidentally switch vests and not notice.

(2): That whole scene with Sakura staring at Kakashi's bare chest and thinking he's hot... ok, as I was re-reading it, even I realized that it sounds like the start of a Kakashi/Sakura pairing or something. In reality, I just threw it in there for a few giggles, thinking that that's how teenage girls really act! We look at older guys and think somewhat dirty thoughts about them... but that doesn't mean we're really attracted to them or anything. It's just a thought that enters the head of teenage girls, and Sakura is a teenage girl, so I just thought it would add a little humor to picture Sakura drooling over someone other than Sasuke. Especially since it's Kakashi, and we all want an excuse to picture sexy Kakashi too. This is is in no way a hint toward anything remotely Kakashi/Sakura. I find that pairing disturbing. I won't touch it.

(3): Just a few answers to questions that many reviewers have been asking: Is this Kakashi/Iruka? Yes, this is Kakashi/Iruka - no other pairings... well, maybe there will be other pairings, but not with Iruka or Kakashi - at least not permanently. I am Kakashi/Iruka all the way! Will I be putting in the other kisses? Yes, I will be putting in the kisses between Iruka and the other jounin. That will actually start next chapter. Will Kakashi ever find out about Iruka's mission, and if he does, how will he react? You shall have to wait and see on that one. How did I come up with this idea? If I told you, you would think I was insane and would wonder how the hell I could come up with this story off of that particular train of thoughts... so I'm not telling.

Yeah, I think that's it. Just wanted to get that out there. This is the longest chapter yet, so I hope I made you all happy! If you enjoyed, please review!

DixieGoddess