This chapter switches back and forth between the present - Iruka, and slightly in the past - Gai. Just letting you guys know so it's not confusing.

Lots of author's notes at the bottom for those who care to bother with them.

Sharp knocking resounded throughout the otherwise peaceful Umino residence, causing the bundle of blankets on the bed to stir slightly. However, as soon as the knocking stopped, so did the movement. A moment of silence spread... then... the pounding resumed, as well as the minimal amount of shifting. This cycle repeated itself several times - the hunched up person beneath the blankets casually falling back asleep as the constant rhythm of flesh against wood fell into white noise. And he would have gone completely back to sleep had the sound not suddenly stopped for a good period of time. Perhaps he should get up and investigate?

The mussy brown head poked out of the covers and bleary brown eyes blinked a few times before a very sharp, pointy object came into focus mere inches away from his face. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Using every chuunin reflex he had developed since a young age, the brunette jumped up and struck out as quickly as he could at the holder of the offending weapon, knocking over most of the contents of his bedside table in the process. Breathing heavily and working with immense speed to untangle the rest of his lower body from the mass of bedsheets, Iruka took a defensive pose and glared down at his attacker... The brown-haired, bandana-clad attacker who was now rooted to the floor with shock as he stared cross-eyed at the senbon now piercing through his upper lip. Iruka froze.

"Genma?"

Contrary to popular belief, Gai Maito was not an idiot. Well, he may have been an "idiot" in the sense that he was obliviously annoying; but he was not stupid. He was a jounin after all and, as such, had quite remarkable deduction skills. If he didn't, he never would have passed the jounin exam. A big portion of the exam had been all about testing these mental skills and, had he failed, he would still be a chuunin. So… yes… in other words – he could figure puzzles out fairly quickly if he really set his mind to it.

Of course, he thought bitterly, his brain power was nothing compared to Kakashi's. It was the one area that the Hatake genius had him beat in every time. That was why Gai conveniently always picked physical challenges and not mental ones.

Anyway… the whole point being – it didn't take him long to figure out who the vest with the mysterious scroll belonged to.

At first, the thought that it was most likely Kakashi's had sprung to his mind being that they could have easily switched vests. But that was impossible. Right before he left, Kakashi's infamous Ichaicha Paradise book had fallen out of his vest, proving that it was his own. Also, this scroll was a B-rank mission. Kakashi Hatake, the incredibly skilled sharingan using jounin of Hidden Leaf, was never given B-rank missions unless they were for his students (not possible since this was a solo mission) or he was extremely bored/pissed off and stormed into the mission room demanding a mission – any mission. That had happened a few times (quite effectively scaring the crap out of whoever ran the mission desk), but if that were the case, Kakashi would be off completing this mission instead of lazing around by the lakeside. There was also the fact that Kakashi's name itself was on the list of people to be kissed… (There was another reason: he doubted Kakashi would ever accept such a strange mission as this.)

That being said, the vest and the mission must belong to someone else. Most likely a chuunin, since most of the jounin (at least the ones that weren't always away on missions or involved with someone already) were on the list. The only questions were: Who was the chuunin? Why were they assigned such a weird mission? And if Kakashi had his own vest, and he had someone else's… where was his vest?

"Damn, Iruka," Genma mumbled as soon as the senbon had been yanked from his lip. "With reflexes like those, I don't know why you keep refusing to take the jounin exam."

Iruka blushed in embarrassment, both at the compliment and at the horror of the damage he had inflicted upon his friend. "I'm not that good. You just surprised me, and I got lucky. Now stop talking and hold this against your lip." He pushed a wet washcloth against the bleeding hole.

The jounin obediently held it in place, and hunched over in his spot on the edge of the bathtub, trying to get comfortable. It didn't seem as though Iruka was going to let him go anywhere until the chuunin had doctored him as best he could. And Genma was used to Iruka's stubbornness enough to know that it would be futile trying to argue with him.

As Iruka prepared an alcohol swab to disinfect the wound, Genma's eyes gazed over the chuunin. He considered making some innuendo about the other man in nothing but pants, but figured that he had gotten hurt by Iruka enough that morning.

The chuunin's head bobbed, his brown locks sloshing back and forth, and Genma suddenly became very aware of the patch of hair that... wasn't there... "Oi, what happened to your hair?" He reached a lazy hand up to touch the bare spot, but Iruka swatted him away before he could make it.

"It's nothing. And no, I did not get beat up!" he stated firmly before the words could even leave the other man's mouth.

Genma retreated back to his original position and smirked - well, smirked as best he could with the washcloth covering half his mouth. "Ah... did it get ripped out in the throes of passion, then?"

Iruka's head shot up and he blushed hotly at the meaning of Genma's words. 'What does he mean by that? He couldn't possibly know about me and Kakashi could he? Not that there's anything to know... but... there's plenty to be misconstrued. But he couldn't know about anything that happened between us... could he? No. Unless Kakashi told him. That bastard!'

Genma saw the confused and panicked look on the teacher's face and reached his hand out again to tap a finger against the blushing man's neck, still smirking.

Iruka glanced down. "Huh?"

The jounin withdrew his finger and Iruka once again became aware of the conspicuous red mark on his neck from the previous day's activities. He squeaked and clamped his own hand against it, though it was obviously too late to hide anything. Genma chuckled and readjusted the washcloth since the previous area was now soaked with blood. "So who's the lucky lady?"

Iruka blinked. "Huh?" 'Lady? So he doesn't know...' "Uh... um..." A lie couldn't spring to his lips quickly enough. He couldn't very well make up a name in a village where everyone was expected to know everyone else. And he couldn't lie and say he was involved with someone he wasn't - he'd be revealed too quickly.

Genma quirked an eyebrow. "Oh... ok... so who's the lucky guy?"

Iruka thought he might overheat from the redness in his face now, but he swallowed and tried to steer the attention away from himself. Ignoring the question, he lifted the stained washcloth away from the wound that was now bleeding much slower and brought the alcohol swab to it instead. Peering closely as though it were taking all his concentration and attention, he finally declared that he didn't think they needed to make a trip to the hospital for stitches. "It's just a little hole... not that bad." He finished the disinfecting and brought the cloth back up. "Just keep holding that there until the bleeding fully stops." With that, he gathered his supplies and stood to return them to the cupboard.

The jounin watched his friend purposely ignore him and grinned minutely. "Ok, fine, you don't wanna talk about it." Iruka continued to meticulously arrange his bathroom cupboard. "Is it someone I know, at least?"

The cupboard slammed. "Why were you in my bedroom this morning?"

Genma froze for a minute at the abrupt change in conversation. He then gazed at the chuunin with a weird look. He merely pulled back his shirt sleeve on the arm that was holding up the washcloth and tapped at his watch.

Iruka stared stupidly at it. "Eight-thirty... So what?"

"I believe classes start at seven-thirty, sensei."

Iruka stared for a moment more until the comment finally registered in his brain. "OH MY GOD!" He bolted from the bathroom and seconds later, Genma could hear the sound of cloth whipping threw the air as the chuunin hurried to dress. The jounin couldn't stop the chuckle from escaping his throat.

Pushing himself up, he wandered over to lean against the doorway of the bedroom where Iruka was on his hands and knees, searching desperately for something. Considering he'd thrown his shirt on (backwards), and was already fully dressed except for his head band, Genma casually picked up the forehead protector from its quite obvious spot on the dresser and tossed it to the ground in front of Iruka. The teacher froze, then snatched it up and hurried to tie it. "Relax, Iruka," the jounin finally drawled as he figured he had freaked out the young man enough. "There's already a sub watching your students until you get there. It's not like the little monsters are sitting in class unsupervised."

Although he didn't verbally acknowledge that he had heard Genma, this statement calmed Iruka down a bit and he took a deep breath. His eyes then darted across the room. "Lesson plan – in vest... bag…" he mumbled to himself.

"I believe it was sitting on your kitchen table."

The chuunin glanced at Genma and blushed for the umpteenth time that morning. Without a word, he strode quickly toward the kitchen where, sure enough, the bag was hastily thrown across the table, its few papers scattered on the wood. He simply scooped all the papers into a big pile and stuffed them into the bag, figuring he would organize them during lunch break – it was all mission room paperwork anyway. He hopped up and was just about to take off when he caught sight of Genma leaning lazily against the counter, cloth still held to his injured lip. He stopped in his tracks and bowed deeply to the jounin. "I'm so sorry again, Genma."

Genma waved it off. "Don't worry about it. That was actually a very impressive move you pulled."

Iruka straightened back up. "Are you alright now? Do you need anything else?"

Genma was just about to shake his head but stopped as a wicked idea formed in his mind. After all, what good would a run-in with Iruka be if he didn't get his usual flirting in, complete with a blush and outburst from the "proper" chuunin. He pulled the washcloth away and smirked lecherously. "Well, you haven't kissed it better yet." The smirk faded a bit as the expected outburst never came. In fact, Iruka was staring at him as though he were actually taking his words seriously. Maybe he shouldn't be confusing the poor teacher's brain when he was already stressed about being late? "Oi... Iruka... I was just - "

But Genma never completed his sentence as the chuunin suddenly latched onto his neck with his free hand and crushed their lips together. Genma stood completely frozen as Iruka assaulted his mouth, but found that he couldn't help enjoying the sensation. For all the teasing he had done to Iruka about being a prude, it was obvious this was well beyond his first time kissing. Just as he felt the chuunin start to pull away, he leaned forward and continued the kiss.

Iruka's eyes snapped open as Genma's closed in contentment. 'What the hell?' He had only kissed Genma because he figured it would be his only chance to do so without completely embarrassing himself. If Genma asked why he had done it, Iruka could simply say it was because the jounin told him to, and that if he didn't actually want something, he should stop asking for it. Yes... Iruka had been fully prepared to turn the kiss into a lecture about perverted innuendos and being careful what you wished for - if he did that the senbon-sucking man shouldn't give it another thought. But now, that man was earnestly trying to suck on something else... 'Dammit! This is not happening again!'

Pulling away roughly, he gaped up at the jounin who seemed as though he had just regained clarity of the situation himself. The two stared at each other for a long minute until Iruka finally turned and strode toward the door with purpose and poise. "Don't forget to lock up on your way out."

Genma could only stare at the hastily slammed door.

He knew it was wrong – he really did. But how else was he supposed to solve this mystery? Gai stared contemplatively at the anonymous vest that now sat at the foot of his bed while he was cross-legged at the head. He was a prideful and dignified shinobi. He shouldn't go sneaking around another Hidden Leaf ninja's vest. However….

He needed to find out whose it was. And he needed to find his own vest. Not that there was anything of real importance in it, aside from the tally sheet (which he had memorized anyway) and a few weapons, but it was the principle of the matter. Besides, he tried to convince himself, he couldn't very well return this vest to its rightful owner if he didn't know who the owner was. So he had to snoop... just a little.

This vest could belong to a young ninja who was desperately wondering where their own precious vest could be. Yes! That was it! A poor young ninja crying pitiful youthful tears as they mourned their lost vest. Fire blazed in the jounin's eyes. He must find the owner of the vest at any cost – for the sake of youth!

Nodding to himself with newfound resolve, he began to sift through the pockets of the vest. The first few revealed nothing but standard weapons that could belong to anyone; one of the pockets, however, produced a few neatly folded sheets of paper. Finally – a clue! Perhaps it was a love letter! A love letter of youth! Hearts danced around inside Gai's head as he unfolded the paper. Oh… the youthful exuberance disappeared. It was just a lesson plan.

Behold the power of the jounin thought process: If Lesson plan equals academy teacher… and an academy teacher has to be a chuunin… then the vest belonged to a chuunin (he was right!)… and if he recalled correctly that he had felt a familiar energy mingled with Kakashi's on the other side of the lake… and Kakashi only had a connection to one chuunin schoolteacher… and, when his spandex was the perfect stretchiness, he could do 500 laps around the Hokage monument in 3 hours… this vest and this… mission could only belong to one person.

"Iruka-sensei…"

Iruka slammed the door behind him with a force that sent all the nearby animals scurrying or flying away as quickly as they could. He pressed his forehead against the cool wood and took a few shuddering breaths, trying to control the blush he just knew was dominating his features. What was wrong with these jounin? Oh well – he didn't have time to dwell on that now. He was already over an hour late for his classes. Oh gods, how could he explain this one? He had never been late for class save for the one time that he was really really sick; even then, he had woken up on time and at least tried to make it to the academy. He had made it – late, but he made it. But then was promptly sent home when one of the other teachers spotted his condition.

Tap tap…

The chuunin jumped and, for the second time that morning, struck out at his "attacker". However, this one deftly caught his fist right before it hit his face. Then again, what else would one expect from the great Kakashi Hatake? The brunette felt his face heat up only seconds after he had finally been able to calm it down. "Ka – Kakashi-sensei…"

A little orange book hit the ground, the jounin's hands now preoccupied keeping up a defensive position. The single visible eye curved slightly. "Easy there…"

"Ah… oh!" Iruka pulled his fist away quickly. "Sorry! You – "

"Surprised you? Obviously." Kakashi bent down to retrieve his book. When he straightened back up, he surveyed the chuunin for an awkward moment (in Iruka's point of view). "You don't look sick."

"I – I'm not…"

"You're late for work." If Iruka could take a guess, Kakashi had his eyebrows knitted in confusion… or worry… or constipation… he couldn't really tell with the limited exposure of skin.

"Overslept…" Iruka shrugged, then glanced at Kakashi curiously. "How did you know?"

Kakashi's eye widened a bit. "I was told… and asked to come check up on you!" he chirped brightly. 'It's not like I decided to observe you today and was upset when my plans to spy on you during class were foiled by Asuma being in the classroom and not you…'

The chuunin glanced back at his house where he knew Genma was since he had already been sent to check up on Iruka. "O…K… well, I really must be off, Kakashi-sensei! I'm terribly late as it is!"

Kakashi tucked his book away. "I'll escort you."

"No need – I'll be fine!" And the brunette was off before Kakashi could try to follow.

By the time Gai had made the discovery of who the vest belonged to, he figured it was far too late to try to go to Iruka's. So here he was, bright and early in the morning, fully prepared to encounter Iruka-sensei on his way to work. From what he had heard about the hard-working teacher, he always left for work early anyway, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to engage him in conversation on his way in.

But Iruka-sensei had not emerged from his house early. In fact, Iruka-sensei did not emerge from his house on time… or at all. Perhaps Iruka went out a back door instead of the front? The green-clad jounin peeked around the other side of the house. There was no back door – just windows. He grimaced to himself – he shouldn't go peeking in the windows. Only a disrespectful pervert would do that. But… what if Iruka-sensei was hurt inside? And that's why he hadn't come out? For the second time in less than 24 hours, Gai found himself debating with his morals. Luckily, he was saved by the presence of Genma's energy.

Good… the academy had sent someone to check up on the teacher and his absence. Why Genma? 'Probably because he's always hanging around doing nothing anyway.'

The taijutsu master watched as Genma tried knocking incessantly, then finally broke in when Iruka never answered, and then heard when someone was attacked from within. He waited impatiently outside a good twenty minutes or so while Genma and Iruka did something in there. And by the time he felt their energy leave one side of the house and enter the other, he had made up his mind to snoop through the back window of the kitchen.

Well, Genma had obviously been the one who'd been injured if the bleeding lip were any indication. At least Iruka was alright and spry as ever as he collected everything he needed from the kitchen floor. And Iruka was wearing a vest! Was that his vest? Or had he pinpointed the wrong person? And was Iruka… kissing Genma? Ok, maybe he didn't have the wrong person. Genma… Genma was kissing back… Maybe he did have the wrong person. Were they lovers? No… no… Iruka had pulled back rather harshly and was looking like he couldn't believe what just happened. Yes, he was almost positive he had found the right chuunin.

Gai continued to watch Genma after Iruka had already run down the hall and out the door. The usually stoic jounin had a mesmerized look on his face that made Gai's blood run cold. Uh-oh… If Iruka had only kissed him for the sake of the mission he was assigned, this could mean trouble. He had to catch up to Iruka.

Sprinting around the house, Gai was forced to stop in his tracks once again and dive around the corner as he spotted none other than his esteemed rival. Spying on them from the shadows, a bad feeling started to well up in his gut. Why would Kakashi be here? Unless… Iruka had already gotten to him and… Double uh-oh… Gai really hoped he was wrong about all this.

"What do you want, Gai?"

Gai was startled out of his thoughts by Kakashi's bored voice. Scanning the area, he realized that Iruka had run off and Kakashi had spotted him. Should he tell Kakashi? Something told him that might not be the best idea. He should really talk to Iruka before he talked to anyone else about this. He stepped out of the shadows and could only stare at Kakashi for a moment, wondering if his deductions were really true.

Kakashi sighed agitatedly. "Dammit Gai, what do you want? I'm not in a good mood."

Oh yeah… Kakashi was lovesick…

"I – "

The door to the Umino household swung open and Genma stepped out, only to pause at the sight of the other two jounin. He raised his eyebrows and glanced between them. "Hey…"

"Yo."

"Hello."

An awkward silence fell over the area as the three jounin stared each other down, especially Genma and Kakashi. Mostly Kakashi – he had just seen another man step out of his Iruka's house after all. Genma shut the door behind him. "What's going on?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Kakashi's voice was aloof, but there was definitely a threat buried somewhere in that tone.

"I was sent to check on Iruka. He was late to work." Genma's voice returned the calm threat.

Gai watched the cold exchange with an ever-growing anxiety. The little jounin triangle outside Iruka's house once again fell into silence as they merely conveyed their anger and distrust with their eyes. "Right… me too…" Kakashi eventually returned.

The senbon-sucking jounin raised an eyebrow at the quite obvious lie but didn't call him on it. "Kay… well, I'll be going back to my job now… Excuse me…"

He brushed past Kakashi, and Gai swore he saw the tension actually spark between them. Kakashi turned slightly to watch him go, then finished turning all the way and took off as well, forgetting all about Gai (which he was grateful for – Kakashi looked pissed).

The green-wearing shinobi let out a breath and glanced at the sun. He judged it was about time to go meet his team. He glanced once more at the spot that was still radiating the hostility from the jounin encounter. He had a feeling that spot would retain the energy of animosity for a good while. 'Iruka-sensei… what have you started…?'

-Stares at chapter- I think that was the most boring and worst written chapter yet. But at least it pushes the story somewhat ahead. And I got a chuckle out of imagining the little jounin triangle glaring at each other. And poor Iruka has no idea...

There are a few things in terms of grammar or spelling or word usage that I was arguing in my mind over. If anybody sees any mistakes please let me know so I can go back and fix them. Probably not right away (still have to fix that passerby/passsersby thing in chapter 2, hehe) but eventually, so everything looks good in the end.

Sorry if Gai seems a little OOC, but I figured, he can't be hyper all the time... he is a jounin. And sorry about the lack of 'intimate' interaction between Kakashi and Iruka. -Sigh- I miss it too...

And I'm also sorry for the fact that I focused a lot on Gai's thoughts this chapter. I just kept thinking back to Your Mom's Face review that suggested I refrain from doing such a thing - and you're absolutely right! It was one of the first things I promised myself when I first started writing this story. Cuz I hate it when I'm reading a Kakashi/Iruka story and all of a sudden there's this entire chapter devoted to Sasuke or something with some little two line dribble about Kakashi and Iruka at the end and I'm staring at it like 'WTF? That's not why I'm reading this.' Yeah... so, sorry about that. I tried to keep as much Iruka in there as possible.

Speaking of Your Mom's Face (by the way, your name reminds me of somebody I know), quite a few people have been writing reviews for each chapter ever since the beginning. -Hugs- I love you! Thank you so much! And thanks so much to those who have just started reviewing! I can't tell you have excited your reviews make me! I would take the time now to mention all the reviewers that have reviewed every chapter thus far... but that would require me going back to look at all the reviews and picking out the ones that are there every chapter... and alas, I am a lazy whore. Maybe next chapter...

Oh! And one last thing. I was debating giving the chapters names and, not that this really matters in the slightest to most people I'm sure, but I was wondering what everyone thought about it. Some people think that adding chapter names helps people remember where they were or what they have to look forward to... while others think that they're annoying and just simple numbers look more professional and mature. -Shrugs- I know, it's a stupid dilemma. But this is pretty much the only place where I can get a vote on it. So please let me know what you think!

And as always, if you enjoyed, please review!

DixieGoddess