Good gods, I didn't even realize that it had been over 2 months since my last update, and I am ashamed. Yeah, so sorry! But thank the snow day on Friday for this update. I got a lot done that day. YEAH! SNOW DAY! Anyway, longer notes will be at the bottom, along with a challenge for any artists. So take a look there for any other news. For now, I'll just let you get on with the story.

Quick as lightning, Iruka's hand slid under his pillow, closed around the kunai he always kept there for safety, and turned and struck out at whoever dared to enter his house at this time of night.

The person in question gave out an undignified squeak, barely dodging the sharp weapon in time. They toppled off the other side of the bed and a few shorn hairs floated gently to the sheets. Iruka's eyebrows knit in confusion. That squeak had sounded so familiar… Reaching behind him, he turned on his lamp and glanced down at the hair on the bed – blonde… "Oh my god!" Scrambling over so he could peer over the side of the bed, the chuunin gave out a helpless cry as he spotted none other than his favorite ex-student who was currently sprawled out with a frightened look on his face, eyes turned up to where he had gotten an impromptu haircut. "Naruto!"

The boy was breathing heavily. Blue eyes shifted accusingly to the flustered teacher. "You tried to kill me!"

"Are you alright?"

"You tried to kill me!"

Iruka sighed, sitting back and shoving the kunai back under his pillow. It was obvious the young boy was alright – just shocked. "Naruto – what are you doing here?"

The blonde popped up and leaned his upper body against the bed. "You flung a freaking kunai at my head!"

Iruka pursed his lips and glared at his former student. "I did not fling anything at you, Naruto. I swung it at you."

"Either way, you tried to take my head off!"

"What? Like you've never had that happen to you before?"

"On missions, sure! But not by you!"

"Naruto! WHAT are you doing here?"

The boy finally stopped fretting over his near-death experience and gazed at the irate teacher for a moment. "Uh… nothing…?"

Iruka's eyebrow twitched. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Yeah, it's like 9 o'clock."

The chuunin glared some more. "Regardless, some people like to sleep at this hour, which it was quite obvious that I was doing. And since when do you sneak into my house silently? You usually come bursting through the front door screaming my name!"

"Uhh…"

"Naruto, tell me what's going on right now, or I will never buy you ramen ever again."

The blonde's eyes widened at the threat, as Iruka knew they would. However, he wasn't prepared for the eyes to just as quickly narrow again and have a dirty look shot his way. Iruka blinked. "Not a very potent threat, considering you ditched me the other night and never bought me ramen anyway!"

Iruka might have dwelled longer on wondering where the hell Naruto had learned the word 'potent' had he not been so busy feeling extremely guilty. He groaned and slammed his head in his palm. "Oh, man! Naruto, I'm so sorry! I just got so caught up in…" He fought a blush as he glanced at the impatient boy. "… something, that I completely forgot."

"Must've been important," Naruto grumbled in a half-sarcastic voice.

"It… was… but still, I'm sorry, Naruto. I'll make it up to you."

"Mm-hm…"

"I'll take you out to dinner tomorrow night. I promise."

"It's not like you to forget things, sensei."

Iruka's eyebrows shot up at the demanding tone the blonde's voice suddenly took on. Since when was Naruto such a little interrogator? "I told you, Naruto – I was busy and it just slipped my mind. It happens to everyone."

"Busy doing what?"

The teacher couldn't keep the blush off his face this time. "That's none of your concern!" he barked out in what he hoped was his scary-sensei voice. "Just go home and let me go back to sleep."

"Busy with Kakashi-sensei?"

Iruka jerked. Wide brown eyes stared into the questioning blue ones of the young boy. Naruto couldn't know, could he? There was no way! Kakashi may read his books in front of his students, but he would never tell them that their former sensei… "N-Naruto…" The chuunin tried to smile but only half of his mouth managed to twitch up in a twisted grin. "What do you mean by that?"

"You were looking for Kakashi-sensei last night."

"Yeeeees… yes, I was…"

"You guys sure talked a long time."

Iruka let out a tiny sigh of relief and his tense body relaxed. Naruto hadn't meant what he thought he meant. The little man that lived in Iruka's head was such a paranoid pervert. He attempted the smile once again. "It didn't take that long… I just got caught up in something else afterwards." The blonde was still glaring suspiciously, and Iruka felt absolutely horrible for lying to him. But there was no way he was going to tell a thirteen-year-old the truth about last night's excursion.

"So, what did you talk about?"

"Nothing much… Seriously, Naruto, why are you in my house?" Iruka was beyond confusion at this point. Everybody around him seemed to be getting weirder every day, and he honestly didn't need someone who was already as weird as Naruto was to be getting any worse. This was just frustrating now.

Naruto suddenly leaped up on the bed causing the poor teacher to react quickly by leaning back and thus falling off the other side. "IS IT YOUR HOUSE? IS IT?"

The chuunin stared up off the floor in bewilderment, the blonde's finger pointed accusingly at him. What the - "What are you talking about? Yes, it's my house! It's been my house since I was a kid!"

Naruto fell to his knees, gripping the side of the bed so he could lean over and be eye to eye with Iruka. "You mean, it's been Iruka-sensei's house since he was a kid!"

Iruka couldn't have been more confused and agitated if he had tried. Was Naruto high? He knew he should have given him the talk about drugs and such earlier! He had kept putting it off and putting it off, thinking Naruto was too young. And now it was coming back to bite him in the ass – or point in his face – whichever you prefer. Point was – Naruto had to be on something. "Naruto… what exactly did you ingest, and who gave it to you?"

This stopped the genin's tirade for a moment as he tried to process what his ex-teacher was asking him. Finally, realizing that he wouldn't be able to understand no matter how long he sat there like an idiot, he waved the intruding finger in the other man's face again. "Stop trying to change the subject! Just admit it!"

"Admit…?"

"Admit that you're Kakashi-sensei!"

The chuunin's eyes bugged out and he found himself unable to speak for a long moment, giving Naruto ample time to continue.

"Yeah, you think I'm not so smart, huh? Well, I showed you! It was sooooooo obvious! Iruka-sensei is never late for work, and Kakashi-sensei is never on time! But today, the roles were switched! And you thought I wouldn't notice! You two never talk! Like you could be discussing anything but how you were going to get back into your own bodies! I am such a – " BAM!

Iruka blinked slowly as he registered that Naruto could no longer continue his psychotic speech because he was on the ground next to the teacher, unconscious, a gloved fist where his head used to be. Brown eyes traveled up the short distance to peer owlishly at the one-eyed jounin who was now crouched on his bed, looking a little too pleased with what he had just done to one of his students. Kakashi realized the chuunin was now staring at him and relaxed his fist into a wave. "Good evening, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka stared a moment more. Kakashi… Kakashi was in his house… Kakashi was on his bed… he was wearing nothing but pajama pants… this seemed far too familiar. The chuunin began to blush, and Kakashi couldn't help but be utterly intrigued by the sight. Iruka had always been cute when he blushed. Trying to find a way to dispel the physical signs of embarrassment, the chuunin quickly looked back to the unconscious Naruto. "You knocked him out!"

Kakashi dropped his hand and peered down at Naruto uninterestedly. "He'll be fine."

"He's not moving!"

"Thus the 'knocking out' part. Don't worry. He'll wake up in a few minutes. He's bounced back from worse." He tried to give the flustered teacher a reassuring smile, but Iruka didn't seem to be paying much attention to the jounin's face. In fact, he seemed to be avoiding looking at it as much as possible.

"Yes, you're right…" Iruka stood up quickly. "Though, I should probably get some ice for him to put on his head for when he wakes up. That'll leave a bump." The chuunin practically ran from the room, leaving a frowning jounin.

What had he done? Well, ok, he had knocked out the man's favorite student, but the stupid kid had been babbling nonsense, and Kakashi had come for important business. Other than that, he had been polite. Ok, coming through the window – not so polite maybe, but it was wide open, and Iruka hadn't made any comment on it. But he had said good evening, smiled, not let anything too stupid fly out of his uncooperative mouth, kept his hands to himself and his mask firmly in place; he had even added the sensei to the end of Iruka's name to make him feel more comfortable. Yet, the other man still seemed nervous around him. He couldn't really be regretting…?

No! Kakashi shook his head. Iruka had been the initiator for both incidents. That had to mean something. And Kakashi was here to talk. Yes, talk. He needed to go talk to Iruka before the rambunctious student woke up and he was forced to hurt him again. Stealthily slinking after the other man, Kakashi found him in the kitchen, tying a bundle of ice cubes up in a rag. He was moving slowly, seemingly too lost in thought to notice the jounin's presence behind him. So Kakashi waited patiently.

Finally, the chuunin turned, and, as the jounin realized he should have predicted, he jumped like a frightened rabbit, dropping the makeshift ice pack in the process. The rag flew open and ice crashed all over the kitchen floor. Iruka took in a deep breath, hand to his heart, as he tried to glare at Kakashi. It was difficult to look truly angry as the jounin stood there with a sheepish smile on his face. The brunette could only be grateful that the other man had his mask on so he couldn't see the whole smile. Even the mental image of Kakashi's unmasked face smiling at him in that way had Iruka fighting a blush.

As Iruka struggled with something coherent to say, Kakashi crouched, grabbing the rag and refilling it with the scattered ice chips. "Sorry about that, Iruka-sensei. I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that."

Iruka stared at the top of the messy silver head as the jounin continued his task. Kakashi was being so… nice. He wasn't acting angry, frustrated, perverted, teasing, or sarcastic. He was actually being civil. It was as if the past two days hadn't even occurred.

As Kakashi finished collecting all the ice he could, he tied the rag back up and stood, handing it to a very flustered chuunin. He hardly seemed to register the gesture in his mind, considering he didn't even thank Kakashi. The jounin had to wonder if Iruka really was just that spaced out that he forgot his ever-present manners, or if he was actually that upset that he was refusing to be polite to him.

Kakashi felt a flare of indignation. What right did Iruka have to be upset? The teacher was the one being the major tease in this entire incident. But as he looked at Iruka's flushed and innocently confused face, the jounin's previous feelings dissipated quickly. Kakashi sighed. He had run to Iruka's home with every intention of fully confronting the chuunin, but the poor sensei's obvious discomfort squashed that idea. Perhaps if they were still in the stage of their 'relationship' where Iruka showed absolutely no interest and Kakashi constantly spouted nonsense to try to gain his attention, he would have pressed the issue like he had been planning. But… that was no longer the case.

He couldn't pretend that he wasn't irritated by the whole ordeal; Iruka getting his hopes up, running off, acting like a confused little school girl, and then repeating the entire cycle. But acting like a demanding ass surely wasn't going to get him out of the vicious circle anytime soon. It was time to stop being a social retard and actually try to act normal. Hey, Kakashi was a genius – it shouldn't be that difficult.

"I think we should just forget about the past two days."

Kakashi blinked stupidly. His mouth had opened, but those words hadn't been his… He glanced at Iruka who was blushing at the floor as though it had just told a dirty joke. The words had come out in a rush, but the jounin's sensitive ears had caught every one of them, and they made his heart ache. He resisted the urge to actually grab at his chest where it was now throbbing painfully. Damn chuunin! He shouldn't be able to make him feel this way.

Why should he care anyway? So what if Iruka wanted to regret and forget the entire ordeal. It had always been a long shot anyway, and Kakashi was used to bitter disappointment. Things would just go back to the way they were before.

Not getting a response from the shock-stricken jounin, Iruka brushed by him quickly, carrying the ice to Naruto, and continued speaking over his shoulder. If Kakashi was really as pissed as Iruka was sure he was, he at least wanted to get the ice pack to Naruto before the copy-nin killed him. "I mean, I just haven't been myself lately, and things have been… really complicated, and I'm so sorry for everything, so I think it would be best if we just pretended that nothing happened and get on with our lives." He cringed at his last words. Did he actually expect Kakashi to say that everything was hunky-dory and go back to their normal routine?

Yes, he was fully prepared to face death now. At least that would mean that the horrible mission of doom would be over.

Iruka hoisted the still unconscious Naruto onto the bed and settled the rag of ice over the bump. He then took a deep breath and spun to face his demise. But Kakashi was simply leaning against the doorway with an unreadable expression on the exposed part of his face. Iruka's eyebrows knit in worry, but before anything else could be either said or done a disgusted snort came from the still open window. The chuunin turned toward the source of the noise, and Kakashi merely flicked his eye over to his other male genin.

Sasuke Uchiha glared tiredly at the incapacitated blonde on the bed, then shot Iruka an apologetic look. "I tried to stop him, but he managed to… take me by surprise…" The raven-haired boy shifted his gaze quickly, obviously embarrassed. Iruka assumed it was simply because the Uchiha heir hated admitting any sort of defeat.

The teacher nodded slowly. "What on earth was he talking about earlier, about switching bodies?"

Sasuke sighed, stepping up to the bed, and hoisting the blonde carelessly over his shoulder. "Just something stupid he came up with about you and Kakashi-sensei. He thinks you've somehow switched bodies since you – " he cut himself off suddenly as he just realized that his sensei in question was lurking in the doorway, eye glistening with exhausted irritation. He shifted his eyes back and forth between the two teachers, taking in Kakashi's unprecedented appearance in Iruka-sensei's… bedroom, and Iruka's state of almost-complete undress. Iruka noticed the gaze and shuffled uncomfortably, not knowing how to explain anything at that point.

Fortunately, Sasuke regained his usual composure back in a hurry, and cleared his throat, looking bored and annoyed again. "Anyway, he's just being a moron today… as usual. I'll take him home now – get him out of your… way…" The genin almost blanched as he realized the implications of his words, and just barely caught himself, turning quickly.

Iruka blushed brightly, wishing (not for the first time) that he would just die on the spot. He coughed nervously. "Kakashi-sensei and I just have a few things to discuss." Sasuke turned his head back slightly and nodded. "And you can tell Naruto that it has nothing to do with regaining our rightful bodies back." Iruka still didn't understand any of that part, but he decided to forget it for the time being. Sasuke smirked. Iruka bent down to the bed where the ice-filled rag had fallen when Sasuke hoisted his teammate up, and held out the rag to the Uchiha. Sasuke took it and nodded to the two teachers before hopping out the window, Naruto flopping around unceremoniously over the boy's shoulder.

Kakashi blinked, finally snapping out of his thoughts. To be perfectly honest, he had hardly paid Sasuke's visit any attention whatsoever. He had been too engrossed in his thoughts about Iruka.

So Iruka wanted to forget it, huh? Just go back to the way things were? 'Well, forget that idea!' Kakashi's mind raged. He had always been a self-sufficient, independent, elite jounin with no need for anyone else. This hadn't changed when he first realized that he had a thing for Iruka. It was on his mind, sure, but it wasn't a full-blown obsession. But now… now that Iruka was finally starting to change his mind, Kakashi would not let the chance be wasted. His hopes were up now, thanks to the tease of a chuunin, and the stubborn jounin would be damned if he just let Iruka get away with it now. Nobody played with the infamous copy-nin's feelings.

And yes, they were feelings. Real feelings of which the stone-hearted jounin hadn't felt in a long time. With the entire incident of Iruka getting him worked up, Iruka ignoring him, and Genma jumping on the Iruka-train, Kakashi had finally been slapped in the face with his own true intentions. He may have always been a little socially inept, but he was not a coward, and he was going to face these feelings and challenges head-on, thank you very much, and Iruka, (who Kakashi had always figured would've been the more open one in the relationship) was not going to wiggle out of it.

The chuunin may be bashful, but Kakashi was sure that his determination could outlast any shyness that the sensei may possess.

And thus, Kakashi had made up his mind. The feelings were there – it was obvious from the way Iruka had been acting around him – the feelings were returned – which Kakashi thought should have been obvious to the chuunin considering his own actions the past couple days – and Kakashi was a stubborn bastard with love on his mind. He wasn't just going to leave it alone and pretend nothing happened. And Iruka sure as hell wasn't either. He would make sure of it.

Iruka watched Sasuke disappear into the distance, not forgetting for a second who was still behind him. "Kakashi-sensei…" he whispered, slightly fearful of continuing the conversation. But he was abruptly cut off as he felt a taller, leaner body suddenly press up against him from behind. His breath caught in his throat, one part of his brain telling him that this was the end, another part getting quite turned on from reminders of what that very body could do.

His thoughts of death were quickly squashed, however, when one gloved hand came to rest possessively in the juncture between Iruka's thigh and groin, the other on his bare waist. The brunette fought back a shiver. A still-masked face pressed into the tan neck, sending warm breath over the hypersensitive skin. "I'm not going to forget this, Iruka-sensei." Despite what Iruka heard as a threat, he trembled slightly at the way the word 'sensei' came out of the jounin's mouth. Gods, he would never be able to listen to his students talk to him with an innocent mind ever again.

A slight rustling from outside the (damned, in Iruka's opinion) window caught both mens' attention. Iruka would have liked Kakashi to jump back quickly, but that didn't seem to be the copy-nin's way of handling awkward situations. He glanced outside at the intruder, before slowly stepping away from and around the frozen chuunin. The "intruder" could only stand there gaping. As Iruka was finally free from the mind-churning touch, he snapped back to his senses and gasped softly at the sight outside his window. "Gai-sensei…" he choked out. From the expression on the taijutsu master's face, it was evident that he had witnessed more than he should have. The teacher's face burned. "What can I help you with?"

Kakashi merely looked bored, as he usually did when Gai popped up. The green-clad man looked extremely befuddled, a great contrast to his usual exuberant, overly-confident manner. Iruka began to worry, and Kakashi raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Gai nearly started to sweat. What on earth was he supposed to do now? He had come with every intention of confronting Iruka-sensei, but he couldn't very well do that with Kakashi standing right there. And by the look on his face and his planted stance, it didn't look as though he planned on leaving any time soon. He quickly tried to think of something witty to say, but Kakashi opened his mouth first. "Why do you have two vests.?"

All three pairs (or in Kakashi's case, half a pair) of eyes glanced down at the extra shinobi vest that Gai was clutching tightly. The blue beast's mouth dropped open, and he made a few indecipherable sounds as he attempted to explain the peculiar phenomenon. Kakashi was still staring at Gai, beginning to grow a bit impatient with the other man's slow answering - Gai had been acting weird all damn day. Finally, the other jounin shook the vest lightly. "It's just a spare vest."

Kakashi arched his visible eyebrow. "Why are you carrying around a spare vest in the middle of the night?"

Gai shrugged. "Why not?"

Having already realized many times that there was really no point in arguing with Gai's logic, Kakashi simply let his eye muscles spasm (as they are prone to do in ridiculous situations), and dropped the subject. Iruka's brain was trying to recuperate from the compromising position he had just been caught in – the wheels grinding back into motion, trying to tell him that the appearance of the spandex-clad jounin with a spare vest meant something to him, but he was ripped from those personal thoughts when the silver-haired jounin asked what Gai was doing at Iruka's window. 'He better not be developing a thing for him too,' Kakashi's possessive inner-voice spat. He may have been Kakashi's best friend, but he swore that he was going to shove Gai's own beauty and youth up his ass if he discovered that the other jounin was after Iruka too.

"The Hokage needs us for a mission!" Gai suddenly shouted, making both the men in the bedroom jump. Gai was grinning widely now as though he had just discovered a most amazing treasure (or come up with a very good cover).

"Now?"

Gai nodded enthusiastically.

Kakashi huffed, annoyed. Any mission that was so important that he needed to head out in the middle of the night couldn't be good. "Fine. Let's go."

Gai suddenly looked like a deer caught in headlights. "What? Right now?"

Kakashi could feel his eye muscles wanting to pop right out of his face. "You said the Hokage needed us now." Seriously, if this was how Gai was going to act the entire mission, Kakashi wasn't sure the green-clad jounin would last much longer than any enemy ninja.

"Right, yes – yes she does!" Gai cried enthusiastically. 'Now what am I supposed to do?'

"Right… then let's go." Kakashi plodded toward the window.

"Yes, let us go! LET US GO AND RETRIEVE OUR MISSION FROM THE FAIR HOKAGE!" Not being able to do anything else, Gai took off at a sprint in the direction of Hokage Tower.

Kakashi shook his head lightly and prepared to follow him.

"Be careful." The soft voice had the jounin turning back to a slightly flustered Iruka who wouldn't look him directly in the eye.

Kakashi smiled reassuringly, his eye curving. "I will. And I will be back to finish this conversation."

Iruka shivered as the silver-haired jounin disappeared into the night.

I know, I know, it is so not as smutty as I promised. But I promise Jiraiya for the next chapter! (Which will hopefully be out much sooner than this one was).

Anyway, a challenge for any fanart artists: Draw a picture of Gai in casual clothes. I don't know if any actually exist at the moment, but I can tell you that I can't find any. So, if you're up to it, please send me any pictures or links of websites with the picture on them to Milniumhandcufs yahoo .com (obviously without the spaces). I wish I could offer some sort of prize, but... I can't. So this is just for fun. I'll give the artists an honorable mention or something in the next chapter.

I'm sure that there is so much more I want to say here, but it's been so long since I was able to post a chapter, I've completely forgotten anything I wanted to say. So I guess all I can do is say stay tuned for a hopefully quick update. Oh! and watch out for another Kakairu story that will be posted in the hopefully near future. By the way, Soul Shadow, if any of you have read it, is going to be taken down. I'm just not feeling it. But the other one will take its place once it comes down. So look forward to that.

And as always, if you enjoyed please review!

DixieGoddess