Here is the second chapter of Clueless teachers everyone! I know it's still a bit stiff, but the story is going to get better very soon. I hope you'll enjoy reading it anyway!

Thanks a lot to Bonnie Gee and Janelle Smith for helping me correcting my numerous mistakes! You guys are really sweet!

-Edit-

I also worked a lot on this chapter - in fact, I worked on all the chapters again, but the corrections are less heavy in the following ones. I hope you'll find the edited chapter enjoyable ;)

Please leave me reviews, I love to read them

Chapter 2

Followed?

The sun was long gone when Umino Iruka absent-mindedly threw away the remains of his late dinner – which could be considered the whole serving itself, since he hasn't been feeling hungry that day. Nor has he for quite a lot of time, now that he thought about it. With a resigned sigh, he silently started to wash his dirty dishes, a task he usually liked for it allowed him to relax after a long, stressful day of work at the academy and momentarily forget about all his worries and petty problems. But for some reason, he wasn't able to let go like he usually did when he washed his dishes anymore, his restless mind keeping him tense and hedgy. In fact, he had been feeling restless and braced for three whole weeks now – well, ever since he started feeling suspicious...

He had been at the ramen bar with Naruto when it had first occurred. As he was eating his ramen with the blonde teenager, the chuunin had the distinct impression that he was being observed. At first, he had thought his imagination playing tricks on him, but as time passed by the alarming feeling only intensified and sharpened, to his horror. There didn't seem to be any kind of pattern for it, except for the fact that the feeling generally lasted only a few hours before suddenly disappearing as fast as it had appeared. But during those hours, the brown-haired man could feel those eyes on him. Eyes that watched him unblinkingly, wherever he went and whatever he did - whether he worked at the academy, treated Naruto to ramen, graded papers or even washed his clothes. Eyes that made him feel strangely uneasy and dirty, even. Eyes that he quickly started to hate.

Eleven days ago, the brown-haired man had to come to the unnerving yet inexorable conclusion: Somebody was spying on him.

Of course, being a good ninja and knowing the protocol by heart, he did as if he had not noticed being followed around and went on with his daily life to lure his spy into a false sense of security. Which, Iruka soon discovered, proved to be a lot more difficult than he initially thought it would be. The academy teacher knew of his strength and limits: he knew very well – as did half of the village – that he was, by all means, no comedian, and although he put all his mind into it, he couldn't help but worry about giving himself away. What if was doing a horrible job at faking being normal? Even though he had been trained for those kind of things, forcing himself to act normally and smile day after day when he knew there was something wrong going on was starting to strain him. Even breathing calmly seemed painful when he felt the presence of his stalker near him when he was alone in his apartment...

Iruka was a ninja, so he didn't fear to be attacked by the mysterious spy. He was confident of his skills and if needed be, he'd be able to defend himself, even if some people seemed to forget it because he was working as an office clerk. No, he didn't physically fear the mysterious nin at all. But feeling his eyes on him, knowing that his intimacy was violated made him tense and very... uneasy, at the very least. Before this all began, the chuunin would have never thought that he'd be so upset over being stalked; he now knew better.

As stupid as it sounded, the thing he found the most difficult was to change his clothes and take his shower without blushing with embarrassment – why on Earth had he never cared to install curtains on his windows, anyway? Mind you, he had never thought someone would take so much interest in him as to watch him showering, of all things... God, he didn't even want to think about it.

On the brighter side, Iruka hadn't felt the gaze of his stalker on him at all for the last two days, which was definitely a good thing. The chuunin wished that the spy was gone for good, but he knew better - it was probably just a matter of time before he showed up again. He often left him alone for one or two days in a row but unfortunately, he had always come back so far. Which didn't stop the hedgy tanned man from having his hopes up every time he did.

But even during these respites, Iruka somehow couldn't bring himself to relax – he felt tense and restless, his head filled with so many questions that it hurt. Who was stalking him? Was it an enemy? An ally? A vengencefull coworker? A pervert? Or someone else? That brought up the next question: of all people, why him? He was an average chuunin and hardly did anything interesting. He did not have access to any secret building or information that an enemy could seek for and he did not represent a threat to anyone, or at least as far as he knew. He really couldn't figure out why someone would bother following him.

But the question that unnerved him the most was when did it start? Because he could have been stalked for weeks before he became aware of it – and that possibility totally freaked him out. Knowing someone, somewhere, had been watching him when he was not aware of it was highly distressing for the prude teacher.

Under such circumstances, the last week had been a real nightmare and the chuunin was looking forward to an occasion that wouldn't raise anyone's suspicion to talk to the Godaime about his stalker - he wished he could have informed her sooner, but it had proved impossible since she had just returned from a diplomatic journey in the morning. Even though his follower had been quiet for the past days, the Hokage still had to be informed of this as soon as possible. If it was the work of an enemy, then it could be a serious matter and she had to be the first person informed. But even though he told himself that, he couldn't truly believe in this probability because he didn't have any information that could interest anyone – especially not another country! That brought up the same question again: Why him?

As if it wasn't enough, the brown-haired man also had other matters on his mind. After he had –that- troubling dream two weeks ago, he had asked in a moment of pure insanity his feminine co-workers to help him getting a girlfriend. Since that very moment of total thoughtlessness, the chuunin had been bitterly wondering what had passed through his mind back then. Why, oh WHY did asking a bunch of single, bored and desperately sexually and romantically frustrated women to find him a date sound like such a good idea back then? But unfortunately, the naïve Umino Iruka only realized how ridiculously stupid and potentially dangerous such an idea was after the words were out of his mouth, when his coworkers' eyes started gleaming. The chuunin still shuddered at the remembrance of the scary, calculative look in their eyes. That day, the academy teacher learned the hard way that there was nothing scarier than a bunch of single women in their thirties in a full matchmaker mood.

As it was to be expected, his female coworkers instantly went ballistic and stated working on the "get Iruka a girlfriend" project with the efficiency and the seriousness of an ANBU team tracking down a prey. They made a list of Iruka's qualities and abilities and started spreading the word through Konoha that the chuunin was a good match. Iruka never thought that gossip could spread so fast; only a few hours later, kunoichi and civilian women were whispering to one another and turning their heads to look at him when he walked down Konoha's streets, eying him as if he was a new piece of meat on sale at the local supermarket. Ever since then, the chuunin hadn't been able to go anywhere without feeling the judging eyes of young women upon him and hearing their speculative whispers on his way, the sheer quantity of attention he was receiving making him feel utterly uneasy and nervous. But unfortunately, it didn't stop there; soon enough, mothers started bringing their marriageable daughters to the academy and kunoichi started lining up to give their reports to him at the mission room – which not only embarrassed him to no end (Genma made sure of it), but also gave him a lot more work.

What had the academy teachers said to create such a craze? That he was a saint or what? Iruka knew that normal men would probably sell their mother to have his luck, but he wished nothing more than being able to hide and wait for his life to go back to normal. What did they all have to be interested in him so suddenly? He was nothing special for God's sake! All that attention was staring to make him sick...

Then, as if his life was not pathetic enough, his coworkers started organizing him blind dates. If Iruka had thought the whole gossiping problem was horrible, it was because didn't know anything about blind dates. After a few minutes spent with his first date, Iruka painfully remembered why he had never had a girlfriend before – dating was not his thing. It felt wrong, it felt forced, and he didn't like it one bit. How was he supposed to 'find love' when he wasn't even feeling comfortable around those girls anyway? So far he's met with two civilian girls and three kunoichi, each date being worse than the other one. Somehow he kept on fidgeting and stuttering, intimidated by the whole process. After a while, the chuunin developed a strategy to make those dates more enjoyable; he stayed silent, listened to his dates politely, paid for the meal and accompanied them home, a painful smile on the whole time.

Well, the dates weren't more enjoyable that way, but they went faster that way.

But what distressed him the most about it was that he somehow really wasn't able to feel interested in those girls at all, yet they were extremely charming and cute women. Maybe it was the whole dating process that turned him off. Or maybe he wasn't on his right mind – at least that was what Genma kept on telling him.

It didn't help much that Iruka knew perfectly well that all those cute girls only thought of him as a good choice for marriage – they had no interest in his personality, opinion, tastes or whatsoever. People often thought of him as a naive man, but he wasn't as clueless as he let on. It was obvious that none of them looked for love, or even sex; they were only looking for a safe man who would be there for them when they came back home from a hard day of work. Or who would take care of the kids if something happened to them on a mission – Iruka was very good with children and it was obvious everybody thought he's make a wonderful father. Which was probably true, the chuunin had to admit reticently, but it didn't mean he automatically wanted to marry and have children with the first girl he'd go out with.

Iruka sighed again at the thought and uselessly tried to focus his mind again on washing the dishes. As he was trying to convince himself that he was not fretting again about his stressful week, the brown-haired man felt the now familiar presence of his spy outside the house, those eyes he had learned to hate staring at the back of his neck. The chuunin inwardly groaned; it'd been utopian to think that he might never come back... Yet, he couldn't help but feeling disappointed to know the mysterious stalker was back already. Sighing, he forced himself once again to act normally, trying to forget about the heavy gaze he could feel on his body. He mildly wondered why he still hadn't gotten used to the feeling of being watched, with all those people staring at him constantly. Women, spies, students... Some part of him wondered what they saw when they looked at him like that. Whatever it was, it seemed to be pretty interesting... He wished he knew what to do to look boring and make the stares go away already.

As Iruka was about to finish washing his dishes, someone knocked loudly on his front door. Recognizing at once the chakra signature of his visitor, Iruka smiled warmly and went to open the door to a very happy-looking blond teenager.

"Oi, Iruka-sensei!"

"Hey Naruto! Already back from your mission?"

"Of course! I don't understand why we still have to deliver stuff, those boring missions shouldn't be given to talented ninjas like me," Naruto complained loudly before brightening up. "Ne, Iruka-sensei, will you treat me to ramen? I haven't had any in two whole days!"

"Only two days? Sure enough you can wait a bit more," the chuunin teased him with a playful smile.

"No way!" the young man made a face that obviously proved that such a thing was absolutely unthinkable. "Iruka-sensei, pleaaaaase!"

Iruka laughed softly, his eyes and heart warming up at the sight of the blond ball of energy and his childish manners. It was a mystery how Naruto always succeeded to make him forget about his issues and cheer him up.

"Fine then, let's go," Iruka said as he picked his keys and locked the door behind him, leaving the remaining dirty dishes soaking in the sink – he decided they could wait for a while. At once, Naruto beamed at him, a broad smile forming itself on his still slightly boyish face.

"Really? You're the best, Iruka-sensei!" he replied happily, hugging his ex-teacher in a very childish way that clashed with his manly appearance and the chuunin gasped for air, his rib bones being crushed by the young man's powerful arms. He had to tell the teen to stop doing that...

So both men headed to the Ichiraku ramen bar, joking and laughing lightly together on their way. At some point, Iruka became aware that his stalker was missing again and inwardly frowned. That was not like him; he usually followed them to the ramen bar as well... But he didn't give it much thought as Naruto started teasing him about his new found popularity with women and soon enough, the chuunin found himself protesting fervently against his ex-student's assumptions about his sex-life instead of dwelling over the unusual absence of the spy.

As he was lecturing his ex-pupil about respect of people's privacy, Iruka became aware that the mysterious nin hadn't gone very far away, because he got the feeling he was getting closer and closer to him with every step he took, much to his annoyance. When they entered the noodle bar, the brown-haired man's heart tightened as he felt the mysterious man's presence get aggressively close to him, as if his stalker was just beside them. Iruka stood frozen at the noodle bar's entrance, gaping breathlessly. He couldn't believe it - He was there! He was inside the Ichiraku ramen stand!

The thought of unmasking by himself his stalker had never crossed the careful chuunin's mind before, but now that he could get clues on the man's identity, he was feeling anticipation rushing through his veins, his heart beating faster at the thought of finally answering one of those questions that had been plaguing his restless mind for countless days. Here was his chance to finally discover who...

When he wouldn't follow him, Naruto looked back at his ex-teacher curiously and the brown-haired man shook himself, quickly joining the blonde and taking his usual seat at the bar. If he wanted to find out anything, he would need to be very careful not to let anything show – hell, his blatant gaping may have already given him away. But luckily enough, the spy didn't seem to have noticed anything, as he was still somewhere out there in the small restaurant - Iruka could clearly feel it. As they both ordered their ramen, Iruka subtly eyed the few people inside the restaurant, recording all the faces he saw.

Of course, there was the chief and his niece, working as a waitress part time. Except for them, there was four other customers; two male chuunin chatting together at the end of the bar, an old man reading a journal and a raven-haired young women looking depressed in a distant corner. Which made six suspects – if you counted out Naruto, because Naruto couldn't possibly -

"Hi Naruto, Iruka-sensei" came a lazy voice from their left, making Iruka jump. He had been so deeply absorbed by his thoughts that he hadn't even sensed the silver-haired jounin, who was sitting just beside Naruto, to his utter amazement.

"You sure eat a lot of ramen these days, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said playfully, bending toward his sensei with a sly look on his face. "You wouldn't have the hots for the waitress, wouldn't you?" The jounin blinked, obviously surprised by his student's unusual conclusion, while Iruka flushed with embarrassment and indignation.

"Naruto!" the chuunin choked, punching the blonde's head.

"Ow!" The teenager whined. "What was that for?"

"What did I say about respecting people's private life again?"

"Got it, got it! Geez, you didn't need to hit so hard."

Just then, Iruka and Naruto's orders arrived; Naruto's attention instantaneously went to his steaming bowl of noodle and he forgot altogether about teasing the jounin, much to the academy teacher's relief. The brown-haired man didn't want Naruto to bug his teacher about his love life, especially since the guy seemed to be rather shy, or at the very least highly secretive about those kind of things.

Iruka then started eating his warm ramen slowly, listening absent-mindedly to Naruto's rant about his previous mission while he spied quietly on the other customers. He heard his ex-pupil babble something about Sakura being unfair to him, Kakashi getting them thrown out of a place because he kept on reading porn and, he didn't know why, cool flying squirrels. Somehow Naruto's rants about his missions were more realist than before, but his enthusiasm was the same as in his pre-genin days when he talked about his performances. That thought made Iruka smile fondly as he watched closely one of the two chuunins, trying to engrave the memory of his rather common face into his head. Iruka noticed that the blond teen talked a lot more about his teammates than before too, which made him feel very proud – he was happy Naruto had finally managed to get friends of his age. After all, a young man such as himself shouldn't hang out all the time with a boring 26 year old... That was not healthy.

After Naruto finished his bowl, he went to the washroom and Iruka was left alone at the bar with the Copy nin, who obviously had long finished eating his own meal but seemed to want to liger around some more, for some unexplainable reason. They remained silent and, after a moment, Iruka looked up to find out that the jounin was eyeing him expectantly, as if he wanted to tell him something.

"Is there something wrong, Kakashi-san?" the chuunin asked politely but cautiously to his neighbor, remembering the last strange discussion he had had with the elite jounin only too well.

The silver-haired man did not answer at once, his unmasked eye gazing at the puzzled chuunin in an unreadable way. He seemed thoughtful, but also a bit hesitant, somehow. It must have been his imagination, Iruka mused. No way in hell he would make I'm-cooler-than-thou Hatake Kakashi uneasy or uncomfortable, he was probably just misreading the man's physical language. So he waited for the jounin to speak up, wondering what he could possibly want with him.

"...The weather was cold today, don't you think?" Kakashi finally spoke up and Iruka stared blankly at him, dumbfounded. He waited for more to come, but the jounin didn't add anything and just stared back at the chuunin, confusing him even more. So that's it? That was what he had wanted to tell him? That the weather was cold? This man truly didn't make sense at all. To think he found him strange…

"...Yes, it was," Iruka answered slowly, his mouth curving up into a perplexed smile.

"They say it's going to get warmer tomorrow..." the man added. "You know, on television."

Iruka was about to show polite interest when a masked nin suddenly appeared in the ramen shop in a puff of smoke, surprising everyone in the small establishment. The newcomer, dressed up all in black, did not even give a glance to the rest of the room and went straight for the Copy Nin, never leaving the jounin of sight.

"Kakashi-sama, the Hokage requests your presence at once," the ninja said on a low, quiet voice before disappearing into yet another cloud of smoke, leaving the whole room gaping at the place where the mysterious man had been moments ago. The Sharigan user sighed, left money on the bar to pay his meal and headed lazily toward the exit of the restaurant, seven pairs of eyes following every movement of his with a mix of curiosity and amazement. Just before leaving the ramen bar, Kakashi turned around and his eyes went to the chuunin still seated at the bar.

"...See you around, Iruka-sensei," he greeted the man before vanishing in a puff of smoke as well, leaving a very dumbfounded Iruka behind.

Iruka stared at the place Kakashi had been moments ago for a while, stunned. He knew that this hasted departure shouldn't surprise him – Kakashi was an important ninja after all - but it was still unusual to see someone being summoned like that by the Godaime... There was that, and that strange discussion. Not that talking of the weather with the elite jounin was bizarre, but the whole ambiance had been kind of... off. Iruka inwardly snorted at the thought; only Hatake Kakashi could make a weather discussion sound wrong. Did that man ever do something normally anyway?

The brown-haired chuunin pulled himself together and went back to spying his possible stalkers – but then, he realized with a jolt that he couldn't feel the mysterious ninja's chakra signature anymore. Adrenalin rushing through his veins at the thought of discovering at last who had been who had been stalking him for so long, the chuunin swiftly scanned the area, looking for a missing customer; the spy must have left recently, it was the only way to explain his absence. The prospect of unmasking his stalker and putting an end to his activities was making him feel both excited and nervous, his heart pounding madly in his ribcage as his eyes darted from one customer to another with anticipation. But to his utter astonishment, none of the customer in the ramen stand had left. Incredulous, Iruka double-checked everyone, but they were still all there, eating and talking quietly as if nothing was wrong.

The chuunin stared, feeling suddenly a bit deflated. That didn't make sense; he was SURE the stalker had been there moments ago! He must have left, but all the customers were still there, except for Kakashi-san and Naruto!

Wait a minute... That's right, someone had left: Hatake Kakashi! But... Kakashi-sensei, the stalker? No, that couldn't be. Even though the man was a bit odd at times, he was still a respectable jounin who certainly had enough common sense to do something more constructive of his spare time than stalk a random chuunin like him.

But the more the brown-haired man thought about it, the more it made sense: Team seven had left two days ago for a mission and the stalker had stopped watching him two days ago… And he came back around the same time as Team seven returned to konoha. Talk about a coincidence. And now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember feeling his stalker's eyes on him when Kakashi's team was out of town for a mission too... Everything fit together! The person who's been spying on him for more and three weeks was Hatake Kakashi! THE one and only elite jounin Hatake Kakashi!

That conclusion made Iruka feel a bit sick at first. He couldn't believe it: why would an elite ninja such as him spy on a mere chuunin teacher? That didn't even make sense. But nor did Kakashi either, Iruka remembered bitterly. It was common knowledge that the jounin was an eccentric man; maybe he did it only to distract himself? Maybe he thought it was fun? Maybe this was just a game to him?

The chuunin felt anger flare inside of him at that thought, his rage mixed with an odd feeling of helplessness. Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei, following him on his way to the Academy… Kakashi-sensei, spying on his as he corrected his students' homework…

Kakashi-sensei, checking him out as he showered.

No, that was too much. That was way beyond eccentricity. That was plain unthinkable. What kind of twisted mind would go through the length of stalking a perfectly ordinary chuunin for weeks just for the thrill of it? What kind of sick, twisted mind would violate the privacy of a nearly complete stranger a hobby? Torn between amazement, anger and disgust, the brown-haired man didn't even notice that Naruto had come back from the bathroom and was staring at him with mild worry.

"What's the matter Iruka-sensei? You don't look like yourself," Naruto asked cautiously, waking his ex-teacher from his dark thoughts with a start. At once, the chuunin pulled himself together.

"Nothing's wrong, I was just spacing out," Iruka answered with a small laugh that, he hoped, didn't sound too fake. He didn't want the blond-haired teen to worry about him. Anyway, it was not like he could tell anything to Naruto anyway. How would he explain him the situation: 'Hey Naruto, I just discovered your freak teacher has been stalking me for three weeks, don't worry everything's fine'?

Naruto stared at him suspiciously for a moment, then shrugged it off and started to complain to the brown-haired chuunin about the fact that he always had to sleep in the same bed as Sasuke when they had to stay out of Konoha for the night. Iruka listened to his ex-student's new rant about why Sasuke was the worst roommate ever, his features relaxed but his mind firmly set.

Sure enough, he would soon pay a visit to the Hokage. Very soon.

To be continued.