Well at least I'm coming up with a very good chapter - or at least I think so. I think it's the best one I've written so far and I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I do. When I first read it after writing it, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to find some scenes funny or sad, but I guess it's the wanted effect.

Thanks a lot to trasgapoca again for correcting it for me!

Enjoy everyone! And please review, I love them

Chapter 4

Of a ruined evening

The class was over at last. Students hurried toward the exit while their teacher remained behind, sighing pleasantly to himself. It had been a nice day: his students had been abnormally disciplined, he hadn't run into any of his suitors, there was no homework to grade and he wasn't even working at the mission room this evening, something getting increasingly rare with the desk-duty nin shortage. And even though the chuunin didn't want to admit it, his stalker's lack of presence had greatly improved his mood as well in the last few days. The Hokage must have already talked with Kakashi-sensei... Hatake Kakashi...

At the thought of the man, Iruka felt indignation roar in his chest and at once, he tried to chase away his resentment and the images of the nonchalant man that kept poping up in his mind - he didn't want to think about it. It had been such a nice day so far, he didn't want to ruin his good mood with dark thoughts. For the first time in a very long while, he would have his whole evening for himself! He had to do something special, the chuunin decided as he packed his belongings. It was Wednesday, so he would treat Naruto to ramen, as usual. Maybe he could do a bit of reading in the evening – he'd heard that a really good book just came out. He could stop by the library on his way home and buy it...

As Iruka was contemplating having a nice, quiet evening, someone knocked on the classroom door.

"Please come in," Iruka said loudly to his visitor.

A middle-aged ninja entered the class silently and bowed. "Umino Iruka, the Hokage requests your presence."

Iruka raised his eyebrows at him, slightly surprised. He wondered at first what the Godaime could possibly want with him, but then he guessed that she probably wanted to talk to him about the Copy nin. Kakashi-sensei... Iruka inwardly scowled. The prospect of talking – or even thinking – about that stupid jounin didn't make him happy at all, but some part of him knew it was unavoidable. Sighing inwardly, he thanked the messenger, who bowed again and left silently.

The brown-haired man mentally braced himself, swearing that he wouldn't let that discussion affect his good mood. He was going to have a nice, pleasant evening, stupid peeping jounin or not. He locked his classroom and set off for the Hokage tower, wishing this meeting would finally close the matter - he wanted this whole stalking affair over as soon as possible.

The chuunin used the village's dark and sinuous alleys to get as near as possible to the Hokage tower without getting seen too much – like he had been doing for the past week every time he had to leave his house, thanks to his coworkers and the stupid 'good match' reputation they had spread through the village about him. At that thought, the chuunin inwardly groaned. Although he truly didn't want to date anyone anymore, somehow he wasn't able to turn down people when it came to things like that - he had often been told he was too nice for his own good and he was staring to believe it. So instead of turning down the girls, he started to flee them, which proved to be undoubtedly rude but highly efficient - at least at the beginning, when he had been avoiding only young women, it had been. But if he wanted to avoid getting set up, he now had to avoid the whole village, as incredible as it sounded. Because his "good match" reputation had grown so big that everybody, from old grandmothers to young children, KNEW someone they wanted to introduce him – a friend, a sister, a daughter, a niece, an aunt, a mother, and it went on and on. It was almost now impossible to walk out in the open without being harassed by someone who wanted to give him a rendezvous. He was only safe when he had Naruto around him because people wouldn't approach him much with the Kyuubi holder near, which deeply insulted the chuunin since the blonde had long since proven his worth as a human being as well as as a ninja but was still avoided and hated like a wild beast nonetheless. Naruto, on the other hand, took it rather well: he fancied saying that he was Iruka's "personal bride dispeller". He also had plenty of other humoristic insights on his favorite sensei's love issues, to the chuunin's exasperation and amusement. The blond teen liked to say, between other things, that Iruka had become the "#1 man to marry, dead or alive". Unfortunately for the academy teacher, people seemed to share his ex-pupil's point of view.

Much to his regret, Iruka couldn't enter the Hokage tower without crossing one of the village's main roads, which unfortunately meant meeting a lot of people. Which meant trouble ever since the whole female population of the village decided that he was the best marriageable man in town. When the alley he was walking on emerged onto the main road, Iruka took a big breath, bracing himself for what he knew was coming, and started to walk faster. At once, people recognized him and waved at him. The brown-haired man smiled back at them stiffly, evaluating the distance between him and the Hokage tower with anticipation. As he had feared they would, people started to eye him and walk toward him within seconds and the chuunin did his best to dodge them, pleading he was in a hurry to people who rushed toward him and who called his name. Fortunately, the brown-haired chuunin entered the Hokage headquarters without much fuss and sighed with relief as he headed to the Godaime's office at a slower pace, quite happy with himself that he had managed to get to the Hokage tower without getting himself a date, which was quite an achievement nowadays. But he somewhat feared that his new found rudeness would soil his gentleman reputation on the long run... He guessed that was the price to pay to be left alone.

Iruka climbed the tower and passed by a couple ANBU guards before stopping in front of the Godaime's office, suddenly feeling a bit anxious to hear hat the woman had to say. Promising to himself once again that he wouldn't let that discussion affect his mood, he took a big breath and knocked on the door. At once he heard the old woman commanding him to come in and he quietly pushed one door open.

The Hokage was sitting at her desk, nearly hidden behind numerous pile of paperwork waiting for her attention, obviously deeply absorbed by her work. She looked up at her visitor only when Iruka silently closed the door behind him. When she saw him, a smile appeared on her tired features.

"Ah, Iruka-sensei."

"Hokage-sama, you wanted to see me?" Iruka asked a bit nervously, faking curiosity.

"Yes. Don't give me that look, there's no point hiding that we both know what this meeting is about," the old women said lightly. Iruka coughed, hoping that he wasn't blushing. So much for the protocol...

"I talked to Kakashi yesterday," Tsunade began. Iruka looked at her expectantly, waiting for more.

"You don't have to worry, he won't stalk you anymore. He might be a weirdo, but that kid's word can be trusted."

At those words, the Hokage gave him a warm smile and went back to her paperwork as if there was nothing else to add, much to Iruka's mild indignation. That was all? It couldn't be... When the chuunin realized she wouldn't add anything else, he spoke up.

"Hokage-sama, please excuse me for my indiscretion but... I still have one question."

The blonde looked up, surprised. "Is that so? What is still bothering you, Iruka-kun?"

"Well, I was wondering..." Iruka began, a bit embarrassed, "... Do you know why Kakashi-sama stalked me? Why me, of all people?" he stressed on, inwardly hoping he wasn't being impolite with his superior.

For a brief moment, a flash of something Iruka couldn't read passed through the Godaime's features - like amusement. Or was it sympathy? Then it was gone; she smiled at him and waved her hand in the air dismissively. "You know, jounins and their eccentricities... Maybe you should talk it out with him. Now if you can excuse me Iruka, I have work to do," she added with a small forced smile that clearly meant the end of the discussion and went back to her paperwork.

Iruka's fits and jaw clenched painfully with indignant anger at the vague answer, but he forced himself to remain calm and polite in front of his superior. Stiffly, the chuunin bowed and silently left the Hokage's office, carefully keeping the overflow of emotions swirling rapidly in his chest from showing on his face as he walked down the tower's busy hallways. The man then entered the closest bathroom he found, closed the door behind him and leaned heavily against it. His back resting against the small door, Iruka closed his eyes and took long, soothing breaths, trying to regain some kind of control over his emotions and cool down a bit. But even years of dealing with pre-genins had not prepared him to something like that, to this frustration, this indignation... At the remembrance of the Godaime small decisive smile, Iruka's resolution to remain calm and collected was overthrown by a wave of fresh anger and he slammed his clenched fists against the door powerfully, swearing under his breath.

How could she talk about it so lightly! His privacy had been violated! A pure stranger had witnessed every aspect of his life for weeks - probably months! Did she even know how much stress he had to live with? Could she even imagine how humiliating that was? To live with the knowledge that a total weirdo like Hatake Kakashi knew every aspect of your private life, from your boring routine to more... personal matters...? How could she talk about it so lightly, dammit!

And that woman knew something he didn't. He saw it clearly on her face. She knew more about Kakashi's motivation than she let on, it was plain obvious. Yet she decided to purposely hide something from him, and that thought only aggravated the academy teacher's fury. He wasn't happy with that evasive answer, oh no, he wasn't... What was she hiding from him? He had the right to know WHY he'd been stalked, goddammit! After all what he had gone through, he wanted to know - he needed to know - why...! That wasn't asking much now, wasn't it? Wasn't it?

Plus, she never mentioned anywhere in their discussion that the Copy nin had received any actual punishment for his behavior. Never. She probably lectured him, made him swear not to do it again and let him leave without even punishing him! At that though, Iruka's teeth clenched so hard his jaw hurt. That was just so unfair...!

The brown-haired man refrained from taking his fury out on the bathroom door again and took a few deep, shaky breaths in attempt to regain some control over his feelings. No matter how he wished to indulge into his dark and bitter thoughts, Iruka was overly aware that having an anger tantrum in the Hokage's tower bathroom was both stupid and pointless. He needed to calm down. The Hokage must have her reasons... Yes, she probably knew what she was doing. She wasn't the Hokage for nothing... And there was nothing he could do about it anyway, so there was no point getting all upset over it. No matter how loud he would yell, it wouldn't change a thing. No, not with this Hokage. Better get used to the idea already and live with it, even if that option appalled the academy teacher.

The chuunin and went to the sinks to splash some water on his face and let the cold water drip slowly off his face, staring miserably at his reflection in the mirror.

He guessed he could say good bye to his good mood.

Shaking his head as to chase away those negative thoughts, Iruka told himself he had to see things in a positive way. Being angry would lead him nowhere. He had his whole evening for himself, he could still enjoy himself. Or at least try to think about something else for a while... He groaned at the thought. Who was he kidding? He had always had a bad temper; there was no way he could get over something as frustrating as that any time soon, even if he knew it was pointless to feel resentful about it. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth giving it a try; anything that meant forgetting about the Hokage and that silver-haired psycho for the time being sounded good to the brown-haired man at the moment.

Iruka wiped his dripping face dry and left the Hokage tower, his head high but his spirits low. He passed through the main road rapidly, ignoring people who hailed him and waved at him before diving into another sinuous little road. The chuunin walked fast. He had planned on treating Naruto to ramen, hadn't he? Then he would treat Naruto to ramen. He liked to treat Naruto to ramen. If the blonde couldn't cheer him up, nothing would. Yeah, that was a good plan. Naruto'd cheer him up.

Iruka made his way through Konoha's alleys to his favorite ex-student's apartment, a small, gloomy building that was in relatively good condition if you didn't take account of its rebuffing appearance. Forcing a painful smile on his lips, the brown-haired man knocked Naruto's door. But nothing happened. He knocked again, but the apartment remained silent and the chuunin frowned. Odd. It was not like Naruto to make visitors wait; he was usually so thrilled to have some that he literally ran to the door to greet them. But not today. Just then, Iruka noticed a lone painfully bright orange post-it left right by the door – in his haste to see Naruto, he hadn't even noticed it, to his own bewilderment. Suddenly feeling a bit wary, Iruka read the badly written note.

Iruka-sensei,

I wanted to warn you but I couldn't find you at the academy or at the mission room. I know that we usually eat ramen together on Wednesday evening, but tonight I can't. It's not because I don't want to! But Sasuke invited me to eat and stay at his place for the night. I never went to Sasuke's, I can't miss that occasion to gather information I could use against him!

I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei! But you can still treat me tomorrow, ne? Then I'll tell you all the great stuff I found about Sasuke!

See you around tomorrow for ramen!

Naruto

Iruka sighed in defeat. His plans for a nice evening were slowly vanishing into thin air one after the other in front of his eyes... But he felt happy for his ex-pupil nonetheless. It was really great to see him getting friends of his age for once. "I can't miss that occasion to gather information I could use against him," he smiled to himself as he read the note again. It was amusing to see that even though the blonde ninja had long grown out of his prankster phase, he still faked to think like one. As if he thought he would be laughed at if he admitted he wanted to see Sasuke and spend some quality time with his rival and best friend. After all, Naruto hadn't changed that much, the man thought fondly.

Iruka turned around and stared at the road in front of him, a bit lost about what to do next. He wasn't feeling really hungry, now that he thought about it. So he could skip lunch for now, buy the book he had heard about and spend the rest of the evening home... And he would order something when he felt hungry later in the evening. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. So the chuunin set off for the bookshop, which fortunately wasn't too far away, bought the famous book and left the store in very little time, which got him a little hopeful to have a nice, quiet evening after all. As he was heading home, he passed in front of a drugstore and had a sudden urge for chocolate. Even though he liked them a lot, Umino Iruka didn't eat sweets very often and the idea of a chocolate bar or two sounded quite appealing at the moment, so the brown-haired man decided to indulge into a rare treat and buy some chocolate to cheer himself up. He waved back at the shop owner and went straight to the sweet corner of the store, grabbed two chocolate bars and dumped them on the counter. He politely exchanged a few words with the shopkeeper, paid for them and then turned around to leave. Just as he did so, Iruka looked up and almost had a heart attack; a few feet behind him stood the last person in the whole he wanted to see at the moment. Hatake Kakashi, of all people.

At the sight of the silver-haired man, the chuunin felt his whole body tensing up and his heart pounding so fast that he thought it was trying to break through his rib cage. Anger roared in him once again at the sight of the lazy jounin, although he didn't know if he was more angry at the man in front of him or angry at himself for having such a humiliating reaction in front of him - because there was no way an elite ninja like him hadn't noticed his surprise and nervousness, which was highly embarrassing. On another hand, the jounin was onviously surprised to run into him as well, if the way he stared at him rather blankly was any indication.

"Ah, good afternoon, Iruka-sensei."

The silver-haired man had said those words casually, as if nothing had happened between them and the chuunin felt himself twitch. That was too much. How... dared he? How dared he talking to him as if nothing happened? Iruka couldn't believe the guts of that man! All the anger and frustration the chuunin had tried to repress after his encounter with the Hokage returned full force, the fury boiling in his veins making his teeth and fists clench so hard they were painful. Iruka gave the jounin a death glare that would have scared the most courageous men into hiding under their bed in a fetal position, putting all his anger, his resentment and his bitterness in it. And for a moment, the brown-haired man thought he saw the jounin deflate under his hatred-filled gaze. But it must have been a trick of his mind, because in the blink of an eye, the arrogant Kakashi he was used to was back, looking as happily unconcerned as before. The ex-anbu's indifferent behavior only infuriated Iruka even more, and the chuunin had to summon all the self restrain he could muster not to strangle him right on the spot to see his damn curved eye popping out of his stupid gray head. Instead, he resolutely ignored the man and left the small store very stiffly. He had walked only a couple of feet from the store when he heard the jounin called his name. Too high on nerves to just ignore the call, Iruka found himself bolting around swiftly to glare at the older man, who was standing right behind him, holding up a small back in his gloved hand.

"You forgot your bag, sensei."

"... How dare you...?" Iruka muttered very slowly under his breath, his whole body shaking from suppressed anger. The silver-haired man blinked at him, looking quite placid.

That was it. The last straw. Iruka felt something snap in him and before he knew it, he was yelling at the top of his lungs.

"How DARE you as if nothing happened!" The brown-haired chuunin spat out, all pretensions of staying calm long evaporated. "You perverted, egoistic ...rotten sick bastard! You think that you can just stalk people freely like that! Don't you have respect for anything!"

"Ahh, Iruk-"

"Don't you even think of "Iruka"ing me! You dirty, depraved psycho! It's a wonder the Hokage let a total unbalanced freak like you teach genins! You don't even -"

"Iru-"

"WILL YOU LET ME TALK, YOU ECCENTRIC BASTARD!" Iruka roared, completely out of himself. "Don't think I'll let you go away with this easily, you- humph!"

Before Iruka could finish his sentence, Kakashi smoothly put his hand on the enraged man's mouth and gave him a hidden apologetic smile.

"I don't mind the attention at all, but I doubt you will once you've calmed down a bit," the jounin said calmly. At those words, Iruka stared a bit before remembering that they were in the middle of a street, where anybody could see and hear them. In fact, their one-sided quarrel had already brought a lot of attention to themselves, as the shop owner and a few customers were staring shamelessly at them through the shop's window, looking both dumbfounded and highly interested by the whole thing. The chuunin blushed from anger and shame as he felt half a dozen eyes watching him hungrily and pushed away Kakashi's hand quickly, before turning around and walking away at a brisk pace. Much to his annoyance, the jounin seemed to be following him.

They soon reached a deserted and neglected little alley where they mostly couldn't be seen and the chuunin turned around, glaring at the silver-haired man still following him. The chuunin finally had a good look at him and noticed for the first time how miserable the elite jounin looked like. There were shadows under his eye, his shoulders were slouched, his clothes were crumpled and smelly and even his usually spiky hair seemed to have known better days. He looked on the whole overly worn out – or very sick, which somehow surprised a bit the chuunin.

If he wouldn't have been so angry at him, Iruka would probably have felt sorry for him. Probably. But for the moment he couldn't care less about how tired and/or sick the Copy nin possibly was: as thing were, he needed all his self-restrain to stop himself from strangling the man right on the spot.

"What is wrong with you?" he hissed angrily at the quiet man, "Can't you just leave me alone? Or is it that you can't find somebody else to stalk today?"

"Actually… I wanted to apologize."

That quiet declaration took Iruka by surprise. The chuunin eyed Kakashi skeptically, staying on the defensive. "Oh, really?"

The jounin looked at his feet and rubbed his neck with embarrassment. "Hum, I'm not good at those things... Listen now, Iruka-sensei, I... I never meant any harm. I never intended to hurt your feelings. I'm sorry I've upset you, I never meant to."

"You never meant to?" Iruka snapped back at him, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, so you mean you stalked me for God-only-knows how long, but it never occurred to your GENIUS self that I wouldn't feel absolutely okay to be stalked by a crazy, perverted jounin like you?"

The hesitant jounin seemed to feeling increasingly uncomfortable. "Well – It was nothing like that, really…"

"Nothing like what?"

"I mean, it was not like I was watching you because I'm perverted or something."

Iruka was getting increasingly irritated. "Oh, Obviously not! I guess it was out of candid interest that you watched me shower every fuckin' night, is that it?"

"But I wasn't spying on your for fun!" Kakashi protested with mild indignation as Iruka made a movement to get away and glared at him.

"I've had enough, ok? You've had your fun, and now you come around here and try to make fun of me some more? Did you really think I'd swallow all that bullshit and forgive you just like that so that you could better stab me in the back again? You're despicable!"

"Iruka, wait-!" the chuunin had turned away and was walking away when he felt Kakashi's hand on his arm. The next thing he knew, his clenched fist was smashing into the jounin's face full force, sending a wave of pain through his right fist from the sheer power of the impact. In slow motion, he saw the silver-haired man hurl to the ground and crash violently onto the alley's dirty ground, where he stayed still for a while. For a second, Iruka stared at the man he had just punched, and when he didn't get up, he turned around and left swiftly. Emotions boiling up in his chest, the chuunin's brisk walk soon turned into a small trot, then a run. Before he even realized it, he was in front of his apartment's door, unlocking his front door.

When he closed the door behind him, Iruka slammed his fist violently into the nearby wall, emotions swelling painfully again in his chest. He took a few deep breath and let himself slide to the floor, his back against the door he had just come through. To his own surprise and utter frustration, he then started to cry, alone and dejected in his silent apartment.

The Hokage sighed tiredly in her large armchair. It had been such a long day…! She had been working non-stop on paperwork since seven o'clock in the morning and was feeling both exhausted and bored out of her mind. It was a miracle she could still see straight at this hour, really. And to her utter horror, the sky was beginning to darken outside yet there still was a two inch high pile of paperwork demanding her immediate attention. At some point, she wondered if the paper wasn't duplicating itself when she wasn't looking...

As she was about to get back to work unwillingly, she heard someone knocking on the door of her office. She told her visitor to come in, happy to have some kind of distraction from her damn paperwork – at this point, any kind of distraction was good. The large door opened to reveal Hatake Kakashi.

"Ah, you're coming to give me your mission report? I can't say you're early," she snarled at him before getting a better view of him. "Holy shit Hatake, what happened to you!"

The jounin looked like he had reached the bottom. His clothes were dirty, his shoulders were slouched, his head was kept low and his visible eye was bloodshot - as if he would have recently... cried? In any case, miserable was the obvious word that came to her mind at his sight, a word she would have never though she would ever associate with the always in control and cool jounin. Which was definitely worrisome.

"You look like you've been walked on by an elephant," she told the elite jounin frankly, who stood still silently, his gaze never leaving the floor. The Hokage frowned worriedly. No witty retort? No bored look? Definitely, there was something wrong there. She had never seen the jounin looking so bad before. What could possibly have disheartened him so much...? Then it hit her.

"Did you run into Iruka?" she said without thinking. At once, she regretted asking but the words were already out of her mouth. The man in front of her did not answer her question, but his lack of reaction gave him away and Tsunade inwardly groaned. When he had left her in the afternoon, Umino Iruka looked like he was about to murder someone - whatever happened between them this afternoon, it couldn't have been good for any of them. Especially not for the Copy nin, who obviously didn't quite grasp what he had done wrong to start with. And who obviously was very fond of the brown-haired teacher, even though he didn't grasp that either...

They remained silent for a while, the jounin's gaze never leaving the wooden boards under his feet. Although she was a bit ashamed of it, the Godaime felt very curious to know what happened to unsettle the usually unshakable Sharigan user so much. Of course, prying answers out of him - or even out of Iruka - would be indiscreet and inconsiderate for her to do, but she would make sure to do what needed to be done to find out precisely what had happened. Out of concern for them, of course. Not that it would be a difficult task – it was a ninja village, after all. She would be damned if there was not at least one person who had heard a bit of their discussion – especially since Umino Iruka wasn't know to be the quiet type. The constant complains she received from the academy's neighbors for the man's loud yells were proof of it.

As the Godaime was musing over which ninja she would assign to fulfill her little selfish information-gathering mission, Kakashi stretched his arm to give her his slightly crumpled mission report. Then he spoke up for the first time.

"Give me another mission," he asked blankly. His voice was a mere whisper and for half a second, Tsunade was under the impression that the Kakashi who was standing in front of her was a shadow of his old indifferent self.

"You don't look in a very good state to back to fieldwork Hatake, you should wait a couple of days and have some rest," the older woman answered slowly.

"Then give me something easy, I don't mind."

"Kakashi, you-"

"Hokage-sama," the jounin cut her, a clear plead in his hoarse voice. The blond woman stared at him with mild pity and sighed, glancing through her most recent mission assignments for something the tired man could manage easily. She found a one week long B-ranked information-gathering mission and pulled it out of the stack to give it a closer look. That was perfect for him; nothing he would get exhausted over, and it lasted just long enough to give him the time he needed to get over his emotional issues – or at least forget them for a while. She handed it to him and watched him bow and leave as silently as he had come, caring a new mission with him, her heart feeling unusually heavy at the sight of the hurt jounin trying to drown his emotional pain into work. Whatever the chuunin had told him - and she had a good idea what it had probably resolved around - it had strongly shaken the Copy nin. To think that the poor brat didn't even understand why all that shit fell on him... The old woman stared at the closed door for a while, worried about the obviously heart broken ninja's sake. Maybe it had been a bad idea to agree to the man's request… But she didn't need to worry; Hatake Kakashi was far too professional and well-trained to let his feelings distract him during a mission, so he would be alright. Physically, that is. Mentally, that was another story…

Well, it was not like she could do more than she had already done to help him. He knew that only time could help the socially inept jounin to see through his pain and maybe understand it. It was something he needed to do for himself - and by himself, and no amount of worry from her part would be of any help to the confused nin. In the meanwhile, she had to get back to work… Plus, she now had to find a substitute teacher for Kakashi's brats. Not that they needed it, but still. She could give them some low C-ranked mission to keep them busy while their teacher was away. Yes, that sounded a good idea... even if it would piss them off to no end.

Yup, definitely a good idea. She smirked, feeling happy to know that she wouldn't be the only stuck with boring work for the next few days.

To be continued.