I apologize for how long this has taken and for what I have done at the end of the chapter. I hope that everyone will forgive me for this.

Kit

Chapter Six It All Started…

Iruka grunted as he entered his newish home. It had been a long and hard mission. The missing-nin he had been sent after didn't want to be found and when he was he had put up one hell of a spectacular fight. The hunter-nin had barely made it out of this one unscathed. He was just glad that he didn't have any 'help' for this one or someone would have gotten hurt.

All he wanted at this moment was to climb into a nice steaming hot bath and relax. He wandered down the hall to the bathroom stripping his clothing as he went. He revealed a hard, scarred body that was well muscled. An eight pac rippled with each step he took. He turned to his left into the bathroom and was enveloped in a cloud of steam.

"Damn I am beginning to fall even harder for my stalker." Iruka muttered as he stared at the tub full of hot water and the usual candles lighting the room. The unexpected though was the takeout box from Ichiraku. The box wasn't a small one. It looked like it held a coupla bowls of his favorite ramen. He smiled in delight. Now only if the stalker theirself would show up and give some post mission loving. He sank into the tub with a sigh and wondered what would happen with him back in town.

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The stalker stood in his favorite tree and smiled as he watched his little one wander around the house with nothing but a towel and dance to an unknown tune.

Soon he would have his hunter-nin in the palm of his grasp and he wasn't going to let him go.

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Tsunade stood behind her desk and glared at the stubborn men in front of it. "So when are you going to get this shindig over with? I want people back to work."

Iruka frowned and tried not to give a pout. He really wanted to go on a date with Ibiki but he really wanted to find out who his stalker was.

"Best we do it tonight." Ibiki growled as he glared at his superior. He turned to the chunin who was ignoring him. "Meet me in front of the hokage tower at 7pm."

Iruka grunted and nodded at him. He would leave a note for his stalker and hope that he would set another meeting with him as well but he had another day of classes to get through before he could do that.

"Get out of here." The fifth hokage ordered as she sat back down. "I've got work to get done."

Iruka knew a clear dismissal when he heard one and rushed out of the office to get to the class on time. (And try and avoid his many admirers.) Luckily he managed to do so and went about setting up for the lesson and go over what the substitute managed to get done with his class. He sighed ruefully at the notes.

It seemed that Konohamaru was up to his usual tricks. "Why does he have to try to outdo Naruto?" he muttered to himself as he went over what he would have to do with them today.

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Iruka groaned and rubbed his forehead as he watched his students attempt to hit the bullseye in the target. So far no one had come close. He just new disaster was about to strike but didn't know how he was going to avoid it. And right on time it did.

He watched as two kunai thrown by different students clanged together and diverted from their target. He checked the trajectory of the both and one would do no damage the other he would have to take in an arm or something as he protected one of his female students. He moved quickly to block it and winced when it penetrated the upper arm guard he had hidden under his clothing. It had managed to find a junction point of the guard. It hurt like hell as well.

"Okay kids lets put away the kunai and get back to class." Iruka managed to get out between his teeth as he attempted to pull out the kunai.

The dolphin felt the sudden flash of someone's chakra and glanced out of the corner of his eye at the spot he had felt the quick pulse come from. He saw nothing and grimaced at the feel of the blood sliding down his arm. It was going to be one of those days it would seem.

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The stalker winced in sympathy as the kunai was jerked lose of the arm. That was going to be a bitch to put up with for the rest of the day. He would leave him a note and some cream to help with it. But his little not-chunin was amazing at predicting what was going to happen and what he should do to make it look good.

The mind of the man was just to fascinating to follow. And he adored every minute of trying to find out what he would do next.

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Iruka opened the door of his desk as the children pulled out their lunches and blinked. A slow smile creased his lips as he saw what was in his drawer. He would know the ANBU class healing cream in his drawer. The container was set on note waiting for him to read. He looked swiftly around the room to make sure the children weren't misbehaving and opened it. He blinked as he read over what it said:

Hello my little one,

I am aware of your little date this evening and the same as last time applies. 12 midnight not a minute late. I will see you there.

Friendly neighborhood stalker

PS: Hope you enjoy the cream. It must really have hurt. But the girl would be hurting much more or be dead.

He couldn't help the growing smile on his face as he read the quick little note.

He looked up at the sudden silence in the room. The whole class was staring at him. They were wide eyed in amazement they had never seen that type of smile on his face before.

"Hey Iruka-sensei…" Konohamaru called from his seat. "What does it say? Is it important? Is it from your girlfriend?" He piled on the questions as he stared at his sensei in wonder. He was ignoring the people standing at the windows of the class. The children were used to ignoring them by now.

The sensei blinked at his students and blushed. "Well it is just a reminder of my date tonight. And you can say it is important. And no it isn't from a female."

"But you said it was from your date?" Hanabi Hyuga stated as she glared at her teacher.

"Yup." Iruka grinned as he kind of lied to his students. Afterall he did have a date tonight. Just he had two of them. "I have a date with Ibiki Morino tonight."

"Oh so it isn't a real date then." Udon, Konohamaru's side kick stated.

"That sucks." was stated by many of his students. They were tired of the weird people staring at them during class and were told by their parents that if their sensei got a girlfriend they would stop doing it.

"No it is a date. Just like if I had a girlfriend." Iruka stated blushing more and wishing he didn't have to give this lesson to the class. Gay relationships were common among ninja and sexual education covered it. He had just never taught it.

"Oh! Oh!" Hanabi almost cheered. "Like Genma-san and Raido-san. My Otou-san says they prefer people of their own sex. Even though they can't have kids they just love who they love." She explained to her classmates proudly.

Sounds of understanding went around the room.

"But my mommy says that Morino-san is a mean son-of-a-bitch and he is really really scary." A boy in the back said as he stared at his sensei with huge eyes.

"Well you can't judge people by their looks." Iruka stated quietly. "You have to get to know them before you can judge them." He looked around at all the students. "There is an old saying that I really like. 'Never judge a book by the cover.' The cover of the book may be ugly but the inside story could be really good or the outside could be really really beautiful but the story could be really bad." He looked around the room trying to see if they understood what he was trying to tell them.

"So your saying people are like books….?" Moegi, Konohamaru's other sidekick, stated. "That just because they look pretty doesn't mean they are nice….?"

"Yes." Iruka beamed at his class. "It is what is inside that counts not the outside. Though if the inside is really nice and the outside is really nice it is a bonus."

The children grinned at him as they went back to their lunch and contemplated what he had said.

"But remember some people play at being nice but they are really mean inside. So you have to watch out for that as well." he warned them.

"Ok Iruka-sensei!" The children chimed out as they looked up from their lunches.

It seemed that his students had learned something new that day afterall. Iruka thought over what his little life lesson may have taught them as he ate his own lunch.

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Iruka sighed and looked down at what he was wearing he hoped that it would be appropriate for wherever Ibiki was going to take him. He had changed out of his uniform into a pair of khaki dress pants and a creamy white long sleeve button up dress shirt. He had thought of letting his hair down but didn't want to go that far even for his crush. At least not until he had met his stalker and found out if they were compatible.

He fidgeted as he waited for the interrogation specialist to arrive. He could feel the many eyes of his admirers and his stalker on him as he waited impatiently for Ibiki to arrive.

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The stalker stood on his perch and watched as his dolphin pulled on his sleeves and checked the time yet again. They had both arrived early to wait and see what had happened. He was glad that Iruka had decided to leave his hair up. He wanted to be the only one who would see it down.

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Iruka jumped as Ibiki dropped down in front of him. The man was still wearing his uniform from earlier that day. He wondered if the man had anything else in his wardrobe.

"You look good." Ibiki grunted out as he motioned for Iruka to follow him.

Iruka smiled slightly and nodded his acknowledgement to the statement before following the older man.

Ibiki stopped in front of a little bistro that he had found out about for the occasion. He could feel the glares of the chunin's admirers and turned to glare back at them. "Does anyone have a problem with this…?" He asked in a flat deadly voice.

The hunter-nin disguised as a chunin snickered at the few audible hisses and eeps. This was going to be an interesting evening, he thought as he entered the bistro.

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Iruka sighed as he moved swiftly through the rooftops to his home before his time was up.

He wasn't going to miss this opportunity even if his evening went so surprisingly well. The conversation had flowed easily and he had enjoyed himself very much. It seemed as if the reclusive man new how to take a person on a proper date even if no one had ever heard of him doing so.

It was going to be hard not wanting to go out with the man again. He didn't know that his crush was such an interesting man and that the chemistry worked so well.

He paused before the door. The dolphin was going to have a hard time deciding between the two men. He just hoped it would work out for him.

Iruka opened the door and stood there staring at the person sitting on the bench inside his doorway as his jaw dropped in surprise. This was an unexpected turn of events, was all his mind could think of.