Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Iruka's obsession ❯ Part 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Part 6

 

“Good morning, Iruka-sensei.” The speaker sat on the windowsill looking into the classroom and regarding Iruka with a single eye as Iruka revised his notes in anticipation of his students.

 

“You!” Iruka spat, standing up, anger giving way to humiliation which gave way to anger again. “How dare you show your face after what you did to me, you….you…” There could be students in the front yard playing, and many of them had sharp ears; they always heard what they were not supposed to hear, so Iruka did not want to call Kakashi something unspeakable only to have parents complain about him the next day.

 

“What did I do?” Kakashi had the nerve to look innocent as he fished out his orange book, which made Iruka remember his own stash of Icha Icha books at home.

 

“You not only glued me to a box in the basement, you actually went around telling people I led you down to the school storage for some perverted rendezvous with you,” Iruka yelled as he pushed back his chair and walked towards the irritating jounin, who was still seated on the windowsill.

 

“Oh, how are you today, Iruka-sensei?” Kakashi asked, with the air of having suddenly remembered his manners.

 

“How dare you ask me something so ridiculous after what you've done,” Iruka ground out, striding towards the Copy-nin. That's it, the man's days were numbered. “You'd better have some excuse for what you did to me you…perverted…”

 

“You did come down with me and show me your Sexy-no-jutsu,” Kakashi said, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world. “I just told a couple of people who interpreted it the way they wanted.”

 

“Thank you very much.” Iruka practically hit the annoying man. “With the current rumor going around about me seducing foreign ninjas, all I need is something like that to boost my ego.” He knew the person Kakashi had spoken to was Raidou, who had told Genma, who had told…well…just about everyone in the whole village. People who live in hidden villages were extremely good at unearthing other people's secrets-- maybe it was in their blood or the training they underwent as kids.

 

“Did you undo the trap, sensei?” Kakashi asked almost insultingly, but when Iruka looked closely, he could see that the silver-haired man was serious. More serious than he had thought possible.

 

“Yes, I had to, no thanks to you,” Iruka said with a scowl. He had stayed up half the night channeling his chakra to his finger tips then working it under the foreign chakra which had glued the cardboard to his flak jacket. It had been an eye-opening experience; Iruka had finally mastered the art of breaking down another person's chakra sufficiently to absorb it into his body.

 

“It's important to know how to undo a trap as well as to set it up,” Kakashi said in a grave voice, and Iruka looked up, startled. The tone was a mixture of something -- satisfaction and admonition. Iruka knew he should be angry, but he was stunned by the fact that what Kakashi had told him was correct. And what the senior ninja had said was true; it was something so basic that Iruka had overlooked it in his anger. If you set a trap you should know how to disable it as well. What Kakashi had done was spring a variation of his own trap, and he had been caught in it. Served him right for overlooking the obvious.

 

“I think you've learned your lesson, sensei,” the jounin said, then stood up on the windowsill and closed his book, which Iruka was sure he hadn't read, but had simply opened for show. “Be strong, Iruka-sensei; be strong enough to stay alive.”

 

The tone was utterly serious, and Iruka faltered. When he looked up, the visible eye was hooded, and he couldn't read the expression, but he was touched. For someone like Kakashi to say that to him meant something, Iruka was sure. At least the Copy-nin cared if he was alive and breathing.

 

Then Kakashi pushed his book into his pocket, and he looked up at Iruka, a goofy smile on his face--well, eye crinkling in what Iruka supposed was a smile--then fished out a few crumpled pieces of paper which he handed over to Iruka. “Here you go.”

 

“Uh,” said Iruka taking the papers automatically. “What exactly is this?”

 

“Your essays,” Kakashi said with a smile. “I even graded them.”

 

“My essays,” Iruka said, a little mystified as he opened a crumpled paper and looked at it. Oh…the essays he had been meaning to grade the previous day. He remembered that he had dropped a few on to the ground and Kakashi had picked them up. Then in the aftermath he had all but forgotten that he had not got them back. He flattened one of the pieces of paper on a table with some difficulty; it looked as if Kakashi had crumpled it up as if to throw it into the waste paper basket after he had scribbled over it with a red, felt-tipped marker. And for good measure, drawn a big red cross across it and written in bold letters, “You fail.” Iruka could practically taste his anger as he lifted his head. “Kakashi-sensei, I would hardly call this grading …” He was talking to thin air. Damn that man.

 

Then before he could jump out the window and run after Kakashi, the students came streaming in, and Iruka had to rein back his homicidal impulses. Not that his class didn't deserve them, in their own way.

 

The weather was unusually warm, which in turn meant the students were restless. Konohamaru managed to disrupt the class five times, once by pouring a bottle of green-glow over the youngest Hyuuga offspring, Ami. The fight which followed ensured that the whole of maths and half of chakra control were over by the time the two had been separated. In the end, Iruka dragged the former Hokage's grandson into a corner of the staff room to berate him for his actions and to make sure he was all right.

 

“Why in the world did you do that to her?” Iruka asked in exasperation. “The last thing I need is Hyuuga Hiashi complaining to the Hokage that I don't pay enough attention to my students.” While Hyuuga Ami was a child of a branch family, as the head of the entire family, Hyuuga Hiashi had the right to intervene on her behalf. And it seemed that he did, at frequent intervals. Iruka was sure that this was his way of making up for putting Neji through a lot of angst, but still, that man could use some lessons in self-control.

 

“But she noticed me, didn't she, Iruka sensei?” Konohamaru said in a gleeful voice which was completely the opposite of his appearance. The Hyuuga's were not the most feared clan of Konaha for nothing, and Ami's gentle fist technique was quite good-- even if she did not have full control of her bloodline heritage.

 

Iruka frowned as he knelt in front of the boy. He was behaving irrationally, well, more irrationally than usual. “Do you feel dizzy?” he asked, concerned. “I don't think she's old enough to activate her Byakugan, so your chakra pathways should be all right.”

 

“She saw me, right?” Konohamaru jumped up and down in excitement.

 

“You certainly got her attention,” Iruka said with a scowl, straightening up. “Go to the nurse's office, Konohamuru. I want a note from her saying you're all right, and I want it in fifteen minutes. Remember, don't get lost in the corridors.”

 

“It's pathetic, isn't it?” Shikamaru said from the spot in the corner where he had been lounging.

 

“What is?” Iruka asked, turning around and smiling at his former student, though the last thing he felt like at that moment was smiling.

 

“Having a crush,” Shikamaru said shortly. Apparently speaking in long sentences was far too troublesome for him.

 

“You have a crush on someone?” Iruka inquired in surprise at the turn of the conversation. He wondered if the laid-back youth had finally realized that Temari did not volunteer to teach at the Konaha academy because she had nothing better to do.

 

“No.” Shikamaru straightened and pushed back his hair which was, according to the Academy staff, starting to resemble Iruka's. “That little brat who was here just now has a crush on the Hyuuga girl--has to be if he's trying so hard to get her attention.”

 

“But,” said Iruka stunned. “He is a monster when he's with her. He throws spit balls, he sets fire to her scrolls and today…you should have seen her hair.”

 

“That's love,” Shikamaru shrugged. “He's just trying to get her attention.”

 

“That sort of love I can live without,” Iruka said with a frown, as he walked towards the door. He had at least twenty minutes of class time left, and then he needed to head off to the mission desk. He was busy - he did not have time to dwell on such trivial things as crushes between the class clown and a bloodline genius.

 

But as he sat in his usual place at the mission desk, Iruka wondered about it. Had Kakashi's actions in the basement been intended to get his attention? But Kakashi was an adult, and adults usually did not act as if they were seven years old…but the silver-haired jounin had a childish temperament. Then again, Kakashi never paid any attention to him, apart from asking how he was every time they met. What did that mean? And telling him to be strong enough to stay alive. That counted as well, didn't it?

 

“Excuse me, Genma,” Iruka called over to the next desk, when the missions for the day were handed out. “Are you sure there was no follow-up investigation to the Mist-nin attack, conducted by Hatake-san?”

 

“Come now, Iruka,” Genma said with a flash of teeth and a bob of his senbon. “No need to call Kakashi, Hatake-san. After all you two did spend some quality time together…”

 

“Really,” Iruka growled in annoyance. “Just tell me, was he or was he not…”

 

“Well,” said Genma flashing another annoying smirk enjoying the moment “No.”

 

“But why did he tell me that he was,” Iruka wondered aloud.

 

“That's Kakashi,” Raidou said from his perch on Genma's desk. “He always lies.”

 

“But why would he even bother with me?” Iruka wondered aloud. “And it's only been recently.”

 

“Why are you so worried about it?” Genma asked, sounding amused. “It's no big deal. Maybe he likes you, maybe he doesn't. He could have been bored and heard you took out a Mist-nin and thought to see it with his own eyes. He's supposedly always interested in new techniques.”

 

“But…”Iruka said weakly. Someone inquiring about his health sporadically did not amount to declarations of undying love.

 

“Everyone forgets he's a bloody genius,” Raidou said from his perch casually. “I don't exactly know how the Sharingan works, but from what I can glean, it lets you follow the movements of anyone closely.”

 

“And see left over chakra,” Izumo added, walking in looking tired. They all smiled at him sympathetically, since it was obvious he'd had a hard day. Tsunade had thrown both her chair and table out of her office window in a fit of whimsy, and it had been up to Izumo and Kotetsu to carry them back up.

 

“So,” said Iruka, slightly confused as to where he was going with this.

 

“But it's up to the user to be able to remember what he sees,” Genma finished with a flourish.

 

No one had accused Iruka of being slow on the uptake. “So he has to remember all the hand seals for the thousands of techniques correctly,” he concluded. “So what you mean is he's very intelligent.”

 

“Gai-sensei was impressed that Sasuke could match Lee's speed, move for move when he fought against Gaara in the finals of the chuunin exam,” Izumo added. “He said for the Uchiha to move that well, he must have trained extremely hard. And for someone to train him that well, the trainee must be able to move like that as well.”

 

“No surprise there,” Genma said. “Everyone knows Gai had chosen Kakashi as his rival so …”

 

“Though it doesn't seem that way, Kakashi must be as fast as Gai,” Iruka concluded. “But has anyone seen him do anything apart from read his books?”

 

“We wouldn't really know,” Genma said with a shrug. “Most of the people who worked with Kakashi as jounin or as ANBU are dead. He may be our age, but he's technically from the older generation.”

 

“So, did he really become a chuunin at six?” Iruka asked eagerly.

 

“Don't know for sure,” Izumo said with a shrug. “It's probably mentioned in his records somewhere. Or you could ask him the next time you meet him.”

 

“I don't think we are on such good terms,” Iruka said weakly thinking, `the records again.'

 

“Then why all the sudden interest in him?” Genma asked shrewdly.

 

“Because …he told everyone I led him into the school basement to…” Iruka said weakly. It did sound like a pitiful excuse when he thought about it. He never was a good liar.

 

“It certainly got your attention, didn't it?” Izumo sounded amused. Iruka opened his mouth to deny it but frowned and kept quiet instead, remembering Shikamaru's words, “That's love. He's just trying to get her attention.”

 

“You can just ask him the next time you meet,” Raidou joined in. “After all, if you can show him your sexy-no-jutsu, such a thing should be simple.”

 

“I don't even know if I'll run into him anytime soon,” Iruka protested, knowing his friends were maneuvering him into a tight corner.

 

“You can ask him when he comes to hand over the mission report,” Genma said with a wink.

 

“You mean he still hasn't handed it in?” Iruka asked with a grimace. Kakashi was notoriously late at everything, so they always kept an extended deadline for him, but he was late even by those standards.

 

“Tell you what,” Izumo said in what sounded like a wave of inspiration. “He had another mission from Tsunade, so I'll send him a message. He can come to the mission desk, and you can refer him to the office. And while you do that, you can ask him why he did whatever he did to you.” The tone said he thought Iruka was making a mountain out of a mole hill but Iruka also knew to refuse now would lead to further speculation.

 

“All right,” he said weakly and hoped that by the time Kakashi walked into the mission room, either he would be off duty or everyone would have forgotten about this conversation. Well, that was technically impossible, since those present were ninjas trained in both body and mind, but still, he could hope.

 

“Well, then,” said Izumo with a shrug. “I'm off for the day. Going to grab a drink with Kotetsu then head home.”

 

“Do you think the rumor about him and Kotetsu are true?” Genma wondered aloud after the chuunin had disappeared.

 

“Don't you dare,” Iruka said hurriedly. While Genma was doing his obligatory mission shift week, Izumo and Kotetsu were stuck permanently in office duty. “People just believe that because those two are always together at work ...and it's not like Tsunade ever gives them time to socialize.”

 

“True,” Raidou agreed with a smile. “If Kotetsu was a potted plant that Izumo carried around people would still think those two were together.”

 

“I don't think that makes any sense,” Genma said as he stood up, looking at the big wall clock. He left work exactly on the dot whenever possible, and Iruka knew Genma was just counting the days until he could go on ordinary missions. “Well, I'm off for the day as well.”

 

“And I think I should go,” Raidou said with a glance at the clock. “Have a date with Anko tonight, so I should at least put something on other than my uniform.”

 

“Coming, Iruka-sensei?” Genma asked as he put aside the mission reports they had received for the day.

 

“Uh,” said Iruka, blushing slightly, since he had decided to do something which was slight unethical. “You two go ahead. I'll file these and mark some essays here before going home.”

 

“You should get a life,” Raidou said as he and Genma headed for the door. While Iruka did not stay late that often, it was not so unusual that they would call the ANBU squad to investigate.

 

“I know,” Iruka said softly as the other two left, closing the mission room door behind them. Once he was sure they were out of sight, Iruka locked it from the inside for good measure then made his way to the door with the fire seal on it. He removed the seal easily; Sandaime had made sure Iruka had the highest possible clearance when accessing files, and Godaime and not bothered to alter his clearance level. Once in the room, he sighed with relief. Alphabetically ordered ledgers filled the room in neat wall-to-wall shelves. Finding Hatake Kakashi was a breeze.

 

The file had everything from his school records to his present status, which made it as thick as the Konaha rule and regulations bible. First were his school records, and Iruka was stumped. Kakashi had been both every teachers dream and nightmare. A student so eager and intelligent he would learn everything taught to him in a matter of seconds; so intelligent that he would surpass his teacher in no time. His grades were excellent, and he had zapped through Academy faster than anyone else in the history of Konoaha. The only person he could compare Kakashi's intelligence to was Itachi, and even the former Uchiha heir did not seem to come close.

 

Iruka remembered going through Itachi's file when he was told Sasuke was going to be in his class. Itachi had been a legend in Konoha, and Iruka, worried he might have a student more intelligent than himself in class, had called up the school records through Sandaime and gone through them.

 

Itachi had been good. Better than, Sasuke who was more of a hardworking student than a genius. Kakashi, it seemed, fell into the second category. Someone with an extraordinary aptitude for learning and for fighting, a chuunin at six and a jounin a year later. Then ANBU after the death of his father, despite his jounin sensei's intervention.[2]

 

His file read like a nightmare on some points, and Iruka cringed even as he ploughed through it. Surely with Yondaime as his sensei, Kakashi could not have done such things-- not taken on such missions. Iruka felt horrible, reading such things--he had no right, but really, there was no way he could put down the dossier. It was fascinating, sometimes repulsive, sometimes shocking, but still, it was spellbinding. By the time he'd skimmed it to the end, it was well into the night and his back and neck were aching from reading such small print in the muted yellow glow of two candles.

 

Iruka replaced the file in it's place, resealed the room, locked the mission room and headed out, his stomach rumbling, reminding him that he should get something to eat. He ran a hand over his face to get into focus and absentmindedly felt his pockets to see if he had loose change enough for a bowl of ramen when…

 

“Working late, Iruka-sensei?” Iruka was a well-trained chuunin who did not squeal when startled, but it was a near thing.

 

“K…Kakashi-sensei,” he said weakly, coloring as he remembered the despicable thing he had done. “I… didn't see you.”

 

“Ah,” said Kakashi as if Iruka had said something interesting. “How are you Iruka-sensei?”

 

“A little tired,” Iruka said with a shrug. “I think I'll…”

 

“Care for a bowl of ramen?” Kakashi asked out of the blue, making Iruka stare.

 

“What?” he said to make sure he had heard correctly. His crush had just invited him to eat out.

 

“Food?” Kakashi repeated as if the chuunin was slow-witted.

 

Iruka blushed and looked down at his feet. He was hungry, and he had been contemplating food. Perhaps, if they had time to sit and eat, then maybe he could confess his sins to Kakashi; that he had seen his face and had read his personal files. Iruka knew what he had done was wrong, and to someone like Kakashi who valued his privacy, his crush notwithstanding. He could not continue to live with himself with such things weighting down his conscience.

 

“There is a new place downtown,” Iruka said, knowing that Ichiraku would be crowded at that time of night, and he needed some peace and quiet it he was to confess. “I've been meaning to go there …they serve drinks with their meals.”

 

“Fine,” said Kakashi sounding surprised that Iruka had agreed to eat with him. “Lead the way, sensei.”

 

The new place was not crowded; it was a large basement converted into a bar with a couple of tables pushed near the walls to make room for a stage in the middle. All the lights were focused on the stage, leaving the rest of the room in semi-darkness, which Iruka considered a blessing. He looked around warily, just in case he ran into Raidou and his date, but they were nowhere to be seen. He supposed that Anko probably liked to eat somewhere a little more -boisterous.

 

They chose a table at the back of the room, and Iruka wondered if Kakashi had chosen the dark corner because he valued his privacy or he wanted to be alone with Iruka. The food, when it arrived, was nothing spectacular but edible. They were given a choice of either alcoholic beverages or soft drinks and they both ordered something non-alcoholic.

 

“Uh, thank you for inviting me,” said Iruka, watching Kakashi twirl his chop stick the same way Genma did his senbon. As he watched those dexterous fingers move, he tried hard to forget what he had read about Kakashi in his personal file.

 

He went on ANBU missions when non-ANBU were required to serve the village. His first assignment in ANBU had been to kill a drug dealer from the neighboring Silk country. The man was well-guarded and extremely paranoid; there did not seem to be any weak points in his security apart from one obvious flaw. He had a weakness for small boys--the younger the better. And Kakashi had been sent in as an assassin - disguised as the son of a poor village trying to earn some extra money. He had killed his mark by showing a senbon up his nose into his brain.

 

“It's all right,” Kakashi said as if trying to find the right words. “Eating alone can be tiresome.”

 

“I would agree with you if you actually ate some of your food,” Iruka pointed out. “Should I look away so you can pull down your mask?”

 

Kakashi laughed at that. “Are you always this direct, sensei?”

 

“I'll just go and get us more drinks,” Iruka said, standing up. “I'll take my time coming back.”

 

As he walked towards the bar, Iruka wondered if telling Kakashi he had seen his face was a good idea. Especially since they were sort of relaxed with each other. If he were to confess, he might break the amicable mood between them. He did not truly know how the older man would react to such a revelation. Most ninja's by nature had some quirk of their own, and the higher in status they were, the weirder the quirk. For all he knew, Kakashi could go into a homicidal rage and cut him into… all right, that was Itachi, not Kakashi, but the names sort of rhymed.

 

It was stupid, Iruka thought, as he carried back their drinks. He was not scared of Kakashi as such, just worried as to how he might react. He was trying so hard not to remember the dossier but still…

 

The maximum period of service for an ANBU was five years. Afterwards they were given leave, of up to three years, then if they wanted to or if the village was in dire need, roped back into service. Kakashi had been the youngest ANBU operative ever, and he had served for ten years consecutively, voluntarily.

 

Most ANBU had breakdowns, some in private, some public, but always recorded. The ANBU handlers' main worry had been that Kakashi had never broken down; which meant he was very good, had hidden it or worse, he was bottling it up. So, at the end of his tenth year as ANBU, Sandaime had stepped in and forcibly removed him from the ANBU ranks.

 

“Here you go,” Iruka said, placing the drinks on their table, noting with slight amusement that Kakashi's bowl was empty.

 

“Thank you,” said the masked ninja, taking the glass and drinking from it - through the mask. “So, did you remember?”

 

“What?” Iruka asked, mesmerized by the slight wet spot on the mask.

 

“The brand of shampoo you use.”

 

“Uh, no…I…” Iruka said then stopped feeling slightly embarrassed. “I've been slightly distracted and…”

 

“No, harm done,” Kakashi said with a shrug. “Well then…” It was almost as if he was about to conclude their date--if it was a date. Iruka desperately sought a topic of conversation that would keep them at the table for a little longer.

 

“I…hear Naruto is out on a mission today.” Common subject, but not the best topic. Iruka hoped Kakashi would not blow up at the mention of their orange-clad student.

 

Since Kakashi seemed at a loss for what to do once he was out of ANBU, Sandaime suggested he take up a genin team like some jounins did. When that idea was turned down, the request had become an order. Kakashi had failed each and every team assigned to him. Though there was no way the administration could interfere without undermining his authority, many speculated that the reason Kakashi kept on failing students was because he was hoping to get back into ANBU. But he proved that speculation wrong by taking on the most difficult genin team as his students--the surviving Uchiha heir and the Kyuubi vessel.

 

“Have you been practicing?” Kakashi asked him, ignoring his comment about Naruto.

 

“Somewhat,” Iruka admitted, a little embarrassed by where his thoughts were going. He could remember in details all of Kakashi's mission and personal records, and it was as if he had an elephant sitting on his chest. He had been busty the entire week grading papers and working the mission desk; he had neglected his promise to brush up on his skills as a ninja.

 

“You should,” Kakashi said fishing out a couple of notes and dropping them onto the table casually. “There are people who want you to stay alive, Iruka-sensei.”

 

“What…” Iruka stared as he tried to frame the question. Did that mean Kakashi cared about his well being? Did that mean…Kakashi had disappeared in a puff of white smoke, as per usual.

 

Iruka stared at the spot where his dinner partner had been, wondering what was going on, until amateur singing hour started on stage, and he had to get away from civilians yowling like cats in heat. At least he'd paid for the food, Iruka thought, as he walked home in the dark.

 

But what exactly was going on? Why had Kakashi invited him to eat out all of a sudden? Why take him to the school basement and glue him to a box and go away? He should just face the senior ninja and ask, he decided. And he would do it tomorrow

 

 

[1] Most people are aware Kakashi became ANBU at 17. But for the sake of the story, I've decided he took part in ANBU missions when he was younger. After all, we was a chuunin at 6.

 

A/N -Oh, I know Kakashi is behaving oddly. But just wait and see: he has a reason for it. You just might not like the reason. Be warned.