Naruto 1. Prologue

_24 years ago… _

"_We're reporting to you live from outside Konoha with an update on this disturbing turn of events. This morning has seen a turnaround as Special Forces enter the barriers. Led by Captain Sakumo Hatake, the infected have been pushed back into the southwest district, where they have been quarantined. As of now, officials report the death toll at over two hundred. Men, women, and children have all been affected, and as of now, no cure has been found. _

_ Among the reported casualties is Captain Hatake's wife, Karen Hatake, who was, according to recent reports, six weeks pregnant. As of now, no bodies have been removed from the district, and it is expected that there is a possibility that no bodies will be returned to families from the quarantine. _

_ Trust us to keep you informed as new information comes to light."_

_14 years ago _

_ Sirens rang out, beating against a youth's ears as he curled in on himself. Everything was dark around him, and chaotic. An unfamiliar wetness ran down his pale face, burning his eyes and making his shoulders shake. What had been wrong with her? Why had she tried to kill him? He said that was his mother, and mothers were supposed to love their children. Was that love?_

_ His father loved his mother. That's what they said. So then why did he kill her? Matching streaks of liquid had run down his face when he'd done it – shot her in the head, splattering the silver-haired youth with blackened ichor, right before putting the object to his own head. With a loud boom, red blood joined black on the nine year old's face, and he let out an involuntary cry as he was hauled away by the men. _

_ It was cold there…so cold. The darkness crept on him, seeping into his body and his mind until he thought he was going to drown in it. He was going to die from the darkness. _

_ Only, just when he'd resigned himself to his fate, the door creaked open. Light flooded in, blinding him, but in the brightness, the youth could make out one thing coming towards him. A man, with a warm smile on his face, his bright blue eyes caring and compassionate – something he had never seen before. Luminous yellow hair spread around his head, and the way the light hit it…it made it glow like a ring around his head. _

_ The man reached for him, a single inviting hand stretching for his shaking form. The pale-haired child took it without hesitation, and let himself be lifted from the ground into the man's arms. A sudden sense of peace overtook the child, and he was spirited away from the chaos of fire, screams, and explosions. _

_5 years ago…_

_ A single black eye fell angrily on an incoming officer on the scene. "What took you so long?" the young Special Ops agent grumbled. At only nineteen years of age, Kakashi Hatake was the youngest sub-commander of a Special Ops team in the history of the organization. _

_ "Oh Kakashi, you're always worrying. Don't be in such a rush all the time, huh?" the late officer grinned, scratching his head sheepishly and adjusting his goggles. _

_ "Obito!" the other Special Ops member, a brown-haired girl in her mid-twenties, chided. "You're always late!" _

_ "Aw Rin, don't be so serious! It's not like they're actually going to send _us_ in there. We're too low-leveled." He cast a sideways glance at Kakashi. "Well, at least some of us are." _

_ Kakashi huffed, but secretly, though he would never say it out loud, he didn't want to go on any mission without the team he'd grown so used to being with. Rin, Obito, and the man he considered to be more of a father than his father had been, Kiiro Yondaime._

_ Of course, if it was a choice between going in by himself, and going in with his team on this particular call, he would've preferred to go by himself. Men with explosives were not something to toy with, and the situation was too dangerous. He didn't want the people who, as much as he was loathe to admit, he had come to call his friends, in such a dangerous situation. _

_ "Hatake! Uchiha! Karada! Over here!" Kakashi turned to see the head of the Special Ops, Chief Hakujo. He immediately turned and saluted, and at the look on the man's face, spared a moment to pray that his mentor would arrive. He knew that the hope was pointless, given that Kiiro was already on an assignment halfway across town. Probably the same group, if Kakashi had to take a guess, spread out in different locations, because there was another going on aside from the two. _

_ Dutifully, Kakashi strode over to the chief, locking his feet together and standing at attention before balding man. "Yes Chief?" He asked as Obito and Rin fell into step behind him. _

_ "Hatake! All of our men are spread out through the city. You and your team are the only ones we can spare." Already, Kakashi's gut was twisting itself into a tight knot. "I need you, Uchiha, and Karada to go in there, and get those hostages out." _

_ Kakashi could hear his heartbeat in his ears. 'Is this what fear feels like?' He could barely remember the last time he'd felt it. The strange clenching in his gut, the heat on his face, with the chill down his spine. He wasn't frightened for himself. He knew that he could die and he wouldn't be afraid. Nothing could be more frightening than the thing that stared back at him in the mirror every day; the memories that plagued him at the mere sight of the atrocity in his left eye socket. _

_ No, he was afraid for Rin and Obito. His friends, who despite their seniority, weren't as capable as he was in such a situation. What he was truly, truly afraid of wasn't that something bad would happen and he would die, it was that something bad would happen and he would _live_ while his friends died. That fate seemed unbearable. _

_ "Sir," he began, taking care to control his shaking breath. "We aren't qualified for this," he said. "We've only been a team for a few months. We are all fairly new to the force. We would probably end up doing more harm than good." Kakashi finished, and clenched his fist at his side. Silently, he hoped – he begged fate or whatever it was that controlled his future that the Chief would listen to reason. _

_ It seemed though, that fate was not on his side. "Hatake, that's an order. You are one of the most capable on the force, and the Minato Squad has been training for something just like this. You're the best we've got, so it's time to do your job." _

_ Cold realization gripped Kakashi. He wasn't getting out of this. But at least he could try to get the others out of it. _

_ "Sir, I think it might be best if I went in myself. It will be easier for me to infiltrate the building solo than with a team." _

_ For a second, the Chief actually seemed to be considering it, but then "I don't think so, Kakashi!" Obito shouted. Kakashi could have screamed at him right about then. "There's no way in hell we're letting you go in there by yourself!" _

_ "He's right, Kakashi," Rin joined in, and Kakashi realized that he had started a losing battle. There really was no way that the two of them were going to let him go in on his own, even if it was for their own good. He doubted they even realized the severity of the situation. They'd been through academy drills, and simulations, and a few real world situations. Kakashi had seen much more than they had though, on solo missions and working with Kiiro. Kakashi knew though. He knew that the men inside weren't sound of mind. He knew that the hostages were all strapped with explosive devices. He knew that there was virtually no way to get inside, and they couldn't snip the men because they were standing clear out of sight, and the second they tried, the dead man's switches clutched in their hands would release, triggering a room full of explosives and killing everyone. He also knew that their demands would never be met. No matter how good a person Lord Sandaime, the head of the district of Konoha and neighboring territories was, he would not submit to them. They were asking him to disband the city, and turn his official powers over to the leaders of one of the nearby territories. It would spell disaster for a lot more people than the relatively small number of people contained inside the facility. _

_ "All of you," the Chief decided finally. "All of you go in." _

_ And just like that, his fate was sealed. _

_ Not fifteen minutes later, screams and fire spewed out from the building. Something had gone horribly wrong. One of the hostages had panicked and given away Obito's position. Kakashi had just finished lifting the second to last one, all now free of their explosives, out by harness, so there was nothing he could do as the last man – the only one who's throats had not been slit, and whose switch had not been secured – released his grip on the switch. _

_ In an instant, the force alone of the explosives strapped around the maniac's body sent Kakashi, still tethered to the roof of the building, into the wall. His harness snapped and he plunged to the ground as debris came down around him. _

_ Through the daze, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Rocks fell as Obito shouted and Rin screamed. He couldn't hear what they were saying, only watch as concrete and beams plummeted to the ground. One beam caught Kakashi's blurred sight, and he followed it down…to Obito. _

_ Oh God, Obito! _

_ His confusion and agony forgotten, Kakashi made a mad dash for Obito. He started desperately trying to push the beam off of the half of his body, refusing to acknowledge the painful truth. The massive metal beam had fallen several stories and fallen on Obito's entire right half, from his shoulder over. _

_ "Obito!" Kakashi screamed, and Rin's voice joined his. _

_ Blood dripped from Obito's mouth as he opened his eyes. "K…Kashi," he choked out, more blood streaming from his mouth by the second. _

_ "Don't talk, you idiot. I have to get you out of here," Kakashi snapped out, feeling an unfamiliar wetness gather in his eyes. He threw rocks and metal bars away from the pile that had formed atop his friend, ignoring the pain as cuts and gashes began to cover more and more of his hand. He threw his shoulder against the beam, screaming for Rin to get help as his feet slipped and slid on the ground. Each time he fell, he landed harder until he could barely get up. _

_ "Kashi…s…stop…gotta stop…" Obito murmured, blood continuing to gurgle out, now from his nose as well. _

_ "It's moving!" Kakashi shouted back, refusing to halt his attempts to free his friend. The logical part of his brain knew that even if he did free his friend, he wouldn't survive. But Kakashi wasn't listening to logic. _

_ When he fell the next time, Kakashi felt a hand grasp weakly at his shirt. He didn't pull away, raising his eyes to meet Obito's. The older youth was smiling. "'s okay…Kash…'s okay," he gasped out. "Kash…closer," he said. Kakashi watched him, horror on his dirt streaked face. He leaned forward nonetheless, his ear close to Obito's bloody lips. "Promise…you'll do something…for me," he whispered wetly, blood thickening his speech. _

_ "What?" Kakashi's voice was weak and strained. What did Obito want him to promise? _

_ "Promise," Obito repeated, more urgently._

_ This time, Kakashi nodded. "I promise. What do you want me to do." _

_ "Don't…Don't forget how to smile." Then there was a sharp intake of breath, and then nothing. _

_ The silence was deafening, and then a sound shattered it, cutting through Kakashi's mind like a blade through his heart. The sound of bullets firing, glass shattering, and Rin screaming. _

_ Kakashi didn't need to look to know that Rin had been shot. He knew the scream – knew the wetness of it meant a lung had been punctured, and the following shots hadn't missed. _

_ The teen, once pure silver hair now stained with blood and dirt, sat back on his heels amidst the wreckage that contained the bodies of his two friends. His worst fear had been realized. He had lived, and, he saw as he glance behind him to see the still body of the brunette, and back to the bloody corpse of his best friend, they had died. _

_ There was no stopping the animalistic scream that tore from his throat, and he reveled in it. Reveled in the pain that shot up his arms as he clenched his battered fists and pounded them into the floor. Reveled in the tangible agony that did nothing to stop a much sharper, less physical pain in his chest. _

_ And amidst the darkness and flames, a head of golden hair appeared in his vision. Arms wrapped around his shoulders, lifting him up and away from his friends despite his struggles, and for the second time in his life, he was pulled from the wreckage of his life by the blonde-headed light that arrived just in time to save him. _


	2. Chapter 1

Iruka awoke with a groan as his alarm clock blasted in his ear. It was time for him to be getting up. _But I was having such a nice dream…_ Iruka felt the blood rush to his face as he remembered his dream. He remembered flashes of beautiful silver hair, deceptively soft between his fingers, and a pleasant smile that crinkled its owner's single uncovered eye.

Iruka quickly shook his head, and swung his legs over the side of his bed, getting ready to begin his morning routine. He headed to the bathroom first, showering and getting dressed. He decided his hair would dry before he reaches school, so he didn't bother, leaving it down as he continued through his morning rituals. He made his bed, as he always did, and then headed to the kitchen next, to get his breakfast started. He thought about making a real breakfast, but he decided some fruit and rice would be good enough. He didn't really feel like making a big fuss over it right about then. He put his rice in the steamer, and got to work cutting up some fruit, which he threw into a bowl, added some sugar, and mixed together. He had made his bento box last night, so at least he didn't have to deal with that.

As the rice steamed, and his fruit chilled in the refrigerator, he pulled on a sweater over his t-shirt. The forest green of it went well with his khaki pants, and he was quite satisfied with it when he glanced in the mirror.

He made sure to check his e-mail one last time before he gathered everything up and put it all in his messenger bag, and made his way to the kitchen to grab his breakfast and his lunch. He figured he would eat breakfast when he got to school, since he had a meeting in a half hour, and probably wouldn't have time to enjoy it if he tried to eat it at him.

With that, he was out the door, and in his jeep, on the way to school.

Iruka arrived at the school where he taught, Hidden Leaf High School, right in time for his meeting. He took his seat at the table with several other teachers, and waited for the rest of the teachers to come in and for the meeting to start.

Kakashi sighed and sat up, deciding it was about time to get up and at 'em. He'd been awake for a few hours, but lying in bed doing nothing seemed like such an appealing option that he hadn't really seen the need to argue with himself.

As he sat up, Kakashi glanced at the clock by his bed. Eight o'clock. Wasn't the meeting supposed to start at eight? He shrugged. He still had plenty of time.

Slowly, he untangled himself from his mess of sheets and stood up, stretching as he padded his way to the bathroom in no particular hurry. He stepped out of his sleep plants, slid the bandana from his head, and into the hot spray of the shower. It felt good against his sleep-stiffened muscles, tightened even more after his sparring match the night before with Gai. He'd won, as usual, but it hadn't been without its difficulties. The soreness felt good though. It made him feel like he'd accomplished something.

Under the heat of the spray, Kakashi stretched his tired limbs until they loosened up so that he could lift his arms enough to shampoo his hair.

Eventually, he decided it was time to get out. Not because he was pressed for time or anything, he was just getting bored. Not much to do in the shower, after all, once you've washed and all that.

He grabbed his towel as he stepped out and dried off, running a hand across his mirror to wipe some of the steam away. He couldn't help but grimace at what he saw. _You'd think after twenty four years, I'd be able to look at myself in the mirror and not flinch…_ he thought detachedly as he ran a hand through his dripping silver locks. With a sigh, he slid on some clean briefs, jeans, and a white t-shirt, all the while brushing his teeth.

When he finished, he went back into his room and grabbed a black button up out of his closet and pulled that on, rolling the sleeves up to his elbows and sliding on some socks and some black combat boots.

As was habit, he grabbed a bandana from his closet and tied it around his head, slanting it sideways so that it covered his left eye. A black cord necklace with a dog head charm on it, and some black hemp around his wrist.

His dogs were waiting patiently. Pakkun, Shiba, Biscuit, Akino, Guruko, Uhei, Urushi, and Bull all sat in the kitchen by their respective food dishes, their tails wagging patiently. Kakashi grinned, and filled each of the dishes up, laughing as they all but attacked their dishes. Kakashi, not really feeling up to a big production of a breakfast, opted just to go for a glass of orange juice. He drank it a lot, if the massive stock in his refrigerator was any indication. He had three gallons of it, and he went through that many in a week.

He chugged the glass and tossed it in the sink. He'd get around to cleaning it later. With that he slung his leather laptop bag over his shoulder, checked to make sure his hair was sticking up like it always was, and left, glancing at the picture frame on his entertainment center as he went.

Outside in the driveway of his home, a complex just outside of town, sat his favorite mode of transportation. He pulled the cover off of the vehicle, taking a second to revel in the unmarred perfection of his black Ducati. Kakashi didn't really believe in getting attached to inanimate things – things in general, if he could avoid it – but this was almost like a very dear person to him. It was his baby.

He grabbed the helmet from the seat in front of the handlebars and pulled it on. He didn't feel like bringing a jacket that day, so with his messenger bag firmly in place, he pulled out of the parking lot.

Kakashi made it to the school right on time. Well, right on his time, at least, which is to say about an hour late for the time everyone else in the town went by. Damned if he cared. He timed it just right so that when he entered the building, he was walking straight behind a certain lovely chocolate-haired teacher who happened to just be departing from the meeting Kakashi had so strategically missed.


	3. Chapter 2

Iruka flipped open his roll book, rising from his desk. The chatter in the room died down immediately, and Iruka almost smiled. Today would be a good day with the class, then. Of course, this was just his homeroom, so it only made for twenty minutes at the start of the day. Still, they could be annoying as hell when they wanted to be, even with their limited time span. They were like his kids though, so he still loved them like his own.

"Shino?" A hand rose silently in the middle of the class, over by the window, its owner staring intently at the wasp buzzing just outside the glassy barrier. Shino Aburame was a strange one, Iruka would admit, but he was a good kid.

"Choji?" A muffled "here" was his response, emitted from the only slightly chubby boy in the front of the class. Husky would probably be the best word, since he'd lost most of his fat when he'd hit that last growth spurt. He was already shoving another handful of chips in his mouth. Not that that was a surprise. Choji Akimichi was always munching on something.

Sitting in front of him was their resident nice-girl, Sakura. "Sakura?" he called, but he was looking right out her. It was required that he went through the whole roll, so he did. He had, however, already marked her down as present before her crystal clear "here" or the hand raise caught his attention. She did, after all, stand out, having straight pink hair. She was a genuinely nice personality, always helpful, and always a hard worker. She did have a certain enmity towards one of his students, but he figured that that was just teenage rivalry.

"Hinata?" The pale-eyed girl gave a bit of a squeak in response, and went back to picking at her sweater. Hinata Hyuuga was probably the shiest person Iruka had ever met.

"Neji?" Another hand rose without a word, and if ever a hand raise could look self-assured, that one did. For two people with similar blood, the two were completely and utterly different. Co-captain of the Shogi club, Captain of three martial arts clubs, and second ranked on test scores in the class, the silver-eyed teen was well aware of the fact that he was impressive. He didn't flaunt it, to his credit…well, not too much anyway. He was mostly just quiet, and it seemed like the only one that ever had a surefire bet of bringing him out of his shell was their very own lazy genius.

Moving down the roll, Iruka looked up. "Kiba?"

"Here," the brown-haired kid said. Well, at least, Iruka thought he had brown hair. He couldn't really remember. He always had something over it, mostly his hood, and even if Iruka tried to make him take it off, he'd just put it right back on as soon as Iruka turned his back. That was sixteen year olds for you though. Stubborn and to a fault. Of course, Kiba was exceptionally so, but it was sometimes a good thing.

"Lee?"

A hand shot into the air, along with the rest of the teen. "I am here, Iruka-sensei!" the bushy-browed teen exclaimed, his abnormally circular eyes wide and earnest.

Iruka couldn't help but chuckle as he nodded. "Thank you, Lee," he said. It wasn't like that wasn't the same exact thing he got from Rock Lee every day of the week, but still, he didn't want to discourage him.

When he finally sat back down, Iruka shifted his attention to the next name in his roll book. This one happened to belong to a teen with considerably less drive to please. "Shikamaru?"

The spiky haired genius gave a light flick of two fingers, raised slightly in the air. It was as if raising his hand completely would expend too much energy. He was, indeed, the laziest person Shikamaru had ever met. Maybe even more than Kakashi-sensei, the school's freakishly intelligent, freakishly talented, freakishly attractive, freakishly well sculpted…

_Stop, Iruka. No!_ Iruka scolded himself, shaking his head lightly. _Back to roll call…_

"Gaara?"

"Hn." Yeah, that was about par for the course as far as Gaara went. The child didn't just didn't speak, and when he did, it was usually something serious, cynical, or otherwise depressing. That is, unless a certain Rock Lee happened to be around. Then his face would suddenly turn about the shade of his crimson hair, and he'd manage to join the conversation with something at least a little more lighthearted.

"Tenten?" A girl with twin buns in her hair raised her hand, and then went back to twirling her pen in her fingers. Tenten was probably the school's biggest tomboy, and as captain of the Archery club, she was impressive in her own right. And, Iruka thought with a laugh, if you doubted that, you could always just ask the last child that was dumb enough to doubt her. No charges had been filed officially, but it had apparently taken hours for doctors to extract the arrow from his ass.

Of course, if it had been the next kid on the list the boy had bothered, Iruka doubted that an arrow would have been the worst of his problems. "Sasuke?" The black haired boy looked up from his glaring match with the boy next to him, and then went right back to it. Iruka just rolled his eyes.

"And Naruto." It wasn't a question like the others. Naruto was obviously there, being the one that was death glaring Sasuke. It really was amusing how the two could hate each other so much, and still sit right next to each other every day, defend the other one without fail, and do pretty much everything together.

In fact, there were a lot of pairs like that in his class. They probably didn't think he noticed, but Iruka liked to think he was good at reading people. For instance, while Gaara pretended to be put out by every single other person in the class, he seemed to light up whenever people were around, especially a certain bowl-cut equipped martial arts student. Of course, it didn't hurt that said bushy-browed student hung all over him any chance he got, grinning and smiling like a maniac.

Or Shikamaru and Neji always seemed to be the only one that the other could be inconvenienced for. Of course, they were pretty much out in the open about it, what with the time Shikamaru laid one on the pale teen right in the middle of the match. Apparently, it had been part of his "strategy." A strategy for what, exactly, Iruka wasn't sure he wanted to guess.

Then there was always Kiba and Shino. The two in the class most obsessed with everything outdoors. It never ceased to amaze Iruka how the most reserved person in the class could have such impressive outbursts whenever Kiba decided to sprawl across his desk in the middle of homeroom, steal his glasses for no reason, and just generally antagonize the poor guy. Teenage boys were known for expressing their feelings in strange ways though, and Kiba surely didn't disappoint. Iruka noticed, though, that he never went so far as to threaten one of Shino's precious insects. He figured it was for the best, since one, the insects were sacred to Shino, and two, it would probably end with some form of homicide.

And last but not least, there were Sasuke and Naruto. Iruka didn't even have to point out any specifics on that one. It was just so _obvious_. Iruka was even willing to bet that Sasuke (maybe not Naruto, because he could be surprisingly thick sometimes) knew.

But hey, what could you expect? This was high school.


	4. Chapter 3

It was the last class before lunch, and Iruka was about to shoot something. Or someone.

Or a lot of someones.

Everything he'd thought at the start of the day about that day not being hell had been completely and utterly wrong. Homeroom had been fine. First class of the day, fine. For some reason though, this class had decided to go to hell in a hand basket. Really, what was it about grammar that inspired such unrelenting madness in the minds of sophomores?! At the mere mention of the word "prepositions" the class had gone to hell in a hand basket, and poor, frazzled Iruka could do nothing to control his class. He'd tried yelling at them, he'd tried threatening detentions, but nothing seemed to be able to reign in the chaos of the tenth grade English class. Really, it was making him miss the comparative maturity of his junior-class homeroom, and Iruka would be the first to tell you that precious few of them were actually any semblance of the word.

As it was, paper balls were being thrown across the class room, and Iruka let out a resigned sigh, sinking into his seat. At this point, there was nothing he could do but start making a list of parents to call and pray that the bell would ring or someone would save him.

Which is why Iruka couldn't believe it when the door slammed open. For a second, he was worried, thinking that it was another teacher coming to complain. Then, the worry grew to mortification as he realized that the teacher at his door was none other than his silver-haired crush, Kakashi. He groaned. The class had to have been damn near explosive in volume if it got the aloof, nonchalant-about-everything Kakashi to leave his…wait, wasn't he supposed to be in planning? He didn't have a class this block.

Iruka stared in confusion as Kakashi strode into the room, over to him. He stood up to meet him, and opened his mouth to apologize.

Kakashi cupped a hand to his ear and leaned in close to Iruka.

"What is that, Iruka-sensei?" He leaned a little closer. "I can't seem to hear you over all of the noise." Iruka blushed, thinking that Kakashi was scolding him or something in his usual indirect fashion.

Only then the man turned around to the class, took a deep breath, and,

"Quiet!" he shouted, his voice the perfect volume to cut through all of the noise. Heads snapped forward and mouths clamped shut as they all focused their complete attention on the smiling sensei.

Iruka's face felt so hot he thought he would get second degree burns. _Can you die of a heat stroke from your own face?_ He wondered miserably. It was touching, though, that Kakashi would do something for him.

"Now," Kakashi said, his voice back to its normal volume. "What were you saying?" the smile on Kakashi's face, which pulled his uncovered eye into a curve.

Iruka stammered. "Erm, I wanted to apologize for their behavior, if it disturbed you."

Kakashi's smile stayed in place, and he slouched so that he and Iruka were at the same height. "No, Iruka-sense, I do believe they are the ones that should be apologizing, and not to me." He turned to the class. "Did you hear that? I think you all owe Iruka-sensei an apology."

Everyone in the class knew better than to get on Kakashi-sensei's bad side. He was always smiling, but behind that smile, there was a certain…darkness, that even the students could pick up on. There were rumors that he had been some sort of special agent before his time as a teacher, and that he could kill you just as soon as look at you.

An immediate, stereo "Sorry, Iruka-sensei" rang out through the class and Kakashi nodded.

"And I'm sure they'll be on their best behavior from now on, isn't that right?"

"Yes Kakashi-sensei!" they all shouted quickly. Kakashi nodded to them and then turned around to Iruka-sensei.

"Well," he said, adjusting the bandana that slanted across his left eye, concealing all but the very ends of the scar that stretched above and below the cloth. "I was actually stopping by to borrow a pen, since mine seems to be out of ink," he produced his own pen with a flourish, holding it out to Iruka. Iruka was painfully aware of the twenty eyes watching him, so he took Kakashi's pen, and grabbed one off of his desk, handing it to the younger teacher.

"Here," he supplied dumbly, thankful that his hand didn't shake, and that he managed not to faint long thin fingers brushed against his own as the other accepted the pen.

"Thank you very much, Iruka-sensei," Kakashi said, his eye twisting into a crescent. "Well, see you around," he said with a smile, waving to Iruka and to the class, and ducking out the door.

Confused by the turn of events, Iruka could only stare at the pen in his hand…

Which it seemed was full of ink.

Outside the room, Kakashi chuckled a little to himself, sliding the pen Iruka had given him into the pocket of his jeans. He was pretty sure that the kids wouldn't be giving the gentle teacher any more trouble, but just in case, he would keep an ear on it.

Sliding into his desk of his own classroom, right beside Iruka's, he pulled his book from his drawer and kicked back. Planning blocks were his favorite of the day. Then again, he did like his junior class this year. They were…interesting. The rest of it was just so mundane that sometimes he wondered if it had really been a good idea to let Kiiro drag him along when he quit Spec. Ops and take up teaching of all things. He stifled those thoughts. Kiiro always had the best in mind, even if Kakashi couldn't see it. He honestly wasn't sure if he _could_ go back to Spec. Ops after what had happened those five years ago.

Still, this was much more mundane than anything he had ever predicted he would do. Teaching math and science to a bunch of kids, most of whose greatest life tragedy was when their dog god run over, was not what he would've considered a career path of choice. And seriously, math and _science_? Just because he was good at all of it didn't mean he liked it. Of course, English wouldn't be good because he was much too cynical to provide school-appropriate commentary on any of the literature they read. He couldn't teach music because the only thing he knew how to play was the piano, and that had just been because Kiiro thought music might make him a little less angry as a person. Not that he felt he was angry as a person, he was just humoring the guy.

Let's see, what did that leave? Philosophy? Again, too cynical. Economics? Hahah, yeah, no. Politics? To hell with them all, they're all idiots anyway. Gym? He'd thought about it, actually, but according to Kiiro, his standards of physical conditioning were a bit different from the school district's.

That left the completely detached, straightforward aspects of math and science. So that was what he taught. It was sad though, when you graduated top of your class in everything, and math and effing science were the only things you were good enough to teach. Of course, he had to be pretty good at all of that, being the head of the department in the school after only two years.

He turned the page in his book, but sighed and sat it back down. So today was going to be one of those thinking days, huh? At the risk of sounding like a certain student of his, it was a drag.

He had enjoyed the delicious looking blush that had spread across Iruka's face when he'd told off those kids for him. He really wished he'd stuck around long enough to see Iruka's face when he figured out that the pen had just been a last second idea to give himself an excuse to stop in. Then again, he wasn't sure he wanted to. The other sensei, knowing the way Kakashi's intentions usually worked out, probably would've laughed at it or something. That would've just been his luck. Things rarely worked out for Kakashi, after all.

But hey, at least it made for some interesting daydreams.


	5. Chapter 4

Kakashi looked up from his doodling at a knock on his door. "Come in," he mumbled, even though he knew the person at the door would come in even if he didn't beckon him. He knew the footsteps just by hearing them – the slow, unhurried pace of them, and the near silence that only comes from years of having to _try_ to keep it that way.

Sure enough, a head of blonde hair peeked in through the door, and the rest soon followed. In stepped the school principal, a tall man with spiky blonde hair. Bangs hung on either side of his face in front of his ears. His bright blue eyes shone with a fondness Kakashi had never really understood, but always appreciated, and his smile split his face cheerfully.

"Kiiro Yondaime," Kakashi acknowledged, a small smile on his own face.

"Busy as ever, Kakashi-kun," Kiiro said, laughing as he came to stand by the silver haired soldier-turned-professor.

Kakashi glanced down at his picture, a small progression of stick drawings spread out across blank sheet of paper. "But of course," he said, going back to his doodles. He didn't feel any need to actually look at Kiiro when they were having a conversation. And it wasn't out of any disrespect. They were just too casual for that. He'd known Kiiro since he was nine, after all.

"So," Kakashi began, when it seemed Kiiro didn't have anything to say, "what is it exactly that brings you to my corner of our quaint little learning establishment?"

Kiiro smiled innocently. "What, I'm not allowed to check on my favorite little scarecrow?" Kakashi's eye twitched, but he didn't say anything. He knew better than to make a fuss about nicknames, because that would only encourage the man, who was ten years his senior, though he didn't look it. And he certainly didn't act it. Really, people called _him_ insufferable? Ten minutes with the unleashed, hyperactive wrath of the seemingly bipolar blonde, and they'd be humming a different tune he'd bet.

But it seemed that Kakashi was the only one that got the full force of his jolly nature. He could try to find some deeper meaning to it, but he'd satisfy himself with one very simple explanation: of all the people in the world he had to pick from, Kiiro just like annoying Kakashi the best.

He wasn't entirely a nuisance though. He enjoyed their conversations. It was…different, talking to someone who knows you as well as Kiiro knew him. He knew the darkness Kakashi was capable of, and yet he could still smile and joke with him like he was just a normal guy, while all the while accepting the fact that he wasn't. Honestly, Kakashi doubted he would ever be that close to anyone else in his entire life.

Not that he wasn't holding onto a few hopes about a certain chocolate haired sensei…Kakashi sighed. _Not like that would ever happen._

"You have that look on your face," Kiiro noted quietly, his tone surprisingly serious.

Kakashi quickly shook himself. "What look?"

Kiiro frowned. "That one where you're thinking about something you want, and then telling yourself you can never have it."

Kakashi just stared at Kiiro for a second. _It's like he knows…_ he thought, eyebrow twitching of its own accord.

As he gaped, a hand found its way into his hair. He couldn't help the slight duck he gave, on instinct, but Kiiro just smiled and ruffled his hair. "I think," he began, eyes filled with wisdom that Kakashi didn't think someone only thirty four should have, "that you'd be surprised how much is in your grasp if you'd only be brave enough to reach for it."

With that, the hand left his hair, and Kiiro left the room, leaving Kakashi to stare blankly at the door through which he had retreated. No matter how long he'd known the guy, Kakashi decided he would never understand him. One second he was less mature than that kid Naruto, and the next he was spouting sage philosophical advice on Kakashi's life choices.

"Weird," Kakashi muttered, shaking his head and going back to his drawing. As he did, he couldn't help but focus on the wall separating him from the one who he admired. If he listened, which he did, he could make out the gentle teacher's lecture, and, he noted with some satisfaction, complete silence from the class.

Smiling to himself, he started again on the drawing, scrawling the pencil across the page with detached interest. Occasionally he would glance at his watch, checking the time which no one seemed to think he cared about. This time he did care about, though, because in thirty minutes it was lunch time.

Was he hungry?

No.

So then why did lunch time matter?

Well, it wasn't the activity so much as the company. Kakashi, since the very beginning of the year, had been eating lunch with none other than a one Iruka-sensei. Granted there were often others in the room, but Iruka was always there, so Kakashi could tolerate the mild intrusion. Thirty more minutes now…


	6. Chapter 5

Okay, so Kakashi may not have exactly been entirely unbiased about the lunches. They were usually pretty enjoyable and all, but sometimes…sometimes they just sucked. Today was one of those times.

It seemed like every attempt Kakashi made at starting conversation with Iruka was thwarted. First, it was a kid who stayed after class a whole _ten minutes_ to ask about a bit of work they were supposed to do. It took all of Kakashi's restraint not to barge in after about the fifth minute of it, and explain, in detail, what the child could do with his goddamned conjunctions!

Next it was Gai. The moment Kakashi opened his mouth to so much as _greet_ Iruka, the hamster-browed teacher interrupted him, launching into another one of his patented "just because you wiped the gym floor with my ass doesn't mean you win" speeches, from which there was no escape but death. Whose death was entirely negotiable, and at the time, it did bear considering. Sadly, the more logical part of his brain pointed out that maybe homicide was a little disproportionate to the goal at hand. Maybe even a little counterproductive.

_Then again, I know how to make it look accidental. I have the training,_ his mind supplied maniacally as his hand began to twitch at his side. Luckily for Gai's sake, he ran out of gusto, and decided to go pester Kurenai, Asuma, and Raido, after receiving the glare of death the moment he so much as _stepped_ towards Genma and Hayate's table, courtesy of the toothpick chewer himself. For some reason, Genma was always chewing on a toothpick. Always. Except for when he was making out with Hayate. He remembered the first time he walked in on _that_ in the copy room. His reaction hadn't been as funny as Iruka's, whom he'd been with at the time. Said teacher turned about the color of a cherry, excused himself fervently, and all but dashed down the hall. Kakashi, on the other hand, gave Genma a thumbs up, and more calmly went to go make sure his favorite teacher hadn't gone into shock or something.

Wait, where was he. Oh yes, the infuriatingly diabolical, universal plot to keep him from a single, day brightening conversation with the holder of his heart.

Once Gai was out of the picture, things finally seemed to be going his way. No, better! _Iruka_ was _heading_ his way!

"Kakashi-sensei," he greeted, a smile on his beautifully tan face.

"Iruka-sensei," Kakashi returned casually, fighting hard to resist the urge to steal Iruka away to a room to prevent any further interruptions. "How was class?" Kakashi asked as they retreated to one of the tables in the corner of the teacher's lounge. The way the room was set up, there was one large table, mainly for meetings, and the rest of the space was filled with a kitchenette, complete with refrigerator, a number of couches (occupied then by Kurenai, Asuma, Gai, and Raido), and two smaller tables over on the side between the back of one of the couches and the wall.

Iruka blushed as he sat at the table, lunch in hand, and hoped that Kakashi wouldn't notice. He was still playing that over in his head, over and over again – how Kakashi had come in to save him from his maniacal tenth grade English class like a knight in shining armor.

Okay, maybe that was being a little dramatic, but honestly, Iruka wondered if a fire-breathing dragon might actually be preferable to that particular group of kids…

"Earth to Iruka-sensei," Kakashi said, whistling as he waved a hand in front of the spacey teacher's face. Iruka quickly snapped out of his reflection, a blush once again coloring his face.

_Cute,_ Kakashi thought, smiling a little to himself. He would be perfectly content if the blush never left Iruka's face. He was, for lack of a better word, adorable when he was flustered. Of course, Kakashi would _never_ intentionally try to get the teacher embarrassed just so that he could see those caramel cheeks redden. Nope, never…

_Great, now I'm zoning out,_ Kakashi thought, smoothly shifting his focus back just in time to catch Iruka's response.

"Much better," he said, cheeks still, to Kakashi's amusement, a rosy red. "Thank you, by the way. For helping me out. They aren't usually that bad, really, I guess they were just especially rambunctious today." He felt almost as if he needed to apologize for his student's poor behavior. Instead though, knowing full well that Kakashi would accept no such apology, he avoided any awkwardness by turning his attention to the bento box in front of him. He wasn't terribly hungry, and he had certainly over packed. Then again, he always over packed. He never knew when Naruto, who was very nearly like a son to him, would forget his lunch or just need something extra to munch on. A fed Naruto, after all, was a good Naruto. Well, at least it was a marginally less unbearable one.

Kakashi watched as Iruka carefully set out his food. For some reason, the teacher never ate out of the actual bento box. The rice was always in a separate little bowl, and he always shifted the food to a plate, and only half of it at that. Then again, if Iruka was able to eat as much food as he packed in his lunch every day, Kakashi would have to start seriously questioning the laws of physics he taught so often.

Kakashi himself was content to sip at a glass of orange juice. He would probably grab a bite to eat later or something, he just didn't feel like getting a lunch together that morning, and he definitely didn't feel like going out to get one.

Suddenly, a rice ball appeared on a small plate in front of him. He looked up, and saw Iruka smiling at him.

This was, of course, always a welcome third option. Iruka over packed. Always. And because of his unrelentingly kind nature, he always wanted to share. Normally, that was with Naruto, but it seemed that the blonde had actually made his own lunch that day. That left Iruka with lots of left overs.

Kakashi accepted the rice ball with a thank you and took an experimental bite of it. As he expected, Iruka's cooking was as good as ever. No, not good. Amazing. But Kakashi wasn't surprised. He was willing to bet that even toast tasted better when Iruka did it.

"You like it?" Iruka asked. He didn't know why he was so nervous all of the sudden. He'd shared with Kakashi hundreds of times, and every time, it always ended with Kakashi wolfing down anything Iruka offered him with that goofy, yet somehow still incredibly sexy smile of his.

Kakashi nodded, grin stretching across his face as he, as predicted, wolfed down the rest of the rice ball. Iruka laughed, and divvied out a portion for Kakashi from his oversized meal. Kakashi bowed dramatically, thanking Iruka again around a mouth full of tempura. Iruka smiled at the younger teacher across the table as he picked at his own food. Even though he had already established in his head that they were close friends, Iruka wanted more. Sure the silver-haired teacher talked to him all the time, ate lunch with him, spent time in his class during planning, and popped up at other random intervals in the day. Sure he spent more time with Iruka than anyone else it seemed. Sure Kakashi's smile seemed to grow every time he saw Iruka.

That didn't mean anything. Iruka wanted more. He wanted Kakashi to be more than his friend, and everything he listed could fall into that category. Which is why he was torn. That was probably all Kakashi saw him as, and he didn't want to ruin everything by making a move. It was better to be friends than have the teacher avoid him for the rest of forever. That, Iruka didn't think he could bear.

So he kept his mouth shut, and enjoyed what he had, all the while wishing that they could be more.

Kakashi watched the sensei as his smile turned into a contemplative frown. He was spaced out. Well, that, or there was something on the wall behind him that required _very_ intense concentration.

Deciding to have a little fun, Kakashi edged closer to Iruka until there were mere inches between their faces. With a smile, he opened his mouth, and whispered, "see something interesting, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka jumped like he'd been shot, and then gaped for a second, before finally deciding on a response and jumping back in his seat. A well placed foot of Kakashi's on the leg of the tan sensei's chair was the only thing that kept him from toppling backwards, which though it was an impossibly cute mental image, Kakashi had the feeling that it wouldn't be terribly appreciated. "Kakashi, you frightened me," Iruka gasped. Kakashi almost grinned. Iruka had dropped the honorific, and though just a minor difference, Kakashi loved the way his name sounded this way rolling off Iruka's tongue.

"My apologies Iruka-sensei. You were looking very focused and I wondered what about," Kakashi said, his face a picture of innocence. He definitely hadn't wanted to see that delectable little blush of Iruka's spread across his face like it was not.

Of course not…

Iruka felt so silly. So, so silly.

In fact, he went through the rest of the day feeling silly. Like a hormonal teenager or something. _I am an adult!_ Iruka thought angrily. _I need to act like one!_ Of course, that would mean telling the man that he was madly in love with that he was, in fact, madly in love with him.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't quite that brave. But he could at least cement _something_ with the teacher. He had to at least know what he was to Kakashi, even if he could never honestly tell Kakashi what he was to him.

Resolve firmly in place, Iruka waited until the dismissal bell rang out, and all of his class filed out of the room. He gave it a few minutes, going over what to say again and again in his head, until finally the noise from the hallway had died down. Now he only had to hope that the other teacher hadn't left already.

He left his classroom, heart thudding against his ribs, and walked to the classroom next to it. Sure enough, Kakashi was sitting inside, hunched over his desk, scratching a pen across a paper. His pen.

Suddenly his courage left him and Iruka turned to leave quickly, but he was stopped. "You can come on in, Iruka-sensei. I promise I don't bite," the slate-eyed man laughed. For the umpteenth time that day, Iruka felt his face heat up, but he forced himself to go inside.

It wasn't until he was standing right by Kakashi's desk that the other sensei looked up. "You look like you have something on your mind," Kakashi observed, leaning back in his chair and staring up at Iruka with a single, piercing gray stair.

_Yeah,_ Iruka's inner voice chimed, _you!_ Iruka beat that voice down quickly though, with the mental equivalent of a big stick. "Kakashi-sensei, can I ask you a question?"

"Only if you promise just to call me Kakashi," the teacher replied, his face completely serious. Iruka stammered. "Relax, Iruka, I was only joking with you." It escaped Iruka's flustered notice that Kakashi himself had dropped the honorific. "Ask away," he said, spreading his arms.

Iruka nodded and steeled himself. "Kakashi-sensei, how do you think of me?" he blurted out.

Kakashi raised a single silver eyebrow. "How do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean what do you think of me. What am I to you?"

Kakashi was taken aback by the question. That was awfully forward of the teacher. He looked nervous. His face was redder than Kakashi had seen it before, and his eyes were a little wide.

Kakashi stood up and stood closely in front of Iruka.

Iruka gulped.

Slowly, Kakashi pressed his hand to the side of Iruka's blushing face.

Iruka stared.

Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, and Iruka could feel his heart leap into his chest.

"Doesn't feel like a fever," he said at last.

Iruka could have died, right then. All that build up, and the only thing Kakashi had deduce was that Iruka probably didn't have a fever?!

"Kakashi! I was being serious!" Iruka shouted.

_Well, it was worth a try,_ Kakashi thought. He'd been hoping to avoid any awkwardness. Now that that particular plan hadn't played out so well, he figured he'd just have to try a different approach. Dropping his hand back to his side, he sighed.

"Alright then, in all seriousness, Iruka, you are one of the few people I can truly stand to be around for any length of time."

"Gee, thanks," Iruka muttered smartly.

"I wasn't done yet," Kakashi defended. "It's more than that. I actually _like_ being around you. I like talking to you, I like listening to you, I like knowing you. I just like you, Iruka, and I don't say that about a lot of people. You are one of the closest people to me," Kakashi told him, his eyes and voice soft but steady, "and I'd die for you in a second."

Iruka blinked. That had been a lot more than he had been expecting. Maybe a "we're friends" or something, but not that. That was deep. And, for some odd reason, it made him feel really…giddy. He felt special now. Like he was part of an exclusive club. And the best part was that he knew that Kakashi hadn't been lying. He didn't know how he knew, he just knew.

"I'm glad you see me that way," Iruka managed finally, a smile on his face. They didn't say anything for a while after that, and suddenly things got very awkward. Iruka cleared his throat. "Well, I should probably get home. I have a lot of papers to grade," he excused himself lamely. Kakashi smiled and nodded, waving as the blushing sensei hurried out of the room.

It was only once he was outside in the car that Iruka realized something that annoyed him to absolutely no end.

Despite all of the sweet praised Kakashi had lain on him when they'd spoken, the one thing he'd gone in for – a straight answer, that is – was the one thing in particular that he had left without.

Swearing lightly, he turned the key in his Jeep, pulling out of school parking lot. If he'd waited just a second longer, he would've seen a very smug looking Kakashi straddle his bike and take off.

_Dodged that bullet,_ Kakashi thought as he sped towards home.


	7. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Alright, this chapter is going to have some Kakashi whumpage, just warning you. if you don't like it, turn back now, and if you do, sit back and enjoy. Soem good old fashioned hurt/comfort is on the way in the next one, so don't think I'm not without my gifts to Kakashi. I'm working to update at least once every other day, and it'll really help if I get some reviews, so everyone! Review!

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Things had been going well for Kakashi. Iruka hadn't confronted him again so far that week, or the week before it, and it was a Friday, so unless he happened upon him sometime that weekend (here's to hoping) then he would probably get off scot free. By the time the next week rolled around, Iruka probably would've forgotten the whole thing, if he hadn't already.

One might wonder why it was such a big deal to Kakashi to avoid such a conversation as the one he'd had with Iruka. It was for one very simple reason: of all the people Kakashi could lie circles around, his mouth chose any moment when Iruka was around to spew the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (so help him God.) He'd narrowly avoided pouring his heart out to the sensei the other day, and Kakashi knew how that would've ended. Lots of awkward silences, aversion, and an altogether ruining of _anything_ he had with him. There was, after all, no way the sensei would feel the same way about him. Him, the lazy asshole of a man who was always late, crude, and never apologized for any of it. Not a chance in hell.

Still, despite all that, things were still going well. Iruka and he were what someone might consider to be best friends, and even if that was as close as he would get to the sensei, it was better than nothing at all. It meant dinner after school, hanging out outside of work, and all those other fringe benefits that made it a little easier to pretend that he was okay with the way things were.

Today though, things were _not_ going well. Kakashi woke up, and the second he opened his eyes, he wished he hadn't. The light streaming in from his window hit his eyes like a thousand separate daggers. With a groan, he rolled over, only for his stomach to lurch violently and send him running to the bathroom. He barely managed to collapse in front of the toilet before the vomit forced its way up his throat, and he gripped his stomach as the heaves wracked his aching body.

_Not this again,_ he mentally groaned as another round of retching once again doubled him over his porcelain shrine.

Finally, he got his stomach under control and leaned back against the side of the bathtub. Every part of his body ached, from his head to his feet, with only one exception. It seemed fitting, too, that the only part of his body that didn't hurt was the part caused by the same tormentor as this illness. His eye, a result of the part of him that was…less than human, remained blissfully painless as the rest of him burned like it was on fire.

That was because his pain was brought on by that same part. A virus, for all intents and purposes, that entered his bloodstream before he was even born, and would stay with him probably until he died. The same virus that had caused all those people to die so long ago in Konoha, his mother included. When his mother had become infected, he was still in the womb, and each day, more of the virus was introduced into his blood. By the time he was born, his body was ripe with it. "The perfect balance," they had said. Doctors, they'd had the gall to call themselves. Apparently, they'd missed out on the "do no harm" lesson in med school.

Lacking the proper medical background though, Kakashi imagined it was like being conceived with the chicken pox. Once you have it, your body builds up an immunity to it so that you don't suffer from it.

Only his particular brand of the chicken pox was a virus that not only killed you, but made you crave human flesh. It hadn't managed to kill him when he was born, the monster virus, so now every time the effects surfaced it just skipped that step. It felt like he was dying though. His stomach was the worst. It wasn't really human flesh that he craved – he'd managed to train himself out of that, thank God. No, now it just felt like he was being ripped apart from the inside, as his compromised immune system fought to get everything back into the rather tenuous balance that kept him normal.

Thus the reason for the orange juice stock in his fridge that could supply a third world country.

Sadly, it seemed to have fallen short. A cold, of all things, had been going around the school, and if he had to take a bet, Kakashi would put his money on that being the cause of his anguish. It didn't matter how puny the bug was, if his immune system had to cope with it as well as the virus, something was going to have to give. Sometimes, this was the result. Symptoms of the virus came through. No foaming at the mouth, and if what had happened that one time with Kiiro was any indication, he wasn't…contagious.

Kakashi shuddered at the word. Contagious meant an outbreak, which meant more of those things. Granted, he hadn't been alive during the first outbreak. He'd seen one of those things up close and personal, when it had tried to rip his throat to little pieces. His mother, right before his father put a bullet through her brain.

Deciding he really needed to get moving before more of this reflective mood got to him, Kakashi worked on standing up, using the side of the bath and the wall of his bathroom. Today wasn't as bad as it had been in the past. He could still move, which was always a plus.

It took some doing, but he eventually managed to get undressed and in the shower, leaning heavily on the wall for support as the water cascaded over his aching form. His stomach still hurt worse than anything, and once he got himself cleaned up, he'd go and down a couple of painkillers, and maybe some Pepto.

_Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, undead virus,_ Kakashi thought sarcastically. He was feeling a little better now. The heat of the water was at least helping to ease his muscle aches and migraine. Still, as he turned off the water and stepped out of the tub, his legs and hands were shaking like leafs, and he almost fell down while he was drying himself off and getting his briefs on. Dizziness, weakness, and standing precariously on one leg were apparently not a really good mix. He was still on his feet though, which he considered to be an accomplishment, and once he'd downed about three times as many pain killers as the dosage suggested, he was feeling much better.

Checking his watch, he sighed. He still had time to get to school before his first class if he hurried, and if he didn't show up, then he'd have to think of some sort of excuse. Saying he'd gotten the cold going around and stayed home with it would make him sound kind of pathetic, so instead, he sucked it up, and got ready. He didn't feel like dressing up that day, and color coordination was probably just a little bit beyond him, so to be safe and comfortable, he just went with a pair of well worn black jeans, a black t-shirt and worn (to the point of holes) grey sweater. He stuck with the usual black boots though, just because the next most comfortable pair of shoes he had were sneakers, and those didn't work too well for stopping his motorcycle. He'd take a little more time on the lacing over the loss of the bottoms of his feet, thank you very much.

He put on his bandana, brushed his teeth once, chugged some orange juice, puked up said orange juice, and brushed his teeth again before finally deciding that it was now or never and heading out the door. He grabbed his leather jacket on the way out, because even though it was in the high sixties outside, he was freezing.

Keeping his bike under control the relatively short distance to school took all of Kakashi's concentration, but he made it there in one piece. About twenty minutes late, albeit, but he had planning first today, so he figured he could take his sweet time.

He made it to his desk just in time for his shaky legs to give out from under him and he collapsed back in his chair with a quiet "oof." The distance he'd fallen hurt a little more than he'd expected it too, and it knocked the air out of him. Luckily, air was the only thing it knocked out, and his stomach and esophagus stayed thankfully calm.

Sighing, Kakashi folded his fingers across his belly and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and crossing his feet atop his desk.

The next thing Kakashi knew, he was being awoken to the sound of books being slammed onto desk. The noise was acutely loud – louder than any such sound had a right to be – and he immediately knew that things had gotten worse. His head throbbed in time with his heart beat, louder than any percussion instrument you so often hear headaches compared to. It beat in his ears, behind his eyes, at the base of his neck, and the pounding rhythm continued down through his limbs, pounding through his veins and muscles until his fingers twitched in time with it. It felt like someone was pulling him apart from the inside, and it was all he could do to keep from falling out of his chair to his knees and emptying his stomach's contents on the floor.

Instead, he somehow managed to stand. All the kids were sitting by now, or at least he thought they were.

"Kakashi-sensei, I think you need to go lay down. I'll go get Tsunade-dono." The voice belonged to Neji Hyuuga, mercifully quieter than even the students in the back of the room. Kakashi nodded, but that, as it turned out, was not a good idea, and suddenly it felt like the floor lurched out from under him.

His hand reached out to the wall, and he caught it just as another hand caught his shoulder. If Neji was gone though, it didn't make sense that this hand was on his shoulder.

"Don't hurl," Shikamaru said, his voice as quiet as Neji's had been. "That'd be a real drag." Kakashi would've nodded his agreement, but he remembered what had happened last time, so instead he gave an attempt at a verbal agreement (it came out as sort of a muffled grunt) and headed out into the hall. The hall was clear now, no child wanting to face the wrath of the Vice Principal, Tsunade Nendei.

Even Kakashi was hoping to avoid it. Sure enough, no loud-mouthed, vulgar woman who looked about half her age and acted even less than that accosted him as he stumbled down the hallway, hand on the lockers just to keep himself upright. He didn't go unmet though, and a hand found his shoulder again, making him jump. He hadn't seen it, but that was probably because he had one eye closed and the other squinted, trying to keep out as much of the stabbing bright light as possible.

"Kakashi." Kakashi recognized the voice as it boomed against his throbbing ears.

"Kiiro," he ground out from between clenched teeth. His stomach was working against him now, he was sure of it, and it was all he could do to keep it from staging a full-scale revolt. He tried to say something else, but his throat was caught, cutting him off before he even got to expel the breath to form a word.

Sensing the inevitable, Kiiro, a guiding hand firmly between Kakashi's shoulder blades, quickly turned Kakashi into the bathroom they were passing and in front of one of the toilets just in time for him to lose the fight with his rebellious insides.

"You shouldn't be here," Kiiro said, coughing quietly. He didn't get a response for a bit and then,

"Think y'…wait 'til…'m not hurling…t' lecture m'—." Despite his noble effort, Kakashi again fell into a round of retching, grimacing at the taste of the yellow-orange muck that continued to force its way up. Orange juice flavored stomach acid was an acrid substance, that much was certain, and it wasn't made any more pleasant by the fact that each heave constricted Kakashi's miserably sore abdominal muscles more and more.

"This way I know you can't interrupt me," Kiiro said. Regardless of his humor, though, Kiiro really was sympathetic. He hated seeing the young man sick, and it didn't take a genius to figure what he was sick with. He'd seen him like that – the weak, pale, shaking state of his body, the constant retching, the headache – too many times not to be able to connect the dots. He had read all of the reports, after all, after raiding that monstrosity of a research lab with his team and…

No, he was not going to go there. There were more pressing matters, anyway. Kakashi seemed to have been reduced to dry heaves, which meant that he would probably be able to move in a bit, which meant that that would be time to get him up off the bathroom floor, and probably onto the sofa in his office until he could find someone to take him home and babysit him for a while. Sniffling, he realized that that person definitely could not be him. Kakashi's illness was brought on by something compromising his immune system, which was already taxed with the task of fighting off the virus that was born into his blood. The last thing he needed was Kiiro and his cold hanging around. No, he'd have to find someone that could deal with Kakashi's stubbornness, take care of him, and who had somehow avoided the cold that was going around school. Between the three, that really knocked down the list of candidates.

Kiiro ran through a list in his head as he steered Kakashi down the hall, all but carrying the twenty four year old to the school office, and then back into his own office. Kakashi all but crumpled into the couch when Kiiro released him, as the principal set about tracking down a garbage can. He slid it in front of the couch, and went to his desk, the name of a teacher already in mind. The one he had in mind was too kind, caring, and good-natured to turn him down, and he was probably the only one beside himself that could deal with Kakashi like this without it resulting in any form of homicide.

"Shizune," he called, poking his head out of the door into the main office. "Get me the extension for Iruka-sensei!"


	8. Chapter 7

Iruka's attention shifted from the lesson he was teaching to the ringing phone on his desk. Holding up a hand to his class, he put the receiver to his ear. "Iruka speaking."

_**"Iruka-sensei, you're wanted in the office,"**_ Shizune said over the phone. _**"Hayate-san will be in your class in a moment to take over for you, so go ahead and finish up."**_

Well that was odd. What was so urgent that it couldn't wait until the end of class? Still, as the other line clicked off, he decided he had better do as he was asked. He packed up his things – the papers he had to grade and such – and turned back to his class, just in time for Hayate to show up.

Hayate strode over to him quickly, not waiting for Iruka to even address his class. "I'll fill them in," Hayate said, "You go ahead and get going." Iruka nodded, feeling even more confused than before. Just what exactly was going on that he needed to leave school in the middle of the day. That was the only conclusion Iruka could come to, after all, since they were having him pack his things and having Hayate cover his class.

_I hope I'm not getting fired._ Iruka knew it was irrational, but he couldn't help but worry, so all the way to the office, he went through in his head anything he possibly could have done to get fired.

When he got to the office though, Principal Yondaime was sticking his head out the door. The blonde haired man opened the door for Iruka when he reached it, motioning Iruka inside. He stopped him there though, closing the door behind him. Looking around, Iruka noticed Shizune was mysteriously absent.

"Erm…Yondaime-san…what's going on?" Iruka asked.

"Please, Iruka-sensei, it's Kiiro," he said. "As for what's going on…well…" Kiiro pushed the door to his office open, and stepped inside. Iruka stepped in as well, and followed Kiiro's gaze to the mound of blankets on the sofa. Barely, he could make out a tuft of silver hair sticking out the top of it.

"Kakashi?" He heard a quiet groan from the blankets, and saw Kakashi shift enough that he could see his face. His eyes were clenched tightly closed, and his face was sickly pale and covered with a light sheen of sweat. Dark bags hung from his eyes, even reaching below the bandana that was still in place. He looked bad. Really bad. Before he could go to him though, he felt himself being pulled out of the room, and the door was closed again.

"That is what's going on. Kakashi is very sick, and he needs to go home, but he shouldn't be by himself, and I can't take him," Kiiro explained.

"He should be in the hospital, not home," Iruka argued.

Kiiro sighed. "They can't do anything for him when he's like this." Iruka didn't like the sound of that. He'd heard people say stuff like that about a person with terminal cancer or something, and the very thought of the word terminal being used regarding Kakashi's medical state was enough to make Iruka's heart lurch.

"What do you mean by that?" Iruka asked, suddenly a lot more worried than he had been.

Kiiro saw the teacher's fear – it wasn't that hard to catch, the way he had paled and whatnot – and immediately tried to fix it. "It's not like that, Iruka-sensei, don't worry. What I meant when I said that there's nothing they can do for him is that we just have to let it run its course." Now Iruka was confused, and again, Kiiro sought to resolve it…well, to a tactful detail. It wasn't like he could just come out and say "yeah, the hospitals can't do much because it's actually a mutant super virus that's making him miserable."

Instead, he decided to bank on the fact that Iruka didn't have a medical degree. "Well, you see, Kakashi has this disease that has a really complicated name that doesn't really matter, but basically, it doesn't usually matter because he has probably one of the best immune systems of any human being, and it's typically enough to keep it under control so that it doesn't bother him. Sometimes though when he get something else – a cold, for instance – it adds a little more of a strain to his system, and it can't process it, so he ends up getting a little bit of fall back. He's not dying, even though I'm pretty sure he feels like he is right about now, and all that can be done for him is to keep him comfortable and make him drink orange juice until his eyeballs float." It was sort of the truth, it just has some parts missing.

Kiiro had given that same explanation, though often to a much lesser degree, about a thousand times, so he was well rehearsed to say the least. It paid off though, and slowly, Iruka nodded. "And you can't take him home because…"

Kiiro pointed to his nose. "I have a cold," he said, sniffling for effect. "I might make him sicker, and I don't want to risk it. So…I was wondering if you would mind—."

"Of course I will!" Iruka exclaimed. There was no way in hell he would leave the poor man to suffer, and if Kiiro couldn't take care of him, then Iruka was going to take it upon himself to take care of the silver haired sensei who had stolen his heart.

Kiiro smiled. People might think he was oblivious, but he really wasn't. He saw how Iruka looked at the younger man, and the other way around. He was honestly surprised that the two of _them_ hadn't picked up on it yet.

Regardless, mission accomplished.

Iruka headed back into the room, not stopping this time until he came to kneel beside the couch. He slowly pulled the cover down enough to reveal Kakashi's face again. His eye opened, but it was bleary and unfocused.

"'ruka...sensei?" Kakashi muttered, blinking.

"Hey Kakashi-kun, do you think you can get up?" Iruka asked, speaking slowly and quietly. He didn't know exactly what ailed the young teacher, but from the way he kept screwing up his eye, it looked like a headache.

That was confirmed when Kakashi nodded, resulting in a quiet groan as Kakashi curled in on himself, holding his head like he was afraid it would fall off. Before Iruka knew what he was doing, his fingers were stroking Kakashi's hair lightly. He quickly pulled them back, settling them instead lightly on Kakashi's shoulders.

"Okay, let's get you home," he said, lifting Kakashi slowly into a sitting position. Kakashi doubled over as soon as he was upright, his elbows on his knees as his hands kept their vice grips on his head. Iruka tried to get him up once he looked like he was a little more stable, but Kakashi pulled away. Iruka tried again, and again, Kakashi squirmed free.

"Kakashi," Kiiro interrupted, "Iruka's going to take you home, okay? The sooner you can get up and at 'em, the sooner you can make it to bed, okay?"

"And please don't nod," Iruka added quickly.

Instead of nodding, Kakashi let his head fall forward onto Iruka's shoulder. He realized something right about then – Iruka smelled really nice. Like a forest after a rain. And his neck was perfectly shaped for nuzzling. He kept his eye closed tightly, trying to make his headache go away. Relaxing his shoulders helped, but not much. Still, he had no intentions of moving his head from Iruka's shoulder.

Iruka looked at Kiiro, hoping for a little help, but Kiiro just smiled and shrugged. Iruka returned it with a glare, and set about trying to get Kakashi completely upright. Hooking his hands under Kakashi's arms, he managed to lift him without causing him any more pain. There was still the troubling dilemma the white haired man's position. He had wrapped his arms around Iruka's waist, and though under any other circumstance, Iruka would have been more than happy with the development, now was not a good time.

Carefully, he extracted first his waist from Kakashi's grip, but when he tried to turn it so that Kakashi was leaning on one of his sides, the other wouldn't budge. At first, Iruka thought he was being stubborn, but the heavy breathing in his ear made him second guess it.

"Need a…second," Kakashi muttered. His head was spinning and everything hurt so much he couldn't even enjoy finally being this close to the man of his dreams. He would've moved, just because Iruka seemed to want him to, and he didn't want to piss the teacher off, but he couldn't. Honest to God, he couldn't make his feet move one inch, and he knew that if he lost the support he had now, leaning entirely against Iruka, he would probably face plant on the floor, which was something he would rather avoid if at all possible.

Sadly, fate seemed to be against him. He felt a hand on his other side, pulling him away from his beautiful sanctuary. He grunted a protest as the world twisted under his feet. When everything stopped spinning enough for him to even dare to open his eye, he saw that he was now supported between Kiiro and Iruka, one arm across each of their shoulders. He quickly closed his eyes again, though, because they started moving, and the moment he so much as tried to shift anything, his pulse got heavier, making his headache throb about twenty times worse. Being upright wasn't exactly doing great things for his stomach either. He felt himself being pulled into another shuffling step, and another, and another, each one stirring his headache to a heavier beating in his brain. Damned virus. Damned everything that was making him feel this sick. Except for Iruka. Kiiro could go to hell for making him leave the comfort of his earlier post, but not Iruka.

"I'll go get the car," Iruka said once they hit the double doors. Even with his eyes squinted, he could tell how bright it was outside, and was dreading the very thought of having to walk out there. Even when Iruka opened the door, with his eyes clenched and head turned, the light burned into his throbbing head, each footstep Iruka took on the pavement outside pounding into his brain like hammers in his ears. Each heartbeat tore at his insides with agonizing pain. Suddenly, he felt his knees buckle, and he collapsed.

Kiiro managed to catch him before he went down, and lowered him to the ground. He curled in on himself, holding his head and pulling his knees to his stomach. Kiiro knelt beside him, rubbing his back softly.

"You'll be okay," Kiiro told him. Kakashi knew that. He knew that even though he felt like he was about to die, he wouldn't. Obviously, he never had. But God it felt like it. It felt like his insides were being shredded, and his bones were being twisted inside his flesh, and his brain was melting. He felt like he was falling apart, and the only solace he could find was that it would be over in a couple of days.

Again, the scent of forests hit his nose, and he felt himself being pulled into a soft, warm body as arms wrapped around him and he was all but carried to Iruka's car.

So maybe that wasn't his only solace after all.


	9. Chapter 8

It was a good thing Iruka knew his way around Kakashi's house so well, having been there a number of times. He had barely gotten Kakashi in the door of Kakashi's family complex before he pulled away from him, falling to the ground with one hand over his mouth and the other clutching his stomach. Either something was funny, or Kakashi was about to blow chunks, and Iruka was going to place his bets on the latter. Without waiting to find out, he pulled Kakashi up, steering him towards the bathroom. Thankfully, he got him there in time, and the silver-haired man dropped in front of the toilet just as the heaves started. Iruka, no stranger to comforting the sick, rubbed Kakashi's back soothingly and pulled his hair back out of the way.

Kakashi, in the meantime, was wondering just how many times he could puke in a day before the next heave sent his stomach up with it.

Thankfully, the retching stopped before that happened though (as interesting as it would have been) and Iruka left his side, only to return a moment later with a wet washcloth for the back of his neck, and a cup of water to rinse his mouth out with.

"Thank you," Kakashi muttered through clenched teeth. He had to say it, even though each time his vocal chords so much as twitched, it made his stomach do another flip in his gut.

"Don't talk yet, Kakashi-kun, okay?" he gave Kakashi the cup of water. "Small sips." Kakashi didn't bother replying, in favor of rinsing the disgusting taste out of his mouth. The water did very little to help that, but at least it got the acrid muck out of his mouth.

Kakashi pushed himself back, leaning against the wall of his tub as Iruka flushed the toilet, and turned back to Kakashi. "Kakashi-kun, do you think you can make it to bed now?"

_Oh the possibilities_, Kakashi mused. Or the impossibilities, because he was missing out on all of them. It was, after all, rather disappointing that he had the sensei in his house asking him getting bed, of all things, and the only thing Kakashi could manage to do was nod. At least this time it didn't almost make him pass out.

As carefully as he could, Iruka helped Kakashi up, pulling his arm over his shoulder and wrapping his arm around the silver-haired teacher's slim waist. He was surprisingly light, for someone so tall. It was a good thing, too, because even though Iruka wouldn't consider himself weak, he certainly would have had trouble moving him otherwise.

Iruka managed to get Kakashi into bed so that he was sitting and then sat back. "Do you need help getting changed or…" he began awkwardly. Not that he would _mind_ helping Kakashi change into some nightclothes. Not at all. But that didn't mean that the question wasn't awkward. Kakashi might think it strange to have someone else undress him.

Kakashi saw the blush on Iruka's cheeks. Iruka wasn't comfortable with the idea, so as much as it was going to suck, he sucked it up. "I got it," he mumbled. Iruka nodded quickly…really quickly. Was he that eager to avoid that little situation?

Iruka nodded quickly, and turned away, hoping to get out of the room before Kakashi saw his disappointment. He felt silly for being disappointed at something like that, given the situation, but really, why _wouldn't_ he want a chance to see Kakashi with a little less clothing? Not naked or anything, but with his wardrobe that never varied from pants and at the very least a single layer of t-shirt (even at swim parties, damn it!), his physique was as much a mystery as the eye he kept hidden under his bandana. So Iruka was curious!

_No, bad Iruka. You were asked to take care of Kakashi, not molest him with your mind,_ Iruka chided himself as he headed into Kakashi's kitchen. It, like everything else, save for, oddly, Kakashi's room, was a mess, and Iruka decided that while he was there taking care of Kakashi, he would clean all of that up. Kakashi's bedroom was actually impressively immaculate.

It wasn't, however, like he could get started on any of that while Kakashi was changing. He doubted it would take him that long, and he figured he'd spend some time with Kakashi once he got him situated in case he needed anything. Maybe he could get him some sleep.

He remembered though that Kiiro had said something about orange juice. Granted, he figured that the whole "until his eyeballs float" thing was probably a little bit of an exaggeration, he didn't think that the entire thing was just a joke. If it was a problem with his immune system, then it stood to reason that a little good old fashioned vitamin C would probably help him.

Opening Kakashi's refrigerator, he realized that there would be no shortage of the aforementioned beverage. There were three cartons of it just in this refrigerator, and he was willing to bet there were more in the cupboard.

"He must really like the stuff," Iruka muttered to himself. He wasn't so sure how it would go over on a sick stomach though…He remembered that when he was sick, carbonation usually helped with the nausea. His usually just chugged a Sprite. Looking around the fridge, he didn't see any Sprite, but there was some off brand something that looked kind of like it, so he took that and the orange juice, checked the expiration date on both of them (because let's face it, at this point, Iruka could safely reach the conclusion that for the most part, Kakashi was a slob) and then fixed him a drink. About half and half of both, some ice, and a straw.

Once he'd put everything back, he decided that Kakashi had probably had enough time to get changed, so he headed back that way, taking a little time to marvel at the sheer size of Kakashi's home. It wasn't a mansion, by any stretch of the imagination, but he had an entire complex all to himself. It had to get sort of lonely…

He dropped that thought when he reached the door and heard quiet curses coming from behind it. He knocked, but didn't wait for an answer, pushing the door open. Kakashi was inside, sitting on his bed doubled over with his arms wrapped around himself. Iruka quickly sat the glass down on the bedside table and hurried to him, gently unfurling him. "Kakashi! Kakashi, what's wrong?!" Iruka asked, barely managing to keep his voice down through his frantic worry. Kakashi's pallor, which had been improving since his bout of nausea, was now almost grey, and his face was twisted into a grimace.

"Happens," Kakashi choked out. "Oxycodone," he gasped, hand pointing over to his dresser. Iruka nodded and started looking through his dresser, finally coming up with an orange prescription bottle. He read the dosage instructions quickly, and shook out one of the pills. Kakashi took it from his hand as soon as he reached it and dry swallowed it. By now the vein in his head was throbbing visibly, and Iruka could see his muscles tensing and shaking beneath his sickly pale skin. Iruka was trying really hard not to panic. Kiiro had said this was normal, right? Said that he didn't need to go to the hospital.

But this didn't look normal. Kakashi was all but screaming now, and the Iruka was having to work to keep him from toppling forward to the floor. Iruka forced himself to keep a straight head though.

"Shh, it'll be okay," he told Kakashi, pulling him to his chest and rocking him as Kakashi gripped his sheets in a white knuckled grip.

Kakashi, at the time, was too utterly miserable to be able to enjoy the sensation of being held in Iruka's arms. The pain flared like this, sometimes, and usually it was this bad. Only this time, there was someone around to hear him scream, and he happened to be the one person Kakashi especially didn't _want_ to hear him do just that.

It hurt Iruka to see Kakashi in so much pain. He didn't see Kakashi as the type to make a big fuss over nothing, so to have him so clearly hurting like this…it was unimaginable the pain Kakashi had to be in.

Slowly, Kakashi started to relax in Iruka's arms. He was no longer writhing, just laying still, his breathing quick and shallow. "Shh," Iruka continued, running his fingers through Kakashi's hair.

The pain was starting to recede. It was there, damn it was there, but it wasn't as bad. It wasn't the kind of pain that drove him to madness, just the kind of pain that made him want to curl into a ball and disappear for a while. He was tired now…so tired…

Iruka could see Kakashi's grip on the sheets loosen, and felt him go slack in his arms. Thinking he was asleep, Iruka laid Kakashi back on the bed, pulling the cover up over his form. Now that he was finally resting, Iruka decided he should leave him in peace.

Only…when he turned to leave, a hand gripped his wrist. He turned, and hazel met steel as his gaze was immediately drawn into a single, half open eye. He wondered how it was possible for someone so obviously close to unconsciousness to have such an intense look.

"Don't go," Kakashi whispered. Two words. Two very simple words.

And they were all it took. With a gentle smile on his face, Iruka sat back down on the bed, leaning his torso against the headboard of the bed. Kakashi released his hand only once he was back with him, turning on his side and lifting his head from the pillow and into Iruka's lap.

Iruka was shocked for a moment, but decided that it was only because Kakashi was half asleep that he cuddled so close to him. It didn't matter though, because as Iruka threaded his fingers gently through soft silver locks, he realized:

It just felt right.


	10. Chapter 9

Iruka yawned as he finished up the last batch of papers he had to grade for the day. He was careful not to move too much. He didn't want to wake the slumbering man that was currently snuggled into his side. Kakashi was sleeping peacefully now, all but attached to Iruka's side with his arms draped across Iruka's legs and his head resting in Iruka's lap. He'd barely left the bed, getting up when Kakashi had one of his nausea spells, to fetch him some more painkillers when they wore off, or when he absolutely had to. Other than that, he stayed sitting on the bed, and Kakashi slept blissfully through most of the afternoon.

He was reaching for the remote for the television Kakashi kept in his room when the other started to stir. He sat the device back down and turned his attention to the waking man, only to realize that he wasn't actually waking up. He looked…disturbed, and his fingers twisted into the fabric of Iruka's slacks. He was muttering quietly, but Iruka couldn't make it out. It sounded frantic, almost frightened, and that was enough for Iruka to deduce that it was a nightmare.

"It's okay. It's just a nightmare," Iruka soothed, fingers running through Kakashi's hair almost habitually now. "Nothing but a nightmare." Without really thinking, Iruka bent down and kissed Kakashi's forehead softly, brushing some hair from his forehead.

To Iruka's relief, Kakashi quieted down, settling limply back into Iruka's side as the sensei went back to channel surfing. Neither moved for a good while after that.

The ringing of a phone woke Iruka from his light doze. It apparently woke Kakashi too, because with no particular semblance of coherency, he stretched across Iruka's lap reaching for the phone on the end table beside him.

"I've got it," Iruka told him, picking up the phone and putting it to his ear. "Umino Iruka speaking. Kakashi can't get to the phone right now," he said, and it wasn't a lie. Kakashi physically couldn't reach the phone, and even if he could, he had to have some serious doubts about his ability to communicate properly given his obvious lack of lucidity.

Kiiro's voice came through the other end of the line. _**"That's okay, you're the person I wanted to talk to. How's he doing?" **_Iruka had expected as much. School was out now, he realized as he looked at his watch.

"Better now. He's been sleeping most of the day," Iruka replied as Kakashi rubbed his eyes, pulling at his bandana and rolled onto his back, his head staying in Iruka's lap as he stared up at the caramel-skinned teacher. Iruka looked back up, trying not to think about how adorable Kakashi looked. "Do you think he'll probably be able to keep something down?" Iruka asked.

_**"You'd be a better judge of that than me. Sounds like you've got things under control though. I'd stop by, but I think it might do more harm than good. Let me know if you need anything though. Thank you for all your help, Iruka-sensei!"**_ And with that, the other end of the line clicked off, and Iruka hung up the phone with a sigh.

He felt Kakashi shift again in his lap and looked to see him still rubbing his eyes. He moved his hands, and Iruka realized that sometime while he had been on the call, Kakashi's bandana had been shifted off of his head.

When Kakashi stopped rubbing his eyes, and dropped his hands back to rest across his belly, Iruka the scar that Kakashi always hid. It stretched from above his eyebrow down over the ridge of his cheekbone, and had clearly been a serious wound.

Still, Iruka had a scar that, though not quite as severe, still marred his face, across his nose, and he didn't cover it up. Why did he feel the need to hide something like that?

And then he saw, when Kakashi opened his eyes. One slate grey orb, out of focus, and one crimson red one peering out from beneath the scarred eyelid. A red eye.

Kakashi, despite his sleepy haze, saw where Iruka was looking and casually reached up to pull his bandana back down. Iruka stopped his hand though, and Kakashi looked at him questioningly.

"You don't have to hide it," Iruka said softly. As far as he was concerned, it was just another part of Kakashi. There wasn't a part of him that he didn't love. The color of an eye was so completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, it was almost funny.

Kakashi chuckled, but both of his eyes clenched for a second and he stiffened. He still wasn't feeling well then. "It's wrong," Kakashi said after the pain passed. And it was. It was the embodiment of everything that troubled him – the manifestation of the evil that plagued his body.

Iruka frowned. He didn't know why Kakashi hated a part of himself so much, but he would do his best to try to make him feel better. "It's not wrong," he told Kakashi. "It's just part of you. You were born with this, right?" Kakashi nodded.

"Another perk to the genes that have me in this mess," he muttered sourly.

"Well, I don't think it's that bad," Iruka said, tracing the end of the scar above Kakashi's eye lightly with his fingertip.

Kakashi thought about retorting, but he didn't have the gusto. He was enjoying Iruka's attentions too much to ruin it. Instead, he settled on a quiet snort as his eyes slipped closed again.

Iruka, however, didn't seem as satisfied. "You weren't born with the scar though," he said quietly. "What happened?"

Now Kakashi opened his eyes again, a small, ironic smile on his face. "When I was nineteen, I decided I was tired of seeing a freak every time I looked in the mirror. Of course, Kiiro would probably tell you I was a bit unstable at the time. My two best friends had just died. But I just got so sick with it…I tried to fix it." Kakashi didn't really think he should go into any great detail of just how he tried to fix it. The gory details of how he took a knife to his own eye might not carry well with the soft-hearted teacher. Honestly, he didn't even know why he'd told him so much already. He blamed it on the sickness.

Iruka was shocked. "God Kakashi…that's…"

"Sick?" Kakashi suggested, seeing Iruka struggle to find words. "Wrong?"

"Sad…" Iruka finished. "I'm sorry…I had no idea. I'm sorry I brought it up." Kakashi couldn't believe it. He'd just confessed to trying to cut his own eye out, and the teacher wasn't even a little bit disgusted with him? He was even sympathetic. Truly sympathetic, not just the "I pity you" kind of sympathy.

_I could never deserve him,_ he realized miserably.

Iruka noticed his change in mood, and decided it was time to change the subject. "Do you think you could eat something?" Iruka asked. Kakashi turned his head, gazing up at Iruka with a contemplative look.

"I could eat something," Kakashi answered finally, "but I can't promise it would stay down." And despite the levity he tried for in the statement, he meant it. He was still hurting, pretty damn bad actually. He had only recently reached an agreement with his stomach, and he didn't want to upset the balance.

He tried to shift so that he was off of Iruka's lap so that the teacher could go get himself something if he wanted – was about to suggest it, actually, but the moment he moved it felt like ice cold steel constricted around all of his limbs. He'd been lying in bed all day, so a little stiffness was to be expected, and combined with the usual pain and soreness that accompanied _this_, it didn't really surprise him. It just caught him off guard, and his breath caught in his chest for a second.

Again, Iruka noticed. "Are you okay?" Kakashi nodded, but other than that, he made no moves to shift further.

Iruka checked his watch. "I don't think you should take any more painkillers without anything on your stomach." Kakashi frowned. One bad thing about having Iruka as a babysitter was that he kept his painkillers out of reach. Either he knew Kakashi too well, or it was purely miserable coincidence, but if he hadn't commandeered them, Kakashi probably would've popped about twice, if not three times as many of the little tablets by then. He certainly wouldn't have made considerations about having food on his stomach or anything.

Kakashi groaned, but couldn't work up a retort before Iruka had left the room, presumably to fetch him some grub. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Iruka returned with a bowl of what smelled like miso soup, sitting it on the end table before he set about propping Kakashi up against the headboard. Sitting upright didn't make too much of a difference – most of what he was suffering now wasn't dizziness or nausea, just pure, biting pain. That didn't change whether you were lying down or upright.

Iruka's vigilant eyes caught how Kakashi seemed to be glaring at the soup in his hand as Iruka sat down on the bed, facing Kakashi, and he laughed a little. "I'll make you a deal: if you can stomach half of this soup, then you can have another dose of pain meds, and I'll leave you alone and let you sleep, okay?"

Kakashi smiled, his eyes twisting into crescents even as his body throbbed miserably. Somehow, just being around Iruka made the whole ordeal just a little more bearable. Even if he was making it a lot more complicated. "Maa, Iruka-sensei, you drive a hard bargain. I surrender to your will," he said. Now it was Iruka's turn to smile as the somber mood of before lightened up.

Holding the bowl in one hand, and a spoon in the other, Iruka held a spoonful of soup just in front of Kakashi's lips.

Kakashi wasn't cooperating though. An eyebrow quirked and he eyed the spoon of miso amusedly. "Well, open your mouth," Iruka told him, moving the spoon a bit for emphasis.

Kakashi opened his mouth to reply, and ever the opportunist, Iruka took it as a chance to slip the spoon in his mouth. Kakashi was still blinking when Iruka got another spoonful.

"I can feed myself," he protested finally as the spoon neared his mouth again.

Iruka smiled. "Maybe, but you might as well sit back and let yourself be taken care of. Besides, it would be more work for me if it did just happen that you couldn't manage and spilled the soup." Kakashi looked at him pointedly, but didn't argue. Iruka seemed to be rather proud of himself, and Kakashi felt bad for having to make him sit through hours of him practically screaming where the teacher couldn't do anything but watch. Now that Iruka could do something that he felt to be important, Kakashi wouldn't deny him that, so he obediently ate each spoonful proffered to him.

Luckily, true to his word, Iruka stopped at half the bowl. He didn't know if Kakashi would stop him, but he knew that he would tell him if he was hungry, so he sat the bowl to the side and grabbed the bottle of pills off the other side of the bed table. He knew it exasperated Kakashi, keeping his medicine where he couldn't reach it, but something told him that it was a wise choice.

Still, Kakashi was going pale again, and his arms had subtly curled around his stomach, so Iruka decided it was time for another dose of his painkillers. He got one from the bottle and held it out to Kakashi, who tossed it back the second it touched his palm. Iruka was already waiting with a glass of the carbonated orange juice which Kakashi seemed to have taken a liking to, and he drank some of it gratefully.

"Why don't you lie back and get some sleep?" Iruka suggested as he helped Kakashi shift so that he was lying back down flat. But Kakashi was already asleep.

With a quiet laugh, Iruka pulled the covers back over Kakashi. With all of his papers graded, and his ward sleeping peacefully, Iruka decided that that would be an opportune time to go clean up.

Before he left though, he watched Kakashi for a moment, and suddenly…he got the inexplicable urge to kiss him, and so, sure that Kakashi was asleep, he couldn't help but lean over and kiss him lightly before hurrying out of the room.

Little did he know though that his sleeping prince…wasn't quite as asleep as he thought.

Once Iruka was gone, Kakashi pressed his fingers to his lips, staring up at the ceiling above him. A grin broke out on his face, and no amount of pain in the world could have ruined the sheer bliss he felt.


	11. Chapter 10

By the following Monday, Kakashi was back to speed. Iruka had stayed with him through Saturday night, when he'd finally made the poor teacher go home. He'd spent so much time worrying about Kakashi that he looked more frazzled than Kakashi'd ever seen him. Besides, how was he to plot his diabolical plans to make Iruka his with the intended target under the same roof?

As he entered the school building today, Kakashi already had everything planned, down to the most finite detail. Call him a slacker if you will, but he was damn thorough when the occasion called for it. And for Iruka, it called for it.

Iruka sighed. Now that his weekend with Kakashi was over, he found himself almost…sad. Not that he wasn't glad Kakashi was better! No, even not seeing him, he decided, was better than seeing him hurting like that. Not that he wouldn't do it again if he was needed, because he would. In a heartbeat.

But of course, the whole thing had left him even more mixed up than he was before. Now he knew what it was like to hold the younger man, knew the feel of his lips against his own, and most of all, he knew that he loved all of it. All of him. Which made it even harder to pretend to just be his friend, because now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wanted more.

Iruka was mulling all of this over in his classroom during lunch. He didn't really feel like going to the lounge, because then he would have to face Kakashi, and he wasn't sure he could do that yet without doing something really, really stupid. Best to cement things back into place in his head before he even tried to speak to Kakashi again.

And then a knock on the door sent his whole plan to ruin, as a certain silver-haired sensei let himself into Iruka's classroom. Said teacher strode over to Iruka's desk and leaned on the corner, facing Iruka with a smile on his face. He didn't say anything though, he just smiled.

"Is there something you need, Kakashi-sensei?" Iruka asked after a few moments. It was kind of awkward, being stared at like that.

Kakashi crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Well, Iruka-sensei, I was thinking…I took up a lot of your time this weekend, and even though I'm a blast in any situation, I'm pretty sure there were other things you could've done with your weekend." He leaned forward. "So, I think it's only fair that I make it up to you."

"It's really okay," Iruka protested. He didn't know what Kakashi's idea of "making it up" to him would entail, but he wasn't sure it would work too well with his conflicted hormones. Then again, it would probably be something like a gift card or a fruit basket…

Kakashi just smiled brighter. "No, no, I insist. It's only fair that I pay you back in full. So," Kakashi took a deep breath. "I will wait on you hand and foot this weekend, and even into the week, if you want."

Iruka almost choked on…well, what did he choke on? Air? He quickly shook his head and his hands. "No, it's alright, Kakashi-sensei! I didn't mind it at all, and I wouldn't expect that of you. It's really fine!" Iruka protested quickly, too flustered to see the barely concealed laughter in Kakashi's single uncovered eye.

"Well then, Iruka-sensei," Kakashi said, barely managing to keep from laughing at the blushing sensei's antics. Iruka was already freaking out about the possibilities of his next suggestion. "Would you at least allow to treat you to dinner tonight?" This was his real offer.

Iruka was just about to refuse, but then he caught on to what had actually been said. Hatake Kakashi, the man of his dreams (PG rated and otherwise) had just asked _him_ to _dinner_? So it wasn't exactly a proposal to marry or something, but that was better than he could've hoped for.

Kakashi waited as Iruka processed his invitation. It really was adorable how easily Iruka wigged out about stuff. He could imagine the debate going on in Iruka's head. Was it platonic? What did he mean by dinner? Would it just be like two friends getting together? What was this unbelievably sexy, witty, God of a man really thinking? (Okay, maybe he took a few liberties with that last one.)

Anyway, Kakashi had planned the evening to be sure that it would clear up each of those questions, all in due time. Hopefully, he'd figure it out when they hit the restaurant, but going of what Kakashi knew of the teacher – which is a lot, actually – he was willing to bet that he would be completely oblivious until Kakashi all but spelled it out for him.

Finally, Iruka seemed to remember how to speak. "Yes, of course. That sounds great," he said, a smile finding its way to his face.

"Good then. I'll pick you up at your place at seven." With a winning smile, he strode casually out of the room, leaving Iruka to collect his thoughts.

Inside the room, Iruka's lips slowly lifted from their dumbfounded down-turn into a grin that put the lights in the room to shame as his heart threatened to beat straight out of his chest.

That same feeling stuck with him throughout the day, and now, as the clock hit five before seven, it increased tenfold. Anxiously, he looked down at himself again. He hadn't had any idea of what to wear, so he opted for something that could be casual or formal. Khaki pants that hugged his legs in what he hoped was an appealing way, and a green button up that clung to his chest and abs.

His hand twitched indecisively for the unbuttoned top buttons. He'd been fighting with himself over that all night. He didn't want to seem weird, especially if this _was_ just a friendly outing – his heart sank a little at that.

With a sigh, he fastened the top buttons. Why should he, a painfully average guy, even bother hoping that someone as amazingly extraordinary as Kakashi would want him?

Tucking his helmet under his shoulder and readjusting the bandana slanted across his eye, Kakashi let out a soft sneeze. "Someone must be talking about me," he thought, grinning. _Maybe it's Iruka!_ he thought gleefully. He couldn't help but smile to himself as he walked up to the door of Iruka's quaint little home.

It wasn't really familiar practice for him to knock on the door, but he thought that it was the polite thing to do, so that was what he did. He hadn't even connected on the second knock before the door opened.

Iruka felt his heart leap into his chest at the sound of the knock at his door. Doing one last check in the mirror, he hurried to the door. He'd no sooner opened the door than his jaw nearly hit his toes.

Kakashi looked absolutely amazing. He wore a zipped grey cardigan that framed his figure handsomely, highlighting his muscular build. His black jeans fit just as well, and if Iruka hadn't felt plain before, well he did now.

"So…can I come in?" Kakashi asked, a pleasant smile on his face.

Iruka gave a start. "Of course!" he exclaimed, stepping quickly to the side. "I'll be ready in just a second, I just have to grab a few things. Feel free to make yourself at home!" Iruka wasn't sure why he was so nervous – scratch that, he actually knew exactly why he was so nervous: the silver-haired _god_ of a man standing in his living room.

A god that just happened to be standing right behind him.

No, _right_ behind him. As in his lips were right. Against. Iruka's. Ear.

"Relax," Kakashi whispered, and Iruka tried his best not to shiver at the feel of his warm breath across his skin. This was really just too much.

Rather than having a mild heart attack on his living room floor though, Iruka forced himself to take a deep breath and slipped away from Kakashi's grasp. "Sorry, just not really use to this sort of thing. I mean, not that this is a thing, because it's not. Well, it is. I mean, I do go to dinner sometimes – okay, I mean I go to dinner with friends all the time, and I—"

Kakashi's voice behind him cut him off mid-babble. "Iruka?"

"What?" Iruka asked, turning around…

Just in time to have a pair of lips press against his. His eyes went wide for a moment, but then a hand snaked around his waist and fingers laced through his hair, and shock was replaced with pure _bliss_.

Then just like that, Kakashi broke the kiss, his single uncovered eye dancing. It was all Iruka could do not to huff in disappointment.

"Not that you aren't adorable when you ramble like that," Kakashi said, his smooth voice sending shivers down Iruka's spine, "But I've been wanting to do that for a while now."

"Have you now?" Iruka replied. He wasn't really sure what to make of that. A lot of people called Kakashi a player – with those damn porno books he read, he might've been. But the Kakashi Iruka knew and loved didn't seem like the type to do something so…callous.

Kakashi scratched his head sheepishly. "Since I started at the school two years ago," he said, eye twisting into a warm crescent. "I actually had tonight all nice and planned out. It was genius actually. I wasn't gonna tell you I love you till the end."

Iruka's eyes got really wide at that, and his heart thudded against his ribs like it was trying to make a jail break. "L-love?" he stuttered.

"Did I say that out loud?"

Iruka nodded.

"Oh…well, yeah. L-O-V-E, head-over-heels, please let me spend the night at your house tonight Iruka, _love_."

Iruka blinked.

"Did I say that last part out loud again?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka nodded.

"This is becoming a problem," Kakashi chuckled, but then he shrugged. "Oh well, what can you do? Since I've been utterly graceless so far, I'm just going to go ahead and go for it. Iruka, would you be my boyfriend?"

For the first time in their entire friendship, it seemed, it was Kakashi that was the nervous one. Iruka, on the other hand, leaned forward,

And crushed their lips together.

The kiss lasted much longer this time, until both of them desperately needed oxygen. When they did break apart, Kakashi smiled. "I guess that answers my question," he said, pressing his lips to Iruka's once again.

How they ended up on the couch that night, neither of them could be absolutely sure, but as Kakashi started to doze off, Iruka curled into his side, he knew one thing for certain.

This was way better than dinner.


End file.

Naruto, Horror, Hurt-Comfort