Iruka sighed, fingers tracing over the name engraved in the cold black stone. It had been exactly three years since the morning he had been summoned to the Hokage’s office in the middle of a class. An S-ranked mission team had returned two weeks late, and two members short. Of the other two; one had returned and was lying in the morgue, the other was entirely missing and assumed dead. A worn and cracked hitae-ite all that remained, a singe silver hair caught in the fabric. Tsunade had been delegated to tell him the news; everyone heard his protests of disbelief and denial.
Iruka had lay in bed for the rest of the week, privately grieving the loss of one of the people he loved. Naruto had been the one to finally get him out, ranting about how he wasn’t the only person who had cared about Kakashi and to stop being so damn depressed about it. Kakashi wouldn’t’ve liked to see him in such a state.
“I see why you always came here; it helps to remember the people you loose…” Iruka muttered standing and staring at the sky as he patted one of the pockets of his vest.
“Iruka-sensei! I knew you’d be here; you’re getting as bad as he was. Always late! Naruto’s been waiting for you at the Ramen shop for twenty minutes now.” Sakura said, walking to stand beside him with her arms folded across her chest.
“Gomen, I forgot.” Iruka said, laughing nervously “Let’s go then, who I to deny Naruto all the ramen he can stand?”
“You know he’s gonna eat you broke for being late, right?”
“Of course. Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”
“You’d better, or I’ll send Naruto after you.” Sakura sighed, walking back the way she came.
“They’ve grown a lot Kakashi, Naruto’ll be named Hokage in a few months, He doesn’t know of course… and Sakura’ll be right there with him…” Iruka smiled, before turning and following after Sakura to go calm the Ramen-monster named Naruto.
Iruka sighed; he was late again as usual. The only time Kakashi had ever been punctual was when he was dragged somewhere.
“Five more minutes?” Iruka asked as the waitress can around to him again. “It’s been twenty… I don’t think he’s coming sir.” She replied, smiling softly.
“He’ll be here, I know he will. He promised.”
“Okay then, I’ll trust you.”
“Thank you ma’am.” Iruka smiled. She just shook her head as she walked away.
Moments later Kakashi showed up. He looked… amazing in the obviously new suit. Even with the usual black mask obscuring his lower face.
“Sorry I’m late; I had trouble with the tie… Jiraya-san had to help me with it…” Kakashi said, eye crinkling into a smile as he sat across from Iruka.
“It’s a better excuse than the one about the girl at least.” Iruka returned jokingly.
“True, true… so, anything interesting going on with your students?”
“Aside from the usual practice-kunai induced wounds and botched jutsu?”
“Mmmhmm.” Kakashi nodded, beginning to study the menu with detached interest.
“The PTA is angry with me over something… apparently I’m somehow supposed to teach their kids while at the same time working in the mission office. We’re horribly short-staffed now, and they’re complaining about Shikamaru’s teaching style… it’s probably better than whatever you’d be teaching them.” Iruka started, launching into a rant about how the parents should be grateful that their kids were learning anything at all with the shortage of qualified ninja available, how some people needed to write more legibly on their mission reports and get them in on time and how back when he was an academy-student they just didn’t talk back as much because they were afraid the teacher was going to use them for target practice.
“You could always use a shadow clone… you teach, it does paperwork.” Kakashi said when Iruka finally paused. “I could take care of the PTA… and you’re probably right about my teaching style, although… it may straighten them out for a while if I was a sub for a day…and you’re rambling again.”
“Oh… sorry…” Iruka blushed as the waitress came around with their dinners.
“Ah, don’t worry. It’s a pleasant change from listening to Guy-sensei’s endless prattle about Lee. You at least have a reason to; eight year olds are quite bad to attempt an intelligent conversation with.”
Dinner had been a pleasant affair; the food good, conversation light, and people leaving them alone (aside from the group of young kunoichi who had insisted on getting their picture taken with Kakashi; something about their friends not going to believe they saw the Copy-nin of Konoha in a restaurant and talked with him. Iruka personally questioned their real motives, but kept silent about the whole thing which Kakashi later laughed off.). There was also the minor fiasco over who was going to pay the bill, which ended in a round of rock-paper-scissors. Iruka won, getting his way in paying entirely seeing as it was his idea to come here anyway.
The only thing that had mildly bothered Iruka about the whole thing was that he was still yet to see Kakashi’s face. They had been ‘together’ for a while now, and had yet to do anything besides snuggle while watching some random movie or television program. Iruka was determined to at least get a decent kiss out of the Jounin tonight, he just had to a) get somewhere private enough and b) work up the nerve for it. Part B of his plan was probably going to be the biggest hurdle.
“Hey, umn… Kakashi?” Iruka asked as they left the building and walked to the corner together, hands shoved into his pockets.
“Yes Iruka?” was the slightly startled reply; Kakashi had been gazing at the thin clouds skidding across the moon. “The sky’s pretty tonight.”
“It is, isn’t it? Would you like to come over to my place…? I’ve got a half a pie sitting around somewhere, and I could make some tea…”
“That’d be nice, you always make good tea.” Kakashi smiled, as Inner-Iruka mentally cheered the completion of Stage 1 of his master plan in Mission Kiss Kakashi.
“Thank you.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“…” the rest of the walk was spent in a slightly awkward but companionable silence.
As they entered Iruka’s apartment and removed their shoes, Iruka groaned. A ‘mysterious’ pile of ungraded test papers sat on the shelf, a green note atop them. Apparently, Shikamaru was too ‘busy’ to grade them.
“Mmm… seems your substitute can’t grade papers.” Kakashi said, earning himself a glare from Iruka.
Needless to say, Iruka DIDN'T get his kiss that night. He was far too busy tracking down a certain lazy chunin and forcing him on pain of death to grade the papers correctly.
Iruka sighed, finally getting into Kakash- his apartment. Funny how a little over two years with someone changes things like wills. Not that much had really changed mind you; just the name on the papers. Pakkun and the other nin-dogs still came around every now and again, and the place still smelled faintly of the odd mixture of peppermint and dog. Iruka still found the occasional broken candy cane that Kakashi had been so fond of hidden between sheets or in the tube of a roll of toilet paper. They always brought a lurch to his stomach and a melancholy feeling for a few hours.
"Hey, Iruka. What-cha making for dinner?" a familiar voice said from the kitchen. Pakkun sat on the counter.
"Nothing, I already ate. Do you want some leftovers?" Iruka replied, sitting at the worn wooden table.
"Nah. You alright?"
"… yeah."
"…"
"… it still hurts though."
"I know. You should get some sleep, you look like you haven't slept properly in weeks." Pakkun nodded before jumping out the window to go do whatever it is that nin-dogs did when they weren't with people. Iruka simply sighed again, resting his head on the table. He was asleep a few moments later; exhaustion finally winning over the copious amounts of coffee he had been drinking lately, if only to stave off the inevitable nightmares and dreams.
~To Be Continued