Iruka sat down carefully and tried to hide the wince that followed. Genma's eyes narrowed from his seat next to Iruka.
"I thought you weren't seeing anyone." The threat in Genma's voice was probably justified.
"I'm not. I was with Kakashi last night."
Judging from Genma's growing frown, that was probably not the right thing to say.
"Training," he added quickly and glanced around the room to make sure the jounin wasn't anywhere nearby in case he misspoke again. Genma had a tendency to be rather explosive when he got angry. "We were fighting until sundown out in the forest. He actually expected me to be able to hit him. Me! Versus the infamous Copy Nin." After last night he sorely wished he could hit Kakashi. Nothing would be more satisfying right now that a solid punch, right in Kakashi's jaw, though he'd need the element of surprise to pull that off.
At least the budding attraction he'd held for Kakashi was definitely squashed. Mostly. The jounin was possibly the most infuriating person he knew, aside from Naruto. Another torturous night of fighting until sundown and he could definitely say he was no longer attracted to Kakashi. In other words, in three days, after their next scheduled training session. Kakashi had better not be late this time.
"You give yourself far too little credit, Iruka. You're a good fighter."
Iruka glared. His bout with Kakashi had proven just how good he was. "I haven't fought anyone over the age of sixteen since the Chuunin exams, when I was sixteen."
"You fought Mizuki."
Iruka frowned and stared at the table. In the back of his mind he could still hear Mizuki's voice, taunting Naruto, trying to get the scroll from him. "And we all know how that ended," he drawled out slowly. That battle had been one of his greatest failures. Instead of him saving Naruto, he'd been saved by the kid. A twelve year old had taken down someone he'd barely managed to scratch.
No wonder Tsunade thought he couldn't take care of himself.
Genma clapped him on the back, unfortunately hitting one of the spots where Iruka had impacted with a tree last night. "Well, look at it this way, you've got Kakashi training you. If you can hit him, you can hit any of us."
"That's a big 'if' there."
"At least it's something worth trying for."
Iruka sighed. "Yeah, at least I'm trying."
Kakashi stared at the bowl of kiwi on his counter. They didn't go bad this fast, did they? He'd bought them for Iruka, but there'd been leftovers and now he was stuck with a bowl of kiwi. Maybe he could give them to Iruka, sort of as an apology for pushing him so hard last night. Would Iruka take that wrong? It was training. It was supposed to be hard. He probably should apologize for the things he said, though. That'd been... mean. True, but still mean. Honestly, twigs?
If he'd been from a rival village or a missing nin or someone actually trying to kill Iruka, the chuunin wouldn't have lasted five minutes. Hell, Iruka probably wouldn't even have known he was being attacked before he died. Iruka couldn't have known it was Kakashi the whole time, and yet he kept pulling those stupid tricks and running around to avoid attacking. To be fair, those tricks might have worked on other opponents. The fact that Naruto survived battle after battle was somewhat testament to that. Not every enemy was as strong as Kakashi. Scratch that. Few enemies were as strong as Kakashi.
Against an unfamiliar chuunin, Iruka would have shined. Against a jounin, he would have survived. It was those familiar ninja that worried Kakashi a little, though the fact that he was worrying at all was somewhat disturbing.
What was going on with him recently? Buying kiwi and training chuunin schoolteachers. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this social with someone he barely knew. Admittedly they did have common friends, which made Iruka a friend by extension. And it was kind of nice talking to someone so different from the ninja he normally associated with. And the few bites he'd had of the kiwi after Iruka had insisted he try it were good.
Kakashi glared at the bowl of kiwi. It didn't take a genius to figure out where his thoughts were taking him.
"Shit." The word echoed in his empty apartment.
With one last angry glance at the kiwi, Kakashi grabbed a bag.
It shouldn't be this hard to find pens. Unfortunately, he needed red pens and the storage closet at school was empty, as it usually was less than five minutes after being stocked. He didn't quite feel like rummaging through another teachers desk. He knew the kinds of traps they used and Dai-sensei was particularly mean. He probably had all the red pens.
Iruka had a back-up supplier. There was a shop, nearly on the edge of the village on the complete opposite side as the Academy, that stocked red pens. Said shop was currently closed, like most stores after sundown.
"This is what happens when I let Genma talk me into ramen before shopping," Iruka muttered to himself as he riffled through the selection of pens at the third convenience store he'd been to that night. He wasn't even really sure what part of town he was in, but he had grading to do tonight and that required red.
Would it really be that unprofessional to use blue?
Konohamaru was in his class. He needed red.
"Need help finding something?"
Iruka blushed. He must look a little crazy, going through every stack of pens on the shelf. Maybe he should have just asked. He straightened slowly and turned.
Okay, he definitely should have asked if this was the kind of help he was going to get. He smiled slightly, his blush already deepening as he looked over at the rather handsome man standing next to him. Long blonde hair pulled back in a bun, stunning blue eyes, and a rather muscular physique hidden behind a plain white shirt and khakis. The stranger smiled at him.
"Looking for something in particular?"
"Uh-um-well..." Yes, Iruka, great time to develop a stutter. He laughed nervously. "I was trying to find a red pen, actually."
"I don't think they carry those here, but..." The man picked a thin orange box off the shelf. "...would a red pencil work?"
Colored pencils. He should have thought of that.
"Y-yes, thank you." Iruka accepted the box from the stranger and grabbed a second just in case. His gaze travelled over the blonde again. He shouldn't. He really shouldn't. It was a bad idea and Genma would yell at him and Kakashi... Kakashi was a bastard who'd left him bruised in twelve places and in need of a new jacket. "Um... do you work here?"
The man laughed softly and reddened slightly. "Truthfully, no, and you're probably thinking I'm a little weird for approaching you like that, but honestly... I just wanted an excuse to talk to you."
Iruka's blush was not going away any time soon. "I... thank you. For your help, and..."
The stranger smiled brightly. Iruka pushed the part of his brain that kept telling him how bad an idea this was out a proverbial window.
"I-I'm Iruka, by the way."
"Yukio." The blonde glanced down at his watch. "I don't suppose you'd like to go grab a cup of coffee? I know a place nearby that stays open pretty late."
It was getting rather dark out. He had papers he should be grading. Iruka looked down at the colored pencils in his hands and then at Yukio. He really shouldn't.
"A-alright. Though... I can't stay too long. I have papers to grade. Hence the red pens."
Yukio winked. "I guessed. Well, it was a near tie between schoolteacher and editor, but I was close." He half-bowed and gestured towards the check-out counter. "Let us not tarry then, dear schoolteacher. Coffee awaits."
Iruka laughed out-loud as he was herded towards the counter. He could tell this was going to be an interesting night.
Iruka was still laughing, though quietly this time, as he finally made it back to his apartment, two hours later than he expected to be home. As he climbed the steps up to his apartment, he couldn't help but replay parts of his conversation with Yukio. The jounin Yukio, he'd learned, who loved comedy and poetry and was very good at making Iruka smile. So good that Iruka hadn't even hesitated before agreeing to meet for coffee again over the weekend.
He paused as he pulled his keys from his pocket. There was a plastic bag half-full of kiwi hanging from his doorknob. Iruka lifted one handle and glanced inside. No note, though he had a fairly good idea who had left them here. He wasn't quite sure why. Did Kakashi just not want to keep them? He hadn't really struck Iruka as the fresh-fruit kind of guy, though that brought up the question of why Kakashi had bought kiwi in the first place if he wasn't going to eat them.
Pulling the bag off the doorknob, Iruka quickly unlocked the door and headed inside. It was late, and he had papers to grade. The kiwi went on the counter, the colored pencils on the coffee table along with his satchel. He walked around the living room, flicking on lights as he went, before heading into the bedroom. His uniform jacket, brand new as of this morning, was carefully folded over the back of his chair. The rest of his clothes ended up in the laundry basket as he changed into his pajamas - a simple oversized white t-shirt and baggy gray sweatpants.
Bare feet padded along the wood floor as he headed back into the living room, pointedly ignoring the kunai marks in the bedroom door. He sat cross-legged on the floor and pulled out his students' papers. With a red pencil in hand, Iruka started to read the first essay.
His eyes kept wandering away from the paper. Halfway through, Iruka finally gave up with a sigh. He stood and crossed the room. Minutes later, he returned to his grading with a plate, a knife, and a bowl of kiwi.
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