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“Aw, Iruka-nii, you said this was going to be easy!” Naruto groaned. He collapsed backwards onto the ground and let the chakra paper and the ink-covered brush he’d been holding fall to the wayside as he swiped his hands down his face in frustration.
“Not exactly.” Iruka squatted next to Naruto and delicately picked up the paper so he could examine the sloppy jutsu formula that had been scribbled on it. “I said it would get easier the more you practiced.”
“That is not what you said, believe it!”
“That is what I said.” Iruka pointed at a slightly smudged mark at the edge of the jutsu formula. “It looks better this time, but you need to be careful about smudges and messy handwriting. The slightest mistake could weaken the power of the explosion or, worse, make it backfire.”
“Agh!” Naruto rolled back and forth on his back and scrubbed furiously at his head. “This is impossible! Tiny mistakes shouldn’t cause such big problems!”
Iruka poked playfully at Naruto’s ruddy cheek and held up a clean slip of chakra paper. “It’s not impossible. You just have to keep trying, like you did when you were learning how to walk up a tree using chakra.”
“Hm, I don’t know. Maybe.” Naruto didn’t look too convinced.
Iruka waved the chakra paper in front of the blond’s face. “One more try?”
Naruto pushed himself up to a sitting position, grabbed the paper, and held it up in a determined grip. “One more try. I’m gonna get it this time!”
“If you want, you can use mine as an example,” Iruka offered. He reached into his pocket to pull it out, but Naruto shook his head.
“No, I’m gonna get it all on my own!” He swiped the brush off the ground and bit the end of the wooden handle as he contemplated the blank slip of paper with a focus he rarely showed. “Okay, so first you draw the kanji for ‘explode’ in the center…”
Iruka nodded enthusiastically as Naruto maneuvered the brush slowly in an attempt to make his handwriting as neat as possible.
“And now, you—”
“Yo.”
Iruka managed to stifle his surprised gasp and instead sharply swivelled his head in the direction of the new voice, but Naruto yelped and startled so badly that ink splattered across the chakra paper, rendering it useless. “Kakashi-sensei, you messed me up!”
“Sorry about that.” Kakashi scratched at the back of his head and sent a mollifying eye smile towards his student. “I thought you would be resting on our day off, Naruto. Instead you’re out here…” He crouched down and squinted at the ruined paper in the genin’s hand. “Learning how to make exploding tags?”
“Timed exploding tags,” Iruka corrected, hoping his voice didn’t sound as strained as it felt. His heart felt swollen from the myriad of emotions threatening to rush to the surface at the sight of the silver-haired jounin.
“Yeah, Iruka-nii’s teaching me!” Naruto explained loudly. “Only he didn’t tell me that it was going to be this hard! I’m not good at all this paper and writing and stuff!”
“And as I keep telling you, it just takes some practice,” Iruka repeated patiently.
Naruto grumbled to himself, but still ended up asking for another blank tag. Kakashi stood back up with cat-like grace and sank into a relaxed slouch. His hooded eye remained focused on the delicate formula lines that Naruto was inking into the paper. “It’s looking good,” he commented. “How long have you two been out here?”
Iruka pushed himself up so he was also standing and then took a quick step to his left so that he was directly next to the older man, a cautious, physical question of sorts. Kakashi glanced at him out of the corner of his eye before answering by casually adjusting his weight. Suddenly their arms were brushing, an electrical charge surging along Iruka’s side and an exhilarated warmth rising in his chest.
This was the closest they’d been to each other since he’d rather abruptly decided to make his feelings known by kissing Kakashi just a couple of days earlier. The man had been so flustered and had retreated so quickly afterwards that Iruka had just about convinced himself that Kakashi wasn’t receptive to his feelings at all and instead resented him for forcing an unwanted kiss on him, even if it had been through his mask. Now, however, Iruka suspected that he’d jumped to the worst conclusion a little prematurely because the jounin might’ve seemed as cool as ever on the surface, but underneath his unaffected facade his chakra was dancing wildly, attempting to meld with Iruka’s. And Iruka’s chakra was performing a similar dance, although it was much more fluid than Kakashi’s jumpy, staticky energy.
Iruka cleared his throat, resolutely trying to keep his composure even though his heart was threatening to jump out of his chest. The fact that Kakashi was allowing him to feel his chakra at all was enough of an encouraging hint to let Iruka know that the older man was more than receptive to his feelings.
Remembering the question that Kakashi was still expecting an answer to, the chuunin glanced up at the sky to measure the sun’s movement. “Uh, we’ve been practicing for about two hours.”
“Only two hours and Naruto’s already got the basics of writing an explosive tag without a reference?” Kakashi shook his head. “I always knew you were a good teacher, but apparently I’ve still managed to underestimate you.”
Iruka couldn’t help the flush that overtook his cheeks at the praise. “Thank you Kakashi-san, although truthfully, I’m a little rusty myself. I haven’t had to handwrite a tag in a while, so this practice session is doing just as much good for me as it is for Naruto.”
“If you say so, sensei.” Kakashi’s gaze slanted towards Iruka, giving the impression that he didn’t quite believe the chuunin’s modest words. “I didn’t even know that you made your own tags. That’s an impressive skill, and an exceedingly rare one to have since tags are so readily available at weapon stores these days.”
Iruka laughed wryly. “It’s actually one of the leftover skills from my prankster days. I figured out how to modify the mass-produced tags that you can buy, and after that I started developing my own.”
“Interesting,” Kakashi murmured, angling his body so he was turned in towards Iruka. “But why create timed tags when you can already detonate regular ones from a distance?”
Iruka instinctively slipped into lecture mode. “It’s good that tags can be set off by just sending a pulse of chakra into them, but that still requires you to be in range of the tag. As a troublemaker, it’s better to not be anywhere in the vicinity of your prank when it goes off. So I figured out how to add a timer. Having unique tags is also something that I found extremely useful on missions, too, so I kept playing around with the skill and now I can make a variety of tags and seals.”
Before Kakashi could respond, Naruto gave a loud huff. “Iruka-nii, I can’t write when you’re talking so much!”
Iruka cleared his throat to stifle the laugh that wanted to climb out of his mouth. He exchanged looks with Kakashi, and then the two of them obediently stood there silently while Naruto finished his work. The blond was concentrating so hard that the tip of his tongue was sticking out of the corner of his mouth. After a few more moments, Naruto swiped a hand across his forehead and held the paper up.
“I’m done!” He tilted his head back to grin at Iruka, revealing a smear of black ink that trailed across his forehead.
Iruka chose to ignore the mess for the moment. He took the tag and blew on it to dry the ink a bit quicker. “Alright, let’s take a look at it.” His eyes flickered over the sheet, taking in all the lines and details that had been drawn on it. At last, a proud smile stretched across his lips and he dipped his head in a nod of acceptance. “This one looks good!”
“Yes!” Naruto hollered, throwing both hands up in the air in triumph. “Can I set it off?”
“Sure.” Iruka handed the tag back to Naruto. “Go set it on that stump over there, and then move out of range. When you’re a safe distance away you can send a pulse of chakra into it the same way that you do with regular tags.”
“Alright!” Naruto raced across the training field to plant the tag.
Kakashi turned to Iruka with his eyebrow quirked at an angle. “Move out of range before activating it? I thought it had a timer.”
“Eh,” Iruka scratched at the edge of his scar. “It looked like some of the details on his formula might’ve been a bit off. The one he’s copying is supposed to be a one minute timer, but the way he wrote it might make it a bit shorter than that.”
“Shouldn’t you have—”
Iruka waved an unconcerned hand through the air. “It was close enough for a practice run.”
“I’m about to activate it!” Naruto yelled from across the clearing. The orange-clad boy sprinted a few yards away from the stump before forming the necessary hand sign and directing his chakra towards the tag. Iruka began counting, and only a moment later the tag blew. It was a good sized explosion, strong enough to knock Naruto to the ground.
Iruka narrowed his eyes as the forceful wind from the explosion rushed past him and Kakashi. “Ten seconds, that’s more what I expected,” he confirmed with a nod. “Are you alright?” he called to Naruto.
“That was awesome!” the genin yelled back. “It actually worked!”
“It did!” Iruka laughed. “But now you can see why the details are so important!”
“Yeah, yeah, it still worked!” Naruto leapt to his feet. “It’ll be perfect next time!”
Iruka grinned. “Next time then. Now, wipe the ink off your face.”
Naruto swiped his sleeve across his face and smeared the ink even more. “I’m going to go show Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba what I learned! They’ll be so jealous that I can make my own exploding tags!” He handed the brush he was still holding to Iruka, and as soon as it was out of his hand, he shot off across the training field. “Don’t wait up, Iruka-nii! I’ll be home late!”
“Don’t do anything too stupid!” Iruka called after him. “I’m not breaking you out of T&I if you accidentally burn down a building!” He shook his head in amusement as the bundle of orange disappeared into the trees. Humming under his breath, Iruka quickly placed the brush into its special case and tucked it back into his vest pocket for easy access. He was still humming to himself, but that came to an abrupt halt when he turned around to find Kakashi staring at him appreciatively, his gaze lingering on the chuunin’s ponytail.
Feeling a bit in a teasing mood, Iruka quirked an eyebrow and angled himself so that his best features were displayed. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of having the famous Copy Nin come observe my private lessons?”
Kakashi seemed to mentally falter at that, almost as if he’d completely missed the teasing note in Iruka’s voice. “Ah, I thought I didn’t need an invitation to spend time with you?” The question could have been playful, but it came out more nervous and earnest than anything else.
Wanting to put any potential fears to rest immediately, Iruka quickly tried to clarify, “You don’t! And I’m happy you’re here. It’s just that, well, after your very quick exit directly after my, ah, open invitation I guess you could call it, I thought that you weren’t going to take me up on it.” His nervous habit of scratching at the scar tissue on his face was accompanied by an awkward laugh.
Kakashi dipped his head in what almost seemed to be a bashful move. “Maa, I was taking the time to settle myself, and giving you time to rethink your offer.”
Iruka frowned. “Rethink my offer? Why would I do that?”
The glance that Kakashi sent towards Iruka clearly showed that he didn’t believe the chuunin’s apparent cluelessness. “No need to be polite, sensei. An amiable person like you who talks to everyone in Konoha; you’ve definitely heard the things they say about me.” He gestured towards himself with a gloved hand and a weight appeared to descend onto the jounin’s shoulders, making his slouch more defined. “You shouldn’t get mixed up with Friend Killer Kakashi.”
“Nonsense!” Iruka said firmly, waving Kakashi’s concerns away. “I don’t care what your reputation says about you. I would say I’ve gotten to know you pretty well since you became Naruto’s jounin sensei, and I like what I see. Although, if you do put a lot of stock in your reputation, then you might want to rethink being attached to me.” An old knife of self-doubt that Iruka thought he’d buried rose from the grave and stabbed itself through his heart. The last time he’d felt it that intensely had been when he’d spoken about a similar topic with another white-haired man. He mimicked Kakashi’s gesture from a moment earlier as he motioned at himself. “After all, a shinobi of your caliber who’s also the last remaining member of your clan means that there are big expectations on your shoulders. Being attached to an average chuunin like me could be considered a disgrace.”
Kakashi looked taken aback, but he didn’t attempt to argue the point.
Determined to hide his metaphorical wound which was hemorrhaging confidence, Iruka rushed on. “Although no matter what people say about me, I am perfectly capable of defending myself, as you’ve now seen. It may not be the traditional way expected of a shinobi, but it works just as well.”
Kakashi accepted the change in subject with a small nod and went back to radiating an aura of laziness. “That’s true. And I, for one, happen to be very interested in the ways you can defend yourself.”
Iruka held up a hand. “You’re not about to try and convince me to spar, are you? Because I know there’s no way I could beat you, even if you gave yourself a handicap.”
“Nothing like that.” Kakashi took a long stride forward so that he was almost standing on top of Iruka and his eye dropped down to the pocket that the younger man had tucked his chakra tag supplies into. “I’m interested in seeing what other kinds of tags you’ve developed.”
Iruka’s eyes lit up, turning them into a mischievous, molten brown. “Really?” he asked, a hint of disbelief in his voice. “You actually want to see the tags I’ve made?”
Kakashi tilted his head, making his thatch of silver hair sway further off kilter. “As you said, it may not be the traditional ninjutsu- and taijutsu-heavy combat style that’s expected of a shinobi, but I’ve been in too many tight situations to be picky about what methods are used to defeat an opponent. Using unique tags and barrier seals could bring a strategic advantage. I also know when to admit that I’m out of my depth when it comes to a technique.” His mask wrinkled, exposing the grin beneath it. “So Iruka-sensei, can I tempt you into giving me a private lesson?”
Iruka smiled a bit shyly. “Well, since you’ve already seen my timed explosive tag, maybe I should show you the second type I came up with: flare tags.” He reached into a different pocket on his vest and extracted a piece of chakra paper with a modified explosive jutsu formula scribbled across it.
“You’ve mentioned that one to me before,” Kakashi noted as he sidled up next to Iruka to take a closer look at the tag over the chuunin’s shoulder. As he did, the front of his flak vest brushed up against the back of Iruka’s. A spike of adrenaline zipped through Iruka’s heart at the innocent touch, daring him to make it happen again or, now that they were alone, to take it a step further and reach out to directly, purposefully, touch the other man.
Iruka gave himself a mental shake. There was no reason for him to be acting like a child fresh from the academy. He was twenty-two, for crying out loud! He’d already kissed Kakashi once, even if it had been with his mask in the way. Simple, almost accidental touches should not be having such a powerful effect on him.
Even after the mental lecture, Iruka’s mouth was dry when he replied, “I did, didn’t I.”
“So,” Kakashi drawled as he reached out with his right hand to take the tag, brushing up against Iruka again in the process, “can I set it off and watch the show?” His slightly cooler fingers brushed delicately across Iruka’s knuckles in a caressing motion as he grasped the flare tag.
Iruka’s breath hitched at the feather-light touch. “O-of course. Just be careful.”
“Maa, using protection is important for these things.” Kakashi leaned down so that his masked lips were directly next to the chuunin’s ear and his warm breath grazed the sensitive skin there. “Now, just tell me what would be best, sensei; would a delicate touch be more effective? Or maybe a rougher one?”
“You—“ Iruka’s face went red from both the jounin’s words and proximity. Kakashi had to be doing it on purpose; there was no way the Icha Icha-obsessed man didn’t know exactly what effect he was having.
Just as Iruka became concerned that his heart might give out from the half-embarrassed, half-aroused strain being put on it, Kakashi stepped back. He was the picture of perfect innocence with his hands held up in surrender, tag pinched between the index and middle fingers of his right hand. “I’m talking about the chakra needed to activate the tag! That’s all!”
Iruka could still feel his face burning, likely making his scar stand out starkly in contrast, but he couldn’t help the challenging grin that spread across his face. If Kakashi wanted to flirt, then two could play at that game. “Just perform the same way you would with your own tags. Mine are adaptable and can find release from a variety of chakra techniques.” A quick scowl darted across his features. “But don’t call me ‘sensei’ when you’re doing that!”
“But why not? I’m learning something, aren’t I?” Kakashi protested. His eye crinkled up in amusement as the jounin tossed the tag straight up into the air and activated it with a quick pulse of chakra. The tag exploded, releasing a flash of white light that was bright enough to drown out all the shadows on the training field. It hovered in the air for a full minute, maintaining the same intense gleam until the very end when it finally fizzled out. Neither of the ninjas had looked directly at it, but it still left a giant afterimage in their eyes that they had to spend the next few minutes blinking away.
“Impressive work, Iruka!” Kakashi complimented. “I haven’t seen a tag with a release that big in a while.”
“I could teach you, if you want,” Iruka offered, feeling a bit melted from hearing his name in Kakashi’s voice sans honorifics.
Kakashi somehow seemed to trip while standing still. “You could… teach me?”
Iruka closed his eyes, immediately seeing where he’d gone wrong. He yanked another blank slip of chakra paper from the supply that he’d stuffed into his vest and held it up. “How to make the flare tag,” he clarified. “No double entendre meant. Considering all the weird things you read I would rather not encourage any sensei-kink you might have.”
Kakashi’s voice sounded oddly relieved when he replied. “Ah, you mean an actual lesson.” He took a moment to roll his shoulders back from where they’d slowly been creeping up towards his ears. “A chance to learn from the village’s leading seals expert? How could I say no?” Kakashi blinked, or maybe it was a wink?
It was definitely a wink, Iruka decided.
“Flattery won’t get you any special treatment from me,” Iruka said in his teacher voice as he pulled the brush and ink container out of his vest again.
“Maa, I’ll have to think of another way to get special treatment then.” Kakashi took the blank slip of chakra paper and the brush, holding them like they were activated exploding tags that might go off at any moment.
“Here is what you’re trying to make,” Iruka said, holding another of his creations up for Kakashi to see.
The jounin examined it closely for a second. “It looks almost the same as a regular explosive tag.”
“Almost,” Iruka agreed. “As I was trying to teach Naruto, details matter. The modifications I made are small, but they have a big effect. Here, you can compare it to a regular one to pick out the differences.”
Kakashi glanced between the two slips of paper a couple of times, grey eye narrowed in concentration. After a moment, he shifted the blank piece of chakra paper into the palm of his hand and brought the brush up to make a few tentative marks. Iruka marvelled at how neat the older man’s writing was compared to the reports he usually turned in at the mission desk.
Kakashi took the brush away from the paper for a second, double checking his work. Iruka leaned against his arm, letting Kakashi’s warmth sink through the fabric of his shirt. “It’s looking good so far,” he commented encouragingly. “Maybe try to do the markings around the kanji next; I find that usually makes it easier to get the spacing for the rest of the details right.”
“Maa, you’re the expert,” Kakashi concurred with a nod. He put brush to paper one more time, adding in the necessary circles and squiggles. He paused a moment later and was about to take the tip of the brush away from the paper, but before he could, Iruka reached out and gently wrapped his fingers around the hand that Kakashi was using to grip the brush.
“This needs to be thicker,” Iruka murmured, guiding Kakashi’s hand to add another layer to the circle around the kanji. “You can’t use broken lines here either, or it’ll end up as a more directed explosion instead of a flare.” The jounin’s fingers were cool and steady under his as he helped the silver-haired man make a few more adjustments. “There.”
“All fixed?”
Iruka gave Kakashi’s hand one last squeeze, letting his fingers linger for longer than necessary. “For the most part.” When he finally pulled away, Iruka could’ve sworn he felt Kakashi shiver.
“Close enough for a practice run?”
“Exactly.”
Kakashi waved the slip of paper around to hurry the ink’s drying along, and then after receiving an approving nod from Iruka, tossed it into the air. He sent out a pulse of chakra to activate it, and shielded his eye as light erupted from the tag. This time though, it was different.
“Wha– it’s blue!”
Iruka nearly keeled over from trying to stifle his laugh. “It is!”
“Why is it blue?”
Iruka threw his hands up. “Your guess is as good as mine! One of the lines in the jutsu formula probably had too much of a curve on it which might’ve changed the dispersion rate of the light.”
Kakashi shook his head, looking slightly defeated. “Dispersion rate… how did you ever figure this stuff out?”
“Through sheer stubbornness.” Iruka swiped a few stray hairs off his forehead. “Why don’t you just use your Sharingan to memorize the flare tag? Wouldn’t that work?”
“It would,” Kakashi admitted, “but then I wouldn’t need you to teach me.”
Iruka rolled his eyes. “Yes, of course. How foolish of me.”
Kakashi’s eye curved into a smile. “You should feel honored, Iruka. I haven’t had a sensei since I was twelve.”
Iruka cocked an eyebrow. “And yet you’ve stopped referring to me as one.”
Kakashi chuckled as he stepped back into Iruka’s space. “As I recall, you’re the one who demanded just a little while ago that I stop using that title when I’m teasing you. Besides, Iruka …”
Kakashi’s right hand drifted up slowly and Iruka watched it the same way one might watch an incoming comet: with utter fascination and a little trepidation over where it might land. He didn’t have long to wonder though. Kakashi’s hand settled lightly on the crown of Iruka’s head, sweeping the loose hairs back again.
“I’m far from being done teasing you.” Quick as lightning, the jounin’s hand flashed back to Iruka’s ponytail and slipped the tie out of his hair.
Iruka’s jaw dropped open as his hair fell around his face in a thick mop of messy strands. He lunged for his hairband, but Kakashi leapt out of range.
Iruka could feel his cheeks heating up again as he clawed his hair into a pile on top of his head and held it there with his left hand. “Kakashi, give my hair tie back!”
“No, I don’t think I will.” The older man merely dangled the thin loop of fabric from his fingers playfully. “If you want it you’ll have to catch me.”
Iruka allowed his hair to fall back down and let loose a laugh as Kakashi’s one eye zeroed in on the chestnut tangle almost immediately. “Alright then,” Iruka decided, reaching into his weapon pouch for ninja tools that had been sitting around unused for much too long. “Here I come!”
The chuunin flung four kunai with tags attached towards Kakashi. The two middle ones flew straight for the jounin, who flipped out of the way just in time to avoid the blast from the exploding tags attached to the handles. The other two kunai went wide, sinking into the hard earth with soft thuds. The tags attached to them fluttered in the breeze, but didn’t explode. Kakashi’s keen eye stared at them with a curious glint.
While Kakashi took his time trying to guess what the purpose of the mystery tags was, Iruka darted around to his other side and threw another volley of kunai with tags. This time, three kunai went straight towards the Copy Nin while two others landed in the dirt again. Kakashi ducked under the kunai that threatened to skewer him and frowned when they didn’t explode as soon as they got near him. He glanced over his shoulder, suspiciously following them with his eye, and rightfully so. As soon as the kunai had passed him, Iruka sent out a pulse of chakra to set them off.
The combined explosion of the three tags was enough to send Kakashi tumbling forward just enough for him to enter the oblong shape made by the kunai Iruka had deliberately planted in the ground. A triumphant grin took over Iruka’s face. He formed a few quick hand signs and gave a cry as he activated the barrier tags attached to the kunai. A chakra barrier instantly sprang to life between the tags. The available space inside the barrier was a bit more than Iruka had wanted, but it still kept Kakashi caged in and greatly reduced his mobility.
“Clever, sensei,” Kakashi said as he backed into the center of the barrier, arms held slightly away from his body, ready to react. “But now you’ve effectively cut us off from each other completely. How are you going to get to me before I bust out?”
Iruka pulled out a slip of chakra paper, smaller than a normal sized one, and using his brush he quickly splashed a jutsu formula across it. “Unfortunately for you, this is a situation I’ve been faced with before, and I’ve had several years to think about different solutions to this predicament.” He finished writing, and channeled his chakra into the paper. A slight shimmer enveloped his body as he crumpled the paper up in his fist. “And I’ve found that the simplest solutions are often the best.”
Iruka stepped forward and passed directly through the barrier he’d erected. There was no resistance at all; the shimmer surrounding him allowed him to slip in like he was walking through a doorway.
Kakashi blinked, completely at a loss for words. After a couple of seconds he managed to ask, “How?”
“I figured out how to create a kind of passcode that will allow a person to walk through the corresponding barrier,” Iruka explained. “The barrier tag has to already have the correct code integrated or it won’t work. It takes a bit of thinking ahead to have all the pieces ready to go when they’re needed, but I’ve always been good at that.”
“I’ll say,” Kakashi whispered, barely audible.
“And now,” Iruka said, pulling out a handful of shuriken, “there’s nowhere for you to run.” He let the shuriken fly—
And nearly had a heart attack when Kakashi didn’t dodge. The barrage of shuriken pierced through the jounin’s flak vest with a hideous thunking sound. Iruka gasped in horror, reaching out as if he’d be able to stop the damage somehow.
When Kakashi’s figure disappeared in a poof of smoke to reveal a log in his place, Iruka nearly collapsed with relief.
“Aw, Iruka, you do care!”
Iruka whirled around, hair flying in front of his eyes, to find Kakashi waving cheerily and leaning against one of the giant trees at the edge of the training ground far outside his barrier.
“Kakashi!”
The man in question produced the hairband he’d stolen and twirled it around his index finger. “I’m starting to think you don’t really want this back.”
Iruka deactivated the barrier that was currently only serving as a cage for himself. In the same string of hand signs, he fluidly added in the signs for a clone jutsu. Asuma had once told him that shinobi who were considered absolute masters of ninjutsu could weave in misleading signs that had nothing to do with the jutsu they were about to perform. Iruka was nowhere near that advanced, but he liked to think that his ability to combine the signs for one jutsu with another without pausing at least lended him some amount of credibility when it came to his ninjutsu proficiency.
Kakashi’s dark eye barely widened when Iruka’s clones sprang into existence. Iruka let his clones go straight for the Copy Nin, hoping to both distract him and corner him in a pincer move. While the jounin was busy dodging below-par taijutsu from multiple Irukas and doing his best to pop them all out of existence, the real Iruka slipped a thin scroll out of his pocket and unraveled it with a flick of his wrist. That particular scroll had taken him a while to put together, but it wasn’t like he went on many missions outside the village anyway. Using one of his fuuinjutsu scrolls for a fun spar wasn’t any great loss.
The last of his clones had just been dispersed when Iruka formed the release sign and slammed his hand onto the seal inked on the scroll. “Kai!” he cried.
A tidal wave of destructive water erupted from the scroll and went crashing directly towards Kakashi. The jounin’s eye popped wide open and he flung himself out of the wave’s path in the opposite direction of the barrier tags still stuck in the ground.
Iruka had anticipated that though, and had already jumped in the direction of the opening he’d guessed Kakashi would take advantage of. He crashed into the other man in midair, forcing him backwards until he was cornered against a tree. Iruka grinned triumphantly as he pressed his hands into the bark on either side of Kakashi’s head. He was one hundred percent sure that the jounin had allowed himself to be caught, but that didn’t lessen the rush of the chase at all. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought that he could feel Kakashi’s heart beating through the press of their thick vests.
“Hm, what happened to not being able to beat me?” the silver-haired man asked. Iruka could hear the self-satisfaction in his voice.
“You let me beat you,” Iruka accused. “But I did still catch you and you didn’t say how legitimate your defeat had to be.”
“Hm, that’s true.” Kakashi held up the hairband, letting it dangle off his finger. His gaze was heavy as it soaked in the chuunin’s tousled hair. “I suppose you would like to receive your prize, Iruka?”
Iruka’s eyelids dropped to half-mast. “I don’t know.” He focused in on the absolute vision in front of him: the length of Kakashi’s neck and its delicate grace hidden beneath tight navy fabric. Iruka’s mouth went dry. “What if there’s another prize I’d rather have?”
The fabric of Kakashi’s mask fluttered like his mouth was opening and closing, trying to form a response but completely unable to. The jounin tilted his head to the side, questioningly or invitingly, Iruka wasn’t sure. Either way, the movement showed off his long neck in a way that was so tempting that Iruka found himself unwittingly leaning closer and closer.
His scarred nose had just grazed the bared tendon at Kakashi’s throat when the older man’s attention was suddenly jerked away, his head turning and eye scanning the treeline around them. “Someone is approaching from the village wall at a quick pace,” he hissed lowly.
Iruka immediately went on the alert. He sent out a pulse of chakra, jumping away from Kakashi and letting his muscles tense to get ready to take action if needed. As soon as his chakra rippled back to him carrying a dark and fiery chakra signature that was almost as familiar as his own, he relaxed and motioned to the other man to do the same. “Don’t worry, it’s only Anko. She must’ve just gotten back from a mission.”
Kakashi’s muscles visibly loosened, although his shoulders remained tight despite their customary slouch. “Does she often head straight towards the training fields at breakneck speed after her missions?”
“She’s probably looking for me. She likes to burn off her excess energy after especially challenging missions by pestering me into going out to a bar with her.”
“Maa, as fun as that would be to watch, I think I’ll take my leave,” Kakashi decided. He reached forward and slipped his fingers into Iruka’s hair, letting them trail carefully through the windblown strands. “We’ll have to finish this lesson another time. You need to show me the other crazy things you can seal into a scroll.”
“I’ll be back out here with Naruto again tomorrow if you’re interested,” Iruka offered, forcing his voice to remain steady even though Kakashi’s hand in his hair was threatening to tie his tongue up in knots.
“It’s a date, sensei!” Kakashi twirled a lock of hair around his index finger and leaned in to nuzzle at it. The action lasted less than a heartbeat, and then Kakashi was waving his fingers in goodbye and disappearing with a shunshin.
Just a second later, Anko landed almost exactly where Kakashi had been standing. “Iruka! Why is your hair down?”
Anko’s question effectively brought Iruka crashing back to earth as his hand flew up to his loose hair. His entire face felt hot enough to cook an egg on it. He cleared his throat awkwardly as he untangled the section that Kakashi had looped around his finger. “My hair tie snapped. Um, how’d your mission go?”
Anko squinted at Iruka as if she was debating whether or not to allow him to change the subject or not. She knew him too well to believe his excuse. After a few seconds during which Iruka could barely breathe, she braced her hands on her back and leaned over backwards in a long stretch. “Don’t even ask! I swear, if something could go wrong, it did. Besides, the more important question is: was that Kakashi that I just saw here with you?”
Iruka nearly choked on air. “Oh, yes, that was him! He, uh, interrupted my fuuinjutsu lesson with Naruto and then stuck around to learn a bit more about the tags I can make.” He internally winced at his lie of omission, but until Kakashi signalled that he was open to letting news of their new relationship spread, Iruka would do his best to keep it under wraps. Of course, knowing how notoriously private jounin tended to be, there was no telling when Iruka would be able to let his friends know, especially since he and Kakashi hadn’t really specified what was going on between them anyway.
“That’s it?” Anko asked. She narrowed her eyes and leaned forward until she was practically nose to nose with Iruka. “Nothing more wild than a lesson in explosive tags?” Her coffee colored gaze flicked to his loose hair and back again.
“Sorry to disappoint,” Iruka said with a forced shrug.
Anko straightened back up and waved her hand through the air casually. “No, it’s probably for the best. I’m not sure Hatake Kakashi would exactly make good company for you.”
A fierce feeling of offense for Kakashi’s sake roared to life inside Iruka’s chest. He planted his hands firmly on his hips. “Why would you say that? I really don’t think he’s as bad as his reputation makes him sound. He always acts perfectly decent whenever he’s around Naruto or the rest of his team!”
Anko stared at him curiously for a moment, her purple eyebrows furrowing in the middle. “I’m not talking about his reputation, I’m talking about the way he seems to find pleasure in torturing you at the mission desk. That doesn’t seem like a dynamic that would be healthy in the long run, unless you have a masochistic streak that I don’t know about.” She held her hands up in defense. “Which, if you do, is perfectly fine. Just make sure you discuss preferences and safe words before you do anything.”
Iruka’s entire face was burning hot. “Anko!”
The kunoichi grabbed his wrist and began hauling him towards the village. “Now come on. I’ve had a long day, much longer than it should’ve been, so I need to get drunk and you’re coming with me!”
“But I—”
“No buts! Tomorrow’s the weekend, so you have no excuses. Let’s go!” Anko threw a fist into the air and proceeded to bodily drag Iruka across the training field. Iruka shook his head and gave in. A drink or two certainly wouldn’t be the worst way to end the day.