Chapter Text
(I don't own any characters etc etc)
Kakashi exhaled a sigh of relief when he found Iruka near the academy one afternoon in the middle of May. It was after the time the academy let out but he didn’t know the teacher’s schedule, so he was grateful that Iruka hadn’t left the area just yet.
“Iruka-sensei,” Kakashi called out casually, and Iruka turned and smiled.
“Kakashi-sensei,” he greeted back with a nod. “How are you?”
“I need you to take a mission,” the jonin said, ignoring social graces to exchange pleasantries before diving into a topic. Or need. Or, well, anything.
Iruka blinked but nodded and squared his shoulders, ever the professional. “Unexpected, but okay.”
“With me and Naruto.”
Iruka raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“For your birthday.”
Iruka furrowed his brow and crossed his arms. “Okay, now wait a dang minute, what’s going on?”
“What’s there to explain?” Kakashi asked, walking away. “Gotta go, we’ll be in touch!”
Iruka frowned and ran through hand signs, springing a trap and ensnaring the jonin immediately.
“Impressive,” Kakashi admitted as he found he couldn’t move, and his arms were kept on either side of him. “Cool, you’ve got tricks up your sleeve, now let me go.”
Iruka walked to face him, pausing in front of him and crossing his arms again. “You can’t just dump that on someone and run, seriously,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Like a child, like one of my students. So, you can either tell me what’s going on while you’re kept in there, or you can be an adult and promise to tell me if I free you. Which will it be?”
They remained in silence for a long moment.
“Kakashi-sensei!” Iruka snapped.
“I’m thinking!” the copy nin admitted, but before either could speak again, an ANBU appeared. The masked shinobi looked at the scene in front of him, neither man giving anything away.
“Everything okay here?” the ANBU slowly asked.
“Just peachy, why?” Kakashi replied in a light tone. The ANBU looked at Iruka, who shrugged, a flat look on his face.
“Nope, not going there,” the ANBU said, shaking his head and leaving in the blink of an eye. Iruka rolled his eyes and turned back to the jonin, who sighed.
“Fine, fine, let me out and I’ll stay,” he agreed.
“And tell me actual information,” Iruka reminded him.
“Fine,” Kakashi sighed again, and Iruka released him. Kakashi rolled his shoulders and dusted himself off, before sticking his hands in his pockets. “I…friends have been trying to set me up on dates.”
“Okay…” Iruka said with shrug, not connecting it to a mission.
“And I’ve made excuses.”
“So?”
“So…uh…I need another one?”
Iruka rolled his eyes again and led them to a nearby bench, sensing this may take a while. “What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal? They’re persistent!” Kakashi grumbled as they sat.
“How long has it gone on for?” Iruka asked, but the jonin mumbled and looked away. “What?”
“All year and then some,” Kakashi said loudly, turning to look at him again.
“What?”
“Yeah,” the copy nin sighed. “Last year I said I couldn’t date until after the winter holidays due to being busy, then not before Valentine’s Day, then I had missions, then Naruto’s training,” he continued, for Naruto had returned from training with Jiraiya and was seeking more and more advanced education. “Then other things came up, and they cornered me this afternoon.”
“And?” Iruka asked, finding himself more interested than he wanted to admit.
“Uh, Naruto has said your birthday is soon, so I said I couldn’t be set up until after your birthday because he and I were taking you on a mission.”
Iruka snorted. “What did Naruto say about it?”
“Well, you know how he is…he’s very Naruto about it.”
The teacher shook his head. “That’s a broad range of reactions. Anyway, no, I won’t lie to your friends or help you lie, or take a mission just to cover your trail. Thanks, but no.”
“But –” Kakashi protested, but Iruka stood and shook his head as he walked away, leaving Kakashi sitting alone on the bench, sighing.
___
Though he wanted to ignore the man’s supposed plan, Iruka knew he had better check in with Naruto about it all, to tie up loose ends. However, Naruto found him the next day, coming to see him at the academy before classes started.
“Kakashi-sensei said he talked to you yesterday!”
“He did….” Iruka warily began.
“Great! I’m excited for your birthday surprise! It’s so cool, right?”
Iruka paused. “What do you know about it?”
“Well, only a little. Kakashi-sensei reminded me about it,” Naruto admitted, and Iruka bit back a sigh of frustration.
“Reminded you?”
“Yeah,” Naruto admitted, nodding and scratching the back of his own neck. “I guess he and I had talked about it and I forgot, since I’ve been busy on a super cool new jutsu and planning a different birthday gift for you!” he said with a grin, and Iruka smiled warmly back. “In addition to the mission, I guess,” he added, and Iruka’s smile fell.
“I don’t think you forgot about it,” the teacher told him.
“Good thing he reminded me!” Naruto said, not understanding.
“Well, if you’re busy,” Iruka began, shuffling papers, “we don’t have to go. The new jutsu is certainly important.”
“Are you kidding! This will be great, believe it!” Naruto yelled, and Iruka looked at how excited he was.
“Then let’s go on a mission,” the chuunin sighed, not wanting to disappoint him.
____
Ultimately, it was straightforward. Iruka was approved to be off from the academy the week of the 25th, and the team left on the 23rd. He had joined Naruto and Kakashi for small planning meetings at the academy before going to the missions office, ignoring that Kakashi tried to placate him with ramen once or twice.
“I’m only doing this for Naruto, not for you and whatever you’re trying to pull on your friends,” Iruka hissed to the jonin at the start, but was only met with an eye smile and a “maa, don’t worry about it.”
The mission itself was nothing complicated. They hiked to a village four hours away where they would swap out scrolls from Konoha with ones there, reviewing the scrolls and reports on site to ensure they were accurate and what was requested. Additionally, they would be available to answer questions of the own information being shared, which was nothing too confidential.
Fortunately, they were put up in an inn during it, albeit in one room together. The first night they were all too tired to do much, but the second night, Iruka found himself still very awake after Naruto had fallen asleep, and noted that Kakashi was also awake. The men played a card game and made small talk in the dim light of a low lamp as the blond lightly snored, and eventually Iruka circled back to the very reason he was even on this mission.
“Why keep lying to your friends?”
Kakashi shrugged. “I don’t want to be set up.”
“Why not just say that?”
“I have!” Kakashi softly hissed. “But they don’t listen, or care, or only take so much time off from it before doing it again. You don’t know what it’s like,” he said, shaking his head.
Iruka shrugged. “I do, friends try doing that for me too.”
The copy nin looked at him in surprise. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” Iruka said, nodding. “But not often, since I don’t really care a lot. But they haven’t been bad.”
“Lucky,” Kakashi sighed, and Iruka softly laughed.
“Or I have better friends,” he teased. “So, you take missions to get away from them?” he asked, and Kakashi nodded. Iruka frowned. “You shouldn’t endanger yourself for it.”
The jonin shrugged. It’s my job, and I’m good at it.”
“Even so,” Iruka commented, but he was met with another shrug, and they fell into silence for a few moments before Iruka spoke again. “Why not tell them you met someone on a mission?”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Iruka shrugged. “Make someone up.”
“Oh, you mean lie?” Kakashi teased. “What were you saying not long ago about not lying?”
“I know, I know,” the chuunin sighed. “But maybe it’s a better lie than anything else? After all, delaying it doesn’t seem effective, your friends sound persistent.”
“They are,” Kakashi agreed. “Gai, Genma, Kurenai, some ANBU. It’s like they have nothing better to do when things are safe and sound in the village but to focus on setting me up.”
“Well, maybe they’ll take it easy on you in the summer,” Iruka posed as he moved to his futon to start to get ready to sleep. “People relax a bit more when it’s warm out.”
“One can only hope,” Kakashi sighed, moving to his own futon. “If only.”
____
The topic wasn’t brought up again and they focused on the mission, but Naruto did insist they celebrate Iruka’s birthday on the day itself. The blond treated the men to dinner at a noodle shop that he said had been highly recommended, and Kakashi jumped in on the festivities and took them to a local cafe for tea and cake after, if only to placate Iruka for agreeing to the mission. Iruka thanked them, assuring Naruto that it was more than enough for his birthday but that they would keep up their own Konoha ramen tradition later in the week when back from the mission and settled.
The team returned to the village on the 28th and met the next day to write the report and turn it in, with Iruka and Naruto later meeting for their ramen and Kakashi heading to meet with his own friends.
Conversation flowed about this and that, including asking Kakashi about his mission as any shinobi did for those recently returned from one.
“It was fine,” he said with a shrug. “It was a mission.”
“I can’t speak about Naruto on a mission, but Iruka’s a good guy for them,” Genma commented. “Always competent.”
A Yamanaka nodded. “Focused and determined, gets the job done,” she added, and others chimed in similarly.
“No wonder that there’s always people hoping to get missions with him, and older shinobi trying to set him up,” Raidou laughed. “The older kunoichi love him to pieces, they can’t wait to see him settled down and happy.”
The group laughed and agreed, with talk turning someone else’s own kunoichi gossip, and the copy nin was grateful it didn’t return back to setting Kakashi up, or anything related to him and romance.
But once safe and clear, Kakashi’s mind remained on Iruka. He did have many good qualities, and wasn’t unattractive, Kakashi supposed. He was always just the kids’ former teacher, just Iruka-sensei, but…but on the mission he was more. He was just Iruka, a fellow shinobi, peer, comrade. Older brother/father type to Naruto still, sure, but hadn’t he been for some time a colleague who gave as good as he got to Kakashi and Naruto, helped out people with a warm smile, and stood his ground. Stubborn, but who wasn’t? And humble, trusted by the last Hokage. Not to mention competent, for Kakashi recalled his ways with traps.
And so, a new plan started to form in Kakashi’s mind. Maybe this summer would be different for him after all…