Day 2

Day 2

Kakashi.

Itcha Itcha pages read: 0

Wrong thing said: Offensive

Current mood: Confused

Iruka.

Blushes: Surprisingly not so many.

Outbursts: Within the acceptable quota.

Current mood: Oblivious.

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Kakashi had one hell of a night. Really, one hell of a night. A night that had him wondering what on earth he had ever done to anyone ever to deserve it. It had started of rather well. Iruka had been all blushing, innocent and uncomfortable which had been extremely cute, although rather uncomfortable for one particular pervert who hadn't had any release for his erotic thoughts for most of the day. But mostly it had been really cute, that is until Iruka finally fell asleep. Not only did Iruka take up a lot of space when he slept, i.e. if you came within a half a meter radius to him(which was quite hard in such a small tent) he'd beat the crap out of you, but he was a very ferocious blanket stealer as well. Kakashi had tried to get a little blanket back at first but decided against it when the Chuunin actually growled at him like some wild animal. Even Tsunade sama herself wouldn't stand a chance against him like that. Needless to say Kakashi had spent the rest of the night huddled up against the tent wall freezing, confused and quite frankly a little scared. Who knew the little blushing chuunin had such a frightening side to him.

Iruka felt surprisingly refreshed when he woke up the next day. The tent hadn't been as cramped as he first thought it would be and sharing a blanket with Kakashi hadn't been that uncomfortable. He'd thought that the jounin would surely use the opportunity to screw him.. with him.. screw with him.. Iruka blushed at that thought. He'd meant to say that Kakashi would use the opportunity to tease him... Iruka blushed harder, where on earth was his head this morning. Anyway it didn't look like Kakashi had done anything during the night, Iruka had even thought he'd woken up alone in the tent until he spotted Kakashi curled up in the corner appearing to be fast asleep. Well he knew the guy was pretty unsociable at times but not being able to sleep in the same tent as someone without trying to put as much distance as possible between them was a little bit weird in Iruka's point of view. He didn't think much about it though, Kakashi had always been a bit, if not a whole lot, quirky.

Iruka covered Kakashi with the blanket before he got out of the tent and started preparing breakfast. Kakashi was left pretending to be asleep, he hadn't really known how to face Iruka when the other guy woke up so he'd opted for the cowardly way out. Well at least the old Iruka appeared to be back judging by the blanket that was now covering him. Maybe he should mention something about this to Iruka later, they did have to share the tent for a few more nights... then again maybe he shouldn't, Iruka didn't seem to take his well meant criticism that well. Kakashi could still remember the time when he'd told the chuunin he'd look much more appealing if he wore his hair down, surprisingly Iruka had a mean left hook. He didn't even want to remember what had happened when he'd suggested Iruka read Itcha Itcha to relieve some of the stress he must be under. Granted it probably hadn't been the best idea to burst into his class just to tell him that but he'd honestly thought it would help the chuunin relax a bit.

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Genma was quite happy when he walked into Tsunade's office that morning. His plan was probably well on it's way to success by now even though not much time had passed. Surely working together would bring the two guys closer to each other and eventually give off the results he was hoping for. He was not going to fail this mission. He smirked once he saw the Hokage glance at him over her paperwork. 'Finally some good news for her.'

"Ah, Genma-san sit down, sit down." If Genma didn't know any better he'd think the Fifth was a rabid yaoi fangirl. She looked a bit too interested in getting those two together. "So how's it coming along?"

Genma took a seat in front of the desk. "Well I don't know the exact details right now but I think I came up with the perfect plan." He twirled his senbon around a bit watching the Hokage's eyes fill with curiosity and excitement, he swore that if she was any less of a lady she's be bouncing up and down in her seat squealing for details.

"So what did you do this time?" Tsunade leaned forward eagerly.

"I sent them on a hike through the 'Maze'."

"The what?"

Genma smirked again. "Oh you haven't heard of it? I'm not surprised, not many people have. It's widely known by the locals there though. I only found it by accident on one of my missions when I..."

"On with it man!" The special jounin almost jumped by the loud interruption. They both knew it but they also both knew that Tsunade couldn't prove it so there was no way for her to tease him about it. The matter was dropped after Tsunade gave him a knowing look and Genma pretended he didn't have a clue what she was referring to.

"Well anyway, the 'Maze' is a forest in the east mountains that's known to get people lost. It looks innocent enough but once you're there you loose all sense of direction. Compasses won't work in it for some reason and it's surrounded by mountains that block out he sun so you can't get your bearings by looking at the sun's position. Besides that it's usually filled with fog so you can't even see the mountains in the distance for guidance, all you can see is trees and more trees."

"So let me get this straight." Tsunade interrupted again. "You took two of my best ninjas." The Hokage paused.

"Yep." Genma smirked.

"Sent them on a meaningless 5 day mission while there is actually a great shortage of ninjas in the village." Tsunade paused again.

"Aha."

"Where they will more likely than not get lost for who knows how long."

"Yeah." Genma wasn't sure where this was going now.

"In the hopes that they will work closely together in their hour of need and end up madly in love with each other?"

"That sounds like my plan yes." The senbon sucker looked a bit uneasy now.

"Great! That's an excellent plan. Let me know as soon as possible how it goes."

Genma quickly stood up. "Yes ma'am, I will." Somehow it didn't surprise him nearly as much as it should that the Fifth wasn't concerned about the safety of two of her ninjas. He was halfway out the door when the Hokage called after him.

"You do know that especially with those two this plan has about a 70 percent chance of blowing up and resulting in the exact opposite of what you were aiming for?"

Genma really did have a bad feeling about this.

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Kakashi and Iruka were making better progress than they had first expected, they should be reaching the fork in the road soon and it was only around 1 pm. Although their progress was mainly the result of Kakashi's lack of social skills and Iruka's big temper.

The morning had been pretty uneventful after they'd woken up. Iruka had made breakfast while Kakashi packed their stuff. They'd eaten in somewhat of an awkward silence. Iruka had kept glancing at his partner who seemed to either be looking at everything but him or looking at him with a kind of confused look, which had seemed a bit weird. Surely if anyone should feel uncomfortable after sleeping so closely together then it should be Iruka himself. Of course he had no idea of just what Kakashi had experienced that night.

Kakashi on the other hand was having some strange thoughts. Most of his free time that was not spent on reading Itcha Itcha, and sometimes even while he was reading it, had been spent fantasizing about a sweet little chuunin warming his bed, clinging to him, cuddling him and if not doing kinky things then at least acting all lovey dovey. He'd certainly not imagined being punched, kicked and growled at... well maybe growled at in a sexy little way but that had not been the case. He was still deathly attracted to the guy but this side of Iruka might pose a bit of a problem when Kakashi finally got that suntanned god into his bed... because you see, he had a rather small bed and he didn't exactly want to be kicked out of it repeatedly. Maybe he should buy a bigger bed...

The fight had started shortly before noon. They had been walking in silence for most of the way, only talking occasionally about the mission or trivial little things. Kakashi noticed that Iruka seemed quite content with not talking which was true for the most part, Iruka really did like just spending some quiet time either alone or in good company after having to shout at his students almost constantly... or shout at stupid ninjas who didn't hand in their mission reports or handed in reports that looked like it had not only been eaten by the owners dog but also thrown up again by said creature, dragged through the mud, used as a handkerchief and then finally smudged up in a vain attempt to make it look fairly representable, which it never was, before it was finally handed in. A certain silver haired jounin and a few Inuzuka clan members came to mind.

Therefore Kakashi tried not to disturb the chuunin all that much but it had gotten harder and harder for him to do. Kakashi didn't read Itcha Itcha only for the entertainment of it, he also used it to keep his mind off of other matters. He'd never been good at talking with people so he had a lot of unresolved personal issues floating back and forth through his mind which he preferred to ignore. So after spending about an hour counting trees he decided to try talking to Iruka again. Because surely if he wanted the chuunin to fall into his arms any time soon some type of interaction would have to take place at some point. The guy didn't seem inclined to just throw himself at him like other people had done in the past. Something that would have made Kakashi's life so much less complicated in his opinion.

And so Kakashi had turned to his mission partner and brainstormed just what he should talk to the guy about.

"So how's Naruto doing these days?" He patted himself mentally on the back, Naruto should be a safe topic to discuss with the man.

Iruka looked at him like he was confused about something.

"Uhm, he's fine I guess." The chuunin replied.

"That's good... so you think he's coming along well?"

"Yeah he seems to be improving quite well."

Kakashi cheered up a bit. Talking to Iruka didn't seem so hard after all, they were having a pleasant conversation for once.

"Eh.. Sorry I didn't hear you?" Iruka had just said something while Kakashi was giving himself a mental pep talk.

"I said shouldn't you know all this a lot better than me? You are his sensei after all."

Kakashi froze for a moment. He tried desperately to find a good response to that statement while Iruka looked at him like he thought the jounin was actually losing his mind. Before Kakashi could come up with a perfect idea his mouth decided to work on it's own.

"Well yeah, I just wanted to know what you think. You're an important person to him so your opinion matters quite a lot." He mentally sighed in relief when he saw Iruka cheer up at that. Just keep this up and things should go smoothly. "I mean you do practically act like his mother..." Naturally things just couldn't go the way Kakashi wanted them to. Could he honestly not have one conversation where he did not end up plunging a kunai through his own foot.

"Right, I see." Iruka said with an offended look.

"No you see.. what I meant to say is that you really do care for him like a mother.. I mean a father.. a father would care for it's child." Iruka didn't look so convinced to him. "You obviously have a lot of moth.. fatherly instincts since you care so much about your students. I mean normally teachers don't treat just one student so kindly.."

"So you think I discriminate between my students?" Iruka snapped.

"NO, I.. I just mean normal teachers.."

"Oh so I'm not normal then?" Kakashi watched the vein on Iruka's forehead grow bigger.

"Yes.. I mean no! No, you're completely normal.. nothing outstanding about you at all." Kakashi actually wished he had stabbed himself in the foot with a kunai, it would certainly be less painful than this.

"Well that's great to know Hatake-san. At least I can always use my motherly instincts to teach since I'm to insignificant to actually qualify as an equal ninja as you geniuses." Iruka started marching faster as he spoke and soon Kakashi had to jog behind his steaming partner to keep up.

"I never said..." Kakashi was cut off when Iruka stopped dead in his tracks, turned around and all but growled in his face.

"Not another word! I swear one more syllable out of you and you'll end up six feet under and I'll end up in the bingo book. Is.. That.. Clear!" The last part was ground out between the chuunins clenched teeth, each word emphasized by sharp poking to Kakashi's chest.

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Iruka had cooled down considerably since Kakashi's strange attempt at conversation. He didn't know what the other guy was thinking most of the time, if he wanted to insult him or pick on him so much then why on earth did he sometime look so surprised when he got mad. Usually he could swear the guy got some kind of perverted pleasure out of seeing him pissed off but lately the guy had started acting like he didn't understand what on earth he'd done to upset him in the first place. Iruka would like to think that maybe the jounin actually did have an ounce of guilt over what he was doing but he highly doubted it. If he really did feel guilty about it he could just stop offending him in the first place. Iruka still couldn't help loving the damn jerk, he was beginning to think he was turning into a masochist, the guy looked sexier than hell even when he was sprouting stupid insults. Half the time Iruka wasn't even pissed off at Kakashi for saying something mean, what he said earlier hadn't really been meant to be offensive, Iruka knew that, it had just come out all wrong. Half of the time Iruka was just pissed off at himself for actually thinking about throwing his morals to the dogs, drop kicking the jounin and molesting him on the spot even when he was being a jerk.

When they finally reached the fork Iruka looked back at his partner and decided he should try to smooth things over at least a little bit with the guy. He might have over reacted just a little bit earlier and the guy had been giving him a bit of a space since then. The guy had been walking at least ten steps behind him carrying their supplies all by himself like one of his nin dogs obediently following it's master. He'd looked bored to tears, which must really mean that he was going insane with boredom at that point since Kakashi never looked anything but tired, when he was lazying about town, or happy, when he was reading his book or goofing around.

"So..." Iruka commented off handedly. "Naruto really is doing fine is he?"

Kakashi was by his side in a second flat looking like he'd talk to Iruka about how the guy arranged his sock drawer just as long as they were talking. Soon the look was gone though and Kakashi was back to his old lazy self. Iruka was kind of surprised but happy to find he was beginning to be able to read Kakashi's moods.

"Yeah he is. He's improving day by day. It looks like he'll be quite good in the future."

"That's good to hear. How are the others?"

"Oh their fine as well. Sakura is showing a lot of potential with chakra focusing and Sasuke is.. well Sasuke. He's always been quite good and he's getting better as well although his attitude could use a bit of fine tuning. Well actually all of their attitudes could use a little fine tuning..." Kakashi stopped and looked a bit uneasily at Iruka, he didn't know if what he'd said would offend the guy.

"How so?" Iruka didn't sound offended.

"Well.. Sasuke thinks he's a lot better than the others and that he doesn't need them at all.. and he gets really frustrated if the others show signs of improving over him. Sakura doesn't believe in herself well enough and focuses most of her energy on chasing Sasuke and trying to improve to impress him instead of for the sake of improving herself, Sasuke of course doesn't acknowledge her at all so instead of feeling happy about the improvements she really is making she keeps focusing on the improvements she's not making. Naruto has a similar problem. He wants Sasuke to acknowledge his strength and he wants to impress Sakura but both of them are to caught up in their own things to see it which often results in Naruto letting his impulsiveness and need for attention rule his judgment."

Kakashi glanced over at his partner. Iruka was looking at him thoughtfully but he couldn't feel any kind of negative meaning in it. He scratched the back of his head absent mindedly.

"Well, that's just my opinion anyway. I could be wrong, I haven't exactly been the best sensei so far."

"No no, I think you're absolutely right about them. And if you know all that it means you really have been paying attention to them and thinking about what to do to better the situation. Just because things aren't all perfect doesn't mean your not doing your job as a Sensei properly."

Iruka and Kakashi were now making their way along the trail that should lead them to the hot springs. Genma had been right when he said there wasn't a road leading to the place, the trail was rather small and it was getting smaller as they got further inside the forest. They were hiking uphill at the moment, the trail appeared to lead into a valley surrounded by high mountains. An eerie fog could be seen in the distance, hopefully it would be gone by the time the got to that point.

"You think so?" Kakashi asked Iruka.

"Yeah, I do. I think I have a little more experience than you when it comes to teaching.. this is the first time you've had students isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah the Third told me about that. Anyway, as teachers we do the best we can to teach our students and prepare them as best as we can for the future. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don't but we can't, and shouldn't, always blame ourself for it. If you tell a class 10 times to not run with their kunai there is bound to be at least one or two kids who still do and end up hurting themselves. As a teacher you want to be able to say you could have prevented it but the truth is it really was the kids fault for not listening in the first place. You get my meaning?" Iruka looked at his partner waiting for a reply.

"I think so."

"All I'm trying to say is that even though your team has problems it's not necessarily your fault. It's a four man team, including you, with four different people with four different backgrounds, lives and experiences. There are bound to be problems along the way but as long as it all works out in the end then it's all good in my opinion. I'd say you must be a great teacher to be able to make those three function as a team at all, let alone get them as far as you've gotten them."

Kakashi surprised Iruka by giving him a warm smile. He'd never seen Kakashi smile like that, it was breathtaking.. and that was saying a lot seeing as how he only had one visible eye showing.

"Thank you, that means a lot coming from a good teacher like you."

Iruka blushed beat red at that.

"Well.. it's just something I think.. I'm nothing compared to you I'm sure." Iruka rubbed his scar self consciously.

"Actually this is one of the things you're a whole lot better than me at. One of the few things they actually can agree on is that you were a great teacher."

Iruka blushed more at that, he certainly wasn't used to hearing compliments from Kakashi and hearing that his old students thought so highly of him made him really happy. Not really knowing what to say after that but still wanting to keep the conversation going he asked the first thing that came to his mind.

"So what are the other things I'm better than you at?"

Kakashi gave a little smirk before he replied. "Well.. you do look a whole lot cuter than me when you blush.." He was cut off by a soft punch on the shoulder. To his surprise he looked over to see Iruka laughing silently.

"Well of course, I've had years of experience in it and you can't really see the blush properly when you cover three fourths of your face with cloth."

The rest of the day was actually spent in an almost friendly way. Kakashi did have a few awkward moments but Iruka seemed to care less and less about it which made the jounin relax more around the younger man.

It wasn't until after they had set up camp and were about to go to sleep that Kakashi remembered the night before. Seeing as how they were finally getting along well Kakashi decided not to mention anything about it to Iruka.. maybe he had just acted like that because he wasn't used to sleeping near Kakashi and tonight would be different.

He could always hope.