Author: J.D.

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn’t belong to me…..hell bells!

Warning: errr, well.. YAOI!!! At least in later chapters. Right now, more like shounen ai. If you don’t know the meaning of those phrases, please go to your nearest search engine and LOOK IT UP!!!! Also, for any haters of Sakura out there, I tried to make her likeable while still acting like herself, if that makes any sense.

Rating: P., for now *evil grin*

Pairing: Mainly KakaIru; hints of SasuNaru

Author's Notes: Hi everyone!!! I’ve spent so much time reading all the wonderful Naruto yaoi & shounen ai fics posted here that I had to try my hand at it.

Though right now you all can thank the posting of this chapter on the arrival of my Iruka plushie! *glomps Iruka-chibi* I hadn’t actually planned on posting this until I had written more of it. *shrugs* But I just had to do something to celebrate the occasion!!! *happy dance of eternal joy*

Feedback: Any will be adored, printed out and drooled over. Flames will be used to fan the fires of my imagination to write more fics. What?! O_o I believe in using a person’s weapon against them. *eg*

Ok, enough of the babble, ficcie down below!

-------------------------------------

“Come on guys,” whined Naruto Uzumaki, to his two team mates. Team 7 was once again waiting for the arrival of the arrival of their teacher, the jounin Kakashi Hatake. He was already over three hours late. “I need your help!”

Sasuke Uchiha rolled his coal black eyes and gave Naruto a mild glare, “You haven‘t told us what you need help for, dobe.”

Naruto snarled at the insult but bit back a scathing retort. He hated to admit it, but he needed that bastard’s help.

Sakura Haruno gave Sasuke a starry-eyed glance before giving Naruto a doubting look and saying, “It would help us if we knew what you needed help with.” Her eyes narrowed, “Because if it‘s for some stupid prank….”

“No, no,” Naruto shook his head in frantic denial, making the blond hair flare out. “It isn‘t like that at all.”

“Then what is it?!” Sakura asked impatiently.

“Umm,” Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his blond head. “I need help finding a present for Iruka-sensei. It’ll be his birthday in just three days, on May 26th.”

Both Sakura and Sasuke gave Naruto two very surprised looks.

“I didn‘t even know you knew the date of Iruka-sensei‘s birthday,” Sakura said. Then her eyes began to gleam with a typical girl’s fervent joy of shopping. Both Sasuke and Naruto exchanged frightened looks and backed away from the pink haired girl. They didn’t even noticed how they got closer to each other as if ready to jump to the other’s protection.

“Scary,” mumbled Naruto. Sasuke silently nodded in agreement and kept a wary on the maniacally grinning girl.

“This is perfect!” she cried out. “I haven‘t been shopping in ages. I’m always too busy training or on missions.” Sakura spun around to face them, making both boys jump. “Naruto! Do you know the sort of stuff that Iruka-sensei might like?”

Naruto crossed his head in front of his chest and tilted his forward. His face was uncharacteristically serious, his mouth in a deep frown and he closed his bright blue eyes. He hummed for a few seconds. Then he looked up at Sakura and Sasuke, giving both a huge smile, Naruto said, “I have no idea!”

“What!” screamed Inner Sakura, while Outer Sakura looked ready to strangle Naruto.

Sasuke fought back a smile at Sakura’s expression and gave a Naruto a cold look.

Sasuke said, “Dobe.”

“Hey! Stop calling me that!” Naruto protested, “Why do you think that I‘m asking for your help in the first place! If I knew the sort of stuff that an old guy like Iruka-sensei liked then I wouldn‘t need your help. Would I?”

Sakura drooped and gave the ground a Why-Me? look.

Before a one-sided yelling match could erupt between Sasuke and Naruto. One-sided because Sasuke would coldly insult Naruto while Naruto did the actual screaming in return, a cheerful voice hailed them.

“Hello Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Is Kakashi-sensei late again?”

All of Team 7 turned to see the object of their discussion, standing close behind them.

“Aahhh!” screamed Naruto and Inner Sakura. Sasuke willed his hand from clamping itself onto his chest in the attempt to calm down his rapidly beating heart. They hadn’t even heard Iruka walk up to them.

Iruka gave them a wide apologetic smile. “Sorry, I didn‘t mean to scare you guys like that.”

“You shouldn‘t do that to people!” yelled Naruto. He crossed his fingers behind his back in hope that Iruka hadn’t managed to hear what they had been talking about.

Iruka gave the team another apologetic look before looking around. “How long have you guys been waiting here?”

“Over three hours,” Sakura answered.

“Forever!” yelled Naruto. His stomach growled loudly. “I‘m so hungry.” He gave Iruka a pleading look.

“You‘re always hungry, idiot,” Sasuke told the other boy. “Stop trying to get Iruka-sensei to buy you ramen.”

Naruto glared back, “Shut up! Bastard!”

Sakura glared at Naruto for insulting Sasuke. Inner Sakura silently agreed with the blond boy that she could use some food. She’d only eaten a piece of toast this morning as part of a diet she was on but by now that toast had long since worn off. She could feel the rumbles in her tummy though they weren’t loud enough for the others to hear, yet.

Iruka gave them another smile, and reached into one of the pockets of his green flak jacket. He pulled out three energy bars and held them out to the three genin. “I know that this doesn‘t substitute as a meal but I don‘t think I should be taking you guys anywhere to eat if you were suppose to wait for Kakashi-sensei. Hopefully, this will hold you guys until you can really eat something.”

Eagerly, Naruto snatched one of the bars from Iruka’s hand, barely giving himself time to rip off the wrapper before he wolfed down. Sakura followed closely behind, said thank you and daintily nibbled the bar. Iruka held out the last energy bar to Sasuke, who gave the teacher an evaluating look before reluctantly reaching for it.

Naruto cheerfully chewed the bar, while beaming up at Iruka. This was the sort of small things that Iruka-sensei would do that endeared him to the blond boy. It just made him more determined than before to find something that would really make the man happy.

“Trying to steal my students back, eh, Iruka-sensei?” called out a voice from above.

At once all the four ninjas turned to look and saw Kakashi looking down upon them from the top of a light pole with one visible eye clearly showing his good humor.

“Good afternoon, Kakashi-sensei,” chirped Iruka.

Sakura turned towards Iruka, the tone of his voice catching her attention. There was something very familiar in the way that Iruka-sensei had addressed Kakashi. She nibbled another bite of her energy bar as she tried to figure out what it could be.

“You’re late!” shouted Naruto up to the silver haired jounin.

“Ah. Ah.” Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. “I met this gorgeous babe in need of assistance. She was stuck in a tree!”

“Liar!” screamed Naruto.

Sakura’s hand tightened on her bar as she watched the cheerful smile on Iruka’s face drop, and the melancholy look creep into his eyes, even his shoulders slumped a little at Kakashi‘s mention of a ‘babe’. Now she remembered where she had heard that tone of voice before. It was the very same one that she and a bunch of other girls got when ever they were talking to Sasuke. It was that same infatuated voice and ‘I Love Just Being Near You’ expression that showed up with it.

Her free hand trembled at the realization that Iruka-sensei was completely head-over-heels in love with Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke’s eyes flickered in her direction, then followed her line of sight to Iruka. A small confused frown tugged at his lips.

Iruka shoved his sadness away and plastered a fake smile as Kakashi jumped down to join them. He silently admired Kakashi’s strong body and its graceful twist as he hit the ground feet first. He even loved the way the messy spiked silver hair moved in the light breeze. He shoved his hands into his pockets and began to walk away from the quartet. He called out behind him, “I have some homework to grade. I’ll see you guys later. If you guys aren‘t too exhausted I‘ll even treat to you ramen tonight.”

“Yeah!” screamed Naruto in joy. He raised hand and danced around as if in exuberant triumph of getting Iruka to buy them ramen. The blond completely ignored the fact that Iruka offered it out of his own free will.

“Hey,” Kakashi called out to the school teacher, “You can join us if you like.”

Not willing to turn around, Iruka waved a no. “Thanks for the offer but I’ve been putting off that work to do some chores all weekend. I really need to get it done!”

Kakashi shrugged and turned to face his students. His keen eye noticed the way Sakura was staring after Iruka. He wondered if she was finally shifting her crush from Sasuke onto Iruka, who had more of a possibility of responding then Sasuke. Instantly, after that thought his breath hitched and an uncomfortable feeling settled inside him. He frowned, unnoticed under his black mask, and his gaze flicked back to Iruka‘s walking figure. The feeling dimmed away. Mentally shrugging at himself, Kakashi gleefully turned to today’s torture of Team 7.

***********************************

TBC

JD here! [a/n]: Eek! I hope no one was too OOC. I tried to keep them as I see them. Also sorry for anyone that doesn’t understand the Japanese thrown in there. I felt that it needed to be used but I’m just too lazy to write up a translation list!

*grins* So is anyone interested in reading more?

If so post a review and let me know!!!