So...I should be working on my Halloween fic...but this plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone!! It's a KakaSaku with IruSaku (sort of?) and dedicated to all the Iruka lovers out there XD (he was my very first Naruto guy of interest, no joke, until Kakashi came along somewhere during the very end of the Land of Waves arc and stole all the thunder...or perhaps lightning? oh the cheeeese of that statement!) Hopefully you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: NOT. MINE. Unfortunately.

Um...this IS my 13th story...but we're going to pretend it's my 14th because I started The Haunting (my halloween fic) first and...wouldn't it be more appropriate for a Halloween fic to be someone's 13th?? RIGHT??? I am shamelessly pleading with you all to validate my theory of...of something or other...just agree with me here ^^

The Curious Case of Sakura's Secret Rendezvous

May 26

Kakashi had to admit that ninja were, by dint of their profession, somewhat less scrupulous than most individuals, but they did have a pretty strict moral code. It might have been a moral code followed rather individualistically as opposed to across the board of all shinobi, but it was a moral code that was followed nonetheless, and that was the important point, wasn't it?

All of this was on Kakashi's mind at the moment, solely because he was breaking one of his personal shinobi rules: another shinobi's business, unless somehow affecting the express safety and stability of the village and/or the domain of individuals under his command, was completely that shinobi's prerogative.

But…

"Sa-Sakura!"

A light-hearted giggle floated over the warm air of the late spring afternoon, the sound threading through the market's general bustle.

"Really, Sakura, have a little pity on your former sensei!" except there was no heat in the voice and the words faded into rather cheerful chuckles that skated strangely across Kakashi's ears.

"Iruka-sensei, you're acting like you're forty-five, not thirty-one! You're not old, so stop behaving like I'm moving along too quickly!" she laughed.

He could see them, a strangely incongruous pair; several feet ahead of him as they made their way through the crowd, her arm threaded through his. She was a bright spark amid the dull hubbub of the marketplace, vibrant rose-petal hair gently ruffled by a breeze. In comparison he was all muted darkness, tanned skin and dark chocolate hair to her ivory pallor.

And for some reason it rankled.

'Eh…well she was your former student too…' Except she didn't link arms with him with such familiarity, or laugh in that carelessly charming way at something he said. And a curious feeling sank from his throat to the pit of his stomach.

"Oi. Kakashi."

"Hn," he replied, taking a leaf from his dark-haired student's book as he cast a deep-obsidian eye at the senbon-chewing shinobi beside him.

"You didn't hear a word I said, did you," he stated irritably, the needle-like bit of metal clamped between his teeth bobbing with each word. "Man, quit zoning out. You're as bad as a lovesick schoolgirl."

"Maa, maa, Genma, that's quite an accusation," Asuma, on Kakashi's other side, laughed. "At least keep the guy the same gender. He hasn't gotten to the unable-to-talk-about-anyone-else stage." He snickered. "Just the can't-focus-in-her-presence stage."

'Some friends,' he griped mentally, letting his eye crinkle into his customary, mysterious, masked smile. "Well, I have some new books I'd like to buy, so I'll see you tomorrow to turn in mission reports," was all he said, turning away down another street of the market that in no way was the same one his former student and a certain Academy teacher had gone down just two minutes ago…not at all…

"Right…you're just going to run off after your ex-student. Seriously, Kakashi," Genma said, lips pulled into droll smirk, "you've sunk pretty low if you're using Icha Icha as an excuse to see your student as opposed to the other way around."

Kakashi felt he ought to have been given a commendation for resisting the urge to flip both his sniggering mission teammates the bird as he turned the corner.

He was so fobbing off mission report duty on them the next time they were on a mission together.

=*~*~*=

"You're so much like Naruto-kun, Iruka-sensei," Sakura teased, cheeks gently flushed as she handed him a pair of chopsticks.

They were at Ichiraku now, sharing a bowl of pork miso ramen on the twenty-year-old's insistence.

Admittedly, she had offered to treat her former Academy teacher, and then her stomach had growled so that Iruka had said he could easily buy her a bowl of ramen as she was buying him one, but she had argued that that would defeat the purpose of buying anyone anything and that they could share…

From his vantage point on the roof of the building across from Ichiraku, Kakashi minutely smoothed the wrinkles that had formed on the bottom of his current page of Icha Icha Paradise. He had no idea how they'd got there; he always took good care of his books. If his fingers ached a little, as if they'd been clutching something very tightly, he ignored them.

Kakashi always prided himself on being able to look underneath the underneath, but at the moment all he could see was what was right in front of him.

From the way the two of them were laughing, her companionably nudging him with her elbow as if it was the most natural thing in the world, it seemed pretty obvious to him what was going on.

The female member of his team, the only female he could ever remember being so close to – Rin included, was on a date with her old Academy sensei.

A near-silent step on the tree planted on the other side of the building made him turn quickly away from the sight irritatingly burning itself into his vision, without the aid of his sharingan, and relax into a façade of calm.

"Kakashi-sempai?"

"Yo, Tenzou."

"What are you doing up here?" the ANBU asked, settling himself beside the older jounin.

"Hn."

It was just one of those moments, the ANBU member decided, wisely electing to keep his mouth shut for the time being. Obviously, the copy ninja didn't feel like talking, and the mokuton user didn't want to intrude on his sempai's privacy. It was nigh impossible to pry information out of Kakashi, and Yamato knew enough about the senior shinobi to respect that.

For long moments they sat in silence, Yamato carefully keeping his eyes trained on the tree he had mounted to get to the rooftop, Kakashi with his eyes scanning the words of his orange-covered book.

They probably would have continued on a similar vein of studied ignorance for another hour or so, by Yamato's estimation, if a rather familiar pair of voices hadn't made him turn.

"Why do I get the feeling you've got something more planned, Sakura-chan?"

"You haven't called me Sakura-chan since…since I was in the Academy!"

"Sakura?"

Yamato knew as soon as the name was out of his mouth that it should have stayed lodged in his throat.

The minute tenseness that flashed across his sempai's shoulders for a fraction of a second said it all. This was the reason Kakashi was camped out on the roof of a random two-story warehouse building near Konoha's market district. Understanding dawned on Yamato in a wave of masculine fellowship, and the messy-haired brunet clapped a hand on the senior shinobi's shoulder with a nod.

"I'm sure Sakura is fine…but it's good to know that she's not alone, Kakashi-sempai," he said seriously. "I wish you luck following her." Having cleared up the older jounin's curious behavior, he nodded towards Hokage tower, indicating that he was due in that direction. "I need to be going, Kakashi-sempai, but I'll see you later this evening." And with a polite nod, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

For Kakashi's part, he was beginning to feel a tiny curl of uneasiness begin to blossom in the pit of his stomach where that funny feeling had sunk earlier. He had prided himself on keeping his emotions concealed, even from an ANBU member who had been his junior. That Yamato seemed to read him with such ease was…disconcerting, to say the least.

Well, that was that…he was going to turn away from the cheerful pair and make his way home…

Of course he had intended on stopping by the bookstore to check if there was any news of a new installment of the Icha Icha series on the way. So what if it happened to be in a somewhat similar direction to the one Sakura and Iruka had taken?

That wasn't why he was headed that way…

=*~*~*=

By the time the silver-haired jounin had reached the bookstore, he was feeling a little less perturbed by his sudden stalker-ish tendencies. After all, Sakura was a student. Alright, she was a former student (a fact he usually pointed out with unusual alacrity when discussing her with others), but she'd been his student before. Which made her, in a sense, always under his command to an extent.

This was merely him feeling concerned over a subordinate who he had worked with quite often.

In a detached sort of way, Kakashi noted that he was getting better at lying to himself…

And with no news of another Icha Icha on the way – he hadn't really been expecting one but it would have been a welcome distraction – there was nothing to stop him from lounging around the bookstore as he watched the couple stroll down the street.

"Ichiraku ramen, promising to help grade the pre-genin written assignments, a nice evening stroll, Sakura, I think you're going to spoil me," the sun-browned chuunin teased, ruffling the girl's hair familiarly. "I knew there was a reason you were my favorite student."

Sakura snorted in as ladylike a manner as possible. "Please, Iruka-sensei, everyone in the village knows your favorite student was Naruto, in spite of his craziness when we were kids."

"Okay, okay," he admitted good-naturedly, "I felt the most kinship with Naruto, but you were one of my brightest students. I'm just sorry I never picked up on how skilled you were at chakra manipulation. But I suppose that's why there are genius shinobi like Kakashi-san training people like you."

At the sound of his name, the masked jounin forced himself not to tense further. Sakura was an observant kunoichi these days, had to be since a medic's job consisted quite a lot on being vigilant, and she would notice the unexpected flinch instinctively now.

Maintaining his slouched and tired façade, he quietly slipped from the bookstore to follow them again at a distance. Sakura seemed about to speak, and if her next words were going to be about him, he definitely wanted to be around to hear them.

"Well, Iruka-sensei, you had at a lot of pre-genin to look after; you couldn't have noticed the nuances of each and every one of them."

"But I heard it only took a single training session for Kakashi-san to discover your chakra control," Iruka mentioned. If Kakashi hadn't been feeling such animosity towards the younger Academy teacher, he might have felt the urge to thank him for the support. As it was, he merely felt uneasy and irritable at how dismissive Sakura was acting.

"Okay, okay, Iruka-sensei, I get it. Kakashi-sensei has his good points," the emerald-eyed girl laughed, her cheeks warming. "You know, I thought guys didn't like it when a girl talked about other guys to them but you're making it awfully hard for me to be polite when you keep referring back to Kakashi-sensei!"

"Maa, maa, sorry Sakura," the brunet apologized. "Let me treat you to some dango to make up for it."

The girl shook her head, verdant eyes laughing. "I couldn't let you do that on-"

"My eternal rival! Fancy meeting you here, among the marketplace kitchen shops!" a strident voice called out, drowning out whatever Sakura had said. "Are you planning to focus on a new hobby? I will gladly eat your culinary creations!"

It was then that Kakashi realized that the shop he had idly been browsing at while spying on his former student and her ex-Academy teacher was a kitchenware shop. The silver thing he had been using as a mirror to watch the pair was the very large lid of a gigantic stewpot.

'Not my day…'

"Kakashi-sensei? I didn't know you cooked."

'REALLY not my day…'

And with an internal sigh of resignation, he turned to face his green-clad, self-proclaimed rival, the Academy's most-loved instructor, and the girl he had been trying hardest to escape notice from, his former student, Sakura.

"Yo," he greeted, falsely cheerful. "I was thinking to cook for a large number because the little granny living downstairs from my apartment accidentally blew up her stove…"

Expressions of curiosity, and one of resignation, slowly melted away into ones of varying degrees of pure dumbfoundedness during the course of the following fifteen minutes…

"And then Pakkun decided we should invite the turtles to dinner as well, so we're making a pot roast so I came down here to buy a larger pot."

Sakura groaned. "I can't believe I just spent the last quarter hour listening to that, Kakashi-sensei," she told him, shooting him a curious look of weariness and…relief? "Okay, Iruka-sensei, I think we should get going…Kakashi-sensei completely tired me out…"

He should have felt relieved that he had somehow spoiled her date with Iruka…but her comment about him tiring her out struck him as wrong, and so instead of choosing to trail them further, he turned away towards his own apartment.

"My eternal rival, you are indeed blessed with youthful creativity!"

Yup…he'd be going as soon as he got Gai to leave him alone…

"I was afraid Iruka would discover your true motive when you stopped to observe them through the reflection of the stewpot lid, but your brilliance prevailed! Truly you are my great rival!"

"…"

And with the same flowery declarations of youth and virtue that he always used, Gai made an exit into the sunset, leaving a bemused Kakashi to wonder at his words…and whether or not sunsets might perhaps follow the green-clad jounin around for his use during other such speeches on the victorious virtuosity of youth.

=*~*~*=

"I had a really great time, Sakura," Iruka told her as they stood out on the front steps of Sakura's apartment. "It was wonderful spending time with you. I don't feel so…"

"Old?" the twenty-year-old supplied teasingly. "Thirty-one is hardly old, sensei."

'A good deal younger than thirty-four,' a bitter jounin thought from a hidden alcove under the eaves of Sakura's apartment. He had been intending, fully intending, to leave the couple alone, but his traitorous body had somehow made its way to Sakura's place, until he found himself holding himself to the outer wall of her home with chakra.

"Well, it was still very nice to see you again, Sakura."

"I did too, Iruka-sensei. I guess with missions and your Academy work we really don't have much time to meet up…"

He figured it was about time to remove himself from the scene. It was already becoming painful to watch, and this was definitely a considerable violation of his personal shinobi moral code. There was only so much he could do in the name of friendship and camaraderie.

"Oh, Iruka-sensei, I've got one more thing…do you mind coming inside?"

Yup. Time to go. This was not something he wanted to be privy to. Something he had never wanted to be privy to, for that matter…

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yo. …Naruto?"

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing outside? You're already late and you didn't even come in!"

It was beginning to dawn on him that there was something…off about the whole situation. For one thing, there was precious little reason for Naruto to be talking to him through Sakura's kitchen window.

The blond's face was a picture of confused amusement.

"Don't you remember anything Sakura-chan told you at our sparring session this morning?"

There had been something…but he had just gotten back from a mission the night before and had found himself somehow mesmerized by the shape of her lips, the bright flush to her cheeks after the strenuous exercise, the light in her viridian eyes…and somehow her words had got lost on their way to his ears. 'Lost on the road of life…' The irony of the thought was not lost on him in the least.

"Today is Iruka-sensei's birthday. We're throwing him a surprise party?"

And there were, indeed, people hiding expertly out of sight – Iruka's friends were almost all ninjas – in Sakura's living room. The strange words of Gai and Yamato came back to him in a flash.

"Hurry up, sensei," Naruto urged, blond brows drawing together as the excitable young man made frantic hand gestures, the sound of a key turning in a lock loud in their ears.

As Kakashi slipped through the window aperture, he swore there was going to be some serious reevaluation of the past five hours when he got home…

And so it ends! Um it IS supposed to be a oneshot...but I found I could easily pull together more material for a further two chapters with time and the correct motivation...=P

Anyway, if you'd like to take it as a stand-alone, please feel free, it was written as one ^^ sorry if the humor is a little dry and unpracticed, I can't profess to being a comedian, even at the best of times.

The muse thanks you ^^ and would like to point out that she is hungry...

Thanks for reading!

Aria