This is the sequel to 'The Shinobi Bachelor'. I guess you don't need to read that to understand this, but certain things will make more sense if you do.

Warning for eventual explicit yaoi and, er, mpreg. Also, swearing. Shinobi have filthy mouths (or maybe it's just me).

I will notupdate this regularly. In fact, it's probably more likely that I won't update at all. So… don't hold out too much hope for quick new chapters. Sorry. I'm having a really hard time trying to work out the structure. The bits I want to write are far, far away in the future plotline.

o0o

When Iruka said 'yes' to Kakashi's absurd proposal he'd thought that he was prepared for the jōnin's eccentricities. Now, three days after he had shyly invited the silver-haired prodigy into his apartment, he graciously retracted his original belief in favour of admitting he didn't know the man at all.

In all honesty he'd expected Kakashi to jump him as soon as they walked in the door, and he'd been looking forward to it more than just a little. But Kakashi hadn't even touched him. He'd simply looked around with his usual blank, bored expression and said in a bland voice, "You have a nice home, Sensei."

Iruka had bitten down hard on his disappointment and decided that Kakashi's perversion was maybe overblown a little. He guessed that the jōnin was waiting until darkness fell, at which point he would pounce on and make sweet sweet love to a more than willing brown-haired chūnin.

It never happened. Kakashi had disappeared into his guest room for the night and Iruka was left alone, horny and frustrated in his made-for-two bed. When he woke up Kakashi was gone, and he would have wondered if it had all been some kind of surreal dream if it weren't for the forest green shirt emblazoned with 'Eternal Rival' folded neatly on top of the pillow in his spare bedroom.

Kakashi was currently stretched out over his couch reading his perverted orange novel for what must have been the hundredth time, like he'd done every day since he'd arrived, and Iruka's patience was wearing thin. Three days and not a hint of a kiss, not even one measly hug. He could almost believe that Kakashi had only chosen him because – no, he didn't think the jōnin was that cruel. He had to fix this, somehow.

"Kakashi-san," he said in his best no-nonsense teacher voice.

"Kakashi," the jōnin corrected, turning the page and not bothering to look up from his book.

"Alright, Kakashi," Iruka said, mildly annoyed, "What are you doing?"

Kakashi still didn't look up but the set of his shoulders changed slightly, indicating that he was listening. It irked Iruka that he refused to use his manners and converse face to face, but at least he was paying attention. "I'm reading. I'm sure you can see that, Sensei," Kakashi said easily.

"Not that." Iruka gritted his teeth. "I mean why are you in my house?"

"You told me I could be here," Kakashi said, turning to look at Iruka for the first time, an unreadable emotion flickering in his eye. "Have you decided that this arrangement is not to your liking?"

Iruka growled, and rubbed his temples. "It's not that. It's, well, why did you pick me instead of one of the kunoichi?"

"Because I like you," Kakashi answered simply, flicking his gaze back to his book.

"Not because I was the only option you had who doesn't have the ability to make you a father?" Iruka asked coolly.

Kakashi snapped the book shut, sat up and stared at Iruka, his visible eye narrowed. "What on earth gave you that idea?" he demanded. "I'm going to have to have a kid anyway, it doesn't make a difference whether I'm with you or Yūgao."

Iruka gave a relieved sigh. He'd been almost afraid to ask, almost convinced Kakashi would tell him his horrible hunch was right. "I'm glad," he mumbled.

"No, I'm asking, and you damn well better give me an answer." Kakashi glared at him. "Why did you think I would use you like that?"

Iruka turned red, scratched the scar over his nose and looked at the floor. He really didn't want to have to explain his twisted thinking. "Well, uh, you're supposed to be perverted and, you know, sex crazed or something. And, well, you haven't done anything to me since you've been here."

Kakashi blinked at him. "You're upset because I haven't jumped your bones yet?" He grinned lecherously, and Iruka could see it even underneath the mask. He took a step back, suddenly uneasy.

"Well then Sensei," Kakashi purred, lifting himself off the sofa gracefully and taking a step towards Iruka, "Would you like me to?"

Iruka shivered and stepped back again. Kakashi stepped forward, his movements like a stalking cat. Iruka tried to take a further step back but hit wall. Shit.

Kakashi stood in front of him, his hands pressed to the wall on either side of Iruka's head and his eye glinting dangerously. He leaned in close, his lips brushing lightly against the shell of Iruka's ear as he whispered, "Do you want me to fuck you? You want me to take you, right here and right now, against this wall?" He pressed the length of his body against the quivering chūnin, who let out a startled moan that went straight to his groin and pressed back against him. "You're such a dirty Sensei, you know that?" he purred, snaking a hand down between them to rub Iruka's arousal through his pants. "You want to feel me deep inside you, hard and fast until you cum so hard you can't see. You're so hard already."

He could have continued murmuring dirty things to see Iruka's face turn that delicious shade of red but the doorbell rang. He chewed on Iruka's earlobe through his mask while he was waiting for it to stop, earning himself a shuddery gasp, but as soon as the irritating noise stopped it started again. And again. And again.

"Who the hell is that impatient to see you?" he growled, moving his hand around to Iruka's backside and pulling him closer so their erections rubbed together through their pants.

"Naruto, always Naruto," Iruka panted, "You have to stop, Kakashi."

As an answer Kakashi slipped his hand down the delectable chūnin's pants and rubbed teasingly at his entrance.

"I mean it." Iruka's stern voice came out as more of a moan as Kakashi experimentally slid the tip of his finger inside of him. "Ka-ah-kashi, don't. If he can't get through the door he'll come in a window."

'Fine." Kakashi drew his hands away slowly, took a couple of steps back, and folded his arms across his chest. "Go answer the door."

Iruka's knees gave out as Kakashi let go of him, and he only just managed to grab onto the bookshelf to stop himself from falling. He quickly readjusted his pants to make the bulge that wasn't going away less noticeable and walked towards the door, stopping just before he got there. "Do I look normal enough?" he asked nervously.

Kakashi's gaze swept from his disheveled hair and his flushed cheeks down to the still somewhat visible lump in his pants. "Maa, you look tasty," he supplied, but added hastily when Iruka glared at him, "It doesn't matter. Naruto's the most unobservant person I've ever met, and that includes children and civilians."

Iruka rolled his eyes at him and opened the door, only to be jumped on by an overenthusiastic genin. "Iruka-sensei! I thought something had happened to you because you didn't answer me."

"Maa, just because someone doesn't open the door the first time you ring the bell doesn't mean they're dead," Kakashi said, shoving his hands in his pockets and offering a closed-eye smile. "It might just mean they don't like you very much."

"Iruka-sensei, you still like me right? I didn't do anything wrong did I?" Naruto pleaded.

Iruka glared at the jōnin over his shoulder. "No, you didn't, Naruto," he said warmly to the boy, "Kakashi here just got stuck in one of my traps and it took a while to free him, that's all."

"Maa, if that's one of your traps I don't mind getting caught at all," Kakashi purred, and Iruka shot him a 'say one more thing and die' look.

Naruto looked from one of his teachers to the other, not comprehending. "Hey, what's Kaka-sensei doing in your house anyway, Iruka-sensei?"

"He won me," Kakashi said smugly. "From the competition, remember?"

Naruto scrunched up his face in confusion. "But wasn't the point of that to find you a wife?"

Kakashi grinned. "And Iruka-sensei will make a good wife, don't you think?"

Iruka calmly stomped down hard on Kakashi's foot, making him wince. "Naruto," Iruka said in a quiet-but-deadly voice, "Kakashi-sensei and I have some things to discuss right now. I will meet you at Ichiraku tomorrow for lunch, alright?"

Naruto may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer but he recognized that voice and he wasn't stupid enough to push his luck. He crept slowly out of the door backwards. "Bye, Iruka-sensei. I'll just, ah, go see if Sakura-chan needs any help with anything. Bye, Kaka-sensei."

"How do you do that?" Kakashi marveled after the door slammed shut and the sound of Naruto hightailing it had disappeared.

He wished he'd had the sense of mind to keep his mouth shut when Iruka turned his glare onto him and started prowling towards him. He felt a weird sense of reversed déjà vu when his back hit the wall. By the look in Iruka's eye he didn't think that being a jōnin was going to help him get out of this.

"You," Iruka growled, fisting his hands in the jōnin's shirt, "You owe me an explanation."

"For what?" Kakashi asked in as blasé a voice as he could manage. He'd known that Iruka had a temper but he hadn't expected the teacher to be so… dominant and forward with him. It was sexy as hell.

"Why would you spend three days ignoring me and then jump me on a whim?" Iruka demanded, his eyes spitting fire.

"You asked me to," Kakashi pointed out. It was nice to know that the chūnin's face reddened in anger and not just embarrassment, and he filed that fact away for later.

"I did not ask you to throw me against the wall and -" Iruka ended his sentence with a growl, and shook Kakashi a little in annoyance. "That's not the point! You're avoiding the question. Just answer it."

Kakashi thought about it for a second. "You're going to be able to tell if I lie to you, aren't you?"

Iruka seemed to deflate, letting his hands drop to his sides and walking backwards to flop limply onto the couch. His eyes had lost their fire and they were completely serious as they settled on Kakashi's face. "Kakashi, if you feel the need to lie to me about something as small as this then this, whatever this is, is not going to work," he said solemnly. "I really like you. I've liked you for a long time," here he scratched at his scar and blushed lightly, "But I will not – cannot – have a relationship with someone who is not completely honest with me. And I'm not completely sure you actually want a relationship in the first place."

Kakashi had no idea what to do. He'd spent years surrounding himself with lies, big ones and small ones, building huge walls of them to protect himself from other people. And Iruka wanted him to smash them down? He wasn't sure that he could. He leaned back against the wall. Kakashi, Iruka-sensei could be the best thing that ever happens to you, a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like a bratty nin-dog of his said. You have to let him in though, or else he can't help you.

Kakashi sighed. Pakkun had actually said that, the interfering mutt. But perhaps he was right. People said that the more lies you tell the easier it becomes to lie, so maybe the same rule applied with telling the truth? "You want to hear the truth?" he asked, the words leaden in his mouth.

Iruka nodded and Kakashi strode over to where he was sitting, aiming for a saunter but failing miserably as nervousness tightened all his muscles and made him appear slightly constipated instead. He leaned forward and whispered in Iruka's ear, because even if he had to be truthful to Iruka nobody else was allowed to hear it. "I like you. A lot."

Iruka frowned. "I don't understand."

Kakashi sighed. He'd hoped that he wouldn't have to elaborate. "I was avoiding touching you because it might make me care about you even more."

Iruka's frown smoothed out slowly, and he began to smile. "That's kind of sweet, in a messed up way. Why are you so scared of caring about me?"

"I'm not scared," Kakashi snapped, much too fast.

Iruka glared at him. "Don't lie to me."

Kakashi rubbed a hand through his hair furiously. He wished Iruka would get out of his head. "What if you die?" he said in a very small voice. "What if someone hurts you because of me?"

Everyone he'd ever really cared about was dead, and by the time he'd turned around and realized he cared deeply for the three brats he'd been ordered to train they'd disappeared into the clutches of the sannin without even bothering to say goodbye.

"Oh, Kakashi." Iruka's eyes were shining, and Kakashi couldn't tell if it was because he was about to cry or because he was happy. "I don't know whether to hit you or hug you." That solved it. The answer was probably both, because Iruka was bipolar as hell. "Sit down." He patted the seat beside him and Kakashi eased himself down, making sure to avoid any accidental touching.

"You are far more likely to die before I do, Kakashi," Iruka said gently. "You know that, and I know that. So shouldn't I be the one who's shying away from a relationship?"

"But you love everybody," Kakashi said stubbornly. "It's different."

"I do care about all of my students, and most of the chūnin and jōnin I talk with in the mission room," Iruka admitted. "I care about them all, and it hurts every time I see someone come in injured, or hear about a new death I can put a face to. But this is the life we pick as shinobi. Kakashi, if you died tomorrow and nothing happened between us I know it would still hurt me. I'd rather try to have everything with you and have it hurt than have nothing with you and have it hurt."

Iruka's words rung so true that Kakashi was struck dumb. Connecting with the chūnin physically wouldn't make a difference. He was already at least half in love with the infuriating man and even if he walked out right now and never looked back if news of Iruka's death reached him he would be more than just a little upset by it. "You're right. I was stupid," he said softly. He didn't like thinking about Iruka dying.

Iruka graced him with a gentle smile. "You're not stupid, Kakashi. I know how difficult it is to let people in after you've lost those you care about. Can I ask one thing though?"

"What is it?" Kakashi didn't want to answer any more questions. This conversation was tiring himself out much faster than the average S-class mission.

"Why did you change your mind and come onto me before?"

"I wasn't thinking," Kakashi admitted. "I let my other head take over."

Iruka blushed, scratching at his scar awkwardly. "Are you always so… dominant?"

Kakashi leaned his head back against the back of the couch thoughtfully, closing his eye. "Not always, no."

"Then why did you think that would be a good way to try and get me to sleep with you the first time?" Iruka asked, nonplussed. "I could have reacted badly to it, you know."

"I thought we already established that I wasn't thinking," Kakashi replied, visible eyebrow raised. "I've had to watch you sashaying blithely around for three whole days and then all of a sudden you're in my face and asking me cutely why I haven't been boning you. Cutely. I didn't even know it was possible to look cute while asking for sex. All I did was give you what you asked for." He paused and looked thoughtful. "Actually, I only started giving you what you asked for. If I was to be a gentleman I would have to continue, right? Should we start where we left off?"

"If you're really giving me a choice, then no," Iruka said flatly.

"No?" Kakashi looked mildly surprised. "You've changed your mind already?"

"It's not that." Iruka looked down at the floor, mildly embarrassed. "It's just that, well, I'd like for our first time to not be up against a wall, you know? It doesn't have to take forever, or be over-romantic or anything, I just want it to be special. Is that too sappy?"

"That," Kakashi started, pausing to think about it, "That might be okay, I guess."

"Okay?" Iruka blinked at him. "Oh, that's right. You're the guy who always wakes up alone, whether you're kicking someone out or sneaking out their window after they fall asleep." He rolled his eyes.

"Actually, I don't sleep with people in my own bed," Kakashi corrected. "I'm always the one who jumps out the window."

"Of course. Well, if you jump out my window I will hunt you down and tie you to the bed." Iruka smiled widely, his eyes maybe just a teeny bit manic.

Kakashi grinned. Despite the fact that being tied exclusively to one person for an undetermined amount of time scared the hell out of him, that actually sounded quite fun. "You have permission to try and catch me."