Work Text:
(I don't own any characters etc etc)
Iruka left the academy staff lounge Monday morning and began to walk to his classroom, thinking about not only the week ahead but the month, as it was the beginning of May. He started to review curriculums, projects, tests, and general to-dos ahead of the start of a new month, but paused everything when he opened his classroom door and found it to already be occupied, even though even the earliest of students were not due yet.
There, in the back of his room, were Team Seven and their jonin sensei.
Iruka blinked and closed the door behind him as he went to put his things on his desk.
“Hello,” he greeted them, and the genin replied similarly. “Um, what’s going on?” Iruka asked, leaning against the front of his desk.
“Ask Kakashi-sensei,” Sasuke sighed, and Iruka looked at the jonin.
“I’m your student?” Kakashi offered
“What?” Iruka asked, confused.
The copy nin sighed. “I lost a challenge to Gai, so he wanted me to do something educational.”
“Okay…” Iruka said, not yet following.
“Then Genma made a bet with me and I lost that too,” Kakashi said, and Sasuke snorted. “So, here I am.”
“I’m still so confused,” Iruka admitted, shaking his head.
“I had to be an academy student for a week, okay?” Kakashi sighed.
“And the hokage allowed that?” Iruka asked before he could stop himself.
“Surprisingly, yes,” the jonin grumbled.
“Uh, okay, I’ll…deal with that later,” Iruka mused. “But why is your team here? Not that I don’t miss my former students, but, well, emphasis on ‘former’?”
“Kakashi-sensei decided that if he had to be here, so did we,” Sakura told him.
“And of course I said that if we had to go back to the academy, we’re going back to you!” Naruto shouted.
Iruka laughed and tried to take in the sight before him. Naruto appeared eager, Sakura was smiling, Sasuke seemed accepting of the situation, and Kakashi was…bored. The chuunin felt he might as well accept it too, and make the most of it.
“Well, okay, welcome back to my classroom!” he cheered, moving to get the group some supplies and books for the week.
“I can’t wait!” Naruto yelled.
“I guess a week of a refresh won’t be the worst use of my time, especially since there’s rain predicted later this week,” Sasuke conceded.
“This is nice, it’s so good to be back!” Sakura said, moving to help Iruka.
Kakashi sighed and slouched further down in his seat. “A week here? Psh, piece of cake.”
___
It was not a piece of cake. Kakashi’s Icha Icha was confiscated within five minutes of taking it out in class, and again when he took out another of Jiraiya’s books and tried to hide it in a textbook. Team Seven snickered at Iruka catching Kakashi twice, and the chuunin was only too grateful the rest of his students didn’t seem to understand what was happening. Said students were only told that the team was helping Iruka out that week, and they seemed to take it in stride.
Kakashi groaned. “That’s my personal property!”
“And you can have it back at a reasonable time,” Iruka said, shaking his head as he walked away. “Like, the end of the week.”
“But –” Kakashi began, only for Sakura to hush him.
“Shh!” she hissed. “I’m working!”
Kakashi rolled his eye. “It’s a map, it’s nothing hard,” he said, taking out his own scroll and finishing the assignment in five minutes, then sighing as he started to begrudgingly read the textbook.
Later, everyone was dismissed for lunch and the actual students went out with the genin. Kakashi meandered the halls until he found the staff lounge, but frowned underneath his mask when he found he couldn’t get in.
“It’s for staff,” Iruka said from behind Kakashi as he arrived.
“Why is it locked?”
“To keep out students who may seek to steal tests or things like that. Pretty good, right?”
“Your work, I take it?” Kakashi asked, and Iruka grinned.
“Mostly! Anyway, the kids are eating outside,” Iruka casually reminded him.
“Yeah, but I’m not a kid.”
“Well, you’re not staff,” Iruka posed.
“So where do I go?” the jonin pointed out. “Ooh, I get to leave the grounds? Go home early?” he excitedly asked.
“No,” Iruka told him. “Just…figure it out,” he said as he tried to step in front of Kakashi to enter and eat his own lunch.
The copy nin frowned before brightening. “Okay! I accept!”
“What?” Iruka asked, pausing before undoing the wards on the door.
“Clearly you mean that you’ll eat with me in the classroom,” Kakashi casually said.
“I…uh…what?”
“Well, I shouldn’t eat with the kids, and I can’t go in there,” the jonin said, nodding at the staff only door. “And you’re my teacher this week, so it makes total sense. And who knows what I might get up to if left in the classroom on my own, without my book to distract me…”
Iruka nodded slowly. “I, uh, suppose that’s true…”
“Great,” Kakashi agreed. “Come on,” he said, turning and starting to walk back to their classroom. Iruka followed and Kakashi pulled up a chair to Iruka’s desk to eat.
“This is going to be a long week,” Iruka sighed as he opened his bento box.
_____
All in all it wasn’t the worst of weeks, Iruka mused. The rain held out until dismissal time on Friday, helping things remain fairly calm. The students were unphased and unbothered, not acting out to impress their guests (fortunately). The genin were completing assignments and actually being good role models (fortunately again). And Kakashi was Kakashi. Completing assignments in the blink of an eye and reading something non-Icha Icha or just dozing, and eating lunch with Iruka each day. While Iruka missed time with his academy peers, who were full of curiosity and gossip about Iruka’s guests and especially his lunch partner, he found that he and Kakashi actually had some decent conversations in that time.
But while it had been a positive week, Iruka was more than surprised to come into his classroom the following Monday and find Team Seven there, yet again.
“Everything okay?” he asked, and the genin nodded.
“We challenged Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto excitedly told Iruka. “And we won!”
“It’s going to rain all week and we didn’t want to be outside,” Sakura admitted, and Sasuke nodded.
“I can’t blame you,” Iruka agreed, nodding and sighing as he looked out the window, where rain was continuing to fall as it had all weekend. That meant little to no outdoor time for his students, which would be a headache…then again, with Team Seven in his class, perhaps he could have help for outdoors activities? Or find a compromise, something to distract them all?
Iruka tucked that away and settled in for the usual antics a Monday at school brought, finding himself relieved for lunch when the children went to another room to eat, so as to still give them a break from their classroom if they couldn’t be outside.
Kakashi, as usual, sat with Iruka, it now feeling more routine at this point for both men.
“So, what was the challenge?” Iruka asked as they began to eat.
“What?” Kakashi asked as food disappeared from his bento box.
“The challenge your team beat you at, what was it?”
“I don’t really remember,” the jonin said. “Some game or something, I’m pretty sure they made up the rules as we went. After I questioned the rulings and lost four times, I gave up.”
Iruka laughed. “It almost sounds like you wanted them to win.”
Kakashi gave him an eye smile. “Well, they were working as a team for it, and I knew what they wanted their prize to be. So I think as their team leader I still won, not to mention we remain dry and indoors this week,” he posed, and Iruka laughed and nodded.
They brainstormed what they might do with the pre-genin for some outdoor time should the weather not let up over the course of the week, and conversation turned to general village news and gossip.
That week passed by well enough, even with the rain continuing for most of it. There were brief periods in the morning when it was barely raining or had stopped, and so Iruka adapted and took his class outside for weapons training, delighted that his former students could demonstrate technique while Iruka walked them through it, as well as act as mentors to the pre-genin. Iruka also pulled out some more creative assignments on the days they couldn’t go out, and even Kakashi didn’t seem to mind spending time on origami, something Iruka had his students do to help with focus, concentration, nimble finger movements, and for fun.
Friday afternoon arrived as always, and when the pre-genin left for a weekend away from the academy, Iruka saw Team Seven out.
“This was fun, I expect you’ll be back to your usual training though?” he asked, and the four nodded. “Well, it was nice while it lasted. I’ll see you all at the missions office and around the village as usual,” he said, waving as they left, knowing that he spent time with the team due to Naruto often enough. And turning back to his classroom to tidy up, Iruka didn’t give it a second thought.
___
Come Monday morning it felt slightly strange to not enter his classroom and find Team Seven there, but Iruka just shook his head and laughed at himself before getting ready for the day.
But on Tuesday after lunch, there was Team Seven in his classroom, yet again. Or at least, the genin of Team Seven.
“Hello,” Iruka greeted them. “Please tell me you’re not avoiding Kakashi-sensei now?” he asked, for he did not wish to appear to be supporting them playing hooky!
“No, just Gai-sensei,” Sakura admitted. “And Asuma-sensei…”
“What?” Iruka asked, surprised.
“Kakashi-sensei got sent on a mission over the weekend,” Sasuke explained. “And we’re training with other teams while he’s gone.”
“Okay…” Iruka began, unsure of where this was going or why they were with him?
“Their teams are…too much,” Naruto admitted. “Gai-sensei is too much!”
“You’re not wrong,” Iruka agreed. “But why are you here?”
“We told the jonin-senseis we were training with you in the afternoons, so that we could get a break from them,” Sakura said, frowning slightly. “Can we stay?”
Three eager pairs of genin eyes looked at him, and Iruka sighed, knowing they knew he could be a pushover for his former students.
“Sure, but you’re going to actually do work, genin-level work,” he said, since if he was to be responsible for them in the afternoons he wanted to have something appropriate to show for it, if only so that neither he nor they were lying.
The genin quickly agreed and he looked around for something for them to do, as he had not planned for this. He found a set of scrolls they could study, and gave it to them while musing to himself that he’d need to think of an actual training curriculum for them.
“Great,” Iruka ruefully thought as his pre-genin returned from lunch and excitedly waved at the genin. “More on my plate…”
____
Though he would only have the kids for three more afternoons, Iruka didn’t want them to only study in his classroom. He not only brought in more advanced things for them to read and review, but also took them to train at an academy training ground in the evenings before his missions office shifts. He also brought the genin with him to learn about that office and its responsibilities for at least part of his shift, as he didn’t want to keep them out too late, dismissing them by eight o’clock if not sooner.
There was one day he was not scheduled for that duty, and Iruka kissed his free night goodbye as he kept his plans with the team. But he wanted to at least go a bit easy on them, and so after some sparring and weapons lessons, they went back to Iruka’s apartment to cook dinner and eat as he figured it was a teambuilding activity and just a nice thing to do, generally.
The teacher also agreed to meet with them Saturday before his missions office shift that was scheduled to begin at noon, and spent the morning watching and training them before they parted ways. The three asked if they could continue this the following week if Kakashi was not yet back, and Iruka agreed but assured them that the jonin would likely be back before they knew it.
He knew that neither they nor Iruka had information on the copy nin’s mission and that the kids were concerned that it might be dangerous, Kakashi might be injured, or that it would turn into a much longer mission than expected, as happened. Iruka knew they were just kids, but who wouldn’t be worried about someone they looked up to?
Still, he figured that if it was to have been anticipated to be a long mission word would have gotten to him as he was semi-training the team, and so Iruka figured that come Monday, Kakashi would be back in Konoha and the kids would let him know the status. Maybe Team Seven would even take a day off, if the copy nin needed to rest a bit more?
However, on Monday his heart sank when the genin appeared again after lunch, and he gave them a small smile as he caught onto the words and thoughts they weren’t sharing - they were definitely concerned and worried. Iruka again assured them that their jonin’s continued absence happened on missions, and would one day undoubtedly happen to them, but validated how they felt even if they were putting on brave faces and not outright stating their concern.
At least they had started a positive routine last week, Iruka thought, as they continued it this week. Before he had left the academy with them Monday afternoon he sent word to the missions office to change his schedule there, explaining the circumstances and that he would like to only work three nights there this week so he could have more time to train Team Seven due to their jonin-sensei’s unexpected absence. It was quickly supported by that office as Iruka had hoped, and so he began the fourth week in May working with Team Seven yet again.
So, they continued their previous actions. In the morning the genin would train with another team, break for lunch, then study in Iruka’s classroom or occasionally help with a lesson until the academy let out for the day. Iruka would then take them outside to train for an hour or two; then, two nights were spent in the missions office, and two nights the team had dinner at his place for more scroll review, working on seals that he didn’t want them to do unsupervised in his classroom.
Friday night, Kakashi returned to Konoha at about eight in the evening and was informed he was to report to the hospital. He went and was later cleared from duty, showering and changing into a clean uniform there before he went to turn in his report to the Hokage.
After reviewing everything, the Hokage suggested that Kakashi stop by the missions office and talk to Iruka. The jonin was surprised but also tired, and knew better than to question the older man’s suggestion. Though, he did check in with a certain ANBU or two in the hallway for more information…
Kakashi headed to the missions office at a slower pace than he normally might, exhausted from his mission and more than a little banged up, even with whatever healing the hospital had provided him. Iruka was working alone and looked up when Kakashi entered, eyes widening but offering a warm smile.
“Welcome back!” Iruka said cheerfully. “How are you?” he asked, observing the man’s fatigued slouch and walk, as well as a noticeable black eye, particularly striking as it largely darkened the only part of Kakashi’s face that was normally visible.
“I’ve been better, but it’s good to be back. How are you?”
“Well enough.”
“And how is my team? Not giving you too much of a headache, I hope?” Kakashi asked, and Iruka’s eyes widened.
“How did you know I worked with them?”
Kakashi shrugged, wincing as he did so. “I have my ways.”
“Well, they were great, and it was nice to work with them again,” Iruka said, laughing when Kakashi tilted his head as if to question it. “But they’ll be glad to have you back, they were worried about you.”
“Were they?” Kakashi asked, surprised.
Iruka nodded. “Even Sasuke, though I believe he’ll deny that,” he said, laughing. “I’m actually scheduled to take them on a short mission tomorrow just outside the village, unless you’d prefer to go? I would hope you’d rest, but I don’t want to presume anything or risk overstepping as you’re their jonin-sensei…”
Kakashi shook his head. “I appreciate that, but I’ve already worried them enough, I don’t want them to see me like this.”
Iruka offered a small smile. “They’ll worship you no matter what. You’re allowed to be vulnerable.”
Kakashi blinked in surprise and looked away, and Iruka smiled again.
“Well, then rest up this weekend, I’ll stick with my plan to train them Sunday too,” he told the copy nin. “I’ve been working on a new jutsu with them and want to help tighten it up.”
“If you insist, thank you,” Kakashi said, just as the next shift arrived to relieve Iruka. Kakashi waited for the teacher to finish up and walked out with him a few moments later. Iruka again noted how tired Kakashi looked and how wearily he moved.
“Have you had dinner?” Iruka asked, though Kakashi understood the question to be more of “have you eaten today?” as happened at times on long missions.
“I had breakfast, and a rations bar or two,” the jonin admitted. “I’ll figure food out at some point.”
Iruka frowned, not wanting a fellow shinobi to go hungry after a mission, even if it might only be skipping one meal. He invited the man to get ramen with him and Kakashi agreed, and they headed to Ichiraku’s, finding it to be quite busy given that it was, after all, a Friday night.
They tried two more places but found them to also be bustling and full. Rather than give up, Iruka invited Kakashi to his apartment.
“It’s admittedly leftovers from yesterday, I had the team over a few times and cooked for them as we studied, but there’s a decent amount left from last night’s meal.”
Kakashi was surprised to hear of the action but agreed, since they were closer to Iruka’s apartment than to his own and Kakashi was growing more and more tired. Once there, Iruka quickly reheated the food and plated it, sitting facing away from Kakashi so he could eat in peace. Two servings later, Iruka politely declined the copy nin’s request to wash the dishes, and when Iruka was done washing and was drying his hands, he found that the man had fallen asleep on his sofa. Smiling, Iruka covered him with a blanket and went to his own bedroom.
____
Kakashi awoke with a start, finding he was not still on his mission sleeping in the woods, but was in an unfamiliar place. Blinking, he recalled coming to Iruka’s apartment last night…but judging by the sunlight streaming in through a window, quite some time had passed.
Kakashi laid back down with a sigh, running a hand over his masked face and stretching, glad to have taken off his vest before dinner. He stood up and folded the blanket, not recalling pulling it over himself, but then again, he realized he didn’t recall anything after Iruka took his plate and ushered him to relax in the living room.
“I fell asleep while he was being a nice host, how embarrassing!” Kakashi groaned to himself. “I’ll go apologize,” he said, but realized he didn’t hear any sounds in the apartment, and a moment later saw that Iruka’s bedroom door was open. The bedroom was neat and tidy, the bed made, but there was no Iruka there, nor in the bathroom.
Kakashi found a note on the bathroom mirror reminding him that Iruka was out with Team Seven and had left while the jonin was still asleep, something that surprised Kakashi. Iruka encouraged him to feel free to have food before leaving, so Kakashi took him up on the offer, heating up more leftovers from yesterday and making himself a cup of coffee. He also decided to let himself be nosy and look around the apartment, not so far as to open drawers and closets but focusing on the living room and kitchen to see what was laying around in the open - books, knicknacks, those sorts of things.
There was a calendar on the kitchen wall and Kakashi looked in its direction before shrugging.
“It’s not snooping if it’s already there for everyone to see,” he said aloud, sipping his coffee and reading notes for that month. He saw an uptick in Iruka’s schedule the past two weeks and realized they were notes Iruka had made about training with Team Seven, surprised by just how much time Iruka spent with them.
The jonin had been quite worried about the team when he was on his mission, something he’d deny even under the harshest of interrogation, especially given how much he had initially fought once upon a time to not have a team. Kakashi thought about how relieved he had felt when he returned yesterday and in the hallway after his meeting with the Hokage, Tenzo told him that the team was well and had been training with Iruka among others, the ANBU speaking highly of the teacher.
The copy nin thought about his interactions with Iruka over the years, including the uptick in them since taking on his team, and how he had always appreciated the support from the chuunin, even when the man was silently offering help or nudging the genin a particular way. Iruka was, Kakashi knew, a thoughtful man, and even more so to have taken on the extra work of training the kids while he was away.
“I’ll have to thank him when he’s back,” Kakashi murmured as his eyes landed on that day’s calendar square, Saturday, May 26th. Iruka had clearly initially written “dinner at 6” but scratched it out and wrote “Team 7 morning mission!”
Speaking of dinner, Kakashi sighed when he thought about how he had also missed having lunches with Iruka when on his mission, and found he actually felt quite saddened by the thought that those were over and done with now that there was no need to be at the academy anymore.
Kakashi shrugged at it and cleaned his dishes, leaving them to dry before he left the apartment, setting it to lock behind him.
_____
Kakashi rested for the remainder of Saturday, knowing that if anything untoward had occurred with his team that he would be informed and not hesitate to go after them if needed. But he quite enjoyed having no disruption and spending it lazily to recuperate and replenish his chakra.
On Sunday, he went to the memorial stone after breakfast and set off after that to track down his team. He soon found Iruka sitting under a tree in a training ground, watching the genin work on the new jutsu.
Kakashi quietly jumped from tree to tree to land above Iruka in the one the teacher was sitting against, settling in himself and watching everyone for a moment before making his presence known.
“You’re surprisingly hands off today.”
Iruka looked up in surprise but grinned. “Perhaps I’m taking a page out of your book.”
“Oh?”
“Yes and no. I trained them more yesterday during and after the mission, today is just them practicing it and me observing, commenting and correcting as needed. This is just practice rather than anything more strenuous.”
Kakashi nodded and they fell into silence for a few moments, both watching the younger shinobi.
“Do you want to say hello?” Iruka asked, not looking at Kakashi, who paused to consider it.
“Tomorrow, when my eye is a little less bruised.”
Iruka nodded. “They were quite happy to hear you were back and in good shape, more or less.”
“Good,” Kakashi mused. “Thank you, for training them. And for dinner Friday. And for letting me sleep,” he bashfully added, still not looking at the other man, who also kept his eyes forward rather than towards the jonin, but he heard Iruka shrug.
“You seemed like you needed it, plus who wants to wake someone after a mission and risk everything that could happen?” the teacher softly laughed.
The men fell into comfortable silence as they continued to watchthe younger shinobi, Iruka shouting out encouragement and feedback as needed but largely letting the team explore their new jutsu. Around lunchtime, Iruka decided to call it a day and Kakashi said he would head home himself.
Iruka took the genin to Ichiraku’s, where they talked about the mission as well as Kakashi’s return. Sakura expressed concern about Kakashi being away for so long, and Naruto suggested they take food to the jonin if he was home. Everyone agreed, and Iruka offered to deliver it, recalling Kakashi’s desire to not see his team until tomorrow. The others agreed with that, and Iruka was soon setting off with ramen for the jonin, who answered his door in surprise.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” Iruka apologized. “But the kids thought you might like some food, and I figured you might not want just anyone showing up to your door.”
Kakashi nodded and yawned. “That’s true, thanks.”
Iruka passed him the bag and Kakashi peered in, nodding. “Would you like to come in?”
Iruka smiled but shook his head. “Thanks, but I’ve got some things to do to prepare for the week ahead now that I’ve got some free time, and I suspect you need more rest yourself.”
Kakashi nodded again. “You’re not wrong. Thanks again,” he said, and they said their goodbyes before parting ways.
_____
A few days later, Kakashi ran into Anko in the market on Thursday. They caught up about general missions and work talk before she commented on Kakashi “making” Iruka change his weekend plans.
“What?” the copy nin asked, confused.
“Well, not you,” Anko corrected herself as she paid a produce vendor and waved as they left. “But also kind of you. A few of us had plans with him but he was with your gremlins and canceled on us, said we’d need to reschedule.”
“Oh, sorry,” Kakashi said, shrugging slightly.
“Yeah, he said we could celebrate his birthday anytime,” Anko casually told him as they walked to another vendor. “Which is true, but not quite the same, you know?”
Kakashi followed her numbly as he tried to process the news.
“It was his birthday?” the copy nin asked her.
“Yeah,” Anko confirmed, saying more but it was lost on Kakashi, who was distracted by his own thoughts.
It was Iruka’s birthday and the man had canceled plans with friends? To work with Kakashi’s team, no less? Kakashi wanted to cancel on his genin on the best of days, birthday or no.
Kakashi was in a confused fog after that, and decided to casually bring it up to Naruto after training the next day. To his growing frustration, the blond confirmed Anko’s report.
“It was so cool of Iruka-sensei to take us out for a mission on his birthday!” Naruto told him with a wide grin, as Kakashi’s stomach sank. “Actually, with everything happening with you being gone I forgot it was his birthday that day, I was so excited to be on a mission with him and Sakura and Sasuke! But we took him out for a meal at Ichiraku’s on Sunday to thank him for his help, and I took him out for another meal on Tuesday when I finally remembered it. Iruka-sensei said he understood, but man, what a drag! I’m definitely remembering it next year!”
Kakashi nodded as they parted ways, thinking more about it as he wandered the village.
“He never said anything,” he mused to himself, when he suddenly recalled seeing the teacher’s calendar when Kakashi was at his apartment that Saturday morning.
The jonin groaned and ran a hand over his masked face when he thought about the note on Saturday. “Dinner at 6” had become “Team 7 morning mission!” Or rather, it was supposed to have been “birthday dinner at 6,” Kakashi now realized.
“He’s too kind, and too selfless,” the copy nin sighed to himself. “So caring…”
He continued to wander, trying to think of what he could to make it up for the younger man. After about twenty minutes, he recalled Iruka telling him that he had had Team Seven over for dinner, cooking for them a few times while Kakashi was away.
“That’s it!” Kakashi cheered, hurrying to try to find Iruka, pleased when the chuunin was running errands around Hokage Tower. They exchanged greetings before Kakashi jumped in.
“I’d like to thank you for all that you did while I was away,” he said, and Iruka smiled, making Kakashi pause for a second as he basked in it.
“It was fine, it was nice,” Iruka assured him.
“Still, I’d like to make it up to you and cook for you,” Kakashi declared, and Iruka’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
Kakashi nodded. “You cooked for my team, it’s only fair.”
Iruka smiled again. “That’s great! I’m sure the kids will love to tell you more about all the training we did while we eat.”
Kakashi blinked. “What?”
“Yeah, now that I think about it, I probably still have some scrolls and seals of theirs at my place we can all go over after the meal,” Iruka mused, and Kakashi bit back a groan of frustration.
“Yeah, sure, sounds good,” he said, and they discussed some potential nights that week and the next that Iruka would be free so Kakashi could coordinate with his team. But as he walked away from Iruka, Kakashi sighed in disappointment, having wanted to have another meal with just the brunette and himself.
___
Iruka graciously suggested everyone come to his apartment since it was the largest space, and a week later, Kakashi found himself in Iruka’s kitchen once more, chopping vegetables and stirring a range of items. He had decided to make the most of having everyone together for a meal, and made a few dishes that he knew were favorites of everyone, even if Sasuke would pretend to not care.
The sounds of the genin and Iruka laughing and talking drifted in from the living room, and Kakashi had to admit that it was surprisingly nice. It felt…comfortable, like everyone had done this before. Which, he supposed, they had, just without him.
But before he could think about that any more, Iruka came into the kitchen and joined him, sitting at his kitchen table to talk with Kakashi. The jonin had forbidden Iruka from helping with cooking, wanting to spoil him and overall enjoy having some more private time with the younger man.
The five later squeezed around that same table, jostling plates and bowls as they passed dishes and reached over each other with chopsticks, laughing and talking as they did so. The genin were amazed as always about how Kakashi could sneak food underneath his mask in the blink of an eye and Iruka laughed as they argued about how it was done, catching Kakashi’s eye and jokingly rolling his own.
When everything was consumed, Kakashi suggested the genin do the dishes. He had washed as he cooked, so there was only what they had used to eat off of and serve. Though it was a decent amount of dishes that would be time consuming but not require much effort, it had been a nice (and free) meal, and the kids quickly agreed in the hopes it would not be the last time their jonin-sensei cooked for them.
“Who knew he was such a good cook?” Kakashi heard Sakura whisper as he and Iruka went to the living room.
“Right? I hope he cooks for us again!” Naruto agreed, and Iruka softly laughed.
“Thanks again,” Iruka said as he and Kakashi sat with tea at a low table in Iruka’s living room. “It was nice.”
“My pleasure, thanks for all your help this past month,” Kakashi told him, and Iruka raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“It was a month, wasn’t it?” Iruka agreed, now that it was the beginning of June. “What a May!” he laughed. “Still, it was exciting and unusual, and flew by.”
Kakashi nodded, still reflecting on how nice it had been to spend part of it at the academy with Iruka, and to have the team and Iruka to return to.
“Huh,” Kakashi thought to himself, “I hadn’t fully thought of it like that, but I suppose it’s true.”
Across from him, Iruka was rummaging through several scrolls to find ones to show Kakashi of what the genin had worked on in his absence.
Kakashi studied him, noting how the younger man pursed his lips as he focused, a smile dancing over tan skin as he reviewed the younger shinobi’s effort. Things slid into place in Kakashi’s mind - enjoying lunches with Iruka; appreciation for the man taking Kakashi’s team under his wing without a second thought; gratitude for Iruka helping him when he got back from his mission; not wanting Iruka’s birthday to go by without Kakashi noticing, celebrating it; and disappointment that they were not alone tonight.
“This was nice, having a meal with everyone,” the jonin began, and Iruka nodded, still reviewing a scroll. “But I’d like to do it again, just us.”
Iruka looked up in surprise and blinked at him. “What?”
“As a belated birthday meal,” Kakashi posed nervously. “Just you and I.”
Iruka blushed and looked back at the scrolls. “You don’t have to, I chose to work with your team and change my birthday plans,” he said, realizing Kakashi had caught on. “I don’t need any special thanks or anything, it’s what anyone would have done.”
“That’s not true, quite a lot of people wouldn’t,” Kakashi said. “I would cancel on them in a heartbeat even without an excuse,” he added, and Iruka glanced at him and laughed, making Kakashi’s stomach flip excitedly. “And it’s not a thanks,” he continued, now his turn to look at the scrolls. “It would be…a date.”
Time seemed to stand still for the jonin following his admission, his heart threatening to beat out of his chest as he waited for a response.
“I’d like that,” Iruka said, and Kakashi glanced at him to find Iruka blushing more, a smile on the teacher’s face that the jonin mirrored underneath his mask.
“Good,” Kakashi replied, giving him an eye smile. “It’s your birthday, so we’ll go out somewhere, or I can cook again. Your choice.”
Iruka smiled wider and opened his mouth to respond, but they were interrupted suddenly.
“Okay!” Naruto yelled as the genin joined them. “All done!”
The three genin sat at the table with them, pulling scrolls this way and that to tell Kakashi about what they had worked on. And as the younger shinobi argued over whose was “best” and “nicest” and “less ugly,” the adults stole glances at each other, both excited for the next meal they would share.