Almost a month later, Kakashi was on a mission with Raidou and Kiba. Something about sniffing out possible hunter-nins in the territories between Konoha and Mist. The mission had been indistinct, but it hadn't been the first time he'd been given a mission that was vague and ephemeral, and told to see if there was anything to it. They had been on the trail for over a week and a half and so far, nothing. He was cold, bored and he missed Iruka.

They three ninjas were sitting around the campfire talking quietly; Raidou and Kiba were sharing some sort of sex story. Typical male bonding stuff, Kakashi thought to himself. Not that he ever participated in these sorts of stories.

"Oh, this one girl, she had the biggest titties!" Raidou laughed.

Kiba tittered.

"You know, Ino and I one time…" Kiba's voice trailed off.

"Really?" Raidou said.

Kakashi could feel himself smiling underneath his mask, remembering a previous conversation between him and Iruka. He was currently reading Icha Icha Forever! His thoughts were turned back to Iruka, he wondered what he was doing right now? Probably making dinner or maybe feeding Pakkun? Grading papers possibly. A voice interrupted him out of his thoughts.

"What about you, Kakashi?" Kiba asked suddenly.

Kakashi blinked and set the book down. He looked at the other two men. He took a deep breath. He was really trying to make more out of his social interactions and have more friends. Sure, he had never really opened up during these sorts of talks around the campfires on missions. Maybe this was the time.

"I particularly like doing Iruka-sensei on his desk in his classroom at the academy." Kakashi said with a happy smile.

Raidou's mouth was hanging open.

"You have violated my childhood memories of that room." Kiba looked horrified.

"That's not what Iruka-sensei was saying!" Raidou laughed.

"Pervert!" Kiba was blushing, his tattooed cheeks almost indistinguishable on his face.

Raidou laughed again. "Well, you did ask him, kid."

"Gomen. Is that why you asked me not to call him sensei? Oh, I feel so dirty." Kiba looked sick to his stomach.

Kakashi laughed. Hey, he thought to himself, this male bonding stuff wasn't so bad. Obito would be proud. Iruka might be a little miffed he spilled the beans about the sex on the desk thing, but, well…he'd deal with that later.

"C'mon, you've never been tempted? Don't tell me you've never done Shikamaru in his classroom?" Kakashi asked Kiba with a smile.

Kiba sat up, blushing, if possibly even more furiously. "What? No! I'm not. We're not! Why would you say that? We're just friends!"

Kakashi held his hands up. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was confused."

"It's okay, you didn't know." Kiba said, and then stood abruptly. "I'm going to go…patrol the perimeter. Come, Akamaru."

Kakashi watched the dog-nin walk away with Akamaru at his heels. He tilted his head to the side and scratched his head, feeling like he said something wrong, but not exactly sure what. He turned back to see Raidou holding in more laughter.

"What?"

"Are you…matchmaking? Kami, you are killing me!" Raidou couldn't contain himself, he was laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face.

Kakashi hmpfted and picked up his Icha Icha again and tried to read.

"No seriously, what was the Shikamaru comment about?" Raidou asked finally.

Kakashi quirked an eyebrow at him. "So now you want to be serious?"

"Well, it was out of character. Actually, this was all out of character." Raidou said.

There was a silence except for the pop and crackle of the fire.

"I'm trying to be more open. Iruka says I'm too closed." Kakashi said after a few moments.

"You are." Raidou agreed.

"He loves me." Kakashi said.

"He does." Raidou agreed.

"Even though I don't deserve him." Kakashi stated.

"Probably not." Raidou agreed. "Do you love him?"

"Yes." Kakashi answered without thinking. And it was if the answer had been staring at him this whole time. Like his mind had been in his way this whole time. He had heard the phrase before about how people could let their mind overrule their heart, or about how people could over think something. And he always thought that was the most asinine thing he'd ever heard. Until he just realized it. He had been over thinking this whole love business instead of just feeling it. He had never wished so badly that he could just end a mission and go home, but instead he was stuck sitting around a campfire Raidou and Kiba, the clueless wonder.

"Then I suppose that's as good as it gets, right?" Raidou smiled.

Kakashi smiled back and leaned forward, keeping his voice down. "Iruka told me weeks ago that Shikamaru had feelings for Kiba…I guess I just assumed…" Kakashi gestured towards the woods where Kiba was doing his perimeter patrol, whatever that was.

"Ahh…" Raidou smiled and nodded. "Yes, like how Iruka told you how he felt…you know…two years later…"

Kakashi felt supremely dense. "I hope I didn't say anything stupid." He paused and thought for a moment. "Iruka is going to kill me, isn't he?"

Raidou grinned, "Oh yeah."

It was another week until the mission was over, and finally the rhythm of the mission was back to normal. Kiba had not asked for any other sex stories, or frankly, any other stories at all. Actually Kakashi thought the dog-nin was being unusually quiet from what he remembered of the man he was typically as loud as Naruto. Finally, they returned home. He filled out a very complete (for him) mission report, to someone at the desk, he believed it was Genma, and then completed the jutsu to take him home.

He found Iruka on the couch grading papers. He took off his mask and smiled down at his lover. Iruka must have fallen asleep, he thought, his reading glasses still perched on his nose cutely. There was a pen in his finger, scrolls on his lap, and on the couch and coffee table. Pakkun was lying next to him, snoring.

Pakkun woke up first, "Hey boss."

Kakashi leaned over and kissed Iruka's forehead, watching as the man's eyelids fluttered opened.

"Oh!" Iruka said, pulling off his glasses. "You're back."

"You drool, you know."

Iruka laughed and tossed one of the scrolls he had been grading at him. "How did it go?"

"Successful." Kakashi sat down next to Iruka.

"I made you some brownies." Iruka said smiling hugging Kakashi fiercely. "I missed you. Pakkun is nice to sleep with but he farts in his sleep."

"Hey, I told you not to feed me the broccoli." Pakkun said.

"That was already after you had eaten it, imp!"

"You hog the covers." Kakashi said.

"I do?"

"Totally. And you have a terrible temper." Kakashi added. "And big feet."

"I thought you said big feet meant big…"

"I knew you listened to that!" Kakashi laughed.

"Pervert!"

"And you've got this scar on your nose. Although I do think it's adorable, so it's not exactly a fault."

Iruka's hand had been playing with Kakashi's hair but it had stopped suddenly.

"Kakashi…why are you saying all these things?"

"Iruka, even though you have the most ridiculously lame and idiotic collection of dolphin paraphernalia I've ever seen, I still love you."

Iruka gaped at him.

Then he wrapped his arms around Kakashi and hugged him again and gave him a deep kiss.

"You know, most of the dolphin things were gifts." Iruka added.

"That's what you keep saying…" Kakashi said. "But then, if you don't like them, why don't you put them in a closet?"

Iruka looked horrified. "When my friends come over, they expect the gifts to be out…being used. It would be…rude not to be using it! So, it started with one mug, then another and now…I don't know how it happened but I seem to have this collection. But I can't toss them out now; it would hurt everyone's feelings after all these years."

Kakashi leaned back and smiled, happy to be home.

"Did you go see the memorial?" Iruka asked. Kakashi was shocked to realize he hadn't.

"I'll go tomorrow." He said.

"Now, you've gotta promise not to be angry with me, but I might have said something on the mission…" Kakashi began.

"I'm not promising anything." Iruka said, eyes narrowing. "What did you say? Who were you on the mission with?"

"Well, Raidou, who by the way, says hello and thank-you for the snickerdoodles."

Iruka continued to stare, waiting.

"And…?"

"Kiba was there too." Kakashi said watching the brow wrinkle on Iruka's features. "Anyways, so the mission was great and all, and at one point, we may have been having a male-bonding experience sort of thing. And I was asked to share a sexual experience. And so I did. You are always asking me to open up to people. So I did."

Iruka looked at Kakashi, his mouth opening and closing a few times. "Wait, I've been on missions, I've been around campfires, I know those sorts of talks…you usually aren't the type to…join in."

"I'm not. But have been telling me to open up to people, so I did." Kakashi smiled.

"Wait." Iruka frowned. "Wait, what did you say? Was it about us?" Then he blushed furiously. "You didn't!"

"Well, I told them about one of my favorite positions with you."

"Oh my kami!" Iruka started hyperventilating. "I'm so embarrassed. What did you say? Exactly! I mean, Raidou isn't so bad; he's a good friend and not a gossip. But Kiba? He's…like a student!"

"Ahh…he's almost a man now, isn't he? He was very embarrassed though. Especially when I told him where one of my favorite places was." Kakashi grinned and was about to suggest they take a shower and adjourn to the bedroom when pulled out of his grasp to put his hands on his hips.

"Where? Where did you tell him?" Iruka demanded.

"Err…" Kakashi wished he could take that last part back. "The academy?"

"Damnit you stupid jounin!" Iruka pushed Kakashi off and started pacing around the room. "If it gets out, I can get in a lot of trouble! Teachers aren't supposed to have sex in their classrooms!"

Kakashi stood up and stopped Iruka's pacing. "Kiba isn't going to tell anyone first of all…it was just talk around a campfire between friends. And secondly, you think you're the first one? I'm sure others have." Kakashi pulled Iruka into a quick hug. "I might have said one other thing…"

Iruka groaned.

"But it's not about us." Iruka brightened. "And may I remind you that I love you." Kakashi kissed the tip of Iruka's nose. "But I think I said something wrong and I have no idea how these things work so you're probably going to be mad. At least Raidou seemed to think so."

"Oh, just spit it out!" Iruka huffed.

"Well, after Kiba got over his retching at the thought of us having sex in his classroom…I may have inferred that he should try it with Shikamaru sometime or something like that. Afterwards Kiba was very awkward for the rest of the mission and insisted they were just friends and it was extremely embarrassing. It's entirely your fault."

Iruka stared at him open mouthed.

"Why did you say that to him?" Iruka gasped.

"You said Shikamaru liked him. I assumed they were dating or something. I don't know. I'm not really that good with picking up relationships between people."

"Yes, Shikamaru likes him. I have no idea how Kiba feels about Shikamaru in return! Gah!" Iruka stared at Kakashi.

"Raidou is now accusing me of playing matchmaker." Kakashi sighed.

Iruka laughed. "Indeed. Icha Icha Matchmaker! I still can't believe this. Did you even do any work on this mission or just sit around gossiping like old hens?"

"Maa…we did enough work. I'm tired." Kakashi turned and looked at Iruka. Kakashi stood and held his hand out for Iruka. "Can that wait until tomorrow? I think it's time for bed."

Iruka nodded and Kakashi swept the younger man up in his arms. Pakkun followed, but at the bedroom door Kakashi whispered, "In bit, Pakkun…"

"Okay, boss…" Pakkun yawned and padded back out to the living room muttering something about humans and their modesty.

Kakashi shut the door and smiled down at Iruka, then placed him on the bed.

"I love you, Iruka."

"I love you, Kakashi." Iruka said, smiling and running a hand through his hair. "Although we're going to have to fix this business with Kiba and Shikamaru…"

Kakashi waved it away, "Maa…later…"

He leaned down to kiss Iruka and helped pull the shirt off over his head. "Right now, I wanted to tell you about some wonderful things I was thinking about doing to you while I was on my mission…"

-The End-

A/N: Look forward to sequel: Icha Icha Matchmaker! (Shikamaru/Kiba) coming soon! As if you hadn't guessed it, of course. I know I'm dropping the foreshadowing like a ton of bricks, people! I hope you guys liked this Kakashi/Iruka. Let me know in reviews your thoughts/likes!