Chapter 2

The next morning Iruka awoke alone in the bed before the alarm went off. She went and showered so she could prepare for the day. She tried to wash the memories of the previous night away, but they stubbornly clung to her. He didn't love her that much she knew, but now she was unsure of her own feelings towards him. This started off as a game of chicken; to see who was going to back out of their engagement first, but now it was different. Did she want more? She really didn't know. After getting out of the shower she glanced at her reflection in the mirror. To her horror she saw the hickey Kakashi had given her. Lucky for her, the shirt of the uniform was a turtleneck so it would cover the mark nicely.

As she rounded the corner to enter the kitchen for some coffee, she stopped suddenly in her tracks. Leaning against the counter was Kakashi, quietly drinking coffee. Looking up he stared at the chuunin for a moment. "Morning, do you want a cup?" Was all he had asked her.

Not knowing what else to say Iruka replied. "Yes, that would be nice."

He handed her a cup. They stood there, side-by-side, leaning against the counter, and not saying a word, just drinking coffee. Placing her empty cup in the sink, Iruka sighed and turned to Kakashi, finally breaking their silence.

"I'm going to break off our engagement. I can't do this anymore." Kakashi just looked into his cup and didn't saying anything as she continued. "We should never have played this game. Don't worry, I'll tell everyone that it was my fault we broke up. Um, I guess I will have to break it to Naruto gently, he was so looking forward to the wedding." She paused for a moment, her mouth, and an eyebrow quirking slightly. "I think it was more for the food and cake than the ceremony." She said, attempting some levity that she didn't really feel.

"I'll break it to him. He's on my team. I should be the one to do it." Kakashi said, not looking up from his coffee cup.

"I'll stay with a friend until the repairs on my old apartment are done. I'll come back tonight to get my stuff." For some reason it hurt her to break the engagement, although it was supposed to be fake. Taking off the engagement ring Kakashi had given her, she placed it on the counter as she turned to leave.

"Kakashi?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

He heard the door close a few moments later. It had an air of finality to it. He didn't understand why his heart ached so much. It was a game and he won. She jumped off first. Then why did he feel so low? Sighing he placed his cup next to Iruka's in the sink. It was a hollow victory.

The day wore on as if nothing had a happened. Classes went as smoothly as can be. It was not until lunch when a yellow and orange flash burst loudly into Iruka's classroom.

"Iruka-sensei, is it true that you and Kakashi-sensei broke up?"

"Naruto, please calm down. Yes, I broke off the engagement."

"You?! You broke it off? What did that pervert do? Did he hurt you? I'll kill him!!"

"Naruto! Naruto, please!! I said calm down! He didn't do anything to me. I care for Kakashi, but it wouldn't work out. He is busy with his jounin duties and I have too much going on with school and the mission room. How can we grow together if we never see each other?" Getting up she hugged the one constant in her life.

Sniffling Naruto hugged her back. "It's not fair! You deserve to be happy!"

"I am, Naruto. I have my teaching and I have you. What more could I want?" She asked, stroking his hair. "Since I don't have to work in the mission room today, how about I treat you to ramen? We haven't done that in a long time. Ok?"

"Ok, but I'm still mad at Kakashi-sensei. He let you go too easily!"

"Thanks, Naruto but it's not him, it's me who broke the engagement." She cupped his cheek. "Now, go on. I have class starting in a minute. I'll see you after school."

After that, the rest of the day went quietly. By the end of the day the word had spread that the engagement was off. No one said anything to Iruka about it; they just looked at her sympathetically. That evening she ate ramen with Naruto and ironically spent most of the time consoling him. It was late when she got back to Kakashi's apartment.

She found him sitting in the dark, startling her when she turned on the lights.

"What are you doing in the dark, Kakashi?" She asked.

He ignored her question. "I have a long mission in Wave Country starting tomorrow. I don't know how long it will take, but the Hokage says it might take a month or two. So, if you'd like, you could stay here until you are able to return to your apartment and take your time moving out."

Iruka nodded. "Yes, it will take me a while to move my stuff back once my apartment is fixed, which should be soon. Thanks."

He didn't look at her as he asked. "Did you see Naruto?"

Sighing she replied, "Yes, I just had ramen with him. I take it that your conversation with him did not go well?"

Putting his hand behind his head he finally looked at her. "Let's just say he said something about removing certain body parts for hurting you."

"Oh my, I'm sorry about that. I'll talk to him again. I've been telling him it was my fault."

"Don't worry about it. Do you want to stay tonight since it is late?"

"No, I'll just pack a small bag and go stay with my friend."

Shrugging Kakashi got up from the couch to walk past Iruka to the kitchen. He went and opened the refrigerator, then sighed at what he saw. Iruka was curious to why he was just staring into the refrigerator.

"Is something wrong, Kakashi-sensei?

He looked at her surprised. "No, it's nothing. Just deciding if I should make something or order something. I'm leaning towards ordering something."

Stepping further into the kitchen, Iruka stood next to Kakashi as he continued to stare into the refrigerator. "Why don't I make you something? That way you'll have something healthy and the food doesn't go to waste."

Kakashi looked at Iruka. "That sounds better than take-out. I'll go shower." He paused at the doorway then asked. "Why are you calling me sensei again Iruka?"

Iruka paled a little then said, "I thought it would be more appropriate, since we're no longer engaged."

"I think since we were engaged it's all right to drop the sensei bit."

"Ok Kakashi, I'll drop it." She said smiling sadly. As he left, she went about cooking for him. Just for old time's sake.

Kakashi entered the bathroom, going directly to the sink after closing the door behind him. Shaking his head he looked into the mirror, staring at his reflection for a while before turning on the faucet. Removing his mask and his hitai-ate, he splashed some water on his face.

"Get it together, Kakashi." He admonished himself before turning off the spigot.

As he undressed for his shower he thought about everything that happened since last night. Why was he feeling this way? Reaching into the shower, he turned it on before stepping into the hot stream of water. He couldn't help but think of Iruka's body. How it felt under his hands and pressed against his body. To be honest he never thought much of the chuunin until the day she questioned his logic in placing his team up for the exams. He felt she was a weak shinobi because she cared so much about her students, especially for Naruto. Kakashi thought that she was trying to hold the boy back, but when he passed the first and second test Kakashi had seen the pride, and a little relief, shine in her eyes for the boy.

Rubbing the soap over his body Kakashi continued to think of the chuunin. Kakashi did not like to be questioned on his decisions and he felt Iruka had crossed the line in saying the rookies were not ready. She didn't know that they had grown so much more than when they were with her at the academy. What had bothered him the most was the way she had looked at him when he flatly told her that it was none of her business; that the genins were no longer her students, but his soldiers. He saw the pain that flashed through her eyes and the flush of embarrassment she had at his words, but he needed her to realize that they were not her students anymore, especially Naruto.

He always thought she took herself way too seriously since she became a teacher. He remembered vaguely that she was known as a prankster in school, but that changed when she moved from student to instructor. Since she had placed herself on his radar from the time of that first argument, he decided to toy with her. Whenever he came in contact with her, especially in the mission room, he made sure to embarrass her just so he could see her blush.

He thought of the marriage idea when she began to counter his attacks. She started to prank him back and even got him good a couple of times. He couldn't help but cringe when he remembered the last incident. For days he anxiously waited for the latest edition of Icha Icha to arrive in the mail, but, unfortunately, she had beaten him to it. Wrapping it securely in plastic she had frozen it in a solid block of ice. It took about a week for it to thaw out on the balcony. Though she denies it, he still believes the cold warped the book a little.

When he proposed to her in front of the all the occupants in the mission room, he truly thought he got her so well that she would not ever speak to him again, but it backfired. After he had asked her on bended knee, she looked at him for a long moment. Kakashi had thought she would turn red and begin to yell at him for his blatantly childish actions, but what she did next surprised him. She giggled like a schoolgirl and threw her arms around his neck, throwing him off balance so that he landed painfully on his back with her on top of him. She planted kisses all over his face while giggling her answer. It was not only yes, but a thousand times yes!

As she rubbed her nose against his, Kakashi looked into her eyes and for a split second he saw that prankster gleam. He knew then she had played him. Not one to back down, he smiled up at her letting her know the war was on and watched as her smile faltered a little before widening in acceptance of the challenge.

Everyone seemed overjoyed that they were engaged. As they were getting congratulated for the engagement, news had come that Iruka's apartment was flooded. He tagged along as any good fiancé would to see the damage and offer comfort. A water pipe upstairs had cracked badly causing considerable damage to the surrounding units. It turned out that it was not safe for Iruka to stay there.

That was when Kakashi first realized how malevolent Iruka could be. Just as the landlord finished informing her of the extent the damage to her unit was and that she needed to find another place to live temporarily, Ebisu and, a short while later, Gai showed up. While pointing accusingly at Kakashi, Ebisu was demanding why Iruka agreed to marry a pervert. Kakashi had a sneaking suspicion that Ebisu harbored a serious crush on Iruka. As for Gai, he wanted to personally congratulate Kakashi and Iruka on their exuberant "Spring of Youth."

Both just caught the tail end of what the landlord said. Iruka smiled evilly, which was caught only by Kakashi, and then ever so sweetly stated she had no idea where she could go stay in the meantime. Gai, the moron that he is, said that since Kakashi and the chuunin were now engaged it was the perfect opportunity for them to move into together sooner and see if they were truly compatible. If not, Iruka would simply move back to her apartment once repairs were done. Kakashi would have done some serious harm to him at that moment if there weren't witnesses. Ebisu, the other idiot, was the first to offer to help Iruka move in. He secretly hoped to talk Iruka out of it, but eventually failed miserably at the attempt.

That's when the war really got underway. Kakashi hated having his privacy encroached upon. Iruka took full advantage of the situation by deliberately rearranging his things so he couldn't find anything when he needed it and then feigned forgetfulness whenever he asked her the whereabouts of said items. Since she moved in, they continuously played with each other for the next few weeks, making each other's life hell.

Last night was no different. Kakashi had waited for Iruka to come home and had planned on making her sleep on the couch, which was so uncomfortable that no one sat on it much less slept on it. The previous occupant had left it behind, but since Kakashi was always out on a mission he didn't bother to buy a new one.

He had already called her in sick the other day to make her fall behind and to ruin her perfect record of attendance. Kakashi then decided to set off a series of mishaps to make her day even worse by not only doubling her workload, but by making sure everything else went wrong for her.

Yesterday Kakashi gave all the kids in her classroom candy to make them very hyper. Then he hid all the Hokage's sake bottles she was storing under Shizune's nose, which always puts her in a bad mood. The killer was when he made a few carefully worded comments regarding the current assignments being sub-standard to his fellow shinobi, causing all of them to complain to the clerk who was passing them out.

When Iruka came home she looked like hell. As she showered, he summoned his nin dogs and had them sleep on the bed with him. Kakashi knew Iruka would get mad, but thought she would storm to the couch rather than fight him for the bed. He just went with the flow when the opposite happened. He really didn't expect, or plan, on having sex with her.

Closing his eyes at the memory of her body, Kakashi stood still in the shower, allowing the water to hit his torso. Placing one had on the wall in front of him his other hand made its way down to his manhood. It was already hard at the thought of Iruka's feminine warmth.

Kakashi slowly stroked himself up and down. Letting his head hang down, he allowed his body to remember the feel of her body. He could still taste her on his tongue, the sweetness that was her. He rubbed himself harder at every memory of everything they did until he discharged into the water stream. Allowing the water to rinse away the evidence of his dirty thoughts, Kakashi pushed his face into the hot water to clear his head. Getting out he quickly dried himself. He put on a pair of loose grey sweat pants that hung low on his hips. He didn't bother with a shirt, but he did put his mask and headband back on. Taking a deep breath he moved to leave the safety of the bathroom.