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December 10th.
When Iruka had first found out that he would be in charge of the Hokage’s younger son for his first class, he was terrified.
Of course, it wasn’t Naruto that was the problem. Iruka had known him since he was barely a year old, after all. After his parents had passed away protecting Kushina from the mysterious would-be assassin, she had made it her personal mission to take the hellion Iruka had become and turn him into a seals master. Academy instructor had been a bit of a surprise to both of them, but Iruka had always been good at surprising people.
No, it was Iruka himself that had been his main concern. He had expressed these concerns to Minato— what if he wasn’t strong enough to protect Naruto from people who might attack him? Not only was he the son of the Hokage, he was the only other Uzumaki in the village, and therefore the future Jinchuriki. Iruka couldn’t hope to hold his own against the people who would certainly want to do harm to Naruto— but Minato just laughed it off and said that he would make sure Iruka had ANBU surveillance from his best operatives.
Two years later, Iruka was mostly over his fear. Honestly, if someone wanted to try kidnapping Naruto, let them. Half of the village would be at their door, armed to the teeth. Iruka would be among them, of course— he wasn’t immune to Naruto’s brash charm. Far from it, in fact. Which was how he found himself, for the second time that week, sitting in the Hokage’s dining room with a cup of hot tea and several scrolls laid out in front of him.
“Sense—i,” Naruto called, dragging out the last vowel to ridiculous levels, “do you have anyone to spend Christmas with this year?”
Iruka sipped his tea. “Uh, no.” He marked another note into his notepad after seeing the fascinating way Kushina had modified a magnet tag in one of the scrolls. He’d have to ask her what it was for when she got home. “I’m trying to do work right now, Naruto.”
Naruto groaned loudly. “Everyone in this family is always doing work!” He complained. “Even Ma and Pa, but I guess they’ll be spending Christmas together.” Naruto shot up from where he had draped himself dramatically over one of the chairs and grinned at Iruka with a wicked glint in his eyes.
“Hey,” he said, still grinning, “what if you and nii-san spent Christmas together?”
Iruka rolled his eyes. “Sure, Naruto. I’ll spend Christmas with your big brother when pigs fly.”
Naruto’s elusive, secret older brother. So secret that even Iruka wasn’t allowed to know his name. Even knowing that he existed was a privilege. He had his theories, of course— mostly that his name was another ramen ingredient. Of course, he was adopted, so that theory was probably wrong. But Iruka held it close to his heart anyway. Iruka probably wouldn’t have believed that the older brother even existed if he hadn’t heard his voice a thousand times.
“When pigs fly?” The familiar voice called from somewhere upstairs. “Iruka! I’m hurt!”
“You hurt his feelings, ya know!” Naruto said unnecessarily.
“Suck it up! I won’t kiss a man without seeing his face!”
“Aw, come on!” The older brother called through a laugh. “Nobody’s ever seen my face. It’s a secret.”
“Not even Naruto?” Iruka laughed and went back to studying the scrolls.
“Not even me,” Naruto said seriously.
Iruka snorted. The last thing anyone wanted was an insane man who refused to show his face to anyone, ever.
•
December 18th.
“I’m really serious!” Naruto said a few days later as Iruka walked him home after he had to stay late at school. “You and my older brother can hang out on Christmas and talk about what it feels like to be single!”
Iruka laughed. “Are you going to attend this lonely hearts meeting, Mr Bachelor?”
“Nuh-uh. Sakura-chan will recognize my love before Christmas, ya know!”
“Oh, I’m sure.” Iruka swiped a bit of snow off a low hanging branch and formed it into a snowball.
“Think fast,” he said, lobbing it at Naruto.
•
December 20th.
“This report is terrible, Hatake-san.” Perhaps Iruka was allowing some of the approaching holiday celebrations affect his mood for the better, since he wasn’t nearly as annoyed with Kakashi as he would have been normally.
“Ah, is it?” Kakashi sighed and pulled another scroll out of his back pocket. “I was hoping you would let it slide,” he said, watching Iruka open the new scroll.
The new scroll was for the same exact mission, and written in Kakashi’s spiky handwriting, but was… surprisingly legible. And fully filled out.
Iruka blinked. Kakashi was… messing with him? He stamped the new report with the approved stamp and placed it into the box under the desk that would be sent to the archives later.
“Thank you for your hard work,” he said. What on earth was going on? Kakashi was certainly the type to mess with him on occasion, but messing with him by being nice to him was a new one.
“Likewise.” Kakashi gave him a lazy wave as he left the room— and dammit, Iruka had eyes, and it wasn’t hard to let those eyes drift to how strong Hatake’s forearms looked. Although that may have just been the only part of his body that was visible at all.
He sat there for a few more minutes, stunned. The mission desk was always rather quiet that time of year, and he was the only one working. After about ten minutes of doing nothing except wondering what the hell was wrong with Kakashi, a chunin he didn’t know super well came to relieve him of his duty.
Iruka walked to the Hokage residence through the thin snow and tried to put it out of his mind. Who cared if Kakashi was being weird? Wasn’t Kakashi sort of always being weird? The only time Iruka had seen him act normal was on that mission they had taken together.
“I’m back,” Iruka called as he kicked his boots off. Kushina had insisted he start saying that, rather than any polite greeting. It still made him feel a bit awkward, but it was worth it to see the twin smiles on Naruto and Kushina’s faces.
He heard the tell-tale scrambling of Naruto coming down the hallway to greet him. He caught Iruka’s waist in a fierce hug, which Iruka did his best to return.
“I can’t play today,” he reminded Naruto. “I’m here to train.”
Naruto pouted. “I know,” he said sadly. “My brother said to give you this.” He reached into the pocket of his shorts and awkwardly handed a slip of paper to Iruka while still keeping his other arm wrapped tight around him.
Iruka unfolded the note to see slightly familiar spiky handwriting. Maybe he had seen the brother at the mission desk before? He had to admit that the idea made something like excitement twist in his stomach.
Iruka-sensei,
Sure you don’t want to spend Christmas Eve with me? I’ll meet you at Ichiraku’s at eight.
Sincerely, Naruto’s brother.
Underneath that, he had drawn a pig with wings.
Iruka blushed furiously. Clearly the man was asking him out on a date. At the ramen stand Naruto had clearly told him he favored, too. And on Christmas Eve. The ‘underneath’ was not lost on him.
He considered it seriously. He supposed he had no idea what Naruto’s brother looked like, but he didn’t think of himself as a terribly shallow person. And he knew that he was funny. And kind. And the one time he had seen any part of his body, it had been a single pale arm waving at him from behind a wall. It wasn’t… an unattractive arm. Or an unattractive voice. Or personality, which was what really mattered. Maybe a little pigtail-pull-y, but Iruka would be a liar if he said he wasn’t a little into that.
He sighed heavily. One date with the mysterious man couldn’t hurt.
•
December 23rd.
Iruka was walking down his street to pick up a carton of milk when he nearly ran into Kakashi, who was walking an absurd number of dogs.
“Yo,” Kakashi said.
“Ah! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” Iruka hoped the blush on his cheeks could be waved off as a result of the cold. He was still thinking about the weird thing Kakashi had done the other day.
“No worries, sensei.” Kakashi did have a very nice voice, even if it was muffled by the mask. And a nice visible eye. Iruka grit his teeth. What was he doing? He had a date tomorrow with Naruto’s mysterious older brother. He couldn’t be ogling other mysterious Shinobi before he gave his own mysterious Shinobi a chance. Although when he had started thinking of the brother as ‘his’ was anyone’s guess. Maybe he was in deeper then he thought.
“Have any plans for tomorrow?” Kakashi asked pleasantly. His eye was fixed very intently on Iruka’s eyes.
Iruka swallowed. “Ah, yes, actually. I have a date tomorrow.” He laughed sheepishly. Surely Kakashi would be surprised that Iruka, of all people, had a date on Christmas Eve.
“I see.” Kakashi’s eye curved into what he clearly thought passed as a smile. Iruka thought he could see a bit of pink creep into Kakashi’s ears. Maybe it was the cold. “Lucky person. I hope you enjoy your date.” He waved and sauntered off, the innumerable dogs trailing behind him.
Iruka was left standing there, feeling a bit stunned. Had Kakashi really been trying to ask him out?
No, that couldn’t be it. Iruka shook his head firmly. Two men approaching him in such a short amount of time just wasn’t something that happened.
•
December 24th.
Iruka went into full crisis mode at around five. He had no idea what to wear. His uniform was absolutely not okay, but he didn’t really know all that much about fashion otherwise.
He sighed heavily. Maybe Kushina would have some idea of what her older son would like? He could use her council right about now.
He shoved a few of his nicer clothes into a sealing scroll and pulled on his boots and cloak. The walk to the Hokage residence was treacherous for more than just the ice. He couldn’t stop his brain from swirling around madly, thinking about every possible way that the date could go wrong. He was certain that he would be unattractive, or not as charming in person, or not strong enough to compete with the Hokage’s jonin son, who was so strong he had to be secret.
He sighed and tried the door. It didn’t open. He frowned. That was funny. He was keyed into the Chaka locks. He tried again. Maybe it was locked with the metal lock? Most Shinobi didn’t bother. He sighed and looked up. There was a window into the dining room that Naruto liked to use to sneak out that Iruka could probably use to sneak in.
He used chakra to crawl up the wall, praying no ANBU saw him trying to break into the Hokage’s house. He reached up and the window lock undid with chakra. He smiled and slid it open silently. Now he just had to sneak upstairs and into Kushina’s office. Easy.
He dropped into the kitchen and tried to walk silently through the hall to the living room. He just needed to get to the stairs.
His foot creaked on a floorboard and he bit back a swear.
In an instant, he found himself pinned to the wall, a kunai to his throat, and the sharingan spinning inches away from his own eyes.
“Kakashi?” He exclaimed. Kakashi jumped back.
“Iruka?”
Both of his eyes were blown wide. His hair was down and messy without his hitae-ate. He was still wearing a mask, attached to a navy blue shirt, but it wasn’t standard issue.
“Nii-san!” Naruto’s voice said, running in from the living room. “Oh! Iruka-sensei?”
“Hi, Naruto,” Iruka said, a bit nonsensically. “Uh, Nii-san?”
Kakashi’s cheeks turned pink over his mask. “I didn’t mean for you to find out this way,” he said shyly.
Iruka blinked a few times. Naruto’s brother was Kakashi?
He tried desperately to reconcile the interactions they had had, as both versions of Kakashi, into one version of Kakashi. He tried to imagine Naruto’s brother pranking him with weird mission reports— hmm, that seemed realistic. Imagining Kakashi being the brother was harder. Iruka struggled to wrap his head around Kakashi reading Naruto bedtime stories when he was younger, or (apparently) spending an absurd amount of money on shampoo. At least this explained why Naruto sometimes came to school covered in dog hair despite allegedly not having a dog, Iruka thought, remembering the frankly insane amount of dogs he had seen Kakashi walking.
“It’s you,” he breathed. The two most annoying jonin he knew were actually one annoying jonin.
“Uh. Sorry to disappoint?” Kakashi tried.
“Disappoint?” Iruka nearly yelled. “You—! You’re funny and hot? That’s not fair!”
His heart was beating rather hard in his chest and he was sure his face was on fire. It really wasn’t fair. If iruka was being mature— which he was trying to be, considering the circumstances— he would have to admit that he had been charmed by Naruto’s older brother’s bizzare flirting techniques for a while now. To have that combined with the indisputable fact that Hatake Kakashi was hot (and he was extremely hot, even if all you could see of his body was his forearms. It was about the voice, and the way that his one visible eye was truly beautiful, and the sheer competence and power Iruka had seen him exude as mission leader)… was mind-boggling.
Kakashi turned even pinker. “Well. So are you,” he said.
Naruto, still standing between them, looked confused. “What’s going on here?”
“Grown-up stuff,” Kakashi said. “I think,” he added.
“Uh, yes.” Iruka tried to regulate his breathing.
“Are we still on for tonight?” Kakashi said nervously after a few seconds passed.
“Oh.” Iruka blushed. “Absolutely.”
“Eww,” Naruto said, and wrinkled his nose. “I’m gonna go now,” he said, and ran off to disappear upstairs.
Iruka laughed. “And he was so enthusiastic about setting us up.”
“He may have had some encouragement,” Kakashu said, sounding bashful again.
Iruka smiled at him. “You know,” he said, “I still won’t kiss a man without seeing his face.”
Kakashi swallowed. “That could probably be arranged,” he said.
•
December 24th • one year later.
Iruka yawned as he started out across the mission room. No one wanted the Christmas Eve shift at the desk, but Iruka was sadly alone that evening while his boyfriend was out on a mission.
He flicked a pencil across the desk and watched it fall to the floor. Boring. Everything was so boring.
The window slid open behind him and he nearly jumped.
“Hey,” Kakashi’s familiar voice said softly. He quietly dropped to the floor and brushed the snow out of his hair.
Iruka jumped up. “You weren’t supposed to be back for another week!”
“Surprise!” Kakashi smiled and opened his arms under his cloak. Iruka could see the way his lips moved under the mask clearer, now that he knew the face underneath it to match. Even like this— covered in snow and bedraggled from a long mission— he was beautiful.
Iruka rushed over to the window and hugged him.
“You’re freezing,” he muttered.
“Hmm, good thing I have you to warm me up.”
Iruka poked his abdomen hard. “Pervert.”
“Guilty. Hey, I have a mission report. And a sprained ankle. So.”
Iruka let go and stepped back. “Go to the hospital and give me the scroll, you idiot.”
“As you wish.” Kakashi pulled the scroll out of his pocket, handed it to Iruka, and body flickered away.
Iruka rolled his eyes. “Showoff.”
He unfurled the scroll and a small piece of paper fluttered out. He bent down and flipped it over.
Iruka,
Willing to spend another Christmas Eve with me? I’ll meet you at Ichiraku’s at eight.
Love,
Naruto’s older brother.
Iruka laughed. There, beneath Kakashi’s spiky handwriting, he had doodled a pair of pigs with wings and a heart between them.