The mountain that held the great four former Hokages' were lit up too for the night, the beams of bulbs shining it's white glow on the wooden rooftops of the villagers homes ascended above.

Fog created from a jutsu by the upper elite hovered motionless above the chimney building structures, instituting a bone-chilling visage of the usual tranquil village.

Littered on the ground, on the front lawns and steps of the Japanese houses, were bright orange pumpkins of all sizes, patterns and faces. Some were even done in paint. Inside of the hollow carcass of the plump pumpkin, a small candle lit, it's golden rays sprinkling its glow thru the slits of the pumpkins face.

From everywhere Iruka looked, fake spider webs hung from porches, windows, and anywhere else the thin white cob thread could stretch out and overhang.

There were ghost that fluttered in the gentle breeze of his view, which were made cleverly out of sheer fabric, sewn together with shades of white. The ghost, Iruka suspected; were tied together by fishing wire, then fastened on by either the posts outside or on the thick branches of the trees, which help make up most of their village.

Iruka knew, when the wind picked up, it would blow the objects wildly around in the air. Throwing the made creations high in the sky and make it appear as though they were actually flying. It was made up that way as an illusion, to give the appearance that the ghost were indeed genuine.

But... Iruka knew that they weren't and knew it only worked on the little ones; where it was their first year out. But it was still eye catching.

Iruka could almost swore that the fabricated ghost were real...


Turning his attention back to the homes; Iruka's eyes skimmed at all the lights he saw radiating out the windows from inside the cozy rooms. A light on, meant that the residents were standing-by and ready for the possible arrival of, trick -or- treaters. Eager to give out candy, chocolates, and tasty treats to the children on this Hallow Eve's Day.

In the center, away from the homes, a massive bonfire was laid out in respect for all the deceased that were lost from wars, missions, old age, or from the Nine-Tales Incident Twelve years ago. The flames of the great fire burned crimson, orange, and amber as it climbed the vast sky, flickering in and out as the flames were licked by the breeze.

Four chuunins dressed in costumes, kept attended, forming a circle around the boisterous fire. Each decided to dress as zombies, so as to humor the kids.

From his perspective so far, Iruka thought this was the makings of a nice Halloween to come.


"You should be more careful. Ghost like to go after loners."

'Huh... Who...?!!' Iruka start, turning away from his sights to peer wearily around where he thought he first heard the disembodied voice from the back of him. Searching, searching, his jet-black pupils landed on the outline of a figure now visible to him.

There, hidden in the trees! exclaimed Iruka excited, mentally on guard. Crouching low, he readied himself to fight and positioned himself in defense for any sudden attacks. He kept his hand close by his secured shuriken, which were strapped to his leg and held on by wrapped bandage.

Then he saw it,... a glimmer of silver!

It was only, Kakashi.

Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, Iruka took a better look at the usual droopy eyed teacher.

As soon as he had, Iruka felt his pulse quicken and his heart leap from his chest. His face betrayed him, reddening in his apparent embarrassment, as he stared eye-wide at the man walking languidly towards him.

Gods.. Iruka could only think of two reasons as to why he was blushing.. he thought, troublesome to himself.

The first was the obvious.

The man.

The second, Kakashi's appearance.

So far, Iruka had noticed that he was the only person that chose not to dress up for the occasion, unlike all the other villagers, shinobi warriors, or colleagues of his. Even Kakashi-sensei dressed up! Which Iruka truthfully hadn't expected since the shinobi never showed any interest in Holidays.

For Kakashi, he chose to wear a pair of light beige baggy pants, with dark brown leather boots, 4 in. cuffs around the top, and a silver buckle on the side of the worn boots as an acting strap. Kakashi also wore a black patch over his usual covered eye. The patch had a white skull on it, with two daggers crossed underneath like an X but flipped horizontal. There was even a red and white striped bandana hanging out the right pocket of his pants, where Kakashi usually kept his hands inside.

What completed the outfit was a medium length blade where the tip was inches thick, and curled at the top. The width of the sword grew thinner as it went down to the gold-plated handle. A red string hooked into the band at the bottom of the hilt, dangled freely, brushing Kakashi-san's clothed thigh. The sword found home-age in the inside brown leather belt that buckled around the teachers waist, in what looked like a snug fit, in all things considering.

For the top portion of the dress-wear, the famous copy-eyed ninja had well... went topless.

With firm abs and a well sculpted chest that showed off Kakashi's figure.


Trailing his eyes up from Kakashi's pale chest, to his amazement, Iruka saw that Kakashi had not worn the usual black oral cloth that had always hidden the bottom portion of his face from everyone's view and curiosity. Instead, what was visible, was thin pink lips, a nicely shaped nose, and part of a old scar that peeked from underneath the patch Kakashi wore where his silver bangs over-hung the left portion of his face.

Differ from the rumors that seem to insinuate itself to this man, Iruka found that Kakashi, for a man, was magnificently beautiful. Unlike himself, where Iruka considered himself plain to his admirers eyes.

Maybe that was why Kakashi wore the mask? For he knew to many faithful followers would chase him around and being in the profession that Hatake Kakashi was in, that wasn't safe at all, for either parties.


Iruka was brought back from his thoughts when he was unfortunately interrupted by what sounded like an uncomfortable cough coming from under the hand of the man he was anatomizing over in his head.

Iruka than realized to his dismay, that he had been staring at Kakashi like he was some kind of juicy platter laid out before him!

Oh god... he groaned. Iruka brought his hand up to cover his mouth and felt his cheeks grow even more hotly than they were before, enflaming their way up to his ears. Possibly even down along the line of his back. Iruka's heart pitter-pattered noisily in his chest as he also seemed to have lost the ability to breathe properly. Even his feet betrayed him, by shuffling nervously underneath him, toeing up the loose dirt from under his sole. Kami, why had he looked at Kakashi like that? Iruka held his head, feeling miserable and tossed the question about in his mind.

Looking down at the ground, Iruka stared at the moist blades of grass crushed under his sandals and at the dirt he had kicked up. It had turned to mud by the dew of the grass. Had Iruka known he was looking at Kakashi-sensei like that, while he was scoping out his outfit, he would of trained his eyes elsewhere. Instead, Iruka made the air around them uneasy. Which he hadn't meant too. Iruka had just been... shocked, that's all.

He must be damned... it was the only solution to his troubles.

Peeking up, Iruka cringed as he did and his hand fell from his head to his side.

Kakashi-sensei stood stoic, un-amused.

Iruka realized with stark clarification that this wasn't going to do. He needed to do something to change the atmosphere so that they were a step back from where they originally were before this... uncomfortableness happened.

If only he hadn't looked at Kakashi that way, then he wouldn't be in this mess, berated Iruka to himself. Now, he was forced to think of a way... one that could-

Hey, how about if he said something?
That could work..

"Ready to go?" Iruka asked, voice surprisingly husky to his own ears. God, he really wanted to know why he was acting this way. It's not like he had the hots for the other man... He was just..

Iruka's thought broke off from there, when he came in contact with the greyblue eye of Kakashi's narrowing dangerously at him.

Shit..

Kakashi then broke, un-expectantly, into a wide warm smile; the right of his eye crinkling in hidden humor.

The rate this was going, he was going to have a early death, thought Iruka unsettled, still shivering from the look that had been directed at him.

"If you are, Iruka-sensei..." smiled Kakashi.

If I am...wha-? Iruka came up a blank at what Kakashi-san was implying then he remembered as quickly as he had forgotten.

The whole reason why he was out here in the first place was because he had been waiting for him!

Then... that meant,... Pulling his shirt cuff up from around his wrist, Iruka glanced down at the face of his watch band. With the edge of his index finger, he pushed the small black button in on the side of the watch's head and the blue light flared to life. Displaying the current time to him.

Only 30 minutes went by, from when they were to meet up. So that meant it was now 6:00pm.

But that couldn't be right, Iruka thought. He should at least be standing here for another hour or so like how Kakashi engages with cell 7 and Naruto every morning.

So... why was he the exception? It wasn't like he was close with the other teacher. Iruka couldn't say they were acquaintances either. Sure they went out for a drink a few times at the bar together but most of the time, they would meet up at the Acceptance room where Kakashi would hand him the summary of Team 7's day report. All he and Kakashi-san had ever really talked about were the boys and Sakura. How they were making out and even then, Iruka got little back in their exchanges. In all honesty, Iruka didn't really know much about Kakashi except for the information he gathered from the Hokage-sama, Naruto, and the all around rumors. But that stuff, he could find anywhere. Like in the record books stored in the Hokage's Residence or even from shinobi's that happened to serve under him.

What Iruka did know, was that Kakashi had a track record of making everyone wait, even the Third Hokage wasn't discounted.

So then... how come he was being treated differently? It wasn't like Kakashi-sensei to be so generous, especially with his time.

From what he learned from Naruto, Kakashi was almost always found reading some perverted book like Come Come Paradise or Come Come Violence, even during teaching hours when he should be instructing his students more in the espionage world.

Maybe, Kakashi was setting him up for a joke. It was Halloween after all and already three incidents of those occurred on Mischief night. The persecutors were punished but they were only genin. Iruka was dealing with a jounin. A very clever-witted jounin who seems harmless to the eye but he knew better.


Seeing the ever present displeased expression on the man's face, Iruka smiled wryly and rubbed the back of his neck in apology, "I I, matey," chuckled Iruka, pleased with the decision he made with himself about Kakashi's intent. He walked jolly ahead.

Behind, Kakashi followed the dolphin's lead, pretending to sulk at the crack Iruka made. His lips curled up in a smile as he eyed up the scarred teacher from underneath his silver bangs, "I, I yourself..." he murmured, his look turning feral.

Kakashi took his pirate sword out from his belt and twirled it in his hand, whistling a tune of the old sea.

Upon hearing the odd tune, Iruka turned around and eyed Kakashi-san strangely, stopping in his dogtrot.

In his defense, Kakashi shrugged, expression dry, "Hey, I'm a pirate. What do you expect?" he grinned innocently enough, blue pupil full of mirth as he directed his undivided attention to the school teacher.

Iruka said nothing and continued to walk towards the Academy; his derange companion trailing not too far behind.

From there, he and Kakashi-san were to meet up with the other groups and Naruto.