The Greatest Thing ch2

The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn – Chapter 2: Open Highway

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

A/N: So, it appears that people want more of this fic! Which is a good thing, because I have a 2,000 word document on my hard drive with the entire plot in, which means you're getting more whether you like it or not. A note on updating, I'd like to point out that I'm in the lower sixth at my school, meaning I'm studying for my AS levels which are kind of important, so school takes priority over fanfictions. Buried Alive, my ItaSasu fic, is on a 24-hourly update schedule right now, and I'm not sure how frequently I'll be able to update this one, but I promise it will get updated quickly! When Buried Alive is finished, this will become my main fic. So hold your horses, I'll do my best to update very frequently. This fic is going to be long. Song of the chapter is 'It's My Life' by Bon Jovi. I am ashamed to say so.

Warnings: No lemons because Kakashi has only just turned up in this chapter and Iruka isn't exactly the type to just leap into bed with the first thing he sees. Besides, he still has his 'Plan', and still thinks he's as straight as a bean pole…hehe, what he doesn't know is bean poles are actually quite bendy. Possible language warning for the more sensitive of you out there.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I don't own any of the characters or settings or whatever. However, if I did own Naruto, KakaIru would be canon and it wouldn't be a shounen series anymore…kukuku…

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You better stand tall

When they're calling you out

Don't bend, don't break

Baby, don't back down

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I woke up before my alarm clock went off, the greenish lettering glowing in the dark informing me that I had either an extra half an hour of sleep or an extra half an hour of getting dressed. Considering how an extra half an hour of sleep was unlikely to make a dent in the tiredness I would feel by the end of the day, I swung my legs over the side of my bed. I stretched and yawned, the cold air of my bedroom prickling my skin into goosebumps. It was too cold for September.

I dragged myself into the shower, combing my fingers through my hair under the warm jet of water. I always untied my hair to sleep, but it got badly tangled and painful to brush, so a shower was a good distraction. I brushed water out of my eyes and reached for my shampoo, piling my hair onto the top of my head with sweet smelling lather. Although it was technically a brand of shampoo marketed at women, I liked the fruity smell, and it had usually faded enough by the time I got to school.

When all the bubbles were rinsed from my hair, I just stood with my face upturned for a few minutes until the water started running cold. I turned off the water and wrapped a towel around my waist, not bothering to dry the rest of my body off. Even the towel was just a force of habit left over from sharing a house with my parents. I let my wet hair drip down my shoulders. Although it was cold, the water woke me up a lot, and helped me focus. I was by no means a morning person.

I finished breakfast quickly, and took the raspberry jam out of the fridge and set it down next to the photo of my parents on the window sill. Cold jam on cake was just wrong. Unless the entire cake was chilled, cold jam detracted from the entire taste and texture. Although the jam lasted longer if it lived in the fridge, the finished cake was worth the additional expense on jam.

Still, if it was for my new neighbour, I didn't mind. I had to make a good impression. There's only one chance to make a good impression, and 'cake' was usually synonymous with 'good' in my experience.

I dressed in my generic suit, complete with matching tie, and piled my various bags of school things by the door; one bag of fourth form exercise books, two bags of upper sixth essays, and a half-filled bag of worksheets that needed photocopying later. My dolphin-themed pencil case stuck mockingly out of the top of one bag. It was an ongoing joke – if I threw out the dolphin themed pencil case and bought myself a new, less dolphin-y one, then the new one would disappear only to be replaced by yet another dolphin themed one. I'd gone through about twelve in two years. My fellow members of staff apparently thought it was hilarious to remind my students and me of a certain aquatic mammal that had the same name as me. The joke got old about two weeks after I was born.

My parents were the only ones allowed to call me dolphin or make references to my name, and even then I had brushed it off and pretended to be annoyed by it. With anyone else it seemed a little bit like blasphemy, but I wasn't about to mention it and spoil the fun. Dead parents tend to be a good way to kill any joke.

Konoha High was too far to walk with the bags of marking, so I had to drive. My car was small and easy to get into little parking spaces, which was great for the crowded car park outside the school. Only staff and the head boy and girl got their own spaces, everyone else with a car had to park on the road. As a result, exclusively teachers drove to school, with the exception of one or two seventeen year old boys trying to impress the girls with their flashy, overpriced cars.

However, this morning there was traffic. I was going to be late. Great. I hoped the teachers from the classrooms next to mine would have the sense to register my students if I was late. My form class had a small tendency to do stupid things while I was gone – or at least, one of them did, thus inspiring most of the rest of the class to go wild. As much as I liked him, Naruto could be a huge pain in the ass.

Sighing, I flicked on the radio.

"…and this morning, we've had below average temperatures across the region for the time of year, and it doesn't look like it's going to improve. In fact, the weather office has put out a warning for snow if the weather doesn't take a turn for the better, so be prepared for a surprise if-" I pressed the button, changing channels.

"…the local news, we've been asking people exactly what they think of Konoha's snow defences! The majority of people have said they're a little uncertain about the quality of measures in place to prevent total lockdown, especially considering the chaos we had four years back when-"

I switched the radio to a random music station and shifted my car forward a little. It really didn't look promising. I liked to be in school at least an hour before the students started arriving, just to set everything up and have a moment of peace before the kids turned up and started talking too loudly and running in the corridors and doing teenager-ly things.

At long last, I reached the school. My favourite parking spot was occupied by Anko's dusty grey car, so I picked a new spot beside a sleek silver one I didn't recognise. It looked a little too nice for a teacher, considering our general salary, but I supposed people got lucky sometimes. I locked the car and made my way across the lightly populated car park, regretting not taking my winter coat out of the back of my wardrobe.

"Did you hear about the new sensei? I heard he's really hot!"

"Yes, I did! I can't wait to meet him!"

"I wonder if he's single…"

"I really wish I took physics now just so I could be in his class!"

"Don't be ridiculous, no one that hot could be single!"

It looked like the new teacher already had fangirls. I smirked a little. It would serve him right for being so mysterious. It would be hilarious if he turned out to be some ancient balding geezer with a beer belly and bad teeth, and it would certainly shut the girls up for a while. However, considering the horrifying accuracy of the Konoha High gossip mill, which was apparently secretly headed by Tsunade herself, this was unlikely. Although I did pity the new teacher. He was in for the shock of his life.

The interior of the school was much warmer, but the groups of giggling girls seemed to be everywhere with only one topic on their lips. I admit it made me a little curious. Who was this new teacher who had already captured the hearts of so many teenage girls without actually being here? Still, I'd meet him in staff briefing, so I wouldn't have to wait long.

"I heard he's an ex-soldier, and he has to cover his face to hide the hideous scarring he got in a war!"

"I heard he's actually a spy for Sound Academy! Oh, I really hope he isn't, because Tsunade-sama would never forgive him!"

"I heard he's a ninja!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Miyuki, there's no such thing as ninja!"

Okay, now my curiosity was really piqued. A soldier-ninja-spy with the body of a demi-god and an aura of mystery.

"I'm sorry for being a little late. The traffic was bad," I said as I pushed open the staff room door. Most of the other teachers were already here, probably as anxious to meet the new teacher as the students were.

"Iruka-sensei! Never fear! It is hip and youthful to be fashionably late like the young people basking in the flames of their youth that we teach every day!" Gai, possibly the most enthusiastic PE teacher ever, stood up to greet me, striking a pose in his offensively tight green tracksuit. It was possibly against the school dress code, but it was too funny to get rid of. His teeth gleamed unnaturally brightly and the overhead lighting shone on his practically polished bowl cut.

"Ah, thanks, Gai-sensei," I said, making my way to a vacant seat near the coffee maker. The staff room was well furnished, improved a lot since Tsunade was made headmistress. All the wooden chairs had been taken out and replaced with sofas and armchairs, and a coffee machine big enough to serve an army was installed in the back nicknamed 'The Boss'. She was clearly someone who knew the needs of teachers. I scanned around, looking for an unfamiliar face, but I couldn't find one. "I take it the new teacher isn't here yet?"

"Right on, Iruka-chan!" Anko bubbled from over the top of her coffee cup, probably not the first one of the day. Although The Boss was a good idea most of the time, giving coffee to Anko was not the best of plans.

"Iruka-sensei, please," I corrected.

"Don't be so uptight, Iruka-sensei!"

"Somebody please get that coffee off her," I mumbled, digging into one of my bags for my own coffee mug. There was a mug tree next to The Boss, but I liked to have my own. It was the one piece of dolphin-themed paraphernalia that I would tolerate because it was actually funny, if only because I rather loved the caption, 'Dolphins are Gay Sharks'.

"No need, Iruka-sensei, I just finished!" She slammed the mug on the desk with a touch too much force.

"Excellent," I checked the wall clock. Briefing was supposed to start five minutes ago. "So he's late, then?"

"Yup!"

I filled my mug up with coffee, taking a sip of the tar-black liquid. Although it was ridiculously strong and had too much sweetener in, we were all addicted to it. It was practically a part of the job description.

"So he's not here yet, then?" The door banged open, revealing a slightly drunk looking Tsunade accompanied by a rather tired Shizune.

"Apparently not,"

"Huh. Someone give me a coffee," Shizune immediately reappeared at her side with a steaming cup. "Does this have any liquor in it?"

"No, Tsunade-sama," She sniffed at the steam, not detecting any.

"Why not, Shizune?"

"Because you're at work,"

"I'm the headmistress; I can drink if I want to!"

"No, you can't. Let's just sit down over here and wait for our new teacher to arrive, okay?"

Shizune pulled Tsunade into a seat and we all waited, making small talk or going through our planners or checking marking or trying to catch up on sleep. Five minutes passed, then ten minutes. Across the room, Gai was talking exuberantly about something and Anko was giggling into yet another cup of coffee. I took out my planner and doodled in a margin, looking over my notes for the day.

The door clicked open.

The first thing I noticed was that his face was covered, his nose and mouth with a tight black surgical-style mask, and one eye with an eye patch. From what face I could see, he was young. Not quite a ninja, but a pirate, maybe? That in itself was odd. Was he sick? Above the eye patch his silver hair stood on end like he'd put a finger in an electrical socket. It wasn't silver with age, but I had never seen the colour on a young man before. He was dressed in a black suit jacket with matching trousers, but the top button of his shirt was undone and his tie was loose.

"You're late, Kakashi-sensei."

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A/N: Hooray! Chapter 2! So, Kakashi has arrived, so the plot can properly begin. Oh, more notes on schools! I'm not sure if America or other countries do this, but in England we have two students out of the upper sixth who are either elected or selected to be head boy and head girl. They have a bunch of additional responsibilities and are like the head of the student body, really. Heheheh, 'maybe he's a ninja'… Is it bad that I laugh at my own lame jokes? Tell me in a review! I love it when people review!