Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters belonging to it.
Author's Notes: For those of you who don't know, May 26th marked Iruka's birthday. I felt the need to write something to commemorate it. I would have done so earlier, but vacation left me without a computer. I apologize that this is so short, but I was pressed for time because I wanted to get something up before the end of the month. At any rate, I think it got the point across just the same.
Warnings: None. ^_^
Only Best
By Quatrina Raberba
The first thing that greeted him that morning was the gentle, vibrant ray of light that spilt from his window and onto his scarred face. As his eyes pleasantly blinked open, his body twisted into a satisfying stretch as he himself greeted the new day. Moments after, a yawn left him and his body relaxed itself from its stretch, his arms now resting beside his head.
Mere seconds after this happened, the blaring ring of his alarm clock sounded from his bedside table. The incessant noisy ring emitting from the clock grated upon his ears, destroying any bit of tranquility he had once possessed. It wasn't long before his hand flew over to the table and, in an attempt to grab at the clock, loudly knocked it to the floor.
The ringing continued and he quickly sat up, his eyes squinting to keep the sun's light from penetrating into them. He slipped – or rather stumbled – from his bed and as soon as his hands had retrieved the annoying alarm clock, the ringing had ceased. With a sigh, he replaced the innocent looking clock back onto the table.
Umino Iruka's daily morning routine had begun.
The school teacher had realized he had an internal clock of his own long ago, and he often found himself waking just moments before his external clock sounded its blaring alarm. Once, he had experimented to see if he could still get through the morning without the clock being set to wake him, and while his morning had been more peaceful than usual, he also had slept an hour longer than usual. Naturally, that wouldn't do, and so he was forced to implement his clock back into action.
As he shuffled his way out of his bedroom, his hands reached for his robe that hung on his door. After wrapping himself with it, he silently told himself that if he wanted a more peaceful morning, he needed to master the art of waking up on his own flawlessly. Either that, or get himself a new alarm clock. Or maybe someone could get him one.
It was then Iruka suddenly realized that today was May 26th.
His birthday.
He stood still for a moment, blinking somewhat, and after shaking his head he proceeded down the hallway. It wasn't as if he had forgotten his own birthday – no, that certainly wasn't the case. But it hadn't been the first thing he thought of when he awoke. Even so, the memory had still rested at the back of his mind until some stray thought could jostle it to the front.
Hardly anyone remembered his birthday since the tragic death of his parents, he noted to himself with a sad smile. He didn't want to become one of them.
A knock sounded from the front door, shaking Iruka from his thoughts. He quickly ran to answer it, unsure of who could be calling on him so early in the morning. Who he found on the other side of the door, however, wasn't whom he would have expected.
Hatake Kakashi stood silently before him and although he didn't look any different than he normally did – masked, forehead protector covering an eye, silver hair shooting every which way – Iruka did notice something out of the ordinary.
Cradled in his hands was a small, brown box.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Iruka finally spoke, remembering to greet his guest. "What can I do for you?" After all, it was such a rarity for Kakashi to seek him like this, so he must have needed something, he had decided.
Kakashi extended the small box with one hand. "I brought this for you," he said casually, one lazy eye meeting Iruka's.
"For…me?" After seeing a short nod from Kakashi, the dark haired man took the box from the lighter haired jounin. "Kakashi-sensei…I don't know what to say." Iruka was too busy looking down at the box to notice Kakashi's sudden blink.
Kakashi seemed to blink once more before he held up a hand to stop as if to stop any further questions from Iruka before he spoke. "I think there's been a misunderstanding. You should probably look inside the box before you jump to anymore conclusions."
Giving a puzzled look, he did as he was told, and opened the box. A lovely silver writing pen rested on top of some tissue paper; a heavy silence loomed as Iruka looked down at it.
"My pen," he said softly at last. "You brought my pen back."
"The woman at the jewelry store saw that I was coming this way and asked me to deliver it to you. She said for me to tell you that it's completely fixed now."
"I see!" He exclaimed as he looked up at him suddenly, a flustered blush covering his face. "I see, well, thank you very much and I'm sorry for the inconvenience," he added quickly. "Would you like to come inside? Perhaps you'd like some tea. I could brew some up real fast if you'd like."
Kakashi seemed to consider this a moment, as his only revealed eye considered Iruka for a moment. It was in that moment the younger man thought he saw a flicker of understanding and wisdom in that eye and the flush in Iruka's face lessened a bit.
"I'm not in a hurry," answered Kakashi, as if he were still considering. "Sure. I'll come in."
Iruka smiled somewhat and stepped to the side, allowing his guest to walk into his house. "Come in then."
And he did.
That morning of quiet conversation with Kakashi over a soothing cup of tea was the only present he received that day.
But to Umino Iruka, it was, by far, the best.
~*FIN*~