Iruka needs a girl, dontchathink? *winkwink
Happy reading, by the way. :D
It definitely wasn't without reasons that he loved eating at Ichiraku so much. Obviously, the food was excellent. The price was wallet-friendly. Multiple times better than the academy's cafeteria, if he may be so bold to say. And hanging out over a bowl of ramen (or three) with Naruto was always a much more preferable option than having to listen to them stuck-up jounins bragging about their missions or arguing on how to kill enemy in the worst and most painful way possible. Guaranteed to ruin your appetite.
But the best thing about the ramen bar was, of course, her.
Iruka had been a regular customer since he was accepted as a teacher in the academy. She was still a shy, blushing little girl back then, cutely trying to help her father serving the customers as best as she could. Naturally, being seven years older than her, he hadn't noticed her that time.
Who would've thought that five years later she had bloomed into such a pretty young woman with all the right curves on the right places capable of keeping his attention occupied enough to disregard where his chopsticks were going? It wasn't until he felt trickles of hot liquid on his lap that he realized he was feeding the noodles to his chest due to his being too busy to stare.
"Iruka-sensei—are you listening?"
It took Naruto a full ten seconds waving his hand in front of Iruka's face before the latter reentered the realm of awareness.
"Sorry, what was that?" Iruka gave him an apologetic grin, praying feverishly that his former student would overlook the clues to his current impediment—though, knowing Naruto, he knew he didn't need to worry that much.
The impetuous teen shinobi folded his arms across his chest with a crumpled face. "I know you weren't paying attention," he sulked. "God knows what is going around in your head these days."
Despite his gratitude for being blessed with such a thickhead of a student, he still couldn't help feeling slightly guilty on using the moniker on the first place. "Right, I apologize," Iruka rubbed the back of his head, again offering a rueful expression to the blond genin. "Well, I do seem to remember you were talking about a certain girl…"
Naruto sighed. "Yeah," he mumbled, appeared to have exchanged his previous sullenness into perplexity. "It turns out that- uh, how do I put this? There's a girl… well, there's this girl who told me that she loves me,"
Iruka promptly put down his chopsticks and shifted his entire concentration from a particular girl of his own issue to the bemused teenager because this was a god-grieving deadly serious matter. "A girl confessed her feelings to you?"
Naruto nodded, twiddling his chopsticks distractedly. From one glance to his only half-empty bowl, Iruka could tell that Naruto was far from joking.
"Who?" the tokubetsu jounin could not quite disguise his immense curiosity. Naruto threw him an irritated squint.
"I'm not telling who," Naruto's hasty murmur was supplemented by a change of shades behind his whisker-marks and Iruka had to hide his smirk. "It's just somebody I know. Anyway, that's not the point!"
"Then what is, exactly, Naruto?" Iruka asked him testily. He was so enjoying this.
"I came to you because…" for the first time in Iruka's life, he actually saw Naruto fretted. "I need your advice. I mean, it happened months ago, and it somehow kept bugging me in the head lately. I feel like I have to do something, anything. But I still haven't talked to her about this because- hell, I have no idea what should I do or say."
Iruka didn't answer immediately, which Naruto interpreted as an act of needing more persuasion from his part.
"And since I don't have anybody else—well, even if ero-sennin were still alive I would not ask him 'cause he would've given me suggestion that is both crappy and perverted anyways—you are the only one whom I'm sure is able to help me with this kind of… problems," Naruto trailed off, darting his eyes to Iruka with resounding anticipation.
Iruka took his time straightening his pose before replying.
"Let me get this straight, Naruto," he pronounced his words slowly and carefully, making sure that he pressed on every right syllable. "You, one of the strongest ninja I've ever known, the one who defeated Pain along with most of Akatsuki members, and the one who is able control the nine-tails, the embodiment of pure evil, does not know how to respond to a girl?"
"This is an entirely different thing!" Naruto burst out so frantically he sprayed spits on Iruka. "This- This is something I haven't had any clue how to tackle. Now, are you gonna help me or not, Iruka-sensei, or should I ask Kakashi-sensei instead?"
Iruka took a deep breath while wiping saliva off his scarred nose. Estimating the masked jounin's guidance wouldn't wander too far from Jiraiya-sama's path, then it's time to get serious.
"Alright. This girl, do you like her?"
Naruto was silent for a moment, apparently thinking.
"Well, she's okay, I guess. She once almost sacrificed her life at the expense of mine…"
"Then?"
"She's actually pretty cute, and her figure is not that bad either. No, in fact, it's anything but bad. You know,"
Naruto made some gestures with his hands to give his speech a rather vivid description.
Iruka nodded. "And?"
"I never really had the chance to talk to her, 'cause, well, she faints a lot whenever she sees me… I guess now I know why she does. It's a shame, because I'd like to say thank you, and I'd like to know more about her, but she barely says any word when I'm around—wait, I think I know why she does that, too—"
Iruka pressed his lips together to stop himself from sniggering.
"To be frank, I think she looks really cute when she blushes. And she does that all the time, mind you. I never told anybody this before, but I had a thing for girls with long hair. She has this, very long, very silky-looking dark hair, and it looks really… soft, you know. And it smells really good, too. I sometimes like to take a whiff if we happened to be in a close proximity. But other than that, my interaction with her is almost none, and-"
"Ask her out."
"Wha-?"
"I said ask her out," Iruka beamed, catching up to his previously abandoned meal. "You sounded like you like her that much,"
"I didn't-" Naruto paused. "I did?"
He turned, wide-eyed, to Iruka. "I did, didn't I?"
The ponytailed man merely beheld his brother-like pupil with amusement on his eyes.
"But- But-"
Iruka raised his eyebrows. "Hmm?"
"What if she said no?"
"Come on. She already confessed her love to you, and I think we can both agree that's a form of solid reassurance she wouldn't refuse. Besides, you would never know how interesting she is unless you find out for yourself, right?"
"But-" Naruto frowned. "What if she faints? Again?"
"Then you hold her," Iruka gave the younger man a warm smile. "Make sure she doesn't hit the ground,"
The stern air in the blond's face gradually switched into a heartfelt grin much like his tutor's.
"I will, sensei," his gaze was steely piercing. Iruka recalled the last time he saw Naruto with this much of determination was when he vowed to end the war with Madara by himself.
"Right then!" Naruto stood from his chair in one swift movement. "I'll go and ask her now. Thank you, sensei! I trust you'll take care of my ramen?"
"As usual, don't worry about it," Iruka gestured him to keep going.
"Great. I'll see ya," Naruto rushed out.
"Oh, and Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"Say hello to Hinata-chan from me,"
"What?" he stopped dead in his tracks. "How did you-"
"Just go already!"
"Right. Okay. Wish me luck, Iruka-sensei!"
Iruka watched Naruto disappear into the corner of the streets. Half-smiling, he returned to his already cold meal. Now on to his own romantic issues.
His last experience was years in the past, and he was kind of worried of getting rusty. After all, he was never renowned as the 'smooth guy' Iruka, unlike his late senpai Asuma, or, hell, Ibiki, even. Nevertheless, he had gained enough confidence—and, if truth be told, quite a bit of self-satisfaction—after instructing Naruto on a similar problem beforehand. So that's why he oh-so-casually paraded back to the little ramen shop after nightfall, right at the closing time, making it as though he had strolled across the place entirely by accident. He busied himself with helping Teuchi-san putting down the wood sign while building up his courage before approaching her.
First step, clearing his throat. That finally caught the brunette's attention.
"May I help you, Iruka-sensei?" she said in a polite tone. He always found her cheerful eyes to be awfully distracting. Time for the second step, or else.
"Actually, Ayame-chan,"—he just had to say this before the words got stuck in his throat—"I was wondering whether you're free tomorrow for, um, a date with me?"
She didn't talk for a while, only stared at him with arched eyebrows and an inscrutable expression. After a few more seconds Iruka's nervous reflexes urged him to fix this.
"Of course, if you are not—"
"Okay,"
He wasn't sure that he heard her correctly. "Excuse me?"
"Okay, sensei," she repeated cordially. "Ten o'clock. Don't be late. And,"
She scanned his appearance head-to-toe before saying with a smirk, "Dress nicely, please."
Iruka went home that night with springs on his heels and a huge grin plastered across his face. He started to consider arranging a double date with his favorite energetic pupil. It'd be a lot of fun.
end.
Gimme a shout if you, too, like Iruka/Ayame just as I do :))