Disclaimer
I don't own Naruto.
Summary
Life is hard for a chunin like Iruka. Grading tests, not killing students and sending ninja out on missions to their deaths. It's even harder when he has to take care of a jounin turned three year old chibi.
Sequel to Plastic Ponies.
Author's Notes
The first chapter of the sequel of Plastic Ponies. If you haven't read the prequel to this story, please do. If you don't, well, most of this story won't make sense until chapter five, and even then you'll be a little confused.
It feels good to be writing again and I hope you guys all like this story. Of course, there might be a little bit of Kakashi x Iruka hinted throughout this story, but I don't know how far it's going to go, as usual.
Enjoy.
It was a beautiful day in Konohagakure, which was unusual since winter was only a few days in coming. The leaves were almost gone from the trees, except for a few stubborn ones, and a brisk, cold wind often blew around the village.
This was the first week that Hatake Kakashi had completed fully in the village, having recently been on scores of missions, one after the other involving the assassination of someone of great importance, and the men who had attacked him afterwards, then suddenly back to the job of torturing, ahem, training his students. Normally he would enjoy listening to an older Naruto screaming, Sasuke coolly retorting and Sakura fretting over both. But this day was different. His thoughts were returning to a time four years ago.
'How could he forget?' Kakashi's mind screamed a question that had plagued him for years as he watched his students complete a D-ranked mission. 'I had to watch him for a week, make sure he didn't kill himself, and he doesn't even remember it!' His thoughts continued to race, even after Naruto found the rabbit and began to jump up and down in victory. He nodded at the blonde, ignoring him in reality.
"Kakashi-sensei, are you okay?" Sakura asked, holding onto the puppy in her arms. Always the perceptive one, even way back, she knew that something was eating at her teacher. It seemed she was right. This was typical with her having been one of the top students of her class.
Naruto cursed when the rabbit bit him and raced off, only to be caught by Sasuke. "Yeah, you look angry." He said while glaring at the Uchiha, sucking on the small wound that was trickling blood. "What's going on?" He asked, sticking his tongue out at the rabbit when it sniffed at his pant's leg.
The jounin smiled at the children in front of him, jumping off the high branch to land in front of them. "Nothing." He replied easily, patting Naruto on the head, earning a grunt from the sixteen year old. "You better return those animals to their owners. I'll see you back in the mission room." And with a poof of murky smoke the man was gone, leaving behind his confused students.
Sakura pouted and pulled the small animal closer to her chest, as if to take comfort from the warmth, before beginning to walk back into town. She nodded thoughtfully and began to talk, knowing that Naruto and Sasuke would be listening, "Kakashi-sensei has changed, ya know? Ever since...
"It's as if he's always thinking about something else…" She trailed off, sighing as they walked past the village barrier. She shrugged slightly to get rid of the strand of pink hair that fell into her eyes since she was still holding the puppy.
The trio was quiet as they walked towards the mission room, two of them holding the animals that they were charged with finding for their owners. None of them tried to break the silence that had fallen, thinking about the strange, almost distant, manner that their teacher had adopted in the last few days.
Naruto sighed, opening the door since he was the only who wasn't carrying an animal. Inside, and after Sasuke tossed the rabbit at the blonde, they continued on their way to the bustling room at the end of the hall.
The mission room, as usual, was in complete panic when the door swung open. Chunin's and other ninja ran around the room, some with arms filled with papers and the rest were scrambling after the first picking up the leaves of paper that flew from the other's arms.
Suddenly, there was a lull in the erratic traffic; a moment of unaccounted for organization, and the three genin took this chance to dash across the room to the one who assigned them the mission. It was fairly simple the mission that had been assigned to them, but then again, a lot of the higher level missions were being sucked up by bored ANBU's and jounin's who weren't assigned to a group for training.
The man at the desk looked up when Naruto slammed into the surface, tripping over his own two feet to try and avoid hurting the rabbit in his arms, taking the brunt of the hit. A pair of eyes brightened slightly at the sight of the three children, reflecting the smile that tugged at the corners of the mouth.
"I take it the mission was a success?" Iruka asked, setting aside his paperwork to save the bunny from becoming squeezed too hard in Naruto's arms. Immediately after being released from the boy, the rabbit relaxed in the sensei's presence.
The chunin chuckled softly and stroked at the dark fur, allowing the animal to nuzzle his hand. "Well, I see you have the pets, but where's Kakashi-san?" Iruka asked, tilting his head so he could see his three past students.
"He left right after we finished the mission." Sakura supplied in a quiet voice, barely heard over the hum of the mission room. She placed the puppy on the ground, trusting it to not wander out of the room.
Iruka stopped his patting for a moment, concentrating on the melancholy girl standing in front of him. Before he could ask what was wrong, and there was always something wrong when it involved ninja girls, especially when they reached sweet sixteen, a folder flew onto his desk.
Looking up to see who would hand in a mission report like this, Iruka felt his eyes widen as Kakashi walked slowly into the room. The tall man wove in and out of the organized chaos easily, hands still in his pockets, sidestepping a woman who was chasing after a genin. He stopped when he was easily within reach of the chunin from his desk, placing his hand on the folder.
Usually the elusive ninja waited until night or early morning to hand in his reports. More closely analyzed, the jounin only wandered into the normally busy building when the mission room was almost dead with no one around. And a certain academy teacher was off duty.
"We've finished the mission as required, Umino-san." Kakashi said, lifting his hand and trailing it away from the report. He turned his head to the side, as if hearing something from far away. The jounin nodded, stepping away from his students and the teacher from their past, moving towards the hallway that led to the office of the new hokage.
Sakura followed the man with her eyes, feeling the hard lump of emotion lodged in her chest. She sighed, looking down at the puppy that was huddled against her leg, quivering in fear from the noise around it. She bent and picked it up, hugging it hard against her torso as if to squash the strange feeling.
The blonde snorted out his nose and jumped onto the desk, sitting on the smooth surface in the other direction to follow the retreating back of his teacher. "See, Iruka-sensei?" He crossed his arms and glared over at the brown haired man, as if blaming him, "He's been like this all week!" Naruto heaved a huge sigh.
Iruka shrugged, handing the rabbit to Sasuke, who blinked at the animal in strange fear, so that he would be able to take hold of the report. "Well, Naruto, he might just be going through a growth spurt in maturity." He replied easily, flipping open the sealed folder to find the details.
He blinked as he read over the paper, realizing that the document in front of him was possibly the most boring report ever written. Not what Kakashi usually handed in for him to review. The chunin stared blankly at the papers, thinking back to what the infamous copy-nin had handed in three months ago to a new chunin when he returned from a class S, promptly going on his newly assigned mission.
The girl still burst into tears every time she had to work in the mission room.
Iruka shivered at the memory, remembering the doodles that covered every inch of the margins, having had to file some of the reports himself. The vague descriptions of enemies and their attack patterns used against him in battle. Expressive reviews concerning the restaurant stands that he stopped at along the way and back again.
No, this blank sounding, and looking, report was much better than what Iruka was used to. 'But it still seems a little bland for something Kakashi-san would write…' The chunin shook his head and smiled at his past students. "So, how have your missions been?" He asked, moving the folder over into a pile of reports that had to be filed.
"Alright." Naruto sighed, taking the rabbit from Sasuke, who was looking a little sick, maybe allergies. He smiled and stroked the animal's fur, unaware of how un-Naruto like he looked at the moment. "Except Kakashi-sensei has been a little weird since he had to do that mission."
"Well, Naruto, he just came back from a very dangerous mission, so of course it's going to take him a while to get back into the swing of things. Listen, if it makes you feel better, he's not scheduled for any missions for the next month and a half." Iruka asked, looking through his books with a sigh.
Blue eyes regarded the chunin sensei, widening for a moment before becoming sad. "Oh yeah… Kakashi-sensei came back from his mission. That must be why..." Naruto commented slowly, looking at his teammates with a confused shrug, not knowing what to say to someone who didn't remember.
"Yeah, that has to be it!" Sakura said enthusiastically, hugging the puppy close. "I mean, why else would Kakashi-sensei be so droopy? He must be tired." She smiled, nodding her head with a sudden found vigor. "I think we should get the animals back to their owners, right?"
Sasuke nodded, grabbing Naruto's arm. "Yes." He smiled, more of a twitch of the lips, and led the blonde out the mission room and the chaos that surrounded it.
The pink haired girl watched as the two males walked off, patting the dog in a distracted way. She'd return her pet in a little bit; maybe wait to see if Iruka-sensei would suddenly remember what had happened to him a few years ago. When she turned, the chunin was staring oddly at where Naruto had last been. "What's wrong, sensei?"
"What's going on with Naruto and Sasuke?" Iruka asked, his eyes slowly widening as his mind went into overdrive to try and understand everything placed before him. "And did I just see Sasuke, smile?" His brow furrowed as he thought over the wrong sounding statement.
The Uchiha had never smiled in his presence before. Well, once. But that was founded purely by instinct and a deep rooted pleasure at seeing Neji getting attacked by a flock of birds when a ball of bird seed 'mysteriously' found its way into the pale eyed male's backpack. A connection between the seed and Sasuke had never been found.
Sakura gave a little sigh, toying with the dog's ears after placing it on the desk so it could relax slightly. "I think they're in love." She smiled, turning to the door that her teammates had just walked through. "Yeah…that seems about right." The girl pushed back a strand of pale hair that had fallen in front of her eyes and turned back to her past teacher, who was in the same position she had left him in.
"W-w-when did this happen?" Iruka sputtered, reaching over to pull Sakura across his desk so that none of the other workers in the mission room could hear what was being discussed. "How did this happen!" He asked when Sakura looked at him with a blank look.
She shrugged, looking over at the door, wishing she could walk out of it instead of trying to explain this to Iruka without getting in some sort of trouble. "It was a few years ago when you were…Actually, it was when Kakashi-sensei had to watch…No…" She huffed and crossed her arms, trying to think of a way out of this new found predicament.
"It was at a party!" Sakura exclaimed, going with the barest of facts at the moment, "Naruto found Sasuke, who was drunk, and then they…Not that that was the reason!" She drifted off, realizing what she just said, and glanced at the older man sitting next to her, not surprised at seeing a vein throbbing slightly near his temple and on his neck. "Um, Iruka-sensei, maybe you should ask Naruto yourself. They've been together for a long time. You just haven't...noticed."
The pink-haired girl moved from behind the desk and grabbed the puppy off the piece of furniture, which was looking down at the ground with a calculating glance, and jogged over to the door. "Don't worry, Iruka-sensei!" She said suddenly, turning back to wave with one hand, "Everything will make sense!"
As Sakura moved out the door she quietly added to herself, "If you ever find out what happened…"
"Kakashi, I am sure you are wondering why it is I summoned you here." Tsunade questioned the jounin standing in back of her, looking out the large window behind her desk. After a few moments of watching the village's inhabitants pursue their lives, she turned to the much younger man. "Are you?"
Bored eyes trained on the wall behind the voluptuous figure. "I'm not quite sure, Hokage-sama." The jounin said, voice monotone. "My last mission was a success. The kids are doing fine, though hormones are running wild. Winter is almost here so the winter treaties will soon be in effect. Birds are flocking and bears are going to sleep, children are sharpening ice skates-"
A snort from the woman brought Kakashi back from his rambles, forcing him to focus his eye on Tsunade, albeit a little lazily. "I know what the weather is and what it results in." She stated, crossing her arms over her chest, "And I believe I understand what is going on in the village that I must guard.
"What I don't understand, though, Kakashi, is you."
On the blonde's desk was an envelope, looking vaguely familiar the jounin sitting down. "Graduated from the academy at six. Youngest jounin at only thirteen." Tsunade recited from memory, "Only person not from the Uchiha clan to have sharigan vision. You are one in a million." The hokage nodded.
"But it says in your file that you've never had anyone," Tsunade held up her pinky, wiggling it provocatively, "To call your own, ne?"
Her eyes studied the man for a moment, taking in his nonchalance that suddenly seemed forced before lowering her gaze slyly back to the window to watch a pink haired girl walk out the door directly below her office, wondering if Kakashi could feel his student's specific chakra signature. He was always good at recognizing the chakra of others. "Of course," She spoke to the glass, "We are going to have to fix that."
Turning away from the window, and pushing those thought out of her mind, the hokage studied one of the greatest ninja ever from Konohagakure.
"What I don't understand is how you don't have women throwing themselves at you." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully with her hand, looking over the seated male. Good looks, well, good eye; add that to a nice eyebrow... The hokage felt her own eyebrow tick in annoyance.
'He has to have a good body, all ninja did. Well, except the Akimichi family. But not all ninja were like that.' She tapped thoughtfully on her chin, 'Stay at home mothers somehow stayed in shape even though they didn't go on any missions anymore. Hell, even the academy teachers, like Iruka-sensei, were still in good shape.'
Tsunade brightened considerably, thinking about the academy teacher that was known around the village. 'Iruka-sensei! He was a good guy who knew everyone. He would surely be able to find one brooding person a perfect match!' She struggled to think of a woman who would interest the copy-nin, finally hitting on it, 'Maybe another brooding, one-eyed woman who had hair that defied gravity?'
Kakashi stared bleakly at the leader of his village as she chortled deeply, her fingers tenting in front of her. It was times like this when he considered becoming a missing-nin.
"I have a special mission for you to deliver, Kakashi." Tsunade stated, grabbing a pen a quickly jotting down a message on a crumbled piece of paper. "I want you to bring this message to the academy and give it Umino-sensei."
She then folded her paper into the shape of a triangle, the book 'Origami for Beginners' hadn't agreed with her, and flicked it to the jounin. "I'm sure he has a lesson or class or whatever right now. I give you permission to invade his class, if you will, and give this to him.
"You have to stay to hear his answer, which will probably be yes, but just in case." Tsunade moved away from her desk to watch some people leave the building, looking for a late lunch. "This is all for your own good, Kakashi." She stated happily when she heard a groan, turning to smile at a cloud of smoke.
Kakashi stood outside the academy, cursing the hokage, as he noticed that all the children in the village were still in the midst of afternoon lessons. Of course, it's his luck to actually be on time. Or was he late? He was supposed to bring in his report later.
The jounin nodded with understanding, finally remembering a crucial piece to this puzzle: The report he had handed in was from his last mission, not of the one that was completed today. With a mental sigh, Kakashi slouched over and ambled into the building.
And then he was promptly run into by a child.
With a muted 'off', and bouncing slightly after the fall, the pale eyed girl glared up from her prone position on the floor. Kakashi stared down at her, boredom radiating from his persona, wondering how a girl being trained to be a ninja wouldn't notice his slightly taller than normal figure. It didn't help when the girl unexpectedly burst into tears, startling the jounin into pulling his hand out of his pocket in self defense.
"Why are you so mean to me? You don't have to shove the fact you can make doppelgangers into my face!" She paused to take a huge breath, "And you didn't have to scare me by turning into a scary jounin!" The girl wailed, taking her hand to rub furiously at her eyes. "And why'd you choose him? He's the scariest, besides the green one."
She sniffed again, a few stray tears being squeezed from her eyes, looking up at the immobile Kakashi. "Just change back already. It's not funny." The girl grumbled.
Kakashi arched an eyebrow when no teacher came out from their classrooms to see what the disturbance was, looking down at the dark haired girl for a moment before squatting to be even with her suddenly wide eyes. "Ma, do you know where Umino-sensei's class is?"
The girl snuffled slightly, swallowed and hoisted herself to her feet. "You're not Suke?" She said haltingly, afraid to trust the figure. Without waiting for an answer she grabbed his flax jacket and tugged on it gently, "You seem real." The genin grumbled, chewing on her bottom lip as she tried to understand why a jounin would occupy his time by coming to the academy.
Kakashi smiled underneath his mask, finding the child endearing. Sometimes he wished his team of new teenagers would forget about everything that had happened to the village in the past years and go back to being gullible children. "I should hope." He ruffled the girl's hair.
"You want to help me with a super important mission from the hokage?" He asked, crouching down and whispering conspiratorially to her so if anyone passed they wouldn't know what they were talking about.
The girl squirmed, unsure, but then smiled and nodded, grabbing the older man's hand. "I'm Umi. I'm in Iruka-sensei's class right now! Come with me." She smiled; tears vanished from her face, and began to pull the jounin with her down the hallway.
Kakashi followed the girl as she skipped down the halls, bent over slightly as to not lift the little child off the ground, all the while wondering when he had seen her before. Déjà vu was something that had never affected the jounin really, but now every time he looked at her he got that strange feeling.
Maybe it was something he ate on one of his last missions.
"Now remember, a ninja is supposed to be aware of everything surrounding them." Iruka stated as the door opened, his head turning to glance at his student only to snap back to look again when he noticed the lazy stance of a certain jounin, who had been acting very strange only this morning.
The children all gasped at once when they saw the stature of one of the greatest ninja of Konoha's history, besides the hokages', inside their classroom. A turbulent of whispers broke out as Kakashi walked across the small distance in the lecture hall to reach Iruka.
"Hey, it's that guy who's really late all the time! Isn't he dreamy?"
"I know! I can't wait to tell mommy, she won't believe me..."
"My sister thinks he's really hot, don't you?"
"What his eyeball? You can't see the other eighty percent of his face!"
Before the other man could ask what he was doing here, a slightly confused look dawning on his tan features, Kakashi pressed the slip of paper into the academy teacher's hand and tilted his head to mutter in his ear, "Tsunade wanted you to have this", before making a few hand seals and disappearing, the sounds of awe from the children left in his wake from the miniature display of what they would, hopefully, be able to do one day.
Iruka opened the note and read the message, letting his class go into disarray, only looking up when one of his louder boys, most likely Konohamaru, yelled out, "Iruka-sensei, are you going on a dangerous mission to help save the village?" This was quickly followed by the stranger, scarier to the sensei, questions from the girls:
"Is he single?"
"Did you see his face, ever? Is it debonair?"
And lastly, "Iruka-sensei! Jin says he's ugly, but I think Hatake-sama is a fine-looking specimen of male meat. What do you think?"
"It's time to continue with the lesson." He clapped his hands, beginning to wonder why the girls grew up faster than the boys, "Laura, I don't want to hear that type of language this early in your life, you will have detention with Jin. You will see Akane-sensei after school." He replied easily, making a mental note to go talk to the woman hokage the minute he was finished with these lessons. Sometimes he wondered what she was thinking.
Author's Notes
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