Disclaimer : Umino Iruka, Uzumaki Naruto, Jiraiya, Teuchi and Ayame not belong to me, but to Masashi Kishimoto, who wrote the manga Naruto.
Title: Remorse
Genre: Tells a story... XD Humor ? Fluff ? Light drama ? Friendship Kakairu (as in, it's building :p)
Characters: Iruka, Naruto, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Teuchi, Ayame, a bar customer, people in general...
Resume: "Middle afternoon. Too late for lunch, too early to dine. Yet, some customers dawdled at the ramen bar Ichiraku. A mild heat, a slight breeze, Naruto's babbling at his side, it was more than enough for Iruka's day to end perfectly, in this pleasant atmosphere, this strange company, made of strangers and closer relations."
Status: WIP, 1/4
Follows my one shots Suds and Bar, though you should understand Remorse without having read them.
Comment: Iluvshikamaru, from the kakairu livejournal community, beta-read this, and for such deserves to be worshiped among the saints of the beta-readers cult. I say !
Remorse
Chapter 1
Middle afternoon.
Too late for lunch, too early to dine. Yet, some customers dawdled at the ramen bar Ichiraku.
A young teenager was chatting with Teuchi, the owner of the place, trying to use her blossoming and still clumsy charms to learn a ramen recipe. There were a lot of laughs from them, the old man chuckling at her eyelashes fluttering, understanding her need to tease, but kindly refusing to give her what she wanted. Next to the exit, a man of mature years was savoring his tea, a peaceful expression on his face, and mild sunbeams on his back. Ayame, the barmaid, was looking at him with expectant eyes, pressing her tray against her chest with nervous hands.
Two ninjas were snacking at the bar, a young blonde whose wide motions of arms and dynamic rocking of legs made the stool sway, and an older brunet with a huge smile and amused frown.
A mild heat, a slight breeze, Naruto's babbling at his side, it was more than enough for Iruka's day to end perfectly, in this pleasant atmosphere, this strange company, made of strangers and closer relations.
"And then, Ero-sennin hit me on the head. Do you believe it? It's not my fault he hadn't fed me! He said because of me he had lost an hour of work!"
Iruka frowned a little more, this time in a slight annoyance.
"What do you mean, 'lost an hour of work'? Naruto, I thought you knew ninja's work needs concentration…" He started lecturing.
Naruto choked on his ramen, and, after a few cough, burst out laughing.
"No, I meant his perverted novels!"
Iruka let out a small 'Oh' of understanding, too exasperated to be angry, quickly followed by a deep sigh. He should have known, after all. Sometimes he forgot Naruto's actual teacher was one of the greatest porn writers known; the power of the subconscious…
"…said. What a great ninja he is, being so easily distracted. I, the future Hokage, would've never, ever been stupid enough to write the word 'ramen' ten times in a sex scene!"
Iruka almost spit his ice tea on the bar.
"What a mood killer - don't you think, Iruka sensei?" The genin asked teasingly, all cunning smiles and innocent look, two expressions that only he, in Iruka's circle, could mix in a credible way.
Iruka looked at him with a pale face, and murderous intent in his eyes. Naruto tried not to laugh. He really did. He put all his ninja training into trying to keep a calm face. But the chuunin's shocked expression, the nervous twitch in the corner of his mouth, teeth clenched, and especially the fact the genin never really had had 'self control' training, got the better of his resolution.
He found himself hiding his face in his arms, his forehead on the bar in front on him, with shaking shoulders and tears in the eyes.
Seemingly annoyed, but amused nonetheless - though he hid it - Iruka shoved him off the stool.
"I missed you too, you stupid brat." He sniffed, trying to mime indifference by looking down at his half empty glass.
On the floor, Naruto beamed.
"Aw, you sweetie!" He joked, crossing his legs to make himself more comfortable on the wooden floor.
Iruka answered his teasing with a feral grin, and threw a chopstick at the kid's head. Naruto kicked his elder's stool, and from then they bickered some little, making a fuss at the bar. Teuchi laughed at their antics, and the persistent girl at his side pouted, before she pulled at his sleeve.
"Teuchi-saaaaan!" She whined, childish in her mature body.
The old man looked back at her, sighed and patted her head with a soothing smile.
She started to sulk.
"But I need this recipe..." She insisted, taping her lips with a finger.
Ayame chuckled, faithfully standing at the customer's side. The latter gave her a questioning look over his glasses, causing a blush to appear on her face. She quickly hid it behind her tray, failing to see the man smiling at her, in what she usually thought was a mysterious way because of the age gap between them. He was strangely appealing to her, in his thirty and a half, male, smart, unreachable, and, above everything, 'worship-able'.
Sticking out his tongue, Naruto picked his stool up. He sat on it with a suspicious look at his former teacher, who only ruffled his hair absently, too used to this teasing with the blond to stay falsely mad anymore.
The calm wind turned, bringing them a pleasant smell of flowers, mixed with fruits, fish and meat, all from the market two streets away from the ramen bar. Some smoke entered the place briefly, but didn't stay long, and the stranger Ayame admired so much only shook his hand mechanically to disperse what could have remained in front of his face.
Suddenly shy, Naruto gave Iruka a hesitant smile.
"Hey, I'm happy you missed me." He admitted, trying to use his usual macho voice, but ending somewhat gentle and sweet, things Naruto never was – or, at least, things he denied he could be.
Iruka resisted the urge to shove the boy so as to hide his tender feelings again. Instead, he just slapped the back of the blonde's head.
"I won't buy you a third bowl of ramen only because you're playing cute, dumbass."
He scratched the top of his nose, a faint blush on his cheeks.
Naruto pouted. Iruka took a sip of his ice tea.
At his side, the boy ate his ramen slowly, apparently savoring his second and supposed-to-be last bowl, but fighting his too pleased smile. Iruka couldn't help but laugh inwardly at the twitch of the boy's lips, and the way his face looked away to hide his inner fight against his amusement.
An itinerant salesman walked down the street, pulling a small carriage by himself, for he was too poor to either possess or sustain neither a donkey, a jenny or, obviously, a horse. At every ten slow and wide steps, precisely, he called for potential clients, describing his merchandise, from sweets to toys, such as bright weathervanes, wooden whirligigs and colorful marionettes. There were very few people in the street, and even fewer children, and thus he had little chances of selling some of his products.
All Ichiraku's customers stopped to listen to him. The mild thirty year old man was the last to stop giving the cries attention, only when they were barely audible, while the teenager had impatiently shook her hand as soon as she had understood what the shouts were for, pulling Teuchi's sleeve once more to try to gain the old man's attention.
Iruka gave a nostalgic sigh when he heard the calling in the street, and resumed his conversation with Naruto.
"Hinata asks for news every time she hands in a report with her team. She has given me so much ointment for you I'm sorry I had to put half of it in the school's infirmary."
He paused with a chuckle and a muzzy stare, looking in front of him into the nothingness. He absently turned his glass in his hands. Then, he shook his head, and smiled brightly at the boy.
"I don't know why she thinks I know more about your doings with Jiraiya than the others, though."
A new pause.
'Oh, the joys of dramatic effects' Inner Iruka scrapped his hands together, devilish, fire burning in his invisible eyes. Feigning an afterthought, Outer Iruka added.
"Sakura often asks for news, too."
He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the shouts of joy he knew were coming after his sentence.
...
Silence.
Okay, maybe that was too much for the kid's heart.
Iruka looked at the boy at his side. Well, judging from the huge smile on the latter's face, all this suspense did have the desired result. Only, the brat was growing up, and starting to be a little less obnoxious – though that didn't mean he was far from exuberant.
Iruka ruffled the boy's hear again, and, taking advantage of Naruto's carelessness – the brat may be a ninja, but he first was a teen in love having just learned the girl of his dreams had been asking about him - sharply stole his bowl.
He quickly ate the remaining ramen, then winked at Naruto.
"You didn't finish your bowl. I'll have to buy you a new one!"
The genin, blinked, gaped, blinked, and beamed once more, throwing himself at his former teacher in a breathtaking hug.
'You're a softie.' Inner Iruka sighed, while Outer Iruka, wide eyed, was starting to hug the kid back, and sat on a dangerously swaying stool. But before he could even think of pouring chakra to the floor to counterbalance it, Naruto was back to his own seat, bouncing on it, and calling the bartender with wide gestures.
"Old man, one more please."
Teuchi rolled his eyes and, still followed by the teenager, he filled the blonde's bowl to the brim with his wooden ladle.
"You're a softie, Iruka." The old man smiled at the chuunin.
Inner Iruka couldn't help but do an 'Iruka Dance of Victory' in the chuunin's mind.
Sometimes, Iruka hated him so much...
Naruto ignored his surroundings. He didn't see the other customer exit, how he paid for his tea with a friendly smile to both the bartender and the waitress, nor the way Ayame's eyes followed him until the corner of the street, nor did he hear the teenager's cries for attention, punctuated by chuckles. He only looked at his ramen bowl with a passionate expression.
Iruka shook his head and gulped down what remained of his ice tea. He smiled against the cold glass, his teeth playing with its edge. He was glad the idiot was back, even if it was only for two weeks, the time for Jiraiya to take care of some 'business' – what could that be, Iruka wondered, before shivering and assuring himself he didn't want to know.
But, yeah, he had missed the obnoxious brat.
"Ero-senin!"
At the smacking sound of the door, Jiraiya looked away from his literary work with a look of annoyance. The boy had already ruined seven full pages of mind blowing sex, perfectly well written, by drowning him under demands of ramen. He could only hope being spoiled by the chuunin teacher he spoke so highly of – kids always tended to over-value their closer relations - would soothe the kyuubi bearer's ardors.
"Ero-sennin, ero-sennin! I ate four bowls of ramen! And Iruka-sensei said we could go to Ichiraku again tomorrow! Isn't it great? Don't you find it great?"
...
Or not.
And ignoring Naruto was not a - safe - option.
So the man stood up and went to the counter table near the entry of the room, a plastic glass in his hand. He took the thermos bottle on it and poured himself some warm coffee, enough to, he hoped, be able to bear Naruto's already started babble. The boy looked completely overactive, instead of sleepily digesting the stupid four bowls of ramen.
With a resigned sigh, and a sort of snicker, Jiraiya sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall, his legs crossed under him.
"So, I get your date was all right." He commented after a swallow of the liquid, shaking slowly the glass in an absent gesture, a tic of his.
"Of course it was! I was with Iruka-sensei. What could have been wrong, old geezer?" The boy snarled. "He buys me ramen!" He added, like this simple information could resume by itself the 'perfectness' of Umino Iruka.
The blond genin started then to enumerate his former teacher's qualities, in a long list Jiraiya half-listened to, punctuated with incriminations at Jiraiya's teaching ways, his stinginess, his obsessed behavior, his snoring, his annoying 'work', his weakness at beautiful women, his stupid grey hair, his old age, his frogs, his clothes, his life, his looks, his expression, his eyes, his nose, his whole being, and a lot of others things Jiraiya passed off with a shrug.
"Plus, he's not a pervert like you or Kakashi-sensei!"
Jiraiya rolled his eyes with a smirk and Naruto suddenly paused in his monologue with what seemed to be a thoughtful look. Then he shrugged and started undressing, bitching at his too hot sweater, and stumbling on his pants. Under Jiraiya's exasperated gaze, he walked cursing to the bathroom and tried to slam the door, only to miss his foot by few millimeters and yell in anger as the ground sheet impeded it from closing. He insulted the whole world and growled some insults until the sound of a shower turned on muffled his mumbling.
'The brat's nervous.' Jiraiya thought, surprised by the sudden change in attitude and sitting back at his desk. Well, the boy would talk to him when he felt ready anyway. When didn't he talk, huh?
The grey-haired man put his now empty plastic glass of coffee on the desk, just behind his notebook. He munched on his pencil and closed his eyes, trying to dive into his personal Icha Icha world, wherein he created the craziest fantasies before he set them down on paper. He quickly replayed the first part of the chapter; inwardly shooing the 'plot' aspects and refraining from drooling at the more... detailed moments.
There she was, Yuki, the beautiful amnesic orphan, wild, always refused to talk, white skin, black hair, pink lips and flushed cheeks, fallen on the floor, panting. And the hero of this Icha volume, Saburo, third son of a five children family whose parents had been murdered, poor milieu, forced by necessity to become a thief, among other things; skin tanned from the sun on the waterfronts, long brown hair, blue eyes that pierced one's soul, loopy but seductive smile; had been paid to steal an inherited medallion from an orphanage, and had ended having to chase the girl, and pin her to stop her from running.
The best part... The precious piece of jewelry was kept under Yuki's clothes, close to her heart, so she would always remember someone, somewhere in the world, had loved her enough to give it to her. But Saburo needed to get it to get his reward and feed his little brothers, so he tied the girl's hands and feet and...
"Ero-sennin!"
...
No.
NO!
"What's wrong with you?!" Jiraiya exclaimed back, so exasperate and annoyed he was close to desperation. It had been getting so good...!
The kid had a way with killing the mood.
Really.
"I think Kakashi-sensei has been avoiding me." The genin whined, coming out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and another one around his shoulders.
Heh, that was new!
"And why, do tell me, would the great sharigan Kakashi, the copy-nin, the legendary man of the thousand jutsus, creator of the Chidori! – want more...?" Silence. "I'll take that as a 'No.'... Why would he be avoiding a mere fourteen year old genin?!"
"I dunno; duh! That's why it's been bothering me. I haven't even been pranking him!"
Jiraiya gave his empty glass a suspiciously moist look and got up to fill it again while Naruto dressed. He wanted porn!
Well, the kid sure had strange ideas. Kakashi, avoiding him? The jounin liked – to torture – Naruto. And Sakura. And some other boy he shouldn't even be thinking of since he was dead to the eyes of society.
Anyway.
Jiraiya coughed.
"I swear it! While I was looking for Iruka-sensei to ask him for some ramen I saw Kakashi-sensei so I went to talk to him and tell him all the great things I have done and how much stronger I've gotten and..."
The jounin snickered at this and took a sip of his lukewarm drink. Ew! Where had he put the sugar already?
"You tired him with your babbling; he just needed some peace. It's understandable." Jiraiya stated with a shrug, walking around the room, his eyes scanning the environment at the search of something to soften a little the bitterness of the pure coffee.
Naruto glared at him, picking his dirty clothes to cram them in a plastic bag next to his bed. He went silent for some seconds, playing with the bag as if it was a big juggling ball. Then he threw it at Jiraiya's head, frustrate, but the man dodged easily.
"Kakashi-sensei never refuses an offer for free food. He is a natural leech!"
Jiraiya smiled fondly at this, and then frowned at the nowhere-to-be-seen sugar. He lifted his pillow and put it back to its place with an annoyed sigh, and walked to Naruto's bed who only glared at him.
"Don't you dare touch my sheets with your perverted hands." He warned, putting clean pants on. "Anyway, I even said Iruka would be buying us the food. He should have been happy, no? He wouldn't have been the only adult."
He scratched his neck, and watched with a tired look his teacher go berserk on him and start to take his own sheets out in an attempt to find sugar. He rolled his eyes at the man, laughed, if not a little nervously, and sat on his bed.
"Hey, maybe he doesn't like Iruka. Maybe it's because of this he disappeared."
Jiraiya looked up from his unpacked bag, surrounded by thrown clothes and books and papers. Naruto wondered if the man would start twitching soon.
"What do you mean 'disappeared'?" The jounin asked, quickly packing everything back.
"I mean, he freaking jutsu-ed out! You know, with the smoke and the leafs. In his 'cool and hip' way." Naruto exclaimed, getting up to kick his shoes in a nervous gesture.
Jiraiya ignored him. He rubbed mildly his forehead, scratched his bust, narrowed his eyes and absently patted his thigh, seriously thinking whether he should just go to the store in front of the hotel and buy another pack of sugar or drink the bitter beverage as it was. Then, at the same time, he didn't want to be defeated by a sweetener...
"Where could the sugar be? – Look, Naruto, I really don't know. But he doesn't have problems with Iruka, that's for sure; the gossip vine says they've been getting along lately. It surprised people, after the genin nominations thing…"
He tapped his foot.
"Maybe you should talk to him and..." He suggested mechanically, grimacing at the bitter taste remaining in his mouth.
Naruto gave him his best flat look and fell back on his bed, taking his pillow to put it on his face and hide it.
"He has been avoiding me. How do you get a legendary Jounin ex-Anbu to talk to you when he doesn't want to?" He asked in a muffled exclamation.
Jiraiya curtly opened his bedside table's drawer, and cursed when he found it empty – which was normal, he had to admit, since he wouldn't put sugar next to his bed because it could attract insects.
"He only left once Naruto. Maybe he was late to a date. Maybe he had a compromise."
"You realize how dumb you sound, telling me he was hurrying not to be late, don't you, Ô-san?" Naruto chuckled from behind his pillow. When no one answered him, he took it away and looked at his oblivious teacher. He sighed: "Hey, if I tell you where the damn sugar is, will you listen to me seriously?"
This time, the answer didn't last long to come:
"You know where the sugar is?!"
Really, Naruto wished he could tell the others Jiraiya's hopeful expression at the mention of sugar, but no one would believe him if he told them the pervert male macho writer could get crazy when sweet-coffee deprived.
"It's on your desk, duh. You were drinking coffee when I came in the room. Now, listen..."
Jiraiya hummed in answer, prancing to his desk with a content smile. Naruto couldn't help but think of how scary the picture of a childish Jiraiya was.
He shook his head.
"I found it weird that Kakashi-sensei would run away like this, so I tried to talk to him again, to make him eat with us. I thought it would be fun! He's a pervert, he'd have taken his book out while we would have been eating and Iruka-sensei would have passed out from blood loss or beat the pulp out of him... Anyway, the second time he disappeared as soon as I started talking, and the third and fourth ones he jutsu-ed as soon as I even saw him."
Jiraiya gave him his most serious look, nodding gravely and breathing deeply. He looked down at Naruto.
"The coffee has gotten cold!" He stated calmly.
Naruto made an attempt of suicide by suffocating himself with the pillow.
I love Naruto. Jiraiya's OOC-ness will be (sort of, vaguely) explained in the next chapter. As in, yes, he's OOC, but not as much as you think... (I'm NOT using random excuses XD)
Please... Comment ? I hope Naruto and Iruka's interaction seems true, realistic enough.
Oh, and I hate ffnet page setting system... Just so you know !