Living in the Mist (Chapter 1)
Disclaimers: Not mine
"Today has been hell. Well, at least the morning with those devil's incarnations is hell," thought Iruka. When he said hell, he really meant it in every single possible way. Konohamaru and his gang decided that target practice was no fun without a real, breathing, moving and shouting target. This was not too bad of an idea in Iruka's opinion, closer to real life situations and stuffs like that. But when he was the said real, breathing, moving and shouting target, things got very ugly.
And now, with his hair sticking out in every direction in a not quite fashionable way, his slightly bleeding right arm staining his dark uniform's sleeve, his temper-telling vein located at his temple bulging and pulsing with an abnormal speed, he concluded that he was definitely in a foul mood. He just wanted to treat his abused stomach and right arm right now. And perhaps get a good long soak in the onsen later. After all, he deserved to pamper himself after being tortured and abused by those little hellions, right?
"Good Afternoon, Our Youthful and Beloved Sensei! What a Beautiful Head You Have There, Sensei! I'm Inspired but Shamed of Myself as My Manly Bowl-cut is Nothing Compared to Your Youthful and Modern Bird-nest cut!" boomed Gai while two streams of tears seemed to flow unstoppably down his cheeks, creating water puddles around himself.
"It's okay, Gai-sensei. The bowl-cut makes your hair looks smoother you know, and shinier, the bling-bling kind of feel," Iruka said, half-heartedly consoling the spandex-clad jounin who was outright bawling in the middle of the street. "How can this guy ever made jounin?" Iruka mused. "Oh right, because he is bizarre, peculiar, eccentric and freaking crazy."
"Oh, Youthful Sensei! You Are So Modest! I Am Inspired Once Again! I Shall Praise Your Bird-nest Cut As Well or I Will Do Extra Two Thousand Times of Push-ups Today Using My Left Hand Pinky Only!" Gai boomed, again. This time accompanied with a thumb-up, sparkling wide grin and a sunset which came out of nowhere.
"Volume… and sparkles… Gai-sensei," already feeling the symptoms of an on-coming migraine, Iruka brought both of his palms up to cover his face, effectively blocking his eyesight from the rather horrific view of the green beast.
"Oh Right! Have No Worries Beloved Sensei! I Never Knew That You Have Bad Hearing! I Will Now Speak Very Loudly In Your Presence to Make Sure My Youthful Speech Can Reach The Deepest Depth of Your Kind and Fragile Heart!"
"No, Gai-sensei. What I mean is tune down your volume and my hearing is perfectly fine. Thank you," deadpanned Iruka, feeling his own charade of polite academy teacher slowly slipping.
"I'm Relieved to Know That Our Inspiring Bird-nest Cut Sensei's Hearing is Fine! I am So Happy for You Beloved Sensei!" Gai immediately brought Iruka into a bone-crushing hug and started to make water soaked areas at Iruka's uniform.
"Strangling a jounin will get you killed Iruka. No strangling a jounin. Strangling is bad. No strangling greenish jounin. Strangling is wrong. No strangling insane jounin. Strangling is illegal… Or should I shave his eyebrows and hair? That's legal right? Right?"
Just when Iruka thought that he was going to strangle then shave the so called beautiful green beast no matter the consequences, Gai boomed right beside his left ear and Iruka cursed creatively under his breath while his eardrum vibrated so violently that even he could felt it.
"I Must Inform Our Beloved Sensei That Our Respectful Hokage-sama Asked for Your Presence in His Office Right Away!" Gai boomed, well he always does. "And with This, I Shall Go for My Daily Youthful Practice! See you Around, Beloved Sensei!" with the last of his youthful speech made, Gai ran off in his inhumane speed, leaving a befuddled Iruka behind with dust flying everywhere around him and his ears painfully protesting for the abusive treatment just now.
"Why me? Why now? Why so green? I want my onsen and food," whimpered Iruka to no one in particular while forcing his half dead legs to drag his half dead self to the Hokage's office in slow and defeated strides.
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"Why, Iruka-kun! Nice hair you have there," Sandaime, the Hokage said, trying hard to suppress his chuckles but did not seem to be successful.
"Thank you," Iruka replied while glaring daggers at the Hokage.
"Kids giving you trouble again?"
"Kids, jounin, kunai, shuriken, green, sparkles and volume," Iruka shuddered at the remembrance of his not so pleasant morning, willing his brain to erase the memory.
"Oh, now I see why," unable to contain his laughter, Sandaime laughed out loud, pretending not to notice the glares that were sent to his general direction.
Decided to ignore the laughing, pipe-smoking, wise if not a little perverted Hokage, Iruka asked, "Why did you summon me here, Hokage-sama?"
"About that… Why don't you take a seat Iruka-kun? This may take a while."
Hearing the subtle change of tone in the Hokage's voice, Iruka tensed ever slightly and then went on to grab a chair to sit on, waiting attentively for what the Hokage was going to say next.
"Iruka, I want you to go on a mission."
"Mission? But I haven't taken a lot since I started to teach in the academy. I might have gotten a little rusty you know," said Iruka, chuckling slightly to cover his nervousness but gave it all out by rubbing the scar across his nose. Well, every person who is familiar with Iruka's body language will know that when he rubs the scar on his nose is either when he is shy or nervous. In this case, Iruka was definitely not shy towards the old and ahem… not so attractive Hokage.
"Yes, I know that but we need your service for this mission. Here, take a look at the mission scroll," said the Hokage while passing a seal locked scroll to Iruka.
One look at the seal was enough to make Iruka panicked ever so slightly. "But Hokage-sama, this kind of seal is specifically for mission scrolls rank above A-rank!"not bothering to mask his utter surprise at the sudden high rank mission, Iruka exclaimed.
"Yes Iruka. I'm the Hokage. Of course I know which kind of seal is for which rank of mission."
"But Hokage-sama… This is…"
"Just unlock the scroll and read it, Iruka."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," trying to get his slightly shaking hands under control, Iruka unlocked the seal hesitantly and started to read the contents inside once the scroll was unfold.
"A-rank solo mission, duration unknown, location Land of Mist… A-rank, solo and Land of Mist, what a great combination I have here. Is Hokage-sama trying to get revenge on what I did to him when I was a genin?" Iruka silently thought to himself. However, the random train of thoughts stopped abruptly when Iruka saw the printed crest on the mission details section.
"No… This is… This crest… No way…" Iruka swore that his heart stopped beating for that few seconds.
"Hokage-sama, this crest… How... why…" not coherent enough to construct a full sentence, Iruka stared at the Hokage, wide chocolate eyes filled with shock.
"Yes Iruka. That is your family crest."
"My f-family crest… but why… how… I thought I'm the last…"
"No Iruka, you're not the last of Umino Clan and I need you to hunt down those who bear the same family crest as you in the Land of Mist."
The quiet silence that followed after the brief mission explanation was definitely not a good kind of silence. Iruka's eyes were filled with a completely blank look rather than his usually lively, cheerful and expressive brown orbs. And a while later, as Sandaime expected, the outburst of Umino Iruka, the chuunin with the infamous temper came like raging fire.
"But I thought I am the last one! I always did! Why no one ever tell me that I have a family? And now you want me to hunt down my family?!" Iruka practically shouted at the Hokage and although he knew it, he didn't care. He was outrageous.
"Iruka, calm down."
"Calm down? You want me to fucking calm down after you tell me I have a family and I didn't even fucking know it for like forever?" unable to control the anger and the feeling of betrayal surging through every single artery and vein in his body, Iruka banged his fists down on the Hokage's desk, hard.
That was however not a very smart move as two ANBU operatives who clad in capes that covered their entire body, showing only their ferocious masks rushed into the Hokage's office and pinned Iruka's arms to his back, holding him immobile.
"Fuck you! Let me go!" Iruka continue to trash and curse but that only served the ANBU operatives to hold him tighter making the position even more painful than it was.
"Iruka, stop it."
"No! You stop it! Let me go! Damn it!" Iruka yelled and cursed while struggling futilely under the grip of two ANBU operatives.
"Iruka, I need you to calm down. I will not have the ANBU to release you if you don't. Calm down," Sandaime said, this time with a stern voice clearly showing his authority.
"Why…"
"Why..." Iruka stopped trashing when his anger was slowly drained out from him. What remained was the feeling of loneliness and betrayal. The feeling when he first lost his parents, the darkness, the pain… Everything was coming back to him. "Why…" unknown to Iruka, fresh tears gathered at the very corner of his eyes and eventually fell down sliding across his cheeks.
"Release him," Sandaime having noticed the sudden lack of reaction from Iruka immediately ordered the ANBU operatives to do so. Iruka who rode an emotion roller coaster within half a day dropped to his knees once he was released from the unbreakable grip. With a wave of hand and a firm nod from Sandaime, the two ANBU operatives left the office reluctantly leaving a distressed Iruka alone with the Hokage again. The otherwise silent office was immediately filled with the ragged breathing and quiet sobbing of Iruka once the ANBU left.
"Iruka…" Sandaime started but only to be cut off by Iruka weakly.
"Why… Why you didn't tell me…"
Hearing Iruka's voice hoarse caused by all the yelling just now left a pang of guilt in Sandaime's heart. "Iruka, go home, take a shower and rest. I will pay you a visit at night and explain everything to you. Is that alright?" using his best I'm-in-charge kind of voice, Sandaime said to Iruka.
Unable to say anything and feeling all his energy being drained completely by the outburst just now, Iruka can only nod faintly.
"Good, now go. I will see you in a couple of hours," Sandaime gently help the still kneeling Iruka up and looked at the distress chuunin solemnly.
"I'm very sorry for not telling you this earlier. Don't make me worry and go get some rest. You are dismissed," with that, Sandaime gently stirred Iruka to the direction of his office door, urging him to go home.
Iruka who was still stunned from the realization can only weakly nod and walk out of the Hokage's office in even slower strides than when he came in. Watching the retreating chuunin's back, Sandaime let out a long and deep sigh. When the chuunin was totally out of his sight, Sandaime called for one of his ANBU guards.
"Drake!"
"Orders, Hokage-sama."
"Make sure Iruka-sensei reaches his home safely and gets his rest. If he tries to do something stupid, stop him," Sandaime said after inhaling deeply from his pipe and sighing once again.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," and in a surge of wind, the ANBU operative was gone as silently as he came in.
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A/N: This is my very first story and I'm not a native speaker of English so please bear with my horrible grammar and vocabs. T.T Please leave me a review if you can okay? Oh and another thing, should I make this into a kakairu fic or should I do an Iruka centric one? I bow to those who actually read the A/N^^ hope you all enjoy the story.