Living in the Mist (Chapter 2)
Disclaimers: Not mine
"Kakashi, Gai! You may come in now," Sandaime called out for the other two ninjas who were actually outside his office all the time after the ANBU operative teleported away.
"Dynamic Entry!" with an inhumane speed accompanied with his amplified voice, Gai appeared in the office in a gush of wind and sparkles, striking one of his random good guy pose and flashing a unbearable white grin at the Hokage. Sandaime who had experienced this for countless of time immediately turned around to dodge the deadly attack of the sparkles just in time to see Kakashi who was holding his adult reading material jumped into his office from the window. Rubbing his forehead tiredly on the antics of the two weirdest jounin in the village, Sandaime began to speak.
"Kakashi, what did I tell you about window?"
"A brilliant structure invented by human kind for the purpose of peeping?" Kakashi answered nonchalantly while fixing his single eye to the little orange book that he carried around everywhere.
"Not this one, the other one!" bellowed Sandaime with his face a flaring red.
"Don't get caught?" Kakashi answered with an innocent look, head tilted to the side and blinking his single eye. He did look innocent for a man who covered three quarter of his own face. Too bad, Sandaime had very high resistance to his cute puppy look due to years of training.
"Kakashi!" roared Sandaime with a vein pulsing and his ears a bright red colour as well. Kakashi silently mused to himself that he can actually see steam coming out from Sandaime's ears.
"Okay, okay, I know. Don't use the window to enter my office, there is another brilliant invention by human kind which is known as door," Kakashi kept his book in his vest pocket, held his gloved hands in front of himself and waved them slightly to show that he surrendered.
"Good and if you understand this, care to tell me why don't you use the door?"
"Because I'm a ninja and it is fun to rile you up?"
"Kakashi, remind me to kill you when you're out of service."
"Yes, most definitely I will, Hokage-sama," curving his single eye into happy little crescent, Kakashi answered merrily.
"But You Cannot Die My Eternal Rival! My Life is Incomplete without Our Youthful Competitions! You Must Continue Your Joyous and Youthful Life to Compete with me!" just when Sandaime and Kakashi started to wonder why was Gai so quiet today, Gai boomed with tears streaming down soaking his green spandex.
"Flood, Gai! Flood! Too much water! Stop bawling! Don't flood my paperwork!" Sandaime seeing the waterfall of tears immediately collected his paperwork and stacked them in his desk drawer to protect them from Gai's manly tears.
"Hmm…" not even sparing a look at Gai and ignoring the Hokage who was saving his paperwork, Kakashi fished out his Icha Icha Paradise from his vest pocket and started to read again.
"So Hip and Modern My Eternal…"
"Stop it, I summoned both of you here for serious matter," before Gai can finish his sentence, the Hokage interrupted him with a serious tone and a this-means-business kind of look on his face. This immediately caught the attention of the two ninjas as Gai stopped talking instantly and Kakashi kept his book back to his vest pocket again.
"I believe both of you heard the chaos in my office just now?" Sandaime asked while linking his fingers in front of himself, covering the lower part of his face. However, it sounded more like a statement rather than a question.
"Yes, we did, Hokage-sama," answered Gai in a surprisingly plain sentence without his usual sparkles and extraordinarily loud volume. Now, as crazy as Gai seemed to be, he was actually a reliable jounin. But too bad, very few of them actually saw him in action therefore he was labelled as the craziest and greenest jounin in history of Konoha. Sandaime and Kakashi were some of the few who knew his true ability when it came to battles and serious situations. And the situation right now definitely asked for full attention.
"Then I assume both of you now know that Iruka isn't the last one left in his family?" asked Sandaime, not really questioning.
"Yes, although I would like to know why," Kakashi answered in his usual bored tone but his single eye showed much more interest than his voice did.
"Alright, do any of you know about Iruka's family background?" Sandaime asked while looking at both of the jounin and then Kakashi spoke.
"Lost his parents during Kyuubi's attack and both of his parents were ninja," surprised by the little amount of knowledge he had on Iruka, Kakashi mentally noted that he should find out more about the said sensei.
"Then I suppose none of you know that Iruka's parents were Mist ninjas before they swore their loyalty to Konoha?" Sandaime tried hard to suppress his laughter when he saw the shocked look on both ninjas face. Kakashi looked like as if someone burnt his precious little orange book while Gai's jaw was practically reaching for the floor if Kakashi did not extend one foot to hold it in place. Kakashi was quick to compose himself again before he asked the Hokage the question both he and Gai dreading to know.
"They were Mist? Why and how they joined Konoha?"
"This I'm afraid I can't tell you too much either. What I can say is Iruka parents were loyal to Konoha from the day they joined us till the day they died."
"But why did they join us? Mist and Konoha have never been on good term before. Why did they betray their own village?" this time, Gai voiced out his question.
"The day when they came to Konoha, Iruka's mother was pregnant with Iruka and was badly injured. Iruka's dad was carrying her and begging everyone he saw to save his wife and baby. We saved them without any doubt because they weren't wearing their hitai-ate. We weren't aware that they were Mist ninjas. But after his wife's condition was stabilized, Iruka's father admitted to us that he was a Mist ninja and requested to be executed as long as his wife and baby will be safe in Konoha."
"He requested permanent residency in Konoha for his wife and baby in exchange for his life?"
"If you put it in another way, yes he did. We asked him to explain why did he come to Konoha but he did not say a thing except kill him or let him serve Konoha until the day he dies. The council wasn't too happy with this but Yondaime and I fought for him. The council wasn't that stupid to go against both of us so it was decided that he was to serve Konoha under full time surveillance and would be executed on spot if any suspicious behaviour was detected."
"But he kept to his word, together with his wife, both of them served Konoha with full loyalty until they died," Kakashi nodded his agreement to Gai's words.
"Yes they sacrificed for Konoha as our ninja. This is why they had their names engraved on to the memorial stone," Sandaime ended his story and let out a deep sigh.
"Interesting story but anything to do with us?" back to his slouched posture and bored tone, Kakashi asked. However, both Sandaime and Gai knew better. Kakashi was actually very interested in the whole situation. His sole eye can tell so much for those who knew how to read it but Kakashi himself never did realise that.
"Unfortunately, yes. Today morning a messenger bird from Mist dropped a letter here."
"A messenger bird from Mist… The next thing you know is Naruto stops wearing orange and pays for his own ramen," said Kakashi with a hint of sarcasm.
"Then Naruto has to stop wearing orange and pay for his own ramen because we did receive a letter from Mist this morning. Have a look," Sandaime countered while passing a piece of paper to Gai and Kakashi.
"Return the pendant and the Umino to their righteous owner. You know what am I talking about, Hokage. Return them if Konoha doesn't want a war with Mist. By Umino Clan of Mist. Isn't this the family crest of Umino? What can this possibly mean?" Gai asked after he scanned through the piece of paper, read it out loud while paying extra attention on the stamped symbol.
"Well, there is only one Umino in Konoha but what about the pendant?" having a bad feeling that things were going to get complicated, Kakashi questioned.
"A few years after Iruka's father resided in Konoha, he revealed to Yondaime and I that he betrayed his clan because they tried to kill his wife and baby."
"But why would they want to eliminate one of their own?" curious, Gai inquired.
"This is what he didn't tell us. He just said that Umino Clan was not a clan to be underestimated and he showed me this. Take a good look," channelling his chakra to unlock one of his desk drawers, Sandaime grabbed a black square box and passed it to Kakashi.
"A pendant with Iruka's family crest on it, I see. This is very well-made with such detailed crafting. Are they asking for this?" Gai asked while scrutinizing the pendant. His thick fuzzy brows furrowed together in concentration.
"It is chakra sensitive, a seal," Kakashi said suddenly after he adjusted his hitai-ate to look at the pendant with his Sharingan uncovered.
"That is very fast for you to notice it, Kakashi. Yes the seal is very faint, too faint to be noticed without a Sharingan or Byakugan but it is still there. No one can unlock this unless they have the chakra trait of the Umino family. Iruka's father gave me this so that I can guard it. He warned me never to let any other Umino lay their hands on the pendant as it will be disastrous for all the hidden villages," Sandaime explained while taking the black box from Kakashi and kept it back to the drawer.
"They wanted to kill him because he took the pendant and escaped?"
"This is what I deduced and most probably what happened back then. If the pendant is so important to them until they threatened us with war, we have to be cautious. We can't risk a war with Mist right now as they are alliance with Sound. I'll have to convince Iruka to go to them with the pendant, pretending to join them and try to find out what are they up to. If they are a threat to us, we'll have to eliminate them."
"And our mission is?" Gai and Kakashi asked almost simultaneously.
"Both of you are to shadow Iruka when he goes on this mission. Protect him when he travels to Mist and when he spies on his clan. He must be taken back to Konoha safely after he completes his mission."
"But Our Youthful Sensei Doesn't Cope Well with The Fact That He Has a Family!" exclaimed Gai flailing his hands in every direction comically trying to ease the suffocating tension in the Hokage's office. Thankfully, that did the trick.
"That will be my job to explain and ask Iruka to take the mission. I want both of you to be prepared and don't leave the village for the time being. Once I get Iruka to agree on this mission, you will be expected to leave the village immediately. I'll summon both of you for another detailed mission briefing before departure. Understand?" Sandaime asked with a slight smile on his face after watching Gai's action.
"Understood," both Kakashi and Gai confirmed their affirmation.
"Good. You're dismissed. I have to explain this all over again to Iruka later. Spare me some time to rest my abused tongue," the Hokage joked slightly before sending both of the ninja out of his office.
"Yes Respectful Hokage-sama, Your Tongue is Very Important and Youthful! Please Let It Rests Well! I Will Be Going for My Daily Manly Practice Again!" Gai back to his loud and eccentric self again, boomed while rushing out the office leaving some sparkles trailing behind him. The Hokage shook his head in total defeat and saw Kakashi jumping out from his office's window, again.
"Kakashi! Door! I tell you Door!" roared Sandaime when the jump Kakashi made caused a big mess on his desk.
"Yes, yes. Door is good, window is better though" and with a poof, Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of dust and wind once he jumped out of the window.
"I'm so going to kill him once he has no use for the village," Sandaime rubbed his temple and decided not to bang his head against the desk because that would not look too graceful for a Hokage.
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"U-u-Umino, there they are," murmured Sandaime to himself in the ninja's record office. "This should make the explaining session for Iruka easier I hope," shaking his head, Sandaime sighed. He really should ask some genin who were too free for their good to clean the office from time to time. The record office was starting to look like a graveyard with all the decorations of dust and spider web.
After retrieving both of Iruka's parents' record files, Sandaime headed back to his office to do his paperwork which could not be finished any time soon but the session with Iruka later seemed to be worse. He was entirely not too excited about that. "This is so troublesome," Sandaime said to no one in particular and suddenly realised that he sounded like Shikamaru one second back then.
"Well, can't help it," Sandaime chuckled to himself and once again immersed in his enormous pile of paperwork on his desk while waiting for the night fall.
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In the mean time, Kakashi and Gai were sitting on top of the Hokage Monument while looking far ahead from their high up position.
"Kakashi, are you thinking what am I thinking?" Gai asked in a surprisingly normal tone.
"Yeah, the Hokage is definitely hiding something from us," nodding slightly, Kakashi agreed.
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A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed and gave some opinions =D I really appreciate that. They helped. Love you all *hugs* Well, here is the second chapter. A fast update this time hehe. I hope I got Kakashi's characterization right. =( Hope you guys enjoyed this chappie and please review if you are up to it. ^^ Thanks.