Just Complicated
Several days had passed since Iruka had first gotten Mew. And he had quickly fallen into a new routine with her around. Every morning Iruka woke up and went through his usual routine of shower, dress, eat, but had added laying out Mew's food before he started to eat. Mew would appear shortly after to eat, then sit and clean herself while Iruka finished getting ready for his day. Then walking to the door he'd jingle his keys as he put them in his pocket. The jingle of the keys got Mews attention to come to the door and be placed in his arms to ride with him to school.
When they go to school Mew would set herself in the window to lounge until Iruka's afternoon class, when she would lie on his desk instead. On days that they also had to go to the mission room, she would lay across both of his shoulders since his neck was knelt down most of the time.
On evenings which he didn't have mission room duty, Iruka spent at home teaching Mew. He still wasn't sure on how to train her, but he did start teaching her to speak. She had only learned a few words so far. Such as yes, no, up, down, Ruka, and stupid, though Iruka was certain that she had learned that one at school. And was learning several others as she heard them.
"Ruka…Ruka…Ruka up!" Mew pleaded, pawing at Iruka's pant leg after he set her on the floor in the mission room.
Looking down Iruka said, "Stay here Mew, I'll only be gone a minute." ,then left the room to enter another down the hall.
Mew looked around the door frame watching Iruka leave before turning back into the room. She walked back to Iruka's chair and tried to jump up in it, only to come short and fall back to the floor. One of the ninja that work the mission desk with Iruka turned towards the kitten as she tried again and failed.
"Would you like some help up Mew?" he asked, getting up from him chair and taking a step towards her.
"No, stupid!" Mew yelled as she tried again.
He continued to watch as she continually tried, and failed, to get into Iruka's chair. After about the sixth fall, Mew sat on the floor, tears pooling in her pale-blue eyes as she stared at the bottom of the chair.
"Aw, Mew why are you crying?" came Iruka's voice from above her as he set a small pile of papers on his desk.
"Mew…No…Up" she said in between sniffles. One of her little tears rolled down her whisker as she looked up at her master.
Picking her up Iruka said, "That's nothing to cry over. Once you get bigger you'll be able to jump up on my chair." He sat down at his desk as he said this, scratching under her chin as he continued, "In fact one day you'll be big enough to jump all the way up on to my desk."
"Yes?"
Giving a small laugh he replied, "Yes."
"She's so cute Iruka." The other ninja said. "I tried to help her, but she said no and called me stupid."
"Really? Mew, what have I told you? We don't call people stupid. Say you're sorry to Raidou."
"So-mew…"
"We'll work on that one later. I'm sorry Raidou, one of my younger students taught her that." Iruka said, continuing to scratch Mew under her chin as she started to purr.
"It's ok…Have you figured out who gave her to you yet?" Raidou asked.
"No, they said they wanted to give me her in person, but were called on a mission for a few days. They haven't come back yet I think. Why?"
"I was just wondering. It was really sweet of them."
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The day continued as normal for most of Iruka's shift left. Until about six thirtyish.
There was only about thirty minutes left in their shift and it was considered the quite part of the day when most where out on mission or just finishing them and would be writing reports for the next shift. So when stumbling was heard out in the hall all the rooms occupants found it odd to hear, not including the fact that they where in a ninja village that relied on being quiet.
No one was prepared for what they saw though.
Kakashi stumbled into the missions room covered in blood and muck. He didn't appear to know where he was as he leaned on the door frame looked around the room, then stagger over to Iruka's desk and laid down a blood and mud stained paper.
"Sorry…it's messy…" Kakashi slurred, blood dripping out of his mask as he spoke.
"Oh my gods, why aren't you at the hospital?!" Iruka panicked, coming out of his momentary shock, running around his desk to Kakashi.
"We…had a…date…" Kakashi managed to mumble before falling to the ground.
Raidou jumped over the desk, bumping it when he did causing Mew to wake up from her nap, and helped Iruka to pick up the Copy-nin's dead weight. "Well, I think we know who sent you the letter."
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They had arrived at the ninja hospital quickly since it was only two building over. A second hospital had been built there for ninja's only for occasions like this. Many ninjas would return from a mission half dead and have to go to the missions' office to deliver scrolls or some artifact that they had to retrieve. Then when they got to the public hospital they couldn't work fast enough, after all the delays, to save the ninja's life. So now Iruka sat in the ninja-only hospital waiting room, with Mew in the chair next to him, waiting to hear some sort of news.
It didn't take long for the doctor that had taken Kakashi to return with news.
"I have good news. He's not dead." Yes that was always good news. "He over did it a little and had a few injuries but most of the blood on him wasn't his. He should be escaping by morning." The doctor explained.
"That's good. Wait…What do you mean by escaping?" Iruka asked, standing up from his set to be eye level with the doctor.
"Well…Hatake's been here so many time's I can't even count. But, out of all the times he's been here he has always left by the time he thinks he's ready and not when he's release."
"Oh…Ok, if he's still here in the morning could you give him this?" Iruka asked, holding out a folded piece of paper, blush lighty touching his cheeks.
"Of course. But, what do you want me to do with it if he's gone by then?"
"Just toss it if he's gone." Iruka said, after a moment of thought. Turning around he picked up Mew and headed out the door.
"Ruka…no mew." Mew said looking up at him from his arms.
"I don't know what mew means silly kitty." Iruka said, giving a small chuckle at her cute try at conversation.
"No...wno...woo...wor...No wor-ew." Mew tried again, tilting her ears back at another failed attempt.
"Are trying to say worry?"
Mew nodded her little head before looking back up at him. "Worr-ew?"
"You're getting close. We'll work on it at home."
"Yes."
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Setting on his bed, Iruka leaned back against the headboard and picked Mew up from off the floor as she struggled to jump onto the bed.
"Ok let's work on your speech. Now, the sound that you where trying to make to go on the end of worry is an "e" sound. You try to make that noise." Iruka encouraged.
"Aw…Aw…No!" Mew whined, as she tries to make the right sound. She seemed to be able to pick up some words as long as she knew how to make the sound, but she had trouble on where to place her tongue on several of the sounds.
"No, that's not the right one, but remember where your tongue is when you made that sound. We'll work on that one next. To make an "e" sound your tongue should be just above your bottom teeth and the front of your tongue shouldn't be much farther then your bottom teeth either." Iruka explained.
Determination setting in her eyes, Mew tried again. "Eh…Worreh. Yes?"
"It's close."
"So, no worreh?" Mew asked, crawling into Iruka's lap.
"No, I'm not worried. I know he'll be fine." Iruka said, scratching her ear.
"Yes, no worreh."
