Chapter 3

This chapter has not been betaed yet.

Their journey started off peacefully.

Leiko sat on her horse silently sulking and didn't seem to be planning any mischief for the moment. The others members of their party looked relaxed.

Asuma was happily polluting the forest air, Kakashi had pulled out his ever present book and Ibiki seemed to be trying and apparently succeeding in reading along over the man's shoulder. Funny how Ibiki's face could turn red but his scars would stay white.

The quiet gave Iruka a chance to think and enjoy the first part of their trip. The weather was perfect, the sun shone through the leaves creating beautiful patterns on the forest floor and the light breeze only seemed to accentuate the comfortable warmth of the early afternoon.

He wondered how the Bear country would look. If they made it there, which was never a certainty in the life of a ninja, they would have traveled further than Iruka ever had before.

He knew some things about the country of course, how far it was approximately, major mountain ranges, rivers, climate, that sort of things. Any self respecting ninja had at least a basic knowledge of the other countries. Still, there were always things you couldn't learn from a book, like how the air would smell. He'd never be able to explain it to anyone, but other countries just 'felt' different to Iruka.

Of course the looming threat of attack by enemy ninja's sucked a little of the joy out of the experience, but still…

When they were about an hour out of the city gates Asuma and Kakashi disappeared, leaving him with Ibiki and Leiko. He assumed the other two ninja were close by but he didn't hear anything that could pinpoint their position. Iruka looked at Ibiki thoughtfully, could he ask? He couldn't control his curiosity any longer. "This is an unusual mission for you, isn't it, Ibiki-san?"

Ibiki gave him a long look.

Just when Iruka was about to apologize for the intrusive question, the huge man smiled at him. "It's the Godaime's way of sending me on a paid vacation."

Iruka nodded silently even though it didn't really make sense to him. As far as he knew the chance of an attack during this mission was pretty high. Not his idea of a vacation, not even for a jounin.

They walked in a comfortable silence for a while until Ibiki asked him how his current batch of students was doing. Iruka gave a brief answer, not wanting to bore the man, but Ibiki spurred him on by asking for details. In the end they discussed Iruka's students and their antics for almost an hour and a half, before Iruka decided that Leiko might want a little break.

He suggested to Ibiki to have some lunch. Ibiki nodded and gave a soft whistle, alerting the other jounin to their plans. Iruka reached out to help Leiko off of the horse, but she quickly swung her leg over and jumped down, landing on Iruka's exposed toes. It didn't hurt, she was just a small girl after all, but it had clearly been intentional and that bothered him.

He decided to pretend he hadn't noticed, maybe she was just trying to get attention in a bad way and she'd stop if he didn't give her the attention she wanted. He smiled cheerfully at the little brown haired girl. "You should walk around a little Leiko-chan, it will loosen your muscles so you won't get sore."

Leiko promptly sat down.

Iruka's smile became a little strained at that point. "Do you want a sandwich?"

"I'm not hungry."

Alright, that was it. Standing up a little straighter he gave her his best strict 'if you don't listen to your teacher you're going to be very sorry' look.

"Leiko-chan, you'll be hungry later on if you don't eat something now, and you're going to be sore if you don't walk around a little. The only one you're hurting with this behavior is yourself."

For a few tense moments she tried to stare him down, but in the end an eight year old just wasn't a match for a grown up.

"Fine" She stood up and started walking around and when he handed her a sandwich she took it without further comment, even though she looked at it like it was the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen.

He had to hide his smile when after the first bite she turned her back on him and devoured the thing within a minute. He gave her another one, careful to keep his face completely neutral. It wouldn't do to get her upset again.

They didn't stay very long. After their lunch break Ibiki raised his hand in goodbye and disappeared. Seconds later Asuma dropped out of a tree right in front of them. He grinned around his cigarette in greeting.

"Maa Iruka-sensei, did you go to Anko's birthday party?" He mumbled out of the blue as he fell in to step beside him.

Iruka shook his head. He didn't like Anko very much, there was something wrong with her. He always felt like he couldn't really trust her, although he had no idea why. It was just a feeling.

Asuma wasted no time in telling him what he'd missed.

Apparently Kurenai got very creative with her bindings when she'd had a few cups of sake. Luckily Asuma didn't go into detail or else Iruka would have had to smack him for telling dirty stories in front of little kids.

After Asuma stopped gushing about Kurenai they made pleasant small talk. Asuma and he both tried a few times to involve Leiko in some conversation but she ignored every attempt and finally they just gave up. Eventually Asuma mumbled a 'see you later' around his cigarette, and walked off of the path. At around the same time Kakashi appeared and silently took his place beside Iruka, nose buried in his book. Unlike the others Kakashi didn't seem at all inclined to talk. The silence felt uncomfortable to Iruka.

Would it hurt the man to be polite for once!

Iruka decided to have one more go at getting Leiko to open up a little.

"Are you looking forward to seeing your parents again, Leiko-chan?" he asked softly.

"Leave me alone!" Her sudden scream startled the birds from the trees.

Well, if there were enemy ninja around and they hadn't known their location before…they sure did now.

"Leiko, be quiet! You can't make so much noise, it's dangerous!" he hissed at her.

"Bit late now, Iruka-sensei." Kakashi sounded amused.

Iruka glared at him then turned back to Leiko.

"Leiko-chan, we're not inside the village anymore. It can be dangerous out here and you need to be quiet and do as we say, okay? It's for your own safety. Soon you'll be back with your mom and dad and you can do whatever you want." They deserve it for raising a little monster like you.

She pouted, a bit startled by the fact that she might be in danger. "But you, scarface and stinky were talking all the time."

He ignored Kakashi's snort behind him. "There's a difference between talking and shouting at the top of your lungs, just try to be a little quiet all right? It's okay to talk; you just can't be very loud."

They resumed their trip in complete silence. He wished Ibiki would trade places with Kakashi again. Something about the man just made him nervous and edgy and defensive and it wasn't a pleasant feeling at all. And yet, there was something about the man that made Iruka want to keep looking at him.

They kept going the entire day, only stopping for short breaks, and when Leiko began to fall asleep on the horse, Iruka lifted her of and carried her further on his back. Finally Asuma gave the sign that they were going to stop for the night.

As the jounin quickly and efficiently checked the perimeters and set up traps for defense, Iruka put Leiko down on his bed roll and began to set up a small tent for her to sleep in.

It was finished quickly. When he heard a soft rustle behind him he turned to check out the source. Just in time to see Leiko sneaking towards the horse. He watched in grim amusement as she climbed it and attempted to get it to move.

"Stupid animal" she hissed, why won't you move!"

"What are you doing Leiko-chan?"

Startled she looked behind her. Realizing she was caught she gave him an angry look.

"I'm not going home!"

"Why not Leiko-chan?" He was surprised at her answer. If anything he'd expected her to say that she was going home right now.

"Because I don't want to!"

"Leiko, stop shouting please. Look, I'm sorry you didn't want to go yet, but your parents want you home with them, and we are taking you there whether you like it or not. I'm sure they missed you very much."

"Fine!" She yelled, jumping of the horse. "I'll just run away when I get there." Having said that, or rather screamed that, she crawled into her little tent.

Later that evening as they sat around their camp Iruka could hear little sniffling sounds coming from the tent. It was frustrating because he was sure she wouldn't accept any comfort from him. He knew her type so well; he'd seen many of them in the academy, the ones that locked themselves away when they were hurt and wouldn't allow anyone to comfort them. People like Neji and Sasuke. Too proud for their own good.

Suddenly he had an idea. She wouldn't accept any comfort from him, but there was another option, if he could get Kakashi to lend a hand. He hated having to ask the man for a favor but…he hated the quiet crying in the tent more.

Quietly he walked over to the jounin and sat down next to him.

"Kakashi-san" he started hesitantly, "how much energy does it take you to summon one of your dogs?"

Kakashi looked at him blankly. "Why do you want to know?"

Iruka squirmed a little; maybe he was being far too presumptuous. Here he was asking a jounin to perform a summoning technique only to cheer up an eight year old having a temper tantrum. He had to ask though, the girl might be a total brat, but she was only a child, far away from her family and very upset.

"I thought… Well, I hoped that" Iruka decided to start over again. "I wanted to ask if maybe"

Kakashi reached for his Icha Icha Paradise again.

Iruka took a deep breath and spouted out his question on the exhale.

"I wanted to ask you if you could summon one of your dogs to cheer op Leiko-chan."

Kakashi send him another unreadable look.

"I mean, she's really upset and she'll probably have trouble sleeping tonight and that will only make her more cranky in the morning, and she's really not such a bad kid, she just has some issues and-"

Kakashi interrupted him. "Which one?"

"Eh?"

"Which dog do you want?"

"Ummm, I don't know your dogs. Except for Pakkun. Ummm do you have dogs that are cuter? Little girls like cute things."

"You don't like Pakkun?"

Iruka thought about the mutt. That dog was ugly, there was no denying it.

"Of course I like him! Pakkun is great and a very good nin-dog!"

"Hnnn"

Kakashi seemed to be thinking about his request, so Iruka kept his mouth shut for the moment.

"Please wait here a moment, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka watched curiously as Kakashi walked to the other side of the little clearing they were in. The jounin made a few hand seals and put his hands to the ground. Suddenly Pakkun appeared. Kakashi squatted in front of the little dog and they seemed to be having a conversation. He saw Pakkun looking first at him and then at the little tent. He also thought he heard Pakkun say the words 'still single' but he couldn't make out what they were talking about. Finally they seemed to have come to an agreement. Pakkun disappeared.

Damn, Iruka thought, he isn't going to do it. Kakashi remained where he was however, so Iruka waited as the man had asked him. About five minutes later Kakashi made the hand seals again and this time two dogs appeared. One was Pakkun. The other was the fluffiest dog Iruka had ever seen. It didn't look like a dog; it looked like a little bear. Pakkun was talking to it, pointing at the little tent and Iruka. The little bear turned his head to look at Iruka and Iruka could swear that the animal grinned at him. He wondered how a little fluffy bear-dog with a row of sparkly white teeth could look so lecherous. He shook his head; he must have seen it wrong.

Finally the fluff-ball nodded and walked off and into the little tent while Kakashi and Pakkun walked back to Iruka.

"Iruka-san" Pakkun nodded at Iruka.

Iruka smiled back at him. "Thank you for helping out Pakkun."

"Let's see if it works first, Iruka-san" Kakashi said softly.

The three of them stayed silent for a while trying to hear any sounds coming from the tent.

Finally they heard it. A little giggle.

Pakkun looked triumphantly at Kakashi. "You owe me Hatake."

Kakashi rolled his eyes, or one of them at least. Iruka couldn't be sure about the other one. Was it possible to roll one eye? He suppressed the urge to try it out.

"What do you want?" The jounin asked the mutt sitting in front of him.

"I'll think of something later."

Kakashi nodded.

"Alright, I think I'll stick around for a while. Gives me a chance to catch up with Iruka-san here. You don't mind do you, Iruka-san?"

Iruka shook his head and smiled at the dog. He really did like Pakkun.

Kakashi was already reaching for his book again. Impulsively, Iruka reached out and laid his hand on the man's shoulder. "Thank you Kakashi-san"

Kakashi gave him one of his one eyed smiles. "No problem."

Maybe Kakashi wasn't so bad, Iruka thought as he turned back to Pakkun, a little socially inept maybe… but not so bad.