The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn – Chapter 53: A Hundred Years
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."
A/N: Just two cups of coffee today! Hehe, or at least that's all that's going on the record…I also had about three caffeine tablets, which equate to about two cups of my coffee each. So yeah. Killing myself one cup at a time. Holy shit, it's less than three weeks until Christmas. If you're all good little fangirls/boys (evil is equal opportunist) then there may be a Christmas oneshot in the works. Possibly relating to TGTYEL. And possibly rather lemony. Naturellement, this isn't going to depend on the number of reviews I get or whatever, since I write for my own enjoyment as well as yours, and I may or may not have time around Christmas since I'm a very busy little bitch and I'm endeavouring to properly catch up with the action in the 'Naruto' manga because I'm sick of developments happening and then completely missing out of half of what's going on because I've not read the relevant chapters. Also, to re-watch 'Uzumaki' and 'Higurashi', because I need a good scare. And maybe 'Shiki' because I love it (I like to pretend the ending never happened :3) and maybe re-try to catch up with Bleach. Actually, scrap that. Bleach is boring as hell with a hero as annoying as hell – ooh, watch with amazement as Ichigo stacks another set of insane power-ups to go and get his ass kicked by yet another boring undefeatable villain. Like we don't have enough of those in shonen manga right now. Oh wait, that's basically the entire plot of 90% of all shonen manga ever. I knew there was a reason yaoi fangirls existed – it's to make boring series more interesting by messing around with the hot guys! Speaking of hot guys, here be another chapter of 'The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn', swallowing up hours of my life since August 2011. Song of the chapter is weirdly emo, 'Gone Forever' by Three Days Grace. But 'tis relevant! I promise!
This is thinking/dreaming.
"Anything in italics and quotes is written stuff…kukuku…"
This is regular story.
This is author's note.
This is title
Warnings: Don't drink eight cups of coffee kids. And don't exceed it unless you really, really want caffeine jitters. You know that thing where you get twitchy and shaky and your pulse is stupidly fast and is technically the result of an overdose? Yeah, that's caffeine jitters. Don't do it. Also, no sex. Hehe.
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of that rich bastard Masashi Kishimoto. And that's all I'm saying *represses internal rant*
oO..Oo..oO..Oo
So, I'll stay up all night
With these bloodshot eyes
While these wall surround me
With the story of our life
oO..Oo..oO..Oo
"Akatsuki?" I repeated, not quite sure if I had heard that right.
"Yep," Kakashi confirmed. I watched as his fingers retraced their path across the spine of 'Icha Icha', creeping into a position to sneakily re-open the page at wherever he had been before I had interrupted.
I had to admit I was vaguely jealous of that book. It always seemed to captivate his attention, and it was almost always on Kakashi's person when it wasn't explicitly visible. Not to mention the way his fingers practically danced over its spine, tracing creases and folds almost sensually.
"What's the point? Why would they be interested in a school?" I said. Akatsuki were officially a collective of entrepreneurial businessmen, not teachers. There shouldn't be any reason for their involvement in Sound. Equally, there shouldn't be any involvement in many of the sectors they meddled with, but money turns all the right heads and ticks all the right boxes as long as there's enough of it.
"Half of their ventures seem more than a little odd, but they all pay off eventually. That, or the members have a personal interest in the venture and no one says 'no' to Akatsuki's money," I wasn't sure I wanted to know what 'personal interests' entailed. Hopefully just charities or specialist shops or something innocent.
"But it's a long term venture, a school. Maybe they're hoping to turn out some new recruits from Sound," I suggested. "If they recruit promising university students, then getting more kids places would be of some value,"
"Maybe that's Orochimaru's intention in taking the funding, although I doubt it really matters. They have the funding and it's enough to make Tsunade worry," He replied, shifting slightly in his chair to move an elbow to an armrest. I made sure I was a couple of feet away from the desk, though I cursed my perfect eyesight; I could still see every move he made, and I couldn't help but pay attention to it.
The single visible eye didn't waver at all, still looking distinctly bored. I wondered if I shouldn't have interrupted his reading.
"If it's enough to make her worry, then maybe the rest of us should worry, too. She sounded remarkably sober, if I remember correctly," I said. Her voice hadn't been slurred or sleepy, and I couldn't smell the sake halfway across the room like it was sometimes possible to. Generally, the consumption of alcohol was directly proportionate to the amount of paperwork that was supposed to be done, which seemed to be relatively high all the time. The only time the alcohol went away for a minute was when there was important business to attend to, like old rivalries.
"Yes, she did," Kakashi paused, hands deliberately folding over 'Icha Icha' and looking me in the eye. "You need to sleep properly, Iruka. Stop working so late or you'll make yourself sick, and try to worry a little less. Is something on your mind?"
"Not right now, no," I said blandly. It's not like I was going to admit that I had had a suspicious phone call from an old colleague demanding that I ask questions.
Guilt burned in my stomach. He knew something was up, but I was going to lie about it. If I followed Mizuki's instructions, then I'd be giving in, and on the basis that Mizuki only wanted to do me harm then no good could come of asking questions. I was going to lie and abuse that trust because it was convenient to me.
Now I had thought of Mizuki, I couldn't stop my eyes from locking on the eye patch, on the very tail of the scar that was just about hidden behind it, the solid block of white making Kakashi's skin look paler and more delicate. The scars proved that it was tough but breakable, and that it would heal, but that didn't erase the story behind them, and it was the story that was interesting. I could practically feel the raised, smooth skin under my fingers.
"Good. You worrying makes me worry. If you need to, come talk to me. My door's always open," He said, visible eye curving up into its happy little shape. It hadn't done that in a while; mostly because it was occupied by other things. Or maybe I had just been looking the wrong way at the wrong times.
If Mizuki's call was supposed to make me miserable by destroying my relationship with Kakashi, then I certainly wasn't going to give in. If I was supposed to ask a question that would have a painful answer, then I just wouldn't do it. It was better for me to sit around frustrated in silence than to push my problems onto other people, least of all Kakashi.
"Thanks," I paused, taking a step back. I considered asking the question. It would take less than ten words to get everything that had been worrying me, nagging at my mind all morning, off my chest forever. But that would be giving in, so I held my tongue. "Thank you,"
I got a small wave as I left the room, the little orange book quickly re-opened the second my back was turned.
A new plan was formulating in my mind. If Kakashi was noticing something was wrong, then I'd just have to spend less time around him in order to rectify that notion. Yes, avoiding him shouldn't be too difficult, since we spent most of the school day in our own classrooms. It was only once I needed to get home that it would be difficult, since there was no realistic way for me to get home without him, and we lived next door to each other. And we were kind of romantically involved.
I bit my lip at the idea. I didn't really want to spend time apart on purpose, but if it protected him from Mizuki and whoever the hell else's machinations, it would be worth it. A stupid thing like a phone call and a piece of teasing information was not enough to break up whatever we had.
My classroom seemed awfully lonely. The bell signalling the end of break would ring in about five minutes; not enough time to be worth fighting my way down to the staff room for coffee, but more than enough time to sit and think. I didn't want to sit and think, because sitting and thinking would lead to thinking about Kakashi.
I pulled an apple out of my bag and took a bite, frowning as a bead of juice escaped me and ran over the skin of the apple just out of my reach. Despite not sleeping, I had had enough time to eat this morning. I wasn't really hungry; I just wanted something to do that would occupy me. It was a good, fresh apple, too, not just cheap supermarket stock. It had probably come from a market, or somewhere that sold apples really fresh.
Still, I didn't remember buying apples. I held the apple in front of me suspiciously, like it might suddenly turn into a live animal and bite me, studying it. I hadn't bought apples in a while because I usually forgot to buy any. That meant someone had slipped it into my bag, and there was only one logical candidate.
Great, I couldn't even eat without being reminded in some way about Kakashi.
The small gesture made the guilty feeling increase. Although I did my best to squash it, justifying that if it was to shield him from unnecessary harm it was okay to lie a little, but it was little gestures like an apple that made it feel so much worse. What did I do in return? Absolutely nothing, other than withhold information while burning with repressed curiosity, and they were certainly not caring gestures.
The bell rang, and I finished the apple feeling somehow a little better prepared for my next couple of classes.
I fished around in one of my bags for a copy of the class text, checking my lesson plan for what I was supposed to be teaching today and for how much homework I was hoping I could get out of setting. Fortunately, it was a fifth form class so I could get away with asking them to read and annotate, naturally to varying degrees of success. Once I was submerged in work, I could completely forget about everything else.
Including that phone call. And the mystery behind Kakashi's eye. And lying to Kakashi.
Damn. I opened the text to wherever we were supposed to be reading from, but my eyes refused to focus on the words.
"Good morning, Iruka-sensei!" A couple of students chirped as they entered the classroom early. I waved at them over the top of my book, trying to hide the frown spreading across my face. Teaching was not high on my priority list as it should have been, and I was pretty much guaranteed to be distracted for the next two hours.
I forced my face to be neutral and turned to watch the students file in, casually overhearing the babble about their lives, their school work, their teachers, their friends, sports, boyfriends or girlfriends, and other general teenage-type pursuits. It was much easier being a teenager, and running purely on hormones.
After two hours of explaining the intricacies of literary romance to a bunch of unreceptive kids, I was begging for some kind of distraction, but I denied myself a trip to the science block. I needed a little bit of space, and I needed a different kind of distraction.
Unfortunately, I was in school, so there wasn't a lot I could do. Instead, I left my classroom and disappeared in the direction of the staff room.
oO..Oo..oO..Oo
A/N: Nearly 2am! Yay! I didn't stay up stupidly late tonight (comparatively…it was four am last night…and five the night before…I'm very stressed right now and my chest infection doesn't help…), but I got your chapter out all the same. Another bit of a transitional chapter, but stuff kinda happens. Possibly not my greatest work ever, but stuff happens soon! I promise!
