Title: Flowers For Iruka-sensei
Author: SirenM
Category: Romance (definitely but the rest is unsure as of yet)
Keywords: Flowers. Secret Admirers. The wooing of Iruka-sensei.
Rating: Gen for now
Spoilers: none that I know of, anyway. It's AU set before the Chuunin Exams.
Summary: It happened one morning, Iruka finds a bouquet of flowers from a secret admirer. Then the next morning he receives yet another. Is someone hell bent on wooing everyone's favourite chuunin sensei? Or is it just some insane stalker? (pairing unsure as of yet) possible KakaIru or GaiIru or even GenIru or OroIru, who knows. (I WAS KIDDING! But maybe in another fic...)
Disclaimer: The characters and world of Naruto was created and owned by Masashi Kishimoto. Honestly, if I owned this would I be writing fanfics?
A thought just occurred to me that the flowers that Ruka-chan may not be in season at the same time but for the sake of the fic and also the meaning each represents, let's just imagine that they're in season at that moment, okay?
Chapter 3
"Ah. Good afternoon, Iruka-sensei," Izumo greeted, when Iruka arrived at the administration office.
"Good Afternoon, Izumo-san," Iruka replied cheerfully.
"You seem happy. Good day?" Iwashi asked from the other side of the long table, leaning over to talk to the academy teacher.
"Mm. Hm," Iruka hummed. "The children are surprisingly good today."
"Hah! As if those little brats are ever good," Kotetsu retorted from where he sat, arranging the papers into their files.
"Well, they did keep the destruction level to the minimum," Iruka replied without a hitch, "So I guess that's a VERY good for me."
"Ah," the other three nodded in understanding.
Iruka settled into his chair, reading the notes and papers left on his table as the others returned to their work.
Report… report… report… late report… a note from Hokage-sama... and another late report…from Kakashi again…oh honestly…
Iruka sighed to himself, rolling his eyes heavenward. He pushed the late reports to one corner, cleared his table and started processing them.
A few minutes later, he was interrupted from his work when someone appeared in front of his desk. He looked up to see the (scary) face of the infamous Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast, Gai.
"Gai-sensei," Iruka greeted politely with a smile.
"My lovely Iruka-sensei," the Jounin returned boisterously with a sparkling smile. "How are you today?"
"Fine, thank you," Iruka replied automatically, still managing to outstandingly autopilot his smile at Lee-kun's sensei.
Lovely…?
"Ah! Such a nice day, it is. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the trees are dancing to the song of the wind," the sensei started to spout.
Iruka blinked incredulously.
"I thoughts birds chirp. And when does trees dance?," Kotetsu snickered to Iwashi, and then he yelped. Izumo glared at him and retracted his foot from Kotetsu's shin.
"Hai," Iruka replied cautiously (he's just too kind to laugh along with the others).
"Ah. Iruka-sensei. We should not waste the beautiful youth of our spring time," Gai continued barreling on. "On such a beautiful day, I, Gai would like to ask you to-"
"Iruka-san," someone interrupted the loud Jounin briskly, "could you check in the files to see if this is written right."
"Ah, Ebisu-sensei," Iruka greeted cordially, and stopped leaning back away from the enthusiastic odd Jounin teacher. He took the file in question and looked at it, feeling somewhat guilty for feeling glad at the interruption. While he was looking at the file, he completely missed the look that Ebisu was shooting at Gai.
"Ebisu-sensei!" Gai announced loudly and needlessly, completely oblivious to the glare that the bespectacled tutor was sending his way, "Such a wonderful day is it not?"
Ebisu sniffed disapprovingly, not bothering to reply.
He looked from the corner of his eyes to the pony-tailed sensei who was busying himself with comparing two files together. Seeing that Konohamaru's current Academy teacher was busy, he deliberately turned to the Beautiful Green Beast.
"I heard that Kakashi-sensei is looking for you," he said, bringing up his hand to cover a cough, "something about a match?"
Gai's eyes burned at the mention of his eternal rival. The word 'match' further seemed to make the fire in his eyes flare even more. Ebisu congratulated himself for a job well done at the sight of Gai's burning spirit.
"Ebisu-sensei, the information here is correct," the dolphin named teacher smiled as he handed back the file. Ebisu turned to him and smiled back, taking the file.
"MY LOVELY IRUKA!"
Everyone jumped. Kotetsu cursed aloud as the cup of coffee he was about to drink dropped and its content spilled onto his files.
"Kakashi has challenged me. I cannot refuse! Forgive me, my beloved Iruka! For I shall have to leave you for the moment to accept the scoundrel Kakashi's challenge. But I will return! For nothing will keep me away from you for long!" Gai declared glamorously. After that astounding announcement, he poof-ed away.
Everyone blinked in complete silence.
"I pity you, Iruka-sensei," Izumo said in a deadpanned voice and then he returned to his papers.
"If he returns before I go off shift today, I'm leaving early whether my replacement is here or not," Kotetsu grumped, wiping the coffee stains off his files as best as he could.
"Iruka-sensei."
Poor Iruka jumped. Only then did he realized that Ebisu-sensei had been trying to get his attention for the past few minutes he had been spacing out in horror. He turned to Ebisu with a wary smile.
"Yes?"
"Ah," Ebisu seemed to be a bit embarrassed, now that he had Iruka's attention, "I was wondering if you are free now. I need to talk to you about Konohamaru."
"Eh? Has something happened to Konohamaru?" Iruka asked quickly, ever the caring teacher.
"Oh, no no," Ebisu replied quickly, "I just wanted to know how he is doing in his class and the theories he have been learning so that I can reinforce it in his training."
"Oh," Iruka thought about it. "Okay."
"There's a café nearby that we can go to," Ebisu contributed happily, "to talk," he added hastily. "Are you free now?"
Iruka opened his mouth to answer but someone answered for him.
"He's not."
All three of dark haired Shinobi turned towards the owner of the voice.
"Genma-san," Iruka greeted accordingly when he spotted the bandanna-ed jounin heading towards them.
"Yo," was the only answer that the straw-chewing jounin gave.
"Don't 'Yo' us," Ebisu answered irritably.
Genma shrugged nonchalantly, making a show of ignoring the indignant bespectacled man who looked like he was going to blow.
"Iruka, Hokage-sama is summoning for you," the russet haired Jounin finally said around his straw, inevitably annoying the other Jounin further.
"Couldn't you at least have said that earlier!?" the annoyed tutor snapped.
Genma looked at him uninterestedly, only his straw moving as he chewed on it. Then he shrugged and answered the other bandanna-ed Jounin.
"Not like it's your business."
This, of course, has the efficiency of pacifying the darker haired Jounin as tossing gasoline into a fire in an attempt to put it out. Not that Genma was attempting to put out anything.
"Maa," Iruka jumped up, trying his best to pacify the two jounins. God knows what will happen if these two start to fight here. Mature Jounins, Iruka thought, my ass… (and a very nice one it is :op) "Sempai-tachi, please don't fight. I'll go right now to see Hokage-sama."
He grabbed is files and quickly went out. With luck, he can get out of there before anything else further happens
It's bad enough that I have to face tantrums in the academy now I have to deal with grownups with attitudes. What is wrong with them?!
He shook his head and headed to see Sandaime.
An hour later, a confused Iruka was heading back to the administration office.
Okay… today is extremely… unusual…Is there something happening that I don't know?
All throughout their reports briefing meeting, Sandaime was smirking around his pipe, giving looks and nodding at Iruka. Mind you, it wasn't a sarcastic kind of smirk, it was a kind of happy-approving-barely-irrepressible-smile smirk. This puzzled Iruka, because Hokage-sama usually told him things that happen around the village, especially if it was something that the Hokage found amusing.
But the Hokage shook his questions off, telling him that he would know when the time comes.
This, of course, puzzled him even more.
Iruka sighed then he stopped and stared at the object on his table. Lying wrapped in a white plastic, was a stalk of white hyacinth blossoms along with a white card attached to it.
"What-?!" Iruka asked aloud, in shock. The others looked up at his exclamation.
"What's wrong, Iruka-sensei?" Iwashi asked, staring at the Chuunin sensei.
"You-," Kotetsu stopped when he saw what had stopped the long haired Chuunin into mid motion of sitting in his chair.
"There's a flower on your desk," Izumo said needlessly.
"Yes, there is," Iruka said, still in shock. He picked up the card, opening it to be greeted by these few words:
I pray for you, my love.
"What does it say?" Kotetsu asked curiously, going over to have a look. But Iruka quickly hid the card, face turning red.
"Ah, it's nothing," he squeaked. This made his face turn even redder as the other smiled, obviously trying hard not to laugh at the kindly teacher.
"Ah, sensei, don't tell me that you have an admirer," Iwashi said impishly, a smile tugging relentlessly at the corner of his mouth, "Gai-sensei will be devastated."
"Maybe IT IS from Gai-sensei," Izumo retorted. Iruka felt somewhat ashamed for feeling horrified at that thought. Kotestu shuddered and turned to the pony-tailed Chuunin.
"I'm sorry to say that I don't envy you if it really is from Gai-sensei," Kotetsu said unrelentingly.
"Maa," Iruka said, "He's not so bad…" At least, I wish…
"Says you," the other Chuunin replied, in the act returning to his work.
"HEY, happy happy people! What are you guys doing?!"
"Anko!" Iruka yelped, nearly falling off his chair. The Kunoichi grinned at the teacher unrepentantly. She had appeared suddenly in front of them and was now leaning on Iruka's table. The dolphin quickly moved to hide the flower on his table in an attempt to avoid being teased by his ex-classmate. But he was too slow.
"Hey! What's this!?" She asked loudly, grabbing onto the white flower before he could. Iruka looked on in dismay as a look of comprehension dawned on the Jounin's face. "Ooo, Iruka-chan got a flower!"
The others looked at him in pity but didn't say anything. No one dared to.
"So, who is it from? Who? Who? Who?" She insisted from the poor dolphin.
"I…I…I don't know," he answered helplessly.
"Woo, a secret admirer, eh?" She snickered, still holding onto the flower. "Mystery! How Romantic!"
Poor Iruka wanted to just die, but he couldn't, so he settled with slumping into his chair in an attempt to slither under his desk. It seemed as if the Powers that be were set on torturing him that day.
He didn't know how right he was. Because as soon as that thought passed his mind, his luck turned even worse. A group of Jounins entered the office at the exact moment, apparently having just returned from their collective missions.
"What's going on?" Ibiki Morino asked, seizing the poor flower that Anko was waving around. Anko announced out loud to the Jounins at the same time Iruka hastily excused himself, yelping some poor excuse and quickly fleeing without even so much grabbing his trusty files.
"Iruka-chan have a secret admirer!"
He was never ever going to live this down.
Tsuzuku
I'm soooo evil... poor Ruka-chan. The next chapter will come on Monday. Sorry I was late. This was actually scheduled to come out on the 26th but I was so busy until I messed all the dates in my head. o.O But it's the thoughts that count right? starts sweating... Anyway, Happy Belated Birthday, Ruka-chan!
I finally realized that I'm not too good with writing the other characters. Only Iruka maybe because I kinda have his personality (not the patience though). Had to work on Genma's, Gai's was particularly hard because of his speech patterns and Ebisu, well, because he used too flowery sentences. TT Kakashi… he didn't say too much the last time did he?
And, I just realized the implication that I gave in one of my after words in chapter 2 Sandaime is NOT Ruka-chan's suitor. GAHHH! The VERY thought. I meant as in, not everyone that he meets will be his suitor so dun jump in conclusion. But apparently, that's the exact wrong meaning I gave. What an IDIOT I am. I'm so sorry. Sigh.
Also…
People keep telling me that the chapters are too short. I'm sorry but I can't help it. Chapter 2 was actually written within 24 hours after the first chapter was posted so it IS a very rush job. Actually, the first two chaps were written under the same circumstances too (during work too, I'm so dead if they catch me doing this).
That's why the chapters are so short. It really can't be helped. If I don't write fast and send it out fast, I'll never get it done (look at my other fics, for god's sake, they're forever on hold, damnit!). I'm writing too much, okay, gotta stop now and start working on the next chap.
Ps. I just want to thank all of you for reading and voting this, especially to;
F. A. Star Hawk
Razu (Keep your fingers crossed then heh heh heh I'm so evil)
Naruke (Omedetou means congrats!)
diamond (It's and AU before the Chuunin Exms! Haya-chan is not dead! Gahh! So.. it's a vote for AsuIru then….?)
danton (I'm going, I'm going! :o)
Renn
Moon Sweet (I forgot to tell you that I really liked the Sugar and Spice series :o) HOOOTTT! Are you going to write more?)
hotaruchan27 (Iru-chan in a dolphin costume huh. CUTE!)
AJ the Dark Raven
Eikou
Squall Morpheus Leonheart (I thought u were going to update Shinigami? Where is it? And SasuIru O.O It feels the same as NaruIru…)
Dvana
ororooo
Vin, I Luv Kai
p-sama7 (when are you going to update Side Effects???!!! I'm in love with that fic! Heh heh heh mutual pressure grins)
Carscard, (Kabuto? Oro? Having tea with Iru-chan? O.O)
RavensHaelo (Genma maybe? :op)
cdkobasiuk,
Iceheart19 (No, Sandaime NOT suitor. GAhhhh!! Beastly image!)
KakashiLvr
afk (not Gai huh. Kakashi another vote)
Zi
Evil Kasumi (You reminded me of Iruka-chan's b-day but I thought the 26th was the 25th. I'm such a sad case).
Thanks again.
Luv,
SirenM