Fuuuu! I guess I was a bit too hard on Iruka-sensei! Waaaah I'm not dolphin
friendly! XD
Anyway, I'm glad people like this. Sorry if it's a bit confusing, but things will be explained soon; hopefully in this chapter, but then again, probably not.
Also, I must warn everyone, this isn't exactly like my last story where it was /humor. This one's /angst, so if you came here looking for a good laugh, I suggest you look else where... unless you share Orochimaru or Gaara's sadistical humor.
Before I forget, this fic is still non yaoi/shounen-ai. But it has enough hints to tickle the otaku's imagination. XD
Now, on with the fic.
Midnight Confessions Chapter 2
~~~***~~~
In the end both Kakashi and Iruka arrived at the teacher's small apartment. A few weeks after the attack, Iruka had been offered to keep his family's home by the hokage himself, but Iruka had declined the offer, thinking that keeping the house would not allow him to move on with his own life. Instead he asked the Third to sell his home to help pay for living expenses. The man agreed to the terms and assigned a small living space for the orphaned boy, giving him an allowance to pay for room and board. However, to this day, no one has ever set foot into the old Umino home. Iruka had a few speculations for this; one, it was haunted, or two... two it was due to the fact that the Umino's had been respected and adored individuals in the community.
Iruka's mother, although a chunin herself, would jokingly boast that she kicked the fourth's ass during their chunin exams. She had excelled in illusions, chakara techniques and summonings rather than physical combat. She, and the fourth had been on rival teams after graduating from the academy, but it was a friendly rivalry. Although sometimes haughty and stubborn when provoked, she also had a soothing disposition to her, strong enough to placate even the frustrating of individuals.
Iruka's father had been a former ANBU and had switched to be an elite tutor when he had met Iruka's mother. However, unlike Ebisu, Iruka's father was never considered arrogant but rather solemn and formal to a degree of annoyance. Iruka's father had only but one weakness and that had been little children. It was only around them that Iruka's father's expression would change to a rare soft smile rather than the constant puckered brow. Iruka's father also had a way to make even the novice of children understand the most complex and frustrating of jujitsus and his teachings produced some of the best shinobi the village had seen with the vast majority of his students reaching jounin or higher.
Sometimes Iruka would wonder to himself, if his father was alive, how would he react to know that his only son stayed as a chunin? Would he be disappointed in him? Shaking his head, Iruka figured it wouldn't do well to think of such matters at the moment. Taking out a key from his pocket, he opened the door to his apartment and walked in, leaving the door open to allow his follower entry.
Kakashi took in the wordless invitation and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. Looking about he didn't think the apartment was that bad. The main room was a living room, dining room and kitchen all in one. The only thing that separated each of the rooms was a small protruding wall between the living and the dining room and tile floor for the kitchen. On one side of the room were three doors. One of them was slightly open and he could guess, from the futon on the ground, that it was a bedroom. The other two would be a mystery until he got the chance to explore a bit. Turning around, he glanced back at the "living room" again. If not for a few papers scattered on a small table in the middle of the room, the place was relatively clean. To the opposite wall of the doorways stood a long, narrow table with picture frames set upon it, a book-case full of scrolls and regular books and a closed cabinet with lock and a seal between the openings.
Suffice it to say, the cabinet got Kakashi's curiosity going again... even more so when he saw Iruka approach the cabinet and pull out a brush pen from the book-case's drawer, writing an unfamiliar kanji over the cabinet's paper seal.
"May I have the knife back, Kakashi? Don't worry, I promise I won't attack you with it." Iruka stepped back to open the cabinet doors. The seal tore in half and slight amount of smoke blew between the cracks. When the doors were open fully, Kakashi couldn't help but raise a brow at the sight.
The cabinet consisted of many shelves: the middle shelf being the widest. On the middle shelf were a few incense holders, used candles and a large jewelry box with its own lock and seal. The other shelves had several head-protectors, trinkets and pictures. There wasn't really a lot, only about a dozen or so of each of the items. Some of the hitai-ate looked new, others looked mangled scuffed and torn. What disturbed Kakashi the most were some of the red stains on the majority of them.
Moving his eye elsewhere, he looked at the various trinkets. Some were various jewelry items: pendants, rings or other chains. Some had been weapons to some small shuriken to a full length katana hanging on the back of one of the cabinet doors.
Finally, Kakashi's eye turned towards the pictures pasted on the walls of the cabinet and to those in small frames. Most of the pictures had been of smiling children, with the occasional solemn face here and there. Suddenly Kakashi's expression darkened as his eye stopped at a small picture on one of the walls. He had recognized that face of someone he had worked with in a Class-S mission. He had been a recently graduated jounin, but the kid was damn good. Sadly, the boy had lost his life during one of their mission while taking the blow for another. He never knew the name of that kid but the same carefree eyes and smile were there in the picture.
"This is..." Kakashi began, his voice almost tightening up at the realization to what he was looking at.
"Aa..." Iruka confirmed, seeming to know what the other man was about to say. "These were my former students from when I started teaching. Many of them killed in the line of duty whether it was in missions or in wars or by other means. This is my shrine to them."
Kakashi just stayed silent, observing how the teacher's shoulders slumped slightly. Iruka, unaware of the scrutiny continued his narration.
"When a shinobi dies, everything about them is erased; in fact, just having this here can get me into serious trouble. Still, I keep this shrine to remember them, to remember that they had existed before, that they are never forgotten. It also serves as my motivation, to better teach all my other students... just so I won't have to put another head-protector or picture to this shrine."
"And was Mizuki another of your students?" Kakashi offered the kunai back to the teacher, careful not to touch the blood on the blade.
Iruka's soft, reminiscing smile slowly turned into a bitter frown at the mention of that name. Looking almost in disgust at the blade, the teacher closed his eyes and let out a releasing breath. Opening his eyes back up, he gave a tired and thankful expression to Kakashi then took the weapon gently in his hands, hanging it on a hook nailed to the wall of the cabinet. Done with his task, Iruka took a moment to step back and stare at the inside of the cabinet, before closing the doors shut. Taking out a blank paper, he sticks it over the old seal and with three fingers he began to trace some rapid kanji over it. His mother had thought it had been necessary to teach her son about seals and bonds, mostly due to the other children stealing his lunch at school. The paper flashed brightly for a second and words slowly appeared on the paper, forming it into a seal.
Kakashi couldn't help but grin at this. So Iruka knew how to form chakara bonds? This particular bond had been an old form of jujitsu that consisted of the individual using their chakara to write words and incantations forming a seal. Although the concept was quite simple, not many could fully perform this task. Chakara bonds were considered one of the top forms of security when it came to with-holding documents or other important scrolls. Should an enemy open the bond, but neglect to displace the seal, they would set off traps that could either have weapons flung at them, summon a guard or, depending on the maker or the strength of the seal, transport the individual to another area of the village or another village altogether.
"Mizuki wasn't a student of mine..." Iruka stated, making his way towards the kitchen to place a kettle on the newly-lit stove, interrupting Kakashi of his thoughts. "... but rather he was a fellow teacher for whom I had worked with. He betrayed the village when he used Naruto to go after the sacred Seal of Scrolls. He hated the boy, and still blamed him for the village's pain and loss. Luckily we were able to stop him before it was too late."
Iruka's tone sounded cold and mechanical, almost as if he were reading from a script. There was something else to the story, Kakashi was sure of it. Kakashi looked back at the cabinet, and then turned his head back to look at Iruka, raising a brow at the chunin to give him a look that seemed to express "you must be kidding me".
"If that is so, why then add that weapon to your collection? Traitors within a village receive just the same fate as missing nin. It's probably safe to say that he has already been taken care of. I would also think from the fact that he used Naruto as a scapegoat wouldn't put him too high in your graces either."
"Aaa..." Iruka confirmed, "but perhaps it's because it's hard to really hate someone when you know they did that with you in mind." Iruka walked back to the living room, carrying a tray with a kettle and two small cups. "I'm sorry, I forgot I ran out of coffee, is tea fine?"
Even the fact that he had bee a former ANBU member didn't prevent Kakashi from twitching his eye at the sudden change of subject, still the twitch was not enough to be noticeable. Giving a grunt of affirmation about the tea, Kakashi took the cup into his hands and took a light whiff: Bagged tea. Inwardly he pouted at this. He always found their taste too bitter and too weak. Well, beggars can't be choosers, now can they?
"From the way you describe it, it was much more than a teacher-to- teacher relationship."
Iruka smiled slightly at Kakashi's insight. He had been expecting the jounin to find the hidden meaning within his words; in fact, he would have been shocked if the older man let the matter pass as it was. Still, despite it all, it still brought a slight blush to Iruka's cheeks to recognize the fact within those words. Looking up at the ceiling, Iruka sighed, preparing himself to recount his tale to the other man.
"Aa... Mizuki was more to me than just another teacher. Even though he was older than me by a year, he and I had been friends since our own days in the academy. However, unlike my other classmates, Mizuki had been different. He was the first person, near my age, who didn't look at me in pity or that I was just some annoying and idiotical class-clown out for a few laughs. He knew what I was going through, because he was going through almost the same thing. Just as I had lost my parents during the... attack, Mizuki had lost his father and older sister in the battle as well. His mother hadn't been a ninja, but she worked just as hard to make a living for both her and Mizuki. Because of so, she was hardly there for him when he came home from training.
"We were just too similar not to be friends. He knew the meaning of my jokes, my pranks and my antics. In fact, he was known to pull off a few good ones himself, which was surprising if you only knew him by reputation. However, he was also the one to calm me down or to back me up whenever I went a little over my head."
Iruka paused in his narration to take a loud sip of the bitter tea, rehydrating his mouth from talking too long, and trying to get the magic of the caffeine within the tea to keep him awake. Feeling the parchedness leave temporary, he continued.
"I looked up to him, and I think I tried to be a little like him. Mizuki was always overly polite to grown-ups and strangers. He had told me that the only way to get anyone to acknowledge you was to get in their good graces." Iruka chuckled here, almost if conjuring up a fond memory. "I didn't want to believe him at first. I was having too much fun. Plus, seeing my classmates smile when they laughed at my mistakes made me feel... acknowledged. I felt like I meant something to them, even if it was entertainment with a cheap prank. Adults were too serious and too fickle in their ways, and to get on their good side seemed like a lot of work... especially after all the trouble I had caused for them with my antics, so I stuck to my childish manners for a while."
Looking back down from the ceiling, Iruka blinked at the sight of Kakashi giving him an amused expression. The older man had his chin propped up with the palm of his hands, his elbows fully on the table.
The jounin's cup of tea was now empty and Iruka furrowed his brows in half astonishment and half disappointment at that. Iruka had also had that childish urge to look under the mask but he also knew when to pry and when not to. Shaking his head from the distraction, Iruka refilled his own cup and continued.
"Although my pranks were bad they pale compared to Naruto's antics, which was why I was surprised when I had been called to the Hokage-sama's office. Well, alright, not surprised, more like terrified out of my wits." Iruka chuckled at the memory. "It didn't help that my other classmates tried to scare me saying that I would be kicked out of the village and pronounced a missing nin for all my bad deeds. So, with my head held high, and my knees shaking like dry leaves in November, I strolled into the office like a dead-nin walking.
"Suffice to say I wasn't kicked out, but I did receive a worse punishment, the lecture of a lifetime." Here, Iruka paused, giving a dismal smile as the words flashed through his mind momentarily. "I was used to adults lecturing, and I had always made it seem that I wasn't listening and just blocking out their words with my actions, but the truth is I remember each and every one."
'At least that way...' Iruka silently thought to himself, 'it was better to stay up all night mulling over their harsh words than facing those chronic nightmares of that one particular night.'
Kakashi saw the troubling pain in the younger man's eyes when he fell silent, but that moment ended when Iruka sighed and closed his eyes. Reopening his eyes, Iruka looked back at Kakashi with a soft smile and an almost natural, carefree expression.
'Maa...that's not fair, Iru-kun...' Kakashi inwardly thought, eying the younger man with intense scrutiny. 'You're better at wearing masks than I am.'
~~~***~~~
Haha.. I'm so cruel to end it right here, but the chapter's getting too long, I just feel I need to post the next part now before people forget about my story. The turnout rate for Naruto fics is astounding... O_o The lack of Iruka-centered fics is disappointing... u_u The rate of yaoi vs non-yaoi fics is slightly disturbing... 6_6 But... slightly amusing at the same time... ^_^; Ah well.... I'm working on chapter 3 at this moment... well not at THIS moment since I'm writing this, but... well... you know what I mean.
I want to thank everyone for their reviews; you guys really are my motivation. ^_^
As mentioned before, I know this is a sequel to "Pigeons and Bugs" but it's not of the same genre. Again, I'm sorry if you guys thought it would have the same silly humor, but I suppose that's because of the lack of Naruto here. XD Just think about it; without the boy, this series would be too angsty even for me. O_O I'll still try to incorporate the silliness here and there, maybe to give pause to the seriousness, but don't hate me too much if it's still not enough.
Again, thanks for reading.
Anyway, I'm glad people like this. Sorry if it's a bit confusing, but things will be explained soon; hopefully in this chapter, but then again, probably not.
Also, I must warn everyone, this isn't exactly like my last story where it was /humor. This one's /angst, so if you came here looking for a good laugh, I suggest you look else where... unless you share Orochimaru or Gaara's sadistical humor.
Before I forget, this fic is still non yaoi/shounen-ai. But it has enough hints to tickle the otaku's imagination. XD
Now, on with the fic.
Midnight Confessions Chapter 2
~~~***~~~
In the end both Kakashi and Iruka arrived at the teacher's small apartment. A few weeks after the attack, Iruka had been offered to keep his family's home by the hokage himself, but Iruka had declined the offer, thinking that keeping the house would not allow him to move on with his own life. Instead he asked the Third to sell his home to help pay for living expenses. The man agreed to the terms and assigned a small living space for the orphaned boy, giving him an allowance to pay for room and board. However, to this day, no one has ever set foot into the old Umino home. Iruka had a few speculations for this; one, it was haunted, or two... two it was due to the fact that the Umino's had been respected and adored individuals in the community.
Iruka's mother, although a chunin herself, would jokingly boast that she kicked the fourth's ass during their chunin exams. She had excelled in illusions, chakara techniques and summonings rather than physical combat. She, and the fourth had been on rival teams after graduating from the academy, but it was a friendly rivalry. Although sometimes haughty and stubborn when provoked, she also had a soothing disposition to her, strong enough to placate even the frustrating of individuals.
Iruka's father had been a former ANBU and had switched to be an elite tutor when he had met Iruka's mother. However, unlike Ebisu, Iruka's father was never considered arrogant but rather solemn and formal to a degree of annoyance. Iruka's father had only but one weakness and that had been little children. It was only around them that Iruka's father's expression would change to a rare soft smile rather than the constant puckered brow. Iruka's father also had a way to make even the novice of children understand the most complex and frustrating of jujitsus and his teachings produced some of the best shinobi the village had seen with the vast majority of his students reaching jounin or higher.
Sometimes Iruka would wonder to himself, if his father was alive, how would he react to know that his only son stayed as a chunin? Would he be disappointed in him? Shaking his head, Iruka figured it wouldn't do well to think of such matters at the moment. Taking out a key from his pocket, he opened the door to his apartment and walked in, leaving the door open to allow his follower entry.
Kakashi took in the wordless invitation and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. Looking about he didn't think the apartment was that bad. The main room was a living room, dining room and kitchen all in one. The only thing that separated each of the rooms was a small protruding wall between the living and the dining room and tile floor for the kitchen. On one side of the room were three doors. One of them was slightly open and he could guess, from the futon on the ground, that it was a bedroom. The other two would be a mystery until he got the chance to explore a bit. Turning around, he glanced back at the "living room" again. If not for a few papers scattered on a small table in the middle of the room, the place was relatively clean. To the opposite wall of the doorways stood a long, narrow table with picture frames set upon it, a book-case full of scrolls and regular books and a closed cabinet with lock and a seal between the openings.
Suffice it to say, the cabinet got Kakashi's curiosity going again... even more so when he saw Iruka approach the cabinet and pull out a brush pen from the book-case's drawer, writing an unfamiliar kanji over the cabinet's paper seal.
"May I have the knife back, Kakashi? Don't worry, I promise I won't attack you with it." Iruka stepped back to open the cabinet doors. The seal tore in half and slight amount of smoke blew between the cracks. When the doors were open fully, Kakashi couldn't help but raise a brow at the sight.
The cabinet consisted of many shelves: the middle shelf being the widest. On the middle shelf were a few incense holders, used candles and a large jewelry box with its own lock and seal. The other shelves had several head-protectors, trinkets and pictures. There wasn't really a lot, only about a dozen or so of each of the items. Some of the hitai-ate looked new, others looked mangled scuffed and torn. What disturbed Kakashi the most were some of the red stains on the majority of them.
Moving his eye elsewhere, he looked at the various trinkets. Some were various jewelry items: pendants, rings or other chains. Some had been weapons to some small shuriken to a full length katana hanging on the back of one of the cabinet doors.
Finally, Kakashi's eye turned towards the pictures pasted on the walls of the cabinet and to those in small frames. Most of the pictures had been of smiling children, with the occasional solemn face here and there. Suddenly Kakashi's expression darkened as his eye stopped at a small picture on one of the walls. He had recognized that face of someone he had worked with in a Class-S mission. He had been a recently graduated jounin, but the kid was damn good. Sadly, the boy had lost his life during one of their mission while taking the blow for another. He never knew the name of that kid but the same carefree eyes and smile were there in the picture.
"This is..." Kakashi began, his voice almost tightening up at the realization to what he was looking at.
"Aa..." Iruka confirmed, seeming to know what the other man was about to say. "These were my former students from when I started teaching. Many of them killed in the line of duty whether it was in missions or in wars or by other means. This is my shrine to them."
Kakashi just stayed silent, observing how the teacher's shoulders slumped slightly. Iruka, unaware of the scrutiny continued his narration.
"When a shinobi dies, everything about them is erased; in fact, just having this here can get me into serious trouble. Still, I keep this shrine to remember them, to remember that they had existed before, that they are never forgotten. It also serves as my motivation, to better teach all my other students... just so I won't have to put another head-protector or picture to this shrine."
"And was Mizuki another of your students?" Kakashi offered the kunai back to the teacher, careful not to touch the blood on the blade.
Iruka's soft, reminiscing smile slowly turned into a bitter frown at the mention of that name. Looking almost in disgust at the blade, the teacher closed his eyes and let out a releasing breath. Opening his eyes back up, he gave a tired and thankful expression to Kakashi then took the weapon gently in his hands, hanging it on a hook nailed to the wall of the cabinet. Done with his task, Iruka took a moment to step back and stare at the inside of the cabinet, before closing the doors shut. Taking out a blank paper, he sticks it over the old seal and with three fingers he began to trace some rapid kanji over it. His mother had thought it had been necessary to teach her son about seals and bonds, mostly due to the other children stealing his lunch at school. The paper flashed brightly for a second and words slowly appeared on the paper, forming it into a seal.
Kakashi couldn't help but grin at this. So Iruka knew how to form chakara bonds? This particular bond had been an old form of jujitsu that consisted of the individual using their chakara to write words and incantations forming a seal. Although the concept was quite simple, not many could fully perform this task. Chakara bonds were considered one of the top forms of security when it came to with-holding documents or other important scrolls. Should an enemy open the bond, but neglect to displace the seal, they would set off traps that could either have weapons flung at them, summon a guard or, depending on the maker or the strength of the seal, transport the individual to another area of the village or another village altogether.
"Mizuki wasn't a student of mine..." Iruka stated, making his way towards the kitchen to place a kettle on the newly-lit stove, interrupting Kakashi of his thoughts. "... but rather he was a fellow teacher for whom I had worked with. He betrayed the village when he used Naruto to go after the sacred Seal of Scrolls. He hated the boy, and still blamed him for the village's pain and loss. Luckily we were able to stop him before it was too late."
Iruka's tone sounded cold and mechanical, almost as if he were reading from a script. There was something else to the story, Kakashi was sure of it. Kakashi looked back at the cabinet, and then turned his head back to look at Iruka, raising a brow at the chunin to give him a look that seemed to express "you must be kidding me".
"If that is so, why then add that weapon to your collection? Traitors within a village receive just the same fate as missing nin. It's probably safe to say that he has already been taken care of. I would also think from the fact that he used Naruto as a scapegoat wouldn't put him too high in your graces either."
"Aaa..." Iruka confirmed, "but perhaps it's because it's hard to really hate someone when you know they did that with you in mind." Iruka walked back to the living room, carrying a tray with a kettle and two small cups. "I'm sorry, I forgot I ran out of coffee, is tea fine?"
Even the fact that he had bee a former ANBU member didn't prevent Kakashi from twitching his eye at the sudden change of subject, still the twitch was not enough to be noticeable. Giving a grunt of affirmation about the tea, Kakashi took the cup into his hands and took a light whiff: Bagged tea. Inwardly he pouted at this. He always found their taste too bitter and too weak. Well, beggars can't be choosers, now can they?
"From the way you describe it, it was much more than a teacher-to- teacher relationship."
Iruka smiled slightly at Kakashi's insight. He had been expecting the jounin to find the hidden meaning within his words; in fact, he would have been shocked if the older man let the matter pass as it was. Still, despite it all, it still brought a slight blush to Iruka's cheeks to recognize the fact within those words. Looking up at the ceiling, Iruka sighed, preparing himself to recount his tale to the other man.
"Aa... Mizuki was more to me than just another teacher. Even though he was older than me by a year, he and I had been friends since our own days in the academy. However, unlike my other classmates, Mizuki had been different. He was the first person, near my age, who didn't look at me in pity or that I was just some annoying and idiotical class-clown out for a few laughs. He knew what I was going through, because he was going through almost the same thing. Just as I had lost my parents during the... attack, Mizuki had lost his father and older sister in the battle as well. His mother hadn't been a ninja, but she worked just as hard to make a living for both her and Mizuki. Because of so, she was hardly there for him when he came home from training.
"We were just too similar not to be friends. He knew the meaning of my jokes, my pranks and my antics. In fact, he was known to pull off a few good ones himself, which was surprising if you only knew him by reputation. However, he was also the one to calm me down or to back me up whenever I went a little over my head."
Iruka paused in his narration to take a loud sip of the bitter tea, rehydrating his mouth from talking too long, and trying to get the magic of the caffeine within the tea to keep him awake. Feeling the parchedness leave temporary, he continued.
"I looked up to him, and I think I tried to be a little like him. Mizuki was always overly polite to grown-ups and strangers. He had told me that the only way to get anyone to acknowledge you was to get in their good graces." Iruka chuckled here, almost if conjuring up a fond memory. "I didn't want to believe him at first. I was having too much fun. Plus, seeing my classmates smile when they laughed at my mistakes made me feel... acknowledged. I felt like I meant something to them, even if it was entertainment with a cheap prank. Adults were too serious and too fickle in their ways, and to get on their good side seemed like a lot of work... especially after all the trouble I had caused for them with my antics, so I stuck to my childish manners for a while."
Looking back down from the ceiling, Iruka blinked at the sight of Kakashi giving him an amused expression. The older man had his chin propped up with the palm of his hands, his elbows fully on the table.
The jounin's cup of tea was now empty and Iruka furrowed his brows in half astonishment and half disappointment at that. Iruka had also had that childish urge to look under the mask but he also knew when to pry and when not to. Shaking his head from the distraction, Iruka refilled his own cup and continued.
"Although my pranks were bad they pale compared to Naruto's antics, which was why I was surprised when I had been called to the Hokage-sama's office. Well, alright, not surprised, more like terrified out of my wits." Iruka chuckled at the memory. "It didn't help that my other classmates tried to scare me saying that I would be kicked out of the village and pronounced a missing nin for all my bad deeds. So, with my head held high, and my knees shaking like dry leaves in November, I strolled into the office like a dead-nin walking.
"Suffice to say I wasn't kicked out, but I did receive a worse punishment, the lecture of a lifetime." Here, Iruka paused, giving a dismal smile as the words flashed through his mind momentarily. "I was used to adults lecturing, and I had always made it seem that I wasn't listening and just blocking out their words with my actions, but the truth is I remember each and every one."
'At least that way...' Iruka silently thought to himself, 'it was better to stay up all night mulling over their harsh words than facing those chronic nightmares of that one particular night.'
Kakashi saw the troubling pain in the younger man's eyes when he fell silent, but that moment ended when Iruka sighed and closed his eyes. Reopening his eyes, Iruka looked back at Kakashi with a soft smile and an almost natural, carefree expression.
'Maa...that's not fair, Iru-kun...' Kakashi inwardly thought, eying the younger man with intense scrutiny. 'You're better at wearing masks than I am.'
~~~***~~~
Haha.. I'm so cruel to end it right here, but the chapter's getting too long, I just feel I need to post the next part now before people forget about my story. The turnout rate for Naruto fics is astounding... O_o The lack of Iruka-centered fics is disappointing... u_u The rate of yaoi vs non-yaoi fics is slightly disturbing... 6_6 But... slightly amusing at the same time... ^_^; Ah well.... I'm working on chapter 3 at this moment... well not at THIS moment since I'm writing this, but... well... you know what I mean.
I want to thank everyone for their reviews; you guys really are my motivation. ^_^
As mentioned before, I know this is a sequel to "Pigeons and Bugs" but it's not of the same genre. Again, I'm sorry if you guys thought it would have the same silly humor, but I suppose that's because of the lack of Naruto here. XD Just think about it; without the boy, this series would be too angsty even for me. O_O I'll still try to incorporate the silliness here and there, maybe to give pause to the seriousness, but don't hate me too much if it's still not enough.
Again, thanks for reading.