Me: People actually seemed to like the first chapter alright, so I think I'll continue. I don't own the characters, because if I did, there wouldn't be so many spelling and grammar mistakes, lol. Oh, and just as a warning, this story is kind of AU, in the fact that there are some people in here who are killed in the series. So!
"Hi, I was wondering if you could help me?"
Iruka took a defensive stance, one hand reaching half way for his Kunai. Seeing this, the other ninja immediately pulled some papers from his vest pocket.
"Whoa! Hey, I have passport papers! See! Lookit! I'm allowed to be here!" Iruka stared suspiciously at the papers for a moment, before relaxing and giving the young man in front of him an apologetic smile.
"Sorry." He said "But you can't be to careful." The man in front of him smiled wanly back.
"Yes, I know. Had our situations been reversed, I probably would have done the same thing." he replied cheerfully. Iruka blinked at him. Now that he stopped to look, the man was very handsome, with olive toned skin, storm grey eyes, and wavy dark hair. And a very nice smile
"Ano saa, but I'm here to see the hokage, and I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head. He held up a scroll with the hokage's official seal stamped on it. "I'm a little lost. This is my first visit to this country, and I'm already late." Iruka nodded, bowing politely.
"Of course." He said. He pointed back the way he had come. "You go that way, and turn left when you get to the Ramen stand. You keep going down that street, and it's the largest building on the block." The jounin nodded his thanks, turned, and ran smoothly down the street. Iruka tilted his head to one side. He was from Hidden mist, huh? That meant he was from roughly the same county Iruka's mother had been from. He wondered why the hokage had sent for a hidden mist jounin, before deciding that if he needed to know, he would know, and since he didn't know, it was none of his business.
Kakashi looked around the room where he, Asuma, Kurenai, and several others (Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he spotted Ibiki) were gathered in the hokage's office. He also spotted several ANBU's lurking around in the corners. And none of them had even an inkling as to why they were there.
"What are we doing here?" Asuma asked, cigarette dangling from his lips almost precariously. Kakashi shrugged, his eyes following the hokage as the older man walked slowly to the head of the room. The hokage cleared his throat. Everyone fell silent.
"As you all know, it is often crucial for our survival to ensure good relations between our village and those in other countries. As an offering of good will, we have arranged to host a sort of exchange program. A jounin from the wave country will be staying here in Konoha. If the exchange works as planed, when he goes home, one of ours will go with him and spend some time in Wave country. I was supposed to introduce him to you tonight so that if you were to run into him on the streets, we might avoid any unfortunate misshapes. Unfortunately, it appears that our guest is-"
"Very sorry he's late!" A breathless voice said from the door way. The group turned as a whole toward the source, a young, olive skinned man, who was bracing himself against the door jam, looking slightly out of breath. The hokage simply gave him a short smile.
"No one is perfect, Kastumi-san." The older man said. The jounin gave a sheepish grin.
"I'm just lucky I ran into a rather cute chunnin on my way or else I might have never gotten here." he laughed. Kakashi blinked slowly. Well, it could be worse, he reasoned. It could be some one like Gai-sensei, or Ibiki-san. He didn't think he could live with another Gai-sensei running around. His ears would never stop ringing.
"I was planning on allowing introductions, but I believe it is a little to late, and no doubt you are tired from your journey." For his credit, the young man in the doorway had the grace to blush. "So I will just ask you to stay a little longer before I find some one for you to stay with. The rest of you may go home. I expect you to all make his stay as comfortable as possible." Everyone bowed with a murmur of "Yes hokage-sama" and began to file out. As ordered, the young man hung back. Kakashi left for home with an odd feeling in his gut, one that said that something was going to go wrong.
"Now, Katsumi-san, the matter of you living arrangements, I fear, have not yet been quite sorted out. There are several jounin I have considered, but I wanted to speak with you about it. I was afraid it might make you uneasy, and we want your stay to be as comfortable as possible, for the sake of hospitality." The Wave jounin shifted from one foot to another silently. The hokage pretended not to notice as he scribbled some directions on a piece of paper before handing them to the young man.
"These are directions to an unlived in apartment that we keep for visitors. It's not very comfortable, I'm afraid, but I had hoped to have you situated with another jounin at least until we can get a placed fixed up for your stay and until you find your way around." The young man blushed again, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's my own fault, so I have no room to complain. Besides, I'm used to uncomfortable rooms." He grinned. "And as much running around as I did while looking for this place, I've already been over half the village already." The corner of the hokage's mouth twitched before settling back into it's usual frown.
"Well, then, I suppose we should have another meeting in the morning. Un till then, you should get some sleep as best to your abilities." The young man bowed respectfully before exiting the room as silently as any jounin worth his salt.
Several minuets later, out in the forest a shadowy figure walked gracefully and silently over the soft, new grass. He did not jump when a slight figure landed gracefully behind him, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Did you get in?" the voice, soft and neither high nor low, queried without a hint of emotion. Yuki shivered slightly, but answered all the same.
"Of course. I met with the hokage, and they don't seem to think anything is amiss. He is going to be assigning me a jounin to live with…..he says so I'm comfortable, but it's really to keep an eye on me." He laughed. The figure behind him remained silent. His laughter died away. He cleared hi throat.
"Anyway, give me a week, just like we planed, and the scroll will be yours." The figure behind him nodded, and Yuki took that as his signal to leave, which he did hurriedly, wanting to get away from the quiet killer standing behind him in the shadows. As he disappeared into the darkness, another, larger figure appeared in the darkness behind the first. The small figure didn't even flinch behind his mask.
"Do you think he'll be able to pull it off, Haku?" The taller figure asked in a deep, gravely voice. Haku didn't even bother turning around to answer.
"He can probably get the scroll. Weather or not he can keep his hands on it long enough to get it to us is a different matter. The hokage is being cautious, as he should be, master Zabuza (sp?)." Zabuza didn't move, just continued to stare at the back of Haku's head.
"Well, then we'll just have to make sure we're there to retrieve the scroll when he gets caught." Haku nodded.
"master Zabuza, why don't we just get it ourselves?" He asked suddenly. The question had been bothering him. Zabuza finally turned away and began to head back deeper into the forest. He spoke over his shoulder.
"Because if we are seen by anyone, they will report it, and it will blow our larger plan. Of course we could just kill everyone, but that would throw in a few complications. Better to let the blame lie with The Hidden Mist village then with just us." Haku nodded his understanding, and they both disappeared into the shadows of the moonless night.
#The next Day#
Something had happened to Iruka that hadn't happened since his academy days………
He over slept! (A/N OMG!)
He had spent most of that moment rushing about his small apartment, grabbing things he needed, and even some he was pretty sure he didn't need, but decided they looked grabable anyway, taking a quick shower and brushing his teeth as quickly as he could and still get the job done. And he was five minuets late! He blamed his bad start on his odd day before. (in other words, he blamed Kakashi and the mystery Wave jounin. He had been thinking about them long into the night, for reasons he was sure he had no idea about, he had gone to sleep late). In fact, said jounin(s?) were now annoyingly present in his mind. So much so, that he didn't notice the figure crossing his path until it was to late.
CRASH!
"ANO SAA! I'm really sorry!" Iruka gasped as he recovered from the surprise of suddenly being on the ground…..with something laying on top of him? Something? No. SomeONE! He found himself staring into the amused face of the Wave jounin from night before. Iruka felt his cheeks begin to heat up considerably.
"Wave jounin-san!" He gasped, feeling dumb for the name, but lacking anything better. The jounin smiled at the name.
"Yuki." he stated in his light voice. "Katsumi, Yuki. Chunnin-from-the-night-before-san." Iruka's face flushed even more, and the other man's grin widened. Then a thought struck Iruka and he sat up suddenly, pushing the man from his lap.
"Ahhh! I'm late! Ano saa! I have to get to class! Who knows what those little hellions are doing in my absence!" He cried, jumping to his feet, his mind already coming up with worst case scenarios. The jounin smoothly followed him as he took off at a flat out run for the academy.
"Class? Are you a teacher?" He asked. Iruka glanced back at him, surprised to find him following. In truth, Yuki didn't know why he was following the chunnin-from-the-night-before either, but he was bored, and he had time to kill, and this man seemed enduringly….something…. Cute? Maybe. Yuki smirked slightly.
"Ahhh, yea, I'm one of the masters at the academy." He answered. He bit his lip, slightly embarrassed. Now the other man might assume he was like Kakashi-san, always late. The other man seemed to read his thoughts, because he smiled over at the stressed chunnin.
"Poor you. I bet this is your first time being late in a while, ne?" Iruka blushed again and nodded. The other man seemed delighted, though Iruka wasn't sure what about.
"mind if I sit in? I promise I won't disrupt you, sensei, I'm just curious….and bored. I have a lot of time to spare." Iruka glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Yea, if you really don't mind spending time with children ranging from toddlers to pre-teens and an academy chunnin." Yuki grinned again.
"If you mean an I bothered by our difference in rank, then the answer is no, Sensei-from-last-night-san, you seem like a nicer person then the one Hokage-san told me to live with. Another junin, let me see…..what was his name….Kak….ashi?" Iruka nearly tripped over his own feet.
"H-he assigned you with Kakashi-san!" He asked, nearly passing the academy gate. He stopped in time and turned, heading for his class at the same breakneck speed in which he had arrived. Yuki followed, partially puzzled, partially amused. The chunnin's reaction was something similar to some of the other people's reactions who had been in the room at the time. Only they had been simply surprised. The teacher seemed something similar to appalled….and something else he couldn't place, but it made his curiosity peak all the same. He didn't have time to ask however, before Iruka stopped in front of him and slid open one of the many doors along the hallway. Iruka took a deep breath as he entered the already very noisy room and caught on e of the many adrift kunai deftly in his hand before it could continue on his course and hit some poor unsuspecting victim. Yuki was surprised when the room almost immediately fell silent.
"Good morning class." Iruka said in a slightly accusing voice, one that was a little to nice, and his students, recognizing the impending danger, stood immediately and bowed as one, saying loudly "Good morning, Iruka-sensei!" Iruka smiled, and the kids shivered.
"We have a guest today, a jounin form Wave country and he will be sitting in with us for a while, so behave, and try not to kill anyone today" His gaze swept over the room, hesitating on a few (coughkonahamarucough) before moving on "Got it?" There was a collective "yes sir" from the group and Iruka finally smiled a not-so-dangerous-smile, and the student body noticeably relaxed.
"Then lets all head out to the training yard again, shall we?"
Me: Ahhhh! Suckieness! It burns/coughs/ anyway, please R&R, cuz I don't know who bad this really was. Please tell me what I can do to improve on it! Ja 'ne!