A few minutes later Iruka arrived at Kakashi's front door and knocked. He had run across the rooftops to avoid being seen. Katsumi froze as she heard the knocking, she was half way up the stairs with a suitcase.
"I'll be there in a minute!" She shouted as she struggled with the suitcase. She almost got it to the top before dropping it down the stairs. She screamed in frustration and then sighed, walking back down the stairs to open the door.
Iruka crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at her, he had heard the suitcase fall down the stairs.
"Kakashi-sama told you not to do that." He told her and she giggled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck.
"I just wanted to get settled." She told him and Iruka sighed.
"Well, let me in and I'll do it for you." He told her and stepped into the doorway. He noticed that Katsumi shrank back and gave him plenty of room to let him in. He took the suitcases up one at the time and watched Katsumi's body language. She kept as far away from him as she could without being in another room and kept her arms wrapped around herself as if she was hugging herself.
"Would you like a drink?" She asked him when he came back down from taking the last suitcase up.
"Are you sure Kakashi has anything in to drink?" Iruka joked and managed to get a smile from her.
"Yes, I checked after he went back to the office so I could pop over the market just in case." She told him and went into the kitchen. He followed her and sat down at the table. "What would you like? He has coffee, Tea or juice." She asked as she switched the kettle on to make herself a coffee.
"Tea please." Iruka smiled and watched her prepare everything. "Kakashi-sama told me that you had no water or heat in your house." Iruka said trying to make convocation. Katsumi tensed but quickly recovered.
"Err…yes, the boiler went and Sasuke didn't leave enough money to get it fixed." She explained and poured his drink.
"No 'kun', Katsumi-chan?" Iruka asked, pretending to be confused.
"Oh, I'm just a little annoyed at him." She said with a small smile as she passed him his drink before pouring her own.
"Understandable." He agreed with a smile and thanked her for the tea.
"I see you made a start on cleaning the house." Iruka said with a small chuckle as he looked around the kitchen. Every time Iruka had been in Kakashi's kitchen, the sink was piled high with dirty dishes. Sometimes it looked like the sides or the floor wasn't cleaned. "I don't think I've ever seen it this clean before." Katsumi laughed and nodded.
"He was never the cleanest of people. Although on missions he was very clean." She said with a small smile as she remembered back to her missions.
"Why did you quit?" Iruka asked being nosey. He knew she loved being a ninja, she was the best Kunoichi they had. Katsumi gave him a confused look.
"Quit what?" She asked as she took a sip of her coffee.
"Being a ninja, you were great." Iruka said and then noticed how bad he must have sounded by saying she was 'great'. He could have used something better like 'awesome', 'amazing' or 'incredible'. Even they sounded terrible.
"Well I was moving in with Sasuke and we barely saw each other due to our missions. We both wanted to see each other more." She explained with a simple shrug of her shoulders.
"He could have quit too or you both could have asked for reduced missions." Iruka told her, he wanted the real reason but he would have to coax it out of her.
"True but we were moving into a bigger place which needed a lot more time in keeping it maintained. Both of us would be too tired to cook meals so now I do it, we can proper meals instead of microwaved rubbish. And one day we would be having children. It made sense that I should quit so if I did get pregnant, I would be able to look after the child and not worry about leaving them alone." She explained and Iruka's eyes widened.
He would have never thought his former student would allow herself to become a simple housewife and just have children. There wasn't anything wrong with doing that but she loved being a ninja.
"So, you're a housewife." Iruka slipped out without thinking. She frowned and sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that!" He quickly apologised. "I'm just shocked that's all. When you were at the academy you use to tell me how much you wanted to be a ninja." He added just as quickly.
"I do miss it." She told him looking down. It was now Iruka's turn to frown.
"Then ask Kakashi-sama to take you back. I'm sure he'll be glad to have you back again." He told her but she shook her head.
"No, Sasuke-kun wouldn't like that." She said with a sigh.
"Sasuke doesn't own you Katsumi-chan. You can do what you want." He told her and she tensed slightly.
"Yes well, I don't think he would like it if I went back without talking to him about it first." She quickly spoke and put her coffee down on the counter.
"Katsumi-chan, are you ok? You've been acting strange since I got here." He asked he knew the most likely reason why but he wanted to hear it from her.
He wanted her to tell him so he could be there for her. He didn't want to watch from a distance while she went through everything and only having Kakashi to rely on. Kakashi was a good person and would help her as much as he could be, but he had his duties as the Hokage to do and wouldn't be there all the time to help her.
"I'm fine Iruka-sensei." She told him with a small smile but he knew it was forced.
"Katsumi-chan I know you better than most." He warned her and she looked down at her feet.
"I and Sasuke-kun are going through a rough patch, nothing major. I'm sure when he comes back it'll be sorted." She told him with a small sigh. He could see it in her eyes that she wanted to go back to Sasuke. He sighed and decided to leave it at that, he would just have to try again some other time.
"If you say so, I better be off but you know where to find me if you want to talk Katsumi-chan." He said as he got up and put his empty cup in the sink next to her. She smiled and thanked him before walking him to the door.