Shinycry- hey guys, it's been awhile. Well to make up for that, I decided to make this chapter longer than the others as an 'I'm sorry for being so lazy and for not writing'. Actually, I've just been busy with homework and school which sucks but can't do anything about it. What I'm talking for, I'm sure you guys are itching to read the chapter so here chapter 8! Please Enjoy!
Disclaimer- shinycry does not own Naruto!
Ch. 8
Iruka sighs as he watches Gaara, excuse him, a very naked and laughing Gaara running away from very panicky Sakura who's chasing after him with a red shirt in her hands. After Kakashi left to go get Sasuke and Naruto's mission for the day, everything decided to go up into chaos.
Naruto has yet to forgive Sasuke for throwing away his ramen this morning. No more matter what Iruka says, Sasuke still comes in and makes things worse between himself and Naruto. Iruka doesn't want the boys on bad terms especially today because they have a mission together. He tries his best to patch things up between the two boys but is failing miserably. He can hear Naruto screaming at Sasuke about how much of a bastard he is while Sasuke replies with how much of an idiot Naruto is. Iruka's almost wishes Kakashi was here to help him.
Then he has a dirty Gaara, compliments of Kakashi. At least Sakura offered to help him by cleaning Gaara's face up and changing his dirty clothes to some clean ones that don't have oatmeal all over them. Since he wasn't able to go shopping yesterday or retrieve his old clothes from when he was a child, he asks Naruto if he can borrow one of his shirts for Gaara. Naturally Naruto says 'yes' and does him a favor by getting it. This gives him a moment of silence and a clean shirt for Gaara.
However it doesn't last every long. Naruto hands the shirt to Sakura and goes back to yelling at Sasuke who's now ignoring him which causes Naruto to pop a vein. Sakura looks cross from screaming at Naruto to leave Sasuke alone and washing the oatmeal off of Gaara. Gaara wins as she leaves Sasuke and Naruto to Iruka. She takes Gaara's hand takes him to the upstairs bathroom.
"I can't believe you threw away my precious ramen!"
"Well believe, dope."
This goes on for a bit longer before Iruka physically steps in-between them. "Naruto please listen to me! Sasuke did not, I repeat, did not throw away your ramen. Sasuke don't even say a word or so help me. I know you're trying to cover for me and I think it's very sweet of you to do" Sasuke bristles and blushes "But please stop trying to take the blame for me. You two are going to be working together on a mission today. I want you boys to get along and-Gaara!" Iruka shrieks as he sees a very naked Gaara running, closely followed by Sakura who's trying her best to catch him.
Sakura continues to chase the little one while shooting death glares every now and then in Naruto's direction who's laughing at her situation. Sighing, Iruka decides to help Sakura. He gets a breakthrough when he sees a naked Gaara coming his way. He quickly scoops up the naked boy into his arms. For some odd reason, this makes Gaara giggle. It's like he was playing some sort of game which he is. He chants cheerfully "You win, you win mommy!"
Going along with Gaara's little game Iruka, in a surprise voice, says "Oh, I did? Well, do I get a prize for winning?" Gaara titles his head to the side to think about it. He has to give something to his mommy for winning.
As Gaara ponders this, Sakura walks up from behind them. She looks and feels completely worn out. She had no clue how hard it was going to be when she offered to help Iruka out with Gaara. She saw how he was trying to deal with Sasuke and Naruto and at the same time with Gaara. Since she always deals with Sasuke and Naruto, she thought she switch and take on Gaara.
At first there's no problem, Gaara sit there quietly and allows her to wipe off the oatmeal on his face. He still behaves well when she takes him into Naruto's room to get a different shirt because she refuses to have Gaara wear the shirt Naruto got. Gaara is so not wearing a shirt that says 'I Love Ramen and So Should You'. She absolute refuses. So after cleaning him up, she takes him to Naruto's room which has a sign on the door that says "Don't Enter Sasuke". Her eyes twitch at that. Once inside, she goes the small dress and hopes she opens the right one.
She's lucky. After going through some shirts, Sakura finds a nice red shirt which surprises her because she never seen Naruto wear red. Oh well, this red shirt is just going to have to do until they go shopping and buy proper clothes for him. She removes Gaara's clothing which is only a shirt. She walks over to the hamper in the room and dumps the dirty shirt in.
When she turns around, Gaara's nowhere to be seen. She can hear giggling coming from the other side of the bed. Walking cautiously around the bed, she spots red hair and off it goes chanting "Catch me, catch me!" And the chase was on. Who knew someone so small can run so fast?
"How about being good and letting me put this shirt on you, Gaara. I'm sure Iruka-sensei would love this prize." Sakura says as she opens the shirt and gets ready to slip it on Gaara.
Taking his cue, Iruka nods his head. "I think it's the best prize there is." He moves closer to Sakura when Gaara raises his little arms into the air where Sakura then gently slips the shirt on. Once it's on, Sakura pats Gaara's head and gives him a big smile.
"There, all done!"
"Mommy, can I have Ruka back now. Please?"
"Sure thing, Ga-chan. I just didn't want her to get dirty too, that's all." Iruka processes to walk over to the coffee table and pick up the stuff dolphin. Seeing his friend again, Gaara quickly hugs her and kisses her snout. Sakura squeaks at the cuteness and Iruka smiles. But it's all short lived when they hear Naruto's loud voice.
"There's no way I'm going on a mission with you!"
"Don't then, I'll probably do a better job if it's just me."
"Why you damn cocky bastard!"
Iruka's about to scold Naruto for using inappropriate language in front of Gaara but someone beats him to the punch. "Now, now, acting like this in front of Iruka-sensei? He's going to think I don't train you guys' right in the area of teamwork."
"That's because you don't Kakashi-sensei!"
"Oh, I don't? Well what a coincidence! I just so happen to have this mission here that involves teamwork. You and Sasuke will do this mission together and I better not hear any complains whatsoever. Do I make myself clear?"
Naruto looks like he wants to say something but keeps his mouth shut while Sasuke just glares at their sensei.
"Good! Here's the mission! Try not to have too much fun, okay?" Kakashi then walks over to Sasuke and hands him the scroll.
"Hey! How come you gave it to Sasuke and not me?"
"He doesn't trust you with it. You might lose it."
"What? Who say I'll lose it?"
"I did."
"Why you bas-"
"Naruto!"
"But Iruka-sensei!"
"No buts Naruto!"
Naruto wants to comment on the fact Sasuke is being bastard but stops when he sees the other boy walk pass him and into the kitchen. After a moment later, he comes out with a cup of water that he takes up stairs. "Huh? He can't drink water in front of us or something?" Naruto's annoyance is clear in his voice. "Oh, he thinks he's too good for us, is that it?"
"I'm sure he doesn't think that Naruto. Maybe he's just…watering his plant or something" Sakura tries her best to defined Sasuke's action.
"Sure, Sakura, sure. By the way I just notice Gaara's not wearing the shirt I gave you guys. What happen to it?" Everyone turns to look at Gaara and the over-size red shirt he's wearing. "I mean it's cool you got another one of my shirts but I thought the one I gave you was cool. In fact it's my favorite shirt!"
"Oh?" Looking at Sakura, Iruka curiously asks "What was wrong with the other shirt?" Thinking about it, Iruka remembers an orange shirt in Naruto's hand, not a red one like the one Gaara's wearing.
"Oh you should have seen it, Iruka-sensei!" Sakura explains. "The shirt had 'I Love Ramen and So Should You'! I couldn't let Gaara walk around with that! Especially when Naruto and Sasuke go out for their mission and the rest of us go shopping!"
"The rest of us? Excuse me?" Kakashi's voice appears from behind them. Kakashi does not do shopping, in fact he hates shopping. He would rather take up one of Gai's stupide challenges then go shopping.
"Yes the rest of us which includes you, me, Sakura and of course Ga-chan."
"Don't forget Ruka mommy!" Gaara holds his stuff friend up to his mommy so he can see her.
"And Ruka too."
"Sucks to be you, huh, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Naruto!"
"Sorry Iruka-sensei!"
"You know what Iruka? I think it might be best if I go with Sasuke and Naruto. You know to make sure they don't kill each other or something along those lines."
There's no way Iruka is going to let Kakashi off the hook especially after the little stunt he did with Gaara this morning. Besides someone needs to carry the bags anyway. "I think they'll be just fine without you, Kakashi. No need to worry about them so you're coming with us."
Just then Sasuke comes back down with an empty glass in his hand and notes the pain look in his sensei's face…er, eye. "There you are Sasuke!" Naruto walks over to Sasuke and take the empty glass from his hand and places it on a nearby table. He then links his arm with one of Sasuke's arms which surprises the raven hair boy. "Well, Sasuke and I will be leaving now! You guys have fun shopping! Oh and Kakashi-sensei, try not to have too much fun, okay? Later!" With that both boys are out the door. Kakashi makes a mental note to get back at Naruto for this.
Outside
They've being walking for some time now when Sasuke notices Naruto's arm in still linked to his. He sincerely hopes Naruto doesn't plan on walking like this throughout this trip. Making up his mind, he comes to an abrupt stop causing Naruto to stumble backwards by a step or two. Turning his head, Naruto glares at Sasuke "Why did you stop?"
"I stopped because I wanted you to let go of my arm" he emphasizing it by raising his arm that's attached to Naruto's. Sasuke supposed he could have just rudely yanked his arm free. However he felt like he shouldn't add more fuel to fire between them today. Hey, they do have to go on a mission together.
Blinking at his arm and at the fact he forgot about grabbing the other boy's arm in the first place. Of course he immediately let's go. "Sorry about that. I just wanted to leave the house in a hurry."
Sasuke raises an eyebrow and asks the obvious question "How come?"
"You know how Gaara needs clothes right? Well, Iruka-sensei and Sakura are dragging Kakashi-sensei with them shopping!" Naruto starts laughing out loud. He's totally picturing a pain stricken Kakashi carrying tons of bags.
"And that's why Kakashi-sensei wanted to come with us?"
"Yup!"
Sasuke has to give credit to Iruka for getting back at Kakashi this morning when he 'accidentally' slipped his bowl of oatmeal on Gaara. It also didn't help when Kakashi used the lame excuse he had to leave to retrieve his and Naruto's mission for the day when Iruka started coming towards him with dangerous eyes. 'Serves him right…' Sasuke thought. "Anyway, let's take a look at where we need to go for the mission. No sense in wandering around the streets all day."
After a moment of silence Naruto ask "So…where's the mission taking place?"
"You know the house near the bridge where we wait for Kakashi-sensei every morning?"
"Um, yeah."
"There."
"Oh, what type of mission is it anyway? Is it something cool?"
"If you consider planting cool then I guess so."
"Planting! What? What type of a mission is that?"
"A mission we're going to complete, that's what."
"What a lame mission, I bet Kakashi-sensei did this on purpose."
"Planting isn't hard, even an idiot like you can do it."
"Well that's easy for you to say Mr. I-have-a-green-thumb!" he pauses for a moment, "And what the hell is that supposed to mean 'even an idiot like you can do it'?"
"Come on and let's go."
They start walking again but this time towards the bridge where the house is located. There's no dialogue between the boys as they travel, both deciding to remain silent. Sasuke wants to ask Naruto why he's so quite but figures he's better off leaving the blond alone. They already fought this morning and he doesn't want to agitate the blond anymore then he already has. The blond on the other hand decides to stay quite because he doesn't want to start a fight with Sasuke and have Iruka be disappointed in him. Regardless of what others may think, Naruto does know how to behave.
Once they're there, Sasuke knocks on the door and waits. They both hear a faint 'just a moment' before the door opens and reveal an old lady. She smiles at them and gestures them in. "You must be here for the mission, yes?"
"That is correct, ma'am. By the way I'm Sasuke and this is Naruto. It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too, ma'am! How can we assist you today?"
"Oh, it's good to know young people nowadays still have manners! Please do come in and follow me. I know this isn't really a tough mission for you boys but I just love my garden to death. However in my old age, I can't tend to it like I use to. And I made a promise to take care of it to someone very special to me. That's why please-"
"It's alright, ma'am. We understand and we're glad we can help you. Just tell us what you want done and we'll see to it with the best of our abilities! Plus this person right here is really, really good with plants!" Naruto points to Sasuke who looks at Naruto with curious eyes. Naruto's mood swings always amaze and annoy Sasuke. Just an hour ago, Naruto wanted to kick his ass and now he's praising him. Then again this is Naruto, always willing to help someone in need and reassuring old ladies.
"Really? Well, I'm not surprised. I can sense other people with green thumbs you know!"
"Eh, really? But if that's the cases, you might not want me near your plants, ma'am."
"How do you know if you never tried? You can have a green thumb."
"I agree with this young gentleman. Besides I sense a little green thumb on you too."
"Really? Well, I hope so for your sake!"
"Don't you mean for her plants' sake?"
"Oh you're right, for your plants' sake then!"
"You two are so cute. Come one in and let me show you my garden."
The old lady opens her back door and strolls outside to her garden where the boys follow closely behind her. She goes over to the side of the house where there are pots of flowers that need to be planted. "These flowers over here are white lilies and on these over there are white lilacs. I saw them at the flower shop and I had to have them in my garden. They just look absolutely beautiful, don't you agree?"
Naruto blinks at the names but nods his head. "They sure are! I especially like the lilies."
Looking at the two different flowers, Sasuke responds "They're both beautiful but I prefer the lilacs over the lilies. So I guess that decides who plants what. All we need to know now is where you want us to plant them, ma'am." Sasuke glances over to the old lady who's giving him a thoughtful expression. After a few seconds later, she directs her glances towards her garden. She looks around and finally decides where she wants her flowers to be planted. Pointing over where two trees sit close to each other, she says "I want my lilies to go around the tree on the right while I want the lilacs to go around the other tree if that's okay with you two."
"No problem, ma'am! Just leave it up to us!"
"Such good boys you two are. Well, I'll be inside and if you need anything just come in and tell me, okay? The gardening tools and gloves are already next to the pots as you can see." Once she receives two nods, she walks back into the house with a smile on her happy face, knowing her flowers are in good hands.
With the Others
Oh, how Kakashi wishes he was anywhere else but here right now. They already spent an hour in this store and have yet to buy anything so far. Apparently Gaara's a very picky person and Iruka refuses to buy something Gaara doesn't like. Sakura feels the same way because according to her you'll be wasting money and closet space by buying something you don't like. Kakashi doesn't feel the same way as Iruka and Sakura. His mentality to buying clothes is if they fit, then they're good. It really is a shame they don't follow his way of thinking.
So here's Kakashi, sitting on a chair and he's not even allowed to read his book. His own book! Iruka thinks his book is too inappropriate to be reading it out in public but he disagrees. It's not like he's going to have story time and read his book out loud to a bunch of kids or something. However, when Iruka gets into his crazy mother-hen mode, Kakashi's learn to just nod his head in agreement. Kakashi knows Iruka is made from sugar, spice and everything nice which he blames the 'everything nice' part for his predicament right now.
"Kakashi?"
Kakashi looks up to see Iruka holding Gaara who isn't wearing his oversize red shirt anymore. Instead Gaara has black shorts and a white short sleeves sailor shirt that has two red lines at the bottom as well as on the sleeves. And let's not forget the red fabric underneath the collar. Overall giving Gaara a little school boy look.
"Don't you think he looks adorable? Too bad he doesn't like the hat that comes with it" Sakura says as she hold up the little hat.
Kakashi could care less if Gaara liked or disliked the hat, at least the boy finally choose out something. "Sure he is so can we leave now?" Both Iruka and Sakura give Kakashi a look like he just grew another head or something.
"But Kakashi-sensei, it's only one outfit."
"What's wrong with one outfit?"
"Look Kakashi, it's going to be lunchtime in an hour. We'll leave until then. But in the meantime I want to get Ga-chan some more clothes and some pajamas."
"But I thought you were going to give him some of your old ones you have stored…somewhere."
"Well yeah, but what if he doesn't like them? I'm just going to buy him a few outfits, Kakashi." Iruka walks over to Kakashi and pulls out his book. "Since you've been so good, I'll give you your book back. Enjoy."
Without blinking an eye, Kakashi quickly grabs his book and starts flipping through the pages to find where he last left off before it was taken away. Iruka can't help but roll his eyes at Kakashi and goes back to Sakura and Gaara. 'I'll never understand him…'
An hour later and a bag full of clothing, they walk out of the store much to Kakashi's relief. They actually would have stayed longer if it wasn't for Gaara who was starting to get hungry. Since it's a nice day, they decide to eat at a little restaurant that has a patio where you can eat outside. Once they're seated, Gaara starts looking in the shopping bag which Iruka sees. "Ga-chan, what are you looking for?" Iruka pauses when he notices something about Gaara. "Where's Ruka, Gaara?'
"That's what I'm looking for, mommy! I put Ruka here but she's not here no more!" the little one sobs as he tries to find his friend. He remembers placing her in the bag because the mean one-eye kept teasing her. So he thought it would be safer for her to be in the bag and away from mean one-eye. However she's not in the bag anymore. "Mommy, I want Ruka!"
Sakura bits her lower lip thinking of what could have possibly happened to the stuff toy. "Maybe Ruka fell out of the bag. I mean the bag's kinda of full to begin with so that could have happened. And if that's the case, then we can still find her by backtracking our steps from the clothing store."
As Iruka tries to comfort the sobbing boy by placing him in his lap, he says "You're probably right, Sakura. We just need to retrace our steps and hopefully find her."
"And if we don't or someone or something already got to it first, what then?" Kakashi just had to open his mouth causing Gaara to cry even harder at the thought of someone hurting his friend. Both Iruka and Sakura shot Kakashi a glare, silently saying 'you're not helping'. Kakashi's lucky Gaara's on Iruka's lap because he would have whacked Kakashi over the head if he wasn't. But going back to Gaara, Iruka begins rubbing small circles on his back to comfort the boy. "Shh, don't worry, Ga-chan. Kakashi going to go and look for her. And when he finds her, he'll bring her back. Isn't that right, Kakashi?"
It doesn't take a genius to know when you've been threatened into doing something. So Iruka wants him to find the stuff dolphin, just him and no one else. Well, isn't that great. "Sure, it's like I'm doing anything else at the moment. I'll be sure to bring her back home." He gets up and leaves mumbling something about the unfairness of it all. How's he supposed to find a stuff dolphin? Granted he can find the stuff dolphin within five minutes if he really wanted to and Iruka probably knows that. Damn, if that's the case then he can't take too long because he does not want an unhappy Iruka on his case. Normally he wouldn't care if someone's unhappy with him but they're sharing the same room together at the moment.
'Okay, if I was a dolphin where would I be?' Kakashi pauses to think about the question for a moment, 'besides living under water.' As he continues in his train of thought about what dolphins would do on land, something catches his attention. Turning his head in that direction, he can only think of one word 'Shit.'
Back at the restaurant, Iruka and Sakura are trying their best to calm down Gaara. At one point, Iruka find its best not to mention Kakashi and Ruka in the same sentence around Gaara. Apparently Gaara doesn't trust Ruka in Kakashi's hand. Just saying Kakashi's name makes the little boy cry harder, the older man's name doing nothing to bring comfort to Gaara's ears. They're able to calm him down to the point where he's only sniffing here and there.
The waiter comes and asks them what they want to drink. They tell him and Iruka decides to order Ice Tea with lemon for Kakashi, hoping the other man likes it. The waiter leaves and after a few moments, he returns with their drinks. Iruka pops the straw in a little cup and hands the lemonade over to Gaara while Sakura pops her straw into her pink lemonade cup. Sipping some of her drink, Sakura finally decides to ask a question she's already asked before but never got an answer to. "Iruka-sensei, may I ask you a question?"
"Yes, Sakura?"
"I know it's not my place to ask this but why didn't you sell your house? I mean you said it yourself about how it feels odd living there all alone."
There's a moment of silence and Sakura wonders if she should apologize for stepping over her boundaries. Iruka's soft voice stops her, "It's the house where I grew up. I can't find it in me to sell it…I just…can't." He pauses to smile before adding "Besides keeping the house came in handy, wouldn't you say?"
Sakura nods her head and grabs a napkin to clean up some of the lemonade Gaara's bubbles made on the table. Apparently Gaara finds it amusing to blow air into his straw thus creating bubbles.
"Now I have a question for you, Sakura, if you don't mind."
"Sure Iruka-sensei!"
Iruka hesitates to ask but he wants to know. "It's about your sensei. How does he normally act around others? "
"I'm sorry but I don't really know Iruka-sensei. I've never really seen him talk with others expect for Gai-sensei but that's different. Gai-sensei does like 90% of the talking in those conversations. He usually keeps to himself with that book of his from what I've seen although he seems quite lively around you, Iruka-sensei. Well, maybe 'lively' isn't the word I'm looking for but you know what I mean, right? You have an idea why?"
"I was hoping you could tell me. Oh well, let's not drill on it too much, okay? And please don't tell Kakashi-sensei about this. Let's keep it between us."
"It's alright Iruka-sensei, I agree with you so I won't tell him."
"Tell who what?" A voice behind them causes them to jump in their sits a bit. They turn their attention towards the newly arrived Kakashi who has Ruka in his hand. Only thing is Ruka…looks like she's seen better days. I
"Oh my goodness, what happened to her?" Iruka shrieks when he sees Ruka's current state but then quickly look over to Gaara who's on the verge of tears. Iruka's not too sure if all this stress is good on Gaara and his one-tail beast.
"Well, I retrace our steps and out of the corner of my eye I caught a dog holding it. Actually it was more like chewing on it then holding it. Anyway, I tried my best to take it back without damaging her however I noticed there's a small tear on her snout." Kakashi handles over Ruka to Gaara and pats his head gently. "Besides the little tear on the noise and some dirt here and there, Ruka's okay. I'm sure Iruka can sew it up and wash it. She'll be good as new, right Iruka?" For once Kakashi is not only behaving himself but is also trying to be helpful making Iruka smile.
"Kakashi's absolutely right, Gaara. Just a few stitches and a nice warm bath, Ruka will be all better!"
A teary-eye Gaara looks at his friend before looking up at his mommy, "Really?" He watches as his mommy nods his head and gives a teary smile. Looking down at his friend, he kisses her snout. "Did you hear that, Ruka? Mommy's going to make you all better so don't worry, okay."
"Don't worry, Gaara. She'll be okay but for the time being, let's put her safely in the bag where she can rest, okay? I'm sure she's tired." Gaara reluctantly gives Iruka his dolphin friend but knows his mommy his right.
After they order their food and eat, they decide to call it a day and head back home. When they reach Iruka's house, Sakura offers to put away Gaara's clothes. She still hadn't gotten over the cuteness of the clothes and can't wait for Gaara to wear some of the outfits. After settling down Gaara next to Kakashi on the sofa, Iruka gives her the 'okay' and the directions to their room and where she can put Gaara's new clothes at. She happily grabs the shopping bag and goes upstairs.
"I seriously hope she doesn't decide to have a kid now because she loves baby clothes" Kakashi comments on Sakura's enthusiastic over putting away children's clothing. Of course Kakashi knows Sakura wouldn't, she too smart for that.
"You and I both know she won't do something like that. Besides its nice having extra help, right Ga-chan?" Gaara happily nods his head. "She's really good with children. I bet whenever she does decide to become a mother, she's going to be a great one" Iruka says as he looks around the family room for the sewing kit. Sitting down next to Gaara, he gently asks the small boy if he can have Ruka whose bundle up in Naruto's red shirt.
Obviously Gaara gives Ruka to Iruka. He sits there and watches as his mother begins sewing up Ruka's snout. Within ten minutes, Ruka's tear is nicely close. Now Ruka's is just dirty! "Mommy healed Ruka! You're the best, mommy!" Gaara suddenly hugs Iruka's waist who quickly moves the needle out of the way so it doesn't hurt Gaara and hugs the small boy back.
"Oh, thank you, Ga-chan. I'm glad Ruka's back but she going to need a bath before I can give her back, okay? After all, a dog had her in its mouth."
As much as Gaara wants to hold Ruka, he knows his mother is right. Ruka needs a bath like really bad. She smells funny too! "Hey mommy, can I help you clean Ruka up? Please?" Gaara cracks a big smile when Iruka nods his head.
In the background, Kakashi sits there studying them. If he doesn't know any better, it's like Iruka and Gaara have been mother and child since…well, when the child was born instead of two days. They're both something else, especially Iruka. Grabbing the dirty stuff toy, Kakashi places it next to Iruka's face and looks between the two. "Iruka, by any chance are you and Ruka related? Both dolphins and have a scar across their nose. Does this run in the family or something? I'm curious to know."
Kakashi blinks when Gaara takes Ruka out of his hand and actually uses the stuff toy to whack him over the head. Boy sure has some guts Kakashi thinks. He reaches out to take the stuff toy back but Iruka slaps his hand away.
"Behave will you?"
"What? I'm the victim here and I'm the one being prosecuted?"
"Please Kakashi, it's just a harmless soft toy."
"I don't know, Iruka. I might need to go to the hospital for this. A concussion maybe, I don't know…everything starting to become a blur to me" Kakashi dramatically places his hand over his forehead and trying to look faintish.
"Is this coming from a Jounin, the Great Copy-Nin, at that? Boy, I would just hate for our enemies to get a hold of this information and use it against us. I'm picturing it right know. A bunch of stuff toys being thrown at some of our strongest and greatest ninjas ever. Each of them fall victim to this devastating attack. Oh, the image! It's too horrible and I don't even want to think about if they're able to get a hold of those live-size ones! Imagine how many people one of those can take out? I think our village might be completely wiped out if such a thing were to happen to us. I pray it doesn't."
"You don't have to be so sarcastic you know."
"Well, you don't have to over exaggerate on the small of things. Come on Ga-chan, let's go get Ruka nice and clean, hmm?" Both Iruka and Gaara go into the kitchen and leaving Kakashi to ponder about a certain Chuunin.
With Sasuke and Naruto
"It was really nice of her to make us lunch, wasn't it?" Naruto rubs his belly as he talks.
Half way through their mission, Naruto seemed to have completely forgotten about this morning incident. Something Sasuke's not going to remind the blond of. He nods his head in agreement. "Yeah, she was. Has some nice taste too."
"Hey Sasuke, those flowers we just planted…what do they mean? Do they even have a meaning attached to them?"
"All flowers do. The white lilies mean purity and sweetness and the white lilacs mean youthful innocence."
"Does anything white make it pure and innocence?"
"Yeah, pretty much." They both continue walking towards Iruka's house with Naruto starting random conversations. Random conversations even Sasuke joined in on much to Naruto's surprise and delight.
"YO BRATS!" a voice calls out from behind them. Sasuke and Naruto quickly turn around only to see the most perverted person, Jiraiya, standing there. Jiraiya walks over to them and places his big hands on each of their heads. Sasuke naturally shoves the offending hand off. "Can I assume you two are heading over to Iruka Umino's place?"
Naruto blinks and tries to move the big hand off his head at the same time. "Yeah, what's it to you?"
"Well, I just so happen to be heading over there. I figure all three of us can head over there together." Jiraiya immediately gets two very curious stares. He's trying his best to act calm and nonchalant but these brats don't really seem to be buying it. It's like they don't trust him! He feels hurt inside. Well, not really but whatever. Of course he's not going to tell them the real reason why he's heading over to their former sensei's house.
Flashback
He just came back from the Sand Village and the old hag already wanted to see him. Oh well, he has something he needs to tell her anyway. Kill two birds with one stone here. So he makes his way to her office and doesn't even bother to knock on the door when he enters. "You rang your holiness."
"What did I tell you about knocking?"
"Um, don't remember."
Tsunade glares at the man before her. He's always been a pain in the ass and it's just her luck she's stuck with him. "Bring any useful news?" She watches as his face became hard and serious making her face to mirror his.
"Pretty much throughout my entire stay they've been searching for Gaara. They even have a few Anbus searching for him. However sometime middle afternoon yesterday, I noticed the search for the boy cooled down immensely. However there's still no sign of the boy in the village. I don't know where he is."
"That's because he's in our village."
"What?"
"He's in our village. His sister came to me a few days ago and asked if I could allow Gaara temporarily stay here. I told her yes."
"Really now, that's very interesting. She acted as if she had no clue where he was. She's even assigned to a search team to look for him. Although, I got the feeling she knew something but wasn't telling. Did she tell you why?"
"No and I'm really starting to wish I did" she sighing heavenly, something she been doing for the past few days.
"So where is he right now?"
Tsunade sighs yet again before answering "You might want to sit down because things are going to get more complicated and it's long." She waits for Jiraiya to sit and once he does, she goes on "Yesterday Naruto came across an old man. An old man that I now know is from the Sand Village. Anyway, Naruto decided to help the old man out by carry his heavy basket. And as a 'thank you' gift, the old man gave Naruto a scroll. The idiot thought the scroll could help him defeat Sasuke so he learned it. You know how those two are. I'll skip a bit to the part where Naruto thought it was a great idea to test out the jutsu out on Gaara who happen to be near." She watches at Jiraiya absorbs all this.
Jiraiya does not like where this is going at all. He knows Naruto has some rivalry with Sasuke but to actually go this far? This doesn't sound at all like Naruto. However there are more important things to worry about right now then Naruto. "What end up happening to Gaara?"
"Gaara's fine…he's just not himself. Apparently the scroll cast him int to 3 year old child." Tsunade sees Jiraiya opening his mouth and beats him to the punch, "Before you say anything, the scroll quickly burned up after Naruto performed it so I can't even take a look at it to see if I can make a counter jutsu to it."
Jiraiya looks down at the floor with a thoughtfully expression before bringing it back up to Tsunade. "That still doesn't answer my question, where is he?"
Tsunade raises an eyebrow at Jiraiya's tone of voice but she can't blame him. It's a serious matter. "Well, Team 7 brought Gaara to me to see if I can fix it which I couldn't. All Gaara did was cry. We just couldn't get him to calm down which was something we needed to. Although the seal on him wasn't affecting, we still couldn't chance it. Sakura and I tried to get him to calm down and to stop crying but nothing worked on him. It wasn't until when Iruka walked in to turn in some reports, did Gaara stop crying."
"Iruka?"
"Iruka Umino."
"Ah, Naruto's first sensei. Naruto talks pretty highly of him."
"Of course Naruto should, Iruka is Academy's best teacher. Where was I? Oh! Once Iruka walked into the room, Gaara just stopped crying. I mean he was crying for an hour but takes one look at Iruka and there are no more tears. We all watched in fascination as Gaara goes up to Iruka and starts calling him…well, mommy" Tsunade tries her best not to laugh at the memory. She fails though.
"Mommy? Isn't Iruka a guy?"
"Well, it didn't seem to matter to Gaara and surprising enough Iruka didn't seem to care either. He accepted the role without any hesitates. It's why I placed Iruka in charge of Gaara along with Team 7. I told Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto to pack some their belongings because they'll be living under the same roof as Iruka and Gaara for the time being. Sakura, of course, will be there during the day but not at nights. I don't want her mother worrying over the fact her daughter is in a house full of males. Save myself a headache there."
There's a moment of silence before Jiraiya breaks it. "You mean to tell me you left Gaara in the care of a Chuunin and a couple of Genins? Granted they have Kakashi with them but still! What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking what was best for Gaara. Besides could Jounins and Anbus really take care of Gaara in his current state? A child? You know as well I do they can't. Protect him yes, but for anything else no. Iruka just seemed to fit the bill. I know Gaara is in good hands."
"Why not just assign some Jounins and Anbus along with Iruka to look after Gaara then?"
"The Jounins are all out on missions as well as the Anbus. You know there's something special about Sasuke and Naruto, I'm sure they can hand whatever is thrown their way. They're strong. Plus, they Sakura backing them up. She's the brains of the group."
"Yes, but still not enough to hand this."
"That's where you come in, Jiraiya. Having Kakashi and you near the boy should be enough. You two have very high reputations and then there's Iruka, Sasuke and Naruto. Besides tomorrow, two Anbus should be coming back from their mission and I'll assign them to keeping an eye on the situation at a distance."
Jiraiya is relieved to hear that. "One question, how am I supposed to tell them I've been assigned to look after Gaara as well? It's not like I can just go up to them and say 'I'm here to help out'. They're going to get suspicious and I don't know if you want them knowing the whole story. Or at least what we know so far."
"Well…not yet, anyway. You're just going to have to think quick and make something up. You can also just not answer their questions. Tell them to come see me if they're that curious."
"You'll actually tell them?"
"Ah, you know how busy a Hokage can get?" Tsunade smirks. "The only one I want you telling is Kakashi so he has a better understanding and can look after Gaara better. As well about the two Anbus I'll be assigning so he doesn't freak out. If it gets to dangerous then I'll assign more Anbus for the task even if I have to drag them from their current missions. Mind you, I will still have Iruka with Gaara though."
"You really want Iruka to be with Gaara. Why?"
"Just. Now if you excuse me, I have other things to do. These reports don't sign themselves you know."
'This old hag' Jiraiya thinks as he leaves the office. He just got home and now he has to deal with this? He hopes Iruka is everything Naruto's always talked about. 'I hope this all goes over well…'
End of Flashback
"Come on, let's go already." The older man doesn't even wait for the boys as he starts walking off towards Iruka's direction. Or at least thinks it's in the direction he's walking in.
"Hey, wait up you old man!" Naruto yells out, curious to know what Jiraiya wants from Iruka's house. "Do you even know Iruka-sensei?"
TBC
Shinycry - I hope you guys like this chapter and please tell me if anything was out of place or seemed too crappy. Feel free to ask questions about something. Ah, I'm too tired to write the day off. I'll do that for the next chapter. Thank you for those who reviewed. I mean it, thank you guys! Your reviews always make feel better and that I'm just not doing a shitty job at this. Lol Remember I just need one review to say they want me to continue and I well. Again sorry for its lateness. Later…