It hurt.
The pain was surprisingly worse than a flesh wound could ever be. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that Iruka could do to stop it... to make it better... To forget.
The thing was... he had no idea why...why Kakashi was acting the like that... Like they were no more... Was... Was that really what the man wanted? Did he really want Iruka out of his life? Maybe it really was that, Iruka should stop stalling already and just leave...
Iruka couldn't help but sigh sadly. It hurt... It hurt so much when the man you loved just... stopped loving you back. The least Kakashi could do was tell him that he wanted to break up and not dangle him on the string of maybe's.
Then again, it was also Iruka's fault. He was such a pushover and such an idiot to let Kakashi get away with it. To let it go and not confront him about it.
With another soft sigh, Iruka turned back to the paperwork in front of him. Now was not the time to wallow in self pity, even if that the only thing he felt like doing.
"Good morning, Iruka."
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Iruka's hand tightened slightly on his pen before looking up with a forced smile. "Kakashi, back from your mission? How did it go?"
"Maa, it was fine." Kakashi eye smiled and placed the report on Iruka's desk before turning away again without a goodbye. Even though the action didn't surprise the chuunin, it still hurt. Kakashi talked to him in public, even if it was less than usual... But... Even though they lived together, Iruka hardly ever saw the jounin anymore. And if he did, the man was leaving or Iruka was. Even when Iruka greeted him, Kakashi never replied. Half of the time, Iruka convinced himself that Kakashi hadn't heard him.
Denial at its finest.
Iruka quickly read through the report, and corrected the mistakes on it before putting it into the accepted pile. He didn't feel like tracking down Kakashi to get him to do it himself in all honesty. Especially when it was so close to the end of his shift. After a quick glance at the clock, Iruka packed up his things and waved a goodbye to his fellow chuunin.
With a great force of will, Iruka pushed his personal problems to the back of his mind and focused on his obligations and duties.
He needed to get home and grab his pack. The class that he was teaching was going on their first ever survival test. Usually, Iruka wasn't so forgetful as to not grab everything he needed before leaving the house, but with the extra mission desk assignments that he'd taken on ever since he noticed the change in Kakashi, he had become... distracted, and the pack had been left just inside the living room. Normally, Iruka avoided the night mission desk job, but it had become a good outlet for his anxiety and restlessness.
At least most of the time it was.
Quickly hopping up to the rooftops, Iruka made his way back to Kakashi's place.
Did Kakashi regret...?
Iruka winced but pushed that thought away as he spotted the Hatake compound. Since Kakashi had just made it back from a mission, he was probably asleep in his room.
Chakra suppressed and as quietly as possible, Iruka opened the door and silently made his way to where he was sure he'd left his pack.
When he spotted it, Iruka hefted it up and spun on his heel to head to the Academy. Suddenly, he heard voices coming from the kitchen. Before, Iruka would have walked in to greet the guest and Kakashi. For a second, Iruka hesitated, feeling a bit nostalgic.
"It's about time you noticed me!" A voice giggled. "I had to throw myself at you!"
"Maa, I've always noticed. You are pretty hard to ignore."
"Aww, you flaterer!"
Iruka felt a sharp pain in his chest and he stifled back a gasp with his hand. He quickly backed away. Once he got to the door, Iruka turned and fled. He wasn't even sure if he'd closed the door behind him. All he wanted was to get away.
So that was why Kakashi had distanced himself.
Iruka's vision became blurry. He reached up with his shaking hand. When he pulled it away, his fingers were wet from the tears.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Good morning. Alright, everyone settle down. Now, before we leave, I want you to tell me everything you packed." Iruka sighed as the group children continued to ignore him. Instead of using his special jutsu, Iruka walked to the closets student.
"Kona-kun, what did you pack?"
"Right, Iruka-sensei! Sleeping bag, food, water, extra set of clothing, food pills, kunai, lighter-" The young boy kept talking and Iruka nodded as he checked the things off on his list.
"Good job. Kyo-kun?" Iruka turned to the boy hiding behind the most noisy kid in the room and proceeded like that until he'd checked with everyone.
If something was missing or someone forgot to pack something, it wouldn't matter. The night was going to be a warm one and what better way to teach future shinobi then by trial and error? With that, Iruka headed back to his desk to finished the paperwork. When he was done, he looked to one of the two other chuunin that would be going on the trip. "Can you take the papers to the office and make sure that the status of the village hasn't changed?"
Since it was their very first trial for the group, they wouldn't be going outside the village walls. Instead, they would be camping in an isolated part of the Nara forest. They would have two more at the Nara forest before going out the walls for their first actual test.
Iruka waited for the chuunin to return, while keeping an eye on the kids to make sure that they didn't get too roudy.
"We're a go." Kotetsu, the chuunin the Iruka had asked to go had returned.
"Alright, everyone line up!" Iruka said, trying to get his voice to stop sounding so... dead. It seemed to work for the kids but Iruka noticed the look that his fellow chuunin gave him. They knew him too well to know when he was faking something.
To bad for them, Iruka wasn't going to say a word. He'd brought this on himself and he was going to deal with it on his own.
Time seemed to go quickly, because it felt like only moments later, they had made it to the Nara compound.
"I'll go tell Shikamaru." Izumo -the other chuunin- said, giving Kotetsu a look as he walked away.
"Iruka-sensei!" A shrill voice called from the surrounding mass of children. "Next time we'll be able to go outside that walls, right?!"
"Yes, Akira-kun." Iruka tried to smile normally and he managed it since the boy nodded in excitement and went to his group of friends.
Just then, Iruka felt something tug on his vest and when he glanced down, Iruka saw one of the more timid girls clutching the fabric in her hand tightly. "Ano, Iruka-sensei... will we s-see any deer?"
Iruka smiled. "You might, but the Nara deer usually avoid anyone that they don't recognize."
The girl nodded a bit sadly, before turning away.
A moment later, Iruka spotted Izumo who motion him to go ahead. "Remember to stay in your groups, alright everyone?"
"Hai, sensei!"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
It was finally time for bed, and Iruka couldn't have been happier that all the rambunctious kids were ready to drop. It wasn't that he hated teaching, it was just recently... Recently Iruka had started getting restless. Maybe he would take a break from teaching and go out on missions again? He was sent out every once in awhile but maybe it was time to take on more than just teaching.
That thought kept crossing his mind throughout the night as he stayed up. Even if they weren't out of Konoha, they still needed someone to stay up for the night. Iruka knew he wasn't going to get any sleep so he had taken it upon himself to volunteer.
It was around five in the morning when an alarm sounded in Iruka's mind as he felt an unknown chakra signature. The other two chunnin snapped away as soon as Iruka touched them, eyes scanning the area around them. Iruka motioned for them to stay with the sleeping children and jumped to the trees, speeding to intercept the intruder. Before Iruka got close enough, it turned and headed away again. Instead of turning back, Iruka pursued.
But he wasn't fast enough to catch.
An hour later, Iruka returned to the campsite. He'd stopped chasing the chakra signature when the ANBU had appeared, but he hadn't felt right to just go back to the campsite. Instead the chuunin went around the forest to make sure that no one else was trespassing. Nothing else had appeared.
Hopefully the ANBU had caught up with whoever that had been and figured out why they had been in the forest in the first place.
Iruka jumped down to the forest floor, nodding to his fellow chuunin and friends. They looked to him, eyebrows raised. Iruka shook his head and all three began waking up the still sleeping kids. Iruka let Kotetsu give the orders as he, himself helped kids roll up sleeping bags the proper way. A few hours later, the group left the forest, waving goodbye to Shikamaru as they were passing by his house.
The Nara got up and walked over to Iruka who had stopped walking, knowing that Shikamaru wanted a report.
"Have you heard anything?"
Iruka shook his head. "As soon as ANBU showed up, I dropped back to do a perimeter check of the forest."
"I guess I have to go to the Hokage then. Troublesome." Shikamaru reached into his pocket. "Do you mind taking my shift at the Mission Room?"
Even though the younger man said it in a bored tone, Iruka could tell that the breach was bothering him. The shadow user didn't look like he'd gotten much sleep. Iruka wasn't surprised since he'd sensed his familiar chakra while going through the his own perimeter check. "Sure, I can do that."
The Nara nodded a thanks before he disappeared. Iruka turned back to head towards the Academy where the majority of the parents would be waiting for their children.
In no time, they got to the Academy. A minute afterward, every child was with a parent and walking away. Iruka could hear the excited chatter as the kids recounted their experiences and what they did right.
Iruka couldn't stop a soft smile from crossing his face.
"Iruka! Want to go get breakfast with us?" Izumo called as he and Kotetsu made their way over to him.
Iruka hoisted his pack on his shoulders. "No, sorry. I promised Shikamaru I would take over his his shift today."
"Whaaat?! Are you serious?! Aren't you tired?" Kotetsu shook his head, looking a little worried. "You were on shift the night before and last night you didn't get a wink of sleep!"
Iruka smiled, and hoped he didn't look that tired. He hated when his friends worried about him. There was no need to, at least he didn't think so. "I'm fine, don't worry. It's just desk work, I can do that in my sleep."
Izumo frowned but they both nodded to Iruka. "Just make sure to eat something! Ration bars might give you energy but they taste like shit."
A chuckled left Iruka's lips. "Fine, I'll see you guys later!"
The other two nodded and headed off down the road. Iruka turned the other way and made his way to the Hokage Tower. It was going to be a long day, he could already tell.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
The scroll went into the accepted basket, and Iruka rubbed the side of his head for a second. The headache was getting stronger and there was no way that it would go away any time in the near future. Ever since he'd sat down at the desk, there had been an influx of shinobi. Most were there to pick up a few missions but there was also more than a few people applying for escorts. Never before had Iruka been this busy. But then again, maybe it was because of lack of sleep. He was already at a little more than forty five hours without sleep. It wasn't his limit but it was darn close.
"Next!" Iruka looked up and held out a hand for the scroll in Raido's hand.
The man handed it to him and waited patiently as Iruka read through it. "I've been seeing you at the Mission desk a lot more then normal, Iruka. How's it going?"
"Yeah, I've been covering for a few people. It's been a bit hectic but nothing major so far." Iruka glanced up and gave him a forced smile. He didn't really know him that well. Raido was more of Kakashi's friend then he was Iruka's.
"How's Kakashi? I haven't seen him around that much."
Iruka's hand tightened slightly before forcing himself to relax. "He'd been good. Kakashi just got back from a mission the other day. He's been taking a lot of them." Iruka forced a smile. He scanned the rest of the report and placed it in the accepted pile. "I'm sure you'll spot him before he goes out for another one."
Raido nodded and with a wave, left Iruka who motioned for the next shinobi to step up. This one Iruka only knew by sight. He quickly scanned through the report and didn't find any mistakes so he nodded to the man with a smile and waved the next one to come forward.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Iruka, you should take your break." Miko stated with a frown. "You've been here all day."
Iruka held back a sigh, and instead smiled up at his fellow chuunin. "I was just about to go, I just didn't want to leave these reports unfinished."
The woman narrowed her eyes before nodding. "Alright, just don't stay too long or else you'll be stuck here again for another hour."
Iruka smiled politely and turned down to the report.
It was a request for an escort mission to the one of the villages just inside the farthest border of the Land of Fire. The man was to leave the next morning and just needed one escort to keep bandits away since he was carrying precious stones on his person. He hadn't wanted to draw attention by taking a wagon but he didn't want to go unprotected either.
After pondering that, Iruka rolled up the scroll and headed up Lady Tsunade's office.
The secretary let him in and Iruka bowed respectively and shut the door. "Lady Tsunade."
"Iruka, what can I do for you?" The blond woman leaned her chin on her hands and ignored the paperwork that lay scattered around her desk.
"I was hoping to take a bit of a break from the Academy and Mission Room..." Iruka hesitated but continued after a few second. "I have an escort mission that I would like to take."
The Hokage motioned for him to hand her the scroll, and Iruka complied. He shifted slightly from foot to foot as she read through it. "You haven't gone out in a while, correct?"
"That's correct, Lady Tsunade. The last one was an infiltration mission a year ago. I-I'm actually thinking of getting more missions outside the Village..." Iruka stuttered slightly. "And this is the perfect one to start."
After a few seconds of silence, the blond nodded. "Alright, I'll get someone to cover the Academy and desk during your absence. If you do feel like taking more missions after this, feel free to come tell me."
"Thank you, Lady Tsunade." Iruka took the scroll, bowed, and made his way out of the office.
The man whom had put in for the escort was still in the waiting room, and Iruka quickly made his way over to him. "Kento Yamada?" At the man's nod, Iruka bowed his head slightly. "My name is Iruka, I'll be your escort. What time would you like to meet?"
The man relaxed immediately as he studied Iruka. "Six in the morning. I would like as much time to travel in the sun as possible."
Iruka nodded his head. "I'll meet you by the gate, Yamada-san. Have a good night."
The man nodded back and left the room. Iruka went to his desk, and packed his bag up quickly before finally making his way out of the office. He was done for the day.
It was early enough that the sun was still out but Iruka could tell that it would set soon. Just as he was walking down the familiar path, Iruka stopped.
Did he really want to go back to Kakashi's...?"
No. No he didn't.
Iruka spun on his heel and made his way to the clothing store. He stalked up on a few pants and shirts before making his way to one of the hotels. He could stay there and rest as much as he could before leaving in the morning.
Once in the room, Iruka dumped the clothing in a heap on the bed. He quickly sorted them, making sure to fold them so they could all fit in his pack. After that was done, Iruka took everything out of his pack and went through it. He left his kunai and shuriken on the table for the moment. First he looked at all of his old clothing and threw out anything that had rips or didn't fit. He'd gotten slimmer during the past few months and didn't need anything that was overly baggy on him.
When he finished going through everything, he only had a few of his old shirts. He threw away all the others. It was a shock at how little he actually had that was passable. Now that he thought on it, Iruka hadn't really gone shopping in a long while. The brunette grimaced, he really had let himself go...
He placed all the clothes into the pack and there was plenty of room left over for storage scrolls.
Storage scrolls... Food...
"Damn!" Iruka cursed. He had completely forgotten about food. A quick glance out the window showed the sky was red. He still had a little time until most of the shops would close. With a head shake at his forgetfulness, Iruka put on his sandals and left the room.
The chuunin made his way to the store, a few storage scrolls in his pouch. He didn't feel like carrying everything. His body was already sore, he didn't need any more work outs for that night.
Iruka picked up a basket and quickly set to work. He needed more ration bars, even though they tasted like crap. And a new canteen wouldn't hurt... Just to be on the safe side, he'd get an extra one just in case.
He had to stop by the Hospital to get a few soldier pills as well. He'd used the last few already. Those could wait though since it was open all day...
After a few more minutes of stuffing things into the basket, Iruka went to the register and paid. He then took out one of the scrolls and sealed everything into it.
"Thank you, have a nice night." The store owner smiled and Iruka nodded. He headed out and felt his stomach rumble as his nose got a wiff of something. It was loud, extremely so and he walked a bit faster.
Even though he hadn't eaten in all day, Iruka first stopped at the hospital. He was in and out within ten minutes. Next stop was something to eat for the night.
Iruka debated with himself but finally decided against ramen. That wouldn't be good for him after not eating and then going on a mission in the morning. Instead, Iruka headed for one of the Akimichi restaurants.
"Dine in?" The hostess asked politely as soon as Iruka made his way in.
As the brunette was about to reply, someone yelled out his name. Iruka turned his head and looked to the side and spotted a group of very familiar shinobi. He saw Genma first, then Raido. Next to him was Aoba and across from him sat Asuma. His stomach twisted painfully when he caught a glimpse of spiky, silver hair to Asuma's right side. He turned back to the hostess. "Take out. I'd like an order of chicken Kamameshi and an order of Gyoza."
"Iruka! Come over here!" The chuunin winced as Genma yelled out even louder.
"I'll be over there, but can you please make it quick?" Iruka asked and took out his wallet to get out the money. "You can keep the change." The woman nodded and headed to the back. Hopefully, Iruka would be out in a few minutes. He took a breath and turned to walk over to the table that he couldn't pretend to ignore anymore. Iruka forced a smile as he stopped a few feet away. "Good evening..."
"About time! I thought you couldn't hear me or something!" Genma grumbled but Iruka saw the teasing glint in his eyes.
"Sorry, I was ordering take out." Iruka scratched the scar on his face as he scanned the faces at the table. He stuttered at Kakashi's masked one but quickly looked back at Genma.
"Finally got off mission desk duty?" Raido asked from next to Genma
Iruka nodded. "Yes, I was practically ordered to leave." Iruka tried for a bit of humor while taking a quick look over his back at the kitchen doors.
"Maa, what do you mean?" His voice said and Iruka felt his heart squeeze painfully. Iruka forced his face to show only a smile as he turned to look at the jounin.
"I've been covering for a few people after or before my own shifts and haven't really left except to go to the Academy for the past three days." Iruka's eyes flickered back to the kitchen doors, not noticing how quiet the table had gotten.
It was Aoba that broke the silence and bringing Iruka's attention back to the table. "You trying to die of exhaustion, Iruka?'
"Oh, don't worry about me." Iruka forced his smile to not seem so weary. "It was just because we were short staffed for a bit. Like I said, I was practically kicked out. I'm going to eat and pass out for a few hours after I get my order."
"Just a few hours?" Asuma asked as he studied Iruka closely, noticing the way he had slight bags under his eyes. "Seems like you need a bit more then that."
"It's fine." Iruka finally saw the hostess come out of the kitchen, two bags of food in hand. She stopped right in front of him and handed Iruka more food than he'd thought he'd ordered. The brunette couldn't help but blink down at her in surprise.
"Thank you, please come again." The woman bowed politely with a smile, before moving away.
Iruka stared after her before he shrugged slightly. The chuunin turned back to the table. "I'll see you guys in a few weeks, have a good night." And with that, Iruka gratefully made his way out of the restaurant, not noticing the question about why it would be a few weeks.
As soon as he went out of the doors, Iruka hurriedly made his way back to the hotel. He just wanted to eat -even though he didn't feel like it anymore- and go to bed. The day had been long and he just... wanted to relax.
If he could manage to.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Iruka woke up with a grunt. His face and head felt like he'd fallen from a very tall building and slammed it onto the ground. Groggily, Iruka looked over to the left to check the time. He had an hour before meeting the client at the gates.
The chuunin stared up at the ceiling for a moment, before pushing himself up and making his way to the shower. Quickly, Iruka slipped into the warm spray and washed himself. Luckily, the liquid woke him up.
About twenty minutes later, Iruka got out of the bathroom feeling slightly better than dead. He reached down for his hiate-ate and tied it to his forehead. After a quick check of the room to make sure that everything was in his pack or pouch, Iruka left the room and dropped off the key at the reception desk.
He still had twenty minutes to get to the gate, so he decided to walk instead of run. Iruka didn't need to waste any energy just yet, that could wait for the journey.
As he strolled through the streets, he vaguely noticed that there was a lot of activity going on in this part of the village. More than there usually was from what he could recall. As he passed by a bakery that was open, Iruka paused and went in. He walked out with a stuffed bun. Quickly finishing it off, Iruka walked a bit faster. The gates came into view and the chuunin noticed that he wasn't the only one going out.
Now that he was actually paying attention, Iruka saw that most of the people were shinobi. After that, Iruka went back to thinking about what he was going to do when he came back from the mission. He really needed to talk to Kakashi... but with him avoiding Iruka whenever they could be alone... And now... Maybe he didn't need to talk. Now Iruka had his answers... Even if they weren't good ones, he still had them.
Iruka sighed, and stopped just a few feet away from the guard post. He didn't have to wait long because only a few moments later, the client came walking up to him with a slightly bigger pack than the one that Iruka had. "Yamada-san, goodmorning." The chuunin called with a slightly less forced smile then the one he'd plastered on his face the previous day.
"Morning, Iruka-san. Glad to see you're on time. The last time I got an escort, he was late." The man stated, eyes glancing around them. "Alright, we should get started." With that the man went to the gate guards. Iruka followed behind, his papers already out.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
The trip was relatively silent. Neither Iruka nor Kento spoke much except for a few words here and there. Iruka didn't really mind, he found that he wasn't in the mood for conversations.
Days passed quickly. Luckily, they always made it to some village near the end of the day so they didn't have to camp out in the forest just yet. Iruka knew that in the villages were getting farther and farther spaced so their luck wasn't going to last for much longer.
Just like he'd predicted, about two weeks into the last part of the journey, the sun was setting and they still had a day of travel left. Iruka could have carried the man, but Kento had rejected that.
"A little camping never hurts anyone." Kento said with a nod as he finished setting up his tent with relative ease. Iruka could tell that the man went camping a lot. "Did ya bring a tent?"
Iruka shook his head."I don't need one, since we'll be out in the woods, it's best that I stay up on watch."'
The man shook his head with a grunt. "Whatever you say. Night, Iruka-san."
"Good night, Yamada-san." Iruka went to place a few traps around the clearing. Once those were done, he settled down on a tree limb and kept his senses open. He wasn't sure, but he'd thought that he'd felt something flicker at the edge of his range.
Iruka cloaked his chakra signature as soon as he felt the flicker turn into a bit more then that a few hours past midnight. The signature or signatures (he wasn't too sure) was making its way straight for their camp. It had been relatively small at first but Iruka wasn't going let his guard down. Quietly, Iruka reached into his kunai pouch and took out a few kunai.
Three men burst into the clearing, two of the men falling to Iruka's traps. The last one faltered when he saw his comrades strung up in the trees. Iruka quickly knocked him out as well. There was silence once again, and Iruka shot up to the tree. He did a quick check of the area and found that there was nothing else.
He wanted to check a bit further out but didn't want to leave Kento alone. After a few moments, Iruka made his way to the bandits, checking their pockets. He found nothing and Iruka tied them up together. Once he was sure they wouldn't be able to wiggle out, he dragged them away from the clearing and tied them to a tree. Now they wouldn't be leaving at all and Iruka could watch them to see if anyone else would turn up.
Since he didn't find anything other than weapons, Iruka figured that they had somehow gotten wind of Kento's return and had gone scouting for the merchant. Hopefully, it was nothing more than bandits.
The chuunin stayed vigilant for the rest of the night but nothing came of it. As the first ray of light crested the horizon, Kenta got out of his tent and immediately started packing things away.
"Yamada-san, would you like to get there faster? Last night there was a group of bandits and there might be more hiding around the area." Iruka was confident enough to know that he could and would be able to take on bandits all by himself but he'd rather lessen the chance of attack by shortening the time it took them to travel to the village.
The man finished putting everything away and hoisted the pack onto his shoulder. "How fast can you get to the village with me on your back?"
Iruka studied the man for a second before replying. "I'd say in a couple of hours."
Kento thought about it for a moment, then nodded his head. "Alright. That seems like a good plan."
Iruka kneeled down and had the shorter man got onto his back. Once he was situated, Iruka took off. He made sure to stay in the trees. For one, they were good cover. Second, jumping from tree branch to tree branch was slightly faster the the terrain below. And less likelihood that there would be bandit traps up there.
Like Iruka predicted, they made it to the village in a little over two hours. Within visual distance of the gate, Iruka let the man off his back and both walked the rest of the way. As soon as they passed through, Kento was immediately greeted by a man who could have possibly been a family member.
"Glad you made it, Kento! Wasn't expecting you until later today. Any problems?" The man asked as he clapped Kento on the back. Iruka stood back and studied him. The man had piercing blue eyes that were a bit lighter than Naruto's. He looked to be a couple of years older then Iruka. He also had shoulder length brown hair and carried around a sword at his hip. By the way he walked, Iruka could tell that the man knew how to use it, and use it well. He briefly wondered if he was a Samurai or descended from a Samurai family. The way he stood, alluded to that possibility.
"None until this morning. A group of bandits attacked but Iruka-san here took care of them. I didn't even wake up!" Kento chuckled as he motioned Iruka forward. "Taka, this is Iruka. Iruka, this is my cousin, Taka Watanabe."
Iruka bowed his head politely. "Pleasure to meet you, Watanabe-san."
"Please, Taka is fine." The man chuckled with a small bow of own. "I feel old when people call me that. I'd like to thank you for bringing this old man home safe and sound. I always tell him to get a team to guard him but he never listens! Maybe next time he will."
"Old man my ass. I'm only three years older than you!" Kento snapped at Taka who just smirked, arms crossed. Kento huffed and turned back to Iruka. "I still need to sign that scroll, right? Are you going to stay the night?"
Iruka took out the mission scroll and thought about the question. It was still pretty early... he could head back and make it to the next village in no time. He still had five days left until he was expected back..
"You look like you could use a good long soak, and rest. Why don't you postpone your departure until tomorrow morning?" Taka said good naturally as Kento nodded next to him.
Iruka hesitated for a second, looking over his shoulder to the trees just behind the gate.
Really, what could it hurt? He'd be back within five days either way...
"Alright. I'll be on my way back tomorrow morning." Iruka smiled as he turned back to the two men. "Which hotel do you recommend?"
"Mine, of course." Taka chuckled and pointed to a green building closer to the center of the village. Iruka didn't notice the way his eyes studied him as he looked over to where the man pointed."It's got a great hot springs as well."
Iruka nodded, shooting the man a smile. "I'll head over. Do you have any recommendations for a good food place?"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Iruka! Where have you been!" Izumo cried as he spotted the chuunin making his way out of the trees.
Iruka walked to him at a steady pace. There was no need to run, besides he was exhausted. Even that small delay hadn't been enough to get him fully rested. "Morning, Izumo. Where's Kotetsu?"
"He's taking a break. Should be back in a few minutes. Anyway! Where'd you go?! Me and Kotetsu were worried about you! Until Lady Tsunade told us that you were mission." Izumo grinned. "How'd it go?"
Iruka couldn't help chuckling a little at the way his friend was looking at him. "It went well enough. A bit tiring." Iruka said as he signed in.
"I bet. Citizen traveling speed, I'm guessing?"
Iruka let out another chuckle. "Of course. I'd better go turn this in. I'll see you and Kotetsu later."
"Alright! Don't forget! Oh! Lady Tsunade wanted to see you as soon as you got in!"
Iruka waved to show that he heard, and made his way as quickly though the village as he could without running. He'd had enough of that for a while.
When he made it to the Hokage Tower, he waited patiently outside Tsunade's office while the secretary told the Hokage he was there.
"Iruka, glad to see you made it back so swiftly. How did it go? Do you wish to go on more missions? Do you prefer going on solo missions or would you be able to go on team missions as well?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'd like to continue taking missions, Lady Tsunade. I'd like to formally offer my resignation as a sensei of the Academy."
Tsunade nodded. "While you were away, I've been reading up a bit on you. You used to do a lot of infiltration missions, correct?"
A/N: Thank you for reading!