Disclaimer: Aside from various rodents, these characters were not devised by yours truly.
The bright sky was quick to darken in the rain Sakura and Sasuke had so longed for less than a week prior. In the span of twenty minutes, the bright sky was set upon by dark stratus clouds, and the walk to Tazuna's building site became a tad chilly.
Water fell on the heads of the people still wandering the paths, and some of them pulled out umbrellas when it progressed to a downpour. Locals ran to a nearby building with practiced expertise. It wasn't so absurd for the weather to change so suddenly in the Land of Waves; in an area surrounded by water, rain was a part of life.
Sakura Haruno trudged through the damp precipitation without so much as a hand over her head, but regretted her choice of wardrobe when the group finally reached the semi-completed structure that Tazuna and his taskforce were constructing.
The bathhouse project that the village had sponsored was a somewhat revolutionary idea. Since the land of waves didn't contain any naturally heated hot springs in major areas, and volcanoes were few and far between, they had reverted to mechanics to create something for the community to enjoy. With any luck, tourists would come to enjoy the spa as well.
Water was to be heated in a large tank and kept warm by a constant bonfire of peat from the marshy temperate lands surrounding them. The result would be clean, and the water could be cheaply warmed and filtered through easily-found river rocks and gravel.
Predictably, the rain found the old bridge-builder and his fellow workers were sitting under the portion of the building with a roof, their progress on hold until the water stopped coming down in sheets. Some of the men took out their lunches, and others amused themselves by playing with dice that they toted in their pockets. Tazuna was in his own corner, chugging away at a canteen that probably contained a liquid darker and heavier than water.
The roofed space was somewhat small, but it was still wide enough for the Konoha shinobi to slip in without shoving anyone. Eyes fell on them the instant they reached the shelter from the rain, but they weren't scrutinizing. A curious set of glances could be expected when a handful of drenched ninja entered an area for what seemed to be no apparent reason.
While some of the workers muttered amongst themselves, Tazuna hadn't. He chugged away, occasionally looking outside with a dejected sigh as he calculated how much time and labor would be wasted that afternoon.
Inari was the first to approach his grandfather, and he exchanged a quick and lukewarm greeting before motioning to his back. The elderly man allowed his eyes to rest on the figure he recognized as a saturated Kakashi, his grey mane plastered to his face and dripping. Though the builder couldn't quite place it, there was a smell of wet dog about the former ANBU, as well.
"Kakashi?" A bushy eyebrow rose on Tazuna's forehead. What could Kakashi want with him? The shinobi knew first-hand that the village didn't have enough money to pay the fees an A-ranked mission would have required, and he had assumed they weren't coming back to push such a demand.
Surely enough, no bills were handed out, and the addressed ninja wrung out his hair, a process that he had to devote more time to than Sakura did.
"Greetings, Tazuna," Kakashi responded after he had removed enough water from his hair to open his eye clearly. The leader of squad seven gave a courteous bow to the working-class man he was addressing and motioned to his students, who acknowledged themselves in turn before reaching Iruka, whom he introduced by rank.
"This is Iruka Umino, a chuunin schoolteacher at Konoha's ninja academy," Kakashi motioned to his coworker without enthusiasm.
"Ah," Tazuna nodded,"-I was wondering what he was doing here. The guy seems a little old to replace the hyperactive one."
Unbeknownst to the builder, his comment sent a resounding twitch through all of the natives of Konoha present. Iruka looked like he may have said something brash and stupid, but Sakura grabbed the man's sleeve and tugged it gently, jolting him into a more discreet cough.
"Well, it's good to see you again, I suppose." the builder laughed, disregarding Iruka's attempt at hostile communications(as he didn't recognize it as such). The smell of sake carried from his breath, but it wasn't any match for the fishy scent accompanying it. Kakashi was grateful for the mask he wore at that moment; most of the odor didn't reach his senses. Iruka, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. With slight amusement, the older ninja watched the brown-haired man's face turn slightly green.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, then?" Tazuna asked, reclining on the ledge of what was to become a window without a care in the world. "If you're here on vacation, I'll tell you what I told the other bushy-Konoha weirdo. The hot spring will open in a week, but you're going to hafta' hold out 'til then."
Kakashi turned his head slightly to the right. "Other Konoha weirdo?"
"Other bushy Konoha weirdo." Inari corrected the jounin and was consequently ignored, eliciting a small pout.
"-what other Konoha weirdo?" Kakashi asked earnestly, mulling through the hordes of comrades he had that fit that description swimming in his brain.
Some of Tazuna's workers were now relaxed enough to join in conversation, and started to chuckle amongst themselves when they remembered the encounter that their foreman had mentioned.
"Ha! You should have seen him!" one of the younger workers smirked, "I'll bet he's something of a character where you come from. He's got this crazy white hairdo that looks like he's smuggling an animal on his head."
"-and there's this freakish mole on the side of his nose!" another laborer added, prompting a slight argument as to whether or not the blemish had been a wart or the mole it was accused of being.
Iruka wore a mask of shock before covering it with a yawn. The teacher looked to Kakashi, who gave him a knowing nod. Sasuke watched the whole exchange with a grimace, not being able to make sense of the nonverbal communication. However, the Uchiha did understand that this 'bushy Konoha weirdo' was someone the two men probably knew.
"Is that man still in town?" Iruka asked casually.
"I think so; probably parked his middle-aged butt at the inn," Tazuna replied with nonchalance.
Once again, the two more experienced ninja looked to one another with resolution.
"Why aren't we staying there?" Sakura asked suddenly, the idea dawning on her.
Iruka looked at the young kunoichi. In fact, she could swear his eyes traveled over her curves with appraisal. "If we were going to stay there before, we're definitely switching lodgings now."
Kakashi waited until the men stilled with their increasingly silly descriptions of their previous visitor before informing Tazuna that his team wasn't on vacation(big surprise), and informed the builder that his rag-tag team mostly needed information and a place to stay with as little expenses as possible.
Tazuna didn't ask questions; the old man wasn't the only one who could use guilt as a weapon, and Kakashi's well-meaning request was a simple one.
"You want to stay at my place?" Inari's grandfather asked, his hands to the side. Though he didn't notice, Inari's face brightened with childlike excitement. "We don't have anything new to offer you, but if I could ask what your business out here is?"
"Eh?" Kakashi deadpanned, looking like he had spaced out while his mind had been hard at work. Iruka wished he could do the talking at this point, but there really was no way for him to conduct a conversation as a total stranger.
"I asked what you're doing here." Tazuna repeated, taking another swing of what must have been sake. From behind his glasses, the older man regarded the ninja patiently.
"Oh, that." the Hatake murmured, the glazed appearance of his eyes fading into comprehension. "We're here because we've obtained evidence that Naruto may still be alive."
Inari's head snapped into gear so quickly it may have fallen off, and Tazuna choked on a gulp of his alchohol. Some amount of guilt tried to rise from the builder's conscience and failed utterly.
After coughing for a while, Tazuna managed to speak in his aged rumble.
"Evidence?" he grunted, the rain accenting his syllables in a steady rhythm, "Do I even wanna ask?"
"Probably not," Kakashi admitted, drumming his fingers on his elbows. Behind him, Sakura blushed, causing the old man's imagination to go wild.
Inari's imagination wasn't nearly as perverted as his grandfather's, but it was strong enough that he flinched.
"Causes aside, we need to conduct our investigation from somewhere." the silver-haired jounin reasoned with a sigh.
"Alright, alright," the builder wavered, giving a wry smile. "You can stay with us, but I don't think my little girl's going to appreciate the short notice."
Kakashi clapped his hands together with what must have been a masked smile. "Thank you for your understanding. Now, if you would be kind enough to keep Sakura and Sasuke here, Iruka and I have an errand to run at the inn."
The two genin were given no more time to protest than the builder, who looked like he was having second thoughts about his hospitality when Kakashi spoke up again.
"Don't worry, you can make them work like dogs when the rain stops. Consider it payment for the room and board!"
"What?!" Sasuke and Sakura both shouted, though their teachers were gone before they expended a lungful of air. Some of the builder's couldn't repress their laughter at the two's misfortune. Iruka shot the younger ninjas a pitying look before leaving the building through the door like a normal person. Kakashi, however, vanished in a puff of smoke as usual.
Inari waited for the smoke marking the jounin's exit to disperse before looking at Sasuke's bewildered face.
"Wow. Your sensei's really weird."
Sakura shook out of her gape and looked to Inari blearily.
"That's putting it lightly." she groaned.
Author's note: Sorry I'm late. Motivation escaped me like a prisoner from a top-security prison(violently and with the help of a riot or two).