𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴

19 - Gai, Iruka

—last chapter

"I almost died because of you bakashi!"

"is it my fault you're that dumb," He said, landing down beside us. Itachi greeted him to which he just eye smiled.

"pack some formal dresses with you, we will have to attend some luxurious parties there."

◍

-lovelife of Ms Namikaze-

~•━━━  🧸🍭🦋  ━━━•~

I stared faraway into forest after the huge lake infront of us. The trees rustled with the birds bickering in the background. I lied down onto the edgy grass where Itachi was sitting on a hand away distance from me.

"I hope the decision that you made would benefit you," After conversing for some time, I knew it wouldn't be nice of me to still insist him to not work under that man.

"I will miss working with you though," I said, with a gentle smile as we both looked into each other's eyes. He shy away his eyes from me and hummed a reply back.

"There will be a huge emptiness in me. Missions were never tiresome with you. You're a very elegant woman, I hope you find true happiness soon," I laughed at his jest to soon realize he wasn't joking.

"it seemed like we were breaking up," I said getting up on my elbow to look at him. "haha, I would have never broken up with you if we were ever together." His words started to feel like a confession.

The dusk was blanketing over the blue sky gradually, indicating my time was over. I dusted myself off after getting up and waited for him. "I should give a farewell gift to you, don't you think? Tell me! what do you like to eat or any specific item you want? name it and I will bring it to you from the village we are going to!" I said, enthusiastically.

He seemed to read my smile carefully and hummed,"Bring me red and pink camellias."

~

"MY BEST FRIENDO!!" Gai said putting his arms around Kakashi, almost choking him.

"why is Gai here-" Kakashi asked as I stood there in complete relief. Gai happened to get back from his mission early on and the third kept his word of keeping me away from missions for Naruto's sake.

"Some time with my rival sounds great!" Kakashi sheepishly laughed and tried to calm Gai's sudden rush of adrenaline. The third smiled at me, I bowed and thanked him.

I felt a little sadness creeping in as I watched the two spoke. Mostly Gai challenging in every step they were going to take in the mission. They will be departing after dinner.

The entire mission was about attending an auction which was organized by on the run thieves of Konoha. The main purpose was to retrieve the stolen valuable items and get the criminals back to village.

The three of us went to grab a ice cream in per Gai's request where we coincidentally met Iruka and Naruto. "Oh! y/n-san! You were on a mission, na?" Naruto said, running upto me and taking a sit beside on the bench.

"I ain't going anymore, guess who's returning home," I said ruffling his hair. He fixed his hair and handed me the ice cream to open it for him. Iruka sat down and took a brief look at me.

I felt sorry for not apologizing for that day. I nervously laughed and he sighed with a smile. "I forgive you," He said, turning to look at my guilty face.

Naruto excitedly took the ice cream from me and chomped onto it, getting a brain freeze on the way. "AAAAAA!!" He held onto his head, making the two of us laugh. "it's not funny!" He glared. We both pinched his cheeks, making him shook his head and sit back comfortably. He now slowed down his pace and ate gently.

"He sure is a ball of joy. Lucky you, I bet his presence makes you feel much elated." Can't argue on that, he did make me feel alot better. My entire world now somehow revolves around his happiness.

"are they done yet or what?" I asked, wondering what those two might be doing. "probably fighting over who gets the last lemon blast. There was only one remaining,"

"I want that too," I frowned. Naruto was done with his ice cream and wanted something more to eat. I handed him some money which made his grin to get wide. He ran inside the store, leaving only Iruka and me outside alone under the street lamps light.

"They will be leaving after dinner right?" Iruka asked, checking the time on his watch. "They got some more time to kill here, I wonder if they will stop any sooner." I smiled, sighing at the end.

The low lying ground village infront of us with twinkling lights made the night so beautiful. Far away songs from different stores with calls from the shop keepers to attract the customer made a homely environment, this  is comforting. Late autumn was coming to an end and the decrease in temperature was slowly sensed by my skin as I shivered.

"it's really cold and well quiet around here compared to the main village," I hummed back as a response. This store had the most extravagant options of newly bought ice creams that's why people often visited up here. Not to mention the calmness one experiences when up here.

"you and Kakashi have some grown distance among you two, may I ask why is that?" Iruka questioned. I didn't have to cover myself up infront of him so I decided to have the talk with him.

"I heard you two talking about me back at the restaurant that day. I didn't know I was nothing to him but a reason for him to remember Minato. I thought it would be better if I maintained my distance and not get any personal feelings meddle into this-"

"..it wasn't the case like what it seems like y/n," Iruka fell in a soft chuckle. "...excuse me what?" I asked in pure confusion.

"We were trying to be real by saying the exact opposite of what we felt that day. We didn't wanted to make ourselves feel like we are over sharing so we did share but by saying the flip side of what we meant that day,"