Those Little Moments (Hatake Kakashi)

21

I saw no sign of Kakashi for two days. Guy told me he was confused and just being stupid, but it didn't matter unless it came from him. I would be staying at Kurenai's for at least another month due to not being able to afford to buy a bed to bring to Naruto's place; with everything going on I'd forgotten I even needed money, Kakashi had always left some out for groceries.

On the first day, the morning was spent with Naruto, helping him clean up his apartment again and this time managing to somehow convince him to do some of the chores himself, though he didn't like that. In the afternoon, I was called to the Hokage's office to discuss my coming back to work.

"Emiko, since there is still the worry of you being taken again, I won't be sending you on any missions without at least a jonin accompanying you. For now, your main job will be to be an assistant teacher at the Academy, I've asked Iruka to explain the curriculum and such to you before you start." the Hokage said, and I was dismissed, accompanied by a young man, probably near my age.

"You're Iruka, right?" I asked. When he nodded, I continued. "Naruto told me about you. Thanks for taking care of him."

The man rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "It wasn't a big deal, really. No need to thank me."

I punched his shoulder gently. "Of course there is. Naruto is my precious nephew, and you took him in, so I'm grateful. Hey! You should come over and eat dinner with us, to pay you back for taking Naruto out for ramen so often."

"I wouldn't wanna intrude, it's been no problem, really." Iruka tried again, but I was having none of it.

"Of course not, it would be nice to have you."

Iruka finally agreed, tired of my pestering, when we were already almost at the academy. First, he showed me where my classroom would be, where I would be co-teaching with him until the Hokage figured out what to do with me. Iruka gave me a paper copy of the yearly curriculum and explained that I would be in charge of basically tutoring the worsts in the class so the rest of the students wouldn't have to wait for them to catch up.

As someone who liked kids, though I wasn't particularly close to any other than Naruto, it seemed like a decently fun temporary job, and I liked Iruka from my first impression of him. I especially liked how excited Naruto was when we both showed up for dinner with him.

"Iruka-sensei?! What are you doing with my oba-chan?" Naruto exclaimed.

"She invited me to have dinner with you guys. I hope that's alright." Iruka explained.

I nodded, smiling as I ruffled his hair. "I thought it would be nice for you to get a proper family dinner." Iruka seemed shocked that I included him as family, but Naruto was grinning through misty eyes.

"Really?!" 

I hummed in response, pulling Naruto into the apartment with me and frowning at the mess he'd already made since the morning. "You boys clean up those empty ramen containers while I get started on dinner."

Naruto whined, but Iruka quickly got him kicked in gear. It seemed he was better than me at getting Naruto to start doing chores.

Within a half hour, the dinner, which was a chicken curry, was served and the three of us were ready to eat. 

"So, Naruto, what'd you do today?" I asked, replicating what my parents had once asked me every night at dinner.

Naruto sweatdropped, before grinning. "We just had a D-rank mission. But, next time, I'm gonna beat Sasuke and I'll have to rescue him! Believe it!"

I chuckled, pulling him into a tight hug, and Iruka laughed as Naruto whined about being treated like a kid, though he didn't push me away.  "I do believe it. I heard you've improved a lot since that last mission."

"Oh yeah, Kakashi-sensei told me all about that, he said you've improved the most, you know" Iruka commented, grinning proudly at the boy.

 I winced at the name, and my smile faltered, though I faked it as best I could. Naruto noticed my arms loosen, and announced, "Oh yeah, Iruka-sensei, maybe don't bring Kakashi-sensei up, oba-chan has some drama going on with him."

I sweatdropped. Drama? "Don't make it sound like such a big thing, Naruto, we're not teenagers, we're handling it appropriately."

"Huh?! But you slapped him in the face and chained him up in an alley for two hours. Everyone's talking about it." Naruto remarked. Iruka raised an eyebrow at me and I chuckled awkwardly.

"Believe it or not, that was appropriate." I think, at least. If even Naruto, who's the most immature kid I knew, thought it was an overreaction, maybe I was being dramatic. Thinking about it, my initial reaction may have been a bit much before hearing his explanation, but when he couldn't even tell me if we were friends, that deserved just as much as I'd given him. How could it be so difficult to just say I was his friend? The jerk was actually debating it, he didn't even know! After everything that had happened, he didn't even know if I was his friend.

"Anyways, let's keep talking about you, Naruto. What's your next mission?"

Naruto agreed vehemently and began talking once more about his own achievements, though I saw Iruka's expression remain concerned throughout the evening.

When we had all finished dinner and cleaned the dishes (which I again forced Naruto to help with), Iruka and I both started to head out. Just as I was about to split paths with him to go to Kurenai's house, he stopped me, grabbing my arm gently.

"Hey, you know, I did hear about everything with Kakashi. Naruto wasn't kidding when he said people are talking about it. Are you ok?" His brown eyes looked at me concernedly, and I hesitated, almost saying I was fine.

"I'll be fine. It hurt a lot that he thought so little of me, and even more that he doesn't even consider me a friend, but I have other friends. I'll get over it." I shrugged, smiling.

"It's bad to lie, you know, Emiko? Even to yourself." Iruka chastised.

I scoffed. "Well, whether it's true or false, I have to get over him either way, don't I? If he doesn't care about me, there's not point in wasting my time trying to force him to be my friend."

Iruka fell silent for a few moments, then decided to ask, "Feel like grabbing a drink? I don't mind listening if you wanna vent longer."

I smiled gently, then nodded. "That's really nice, thanks, Iruka."

The two of us headed off to the bar, so I could drown my sorrows in alcohol.