Akari Uchiha

Ch. 79 What Mission Report?

It was early in the morning, several birds were happily chirping on the newly grown trees thanks to a certain wood style user. Everything was peaceful and quiet-

"He is so annoying."

That was Iruka sensei's tenth time repeating that.

Guess who he was talking about?

Akari sighed. How did she even end up between this lover's quarrel? (Yes she still shipped her master with Iruka sensei. Even though she was assured that that ship had sunk when Scarecrow sensei completely screwed it up multiple times, she could still see hope for it when they quarreled like old married couples.)

Oh. Snake sensei won't let her have her dango unless she bought them herself. That's how.

Akari had gotten like ten minutes with Maki and Matsuri the previous day before the two were summoned by Shikamaru-san to report to the village council. The two of them said they had to report again that morning too. So they finally agreed to meet over lunch that day.

"If he can be that nice with words when required then I just don't understand why he chooses not to most of the times," Iruka continued, blowing out a sigh, placing his lemonade glass on the table as he slumped his shoulders, defeated. 

"I agree," Akari said, munching on her dango that she had just bought. 

Anko sensei was the reason her and Haru developed a taste for it. The duo was infamous for bothering jonin masters to treat them to food, saying they 'work better with a reward system'. And with Anko it was either dango or nothing.

Akari found it unfair, before she realized that she quiet liked the taste. Not that either her or Haru would ever admit it in front of Anko.

"Right!?" Iruka exclaimed raising his hands in exasperation. "One second he's all laid back and annoying, and then you make one mistake, and now he's all cold and strict. He doesn't even need to get down to punishments. He can make grown men want to cry with just words. I'd know," Iruka grumbled before letting out a dramatic sniffle.

Akari giggled at his antics before patting his back.

She was sure Iruka sensei was going through... something, because there weren't many times she saw the usually respectful chunin teacher act so... childishly? 

And it wasn't even about his never ending rants about Scarecrow sensei being a jerk, no.

Akari collected bits and pieces of information before connecting the dots about why Scarecrow sensei had been grilling Iruka sensei the last time she had seen them.

Taking a mission without jonin supervision was a huge deal in itself, specially for chunin who usually didn't work on field, like Iruka sensei. 

And taking that mission while being assigned under a jonin for a separate mission which you backed out of last minute faking sickness, and despite being warned to stay in the village by the said jonin, was mutiny against direct orders.

And mutiny against direct orders given by a jonin, when the jonin was Hatake Kakashi, was just plain stupidity. 

Iruka sensei had gone from recklessness to mutiny to clean stupidity within the span of the one week right after Pein's attack. And Iruka sensei was anything but stupid. 

It made her wonder if something happened during the attack.

"And that is after he wears a mask," Iruka continued, breaking her train of thoughts. "I'm sure that's why he wears it! To filter out his harsh wordings or something. If that's how harsh he can get with a filter then without the mask... he'd end up killing someone. By just talking," the chunin instructor shuddered.