Use Your Words

"Are you sure you don't want to join us for karaoke, Iruka-sensei?" Sakura called out, trailing behind the large group of revelers migrating from Naruto's wedding reception to the after-party.

Iruka smiled at his former student and shook his head. "No, I'd hate to subject you all to my terrible singing. You kids have fun!"

The younger kunoichi waved her goodbyes as she hurried to catch up with her friends. Iruka sighed as he watched them head off into the evening, their happy voices recalling sounds of schoolyard antics at the Academy years ago.

A deep voice behind him suddenly pulled Iruka from his reminiscence. "You don't have a terrible singing voice, you know."

"I know, but I'm too old to be going out with a bunch of drunken twenty-year-olds. It's exhausting to even think about," Iruka replied, slowly turning to address Kakashi. The reigning Hokage looked more relaxed than Iruka had seen him in a long time, perhaps a side-effect of being out of uniform for once.

Kakashi smiled under his mask. "Fair enough. But it's still too early to go home, even for old men like us." He paused a moment, giving Iruka a look that he was not sure how to interpret. "Care to go get a drink?"

Iruka looked around, noticing for the first time that most of the other wedding attendees had already departed. "Just the two of us?" he asked, narrowing his eyes in hesitation. It was not often that Kakashi sought Iruka out for one-on-one interactions in recent years, particularly those of a social nature, and almost all of such meetings ended in Kakashi asking either a personal or professional favor of Iruka.

"If you don't mind," the other man responded with a shrug, hands in his pockets and not bothered at all by the note of suspicion in Iruka's tone. Glancing over his shoulder, he added, "Although I think Tsunade is rounding up a few poor souls to drink with her if you'd rather join them."

Suppressing a shudder, Iruka shook his head. He had been suckered into tagging along on far too many of the former Hokage's benders to voluntarily participate in another. Putting aside his misgivings about Kakashi's possible motives, Iruka said, "We should get out of here while we still have a chance."

"You read my mind," Kakashi replied, ushering Iruka to follow him toward the center of town.

Iruka let Kakashi lead them through the streets of Konoha, curious where the other man was headed, but willing to simply stroll along. At this hour, the village was like a ghost town--most businesses were closed and only a few restaurants and bars catering to the late-night crowd still had lanterns alight to welcome customers. 

Kakashi stopped in front of one such establishment and gestured for Iruka to enter ahead of him. Iruka raised an eyebrow at Kakashi's choice but ducked under the short curtains in the doorway nonetheless. After walking outside in the dark it did not take long for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting of the small pub, which was mostly vacant aside from the bartender and two other groups of diners. There was no hostess to speak of, so Iruka picked a table far enough away from the other patrons to allow them some privacy.

"I'm surprised you wanted to come here," Iruka said, sliding into one of the small booths in a secluded corner. He took the seat with his back to the door out of habit, a concession to Kakashi's paranoia.

Kakashi gave him a puzzled look. "I thought you liked this place."

"I do," Iruka replied. "But you don't."

"I don't dislike it," Kakashi answered, looking around the room appraisingly. "It just seems inauthentic. It lacks the atmosphere a bar should have."

Iruka rolled his eyes. "Just because it's quiet and has clean bathrooms doesn't mean it's 'inauthentic.' Not every bar has to be a dive."