Iruka rubbed his aching head and wondered bleakly if he was going to make it to closing time.
The Hokage, seated in her usual spot (or unusual; it wasn’t that likely that she was actually in the mission office these days), gave him a concerned look. “Are you feeling well, Iruka?”
“I’m fine, Lady Hokage.” Not fine. But there wasn’t anything that the Hokage could do.
He absently sorted the pile of mission scrolls in front of him, frowning. He knew he shouldn’t take it so hard, but…
But the constant, irritating, demeaning behavior of the jounins in the village towards him was starting to take its toll.
They didn’t quite dare to pull their crap when the Hokage was around; when she was gone, it was a different story. Pet names, insinuating comments, dismissive looks, snide jokes…they never stopped. And while Iruka was a pretty even-tempered man (usually…) he was starting to get pissed off.
The Hokage gave him another look and then sighed. “Alright. Looks like you’ve got it handled here. I have some work to do in my office. You need me, just come get me.”
“Yes, Lady Hokage.” Iruka finished his pile and looked at his hands. Having her around might stop it for a while, but it only made it worse later. Hokage’s pet. Puppy. And some much worse, ones that Tsunade would probably kill the jounins for. Of course, she does that and I’ll get some new nicknames, he thought sourly. Tattletale? Squealer?
He sighed. No help.
He heard the Hokage greet someone as she left and glanced up. His headache immediately got worse.
Genma, who seemed to take such delight in tormenting him, was standing in the doorway smirking at him. Behind him, giving him flat, bland looks, Shikaku and Ebisu stepped through the door.
Oh, just what I needed. Iruka pretended to ignore them, uselessly re-sorting the piles in front of him to give his hands something to do.
The door chimed again. The trio of jounin stepped out of the way to admit team 7.
Naruto grinned to see his sensei; Iruka forced himself to smile back like everything was fine. “Iruka-sensei! Guess what?”
“What?” Iruka asked.
“I took out seventeen bandits!” Naruto screeched, clearly over-excited. “Isn’t that cool?”
“Idiot.” Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest. “That was an accident.”
“Yah, Naruto.” Sakura glared at the yellow-haired boy. “You got tossed out of the way and just happened to hit that boulder, making the whole wall fall. You didn’t mean to do it. It doesn’t count.”
“Does too!” Naruto glared back at Sakura. “I did it, so it counts!”
Despite himself, Iruka found himself chuckling. “Actually, Naruto, I don’t think it does. Accidents shouldn’t be counted.”
“Awwwwww!” Naruto whined. Sasuke looked smug.
“How many do you have now, Naruto? Not counting these.” When Naruto had first told him about the “kill total” contest, Iruka had been horrified. But when Naruto explained that knock outs counted for kills, he relaxed.
“Uhm…” Naruto frowned. “Thirty-eight.”
“I’ve got forty.” Sasuke looked, if possible, even smugger. “Still behind, idiot.”
“And you, Sakura?” Iruka asked.
Sakura blushed and mumbled “Eleven.”
“Are we getting ramen today?” Naruto interrupted. Iruka sighed and shook his head.
“Not today, Naruto. I’m stuck here until late, and then I’ve got a billion papers to grade. Tomorrow for lunch, if it won’t interfere with your training.”
“Alright!” Naruto punched the air.
“You two are invited too.” It would be nice to have a few people around him that didn’t hate him. Sasuke gave him a blank look but Sakura grinned, nodding.
“Time to go.” Sasuke said coolly. “We need to train some more. Some idiot keeps getting his feet tangled in each other.”
“WHAAAT?” Naruto glared at Sasuke. Sighing, Sakura waved goodbye to Iruka and pushed the boys out the door.
“Hmm. Kakashi’s training them pretty hard. What do you think, Iruka-sensei?” Genma smirked and flicked his senbon. “Have any sage advice for a poor little jounin?”
Iruka flushed and took deep breaths. He ignored the question, picking up the mission report and standing to take it to the filing room.
Genma suddenly was in front of him. “I asked you a question, Iruka-sensei. And when a jounin asks a chuunin a question, he expects an answer.”
Iruka stared at Genma. Finally, he gritted out “No.”
“No? Really? Because you’re usually so full of good advice on how we should train our teams. I’m surprised you don’t start handing out advice about everything else. Want to critique my workout? How about my fashion sense?”
Ebisu laughed nastily and Shikaku snorted. Iruka noticed with growing unease that Shikaku and Ebisu had moved to stand behind him, effectively trapping him in a ring of jounin.
Not just any jounin; Ebisu and Genma were Special Jounin. Shikaku was probably in their range. Iruka felt his back stiffen.
Genma flicked his senbon lazily. “How about it, Iruka?”
Iruka snapped. He shoved Genma away from him and sprang over the desk, landing lightly and spinning around to face the jounin trio.
They stared at him in surprise. Finally, Genma rolled his senbon across his lips and gave Iruka a slow, wicked look. “My, my. The little chuunin has some balls after all. But you hit me. Can’t have that.”
Iruka fought to keep his stomach still. “Bite me, Genma.” He put as much heat into that as he could manage.
The trio laughed uproariously. “Huh. Iruka-sensei, that’s a challenge. What say we meet on the practice field…”
“…tonight.” Shikaku crossed his arms over his chest, looking highly amused. “Late, or someone might get pissed that we’re bruising her favorite little puppy.”
Iruka flushed. “Fine.” He grated out. “I’ll be there. Just you and me, Genma. The rest of you bastards stay out of it.”
“As if that’ll help.” Ebisu reached up and pushed his glasses back, snickering.
Iruka realized he still had the file in his hand. Giving the three jounin his best cold stare, he turned and stalked into the filing room.
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Story notes: I'm sick. I have a lot of time on my hands. What better way to pass the time then by writing Naruto stories? n.n
Chapter notes: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter end notes: Hey. u.u I've got 40 reads and no reviews...*sigh* I guess that means no one liked it? I'd like to hear from you, either way. Review? Good or bad, it's feedback I'm after! *BEGS*