A Better Place

A/N: Okay, first off - SORRY EVERYONE FOR TAKING SO LONG! I really didn't intend for it to take this long. x.x;; Fainting grandmas, weddings and Arabic studies kinda happened and suddenly weeks had passed! I'll try to keep up my frequency in updates from now though! So once again sorry and thank you for your patience and lovely reviews! Secondly... well no more nonsense! xD Here's your chapter! x3



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Genma hadn’t known what had hit him before it was too late and now almost a day later he was no longer making himself comfortable at Iruka’s couch, but instead laying in a hospital bed, right next to Kakashi’s. The silver-haired jounin had snickered constantly since he’d been taken into the room, but unfortunately Genma couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence after all that people got admitted to hospital over two tubes of wasabi, especially not a high ranking ninja such as himself. One moment he’d been comfortably resting on Kakashi’s favorite resting spot and the next he’d had two newly opened packages of the burning green paste splurting into his nostrils. Never in his wildest dreams had he anticipated such a move from the sensitive academy teacher and the man had hissed at him like some angry feline once done too. It was to say the least a shocking experience. And also noteworthy was that wasabi in your nose HURT way worse than most poisoned he’d been subjected to during missions and it had caused some sort of allergic reaction to him as well because now he lay here in hospital, his entire face red and puffy. The doctors had told him not to expect to be able to breathe through his nose the next couple of days at least. Damn, weren’t there balms or lotions for stuff like this?! It stung so badly, but the worst sting was to his ego. He’d been defeated by a chuunin, armed with two tubes of wasabi.



Kakashi could easily see the hilarity in the situation and was pleased with the company for once. It wasn’t Iruka, but it reminded him of why he was so fond of the man. He wasn’t as surprising as Naruto, but he was close second whenever he wanted. His use of wasabi had been certainly creative and it kind of pleased the tall man in a deep secret and for the most part subconscious spot within him that Genma had not been accepted where he had been. He really gloated in the fact that he was special as he continued to tease his colleague with another series of chuckles where he lay reading his dirty book. This morning it had been utterly boring, but suddenly it was pretty entertaining again. It could possibly be because that in between every dirty little scene his mind imagined the furious look on Iruka’s face as he emptied the two loads of wasabi into a very surprised Genma’s nose.



“It’s not funny,” Genma insisted even though the whole world knew that it indeed was. Even that pink-haired girl that used to be Kakashi’s student had walked in, unable to suppress laughter as she checked up on them. It was so utterly humiliating to have someone not even out of their teens yet laugh at him. He wanted to wring Iruka’s neck next time he saw him, but in all honesty he wasn’t so sure he dared. Damn that clever chuunin.



“You would’ve laughed too were you in my situation,” Kakashi calmly pointed out and turned a page, only absentmindedly paying attention to the text that his eyes swept over. He practically knew the book by heart now after all so it wasn’t all that necessary to actually read the few pages of plot. There was no reason by now to not just skip to the good parts – like the doggy-style scene on page 68. On the first read it had in fact given him a lecherous nosebleed.



“But had it been you, it would’ve been funny,” Genma tried, his voice fading into a mumble as he did know he was sounding utterly ridiculous. He could see Kakashi’s point as clearly as one can see the sun on a blue sky, but it really wasn’t funny. He was hospitalized for god’s sake! And he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to eat anything with wasabi in ever again which meant bye bye several of his favorite dishes. “Did he ever do anything to you or is this some personal issue?!”



The grey-haired nin nearly put down his book at that, but he wouldn’t give the other the satisfaction of that, but just continued talking over the top of the dirty pages.

“Nope~! Nothing ever,” he answered and only added in his head that that was nothing but long frustrated rants over what a lazy leech he was, but words were just words and a long shot from the two tubes of wasabi that Genma had been graced with. When compared to that Kakashi had actually been treaded quite lovingly. “He simply doesn’t like you, it seems.”



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Simultaneously in a completely different part of the village Iruka was dealing with the usual Friday issues – being a bunch of kids that wanted nothing more than to rush out and into a blissful weekend of just playing around and no studying. Academy students were unruly any day of the week, but Fridays their madness multiplied in dangerous amounts. Add to that that Iruka was also much more tired than any other day, having four intense days of teaching and mission desk duty behind him. Fridays really could be hell and having Konohamaru with his little squad going haywire with some stupid jutsu that Naruto had taught them before leaving was not soothing Iruka’s nerves. He stood before two options really, one being to retort to his usual yelling and the other hiding under the teacher’s desk to cry as this week had just been too much. The second option really felt like the most natural one at the moment, but in the end he settled for something in between the two different choices. With a whimper he collapsed into his chair and let his covered forehead fall down onto the top of the desk with a dull clonk as metal hit wood. Taking a deep breath he sat up again to plead to the students to stop making a mess out of the room. As Konohamaru used the infamous Sexy no Jutsu Iruka’s temper really tore free of all control though.



“EVERYONE BACK TO YOUR SEATS!” he yelled so loud that everyone on the entire floor must’ve heard him. “KONOHAMARU! GET BACK INTO A DRESSED STATE AND DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME ON SUCH STUPID SKILLS!!”



All the students yelped and hurried to do as told and the naked brunet quickly returned to his original form of the toothy grandson of the third, his shoulders slumping as he tried to make himself small back in his seat. Iruka really was unpleasant when angry and no one, but perhaps Naruto, had ever felt any desire to push him further when he was already ticked off. Well, Genma was obviously another example, but he’d gotten to take the brunt of his actions too and then there was Kakashi who just seemed to be a category on his own.



Kakashi. At the thought of the name Iruka spaced out without even noticing, leaving his students sitting quiet and wondering whatever madness was boiling in their teacher’s head, believing he was still angry and not done with yelling at them yet. It wasn’t uncommon that he punished them with surprise tests after all so they all sat expecting the worst while the chuunin wasn’t mentally present at all. His mind was reeling with questions such as how was the man doing, what was he doing and ultimately he came to wonder something he’d never gotten a straight answer to – why had Kakashi started coming to his place all the time?! Once the question had entered his mind, it refused to leave and before long Iruka groaned out loud and hit his head against the desk. First when Moegi hesitantly opened her mouth to speak did he remember he still had a class to hold.



“Iruka-sensei…?” the girl asked carefully and there was a hint of worry in her voice. None of the kids had seen their teacher act quite like this after all and they were seriously worried that perhaps they had gone too far before. Despite being unruly, they really loved their teacher and didn’t want to make him this upset.



“I’m sorry,” the man hurried to apologize for his strange behavior and rubbed the scar leaping across his face as he tried to compose himself. Zoning out slightly again, he had a look at the clock and realized that it wasn’t that much left of the school day. He guessed he could do a compromise. “I’ll send you home a bit early today with some homework. I want you to go out and find three different herbs that can be used for making either poisons or for medical purposes and then write half a page on each, describing how to recognize them and what their usage is. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”



Waving his hand in dismissal, Iruka’s shoulders sagged and he didn’t even look up at the students that sent him worried glances as they quietly exited the room. A bit further down the hall however their teacher was soon forgotten and they broke out in cheers and chattering as they ran out into the bright sunshine falling down over Konoha this day.



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Thankfully it seemed to be a very calm day at the hospital. Having had a bit of a break from her duties up in the hokage tower, Tsunade had gone down there to make her personal inspection on Kakashi’s leg, channeling some chakra into the damaged tendon again to further spurt the healing. On the way she’d found all wards in order and entering the lazy jounin’s room, she’d gotten herself a good laugh at his new roommate. First of all Genma looked like shit, all puffy like a pig and secondly… well the reason behind the weird swelling was just too hilarious. She promised herself to treat the poor chuunin to sake next time she saw him to appraise his creative use of wasabi. She’d never be able to quite look at the green paste the same way ever again.



“It’s not funny!” Genma repeated himself as she walked out of the room, but it was no use. She was already laughing so bad she was crying and no threat in the world was going to make her stop and him pouting with that puffed up face didn’t make him any less amusing. Walking down the corridor however, the bolts of laughter faded into small chuckles that only she knew the origin of and no one asked as she walked passed, but simply hurried to show their respect by lowering their heads in brief gestures. As she reached the main entrance of the hospital however, the chuckles ceased entirely and she got all new thoughts on her head. There, inquiring the nurse behind the information desk about something, stood none other than her new favorite academy teacher. There was a nervous flicker of his gaze, but not in her direction and he spoke in a hushed tone and fiddled with his feet. It was obvious he was at discomfort for some reason Tsunade couldn’t figure out without asking.



“Hey, Iruka,” she called out to him and with a grin to rival Naruto’s when he was at his worst, she stepped up to him, arms crossed and eyes playful. That certainly didn’t help the man feel more comfortable. Even the nurse at the information desk felt uncomfortable with the look on the hokage’s face, even though it wasn’t directed on her and Iruka now had that grin mere inches from his own face that was rapidly growing pale.



“What?” he asked and swallowed dryly, not sure he really wanted to know how come Tsunade could smile so devilishly at him. It was undeniably rather creepy. She soon enough clarified that she had heard about the wasabi and he hurried to hide his blushing face in the palms of his hands. Genma had deserved it, but it was still kind of embarrassing. “Don’t remind me. That’s not why I came here.”



“You came to visit Kakashi?” Tsunade assumed at that as the man seemed to be in perfect health himself, save for maybe a bit tired, but that alone was no reason to visit the hospital. Iruka squirmed uncomfortably at that and the godaime couldn’t help but quirk a curious brow. Now this was interesting.



“No…,” Iruka denied having had in mind to actually visit the jounin, suddenly feeling very embarrassed about being here at all. Was he really that see-through? Well, maybe it was only natural to come visit the very person you had helped get into hospital after all (though that gave him more reason to visit Genma rather than Kakashi, but he really didn’t want to see any more of the senbon man). “No, I just…”



Having started the sentence, the academy teacher stopped dead as he realized he actually had no idea of what other reason to give. He had come here to have a talk with Kakashi after all, but every time that he came this far he just chickened out for no explainable reason. Why was it so hard to just go see the man?!



“Just what?” Tsunade inquired, trying not to let the slight tugging at the corner of her lips win to give away how amused she was by this. Could it be that Iruka was closet gay? It would explain why he was single, despite all the attention he got from the women of the village. His friendly character had gained him quite a fanclub after all, but he’d always acted oblivious to it. Now Tsunade was seriously beginning to suspect that it was because he just wasn’t interested. She was so making a bet with Shizune about this once she got back to the tower.



“I was just… wondering when he’ll be discharged,” Iruka ultimately pressed out and it wasn’t all untrue. He did wonder that, but it was of course not the reason he’d come all the way here before heading for his mission desk duty. Fortunately he wasn’t aware of that the village leader was laughing menacingly in her head at that, already plotting wildly to increase her chances in the bet that her assistant had yet to accept.



“I would discharge him any day now if I just trusted him to take care of himself,” the busty woman admitted and crossed her arms. She had to play her cards nicely now so Iruka just couldn’t say no. “You don’t think you could keep an extra eye on him? You’re good with children after all and he can be quite childish about stuff, as you might have noticed. I would relieve you of mission desk duty of course if you accepted this extra work.”



Iruka’s eyes opened wide in response to the request, but as she continued his pose sagged together a bit and his gaze locked on an empty spot on the floor as he obviously contemplated whether to agree or not. To stress him a little, Tsunade hummed questioningly and watched as the man’s lip drew into a thin line. After a breathtaking second there was a slight nod and Tsunade cheered inwardly, while on the outside she only feigned mild relief.



“Thank you! That’s of great help!” she let out and let a hand heavily pat the tired teacher’s shoulder. “I can have him discharged by tomorrow then, so tonight will be your last mission desk duty in a couple of months!”



The Hokage chirped out her words, but Iruka just stood there wondering what on earth he had thrown himself into now. Tsunade hadn’t even specified exactly what keeping an extra eye on Kakashi entailed. It honestly could mean anything, but before he got a chance to ask her, the gambling-loving woman was already gone, leaving him in a groaning state. To quote Shikamaru – how troublesome.