Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Indecent Exposure ~ A Naruto Fan-Fic (K/I) ❯ Chapter 4

Indecent Exposure

A 'Naruto' fan-fiction by Ookami Kasumi

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~ Four ~

 

After visiting the tiny storefront clinic to set up a deep-tissue, massage appointment for the following day, and the next four Saturdays in a row, Iruka went around the corner to his apartment building. He climbed the stairs to his door far more easily than he'd gone down them that morning.

 

After closing and locking his front door, he kicked off his sandals in his front alcove, padded the three steps up the hall, then stepped to the left into his tiny kitchen. A nice breeze whispered through his wire-trapped kitchen window over the sink. He still had grocery shopping to do, so his lunch was simple meal of canned salmon and rice.

 

While eating, he penned a letter to Anko-chan, openly begging her to find someone compatible for Genma. Keeping it coldly professional as though writing a mission report, he sketched out the man's preferences and his level of skill. Genma was actually very good at what he did. It was just that it wasn't to Iruka's taste -- at all.

 

When the letter was done, he folded it, melted a dollop of wax on the folds, and mashed his personal seal into the wax. His hands flashed through a couple of quick signs. With a small poof, the letter was gone, hopefully to appear in a certain blue dish etched with dolphins that sat on Anko's dresser.

 

That done, Iruka washed the lunch dishes, and moved into the bedroom to spend an awful lot of his less-than-plentiful chakra energy in front of his closet mirror, in the nude. Happily, being perched on his kitchen chair in extremely inconvenient positions actually worked out a few kinks in his back. Four exhausting hours later, the highly recognizable finger bruises were gone.

 

In celebration, he decided to visit the public baths for a relaxing, and therapeutic, soak. However, rather than sit on a tiny stool in a huge open washroom to scrub down right in front of everybody -- one did not bathe in the baths -- he scrubbed down in his own small shower. Not in the mood to climb back into his uniform, he pulled on some khaki cargo pants and a short-sleeved, cream linen, button-down shirt that he didn't bother to tuck in.

 

Iruka locked his apartment and stepped onto the lamp-lit, early evening streets with his hair loose and damp about his shoulders, and a smile on his lips. He hadn't quite recovered from the insanity of the night before, but he was getting there.

 

The early summer night was warm and breezy enough to swing the long strings of colored lights that hung from just about every roof-edge. It was the perfect night for a walk.

 

Once Iruka reached Konoha's Main Street, it was apparent that he wasn't the only one who'd thought so. The broad thoroughfare was crowded with civilian foot-traffic and bicycle. A look up showed that the roofs were almost as busy with hopping ninja traffic. The sidewalk cafes and restaurants were doing brisk business, ninja and civilians eating and drinking side by side.

 

Iruka waved and smiled at passing students, ex-students, the parents of students, fellow instructors, and fellow ninja. He even got a wave from the blonde and busty village Hokage, Tsunade who was sitting back under a café awning sharing paperwork and a bottle of sake with her dark-haired assistant Shizune.

 

Iruka arrived at the monstrous four-storey bath house, complete with gigantic waterwheel, feeling very much at peace.

 

After a brief conversation with the bath house hostess, his clothes and shoes were tucked in a basket and shelved in favor of a simple gray robe, rubber flip-flops, and a towel. He walked down the polished wood hallway and onto sanded wooden walkway of the outdoor, salt bath to find it completely unoccupied. He had it all to himself.

 

Iruka smiled. Good. He slid the white towel from his hips, then stepped naked into the steaming, white water. His feet broke out in pins and needles, but the heat soaked upward and began unknotting the tension in his calves. He strode strongly for the deeper end. The water climbed up his body and the heat burrowed into his muscles, loosening them almost on contact. He sighed from sheer relief.

 

At the farthest edge of the bath, he found a suitable stone to sit against and sank to his neck. His arms and shoulders unknotted so fast, his head went light. He tipped his head back and groaned up at the stars. "Gods, this feels so good."

 

There was an echoing masculine groan. "Why yes it does."

 

Startled, Iruka turned toward the voice.

 

A mere arm's length away, Maito Gai was sunken to the neck and half-hidden behind a tall stone. Only his shiny black, bowl-cut hair and rugged face were above the water's surface. He opened one dark eye and smiled.

 

Iruka rose to his feet. "Sorry to disturb you, Gai-sensei."

 

"Not at all, Iruka-sensei." Gai's speech was almost lethargic, and not nearly as loud as Iruka was accustomed to hearing from the jounin. Gai lifted one powerfully muscled arm above the water and waved his hand negligently. "Sit, sit. Clearly, your body needs the youth-rejuvenating soak."

 

Iruka sat. "I could definitely use the...rejuvenating."

 

Gai closed his eye. "Training hard, Iruka-sensei?"

 

Iruka snuggled into the blissful water. "Just returned from a mission, actually."

 

Both of Gai's eyes opened. "Oh? You do missions in addition to instructing our village's tender youth?"

 

Iruka chuckled. Youthful they might be but tender? His thirty little pranksters could be more vicious than the jounin. He was more likely to come away from the classroom damaged than they were. "Yes, Gai-sensei, I do missions too, just like every other able-bodied ninja, just not many."

 

"Ah...

 

Iruka suddenly realized that this was the perfect opportunity to ask the jounin's opinion. "Say, Gai-sensei, may I ask your advice on endurance-training?"

 

Gai's eyes popped open and he turned to face Iruka with an enormous smile, the water still up around his neck. "By all means! Ask away!"

 

Iruka nodded. "I was wondering if arm and leg weights during my morning roof and tree jog would increase my traveling endurance, and what you might recommend for a light-weight like myself?"

 

Gai's smile reached epic proportions, stretching the skin of Gai's cheeks practically to the point of splitting from the sheer amount of teeth exposed. "Well now Iruka-sensei that is a very good question! Allow me to answer it for you!" And he did, for the next full hour.

 

All Iruka had to do was smile and nod in the appropriate places.

 

Gai's extensive lecture on endurance training eventually wound down, and the two of them left the water to put on their robes.

 

Standing beside the gigantic, and nude, hand-to-hand specialist, Iruka suddenly felt rather underdeveloped, not to mention dwarfed.

 

The jounin frowned down at him. "I see what you mean, Iruka-sensei. You're musculature is nicely developed, but not in the right places for endurance."

 

Iruka blinked up at him. He examined my muscle-structure just like that? Okay... He smiled and slid into his robe. "What do you suggest?"

 

During the walk back to the dressing rooms, the time it took to dress -- Gai had actually worn jeans and a simple green t-shirt rather than his signature spandex -- and on the long walk back through town, Gai had many, many suggestions. Arm and leg weights were right at the top of his list, but right below that were some rather odd exercises, which included deep-breathing training. "To build up lung capacity."

 

Iruka went to bed early that night deliciously relaxed, but with an awful lot on his mind.

 

However, his very last thought before he slid into sleep was that he hadn't seen Kakashi at all that day. Accompanying that thought was a vague sense of...disappointment.

 

~ * ~

 

The following day was spent doing ordinary things.

 

It began with slipping out his living room window in his gray sweats, for a rather painful jog around the town, across rooftops and treetops. His body was still not happy with him. He returned for breakfast and a quick rinsing shower. After cleaning up the breakfast dishes, and putting in a load of laundry, he went shopping for groceries, ninja supplies -- one can never have enough mono-filament wire, and the leg and arm weights Gai-sensei had recommended. Home again, he ate some soup for lunch, took another shower, got dressed, then went out to the corner clinic for his massage appointment.

 

Heading home after his appointment, he groaned in relief from some of his more nagging aches while lamenting over new ones. The early evening was spent doing general house cleaning and the rest of his laundry, then going over his lesson plan. The summer exams were only a week away and he needed to find an incentive to get the mini monsters to actually study.

 

He went to bed with life roughly back in order, but fell asleep wondering why he still hadn't seen even a glimpse of Kakashi. Had they sent him out on another mission already?

 

~ * ~

 

The next day began with his alarm clock. Gai-sensei had advised waiting three days to start the weights, so his morning jog was weight free. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it had the day before, so his massage therapy was clearly working.

 

After a quick shower, breakfast was rice, fish, and miso soup. He filled his bento lunch box -- lots of protein, very few carbohydrates -- then went to put on a clean and pressed standard black uniform. His fingers moving swiftly, he strapped his shuriken pouch to his thigh and concealed among his clothes many, many, many senbon needles, his slender throwing blades, and a few kunai knives. He tied his hair back into its customary tail, knotted his forehead protector across his brow, and headed for the door.

 

After strapping on his standard issue ninja sandals, he slid into his green flack-jacket, strapped his leather supplies kit around his hips, the pouch at the small of his back, then shouldered his book back and took off for the rooftops to begin his day teaching class.

 

Teaching thirty-odd half-pint, grade-school ninjas was a lot like herding cats. They only behaved under threat of extreme embarrassment -- such as a public spanking in front of ALL their friends, or wearing an illusion that made them appear as the opposite gender for a whole day, and they only studied what they wanted to know. The trick to getting them to follow the lesson plan was convincing them that they wanted to know what he needed to teach them.

 

After transforming into a tree, a cat, a horse, a dog, the Hokage Tsunade, the Hatake, Kakashi, the Maito, Gai, the Sarutobi, Konohamaru, the Uzamaki, Naruto, a cute and busty teenaged movie star, and a potted geranium -- they were rabid to know how he did it. That the henge illusion was on the graduation exam to become a genin was entirely beside the point.

 

However, he would not teach ANYONE how he did it, if they did not ALL pass their exams the following week before the start of Summer Vacation. If they did pass their exams, he would spend the entire following Saturday, the first day of Summer Vacation, in the school playground teaching anyone who cared to know.

 

Helping -- or making -- their fellow students study to pass the exams was perfectly okay with him.

 

The classroom erupted with screamed out threats of violence and embarrassment toward their fellow classmates if they failed the exam and lost them the opportunity to learn the coolest trick since explosion tags.

 

In the center of the mayhem, the little dark-haired Hyuuga, Hanabi raised her hand, her pale eyes practically glaring at him.

 

Iruka's brows lifted. What the...? "Yes?"

 

She stood up. "Don't you have to teach it to us anyway? It's on the genin exam."

 

Silence fell, and every eye turned toward him with deep suspicion glimmering in them.

 

Iruka smiled. Brat. "Yes, I do." He let that sink in a little, then let his gaze wander about the room, meeting every pair of eyes. "But I don't have to teach the henge to you until after Summer Vacation is over -- when all the other kids in your grade will be learning it too."

 

Hanabi blinked. "You're gonna show us early -- before everybody else?"

 

Iruka shrugged. "If you'd rather wait until after Vacation...?"

 

"Noooooooo!" The unified howl from every throat was deafening.

 

Iruka leaned away from the roar, perhaps a little dramatically. "Oh, so you're okay with learning it early?"

 

"Yeeeeeeees!" Coming from thirty-odd throats all going through puberty, the sound was ear-achingly high-pitched. The windows rattled alarmingly.

 

Iruka smiled. "Okay." He lifted a finger. "But the whole class has to pass the exam!"

 

A unified moan.

 

"Hey!" Iruka set his hands on his hips. "I'm sticking my neck out here because she's right." He pointed at Hanabi. "I'm not supposed to show the henge to you until after vacation. In fact, bragging about what I'm gonna teach you before vacation starts could very well get me in trouble with the other teachers." He leaned hypothetically closer and dropped his voice. "They might try to stop me."

 

Growls and snarls broke out along with fists thumping desks.

 

Konohamaru abruptly stood up, and shoved his goggles higher up on his brow. "We won't tell anybody." He turned to glare all around. "Will we?"

 

Every head shook hard with gleams of determination in their eyes.

 

"No way!"

 

"Nuh-uh!"

 

"Not us!"

 

"Hell no!"

 

Konohamaru folded his arms across his chest. "Not until after vacation -- when it's too late." He nodded at Iruka firmly.

 

Iruka smiled. "It'll be our little secret!" He winked.

 

The whole class snickered.

 

Iruka straightened and lifted his hand. "But I'm holding you to your end of the bargain. EVERYONE must pass the exam."

 

Whimpers began to filter through.

 

Iruka put up both hands and smiled. "I said pass. You only need a score of 75 or better to pass, got it?"

 

"Ohhhhhhhhhh...!" Merry mayhem erupted once more. Not one of them would fail the coming exam if they had to beat the knowledge into each other's heads because the henge was the coolest thing ever and the perfect new trick to pull during Summer Vacation.

 

Utterly satisfied with the havoc he'd caused, Iruka allowed them to leave for lunch a full fifteen minutes early.

 

The classroom emptied to the sound of running feet, and more screamed out threats.

 

Iruka took a peek out the classroom window.

 

On the empty playground, the entire group gathered into one big pushing and shoving huddle under the furthest tree. Lunchboxes and books were opened. Konohamaru, the unofficial class leader, stood up and began pointing, and occasionally kicking, his fellow students into smaller knots, clearly dividing them into study groups.

 

Iruka smiled, perfectly happy with the knowledge that he was a manipulative bastard. His heart light, he went back to his desk, collected his mug and his lunch box, and strode down the hallway toward the staff room practically skipping.

 

Predictably, since the lunch bell still had yet to go off, the curved staffroom was empty, and bright. The curtains, and more than a few of the side windows framing the bay window that extended across nearly the entire back wall, were pulled completely open. Sunlight gleamed on the fixtures on the long counter on the left wall. The huge, stainless steel coffee machine in the center was practically blinding. A light breeze rustled the papers pinned all over the right wall.

 

Iruka had his pick of the battered leather chairs and their accompanying side tables. He chose one right by the big window overlooking the grassy, tree-lined playground.

 

Outside, his students had settled into six groups with one standing and the others either stuffing their faces with lunch or waving their hands to get the standing one's attention.

 

Nodding in contentment, Iruka went to the counter to fill his bright orange mug with hot tea. He settled back into his chosen chair, opened his rectangular black bento box, pulled his chop-sticks from his kit, and dug in.

 

Eventually, the bell rang announcing the start of the lunch period.

 

Less than a minute later, two of Iruka's fellow instructors came rushing into the staffroom, napkin-wrapped bento boxes in hand, and horrified looks on their faces. They spoke in perfect unison. "You let your class go to lunch early?"

 

Iruka paused, a bite halfway to his lips. "Um, well, they wanted time to divide into study groups."

 

The instructors in the door way were shoved into the room by three more instructors right behind them. "Did you say, study groups...?"

 

Iruka blinked and widened his eyes. "Well yeah, the exams are next week."

 

The five instructors were pushed further into the room by one more. He moved to the front to glare at Iruka. "And you believed them?"

 

Iruka blinked up at him, wide eyed. "Um, yes?"

 

Tall, lanky Nara, Shikamaru, part-time student-teacher, pushed into the room to stop before Iruka's chair. He eyed Iruka with disgusted scowl, his high pony tail waving in the room's breeze. "What's the deal with your students telling the other kids to leave them alone because they're studying?" He folded his arms across his narrow chest.

 

Pandemonium erupted. Even more teachers along and more than a few student-teachers crammed into the staff room to discuss the strange phenomena -- a whole class studying, during lunch -- voluntarily!

 

Forgotten among the astonished chatter, Iruka went back to his lunch.

 

Shikamaru flopped himself onto the arm of Iruka's chair. With his narrowed gaze trained on Iruka, he bit into his sandwich and chewed.

 

Iruka very casually sipped hot tea from his bright orange "Best Sensei EVER!" mug, a gift from Naruto. He turned to look up at Shikamaru, and smiled, the very picture of wide-eyed innocence. What? I'm a nice teacher. My students do things because they love me. He then went back to eating.

 

Shikamaru leaned close and dropped his voice. "Okay, how'd you do it?"

 

Iruka grinned up at him and winked. "Trade secret."

 

Shikamaru snorted then a rare smile curved the very corner of his mouth. "You know, I cook a mean lasagna. I'd be happy to show you how I do it at your house, say tomorrow night, in trade for that secret."

 

Iruka took a bite of fish and chewed thoughtfully. Damn, the little shit knows about my weakness for Italian food. "Hmm..." He looked at the Nara boy from the corner of his eye and spoke very softly. "Add a bottle of good red wine, and your promise never to tell anyone else, and you have a deal."

 

Shikamaru flashed a very brief full smile. "Done." He straightened and his expression slipped back into his trademark disgruntled scowl. He slid off Iruka's chair and very, very casually, slouched his way out of the staffroom.

 

Iruka almost felt bad for making the Nara boy cook lasagna for him in trade for knowing that the miraculous change in his class was due to a simple case of bribery -- almost, but not quite. It was the kid's own fault for offering such a good deal for something so painfully simple. Iruka closed his emptied bento box and smiled. It'll be a good lesson for him.

 

~ * ~