Chapter Text
(I don't own any characters etc etc)
Iruka frowned as he looked at the missions office schedule one Tuesday night.
“Why am I off the schedule here at the end of next week?” he asked his supervisor, who shrugged as they did paperwork.
“You have a mission,” the older kunoichi told him, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t you know?”
“No,” Iruka said, feeling his frown reach his eyebrows. “When was someone going to tell me?”
She shrugged and returned to her work. “When your team finds you, I suppose.”
Iruka sighed and willed away the headache that was fast approaching.
Life of a shinobi and all that, he told himself. Right?
___
It was two days later, and Naruto was at his desk in the missions office, turning in a report with Sakura and Kakashi.
“Great job!” Iruka praised them, smiling proudly as he stamped the report approved.
“That’s not all!” Naruto excitedly told him. “I have a mission!”
“Oh? Anything you can talk about?” Iruka asked.
Naruto nodded. “It’s the best mission ever! You know why?”
Iruka opened his mouth to reply, but the younger shinobi continued without giving him a chance to speak.
“Because I’m the team lead!”
“What? Wow!” Iruka said, truly surprised, though his eyes darted to Kakashi and Sakura to see if they had any disagreements to add to Naruto’s bold reveal. They did not. In fact, they seemed rather…stoic about it.
“Well, congratulations,” Iruka continued. “That’s surprising, but great news! I wish you well with it. So…not a solo mission?” he ventured, as he was still surprised by it all, even though the blond had said he was the leader. However, Naruto shook his head.
“Nope, I’ve got a team!” he shouted, before looking at the other two shinobi with him and frowning. “I said, I’ve got a team!” he replied.
Suddenly, Sakura grinned and punched the air with a fist.
“Sakura!” she shouted.
“Kakashi,” the jonin sighed, giving a long-suffering thumbs up.
“Naruto!” the blond shouted, throwing both hands into the air. “Go team!”
Iruka laughed harder than he could remember doing for some time. “What was all that?” he asked as the group lowered their hands.
“He wanted us to have an entrance like in the movies, or action shows, something like that,” Sakura said, still smiling. Clearly the bland look had been part of the act, Iruka noted.
“Then I’d say you’re all off to a good start,” the chuunin applauded.
“You think so?” Naruto asked, and smiled when Iruka nodded. “Then let’s do it again, team!” he shouted, and on cue, the group repeated their actions.
However, this time, Naruto motioned at Iruka at the end, with several eager nods of his head and flapping his arms.
Caught off guard, Iruka’s eyes widened. “Uh…Iruka?” he posed, making the hand sign for Tiger, for lack of any other ideas.
“Great, we’re all accounted for!” Naruto cheered.
“Say what?” Iruka asked.
“You’re on our team!” the blond told him.
Suddenly, things made more sense for Iruka. “Let me guess, we have a mission next week, right?”
Naruto’s eyes widened. “Can you read minds, Iruka-sensei? Predict the future?”
Iruka laughed. “I may have gotten inside information. High clearances,” he said in a lowered voice, and Naruto nodded several times. “So, what’s the mission?”
“We’re helping the Yamanakas!” Naruto cheered. “And you know what next week is, right?”
Iruka groaned. “We’re helping their flower shop for Valentine’s Day?”
“Believe it!” Naruto cheered. “My first mission leading a team like this, how great will this be?”
“I’m definitely surprised,” Iruka said, looking at the others for…anything.
Sakura shrugged. “He saw it was available and asked Kakashi-sensei if we could take it. And someone,” she said, side-eyeing their jonin-sensei, “said only if Naruto was the lead for it. So here we are.”
“Kakashi-sensei?” Iruka asked, but the jonin shrugged.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time?” the copy nin posed, and Iruka shook his head but returned his attention to Naruto.
“Well, congrats again. I’m flattered to be part of your first command,” he said, and Naruto smiled widely.
“You mean it?” he asked, and Iruka nodded. “Great! I wasn’t sure how you’d react. I can’t wait! We’re going to do so well! There’s organization, and deliveries, and things to put together, and it’s going to be so busy –” he began, ignoring the three around him exchanging a weary look about their future plans…
____
The actual mission began the following Wednesday, ahead of Valentine’s Day falling on that Saturday.
The group headed to the Yamanaka’s shop where different members of the clan walked them through their duties. Help at the front to take orders for the next several days. Orders to be made would be in the back areas. Deliveries were to be made around the village on the big day itself.
It would be a long mission, that was for sure.
The group got to it, and Sakura headed to help Ino staff the front of the store to assist customers placing orders. While the big day was not yet here, more and more people were coming in to order in advance, not wanting to be included in those who inevitably waited until the last minute or even forgot to get flowers at all, if their special person (or themselves) wanted it.
That left the rest of the team to head to the back area, where they were able to be in some, but not all, places in the work area. Yamanakas had to keep their business secrets, after all!
They did, however, tell them that they had a special jutsu in place to keep flowers fresh for a few days after making the arrangements, something that kept the petals just so even beyond what a refrigerator could do.
“We’ll have you making pretty straightforward things,” two Yamanakas told them. “Rose bouquets or wreaths, or things with just one flower. Nothing complicated, no offense. We’ll handle the orders that require more knowledge and skill, you all can handle the easier things, and you’ll be a bigger part for deliveries on the 14th.”
The team nodded, and after a quick lesson in how to arrange and tie together a dozen or so roses, they were left to start to fill orders.
“Not what I thought I’d be doing this week,” Iruka admitted, as he began to look at their order slips.
“I just don’t see what the fuss is all about,” Kakashi sighed.
“About flowers for Valentine’s Day?” Iruka asked. “With all the romance you read?”
“Not that, that we had to be trained to make these,” the jonin said. “Tie flowers together, how hard can it be? How much harder than what we do in the field? I can chidori in my sleep, I think I can handle this.”
Iruka snorted. “Naruto, I think you need to keep an eye on Kakashi-sensei, maybe check on his work since he thinks he’s already perfect at this.”
Kakashi rolled his eye. “A thousand jutsu and one genius, flowers have nothing on me.”
Naruto looked at both men. “Uh…Iruka-sensei might have a point though, I should really check both of you as we work!”
Iruka nodded and they set to work, ignoring the other man’s sigh directed at him.
“Be a team player, Kakashi-sensei,” he teased.
“I think I’ve got this, sensei,” Kakashi said, and Iruka watched in awe as the man took mere seconds to make a beautiful arrangement.
“Wow, Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto cheered. “That’s great!”
Iruka nodded. “Have you done this before?”
“Can’t give away my secrets,” Kakashi said, shrugging as he set the bouquet aside and whipped up another one soon after.
Iruka frowned as he set about to make his look just so, fiddling with the ribbon. “I bet he used his sharingan…” he muttered to himself, finding it was taking him several minutes to make a bouquet. “Ow!” he exclaimed after grabbing more roses.
“Are you okay?” Naruto asked.
“I got a thorn in me,” Iruka sighed. “I thought they were cutting those off? Just my luck,” he said, frowning.
To Iruka’s surprise, Kakashi came over to his side of the table and held his hand in his gloved ones, gently moving it this way and that. He placed two finger tips near the thorn and lightly but briefly pressed down, and Iruka watched in surprise as the thorn swiftly and painlessly came out.
“Thank you!” he said, grateful for the help. “How’d you do that?”
“Trade secrets,” Kakashi said, presumably winking at him as he went back to his work station.
“I bet you have a whole flower business on the side,” Iruka laughed. “Right?”
“Sensei, I have to keep some things private,” Kakashi admonished him. “Or the whole village will gossip.”
“They gossip about you as it is,” Iruka reminded him.
“See? And if they knew I was as good at being a florist as I am at other things, I’d always be assigned here or to the other flower shops,” Kakashi sighed, as he made another flower arrangement.
“How many more of these?” Naruto sighed as he tied a ribbon around his own set of flowers.
“Too many!” the adults said in unison, before laughing about it.
“This is your mission, and we just started,” Iruka reminded the blond, shaking his head. “You can’t be over it already?”
“I thought it would be more exciting than this,” Naruto said, frowning as he grabbed more roses.
“You’ve clearly never been around their shop at this time of year,” Kakashi said, and Iruka nodded. “Just give it time…”