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The weather was warmer this year, and the sakura trees had blossomed a little earlier than last year, at the end of March to be more specific. This meant that most ninjas of Konoha once again missed the cherry blossom festival. However, the unexpected slightly earlier blossoming was not really the cause of all the ninjas’ absence from the coveted Fire Country festival.
Every year it was the busiest for shinobi everywhere from about February to the end of May. People speculated that perhaps this was because the weather was warmer after the cold winter but not too hot like in the summer, or perhaps all ninjas felt an energy boost when spring carries through the air and stirs the blood and muscles into a sense of hope and purpose.
Certainly it was the favorite time of year for Gai and Rock Lee. Actual Spring in their Springtime of Youth made them more poetic and motivated than ever, and they had to be banned from training anywhere inside a 3km radius from any sakura tree, because ten years ago they had accidentally shaken all the flowers out of all the cherry blossom trees that were the highlight of the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Orochimaru was also a ninja who had not been immune to the effects of spring. Some of his more diabolical plans had been made in this season, for example the one where he drained every swimming pool in Fire Country and set one up so that he could make hundreds of thousands of yen and then take over Konoha. That plan was trashed by Rock Lee, who had used his heightened enthusiasm to counteract the pure evilness of the plan.
Missing-nin also used this universal boost to attack and pillage more villages than before, and so all over the world, ninjas were busy during these few months, whether it was pillaging and scheming or being sent out on missions to kick some serious springtime ass.
It was an unspoken rule, almost; that ninjas should not manage to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. The people who did get to enjoy it were the civilians, the pre-genin and the retired shinobi, bustling around in crowds under the trees, buying snacks and jostling each other in a huge mass of happiness. People that all active shinobi loved and lived to protect. All ninjas, as a rule, grumbled about missing the fun and never being allowed to have anything nice, but all of them, as a rule, did not actually resent their village and their country celebrating the beautiful fragile cherry blossoms that they had managed to protect for another year.
So it was on the 2nd of June, on an inconspicuous Tuesday, that there was finally some time off for the hard-working shinobi of Konoha for a quiet celebration for the shinobi themselves in place of the Cherry Blossom Festival.
There were no pink and white tiny blossoms at this time of year in Konoha, only a lot of bright, vibrant green. The point was to drink yourself to the stage where the green of summer started looking like the pink of spring.
Tsunade, Kiba and Tsume were already roaring drunk, seeing pink cherry blossoms in their drunkenness, and probably colours that weren’t even on the visible spectrum. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were making an impressive effort to catch up to Tsunade and the drunken crew, each wearing the youthful cloak of recklessness and rivalry and forcing every shot into a competition where surely nobody was a winner.
The adult shinobi were more reserved, more experienced. They had, after all, survived many shinobi years and survived many of these June celebrations, and thus had formed the wisdom (that Tsunade and Tsume lacked) of enjoying the peace and enjoying themselves.
Kurenai had only a couple of light beers, and was keeping an eye on young Mirai Sarutobi tottering around on stumpy toddler legs, while talking to Gai and Hinata. Yamato was drinking, slowly but surely getting thoroughly drunk with Shikamaru and Sai. Koharu and Homura were looking disapprovingly at the state of all the Konoha ninjas, but their disapproving glares were actually quite unfocused, and seemed to be directed ten feet to the left of any shinobi they were supposed to be looking at.
Kakashi sat on a light bamboo travelling mat, chatting idly with a small group containing Genma and Raidou. He felt a little nervous about getting named the next Hokage, which Tsunade was bound to do soon; but today he let himself be caught up completely in the ninja festival as he had never done before.
It was really nice, he mused, staring up at the decidedly bright green leaves of the tree above him.
The war was over, he felt empty but at the same time whole somehow. Konoha was safe, the world was safe, ninjas of other villages turned out to be pretty cool people after all, not absolute dickheads like he used to think, and his team of brats was a few feet away, drinking themselves into what must surely be alcohol poisoning or at least the mother of hangovers.
He was seriously considering letting them learn about alcohol the hard way, but he was growing more and more alarmed with every reckless shot they took. Statistics and calculations whirled in his very slightly slowed brain: how many drinks were considered safe for a ninja, how many were standard for a civilian girl, did that apply to kunoichi? Would Sakura’s healing chakra enhance or adversely affect the drunkenness in her system, and would she be able to notice her limit and stop or would she drink herself to death, with Tsunade not sober enough to save her? Sasuke, his old protégé, was trying to will away the conspicuous red spots on his cheeks as he swallowed overflowing cups of sake. Kakashi was sure he never encouraged that sort of stupid behaviour. And Naruto, looking more like Minato-sensei than ever, trying to achieve his mother’s hair colour on his face as he yelled and swallowed more sake than was wise. More sake than was stupid, even.
Time was that Kakashi would have laughed on the inside and let them learn their foolhardy lessons; but perhaps it was because this was the first time Kakashi had known a true sense of peace, perhaps it was because he was actually pretty drunk. Perhaps it was because Kakashi finally knew what it was like to “be old” and was truly aware of all the reasons why people could drop dead suddenly, and aware of simply how fragile and precious it all was; that Kakashi decided that he had to intervene and stop these stupid kids whom he loved from killing themselves after surviving the war of the freaking millennium, with something as commonplace as sake.
Kakashi took off his surprisingly heavy flak jacket and was just starting to push himself onto his feet when he saw the thing that was the main factor of his understanding of how precious life was.
Iruka-sensei had sat down between Naruto and Sasuke, and taking a hold of the large bottle of sake in the middle, he swigged down all of the contents as a surprised crowd of Konoha ninja cheered and clapped, happy to see the Academy Head Teacher joining the celebrations with such enthusiasm.
Sakura scowled half-heartedly but laughed as her former teacher so obviously tried to protect them. She giggled with a blush as he winked at her after he finished the bottle, sharing with her, in that look, the understanding that the two young men were still two rash boys who were trying to impress her and each other. Naruto and Sasuke weren’t as nearly as composed as Sakura, and Kakashi only just managed to catch a glimpse of the grateful look in Naruto’s eyes before the two young men passed out cold as they finally had an excuse to stop the senseless drinking.
Genma laughed as he clapped a hand on Iruka’s back, as Iruka made his way over to their group soon after the boys passed out. Iruka had delightfully faint pink spots on the gorgeous smooth skin of his high cheekbones, and Kakashi gave him his special one-eyed smile that he reserved only for Iruka, not that anyone actually knew. Maybe except for Gai. Even now, from the corner of his vision, Kakashi thought he could see a sparkle of delighted white teeth. How Kakashi could tell whether or not teeth could be delighted, he didn’t want to probe.
“Finally joining us are you, sensei?” said Genma.
Kakashi’s special Iruka-only-smile faltered a bit, not that anyone could tell. Maybe except Gai. Kakashi could see how the white teeth were now sparkling thoughtfully. Kakashi groaned internally and punched his internal head. He knew Genma was like that with everyone except Raidou, and that the voice was jokingly seductive, not actually seductive, but he still couldn’t control his fragile emotions like he could his perfect muscles.
“Mmm. I thought I’d come over and see what you jounin stashed away for yourselves,” said Iruka. “With the way you lot are grouped together unsociably, I thought you had got your grubby little hands on all the best sake and weren’t sharing.”
Raidou poured a cup for his friend. “We weren’t mingling because we’re too old and tired, not because we got some good sake. But don’t take my word for it, have a drink. Kanpai!”
Kakashi watched the smooth tan skin of Iruka’s throat being exposed as he tipped his head back, neatly swallowing the contents of the small glass delicately. The efficient movement of Iruka’s adam’s apple, of Iruka’s smooth, unbroken jaw, of his mouth easily making the smooth smile he so naturally wore, and opening and forming shapes, giving tantalising peeks of his smooth white teeth –
Kakashi was startled back to the rest of the world as Genma plopped a sake dish into his hand.
“Don’t leave him hanging, brat,” said Genma. He had taken up Tsunade’s nickname for him and was proudly using it as much as he could before Kakashi became the Sixth Hokage.
Kakashi blinked at him.
“Leave who hanging where? I’m not sure if I have enough rope on me,” he said.
From the corner of his vision, he could see white teeth sparkling in dismay.
Iruka rumbled an enticing small laugh, and blushed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. Kakashi then noticed that he was holding the sake bottle in his other hand.
Kakashi blushed himself, and cursed his crazy brain for being so stupid.
“You got denied, Iruka!!” cackled Genma. “Go on, you know the rules.”
Iruka scowled at Genma, using the frown he often wore on his most junior students, and then tipped back their cheap bottle of sake. Kakashi saw a tiny drop linger on his lower lip, before the tip of a wet tongue slipped out and licked it into join the others.
“You weren’t kidding when you said the sake wasn’t great,” said Iruka in his smooth voice. “Which means that you’re probably also right about being too old and tired then.” Iruka’s eyes flashed with laughter as Raidou and Genma hurled insults, saying how they could flatten a kindergarten teacher no matter how old they were.
Iruka feigned affront, laughter still glimmering in his eyes, making Kakashi’s heart and brain stop, while making Kakashi’s stomach flop sporadically.
“Well then, this kindergarten teacher’s off to share these – ” Iruka dangled out some bottles of Tsunade’s finest, “with the rest of his babysitter friends.”
Genma grabbed a hold of Iruka’s arm and pulled down his half-hearted attempt to stand.
“Don’t mind the words of the old and senile, sensei,” said Genma. “You are the god of all that is good in Konoha, so don’t be a dick.”
“Elegant, as always,” drawled Iruka. He nevertheless happily shared around all the bottles of exquisite sake that he seemed to conjure up from nowhere, and Kakashi felt like he was in a dream, being so close to Iruka, drinking and relaxing with him. Kakashi didn’t even notice the sparkle of satisfied teeth off in the distance, and didn’t notice the time flying by either.
Genma and Raidou had gone off somewhere, and Tsunade was drinking with Tsume, each mumbling something to each other in a drunken stupor. Kiba was passed out on Akamaru’s flank, and all around the meadow, shinobi were dozing or chatting quietly in their groups. The afternoon sun was slowly sinking, sending gold rays between the softly moving leaves up above, and the warm breeze carried the smell of the forest, and the addictive, fresh smell of Iruka-sensei all around him.
Kakashi closed his eyes briefly and drew in a long breath through his nose, and revelled in Iruka’s unique, calming scent. He revelled in the fact that this was the first time he had been able to smell this favorite scent so close, and it threatened to overpower his whole body. Kakashi’s muscles trembled slightly as beneath his closed lids, he imagined the sensei wrapped around him on a quiet Saturday morning, or leaning in towards him to ask him something in front of the eggplants at the grocery store… but Kakashi had been too chicken, or too busy, or too busy being chicken, up til now. Maybe now it would be alright to ask for a dinner, maybe now that everyone was safe, it would be alright to ask?
Kakashi opened his eyes and breathed out, and was startled at something tickling his masked nose. He looked down and his heart suddenly pounded double-time, his stomach flopping more spastically than ever, as the owner of the dark brown and chestnut hair tickling his nose had rested his head lightly on Kakashi’s left shoulder.
Panicking, Kakashi stared at the top of the pony-tailed head for a whole minute, and then looked around. Nobody was paying him the least bit of attention, not even Gai, whose teeth were sparkling contentedly as he snore on the ground some distance away.
Kakashi willed his muscles to stop shaking, and took deep breaths to calm himself, though it wasn’t working. Each deep inhale brought in a smell of Iruka, which spun his head more than any sake could.
Iruka chose that moment to drop into a deeper sleep, leaning more substantially on Kakashi’s shoulder. Kakashi looked at Tsunade, who was now drinking by herself, as Tsume had finally passed out. Tsunade locked eyes with him, and then gave him a tired toast with a small smile.
Kakashi toasted her too, and pulled down his mask to drink the last of her special sake in his cup.
He didn’t need to look up at the sky to see the leaves dancing gently, or the sunlight shining softly, because all of that warmth and happiness, and more, was in the softly tickling strands of Iruka’s hair and in the comforting, reassuring weight of his head.
Kakashi, finally succumbing to the secret dream he had cherished for so long, didn’t raise his mask back into place. He dropped his nose into the soft strands of Iruka’s falling ponytail, and discreetly tucking his body closer to Iruka’s, Kakashi closed his eyes in complete peace.