Chapter Text
(I don't own any characters etc etc)
“Isn’t this a great idea?” Ino asked the others, who nodded. Well, at least most of them did. Sasuke was silently working and Shikamaru yawned as he put his head down to nap.
“It’s good, I’ll admit,” Sakura agreed. “We get to do something fun for Valentine’s Day, and raise money to help charities in the village!”
“G-good idea, Ino!” Hinata cheered.
“Speaking of Valentine’s Day, who has plans?” Sakura innocently asked, as both she and Ino glanced at Sasuke. “Or, who needs to make plans?”
“And that’s my cue to leave,” Sasuke declared, finishing folding the origami he had been working on.
“But Sasuke!” Ino protested. “You agreed to help!”
“I’ll work from home and will drop it off later. Or tomorrow,,” the Uchiha said, grabbing the decorative papers he was using and exiting the room. Sakura and Ino sighed before glaring at each other then turning back to the cards they were decorating.
“Sakura?” Naruto asked, oblivious to how Hinata was looking at him with hearts in her eyes. “What about you?”
“I’m going to have plans with Sasuke, obviously,” she said, tossing her long pink hair.
“No, I’m going to have plans with him,” Ino snapped.
“He’s my teammate,” Sakura said through clenched teeth.
“So am I!” Naruto cheered, making both kunoichi look at him.
“Uh, it’s not quite the same,” Sakura sighed, as Ino snickered.
“Hey, who wants to get something to eat?” Kiba asked, looking at the other members of their rookie genin group.
Shikamaru sleepily nodded, Choji cheered, and Shino agreed.
“I guess we could take a break,” Sakura mused. “But we need to start reaching out to people soon to see who wants to buy cards!”
The group agreed and continued to discuss it as they set off to get late lunch. The Hokage had assigned charity work as part of their early genin training, but the rookie nine were unsure of what to do. After discussing it with each other, they quickly realized that it was easier for them to do something as a larger group rather than individually or even in their own smaller teams.
Ino and Sakura had been wandering the village one day discussing ideas as stores began to prepare for the upcoming so-called holiday when they came up with the concept of organizing a delivery service of sorts! They would make a number of Valentine’s themed cards and invite villagers to buy them, either to deliver to people themselves or, for an additional fee, the genin would deliver them throughout the village.
Once the others agreed, they shared a proposal with the Hokage so as to ask for a small stipend to buy supplies, and it was quickly approved. They were able to purchase quite a lot with their allotted money, and divided up the creation process. Hence Sasuke doing origami, and Shino and Shikamaru folding cards and placing decorative paper cut-outs on them. The kunoichi wrote general messages on some, generally typical Valentine’s greetings/sayings/romantic poems, but some cards were also left blank so as to increase the appeal. Choji’s family donated a large amount of chocolates, so he placed a number of pieces into pink cellophane bags to be purchased as well, and Naruto’s job was to organize and box up the finished products so that when it was time to begin to entice customers, each genin could grab a variety on the go.
Two days later, in the middle of January, the genin planned to set out in small groups, mostly pairs. Hinata went with Shino, Kiba with Naruto. Choji went with Shikamaru, and Ino with Sakura, as Sasuke decided to go on his own. Yes, it was about a month til Valentine’s Day, but they thought they might obtain more customers if they set out before most people had likely begun to shop themselves. Plus, they had to do this when they weren’t training or on missions, leaving them with limited time. Which had, in the end, further helped them to decide to do this together as they could have more time for it collectively as a result.
First, however, they stayed in their genin teams and approached their jonin-sensei as their initial customers. Kurenai had been delighted and bought several cards, addressing a number to friends and keeping one that she said she would deliver herself to “someone.” She also bought chocolate for herself, as well as for her team, to their delight. Asuma bought cards for family and friends, also keeping one he would deliver himself. Ino took pity on him as he clearly debated which to give to Kurenai, not that he said as much. She showed him a unique one she had set aside, assuring him that it was an exclusive design no one else would have. He had quickly agreed, and exhaled a sigh of relief that he was that much further ahead in his Valentine’s Day shopping.
Kakashi, however, had been unimpressed and tried to ignore his genin, no matter their business proposals. He tried to get them to focus on training, he tried to read his book instead, he tried to pawn them off to anyone, but they insisted he help them. Knowing his refusal to support his students would get back to the Hokage, Kakashi finally relented and gave them some money “to shut you up once and for all.” He declined any actual cards or chocolate, telling them it was a donation, nothing more, nothing less.
Naruto cheered and Sasuke muttered a weary comment of approval as Sakura pocketed the money, recording the transaction. She paused and looked at her team leader, an idea striking her.
“Kakashi-sensei,” she began, “are you sure you don’t want to pick cards to be sent for you?”
“No.”
“But –” she continued.
“No,” he repeated, turning a page in his book. “Why are you still talking about this and not training again? You wanted money, I gave you money. Now go away.”
She sighed as the genin turned to return to sparring, pausing a few moments later. “Can we send cards on your behalf?”
“Sure, whatever,” Kakashi replied, turning to another page in his book, clearly distracted.
Sakura silently cheered, her plan having worked perfectly! Naruto looked at Kakashi with wide eyes, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.
“I can’t wait to tell Ino about my plan!” she whispered to her teammates.
“I’m staying out of this,” Sasuke replied, but Naruto shrugged.
“Cool!” he cheered, and she grinned.
___
Ino was, she had to admit, impressed with Sakura’s plan.
“That takes this to a whole new level” Ino cheered as the group met up a few days later to review their progress and inventory.
“D-do you think we should offer that?” Hinata asked, biting her lip. “That sounds intimidating.”
Sakura nodded. “That’s fair, I think we could read the customer and see what they think?”
“It’s no different than people asking us to deliver the cards for them,” Shikamaru said, from where he was playing shogi with Sasuke. “No one will know.”
“It’s not exactly our business plan,” the Uchiha countered.
“Since when do you care?” Choji laughed, and Sasuke shrugged.
“I don’t want us to meddle,” he replied.
“It’s not meddling!” Kiba posed. “It’s…helping.”
“That’s the same thing,” Shino said, shaking his head.
“It’s not malicious,” Kiba challenged, as Ino nodded. “It’s got good intentions.”
“We probably know a few of Kakashi-sensei’s jonin friends that we could send some to for him,” Sakura suggested.
“And anyway some people may not even sign their cards, there is such a thing as a secret admirer,” Naruto offered, as the others paused to look at him. “What? You’ve seen the books Kakashi-sensei reads, they’re full of them.”
“Those aren’t a-appropriate for us, Naruto!” Hinata stammered as her face turned red.
Naruto sighed. “You sound like Iruka-sensei!”
“Ooh, we should go see him!” Sakura mused, changing the topic. “We already started to sell to our jonin-sensei and immediate family and family friends. The academy teachers could be next, along with businesses that don’t sell cards or chocolate.”
“And those of us with bigger clans can branch out more,” Choji agreed.
“And we already made plans to leave a box at my family’s shop,” Ino reminded the group.
The genin divided up tasks for the next week, and the following day Sakura and Naruto went to the academy. They made their way to Iruka’s classroom after the students were out, knocking on the familiar door and soon explaining their business.
Iruka smiled after hearing it. “That sounds like a great idea! I’m definitely going to buy some, but I don’t have much cash on me today. Can you come back tomorrow, that will also give me time to think about who to send them to?”
His former students agreed and visited him again the next day as discussed. True to his word (naturally), Iruka had brought cash with him and bought several cards, writing them out on his desk as the children roamed the room to see if anything had changed.
Naruto wandered back to his desk, looking at his work.
“Wow, are you dating all these people?” the blond asked, and Iruka laughed as Sakura looked at him.
“Ha, as if! I’m single, these are just cards for friends,” the chuunin told them. “It’ll be a nice surprise for them.”
He soon finished and sealed the cards, before giving the two money for the delivery fee.
“Your change,” Sakura said, holding out a few ryo, but Iruka shook his head.
“Nah, this is a fundraiser, right? So keep the change.”
Naruto cheered and ran out of the classroom with his box of inventory, yelling about how good of a salesman he thought he had become. Sakura shook her head at his antics as she gathered up the cards from Iruka, flicking through them.
“One’s for Naruto?” she groaned. “Do we seriously have to deliver this? Can’t you give it to him yourself?”
Iruka laughed. “You’re not shirking duties, Sakura, are you? I taught you better than that.”
She straightened up and shook her head. “Of course not!” She paused. “I just don’t want him to get the wrong idea if I give it to him for you.”
“Well, I signed it, for what it’s worth,” Iruka said, as he began to shuffle through tests on his desk.
“Good, and maybe I’ll write on the front ‘from Iruka-sensei’ so he doesn’t get any ideas if I give it to him!” she suggested, as he laughed again.
“Hmm, maybe I’ll buy another card for him and leave it anonymous so he thinks it could be from you,” Iruka teased, but she scowled at him. “I’m kidding, probably. But really, good job with this.”
Sakura thanked him and left, shaking her head at it all both then and at dinner with Ino the next night.
“Can you believe him?” Sakura muttered. “The nerve of Iruka-sensei!”
“Hey, he’s got a point!” Ino said, sitting straight up.
“What? No way, I am not letting Naruto think I gave him a Valentine’s Day card!” Sakura hissed.
“Not about him, but kind of. He’s single, right?” Ino asked, and Sakura nodded. “And isn’t Kakashi-sensei single?”
Sakura frowned as she thought about it. “I don’t know? We never see him with anyone, and he doesn’t talk about dating, but he’s pretty private.”
“If he is dating someone and isn’t giving them a card for Valentine’s Day, that would be rude,” Ino stated.
“He’s probably the type of guy who doesn’t buy into all of it,” the other genin posed. “Probably barely celebrates birthdays, you know? But anyway, Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei haven’t said they’re dating, though we figured that one out fast.”
“So we figure out Kakashi-sensei!” Ino cheered. “We just have to follow him a bit and see if he does anything to suggest he’s dating.”
“But then what?”
“Then, we give Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei cards from each other!” Ino said, grinning. “We write on it for them and they’ll think it was the other guy!”
“I don’t know Kakashi-sensei will fall for that, he’s too smart and always planning ahead,” Sakura reminded her. “He’ll see right through it!”
“What do we have to lose?” Ino asked. “They both gave us money, right? So they’ve already paid, we’re just giving them…VIP service.”
Sakura smiled. “Yeah, VIP! Kakashi-sensei did say we could send cards for him, he just didn’t specify to who, or why. And he probably at least kind of likes Iruka-sensei, as coworkers at least.”
“Maybe they can become more,” Ino whispered, as Sakura looked at her with wide eyes. “We could….we could play Cupid! Get them together!”
“That would be romantic!” Sakura sighed, nodding. “Let’s do it!”
___
The two kunoichi decided to initially keep their plan to themselves, as the more people who knew, the less likely they were to succeed. True, the other genin knew they intended to send cards for Kakashi, but the girls decided not everyone needed to know that they were putting a more romantic rather than platonic spin on it.
First, they followed Kakashi around for a few days, deciding that he was almost certainly not dating anyone. Ino took a chance and asked Asuma, who appeared suspicious.
“Sakura said he didn’t want to buy our cards, so I was just curious,” Ino casually told him. “Maybe he already bought a gift and card for his special person?”
Asuma laughed as he lit a new cigarette. “Kakashi? No, he hasn’t dated anyone for a while. He’s probably just being stubborn like usual.”
Ino nodded and tucked the information away until she could find Sakura the next day, happily sharing the news.
“Okay, so they’re both single!” Sakura said, organizing their information. This was, essentially, a mission for them, so they were taking this very, very seriously. “There’s a little over three weeks left until Valentine’s Day.”
“Both men will need convincing, so more than one card will be needed,” Ino commented. “That means we need to get cards to them soon.”
“How many?” Sakura asked. “I’m thinking at least three.”
“I think we need more than one a week,” the other suggested, “to really sell it. But not so many that we overwhelm them.”
Sakura nodded. “And we need to gauge their reactions. Are they interested, or upset, or annoyed, or pleasantly surprised?”
It was Ino’s turn to nod. “We should be there when they open the first one.”
“Right!”
The next time the group of genin got together, the two girls took the card supply to first pick out cards so that they could decide from the start who got what and when, not wanting to repeat designs. Anything too romantic or heartfelt was a “no,” and they picked three cards with general messages, and two blank ones each.
“What are you doing?” Naruto asked, watching them shuffle through each box of cards.
“Picking out cards, duh,” Sakura told him, rolling her eyes.
“Why? For who?” he pressed, making her pause.
“Um…Iruka-sensei,” she admitted, ignoring the look Ino sent her. “He paid us extra, remember? I thought I might take a few more to him and see if he wanted any more cards to send, since he already paid for them.” She looked at her teammate. “What do you think about these?” she asked, holding out her selection.
Naruto hummed as he went through them before putting one written and one blank down, his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he looked at the box of cards before pulling two new ones out.
“These are ones he would pick!” Naruto triumphantly told her.
“Really? Thanks,” Sakura said, smiling.
“Naruto,” Ino began. “What would Iruka write in them, if he was sending them?”
“What?” Naruto asked.
“Well, if we wanted to help him and write it ourselves, so he can just sign it and save time,” she said. “What would he say?”
“Huh. Well, he might just sign his name on the one with a joke and the one with a poem.”
Ino sighed. “The blank ones, Naruto,” she directed him.
“Oh!” the blond said, scratching his head. “Maybe a pun, or sharing a fun memory, he does that for my birthday cards.”
Ino smiled. “Thanks, that’s good to know.”
Naruto nodded and wandered away before Sakura and Ino looked at each other, wide smiles on their faces.
“That was well played!” Ino whispered, and Sakura nodded.
“Thanks! So was your idea!” she whispered back. “But what about Kakashi-sensei?”
The girls’ smiles turned to frowns.
“There’s no one we can ask,” Sakura sighed.
“Well, we’ve got time, since we agreed to send the pre-written cards first,” Ino reminded her. “We just need to find someone to anonymously sign them whose signature neither one will recognize.”
This stumped them, and they decided to confide their plan in Hinata for extra suggestions.
“Hmm, that is tricky,” Hinata agreed. “All nine of us are out. So are a b-bunch of jonin we know.”
Ino nodded. “Iruka-sensei sees so many reports turned in, that rules out a lot of people!”
“Plus, what if someone asked why we’re asking for it?” Hinata posed. “They might try to figure it out and reveal it!”
The three were silent for a few moments before Sakura stood up from where they were sitting, a comfortable distance from the rest of the rookie genin.
“Let’s go to the Hokage!” she declared.
“What?” Hinata asked.
“We can give a vague description of what we’re doing and see if he’ll help! He loves both of them, and he loves our project!”
Ino shook her head. “You know what some of our teammates said, they think we’re meddling and he will too.”
“So? What’s the worst that can happen? He says not to and we abide by that,” Sakura said shrugging. “Both men already paid for the cards, and if no one writes in them, we put them back in the boxes and sell them again.”
“You’ve got a point,” Hinata agreed. “Can we really just go and talk to him?”
“We might as well try!” Sakura encouraged them, grabbing the cards and each of their hands and running away.
Naruto watched them leave. “What do you think they’re up to?”
“Meddling,” Sasuke grumbled.
“Who cares?” Shikamaru yawned.
“Should we follow them?” Kiba asked Akamaru, who also yawned. “Yeah, I guess not,” he agreed, and the group turned their attention back to whatever they had been doing.