Autumn Drabble Fest - Entry 02
Title: Mission Break
Word count: 428
Disclaimer: Naruto and all its characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. If I owned Naruto, Iruka would get much more screen time.
Author Notes: Written for the Autumn Drabble Fest, based on the prompt ‘mission’
Konoha truly looked like it was a part of the land of fire at this time of year, with its trees dressed in red and gold. The civilians loved this time of year almost as much as sakura season. The shinobi liked it far less.
With the leaves turning it made it far harder to run missions. Their shinobi clothes, usually helpfully camouflaged, stood out like beacons among the changing leaves. It was far harder to remain silent when every movement crushed leaves underfoot or set the dried foliage rustling. Only truly seasoned shinobi had learned how to move without upsetting the fragile environment.
Due to this it had become normal, around this time of year, for shinobi to request missions in other lands. The genin complained because of all the leaf sweeping missions they would be given. The younger chūnin and jōnin felt foolish at the apparent decline in their skills, and the older shinobi wanted to escape the complaints of their juniors.
Of course there were some, like those in charge of genin teams, who treated this time of year as a holiday. With their students having regular, if tedious, missions and the other shinobi vying to take the more dangerous missions the team leaders were able to relax a little.
Asuma and Kurenai took this opportunity to meet for regular meals and, although the entire adult population of Konoha knew what was going on, refused to admit that they were dating.
Gai increased his exercise regime, which was what he considered a holiday. In previous years it had been observed that this was also a time when Gai increased the frequency of challenges with his eternal rival. Except this year it seemed that, if anything, the frequency of challenges had decreased.
Unknown to Konoha two of its shinobi, who were much better at avoiding notice than Asuma and Kurenai, were taking the opportunity to spend as much uninterrupted time together as possible. With the prospect of an unexpected mission almost entirely removed from the equation Kakashi was able to leave a shadow clone in charge of Team 7 so that he could spend some much needed quality time with his favourite chūnin.
Iruka made sure he wasn’t rostered on in the mission room during most of autumn so that he could go straight to his apartment after school finished. Once home he would find his jōnin waiting for him with a fire burning and a bottle of warm sake, and together they would enjoy a free evening and a night spent in each other’s arms.