Chapter Text
In the confinement of the hospital, Kakashi closes his eyes, instinctively keeping an eye out for the moving chakra signatures around him. The constant flow of people walking around provides him a distraction and white noise to stop his overthinking brain.
On any other day, he might’ve been planning an escape route, but he was really feeling the effects of a destabilising jutsu that affected his chakra network. It ached just trying to move. Though that hadn’t stopped his previous escapes, he thought wryly. At least he was feeling better than yesterday, he huffs in annoyance.
In the Hokage’s office, Tsunade sighs. The brat just had to get his chakra pathways shattered, and she spent a helluva time just stabilising his fragile chakra system. She didn’t trust him to keep himself in bed, probably too stubborn to stay confined for the long recovery period he desperately needed for a successful recovery.
Suddenly, an idea struck her.
Thinking of annoying brats… she had heard from Naruto that Iruka was quite strict on him during his Academy days, as well as the fact that there was a secret tryst going on between Naruto’s senseis from the rumour mill.
Well, it's good that she knows a certain Academy teacher who has a lot of experience wrangling brats. She grins, satisfied with her stroke of genius.
The Godaime signals to a nearby ANBU stationed at the window, and a masked figure kneels in front of her with a flicker.
“Hawk, get Iruka-sensei in here.”
“Yes, Hokage-sama.” The cloaked man nods and swiftly flickers out.
“At least that brat won’t die from stubbornness now,” Tsunade murmurs with a shake of her head. She doesn’t know how many times she's saved him from dying following her inauguration as Hokage anymore.
“Umino-sensei, the Hokage requires your presence.” An ANBU relays to him at the edge of his classroom window.
Iruka startles at the sudden summons and glances back to his class, who are utterly intrigued by an ANBU’s presence.
There are a lot of ooohs and murmurs that fill the once quiet classroom, and Iruka just huffs in exasperation.
“Well, could you handle my class for a minute, ANBU-san?” The teacher inquires, schooling his expression to hide his amusement from showing. For many in his rank, it was futile to hide their minute expressions from elite shinobi like ANBU, but Iruka had a few instances at T&I during his youth and was pretty good at schooling his face into seemingly natural ones.
Although the ANBU’s facial expression was covered by their mask, the subtle twitch of their hands and body language didn’t go unnoticed by Iruka. “Sure.” The hawk-looking mask replied coolly.
As Iruka left the classroom, he could hear the boisterous noises coming from his students, questioning and prodding at the ANBU with such intensity and fervour. He smirked; that ANBU sure wouldn’t know what hit them. Unleashing pre-genin at unknowing elite shinobi was kind of cruel, but it was also amusing.
“Hokage-sama, you asked for me?” Iruka inquires.
As the Godaime glances up to him from her large stack of papers, she smiles.
“Ah, yes, Iruka-sensei, I have a mission for you.”
The chuunin quirks an eyebrow, silently prompting her to continue.
“You see, a certain jounin keeps on making the med-nin and hospital staff’s jobs harder, as well as his own, and I need you to take care of him.” She continues, folding her hands together to rest on her chin.
“See your mission through ‘till the end, and ensure that he is recovered enough to my standards. I will visit occasionally to check up on the progress.” As Tsunade finishes, she throws a scroll to him, which Iruka catches instinctively.
As Iruka reads the mission details, his eyes widen in surprise.
“Hatake Kakashi!?” Iruka shouts in shock.
“Yes. Any problems?” She asks threateningly.
“I-, what about my job at the Mission Desk or at the Academy?” Iruka questions.
“Don’t worry, I have that covered, so you’re free to see your mission through, which is effective immediately. He’s probably at the hospital, but if he isn’t, report back to me, and I’ll have… a few words with him.”
“Yes, Tsunade-sama. Though, could I ask why I was chosen for this specifically?” Iruka stumbles out.
His Hokage lets out a thoughtful hmmm before replying. “If you can handle almost 30 pre-genin, I think you’re proficient enough to handle one Hatake Kakashi. I also heard that you guys have been frequently exchanging letters?”
Iruka flushes, thinking about how the Copy-Nin would occasionally give him letters from Naruto at the Mission Desk when he was handing in his reports or sometimes at Ichiraku, where they would talk about Naruto’s progress and exchange stories about him. The sparse interactions he had with the man were nice, and usually brought him to a more content mood after reading Naruto’s letters and knowing that he was doing well.
Tsunade simply smiles at his expression.
“Am I wrong?”
He shakes his head. It was probably best that he didn’t tell people about Naruto’s letters so he wouldn’t be in danger, however slim the chance.
“Great. You are dismissed.”