It took Naruto a minute to process what Sakura had said.
"What do you mean, Sasuke quit the dojo?" He exclaimed, thoroughly shocked at what the pink haired girl had said.
"I mean, he quit. He's not going here anymore. He's changing schools, too," she replied, her voice flat and her eyes trained on the matt they were rolling up. Naruto stopped in his tracks. The trio had been in the same class since they were little. No way Sasuke would just up and leave.
"No way. You must've heard him wrong or something," he said. Sakura paused what she was doing to stare him dead in the eyes, her usually bright green ones dull and void of their usual sparkle.
She sighed deeply. "No. He's gone, Naruto. Just let it go."
A flash of yellow hair flew by the window, catching Iruka's attention. He smiled to himself and continued unrolling the mtt as the bell sounding that someone was entering the building jingled its familiar tune.
"Good morning, Naruto," he greeted the boy.
"Iruka Sensei! Look what I made in school today!" He exclaimed excitedly, holding up a piece of paper in Iruka's face. Iruka took hold of it and backed it away from his eyes. Man, I feel old, he thought as he maneuvered the paper such that his eyes could focus on it. Seventeen was nowhere near old, so he had nothing to worry about, but still. Damn.
The paper was a colorfully drawn picture of several stick figures. Thirteen, in fact. The kid had even labeled them. There was Naruto, next to Naruto was Iruka, and scattered around the page, the other kids in Naruto's general martial arts class; Shikamaru, Sakura (with hearts around her), Sasuke, Ino, Hinata, Neji, Choji (whose body was drawn as a circle, but face held a wide smile), Rock Lee, Tenten, Kiba, and Shino.
Iruka smiled. "This is wonderful, Naruto," he praised the boy, and Naruto grinned and giggled.
"Can you put it up on the wall?" He asked eagerly. Iruka glanced at the growing wall of drawings the kids did. He hesitated for a moment.
"Actually, Naruto, would you mind if I put it on my refrigerator at home?" He asked. For a second, it looked like Naruto was disappointed, but his smile grew wider and he hugged Iruka tightly.
"Okay!"
The bell dinged again and a few kids and their parents entered. It hit Iruka that Naruto didn't walk in with anyone. In fact, he never saw anyone with the kid. He knew that his parents were both in the army and died in service when Naruto was a baby, but he still thought that someone would be looking after him.
Just as the thought ran across his mind, another small boy, slouching with his hands in his pockets, entered the dojo. Sasuke Uchiha. The same age as Naruto, and almost the same circumstances. His parents had died in a car accident the year before, and his brother had disappeared soon after. Some speculated that it was he who caused the accident, but nothing was ever confirmed.
Both boys were in foster care, and Iruka knew neither liked their foster families very much. Their personalities were so very different, and yet they were so alike. Funny how that works.
Soon, all twelve children in the class had arrived. Iruka set the paper on his bag to take home at the end of the day, and began the lesson. Some of the kid's parents stuck around to watch, but a lot of them had work or other responsibilities and had to leave.
Today, Iruka decided to change it up a bit. It would be one on one sparring. He paired kids off- Sakura and Kiba, Ino and Choji, Shino and Neji, Sasuke and Naruto, Shikamaru and Tenten, and Hinata and Lee. He set them up around the room after warmups and wandered around to correct posture and make sure no one really hurt each other- or themselves.
Naruto was having a very difficult time with Sasuke, but Iruka wanted him to have a challage. He knew the kid was capable, just like he was. Iruka himself had become a master of Judo at sixteen, and a Sensei at Hokage Martial Arts dojo a few months before. He taught the young kids basic techniques and skills, and they loved him. Especially Naruto. He took a liking to the blond boy, too, because he was so much like him. Iruka had lost his parents when he was twelve, also while they were serving in the military. He was put in foster care, but was emancipated and now lived in housing provided by the Hokage dojo. Not only was the Hokage- the head of the dojo- exceptionally kind, he was also very wealthy. He made sure his employees were well taken care of.
After the sparring was done, Iruka sat the twelve six to nine year olds in a circle and began the questions. At the end of every lesson, he expected his students to tell him what they had learned that day. This time, he wanted to know something different.
"Alright, kohai," he began, folding his legs under himself, "I want each of you to tell me what you learned about your opponant after this sparring session."
The students exchanged glances. Iruka looked at them expectantly.
Ino was the first to speak up. "Um... Choji is ambidextrous," she said tentatively.
"What's ambidextrous?" Tenten asked.
"It means you use both your hands to do stuff- like write or draw," Neji replied in his usual, unconsciously pretentious manner.
Tenten nodded in understanding. "My dad's ambiguous."
"Ambidextrous, dum-dum," Sasuke corrected.
"Whatever."
Iruka looked pointedly at Neji. "What did you learn about Shino, Neji?"
Neji looked straight at Shino. "Your glasses should get in the way of your fighting, but they don't. Also, you don't position your hands the way most people do, but it works, so, hey."
Iruka nodded. Even he hadn't caught that. Neji was a quick one.
"Very good Neji. What about you, Sasuke?"
Sasuke glanced at Naruto, whose nose was still bleeding from when he accidentally hit him too hard. "Naruto's clumsy and kinda slow. Those goggles are stupid and they don't do anything. His left arm is weaker than his right, and he can't block to save his life."
Iruka sighed as Sasuke went on. For a minute, it looked as if he was going to have to stop Naruto from attacking him. The kid was fuming. But, Sasuke wasn't done.
"You're a knucklehead and you don't ever pay attention. But...when you try you get things really well. That move you used, the one where your hands did that thing that kinda looked like a cross, that was okay, I guess."
Sasuke must have realized he was rambling, because he stopped speaking abruptly. Naruto was a little more than surprised, and Iruka was glad that he didn't have to pull those two apart again.
The rest of the class shared what they had learned. Naruto's wasn't as long or impressive as Sasuke's, just a nasily "his punches hurt," but it was enough. More than he had expected
By the time the class was over, Iruka was thoroughly exhausted. He only had three classes that day, but from the week he'd had, he was exhausted. Dealing with sixty kids ranging in age from three to thirteen was exhausting.
The young judo master grabbed his bag and turned to head out, but a falling paper caught his eye. Oh, he remembered, Naruto's drawing. He smiled fondly as he picked it up. This would go great with all the others.