Disclaimer: I don't own the unparalleled Naruto. I am not making money off this fanfiction story.
A/N: Originally completed 08/28/11. Let me know if I did a good job with the dialogue and cadence of this li'l fic! Please review!
"Learn This Jutsu"
Umino Iruka strode into the classroom and took his place at the front of the class. A third of them were asleep this early in the morning; a third of them were chatting with their friends; and a third of them were actually sitting quietly. Well, that was something.
"We'll start off with the roll call for today," he began.
"A roll call, did he say?" Choji whispered to his friend Shikamaru. The young Nara clansman, who had been trying to catch some Z's, waved his hand around without purpose.
"Yeah, okay," he mumbled into his desk.
"Listen up," Master Iruka called. "Inuzuka Kiba—what did I say?" His bellow succeeded in waking up ten-year-old Kiba, who had been snoozing even with little Akamaru sprawled across his face. The boy sat upright so fast that he nearly threw off his puppy.
"Yes, I'm here today!" he hollered. Even while doing so much sleeping in class, Kiba had grown accustomed to school day's schedule. Iruka frowned at him, then moved on.
"Uchiha—"
"Yes, I'm here," Uchiha Sasuke mumbled from the back row. Iruka paused for a solicitous glance in the boy's direction while he made a mark next to the name. Sasuke hadn't been the same since his clan was slaughtered—who would be? And often Iruka lay awake at night worrying for him. But class had to continue like always, and Iruka moved on in the roll call. It wasn't until after he called out the next name on the list that he realized his mistake. "Uzumaki Naruto, now. Oh, no . . ." he muttered the last two words under his breath. A source of endless headaches to Iruka as usual, Naruto hadn't shown up at the Academy yet.
"He knows he'll never show," Neji muttered to his classmates. The Hyuga boy had said it in a nutshell, but—as though determined to prove them wrong—the maverick cadet himself came skidding into the room right at that moment.
"Am I late yet?" he panted. Glaring down his nose at the ninja-in-training who was currently at the bottom of his class, Iruka bellowed the only word that came to mind.
"NARUTO!"
Master Iruka had his belated student chewed out and seated—pouting—in the corner in no time flat. "Guess he'll behave if the sensei tells him so," Neji observed with a snicker. Iruka completed the rest of the roll without incident, placed his hands on his hips in stereotypical fashion, and faced the class.
"Everyone, listen up. We're learning a new art. We've got a lot to cover, now, and so we'd better start." The students grinned at and whispered among themselves.
"I'll be the one to get it first," Ino promised them. Not everyone believed her, though. While the Yamanaka girl was talented and bubbly, she had a tendency to talk bigger than she could dish out.
"Oh, yeah? I bet I'll be the one!" retorted Kiba, who couldn't let any challenge go unchallenged.
"I-I hope I won't fail it," squeaked Hinata.
"What's the jutsu?" Shino wanted to know.
"Something real fun," Shikamaru answered sarcastically.
"Let's make him proud," whispered Sakura, timid yet earnest.
"Let's sing it loud!" Tenten cried.
"I'll beat you all—you'll see!" Naruto vowed, despite the fact that many glares were being directed his way.
"All right, students, eyes on me," Iruka called. "You're going to learn a jutsu. Not just any jutsu—art of transformation: henge no jutsu! Work hard, each and every one of you, and you'll learn this new jutsu." To teach by doing, he took a shinobi stance in front of the class, his hands in the kata of hitsuji to concentrate. "Now, stand up tall and plant your feet. Focus your chakra deep within."
" 'Focus our chakra deep within'?" repeated Choji, as though he weren't sure he could do it.
"Like that'll ever work," muttered Shikamaru, pessimistic as ever.
"Begin!" Iruka commanded his class. The more confident students copied Iruka's instructions without hesitation; the less gifted students rather clumsily imitated their sensei's stance.
Naruto was in the latter group. His whole body was tense, and his face was twisted in concentration. "I don't get it," he mumbled to himself. Sasuke, standing next to him in perfect form, said impatiently of their sensei,
"He just said it!" He glanced sidelong at Naruto and jibed, "You think it's hit or miss?"
Iruka clapped his hands to get his students' attention. "I know you can master this!" he encouraged them.
"Work hard to learn this jutsu . . ." began Iruka-sensei.
"If he can learn this jutsu . . ." Naruto whispered to himself.
"And you'll learn this jutsu," Iruka pointed out the obvious.
"I can learn this jutsu!" Naruto finished, his eyes radiating determination.
"Listen well and try hard," Iruka admonished them all for the hundredth time. "It's not hard to do. You are ninja cadets—all of you. You can learn this new jutsu. First, you have to cast the right progression of katas," Iruka began to explain. "So form your hands like this." He put the flat of his left hand atop the fist of his right hand. "First, the dog. Inu!"
"Is this sign new?" Kiba wondered aloud to the student next to him. Lee, who was having trouble, too, shrugged self-consciously.
"Hah!" Naruto exclaimed aloud, obeying his sensei for once and making a hand sign.
"And next in line," Iruka went on, "we have the sign for boar: I!" He pressed his palms together with his fingers all curled in.
"It's too easy," muttered Neji. It was difficult to tell if he was bored or just bragging.
"Yyyah!" Naruto shouted as he formed a new kata.
"Finally, the sheep: hitsuji!" Iruka finished, indicating to them all how to fold their hands with the first two fingers of each pointing up.
"I'll show you how good I can be!" Naruto hollered. He finished the sign line-up and disappeared into smoke poof.
"If he gets this, I'll eat my hat," Iruka remarked in an exasperated but fond sort of way.
"I think I almost have it!" Kiba called as he formed hitsuji. But either his katas were poorly executed or his chakra was insufficiently focused, because nothing spectacular happened. "Drat!" he mourned his failure to transform in any way or shape.
Naruto, who was out of the haze now, had a strange, lumpy twin lying next to him. "Sensei?" he called timidly, raising his hand. "My clone is big and fat."
Iruka didn't know which to be more angry about: Naruto's pathetic attempt at a doppelganger jutsu, or the fact that his student hadn't even been paying attention to the lesson plan. "Naruto, we're not LEARNING that!" he burst out before clapping his palm over his eyes in vexation.
"Though he can't learn this jutsu," Sasuke interjected smugly, "I can learn this jutsu!" He smirked at Naruto without breaking his stance. "Just sit back and watch me, and you'll see it's true! I'm the top of the class—you're the worst!" With all the insults fired in his direction, Naruto was shaking with infuriation now. "I can learn this jutsu first!"
"I can so learn this jutsu!" Naruto howled, taking a stance that he didn't seem to realize was merely a copy of Sasuke's.
"He'll never learn this jutsu," Sasuke sighed aloud to the general vicinity.
"I'll master this jutsu!" snarled Naruto.
"It's something he can't do," Sasuke added.
Iruka moved into the middle of their fight to break it up. Until now, he had allowed it to progress because Naruto tended to improve while Sasuke was around to mock him. But now rivalry was disintegrating into rage, and the rest of the students were getting distracted. "Come on, boys—enough, now," he ordered them. The words couldn't have fallen on more deaf ears. Naruto was, at that very moment, still screaming at his classmate.
". . . 'Cause I will beat you!"
Sasuke smiled down at Naruto in a positively patronizing way. "Guess I'll help you out," he decided indulgently, "and show you how to perform this jutsu." He crouched low and formed the hand signs Iruka had just taught them. His speed was amazing—almost equal to Iruka-sensei's.
"Ooh, I'll get you!" Naruto hissed to himself. He hurried to try the jutsu again, too.
"I'll perform this jutsu now!" Sasuke announced to the teacher and classmates. As he said it, a cloud of smoke sprang up around him. Not long after, a second cloud hid Naruto from view.
When the two clouds cleared, a smirking Iruka, arms folded, stood in Sasuke's place.
Naruto had made a clone again.
= The End =