Duties of a Sensei
A man with a large scar across the bridge of his nose watched as the children filed out of the building where they'd just spent the last four hours trying to be still and attentive. Upon reaching the open air of the schools courtyard he wasn't surprised to hear them yell for joy. Mixed in with the laughter were a few groans from those who had more hours of forced inactivity to look forward to as soon as they reached their homes. A cluster soon formed at the courtyard gates as kids waited for their parents or chaperones to pick them up.
Iruka watched as one by one the crowd thinned out until there was only one little boy left. His bright orange jumpsuit made him hard to miss but the child didn't buy his own clothes so it really wasn't his fault. The Hokage had asked Iruka to pay special attention to the child as long as he was on the school grounds so every day when the children were dismissed Iruka took a post by the window and watched his children leave for the evening. Now he watched as the child walked slowly to the swing and sat down. He knew from experience that he'd spend the evening on the swing and would only leave when the sun had set. But Iruka stayed at his post watching the trees behind the swing set. There. A flash of black amongst the green leaves. He turned and made his way back to his desk. He had papers to grade.
An hour later and he was done. Just as he set the last paper aside he heard a scream from the direction of the swing set. He turned his head towards the window but continued to gather his things so he could finally head home for the day. When he had all his belongings he walked to the door of his classroom and turned off the lights before leaving. Once he opened the outer doors he heard the rustle that only came from someone trying to be small and inconspicious. He turned his head towards the sound and let his eyes get accustomed to the darkness.
Across the courtyard he heard angry mutterings. It was hard to make out the individual words but from the sounds, Naruto must have given them the slip. Good that meant he'd be in class tomorrow if Iruka could get him safely away from the school.
Quietly he said, "Come on Naruto. Let's get you home before they figure out where you went."
He felt a small hand slip into his and started walking towards the gate. He walked with the child slowly. Every few minutes they'd stop and watch the shadows for patches of darkness that didn't belong. But it was still a surprise when someone stepped right in front of them preventing Iruka from turning the corner that lead to Naruto's run down apartment.
"Take him elsewhere, Sensei. He can't go home right now," the shadow whispered.
Without a word Iruka turned and led Naruto back the way they had come. They stuck close to the walls of the buildings lining the street and at every corner they stopped while Iruka made sure the way was clear for them. He knew that if they got caught Naruto would not be the only one getting hurt tonight. Finally they made it to Iruka's place and they shuffled inside as quickly as they could. Once inside he got a good look at Naruto. A black eye was forming nicely and he had blood trickling from his nose and mouth. Without a word Iruka pointed the way to the bathroom and Naruto went to clean up. They'd done this routine before so as Naruto cleaned himself up Iruka wen to see what he had to feed the child tonight. He found some left over fried rice and heated it up before putting it on a plate and setting it out with a pair of chopsticks. For himself he heated some leftover soup and was just pouring it into a cup as Naruto came back from the bathroom. When they'd finished eating Iruka pointed to his small living area and Naruto sighed. He knew Iruka was telling him to get on his schoolwork but like most children he hated schoolwork. His feet dragged as he pulled himself to the shelves where Iruka kept a copy of his textbooks for just this kind of situation. Naruto pulled out his Japanese language book and grabbed an empty scroll and brush with ink. He took his things back to the kitchen table and set to work on the assignment he was supposed to do for the next day. Being only six years old his handwriting was not the best but he tried. Iruka watched over his efforts and wasn't surprised when a small pink tongue poked from a corner of his mouth. He formed each letter slowly and carefully so he would make as few mistakes as possible. Mistakes meant having to restart and he didn't want to use any more of Iruka's supplies than necessary to get the assignment done. Adults got mad when Naruto made mistakes and so far Iruka had been nice to him. He didn't want that to change. Soon his head began to droop and his eyes drifted closed.
Iruka took the brush out of his hand and moved the scroll away. Then he picked the child up and carried him to the guest bed. He tucked him in and went back to clean up before turning in himself.
Just as he put the last of the books away there was a knock at his door. Iruka waited before opening it. When he had Naruto in his apartment there was a pre-arranged signal for anyone to use if they were friendly. And if they weren't well, he definitely didn't want to open the door to them. All his friends knew that if he didn't open the door to their knock to give the coded knock. So he simply stood and waited for it. And waited. Straining his ears he tried to hear what was outside his door. He heard rustling but couldn't tell how many were out there. Then something came flying threw his kitchen window and he flashed through the signs for the panic jutsu he'd been taught when the Hokage asked him to be part of the group of adults watching over Naruto. From his guest room he heard more broken glass and sprinted to reach the sleeping child before anyone made it into the room. Grabbing Naruto from the bed he ran back to his living room just as the Anbu squad showed up. He laid Naruto on his couch and pointed to his kitchen and guest room. The squad split up and he heard the sounds of fighting from both rooms. Naruto stared at Iruka with big blue eyes but didn't make a sound. He knew to stay quiet and still. Iruka got down on his knees and put one hand on his head while he put the other on Naruto's tummy. Naruto may have been six years old but he was the size of an average four year old. Silently he mouthed, "You're safe now. Anbu is here."
Naruto's eyes widen for a brief second before he nodded. Now why had his eyes widened at the mention of the Anbu squad? Naruto knew Anbu watched over him. Just then Iruka felt someone behind him. And it was a friendly feeling. He started to turn just as a piercing pain entered his shoulder. He reacted automatically. Pushing his chakra out of his back he made a defensive shield around himself. He could feel the blood trickling from the wound in his shoulder but turned to face his attacker anyway. He was only a chunnin and he knew himself to be seriously outmatched against Anbu troops but yet he was all that stood between Naruto and serious pain now. He had to try to protect the child. There was no one else.
He stood up and ran through all the jutsus he knew trying to find one that would defend the two of them and hurt the attackers without tearing up his home. He felt the small arms grab onto his back and smiled. Naruto had figured out that his teacher was going to fight and by being on his back, he made it a little easier as Iruka would only have to shield one spot instead of two. Flaring his chakra again Iruka forced the defensive shield to encompass them and hooked his hands under Naruto's legs. An attacker tried to get in close but the shield forced them back before they could strike at Iruka.
The fight began in earnest as the attackers realized Iruka wouldn't just let them beat the child up. He fought as hard as he could sending attackers flying back out his broken front door and threw the livingroom window whenever he could. But he knew he was losing. There were just too many of them and they were trying to protect anything where he was. Finally he edged close enough to the window to jump through and ran down the street as quickly as he could. He stuck to the shadows and tried to think of where to go but he wasn't the expert at running from angry mobs that Naruto was.
Trying to make as little noise as possible he asked Naruto, "Where to? Where can we go?"
Naruto pointed to the Hokage's tower. The words formed in Iruka's head. "The Old Man is waiting for us."
Iruka took off for the tower. He never noticed the black shadow that trailed them to the semi-hidden entrance. Nor did he notice the bodies laid out on the sidewalk as that shadow encountered trouble-makers.
Finally they made it to the Hokage's office and sure enough the old man was waiting for them. "Put him down in here Iruka," he said.
A small bed was in a hidden room off the Hokage's office. There was also a dresser and a night-stand with bandages and medicines arranged on it's surface. It was sparse but as soon as Iruka had put Naruto down the child ran across to the bed. He had obviously been here many times before. Iruka watched as Naruto pushed aside the pillow and pulled out an old-weather beaten dog-eared book. Smiling, the child brought it to the Old-Man. Iruka was stunned. The child had a beautiful smile. He didn't notice the Saratobi looking at him as he watched Naruto. Naruto for his part ignored Iruka and settled into Saratobli's lap with his book. Saratobi held the child and gently rocked back and forth as one would with a small child. Soon Naruto's eyes closed and Saratobi motioned for Iruka to come pick him up. Before Iruka could move a man in black with a mask covering his face poofed in and took the child. Iruka reacted. He slid into a fighting stance and then noticed Sartaobi's motioning him to be at ease as the man in the mask moved towards the bed in the hidden room. Iruka watched the stranger tuck the child in and come out. Saratobi closed the door and then said, "Take off the mask, Kakashi. You're scaring Iruka."
Kakashi took off his mask and hung it from a hook at his waist. We have some worms in the Anbu corps. They attacked the child at the school grounds. I think they just got lucky finding him at Iruka's place but when he sounded the panic alarm they knew for sure where he was."
"So what happened exactly? It doesn't look like they managed to hurt him this time."
Kakashi laughed. "Your teacher here knows some good moves. One that might get him in trouble with the Hyuuga clan if they find out about it, but he got hurt before he realized the Anbu at his place weren't friendly. He shielded both himself and Naruto from the mob and got out of there as quick as he could."
Saratobi looked at Iruka, pride in his gaze. "Thank you Iruka. I'm sure Naruto is glad you were there tonight also."
"They tore up my home trying to hurt him. It's the least I could do. And which move will make the Hyuuga clan angry?"
Kakashi smirked. " That shield thing you did at your place. It's very similar to their Katon, you know but you didn't have to help him get away from them at the school. You could have walked away and left him hiding in the buildings shadows."
Now it was Iruka's turn to smirk. "No I couldn't. He's one of my students and it's my duty to protect my students until they are off school grounds. It was my duty to get him away from them."
