AN: What's this? A Naruto story that isn't about Itachi and Sasuke? Surprised? Well if your not, I am. I never thought that I'd ever be owriting a fanfic about Naruto himself and most especially Iruka Sensei. But I am, because I just love Iruka. Not as much I love Itachi but I still love him to bits and his relationship with Naruto is adorable.
"You wanted to see me, Lord Third?"
"Ah yes, Iruka. Right on time as usual." Sarutobi greeted the Academy Instructor kindly. "Tell me, how are you? Have your wounds been healing properly?"
Iruka Umino nodded. "Yes, Lord Third. I'm doing much better. Thank you for asking." True, his wounds were healing, his back -having taken a severe blow with Mizuki's giant shuriken- still sent stinging pain down his spine whenever he bent down, but apart from that minor detail, the 22 year old was fine. The Third Hokage smiled at him.
"That's good to hear. And Naruto?"
Iruka smiled at the mention of that name. "He's fine too, I made sure he didn't receive any injuries from Mizuki." Sarutobi then turned around and faced his circular window, he had a clear view of the whole Village from here and even so high up he could see. Everything. "Wounds weren't my concern when it comes to that child, Iruka."
Iruka furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Lord Third?"
"How is he coping now that he knows the Nine Tailed Fox is sealed inside of him?"
The Academy Instructor gaped at the question. That thought never crossed his mind, after he made Naruto a gēnin, the boy didn't looked bother at all that he had a demon inside him, though that could be the fact that Naruto was too overjoyed at becoming a ninja to think about something like that.
The Hokage let out a puff of smoke from his smoke pipe. "That boy must have mixed feelings about knowing just why the people around him hate him so much. On the one hand he's happy that he finally has an answer, but on the other he feels angry at the people who give him such a cold stare when it's not his fault." The old man stared at his village down below. "Though there are some who think he's a decent kid." He paused to turn his head toward Iruka and gestured him to come stand by his side. "Most still feel rage."
Iruka looked towards just what the Hokage was seeing. There, in the streets of the Leaf Village, he saw people gathered around one of the many shops they had. Someone must be causing a commotion. He squinted his eyes and saw that the very person was Naruto, himself. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead. When will that kid learn to stop causing trouble? He's a ninja now, he can't waste his time with such childish pranks. Not that I now have any room to talk about pranks.
"GET OUT OF MY SHOP!"
Iruka jumped at the sere loudness of the voice. Even from this high up, the voice sounded as though it was yelled right outside the door. Looking at down at the crowd, he saw one of the shop keepers yelling at Naruto. Then the owner slammed the kid to the ground.
A sudden rush of anger boiled inside Iruka. "Hey!" He said to no one in particular as he bolted from the Hokage's office and down towards the shopping markets. Running down the slightly damp path, it sounded as if he could hear Naruto's grunts of pain from this far away.
"GET OFF ME, YOU SLEZY UNIBROW! I don't care how much you people hate me because I have a demon in me! I'm not someone you can treat like dirt anymore! I'M A HUMAN BEING!" Iruka heard Naruto yell out. He ran faster. Pushing through the small crowd he saw the knucklehead laying flat on his stomach with his face in the wet mud.
"I said get lost!" The own keeper said as he gave Naruto a good kick to the stomach. His eyes widened in shock at this unnecessary act of cruelty.
"Naruto!" He called out as he rushed forward and knelt down in front of the child curled up in a ball. "Hey, are you alright?" His voice held worry and a gentleness that he had no idea he could have possessed with the Fourth Hokage's son. Iruka turned his head and glared at the man. "What gives you the right to harm this boy? He's done nothing to you." The 22 year old gently placed his arms around the Naruto and maneuvered him to where his head was laying against his chest.
The store keeper scoffed and folded his arms. "He was trying to take some of my Raman cups without paying. Anyway, why do you care? Iruka? I thought you hated the boy as much as the rest of us."
That statement made him pause. Hate Naruto? Did he?
Back when he first became his teacher, Iruka ignored him because that was how he thought it be best to deal with the blue eyed jinchūriki. No, that wasn't hate, that was confusion. True, he had every right to feel ill towards the child. But Naruto didn't do anything wrong. The demon sealed inside Naruto however. That was what he scared of.
"Sensei-niisan?" Iruka froze and jerked his head and looked at the twelve year old that lay against him. Nii-san? Did I just hear him right? Did he just call me his brother? He looked at his students pained, unconscious face.
Iruka smiled fondly. Slowly he stood up with Naruto still tucked safely against him. "No, I hate the fox, but the boy." He tightened his hold on his charge ever so slightly. "I don't hate the boy. I could never hate Naruto, he and the rest of my students are more important to me then any of you will ever know." Iruka said with determination and confidence. "What happened to our village 12 years ago wasn't his fault. And if we are the good people of the Leaf Village like the other nations say we are, then we shouldn't judge this kid for something he had no control over."
His eyes darted around the crowd of people, some looked annoyed at being accused of such a crime, some looked guilty as if Iruka's words made them see that he was right, and some looked as if they didn't care at all. Iruka shook his head and walked away.
People were gazing at him as he passed by other shops. But he ignored them. "Iruka Sensei?"
Looking down he saw Naruto's eyes flitter open and stare straight into his own. They began to close but then Naruto jerked them back open. The kid was on the brink of passing out again. "C'mon, let's go back to my place and get you cleaned up. You're a mess." Iruka tried to tease. But the kid didn't seem to be paying attention to his words at all. So the rest of the way was spent in silence.
Fishing his keys out Iruka opened the door to his apartment and closed the door. Carefully he placed Naruto on the counter of his kitchen by the sink, wetting a folded wash cloth he slowly began cleaning Naruto's muddy face. Through the whole 2 minutes of him getting the mud out of the blonde hair and white face, Naruto avoided his gaze entirely.
Iruka frowned. He never liked it when Naruto was quiet. It was so uncharacteristically of him to stop talking. To not be jabbering up a storm with his cries of becoming Hokage one day. "Sensei?"
The Academy Instructor paused and looked at his student. "What is it, Naruto?"
The gēnin interlaced his hands together as his shoulders tensed and he bowed his head, in almost shame. "Did... You really mean what you said to that nasty shop keeper? That I'm important to you?"
Iruka was surprised at the way Naruto looked. He looked so small, even though he was a tall twelve year old and talked a big game, in this moment he looked more like a scared little kid. A hesitate kid afraid of rejection. Just like how I was. If it hadn't been for the Third.
His heart silently broke for his student- No, his brother. Iruka smiled sadly. Raising his hand, Iruka gently placed it on top of the boy's blonde hair. Funny, from first glance you'd think his hair would hurt if you touched it, but it's actually really soft. Iruka thought as he slowly petted said hair. Naruto, surprised by the contact stiffened for just a few moments. "All my student's are important to me, Naruto. All of them. But-" He paused as he realized that yes, he thought very highly of all his students, even Choji, Shikamaru and Kiba. But Naruto.
"Between you and me. Your my favorite.."
Finally after avoiding his gaze this whole time, the knucklehead ninja looked up at his Sensei in shocked. His blue eyes full of hope and disbelief. "Really?" Naruto said his voice just above a whisper.
The 22 year old smiled yet again, as his petting stilled. "Yes, you've become my favorite student. You work so hard everyday and night with your training, maybe more then anyone else does." Naruto's eyes stared to fill with tears at Iruka's words. "Not only that, but you are kind hearted, empathic and strong-willed. When someone's sad you know the minute you see, even if their sadness is not exactly like yours. You, Naruto still understand that they are in pain."
The tears fell then. A orphan twelve year old gēnin bowed his head as to hide, knowing that shinobi's weren't allowed to cry, the salty water dripped onto his hands and his Sensei saw them anyway. "I-Iruka Sensei... I don't-"
Know how this works. The 22 year old thought. And it was true, Naruto didn't know how this worked. He wasn't use to someone caring about him, wasn't use to someone saying such nice things to him or someone telling him that he was important to that certain someone, for he had been alone and hated for twelve miserable years. And because of all that the jinchūriki didn't know how to approach Iruka. He didn't know what was okay to do or say and what was not.
Which is also something else they had in common. "Shh, it's okay. Naruto." Iruka said in the same gentle voice he used earlier. Then he, without any hesitation, enveloped the young boy in a comforting hug.
Naruto stiffened, which was what Iruka had expected him to do. Rubbing the gēnin's back Iruka attempted to break down the barriers Naruto had built around himself to keep from getting hurt. "You don't have to keep that mask on, Naruto. You can let it fall around me if you want."
5 seconds passed. Then Iruka felt small, short arms cling to him as if his life depended on it. "S-Sensei-nii-san! Sen..." A choked sob escaped him. "Nii-san! Nii-San!"
Iruka felt break as he witness Naruto going from a respectful ninja -who always called his teachers Sensei and nothing else- to a broken child who just want someone to need him. A brother of some shape or form. One who understood him.
There were many different reasons why Naruto was jealous of Sasuke when they first met, one of them was Sasuke had that, that endless love only an older sibling has for the younger.
Naruto didn't, at the time.
The Academy Instructor tightened his hold on the boy as he felt the small form start shake uncontrollably. "Shh, I'm here, Naruto. I'm right here, you'll never have to be afraid of being alone ever again."
His 'brother' clung all the harder. "T-Thank you! T-Thank you! For b-being here! Thank you!" Naruto cried out sounding both happy and broken at the same time.
Iruka smiled as he continued to hold the twelve year old close to him. Closing his eyes he ran a hand through the child's blonde hair. Wanting to shield him from the rejection of the Village, with Iruka- Naruto was safe, protected, at least for the time being.
"Your welcome, Naruto."
Sarutobi smiled as he watched the touching scene with the 22 year old Chūnin and his charge through his crystal ball. He nodded, knowing that he had made the right choice when he placed the young boy into Iruka's care. He knew that those two would have an instant connection, even if they weren't aware of it before, they however were now. They even have step passed Sarutobi expectations. They weren't just a Sensei and Student. They now were a family.
Turning his head to gaze at two pictures he kept of the wall a few feet away from him. "What do you think, Minato? I wonder. Do you and Kushina think of Iruka as second child? Did you both, perhaps plan that Iruka to be so caring about your son so much? Did you two help open up Naruto's heart so that he could let Iruka's love embrace him as you both would?"
The pictures, of course, stayed silent. Sarutobi smiled away. And closed his eyes.
"Yes.." He said as he opened them again and gazed at the ceiling. A feeling of sad nostalgia washed over him.
"Yes, I like to believe that you two both did."
AN: I plan to write more of Iruka and Naruto. Plan. I don't know if I'll have the time.
Please take a few seconds to review and tell me what you thought of this little Drabble.
They are much appreciated.