Steal

SENSEI-

"Sensei, why do they hate me?"

"They don't understand you. They only see what you could be. That is why they fear you."

"But I don't want them to fear me. How… how can I change that?"

"You cannot make them love you. You just need to find a special few people who love you for who you are."

The boy leans against the older man and curls up, trusting, completely innocent. "I don't need anything but you, sensei," he says after a moment, watching the sunset.

The teacher disagrees, slightly guilty, but he tightens his mouth and says nothing.

BOY-

He hates the longer, private class sessions alone with sensei. Sensei claims it's for his own good, but Naruto disagrees. Seals are confusing, and it's when sensei is most likely to get angry. Not shouting angry, but sad angry.

It scares Naruto when sensei gets sad angry. His eyes go distant and his hands begin to shake, even the sound of his name won't get his attention. Then he sighs and tries again to show Naruto how seals work. Naruto tries hard to learn- if it will make sensei happy, the classes are worth it.

It doesn't work. Never does.

SENSEI-

He tries not to hate the boy.

Every time he looks at the boy, he sees his friend's dead eyes staring back at him. Their faces are nothing alike, but the way they smile is identical. And the eyes. He can never escape the eyes.

Promise aside, he thinks he spends time with the boy in a last, desperate attempt to pacify the ghost of his teammate. He wants to see his friend happy one last time, wants to recall a smile untainted by blood and a laugh that isn't an echo of days past.

It doesn't work. Never did.

ANTAGONIST-

The Plan did not go as planned.

The boy was easy enough to persuade. After all, he wanted to be "stronger" and she lied. She promised him everything he wanted- power, love, and acceptance- acceptance, friendship, apathy- if he would only come with her- if he would only follow the path sensei set for them.

But on the threshold, he held back- drew a line in the sand-, his blue- brown? No, stop staring, I didn't mean to kill you!- all serious.

"What about Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asks, looking back over his shoulder.

And the Plan did not go as planned.

SENSEI-

She still loves Orochimaru-sensei. And perhaps that's what sickens him the most. -Don't hate them.-

At first, he only fought out of obligation. But mid-fight the dynamics change. Anko reveals the truth to the boy. "Mizuki never loved you. Why would he? You killed his family. "

Naruto asks, dying a little inside as he does, "Was it all a lie, Mizuki-sensei?"

Mizuki didn't realize how much cared about the boy until he sees Naruto's pain and remembers. -Did you love us at all, Orochimaru-sensei? Or was it another trick?-

No. Never.

And Mizuki proved it with blood and steel.

Lying on the ground, impaled on Anko's nodachi-katana- with his blood staining the earth- snow-and his senses dimming, Mizuki -Iruka- is - not- ready to die. Naruto is safe. He kept his promise to Iruka. Nothing else needs to be said.

Then the clearing explodes into orange shadow clones and Naruto proceeds to deliver a beatdown to Anko.

Iruka used shadow clones too. Just not so bluntly. And not with such obvious glee.

Naruto turns and smiles at Mizuki, an honest, genuine grin. And Mizuki can see.

He sees the blonde boy who hates ramen and stinks at seals, instead of the raven-haired teen who was addicted to ramen and could seal anything around Orochimaru-sensei. He sees innocence instead of cynical optimism, a clean slate instead of a torn piece of paper.

He wonders how he didn't see it before. They were similar, but not identical. Now that he actually looks, the differences between Iruka and Naruto stand out like strokes of a paintbrush differentiating artists.

Iruka, intelligent and compassionate. Naruto, clever and still somewhat immature.

He smiles back.

For the first time since Iruka died, Mizuki can see Naruto the boy and not a flawed copy of his friend.

Baaaaa that was painful. Because each segment except the last was exactly a hundred words. And... oh, yeah:

Tremor: Anko killed Iruka when she left with Orochimaru.

This idea is another Bad Plot Bunny that keeps growing, especially considering who I have as Mizuki's siblings in my head canon (Kotetsu and Tenten) and the fact that Iruka's dead has soo many implications for the Naruto universe. Iruka is a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. He isn't in the foreground much, but from what we know of him it's easy to see that he's involved in a lot of the goings-on backstage, especially when it comes to developing the characters of students.

Obviously, the title is a play on words- Steal, to take without asking, in which Mizuki takes Naruto in out of guilt/some unfulfilled duty he feels to Iruka and gains the bond with Naruto that Iruka would have had if he had lived. Steel, hard cold iron alloy that also happens to be the weapon Mizuki uses the most often and my headcanon surname for him (Hagane Mizuki).

Next time, I hope to touch on the flagrant Obito abuse Kishimoto oh so obviously indulged in. -_-