"Iruka-sensei"
"Iruka-sensei, wake up."
Why the hell was someone shaking his shoulder and calling his name? He wanted to sleep. Someone else could go and teach his damn class, he was calling in sick today.
"Iruka-sensei"
Why wouldn't they just shut up and go away? "Shut up. Go 'way"
"Now Iruka-kun, that's no way to talk to your direct superiors."
Iruka buried his face in his pillow and mumbled, "Screw you. Lemme sleep."
"Umino-san!"
The cold demanding voice sounded too serious to be ignored, so with great reluctance Iruka twisted and stared blearily at the faces above him. His mind finally connected their pictures and voices with names and he shot up in bed, horrified.
He was going to get demoted back to genin.
"I'm so sorry Hokage-sama! I don't know what I was thinking. Please forgive me, I-"
Tsunade interrupted his rambling. "It's alright Iruka-sensei. I'll let you off this time, but don't think you'll get away with talking to your superiors like that when you're well again."
Iruka nodded, relieved at the lack of anger in her voice. Kakashi didn't seem insulted either, if anything, he looked amused. Then something occurred to him and he looked back at Tsunade. "I'm not well?"
The Godaime shook her head. "It seems your skill has a bit of a downside, Iruka-sensei. What is the last thing you remember?"
Iruka thought about it for a moment, he remembered making the trip with Pakkun and coming back and then the extreme tiredness when he re-entered his body. "I remember getting back into my body and keeling over, but nothing after that, Hokage-sama."
"Yes, well, that was yesterday evening. It is now almost midnight again, so you've slept for a night and a day and guessing from your reaction when we tried to wake you, you are still tired."
"Oh," Iruka didn't know what else to say. When he started out with this meditation skill he had worried about his mental health, but he'd never considered the possibility that it might affect him physically.
Something moved near Iruka's blanket-covered toes. Kuma. So he hadn't crushed his cat. That was good.
The tabby stretched languidly, scraping its nails across the blanket and of course getting them stuck in the fabric. Two annoyed pulls later Kuma had his feet back where he wanted them and the blanket had a couple of loose threads. Typical.
"We have a bit of a theory," the Hokage continued. "It seems that in a deep state of meditation you can extend your chakra outside of your body to make it function as an extension of your eyes. We know you remain attached to your body and we think that is the cause of your extreme exhaustion. The further you go the more chakra you use. This wouldn't be a problem if you were like Naruto, with almost endless supplies, but your chakra reserves just aren't that great. When you go too far your body has too little chakra left to function effectively and you damage yourself."
Whoa, that sounded serious, and he'd been going in and out of his body like it was a game. "What form does this damage take, Hokage-sama?" He asked anxiously. What if he'd unknowingly been destroying his organs or something?
"Nothing your body won't be able to fix on its own, Iruka-sensei. Kakashi-san's test has already shown that your body will stop your progress before it becomes life-threatening. Still, we'll have to take this effect into account in your future missions. If you're spying in enemy territory you can't afford to be unconscious for twenty-four hours or more."
No, he couldn't. He'd like to live to see his next birthday if at all possible.
Well… at least he didn't have to worry about accidentally killing himself. If he understood correctly, travelling only a small distance wouldn't harm him. "So the training with Kakashi-san won't be harmful as long as I don't go too far away?" he checked.
Tsunade nodded. "It should be safe, yes. You have already established your limit, so there is no need to repeat that particular exercise anytime soon, any other exercises closer to your body should be fine. Once you're fully recovered, you and Kakashi may resume your training."
Iruka nodded and then yawned. He was still so very tired. He couldn't believe he'd been sleeping for almost twenty-four hours and he still felt like crap.
Tsunade eyed him intensely, curiously, like he was a patient with a particularly interesting and heretofore unknown disease.
It freaked him out.
Finally she shook her head with an expression that was somewhere between amused and amazed. "You've been groomed for this since the day you were born…"
"Excuse me?"
"I've been looking through some of the former Hokage's most secret files, Iruka-sensei, and I had to look very hard, I might add." She paused for a moment, seemingly going for dramatic effect, but went on when Iruka didn't do anything more than blink sleepily. "Seems your talent isn't unique to you personally."
Iruka sat up at those words. There were more people who could do this? People from Konoha? Or, gods forbid, from a rival village?
"How much have your parents told you about their missions for this village Iruka?"
"My parents?" She couldn't possibly mean…they would have told him something, wouldn't they? Surely he would have known somehow? He never saw his parents meditate; they were always working, or teaching him or playing with him.
"Hmm very little it seems." Tsunade muttered. "Not that I expected they would have. You were only a child after all, too young to trust with information that sensitive…"
"The trait runs in your family, Iruka-san," she said bluntly, "on your mother's side."
His mother…Images of family meals and childhood games warred with the image of her bloodied and broken body after it was brought back to the village and Iruka had escaped from the chuunin whose job was to keep him from seeing her.
"Didn't you ever find it strange that the Hokage made so much time for you, when half the village was in shambles and almost half of our capable ninja's was either dead or injured?" Tsunade asked him.
Iruka couldn't say he'd ever actually thought about it like that. He thought the Hokage liked him, cared about him…For a moment he felt horribly betrayed.
But then he remembered.
He remembered sitting on Sandaime's lap as a child and playing with his beard. He remembered showing the man his very first kunai. The looks of affection Sandaime gave him, the pats on his back, the comfort after his parents deaths…there was no deception there. Even if Sandaime had an ulterior motive, that didn't mean he didn't care about Iruka. He did. Iruka knew in his heart that Sandaime cared about him, maybe even loved him. As a person, not as a potential weapon.
Just because Iruka got paid to teach his students didn't mean he didn't care about them.
Just because he wanted to be a comforting influence in Naruto's life, to keep the beast locked inside, didn't mean he didn't love the boy.
He looked at the Godaime calmly. "He cared."
Tsunade nodded absently. "Undoubtedly. He was proud of you. I've read his notes."
She stared at him again. "Tell me, Iruka-kun, why did you decide to become a teacher? I've seen your records, if you had continued your training, you might have made jounin eventually. You're no Shikamaru, but you were certainly cunning enough to be a successful ninja."
Why had he started teaching? He'd sort of just rolled into it through a series of coincidences. He'd just come back from a mission that had gone a little awry. He'd broken his wrist. Not that that was a very serious injury for a ninja… A little chakra healing and a good night's sleep and he'd have been ready to go again. But the Hokage thought he'd screwed up because he was stressed.
Iruka had argued and needled and whined about being forced to take a vacation, he needed money badly if he was to keep his apartment. But the Hokage had been unmovable on the issue. And then that spot for a teacher's assistant had opened up and Sandaime had allowed him to at least try out for that job.
He still thought it was a miracle he'd gotten it. They'd been looking for someone with experience with kids, and other than having been one quite recently, well…he had none.
Still, he'd gotten the job, and he'd liked it. And the kids seemed to like him too.
His forced vacation was only supposed to last for a month, but one of the academy teachers got promoted to be the Hokage's assistant, which left the academy short one teacher. It was his duty as a Konoha ninja to help out where he could. And even though he would have liked to advance in rank, he stayed and taught. After all, the youth of the village is the future.
'Do what you can, and always be loyal to the village.' Loyalty was the most important trait a ninja could have. More important than skill or strength. His parents taught him that, and Iruka lived by it.
He looked up when Tsunade flicked his shoulder. What were they talking about again? Oh right. Teaching… "I like kids" That was all the explanation she needed to hear.
"Hnnn," Tsnuade smirked down at him, with a face that said 'I know something you don't know'.
Iruka was too tired to wonder about it. He yawned.
"Iruka-kun, You need to drink a few cups of water and have something to eat. After that you can go back to sleep. The next time you wake up you should feel fine. If you don't, have me notified." She brushed a strand of her away from his face almost fondly. "Several people will be notified of your new status. No details of course. Someone will be watching over you at all times. You are now one of the most important assets of this village Iruka-kun. Take care of yourself."
Iruka bemusedly watched her leave. The importance of his skill was only just starting to hit home. People were going to be watching over him. Him specifically. He was used to having the faint feeling of being protected by the guards that watched over the village day and night, but he'd never been singled out like this.
Usually he was one of the people who were guarding, rather than being guarded. He was one of the expendable ones, who gave up their life for the sake of others. It felt strange to have the roles turned around like this.
And his mom…his mom must have gone through exactly the same things as he had. Well except for being put in prison of course.
He'd never noticed their house being guarded. He wondered how his father had dealt with his mom being followed around all the time. How the hell did they even manage to have Iruka? Although, he supposed that eventually one would become used to the idea of always having someone watching…
Maybe if his dad had been higher ranked it wouldn't have been necessary for his mother to be guarded very closely…Maybe…maybe his dad wasn't as mediocre a ninja as Iruka had always thought? Of course no kid should ever think about their father as being mediocre… and Iruka felt pretty guilty for doing so…But what was he supposed to think?
His friends' dads had been away from home a lot, and were covered in scars. Iruka's dad didn't have any horrific scars and the few he did have were explained away with stories about little accidents.
Iruka couldn't remember him being gone for days at a time either. His dad left for work and usually came back the same evening. Which was great; Iruka loved his dad. It wasn't something he could brag to his friends about though, and back then having a cool dad seemed more important sometimes than having a reliable one.
It was shocking to realize that he knew so very little about either of his parents. And now he would never have the chance to-
"Here drink this."
A glass of water was shoved under his nose and Iruka looked up, startled. He'd forgotten the jounin was there.
He took a sip of water and only then noticed how thirsty he was. He drained the glass within moments and was surprised when the glass filled itself again. He looked up just in time to see Kakashi make the last signs with his hands.
A mini water-summoning jutsu…Cool. He could use that in class. Or he could have at least…
Maybe he should just go back to sleep; depressing thought seemed determined to creep up on him tonight.
It took another glass of water and a bowl of soup before Kakashi was satisfied enough to let him get back to sleep.
Maybe in the morning Iruka wouldn't feel like an unobservant fool and a crappy son.
It was still dark outside when Iruka woke up again. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked around the room. The pale moonlight coming from the window was just bright enough for him to make out the shadow of a man sitting on a chair on the other side of the room.
He was chewing on a stick.
"Genma-san?"
"Good morning, Iruka-san."
"What are you doing here?"
"Kakashi is finishing up some business," Genma answered his unasked question, "I'm guarding you for the moment."
"Is that really necessary?" Iruka wondered out loud.
Genma's senbon twitched in his mouth as he grinned. "Probably not. Maybe Tsunade thought you'd like someone else to talk to beside our esteemed copy-nin."
Was it just Iruka or did 'esteemed copy-nin' come out sounding somewhat disparaging? "It's always nice to talk to you, Genma-san." Iruka said carefully.
"So…" There was a rather awkward silence before Genma continued. "How has life been treating you?"
Well, that was a loaded question if he'd ever heard one. Objectively speaking he could say…that the last few weeks of his life had been pretty damned bad. But then, they were nowhere near as bad as they could have been and things were looking up for him.
"Pretty good I guess. You?"
Genma twirled the senbon around in his mouth and nodded.
Iruka took that to mean life had been 'pretty good' for the special jounin as well. Whatever that might mean.
"You getting along with Kakashi?"
Iruka smiled. "Yeah, he's been pretty nice so far. He even brought Kuma over for me."
Genma gave a short humourless laugh. "Wow, he's really making quick work of you."
Iruka frowned at the strange comment. "What do you mean?"
"Don't be obtuse Iruka. By the way, I would just go for it. He's certainly attractive enough and he's good too. Lots of experience."
Iruka blinked. Was Genma implying…It certainly sounded like it. But Kakashi hadn't once said or done anything unprofessional so far.
Of course there was that very first night, when the Anbu made him leave his blanket behind. Kakashi had seen him nude then. But that had been for security purposes right? Except didn't Kakashi already suspect by then, that Iruka hadn't done anything? So why then?
And then the jounin had found out that Iruka watched him shower; And he'd been surprisingly forgiving about that…
Did Kakashi think Iruka was simply going to jump into bed with him if the jounin was nice to him? Iruka blushed and scratched the bridge of his nose. He was not some kind of conquest, and he wasn't going to sleep with the man just because he'd brought him his cat and acted like a decent human being-
"Well I guess I'll be going back to my post outside, Iruka-san. Nice talking to you."
With a pop Genma disappeared, leaving Iruka with just his cat and his thoughts for company.
So ummm, yeah, what has it been? Two years? Since I last updated this story? So sorry...hides under a rock
