Umino Iruka liked to consider himself a thoughtful, reasonable man, the kind of man that examined both sides of the issue before making a decision.
This view of himself is the only that keeps him from striding into T&I headquarters and punching Morino Ibiki in the face when word gets out that the man is training Naruto.
Iruka looked over the reports (after calling in a few favors.) He knows in this case training involves torturing.
Still, he prided himself on being a logical man, one that didn't rush into things.
So he doesn't indulge himself and try to punch that Morino bastard.
Instead he goes straight to the source: Uzumaki Naruto.
"Naruto, we need to talk after class."
The girl nods and doesn't rise when the final bell rings, instead waving off Sakura and Sasuke when they linger at the doorway.
Iruka would be proud of her for making friends, he would. Except he can't be proud, because one friend is being trained with her and the other has a father that will kill him when word gets out that his youngest son is socializing with Ibiki's newest recruits.
"What is it, sensei?" the girl asks, beaming up at him.
Iruka pauses at that, because for all his talk about being thoughtful he has no idea how to start.
He wants to ask her just what the fuck she thinks she's doing, but he's not about to curse in front of a child.
"Naruto," he eventually starts, "how long have the shinobi at T&I been training you?"
"Eh," the girl scrunches up her face in thought, "about a year? They only made it formal a few months ago."
A year. A year Naruto's been learning from Torture and Interrogation's finest and he hasn't noticed. A fucking year!
He pushes aside the guilt he feels for not noticing the change and focuses back at the task at hand.
"And why," he asks, "did they start training you in the first place?"
"Well-" she says, and Iruka already knows he's not going to like this, "I found the building and got in because I wanted to know what was inside."
"You...you wanted to know what was inside?"
"Yep! And Ibiki-sensei and the others were nice when I visited, so I figured they could help. You see, I knew you wouldn't try to sabotage me, but I figured the other teachers would."
The girl has a point. Still, how did it go from academics to torture?
"And how did it move from academics to killing and torturing?" he asks, doing his best to stay calm.
He clenches his teeth when Naruto shrugs.
"I don't know? They knew I wanted to be a shinobi and I guess they wanted me to have a head start? Doesn't matter anyway, it's fun."
"Fun?"
"Yeah," the girl nods enthusiastically, "it's fun. I like sparring and learning about poisons and practicing my seals. Taking people apart and killing them is really easy too.
The little girl with the sun bright smile and shining blue eyes likes these things, finds them easy.
He knows he's going to regret asking, but- "And how does Sakura fit into all this?"
She shrugs again.
"I could tell, you know? I could tell she was like me. And she's really smart and talented and I thought it would be nice to have someone else learning with me."
A kindred spirit. That's why Sakura is learning from them, that's why the hokage had to placate angry civilians. Naruto wanted a friend like her.
He digs the heel of his palm into his forehead, ignoring Naruto's concerned gaze.
"Anyways" the girl switches topics, "it's not like I'm going to drop out or anything."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, Jiji said we could train only if we waited until being made chuunin to make a choice about what we'd do. So we'll still be on a genin team and still take the exams."
Huh. That's actually better than he had hoped. He doesn't know about Sakura, but he knows Naruto craves adventure and action. She's sure to find active missions more exciting than a life spent at T&I.
Still-
"Naruto, for the sake of my sanity, please do one thing."
"Of course, sensei."
"Please, please don't drag Sasuke into T&I with you."
Iruka startles at the sudden silence before looking down into guilty eyes.
Oh, fuck.