Umino Iruka sighed as he looked through Naruto's test paper. The boy got every question wrong, except the ones involving the Hokages.
The boy was considered a dead last for a reason, having failed the academy graduation test twice. This would be his last attempt. The next semester had already begun and he had mostly eight months left.
The boy was headstrong and stubborn to a fault so Iruka believed he would pass, but seeing this result made Iruka second guess his statement. This would be his last chance. Anyone who fails the graduation test thrice would be banned from ever taking it again.
After all, someone who would fail to henge, kawarimi and to make a bunshin along with the academic portion of the exam would not deserve a place in the ninja world.
Even for the deadlast, Naruto was behind. Far behind for being a 11 year old. It wasn't a surprise considering the boy had no one to teach and had to practically raise himself after the age of four.
After he finished grading the last paper, Iruka decided to go check up on the blonde. By this time, the boy would be either indulging in pranking people or would be consuming ramen at an unholy rate.
Sending out a chakra pulse, he easily located Naruto, after all, his chakra was practically like a bright beacon in the night sky.
Iruka made the hand seal for a shunshin and disappeared, leaving a swirl of leaves behind.
He landed behind a tree. He quickly climbed atop it and sat on a branch. Naruto was lying a few feet away from the Chūnin teacher, in a small clearing.
He seemed to be in deep thought, something that took Iruka by surprise. His eyes narrowed and he bit his lip, trying to fight away tears - although Iruka couldn't tell clearly.
He suddenly stood up and rushed at the nearest tree with a yell. The boy started punching the tree. Iruka watched on worriedly as his young (and favourite) student punched again and again, till his knuckles started to bleed.
This went on for what seemed to be hours before Naruto gave up and collapsed. Tears streamed down the boy's face as he clutched his bleeding fists. Although the wounds quickly healed, Naruto didn't seem to notice them.
Iruka dropped down from the tree and walked closer to the boy who was whispering to himself. He masked his
chakra and made his movements silent.
"Damn it! Why am I so weak?! How am I going to become Hokage at this rate?! How will I get all the villagers to acknowledge me now?!" The boy clutched a fist full of his hair in frustration.
Sometimes, Iruka forgets that even if the boy is always positive, yelling about becoming the greatest hokage, he is still a child. A child who has always been alone with no one to help. Seeing the boy have a breakdown, Iruka was reminded of this fact. And seeing his clown persona shatter and his tears fall made Iruka realise that the boy and him were similar.
Very similar.
Iruka couldn't help it. He walked closer to Naruto who was suddenly alerted of his presence. Naruto quickly turned around and rubbed at his eyes vigorously, trying to dry his tears.
He adopted a wide grin, "hey Iruka-sensei! What are you doing here?!" Iruka walked closer to the boy and dropped Infront of him.
"Are you okay Iru-" Naruto couldn't finish his sentence as Iruka grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.
"It must have been hard, right? You were so lonely, right? I'm sorry I didn't notice it sooner! I'm sorry I didn't help you sooner! You aren't alone anymore! You don't have to be alone anymore!"
Naruto's lip quivered. He clutched Iruka's chunin vest and returned the hug. He let himself cry freely in the embrace of another.
Hugs were nice. Today, Naruto learned he liked hugs.
Iruka and Naruto sat in Ichiraku Ramen. After the whole fiasco, Iruka decided to treat the boy to some much needed ramen.
Iruka watched the boy talk with a smile. Naruto's large grins seemed much more genuine now. He slurped his ramen with great joy.
Iruka sighed. He didn't want to ruin the current mood but this had to be addressed.
"Naruto, about earlier-" Naruto smiled, "I'm fine Iruka-sensei! I'm sorry for making you worry!"
Iruka shook his head with a smile. Somehow, he believed the boy when he said he was fine. Naruto had a talent to always look at things positively even when things like this happened.
"Naruto, you don't need to apologize." He smiled. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something else too." Naruto raised a brow, the sounds of slurping filling the short silence.
"You know that this year would be your last chance to try for genin, right? After this, there will be no second chances."
Naruto nodded sadly. Cocky as he may be, the blonde knew that this would be his last chance if he failed.
"I won't fail this time Iruka-sensei! Dattebayo!" Iruka shook his head. "Naruto… I'm going to give it to you straight. At the rate you are going, you will most definitely fail." Iruka winced. He didn't want to come off that hard and he felt extremely guilty at the sullen look that took over Naruto's face.
But Naruto had to know what he was getting himself into.
"You are the class deadlast. You have failed all subjects and you can only Kawarimi and make a defective henge. You can't make a simple Bunshin either and even if you learn to perfect the Henge and make a clone, you'll still fail because of your extremely poor grades."
Naruto's face twisted to reflect frustration. Couldn't his teacher understand he was trying his best?!
"B-but Iruka-sensei! I'm trying to do my best, ya know! I'm getting the hang of the Henge no jutsu and it's not my fault I can't make a clone. I've tried everything you told me to do but I still can't make one! And what am I going to do learning about history? Bore the enemy with facts about the great war?!"
It angered the boy to list his own failures but he wanted to make his teacher understand. He didn't want one of the only people who looked at him with warm eyes to be pushed away!
Iruka shook his head. "Naruto, I understand what you are talking about with the Bunshin and the Henge but you've got to understand. History is just as important to Shinobi as jutsus are. You have to learn about the sacrifices the Shinobi of the past made for you to live peacefully here and now. To understand what makes a great Konoha Shinobi, you must first have to understand the Will Of Fire, the great ninjas, who gave up their lives in the third Shinobi world war and the wars before that, departed for us!"
"Will of fire?" Iruka nodded.
The Hi no Ishi, the Will of fire. "Yes, the will of fire. It is the teaching of Hashirama Senju, the shodaime. It is inherited by those of Konoha, from generation to generation. It is what gives us Konoha Shinobi the strength to protect others! It burns especially bright in you!"
Iruka spoke with passion and Naruto listened to his teacher speak about the will of fire. Iruka may not have known right now but his speech lit a fire inside the young boy's heart. A fire that would burn for a long, long time.
Iruka smiled seeing Naruto listening so attentively. The boy could have easily become a genin two years ago if he had put his mind to it. Naruto's mind was a rough diamond. If sharpened, he could wield it as a very powerful tool.
Iruka decided he would sharpen the boy's mind.
"Naruto, I have a suggestion for you?" Naruto tilted his head like a curious puppy, "what is it, Iruka-sensei?" Iruka leveled Naruto with a steely gaze, "You don't have to do this Naruto, it's only a suggestion but would you like it if I trained you for this year?"
Naruto looked confused now, "But Sensei, don't you already train me in the academy?" Iruka shook his head, "No Naruto, I meant as in personal, one on one training."
Naruto had stars in his eyes, "You would do that for me Iruka-sensei?!" Iruka nodded with a smile. "If you would like me to, yes!"
Naruto nodded excitedly and started bouncing in his seat, "Yes! I have a personal instructor now and I'm not even genin yet! Hah, Eat that Sasuke!"
Iruka watched, amused. No matter what type of burden Naruto held, in the end he was just a kid. "Naruto, if I am going to train you, you must not tell anyone."
"Eh! Why Sensei?" Naruto really wanted to rub it into Sasuke's face that he got an instructor before the Uchiha.
"If word of this gets out, especially to the academy council, I will be in trouble. Big trouble. Worst case scenario, I would be fired from ever teaching in the academy again."
Naruto looked at Iruka with shocked eyes. This man was willing to risk his career to train him, the deadlast. Naruto, then and there, made up his mind to not let Iruka down.
"Ok Sensei," he saluted the older man, "I won't let you down! You can trust me, dattebayo!"
And with that promise made, Iruka decided to get onto the harder part. "Naruto…" he started hesitantly, "Do you know what makes a great ninja?" Naruto put his hand on his chin, "Lot's of cool jutsus?" Iruka said nothing, making Naruto laugh nervously.
"The will of fire you talked about?" Iruka sighed. He had his work cut out for him.
"Yes, Jutsus do make a good Shinobi and the will of fire is important too but what's most important is this!" He pointed at his head.
"Your… head?" Iruka nodded. "Yes Naruto. A ninja's greatest weapon is his head."
Naruto's face was blank. He just stared at Iruka. Iruka started to get nervous before he continued on with his explanation.
"When you are on a mission, away from the village, the only thing you can truly rely on is your mind and your teammates. And when you are given a solo mission, your mind is the only tool you can utilise."
Naruto listened attentively. He would take any advice that could help him in the path of becoming Hokage.
"A mind can be an especially terrifying tool," iruka continued, "Do you know that Konoha's Nara clan is one of the most frightening clans?" Naruto shook his head.
"They are so smart that they could win some fights without even fighting. That is why, all the Hokage's up till now, from the Shodaime to the Yondaime had Mara's as advisor with Shikaku Nara being the Sandaime's advisor. He was also the late Yondaime's advisor as well."
"Shikaku Nara? You mean Shikamaru's father?" Iruka nodded. "A Nara's greatest weapon is their mind."
Naruto nodded. "I think that's enough lessons for today, Naruto. Most of the things I've said won't make sense since till later." Naruto nodded and continued slurping his 8th ramen bowl. That kid was going to suck him dry of money.
"From Tomorrow, I want you to pay attention to my lessons and tone it down a bit. Okay?" Naruto nodded, less enthusiastically.
"Alright, for now, just enjoy your ramen." Naruto happily obliged.
It was a great day for Naruto. He found someone willing to pay attention to him and train him AND he also got free ramen.
It had been eight months since Iruka brought the suggestion of personal training with Naruto.
During these eight months, Iruka got Naruto to learn all the basics of the Shinobi History as well as other parts of the academic subjects, like geography, mathematics, Science and reading and writing (since the boy was still not at the right level for his age and grade)
He also taught Naruto the basic academy style Taijutsu. While pretty basic, it did help Naruto beat most opponents.
While he did not excel at anything yet. The proper Taijutsu training enabled him to perform well in spars. And with his growth in academics, He was no longer the dead last.
The other students were startled by his sudden growth but shrugged it off. But Naruto kept climbing and climbing the rankings and eventually settled on the fourth spot for the physical portion of the academy and was overall ranked 12th due to his grades. He still didn't like studying.
Naruto also managed to perfect the Henge no Jutsuand also managed to master the Kawarimi to the point where he could perform a seal-less substitution.
The only problem was the Bunshin no Jutsu. It truly was Naruto's weakest skill. He could not even make a single clone, and with the upcoming graduation exam the next month, Iruka was truly worried.
He decided to teach the boy some chakra control exercises. Maybe that would help Naruto make three clones by the next month.
"Naruto! You have to focus on the tree! Don't get distracted!" Iruka smacked Naruto's head. "But Sensei! It's really hard trying to tree walk!"
Iruka decided that tree walking was a good place to start the chakra control exercises. He thought of elemental chakra control exercises first but figured they would be a little difficult for pre-genin. He had difficulties performing those.
Although, Tree walking was coming slowly to Naruto as well. They had been at it for the past two weeks already.
"Naruto! I've told you so many times that you're using too much chakra! If you use that much then it's a given that the tree bark would explode!"
Iruka palmed his face and dragged his hand down and groaned in frustration, "God help us, we only have a month left and you haven't made a single Clone yet."
Naruto grabbed a fistful of his hair and clutched it tightly. He had to learn to make three clones by the end of the month, no matter what!
"Well, well Iruka. I never pegged you for the type to show favouritism."
Iruka and Naruto paled and turned to look at the newcomer.
Iruka cursed vehemently.