Oms, sorry I didn't get this out till a week after the update xP I meant to post it sooner, but I got a teensy bit distracted... Oops.
Hope you all enjoy this chapter; it is considerably longer than anything I have posted so far- Part of the reason it took so long, but also probably one of my favorites so far. ~KB
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or KH (as usual)
UPDATE: 5/3/16 - Added a little detail to the classroom setting
Ch 23: After Hours
Manami took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
Kotetsu and Izumo had graciously walked her to the Academy on their way to the Hokage's office. After checking in at the main office, Manami had been lead down a couple of hallways to classroom A1-13.
Still standing there, Manami knocked for a second time, but louder.
There was a faint noise coming from the other side, so Manami knew someone was in there but she didn't want to just barge in. Knocking a third and final time, Manami called through the door, "I'm coming in."
Sliding the door open, Manami was met with a rowdy bunch of children. There were papers and pencils scattered around the desks and floors, a few kunai were stuck to the ceiling, and the kids ran up and down the tiers every which way. She was amazed to find two students soundly sleeping through the ruckus. This is what I'm supposed to work with?! she thought worriedly.
Manami stood in the doorway, dumbfounded. She knew she was going to be working with children, but she was not expecting this. Manami imagined the students were going to be a bit rowdy, but this was a circus.
"SIT!" came a firm voice. Startled by the sudden command, Manami side-stepped out of the doorway. The entire class froze for a moment before they all scrambled for their seats.
"What have I told you about causing a ruckus in my classroom?!" the voice continued. Manami focused her attention on its source and found a young, tan male. He wore the standard uniform and his dark brown hair spiked out in a pony-tail above his headband. He walked into the classroom and plopped a stack of paper on his desk with an audible *thud*.
Manami couldn't see the teacher's face, but didn't dare to move from her spot for fear of getting in trouble. The teacher kept his attention focused on the class and commented, "I suppose now is as good of a time as any for that pop quiz!"
The entire class groaned at the mention of a pop quiz but were quickly hushed by their instructor. He rambled off instructions to them about getting out paper and writing an answer to something so foreign to Manami, she couldn't even comprehend what he was saying.
Satisfied that the class had calmed down and was presently preoccupied, the teacher turned his attention to Manami. She gave a small start at his abrupt turn, but relaxed a little when she noticed a warm smile on his face. Manami also noticed that he had a scar across the bridge of his nose, stretching across most of each cheekbone. Interesting…
"I'm so sorry you had to witness that your first day here," he said in a low voice, pulling Manami from her thoughts. His smile grew wider as he walk over to Manami, who was still beside the door.
"My name is Umino Iruka," he introduced, "you must be the new TA."
Manami nodded vigorously and bowed slightly, recalling the mannerisms of the village. "I am Kiyomizu Manami. I look forward to being your teacher's assistant, Umino-san."
Iruka let out a soft laugh, "You don't have to be so formal with me. Just call me sensei or Iruka-sensei like everyone else; none of this 'Umino' stuff."
Manami smiled in return. She found it surprisingly easy to relax in around him. Minus the initial outburst, Iruka had a calm presence about him. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei."
Taking a quick glance at the class, Iruka called out, "One minute!" Manami heard the scribbles of pencils and pens across paper as the students hurried to finish their responses. Iruka turned back to Manami and said in a more serious tone, "I've been informed about your situation… I'm so sorry for your loss."
Manami was confused for a moment before remembering, That's right; the cover story about my supposed former village being burned down. She turned her head away and grimaced, thinking of not being able to return to her real home. Manami found it was the best way to put on a façade in front of people she encountered. "Things happen-" she choked out.
"I know," Iruka replied, "but that doesn't make the pain hurt any less." Manami could see the understanding in his brown eyes and gave him a weak smile.
"Now then," he continued, "I'm sorry I can't do more at the moment, but the copier jammed and that's why I was late. We'll talk more after class instead about what to do. In the meantime, just do your best to follow what I'm saying."
Manami nodded hesitantly. How am I going to do this? I hardly knew what he was saying for the pop quiz!
Iruka beamed at her and turned back to the class, "Time's up" he shouted, "pass your papers down to the front row for me to collect."
While Iruka performed his normal teacher duties, Manami decided to make herself useful and tidy up the room as quietly as possible. Paper planes/balls and pencils were still strewn everywhere from earlier. It would provide a good distraction from her worried mind and she supposed it was something a normal assistant would do.
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"Bye, Iruka-sensei!"
"See you tomorrow!"
"See ya, sensei!"
Manami grinned as the students bustled out of the classroom, shouting their good-byes back to Iruka. She was amazed at how much the class loved their teacher, but at the same time she wasn't too surprised. Iruka was very patient with his students and diligently answered their questions. While he was firm at times to keep them in line, he was also very interactive and did his best to keep his students engaged.
Manami had cleaned the mess pretty quickly and sat in a corner of the room to avoid getting in the way or becoming a distraction. In her corner, Manami did her best to pay attention to the lesson. Overall, it wasn't too hard to follow; it appeared to be some sort of history lesson.
Iruka talked about something dealing with two different clans (Manami forgot their names almost as soon as he mentioned them) and how they hated each other bad enough to cause wars. He went on to explain how they ended up combining to create the village but then one of them was suddenly wiped out overnight. Then, there was a time of peace before an attack from some sort of fox demon. Manami noted that that was the most recent big event and had taken place 14 years ago.
So yeah, Manami felt she kept up with the lesson pretty well. Minus the dates and names of, well, everything.
As the last student left with a final "Goodbye!", Manami adjusted the stack of papers she was organizing. To help ease Manami into her role, Iruka had given her the menial task at alphabetizing several stacks of papers. He told her, "It helps when I have to put them in the grade-book."
With a soft sigh of relief, Manami set the final stack of papers aside in her "done" pile.
"Nice job," came a voice from above her.
Looking up from her perch on the floor, Manami grinned at his approval, "Thank you, Iruka-sensei. It really wasn't that much."
"I still appreciate the effort," he chuckled, "I can't tell you how much time this will save me later on." He held out a hand and Manami accepted it graciously. As he pulled her up, Manami noted the underlying strength in Iruka's grip and the ease which he helped her up.
"Now, let's talk about what we're gonna do," Iruka said, guiding Manami to his desk.
"Alright," Manami replied, pulling a chair up to sit in.
Iruka rummaged around his desk for a moment before pulling a file out of a drawer. Nodding towards it, Iruka said, "I was given that not too long ago. It explained your situation and what it is we need to work on."
Manami tensed a bit, her thoughts running rampant. They never told me what was good or what was bad with my performance. How much do I need to learn? Will it take long? Is it difficult? I still have to figure out a way to get home!
She gave a brief nodded in acknowledgement, willing herself to calm down. "So what is it that I need to do?"
"Well," Iruka started, "the best thing to start out with is chakra."
"What is that exactly?" Manami asked. "Tsunade-sama mentioned it before and it seems to be the key to me working here."
Iruka grinned at her insight, "You would be correct. Chakra is essential to becoming a proper shinobi. While taijutsu focuses on physical attacks and does not necessarily need it, both ninjutsu and genjustu require chakra."
Analyzing Manami's confused face, Iruka pulled out some papers and continued his impromptu lesson. "Chakra is a form of life energy, you could say. It is divided into a physical form and a spiritual form." Iruka pointed to a figure on one of the papers depicting a person with what resembled a Yin and Yang symbol on his body, indicating the harmony of the energies. "When both forms are harnessed in tandem, various jutsus can be performed. Physical energy is taken from cells in your body while spiritual energy comes from your mind's consciousness."
"But what are jutsus?" Manami interrupted eagerly.
"Jutsus are a skill or technique that require chakra," Iruka continued. "They are used by a concentrated amount of chakra released by a combination of hands seals. For example…" Iruka stood up from his seat and faced Manami directly. Her eyes were drawn to Iruka's hands as they flew through different signs, too fast for Manami to catch. With a puff of smoke, there now stood two Iruka's in front of Manami.
Manami jumped from her chair in surprise. "There are two of you!" she exclaimed, pointing her finger back and forth between the two sensei's. The men before her laughed together, creating an echo-y effect due to it being the same laugh.
"That's right," said the Iruka on the left.
"This particular jutsu creates a shadow clone of the user," continued the Iruka on the right.
Manami repeatedly shifted her gaze between the two Iruka's. So is that how- No, could it really be that simple? Manami silently wondered.
Manami moved forward a bit and hesitantly reached out. Both Iruka's nodded at her, knowing what she was silently asking and held out their hands. Manami brushed her fingers lightly over one of the hands. It felt solid enough; she proceeded to the next one and it felt the same. Furrowing her brows in frustration, Manami continued to analyze the two.
"I can't figure out which one of you is the real one," she sighed in defeat.
"It's not uncommon," the right Iruka stated.
"In fact, that's why it's so useful," continued the left one.
The Iruka on the right explained to Manami, "The tell-tale sign is the shadow."
Manami's eyes widened as she thought, How did I miss something so simple?! Sure enough, when Manami glanced down she noticed that only the Iruka on the right had a shadow cast by the lights on the ceiling.
The right Iruka held up his first two fingers and said, "Kai." Another *poof* and the second Iruka was gone.
Manami slumped back in her chair, dragging a hand down her face in frustration. "Ugh, I have no idea how I'm going to learn all of this," she mumbled.
A small frown quirked on Iruka's lips briefly before he schooled his features. "But that's why we're doing this," he assured Manami, sitting down. "Lucky for you, chakra is the next unit I'm teaching. You'll be able to listen in on the lesson during the day and afterwards we'll work one-on-one, honing your skills at a faster rate than the students."
"Are you sure that won't be too stressful on you?" Manami asked, worried about the inconvenience she might cause.
Iruka shook his head, "Not at all. Tsunade-sama removed me from the mission desk work for a while so I could focus on teaching you."
"You work somewhere else as well?!" Manami all but shouted.
A feint red tint brushed Iruka's cheeks and he scratched the edge of his scar. "Well, yeah. Teaching is great but it doesn't always have the best pay. I don't go on too many missions like most other ninja, so I work on assigning the missions instead."
Manami froze in place, He works another job?! Standing up abruptly, Manami bowed deeply saying, "Thank you so much for taking me in, Iruka-sensei! I apologize for disrupting your schedule and causing you more work than is necessary! I promise to work hard so that you may return to your normal life! Again, I apolo-"
"Manami!" Iruka shouted, stopping her mid-rant. Manami stood upright at his tone of voice.
"It's alright," he continued gently. Manami visibly relaxed as he continued, "It really doesn't bother me. I'm getting paid the same and truthfully, I'd rather do what I enjoy most over sitting behind a desk yelling at incompetent ninja all afternoon."
Noticing the confused look on Manami's face, Iruka elaborated, "I might have a reputation for a short temper and yelling at others who don't complete their mission forms correctly."
"Ah, I see," Manami replied quietly, noting to never get on Iruka's bad side.
"Anyways," Iruka glanced at the clock, noting the time. "It's getting late; we'll continue this tomorrow. From now on, we'll stay after class every day for your lessons."
Manami smiled warmly, "Thank you, Iruka-sensei. I truly can't express my gratitude that you would do this for me."
Iruka laughed, following Manami out the door. "Think nothing of it. It's my job!"
As the two walked out of the building, Manami looked left and right before abruptly stopping.
"Is there something wrong, Manami-san?" Iruka asked, turning back after a few feet.
A faint blush dusted Manami's cheeks, "Uh- yeah. There is actually."
Iruka nodded his head and faced her directly, indicating for her to continue.
Manami's blush deepened, "You wouldn't happen to know the way to the chuunin apartment complex would you?"
Iruka laughed light heartedly, "Sure thing! I actually live not too far from there. Come on, I'll show you the way."
Manami felt her shoulders relax, not realizing how much she tensed up over a simple question. With a few quick strides, Manami had caught up to Iruka and fell in step with him as he walked her home.
FIN
So what did you think? Do you like the longer chapter compared to what I have been writing? Or does it even matter? Let me know what you think! ~KunoichiBlade