Is it wrong to be friends with your students? Probably not. It's common for a teacher to become more devoted to his students, one who may be stuck at the academy longer than anyone else. The Uzumaki kid.
Sometimes, it can be really good to sit down with a student and have a genuine conversation about their favorite subject. Over a bowl of ramen.
Ramen is awesome. The 1 hours long wait at Ichiraku was less than he anticipated. The order took forever but it was worth it. Sometimes when he feels the need to decompress after a particularly grueling day, and not going to hot springs, he will order bowls of seaweed ramen.
"Thanks for the meal, sensei! You're the best!"
He is going to regret treating the Uzumaki girl eventually. His salary as an academy instructor could only do so much. There goes a month worth of salary, and here goes another.
"So, can we talk now? Let's be honest, I expected you to be this year's top kunoichi."
"Is something the matter?"
"Why are you holding back?"
The girl, Kaina, kept her expression perfectly unreadable. As calm and composed as ever. Which suited her just fine. Her given name is written in the kanji for "sea" and "calm" after all.
"What do you mean, sensei? I don't understand."
The idea of holding back, while intriguing, doesn't sound appealing to Kaina. Holding back means putting an effort to make yourself looks less capable in everyone's eyes. While she liked the part where people doesn't look at you, simply the thought of putting an effort on something made her think twice.
"If you aren't holding back, why is your grade in ninjutsu the lowest in the academy's history?"
"I have too much chakra, I guess. Have you heard of the Uzumakis?"
The Uzumakis are the most dominant clan in Uzushio. Back in their ruined homeland, they held absolute power over the welfare of the other clans. While they are extremely powerful, they aren't interested in conquering the world or anything like that.
What made them very dangerous other than their frequent dealings with gods and demons which manifested in their unrivaled Fuinjutsu skills is their semi-immortality and...
The massive amount of chakra reserves equivalent to a Bijuu. Almost.
It doesn't stop them from dying because of being killed, but at least it made them live longer than others.
"I see. What do you know about chakra controlling exercise?"
"Like sticking a leaf on our forehead?"
For a village named after leaves, Konoha sure has plenty of it laying around. The problem is that whenever Kaina tried that method of exercise, the leaf would quickly turn wet and split into two.
Great. She has water and wind chakra nature, which is uncommon in the village. It made sense. Her ancestor did not come from Konoha and most Uzumaki tends to have strong affinities for either of both elements.
"Different techniques need different amounts of chakra. You need to adjust it according to the technique you used."
The girl knows that but doesn't know how to control the flow of chakra inside her body. It sounded like hard work. Something she associated with getting close to dying.
What if Kaina doesn't even try to use her chakra at all. Using what little amount of it that is currently leaking instead. The way she constantly emitting chakra she can't control must make her glowing to a sensor ninja.
It's no wonder one of the Aburame kids once asked her why his bugs are attracted to her like a moth to the lamp. She had no idea how to respond to that.
Perhaps the key is to not be doing anything. Then maybe her body would stop producing an excess amount of chakra whenever she tried to use a Jutsu.
"Thanks, sensei. I figured it out. See?"
Iruka never saw sloppier and slower hand signs before, but the girl did a Bunshin right this time. A normal Bunshin. Just one of them.
"I know you can do it! See you in the exam, then."
His hand when through the Bunshin when he tried to touch it. That was all it took for him to know his student isn't cheating by using more chakra consuming clone techniques.
So, what if all of her problems are just her trying too much? Everyone did that mistake at least once in their own life.