While he was still very skeptical about how Naruto gained a parent, Iruka had to admit they seemed to be a good influence on him. In the first week of classes since the break ended he'd shown a drive to improve as well a noticeable increase in skill. This only raised his suspicions of this Rōzu, if they were helping him train there was certainly more to them than what they tried to claim. As he walked along the park trail lost in thought he noticed a large cloud of dust coming right towards him and dodged out of the way.

"Ah Iruka" skidding to a halt was Gai, a man he only knew through Kakashi. "Sorry to have nearly bowled you over there."

"No harm no foul Gai" he should've noticed earlier if he wasn't so distracted.

"Good to hear, Kakashi keeps telling me I'm causing mayhem with all my training. He won't even hear me out when I explain how this is just the warm up jog and not even my training."

As Gai went into his explanation of his routine Iruka noticed two other people coming up the trail. The sight of Naruto and Rōzu exhaustedly running towards them made him rule out his earlier line of thought. As the two of them collapsed by Gai he stopped his explanation.

"Ah perfect, I was worried you two had given up on our warm up run."

"Wouldn't dream of it" Rōzu pulled out two bottles of water from a little workout bag and began to chug one.

"Any chance the running is done?" Naruto took the other bottle and drank while he waited for a reply.

"Almost over?" Gai looked shocked by the question. "We've only made it halfway around the village, we still have to finish this lap and the next one."

"Gai I think you might be pushing them too far" Iruka watched them struggle to breath. "Is this the first workout you've done with someone else?"

"No."

"Someone other than Kakashi?"

"Yes…."

"Do you think they might need to start at a bit lower intensity training?"

"I suppose you're right" this got half hearted cheers from the floor. "Half a lap is a good place to start them for the run. Now we can move on to a thousa-"

"Lower."

"Five hun-"

"Please lower" Rōzu looked like they might faint just from hearing the numbers.

"A hundred?"

"What if we just do like twenty and you do your thousand?"

"I guess that could work" he scratched his chin. "Though twenty is kind of low for the sets."

"How many sets are there?" Iruka hadn't actually believed Kakashi's stories about Gai before, but was starting to now.

"Ten of course."

"I think I can do that" Naruto tried to sound confident, it fell a little flat since he was still laying on the floor.

"Great, we can start with pushups since you're already down there" Gai joined them on the floor and started busting out push ups at an insane speeds.

"What is he?" Rōzu could barely keep up with just watching him.

Iruka decided to stick around and observe their training. When he felt good about his own condition watching Naruto and Rōzu he'd watch Gai to feel worse. Hours later they had managed to get to the final set of the workout. Gai had finished his sets so much earlier and was alternating between offering encouragement and getting more water. The two of them finally finished the last set of kicks.

"YES" Gai brought the hype for them as they fell to the floor again. "HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HONE YOUR YOUTHFUL POWER?"

"Mom can we never do this again?" Naruto was whispering to them as he kept cheering at them.

"He knows where we live" Rōzu clearly had their own regrets about agreeing to the training. "We can't hide and we can't outrun him."

"I am so proud" Gai was now crying a little as his speech wound down. "To have helped you both take the first time on this journey."

"Gai I think Naruto passed out?" Iruka went over to check on him as his eyes shut.

"Oh that brings me back, I was reported missing all the time when I'd pass out training."

While Gai continued to cry over his own beautiful journey Iruka looked Naruto over. He was clearly faking it to get out of this situation sooner, and after everything he'd seen Iruka decided the two of them had earned it.

"Yeah he's out alright, I'll have to help the two of them get back home."

"I insist on helping as well" Gai dried his tears and scooped Naruto up.

"I'll get Rōzu then" Iruka watched as Naruto was carried off at breakneck speeds.

"Brave kid, he really bit the bullet today" Rōzu got to their feet with his help.

"Why were you training with Gai exactly?" Iruka put one of their arms over his shoulder to help them walk back.

"Well Naruto wanted me to help him train, and I know fuck all about training. So I asked Kakashi since I only know like five people here, and he said Gai was the man to go to. We got introduced, he punched a boulder into pebbles and Naruto insisted we had to train with him."

"Kakashi must not like you very much."

"I can see that now, it's hard to read that guy."

"You figure it out after a while."

"This coming from you? I can't really read you either."

"What?" Iruka was pretty sure he was like an open book.

"You come at me with a whole lot of questions, get kind of annoyed when I dodge them all, and now you're carrying me back home after a day of making sure Gai didn't kill us."

"My questions were justified, you apparently dropped out of the sky and adopted Naruto."

"I'm not saying they aren't, it just gives me some mixed signals."

"Well I don't have any mixed signals from you."

"Really?"

"Yes, I don't trust you. So whatever you're actually doing in the village, you better give it up."

"I kinda walked into that one I guess" they leaned on him more and sighed. "Don't worry once I've finished learning all of the weaknesses of every ninja here I'll be on my way back to my evil lair with my super evil boss."

"You know that's not what I meant" he rolled his eyes at them.

"I really don't. So either give up the whole paranoia thing or go full crazy, I'm talking stalking, staking out my place, stealing my clothes for some reason."

"I think I'm going to pick the third choice of being a healthy amount of suspicious and keep asking you questions."

"Boring, but I guess ask away."

"Right" he didn't expect them to actually offer up any answers, but it couldn't hurt to try. "Where are you from?"

"Land of Snow like I've told you before."

"Where are you really from?"

"This is your second of your three questions I want you to know, so feel good about wasting it since I am really from the Land of Snow."

"What! Why only three questions? And this doesn't count as the third one."

"Fine this is a freebie, since you helped me today I was going to give you three actual answers as thanks. Down to one left though."

"Fine" he assumed that wasn't actually true and they'd just lie in reply to his third question. "Why are you still here?"

"That's easy, Naruto."

"Really?"

"I'm not going to adopt an orphan and then ditch him, what do I look like? Don't answer that I know what I look like."

"I actually kind of believe you" he was surprised by the matter of fact way they'd said it.

"Just because I am definitely not old enough to have and raise a child doesn't mean I'm a quitter, and he's a good kid. Way better than the last one I had to babysit."

"Last one?"

"Sorry you're all out of questions, and we're ba-" they stopped as they looked Gai doing squats using Naruto as a weight.

"Ah there you are!" he stopped and came over to them. "I didn't know which apartment was the right one."

They both looked at Naruto. Either he had gotten very good at faking, or Gai furiously squatting him had actually knocked him out.

"Right, I can take him from here" Rōzu didn't sound very confident of that.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, we've already taken up enough of your day I'm sure. A busy guy like you can't spend all day helping us out."

"Alright then" he carefully handed Naruto off to them. "I'll see you again next week, try and keep at it on your own as well!"

They watched him race off, probably to do more training. Once his dust cloud faded Rōzu began to head inside.

"Maybe this village is way too dangerous to raise a kid in" they struggled a bit to hold Naruto and grab the keys.

"It's not that bad" Iruka gave them a hand. "Of course you apparently have some experience with it."

"Nice try but I'm not offering up any more freebies, you'll have to earn more answers" with his help they could get the door open and move inside with Naruto.

"How do I do that exactly?"

"If you keep being nice and helping me out that's not a bad start" they put Naruto down on a couch and collapsed into a chair. "I'll think about giving you some bonus ones too since you're kinda cute."

"What!" Iruka's face reddened from the unexpected compliment.

"Yeah like that."

Iruka wasn't sure what to do or say in reply, so he just left. Once he was out on his own again he got angry with himself for getting flustered. They were still potentially a threat to Naruto and the Village, he could not let them fluster him so easily.

"Hey wait!" Rōzu was calling to him from a window. "Wanna get lunch?"

He paused again. Admittedly he did not know what to do in this situation, but he could tell they were clearly trying to ask him out. He had to refuse, it was clearly some ploy from them, but he could use it as a chance to get more info too.

"A no works too, I know Naruto's going to be super hungry when he wakes" they interrupted his thinking. "And you're already down there, I could pay you back."

"Oh" he may have taken that the wrong way. "Uh, yeah I guess I can."

"Thanks! Just get it from wherever I guess?"

"I'll get some ramen" he didn't know what else Naruto would actually eat.

"That's probably the best idea, just wait a second" they dipped back inside the room.

Now that they weren't looking right at him he got annoyed with himself again. He'd clearly let them get in his head with that cute comment. Starting right then he'd make sure it didn't happen again.

"Heads up!"

He looked up and caught the wallet tossed to him. It was a little panda wallet, he had to admit it did look fairly cute.

"Just don't spend it all please!"

"Right uh, thank you" he pocketed it and headed towards Ichiraku.

"Well look who it is" Teuchi greeted him. "Haven't seen you here alone in quite a while. The usual?"

"If I can get it to go and a bowl for Naruto" he looked over the menu not knowing what bowl Rōzu would want. "And I guess a second bowl for Naruto?"

"Alright I'll have those ready for you in a jiffy" taking the payment from Iruka he headed into the kitchen.

Sitting down at the counter Iruka thought over what he'd learned today. They were very insistent on the Land of Snow being their place of origin, which certainly didn't explain why Rōzu was in Konoha. If they were a ninja from there they were also an incredible actor. He also now had this info about a child they'd apparently cared for at some point, given everything he'd seen that didn't seem to be true. He was too wrapped up in these thoughts to notice Kakashi arrive until he spoke up.

"I like the new wallet" he had been zoned out looking at the panda wallet.

"It's not mine."

"I thought teachers would be paid enough to not need to pickpocket for cash."

"I've been living under my desk for years now, so it really was just a matter of time."

"Guess the future of the village is in some very sticky hands."

"Coming from the guy who goes around reading porn?"

"The connotation of that isn't exactly what I wanted."

The two shared a small laugh. It'd been some time since Iruka had spent time with Kakashi, the man went on more missions in a month than he did in five years.

"Here are your two bowls to go" Teuchi put down two plastic bags on the counter.

"Thanks, I'm sure Naruto will be happy to smell this after training today."

"Can I get you anything Kakashi?"

"I'll take a bowl to go as well, I'll catch up to you Iruka."

"Right" he decided not to warn him about the atmosphere he'd be coming to.

A short walk back and he was in front of the Uzumaki residence door. He gave it two quick headbutts to knock.

"It's open!" Rōzu yelled from somewhere inside.

Putting one bag down he opened the door up. He found Naruto still laying on the couch like before. Rōzu was just lying on the floor by the window, they both perked up when the smell of ramen filled the apartment.

"Yes" Naruto quickly crawled over and pulled a bowl out of the bag Iruka was holding.

"You are not eating that on the floor!"

"Fine" Naruto pouted and climbed into a chair by the table.

"Someone else may be joining us as well" Iruka put the other two bowls on the table and watched Rōzu slowly climb into a chair as well.

"Who exactly?"

"Oh you'll see."

"Huh. It is annoying when people dodge your questions."

"Not a fan of this side of it?"

"I have no idea what you mean."

"Of course not" he sighed and started on his bowl.

Iruka did his best to not outwardly laugh as Rōzu tried to make Naruto eat his bowl like a normal human. He'd given up on that almost immediately so he had to applaud their tenacity, even if the method was a little odd.

"WE USE UTENSILS IN THIS FAMILY" they had him in a light chokehold.

"NEVER" Naruto was doing his best to squirm and wiggle, clearly hoping his infinite child energy would win the war of attrition.

"Maybe I'll come back later" Kakashi hopped through the window and into a very strange scene.

"Oh no you don't!" Rōzu released Naruto and threw his chopstick pair into the wall by Kakashi's head. "Go train with Gai you said, it'll be fine you said."

While they began to chew him out Iruka's eyes remained glued to the chopsticks. They were stuck a few inches into the wall and had been thrown far too accurately for him to ignore. If he was going to learn more he'd have to wait for more slip ups from them, he was sure they'd make more mistakes.