If Only I could have spent a little more time with you.
I do not own Naruto.
Iruka doesn't know how to deal with Naruto. He knows that Naruto isn't the nine tailed fox. He knows that Naruto isn't to blame for what happened. He didn't do anything. He was just a baby. But still, the nine tailed fox that killed his parents, is inside of Naruto. He trusts in the fourth Hokage's sealing abilities and he believes in the third Hokage's decision making. But is is still hard to separate the two. The third hokage must have put Naruto in Iruka's class for a purpose. Kakashi-san told him that he is the only one who can get through to Naruto and that it is an ordeal he will have to go through. And what has he been doing? He has been avoiding him.
Iruka sighs as he holds the flowers he bought after he was done teaching and walks towards the memorial stone. He sometimes visits the stone. His parents name's are on it.
He isn't the only one that has been avoiding Naruto. The other teachers ignore him and most students do too. That or they are being mean to him. Naruto himself has been pulling pranks in the village for a long time. Though now that he has started at the academy the pranking has lessened. Iruka remembers his pranking days. He did it for attention because there was no one else except the hokage who would give him attention otherwise.
Kakashi-san said that he was the only one who could get through Naruto but Iruka thinks that that isn't true. After all he has done nothing but avoiding Naruto like almost everybody else in the whole village. Almost. Because when Iruka walked into his classroom he was very surprised to see Naruto talking with a boy. Not just a boy but the second child of the Uchiha clan head, Sasuke Uchiha. It wasn't a normally first meeting conversation either. He couldn't hear much but he could read their facial expressions. It was like they were best friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time. But no one ever told him Naruto had friends. And he couldn't figure a way out that they would have ever met before. Sasuke lives in the Uchiha district after all.
Apparently Sasuke had gotten through Naruto somehow? Though Sasuke and Naruto weren't similar at all. Sasuke has a family and Naruto...does Naruto live on his own just like Iruka himself did after his parenst died? But Naruto is much younger than he himself was...
Sasuke isn't the only one. Sakura, a civilian born girl, has become friends with them to somehow. Iruka is so confused because a lot of the other civilian-born children are a lot more hostile to Naruto then the Shinobi-born children. Probably because of their parents. But after the lunchbreak on their first day Sakura has been sitting next to the boys ever since. Luckily Iruka isn't the only one confused because the rest of the children can also not understand it. As far as they all know those three have nothing in common except wanting to be a shinobi. But maybe that is enough for them?
Iruka is happy and relieved that Naruto has friends. Now he isn't alone.
Iruka has finally arrived at the memorial stone. But there is someone also standing by the stone. It is Naruto.
Author's note
I am not that happy with how this chapter turned out but I really liked the relationship Naruto and Iruka had in canon so I wanted them to have that here too. The only complaint I have of canon is that Iruka should have done something much earlier. I honestly don't know what the timeline of canon is but I reference the first episode of Naruto in here and Naruto shippuden episode 177.