Word travels fast, even across the borders of enemy lands. Word of Danzo Shimura's execution travels so fast that it is known across the shinobi nations before three days have passed since the execution. When word reaches Mei Terumi in the Hidden Mist she simply smiles. Her little fighting buddy is safe, and now if she wants to kill him she can do it honourably and not under the fence for some traitor.
Two days previously, in a dango shop in the Land of Fire two cloaked and masked figures, whom the owner has been eyeing suspiciously since they walked in, hear another customer discussing the death of Danzo Shimura with the shopkeeper. Wind and Rain turn and ask the other customer if what he says is true - is Danzo really dead?
"Yes," replies the other customer. "He was executed not 24 hours ago."
Wind and Rain smile at each other, although only they know they are smiling.
"We need to report this to Yahiko right away," says Rain and the pair get up to leave.
Naruto runs rings around Iruka the entire way home from the hospital. He is so excited that Iruka is finally out of the hospital that he forgets his previous determination to be calm and quiet so he doesn't stress Iruka out. Bouncing around Iruka, Naruto keeps up a steady stream of chatter about what he did while Iruka was in the hospital. The hospital didn't let him visit nearly long enough to tell Iruka everything, so Naruto is catching Iruka up on literally everything he missed. Right down to the fact that Naruto may or may not have accidentally flooded the washroom. (And since Iruka's apartment consists of only three rooms; washroom, bedroom and kitchen, this means Naruto may or may not have flooded a third of the apartment.)
When they arrive at Iruka's apartment, Naruto nervously shows Iruka the state of the washroom. "I cleaned up the water as best I could," he says, shyly. "Please don't be mad."
"I'm not mad," says Iruka. "But don't turn taps on and leave them, okay."
"Yes, Iruka-niisan!" Naruto makes a mental note to be very careful in the future. He doesn't want Iruka to get mad at him.
The next day Iruka, who is still off duty, begins teaching Naruto about fuuinjutsu.
Well, sort of. What any of this has to do with fuuinjutsu has Naruto stumped. Iruka has him writing out all of the hiragana he knows as fast as he can without stopping.
"Don't mind mistakes," says Iruka. "Just go as fast as you can." then he'd started calling out random characters, even some Naruto doesn't know. Naruto has to write them before he calls the next one or say he doesn't know it. If he doesn't know it, Iruka moves on to the next character. By the time Iruka calls for Naruto to stop, Naruto's head is spinning so badly he isn't sure if he can tell 'u' from 'ta'. His paper is a mess and he has pencil stains on his fingers.
Iruka picks up Naruto's piece of paper and examines it. Then he says, "It looks like you learn well when you have to think on your feet."
"You can tell that from all of that?" asks Naruto, pointing at the mess of characters.
"Because I was trained to," replies Iruka. "And it is clear to me that in order to teach you I am going to have to turn learning into a game."
"How can you tell all of that just from that one exercise?" asks Naruto.
"It's not just the exercise," says Iruka. "I can tell it from the way you interact with the world."
"Oh," says Naruto. "So how does something as boring as learning become a game?"
Despite Iruka's best efforts to make learning fun for Naruto, he still gets bored and restless after a few minutes. Iruka tries every trick in the book, from flashcards to scrabble and memory games. Nothing works. It's not even that Naruto is dyslexic - he just can't sit still. Or concentrate. Or show much interest.
"So when are you going to teach me fuuinjutsu?" asks Naruto one day after five minutes of matching up characters to make words.
It's then that Iruka realizes he is getting his tricks from the wrong book. He should be using the 'Teaching Restless Uzumakis' book not the 'Teaching Restless Children' book. What were the tricks in that book again?
Oh yes. "Naruto," says Iruka. "To learn Fuuinjutsu you have to learn to read and write. But you aren't very good at sitting still, are you?"
Naruto hangs his head. "Sorry, Iruka-niisan."
"It's not your fault you have far too much energy," says Iruka, patting Naruto on the head. He holds out his hand for Naruto to take and says, "Let's go outside."
Naruto grabs Iruka's hand and jumps down from his chair. Iruka leads Naruto to a nearby river.
"What are we doing here?" asks Naruto, confused as to what a river has to do with learning to read and write.
"I am going to show you what you use characters for when you're doing fuuinjutsu," explains Iruka. Letting go of Naruto's hand, Iruka pulls out a scroll and a pen. "Normally I would use a brush, but I don't have one on me." Iruka smooths open the scroll on a rock and points to the river. "See all that water?"
"Yes," nods Naruto.
"Wouldn't it be a shame if it all just vanished?"
"Yeah, I guess," says Naruto, sounding a bit confused. "But then I wouldn't be able to go swimming."
"Don't worry, we'll put it back," Iruka reassures him.
Naruto's mouth drops open. "You're going to make the river vanish?"
"Yes," grins Iruka. "But to do so, I need to know the character for 'river' and the characters for sealing and storing. Watch carefully." Iruka draws out a basic storage seal capable of holding a large quantity of anything. "See this part?" he points to a section of the seal. "This means 'seal'. And this part here means 'store' and this part here indicates how much can be stored in the seal."
Naruto's eyes are so wide they seem to have taken up his entire face. "What's that blank bit in the middle?" he asks.
"That's where the character for 'water' goes," Iruka explains. "But it won't appear until the water is actually in the seal. Watch carefully." Iruka puts one hand on the seal and uses the other to focus his chakra. An instant later, all the water in the river rises up and flows into the center of the seal. Once the river is drained, the kanji for 'water' appears in the center of the seal.
"Hey!" yells someone from the other side of the river. "What did you do that for?" The person shakes their fist at Iruka.
"I'll put it back in a minute!" calls back Iruka. Then he turns back to Naruto. "You see? If I didn't know what all these characters mean, I wouldn't know what is in this seal."
"Oh~" Naruto is so overawed that Iruka starts to wonder if he overdid it. "You put an entire river into a piece of paper!"
"I could put the entire ocean in a seal if I wanted to," says Iruka. "But it would take up most of my chakra, so I'll have to refrain from doing that."
Naruto stares up at Iruka openmouthed. "You know how to drain the ocean?"
"Yes," confirms Iruka. "But it's actually a pretty useless skill. The only time you would use it is if you wanted to get a bunch of people across and you didn't have time to go and get ships." He taps the seal. "Back to this seal. See this symbol here?" he points to a design along the edges of the seal.
Naruto peers at it in fascination. "That wasn't there before!"
"No, when something is put into a seal, the design changes accordingly. This pattern allows the release of what is inside the seal. Watch." Iruka places one hand on the seal and uses the other to focus his chakra. The river explodes out of the seal and flows back into the riverbed. After a few brief seconds, it looks as if nothing happened to it.
"Wow!" Naruto shouts, jumping up and down in excitement. "How long before I can do that?"
"That is up to you," replies Iruka. "After all, I can't start teaching you this stuff until you know all your hiragana and can write confidently."
From the trees, two shadowy figures watch Iruka's demonstration. Behind and above them, Kakashi Hatake watches the two shadowy figures. He is just close enough to hear what they are saying.
"It looks like Iruka is healing well," says a female voice.
"He will be back on the field soon, I expect," says a male voice.
Kakashi inches closer.
"Naruto is adorable, isn't he?" says the woman.
"Yes," says the man. "He kind of reminds me of sensei. All that enthusiasm."
"And so easily impressed," laughs the woman.
Kakashi inches closer.
"You know, I kinda want a kid," says the man.
"So do I," agrees the woman. "But the world is so dangerous, especially for us. I wouldn't want to bring a child into the life I lead."
"I know," sighs the man. "But with Danzo dead, the world is a lot safer."
Kakashi leaps down to where the two are crouching. They see him and shunshin away. Kakashi follows, but not a trace remains that the pair were ever there.
"I better report this to the Hokage," mutters Kakashi. "I think that was Wind and Rain."