Iruka and Naruto make their way to the stadium for the chunin exams. Naruto is wearing a harness and leash. Iruka is carefully holding the end of the leash so Naruto does not float away. Several people stare in shock, but Iruka does hear someone whisper to a friend, "At least there are no shinigami this time!"
Sparky is flying happily along behind Naruto, glad for a chance to stretch his wings.
Once they are at the arena, Iruka hands Naruto over into the keeping of Hiashi and Hinata who have come to watch. Shikamaru is there too along with Choji and Shisui who have, according to them, come to see the Iruka's (troublesome) fight (where he will get his butt kicked) and to eat snacks. When he is sure Naruto will not float away due to somebody's negligence, Iruka heads down to the contestant's waiting area.
Iruka feels a little uncomfortable because he had to get new clothes for the exam, since he wore out his old ones training. He is now wearing the standard dark blue pants and shirt of a Leaf ninja. But, he is wearing the Fourth Hokage's old white jacket over the top so he doesn't look like a blue version of Might Gai. The other reason he is wearing the jacket is to annoy the Third, who he is sure is well aware the neither Naruto nor Iruka returned the clothes they borrowed the day of Naruto's party.
Kotetsu and Izumo are already Chunin, so Iruka is the last on his team to make it to chunin. He took the exam with a second time rookie team whose third member got promoted at the last exam.
Iruka locates his temporary team and heads down to the arena pit to stand with the rest of the contestants.
Hiruzen takes his seat in the Kage's viewing box. This time he is not the only Kage. The Kazekage and Raikage are there too. One Leaf team, one Grass team, one Sand team and one Cloud team made it to the finals this time. Hiruzen quickly spots young Iruka, who is wearing a VERY familiar jacket.
Oh that little -! How dare he! Blatantly wearing the Fourth's old jacket as if to say: you can't do anything about this because who actually remembers this jacket except you? I do what I want, Iruka seems to be saying. Grr! Hiruzen has half a mind to march down there and slap the little upstart.
Trying to take his mind off Iruka's subtle 'f### you Hiruzen', the Third Hokage combs the audience for Naruto. It does not take him long to find the boy. A floating blonde six year old is hard to miss.
Hiruzen is beginning to understand why his old student Tsunade loves sake so much.
A few rows behind the floating blonde six year old, the middle aged couple from the Land of Tea are wondering to themselves how to find their long lost son. "Well, he's a ninja," says the man. "So maybe we should ask the Hokage where to find him?"
"Who are you looking for?" asks the person sitting next to the couple.
"Ah, this man," replies the woman, holding the Bingo Book to the appropriate page.
"Oh," says the person beside them. "Haven't you heard? He died when the Nine Tailed Fox attacked the Village six years ago. I guess you're from out of town, huh?"
"He's...dead?" the woman and her husband both feel a crushing weight land on their hearts.
"Um, yeah," the person beside them looks uncomfortable. "Why were you looking for him, anyway?"
"He's our son," the man tells the person beside him. "We lost him a long time ago. And now we've finally tracked him down and he's dead!"
The person is staring at the couple, a look of pure shock on his face. "You're the Fourth Hokage's parents. They're the Fourth Hokage's parents. S###! S###! S###!"
One of the policemen standing nearby vanishes.
The first round of the Chunin exams is well underway. Hiruzen is enjoying the show, despite Iruka's subtle middle finger pull in the form of the Fourth's old jacket. Hiruzen is watching happily as a kid from the Sand beats up a kid from the Grass. There is nothing quite like watching children from villages that used to be his enemies beat eachother up.
An Uchiha policeman shunshins beside him and whispers in his ear: "There is a couple in the audience who claim to be the Fourth Hokage's parents. What should we do?"
Hiruzen sighs. Why did something like this have to happen today? Why couldn't he watch teenagers beat eachother up in peace? "Take them to my office," he whispers to the Uchiha. "I'll be there shortly to deal with the situation."
The Uchiha nods and shunshins away.
Hiruzen turns to A and Rasa. "I'm afraid an internal matter has come up that I must deal with personally. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"You'll miss the best part," jokes A.
"If I do," says Hiruzen seriously. "Tell me exactly how Iruka Umino got his ass whooped. If not, I don't wanna know."
"Have you got something against that kid?" asks Rasa, sounding surprised.
"Let's just say he is walking on thin ice right now," replies Hiruzen and shunshins to his office.
Naruto is floating happily above Hinata and her dad. He has the best view of the arena. Sparky is perched on his head. Down in the arena two ninjas are fighting. It's obvious the one from the Sand village is winning. A commotion a few rows back attracts Naruto's attention.
He spins around to look, and sees a policeman escorting an old looking couple out of the stadium. Naruto wonders what they did to get arrested. Shrugging, he turns back to the match. He can't wait for Iruka niisan's.
Hiruzen eyes the nervous couple in front of him long enough to make them a lot more nervous. Normally he would not be so cruel, but these two are claiming to be the long lost parents of Minato Namikaze. "Who are you?" he asks crisply.
"My name is Arashi Namikaze," says the man. "And this is my wife, Kazama."
Hiruzen leans forward and peers at them. They certainly look like Minato. However, there is the small problem that they could be lying. "You will understand if I do not believe you?" Hiruzen says, interlocking his fingers beneath his chin.
Arashi stares at Hiruzen in surprise. 'What reason would we have to lie?"
"Well if two strangers turned up in your village claiming to the long lost parents of your former leader, would you simply believe them?"
"We don't claim to be the Fourth Hokage's parents!" blurts out Kazama. "We are looking for our son, Minato! What's this Fourth Hokage business?"
"Do you not know?" asks Hiruzen, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Minato Namikaze was the Fourth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." By the looks on their faces, Hiruzen is forced to conclude they did not know.
"So Minato really is dead then?" says Arashi, his voice flat and lifeless.
Yes, but his son is alive, Hiruzen really wants to say. Instead he says, "How did you not know where he was for so long?"
"After our village was destroyed, we searched for our son for months," Arashi says, still with no animation or life in his voice. "When we could not find him, we assumed he must have died, and went to live in the Land of Tea. The village we were in is isolated, so we got very little news of the outside world. Even this Bingo Book, which we found our son's picture in, is about six years old." Arashi hands Hiruzen an outdated Bingo Book.
"Shinobi are not generally in the habit of leaving Bingo Books lying around," says Hiruzen. "For one to have been discarded, either the shinobi who owned it is dead or was captured."
Arashi and Kazama just sit there, staring. Hiruzen wishes he had got to them before they accidently revealed to the world that they are Minato's parents. But now the whole village will soon know who they are, meaning he cannot let them meet Naruto incase his safety is compromised. If only there was a way, some ruse he could use as cover so the rest of the world will never know the truth.
If only.
Iruka's parents had always told Iruka never to fight distracted. Or at least, never to fight using fuuinjutsu while distracted. But after winning his first match, while waiting for his second, Iruka heard the spreading rumors that the Fourth Hokage's parents turned up out of the blue, with no idea their son was the Fourth. And for the first time in a long time, Iruka felt afraid.
He is afraid that the pair will find out their son is dead and leave because there is no way Lord Third will deem it safe enough to tell them about Naruto. He is afraid that they will find out about Naruto and take him away from Iruka. He is afraid they will turn out to be fakes - assassins come to infiltrate and kill Naruto.
But most of all, he is afraid Naruto will find out and try to meet them, only to have Hiruzen forbid them from ever seeing each other again. Iruka knows the danger, understands why such lengths must be gone to to protect Naruto. But he does not like it, and he is afraid what this will do to Naruto.
And it is because of this that Iruka cannot focus on his fight against the Akimichi boy. It is because his mind is whirling that he is losing to an opponent he knows full well he should have beaten by now.
And that is why Iruka forfeits the match - he cannot focus. He is going to lose anyway, he tells the stunned audience. So he might as well quit now.