I do not own Naruto.
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Umino Iruka liked to believe that he was a very patient man. Years as a field shinobi proved that. He knew when to take orders, when to speak up, and when to just wait it out to find a useful opening. His patience came in handy on a daily basis as an instructor at the ninja academy of Konohagakure, where he taught the next generation of ninjas.
He taught them how to mold chakra, throw shuriken, and how to create well thought out plans all in hopes that they would not one day be caught unaware and be added to the ever-growing memorial at the outskirts of training ground seven. He put up with sarcastic comments about his lectures, sleeping students, and attention crying children. Attention crying children like Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto was an enigma that he always needed extra patience for. When he first started in the academy, he was nothing but an attention seeker. Naruto was the village pariah, and he learned at a very early age that a large majority of the village did not sit well with him. They would ignore him, and whisper behind his back. They would go out of their way to make sure he received spoiled foods at stores, and when they couldn't sell him spoiled foods, they would charge him double. They would throw things at him and teach their children that he was 'dangerous'. They did all this in hope that the blonde child would learn that he wasn't wanted. This in turn taught him at an early age, that even if he did something wrong in the village he would be greeted with the same reactions if he were to do something well: scorn, distaste, and hate. This knowledge that Naruto had come upon had taught him to fear no punishment, worry no outcomes, and push himself to the boundaries of his creativity to try and garner the attention that he desperately craved: love and affection.
This was something Iruka knew all too well. When he was a child, his parents had died during the Kyuubi attack that had devastated the village, and he became an orphan just like Naruto. He thought back on his past and could still clearly see the looks of pity on the civilians' faces when they looked at him. He had done the same thing that Naruto had. He acted out trying to get reactions other than the one he received everywhere he had went, to show that he was more than what they thought of him. He had quickly become a class clown in order to receive the attention he truly wanted just like Naruto.
When Iruka had recognized exactly what was going on, he did what he could to reach out to the young boy, trying to show him that there where those out there who did care for him. He took him out for dinner, would ask him how his week has been going, and keep a watchful eye out for him whenever something seemed off.
"That kid is going to be the death of me," he sighed slipping his sandals on to his feet before stepping outside as the sun just started peeking over the horizon.
Just over year ago though, Naruto started to get his act together and paying attention in class. Iruka had thought it was all in preparation for another one of his grand pranks and stayed on his toes for weeks worrying about what the blonde child had in store for him and the other teachers of the ninja academy. The weeks turned to months though, and nothing had surmounted other than Naruto genuinely getting better in his studies.
In the beginning, he and the other academy teachers had thought he was cheating. They gave pop quiz after pop quiz, and one teacher even put a genjutsu over his exams, and each time Naruto was able to identify it, break it, and still be able to pass the exam with flying colours. No-one had been able to explain how he was doing monumentally better than before, and even when Naruto himself had been asked about it, it was a seemingly cryptic answer.
Flashback
"Naruto," Iruka called to the back of the classroom from his spot behind his desk as the bell signaled for the end of the day "Can you please stay behind for a minute please?" Iruka listened as the other children sniggered and made small comments about Naruto being asked to stay after class and he frowned. "You're not in trouble." He added as an afterthought.
Naruto looked up from his notebook, a look of shock and a small frown across his face. He nodded and slowly put his belongings into his orange knapsack as the other kids left the class.
"Naruto, please come down here." Iruka stated rather than asked after the last student had left.
Naruto obediently complied and put his knapsack over his shoulder and walked down the stairs of the auditorium like classroom down to the teacher's desk. Keeping his eyes trained on the ground he reached the side of the desk and waited patiently.
"Naruto, I already told you that you are not in trouble. Please look at me when I talk to you." Naruto took a moment before he slowly raised his gaze from the floor.
"So, you're not going to yell at me for getting good grades?" He scoffed putting a little too much emphasis on the word 'not'.
Iruka frowned slightly making a mental note to inquire about that at a later point before bringing the topic of this discussion to light. "No, Naruto, I just wanted to congratulate you on how well you have been doing these last few months." Iruka smiled softly at the child in front of him. "You have improved so much, it is nearly incomparable to how you were doing this time last year!" Iruka paused in has adulation to see the small smile gracing Naruto's face. "In fact, I was wondering what had happened to cause you to focus so much more on your studies?" Iruka probed for the answers he was craving.
Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Well-" he started to talk and then paused, as if contemplating exactly what he was going to say next. "Just a friend-" he mumbled his voice trailing off at the end.
"What?" Iruka asked, his brows scrunching up trying to decipher the jumbled end of Naruto's answer.
"Just a friend," Naruto mumbled again looking down to the floor. "They say 'No matter how loud the wind howls, the mountain can not bow to it.'" Naruto paused and looked back up at Iruka, who had a curious look on his face. "Meaning that you need to have a sturdy foundation. The mighty wind will hack away at the surface, but as long as there is a sturdy foundation it does not matter how long, loud, or strong, the wind is; the mountain will prevail and come out victorious in the end." Naruto repeated the phrase as if he heard it often and looked to Iruka who was smiling and nodding his head. "Their father said that it is important to learn things properly the first time around in the academy if I want to have the sturdy base in order to properly protect the village one day."
"You can talk the talk, but it doesn't matter unless you can walk the walk." Iruka smiled "Your friend and their father sound very astute. Do I know this friend of yours?"
His smile diminished the slightest bit as Naruto responded "No, their family has some interesting rules about strangers."
"Does this friend of yours have a name?" Iruka questioned looking for a little more information about this mystery friend of his.
"Everyone has a name." He responded quickly, scoffing at the question. "But it is not my place to give their name." Naruto finished seeing the disapproving look of his Sensei.
"Could I meet this friend of yours then?" Iruka tried one last time to get further information about this mysterious friend.
"Maybe one day." Naruto responded quickly and curtly, as if signaling that he was done with this conversation.
Iruka sighed, and let a small smile replace the frown that had graced his face over the last few questions. "I look forward to that day then." He stood up from his spot leaning on the edge of his desk, "You can go now, I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time Naruto-kun. Have a nice evening."
"You as well Iruka-Sensei!" Iruka watched Naruto as he backed up hesitantly two steps before turning on his heel and running out of the room as if the ANBU were on his tail.
End Flashback
Iruka sucked in a large breath of the chill morning air as he shut his front door behind him. Locking the door behind him he noticed a kunai sticking out of the middle of the door with a piece of paper pinned between it and the door with his name scrawled across the outer facing side of the paper.
Slightly annoyed that his door was damaged by the kunai, he yanked it out of the door as if its presence was offensive and grabbed the note. Unfolding it, he skimmed the contents and felt his patience level lowering, as he finished the note.
He was getting a new student today. He had just received communication of this and class starts in less than two hours. He had wanted to get to class early that morning in order to finish some last-minute grading, and now he had to escort the new student to school as the Hokage did not have any one else available to take her. To top it off, he had already had his morning planned around stopping by Naruto's apartment and walking with him to school as he was really down about something that had happened yesterday and refused to talk to anyone. Taking another brief look at the note he sighed. The student's apartment was in the same building as Naruto's, so maybe this wouldn't take much longer than originally planned. Iruka carefully folded the note back up and slid it into his pocket and started his trek.
He made it to the apartment complex in twenty minutes and slowly walked up the dilapidated stairs to the second level. Iruka rubbed his hand across his scarred nose and strolled up to Naruto's door and knocked three times. Iruka waited a minute or two before knocking a second time, this time a little more forcefully.
"Naruto!" he called "It's Iruka-Sensei. Time for school, come-on let's go!" Iruka grinned as he heard a small 'thump' come from within the apartment. Iruka waited a few moments longer before the door unceremoniously swung open to reveal Naruto with a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth.
"Really?" Naruto grumbled through the toast as he just stood in his doorway half dressed.
"I told you yesterday that I would be stopping by to walk with you to school today. Remember?" Iruka questioned, one eyebrow raised as he took in Naruto's appearance. "Are you going to go to school like that, or would you like to put a shirt on."
Naruto just kept standing in his doorway with an annoyed look on his face.
"Now, Naruto. There is someone else who is going to be joining us." Iruka took a look at his watch and frowned, before looking back up to Naruto. "We're supposed to meet them in ten minutes." Naruto groaned before moving out of his door enough to let Iruka in to his apartment while he grabbed his things for school.
Iruka drank in his surroundings as Naruto ran back and forth through the apartment collecting his school supplies. It was a rather messy apartment, but about what one would expect of a young boy living on his own. He had a few pictures of him with the Hokage on a corner table, and dirty dishes strewn across the counter. He had clothes, which he couldn't decide if they were clean or not, draped across the backs of chairs and hanging on a makeshift clothes line strung through the middle of the sitting room. What caught his attention the most though was that on the table there were what seemed like a hundred paper leaflets with black designs scrolled across them.
"Naruto, what is this?" He questioned, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"It's nothing." Naruto rattled off. "It's just something I do when I-nevermind," he shook his forcefully and then looked back to Iruka, "I'm ready, let's go."
Iruka sighed in annoyance. Naruto knew that he could trust him, why would that be changing all of a sudden?
Naruto upon hearing Iruka's dissatisfaction quickly apologized. "Look, I just don't really want to talk about it right now, okay?" Naruto's voice was soft and apologetic.
"Alright, but remember, I am always there if you need someone to talk to." Iruka mentioned. 'It must have something to do with why he was acting so strange yesterday.'
Flashback
Iruka walked out of the large red doors at the front of the academy just in time to see the waning sunlight disappearing over the horizon, basking the village in golden light. Locking the doors behind him he turned around to see a sight that he hadn't in a while: Naruto sitting on the lone swing his forehead pressed against the rope holding it in place.
"Naruto-?" Iruka questioned. It was Tuesday. Naruto can never sit still on Tuesdays. He's always so excited to get out of the class on Tuesdays that he practically trips over himself.
"Oh. Hey, Iruka-sensei," He mumbled looking back to the ground.
"What's up? Is everything alright Naruto?" Iruka crouched down till he was on eye level with Naruto.
"Yeah, 'm fine," Naruto said in a low voice, avoiding eye contact.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Iruka asked, an idea popping in to his head. "We can chat over some ramen?"
Naruto sighed heavily shaking his head as he slowly stood up. "That's okay, but I think I'm just gonna go home. Thanks anyways Iruka." Naruto turned and started the walk towards his house, only for Iruka to catch him by his shoulder.
"That's fine, but tomorrow, we're going to talk about it. I'm going to come by and we'll walk to school together, kay?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Naruto mumbled shaking Iruka's hand from his shoulder and continuing down the street.
Iruka watched as Naruto disappeared down the street, letting the worry dance through his head. Naruto never turned down ramen. He sighed and scratched the back of his head. What could have happened to cause his day to take an extreme left turn like that?
End Flashback
"Alright, alright, enough with the sappy stuff Iruka-Sensei! Where is this person that we are supposed to be meeting?" Like a flip being switched, Naruto was back to being his happy go lucky self and bouncing around in anticipation of meeting someone new. "What's their name? What are they like? Is it a boy? I hope they hate Sasuke too. Man, Iruka-sensei, I really hope it's not a fan-girl!"
"I'm afraid I know about as much as you do Naruto. I wasn't even given a name, just their address." Iruka shrugged his shoulders giving Naruto a small smile. "They live one floor up. Come' on now, we're late."
The two made their way up stairs and stopped in front of a door that would put the apartment right above Naruto's. Iruka straightened his vest and knocked three times on the door and called loudly "Hello, I am Umino Iruka, here to escort you to the academy!" A few minutes passed and no noise could be heard coming from the apartment, so Iruka knocked a second time a little more forcefully and introduced himself again.
"See, they aren't excited about getting up this early either," Naruto supplied from behind Iruka. Iruka glared at Naruto, turning back towards the door as the small click of a lock sounded, and the door opened just enough to show a pair of eyes between the edge of the door and the frame itself. "Hello there!" He greeted, "I'm Umino Iruka, and I'm here to escort someone at this address to the Academy for their first day today. Who might you be?"
"Who sent you?" The owner of the eyes questioned, distrust evident in their voice.
"Hokage-sama, sent me to escort you. I am a teacher at the academy." Iruka stated, a smile still on his face despite the tone that was being taken with him.
"Excuse me, did you just say Hokage?" this time confusion laced their voice.
"Yeah he did!" Naruto shouted "Old man Hokage sent him to come get you and bring you to school today!" Naruto shoved his way around Iruka to get a better glimpse at the owner of the voice.
"Hey, careful!" Iruka stated stepping out of Naruto's way, giving him clear view of the barely open door.
"Wait a second-" Naruto whispered stepping closer to the door. He recognized those eyes. No-one else in Konoha had eyes like that. He put his hand up to the door and pushed, ignoring Iruka's protest. "Saaa-Kumo, is that you?"
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