It was a truly rare thing for a child to manage to keep Iruka's undivided attention regardless of where he was looking.

But somehow Naru managed it as she sat at her desk staring down at the sheet of paper he had placed in front of her just a short time ago after he and Mizuki had finished calling their children's names- before the hokage had tried to make a hasty get away only to be grabbed by his bead and growled at in their fierce manner of hers before being dragged into the school building flailing and floundering like a fish out of water.

Which would have been amusing if not for the fact that the hokage was their village leader and was for some reason- for good or bad- being strong armed by a little girl. Although Iruka wondered if the old man was truly being strong armed and just wasn't pants passingly frightened of the child for some reason.

Perhaps it was the latter.

Whatever the reason was, it was a little more obvious later that Naru had dragged the old man along because she didn't like strange places or people and he was the only one she trusted at this point. Which was why Mizuki had given the elder a chair up in front of the class room where she could see him whenever she started to feel uncomfortable. Which was apparently a lot since she would look down at her paper for a few seconds then glance helplessly back at the elder and make a little whining sound then go back to her paper.

Deciding to walk around the classroom, Iruka stood and headed straight towards Naru's seat. The first desk in the second row, right next to the stairs where he could get to her easily. Like if there was a fire or the school was attacked by enemy nins or something (sure it sounded odd or even stupid to the casual observer- but well, stranger things had been known to happen).

Stuffing his hands in his pockets he walked up the steps and paused next to Naru's desk and leaned in over the top of her head a little bit to subtly see which question on the paper he had given her seemed to confound her so. And blinked down at the page of unanswered questions and frowned. What was wrong here? The questions were simple enough, running along the lines of, What's your name? to What's you're favorite color? or What's your favorite food?

Yet Naru kept glancing at the Hokage and making soft little whining sounds, belying her anxiousness about answering even one of those ridiculous questions. Kneeling down next to her desk, Iruka reached out and gently tugged on one of the braids hanging from her temple and asked softly, "Naru? What's wrong? You haven't answered any of the questions on your paper."

Naru winced at having her hair pulled and turned on the man with her teeth bared so that her small fangs were displayed and stood up and all but snarled at him as her eyes teared up and she flushed in embarrassment, "I don't know how to write! And even if I did- I wouldn't write down any answers on this stupid paper! You know my name, that's enough! Everything else is none of your concern."

Up at the front of the class, the Hokage sighed and pulled his hat down over his eyes in an effort to hide the blush creeping up his neck. Oh yeah... He had known that he had forgotten to teach Naru something these past few weeks after bringing her back to the village. But between the assassination missions and trying to tame a bit of Naru's wild nature and teach her how to read, do math, and teach her about medicinal herbs and such... He must have overlooked teaching her something as basic as how to write.

How stupid of him to be so remiss.

He'd have to fix that as soon as he could-

The quiet class room was suddenly full of soft laughter, causing the elder's head to swing around in hopes that none of the kids were laughing at Naru. She still didn't quite understand the concept of strength in moderation. Nor did she really understand that using her monsterous strength on a child of the village would likely clue the council and the shinobi in on her sudden reappearance after seven years of being removed from the village.

It could cause serious problems. He only hoped that she would stick to her self imposed decree of never laying a finger on someone weaker than her unless they could put up a decent fight.

As near as he figured, it was why she had fought him when she had first met him as well as grabbed Iruka and thrown him earlier. It wasn't so much that she felt they posed a threat to her- in fact she had explained to him once that she instinctively knew threats to her life when she saw them, and as such she tended to eliminate them before they had a chance to really come at her.

Her version of the old saying, Strike while the iron is hot, he supposed.

He saw an amused Iruka sitting on the floor next to her desk laughing and raised a brow as he glanced at Naru, wondering what she intended to do to him to stop him from laughing at her and was most curious to find that she hadn't raised her hand to slap him or lifted a foot to kick him in the head or anything. She just stood there with her head hung, her fists tightly clenched.

So- she is just a child after all. He thought in bemusement as Iruka finally got a hold of himself and said in an overly cheerful tone that must have grated on Naru's nerves after being laughed at like that, "Alright. I get it. You don't feel like letting anyone try to get to know you right now. I'll let that slide for the time being if you stay over today and let me teach you how to write. Sound like a deal?"

"You'll teach me..." Naru said in a small voice that was almost too soft for him to hear. Iruka nodded his head and smiled at her.

"Yeah. Before you leave today I swear you'll know how to write," He said as he slowly got up and took the paper from her desk and said, "But in return- you'll have to answer the questions on this at another time. One of my choosing. Okay?"