Start Chapter Two
At Iruka's Apartment
I finally found who I was looking for. In the last place I'd expect to find it, Naruto Uzumaki. He's a good kid; he just needs a lot of work. The kid has a lot of the same struggles I did, and nobody should have to go through that. Although, maybe I should have thought of that when I was killing all of those people. Never mind, it doesn't matter anymore. What counts is that I mentor this boy into a man. The journey will be long and filled with a lot of speed bumps, but I'm confident Naruto Uzumaki will be a splendid ninja. Placing the pen down Iruka shuts off his light before heading towards his bedroom for the night.
In the Academy Courtyard
Naruto sits on the lone swing in the shade of an old tree. His face is long and tired with a slight bruise on his cheek, "Damn Sasuke, always having to be such a show-off in taijutsu." Rubbing the sore mark on his face the blond takes another bite of his sandwich and washes it down with water. He wipes the crumbs off his face and prepares to head back into the classroom for the rest of the day. Before he can leave he hears a familiar voice saying something about his bruise, "Iruka, where are you?" A tap on his shoulder makes him turn around to see the Jounin standing over him smiling, "How did you sneak up on me so well?"
Laughing at the naivety of the boy the brown-haired man says, "I was trained to do that." Iruka looks at the mark on Naruto's face, "You run into a pole or something today?" The blonde crosses his arms and scowls, "Just kidding, I saw the match between you and Sasuke." Naruto's expression softens a bit in embarrassment, "You need to not telegraph your attacks so much and maybe start sparring with someone a little easier, and so you can get better instead of beaten." Iruka chuckles dryly, "It makes you look tough to have a shiner every once in a while, but not almost every day." The bell rings and Naruto says bye before running inside, "Remember what I said! And our deal!" Nodding the blonde boy hurries into his class. Iruka sighs and heads back in as well to his office. As he makes his way through the hallways he passes by Naruto's classroom and sees the blonde answering a question. The rest of class bursts out laughing and the boy grows flustered. Then the teacher tells Naruto 'nice try' and works through the problem on the board. A visible click occurs in the boy before Iruka's eyes and the Jounin can't help but smile, "Iruka you're doing well." Continuing on his way the brown-haired man gets to his office and opens it to go back to doing some paperwork.
That Friday Night
Naruto consumes his fifth bowl of ramen slowly and begins to feel full. Once he's down to the broth he drinks it from the bowl, "Wow you were right! It is hard to eat as much when I slow down." Iruka laughs a little relieved by the fact he won't have to drain his bank account this week, "So when do you start teaching me cool stuff?"
The Jounin sighs at the blonde's excitement, "Not until at least the end of this term." Naruto's face falls, "You need to prove you can keep up the good work, and I fully expect you to do the same during subsequent terms until you graduate." The blonde looks further downtrodden by that statement "Don't worry I just want to make sure you can hold up your end of the bargain, and trust me when I start teaching you cool stuff you'll be happy you stuck this out." Naruto's azure eyes sparkle with hope, "Of course I can only teach you stuff as you're ready for it. The first few things I plan on teaching you won't seem cool, but they'll be super useful." Pausing the Jounin continues, "They'll lay the foundation, so when you do start learning more advanced things you'll get them quicker." Naruto huffs as he thinks about how boring the basics will be, "I'll teach you how to survive first and trust me you'll be glad when you're out on missions and know these simple tricks." Finishing his ramen Iruka wipes his face, "After survival I'll teach you how to hide, gather information, and interrogate people. These are skills you will use every day and it will be cool when you can pick up on things like when people are lying to you." Iruka asks for the bill and pays it, "Once you've mastered those skills, I'll start teaching you how to properly prepare for a fight, fight without fighting, and how to fight if you're put in that situation." They get up and leave the stand, "Then and only then can I start teaching you the flashy or cool parts of being a ninja."
Naruto thinks it over for a few seconds, "So basically I'm going to have to do a bunch of lame stuff, which will wind up making me an awesome ninja. Then I get to do all of the fun stuff?" Iruka nods and the boy sighs, "I guess I don't have any other options, so I'll have to deal with it." Extending his hand the two shake on the terms, "Will you at least help me if I need any on something at the academy?" Iruka smiles and nods, "Are you still going to give me tips like you did the other day? Cause that really helped me."
Iruka laughs, "Don't worry I won't forget about you, I just won't be doing a lot of one-on-one teaching. I'm an administrator in the academy, so I have to do a lot of paperwork. Once we start winter break we'll be spending a lot of time together as long as you've held up your end of the deal." Naruto nods vigorously, "Okay then head home and study hard. Maybe work on your weapon work with those new tools on your kitchen table." Iruka winks at the boy before departing a swirl of leaves. Naruto smiles before rushing home to his apartment complex. Once he gets in the gate he rushes upstairs to his apartment and opens to door almost dropping his keys. On the kitchen table is a package with a note attached to it that reads, "Careful they're sharp… Practice hard buddy. –Iruka" Opening the package Naruto smiles at the brand new set of tools and feels a tear welling up in his eye.
Replacing his old set with the new he stows the old ones as back-ups in a storage case, "Thank you Iruka, this means the world to me." The blonde looks up at the full moon outside of his window before heading to his room to do a little bit of studying before bed. Opening up his history book and turning on the desk lamp Naruto begins to read an excerpt on the Fourth Hokage and his success during the Third Great War, "I wonder if that jutsu could be replicated. That would be awesome to learn." Finishing up the chapter about his Genin team's adventures and taking down some notes the blonde turns in for the night.
The Next Wednesday after Class
Naruto tries to talk to Sakura, but she ignores him in favor of fawning over Sasuke. The boy feels jealous and angry as he heads towards the swings in defeat to that prick. Wondering what makes Sasuke, so special causes him to ignore Iruka's obvious presence, "You know you should really stop chasing after her." The Jounin's words cause Naruto to jump a little before sighing, "She doesn't want to be with you and besides if she's that into Sasuke she probably isn't worth the time." Muttering something about maybe the boy still looks depressed, "Trust me dude, when you're older you'll be glad you forgot about her. Besides a fact most girls your age aren't into boys like that, you're only ten." Naruto looks up hopefully at Iruka, "It way better when you start getting around sixteen or so." Iruka remembers the love of his life, but quickly stows that away as to not bring up the pain of losing her, "Anyways you're wasting your time, focus on getting better as a ninja and the girls will follow eventually." Patting the boy on the back the Jounin goes heads back towards his office and Naruto heads home. On his way in Iruka decides to go to her grave instead.
At The KIA Ninja Memorial
Iruka feels a pang in his chest remembering the fateful day the love of his life was taken away from him. The only teammate that he lost was the one he was meant to be with for the rest of his life. Rubbing the cold stone he sees the flashes of blood being spilled from her beautiful body. Iruka retracts his hand and holds back his tears before sensing a familiar presence; "It's been a while since I've seen you here." Kakashi Hatake's monotone hits his ears, "You thought of her didn't you?"
The brown-haired man nods to his fellow Jounin, "Even after all these years it still hurts." Iruka chokes back tears, "God I feel like such a pussy right now still crying over it, but I guess there are some wounds time doesn't heal." They look at each other knowing that all too well, "I heard you failed another team; I'm guessing you're waiting for Sasuke?"
Kakashi nods, "Yeah, I've been asked to take him under my wing once he graduates." Sighing the silver-haired man dryly chuckles, "I heard you've taken someone under your wing already." Smiling underneath his mask Kakashi continues, "Naruto Uzumaki of all people, but I can definitely see why you picked him. You two are pretty much the same."
Smiling Iruka can't help but nod, "Yeah, but there are a couple of big differences that we can't talk about. Not that they matter really, but luckily he has someone who sympathizes with him." They share a moment of silence; "It'll be ironic if those two wind up together Naruto and Sasuke. They're like oil and water." Kakashi nods in agreement before patting Iruka on the shoulder and leaving. Soon the brown-haired man does the same feeling a little bit better.
Later that Day in the Academy Training Field
Naruto stares at the target in front of him and swiftly throws three shuriken that all miss the target, "Damn it." Sighing he pulls out a few more before this time carefully aiming them and hits the target this time, "Well I guess that's progress." Taking another accurate shot he continues to throw them with a little more focus and power every time until his speed gradually increases. Eventually he reaches for some more and goes to collect them, "What the hell?" Bunches of shuriken are on the bull's eye and several are on the ground obviously having fallen from there, "Huh, I wonder how I didn't even notice hitting the mark every time?" Shrugging it off as nothing he collects his weapons and puts them back in his holster. This time he takes out the kunai and tries to focus a little more right off the bat before throwing them. Each time he gets subsequently closer to the bull's eye until he hits it every go, "Wow, I guess if I focus first it helps." The blonde laughs at his mistakes, "But I can't focus too much or it screws me up." Naruto begins to take a look at some of the kunai that missed as he was thinking it over. Once he runs out of kunai the boy picks up his knives before heading over to the taijutsu dummy. Running through several of the katas of the basic academy style Naruto feels like he's doing something wrong.
"Fix your stance." A dull voice says from behind him and Naruto turns around to see a masked Jounin, "You're not in a natural stance for your body and that's what is causing you to not flow as well." The blonde feels confused, "Sorry I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Kakashi Hatake."
Naruto recognizes that name from his history book as one of the Fourth Hokage's students, "You were one of the Fourth Hokage's students right?" The Jounin is taken aback by the blonde's knowledge and nods, "Do you know how he did that Flying Thunder God Jutsu of his?" The Jounin shakes his head and mentions something about knowing as much as you do, "Oh well, I guess you have to keep some things a secret, but what was he like?"
Kakashi sighs remembering his old teacher's ways, "Very serious, but also a fun loving guy when it was appropriate. He would have been a great Hokage if he didn't die defeating the nine-tailed fox." Pausing for a second the Jounin smiles underneath of his half-mask, "You look a lot like him actually. However, he was definitely more intimidating." Naruto scowls and Kakashi chuckles dryly, "You're a kid, don't worry about it. But he also had his reputation, so that helped a lot." The blonde crosses his arms and continues to hang on to every word, "But he also had another technique the Rasengan that he learned from his tutor Jiraiya of the Sannin. It was basically a ball of swirling chakra that could do a lot of damage, but it was incomplete." Naruto tilts his head in confusion at that, "It's tough to explain, but he hoped to add an element to it, so it could become even more devastating." Kakashi pauses for a second, "There was a lot more to him that I know about, but would rather not bring up because it's secret. And you never know whose listening right Iruka?" Naruto looks around for his teacher, but can't find him until a voice pierces the silence.
"I can never pull one over for long on you Kakashi." The brown-haired Jounin pops out of nowhere, "I see you've been talking to my student." Kakashi says something about helping him too, "I saw that, I was going to say something, but figured you could probably have more to offer. Considering you are labeled as a Jounin instructor for Genin, not merely Academy Students like me." They share a laugh at that, "Kakashi and I are very good friends from the ANBU."
Naruto looks at the two men, "Well if you two don't mind I'm going back to training." Facing the practice dummy he settles into a more natural stance before practicing his taijutsu. The two Jounin share a look before shrugging their shoulders and leaving in two separate swirls of leaves. Sweat begins to form on the blonde's brow and he pants slightly as his endurance starts to wear down. Pushing through the feeling of tiredness Naruto continues to train his hand-to-hand skills.
At Naruto's Apartment that Night
Naruto turns off the cold-water shower water before drying himself off with a towel hanging on the curtain. He steps out of the tub in a towel he's wrapped in and looks in the mirror hanging over his sink, "If I can keep this up I'll be able to get where I want to be." Shaking out his blonde spikes the boy heads to his room to turn in for the night. A crow-masked figure peers into the window of his room as he lies down in bed. Soon after they vanish into seemingly thin air…
End Chapter Two