Chapter Title: Ibiki Sees
Ibiki isn't like the other jounin. When Ibiki is waiting in line he stands, and looks, and sees, rather than bitch, and gripe, and frantically write the last few pages of his mission report (besides, Ibiki would never let himself be seen 'frantic' in any situation). Ibiki also understands the human mind better than anyone, and no matter what Kakashi says about 'seeing the underneath', Ibiki sees more than Kakashi ever could.
Like the fact that there are three types of strength; physical, mental and emotional, and that a shinobi who is strong mentally and emotionally will survive much longer than those who are merely physically strong. One of the more important things Ibiki understands is that there are also three stages to the way a shinobi sees life and their place in it.
The first stage is the most naive, and applies mainly to gennin and the younger chuunin. It is that point when either the shinobi hasn't lost a precious person, or hasn't associated this loss with their line of work and so not only love and form friendships in innocent abundance, but do so without realising, that each and every moment they spend with their precious people could be the last, or that any shinobi who takes these friends for granted is a damned fool. It is easy to spot these shinobi; they're the ones who haven't learnt to hold their tongues and hide their emotions. Not Iruka-san though, no, Ibiki can see, unlike Genma and Kakashi, that Iruka-san has learnt to control his emotions, but chooses not to; for reasons that are entirely his own.
The second stage applies to the vast majority of shinobi. By this point the shinobi has realised that anyone they love will eventually die or leave them. That any friend could potentially become a missing-nin who they would be required to kill, that any lover could be used against them, be hurt because of them and quite likely die in their arms. The majority of shinobi therefore only forge bonds with those of equal or higher skill than themselves (for obvious reasons), and only allow a few that they trust implicitly to get close to their hearts. For this reason higher ranking shinobi generally fall into 'social' groups of about three to ten, for example, there's Kakashi, Asuma, Genma, Raidou, Gai, Kurenai-san, and Anko-chan, and then, Inoichi-san, Shikaku-san, and Chouza-san and of course Kotetsu, Izumo, Shizune-san, Iruka-san and Iwashi. Ibiki, with his self-knowledge can place himself in this stage, though he finds he cannot place himself in any such group of friends. He trusts none of them implicitly, although he must admit to letting Iruka-san warm his heart a little, simply because Ibiki can see that Iruka-san is so much wiser and worthy of respect than others give him credit for.
The third stage is extremely rare, and is often mistaken for the first by those who are not aware of its existence. This stage is for those who are conscious of the risks, who know and understand the pain, but let themselves love anyway. These are shinobi who open up their hearts to all who take the time to get to know them, knowing all the while how it could turn out yet deciding it's not worth wasting their life and love over. Ibiki-san sees this, and knows that he could never join those ranks; he cannot face it, and knows that his line of works requires first and foremost that he has no ties, that he is alone, always alone. Iruka-san is one of these few, and in Ibiki's eyes he is one of the strongest, bravest shinobi he has the pleasure of working with.
A/N: Once again deviating from Iruka a bit but I tried to keep on track , thank you once again to my reveiwers; ZeldaFitz and tiddarifka - I'm running out of ways to say how grateful I am! Also a big grin to those who are still adding me onto alert and favourite lists! ZeldaFitz - I really wanted to write something about Iruka's blow-ups but couldn't quite work it in! Wish I had though