So… I totally looked at my stats for this fic… and I have 38 people who've favorited… and 65 people who have it on alert… WOW. Not to mention the fact that this fic has garnered more hits than any of my other stories and it's not even the longest one. WOW. I just wanted to thank everyone who's taken the time to review thus far and even those who haven't but have favorite/alerted. Thank you all!

Sorry for the wait everyone! Babies tend to make life more difficult than it needs to be.

Chapter 7

"Good morning class! I am Umino Iruka. You may call me Iruka-sensei." The brunet smiled at his class. He'd missed teaching since the first day he'd been put back on active duty. "To my left is Hatake Kakashi."

"Sensei if you please." The man droned in a bored manner. His fingers made a twitching move to his vest pocket before they dropped back to his side.

The class openly wondered at his covered face. Deciding to have a little fun, Kakashi crossed his arms and addressed the entire class once more.

"An A+ to any student who can unmask me." He smirked behind his mask at the look he received from Iruka. "Only outside of class of course."

"He's not serious. I ask that none of you even try. You will be on the receiving end of some severely bad jokes." He leveled another glare at the senior ninja just for good measure. "Now if you would please all line up and approach one by one, we will see where you need to be placed in terms of skill and chakra flow."

Kakashi rolled his eyes and pulled back his hitai-ate. He gazed lazily across the room at the students who scrambled to obey. He noticed Naruto and Kiba snickering to themselves.

"Naruto and Kiba to the front please." Iruka anticipated the boy's grumbling and smacked them across the head as they passed him. He looked to the suddenly nervous students and smiled. "Our first lesson will be pulling chakra. I must warn you that if you do not listen carefully to what I or Kakashi tells you, you may end up in the hospital wing with severe chakra depletion."

Naruto and Kiba both stood in front of the class and made a seal. Their chakra began to swirl about them, almost visible to the eye. Kakashi swept his eyes over once and stopped with a shocked curse.

Iruka looked concerned until he shook his head.

"As you can see, and maybe feel, they are gathering chakra at this very moment. The seal that they are making with their hands is called 'hitsuji' and is the first and basic hand sign that you will need to know."

The brunet turned to the chalk board behind him and began writing.

"When you go back to your seats, please write these down and copy the drawing as good as you possibly can. You will need to be able to do these."

He started with 'hitsuji' which was hands placed together, pointers and middle fingers pointed up with rings and pinkies curled. The right hand was slightly lower than the left. He moved directly onto 'i'. Hands palm together, fingers down and curled at the knuckle. 'Mi' was hands clasped. 'Ne' was the 'hitsuji' sign with the hands reversed.

"For now, these four will be all you need to know."

Naruto and Kiba stopped focusing their chakra and flashed through the seals. Naruto laughed openly at the jaws that dropped.

"I don't expect you to be able to do hand seals as fast as either of them. Do not expect it of yourselves either. Both these men have trained since they were very young."

"And there are people who can do them faster so don't think we're amazing either." Naruto flashed a grin.

Iruka smiled at his student. He'd really matured if he wasn't trying to brag and be the best.

"For now, please make the 'hitsuji'."

The students all did the sign and waited for more instructions.

"One at a time step forward in front of Kakashi please." Iruka gestured for Hermione to start.

She looked nervous but did as she was told.

"Now… when you do spells, you feel your magic inside of you yes?" The man prompted.

"Yes Iruka-sensei."

"Think of that feeling but instead of concentrating on a spell, just feel the flow and direction of the magic." He glanced at the class behind her. "You may all attempt this now as well."

Hermione bit her lip but nodded to the teacher. "I can feel it… almost like a tide. Ebbing and flowing."

"Good. That means you will be able to do this exercise."

Hermione blushed happily.

"Now I want you to visualize this energy and feel it as you do. You can give it a color if you wish."

"A green almost like grass…" She murmured as her eyes slipped closed. "It's very warm."

"Excellent. Now pull. Gently."

The girl's eyes shot open as she felt the hem of her robe stir about her feet. Her hair was moving slightly as well.

"Very good. Kakashi?"

"She's got excellent control… But not much to work with. I'll refer her to Sakura."

Kakashi placed a small square of paper between her fingers and waited while she kept her chakra about her. The paper became soggy and fell limply to the floor.

"Water."

Iruka nodded and jotted a quick note on his notebook. "Alright. Thank you Miss…"

"Hermione Granger."

"Miss Granger. You may return to your seat now."

-

Sasuke rubbed his cheek absently as he watched Lee run laps around a large field. They stayed on the inside of the rather tall and large stands. He assumed that they could somehow fly if they needed seats so high. He'd placed a slight Genjutsu over himself so that his students didn't see the small bruise that was rapidly darkening on his cheek. Lee certainly didn't pull his punches. They'd ended their little demonstration in a tie so as not to usurp each other's tenuous authority over the students. But he'd still taken more damage than Lee had. Maybe Taijutsu training was a good thing. He'd focused far too much on his Ninjutsu and Genjutsu since he'd defected from Konoha.

His dark eyes trailed after the students lagging behind. They seemed to think that they had the luxury of socializing during training. Ha.

Even barely at his top speed he still seemed to materialize in front of the girls who were all but stopped.

"You seem to think that this exercise does not apply to you." He narrowed his eyes at the group of girls.

"Oh! Sasuke-sensei!" The one with a pinched face exclaimed. "We uh… we were…"

"I believe I informed you at the beginning of this lesson that you were to refer to me as Sensei." His glare intensified. "Four more laps for each of you." He flashed back to his original spot and waited for the rest of the class with Lee who'd already run double his self imposed laps.

"That girl will be receiving a bad mark." His eyes dared Lee to argue.

"I think I agree." The man sighed. "Some people just do not understand the beauty of hard work."

Some of the tension left Sasuke's shoulders. "I think we should keep an eye on that Malfoy kid. He doesn't seem very physically fit. On the other hand, Longbottom seems to be doing fairly well."

Lee simply nodded.

-

Okay… so that was part of Iruka's class and more of Sasuke's and Lee's. I know its short… but better that than no update at all! Yes? Again, thank you all for your kind words. They're really what make me want to write more. And please ignore any typos. My keyboard is running out of batteries… and I can't seem to find any. Half the keys I hit don't register. So it takes extra long for me to write a chapter.

Also… if anyone has any suggestions as to scenes they would like to see, let me know! If it doesn't work against my plot, I shall endeavor to add it in.

And last but not least… I'm so glad that you all approve of Edward! I intend to have some more fun at his expense… and please remember that he's lived a full adult life and everything. So his personality is a little different from what it used to be. Older and a little more mature. Knowing Ed, it's not all that much.

Shinimegami7