Author Notes: Actually, more of an apology for the 'late' update. LoL. I find if I don't push myself I tend not to get things done. Procrastinators of the world unite!... tomorrow. Well what can I say? I started writing this when I wasn't totally in the mood, so the first draft was flushed. Then my friend Fortune came back from Vietnam, and I've been catching up with her since. So, I guess between that and work I've been busy... so here it is! ... now what do I call it?
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Umino Iruka became two people over the following weeks leading to the winter Chuunin exams. Jiraiya, on the one hand, kept him busy with Naruto presumably. On the other hand, Orochimaru kept his team on their toes with a very strict, unyielding training schedule. In between, there was little time for the orphan to be himself, whoever that was.
A gentle dusting of snow had settled over the village and the shivering genin stood with his breath hanging like a cloud in the air as he looked on the memorial stone. It had been a while since he'd been able to stand there, and he was reflecting on events since October tenth. It was rather surreal, now that he thought about it and the images of that day flooded into the forefront of his mind. Although he could see every blood spray, every body fly, feel and smell and taste the danger he'd faced... the terror was somehow muffled. There was a pillow over his ears now that he thought about the sounds, even his own parents cries as they fought to protect what they loved most. And yet, that alone caused tears to fall unbidden and he bit his lip to have something else to focus on. His own salty tears mixed with the blood and fell crimson against the white landscape.
"Iruka! Iruka!... Iruka!" a voice repeated. At first, it might have been his parents, but suddenly a hand was on his shoulder and he reacted like a snake, coiling into a defensive pose, kunai raised. Then his eyesight beheld the one who had 'attacked' him. It was just Mizuki. "Hey. Can't stay in a daze all day, can you?" the white-haired kid smiled kindly. "We have practice, you know?"
Relaxing his stance, Iruka put his hands in his pockets and looking down, he smeared the blood on the ground with his foot. "Anko's going to win, you know? She's gotten so much better, so fast."
Mizuki placed his friend with an odd gaze and shrugged. Of course he had noticed the blood and knew he'd been crying again, but now was not the time for it. "Iruka. You know better than this. If anyone's going to win and become a Chuunin, it's got to be us okay?" He attempted a grin, but he also knew Iruka was right. It was foolish to think Anko wouldn't win the little wager Orochimaru had proposed, and it had an obvious strain on the team's cohesiveness and abilities in combat. His concern though was more along the lines of sensei Orochi-sama not teaching them anymore, stalling their progress as Shinobi. He could not allow that to happen, so he had to work with what he could... which was more than his friend initially had.
The young genin smiled a bit and glanced in the direction of their usual training grounds. "So, what's the snake-bastard want today?" Umino said with a grin. He made a motion to wipe his tears, and any semblance of sorrow had been erased with that movement.
Even Hoshino Mizuki had to laugh at that and had to agree. "Make sure you have good Chakra control, he doesn't want any footprints left on the ground." Iruka groaned.
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Just as chakra could be used to run up trees or walk on water, the tension could also keep them from breaking a leaf or leaving footprints in the snow. As chakra potentials was one of Orochimaru's private... studies lately, that meant he put such things to the test quite often. Often enough to make all three genin regret getting out of bed... not that Mitarashi Anko necessarily slept.
She was eerily alert at all times, even when she was supposed to be sleeping. (Anyone at the orphanage wishing to pull a prank on her quickly learned this and made a note never to do it again. The fact that she didn't appear to wake up while beating the tar out of them, Iruka included as one of the would-be pranksters, was even more reason to call her 'scary lady!') Despite displays of girlish fits of giggles and laughter in the presence of her idolized sensei, she was an exquisite shinobi in every other sense. She had all the advantages the boys didn't, including extra tutoring by Orochimaru-sensei. The girl with indistinguishable hazel eyes had sharp instincts, immaculate control of her chakra, a keen and flexible mind (which the Sannin swore to delve into at a later date) and a flexible body to match. Her hyperactive nature seemed to radiate so that, even though she was wearing shorts and a camo vest over a fishnet shirt and tank top, she seemed plenty warm.
'We're dead' both of the boys thought in tandem. Mizuki, considering the fact he still had parents and training opportunities Iruka didn't, had been unable to excel at anything. He was adequate. For Iruka, it was the constant bickering he did with Jiraiya over what to do with Naruto, and his actual care, that kept him from properly training, aside his lack of proper instruction. Still, the boys were close enough in tune with each other to work as a team against the future snake mistress.
The holder of the snake summoning contract smiled dispassionately as he watched the training match. He noticed the difference in his teammates abilities and skills more sharply now than ever and was honestly enjoying the fight. He grinned inwardly as he watched a kunai graze Mizuki's cheek. She licked it! She licked the blood off the kunai and she was smiling! 'How delightful!' he cackled to himself. He'd already decided she would be the one he would train, the one he would invest the most in. She could already hold off both her teammates single-handedly and there was a certain pride welling up in him as he watched the maturing girl and wondered what she would become. Of course, he would directly influence the form and fate of her future, you could count on that.
There were cries of "No fair!' and "Hey! You're not supposed to draw blood!" and a few convulsive shudders at the apparent pleasure Anko was taking from the fight. But all good things had to come to an end eventually, so Orochimaru stood and drew an end to the battle. "Youku dekimashita!" he said in a slow deliberate way, smiling amiably at his students, but mostly Anko. The boys noticed and were not amused even at his patronizing applause. "You did well to fend off my star pupil." The sannin commented dryly to quickly souring faces.
"Sensei!" Mizuki spoke up. An arched brow was his only indication he could safely continue. "It's not enough! We need more training, sensei! Please, teach us too!" he gave a pleading bow, and elbowed Iruka in the gut to do likewise.
Orochimaru just laughed. "Ooh... am I not being fair?" he chuckled. He looked at them with a few strands of his black hair falling over his gaze and knelt down, his sickeningly white smile and pallid face making him appear somehow stretched to the two hopeful ninja. "I'm sorry... I'll just have to tell our enemies not to kill you then when you fail to stop an incoming attack." he shrugged.
"But..." Iruka frowned, "How are we supposed to succeed when you never work with us!?" he complained.
The older shinobi leaned back, hands in his pockets, drifting into deep thought. He looked so precarious the way he was poised, a slight breeze should have blown him over. Things weren't fair, no, but then again, nobody said it would be fair. People were always trying to stack the deck in their favor, and Orochimaru was no exception. Still, he supposed he would have to offer something. Besides, their success meant his future experiment would have to push her limits further and that could only yield better, more interesting results.
"The rules have been set. The Chuunin exams are on their way. That will be what decides who I will personally teach and raise between you and Anko-chan." The girl almost wet herself in excitement over the -chan honorific and a high pitched squeal left the exuberant teen. The snake winced slightly with the boys over that one. "But I have been playing favorites... All right. I concede this far, Anko won't be receiving any more special training until after the exams." And this caused a disgruntled squawk from the girl. "Not to say you're off the hook for training," and further grumbling ensued. He gave the boys a more serious look. "You two display great teamwork, that alone gives you an edge on Mitarashi. However, I want you two to train independently from now on. Each of you will earn training sessions with me based on how well you individually fare against Anko. After the exams..." he trailed off, gold eyes glinting in the waning light of day, "I make no promises. You are shinobi now, do not disappoint."
A vapor of smoke was left where the jounin had been sitting and the teammates were left staring at one another. This could not end well.
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More dead than alive, a depressed Umino trudged through the thickening layers of snow to Jiraiya's apartment. He was shivering from the cold, having forgot about any kind of padded clothes beside his jacket, and the result was frozen ankles. What he wouldn't give to be an uchiha about now, with their fire techniques, they probably never wanted for warmth.
Soon his knuckles came within an inch of the door when he heard the crying inside. 'Baka...' he grunted, then threw the door open without caution. As soon as the initial crash subsided, a wave of silence washed over the apartment and everything seemed to have become a place of ice sculptures. The crying was not Naruto's, something the boy certainly hadn't anticipated.
Iruka was stuck with a dropped jaw and one foot in the air, the one he'd used to bash the door open with. Jiraiya was hunched over a figure sitting in his favorite e-z chair that nobody, on pain of pain, would dare sit on if they wanted the continued ability to sit in the future. The one in the chair was the slug sannin, Tsunade who, of all people, was crying.
"A...A... ano..." Iruka's face cracked into a decently embarrassed visage. "I... umm.. bad time?" he grinned broadly, showing entirely too many teeth. Jiraiya twitched, and the white haired beast of a man simply pointed to Naruto's room. The boy nodded in understanding, and quickly went to check on his charge.
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A small amount of chakra subconsciously filled Iruka's ears while he went into the child's room, for lack of a better term. 'He could have at least put the mop and broom somewhere else...' he thought irritably. He'd thought utilization of space like this stopped once you left the orphanage, as he even had a room to himself now that most of the kids had been adopted out.
"Hey! Naruto-kun! Toad-man taking good care of you?" He smiled at his 'baby brother' and tickled the kid's stomach. Naruto cooed and giggled. It was a little troubling that the seal was still so visible, and that there was an impression of whisker marks on his cheeks. Couldn't be helped though, and it wasn't like it was his fault was it?
He did the usual check, which was almost medical in nature, to make sure that Naruto was healthy. It was his philosophy that if you accepted a task, you did it well. He'd never accepted the challenge Orochimaru had set up, which was why he was only half inclined to see it through. Besides, Anko-chan was scary.
Because of the chakra enhancing his hearing, he picked up bits of the conversation from the other room. Tsunade was sobbing for the most part, so he imagined even Jiraiya was having trouble with things. He did, however, pick up the words "ambush" "mission", "failure" and "blood."
It wasn't Iruka's business, he reminded himself. He was just here for Naruto because... because... he was his baby-sitter... because... Jiraiya asked him to. 'Hmm'. Suddenly, that didn't seem to be enough. Because he liked Naruto? Maybe. He did respect him for what he did for the village, even if nobody else would. Jiraiya had called him his baby brother enough, even he was starting to call him that in his mind. But thinking and feeling were two different things, and the world had been muted to him since his last visit to the memorial stone.
"Dan's name is being engraved on it.." Tsunade said just as he was thinking about the monument. "...and on his birthday... Jiraiya...' The toad-nin cursed and presumably tried comforting the inconsolable woman. That explained a lot. It was no secret that Tsunade was in love with Dan, and he had wanted to be Hokage... he was also very well-liked by the public. His death would undoubtedly be a great loss, and caused Iruka to think back on his own losses.
A sympathetic smile graced him when he looked back at the wild-haired boy. He brushed away a few spikes of yellow, only for them to fall back into place. "We're the same you know? All alone. Even sensei won't teach me now, so I have to find my way. You too, right?" He turned to the door which was all that separated him from two of the greatest ninja in the village, the irony of the situation just beginning to dawn on him.
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Iruka usually only stayed at the apartment so long as Jiraiya was busy with something else, or out drinking. The something else was sometimes his novel, and sometimes what he called 'research'. Iruka knew what he meant by that when he'd started bringing in Jiraiya's mail too... filthy old pervert. Today he stayed in with Naruto while the toad had comforted Tsunade. But Jiraiya was no good at comfort, and comfort quickly came in liquid form.
When the lad finally mustered the courage to come out of Naruto's room, he gave up trying to count how many sake bottles lay around the living room. Tsunade was kicked back on the chair and was snoring with the quintessential snot bubble expanding and shrinking in time with her breath. Jiraiya was similarly indisposed, but he was splayed in a far less dignified manner on the floor, with his ass in the air, and arms curled around a sake bottle. He was also muttering about Tsunade's 'fine curves'.
"Oooh... Tsunade-sama...." Jiraiya droned, and giggled a bit. His face was beet read as he snuggled against the bulbous drinking gord. "Mmmm........."
The scratched junior nin winced at this display. 'Disgusting. May I never be like you Ero-sennin.' There was a slight sucking noise as Iruka filled his lugs with air, bracing himself, and his foot drew back. It connected with Jiraiya's head which, in turn, connected with one of the legs of the coffee table.
"YEoooooWWW! ITAI YO!" The sannin jumped half way to the ceiling, and let out another loud yell and several unmentionable swears before coming down to earth. He quickly looked at Tsunade, who was snoring louder, a trail of drool marring his beautiful chair. Despite where his mind was in his sleep, he was not so perverse as to think of taking advantage of her, or pressing her over a date so soon after Dan's death. He grumbled a bit and grabbed the offending Umino by the shoulder and yanked him into the kitchen. "You got guts." he said through gritted teeth, grumbling and groggy. "Whaddaya' ezpekt grum bee?" he mumbled and now almost fell asleep. Iruka kicked him in the shin. "Yee---" He glanced back at the door to the living room and quickly snapped his trap shut. He glared at the boy.
He tried calming down and despite the pain having brought him to a mid-state of cognitive functionality, he was still stinking drunk. The jounin slumped down in a chair and attempted to look menacing, "...Okay, you have a lot of nerve. Tell me right now why I shouldn't kick you into Iwa?"
"I'll wake up your girlfriend." he replied flatly.
In an instant far too fast for the human eye, the toad-nin was flat on his face, twitching. "...The hell? What's with you today?" Jiraiya asked, pulling himself back up into the chair and trying not to fall back asleep.
Iruka sighed and scratched the back of his head, "I... kind of need training."
A lazy eye finally contacted his and a white brow arched with interest. "Ain't that 'rochi's department?"
"He won't train us unless we earn it, and we can't win against Mitarashi-san unless we get extra training. Please?" he pleaded in earnest.
Dusty parts of the sage's brain began to turn, more like grinding stones than a well-oiled machine. A mouth hung open as if to speak several times, before closing without so much of a squeak. 'Rochi... rochi... not training students... baka... hnn... now... bah....' "So... that's... my problem?"
"You're a sannin! One of the three legends of the village! If you taught me..."
"Uh uh... nothin' doin." Jiraiya shrugged. "That's 'Rochi's place, not mine. 'Sides, I can see him not training a snot-nosed brat like you."
A hurt look flickered in Umino's eyes before they became firm and fortified with inner strength. It was something Ero-sennin could understand, though his hurt pride, face, throbbing head and shin were arguing against that point. "I want you to train me! If Orochimaru-sama won't do it, then you'll have to! You just, have to!"
"I don't have time," he shrugged again and rubbed his cheek idly. The red streaks on his face had to be tattoos, because they never smudged.
"Can't you talk to sensei!?" Another shrug was his reply. Exasperated, Iruka thumped his head on the table, then Naruto began wailing.
"...Damnit... 's gonna wake Tsu...na.. Tsunadddd....de."
And again, Naruto had given Iruka a reason to smile. "I can quiet him!" he offered quickly. He stopped at the kitchen door.
"Beh? Why stop? C'mon... he's gonna wake Tsu!"
"Hnn... You know, I never asked for any money to babysit him..." Iruka commented in sudden wonder.
Nobody looks good drunk, Jiraiya especially. It was hard to say who'd drank more, but it didn't matter because the ninja's rock muscles had decided they were jelly. "Why you--"
"It's not too much to ask, you know? An hour or two maybe? Even once a week... I'm sure that'd show Orochimaru-sama how cool toads are too." Naruto continued wailing, and through the open kitchen door, Jiraiya could see the crying had upset Tsunade even in her sleep.
"Fine! Fine! Just shut the brat up!"
"Deal!" Iruka snapped, but halted before his hand left the doorknob as he felt a mild dose of killing intent on his neck. he looked back at Jiraiya, who's eyes were bloodshot and the drooling/foaming at his mouth was not a good sign.
"...I am so gonna' fucking kill you for this! You're gonna' really wish 'Rochi'd train you so get ready for pain kid!" and then the grown man's head dropped on the table and he was lost to the alcohol once more.
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A victorious and hopeful Iruka quickly went to check on his charge. Instantly, the room went quiet. Curiously, the young genin stepped over to the crib and looked down. Two orbs of the most brilliant blue practically illuminated the room. Somehow, he felt Naruto understood what he'd just done, but that wasn't possible.
He scratched the back of his head, his pineapple-like hair style splaying out more than usual. "I don't know what's with you, or me, but... thanks, ok?"
The baby giggled.
'What are you?' the teen asked himself, and not for the first time. A good luck charm perhaps. "Oh well, Be good tonight, kay? Tsunade just had bad news, and he and Jiraiya had way too much to drink. And you shouldn't be like either of them okay? Tsunade's the slug sannin, and she's a terrible gambler too!"
He stayed with Naruto for a while that evening, relating news from the village as if the boy understood every word. He didn't believe in 'baby talk' at all, and never cooed or made weird noises at Naruto. Well, maybe he made weird noises to get his attention or entertain him at times, but that was different. As far as he was concerned, he was just a tiny person. It made him feel good to just talk to the boy, getting nothing in return but a gassy smile or typically oblivious look. It wasn't until well after midnight that the orphan returned to his temporary home, feeling just a bit more confident.
A flicker of red chakra spun around the infant after he left, and a smile, not entirely his own, molded on the boy's face. A smile filled with mischief, and ringing of a fox's laughter.