Hello! Here you have chapter 10. It's even longer than the last one, and I still can't believe that this story is growing at the pace it is. I wanted to thank all of you beautiful people for reading and leaving your kudos and opinions, I really appreciate them!

Also, I wanted to point out that as of yesterday (July 15, 2016) chapters 1-5 have been rewritten, so if you read them before you might want to reread them. They really haven't changed that much, I've just added some more background information as the plot now is more defined. Ah, and that I have decided not to change the genre of any other character, at least for this story. Just so you know.

Well, that's it. ENJOY! :)

10

"Inuzuka Kiba!" The boy with shaggy brown hair and red clan markings announced proudly, and Iruka smiled pleasantly. "I'll be getting mi ninken real soon, and together we'll become the best ninja pair in the whole village!"

"Thank you, Kiba," the young teacher said, and the rest of the thirty six kids applauded him without much enthusiasm. It was expected, as they obviously had grown bored of the dull repetition after the fifth introduction, but Iruka was determined to have every single one of his kids present themselves.

Half an hour before, Iruka had been a mess of nerves and self-doubt. He had actually contemplated just gathering up his things and running away from the school, having convinced himself that he had made a terrible, terrible mistake.

Sure, he had passed all the classes required to become an Academy Instructor, but he was not fully convinced that those prepared future teachers enough to actually get in front of a class and control a bunch of seven year old hopeful ninjas.

Iruka hadn't forgotten how he was as a child, how he acted at school, how difficult it was for their teacher to actually get them to stop running around and listen. Man, what had he been thinking? Passing down the Will of Fire to the next generation was all good and noble in theory, but… was he capable of doing it? Was he?

The clock on the wall had announced that his time to repent and forget that ridiculous idea had ever occurred to him was over. He could almost hear its tearful goodbye. He had run out of options, he'd have to man up and face the music.

The kids started arriving, some looking curious, some apprehensive, and there was one that simply sat on a random seat, slumped over the desk, and dozed off. (A Nara, Iruka's mind supplied, Shikamaru, then.)

Iruka took notice of the other children easily recognizable as clan heirs, and he abruptly realized that his class had almost every single one of them. He also had second children from prominent clans, and for some unfathomable reason, he hadn't picked up on any of that as he was going through their files. Admittedly, Iruka had been more concerned with the fact that there was one particular child he really didn't want to teach at the moment, but he should have noticed the huge responsibility that was being put on his shoulders when he was assigned this particular class. He couldn't believe he didn't until they were literally staring at him in the face. It was making his already frazzled nerves even worse.

He had to take a deep, calming breath and steel himself. He had chosen his path and—even if he had his concerns—he was sure it was the right one for him. One step at a time. He could do it. He could. (He really had to believe it, or he'd collapse.)

So, he waited until every single one of the thirty seven students was accounted for, and then he started.

He closed the door and loudly cleared his throat to gain their attention.

He hadn't really been expecting that to work, though, so he wasn't disappointed when it didn't. Sighing, the nineteen years old Chuunin clapped his hands and, with only the barest hint of chakra enhancing his voice, he called for the room to quiet down. The effect was immediate, and he was glad. He didn't delude himself thinking that it would work every time, though. He was sure he'd have to come up with a more creative way or they'd walk all over him.

"Alright class!" He said, fervently hoping that his voice didn't waver and betray his anxiousness. "My name is Umino Iruka, but you may call me Iruka-sensei. I'll be your base Instructor this year, and probably until you've all graduated and become Genin of Konoha," he introduced himself. The kids were hanging onto his every word, and he found that both intimidating and assuring, as strange at that sounded. "Before we start with assessments today, I'd want to get to know you, and for you to get to now your classmates. For that reason, we'll all be stating our names, dreams, and anything else that we might want to share with the class. I'll start, and then I'll assign a person to continue, and we'll go from there. All right?"

The kids mumbled in agreement—or, in what seemed like agreement. Looking at their faces, Iruka could clearly identify those that were eager to participate, those who didn't care one way or another, and those who seemed they'd prefer the ground to open up and swallow them before speaking aloud.

"As I said before, my name is Umino Iruka, and this is my first year as a sensei. My dream is to pass down to all of you one of Konoha's greatest treasures—The Will of Fire," he stated. Some kids excitedly asked what that meant, and Iruka smiled. He was finally starting to relax. Maybe he was thinking too much, and it wouldn't be as horrible as he feared. "Easy there! We'll learn about the Will of Fire during lessons, but for now, why don't you continue with the introductions?" He suggested to one of the kids who asked, a tall girl in the front row.

"Me?" She stuttered, but she composed herself and stood up when Iruka nodded. She clenched and unclenched her fists, and then spoke. "I'm Ouka, Katsumi Ouka. My dad is a civilian, but mom's a Chuunin. I want to be like her, someday," she confessed, then promptly sat back down.

"Thank you, Ouka," Iruka said, smiling and clapping encouragingly. The kids promptly followed his lead, and the girl blushed. "Now, the boy sitting behind Ouka, could you continue?" And like that it went, clan kids and civilian kids stating their names and their dreams, sometimes a little bit about their families and abilities. (Or, in Shikamaru's case, only his name and a "this is so troublesome.")

Then came Kiba, and the one sitting right behind him was the very same child Iruka had been worrying about—which distracted him enough not to notice how many clan heirs were placed in his class to begin with. The girl was visibly shaking with excitement as Iruka's eyes glided over to her person. The man struggled to not let his smile fall, and then with a nod of his head prompted the blond haired Jinchuuriki to speak.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruko!" She declared in a voice louder than Kiba's, which was an accomplishment on its own. But not only was she loud, she literally jumped over the desk and theatrically pointed to herself with her thumb in a pose that Iruka was sure he had seen before, but couldn't recall where. "And I'm going to be Hokage, dattebane!" She boasted, chest puffing up and grinning widely.

Iruka was speechless. Of all the things he had been expecting from the girl who was the container of the monster responsible for his parent's deaths, this was not one of them. Before he could react in any way, someone sniggered. Then, another kid snorted.

The Kyuubi vessel frowned, and suddenly it was like a dam had been broken. The kids started laughing uproariously, and some of them even pointed at her and said things that were clearly out of order. It didn't matter that Iruka was not comfortable with the child, there was no reason why the kids should be saying such cruel things.

"You? Hokage?"

"But you're a nobody!"

"Don't talk big, my father told me of you, he said you were scum…"

"… crazy, shouldn't play with you."

"Don't say stupid things, you're just a girl."

"… Clanless orphan…"

"… Useless…"

"Hokage! As if…!"

"SHUT UP!"

The shout had been so unexpected, even Iruka—who was about to interrupt them himself and reprimand them for being so disrespectful—jumped and swivelled around to look for the one the voice belonged to. The owner was, surprisingly, none other than Uchiha Sasuke. He was standing beside the blond girl, fist clenched and glaring daggers at everyone. Iruka was fascinated, as the kid was obviously enraged, but instead of boiling up and screaming his head off, his glare was glacial.

"Shut. Up," he repeated more calmly, but his anger was almost palpable. Iruka couldn't understand the reason why, though, because as far as he knew, the Uchiha Clan had nothing to do with the Jinchuuriki, and the boy didn't have any reason to even know her, much less defend her. "You are all a bunch of prejudiced idiots who don't know a single thing. You can't judge without knowing. You don't know nothing about Naruko, about her will and determination. I believe in her. If she says she'll be Hokage, then she will," he declared with conviction. "I won't let any of you say anything bad about her, or her dream. If you have a problem, well, too bad. Naruko is my best friend, and nobody disrespects her. Nobody."

The classroom was silent for several minutes after that announcement, while Sasuke glared coldly at everyone who looked like they wanted to protest. The blonde-haired girl smiled a watery smile towards the Uchiha, and then she beamed. After discreetly wiping away a tear that had threatened to fall down her whiskered cheek, she punched the boy's shoulder in a friendly way.

"Stop that, teme! I don't need ya defending me, ya know!" She said, pretending to be annoyed but failing miserably. The gratitude was plain obvious. "I can take care of myself!"

Sasuke huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Hn. I know. But these morons had that coming. I can't let them say whatever they want."

"Thanks, though."

"Whatever."

Iruka watched them banter as if they had known each other all their life, and for all he know, they might have. Then, to his utter surprise, another voice joined the defend-the-Uzumaki discourse.

"Sasuke-san is right," drawled none other than Nara Shikamaru in a very lazy but not less sharp tone. "You don't know anything about Naruko-san, so you shouldn't just dismiss her. She's bright, and crafty, and she'll make a very troublesome woman and kunoichi when she grows up," he said. "She might as well become Hokage."

Right. One clan kid knowing and defending the Jinchuuriki was one thing. Two? Iruka sincerely had no idea. But then, a third voice popped up and the teenager became seriously confused.

"T-they are right," Hyuuga Hinata stuttered, and she blushed darkly when she became the new focus of every pair of eyes. Iruka was baffled, because Hinata had barely been able to state her name in a small voice, and mention that she wanted to become a good clan head when she grew up, before needing to hide her face behind her fringe. And now was actually speaking up on her own volition? "Naruko-san is strong. She—" The girl gulped, but bravely continued, "—She will become Hokage. I'm sure."

Even the defended party herself looked shocked at this last show of support, which went to show how unexpected it was. Nonetheless, the blonde girl looked touched and grateful, and smiled both at Shikamaru and the Hyuuga heir.

"Thank you, guys," she said sincerely, and Iruka realized that everything had gotten out of hand. He needed to finish with the introductions before recess started, because after that he needed to do an assessment of the student's abilities—so that he got an idea of where they stood and what they should be focusing on during training.

"Yes, thank you," he said, catching the attention of all his students once again. He gave them all a serious and slightly disappointed look. "We are all allowed to have our dreams and fight for them, and nobody has the right to laugh at us for that. I don't want something like this happening ever again. Is that understood?" He ordered pointedly. In response, there was a sullen chorus of "Yes, sensei". He wasn't completely satisfied, as he noticed that more than one student didn't really seem to have taken it to heart. He sighed. There went his hopes that this wouldn't be as hard as he thought. Joy. "Good. Then, let's continue where we left…"

The remaining kids presented themselves awkwardly after the scene and their sensei's reprimand, but they finally finished with Aburame Shino's introduction. It was just on time, too, and Iruka told them to go out and play for a bit before they had to resume lessons. The children scattered astoundingly quickly, eager to be up and running after an hour of being sitting quietly in a stuffy classroom.

Iruka smiled as he watched them, reminded of himself at that age. He closed the classroom door and followed them outside, keeping track of every one of them in case there was a fight or an accident. They were his responsibility, after all.

"We'll be now doing some exercises to test your abilities," he announced twenty minutes later. The kids looked around, some at ease, some suddenly apprehensive. Iruka quickly reassured them, "There's nothing to worry about. I'm not grading you, just trying to determine which training plan is better suited for each of you, and in which areas do you need more practice." Most visibly relaxed at this, so Iruka continued. "First, we'll start with a mix of endurance and speed. You must run as many laps as you can around the training ground in five minutes," he explained. "But remember, I'm testing both, so don't run at your highest speed if you can't keep it up. The goal here is to do as many laps as you can during those five minutes, and not crash before they end because you've burnt yourself out, am I clear?"

"Yes, sensei!"

"Good. On your marks. Ready. Start!" He pressed the chronometer button and the kids were off.

Iruka watched in resigned amusement as many of them did exactly the opposite of what he had just recommended, managing to do around three laps at top speed before collapsing. Not even three minutes had passed. He huffed and put a small mark beside those kid's names in the list he had prepared just for this occasion.

Among the ones who did complete the five minutes, there was a wide variety of results. Not surprisingly, Kiba had managed the highest number of laps—ten; followed closely by Sasuke, Naruko and a boy named Tooru, with nine laps each. The average was six laps, which was pretty good all things considered, but there were some kids who only managed three in the five minutes—like the pink haired girl, Sakura, whose parents were both civilian. It was not preoccupying, though. The fact that kids who hadn't had any training beforehand finished the exercise at all meant that they had a bright future—if they applied themselves.

Next was the accuracy test, in which each child had ten practice kunai and had to throw them at ten different marks that were positioned in ranges from five to twenty metres away from them.

He really shouldn't have been surprised when Hinata struck every mark's centre with deadly accuracy. The girl was obviously shy and looked rather weak, but she was a Hyuuga. She'd probably been training since she learned to walk, without mentioning that one of the things their dojutsu required its users to master was precision and accuracy. She had gotten average marks on the endurance/speed test, but she clearly was well above many other kids. The runner ups for this test were once again Sasuke, with nine out of ten, and Shino, with the same number as Sasuke. The average was around five, with many of the completely civilian born kids managing around two.

The final test for the day was taijutsu katas. He first demonstrated the five basic academy forms and asked the kids to imitate him. After repeating the process three times, he asked them to continue without his assistance as he observed them. He was not expecting much from the kids raised outside the clans—after all, it was the very first time most of them were doing this. Therefore, he was really surprised when he approached the pink haired Sakura and noticed that she had the five forms down to perfection. She was a little stiff, and she was breathing heavily—no doubt exhausted after all the unaccustomed physical effort—but she looked deeply concentrated; the transition between a figure and the next smooth and clearly practised. Iruka was impressed.

As he expected, this exercise had noticeably different results between clan kids—or those who had at least one shinobi parent—and civilian kids. Most in the first group had the five figures down, or at least four. Only Naruko, a boy named Ton and of course Sakura had managed as good as them, without being from a clan or having ninja relatives. The civilian kids could perform acceptably the first two or three, which were the easiest, but butchered the rest horribly. (Iruka made them stop as soon as he could, so as to prevent them from injuring themselves.)

He was ready to proclaim the exercise a success and be done with it, happily congratulating them all for a job well done, when the peaceful atmosphere completely evaporated.

It probably had to do with Naruko saying that she'd beat Sasuke the next time, Iruka guessed. The girl who approached the Jinchuuriki was one of the kids who had laughed at her before and hadn't looked convinced when Iruka reprimanded them for it. Her name was Kotonami Aiko, and her parents were both Jounin, though they didn't belong to any clan.

"I don't care what everyone says," she started disdainfully, "but you clearly are beneath my level, and you can't possibly dream to be on par with Sasuke-kun. You're just a sorry excuse of a kunoichi, so stop trying to make us believe any different," she ordered.

Naruko looked rightfully insulted, and Iruka was sure that she'd retaliate violently. He didn't want a fight to break before his first official day of classes ended, but it looked like it was a pipe dream. Sasuke intervened and for a brief, blissful second, Iruka dared to believe the boy would calm both girls down. No such luck.

"If you really believe that," he said amicably, but with an edge of danger, "then you won't be opposed to fight her in a proper duel, right?" He challenged. Aiko looked surprised and slightly hesitant, but as Naruko didn't seem to be opposed to the idea (she actually brightened at the suggestion), she narrowed her eyes and determinedly accepted.

"Of course. There is no way I'd lose to this deadlast," she sniffed haughtily. Iruka realized that the girl hadn't really be paying attention to the test results, and had the sudden itch to inform her that Naruko had actually done slightly better than her in every single aspect, but he was interrupted before he could even start.

"Iruka-sensei," Sasuke called, turning to him with serious dark eyes. "Would you be their proctor?" He asked and okay, this was better than a fight without boundaries. He didn't think either girl would care if he said no. They'd fight either way. At least if he agreed to this he could put down some rules and make sure the fight ended without any of them getting really hurt.

"Fine," he accepted, long-suffering. "Let's go to the ring."

There they went. It was the one they used for sparring matches and examinations. Then he laid down the rules.

"Taijutsu only. No weapons. The fight ends when one of you is struck down for the third time, or when I say it's over. No jutsu either, if you know any," he added only to be cautious. Even among clan kids, it was not common practice to teach them jutsu before they started the Academy, but there were always exceptions. He just didn't want to take the risk.

"Salute," he ordered. The girls reluctantly nodded, and he struggled not to roll his eyes. Ah. He forgot. They probably didn't know the rules of conduct for formal sparring. "You must put your right index and middle fingers together and upwards in front of your chest, and then bow. It's protocol," he explained, showing them how to do so. They imitated him clumsily, stiffly bowing to each other. Iruka barely refrained from snorting. Kids. "All rigth. Prepare. Ready. Start!"

It was a blur. One moment, both girls were facing each other, assessing each other in their starting positions, and the next Naruko had run three steps forward, spun on her right foot as she crouched down, striking at her opponent's feet with her left leg. Aiko didn't have time to understand what was happening before she was flat on her back, knocked out in less than two seconds.

Naruko sprung back to her feet, adopting once more her starting position while grinning gleefully and goading the other girl to stand and come at her.

Iruka blinked, surprised. That… was not what he was expecting. The movement Naruko pulled was not the most complicated one, in fact, it was pretty basic for Genin level shinobi, but the fact was—she wasn't Genin yet. And she had performed it flawlessly.

Sasuke looked smug, and Iruka understood then that the boy had truly meant what he said during his original pro-Naruko speech. He completely believed in her.

As Naruko easily duck beneath an acceptable right hook, positioning herself behind her opponent and using Aiko's momentum to destabilize her with a swift kick to her back, Iruka was inclined to accept that the boy's faith was well placed.

Where had this girl learned to move like that?!

"You know, sensei," a calm voice spoke at his right, and Iruka looked down at Shikamaru askance. The boy didn't look up, instead, he followed the fight carefully with half-lidded eyes even as he talked. "Those two. They have been training all week with Maito Gai. I think it was because Naruko's uncle and Sasuke's brother had been making them run at six in the morning, and then they met Gai-san in one of his 'youthful morning routines'," he commented, shuddering briefly. And, yeah, Iruka could clearly understand where he was coming from. Gai-san had his reputation.

"And how do you know this?" Iruka asked, truly curious, as he turned his eyes back to the ring just in time to see Naruko dancing away from Aiko's punches and kicks with ease, laughing.

"I was roped into it the day after dad invited Naruko and his crazy uncle for dinner," Shikamaru said matter-of-factly. "There was no way I could keep up with it, though. They are monsters, all five of them. Troublesome monsters."

As Naruko clumsily but effectively drop-kicked Aiko, knocking her down for the third time without having received even one punch herself, Iruka had to agree.

"Okay! This fight is over. Winner: Uzumaki Naruko!" He proclaimed, and the kids clapped or booed according to their own preferences. Aiko grumbled angrily and stomped out of the ring with her body and her pride bruised. Naruko smiled triumphantly and high-fived Sasuke as she exited the arena.

Only when he was herding them back into the building for their last class of the day, did Iruka's brain processed everything Shikamaru had told him.

He stumbled.

Uzumaki Naruko, Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and certified orphan—had an uncle.

What the fuck?

That information was not on her file! Nobody had told him anything about that! Since when? Who was this man? He didn't remember any shinobi with that surname—he'd have noticed, surely. There should have been at least rumors. And he couldn't be a civilian, Shikamaru had clearly stated that he was training the kids together with Uchiha Itachi and Maito Gai, and that he was at least on par with them. What. In. The. World?

He was so distracted that he actually messed up the result of one of the easiest mathematical problems he had ever done in his life while explaining it to the kids, and had to laugh it off as him trying to see if they were paying enough attention to spot the mistake. (If Mizuki ever caught a word of the faux pas, Iruka would never live it down.)

He had to meet that man. Uzumaki Naruko's mysterious uncle. Iruka didn't believe that the man was a scam or a threat, seeing as Shikamaru said that his father—the Jounin commander—had invited him and his ward to dinner, but he needed to confirm it himself.

For that reason, he kept a close eye on the blond girl and her Uchiha companion as the class exited the building at the end of the school day. There were many parents and siblings waiting outside, and as soon as they were spotted, the kids were running around looking for their own relatives.

Iruka discreetly followed Naruko and Sasuke and watched as the girl gleefully jumped into the arms of a blond young man that couldn't be much older than Iruka himself. He laughed uproariously and twirled her around twice, before putting her down and trying to ruffle her hair, which she easily dodged. The man grinned, unconcerned, and instead redirected his attack to Sasuke's hair, whose owner was taken off guard and grunted indignantly.

The small group laughed as the boy batted the blond man's hand away and, after taking a fortifying breath, Iruka decided that he might as well approach them.

"Excuse me, Uzumaki-san?" He interrupted politely, "Could we talk for a moment?" He requested, and then blue eyes that were exactly the same as Naruko's looked at him with burning intensity. Iruka gulped. He would've been blind, if he didn't notice the resemblance between the two.

The man smiled pleasantly, and the gesture redirected Iruka's attention to the rest of his face and—oh. Those whiskers may not be a mark of the Kyuubi then, if this man also had them on his cheeks.

"Of course, sensei," he accepted amicably. "Just…" He turned his attention to the kids. "Firecraker, Duckling, go play around for a bit, all right? We'll go for ramen after I speak with your sensei."

"YAY! RAMEN!" Naruko cried out, running away from them and towards the swings in the small playground. Sasuke followed after her, grumbling under his breath about not being a duckling, stupid. The man chuckled fondly and then turned back towards Iruka, a peculiar wishful expression on his face.

"Nice to meet ya…?" He prompted.

"Ah. Sorry!" Iruka apologized hastily, "I'm Umino Iruka… Naruko's sensei," he said lamely. "But. Ah. You knew that already…"

"It's fine, sensei," he said with good humour, "My name is Naruto," he introduced himself with a grin. Iruka looked at him disbelievingly. The man laughed, amused. "Yes, I know. It seems my brother was feeling rather nostalgic when he named the kid. Er." He scratched his cheek uncomfortably. "Umino-san…"

"Iruka's fine."

"Right. Well, Iruka-sensei… you need to know that Uzumaki was the name of my sister-in-law—Naruko's mom. My brother and I… we were both Namikaze."

At the revelation, Iruka's brain simply ceased to work. Completely. Just for a brief second, and then it started working furiously once again.

Nami—What? Namikaze? As in… Iruka was a Chuunin, and an Academy Instructor. He knew history. There was no way that he didn't recognize the name! There was only one Namikaze in the history of Konoha, and that was—

Iruka's eyes grew wide.

If this man was Namikaze Minato's brother, and his sister-in-law was Naruko's mother, that meant that Naruko was the daughter of the Fourth Hokage.

Holy shit.

He hadn't even known the Fourth had been married. Or that he had a brother. How was he even supposed to imagine that the had a daughter? A daughter that was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and what the hell he had sealed the monster in his own daughter? But then again—if he looked at the girl without his prejudice clouding his judgement, and compared her looks with the pictures he had seen of Minato-san—

Kami.

He'd been an idiot. A complete, blinder than a damn bat, stupid idiot.

(Not that the rest of the village was any better. Something like this… How come nobody had noticed?)

Naruto smiled softly, eyes shining, as if he understood what Iruka was going through.

"I really don't have time to explain things properly to you, as I promised I'd deliver Sasuke home before it gets dark, but I'd like to," he said honestly, and Iruka nodded dumbly because what else was he supposed to do? "You can go speak with Ji—Sandaime-sama," he suggested, just as his little niece threw herself at him from behind, clinging like a monkey to his back and demandingly requesting ramen. "He knows everything there's to know about this, and I don't think he will say no if you ask him to explain it to you."

"NII-SAN! I'M STAAAAAARVING!"

"Yeah. I'll—I'll do that," Iruka said dazedly. "Thanks."

"See you later, Iruka-sensei. I'm feeding the little monsters before they decide to eat me instead."

"Eugh. No. Ya'd be too chewy. I want ramen!" Naruko chanted. "Sasuke does too, right, Sasuke?"

"Yes. Sure," the boy answered, looking rather doubtful, but agreeing nonetheless.

"See? He wants it too! Let's go?"

"All right, all right. Say bye to your sensei and we'll go."

His ears were assaulted by a "Bye, sensei," and a "Goodbye, Iruka-sensei," said simultaneously, and Iruka smiled distractedly at them both, his head still trying to wrap around all the new information.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow, Sasuke. Naruko. Naruto-san."

"Sensei," Naruto nodded, taking Sasuke's hand and making sure that Naruko was properly attached to his back before he started walking down town, presumably to get the promised ramen.

And as Iruka watched the three of them leave, chatting and laughing together animatedly, the teenager finally realized that Naruko was just a little girl. An ordinary, happy little girl who had been burdened with a heavy task, and who was doing her best to just live. She may be the container of a monster, but she wasn't a monster herself. He had been stupid, not noticing it sooner. Hatake-san and the Third definitely had, which was proven by their talks with him about trying his hand at teaching her without judgement. He was… ashamed of himself, actually. For not noticing it sooner. For needing even more proof.

It was then that he decided that he really wanted to know more about her, about this mysterious little ball of sunshine who was a student of his. Maybe that way he'd be able to make amends, at least with himself. And to do this, Iruka was sure that his best course of action was, in fact, doing as Naruto suggested and ask for an audience with the Hokage. Who better to explain things than the man who probably had most of the information? After all, Iruka had an incomplete, horribly inaccurate file that needed updating.

When he arrived at the Hokage Tower, he was told by the secretary that he'd have to wait, because the Third was on a meeting at the moment. Iruka didn't mind, really. He didn't have to do anything important before returning home, so he had time.

He sat on one of the seats beside the secretary's desk, toying with the folder which contained the students' files. Iruka had brought it with him because he honestly thought they needed to go over them with the man. Who knew if more of the files had wrong or incomplete information?

Not ten minutes later, the office door opened and a man came out—most probably the one the Third had been meeting with. Iruka didn't immediately recognize him, but he finally did when the man walked over to the secretary and therefore closer to Iruka. It was Uchiha Shisui.

The teenager said a couple of words to the Chuunin and then turned around, spotting Iruka. He nodded his head in greeting; Iruka nodded back. Iruka didn't know the Uchiha personally, but he knew of him. Honestly, who didn't know about Shisui of the Body Flicker? The teacher really admired the younger teen, and it was not only because of his prowess and abilities, but also because he never flaunted them like other powerful shinobi tended to do. He didn't act stuck up like many other Uchihas, either. He was a frighteningly talented young man who had joined the Jounin ranks faster than many, but who still had a sense of humour and a sensible personality. Furthermore, they were close in age, so they usually greeted each other when they crossed paths.

Iruka was concerned, though, because the pleasant smile Shisui usually wore was completely absent from his face and his demeanour. Iruka thought the boy looked really troubled, but before he could ask or do anything about it, the Sandaime called for him to enter.

Iruka hesitated momentarily, but then Shisui was gone. He sighed and pushed it to the back of his mind. Everybody had shitty days, who said it wasn't just that? He had other things to be worried about at the moment. Like getting information about his little students.

"Sandaime-sama," he saluted as he closed the door behind him.

"Ah, Iruka-sensei. What can I do for you?"

"Well, you see, there are some things that have come to my attention in regards one of my kids and I was wondering if…"

Distracted, Iruka completely forgot about Shisui.