Shikamaru crept along the stirring street, dodging the civilian population opening their businesses as she moved. She kept herself clinging to the shadows where she could, hoping to catch a glimpse of these wizards. Shikamaru woke this morning to the news of a year-long mission, wizards trying to claim her as theirs, and her father firm in his orders for her to avoid them until the lunch at the Hokage's office. Still, she was filled with a burning curiosity to see these strange people. Shikamaru just prayed that her fathers, the real one and the adopted two, didn't catch her before her curiosity was satisfied. Shika snuck around the corner of the bakery just in time to catch the sight of Iruka-sensei exiting the old inn. She held her breath, and pressed herself closer to the brickwork, desperate not to be seen. She watched in growing disbelief as the three, obviously outsiders, left the inn. The first was quite dark to look at. His raven-coloured hair glossy in the morning sunlight, and his clothes were black with a white shirt. Shikamaru wrinkled her nose when she got a glimpse of his face, he looked troublesome… stern… uncool. The next to leave was an older woman wearing… was that robes?! Oh no, hell no! Ino would not be the only one having a hissy fit about wearing robes, kimonos were bad enough! At least they were a nice forest green shade though, Shika thought grudgingly. Could have been yellow-WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT? The third wizard came into view. His bright yellow robes glaringly loud in the sunshine, and the sparkling stars definitely moved around the material. Shikamaru covered her eyes with her hand to ease the glare of the sun. Shikamaru peeked through her fingers as the group walked towards the village center, her best guess was that they were heading for the academy since Iruka was with them. With a slightly nod of her head, Shika started to follow them, avoiding being in the eyeline of the shinobi jumping across the roofs. Last thing she needed was someone reporting back to her dad. As Shika crossed the intersection, she failed to notice a trio of eyes watching her. The brown ones narrowed in frustration as they tracked her movement. The electric blue ones alight with amusement, whilst the remaining chocolate-coloured eyes just rolled in silent exasperation.
Iruka chatted inanely at the trio with him, deliberately giving what seemed like a lot of information to the wizards, however it was mostly irrelevant. The chatter was clearly getting to Severus, because Iruka had spotted the dour man take several deep calming breathes in the brief 10-minute walk to the academy. Iruka suppressed a grin and started talking about the population of civilians that only hire retired shinobi for their businesses as a way to thank them for their services. Briefly the woman, Professor McGonagall, had expressed disbelief that working after retiring was a thank you at all. Iruka just tilted his head at her and smiled softly. Iruka went onto explain that they were given a decent stipend by the village for their service, but most shinobi couldn't just sit around doing nothing, so getting a small job was enough to keep them sane. As he expected, she looked doubtful at his words. Iruka shrugged and deliberately pointed out the activity level in shinobi compared to wizards. A pointed look at the huffing and puff headmaster was enough to quell her doubts, at least for a little bit.
Upon arrival at the academy, Iruka had them wait outside as the bell rang. He smiled and greeted the students as they ran inside, getting hugs from some of the younger ones. If he was being honest, the pure joy in their faces when they said good morning was the best part of the day. He had a few that never seemed to enjoy coming to the academy and were there purely because their clan/parents said so. Speaking of those kids, Iruka glanced out the side of his eyes at the faint shadow trailing the small group. Seems like someone was curious about their visitors. Absentmindedly, Iruka mused that Shikamaru appeared to have gotten much better with her stealth. She had always been in the top percent for stealth class, even with her aversion to working; Iruka put it down to her clan affiliation. Afterall the shadows clung to the Nara; it was why the majority of the assassination missions went to the Nara clan. Iruka chivvied the last of the students into the building, his older charges following him like ducklings as he took them to his own classroom.
"We figured that we'd let you watch some of the younger classes first, and then I'll take you on a tour of the older classes. So, the first class of the day is with our 2nd years, they are about 5 years old. We are doing a unit on how to keep your body at it's peak performance. They need to cover and start working on it now, so that when we get them to open to their chakra, their body is prepared." Iruka paused and smiled at the clear question on two out of three faces watching him. "If they aren't prepared, opening their chakra paths can cause serious damage to their bodies."
"Excuse me, Mr. Umino, but does that mean that if students aren't opened to the chakra system, they can't use it?" Minerva asked. This new information fascinated her, maybe there would be away to help her new muggle raised students control their magic from a younger age.
Iruka paused and leant against the wall, his head tilted up to examine the ceiling as he considered how to answer. "Yes, and no, Professor. Most civilians have no chakra pools within themselves. So even if we tried to open them to their chakra, it wouldn't help. Some civilians have a stored reserve within them, those just need to be opened to their chakra paths. Can they access it without proper instructions? Yes, but its dangerous. To them and others. Normally only happens in extreme circumstances. Some civilians, complete the academy, but then drop from the shinobi system immediately, they were only here to learn control."
"You mentioned civilian students, Iruka, what about clan children?" Severus cut in; he had noticed Iruka's attempt to avoid speaking about them. In fact, the shinobi shifted uncomfortably at the question, before sighing.
"Clans are different. These children are warrior born. They come from generations of shinobis; makes them pretty much guaranteed to have chakra, though not all the time. Most of them are taught control by their clans. They then decide if the shinobi route is what they want to do. Any other information about the clans is classified, I'm afraid. You would need to request the information from individual clan heads." Iruka turned on his heel and pointedly entered his classroom, clearly the discussion was over.
As Iruka entered the classroom, a bucket of neon orange paint fell on his head, followed immediately by the arrogant hysterical laughter that could only be one person. Iruka slowly flooded the room with killing intent and lifted the bucket from his head. "NARUTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Shikamaru sniggered to herself as her old sensei screamed at her old classmate. Honestly, by now you'd have thought that Iruka would have learnt to open a door and wait before stepping through. Apparently not though. Now, she thought, he matched the colour blind wizard with him. Shikamaru went to sneak forward, until a solid hand scruffed her jacket, and yanked her into the air. Shika flinched before falling limp in the hold, years of being carried by the Nara deer, as well as the deer instincts most of her clan had, kicking in. The hand twisted her around until she was facing her cousin and his team. Shikamaru frowned and crossed her arms across her chest. Great, just great. Apparently, her father knew her better than she thought since he'd sent a cousin to keep an eye on her. Faint sound reached her ears, footsteps. Slow and clumsy sounding, must be a civilian, heading this way. With a faint growl, Shika demanded to be released. There was no way she was going to be humiliated in front of anyone, by dangling from her cousin's grip.
"Shikari, put me down already!" Shikamaru mentally winced at the sound of her demand. It certainly didn't sound confident or in control. If anything, it sounded like a whine. Great, now she was turning into Ino with the whining.
Her cousin's face morphed into an unimpressed look at the demand, one eyebrow raised as he calmly stood there staring at the child his team had been guarding for years. He wasn't going to respond to any childish commands from her. She knew better than to respond to someone like that. Shikari tilted his head as he watched the tips of Shikamaru's ears turn bright red as they stood in silence. The footsteps coming closer now. Whilst Shikari didn't approve of humiliation as a teaching tool, he refused to let his little cousin get away with the whining.
"Do you want to try that again, Shikamaru-chan?" A smooth light sounding voice broke through the stifling tension. The long blond hair accompanied by teal pupilless eyes, a bright pop of colour among the green and browns of the hidden leaf forest. Inio had always been good at easing tensions in a group of people, but he wasn't overly impressed with their charge's attitude change lately. Out of the three heirs, the Nara one had been the easy child to look after. Fiercely independent, but still quite a loving child. The preteen? Not as much. Inio waited patiently for her response. His two teammates kept themselves in a relaxed stance, also waiting for answer.
"Please put me down, Shikari." Shikamaru sighed heavily and reworded her sentence. There was no logical thought process behind being stubborn anymore. It would just be troublesome, and she liked the three in front of her. She dropped her gaze to the floor between her cousin and her, no longer glaring at his eyes and challenging him. Sometimes she forgot that shinobi weren't as civilized as they pretended; the Nara, like the Inuzuka, had deeply ingrained animal instincts from their bonds with the deer. Challenging Shikari now would be a bad idea. Shikamaru murmured an apology, hoping to ease his irritation with her before it got back to her old man. "I'm sorry 'Ari, I shouldn't have demanded anything from you."
A flat hum was his only response, before Shikamaru hit the ground. She landed roughly, stumbling a little from the abrupt landing before regaining her balance. A heavy hand landed on her head, squishing her ponytail, and tipped her sideways slightly. Shika snarled playful and batted at the hand, glancing up at her cousin through her lashes. The faint hint of a smile let her know that all was forgiven before he nudged her forward.
"Time to go, little doe, I promised your old man we'd keep you from following the wizards by training you and the rest of team 10 for a few hours."
Shikamaru sighed and trudged off in the indicated direction. Well, she mused, at least she had tried. Only 5 hours left before the lunch at the Hokage tower. Something that only happened when the client was being lulled into a false sense of security about shinobi. With one last regretful gaze over her shoulder, at her ruined attempt at gathering information, Shika shoved her hands in her pockets and continued on to the training grounds slowly, listening to the gentle conversation behind her.
Iruka snarled furiously as he yanked the bucket off his head, glaring at the genin rolling around the floor. Really now, what a way to behave in front of visitors AND clients! Iruka shot a dark look at his class to quieten their giggling down, until the only sound was the hyena on the floor, baying obnoxiously. Silently, Iruka stalked towards his ex-student and loomed over him menacingly, waiting for Naruto to notice him. Faintly, he was aware of the wizards watching him. The oldest one with a hint of distaste and dislike that he was trying to cover up. The younger male and the only woman in the trio were watching with interest. Apparently, teachers were the same everywhere, always willing to learn how to deal with unruly students in other ways. As the laughter quietened down, Iruka increased his chakra flow filling the room, producing a heavy effect on the surrounding people.
"Naruto Uzumaki! What do you think you are doing?! You're a genin now, not an academy student, start maturing. This immaturity is why you won't pass the chunnin exams anytime soon!" Iruka ranted at the boy on the floor, vaguely noticing as Naruto sat up and looked at the floor with his arms crossed, clearly sulking at the dressing down. Honestly, Iruka was aware that part of Naruto's need to pull very loud pranks was from the extreme isolation he had faced as a child; but he was also aware that Naruto's attitude and behaviour would negatively affect his future career as a shinobi. It pained Iruka to think that his ex-student would be stuck as a genin for life because he couldn't reign in his need for attention. With a sigh, Iruka shook his head and pointed at the door, grateful that two out of three visitors didn't know the language. As Naruto stomped past him, Iruka caught him by the shoulder and reminded him that he had just embarrassed himself and hurt the villages reputation in front of three high paying clients. Iruka watched Naruto go, a hint of remorse in the blonde's body language as he slipped out of the room.
Shaking his head slightly, Iruka turned to his class and smiled gently, introducing them to the three visiting teachers. As he expected the class stood respectfully and chanted a good morning to the three, Iruka grinned to himself, he loved the baby classes. So much easier to deal with. Pulling out three chairs for the wizards, Iruka launched himself into the first lesson of the day. Due to having observers that seemed to have an inherited distaste for the role of a shinobi, Iruka had agreed with Shikaku and Inoichi to show them the gentler side of the academy, strictly nothing on the aggressive side. The younger years were the best for that. The first three lessons of the day were meditation and moving meditation, writing and reading, and physical exercise. Iruka had his kids dim the lights and close the blinds, whilst he found a gentle soundtrack of nature sounds. He had found that having the nature sounds helped the more active in the class to focus on the guided meditation routines.
He guided them to push the desks and chairs to the side and grab the soft floor cushions to lay in the middle of the room. When he was satisfied, Iruka had them all settle with him on the cushions. Their tiny legs crossed for some, tucked neatly under them for others. He faintly heard Minerva shush Dumbledore, before Iruka started to softly lead the guided meditation. Today was going to go fine, he thought…