Chapter 35
Naruto felt the punch connect with his jaw. It knocked him down to the ground. He should be used to it by now; after all, that's how his fights went most of the time. Especially against Sasuke. Yet they still would bring him down so easily.
Sasuke's hits always connected with him, but Naruto's kicks, punches, and anything else he could throw missed. Always. He was confident that if he could land his kick, he would be able to knock Sasuke down for a change, but he never did.
Missing another punch as one was delivered to his stomach, Naruto fell to his knees. Naruto hated it, how weak he felt compared to Sasuke and others. But in a regular fight, he couldn't do anything. He was helpless.
Still, he didn't want to give up. What were those hours of training with Rock Lee, then? Were they pointless? He couldn't accept it. So, as his last-ditch effort, he tried to kick Sasuke's chest just like he did countless times before kicking trees.
And yet that also never reached Sasuke. Naruto's foot just slid off Sasuke's chest as he turned his body and perfectly dodged it, before grabbing Naruto's leg, lifting him into the air, and slamming him down to the ground.
It wasn't the pain that kept him down; it was that feeling of powerlessness. There was nothing he could do. He already tried everything, yet nothing worked. Even if he stood up, he would just be put down again. And it just had to be Sasuke.
Naruto could deal with Kiba's sneering. With Shikamaru's indifference. But he couldn't do anything while those eyes were looking down on him. He didn't understand them, and it made him feel small.
"Enough, Sasuke won."
What was even worse was that everyone just looked at him, like the conclusion of the fight was long since decided. Their eyes were full of admiration for Sasuke and nothing but disdain for Naruto. None of them even thought that Naruto could defeat Sasuke. After all, he was a loser who never won.
As he cleared off the arena in the training ground, Naruto just sat there, not even watching the other fights. If only he could have landed one of his awesome kicks, then none of them would be laughing at him.
He could have beaten Sasuke, and then it would be Naruto who looked down on him. But he couldn't. No matter how hard he tried, he could not even reach Sasuke. He didn't even know what it was. Sasuke just seemed to be five steps ahead of him, predicting everything that Naruto would do.
He must have cheated somehow. Next time, he would get him, no matter what. At least he hoped so, because that was all he had. He never could catch up to Sasuke with theory or ninjutsu. He had already given up on that, so this was his only chance to win.
He knew what he had to do now. If Sasuke could dodge him, then he just needed to be faster. After all, he only practiced that kick a couple of hundred times. If he did it a thousand more, no, ten thousand times more, wouldn't he naturally be faster and better at it?
"Naruto?"
"Hmm." He lifted his head to see Hinata looking at him.
"Are you alright? The class is over."
"Yeah, I am fine, thanks, Hinata!"
That was close. He almost embarrassed himself again. And he certainly didn't want to be late for Anko-sensei's class. He would make sure to remember Hinata's help and pay her back. Naruto thought that maybe he could bring her to Ichiraku Ramen once he got his allowance.
…
Home. Iruka collapsed into his bed once he returned. He would never leave his home again. Fuck everything and everyone; it was way too close a call this time. And it only happened because he left on that damn mission.
Just remembering those eyes looking at him made Iruka shiver, and the decision was far easier. He would go drinking to forget it and then never leave his home. He wasn't some hero of this story; there was no way he could fight anyone of that level.
Even if he recovered his strength, there was no way he could learn anything that could work on that level. He would just get himself killed, and it would all be over. Or worse, he would get caught in a genjutsu he couldn't escape and become a puppet for the rest of his life.
And yet, that wasn't something he could do. He just had to accept two psychopaths into his household. Damn that Hokage, the house was nice and all, but it wasn't worth a sword falling on him the moment he tried to relax.
"Impatient," Iruka said to Sai as he rolled away from the sword as it stabbed into the bed.
"I am sorry to disappoint you, master, but nothing else seems to work, so I have to go all out."
Just as Iruka landed on the floor, hands came out of it and held onto Iruka's feet. Shin had probably been waiting a long time for him here to catch Iruka off guard. It was all planned out as Sai tried to cut off Iruka's neck.
He was way too tired to bend his back, and he wasn't in the mood to play around either. Iruka, seeing the sword, punched the flat side of it so fast that Sai didn't even have a chance to react, then Iruka caught the sword as Sai lost control of it and pulled it away from Sai's hands.
Shin's arms that were holding Iruka's feet were cut the next moment. Before Shin could recover, Iruka stomped him through the floor. At the same time, he stabbed Sai through his shoulder before he could retreat.
Pinning the boy to the wall, Iruka punched his stomach so he wouldn't have any strength left to resist. Then he turned to Shin as he appeared behind Iruka. If they were a couple of years older, they might have been able to catch Iruka lacking, but not today.
No matter how strong those kids were, they were still just kids. Shin's leg was too short, and he got within Iruka's reach. Usually, one would have a chance to retreat after delivering a kick and being blocked, but Shin didn't have such a chance.
Iruka broke Shin's nose, since at least he wasn't wielding a deadly weapon trying to kill Iruka as Sai did. But that was enough to knock Shin out for a second before his neck was caught by Iruka's hand.
"You both have died," Iruka said, then let them go. "Before now, you never had a chance to pick your fights. But now I am telling you, if you want to survive, you'd better start picking fights you can win."
Letting out a sigh, he looked at the two boys. They were way too eager to kill. They wanted proof of their existence, and their patience was running low. They didn't know what to do with themselves. If they couldn't kill, if they didn't have any targets, what were they supposed to do?
The Hokage must have known this. That's why he didn't permit them to join the ANBU. It would have been their death sentence. Without knowing how to live, they would only fight to die. The Hokage was too kind to let it happen.
So maybe his words were wrong. Those kids were never taught to survive; they didn't even know what that meant. Iruka felt pity for them, as right now they were imprisoned in an unfamiliar environment with no goal to strive for.
"Forget what I said." As much as Iruka didn't like it, he was responsible for those kids, so it was time to take care of them seriously. "From today onward, I will be training you two to be the best assassins in the shinobi world. Better than anything ROOT or ANBU could produce."
They had talent. They had what it took more than Iruka ever did. So it was time to stop holding them back. He would teach them what he knew. Though there might be another path for them that the Hokage would like them to take, it wasn't up to him.
Rather than confuse them with anything else, he would slowly make them understand that what made one strong wasn't just skill. As embarrassing as it was, Iruka had to admit that his bonds with others had pushed him this far.
Anko. Hayate. Now even his students. But most importantly, his sensei. If not for his sensei, he wouldn't even be alive right now, at best, just another experiment in Orochimaru's lab. Or maybe that would have been a far worse end for him.
"First lesson: no more trying to kill anyone," Iruka said to the kids. "Tomorrow, when you are patched up and rested, I will show you what you must do."
Everything that Sensei taught Iruka, he would now teach these two. Those lessons were still engraved in Iruka's heart, even though he thought them to be useless at first. But they were more talented than him, so they would be able to understand the lessons better than he did.
…
Well, he said he was going to teach them, but he had no idea where to start. Unlike the academy students, these kids didn't need any basics. And he didn't know what kind of technique to impart to them, either.
So, in the end, he could only copy his sensei. This was the first lesson his sensei taught him, the start of his journey. He only learned the meaning of it far later, though, but in the end, it helped Iruka a lot, not only in his missions but in his fights, too.
"The world is divided by colors. Each country has its own color. Each village. And each person, too. But most importantly to us are the shinobi colors."
"Master, are you already drunk? It is only eight in the morning," Shin replied, tilting his head in confusion.
"It's worse than alcohol," Sai commented. "What did you use, master? I don't think you should use it again."
Those kids. They said the same things he said to his sensei. He hoped his sensei didn't want to hit him as much as Iruka wanted to hit those kids. It was annoying, but he had to hold it together no matter how embarrassing it was.
"Silence," Iruka ended up just glaring at them. "You see that woman walking by, tell me the first color that comes to your mind when you see her."
"Umm? Blue?"
"Black?"
"Not her dress nor her hair color," Iruka sighed. He replied to his sensei the same way. "Look deeper. Try to feel her emotions at this moment and categorize them into a color."
They stared at her, trying harder than Iruka did his first time. They weren't as dismissive as Iruka had been, at least. But still, in the end, they let her pass out of sight and never answered. Well, they were honest.
"Sorry, master, I don't get it," Shin said.
"Neither do I," Sai added. "What color did you see, master?"
"Pink," Iruka replied. "It was the color that suited her the best at the moment, as she was flustered. She was late for her work, and she knew that no matter how much she rushed, she would still hear her boss berate her, and her coworkers would see her all embarrassed."
From the looks of it, they had no idea what Iruka was talking about. But he just gave the best hint he could; the rest was for them to figure out by themselves. Even Iruka only ever scratched the surface of this lesson.
Sensei could tell what kind of people they were just by a glance with this technique, if it could be called that. For Iruka, it helped him determine his enemy's emotions and tactics. By categorizing the state of people into colors, Iruka could analyze and react to them faster.
"Stay here, observe people walking past, and try to guess their colors before following them for an hour and seeing if your answer changes or not," Iruka instructed them. "Do not rest until dinner time, and I want a full report of the people you observed by then."
In the end, it was just a small trick of observation. But it wasn't something those kids had ever considered. To them, everyone was an enemy. They didn't even understand human emotion. So hopefully, they could learn it by observing normal people.
They didn't even understand their own emotions, so it might be difficult, but hopefully, it would be the start for them to understand others. Only then can they hope to form any kind of bond. And maybe even realize the bond they had with each other.
Then the same would carry on to shinobi. They could understand their enemy's emotions and know not only their physical state but their emotions too. It saved Iruka many times when he was faced with shinobi stronger than him, by allowing him to analyze things quickly an reacting accordingly. It was only possible because he learn to categorize them into colors.
Leaving them be, Iruka went on his own. He also needed to start training. He couldn't rest even for a day. He needed to regain his strength at least, as that feeling of fear never seemed to disappear. Like it was haunting him.
And although he felt quite satisfied by killing Danzo, there was one person he hated even more. He hated him so much that he didn't even fear him anymore. Orochimaru had to die. There wasn't going to be any redemption for him; Iruka wouldn't give him a chance.
His hatred for Orochimaru would never disappear. He would remember the day that bastard killed his sensei for the rest of his life. And every day, he would only hate Orochimaru more. But vengeance was only for the strong, and he wasn't even close to that yet.
With those thoughts, he reached an isolated place in a forest, only to find someone unexpected. In the middle of the woods, within an area of quite beaten-down trees, lay Naruto Uzumaki, sleeping soundly.
A.N. As always, thanks for reading and supporting me, so I can continue writing without any concerns, and if you want more, up to seven more chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852.