Chapter 36
What was he supposed to do with this one? Iruka looked down on Naruto as he slowly got up after being kicked. He looked confused, and after he realized what kind of situation he was in, he smiled sheepishly. No worries in the world with this one.
There was barely an hour left until the Academy started, and the kid was here looking sheepish. But Iruka could tell that Naruto had something he wanted to say before anything else, and it was more important to him than going to the Academy.
So instead, Iruka bought some snacks and sat down with Naruto on a bench. Something inside him just couldn't let it go, and he wanted to listen to Naruto's troubles and give some advice if it was helpful. He was taking his teaching job way too seriously, but he didn't hate it.
"Heh," Iruka couldn't help but laugh a bit after he heard Naruto's concerns. It was quite typical of him.
"It's not funny. At this point, there is no way I am going to catch up to Sasuke."
"No, you won't," Iruka agreed. "He is way too talented, smart, and hardworking for a simpleton like you to get to his level."
"Ugh, don't say it like that!" Naruto didn't like the truth.
"Well, that doesn't matter much; talent can be overcome, you don't need to be smart to learn things, and you only need to work harder than anyone else," Iruka replied. "But there's fundamentally something different between you two that won't let you catch up to him, no matter what."
Even though what he said wasn't entirely true, it didn't matter with Naruto. He had more than enough talent, and Iruka knew that for a fact. Even if he didn't know the future, he could see it more clearly than anyone else even tried. All Naruto needed was someone to guide him and show him that.
"What's that?"
"Your goal," Iruka replied. "Your goal is Sasuke. But Sasuke's goal is far bigger than anything you can imagine. Just like you, he is trying to catch up to someone. It just so happens that someone is a monster that surpasses all your nightmares, Naruto."
"I don't understand!" He did, at least to some point, but Naruto was still frustrated because that didn't solve anything.
"Don't rush, Naruto," Iruka said. "You still have plenty of time. What you're doing wrong is focusing all your time on one person. It's fine to have him as a goal, but not as your purpose. After all, there is a place you want to be on, don't you?"
Iruka looked at the Hokage Monument, and Naruto followed his gaze. It didn't take even a moment for Naruto to start smiling once again, like there was nothing in the world that could stop him from achieving his dream.
He had only forgotten it for a moment. Now that he set his eyes to it once again, Iruka could see that Naruto was brimming with confidence. He truly believed that he could do it, that he would be one of those faces one day.
"Well, now that you know what you need to do, get on it," Iruka kicked Naruto's ass off the bench they were sitting on. "The Academy starts in ten minutes. If you run now, you should be able to get to class in eight minutes from here."
Iruka watched as Naruto realized his situation and started to run. Not realizing that he was smiling to himself, Iruka went his way too. He also found his goal. He was going to teach those idiotic kids to be the best they could be, since he was their teacher.
Now, he only needed to regain his strength and get ready. Iruka couldn't wait to return to the Academy and give them all hell, especially since now there wasn't a single person who could interfere with him.
…
The old-fashioned way was the simplest and best way. For now, since he barely had any muscles, it was strength training, and since there was an opportunity, he also focused on flexibility. He needed to take advantage of all he had. Even if it wasn't much.
With gravity seals all over his body, Iruka climbed the tallest cliff in the village with one hand tied behind his back. Then he repeated it with the other hand without using any of his chakra. The hardest part was climbing back down, since he didn't want to fall.
After completely exhausting himself and tearing up all his arm muscles to the point he couldn't even lift them, he spent his days stretching, bending his body in impossible ways until he felt like his bones would pop out of their joints. He needed those kinds of moves to be natural to him.
Dislocating his limbs wasn't easy and always painful. Even dislocating his thumbs made him cry in pain. But it was something he had to get used to. He was captured only once in his career, and if he didn't know how to dislocate his shoulders and thumbs, it would have been one time too many.
There was no time for Iruka to rest. Once he was done with his stretching, he worked on his chakra control and elemental understanding, letting his body rest. It was about time he broke through his earth nature and learned something new.
Though there was only one choice for Iruka in that department: water nature. He knew it would take a lot of learning to be any good at it and be able to use it, so he didn't rush into it and started with simple things.
First, he started by creating a volume of water. Small amounts were fine; it wasn't like he could do anything great or big to begin with. So a slow start was far better than he expected. Though by the time he started to get the basics, the sun had already set. And he was starving and getting sleepy.
Sometimes he thought that the days were far longer than they needed to be. But on days like these, when he set his eyes on something, he knew they were far too short. He could ignore his tired body to push himself, but he couldn't get more time.
He had responsibilities to take care of and couldn't just do what he wished. Dragging his body back, he practiced his Body Flicker Jutsu. It still was nowhere near Shisui's level, but slowly it was getting there. Hopefully, Iruka had enough time to get there.
As exhausted as he was when he returned home, he still forced himself to make dinner for himself and the kids. Since he decided that he was going to take them seriously as his students, he had to take care of them.
It had been some time since he cooked something more than a cup of ramen. But a balanced diet, sadly, was very important, especially since he still wanted to enjoy a drink or two every day. He needed to make sure that at least he ate well.
When Sai and Shin returned, they looked mentally exhausted. They just gave Iruka their written reports before crashing on the sofa and starting to read Shinobi Tactics and the weapon journal. Iruka didn't even know where they got it, but he let them do at least that much.
As he read through the reports, Iruka was shocked, but then quickly realized that those two had no idea what a normal human being was. They had no idea what the person they stalked was actually doing.
Normal conversation with coworkers was information gathering. Complaining about work was treasonous and incited rebellion. Asking for help with work was showing weakness and exposing oneself. Getting the boss angry was normal and deserved.
They were far from understanding humans, and that wasn't even speaking of human emotions. Hopefully, by regularly observing interactions among people, they could start to understand them. Otherwise, Iruka would be worried about their future.
However, he understood that just observing others wouldn't be enough. They needed to interact with other people, too. The problem was that the only people they wanted to interact with were the people they wanted to kill.
For today, Iruka didn't talk about it with them. They looked as exhausted as Iruka was. After quietly eating their dinner, they went to bed. Iruka ended his day by drinking some liquor from his flask before passing out on the sofa.
…
Even when he felt intense pain in his muscles, he didn't refuse to spar with Sai and Shin. He hated every minute of it, but it wasn't something he could deny them. He needed it too. Iruka needed to keep his senses sharp even while building up his strength.
Dodging a shuriken flying at his face, Iruka blocked Sai's sword descending from above with his tantō blade. The force was so immense that Iruka was pushed back, his feet sliding on the still-wet ground from the morning dew. He felt the bones in his arms rattle from the impact.
Iruka didn't even have a chance to recover his footing before Shin went in from below, trying to cut Iruka's tendons. Not falling for it, Iruka planted his foot on Shin's head and jumped over him, and at the same time threw shuriken at Sai to keep him at a distance.
It had already been an hour since they started sparring. Iruka was already getting tired, especially since his body still hadn't recovered from yesterday's training. As the fight dragged on, Iruka found more reason to hate this and less reason to continue his training.
He wished he could just take it easy, eat his cup of ramen, drink as much as he wanted, and laze around for the rest of the day. Shin's and Sai's skills and strength, shown to Iruka through this sparring, only made the difference in skill between them more obvious.
Sure, Iruka was better than them right now, but he had to remember that they were still just kids. And they already could fight head-to-head with Iruka, who had countless missions under his belt. Well, they weren't novices either, but still.
His struggling to fight off those two only showed how untalented he was. And it was more reason to just throw it all away and give up. Those kids would surpass him soon, and he would continue to struggle to achieve moderate success that, in the end, probably wouldn't even matter.
"Haa, let's end it here." Sighing and seeing that neither of the kids was in the best condition, it was the best time to stop. "Let's eat and then continue with your special training."
Sai and Shin groaned like it was the worst thing ever. But Iruka was adamant about their training and wouldn't accept a no for an answer. After having sweet rice rolls with some tea, they returned to the park.
This time, Iruka picked an old lady who was going to the market as the target for their observation. Once again, Sai and Shin gave colors that described the old woman's appearance and not her emotions. But it was fine; it was only the start.
And while they went on their mission, Iruka went to do his own training. His body didn't agree; his mind wanted nothing but to lie down after having one or two drinks. But something seemed to push him to do this.
It was even harder than yesterday, and more painful too. But he still persevered, somehow. It made no sense to him as he continued to climb the damn cliff. Sweat poured down his forehead and palms, making it difficult to see and grip the rocks with his hand.
And yet he continued to push himself forward, even as his nails broke and he scraped his wrists and knees while trying not to fall. The question of why he was doing this never left his mind. Why wasn't he just lazing around?
He didn't need to do this. Even if he did, what would change? Did he really think he could get strong enough to kill Orochimaru? To change anything in this world? Could he save anyone? Could he do anything? No, he was worthless and should have long since given up.
"Ahh!" And yet he only screamed in frustration as he vaulted himself onto the top of the cliff.
Breathing heavily, he didn't even try to get on his feet. He only looked down the cliff, and a long fall awaited him if he tried to get down the same way he got up. And then he rolled down, and after grappling with the edge of the cliff, he dropped down.
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.