Chapter 31
In front of Iruka's eyes, that night of blazing fire seemed to rise again.
The enormous Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, its ferocious fangs, the figures of his parents lying in pools of blood.
And the pain of being ignored by the world afterward.
"Haa…" Iruka took a deep breath, trying to dispel the images in his mind.
He remembered the days right after losing his parents.
No one paid attention. No one praised him. The world turned grayscale.
To get even a little attention, he did stupid things during regular school training—even scornful looks were better than being ignored.
At night, returning to an empty house, the loneliness nearly swallowed him whole.
Until that day, when the Third Hokage found him in front of Konoha's memorial stone.
"Iruka, everyone in the village possesses the Will of Fire."
"As long as you protect the village the same way you would protect your family, then every person who carries the Will of Fire is your family."
Those words saved him.
Later, due to his personality, he caused a teammate to be seriously injured during a mission. Feeling unfit to lead as a chūnin squad captain, he applied to the Third Hokage to become an academy teacher.
At that time, he felt he had found his place. The role of teacher suited him perfectly.
He quickly passed the formal teacher examination and wanted to pass on this Will of Fire.
But… facing Naruto, he fell into deep contradiction.
The Third Hokage had told him that Naruto also lost his parents because of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
From the perspective of upbringing environment, Naruto was even more pitiful than he had been. Uzumaki Naruto was also a victim.
As an excellent teacher, he should clearly distinguish between the demon fox and Uzumaki Naruto as two separate entities.
But a jinchūriki is a being whose fate is bound to the tailed beast.
If the Nine-Tails breaks free, the jinchūriki dies.
If the jinchūriki is killed, the tailed beast dies.
They are two sides of the same coin—impossible to completely separate.
Reason told Iruka: the demon fox is the demon fox; Naruto is Naruto.
But the human heart is not a machine. He could not completely escape the firelight of that night.
Sometimes when he saw Uzumaki Naruto, deep in Iruka's heart a sense would remind him:
"The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox is right there! That thing killed Mom and Dad!"
That vague, instinctive rejection was a natural reaction of the soul. A person cannot lie to their own heart.
The tearing between reason and emotion left Iruka in deep torment.
"Daikoku-sensei…"
Iruka suddenly spoke: "Do you think I can really treat a student like Uzumaki Naruto the same as any normal student?"
A brief silence fell over the office.
Funano Daikoku instead showed a puzzled expression.
"Iruka, you seem to be overthinking it."
"Just teach the students normally. They're easy to handle."
Daikoku pointed at Iruka's lesson plans: "Look, for us teachers, he is first and foremost a student. Everything else comes second."
"Whether it's Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, or even Uchiha Itachi back in the day—they're just one of countless students in our teaching careers."
"Genius or ordinary, once they graduate, they won't have much more impact on our lives."
Daikoku patted Iruka on the shoulder.
"Teach the way you normally teach. Criticize the way you normally criticize. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."
With that, Daikoku stood up and headed toward the door, preparing to go teach his class.
Iruka accepted the other man's advice. These past two years had passed—maybe he really was overthinking it.
Though there was still a slight blockage in his heart.
Iruka took a deep breath, adjusted the complicated emotions in the office, and prepared to go teach the students.
Carrying his carefully prepared lesson plans, he strode into Class 2-A.
"Alright, everyone sit properly! Today we're going to talk about how to identify ninjutsu types based on hand seals…"
As Iruka spoke, he habitually scanned the whole class.
The girls in the room occasionally let their gazes drift toward Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.
Shikamaru propped his textbook upright—likely to hide his head when he inevitably dozed off.
By the window, Naruto sat with one hand propping his cheek, staring blankly at the clouds outside.
Everything looked completely normal.
Except… the usually noisiest corner in the back row was now completely empty.
Iruka frowned: "Hm? Where did Hibachi and those three go? Has anyone seen them?"
The student named Hibachi was the class's infamous troublemaker, always dragging his two lackeys around causing chaos.
Hearing the teacher's question, the students began whispering and looking around, but most just shook their heads.
"Iruka-sensei!"
At that moment, a calm voice came from the window.
Uzumaki Naruto turned his head and said plainly: "This morning Hibachi came to find me. He said they were going to the back mountain to 'treasure hunt' and asked if I wanted to come."
"Treasure hunt?" Iruka froze for a second.
"Mm." Naruto nodded. "I refused them. Then they left looking really annoyed… I guess right now they're probably at the back mountain."
The moment he heard "back mountain," Iruka's face changed dramatically.
Normally, the back mountain only had wild boars and other ordinary animals.
Any large, dangerous creatures near the village were driven off or eliminated by ninja. For academy students, it wasn't dangerous.
But these past few days were different!
He had overheard female teachers in the office saying that the Konoha Military Police had just hunted down a foreign spy who infiltrated the village in the back mountain.
Although the enemy was killed on the spot and the body brought back, cleanup of the scene was not yet complete.
Hunter traps, poisoned kunai and shuriken left on the battlefield, traps the enemy set before dying…
And there might still be accomplices hiding in the forest waiting to meet the spy.
For three kids who weren't even genin yet, that place was now extremely dangerous—a place where they could step through the gates of hell at any moment!
"You knew they were going to the back mountain? Why didn't you stop them?"
Iruka—overcome by emotion—shouted somewhat irrationally at Uzumaki Naruto.
All he got in response was Naruto's puzzled look.
What was wrong with the back mountain? He went there often—nothing wrong with it.
And he didn't even know Hibachi and the others were skipping class today.
Iruka realized he had spoken wrongly. He shouldn't have vented his emotions on someone else. This matter had almost nothing to do with Naruto.
"Those damn brats!"
Iruka gritted his teeth. Without further explanation, he slammed his lesson plans onto the lectern—the papers scattering across the desk with a loud rustle.
"Today this class is self-study! Sensei is going to go look for those three right now!"
Before the words even finished, Iruka rushed out of the classroom door like a gust of wind, leaving the whole class staring at each other in confusion.
...
Konoha back mountain—dense forest.
Sunlight was blocked by layer upon layer of leaves. The woods appeared somewhat dim.
The three truant students were strolling along a small path nearby.
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