Training a Shinobi of the Leaf
by Nee
Summary: What set of circumstances would cause Umino Iruka to finally teach Naruto the shinobi arts from the very beginning?
Warnings: Rated M for language, violence, and sexual situations. No pairings.
Last Edited: July 15, 2012
Chapter 4: The Three Month Review
Umino Iruka tiredly walked across the Academy campus's large green lawn, towards the morning meeting ground alongside the rest of the TBS candidates. Medic-nin Hiyama Yasuo's five assistant instructors had roused the trainees at 0330 that morning, for a twenty-mile run without the assistance of chakra, so that their muscles would receive the full benefit of the exercise. Two hours later, the stars were just beginning to disappear from the sky and everyone was still huffing and puffing, as they assembled into their assigned ranks.
At the beginning of training, there had been five ranks of sixteen candidates. Each rank was called a squad and, within each squad, were two teams that were comprised of eight individuals. Iruka had been assigned a position in squad-one, team-one, which hadn't changed throughout the last three months of training, despite the twenty-two candidates who had already been culled from their ranks.
After finding his customary place in line, Iruka allowed himself to collapse to the ground, feeling delightfully exhausted and a bit lightheaded. God bless endorphins, Iruka thought giddily, as slowly started to stretch out his legs, feeling as though they were made of rubber. His entire body felt loose and his chest still burned from the effort of the run. It was a good thing that they had finally stopped when they did, because he didn't think he'd have been able to keep up for much longer, without the soothing help of chakra coating his muscles.
Lying on his back, Iruka swung his left leg across his right thigh, stretching all the muscles from his calf up to his hamstring and butt. Softly, he counted to ten, holding the position, before letting his leg relax. He then raised his leg straight into the air and he reached up and pulled the appendage close to his body, until his shin was in line with his forehead. As he counted to ten in this new position, Iruka allowed his eyes to roam over the other the other stretching candidates, around him.
The candidates were all sprawled on the ground, in various stretching poses, steam rising off their bodies as sweat evaporated into the chilly morning air. He knew that, within the next few hours, the sun would chase the chill from the world, leaving behind the normal blanket of sticky humidity in the air, making all those active duty shinobi, who were stuck in long sleeves, protective jackets, and long pants, wish for the relief of a cool breeze or running water.
Fortunately, the candidates weren't dressed so insensibly. They were all wearing their physical training uniform, also known as their PT-gear. There was no deviation in the uniform for gender. Male or female, they all wore baggy, gray, gym-shorts that hung just above their knees, and gray T-shirts with a large forest-green depiction of Konoha's stylized leaf pattern on the front. On the back of the T-shirts, running across their shoulders and printed in large bold characters, were their family names, which allowed for easy reading and identification.
Iruka rolled his head to the right, looking past the prone forms of the other trainees to the taijutsu demonstration ring, sectioned off from the rest of the yard by thick wooden fence beams. It was one of the many places on the Academy grounds that the candidates spent their days.
In the beginning of the TBS program, Iruka had expected to spend most of his time in a classroom, listening to lectures or running teaching simulations. Instead, they were outside for the majority of the day, only coming inside when the heat of the day was at its zenith. While inside, the candidates learned about psychology, shinobi training tactics, proper nutrition, weapons and their uses, observation of strengths and weaknesses with the intent for improvement, and so on. The topics were different each day and Iruka was surprised to find that he found them interesting and engaging.
A bead of sweat rolled from the bridge of his nose to drop into his right eye. Blinking to clear his vision, Iruka focused his gaze behind the demonstration ring, looking at the first obstacle of the two-mile-long obstacle course, which had been specifically designed to tax everyone's physical fitness. Medic-nin Hiyama Yasuo-sensei had told them that, the only standing rule for running the course was that every obstacle had to be completed without the help of chakra. Yasuo had then explained that, during training, using chakra to help perform demanding physical maneuvers was nothing more than shinobi laziness and it did not display the skill of the shinobi but hindered him in the long run.
One bright and sunny day a few weeks ago, Hiyama-sensei had called the candidates together, a sheaf of papers was clenched tihtly in his hand. With the papers rolled up like a scroll, Hiyama-sensei swung his arm in a semi-circle around him and said, "Take a knee, we need to talk."
Feeling the oncoming of a lecture, Iruka and his classmates immediately complied with Hiyama-sensei's command. Once all sixty-three candidates were settled around him, Hiyama-sensei had then waggled the rolled-up papers in the air.
"Can any of you guess what I hold in my hand?" Hiyama asked, anger and frustration thick in his tone.
The candidates were quiet, except for one brave soul in the middle of the group. The candidate answered, "The next batch of eliminations, sir."
"Got it in one. Do any of you know why I am forcefully dropping these candidates from the program?"
None of the candidates dared to reply, sensing a trap of some sort. Iruka felt sick, easily imagining that his name was among those that were being kicked-out of the program today. If that were the case, he didn't know what he would do with himself. He just wanted to complete this program. He had learned so much from the instructors here that he no longer felt like some half-trained-liability. He felt more confident in himself as a consequence of the training and the program still had about four months left to go.
Please, don't be me. God, please make it that my name's not on that list, prayed Iruka, as he watched Hiyama-sensei agitatedly pace before the group of kneeling students.
Hiyama said, "How many times do I have to tell you all that, during PT, chakra enhancement is forbidden? How many times have I told you if you can't keep up in exercises, to come see me, or one of the Assistant Instructors, and we would work out a remedial schedule so that you can catch up with the rest of the class? How many times have I said this, trainees? How many?"
Now that the verbal trap had been revealed, no one answered Hiyama-sensei's question. By their very lack of response, they forced the question to become rhetorical and a part of the teaching demonstration.
Unperturbed by their silence, Hiyama-sensei looked over at his five assistants and asked the question again. "How many times have I talked about remedial training, Assistant Anami?"
The Assistant Instructor stood up as straight and tall as he could and said, "As I recon, sir, you talked about remedial everyday since the beginning of the program."
Hiyama-sensei turned around to face the students again and said, vindicated, "You see, Assistant Instructor Anami Akira remembers. Why can't any of you? Do I need to ask another assistant to see if they remember similarly as Anami and I?"
Since the last question actually seemed to require a response, the candidates chorused, "No, sir."
Hiyama nodded and said, "Then why do I constantly have to tell you all, again and again, not to use chakra during PT? Can any of you answer that?"
Iruka looked around at the other candidates and felt anger burn in his belly. They were receiving being chewed out because some his classmates still insisted on using chakra, whereas he had stopped after the first day, when Hiyama-sensei had talked about it for the first time. He had taken it on faith that the Head Instructor had known what he was doing and had just gone along with the program. He had not thought of cheating since then. Now, he was in danger of expulsion from the program because of someone else's inability to follow a simple and, relatively, painless order. He just had to hope that the instructors already knew that he had been obeying the rules all along.
Fucking figures, Iruka thought, heatedly.
Another candidate from the back decided to put forth an answer. He said, "Maybe because they're ashamed, sir. Chakra takes away the muscle burn and helps you do things that you normally can't do without it."
"Ah, an answer. Yes, candidate that is exactly why I think some of you kept using chakra despite my orders and offers of remedial. Well, let me tell you something: chakra usage, without expressed permission from an instructor, absolutely ends today; otherwise, those that I catch will be dropped from this program, with no hope of a second chance. You all are fucking adults and professional shinobi, and I will not allow this brazen lack of respect for my authority to continue. You will all fall in line, or you're out. Is that clear?" Hiyama-sensei asked, his tone growing more venomous the longer he spoke.
The candidates all nodded that they understood and, after a moment of tense silence, Hiyama-sensei started speaking again. He said, "Let me say that one more time, so that you all understand me. Hence forth, you will receive an immediate expulsion from the program and a demerit in your file, for the inability to follow orders, if the Assistant Instructors or I catch you using chakra enhancement techniques during training. Is that clear?"
Realizing that Hiyama-sensei required a verbal confirmation of his orders, the candidates all said, in unison, "Yes sir," and the Head Instructor, nodded, seemingly satisfied.
Hiyama-sensei folded across his chest, the role of white paper still easily visible in his hand, and said, in a consoling tone of voice, "It strikes me that the reason why you all kept disobeying my orders about chakra usage, might be due to not understanding why I gave the order in the first place. I had thought I had explained myself well enough the first time, but, maybe I didn't. If that was the case, you, as my students and future teachers of the next shinobi generation had a responsibility to inform me that you were still confused and I, as your teacher, had a responsibility to realize that you all needed further instruction. In this instance, we both failed in our responsibilities.
"Well, let me no loner be derelict in my duty, so that, in the future, we won't have any more misunderstandings. As a Medic-nin and a sensei, if there is one thing that I can engrave in your minds from this program, it is that your body is the greatest weapon you'll ever have in your arsenal. If you don't take care of it with proper nutrition and exercise, it can also become your largest liability. Training is more than learning new jutsus. It is also about body maintenance and that means doing marathon runs, climbing walls, lifting weights, and gymnastics, without coating your muscles in chakra. Too much of the benefit of the exercise is lost, when chakra is pumping hard through your body.
"Chakra takes away the lactic acid that causes muscle soreness, but that very same acid makes those muscles stronger. Chakra is supposed to help you enhance your abilities; it is not there to help you maintain the status quo. If your muscles are strong before chakra, then, when it's added to your movements, the effects you'll receive will be astronomical. Without a strong body you will not last long as a shinobi. Remember this, muscle first and then chakra. That's the way it has to go, otherwise, you're just fooling yourself about how strong you actually are, because chakra is an enhancement to your abilities. Do you all understand what I'm saying? Do I need to go get the physiology chart?"
Heads shook back and forth and a few candidates said, "No," to Hiyama-sensei's question.
Hiyama-sensei's body posture relaxed and he said, "Good. That's good. It seems that as soon as a person becomes a Genin and starts learning the advanced chakra control exercises, they no longer practice like they did as Academy students and that's why, I believe, we do not have more Jounins within Konoha. Anyway, that's another lesson for another day."
Hiyama-sensei then turned his attention to the papers in his hand and unrolled them. He said, "Unfortunately, we still have a small matter to attend to. When I call your name, you are to stand up and head towards the dormitory to pack your things. Before you leave the campus, you will have an opportunity to defend yourself to the Assistant Instructors and I and, depending on what you say, we might allow you to rejoin the program next year."
Iruka blinked away the memory and stood up from the wet grass. Once standing, he noticed the approach of Hiyama-senesi from the administrative building. Dressed in the typical shinobi uniform, complete with flak-vest, the Head Instructor walked across the lawn towards the formation of tired and stretching candidates.
Something was up. Normally the candidates didn't see Hiyama-sensei unless they were in the classroom, they were being yelled at, or there was an announcement of some kind. So far, the candidates hadn't done anything wrong, so Hiyama must have something to say to them. Iruka was interested now.
Coming to a stop in front of the five ranks of students, Hiyama smiled at their fatigued and irritated expressions. Ever since the 'no chakra' lecture, the candidates had become harder to wake-up in the mornings and this early morning run had been a nightmare to get started. It had taken the assistants a half hour of walking through the dorms, slamming open the doors, and calling for the candidates to 'fall-in,' before everyone was finally ready for warm up stretches and then the run that followed immediately afterwards.
For twenty miles, the Assistant Instructors had constantly increased the pace until everyone was in a full extension-run. With their lungs burning, sides aching, and legs about to fall off, no one was allowed to fall out of formation. The instructors pushed them forward until the very end an now, everyone was glad that it was over, and they all were enjoying that delicious feeling of tired rubbery limbs and the soothing high of endorphins.
"All right, on your feet and eyes forward," Hiyama said loudly, so that everyone could hear him.
When everyone was looking at him, Hiyama said, "Today marks the middle of the TBS program, which means that today is your third-month review. As you can see, your numbers have already fallen by one-third the original class size and I anticipate loosing another twenty to thirty students before the end of this program. But, there is still a chance that you all will prove me wrong, and I heartily invite you to do so. TBS is constantly in need of good people and I hope that, at the end of the next three months, I will be able to call you 'comrade.' Anyhow, to have made it this far into the program is an accomplishment to be proud of, so congratulations, all of you."
Hiyama then gestured for his assistants to stand alongside him. He said, "Due to the meetings today, I am going to call off the rest of today's training and class schedule. Instead, after a half hour meal break, you are all to meet back here and form-up, like normal. Then, you will go off with one of my assistants to a predetermined classroom and wait for your review. So, don't be nervous, just think of this day as a day off. Is that clear?"
The candidates responded with a cumulative, "Yes Sensei."
"Good. Then, we're going to make this real easy. Females, you all are with Deushi Miku," Hiyama said, gesturing to his lone female instructor. He then pointed at the first row of students and said, "Squad-one, you go with Shinko Naoki. Squad-two, you are with Anami Akira. Squad-three …"
While Hiyama-sensei continued to call out directions, Umino Iruka looked up at Shinko Naoki-sensei. He was a good-looking man, in his late twenties or possibly his early thirties. He wasn't particularly tall, but he had strong, broad shoulders and powerful arms. He also had a thick crop of black hair and dark brown eyes. All in all, Shinko was a stereotypical Konoha-nin.
After the squads had been sorted, as Hiyama-sensei had promised, they were released to the cafeteria for a meal break and, if one was quick about it, a shower and a change of clothes, as well. Deciding to risk being late for his review meeting in favor of being clean, Iruka rushed through his nutritionally balanced meal, shoveling his food into his mouth as fast as he could and only vaguely noticing that he was not the only one with his idea.
Done with breakfast within five minutes of entering the cafeteria, Iruka quick-walked around the tables, dumped his tray, and then ran towards the dorms. He didn't fancy the idea of sitting in a classroom, for who knew how long, without fresh clothes and something to entertain himself while he waited for his turn with Shinko-sensei.
Two minutes later, breathing hard, Iruka burst through the door into his dorm room. He quickly pulled out a clean pair of clothes and his shower supplies. He then stripped down to just his underwear, haphazardly tossing his physical training uniform onto his bed.
With just a towel wrapped around his waist, Iruka jogged, barefoot, down the hall towards the showers, dodging around his other male classmates who were similarly rushing around. He appropriated the first free showerhead he saw and twisted the nozzle into the 'on' position, steadfastly ignoring the activities of the other naked men around him.
Unconcerned by the initial cool temperature of the water, Iruka stepped under the spray and quickly soaped his body and rinsed. Once his hair and body were clean, he pulled out a razor and, craning to see himself in the large communal mirror, he suds his face and started shaving. As the razor scrapped down his skin, he used his left hand to follow in its path, his fingers feeling for any missed hairs.
When he was finished, he picked up his supplies and jogged back to his room, hurriedly getting dressed while studiously ignoring the presence of his silver-haired roommate, Touji Mizuki. Just before leaving the room, he snatched up the sealing scroll, containing a few fiction books, stashed it safely away in his forest-green flak vest, and ran down the hallway towards the exit.
As soon as he was outside the dormitory, he sprinted across the campus lawn towards the gathering area. His long legs ate up the ground and, less than a minute later, he was standing in his assigned spot in squad-one.
Still breathing fast, Iruka checked his wristwatch for the time, and smiled triumphantly when he saw that he still had three minutes before he would have been considered 'late' and forced to participate in late-night punishment-exercises.
After a few more deep breaths, his breathing had calmed to normal levels and he turned his attention to watch his classmates, as they continued to run in from the dorms and the cafeteria. It wasn't just the men who had decided to wash-up for the three-month review. He saw a few of the women coming back with their hair still wet, as well.
Once everyone had arrived, the candidates split off into their five groups and followed their assigned instructors. Shinko-sensei took Squad-one to a classroom inside building-seven. When everyone was seated, Shinko-sensei did a quick headcount and, nodding, wrote something on a piece of paper. As soon as he was done writing, he said, "Alright, we'll do these meetings in alphabetical order, so that means Iruka will be last."
"Fuck," Iruka snapped, irritated; causing a few of the men to laugh at his predicament. He ignored them and looked around, figuring that the meetings would take, at least, half an hour per person and that meant he was going to be sitting in that classroom for about four hours before his turn ever came around.
Amused, Shinko-sensei said, "Now, now, Iruka. It very easily could have been anyone else in your position. Anyway, here's how this is going to go: I am going to call your name, you go to the classroom across the hall, we talk for awhile about your progress and where best I think your future lies. After that you leave and have the rest of the day off. Come tomorrow morning, the fifty-eight candidates are going to split into four groups and start the specified training for each teaching division. Everyone understand?"
"Teaching division? What's that?" asked a man with damp reddish-brown hair.
"You have got to be kidding me! The four teaching divisions are Academy, Apprentice, Basic, and Infiltration. Do you all remember those? You should. We have been having classes about them for the last three months."
Everyone nodded and Shinko-sensei said, "Good. Alright, lets get started…"
________________________________________________________
Iruka was wrong. He wasn't required to wait the full four hours in the classroom. Instead, Shinko-sensei had taken pity upon everyone with a wait time that was more than one-hour long. Therefore, Iruka and a couple of the other candidates all received passes to leave, with the understanding that they had to be on time for their three-month reviews or suffer the consequences.
At that, Iruka had said, "Thank you," and immediately headed back to his dorm room. He kicked off his sandals and removed his utility belt, before plopping into his bed. Reaching over to his right, he set his alarm clock to wake him after a two-hour nap. Since he had no afternoon classes to prepare for, he felt sleeping was the best way to spend his time. Once situated comfortably on his bed, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
"Umino, wake your punk-ass up and turn off your alarm," exclaimed the familiar and irritated voice of his roommate.
Languidly, Iruka raised his hand and pressed the button to shut off the shrill beeping of his alarm. Sitting up in his bed and yawning, Iruka looked over at his roommate. The silver-haired shinobi was sitting on his neatly made bed and sneering at him.
No change there, Iruka thought as he shifted his attention to his wristwatch, confirming that he still had over an hour left before he had to meet up with Shinko-sensei.
As Iruka scratched both hands over the dark fuzz of his hair, in an attempt to wake himself up, he covertly eyed Mizuki. The other man was a few years older than him and a bit taller than him too. All in all, Iruka didn't consider him all that impressive of a ninja. He didn't have that feel of 'power' about him that some of the top-level shinobi always seemed to emit. Iruka noticed that Mizuki hadn't chosen to change his clothes after breakfast that morning, so he was still dressed in his PT grays.
Dismissing those thoughts from his mind, Iruka decided to be sociable and asked, "So, how'd your meeting go?"
Mizuki made a buzzing-spitting noise with his lips and said, "Oh that. It went fine. They said that my skills are really good and that, had I chosen to train on my own for another year, I could have become eligible for promotion to Jounin. Instead, I got scouted for this stupid detail and now I owe six years of service for the training. Seriously though, I don't think that this training was all that great, definitely not six years worth. I would much rather just pay a percentage of what I owe out of my mission-pay than work for them for the next six years, you know."
"Then why don't you quit?" asked Iruka, feeling like he asked his acquaintances that question quite a lot, lately.
"Oh, that's simple. I want to make it into ANBU or, maybe, make it into marksmen school. Anyway, both schools don't accept quitters. I got to finish if I want anyone to even look at my application. Get me? But, hell yeah, if nothing was riding on me completing this program I'd be back on the mission roster before the sunsets. Fuck, man! I wish I never spoke with that scout," Mizuki said, angrily slamming his hands down on his thighs, making a loud clapping sound against the naked flesh.
"Who scouted you and why?" Iruka asked, incredulous. He had spent a great deal of time with Mizuki since the start of the TBS program. As a consequence of their forced cohabitation, Iruka knew that, although Mizuki was a decent enough shinobi, he wasn't worth anyone's time to invite into TBS.
Mizuki ignored Iruka's tone and smugly answered, "Yeah, just some guy came around me and my buddy's sparing practice. I had my friend in a submission hold, right, and this guy says that I got a real pretty taijutsu technique and that I should teach. I told him that I don't want to teach no kids anything, especially, if they grow up to be better than me. That would really piss me off, you know. I mean, think about it – some brat that I taught, once upon a time, ends up killing me with the same skills that I taught him. That would royally suck, you know. Plus, I'm really good with throwing weapons. That's why I think I should, maybe, try my hand at marksmanship, after this teaching business is through."
"Okay," Iruka agreed, deciding it would be easier to just accept Mizuki's story than to try and argue against any bit of it. He'd seen Mizuki in taijutsu practice and, yes, he had real pretty technique, but, he was slow as shit. Plus, he had real problems concentrating on his chakra while fighting. He might have been able to throw a few weapons around accurately, but he was still painfully mediocre, maybe even more so than Iruka himself was.
Tactfully not saying what he was actually thinking, Iruka asked instead, "How did you end up in the TBS program if you didn't want to become a teacher? That's what TBS is mostly all about? What were you expecting if you didn't want to be a sensei?"
Mizuki shrugged disinterestedly, as if his aversion to teaching was just a small obstacle to his future plans. He explained, "The scout said that they had trainers, here, whose sole purpose was to make me a well-rounded shinobi, so that I could turn around and teach trainees and that not all trainees had to be kids. So, there I was, really good at taijutsu and weapons, decent at genjutsu, but I absolutely sucked at ninjutsu. I could never find a good enough trainer to help me with my ninjutsu and the ones that I did find, cost an arm and a leg to hire just for the day. I can't advance without ninjutsu capabilities and I can't receive higher paying missions without Jounin rank. So this guy says, 'we got dedicated senseis just waiting to teach you ninjutsu,' and I say, 'yeah, I'll give six years.' At least that way, I'm going somewhere and doing something, right. So, here I am."
Leaning back on his bed with his forearms bracing his weight, Mizuki smirked at Iruka, as if he had just gifted him with useful information.
Iruka didn't know what to say immediately after Mizuki stopped talking. He was tempted to just get up and leave early for his meeting, but it looked like he still had three-months left to deal with this man, so he decided to try, once more, to be nice.
Nodding as though he had rethought everything Mizuki had told him and that he believed it was a really interesting and beneficial story, Iruka said, "That's all great, but you still haven't told me yet what division you're in now."
Mizuki smiled at his response, apparently gratified to have his attention and said, "Infiltration. They said that I was aggressive enough that they believed that I wouldn't have a problem playing a traveling student, or something, and performing assassinations while I was in the city. Said that my lack of heavy-hitting, chakra-draining, flashy ninjutsu wouldn't be counted against me, since assassinating people is quiet work. After six years, they said I should have enough mission credit to my name that I would be promoted, no problem."
For a moment, Iruka sat there on his bed, stunned. During orientation day, he had listened to the initial descriptions of the four divisions and immediately had assumed that he would gear his TBS training towards infiltration, believing that infiltration performed extremely similar duties to that of the regular shinobi-service. He also had thought that it would be the easiest transition for him and that he'd be pretty good at it, too. He already had the people skills, so, he figured there wasn't much left to being a visible spy within a community.
Now, knowing that Mizuki was already destined for the infiltration division, Iruka felt anger and disappointment bubbling in his stomach. He had believed that dealing with Mizuki as his roommate for six months was bad enough, but he never wanted to share the same career path as the other man. He was arrogant, abrasive, and rude. He wanted to have nothing in common with the man and, if that meant giving up on his original plan, then so be it.
Instead of throwing a fit, as he most desperately wanted to do, Iruka slowly stood up from his bed and lied, saying, "Well, congratulations. I have to get going. My meeting is going to start soon." And then he walked out the door. It was a shame, though, because Iruka knew that he would have made a fucking great spy.
______________________________________________________
At the sound of a tentative knock on the classroom door, the Jounin, Shinko Naoki, looked up from the eight student files he had arranged on his desk in alphabetical order. "Come in, Candidate-Umino," he called out, and gathered his files together into a neat stack.
The door opened and, smiling pleasantly, Shinko-sensei directed Iruka to one of the hard plastic chairs in the middle of the room. The chairs had been positioned to face each other. He said, "Sit and we'll get this show on the road."
"Yes sir," Iruka said, as he chose one of the chairs and sat down. He watched as Shinko-sensei walked around his desk, carrying a yellow folder with Iruka's full name neatly printed on the front.
With the folder in hand, Shinko sat in the remaining chair, still smiling. After a brief awkward silence, Shinko said, "First off, before we get to really talking, I just wanted to say that it's been a pleasure working with you and that, despite all of the disadvantages you had coming into this program, you still managed to secure the eighteenth spot in the class."
Still disturbed by his conversation with Mizuki, Iruka didn't immediately understand what Shinko-sensei was saying to him. With a confused expression on his face, Iruka said, "What?"
Shinko-sensei's smile widened as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. He then opened the yellow folder across his lap and turned it around to show Iruka. He said, "As of right now, out of the fifty-eight remaining students within the program, you are ranked as the eighteenth best, all around, trainee. That means you are in the top fifty percent of your class or, if you want to be more specific, you are in the top thirty-five percent of your class. So, congratulations, and keep up the hard work."
Surprised, Iruka sat back in his chair. Although happy with the pronouncement of his class ranking, he still felt confused by how he had managed to achieve it, so he asked. "How's that possible? I'm average in just about everything."
Shinko nodded in agreement and then explained, "It's not the power of your techniques that's so impressive because, in that category, you're right, you're very average; but, there's more to you than chakra capacity and how you use it."
Iruka smiled and quickly looked away from Shinko-sensei, blushing a bit in pleasure at being complemented.
As if he hadn't noticed Iruka's response, Shinko-sensei continued speaking. He said, "As a ninja, you are extremely resourceful and most people find it very easy to get along with you, which makes you very useful, both as a teammate and as a future sensei. In TBS, class ranking isn't just about grades on your schoolwork or how you perform in exercises, though they are important and you are doing very well in those aspects of the program, as well. Mainly, we judge our candidates by a combination of their personality and their shinobi skills because, as the saying goes, we can always teach you to be a better shinobi, we can't fix that you're an –"
Iruka interrupted, saying, " – asshole, yeah I remember."
Shinko smiled, again, amused by the younger man's reaction to the class' frequently stated motto. "I'm glad to see that some of our teaching has stuck with you."
Scoffing, Iruka said, "It's impossible to forget when you hear it every minute of every day."
Shinko laughed appreciatively, as he leafed through the papers detailing Iruka's progress. After a moment of shared amusement between the two men, Shinko said, "Well anyway, you are the type of person this program looks for. You have the personality and you are in the process of gaining the required skills. At the end of the next three months, I foresee no problems with you moving right into active duty in any of the four divisions; however, according to your statistics, you are most suited for either the Academy or the Specialist divisions. Now the question is, which do you feel like teaching?"
Iruka was momentarily silent, as he thought about what he wanted to say and the best way to say it. He didn't want to end up sounding like he was complaining. Hoping that Shinko-sense would be able to divine his meaning, Iruka said, leadingly, "I did do some undercover work when I was younger."
Shinko lifted his eyes from the paperwork and studied the young man in front of him, his face as still and unreadable as stone. Apparently he had understood Iruka's intended question because he said, "Generally, Infiltration is reserved for men and women who don't mind donating years of their lives for one objective and you're a young man, Candidate-Umino. Are you really willing to give up all possible promotions to become a sleeper agent in some far off city and for as long as Konoha can safely keep you there? Now, before you answer that, you need to know that it is very possible that you could end up spending the rest of your life just performing duties related to passing on information and, for some, that means nothing more than maintaining carrier pigeons. Now, do you really want that? If you do, then yes, you most definitely can join the Infiltration Division, but, if you don't, then Academy and Specialist are your two best options."
Ashamed now, Iruka dropped his eyes to his hands and said nothing, thinking about his options. Shinko-sensei allowed him his silence, content to wait until Iruka was ready to speak again.
After a moment of watching Iruka pick nervously at his nails, Shinko-sensei sighed, resignedly, and said, "Teaching at the Academy is a prestigious position, Candidate-Umino. Please help me understand what your problem is. You knew for three months what your options would be and you had all that time to ask questions of your instructors."
Iruka took a breath and said, "Well, I originally wanted to work undercover, since the option was there and I'd done it before. The others, I just stopped thinking about."
Nodding, Shinko-sensei asked, "What do you think about it now that you know what Infiltration actually entails?"
Iruka shrugged and said, "I'm confused, mostly. My roommate, Touji Mizuki, just told me that he's going into Infiltration and that they suspect to use him as a traveling assassin and I know for a fact that I'm better than him in just about everything. So, why does he get Infiltration and I am being pushed towards the Academy?"
Shinko-sensei rolled his eyes and closed Iruka's file. "For the last three months, you shared a room with Candidate-Touji and you haven't killed him yet?"
Iruka smirked and said, "It wasn't so bad, as long as I didn't talk to him."
Shinko barked out a laugh and shook his head. "Three months of near silence, yeah well, whatever gets you through the day, more power to you."
Iruka leaned forward and said, "You've met Mizuki; you know what he's like. How did he get accepted into Infiltration? I don't understand. Why not me? I've never balked at performing a political assassination and I've always killed my target. I can do it again, no problem."
Leaning back in his chair and rolling his head back on his shoulders to look up at the ceiling, Shinko moaned in aggravation. He said, "Didn't we just go over this? Look kid, I'm going to tell you this, but it goes no farther than this room, agreed?"
Intrigued, Iruka immediately nodded his assent. Shinko-sensei took a deep breath and said, "Candidate-Touji should have been forcefully dropped at the very beginning of the program. The reason he was accepted into Infiltration was because it was the one division that routinely receives the most fatalities. He was placed there to kill him off, essentially."
Astonished, Iruka momentarily performed a credible impersonation of a gaping fish. He blinked his eyes in quick succession, as if he could blink away his surprise. Finally, he said, "But why not just drop him from the program, since you know he's not fit to serve? Why train him just to send him on a suicide mission?"
Shrugging, Shinko-sensei explained, "Candidate-Touji is a liability. At first, we thought he would make a good Academy instructor because he has nice taijutsu, he just doesn't have much power or speed, and we thought that he could be a good taijutsu sensei, for teaching the fundamentals. And he would have, too, if only his personality wasn't so damn abrasive. After three months of observation, we now know that he will never be able to get along with his students, no matter their ages. So that effectively cancels out three of the four divisions open to TBS candidates. It even partially closes off the Infiltration Division and, as he's already told you, we have compensated by telling him that he will perform as an assassin. Other than that, there's nothing more we can do. Candidate-Touji is an asshole and nothing can be done about it except to send him to a Yamanaka to be mentally altered, but he's not a good enough shinobi to go through all that effort."
Iruka had listened to Shinko-sensei's story as if he were listening to a mission briefing. He had even nodded at various points the older man had made during his explanation. When Shinko had finished speaking, Iruka commented, "You could have failed him earlier and none of this would have happened."
Shinko-sensei shook his head in the negative and explained, "The problem is that we believe Candidate-Touji's would spill village secrets in retaliation for being dropped from the program. It's a problem we brought upon ourselves, unfortunately. We recruited him right off the practice ground without any background information on him, first. This is what lack of preparation gets you."
Running a hand over his short hair, Iruka sighed and said, "You're right about Mizuki being a talker. I just never thought of him as a threat, before. Now that you point it out, I can see him as turning into an eventual problem."
Shinko-sensei nodded and asked, "Are you going to be alright, going back to that dorm room, with him still there?"
Iruka shrugged and said, "I have no problems with Mizuki's fate. He brought it upon himself. Although, I wouldn't mind getting a room for myself, now that so many people have left."
Shinko smiled, pleased, and said, "Good man, a new room can be arranged for you. All right now, back to your review. Do you still have questions about Infiltration? Do you still want to head into that program, even after everything we've talked about?"
Iruka shook his head in the negative and said, "No. It's lost its appeal, now. I want to continue to grow as a shinobi, not turn into a bird keeper or stagnate as some business owner in some city. But, I do have one question, though."
"What is it?"
"Which of the three remaining divisions do you think I am most suited for?"
"Okay, fair enough. The Academy and Specialist divisions are pretty much interchangeable. They differ mostly in how old and experienced the students are when you get them and the types problems they routinely cause, which you'll have to deal with, since it will be your job."
Confused, Iruka furrowed his brow and asked, "I don't understand. Daily problems?"
"Okay, for example, in the Academy, you will teach classes that range in size of ten to twenty students, depending on whether or not you are teaching a generalized or a specialized course. You also have to realize that, odds are, you will be teaching students who will be little more than babies. That means you'll have problems that pertain to small children, like wetting their pants and stuffing a pencil eraser up their nose."
Appalled, Iruka said, "That actually happens?"
Shinko laughed and said, "Yes. It will be quite common for you to carry around a pair of tweezers, to remove small objects from various body orifices, plus, you will always have a pair of 'emergency pants,' should any peeing accidents occur on school grounds and they will, believe me. And, because your students are such young children, you'll have to be ready to comfort and hug them when they hurt themselves. So, all in all, you'll probably have, at least, one kid crying in your class, everyday. Then, there are the parents who will, inevitably, have something to say about the fact that little Lee shouldn't have a busted lip, even though they know their kid is taking taijutsu classes."
"Oh fun," Iruka grumbled, causing Shinko-sensei to quirk a wry smile in response.
"As for Specialist training, well, most of your students will be teenagers and, since you are just a teenager yourself, it could possibly mean that you would be teaching people who are, roughly, about your age. Now, try to imagine that for a second, Candidate-Umino. Try to picture yourself attempting to teach a skill to other seventeen-year-olds and how they're likely to respond to you as their teacher. Not to mention, there will be other problems with teaching teenagers, such as, puberty, mood swings, romantic relationship issues, and how to deal with the death or deaths of their teammates. All of that, you have to be ready to handle, plus the fact that your students will still be active shinobi and you'll have to schedule their lessons around their missions.
"Although, the upside to joining the Specialist Division is that you get to pick and choose your students. And, if those students refuse to measure up to the required standards, to achieve the specialist rank, then you get to drop them from your class, which is nice, considering Specialist is the only division that provides you with that option.
"Despite the problems of the first two divisions, I definitely don't think Basic will be a good fit for you. You'll experience many of the same problems as a Specialist trainer, only your class size will have grown from four students to about a hundred students; maybe, even more than a hundred. Anyway, you'll be teaching men how to fight and win battles and, because you are so young, when they look at you, they'll see you as a representative for their sons, nephews, and neighbors. Which means that they either won't take you seriously or they'll constantly try to protect you. So, if Basic interests you, I suggest you wait until you are at least 25 years old, which would be well into your second term of service for TBS, that is, if you had decided to stick around.
"So, which one sounds the most appealing to you, Candidate? You can have your pick, just realize that I warned you and your choice can't be changed easily," Shinko said while openly grinning at Iruka.
"How do I get your job, sir?" Iruka asked in return, half trying to be irritating and, on the other hand, extremely serious.
The man laughed in enjoyment of the joke and answered, "To take my job from me, you'll need to have been a Jounin for two years, have trained at least one Genin team to completion; as well as, have had completed the TBS program and have performed the full six years of sensei service. All in all, Iruka, I'd have to say that you have a graduation, six years, a promotion, and a Genin team to go before you can have my job."
"Well shit," Iruka said, leaning back in his chair, a bit put out that becoming a TBS Assistant Instructor was so far out of his reach. Annoyed, Iruka scrubbed his callused hands over the fuzzy stubble of his black hair, before sighing in defeat. "Well, after everything that you said to me, I think I choose the Academy."
Pleased, Shinko smiled and said, "Good choice, young sir. I believe you shall enjoy your time with the little gippers. That's slang talk for GPP, just so ya know. It'll help you fit in better."
"Thank you, sensei, that's very kind of you. Although, if I start referring to the students as 'gippers,' only to later find out that what you told me is a load of crap, I'm coming back here to kick your ass. Fair warning."
Shinko laughed and said, "You haven't managed it yet, boy, so you can understand when I don't hold my breath while I wait for that ass whooping. I have better things to do with my time."
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