Training a Shinobi of the Leaf
by Nee339
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.
Author's Note: In this chapter, I refer to a type of radio that I noticed was used in the manga; especially, when Naruto's Genin team is trying to catch Tora, the cat. Anyway, the manga never specified the name of their radio so I looked for a similar one in real life. If you are interested in having a picture of the field radio, please Google SWAT LASH Headsets for Two-Way Radios or check out the following website at www. /tactical/Lash/web_lash. html. You will need to remove all the spaces in the website address, obviously, but you'll see what I am writing about then.
Last Edited: July 11, 2012.
Chapter 2: The Decision
Before his family was killed, Umino Iruka had already known and accepted that he would never become a world-renowned-shinobi. He had understood that he would never receive that backhanded complement of being added to the enemies' Bingo Books, with strict orders, penned in red ink, to either kill him on sight or to run. He had always known that he would never receive the dubious honor of becoming the intended victim of an assignation squad. Not to mention, he would never become Hokage, and he most definitely would never spontaneously develop a long forgotten bloodline that would insure his dominance over all other shinobi within the village, if not the entire continent. In short, Umino Iruka would never become a legend and, after his death, he would not be remembered for long, because he was purely a mediocre, easily forgotten, young man who was living in a village of greats.
When Iruka was younger, he had resented his mediocrity. In an effort to prove that he was just as useful as the children with distinguished bloodlines, he had devised ruthless pranks to demonstrate, to anyone who paid attention, that these individuals weren't nearly as perfect as they claimed. They fell for the same, simple, stupid, schoolyard tricks that ensnared all the other children. They were not special and they were not geniuses. They were no better than over-bred dogs that, by some fluke of nature, ended up sporting various useful genetic mutations.
When his parents had been alive, they had encouraged his pranks, believing that he was laying the groundwork for becoming a Trap Specialist. Although his parents never outright condoned his pranks against the members of bloodline families, he had known that they had appreciated his work. He had seen the pride in their eyes when he regaled them with stories about his classmates being knocked unconscious and left strapped to trees. He had even overheard his parents quietly bragging and laughing about his accomplishments with their teammates, on the few nights that they had been invited over for dinner.
Iruka privately smiled to himself, as he remembered the sense of satisfaction he had felt when he saw his plans coming into fruition. However, those had been happier times and he had still been a child then. Now, setting traps and making plans was nothing more than business and the faster he herded the foreign and frightened shinobi to their deaths, the faster he could pick up his mission pay.
Movement out of the corner of his eye, disrupted Iruka's thoughts about his past, and refocused him on the present. Two days ago, he had chosen not to listen to Jounin Itō Shiro-san's advise about taking a vacation. Instead, he had gone to the Mission Office and requested an immediate, out-of-village, assignment and he got one – border patrol.
Within seconds, Iruka stood four yards away from a wagonload of wooden boxes and crates, pulled by two dark gray water buffalo with sawed-off horns. Two men, with dark hair and reddish skin, sat side-by-side on the wagon's driving bench, calmly talking to each other.
"I swear that someone's watching us," whispered the younger of the two men, as he deftly reined the animals away from the leafy foliage and urged them forward.
"What do you expect? We are in the Great Konoha Forest. The Hokage probably has spies in every other tree and I wouldn't be surprised if the trees themselves provided the Professor with Intel. Look at the size of these monsters."
Iruka quickly determined that these men were intruders, due to the simple fact that they were caught in the Kori Shinchuu genjutsu, which wouldn't have happened if the men had the correct documentation. The jutsu they were currently trapped in was also called 'Sly Mind Affect,' and it basically disoriented the target and caused them to travel in circles. It was a very tame border defense, and the two maybe-merchants were extremely lucky to have run into it and not one of the other numerous defensive traps along the border.
As Iruka listened to the two men talk to each other, he became more and more convinced that they weren't just ambitious merchants in search of a new market to peddle their goods, as their clothing had originally led him to believe. Instead, their conversation was too liberally sprinkled with military and shinobi slang to be entirely innocent. Furthermore, their ambiguity made Iruka nervous. If the men were more than trespassing merchants, and were scouts for an enemy of Konoha, then he had a problem – possibly a large problem.
His original orders had been very clear about what he was supposed to do while on border patrol. He was to observe the traffic on the highly trafficked trails through the forest; all the while, checking on the traps for possible intruders. He'd already sealed three dead bodies into storage scrolls for the Medic-nins to deal with, and it now looked like he would either be adding to that collection or bringing home live-ones for the Torture and Interrogation squads to play with. There were no exceptions, which meant that if those two men where instead a mother and her young son, they would still have to pay a visit to TAI.
Well fuck, Iruka thought, frustrated, as he watched the men pass by him on their second cycle since he'd first found them trapped in the genjutsu.
Annoyed, Iruka brought his left hand up to his throat where he played with the two throat buds that were strapped around his neck and put pressure on his vocal cords. He debated whether or not to radio his teammates and explain his suspicions. Eventually, he decided that it would probably be for the best. He wasn't a hero, and he wasn't stupidly rash. If these two men turned out to be true shinobi, he would appreciate the backup when the time came.
Decided now, Iruka moved his hand from his throat to his chest where the radio activation button was hidden by a protective flap on his Chuunin flak vest. He pressed the button and then whispered, "There are two adult males with a wagon and two water buffalo, located five miles north of the city, Otafuku Gai, and they're caught in the Kori Shinchuu. They are dressed as merchants; however, there's evidence they may be enemy spies. Request further orders, over."
There was a hiss in his earpiece before the team leader asked, "Have you been discovered? Over."
"No, over."
"Maintain watch and reapply genjutsu if needed. Do not, I say again, do not confront targets. We are on our way. Radio again if there are any changes. Out." Iruka then removed his hand from the button on his vest and, as he settled his back against a tree's trunk, he mumbled to himself, "Yes sir."
During the time that it took for his team to arrive, the two outsiders circled the same batch of trees twelve more times. He also capitalized on the opportunity to painstakingly weave a genjutsu shield around his position that allowed him to blend in with the forest. It was a defensive measure he did not think was strictly necessary, but he needed the practice of working the jutsu and, since it was not particularly draining, he deemed its existence worth the chakra expenditure.
Twenty minutes after broadcasting his position and his request for help, his three border-patrol-teammates finally arrived. He was tempted to say something witty about how they all must be out of shape, considering how long it took them to get there, but he decided against it. He was not close with these people and making a joke at their expense, he felt, wouldn't be appreciated. Therefore, he kept his mouth shut and quickly stepped out from behind his genjutsu shield and greeted his team.
After taking a quick headcount, the team leader broke the silence and stated, "Alright, report."
Iruka shrugged and said, "Nothing's changed since I last spoke with you. They either don't know they're in a genjutsu or they do and they realize that, if they break out of it, they'll be attacked by us; so they are biding their time. Also, I've been listening in on them, and most of what they say has been fairly harmless, but, judging by their speech patterns and word choice, they're something other than merchants. I can't tell if they're overly informed civilians, undercover shinobi, or retired shinobi."
"What about their cargo?"
"There's been no movement amongst the packages and I've detected no further life signs beyond that of the men and the buffalo. It's your call, sir."
The team leader looked down at the two men walking in circles while he thought about the best way to handle the situation. He then turned his attention back to the team and said, "There's no option. Either way, they have to be stopped and questioned." The team leader then ordered Iruka to retake his position behind his genjutsu shield, while his remaining two teammates stood directly in the path of the oncoming wagon, waiting for the team leader to dismantle the genjutsu.
As soon as everyone was in their positions, the team leader's voice whispered in their ears, "Genjutsu drops in twenty seconds. Kaede, Takara, the countdown starts now. Over."
While Kaede and Takara voiced their understanding of the additional information, Iruka maintained his silence. The wagon had just passed his position again and, although the genjutsu warped the minds of the targets into believing that they were actually going somewhere, it did not alter sound. Quietly, Iruka shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, so that he was more evenly balanced, and started to count backwards from twenty.
When he reached fifteen, the team leader's voice again murmured in his ear, "Iruka, if they do not have identification papers, be ready to put them to sleep, over."
"Dead? Over."
"Negative! Non-lethal action only. Acknowledge, over."
"Affirmative, out."
At the end of their verbal exchange, four more seconds had passed. In a rush now, Iruka quickly took an out storage scroll from his flack vest and unwound it until he saw the correct seal array. He then viciously bit the side of his thumbnail, to make himself bleed, and swiped the red fluid over the meticulously rendered seals. He then placed the palm of his bleeding hand down over the array and channeled chakra into the scroll until he felt a wooden tube emerge underneath his hand.
While Iruka prepared his brown fukiya, blowgun, and fukibari, darts, the mind-altering genjutsu was dropped. The two men immediately noticed the change in their perceptions, and were finally able to recognize that something was wrong. They stopped the laboring buffalo, and the younger man jumped down from the cart and knelt down in the mud, examining the prominent wagon wheel ruts dug deep into the ground.
"What's going on?" the younger man asked as stood up, ignoring the wet, muddy, ovals over both his knees.
The older man hopped down from the cart and answered, "We're in shinobi country that's what."
"So," the younger man said, sounding a bit frightened, despite trying to mask his emotions behind insolence.
As the older man walked to stand in front of the buffalo, he spoke, over his shoulder, "We just woke from a shinobi spell. They did something to us and now it stopped. They're around here, somewhere, so keep a – oh fuck."
Iruka momentarily stopped preparing his weapon when he heard the older man curse. Lifting his head, he watched as Kaede and Takara started to walk forward from their position of standing in the middle of the road, roughly twenty feet in front of the wagon. Sensing the sudden rise in tension, the buffalo, lowed deep and clicking rumbles of displeasure.
"Where are your identification papers?" the kunoichi, Takara, asked as she stepped closer to the wagon team.
The younger man angrily stated, "What are you talking about? What papers? We have every right to travel this road –"
Iruka stopped listening to the ongoing conversation, knowing that the younger man had as good as admitted to not belonging in Konoha territory. Instead, he gingerly placed a fukibari, a two-inch-long dart, into the end of his blowgun and cautiously stepped outside his genjutsu shield. He soundlessly circled behind the two trespassers and took careful aim down the length of the tube. He breathed in deeply through his nose, held his breath for a second, aimed again, and then blew. He reloaded and blew again.
One. Two.
And just like that, both men were hit. The older man fell to his knees, with his left hand clamped to the back of his neck, only to loose the fight with gravity a second later. The second man made a grumbling noise in the back of his throat, before he too fell over, on to his side, and passed out.
Iruka frowned. It had been too easy. Maybe these men weren't enemy shinobi after all. They went down too quickly and they didn't offer any resistance beyond that of being a little mouthy. Iruka mentally shrugged. The orders had said no exceptions.
"Takara, Kaede, check the wagon. Iruka you're with me."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. It's not like I got anything better to do, ya know, like …"
"Spare us, Kaede. Just do your job so we can leave," Takara snapped as she headed towards the back of the wagon so she could step up and start checking the contents of the cargo.
Kaede turned towards his female teammate and snarled. To add emphasis to his displeasure, Kaede rudely grabbed his genitals through the tough fabric of his blue pants and gave the handful a rough shake. Iruka privately thought that Kaede probably grabbed more fabric than he did flesh.
"Delightful Kaede. Now get your ass up here and help."
"Hey, stop fucking around and get to work. Iruka, over here, now."
Iruka didn't respond verbally to the team leader's orders, he just walked over towards him. The team leader was already bent over the sprawled form of the younger of the two trespassers. Quickly and efficiently, the team leader felt along the man's arms and down his torso and legs. He checked the man's clothing for secret pockets or any form of identification. Iruka followed his example.
"Do you want to cavity search them too or let the Med-nins deal with that?" Iruka asked as he too finished his preliminary search of the older man's clothing. All that was left to search were the body orifices, as he had mentioned.
"No, that won't be necessary at this time." The team leader said, as he expertly bound the man's limbs together with rope, before moving over to do the same to Iruka's unconscious man. Once done, the team leader turned towards the wagon, and looked up at his two teammates. "Did you find anything?"
"Not really. Lots of pipe-weed, liquor, blankets, herbal tea and a teapot," Kaede said as he held up the white-china teapot. "It's pretty though. My mother had one like it, before the Kyuubi. I think she kept the shards, you know, for remembrance."
Takara snorted, amused. She then said, "I didn't find much different. I found black calligraphy ink, calligraphy brushes, some paper, clothes, different types of smoking pipes, and more pipe-weed."
"Alright, come down. Kaede, help me move the bodies."
"Where to, a ditch?"
The team leader smiled and said, "No, to the back of the wagon."
Kaede dutifully walked towards the first man and grabbed him under the shoulders and around the chest. The team leader lifted the man's lower body, and together they walked him over to the back of the wagon and swung him on board. Iruka winced at the sound of the man's body hitting the hard wooden planks.
"You know, I don't think that guy is as out as he plays. I think he just felt up my junk," Kaede said as he walked with wide steps, while groping his crotch. Takara rolled her head back on her neck and laughed, while the team leader just shook his head and walked towards the remaining bound man.
"Kaede, his arms were tied behind his back. That's just were his arms hung when you pick him up like that," Takara said with a large and toothy smile. Kaede grinned back, delighted at the success of his joke.
"Thank you for explaining. I would have never known."
"Idiot."
"Whore."
As Kaede and the team leader picked up and tossed the other man into the back of the wagon, Iruka resealed his blowgun and extra darts. Once finished, he then walked over to the defensive seal array that powered the Kori Shinchuu genjutsu, and reactivated it.
"Well, the gear's packed. What's the next move?" Kaede asked as he swiped both hands over the coarse blue fabric of his Chuunin uniform pants.
"Takara and I are going to run ahead and inform TAI that our friendly merchants here are on the way. We will also give the Med-nins the bodies found in the traps, and then we'll start making our way back towards you two. That leaves you boys with the responsibility of taking care of the buffalo and the sleeping men until we return. And judging by the rate of travel those animals are capable of, I think we'll meet up with you before you are halfway to the village."
"Oh joy. I'm having flashbacks already," Kaede grumbled as he roughly patted a grayish black furred rump of the closest buffalo. The animal turned its ponderous head to regard the relatively small shinobi, and snorted a string of greasy snot from its nose.
"We'll meet up again in three hours. Iruka, make sure those two don't wake up before their arrival."
"Yes sir."
"Good, then Takara, lets go," commanded the team leader. He and the woman left, running chakra-fast through the trees.
After the departure of half of their team, Kaede and Iruka stood quietly staring at each other, both waiting for the other to assume command of the situation. Iruka shifted uncomfortably and vaguely gestured towards the wagon. He swallowed his discomfiture and said, "I'm ready to leave whenever you are."
Kaede nodded, and suddenly grinned. The expression immediately struck Iruka as false and only served to make him feel even more awkward with the other shinobi. Iruka sighed. He hated this feeling of self-conscious embarrassment. He took a breath and mentally told himself that he was a damn good shinobi, and Kaede was his teammate, temporary or not; therefore, there was no reason to continue to feel uncomfortable.
While Iruka had been mentally giving himself a pep-talk, Kaede had walked over to the driver's bench and turned back to regard the still silent shinobi. He continued to grin, bearing slightly crooked teeth, and he asked, "Do you know how to drive these things?"
Iruka shook his head and said, "No, I've been a shinobi my whole life. I've never dealt with farm animals before."
"Hhhhmmmm, well lucky us that I'm a country-boy. I can drive this wagon in my sleep. Climb on."
Iruka's eyebrows rose in surprise as he asked, "Really?"
"Yes sir. I probably would still be a farmer if I hadn't been pressed into service when I was 12," Kaede explained as he settled himself on the driver's bench and gathered up the animals' reins. Iruka climbed into the back of the wagon, carefully stepping over crates and the two unconscious bodies of the trespassers. Iruka sat a crate with a solid lid, his back resting against the side paneling of the wagon. In his hands, he delicately held two more treated fukibari. He did not think that the darts would be needed for some time, but he felt better knowing that they were immediately on-hand should the two men show any signs of wakefulness.
They had been traveling in silence for five minutes and Iruka had almost managed to put himself into a deep waking meditation, when Kaede abruptly asked, "Do you know any traveling songs?"
Iruka was momentarily startled at the unexpected interruption. After a second of consternation, Iruka turned his head to regard Kaede's back. As he studied Kaede, he was struck again by a sense of falseness in the man's voice and attitude. When Kaede had been bantering with Takara, earlier, his tonal inflections and expressions had matched, now they were forced and unnatural. Eventually, he answered Kaede's question that he didn't know any songs.
Kaede was undeterred, and within a few seconds had thought of another inane question to ask, in an obvious attempt to stave off uncomfortable silences. Normally, Iruka didn't mind silence, but with such a demandingly talkative companion, Iruka bowed to the inevitable and asked a question of his own. "So, when did you graduate the Academy?"
Kaede truly smiled at Iruka's question, happy that he was finally participating in their discussion. He answered, "Oh, I graduated when I was 13 almost 14."
"Didn't you say that you joined the Academy at 12?" At Kaede's affirming nod, Iruka continued with his observation. He said, "That was quick, then. You must have had some taijutsu experience before you went to the Academy."
Kaede shook his head and said, "No, not really. When I was a boy, I would wrestle with my brothers, from time to time, but I had no real experience before going into the Academy."
"What about chakra? I always heard that it's harder to use if you weren't trained from an early age," Iruka said, starting to actually become interested in their conversation.
Kaede laughed harshly at the idea and barked out, "What a load of shit! You can train anyone to do anything if given enough time; of course, I'm not including people with mental or physical handicaps, you understand." Kaede then slapped the reins on the backs of the buffalo, urging them to move faster.
Uncomfortable in the jostling wagon, Iruka shifted his position a few times. Finally giving up the search for comfort, he said, "I hate this wagon. Well, the stuff about chakra that's what my parents always told me when I asked them about all the training we did. They said that if you start training young, you would have a better and more intuitive grasp of chakra. Same thing went for taijutsu forms."
Kaede shrugged and looked back at Iruka and said, "Look, I'm no doctor or chakra expert, but when I went to the Academy, I was put into a class full of kids who were all about my age, and they all didn't know shit about chakra. And let me tell you something else, although we were all from the outlying villages and farms and that we were older than most students starting the Academy, every single one of us learned to manipulate chakra. We all learned the basic academy jutsus. Not to mention, I haven't heard a single complaint, from any of my past classmates, about not being able to do some technique because they didn't start using chakra young enough. Nah, I think that 'young-thing' is all a myth so that the Hokage can ensure the next generation of shinobi is brainwashed enough by the time of graduation that they can, and will, kill without any fuss."
"Maybe," Iruka consented, as he attempted to stretch out his legs. He could see the logic behind Kaede's statement and it could even be true. Who knew? He was just a shinobi and by no means a specialist in training techniques or chakra manipulations.
"So, what are you doing working border patrol as a free agent? Need the money or something?" Kaede asked, apparently dropping their previous topic in favor of a new one.
Iruka snorted and replied, "No, I just get bored easily and, when I'm working, no matter how bad the conditions are, I can't ever say I'm bored."
Kaede glanced back at Iruka, his dark eyebrows crinkled together quizzically. "Bored? How can you be bored in the village? Na, I'm the opposite. I get bored on missions."
Iruka shrugged and said, "I don't go out a lot and I prefer to be moving than sitting at home in my apartment."
Kaede shook his head, his shaggy black hair flopping over the tie that secured his forehead-protector. "Iruka-man, there are women in the village and a lot of them can't wait to spread their legs for a good shinobi. They like our muscles, ya known. I guess their village boys are a bit flabby, eh?"
Iruka smiled and said, "You do realize that most of those 'village boys' you are speaking of, are actually retired shinobi. There are very few pure citizens within the village and, those that are, mostly work the menial jobs that shinobi and retired shinobi don't want to do."
"Eh, whatever. Anyway, where's your team? You should make them take you out drinking. Did you know that there's legalized prostitution in Otafuku Gai?"
Iruka shuddered and said, "Prostitution is not my thing. I keep thinking about all the other dicks she's seen and sucked and fucked. It messes with my head and makes my skin crawl. No, if it's sex that I want, then I have to go about getting it the old fashioned way."
Kaede laughed, and teased him about his manliness. He said that he had the constitution of a woman and insinuated that Iruka was in fact a virgin. Iruka politely smiled while Kaede rattled on, before saying, "I'll have you know that I lost my virginity while you were still in the Academy learning how to properly work the Kawarimi no Jutsu."
Kaede's head snapped back to gape at Iruka in amazement and he gasped, "Shut the fuck up! Really? How?"
Iruka nonchalantly explained, "I was the youngest and smallest male on my Genin team, and our first C-ranked mission was trapping a boy-lover who was abducting young males, to have sex with them, between the ages of 10 and 13. He didn't kill them or hurt them or anything. He just seduced them into his home with props. Ya know, like toys, magazines, books, and that kind of stuff. Since there wasn't any real danger, they used me as bait for the trap. I lost my cherry as a result. They took pictures as evidence, and the man was later hung for his crime of having sex with a minor. Obviously, I was the golden witness."
Kaede was speechless for a time, before he said, "That's some twisted shit, Iruka." After a beat of silence, he then asked, "Was it good for you, at least?"
Iruka smiled at Kaede's reaction before pushing out his bottom lip and nodding thoughtfully. "Yeah, he was real gentle about it all. He had no clue I was an undercover ninja and neither did the courts. My Jounin-sensei played as my father with the rest of my Genin team as my siblings. We all had dark hair and eyes, so there was enough of a resemblance between the four of us to pull off the charade."
"Had?" Kaede stressed the word, questioningly.
Iruka nodded and spoke with no inflection in his voice, "Yeah, they've been dead for a long time."
Kaede asked in a surprised and compassionate voice, "Are you talking about your entire Genin team?"
Iruka nodded again and calmly said, "Yes."
Iruka still didn't know how to feel about the deaths of his Genin teammates. Their deaths had happened at the very beginning of his career and, as a result, Iruka hadn't had enough time to establish close personal bonds with either of them. Not to mention, their ages at the formation of their Genin team had been 9, 11, and 13, which wasn't conducive to any close team unity.
"Even your Jounin-sensei's dead?"
Iruka shrugged and said, "I don't think so, but he was reassigned when there was only me left."
With his dark brown eyebrows raised in incredulity, Kaede asked, "They reassigned your Jounin-sensei? How old where you?"
"I was 11-and-a-half."
"You were 11. You were still a fucking baby and they got rid of your sensei! How, the fuck, are you still alive?"
Iruka grinned and said, "Couldn't tell you. I haven't been a member of a stable team for about six years."
Kaede turned back around to watch the road and cursed before saying, "That's shit-luck, man. Although that stuff about not having a team can be fixed. There are lots of four-man-cells out there who have one or two men permanently down and need replacements. There are listings in the Mission Office, you know."
"I've been doing alright as I am. Besides, a Jounin told me, just two days ago, that I should become a teacher at the Academy. You know, brainwash a few brats and then set them loose and hope for the best."
Kaede instantly turned around and stared at Iruka for a moment. He then said, "A Jounin said that you would be a good teacher?" At Iruka's nod of confirmation, Kaede then exclaimed, "Then why the fuck are you out here?"
Taken aback at Kaede's tone of voice, Iruka shrugged guardedly and said, "Because I'm not sure I want to be a teacher."
"Are you an idiot?"
"No. What's your problem, Kaede?"
"Man, you have a way out of this fuck-all lifestyle, and you're just pissing it away."
"Fuck you! I am not," Iruka snapped, annoyed.
"Yeah you are."
"Fine then, how did you decide that? You don't know anything about me," Iruka affirmed, not expecting much of an answer beyond that of more cussing.
"I don't have to know you to recognize when you are doing something stupid," Kaede viciously growled.
"Why is being a normal shinboi stupid?"
Kaede wagged his finger angrily at Iruka and said, "You see – this is what I was talking about when I said the Hokage has kids brainwashed. You're a perfect example!"
"What are you –?"
Fiercely, Kaede cut off Iruka in the middle of his question and cried out, "For fuck's sake, Iruka, you were raped when you were 11 and you're talking like it's normal!"
"I wasn't raped –" Iruka protested and, before he could continue, Kaede cut him of again, emphatically stating, "Yes you where, and by a baby-raper at that. Just because you let your Jounin-sensei put you in that position does not make the fact that you where raped any less true."
At Iruka's confused and outraged expression, Kaede held up one hand with the fingers spread wide and began counting on them while he asked pointed questions in the hopes of making Iruka concede his point. "Did you think the rapist was physically attractive?"
"No, but –"
"Did you ever have any sexual thoughts before you found yourself in bed with a grown man who was asking you to accept his dick up your ass?"
"No."
"Have you had sex with another person since you were 11, outside of missions?"
"No."
With two fingers still standing straight, Kaede arched at eyebrow and asked, "Do I need to continue or do you see what I'm talking about?"
Iruka growled, "I get it. You can stop. You've made your point."
Kaede nodded and put his hand down. "I bet you have hundreds of stories like that one, don't you?"
"So does everyone!" Iruka snarled.
"Yeah, they do, but you have a way out and you are not capitalizing on it. Forgive me if guys like you piss me off. Do you like killing people?"
"What?" Iruka gasped, dazed by Kaede's sudden introduction of such a taboo subject. No one ever insinuated that another shinobi liked or disliked killing people. It was beyond rude, and it was on par with expressing your desire to have sex with an animal. The subject matter was to be left unspoken, and it was simply understood that death was a major part of a shinobi's life. Whether or not a shinobi enjoyed the experience wasn't anyone else's business.
"Because that's what it sounds like to me. That you are saying you prefer to slit people's throats for money than to accept a stable job, teaching children."
Incensed, Iruka lunged over the crates and grabbed Kaede's blue sleeve and pulled. Kaede immediately tried to defend himself by dropping the reins and bringing his other arm over to grip and restrain Iruka's right hand. Iruka compensated and wrapped his left arm around Kaede's neck, and pulled tight, choking him. Kaede gagged, and clawed at Iruka's arm, trying to pull it away from his throat, but Iruka easily slapped his hands away and applied more pressure until the man's back was bowed over the backrest.
Snarling in his ear, Iruka said, "There's no difference you fuck-wad! Instead of killing people myself, I would be teaching little children how to do it in my place. Either way, people will still be killed and money will still be paid for the mission. My hands won't be any cleaner in a classroom than out in the field, asshole." Iruka then released Kaede's throat and shoved him away from him. He retook his seat, in the back of the wagon, and checked to make sure that the two bound men were still unconscious. They were and Iruka marginally relaxed.
While rubbing his throat, Kaede picked up the fallen reins and sighed. "I fucking hate this," Kaede said softly. When there was no immediate response from Iruka, Kaede glanced back at the other shinobi, and continued, "Personally, I hate being a shinobi. I hate killing people. I hate that I am always hurting from some injury or other. I hate that sick feeling I get in my stomach when we are about to leave the village on a mission. I hate the baked in smells of sweat, and blood, and piss, and shit that I can't ever seem to get out of my clothes. I hate the …"
"Then quit," Iruka sneered, irritated by Kaede's complaints.
"I can't," Kaede snapped back. Before Iruka could say anything else spiteful and demeaning to him, Kaede continued, "My mother contracted me and my younger brother into service right after the Kyuubi attack. There's no quitting."
There was silence between the two men. For long minutes, all they heard were the sounds of the creaking of the wagon and the rumbling grunts of the buffalo, as they slowly made their way to Konoha. After a while, Kaede softly started speaking again. He said, "When the Kyuubi came, it flowed right through my family's farm and killed everything that it touched. Did you get to see it when it came to Konoha?"
Iruka immediately shook his head in the negative, but he did not instantly continue to explain himself. Iruka was still too angry with the other man. In an effort to compose himself, Iruka took a deep breath and released it. He repeated the breathing exercise until he felt slightly calmer.
"No, I never saw it, because, when the Kyuubi was spotted ten miles away from the village, the Yondaime Hokage sanctioned the immediate evacuation of all civilians. I was only an Academy student then; so, I was still considered a civilian, and was herded off to the caves with the others."
Kaede shuddered in remembrance and said, "Well I saw it and, six years later, I still have nightmares. When the old folks described it as a force of nature, they were right. It was massive, and it had this red chakra that constantly swirled around it. I never did see anything 'fox-like' about it. To me, it looked like a heavy, huge, thunderhead cloud that had come down from the sky to float inches over the earth. It was movement, and wind, and fire, and when it was gone, there was rain."
Iruka said, "No, I never saw the Kyuubi, but I can remember this overwhelming sense of panic in the people around me and me not knowing what was going on. I also remember that the eastern sky turned blood red and it was in the middle of the afternoon. I remember thinking that the red seemed to be eating up all the blue. After that, I remember the caves."
Kaede was silent, for a moment, thinking about the visual Iruka had shared. He then said, "Before the Kyuubi, my paternal grandparents, my parents, and my eight brothers and sisters, all lived and worked on our farm. After the Kyuubi, my father and my grandparents were dead, along with three of my sisters and one of my brothers. My mother couldn't feed the four of us that remained on a dead bean-crop, so when the Hokage sent out runners to collect children for shinobi training, my mother sold my younger brother and I into service. Because she was already giving up two male children, she managed to negotiate my older brother's release, so that he would live to inherit the farm and to take care of my only remaining sister. I haven't been back since."
Kaede's voice grew more angry than sad, as he continued talking. He said, "I never wanted to be a shinobi. I never wanted anything to do with that world of death, especially after the Kyuubi. Instead, I had been saving up for an apprenticeship as a horse trainer. I wanted to do something positive with my life, and I wanted a wife and children, and a family. You see, Iruka, I can't quit. My mother signed a contract that stipulates that she will receive a percentage of my mission pay until I turn 25. When I'm 25, the contract is completed and I'm free to go. I have five years left and …"
Iruka frowned and shook his head in denial. He said, "I never heard of such a thing. How can it be legal?"
Kaede huffed a laugh and bitterly said, "It's legal because the Hokage made it legal. And no one ever talks about the reasons why they became a shinobi, because, most of the time, their reasons aren't pretty. No one learns the death-trade for noble reasons, Iruka, no one; probably, not even you."
"Why don't you just run away or become a missing-nin, or something?" Iruka asked, feeling compassion for Kaede despite himself.
Kaede made a disgusted sound and said, "Because they'll snatch one of my little nephews as recompense for the broken contract. Besides, do you truly think I would damn one of my nephews to this existence? Well, the answer to that question is a big, fat, 'no'."
"I'm sorry Kaede," Iruka said, not knowing what else to say, because he voluntarily was a part of the shinobi system that Kaede so despised. He honestly couldn't say that he felt that his life had been so bad. He had been born into a shinobi family, in a shinobi hidden-village, and prepared for a shinobi life. It was only logical that he would become a shinobi, as well.
Kaede made an angry swipe at his eyes and said, "That's why I don't understand you. You have this golden opportunity to get out. No one is holding you back from becoming whatever you want to be, but you decided to stay. Even some Jounin saw and believed that you did enough for Konoha, and pointed out other options to you, but you keep dicking around with missions. One of these days, you aren't going to come back from a mission as whole as you left for it, then what are you going to do."
"I'll manage," Iruka stated.
Kaede shook his head at Iruka's naiveté. "Do you have any surviving family?"
"No."
"Then you can't know that 'you'll manage.' What if one of your injuries screws with your brain, and you turnout like one of those people who aren't all there in the head, like mental babies. What then? Who will take care of you?"
"I don't know, there –"
Kaede slashed his arm in the air, cutting off Iruka's excuse. Kaede turned around again, and said, "I have a family that will take care of me if I come back all chopped up but still living. By older brother owes me that, same with my sister, and they know it. They will do their duty, even if they don't love me like a brother any more. Besides, my crippled-self would be punishment enough for them to deal with. But you, you don't have anybody. Iruka, get out of this job, get out of this life as fast as you can while you are still whole."
"What about your teammate, Takara? Have you told her to quit?"
"Hell yes. Every time I see her."
"I see that she hasn't listened to you yet."
"You shouldn't sneer at what you don't understand. Takara was beaten and raped when she was 13 years old. No one in her village would marry her when she turned 16, so she joined the Academy."
Depressed by his thoughts, Iruka sighed tiredly, and wished he had just kept his mouth shut. Better to experience a three-hour awkward silence or Kaede's weird questions, than this conversation.
"What do you want me to say? You have an answer for everything," Iruka said.
"Yes, and you have an answer for nothing. Why are you a shinobi, Iruka? Why?"
Iruka shrugged and said, "Because everyone around me was one or had been one when I was growing up. So I became one too."
"That's it. You put no thought into your future beyond the 'everyone else is one' line. How pathetic."
"Shut up."
"Yeah, I think I will. You depress me Iruka."
Iruka growled and vindictively denied Kaede any further conversation. Instead, he watched the two unconscious men at his feet, as the movement of the wagon jostled them. He also thought about himself, his future and his past.
After the deaths of his teammates and the removal of his Jounin-sensei, Iruka had not had the benefit of a reliable source for further Genin training. As a consequence, Iruka's entire ninja career had been forced to adjust. Instead of becoming a Trap Specialist, as he and his parents had always assumed would be his career path, he had been forced to become a versatile chameleon shinobi – someone capable of filling almost any role needed within the typical four-man-cell. Hence, Iruka had to learn to become useful and he had to learn to become likable, which meant, he held no specialization in any certain set skills within the shinobi field. Therefore, Iruka was obliged to learn how to seamlessly blend into an existing team's dynamics, both to survive the mission and to become as much of a team-asset as was possible.
Despite his lack of advanced training, Iruka knew that he had managed to grow up into an effective shinobi. He also knew that with time, he would work his way into the Jounin rank. He would then be able to take on Genin students who would only benefit from his wide range of abilities. He wouldn't become like one of those senseis that overly specialized and ended up having to shove students off onto other instructors for basic training.
Then again, Academy students could benefit from his skills as well. The Jounin, Itō Shiro, had been right about that point. Also, if he became an instructor now, instead of waiting until he made Jounin, he would receive teaching experience and that would only help him in the future, when he finally became a Jounin-sensei.
Iruka then critically considered his lack of guidance from a permanent Jounin-sensei, during his formative years. There was so much that he had missed and, even now, he was still finding holes in his knowledge. Just three weeks ago, he had been on an escort mission. Everyone had been running low on water and it had come to the point that he thought the lack of water was going to be a problem.
Before anyone within the cavalcade could start to complain, a kunoichi had calmly walked over to a lush tree. The kunoichi's hands performed a few hand-seals, which resulted in her chakra diving straight into the ground. Within seconds, water sprouted like a plant from the ground and she calmly refilled everyone's water bottle.
Iruka had stood there slack jawed, and, once she was done, he had begged her to teach him the technique. Although puzzled by his desire to learn a D-rank jutsu that every Genin learned from their Jounin, the woman complied. Now Iruka knew how to draw water from the ground, plants, and even the air. Without her, he still would be forced to carry all the water he needed, for a mission, upon his person.
No, Iruka mentally consented. I am not ready for Jounin-rank, and without a teacher, I might never be.
Iruka's eyes opened wide as he considered the last thought that had just flowed through his head. He needed a teacher, and Jounin Itō Shiro-san had informed him that they would train him to become an Academy Instructor. Academy Instructors were thoroughly drilled in the basics so that they could effectively teach their students. He, Iruka, was missing basic knowledge that kept prohibiting him from advancing in rank, ergo, if he became a teacher he would relearn the basics – the basics that he desperately needed.
Plus, with the initial training, he would receive the recognition of Konoha's top trainers. He would learn their names and become personally familiar with them. After a few years, maybe when he was 20, he would give up teaching, and rejoin the active shinobi force. The only difference would be that he had professional-trainers as networking contacts, which he could then use for his benefit. He had enough money to pay whatever fee the instructors demanded and, if all went well, he predicted that he could become a full Jounin by the time he was 23 years old.
Iruka smiled victoriously to himself. He was going to become a teacher. After he turned in his mission report, he would search for Itō Shiro. If he didn't find him today, there was always tomorrow. Shiro had said that he and the Genin were always training at the same field between the hours of 1200 and 1600.
Iruka sat back and looked over at Kaede once again. The man had been right. He should accept this opportunity and he would, just not for the reasons that Kaede expected. Iruka was by no means soft and he didn't particularly have a problem with killing people in the course of a mission. However, he did have a problem with being held back from advancement because some nameless administrative individual believed that one surviving Genin was not entitled to the right of being taught by his Jounin-sensei until Chuunin-rank was achieved.
'Iruka-sensei,' he thought gleefully. Iruka's imagination continued the thought by placing him in front of a class of children ranging between the ages of 9 and 13. He could see himself, standing before the class, clipboard in hand, taking roll call. He could see himself tossing erasers at daydreaming students and sneaking up on others. Then he thought of the training that prepared the raw and violent shinobi for their new teaching positions and excitement began to grow in him.
Yes, he'd make Jounin in about six years, and then the specialty missions would start becoming available. As a Jounin he would have instructors nearly thrown at him, believing that if he already had risen so far within the ranks, what was to say that he couldn't achieve more for the glory of Konoha. There were Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Fuuinjutsu masters. There were also Taijutsu, Weapons, Kenjutsu, and Trap Specialists. Iruka was salivating he was so excited.
He just needed to be patient now. A few years as an Academy Instructor and then he would be back out in the field, gaining rank. Only a few more years, now, and he would surpass his father and mother. He would finally be on equal footing as Uchiha Itachi, Maito Gai, and Hatake Kakashi. He would be a peer of Itō Shiro. Soon, very soon now, he would be one of them. He just needed to be patient.
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Chapter notes: Author's Note: In this chapter, I refer to a type of radio that I noticed was used in the manga; especially, when Naruto's Genin team is trying to catch Tora, the cat. Anyway, the manga never specified the name of their radio so I looked for a similar one in real life. If you are interested in having a picture of the field radio, please Google SWAT LASH Headsets for Two-Way Radios or check out the following website at www. /tactical/Lash/web_lash. html. You will need to remove all the spaces in the website address, obviously, but you'll see what I am writing about then.