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Naruto hadn't left Hokage tower. Anko frowned as she stared at the boy. His blonde hair was unkempt, his eyes staring blankly at the world whenever someone managed to get a bit of his attention.
She didn't blame him. After Orochimaru… Well, Anko had never wanted to leave her apartment. She would have died hidden away in her last vestige of safety if not for Ibiki, Hayate, Kurenai, and…
And Iruka.
The boy hadn't really done much beyond stare at the scroll. The scroll that contains his teacher's dead or dying body.
Everyone was hoping that when they managed to open the scroll they would be able to save Iruka, but Shinobi didn't really have trust in hope. Either, it was eaten away slowly throughout their genin years or all at once.
Still, she hoped Iruka was going to be okay.
Iruka had been the one to gather the forces and buy out half of Konoha of dango. He'd been the one who made tea as she yelled and held her as she sobbed. He was the one who held her hand and asked every few minutes if she wished to leave when they went to the market.
Iruka cared for her, even if they hadn't talked much before the situation.
He also cared for the blonde. He'd talked her ear off so many times about how ingenious Naruto's pranks were, about a possible future where Naruto was part of the Sabotage unit, if not in charge of it. Half of their generation were waiting with baited breath for Naruto to graduate and become an absolute monster of a genin and then chunin.
Now, though, she didn't think Naruto would become such a loud menace of a Shinobi.
The blonde was sitting in the corner of the hallway outside the conference room. Iruka used to claim the room whenever he noticed a pattern on missions. He was constantly holding the scroll that the Hokage had let him keep, disassociating from life most of the time.
She sighed and shook her head.
Iruka would want someone to be there for the kid. Not just leave the kid in the corner to grieve.
She didn't bother throwing on a smile as she approached the boy. Very few people were actually happy right now. Iruka had been a social butterfly, even though he was a chunin he had S rank privileges. He worked as a teacher most days, at the mission desk after school, and sat in as a makeshift advisor for the biweekly civilian and shinobi council meetings.
A lot of people were grieving.
A lot of people were angry and were burning that anger off through taking back to back missions. Some were scared and doing the same thing.
She slid down the wall next to the boy. He looked away from the scroll to her shoes, before looking back at the scroll. That was as much acknowledgement she'd get.
Trying to think of what to say, she looked down at the boy's hands. There were three people that he'd allowed to touch him since Kakashi brought him back to Hokage Tower.
Kakashi, Lord 3rd, and an ANBU in a cat mask. They were also the few that could get Naruto to clue into reality for a little while.
“What's your favorite food?” Maybe she could do what Iruka did for her? Maybe that would be enough to calm her grief and guilt? “Mine is dango.”
…
Naruto blinked away the fog momentarily as the lady handed him a dango stick. He's never… He's never had one. The lady who mans the shop always turns him away.
He knows why now. Why the village hates him. Why they fear him.
He stared at the candy.
“This is dango. It's my favorite food. Sticky rice flour with more rice flour coating it and served with red bean paste.” The lady spoke freely.
Her voice was loud and boisterous. Despite this, it still felt far away and hushed beneath the sound of his own thoughts.
“Do you know?” He whispered, staring down at the scroll. Iruka knew. The villagers know. The shinobi know. Does she? Is she only treating him this way because she doesn't know who he- what he is?
“Know what, squirt?” The lady leaned forward to look him in the eyes.
He teared up. He didn't- He didn't want to say it out loud. But he had to. He had to know.
“That I'm the… I'm the Kyuubi?”
The lady stared at him as Naruto wiped away tears.
She sighed and shuffled to sit in front of him, pulling out a scroll.
“You aren't the Kyuubi.” She said, a hand pointing to the scroll she unfurled between them. “You hold the Kyuubi. You aren't the Kyuubi, though.”
He watched as she channeled a little chakra into the scroll, a kunai popping out. Was she going to-
The kunai disappeared, but he didn't feel any calmer. Was she going to hurt him?
“Think of it this way.
“Every human is a scroll. Shinobi, like us, are chakra paper scrolls. We can channel chakra.” She pulled a pair of scrolls from her jacket pocket as she spoke. One was green and tan, the other a red and black. “You are special. You're what's called a Jinchuriki, uh, let's equate you to a storage scroll.
“You hold chakra or items that aren't you. Just because you hold them,” She tapped the scroll between them with the scrolls, the pair disappearing into the scroll. “doesn't mean you are them. Is this scroll the pair of scrolls I put into it?”
No. The storage scroll didn't change. Its binding was still light green with black kanji. Its paper was still well worn and the ink was carelessly drawn around the edges.
It was still a storage scroll. It wasn't the kunai or the scrolls she'd placed inside.
He shook his head slowly. “Then you aren't the Kyuubi. You're human, a shinobi. You aren't the Kyuubi.”
She smiled softly.
Naruto swallowed before muttering. “I'm not a shinobi.”
She frowned and Naruto looked down at Iruka's scroll. Iruka was a shinobi. He was brave and kind and cared for him. Despite having lost his parents to the Kyuubi attack.
There weren't many shinobi in the village who cared for him. Inu, Neko, and Old Man Hokage cared for him. But…
But not the way Iruka did.
It hurt as he thought.
Iruka cared.
He cared for Naruto and looked out for Sasuke and Sakura and Shikamaru and all of their classmates.
Iruka cared.
He was strong because he cared for them all.
“Not yet.” He added, looking up at the lady. “I still need to graduate.”
She laughed softly and nodded. “Then you better start going to school.”
School with anyone other than Iruka would be torture. Iruka was his first teacher that actually cared.
He sulked slightly as he stared at her. “Can't I just train with shinobi instead?”
She laughed louder and threw her head back. She wiped away tears and shook her head as she started to stop laughing, only to face his very good pouting face. It always got Iruka to hesitate before he punished them.
“If there's a lesson you find boring or redundant. Leave and find me. I'll train you.” She tilted her head and smiled softly. “However,” She stared at him, “I will train you the way I train all the Genin and Chunin. You will hate it.”
Naruto laughed, for the first time in a long time. The laugh was hollow, not nearly as loud as it once was, and almost a mockery of what Naruto truly felt.
He leaned forward, clutching the scroll tightly in hand. Iruka wouldn't want him to change. “Bring it on!”
...
He shrunk in on himself as the teacher went over something in the history book. He couldn't just leave yet.
Anko sensei, the lady who'd given him dango every time they met up, had gotten Old Man Hokage to agree. On one condition. Naruto had to stay for at least an hour before he could ditch and go train with Anko sensei or whatever shinobi was available.
And though it felt like several hours had passed since their teacher started talking, Naruto knew it had only been a little bit. The clock was ticking by slowly and it was still pointing towards the 8, not the 9.
“Hey, Naruto.” He peeked from between his folded arms to look at his whispering desk mate. They didn't have assigned seats, Iruka and the new teacher said they could sit wherever they wanted.
Typically he sat alone because of this. No one really wanted to sit next to the boy everyone's parents told them to avoid.
Shikamaru was the only exception. Shikamaru and Kiba, really. Did they know? Was Naruto the only one left out?
“Naruto,” Shikamaru whispered, a hand gently shaking his shoulder. “Do you need notes from the days you missed?”
Oh.
“Um… Probably…” He whispered back. Shikamaru nodded and pulled some papers from his bag, handing them to Naruto.
Shikamaru never took notes in class. He didn't have to.
He thanked Shikamaru quietly as he skimmed a couple pages. He hoped he hadn't caused Shikamaru too much grief.
He should properly thank Shikamaru later.