Chapter 41: Iruka Umino
Chapter 41: Iruka Umino
While all of that was happening, the real Yuna was sitting at the dinner table together with Naruto and Hinata. While Yuna was happily eating her food, Naruto and Hinata would occasionally give her a glance. They felt that something was different about Yuna but didn’t know what exactly it was. She seemed to be glowing with a contented look on her face. Naruto was the first to talk about it.
“Err…Nee-san? Did something good happen?”
“Hehe, indeed.”
Hearing Yuna’s giggle, Naruto felt a little terrified and decided not to ask for any details. There was no need to traumatize himself, after all.
Although it is true that Yuna really enjoyed piling up curse after curse on Danzo, that wasn’t the most significant part. At the start of the conversation, Yuna had one of her chains stealthily exit her shirt under the table and approach Danzo. Every time Danzo would lose control over himself, Yuna would sneak some seals on Danzo with her chains. The end result? Yuna could now feel where Danzo was at any time. If she notices that he leaves the village for whatever reason, she can find him and get rid of him. The “fall from grace” part of her final speech was, naturally, a bluff. She couldn’t care less whether Danzo was an elder of the village or not. The moment Yuna got a chance to get rid of Danzo without catching any flag for it, she would do so.
She has already prepared some safety nets in case Danzo would target those close to her, as well. A few armbands that were stuffed to the brim with seals should do a pretty good job.
After seeing Yuna’s slightly insane smile, Naruto and Hinata shuddered and decided to call it a day.
The next day when the trio arrived at school, they were met with a rather weird…event. Iruka was greeting them in front of the academy with a happy smile.
“Oh, it’s good to see you again. Good morning.”
Although Yuna didn’t think Iruka would change his attitude towards them overnight, she saw that he was genuine in his goodwill. She, naturally, wouldn’t slap a smiling face, so she just smiled at him casually and greeted him back.
“Good morning.”
Although Hinata and Naruto felt a little weird, they also greeted back obediently.
“Good morning, Iruka-sensei.”
Iruka was actually taken aback by the rather normal greeting. He expected a more aggressive stance, especially from Yuna. Yuna, however, seemed to be in a good mood and not bothered in the slightest at what happened yesterday. What he didn’t know was, that Yuna had pretty much already forgotten what happened at the academy yesterday. For Iruka, it may have been a significant event, but in Yuna’s mind she was only acting so she could lure Danzo into a trap to bully…*cough* pressure him. Bullyi…*cough* Putting pressure on Danzo was the main event. Everything else doesn’t really matter.
“You seem to be in a good mood, Yuna. Did something good happen?”
“Haha, indeed. Nothing feels better than making a nasty fly, that has been bothering me for a long time, suffer. “
Although Yuna’s words were rather vicious, she still had a happy and innocent smile on her face, forming a rather daring contrast.
Iruka was just about to ask more questions when he saw Naruto and Hinata franticly shake their heads in an attempt to stop him. Iruka wasn’t sure what this was all about but decided not to ask too many questions.
“Haha, that sounds rather ominous, but good for you I guess.”
The trio gave Iruka another nod and then entered the academy. Iruka was rather happy with the whole conversation. He thought it would be hard for Yuna to open up to him, but she seems to be completely fine and didn’t mind speaking with him at all.
Even during the lessons, the trio took part obediently and didn’t raise a fuss at all. Iruka would have ticked off the day as a success if it wasn’t for one little occurrence after the end of the school day. As soon as he was a bit further away from the academy someone knocked him out and when he woke up, he was tied to a chair with Yuna, Naruto, and Hinata sitting in front of him.
“Yo, Iruka. I thought we could have a little chat, so I kidnapped you for a moment.”
Iruka immediately snapped at her.
“WHAT DO MEAN WITH” KIDNAPPED YOU FOR A MOMENT”!? RELEASE ME RIGHT NOW! ARE YOU INSANE?!”
“Well, first of all: Yes. But that isn’t really important right now. Second: please use your indoor voice. There is no need to scream. Third: No need to panic, I just want to make a few things clear.”
“Was it really necessary to tie me up for that?”
“Not really, but Naruto really wanted to train how to probably tie up a prisoner, so I gave him a shot at it.”
Iruka immediately glared at Naruto, who only gave him a sheepish look in return.
“Well, Iruka, how is it? How long would it take you to lose the knots?”
Iruka frowned at the weirdness that is this whole situation, but he still gave it a try. A little flare of Chakra here, a little nudge there and coupled that with a few additional small movements, he quickly came to a conclusion.
“Pretty well done. Would probably take me around 30 minutes to get out of.”
After his judgment, Naruto made a gut pose, while Yuna gave a satisfied nod.
“Good job, Naruto, you worked hard. As promised, you can have one extra Ramenday.”
Naruto’s eyes immediately sparkled with excitement.
“YES! I DID IT! Ramenday~”
Although Iruka looked warmly at the interaction between the twins, he quickly realized that he was still tied to a chair.
“Well since my assessment is done, you can untie me, can’t you?”
Although Iruka didn’t believe for a second that he would be untied this casually, he still had to keep the conversation going so he can loosen the binding himself. His estimate of 30 minutes was naturally a lie. He would only need half that time to get free. Yuna’s next sentence, however, truly surprised him.
“That’s true I guess.”
Yuna gave Naruto a casual nod and the next moment Naruto’s right hand blurred. A split second later, the ropes tying Iruka to the chair were cut. Although Iruka could see Naruto’s movement he still was incredibly surprised by it.
‘Around mid or maybe even high-level genin speed? And what is with that accuracy? During throwing practice at the academy, he barely managed to pass 50 points.’
Seeing Iruka’s dumbfounded expression, Yuna could only chuckle.
“Hehe, as you can see, we have quite a few secrets. You are someone that seems to hold no animosity against us. Coupled with the fact, that you will be our teacher for a year, we decided to reveal a few things to you.”
Iruka felt something was slightly weird after that proclamation.
“From what I can see, Naruto was clearly hiding his strength. Quite a lot of it. I can only assume that Hinata and you are doing the same. I have never heard anything about that, so I can only assume that no one knows about it. Why would you tell me then?”
Yuna nodded her head approvingly. Despite being a rather average shinobi when it comes to strength, Iruka had quite the good head on his shoulders. Her purple eyes stared into Iruka’s, sending shivers down his spine.
“I’m telling you because I am a VERY good judge of character.”
Yuna’s eyes shone with wisdom and experience, sending another shiver down Iruka’s body
“I can see the care for your students inside your eyes. The care for the village and your loyalty to the Hokage. I only need a single sentence to make you keep our secret: The Hokage is aware that we are hiding our strength.”
Although, Iruka was still uncomfortable from being stared at by Yuna, hearing that the Hokage knew about it made him visibly relax. Yuna then proceeded to tell them their reason for hiding their strength. Well, some of their reasons. Hinata, because she doesn’t want to be on the radar of her clan and Naruto and Yuna, because they don’t want the people that hate them to think that the demon twins are getting too powerful.
The conversation went rather well, and after inviting Iruka for dinner and having him constantly praise Yuna’s cooking, they parted ways.
“I wasn’t expecting that we would actually get a good teacher in our last academy year. I might even consider, to pretend, to be interested in the lessons at this point.”
Hinata chuckled a little at that sentence structure and then said her own opinion.
“Isn’t it fine? Like this, our last year will be peaceful at least.”
Naruto gave a sagely nod and then brought in his own opinion.
“I think I will play some pranks on him.”
This immediately caused Yuna and Hinata to give him weird looks. Which in return slightly flustered Naruto.
“D-Don’t look at me like this. Doesn’t he seem incredibly amusing to prank? He’s got this whole “I am an incredibly serious teacher” vibe going, yet he seems to be a nice guy at the same time. I bet he would take a few harmless pranks with humor as well.”
Although Hinata was still giving him weird looks, Yuna nodded in understanding.
“Fine, but don’t overdo it. No need to make someone agreeable our enemy after all.”
“Haha, don’t worry nee-san, I know what I’m doing.”
“I guess that’s true. *Sigh*.”
“What are you sighing for Yuna. Is there still something wrong?”
“Don’t worry, Hinata, I just thought, that it is a bit sad that my [Cake Catapult Seal Array] probably won’t be seeing any action this year.”
“…”
“…”
“You really decided to go with that name, didn’t you?”
“Haha, of course. I find it rather fitting.”
“…”
“…”
“”Sure…””