The Fourth Dojutsu

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Iruka was currently sitting at his desk taking a break from grading his student's papers. His classroom was currently empty because of the fact that it was currently lunch/recess period. Unlike other teachers who liked to hang out in the lounge during this time of day, Iruka liked to catch up on grading his student's homework after he ate his lunch. The scarred Chunin's thoughts wandered onto one particular student- Naruto Uzumaki. Out of all of the students in his class, Iruka felt the most drawn to the resident prankster of the class. Iruka supposed that he was drawn to Naruto because both of them were orphans and, unlike Sasuke Uchiha, had to deal with being a social outcast.

However in Iruka's mind Naruto's lot was worse then his own had been growing up. Unlike Iruka, Naruto had to deal with the stigma of being a demon container. Although the attacks against his person had stopped some years ago, Naruto still had to deal with being shunned by practically the entire village. Iruka didn't want to imagine trying to grow up as alone as Naruto was. Naruto's situation altogether was a fate that Iruka wouldn't wish on his worst enemy and defiantly not a kid like Naruto.

Propping his head up with his hand, Iruka sighed and thought about Naruto's academic situation. Naruto had to be the WORST student that Iruka had ever tried to teach. The boy was constantly scraping by in the more intellectual parts of the academy's curriculum. As for his applied ninja skills, Naruto was only average at best at Taijutsu, slightly below average at Ninjutsu, and pathetic at Genjutsu. To make the whole matter worse in Iruka's opinion, Naruto was loud and like to spend a good deal of his time pulling pranks. While some of Naruto's pranking skills could be translated into good trap making skills, it wasn't helping Naruto in the areas that he needed it.

Sitting back in his chair, Iruka thought about what he could do to help out his (although he wouldn't admit it) favorite student. Naruto didn't have the benefit of a ninja clan to help oversee his training or to go give him a slight edge over the non-ninja clan students. Unlike some students, like Sakura Hurano who didn't have an active ninja currently in the family, Naruto wasn't good at book learning. Actually, Naruto at times didn't seem to be good at sitting down for long periods of time.

Iruka's eyes suddenly lit up as that last thought of his caused a flash of inspiration to occur. A small smile started to form on Iruka's face as he thought over his sudden plan. The idea was genius in its own right and Iruka was surprised that no one had tried it with Naruto before. Sadly Iruka realized that the reason no one had tried it was because most people didn't care enough to help Naruto out. With the small amount of people that cared about Naruto, the chances of someone else thinking of this plan was quite small. Iruka also realized that Naruto would have to be approached in a certain manner in order for this plan to work. However, Iruka was sure he could help Naruto pull the boy's grades up and maybe even cut down on the number of pranks that were pulled in class.

Class was over for the day and Iruka's students were happily walking out the door. Just as Naruto was walking past Iruka's desk, Iruka calmly spoke, "Naruto." Much to Iruka's relief Naruto stopped walking out the door and turned to face the scarred Chunin. With a friendly smile on his face Iruka continued speaking, "You're not in trouble but I would like to talk you. Will you please go sit down in the front row? I'll get to what I want to say once everyone leaves."
Do to a few of his classmates snickering at him; Naruto's cheeks became a little rosy. However Naruto respected Iruka and quietly got out of the line of academy students leaving the room. Besides, Naruto hoped, Iruka may just be going to take him out for Ramen! Sitting down in one of the seats that Iruka told him to sit down in, Naruto impatiently waited for his classmates to leave the room. Iruka closed the door behind Choji as the big boned boy left the classroom and turned to face Naruto. Looking up at his favorite teacher Naruto called out, "Why did you have me stay behind? Is it because they've recognized my awesome skills and are going to promote me?"