AND BACK AGAIN [ NARUTO ]

[ 14 ] mentor talks and scary dreams

previously. . .

Iruka hated the universe for not having any control over his most sporadic, loud, and wild blond genin. Because, and against all odds, he already thoroughly believed this was Naruto. However impossible.

///\

"Good work, Hinata." Naruto gave the young girl a thumbs-up paired with a large grin. "No more patrolling today, I think the coast will be clear for the evening."

She gave a small bow, head ducked, and left Naruto to stand beside Iruka-sensei.

The students had evacuated with the help of Hinata and Suzume had been taken to a secured hospital earlier while a few chunin swept the building for damage--luckily, there wasn't much. Tsunade stopped by to check the situation and, in Naruto's eyes, judge him for not having gotten to the bottom of anything yet. She had apologized personally to Iruka for not getting information to him before another incident, saying she was only just figuring it out herself.

Then she'd left for "a drink" and ordered Naruto to answer questions and fill Iruka in.

"Even Hinata is okay with this," Iruka mumbled. Her little infatuation with the Uzumaki was no secret to him, having taught the two in the same class from a young age. He still couldn't wrap his head around the presence next to him, much less the fact that Hyuuga Hinata was working smoothly alongside him, as if this were nothing new.

"She's a great helper!" Naruto waved for him to follow into his old classroom. He plopped onto one of the desks, tilting his back as he reminisced. "This is the second time she's helped with an attack, too."

"Oh." Iruka lowered himself down beside his former student hesitantly. "Naruto. . .what's going on?"

"Honestly, Iruka-sensei. . ." Naruto pursed his lips, struggling to collect everything he knew himself about the situation. "It's hard to say. Someone is mind controlling Leaf shinobi and making them attack their family and friends. Shizune and Tsunade-baachan are trying to find a pattern in the victims, but we don't have any leads. She thinks it's Kumo and A infiltrating, so I tried to tell her it's not them. Now I'm in charge of finding out who's really behind this and I asked for Hinata's help because of her Byakugan--did I already mention that the Hyuuga are the best at sensing the weird chakra signatures? Well, they are--and so far I'm having no luck but that's okay because I've dealt with way worse and--"

"Slow down, Naruto." Iruka shook his head, resisting the urge to rephrase his question--because he had, of course, been asking about how Naruto was here. He could see that Naruto's mind was racing with a different topic, though, so he accepted the fact that he wasn't dreaming for a moment. "You said Tsunade-sama believes the Raikage is attacking us?"

Naruto nodded, frowning to himself. "You know her. . .She's not the Hokage for no reason. She knows our history because she fought in it. I guess she just has a hard time seeing past it."

"Is that a bad thing?" Iruka said. "What I mean is. . .why don't you agree with her?"

"It's. . ." Naruto abruptly turned to face Iruka-sensei, making him jump slightly. "Can we just say I've worked with the whole of Kumo and the Raikage in the future? I know we fight against each other sometimes, but I can't believe they would do something like this."

"It does sound a little inhumane." Iruka's mind was caught up in his words--'worked with?' Kumogakure? What in the world did that mean? And, based off of the things he'd heard, all of this sounded like something the Raikage would do. But this seriousness practically radiating from Naruto was most prominent in Iruka's eyes.