Carrot Top

If there was one thing Iruka Umino loved more than anything, it was teaching. This was probably why he became an academy teacher, after all, most ninjas try to spend their careers with all kinds of elaborate schemes to evade even taking a genin team, let alone being an academy teacher.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Iruka disliked when he was ignored while teaching. This is what led to his love-hate relationship with Naruko Uzumaki.

Of course, Iruka had always wanted to avoid Naruko, when becoming an academy teacher and becoming her teacher he had requested her to be transferred, but was shook out of this decision by Kakashi Hatake, a Jonin ninja and right hand to the Hokage, who had also recently left ANBU.

Another thing that increased his bond with her was the incident with Takigakure Kunoichi when she was eight years old. He hadn't noticed Naruko spying on the conversation with another academy teacher as they discussed her and how he mentioned he did not want her in his class.

Naruko had run off into the forest near the academy, where spies from Takigakure had been recently spotted, and in a panic, Iruka quickly ran after her. But not before telling his fellow academy teacher to go get help.

Iruka had caught up to a lonely Naruko, who was standing in a clearing holding onto a kunai with a piece of paper strapped to it. Realizing that it was the information the spies had gathered and that the spies must be near them, he watched as shurikens suddenly came flying out of the trees and towards Naruko before he could warn her.

Fortunately, Naruko was not an ordinary eight years old, and her sensitive ears quickly picked up on the noise of the shurikens slicing through the air, so she quickly jumped over them, and watched as the shurikens harmlessly sailed under her.

Following this, three Kunoichi had leaped out of the trees and landed in front of the two of them, demanding the kunai or they would kill the two. Iruka knew that he couldn't take these three on his own, so he was about to tell Naruko to hand it over, even if it was prominent info he did not want a child to die under his watch. When he saw a malicious smirk cross Naruko's normally blank face.

As he watched, a large seal suddenly encompasses the three of them and holds them in place, as small bits of electricity could be seen running across their bodies.

He watched as Naruko urged him to run along with her, explaining that her paralysis seal was a low-quality one that she had made this morning and wouldn't hold the kunoichi for long.

It held the Kunoichi off long enough for Naruko and Iruka to get the kunai back to the Hokage, and he later found out from a colleague at the academy that Kakashi had shown up not long after and easily dispatched the three kunoichis.

This incident allowed Iruka to finally become close to Naruko, and bond over some of their similarities. He had also brought her out every once in a while to eat ramen together and do other activities. He had finally gotten past his hatred of her because she was the container of the Demon-Fox. In fact, he wouldn't hesitate to say she was one of his favorite students.

The weirdest thing for Iruka, though, was that she was the class clown even with her status as a prodigy. And she had done all kinds of weird things with the three academy jutsu.

The first one, the clone jutsu, Naruko had made an army of herself. And claimed that she couldn't make any less than that. So now, when he asked the students to demonstrate the clone jutsu, he had to deal with an army of orange-haired little girls.

After that was the transformation jutsu that Naruko was somehow already a master of, and she had somehow made it solid. But the worst part of teaching this is her 'hunk jutsu.' Which she made through countless hours of 'research,' which included her transforming into a large, very attractive male that made all the girls drool and boys groan. Of course, she had also made the 'sexy jutsu' that she had claimed was for seduction missions, but he knew was just to mess with him.

Fortunately, the substitution jutsu had not caused any problem. That was what Iruka would like to say. But after mastering this, Naruko practically abused it. She started randomly jumping really high, then replacing herself with random people and watching them fall and snickering, and a bunch of other things and substituting herself with others and laughing at them. She had even gotten Iruka a few times, who was thoroughly afraid of the substitution jutsu.

Naruko also never paid attention in lectures and usually just straight up ignored him, yet she still aced almost every test, which is why Iruka didn't like her at the same time. After all, what's the point of teaching if students don't even listen.

And don't even get Iruka started on Naruko's inventions and seals. Iruka was scarred for life because of them. From the 'paintball grid,' which acts as a trap for anyone that opens the door, and gets pelted by a bunch of exploding paintballs. To the 'air gauntlet,' which was a metal glove that absorbed chakra from the atmosphere and released it in huge waves. Naruko brought it in one day and had fun blasting him and everyone else with it. Iruka had never felt more humiliated than being blasted into the river near the academy obstacle course by an academy student, and having to deal with all the students' quiet giggles as he was soaked for the rest of the day.

And so, as Iruka walked into class today, he was expecting yet another long day. He swore if he somehow survived the next two years with Naruko and got her to graduation, he would take a year of vacation off and then pray to whatever higher power was out there to never have another student like her again. Even though Iruka thought of Naruko as his favorite student, one was enough in his life.

So when he walked in and one Naruko was being quiet, he was terrified.

Naruko was in the middle of the classroom, alone, like always. other children tended to avoid her, either due to their parents' warnings or her eccentric nature, Iruka was sure it was a mix.

She had multiple long strips of paper, along with a bucket of ink and a calligraphy brush, she was writing seals at an insane speed that looked like gibberish to most people. Iruka had a basic understanding of fuinjutsu, like most ninja, and that was the only way he knew what she was doing.

Noticing that most students were more interested in Naruko's fuinjutsu than him, and almost no one had noticed him walking in, he went up to his teaching podium and loudly cleared his throat.

That caught everyone's attention, as they all turned his way, except two. Naruko, who was still scribbling away at her scroll, and Shikamaru Nara, a young boy with shoulder-length black hair tied in a spiky ponytail and narrow brown eyes, he is the son of the clan head Shikaku Nara and the personification of the word, 'lazy.' He was part of the Nara clan, a clan that had a natural affinity with the yin element, and used it to do many jutsus that featured the use of shadows.

"Alright class, recently we have learned the three basic jutsu after we found our chakra and started using it. But now, we are going to work on a new subject. Who here knows what chakra control is?" He saw a couple of hands go up. Namely those of the clan heads, like Ino Yamanaka, a young girl with long platinum-blonde hair tied in a ponytail and pupilless light-blue eyes that sometimes turned green if the sun hit them just right, she is the daughter of Inoichi Yamanaka and part of the Yamanaka clan who use mind technique jutsu and work mainly in the T&I department. Choji Akimichi, a somewhat chubby young boy with spiral-like markings on his cheek, spiky brown hair and squinted brown eyes, is the son of Choza Akimichi and part of the Akimichi clan, a clan that has a close affinity with the yang element and uses it to do many body enhancement jutsus, making them one of the physically strongest clans in Konoha. Shino Aburame, a boy with bushy brown hair and sports a pair of black sunglasses that prevent others from seeing his eyes, son of Shibi Aburame and part of the Aburame clan, a clan that specializes in bugs and tracking. Hinata Hyuga, a young girl with dark blue hair cut in a short hime-cut and pupilless white eyes along with her signature large beige coat, daughter of Hiashi Hyuga and part of the Hyuga clan, a clan that owns a dojutsu, the Byakugan, that allows them to see chakra and observe things in a field of three-hundred-sixty degrees around them, excluding the small blind spot in the back of the head. Kiba Inuzuka, a young boy with wild brown hair and sharp black eyes with slit pupils along with his dog Akamaru, son of Tsume Inuzuka and part of the Inuzuka clan that focuses on taijutsu and tracking alongside their ninken. And finally, Sasuke Uchiha, a handsome young man with spiky black hair and black eyes, son of the deceased Fugaku Uchiha and part of the recently massacred Uchiha clan, owners of the dojutsu Sharingan, a clan of thieves that can copy anything and masters of genjutsu and kenjutsu.

Another student that raised their hand was Sakura Haruno, a civilian girl with long pink hair and green eyes along with an abnormally large forehead, her father was a shinobi in the Konohagakure Shinobi Force, and her mother a prominent figure in the merchant circle in Konoha. She is very intelligent but struggles psychically. And even though she is the second-best Kunoichi in their year, Iruka doubts she would truly hold that position without the hours she spends studying instead of training.

In fact, if Iruka was honest, he was truly worried about the Kunoichi of this group. Most of them had somehow become fan-girls and decided that dieting was a way to keep their bodies without fat and appealing to the male population. But Iruka knew this directly affected their muscle and chakra growth, putting them below average in both. It became so bad that the instructors scrapped the Kunoichi classes because almost none of the girls actually trained outside of class.

In fact, as much as he hated to say it, females were biologically weaker than males, and even if they had better chakra control that did not make up the difference in chakra amounts. And he knew where the fan-girl mindset came from, too. Civilians were usually accepted into the academy because if they could be trained in chakra techniques, it would make the next generation have more potential. And in a army force of only around 20,000 that could die at anytime, the number of soldiers was crucial.

This also directly correlated to the lack of any same-sex couples. Because the civilians were introduced to the mindset that they needed to make the new generation, and even the kids in clans were told they needed to bring in more people to the clan to expand it. Of course, no one truly even cared about same-sex couples, how could they? They could die at any time in any mission, they should love who they want to.

But Iruka also realized that this train of thinking led to this, he could almost compare it to a pack of animals, all the boys comparing their strengths and all the females looking for the strongest males. He almost groaned, it's like they had devolved into wild animals.

He raised his piece of chalk and chucked it at Naruko, who had been writing down seals during this whole commotion. It bonked her lightly on the head and left a small dust cloud, he saw how she quickly picked up the brush to avoid ruining her seal, though.

"Naruko, what was the question!" He yelled at her and noticed her sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.

"Uhh, you were asking my advice on how to make your shitty lectures better and get people to pay better attention?" She says back with a cheeky grin. That made the class burst out into giggles and had him grow red-faced in anger.

"No, I asked what chakra control is! Now pay attention before I tell the Hokage to ban you from the Ichiraku Ramen Stall!" This made her give him an embarrassed chuckle, before clearing her throat.

"Chakra control is the general idea of creating chakra and then channeling it through your body. It also affects how well you can mold your chakra into jutsus and techniques. Chakra control is usually trained through different exercises that are taught by your genin instructor after graduation or found in the Konoha library ninja sections. The basic exercise taught in the academy is the leaf concentration practice, which requires the user to channel a certain amount of chakra to a body part and stick a leaf to it, too much will blow it away and too little will not allow it to stick. Chakra control is also crucial in jutsu, as too much chakra will make the effect of your jutsu vary, and too little will not do what the jutsu was supposed to do or outright fail. It is said that out of all the places, the hands and feet are the easiest places to mold and control jutsus, and this is why ninjas use hand seals to mold their jutsu." It was, of course, a textbook answer. But Iruka thought it acceptable.

"Correct, but that is just the basics, and today we will be working on the practice Naruko has just mentioned. Now everyone, please follow me to the training yard, and once we are there you will do the leaf concentration exercise. There will be instructors there to help you if you are struggling and remember to not push yourself if you feel low on chakra. Chakra exhaustion is a large problem, resulting in hospitalization and even death in some cases!" And with that, he gestured for everyone to follow him.

Iruka stood in the training yard watching as kids picked up the leaves and attempted to stick them on either their foreheads or hands. He had told them this was the easiest part to stick them on. As people usually used the tenketsu in their hands more, resulting in the feeling being more natural. And also being the man place shinobi molded their chakra for jutsu through hand signs. And the forehead is an easy spot to concentrate on. Some kids got it quickly, like Sakura Haruno, because of their low chakra reserves and innate talent for chakra control, and others that had a higher amount of chakra struggling with even one leaf.

He looked around before witnessing something that made his eye twitch. Naruko was standing in a literal whirlpool of chakra radiating from her body. She was under a tree and her body had somehow turned into a very large magnet, as her three-hundred-sixty-one tenketsu points started sucking leaves from all around the ground around them and making them stick to her. Making her look like she was in a ghillie suit. Iruka knew this should be impossible, and was once again baffled by Naruko and her insane way of doing things.

"What is this, the great Uchiha is struggling with a single leaf? How the elite has fallen." He heard the adorable orange-haired young girl say in a mocking voice. Iruka knew that Sasuke would struggle with this exercise, after all, most Uchiha had more chakra than other clans and civilians, and even with his talent, it would take a while to complete. In theory, Naruko should be struggling the most with this exercise. It should be practically impossible to wrestle her enormous reserves to do such a simple thing as this, but she somehow did it in a way that seemed impossible.

"Shut up, carrot top, not all of us are freaks of nature like you!" He heard the boy shout back. Sasuke was usually calm and didn't respond to provocations, but it seemed that Naruko always had a way to get under his skin.

He saw her bristle at his insult, she had always gotten angry when someone called her by the nickname 'carrot top.' It had started when one of the civilian boys had said that her hair was pretty, kind of like a carrot. Of course, the boy had meant it as a compliment, but comparing someone's hair to a carrot was probably not the best way to do that. So she exploded and punched the boy into the wall, yelling about how her hair was an 'orange marigold' color and 'not a carrot.' Ever since, whenever someone wanted to provoke her all they had to do was mention that and she would be on them with a hateful vengeance.

Iruka winced as he saw all the leaves surrounding her be blown away and shredded because of a huge wave of chakra pulsing from her body due to her losing control of her chakra. The atmosphere around her became heavy as it was saturated with her ungodly amount of chakra and made some of the weaker students start to gasp for air. And Iruka knew what was gonna happen next, an insult that would probably set the Uchiha off and cause them to go fight it out again.

"You know, with that girly face of yours and the way you deny all your fangirls I'm starting to think that maybe your not as serious about repopulating your clan, or maybe you are, just in a different way. 'Look at me, I'm Sasuke Uchiha and I'm looking for a hunk of a man to come stick it in me and help me make a bunch of Uchiha babies, and I hope they're just as wimpy as me so they can attract a lot more strong males for my clan of thieves.'" Naruko said, making her voice extra high at the end. The boys and non-fangirls of the class roared in laughter, while Iruka and the other academy instructors sputtered wondering where she even learned that kind of language, and the fangirls in class simmered in anger.

Sasuke's chakra exploded outwards too, nowhere close to as impressive as Naruko's but still very impressive for an academy student, and even a genin. "That's it, Uzumaki, get your wimpy ass over to the training grounds so I can finally beat that shitty attitude out of you!" Sasuke roared as he stomped off to the sparring circle. Naruko trailing behind him laughing.

Iruka sighed, as this happened often. Even though Sasuke was a calm person, he exploded when his pride was insulted. As someone raised by the clan-head and taught that his clan was the best, and the fact his parents died, Sasuke took his clan's teachings seriously. Thi was because he thought of them as a string to his dead parents. This also meant insults to his clan bristled him much more than they should, something Naruko extorted often.

Iruka sighed as he knew how this would go. Naruko would punt Sasuke around for a bit using her abnormally strong body before finally knocking him out of the ring. The fangirls would proceed to call her a cheater, even though that was what being a ninja is about, and then the boys would insult a wounded Sasuke who would snap at all of them. And then he would have to deal with an angry Uchiha and prideful Uzumaki for the rest of the day.

"Alright, as the best two of the class I am allowing the use of chakra in this spar, think of it as your first fight as a ninja. Now, make the seal of confrontation, be nice!" He saw the two of them grudgingly raise it, which is the raising the pointer and middle finger straight up. "And begin!" He shouted.

Iruka sighed as the two students ran at each other, already knowing the outcome, but hey, maybe something different would happen.