Chapter 12
Asuma Sarutobi
Coaching is hard.
Asuma sighed as he lit another cigarette. He didn’t even want to be a part of a club, especially not coach a team. But that’s what you get for being the principal’s nephew.
A week before classes started, a meeting was held in the teacher lounge to discuss clubs. It was when it all happened. At the meeting was Kakashi, Iruka, Kurenai, Jiraiya, Shizune, and Hiruzen, all seated around the long, dark brown wooden table. They were the teachers assigned to teaching freshmen.
“Ok,” Hiruzen, his uncle, said. “So far, the other grade teachers have had their clubs assigned to them. Like usual, you guys get last picks on clubs you want to run; however, as usual, you don’t have to join a club unless you want to. Also, if you have a club that you would either like to sponsor or a new club idea that you would like to pitch, now would be the time.”
“I have one,” Iruka said. Asuma knew where this was going. Iruka had been discussing sponsoring the club for a while now. “There are a couple students who formed a philosophy club last year and I wanted to personally sponsor them.”
Shizune opened her thick, blue binder while Hiruzen put on his reading glasses.
“And do you have a room in mind to host the club in,” Hiruzen asked.
“1B Homeroom class,” Iruka responded quickly and passionately. “It should be free, it’s my homeroom after all.”
The principal and his assistant looked intensively through the sheets of paper in the binder.
“That class is available,” Hiruzen said. “No reservations whatsoever so use it at your own leisure.”
Iruka smiled. He looked both proud and relieved that the room was available though Asuma didn’t understand why. Iruka had asked every teacher in the building to not reserve that room for clubs. It was almost a guarantee that the room would be open.
“Anyone else,” Hiruzen asked as took off his glasses.
Everyone stayed silent.
“Good. Now onto more pressing matters,” Hiruzen said. “Coach Might Guy has decided to drop out of coaching football. Now, all the other teachers have already been assigned to other clubs/electives. So, I was hoping one of you guys could coach this year’s football team.”
All the teachers didn’t say a word. Asuma already dreaded how this would go.
“I’m sorry,” Jiraiya said. “I have other duties to attend to so I cannot coach the team.”
Jiraiya was always the first to deny requests. You could not ask that man to do anything. He always had ‘other duties to attend to’. Though, you would never call him out on that. The man is an ex-Senji after all. Disrespecting him while the ex-Senji leader was your boss would not be very wise.
Everyone else stayed silent.
“Ok, so I’ll put down that Asuma will be coach this year,” Hiruzen said.
“Now hold on,” Asuma responded. “I never agreed to this.”
“Could you please do it anyways,” Hiruzen asked. “We could really use you right now.”
Asuma reluctantly accepted the position.
Now, here he was, on the field, waiting for the students to arrive. He stood on the sidelines and watched as Kiba and Choji put down the cones in preparation for tryouts.
Shikamaru sat on the floor next to him, writing in his notebook.
Asuma flicked away his cigarette.
“They’re bad for you, ya know,” Shikamaru said.
“Shut up,” Asuma responded. “Last I checked, you were my student, not father.”
“Last I checked, you were the coach, not me,” he said.
“I still am the coach,” Asuma replied. “Sure, I know nothing about football and am making Kiba and Choji do most of the work, but that doesn’t change my job title. Now, do you have what I need ready?”
“Yeah,” Shikamaru said, sounding slightly irritated. He tore out a sheet of paper from his notebook and gave it to Asuma. “If anyone asks how to play football, this is what you say.”
“Thank you, Shikamaru,” the coach responded. He looked through the words on the page carefully, trying to memorize what to say.
******
Try outs so far wasn’t that bad. Some good came out of it. For one thing, Might Guy ended up apologizing to Asuma at try outs.
“I’m really sorry you had to take this position,” Might Guy told Asuma before he left. “I heard that none of the other teachers wanted to coach, so you were forced to do it. I would’ve done it this year, it’s just that this is Rock’s first year on the football team and I don’t want to give him any bias, ya know?”
“It’s fine,” Asuma responded. “Hey, who knows. Maybe I might end up liking to coach so much that I’ll continue coaching after the end of this year.”
Might Guy didn’t laugh nor chuckle. He just walked off after that.
That was when try outs began. At the request of Rock Lee, everyone warmed up. Asuma watched impressed as Rock outran everyone. After that, everyone was split into teams for practice games. It was then Asuma noticed something wrong with one of his students.
“Shikamaru,” Asuma said.
“Yeah,” Shikamaru responded as he wrote in his journal.
Asuma lit another cigarette. He hadn’t gotten the chance to smoke all day. “That kid with the yellow hair. You know him?”
Shikamaru took a glance at Naruto. “I have him for homeroom.”
“Does he always grab his chest like that,” Asuma asked, somewhat concerned.
“Nobody always grabs their chest like that,” the kid responded, uninterested.
“Good point,” Asuma said as he finished his cigarette. “Shikamaru, could you do me a favor?”
“I would prefer not too.”
Asuma handed him some keys. “Go to the teacher’s lounge and grab some packs of water from the fridge. I think maybe the kid’s dehydrated or something.”
Shikamaru groaned, took the keys, and left. When he came back, Asuma told the team to take a water break. That was when he confronted the yellow haired kid.
“Hey kid, are you ok,” he asked.
The kid looked at him confused. “Yeah…Why? Am I doing badly?”
“No, you’re doing great but, you keep grabbing your chest while you play. Is there something wrong?”
“I’m ok,” he responded. “I just have a bad itch on my chest.”
“Ok that’s fine,” Asuma said. “By the way, your clone use is pretty good, however, though on defense you can have two clones on the field, on offense, you can only have one. Also, if you’re a wide receiver, your clone can’t catch the ball. You can only use him as protection or illusion or whatever. Just not as a wide receiver.”
Probably just needed some water, he thought.
After that, Asuma watched the kid the intensively. He watched as he used a clone to catch a ball. He watched as he tried to compete with Rock Lee.
He watched when the kid collapsed onto his knees.
“Naruto…are you okay,” Rock Lee asked as he approached the yellow haired kid.
“Shit,” Asuma said when it happened. “Shikamaru, go get Tsunadae. We’re going to need a healer right no-.”
Rock Lee gave a blood curdling scream.
Everyone grew silent, wondering what happened.
“OH GOD,” Rock yelled. “IT BURNS.”
When Asuma saw what happened, he stood frozen in shock.
Rock Lee had somehow caught on fire. Except, the fire did not look normal. It was a dark red and see through, mostly looking like some sort of flamelike aura.
And the yellow haired kid was surrounded in that aura. He looked to be producing the aura himself.
He stood up from his knees as Rock Lee rolled around in the grass, screaming, as he tried to kill the aura that was burning him. The aura was burning the grass that surrounded the yellow haired kid. Yet, the kid himself was not burning at all and he was covered in it.
“Shikamaru,” Asuma barked. “Go get Tsunadae NOW!”
Shikamaru ran out of the field and towards the school building.
“What the fuck,” one of the students said as Asuma ran towards Rock Lee. He grabbed the boy.
“Take off your shirt,” Asuma ordered. Rock Lee took it off. The aura was not on him anymore, now only on the shirt he had just taken off. But damage was already done. Rock Lee’s left arm was burned to hell. The boy whimpered in pain.
“What the hell is going on,” Asuma whispered. He then turned to the yellow haired kid.
“CHILD! What is wrong with you?! You just burned someone. You’re not supposed to hurt anyone in this game, much more a quirkless person. What the hell is wrong with yo-.”
The aura covered kid jumped at him. Asuma quickly jumped backwards, landing on his butt. He managed to just barely avoid the attack.
“Did you just try to hit me,” Asuma said equal parts mad and scared. He was quirkless himself, so he feared of this situation’s outcome.
He noticed that the kid’s appearance had changed. His teeth now had fangs and his hands now looked like claws. His face appeared to have grown whiskers and his ears became pointy. Before Asuma could piece it together, the kid jumped at him again, this time catching his aura on the coach’s shirt. Asuma was quick to take it off.
“COACH,” Kiba yelled.
Why the hell is Kiba yelling at me right now? Can’t he see that I’m busy-
Kiba ran across the field and punched the kid in the face. He had transformed into his wolf form. Most of the other students had ran off, mostly out of fear, so seeing Kiba being one of the few students still here made Asuma feel proud of the boy. The only other students still there was the president’s nephew, his group of his friends, and Choji.
“Naruto,” the pink haired girl yelled. “Snap out of it!”
But the kid wouldn’t listen. Kiba was grabbing his fist. It seemed that the punch burned him. Naruto jumped at him, this time a lot faster. Kiba didn’t react quick enough, getting scratched in the chest by Naruto’s claws. The cut was deep. Blood trickled down the doglike boy’s chest. Kiba’s face had turned from heroic confidence to helpless fear. Asuma had to think fast.
He off his undershirt, the only thing keeping his top half clothed, and wrapped it around his fist.
“Hey, fuckface,” Asuma yelled at the kid. It was the only word he could think of.
Naruto turned around only to be met with a punch. But, with no quirks to Asuma’s name, it didn’t do him no good. Naruto slashed Asuma’s face. The cut was a painful sting that managed to also burn.
Naruto was going to come in for a killing blow until the huge, orange haired kid tackled the boy to the ground. The orange haired kid seemed to have transformed as well, looking to be turned into a rocky version of himself. The aura tried to catch fire onto the kid but wouldn’t work. Rock doesn’t burn.
“Asuma,” someone yelled. It was Shikamaru. He had come back not with Tsunadae but a fire extinguisher. “I sent someone to get Tsunadae, but I thought you might need this right now.”
He gave the extinguisher to Asuma. Naruto was slicing at the orange haired kid, but the kid still stayed on top of him, remaining unscathed from the boy’s attacks.
“Teacher,” the kid said, voice deeper than what Asuma expected. “My form won’t hold much longer. I hope you have a plan.”
“Step aside,” Asuma responded. “I’m going to try and kill the fire with this.”
The kid jumped off Naruto. Asuma then sprayed him with fire extinguisher. Naruto jumped back, away from the fire killing foam, landing on all fours. He growled at the teacher and dug his claws deep into the grass.
The fox was preparing to charge.
Shit shit shit shit shit, he thought. If he’s gonna charge, I better time this right. Or I’m dead.
“Naruto, please snap out of it,” Asuma pleaded, praying that he could talk sense into the kid or at least calm him down before Tsunadae or any other teacher with a quirk came.
The fox responded with another growl. Asuma prepared himself. If he missed, the teacher knew that he would die.
What did I do to deserve this, Asuma thought. I should’ve never accepted this position. Dammit Might Guy, it’s your fault that I’m going to die today.
Naruto charged forward. It was fast. Faster than Asuma’s eyes, but he knew it would be fast. He knew his eyes would fail. But not his brain. On instinct, Asuma swung the fire extinguisher, blindly hoping to hit something. Anything.
It was a direct hit to Naruto’s face.
The boy flew away on impact, landing a couple feet away from the coach. Asuma opened his eyes to see Naruto crouched on the floor, wiping blood from his mouth. The extinguisher worked but it would not work again. It was severely dented, with an imprint of Naruto’s face on it.
If I get out of this alive, Asuma thought. I’m fired.
Naruto charged at him again, just as fast as before. All Asuma could do is hold his arms up to cover himself. He had accepted his fate, though he wished he could say goodbye. As the fox grew closer, Asuma prayed that it would be a quick death and not a long, painful one.
BOOM.
A powerful gust of wind filled the entire field. Everyone, from the students to Asuma to Naruto, flew high in the air and landed hard onto the ground. Naruto was the first to get up, still surrounding in the flamelike aura. The kid growled loud at whoever produced the wind. He seemed like he had a personal vendetta against whoever it was.
BOOM.
Another powerful gust of wind, this time more concentrated, hit Naruto, alone. The boy flew back so far, he hit the gate on the other side of the field.
He didn’t get up after that.
When the aura surrounding Naruto died down, a man flew across the field to the boy’s side. Asuma was surprised to see that man here. And what was more surprising was the man’s face. It wasn’t a fake smile or fake warmth that he had always tried to portray but instead, it was for once genuine. It was genuine concern, but also, showed fear. An emotion that did not exist in that man until now.
It was Hiruzen Sarutobi.
As the principal took Naruto away, Asuma passed out on the field. His body and mind were done for the day.