Sakura
Iruka takes a couple of minutes to mentally prepare himself for the cluster fuck that will be Team 7’s evaluation. The construction of that team had been a nightmarish process that Iruka can honestly admit that he has not quite recovered from. Team 7 was never supposed to exist in its current state and Iruka has no idea how the three of them managed to pass Kakashi’s test when so many others had failed.
That’s not important, though.
All that matters is that they passed and are ready to go into the field. It’s Iruka’s job to give them the tools they need to survive and it’s Kakashi’s job to teach them how to use those tools. If he can get through to them, they’ll be fine. But he’s not sure if he can. This team has more problems than all the other teams combined. It would be impressive if not for the fact that this team seems designed for failure, despite the solid theory behind it.
He sighs, places Team 7’s folder on his desk, and forces himself to stop stalling.
Team 10 is sitting together by the front of the classroom, softly discussing their evaluation, Ino’s eyes occasionally flicking over to Sakura. After the fifth time, Asuma blows a ring of smoke into her face. “Focus, little lady.” Ino flushes, straighten her back, and redirects all her attention back to her team. Ino says something, but Iruka can’t quite make out the words. The sounds are too muffled, garbled. He has no idea how Asuma’s pulling that off.
Sakura is sitting quietly beside Sasuke, wet eyes trained down at her lap, and Naruto is glaring so hard at Sasuke, Iruka’s surprised the boy hasn’t burst into flames.
He’s not sure he wants to know.
Kakashi isn’t in the room. Iruka’s not entirely sure how he’s supposed to give Team 7 their evaluations without their jounin-sensei present, but he’s wondering if he’s going to be forced to. “Team 7,” he begins, hiding his own confusion and frustration, eyes darting over to Asuma who gives a subtle nod towards the door, “follow me.”
“Eh?” Naruto jumps to his feet. “Don’t we need Kakashi-sensei to be here before we start our evaluation?”
“Yes, you do, but I’m not going to wait around all day for him.”
Sakura scrambles to her feet after him, but Iruka notices the way Sasuke waits for Sakura to be a few feet ahead of him before getting out of his chair.
Iruka really doesn’t want to know, but it’s probably something he’ll have to sort out before they leave. Sasuke settles into the seat closest to the door, trying very hard to hide his annoyance when Sakura sits next to him who is extremely displeased when Naruto eagerly plops himself down beside her.
This team is a fucking disaster. It’s even worse because all three of them were originally on a team that was better suited for them. They have the potential to be an amazing combat team, but their inability to get along implies that they will never meet their true potential.
Iruka pauses, wonders if he’s really about to give a team evaluation without the jounin assigned to it, but consoles himself with the knowledge that Asuma had given him the go ahead. Besides, if Kakashi had cared, he would have shown up on time. The man’s not on a mission, Iruka knows that much, so he doesn’t have an excuse for not being here. “I’d like to begin this by going over your class rankings.”
“But, Iruka-sensei, we already know those.” Sakura says, “Sasuke’s first, I’m thirteenth, and Naruto’s dead last.” She gives Sasuke a shy smile and Naruto an annoyed scoff when she mentions their scores. Sasuke ignores her; Naruto wilts at her tone.
This team is a fucking mess.
“Ah, those are your official rankings in this class, Sakura, but they aren’t very accurate. They don’t account for things like illness or missed tests or students that choose to hide their ability.”
“Someone hid their abilities?” Sasuke asks, eyes drilling into Iruka.
“Yes, several of your classmates.” Shino is the only one who passed that did so. He’s also the only one who managed to consistently keep his rank where he wanted it, which is probably because Iruka kept telling him how well he needed to do on graded exercises to maintain the fifteenth spot.
“So, what are our real rankings then?” Sakura asks, twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers. She’s glancing at Sasuke from the corner of her eye and there’s a tiny smirk on her lips. Iruka doesn’t want to crush her self-image, but he also doesn’t want her to die in the field. Honesty is the only way any of these genin are going to get better, which means Iruka is going to be brutally honest with them the entire way through.
“Sakura, you’re ranked twentieth.” Sakura’s jaw drops, eyes wide open. To be fair, it’s truly a testament to how intelligent she is that she’s managed to place as high as she did. At the beginning of the term, when she was still friends with Ino, Sakura had been able to do all the physical conditioning and exercises with ease; now, she can barely handle the minimum requirements. The requirements had increased exponentially, not linearly, which means that unless Sakura had continued to push herself physically, as she had beforehand, she would never maintain the excellent results she had before.
“Sasuke,” he continues, pretending not to notice the increasing intensity of the boy’s stare, “you are ranked third in the class.” If Iruka had it his way, he would have dropped Sasuke much further down the ranking, but he honestly can’t justify it. Sasuke is an excellent shinobi who only has one or two real weaknesses. The problem is both of those weaknesses are debilitating and it’s only Sasuke considerable skill levels that has kept him in the third place.
Sasuke glares at him, hands clenched into white-knuckled balls, “Who placed first?”
“I’m here to provide you with your evaluation, not to discuss other students.” He raises a hand, stopping Sasuke’s next comment before it can begin. “I will be posting the unofficial ranking after your evaluation; you may view them afterwards if you’d like.” Sasuke nods at him once, hands still balled, and seems to struggle to calm himself down. “Naruto, you’re ranked twenty-first in the class.”
Naruto perks up, shocked, “I’m not last?”
“You’re not last,” Iruka assures him. Naruto would be ranked higher, but Iruka is absolutely positive he’s heard the boy refer to chakra as “catchra”. He’s never called it such when speaking to Iruka, but any time Iruka’s tries to quiz him on chakra, the little brat manages to squirm his way out of the discussion.
Another reason why Iruka really didn’t want to graduate Naruto into the ninja forces. The boy really would be better off with one more year at the academy, especially if he actually went to the classes instead of skipping them. The difference between Naruto’s understanding of class material and Sakura’s physical abilities is great enough that Naruto would never be able to surpass her. Physical conditioning is more important for genin than theoretical knowledge, but not if that means sacrificing a basic understanding of something as fundamental as chakra.
“Hmm, this team seems a bit odd. Which one of these kids is the mould-breaker?” Kakashi asks.
Iruka holds back his flinch, unlike the fresh genin. Sakura and Naruto yelp, leaping to their feet, and whirling around to face their sensei. “You’re late!”
“Am I?” Kakashi asks, sounding genuinely confused. “I could have sworn we were meeting at noon.”
“It’s two o’clock!” Sakura yells back.
Odd? It’s Kakashi’s fault this cluster fuck of a team exists. Iruka takes a deep calming breath and forces down the irate tirade that wants to rain down on Kakashi. It’s fine. Everything is fine. He’s just going to flag the next three mission reports Kakashi submits, forcing the man to redo them with more details each time.
Kakashi sighs, the sound truly mournful, “Well, I suppose if you’re going to yell at me the entire time, I’ll leave until you’re feeling more excited to see me.” Kakashi stands from his chair that he had apparently dragged behind the genin at some point, turning as if about to leave the room.
“Don’t you dare, sensei!” Naruto screams, jumping between the door and Kakashi, as if he would be able to stop the jounin from leaving the room.
“But you don’t seem to want me here.” Kakashi pouts at them, a sadistic humour dripping from his words.
“Sensei,” Sakura snarls, jaw clenched, “we are so ecstatic to see you here. Why don’t you take a seat, so we can continue to enjoy your presence?”
“Well, if my cute little genin are so desperate to be around me,” Kakashi is far too gleeful, Iruka is starting to pity the genin, and sits himself down in his chair, “I suppose I can stay awhile longer.” He pulls a book out of his kunai pouch and buries his face between the pages.
Sakura looks angry enough to kill him. Naruto looks angry enough to kill him. Sasuke looks angry enough to kill him. In conclusion, the three genin are probably going to murder their sensei at some point.
That makes Iruka feel a little bit better.
Forcing away the delightful thoughts of revenge, Iruka calms down enough to answer. “Both Sakura and Naruto are mould-breakers.” Sakura shouldn’t have become a genin with her physical conditioning, but the girl is brilliant, which means her team needed to be tailored around that. Naruto also shouldn’t have become a genin, but he’d proven his mettle four days ago and Iruka had given him his headband. Sakura’s theoretical knowledge would improve Naruto’s traps and Naruto’s trap would supplement Sakura’s physical conditioning, with Sasuke around for backup, crowd control, and supplementary skills.
It’s frustrating how perfect this team seems on paper, but how unstable it is in reality.
“Hmm,” Kakashi hums, flipping a page in his book. Iruka must assume he’s paying attention. He has to assume Kakashi wouldn’t have shown up here if he wasn’t going to pay attention.
“Iruka-sensei,” Sakura asks, struggling to tear her glaring eyes away from Kakashi, “what are mould-breakers?”
“Mould-breakers are students who need to be placed on a team based on their skillset, not their physical capabilities, which is how genin teams are normally composed.” Naruto looks confused and Iruka can see the hint of a question in his eyes. “What that means is usually teams are composed by people who can do the same things, such as running at the same speed or lifting the same amount of weight.”
The confusion in Naruto’s eyes vanishes and Iruka takes that as a sign that he can move on. “Now, onto your evaluations. I’ll begin alphabetically.” Sakura looks deeply uncomfortable, eyes darting over to Sasuke, before dropping down to her lap.
This team is a fucking mess and Iruka will keep all three genin in this room until it gets cleaned up. It’s a heavy burden and Iruka feels a wave of exhaustion at the thought of trying to fight with all three of them to make them better, but he doesn’t have a choice. He won’t let them out into the field without doing everything he can to guarantee their survival first.
“Sakura, my primary recommendation is that you exit the ninja program.” It feels harsh to say this to her, especially since he must watch the light drain from her eyes, but this is something she needs to hear. Naruto opens his mouth and Iruka casts the auditory genjutsu on him before he can say anything, “Don’t interrupt, Naruto. I’m trying to save her life.”
“But—”
“You aren’t taking your career seriously, Sakura. I cannot, in good conscience, send you out there when I know you aren’t going to do your best.”
“I am doing my best, Iruka-sensei! I take being a ninja very seriously.”
“How many calories should genin your age intake a day?” he asks.
“Around three thousand,” Sakura answers immediately, proving she learned something from the nutrition units Iruka had compiled. It’s a good thing because they had the same lesson three times. Once as part of the standard academy curriculum, a second time as a revision session because Iruka had been worried that Naruto and the other orphans needed a more in-depth look on it without parents around to help them with meal plans, and a third time as a reminder when Iruka noticed Sakura and the other female civilian students were on a ridiculous diet.
“And how many have you had in the past two days?” She flushes and doesn’t answer him. He doesn’t need her to. He knows she’s back on a diet, knows that she’s under the impression that calories are the enemy, even though she’s aware that she needs their energy to train effectively. “You know how many calories you should take for this profession but choose not to take them. How is that taking this job seriously?”
“But—”
“You only bother to maintain the minimum standard for physical conditioning, if that. You go out of your way to weaken yourself and you’ve willing destroyed a relationship that made you better.”
“I didn’t—”
“Sakura,” Iruka cuts her off again. He won’t let her get a word in. He won’t give her a chance to justify the terrible decisions she’s made. Especially because she knows better. Sakura is brilliant. Intellectually, she’s at the top of her class, only beaten by Shikamaru who is genetically predisposed to intelligence. “In terms of your ninja career, Ino is one of the best things that has happened to you.” Sakura bites her lips, fisting her red qipao, and Iruka can see tears starting to fill her eyes. “This feud you have going on with her needs to end and I have every intention of keeping you here until you understand and agree with me.”
“But—” Her eyes are flicking over to Sasuke and Iruka needs to nip this in the bud before it gets anymore out of hand.
“Sakura, you cannot throw away a perfectly good friendship because you think Sasuke is cute.” She flushes, eyes wide in horror, but Iruka soldiers on. “I’ll let you in on a secret: Boys are stupid.”
“Iruka-sensei!” Sakura gasps, the tiniest of smiles on her lips.
“I’m being serious, Sakura. Boys are stupid. This is the most important lesson I will ever impart on you. You’re on a team with three other boys, two of them who are your age. You’re going to realize very soon that boys are stupid and you don’t want to have put up with them unless absolutely necessary. By the time you reach chunin, you’re not going to be able to look at Sasuke or Naruto without thinking of them as annoying little brothers you can’t get rid of.”
Sakura hesitates, stuck on some concept, eyes darting between Sasuke and Naruto. She still has a slight look of adoration when she looks at Sasuke, though, and Iruka isn’t about to let her leave the room under any romantic illusions.
“Sasuke, do you care if Sakura’s hair is long?”
“No,” he answers immediately.
“Do you care about what she wears?”
“No.”
“Do you care about how she does her makeup?”
“No.”
“If she were the best kunoichi in the class, would you care?”
“No.”
With each question, Sasuke looks more and more vindicated and Sakura becomes more and more dejected. It’s cruel in a way, but Sakura’s wasting her potential because of Sasuke and she needs to hear this now, so she can turn herself around while she still has time. “Sakura, I know this is hard for you to hear, but you need to understand. What do you think would happen if I asked Ino these questions?”
She doesn’t answer, biting her lip. She doesn’t want to speak because she knows the answer as well as Iruka does.
“Sakura?” He’s firm with her, but gentle. Sakura is a brilliant girl who has made terrible choices, but at the end of the day, those choices are a result of her being a little girl who does not yet fully grasp what is truly important in the world. He knows in five years or so, Sakura will laugh herself sick at the notion of picking a cute face over a friend. She’s making a grave mistake, but she still deserves the compassion that comes from being a little girl with a silly crush and a romanticized view of romance.
She’s been lonely. Ino has been lonely. They have both missed each other terribly but have been too stubborn to attempt a reconciliation. They’re little girls. They’re little girls playing at being grownups but lacking the necessary life experience to do so.
“Sakura,” he tries again at her silence, “what would Ino answer?”
“Yes,” she whispers very quietly, voice as wet as her eyes.
“Yes,” he agrees with her. “She would say ‘yes’ because you are her best friend and she cares about you deeply. Just as you care for her deeply.”
Sakura’s lip trembles slightly, silent tears sliding down her face.
“Don’t you miss her, Sakura? I know she misses you.”
“Yes,” she sniffles, very quietly, eyes dropping down to her lap.
“Then why haven’t you tried reaching out to her?”
He knows why Ino hasn’t reached out to Sakura. The girl is more patient, better at distracting herself from her loneliness. More importantly, there’s been an underlying layer of hurt whenever Sakura and Ino interact.
And Ino gets vicious when she’s hurt. Iruka doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the look on Sakura’s face after Ino called her Billboard Brow that first time. He’ll never forget the look on Ino’s face after Sakura fled from the classroom with tears in her eyes either.
Iruka has spent the last half of the semester watching two girls hurt each other and themselves because they are too young to know how to reconcile their petty feud, which has grown into something that can no longer be considered petty. The injury between the two of them doesn’t require amputation yet and Iruka’s going to provide an antibiotic before it becomes infected.
“It’s just,” Sakura mumbles, “it’s just that I wanted her to take me seriously.” Iruka blinks, holds back the instinct to interrupt her because out of all the answers she could have given him, this is not one he would have considered in a million years. “Ino’s so good at everything and it always feels like she’s holding back or taking it easy on me because she knows I’m not as good as her. Sasuke doesn’t like anyone, so I thought if I could get him to like me that maybe Ino would realize that I can keep up with her. She wouldn’t have to treat me like a kid or slow down or…” She trails off here, biting her lip softly.
Iruka is a bit baffled by this. He knows Sakura has self-confidence issues. That’s not surprising. Iruka can’t think of a single one of his students in her class who doesn’t have issues with confidence. He hadn’t known, though, how deeply rooted those issues were. This fight between Ino and Sakura is because Sakura feels like Ino sees her as inferior; however, Iruka knows that’s not true. Ino’s always seen Sakura as her best friend.
This has nothing to do with Sasuke and very little to do with Ino. All this boils down to is Sakura, her insecurities, and her inability to healthily deal with them. Which means that all he really needs to do is teach her how to handle her insecurities and this will work itself out.
“Have you talked to Ino about this?”
Sakura blinks at him, head tilted slightly. “No, why would I—”
“If you feel like Ino’s not taking you seriously, you have to talk to her. Maybe she doesn’t realize it and needs you to point it out or perhaps this is all one big misunderstanding that can’t be rectified until you mention it.” It’s definitely a misunderstanding. “Either way, you’ll never know how Ino really feels until you speak to her.”
Sakura blushes slightly, “But what if she doesn’t listen?”
“Then you know that you tried.” He can’t offer her any more assurance than that, though he’s sure that Ino will listen. He knows Ino wants to know what changed, why one day Sakura seemed to have decided that they weren’t friends any longer. “When this meeting is over, I want you to stay behind for a couple of minutes. I’ll send Ino here so you can hash things out.”
Sakura sniffles, wiping at her wet eyes. “I’d like that.”
“I’m sure she’ll like it too.” He takes a second to gather his thoughts. It’s time to move onto his next pressing concern. “Moving on, we have a couple more things to discuss before I’m willing to approve you for field work.”
Sakura nods her head, sitting up straight, a comforting fire in her eyes. “And what’s that, Iruka-sensei?”
“Sasuke.”
Sakura flushes, aborting her instinctive attempt to look at the boy. “Iruka-sensei!”
She might not want to talk about this, especially with Sasuke sitting beside her, but it has to be discussed now. At the beginning of the formation of their team, not years down the line after it’s negatively affected their team. Sakura’s crush on Sasuke, Naruto’s crush on Sakura, Sasuke’s lack of respect for his teammates, all these things need to be addressed now, before it’s too late.
He pauses, thinks about how to phrase the next bit, and decides to just wing it. “I know you probably think Sasuke has a pretty face,” Sakura flushes bright red and Iruka ignores it, “and I know you admire his skill, but the truth is that if Sasuke walked around with a bag over his head, you would hit him harder and more frequently than you hit Naruto.”
Because Haruno Sakura has truly horrifying temper and her first reaction to things that make her angry is to punch it. She would be terrifying if she had the physical strength to backup her temper.
“Iruka-sensei, I would never—”
“You will. I give it three months tops of being around Sasuke before you realize that he’s really not all that great and start smacking him whenever he gets too annoying.”
Sakura is ready to protest, but Kakashi speaks up before she can. “Mah, mah, you really should give up on him, Sakura. Little Sasuke is only interested in Naruto; he even made sure to save his first kiss for him.”
Iruka hides his confusion at that statement. What does that even mean? Sakura sputters, cheeks turning red, and Sasuke jumps to his feet, spinning around to face Kakashi, fingers flying through a jutsu. “Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!”
Iruka watches, baffled, as Sasuke sets Kakashi on fire. “Notice, Sakura, that he didn’t deny it.” Kakashi voice comes from right beside Iruka’s ear and it takes every bit of his willpower not to jump out of his seat and stab the man.
Sasuke whirls back around, cheeks red with a mixture of rage and embarrassment, and Sakura clasps her hands over her mouth. Sasuke’s next course of action is interrupted by Naruto who leaps out of his chair and shrieks, finger pointed at Sasuke. “Eh! You pervert! You kissed me on purpose, didn’t you?”
“I did not! You kissed me!” Sasuke snaps back at him.
What? They actually kissed? When and why? Iruka wants to know, but at the same time, he’s pretty sure he really doesn’t want to know.
“How do you know about that?” Sakura demands, eyes narrowed. “You didn’t arrive until several hours afterwards.”
Kakashi casually saunters back to his chair, which has somehow managed to survive Sasuke’s fireball. Iruka has no idea how Kakashi managed that. “Well, you see, a little doggy told me.”
“Liar!”
Iruka assumes Kakashi is referring to one of his dog summons, but that just begs the question as to why he had his dog summons spying on his genin. Iruka has questions. He has many questions, but he’s not sure he really wants the answer to them.
“Naruto,” he says, gently because Naruto has been doing a very good job keeping his mouth shut despite squirming in his seat and looking ready to burst, “please sit back down. Sasuke,” he continues, firmly because he really shouldn’t have to say this to anyone, “please don’t set the furniture on fire.” He raises an eyebrow at Sakura who looks very embarrassed to be sitting between her teammates. “Girls mature faster than boys. It’s an unavoidable fact that both of your teammates are going to do varying levels of stupid things that annoy you. You can’t ignore Sasuke’s faults just because he has a pretty face and you can’t be overly harsh with Naruto just because he’s obnoxious.”
“I’m not obnoxious!” Naruto protests immediately. “I took a shower this morning!”
Iruka raises an eyebrow at Naruto, writes both noxious and obnoxious on a paper, pulls out a dictionary from his desk drawer—kept specifically for this purpose—and skims through the definitions on obnoxious, before making note of the number for the one he just used on the sheet of paper. He closes the dictionary and hands it, the pen, and the paper over to Naruto who immediately groans, looks at the spelling for the words and slowly begins flipping through the dictionary to find it.
Sakura glances at Naruto, the smallest flicker of amusement on her lips, before she turns back to him. “You need to be objective when dealing with your teammates,” Iruka informs her. “How you deal with one teammate is how you should deal with the other one. This team is structured with the idea that you’ll keep both of your teammates from flying off the handle.” Sasuke scoffs quietly from his seat, but Iruka ignores him and continues. “If you’re not objective about it then resentment will form and your team will fall apart around you. If you can’t handle that then you need to tell me now. There are other positions you can fill outside of the field that you would do very well in. The Information Department, Cryptology Department, or even the Medical Unit would greatly benefit from you joining them.”
“I really want to work in the field,” she says, a stubborn tilt to her chin when she looks him in the eye.
“Can you keep your teammates in line?”
She nods once, jaw clenched, and the fire from earlier burning strongly in her eyes. “Easily.”
“Good. You’re on this team because you display high levels of rationality and objectivity. Both of your teammates fall on the other end of the spectrum and are liable to make decisions solely based on their emotional state—”
“I am not emotion—” Sasuke’s sharp retort is cut off when Sakura punches him in the head.
Iruka will never forget the look on either of their faces. Sakura who looks mortified at her own actions or Sasuke who is completely flabbergasted by the blow. There’s a brief pause, Sakura flushes bright red, eyes dropping down to her lap, before she clears her throat. “Iruka-sensei isn’t done talking.”
Naruto bursts into laughter and Iruka lets him, taking the paper he’d given Naruto to check what progress he’d made. Sasuke was super obnoxious when he said me and Sakura would slow him down. Iruka crosses out ‘me and Sakura’ and replaces it with ‘Sakura and I’. The smoke bombs from my Iki-Iki prank had a super noxious smell. He corrects ‘smell’ to ‘scent’, adds check marks beside both sentences, and hands the paper back to Naruto.
“No,” Iruka says, making no attempt to hide his sheer pride, “I’m not done talking.”
“Hmm, the form on that punch was rather good,” Kakashi muses, eyes still firmly on his book, “but you overextended. Don’t worry, though. I’m sure Baby Sasuke will give you plenty of opportunities to practice.”
“I’m not a baby!” Sasuke snapped at him, turning to face Kakashi.
Iruka watches as Sakura takes a deep breath, before grabbing Sasuke by the collar of the shirt and jerking him back around to face Iruka. “Ignore him, he’s just trying to rile you up.” She gives Kakashi an annoyed glare over her shoulder. “I’m not punching my teammates for your amusement.” With that she faces forward, hands clenching her qipao and very obviously not looking at Sasuke.
“As I was saying, your teammates are prone to emotional decision-making, which means it’s your job to keep them grounded in logic.”
Sakura nods once more, brows furrowing slightly in concentration. Iruka has no idea what she’s thinking about, but he gives her a moment to parse it through. There’s a flash of realization across her face, the smallest of glances sent Sasuke’s way, and she seems to settle into herself, determination etching every line of her being. “I can do this, Iruka-sensei.”
“Then let’s being your evaluation.” Sakura nods her head, squaring her shoulders, but tightening her grip on the fabric in her hands. “Sakura, you are objective, analytical, and curious. Three important traits for an intelligent mind. You are a well of knowledge and never stop trying to learn more. Your mind is what set you apart from the other civilian students. Your greatest strength is your memory. Out of all your classmates, you have the best memory and you are the only one who consistently catches the small details that most people ignore.”
There were tests for this ability. Let the genin into a room for a minute, take them out, rearrange the room, and let them back in to return it to its original state. Sakura had outscored Shino and Shikamaru who had done his best with the knowledge that for every detail he missed, he would have to run three laps around the school. Her recreation had been near perfect and Iruka can only imagine how well she would have done in a bigger room with more time to examine her surroundings.
“Your taijutsu is below average, your ninjutsu and genjutsu are average. The primary reason your taijutsu is below average, though, is because you lack the physical conditioning to use it effectively, not because of your form or understanding of it. Improve that and your taijutsu will improve considerably. Quite frankly, you have the potential to excel at taijutsu, but until your body gets to where it needs to be, you’ll never reach that potential.”
Sakura raises her hand, a small frown of confusion on her lips, “But, Iruka-sensei, aren’t girls supposed to specialize in genjutsu? I thought girls were the genjutsu specialist and boys covered taijutsu.”
Iruka blinks. It takes a second for him to remember that Sakura comes from a civilian family, and as such, was probably taught about shinobi specialities primarily from the perspective of her civilian parents. And civilians have very strict gender roles in comparison to shinobi.
“Girls specialize in whatever they’re good at and the same goes for boys. No shinobi who’s been in the field would ever tell you to ignore honing a skill just because of your sex. You have the potential to be very good at taijutsu, so you should practice until you are very good.”
Sakura hesitates, eyes flicking over to Sasuke and Naruto, before she sighs, takes a breath to brace herself, and speaks. “My mom says it’s not very ladylike to be good at taijutsu and that’s what the boys are for and that if I want to get a good husband when I’m older than I need to keep my taijutsu usage to the bare minimum.”
It’s a loaded statement. It makes Iruka deeply regret not stepping in when Ino and Sakura’s relationship first began to deteriorate. Exposure to a shinobi family would have prevented that sort of mindset from taking root into Sakura. She’s still a child, she has no reason to doubt the words of her mother, and without Ino’s influence, she doesn’t really have another source of information to turn to.
“Sakura, your mother isn’t a shinobi,” he says carefully, gauging Sakura’s reaction to his words, “which means that she has different values than shinobi. For instance, do you remember Kurenai-sensei?”
“Team 8’s leader, right?”
“Yes, she’s a jounin, which means she is very proficient in taijutsu. Would you say she isn’t ladylike?” Sakura shakes her head furiously and Iruka isn’t really surprised by her reaction. “And do you really want Naruto and Sasuke to fight your battles?” Sakura blushes, eyes slowly drifting over to Sasuke, and Iruka can feel himself losing her to a crush he can’t reasonably expect for her to be over in the span of twenty minutes. “Or would you rather stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them, able to carry your own weight.” He’s not expecting Sakura to react to his words the way she does. Eyes sharpening into focus, back straightening, and a desperate aura to almost radiate from her being. He’s not expecting her to react like that, but he’s very glad she does. “If you’re going to keep up with them, then you’ll need to work on every aspect of yourself that you can, including taijutsu.”
“Yes, sensei.”
“As for finding a husband, you only have a few years under Kakashi’s guidance. If you can’t make it to chunin by then, you’ll be removed from his care and added to the Genin Corps.” Sakura winces at the thought, not that Iruka can blame her. The Genin Corps is primarily made up of ninja with a civilian background, it’s rather expected of her to wash up there while her two teammates move on to chunin. “Finding a husband can wait until you’re promoted up the ranks, don’t you think?”
“Yes, Iruka-sensei.”
“Alright then. Your chakra reserves are below average and your chakra control is phenomenal.” Sakura blinks, startled, and Iruka gives her a proud smile. “Your control is better than many chunin, including some of the teachers here. Excellent control like that gives you the option to specialize in genjutsu, ninjutsu, or medical jutsu. If you can get your physical conditioning up to standard, you’ll also have the option for a taijutsu specialty.”
“How can I specialize in ninjutsu with below average reserves?”
“It’s a common misconception that you need large reserves for a ninjutsu specialty. Realistically, control is far more important. Someone with large reserves and terrible control should avoid ninjutsu because they’ll waste chakra. Someone with the opposite problem, small reserves and excellent control, can get more potent jutsu off without wasting chakra, which is preferable in the long run.”
It’s a very big misconception.
Usually it’s not until chunin are aiming to become jounin that they realize they should have been focused on refining their control instead of increasing their reserves. With good control, you can perform many feats. With large reserves, you’re limited to the chakra you can control. The misconception forms from one misunderstanding: If you have bad chakra control and use a jutsu, you end up pouring excess chakra into the jutsu. In reality, if you have bad chakra control and use a jutsu, the excess chakra is wasted, dissipating into the surroundings.
“Chakra control is the most important skill you will ever have at your disposal. It is something you should train whenever you get the chance. If you’re given the choice between improving your reserves and your control, at this point in your careers, you should pick to work on your control.”
“Eh? Why is that, Iruka-sensei? Isn’t it better to have more chakra than to worry about the fiddly stuff?” Naruto asks, scratching the back of his head and squinting at the ceiling.
Sasuke and Sakura show similar confusion and Iruka pauses to think about how to explain this concept. He reaches into his desk and pulls out ten paperclips, while Sakura and Sasuke won’t need a visual for his following explanation, he’s sure Naruto will appreciate it. “Let’s say you’re by yourself and need to hide from the enemy until the rest of your team finds you. For simplicity sake, we’ll say the only jutsu you can use is the Clone Jutsu.” He lays the paperclips in a line on his desk. “Each of these paperclips represents one unit of chakra and it takes three units of chakra to use the clone jutsu. Are you with me so far?”
Sakura and Sasuke nod, but Naruto squints at the paperclips. Before Iruka can say a word, Sakura nudges Naruto gently, a stubborn jut to her chin. “Every time you want to use the Clone Jutsu, you have to give away three paperclips. If you don’t have three paperclips, you can’t use the jutsu. If you give away the wrong amount of paperclips, you can’t use the jutsu. So, when we talk about chakra reserves, we mean about how many paperclips you own; when we’re talking about chakra control, we mean how many paperclips you give away.”
“Oh!” Naruto bounces in his seat. “That makes a lot of sense. Why didn’t you just say that?”
“He did,” Sasuke interjects.
“Nu-uh! He said—”
“Boys,” Sakura snaps, “focus.” It takes a second, but Iruka watches the sheer annoyance on her face dissolve into shock. She glances at Sasuke and then Naruto before shaking her head slightly.
“Anyways,” Iruka sends another proud smile Sakura’s way and watches as she blushes slightly under his attention, “Sakura, when you gather chakra for the Clone Jutsu, your control is precise enough that you gather exactly three units of chakra.” He separate three paperclips from the pile and leaves them off to the side. “And when you convert the chakra into a jutsu, you convert all of the chakra you’ve gathered without wasting a drop.” He picks up the three paperclips and holds them in his hand. “You could get off three jutsu and would still have a single unit of chakra leftover for emergencies.” He adds the paperclips back to the original pile. “Sasuke, on the other hand, would get off two jutsu.”
Sasuke tenses, gripping his knees tightly. “I could get off more than her.”
“Not in this situation. When it comes to gathering up chakra, your control leads to you summoning up four units of chakra.” He separates four paperclips. “However, your control is at its best when you convert that chakra into a jutsu, so you only pour three units of chakra into it.” Iruka picks up three paperclips. “In the end, a single unit of chakra is wasted every time you try to use the Clone Jutsu and is the reason why you can only get two off where Sakura can get three. You’ll have two jutsu in this situation and two additional units of chakra afterwards.” Sasuke is clenching his jaw and Iruka wants to say something to comfort him, but there isn’t any sort of consolation he can think to offer him.
“What about me?” Naruto asks, crossing his arms and pouting.
“You also get two jutsu out of it, Naruto.” He lines all ten paperclips up again. “However, you’re in the opposite situation of Sakura. Large reserves and poor control, which means this demonstration will be the best explanation as to why we generally encourage people with large reserves and poor control to avoid ninjutsu.”
“Eh?” Naruto looks mildly devastated at his words. “I can totally use ninjutsu. I even get two just like the bastard.”
“You’ll understand in a moment, Naruto. When you try to give me three paperclips to use the Clone Jutsu, you accidentally grab five of them.” He splits the line of paper clips in half. “And when you convert chakra into a jutsu, you fumble with your paperclips and only hand over one instead of three.” He picks up a single paperclip and offers it to Naruto. “The remaining four paperclips you gathered end up wasted.” He picks up a paperclip from the second group of paperclips and hands that one to Naruto, as well. “And this is why chakra control is so important. You’ll get two jutsu off, Naruto, but they’ll be weaker and cost you most of your chakra to pull off.”
He’s harping, but he’s been nagging Naruto about this for a long time. The boy has deemed every class that focuses on chakra control as a wash and skipped most of them, which has resulted in truly subpar chakra control. It would be impressive it wasn’t so dangerous. Iruka couldn’t track Naruto down every time he skipped class nor could he make the boy stay for a lesson after he’d dropped him off in a class that he wasn’t instructing. He’d started last year off trying to do just that, but it wasn’t fair to the other students for Iruka to be spending so much time and effort on someone else at the cost of their education, so he’d been forced to stop. He’s spent the last two years dropping Naruto off at school in the morning and not knowing what the boy was up to until he was supposed to be in his class. Naruto had gotten very good at making sure he was at school for Iruka’s class, but there were times when his shenanigans had caused him to lose time and forced Iruka to retrieve him.
“Genin typically have small reserves, so they should focus on chakra control. Once you hit chunin that’s when you need to start worrying about reserves because your reserves will begin to prevent you from learning the larger more draining jutsu out there and you’ll need those once you no longer have Kakashi around to do the heavy lifting on your harder missions.”
“I waste that much chakra?” Naruto asks, jaw dropped.
“You do. That’s why I always tell you to practise your control.”
“That explains a lot, though.” Sakura murmurs. Naruto cocks his head at her and Sasuke tilts his head slightly to watch her. It takes an encouraging nod of Iruka’s head when she blushes under the weight of Sasuke’s stare, but she continues speaking. “You always gathered a lot of chakra for the Clone Jutsu, but they still came out really pale and crumpled on the floor.”
And there’s her analytical mind at work. The paleness of Naruto’s clones is the result of a lack of chakra. Anyone who studied one of Naruto’s clones for more than a second would notice that they were transparent in some places and come to the same conclusion as Sakura. The fact that they were crumpled on the floor, on the other hand, is for a much more interesting reason.
“But I gathered so much chakra for them!” Naruto protests.
“It doesn’t matter how much chakra you gather if you don’t convert it into a jutsu,” Sasuke sneers.
“Exactly.” Iruka agrees. “You gather too much chakra and then you only convert a fraction of how much you need.”
Sakura blinks, eyeing Naruto suspiciously. “Iruka-sensei, genjutsu is the most finicky of the ninja arts, which is why chakra control is essential for anyone who specializes in it, right?”
“It is.” Iruka chuckles at the way Naruto glances at them in confusion, leaning farther away from them the longer Sakura stares at him.
“So, shouldn’t Naruto’s attempts fail completely if he doesn’t put enough chakra into them?”
“They should.”
Sakura glances at him with wide eyes before turning back to Naruto. “Use the Clone Jutsu.”
“Eh? But that’s my worst jutsu!”
“Now!”
He could stop this. Iruka could put a stop to this entire irrelevant detour for their evaluation if he wanted to, but he makes the choice not to. This is going to come up during Naruto’s evaluation, so he won’t let them dawdle on it for too long, but he will let Sakura explore this. It’s important that they show interest in each other’s skills and abilities and this is probably the least hostile encounter Sakura and Naruto have ever had.
Naruto uses the Clone Jutsu, gathering even more chakra than he normally does in his attempt. As usual it comes out crumpled on the ground beside his feet, too pale to be mistaken for Naruto, but still better than any other attempt he’s ever made.
Sakura hops out of her chair and walks around Naruto to examine it. “Definitely not enough chakra in it.” She murmurs, crouching on the floor. “But it looks better than normal.”
“This one has more chakra than they usually do.” Iruka explains.
“Something is still weird about this, though.” Sakura mumbles and Iruka can see the one crucial detail plaguing Sakura’s mind.
“Very weird,” Kakashi agrees. “It’s not really something anyone should expect from someone with no chakra control.” He’s looking up from his book, seemingly more amused by this turn of events than anything else.
Sakura glances over at Kakashi suspiciously, but the man has already turned back to his book.
“I do to have chakra control! This jutsu’s stupid! Even though I used more chakra the stupid thing still ended up on the ground like this!”
The light in Sakura’s eyes brightens and she gasps, looking at Naruto stunned before inspecting his clone once more. After a second, he watches as Sakura summons chakra, far less than she would need for the Clone Jutsu.
When she finishes her jutsu, Iruka watches amused as Sakura stares at her three perfect clones, all imitating her stance and expression perfectly. “And that is why if you have good chakra control, you still have the option for a specialty in ninjutsu,” he chuckles.
Sasuke finally stops pretending to ignore them and turns to eye the clones Sakura just made. “Why? She only made three of them.” He’s derisive, but Iruka can sense the genuine confusion beneath the arrogance.
“She was attempting to make five clones without enough chakra, but her control is precise enough that she compensated for the lack of chakra by making three clones instead,” Iruka explains as Sakura ends the jutsu and tries again. “Good chakra control means you can control the scale of your jutsu. You can make the big one bigger and the small ones smaller. So, if you only have a fraction of the chakra you started a fight with, you can still get some of the more chakra intensive jutsu off at a fraction of the cost, though they won’t be as effective as they would be if you used the regular amount of chakra they demanded.”
It takes Sakura seven tries, but she does eventually manage to get the jutsu wrong and replicate Naruto’s attempt. Her five translucent clones are all kneeling around the room wearing the same triumphant expression. It takes a second, but Sakura looks at her clones, each of them mimicking her every move, and she ends the jutsu. “I knew it! Naruto is—”
“Last alphabetically.” Iruka interrupts her. “I’ll address this later. But we’re talking about you right now.” Sakura glares at him for a second and Iruka honestly expects her to start yelling at him. She wrestles with her temper for a second before sitting back in her seat, while Sasuke turns away from Naruto, sparing the blond his suspicious glare. “Now, your greatest weakness, excluding your physical conditioning, is your temper. It is both spectacular and inconvenient. To date, you’ve failed three class exercises because you lost your patience with your teammates and blew your cover. There’s a time and a place for losing control and the field is neither. I’ve arranged for you to take acting lessons through the Seduction Corps with Hinata and Ino to work on reigning in that temper of yours. The first lesson is tomorrow at 19:00.”
That’s not even a little true. He only obtained permission and lessons for Ino and Hinata, but he doesn’t have much of a choice but to change his plans. Sakura’s main issue is her own insecurity and the first step in combatting that will be a strong support network. If she has people she can talk to, she can work on her problems and receive encouragement and reassurance from her peers, which will be much more effective than words from a teacher. Thankfully, the Seduction Corps is a part of the Information Department and, as a shinobi, Iruka has no qualms about getting permission from Ibiki-sensei and skipping the normal line of command to get Sakura accepted into tomorrow’s lessons alongside her peers.
Hinata, Sakura, and Ino are the only girls from their class who graduated. It makes sense for the three of them to bond together and form a lasting friendship. However, the odds of that happening without something drastic happening is slim to none. Generally, people form close bonds with the people they frequently run missions with. Genin don’t begin to truly mingle until they are no longer learning from their jounin-sensei. Whether that’s because they’ve been promoted to chunin or they’ve been reassigned to the Genin Corps is irrelevant. In the end, having two jounin on a D or C rank mission is preposterous and is never done, which means that it could be years before the girls begin to spend time together. Iruka’s just starting the process off a little early.
“Get that temper of yours under control, improve your body, and stay objective. Do those things, Sakura, and you’ll make an excellent kunoichi. Afterall, you have all the makings to be a spectacular assassin.”