[Fic] Life Lessons
Jul. 29th, 2011 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Cross-post from my archive.
Fandom/Arc: Avalanche, Naruto
Characters/Pairings: Hatake Kakashi, Kakashi/Iruka, Umino Iruka
Summary: Knowing that you're sending twelve-year-olds into the field to fight, what do you need to teach them before they go? And what do you do when it never seems to work? Sometimes Iruka has trouble with that second one.
Meta: Drama, Angst, Fluff, I-5
Wordcount: 1703
Warning: Discusses aftermath of trauma.
Umino Iruka loved to teach. He really did. He'd taught at the Academy for years, and with every new class he felt again the wonder of shaping Konoha's future through his students.
There were also weeks when he needed to remind himself of this strenuously to keep his hands from closing around their skinny, little necks.
Read: Life Lessons
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Date: 2011-07-29 06:36 pm (UTC)I mean, yeah it's reasonable to learn that but ZOMG Iruka managed to SAY that without passing out? *impressed*
...Although it did kinda occur to me, in the course of canon and fanfics, that they do graduate their kids awfully young. >.< I'm not sure if I want to imagine what they actually teach. I mean, how do you get it across to kids that they are basically learning things that will help them kill people later? n.n;
And I'm liking the Kakashi/Iruka vibes here a lot, and that's really saying something. (I usually hate that pairing. ^^;)
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Date: 2011-07-29 07:08 pm (UTC)And Edenfalling's fic really got me thinking; what /are/ they doing, sending kids that young into the field? It has some pretty grim implications, really. And then I thought about /teaching/ them that kind of stuff and, well. That's gotta be a killer.
*hearts* Kakashi is my favorite, I throw him in bed with everyone.
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Date: 2011-07-30 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 04:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 04:11 am (UTC)And yet. It needs to be done, if they're going to be ninja.
I really like how realistic you made this feel -- the kids are acting like themselves and like kids that age -- and Iruka is very believably worn down and upset, and yet pushing through because somebody has to do this and if so, he's going to make sure it's done as well as possible. I like how he can't stop cataloging Shizuka's responses as textbook examples of how post-trauma response is meant to go, and how he does the same thing to Kakashi when he shows up. Because I get the feeling that both Shizuka and Kakashi genuinely mean their concern, but yeah, they ARE following a trained pattern, and it's got to be disconcerting to be on the receiving end while seeing the steps so clearly.
...
On a different subject, this is a Kakashi/Iruka setup I can almost believe in, rather than just go along with for the duration of a story -- mostly because it's based on them being ninja instead of them being in love.
So yeah. This hurts in all the best ways.
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Date: 2011-07-30 03:41 pm (UTC)And yes, the weirdness of seeing what happens when people /have/ learned and listened and do it by the book, as it were. Which, at the time, probably just rubs in how the kids aren't but I think it also comforts him in a weird way; because clearly people /do/ learn this. Eventually. *shivers a bit*
*snickers* I admit, I'm having way too much fun with the notion that ninja active in the field have exactly this kind of approach to sexuality. It's like making someone a nice cup of tea. Only more athletic.
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Date: 2011-07-30 04:43 pm (UTC)Worldbuilding! Ninja training that seems so very believable and so ROUTINE it's scary! And man, usually I don't give a crap about Iruka, I find him boring, but in this fic he's really easy to relate to and his reaction to knowing his students will only get what he's trying to teach them once it's too late... Mmmmh, yesss. *__* I even enjoyed the kakairu moment, for basically the same reason as Edenfalling; prrt ninja responses to trauma.
Poor Sasuke. Yeah, I think he's really got to start learning to accept nonsexual comfort before sexual comfort will ever do anything but make it worse. He's being hounded so much, I think he'd have a hard time accepting even a simple hug as not having selfish ulterior motives.
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Date: 2011-07-30 04:58 pm (UTC)*pets Sasuke* Yeah, it's gonna take him a few years of pretty consistent "just being here for you" before he can deal with sexual contact. And longer before he figures out the possible non-trauma emotional elements!