[Fic] Life Lessons

[branchandroot]

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

Comments

[branchandroot]

*sparkles at you* This, this, all of this. When I got to thinking about the sexual issues this story just about ran me down in the street. They /have/ to have this before they hit the field, because it's been shown that age won't save them. But will they pay attention? Fat chance! And I know how it wears me down just teaching /writing/, this unit has got to be hell for poor Iruka.

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.