[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

[askerian]

... eeeeeee.

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.

[branchandroot]

*hearts* Seriously, the Academy gets played for laughs in canon but when you think about what it /is/... brrrrrr. No wonder so many of these kids are so messed up!

*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!