“What is it, Iruka-sensei?
You look completely exhausted.”
The man speaking was rather plump and dressed in a Konoha flak jacket.
A peculiar little patch of beard decorated his chin, seemingly grown in a desperate attempt to make him stand out.
Unfortunately, considering his overall appearance, even that effort was futile.
He looked like the sort of person destined to remain an unnoticed extra in the background.
Thinking this to himself, Iruka reluctantly raised his dead-fish eyes, dulled by a lack of sleep, and let out a long yawn.
This guy seems to be familiar with Iruka.
It would be rude not to greet him properly.
Sigh…
what a pain.
Relationships and social interactions really are a huge pain…
The reason he used the ambiguous phrase seems to be was simple: Iruka was not the original Iruka.
He was a being from another plane who had accidentally entered this world.
His original name no longer held any meaning for him, and even his former life meant nothing.
Thus, when he discovered that the original Iruka had vanished because of his arrival, he accepted the identity without the slightest hesitation.
Many fragments of common knowledge about this world remained in his mind, allowing him to quickly familiarize himself with his new surroundings.
“Oh, that.
I had some things to take care of last night and ended up staying quite late.
Sorry for making you worry.”
That was how one was supposed to interact with people normally…
right?
Iruka scratched his head and forced a faint smile.
Unfortunately, his mental state was so terrible that his smile looked even worse than crying.
The fat man was visibly startled and swallowed whatever he had been about to say.
After tossing out the customary pleasantry, “Iruka-sensei, you should take care of yourself,” he hurried away.
So we weren’t actually acquaintances?
Iruka shrugged and tightened his grip on the lesson plans tucked under his arm.
Before he knew it, he had arrived at the classroom under his charge.
Taking a deep breath, he gently slid open the door—
“I dodged that!”
A black object dropped straight down.
Iruka took a step back and easily avoided it.
Then he spotted a blond, blue-eyed boy standing near the classroom entrance, his eyes narrowed and a mischievous grin curling across his lips.
It was obvious that he was the culprit who had wedged the blackboard eraser above the sliding door.
This kid…
I remember him as…
Uzumaki…
what was his name again?
Seriously, my memories are getting muddled again.
Sigh…
it’s such a pain that my soul and this body haven’t fully synchronized.
Only fragments of memories related to interpersonal relationships remain.
Whatever…
I never intended to concern myself with my predecessor’s relationships anyway.
“Tell me, is this how you welcome your new homeroom teacher?”
As Iruka spoke, he was about to step inside when the corner of his eye caught an unnatural sheen on the floor.
There was clearly something unpleasant spread across it.
Oil?
Iruka could already imagine the smug look on the boy’s face when he slipped and fell.
With a sigh, Iruka found himself full of questions.
Were the children here really not afraid of their teachers?
In his original world, students naturally held a certain degree of fear toward teachers.
Having been a student for more than a decade, he knew that better than anyone.
He had even been somewhat pleased with his new identity as a teacher, thinking that he would finally get to experience what it was like to lead a class of children.
He had never expected reality to differ so greatly from his imagination.
Looks like I’ll have to teach these little brats what it means to be students.
With that thought, Iruka gently set his foot down.
At the same time, the blond boy’s lips slowly curled upward.
“Hehehe…
Hahahaha!
Haha—”
The boy suddenly stopped laughing.
That was because Iruka had simply walked across the oil-slicked floor and was calmly approaching him.
Before he could react, Iruka was already standing beside him.
“Kid, as your homeroom teacher, I’m going to teach you your first lesson.”
Iruka bent down and leaned close to the blond boy’s ear, speaking in a sinister tone.
“Remember this: never celebrate too early before you know the result.”
Naruto merely shrugged in disappointment and replied indifferently, “Yeah, yeah, I get it.
I’ll go stand in the hallway as punishment.”
He seemed thoroughly accustomed to it.
As he spoke, he turned and began walking toward the classroom door.
“Wait.”
The boy turned around in surprise, only to find Iruka looking at him calmly.
There was none of the harsh gaze he was used to receiving from the villagers.
No disgust.
No contempt.
Nor was there any particular warmth or emotion—only an exceptionally calm gaze.
Having been rejected and hated by those around him for so long, Naruto had naturally become sensitive to the way others looked at him.
Yet he could find nothing in Iruka’s eyes that resembled the looks he had grown accustomed to.
“Who told you to leave?”
Iruka suddenly grabbed him by the collar and gave him a sharp toss into the classroom.
With just the right amount of force, the blond boy landed rather awkwardly in a seat in the last row.
“You dared to play a prank on your new homeroom teacher.
Don’t think that standing in the hallway for a while is enough to settle this.
Listen here, kid—you’ve gotten yourself into trouble.
Big trouble!”
“Damn it, this guy’s strong!”
The boy muttered under his breath as he rubbed his backside.
Hearing Iruka’s words, however, he showed no sign of backing down.
“Hmph!
Who’s afraid of who?
You violent teacher!”
Throb.
A strange sound seemed to echo from Iruka’s forehead.
“Interesting kid.
Heh…
it’s been a long time since I’ve met such an interesting kid.
So you’re the troublemaker of this class, huh?
Good.
Kid, tell me your name.”
The boy froze.
He couldn’t remember the last time someone had asked him for his name.
Nor could he sense even a trace of the obvious disgust that the adults in the village usually showed whenever they looked at him.
Sensitive as he was, Naruto could clearly feel that Iruka treated him differently from everyone else.
To Iruka, it was perfectly ordinary, but to Naruto, it was something incredibly precious.
Even though he sensed that Iruka might be different from the other adults, he still answered without the slightest bit of politeness.
“Hmph!
My name is Uzumaki Naruto.
Remember it, you violent teacher!”
“Uzumaki Naruto, huh?
Good.
I’ll remember you.
And let me give you a friendly warning: being remembered by me isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Starting today, I’ll be keeping a close eye on you.
If there’s even the slightest thing about you that dissatisfies me in the future…
hehehe…
I’ll make sure your student days are filled with memorable experiences.”
Iruka revealed a sinister grin.
It was an expression he had learned from the teachers he had encountered during his own school days.
Whenever a teacher wore that kind of smile—a smile that wasn’t really a smile at all—students would usually feel an instinctive sense of dread.
Whether Naruto was simply fearless or just didn’t understand Iruka’s expression, he continued to look utterly defiant.
“Haha!
Who’s afraid of who?
Bring it on if you’ve got the guts!”
Iruka’s eye twitched.
It seemed that unless he straightened out this stubborn brat, managing this class was going to be impossible.
In that case…
“Just wait and see.
Class starts now.”
Still thinking about how to deal with him, Iruka opened the class roster.
As the new homeroom teacher, the first thing he needed to do was introduce himself and familiarize himself, at least roughly, with the names of the students under his care.