Chapter 46
When was the last time he had woken up so early to train? Iruka couldn't remember. By this point, he usually would still be passed out, or at best, nursing a hangover. Not sparring with Sai and Shin. After all, the sun hadn't even risen above the horizon.
But he couldn't sleep. In the past few days, he found himself waking up in the middle of the night, not able to rest even a bit. Nightmares continued to torment him. It had gotten even worse lately.
It was so bad that every morning he tried to reach for his flask, which was in Tsunade's hands right now. He could only endure it, but damn, he was getting tired of it all. And now he started to remember why he had started drinking to begin with.
Well, he was too stubborn and spiteful to off himself. And he couldn't allow Tsunade to win. Even though he had no idea what game they were even playing, or if she knew she was playing it with him. But still, he won't allow her to win. He just had to endure it, and how important was sleep to a human, anyway?
Iruka reckoned he could survive without it. Well, only time would tell him how long he could do it, but he sure would try. There wasn't really any other choice. And he did have a lot more time without sleeping.
Time to train. As much as it made him tired, he went through it because he had nothing better to do. And Sai and Shin were far too eager to have a spar with him. They seemed quite down ever since he forbade them from trying to kill him. He even felt bad for them because of that.
Even though those two kids were still emotionally broken and could not even comprehend the basics of emotions, no matter how many times they tried, they still got better at fighting with each time they sparred. This was talent, wasn't it? Of course, he wouldn't know.
Their teamwork got even better. Both of them attacked simultaneously and from different directions. When one got too deep and was within Iruka's reach, the other wouldn't allow it. It was Iruka who got punished for the mistakes they made because he let his guard down too early, thinking he had caught one of them.
No matter if it was close-quarters combat or if they had to keep their distance, they had already mastered tactics on how to approach their target. Too bad for them, their target was him. And he didn't play by the rules.
"Let's end it here." So, every time he saw himself getting cornered, he ended it; if he didn't, he might really get killed.
Those little psychos were getting better far faster than he expected, and soon Iruka could tell he wouldn't be able to keep up with them. He was already losing two out of ten times. In a year or two, it would be reversed. Well, as long as he didn't try to kill them back.
He excused their killing intent as just a product of their upbringing. They were taught to neutralize their target, even in spars. Iruka didn't seem to think it was important enough to correct their ways.
So, he also couldn't complain that they were really trying to kill him, but he had to stop when he saw them getting close to doing just that. Though sometimes he was a bit too late, and got to deal with some deep cuts on him.
"What were my mistakes?" Iruka didn't try to pretend he had won; none of them were that stupid.
"Your reactions were slow," Shin said first. "There were multiple times you could have countered us, but you were just a moment too late to react."
Well, it seemed his lack of sleep was already catching up to him. He did feel groggy, and his body was quite stiff lately. He only hoped he could get used to it soon. But he might need to look into alternative ways to get some sleep.
"You weren't aggressive enough; rather than aiming at our vital points, you changed the trajectory of your attacks to just wound us."
So, they already noticed. Sai was right about that. He would need to try harder next time so they wouldn't catch on to that. Well, since he had a lot more time right now, he should focus on his speed. He was on the verge of getting to a similar level as Shisui with his body-flicker jutsu.
If he could master it, he wouldn't have such a hard time with these two. But he lacked Shisui's talent and Sharingan to do it. Even if his body could move that fast, his eyes and mind couldn't. It would take a long time for him to get used to it.
Ending the training for now, Iruka returned home while those two were following another poor soul around to try to understand humans better. There were still a few hours until he had to leave for the academy, so he went to his workshop.
As he worked on his poisons, antidotes, and new concoctions, a thought emerged about creating something that would help him sleep. But he would rather not. He knew how dangerous it could get. And he didn't need to develop another addiction after he stopped drinking.
Still, now that Tsunade was in the village, he could start working on something he always wanted. There was no way to build up immunity to poison, but there were ways to build up resistance to it. So, Iruka was going to hit two birds with one stone.
Using his knowledge of poisons and his experience, he would make his students suffer unimaginable pain. Well, not that much pain; he wasn't a monster. He was just going to make them extremely tired, sensitive, nauseous, and uncomfortable in many other ways.
It was to recreate real-life battles. The feeling of losing too much blood. Not sleeping for days. Not eating or even resting for days. Getting injured in many ways. Those feelings would be hard to recreate in a safe environment otherwise.
And at the same time, their bodies would get used to poison. Well, more to a foreign substance trying to harm their bodies. With time, their bodies would build up resistance against it. Their bodies would learn to fight any harmful foreign substance entering them.
But even with his experience, he couldn't predict how people would react to certain poisons. Some would show a lesser reaction, others a far greater one. So, he needed someone of Tsunade's skill on standby to be able to treat them if something unpredictable happened.
As much as he was desperate to prepare the last-year students of the Academy, he wasn't going to let them die because of his training methods. As hard as he was going to be on them, there were lines he would never cross.
…
"Shikamaru, are you alright?"
Only in very rare moments would one be able to see a Nara out of bed before the sun rose. Those who knew them would be terrified of what it indicated. Some would think that a war had started, and in Shikamaru's situation, they wouldn't be so wrong.
As his father yawned and looked at Shikamaru with concerned eyes, the boy had just finished dressing in his training gear. He even put on weights on his wrists and ankles. Something that made his father seem even more concerned.
"I am going to train," Shikamaru replied. "Sorry for waking you up."
His father just stood in place, too shocked to say anything at all. As Shikamaru was about to leave, his father stopped him. He knelt before him so their eyes would be on the same level. Then, he pulled him into a hug.
"Shikamaru, no matter what you are going through, I will always be here." Shikamaru just listened to his father, as he had no idea what he was talking about. "You can always talk to me. And if you can't, just remember no matter what, I will be by your side. Don't suffer alone."
"Sure," Shikamaru pushed his father away and walked out of the house.
"Shikaku! What happened to our son?" Just as he left, he could hear his mother cry out.
"I don't know, dear; all we can do is stay strong and hope for the best. We can only hope that he will be able to push through it."
What a bunch of weirdos. It was too bothersome to explain why he was out so early to his parents, so he just ignored their crying as he met up with Choji and Ino. They were just as tired as he was from getting up so early.
But there was no other choice. They refused to fall behind. Whatever Iruka-sensei was planning, they had to be prepared. So, the three of them decided to train together, to learn together, and stay together in hopes they would be able to survive what was to come.
It wasn't just them who thought so; everyone in the classroom shared the same opinion of what was happening with Iruka-sensei. Surprisingly, it was Naruto who was the first to say anything. Though, not so surprisingly, what he said was stupid.
Stupid and right. Naruto declared that he wouldn't fall for Iruka-sensei's trap anymore and that he would be the one to catch Iruka-sensei by surprise, which ignited their desire to do the same.
Though not even for a second did Shikamaru believe that they could ever surprise that cold-eyed veteran shinobi, he still decided with the others that they would train harder and take the fight to him, rather than wait until he decided to enact his plan, whatever it was.
After all, this was a battlefield. That's what Iruka-sensei said, and all of them took it to heart. Though most of them had their own methods to train and were too proud, like Sasuke, to ask for help, Shikamaru still believed that they were in the same boat and would fight together when the time arrived to do so.
…
Cracking his neck, Iruka looked at one of his students writhing in pain on the ground. Well, that concoction was meant to give him itchy skin, but it worked a bit too well. All Iruka wanted was to make him uncomfortable, yet now he couldn't really say that.
"I can do this." Yet after a few minutes of getting used to it, the kid stood up and got into a fighting stance against his opponent, who was blind.
That wasn't what Iruka wanted to do either. And he was now doubting his skills and experience in handling poisons. There was no way it was permanent, but a part of him still got a bit scared of that. Good thing he had an antidote; now he only hoped it worked.
He really didn't want to explain to Tsunade and then to many other people why those kids were in these kinds of conditions. For now, he played it cool and acted like it was what he intended to do. But he made sure to lessen the amount of poison he would use from now on by quite a bit.
"In battle, one doesn't know what would happen to them; blood and dirt, sweat and dust, could easily irritate anyone's skin to the point it felt like ants were walking all over them. Or they could be bugs crawling all over your skin, but you still need to fight to survive." Iruka quickly made up some scenario to cover up his mistake. "Getting blinded is more common than anyone thinks. Blood, dirt, or sudden light could burn your eyes, and there is nothing you can do about it. You still have to fight, even while not knowing what is going on around you. Now show me how you two would handle falling into this kind of situation."
Even though he sounded like an unconcerned and cold teacher, he was watching them attentively. The moment they showed worse symptoms developing, he was taking them to Tsunade. He had already sent his shadow clone to locate her.
Iruka was already used to being surprised by these little shits. And yet, it still surprised him when they accepted their situation without a question. They accepted everything Iruka threw at them without a question. To the point where Iruka was questioning where their trust in him came from.
After a few moments of getting used to their conditions, his two students started to move. The one with the itchy skin moved first, aggressive, trying to end the fight. The blind one was passive and defensive. Keeping his distance and only defending.
Again, he grew proud of them. They acted as they should. The one with the itchy skin tried to finish the fight as soon as possible, as he probably wanted to treat whatever was happening to him. The blind one was just defending himself, not even trying to do anything funny, as he had no other choice but to wait out the symptoms.
Surprisingly, these simple decisions weren't so simple to a lot of shinobi. So, it filled Iruka's heart with pride that these students of his were doing what he was teaching them. If only he had more time with them, maybe he would even learn their names.
Turning his eyes away from his students for a second, Iruka looked over his shoulder to see someone spying on him. Surprisingly, it was Shikamaru. He was discreet; he would give him credit for that, but he couldn't escape Iruka's eyes.
What was he doing? Oh, well, maybe he was just curious about how he trained other students. But then again, he was talking about the lazy genius Shikamaru. For him to do something was already concerning enough. Too bad Iruka was too tired to care.
A.N. As always, thanks for reading and supporting me, so I can continue writing without any concerns, and if you want more, up to seven more chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852.