Work Text:
***
Iruka had heard the complaints before. Had heard them for the past couple of years in fact but he could attest that it had gotten worse, especially in the last eight months. More and more of his Academy staff were complaining about the attitude given to them by one Uzumaki Boruto.
It had made Iruka sigh because he’d thought having parents would have curbed the Uzumaki disruptive nature. He had, over several late night dinners with Kakashi, heard about horror stories from Kushina’s days in the Academy, something apparently Minato had never brought up but Kushina had at every opportunity. He himself remembered Naruto’s own Academy days with both pride and a grimace twisted onto his face. And while he understands that Naruto is busy with his Hokage duties and Hinata devotes a lot of her time to Himawari - at just gone five, she certainly needs it more than Boruto who stands at a bold ten - Iruka had thought Boruto would be less of a hassle.
That is very much turning out not to be the case.
His latest endeavours have ranged from pulling pranks to interrupting classes to skipping them all together. And while Sarada can ignore his influence, Iruka’s staff are now lamenting that Shikadai and Inojin very much do not. The trio skip out at least once a week and it speaks to Boruto’s charisma that he can convince Shikadai, of all people, to join him because Shikadai is almost as lazy as Shikamaru and has Temari’s wrath hanging over his head.
Which perhaps is why Iruka decides to give Boruto’s poor teacher a break one morning and step in. The lecture is on clans of Konoha that have since died out and Iruka hates that they are one mission gone awry away from having the Hatake clan join that list.
He gives the class a hefty twenty-two pages to read and a questionnaire to go along with it. He assigns them an hour and they groan but everyone gets to work, Boruto included. Which, Iruka can admit, he didn’t expect. He’d barely protested and either he’s being on his best behaviour for him or Boruto takes some time to get warmed up. The answer, unfortunately, is the latter and fifteen minutes later Boruto drops his pencil and takes to staring out the window. Another five and he’s subtly trying to get the attention of Sarada in front of him. She swats him away and Boruto huffs. Another five minutes and he’s loudly complaining that he’s bored.
“Then double check your answers,” Iruka drawls, knowing damn well that they’re going to be blank.
Boruto doesn’t even pick up his pencil. “I did that.”
Shikadai snorts and Boruto grins, turning his way and only not dragging him into his games because Iruka pointedly clears his throat. Boruto whines again and, as calmly as he can - an art practised through years of dealing with Naruto - Iruka sends him to sit in the hall. Boruto gapes but does it. The thump-thump of his heels kicking against the wall is heard for the next thirty-five minutes.
The bell then rings and Boruto’s gone before Iruka can call him back in and talk over his actions. He sighs and sets about collecting the papers. He gets to Boruto’s and absently gives it a once over only to freeze because it’s done. Finished, completed. Every question is answered and not lazily either. Boruto’s answers are clear and concise. He’s even gone as far as to add additional information in some questions to further back his points.
At first Iruka assumes he’s cheated but a flip through the other student’s work shows that very few of them got everything right; a lot clearly hurried or wrote the answer the second they saw a keyword, rather than reading the entire paragraph for context. Even Sarada, who does get everything right, doesn’t have the depth of answers Boruto has provided.
Also, he realises in shock, Boruto finished his work in fifteen minutes. There was no one to copy off.
Iruka freezes as he parses together what that means. Boruto, somehow, read the material and answered it in a quarter of the time needed by the majority of students. And he did so without compromising his learning. He didn’t skip areas and he didn’t just flick through the text - doing so wouldn’t have allowed him to give the answers he did. It’s also unlikely that Boruto has read this particular text before either because, honestly, it’s not something people have in their homes and Iruka even introduced it a year early just to see what Boruto would do.
Which means…what exactly?
***
Another day has Boruto blowing a hole in the classroom wall by accident and so Iruka takes him out of class first thing the next day. Boruto slumps down, very conscious of where he is as he takes a seat in the Principal’s office. He’s expecting suspension, Iruka can tell.
“You’re not in trouble,” he assures as he grabs a few books from the shelf.
Boruto frowns, deeply. “Why not Grandpa? I-...” He flushes. “I mean, Pri-”
Iruka holds up a hand. “Grandpa is fine when we’re alone.”
That eases some of the tension and the rest drops away when Iruka sits next to him rather than opposite him. Confusion takes it place and Iruka opens the textbook, flipping ahead to an area he knows Boruto hasn’t done yet. It’s all on angles and velocity.
“I want us to go through this together.”
“Why?”
“Just because. Humour me, okay?”
Boruto seems to suspect it’s a trap but does so, leaning forward slightly. His eyes scan the page lightning fast and he’s reaching for a pencil before Iruka’s done reading through a third of it himself. The example questions are solved within seconds and, after a quick consultation with the answers in the back, are shown to be correct, his calculations flawless. He’s already flipping to the next page before Iruka has time to process.
Because that’s fast. Exceptionally fast.
No wonder Boruto’s playing up in class if this is the speed he learns at. He’s finishing well ahead of the others and isn’t being given anything else to fill up the time. He isn’t, Iruka realises as Boruto polishes off another page, being challenged at all.
He stops Boruto before he starts a third set of problems and flips him to the end of the chapter. It should be near impossible to answer these questions as Boruto hasn’t learnt all the elements yet but while it takes him longer, slows him some, he is still able to do it. He parses information together and applies strategies of his own to find the answers, extrapolating from what he already knows at a rapid rate.
Iruka swaps him to another subject, chakra theory this time, and asks him to read the chapter to him. That makes Boruto pause.
“Aloud?”
Iruka frowns because Boruto can absolutely read so he can’t see the issue. “Is there a problem with that?”
Boruto huffs. “I guess not. It’s just…slow, you know?”
Ah. Of course. He can’t speak as fast as his mind can take in information so reading aloud slows him down. Which, Iruka realises with a wince, could make classes boring. Boruto has to sit and listen and the knowledge transference must feel like an age for him. But, give him the book and he’d be done in minutes. Both situations feel like a loss. Unless.
“Grandpa?”
“Sorry, sorry, no. Just read it in your head. I want a summary at the end though, okay?”
Boruto nods and gets back to work and Iruka takes the silence to think. And plan.
***
He pulls Boruto out every afternoon class for the next week, ignoring the snickers Boruto gets sent as his classmates assume his actions are finally getting consequences. Boruto snaps at them to get off his case but his ears are flushed so obviously he’s embarrassed too, meaning he hasn’t figured out what Iruka’s doing, testing for. Not that he minds so much when Iruka throws him into practical lessons. Treewalking takes Boruto less than an hour and, two days later, he’s confident in water walking as well - and not just on still water, on any kind of water, no matter how fast, how deep, how turbulent.
He already knows the shadow clone jutsu and, according to the chakra test they did together, Boruto’s affinity is very starkly lightning. Which is an element Iruka knows nothing about - he’s water himself but can pull off fire in a pinch - but it very firmly brings to the forefront of Iruka’s mind someone who is.
“No.”
Iruka groans, burying his head in hands. “It’s three hours a day, four days a week. I’d even let you do two and a half.”
“No.”
“Kakashi.”
“Iruka, I never wanted a genin team and look at what I did end up with.”
Iruka cringes because yes, that’s very fair. For Kakashi’s only genin team to be those three is a punishment he’d wish on no one. And yet,
“Boruto wouldn’t be on a team. He’d just have you as a private tutor. And only until he’s old enough to graduate.”
Kakashi is unmoved. “And who else has been in this exact scenario?” An eyebrow ticks up. “I can tell you first hand, it doesn’t work.”
Iruka sighs, taking one of Kakashi’s hands in his and thumbing over his knuckles. “You say that like you aren’t an incredible shinobi,” he murmurs.
There’s a snort. “Broken, I think you mean.”
Iruka’s grip tightens ever so slightly. He wants to glare, to snap that that isn’t true, but he knows now isn’t the time. When Kakashi’s in a mood like this, when his self-depreciation gets this bad, he doesn’t need arguments, doesn’t want people to try and pick him up. He just wants a warm hand and the knowledge that Iruka isn’t going to walk away, to leave him, like so many others have.
Still, he murmurs, “He would never leave the village. He has a family he can fall back on. He just needs someone to challenge him. In a safe environment.”
Kakashi hums but says no more. Iruka takes it and laces their fingers together. Kakashi’s smile is small but it’s there and, right now, it’s more than enough.
***
“I’ll do it.”
Iruka’s head snaps up, almost knocking over his coffee as he whirls around to face the window. “What?”
“But only three days. And I remain on the mission roster.”
“You have to be on time.”
There Kakashi hesitates but Iruka is unmoving. He points to all the paper work around him.
“I’m reworking Boruto’s class schedule to make this work and I can’t have him sitting on the Academy roof for hours waiting for you. That’s unfair to him and is a poor reflection on me.”
That more than anything has Kakashi awkwardly acquiescing because of course it does. Kakashi may be lazy and uncaring in many ways but only in regards to himself. If someone else’s reputation is going to be damaged because of him, well, he gets his act together. Which is as frustrating as it is touching because Iruka knows he can be on time, he just…isn’t. It’s a conscious choice.
Still, he’s doing Iruka this favour so he can’t look a gift horse in the mouth. “Thank you, Kakashi.”
All he gets in return is a, “Mah, it was nothing Iruka” but they both know, for Kakashi at least, that it’s a lot more than that.
***
Before he brings all this to Boruto, there’s one, or two, more people he needs to speak to and get approval from. Which is why Iruka finds himself outside the Hokage door one bright afternoon, patiently waiting for Shikamaru to let him in. His old student waves him in when Naruto wraps up a meeting and then politely steps out, leaving them alone. Naruto’s smile is bright and he seems a bit more rested than usual.
“Iruka!” he greets, happiness flooding his tone. “It’s been awhile, yeah? The Academy’s doing well I hope.”
“It’s doing wonderfully,” Iruka assures, taking a seat. “However, there is a student there I wanted to talk to you about.”
Naruto blinks, expression turning quizzical. “Sure. Are they okay?”
“I’ll be frank, it’s about Boruto.”
Something darkens there, a hefty helping of embarrassment coming along too, and Naruto is quick to stammer out apologies. Clearly he’s heard then. Even as locked away in his office as he is, he’s aware of Boruto’s trouble making antics.
“I promise I’ll talk to him,” Naruto says quickly, Iruka not unaware of the “again” he mutters under his breath but he pulls him up.
“Naruto, he’s not in trouble.”
That makes his student pause.
“It’s more…” Iruka wonders how to word it. “He’s bored. What we’re offering isn’t what Boruto needs.”
Naruto frowns.
“Let me be clear,” he starts with, “I am forever grateful that Kakashi raised the graduation exam to twelve years old, no exceptions. I don’t think children should be sent out on missions or into war any younger than that. But,” he adds firmly. “There are reasons students like Kakashi, like Itachi, graduated so early. I believe that if Boruto had enrolled years ago, he would have graduated years ago.”
“What are you saying?”
“Naruto, Boruto’s very, very intelligent. If the other students are operating at one plus one equals two while the more advanced students are at twelve plus seventeen, Boruto’s at, I don’t know, three hundred and seven times four hundred and ninety-eight. Is he misbehaving? Yes. Is he disruptive? Yes. Because he’s bored to tears. To him, being in the Academy is the equivalent of having to watch paint dry for five and a half hours.”
Because he does do some learning during the day; he just does it so much faster.
“He’s…smart?” Naruto asks, almost sounding choked.
Iruka smiles gently. “Very. Haven’t you ever seen his report cards?”
Naruto quickly looks away. “I…they were all the same.”
So I stopped looking, goes unsaid but Iruka hears it loud and clear. He folds his arms tightly. “Naruto. I made many mistakes with you but here’s some advice so you don’t make the same ones, show Boruto you’re proud of him. Don’t get complacent. Praise him every time he tops a class instead of just expecting it. Don’t take him for granted.”
Naruto’s eyes are suspiciously wet but he nods. He takes a moment to compose himself before pasting a smile on his face. “So, Boruto. Going forward. You can’t graduate him, right?”
“No,” Iruka says, pulling out the timetable and passing it over. “But I’ve crammed all his classes into the morning and given him one on one tutoring with Kakashi other days. He’ll do sparring with the class once a week and then check in with me the other afternoon. It’s a lot,” he admits, “But I think Boruto’s up to the challenge. He needs to be challenged.”
“Kakashi-sensei won’t go for it,” Naruto says, almost apologetically. “He-”
“-has already agreed,” Iruka interrupts, laughing as the Hokage’s mouth drops open. “So, I take it you’re okay with it too?”
“O-Of course!”
Iruka smiles and has him sign off the form for a deviated learning plan before visiting Hinata. She almost seems to be expecting him, smile soft and secretive as she mentions Boruto’s been talking about their one on one classes. Ah, so even if Boruto hadn’t guessed the purpose, Hinata had. She must have known then, or seen signs.
Boruto comes home just as he’s about to leave, back stiff and eyes shining as Iruka walks him through everything. To say he’s beyond thrilled is an understatement but Iruka is quick to warn him that if he lords this over the other Academy students, it’ll be stripped away just as fast. Boruto quickly humbles himself but the little squirms of excitement are impossible to miss. He shows up the next week with a bright grin on his face and a small army of textbooks on his desk. His peers question him but Boruto just waves them off, muttering something about how he can’t sit still and movement is good for him and if that isn’t the most accurate description of Naruto Iruka has ever heard. Huh. Perhaps he should have Shikamaru introduce movement breaks to the Hokage’s office. It may send productivity sky rocketing.
Ah well, that can be someone else’s problem. He’s dealt with his.
***
Or, he has until Kakashi comes to him, three weeks later, head between his knees.
“Three days,” he’s bemoaning. “It took him three days to master the rasengan.”
Iruka sips his tea. “He’s good, isn’t he?”
There’s something akin to a whimper. “Purple lightning. He’s already learnt purple lightning.”
Iruka hides a smile behind his hand. Karma, it seems, is a wonderful thing.
***