Okay I'm in love with this particular chapter. The entire story is intriguing but this one really caught my attention.

I have to stop to leave a review here because this is just too amazing. The conflicting view points between Iruka and Ibiki was amazing to see. The complexities you display in your interpretation of shinobi is amazing. I love your work with Iruka. Thank you so much for making this great piece.

This universe you've built for Iruka is beautiful. Harsh but beautiful. I love all the interconnected stories. Great work!

I adored this fic!

That was an intensely charged ending.

Beautiful!

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"Yes, it didn't exactly use words, but it felt nice, and when I put my hand on it, I could feel our heart beating."

"You mean your heart beating," corrected Suihou.

"No," said Iruka. He had his eyes on the dappled shadows shimmering in the forest floor. "I don't think so."

In the mission room, when people talk about you, they say you're foolishly compassionate. They scoff at you, but you should understand that it's their jealousy talking. They might die in battle, but they still don't have your kind of courage, and they know it.

Boys eat more and have god-awful manners. Girls are much brighter.

'But no sleeping for sensei, no,' the darkness crooned, and light refracted, incandescent, off of eager, watching eyes.

At its base, a throng of dogs had gathered, barking hysterically and pawing at the already scarred trunk. An equally animated pack of youngsters was also present, as well as a number of adults who were barely hiding their host of grins and chortles behind stiff cheeks and forced coughs.

That is, if one used the word 'legitimate' in the very loose and flexible way of the shinobi.

But even if I have no special sight, then at least I'm not blind to the destruction I'm reeking on my own children!

He saw a person who had managed to spark the intellect of a immature awareness, entangled in a wandering wood.