Iroh returned from the front after six grueling months of fighting, tired and bloodied. He had honed his taijutsu on numerous opponents and begun to succeed in incorporating firebending movements into his style. Koharu sensei had made sure she did all she could to help Iroh by teaching him anything she could think of, as she wished at least one of her students would survive the war. She could admit to having grown close to the odd Uchiha boy with a kind and forgiving nature.

In fact, many of the shinobi Iroh had been stationed with had found themselves pleasantly surprised by the humor and wisdom the young boy possessed, and held quite a bit of comradery with the boy by the time he and his sensei left the base. It also didn't hurt that the young Uchiha was quite adept at using his taijutsu in combat. Now though, back in the village, he was once again treated as a fresh Genin, not that it seemed to bother Iroh. Currently, he and his sensei were making their way to the Hokage's office, presumably so that Koharu sensei could report to her old teammate. However, when they entered the room Iroh found himself standing alone, directly in front of the Hokage as he received a Chunin promotion.

Afterwards, when he spoke to his Sensei she admitted that despite his young age he already had the mindset of a Chunin, and although she wished she could continue to work with him, it simply wasn't feasible for a very important Jounin such as herself to continue to teach a single Chunin. Iroh accepted his promotion easily enough, although he was somewhat startled by how willing everyone was to promote an 8 year old, but managed to wrangle out a promise to keep in touch with Koharu Sensei. For her part, Koharu was sad to see Iroh go, but confident in his abilities as a chunin. If she wasn't, she wouldn't have allowed Hiruzen to promote him.

Unfortunately, as a Chunin, Iroh was expected to return to the frontlines after only three months, so he was determined to use his precious time off to evolve his taijutsu into something resembling Firebending. To achieve this goal he would need to be able to control fire nature chakra, and for that he needed a teacher. Koharu Sensei was more than happy to point him in the direction of the best fire natured ninja she knew, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief that her student had finally decided to learn how to do more with his chakra than the few C and D rank Jutsus She had managed to force him into learning. It wasn't as if he had small reserves, or struggled to learn any of the techniques she taught him. he had easily picked up all of the chakra enhancement techniques like tree walking and body strengthening, but was almost dangerously focused on his taijutsu. Iroh had been able to survive with only his taijutsu, but it was more than past the time for him to diversify his skills.

Iroh met with Kagami Uchiha the next day to start learning how to harness his fire nature. Both teacher and student were surprised to find a like minded Uchiha in the other. It wasn't often that one came across an Uchiha that was willing to socialize so openly, and they quickly bonded over their shared experiences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Iroh took to using fire natured chakra quite easily, but that didn't mean that Kagami was running out of things to teach him.

They worked on refining his control of chakra, and after some thought Iroh also decided to explain the idea of firebending to Kagami. Kagami didn't quite understand the philosophies Iroh was spewing at him, but he could understand how devastating a taijutsu style that utilized fire natured chakra could be. So, in light of this, Kagami decided that they would only be focusing on harnessing raw fire chakra during their training, instead of wasting precious time teaching Iroh any Jutsus. After a month of training together, Kagami was called back to the front lines, but that month had been enough. Iroh was once again able to run through his basic firebending katas. It was still a work in progress as the technique was very chakra intensive, so he wasn't able to use fire as freely as he wanted. Still, it was something, and Iroh was confident that with more practice, he would effectively be able to use his style in battle.