Iruka Umino

**Iruka Umino** (うみのイルカ, *Umino Iruka*) is a chūnin of Konohagakure, who served primarily as an instructor at the Academy until being promoted to Headmaster years later.

## Background

Iruka's parents were killed in the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack twelve years before the beginning of the series. Initially, a young Iruka was present on the battlefield, and wanted to stay in order to protect his mother. His father declared that it was the parents' duty to keep their child safe from harm. He was forcibly removed from the battlefield by an unknown shinobi while he called out for his parent to no avail.

With his family gone, Iruka had no one to give him attention. Iruka thereafter became a prankster, trying to gain attention to stave off his loneliness. He would spend his time at the monument where his parents' names were engraved, and, in his darkest moments would be cheered up by the Third Hokage. Mizuki was a childhood friend of Iruka's after the Nine-Tails Attack, and usually made him feel better. In the anime, it was noted that due to other people giving Iruka more attention than they do to Mizuki, Mizuki's kindness to Iruka revealed to be an act just to gain the Hokage's approval, all the while making Iruka miserable discreetly.

In the anime, it was revealed that Iruka became a teacher because he wanted to pass on the Will of Fire to the next generation in this manner, inspired by the Third Hokage's wisdom. When Naruto became his student, he found it awkward to deal with the person containing the very monster responsible for his parents' death. He tried to ask the Third Hokage if he could not teach Naruto, though he was eventually disabused by the notion by Kakashi Hatake. Later, Naruto went into the woods to steal items from corpses. Iruka chased him down and protected him from Takigakure spies who were attacking Naruto, eventually backed up by Kakashi. After saving Naruto and bringing back the document attached to the artefact the latter retrieved, he reprimanded Naruto for such a reckless behaviour. This would surprise Naruto as this was the first time anyone in the village showed they actually cared for his well-being. He also thanked the Third for assigning Naruto to him. He thus resolved to be straight forward and deal with Naruto strictly in class from then on, in order to train him to become a fine shinobi. As a result, Iruka became the main reason Naruto did not become a sociopath like Gaara did.

## Personality

Iruka is described as being both big-hearted, and soft-hearted. This is most often seen through his teaching methods, often keeping a watchful eye over his students as they progress. This however, does not mean that he is a pushover, as he can be stern when the situation calls for it, most often seen when he shouts at his students in order to get them to obey him. Despite the tragedy of losing his parents at a young age, Iruka remained a determined and strong-willed individual with a kind disposition. This is seen from his lack of hostility towards Naruto Uzumaki who was often the victim of misplaced anger at the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox who was sealed within Naruto. Because of this, Iruka came to be one of the only adults Naruto respected in his youth as well as the only person who could control Naruto's behaviour to some degree. Naruto ignored all chūnin and jōnin who reprimanded him for painting all over the Hokage's faces and only showed fear when Iruka showed up.

As a child growing up without his parents, Iruka turned to performing antics in the Academy in order to gain recognition from others who would otherwise pass him over or look at him with pity for being an orphan. This allowed him to also see some of these signs and understand what they meant when displayed by Naruto. Due to Iruka's more nurturing, protective and compassionate nature, Naruto views him as a mentor and Iruka in turn, views Naruto as a younger brother. The two enjoy their favourite ramen dish at Ramen Ichiraku whenever Naruto returns from a mission, where Iruka gets an opportunity to see how Naruto is developing as a ninja. Iruka's refusal to allow Naruto to graduate at first was not out of spite, but merely out of caring strictness and a desire for Naruto to work harder and reach his own potential.

He also has a great sense of duty, honour and selflessness as seen when he protected Naruto from Mizuki's attack, suffering a shuriken wound in his back in order to protect him. He greatly admires both the Third Hokage who was there to help him during his troubled period as a child and believes strongly in the Will of Fire of the village. As a result, he regards the children of the village as the backbone of Konoha — even being willing to sacrifice his own life to ensure their safety.

## New era

In the following years, Iruka continued to watch serve as an instructor to the Academy and eventually was promoted to headmaster. He also continued to proudly watch Naruto grow. On the day that Naruto was to be inaugurated as the Seventh Hokage, Iruka joined the rest of the village to watch the ceremony. As he stood beside Sakura to watch the Naruto give his speech upon becoming Hokage, Iruka noticed that favourite pupil seemed off (who was really a disguised Konohamaru filling in for the knocked-out Uzumaki). While Naruto would diligently perform his duties as Hokage, Iruka noted that Naruto needed to improve his multi-tasking with his family life.
Iruka married his childhood sweetheart Izuka and they both have a son Ruka