Iruka and friendships

I hope everyone is rocking that 2020 vision. :tada:

So I’m really curious about other takes re: Iruka interacting with other adults. In the manga (as I sort of noted in my miso soup fic) he is only ever shown as interacting in a friendly manner with Sandaime, (Godaime), and Kakashi. He is also… only talking about Naruto in all of these scenes? As far as I remember?

Like, I do enjoy the social butterfly!Iruka trope, but if I place him next to Kakashi who has Gai and Asuma and Kurenai, it seems strange. Also, I’d love to hear about friendship headcanons! (A personal fav for me is Ibiki.)

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Honestly? Honestly, I agree. I used to accept the social butterfly trope, but the more I thought about it the more I think that it’s not my headcanon.

Besides the whole “Iruka has Mizuki as a best friend” filler-canon, and assuming that the Academy and the Mission Desk shifts are separate jobs, Iruka works two jobs. Maybe he’s incredible at managing his time, but honestly? People working two jobs often don’t have enough time to do anything, let alone socialise. They’re far too tired at the end of the day. Unless they’re extroverts, then go them.

Secondly, although I’m entirely fond of the whole “come back to the mission desk and see the smiling face of Iruka accepting your report” trope, generally the bureaucratic nature of government agencies tend to be accepted as a tedious arrangement. Think a retail job, basically. As much I like the whole “terrorising the shit out of jounin to make them behave” realistically, you can’t really do that to someone who outranks you. A firm rejection would be acceptable for me, in the line of “it’s the rules, and I’m not compromising my job for your inadequacy.”

Then again, this is fiction, and maybe the mission desk is more closely related to, say, a guild where you choose missions casually more than a place where you accept missions (should you choose to accept it :stuck_out_tongue: ). Since technically the Hidden Village is a ninja guild.

All that aside… I think I like Iruka and Anko friendship. I find Kotetsu and Izumo an acceptable pair of best friends too. Sometimes I accept Asuma as a brother figure, but I personally think Sandaime’s treatment of Iruka is sometimes the individual equivalent of CSR, so he’s not really that close to the Sarutobis.

Iruka and Ibiki is cool tho!!! Also accepted hahaa

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I think Iruka is one of those people who appears to be a social butterfly because he’s generally a very likeable guy, easy to get along with, etc.; but when it comes down to it, the people he chats with (other teachers, parents, staff at the mission desk) are only acquaintances at best, and there’s only a few people he can call proper friends. And I think they would have the sort of friendship where they can, and do, go months, maybe even years without speaking, but still pick up where they left off like nothing has changed; because with all his responsibilities, I can imagine Iruka finding it hard to manage a social life, too.

My headcannons for Iruka’s friends:

I love Anko as a best friend. I feel like she has the same sort of chaotic energy as young, prankster Iruka, and I can picture them getting up to so much growing up.

I also like Kotetsu and Izumo as friends; but I think their goofing off would have worn Iruka down a bit as he got older and took on more responsibilities.

And if they ever had a chance to meet, I think Tenzou/ Yamato would make a good friend for Iruka, too. I feel like they’re on the same wavelength as each other as adults, and would get along well.

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