[Week 1: Getting to know the characters]
Favorite: Iruka Umino
One.
Iruka is smart. Where he lacks strength, his instinctive wits come to aid him against his opponents. He is quick with bomb traps, clever wire placements, and intuitive analysis; and that’s only against his students in the Academy.
Two.
“He’s a former prankster?” Those words are usually met with astonishment as no one in the village could imagine Iruka being such a thing. Of course it was a rumor. Only the Third Hokage knew if this was true or not, and that secret left with him in his grave. Naruto was an amateur compared to Iruka. At least he never got caught.
Three.
Iruka decided to become an instructor in front of the Hokage Monument after failing a mission. To prevent future generations from making the same mistakes he did, he took up the job in hopes of being a good instructor. Until the Third Hokage revealed his student was Uzumaki Naruto.
Four
Iruka considers Naruto his younger brother. Unfortunately, like a little brother, Naruto usually doesn’t listen to him.
Five.
Umino Iruka means “sea dolphin,” which quickly arises suspicion that he is originally from Kirigakure. Whenever Iruka was teased for his name, the Third always hugged him and told him, “As long as your loyalty is to the village, and to the future generation, then it matters not where you came from.”
Six.
Iruka is a gentle person. He never raises his voice, unless it’s Naruto. He doesn’t get angry a lot either, except that one time with a certain Jounin (Kakashi) who shall remain nameless. Even then, he kind of bit his tongue to stop himself from mouthing off his superior.
Seven.
Iruka’s hair is actually black. His mother and father had black hair, so it was funny how no one thought why he came out with brown hair. He dyed it very young after a prank gone badly.
Eight
Speaking of which, Iruka looked a lot like his father minus the mustache. His face wasn’t rough, most likely because he inherited his mother’s facial structure. He thinks this is good because his father looked intimidating, even if he was the nicest man on Earth.
Nine.
Iruka became a genin at age 11, which is a year younger than most academy students. He was on a quick road to chuunin until his parents died from the Kyuubi. After that, losing all motivation delayed his promotion until he was 16.
Ten.
Iruka keeps a distracted look nowadays. Mostly, because he is worried about Naruto doing something to get himself harmed. But he is nonetheless proud of what he’s become and if he managed to turn Naruto around from a bad future, then he feels like he’s succeeded as an instructor. ~
Notes for Iruka No 8.: Iruka actually has black hair in the manga; every time he shows up in the polls, Kishimoto colors his hair black and this is consistent. So it's rarely known because the anime depicts his hair brown, that black is actually his hair color. I suspect that since Shikamaru has a similar hairstyle, they decided to separate the two by giving one of them brown hair in the anime.
~
Least Favorite: Sai (because he’s damn hard to write)
One.
“You look pale,” Gai commented. Sai looked at him with a blank expression, mentally dubbing Kakashi’s so-called rival, dense.
“I always look pale.”
Two.
It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. Given the circumstances of his childhood, this fact did not apply to Sai. It was a lot of work to smile and make it seem genuine than people already thought it was. That’s why he decided to go to the library in hopes of finding an ultimate exercise to practice his smiles,
Three.
Sai had bad luck; or maybe Lee had a canny sense of timing. On the way to the library, Lee spotted him and agreed to tutor him in smiling.
“With hard work, you will have a smile that might someday rival mines!” he grinned, thumbs up.
Sai blinked. “Is the teeth shine included?”
Four.
Sasuke was Naruto’s bond. In a way, Shin was the same way . He watched the way Naruto would drift into thought during a mission and he constantly wondered if he was thinking of the mission or about Sasuke. There was more to their bond that anyone could understand. Sometimes, even he didn’t but he never thought to talk Naruto out of it. There wasn’t a book in the world that could explain that bond to him.
Five.
Sai has always wanted to fight Kakashi-senpai. As ANBU members, he wanted to see how far Danzo’s training has taken him.
Six.
Yamato likes to talk to Sai a lot, mostly about Naruto’s sleeping habits. That guy could never get enough sleep, which was unfortunate because he looked bad in the mornings.
Seven.
Sai disliked being compared to Sasuke, and once he was even mistaken for him.
“We caught Sasuke for Naruto-nii,” Konohamaru stated triumphantly.
Tsunade, Kakashi, and Yamato looked at the three kids as Sai lay on the floor calmly. He didn’t want to upset the children, which is why he let himself get caught. He just didn’t expect them to take him to the Hokage herself.
Tsunade twitched. “Brat, untie Sai already.”
Eight.
Drawing was his favorite pastime because he could be alone. Unfortunately, Ino and Sakura took it upon themselves to watch him this morning.
“Will you draw me?” Ino asked coyly.
Sakura snorted. “He doesn’t draw pigs.”
Ino growled. “What?!”
Sai looked at them both. “I don’t draw ugly things.”
Nine
Naruto trusts him…he thinks. Not everyone does, which is fine with him as long as Naruto does. There’s something about him that makes Sai want to try though. He has that effect on everyone.
Ten
No matter how much he tried, Lee could not get him to smile like his sensei. It was nearly physically impossible and Sai was determined to find out if they took some medicine pills to accomplish this feat.