Iruka Umino

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

Appearance

Iruka is a man of average height and build. He has black hair (brown in the anime) that he keeps in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar that runs across the bridge of his nose — which he has had since his youth. He wears the standard Konoha shinobi outfit complete with forehead protector, sandals, and flak jacket. His sleeves are also rolled up about ¼ way. As a child he wore a simple outfit along with mesh-armour underneath it. In The Last: Naruto the Movie, two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Iruka's overall appearance stayed the same. The only noticeable difference is he wears a an Uzumaki clan logo armband on his left arm with the new standard flak jacket and high-top sandals. Several years afterwards, Iruka has aged further, with slight creases around his mouth. He also abandons his forehead protector and shinobi attire, and instead dons a grey zipped shirt.

Abilities

As a head instructor of the Academy, Iruka is clearly proficient in all forms of basic ninja skills. He has some skill with Barrier Ninjutsu, using it mostly for binding purposes, such as with the String Light Formation, and in the anime, the Sealed Binding Formation. He is also able to use nature transformation, possessing Fire, Water, and Yin Release. He was noted as having the potential to become a jōnin or Anbu member. In the anime, he has shown to be both skilled and knowledgeable in genjutsu, as seen when he performed the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique to test Sakura, and saw through Mizuki's illusion. He also displayed what seems to be an echolocation ability, where he could get a sonar image of his surrounding area. He was able with shurikenjutsu, being able to calculate the deflection points among a thicket of bamboos to cause a kunai to bounce at his target at unsuspecting angles.