Iruka Umino

- Iruka as a child. - Iruka as he appears throughout most of the series. - Iruka as he appears in The Last: Naruto the Movie. 1/3 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 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.

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 (who would go on to serve as a mentor for him), including one time about a year after he lost his parents.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 after being injured while on mission lead by Kakashi Hatake. Recognising his heart and compassion might end up injuring himself or others, Iruka decided to retire from field work and become a teacher, as 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.