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Diplomacy – Iruka mused – was a subject not so much discussed in the Academy back in the days when the turbulent times were at hand. But now, when the Fourth Shinobi War had ended and he himself had found peace with Kurama's mighty entity, the dark-haired man found himself visiting a lesson that had breached a topic he had always cherished in his shinobi way: the delicate act of remaining civil around petty and deceitful individuals instead of jutsuing their asses into oblivion. Of course his former days at the Mission Office created a rather obvious contrast to that philosophy, but then again, handling jounins was very much different from nodding and bowing to every little whim of a noble client. First of all, most of the upper ranks didn't quiver in fear after the mighty explosions of volume, so who was he to deny the office interns from witnessing the power that a few well-placed hand seals and conveniently placed bottles of ink had. Secondly, if a jounin couldn't handle the fact that the lower rank desk workers had bested them in the game of sharp wits, it made it all easier for the office nins to report the shifty individuals to Hokage so that the rest of the shinobi population was kept fairly safe from friendly fire.
On the other hand, considering his active field career, Iruka admitted that the act of being diplomatic was also much more than just refraining from maiming anyone whose face or nasal whining one didn't like. It was in the discreet glances and gestures that put both the targets and the clients at ease, in the confident responses when faced with too clever foreign agents, and in the casual flirt that made all participants think lighter of life and humanity in general for the next twenty minutes before the shit hit the fan. It was present when the treaties were made, when the power balance was set, and when the whole Kage summit was feeling snappy before the first lunch break during the long negotiations. Even though the lies, the subterfuge and the warfare were the key tools of their trade, it was said that a shinobi sent on a diplomatic mission faced the true challenge of being a professional spy, since the art of social communication between the high, the middle and the low classes was something not many were well-educated enough to master fluently. Twisting the words and revealing the meanings between the carefully drawn lines was a tasking job to many, impossible to some and an endless source of inspiration to a few like the notorious Umino-san, the new headmaster of Konoha Shinobi Academy.
In that sense, it was a very good thing that the senior diplomat who had accompanied the Fire Daimyo's entourage the other day when the infamous Ramen Shop Incident had occurred was one of the many who still sought out Iruka's company whenever visiting Konohagakure. The elderly man had done all in his power to ensure that the unfortunate event had lead to nothing more than a reasonably long list of demanded compensations towards the Daimyo's court. As the things had been cleared out, however, the man had also casually blackmailed both the awkward headmaster and the frustrated Rokudaime to visit his manor on the coming weekend for afternoon tea, and to share some light to a curious event of him having witnessed Hatake-sama discreetly pecking Umino-san's lips during the moment when the older man had pushed Ichiraku's shop curtains aside in order to let his master enter.
The stray memory of that particular discussion with the Fire court's representative caused Iruka's full lips twitch upwards during his inspired lecture to the third graders on how to go about when introducing oneself to a client who came from a different social culture – when the door to the young Aburame-sensei's classroom opened.
Later, when their parents came to fetch them from school and interrupted their games in order to get them focused on the trying task of facing their homework, little did the young students of the Konoha Shinobi Academy know what they stirred in the village's grapevines when they told their guardians that on that day, they had learned that for one, their Rokudaime Hokage-sama clearly did not know that kissing headmaster Umino-san straight on the nose wasn't part of the proper greeting etiquette in Konoha, and for two, Umino-san was awfully good at showing in practice what it meant to be 'diplomatic', even though not many of the kids understood the part where the whole Hokage's entourage had been firmly booted out of the classroom - much to the amusement of the shinobi ambassadors from Suna, Kumo and Iwa who had been visiting the rebuilt Academy.