See, Iruka could had a much more impactful event during the Pain attack, unlike a certain Hyuga who came out of nowhere (also acting like a selfish, lovey-dovey dumb b****) because that's what "the fans" wanted. No, that wasn't what the actual fans wanted in the first place because someone (I bet it was the editor at the time) wanted Hinata for "better" relevancy and to start rile shipping fans. Ignoring the fact that she wasn't even that high of the list in terms of Naruto's important people.
Replace Hinata and that goddamn confession part. Add in Iruka, he can make a great speech about Naruto to provide more impact/heartwarming/approaching suspense to the readers, knowing that he's in "danger of being killed off". Goes in to attack but then Pain counters and stabs him, similar on what he did to Hinata. Cue Naruto becoming 5+ Tails.
Same result but better impact and value to audiences. Not to mention to bring back Iruka to relevancy, in regards of popularity.
Exactly! I can imagine Iruka just having a sixth sense moment after helping with evac, and that he just rushes as fast as he could. After all, Konohamaru was similar, since he came to Ebisu's rescue, and he showed just how much Naruto taught him when he showed he learned the Rasengan from him.
And yeah, I totally feel this was the work of Kishi's editors trying to butt in and put too many hands in the cookie jar with the story. Now I think for my fanfic, I wanna do that with Iruka, but what would be different is Naruto going berserk, mostly because he and Kurama would have a rocky, but growing steadily bond after earlier stuff, and that they both feel rage, Naruto feeling it from all Pain/Nagato did to the Leaf as well as killing Jiraiya, Kurama feeling it due to his refusal to be anyone's puppet anymore, leading them to sync up and become a different kind of tails level than just the kind of standard 5 tails he DID take in canon.