Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ None the Wiser ❯ Then Don't ( Chapter 3 )

Title: None the Wiser

Author: The Uke Reformation

Genre: Naruto

Subgenre: Romance/Drama

Summary: There are some things not meant to be said. There are some pasts that you cannot escape. Some people that will always hunt you down. And every once in a while, there are special students that reward you for all your teaching... SasuNaru, yaoi

Rated: R for harsh language, as well as sexual and mature content.

Author's Note: At this point, I had finally goaded my darling Katana-chan into being my BETA…I'm not sure she knew what she was signing herself up for, but sign up for it she did, and she's been doing a great job ever since. This is also when the story's truly dark nature begins to reveal itself ever so slightly…I hope you all can bare with me and my unbridled love for all characters involved.

Note: Oh yeah. Yaoi. Damn straight bitch. Well…not really. It's kind of…oh never mind…

Disclaimer: Copyright The Uke Reformation, 2005. All rights reserved.

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None the Wiser

by The Uke Reformation

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Chapter 3

" If you can't touch this

Then don't. “

Week two. The end of week two to be more specific. Naruto was relatively proud of them, his first period especially. First period were the ones who revved up his day, got him started. It pleased him to have such a great body of students as he did first thing in the morning. They had gotten more talkative in the fortnight that had passed from the moment he had first met them. A few were already growing quite well on him, Haku and Akamaru formost, as well as Hyuuga Hinata.

But, looking over the notebooks he had collected in the light of his bedroom, late one Sunday night, he scowled. There were a lot of good things about first period. But there were some things about it that he just couldn't stand. Certain people that just made him bristle, that rubbed in a way so wrong it took all of the control he had to resist the temptation to start a brawl.

One of those people was the author of the spiral-bound that currently lay in his lap. His blue eyes flashed, looking it over for the umpteenth time. Smart-alecks he could handle. But things like this…

It was the assignment he had given out last Tuesday. “Write your description of history in three paragraphs” was what he had been sure (and repeatedly proven) was the work he had given. And this? This was so near intolerable, he could feel his hands tremble.

Uchiha Sasuke
Freshman History
Period 1

Assignment: Define history. Three paragraphs.

History is a systematic narrative of past events as relating to a people, country, or otherwise. These events can better furnish ones hopes and judgment in the future, as well as helping to better shed light on the true status of the present.

It is my belief that history should be treated with respect, due to the effort most historians put into their jobs, and it's importance in everyday life. Someone's personal/family history (or lineage) can define who they and what they are expected to be, as a peon of society.

History's habit of repertoire makes it a vital learning tool that most everyone should be able to fall back on.

It was probably even more offensive that the printing was far neater than anyone's he had ever seen, rivaling Haku's and Neji's in a way that almost irritated as much as the fact that he had been able to reference many of Uchiha's exact sentences in his college textbooks and Random House Dictionary in less than a few minutes. And he'd gone to the trouble to tell him so.

8/10. Well-written with nice penmanship. However, a paragraph in my class is three-four sentences long at the very least. Also, I'd like it more if your own definition of `history' were further from those I can find in textbooks/other materials of a similar nature.

And it was the sentence just below that, written in the same, meticulous print, in black ink that could have burned your skin with its chill and sarcasm.

So would I, Sensei.

He didn't think he'd been this angry with a student in his entire teaching career. And not only did that bode quite ominously, but it was saying quite a bit.

He bit his tongue and flipped further into the boy's notebook, relying on his quickly diminishing sense of self-control once again to not go scrawling obscenities all across its cover, very less his own walls.

`Little smartass bastard…'

-----

 

BANGUZUMAKI signed on at 7:44:44 PM.

dogEred signed on at 9:00:13 PM.

dogEred: Sensei!
dogEred: !
BANGUZUMAKI: evening akamaru-chan!
dogEred: :-)
dogEred: Good evening!
dogEred: How are u?
BANGUZUMAKI: im fairing wonderfully
dogEred: Terrific!
BANGUZUMAKI: and u
dogEred: Oh, I'm ttly good, sensei!
dogEred: As alwys!
BANGUZUMAKI: of course
BANGUZUMAKI: :D
dogEred: Oh, oh!
BANGUZUMAKI: what what?
dogEred: I meant to ask u.
dogEred: Cuz mi bro wants on.
BANGUZUMAKI: ?
dogEred: Have u graded the spirals yet?
BANGUZUMAKI: of course.
dogEred: Really!
BANGUZUMAKI: nevr get on w/out finishing hw first
dogEred: Awesome!
dogEred: Nd u graded mine?
BANGUZUMAKI: u r incorporated in the class grade, akamaru
BANGUZUMAKI: XD
dogEred: XD
dogEred: Can I have my grade?
dogEred: Would that b ok?
BANGUZUMAKI: 73/75
BANGUZUMAKI: u did very well
BANGUZUMAKI: as always
dogEred: Gr8!
dogEred: Thx so much sensei!
BANGUZUMAKI: :D
dogEred: ok
dogEred: I'm going to give the comp over to Kiba now!
dogEred: Thx again sensei!
BANGUZUMAKI: okay
BANGUZUMAKI: n e time akamaru-chan!
dogEred: G'nite!
BANGUZUMAKI: nite

dogEred signed off at 7:50:06 PM.

BANGUZUMAKI signed off at 11:23:00 PM.

-----

 

Naruto shot down the hall, less than two minutes behind the bell (which was oddly timely on his part, he thought) and reached the door, almost hurling himself through it as he always did.

“Aw!”

The beets came more quickly than he was expecting, before he even had time to catch his breath, instead knocking it out of him and catching him right beneath the ribs. He keeled but resisted the urge to fall straight over, clutching his stomach and trying to resist the urge to curse.

“YOU'RE LATE!”

“Only a little!”

“YOU'RE LATE NONETHELESS!” Sakura looked to be particularly upset about that particular fact this morning. Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, feeling queasy and wondering why, but not bothering to ask.

He sighed, instead, trying to recover his lungs. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

She scowled down at him. “Bad mood today, sensei, incase you hadn't noticed, so you'd better spit out whatever excuse you've got.”

The response rolled silkily off of his tongue along with its conjoined twin of a smirk.

“Got none.”

It caught her off of her guard just as much as he had wanted it to.

“…Eh?”

His smirk widened and he tried desperately to retain his innocent exterior.

“I got none. You're right to be angry. I have no excuse as to my lateness.”

He watched her eye him suspiciously.

“You can not be serious.”

“Oh, but I am Sakura-chan.”

The pink-haired girl sniffed, regaining her air of frustration. “Fine then.”

“Fine then.”

She offered him a hand up without looking at him and he received it openly. She whisked by him and out the door.

“Have a good day, Sakura-chan.”

“Right.”

The green barrier swung shut behind her. He stared after her, putting his hand on his hips almost mindlessly.

“Okay, don't tell her I told you guys this, but she is definitely PMSing.”

Laughter resounded. Naruto turned back to them and smiled widely.

“Morning you guys.”

“Morning, sensei!” A few of them called back to him, smiling just as widely as he was, laughter still ringing in their voices in a way that made him unbearably happy. He felt lifted, as if on wings of ecstasy.

“You doing good then?”

“Plenty good, sensei!” Akamaru barked.

Naruto walked forward to his lecturn at the center of the classroom, chuckling. “Excellent, excellent. The better you feel, the more fun you are to teach.”

His grin turned slightly sadistic as he reached into the cubby whole of the podium, taking out a semi-think stack of papers. “And it also make it a lot more fun to tell you…”

He saw them lean forward slightly, in hastily hidden interest, and near-about burst out in a cackle.

“…that you have a test today.”

The classroom exploded.

Akamaru screamed, leaping up from her desk with a look of absolute panic on her face. Chouji, in back, seemed to have gone a sickly pale. Haku looked surprised, to say the least. Kiba snarled, menacingly. Hinata blushed in back and fiddled at the end of her uniform shirt, looking down at her legs. Children left and right were gasping, choking, and coughing out excuses.

“What!”

“Sensei, why!”

“You said you hated grading!”

“We need time to study!”

“Aw, man, this is the only class I'm not failing, too…!”

Naruto laughed openly and began handing stacks of paper out to be passed back down the rows.

“When you get your tests, feel free to start, yuh little whiners.”

Loud groans and panicked whisperings and exclamations were emitted as his students scrambled to grab up their pens and take the papers as they were handed back.

Naruto noticed, with more-than-slight annoyance, that Uchiha Sasuke wore the same disaffected expression he always did throughout the entire performance.

-----

 

Naruto trotted into the teacher's lounge nearly unannounced, which was out of character for him, going to the kitchen area and fishing a soda out of the refrigerator. He glanced around as he popped it open and guzzled a good amount of it, his stomach gurgling in a way that almost made him cringe. He was really hungry.

Iruka looked over at him where he was reading a newspaper on the couch. “Skip breakfast again?” he said, reaching to adjust his slim reading glasses habitually, nodding and going back to his paper as Naruto grunted through a mouthful of soda in response. “You should stop doing that…” the dolphin sighed, turning a page.

“Mm,” Naruto said, gulping it down. “Where's Kakashi?” He glanced around.

Iruka shrugged. “I think he said something about football when he was in here earlier…”

“Aa.” That was that, Naruto supposed. He should have remembered that Kakashi's entire life was football at this time of year. Practice was constant, harsh and unforgiving; Kakashi was well known as one of the best, but most grueling football coaches in the nation. Konohagakure Academy had been the best team in the state ever since the scarecrow had been hired. He accepted nothing but the best. The best players, the best teamwork, the best effort, the best wins.

Because of that, Iruka and Kakashi's “getting together” had surprised him least out of all members of the staff when it finally came out. It was only predictable as hell, the blonde remembered thinking. Kakashi only accepted the best; Iruka would not tolerate himself being anything less. It was a “duh”-couple. Not one he minded, but still. Duh.

And, the way Iruka was addressing is hunger, it was also kind of `duh' that Kakashi was the one with Iruka's wallet.

Naruto sighed and popped open another soda. “That stuff's terrible for your kidneys. You know that right?” Naruto nodded back at Iruka and the dolphin sighed again, knowing full well that he was being disregarded.

A large clatter in the hallway brought both quite abruptly out of their reverie. It sounded like metal hitting tile, and the sound of it made both freeze, going stock still.

“Did you hear that?” Naruto said, his tone deathly quiet and serious as his blue eyes flashed, hardening. He took the lip of the aluminum can from his own and set it on the counter, unmoving.

Iruka nodded slowly, his expression similar as he began to rise from the couch.

They listened for a few more moments, before they heard it again. Twice. Three times. And then an accompanying thud that sounded an awful lot like a body colliding with a wall.

“Shall we, then?”

They both moved forward, swinging the door open and taking off down the hallway. The noises immediately rung even more clearly, accompanied by more thudding, and yelling voices in the empty hallways.

“Faggot!”

“Why don't you ever give up!” Clang.

“Dip-shit!” Thud.

“Just die already!” Clang, thud.

“You really think anyone likes you?”

“Yeah!”

“Stupid fag!”

“We're gunna bash your fucking head in!”

They turned around a corner and heard it at the end of the corridor. Coming from a classroom no less. It sounded like about five people beating on someone else. Why don't any of the punks eat lunch anymore? Naruto wondered to himself as Iruka and himself barreled down the hall and through the door.

And then they froze, so taken aback by what it is they saw.

The room had been dismantled. Countless desks had been tipped over, and the papers on a desk in the corner were askew. All the blinds on the windows were pulled shut. The wide white floor was scattered with skid marks, small dents and markings, and small drops of blood. Posters and the like had been ripped and torn on the wall where five boys stood, as if cemented in place, staring back at the two administrators who had just burst in upon them. Two had bloodied fists. One was holding a half of a splintered ruler, the other half of which was across the room. The metal bit at the end was a hairsbreadth away from what seemed to be the oaf's intended victim, who seemed barely conscious and was holding his wrist at an odd angle.

It was indeed this victim who decided to break the silence, turning his head dazedly to gaze over at the teachers as his classic nice guy grin slid into place, his bowl cut bangs hanging over a black eye and a bloodied lip.

“Hey, Naruto-sensei. Iruka-sensei.”

Naruto stared down at him, so shocked that he seemed to have lost all ability to speak, or even have a coherent thought bless him. Thus, Iruka was the first to say anything, seeming to be in a similar state of being.

“Lee…”

With that one sentence, Naruto's rage adjoined itself to him, billowing forth volcanically, and he exploded. Iruka had no time to stop him as the blonde practically leapt forward, grabbing the ruler from the key perpitator, and whipping it about to catch him hard in the arm. The boy yelled as the wood splintered across his biceps and he stumbled, looking to be caught completely off of his guard.

“What the hell was tha—“

Naruto grabbed his collar and rammed him back-first into the flooring. The boy yelled again.

“Naruto!” Iruka yelled, panicky from where he was holding Lee.

“Y-You can't hurt me…!” the boy yelled, his friends stumbling back from where Naruto held him against the tile by his thick throat. “You're a teacher…my parents…they'll sue…”

“You'd best shut your face you little fuck,” Naruto hissed, voice sharp with toxicity, “if you don't want me to shut it for you.”

Silence rained, and the boy looked scared. Naruto stared back at him with eyes that had gone a ghostly, glassy and pale shade of ice blue in his fury. He couldn't remember having ever been this angry at a student. Ever.

And then, of all moments for it to cue in, it clicked.

Lee had been sporting new bruises and a tired look since the second day of the first week.

Naruto picked the boy's head up and rammed it back on the floor again, flames of his thundering wrath re-ignited with vengeance.

“Aw, fuck--!” the boy choked.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THIS TO HIM! HOW DARE YOU! YOU LITTLE BASTARD! YOU LITTLE MOTHER-FUCKING BASTARD!”

If he had noticed that his fist had clenched and risen as he said this, there was doubt in his mind whether he'd have caught himself, or cared. The guy deserved to have his fucking face bashed in. Nobody deserved this, least of all Rock Lee. It wrung all throughout his brain, the impulse to punch. The impulse to punch and rip and snap bones until he was begged to stop…

Lucky for his tenure, a gloved hand caught his before it came down.

“That's enough.”

Naruto spun around to stare Kakashi in the eye, breathing hard from yelling, his whole body shaking with rage. He wanted to kill. He had never had such a desire to kill since then, and he had never in his life felt more justified. Nobody hurt his favorite students. Ever.

“Kakashi—“

“That's enough, I said.” The grip on Naruto's fist tightened, betraying the silver-haired man's own emotions. Naruto watched the scarecrow's control slip ever so slightly. Rage and fury equaling his own pulsed out of the man's skin.

Naruto's hands wouldn't stop shaking as he slowly looked back into the bully's frightened face and let go of his collar, standing and walking numbly back to Iruka who looked unbearably worried. He patted Lee's head gently, feeling dead. He couldn't stop shaking. It felt as if every muscle in his body were tensed.

The group behind him shuffled about nervously as Kakashi faced them. Naruto heard the guy he had almost walloped grumble a dark something about being choked to death as he slid back amongst his cronies. Kakashi didn't make a sound for what felt like hours. He simply stood there, staring out at them. Someone coughed. Naruto couldn't will himself away from Lee. No part of him wanted to do anything but protect right now, and some strange instinct told him to keep every hold on the boy that he possibly could.

Kakashi finally spoke out into the dead silence.

“Dosu, Zaku and Mizuki are your subordinates, are they not, Iruka?”

Iruka looked up, seeming out of it. “Mm? Oh. Yes…I suppose they are.” His eyes and voice tightened, narrowing and hardening into the deepest look of anger and shame that he openly threw at the three boys. Dosu, the one that had been leading the attack grunted and looked off. Zaku folded his arms across his chest. Mizuki looked indignant.

Kakashi nodded. “Kabuto's my charge…and then, of course, Sasuke is yours, Naruto.”

Naruto whipped around immediately.

The Uchiha, who had stood in silence at the back of the group for the entire duration, stared back at him, unwavering, looking as calm as wind on a summer's day. His hand were in his pockets, and as the two of them watched one another, he slowly sighed and closed his eyes in a passive way, as if it were nothing worth his time.

The blonde's murderous intent regained itself, increasing ten-fold.

Iruka spoke quietly. “I'm…I'm going to take Lee to the nurse's office.”

Kakashi nodded. “Quickly, I should think. Call Gai too, he's frantic.”

Naruto spoke in a level tone despite himself, still staring at Sasuke. “Call Haruno Sakura while you're at it.”

“Haruno-san…?” Iruka looked at him, puzzled.

“I expect she'll be just as worried as Gai, if not more so.”

Iruka nodded and hurried out the door without another word.

-----

 

Detention for a month. Every day for thirty-days, all five boys were to spend an hour after school. Their required GPA score to stay on the team was raised to a 3.0 and Mizuki was dropped immediately. Dosu would be required to stay an extra two hours at practice every day, and none would be included in celebratory gestures after games for their month of serving time, nor would they be credited with the .5 point bonus the school usually awarded its athletes with.

Naruto, needless to say, was far from satisfied as he walked with Kakashi. The two of them had called in subs immediately after awarding the boys with their punishment. Students weren't exactly something they were ready to deal with after a show like that.

The blonde sighed, worming his hands deeper into his pockets and feeling the tight pressure on his chest burn against the strain of inflating and deflating his lungs on a regular basis. He was high-strung and tensed to the very maximum.

Kakashi seemed to be undergoing something similar as they made their ways down to the hall towards the nurse's office, side by side. Both took comfort in the other's presence, but they were both far too angry with what had just taken place to be too consoled.

Kakashi held open the door as they pushed into a small white room with an office door to one side and a bathroom to another, and a small, uncomfortable looking bed with tissue sheets in the corner. Iruka was talking somewhat unsteadily on a wall-bound telephone beside the entryway to the bathroom, and nodded to them as they came in, not breaking his sentence.

“I'm certain that's the case Onkyou-san, but whatever the case may be, they will be punished as our administrators see fit…”

Sakura hardly glanced up as the door clicked shut behind them, but she did aim a queasy smile over at Naruto in that amount of time, and he returned it appreciatively. Lee was fast asleep, head wrapped in bandages where it lay in her lap. Naruto realized that he was smiling, as if he had never been more content in his life. Somehow, that made him smile too, and his throat tighten in a way that almost made him feel like crying. It was good to know that there was someone who would, no matter what the circumstances, appreciate the smallest of conveniences.

Why couldn't there be more people like that in the world?

Gai was watching Lee's chest rise and fall from a chair beside the bed, looking as if he had been the one beaten instead of his favorite student. His eyes were wide and unblinking as he stared, looking quite ready to faint. He was bent over slightly, his legs apart and his hands together in his lap. His skin was a sickly sort of pale green, no doubt out of the panic he was still recovering from and his fury over Lee's condition.

No one said a word except Iruka, who seemed to be having difficulties calming the woman on the other side of the phone. His own voice never changed in tone or strength, but Naruto noticed him holding the receiver away from his ear ever so slightly, and heard the static-y words on the other side of the line become almost coherent. He sighed and listened to it escalate as the conversation seemed to draw to a close.

“Yes ma'am I understand that…I assure you that I'm as upset about it as you are, but corporal punishment is hardly necessary, very less legal. Yes ma'am. I understand that, ma'am. I'll be sure to let him know that, ma'am. Alright. Yes. Every day for thirty days, yes. Please…yes, ma'am. Alright. Yes. Thankyou for your time, Onkyou-san.” He sighed softly, in a delicate way that showed his reluctance to release to this woman information of his current frustration. “I understand ma'am. Certainly. Yes. Yes…yes, alright. Thankyou. Have a good day.”

He hung up and heaved his breath out. Naruto eyed him, and noticed the clearly visible aggravation and distaste upon his cheeks.

“You okay, Iruka?”

The dolphin nodded, rubbing his temples. “I'll survive.”

“Who was that?” Kakashi said softly, looking over at them from where he was standing beside Gai.

“Zaku and Dosu's mother. She's not pleased.”

“Who is?” Naruto scoffed, smirking bitterly and looking off. “I s'ppose she wanted `em let off easier?”

Iruka shook his head. “Quite the opposite. She sounded near ready to kill them herself, or at the very least allow us to.”

Naruto suddenly felt a kindred-ship blossom between himself and a woman he had only just heard screaming over the phone at a friend he'd known his entire life.

“No doubt Naruto would live out that privilege to its fullest,” Kakashi said, chuckling lightly as he simply voiced the knowledge of everyone in the room.

Naruto nodded. “Damn straight I would.”

Kakashi gave him a look. “You should mind yourself. You can't just go around hitting students.”

“They can in Japan,” the blonde said with a scathing sort of tongue. “I don't see why we can't do it here.”

“Simple.” The scarecrow gave him a matter-of-fact look. “We're not in Japan. This is a Japanese-American private school, sure. But `American' is still part of that word. And until it's not, we preach the State's teachings in Island tongue.”

Naruto scoffed again, bitter smirk still in place.

Kakashi seemed to ignore him, dropping that particular part of the subject. “So, what's Lee's injury assessment?”

“Broken wrist and mild concussion. They're also worried that his eardrum might've been torn in a scuffle that must've taken place a few days ago in the band room…”

Naruto hissed through his teeth and swore, looking back at the unconscious boy.

Kakashi overlooked the scene again with his same calm exterior, but they could all sense the rage boiling behind his one visible eye.

Sakura looking trembly for a minute before the tears started.

Naruto went over to her immediately, getting down on the bed and putting an arm around her shoulders. She immediately turned into him and cried against his neck, hard and convulsive, sobbing for her own fear and for Lee's pain that none of them seemed to have been able to prevent. They were all quiet as the sound echoed around the room. Naruto petted the bubblegum hair without much thought, and Sakura sought him out for comfort without much of it on her part either. Her finger's still lay in Lee's dark green hair, just behind his ears, one which was bound thickly it made one wonder if it was somehow going to fall off otherwise.

Naruto bit down on his lips and let the hot tears soak into his shirt without complaint.

-----

 

The coffee shop on Dan Street was small and homely in it's own conservative way. Naruto had never liked Starbucks because there was one on every street corner, and any one you went to served the same things as all the others. The cookie cutter thing bothered him in a way not many other things could.

May Café was your classic, rundown-antique-shop-gone-wannabe-hipster sort of thing, and he liked it better. They had awesome sugar cubes, and the waitresses never minded if you just wanted to pay them two bucks and then just eat sugar cubes all day, so long as you weren't disruptive. And TenTen, who worked as assistant manager there, usually let her old ninth-grade history teacher get away with stuff like that without paying, which was nice too.

Said ninth grade history teacher sat across from his bisexual friend of a twelfth grade phys ed teacher, who was drinking black coffee with a bit of vodka mixed in. They had been here for around twenty minutes, saying next to nothing, one drinking `hard' caffeine, and the other stacking and restacking a pile of sugar cubes that were slowly diminishing in number.

Kakashi was the one to finally speak.

“Did you know he was on the football team?”

“Who?”

“Sasuke.”

“Uchiha?”

“How many Sasuke's are there?”

“Hmph.”

Kakashi sighed. “You don't care for him too much, do you?”

“He's a prissy little fuck with a stick wedged up his ass and a swollen head. How much can there possibly be to care for?” The blonde spit out a piece of cardboard he'd been chewing on and replaced it with a sugar cube.

Kakashi sighed again, and silence reigned for a few more minutes (in which Naruto downed several more sugar cubes) until he broke the silence for good.

“You'll be in charge of his punishment, you know.”

Naruto nodded with a grunt, withholding his own malicious glee at that thought. Oh he knew. Damn, did he know.

Kakashi watched him for a moment before going on.

“You gave a test today?”

“Mm-hmm.” Naruto popped another sugar cube in his mouth.

“Did you tell any of your classes beforehand?”

“No.”

Naruto looked up after a minute to find Kakashi staring at him. “What?”

“Are you certain you told none of your classes beforehand?”

“Yeeeeeah…?” There was a questioning suspicion in Naruto's voice as he leaned forward, eyes narrowing. He was certain he hadn't told anyone about that test. Not even his fellow teachers had known about it.

So where was Kakashi going with this…?

The teacher across from him sighed and reached down into the black, faded duffel bag he carried with him everywhere, drawing out a folded piece of paper and looking Naruto in the eye.

“I think you should have a look at this then.”

Naruto's suspicion flared at the back of his neck, giving him a chill as he reached forward and taking the piece of paper between his fingers. He brought it back so that it lay in front of him and unfolded one edge, freezing immediately.

No…

The rest of it came undone in less then a second and he stared down at it.

This…this is…

“Kakashi…where did you get this?” Naruto's voice was dead. Kakashi sipped his coffee.

“They were passing it around the locker room.”

Need, thick and ugly exploded in Naruto's stomach. This was too much to handle in one day.

“…Kakashi, what time is it?”

Kakashi glanced at his watch. “3:45.”

Naruto nodded. “I...” He glanced down at the paper in his hand again, folding it shut for dislike of looking at it any more. He met Kakashi's eyes. “Can I keep this?” The scarecrow nodded, and he nodded back rising from his chair.

“Thanks…” He shoved it in his back pocket angrily and pursed his lips.

Kakashi, mind-reader he was, said the magic words. “I'll foot the bill.”

“You're awesome, Kakashi.” Naruto shot him a grin.

Kakashi simply nodded. “You ought to catch her before she gets off work. The kids always get rowdy at this time of day.”

Naruto nodded and fingered a ring on his right ring finger. “Yeah. I'll say hi for you.”

Kakashi nodded, and Naruto pushed his way out of the restaurant and out onto the city sidewalk, maneuvering his way through the huge crowds of people, listening as the bell rang out his departure as the door to May Café swung shut behind him. He dug his hands in his pockets, clenching and unclenching them, and all at once very aware of that ring.

He really needed to talk to Yohko.

-----

End Chapter 03

By this time, I also had readers asking some questions that I was more than ready to answer…mostly because I found some of them very annoying (no offense intended) and thought I should provide a sort of FAQ end-all be-all for those who just couldn't stop asking. -pats them on the head- Over-curious little buggers. -patpat- I won't bother to change the original text…anyone who wants to read them should be able to.

Why is Naruto the teacher and not Sasuke? This was one of the earliest questions I ever received, and wow did you make me remember stuff! There is a reason why it's Naruto and not Sasuke playing teacher, and it's one of the reasons I decided to write this fic the way that I am. And it's this: even though Sasuke is the less conflicted character, who seems to have a stronger and more dominant personality, Sasuke doesn't really teach Naruto anything about himself. In fact, it's entirely the other way around, mostly because Sasuke has a lot to learn about the things that don't come easily to him, and those things are most of the simple things that make a person human. The ability to trust and grow, for instance… (If you want a more detailed answer for this, the question inspired me to write a brainstorm which explores it in depth, and I would be glad to mail the file to anyone that wants it.)

Okay. Next question.

Is there a Hokage position that Naruto aspires to fill? Oh God, yes. Isn't there always? -sighs- Naruto's dreams help make him who he is. I refuse to do something stupid to it, though, like a lot of other writers tend to do. Naruto does aspire to be a sort of “Hokage”. Well, atleast he did. And trust me, it's nothing like being principal.

Remember, I like making people pay attention to small details. This chapter should reveal that pretty obviously. My BETA Katana was reading it over in our English class today and looked up at me after she was done.

“God, that Lee thing…” she said. “Yeah,” I said. “I thought he was just sick,” she said. “Exactly,” I said. “It's kind of surprising, and yet not really,” she told me. And I'm like “Yup, that's the way I wanted it to be.”

Pay attention. This is not the last time I will do this to you.

Why? Because I'm mean, and I like to read books that make you piece things together like that.

Okay. Next question.

Where do you get the ideas for how Naruto acts as a teacher? -laughs- I'm actually drawing from real life experience on this one. Naruto is based primarily on one of my favorite teachers of all time, Mr. Leister (who I will go on about for hours if you let me) who was the most awesomest of awesome teachers I have ever had. I have never learned more, or had more fun in a history class than I did in his. Needless to say, I tend to incorporate him in a lot, and saw this as a perfect way to do so.

Is there a personification of Kyuubi in this fic? Yes. -sighs deeply- Jesus. There will be a personification of Kyuubi in this fic. -sighs again- I've had about a billion people ask me this question after reading my fic for typos. And yes there is going to be a personification of Kyuubi. This is going to be a long fic people. Don't expect everybody to come in all at once. Why? Because patience is a virtue.

Where's Gaara! Jesus, I've got all the GaaNaru fans whaling on me don't I? Relax. We'll get some nice stuff like that in a while. I'm serious. This fic is going to be thirty chapters long at the very least. People are going to need to have some patience if they want to see Gaara at all!

-sighs- Naw, you know I wouldn't do that to you.

But relax! Honestly. He'll come around all in good time.

I also officially announced some upcoming pairings:

If you didn't notice already (because you really are that dense…none of you are, right?) there was some implied LeeSaku and some more-then-implied KakaIru in there. That will continue.

All the classic pairings stated in the series will apply, including one-sided SakuSasu and InoSasu. That won't go anywhere, I swear.

I've decided to grant Ruby, Chikyu 4444 a one-sided AkaHaku pairing, and the rest of you will get a full-on HakuZabu pairing later.

When Kyuubi does come in, he will be in a violently one-sided relationship with a character who will be introduced in the next chapter. She, in turn, will be the subject of a lesbian romance that will come up much, much later in the series.

All other pairings are still up in the air. Others will be announced as they're decided.

--Lady Lamb