Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own Naruto. Kakashi wears a mask, doesn't he? Oh, yes. Shini is the creation of Momosportif. Thank you, dearie.
This will eventually be KakaIru. Next chapter starts the hints, maybe?
Umino Iruka sighed as he unlocked the classroom door, juggling his satchel, stack of papers, and a cup of coffee as he searched for the correct key. He swung open the door and froze.
"Naruto, what are you doing up there?" he asked the young blond boy hanging upside-down the classroom window.
The blue-eyed teen's lips curled into his trademark pointy-toothed grin as he answered his former teacher, "Ebisu-san said he'd treat me to ramen if I can keep Konohamaru-kun from sneaking out of class today. Is it okay if I just hang out here today, Iruka-sensei?"
"Won't all the blood have rushed to your head by the time class is over?" Iruka joked as he set his belongings on the wooden desk at the front of the room and made his way to the window where Naruto was hanging. After opening the glass, he replied, "sure you can stay here and keep an eye on Konohamaru-kun. It'd probably be a good idea to listen in on the lesson too. We're doing transformation jutsu today."
Naruto wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue. Transformations had been his second worst subject in school, which was a feat of its own. He grimaced as he remembered his repeatedly failed attempts at a Third Hokage look-a-like. "Is the kid any good at them?"
Iruka smiled. "He is the Third's grandson. He had no problem with that transformation. He hasn't quite mastered the other ones yet. How is your training going?"
He crossed to the front of the class room and began arranging the contents of his forest green bag on his desk while he waited for Naruto to climb through the open window. He looked up when he heard the look click as Naruto closed the glass.
Naruto glanced up at Iruka and then down at his toes, avoiding the older man's brown eyes. "Training's fine," he answered vaguely.
The Academy teacher raised a quizzical eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'fine'?"
Naruto's head jerked up at the unexpected question. "Huh? Oh, just the usual: Sasuke being a jerk, Sakura-chan hanging all over him, Kakashi-sensei being late for training."
Iruka looked at him kindly. "Would you help me take those chairs down, Naruto-kun?" he asked, moving away from his desk to remove a chair from a desk in the front row.
The two soon had all the desks prepared for the young class that would soon arrive -- Iruka's rows far neater than those on the opposite side of the room. Naruto staked out his post next to the window in the back of the room. With Naruto settled, Iruka returned to his own desk and began to order the stacks of paper from his satchel. After taking a swig of his now lukewarm coffee, he started to grade the papers left over from the night before.
"Iruka-sensei," the boy whined after a few minutes, "I'm bored."
The young teacher looked up from the slowly thinning pile of quizzes. "Wait just a while longer. Maya-chan usually comes in about fifteen minutes from now."
"But I'm bored now."
"Then find some way to entertain yourself. I need to finish grading these before class starts."
Naruto sighed dejectedly and resigned himself to staring out the window at a small brown bird in a nearby tree. When it flew out of sight, he rested his forehead on the desk in front of him in hopes of a short catnap before class started.
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"Hey! Naruto-nii! What are you doing here?"
The fox-whiskered teen awoke to a rough nudging of his arm. He lifted his head to stare blearily at the short brunette boy standing beside him. "Hey there, Konohamaru-kun."
"Boss, why are you in Iruka-sensei's class?"
"Don't you have training to do?" asked a wide-eyed, pigtailed girl named Moegi.
"Don't ask him stupid questions like that," the Third Hokage's grandson chided. "So. Why are you here?"
"Because your crazy, closet pervert sensei asked me to keep an eye on you," Naruto answered, stretching his arms above his head. "He said he'd treat me to ramen if I kept you from sneaking out of class today."
"So, are you going to do it?"
Naruto snorted at the younger girl's question. "Of course. This is free ramen we're talking about! Besides, think of who it is that' paying for it."
That comment earned a snicker from Konohamaru. "Ebisu-sensei is in for the meal of his life!"
"Naruto! Konohamaru! Be quiet back there, you two!" scolded the brown-haired Chunin, hands on his hips in no-nonsense teacher mode. "And Shini! How many times do I have to tell you not to put bugs in Takashi-kun's hair?!"
Iruka turned and retrieved a small stack of worksheets from his desk. After handing the correct number of papers to the head of each row, he began to explain the activity's instructions. "First, identify the true statements. Then --"
"Iruka-sensei," Konohamaru interrupted, "I think we all know how to read."
He narrowed his eyes and turned to glare at the young boy. "Well, if that's so, you can all read the directions to yourselves and predict the changes I've made to them."
This class wide punishment evoked a chorus of groans and whined complaints at the unfairness from the pre-Genins.
'Oh crap!' thought Naruto. Out loud he added, "See you later Konohamaru-kun!"
With that, he hurriedly opened the window and leapt out. After landing on his feet, he broke into a run which carried him out of site among the streets leading towards the center of town.
"What was that all about?" Iruka asked aloud, receiving only a nonchalant shrug from Konohamaru in response.
A moment later, he nearly jumped out of his skin as the door to his left creaked open. A lithe man in standard issue garb slouched through the door to Iruka's desk. His face was covered by a cloth mask across the lower half and forehead protector tilted over his left eye.
"Ka- Kakashi-sensei!" Iruka stuttered in surprise at the Jonin teacher who had just walked through the door. "What can I do for you?"
"Hmm…" His visible slate gray eye scanned the class with a seemingly bored expression. After taking in the open window, Hatake Kakashi turned back to the Chunin teacher beside him. "Have you by any chance seen Naruto-kun this morning?"
"Naruto kun? He just left a few minutes ago. Why?"
"Ah. Well," Kakashi drawled, "he never showed up for training this morning. I already checked his house and the ramen bar, and he wasn't there. Sakura-chan thought you might know where he's run off to."
"He was here until just a while ago. He told me that Ebisu-sensei said he would treat him to ramen if Naruto could keep Konohamaru-kun from skipping class today."
"While skipping out of training without my permission in the process. If you'll excuse me, Iruka-sensei," Kakashi said, walking quickly to the window and perching himself of the sill, "I must be going."
With that, he leapt from the window and continued in the vague direction Naruto had a mere five minutes earlier. Iruka strode to the window and peered out.
"An odd pair, aren't they?" commented the girl named Maya.
"That they are," Iruka agreed, turning to face her.
"You know, I think I should go help Kakashi-sensei catch him," reasoned Konohamaru as he climbed onto the sill and prepared to follow after the Jonin and his Genin pupil.
Iruka swiftly turned around in time to catch hold of the back of the boy's yellow shirt and hauled him back inside, shutting and locking the window behind him. "I don't think so, Konohamaru-kun."
-End Chapter 1-
I was told that I should add extra story here in the first chapter. What do you, the reader, think?
Thanks to Momosportif [as always, Fishy [my human-Beta, and Briggs.
Let's play a game: There's a prize for anyone who can guess who Shini is. [You don't count, schizo, though I'll give you something anyway if you guess.
