Here is the first installment of the 'Minor Series'. And, yippee, it's a cute NaruNeji. :) Review now or I shall hunt you down.
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Look what I wrote
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Naruto was angry.
Yes, so angry in fact that his entire would be boiling with an abnormal color of red if he didn't do everything in his power to cool himself down. He managed, but at the price of his pen, which had been beheaded. Might as well. Without his pen, he couldn't carry out his task which had been moronic from the very start, so the loss didn't bother Naruto terribly. Boohoo, he wouldn't be able to write a poem.
Life was cruel wasn't it? The blonde was deprived of the utmost joy of jotting down random words into emotionally unstable sentences, ah the woe. Naruto would die in sorrow because of this very occurrence.
"Are you all ready?" the harsh English teacher Tsunade's voice boomed out to the very far corners of the large classroom. In response, she got a halfhearted, mumbled response from few. But she didn't seem bothered. The well-endowed woman didn't really care for children and thought they all pestered her more than necessary in this particular job.
But of course, she got to boss people around and avoided doing any real work. A teacher. It suited her just fine, in her opinion. Many of Naruto's peers would disagree.
"Alright, then I want to have someone up front and hear them read their poem out loud."
Dead silence. The question in itself was like asking; 'Well dears, is there anyone terribly excited about getting your head sewn to your ass?'
"Okay, then I will pick someone." Insert evil smile Tsunade-style. "Uzumaki, care to do something in this class for the first time this term?"
"No." Naruto answered lazily, automatically tipping his chair backwards, hands laced behind his head in a cocky pose. "Not really, no."
Tsunade raised a brow.
"Well, you see…" Naruto started in an explanatory voice that was so obviously fake it was more of a parody than a scramble of words. Some people snickered already, sensing the quarrel about to come. "My work, surely fit for royalty, has yet to be completed, and as I feel I would be violating all its shining glory if I were to expose it unfinished."
A vein started showing. The old hag was going to get dangerous soon.
"Ah, yes. Then, how much of this extraordinary work would you be able to display at the moment?"
"It is not of material form right now."
"You mean you haven't written a word?"
"Yes."
Her left eye had started twitching, and the snickers grew in volume. Naruto's tablemate Kiba was almost crying because of the tremendous pressure he exposed his body to when trying not to let his bark-like laugh echo across the classroom. He succeeded, but small strings of saliva started dripping out of his open mouth.
Tsunade took a moment to compose herself, and then her face returned to her normal, taunting one. Naruto tipped his chair a tiny bit more. She was looking too much like a predator sneaking up on a prey, and he didn't like it one bit.
He felt he was going to be subjected to some public humiliation very soon, and the knowledge of impending doom crackled above his head.
"Well Naruto, you have once again proven that a human with IQ lower than a windowsill still can't really do anything right and that a certain amount of intelligence is needed in the art of poetry." Outright laugher showered the classroom. Naruto's face heated up. "You may be relieved of the simple task of giving audio to words. Sakura, would you please c - "
"HAG! I'm not stupid! Poetry is stupid! You're stupid!"
Tsunade ignored him and waved for his friend to come stand in front of the class who obediently did so.
"Sharp." Kiba whispered at him in between snorts of laugher, punching him lightly in the shoulder.
This very delicate punch made Naruto's tipping chair loose its stability and Naruto went flying to the floor. Once again, the room erupted in laughter.
"Uzumaki." Tsunade ground out, teeth grinding. "Either you find yourself incapable of shutting the fuck up and stop disturbing this class, or you find a way to leave this room without exiting through the door as I shall severely injure you if you come in range of me."
Blink. Naruto opened his mouth to retaliate, but his teacher beat him to it.
"It means, stop acting stupid or jump out the window. Brat."
Naruto sat on his chair for the rest of the class, sulking.
One would think that during Naruto's childish fits nothing smart passed through his mind. But alas, that person would be terribly wrong. Right now, Naruto was cooking up a very intelligent plan right now to get back at Tsunade. Not that he disliked this teacher, she was actually one of his favorites, but a man needs to be a man. Or something like that. You might also call it that petty people need revenge. But Naruto preferred not to put it that way. And he came to the conclusion that the revenge that would sting the most would be; turning in the best damn poem the world had ever seen.
Dumping a bucket of ice-cold water would not serve as punishment this time. Even if it was hilarious.
So, there he was, on campus with a spiral block in his lap sitting under a tree, trying to get in a poetic mood.
So far, he wasn't doing any good. Kiba had been bugging him for quite a while, but was now away playing basketball on the court to Naruto's right. That had disturbed Naruto's mood.
Someone had managed, and probably gone through hell to manage because it was almost impossible, to spill soda over his sweatshirt which was lying next to him. In other words, someone didn't like Naruto.
Thirdly, small kids kept pointing at him when they passed with their parents and laughing, they had been dragged away by muttering adult. Naruto could not understand, until a kind soul named Hinata had, blushing, told him that there was a… mature painting on his forehead, courtesy of Kiba (No, really, there was a signature just above the blond eyebrow).
And, just this second, a basketball came shooting like a rocket into his chest, making him cough and wheeze for air. Naruto was displeased about the day this far. And, damn it all to hell, in half an hour he would have to endure yet another class with Tsunade as they had her class twice on Wednesdays. In short, Wednesday was the new Monday.
A pale boy came walking up to Naruto, smiling gently. "You look busy."
Naruto grumbled and tossed the ball at Neji. "Yeah, I'm trying to get some work done here. Don't sabotage me."
"No, because the world is just trying to make you miserable, isn't it?" Neji smirked and gracefully caught the ball.
"Don't start, alright?"
"Kakashi having a grudge against you because he didn't allow you to pick your own group, God stole your keys on from your pocket and placed it on your kitchen table, your math homework getting mysteriously snatched by birds, and - "
"Neji…" Naruto hissed warningly.
"Tsunade and Jiraiya teaming up to fail you in both English and Japanese, Gai wanting you dead even though he is just such a ray of sunshine and - "
"Alright, I get it!" The blonde lashed out with his legs, kicking Neji in the shin. This, obviously, resulted in the senior falling down on the ground. Naruto laughed mercilessly at Neji's ruffled state.
"Neji! Move it!" Kiba shouted from the basketball course, who, too, was snickering at the flattering fall.
The Hyuuga rose to his feet, brushed dust off his front and said in a business tone: "I shall extract vengeance upon your friend instead." He nodded towards Kiba.
Naruto shrugged, non-committed. "He's on your team."
Neji smiled politely. "Accidents do happen."
Naruto grinned impishly. Neji pointed weakly at his own forehead, indicating towards the marvelous painting. The blonde swatted at him and pushed a basketball cap further down his forehead. "Go away, man!" Naruto whined at the taller one.
The one year older man walked over to the basketball court, sniggering.
Naruto watched Kiba get tackled rather viciously in joy as Neji took the duty of hurting him for the rude painting. Harhar, life was glorious. Until the bell rang, and Neji stood mockingly in the court while Naruto had to trudge up to yet another English class (after washing that work of art off his face).
His spiral block was empty.
"Since I have noticed some people have difficulties getting started, I'll give you a challenge to get started." She sounded sincere, but Naruto was stubbornly refused to acknowledge it as would eat his resolve. "You will each be given a theme that you will infuse with your poem. The poem will have a maximum of ten lines, and a minimum of five. These notes will not contain feelings, as you will have to decide the mood of your poem on your own. You will not switch notes with each other and they are picked at a random, meaning it isn't my fault if you don't like what you get."
She started handing them out, and Naruto poked at Kiba who this lesson was sitting in the seat in front of him (well, at least he got the window seat). "She keeps making fun of me!"
"Tough." Kiba answered simply, seemingly not at all concerned for his friends welfare.
"Bastard." Naruto hissed, but quieted down as Tsunade passed down Kiba's row. When she when to the other half of the row, Naruto clawed at the brunette's shaking shoulder. "What did you get?"
Sniggering, Kiba showed the little slip of paper.
'Sex'.
"It's a good thing you got it, Kiba," Naruto said sarcastically. "Someone else might have abused it and not written anything serious."
"Now, why would I ever do such a thing - "
"Be quiet, Inuzuka." Tsunade snapped at him, and handed each person on Naruto's row a paper.
'Seasons'.
"What didya get?" Kiba said, turning his chair over to sit across Naruto.
"Seasons." Naruto answered, puzzled. How was he supposed to do anything with that? What was poetic about them? He… lived in them. Great. A line. Not that much left now.
"You struck out." Kiba pointed out for him.
"Yeah."
"No trading." Kiba said, and pressed the paper to his chest. "There is no one in this room with a better word than me"
"I figured you wouldn't want to either."
"Hey, Shino!" Kiba poked at the stiff figure to Naruto's left who was currently staring intently out the window. "What did you get?"
Shino, who for all intents and purposes looked like he was asleep, focused his stare (or was he? The sunglasses made it hard to tell…) on Kiba, and lifted his hand to show his piece of paper.
'French'.
"He struck out even more, fuck. French is really worthless. There isn't a connection or a thought behind the words at all, is there?" Kiba said, tipping his chair back. "She just wrote some. Poetic."
"Stop saying poetic." Naruto bit at him, annoyed. This was so… What word could possibly cover it? Ah, yes… Troublesome.
"What?" Kiba barked, surprised. "I've said it this once!"
Still, people like Kiba should never say poetic the word. And Naruto told him so, smirking. Kiba spluttered at him, and slammed his chair down to rest at all four legs again for support. "Are you saying I am not sophisticated?"
"No, I'm saying you're less sophisticated."
"Stop saying sophisticated, you probably can't even spell it!" Kiba barked at him, repeatedly smacking the shorter one with his pencil.
"Is that a challenge?" Naruto picked up a pen and started attacking Kiba over the table, trying desperately to get the letters stuck onto some Inuzuka skin, announcing each clearly "S… O… P… H…"
Shino merely watched in faint amusement, though no one would be able to detect that amusement.
Just as Naruto got to 'C', they got so violent the table decided to expel them. They banged loudly into the floor. Tsunade was massaging her temples gingerly; as if afraid she would accidentally crush her own cranium in rage.
The boys noticed the aura of soon-to-come death, and jumped back onto their chairs. With a sigh, Tsunade decided to do some actual work as a teacher, and check up on her students, no matter what ill intentions she harbored in her mind. Kiba quickly shifted his chair back to his own table to avoid harm.
Quickly, Naruto scribbled down a flurry of random words onto the empty page just to not give her the satisfaction of the, yes, the empty page. When he noticed what he had written, he banged his head hard on the table. Tsunade grabbed the book, examined the sentence and put it back, preparing for a bashing.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
"Not that it isn't nice Naruto, but it's not that original, isn't it?"
"I'm just work shopping here! Leave me alone! Hag!"
Tsunade darkened. "Don't bitch back at me when I'm trying to help you, brat. I'll haul you myself to detention."
Naruto was silent.
She crouched down by his seat, (giving him, oh yeah, a really great view) and said: "Try to write from experience. It's not easy spouting new stuff for each word. And if that doesn't work, try to look at your surroundings. It's surprising how different things look if you squint a bit."
She pinched his nose lightly. "It's easy. Come on, kid."
Naruto bit his lip, somewhat sour that her words made perfect sense. She walked back to her desk, smiling a small smile. The blonde tried to look at the room with different eyes. After a minute, he found that he wouldn't be able to do anything about this room. Why? He hated school, damn it (Well, no really, but mostly)!
Instead, he glanced out the window. On the basketball court (oh to be outside…) Neji and a couple of seniors were playing. A tall guy in all green Naruto knew as Lee was currently in possession of the ball, bouncing it in an errorless manner.
He threw it, and Neji caught it the middle of the jump, slam-dunking it perfectly. Naruto guessed their team was in the lead as there wasn't a very big fuzz about the goal. The brunette was really graceful on the field. Naruto was thankful this classroom was on the bottom floor.
His pencil started writing. He looked at his sloppy letters. Well, yeah, it was almost easy. It wasn't that hard. Or pointless. It sure was better than biology lessons (damn Kakashi… mocking him endlessly…).
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
That would be kind of stupid…
You really don't look like summer.
Naruto kept on looking at their game while his pencil did all the work, fingers aching somewhat at the clutching of the pen.
His pale complexion, cold, almost white eyes, lips in a thin line with concentration. Muscles flexing and relaxing with each step, each move of his toned body. The long hair swayed gently in the easy spring wind, and the breezy white shirt followed the rhythm. The tight black jeans probably weren't the best choice of clothing, but it gave him a nice over-all body outlook.
While your eyes are pale like winter, your hair tell tales of spring.
Yet the way you move is autumn,
Precise and on time like rain.
His black coat lay thrown across the neighboring lawn, and it made Naruto a little giggly. It was May, yet Neji walked around with a near-to knee-length black coat. It was almost a little funny. But Naruto could understand why, the senior attracted quite a lot of attention because of his looks. He never seemed to appreciate the attention though.
I shan't compare thee to a flower since you would fucking kill me if I did,
And you would be humiliated and angry if compared to melting snow.
Naruto waved, hoping Neji would see. God he was bored. The senior barely managed to flash him a gentle smile before he had to dash to the defense of his team. It bothered him a little, but perhaps it was metaphorical. Everyone wanted the attention of Hyuuga Neji.
Perhaps you're more like the muddy end of winter that everyone really wants to have.
The bell rung and Tsunade waved her hand at the students, shooing them out. "I want to see a finished poem by the end of the next lesson, and no excuses. And I mean none. Dismissed."
Just as Naruto were to exit the door, Tsunade tapped on his shoulder. "Do have a poem to show to me now, perhaps?"
Naruto shook his head, pressing the spiral block into his chest. "No. I'll have one to next class though."
"Okay."
Naruto walked out. Tsunade smiled.
On the way home he walked with Neji as they were one of the very few in their entire school to live on the wealthier side of Konoha. The older one had apparently won the game, surprise, and Naruto had gotten a poem written. Neji had congratulated him with a little hair-ruffling in a very childish way.
They said goodbye, and the older one dropped Naruto off at his house.
Inside, where none of his parents had arrived home from work yet, he read the poem to himself, and slowly tried to puzzle things together. As the dimwit he was, the only thing he got from it was that it was about Neji.
He didn't notice the oh-so subtle lining of adoring and admiring in a more than loving way that the entire text was laced with.
But, he figured, Neji was smart, so he could ask him what the brunette thought of it.
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Woohoo! Fluff shall take over the world! Review to make me mighty! XD