A bird was chirping somewhere in the distance. Konoha seemed as sunny as ever with people bustling and children being released from their classrooms at the ninja academy. At least most of the children were being released. As the classroom taught by Iruka Sensei clears, there is still one blonde-haired boy wearing green goggles with a pathetically bored look on his face still occupying a seat.
"Now Naruto you should've known you would get punished for putting all those pop out snakes in my drawer and writing all those words on the board before class started. Not to mention finding the time to skip class and graffiti all over the Kage Faces." Naruto gave an impish grin. "I dunno Sensei I thought my joke was pretty good. Besides how come you always assume I do every little thing that goes wrong around here?" "Ha! The other students don't have to do things like that. You do plenty of mischief around here to account for half the population of konoha! You must have some nerve if you've got the guts to pull this stuff before the graduation exam tomorrow. You still can't even manage to make a decent shadow clone yet either."
Naruto glared at Iruka Sensei, but for once he just kept quiet and resumed his bored expression. Slowly he laid his head on the desk and stared out the window. Iruka was surprised. Naruto could argue with a brick wall for hours so it was rare for him to just back off. He studied Naruto's expression and faintly wondered what was going through the aggravating yet lovable ramen eaters head. As he thought about it he suddenly realized where the boy's thoughts might've wondered, and a slow, sad smile spread across the Sensei's face. "Wonder if I should ask him about it?" he thought. After reexamining the blonde boy's expression, however, he decided to just leave him alone with his thoughts for a while, and began grading papers.
In truth Naruto probably wouldn't have answered even if the ground were to disappear out from under his feet suddenly. He was wrapped in the memories of 5 years ago, his first years at the academy. I say memories, but the figures that danced in them might as well have been ghosts by now. He normally wouldn't let them consume him like this, but today did mark that day. The two days of that year he kept in gleeful yet painful memory finally overwhelmed him, and before he closed his eyes he dared to look at that seat. The seat where his gaze used to meet those warm black eyes that would somehow let him know that everything was all right. His eyes closed and the world went dark.