I'm just gonna start… don't kill me. Please
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I'm pretty sure we all know Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, albeit sadly.
Prologue
Naruto stood outside, watching the breath leave his mouth in a cloud of white like the exhaust tunneling out of the vehicle he was leaning against. The cold air nipped at his exposed cheeks as he waited for Iruka to exit the house. It was already the middle of February, the very same week the new semester of school began and Naruto was excitedly looking forward to the next four months of his life. To think, everyday waking up at six in the morning to get ready for a fantastic day of sitting down for eight hours and spending it with people who won't even bother to get to know him, only to get a short break every five days, labeled as a weekend. Most definitely looking forward to it.
Who is he kidding, he's not looking forward to going back to school - not at all.
He gently banged the back of his head repetitively against the car's window, leaving little hair imprints on the fogged-up glass. "Maybe I could convince Iruka to let me stay home." he pondered, slowly lifting himself off of the car when the door of his house opened and a frenzied looking Iruka stepped out.
"Naruto! What are you still doing outside? It's freezing. We have to- woah" He stops his short rant, fumbling on one of the icy steps down the driveway. The paper stack in his hand slipped when he reached out in order to grab the railing. Papers flew across the steps, spreading all over the driveway and stairs "Damn it I don't have time for this."
"Iruka-sensei, you okay?" Naruto carefully stepped around small patches of ice and melted snow in order to help his guardian out. The two of them bent down and began to gather the fallen papers, now slightly dampened and dirtied by the remanence of snow. He took the stack Iruka gathered and held them in his arms.
Iruka got up, dusting some of the dirt and snow off of his pants. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you. Sorry, can you sort those in numerical order for me in the car. There's some page numbers on the bottom of the pages. My God, good thing we started the car or else we'll be even more late than we already will be for the meeting with the Headmaster." More carefully this time, Iruka made his way down the steps. "I swear Murphy is out to get me. First the alarm clocks don't ring then my paperwork falls on the floor and gets dirty and-" Iruka shoves his hand abruptly in his pocket. "Damn it where are my car keys?"
Naruto laughs and slowly heads down the stairs. "Iruka, they're in the car. Calm down."
Iruka lets out a little sigh of relief. "Oh Naruto, i need to clear my head. What would I do without your little reminders? Thank goodness you're going to attend this school. I don't know how I survived without you." He makes his way towards the driver's seat. Naruto still stood by the bottom of the steps. He paused, pulling up the handle for the car door. "Naruto, what are you doing? We have to hurry."
Naruto continued to look at the ground, feet shuffling a bit, breaking off bits of ice. Where did this come from. Earlier he felt perfectly fine with going to the school, or at least as fine as the regular students who are just returning for the semester, all dreading going back. Once Iruka stepped out, reality just hit him. "Ma, Iruka, maybe" he paused and began to talk in a lighter tone, "uh maybe all of this happened for a reason this morning. Maybe we should take it as a sign to not go to this school or that it's not time to go back. And you know, it's quite early for a school to start at 7:30. Man do I still feel tired. It doesn't give us enough time to get a proper breakfast and these papers" shifted his arms to lift the papers above his head so Iruka can see them, "they got dirty. They're not very presentable, so maybe we should just reprint them and refill them out and turn it in a different day. And-"
"Naruto." Naruto paused, his attention still on the ground. "Come here and look at me." Iruka said in a soft, yet demanding voice. "I would love to spend another day at home with you. I would love to label all the crap that happened this morning as a sign to stay home, but if you don't start school today, I know that you won't start it in the future."
"I can continue doing online school." He protested and looked up at his guardian yet froze. He could see a slight look of pity sketched across his face. His temper began to bubble. "Don't look at me like that Iruka-sensei. Don't feel sorry for me. I'm fine!" he turned his body away again. Silence crept between the two of them. What happened to the joking mood they were in previously?
"And I didn't say you weren't" Naruto's eyes met Iruka's again, defiance still present on his face. There was an awkward tension between the two. "It's been over half a year already and we're at a completely different school and different city. I assure you, this place is much better than the last and the students here are nice." he looked at Iruka with more disbelief. "I would not be presenting the option of you going back to school if I didn't believe you weren't strong enough." Naruto completely turned away from the other. "If you truly don't want to go, I won't force you to. But you didn't seem too opposed earlier." Iruka opened the car door the rest of the way and took the keys out of the ignition to give to Naruto.
As he was about to step out, the car door opened and Naruto slowly sat down. Iruka smiled. "You've got this Naruto." Naruto just silently nodded and buckled up his seatbelt. "Did you take your medicine this morning?" Naruto nodded again.
XxX
The two of the were exiting the driveway when Iruka abruptly slammed on his brake and set the car on park, hurriedly taking the car keys out of the ignition. "Ah I forgot! Can you go down and lock the door?" Naruto began to laugh as his guardian's frantic state returned.
"Yes, I will."
XxX
I know. I'm already being stupid. I'm already rewriting a story i only had one chapter on BUT I was unsatisfied with the first chapter and couldn't think of another without wanting to change something (or everything) about the first one. I also know that it has been a couple of years and it seems as if I had abandoned my stories.
I swear i haven't… Maybe.
Okay I just want to give this one another try. I've already written a couple of other chapters and I am a lot more satisfied with how it is going so far than I was previously. I hope you enjoy it too and can see the difference from this one and the first that I wrote.
I am so sorry that I haven't posted though. Yes, it has been three years.
TBC