Chapter 1

The Meeting

Konoha Academy is an elite private High school with the biggest success rate in the entire country. The students who came out of this academy were well rounded when compared to the students from other High Schools. The students who graduated from this Academy always managed to get into the best Universities in the country and hold the best jobs after their College lives. Getting into Konoha Academy was difficult, extremely so. But once a student makes it into the Academy their lives would be set.

The students of Konoha academy were always the best in their fields be it doctors or lawyers or even chefs. The most important fact here was that they also made extremely good intelligence agents. About 12 percent of all the intelligence agents in Japan who entered the field were from this Academy. That was a record considering the fact that so many people never bothered getting into this field. But ten years ago-in the then graduating class-many of them went into the intelligence fields, be it the Police Force or the Interpol. What makes this school produce so many good agents for the Field, you ask? It is the program they have! The program that includes martial arts training, Criminal Science, Psychology and many other courses which are mandatory to all the students. The teachers themselves are mostly retired agents of the Field who are extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of life.

But not all teachers are agents-or ex-agents- for that matter. There are also teachers like me who have no experience in the intelligence field- that is those that are not skilled in any form of martial arts who just teach for the sake of teaching. But the main thing here is that all the younger teachers that teach in this school like me are former students of this Academy.

So, I, Uzumaki Naruto, am just an ordinary teacher among all the trained hard-asses that teach here. A little about myself…... I am 27 years old. My parents own one of the largest textile industries in the country. We moved to this town away from my mother's home-town about ten years ago. My best friend/sister Sakura moved with us. Her parents died in a terrible fire accident when she was really small and my father took over her guardianship from that point onwards. We both attended Konoha Academy although most students attended the Academy right from Middle School. Sakura-chan is the closest thing I have to a sister in the world. Now an Officer who works for the Police Force under a crazy old grandma called Senju Tsunade, the ultimate hard-ass, Sakura is known to be just big of a bully that Tsunade is.

Sakura is married to emthe/em hot-shot lawyer Uchiha Itachi. He belongs to the prestigious Uchiha clan who own half the city. He is a good man although he is older than Sakura by four years. Their marriage took place quite… suddenly for the lack of a better word about three years ago. They even have a son named Tobi, who turned two last May.

As for me, I teach Advanced Calculus here at the Academy. Most people would never believe me when I say 'emI teach Advanced Calculus and actually hold a Ph.D in mathematics/em', once they look at me. You see I have blonde, spiky hair and eyes as bright and light as the sky. My sunny personality doesn't help matters either. People always assume me to be slow which I am completely not. I had Jiraiya for a teacher, there's no way anyone could be slow after learning from the Pervy Sage himself.

Presently, I am trying to sleep. Whatever I do, sleep keeps evading me tonight. I tried all the things that usually make me sleep which usually include warm milk, stomach full of ramen, and counting sheep. But none of these things seem to be affecting me. Oh well, that's what happens when you wake up in the middle of the day- 2' O clock in the afternoon to be precise- after a night spent partying with my old friends at the Academy. It's 2:00 am now and I am still awake. I had to be up in 5 hours again for the meeting at the Academy. Damn, I need to sleep and fast. There was new martial arts instructor coming to join us tomorrow at the Academy. I heard that the crazy bitch, Anko was needed back on the field. So they were recruiting someone new. Although, I hope whoever they recruited is not as crazy as that woman.

With these thoughts I could feel myself slowly succumbing to exhaustion of the past week and dreaming about stone cold black eyes.

! #$%^%$# !

Beep….. beep

Beep…..beep

The sound was breaking through the last of my sleep. I punched the alarm to make it shut up and quickly started my morning routine. I grabbed some toast at the end and waited for my ride to show up. You see my car broke down about a week ago and my former teacher Hatake Kakashi, who teaches criminal science at the Academy, was my ride.

Hatake Kakashi was once a much feared Interpol agent from what people told me. But I've never seen that side of him before. To him and most of his graduating class back then he was THE most Sadistic teacher and huge pervert who read questionable material in class (the material was actually written by the Head master Jiraiya himself! Can you believe the irony in that?). He was perpetually late to class and would give out the lamest excuses for being late. Most of the times back then we wished he would never come to class though as we would have to deal with his snarky self. No matter how well you've written the assignments he's given you, no matter how well you've written the answers in the test you'd never get an A+ from him. The highest grade he'd give was an A-. They tell me there was only one student he gave an A+ to, but that too was a one-time thing which I now believed to be a rumour. Now though, I see Kakashi-sensei as one of my supportive colleagues. Family, even. A car horn sounded pulling me out of my thoughts and alerting me to my former teacher's presence downstairs waiting for me.

That's strange, I think. Kakashi sensei is usually always late unlike some of my colleagues at the Academy. I quickly make my way down the stairs and get into the car as he greeted me pleasantly with his smile hidden under the ever-present mask, as usual.

"Good Morning to you too, Kaka-sensei! You're unusually early today, huh. What brought this on?" I said brightly watching him shift gears.

"Jiraiya-sama threatened me and that's all I'm willing to say about the issue, and put on your seat belt Naruto," he answered primly with a bite in his tone at the end.

I felt my eyes going wide at that as I put on my seat belt. "He's threatened you before and you never complied then. Does this have to do with the new instructor at the Academy?"I asked turning sideways slightly to get a better look at his face and trying to make sense of this unnatural behavior of my former teacher.

I could see a faint smile on his face, a genuine one when compared to all the smiles I've seen gracing his face. His eyes softened and he looked genuinely happy and relieved for some reason.

"Yes, Naruto. It's been a while since I've seen this person in relaxed social setting. He is a former student of mine, who is about your age. He was a student of the Academy too," my former teacher said looking straight ahead.

A former student … about my age….

"Wait a minute. Do I know him? If he's my age then I should know him, right?" I asked hoping against hope he's one of my friends.

"No. Even though he's your age he got tired of sitting through the 'boring lessons' at the Academy and decided to graduate early. He graduated before you came to this town. You may not know him but most of your friends from your graduating class know him," he said.

"What do you mean he graduated early? Is it even possible to graduate early from that hellhole um place?" I asked him, surprised and quickly covering up my slip up. Just because I teach at that place doesn't mean I like that place.

"It is, Naruto-kun, especially for people like Shikamaru and the person you're about to meet. You know, how Shikamaru is? Think of the person you're about to meet as Shikamaru-kun minus all the laziness and the passive temperament. This guy has the most explosive temper you'll ever have the pleasure of seeing. You think Sakura-chan's temper is the worst among your graduating class, wait until you see him get mad at someone, though the chances of that happening are low considering how he seems to have grown up," he said with an overly cheerful smile and pride in his eyes I've never seen before. He even had a sadistic look in his eyes when speaking of the temper thing.

"So you want me to be careful around him. Ok, got it. So what is he a top secret Interpol agent like Sai? Police Force? Security Division?" I asked storing everything he said for later thinking.

"Whatever he's done before coming here is something even I don't know. But I don't think he's been in the intelligence field. He left sometime around eight years ago. He'd come home once every six months and would disappear again. His family told me that he'd been travelling the world and his father made a specific comment about him wasting his trust fund away. He disappeared about three years ago. We haven't seen him since then, not me, not his family. He came back about a week ago, I think. We don't know what happened but he wanted a change of scenery so Jiraiya-sama offered him a job. And no, he's a part of neither the Interpol nor the Police Force and no I'm not going to give you any more details about him," he said looking at me through the corner of his eyes as if to say 'I know what you're doing.'

Busted…..

"Oh, c'mon Kaka-sensei! Why don't you even up the playing field a little? I mean Hinata-chan and Lee will already know him and I'd feel like an outsider around them. You haven't even told me his name yet," I said pouting a little.

"No Naruto, you'll know his name when Jiraiya-sama introduces him in about ten more minutes. So, be patient," he replied not at all bothered by the pout and he continued saying, "You won't feel like an outsider, trust your friends a little more than that, Naruto."

Great…

I turned my head towards the window and watched as the morning rush began. There were students and employees rushing about. It's been only about 3 months since school started and already I can't wait for the year to get over. I sighed. I knew Kakashi-sensei was watching me every now and then from the corner of his eye but I refused to look at him. I could still be a little childish with him.

We reached the Academy shortly after that. I tried not to be a bit disgruntled, but I think it showed because Kakashi-sensei suddenly ruffled my hair like in the old days. That settled whatever insecurity I'd had because the next second my trademark grin appeared on my face.

I noticed a new car in the teachers' parking lot. A shiny black Nissan GT. I whistled looking at that sweet ride. I had to assume this was the new instructor's car. Soon Kaka-sensei and I entered the teachers' lounge where most of them were already present. Hinata-chan came to greet us with her usual shy smile and happy demeanor.

"Good morning Naruto-kun, Kakashi-sensei. Jiraiya-sama is overlooking the proceedings in his office. They'll get here soon," she said with a happy smile. "It's been a while since I've seen him. I'm happy he's back in town teaching the Academy students," she added a second later.

A strange feeling of jealousy took over me for a second as I noticed how excited Hinata-chan was. Although Lee and Iruka simply looked a little disgruntled. I frowned at that. But soon the jealousy overtook everything I was feeling and I tamped it down as soon as it appeared and Hinata-chan always the quietly observant one put a hand on my elbow squeezing it gently. She soon whispered, "You are a totally different person than him, Naruto-kun. You both hold two totally different places in our hearts, but you hold them nonetheless. So don't worry Naruto-kun."

Trust your friends a bit more moron

That was when the door opened revealing the Pervy Sage. "Come, we'll get this done in my office, he doesn't want the loud welcome party you guys have planned," Jiraiya said chuckling at the stunned expression on some of my colleagues faces.

So they'd all been planning a party huh

We all soon made our way to the Principal's office. There standing in the middle of the room was a tall, lean man who could only be the new instructor. His hair was coal black in color and in the shape of a duck butt from behind. emF/ememunny hair/em. I then noticed that the lean muscles in his back were tensed.

"Come now, Sasuke, don't be so shy. Turn around and say hello," Jiraiya said wrapping an arm around the guy's shoulder. Everyone in the room tensed when we saw emhis/em reaction to the overly familiar gesture. He'd thrown Jiraiya's arm off his shoulder and hissed something in a low threatening tone. Jiraiya only laughed at that which prompted a sigh from the new guy.

I noted his name as Sasuke, the name vaguely familiar name from the past more precisely, from ten years ago. The name Sakura-chan and I usually heard when we joined the Academy. Sasuke shook his head and turned around to look at us and I felt a sudden pit form in my stomach with sudden dread.

His face looked vaguely familiar to me although from where I didn't know. I noted how this Sasuke person carried himself. He looked like he could take down anyone who stood against him or he seemed to hold the confidence that he could. His black long-sleeved shirt showed off his lean muscles all too well alright. But those were not the things that held my attention. No it was not the ever present frown on his face or his pale, perfect skin or the most chiselled features I'd seen in a man.

His eyes, I thought, these dark bottom less pools are the same ones from the dream I've been having for the past week…

I stared at the hauntingly beautiful man and felt the first pangs of dread in years…