Uzumaki Naruto is a well-known name.
However, this name is not always seen in a good light.
There are a lot of people who love him - that is a fact, and you can ask the almighty Google if you don't believe it ("she" won't tell you why, though). While, on the other hand, there are also a lot of people who hate him with passion (for whichever reasons they might have).
Unfortunately, that's how life works, so deal with it.
.
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Nekonome-sensei's Writing Assignment
It was a peaceful morning in Youkai Academy.
Inside a certain class, Naruto sat on his seat in the backmost row. At the time, the blond was chatting with one of his new friends, one who sat next to him: Tsukune.
It was due to some unfortunate events that he ended up as a student here. Despite how unfortunate being thrown into a new world was, Uzumaki Naruto was quite lucky he found himself in this place.
The reason was quite simple. There's ramen in this world, and he loves ramen, end of story. He couldn't even imagine how his life would turn to be if he were to end up in a world without the food of gods.
"Hey, Tsukune, I heard Nekonome-sensei will read the score of last week's writing assignment," Naruto said. "I'm sure I'll get the best score, believe it!"
"You're so confident, Naruto." Tsukune made a self-mocking smile. "I'm jealous."
The conversation between Naruto and Tsukune ended when Shizuka Nekonome opened the door and stepped into the class.
Today, the female teacher wore her usual white blouse and orange skirt. A pile of assignment papers towered in her hands.
"Good morning, class," Nekonome greeted her students as she placed the papers on her teacher table. "Last week, all of you had already submitted your assignments to me. I've read them all, word by word. Of course, I also have already given appropriate scores depending on how well you've done the assignment." She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "There are some interesting stories you made there. A few of them made me cry...literally. So today, I'll give them back to you, just in case you want to keep them and also... I will tell you why you got your score."
No one in this class dared to interrupt her while she was speaking. They knew Nekonome-sensei would introduce them to her sharp nails if they did so.
"First, Uzumaki Naruto," Nekonome-sensei called.
Upon hearing his name was called, Naruto immediately jumped out of his chair and walked to take his story.
The blond jinchūriki had a wide grin on his face, showing how confident he was with his score.
However, the moment Nekonome-sensei handed over his paper, Naruto's body froze in place as if he was seeing a ghost.
His score was beyond his wildest expectation.
He was expecting to get at least eighty or so...but that wasn't the result he got.
"N-Nekonome-sensei..." Naruto's voice trailed off as his eyes started to get watery of manly tears.
"Yes, Naruto-kun?" For some reason, Nekonome had a sickly sweet smile on her delicate lips. "Do you have something you want to ask me? About your score, perhaps?"
Naruto swallowed down his saliva to moisten his dry throat.
"WHY DO I GET A ZERO!?" the blond yelled out his question. He knew he shouldn't do that, but he just had to do it in order to vent his emotions out, "I wrote this writing assignment based on a true story about a certain ninja from another world who risked his life to save ALL the people in his world, including those who hated him from the day he was born! He saved them from a crazy villain who wanted to destroy all what it means to be a human... I even asked Yukari-chan to make sure all words are spelled correctly and there's no grammatical error in my story. So why? Tell me, sensei. Why do I get a ZERO!?"
"...So you asked Yukari despite knowing this is an individual task, hm?" Nekonome's question made Naruto nervously avert his eyes from her. "The story itself is great, I admit it. You might get a lot of money if you get it published. However, look at the top of your assignment paper. Yes, there, the column where you're supposed to write down your name."
Naruto looked there for a moment before looking back at his teacher. A questioning look could clearly be seen on his face.
"You wrote your name wrong! Who is this 'Naurto'? I don't have any student named that in my class."
"But..."
"'But' is not a sentence." Nekonome cut his words off. "Go back to your seat and reflect on your mistake."
Just like that, the usually vibrant and happy boy went back to his seat with his head hung down. A gloomy aura surrounded his figure.
"Next, Aono Tsukune."
The human boy stood up from his chair and walked to receive his paper.
Unlike Naruto, who had a wide grin on his face when Nekonome-sensei called him, the brown-haired boy seemed nervous.
It must have been because he had not finished the assignment fully. He had a reason for that, though.
"Since you haven't finished your story yet, Aono-kun, I was forced to give you a 70," the teacher said. "To be honest, yours is my favorite story. You really have a good imagination there. A story about mere human in a school full of monsters; that's so hilarious."
All of his friends, who happened to know Tsukune's secret, sweat-dropped upon hearing her words.
"Please continue this story, Aono-kun. I want to see what kind of punishments your main character will get once they find out he is a human. I could provide you with some suggestions, if you ever need them." Nekonome smiled and turned to face everyone else, "You might want to ask some advice from Aono-kun here about how to make your story sounds real. It was as if his main character actually exists in this world."
"A-alright, sensei, thanks."
Tsukune hurriedly went back to his seat so the teacher wouldn't get suspicious as to why he was sweating profusely.
So the paper distribution event continued.
"Miss Sendou Yukari, would you please come here?"
The young witch had a triumphant smile on her lips as she walked from her seat. She was sure she would get another perfect score to add on her collection.
But that wasn't the case.
"I'm sorry, but you only get 60 this time."
Nekonome-sensei's words wiped the smile off Yukari's face. Her eyes went blank and her mouth hung open.
She was too much in shock to ask why.
"I was asking for a story," the teacher began her explanation. "Although this is indeed a story, yours is not enjoyable. You used a lot of difficult and complicated words that are hard to understand and make ordinary people to stop reading and open a dictionary to understand the meaning of your word." Nekonome-sensei paused for a moment and continued with, "That might not seem important for you, who are a genius, but it's one of the reasons your readers stay away from your story despite how good it was."
The purple-eyed girl was already on the verge of crying, but Nekonome-sensei continued.
"It was even worse because your expository paragraphs are soooo long that they hurt my eyes. You should separate them into some smaller paragraphs; nobody wants to read an encyclopedia-like wall of text." Nekonome-sensei looked as if she just remembered something. "Oh! And put different character's dialogue in separate paragraphs, too. It's so confusing when more than two people are speaking."
Yukari said nothing in return.
She just grabbed her paper, squeezed it as hard as she could, and went back to her seat with a dark aura surrounding her, much like Naruto's case. It was subtle, but some of the other students saw the young witch's lips mumbled something. It was not a chant of some strange curse aimed at the teacher, probably.
"Next, Saizou Komiya." Nekonome-sensei looked around the class for a while and asked, "Where's Saizou-kun?"
One of the students who sat near the teacher table told her that the delinquent boy had been absent since he got his ass kicked few days ago.
"Oh, I'll just point out his mistake for all of you, then," Nekonome said in a disappointed tone. "I want you to never use this kind of language Saizou-kun used in his story. You might've already known this, but I'll repeat it once more so you won't make the same mistake." The teacher put a serious expression on her face. "Don't use jargons unless it's really necessary. Eliminate pretentious and flowery language, too many curse words are no good, and never be repetitive, even for 'I' in the first-person point of view."
All the students nodded their heads, although fewer than ten percent actually listened to her.
Nekonome-sensei looked at the next name on her table. It read "Akashiya Moka."
Just as the cat-youkai teacher called the name, a pink-haired vampire stood up from her seat. Several "ooohhhh" could be heard from male students who was captivated by the warm aura she gave off.
However, for some reason, Moka looked more nervous than usual. She was fidgeting her index fingers as she stood next to teacher's table.
"Miss Akashiya..." The teacher's voice trailed off. "I've been in your position, too, when I was young. Nevertheless, I wrote a fluffy story instead of a love letter like you did here. Who wants to read someone else's love letter?"
Moka stole a glance to one of the back row's occupants before continued fidgeting her fingers and rubbing her thighs together.
"I-I'm sorry sensei."
The teacher shook her head, "No need to say sorry. Here, take this. I'll give you a chance to rewrite this into something else. Your score will still be reduced, though."
Moka nodded her head and was about to go back to her seat, but someone yelled at her.
"You! I believe you surreptitiously wrote a love letter for Tsukune-kun and submitted it as a writing assignment in hope that you'll get a chance to read it aloud in front of the class and confess your feelings!"
It was one of her few friends, Kurumu.
"N-no, I was not!"
"Liar! I don't believe you!"
Upon hearing the ruckus created by the two girls, Nekonome-sensei had a frown on her face. She hit her teaching stick into the whiteboard a few times to gain their attention and spoke.
"Miss Kurono Kurumu," Nekonome-sensei called. "Please come here."
The blue-haired succubus glared at Moka but immediately jumped out of her chair. Her voluptuous breasts jiggled as she walked to the front of the class. Another several "ooohhhhh" that was coming from Kurumu's fanboys, reverberated through the class.
"What is this!?" Nekonome-sensei asked as she handed Kurumu her paper.
"My story, of course," she replied. "Did you like it, sensei? I put all my effort into it so it's enjoyable for all ages."
The teacher's face became red all of sudden.
"This, this is not what I asked! Smut is too immoral to be called a story! All you wrote was basically several different kinds of sexual intercourse between a self-insert character and an incredibly annoying Gary Stu character whose illustration strangely looks like Aono-kun!"
Kurumu tilted her head cutely and asked, "I couldn't? Why, sensei? Don't you like it?"
"I-I-I don't want to speak more of it. I'm a victim here. A victim! I have to repeat that I'm a victim thrice because it's important!" The teacher's face beet-red, like a tomato. She then continued with a low voice, "I was forced to read it. It's only part of my job, but now my chastity is gone..."
The teacher looked like she had lost a part of her soul as imaginary dark cloud suddenly appeared on top of her head.
However, Kurumu was oblivious to that fact and kept asking.
"So do you like it or not, sensei? Or maybe you have some suggestions for me to add? I'm sure you're more experienced than me with these kind of things. You're a teacher, after all."
"Don't ask me again. And please go back to your seat."
"So you don't like it," Kurumu shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know you have some derivative preferences, sensei. Would you give me a better score if I include some bondage and wax and whips?"
"...Go back to your seat." She paused for a moment and said, "And make sure you add an M-rating the next time you wrote something like that."
After she called few other students names and gave them their paper back as well as pointing out their mistakes...
"Last, Shirayuki Mizore."
From the corner of the class, a purple-haired girl stuck out her head from under her table. She sucked her lollipop with no expression on her face.
"You didn't submit anything," the teacher said. "You should at least try to write a story of your own; don't be passive and just read others. You might actually have a talent for it and enjoy writing more than you've thought."
The yuki-onna just tilted her head to the side, seemingly pondering about whether she should take her teacher's words into consideration or not.
The End
A/N: Okay, more like a ramble than an actual story, but the idea to make this suddenly came up in my mind when I was writing the next chapter of my other story.
If you have an urge to write down your own story because you're thinking "Oh... it sounds easy, I can do even better than this person..." or "Oh... I've made same mistakes before... I won't repeat it again next time" after reading my story, I'll be happy. Really, really happy because I know my goal is accomplished the moment you've that thought crossed your mind.
On a side note, I'm not saying all the above things are absolutely correct but at least that's what I believe to be. If you want to correct me, give suggestion, or maybe have something against, feel free to leave a review or just send me a PM.
I'll lay down my pen now (read: turn off my pc) and hope you have a good time reading my story.
Special thanks to Mon Esprit Libre, who has taken her time to actually read and beta my story.
Until next time!