What'dya know? I got un-lazy enough to upload this chapter.
If you haven't figured it out for yourself already, this is set in a modern Japanese school, though I made it a private school just for the heck of it. The Japanese school structure is different the American and Canadian one, two of these main differences being the fact that the school year starts in April, and it's not the students that move from class to class. It's the teachers. Makes more sense when you think about it.
On that note, if you ever have a question about anything, feel free to ask. I know this might be confusing to more than one person.
On my profile, it says I'll never use swears, but I Kiba has a very colourful vocabulary... It's not my fault... You've been warned (it's not that bad though...)
And... that's about it. Read on!
Disclaimer: Now, think hard about it. Would I be posting fanfiction if I owned Naruto or the characters? No, so there you go. I do, however, own my plot and original characters though.
Chapter 3:
The Horrors of English
Naruto was still wondering down the halls, the feeling of being watched gone. He eventually found his classroom, but he had to admit that Tenten was right: it was set up just like a public school. There were two sliding doors that lead into the classroom, though the one near the classroom's back was suppose to be used as the exiting door. The door for entering was marked by a sign sticking out into the hall just above the door, reading '2-A'.
He was about to open the door when another opened it from the inside. Out burst Kiba, grabbing him by his shoulders checking him over to make sure he was okay.
"Are you okay? She didn't hurt you?" he was asking, looking into his eyes.
"I-I'm fine…" Naruto assured him, totally confused. "I just gave her the medication and she… well, actually, she pushed me out the door…"
Kiba sighed. "The nurse has always been a bit funny in the head," he explained with a sly expression on his face. "Major mood swings. But she's a great nurse nevertheless. And she's great friends with the principal too."
Naruto suddenly realized he didn't even know who the principal was. He was about to ask when Kiba pulled him into the classroom.
"I'll introduce you to everyone!" he said cheerfully.
Kiba lead him over to the other side of the classroom to the windowsill, where two other boys and Hinata were waiting. From a bit further away, they looked like a black blob due to their uniforms: Hinata's skirt containing the only white against the boys' gakuran (1).
"Guys, this is Uzumaki Naruto," Kiba introduced. "He's the newest member of our group!"
One of the boys lifted his hand in greeting. "I'm Nara Shikamaru."
The other boy beamed at Naruto. "Akimichi Chouji."
Now that Naruto looked at it, these people looked rather strange. Hinata with her creepy white eyes, Kiba with his slit eyes and odd red markings on his face, and Chouji with the weird swirls on his cheeks. He was about to dismiss Shikamaru as being odd… except for his hair. It stuck out in an odd gravity-defying way. Though Naruto shouldn't complain: his own hair did that without him putting gel in it.
"Wait… I'm in your group?" he realized, looking from Kiba to the rest of them.
"Yep," Inuzuka chimed. "You fit the requirements: clumsy, different, and total outcast. Welcome to the group!"
Naruto sweat dropped but considered. He was clumsy, that was a given. As for different, his hair and eyes kind of fit. And as much as he wanted to deny it, it was a total outcast in his other school.
"So then… how'd you know I fit?" he asked suspiciously.
Kiba pointed to his nose. "I can smell you out!"
Inuzuka laughed, and Naruto laughed nervously. He did look sort of like a dog…
"Hey, who's this?" a girl said, walking over to the group.
Naruto was convinced everyone here was a freak. This girl had pink hair. Pink! The odd colour seemed brighter than it was due to the red headband she wore. And the fact that her uniform was black… well, she looked just plain weird. And her eyes were green, which seemed to glow against her pink hair, red headband and black uniform. Though she did look kind of cute…
"Are you new here?" she asked politely, giving Naruto and warm smile. "My name is Haruno Sakura. And you are…?"
"U-Uzumaki Naruto," he stumbled. "I'll be in this class for the coming year."
Sakura looked him over. "Are you a foreigner?"
Naruto sighed. "I get that a lot, but I'm not a foreigner. Not to my knowledge at least."
"Well, you look like one more than me," another girl said, stepping beside Sakura. "If you're not a foreigner, then how'd you get your hair so blonde?"
Her hair was blonde… but you could easily tell she had bleached her hair and dyed it. The most nerve-wracking part about this girl was that her eyes… had no pupils; they were just a light blue colour. The dress code must be really light if people could look like this. (2)
"I… uhh… was born like this?" he offered as an answer, but the girl didn't seem convinced.
Sakura sweat dropped. "Ino-chan… please don't rant…"
"I've tried bleaching my hair," Ino started, quite annoyed. "I've dyed my hair, I wear blue-eye contacts, and I still don't look foreign enough! And then suddenly you pop up, and you're perfect!"
"Hey, back off," Kiba growled, stepping between Ino and Naruto. "He's in my gang, and if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. Right guys!"
Chouji and Hinata nodded and Shikamaru yawned. Naruto sweat dropped again when he realized what a loser group he had found himself in. Ah well… better than nothing…
Quite suddenly, the door slid open loudly and there stood Tenten.
"I finally found you!" she shouted and rushed over to Naruto. "I went to check with the nurse to make sure you had actually been there, but she was acting funny, so I had to make sure you were okay," she explained, completely ignoring the others.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Naruto said awkwardly, throwing glances at Kiba.
He seemed to get the hint, and pried her off of him. "He's fine now, see?"
Tenten looked around her and realized what a scene she was making. She bowed deep and apologized to everyone before hurrying out the door.
"My classroom is 3-A," she called over her shoulder. "Meet me there after school!" And then she was gone.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to meet in my classroom…?" Naruto muttered under his breath.
"Who… who was she?" Sakura asked, the first to break the silence. Naruto had almost forgotten she was there.
"My elder sister, Tenten," Naruto explained. The class went back to its normal noise level after that.
Ino sighed. "Sorry for being such a jerk," she said suddenly. "I have a bad habit of letting my temper get the best of me. No hard feelings?"
Naruto smiled. "None."
"Good!" She said cheerfully. "I'm Yamanaka Ino. You said you were Uzumaki Naruto, right?"
Naruto nodded awkwardly. "I wouldn't be surprised if she was related to the nurse…"
The bell chimed, signalling the start of class. Everyone began seating themselves, leaving Naruto standing dumbly by the window. Hinata saw his plight and signalled for him to stand outside, blushing the whole time.
Outside in the hall, Naruto went through the faces and names he knew, trying to find a pattern.
"Inuzuka Kiba… he seems familiar…" he thought quietly to himself. "I didn't pass out when I saw him though… maybe it's like Hinata, and he has to be in a certain pose… No one seemed bothered by those red markings on his face though. Maybe that'll help me fit in more.
"Hyuuga Hinata; she's got a cheerful name. She's got weird eyes though, and blushes too much. No one was bothered by her eyes though… I guess these people have been together for a long time; perhaps they're all used to it.
"Nara Shikamaru seems normal enough. Lazy though, but nevertheless the most normal person here so far. Who grows their hair that long anyway? His name is pretty weird too.
"Akimichi Chouji… pretty large, and I saw a couple chip bags behind him. His hair his gravity-defyingly spiky too. And those swirls on his face… a tattoo maybe?"
"You're Uzumaki Naruto, correct?" a voice said, jolting him out of his thoughts.
He looked up and mentally slapped himself. This guy was obviously the teacher, but he was also the weirdest looking person Naruto had every laid eyes upon. For starters, his hair was white, and was brushed back in such a way that it covered his left eye. He was also wearing a surgical mask, indicating he had a cold, or something of the sort. Either way, it covered his nose and mouth. It took everything Naruto had not to laugh.
"Yes, I am," he said, layered with keigo. He was a teacher after all.
The teacher looked at him strange but nodded. "I'll introduce you to the class. Please wait here until I call for you."
He slid opened the door, stepped inside, and closed the door. From inside, Naruto could hear the traditional teacher-greeting rise, bow, and request. With a lurch, he had forgotten to ask who the class leader was. Voices were muffled, and he could only just barely make out what the teacher was saying. He only knew when to step into the classroom when there was silence that lasted more than five seconds.
He stood on the raised platform while the teacher wrote down his name on the board, referring to the sheet of paper he had in his hand for spelling. While he was doing that, Naruto looked out into the class, and found that the classroom was a lot bigger than he thought it was. The people he knew were scattered throughout the classroom, and though he didn't know everyone's surname, from what he could make out it seemed as if the desks were arranged according to alphabetical order. (3)
"This is Uzumaki Naruto," the teacher announced to the class. Naruto was surprised that his voice was not muffled though the mask. "He will be with us starting today. I assume you all will treat him with respect and show him around."
A chorus of 'yes sirs' echoed throughout the room, and Naruto bowed to show his appreciation.
"Uzumaki-kun," the teacher said, addressing him individually. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, and I will be your homeroom teacher for this year. As for your seat…" he glanced at the floor plan on the podium quickly, "you actually make this class a perfect thirty, though we're going to have to move some desks around."
There was moaning from the entire class as they got up and moved their belongings to the cloak room at the back of the class. Naruto looked down sheepishly. Shikamaru, seeing this, walked over to him and put an arm around his shoulder.
"Even though it's troublesome, we're not really bothered by it," he explained, watching as Naruto visibly relaxed. "We move the desks all the time, but since the year's just begun, we just have to move where people are sitting."
Naruto nodded, re-evaluating Shikamaru from 'lazy' to 'lazy but smart'.
"And…" he continued. "Kiba-kun should be sitting somewhere near you."
Naruto made a mental note to ask Shikamaru for advice or help. The desks were put into five rows with six desks in each row. By some strange coincidence, there were enough people to have every row match their alphabetical order. Naruto was in the middle row, and second seat down. Just as Shikamaru has said, Kiba was directly to his left. Hinata was at the back in his row, and Shikamaru and Chouji were in the row left of Kiba. Ino and Sakura were in that row too. Behind Naruto was some girl with reddish-brown hair, and though she didn't speak to him, she had smiled warmly and waved. To Naruto's right was a girl who had introduced herself as Ken'nosuke Michiko, and had acted as the instructor in coaching Naruto on where to put his desk, how much it needed to be turned to the right, or left, etcetera. She was very loud.
"Pay no attention to the guy in front of you," Kiba had told him quietly. "He's an arrogant bastard on all accounts."
Naruto stared quizzically at Kiba, noting his language and then turned to stare at the boy in front of him. His back was to Naruto, but just like seemingly everyone here, his hair was weird. It stuck up at a weird angle, not unlike Kakashi's, though it was raven blue, not white. He didn't turn around though. He didn't make any acknowledgement that Naruto even existed, and that quite annoyed him.
"Okay, quiet down," Kakashi was saying. The class fell silent. "I've still got five more minutes of homeroom. I'll take this time to go over some announcements…"
Naruto tuned out after that. It was just like his old school: Homeroom for fifteen minutes, that would be followed by four classes, with a recess after the first two, then lunch, and that would be followed by either one or two afternoon classes, depending on the day. All Kakashi was talking about was the scheduled earthquake drill that was to happen later that month, explaining why homeroom was in the classroom this Monday rather than in the gym, and other random boring things. When he had finally finished talking, they were partway into the first period. Which happened to be Kakashi's period, so it wasn't all that bad.
Naruto had figured out that Kakashi was a pretty funny guy. He made jokes often enough to keep everyone's attention, but at the same time, made progress. As if Japanese class wasn't boring enough. Kakashi seemed to specialize in different proverbs and such, and always gave a couple minutes for students to write down various notes. He didn't even assign that much homework.
After fifty minutes of Japanese, the bell chimed and Kakashi left the room. The five minute break started then, and the class erupted in noise.
"So, how do you like Hatake-sensei?" Kiba was asking, thumbing the blackboard covered in writing. "You'll find he's a lot more fun than the other teachers here."
"You've had them before?" Naruto asked.
The Inuzuka nodded. "The teachers don't change that much, and we all were in this school last year. Minus you of course."
"What class do we have next?" Shikamaru asked, coming up behind Kiba.
"I believe we have English next," Hinata answered, who had also come up to Kiba and Naruto's desks.
"Morino-sensei is scary though…" Chouji shuddered. He then took out a bag of chips and began munching on them.
The others nodded, and Naruto felt a tinge of fright in his stomach. "What's he like?"
"Evil," all four of them said at the same time. Naruto swallowed.
"Don't worry about it," Shikamaru said reassuringly. "You've got Suzuki-san behind you and Uchiha-san in front of you. Those two are the best in the class."
"Uchiha…?"
"The bastard in front of you," Kiba growled.
"Uchiha Sasuke-san," Hinata said. "He's been going to this chain of schools as l-long as I have, and I joined in second grade."
"He's an arrogant bastard on all accounts," Kiba repeated, growling.
"He's just sour because Uchiha-san is on the track team with him," Shikamaru explained.
As the bell chimed, the group got back into their seats. Sasuke hadn't moved though. Naruto suddenly felt guilty, talking about him behind his back. He knew the kids in his other school did the same thing to him, so he made a note to try to talk to the guy after.
The door slid open with a bang, and a tall man stepped inside. His face was covered in scars and burns, and Naruto couldn't help but side with Chouji: he was scary. His head was covered with what looked like a bandana, but it was hard to take your eyes off of the many scars long enough to actually look. He stood at the front of the classroom and nodded to someone in the back.
"Rise," Ino commanded, and the class stood up from their seats.
"So Ino's the class leader…" Naruto thought dimly as he got up off his chair.
"Bow," she said. "O-negai shimasu." (4)
"O-negai shimasu," the class repeated robotically before taking their seats again.
The teacher nodded. "As you know, I am Morino Ibiki, you're English teacher. I expect you will do your best to keep up and take notes during my lesson."
That was about all he had said to the class that wasn't in a lecture form. It appeared that these people had started English in elementary, something not that common, but it put Naruto back a ways. He found himself asking Michiko how to pronounce a letter, or a word's meaning almost every minute. She was beside him after all, and he wasn't sure if this particular teacher would like him making too much noise to ask Sasuke. He was thankful the teacher allowed at least a bit of whispering in class. He was also thankful Tenten had told him to get a larger notebook for English.
Tenten… how was she managing with English class? Had she found friends yet? She had seemed cheerful enough when she burst into the classroom before class…
"Uzumaki-kun, are you with us still?"
Morino-sensei's voice sounded rather annoyed, and when Naruto looked up, unaware he had put his head down, and came face to face with the man. There were even more scars up-close. Revolted, yet refusing to be made fun of, he straightened up in his seat.
"Yes sir," he said strongly.
"You're new here," he said. It wasn't a question. "Perhaps you cannot keep up with the rest of the class?"
"I'm doing my best sir," Naruto answered, feeling the stares of the class upon him.
Satisfied with his answer, Ibiki went back to the front of the class and began lecturing again.
"Nice one," Kiba whispered, giving him the thumbs up.
Naruto wasn't listening. He knew the teacher would be watching out for him now, and he was writing notes down faster than he knew he could. Verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives; what the heck were those? English wasn't his best subject, to be frank.
"As for you homework, I expect you to write the English alphabet perfectly two times, and then translate a short story into English."
Naruto resisted the urge to protest. It was only the first day and already he was on the English teacher's bad side, but that was a whole lot of homework. He sincerely hoped he didn't have English tomorrow. One person didn't seem to be able to hold back though.
"That's way too much!" the boy behind Ino shouted, standing up.
"Yamada Mamoru," Michiko explained in a whisper. "He's a dead-man walking right now."
"It's the first day back, you could cut us a bit of slack," Yamada continued.
"English schools learning Japanese do not give any slack," Morino-sensei explained in a cold voice. "I intend to do the same vice versa."
A couple pairs of eyes floated over to Sasuke, but he remained silent. Naruto took note of it.
"Yamada-kun, if you would please see me after class…"
Mamoru swallowed hard, nodded, and sat back in his seat. Naruto could see him visibly pale, and was ten times as thankful he hadn't been the one to yell out. Ibiki had turned around and was showing the proper way to write the English letters. When the bell finally chimed, Naruto was pretty sure his arm was dead.
"Rise," Ino commanded, getting up with the rest of the class.
"Bow. Arigatou gozaimasu." (5)
"Arigatou gozaimasu," the rest of the class repeated.
The dreaded English teacher left after that, and the entire class visibly sighed. Yamada Mamoru walked stoically out the door after Ibiki, and Naruto couldn't help but feel sorry for him. A lot of people began leaving the classroom as well, either going to meet friends in other classes or just to spend time outside. There was a twenty minute recess after all.
"Told you he was evil," Kiba was saying, sitting on top of his desk.
"Never doubted you," Naruto sighed, putting his English homework in his backpack. "What happened to the guy anyway?"
"N-no one really knows," Hinata said from the desk in front of Kiba's, the owner having gone outside. "Someone said he was in a fire though."
"Doesn't explain the scars though," Chouji commented, munching on some more chips. "Everyone's too scared of him to ask him outright though."
"Did you manage okay?" Shikamaru asked. "I mean, you only start English until last year, didn't you? It's a troublesome subject."
Naruto shook his head. "Ken'nosuke-san is pretty helpful though."
"Michiko-chan's mother is American isn't she?" Hinata said.
Shikamaru shrugged. "All I know is she's second only to Uchiha-san."
"Everyone is only second to that ass," Kiba growled.
"Kiba-kun!"
"Oh, shut up, you know he is!"
Naruto looked around for Sasuke, but he wasn't even in the classroom anymore. He must've left with the rest of the class.
"Where'd he go anyway?" he asked Shikamaru, since he seemed to be neutral on the Sasuke debate.
He shrugged. "I don't keep tabs on everyone, especially that guy. He's more troublesome than Rei-san, and that's saying something."
"Why'd you want to find him?" Chouji said between chip munches. "Akira-kun said he heads toward the third floor on recesses and lunches."
"Thanks, I'll be right back," Naruto said, and headed out the door. He needed to check up on Tenten anyway.
He headed in the direction of the nurse's room, just because he knew there were stairs there. As soon as he got to the third floor however, he was knocked back down the stairs by a blur shouting his name. And then he blacked out.
(1) - Gakuran - Boys' uniform. Duh. For those of you familiar with Inuyasha, this is what the boys in Kagome's class wear. I can't think of anymore anime that a gakuran is used. Sorry. Again, if I ever get un-lazy, I'll draw the one I have in mind. But that doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon.
(2) - Dress Code - Some schools in Japan are really strict. You've got limits on your hair style as well. One of my friends said that a girl had to go back to the barber and get her hair dyed black again since she had dyed it a reddish brown colour. Some schools are really loose about it, and some don't even need you to wear a uniform. I'll just pretend this school is one of those loose schools, but still has a uniform code. I mean, they'd have to be loose about the hair colour, what with anime-peoples hair styles…
(3) - Alphabetical Order - I'd like to point out right here that the Japanese alphabet is different than the English one. It sort of goes a-i-u-e-o, ka-ki-ku-ke-ko, sa-shi-su-se-so, and so on. In some cases, the g's come after the k's, but I'm used to the ones that need ditto marks or circles being at the end. So live with it.
(4) - O-negai shimasu - Shut up, there is that dash there, and there is a space. Traditional 'start of class' thing. Class leader leads the rise, bow, and request. I know some of you think that o-negai means 'please'. It sort of does, but in the case of 'beginning of class routine', it translates into something like, 'please teach me/us'.
(5) - Arigatou gozaimasu - Yeah, I know just about all of you know what that means. Just thought I'd point out the different levels of this particular saying. 'Arigatou' would mean 'thanks'. 'Arigatou gozaimasu' is 'thank you'. 'Domo/doumo arigatou gozaimasu' is 'thank you very much'. Or… sort of like that. And 'sumimasen' could also mean thank you, in the proper context, as could 'domo'. 'Domo' could also mean hello... Just goes to show you how confusing Japanese can really be…
I thought I'd point out the fact that Kakashi wearing that surgical mask thingy is actually not that uncommon. If someone has a cold or something, it's natural to wear that kind of mask so that others don't catch what ever you have. I only say this because it wasn't important enough to put into a footnote, but I knew some people would think it was weird. It still is, but it's not uncommon.
And I had to end this chapter off earlier than planned. It was getting too long, and I know if I let my chapters get too long, some people will excpet me to have all my chapters that long, and I can't garentee that. I honestly think I'd be able to write this entire fanfiction without any breaks, but chapters must be chapters, and the plot is too complex to be a oneshot. Nevertheless, it's getting hard to find places to stop for chapter breaks. That being said, chapter 4 is pretty much done, but I'm still lazy. Forgive me...
