Stamping on Butterflies
Chapter Four
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"I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me." ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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First day of school was not what I expected; mostly because it involved me getting punched in the face.
After dragging Hinata inside we were directed to our new classroom to meet our fellow shinobi-in-training and the man who would be our sensei for the entirety of our academy education. Of course, I knew it was going to be Iruka-sensei, but nothing could prepare me for the 19 year-old man who stood at the front of the classroom with an extremely naive smile on his face. He was so obviously new at this job. I just hoped he didn't tell the class that he was a newly qualified teacher; because they would make his life hell.
"Good afternoon class, I will be your teacher. You may call me Iruka-sensei. You will be my very first class at the academy." Too late.
I could almost feel the excitement roll off of Naruto. I felt bad for the guy, I really did. He would come to learn the error of his ways in time, but right now all I could predict for him was a very bumpy ride. But then again it would explain a lot about the bond that Iruka and Naruto shared later on as they both grew into themselves as student and teacher.
So after the customary introduction we started on the basics of being a Shinobi. It was incredibly boring. I sat next to Hinata and some other boy who I didn't know and who seemed too interested in the lecture to want to goof off with me anyway.
This meant I had to sit still and listen, something I had never been very good at. For the clan kids in the room all of what he was saying was obvious; it was something we had all grown up knowing. But for the civilians it was the first step towards their goal, and so I tried not to begrudge them for their existence.
As the lecture went on I began to contemplate how I wanted my academy years to play out. Chances were that all the academic stuff that we were to learn during our time at the here was well within my capabilities to preform and outdo considering my actual mental age. In regards to the physical stuff I would be above average compared to the majority of the class, and that was only due to my special training with the Hyuuga. So I would easily be at the top of the class in a written exam, and although I would have competition from the other clan kids, I might even get to be top of the class if I continued to train really hard.
I weighed up the pros and cons of working hard and paying attention. Quite frankly I really couldn't be arsed. I mean, I would continue to train with my clan and my bow staff (which I loved and now considered my baby as far as one could consider an inanimate object their child) and would try my hardest to get better and better at that. But I knew from what Neji had told me that when we were to spar in class it was in hand to hand combat and therefore I wasn't allowed to use my staff. Annoying but unavoidable. Therefore, I decided that I would be average. Not the worse and not the best but just in the middle.
When lunch came around we were sent out into the courtyard to mingle. Now, I had yet to meet any other children apart from Neji and Hinata, and I would not consider either of them very normal because they were so… calm. I mean really calm I couldn't even get my head around it.
Because it seemed that all the other children were really, really not calm.
Everyone was screaming and shouting and bitching and oh-my-god I needed to find a quiet corner to sit down in and avoid the little children who insisted on pulling my hair.
I had been looking forward to starting school because I thought it would be a change from the secluded, stoic atmosphere of the clan compound. Oh how wrong I was. I blamed Hinata and Neji for lulling me into a false sense of security about the personalities of young children.
Don't get me wrong, I loved kids, but when you were stuck as a kid in the middle of a playground in the middle of a shinobi village where sitting still wasn't really taught in the syllabus; it was a bit much. I was technically an adult and my patience could only last so long.
And then someone pulled my hair again.
"Hinata, I'm sorry I have no patience today," I told her honestly. "If I get my hair pulled one more time I'm going to hit someone." I shrugged slightly and smiled up at my cousin. She looked at me and I could tell she knew I was being serious about the possibility of hitting someone.
"Umm…" She was unsure what to do now and I knew that if I went and sat down she would follow me dutifully. If that happened I would feel bad for keeping her away from potential friends. I knew she was too shy to approach anyone by herself and I would have to help her; lest she rely on me for company for the rest of our academy lives.
"Right," I muttered. I looked around the courtyard for a victim to impose the quiet little girl on. When I saw Shino at the edge of the playground, looking at his feet with his hands in his pockets, and every now and again glancing at a different group of children playing together, I knew I had found the perfect candidate. From my memories I understood that Shino was similar to Hinata in his disposition and therefore probably just as shy.
I took Hinata's hand, for the second time that day, and began to drag her towards the Aburame. He didn't notice our approach at first but I wasn't disheartened and kept an open mind that, hopefully, Hinata could gain a lifelong friend.
"Nana, what are you doing?" Hinata asked with a worried voice. "I thought you wanted to go and sit down."
"Relax; I'm just going to help you make a new friend." I was a good person, I decided. I would help Hinata make a new friend and then go and sit in under a tree somewhere and sulk. As we approached him Shino looked up from his shoes curiously, and then seemed to straighten up as if preparing for a very difficult conversation.
"Hello!" I announced joyously. "You're Shino aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. And you are the Nanami, the Hyuuga without the Byakugan, and you are Hinata the Hyuuga clan heir." Shino was very matter of fact. Therefore, I just knew he wouldn't appreciate me pussyfooting around the problem at hand and so I decided to dive straight in.
"First; it's Nana, not Nanami. Second; you're shy," I announced in the same tone he had addressed us.
He turned to me and I could see a calculating look, weighing up what I was in fact doing. His reply was simply: "Yes."
"Well, I would like you to meet Hinata – I mean officially meet her and not just know her name. She is also very shy and calm, you're also very calm by the way, and I just thought that both of you would get on like a house on fire!" Both Hinata and Shino looked at me for a moment like I had lost my senses, then looked at each other. Hinata blushed the deepest red she could probably go and let out a very undignified squeak.
Shino seemed to pause, studied the little girl, and then said in a shy voice a very quiet: "okay."
"Yay!" I yelled, taking Hinata's high pitched noise as an affirmative. I turned to my cousin, wished her luck, and left.
Okay, maybe not such a nice person, considering I had basically just pushed Hinata in the deep end of the pool and told her to sink or swim. But the same could be said for Shino, and therefore they would both be in the same boat… or maybe not in the same boat, if they're both swimming in the water- or sinking as the case may be.
I lost myself in thought for a moment, just one moment, and someone came over and pulled my hair. I was not joking when I said someone was going to get hit if my hair got pulled one more time. So I turned, fist ready, for I always came through on my word, and stopped dead when I saw who it was who had pulled my hair.
Naruto's big blue eyes were half closed in a flinch and I watched as he brought his hand up to his face to shield himself. I immediately felt guilt rise in my chest and lowered my hand with a small pout. Dam, I really needed to hit someone. Instead, I opted for a very calm and collected question.
"Why did you pull my hair?!" Okay, so maybe I shouted just a tiny, tiny bit.
Naruto looked at me in shock and lowered his hand from his face. Suddenly, the scared little boy turned to a child full of bravado and confidence. "Because you're going to play with me!" he announced to everyone in the vicinity.
I take back what I thought earlier; I hate little kids.
"No," I told him simply and the little boy looked crestfallen. Naruto probably just wanted a friend but was going about the process of acquiring one in the wrong way. I had done my good deed for today in helping Hinata, and so would help Naruto tomorrow. Maybe. I looked around and spotted a group of boys playing Ninja. "Go play with them."
"They don't want to play with me," murmured Naruto with a pout. "Why won't you play with me?" he demanded almost hesitantly. I looked at the child in front of me up and down. He was wearing an orange short sleeved top with shorts and open toe sandals. He had scruffy hair, bleeding knees and a snotty nose. In essence he was a normal little child who wanted a friend. Taking my silence as a bad sign he stepped away and crossed his arms; frowning at the floor and trying not to cry. My heart almost broke.
"Look I'll… I'll play with you." His face lit up like a firework and I gave a hesitant smile in return. God, what had I gotten myself into? "But not right now."
"Why not right now? What's your name anyway? I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be Hokage one day!" His demeanour changed so rapidly I almost got whiplash. I sighed to myself in regret. Why couldn't I have just told him to go away? Oh well, too late now.
"My names Nana and I don't want to play now because I'm tired and want to sit down, and if one more person pulls my hair I'm going to hit someone." As I said these words I had already began to walk away from Naruto. Unfortunately he seemed to take that as a hint to follow me, and I resigned myself to the company of the little blond tag along.
However, before I could find a nice place to sit and recuperate, a felt something painfully collide with the back of my head. I stumbled forward at the unexpected impact but Naruto caught me before I could lose my footing.
"Oh no," he whispered, worried. He stepped back, let go as if I had burnt him and looked at me with fear as if he expected me to run. I gave him a questioning look as I rubbed the now forming bruise on the back of my head; tears stinging the corners of my eyes at the pain. Ow, that really hurt.
I looked around to find the perpetrator of the crime and witnessed the group of boys who had been playing ninja earlier now looking at us with smug expressions plastered on their faces.
"Okay, so those boys just threw a stone at me. Correct?" I asked Naruto. I pursed my lips in annoyance and narrowed my eyes.
"Well, they weren't aiming for you," he muttered to the floor, refusing to look me directly in the eye. Of course they weren't. They were aiming for you.
"Yeah, well they hit me and they don't seem like they regret it. I should really go and tell them to shove off." But I really can't be bothered. Do I have to? I glanced at Naruto and witnessed as his eyes were shinning in awe.
"You would stand up for me?" His voice was full of hope. Well there was my answer. This little boy had not yet found his own feet in the world; had not put his foot down to crying over being alone and dealing with it. At this moment all he wanted was someone to care about him. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I began to feel a headache approaching at both the situation and the bruise on the back of my head.
"I'm going to regret this. I can tell." I was picking my fights poorly, I knew. It would be five against two and I could tell they were all at least a year older than us. I would have to use all my skills available to try and bullshit my way out of this one. Oh joy.
I strolled over to the boys leisurely, taking my time sizing each of them up. They were the type with big muscles and no brains and would most likely end up as career Chunin on the field. None of them were clan kids fortunately, but that didn't mean they couldn't fight and do some damage. I stood just out of reaching distance from them and raised my eyebrow in expectation.
"You threw a rock at me." It wasn't a question.
"Why you hanging around with this loser?" the biggest boy in the middle sneered. Obviously the ring leader, I summarized as I watched the other boys nod and grunt unintelligibly. They were children but that didn't mean they had to act like cave men.
"You mean Naruto? I can hang out with anyone I choose thank you very much." I used the most I'm-in-a-clan-and-you're-not voice I could muster, and this seemed to make them shrink back slightly. Even if they were civilians they still lived in the hidden leaf village and so had respect for clans and their members. However, I didn't have any obvious distinction that said I was a clan member and they quickly recovered from the knee jerk reaction to the breed authority I possessed as a Hyuuga.
"Who are you to talk so confidently to us? You're just a first year," the leader once again sneered at me.
I really didn't like the idea of name dropping and having everyone know I was a Hyuuga. I didn't have the Byakugan which tended to be the defining factor of my clan. Any academy student who realized I was a Hyuuga probably wouldn't even think it was odd that I had normal eyes and even might pity me for being the odd one out in my family. Therefore name-dropping didn't do me any good and would probably bring up their expectations and cause them to overestimate me. In other words; not helpful.
So no one really knew which family I belonged to because, let's face it, no one was paying attention at the ceremony to anyone else's name. The only ones who might even possibly know who I was were my class mates and most of them were clan heirs anyway and had their own problems to deal with.
"Who am I? I'm the person you just threw a rock at for no other reason other than because I was standing next to Uzumaki here." My voice grew more and more emotionless with each word. "Leave him alone if you know what's good for you." What was I saying? These were all threats that I definitely could not pull through with and I was just throwing them around willy-nilly. I felt like face palming but held it together remarkably well. My face was blank and my voice quiet, giving it a rather creepy edge. I watched doubt flicker in the leader's eyes.
Good, I could work with that. Even if it was my first day that didn't necessarily mean that I couldn't handle myself. Geniuses were more common than one would believe, especially when they had been specially conditioned by their clan. So I bluffed my heart out.
I paused and looked at the leader up and down with an unimpressed expression. I watched him tense and witnessed as his whole group reacted to their bosses body language with hesitant looks towards me. I turned around to leave, already bored with the confrontation, and wanting to make a dramatic exit. I knew if it went on any longer a fight would break out, and so attempted to cut it short. They really weren't worth my breath anyway, and Naruto seemed over the moon with my interference. I began to walk away, yet didn't completely turn my back as I wasn't stupid. But just as I had taken only two steps away the leader, with lightening quick speed, reached out to me with an ugly look on his face and grabbed onto my hair and pulled.
It was just reflex from then on. After all the training I had gone through over the past few years it was only natural for me to act out in violent way to a frustrating situation. I turned around, and with a raise fist I punched him square in the face. I felt his nose break under the pressure and a grim sense of satisfaction passed threw me. My hand ached from the hit but remained otherwise unscathed thanks to my leather gloves. I pulled back and shook my hand slightly, raising an eyebrow at the little boy with the bloody nose, and I couldn't stop the small smirk that escaped onto my mouth.
His group were looking at me in awe. Obviously he was a difficult opponent to face and this just made me feel all the more smug for having just smashed his face in. Unfortunately it didn't take long for the leader to recover and he came at me with full force. But due to the head injury I had given him he seemed more disorientated than before and I used this to my full advantage. I dodged to the left as he swung his fist and pushed Naruto out of the way as the older boy began to blindly lash out at everyone around him. I knew I had to end this fight soon for both the sake of my opponent and for the safety of the surrounding crowd.
It would seem that we had regretfully gathered the attention of the surrounding students and a chant of 'fight, fight' had broken out. I dodged another blind punch and looked around for the teachers. The chunin who were on duty were slowly making their way over to the crowd but seemed in no hurry to break up our fight. It would be easier for one of us to be knocked out first rather than having to completely break up the brawl. Great. I knew he out matched me as I had never actually had any experience in a real fight -unless you counted Hinata, and she obviously never gave it her all. In hand to hand combat he'd beat me no question.
I knew what I had to do if I wanted to remain conscious for the rest of the day but was apprehensive to do so. I had only ever studied up on the pressure points of the human body and theory didn't always work in practice. But it was my only choice.
So here's how it went: the first time I tried to get behind him I misjudged his speed and was too slow to react. This resulted in me getting hit in the face.
He was surely aiming for my nose in return for me breaking his, but his aim wasn't quite accurate and he ended up punching me in the eye. My vision blurred and I was knocked back, but not off of my feet. I hissed at the pain and shook my head to rid it of the shock. In the brief moment of victory my opponent lost his concentration slightly, obviously believing me to be out of the fight with such a hard hit, and he straightened with a wicked grin.
I used this split second of inattention to deliver my final blow. The pressure point in the neck was the most affective and easily reachable in my position -minus kicking him really, really hard in the genitals. So I launched myself at my opponent and silently pushed my index and my middle finger into his neck. He collapsed like a tonne of bricks.
I stood over his body panting and felt the adrenalin running through my blood. The crowd was silent, and then suddenly they were cheering and whistling. I got a few pats on the back but ignored them in favour of catching my breath.
"Alright everyone back to your lunches. There's nothing to see here," one of the Chunin instructors announced to the group of gathered children. The crowd began to disperse and the teachers approached me and the bleeding boy on the floor. As the excitement from the fight left me I began to feel the pain in my eye more intensely. I blinked a few times but this just caused a sharp pain to shot through my head.
"Mother fu-" I began to say but received a clip around the ears for my effort. I looked up and saw a disapproving look of one of the teachers. The other had the young boy in his arms and was obviously carrying him to the school medic.
"It was a good fight, but let's not ruin it with foul language. Not many first years can say they took on another student in the year above on their first day," the chunin smiled at me with a raised eyebrow. He then patted me on the head and chuckled. "You seem to be able to sort out yourself and your injury's aren't life threatening. Just don't pick any more fights today."
When the chunin had left I looked around. The only person in the near vicinity was Naruto as it seemed that everyone else had lost interest very quickly and returned to their games. Even the group of boys who had started the fight were now off playing ninja in the far corner of the courtyard. Talk about attention span of a teaspoon.
I looked over to the little blond boy and found a look of complete devotion spread across his face and directed at me.
"You know," I said offhandedly as I began to walk away from him and poked my eye gently a few times to assess the damage. "When I judged the odds of that fight I counted you in there as well." I sounded exasperated to the point of near exhaustion, and yet all the irritation from earlier seemed to have vanished and I now felt ready for anything.
"I... I mean…" Naruto didn't know what to say. He looked lost.
"What I mean is that you better not expect me to fight any of your battles for you. That was because they threw a stone at my head. You're big enough and ugly enough to sort yourself out," I said in a disinterested voice. When I glanced at Naruto he had a smile on his face and a hand on his head as he ruffled his own hair.
"Of course," Naruto laughed. We had come to an understanding; I was happy to be his friend despite what people said and he wouldn't rely on me for help and guidance. He needed to figure all that stuff out on his own if he was ever to become Konoha's number one most unpredictable ninja. We spent the rest of lunch sitting at the back of the school as I clutched my aching head and half listened to Naruto's ramblings. It was nice.
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People avoided picking on Naruto after that fight. It seemed by the end of the day rumours were heading around the school, getting more and more outlandish and ridiculous. One was that I had killed the boy who had given me the black eye; another was that the teacher had to take me away kicking and screaming as I tried to claw off his face. I fuelled these rumours, of course, making myself seem out of my mind crazy. Not surprisingly I very quickly earned myself a reputation to simply be left alone, and by extension Naruto. This suited me very well.
After class Hinata and I met Neji at the front of the school to walk home together. When he spotted me his look darkened and he stormed towards us angrily. When he was close enough he grabbed my chin painfully and moved my head into a better position to scrutinize my injury. He wasn't happy.
"When I said that you would not get bullied that wasn't a challenge to go and find someone to fulfil that role! What were you thinking?" he snarled at me, still gripping my chin tightly and inspecting my eye.
"I don't suppose the excuse he started it would work here?" I mumbled; my cheeks lightly coloured pink at his scolding.
"No, it would not." He dropped his hand and narrowed his eyes disapprovingly. "You look terrible."
I grinned, reached up and slung my arm around Neji's shoulder. "You should see the other guy."
"I have no doubt," he muttered more to himself than to me.
"Ahh, so you've heard the rumours?" I gave him a wicked smile and began to tell him the actual story.
While I talked Hinata stayed quiet, with her head down and her complexion pale. When I had first walked into the classroom at the end of lunch Hinata had run up to me in excitement and told me in a hurried voice that she was now friends with Shino. Her smile, however, quickly faded when she saw my very shiny black eye. She muttered and stumbled over her words, frantic and shaking in worry for me. It was clear she blamed herself for ever leaving my side. I reassured her that I really didn't mind and that it was just one of those things. She didn't seem to see it that way.
Later when we got home Hinata and I went to the dojo to do our daily practice and spar while Neji went off to start some homework of sorts. Hinata was much more reluctant to fight me than usual and I managed to knock her down a number of times that evening. When we both lay exhausted on the floor at the end of our session, Hizashi came in. We stood up immediately and bowed low to our clan leader.
At first he addressed Hinata, asking about her day at the academy and her observations of the other clan heirs. My cousin gave her answer with stutters, looking down in shame every time she stumbled over a word.
"But you made a friend," I injected quietly. Hizashi pretended he hadn't heard me but Hinata nodded enthusiastically at my words.
"Aburame Shino. He is my friend," Hinata smiled up at her father shyly, and I watched sadly as all Hizashi could manage was a stiff nod. Hinata's eyes glistened with tears, but she was used to such responses from her father and effectively held onto an emotionless mask. Hizashi dismissed Hinata and then turned to me, eyeing my bruised face critically. I pursed my lips and blinked a few times but continued staring straight ahead as if I didn't notice my father's scrutiny.
He then, in a very emotionless voice, asked "What happened?"
I couldn't help it; I smiled impishly. I looked down at my feet and tried to supress a giggle. "I, err… got into a fight."
He signed in obvious frustration, "Did you win?"
I allowed myself to full out grin and looked up at my father. He was humouring me, I could tell, but he hid it very well. "Of course," I said with mock outrage that he would even ask such a question.
He coughed lightly to hide his amusement. "Good," he said in a very straight forward, all business voice, and with that he walked away.
!
I found out soon enough that fighting was actually a very common thing on the school playground. For that week I managed to avoid getting involved in anymore and people just tended to leave me alone.
I also found that I had two little followers. Naruto and Hinata practically refused to leave my side, and in addition to this I thought it prudent to invite Shino into our little circle of friends. He gave a curt nod and it became the four of us. All the time.
It turned out that Hinata, given the right stimulation, could very easily become a normal five year old child with all the energy and immaturity that came with it. It seemed that I was not the only one that found the clan compound suppressing and dull.
Naruto, unsurprisingly, got bored with my company pretty quickly as I refused to do much more than sit and read in my free time. I tended to read anything I could get my hands on; whether that was local fairy tales or clan history or even this one particularly dull book on the anatomy of river trout. I just liked to read and although I didn't take in half of what I was looking at as I still hadn't completely got the hang of written Japanese I was convinced that all the information was sitting somewhere in my psyche. Not only this but I had found that people are much less likely to approach you if you look like you are intensely involved in a book.
I have to admit; I was being slightly anti-social. But being stuck as an adult in a child's body got very old very fast as soon as school had started.
When Naruto got bored of annoying me he would go and play with Hinata and Shino. Shino was reluctant to play with Naruto due to the blond haired boy's abrasive personality and slightly inconsiderate attitude. This also caused Hinata to be shy and nervous around Naruto and I had my suspicions that this was also the beginning's of Hinata's diehard crush.
Either way not my problem and I just ignored them in favour of peace and quiet. I did feel slightly out of place and felt like I needed to find some friends that didn't mind my overly careless attitude.
Around midweek was when I made friends with Ino. She wasn't to be my best friend, but at least I felt less anti-social.
I was sitting very quietly at a table at the back of the classroom. Naruto had been in trouble and so the usual place he seemed to have claimed next to mine was vacant, and Hinata and Shino were sitting together on the other side of the room. So I was all alone; that was until a blond little girl came and occupied it. She looked at me, very seriously, and studied my appearance. It was the break before last lesson and I really didn't care enough to ask her what she wanted; so I waited for her to speak.
"You should wear your hair up," Ino said in a bossy voice.
"Oh, no I'm alright. I don't like it up," I told her off the top of my head.
"Oh," she looked disappointed, not sure what to make of her rejected advice. I could tell she meant well in her guidance and felt bad for being dishonest. "Well, why not?"
"I don't like my neck." It wasn't a lie per say, as in all honesty I wore it down so that no one could see my neck as I guess you could say I was self-conscious of it. Yeah I know I was clutching at straws, but I didn't like the idea of lying to this very sincere little girl.
"Well wear it half up half down then. Here," and she reached over the table and took my white ribbon from my wrist.
"Hey!" I called in surprise, but she ignored my exclamation in favour of my shiny, black locks. I was interested with what she would do and so let her play with my hair but was prepared to snatch it back from her should she venture to lift up my hair and reveal my curse mark. Luckily that wasn't what she had in mind. Instead she grabbed the top half and put it into an improvised bunch. I still had my bangs framing my face, but this way my hair felt lighter.
When she was done I glanced at my reflection in the window and felt a small smile grace my lips. I didn't realize that there was something missing, but whatever Ino had done it seemed to have found its way back. Somehow having my hair up again, even partly, made me feel better. It was funny how hair could be such a defining feature for a person but sometimes it could make all the difference in the world. I felt like me again.
"Wow…" I whispered to myself. I grinned widely and looked at her in appreciation. "Your right, it does look better! Thanks Ino." She sat there looking smug and so was unprepared when I launched myself at her and lifted her in a big bear hug.
She yelled in surprise but it quickly turned to a laugh when she realized what I was doing. "You're welcome," she giggled happily. That was the start of a very nice friendship, but Ino was far too popular and me far too indifferent and eccentric for us to be best friends. Besides, I didn't want to take Ino away from the little pink haired girl in the corner who kept getting picked on about her forehead.
But if I was going to be really honest; it was a pretty big forehead.
At the end of the week I approached Iruka-sensei wearily. Naruto's loneliness problem needed to be nipped in the bud sooner rather than later and, although I had already figured out that Naruto needed to be shunned by the village in his childhood for him to turn into the awesome shinobi he would one day become, that didn't mean he couldn't have a little bit of love from a caring source.
Also I just couldn't stand the idea that I was Naruto's best friend in the world. Because, lets be honest, I just wanted to sit and read during school hours. Not really the ideal friend for Naruto to have as he needed constant stimulation, and it seemed that no matter how often I told him to shut up he just couldn't take the hint. Ever.
"Iruka-sensei?" I asked quietly in a shy, reserved voice. We were now alone in the room as I had waited for everyone to leave and told Hinata that I would be out in five minutes.
"Yes Nanami?" he looked up from his paper with a questioning expression. When he spotted my fading black-eye he frowned and looked at me with understanding. "Yes, I heard about your antics on the first day. I was advised not to address you about the issue but I'm glad that you have come and seem me on your own accord. The boy in question has been talked to and he won't antagonise you again. I am to congratulate you on winning the fight but would advise you not to start anymore. If you want to talk about anything I'm always here to help." He seemed pleased with his answer and went back to work. I almost laughed. The academy's view on bullying was; if you get bullied then that means you're not strong enough so get stronger and bully them back. Nice idea, but I felt very sorry for those at the bottom of the social food chain.
"Err… Iruka-sensei?" I muttered again as I allowed nervousness into my voice.
"Yes, what is it? Was there something else?" He put down his pen and studied me intensely with a very serious expression. Had I actually been a young child I probably would have squeaked and ran away from the intimidating look. As it was I pretended I didn't notice.
"Well, you see, I'm really worried-" I started but was cut off immediately.
"I told you-"
"About Naruto," I finished in barely a whisper. Iruka gave me a strange look.
"What about Naruto?" He was hesitant now, I could tell.
"Well… the boy that punched me he, well the reason he punched me was because… because-I-was-sticking-up-for-Naruto!" I closed my eyes and flinched, as if to say such a thing was the most horrible thing on the planet. Okay so I was playing him like a piano but I needed this issue sorted out sooner rather than later. Naruto was so annoying and I would eventually end up punching him. When I opened my eyes again I saw Iruka-sensei looking off into the distance with a pale face and a gaping mouth.
I continued on, hoping to catch him out in his moment of unease. "It's just; I know that people don't like Naruto. He is really annoying and he doesn't have any friends but he's not that bad that someone should want to hit him" –unless you spent a lot of time with the boy and you just wanted some peace and quiet- "and it was an unfair fight because there were only two of us and there were a lot of them and-" breath "-I didn't know who to turn to because Naruto is obviously unhappy but no one can see that and it's not fair because he doesn't have any parents and lives alone and I just don't know what to do because-" He cut me off with a hand held in front of him.
"That enough, I see your point. I will talk to Naruto and see what can be done," he said distractedly, with a concerned and guilty look on his face.
My work was done.
So I never actually originally planned for Naruto to be involved in this story much at all, but somehow he just found himself in here. I reckoned that if Nana and Naruto ever crossed paths Nana would probably want to be his friend and help him on some level. Don't worry it's not going to be a big plot thing! I'm trying to avoid the OC coming in and saving Naruto from a crap childhood thing. Nanami's a big realist if you haven't already found out! So the first week of the academy; I hope you enjoyed my take on it!
Thank you again and I apologise for any grammatical errors that were not spotted! Let me know what you think!