Chapter 4 — Shakeups
It was an unseasonably warm day in Konohagakure no Sato, and as Uzumaki Naruto slammed his hand on his alarm clock, he knew it was already shaping up to be a bad one.
Kicking off his sheets, Naruto rolled over to look at the time. 'Crap, 7:20 AM? I knew I shouldn't have hit the snooze button...' he grumbled in his head.
He pawed at his eyes to wipe the drowsiness away and suppressed the urge to just flop back into bed to go back to sleep. Not bothering with making his bed this morning, he headed to his small bathroom to get ready for school. After quickly taking a 5 minute cold shower, he threw on a white t-shirt with a red spiral emblazoned on the back and a pair of navy blue shorts.
'Ugh, there's no time for a decent breakfast. Gonna have to settle for a banana until lunch.'
Living on his own at this point for most of his life, he was more than capable of cooking a proper breakfast but he didn't even have time to make a cup of ramen at the moment. He grabbed the banana and opened the refrigerator with a frown.
'Looks like I'm going to have to stop by on the way home for groceries too. Hopefully it'll have cooled down by then, I'm not looking forward to walking home in this heat with bags of food in hand.'
With that thought in mind, Naruto quickly finished his fruit and headed out toward the door. He paused to slide on a pair of nondescript ninja sandals and activated the complicated set of security seals that protected his apartment from intruders, thieves, and other would-be-vigilantes from breaking in.
"Better hurry or Iruka-sensei is going to tear me a new one if I show up late..." Naruto muttered under his breath. His usual commute from his apartment on the edge of the red-light district to the Konoha Shinobi Academy took about 10 minutes by rooftop, but 20 at a comfortable walk by street.
Mentally calculating his route, he figured he could make it to class without having to run. It was bad enough trying to get to school on a normal day, the commute doing more than its part to put him in a foul mood. Even by rooftop, he could still feel the glares of the villagers on his back and hear every muttered curse as he sped by. He usually woke up far earlier than this to avoid all but the earliest risers to set up shop or the shinobi on patrol, but he had slept in long enough that most of the village was awake by now. Henge wasn't an option either, not unless he wanted to risk blowing his trusty cover identity as Natsu.
No, he'd just have to steel himself and trudge off to class like a normal Academy Student, hoping the day would turn out better than it started for him already. Naruto took only small solace in the fact that school was winding down and graduation exams were coming up in a matter of days. Then again, none of that mattered if the next few hours were going to be insufferable enough to make him just want to kill himself before that.
Weaving his way through the students loitering in the yard as young preteens tended to do before classes started, Naruto carefully made his way into the Academy.
Heading to Class 5-A on the second floor, he narrowly missed being bowled over by one of his buddies, Kiba, with his puppy Akamaru hot on his heels. He was a prime example of a typical Inuzuka — stocky build with enough muscle to make him the most physically strong student of his year (if not the sharpest kunai in the pouch) and marked with the red fang tattoos of his clan on his cheeks.
Naruto could only stare in mute bewilderment at the sight of anyone, let alone Kiba, either unbothered by the weather or dumb enough to wear his usual light grey parka with black fur trimming despite the cloying heat. Seeing as how he was the only one in the entire school who never changed outfits (and Naruto wasn't sure if he had multiple copies on hand either from the way he usually smelled), it might have been the latter.
Kiba grinned at Naruto, unperturbed by the blonde's attempt to perform a seal-less Spontaneous Brain Destruction no Jutsu with his eyes alone.
"Oi, watch where you're going, Kiba!" Naruto sputtered out.
The blonde resisted the urge to deck him across the face. His already foul mood was getting harder and harder to reign in, and things like social niceties were beginning to slip out of his quite firm grasp for a twelve year old. He typically got along well with the Inuzuka, but today his foul mood left him uncharitably grumpy.
"You almost knocked me over, ya know!"
"Sorry not sorry, Naruto!" Kiba grinned and swept up Akamaru, placing the pup on the usual spot on his head. "Love to stay and chat but The Great Kiba's got places to go, people to see, girls to chat. Later!" Throwing Naruto a mock salute and a cocky smirk, he sped off down the hallway to parts unknown.
Pinching his nose bridge, the Uzumaki boy sighed and shook his head to clear his emotions.
'Bludgeoning a clan heir to death with his own legs is a bad idea, bludgeoning a clan heir to death with his own legs is a bad idea, bludgeoning a clan heir to death with his own legs is a bad idea...' he chanted in his head like a mantra of restraint.
There was no point in staying mad at Kiba. That boy may be a cocky idiot at times, but he also was fiercely loyal to his friends and a decent guy to hang out with. Usually. Besides, Naruto knew he could get him back for that any time later when he least expected it. It was just way too hot right now to spend energy on being mad at someone.
"Yo, Naruto. What're you doing standing outside? You're blocking the door, you troublesome blonde."
Naruto looked up and smiled wryly at the kid standing in front of him who had become one of his best friends during the Academy years. Nara Shikamaru wore a simple grey t-shirt with his clan emblem printed on the front, his long hair tied back into a spiky ponytail.
"It's been a rough morning, Shikamaru." Taking a page out of the lazy Nara's book, Naruto shrugged and threw his arm around the slightly taller boy's shoulder. "Let's just say this heat is making everything seem a hundred times more... troublesome than usual, eh?"
"Amen to that, man." Shikamaru scowled as he followed Naruto into the classroom. "This is the kind of weather that makes you want to just lay down under a shady tree and nap because it's too troublesome to do anything else."
Naruto could only laugh at that. "You make it seem like you don't already want to do that on a normal day, ya know..." Taking a seat next to the spiky-ponytailed boy and looking around the half-empty classroom, he quirked an eyebrow at Shikamaru. "So what brings you to school so early anyway? You're usually barely slinking into class just as the bell finishes ringing."
Shikamaru suppressed a groan and slumped face down on his desk.
"My troublesome mother insisted I start 'getting my act together' and getting to school on time for the last few days before the exam and graduation, or she'd start forcibly waking me up with... The Pan..." A shudder went through his body at the very thought of it.
"Aw jeez, not The Pan. I feel sorry for you, Shikamaru. I saw that thing when I came over to your house the other day and it looked scary enough just hanging there on the wall, ya know. I don't even want to imagine what your mom actually does with it to freak you and your dad out so much..."
"Trust me, Naruto..." He replied shakily with another shudder passing through his body. "You don't want to know..."
"Well maybe if you and your dad weren't such stereotypically lazy Nara bums, your mom wouldn't have to use The Pan for anything but cooking!" Naruto patted his friend on the shoulder again. "There there, Shikamaru. You'll get used to the sunshine eventually."
Just then, Naruto felt a rumble in his desk steadily growing louder and stronger in intensity. He frowned and covered his ears in anticipation of the clamor about to spill into the room.
"Brace yourself, Haruno probably challenged Ino-chan to a race to class again..."
"Ugh. How troublesome," Shikamaru muttered as he too reached up to cover his ears.
Just as he managed to do so, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino burst into the classroom with indignant shouts. The former was wearing simple brown capris and a blue shirt that had decorative holes cut in diamonds along the sleeve for ventilation and flair. The latter wore a pair of black short shorts, a salmon pink ringer tee with dark blue at the collar and sleeve layered with a white tank top, and fishnet stockings coming up to mid-thigh. Both stood with arms crossed at a confrontational distance apart from each other, each trying to glare holes into the other with their eyes.
"GODDAMN IT, INO-PIG! How dare you trip me up on the stairs, that's cheating!" The pink-haired girl screamed.
"SHUT IT, BILLBOARD-BROW! We're freakin' shinobi-in-training, we're supposed to cheat!" The platinum blonde of the two shouted back. "And you're one to talk, all your screaming is really grating on the ears and nerves. Indoor voice please."
"YOU'RE SO INFURIATING, YOU OINKER!"
"You take that back, neanderthal face!"
Naruto could only look on in amazement at the bickering duo as they stomped their way to the foot of the steps and looked around for the object of their affections.
"Why do they do this song and dance so often? Especially today of all days, it's way too hot for this crap."
"I dunno, Naruto. Just chalk it up as an Inexplicably Troublesome Occurrence and ignore them like I do."
The boy in question was sitting calmly in the back of the classroom with his head held firmly behind his crossed hands. Uchiha Sasuke made the perfect picture of a troubled youth lost in his thoughts, at least in the minds of his adoring fangirls. Clad simply in his usual shorts with a navy blue high-collared shirt with Uchiha symbol on the breast, he was roguishly handsome in his fangirls' eyes. In reality, he was busy trying to turn out the noise and the stares from all the unwanted attention he inevitably attracted wherever he went. All he wanted was to be left alone in peace and quiet but his fangirls would never leave him be.
The two girls stomped their way towards Sasuke, bickering loudly all the while.
"Um, I hate to interrupt, but you two should keep it down. You're starting to scare the rest of the class, and I'm pretty sure Uchiha's pretty irritated too if the especially broody look on his face is anything to go by." Naruto interjected as they neared his desk.
An almost imperceptible growl from the Last Uchiha cracked the frigid facade he put up before the two girls (as well as the rest of his so-called fanclub) took offense for him. Ino and Sakura stopped in their tracks, turned, and then glared at him at the same time in an astonishing display of spontaneous synchronicity. The two girls shouted, "STAY OUT OF THIS, NARUTO!" as they threw punches at him.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at their attack and quickly prepared a Kawarimi no Jutsu. As soon as Sakura was about to hit him in the face and punch his nose into his nasal cavity, he burst into a small puff of smoke and her fist ripped through a sheet of notebook paper in his place. Completely unfazed, Ino spun on her heel and redirected her momentum into an overhead chop that bopped the blonde who appeared behind her square on the head.
"Ugh you piss me off so bad, Naru-baka!" Sakura raged at not being able to hit him, especially when her rival had seemingly been able to do so easily.
Ino only grinned at Naruto, who rubbed the spot with a rueful pout.
With her clan training on top of daily motivation from Naruto to try to kick her out of her fangirl ways, Ino wasn't about to fall for such a simple trick like Sakura did. Unlike her pink-haired rival, she was one of the top-ranked kunoichi of her year in terms of speed and power, especially considering Sakura's general inattention to her ninja training and self-imposed diet rendered her a non-factor in that particular comparison. And he always let her win their little spats/spars anyway. Not that he'd ever admit it to Ino, though.
"Now that you've gotten that out of your systems, I'd like to sit down now. It's too damn hot for this crap." Ignoring Sakura's glare, he moved past the angry pinkette and pulled out the chair next to his and Shikamaru's. "After you, Ino-chan."
Ino gave one last glare at Sakura and took the offered seat. The pink-haired girl snorted and stomped her way to her own seat in a huff. Taking his own seat, Naruto turned to Ino with a slight frown.
"Like I said earlier, it's way too hot today for that crap, Ino-chan. Couldn't you have just ignored Haruno for a change? Now we've got to reset the Rivalry Scoreboard. And you were doing so well, too. Just over a week without any incident at all!"
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me chan before you do it, Naruto? That's reserved for Sasuke-kun! You never call Sakura chan, why me?" Ino slapped his arm and pouted, crossing her arms. She blew the bangs out of her face with a puff before continuing. "And for the record, it isn't my fault this time. Billboard-brow insulted my perfect fashion sense!"
"Well that's easy, I don't like her the same way I do you, Ino-chan. I'm a lot closer to you than I am her, after all." Naruto smiled disarmingly at Ino.
Despite the little scuffle she put him in, Naruto managed to cheer up a bit around her. She did always have a way of brightening his day whenever he was in a foul mood. He chalked it up to fellow blondes always having more fun.
Ino blushed a little at Naruto's straightforward answer.
"O-oi! W-what'd I just say, Naruto?"
He laughed and ignored her comment.
"You should stop letting Sakura get to you so easily, isn't it in the rule book to—"
"Yeah yeah," Ino interrupted with an exasperated sigh. "Shinobi Rule #7: 'A shinobi must always keep their emotions in check,' I know. It's just hard to keep that in mind, especially when that little pink-haired gorilla pisses me off so much! Take this morning for example, can you believe she had the nerve to call my outfit tacky? Me, Yamanaka Ino, wear anything that could even possibly be considered tacky?! How laughable!"
Naruto answered with an exasperated sigh of his own. As much as he had tried to discourage some of her odd habits, she still clung to what he felt was a strange sense of priorities for a shinobi-in-training. He didn't get the point of designer shinobi fashion if no one was going to even see them so long as they did their jobs properly and stayed out of sight most of the time. He figured if anyone were in a position to see what he was wearing, they'd probably be too busy trying to kill him to admire his "amazing taste in clothes" anyway.
"I still don't really think that's much of an excuse to tear up the Academy with your spats every so often, but I'll take your word for it. And in my humble opinion, I think you have great fashion sense. Your outfit looks really cute today, Ino-chan."
"Aw, you really think so? I spent a lot of time picking it out this morning!" Ino preened, stroking her hair with pride before she realized just what exactly Naruto said.
Blushing again, she slapped his arm.
"O-o-o-oi, N-Naruto! Stop doing that! Y-you can't just say that to a girl out of the blue! B-besides," Ino cleared her throat to get her composure back. "This outfit is for Sasuke!"
"Err... Sorry?" he said with a cock of his head.
Naruto was honestly confused. He didn't see what was wrong with calling it how he saw it, Ino's outfit really was cute in his opinion. He thought girls liked getting compliments (at least according to Neko who was a fairly reputable source, seeing as how she was a girl herself), so her reaction startled him as much as he did her.
"Don't bother, Naruto." Shikamaru chimed in, raising his head from where it had been buried in his folded arms on the desk in an attempt to ignore the world. "Girls are way too troublesome, you can never win. At least that's what my dad tells me."
Naruto quickly ducked as Ino's fist swung at Shikamaru and jumped out of range of her righteous anger. There was no way she was going to let that particular comment slide. As intelligent as his lazy friend was, Shikamaru still wasn't that good at reading the platinum blonde's tempers. Or maybe he was just too lazy to care one way or the other.
'Not that I'm much better myself, but at least I'm not the one getting the snot pounded out of him.' he thought with a grin at his friend's predicament.
Standing in the aisle to get out firmly out of her way, he looked around at the steadily filling room and spotted a familiar dark haired girl sitting by herself at the other side of the room.
"Hey! Hinata! When'd you get here, I didn't even notice you come in!" He said as he walked over to her.
"Oh, Naruto-kun. Good morning," Hinata replied brightly.
The blonde still couldn't quite figure out why she chose to wear baggier long-sleeved tops as she tended to do lately, but at least hers was made of a lightweight and breathable material sensibly chosen for the weather unlike Kiba's.
"How come you're so late today? You're usually more on-time than this!" He asked curiously.
Hinata blushed a bit with embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, I had some last minute... clan affairs to take care of this morning and it took longer than expected to deal with."
"Ah well, there's no need to apologize to me!"
"Oh, sorry. Force of habit…" Her mouth widened in a small "o" of embarrassment as she realized her mistake. "Err..."
Naruto laughed at her cute pout and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.
"At any rate, you should have come over to sit with us, ya know. I might start to think you're avoiding me," Naruto joked. He liked to tease her, especially to get those reactions he loved to see so much.
Hinata flushed red again and poked her index fingers together as she nearly shouted, "No!"
Shocked at her own outburst, she blushed even deeper if that was even possible. "I mean, n-no! I could never avoid you, Naruto-kun. I just didn't want to interrupt you or anything."
Naruto suppressed the urge to laugh this time, fearing she would take it the wrong way.
'She really is adorable when she does that finger-poking thing," he thought to himself.
Speaking out loud, he said, "I'm just teasing, Hinata-chan! Don't worry about it, feel free to jump in any time! That kind of thing never stops Ino-chan, why should it stop you?"
"OI, I HEARD THAT, NARUTO!" The girl in question shouted as she flung a ball of paper square at the back of his head with a thud he didn't think was possible for an object like that.
Naruto winced and rubbed the point of impact, grinning wildly.
"Well, let's go take our seats! I know it looks like all the spots are taken today, but I'll figure it out. I tried saving you a seat next to me like usual but people are just so rude today. And you know how Shika is in class if I'm not not keeping him within arm's reach. Iruka-sensei would kick him out in the hallway with a note pinned to his shirt for sleeping, his mom would flay him alive if he came home with another one."
Both he and Hinata shared a laugh at Shikamaru's expense, remembering the sight of him on his hands and knees begging Iruka for mercy that day.
"That's alright, Naruto-kun," Hinata replied in her usual soft-spoken voice. "It looks pretty packed in your row."
A slight twinge of guilt pained his chest, along with some indecipherable feeling at the thought of Hinata sitting by herself away from their circle of friends. There was no way he was letting that happen, not if he could help it.
He stood up suddenly and grabbed her by the hand.
"No, Hinata-chan. I said I'd figure it out, didn't I?" He assured her as he more or less insisted she follow along, gently tugging at her hand as he led the way. Naruto missed the deep blush of embarrassed bliss on Hinata's face.
The blonde boy marched her right up to the end of their row where Shikamaru and Ino sat with knowingly smug smirks on their faces. He didn't know exactly why, but he figured he'd deal with the more pressing issue first. Tapping the mousey looking boy at the end of the row on the shoulder, he cleared his throat expectantly.
"Ahem, Toshio."
The civilian boy looked startled to have anyone talk to him, let alone someone as notorious as Naruto the Prankster or the Hyūga Heiress.
"W-What's up, Uzumaki-san?"
Naruto drew himself to his full height, looming over the poor boy's head like a grim specter of pain. A menacing look replaced his usually easy-going smile in hopes of lending a more intimidating effect to his appearance.
"I'm going to have to ask you to scram, you're in Hinata's seat," He said calmly, but with how the situation was playing out, it sounded more like a demand than a request.
It was Hinata's turn to look startled, not expecting Naruto's plan to go this way.
"Um, Naruto-kun, it's okay... I'll just—" she began hesitantly before eeping at Naruto's sudden firm squeeze of her hand.
She hadn't realized he never let go to begin with, too dazed by his proximity to consciously register such details until now. Any casual bystander could see the steam practically rise from her head. Only a supreme exercise of the vaunted Hyūga Discipline her ancestors might have been proud of her for kept her from fainting or otherwise squealing giddily like one of Uchiha Sasuke's fangirls. But the Uzumaki Naruto version, of course. Not that she wanted to be a fangirl. Did she?
'Naruto's hand…!'
Her mind practically spun from it all.
"W-W-What?" Poor Toshio whined piteously. "W-Why?"
Naruto leaned over to whisper in his ear, the very picture of a bully extorting the weak. In reality, he simultaneously palmed a 5-Ryō note and slipped it into Toshio's pocket.
"Here's a fiver, please please please move... I'm beggin' ya, ya know..."
Toshio reached into his pocket to touch the bill for tactile confirmation of Naruto's bribe. Nodding nervously and not without a little trepidation, he got up and moved seats without further fuss.
Naruto heaved a private sigh of relief and turned to Hinata. He rubbed the back of his head in his usual laid back way, a grin firmly in place.
"See? Problem solved!"
Hinata flushed red for the umpteenth time at the sight of one of her favorite expressions on him, but she again, she suppressed the urge to squeal in happiness. Any reservations or displeasure she might have had at his tactics evaporated in a quiet, contented sigh. Besides, what was done was done, and she couldn't very well drag Toshio back and tell him to keep his seat.
"Thank you, Naruto-kun." She smiled gently back at him, heart aflutter. She didn't know how she kept her voice so even or the nerves out of her voice because she was still holding his HAND.
Behind them, Ino began to snicker behind her hand as Shikamaru more discreetly suppressed a chortle of his own.
"Okay there, lovebirds?" Ino choked out between her fingers.
It was then that Naruto's consciousness caught up with his body and he realized what he had done for the past 5 minutes. Namely hold Hyūga Hinata's hand. The whole time.
His expression turned decidedly neutral even if he was as red as Hinata was. With an uncharacteristically awkward and nervous "oop," he let go of her hand and pulled out the seat for her.
"Um, after you?"
Hinata nodded, not trusting herself to maintain the level tone of voice she had miraculously been able to up until now. If her father could see this, he might be proud of her emotional control or immensely disappointed by the whole circumstances to begin with. Honestly, it probably would have been the latter but she liked to think he might have been proud just to keep her mind off of her memory of the feeling of NARUTO'S HAND in hers.
Before Ino could open her mouth for the playful ribbing she had prepared for this moment since she first saw Naruto grab Hinata's hand, the school bell rang for the start of classes.
"Alright settle down and take your seats, everybody!"
At exactly 8AM on the hour and in the exact middle of the eight tones, Umino Iruka strode into the room followed by his assistant instructor Mizuki. After a couple of seconds with no visible response or acknowledgement from any of the students, Iruka lost his cool in what felt to him like a routine process these last few months before graduation.
"SHUT THE HELL UP, BRATS! CLASS IS STARTING." Iruka boomed, his voice ringing throughout the room with the help of a bit of chakra focused into his vocal cords.
He coughed into his fist, a little embarrassed at having to raise his voice yet again. He couldn't blame them much, he had been the same around this time of year when he was their age. Graduation was right around the corner and they were about to begin their ninja careers in earnest. Still, a little discipline would go a long way towards keeping their youthful exuberance in check.
"Ahem. Just for that, we're having a pop quiz on the Henge no Jutsu. Since all of you insist on acting like a pack of savages, you might as well be able to look the part too."
"Heh. 'Look the part.' Get it, Shikamaru?" Naruto chortled, jabbing Shikamaru awake with his elbow for good measure. "Cause it's the Henge."
Shikamaru groaned softly, exasperated at his friend's terrible sense of humor. He kept his face firmly face-down on the desk in a misguided attempt to escape notice.
"Tch, pipe down you troublesome blonde or you'll draw Iruka-sensei's attention."
"Naruto and Shikamaru, thank you for so graciously volunteering to go first." Iruka nodded to Mizuki, both pulling out their clipboards to mark down their grades. "We'll be judging you based on speed of execution and accuracy, so do your best! Everyone else line up after those two in alphabetical order."
"You just had to go and laugh at that stupid joke." Shikamaru banged his forehead on his desk once before getting up, rubbing at his temples. "You know, I don't think it even was an intentional joke."
"Oops, I suppose." Naruto chuckled apologetically and patted Shikamaru on the shoulder. "At least we'll be going first so you can sit down all that much faster, ya know."
Once everyone had gotten settled in line, Iruka turned to the two boys at the head of the line. "Alright, which one of you wants to go first?"
"Ooh, pick me Iruka-sensei!" Naruto grinned with a glint in his eye.
"Man, Iruka-sensei sure doesn't have much of a sense of humor these days."
Ino slugged Naruto hard in the arm, drawing a pained shout from her fellow blonde.
They had all gathered for lunch under their usual tree in the Academy courtyard as soon as the bell rang. It was a huge oak tree, rumored to have been grown by the legendary Shodai Hokage at the founding of the village. Naruto insisted it was true, claiming to feel a powerful chakra pulsing softly just under its thick bark. Although Ino and Shikamaru remained deeply skeptical at whether Naruto could actually sense such a thing, the tree's shady boughs still made for a cool respite from the heat, one they thanked the Shodai for regardless if he had planted it there himself.
"Naruto, you're such a perv!" Ino shouted angrily, shaking her fist at the boy in question. "You're lucky you got away with just a lecture for that stunt you pulled!"
"Yeah... I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to react when a mostly-naked female version of themselves appears in the middle of the classroom in a puff of smoke, but even I think you got off relatively lightly all things considered." Shikamaru mused.
Iruka had stood there stupefied by the sight of a female version of himself with nothing on but a flak jacket and wisps of smoke to cover the more risque parts before giving Naruto the dressing down of his life, all with a bit of blood dripping from his nostrils the whole time. Naruto was kind of impressed to be honest, not even Danzō was capable of blistering his ass quite the way Iruka did.
"Hey, half-naked is an exaggeration! That puff of smoke was to make very tasteful clouds floating over the important parts for censorship! I'd say it was a third-naked at most. Besides, I even added a flak jacket to cover up a bit, ya know. Normally I wouldn't bother but—"
Ino interrupted him with another punch, much harder this time, before he could finish that particular train of thought.
"Ino-chan, please, not the same place again! I bruise like a peach!" Naruto winced.
Not that he did actually bruise for long but Ino could pack quite the punch. With the righteous fury of a woman enraged added to her normally fierce power, her fist was not something Naruto wanted to be on the receiving end of right now.
"Well, at least your execution was quick Naruto-kun." Hinata chimed in. "And you got all the other important physical features of Iruka-sensei down, aside from the obvious... erm... changes."
"FINALLY! At least one of you appreciates my artistic genius. Thanks Hinata-chan." Naruto smiled at the blue-haired girl, drawing yet another blush from her as she bashfully poked her index fingers together.
"Hinata, please don't encourage him. He should be thankful Mizuki-sensei convinced Iruka-sensei to let him scrape by with the minimum points." Ino glared daggers at Naruto who wilted a bit in his seat. "Don't ever let me catch you using that stupid Orokei no Jutsu ever again, or I'll pummel your whiskers off."
"It's called the 'O-i-ro-ke no Jutsu'—" Naruto started indignantly before Ino threateningly cracked her knuckles with a glint in her eye, daring him to keep going. He continued more sheepishly, "But fine, I won't use it again unless in time of dire need."
"Naruto!" With her fist cocked and ready to punch Naruto into the next life, Ino leapt at him with fury blazing in her eyes.
Naruto dove out of the way of Ino's fist coming at his head, scurrying behind the tree for cover. "It's a legitimate technique, Ino-chan! You saw what it did to Iruka-sensei, I can use this tactically against any pervert out there dumb enough to fall for it!"
"As much as it pains me to say it, Naruto's got a point... A very troublesome point, but a point nonetheless." Shikamaru got between the two blondes and waved his hands placatingly. He just wanted to sit in the shade to eat his lunch in peace, and all the bickering was spoiling his appetite. "Who's to say it wouldn't work in the field, it's a decent... distraction if anything."
Ino huffed and plopped down on the grass, still angry. "I still say it's a stupid technique and no real nin worth his or her salt would even be fazed by it."
"Wanna bet on that, Ino-chan?" Naruto smirked. "If my technique successfully stuns, incapacitates, or otherwise creates an opportunity for a follow-up counterattack on an enemy shinobi in the field, you owe me one favor of my choosing."
"You'll probably get yourself killed trying to use that stupid thing, but fine. If it doesn't work, AND you manage to stay alive," Ino punctuated this with a distinct glare (and a brief blush that went unnoticed by the group). "You owe ME a favor of MY choosing."
"It's a deal then." The two blondes shook on it with Shikamaru and Hinata as witnesses to their bizarre bet. "You'll regret betting against the great Uzumaki Naruto, I never lose a bet and I don't intend to start now!"
"Yeah yeah, we'll see about that." Ino shook her head in exasperation. "Let's just eat already, we've wasted enough of our break with Naruto's antics already."
Naruto bristled a bit at the comment but wisely kept his mouth shut, noting the slight twitch in Ino's eye that usually indicated her temper was waiting to reignite at any slight provocation. He was proud of his latest self-invented technique like he was of all of his creations, but it wasn't worth pissing off Ino any more than she already was if he wanted the group to finally be able to eat in peace. Naruto struck up a conversation with the others about how delicious their lunches looked compared to his (homemade bento to the simple onigiri he grabbed from his refrigerator) and the group settled into a comfortable groove of small talk, enjoying the cool shade and each other's company.
Suddenly, a high-pitched squealing could be heard from across the courtyard, growing steadily in intensity.
"What the heck is that awful noise?" Naruto clamped his hands over his ears, his previous good cheer ruined by the ringing in his ears. He had always had slightly stronger senses than his peers, and the cacophony was starting to give him a headache.
Hinata looked at Naruto wincing in slight pain and frowned. She was more happy to use the Byakugan available to her if only to help Naruto out. Quickly channeling her chakra to activate her clan's vaunted eyes, Hinata swept the yard to look for the source of the din. Spotting a crowd of people mobbing a single boy, she sighed and ceased the flow of chakra to deactivate her Byakugan. It was nothing more than the usual nonsense surrounding the Uchiha boy.
Pointing to the far side of the Academy courtyard, she said, "It looks like it's just another bunch of girls swarming Uchiha Sasuke again."
"I should have known..." Naruto muttered.
"Tch, how troublesome."
"Wait, did you say a bunch of girls were swarming my Sasuke-kun?" Ino shot to her feet. "Those damn hussies, how dare they steal a march on me! Wait for me, my darling! I'm coming to save you!"
She quickly ran off in the direction Hinata had pointed.
"I really don't get what they all see in that guy," Naruto grumbled.
There was no one Naruto disliked more than Uchiha Sasuke. The raven haired boy got on his nerves with his broody personality and general indifference to the world, something that had only amplified after the infamous Uchiha Massacre that left him and his mother the only remaining members of the once great Uchiha Clan left in Konoha. Despite it all, Sasuke had everything Naruto ever dreamed of — recognition from the village, a clan, a loving mother — but he chose to throw it all away or ignore it in some misbegotten pursuit of revenge.
He liked Ino, he found her fun to be around and her headstrong personality that never hesitated to speak her mind about anything was a refreshing part of his day, but he couldn't understand what she or anyone saw in Sasuke. All he could see was a dangerous obsession and a blatant disregard for anyone or anything that couldn't help him get power, least of all the fangirls who bodily threw themselves at him.
"Should we go pull Ino-chan out of whatever brawl she's about to dive right into or let her handle it?" Naruto asked the remaining two.
"Nah, too troublesome. Ino's a big girl, she can take care of herself." Shikamaru said, laying in the grass under the tree with his eyes closed.
"I would rather not get tangled up in that either." Hinata said, honestly wanting nothing to do with that whole mess.
She turned out to be one of the few girls in the class who wasn't so freakishly devoted to Sasuke, for obvious reasons. She really saw nothing remotely attractive about the Uchiha, clan rivalries aside, especially when compared to Naruto in her humble opinion. Not that she would ever admit that out loud.
Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his spiky locks.
"Well, at least the squealing stopped. I was about to tear out my hair."
Slowing down from her run to a brisk walk, Ino took a moment to gather herself before heading into the throng of fangirls vying for Sasuke's attention. She readjusted her ponytail, checked her bangs, and straightened her clothes before giving herself a mental pep talk.
'Alright, Ino. You got this. You're sweet, sexy, and single. No boy can resist you. Sasuke's as good as yours,' she thought to herself. 'If you can pretty much wrap that blonde knucklehead Naruto around your little finger, you can woo any boy!'
She paused to consider that particular train of thought.
'Knucklehead?'
Dismissing their relationship as "wrapping him around her finger" (even if he spoiled her almost as much as her father did) was unfair to him. Uzumaki Naruto had always exceeded her expectations of friendship time and time again. He could be as stubborn as she was, he wasn't afraid to let her know what was on his mind, and most of all, he was fiercely loyal. The two of them were thick as thieves, and she knew for a fact that she (with the possible exception of Hinata) was one of his closest friends and confidants as he was the same for her. The two of them shared everything — their laughter, their sorrow, their hopes, and their dreams — without reservation.
In fact, it was to Naruto who she had first confessed liking the Uchiha boy. Ino could still remember the peculiar look that drifted over his eyes as she excitedly gushed about the mysterious boy in the next class over. To this day she couldn't tell if it was a figment of her imagination or not, especially when he had smiled his disarming smile at her and told her how happy he was for her. Of course, that happiness of his quickly dissipated when he saw how unsuccessful she was at getting his attention let alone requited feelings.
He had never stopped nagging her about the Uchiha boy since. Of course they had disagreements before, but nothing as long or unresolved as this particular one. Naruto simply hated the Uchiha and no amount of threatening, begging, bribing, or whining would convince him otherwise. Rather than risk losing her friendship in a fit of anger, he simply let the matter slide. He would occasionally frown with disapproval at some of the more spectacular attempts at wooing her "Sasuke-kun," but he would leave it at that and go back to talking to Hinata and Shikamaru instead.
Ino didn't know why, but it always left a bitter taste in her mouth and a twinge in her chest to see Naruto sigh at her and turn to Hinata instead.
A familiar voice called out suddenly to her and snapped her out of her reverie.
"Well well, look which little piggy decided to show up. I was wondering when you'd get here." Sakura taunted. "You're too late though, Sasuke-kun already left."
Ino blinked a couple of times, only now realizing the group of girls were simply mulling about and discussing the Uchiha's merits, the boy in question having long since left. Or more accurately, evaded the love stricken swarm of fangirls who clamored for his favor.
"Shut up, forehead-girl. It's not like I missed anything, none of you bimbos could ever get Sasuke-kun's attention while I'm gone anyway. He only has eyes for me."
"Sasuke-kun's attention?" Sakura laughed and pointed in the direction she had come at. "I don't know why you still bother keeping up that farce. Looked to me like you were more than happy with your little blonde boy toy's attention."
Ino turned, following Sakura's finger with a scowl until she saw a familiar head of blonde hair laughing with Shikamaru and Hinata.
"Oi, that's not how it is and you know it. Naruto and I are just friends! Has your forehead grown big enough to impair your vision and your brain function now?" Ino bristled at the accusation, not sure which bothered her more – Sakura making fun of Naruto or implying something more about her relationship with him.
"Heh, you can't fool me, Ino-pig. The whole Academy knows how much time you two spend together. You might as well stop pretending you're in love with Sasuke because everyone thinks you're dating Naruto anyway."
"We're just friends, Billboard-brow!" Ino flushed red and shook her fist angrily at the pinkette. "There's nothing going on between me and Naruto!"
"Doesn't look that way to me, why else would you let him call you chan all the time?"
In a fit of anger at Sakura, Ino shouted, "Goddamn it that's not my fault! He does that no matter how much I tell him to stop. Sasuke-kun's the only boy for me!"
A loud bell rang at that moment, signaling the end of lunch break. The mob of girls slowly began to disperse but Ino was too fired up to care.
"We're not done here, Forehead! I'll get you for this, I'll get you back and snatch Sasuke-kun's heart from all you other hussies too!"
"Yeah, yeah." Sakura flipped her long pink hair with a taunting smirk as she headed back to class. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."
Ino was left alone to stew over her thoughts as she stormed back into the school. She liked Sasuke, not Naruto! Which wasn't to say she didn't like Naruto, just not like like him at least in the romantic sense. All of the other girls — okay, most with the exception of Hinata at least — agreed Sasuke was the most eligible young shinobi of their generation, with top marks in every measurable category from looks to taijutsu. Sure Naruto was charmingly sweet, a good listener, fiercely protective of his friends, and incredibly kind to her... but he was no Sasuke.
Right?
Classes continued uneventfully as usual for the rest of the day. As the final bell rang to dismiss the students, Naruto gathered his things and prodded at Shikamaru to wake him up.
"Oi, Shikamaru. Wake up! I can't believe you slept through the last half hour of jutsu theory, I was trying so hard to keep you awake too, ya know."
"I do know actually, I could feel every elbow you dug into my ribs." the sleepy Nara grumbled, rubbing his eyes with one hand and stuffing his things into his open bag with the other.
"Wait, if you were awake the whole time why didn't you pay attention?" Ino snorted as she swept her books into her own bag. "If I had known, I wouldn't have had to waste my time trying to keep you awake either..."
Hinata had sat too far from Shikamaru to participate in the usual tactics Naruto and Ino had to employ to keep their spiky-ponytailed friend from falling asleep in class, so she stayed out of the playful banter. It was far more amusing to watch anyway.
"Too troublesome to pay attention. Besides, my old man already taught me everything we covered in class so I could learn the Nara clan jutsu. Wasn't like I was missing much."
The Hyūga heiress couldn't help but giggle at the dirty looks Naruto and Ino suddenly leveled at the Nara heir.
"Well same here, but you don't see me nodding off!" Ino resisted the urge to slug Shikamaru for his laziness.
Naruto playfully jabbed Shikamaru in the arm, his glare turning into a mournful resignation. The blonde's eyes twinkled ever so slightly, the mischief in his intent almost giving his poker face away to the sharp-eyed observer.
"I suppose if that's how you feel, Ino-chan and I will just have to report this to your mom after all, ya know."
He exchanged a wink with Ino, his fellow blonde looking puzzled for a bit before catching on. The two shared a smirk how Shikamaru suddenly froze in place, hand frozen halfway in his bag where he had been putting his things away. They quickly schooled their features to keep a strictly grave appearance.
"She specifically asked us to let her know if you were acting up in class," The Uzumaki boy continued. "I hope she won't be too disappointed to hear that you were sleeping in class again."
"Which reminds me, Naruto." Ino chimed in. "Didn't Shika's mom tell us about how she had been itching for a chance to use The Pan lately?"
Shikamaru paled dramatically, his face practically white as a sheet, and began quivering in place as he shakily turned to face her. The finality of the capital letters in her sentence drove every other rational thought from his brain. A look of horror dawned on his face as his sharp mind worked overtime to think of an out.
"Now that you mention it, she has." Ino murmured with a thoughtful look on her face. "Apparently your dad has been skipping out on his duties to go drink with mine and Choji's dads a bit too much lately."
"D-don't even j-j-j-joke about such a t-thing, guys." Shikamaru stammered nervously. "I-i-it's n-n-not f-f-f-f-unny."
"Does this mean you're going to stop sleeping in class and start paying attention again like a good student?" Naruto asked innocently.
"Y-y-yes, anything, j-j-just don't tell my m-m-mom about this!"
Shikamaru pleaded with more emotion for this than he usually showed for anything. The unflappably lazy boy had few severe reactions to anything, but his fear of his mother (or more specifically her wrath) was more than enough to cow him into submission.
"Then it's settled, we'll stay quiet and you'll be a better student."
Naruto resisted the urge to laugh out loud at the look of gratitude and relief that bloomed on his friend's face as Shikamaru wiped his brow of the accumulated sweat. He leaned over discreetly to Ino, whispering "I think that'll be good for another week or two, don't you think?"
Ino giggled lightly and whispered back, "That's one bet I know I don't want to take."
Hinata patted her backpack, a smile on her face from the entire exchange. "All ready to go home?"
"Yep!" Naruto rubbed his stomach, feeling it rumble discontentedly. "I don't know about you guys, but listening to Iruka-sensei lecture like that always gives me an appetite, ya know. Wanna go get some ramen or something on the way back?"
"Sorry, Naruto. I've got clan duties to take care of. If my mom's really that pissed at my old man, she'll get on my case if I don't at least feed the deer today." Shikamaru said with a light shudder at the thought of his mom's anger. "Give me a couple of days to earn some brownie points with her first before I tempt her wrath."
"I can't either, Naruto-kun. My father wants me home early for training." Hinata frowned. "I'll be more free next week, though."
Naruto nodded sadly. It was understandable after all, he knew they were heirs to powerful clans in Konoha with far more responsibilities than an orphan like him. He turned to Ino, who had kept silent up until now, with an expectant look on his face.
"What about you, Ino-chan?" He grinned hopefully. "If you're not feeling up for ramen, we can try that unagi place you've been telling me about!"
Ino shook her head and waved her hand in an apologetic manner.
"Sorry, I'll have to pass this time too, Naruto. I'm sure those damn hussies at lunch got their hands all over Sasuke-kun, and I've got to do something about it. That Billboard-brow has been lording it over me since!"
Naruto's face fell, an indescribable look replacing it as smoothly as a mask. He knew he should have a tighter leash on his emotions but for all his training, he couldn't keep a hint of anger out of his voice.
"So you're telling me you're too busy to hang out with me because you're going to be stalking Sasuke instead?"
"W-well, when you put it that way..." Ino chuckled sheepishly, missing the hard looks Hinata and Shikamaru were leveling at her.
The two of them had made it abundantly clear how much they disliked Ino's fangirlish tendencies toward the last Uchiha before, just as Naruto did, but this was a new low for her in their opinion.
"I don't get it."
"What's there not to get, I've got plans and that's it. It's not like the end of the world, Naruto. We can always hang out another time so—"
"I don't get what you see in that guy, Ino-chan!" Naruto snapped at her.
Ino flinched at his tone. She had never heard him raise his voice like that before, let alone at her. The tension in the air was beginning to thicken, and the entire classroom fell silent around them.
Hinata looked at the two of them worried, about to open her mouth and say something to diffuse the tension before Shikamaru subtly stopped her. He gave her a look, shaking his head. Between Ino's behavior and Naruto's personality, this confrontation had been bound to happen sooner or later. He was only surprised at how much restraint Naruto had shown up until now to delay it for so long.
"What do you mean, you don't get what I see?" Ino huffed indignantly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Sasuke-kun is smart, handsome, strong, and super cool! The whole school agrees too, what's there not to see?"
"Sasuke doesn't give anyone the time of day, let alone you!" Naruto gripped the back of his chair, knuckles turning white from the strain. "Look, Ino-chan, that guy's nothing but trouble."
"Don't say that about Sasuke-kun, you don't know the least of his worries!" Ino was starting to ignore the unease she was feeling at the whole conversation as anger slowly took its place. "You don't know anything about him!"
"And neither do you!" Naruto shot back. "What do you really know about him anyway? You just rattled off a list of superficial things about him anyone could tell you. Do you know his likes and dislikes? His favorite color? What's his favorite food, Ino-chan? What does he do for fun? How much do you even know about this guy for you to declare an undying love for him?"
She opened her mouth to snap back a reply, but Naruto plowed on.
"I just don't want you to get hurt anymore, I see how it makes you feel when he ignores you or turns you down." He said sadly, resting a hand on hers.
Naruto's words stung, hitting closer to home than she realized. But at this point, she was too angry to care. Ino didn't want to think rationally, she only wanted to shove back and deflect. She slapped his hand away in a huff.
"Why does it matter to you anyway? Who do you think you are, my dad?"
A light gasp went through the room as the students who hadn't gone home yet looked on in silence. Hinata covered her mouth after letting out a gasp of her own in shock, not believing Ino would say such a thing to Naruto. Shikamaru sighed and palmed his face, sensing Ino had crossed the line.
Ino's words hit him with the force of an exploding tag, and Naruto stood there stunned as the anger drained from his body. He didn't mean— He only meant—
"Ino-chan, I..."
Sakura's words suddenly echoed in Ino's mind.
"There's nothing going on between me and Naruto!"
"Doesn't look that way to me, why else would you let him call you chan all the time?"
Something in her snapped at the recollection, goaded on by Sakura's taunts earlier. She pressed on unperturbed by the warnings her instincts screamed or the small part of her that knew she was in the wrong.
"And another thing, stop it with the chan already! I told you, Sasuke-kun's the only one who gets to call me that! Damn it Naruto, you're so annoying!"
The words flew out of her mouth before she realized what she was saying, but by that point it was too late to take it back.
Naruto visibly flinched and slowly released the death grip he didn't even realize he had on the chair, staring down at the knuckles on his hands. A deafening silence settled over the room that forced every person inside to just look on with bated breath, not daring to make a sound.
Finally, after what seemed like years, Naruto looked up with a carefully neutral look on his face. His blue eyes bored into her own like drills. The normally warm ocean blues had turned glacial with sudden intensity. He bowed deeply at the waist.
"I sincerely apologize for overstepping my bounds, Yamanaka-san."
Naruto's sudden formality slammed down on Ino, reversing their positions and nearly taking her breath away. It was entirely out of character for him because he never spoke like that to anyone. The look in his eyes finally registered to her as her mind caught up to what her mouth had said.
"I... Naruto..." she whispered, barely able to force the words from her lips.
A cold sweat ran down her back, and she suddenly felt two feet small in front of his frosty gaze as she continued to process just what she had uttered in her fit of anger. He straightened up and continued, ignoring her and making no sign he had even heard her speak in the first place.
"I had no right to pry into your business and it won't happen again."
He turned to his other two friends, who were both staring at him unsure of what to do or what to say. Never in their wildest imagination could they have seen how wrong this had gone.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Shikamaru, Hinata-ch—" he caught himself mid-word, clearly hesitating to use the honorific with her like he had before.
Settling for an awkward nod of the head, he quickly excused himself and ran off before anyone could say anything. The whole room, deathly silent until now, burst into hushed muttering as soon as he had closed the door behind him.
"I..."
Ino was at a loss for words. She hadn't meant to snap at him like that, honestly, but her temper flared and the discussion spiraled far out of her control. Neck stiff, she mechanically turned to look at Shikamaru and Hinata. almost fearing to look at their reactions.
Shikamaru gave her a stern look of disapproval.
"Ino, that was uncalled for and you know it. What the hell was that all about?"
"I... just... I was so frustrated, Naruto just kept prying and sticking his nose in my business." Ino babbled mindlessly, completely thrown off kilter. "I think he was just jealous of Sasuke-kun, I mean who wouldn't be—"
A loud crack resounded through the room and Ino found herself suddenly staring at the desks. Her hand shakily reached up to clutch her now burning red cheek, eyes watering in pain.
'W-what the hell was that?'
She slowly looked up into Hinata's pale eyes, taken aback by the cold fury smoldering in the infamous Hyūga glare.
"How dare you…?"
The normally reserved and demure girl was all steel and ice now, an undertone of barely restrained ire lining her voice. She drew herself to her full height and power to glare at Ino as if the Yamanaka heiress nothing more than some disgusting bug on the ground. Ino suddenly was reminded of the fact that sweet little Hinata was the groomed Heiress of the noble Hyūga Clan. There was nothing gentle left about the girl she thought she knew.
"How dare you treat Naruto-kun like that?" Hinata's voice trembled slightly, not from timidity or fear, but anger and indignation held in check.
"He was... I..."
"He was only looking out for you because he is your friend!" She didn't raise her voice but the force of her words stuck her with as much power as her clan's Gentle Fist. "How you could have mistaken his sincerity for petty jealousy is beyond me. I'm not sure whether he still even considers you one of his friends after what you've done today, but I won't forgive you until he does... Yamanaka."
The last word, Hinata practically hissed between her teeth. Having said her piece, she stormed off without another word.
Ino was left shaken to her core. Naruto and Hinata were two of her closest friends and she had managed to alienate them both. And over what? Uchiha Sasuke?
"Ino, I don't know what to say to you." Shikamaru began, leveling a stern look at her. "But whatever you do, I suggest you take a long and hard look at how much our friendship means to you over that of Uchiha Sasuke."
He too turned on his heel to leave as well, leaving Ino alone amidst a room full of whispers to think about what just happened. Tears sprang to her eyes and fell with silent splashes onto her desk.
What had she done?
Whenever Naruto needed to cool his head and get away from the world, he liked to head up towards the Hokage Monument and think. Sitting atop the faces carved into the mountainside, he felt like it gave him perspective. And looking out over Konoha never failed to make him realize how small he was in the grand scale of things.
Feeling the cool breeze ruffle through his spiky locks, he couldn't help but sigh. Ino had been right, what was he thinking, trying to dictate her life? All because of some misguided reasoning that they were friends? Friends didn't tell friends what to do or what to think.
But maybe she was right. Maybe he was being jealous. It was easy to be — Uchiha Sasuke had everything he ever wanted on a silver platter. The village adored him, people fell over themselves trying to be his friend, and he had a loving mother who worried about him. Naruto had none of that. The village hated his guts, people tried their damnedest to deny him his very existence, and he hadn't been able to reconnect with his ancestors since that day he met his mother. Try as hard as he might, he wasn't able to say with 100% certainty that he wasn't partially motivated out of jealousy. Not that he didn't have Ino's best interests in mind, but it was difficult to separate the two. Danzo-ji-sama would be ashamed of him and his lack of control.
He wished he had someone to talk to, especially his mother. In the brief moments he spent with her, he was more than capable of sensing her wisdom and worldly experience. Even without it, mothers were supposed to be the rock you could turn to and rely on, weren't they? But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't summon her again. Naruto still had occasional flashes of his clan's lives where he experienced what he could tell were pivotal moments in the Uzumaki history. However, without the proper guidance, none of it meant anything to him. He didn't know who else to turn to for this kind of advice.
The Hokage and Danzo-ji-sama were both far too busy to bother about this kind of trivial matter, his ANBU handlers probably weren't available, and the people he would have normally confided in were the very people he needed help with!
Things were a lot simpler when he was just another masked figure among many. For the first time since leaving the Black Ops and joining the Academy, he kind of wished he could go back. It wasn't just the feeling of losing his edge here in the slower paced, lower expectation environment. It was more of the constant struggle to stay afloat in interpersonal relationships. The extent of that for him previously was a friendly camaraderie with the other ninja, but there was a distinct difference between the hardened veterans in ANBU and his peers in the Academy.
Naruto had greatly underestimated the difficulty of the long-term infiltration mission that the Hokage assigned him. Babysitting a bunch of snot nosed brats who hadn't even had their first kills yet was supposed to be easy, and it was until he had befriended the lot of them. Shikamaru, Hinata, I- Yamanaka-san, all of them had wormed their way into his heart as only few others before them had. Perhaps this was revenge, revenge orchestrated by all of the top-ranking shinobi he had pissed off or irritated over the years in the shinobi program. If it was, he had to say, it was completely working.
Still, regardless of the hows and whys of his current predicament, he still needed to attend school and graduate. At least the exam was only a day or two away, with team assignments following shortly after. With any luck, he could stay out of Yamanaka-san's way and avoid antagonizing her needlessly.
He sighed heavily as he gazed out upon the village. Not for the first time, nor the last time, he wished he could have been just an ordinary boy without the weight of a village's future on his shoulders.