Author notes: I'm really happy that people ended up liking the last chapter I wrote...Frankly, I wasn't expecting this. The chapter was loooooong, and even though it was loooong there're still some details that I discarded to make that chapter shorter. (headbang at the desk) I wanted to Temari and Shikamaru meet in that chapter, but gawd, 4600 words?! I don't want to drag so much for you.

Anyways, I'm answering the anonymous reviews (my favorite part is answering your reviews people! I like when you guys show the support!):

To ddd: Thanks for your support! I hope you continue on this road together with me!

To piratepenguin666: interesting nick...8D hehehehe, anyways, I'm flattered that you liked it so much!

Disclaimer: Yeah yeah, Naruto's not mine, I know, I get it. SIGH.

Warning: Naruto's property of Sasuke. Lolll. Ok…and vice-versa. Like I care about what happens to Sasuke... (roll eyes)

Lesson 10 – The daily Issues

The waffles were delicious. The milk was still fresh and held a creamy aroma. The chair was neat and comfortable, and the dim lights illumined the elegant table laid in the middle of the kitchen. It was such ideal scenery for a typical breakfast, but something inside of him made all the food turn sore. The long sand-colored eyelashes hid the usual vivid blue eyes, shadowing like dull clouds dirtying the beautiful sky. His gaze focused on his trembling hands, begging without solid results the calming of his heart. In front of him laid an innocent paper, almost blank filled with scarce words.

Picking a roll-balled pen, Naruto started:

Dear Iruka,

No…after all what he had done, he wasn't entitled to call him "Dear". He wasn't worth it.

Iruka-sensei,

The old nickname evoked distant reminiscences, days filled with marred happiness and unforgettable childhood. To call him sensei would dirt even further the few good moments of his past.

Iruka-otos—

Naruto quickly rubbed off the next word. If he didn't deserve to call the last names, then he surely doesn't deserve to call him like that.

Umino-san,

Now, even though writing his surname was distant enough, the blonde boy was sure that, his previous teacher would turn irate, opposite from his original intentions to appease him. Not to mention that just by writing those innocent letters, his stomach would wrap itself painfully, almost making him wanting to puke.

He held his unreadable face to his hands, rubbing exhausted the impossible mission he wanted to accomplish. He already forgot what he wanted to say, his friends, his life, the recital, everything. The ticking of the clock punctuated the heavy silence in the room, when sonorous bells woke him up from his reverie. Time to go to school.

Cursing himself for another futile attempt of writing anything useful, the tanned body went to his bathroom. Naruto had so much to explain, much to declare…the paper was almost blank. But in the middle of that, rang sincere words of:

I'm sorry.

Humming the most upbeat music he had in his arsenal, he tried to lift his usual energetic disposition, while combing his untamed spiky hair. Sighing for another failure attempt on keeping straight his golden-colored locks, he opened the window box displayed in front of him and grabbed a toothpaste and toothbrush, another hand opening the tap of the sink. Looking at his reflection like seeing foam coming from his mouth was the most interesting scientific discovery that ever happened, he hid his frustration brushing his teeth with increasing thoughts and force.

"Damn it!" His usual brilliant grin gritted, rattled, seething his bottomed feelings that pooled inside of his mind. Naruto threw the toothbrush farther away then his vision could locate it, after his hands grabbed the sides of his sink, growling with hushed noise.

Strange…he wasn't doing anything out of ordinary, only his usual daily activities, so why was his heart clenching so much?

He bended his fingers a little, gathering the water streaming from the faucet. Few droplets inevitably escaped from the gaps between them, problems and unpleasant memories fleeing from his grasp. The blonde quickly soaked his face as much as he could, splattering everywhere; consequently making his hair damp. He tilted his neck and observed; the expression of his true self.

The scars. One…two…three…four…five…six. Marking his past and his mistakes. It was so ironic that they decided to mar in the most painful and noticeable place in his body.

How could he ever forget about that? How could he even dare to erase his crime? Remember…

The snow started to pile up.

"Here."

Tsunade raised her auburn head to see some considerable amount of money.

"What's this?" She arched an eyebrow.

"Cash. Capital Funds. Yen, the current currency of our beloved country, Japan. Nice piece of papers that can be exchanged to anything possible, baba." Naruto furrowed an eyebrow together with the middle-age woman.

"I don't need your sarcasm at this time of day, brat. I'm asking, why are you giving me this?"

"I've been saving up from Jiraiya-jiji works to pay you the rent that I'm in debt with you."

"We've already discussed about this. You working in this café would be enough to pay the month rent in that house." She pushed the tanned hands towards his chest, refusing the offer.

"I know that the real value of it is higher than my salary, Tsunade-baachan! And on Saturdays I'm having class with Kakashi-sensei, so I'm not fulfilling the work hours that I should do! That's why I'm giving some of the tips that I've earned in the bar!" The blonde boy stubbornly swapped aside from her fingers and almost shoved the money in her palms.

"And I say that you don't need to give it to me, stupid brat!" She raised herself from the chair and bonked on his head.

"That hurt, baba!! Here I am, kindly offering some good cash for you to spend and you reject my selfless actions!"

"Hah…I'm sure heavens will take your Samaritan deeds on account, but the answer will still be NO." Ignoring the evident pout from the blonde lips, she continued. "Use your money to buy more books, scores, watching cinema, having fun with your friends. You'll put your cash in better needs, right?"

"Giving it to you is a great need, not to mention it is my money right? It's my decision to give it to you." He stretched his arms and offered again to her boss. She pushed aside again.

"And it's my decision to refuse it. Also, you're wrong, the amount of the rent is equal to the payment you receive."

"But—"

"No buts, damn brat, and I had enough of your whining. Go to work, since you're so eager to pay it for me." She shook her hand, ending the conversation.

"I…I don't want to feel in debt to you." Naruto almost added with a whisper. Tsunade smiled motherly.

"You're not. Don't worry about it squirt, just proceed to play the piano, ok?"

"I don't—"

"I'm not giving any kind of pity. Consider yourself as investment then, when you turn out to be a famous pianist, I can order to manufacture a plate saying that you worked here."

His cerulean eyes almost glittered with cheekiness.

"And it'd better be gold then, Tsunade-baachan." His smiled revealed a set of haughty teeth. "'Cause Uzumaki Naruto doesn't want anything that it's less worthy than him!"

"We'll see about that. Wanna bet?" The busty woman smirked.

"I thought you'd enough with this bet thingies…Haven't I taught you enough about that?" He instantly rolled his eyes.

"Watch your tongue, brat. It almost sounds like you're wiser than me. You arrogant kid."

"It doesn't matter what kind of words I'd use, or what kind of sentences you'd cut in. The past can't be changed baa-chan, and I did help you out of that." His leer was bordering to a very smug one.

"You better go sit in that piano chair before I decide to wipe out this goofy expression." She twitched her eye, cracking her fingers one by one.

"Going, going!" He instantly disappeared from her sight.

Tsunade sighed. It seemed that he already recovered his cheerful disposition. She sensed that he was wearing a depressed look before, even though he kept hiding it from anyone. Pressing the matter probably wouldn't be in any use, seeing on how stubborn that brat could be. Whatever. At least he returned to his normal hyperactive self and it finally entered in his thick skull that he doesn't need to give her extra cash.

Naruto was thinking to himself. Well, it appears that the obstinate middle-aged hag won't listen to his offer; he had no choice but to use rough decisions.

The café's safe is needed now to be pried open again.

Even though the recital happened just last week, Kakashi made sure that everything would fall to the old routine. That meant: thousands of homework are back. Lord…and to think that he almost considered his teacher to be a good person.

Wait, no kind person would lock his students up in the middle of the night. Come to think about it, that sadistic of a mentor still deserves some kind of pay back from that prank. And Naruto was a master in pranks.

Already plotting the most gruesome plan in his head, he failed to see that for once, Sasuke came earlier than him.

"Dobe, you're sitting on my leg." The brunet almost risked the term "lap" though that would suggest a thousands of significant meanings. (author: +smirk+ substitute the last word to "positions")

The said blonde yelped at his side and jumped like he sat on fire, patting furiously his backside like he touched some kind of dust. A very filthy dust. (author: a very naughty dust…:P)

"Teme! You should have warned me before!"

"Hn. Any kind of moron would notice that someone was already here, sitting in the room. Does your eyes is only used for decoration or is it your brain can't process a simple information?"

"I was kinda distracted! Y'know, Kakashi-sensei still deserves our revenge for locking us the day before our recital."

"Hm…yes, indeed. So, what does your usuratonkachi's mind is planning for our sadist teacher?"

"Hehehehe…Lend me your ear." Strangely enough, the dark-haired teen did obey his command.

After some whispers and another, they straightened their positions when both of the boys heard steps coming to the room. Kakashi was back with a happy smirk.

This time they returned his beam with strange gleams on their eyes. If the teacher would suspect about it, he'd probably dismiss it thinking that they're still in high skies from the successful performance last week.

They started the class listening to Naruto's Chopin Etüdes, as Sasuke went to the toilet for a while.

When it was the paled teen time to play, the blonde took a small detour to eat some sandwich and returned with some snacks to them.

After an unexpectedly neutral class, without Naruto or Sasuke's mutual cursing, Kakashi dismissed them with a proud pose. Well, maybe they did come into better terms to each other now, finally.

But somehow, somewhere in his mind told that maybe he should suspect their sudden angelic behavior.

Nevemind, he has more important things at this moment, while turning on the TV to watch his newly bought Icha Icha Paradise movie set.

...

A loud howl vibrated through the mansion, startling all the maids.

minna minna minna

tasukete kureru (1)

How?! WHEN?! WHY?! Wait, he knows why.

benrina dougu de tasukete kureru

omocha no heitai da

It doesn't matter. WHAT KIND OF HEARTLESS STUDENTS WOULD MAKE THEIR DEAREST TEACHER SUFFER THIS MUCH?! Okay, maybe he did step on a little bit too far from the acceptable limits, but…but…

AN AN AN

tottemo daisuki

BUT!!

Doraemon… (2)

Another scream echoed throughout the night.

Explanation:

(1) The translation of the song:

all of them, all of them, all of them

he helps me

he helps me with a convenient tool

look! a toy soldier

ah ah ah

I love you very much,

Doraemon

(2) Doraemon: Oh, c'mon, you don't know what kind of anime this is?! Yada yada….this youngsters of this era….go google somewhere for all I care. XD

Author notes: I'll have to admit that I did push one more chapter to the more important issues, and the last part was….a filler? XD huahuahuahuahua. I was going to put the main part in this chapter, but it'd turn out to be another long chapter (fumes) not to mention it'd turn out to be two different issues then.

I'm pretty happy that even though I wrote lengthy episodes, you guys are still willingly to read it. You know….you guys are real masochists. (nods to herself resolutely).

Readers: ……………… (closes the firefox window) I'll never read this fanfiction ever again!

Ehehehe…just kidding. (puppy eyes) Gomen ne? :P

Although I did promise that I didn't want to write a chapter longer then 1500 words, this chapter turned out to be shorter just by coincidence. Shrugs. Whateva.

And I drew the costumes that Sakura and their group wore at the day of performance, if you guys are interested, please enter in contact with me and I'll send it to you, okie?

So even though I wrote a small chapter, kinda insulted ya, you guys would still review to me, ne? :P