Another day at school was just another day of torment and frustration. My grade in english is slipping to a D and I barely understood what was going on in biology.

I see a paper land on my desk, and stare blankly at the catastrophe before me. It was my essay that I handed in a week ago. The red markings I saw as I flipped through the pages seemed endless, and when I finally got to the last page, I wanted to rip my hair out. The grade stared back at me almost as intently as I stared at it. What the hell do I have to do to get at least a C!

"As you can see, I am not an easy grader, despite this being a standard level class. I believe that english is the most important subject to learn, and once everything about the subject is mastered, it will mold and shape you into a well spoken critical thinker. That is why I grade you all so rigorously. I want you all to master this subject. You can call me bias or unfair, but that will not hold me back from giving you the grade I think you deserve"

I stare at the pervert before me as he babbles on and on about analyzing literature and the importance of having "good essay writing skills". Don't get me wrong, I love ero senin, and he's an extremely close family friend, but it's hard for me to understand how someone can be so laid back when you're alone with them, and then walk into a classroom all uptight over the smallest things.

"Can you believe this?", Shikamaru whispers to me.

I look over at his paper and see a 72 written boldly at the bottom.

"You think your grade is bad, look at mine", I whisper back before flipping the page and showing him my grade.

"sixty-nine", he murmurs before chuckling.

We both snicker for a short moment, and stop when we see the angry teacher in front of us.

"I don't know what you guys are laughing about, but I'm sure you won't be laughing when your parents see a D"

He leans in and stares darkly into my eyes as he says this.

"Or a C-"

This time he turns around to scold Shikamaru.

"On your progress reports"

The class is silent, and almost everyone is staring at both of us. Luckily the bell rings before any further humiliation can happen.

"Class dismissed"

I get out of my chair as quickly as possible, and rush out of the classroom. I don't even bother to take the stupid paper with me.

"Naruto", he barks at me just before I can leave the classroom.

"You left your essay here"

"Because I don't want it", I retort.

"Well I think if you kept it you would learn from your mistakes", he says growing irritated with me.

"I respect your opinion, but I don't want to keep it. I'll see you tomorrow", I say briefly.

"God, you're nothing like Sasuke"

I turn around with a gaze strong enough to burn a hole through him.

"So what?", I snap at him.

"Sasuke would never talk while I'm talking. You always do. And I can tell that you didn't read the book Naruto, that's why you got the grade you did. Sasuke passed the pop quiz I gave to him yesterday on three chapters he had to read in one night. He received the highest grade in the class"

"Well good for him", I say back spitefully.

"Yes, it is good for him. You should strive to be a student like him. I can assure you that he will get an A this quarter, and that you won't even get a solid C if you don't get your act together", he says before walking over to me and handing me my essay

"That's good to know", I say with false concern before taking the essay and leaving the classroom.

I'm positive he called me a little shit as I walked away. You know, you really should be more like Sasuke. Shut up.

Psychology was almost as miserable as english. Gaara wouldn't stop staring at me like I'd shattered his heart into pieces, and Sasuke wouldn't stop being a smart ass in class. It was almost as if he knew more about psychology than the teacher, and he wasn't even answering all the questions to be a teacher's pet, he was answering them to show that he knew more than everyone else.

"Alright, time to talk about the upcoming project you all will be working on. It will require a partner, and I've decided to pair you with a person I believe you will work best with"

Please, please, please, don't pair me with Sasori, Gaara, Yahiko, or Sasuke. I'm begging you don't do this to m-

"Naruto you will work with Sasuke"

Fuck.

He glances over at me and I feel as if my skin is melting off. This is not my day.

When I got home, I couldn't feel anymore relieved. As usual, I headed straight for my room to avoid being around anyone in my family, especially Sasuke. Unfortunately, I didn't make it very far without being stopped.

"Naruto, I need to have a word with you"

I look over at my father, who is sitting on the sofa reading a book with a very dull cover. He's home surprisingly early.

"Uh...okay"

"Have a seat"

I wasn't sure how mad he was, since he usually remained calm no matter what happened. I didn't know what I could be in trouble for, but I'm sure it's something stupid.

"I got a phone call from your english teacher today"

I stay silent for a while before giving the only response I could think of.

"Oh"

He puts his books down, and purses his lips. I guess it's a way of him hiding his anger. I wouldn't know since I'd never seen him angry before, unless he had road rage. This was a lot worse than his road rage anger.

"He said that you haven't been doing well on anything in his class. Not even the classwork"

"He's a hard teacher dad, you don't understand", I argue.

"He says you talk a lot and barely pay attention. He's also questioning if you read the book before you wrote your essay"

It's true, I didn't read the book at all. I read a summary of it online and then started typing away, and I'm really beginning to regret that decision.

"I read the book, he's just...difficult"

"Naruto, now is not the time to put the blame on someone else. Progress reports come out in less than two weeks, and if I don't see at least a C you will not like the consequences"

His words don't even sound like a threat. It's almost laughable.

"Fine", I grumble before heading back up the stairs.

"Don't think for a second that I won't punish you, because I will!"

Even though he raises his voice this time, it's just as funny. What he says is still unconvincing.

"Okay", I retort dryly before rolling my eyes and walking up the stairs.

When I finally reach my room I close my door and take out the essay that I still haven't really bothered to look at. I look closely at the handwriting at the bottom of my concluding paragraph.

Poorly organized, no quotes cited from the book, and elementary level vocabulary. Your essay lacks structure, and textual evidence to support your thesis. Grammar also needs improvement. Did you even read the book?

I flip to the front page and read through all of the corrections.

"Wow. I'm never going to get above a C in this subject"

As I continue to read through all of the horrible grammar mistakes and brutal comments, my door opens.

"There's this thing called knocking", I grumble in annoyance.

"Yeah, well I don't really care"

"What do you want, Sasuke?"

"We need to work on our project"

"It's not due till next week", I say before flipping the page to my essay.

"I want to get it done as soon as possible because if I let you make the decisions, the whole project will be procrastinated"

You got that right.

"Fine. I'll go get my psychology book", I say before putting my paper down.

As I scramble to find my book, I get a strange feeling that Sasuke is going through my stuff.

"I think that Holden was a very depressed human being"

I stop my search and see Sasuke with my essay in his hands.

"Put that down you bastard! Nobody gave you permission to read that!"

"He ran away because he could not handle losing his sister and was failing school", he continued to read.

"Stop!", I yell as I run over to him and attempt to retrieve my horribly written paper.

"What the hell? Did you even put any effort into this?"

"That's none of your concern! Give it back!"

He's holding the essay too high for my short arms to reach. Why am I so damn short!

"This is the most disorganized essay I've ever seen in my life. I doubt you got anything higher than a seventy"

"My grades are none of your business!"

He frowns when he sees my grade and I finally jump high enough to snatch the paper from his hand.

"You came in here to work on our project, not to ridicule my essay writing skills", I growl at him before slapping the essay back onto my desk.

"You don't have any essay writing skills", he murmurs before taking the textbook from my hands.

"Well sorry I'm not as perfect as you are"

Or at least as perfect as you appear to be.

He flips through the pages as if the project is due tomorrow.

"You know, I'm still unhappy about that kiss yesterday", I murmur.

"Like you said, I came in here to work on the pro-"

"Neji and Kabuto saw us! They know about the kiss!"

"Yes, and I made sure that they will be the only other people who know"

"Oh really?", I say sarcastically.

"They don't understand why we kissed, but they said they wouldn't talk about it"

"But they will!"

"Even if they did, all you have to do is deny it and say it is a rumor"

"But-"

"No time for arguing. We need to focus"

I've never wanted to strangle someone so badly before in my entire life.

A/N: An uneventful chapter, but I feel like there needed to be a little break after last chapter. I also felt like Minato's parenting needed to be highlighted at one point in the story to show how different he is from Kushina.