Sasuke thought back to this morning-- had Tobira been acting off? What counted as off for him? It wasn't like they'd actually known each other very long. It had barely been three days since the man had appeared. The young Uchiha hadn't noticed anything super off, though.
...Then again, that was assuming Tobira even knew. They had gone straight home after shopping yesterday.
Speaking of which, no one had seemed this rattled yesterday. "It must have been last night or this morning," he suggested, leaning on his hand. "No one was acting weird yesterday."
"True." Shikamaru mused, "Couldn't be an attack, or we'd be headed for the shelter. So it's probably just the adults arguing again. Maybe someone important got in trouble or they announced a big change."
Sakura tilted her head from beside Sasuke, the pink-haired girl asking, "Who would get in trouble? Like a clan leader, or a person on one of the councils?"
It was possible, Sasuke had to admit. It would definitely shake things up if one of the clan leaders got in trouble, though he doubted anyone on the council would. After all, most of the people on the council seemed like they had been there for a long time. It was much more likely for one of the clan heads to get in trouble.
"If it was a clan head, it'd explain why the teachers are so busy. A lot of our parents are heads." Ino suggested, Sasuke nodding along despite the discomfort that came with the topic of clans.
Shikamaru looked ready to agree when the door to the classroom opened. The room quieted, even Naruto's and Kiba's back and forth coming to a still as Iruka made his way towards the front. It was strange to see the strict brunet so out of wack.
Sasuke watched as the others slowly settled back into their seats, waiting for the man to hopefully tell them what was going on. The young Uchiha would be lying if he said he wasn't the least bit curious himself.
"Something has come up that needs my attention. While I'm away, you will all be given extra time to work on any missing or incomplete work you may have in the library with the other students. If you don't have any, you can take this time to study." the unspoken words reaching Sasuke easily-- something had happened that required the attention of quite a few sensei. They had to sit in the library and behave.
A few grumbles of disappointment came from Sasuke's classmates, most unhappy with having to sit in the library all day. They began picking up their things even so, preparing to make their way to the room.
As the young Uchiha picked up his bag and bento, heading towards the door with the others, he could hear Ino's questioning.
"Where are you going, sensei?" Ino spoke as she stood by him, looking up at the taller man with a tilted head. Sasuke focused on following Iruka down the hall, pointedly looking towards the floor even as he listened to them.
Discomfort laced the man's words as he answered, well aware that more than a few of them were listening. "It's nothing to worry about. The academy has just gotten some news about a few new students, that's all. So we need to go meet them and get them ready for school so they can start soon."
"Oh." was all the blonde said, the small group arriving in the library soon enough. Even as Sasuke watched the man lead them to tables to work, instructing them to behave for the librarian, something felt off about it. Either Iruka wasn't telling them everything or it was a real pain to sign students up.
He probably couldn't tell them everything. That was how it worked, after all. Whether Sasuke liked it or not, they were just academy students. So even if he knew something felt wrong, it wasn't like he could just call the elder shinobi out on it.
It was none of his business.
Still, as he sat down and began unpacking his books, Sasuke found himself hoping Tobira would know. He really didn't like being left in the dark.
"Naruto, you go by Sasuke and Shino." the instruction made Sasuke grimace just as much as it made Naruto pout.
The blond headed over, though he looked like a kicked puppy as he pulled his chair out. "Why do I always have to sit with them?" crossing his arms and sending a pitiful look over to Shikamaru and Choji, both of whom sat together at another table.
"Because, Naruto, you'll be able to focus better around those two." Iruka spoke with tired irritation as he helped Sakura, Kiba, and Hinata get settled at a table.
Sasuke watched Naruto pout as he opened up his school binder, miscellaneous half-finished homework sheets stuffed within. The young Uchiha couldn't help but blink at the sheer amount of papers flooding out of the binder.
Naruto was quick to pick out what was probably the easiest-- a hand-seal labelling sheet. The blond began scribbling in answers, occasionally eyeing Sasuke and Shino with a look Sasuke couldn't quite place. Sasuke pointedly turned to look elsewhere, not wanting to give the other any ideas. He definitely didn't want the other to decide to try and get them to do something that would end in trouble.
Though the ravenet didn't know Naruto well, he did know that the other didn't take it well when things didn't go his way. Sasuke really didn't want to have to deal with Naruto making a ruckus because they refused to play along with one of his little plans.
Shino seemed to share the sentiment, the quiet boy focused on a taijutsu form book. Sasuke was quick to follow his lead, the boy pulling out his book on chakra theory and flipping to the current chapter. The boy knew it fairly well, but he had been a bit busy with figuring out the whole Tobira situation. If nothing else, he probably needed to practice his reading. Some of the words were getting a little tricky.
That, and he would rather not get scolded for doing nothing. Though Iruka had gone a few moments ago, the librarian wasted no time in walking between the tables as she kept an eye on them. Not that Sasuke blamed her. There were so many students piled into the library. It seemed even the older kids had ended up stuck in the library for the day.
Absently, he wondered if Iruka would be gone all day. Sasuke already had all his work done, and it wasn't like he was behind in their studies. He was near the top of the class, in fact.
Though, he supposed his score had started to go down the last few weeks. Studying was just...harder than it had been before. He'd still done it, though. No matter how much it made him want to bang his head on the table.
After a moment of looking through his chakra theory book, flipping the pages absent-mindedly, he paused. He probably shouldn't waste his time on something he knew so well.
Sasuke knew that he should try to review the genjutsu content. Unfortunately, the very thought of using it made his stomach do backflips. The moment he tried, visions of red eyes and smeared blood entered his mind.
For all the work he'd put into learning his clan's specialities, that one just left a bitter taste in his mouth. He'd done well in the last week-- he'd only fallen into that scary place once. To be fair, though, there had been a strange man in his house. So he had been sort of right to freak out, right?
No, Sasuke decided, there was no way he was going to work on his genjutsu right now. Not when things were so...off. The last thing he wanted was to have one of his prickly feelings while he was at school.
This was starting to give him a headache. Sasuke didn't want to do something he was good at and waste time, but he didn't want to get sick by doing something that he was bad at. Even practising the words in the chakra theory book was getting old. So many of the words were used again and again.
Shifting through his backpack for anything to fill the time, Sasuke let out a small breath as he saw his core skills book. The young Uchiha swapped the books out, flipping to the language part of the book. Perfect. He could practice his writing and reading. This book would have a lot more words.
Soon enough the boy set his pencil to paper, tracing the letters and doing his best to keep them neat. Sasuke focused on his work for a long while, only stopping occasionally to wipe the led from his hand onto his shirt or flip the page.
By the time lunch rolled around, it was safe to say he was getting a lot better. Though, he should probably do something else after he ate his lunch. The lines were starting to get a bit slanted from where he was doing it too much. It was probably time to practice his reading some.
First, though, came lunch.
Sasuke sat his pencil down, letting his hand rest for a moment as he waited for the librarian to give them permission to eat. He wasn't sure if they'd be eating in the library or somewhere else. Probably somewhere else, considering the danger involved in letting so many kids eat near so many books. Not to mention the carpet.
He was proved right as the woman in charge spoke, "Alright, it's time for lunch. Everyone leave your bags here. We'll be eating outside today!" she spoke in a tone that urged them to be excited. It worked on most, the students more than happy to get some fresh air after being stuck inside all day.
Even Sasuke had to admit it would probably be nice to have some fresh air. Then again, he would probably be happy to eat anywhere. Tobira was a really good cook, in his opinion.
As he stood, silently following everyone outside, he held his bento to his chest almost protectively. The others were rushing outside with their own lunches, most likely trying to get the best spots to eat. It was rare that they got to eat outside, so they probably wanted to make the most out of it. Luckily, the playground spots considered the worst to most were Sasuke's favourites. He never did understand what was so great about sitting on the swings or climbing up high on the playground equipment. It was way too crowded, anyway.
He much prefered to just sit by the walls of the building. No one would bother him there, and it was a lot less likely he'd wind up getting crashed into by someone who was jumping around.
So as Sasuke made his way to the spot he usually sat at, he was satisfied. What wasn't satisfying, however, was the sight he was met with when he finally got there.
He'd almost forgotten that all the older students were with them. There wasn't nearly as much space on the playground. Even his normal spot by the wall was almost full.
Neji sat leaning up against the wall, Hinata sitting beside him despite the way they both looked elsewhere. A few feet from them was Tenten, the older girl eating her lunch and glancing around idly. Then there was Shino, who had made himself comfortable beside a bush at the end of the wall. All of them had a good amount of space between the groups, but the only other place to sit would be beside the swing with Naruto or with Sakura and Ino near the other kunoichi in training.
Sasuke settled on sitting in between Shino and Tenten. There were still a few feet in between them, so he didn't think it would be too crowded.
As he made himself comfortable against the school wall, the young boy pulled out his bento. He wasted no time in opening it, a warmth filling his chest as he saw noodles and chopped broccoli.
Sasuke set to eating his lunch, idly glancing around as he did so. The librarian was nowhere to be found, though Mizuki had taken up the post. The silver-haired man watched from the front entrance, quietly scanning the students over.
Most were focusing on eating their lunch, though a few had decided to rough-house while they ate. Sasuke was just glad the people along the wall seemed to have enough sense not to fight while they were eating. Someone spilling his food would not end well. Bite after bite, he was sure of this.