Extra long chapter time! There is only a subtle mention of Kakuzu in this, but there will be more to find later on!

Please enjoy~

Iruka noticed that his students all seemed just about the same when they returned to class the next day. They all went about their usual routines as soon as they came into the classroom and all of the old group of friends got together like always. Chouji drifted over to Shikamaru and smiled broadly as he told the Nara something or another, all the while the lazy boy dozed softly. Ino bounced over to the group of girls she always hung around, a soft frown on her face, and proceeded to whine about her group. And Naruto made his way over to Kiba to piss the Inuzuka off. So, on that front, nothing had changed.

Seriously, it was getting ridiculous just how much those two fought. Couldn't they just already become friends already? They had so much in common they could even be clones!

But, as he thought this, Iruka saw a few changes that made his eyebrow quirk and a stupid smile make its way to his lips. First of all, Sasuke made his way over to the free chair beside Hinata and sat down there, giving the shy girl a small smile before he began to pull out all of his school materials. Hinata, in return, squeaked and hid her face, although Iruka saw a flash of a smile before it was hidden by her arms.

Almost at the same time that this happened, Sakura quickly made her way over to the desk beside Chouji with a determined look on her face and a bright blush on her cheeks. Then she asked if she could sit down beside the Akimichi, getting a broad smile in return from him and an uncaring wave from Shikamaru. After this, the girl sat down with the broadest smile on her face Iruka had ever seen.

Okay... So maybe just one afternoon wasn't enough to make big changes. But at least some of his students were trying. And that made a warmth spread in the teacher's chest.

Maybe by the end of this project, there would be new groups of friends made.

"Alright, class!" He called once mostly everyone had settled down. The only kids that were still out of their chairs, all the while fighting over a snack, were Kiba and Naruto.

Taking a moment to sigh dejectedly about both boys, Iruka then glared at them and silently told them to sit down if they didn't want to get stuck in detention. Because of having faced his ire before, both kids immediately knew what he wasn't saying and ran to their desks, leaving the snack forgotten on the floor.

"Let's begin today's lessons."


Kiba couldn't help but glare at his teacher as the man began the math class. That cookie had been his! His father had bought it for him and left it on the stove early in the morning for when he woke up! And the Naruto bastard had then tried to muscle his way into stealing it from him! And after having had to walk two babies home and return to an extremely empty house, Kiba deserved that treat!

If there was something you didn't do to an Inuzuka, it was try to steal his food.

But the Uzumaki jerk had tried to do so! And he'd gotten lucky when Iruka had stopped them both. If he'd continued insulting Kiba, the boy may have just broken his nose.

No one insulted his family and got away with it! Naruto had just gotten lucky that the damned Iruka Sensei had glared at them when he had. If not, the boy would not have a face anymore!

Huffing as he made his way over to his desk, the Inuzuka couldn't help but glare at where his cookie had fallen. It was his favorite kind. The vanilla cookies the small bakery close to their house sold them, but they were usually sold out by the time Kiba would walk past it to get to the Academy. And having it waiting for him on the stove during the morning meant that his father had woken up early specifically to buy one for him so he could eat it during the school day.

If he did something especially brutal to the blonde today, it would only because the idiot had earned the pain.

The first class of the day was math. The one thing Kiba never paid any attention to. He sucked at math. And he kind of hated it too. But it was okay because math hated him, so it was a mutual case of hate.

... Iruka Sensei was glaring at him again. But it wasn't Kiba's fault that he couldn't stop looking longingly at his favorite snack! It was all Narutard's fault for taking it away from him...


The thing about being a teacher was that it was almost impossible to not form some type of attachment to one's students. Even though professionalism was preached up and down to every single chunin that had a teaching position, every single person Iruka knew could easily say they had favorite students.

Having kids in favor was not a problem. Favoritism, though, which was the act of holding your favorite kids on a pedestal and ignoring the rest, that was the actual problem.

He was proud to say that he never had succumbed to the pressures of having a kid held above the rest. He always managed to keep a level of professionalism in his work that allowed him to treat all of his students equally and never hindered the molding of young, impressionable minds.

Even though he liked a few students more than the rest, he had never allowed that favor to show. Because even though he couldn't stop himself from liking a few more, that did not stop him from being professional and fair to all of his students. It was only human to find a few more interesting than the rest, after all. But it would be more than just a mistake to allow that interest to be seen.

It was because of this deep-rooted sense of professionalism that Iruka never did anything in front of the whole class that might be seen as an act of favoring one kid over another.

But he had noticed that Kiba kept glancing at the dropped snack throughout most of the first class. All the while Naruto didn't even spare it a single look.

With an internal sigh, he assigned his kids to begins to work on some math problems so they could practice adding and subtracting on their own.

It was in times like these that Iruka wished that Kiba was more thoughtful. If only he had called on his teacher, rather than try to fight with Naruto, then the man would have been able to get him back his snack. All without getting either of the kids in much trouble. And, in turn, giving them both a rather not sour start to the day.

As the kids got to work in silence, the young teacher made his way over to where the snack still lay. It was a medium sized packet with a giant picture of a cookie in front of it. This brought a small smile to the man's lips because they were his own favorite brand. But after he had thought this, Iruka picked the cookie up and went back to his desk, only to place the snack on top as he sat down to look over his group once more.

He would give Kiba the snack once lunch rolled around and the rest of the kids were out in the playground.

With this thought, the scarred chuning looked around the room to make sure his instructions were being completed.

Shikamaru was asleep once more. But Chouji and Sakura were busy sharing quiet conversation and actually doing the work. The sight of both kids sharing soft laughter brought a small smile to the man's lips. But after a few seconds of looking at them, he turned his sights onto the rest of his students.

Hinata worked slowly on her paper with narrowed eyes, her face pulled in with a look of determination. All the while, Sasuke looked over her shoulder with a hand scratching over his paper, although he only looked at it every now and again. Without a doubt, he was copying off the young Hyuga heiress. But Iruka didn't feel like singling him out just yet. He was one of his brightest students, after all. If he continued copying on the rest of the assigned practices, though, he would speak to the young Uchiha.

Ino was too busy whispering with her group of friends to get any work done, and this made Iruka shake his head softly. And to her left, a small group of four kids- two girls and two boys- were having fun throwing pieces of eraser at each other. But the bits never fell to the floor and they turned every now and then to work on their problems, so Iruka would allow it for the meantime. But if any of those pieces hit the floor, there would be hell to pay.

Shino sat quietly in his corner of the classroom with his hands stuffed into his pockets and his back straight, dark sunglasses covering his eyes. Undoubtedly, the Aburame had already finished working. But, fortunately for his teacher, he was the quiet intelligent kind that didn't seek trouble as soon as he had finished working. Naruto, on the other hand, was writing away at a paper on his desk... And immediately the scarred chunin knew he was not working on the assigned problems. Naruto hated math. He would never work so passionately on it.

Most of the rest of the class were working quietly on their paper and for this the young teacher was grateful. He had quite the colorful group of kids in this classroom. And most of them were clan heirs. So he always felt as if he were walking on eggshells when it came to the more personal issues.

How could he tell Hiashi Hyuga that he thought that, maybe, if Hinata had a friend other than her clan members, maybe she would slowly break out of her shell? How could he tell the proud man that Hinata was a soft and shy soul and not the warrior soul the man undoubtedly wanted? Or, worse, how could he tell the even prouder Uchiha clan head that Sasuke needed a friend other than his own brother? Or tell the Aburame clan head that Shino needed a soft yet happy hand to get him to socialize? Or tell Tsume Inuzuka that Kiba wasn't making any friends because he was simply too wild?

Those all seemed like suicide missions!

As the man thought about this, he noticed he hadn't counted Kiba in his mental relay of the classroom. And he turned to look over at the boy's desk and found that Kiba was... Nowhere in sight.


Her mother had given her the mother of all scoldings after Sakura had gotten home. She had been worried about her and had even been ready to call on any nearby chunin to help find her. But once Sakura had explained having been late getting home because she had been busy working on a school project, the woman had toned down just a bit on her anger.

She was grounded for a week, though. Because she couldn't be running around Konoha without some type of supervision around. Which made no sense because she hadn't been alone! But, apparently, neither Kiba nor Chouji counted as 'supervision' for some reason... Next time they needed to go out and fetch answers, they would have to go back to Sakura's house and fetch her mother so they weren't out and about in the village like 'juvenile delinquents'.

And this kind of threw a wrench into the whole 'Get the old man to finish telling us his story!' plan, seeing how her mother would most probably not want them anywhere near that part of Konoha.

But, apart from scolding her, her mom had congratulated the young girl on making friends. Sakura hadn't had the heard to tell her who the boys were... Or that they were only hanging out because of a school project... So instead, the girl had just allowed her mom to create a whole image of her new 'friends' in her mind and just rolled with it.

As she had gotten dressed for bedtime, though, the girl had thought about Chouji and his kindness. And through a fitful night's sleep (she had been right about the nightmares... She had woken up in a cold sweat three different times!), Sakura had decided to talk to the Akimichi first thing in the morning.

So, with her heart beating faster than what was healthy, the girl set off to the Academy the next day and forced herself to approach the slacker duo of the classroom.

Even though Kiba was a big meanie, Chouji was nice. And he'd given her a bit of his cookie before! And he'd offered to walk her home! If those weren't things friends did for each other, then she'd never find a friend!

Chouji had been so nice! He'd smiled and even offered a bit of the cookie he had been eating after Sakura had asked if she could sit with him. Shikamaru had barely said a thing, but this hadn't bothered the young girl. She had just been happy to be allowed to sit with them!

Then Iruka Sensei had begun the class and she had paid attention like a good students to the whole lesson. But, as she had taken note on what the man taught the group, the girl noticed that Shikamaru snored rather loudly.

Just how did Chouji put up with that in every single class? Did he even learn something? It was hard to believe he was able to hear anything through all of that snoring!


He didn't know how the Inuzuka managed to escape. And this left him somewhat uneasy. A six year old should not be so adept in the art of escaping. But this was the fourth time Kiba pulled the vanishing act in the classroom, so, unfortunately, Iruka couldn't say he was wholly surprised by it.

But he was getting just about sick of the clan heir always being so eager to leave the classroom. He was only six! He should be inside the classroom, completing his work and making friends! Not running around and playing hookie!

"Class, it seems that one of you has decided to escape." He spoke calmly as he got up from his desk, looking at every single kid in the eye before he began to walk out. "You are to stay here and complete your work. Once I come back, I expect it to be finished. Have I been understood?"

A groaned chorus of 'Yes, Iruka Sensei' sounded off. Then the man set off to find the runaway Inuzuka with a soft frown on his lips.


Once Iruka Sensei had left, Sakura sighed heavily and shook her head.

"What's wrong, Sakura?" Chouji asked the girl beside him, looking at her with curious eyes.

He had been very happy when she'd come to him and Shikamaru earlier in the morning. After they had walked her home last night, he and Kiba had walked off in the direction of the Akimichi Compound as soon as Sakura had disappeared through her door. But, even though they had been a small distance away from the home, they had still been able to hear the shouts from Sakura's mother. And he had felt very guilty over the pink haired girl getting in trouble.

Kiba hadn't said much of anything on the walk to Choji's house. He'd merely whistled softly and looked up at the night sky, never turning his eyes on Chouji. Not even once.

Chouji had thought there must have been something up with the boy to not be talking, but hadn't dared talk to the other boy. There had just been something off about the Inuzuka that had made the Akimichi feel like that moment wouldn't be the best to start asking questions.

So, instead, Chouji had just walked on in silence with Kiba behind him. But once they had reached his home, the plump boy had gathered the nerve to smile softly at the boy and give a shaky goodbye.

Kiba had nodded once before he'd turned away, still silent with his hands still shoved into his pockets.

Chouji's eyes had followed after him, a feeling of wrong surging up in his chest. But before he could try and run after the boy, a large hand had clamped down on his shoulder and he'd immediately known his father was behind him.

Choza hadn't been angry. He'd just been worried as to where his son had gone off to without Shikamaru. But after the boy had explained everything and told the man they were just working together on a school project, the man had warned Chouji that, next time he wished to run off for a school project, he would have to stop by the house and tell his mother where he would be going. It just wouldn't do to have his parents worry for him if he was going to be fine.

When he'd seen Kiba fighting with Naruto, Chouji felt like he should have done something. But he hadn't known what to do, so instead he'd just kept quiet and sat between Shikamaru and Sakura without moving. He'd felt bad over not doing something, especially after he had seen the pout Kiba had worn. But after a while of taking class, that bad feeling had given way to happiness once more because he had a new friend! Sakura actually wanted to sit with him! That meant they were going to be awesome friends! He was sure of it.

Once their teacher had assigned them work to do, Chouji had expected to work peacefully on the slightly daunting problems while Shikamaru snored. But... He had kind of forgotten that Sakura had sat beside him and that she was one of the smartest kids in class. He'd set to work like he always did, fully expecting to not finish the problems. But, as he bit on the end of his pencil and glared at the third problem, he had felt a small poke on his arm and looked up to see Sakura fully prepared to help him out.

Working with Sakura had been fun. She laughed at his small jokes and helped him out without scoffing or rolling her eyes whenever he did something wrong. It was really fun.

But then Iruka Sensei had run off to fetch the escaped Kiba and Sakura had sighed really heavily, like his mother would do when something was bothering her.

"I... I just don't get him, Chouji." Sakura answered with a small shake of her head, "Why is Kiba so different?"

"What do you mean, Sakura?" The Akimichi asked, blinking slightly as he looked back at her.

Because of Sakura being so smart, they had both managed to fish all of the work before Iruka Sensei had run off. So they didn't have to worry about getting in trouble at all when he came back in a fouler mood. Like he always did whenever any of them somehow managed to escape.

"I mean how he is!" Sakura whispered back, lowering her voice as she looked around the classroom. "He's so weird! And really mean too! And he's always being such a jerk to all of us! What have we ever done to him, Chouji?"

Staring into the girl's green eyes, Chouji couldn't help but be stricken by the question.

He'd... Never truly thought about it that way. He didn't think anyone was weird. He'd always seen them as unique.

But maybe Kiba was weird... He was the only kid Chouji had seen that would ever dare call Iruka Sensei 'old man'. Not even Naruto did that, and he was an even bigger trouble maker!

"I... I don't know, Sakura."


Iruka hadn't found Kiba at all. Ten minutes had passed, only thirty were missing for snack time, and he had yet to find the escaped Inuzuka.

He knew that he would have to make a choice if he didn't find the kid in the next five minutes. He would have to find someone to substitute for him while he hunted the kid down... Or he could send a tracker after the boy and get him in all kinds of trouble with his family.

A sigh left the young teacher as he looked at the end of the hall, where the teacher's lounge's door stood.

He didn't want to get Kiba in too much trouble. And if he sent someone after the boy, word would undoubtedly reach his father. And if there was one thing Daishi Inuzuka didn't tolerate, it was his children giving the civilians reason to believe the Inuzuka clan was wilder and less disciplined than the other clans in Konoha. He was a proud member of the Inuzuka Clan, after all. And he knew how great they truly were. But he was very much aware of the village's image of them and did everything in his power to turn it around.

Making his way over to the teacher's lounge, Iruka couldn't help but shake his head.

He really didn't want to have to ask for help. But Kiba had gone off the school grounds and really pushed his hand.


Math was stupid. His classmates were stupid. The Academy was stupid. Everything was stupid.

Kiba kicked at an unfortunate rock as he thought this, an angered frown pulling at his lips. The rock was sent flying with enough force to crash against the side of a building, startling a pompous lapdog and making it turn to growl at Kiba. But the boy merely bared his teeth and growled back, much too irritated to stop and think about how he'd almost hit the otherwise peaceful dog. With a yelp of fear, the small animal ran off, its collar jingling rather loudly.

Normally, the boy would have been happy to try and make friends with the dog. He had yet to get a nin-dog, he was still much too young to get one, and enjoyed being around all kinds of dogs. But because of that Narutard, he hadn't been able to eat the cookie he had wanted. And then Iruka Sensei had dared pick it up and take it for himself... After the man had taken it, Kiba hadn't been able to keep his anger to himself anymore. So, when the dolt had been busy smiling like an idiot down at the cookie, the boy had taken his chance and run clear out the window.

Sitting by the window was always a good idea. If he stayed in class, he was able to cloud watch and spot a few birds. And if he wanted to escape, it was rather easy to do so. Especially because these windows were well taken care of and didn't make any noise whenever opened.

The thing about being out at this time of day was that no one that recognized him was out and about. All of his clan members were off in their own jobs and the kids were all in school. And because it was still a bit too early to be going out to the market, he didn't have to worry about being found by any of the usual buyers that he got in trouble with when he took some kind of grocery from them.

He especially enjoyed stealing from one woman that he had seen kicking a puppy once. She bought the best cuts of meat and he always found a way to take one away from her. His sister had once asked where he'd gotten it from, but his parents hadn't cared at all. They were always too busy to notice when something they usually never bought found its way into their fridge.

"What can I do?" The boy asked himself as he looked over the streets of Konoha, taking in the lack of people on the streets still. "... Maybe I can try to find the Old Man..."

There was nothing else to do, after all. And he really didn't feel like having to play a game of dog-and-fox with the chunin that did know that he was supposed to stay in the Academy. So he began to make his way over to the seedier parts of Konoha, never once stopping to think just how dangerous it could be to go all alone.


"And you're sure this is where you're smelling Kiba from?"

"Ma, Iruka Sensei, why don't you just trust me? Pakkun knows what he's doing. Right, Pakkun?"

"Right, Boss! Now, Iruka Sensei, your wandering pup is here. We ninken have very potent noses. We can smell-"

"I understand, Pakkun. I know just how good you are." The teacher interrupted the small dog's oncoming speech, then looked up at the bars and unsavory establishments Kiba had apparently made his way into.

He hadn't gone and told any tracker that was affiliated with the Inuzuka Clan. He hadn't found it in himself to rat the boy out. So, instead, he'd told Mizuki to look after his group until he was able to get back and had gone off to try and find Kiba himself. The search had been rather fruitless until he'd ran into the Copy Nin himself, Kakashi Hatake, that had been doing nothing other than reading those books of his. And once the silver haired man had seen Iruka running around, he'd decided to help out just to have something entertaining to do.

It wouldn't surprise Iruka at all if he was supposed to be in some kind of meeting or heading off to some mission and was only stalling. But he knew that Kakashi had that pack of his that would undoubtedly find Kiba's scent in no time and so had accepted.

"Just what could he be doing in these parts?" Iruka asked in slight worry, light brown eyes looking every single establishment to see if he could see the unruly mess of dark brown hair.

But all he could see were the bodies of those men and women that drowned their sorrows early in the morning. No wayward Inuzuka.

"Don't worry." Kakashi patted at the younger man's back softly, his one visible eyes crinkling slightly in what Iruka guessed was supposed to show he was smiling comfortingly. "We'll find the kid."

Pakkun began to sniff at the floor again and move over to where Iruka guessed he was smelling Kiba's scent, and so began to follow. But before they could get too far, two men came flying out of the windows of one of the bars, only for a third to tumble out of the opening now created in the wall. A commotion began to break out then and some of the men that had been littering outside ran in, most probably to join the fighting, but in only a few seconds they were being launched themselves.

Through all of the screaming and sounds of fighting, Iruka swore he could hear some kind of cackling that kind of reminded him of Kiba's own.

"Please tell me he's not in there, Pakkun." Iruka mumbled as he felt his heart clench just slightly, worry beginning to eat at him.

"Then I won't say a thing."

"Kiba!" The teacher shouted as he ran to where all of the commotion was coming from, stopping only to look through the large gap that had been created in the wall from whoever had launched all of those men.

With eyes wide and breath heavy, the man looked over the whole bar. Only to find that it was completely deserted aside from one lone figure on a stool by the bar, cackling wildly and completely unscathed.

"That was great, Old Man!"

"Kiba!" Iruka snapped, his worry giving way to anger at having been forced to chase after the young boy all through Konoha, only to find him in such a dangerous place.

"Huh?" The laughing and cackling stopped then and Kiba looked at Iruka with wide eyes, "Iruka Sensei? What are you doing here?"

"What am I-? Kiba! What are you doing here?" Iruka shouted, eyes narrowing.

He stepped through the hole created in the wall and made his way over to Kiba, only to stand in front of the boy with his hands on his hips. "Do you have any idea just how dangerous it is here?"

Blinking at Iruka, the boy nodded once. "Yeah, I do. But the Old Man killed those guys that tried to touch me. So everything worked out well."

With a stern frown and narrowed eyes, Iruka didn't even stop to wonder just who this 'Old Man' could be. He merely grew angered at the boy concocting a story to try and explain him running away and getting caught.

"Come on, Inuzuka." Iruka growled, motioning for the boy. "You are in so much trouble."

Please review.