* * *  * * *  * * *  * * *7

The gennins around him were waiting. Patiently.

Or rather, just like him, they didn't care.

Their sensei was late, which was very unusual of her.

He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.

That was one of the reasons why he didn't like school: it bored him.

He closed his eyes, trying to resume his abruptly interrupted sleep.

The door had been opened, but instead of a woman it was a man.

"Good morning people," the newcomer greeted. "Since Kurenai-san went for a mission, I'll be your sensei for this class for two weeks. I'm Ebisu-san."

Some gennins groaned. Naruto did too.

He had hoped class would be dismissed.

"Would anyone be nice enough to tell me where you stopped?" Ebisu-sensei flipped his book open.

"Page forty-three sensei," a feminine voice answered.

"Thank you Miss Haruno."

The man looked up at the students in front of him, quickly scanning them.

His gaze fell on a face he instantly recognized.

His face melted into a frown.

"Naruto Uzumaki," he called.

Naruto jumped at his name, giving his attention to the teacher.

"Huh? The closet-pervert?" he said dumbfounded.

How come he hadn't recognize him? He had the same glasses on his nose, the same stiff attitude and the same disdainful face.

He heard his classmates giggle.

He heard the man cough as the frown on his face deepened.

"You must call me Ebisu-sensei..."

"Ah..." Naruto nodded without much conviction.

"...And sit down correctly."

The boy pouted and sat up straight in what he thought would be a "correct" position to the man.

There, now he would leave him alone.

Or so he thought.

"May I know where your book is?"

"I don't have one..."

"And how can you work with no book?"

"I... listen during classes..."

By the way he was clutching the book, he could almost see exasperation flying around the man's head.

Heck, he didn't care.

"Okay, so you wouldn't mind telling me what you learned from the previous lesson, would you?"

Naruto made a face. He didn't know why the man had a sudden great interest into asking him questions. Questions he couldn't answer, anyway.

"...Well?"

Damn, the closet-pervert was insisting. No way he would get rid of him.

"I forgot," he carelessly answered.

He hadn't noticed earlier, but the class had gone weirdly mute during their entire conversation.

Ebisu-sensei straightened his head up.

"Don't make fun of me..."

The blond ninja face wore incomprehension.

Why was he looking at him that way?

"I'm not..."

"Keep quiet when I'm talking, you rascal!"

Yeah. Definitely mute.

He turned his head away avoiding that gaze he had seen so many times.

"Are you going to take a book or not?"

What the hell was wrong with that guy?!!

"I don't have a book!"

Naruto had stood up, and involuntarily smashed his fist on the desk while answering.

Certainly that was the last straw.

"Then..." Ebisu adjusted his glasses on his nose. "...get out of this class."

This time, the hateful glare he shot was too obvious to be ignored.

No it wasn't a great loss.

He hadn't wanted to get up this morning to go to school.

Since a week ago, after the incident with the Hyuga clan, he was less and less enthusiastic at the idea of waking up every morning to go to school. Even the sparring classes with Kakashi-sensei seemed less exciting to him. And today, he had wished class would be dismissed.

Well, he had been kicked out of the classroom. Shouldn't he be happy?

After all, he was certain the closet-pervert's teaching was ten times more boring than Kurenai-sensei's one.

No, he wasn't missing anything big.

And if he was, he didn't care, for it didn't matter to him.

He looked up as he exited the Ninja Academy's building.

Sun shining. Warm breeze.

It was terribly tempting. And he couldn't resist.

To hell with the closet-pervert and his boring teaching.

He would go enjoy himself under the trees.

But Iruka-sensei wouldn't let it pass.

He would just tell him he got kicked out.

Iruka-sensei would understand.

Only he understood anyway.

The alarm clock rang savagely, jerking him out of his sleep.

He stared at the ceiling, then rubbed his eyes.

The rest followed instinctively.

There was a crowd gathered outside the building.

Amongst them, he recognized some of his classmates.

"What's happening here?" he asked curiously to no one in particular.

But they all turned to him, and took a step back.

"Huh?"

"Don't act as if you don't know..." Kiba's piercing glare had now turned to him.

"Know what?"

Silence was all he got as an answer.

"The class was literally blown up this night." Shikamaru said.

"Huh? Really?"

More dirty looks were shot at him.

"What?" he frowned.

"I would never have thought this of you, Naruto," Ino said flipping her hair away from her face.

"Hey, what are you talking about?!!"

"We all know you got kicked out of the class yesterday. Who else would do such a stupid thing?" Kiba added.

His eyes widened. He frowned harder.

" ' Think you're so smart...Why would I do that?"

"Maybe because you were pissed off?"

"I don't care about those boring lessons," he spat.

The students' hard looks didn't soften a bit.

"Listen people..." a deep voice startled them all. "...Since the classroom has been quite... hum, badly messed up, we have to wait until the new furniture is received. So school is dismissed. Classes will start again in a week."

Surprisingly, no one seemed to be happy at all.

He had always thought he would be happy if this were to happen.

But he wasn't.

Their glares were accusing enough to make him ill-at-ease.

"I didn't do that." he said.

He turned to Hinata.

The girl lowered her head.

"Hey Shikamaru..."

The boy merely shrugged, clueless.

"Sakura..."

His pink-haired team-mate simply turned her head away.

Everybody left the place.

He stood there, still.

His stomach groaned, reminding him it was lunch time.

He left the comfortable sofa he was lying on and decided to make some ramen.

Sauce-pan, water, fire. Now he just had to wait.

He sat down on a wobbly chair.

Three days with no alarm clock to mug him.

Three days with no boring speech to listen to.

Three days not having left his house at all.

Iruka-sensei's lecture to him was still hanging in his throat with a bitter stamina.

It made him feel like he had turned into some bad boy.

But he had done nothing.

Iruka-sensei had said someone had caught sight of a boy with orange outfit near school that night. He had been sleeping at that very time.

Was he the only one wearing an orange jacket in this big village? He didn't think so.

Fortunately, neither did Iruka-sensei.

But it seemed like someone was after him. And that someone seriously wanted him to be in trouble.

He shrugged helplessly and turned to the now boiling water.

Rage was boiling in him too.

He couldn't believe his classmates' reactions.

When young, he used to fool around with Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru. And even if they had become distant from him, they were people he could still exchange one or two sentences with. But now, it seemed that they totally ignored him to a point that was unbearably painful.

But what hurt the most was the way Sakura had acted toward him. It had been as if he was invisible, as if they weren't team-mates at all.

It was painful.

Yet he couldn't hate them.

The rage would always vanish.

There was no way out.

He would get used of it.

He released a very tired sigh.

"Naruto..."

A little startled, he came face to face with the other gennin.

"Humm?"

"Isn't that...burning?"

"Huh?"

He looked down to realize he had plunged his fingers along with the noodles into the boiling water .

A sharp yell.

"What's wrong with you, dobe?"

He didn't like that voice.

He didn't like the way it spoke to him.

"What do you want Uchiha?" he spat. "Go away."

Wind blew a little harder.

"Didn't I tell you to leave?"

"I won't until I got an answer."

He sat up.

"What answer?!!"

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing is wrong! And it's none of your business anyway..."

"It is. I missed a whole week's class."

Naruto made a face.

"Like you care..."

"I do."

He stuck his tongue at him.

"I'm still waiting..."

"Then wait. I don't have anything to say, because I didn't do anything." He stood up. "Even if everybody thinks I did, I didn't do anything. I don't care if they all look at me as if I was the worst murderer around."

He turned to his team-mate.

The later wore a serious expression.

"What?"

"Why don't you try to prove them wrong?"

"I can't."

"You idiot."

"What? Got a better solution?!!!" he asked hotly.

"If it wasn't you, that should be easy."

He frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Sasuke had raised an eyebrow.

"Did it occur to you that someone might be after you?"

"Of course it did!" he shouted. "But everybody here has grudge against me. It's not like I can easily find that someone..." He pouted.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Copy no jutsu..."

"Huh?"

"The person used copy no jutsu."

"Yeah, and what?"

"It means it is a ninja. Deadlast."

"Stop calling me names!!" he shouted, irritated.

"Then quit being stupid."

"I'm not stupid!"

Damn it. Just because he had said something true didn't mean he was smarter.

"Yeah... he or she is a ninja. But there are plenty around..."

"It's a start."

"Whatever..." he paused. "Hey, there is that closet-pervert who keeps annoying me...do you think he---"

The other ninja wasn't listening.

His eyes had narrowed, quickly scanning on the left, the right, then up.

"What are you looking at?!" Naruto asked intrigued.

"Nothing." he shook his head. "You better start looking for that person..."

"That, I know." Naruto retorted. "But... why are you talking to me?" he frowned. "I thought you guys were forbidden to talk to me..."

The place suddenly went quiet.

"I have no parents. No one could have forbidden me to talk to you."

Naruto remained dumbfounded until the other ninja disappeared.

He smiled sadly.