Orange Day

Naruto rubbed his sleepy eyes and played with the sleeves of his orange jacket. To be pushed aside by a swarm of other kids wasn't always his ideal pastime. But to sit in the back of the room, mischievously peeling the paint off his second-hand desk, wasn't all bad. The cracking fiber always had graffiti on it the next day anyways, and it took forever to decipher the hidden text the humans used. It was ever a good challenge to find out the various codes they used. Such as "Fuck you", always his favorite one, which had been changed to "uckf oyu".

This was a desk that you would walk over and stick a freshly-chewed piece of gum on. Iruka always remained unaware that you were doodling a graphic picture of him, and that you could throw paper at those unfortunate pupils sitting in front of you. They would look back, which was the best part, and stare at you dumbly. Other times they wouldn't, which wasn't all that great.

Naruto watched intently all those girls that would fake scowls and flinch at the sound of his name. It was funny, in a way. They knew nothing about him, though there they were. Neglect. Mock anger. It was all on their agenda. Then, there were always those infinitely powerful pretty boys with the wealthy families.

Why they 'hated' him he didn't know. Of course everyone was thought of as infinitely perfect and correct; he had probably missed the day that was proven. He was positive, he was normal. Once he had even double-checked in the mirror. He was as normal as one could be, as one could think to be, anyway. Nothing humanly separated him from them. He was told something was inside of him, but he didn't entirely believe that. It couldn't be true. He had done nothing to them that was on his record.

Every day he'd walk into the painted classroom with the painted children. Then he would leave, with that same motion, every day.

He remembered a time when it was dark, like he was waiting for something incredible and breathtaking to happen, but it never did. It was always dark. Like the time when he had gotten into a fight against the neighborhood dog. It was too dark to walk back home, and his head throbbed, and all the tissue of his brain kept thumping against his temple. A strange ringing sound arose in his head, but it was welcomed. Nothing had made a sound to Naruto since his birthday, whenever that was. Walking through the heavy crowd, the people parted like the sea at the will of Moses, like they were afraid of him. He was bleeding, after all. Human instinct should be to help, not to wander away from the scene. Elephants stay after the injured herd member, after all. In this case the animal world was more respectable than the human one.

The people of Konoha had stood there, staring at him. Only one man rubbed his nose and coughed; other than that it was silent. They stood there, teaching their children the very thing that made society rot.

Maybe their hate was an after-effect of what their parents had taught them?

Naruto walked up to the only desk with bite marks on it. He'd do that same thing every day. There he would slouch and do his periodical nap, and pretend to be listening. He hoped one day karma would take its toll on those pigs. But sadly, It never did. He spat on the ground disapprovingly and tried hard to disrespect the building. He didn't care; he wasn't the one who would step in it.

The pink haired girl walked into the room. He knew she wasn't staring at him.

"Hey! Sasuke!" The greeting was obviously aimed towards someone standing in back of Naruto.

Darn. It was Mr. Pretty boy, Prince of all. He ruled Konoha, and he knew it. He had power. He was what the girls wanted. Every teenage female in the Village Hidden in the Leaves wanted to add him to her collection. Sasuke was a prize. Being part of the Uchiha clan included girls, satisfaction, and someone to sit next to at lunch.

"That's what Naruto wants. But he'll never get it," said one of the crazy fangirls of Uchiha Sasuke.

Sakura walked up to Naruto's dirty desk and accidentally shoved her hand in age-old gum. Naruto stared at Sakura's "infinite beauty". He knew he could never own her, which's what made him want her even more. Her jade eyes sparkled in the early morning sunlight. Her figure was perfect in every way, and in every curve. He marveled at her pale but flushed skin. It must be smooth. But her silky hair fell past her shoulders like a cherry blossom river. He wanted to feel it just once. At that thought, Naruto raised his hand a smidgen. He liked Sakura so much, he wished someone would like him.

Sasuke tossed his head to the left to get his jet-black hair out of his face. He was fully aware that every girl was watching him; that's what made it fun. He gave a little smile. Not at Sakura as she thought, but at Naruto. Sasuke had what Naruto wanted, and he knew it.

Sasuke was allowed to smile.

Sakura got excited and leaned even further over Naruto's desk. Sakura thought she loved Sasuke. He was perfect. But he was always ignoring her and she didn't know why. She thought she was to die for. If sex appeal didn't work, what would? But Sasuke had waved at her! (Or so she thought.) She gave her childish smile back to him, wondering if he would accept it. She hoped he would. But Sasuke was no longer looking her way, he was looking near her carefully manicured foot (or so she thought...), near the ugly twit's desk.

Maybe he likes the good job I did on my perfectly manicured nails! thought Sakura

But that wasn't the case...

She shifted the position of her foot to admire the job she had done.

"AH! NARUTO! GROSS! DISGUSTING! I HATE YOU! DUMBASS!"

Sakura had screamed, for she had stepped in the delinquent's saliva. It stuck to her foot. It appeared to be some slime a green slug would deposit, but it was...

Naruto's.

Naruto was a good spitter; you could tell by his appearance. This new batch of bodily fluid was no exception. Oh, it stuck to her all right. The spit even showed what Naruto had tried to digest earlier: some kind of green broccoli, a rusty olive color.

This made the spit the color of Sakura's eyes. How ironic. Wait. What? Had...she stepped into his trap he had set earlier? This couldn't be happening...

Naruto stopped staring at pink hair and snapped out of his fantasy.

...eeewww...Sakura-Chan had stepped into his spit...

The trap that would repel the vicious pretty boys and mocking fangirls had backfired!

"Hey, dumbass."

"What?"

SLAP

Sakura ran out of the room and slammed the door.

The room rang out in laughter.

I'm being laughed at again...there's Sasuke, laughing at me. I bet he's never done anything so hard in his life that made him want to give up. What an idiot-

Iruka-sensei walked into the room and opened up his desk to see a pleasant surprise. Someone had left him an apple! The teacher's eyes were red-rimmed and tired, and it seemed he limped with every step, and slouched on top of that. It looked like he needed breakfast. An apple each day gives one a bright day!

Naruto looked up as Iruka pushed some of the red flesh into his mouth. As soon as his teeth hit the core, purple fluid no thicker than ink spilled and sprayed itself over his instructor's pale face, and began to drip all over his desk. In a slight "poof", the desk vanished and everyone looked to the back of the room to where Naruto was sitting. And they laughed at him. Not with him. At him, but it felt good for some odd psychotic reason.

Naruto's blue eyes studied the room and its inhabitants. Each and every one of them was laughing. The dark faded away for a while, and the thing inside him didn't stir and growl as usual. But it felt empty, like a large vacuum of already processed air had been stolen from his lungs. But they weren't ignoring him, they weren't trying to kill him. At least he would get to sit next to someone at lunch, and...but...It was good for now.

Naruto led himslef out of the room and "rocketed ninja style into the horizon".

Beta-read by Understar