The asterisk for some reason doesn't work on here, so for the one part where there is a footnote, I put a (1) instead. Just so you know.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Just my original character. The invisible one. Who doesn't say or do anything.
CHAPTER 2
Naruto watched the tall man's movements carefully. First he would push at his sunglasses, look at the class with a disapproving air, as if they were doing something wrong, and glance at the sheaf of paper he held in his hand before looking back at them and continuing. It was that glance at the paper that created the opening Naruto needed. The blonde boy's fingers drummed impatiently along the side of the origami he held in his lap, arm muscles tensed for action. He was waiting for the opening.
There was the little pushing of the round sunglasses farther up on his nose. There was the disgruntled look. And…Now! Naruto hoisted himself up in his chair and flicked the airplane.
The timing would have been perfect, were it not for the interruption that just had to come right then. The door in the side of the classroom opened; Ebisu looked up an instant before the airplane hit him between the eyes.
"Naruto!" he roared. His little black sunglasses were askew. "Do not start another school year this way!" he spluttered, fingers clawing the air, as Naruto threw his head back in hysterical laughter. Even if he had been caught, due to the interruption, it was well worth it.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. Sakura suppressed a laugh. Chouji, sitting by himself and sneaking chips into his mouth from a little bag hidden in his lap, smiled around a bulging mouth. Hinata, who was between Ino and Tenten, flinched and looked at the spazzing teacher with wide eyes; she had thought Naruto's antics funny, but the teacher's reaction scared her. Shino, as usual, didn't make a reaction of any sort, except to give Kiba a small nod of greeting as he entered. The majority of the rest of the class laughed along with Naruto.
"Inuzuka-san," Ebisu said darkly, already in a bad mood. "Why are you late?" he barked.
"I had to rescue a lost herd of sheep," Kiba said seriously as he took the seat next to Shino. Hinata, behind him, almost giggled.
"Do not joke around with me!" raved Ebisu. "Do you want detention along with Uzumaki at lunch?"
"Nani!" Naruto cried. "Detention for a paper airplane?" Ebisu ignored him.
"Well, Inuzuka?"
"Gomen, sensei. It will not happen again, providing the sheep –"
"None of your sheep wit," snarled Ebisu. "Where was I –ah…" he pushed his glasses up on his nose, glared at the class one last time, glanced down at his paper, and began to pace the front of the classroom as he continued. "'Math ten will be covering various new conceptions, as well as reviewing matter you have previously learned –' "
"Pst! Sakura-chan!" hissed Naruto. Sakura, in front of him, turned her head around.
"What?" she whispered.
"What do you have next?"
He expected her to look at her schedule, but he was forgetting who he was talking to. This was Sakura. She'd already memorized it all. "Clothing and Textiles. With Shizune-sensei."
"PigLady-san? Sewing?" Naruto sagged. Darn, he thought miserably. I should have asked her at the end of last year which elective she was taking, so I could have taken the same one.
"Why? What elective do you have?" Sakura continued to whisper. She spied Naruto's timetable and tried to read it upside-down. "Metalworks? Hm. Since when do you like –"
"Uzumaki-san, do not make this worse for yourself! Haruno-san, I am surprised at you!" Sakura leapt like she had been stung by a wasp and spun around in her seat, apologizing profusely. Ebisu glared at her but, as she was a star student, didn't punish her. This class was not going well at all; if he didn't win their respect by the first week, they would walk all over him for the rest of the year. And the only way to win a difficult class' respect was to intimidate them. Basic teacher stuff.
"Why did he have to give us homework on the first day?" moaned Naruto as he walked out of the classroom with Sakura and Sasuke. "Isn't there a rule somewhere that the first day is only for reading course outlines and being generally boring?"
"No," the other two said as one.
"Well, there should be," he grumbled. "It's what they usually do."
"I'm going this way," Sakura said to the two boys, veering right and heading towards the stairs to the lower level. "Bye!" she blew a kiss to Naruto, who blushed. He still hadn't gotten over how Sakura openly displayed that she no longer hated him, to put it mildly. By the time he had recovered enough to wave back at her, she had disappeared.
"What do you have, Sasuke?" he asked the raven-haired boy.
"Auto mechanics."
"Hey. Me, too, Uchiha," came a voice from behind them. They turned to encounter Neji. "What do you have, Uzumaki?" asked the white-eyed boy.
"Eh… metalworks…" Naruto scratched his head. "I… didn't know there was auto mechanics…"
"Hah, have fun, dobe," Sasuke smirked. "You'll be making candlesticks and picture frames."
"Nani!"
"Don't worry, Naruto," said Tenten, clapping a hand on his shoulder, as Sasuke and Neji walked off. "They don't know what they're talking about; I have a cousin who took metalworks, and he never had to make prissy stuff like that. He made a crossbow once."
"I'm taking woodworks," announced Lee from beside her, cutting off Naruto's amazed, "Really?". "That's considered even sillier."
"Thanks," Naruto said gratefully. "Hey… who's that, anyways?" he asked the two suddenly as Hinata walked past alone, clutching her books to her. "She was with you guys this morning, right?"
"Yeah. That's Hinata, Neji's cousin," said Lee.
"She's really shy," said Tenten. "And speaking of her, I'm going to go walk with her; I don't know what her elective is yet." She rushed off. Naruto and Lee started towards the metal- and wood works rooms.
Hinata looked at her schedule once again, just to confirm the first elective she would be "floating" through was indeed drama. She was scared she would walk into the wrong classroom and get laughed at. Ino had wanted her to come to sewing with her, but, though Hinata would have loved to, to be in a class with her new friend, her schedule said she was to go to Drama.
"Hey, Hinata-san," said someone behind her. Hinata turned to see Tenten smiling at her.
"Watcha got?"
"Drama," Hinata said.
"Really? Sogon! Me too!" exclaimed the other girl. "It's way at the other end of the school, so we'd better hurry, though."
Eventually Tenten steered them into the spacious classroom, each wall covered with mirrors, posters, and costumes. Several squashy armchairs were placed against the far wall, but all were occupied, as the two girls were the last ones in. There was no desk, and Kurenai-sensei sat on the floor by the far right wall taking attendance. She looked up briefly when Tenten and Hinata walked in.
"Ah, the new Hyuga child," she said. "Welcome."
"I like to sit over here," Tenten said, directing Hinata to the left. The seats were already taken, so they sat on the floor like Kurenai.
"So, why'd you take drama? You like acting?" Tenten asked.
"U-um… actually… the school gave me a "Floating" system, so for half of the first term, I'll be going through all the different elective classes, and then I decide which I liked most for… the s -second half…"
"What?" Tenten yelped. "But you're the only person I know in this class! Well… not the only one I know; I know those girls over there –" she nodded towards a group of giggling girls, and made a face " –but I don't particularly like them."
Hinata smiled shyly at the knowledge that Tenten had accepted her and liked her already.
"Well," Kurenai said, getting up, "I guess you all know what the first day is for… I talk to you about class rules and expectations, all that..." several people groaned, and she gave a wry smile. "I don't like it any more than you do."
"Then don't do it," A slightly dim-looking boy suggested wittily.
"Oh, excellent idea," Kurenai said. "I suppose you will back me up in a protest when I get fired?"
When there was no answer, she proceeded to hand out pieces of paper and read the contents out loud. "In drama ten…"
Hinata and Tenten spent the class playing Janken.
>>
Shikamaru barely made it to art class on time. First he'd had to go to the bathroom, and then he had forgotten he was in the grade eleven Art, and walked into the wrong classroom. He'd just sat in a solitary seat near Shino –even if they weren't friends, at least they knew each other- when the bell for class to start rang. Phew… he thought, looking up at the teacher, who was muttering to himself, trying to memorize the students' names according to attendance. He coughed a lot and had dark rings under his eyes, giving him a not altogether healthy appearance. As Gekkou Hayate was a teacher of higher grades, Shikamaru had never been in one of his classes before, and was wary of what he might be like. His appearance and demeanor didn't seem too menacing at least, and he wasn't a troublesome female, so Shikamaru felt it was pretty safe.
"Okay, class," Hayate said calmly, cutting through the chatter. The students fell silent, except for a few who merely dropped their voices to loud whispers. "Quiet," Hayate repeated, his eyes falling on said pupils. "That includes you, Echizen (A/N: I just stole a last name from Prince of Tennis, because I needed one for some minor character, hehe), and you there," he pointed at another chattering boy, who fell silent reluctantly. One person dropped their voice down another notch, but their voice continued to buzz across the empty classroom. Hayate turned his head to the disrupter and sighed. "Temari, I'm hoping I won't have to fail you again."
Temari started in surprise; Shikamaru twitched. That girl again? He thought in dismay, eyeing the blonde who he had just noticed sitting a few rows over and ahead of him.
"I don't care either way, I don't need art to graduate," she said, bristling slightly in indignation at being made the center of ridicule.
"Then why'd you take it? Hn?"
Temari shrugged. "I won't fail this year," she muttered, and looked coolly down at her paper in a not all too polite, but not quite rude enough to get her in trouble, gesture that she thought the conversation was over. She appeared indifferent, but Shikamaru saw a slight tinge of awkwardness in her expression.
"I hope not," Hayate replied, directing his gaze back to the rest of the class. "Now –" he coughed into his fist and glanced down at his paper. "Roll call. Aburame, Shino?"
"Here," Shino called into his jacket collar. Hayate made a tick on his paper before continuing.
While he listed off the names, Shikamaru scrutinized their owners. They were typical: bubbly, gossiping girls, guys guffawing and slouching in their seats, the shy or simply aloof, one of those being Temari, staying silent and examined their fingernails.
It would be a long year.
Hayate was different from the teachers Shikamaru had had previous years. He read the class outline, but it was quick, and when he was finished, he coughed and looked at them through his tired eyes. "I don't like wasted time, so we'll start on our first assignment today. Everyone get out a pencil and eraser."
The class groaned. Hayate waited until the flurry of movement, as students dug through binders and backpacks to retrieve a pencil, died down, and handed the front student in each row six pieces of paper; enough to be handed back and distributed evenly amongst them.
"Um," Hayate instructed, with a cough into his fist, "Your assignment is to draw your favourite subject, or thing to do, in school. Please stay within guidelines," he said, casting a sideways glance at a group of boys who had started to snicker. "And… begin. It doesn't have to be fancy; just make sure it's finished by the end of class."
Shikamaru stared down at the blank piece of paper in front of him. Shino, also, looked unenthusiastic about this. Most girls, he suspected, would draw themselves talking with friends, or sewing or something, while the boys would draw scenes involving sports. Shikamaru couldn't say any of that interested him immensely. Maybe the talking with friends wasn't so bad, but how boring was that?
Finally, he picked up his pencil, made a few short, choppy lines to start himself off, and started to draw.
"Okay, class. The bell's going to go soon, so please put your pencils down."
Shikamaru looked up in surprise. Had the hour of class passed already? It had flown by. He stretched back in his seat and examined his picture critically. It would do. On the wide sheet, he had depicted himself slouching wearily onto the bus. He had drawn his hand dangling by his side, with the watch on it reading 3:30, so it would be clear that he was going home.
Hayate's mouth twitched as he collected Shikamaru's drawing. He continued his round of the room collecting their papers, but stopped when he came to Temari's desk, staring with a creased brow at the picture on her desk.
"What?" she asked grumpily. "Just take it." She thrust the paper at him. Hayate shook his head slightly, in exasperation or perhaps perplexity, and continued walking,
When the bell rang, and the class swarmed towards the door, Shikamaru heard Temari snarling at someone who had laughed at her drawing.
>>
Sakura clutched her binder to her chest as she was jostled by the crowd. "We have Science, now," she told Ino. The blonde looked over at her with a frown.
"No, I have English." Her look changed to disappointment. "You're not in the same class as me?"
Sakura fumbled through her pocket and dug out a neatly folded timetable. "I guess not," she said, frowning also. "I have Science now. With –" her eyes went dead "-Gai-sensei," she finished in a monotone. Ino laughed.
"Sucky. But that means you'll have to have English some other time, which means that's another class where I'll be all bored and have no one to talk to," Ino said in regret.
"Pft," Sakura laughed. "Yamanaka Ino, bored? Come one. You always have someone to talk to." Ino grinned ruefully, and didn't contradict her.
"Well, have fun looking at two-inch thick eyebrows for an hour!" Ino called tauntingly as Sakura turned to go a different direction.
"Nya," the pink-haired girl sneered, sticking her tongue out at Ino. "At least he's not perverted nor have a creepy eye!"
Ino's grin withered.
>>
When Hinata, with Tenten's guidance, found her way to the English room, she was exhausted. The English room was right above the Math room—that is, on the farthest end of the school from the Drama room just like Math, but also on the second floor, meaning they'd had to sprint up stairs as well as across the whole school to get into class just barely on time.
Tenten clutched the side of the door frame, her tongue hanging out in only slightly exaggerated fatigue. "If," she panted to Hinata, whose face was flushed from their sprints and speed-walking, "I didn't want to spend my life in prison, I would go find whoever designed my timetable to be so hectic, and kill them."
"Wouldn't that be Tsunade-sama?" Hinata asked timidly.
Tenten's eyes glinted. "Then I'd yank the elastics out of her pigtails and strangle her with them." She grinned evilly at Hinata, who had to laugh shyly.
"It's okay, you probably won't need to hurry, anyways," someone said behind them. They turned to see Neji approaching the door.
"Why, Neji-kun?" asked Hinata, blinking.
"Our teacher is Hatake-san," he said blatantly. He turned to Tenten. "Wouldn't that explain it?"
Tenten's cheeks were suddenly coloured bright pink, and Hinata wasn't sure if it was all from the run across the school. "Yeah. It would. I didn't think of that… or I thought, well, he might be on time one day…"
"No way," Neji said. He turned to Hinata. "Hinata, you don't need to worry about being late for this class. You'll always be before Kakashi-sensei." (A/N: I wasn't sure if I should put the whole branch family/main family thing about the Hyugas in here, but I decided against it… so, Neji doesn't need to call his cousin Hinata-sama, he can just call her by her name.)
"I… I will?"
"Yeah. I can't believe I forgot." Tenten scanned the room for a good seat. A clump of five seats sat empty by the closest wall, at the back. She headed for them, sitting in the one behind Gaara. To Gaara's left sat Lee, and Neji sat behind him. Hinata sat on the other side of Tenten, behind a boy wearing a parka with a fur collar, a grin that was just as mischievous as that Naruto boy's, and a touch more… wicked, and had a red triangle of paint on each cheek. He had sat in front of her in Math, too, she remembered. Talking about sheep. She smiled, remembering Ebisu's aggravated reactions at his flippant remarks. She couldn't remember the boy's name, though. Inuzuka something.
This class was the same as her Math class, as far as she could tell, except that Ino's friend wasn't here, and the boy with red hair and heavy eyeliner in front of Tenten hadn't been in her Math class. Hinata sighed to herself. She wished she knew everyone's names. Not that she would talk to them, probably—not many people talked to her—but she still wished she knew who was who. So far, out of her classmates, the only names she knew were Neji, of course, Tenten, Lee, Naruto, Sasuke—she had heard the black-haired boy's name being called by hordes of girls on the school-ground, so it was hard to forget—and Ino.
Hinata jumped and looked up so fast she felt her neck crick when a hand slammed onto her desk. "Gomen!" sprang from her mouth instinctively, though she had done nothing to be sorry for. It was just her immediate reaction when she thought she was in trouble.
"Hi!" Ino asked, grinning in amusement. Hinata closed her eyes and let out a shuddering sigh of relief. She had thought it was the teacher, mad at her for some reason, or a bully.
"Y-you… sc-scared me… Ino," she gulped, stuttering more than ever. She tried to slow her breathing. Ino looked apologetic.
"Wow, I didn't know you were so jumpy. Sorry. Just wanted to say hi." Ino took the seat behind Hinata, as she was against the wall and there were no more desks beside her.
The boy in front of Hinata had turned around at the commotion. "Why'd you say you were sorry? What did you do? Guilty conscience?" His grin was gone; he looked serious.
"Uh… n-no!" Hinata held her hands up protectively. "I didn't! I just… I w-was startled—I didn't do… I only—"
"You're acting suspicious. You must have done something." He ignored her as she tried to protest, only to find her voice wasn't working, and shook her head violently. He continued to admonish her. "You'd better not cause trouble in school; the disciplinary system around here is very harsh. What did you do? You did something, admit it!"
"Kiba, you're scaring her! He's joking, Hinata," Tenten assured her, scowling at Kiba, whose stern expression vanished as he burst into laughter. Hinata felt close to tears. She had believed Kiba the whole time, and now he was laughing.
"Hey, I'm sorry. But you shoulda seen your face," he chuckled. Only then did Hinata realise he wasn't laughing at her, he was just laughing, She had to try to stop taking everything so seriously.
"Sh!" someone hissed suddenly. There was a smattering of people who fell silent. Others turned back around in their seats to see what was going on. Hinata looked up and saw a tall man with spiky white hair and wearing a mask entering the room, his face buried in a small orange book. She heard someone whisper "reading his book, the hentai."
The man sat down at his desk and continued to read. The class was deadly silent. Hinata held her breath. Though she couldn't see the teacher's face, as the book was in the way, she had seen, from the side, the mask covering up to his nose. It lent him a mysterious, and possibly sinister air. Hinata wondered if he would be extremely strict, or spastic and raging like Ebisu.
A dropped pin would have echoed across the silent room. The teacher suddenly moved, and Hinata almost flinched.
His hand was moving, like he would point at one of them any second.
His book lowered just a fraction. Hinata could predict the way he would glower at them over the top of it.
The tension built. His hand continued to move slowly towards them.
He flipped the page.
There was another second of stunned silence, and then the room shook in clamour.
"That's all? You sit down and just read? You have a class, you know!" yelled Naruto, practically standing on his desk.
"Yeah, and you shouldn't read naughty books in front of younger people!" Kiba's voice overwhelmed even Naruto's. Hinata thought they were quite alike, both loud and rather unruly.
"Plus you're late! On the first day!" called Lee, cupping his hands around his mouth. "And it's not even first block! How can you be late in the third period?"
"Well," the teacher said, lowering one side of the book so Hinata could see one dark eye peering at them, "I had a class at a different place in the school, and when I was headed this way, an old lady had forgotten why she was here and how she got here, so I had to help her get home."
"Is that the best you can do?" demanded Naruto.
"Yeah, well, I didn't have breakfast this morning… brain food, you know…" the teacher apologized, setting his orange book down the rest of the way. Hinata gasped. Hatake-san's left eye was red, with three black commas around the pupil, and a vivid scar trailing down across it. Hinata gulped and slumped lower in her seat. "What… h-happened to his eye?" she whispered to Ino in fright, turning around to face her.
"Fighting with Gai or something –they're rivals- and Gai –he's a science teacher, as well as a coach, you see- wasn't paying attention to what he was mixing in a glass tube. It exploded somehow, and made that big scar on Kakashi-sensei's face, blinding him. He had to get a false eye."
"But why such a… scary one?"
Ino shrugged. "For show. I dunno."
"Well," Kakashi said, getting to his feet. "If reading offends you," he glanced at Kiba, "we'll just have to start work right away, now won't we?"
There was a general uproar of "no, go ahead and read!" Kakashi's eyes closed cheerily as he smiled.
"So… English ten, hn?" he said serenely, with the air of someone preparing for a long lecture. The class groaned.
It was only fifteen minutes into the class that Kakashi was interrupted. But it wasn't by Naruto this time.
"Now, all of you already know—what was that?" Kakashi's head raised and swiveled towards the window. The class shook itself out of its stupor at the faint sound that could be heard.
"Oww, owwwww…. Awooooooo!"
Hinata saw Kiba's head snap up from its resting place on his desk. "Uhh," he started hesitantly.
"Ow, raoroooooo!"
"Inuzuka-san… this wouldn't have something to do with that dog of yours, now would it?" Kakashi groaned, running a hand in exasperation through his spikes of white hair.
"Um. Well, now you mention it…"
There was a sharp beep as the intercom clicked on. "Inuzuka Kiba, please report to the main office."
>>
When Kiba came back into the classroom, only ten minutes of class were left. He looked exhausted.
"What did you do with your dog, K-Kiba-kun?" asked Hinata, curiosity overcoming her shyness. He looked wearily at her.
"Took him home," he said, sitting down and twisting in his seat to look at her while he talked. "Hopefully he stays there this time. I locked—oh, no." His voice trailed off. He was staring at a point over Hinata's shoulder. She turned. Ino, behind her, did too.
At the window at the back of the class, a white dog peered in. A faint scrabbling sound could be heard as he scratched at the window. His nose snuffled at it.
"Inuzuka. Hyuga, Yamanaka, turn around. What are you looking at –no way." Kakashi looked up at the ceiling in disbelief.
"I told her it wouldn't make a difference," Kiba muttered quietly.
"I'll have to ask Tsunade about this later…" Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head. At that moment the bell rang. There was the general scrabble to get to the door for lunch, as if it would be going somewhere. Ino, being Ino, was one of the ones elbowing at the other main competitors –Naruto, Tenten, etc. –to get at the door. The first one out, though he did no rushing or anything to ruffle his composure, was Sasuke, as the crowds pretty much just parted for him like he was some kind of God. Neji and Gaara just went with the flow of the crowd, and if anyone jostled them, one glare would have them apologizing straightaway.
Hinata was pinned to the wall, as she was used to, cringing away from the masses of people and waiting 'til they were all gone so she could leave. What she wasn't used to was someone suddenly behind her talking into her ear.
"You're too passive," they said. Hinata jumped about three feet high with a gasp.
"Way too jumpy, as well," Kiba continued, rolling his eyes. "Look, you don't have to be squashed against the wall if you don't want to. I'm sure you can step on peoples' toes just as well as anyone."
"I don't –"
"Oh, sure you do," Kiba interrupted, as if he knew what she had been going to say. He grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her into the crowd of impatient students. Hinata lifted one arm and held it in front of her face as Kiba yanked her towards the door. She had her eyes closed, but somehow Kiba shielded her from all pushing and elbowing. There were a few seconds of chaos swarming around her, and then, suddenly, they were out of the classroom. It was the first time Hinata could remember not being the last one.
"See?" Kiba grinned, as she blinked around like a gopher suddenly seeing the light of day. "People won't step aside for you if you just stand there. Well, except in the case of Sasuke, but never mind that. You have to fight back."
Hinata nodded, though she really didn't think waiting for an extra minutes or so to leave the classroom was that big a deal. Not worth going through all that trouble trying to beat the rest of the crowd, anyway.
Kiba regarded her silently for a moment, apparently contemplating something. "I think," he said slowly, "you are going to be my little project this year."
And what is that supposed to mean? thought Hinata.
"You seem like a nice kid. Just one flaw, and that's being too shy. So it's now my goal for the year to stamp that out of you. Bring out some confidence."
"I don't want –"
"See! Talking back already!" announced Kiba triumphantly. "Excellent. Come on, you want to get to know everyone better?"
It seemed she didn't have an option. She followed him.
>>
Shikamaru had only started his sandwich, though Chouji, beside him, had nearly finished his lunch already, when his name was called on the loudspeaker.
"Nara Shikamaru, to room 103 please. Nara Shikamaru, room 103."
That's the art room, he thought with a small frown, exchanging a glance with Chouji and shrugging. He got up from the cafeteria table regretfully; he had only one class with his friend, and that and lunch would be the only time during the day they could talk.
He finished his sandwich while walking down the hall and was brushing the crumbs from his shirt front when he entered the art room, bowing in greeting to Hayate-san. He started in surprise suddenly when he saw Temari standing to one side. She acknowledged him with a grouchy jerk of the head.
"Now," said Hayate. "I have called you down here for a specific reason: Temari, first off, you are not trying hard enough. I don't want to have to fail you again."
"I'm trying!" she exclaimed indignantly.
He called us down here to lecture us? Shikamaru thought in surprise. What did I do wrong?
"Nara, you aren't in trouble," said Hayate, sounding slightly amused, as if he'd read Shikamaru's mind. "I wanted to ask you if you would be willing to tutor Temari in art."
Hmmm, let me think… No! yelled Shikamaru inwardly.
Temari didn't just think along the same lines; she actually voiced them. "What?" she screeched. "Tutor? Who gets 'tutored' in art? It's supposed to be a creative, a personal…" she sputtered.
"It is unusual, but if anyone needs it, it's you," Hayate told her. "For one thing, you can't seem to grasp the concepts of shading or angles, and that's elementary material." He turned back to Shikamaru. "Nara, I will not force this upon you, but you should know that if you help Temari, you will be getting extra credits. I chose to ask you for this favour, because you seem to me the best choice; Aburame doesn't give the impression of being quite social enough, and other than him you're undoubtedly the best artist in this class. Well?"
Shikamaru could feel Temari's glare burning into the side of his head. "It's not my decision only," he said politely. "I'll offer my help how I can, but I don't think she really wants it anyways."
"That's right," Temari growled.
Hayate gave her a long stare. "Well," he said finally. "It's your mistake. You can change your mind, swallow your pride, and accept his help when you decide you want to pass this class, because I'm quite sure without it I'll be seeing you here in this room again next year."
Temari bowed stiffly and walked out of the room. Shikamaru waited for his dismissal, bowed, and followed.
1. ("And the only way to win a difficult class' respect was to intimidate them. Basic teacher stuff.") This is most definitely not true. Ebisu is a crappy teacher.
Translations:
Nani? –what?
Sogon –(it's actually supposed to have a little line above the first "o", but I don't know how to do that on my computer)- awesome
-sensei –if you watch or read Naruto and don't know this… that is really sad. Just in case, I will put it anyways- teacher.
Janken –rock, paper, scissors. (grin) love that game!