Summer in Konoha – a merciless sun hanging in a cloudless sky, soaring temperatures, and no signs of cooling breezes. However, the weather today was remarkably cool for a summer's day, since it had rained the night before, and most people who commonly took refuge in their homes were out shopping, strolling or finding some way to enjoy the day. Roadside stall owners called out to passing townspeople energetically, hoping to take their profits to new levels. An atmosphere of bustling activity hung in the air; and the hot springs were filled to the brim with people.
School children stared longingly out the windows of their classroom, willing the day to end quickly so that they could go out and play. Many were dozing off, reading comics or eating, and even the most hardworking of students were starting to find it hard to concentrate on the lesson. Umino Iruka was fast running out of chalk and chalkboard dusters to chuck at his students, and he hurriedly tried to finish up the rest of the lesson about the history of Konoha.
One day... He vowed to himself silently, one day I'll go take that stupid Jounin exam, pass it, and then I won't have to teach anymore. He scowled as he glanced around the classroom, realizing that majority of the students were sleeping, and openly too. He had lost the attention of almost all the students, and he was fairly certain that if he stopped speaking and snuck quietly out of the classroom, the students wouldn't even notice. However, he had his obligations as a teacher, and thus couldn't do that. Sighing, he resigned himself to his fate, when suddenly an evil idea struck him. It was an idea so... so terrible, that he was fairly certain that his students would all despair. He wondered briefly how he, of all people, would have such an idea, and then immediately a face and name popped into his head.
Uzumaki Naruto...Iruka smirked. He shut his book, and slammed it on the wooden desk next to him as loudly as he could, jolting all the students awake.
"Class dismissed!" He yelled, and all the students stared at him blankly, then glanced at the clock hanging above his head. They started to cheer, thinking that they had the rest of the day off, when Iruka raised his hand, indicating that he wanted to speak.
"Not."
There was a collective groan from the class. Iruka flashed them a triumphant smirk. Turning his back on the class, he began to write on the chalkboard, and the students leaned forward, trying to see what he was writing, when he did not have the history textbook in hand. Suddenly, the student sitting closest to Iruka slapped his cheeks in horror.
"Class test!" He screamed, and immediately the students all began to panic.
"That's right, class test." Iruka said with an evil little smile, "On the history of Konoha. If you pass, you're free to go. If you fail... detention till five." He resisted the urge to burst out laughing as the young children stared at one another, their eyes wide and their jaws hanging. He wrote down five questions on the chalkboard.
"Begin!"
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Sasuke yawned as he leaned against a large tree, resting in the shade. He was bored – he had spent another futile morning searching for clues. Naruto and Sakura were off taunting some roadside stall owners, and he did not want to risk getting skewered again. It was so quiet, so very peaceful, and Sasuke felt the tendrils of sleep sneaking up on him. Not that he minded. Sleep sounded very tempting at the moment. He was just about to close his eyes, when suddenly...
"Boo!" A face hung uncomfortably close to his, aquamarine eyes shining, mouth twisted in a huge grin.
"Yaargh!" Sasuke yelled, twisting his body around, only to come face to face with pink. A whole lot of pink.
"Boo!" The Uchiha heir promptly tripped on a tree root and went sprawling to the ground. Spluttering indignantly, he heard Naruto and Sakura laughing as they helped him to his feet.
"That wasn't funny." He complained.
"Yes, it was!" Naruto said in a singsong manner.
"No, it wasn't." Sasuke frowned.
"Yes, it was!" Sakura joined in. Realizing that he was outnumbered, Sasuke sighed and surrendered. Naruto, still laughing, tossed him an apple.
"We got it for free." Naruto said, as Sasuke raised an eyebrow and stared at him questioningly. Shrugging, Sasuke bit into the apple. It was juicy and crunchy, and he saw that the other two were enjoying their apples as well. He savored the feeling of the sweet juice running down his throat, chewed slowly on the apple, trying to enjoy its taste as long as possible...
"MY APPLES!" Someone roared in the distance, and Sasuke choked.
"Whoops." Naruto mumbled, rather insincerely, through a mouthful of apple, and took off running, Sakura following and giggling. Sasuke paused, and stared at the fast approaching man, who had a furious look on his red face. Then he gulped. The man had discarded his previous knife for an even bigger one this time around. Turning, he fled, then smirked as Naruto twisted his head around to face the man, and took a huge bite out of his apple noisily.
Seconds later, the trio found themselves running faster than they had ever run in their lives. Not even a lion could have matched that roar of anger!
"I didn't know," Sakura gasped for breath, "That someone so fat can run so fast!"
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Iruka stood solemnly behind his desk as his students filed in glumly after lunch break, holding a sheaf of paper in his hands, all dotted with circles drawn in red. He repressed a grin, knowing that he had an image to uphold as a teacher.
"There will be no need for you to return to your seats." He said matter-of-factly, and watched, as the students suddenly seemed to brighten up. If they didn't have to return to their seats, didn't that mean that there wasn't any more lessons? Didn't that mean that they were free to go?
How dreadfully wrong they were.
"Line up, single-file, the first student on my extreme left of the classroom, and the last on my extreme right." Iruka waited gleefully. "Right, now, all of you, face the front." The students followed accordingly, looks of confusion apparent on their faces. Iruka coughed into his hand, then approached the first student, the tallest in the class, stretching out one hand and putting it on top of the student's head. The boy read the gesture as a sign that he had passed, and whooped happily.
"Fail." The student fell over.
Iruka walked down the row, keeping his hand level, sweeping it over the heads of all the students. And with each student he passed, he announced loudly: "Fail!" There was a universal groan of despair as Iruka returned to his position behind his desk.
"Now, for detention, I want each and every one of you to write an essay about hand seals and how they work. No slacking off – I'll be grading your essays! Those who don't do well will get more detention." The students dragged themselves back to their seats and took out their paper, writing their essays as quickly as possible. Iruka sat down, enjoying the peace and quiet, and took out a book to read to pass the time. The ceiling fans spun slowly, lazily even, creaking gently. Iruka was started to nod off, when his ears picked up a strange sound.
"-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"
"Eh?" Iruka got up from his seat. The sound was getting louder, and the students had all heard it as well. He approached the window, and stared outside. There was nothing, just a long slope with a huge mud pool running down it. He scratched his head. What was producing the strange sound?
"Wheeeeeeee!" Iruka's eyes bugged out as Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura went zooming past, riding down the mud pool atop what looked like a wooden cart used for transporting goods. Naruto had a look of intense, almost insane glee on his face, Sakura just wouldn't stop laughing, and Sasuke looked as though he wasn't sure if he should laugh or jump off the cart and find a place to bury his face. Chunks of mud flew into the classroom, pelting the students as they scattered, screaming. And even as Iruka watched, torn between amusement and shock, a fat man dressed in a plain white shirt and dark pants went skidding past on the mud pool after the trio, spewing obscenities.
Iruka sighed. From the looks of it, he had to stop Naruto before anything bad happened. Almost reluctantly, he turned to face his class.
"Alright, class dismissed, finish up your essays over the weekend and hand it in next Monday." The class cheered, thanking whoever it was that had saved them from an afternoon of torture, and immediately they burst out of the classroom, fleeing before Iruka could change his mind. The Chuunin sighed again, and climbed out the window, spying the trio at the bottom of the slope jumping off the cart, with the man closing in rapidly. Iruka drew in a deep breath...
"NARUTO!"
A certain blond-haired boy stumbled as he climbed out of the cart and fell flat on his face in the mud.
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"Naruto, one day your pranks will get you killed." Iruka sighed, as the group of four walked down the streets of Konoha. The sun was setting, and the streetlights were starting to flicker on. It had taken Iruka almost an hour to calm the enraged fruit stall owner down, and it had taken a fair bit of Iruka's money to compensate the man. Sasuke and Sakura had apologized for the trouble they had caused, but Naruto, on the other hand...
"Eh, don't worry! I won't die until I become Hokage!" Naruto laughed. "Then everyone will acknowledge me!" Iruka's stern glare softened. He knew that Naruto was a very lonely boy, and that his pranks were merely a way to seek attention and to kill time. He knew it all too well; after all, he had been the same once. He smiled as Naruto started joking and recounting the day's events with Sasuke and Sakura, smiled as the two listened, laughed, and took part in the conversation cheerfully. Iruka knew that Naruto was in desperate need of friends, peers who could and would acknowledge him for the person that he was, and here were two who would possibly give him just that.
He was fearful, though, fearful of their reactions should they find out about Naruto's secret. He feared that they would be like the rest of Konoha, shunning him, casting him aside like a doll. He feared that if that happened, there would be no rescuing Naruto from the depths of despair and sadness, and that Naruto would turn on Konoha, using the terrible powers of Kyubi against it.
Iruka shook his head, clearing his mind of the thoughts. Now wasn't the time to think about such things.
"Come on," He smiled, ruffling Naruto's hair, "I'll treat all of you to ramen."
