CHAPTER 4 (redone)

Typical Morning

There was a knock on the orange painted door followed by a light slightly muffled voice.

"Naruto, sweetie? Time to get up, breakfast is ready."

A groan came from the sprawled out form on the double sized twin mattress upon the wooden floor of the far side corner. There wasn't much floor to see. Discarded clothes both clean and dirty, a few used bowls with bits of dried lingering ramen noodles, towels of an orange or baby blue hue and a rumpled pile of sheets.

"Naruto, are you up?"

"Yeah mom." Naruto gruffed out.

He finally sat up once he heard his mother's footsteps walk back up the stairs that led to the basement which had been reformed as Naruto's room that summer as a little bonding project between father and son. With a wide yawn, he lifted the collar of his white t-shirt and took a sniff. It smelled relatively clean to his nose and thus deemed wearable for the day. He got up, stretching as he stepped off his bed to walk to the small bathroom that had a headless showerhead and a toilet seat lacking the two top lids.

The blonde flushed the toilet subconsciously before checking out his appearance in the cleaned mirror. Shaggy blonde hair littered with strands that stuck out at odd angles and a tired, cheek-scared up, tanned face looked back at him with lazy blue eyes. He grunted at the fact he'd have to put in some effort to look presentable for he knew if he didn't he wouldn't hear the end of it from his mother and having to ride with Sakura would just mean she's try and do that spit-slick back hair style on him. Naruto faintly shuddered.

"Women…"

Turning the tap on he ducked his head under the flow of water, cursing the cold temperature, and shook his fingers through his hair to get it sopping wet. Standing up, he took a comb and brushed the wet strands all back before moving to brush his teeth; flashing himself a smile once he was done. He left the bathroom hygiene ready and went to his dresser to swap out his current boxers for a clean red pair. Tossing the used pair to the floor he glanced down for some pants and hummed a random note when he located the ones he had worn last night on a late run to the corner store. They smelled and looked used as far the blonde could tell and that was all he needed to know before putting them on while making his way slowly to the stairs that would take him up to the main part of the house.

"Ah, Naruto. Good Morning, son." greeted a blonde man with an uncanny appearance to Naruto's own; the only difference was their time of age and the lacking whisker-like-marks upon the man's cheeks. "I have an offer you might be interested in to know of."

Naruto paused in the squared archway of the kitchen not sure how he felt about those words. The first time he had heard his father say that in a positive way was when Naruto was 9 and his father had gotten him the Nintendo game console after he had promised the man to have a good report card for that month. The bad time was very misleading for him; he hadn't expected the payoff to be a summer job helping his godfather Jiraiya catch frogs for the man's university class. So really it was completely acceptable of him to be cautious about the current conversation.

"Uh...am I gonna like where this is going?" asked the younger blonde who had yet to move from their spot, not wanting to be physically accosted either into the bargain.

A whack to the back of Naruto's head made the teen jump into the spacious but cozy kitchen anyways. Kushina stepped around her son, shooting the teen a scolding look as she made her way to the coffee machine in her animal rescuer uniform. "Listen to what Minato has to say, Naruto. You know everything we do is to-"

"Better life for me, ya I know mom." Naruto smoothly ducked the thrown spatula.

"Well if you know that." The sole redhead of the household moved to the covered plate upon the counter by the stove and moved its resting place to the space upon the kitchen island where her son normally sat during breakfast meals and uncovered the dish, revealing warm sunny-side-up eggs, bacon and toast. She kissed the top of his head while picking up the fork she had set out before making sure her son had been awake this morning into the boy's hand. "Then shut your mouth and eat your breakfast."

Minato looked rather amused at the morning antics of his wife and son. Those two were far too alike but he deemed that very much acceptable since he loved them both extremely. Clearing his throat, he regained his son's attention. "I promise it doesn't require labor work, although it will depend on the work you put in with school."

"Alright dad, I'm listening." replied the teen around a mouthful of eggs.

The man set down his mug of nearly finished coffee and crossed his arms over the island's surface as he stared at his son with a knowing glint. "How'd you like to learn how to drive, Naruto?"

Naruto choked.

"Geeze, love…" Kushina swept over to her son and patted his back, rubbing his back until the coughs stopped, while shooting her husband a look that didn't cower the man's amused expression at all. "Why don't you just run the boy over with the car if you're gonna make him choke on the news."

"Wait, are you serious?" asked Naruto once he finally got air going through him again. "You're not just fucking with me, are you?"

Smack!

Naruto rubbed the spot his mother freshly swatted for his tongue but his gaze didn't move off his dad. Minato chuckled and nodded his head before leaning over and ruffling the same blonde hair that sprouted out of his head before bidding his family a good day and heading out to work.

"You better get going too, son." Kushina said as she picked up Minato's discarded plate and mug and set them into the sink to be washed by whoever got home first. "Keep your grades up and your father will teach you until we see you starting to slack off on those report cards."

"If I can't beat Kiba in getting laid first then I can definitely be the first to drive. His mom doesn't let him anywhere near their car." Naruto replied before shoveling in the last bits of his breakfast and heading to the front door where he recalled taking off his shoes and dumping his backpack by his mother's order once he got his homework done. "SEE YOU!"

Kushina shook her head at the now empty kitchen. "Boys."

Naruto slumped into his claimed seat upon the moving train, bluntly ignoring Sakura's hair flipping as the girl checked her do from every angle seemingly possible with a mini mirror. How a girl couldn't deem their hair perfect when in a high ponytail was beyond him. He lowered his gaze to his phone, the screen glowing dimly with the text his father had sent him just after he had walked to Sakura's house to take the train with her.

Dad: First lesson starts this weekend.

If only today was friday. Naruto sighed and flipped the mobile device closed only to lose grip of it when Sakura's hair smacked him in the face making him release his grip in surprise.

"Damn it woman!"

"Oh, sorry Naruto." mumbled Sakura distractedly, having not really noticed what she had even made her friend do.

Naruto didn't bother with a reply though as he stood up and moved to get his phone from where it landed upon the floor by a double seater next to a darkened window. There was only one person seated on the built-in train bench and the blonde's phone was unfortunately under the sleeping guy's seat. He nudged the guy a few times to get them to wake up with no success.

"Just my luck."

With a grumble ,and a quick backward glare at a still oblivious Sakura, Naruto crouched down and reached under the seat only to realize his arm wasn't long enough to reach and he'd have to get at it the other way. Carefully, he scooted over to the right some and reached under the seat between the guy's sneakers and released a relieved sigh when his hand enclosed his phone. He pulled his hand back and was about to stand up from his crouched position when a lazy drawl-like voice sounded from above him, making him freeze.

"Should I be worried about my sexual state of health?"

"Uh...no?"

The guy seated upon the duo bench stared down at Naruto with a tired face but seemed as if waking up to another guy crouched between his legs was something not to be bothered by. Naruto stood up quickly, his movement making those sleepy half-lidded brown eyes slide slowly upward to stay located upon his face. "Alright."

"Right…" Naruto said slowly while pocketing his phone. "So you attend KHS?"

"That's right. I sit behind you in Asuma's math class." was the sleep deprived looking guy's reply. They extended a hand out that Naruto shook more out of reflex from the countless times his mother had to step onto his toe with her heels for him to remember to shake the hands of his father's business friends during company events. "Shikamaru Nara."

"NARUTO! Stop bugging that poor guy!" shouted Sakura's voice.

The addressed blonde sighed somewhat with a quick look heavenward before he just completely ignored his friend's words, and in a show of spite from her making him drop his phone, he sat down upon the open seat beside the other male. "And that would be my name."

Shikamaru nodded some. "So I gather." He then nodded toward the pink haired girl currently looking in their direction with a curious expression. "Is she always so loud?"

Naruto nodded.

"Hm, maybe she's hungry? My best friend gets nagy whenever he's hungry." The brunette lightly padded the shoulder bag resting on his lap. "Always keep a bag of chips just in case."

Here the blonde actually laughed; causing Sakura to look back at them then returning to her makeup. He shook his head some as he sat back in the seat. "Nah, she'll try and make me choke on them. Some crap about her being on a diet, at least that's what she told me this summer. I don't bother following those topics of hers though."

Shikamaru shifted in his seating for a more comfortable one without much luck as he spoke. "I know a girl who'd do the very same thing. Thankfully she's been too preoccupied with social school life to bother me. Unfortunately there are a bunch of girls in my homeroom who are quite annoying because of some guy. It's been a real drag."

"Damn man, who's your homeroom teacher?" Narurto looked at Sakura for a moment. "Maybe I can convince them to take Sakura and she'll leave me alone a bit to have her girl time."

"I doubt Asuma would want to take on another student though. The girls are a handful already. As is this rather loud guy who kinda has a faint smell like a d-"

"A dog?" The blonde finished off for the other with an amused look; to which they nodded. "Kiba's my best man, but yeah the guy is definitely an attention seeker in the best of ways I think."

"He does keep Asuma from bothering me about my lack of effort on school work so I have no complaints." commented the teen with their finishing words ending in a yawn.

Before the conversation could go further the train announced the stop they were now approaching as Konoha Central Park, their stop. The two boys got up and moved to the sliding double door with Sakura joining them with Naruto's backpack strap in her hand. She lightly pushed it into the blonde's chest before offering a smile to Shikamaru who simply nodded back lazily.

"Hi, I'm Sakura."

"Shikamaru."

"Oi, let's get going before we're bum rushed." Naruto commented as he caught sight of how busy it was on the train platform.

Once they got up the stairs of the station and walked the three blocks it took to reach their high school the three of them made their way into the building while still talking among themselves. It was lucky that their lockers were all within the same hall. Naruto's was six down from Shikamaru's and three away from Sakura's if you didn't count the fact her's was also across the hall.

Doing the combo to his lock, Naruto tugged open the classic blue metal door and shoved the books he hadn't taken home last night into his bag while removing the ones he wouldn't need till after lunch. When done he checked to see if Sakura was ready and nearly rolled his eyes when he saw her rechecking her appearance in the mirror she had up on the inner door of her locker. He didn't bother with heading her way cause she'd be too zoned in with her looks to listen to his convincing reasons on why she should let him borrow her notes for history since they shared the same teacher if not the same class period for it.

"So, Shikamaru." Naruto addressed the teen while walking over. "Do you always look so tired?"

"I'm better on mondays. I spent the weekend regaining lost sleep." The lazy brunette muffled a yawn as he leaned fully against his locker. "Can't say I'm a fan of being active for the sake of being active."

This time it was Naruto who yawned but nodded his head to show he was listening. For some reason being around this guy made Naruto feel even more tired than he did first leaving his house. "I hear that." HeIt was just as he closed his mouth and moved to mimic Shikamaru's stance while waiting for the bell to ring that another brunette entered the scene.

And quite too close for Naruto's liking.

Kiba grasped his friend's chin with one hand and after staring into those blue eyes intensively for almost a full minute much to Naruto's rising discomfort, he slapped the blonde's right cheek followed by the left and repeated. "Wake up." Slap. Wake up. Slap. Wake up." Slap.

"Kiba I'm gonna nut-shot you if you don't quit that." growled Naruto, his cheeks faintly stinging now.

"Oh good you're awake." The dog lover completely ignored the glare leveled at him. "I got the coolest news to tell ya, man." Kiba said as if he hadn't just been slapping his best friend across the face repeatedly. He draped an arm over Naruto's shoulders and started to guide them down the hall without even a complaint from the blonde who simply gave a head nod goodbye to Shikamaru that was returned.

"Weird, aren't they?" Sakura commented lightly as she had come over to join the two until Kiba ran up.

"I did not understand that at all." Shikamaru yawned.

Sakura nodded. "You get used to it." Her green eyes watched the two boys, as if they were the weirdest beings she ever met, until their forms were swallowed by fellow students. And that was saying something after having caught sight of this green obsessed boy doing lunges down the hallway once when she had gone to use the restroom during class.

"You gonna do it or what, blondey?" whispered Kiba.

"If I get detention cause of this I'm taking you down with me."

"It's an all you can eat coupon, man. You really gonna deny that?"

Naruto snorted faintly before mouthing; here it goes before he suddenly stood from his seat during first period literature. Quicker than expected he had everyone's attention on him including the teacher a few delayed seconds later.

"Is there a reason you're standing up there, Naruto?" asked the silver haired man with the doctor-like mask covering half of his oddly smiling face; a smile that this time looked a tad unnerving than its usual easy-going vibe.

"Ah, uh, yes actually." Naruto swallowed lightly. "You see Mr. Kakashi, I do like literature but I have to admit that this kind of reading, Shakespeare and that, isn't my thing."

"Oh?" questioned the man with mocking interest as he took up a lean against his desk. "Do tell. I'm curious to know what kind of literature you like enough to disrupt my class for."

"Uh, you see, I um, I like to read porn."

The class burst into laughter. Kiba's being the loudest as he amplified his by banging his fist upon his desk. Naruto felt his lips twitch at the reaction, easing off his discomfort from having to do the dare. Who cared if they thought he was a pervert? He was a teenage boy damn it. It was programmed and expected of him.

"I like the Icha Icha series myself." replied Kakashi lightly. "Just the right amount of plot to catch the attention and the well done transaction scenes. So, which smut author do you like, Naruto?" Kakashi finished off with both unmatched colored eyes focused upon the still standing blonde.

Naruto mentally froze. He wasn't even allowed to buy Sports Illustrated. So how the hell would he ever be able to get anything that his teacher was talking about. And another thing, why was Kakashi even holding this conversation? Naruto ruffled the back of his head as he thought of what to say, his mind going over everything sexual it might have that's of use; which wasn't much saddly. The only thing he really knew of were the writings that his godfather did on the side from his professor job. The guy apparently saw no reason why he couldn't use his teenage godson as someone to bounce plot ideas off of.

"The ones by Jiraiya."

That seemed to have been the right thing to blurt out as Kakashi seemed to have perked up in genuine interest. The man nodded some before standing up and moving to stand behind his desk. He picked up a mobile device and then looked up to the clock hung right above the classroom door. He sighed faintly but didn't actually look at all affected by the time shown. "Since Naruto here took up the last minutes of class that would've finished off today's chapter, we'll have to read some more next lesson."

The class groaned and Naruto simply hopped down back into his seat.

"However, since I don't go back on my word, I will uphold releasing you all a few minutes earlier. Do thank Naruto for letting us listen to a rather enlightening conversation. Class dismissed, my cutie-pies."

Kiba thumped Naruto on the back a bit hard as he released another loud laugh while they exited the room. The two made their way down the hallway to their next class not seeing much point to goof off since Naruto had Orochimaru next and Kiba had Anko for math. Both teachers you did not want to have focused on you in any negative kind of way.

"That...was fuck'in amazing! I didn't expect him to go along with it."

"You're the one who told me this morning he was an utter pervert who reads smut pretty much all day." Naruto pushed open a set of double doors that led to the adjacent building. "Still not sure how that was newsworthy by the way."

"True, but he's a teacher so I thought he'd at least tell you off or something." replied Kiba as he adjusted the strap of shoulder bag.

"Oh, I see how it is." grumbled the blonde before shoving his friend right before he turned down to head for the closest set of stairs; which happen to B stairs.

Naruto didn't get why Orochimaru had to have his science lab class all the way downstairs on base level. Given it was probably easier for those who had the creepy guy first thing but not for those who had Kakashi who liked to be on the 4th floor in the center room where most of the light gathered; keeping the room a nice comfortable temperature with perfect light for reading all year round. Or so the man claimed.

"Hey kid!" shouted a voice, startling Naruto from his thoughts only a second too late.