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Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

"Morning Obito."

"No," was his response to his aunt Mikoto. It was the perfect word for summing up his current feelings on the week ahead.

"Make sure you eat your food."

"No." He still shovelled the cereal into his mouth though. Mikoto didn't bother questioning her nephew's weird behaviour; instead she looked at Itachi who could explain everything.

"It's test week."

"Ohh." They both looked at Obito who had started hitting himself on the head with a book in an attempt to force the information into his head. "Good luck Obito. I'm sure you'll be… fine?"

"Don't sound so uncertain!" He reverted to his usual loud frustration and huffed out of the room. Sasuke was simply putting his shoes on and minding his own business when Obito knocked him over.

"What are you doing you dick?"

"Don't get in my face!" The fact that Sasuke had been sitting on the stairs and therefore out of the way was something Obito chose to ignore.

"Just get the tests over with already so you stop being in such a crappy mood." It sucked that his cousin was more sensible than he was.

"What do you think I'm doing?" And swinging the door open, he headed to the crap-heap called school.

Exam weeks were his least favourite part of school. They expected everyone to actually achieve something and so anyone who screwed up with all the practice tests would be treated like a moron by their teachers. Obito didn't really see the point since he was going to be given crap anyway. It would be faster to cut out the middle man and avoid going to the exams at all.

Ibiki, Anko and Rin were all waiting around outside the stinking exam hall. They were all tested in one big room together which in some ways made it worse. All the smart kids shot through the paper and he sat there trying to work out why his science exam looked like ancient Greek (in one case the test was actually Greek; no one knew how he'd gotten it).

"Why am I such an idiot?"

"Join the club." Anko was also trying to cram in as much information as she could.

"You could both do well if you tried harder."

"It's nice of you to try Rin, but we don't need your pity right now."

"It wasn't pity but ok." The examiner opened the door and Obito groaned again.

"Let's get on with this hell then." The first test was, as always, English. Writing essays about crap. For two hours. What fun.

Obito did try at first. He was attempting to scribble down some kind of answer to the stupidly vague mini-essay questions, but after an hour and a half he had lost interest. For the last question 'What was the writer trying to say with this?' he wrote 'I have no life and haven't had sex in four years.' There would be a major bollocking after this but he didn't care.

Now that he had nothing else to do, he slumped down over the desk and watched the other fools actually taking this seriously. Aside from Anko who was carving something into a pencil and Ibiki, who was drawing a small comic strip on the back of his exam paper anyway. Ibiki always made a small comic strip on something he'd seen in the exam paper. No one asked why.

After this he found his eyes moving upwards. For some reason he always found himself staring upwards whenever he was in an exam. When he looked at the ceiling beam just above him, someone had written 'the ceiling has no answers for you' in huge letters. He had to put his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud. It didn't take long to work out who it was. Glancing over at Anko, she was grinning at him and giving him a thumbs up.

How the hell did she get up there?! Though seeing as she was an evil genius, he knew he shouldn't have been surprised. He looked over at Rin to see if she had noticed but she was still working hard like a good student. Not for the first time, he wondered why she mainly spent her time with slackers. If they hadn't met as children, she would have probably found better friends, but as it was, she was stuck with them.

After Rin, Obito looked over to the row next to him where, just a few seats in front of him, Kakashi was sitting. Like him, Kakashi was finished working but he had probably filled most of his book with decent answers. The guy was lucky he never had to make an effort but right now he did seem as bored as Obito was.

Obito found himself zoning out as he watched Kakashi, so much so that he had a bit of a shock when Kakashi turned around and stared at him. Probably he had felt the gaze on the back of his head.

And now he thinks I was just staring at him… Great. Kakashi raised his eyebrow at him. After spending a little more time with Kakashi, he knew that this meant 'what are you doing?' His response was to do an exaggerated shrug, his way of saying 'what? I was bored.' Kakashi rolled his eyes; 'idiot.' Obito stuck his tongue out at Kakashi; 'screw you.'

Kakashi then nodded his head at the paper, obviously asking 'how did you find it?' Obito held his hand up in the shape of a drawn pistol and mimed shooting himself in the head, with many exaggerated gestures for effect. He over did it a bit since one of the invigilators started glaring at him.

When the exam was over and they were finally freed (the one benefit to exams; study leave), Obito was looking forward to going with the others to moan loudly about how unfair the test system was. This was denied to him as, as soon as he left the hall, Kakashi grabbed his arm and led him away. He was too shocked to resist or question why at first. The exam conditions had frazzled his delicate brain.

"Why are we in the library?" This was how long it had taken him to start paying attention.

"Sit down." Kakashi had been clever in that he had grasped the best way to get Obito to do something; sudden orders when his guard was down. Kakashi dropped down into a chair next to him. "How do you think you did?"

"I think you already know." Everyone behind them had known judging from the chuckling.

"…Do you want any help?" Kakashi mumbled and avoided eye contact as he said this.

"What do you mean by help?"

"With revision. Obviously."

"I knew that…" It was a tempting offer. This boy was smart. "Isn't it too late though?"

"I can give you some hints on what might be in the tests so you know what to focus on tonight?" This got his attention.

"How?"

"You look at old papers and some of the stuff we've learnt. There are some questions that are basically guaranteed."

"I see…" Increasing his grades, even by a little bit would be awesome. Only one thing bothered him. "Why would you want to help me though?"

"Because I'm nice."

"Really? That's the best you can do?"

"…It's to pay you back for all the times I've called you stupid."

"Oh…" This led on to an awkward silence. "Thanks."

"So it's Geography tomorrow, right?" Kakashi pulled the textbook off of the shelf behind them.

"Ugh. Yes it is."

"Just read chapters 4,9,11 and 16. They should mainly test the stuff on that."

"Really?" It couldn't be that easy, surely? "I suck at getting information in my head though."

"Just avoid all the crap and you'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say. How do I know what's crap?"

"I'll tell you, just focus on trying to remember it."

And so instead of going out and getting some kind of comfort food to get over his trauma, Obito ended up spending the rest of the day with Kakashi. The way he explained things made it more interesting than usual. Kakashi wasn't overly friendly and kind of smug, but he was really trying to help him.

Nobody had bothered with this since Rin had given up three years ago so it was nice. Kakashi was also better at explaining things than even the teachers.

"Can we go get something to eat? We've been doing this for hours." The fact that he wasn't bored didn't mean that he wanted to be doing it all day.

"Fine." Kakashi pushed the book to one side. "I don't feel like doing any more either."

"Must be kind of nice being smart." He sniffed loudly.

"It's kind of boring actually. I study most of the time."

"But you don't have to!" If he was fortunate enough to not need to study, what was the point in doing it?

"I have nothing better to do with my time."

"Really?" There were a lot of things he could think of that were better than working. "Why?"

"In case you haven't noticed, I don't really mix well with others."

"Yeah… I can see that." Kakashi was about as sociable as a wasp. An angry wasp. "You can still play games and watch TV alone."

"We don't do that much in our house."

"You've never played any video games then?"

"No." This seemed incomprehensible to Obito who enjoyed this stuff massively. It was an escape from boredom.

"You unfortunate bastard."

"Thanks for that." Kakashi scowled at him. "Maybe I shouldn't be helping you."

"I'll be helping you this weekend!" Obito had forgotten that he was supposed to be in a library and therefore, quiet.

"How?"

"After work on Saturday, you are coming to my house and we are gonna play some goddamn games!" Of course he felt odd knowing he'd just invited him over again. But as the boy was doing him a favour, he wanted to pay him back.

"You're sure you want to be doing that with me?"

"Yes. You're helping me so I want you to witness the awesomeness that is gaming." It was all he could really do since he was a dumbass and couldn't offer much else.

"If you insist, I guess I'll have to." He tried to act kind of haughty but there was a clear smile defined under his mask.

"You seem happy." Yes he was smirking. It was fun to be doing the teasing for a change.

"I don't know what you mean." Kakashi pushed his chair back and stood up. "And we have to get to work."

"Now?"

"This is when I usually go." No wonder Kakashi was always there first. Obito was usually still moaning at someone at this time.

"You make the rest of us look like slackers."

"Sorry?"

"You should be."

It was odd walking into work with Kakashi when normally he would be going in alone. The other boy took a more winding route too.

"Are you going through a hedge?"

"It's a short cut." It seemed odd but he followed him anyway.

"How did you work all this out?"

"Trial and error." Kakashi ducked under another hedge and out onto a street.

"You have way too much free time."

"Probably."

"How long have you had that job then?"

"Two years? I got it as soon as I could get one."

"You wanted a job?"

"Yes." From his expression it was clear he was unsure why anyone would bother to get a job if they didn't want it.

"My aunt forced me to do it."

"I'm not surprised somehow. I needed the money."

"What for?"

"…It's a secret."

"I see…" And now I really want to know. Damn. It sucked when you were really nosy. It was a flaw he shared with his aunt Mikoto.

When they got to work, there was a pleasant surprise waiting on the notice board. Deidara had drawn a lovely picture of Obito crying with Kakashi comforting him. It was cute and incredibly couply.

"Fucking bastard!" Kakashi ripped it down and once again started gesturing at the camera. Obito laughed. It was so damn funny seeing Kakashi losing it that he couldn't even be angry that he'd been in the picture too.

"Stop encouraging him!"

"I'm not, I never see him."

"He'll see you laughing on the damn camera."

"Oh… Yeah he will. Oops."