Chapter warning: mentions of child abuse. It's nothing too much but brace yourself if you're extremely squeamish!
"Good. We're all here." Ino looked around at the small group. It was almost evening time by the time all seven friends...er not so friends were complete at the cafe. Shikamaru yawned lazily and slouched on his chair.
"Why are all of us paying Yota a visit?" He complained. "I mean, I like the kid but isn't this going out of our way just to pay him a visit? We could send regards or something. What a drag."
"You just want to sleep early, Shikamaru." Choji outed the lenient boy.
"Well, you're right. It's just that I have a suspicion." Ino explained. "Yota might be physically abused at home." All of them stiffened at that.
"What makes you say so? Is it the bruises on his body?" Sakura, speaking for the first time since she arrived, asked.
"That and the fact that Yota is always reluctant of going home. The last time I saw him off, he protested against it until his guardian's mood dropped. What do you guys say about that?" Ino questioned.
"Well, Yota is autistic right?" Kiba spoke. "That could have been an autistic meltdown or a sensory overload or something. He really likes you." Akamaru barked in agreement to his master's words.
"That's possible but he does this every time! And he trembles too at the sight of his guardian." Ino argued.
"In any case, you gathered us together so that we can check out what's wrong with him?" Shikamaru grumbled from the sidelines.
"Say, Naruto, you'd normally be the loudest among us. Why are you silent? It's creepy." Sakura muttered when she realized that Naruto had in fact not said a word since their meeting commenced. Even Akamaru had spoken!
Naruto shifted in his seat, making a sound at the back of his throat between a growl and a snarl. "Just...if that man really abuses Yota, I don't know what I'd do. I don't think I can forgive him if he hurt Yota." Yota was Naruto's first friend. It didn't matter if the boy was years younger than him or if he was mentally ill, Yota was the first who saw him as a friend and person rather than a heartless murderer.
"Oi, aren't you taking this too far? We're not even sure if Ino's correct yet." Shikamaru sighed. He just wanted to go home and sleep. Not that he was heartless or didn't care about Yota, if anyone hurt the boy Shikamaru would never forgive the person, but they didn't have solid proof that Yota is really being abused.
"But what if she's right?!" Naruto's voice raised. "What if...what if the reason Yota is not in school is because his guardian hurt him?!"
"Calm down Naruto." Choji placated. "That's why we're going to his place, to check if Ino is correct or wrong. I hope she's wrong though."
"He's right, you have to calm down Naruto." Sakura added. "Well, we can't find out anything if we're just staying here. Let's go." She stood up, taking her left over iced coffee with her while Ino and Kiba and Akamaru followed her lead.
"By the way Kiba, how come Akamaru was allowed inside the cafe?" Choji questioned once they were outside the cafe.
"Akamaru is my service dog, he's licensed to enter such places." Kiba replied.
"Uh? But you're not blind or anything, why would you need a service dog?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Not only the blind need service dogs." Kiba's answer was vague but Sakura asked no more. It was none of her business anyway.
Yota's place was a humble bungalow with a front yard surrounded by a low fence. It would have been a lovely place if the yard was not overgrown. The flowers and herbs that were in the place had died because of the weeds that choked them. It looked like no gardening has been done for months.
"This is Yota's house?" Kiba asked when they pulled up in front of the place.
"So it seems. This is the place in the address." Ino replied.
"So how are we doing this?" Choji asked between munches on his cupcake. That boy could never be found without a snack.
"It's best that Ino and Sakura go forward, just to see what will happen. If there's nothing wrong, the rest of us would join you. If there is, you two would alert us with a signal and we would act." Shikamaru then proceeded to form a plan and explain it to the group.
After finalising their plan, Sakura and Ino made their way to the house. The gate was open because its lock was bad so they just pushed through and waded through the overgrown yard. Ino rang the doorbell while the others stayed back to watch what would happen. The platinum blond rang the doorbell for quite a while and was about to give up when a slurred answer came from behind the door.
"Who'z therre?!"
"Ano, we're friends of Yota. We heard he was ill so we came to visit." Ino answered. They were met with silence so Ino knocked on the wooden door. "Hello? Are you there?"
"M 'fraid you can't see the brat. Go home." The voice slurred.
"Hey!" Sakura knocked on the door. "We were instructed to do so by the principal. Mind you, we are school prefects on an assignment." The pinkette shrugged when her best friend shot her a look for lying. 'What?' She mouthed. 'It worked!'
The door opened and the first thing that hit the girls was the putrid stench of alcohol. "What the hell? You're jusst kidz. You better go ho-home or I'll make you." Yota's guardian was nothing short of totally drunk. From his murky hair to his swaying posture, everything about him screamed alcoholism and that got the girls scared.
"Where's Yota?!" Ino asked.
"The brat's werrabouts iz none of yer bizzness." The man proceeded to slam the door closed but Sakura's foot was in the way. She didn't trust the man at all. "Why you-!" He started but was interrupted by Sakura barging into the house with Ino following closely.
"Yota?! Yota?! It's Sakura and Ino! Where are you?" Sakura shouted. Her nose wrinkled at the sight of the place. Alcohol bottles sprawled on the floor as if the place was a recycling bin and the place was dirty overall. It was not a good condition for a child to live in.
"Sakura!" Ino's shriek alerted Sakura to the blond's location and she crossed the hallway into the room where Ino's voice came from. It was horrible. Ino was crouching over a small lump that Sakura feared was Yota. She wished that she was wrong but she was correct.
"Yota!" The pinkette came to kneel beside the lump. A horrified gasp crawled out of her mouth at the sight of the boy. Black and purple bruises marred the expanse of his skin and his clothes were caked with dried blood. Yota was unconscious and probably had some bones broken. "No way..." Tears fell from Sakura's eyes.
"You bitches! I oughta tich you a lesson to barrge into my house!" Ino and Sakura screamed as the man who dared to call himself Yota's guardian stormed angrily into the room with a clobbering stick filled with holes. Before he could do anything to them though, the man was pushed down by a large force the girls recognized as Akamaru.
Akamaru pinned the man down and snarled warningly over his head, making sure that his sharp canines were glinting in the light for the man's peripheral vision to see. "Good work Akamaru! That bastard!" Kiba entered the room moments after. The boys became worried when Ino and Sakura barged into the house and the man searched his overgrown yard for something.
When they saw that it was a nail filled stick, they had sprung into action immediately and ran after the girls with Akamaru leading them. It was a good thing they arrived by the time they did otherwise it would be another story they would be telling.
"You bastard!" Naruto cursed and grabbed the man away from Akamaru's grasp. He delivered a jaw cracking punch to the man's face and another, and another until Shikamaru held him back when the man was teetering between consciousness and unconsciousness.
"As much as I like hearing the sound of his bones breaking, we have to get Yota to a hospital." Shikamaru said and Naruto reluctantly left the man alone.
Fortunately, Yota was not too hurt by his injury. He only sustained a broken leg and major bruises but aside from that he was okay. It turned out that Yota's so called guardian had been stopping his father from seeing the boy all along.
Yota's mother had died when he was still very young and his dad had to work overseas so he left the guardian in charge of his son till he got back. Unfortunately, the guardian only put up a front for Yota's father to trick him into thinking he was well cared for and used the money that was sent to him for himself.
What the man was not expecting was for Yota to be smarter than he looked. He underestimated the kid because he was autistic and didn't know that Yota had a photographic memory. When his guardian carelessly dropped his phone on one of his drunken nights, Yota and picked up the device and called his father.
He just called for an innocent reason. Yota was not given any food to eat that day (it was a weekend when Ino and the others would not be able to feed him) so he decided to tell his father since his guardian seemed to listen to his father.
His father, upon hearing that his son was hungry, asked a lot of questions and decided that he didn't like the answers he got. It was a good thing that he was coming home that week but he still scolded the guardian for not feeding his son.
The guardian was livid that Yota had called his father behind his back and made the boy pay for it, and that was what led to the events of the day.
Ino was glad that she chose to visit Yota today. It was pleasant to watch when the so called guardian was carted away by a police car. Yota's father was alerted about the situation and was arriving at Konoha in two or three days.
"Ino, Sakura, Choji, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru and Naruto, don't forget about me." Yota was on a wheelchair and pushing it was Naruto. Yota's father had quit his job in order to take proper care of his son so he sold the house (mainly because Yota had nightmares about it). They were moving to the country side.
"Of course we won't, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed and reached his hand out to tousle Yota's brown locks. It was a silent way of asking for permission. Yota leaned into Naruto's touch and gave a big grin which Naruto returned. He whistled his four note song to which Naruto teared up at.
"To~mo~da~chi!"
Ino knelt in front of Yota's wheelchair. "Bye bye Yota. I'll call you, okay?"
"Okay!"
"I never did get to hear you play the piano." Sakura started. "But I'll remember your song, kon kon kon, it's snowing kon kon kon, whenever it snows. Bye bye Yota."
"Sakura!" Yota giggled.
"What a drag, you're making this seem like a funeral." Shikamaru grumbled. "Stay safe kiddo."
"This is my special barbeque flavoured potato chips which I kept for a special occasion. You can have it." Choji offered his precious bag of chips.
"You parted with your special chips for Yota?! Choji, that's generous!" Kiba exclaimed and turned towards Yota. "See you sometime soon kiddo."
"Woof!" Akamaru barked his goodbye speech.
"Thank you very much for everything you have done for Yota." Yota's father bowed in appreciation and wheeled Yota into their car. The boy waved at them continuously until they were completely out of sight.
"So...now what?" Naruto broke the silence first.
"Now we go our separate ways. Yota was the reason all seven of us came together and now he is gone. We were not friends in the first instance." Ino replied, turning to her heels and leaving.
"What she said." Sakura also left.
"Mendoukse...I guess that's good. Come on Choji." Shikamaru left with Choji.
"Welp, I expected this to happen. Let's go, Akamaru, com'on boy!" Kiba left with Akamaru on his trail.
"In the end...I am left alone again uh?" Naruto whispered to himself and began the long journey home.
Xxx symphony xxX
"It's that time of the year again huh?" Iruka said as he walked into the staffroom. "Good morning everyone." His colleagues replied him in their own unique ways from Gai's boisterous shout to Kakashi's pointed snubbing.
"What time of the year?" Genma muttered through his signature toothpick that was in his mouth.
"Midterm tests." Iruka took his seat at his desk. "The school is usually quiet and it's not even exam period yet." He noted. KSA teachers were notorious for their insane tests even though they were just midterm assessments.
"I hope you would take it easy on the students this time, Yamato-sensei." Kurenai chuckled as the maths teacher scratched his cheek sheepishly.
"It's the mid terms so rest assured." The man replied.
"Oh? You have your questions ready already?!" Gai asked. Yamato hummed his affirmation. "How youthful! I shall not be left behind!"
"Hold on Gai, the midterm exams are practical, remember?" Asuma had to remind the over enthusiast before he started preparing a long list of questions that only theoretical subjects like mathematics and literature had written exams for the midterm.
"Oh. Well then, I shall begin to assign roles for my precious students! Osu!" Everybody had gotten used to Gai's antics so they just ignored his loudness and continued their discussion.
"Will you be okay, Kakashi-sensei? You just started your curriculum after all." Kurenai expressed her concern for her colleague.
"Mah, since it's practical exams we'd be fine." Kakashi answered much to everyone's surprise (because he was a prick that loathed interaction) and promptly went back to reading his literature porn.
"Hah! He speaks!" Anko scoffed. "The students would have a wonderful time during their PE tests, I just know it." The whole room suddenly felt hot from the devilish heat that the PE teacher was emanating. Everyone sweat dropped. It was a good thing that PE test was the last otherwise the students' brains would short circuit before taking other tests. Mitarashi Anko was a devil.
"But still I pity you the most, Iruka sensei." Genma's face didn't hint towards what he was saying at all. His face was twisted into something sinister and mocking. "You have to grade your recuperative class after all."
Iruka sighed. He was the language teacher and while the practical exams made it easy for most, the brunet could just tell that his class would make it hell on earth for him. Every teacher did because they faced similar challenges with their respective recuperative classes but Iruka's took the cake.
The scarred man could picture trying to get Shikamaru to wake up from his sleep and trying to keep Choji and Omoi away from their snacks (which was impossible, period). Kiba and Naruto aka dumb and dumber would turn the class upside down with ridiculous comments and over exaggerated blunders while Lee would try to be enthusiastic and ruin his presentation.
Tenten made herself clear since day one that if it was not dance, she wasn't interested and Karui was just as bad, if not worse. Tamaki and Matsuri were the only students that Iruka actually had tidbits of hope in except they weren't too good at studying. Yukata...she was still dumber than a rock. And then there's Gaara...
"Oi Iruka-sensei, get a hold of yourself!"
"Iruka-sensei?!"
"Iruka-san!"
Everybody panicked in the staffroom as the tanned man suddenly blacked out from overstimulation.
Xxx symphony xxX
"My big bro says that KSA teachers set the hardest exam questions." Karui shrunk miserably into her seat as she said so. She was probably picturing how insane the questions were going to be.
"Hey, you're on scholarship, aren't you?" Matsuri suddenly asked the dark girl.
"What? No. Unlike our brother, Omoi and I are not too good at studying so we didn't meet the cut off mark. Recuperative class was our only chance of enrolling." Karui explained. "Why did you suddenly ask though?"
"You talk about Darui-senpai a lot and from what you say, he has been in KSA for a while now. The recuperative class system only started just this year so I figured the only other way Darui senpai is in KSA other than academic scholarship was that you are rich." Matsuri explained in a single breath.
"Eh? So you're one of those rich brats then?" Tenten's words had no bite though. She was more amused than anything.
"Yes but I'd rather be in this class than spend time with those jerks from Class A." Omoi muttered his disdain for the genius class. Just because they were smart didn't mean they were on top of the world, dammit.
"So who else among us is rich and nobody knows about?" Tenten asked jokingly but Choji replied her through munches.
"Shikamaru's family is rather well to do."
"What a drag, Choji?" Shikamaru complained, surprisingly not asleep for the first time ever.
"Eh, Shikamaru?!" Naruto was genuinely surprised. "But you took the auditions though!"
"I knew that the name Nara sounded familiar." Tamaki mumbled thoughtfully.
"Nara? As in that Nara?! Dude, you're loaded!" Kiba exclaimed as he just realised his friend's net worth.
"So what honours us with your presence, o king?" Matsuri mocked.
"King?! Shikamaru is a king?!" Somehow, Yukata managed to grab only the most trivial part of the whole conversation as usual.
Ignoring Yukata, Tenten asked instead. "If you're that loaded and smart, how come you're here?!" Her astonishment knew no bounds. Here was somebody with money and brains among the lowlives like the recuperative class.
"Smart?" Naruto voiced his naivety but Lee was there to save him before the others could hound him on his ignorance.
"The Naras are known for their intelligence, Naruto-kun. In an article, it was stated that the Nara heir..."
"...aka Shikamaru." Tenten added.
"Has an estimated intelligence quotient of over 200." Lee finished.
"NANI?! My IQ is barely worth 70 and you're OVER 200?!" Naruto all but shrieked into Shikamaru's displeased face.
"70? No wonder you're stupid." Karui quipped.
"Kiba's would just be slightly higher." Tenten added. "A 75 at most."
"HEY!" Kiba yelled for his hurt pride. "Don't act as if we're not all dumb here!" Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Say, Akamaru has been with you a lot lately. Is there a reason?" Tamaki asked for no reason in particular. She was just curious. Kiba only shrugged in reply.
"So what brings his royal Highness to the midst of low lives with low IQs like us?" Tenten asked, intrigued. Shikamaru yawned.
"I slept off at the entrance exams and failed. Mum threatened to make me homeless unless I pay for my wasted education. The talent hunt saved by butt." Shikamaru summarised in three unsurprising sentences.
Everyone sweat dropped. 'Slept off, huh?' They all thought.
"Speaking of rich people, Gaara's like a Prince, right?" Matsuri swallowed her words instantly at the solid warning glare she received with a small 'eep!' The redhead left the class and everyone released simultaneous breaths. "I thought I was going to die!" Matsuri gasped in shock.
"Me too." Yukata whispered.
"What's with that dude?" Kiba muttered distastefully. Gaara was just plain nasty, even more so than Neji and Sasuke.
"I wonder why he was demoted from class A to our class though." Tenten mumbled curiously.
"Isn't it obvious? He's a delinquent and I don't even think he's smarter than Naruto." Kiba snarked.
"You're not any smarter than Naruto yourself." Tenten muttered under her breath but Kiba heard it.
"Wanna fight, dumpling head?!" He barked and Akamaru whined.
"Dumplings? Where?!" Yukata was as airy as ever.
"How come everybody just assumes I'm the dumbest in the class?!" Naruto exclaimed, feeling offended and forgetting that he was the one that revealed his own IQ. Look at Yukata for ramen's sake, she's a starfish! "And besides, we shouldn't talk behind Gaara's back like this. It's wrong." Naruto added.
"Naruto-kun is right! We should not back bite on our fellow classmate because it is certainly unyouthful!" Lee backed.
"And I think Lee's IQ is 80 at best." Karui couldn't help the quip.
"Wrong! I have undergone an IQ test and I emerged as 81!" Lee exclaimed proudly at his feat. Tenten face palmed.
"That's not something you should be proud of." The bun haired girl muttered.
"Mendoukse. You guys are taking this IQ rubbish too seriously. Those are just numbers. And besides IQ can change over time." Shikamaru sleepily droned.
"Says the person with Einstein's brain." Karui retorted.
"Wait guys, I just thought of something." Omoi suddenly sat up. He even removed his lollipop from his mouth to show how serious he was. Because of that, everybody, even Shikamaru, shifted forwards to listen to his words. "If Shikamaru is smart, this means he'd ace the difficult tests easily."
"So? That's obvious." Tamaki voiced the opinion of many.
"If Shikamaru can help us during the test, all of us would ace it too. What if Shikamaru used his big brain to figure out which questions the teachers would set for us? Then he'd tell us and solve them for us. Then we'd ace our tests and become geniuses. Then our IQs would be 200 too and then we'd beat class A in brains and then we'd beat the teachers and principal Tsunade. Then we'd rule over the world because we're geniuses!"
"Aside from the fact that you're nuts, I like your idea for Shikamaru solving questions for us." Tenten broke the silence that ensued after listening to Omoi's very imaginative thoughts. He had a very graphic brain.
"Yeah me too!" Karui agreed to Tenten's words. "Shikamaru can use his big brain to figure which questions the teachers would set."
"Is Shikamaru some god or something? He can't know which question they'd set dattebayo."
"Shut up, IQ 70." Tenten shushed and Naruto just knew that IQ 70 would be his name from her forever. "But you're right..." Tenten added as an afterthought. "Let's steal the questions."
"Good idea!" Karui glittered brightly. "I'd sponsor the project." She added and everyone anime fell. "What? You think I'd be dumb enough to rob a school?! I've never even tried robbing a convenience store yet!"
"Your priorities are twisted." Matsuri muttered.
Nobody robbed the school though, because they learned later that day that their tests were practical.
Yay! Yota's arc is finally taken care of! Coming up next is the Uchiha brothers' arc. Nope, just kidding. Sasuke and Itachi's back story would arrive pretty soon though so be prepared.
Where are Sai, Fuu, Izumi, Zetsu and Tobi (not Obito)?!
They're coming real soon!
When the hell is the shipping going to start?!
I want to define the relationships between the ships very well in this book. I don't want it to be a cliché highschool 'my crush has a crush on me' kind of book so the ships are mainly going to be slow burn.
I'll be picking characters one by one to explain their back stories so this book might be long because there are a lot of character and I have plans for every one of them. Yes, every.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Please continue to read and don't be shy to drop your thoughts about this story in your reviews.
I don't own Naruto.
See you in the next chapter.
-Star.