Sazanka doesn't know if he wants to go to school. He'd much rather stay home and sleep. Yatsude is crying again, because he just realized that school means being separated from Uncle Madara. Uncle Madara is not amused.
"Yatsude, stop crying," says Uncle Madara sternly. "I'll only be just down the hall."
Sazanka rolls his eyes. But, after Uncle Madara leaves with Tachi, Sekitei and Ajisai, it suddenly hits Sazanka that he and his brother are stuck in a room full of strangers, and their family just left them.
Sazanka starts sniffling too.
The teacher sighs. "Come on boys, sit down here with the other children." He guides them to the front of the classroom, where all the other kids are sitting on the carpet staring. The twins sit down. The teacher calls everyone's names to make sure everyone is there. Then he says, "We have two new friends joining us today!"
Sazanka sticks out his bottom lip. He is getting fed up by the teacher's overly-cheerfulness.
"This is Sazanka," the teacher says, pointing to Yatsude. "And this is Yatsude." He points to Sazanka.
"Wrong way round!" whines Yatsude, who is still crying.
"I'm Sazanka, and he's Yatsude!" says Sazanka, glaring at the teacher.
"Oh! Sorry!" says the teacher. "I'll learn which of you is which soon, I promise." Then the teacher claps his hands together, smiles a smile that is just a little too wide and says, "Alright, kids, let's sing the counting song!"
The what…?
Huh, it turns out there are numbers higher than 20. Who knew?
Maybe school won't be so bad after all.
At first, school is fun. After a while, Sazanka starts to get bored. He wants to go play in the park. After a couple of hours, the teacher sends them outside to play for a while. Sazanka sees kids from the other classes running out of their classrooms. He grabs Yatsude and drags him over to where Sekitei looking for somewhere to sit and eat her morning tea.
"Where's Tachi and Uncle Madara?" asks Sazanka, assuming that Ajisai will be with Uncle Madara.
"The kids in the ninja training section of the Academy play on the other side of the building," says Sekitei. "They keep us separate because the ninja kids like to play with sharp objects, and they don't want us to get hurt."
"I'm bored already," says Sazanka. "Let's go to the park."
"We're not allowed to leave until school finishes!" says Sekitei.
Sazanka shrugs. "Come on, let's go." He turns and runs for the fence, dragging Yatsude along behind him.
"Hey, wait for me!" says Sekitei running after them.
"...and then you release the jutsu," explains Iruka. "Substitution jutsu!" he vanishes in a puff of smoke, and is replaced by a log.
Madara hasn't seen the substitution in a while. His opponents very rarely force him to use it.
"A log?" says Burifu, tipping her head to one side.
"All hail the log," says Madara sarcastically. "The log is always there: it is a shinobi's only true ally. It is immortal and indestructible - may the log live forever."
"Wow, really?" says Burifu, her eyes sparkling. "I must learn to summon the Mighty Log!"
Madara sighs. He should have known better than to say something like that in front of that kid.
Then the door bursts open and the two teachers who teach the twins and Sekitei burst in.
"What now?" asks Madara.
"Sekitei didn't come back to class after Play Time!" says the girl's teacher.
"Neither did the twins!" adds their teacher.
Madara thinks it's cute how they call the little kids' morning tea break 'Play Time'. "I'll find them," says Madara, and exits via the window. Do ninjas still do that, or did one of the Hokages crack down? Madara doesn't care either way, but it suddenly occurs to him that he is very behind the times. He wonders how long it will be before someone tells him 'we don't do that anymore'. Now, where would those naughty kids have gone? He remembers that the twins loved the park a great deal, and heads there first.
Sure enough, the three little brats are at the park, resting under a tree and giggling. Madara marches right up to them without a word. He scoops up the twins so that one is over each of his shoulders, and holds them in place with an arm across their legs. Then he tucks Sekitei under his other arm and marches back to the Academy. He does not respond to their protests. Sekitei howls that she doesn't want to go back to school and the twins beat their fists against Madara's shoulders, but Madara just walks back to the Academy. He walks right through town too, and pretends he doesn't notice people staring at him and the three truants protesting being carried back to school.
When he arrives back at the Academy, Madara heads straight to Seikitei's classroom. He uses the hallways and doors like everyone else this time. If anything, this is a walk of shame for the kids. He marches into Sekitei's class and dumps her at the teacher's feet. "Delivery for you," he says, and turns and marches back out. Then he heads to the twin's class and dumps them at their teacher's feet. "Delivery for you," he says.
"...Er, thank you," says the teacher, looking startled.
Madara turns and heads back to Iruka's classroom. The school principal is there with a handfull of papers. "Madara sensei," he says, holding out the papers. "Here is a list of today's truants, with reference pictures and which classes they belong to. Please go and get them like you did your three."
"Of course," says Madara. He takes the stack of papers, memorizes the names and faces of the truants, hands their profiles back to the principal and heads out the window. Madara wastes no time in finding all seven and marching them back to the Academy, with all seven children piled up on his shoulders. He marches them right through the centre of town. At first they protest, but when they see everyone staring, they all go quiet, their faces burning in shame. He drops them off at their classrooms, simply saying, "Delivery for you," to the teachers. There are two kids from the Third Year Ninja class, two from the Fourth Year ninja class and three from the Final Year ninja class. Then Madara goes back to Iruka's class, where the principal is waiting, looking gobsmacked.
"You got them all so quickly…" says the principal. "Our truancy officer just quit the other week...we need a new one...could you, maybe, be our new truancy officer?"
Madara crosses his arms and sighs dramatically. Then he frowns determinedly, making the principal take a nervous step backwards. "You won't need a truancy officer by the time I'm done," Madara says firmly.
Kimiko clings to Jiraiya and cries. "I'll be back in a few weeks," Jiriaya tells her, trying to detach the kid from his leg.
"Come on now, Kimiko," says Minato, patting the little girl's hair. "Jiraiya sensei will be back before you know it."
"Why can't I go too?" demands Kimiko, slapping Minato's hand away. Minato grabs the hand she used to slap him and pulls the girl off Jiraiya.
"You're too little," says Jiraiya. "You'll have to wait until you graduate the Academy before you can come on adventures with me." He pats her head comfortingly. "Oh that reminds me," Jiraiya adds, straightening up and turning to Minato, Kushina, Naruto and Minato's parents. "Next time, I'd like to take Naruto with me, so I can train him one-on-one in preparation for the end of the truce. Think about it while I'm gone."
Minato is about to refuse, but then Jiraiya shunshins away. Dammit, he did that on purpose. Now they can't refuse point-blank.
"Can I go?" says Naruto, grinning, his eyes sparkling. "I went on a road trip with Pervy Sage once before, to find Tsunade, and I got so much stronger, 'tebayo!"
"We'll talk about it later," says Kazama. "It does sound like a good idea."
"But I only just got back!" says Kushina, hugging Naruto. "Do you really have to go away so soon?"
Minato laughs nervously. "Well I guess I have some idea how it feels for Ikkaku and Kohari…"