A short blur of colours slunk swiftly through the shadows.
Blue eyes shone wide with panicked awareness, glancing in every direction, studying everyone and everything around him.
The academy was getting closer, just a few meters away.
A lady in a floral button dress passed nearby, taking an early morning stroll without a worry.
A little girl with a braided ponytail walked beside her blue haired mother, heading home after a night at their friend's house.
A woman in a pastel pink happi was chatting with a young lady, an acquaintance, both merrily window shopping.
No one of the streets noticed the young child terrified out of his mind, running between the shadows to a place that was as close to a haven as possible at this time of day.
He reached a wide school building.
The entrance was on the back left of the school grounds; a large white cylinder with overhanging orange roofs at every new floor. The cylinder was connected to a longer, also white, building with an angled rectangular shape and the same over handing roofs on every floor.
He made a dash through the sunlit area between the street and the school entrance, passing the lone swing that hung on one of the more lonesome trees on the school grounds. He all but lunged inside the building, not wanting to get caught and be late...again.
His pace calmed down significantly when he was greeted with the wooden interior of the academy, almost letting a sigh pass his lips.
His stayed close to the walls, navigating his way around the memorised hallways to the teachers' lounge.
The lounge was about the same size as most of the classrooms in the building - maybe smaller - and there was a fridge on the opposite side of the wall that held the door. He ignored the fridge and went straight to the cupboard. Not at all intimidated by the high placements of the cupboards, he dragged his small frame up the counter and climbed into one of the cupboards.
Not wanting to alert any teachers of his presence, he took only the ambiguous foods that he knew no one would notice were missing. There was a Pretz packet, and something similar to Pocky which he carefully ripped open the packet of and grabbed a few sticks. There were a few containers of old cling film-wrapped plates of castella that he darted in and out of, stealing most of the platter's contents. A handful of onigiri rice balls later and he found himself staring emptily at a stack of bento boxes, forgotten in the back of the cupboard. Why were they there?
Something akin to anger bubbled in his chest, unsure of why, he jumped out of the cupboard, leaving the door of the teacher's lounge firmly closer behind him.
Escaping to class was easier than usual.
On days like this, teachers would be at school early, trying to get all their paperwork done before hyperactive children came to fill the hallways.
One specific young boy was making his way to class in a peaceful drift down the halls, munching on the stolen onigiri, relishing in first nutritious food he'd eaten in an uncertain length of time. Chewing quickly on the rice balls, he manoeuvred his way into his year group's classroom.
It was empty.
There was a large area at the front of the room – to the right of the door – where the teacher's desk and a large chalkboard sat. The student seating arrangements had students partnered on desks of threes with nine in a row. The seats were tiered and every three desks a new tier appeared. Three tiers with three desks on each tier that can each hold three students – what an overuse of the number three.
Having finished the onigiri he'd stolen, he dropped the packaging into the bin and headed to the back left corner of the class. He slid himself across the three-seater and leaned forward to rest his cheek on the inside of his forearm, choosing to look out the window he's sat next to and stare at the open grounds of the front of the Academy, where the lone swing hung in the dark shade of the tree above it.
He was early, which was mostly a blessing. Knowing his life, it was likely someone had started ransacking his apartment, or were drawing horrid graffiti all over the building he lived in.
He thought of 'what if' scenarios – what if he'd woken up just an hour later? - before he reminded himself to never think of what could've been; thinking like that was only mentally destructive and wouldn't benefit anyone, nor could he just stop the thoughts of a different future, though.
His head jerked up to look across the room at the door as it was gently swung open.
A girl the same age as him walked in and absentmindedly started walking up to the third desk tier. She had unpigmented eyes with no visible pupil and her whole body gave off an aura of inferiority to those around her.
He knew her, her eyes gave away her clan, the Hyūga, but her shyness wasn't a tribute seen in the noble clan; if anything, the Hyūga often had superiority complexes. This form of thinking had split the Hyūga into two branches, the Main and the Side Branch (not very creative, but they didn't have Naruto on their PR team at the time of thei rcreation). The Hyūga heir was a different story. She was shy and, due to her pacifistic nature, she wouldn't hurt anyone when when she sparred with her family, marking her as weak.
The Hyūga girl made it to the desk he was sitting at before noticing he was there at all. Her pale eyes widened and her petite hands dashed up to be clasped in front of her chest.
Her face became flushed with red hues and she started stuttering a greeting.
"N-Naruto-kun! I- I've never never seen you at school so- this early, I didn't – I didn't see you there, ha- how are you?" she managed to stumble out.
He tilted his head and gave her a perplexed smile, not entirely sure how to react to her unusual behaviour.
"I'm fine, thanks," he replied. "You're Hinata, right?"
Her eyes opened wider – if that was even possible – and she fiddled with her index fingers as she interacted with him. She gave a small nod, her cheeks gaining a darker hue of red.
Naruto pondered her use of -kun at the end of his name - wasn't that suffix used for people you were close to? Did Hinata think they were close? What could he have done to even deserve a suffix at the end of his name? He noticed she was just standing at the end of the desk, hesitant to sit down, but hesitant to sit somewhere else.
"Hey," he said, gaining the Hyūga's attention, "you don't have to worry about sitting beside me, I don't bite, ya know!"
A darker hue of red yet again took control of Hinata's face and she gave Naruto a courteous nod, seating herself on the opposite side the same desk as him.
She saw the way he turned to stare out the window and she wondered if he was looking for something.
To her, his messy blonde hair looked so soft, she wondered what it felt like. She had the urge to run her hand through his hair, but she feared his disapproval and the awkward mood that would surely follow. She instead chose to study him.
She gazed at his ever watchful eyes, how they glimmered when they caught the sun.
She wondered about the scar-like marks on his cheeks, three on each, perfectly parallel to each other. They looked quite a bit like whisker marks, she thought, much like a cat or a seal.
Hinata sat up straighter as the door swung open, almost as gently as she had opened it.
Another boy, the same age as the two already present in the room. His dark eyes seemed to shake slightly, his hands tensed into stillness and his walked without thinking, lost in a blank nothing.
Naruto saw him enter through the corner of his eye and knew exactly what was wrong.
He chose not to say a word as the boy neglected his usual greeting for Hinata, the only person that came before her to the Academy, and sat at the back tier of the classroom, like the other two, though he sat on the desk opposite the window, away from Naruto and Hinata.
Hinata glanced in worry at Naruto, noting the knowing look his beautiful eyes held. She was startled as Naruto swiftly rose from his chair and practically stomped his way over to the classroom's new arrival.
Naruto dumped himself down next to the boy in low spirits, clasping his hand around the boy's own hand that lay on the table.
This caught the boy's attention, making him give the blonde a judgmental look.
Naruto just looked straight ahead casually, squeezing the older boy's hand gently.
The eyes of the other boy became soft and looked down, finding himself strangely comforted by the appearance of his brash classmate.
Everything seemed too normal after what had happened so recently. It almost felt wrong, but with Naruto beside him, it almost felt right.
Naruto turned to look at the black-haired Uchiha, earning another judgemental look from the black haired boy.
Naruto didn't say anything, he just used his strong grip on the Uchiha to drag him to the desk beside the window and forcefully seat him between him and Hinata.
Hyūga, Uchiha, Uzumaki; what a strange assortment of family names.
The boy was about to leave the weirdos of the class alone before he realised the immense comforting air the radiated off the two.
The warm feeling was directed at him and his eyes and stature became fragile. It wasn't like the pity he'd been avoiding the last few weeks - it was sincere and an affirmation of 'We're here.' He felt tears flitter to his eyes, just like the night that set everything off, the night he dearly wanted to forget.
Hinata saw the sorrow in the Uchiha, unsure of how or why it was there, but as she noted that Naruto hadn't let go of the boy's hand, she went to clasp his other.
They stayed like that for a while, until the eldest boy in their trio started letting his tears fall.
Naruto let go of the Uchiha's hand to embrace him, burying the boy's head of black hair into his chest. Hinata decided that Naruto had brought the Uchiha towards her for a reason, instead of its comforting him on his own, so she shuffled closer to the pair and let the weight of her side act like a weighted blanket.
"Don't worry, Sasuke. No one will see us. Let it all out, Sasuke, it'll be better that way, Sasuke." Naruto whispered sweet nothings into the boy's ears, repeating his name over and over to keep the older child grounded after his ordeal.
There was something in the way Naruto spoke to him, the emotion he held back. Sasuke felt the warmth that engulfed him and relished in it; it was almost as though they were his parents and while he knew his father would never do such a thing, his elder brother most certainly would have once upon a time. The thought of his family made his cheeks soak themselves with the salty fluid leaving his eyes.
He sniffled and buried himself further in Naruto's chest. His two classmates were so willing to help him and he couldn't understand why, but he accepted their pitiless consolation.
By the time the other students had started filing in, Sasuke's eyes had begun to clear of their bloodshot colour.
Naruto and Hinata held his hands beneath the desk, occasionally tightening their grip whenever someone got within a desk's length away.
Two girls were the most notable of their age group: Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. They were both deeply infatuated with Sasuke, obsessing over him and giving a bad name to the kunoichi of their year. Ino was actually a relatively interesting person, if not meanspirited like many other children - she respected Sasuke enough to mostly watch him from a distance, though not creepily, and fight for his affection with other girls. Sakura was the real problem. She didn't seem to have any control over her tongue, she was bordering on stalker-ish and she didn't seem to have any sense of social cues.
When Ino saw Sasuke sitting at a full desk, she was pouty about it, but she went to go sit somewhere else. Sakura was a different story.
"NARUTO-BAKA!"
Sakura stomped her way to the back of the classroom and placed herself in front of Naruto, practically screaming her head off at him.
If Naruto was irked by the fact that Sakura called him an idiot, he didn't show it, but he did show great distain when she told him to, not so politely, move to a different seat.
Sakura was relentless and Sasuke looked to intervene, but he was halted as Naruto gave a small squeeze of his hand and let go.
Naruto abruptly stood up, leaned over the desk and used his middle finger to push Sakura back by her chest. Sakura was greatly offended as Naruto subtly pointed out the part of herself she was most self conscious about.
Sasuke took this time to speak up. Naruto could only watch.
Sasuke stood up, reaching a height a few inches above Naruto. Naruto could barely hear him over his surprise, only watch in vain as Sasuke mouthed words. They seemed loud, with large gestures and furrowed eyebrows. Hinata later spoke of the anger Sasuke had spoken with, proudly defending him, driving Sakura to tears. Sakura blamed Naruto, thinking he'd somehow brainwashed 'her Sasuke-kun.' She left in anger, storming away to sit next to two civilian-born children.
Naruto was suddenly hit by a flurry of sounds as Sasuke sat back down, making his grip his ears. Sasuke and Hinata gave him concerned glances. Not wanting to worry them, he gave them a wide smile and sat down.
Hinata and Sasuke glanced at their classmate again before their teacher walked in.