Studies and Half-Melodies

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Author's Note: I have a guitar concert tomorrow and I'm nowhere near ready. Argh. Hopefully, this'll help keep my mind off it. And it's only one month till my birthday! Woo!

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"Ever notice how DYING is at the end of STUDYING?"-Anonymous

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"How in the name of hell did you become a tutor?!"

"Ya know, I don't think that's a subject. But to answer the question, I got signed up for it. Apparently my great-aunt decided that I should have something better to do with my time. And I ask my question again-why do you need tutoring?"

"American Government." Sasuke told him grudgingly, pulling the textbook from his bag.

"You've got Ebisu right? Guy can't teach it for nothing. Answering questions in the book everyday never taught nobody nothing. Now where's Iruka keeping his Expo markers?" Naruto dug through the drawers of the music teacher's desk before checking the piano. Iruka spent a lot of time at the piano with helping kids tune and with teaching them their songs, no matter what instrument they played. "How does he find these things?"
"Maybe he takes them home?" Iruka suggested from the doorway, tossing a box of markers at the blonde.

The bright blue box sailed through the air, narrowly missing Naruto's face before his hand shot out and grabbed it. "Maybe that too. I thought you went home already?"

"I was supposed to. Then Kakashi asked me for a ride home because his car broke down, so I gotta wait for him. Make sure you put those on my desk when you're done. And good luck, Sasuke." Iruka told them as he left the room.

"Alright, let's see if we can get anything through all that gel, Uchiha." Naruto took an eraser and erased the entire board, having to get on his tiptoes to reach the very top. "Let's start basic, America's got a federal government and they've got three main branches: Legislative, executive and judicial."

"I know that. Although you need some work with your handwriting."

"Hey, I'm short. I know it. I'm tryin' to write on the very top of this and the nearest chair is the one you're sitting in."

"You have bad handwriting either way." Sasuke pointed out. "kakashi's always saying so."

Naruto gave him a disbelieving look. "The guy can barely write, in case you didn't notice."

"Neither can you."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "You're so mature."

"Never claimed I was. You simply thought so. Now, you wanna learn this or not?"

Sasuke glared at him, but stopped protesting. He refused to take this class for another year. He'd failed it once already. Although he had to admit, the blonde was pretty good at explaining things. His diagrams were filled with startlingly straight lines done without a ruler and he used a lot of metaphors. Sasuke wondered if this is how he had learned it.

-?-?-?-?

"How was the tutoring?"

Naruto looked up at his great-aunt Tsunade. Tsunade wasn't really his great-aunt, but she'd been a close friend of his parents and had taken custody of him when they'd passed away. She was blonde, much like him except it wasn't as bright. It was closer to honey-colored. Her hazel eyes were sharp for a woman of her age, despite the fact that she didn't look like she was fifty-something. She must've just gotten home because she was still in her hospital uniform.

"Better than it could've been. I'm tutoring a kid named Uchiha."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. She must've recognized the name. Everyone in town did. They remembered the accidental fire eight years ago, the one that had killed the Uchiha mansion. She'd been on duty that night, treating burns and making sure there was no post-traumatic stress.

"The younger one? Sasuke? He seemed very smart to me. I don't see why he would need tutoring."

"He's had Ebisu as a teacher the last two years for American Government. Everyone needs help whose got him." Naruto explained, reaching up for a cup of ramen.

"Don't even think about eating the instant stuff. Jiraiya's supposed to be bringing food."

Naruto rolled his eyes and let his hand move to the fruit bowl on the counter. Tsunade wasn't a health nut, like so many people assumed. She was fine with him eating the stuff, so long as he made sure to eat some healthy stuff too. And besides, she had sake every day. No one could say that was healthy. Grabbing a peach, he washed it and climbed the stairs to his room.

He'd been given the loft to use as a room in their small apartment. He'd never minded though. The loft was roomy enough and Jiraiya had set up his bookshelves to use as a wall for him for some privacy, despite the fact that there was no door. The bookshelves were filled to the brim, and then some with books in stacks downstairs, on his nightstand and on his windowsill. A good half of them weren't his, Jiraiya being a writer and keeping copies of his 'brilliant novels.' Naruto had flipped through some of them and had only snapped them shut before throwing them at the old pervert's head. Jiraiya wasn't a bad man, just a perv.

His bed was pushed against the far wall, beside his window for the best light to read by. Its faded duvet of foxes and large oak trees looked as inviting as it ever did as Naruto fell back on it. The bed squeaked and was rather squishy, but that was the way Naruto liked it. He couldn't imagine it any other way. His eyes traveled to his posters on the walls. One was of April Sixth, a favorite band of his, another of Santana who, in Naruto's opinion, was one of the best guitarists ever made by man. Papers were taped on the walls, tablature written in his neatest hand spreading across them. Naruto had been unable to find a music stand and had used the next best thing. His guitar leaned against the wall, light wood on the top and darker wood along the sides and back. The rosette was lined in dark green leaves and red and orange candle flames inside. Jiraiya had found the guitar special for his fifteenth birthday, telling him that it would've been a coming of age gift from his parents. It was carefully polished each morning and every night, a kind of ritual that helped clear his mind.

Tsunade had gotten him an electric keyboard to help him with his piano. The keyboard doubled as a desk and had his textbooks stacked beside it and papers tossed haphazardly around it. Naruto eyed his Global History textbook. He had an essay due tomorrow, but he decided to leave it. He wasn't in the mood to write a three page essay. Then again, when was he ever?

-?-?-?-?

"New lab partners?" the words were echoed across the room in disbelief.

"Stop complaining the lot of you." Yamato's voice cut sharply across their protests. "Change is good for you guys. Your names are on post-its that have been taped to the tables. If you untape them, I'll know. Just sit and do this lab with no complaints. It's not even difficult .You're just looking at different animals' cells."

The class groaned. Cells weren't exactly exciting, but they all reluctantly to their feet, scanning the tabletops for their names. Naruto found his right by a sink and sank into the stool. His eyes flicked up when a familiar someone sat beside him.