Just to Survive

By: Xzotic

Chapter 3:

Almost Caught


The next morning, Naruto was slow in getting up and therefore ended up running late for school. He'd spent the entire night on sentry, looking out for that scary guy Kakashi because he could've sworn that the man had followed him back to his hideout. He hadn't slept a wink and had instead cursed himself throughout the night as he fought off the paranoia of being watched by freaky mismatched eyes.

Naruto literally ran through the front doors of Green Leaf just as the homeroom bell rang and declared him officially late.

"Naruto! There you are!"

The blond looked up with droopy bloodshot eyes. It was two days in a row now that he hadn't gotten proper sleep or a decent meal and his body was protesting in every way.

Mr. Iruka stared down at the pitiful sight the boy made, leaning over his knees as his stomach growled audibly. Naruto was, by far, the student he worried about the most. There was just no telling what was going on when a boy didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't take regular showers, and wore almost the same clothes every day.

"Mr. Iruka?" Naruto queried in a very tired, subdued voice.

"I've been waiting for you, Naruto. Actually, I bought a few too many pastries from the bakery this morning. Maybe we can sit down and eat a bit while you tell me why you're late coming in this morning, hmm?"

The only thing Naruto heard was the mention of food and he readily followed the guidance counselor as he began to salivate from the thought of breakfast.

Iruka smiled gently as he led the starving boy into his office and closed the door. "There's a fresh pot of coffee on the shelf over there. Help yourself, Naruto."

Naruto practically flash-stepped over to the counter with the open box of pastries and immediately took a bite out of a huge muffin. "Mmm…" he groaned happily as he chewed, "wha ish vis, Misher Iwooka?"

Iruka Umino chuckled as the blond boy looked up at him with starry eyes and a stuffed mouth. "That, Mr. Uzumaki, would be a banana nut muffin. Have you ever had that before?"

Naruto shook his head and continued to eat in relative silence. Iruka waited patiently for the child to finish his first muffin. He quickly poured a cup of coffee for him when he began to choke from eating too fast and Naruto gave him a grateful smile after he sipped it down.

"Now why don't you start by telling me why you're running late this morning, Naruto."

Naruto looked up just as he was about to bite into a tasty-looking Danish and some of the excitement dimmed from his bright blue eyes. "It was nothing," he answered simply. "I just overslept."

"Did your foster parents realize that you were late for school?" Iruka asked suspiciously.

Naruto took his time to chew an extra large bite of the Danish. "They don't usually worry about such trivial stuff. People oversleep all the time. It was an accident."

"I see. Well, Naruto, Mr. Asuma tells me that you come in late quite often. He also brought to my attention the fact that you came to school last Friday with a bloodstained shirt on."

"My locker gets jammed sometimes. It made me a few minutes late to homeroom a couple of times," Naruto stated evasively. He was steadily avoiding Iruka's questioning eyes.

"And the stained shirt?"

"I'm pretty sure that that was just ketchup, Mr. Iruka. Why would I come to school with blood on my shirt?"

"Why indeed," Iruka sighed. "Naruto, remember what we discussed yesterday? If there is anything going on at home you should not hesitate to tell me. I can help."

Naruto looked over at him with a forced smile. "I still don't know why you're so worried, Mr. Iruka. Nothing's wrong at home."

The blond felt his heart speed up in fear as Iruka peered closely at him.

"It's true that whenever I call your home, Mrs. Mizuki has nothing but good things to say about you. But I can never get the Mizukis to agree to a meeting and you're never home when I call or visit."

Naruto spluttered and spewed coffee out of his mouth just after taking a huge gulp. "Y-you've visited my house?" he shouted incredulously. Did teachers do that?

Iruka cocked his head innocently. "Why, yes Naruto. Several times, in fact. It's standard procedure when teachers and staff are unable to contact a child's parents. Especially in your case when we're dealing with foster care."

Naruto felt like he might start hyperventilating. "U-um… right! Sorry I wasn't there but I must have been um… out with friends!"

"It's funny you should say that, you know… I was actually at your house this morning and your foster parents assured me that you'd already left for school." Iruka tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Imagine my confusion when I see you arriving late when you should've logically been here an hour ago."

The coffee mug slipped out of his boneless hand and Naruto felt his entire world shrinking in size.

"Why were you really late this morning, Naruto? Tell me the truth."

"I'm telling you the truth! I overslept!" Naruto snapped defensively.

"Then explain to me how your foster parents were under the impression that you'd woken up earlier than usual this morning if you, in fact, overslept."

Naruto's mind quickly worked out a plausible explanation. "There's this park a few blocks away. I like to stop there before school sometimes. I fell asleep on a bench there and woke up late, alright?"

Iruka studied the blond boy closely. There was desperation in his sparkling blue eyes begging that he would believe him. That alone was enough proof for Iruka to know that he was lying.

Sighing, Iruka wearily moved to his desk and picked up a pen and pad. "Alright, Naruto. I believe you. Try not to let it happen again." Iruka ignored the obvious relief that came over the youth's face and signed his name on the slip of paper. "Here. Give this to your homeroom teacher then hurry off to your next class."

Naruto quickly snatched the piece of paper and turned to leave immediately.

"And Naruto?" Iruka waited for the boy to glance back uncertainly. "Try not to fall asleep on any park benches in the future. That's quite dangerous, you know."

Naruto furrowed his brow in confusion but turned to leave again without commenting.

Iruka watched the boy go with more than a few reservations. Who knew what Naruto was really getting into. Several scenarios were running through the counselor's head. It was possible that the Mizukis were just as nice as they seemed and maybe Naruto was getting into trouble behind their backs. But Iruka didn't think that was the case. Despite all appearances to the contrary, Iruka believed that Naruto was a really good kid. He would be more than a model student if things were going alright at home. No, Iruka believed that something fishy was up with the Mizukis and Naruto was the innocent one caught up in it.

Iruka slouched into his chair with a sigh. He really wanted to help Naruto but the boy seemed very hesitant to trust anyone.

***

For the rest of the day, Naruto tried to be as invisible as possible. He said not a single word to the crowd of kids making fun of him as he walked outside during lunch. He didn't even twitch when Kabuto gave him one of his most mocking sneers. He even avoided Sakura's somewhat concerned side-glances. His run-in with Mr. Iruka that morning had him freaked.

He could've been found out. Iruka almost saw right through his lie all because he'd had to oversleep this morning of all mornings! That stupid, freaky-eyed scarecrow and his stupid hair! If he hadn't thought that Kakashi had followed him to his hideout last night then he wouldn't have been so paranoid and he wouldn't have overslept this morning!

Naruto tried to hold back the urge to punch something out of frustration as he sat through his last period class in utter silence. He hadn't been listening to a word his professor had been saying all period so he was caught completely off guard when Mr. Ebisu called him to the front of the classroom to work out a math problem.

Fuming silently, Naruto sulked to the front amidst the jeers of several classmates and took the proffered chalk from his frowning algebra teacher. He stared at the problem on the board for a solid minute, trying to remember what he knew about the rules of algebraic problem solving. This stuff seemed so easy when he bothered to look at his school textbook. Deciding he would just solve it the best way he knew how, Naruto began manipulating the equation in his somewhat sloppy handwriting for the entire class to see.

He wrote out four different operations before finally writing 'therefore x = ± 7' in bold print. He stepped back from his work, nodded resolutely and handed the chalk back to his blank-faced teacher before turning to hurry back to his seat. He would hide behind his desk before Mr. Ebisu got a chance to publicly humiliate him for messing it up completely.

"That… that's right!" Mr. Ebisu suddenly exclaimed.

Naruto was halfway to his desk when he heard the astonishing words. He turned back to the math teacher with wide eyes.

"Excellent work, Naruto. I see someone has been studying." Mr. Ebisu cast a condemning look at the rest of the class.

Naruto was still too shocked to move when he felt a small tug on his left sleeve. He looked down to see that he was standing right next to Sakura's desk.

"Great job, Naruto," she whispered with a grin.

At her words, Naruto beamed and continued back to his seat. At least one good thing had happened today, he thought happily.

***

That night, Naruto only stayed at his hideout for one full hour before deciding that he just couldn't feel safe there anymore. If Kakashi had really followed him there then the purpose of the hideout had been compromised. It was time to move on.

It was almost fall so the nights were starting to get colder. He layered on as many clothes as he could and threw on his new black and orange jacket. He took with him his few meager possessions: a flashlight, an old toothbrush, a few crumpled one dollar bills, and of course the new clothes that were already stuffed into his duffel bag.

It was almost midnight before Naruto decided to give up and try his luck in an empty ally. With his back against the wall he felt a modicum of security, huddled into the darkest corner and keeping his ears attuned to the slightest sounds. This would do for now, he thought tiredly and his eyes slowly began to droop closed.

The rest of the week passed in somewhat of a haze. He woke up freezing every morning and his entire body ached from sleeping in such an uncomfortable spot but he managed to make it on time to school each day. He'd resorted to going in early just so he could wash his face and clean his mouth before class. He had to avoid another confrontation with Iruka at all costs. That meant getting proper sleep, making himself look presentable, and being on time. Not to mention the usual no getting into fights or pulling pranks for a while.

Instead of making the guy happy, though, his efforts only seemed to make Iruka more concerned. The man kept looking at him as though he were a small puppy about to be put down and Naruto just tried his best to ignore it. He was more concerned about what was going happen on Friday at noon….

A/N: Whew! This was such a busy week for me. Two test, three quizzes, and lots of homework. Somehow I survived... only to have three professors assign more work for the weekend! Argh! Anywho, such is my life and I'm managing to work with it. I wanted to get this chapter out before crunch time, though. I've really gotten into this story and I'm so glad I have an outline for it, too. What do you guys think so far? I wonder what sort of vibes the readers are picking up on. Please review and tell me your thoughts.

Next update will definitely be next Friday. Maybe even at this same time.