Chapter 26
Part 1
The closet was claustrophobic. Sometimes it felt like I could not even breathe in there despite that it was a lattice door. There was no way of telling how long I had been detained since I had lost track of time a while ago. The kicking, punching and screaming never bore fruit. No one had come to my rescue. I just sat there, desolated.
By the time someone finally came to remove the padlock, I was so distressed that I had not even noticed my freedom had been returned.
"Are you alright?" The soft voice came through to me with ease and I looked up with teary eyes at the yellow haired janitor who stood right before me.
I was not sure if I could trust that man. I had seen him around school a million times, but that did not mean he was different from the others. And why should he be? Even the janitor was more acknowledged than I was.
But the prudent smile he flashed eventually persuaded a diminutive nod out of me.
I sniffed before taking the hand he graciously offered and he dragged me to my feet in one effortless motion.
"What happened?" he asked, squatting down in front of me. For some reason, I did not feel as distrustful towards him as I did towards most others, though I still could not make myself say the words.
Suddenly, a hand lay on the top of my head, caressing my hair in a reassuring manner I had never experienced before. His eyes were examining me and I was sure he took note of the exsuccous spit on my faded clothes.
The janitor's lips parted purportedly to utter something, but my stomach manifested its malcontent impatience before the yellow haired man could even make a sound. He looked at me in amusement as he stood up straight again.
"Sounds like your belly could use some ice cream, don't you think?" A shameful blush dusted my cheeks a bright red when he confirmed that he had noticed my stomach's complaint.
Why was this man inviting me out for ice cream? People usually just laughed at me whenever my tummy growled. It was not even aberrant for them to ask – with a mocking tone dominating their vocalism – if the guardians at the orphanage did not feed me properly. In fact, they took every possible chance they got to remind me that I did not have any parents, unlike them.
"I just have to fix the lights in here, then I'm done, okay?" I nodded, not knowing what else to do.
He asked me to turn off the lights for him. After that, he explained to me how everything worked. What every wire meant and led back to. What made the light bulb give out light. Why there were different types of light bulbs and all sorts of things no one had ever cared to teach me about. I had not even asked, he told me everything out of his own free will.
Whenever he looked down at me, he chuckled before turning his attention back to the ceiling. In the beginning, I did not understand what was so funny, but later I understood that the fascinated, almost enchanted look on my face must have looked pretty funny given the situation. I was probably the first one ever to pay attention to his work. But why would not I? He was the first one to pay attention to me too.
He finished off the last light and went down from his ladder, putting on a satisfied smile when I turned on the lights again to check if his work had been successful.
"Thanks for the help. You and I make a great team, don't you think so?" That was probably the biggest compliment anyone had ever given me.
But why was he the one thanking me? I should be the one thanking him because to tell the truth, he had taught me more in those few minutes we had spent together than any of my teachers ever had. Even if I would never understand all the things he told me, he still took the time to explain things a second if he could see that I was lost. No one ever explained things twice to me.
"Ready to go for that ice cream?" He folded up the ladder and took it under one arm, glancing at me while doing so. I did not answer, only stood gawking at him stupidly.
He, of course, could not help but laugh, but not in that vicious or derisive way everyone else did it. He sounded... halcyon?
With a friendly push to the back, he directed me towards the door.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Hey, Iruka-chan!" I was running down the school hall when someone familiar shouted my name. Quickly, I turned on my heels and I immediately locked eyes with the yellow haired janitor, Minato, who stood waving a few meters away from me. "Wanna go to the park with me after school today?"
"O-Okay," I stammered and glanced up at the hall watch. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I'm late already." I bowed before running off towards my classroom. Minato shouted something like 'see ya' later!', but there was no time for me to turn around and reply to him.
Once I entered the classroom, I had worked up a good sweat from spurting all the way from the orphanage to the school. My ponytail was a mess, there were sweat spots on my shirt and my face was completely red.
"Late... again."
I bowed to my teacher and apologized while still trying to catch my breath. "I'm s-sorry, Sasori-sensei. I-I promise it wo-won't happen again." All of my classmates started snickering when I stuttered, but that was nothing new so I simply tried not to let it bother me even though it did and they were fully aware of it. Hiding my feelings had always been a big challenge to me.
"You say that every time, but when's it gonna happen? Have you no respect for your fellow students?" My red haired teacher glared at me furiously and I did not know what to respond.
If there was one thing he could not stand, it was to be kept waiting. He always told me that it was disrespectful to show up in the middle of class and interrupt my classmates concentration just because I did not know the clock. I knew the clock and I was not trying to be disrespectful, but that was what Sasori told me and since I was only a kid and I did not have any parents, there was no way I could ever confront him with those things. I just had to stand and take whatever he threw at me.
"What, you can't even answer when being asked something?" He shook his head in disbelief and motioned for me to go to my seat. He was not going to let me disrupt class more than I already had.
With my chin pressed against my chest in defeat, I made my way through the classroom, but when I got to a certain bandana wearing boy's seat, a foot tripped me and I fell to floor, dropping all of my stuff.
Everyone started laughing and Sasori turned around to look at my pathetic body that lay spread across the floor. "What now?!" he yelled angrily.
"Iruka tripped himself, sensei," Mizuki said with a wide smile crossing his face as our eyes met. I hated that guy. He was the popular one who rarely got into any trouble because his head was too far up most our teachers' asses for them to notice that he was actually the one always causing a fuss. But if a teacher like Sasori, who did not take sides with any of the students, tried to complain about Mizuki, his rich father always managed to "talk some sense into the principle," as Mizuki would proudly state whenever it had happened over the years.
"He seems to be doing that a lot around your table lately." The suppressed tone Sasori spoke in was easily understood by all the students. He always tried to hold himself back since his fits of anger had nearly cost him his job several times already. "Why don't you come and sit by my desk for the rest of the lesson? Maybe then Umino-chan will finally stop interrupting my class."
Mizuki looked like he was being treated unfairly and Sasori probably already knew that he was going to have one of those long talks with the fair haired boy's father again. How Sasori managed to still be employed was a mystery to everyone. He had to have an even stronger personality than we all thought.
I gathered my things and sat down at my seat, receiving deadly glares from Mizuki who had switched places with Kotetsu who usually sat next to the teacher's desk so they could keep an eye on him. He had played one too many pranks on Sasori and afterward the red haired teacher had went to the principle and convinced her the seat he had given Kotetsu should be permanent and apply to all classes – even the ones he did not teach. Sasori could be strict and that usually was not a benefit for me, but in cases like Kotetsu's, it was. At least after being given that seat, he was not able to play pranks on me anymore. I seemed to be his favorite target and with Mizuki being seated next to him, the platinum blond only got Kotetsu even more riled up on the idea of tormenting me.
After class, I went to meet up with Minato, but he was not ready to go yet and told me I should just wait for him outside on the playground.
When I had sat alone on the swing for around five minutes, a girl from class walked up to me. I stared at her, waiting for her to say something, but she only stared right back. I could not figure what it was she wanted since we had nothing in common and that was actually our first encounter. Well, not exactly. But it was our first encounter without any of her friends being around.
She looked a little pale, though I did not think she was sick. Rather frightened or something?
"Are... Are you o-okay, Ha-Hana-chan?" I asked, getting off the swing. That was when I noticed she was slightly taller than me. Actually, that was not such a big surprise since most girls were taller than all the boys in my class. One of our teachers had told us that it was because girls went into puberty faster than boys, but we never knew if he was telling us the truth or not since he immediately changed the subject when Izumo asked what puberty was.
"I'm okay," she answered and bit her lip. Why was she being so strange? Hana Inuzuka was not one to talk loudly, but she had never been the shy type either. "Iruka-chan..." She paused and looked down at her feet. When she looked up again, her cheeks had gone pink. "Can I talk with you alone for a second?"
I took a look around us. There only were a couple of children from the daycare center present and they were all the way over at the sandbox. Why did not she consider this private enough?
"Uhm... O-Okay." She sent me that pretty smile that was usually only reserved for Izumo. I went weak at the knees within a few seconds. Why was she smiling at me like that? She had never done it before so why now? And she was so pretty. None of the pretty girls ever deigned me a single look.
"Cool." She took my hand and pulled me towards the janitor's workshop. Did she also know that Minato was not there at the moment? I only wondered about that for a moment because suddenly I found it hard to concentrate. Her hand was so warm and soft. I could not keep myself from giving it a small squeeze. Luckily, she did not seem to notice.
She finally glanced back at me after having been dragged along her for almost a full minute. Our hands were perspiring by the time she let go of it. I was a little disappointed, to say the least. In that short period of time we had walked together, my hand had already started feeling comfortable in hers. I did not want to let go, but it was too late to cling to it.
For a moment we stood without saying anything. I was primarily sending the floor awkward gazes until she finally spoke and I looked back up at her. She looked so mild. Those big, almost black eyes shyly glancing at me from time to time.
"I want to tell you something, Iruka-chan." She smiled bashfully and looked down at the floor like I had done. "I like you. And... I want to be your girlfriend." At that moment, it felt like I had gotten struck by lightning. My heart started beating faster, my palms went even sweatier and it felt like I was on the verge of passing out. Was she saying what I thought she was? She could not.
I swallowed hard, staring at her like it would mean the end of the world if I looked away. There was only one but. "Yo-You like Izumo," I stated, feeling stupid for saying it out loud. Why was that the only thing I could come up with when a girl had just declared her love to me? Was it because she was the first one my age to ever show any genuine interest in me? It was just so overwhelming and she was so pretty. I could never even hope to hold a candle to her.
She seemed rather offended by my sudden statement and put on a pout, pretending like she was not blushing madly. "I don't like Izumo!" How had she gone from gentle and loving to that angry in so little time? Why was she even getting mad over it if she did not like him?
"Oh... I-I'm sorry. I mu-must have misunderstood."
"Yeah and I already told you it's you I like. So do you wanna be my boyfriend or not?" She was getting impatient and since this was my first chance ever at making friends with one from my class, I should not waste it on stuttering incoherent things. She was right after all. If she liked me, she could not like Izumo too, right?
"O-okay." My cheeks felt hotter than ever and I was afraid that I would stop being able to breathe at any minute. I had a girlfriend; I could not wait to tell Minato about it!
She finally put on a smile again and my knees went right back into that wobbly state. "Good. Do you know how to kiss?"
I looked at her with amazement. Kiss? I had never given kissing any thought since I had never been close to getting a girlfriend. I knew some practiced in front of the mirror and things like that, but I had not practiced. Now what?! Would she be disappointed? She had probably kissed lots of boys before. I was so inexperienced. I had not prepared for something like kissing. How embarrassing!
The confusion must have been written all over my face because suddenly she said, "You do know couples kiss, right?"
"Of co-course," I answered quickly. If I ended up scaring her away, I would hate myself forever.
"Alright. So, do you know how to kiss? If you don't that's totally okay." With a head shake, I ignominiously admitted that I had never been kissed or kissed anyone in my entire life.
I was happy to discover that she did not seem less impressed even if I had not.
"Fine, I'll show you then. First you have to close your eyes." I did as told immediately, my body nearly trembling with excitement. "Cover your eyes with your hands." That second thing sounded a little odd. I had seen people kiss before and I did not remember ever seeing someone with their hands covering their eyes. But maybe Hana was just shy and wanted to make sure that I did not look when we kissed. Nevertheless, I did as she said.
Seconds felt like minutes and I was slowly getting restive. I wanted to tell her to hurry, but I knew you were not supposed to say something like that to a lady so I kept my mouth shut and instead wished that she would not keep me in such suspense.
"Now, pucker up," she demanded lightly, letting her hand brush down my arm for a fleeting moment. Her touch was enough to send chills down my spine and give me goosebumps all over my body.
How did she even manage the waiting time herself? I was so nervous I could burst. In a way, I was not even sure what excited me the most; the fact that I was about to get my first kiss or that I could tell Minato about it afterward?
Finally, I felt something wet and smooth against my lips. Perhaps too wet and smooth? I had felt my own lips before with my fingers and that was definitely not what it felt like. Without thinking further about it, I opened my eyes and parted my fingers so I could peek out from behind my hands. It was a nauseating sight that met me.
With a shriek, I jumped backwards and looked around myself in surprise. They were all there. Everyone from my class... and they were laughing.
"Man, I really thought that would've worked!" Mizuki complained, taking a step towards me while practically showing my kissing buddy back into my face. "I guess you're not even good enough to be a real princess," he stressed the last word in the most mocking tone he had ever spoken to me.
I felt tears making their way to my eyes as I tried to get the sticky goo off my lips with the sleeve of my shirt. Mizuki dropped the frog on the ground and it jumped away as fast as it could.
"So, how was it, Iruka? I hope it was good because we're all pretty disappointed that you weren't able to turn that frog into a prince. We figured there was something someone like you would be good at, but no, you couldn't even pull this off." I turned my back to him and tried to keep my tears from falling all while choking on the sobs that were gathering as a lump in my throat. It hurt, but I did not want to cry.
"Leave me alone," I bleated, being taken by surprise when Mizuki shoved me so hard that I fell to the ground, scraping my knee against the asphalt in the process.
"What did you say? You shouldn't talk to me like that. Especially not when I just helped you get your first kiss! You would never have gotten one if I had not been here!"
"I bet the frog is throwing up right now!" Kotetsu joked, the entire class burst out laughing.
"Please, just go away!" Mizuki was not happy about my protest and decided to pick up a rock and throw it at me.
"Stop being ungrateful, Iruka!" he shouted and threw another. I held my arms protectively up in front my face and shrank together as everyone else followed his example.
"You don't belong here!"
"Nobody would ever want to kiss you!"
"Poor frog, I feel sorry for it!"
"Stop it, please!" I cried, cringing whenever a rock hit me.
"Hey, he's coming!" Izumo yelled suddenly and everyone fled from the scene.
I could no longer keep my emotions contained. Tears flowed down my face, sobs escaped loudly. Why me? I never did anything to make them mad and yet I was the only one they desired to anguish. Was it because I was an easy victim?
Snot irked me when trickling down my philtrum so I wiped it away and sniffled hard to prevent it from happening again.
"Iruka-chan?" I did not want him to see me in that state again. His words were always comforting, but he the look he gave me were so filled with pity and it only made me want to cry even harder.
When he tried to get eye contact with me, I promptly hid behind my arms.
Before I could react, he picked me up from the ground and went inside his workshop. He placed me on a chair and he immediately began to cleanse the newly acquired wound on my knee. For a long time, the only thing breaking the silence were my occasional sobs, which slowly began to fade while he treated my broken skin. Everything felt less hurtful when he was around.
"You shouldn't let them do this to you," he said calmly, making me look down at him. He was not looking at me, only focusing on my knee. "They won't stop until you draw the line. Start fighting back a little."
I sniffled and shifted around a little on the chair until he placed a hand on my thigh, indirectly asking me to sit still. "What do you me-mean?"
"If they say something hurtful, do the same to them. If they hit you, return the favor. I don't see anything wrong with that. After all they have done to you, a dab would only be in its right place."
"So... You want me to hi-hit Mizuki?" The wound stung when Minato applied a Band-Aid to it. The yellow haired man the got up from his kneeling position and looked down at me.
"You shouldn't injure him or anything. Just don't submit to their teasing so easily. They will never show you respect if you don't give them a reason to do so."
I nodded understandingly and he gave my hair an affectionate ruffle.
A few month later, I had been in a physical fight with Kotetsu, verbal quarrel with Izumo and answered back at Mizuki. I was sent home after both the first and second incident. The latter did not end that way. It had a similar ending to the times before Minato taught me how to fight and answer back, but I did not take it too hard because Minato had also taught me not to listen to their hurting words. It did not always work to ignore them, though. Sometimes they were still able to reach me – Mizuki in particular – but I did not cry as much anymore and so I felt proud of myself. Hana even came to apologize to me, but I knew she could not be trusted so I told her I did not care. She was not going to play anymore tricks on me. I was strong now. I was more confident than ever.
oOoOoOoOoOo
Whoop, whoop! Guess who's getting faster at updating! Yes, I am xD!
Normally, I don't use the (oOoOoOoOo) unless we have reached the end (A/N). I only use (oOo) when the time skips. But since these time skips and the ones there will be in the next chapter are WAY bigger skips than the usual (oOo) implies, I'll be using the (oOoOoOoOo)
- if you get what I mean xD?
You wanna hear something annoying? I just went through ALL the chapters of Anything Else? with Adamantyne to correct them for mistakes and such. Now guess what. The corrections we made were NOT saved... I was on the verge of exploding when discovering that so I have to go through everything again – which means all the mistakes won't be corrected anytime soon. They will sometime, though, so sorry for any new readers who had to go through that load of shit; better known as all the previous chapters of this fic. I'm very sorry!
I also have good news, though, at least for the ones who follow this fic and wants to get on with it *sweatdrop* hehe xD
Wait for it... Wait for it...
Yes! I'm gonna update either later today (since it's past 12 o'clock at my place and therefore already Sunday xD) or I'm gonna update first thing Monday.
Next up: Chapter 27: Iruka's past – part 2. (Final part, by the way xD)
Issuing a challenge to my readers:
The more reviews (and votes on my Anything Else? poll) I get, the faster the update is gonna come.
Challenge accepted?
- I'm just curious to just how many are actually reading this fic. Especially because the hits count can be very misleading. And I'm always VERY curious to know what you think of the story and if there's anything I could do better and so on *-*
Aaaand because I was just a pleading whiner, I'm gonna make up for it by writing on the 28th chapter right away. Does that help? Does that make me less of a loser/annoying whiner?
- probably not -_-' But anyway, the next chapter is written and will be published VERY soon and the 28th chapter is already in progress. I hope now that you can forgive me for totally slacking this fic for the past months. Gomen!
Just two more things, then I'm done, promise!
**First of all, I was searching around DeviantArt here the other day and found something very interesting... Someone made a freaking piece of fanart for Anything Else?!
Here's the link (without the dashes, obviously) h-t-t-p-:-/-/-fav-.-me-/-d56j4j0
I'm so honored that you can't even put it into words just how honored I am! I just wish she would have told me since I would never want to miss out on something like this! (- not because she needs my permission or anything! Feel free to draw Iruka from Anything Else? It's Kishimoto and not me who owns him so it's not like I have any power in that matter anyway xD!) Thanks for making this incredible piece of art, Zanezell155. You're amazing :D!**
Oh, I also made my own fanart for Anything Else? a long time ago so if you wanna have a look, here's the link: h-t-t-p-:-/-/-fav-.-me-/-d508wt2
Second, Adamantyne finally published another one shot in English called "Luxuria" with Shikamaru and Hinata as the head characters. You should check it out. I can't even begin to tell you how much I look up to her as an author *-* Her English is way better than mine, unfortunately for some*cough* me *cough* and he stories are always so interesting to read. Our new English teacher are probably gonna hate us once school starts again. I'm more combative than ever so look out, Adamantyne! English class will now be our battlefield xD