Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own the story idea.
As a present to those of you who read this, I made this chapter longer! Hope you enjoy.
Behind This mask
Becoming the damsel
Naruto walked into the classroom only a few moments after the final bell rang, indicating to the students that class was starting. He was in no rush though. His Language Arts teacher, Kakashi-sensei, was always late. Naruto had the theory that as long as you are in the classroom before the teacher, then you are most definitely not late. And just as expected, when he sat in his desk, Kakashi-sensei was no where to be seen. Oddly enough though, there was a young girl standing beside his desk looking rather flustered as she played with her finger tips and lightly blushed when most of the classes attention was directed at her.
Before someone had the chance to question her presence aloud, Kakashi-sensei slipped through the door as though he was on time.
"Good morning class." His energetic voice broke the stares of the students as they directed their attention toward him.
"You're late!" One of the students pointed out.
"And you're a complete moron." Naruto muttered to no one in particular. If this kid figured that he could state the obvious, why couldn't Naruto?
"Sorry I was late class," Kakashi began as the class let out an exasperated sigh in perfect unison. Here comes his lame excuse. What would it be this time? Old lady crossing the road and had a heart attack, so he had to carry her 30 miles on his back, and perform open-heart surgery because the on-call surgeon was currently absent? Nope, he used that one last week.
"The American CIA needed my help in a mob raid, where I risked my life to exploit the crimes of the world's biggest mob bosses after they kidnapped the President's daughter. Just as they were giving my medal and the key to the city I suddenly remembered that it was Monday in Japan. So I raced over here on the private jet that the President let me borrow. I got here as soon as I could. I guess that I was only a few moments late though, huh?" The very fact that he had managed to say this with an absolute straight face made Naruto want to laugh.
"He's lying straight through his teeth." Naruto thought to himself. "Either he thinks we are absolute morons, and we will believe him, or he has seriously run out of lies." Naruto finished with a roll of his eyes. Somehow the young girl that was still standing at the side of his desk caught eyes with him for a brief moment before blushing profusely and looking in the other direction. He used the opportunity to look her over. She was of average height, too young to be a TA, so by reasonable deduction he concluded that she was a new student. She had on a large out-of-season coat that covered her body down to her upper thigh. Her blue Jean Capri's ended slightly above her thin ankles. Her knees were locked so she was, nervous? She had to be a new student. Her idiosyncratic way of nervously tapping the tips of her fingers together and the blush that was still evident on her face gave her away completely.
"That's right class! I almost forgot to mention something." Kakashi-sensei's booming voice broke Naruto's analysis. He must have noticed him staring.
"As you can plainly see, there is a new student at the front of the class. Now, I was gonna play 'Which of these students doesn't belong' but I believe in your brain capacity, so I guess that we will skip and go straight to the introduction. Sound good?" He finished with a reassuring glance toward the new student.
"M-my name is H-Hinata Hyuuga. It is v-very nice to be here." Her voice was barely audible as she stuttered and looked down at her feet when she saw that all eyes were on her. The guys must have thought that her shyness was cute, because a couple of them made quiet catcalls, which in turn made her blush even more.
"Now tell us a little about yourself." Kakashi gave her a gentle nudge forward. "There is no reason to be so shy. I promise that they won't bite. Well everyone except Aoshi, but I promise, he has had all of his shots." His attempt to lighten the mood seemed to have worked; as she took another step forward, lifted her head more, and spoke up just a tad. Her eyes caught him off guard. How had he not noticed her eyes before? They were completely different from most peoples. Her eye pupils were nearly invisible, and Naruto couldn't help but wonder if she was blind. Her eyes were a light moonlight silver. They seemed to illuminate her facial features and gave her skin a soft and gentle look. One that most definitely seemed to fit her soft-spoken personality.
Of all the girls in the entire school, she seemed to be real. No, that doesn't make any sense. What was he trying to say? It seemed as though she was true to herself. Like she exposed herself and her personality to everyone. She wasn't like the other girls that acted cutesy when they first got here. And it was that thought alone that made Naruto believe that he could finally be cool with someone. Someone that wouldn't bother him with their fake gestures of kindness that always had an ulterior motive behind them. This girl could probably be a true friend.
"I moved here with my f-father and little sister. I used to go to Obashi High School. We moved for…..p-personal reasons. I hope that I can become good friends with all of you." She looked as though she had mustered up as much courage as she possibly could and gave a heavy bow after bringing her hands together in a light grasp.
Personal reasons? Had she gotten into a little trouble back at her old school? Naruto wondered.
Kakashi-sensei's face went from a serious look to a gentle smile, which was slightly odd. Naruto thought that he must have been thinking something along the same lines.
"Alright. See? That wasn't so painful. Now you may take your seat." Kakashi motioned his hand to the room. She just stood there, looking unsure of where to seat herself. A group of boys in the back chuckled.
"You can sit here by us, sweetie." One of them spoke up while patting the seat next to him.
"You sure about that Kiba? I don't think you need another sexual harassment charge, on top of the several restraining orders filed against you." Naruto announced with a smirk on his face. Kiba's face turned red with anger.
"You," He began, thrusting a finger in Naruto's direction. ", Can shut the heck up loser." He finished lamely.
"Good comeback there. Take you a few hours to think that one up? If you want I will let you go and google some good comebacks. It's alright, I can wait." He finished, while the class let out an uproar of laughter.
"Well Uzumaki-San, since you seem so worried about her seating placement, I guess that she can have a seat next to you." Kakashi-sensei's mocking smile blocked his line of vision.
" I think that she would be better of next to Kiba!" one of the other students pointed out, which caused the students to laugh even harder. Naruto's eyes darkened for a brief moment as he realized how much he truly hated putting on a show for these people. He instantly changed back. That little slip up was much too quick for anyone to notice.
"Remember Naruto, you have to remain like an oblivious moron." His inner voice chanted in his head.
He gave a big toothy grin, before forcing out a laugh. Kakashi motioned for Hinata to sit in the seat next to Naruto. She looked at him, and let out a light blush.
"Why does she keep doing that?" He thought to himself as he watched her timidly sit down.
"Well, without further ado, let's finally begin class." Kakashi said as he walked over toward the white board. Naruto kept feeling glares sent to the back of his head. Wait. Wasn't Kiba one of Sasuke's friends? Oh crap.
He was so lost in thought that the minutes seemed to tick by in a matter of seconds. The bell rang as the students began to leave and the shuffling of papers broke his concentration.
"Now remember class, the poem is due tomorrow. It can be on anything, and it doesn't necessarily have to rhyme!" His voice gradually became louder as more of his students began spilling into the hallway.
Poem? What poem? How long had he been tuned out? Oh well. It wasn't as though he really did his homework all that often anyway. He packed up his backpack and left the classroom, with the unfading feeling of eyes watching his every move. He shrugged it off and continued on his way to History class with his favorite teacher, Iruka-sensei.
This class was pretty much an easy 'A' in Naruto's book, yet even the "Bright" kids seemed to have trouble with it. It was very simple learning about foreign culture. For the past couple of days they had been studying America and its history. Half of the class was still struggling with the understanding of the country's legal system, while the other half was having trouble grasping how it had gotten its independence.
"Now class, lets review a little of what we have learned so far." Iruka-sensei said through all of the groans of his students.
"When was the Declaration of Independence written?" He asked, awaiting anyone's answer.
"1776." Naruto thought to himself.
"Umm…1969?" One unsure and completely incorrect voice spoke.
"Idiot. That was when America's Apollo 11 mission became the first manned landing on the Moon." Naruto muttered under his breath, thankfully no one noticed.
"No. That was when America's Apollo 11 mission became the first manned landing on the Moon." Iruka-sensei quoted perfectly. "The Declaration was signed on July 4th, 1776 by most of the chosen delegates of each colony in the Second Continental Congress, to declare their freedom from Great Britain." He said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "In most cases, a teacher would throw a pop quiz at you guys for your lax behavior and utter lack of study skills. Either that or they would go over everything again…"He said as the students moaned. "But I don't feel like going over that boring crap again, so I guess that we should have a vote about what to do seeing as I'm so unsure." he continued. "How many of you think that we should completely ditch class, go outside and just chill out?" He asked, when everyone raised his or her overly eager hands he went to the next question.
"Now, how many of you realized that each of your votes counts as only 1/100th of a half, and that mine counts as 27 votes?" He asked as he raised his solo hand. "Sorry, majority rules. Now open your textbooks and read Chapter 12 again." He laughed as he walked toward his desk. The students joined him in a hearty laughter as they somehow found themselves opening their textbooks with smiles on their faces.
School seemed to end rather quickly after Iruka-sensei's class. His other classes, Science, Foreign language, and Algebra, seemed to have gone by quickly. He made his way toward the double doors that signified freedom for most students as they eagerly raced home to their awaiting families. Naruto found it easy to drag his feet. He didn't really have much to look forward to so he slowed his pace even further, all the while thinking that he was forgetting something.
He never noticed when he was suddenly pushed from behind. His feet managed to keep him from face planting on the floor, but whoever had pushed him, brushed against his ribcage. He let out an inaudible hiss of pain as he turned around to face the attacker. Well this is just great. It was no one other then Kiba.
"Real nice how you made me look stupid in front of the class Uzumaki." He scoffed out Naruto's name.
"Well, I didn't really have to try hard. I think that most of the credit should go to you." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Kiba chuckled lightly and bobbed his head and looked as though he was about to walk away.
Naruto had no chance of knowing the blow was coming as Kiba pivoted on his foot and swung full force at Naruto. From what Naruto understood in science class, an object in motion will stay in motion until an outside force is acted upon it. I'm sure you can figure out which were the variables in this little experiment. The blow from the fist landed directly onto his injured ribcage. The momentum of the hit was transferred to Naruto as he was thrust backward, and his head contacted rather roughly against the concrete.
By now a group of spectators had gathered around to see who was beating up Naruto this time. Adding injuries on top of old injuries never really proves to be such a great idea. Naruto's head began to feel fuzzy as he picked himself up off of the ground. He had had much worse wounds then this, but once again, and injury plus another injury always comes up with the sum of a larger injury. And once again Naruto found himself relating the incident at hand into his school's curriculum.
"Che. And who said that you never use half of the things they teach you in school, in the real world?" Naruto thought as he winced in pain. He looked around and noticed that the number of oncoming spectators began to grow exponentially. The circle of people seemed to be getting tighter and tighter, and it was beginning to suffocate him. He had to get out of there. He could feel blood beginning to drip onto his shoulder. Crap. He reopened the wound that he had just patched up this morning. The students stared wide-eyed at the back of his head.
"Well, THAT is reassuring." Naruto thought. He began to force his way through the crowd. He didn't care where he came up as long as he was far away from the claustrophobic feeling that he was experiencing whilst in the circle. It was considerably easy to get through, seeing as no one was really willing to touch him and his bloodied up head. All the while Kiba was strutting around the circle and showing off his muscles to the crowd that was beginning to disperse, seeing as the fight was over.
Naruto somehow found himself back in front of the school building. He could feel his eyes just begging to be shut as he stumbled up the short staircase. He felt his legs give out on him as the pain in his ribs and on the back of his head became too much. He fell forward with the full expectation of meeting the rough staircase. Needless to say he was surprised when he never came in contact with the stairs, but instead his face met with an extremely soft object. It felt like a fur coat. He glanced up to see a slightly blurred, but gentle-looking face and eyes the color of moonlight looking back at him. A deep blush was set on the person, whose name he couldn't place at the moment, but was oh-so familiar.
"And here I thought that you were the damsel in distress, what with moving here for your 'personal reasons'. Since when did we switch rolls?" Naruto said to himself. At least he thought he did. By the fact that her face got even redder, he was willing to bet that he said that part out loud. He was still searching his brain for her name when his eyelids began to feel heavy and the call of sleep was seducing him into submission. Just before he fell prey to the mistress of slumber, her name ran through his head.
"Hinata." He remembered, as the darkness of a passing out embraced him.
Just so you know, that "Aoishi" kid is utterly and completely made up. I tried to add a little bit of humor in this chapter, I hope that it went appreciated. R&R. Flames are welcome, I plan on improving my writing, so you are free to critisize.
