Broken Youth
(Life of Konoha Academy Teens)
CH.3.4:Closer I

As the lunch period came to an ending the halls of high school building began to be flocked with students. They roamed everywhere, some just stood in the hall waiting for their next class while others rushed to retrieve their necessary textbooks form the furthest hall from their next period classroom. No one wished to be late to a class after the lunch period, for they knew that the teachers had most-likely already lost their patience for the day and would punish those who stepped out of line much more harsher than those did in the morning classes.

The group of Konoha and Suna girls which were walking aimlessly throughout the school moments ago, were now walking in the direction of the science class which they all shared. As the girls passed through the long corridor that was located right around the corner from their class; the dark haired girl in the group, who quietly tailing behind the rest, caught a glimpse of something that stunned her from the corner of her lilac-colored eye. The girl departed from the group almost unnoticed and shifted herself in the direction in which the item that caught her attention was located.
She approached the object that obscured her and stopped at the foot of it. The girl had both her hands tightly clutching on the sack in front her, she quivered a little as she leaned forward with a slightly tilted head.
"Naruto-kun?" she said almost as if she were uncertain of his identity. "Are you O-okay?"
Naruto was sitting on the ground with his legs stretched out, his body leaned against the windowed wall behind him and his head was drooping on his chest. With the sound of the voice in front of him Naruto awoke from his slumber. He barely lifted his head and replied with confusion, "Hinata-chan?" When his mind finally realized what had happened, he shook his head then with his widely growing bright blue eyes he gazed at the girl which stood before him. Naruto let out a chuckled, "I really don't how I fell asleep, the last thing I remember was looking out the window, now the next thing I know your calling out my name. Thanks for waking me up Hinata-chan that was really nice of you," Naruto said as he put his palms to the ground and pushed himself up. He did manage to stand up, but only by inclining his body against the wall.
"Oh, no it was nothing Naruto-kun," answered Hinata her face warming as she took a step back.
"You also asked if I was okay? Well, the answer to that is yes, I guess," stated Naruto with a shrug. "I am a bit tired and sore though. After all I did get hit upside the head by a soccer ball not once but twice during lunch, but I'll survive." Naruto tried to show her a reassuring smile yet it didn't look convincing at all.
Hinata wasn't pay attention to his forced smile for she was lost in thought. 'Could it be that? No there's no way, or is there? It's probably just a coincidence. Both Sakura's and Tenten's ball couldn't possibly have hit him or could they?' thought Hinata.
"So, Hinata-chan should we head to class or what?" asked Naruto as he straightened his body.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," said Hinata as she returned to reality. Hinata quickly turned her face and her body from Naruto's which were now seemingly closer to hers, she did this to avoid something worse than blushing from happening in front of Naruto, for example one of her infamous faints.
Naruto being unfamiliar with Hinata's feeling as always, placed one of his hand upon the back of her shoulder. "Okay than let's go,'ttebayo!" he stated as he took a step forward.
Hinata was feeling somewhat dizzy from Naruto's close presence. It would seem that surely Hinata would fall back at any moment, but unexpectedly instead of Hinata being the one who collapsed it was Naruto. Naruto's hand slowly slid down Hinata's back as his body descended towards the ground.
"Na-Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted in distress as she quickly turned to look at Naruto's bent over body. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Naruto lifted his head from his crouched body and looked at Hinata with only one eye open. Just as Naruto was going to respond to Hinata's question the sound that emanated from underneath his hands (which were located on his stomach) answered for him with a loud grumbling noise.
"I'm fine Hinata-chan, don't worry about me. As you can hear from my stomach, it's a little bit hungry. I didn't get to eat anything at lunch due to my luck and my big mouth. I'm sure I'll be fine in a minute and we can go to class," Naruto said as he lifted himself up. He did mange to stand up tall for a moment until another ringing roar came from his stomach bringing him down again. "Who am a kidding! I am starving! I would be willing to eat anything right now!" Naruto let himself fall to the floor this time by slowly sliding his back against the wall. Naruto than began to sniff like everyone does when they cry, but as he did so he began to smell something scrumptious. He keep sniffing to try to find out where this delectable sent was emitting.
Hinata as always wasn't quite sure how to console Naruto, but then as a strike of lightning a brilliant idea hit her. "If your hungry-" began Hinata in a soft voice before she was discontinued by Naruto who had not even heard her speaking.
"Hey, Hinata-chan what to you have in this sack in front of you?" He asked as he sat up and pointed at it with his nose.
"Oh, this," said Hinata lifting up the sack in one hand and pointing at it with the other. "It's nothing really just everyone's scraps from lunch-"
"You mean leftovers, right?" said Naruto interrupting Hinata again. "Hinata-chan would you mind if I had them?" Naruto begged with puppy dog eyes.
"...Ah...Uh...mind? N-no not at all," stated Hinata. With that said Naruto quickly snatched the sack and began to unwrap it and fill his mouth with its contents.
'Where are my manners I forgot to say something,' thought Naruto. "Thank you very much Hinata-chan!" he said with his mouth full.
"You're welcome, I guess?" replied Hinata. 'Poor Naruto-kun you really were starving,' thought Hinata as she saw him gobbling up the food. 'Yet giving him our leftovers wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking something more like giving him money so that get something from one of the vending machines, but I can see he's enjoying this just as well.'

"Delicious," he said liking his lips as he finished. Naruto then cleaned his face with the clean side of he napkin. After the meal he just ate he was so full of energy he even had some to spare. He quickly jumped to his feet and put both hands behind his head. "Even if they were leftovers."
"It's maybe cause they weren't just my scraps of food they also belonged to: Sakura, Ino, Matsuri, Sari, Temari and Tenten-chan," suggested Hinata.
'Wow! I just a meal form several wealthy houses in just one sitting. I truly am a lucky guy,' thought Naruto.
A bell rang which echoed in the strangely empty hall which Naruto and Hinata stood in.
"That was just the first bell right?" asked Naruto a bit tense.
"Yes," answered Hinata.
"Good," Naruto exhaled a breath of air. "We should really hurry to class now, we definitely don't want to be late," he said as he grabbed Hinata by the wrist and began pulling her along side him as he walked away. Naruto looked back at Hinata as he walked. "Even if it's just old Lady Chiyo's class. We never know what she could do to us." Naruto turned his head from her and began quickening his steps.
Hinata face did not turn bright red this time but more like a purple color. 'Naruto-kun's grabbing my arm, I feel weak, however I can't faint now that would be too embarrassing. Hinata it's time for you to be strong,' thought Hinata as her head spun so hard it was almost being reflected in her eyes.

When Naruto arrived to the classroom accompanied by Hinata the others were not the least bit surprised by how ignorant he was of her sensitivity. Some smiled as they shook their heads while others thought to themselves 'Naruto you're such an idiot!'
Naruto let go of Hinata and went to his usual spot without saying another word to her, Hinata did the same. Both their seats were near their friends and far from each other. Also in this classroom stood the invisible wall which split the class into two with a symmetrical vertical line.
Lady Chiyo's classroom was enormous. It was covered with plant and animal samples along with chemical formulas, for the subject she teaches is biology as well as that of chemistry. There were tall bulky desks everywhere but mostly in the center of the room, the desks served as lab stations for the various experiments which where preformed in the class. The desks faced toward the front of the room where all the long lectures took place; these desks were originally meant for only two people but the students would snatch a stool from another table to be able to sit next to their champions.

When the bell rang for class to begin Lady Chiyo was nowhere in sight. With Lady Chiyo you never really knew what was going to occur, and that's exactly what happened next. Lady Chiyo all of a sudden popped out from behind her desk with a snicker, yet her students where no longer surprised by her shenanigans.
Lady Chiyo was a small old woman with silver hair, wrinkled skin, and big dark brown eyes. Chiyo could have seemed like a strict and serious character at times, but most of the time she was kind, funny, playful, and a troublemaker. She was currently the chemistry and biology teacher at Konoha Academy, but before that she was well known for her medicine work and founding the puppet corps in Suna. The puppet corps which she led for many years started fade after the war, yet it still exists today even if it doesn't serve the same purpose it once did; Chiyo retired as the head of the organization a few years back and gave the name and position to grandson, Sasori.

Ten years ago Chiyo moved to Konohagakure with her grandson in order to have simpler life style and to try get rid of the sad, painful, and lonely memories that lingered in Suna.
"Good afternoon class," proclaimed Lady Chiyo.
"Good afternoon Chiyo-baa-sama," replied the class.
"I can't believe it's this period already," said Chiyo. "So, class I have some good news and some bad news to tell you. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"The good," stated half the class. "The bad," said the others.
"Okay, since it's undecided I'll state the news randomly and without telling you if it's the good or bad one," reasoned Chiyo. "News number one, you're all getting a new seating chart."
"Seating chart?" they all groaned.
"You may be asking yourselves 'why is she doing this?' but the answer is quite simple. I just don't like where you are seated now." stated the old woman. " As you all can recall I didn't choose your seats at the beginning of the school year you did. I let that happen for a number of reasons but for the most part it was just a little experiment I was conducting. This is a chemistry and biology class by the way so, I do like to study and experiment with my lively pupils."
I am not just moving you because you are sitting by you friends even though that's the main reason. I really don't mind you being with your friends, it's just that you interact with them more than you work. I also don't like that your so confined because of being amongst your peers. Just look at yourselves, you are the most gender distanced class I've had in all my years of teaching, all the girls to the right and all the boys to the left, what are you people so afraid of? Catching cooties? Whatever it is I have to remind you this is no longer kindergarten." At that statement the faces of the students turned red.
Another reason of your separation is that you don't follow instructions. For example, when I explicitly ask all of you not touch the chemicals at your lab stations and one of you ignores me i*cough*/i Naruto i*cough*/i and creates a stink bomb by accident." When Chiyo coughed Naruto's name, almost all the other students turned to look at him with evil eyes. Naruto just hesitantly chuckled. "My mind is set on changing your seating arrangement and we don't want to go into more detail of why because it would just use up all our class time. So without further adieu would you all please stand up and come to the front so I can rearrange you." The class did as she commanded. The students surrounded her in two groups girls to her right and boys to her left (just like she had stated in her lecture). Chiyo pulled out two scrolls one from underneath each of her long sleeves, once all of her students gathered around her. She held up the scrolls to where everyone could see the big bold letters in her right hand which read "Girls" and ones on her left which said "Boys".
"Okay, the instructions I'm about to give you are quite simple. In these two scrolls I have written your names and a number along side it. All you have to do is read the number (one at a time) and go to the same numbered table, the the numbers are posted on the front of the desk. Do not tell anyone your number I want it to be a secret until get to your new spot, is that clear? " asked Lady Chiyo. Everyone nodded their head in comprehension."I will tell you now class, the seats you been assigned to are permanent, there is no changing them no matter what. Even if I paired you up with you archenemy from preschool there is no trading period."
Oh, and before I forget I should tell you the other news. Because of the circumstances and the activities we are going to preform today you won't have any homework!"
'So that's the good news?' thought everybody. 'Or maybe in her mind it's the other way around.'
Lady Chiyo laughed at the expression on everyone's face. She then open the scrolls at the same time; the students began to read off their numbers and went to their new seats with out saying a word as ordered.

To be Continued...