The bell rang for lunch.
"Uh oh," Iruka-sensei got to say before he was squashed between the wall and a stampede of hungry kids running for the lunch room.
When almost everyone had left, he peeled himself off in a daze.
"The hell's wrong with kids these days," he muttered to himself.
"'When it comes to food, we turn into animals', that's what my brother always say."
Sasuke said, walking toward the door with a bag over his shoulder.
Iruka sensei was shocked to see him still in the room, then he noticed Sakura sitting in her seat working, and blanched.
"Y-you guys didn't hear me curse, ok?" He pleaded to Sasuke.
Sakura looked up from her paper with a smile.
Sasuke shrugged. "My family uses that language all the time." And began to walk out of the door.
"Wait, Uchiha," called Iruka-sensei. Sasuke paused, looking back at him with a look of indifference.
"Yes?"
"Heading off to your village? Make sure you let me know beforehand, ok? I have a duty to protect you kids during school hours."
Sasuke nodded, and disappeared out of the door.
Sakura still didn't move. After she told Ino to go ahead without her to finish up on Iruka-sensei's homework, a sheet to memorize Justus, she'd wanted to finish taking notes. Now done quicker than she thought she'd be, she stood and walked up to him.
"Ah, sir, I just needed to finish this and-"
"Haruno," her teacher interrupted once he realized her. "Forgive me for interrupting, but I've been meaning to ask you something. Well, don't get scared, but it was me and the Hokage who wanted to talk to you."
Sakura stared at him, seeing that he wasn't finished yet.
He blushed and looked away. "And some of the teachers that know you're here."
Sakura gasped, her heart thudding in her chest.
"I-why- uh, why do they-" she stammered fearfully, but was interrupted again by someone else.
"Surprise attaaaaack!"
Something orange blurred past her to crash right into the teacher's desk, and Iruka sensei nearly went backward.
"What the-Naruto!"
Sakura watched as the same boy who argued back with Ino stood back from the desk where he unintentionally hit his head, and shook it hard.
"Owww," he groaned, gripping it as he rode the pain waves.
Sakura realized the boy had shot from the middle of the classroom and tried to hit Iruka-sensei, but calculated all wrong and hit the desk instead. If he calculated at all.
Iruka sensei laughed, watching Naruto with a pained but warm smile on his face.
"Will you stop trying to do that, Naruto? This is literally the first day of school! Don't give me a reason to punish you."
Naruto growled, still rubbing his head.
"I want to eat ramen, Iruka-sensei, take me!"
"Well," Iruka sensei droned, softening at his request.
Naruto pulled himself on top of Iruka-sensei's desk to get in his face.
"SENSEI!" he shouted. Finally, Iruka-sensei's face turned sour, and he shoved Naruto down with a little shout of his own.
"Alright, Naruto!"
"Ack!" Naruto's forehead pressed into the table, Iruka-sensei's hand making it impossible for him to get loose.
"Hey, let me go, already," Naruto whined. "I was just kidding around, can't you take a joke?"
"Naruto, how many times do I have to tell you not to pull pranks on me in school? This is a place to learn, not to harass yourself."
Sakura watched the banter of the two with amusement.
She remembered what Ino called Naruto two hours ago during their teacher's lecturing period.
She called him an orphan, but those were, to her knowledge, children who had no one to love them.
That didn't seem to be the case here.
Naruto finally got loose, poofing into nonexistence with a shady laugh.
Surprised at the trick, Sakura whirled around to search for him. Iruka-sensei was startled. "Hey!" he gasped.
Sakura heard Naruto poof behind her, and turned to meet him, only to get a big bear hug.
"Oof," she let out a breath as he squeezed her. His blond hair tickled her cheek.
"I love you, Sakura!" He declared loudly, and pulled back to give her a serious look. "You should come with us to Ichiraku."
Sakura tried to mumble something, blushing at his announcement. Wasn't he embarrassed too?
Their sensei burst out laughing, sitting back in his chair.
"Eight year olds are such a riot!"
Sakura and Naruto gave him a confused but annoyed look. What was so funny?
"Anyway," Iruka-sensei said, standing and rubbing a tear out of his eye. "Before you interrupted us, Naruto, I was telling Ms. Haruno, here, something. After I talk to her, we'll all go to Ichiraku's for lunch, if that's ok with you, Sakura?" he asked, looking at her still in Naruto's grip. His face was bloated with air like he was trying to hold in laughter.
She finally got the feeling his amusement was directed at them, and blushingly pushed Naruto away.
Startled, Naruto let her. He blinked innocently. "What? Do you want to go or not?"
"Not," Sakura said, folding her arms and turning away in annoyance.
"Ino wants me to eat with her."
Naruto growled at the name. "That girl who like 'Sasuke'?" He demanded, using a high pitched voice to copy all the girls in the classroom.
"Why do ya wanna go with someone like her? All she's gonna talk about is that show off!"
Sakura gave him a glare.
"And what will you talk about? How much you're jealous of him?"
Everyone froze at that, and turned to see Ino standing at the door looking pissed.
Sakura's eyes went wide.
Did she come here for her!?
"Yamanaka," Iruka-sensei greeted. "Why are you back here? Lunch isn't over yet."
"Sakura was taking long so I came to see what was up. Sakura?"
Sakura was still standing still, too afraid to move.
I...can't believe this. I've never had anyone except my parents wait on me before.
She actually thought Ino had given up on her and ate with some other people.
She suddenly remembered what her mom used to tell her growing up. How you knew a friend by their willingness to be patient for you.
Sakura wanted to cry.
Was this what she meant?
And then Iruka sensei crushed her dreams.
"Sorry, Yamanaka, Sakura has to go with me to meet the Hokage."
Sakura and Ino frowned at the same time.
"Why?" she asked, her blue eyes on him.
Iruka-sensei shook his head.
"It isn't anything you should worry about. She'll be back soon. The lunch schedule for today is an hour. Plenty of time to eat and gossip."
He started for the door.
"Wait!" Sakura said, stopping him. She didn't know where she got this newfound backbone from, but she was going to use it.
"I-I don't want to go right now." She said bravely. "Can I go after school? With my parents?"
Something in Iruka's eyes shifted then, and Sakura froze.
Her head hurt suddenly, a sharp pain that lanced through to the heart, and she shouted.
"Sakura!?" spoke Iruka-sensei and the others. They sounded worried as Iruka sensei stood stand next to her.
"Sakura,"
Sakura looked up at him, expecting to see his smooth clean face, but saw instead a face that dripped blood and wore raised dark skin.
"Sakura? Don't tell on me..."
She screamed.
"Sakura! Sakura, stop! It's just me!" Iruka sensei shouted, shaking her shoulders. She finally calmed down when his face went back to normal, but he looked even more freaked than earlier.
"What happened? Why did you suddenly scream like that?"
Sakura stared with wide eyes at him, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.
" I don't-I don't know." She whimpered. "My head just hurt."
And I saw you as a monster.
Ino and Naruto had unconsciously banded together during her brief episode, and they now crept closer to her.
She stepped back.
"What happened, Sakura?" asked Ino.
Sakura thought of those words the not-Iruka spoke to her, when it said not to tell on him.
She pressed her lips together, afraid for her life.
"Sakura?" Iruka-sensei said sternly. She jerked her head toward him, red flags going off at the edge in his voice.
He started to take a step toward her, opening his mouth again, but Sakura shook her head hard and leapt back.
"DONT TOUCH ME!"
and she ran past her classmates to the door.
She had to run.
"Sakura!" All of them shouted after her, but to her ears they sounded just like that monster.
Nonononono!
Sakura ran until her feet hurt, and she stumbled against metal that clattered when she hit it.
She glimpsed it as some lockers as she slumped to the ground next to it.
Her heart pounded hard in the silence of the hall, everyone having left to eat lunch, and she squeezed shut her eyes.
What was that monster? Why was it my teacher? What's going on?
"Oh ho!" Exclaimed a proud-sounding voice. "Look what the bubblegum factory spit out,"
Stiffening, Sakura lifted her face, and immediately wished she'd stayed with that monster.
It would have been better to deal with than this Monster.
She stood in front of Sakura with her hands fisted on her hips. The Academy-issued blue bag was over one tanned shoulder.
Martina grinned wide, an evil twinkle in her dark eyes. "Oh, wait," she continued from her earlier comment. "It's just the little cursed baby."
Just my luck.