**GOMENASAI! I DEEPLY APOLOGIZE FOR MY ABSENCE. I COULD LIE AND TELL YOU THAT I'VE BEEN BUSY, BUT I CAN'T COME UP WITH A GOOD ENOUGH STORY LOL. SO HOPEFULLY I WILL BE ABLE TO FINISH THIS STORY NOW THAT I'VE STARTED PICKING UP MY SLACK AGAIN.**

"Wow. You're actually on time for once."
I turned around to see a tall dark skinned man with short spikey hair grin at me, before he handed me a cup of coffee.
"Thanks for the coffee. So what's on the agenda for the meeting? You have any idea what it's about?"
'No clue. Knowing Tsunade…she's probably just going tell us to pick up our slack or some shit like that."
'Eh…I guess we'll know by lunch then. Enjoy class."

The day dragged by quite slowly and I seemed to develop a headache. Teaching drained so much of my energy that I barely even had enough will power to get to the meeting on time.
"Glad you could finally join us."
Tsunade sounded irritated, more so then usual, and she wore an expression that told me "to sit the fuck down because you're interrupting me". I moved as quietly as I could to a seat next to Zabuza.
"As I was saying…there will be some people coming in tomorrow from Ragnarok to talk with the educators of Sasuke. Now this is a serious matter so I will need your full cooperation."
It took a few minutes to register before I understood that I as one of those people that would be spoken to.
"Wait…are you sure you mean tomorrow? I mean tomorrow is Saturday."
"I'm aware tomorrow is Saturday, hence why I agreed to let them enter my property. Allowing them onto campus during school hours would be a complete disaster. I will not allow any disruption to occur during school hours. Therefore, YOU WILL come in tomorrow Orochimaru."

Brilliant. She knows just how to ruin my weekend.

"Well I think that is all, you may all leave and enjoy the rest of your lunch break. Oh and for those who have to come in tomorrow, you have to be here by 9 a.m."

Sigh. There go my plans for sleeping late too.

Zabuza and I walked toward the teachers' lounge for lunch, of which there was only about 15 minutes left, but that didn't really matter as I had no classes after lunch which left me free to go home, but I knew Tsunade would have wanted me to finish grading my students papers and have them on her desk by the end of the day which just made me depressed.
"Hey look I'm going to let you enjoy lunch on your own. I need to get started on grading those papers, or else I'll be stuck here all afternoon."
Well I guess that's understandable. I mean you are such a slacker anyway. Why didn't you let Sakura do them for you as extra credit?"
"I enjoy my silence. It keeps me sane"
We both chuckled for a while as we knew what a loud smart mouthed, energetic and somewhat annoying young woman Sakura could be.
"Oh yeah, Shikaku asked me to invite you to his sons' birthday party tomorrow. You know him. He needs some adult company to keep him sane while the kid goes crazy with his friends."
"Aww sweet man, haven't seen him in a while. I'll definitely stop by."
"Ok then I'll see you tomorrow then."
I walked off toward my classroom and locked the door behind to make sure I don't get disturbed. I took out my smartphone, plugged in my headset and let the sweet sounds of classical rock soothe my ears as my red pen danced across the pages of various answer sheets.

It took me about 2 hours and a half to grade most of the papers before I decided that I'd had enough. I stacked the graded papers into a neat pile and put them into a sleeve, and locked them in my drawer, I took the rest and stuffed them into my bag. I unplugged my headset and checked my phone.

7 missed calls?

I scrolled through my call log and noticed they were all from Zabuza. A text message came through just as I was about to put away my phone.

"Hey I'm waiting in the parking lot. I wonder how you thought you were going to get home. Bet you didn't even think about it at all. Just hurry up please I'm falling asleep in the car here."

To my surprise I really did forget about how I would get home. I quickly unlocked my door and then ran toward the parking lot when I remembered I left the graded papers locked in my classroom, and ran all the way back to my class to get the papers, locked the door behind ran toward Tsunades' office and dumped the sleeve on her desk.
"I'll have the rest of on your desk tomorrow I swear."
"Always cutting it close, I see."
I ran all the way back to the parking lot and got into Zabuzas' dark blue RunX.
"Thanks for waiting seriously. I totally forgot about going home."
"Unnghh...yeah ok."
I could clearly tell that he woke up from a small nap like state. I just smiled at him, feeling grateful for the great friend I have.

When we got close to Shikakus' shop, I told Zabuza he could drop me off there and still make it home in time to apologize to Haku for being late. I told him he could put the entire blame on me, even though it actually was my fault. I waved at him and got out of the car. I walked into the shop, bought what I needed, walked out and started walking home.

The walk home felt like it took forever because I was so drained. The flight of stairs looked so intimidating as I dragged my grocery bags up the staircase along with my heavy work bag. Finally reaching my apartment, I unlocked it, walked in, locked the door, threw everything down on the floor and made my way toward the kitchen with two packets of noodles in my hands. After cooking my noodles, I plonked down onto the couch, put on the TV and sank into a relaxed state. I can't remember the last time I did that.

Man. I need to take it easy. My fucking life is all over the place. I need to just take a week off or something.

Before I noticed, my bowl of noodles was empty.

Tomorrow is probably going to be a drag too. I really hope it fucking goes quick so I can go look for a present for the little smart mouth.

Feeling extremely drained, I dumped the empty bowl in the sink, removed my clothes, crawled under my covers and let my exhaustion consume me.

**THANKS FOR READING. I'LL TRY MY BEST TO FINISH THE NEXT CHAPTER SOON."