Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor Negima

Chapter 5: Of Study Sessions And Dinners

Naruto yawned, stretching out his arms as he sat up on his futon. He looked at the clock with bleary eyes.

'Tch. It's not even 5 o'clock.' The blonde thought as he stood up from the futon and stretched himself out once again. 'Meh I guess that just means more time for morning training.'

The blonde yawned and walked inside the bathroom to wash his face. Finished with washing his face, the blonde grabbed a towel to dry his face. As he walked back to the other room, the blonde's eyes settled themselves on the empty beds of Asuna and Konoka and the couch lacking one Negi Springfield, though that happened a lot, since the kid still had the habit getting in Asuna's bed, much to the chagrin of said girl.

It was weird, honestly. The room was never this quiet. One thing that he liked about this room was that there was always some kind of noise. Right now it was deadly quiet. It kind of made him feel bummed that he couldn't join the others on their trip to Library Island. He was sure they'd get in all sort of shenanigans, but he just had to miss out on it, huh?

The blonde sighed. No point in dwelling on it, though, he thought as he put on some comfortable clothes, before exiting the dorm room. While walking through the dormitories hall, he saw Setsuna. At the moment she with either locking her door or opening it. Her back was turned to him, so she hadn't noticed him yet. He quickly made his way to her.

"Yo." The blonde greeted, surprising the girl.

Setsune blinked at him. "Ah good morning, Naruto-sensei." Setsuna greeted politely.

"Going in or out?" he asked

"Out," she answered. The blonde hummed and gestured with his head towards the exit, prompting both of them to start walking towards it.

Setsuna swallowed at the silence."…So how was your morning, sir?" Setsuna hesitantly asked. That was a normal question, right? She was bad at small talk, and frankly she hated it, but she had to try, right? Because partners talked to each other, right? She blushed at that.

Naruto looked spooked "Kind of weird, you know," he rubbed his chin. "It was really quiet."

Setsuna blinked at him "…it was weird because it was quiet?"

Naruto shrugged, "Yeah, I mean when it normally goes like…" He cleared his throat, before standing straight and balled his fists, while an angry look painted his face, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED, YOU BRAT!" he screeched in a high voice, before slouching and looking vulnerable. "B-b-but you smell like my sister, and I always sleep in my sister's bed…" Naruto pouted at her and looked at her her sad eyes, before he switched characters again. This time his hands were clasped in front of him, a big smile on his face, "Oh, you guys~ Who wants scrambled eggs for breakfast," he sing sang cheerfully, tilting his head cutely, before he fell out of character," I think, this could be qualified as a weirdly silent morning," he said with a blank face.

Setsuna looked weirdly at him, "...Ok?"

"Anyway, why are you up so early?" he asked, as he folded his arms behind his head.

"Training," she answered shortly, out of habit. Mentally she winced, she didn't want to appear rude to her partner.

"Oh," Naruto just hummed in interest. Oe, this conversation had potential.

Setsuna swallowed, "…I…I always train early in the morning. It's a habit from Kyoto," she explained to him. She had learned pretty fast that the best way to schedule her own training and her time spent with Ojou-sama, was to do her training early on in the morning, when her Ojou-same was asleep, and spent the rest of the day with her Ojou-sama once she was awake. The habit hadn't died off, even after the… accident.

She shook her head to stop her train of thoughts and focused on the blonde again. She sweat dropped when she noticed that the teen kept looping at her with big interested eyes. She coughed in her hand, "Uhm, would you like to join me, Naruto-sensei?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes!" Naruto grinned, "It's always nice to have a sparring partner," he said, before he threw one arm around her shoulders, "Look at us, yesterday you tried to beat me up‒" Setsune flushed, "‒and today were training together."

"Sensei!"

XxX

Naruto grinned as he entered to train heading to school. His hair was still damp from the shower he had taken earlier. His clothes were a bit ruffled, but he'd fix that later. Right now he was still smiling about this morning.

Oh, man. That was one fine warming-up session with Setsuna this morning. He had to join her more often. Got a bit boring, doing stuff on his own.

"Naruto!"

Naruto blinked and turned and saw Yuna with two other girls from 2-A. Izumu Ako and Okouchi Akira, if he was right.

Ako was a petite girl with short blue-ish white hair and red eyes. She was a quiet girl in class. One of the more obedient ones in 2-A. From what he had learned the first day she was the manager of the boys soccer team, and also worked as the school's assistant nurse

Akira, on the other hand, was quite tall. She was even taller than him. She had brown long hair that was pulled in a ponytail. Her face was framed with bang and she had two bits of long strands of hair on each side of her face. Out of the three girls, she seemed to be to more mature one. In class she always seemed to pay close attention to him when he was giving his lectures. Coincidentally enough, she always looked away when he looked in her direction.

Yuna grimaced when she saw him, "Nooooo~" she groaned dramatically.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her weird greeting, but still smiled, "What's up, you guys?" he asked, as Yuna, Akira, and Ako joined him.

Ako greeted him a bit more politely, "Good morning, Naruto-sensei."

"Sensei," Akira nodded at him, her head hanging low, as her eyes were cast on the ground.

"'What's up, you guys' he asks," Yuna muttered, while her friends rolled their eyes knowingly at her. "The real question is, what kind of monstrosity is that?" she asked in disgust as she pointed at his tie.

Naruto blinked, "Erm… My tie?" he tried, "You know I have to wear a suit, right?" he asked, as he scratched his cheek.

She ignored him, "Ew, and of course the shirt is also untucked," Yuna muttered as she groaned some more, confusing Naruto even more. In the background Ako giggled, while Akira shook her head at her friend's behavior.

"Come on, Sensei, you can't walk around like that," she chided him, stepping closer to him. In one swift move, she popped his collar, undid his tie, before she re-tied it and lowered his collar again, "This is how you tie a tie," she told him, as she patted the neat tie knot.

"Well, what did I do?" he asked confused, as he looked down at his tie. He thought he had done a nice job with the tie. He was pretty sure he did the same thing as Konoka-san always did.

"Oh, please," Yuna scoffed at that, "And don't let me hold you back from tucking your shirt in," she continued, before a mischief glint appeared in her eyes, "Or I'll make Akira tuck it in for you," she warned him, a smirk tugging at her lips, while her friend in question and the blonde both sputtered.

Yeah, no thanks. He didn't want someone to get the wrong idea and report him to the dean. The blonde shivered at the thought as he neatly tucked his shirt inside his pants. Instead he answered, "I don't see really see what was wrong with how I looked before, but thanks, I guess?"

Yuna just groaned loudly at that, "You're just like my dad, sometimes," she crossed her arms and pouted, "I don't get men, if they're going to dress nice, then dress nice. You can't just wear something nice and wear it like a slob, ugh."

Ako giggled when she saw that he only looked even more confused, "Sorry, sensei, Yuna-chan just really dislikes it when people dress sloppy," she apologized to him, while in the background the announcement that they reached their halt was heard.

"Oh," Naruto grinned, before he turned to the shorter brunette, "Yuna-chan, look~" he called out as he slowly tugged at his shirt, teasing her.

"You better leave that shirt tucked, if you know what's good for you, Uzumaki," Yuna warned him a fake angry look on her face, "Or I'll just have Akira-chan stick her hands in your pants to keep them there," she teased again, shutting up the blonde.

Akira palmed her face, "Please, just keep me out of this," she muttered, a red flush on her face, making the girls laugh out loud, as they stepped out of the train and sprinted towards the school building.

"I wonder if Negi-sensei and the other are all right," Ako wondered out loud, as they entered the school building, "Makie-chan didn't return last night."

"They probably just lost track of time," Akira comforted her friend, as she squeezed her shoulder, "They're probably on their way right now, or maybe even already in class,"

"Hey, Sensei, don't you have to go the other way?" Yuna asked, when she noticed that the blonde was still following them as they we're walking to classroom 2-A, instead of going to the teacher lounge or wherever he normally went. "Or is there any reason as to why you're walking us to class today, " she teased, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

Naruto sweat dropped. Why was she acting so weird today? He cleared his throat and opened the classroom door, "Well the truth is‒"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Yukihiro Ayaka, also known as 2-A's Iincho, shouted at Sakurako and also cutting off the blonde, "NEGI-SENSEI WILL GET FIRED IF CLASS 2-A DOESN'T MOVE OUT OF THE LOWEST RANKING!"

"You think we arrived at a bad moment?" Naruto whispered at the girls, causing the other students to turn their attention at them. The girls shrugged and made their way towards their seats, while Naruto walked towards the teacher's desk.

"Naruto-sensei!" the class exclaimed in surprise.

"What are you doing here, sensei?" one student asked before Sakurako launched herself at him and hugged him.

She looked at him with big eyes, as if he were her savior. "I know!" she exclaimed, before she snuggled into the surprised blonde's chest. "Naruto-sama is here to protect me from Iincho's wrath, right!" She nodded to herself, convinced that that was the only possible answer, as she continued her snuggling.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck laughed awkwardly as the girl continued to snuggle into his chest. It was fine, as long she'd quickly let go, before anyone outside this could see it. Otherwise he wondered if it would it be believable if he explained that she just fell into his just and had a spasm, if anyone would ask him as to why she was snuggling into his chest.

"Actually I'm here on behalf of Negi uhm, Negi-sensei," Naruto corrected himself as he looked at the class.

"Naruto-sensei is going to help us study?" Ako asked, as she tilted her head.

Naruto nodded. "Yes so could everyone, except for Lincho-san, return to their sear while I talk with Iincho-san?"

The girls nodded and returned to their seats while Ayaka walked towards Naruto's desk.

Ayaka nodded her head at him in respect. "You wanted to talk, Naruto-sensei?" she asked politely.

"Yeah," The blonde answered as he looked at Ayaka sheepishly. "The truth is I came here on a short notice so I couldn't really prepare anything eheh," The blonde laughed sheepishly but slowly stopped when he felt the girl glare at him.

"At any rate we're going to study properly until the exam, and pull this class out of the last rankings" Ayaka stated as she glared at the class before she pointed at a few girls. "Even you guys over there who usually don't bother trying!" Turning around, she faced Naruto and pointed at him. "And you're going to help us study." She was damned to hell, if people thought that she was going to let Negi-sensei get fired.

Naruto sweat dropped when he saw the fire in her eyes. She sure seemed determined to help Negi. He sighed, "Just so you know, I can help with Japanese, but the other subjects …" The blonde trailed off as he grimaced.

He pretty much sucked at English and math. English because he wasn't really interested in the language; he had no plans of going abroad or something, so hadn't even bothered to learn. And mathematics because… Well yeah, did he really need a reason for that one?

He could maybe help a bit with Social Studies. The books Eishun had forced him to read, also taught him a bit about the Japanese history every now and then. But if they needed his help politics wise, or anything else? Yeah, no. That wasn't going to happen.

"And the other subjects?" Ayaka repeated, when the blonde trailed off too long.

"Ehehe.." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I'm useless when it comes to the other subjects."

Ayaka sighed and dropped her head. Well she couldn't just expect from her teacher to know everything…" Well as long as we don't get zero's, I suppose–"

"–EVERYONE WE'VE GOT A BIG PROBLEM!" Haruna shouted, gaining everyone's attention, as she barged inside the room with Nodoka on her toe,. "NEGI-SENSEI AND THE BAKA-RANGERS HAVE GONE MISSING!"

"…"

"EHHHHHHHHH!?"

'We may all be screwed after all,' the class thought in despair.

Naruto couldn't help but let out a laugh at their reaction.

Ayaka snapped her attention at him. "This isn't funny sensei! Our lovely Negi-sensei can be fired if this goes on!"

'Lovely?' The blonde raised an eyebrow before he shook his head and gave them the thumbs up. "You shouldn't be so negative, guys. I'm pretty sure that the brat and the others are studying somewhere right now." He glanced at Setsuna to reassure her that everything was all right. She nodded right back at him.

"How are you so sure, Naruto-kun? For all we know they might be in some trouble," Yuna asked worriedly.

"Have a little faith! You guys are talking about your very own teacher and fellow classmates, after all," The blonde grinned, "They won't let you guys down." 'Besides one of my Kage bunshins popped so I know that they're studying right know.'

"But still," Fumika began. "What're we going to do? We can't just improve by ourselves in only two days."

Other girls seemed to agree as they shouted in agreement.

"I know!" Yuna exclaimed, jumping out of her seat, catching everyone's attention, "We might not be able to improve ourselves, but who says we have to do that?" she asked, "We just have to work hard," she told them as Naruto nodded his head proudly at her words, "AND KIDNAP THE OTHER GIRLS!" she yelled out maniacally, pumping her fist in the air.

Naruto nodded his head in agreement, "Yup, work hard and kidna‒" the blonde abruptly stopped and looked startled after he realized what she had said, "Wait, wha‒"

"Of course!" Sakurako giggled, interrupting the blonde, "We don't have to get a better score. We just have to make sure a class scores lower than we do!"

"But guys‒"

"Considering we have the Baka-rangers in our class, I suggest we kidnap at least three-quarter of a class to make sure we don't end up last, " Another student suggested, if he remembered correctly her name was Asakura. She was the reporter.

"You can't just‒" Naruto started, "What abou‒" he tried again, "I mean‒" he faltered and squinted his eyes, thinking about what they were saying, before he shrugged, "Well it's actually a good idea…" he finally concluded, looking quite a bit impressed.

"Naruto-sensei!" Ayaka yelled at him, baffled.

"What? It is," he defended himself, before he shrugged.

"There will be no kidnapping and that is final!" Ayaka yelled at the class, making them groan.

"Way to be a buzzkill, Inchi, boooo!" Yuna yelled, a few others wanted to join her, but Ayaka swiftly shut them down with a glare, making them sink in their seats.

"Ugh," Fumika groaned, "We'll never be able to do it, then."

"So you're going to give up? Just like that?" Naruto asked loudly, causing the girls to stop their shouting and look at him. "How do you think that Negi would feel? To know that his class gave up before even trying?" The girls looked down and the blonde sighed. "But I guess that's your own choice."

"But sensei even if we tried. We'd probably end up in the last rankings," Ako said dejectedly.

"But giving up won't solve a thing either," Naruto said, as he smiled at them. "Aren't you guys 2-A? What happened with the cheerful and optimistic girls?" The blonde asked. "The whole time you guys were blabbering about 'still failing even if you tried' and that you can't improve by yourselves but who said that you should improve by yourselves?"

The girls looked at him questioningly.

"I mean look around you. Don't you see your classmates and friends? You're not alone." Naruto grinned. "Some of you are good in math, others in social studies. You should help each other. You've all got something you're best at. I mean I teach Japanese, so I'll help whoever needs my help to improve themselves with that. You even have some geniuses in this class, who could help you." He said as he gestured at Chao, Hakase, Nodoka, who blushed at the compliment, and Ayaka. "The thing is that you don't have to improve by yourselves, improve together. I mean, you guys are one class, right?"

The girls looked at each other.

"That's right! We're one class so we'll do this together!" Yuuna exclaimed as she pumped a fist in the air. "We'll totally be able to do this!"

"And if this doesn't work out, we can always just go back to operation kidnap one of the classes," Fuuka added cheerfully, making a few sweat drop.

Naruto laughed, "Yeah, that's the spirit!" Naruto grinned as he started to feel excited. "You'll beat those other classes for sure!" the blonde shouted as he pumped his fist in the air only to freeze when he heard Sakurako and a few others giggle.

"Aren't you cute when you're excited, Naruto-sama," Sakurako gushed, causing him to blush.

Before any of the other girls could make a comment, Ayaka cut them off and said, "Moving on, sensei."

Shooting the girl a grateful glance, the blonde turned to face the class once again. "Ah yes moving on, I think that it might be for the best if we study in smaller groups. This way students can get more attention if they don't understand something." The blonde explained, before he looked at Nodoka, Chao, Hakase and Ayaka, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Hopefully you girls won't mind, but I was actually hoping that each of you could help me with this and, you know, be the tutor of one of the groups." All the girls nodded, "Nice, thanks!" he thanked them, before he continued his explanation.

As soon as he was finished his explanation, they started to make small groups with 4-5 students in each group while he, Ayaka, Nodoka, Chao and Hakase tutored each group. Each of them handled a different subject. So every now and then he and the girls would switch from groups. Of course, if someone thought they needed more time to understand the subject, they were always allowed to stay, instead of switch to another tutor.

After about 50 minutes the bell rang and Homeroom had ended. Naruto wouldn't see the girls until English, which was the last class for them, before the school day was over.

When English classes did begin, the blonde continued studying like they did at homeroom, as he had promised. It went pretty smoothly and after another successful study session, the bell rang for one last time that day.

"All right! Good job everyone," Naruto said as he returned to his seat. "You're free to go and don't forget to study at home."

"Hai!" The girls said as they left the room while Naruto started to collect his stuff.

'That went pretty well…' The blonde grinned and put his stuff in his bag. Looking around the classroom, the blonde noticed a notebook on one of the desks and grabbed it.

'Hasegawa Chisame' Naruto thought as he read what was written on the notebook. 'She must've forgotten it.' The blonde sighed. 'I guess I'll return it to her.' The blonde thought before he put the notebook in his bag and exited the room.

"Naruto-kun!"

Turning to face the person that was calling him, he saw Naba Chizuru, a girl who was pretty well endowed and had brownish long hair, together with Ayaka and Murakami Natsumi, a petite girl with short red hair and freckles.

"Ah How can I help you girls?" the blonde asked the trio.

"Naruto-kun, I was wondering whether you had anything planned for today," Chizuru said as she smiled at him.

Naruto thought about it, "Well first I'm going to return this notebook to Hasegawa-san and after that I have nothing planned. Why?"

"Well since Naruto-kun is all alone, how about you join use for dinner today," Chizuru proposed as she continued to smile at him. "You could see it as a thank you for all your help today."

That surprised the blonde, "Eh? Eehhhh! Nonono I can't accept!" The blonde said hurriedly as he waved his hand in front of his face.

"I insist."

Naruto shook his head, "Sorry, I really can't accept."

"I said, I insist," Chizuru said, her previously beautiful smile becoming haunting. Behind her Ayaka and Natsumi were glancing at Naruto in pity.

Naruto blinked, "Sure," the sweating blonde accepted quickly. Hey, he knew when he had to listen and when not… Well, at least most of the time.

"Arara That's nice to hear, Naruto-kun," Chizuru said, her smile becoming once again beautiful. Grabbing the blonde's hand she dragged him towards the train. "Come on, Naruto-kun, I'll show you where Chisame-chan's room is."

As the blonde watched his and Chizuru's hand intertwined, he couldn't help but sweat. Holding hands with your students was normal, right?

Right?

Mentally he cried.

XxX

"That's Chisame-chan's room," Chizuru said as she pointed at one of the rooms, her other hand was still holding Naruto's right hand. "And that's our," She said as she pointed at another room. "Now don't forget about dinner," She said as she smiled at him one last time before she turned to leave with Ayaka and Natsumi following her.

Sighing, the blonde walked towards Chisame's room and knocked on it. After having waited for a few minutes, the door finally opened to show an annoyed Chisame.

'What is he doing here?' The annoyed Chisame thought to herself. She really didn't feel like talking to her freak of a sensei. Especially not since her notebook with all her cosplay ideas was gone. She really had to find it back before anyone else found. The last thing she wanted was being a part of that group of freaks.

"Sensei?" The girl gritted out in annoyance. "What do you want?"

"Well I found this in the class so I thought that it would be nice to return it to you," Naruto said with a smile as he grabbed the notebook out of his bag.

'Gah! My notebook!' The girl thought in distress. Acting quickly, she grabbed the notebook out of his hand and asked, "D-did you look inside it?" 'If you did I'll have to get rid of you.'

"No…"

Chisame sighed in relieve. Her second/secret identity was safe.

"Thanks, I guess." Was all she said before she slammed the door in his face.

Well at least she said 'Thanks', right?

Right?

Hell no!

He was not just going to accept that, so just like any other mature adult, he flipped off her door and walked away. The blonde sighed. Being mature really cost a lot of energy, it was time for a nap, he decided as he walked inside his room.

A few hours later he stood in front of Chizuru's room, looking refreshed as he rang the bell. He was a tad bit nervous. Was it normal for a teacher to eat at his student's room? Dinner was all right, right? There was nothing pervy about food. He did get invited (and was forced), so could they really put the blame on him if someone reported him to dean, if he was just being polite.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the door open. Natsumi stood at the door and invited him inside, "Hi, Naruto-sensei, please come in," She smiled at him and gave him some time to take off his shoes and remove his jacket, before she led him to a big room that was the living room/dining room/kitchen. Once in the room, he saw Chizuru in the kitchen part of the room

"It was nice of you to join use." Chizuru smiled at him, causing the blonde to sweat drop. It wasn't like she really gave him a choice… "Please take a seat, dinner will be served in a few minutes."

He nodded and sat down on one of the cushions.

"So do you want anything to drink, sensei?" Natsumi asked politely.

"No thanks." Naruto smiled at the girl before he looked around the room. It was pretty big, at least bigger than his room. Finished admiring the room, Naruto looked at Chizuru. "Hey, if you need some help, I could help you, you know."

"No, it's all right, Naruto-kun. You don't have to help." Chizuru giggled as she put a few dishes on the table.

"Nonono, I'll just help a little bit." Naruto started to stand up.

"Naruto-kun…" Naruto froze. Looking up he saw a menacingly smiling Chizuru, whose eyes were covered by a shadow… and was that a leak in her hands? "I said, it's all right."

"Roger that," Was the blonde's answer as he quickly sat down again. Damn. That was scary.

Finally finished with setting up the table, Chizuru walked towards the stairs. "Ayaka-chan! Dinner is ready!"

"Coming!" Was the girl's reply before she walked down the stairs and greeted Naruto.

With Ayaka finally downstairs all of them were seated. Naruto sat next to Chizuru and had Ayaka sitting across of him, while she sat next Natsumi, who had Chizuru across of her.

"Shall we start?" Chizuru asked as she picked up her chopsticks with the others mimicking her.

"Itadakimasu."

Taking a bite out of his food, the blonde's eyes widened.

"This is delicious!" In front of him Natsumi and Ayaka nodded while Chizuru giggled.

"Well thank you, Naruto-kun." The blonde just grinned at her.

"Sooo what did you guys think of today?" he asked them. "I hope it helped."

"It was a good method," Ayaka provided, "Considering we were are willing to do our best for our dear Negi-sensei, we worked quite hard today. As class president I'm even sure that we can get ranked #1 for our dear Negi-sensei," she boasted, while Naruto couldn't help but sweat drop at how much she seemed to favor Negi.

"I also think you did a good job today, Naruto," Chizuru praised him, making him blush a little, "It was very nice of you to help us."

"Yeah, well I promised Negi, after all," Naruto grinned at her, "And when I make a promise, I don't just break it."

Chizuru smiled sweetly at that, it was such an innocent thing to say, "So, Naruto-kun," she began again as she looked at the blonde. "Tell us something about yourself."

Naruto scratched his head, trying to think of something to say, "Uhh… Well my birthday is on 10 October."

"Really? My birthday is on 21 October." Natsumi smiled a small smile as the blonde grinned at her. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" she asked

Naruto shook his head. "Nope, no brothers and sisters. You?" Natsumi also shook her head.

"Did you always want to become a teacher," Ayaka asked him curiously.

Naruto sweat dropped, "Uhm, not really. I actually had other plans, but later on this seemed to be a good thing…?" Read: it was forced upon him, he had no choice in the matter. He laughed a bit nervously.

"How were you as a kid, Naruto-kun?"

"As kid?" Naruto thought about it. He was a lot of things as kid. Angry. Sad. Loud. A troublemaker. Cocky. Rude, "Well, honestly I'd say that I was real joy to be around," he sweat dropped at his own answer.

"Did you also graduate early, like Negi-sensei?" Natsumi asked him in wonder. He must've, right? If he was already a teacher, he must've been a genius.

Naruto took a sip of his glass, as he thought of his answer, "Yeah, well, I'm not sure how old I exactly was when left the academy, but I was pretty young," he shared with them, his sweat drop only growing when they looked at him in admiration. If only they knew, he got pulled out of the academy because he sucked.

Oh well, it seemed like he was in the mood to boast a bit. No harm done, right? It wasn't like he told them he graduated at a young age, he specifically said left. Not his fault if they thought he was some sort of genius...

The four of them continued talking and soon laughter filled the room.

"What? You knew Asuna when she was younger?" Naruto asked Ayaka in surprise, "What was she like?" he asked curiously. A younger Asuna. The idea only made him grin. She just had to be a terror. He wondered if she was just as hotheaded then as she is now.

"Much to my chagrin, Asuna and I have been in the same class for a very long time, sensei," she informed him. "As for her personality…" she thought about it for a bit, "Well she was really anti-social and she had eyes like this." Ayaka mimicked younger Asuna's eyes making Naruto laugh.

"I actually imagined her to be a small terror, to be honest," Naruto told her with a fond smile, once he recovered from his laughter.

"Oh she also was a terror," Ayaka rolled her eyes, "She was a real big pain in the ass. The amount of times that we fought," Ayaka scoffed as she thought back on it, "Did you know I never got in trouble with the teacher?" she asked him, "That is, until she arrived, at least," she shook her head.

"Somethings don't change, or so it seems," "Chizuru winked, making Natsumi giggle and Ayaka roll her eyes once again.

A bit later the conversation had drifted to Natsumi. She was telling him about her club.

"You're a member of the drama club, huh?" Naruto grinned as he gave her the thumbs up, "I'll visit sometimes to watch your awesome acting then."

"I'm not really that good, Sensei." Natsumi blushed abashedly.

"Nonsense," Chizuru interfered, "You're plenty of good." Ayaka nodded her head in agreement, causing Natsumi to flush even more.

"Now I really want to see you preform," Naruto pouted.

As the night carried on Chizuru also shared some information. She told him about her volunteering job at the day care.

"Really? You work at a daycare?" Naruto asked her with big eyes.

Chizuru nodded, "Yeah, I can be found there after school on a few days."

"You're awesome," he complimented her, "If you need any help, you can call me. Playing with kids can be fun," he smiled excitedly.

Chizuru blushed a bit at the compliment and smiled, "I'll be sure to remember that, Naruto-kun."

Naruto grinned and started to talk with Ayaka about Asuna again. Oh, he how he hoped the get some piece of information to tease her with.

It was later that night when he finally glanced at his watch and noticed how late it was.

"Ehh it's already this late?" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. It was starting to get really late. He couldn't really stay now, could he?, "Thanks for the food and all but I think that it's time for me to leave."

Chizuru smiled as Naruto stood up. "It was nice having you here. You should come more often."

Natsumi nodded her head in agreement, while Ayaka voiced her opinion, "Yeah," she agreed, surprisingly, "You should even bring Negi-sensei with you the next time."

Naruto sweat dropped at the hopeful tone in her voice. It seemed that Negi was really liked by his students, "I'll do that. It was nice being here," Naruto replied with a smile, as he walked towards the door with the others following him.

Putting on his jacket and shoes, the blonde opened the door and bid goodbye to the others before he left and walked towards his own silent room. Honestly, he was glad that he got invited today. He really enjoyed it there. It wasn't uncomfortable. He got to know a few more of his students, and he got free delicious food. Plus it was also better than dining alone. It kind of reminded him of how dinner was with Negi and the others.

XxX

'This is all I can do for you.. Give it your best everyone…' Negi thought as he looked at the baka rangers and the library expedition club from the window.

"You're pretty cool aren't you?" Looking at his left, Negi saw Naruto standing there, a cup in his hand.

"Huh?" A confused Negi let out tiredly, as he watched the boy walk towards him.

Naruto just smiled and ruffled his hair before he looked at the girls. He grinned as he remembered what happened in Library Island. His kage bunshins had seen everything and to him that brat was cool. Trying to protect his students, even without his magic. That just earned him some ramen points. The same went for Asuna.

Of course, he already knew that Negi was a good person. He had, after all, helped him with his own little problem. Without expecting anything in return, nonetheless.

Naruto stood there quietly for a few second, before he opened his mouth, "Did you know they were going to kidnap a whole class of girls, just to make sure you could stay here?" he asked with an innocent grin, causing the kid teacher's mouth to fall wide open.

"What?!" he shouted, causing all the girls inside the classroom snap their head towards the two of them. Negi flushed when he noticed the attention, and looked apologetically at them, even bowing, while Naruto innocently held his hands in the air.

Naruto turned to the boy once again, after the girls turned their attention to their exams, "It seems you're dearly loved by you students, chibi-sensei," he whispered to him teasingly, causing the young boy to blush.

Negi tried to ignore the teasing comment and instead focused on the kidnapping thing again, "Naruto-san! That is highly problematic, please tell me you didn't do anything of that sort," Negi whispered back to him in distraught. He was most certainly that the school would not be happy if they heard that his students had kidnapped other students. They'd expel him immediately. Oh, no. After all the trouble they went through.

"Chill, Negi," Naruto calmed him down, putting a hand on his shoulder, when he saw that the boy was ready to start pacing back and forth, "Incho made it pretty clear that we weren't allowed to kidnap anyone, because blah blah blah morals," he shrugged, as he remembered her lecturing everyone again after they talked about operation kidnap the girls from class 2-K (they had decided that they were the best class to kidnap).

Negi sighed in relieve. He had to remember to thank the class president for that.

"So," Naruto drawled as he walked closer to the kid, "how about you tell me about your cool adventure, so I can cry about all the fun I've missed, "Naruto fake pouted at him, as he offered him the cup in his hand‒ "It's your favorite tea," ‒and nudged his head towards the bench in the hall.

Negi sweat dropped at the blonde, "It wasn't really meant to be an adventure…" he told the blonde, but still accepted the cup and followed him to the bench. "But Library Island was great. When we first arrived I was mesmerized with how big it was…" he began, taking a sip of the cup, before continuing.

The little man had told him about how big and beautiful Library Island was. He told him about the different sort of traps, the strange golem, the tests, he told him everything. Or at least, he tried. Halfway through his story, he started to doze off and before he knew it, he had a snoring Negi against his shoulder.

Of course the blonde knew what had happened, but he thought it'd be nice if the kid had some sort of distraction. Same went for him, to be honest. After all, he was quite nervous about the results too. He dearly hoped he hadn't screwed things up himself. He had started to like his life at Mahora. It'd be bummer if he had to leave.

xXx

The day of the results had come and Naruto was standing inside the dean's office together with Nitta-sensei.

"So your classes scored quite nicely," Nitta explained to him, "No big improvements, but also no classes suddenly scoring very low. Of course, there were some students who scored better and some who did a bit worse than before, but averagely seen they scored just as well as the other classes. Which is an accomplishment on it's own, especially for a new teacher. My compliments," Nitta praised him.

"Nice!" Naruto whooped as he heard about the results, Nitta just smiled at him, while old man Konoemon did his weird ho-ho-ho laugh in the background.

"You look surprised," Nitta commented, "I guess you didn't expect this."

"Hell no," Naruto scoffed, before scratching the back of his neck sheepishly, "I thought I was doing pretty good an all, but that turned out to be one big fat lie. Because apparently no one was really listening to me, so I had to change the way I did my lectures," he explained as he let out a big sigh. Finding out that his lectures had sucked had been disheartening. "Negi actually helped me with that," he added.

"Nitta nodded, "Teaching is a learning experience, not only for the students, but also for you as a teacher. For all of us, actually," he told him, before he turned to the dean, "I've said my part, now it is for you to decide, sir."

"I think the results were clear enough," Konoemon cleared his throat, "Uzumaki Naruto-sensei, would you agree to be a teacher for another year?"

"You can count on it, old man!" Naruto grinned as he saluted the man. Nitta-sensei shook his head at his behavior. "So now that that's out the window, you need me for anything else? Or was that it?"

"You can go for now. There will be an official ceremony soon, but that will be it for today," The dean told him "I still need to finish scoring the latecomers from 2-A, so it'd be best if I hurried with that. The total ranking announcement will start soon, after all."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "You're still doing that? Well good luck, old man," Naruto waved goodbye at them as he made his way to the big hall, he had promised he'd meet Negi and the others there because of the ranking announcement. He frowned when he heard that the announcement had already started. Strange.

Scanning through the crowd, he was able to find the others pretty quickly, "Hey, you guys," he greeted them, while the nervous girls only mumbled something in his direction, too preoccupied with the rankings.

"C-come one, you guys, there are still three classes left," Asuna tried to stay positive, "We might still make a chance," she said.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure you won't," Naruto deadpanned.

"Naruto, you piece of shit," Asuna growled, insulted at the small amount of faith he had in them.

"What?" Naruto shrugged, "The old man is stilling scoring your tests, so you it'd be kind of impossible for you guys to be rated," he told them, making them all turn to him.

"WHAT!"

He rubbed his ears. Did they have to shout? "Yeah, I'm not even sure why they bothered to start with the ranking," he shrugged again, while the others looked immensely relieved, not caring that their class was ranked last. "Now the old man has to do it over once he's here."

"You hear that, Negi-kun," Konoka smiled at him, as Negi breathed out in relieve, "We might still make a chance."

"We might even be ranked #1,"Makie cheered, as she clapped her hands together.

Negi could only hope. Considering the amount of points they already had, the missing points could put them very high. Maybe even first. Honestly, he'd be happy as long as they didn't rank last again.

Surely enough, the dean had arrived and explained the situation. The ranking was done over, and this time it was not only less stressful, but it also went a lot faster for 2-A. After all, they got the joyous news that they had somehow ranked #1. The group jumped in joy, hugging the small teacher, celebrating their victory.

A bit off the side stood both Naruto and Asuna.

"Well we somehow did it," Asuna smiled, as she watched the joyful look on Negi's face as he was being hugged by the other members of the Baka-rangers and Library Expedition Club, "And we didn't even need the stupid book. Who knew?"

"You guys worked hard," he said, holding out his hand, which she gladly high fived. "I'm proud of my little students," he teased. "It makes me so emotional," he said as he wiped away a fake tear, while his voice fake cracked, causing Asuna to roll her eyes at him. He grinned back at her, "Guess we'll all be here for the next school year. Even I'm allowed to stay," he told her.

Asuna glanced at him in surprise, "What? You also maybe had to leave?"

Naruto looked at her strangely, "Of course? You think they'd let someone stay if they failed?"

"Ugh, why didn't you say so," she groaned.

"Oe, I didn't know you cared," he teased

"I don't," she scoffed, "If I had known that, I wouldn't even have tried to do my best," she teased back, "I'd finally get rid of your ass."

He waggled his finger, "Nu-uh, if I had to leave, you'd miss me," he bragged, a huge grin on his face.

Asuna rolled her eyes again, "Keep telling that to yourself."

Naruto threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer, "Aww, no worries," he said, as he ruffled her hair, "I'd miss you too~"

"Naruto, you asshole!" she yelled, as she shoved him away and fixed her hair. The blonde just kept grinning at her, as the others seemed to be finished celebrating and stepped closer to them, "Everyone ready to go? Let's go," Asuna called out, as they started to exit the hall, "I could really use a good nap, right now."

Naruto hummed. A nap did sound great, indeed, but maybe for another time, "I think I'm going to swing by Setsuna," he thought out loud, making the other blink.

Negi was the first to open his mouth, "I didn't know you knew Sakurazaki-san so well," he commented.

Naruto rubbed his chin, "Oh, yeah well, while you guys were on your super-duper fun adventure," he looked pointedly at them, making them sweat drop, "I coincidentally met Setsuna outside of class, and we hit it off," he explained. Literally. Not that they had to know that, "We're good friends now," he boasted. "A few days ago we even‒" he stopped, noticing the others were also in earshot. Would it be too much if he said they were training together? Maybe. He'd better play it safe, "‒we even‒" he tried to rack his brain to give a normal answer "‒together‒" Come, on brain. The others looked at him weirdly, "‒Uhm‒" he started to sweat, "‒we had a special study session?" he finally flapped out.

"WHAT!" all the girls yelled.

"What?" he let out confused at their reaction, one of the girls even covered Negi's ear.

He wasn't the only one confused, though. Little Negi was also confused. That didn't stop him from trying to join the conversation, neither did the fact that his ears were still covered, "A special study session? That was very kind of you, Naruto-san. I can really respect how you're going out of your way to help other students," he complimented the blonde innocently.

Asuna exploded, "YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLANATION, NARUTO," she raged, as she grabbed him by the collar.

Naruto just pouted at her, "What do you a mean a good explanation, I just didn't want to do it on my own!" he explained himself, "It's boring when I always have to do it on my own. It's more fun when you're joined by someone."

"NARUTO-SENSEI, YOU NEVER HAVE TO DO IT ALONE. JUST KNOCK ON MY DOOR. KNOCK ON MY DOOR," Haruna yelled at him, a wild look on her face as she struggled to get to him, while Yue and Nodoke tried to hold her back.

Naruto blinked, "Huh?"

AN: So, that's chapter 5. Hope you enjoyed reading it. Pacing of the story is slow, I know. I'm sorry about that, it's just the way it goes.

Concerning the question I get about UQ Holder: I most likely will not add any characters from that story. I haven't really read the story, except for the first few chapters, so I have no idea what's going on. Plus right now I don't want to complicate things by adding more factors to the story. Writing is already kind of hard for me, so trying to explain why X en Y are there and there, might make it even harder for me.

This doesn't mean that it's off the table. Of course I had already a few plans concerning UQ Holder after I read the first few chapters, but those plans were made for in the future.

As always, I wish you guys a very nice day!