"Naruto, wake up."
The blonde didn't so much as twitch, his snores continuing to fill the classroom as drool leaked from his mouth.
The boy's teacher brought his fingers to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose as he produced a stick of chalk with his right hand.
"You've got five seconds to wake up, Naruto."
The very air in the classroom seemed to stall as each body in the space stopped to see what would happen once the allotted time had passed.
And five seconds later, they got their answer.
The piece of chalk cut through the air, fervently flying toward its 15-year-old target before making contact with the teen's skull.
The blonde's body jerked at the impact as his upper half shot up, dried drool on the side of his face.
"I'm up! I'm up!"
Giggles flowed throughout the classroom as the teen's peers pointed and stared at the blonde, a number of them whispering about his idiocy.
"Uzumaki's dozing off again."
"Yikes. It's like he doesn't wanna graduate."
"Exactly. If he isn't sleeping, he's skipping, and if he isn't skipping he's reading some dumb book."
"You're right. He's nothing like Sasuke-Kun."
As though his name brought forth a spell, the females in the space began something akin to chant, each speaking of the positive qualities held by the Uchiha clan heir.
And no voice rang louder than that of Sakura Haruno's.
"Sasuke-Kun is just so…so perfect! Not like that idiot Naruto!"
The statement earned a round of approval from the surrounding girls, each offering their own form of praise for the former and criticism for the latter.
Before long, the brunet at the helm of the classroom raised a hand, signaling his students to calm themselves.
"That's enough talking. Open your textbooks and turn to Chapter 27: Intro to Basic Taijutsu."
A collective groan rang out as the students grabbed their textbooks, flipping to the section needed for today's lesson.
All save for the object of the class's ire.
Rather than retrieve his textbook as expected, the teen opted to instead grab a different book from his bag, flipping to his last bookmarked page before silently losing himself in the ink.
Seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hours as the blonde read through the dense book, ignorant of the lecture taking place around him.
"The practical portion of today's class is paired sparring. I'll call two of you randomly and you'll pick a partner to fight alongside."
A hand shot up after the instructor's sentence ended, the limb belonging to a particularly hefty boy.
"Why do we have to work in pairs? Won't we just get in each other's way?"
The scarred man responded with a so-so motion.
"Yes and no. True you might get in each other's way but Shinobi work in teams. If you want to be successful in this line of work, you must learn how to fight effectively with others."
The chubbier teen nodded before dropping his arm, sliding the limb back into a large chip bag, and popping one into his mouth.
"Any more questions?"
None came as the students chose to whisper instead, drumming up who they deemed would be a good or bad pair.
Iruka turned back to his class, scanning the teens before settling his sights on two he felt would make an interesting matchup.
"Sakura Haruno & Hinata Hyūga, please make your way to the sparring circle."
The man couldn't help but grin as his students began whispering amongst themselves, each speculating on not just the matchup itself,
But who the two would pick as their partners.
And as the nervous heiress and pink-haired foe walked toward the open circle, the group waited with bated breath to see the pairs.
"Sakura, you may have first pick."
"Okay! I pick…"
The aforementioned couldn't help but smile wide as her emerald eyes settled on a specific guy in the crowd.
"Sasuke Uchiha."
"Hinata's cooked."
"Yup."
The students turned to look toward the Uchiha heir, watching as he made his way toward the sparring circle.
Once he cemented himself beside his partner, those in the crowd tried their best to avoid the Hyūga heiress's vision, desperate to avoid fighting the best in their class.
Their efforts were needless, however, as the girl's pale eyes went straight to one boy in particular.
The only one who'd not made an effort to avoid her view.
"I pick…"
The blush that rose as she stared at her pick tinted her cheeks pink, the color threatening to spread throughout her body as she pointed to the teen.
"N-Naruto U-Uzumaki!"
"WHAT?!"
"IS SHE SLOW?!"
Everyone's eyes turned to the recently picked blonde, each of them expecting some sort of fear to be present on his face.
What they got instead, however, was a disinterested teen, his face in a book as he sat cross-legged on the dirt.
Feeling everyone's eyes on him, the boy raised his head, brilliant blues tinted with a splash of confusion.
"Do I have something on my face?"
"You win by either ring out or TKO. Knockouts are NOT permitted. You'll begin at my say so."
Stepping back out of the ring, the brunet gave the contestants their space, taking note of their expressions at the same time.
While Sasuke and Sakura seemed confident, Hinata seemed anxious, trembling in her spot.
But the one that really caught the man's attention…was Naruto.
The boy seemed incredibly relaxed, his sky-blue eyes affixed to the clouds above.
Returning his focus to the remaining combatants, Iruka raised his arm, signaling the fighters to take their stances.
"BEGIN!"
Almost the instant the command was given, Sasuke was rushing toward the blonde, his right fist reared back.
The latter, however, made no effort to dodge, simply allowing the fist to connect with his jaw, sending him on his back.
"Nice hit Sasuke-Kun!"
"Hn."
Unfortunately for the blonde's partner, she was left in an unfortunate 2v1, a crowd of her peers rooting against her.
Assuming a shaky stance, the lavender-haired heiress began to slowly circle her opponents, her fear a stark contrast to their arrogance.
Sakura was the first to attack, throwing a sloppy right straight that Hinata doubted had the power to do any real damage.
Regardless, the heiress used her lead left hand to hit the arm out to her left before slamming a palm into the pinkettes sternum.
The effect was immediate, tearing the wind out of the smaller girl's lungs and sending her doubling over.
"You don't use your hips or legs when you punch, Sakura."
Each head in attendance snapped over to the outskirts of the large ring, their eyes widening at whom they saw.
There sat Naruto Uzumaki, previously thought unconscious, with his eyes glued to a book.
"Also, Sasuke, you can't really gauge distance well. I know your fighting style is all about using the Sharingan but you don't have yours yet."
"What the hell did you just say to me?!"
Pushing past the two girls, the raven grabbed his classmate by the jacket collar, raising him up to eye level.
The blonde, however, wasn't intimidated, opting instead to roll his eyes at the hostility.
"I was just being honest. If you were just a little bit closer when you hit me, I would've been out cold."
The earnest attempt at a compliment seemed to have the opposite effect, characterized by the Uchiha heir raising his free right hand.
Rather than let the boy strike him, the blonde opted instead to ram the top of his skull into his foe's face, breaking the latter's nose.
The teen then raised his left leg, checking a leg kick from Sasuke that threatened to shatter a knee.
Shoving the raven, Naruto rounded Hinata and the still-recovering pinkette, positioning himself behind his second opponent.
"Stop running!"
"No."
With a crisp sidekick, the blonde pushed Sakura into her opponent, sending the girl topping over her partner and killing his pursuit.
"Hinata, immobilize them."
"R-Right."
Rushing over to the collapsed duo, Hinata did just that, using her clan techniques to temporarily paralyze a Sasuke stuck under the heel of her blonde partner.
There was no need to do so for the pinkette.
"H-Hinata and Naruto win."
"No fucking way."