CHAPTER ONE

Naruto fell into his seat lazily, looking over at his best friend, Sasuke. "Know anything about the new sub?" he asked.

"No. But he's even later than you. Ch. At least he knows how to make a good first impression," Sasuke replied sarcastically.

"I heard he's gorgeous," their other friend, Sakura, said as she turned around in her seat to face them. "And apparently he and Mr. Might are something of rivals."

"Wait. You mean someone actually takes Guy seriously enough to be his 'rival'?" Tenten turned and asked amusedly.

Rock Lee then invited himself into the conversation and said in a voice most would consider loud enough to be yelling, "Guy-sensei is a very serious man! He understands the youth!"

"Guy? Serious? Understanding?" a new, deep voice inquired, chuckling lightly. All heads immediately snapped to the front of the room where a man with gravity-defying silver hair and a mask that covered his nose and mouth. "Ah. Good to see you're all alert and ready. I am your new substitute, Hatake Kakashi. You may refer to me as 'Mr. Hatake' or 'Kakashi-sensei.' Never, under any circumstance, may you simply call me 'Kakashi'. I will be teaching your Anatomy class until your regular teacher, Iruka, is feeling well enough to come back. Now, any questions?" Kakashi finished, looking around expectantly at his new students.

All of the kids stayed silent for a moment, until Sakura raised her hand and asked, "Do you know Iruka-sensei personally? Judging by your lack of formality in addressing him, I was just wondering."

"Yes, I do. I have known him for quite a while now. And you are?"

"Haruno Sakura. If you don't mid me asking, Mr. Hatake, how do you know him? He seemed like he didn't really get out that much."

Kakashi sighed, as if he hadn't been planning on sharing this particular bit of information with his new class. "Iruka is my ex-fiancée. It didn't work out."

Every student had a different reaction to this revelation. Sakura herself let her mouth fall open in surprise, along with several other of her classmates. Naruto was just as shocked, mainly at the fact that both he and Iruka were gay. Sasuke clearly just didn't give a fuck, as per usual. The same went for Gaara, Shino, and Shikamaru. Lee whispered something about not only the youth being… active to Neji, who whispered something back about just how 'active' and 'youthful' the two of them would be later at Neji's place, which caused Lee to blush madly in return.

Sakura, of course, wasn't quite finished butting into her new teacher's personal life just yet, and asked, "What happened?"

Kakashi sighed again, heavier this time. "There was an argument, an affair, another argument… It's really none of your business. Now, even though you're obviously all here, I'm going to take attendance." He grabbed a clipboard from his messenger bag and started reading off the names. "Aburame Shino."

"Here," Shino's deep and kinda creepy af voice came from his seat beside Kiba in the back of the room.

"Akimichi Choji."

"Present."

"Haruno Sakura."

"Here."

"Gaara."

"Here," Gaara said, sounding like he would prefer to be anywhere else.

"Hyuuga Neji."

"I'm here," Neji responded, momentarily pausing his embarrassing and considerably sexual pick-up lines sent Lee's way.

"Hyuuga Hinata."

"H-here," Hinata stumbled out nervously.

"Temari."

"Right here."

"Nara Shikamaru."

"Present," came the sound of Shikamaru's bored and clearly uninterested voice.

"Inuzaka Kiba."

"Here!"

"Tenten."

"Here."

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"Here. Unfortunately."

"Ah, there's always the one that openly wishes they weren't here. Yamanaka Ino?"

"Over here!"

"Rock Lee."

"Present!" Lee yelled in response, a little too eager that he finally had a reason to block out Neji telling him about all the things he could be doing to him right then, if only for a moment.

"And… Uzumaki Naruto?"

"…here," Naruto said, unusually quiet. Normally when the teachers took attendance, he would loudly proclaim his existence and be proud of it. Sasuke noticed this and, when Kakashi turned around to fish something out of his bag, leaned over to Naruto to say,

"You seem off. What's wrong?"

"Um, n-nothing. I'm fine."

"Naruto, if you're-"

"I'll tell you later!" Naruto suddenly cut him off, quickly turning around to face the whiteboard Kakashi was now writing on.

/\/\/\/\/\

When the bell rang, signaling both the end of class and the end of the school day, everyone stood up and began packing up all of their belongings, heading toward the door.

"Naruto, would you stay for a moment?" Kakashi's voice startled the Uzumaki, almost causing him to drop his books.

"U-uh, yeah. Of course, Kakashi-sensei," he said awkwardly.

"I'll wait for you by your locker, Naruto," Sasuke said, silently pitying him for having been asked to stay behind with Kakashi. The man seemed a little… odd. Nonetheless, he grabbed his backpack and sauntered out of the classroom, being the last one out.

'Great,' Naruto thought. 'Now we're alone.'

"Yes, sensei?" he asked once he'd gotten to the teacher's desk at the front of the room.

"Naruto, you seemed exceptionally distracted during class. You obviously weren't paying attention, and you were the only one to not participate. No seriously, every single other person answered a question. I'm pretty sure at one point you were actually drooling. Were you sleeping in my class, Naruto?" Kakashi explained, looking at the younger boy with slight concern showing in his one visible eye.

"N-no, I wasn't distracted or anything! I was just, um… I have a severe illness that causes me to involuntarily salivate. Sometimes, I don't even notice and Sasuke has to wipe it off for me! But, um… I'm fine. No need to worry, sensei," Naruto rushed out nervously, desperate to let out anything but the truth.

"Naruto, how old are you?"

"Almost 18."

"Do you plan on going to college next year?"

"Um, yeah, if I get accepted."

"What do you want out of life when you're older? What do you plan to do occupationally?"

"I really don't know yet, sensei. But that's still a while away."

"Well, Naruto. You need to get your shit together if you want to anything at all when you're older. I hope you pay better attention during your other classes, otherwise you may not be going to college next year and there goes step one of your future. Please stay attentive in my next class, Naruto. You may go now, I know your friend is waiting for you."

"Okay, I will be, sensei. Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow," Naruto said, so glad that awkward as hell conversation was over and that he could finally leave. He stepped outside and made his way to his locker, finding Sasuke leaning against it looking like he wanted to murder everyone around him just for making so much noise. Which he probably did.

"How'd it go?" he asked when he saw Naruto come up beside him, moving over so the blonde could open his locker.

"He told me I need to pay better attention and some other shit about college and life when I'm older. I dunno, it was just really awkward," Naruto answered, putting his books in his locker and sliding on his jacket, along with his backpack.

"So, tell me now. Why were you so off during his class?"

Naruto blushed, attempting pitifully to hide it behind his locker. Sasuke immediately shut his locked in his face, though, foiling his plans.

"Why are you blushing? Did you… Oh God, wait. Don't tell me you were attracted to Kakashi? And that's why you were so quiet and distracted? And God, when you were drooling-"

"Shut up, Sasuke! I was not attracted to Kakashi," Naruto replied, crossing his arms over his chest and holding his chin high.

"You so were. Don't bother denying it, Naruto. It's obvious." Sasuke even had the nerve to laugh. Dick.

"Fine, you got me!" Naruto sighed exasperatedly and threw his hands up in defeat. "He's just so gorgeous. I wonder what he looks like without that mask on, or without-"

"I'm going to stop you right there because I'd really rather not hear about your homosexual fantasies about our substitute teacher. So, I'll be a good best friend for one and just move on. Let's go. I'm hungry as fuck."

"McDonald's?" Naruto asked, looking up at his friend of fifteen years with hopeful eyes.

"McDonald's," Sasuke confirmed with a firm nod, then turning to walk side-by-side out to his car.

END CHAPTER ONE.