It was a week later that we find Naruto walking to his first day of school. He was wearing blue shorts, a bright orange shirt with the Konoha emblem and a bright smile that only a child could pull off. Ignoring the glares that he knew were there, he clutched his bag tighter to his chest and quickened his pace.
His first stop of the morning was Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Hopping up onto a stool he greeted the old man behind the counter. "Oi, ouchan! Is Ayame-neechan ready yet?"
Teuchi looked down at his number one customer (despite his small stature) and smiled. "She'll be down in a minute. You know how girls are at that age. They spend too much time trying to look their best for boys." As he was saying this a dark look came over him at the thought of his precious daughter anywhere near boys. That is, until he noticed the completely clueless look on the only boy he trusts around his daughter because of his cluelessness err,... innocence. "Never mind." He set a bowl of ramen in front of the still confused Naruto and went up the stairs in the back room that led to their apartment.
Naruto immediately forgot about the old man's weird ramblings when he saw the steaming bowl of Heaven and dug in. As he was finishing off the last dregs of broth, Ayame came out dressed in a short blue skirt and a white sleeveless top. She was followed by her obviously disgruntled father which she paid no mind to. "Ohayo Naruto-kun! Ready for your first day of school?" she chirped as she slung her bag over her shoulder. Naruto wiped his chin and nodded so she took his hand and led him out of the small shop.
Naruto's bottom lip jutted out as he yanked his hand out of her grip. "I'm not a little kid you know. I don't need you to hold my hand," he pouted. Ayame stopped and blinked owlishly. She suddenly broke out into a big grin before giggling. She ruffled his hair playfully and ran ahead of him. Naruto stood their dazed for a second with a slight blush trying to understand what just happened. 'Ack! School hasn't even started yet and my brain already hurts from thinking too much!' He turned in the direction that Ayame ran off in and found that she was already a half a block ahead of him.
She looked back and stuck out her tongue while shouting, "Hurry up slowpoke! My grandma runs faster than you!"
"Your grandma was a kunoichi! She's faster than both of us!" he shouted back as he quickly caught up to her. They ran the rest of the way to school with Ayame beating him by a hair. As they clutched their sides trying to catch their breath, Ayame gave Naruto a cocky grin and peace sign.
"Nobody can beat the Great Ayame-neechan!" she loudly boasted once she had enough air in her lungs.
"No fair! You cheated!" Naruto protested but his anger died when he noticed the looks that they were gathering. All of the parents that were bringing their children to their first day of school were either blatantly staring at him or whispering fearfully amongst themselves. The teachers standing around to help direct the children were ignoring him, probably forewarned about their latest addition. The other children were just curious about the strange pair that just stampeded through the front gate. Forgetting his earlier proclamation of not being a little kid anymore, he grabbed his neechan's hand and pulled her towards the front door.
Ayame noticed the abrupt change and mistook it for first day jitters. "Don't worry Naruto-kun. I know you had you heart set on the ninja academy but this isn't so bad. Just be yourself and make lots of friends."
"Easy for you to say. You only have one more year of this and you have your family's ramen shop to fall back on. I got nothin! I've got no idea what I'm going to do with my life and the one thing I did want to do, I got rejected!" he whined.
She laughed. The nerve! He was going through a mid-childhood crisis and she was laughing at him. "Relax Naru-chan. You don't have to think about that stuff for another couple years. Just have fun while you still can." She was cut off when someone called her name. She turned and saw a group of girls coming her way. Turning back to Naruto she smiled apologetically. "Those are my friends. Do you think you can find your room by yourself? You said so yourself that you're a big kid now." He nodded slowly. "Your room is down this hall and up the stairs. It should be the first room on the left." Giving him one last ruffle of the hair of which she got her hand slapped away, she turned and walked off with her friends.
Naruto waved sadly as his only friend walked away. When she turned the corner and out of sight he sighed before turning on his heel and walking in the opposite direction. He walked past walls that were filled with really crappy and totally lame drawings and blanched.This is what he has to deal with for who knows how long? Naruto felt like crying all over again.
He was roughly pushed to the ground, making him drop his bag and his books, box of crayons, and his precious Gama-chan change-purse spilled out across the floor. Naruto turned and glared at his attacker. She was an older girl, around eleven years old and a little on the chunky side. There was a little bit of acne on her sneering face, probably just starting puberty. She was wearing an old plaid shirt that had a stain on it and her jeans had a tear on the knees, which was a sign of her either being extremely clumsy or too poor to afford new clothes. Naruto guessed that it was a little of both. Her hair was black and oily, tied back into a short ponytail.
"What was that for?" Naruto snarled as he jumped to his feet. The other girl was a good foot taller than he was making him feel smaller than he actually was, but he isn't one to back down.
She looked down at him in disgust. "Just thought I'd introduce myself. Name's Nanami and if you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of my way." She roughly pushed past him and he glared at her retreating back.
"Crazy bitch," he mumbled before she even had the chance to get out of hearing range. Nanami stopped and slowly turned to look with narrowed eyes at the blond midget.
"What did you call me?" she growled.
"Hey, it's not my fault you're hard of hearing," he shrugged trying to act nonchalant. He was met with a punch to the gut making him double over gasping for breath. Then he realized that he was being forcefully dragged by the collar of his shirt. "Oi! Let me go!" he twisted and turned trying to weaken the vice-like grip she had on him but nothing worked when he couldn't even get his feet under him. He was dragged into a bathroom and by the screams and fleeing girls, he rightly guessed it was the girls bathroom. Nanami kicked in the door of one of the stalls and threw the flailing boy in before grabbing onto his hair and plunging his head into the toilet before flushing three times consecutively.
When Naruto was finally let go he collapsed on the ground, gasping and coughing harshly. With one final kick to the ribs, Nanami left him with the parting words, "Learn your place you little piece of shit."
He weakly climbed to his hands and knees as the beginning-of-class bell rang. Crawling out of the stall, he shakily pulled himself back up. As he trudged out of the bathroom he saw that most of the students were already in class and those that weren't were glancing at him and trying to stifle their laughter as they made their way towards class. The teachers that were closing their doors didn't even spare him a second glance.
When he got his bag he found that his crayons have been stepped on and what little money that he had in his Gama-chan had been stolen. Growling, he stuffed his things back in his bag and stomped off to class, trying to ignore the squish his shoes made from the toilet water that was dripping from his hair. When he finally made it to the door he was thoroughly pissed so his clouded mind decided that it was a good idea to fling the door open with a loud bang.
Everyone turned to look in his direction, most of the students immediately recognizing him from the earlier performance and started whispering to their neighbor's ear about it and the fact that not one teacher put a stop to it. The teacher at the front of the room was less than pleased about the interruption though.
"Uzumaki-kun! I do not tolerate those that show up late to class and to cause such a ruckus and all on your first day as well! Take your seat before I change my mind about giving you a detention!"
Naruto stomped his way up the steps as he made his way to the back of the class and took a seat next to the window. He ignored the exaggerated "choking-on-your-stink" faces of the other kids that he passed and the resulting laughter as he plopped down into his seat. The fact that he buried his face into his folded arms had nothing to do with trying to hide the mortified blush on his face. Nope! Never happened. Not according to him at least.
As the excitement died down and the teacher droned on, Naruto thought back on the thing that has been plaguing his mind since his discovery of it. Opening his bag, he pulled out an old notebook that he found at that abandoned compound before he left. He recalled how he was about to leave in the early morning but was overcome by that feeling in the back of his mind again. It led him to this notebook that, judging by the hand written pages, was somebodies diary. Now, his conscience of it being wrong to read other people's personal things is the only thing that has prevented him from reading the ratty thing so far, but that gut feeling (that also has been plaguing his thoughts) as well as his childish curiosity made him want to keep it. You know, to keep it safe... He swears! Besides its not like the dude will care. The fact that it was laying out on top of the bookshelf for all the world to see means that he either doesn't care who reads it or he's dead, in which case he also wouldn't care.
That was Naruto's reasoning at least. But that stupid feeling that Naruto has named his "sixth sense" won't stop kicking him in the back of the head telling him that he reeeeeeeeeally should read it.
Or maybe that's just his own eagerness to read it. That the feeling was just a figment of his imagination to justify the fact when he finally crumbles and reads it, it won't be his fault.
Not that he will!!!
But that still doesn't explain why he was drawn to the stupid thing in the first place. Naruto clutched his head in confusion from his own confusing thoughts. He decided that it wasn't worth the mental strain at the moment and stuffed the book back into his bag.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the shrill yelling of his teacher, "Uzumaki-kun! Answer the question!"
"Umm,... 32?" The rest of the class burst out laughing and the teacher gave him nasty glare.
"Uzumaki-kun! Pay attention. This is the last warning you'll get from me." She turned back to the board and continued on with her lesson.
'The day has barely started and it already sucks this bad.' and forehead met desk.
Ack! I didn't mean to take this long with updating and its short again. T-T AND I'm not completely satisfied with the way it turned out but I really really really wanted to get this chapter out. So meh.
Also. MERRY (early) CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAY to everyone (I still can't believe how fast December goes by) and join in the holiday spirit of giving and give me the best Christmas present you can give me by giving me a review... please?