HEY GUYS. I haven't been writing much, but this summer I signed myself up for the sn_exchange over at LJ. This is the result! It wasn't meant to be split into parts/chapters, but the fic ended up being unfortunately too big for one LJ post =_= I hope it works either way, and that you enjoy it!

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Naruto hated math. They were complicated, full of symbols he could never remember the meaning of, and gave him nightmares. He'd woken up in cold sweat once, division signs and fractions dancing in front of his eyes. He could never understand the logic behind any of the steps and solutions they were taught; he always found his own ways to resolve a problem, but he'd quickly learnt that if he didn't apply what the teacher was telling him to, he'd fail. Which was a terrifying thought, because the last thing he wanted was to face Konohamaru's mockeries if he ended up in the same math class as the kid.

Clearing his throat, Naruto shifted in his seat and tried peeking over his arm at Shikamaru, the lazy genius kid of the class. He was incredibly smart but spent most of his hours in school sleeping away. And yet he had the best average of the entire institution, which was infuriating. Naruto had almost whooped and jumped for joy when he'd been told his seat would be right next to Shikamaru's, thinking his days of failing were over; he could easily sneak glances at the other boy's copy. Except, of course, he wasn't quite that lucky.

He groaned when he realised, that, once again, Shikamaru hadn't filled up any of the math problems and was instead snoring softly, forehead in the crook of his elbow.

iGreat. Now what?/i

Clearing his throat and shifting in the other direction, Naruto tired peeking at his other neighbour, a quiet, shy girl that he wasn't sure he could remember the name of. Hina? Hinamoto? She was sorta weird, but as far as he knew she got decent enough grades. She was always nice to him, too, offering him her little bento boxes when he'd lose his lunch money…Naruto, mid-peek, started to change his mind, feeling bad for cheating off of such a nice girl. He hadn't noticed that she'd moved her arm away to allow him to see better, because he was hit in the back of the head by an eraser.

"Naruto!"

He turned at the hiss, rubbing at the back of his head and glaring at Sakura, sitting right behind him.

"What?!" He said harshly under his breath, as if he'd done nothing wrong. Which he hadn't, really! The thought doesn't count, the action does…right? Something like that.

Sakura kicked at his chair under the table, throwing a quick glance at the teacher to make sure she wasn't going to get caught. He was caught up in his small orange book, as always, so she turned to hiss at Naruto again.

"Stop trying to cheat, you idiot! You just had to study like I told you to!"

Rubbing at the back of his head a final time, Naruto stuck out his tongue at her before turning back to his test, looking down warily at the entirely blank answer sections. He was doomed. He'd have to spend the rest of his life studying with Konohamaru as the boy mocked him endlessly. A true nightmare.

He decided to take back that thought when Sai turned around from the seat in front of him, lips curved in that stupidly fake smile of his. Now ithat/i was a true nightmare. He braced himself for whichever words would escape the other boy's lips, gritting his teeth. What would it be this time? His manliness? His…manhood? In his defence, Naruto thought he wasn't done going through puberty and eventually would catch up and be burlier, manlier, and bigger than any other boy in their class. Or at least, that's what his father had been telling him when he came home vexed and with a wounded ego.

"I'm done, Naruto-kun." Sai said to no one, as Naruto had decided to ignore him. He didn't have the patience to deal with him now. His self-esteem was low enough as it was – no need to rub in the fact that apparently even his dick was below average in size(even if this time seemed more aimed at his intelligence, which was just as insulting). How did Sai know, anyways? Was he some kind of expert? Maybe he was just gay. He did have a funny accent when he spoke English, even if he did speak it perfectly. Where had he come from again? It wasn't America, but it was some English speaking country. Naruto couldn't be bothered to remember names, and continued to ignore Sai even as he backed up his chair and shifted closer to Naruto's desk.

Naruto threw a glance at the teacher, sitting with his feet up on the desk. He raised an eyebrow, knowing no other teacher would get away with doing something so rude. Also, with letting the students talk during an exam. Naruto was almost positive the man was only pretending to be engrossed in his book, and was in fact listening to every spoken word, however ushered or whispered it was. Maybe even written. He seemed the type to have some secret super power, with the way he smiled as if he knew a secret you didn't (and never would, his smirk said). That might be why he wore that eye patch all the time. He also had the habit of wearing a mask, which wasn't so strange in Japan, but Naruto couldn't help but be curious considering he'd never once heard the teacher sniffle, cough, or show any sign of having a cold.

He tried to keep ignoring Sai, but the boy was leaning over, a little too close to comfort.

"Get out of my face," Naruto said through gritted teeth, changing his grip on his pencil to make it look more like a weapon to stab someone with, rather than a writing tool. He hoped Sai would get the message. Naruto wasn't entirely sure what was up with Sai. He was hard to read, sometimes acting as if he was in awe of Naruto, with his blond hair and blue eyes, and sometimes acting as if he was inferior. Funnily enough, it was like the embodiment of the Japanese attitude toward him. Both were cold and distant, heightening the feeling of isolation Naruto often felt. Thankfully, Kiba helped with that. It had taken him a while but he'd seen past the foreigner aspect of Naruto, and they were now good friends. Well, Sakura called them Partners In Crime And Everything Else That Breaks Any Kind of Rule, but Naruto liked that title. Besides, the title of best friend was currently taken.

By someone he hadn't seen in nearly three years, but that didn't really matter. Not to him, anyways.

Sai wasn't moving away, so Naruto finally gave him a glare, grabbing his desk at the side, pushing his chair back and taking the furniture along with him. There, safe distance. Sai's smile didn't falter, and with his eyes fixed on Naruto he did the same, moving closer.

Oh, the bastard. He wasn't going to win this.

Naruto grabbed his desk again to pull it further, until the back of his chair hit Sakura's desk, causing her to mistype on her calculator, which Naruto hadn't noticed. He whispered an apology for disturbing her, hoping she wouldn't be too angry. She could have a very bad temper, when she wanted to. She could be downright terrifying, and Naruto had gotten worse bruises from her than from any fight he'd ever gotten into.

Naruto felt a harsh kick to one of the legs of his chair and he startled, looking back to see Sakura's murderous glare pinned right on him. Uh oh. That wasn't going to go well. He opened his mouth to say something stupid and hopefully get a little sympathy, or at least pity, but before he could speak Kakashi dropped his feet from the desk and closed his book shut, sighing.

"Alright, kids! Test over, hand in your sheets before heading out, have a good day, don't drink and drive, and say no to drugs," he said, as if his words were a text he'd been forced to recite and had learnt by heart. Naruto took a second to roll his eyes before hurriedly gathering his things, brushing past Sai on his way down the aisle. He did not want to face Sakura right now.

"Naruto, wait up!" She nearly screeched, and he sped up, almost jogging to the desk. He slapped his sheet on it, giving Kakashi an I'm About To Be Murdered, Please Help Me smile while the man returned it with a I Don't Care, I'm Going To Have Fun Watching smile. Then the man looked down at Naruto's exam sheet and he looked back at him with a look that clearly said he'd never seen someone as stupid as him. Naruto gave up trying to get help from Kakashi, and fled out the door, not watching where he was going. Which was how he walked right into Kiba. Who was blocking his way out, grinning down at him (because Naruto's growth spurt wasn't over, but one day, one day he'd be the tallest!).

"If you know what's good for you'll get out of my way iright now/i," Naruto said through gritted teeth, and Kiba only laughed at him and pat his shoulder. The stupid ass never helped him out. He loved to torture Naruto and shove him right into Sakura's evil grasp. Kiba turned the touch into a grip and spun Naruto around to face Sakura, who, speaking of face, had turned red in anger and was clutching her calculator in her hand.

"You idiot! I didn't finish the last problem because of you! What if I fail?! UGH, I have no idea why I even put up with you anymore!" she lashed out, while Naruto started raising his arms to shield himself. She breathed out heavily, closing her eyes, and Naruto relaxed, thinking that she was calming down. That's when his forehead was stabbed by a calculator.

"OW!" His hands immediately went to the already sore spot, rubbing furiously. "That hurt! I didn't do it on purpose; Sai was being a creep again!" He explained quickly, shooting Sai, who was now standing behind Sakura, a glare.

"I don't care!" Sakura replied, pushing past him. "I'm not buying you lunch today like I promised, so good luck finding your own food!" She called back, leaving the room in a stomp.

Kiba whistled low, followed by a chuckle.

"You really pissed her off this time," he said, and Sai nodded wisely.

"Do you think he beat the time where he tried sneaking up on her in the changing room?" Sai asked, titling his head, and Kiba shook his head.

"No way, he'd have been dead if that was the case."

Naruto watched the two discuss his pain and misery, and with a frustrated growl pushed past them and out of the room. They got way too much of a kick out of seeing him beaten up by Sakura and were always trying to see what other accident they could cause to get Naruto in trouble.

"You guys suck! Now I'm going to starve!" He whined as the two followed. Two? Wait, Shikamaru was missing. He blinked and stopped in the middle of the hallway, turning around to look for him.

"Where'd Shikamaru go?" he asked, and Sai shrugged while Kiba rolled his eyes.

"You know him. Started the test 10 minutes before the end, finished it in 3, and left 7 minutes early. He's probably already well into his nap on the roof."

Naruto had a tendency to forget people were smarter than him. Likely because it filled him with a frustration only doing something stupid could make him forget, and now not only did he get in trouble with school for those, but he got punched by Sakura. She had a mean fist, and it really did hurt whenever she hit him. He often wondered if maybe she did some kind of martial arts outside of school in secret. It was kind of weird, because he knew it wasn't supposed to be attractive, in Japan, for a girl to be strong and fit. They seemed to prefer small and borderline weak girls. It was always fascinating, to notice little things like that about Japan. He'd lived there most of his life, but he'd had enough chances to return to his home country to develop the two cultures. He was lucky, but sometimes it was hard living in Japan when you were so obviously a foreigner.

Naruto was shaken out of his thoughts when he walked right into an open classroom door, smacking his head and falling on his ass. He heard Kiba's laughter and could imagine Sai's amused smirk, and turned to glare at them both. They'd obviously let him walk right into that one.

"That's not funny, guys!" Naruto called out, rubbing at his forehead and getting up, picking up his books. How many injuries to his head so far today? He'd walked into the glass doors at home in the morning…received Sakura's eraser on the forehead in first period and at the back of the head during the exam…and the calculator. Now the door.

Maybe ithat/i was why he was so stupid. He stared at the door for a few seconds, blinking, before kicking it. Too hard. And promptly hopping on one foot and clutching the other.

"OW! OW OW OW!" He said loudly, but no one in the hall bothered to look. They were used to the foreigner's antics, and most had excelled in the art of ignoring him and how loud he could get.

Kiba's laughter became a roar and Naruto growled at him. He didn't see what was funny, but Kiba apparently needed an arm against the wall to hold himself up.

"You're amazing, man! You just do all this stuff to yourself!" He said between laughs, shaking his head.

"We don't even need to do anything, just let you run free and you'll entertain us," he added as he calmed down, and Naruto continued to glare at him.

"Whatever, let's go have lunch," Naruto said sulkily as he shrugged his shoulder to readjust his school bag. Maybe he'd be lucky and Hinata would have prepared a nice little lunch box for him today.

•

Naruto sighed when he finally spotted his small, modest house. It was the end of the day, and the moment he saw his house from the middle of the street always filled him with a relief and a sense of actually being home. It was still in Japan but it felt a little more normal, a little less tense.

With a deep breath he gave a last few hard pedals, directing his bicycle to glide into the garage. He got off and jumped to the few steps leading to the door, taking out his key while humming some popular tune he'd heard somewhere. He hoped his parents were already home, but hadn't seen either of them much this past week.

"I'm home!" He called as soon as the door was opened, kicking off his shoes, not bothering to place them properly. He put his bag down, but there was no reply to his greeting. Alone again for the night, then.

His parents were good people, but both of them were terribly busy. His father was the ambassador of Sweden, and he'd met his mother during an embassy open house. She'd worked in the embassy of the United Kingdom, and as they often described it had been "hate at first sight". Naruto found it funny that the two of them had despised each other at first, and he found it that much more romantic that now they were married, happy, and with a child. His mother jokingly claimed it was destiny, as they'd both ended up working in Japan at random; neither of them had ever thought of moving to the country, but due to various circumstances had ended up here. They both worked in similar environments, but had different takes to their work. It made it interesting to hear about their days, about the things they did and saw. Naruto liked his parents a lot, and it was thanks to them that he didn't crack under the pressure of being a blond, blue-eyed kid in an Asian country. He was better now, of course, having made new friends that didn't care that he was different, that he had a bit of an accent. But in the beginning, it had been difficult, and he'd been called all sorts of things.

That he didn't really want to be thinking about right now.

Naruto's stomach grumbled loudly as he climbed up the stairs, having spent the day running on a single stale energy bar. He opened the door to the small kitchen, and was greeted by a loud shout.

"ACK!" Naruto jumped, startled, and almost tripped on his own feet. He heard the crystal clear laughter of his mother immediately afterwards and glared as she came out from behind the dining table.

"Gotcha!" She said, snickering. She seemed way too pleased with her prank, for a woman her age, but Naruto couldn't blame her. He'd inherited the pleasure of pranking people from her, so he could see the joy in someone's startled expression. Still, it was frustrating that she was still doing this to him. It was likely that if he wouldn't complain about it she'd still play peek-a-boo with him.

"As always," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. At least his mother wasn't the crazy, controlling type. Kushina was actually great in many ways; she loved running around outside with him, and she was the first to suggest climbing up a tree or trying to jump off a cliff into water. His father was more reasonable, but he wasn't around as often as any of them would like. When he was, though, he'd always try to tell them not to be unreasonable, and that one of them would end up hurt. They'd just call him a chicken, and then go right back to him with a broken wrist or a bad cut on the arm. It was like raising two children, but Kushina was only like that around Naruto. She was a lot more serious and impressive at work, and she would allow herself to let go when around her child, to relax and unwind a little.

For that, Minato let her get away with it, preparing band aids and bandages when necessary, telling them off gently before offering to take them both out to ramen.

The memory made Naruto sniff, ad he thought for a moment he was hallucinating the smell of it, but a quick look at the pot on the heater told him he wasn't.

"You're making ramen?!" Naruto exclaimed, as if it was a surprising, rare thing. It wasn't, but it excited him every time nonetheless. He beamed at her, wrapping his arms around her as Kushina laughed.

"Yeah, I came home early for it to be ready when you got back, but I guess I wasn't fast enough!" She said, wrapping his arms back around him. She gave him a squeeze and ruffled his hair before pulling away, smiling at him. "How was your day, kiddo? Your exam went well?"

Naruto gave her a sheepish smile, knowing she'd understand and he wouldn't have to say more. She merely sighed and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear, moving it to Naruto's shoulder to turn him around.

"Go study for a little while, then! You'll get your ramen as a reward," she said.

"Aw, but I'm hungry!" He whined as she kept pushing him toward the stairs to his room, shaking her head despite her grin. Naruto pouted at her and fluttered his eyelashes, whining. He'd just spent hours working at school, and he hated having to do more work as soon as he got home.

"Out of the question," she said, using her fake big angry voice, and Naruto sighed, defeated. "But the ramen will be ready in about 10 minutes," she added with a wink. Naruto's pout turned into a grin, because 10 minutes was barely enough time to change out of his uniform, take a shower, and boot up his old computer. Some might think Kushina was a bad mother for encouraging her own son to skimp on studying, but she knew he was capable, and if math wasn't his thing, well. It wasn't his thing, and no amount of studying would change that.

"Okay, okay," Naruto said, as if it was a huge task and he was agreeing to study for real. "I'll go study right away," he said before going up the stairs two by two, throwing a last grin at her as he turned the corner.

"Good boy!" He heard her call from downstairs.

The first thing Naruto did when he reached his room was to flop face first onto his bed, snuggling into his pillow. He sighed, glad that the day was over, but knowing another was coming the very next day. It was always the same thing; school, go home, school, go home. Routine tired him, and he wanted to go out and do things differently, or do different things. Anything but repeating the same days over and over. When Sasuke was still at their school, Naruto had felt like every day was new and exciting. He never knew what would happen, never knew if they would get along and hang out on the roof, or if they'd get in a fight and end up in detention. Every day was unpredictable. But the bastard had passed the exam to another high school and omitted to tell him or Sakura. In middle school they'd been put into teams of three and assigned a teacher that would keep them in check, and help them out with homework. It allowed a much closer approach to education, and they'd learnt a lot of things with Kakashi-sensei, who had even followed them to high school and become a teacher there.

Naruto peeked from his pillow at his nightstand, where the picture of the four of them was gathering a bit of dust. He reached out to wipe it off, sighing. Sasuke was glaring at him in the picture, and he was glaring right back, but there was happiness in their eyes, the three of them. Sakura looked radiant between them, and Kakashi more exasperated than anything, but the picture still meant a lot to Naruto. He'd kept it all this time, hoping Sasuke would one day come back. Or call him, at least. He hadn't heard from him at all after he'd...confronted him behind the school on their last day.

It had been a bad fight, but Naruto had just wanted to understand why his best friend had lied and was abandoning him. Sasuke had always been stubborn and never gave an explanation that was enough for Naruto, so they'd beat on each other until they were both lying bleeding and unmoving on the pavement.

Apparently Sasuke had always wanted to go to Oto, a private school specifying in science and math. Naruto had tried to convince him otherwise, had tried to get him to stay. He didn't need to leave, didn't need to go to such a difficult school. There had been news reports in the past about the conditions of teaching at the school, about the suspicions that the headmaster was breaking more than one law, inside the school and in his own personal life. But Sasuke had insisted with a strong fist, and Naruto had been left in tears watching his best friend limp away, clutching his likely broken arm.

Naruto still blamed himself for getting angry, because...maybe if he'd stayed calmed, they could have exchanged emails, or phone numbers. Maybe Sasuke would have told him where he was moving so they could hang out once in a while. Instead he had nothing but Sasuke's stinging words that nowhere Sakura and Naruto would go was good enough for him.

"Dinner's ready~" Kushina sing-songed from the bottom of the stair case, snapping Naruto out of his reverie. Running his hands through his hair, he got up and made his way down, stomach grumbling again. Before reaching the kitchen he put on his best grin, putting aside the thoughts of Sasuke and the emptiness he felt at his absence.

•

"I don't wanna go," Naruto whined, nearly pawing at Sakura's desk and trying to look as pitiful as he possibly could. He had no interest to, and he would just be bored out of his mind during the entire ordeal.

"No whining, Naruto. It's payback for the math exam. Besides, you guys all need to learn what real math are," she grumbled, picking up papers from her desk and gathering them into a neat pile before sliding them into a folder.

"I'm just not going show up," Kiba nearly growled, sulking in his corner, chair leaning back on two legs. Naruto watched him, tempted to give him a little shove so he'd fall backwards, but remembered some kid had nearly had his head split open once, and held off.

"It's only a Mathletes competition," Sai said, looking like he didn't understand what the fuss was all about. Naruto rolled his eyes at him, shaking his head. It wouldn't just be a Mathletes competition, it would be a waste of time. He understood nothing of math, and he didn't want to. Sakura seemed dead set on dragging him to the regional Mathletes competition, however, and he knew he and Kiba would hold it against her forever.

He also knew that if they dared to standd her up, she would never let it go and would make every single day of school hell for them. Naruto dropped his head against his desk, sighing heavily.

"You mean a descent into hell?" Sakura gave Naruto a hard glare and he shut his mouth tightly, stopping himself from making the situation worse.

"You are all coming with me," she said decisively as she put the folder in her shoulder bag. "It'll teach you guys a good lesson, I think," she said, giving them both a dangerous smile that promised bruised faces if there were anymore complaints. Kiba gave Naruto a look that implored him to talk her out of it, but Naruto knew Sakura well enough to be certain there was no changing her mind on this. He shook his head, and Kiba mimed a tear running down his cheek with a finger. Naruto made a face at him before being smack in the head by a pile of papers.

"Anyways," Sakura said pointedly, giving him another glare. Naruto thought it was unfair that he was always the one getting hit. Kiba had started it, really! Why did his head have to hurt?! Either way, he brought his hands to shield it from any other incoming attacks, hissing a quick 'ouch', and shooting Kiba a glare, who was silently laughing at him.

"I'm just making you watch it; be glad I'm not making you participate," Sakura added, and Naruto had to admit she had a point. Participating would only end in pain, shame, and loss of dignity. Dignity sinking under zero, even.

"She's right," Sai said with that smile of his, and Naruto sighed despite wanting to choke him. She was, but telling a girl that was a rookie mistake. As expected Sakura smirked at them knowingly and slung her bag over her shoulder.

"Of course I am," she said, before starting to leave the classroom, which had emptied entirely by now. "C'mon, Ino's waiting for us for lunch," she said, grinning. Naruto wondered if it was the misery in their faces that was making her so happy. Probably.

Hopefully, this entire thing would be over fast.

•

Naruto had barely just sat on one of the seats of the auditorium, and he was already bored. Dreadfully bored. He peeked at his right, and Kiba was already pretending to sleep, as Sai stared ahead of him, waiting for the show with a vague sort of excitement on his face. Naruto leaned over to see what Sakura was up to, and when he saw that she was turned away, discussing something with Neji (who had insisted to come voluntarily and for ifun/i, apparently. Naruto made note that he and Neji had in no way a similar definition of 'fun'), he cackled and pulled his DS from his bag. Hopefully he'd be able to play through the Mathletes, or at least for a part of them.

Of course, that might have been the case if he'd picked a game that didn't require tapping the screen repeatedly, and if he didn't always get incredibly into it and made a lot of unnecessary noise. Sakura turned to him at once, hissing at him.

"Naruto, give me that right now!" She said, holding out her hand over Sai and Kiba's seats. He glared at her and moved his hands further away, despite her not being able to reach him from her seat.

"No!" He said, sticking her tongue out at her. He was being forced to something he didn't want whatsoever, and he wouldn't be subjected to more torture than necessary. Just being here in this room full of math lovers was making the hair on the back of his neck raise. Especially the guy two rows down, nose deep in a book about...Quantum something or other. He was nearly slobbering all over it. Sakura would in no way succeed in taking away his game console.

She wouldn't need to, though, because as she opened her mouth to say something, clapping started all around them (waking Kiba up with a start, who in his effort to fake sleep had apparently slept for real), and she straightened in her seat to join in with a last warning look in his direction. iThis is going to hurt later/i the look said, but Naruto just smirked at her and glanced at the stage briefly to see what was going on.

He was so surprised that he nearly dropped the DS, effectively losing his stylus. But he didn't care, because the team that had just entered the stage was lead by none other than Sasuke Uchiha.