Sasuke was working on his homework (more worksheets, not kunai practice, because Gao-sensei was the worst) when he heard the patter of footsteps outside. It didn't sound like Anko—it was a clomp clomp clomp, not the way a trained ninja would walk. There were occasional lost civilians who were trying to find the police headquarters, but they would quickly continue on the path. This person wasn't.

"Hello? Is anyone here?"

Sasuke froze.

Who could it be? The voice was male, with the sort of accent that suggested his primary hobby was hanging out in pubs.

"Is there an Uchiha Sasuke here? Hello?"

Should he go and look?

"…Are these blood stains?" This was said in a quieter voice. "Damn, did someone send a letter to a dead guy? I don't get paid enough to deal with this shit."

"I'm not dead!" said Sasuke loudly, almost reflexively.

"Come get your mail, then."

He got up and went outside. Standing in front of his house was a slightly overweight man in the uniform of the Konoha Mail Service. What? From who?

"Here ya go, kid," the man said. "Sorry, wasn't sure which house was yours."

"Thanks."

He ripped open the envelope without looking at it. Inside, slightly wrinkled, were the school forms that were due tomorrow. With Itachi's neat signature on all of them.

Sasuke began to cry.

It wasn't fair.

Why was it his brother and his parents?

His parents worked so hard their whole lives, his father dedicated himself to keeping Konoha safe, and Itachi just took that all away for no reason at all. His whole family all worked so hard and Itachi just didn't care.

He began to topple.

Naruto was having a pretty good morning. He had his favorite ramen flavor for breakfast, and he saw a really cool frog hiding in the grass. He'd spent a lot of time imagining the real reasons that guy got arrested yesterday (maybe he was in on Gao-sensei's secret spy plot!) and he couldn't wait to share them with Sasuke. Naruto was so happy he'd finally made a friend.

Sasuke wasn't sitting at his desk. It seemed a little weird, because he was always early, and Naruto was always the last one in. (He couldn't help it! He just got distracted a lot by stuff. It wasn't his fault Konoha had so many cool frogs!)

Then the bell rung and Sasuke still wasn't there. Everyone was whispering to each other, except not to Naruto, because people didn't like talking to him.

"Please stop gossiping amongst yourselves," said Gao-sensei. "I'm sure Uchiha-kun is just sick. Everyone gets sick sometimes. Now, if you'll turn to page 84, we can pick up from where we left off…"

This chapter of the book wasn't that bad. It was almost sort of cool. It was about Konoha's role in the Second Shinobi World War. He'd heard a little bit about it from the Hokage, but not a lot. Naruto wanted to know more about the giant salamander guy and less about politics (boring!) How could he get a giant salamander? It sounded like it'd be fun.

Lunch wasn't fun. He was hungry. He wished he hadn't eaten all that ramen for breakfast, but he was so hungry then, too. Where was Sasuke?

"You did something to him, didn't you?" said one of the girls, glaring at him. Her name was Ino, wasn't it? Someone asked if she was related to him once and she got so mad.

"I didn't do anything!" he replied. "Sasuke's my friend!"

"Yeah, I'm sure," she said. "There's a reason people don't like you, you know."

But what was the reason? That was the thing. His whole life people didn't like him, and he never knew why.

He turned away from the rest of the students and began to dream about taking his giant salamander around town. Nobody would make fun of him then!