Chapter 42

After discovering that my fridge had been raided of all its perishables and the one jar of grape jelly, I spent the next couple hours reorganizing my apartment. All of my coded notebooks had been stuffed into my bookshelf haphazardly. In my room, my clothes had been placed in the wrong drawers. At least the kitchen had been sensibly organized.

Afterward, I lay on my bed, glad to finally be out of the hospital. I did not expect the banging that came from my front door. I hopped out of bed, noting that my body had become stiff when I wasn't allowed to train. I shouted at my door, "Who's there?"

"Hey, Haru! It's me, Naruto!" Naruto pounded on my door again. "Let me in!"

I unlocked the door and Naruto walked in with a satisfied smile on his face. He looked over my apartment and said, "Hey, we did a pretty good job, didn't we?"

I asked politely, "What are you talking about Naruto?"

"Oh, uh, after I told the Hokage 'bout that note you wrote, he had some of those masked ninja look through your apartment and they made a huge mess. He was just going to leave it for you to deal with but since you were in the hospital, Ino said we should help by cleaning your apartment so you wouldn't come home and find all your stuff on the floor. I kinda forgot we did that, since it was a while ago. I figured she told you already."

I continued to smile serenely, lest I have a mental breakdown. "So you and Ino cleaned my apartment?"

"Yeah! And not just us. Hinata helped out too. And Ino's friend with the pink hair, Sakura, she helped. Man, she's really cute. Ino said she likes that Sasuke jerk though," Naruto said with a pout flickering on his face for a second. "It was a total mess in here. It took us an entire day to put everything away. We even fixed your door for you!"

"Naruto, did you guys find anything weird in my apartment?" I asked blankly. My mind was too busy to make proper facial expressions, trying to imagine what could have happened to the tiny black jar that supposedly held genuine Sharingan.

"Not really, unless you count some of the stuff the girls found in your refrigerator. It makes me glad I was in charge of your room." Naruto shivered as he remembered that day. "I couldn't believe that your cooking could turn into...that...stuff..." He suddenly got a faraway look in his eyes. I tentatively reach out to put my hand on his shoulder, which seemed to snap him out of it.

I spoke, "Hm. I guess I should say thanks. You know, it's been a long time since we last went to Ichiraku's. And I don't have anything to eat here. Do you want to get some ramen?"

Naruto instantly brightened. "Yeah!" He added with a grin, "As long as you don't get kidnapped again."

"So Ino, Hinata, and Sakura were looking through my fridge. I guess I'll talk to them later."

On my first day back at the Academy, I had arrived early, as I normally did. Despite the abundance of empty seats, Shino Aburame sat down next to me.

"Hello, Aburame-san," I said.

From deep within his high-collared shirt and beige hooded jacket, he quietly responded in kind, "Hello, Haru-san."

"Oh, am I in his seat?" I tended to just pick my seat randomly since I was usually one of the first students to arrive. "Whatever. I don't need to move. He'll be fine for today."

"You look different," he said. He was looking directly at my face.

"Ah ha, so you noticed?" I thought my genjutsu was pretty good but perhaps it wasn't as good as I thought. It was impressive that he noticed something was off.

Impassively, Shino asked, "Is something wrong with your eye?"

I simply gave up and dismissed the genjutsu, letting him plainly see my black eyepatch. "How did you know?"

He turned forward, as if to watch the kids entering the classroom. "Because your pupil doesn't expand or contract properly."

"Huh." I reapplied the genjutsu, not wanting to stand out because of my missing eye. Before I could think of something to say back, Ino sat in the other empty seat next to me.

"Welcome back, Haru!" she said with a cheerful smile. I couldn't help but smile back, even though I had been taking beginning medical classes with her and Sakura. But I usually had little to contribute to their conversations, so I tended to hang back during those classes to give them some space.

"Hello, Ino. Naruto told me that it was your idea to clean my apartment. Thanks!"

"No problem, Haru. It was the least I could do."

"Why didn't you tell me you guys cleaned my apartment for me?"

Ino got a faraway look in her eyes. "I...I think I forgot for some reason."

"Ino, are you okay? Ino?" I was concerned. She had completely stopped moving. I gently shook her shoulder.

Ino seemed to snap out of her stupor. "What? Oh, hello, Haru! Are you excited to be back at the Academy? It's been almost two months, hasn't it?"

"Ino, did you happen to find anything unusual in my refrigerator?" I asked.

She paused for a moment before hurriedly waving her hand and saying, "Hahahaha, there's no such thing as monsters. I definitely did not see anything like a monster in your refrigerator. It definitely wasn't alive. It wasn't moving. I'm safe now. It can't hurt me..." Ino suddenly tugged on my arm to pull me closer. Intently, she said, "Please, Haru, promise me you won't ever get kidnapped again."

"Okay, Ino. I promise." "I guess whatever she found, it wasn't an eyeball."

"Did you know, Haru? They decided to have everyone take kunoichi lessons. It's full of boys now!" Ino informed me, changing the subject.

"You must be enjoying yourself," I teased. "Are you enjoying Support and Subterfuge, Shino?"

He replied as gruffly as a six year old could, "It's interesting."

By then, the classroom had filled and Iruka and Mizuki were standing at the blackboard to start class. Noticing me, Iruka yelled, "It's good to see you back, Haru. Do me a favor and try not to get detention on your first day back. Alright everyone, class is starting..."