chapter 3

Ok, that settles it, something is up with my alarm clock. During the first few months of my new life, I mostly ignored it because I had shifted into a new routine that began the moment it came to life. Get up, get a shower, look at my new face and birthmark in the mirror to remind myself I'm not dreaming all of this, get dressed, get breakfast, get my school supplies and get the hell out the door. Up until this point, I never questioned my alarm because it had been helpful in keeping me functioning for the past five and a half months of school, but...the sound was familiar in a way that was just too eerie. I couldn't quite place it, but I knew it was dangerously significant.

Welp, better shelve those thoughts and repress for the day. I may have placed myself in the role of a delinquent, but even the delinquents in my old world wouldn't be caught late for school. After making sure my kunai were correctly packed and making sure my door was locked behind me after I left, I proceeded through the streets of Konoha with a brisk walk. It was when I was only several minutes away from the academy that I heard their voices.

"Hey, its Jojo!"

"Oh yeah, it is him!"

"Hey, Jojo!"

Let the record stand that since getting my new name, I have only allowed two people to call me "Jojo". None of girls that had suddenly shown up and began to mob around me were included with those two people.

"Hey Jojo, the other day when we were in the kenjutsu class...what you did with that tanto was really cool," the mousy looking brown-haired girl who spoke wrapped her arms around my left arm, and I sent her a flat scowl hoping she would stop bothering me.

Be careful what you wish for…

"Oi! What's the big idea grabbing onto Jojo like that?!" Another girl, a redhead, asked after knocking the other girl to the side. "You're getting too friendly with him, back off!"

"What's your problem ugly!"

"I'd be careful there airhead!"

Oh sweet stand-using Jesus no...please no…

"Ugly!"

"Airhead!"

"Ugly!"

"Airhead!"

"UGLY!"

"AIRHEAD!"

A quiet second passed in which I could feel their, albeit meager, killing intent towards one another erupting behind me. Then they both started right up again.

"UGLYUGLYUGLYUGLYUGLYUGLYUGLYUGLYUGLY!"

"AIRHEADAIRHEADAIRHEADAIRHEADAIRHEADAIRHEADAIRHEAD!"

Top ten anime battles of...shit, this is the early 2000s isn't it? Whatever, time to put a stop to...this.

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE FUCKING ANNOYING!" I yelled out, hoping the two got the point and (hopefully) left me alone for all of eternity. The last one was wistful thinking on my part…

"HAAAAH!~" the girls all swooned immediately at my yelling, as if somehow there was some special power of the Joestar lineage that let you get away with insulting girls if you acted like a tsundere in public.

"He said that to me~" the brunette gasped longingly.

"No way, that was totally for me~" the redhead said elatedly.

...Damn it!

"Yo, Jojo!" I heard another voice call out, and I instantly felt relief blossom through my mind. Naruto, the true protagonist, was walking over to me, hopefully to save me from this hell.

"Ewww, its that kid…"

"Yeah, he's always so loud and none of the adults like him!"

"But he's also Jojo's friend, so we gotta play nice with him…"

Naruto ignored the thots behind me and walked to my side, smiling cheerfully.

"So what were you up to after leaving Ichiraku's yesterday?"

"Remember that wood training tanto I got from school? I was training to use it," I said nonchalantly.

"Eh, so you're trying to get into kenjutsu?"

"Uh-huh, I'm gonna try to take it as an extracurricular class when the option comes up next year," I told him.

It was gonna be that, and medical ninjutsu. As much as Star Platinum was my luck on the superpower lottery, I couldn't rely on it every fight. So training with a sword and being able to fix myself seemed like a good choice...also, swords are cool as hell, they're the go-to slashing weapon when it comes to combat.

"Hey Jojo! What are ya spacing out for, we're here!"

Oh look at that, we're at the school gates. Standing outside was some no-name sensei looking at his watch, then surveying the area for any students. When he caught sight of us(specifically Naruto), he sneered. The few times Naruto had arrived just before me, he was told he had been late and would be punished. It was only my timely arrival the first time, which included me flashing the teacher my watch and giving him shit over it. From then on, Naruto and I met up mid-walk before we got to the gates.

This guy seemed smart enough to not pull any bullshit. The blonde ignored the guy's sneering as we both walked past no-name-sensei into the schoolyard, him cheerfully and me...tsundereingly(?). I could hear some murmuring from the girls behind me, and I looked around to see why. Nearby was another group of girls arguing, headed by a familiar blonde and pinkette. Not far away was Sasuke, the poor kid barely hiding his minor anxiety that the girls had mistaken for brooding.

"Man, I don't get what's up with you or that guy...ever since the junior academy, Sasuke's gotten a lotta attention from girls," the whiskered blonde said with a grunt while running a hand through his hair. "What is your problem with them anyway?"

"They're annoying…" I trailed off, cringing when I saw my fangirls move over to Sasuke's.

"Yeah, I can see what you mean," Naruto said, while shrinking back at the sight of my fangirls getting into an argument with the Uchiha's.

My ears picked up some more yelling within the yard, and I felt compelled to turn to the source. There were a group of boys crowded around one single boy, and I could see how they were jeering and taunting him...and that pissed me off. Being a bullheaded Joestar with no sense of, well common sense, I immediately walked over to these assholes while preparing to give them a beating.

When I got close enough, I frowned at seeing who it was that they were picking on. Shino sat on the ground, obviously trying to contain his emotions and keep his bugs from going all crazy. The assholes around him continued to taunt and pick at every weakness, and I could see a few of them holding some of the boy's kikaichū in their fingers and threateningly squeezing them.

"Look at the weirdo with his bugs!"

"Please do not hurt them!" I heard Shino call out, and I was pretty surprised when his voice raised a few octaves as he spoke.

"Ooooh, are you worried about your bugs weirdo?!" one of the bullies said, while holding up one of the beetles in front of the Aburame's face. "Here's what they're worth for creep!"

There was a tiny crunching sound as the little shit crushed the bug in between his thumb and index finger, small trickles of bug goop escaping from between. Shino mumbled the poor creature's name in anguish, but I never quite caught what he called that particular kikaichū. All I could focus on was the fact that these dicks had come up to the guy and held him up over nothing.

"You gonna cry now freak?! Go ahead and start cryin-"

"Hey!" I called out, making sure to focus my death glare on them as much as possible. "The hell did he do to you to deserve that, huh? Knock it off!"

"Che, it's the fuckin' delinquent and his pet demon," the brat called out, sneering at Naruto's presence behind me. "What are ya gonna do huh, you think you can actually take me?"

"Look at the fucking shiner I gave Fishlips-sensei and tell me what you think teme!" I growled over, causing the brat's accomplices to shuffle back nervously.

"You think I buy that bullshit? You're nothin' but talk, you can't back it up!" he jeered, and this is when I walked towards the little dick, giving him a menacing glare and releasing a small amount of killing intent. "Eh, you're walking towards me? You really are looking for a beating, huh Joshuya?"

"I can't mess your face up if I don't come closer teme!"

"Then keep walking over, I'll show you what a fuckin' shiner looks like!" he roared. It was only when I was right in front of him and holding my fist up did he realize how much he fucked up. Since we were all kids, we definitely weren't gonna be the tallest in the village. That said, this brat was only 142 cm and a little on the chunky side, while I was 162 cm and solidly built, so the difference was clearly visible. Helped that he was also a year younger than me, and that really showed too.

"Well gaki," I started as I glared down at him. "You gonna start throwing punches or should I?"

The kid beat me to it, letting loose a barrage of punches towards my face. They didn't land of course, thanks to my recent training and enhanced senses...in face, they were just so painfully slow that it hurt on an emotional level. I was actually expecting this brat to give me a challenge, guess I should have lowered my expectations.

"Tch, you're pretty disappointing gaki, weren't you supposed to give me a shiner?" I growled sardonically.

This caused my opponent to get wilder with his strikes, directing them everywhere he could, yet not hitting me once. After a few more of the kid's swings, the novelty wore off and I got tired of it. I let my left fist fly straight into his solar plexus, and he let out a wheezing gasp as he doubled over in pain. I didn't give him any breathing room, I immediately slammed my knee into his stomach, causing him to collapse to the ground.

The other chucklefucks that followed him gaped in shock and backed away when I sent them a pointed death glare. The idiot who I had knocked down shuffled away while signalling his cronies to leave. The kid directed one last glare at me as he got up slowly, before limping away in silent rage.

I huffed in annoyance and walked towards Shino, holding my hand out to the bug-user. The afroed boy took it nervously, still sulking at the loss of one of his bugs. Naruto darted over to me immediately, bombarding me with dozens of questions a mile a minute. I had to hold a hand up to try and get the boy to slow down so that I could hopefully answer at least one of his questions.

"Alright, ask away, but slowly or you might almost pass out like last time…"

"Oh yeah, right...so, how are you getting so strong?!" the blonde asked, staring up at me expectantly.

"100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run through the village, every day since I applied for the academy," I told him, trying to pretend I didn't hear a shout of "youth!" in the far distance. "Also, I went without air-conditioning in the summer, and I plan on going without heat in the winter, so I can strengthen my mind. And I had my balanced meals, but on days when I couldn't manage to get a full breakfast, I'd just have a banana and plenty of juice instead."

"...GAAAAH?! Are you insane?! Nobody should survive that kind of training, If I did it I'd pass out first, dattebayo!"

"Yeah, well I managed it so far…" I hadn't spit up blood, broken my limbs or nearly died since I started at least.

"I'm all for strength training and that, but maybe you need a little moderation or somethin', huh?"

"Moderation isn't ingrained in my vocabulary," hell, Joestars never did things in moderation, you couldn't name one who did. "Also, it's probably better if we both focus on chakra control...you barely have the Henge no Jutsu down, and neither of us can do the Bunshin…"

That had been our common problem we had bonded over. Naruto's clones, like in canon, came out dead looking and useless. Mine on the other hand, looked just barely alive and ready to fall over at the slightest breeze. From my knowledge of canon, I guessed(but didn't say) that Naruto had too much chakra, specifically the physical aspect due to the Kyuubi, which made using techniques that required smaller amounts of chakra difficult. I had the opposite problem, my stand juiced up the spiritual aspect of my chakra. So chakra control was something we'd have to both work on to compensate.

"I don't know how we'll manage that...the leaf sticking exercise doesn't really help as much as it should," the blonde asked.

"Don't worry, I have a plan for how we can fix it," I told him, remembering the scouting I had done in the past couple of weeks. I had all the Jōnin sensei's schedules mapped out, so I just needed to find them giving their teams the right lesson, then we-

"ALRIGHT GAKIS, CLASS IS STARTING!" Iruka called out, somehow enlarging his head and increasing his volume.

"Damn, alright guess we gotta get going," Naruto drawled out. "Wished I could have gotten a prank in, but between you dodging your fangirls and kicking that kid's ass…"

"Yeah, I got it," I called out, then I looked back to see how Shino was doing. The bug-user was gone, somehow while the blonde and I were talking he slunk away…

"Tch...alright, let's go then."

"Alright, first we're going to be doing the Henge, so everybody line up!"

Iruka had gotten more used to his new teaching position as time went on, it really showed. Up until a couple of months ago, he could still become a nervous wreck towards the class. I guess a show of confidence in his abilities from either another teacher or the Hokage helped him out a bit. Or the speech Naruto made about how Iruka was his favorite teacher, and that he wasn't gonna let Iruka give up just yet, because he still had a lot to learn.

Iruka was my favorite teacher too, but in the sense that he was the only person who cared about us, the students, and didn't hate Naruto. My favorite teachers to fuck with...well there was a long list. On that list was FishLips-sensei, who stood right behind the scarred man with a very visible black eye that no amount of makeup was going to help him hide. The guy shouldn't have gone against me in an "anything goes" sparring match, maybe then he wouldn't need to know how to use eyeliner.

"Alright, Hyūga! You can start us off!"

"H-Hai, Iruka-sensei!" the shy girl walked forward and attempted to form the hand seals, before stiffening and turning bright red.

"Any day now Hyūga-san," Iruka said, though he and the rest of the class were confused.

Well, I wasn't confused at all, I saw her look out of the corner of her eyes before she froze. Naruto was watching her with rapt attention, and I could see concern growing across his features. The blonde wondered out loud if she was sick, and I couldn't not facepalm. Thankfully, the girl took a deep breath and did the correct hand seals.

With a puff of smoke, a near perfect copy of Iruka stood in front of the man. The teacher regarded it for a few seconds, before turning to his clipboard and jotting several things down. He looked back up to the girl and smiled kindly.

"Hyūga-san, sorry to tell you but...you forgot the scars."

Another puff of smoke and Hinata stood there, hanging her head defeatedly. Iruka motioned for her to get back and for Sasuke to come up next, and the two autonomously switched places with the girl taking a spot on the sidelines. Sasuke gulped nervously before transforming into a perfect copy of Iruka, eliciting a smile from the scarred sensei.

"Perfect...Alright, Joushuya! You're up!"

Sasuke moved to the sidelines next to Hinata while I took his place, huffing curtly before forming the hand seals. Dog, Boar, Ram, and then I held my breath so I didn't cough from the smoke. Iruka looked at me for a few seconds, before a satisfied smirk spread across his face and he began jotting more notes on his clipboard.

"You and Sasuke, perfect as always...gotta work on expressions though," the scarred man muttered. "Alright, Uzumaki! You go next!"

I took my place at the sidelines next to others before turning back to Naruto as he stepped up. The devilish smirk on his face told me everything I needed to know, and I was sure I'd really have to pull out all the stops to keep myself from laughing at this one. Naruto did the hand seals for the Henge no Jutsu, then a puff of smoke later stood a near perfect copy of Fishlips-sensei...save for his characteristic lips. They were now comically oversized, and Naruto punctuated them by making "blub-blub" noises. Almost the whole class were doubling over in laughter.

"AAAAARRRGGGHH! What the hell are you doing gaki?!" the insulted teacher in question roared in anger, causing even more laughter. "That doesn't even look anything like me you little shit!"

"I don't know, it looks pretty accurate to me," Iruka called out in between his own chuckles.

"Actually, you missed a spot! Just around here," I called out and pointed to my right eye, all while smirking lightly at Fishlips-sensei's rage filled visage.

"Alright, alright! That's enough!" Iruka called out, doing his best to restore order to the class. "We can all make fun of Mikihito-sensei later...Shino, it's your turn."

Naruto transformed back and joined me on the sidelines. The bug user finished his transformation and walked back, right as Iruka told the five of us to take our seats. As Naruto and I walked to our row and got seated, Fishlips-sensei called out that we weren't sitting there today. Or rather, he called out to Shino, Sasuke and Hinata.

"You three aren't going to your normal spots, got it! Sit in side row 4," he growled.

"Y-Yeah, he's right, today seating arrangements are going to be a bit rigid…" Iruka trailed off, motioning the three towards the row.

Probably a good time to mention that side row 4 is our row. As in, the one where me and Naruto sit and everybody else avoids like the plague because their parents fed them lies about the blonde being a demon in human form. So when Fishlips-sensei yells that they're sitting there, I can't help but think something is up.

The three of them walked to our row, clearly unsure what to do. Hinata, being in front, had gone stiff like before and turned bright red as Naruto's eyes trailed to her in concern. Shino tilted his head towards the two of us in confusion.

"...Yare Yare Daze," I muttered, and I was just about to get the girl to sit when Sasuke beat me to it.

"Just sit down already!" the Uchiha growled, causing the bluenette to jolt and run to the seat right next to the blonde's.

"Thank you for that, Uchiha-san."

"Hn…" Sasuke ignored the bug-user as the two took their seats.

And I instantly questioned the the methods the academy instructors were using and what they were planning. For starters, the moment the Hyūga sat next to my friend, she became a nervous wreck just seconds away from passing out. Naruto was suddenly whispering to her frantically in the belief that she was sick, and that was just going to make it worse. Then there was Shino, who was sneaking curious glances towards me every so often, and Sasuke, who was simply brooding outwardly like always.

Naruto leaned over to me and let out a whisper/yell. "Hey, Jojo! I think this girl is sick…"

"No, that's actually normal for her."

"Are you sure? She's all red and stuff," the blonde looked back to her for a second before giving me a concerned look. "Come on, she could have a fever or some-"

"Alright, now that we're done reviewing transformations," Iruka called out, then swallowed hard and looked back to Fishlips-sensei for a few seconds. The man nodded curtly and motioned for Iruka to continue. "N-Now that we're done reviewing transformations, we're going to focus on the first jutsu we'll teach you in this academy…the Nawanuke no Jutsu, a required skill for all shinobi."

I looked around and noticed that every other row was in a similar seating situation as ours, some of the kids were with others that they would never sit with otherwise. For instance, Sakura, Chouji and Kiba were sat with two civilian children. Fishlips-sensei was overseeing the last of these new seating arrangements as Iruka went on about how to use the rope escape technique, which we (should have) already reviewed in some of our textbooks. Sakura, being the ever studious girl she was, raised her hand to ask a question.

"Iruka-sensei, how are we going to learn about the Nawanuke in the first place?"

"Well, you see-"

"I'm glad you asked Haruno-san!" Fishlips-sensei cut the scarred man off, flashing the class a bright and clearly sadistic smile. "With the Hokage's permission, a seemingly unorthodox method is in order. Here at the academy, we believe in partaking in a hands-on approach to these things."

That was kind of confusing...seemed everybody else agreed. Every other student tilted their their heads in bewilderment. On the other hand, Fishlips-sensei had a wicked grin on his face, and that set me on edge. Which was a good thing, because my hearing instantly picked up loud "whooshing" sounds heading towards all of us. Naruto must have somehow sensed it too, because he jumped towards the other three and pushed them out of their seats.

"GET DOWN!"

"EEP?!"

"Eh?!"

"What the hell?!"

*VRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMM*

"ORA!ORA!ORA!ORA!ORA!ORA!"

Oh hey, two months without needing to stop time, that's a new record. When I looked at where Star Platinum had punched, I saw a couple of (now half-destroyed) small cylindrical projectiles tipped with hypodermic needles and trailed by red feathered tails. Tranquilizer darts that had no doubt been set to pierce me before time had stopped.

"Yare Yare Daze...hmm, two seconds? Alright then! Toki wa ugokidasu!"

*VRRRRRRRRRRRmmmmmmmm*

The destroyed darts fell to the ground beside me, and the sound of metal hitting wood closeby caused my head to turn. Naruto and the other three sat on the ground just beneath the desks, and I could see the blonde gaping in shock at the tranq embedded in the wood that had barely missing him by a literal hairwidth. Two of the other three were in a similar situation, Sasuke glaring at the tranqs embedded in his chair like it had kicked his puppy, and Shino staring at the few in the table in mute shock. Hinata however, probably had no idea that there were even tranq darts, since she was currently on the floor with Naruto above her in an extremely compromising position.

"E-EEP!" the girl's cry immediately made the blonde jump back.

"GAAH! Sorry, I didn't mean to, I mean I meant to but that's because of...I mean no! AAGH!" if I hadn't had any training to control my emotions, I would have laughed at the blushes both of them sported.

"Dammit! They were all supposed to take that!" I heard Fishlips-sensei call out.

"Well Mikihito, ah...some of them clearly had better reaction time than the others-" Iruka was cut off by a glare from the older teacher.

I took this time to check our surroundings. Almost the entire class was hit by the tranquilizers, save for myself, a handful of civilian children, and the entire rookie nine. A few rows down, Sakura, Kiba and Chouji looked to the unconscious civilians in terror. Several rows away, Shikamaru and Ino were freaking out at the other students next to them suddenly keeling over.

"They...they're insane! They're trying to kill us!" Naruto cried out.

"No, they're not...they're trying to tranquilize us," I told him, internally flinching when he gave me a confused look. "They're using the darts to try and knock us unconscious."

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!"

"Hn...we're little kids, what the hell do they need us unconscious for?" Sasuke asked, glaring at the two teachers as they argued.

"Well we can rectify it any time Umino, now take your place!" Fishlips-sensei growled down to the younger teacher, before cupping his hands around his mouth. "ALRIGHT SECOND VOLLEY!"

Second volley? What the...OH FUCK!

I quickly kicked the desk on it's side. There were several little "fwip" sounds as several darts impacted onto the wood from the front. I moved it back a bit so we would have more protection, then put the desk behind us in a similar position so we would be safer. Several loud sounds of shuffling furniture from nearby told me that everybody else was following my lead.

"Alright, so now that we're safe…" I looked to the others as they huddled around me. "Does anybody have a plan to escape?"

"You mean you don't have a plan to escape?" the Uchiha hissed at me, giving me a deadpan stare.

"In normal situations, I have a family secret technique, but there'd be no way to use it here since we're surrounded on all sides-"

"THIRD VOLLEY!"

*FWIP*FWIP*FWIP*FWIP*

"AAAAgGGhhhh...ugh!"

"Hey, that was Kiba wasn't it?" Naruto asked, trying to peek his head over the downturned piece of furniture.

"Keep your head down baka!" Sasuke growled, pulling the blonde back to the floor. "They could have just released a small part of it and were waiting for one of us to act stupid enough to check."

"So, if I'm assuming this correctly, our teachers are trying to tranquilize us and we have no chance of escape," Shino leaned forward. "Aside from that, if we could escape we have no proper plan for it."

"W-what about the windows?" Hinata asked, pointing to them. "They're right next to our row, so we can get out through there-"

"I can break the windows," I started, giving them all a pointed look. "But who's to say there aren't any instructors outside lying in wait for when that happens?"

"Good point...this is somehow apart of the curriculum huh?" Sasuke put a hand to his chin in thought. "If we do get out and get away from the ninja trying to recapture us, we could get detention…"

"Shit, I'm good! Let's just stay here for a bit," Naruto said.

"FOURTH VOLLEY!"

*FWIP*FWIP*FWIP*FWIP*

There were several more cries from civilian children, and then I heard Shikamaru's strangled "Mendokusē" before any sounds from him faded. Naruto jolted and banged himself hard against the upturned desk.

"AH! What are we gonna do?"

"Would you calm down...they obviously time the volleys, though they're taking longer than expected," I snorted as my eyes trailed into space. "They must not have expected us to last this long, they might not have enough for more volleys."

*fwoosh*

Time seemed to slow as a dart suddenly came from the right of our row. If it weren't for Naruto's timely intervention, it would have hit Hinata. The Hyūga let out a cry of "Naruto-kun" before jumping to his side, doing her best to keep him conscious. When the blonde finally went lights-out, the girl promptly activated her byakugan to get a better read on the situation.

"NO MORE GAMES GAKIS! TAKE IT LIKE TRUE NINJA!" were Fishlips-sensei's cries.

"Hn, guess we're going to have to deal with it from all sides now," Sasuke hissed, looking around hotly. "Maybe we should just run for it?"

"I may be able to help," Shino said, lifting a finger and showing the beetle that was sitting on it. "If you allow me, I can place a few of my kikaichū on you. If we get hit by the darts, they'll be able to remove the injected poison or venom."

"And how much experience does your hive have with helping people who aren't in your clan?" I asked him, eliciting a deadpan look from the boy. "Yeah, there's a big margin for error there so I don't think it's a good idea-"

*FWOOSH*FWAAP*SHINK*

"URRK!"

I thought I had dodged that dart, but then it suddenly bounced straight into my arm. The way it was fired, it must have been shot at an angle where it would redirect itself if I somehow dodged it. The other three crowded around me as my vision began to darken. There was only one thing I could choke out as I was knocked out cold.

"Y-Yare...Yare...Daze…"

When I woke up, I was tied to a chair. Can't really mince words on that, since I don't wake up slow and gradual. Even in my old life I would instantly get up with complete alertness. It helped with being on time for my first job as a salaryman, and it helped when I started working at the dango shop. Since I was training to be a ninja, nothing was going to change.

On the other hand, I felt like I had been swallowed whole by a whale and spit up through its blowhole. Probably the tranquilizer still fading from my system, otherwise I would feel slightly less bitchy about the coming morning...wait, morning? No, it hadn't been morning at all. Taking in my surroundings, I found myself in a large windowless room without any lights, and one door nearby.

"I see you're awake!" I heard a familiar voice call out. I turned to see Shino nearby, also tied to a chair. The Aburame gave a head tilt in regards to me.

"How long was I out?" I called over to him.

"Longer than me and Uchiha-san, but you woke up before Uzumaki and Hyūga," he said flatly. I looked around and spotted Sasuke, also tied to a chair, with his eyes closed. He opened one to look at me, and let out a "hn" before closing it again.

"Yare Yare...did you wake up first?" I asked the bug user.

"Yes actually, my hive was able to purge the substance from my body quickly…and before you ask, no I was not awake when we were brought here."

"Tch, wonderful…"

"Actually Joushuya-san, I never got to thank you for this morning…" Shino squirmed a bit in his seat and stared at the floor. "With those other children who were threatening me, I-"

"Don't worry about it, I'm sort of compelled to help in that situation anyway, and I'll be honest with you, I'm not a big fan of bugs...at best I tolerate them. What I can't tolerate however, are smug assholes who pick on people who couldn't possibly fight back" I snorted hotly and bared my teeth. "I heard about how people look at your clan...if you and your hive fought back then they'd have more ammo against you. So you were trying to keep yourself under control while those kids kicked you around. I wasn't going to let them get away with that, not in a million years."

"...T-thank you again, Joushuya-san" the bug user said, and while I couldn't see it beneath his collar and sunglasses I could tell by the change in tone of his voice that he was actually smiling.

"You can call me Jojo if you want," I said blithely, giving the other boy a soft smile. "All my friends call me that...well, all two of them."

"Hn...do I get to call you Jojo?"

"Are you okay with taking all of my fangirls Uchiha?" I called over, snorting when Sasuke went ghost pale. "Yeah, thought so. Just call me Joushuya-san, or Joushirou if you need to be informal."

"Hn…at least you lost the Yamanaka."

"Yeah, thank Kami for that…" at the sound of a groan from nearby, I turned my head to see Naruto in his chair just waking up. The blonde groggily moved his arms around, then jolted completely awake when he realized they were completely bound.

"H-HEY, WHAT GIVES?!"

"Calm down, we're all tied up," I told him, hoping he'd maybe settle a bit.

"CALM DOWN? WHAT IF WE'VE BEEN CAPTURED BY THE ENEMY, DATTEBAYO?!"

In hindsight, telling someone they've been tied up was an awful idea.

"Mmmm, Naruto-kun," and just hearing that from Hinata shut the blonde up and turned all our heads. The girl opened her eyes slowly, then blinked at the sight of us.

"Oh, I must still be dreaming...the four of you were there, we were being attacked in our classroom, and Naruto-kun…"

"No, that actually happened," I said, giving her a deadpan look as she blushed darkly. "I was hit with a tranq before you, so I don't know the full details, but I can assume you didn't escape…"

"Obviously not," Sasuke hissed as he watched the door. "We still have no idea what the hell is going on here."

I stiffened slightly when my enhanced hearing picked up footsteps coming from outside the room. Somebody was heading towards us, and they were taking their sweet time.

"I don't know either, but I have a feeling we're gonna find out pretty soon," I growled, just as I did the unknown individual stopped at the door and began turning the knob.

Of all the people who could have walked through that door, it was Fishlips-sensei. The teacher walked in with a sneer directed towards all of us.

"Well, looks like you're all awake now. How you feeling huh gakis?"

"Oi Fishlips-sensei, how's that shiner doing?" I asked, him, snorting when he became enraged.

"Oh, you think that fucking funny?!"

"I think it's fucking hilarious sensei...after all, you're the idiot who acted all smug and stroked his ego the entire taijutsu match," I said, giving him a bared-teeth smile. "There's this saying my family has, "When your opponent starts boasting then they've already lost"...and that was definitely true, wasn't it?"

"I can agree, you should have picked a better place to stroke your ego Mizuhiko-sensei," Sasuke called out from nearby.

"IT'S MIKIHITO YOU LITTLE SHIT!" the teacher suddenly stiff