Chapter 14

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"Naru-chan!"

The second he walked into the class, he heard Shizune's voice, finding her at the top row, seated next to a handful of other students.

He smiled, waving, and smiling a little more when he realized she had reserved a seat for him.

Marching up he laughed as she ruffled his hair.

"This is totally unfair you know." She bemoaned. "I gotta sit here for four years and you just up and get through this thing in less than one."

"I'm just awesome that way..." He replied, showing off those pearly whites as he took his seat.

Yeah well we'll see how well you handle Zae-sensei. She's the toughest teacher here.

"Yeah right." Naruto scoffed. She can't be on my case anymore than Iruka-sensei was when I was here.'

Shizune offered a shrug, her face saying just how confident she was in the fact that Naruto would be eating those words.

"That him?" The voice brought Naruto's eyes to the other side of his adopted sister, looking at a rather scruffy looking Inuzuka kid. No jacket like Kiba, a bit thinner than he remembered Kiba being too...though...come to think of it that could have been the jacket. His dog was definitely a sight bigger than Akamaru had been, reaching the kids knee already, whereas Akamaru had been small enough to prop on Kiba's head.

He squinted at the four year old. "He don't look so tough..."

Shizune smacked him on the shoulder. "He's four. What the hell did you expect?"

Sticking his tongue out and making a face Naruto let some of his natural immaturity shine through as he joined the rebuke in his own way, out of sight of Shizune of course.

"He's supposed to be taller."

"And you're supposed to be smarter." She deadpanned.

Naruto helped by continuing to make faces.

Before anything more could be said the doors opened.

"Sit down all of you!"

The words weren't shouted, they were barely even heard all the way up top where he, Shizune and some of the other students were sitting, but never, in his life had Naruto ever heard a room go as quiet as a crypt as fast as this room had.

Every student sat in their chairs like they were falling into a regiment's formation.

The woman that marched into the room was...not what Naruto was expecting.

She had something akin to a bowl cut hairstyle, like Gai or Lee, only long enough to reach down to her neck, chocolate brown hair, wrinkles that were as carved into her skin as Saru-jiji's, and the most distinguishing feature of all...

"She's practically shorter than me."

He hadn't realized that he'd spoken out loud until the room, as quiet as it was seemed to grow even quieter somehow and every eye swiveled around to look at him...how this was accomplished without anyone moving a muscle he'd never know.

Zae, as he remembered her name, didn't seem to let it affect her at all as she marched up towards her desk, speaking. "It seems they taught you a good grasp of the obvious in the lower academy tiers Uzumaki, now lets see if we can teach you something a little above the level of potty training.

It was a joke. One that pissed him off but that he knew quite a few people would have been laughing at. Hell, he'd be laughing at it, if he wasn't the victim that is.

So why couldn't he even hear a snicker?

He couldn't hear of see any movement.

In-fact...the only thing moving in the room, unseen to all was Inu, who winced in his hiding spot, remembering just what it was to take class with this woman.

"Well...now that our introductions are all finished we'll all be heading outside for some weapons practice."

Now the class started moving, smiles flitting about here and there at the prospect of abandoning these books for a little while.

Smiles that were quickly wiped clean.

"But before we get to that boring old stuff we'll have a fun little pop quiz to get those minds working! Doesn't that sound nice?" Zae chirped with the most pleasant smile you could ever see on someone's face.

The groans seemed to feed that smile.

Naruto could somehow tell, this was going to be a very miserable three months.

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At the end of the day, as they were all getting ready to head on home, Zae-sensei's voice cut through the classroom chatter as easily as it had at the start of the day. "Mr. Uzumaki please stay here for a moment I'd rather speak to you in private."

Shizune threw him an apologetic look, but he smiled and waved anyway, what was the worst a teacher could do to him really?

He sat and waited, student after student filed out as Zae-sensei gathered her own things getting ready to leave herself.

Finally, as the last of the student's left. "Sorry I called you short." He said.

"You didn't call me short. You called yourself short while comparing my height to yours. And there is a difference." She replied, finishing gathering her things before she grabbed her papers and walked up to him.

She stared at him for a second or two before she pulled her glasses free from the bridge of her nose and wiped at them. "Now, I'm going to give you the same speech I've given to more students than I should have since I've been teaching here and I expect you'll, in the end, prove as stubborn as they were and give me roughly the same answer and quietly mutter about how I don't know what I'm talking about but- holding out on a prayer, here goes nothing. Might be, you're the first surprise. How bout you go out and play for a few more years, Hmmm?"

Naruto blinked, the question, put so strangely caught him a little flat, making him answer the first thing that came to mind. "There's no time for that!"

"Now, that's a curious answer, because now is the time for it. Later is when there won't be time! You're four years old, you shouldn't be in here training how to slice open a man's neck but out there-" She looked like she was about to go on something of a tangent when he interrupted.

"I'm not quitting." He appreciated the thought, really. But she just didn't understand, no one would understand that he really didn't have any time. Every second was precious.

She made a bit of a face, half exasperated, half resigned. "Well...at least you don't seem as stiff and boring as the last two of you that came through here. We'll see each-other tomorrow then."

Naruto nodded, hopping down from his seat to walk out of the class.

Zae waited for him to leave before turning her eyes to the side, peering into a corner of the room. "Kakashi"

She could almost feel said corner stiffen.

"Be a dear and do your old academy sensei a favor, could you get in contact with Oro-kun and tell him to get in touch? He never writes anymore."

There was silence for a moment before the corner spoke. "How the hell do you do that?"

She smiled. "Because my dear no matter how old you get you never forget the basics..."

She began to leave.

"I'm not boring you know!"

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