The Substitute

Chapter One

Naruto falls into his seat lazily, looking over at his best friend, Sasuke. "Know anything about the new sub?" he asks.

"No, but he's even later than you," Sasuke replies, a small 'tsk' leaving his lips as he continues sarcastically, "At least he knows how to make a good first impression."

"I heard he's gorgeous," their other friend, Sakura, says as she turns around in her seat to face them. "And, apparently, he and Mr. Might are something of rivals."

"Wait. You mean someone actually takes Guy seriously enough to be his 'rival'?" Tenten turns and asks amusedly.

"Guy-sensei is a very serious man!" comes from Rock Lee next, his voice bounding and as serious as can be. "He understands the youth!"

"Guy? Serious? Understanding?" a new, deep voice inquires, chuckling lightly. All heads immediately snap to the front of the room, where a man with gravity-defying silver hair and an odd mask covering half of his face stands. "Ah. Good to see you're all alert and ready. I am your new substitute, Hatake Kakashi. You may refer to me as 'Mr. Hatake' or 'Kakashi-sensei.' Never, under any circumstance, may you simply call me 'Kakashi'. I will be teaching your Anatomy class until your regular teacher, Iruka, is feeling well enough to come back. Now, any questions?" Kakashi finishes, looking around expectantly at his new students.

All of the kids remain silent for a moment, until Sakura raises her hand and asks, "Do you know Iruka-sensei personally? I was just wondering, judging by your lack of formality in addressing him."

"Yes, I do. I have known him for quite a while now. And you are?"

"Haruno Sakura. If you don't mind me asking, Mr. Hatake, how do you know him? He seemed like he didn't really get out that much."

Kakashi sighs, seeming to have no desire to delve into such a topic. "Iruka is my ex-fiancée," he states, "It didn't work out."

Every student reacts differently throughout the classroom. Sakura herself lets her mouth fall open in surprise, along with several other classmates. Naruto is just as shocked, mainly at the revelation that their regular teacher is gay. Sasuke, as per his norm, doesn't seem to care much at all, the same going for Gaara, Shino, and Shikamaru. Lee whispers something about not only the youth being... active to Neji, who whispers something back about just how active and youthful the two of them would be later at his place.

Sakura, of course, is not quite finished butting into their new teacher's personal life just yet and asks, "What happened?"

An even heavier sigh is drawn from Kakashi this time and, eventually, he says, "There was an argument, an affair, another argument... It's really none of your business. Now, even though you're obviously all here, I'm going to take attendance." He grabs a clipboard from his messenger bag and begins reading off the names. "Aburame Shino."

"Here," Shino's deep voice calls from his seat beside Kiba in the back of the room.

"Akimichi Choji."

"Present."

"Gaara."

"Here," Gaara says, sounding like he would prefer to be anywhere else.

"Haruno Sakura."

"Here."

"Hyuuga Hinata."

"H-here," Hinata stumbles out nervously.

"Hyuuga Neji."

"I'm here," Neji responds, momentarily pausing his embarrassing and considerably sexual pick-up lines sent Lee's way.