🦊Naruto Hatake🦊

Chapter 14

The Monster in the Closet

He felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder. Letting out a small squeak of fright, he turned his head...

"Hey, hey, hey, I didn't mean to scare you little brother," said Iruka warmly. He looked at Naruto circumspectly and could easily see that something was troubling him. "What happened to you? Why do you have that black eye and ripped clothes?"

"Ruka!" exclaimed Naruto in relief. "What are you doing here? I've missed you." He jumped off the swing; launching himself at the young nin, and enveloped him in a hug. "I got in a small fight is all, I'm okay."

Iruka smiled at the little chibi, "I just got assigned an assistant instructor position the other day. I have been very busy, I haven't even had the time to say hello to you. Other than fighting, have you been being a good student?"

"Umm well," he hesitated, debating on whether or not to say anything. Iruka was a teacher now and Naruto was a big boy. He did not want to be called a tattletale. "Yeah, pretty good, I guess."

He noticed the way the boy avoided his eyes; something was definitely worrying him. "Is something else troubling you? Do you want to talk about it? You know that I am always here for you little brother" he asked.

Naruto smiled happily then said, "Oh, heh heh, it's nothing. My friends just got detention so I'm here alone for now."

Just then, the bell rang and Iruka reminded Naruto as he was leaving, "Try to save your fighting in school for the taijutsu classes."

'I wish I could do taijutsu,' thought the boy. He was always sent to do other things like clean the blackboard or run laps for punishment. He couldn't wait for the day when he could show off his skills.

"Sure thing," yelled Naruto as he ran back to class. He raced through the hallway towards his room, when something snagged his foot. He fell hard, slamming his jaw on the floor and sliding a foot. The older kid that tripped him and another boy grabbed Naruto and dragged him into the bathroom, shoved his head into the toilet, and flushed it. When they released him, he jerked back with a wild swing.

"You better not mess with my little brother again. You don't belong here. Why don't you just leave, nobody wants you here." Said the older kid.

Because of the water dripping into his eyes, he couldn't see properly so they were gone before he could do anything. He shoved the stall door open with a bang and then furiously kicked the wall. "Stupid jerks," he yelled. "You're all nothing but a bunch of stupid jerks." He had unknowingly built chakra up in his body so when his foot hit the wall, it went right through it. With his foot now stuck, he clenched his fists and blinked back tears of impotent fury. He saw himself in the mirror and said to it, "Someday they will all respect me. Someday, I'm gonna be the Hokage." He twisted and pulled until his foot came loose and then limped back to his classroom.

Sensei Hideo noticed his late arrival right away and said, "Well well, I see you finally decided to join us." Naruto opened his mouth to explain, but Hideo held his hand up. "I don't want to hear your excuses, Uzumaki. Go sit outside the classroom if you can manage it without getting into any mischief. We have a special lecturer today and I do not think he needs to be insulted by your childish presence." The instructor pointed at the door, not making any other comment as to why he was wet, limping, or had dried bloodstains on his shirt.

Naruto stomped out of the classroom and threw himself on the chair outside the room. "Mean jerk," he muttered under his breath. "It's not fair." He shouted at the door, "And it's Uzumaki-Hatake!" For ten minutes, the boy sat by himself fuming with the unfairness of it all. Eventually he put his head down and stared at the ground. Kakashi had always told him that there were plenty of mean people in the world and the best way to combat them was to feel sorry for them because of the ignorance, hatred and jealously. He said that karma would always get them in the end.