The Book of Nariko Hayashi | Naruto OC

Enter: Nariko Hayashi!

At the Academy, Iruka-sensei was taking role as he usually did at the beginning of class.

"Choji... Kiba... Shikamaru... Shino..." He was looking up from the roll sheet as he scanned his students. "Sakura.. Ino.. Hinata... Sasuke.. Naruto.. surprisingly- hold on... where's Nariko?"

Ino, who was completely distracted by Sasuke's looks earlier, got the attention of her teacher. "Who?"

"..Nariko?" He raised an eyebrow, pointing at the empty seat next to Sasuke. "The girl who usually sits with Sasuke. I thought you knew her."

"Ohhh, her!" Ino hit her head softly and giggled. "She's just so hard to remember sometimes, you know?"

Sakura nodded in agreement, but only agreed when it came to the girl's presence and not her personality.

Shino shook his head and spoke up in defense of the absent girl. "How is she hard to remember when she's in our class? I mean, seriously... are quiet kids that easy to forget?"

Kiba snickered and laid back against his seat. "I'll just agree with Ino on this one. That girl is hard to remember! You Shino.. you're pretty noticeable, but hard to include all the time."

"Well..." Shino started. "At least you were honest with your words."

"Sasuke", Iruka began as he glanced at the Uchiha, who looked at his teacher the second he said his name. "Have you seen Nariko?"

He turned his head back to the window, looking at how the leaves from the trees blew away. "Just because we're friends doesn't mean I know where she is every second... and besides, it's not like we live together."

Iruka shook his head before glancing at Naruto, who was sleeping peacefully in his seat. "Naruto? Naruto!"

The startled blonde boy immediately sat up when he heard his teacher yell his name. "Agh.. geez, Iruka-sensei.. you didn't have to startle me like that." He wiped the drool from his mouth.

"Clearly.. Clearly I have to startle you, as you shouldn't be sleeping in class in the first place." The man stated, though he did get that it was the beginning of class and some kids don't get the sleep they need to start a school day or really any important day in general. "Anyway, have you seen Nariko? I noticed that she'd usually come in class with either you or Sasuke."

"Oh!" The girl's name rang a bell to the blonde, as he, like Ino said, forgot about her presence. "I haven't seen her, but maybe Sasuke knows."

"I already asked- ugh.. forget it." Iruka rolled his eyes and just went to the board. "We'll just start the lesson without her, then maybe one of you can explain to her the context of it when she does make it."

Just then, the door swung opened. Shikamaru and Choji looked back to see who it was, and to Shikamaru's expressionless face, the person who showed up didn't surprise him.

"Nariko." He said, interrupting Iruka's lesson about ninja weapons and how to use them properly.

"Shikamaru, now you know better than to-" The man looked behind him to see that the girl who he had been getting the kids to tell him where she was had finally showed up, and just in time. "Nariko! There you are. Where were you?"

The brown skinned girl felt embarrassed that all eyes were on her as she kept a straight face at her teacher. She didn't like to be the center of attention, but she pretty much saw it coming when she showed up to class seven minutes late.

"I knew this was coming.." she murmured in a deadpan voice before speaking up. "I was late to class because of my dad. You see, he works as an ANBU ninja and he needed me to cover him as he was sick. After I finished his job in like... fifteen minutes before class, my mom needed me to come home and do dishes I didn't do when I woke up. And then my aunt needed me to go to her house to.. massage her feet, because that stuff really pleases her. And then-"