COTE x Naruto: New Beginnings

Chapter 4: Bad Day

Kakashi was having a very bad day. What he'd thought of as a simple request at first ended up being tedious at best.

He sure hoped Arisu had a very good reason for making him walk all over the campus searching for hidden cameras because he was beginning to get fed up with it all.

He did find it a bit interesting and shocking seeing how many cameras there actually were. To put it simply, they were everywhere.

Maybe Kakashi was beginning to understand Arisu's reason behind this. It wasn't such a bad strategy - it also showed she was very serious about getting to the bottom of what was up with the school because clearly, something was happening behind the scenes.

Seeing as he was nearly done locating all of the cameras, Kakashi took a moment to sit down on a bench outside the school.

He was beginning to feel a painful urge to have something between his lips - preferably a cigarette - and it was beginning to gnaw on his nerves.

He'd been sure that he wasn't addicted, that he only smoked occasionally to get his mind off things, but maybe he'd been wrong.

Two days without smoking, and he felt like tearing his hair out. That made him realize how much he'd screwed up. Luckily for him, smoking was forbidden here, so he'd be forced to snap out of that budding addiction anyway.

Taking a look at his surroundings, he noticed a trio of upperclassmen approaching him.

"Hey, you're in our favorite spot, underclassman. How about you scram?"

What a bunch of punks. Kakashi could take them in a fight anytime. Peering up at them through half-lidded eyes, Kakashi considered withdrawing and sparing himself the trouble, but his body felt tense and his mind was restless.

He figured it wouldn't matter too much if he fooled around with them a bit.

"I dunno, I kinda like it here. Don't see any of your names on this bench, either," he replied cooly, making it clear he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon.

A rather large boy with straw brown hair and a crooked nose took a step forward and glared at him.

"You from Class D or what? Can't listen to your upperclassmen, can ya? You lot will have your place shown to you soon enough..."

He seemed to want to say more, but one of his friends elbowed him and discretely looked towards a nearby camera that had the perfect view of this bench.

The big guy seemed to understand what he was trying to convey, and so did Kakashi.

How curious, were there reprecussions for misbehaving?

So far, the school seemed very lenient, as did the teachers. Kakashi had only had one day of classes so far, but the teachers had completely ignored any misbehavior from the students. There weren't many instances of rule-breaking, but he'd noticed some of his classmates discretely typing away at their phones.

The playful streak inside Kakashi that he'd buried quite a long time ago really wanted to mess with these guys. Clearly, they were worried about the cameras, he could use that.

"You know, just around this side of the school grounds, I spotted 36 cameras. See, I even drew them for you," Kakashi took his time taking the large map of the school he'd hand-drawn out of his backpack, before showing it to the three boys and pointing towards the west side of the map.

"Right now, three cameras are recording us. That sounds uncomfortable, doesn't it? If I were you guys, I'd definitely find a more private place to eat your lunches," he suggested, his eyes crinkling up. "Or do you need further incentive?"

The third guy who hadn't spoken until now stepped forward.

"I hate your type. You all think you're so smart, but in the end, you too will end up at the bottom. A cannon fodder for the big players in classes A and B. If I were you, I'd hide my tail and cower, Class D."
He spat at Kakashi as if it was an insult.

Apparently, they had assumed that their statement about Kakashi being from Class D was true. Kakashi thought he was beginning to understand the dynamics of this school at last, and he felt a sense of triumph at that.

Then a pang of annoyance. He'd really been hoping the mystery would last longer. Instead, the words Mashima-sensei said to them the day before when he'd glossed over the rules came back to him:

"You received so many private points because, after careful evaluation, the school has deemed your worth to be high. At this school, we reward the students based on their worth."

Now, it all seemed so obvious. Mashima-sensei had never said they'd receive 100,000 yen every month.

He'd said they'd receive the amount that equaled their value in the school's eyes. But that value could change. Of that, he was sure.

But he was also sure that wasn't all. There was a significance between the choice of class for each student, and he was beginning to see it. If his deduction was correct, the current class 1-D would end up receiving the least amount of points, as they'd be deemed worthless by the school. In fact, they'd been doomed from the very beginning.

"When you are older, I'd like for you to attend my school, Kakashi. I think you'd like it there - why, I'm certain that you have a place there in Class A just waiting for you to fill it, son."

Did that mean the talented went to Class A, while the failures went to Class D? Was that why these three morons talked about classes A and B as if they were special?

Kakashi frowned. The fun of figuring it all out had been snatched from him by these three upperclassmen unintentionally spelling it out for him.

Yeah, he had to reach a lot of the conclusions himself, sure, but anyone with half a brain cell could've put it all together after receiving this amount of information.

In fact, Kakashi was quite certain those upperclassmen had just broken some sort of school rule by accidentally telling him so much. He smiled wryly. A punishment would serve them right for ruining the fun for him.

In a gloomy mood, he stood up suddenly and started walking off towards the cafeteria, completely ignoring the flabbergasted upperclassmen who were shouting after him. He had no mood for messing with them any longer.

Since he'd enrolled here, he'd admittedly been enjoying himself more than he'd enjoyed himself in years. First seeing so many interesting people, then reconciling with Arisu and trying to get a feel of what sort of person she was now, and then the mystery surrounding this school's uniqueness that his father had always adored so much yet never fully disclosed with Kakashi.

Now he sort of knew, or at least knew the basic concept, and he didn't feel any more satisfied than he had before learning about the system.

He didn't even notice he was frowning, his mind was solely focused on the rocky path in front of him that supposedly led to the cafeteria.

But then, even that brief moment of silence was ruined for him by the shock of something flying at him so suddenly and quickly that he didn't have any time to duck.

Faster than he could blink, the sauce from some sort of dish splashed all over his face, dirtying his mask and even getting underneath it, making him inhale some of the sticky sauce, making him sneeze.

Confused, annoyed, and angry, he looked in the direction the food came flying from, only to see a girl with bright pink hair splayed over the ground, looking up at him with wide green eyes. Then she started giggling, and all of Kakashi's frustrations from the shitty day he'd had came back tenfold.