Hidden Villages

I: Straight Laced

Despite the fact he received top marks on his homework and other school assignments Sasuke found himself not enjoying his time at the academy. The first week or so was spent seeing what the students knew. As such the youngest child of the Uchiha family head took to the tasks such as throwing his shinobi tools at the target with great gusto.

A few of the students seemed elated at his skill level on the physical activities, but heaped praise on him. He overheard Aana and Noren debating which one of the two Uchiha clan members would get to marry him, but told the other girls off for even thinking they stood a chance of marrying a Uchiha. Quite a few of the boys called him a show-off, yet he still held out hope he might make a friend.

He also found himself watching Naruto carefully. While he didn't like the blond-haired child with strange marks on his face, his mother kept asking if he had in fact made friends with the Uzamaki Naruto child. Yet Sasuke found himself not liking the behavior of Naruto and Naruto's friends. Said behaviors were definitely things he doubted his parents would want him to emulate.

Sasuke did find himself looking forward to the once a week class where the boys and girls separated to discuss the social customs of other villages. Iruka sensei explained the reason behind these classes were so they could successfully infiltrate other villages without anyone noticing they didn't belong. Itachi spoke of missions where he in fact found himself infiltrating, which made Sasuke's interest in the class perk even more.

In the back of his head Sasuke also thought this might prove a chance to finally make friends with someone.

Eventually Iruka got through the lessons which would come before the class and gave the instructions, "Leave your things there are the table. The girls today will be staying in this classroom while I take the boys into another class."

The young Uchiha willingly left his bag in the classroom and followed after the other boys towards the door. The line of boys were heading towards the classroom when Sasuke heard a soft giggle. He turned his head in time to see Naruto and his friends sneaking away. "What are you doing?"

Kiba gave him a wide grin. "Class if boring, so we're going to take off and play."

"Yup." Naruto piped up.

"I just want to go and take a nap and Choji wants to eat," Shikamaru said.

The Inuzuka child narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. "Hey, you'd better not tattle on us. If the teacher's find out we're gone we'll know who it is Sasuke."

"I..." Sasuke glanced back at the line which was now headed into the other classroom. When he turned his head back towards the four boys he found them disappearing around a corner.

Sasuke's dark eyes blinked once before he turned towards the classroom and walked in. Seeing Iruka sensei standing there with his arms crossed made the young Uchiha almost jump out of his skin. "Sasuke, where are Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji."

The child's eyes widened. "I don't know. They didn't tell me."

He watched one of Iruka's eyebrows shoot up. Eventually the man turned away. "Never mind. Have a seat next to Aburame Shino."

Sasuke moved over to sit next to the boy. He thought about possibly making friends with the boy and turned his head to speak to Shino. The young Uchiha's eyes blinked as a couple of bugs ran across the boy's skin.

He wanted to ask the boy about the bugs on his skin, but something made him wonder if such a question might prove impolite. As if he sensed Sasuke looking at him, Shino turned his head to look at Sasuke. "Something the matter?"

"Um, no. Sorry." Sasuke looked down at the desk in front of him while Iruka sensei went up to the board.

"Personally, I like starting off this class by showing you a map." The man pulled down a picture with a bunch of weird shapes on it. Sasuke frowned. His mind attempted deciphering what he saw, but his hand went up into the air. "Yes Sasuke?"

"What is a map?"

"Yeah, what is a map sensei?"

"That..." Iruka took a deep breath. "I was actually about to explain that. A map is a picture that shows where places are located in relevance to other places. He turned and let the map roll up into the ceiling and took a piece of chalk. "Let's say this rectangle represents this classroom and these x's are the windows and door. What would this line outside of the door be?"

One of the other children raised their hand and Iruka called on them to answer. "The hall?"

"Correct. If we continue down the hall..."

A woman with curly black hair came hurtling into the classroom and wrapped her arms around Iruka's arm. Sasuke recognized the exasperated look on his teacher's face as the same face Itachi got whenever a female would latch onto him without asking if they could get into his personal space, or at least that was how his brother explained the situation. One difference stood out to Sasuke; the woman was crying rather loudly.

"Suzume Sensei...." Iruka took a deep breath. "Whatever is wrong this time?"

"The girls... being mean. Won't let me teach."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Iruka frowned, but eventually turned to set the chalk down. "Look. I need you boys to behave while I go and see what's going on with the girls. Stay here. If I catch any of you playing hooky like Naruto, Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba are your punishment will be even more severe than those."

The young Uchiha swallowed, but wondered if they would think he was the one who told the teacher they'd taken off. Sasuke frowned when he thought of Kiba warning him off not to say anything, but his eyes looked down at the desk. He let his fingers grip the edge of his shorts tightly, yet in the back of his mind he wondered why his mother wanted him to make friends with this Naruto child when Naruto kept getting into trouble.

His parents hated it when he got into trouble.