Chapter 18: Chapter Eighteen: I Hate School.
"Raio!"
Vaguely, Raio could hear a semi-panicked voice from just behind his apartment door. He didn't care much; turning in the mess of blankets and fluffed cotton torn from the mattress, he was perfectly content to go back to sleep.
"Raio!"
Bang. Bang. Bang. He recognized the voice as belonging to Naruto. Jeez, what was the kid doing? It sounded like he was trying to break the door down!
"Raio, come on, I'm already late!"
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Grumbling, he uncoiled from his rigid posture. What time was it?
Ah. He had the luxury of not knowing. Not caring, not running by someone else's schedule–
"Raio! Open the door! Please!?"
About that, huh? In a fleeting, twisting motion, Raio was out of bed and standing in front of his door. His ear twitched– Naruto was mumbling, his breathing fast, and he was just about to slam on the door again.
This stupid kid was lucky he was being nice this morning. In a one-handed seal for the Transformation Technique, Raio swung the door open after the puff of smoke engulfed him.
Naruto's fist careened forward, trying to knock against the now-empty space. With nothing to stop the motion, it went straight through to the boy now standing in the doorway–
Raio caught Naruto's wrist with a twitching frown.
"Oops!" Naruto pulled back, and Raio allowed him to. He seemed just about ready to launch into a spiraling ramble, maybe throw an apology in there, but he cut himself off. The blond was very much slack-jawed and wide-eyed, blue eyes boring into Raio's face. "Wh… Raio…? Is that really you?"
"Stop yelling," Raio grumbled, then poked his head out of the doorway to peer down the hall. Nothing. He was lucky those ANBU members hadn't tried jumping him while he was asleep. "What? What is it? I was asleep, you know."
"Uh…" Naruto stared at him dumbly. With the wind from his sails, he seemed lost. Raio noted the lack of his orange and blue jumpsuit. Instead, he had on a patterned dark grey shirt with short sleeves, and mismatching grey and blue shorts.
He snapped his fingers in front of his face. "Reality to Naruto. You can't slam on my door, wake me up on my first day off, and just stand here. It's annoying me."
"You…" Doing something other than staring like a gaping fish, Naruto was able to move his lips to speak. "You look like a girl."
"What?" Raio stared at him. Then he stepped back into his apartment. "I'm going back to sleep. You wasted my time. You're lucky we're friends."
"No no! Wait!" Naruto stuck his foot in the doorway. "The Academy– we're late for the Academy! You gotta come with me."
"School? I'm not… There's no way I'm going," Raio's whole face scrunched in genuine displeasure. The mere idea, the thought of someone telling him what to do, or even following someone else's whims again? He decided to voice his opinion. "Hell no. Go away."
"But–" Naruto reached his arm through the doorway, pushing through the closing door. (Raio was cautious to administer a careful amount of pressure. He knew that he could easily snap this boy like a twig). Yet, the Uzumaki's voice was particularly whiny. "Please? We're friends so you gotta come with me!"
"I don't think that's how it works."
"... I'll pay for dinner?"
Raio locked arms with Naruto and dragged him down the hallway. "Deal."
–
"Here," Naruto panted and gestured to a closed door. They had run through varying halls of the polished Academy government building. It wasn't very welcoming, but he supposed it was homey enough. Red roofing tiles and overlaying patterns, wood floors, and white walls. Everything was distinctly clean. Not enough to be surgical, but it stood out in a rather nice way. "If we're lucky, it'll still be quiet studying. Just follow me, yeah?"
He didn't give Raio much of an opportunity to respond. After a quick breath– a brief inhale, rushed exhale– Naruto slammed the door open with the force of a thousand suns. He strolled in with as much sass as someone his age could, his shoulders squared. With his voice a near shout, he proclaimed, "Good morning! Oh, class already started? Haha, guess the time got away from me!"
"Naruto…" The instructor at the front of the room was a man with his brunet hair in a high spikey ponytail, wide boyish eyes, and a thick horizontal scar across his tan cheekbones and nose. He stood with an open book in his hands. Irritated, his face twitched. Raio clocked the militaristic vest he donned, as well as the generic pants and sandals. Not to mention the headband protector. Generic, impersonal. "You'd think you'd know better by now… Get to your seat and stop disrupting the class. You're lucky I was just now doing attendance!"
Naruto gave another boisterous laugh before turning to the desks in the room. They were on different levels– three flights, slightly above the other and layered like stairs. Two or three per desk it seemed. By extension, there weren't separate chairs and had bench-style seating.
Discretely, Naruto waved him to follow. So Raio– without complaint– strolled right in, rounding the doorframe and ignoring the teacher entirely.
"Uh…"
All eyes were on him. While most were scornfully glaring at his companion, some seeming bored of the common antics, they all changed to curiosity. Excited glances, strange stares, raised eyebrows. Sleepy demeanors were shaken off for a breath of jostling, exciting air.
"Ah– wait," The teacher tried getting Raio's attention before he got too far, but Raio was already sliding into Naruto's seat after him. They were next to some blonde girl, who very obviously had her elbows on the desk to look at him from across Naruto. "You–... Naruto, who's this?"
"This is my friend!" Naruto declared with a happy shout. He crossed his arms over his chest, a self-satisfied grin on his face. "His name is Raio."
A note of surprise from everyone in the class. Either by the revelation of his gender or that Naruto had a friend.
"I'm new," Raio said. A gliding smooth note compared to Naruto's over-the-top unruliness.
"You can't just… I don't have you in my– plan for the day," The teacher seemed to scramble for what to do. He quickly turned to his desk, then glanced at the door. "It's great that you have a friend, Naruto, but you can't drag random kids into the classroom. Roping others into your disruptions is inconsiderate."
"Anko told me to come," Raio cut in before Naruto could. The blond seemed put off, anyways. His lips were in a slight pout and just from sitting next to him, Raio could feel his chagrin. "... and Ibiki, probably."
The instructor blinked, taken aback. "Mitarashi? And Ibiki Morino?"
He nodded. Even if the two had an odd standing with him, it was convenient having their names in his back pocket.
"Well… I'll send a word for them after class. I guess," The teacher glanced at Naruto, who had scooted to the edge of his seat in anticipation. "I guess you can stay for today. Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"
Raio turned his head to look at Naruto. Naruto gave him a wide-eyed shrug.
"I'm Raio," He said.
A moment passed.
"Okay," The instructor stiffly moved on, taking to the side of the chalkboard. "I'm Iruka-sensei. It's nice to meet you. I will say that class typically starts at eight-thirty, so please try to get here earlier than that next time."
Sheepish, Naruto chuckled beside him.
"This morning we'll be focusing on literature…"
Naruto leaned over. His voice was in an obvious whisper-yell, "Feel free to take a nap. Everything except the actual ninja stuff is super boring."
Good enough for him. Raio's head moved on a swivel from side to side. Let's see… everyone else seemed to have their separate stationary packs. Notebooks, some scribbled in and others blank, with pencils and pens.
Naruto, however.
He nudged the blond and pointed at some studious girl. Her dark hair was cut in a bob with bangs that curled over her forehead, a contrast to her pale skin. There was an entire notebook and pencil bag in front of her, complete with fancy highlighters. "Where's your stuff? Everyone else has at least a notebook."
Though Raio was careful to keep his voice to a murmur, some other kids caught onto his remark. There were a few obvious snickers. Naruto scratched his cheek and looked to where Raio was pointing– the poor girl had very quickly glanced back (Raio was startled at the milky-white of her eyes, though she very clearly wasn't blind as it may have suggested) before stiffening and bowing her head, furiously writing in her notebook.
"I dunno. I just don't bring stuff," Naruto huffed. He crossed his arms. "That's not important!"
The blonde girl, their desk mate, slid something over, quickly leaning forward onto her elbows to do so. It smoothly landed in front of Raio. She gave him a bright smile, and Raio noted her overeager demeanor. "Here. You can have one of mine, Raio."
"Thanks," Raio blinked a few times. Was this normal? To be given things so freely? He flicked through the notebook. At the beginning was a name in cutesy handwriting, and he decided to repeat it. "Ino Yam-an-aka."
She beamed in response, interlocking her fingers under her chin. "Just let me know if you need anything, 'kay?"
"Sure." He leaned back and his attention flitted to Naruto. He seemed entirely put out– grumbling things to himself. Raio decided to disregard that and turned his attention to what Iruka was babbling about. Some of the other, more generic students were taking notes.
Flipping to the second page of his newly-acquired notebook, Raio glanced over the vacant lines. He didn't have anything to write with. Neither did Naruto, from the looks of it. The Uzumaki was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. A little awkward from the attention, he tried playing it off by propping his knee against the desk.
Raio's lips parted. He was about to ask for a pencil from this Ino girl, but he was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. Stiffening, his attention pivoted, bristling at such an intrusion–
A pink-haired girl with green eyes had both a pencil and pen in her grip, and she extended them with a smile. "Here! You can have these."
"Oh," He blinked. Again the friendliness in this classroom– everything was so shocking. So, he mimicked her posture and smiled back, taking them without a complaint. "Thanks."
"No problem," She drawled and sat back down. Never mind the fact she had to stand up out of her seat to even reach Raio.
Looking down at the utensils, Raio fiddled with the pen. He was quite crafty with these– but this wasn't the same environment where he had to strip everything and find ways to restructure them. So, he put pen to paper and copied what Iruka was putting on the board.
"Aw man," Naruto huffed. "Why'd you gotta get Sakura's attention…"
The pink-haired girl, Raio clocked. He handed him the pencil and slid the open notebook so that they could both reach. Not quite understanding why getting the attention of a girl was so important, Raio jabbed Naruto's arm. "Pay attention to class, will you?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
CarrionNewt
CarrionNewt raio's first day in the academy~
as always, thank you all for the support (:
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