Chapter IV

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A year has passed! And in that time, nothing of note has happened!

"This is so boring, when will this end?" Naruto moaned. 

Even if Iruka was a good teacher, he was still a teacher, and that often lent itself quite well to arduous and long-winded exercises in boredom management. This time, he was going over the political system of the world. He said that this would be extremely important for their future. Sasuke gave a half-nod, and Sayuri collapsed, sending paper dancing throughout the air. Iruka, completely unfazed, continued to speak, and each word droned and blurred together, forming a conglomerate monster of jumbled messes. Naruto collected the papers and neatly arranged them near Sayuri and began to shake her shoulder.

"As you all know, this village is a dictatorship. The Hokage leads the people by himself and has no checks in power, unlike other cities in the world, or even in the Fire Nation." Iruka cleared his throat, pausing to give time for the class to catch up on note-taking, although only that raven haired girl- Hinata- and another girl with startlingly pink hair- Sakura- were taking notes. Everyone else was preoccupied with something else. "Due to how the other ninja villages have formed themselves based on ours, they also have adopted this system," Naruto checked out here. I can't believe they didn't even mention me. This is an absolute travesty! Madara cried out. I mean, I deserve, what, 50% of the credit for this idea! Tobirama stepped in. And I deserve all the credit for making that system actually work. Holy crap, for all that battle strength and charisma you and brother had, you were really bad at actually making things work. Who thought that the mission system, the simplest idea that I delegated to the both of you, would take a whole month!

Hey, we were saddled with a lot of other stuff, okay. It wasn't like we had a bunch of free time to do all of the paperwork, and all of the other things- Hashirama was cut off. 

Don't speak from your ass, Tobirama laughed, he laughed. 

Oh no. When Tobirama laughs, he's already won. I made sure that you both had ample leisure time, although I suppose that you were far more invested in those Go tournaments going on at the time. Tobirama chuckled bitterly, almost as if he was reminiscing of a time which had caused him immense trauma. It should have taken 3 days, maybe a week at worst, but nooooo. You had to decide to do whatever the hell it is that you did during that month. he sighed and planted his face on his head. Whatever. Naruto left, and a bit saddened, too. 

For all of Iruka's good qualities, there were some, well, very bad sides. And unfortunately, Iruka's dark sides manifested very often around Naruto. He had a tendency to snap on a bad day, and on these days, he would be irate, yell, all that. 

Even though everyone did these things, as a teacher, he got way more flak than others would. He also targeted kids he was less than fond of, or bad students. Naruto, while polite and respectful, that was as far as his relationship with Iruka got. Even then, this relation was very one-sided. Naruto much preferred the departed souls within his mind as they were more experienced, more personable, and were actually responsible for most of the events that Iruka discussed. Living with the old legends was always better than second-hand tales. Sayuri began to stir, and her eyes opened slowly.

"Hello sleepy head." Naruto grinned.

"Hey." She smiled back. Iruka was going around asking review questions for the lesson.

"So, Naruto, tell me what a theocracy is." Iruka snapped his fingers, an uncaring look adorning his face, although Naruto thought that there might be a smug undertone, like he was thinking, I finally got the fox now, maybe even accompanied by an evil laugh, who knows.

"Yes, Iruka-sensei. A theocracy is a system of government in which people are led by a religious figure, and government positions are based on positions within the religious group. For example, the leader or figurehead of the group will be the leader of the government. These are no longer very prevalent, however." Naruto finished.

Iruka was shocked, but that gave way to a smile. The bell rang. Naruto got up and was putting his notes away, when Iruka spoke.

"Naruto." Iruka's voice was calm but proud. 

"Yes?" Naruto made sure not to make eye contact at any point during this, continuing to put the notes away.

"I just wanted to say that I'm very surprised by your knowledge. You know, I notice how most people don't pay attention in these lessons, and I'm proud of the people who do pay their due diligence. If you keep it up, I'm sure you'll become quite the exemplary ninja." 

"What happened?" Sayuri asked.

"Iruka was proud." Naruto smiled.

"That's good. At least he doesn't hate you," She laughed. She exhaled, and a breeze blew through the air. Naruto, like he had many times before, sat in accompanied silence. But it only lasted for so long.

"You know, silence is underrated." Naruto laughed at the irony, and off the corner of his eye, he saw Sasuke, his lips stretched into a smile.

"And how nice it is to break that silence." Sayuri giggled and playfully punched Naruto's shoulder. He collapsed into the grass, and sat there unmoving. She rolled him over and pushed him up. Naruto gasped, taking deep breaths and laughed hysterically. She looked at him, confused.

"I had a thought", Naruto said, still shaking. "How come every time someone dies, they start crying and shaking them like, 'please don't leave me!!!' and then when they die they're all like 'NOOOO!'." Naruto said in a highly dramatised voice as he fell to the ground laughing, and Sayuri broke down in laughter soon after.

She wheezed. "That's so stupid." Her attempts to regain control of herself only had Naruto laughing harder. As he laughed, she laughed too, and so they created a never ending feedback loop of comedy.

"We looked really stupid back there." And with Naruto's comment, they both lost it, howling in laughter. They composed themselves when the bell rang. Neither of them saw the dark masked figure in the tree.

*Some time later*

"Lord." The masked figure entered a long dark corridor. The only light was provided by a few dim lamps. The silhouette of a man entered the chamber. The masked man bowed.

"Speak." He commanded.

"Yes, Lord. The Uchihas continue to bond with the fox. Things seem to be spiralling out of control. I suspect that he may eventually reach the point where he will abandon us in favor of them." He spoke evenly, without any semblance of humanity.

"Thank you. Dismissed." The silhouette waved his arm, and the figure disappeared without a trace. "This could be troublesome. If this continues, the village's future is at stake here. I must act." He slunk back into the shadows.

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Hello.

I'm back.

Updates will probably be slower from now on, maybe once a week. I don't know.

Review! It makes my day when someone takes a minute or two to leave their thoughts on this!

Goodbye (for now)

(._.)


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