Legacy [ Naruto Reader-Insert ]

原点 - Genten - Origin pt 2

You're barely holding on to the stack of bento in your arms, something sinking in your chest as your eye rolls back up the list to double check. Triple check. Checking over and over again to see if his name's there. Nothing. No sign of 'Uzumaki Naruto' on it anywhere. Your arms are shaking, not because of the hefty weight resting on them.

He's worked so hard. So so hard. So many thoughts filtering through your head at this point. Why didn't he? Why couldn't he? Did he simply just not work hard enough? You swallow that thought back into your throat. The incident that happened the day before still burns brightly in your mind, instilling a small whirlpool of doubt in your chest.

Was he punished because of the stunt he pulled the day before? You saw what he'd done to the Hokage faces on the mountain. You didn't say it to him but it sits uneasy at the back of your throat. His prank nearly set half of the active Chunin on duty on his ass before Iruka-sensei tied him up and brought him in.

Disrespectful. That was the most disrespectful thing you've ever seen him do.

Even if you're not fond of the Sandaime Hokage, you're very aware of the courtesy you're supposed to extend as a loyal shinobi of Konoha. Wasn't he supposed to want to be Hokage? And then he goes on and defaces the biggest monument with all the faces of Konoha's previous Hokages.

Is it just a joke to him? His dream of being Hokage?

It can't be that right? He's been let off with rather minor slaps on the wrists on his previous escapades. Any other child would be heavily punished for doing anything like that. So it must be safe to assume that Naruto gets special treatment from the Sandaime. But how far does it go?

If so, Naruto would graduate regardless of his performance right? Favouritism and all. If the Hokage ordered the Academy administration to pass him, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

You keep the neutral expression on your face as another sensei with light coloured hair you recognize drags over a foldable table to the front of the board. The chatter almost starts to swell into a crescendo, civvie mothers puffing their chests out in pride and their children's accomplishments. A cacophony of multiple noises rising and flowing across the crowd, almost like the buzzing of mosquitoes coming from somewhere unreachable, and you can't kill it to get rid of the noise. It grates against your ears.

Mizuki-sensei just laying out each headband one in front of the other as they prep for the ceremony. He gives you a cursory glance and an inclination of his head when he spots you standing about in the far corner.

You give him a small smile and a deeper bow in return.

"Oh, my son's the first shinobi in the family!"

"Oh my, mine's the sixth."

"Any of yours getting sponsored by any of the big clans? Mine is." You can almost hear the huff of pride in her voice as she presses her fingers to her chest and tilting her chin upwards.

The haughtiness in their voices as the air fills with incessant boasting is starting to grate against your ears like long strokes of sharp chalk against a clean blackboard, the kind of feeling that just drags on and on and on. It's bearable, but not for an extended period of time. You take a couple of steps to the left to filter out the audible chatter from your ears, lest it burns a deeper, more painful hole into your chest.

Everyone stops talking when the door bursts open and the rest of the graduates start streaming out of the door to go hug their mothers or fathers. The graduates who don't have any parents who attended the ceremony just congratulated each other with quick pats on the back and a hug or two, maybe giving the others an envious look or two before shuffling awkwardly back into position.