First Day of School

"Who's there?" Malaria shouted.

"Not your parents." His Father walked in, looking smug. "Damn brat, turn in the Aburame™ coat and Aburame™ glasses right this instant. Despite disowning you, we're still getting the complaints from your misdeeds." He proclaimed, starting to tear the clothes off Malaria's body.

"Bastard, bastard, how dare you!" Malaria shrieked. Subconsciously the mosquitoes came out and tried to help him fight his own old man. "I don't have any other clothes; you can't do this to me!"

"The bastard is you! Don't think I didn't see your mother visit the Shimura household whenever I was on missions?" The old man berated. "Looking at your talents and way of behaving, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were a child of Danzo's, spreading trouble wherever you go! Go look for the Shimura to get something to wear you damn scoundrel."

Swatting the mosquitoes away, removing Malaria's glasses and taking his coat – the Aburame old man snorted and left the apartment. Malaria was so angry he could've sworn his eyes started turning compounded like a mosquito's. Thinking over what he just heard, could he pull out the 'Daddy Danzo'-card and get a free pass into the Root? It was worth mulling over.

Squatting and fuming in the corner of his apartment in his underwear, Malaria figured he could run out and demand justice from the Shimura family that 'perhaps' sired him. Question was, would he get thrown into a cell in an instant or not? It felt like wherever he went, a member of the Root was nearby spreading propaganda about the Uchiha.

Glancing outside his window he saw a Root Anbu standing on a treebranch looking down at himself. Feeling the palpable awkwardness in the air, Malaria opened the window to ask why he's even within his line of sight. The Root Anbu refused to budge nor answer. He just stood there, looking down condescendingly at Malaria.

Feeling that the breeze was somewhat cold on his naked upper body, Malaria closed the window and went to hide under the blankets on his bed. This day was the absolute worst in both of his lifetimes, no single day could even come close. Feeling the warmth of the bed he quickly fell asleep. Any amount of thinking won't help at this point, all he can do is prepare for the future.

—

The next day Malaria woke up and realized he doesn't have any clothes other than his underpants. Scrambling around his apartment he once again noticed the Root ninja outside his window. 'He must have stood there the entire night.. Am I under serveilance, or even protection?' he thought to himself. 'Finally, Danzo-sama must've noticed my importance. Things are finally looking up!'

Opening the window Malaria shouted to the statue-like mask-wearing ninja; "Hey, I don't have any clothes after that bastard went and stole them. I'll catch a cold if I go to the academy naked, right? Got any spares?"

For once the Root ninja responded with a tilt of his head before resuming his position of standing straight. Noting that the spectator wouldn't do anything to help him, Malaria turned around to see if he had anything he could pawn in his new home. 'I wonder if a chair could give me enough ryo to buy a shirt..'

Finding exactly nothing of value, he could only make-do with an old rice sack sitting in his storage compartment. Ripping open three holes, he could wear it as a make-shift shirt for now. The shinobi world was strange in the way how minors absolutely couldn't reveal too much skin. It truly boggles the mind how they send kids to the battlefield, but even the slightest nudity is strictly prohibited.

Since he was now penniless and without any food in his apartment, all he could do was start walking towards the academy without breakfast. The coarse cloth of the sack he was wearing felt tremendously nice to his skin, scratching all the hard to reach places. 'Who the hell wants to wear silk anyway? It's too smooth and you can't tell you're wearing anything with clothes like that.'

Quickly arriving outside the academy, he noticed it was thronged by hundreds of children and several dozens of parents. Perceiving the particular stares he was receiving due to his choice of attire, Malaria ignored them all and walked inside. Since he's not wearing the Aburame™ cloak and Aburame™ glasses right now, nobody could link him to the 'terrorist'-deed that happened yesterday at the police station.

Asking a standby teacher, he soon found the directions to his classroom, entered, and sat down on the front row. Having no clue if today is the start of the new semester or if the season is already in progress he could only wait and follow along. Not much later a lot of children from all corners of Konoha started streaming in, turning the classroom lively.

Not much later the teacher entered the class of newly admitted children, taking mindful notes about their behaviours. Noticing how the infamous Malaria was sitting in the front row with a dazed expression, he didn't know what to make of it. 'I hope he doesn't attempt suicide while still in class.' He thought. Even if he was stripped of the Aburame™ attire, he still knows who's who.

"Malaria-kun, is there something wrong? I too was an orphan, but I grew up into a splendid shinobi. If you have any troubles you can come to me, alright?", feeling good about the idea to give life-advice to another sufferer, the teacher turned to the rest of the class and started doing the headcount.

"Alright, I think that's everyone. Is there anyone missing?" the teacher asked.

"Your parents." Malaria blurted out, but then he corrected himself. "Wait, my parents too…"

The entire class started laughing while Malaria was looking ready to cry. He didn't even manage to scrap together a few Ryo to buy something for lunch. He has been starving the entire morning, and the mosquitoes simply won't stop sucking his blood. If he doesn't get some red meat, fish, or poultry anytime soon, he'll pass out with anemia.

The teachers' eyes couldn't help but twitch by that reply. Quickly silencing the class and entirely ignoring what Malaria said, he started pushing the chicken-soup of Konoha – The Will of Fire with great passion and gusto. As the wise predecessors used to say; 'Trained for a lifetime, to fight one battle.' Starting class to strengthen loyalty is perfectly acceptable.

Sometime later during lunchbreak Malaria somehow managed to look even more depressed. His face was turning from the original pale white into a sickly yellow. Smelling the delectable cuisines the other children brought in their stacked lunch boxes, he truly wanted to give suicide another attempt right here in the classroom.

Especially when he saw the Akimichi brats' lunch box. It was a proper barbeque stacked with flowing red sauce, sprinkled with some sort of spice. The entire box looked more like a suitcase than anything. Before Malaria could even ask for a treat, the Akimichi guy seemed to have felt his intention and turned away in a split second.

Awkwardly taking back his outstretched hand, he looked down and started outlining a few ideas for the future in his notebook. But it quickly derailed as he simply couldn't focus when his entire body is itching on a starving stomach.

After doodling a picture of himself covered in mosquitoes in his notebook, Malaria noticed that Kakashi was looking over his shoulder. As if he couldn't feel the disdain Malaria was radiating, he asked; "Why did you draw yourself?"

"I didn't." Malaria replied. "I drew a family photo." He pretended to act extremely sad, hoping he could mooch off the Hatake clan for the sake of some dinner. If he can't get something to eat by evening, he'll really have to start stealing to survive.

Shocked by Malaria's perfunctory answer and almost tearful eyes, Kakashi couldn't help but step back. 'This kid is seriously depressing. No wonder I heard he's always trying to grab attention – he feels lonely!' he thought to himself. Although Kakashi was lazy by nature, he couldn't help but feel awkward by the situation.

"How about you come over and visit my place? My house has a large training gym with a lot of Hatake clansmen, and my father trains there every day." He said. "You could stay over for dinner, perhaps we could spar with our ninja swords too?"

Malaria couldn't help but smile; 'Mission Success!'.

"Sure, that would be great. Especially dinner. My old man kicked me out, stripped me naked and sent me to the orphanage without even a morsel of food." Forcing out a few tears to the corner of his eye; "If not for friends like you, Kakashi, I would probably starve to death."

Kakashi got even more startled. Not that Malaria knew his name, but rather how horrendous the guy had been treated. This couldn't go on any longer!