Chapter 09

"Mizuki. I finally had a good reason to get that lazy-ass of a substitute teacher to do some actual work around my class instead of just dropping in whenever he feels like it," Iruka replied sternly, wondering whether his friend would be able to hold down the fort in his stead. Of course, seeing as how they were both disciplined and mature teachers the scar-faced individual with the ponytail really didn't think he had anything to worry about, and hence dismissed any further concerns on the matter. What he had to focus on now was the more pressing issue standing before him, "As for you, young man, you and I need to have a little chat regarding your absence from this morning's lecture…"

"Oh no," Naruto murmured with slumping shoulders. "Let me guess… detention?"

"As much as I'd 'love' to doll out some more chores for you to do as penalty for your actions, seeing as that this time you were actually doing something productive outside of class I'm going to let your little offense slide," Iruka said, before reaching out and grabbing the boy by the ear. The blonde let out a yelp of pain when he found his full weight and body being dragged down the road by his precious lobe. He was forced to stumble along at an incredibly fast pace to keep up with his smirking teacher. "Right now I'm more interested in putting those impressive and supposedly honed skills of yours to the test."

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Hey! Be careful, Iruka-sensei! You're going to rip my ear off!"

"Well then, if you don't want to have your entire brain pulled out of your head through the side then hurry up. We don't have all day."

"OW! S-Slow down! Where are you taking me?"

"Back to the academy," Iruka said with a playful grin. He looked down at his student just in time to see tears of anguish welling up in his eyes as he glared back up at him defiantly. "It's nearly second period… and you know what that means don't you?"

Taking a moment to think as he was dragged across the dirt against his will, Naruto blinked several times before a pained smirk came across his face.

"T-Taijutsu practice?"

"Exactly. It's free picks today, so you can choose whoever you want to be your part-"

"The village idiot Sasuke!" Naruto shouted immediately before his teacher had a chance to finish.

The man let out an amused and exhausted sigh, "I was going to recommend Choji, but sure. Why not?" Iruka looked ahead of him again with a doubtful grimace. "Just try to take it seriously this time."

"I'll try… but… your lectures are always so boring."

"Oh are they now?" Iruka asked while suddenly twisting the boy's ear, earning a yelp of agony. "Would you care to review that assessment? I don't think it was a very accurate or fair survey of my teaching methods."

"Ow! Ow! Ow! But it's true, sensei! I'm not going to lie about something like that!"

Iruka grinned sinisterly. "We'll see how long you'll be able to keep up that tough-guy act of yours once I have you scrubbing toilets with your tongue."

Well. Naruto wanted kicking and screaming; so he got kicking and screaming.

OOO

A couple hours later…

Following the brief side show of Naruto being dragged through the homeroom door by his ear and recess, the class was quickly rounded up and taken out onto the fields outside of the academy building for some mixed sparring. Being the taijutsu portion of the day both Iruka and Mizuki made it their sworn responsibility to oversee each of their students' bouts, with contenders going up two at a time to compete in the ring. It was a circular space painted into the earth, outlining the boundaries between the arena and the barred area for observation. The matches were to take place within the circle, with those who are knocked out of the ring, deemed unable to continue or conceded defeat to their opponents determining the outcome of each round.

The whole thing went off with an explosive start with students showcasing mixed levels of skills and techniques, ranging from amateur to downright impressive. It was then when Naruto was eventually called up to the ring where he made his colorful declaration of war out to Sasuke, everyone sort of stopped.

What led on shortly after the whistle was blown was, pretty much, a battle of wills and grit as one of the two boys doggedly chased his opponent all across the ring with a flurry of ferocious dashes and attacks while the other pulled him along as though they were attached by string.

The most surprising aspect about this show though, was that Naruto wasn't the one doing the chasing. It was in fact the other way around.

Everybody watched on as the two academy students played cat-and-mouse with each other, one of whom was getting incredibly frustrated from not being able to land a single hit, whereas the other one was grinning from ear to ear while moving out of the way of every swing. The way Naruto was dodging his opponent though was going against every single taijutsu rule, maneuver and technique in the book.

Whilst others would simply weave, leap away, keep their distance or move around their enemies to outpace them, not that he wasn't doing it, Naruto was sticking at extremely close range to his target despite the onslaught of attacks and dodging from inside his opponent's innermost range.

He was close enough to exchange hits, but the blonde wasn't dishing out any at all. Instead of returning fire, he was ducking, weaving and swaying at peculiar and impossible angles while at the same time moving with gravity defying agility. Damn it if it didn't look spectacular, it was still pissing Sasuke off something fierce and looked really dangerous from Iruka's point of view.

How the hell was Naruto able to sway back to a full ninety degree angle and still backpedal like someone standing upright? That wasn't natural.

"Damn it. He's gotten even faster since last time," Sasuke gritted his teeth while giving chase, swinging at his target with straights and hooks. The jinchuriki however moved back, swaying and throwing his upper body this way and that, avoiding the sharp blows while also staying directly in front of the teen, almost taunting him. "You can dodge well, but how the hell are you going to throw attacks at me from those angles?"

A sharp roundhouse kick came to nail Naruto across the face, but the jinchuriki swayed back to dodge it at the last second before springing back up, his face appearing just inches in front of Sasuke's. The piercing blue eyes of the blonde met the Uchiha's charcoal one, the latter's gaze widening in shock when he was confronted by the roguish, blank stare of his opponent.

"W-What?" Sasuke blinked, a split second before realizing Naruto was just standing directly in front of him and staring at him. He cocked his left over his shoulder. "You need to get back!" A jab shot out, but the blonde suddenly zipped out of his line of sight and the Uchiha ended up hitting nothing but air. Emitting a frustrated growl, the genius looked left and right searchingly before swiveling about a hundred-eighty degrees, where he saw his opponent circling him with his hands and guard hanging at his sides. "How the… what…?"

Sasuke was baffled.

"How is he moving like that?" Kiba finally spoke up from where he stood at the edge of the class with his hands on his hips. He watched Naruto contort his body in a twisting sway, avoiding Sasuke's spinning back-kick when the genius once again gave pursuit, before dashing out of reach. The jinchuriki managed to put a mile of space between them even before his opponent was dropping his leg back into a stance. "What is he like a cat or something? No human being should be able to bend that way and at such speed, and manage to escape so quickly."

"Maybe it's not so much a question of his humanity. He is clearly human," Shino replied pointedly. The young Aburame glanced towards his classmate standing beside him and saw the Inuzuka looking just as perplexed as every other kid watching from the sidelines. "Perhaps the question we should really be asking ourselves is who is capable of executing such impossible feats? Naruto is clearly one of the few."

"Stop nitpicking dude, geez," Kiba grumbled back.

Seeing how desperately hard Sasuke was trying to catch his elusive prey had every single girl in the class standing on their toes. Looking on with hands on their chests, cheeks or just staring with hopeful expressions in play, Sakura, Ino and the rest of the 'cheerleading squad' once again began voicing their undying support for the genius of the academy. They cupped their hands to their mouths and cried out his name.