Now, the academy. Here we go. First off, let's look at my friend group, the high class kids, We've got me and Naruto, sons of the Hokage, Ino daughter of the Yamanaka clan head, Shikamaru of the Nara, Choji of the Akimichi, Sasuke of the Uchia, oh and Sakura the annoying one.
Ino was fairly annoying, but Sakura was a different level, she was like Sauske's personal yes-man golden retriever, even Ino got annoyed. Ino was the popular one, kinda girl who got at least two confessions a term and acted high and mighty. Shikamaru was just the lazy one, plain and simple, but over the years we weeled him into some schemes and I always convinced him knowing how much we needed his brains. Naruto was the trouble-maker, the guy who always keeps the friend group busy with schemes and the type of guy who was responsible for all of us getting lashed at some point(whupped). I was kinda the leader of the group, not like telling everyone what to do but usually I was the one who planned what we would be doing, wether it's a buffet or hanging round the village. Choji was the sponsor, since he was the son of the Akimichi clan head, he could always get us free meals at the Akimichi buffet, top tier place by the way. And there's Sauske, the confident one the most smug of the bunch,as I've said before, Sauske without trauma is a total piece of smug crap.
Anyway, we've had a lot of adventures over the years, but right now, it was our last year down at the academy, most of us were 12 now and on the doorstep to be Shinobi.It was halfway through the year and me and Naruto were walking to the Academy. Today we decided to take the long route that we only used when we felt like being late, and while there we saw Neji and Hinata walking. I'd call to them "Aye, Neji! Hinata!"
Neji turned his head and cracked and grin, me and him had a bit of a rivalry at some point, and you're probably wondering. Neji? Grinning? This write must be smoking something, BUT. Since Minato was Hokage, when the Raikage tried bullying us into handing over a Hyuga, Minato had the balls to bite back with a threatening letter about a troop of Mangekyo users burning someone else's village. So, in the end, Neji's father survived, know what that meant? Neji wasn't a traumatized little prick anymore. Plus, since he was nicer, Hinata was a little less shy since she didn't grow up with a cousin with unresolved trauma. I was sure she'd grow more confident bit by bit. Oh and she can talk to Naruto now.
''Well, well, well, Menma and Naruto. You guys being late on purpose again?'' Neji began.
Hinata's face heated up and she stuttered a bit at us "H-hey guys"
We caught up to them quick, and began walking, and yes, Hinata was too scared to walk beside Naruto so she was right next to Neji, me and Neji in the center and Naruto on my side.
"Hell yeah, anyway, mind lending me some homework?"
Neji laughed. "You wish. Like I wrote homework on a weekend"
"Awww come on dude, where are we gonna copy homework from now" Naruto complained.
Hinata fiddled with her fingers a bit "You guys could copy from me"
"Sweet" Me and Naruto said in unison.
Hinata would hand us her book, me and Naruto managed to multi task copying while walking, not that the handwriting was good or anything.
"Hey Neji, ain't you gonna copy too?" Naruto asked
Neji scoffed "Iruka never suspects me of missing work, it's you two goofballs he targets, see? Behaving years before means I get to slack off now"
"Weak" Naruto complained.
Once we finished copying we began walking properly and handed Hinata her book.
"You guys checked out that movie '4' yet?" I enquired.
"I wish. We're not even allowed to watch tapes at the compound, only Hinata and the rest of the main branch get to"
We looked to her.
"Y-yeah, but we only get to watch news and lame documentaries" she said.
"Sucks to be a Hyuga" Neji lamented.
"W-what's the movie about?" Hinata squeaked.
"Oh, it's this horror movie about the Shinigami unleashing some cursed plague on the world, it's totally gross" Naruto explained.
"It wasn't really a horror, just had a lot of gore" I corrected.
"Whatever" Naruto shrugged.
"You guys are so lucky" Neji huffed.
"Just come by our house and we'll watch it, my Mom is going on some Girls trip with her friends on the weekend" I suggested.
"What about your Dad?" Hinata inquired
Me and Naruto laughed.
"He doesn't give a rat's ass as long as it's not porn"
"Sick, I'll drop by some time, Hinata might not handle it"
"Hey! I can handle a bit of violence" she protested
We all just laughed as we approached the gate. We'd bid the pair goodbye as we went to sit at our usual spots, the Ino-shiga-cho trio were already there, so was Sakura and Sauske was probably still taking his sweet time.
"What's Shikamaru bummed out about?" I enquired as we sat. Shikamaru was always lazy, but today he looked sad as a b*tch, head on desk and all.
"He finally asked out Yuki over the weekend and she sorta just laughed and walked away" Ino said bluntly.
Naruto chuckled "Seriously dude?"
I began "Come on man, I know you're smarter than that. A farm girl? Seriously? I get that she's cute but sheesh" Yuki was a farm girl who didn't come to the Academy, she was cute, but it just wouldn't work out for multiple reasons.
"Shut up dude" Shikamaru said, still resting his head on the desk.
"No but seriously—"
"Just cut him some slack right now Menma, you can explain why it wouldn't work for obvious reasons later, right now he's in a bad spot." Ino cut in.
"Yeah dude" Choji began "We can start flaming him for it next week, right now let him mope for a bit"
Sakura nodded in agreement.
"Alright, I wasn't tryna flame him but okay. You guys done the homework?"
"Yep" they all said.
"We just copied Sakura and Shikamaru since they got here early"
I was flabbergasted, Sakura made sense, her homework was one of the only reasons we kept her in the group, but the second name confused me"Shikamaru, as in SHIKAMARU did weekend homework? Wow. This is hitting him harder than I anticipated"
Naruto punched me in the shoulder "Ow"
"Come on man, seriously man"
"Alright, Alright... jeez"
Just then, Shikamaru walked in, and eyed my group before he began. "Morning class"