Naruto POV
The next day Naruto was one of the first into class again. He sat down in the same spot again and quietly waited for the rest of the students to arrive. This time though he had a small scroll laid out on his desk and every so often he would make a note of something. He continued to get strange looks from his young classmates, at least the ones who bothered to look his way anyway. To anyone else it simply looked like he was doing homework, even though they hadn't been assigned any.
He also noticed he wasn't the only one wrapped up in individual study, the same black-haired pale-faced boy he had noticed yesterday was calmly reading through a scroll at the same desk. Naruto ignored him for now, just like he did everybody else. Except until Anko burst into the room, barely on-time for class. It was hard not to pay attention to her. Somehow, she managed to look even more tired and dishevelled than yesterday.
She was wearing the exact same shirt. He was positive of that. She hadn't actually changed clothes since yesterday, familiar grass stains all over the back of it.
Granted, he was wearing the same tracksuit as before, or at least of the same style, it turned out his father had a lot of them in his wardrobe. He shut his eyes for a moment, going through his parents' room had brought up a lot of memories for him. He had broken down. Crying for all of last night, for the first time since their deaths; the gripping visions vividly haunting his senses. He felt refreshed today though, a lot better than he had before. He supposed he just needed to let out some emotions he didn't even know he had kept bottled up. He opened his eyes only to see Anko sitting next to him again, grinning happily as she stuck her tongue out at him.
"I did it."
Naruto raised an eyebrow while at the same time taking in Anko's appearance again. This close he could in fact confirm she had not changed her clothes since yesterday, she stunk of the forest and damp earth.
"Did what?" Anko just blinked at him before sticking her tongue out childishly, the action was so unbefitting of somebody wanting to become a Shinobi that Naruto nearly smiled at it.
"I walked up the tree," she declared. Naruto just nodded slowly as he turned back to face the slightly flustered teacher that had just entered the class.
"So you'll be eating with me again then?" Anko just nodded with a shit-eating grin that clearly told him she would, it caused him to sigh, yet at the same time... he couldn't fight the tingle in his cheeks. His self-imposed isolationism had already begun to get old and he was warmed, yearning for the company. As strange as Anko was, it wasn't unpleasant to be with her.
"Of course Fishcake-sensei." she murmured with a goading smile. Naruto blinked at that but didn't turn, not allowing Anko to see the hint of a smile that quirked up his lips. The rest of the morning passed slowly. The redhead listened to what the teacher said while occasionally making notes of his own in his scroll. Anko was, well, Anko; she proceeded to piss of their teacher as much as physically possible - starting up cruel a game of 'dodge the eraser'. The rest of the class, save a select few, seemed to find her antics just irritating; teacher included.
One girl on one of the front benches laughed every time Anko would dodge the soft, chalk-stained projectile which earned her a few harsh glares from the teacher at encouraging the purple menace's behaviour. Naruto took a moment to look at her, long brunette hair that flowed down her back like a wave, pale skin and the two red triangular markings on her cheeks that marked her as an Inuzuka. Minato, as Hokage, found it very important that Naruto be knowledgeable about all of the major clans in Konoha, it was important he didn't embarrass himself in a social situation, not that it mattered in the end.
Other than that, the morning passed on without problem. Like clockwork, as soon as they were dismissed, he vanished from the room in a barely-visible blur of red. When Anko chased him outside she saw him scaling the side of the building, almost taking lazy steps to walk up without problem. Tentatively she placed her feet on the wall, remembering everything the redhead had taught her yesterday as she slowly, but eagerly, scooted her way up the academy wall.
A few kids stopped to watch her with amazement but she ignored them, focusing on the chakra flowing to her feet, keeping it even as she made her way up. Finally she was able to walk over the edge of the roof where a quiet Naruto was calmly eating from his bento. She was a little irritated that he didn't even mention the fact she had successfully walked up the wall, like it didn't matter. She sat down next to him in a huff, not even bothering to strike up a conversation as he just continued to eat.
Naruto looked around, wondering why Anko hadn't started pestering him for something yet. He noticed she didn't have any lunch in front of her. Thinking she probably forgot it in her haste, he offered up his opened bento to her. Anko just stared down at the offering for a moment, blinking in surprise at the kind action that had no apparent prompt to her.
"Why?"
Naruto gazed at her with inquisitive purple eyes, he was just doing what he thought was right. His mother had always stressed the importance of equality while his father had always imposed the importance of working together.
"I have food and you don't. It just seems like the right thing to do." Anko stared at him a moment longer before picking up one of the rice balls. She raised it to her lips but paused before she bit in; Naruto just looked at her with the smallest of smirks. "What? It's not poisoned or anything." Anko frowned and bit onto the rice ball, smiling as she enjoyed its home-cooked taste. She finished it quickly, much to Naruto's mutual shock and mild amusement before licking her fingers clean.
"Thanks for that." she mumbled. Naruto just nodded as he returned to his own meal
"No problem." The roof quickly returned to some semblance of silence.
"Why are you being nice to me when all I do is bug you?" Naruto looked around; they had managed to stay quiet for almost five minutes before Anko finally spoke up again.
"What do you mean? Like I said it's just what I think-" Anko looked at him sternly, the look unbecoming, his red brows raising nervously in confusion at her.
"I mean why do you even let me hang out with you? Why bother training me? I'm sure you had family to go home to yesterday, wouldn't they be worried if you stayed out just because of me?" Naruto went very quiet as he turned away from Anko, staring out over at the kids talking and playing or eating lunch down on the ground.
"My parents died in the Kyuubi attack." Anko went quiet as well, her mouth opening and closing rapidly without really knowing what to say.
Her lips fumbled, "I'm sorr-" But Naruto raised a hand, waving off her apology quickly.
"Don't bother, it gets really sickening after a while. Having everybody's pity..." he trailed off, "You didn't know. So don't worry about it." He chuckled, a relatively humourless laugh but it was better than anything else he had managed in the last few days. If he had been looking at himself then he would have been amazed that he could even manage a laugh at this point. "I don't know, having you around just makes it, less lonely I guess." He laughed dryly again as he turned, his hand rubbing the back of his head as he offered the first genuine smile Anko had seen so far, even if it was only small.
"I guess that sounds pretty sad huh?"
Anko quickly shook her head, not wanting to upset Naruto any more than she already might have. He laughed again as he settled back on the roof, looking up at the sky with clearer eyes than he had for a while. He felt a tiny bit of that weight that settled over his chest lighten as he looked up.
"You manage to fill a silence pretty well."
Anko smiled at that, until she got the hidden message and promptly punched Naruto in the arm.
"Ow." He said it fairly flatly, not having actually felt the punch compared to what his mother would dish out when he got especially cheeky. Anko just smiled that sickly-sweet smile she could do, the one that looked innocent enough but was clearly a sign of her growing irritation. Naruto laughed it off, suddenly something he could do with relative ease again. "Thanks for that." Anko turned, looking at the redhead curiously with a cocked brow.
"For punching you?" Naruto nodded with the barest hints of a smile as he returned his gaze to the ground.
"Yeah, people have been treating me like glass ever since Kaa-san and Tou-san died, I'm sick of it. At least you don't tiptoe around everything like I might break or something." He turned, his smile growing ever so slightly.
"It's refreshing."
Anko nodded stiffly, looking down at her hads in thought, maintaing a neutral quirk in her lips, which Naruto didn't seem to mind at all.
"Any time." Naruto chuckled emptily again as he straightened up, feeling a lot better, at least until he caught somebody on the periphery of his senses.