Boredom

'School sucks, and this is a waste of time. I even tried to send a clone, and Kakashi hit me with the fucking book again! Spouting nonsense about making friends.'

Haruko rubbed his head remembering his harsh punishment. Class was crawling by as Iruka spouted some nonsense about the will of fire, and trusting your fellow leaf ninjas with your life. Chakra theory followed, and was similarly mind numbing. The boring classes ended, and the class headed outside for physical training which started with stretching, and then the basic stances for the academy taijutsu style.

Naruto, and Haruko had long ago memorized this, but were forced to follow along. Shurikenjutsu was similarly boring as most of the class struggled to hit the targets with the exception of the clan kids, and Sakura. It really felt like all the talent for this generation was sucked into these 12 kids. Playing with the shuriken was at least fun as Haruko managed several complex deflections, and bounces to create some very elaborate scheme to hit every target at once.

Sasuke quickly tried to one up him, and Naruto went a different route. He threw a shuriken so hard it pierced right through the wooden target. Haruko caught the look of horror which crossed Mizuki's face, and snickered to himself.

Iruka thought himself real smart by using Naruto, Sasuke, and Haruko as figures to look up to, and surpass. He pitted Kiba against Naruto, who thrashed him thoroughly in a taijutsu battle, and Naruto accidently kicked Kiba so hard at the very start of the match Kiba flew right out of the ring, and didn't get a chance to do his usual bully routine.

The next spar was Sasuke against Choji, and to Choji's credit he lasted a long while, but was too slow to react or do much aside from get beaten. Shikamaru got placed with Haruko, and simply withdrew upon hearing his name get called out.

The three of them were placed on pedestals as who to look up to as they exceed at everything unlike Shikamaru who only excelled at studies; it was due to a lack of effort but still. The girl based fan clubs were struggling due to the three rising stars, Sasuke was handsome, and unapproachable with his cold attitude, however his arrogance was seen in a negative light as Naruto, and Haruko beat him regularly in everything physical while Sasuke only beat them in studies. Haruko was a fan favorite for similar reasons, cold attitude, handsome face, and physically larger than the rest of the boys in height, and only beaten by Choji in sheer mass. Naruto was a favorite due to his bubbly personality, and the fact that he went out of his way to help others.

Naruto was able to quickly make his classmates like him due to his positive outlook, and his unwillingness to let others struggle much. He helped anybody who asked, and due to his lack of annoying actions, and behaviors he wasn't disliked like he was in the original series.

Haruko put no effort in, and only spoke when spoken too, never initiating any sort of contact, and managing the superior arrogance Sasuke didn't have the skill necessary to pull off. Little did they all know it was because he had no interest in any of them.

The school year progressed, and time slowly began to speed up as they got through the year. The best thing to happen was Guy meeting with Kakashi, and getting their joint sessions back on.

"THE POWER OF YOUTH!"

This proclamation continued to ring in Haruko's ears for days to come, and while the practice was nice the complete lack of life threatening events was starting to make Haruko go crazy.

"Kakashi Sensei! I'm losing my mind! The academy is so boring, and lame. Why can't I make clones go for me?"

"Because you need to make friends."

"My clones can make friends!"

"You won't put in the effort, so your clones definitely won't."

"Why do I need to make friends? The other kids are all so far behind us, and no challenge at all! There's no excitement!"

"Find excitement in the little things brat!"

"Fight me old man!"

Haruko challenged finally.

"Fine."

Kakashi led him outside to the back yard, and took up a stance. Haruko welcomed the challenge, and his eyes began to spin rapidly, settling in his mangekyo form. Kakashi looked shocked for a moment before revealing his own, and a force spar began.

"Dynamic entry!" Haruko shouted while kicking out at Kakashi, and followed up with an under, and then over combo Throwing out kicks, and fists. Turning his body into a revolving top constantly throwing attack after attack. Kakashi calmly battered away each hit, and began setting his own trap to throw off the momentum.

Kakashi caught Haruko's falling axe kick aimed for his head, and began the motion of throwing Haruko to the ground, when Haruko's ankle became a tangled mess of tendrils, and a sharp blade is what Kakashi was then holding. Kakashi retreated before throwing up an earth dome, which Haruko tore through with extreme prejudice. Kakashi stayed on the retreat, Haruko's habit of morphing his body to become as unpredictable as possible was paying off as Kakashi's only real response options were lethal, and Kakashi wasn't willing to do them.

Haruko stopped his assault. "Sensei, if you don't come at me seriously then there's no point. I know you don't want to kill me, but you're going to need to try."

"Haruko, why are you pushing this, this far?"

"I don't know Kakashi, I feel underwhelmed with the past 6 months compared to the last two years. The constant threat of death was exhilarating, and exciting. All this down time, and lack of major threat is driving me crazy."

"Weren't you just a terrorfied little kid all of two years ago? Scared of his own existence, and the fear of looming forces? You're mostly free of all of that now. Why do you want it back so desperately?"

"Well I grew up a bit, and I've seen/experienced enough to rip that fear out of me. Besides, at this point fighting is fun!"

"If it's for fun, then why does it need to be lethal?"

"Without it, I can't get hurt. If there's no real threat then I can't push myself to improve."

"Then I'll go to 25%"

Kakashi then blured, and his fist made contact with the back of Haruko's head, which had already morphed into its armored state before contact. Haruko's head moved slightly from the impact, and he used the momentum to twist his whole body, and send an empowered fist towards Kakashi's mid section. Kakashi's body poofed into a log which was demolished, before reappearing aside Haruko.

Haruko's armor became sleeker, and his body blurred as the two began exchanging blows using shunshin, neither having an issue keeping up, or trading blows. Kakashi weaved some signs, and blew out a massive plume of fire, which Haruko matched, performing the signs simultaneously. The two raging fires exploded, and revealed the two of them ready for round three.

"35%" Kakashi spoke before weaving more hand signs. The sound of bird's chirping filled the forested area, Haruko narrowed his eyes, and his armor morphed once again to it's thicker counterpart. He crossed his arms in front of himself as Kakashi blurred, and his arm went directly through Haruko's body.

Haruko coughed a bit, and backed away from Kakashi's arm, and Kakashi's face had pure horror across it as he realized he got too wrapped up in the fight.

"Sensei, I'm just fine. Remember? No internals" Haruko made a show of passing his stump through his chest while laughing.

"What is the matter with you Haruko?"

"What? It's funny!"

"Does that not hurt? Both your arms are cut off, and there's a hole clean through you!"

"No shit it hurts! But"

Haruko made a whole show of his body returning to normal at a pretty quick pace.

"While I'm in my armored form there's no "Real" organs, skin, bones, or important bits. It's all metallic biomass. So it regrows, and heals pretty quick after I've spent the past few years perfecting it. I'll only die in this form if I take much more damage, or run out of chakra. Of course each major hit I take, and then heal drains my reserves at a rapid rate, and while It does hurt, and is negative to my overall health it's like my chakra pool takes the dame first, before I do."

Haruko then flexed his newly grown gauntleted hands, and patted where the hole in his stomach used to be.

"What if your head gets removed?"

"Then I'll probably die." Haruko shrugged. "I doubt I can survive that at this point. Maybe in the future?"

"Hmm"

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