Chapter 31

Waking up to Kakashi was a normal occurrence for Yoshi now. Only this time, Kakashi was not at the door, but in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

Yoshi asked Kakashi that was standing beside his bed and looking down at him. Kakashi gave Yoshi a closed eye smile.

"Yo, Yoshi. Wake up. We have somewhere to go this morning."

"Huh? What about academy?"

"Don't worry. It's still early. You'll make it."

Yoshi rolled his eyes and looked at the alarm clock. It showed 4 o'clock in the morning.

'That's too early.'

Yoshi sighed as he rubbed his neck and decided to got off of bed and went to the bathroom to freshen up. After taking 15 minutes of bathing and dressing up, he walked out of room and to the living room. Kakashi was in the living room, sitting on the sofa while reading his perverted book. Yoshi could even see Kakashi blushing and giggling to himself from time to time, made Yoshi felt cringe and had shivered run down his spine. But he put the feelings away as he called for Kakashi.

Kakashi who had noticed him since earlier put his book down at Yoshi's called and stood up. He didn't said anything and just smiled then walked out, motioned for Yoshi to follow him. Yoshi was confused but followed him nonetheless.

After locking the door, they went towards their destination with Kakashi took the lead. While walking, Yoshi looked up to the sky that was not that dark but still dark blue. The cold wind could be feel on the skin and the sounds of birds chirping could be heard. Yoshi closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. This was the morning that everyone want to wake up to, not a morning where you being greeted by tall building, noises and of course, problems. Yoshi sighed because no matter how good the morning was, he still doesn't like to wake up.

Few minutes of walking, they arrived at the village's gate. Yoshi stopped for a second as he looked at Kakashi as if asking 'where are we going?'. Never have Yoshi ever stepped outside the village since the first time he came here. Kakashi stopped walking and looked back at Yoshi. He quirked an eyebrow as he motioned his head forward, beckoned Yoshi to follow him. Yoshi was confused and nervous as he didn't know where they were going, but decided to give faith a leap, he stepped out of the village gate and followed behind Kakashi.

Later, they arrived in the middle of the forest. There was a small wooden house not far from them. As they kept walking towards the house, Yoshi suddenly felt uncomfortable. He stopped walking and looked at Kakashi, no, 'Kakashi'. 'Kakashi' realized that Yoshi had stopped walking and looked back at him.

"Who are you?" Yoshi asked straightforwardly with narrowed eyes. He didn't have any weapons with him, so he wanted to avoid fights as much as he could.

'Kakashi' didn't answered him instead looked at him for a minute. The silence that engulfed them made Yoshi felt more uncomfortable and unease. Yoshi was about to speak up but 'Kakashi' beat him to it first.

"Having fun in life?"

As soon as the question was asked, Yoshi's eyes widen and the reason was, the question invoked a past memory where he had been asked the same thing by someone he knew. Yoshi's mouth was parted to say something but his voice just doesn't want to come out. It was as if he knew 'Kakashi' already knew the answer to that regardless of what Yoshi said.

'Kakashi' stood in silence as he looked down at Yoshi as if expecting him to say something but was met with silence. He narrowed his eyes and looked towards the wooden house.

"The wooden house over there, it was the 'place'. It only existed between times."

'Kakashi' said while still looking at the wooden house and the way he said it, it seemed nostalgically to Yoshi.

Yoshi still didn't say anything as he looked at the wooden house and thinking of what 'Kakashi' meant. There must be a reason of why this fake Kakashi brought Yoshi here and said those words, it was as if he wanted to tell something to Yoshi but couldn't saying it openly due to a possible circumstances.

Seconds of silence later, 'Kakashi' looked back at Yoshi and gave him a closed eye smile. Yoshi looked at him silently and in confusion. Having enough of the silence, Yoshi finally decided to speak up.

"Hey. Where is this-"

Unfortunately, before Yoshi could finish his sentence, suddenly, 'Kakashi' pulled out three kunai's and threw them towards Yoshi as he ran towards him. Yoshi was caught off guard by 'Kakashi's' action as he seemed kind and docile just minutes ago. Why did he suddenly attacking Yoshi?

Yoshi dodged the kunai's just in time by jumping to the side but seemed like his attacker doesn't want to give him any time to process the current situation as he pulled a kunai and leapt towards Yoshi at fast speed, attempting a strike to the neck. Yoshi was shocked at the speed as his eyes widen at the kunai coming towards his neck. He tried to dodge but his body was not fast enough to do the deed as seconds later, he saw red.

Yoshi groaned and his face contorted into pain as he hurriedly stepped back while holding onto his bleeding neck. He could feel the wound was deep as blood was coming out very fast and in big amount. 'Kakashi' walked towards Yoshi while gripping the kunai upside down. Yoshi was kneeling on the ground as he started to not be able to breath or even let out any sound.

Yoshi looked up at 'Kakashi' terrifyingly as his eyes widen and his face sweating when he saw 'Kakashi' bringing down the kunai to stab him on the face. Just the thought of it seemed painful and horrifying.

As Yoshi waited for the expected pain to come while still looked at 'Kakashi', suddenly, he heard a loud ringing sound echoing in his head as his eyes went blurry. 'Kakashi' brought down his kunai towards Yoshi's face but before Yoshi could feel the pain, his vision went black.

**************

*Rrrriinnggggg*

"Hah! Hah! Hah!"

Yoshi woke up with widen eyes and sweat all over. His hand was on his neck as he rubbed it. He sat up on the bed and wiped the sweat off of his face as he tried to calm down his heart. Yoshi looked around and realized he was still in his room.

After calming down and assured himself that he was safe, he got off bed, turned off the alarm clock and walked towards the bathroom. After he done freshen up and wore his usual overall black clothes, he wrapped bandages around his neck and arms. Yoshi looked at the mirror and saw his tired self. His blue eyes were not that bright and shining as dark eye bags could be seen under his eyes. His skin was pale but no sign of him being sick. He wiped his face and exhaled as he motivated himself to get through the day.

He went to the kitchen to make himself a quick toast and ate it in one bite. Then, he walked towards the door and exit the house.

*************

Iruka was walking down the hallway of the academy while looking out the window and saw the students came into the academy. He smiled at the sight but the smile faltered as he saw Naruto and Yoshi.

Iruka was a teacher at the Ninja Academy not for one month or something. He has taught various kinds of students since the Kyuubi incident. But for him, naruto was the hardest to teach since the student himself doesn't like studying. Still, Iruka doesn't give up and going to keep trying and dragged Naruto into the class if needed to. He still has hope on Naruto even though everyone else said the opposite. He himself could not believe it. From hating to liking, he chuckled to himself.

Then, Iruka looked at Yoshi. Yoshi in Iruka's eyes looked tired and was done with life. His blue eyes looked like someone who had gone through hard times which confused Iruka. Plus, the things that Yoshi did to himself before just added the questions on Iruka's mind. Still, he would not ask about it if Yoshi doesn't want to tell him. Yoshi was a good and smart kid according to Iruka, but his attitude and mindset was not good for a 8 year old kid to have.

Iruka sighed as he continued walking towards his class. But before he could go far, someone called out for him. Iruka stopped on his tracks and turned around to the voice.

"Ah, Mizuki. What's up?"

"Iruka. I have a favor to ask of you."

"Favor? What is it?"

"The new kid in your class. What's his name? Uh....Yoshi! Can I borrowed his file for awhile?"

"Yoshi's student file? What do you need for?"

"Actually, I want to do a quiz. But I need to know how good they are in my subject and I'm sure you have graded him when he first came in, right? So, i need it to make suitable questions for him. And since you are his homeroom teacher, you must have it, right?"

Mizuki said with a smile as he waited for Iruka's reply. Iruke looked down as his hand was on his chin as if thinking.

"You're brilliant, Mizuki! Maybe I can do it like that with Naruto. Thanks, Mizuki."

Iruka said with a bright smile as his eyes shined brightly and full of hope.

"No problem. So, Yoshi's file?"

"Oh. His file was on my desk on the student's section. Put it there back after you've done with it."

"Sure. Thanks, Iruka."

After the conversation, they went on their own way as one to the teacher's office and the other one to his class.

*************

*Rrrrriiinngggg*

The school bell rang signify the start of the class. Yoshi sighed as he lifted his head from the table and stood up lazily to greet Iruka-sensei. Naruto that was beside him has gone somewhere to do his daily pranks.

They all sat back down when Iruka-sensei asked them to. He then took their attendance and frowned when he didn't see Naruto. Anyway, he put aside Naruto to the back of his head for now as he talked loudly to the class.

"Alright, class. Today, we continued with the Chakra points from where we left behind and continued with the theory on how to control it. Understand?"

There were mixed of 'yes, sensei' and 'understand' from the students as their voice was low. Most of them does not look forward to the class. Yoshi just nodded his head since he was too lazy to speak up.

Iruka then procedeed to explain about Chakra points as he showed the class the position of each Chakra points on the drawing he drew earlier on the board. After they took note of it, he continued to explain about the theory on how to control Chakra. As expected, Iruka-sensei asked the class to learn to control their Chakra by doing the leaf excersice at home if any of them wanted to practice it early. Yoshi already knew how to control Chakra. The only thing left was how to release it and turn it into jutsu. How one released their Chakra and turned it into a big wave like jutsu? Yoshi sighed thinking about it. Yoshi took note of the Chakra control theory even though he was successful on it.

***********

It was lunch break and Yoshi was once again alone. Naruto didn't come back yet. Yoshi sat under a tree on the school grounds while watching the clouds. Sounds of students chattering with each other was drowned on Yoshi's ears. Even the scream of the fan girls towards Sasuke was not heard by Yoshi. He was too absorbed by the blue sky and white clouds as he focused on the littlest movements of the clouds. The wind blew his black hair gently.

While he was cloud-watching, suddenly, there was a black cat fell from the tree and landed on his lap. The sudden appearance of the cat made Yoshi startled as his heart skip a beat. The cat got off Yoshi's lap while Yoshi was trying to calm his heart down.

After calming down, Yoshi looked closely at the cat. The cat was normal but he realized a woven strapped on the cat.

"Hey, kitty. You brought something?"

Yoshi called for the cat as it looked at him and meowed. Then, it turned around to show a black scroll strapped to it's back. Yoshi looked at the scroll as he was hesitant to take it, but he took it nonetheless. As soon as Yoshi took the scroll, the cat vanished into black ashes and got blew away by the wind. Yoshi was stunned at the unordinary outro but brushed it off as he focused on the scroll.

The scroll itself was small. Almost the same size as a small A4 notebook. Yoshi looked around the place to make sure there was no prying eyes. After making sure everything was clear, he slowly opened the scroll. Inside, was a drawing of a dagger in a unique pattern, not suitable with ninja world, in black and white. Yoshi's eyes went down the dagger and looked at the writing under the dagger.

'You'll need it later.'

'I'll need it later? What? How? How can a drawing help me in any way?'

Yoshi thought to himself as he tried to make head and tail of what was in front of him. But after sometime, he gave up on finding the answer and sighed. He then rolled back the scroll and put it on his pocket as he doesn't have the suitable place to hide it at the moment.

Just in time when Yoshi arrived at his class, the bell rang signify the end of lunch break. Yoshi went to his seat, not before giving a look at Naruto who got tied up and lectured by the angry Iruka-sensei at the front of the class.

After some more warnings from Iruka-sensei, Naruto walked back to his seat which was beside me and lazily listened to Iruka-sensei's class.