Yes, it's that time again. A story break. Forgive any mistakes.

Thanks for all the usual stuff. It's routine by now.

No words were said, but Iruka knew there was something not right about this year's children he taught. Out the class of 30 he had to teach, 9 of them were different. He has been in the ninja profession for more than half of his life and has been teaching for 4 of those years, so to discover 9 kids who didn't blend well—something was off. Each time something was said or a pen was tapped he struggled to decode their hidden messages. He knew Hinata wasn't as sweet and innocent as she seemed. Hell, when he talked about covering the tracks left after running, he remembered the small smile she had given. Not to mention the small chuckle Chouji had let out while he said 'hiding'. He could remember clearly how Ino asked about how to properly dispose of bodies, and no, the answer wasn't bur them to a crisp.

Yeah, something wasn't right.

He remembered one day after class, he called the 9 to stay after to do some detention but it was far from that. He knew how quickly they caught on to him observing every one of them...

"Now, I want all of you to sit here and think about your actions that got you into this position." He lectured, looking at each of them into their eyes.

"But that was all Naruto's fault!" Shino stressed. "Why do we have to pay for his actions?"

"Because you all are a team..for some odd reason." He muttered. "Therefore, you all have to take responsibility. I want all of you to sit here and not speak until I'm done with paper work." He could hear and feel the groans from each of them as he shook his head and walked to the desk. Grabbing one paper he set to work while keeping a close watch of them out of the corner of his eye. It didn't take long before the first -tap- filled the room. He grabbed another piece of paper to record the actions.

1.)Naruto taps.

2.)Sakura hair flips.

3.)Sasuke blinks.

4.)Hinata fingers.

5.)Kiba with Akamaru's ears.

6.)Shino with a push of his glasses.

7.)Chouji with a too loud crunch of his chips.

8.)Shikamaru eye rolls.

9.)Ino taps with her feet.

Iruka noticed something. Each time they -tapped-, the pattern changes…almost conversation like…

His heart almost jumped out of his chest when all of them turned to stare at them with a dead soulless stare. He could feel his palms sweating as he grabbed a new paper to take notes. He glanced up fully and they each looked like bored pre-teens with nothing to do.

Was he imaging it? Was he crazy? Was it because of lack of sleep? He went back to the paper and the taping went on. After grading another student's paper, he slammed his pen down to begin to shout, but he jumped back when Naruto was suddenly in front of him. His palms began to sweat, as Naruto looked at his papers then at him seriously before breaking out into full blown smile.

"When can we leave sensei?" he questioned.

Iruka swallowed hard before grabbing another paper. "After I'm done grading these." He motioned to the stack of class papers he had to grade for the day.

He saw Naruto huff out a sigh before Hinata loudly tapped her finger too hard on the desk. He suppressed a shiver as Naruto smiled. "If we apologize, can we leave early?"

Swallowing hard once more, Irkua kept his ground. "I said no Naruto and that's it." He looked back at the paper after he stressed the word. He needed to distract himself so he could stop the quaking in his hand, as he scribbled corrections.

"That's too bad sensei." Naruto growled, and Iruka's snapped his head up at a sudden urge to protect himself came up, but it saw gone in a flash.

The shaking in his hand persisted and Naruto smiled, before heading back to his seat. Iruka looked over each one of the 9 that filled the room and cold emotionless stares watched him. Stammering out a 'you are dismissed', after ll of his senses were scremin to run. Iruka saw as Naruto leaned back in his seat, the smiled still planted on his face.

"That's fine, sensei." Shikamaru stated, leaning forward to place his head upon his desk. A smirk carved its way up to his face. "We'll wait. After all, that's what we're best at."

Looking back at it now, Iruka should've known there was something else hidden behind the message. Behind all the messages in fact.

Looking at the sky above him, somehow Iruka knew it was coming. He went on a long walk to clear his thoughts earlier.

What a beautiful day it was.

He stopped by his favorite shop to eat a bowl of ramen, then went to his parents' grave and even smiled at the Hokage's faces carved into the mountain. Had he done right all his life? Was his life complete? He knew that today was the day he would be confronted with all of his suspicion about the 9 he taught. He felt his vision dimming slowly as he saw the sad blood-filled smile of Naruto and his teammates from his organs and flesh. Was that inside of him? Iruka never thought of the day he would be on his death bed, looking at his organs being consumed by this former pupils.

He thought: where did I go wrong?

While his eyes slowly slipped closed, he saw the tear streaked face of Sakura, the pained expression of Sasuke and the mouthed "I'm sorry sensei." From Naruto.

Iruka smiled. Well…at least...it...

Thanks for reading!

O.I.N.O