"You ready for today?" Sasuke asked. He stretched his arms above his head and glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye, once again taking note of those whisker-like birthmarks. They struck out like a black sharpie on white paper, and Sasuke couldn't deny that it added a layer of attractiveness to him. But good looks didn't make way for good personalities, and Sasuke found that Naruto was far too annoying.

He always chattered and laughed, always fidgeted and moved, constantly had that damn mouth open for the world to hear.

Sasuke curled his lips, his eyes never straying from Naruto's face. Sasuke normally focused on the assignments of his students, but today, Naruto had yet to utter a single word.

He wanted to say that he liked it, but with Sasuke being responsible for Naruto's quietness, it was less welcoming.

"As ready as every other year." Naruto said.

Sasuke almost winced. Every year on the first day of school, Sasuke asked him to give a lesson that no one should ever have to tell. Naruto was well within his rights to refuse, so it wasn't like Sasuke was doing anything wrong. But the deep bite of guilt always gnawed at him anyways.

But even without that guilt, Sasuke hated watching how much of a mess this day—that lesson—left him in. Naruto hated telling it even more than Sasuke hated hearing it. He always got quiet before and after the lesson, and he even struggled on the basic tasks given to him.

"I want you to do something different this time." Sasuke said.

It'll make it easier for you.

And perhaps it would quell the guilt in Sasuke's chest.

Naruto looked up from the papers he was grading. His blue eyes reminded him of the sky. So big and bright. He couldn't decide if he liked that or not, but those eyes often held both Sasuke's captivation and disgust.

It was a complicated thing to feel both dislike and captivation all at once, but Sasuke preferred the former, so he focused on that.

"Different how?"

Sasuke swallowed. Naruto wouldn't appreciate this. Not at first. But that was the point, wasn't it? There was too much captivation in Sasuke's head today. He needed to make way for something else.

And besides, this would help Naruto in the long run.

"Don't get emotional. I don't want to hear or see any anger or sadness."

Naruto furrowed his brows and crossed his arms. He looked at Sasuke as though he were the biggest dick in this world. And who knew? Maybe he was. Sasuke did just ask the impossible from someone already having a bad day.

"You want me to talk about my mom's death without getting emotional?"

"Yes."

Something bitter got stuck on his tongue at the word.

Naruto scowled and focused once more on the papers. "Jackass."

It was difficult, in every aspect of the way, to listen as ignorant fools taught people that shapeshifters were evil. Naruto could only stand there in bewilderment, wondering yet again how he ended up as a TA for one of the worst hunters in the world. All he'd done was tell another shifter he knew the location of certain shifters. At the time, he didn't know that a hunter was eavesdropping, and all he could do was be relieved that Naruto hadn't exposed their location.

And it wasn't a lie. He did know. But Sasuke didn't understand that Naruto couldn't rat them out, and it wasn't as though anyone suspected him of lying. There was a chain of shifters infiltrating the academy lately. Naruto just happened to have gotten involved by accident.

"And that is what makes these monsters so dangerous. They aren't human. Aren't capable of understanding basic empathy."

Naruto's fingers twitched. He hated the way Sasuke taught this class. For the past two years, after every lesson, all he could feel was the simmering rage building within his chest. It got stronger day after day, and it became harder to resist the urge to rip Sasuke's spine out of his body.

"Which is why it's our job to kill every last one before they kill us all."

But doing that would only prove Sasuke right. Because if there was even a semblance of truth to Sasuke's words, then Naruto would have ripped his spine out by now. But although the urge was ripe—and had been ripe ever since he got this job—he never went through with it.

Someday, he would. When it was safer. When there were less eyes. When Naruto was capable of killing without going feral.

Someday. Definitely someday.

"You're up, Naruto." Sasuke said.

But that day was not today.

He dragged in a deep breath. It was the beginning of the school year. And every year, Sasuke insisted that Naruto tell the story of how shapeshifters destroyed his life.

He watched as Sasuke took a seat at his desk. His hair was almost as dark as the night sky, but if you looked close enough, there was a tint of brown shading those locks. An absurd amount of jell made it spike half hazardly in the shape of a duck's ass, which was something Naruto teased him ruthlessly for. And it was as Sasuke grabbed stacks of papers that Naruto prepared to begin the story.

The only reason Sasuke knew about this story was because Naruto wanted him to hear. Wanted Sasuke to think that Naruto had something against the shifters. Needed to convince him that Naruto was, in fact, a true hunter.

And it worked.

The class was big this year. There were boys and girls all squished together in rows. They were college aged, so it was easier to handle them than they would have been had they been younger, and with this class being their chosen curriculum, none of them wanted to miss out on the lesson unless they weren't truly interested in hunting or learning.

Naruto heaved another breath, closing his eyes gently as he recalled the many, many times he'd told this story.

He couldn't screw it up. Not without raising alarm bells in Sasuke's mind.

And he wouldn't screw it up.

Otherwise Karin would have his head.

"As some of you already know," he said, pausing to pinpoint a stare on the familiar faces of students who failed the previous year and retook the class. He wanted to do as Sasuke said and not become emotional. Because every time Naruto went against his wishes, he raised the chances of getting caught, which neither him nor Karin could afford to do.

But the bitter taste of failure swooped in and captured his body, because now there were tears stinging his eyes like acid.

He never did get over his mom's death.

Not entirely.

And he hated, more than anything else, even Sasuke Uchiha himself, talking about it.

Especially lying about it.

"Shapeshifters killed my mom..."

Ruthlessly.

Except shifters didn't kill her. Hunters did.

The same kind of people who Naruto taught killed his mother.

The lump in his throat made it hard to talk, to breathe, so he took in another large breath. Or tried to. It sounded more like a rasp, and in his peripheral vision, he saw Sasuke jump out of his seat in concern.

It almost made him laugh, because Sasuke would kill him in a heartbeat if he knew what Naruto was.

"I'm fine." He said as he raised his hand in a 'stop' motion. Sasuke furrowed his brows, but sat down nonetheless. His black eyes grazed over Naruto's body, and Naruto felt goosebumps rise on his arms.

He never did understand the way Sasuke looked at him.

He turned back to the students. Some were lounging in their seats as they listened. Others stayed on the phone. But Naruto loved the doodlers the most. They always had something fun drawn on the margins of their assignments.

Naruto often gave them extra points for it.

"It happened in the middle of the day," he said, recalling the way those people barged in with guns and knives and handcuffs. "They barged into our house—no warning—and started screaming. My mom put me in the cabinets."

Another deep breath, this one harder than the last.

He swallowed, deciding to take a small break to think about his next words. This was the hardest part, because he could still remember the screams and gunshots and his mom's rattled breathing as she died.

"I heard everything…"

The edges of his vision began to blur. He didn't know if it was from panic or tears. But all he could think about was how he told this story to hunters, the same people who killed his mom, and blamed the shifters for it.

He looked down at his shoes, wondering how many deaths he was responsible for because he went along with Sasuke's teachings just so he could survive in this world. Claiming shifters were anything other than a monster or a feral left anyone within this school dead. Everyone had to have the same values, or at least pretend to have those values. And if one person didn't, no one saw them again.

"There was a lot of shooting. It was so loud—absolutely terrifying."

Naruto was lucky enough to have lasted two years. But he didn't even know why he still taught at this place. Yes, he wanted to find the one responsible for his mom's death. But two years and still there was nothing. He made no difference at this school. Only brought more and more hunters into this world.

Though, he would admit, having connections to hunters was wonderful, because now he could warn shifters who they were, how powerful they were, and what kind of information they had.

It also made Karin's job easier, as all she had to do was ask him where a certain hunter was and he could find out within hours.

These people didn't need to know that, though. Sasuke didn't need to know that.

So he told the story again, filled in the lies and gathered the sadness and anger for the people who truly killed his mom. That was what made convincing Sasuke so easy. All he had to do was sound angry, as if the hatred for shifters was real, and he was in.

In what, he wasn't sure. But he was in, and with the other shifters barging into this academy, something was going to go down.

"She told me not to come out until she came for me..."

He swallowed, slowing his pacing steps. He didn't know how Sasuke expected him to keep a straight face and a monotone voice. This was his mom he was talking about. Not the weather. It wasn't as though Naruto wanted to keep telling this story. He could have declined. It was well within his rights to do so. But the more he told this story, the more people there were who believed him to be a hunter, so he couldn't stop telling it.

And as he felt the pinpricks of eyes weigh on the back of his neck, Naruto checked to make sure his voice was as monotone as Sasuke's. Sasuke was watching again. Making sure that he was doing everything right. Except Sasuke often watched for no reason at all as Naruto weaved through the aisle of desks. Naruto couldn't for the life of him figure out why Sasuke stared at him, but it drove him up the walls because it could mean that Sasuke knew.

And if Sasuke knew, then Naruto was as good as dead.

"But she never came back, and it was days later when a cop showed up and took me someplace safe."

By the time he finished the story, there were students looking up at him in pity. But a vast majority were angry on his behalf. Some of them even had outbursts where they explained how they were going to get revenge for him, but when asked what kind of shifter attacked, all Naruto could do was explain that he was too busy hiding to look. Which was the primary reason Naruto hadn't killed the hunters who destroyed his life. He simply didn't know who they were, and that was something he had yet to come to terms with.

It was one of the reasons he was here. Once he realized that Sasuke wanted him as a teacher, the gate to discovering the truth opened up. All he needed to do was find the person responsible and he could finally, finally, be at peace.

He took a deep breath and returned to the front of the classroom. Sasuke had his apologetic face on when he took a seat, but Naruto ignored it because there was no apology great enough that could make up for the fact that Sasuke would even ask this of him.

Sasuke stood up slowly. He darted his head across the classroom, analyzing them, learning who would make it and who wouldn't. Sasuke was good at that. It was what made him such an excellent hunter, too. At a glance, he knew everything about a shifter. From the way they fought to what their chances were in a fight. Sasuke knew it all just from one, simple look.

And he was the most terrifying hunter Naruto had ever been unfortunate enough to work with.

He still remembered the day Sasuke saved him from a shifter who Naruto was conversing with. Somehow, Sasuke discovered that his good friend, Neji, was an owl shifter, and without asking a single question, he whipped out a gun and put a bullet in Neji's head.

He did it in a public restaurant.

Afterwards, he expected Naruto to be grateful. But all Naruto could do was cry and scream at Sasuke for killing one of his closest friends.

Sasuke then decided that Naruto's distress was because of how Neji tricked him into thinking he was human.

And from that day on, Naruto vowed that he would do everything in his power to keep Sasuke from killing another shifter.

He failed time and time again, but he also succeeded, and never stopped trying.

"Thank you." Sasuke said with a nod, and waved his hand dismissively to tell Naruto he could have a seat.

Naruto shrugged and took over where Sasuke left off. The papers were from earlier that morning when Sasuke assigned them a task to explain why they wanted to be a hunter. Grading it wasn't necessarily the point. But Sasuke wrote notes to explain why the students reasons were good or bad, and it was an easy way to see who had real motive to kill and who didn't.

Those who didn't had a harder time in this class. Sasuke made sure of that because they needed to face the reality of hunting, not the fantasy of it.

"Now, I would like to talk to you about ferals..."

Naruto zoned him out and read through the papers. The feral part of shapeshifters was one even he couldn't deny was dangerous. But the hunters idea of feral was different than the shifters, because while Naruto knew that a feral shifter was one that couldn't control who they killed once they started killing, the hunters believed that a feral was a shifter who pretended to be human.

And that didn't call for the murder of every last one, as the true ferals were rare and hard to find, primarily because shifters weren't murderers. Most of them simply wanted to live their day to day lives in peace, but were rudely disrupted by hunters.

He shook his head. His mom had been rudely disrupted in that way, and now was dead as a result.

But before Naruto could even read through one of the assignments, the classroom door opened with a loud and ominous creak. The entire class turned towards it, and by the way it opened slowly and with great hesitation, Naruto could only assume it was a late student. He shook his head. Sasuke sure as hell wouldn't be happy with whoever it was. The last time someone was late, Sasuke didn't say a word, but he did make the school year hell for the student.

He almost felt bad for them.

But that was before he caught the familiar scent of musk. He didn't know how he hadn't smelt it before, but he knew in an instant who was at that door, and although Naruto couldn't for the life of him understand why Shikamaru would ever walk into the academy doors, he knew that it could only mean trouble.

When Shikamaru opened the door wide, the entire class was staring at him. Sasuke had a glare in place that would have sent him to the fiery depths of hell if it were possible. And as Shikamaru shuffled to the nearest available seat, he muttered an apology. But Sasuke's eyes never left Shikamaru, and Naruto's only reassurance was that Shikamaru would never come back to this school after today.

At least, Naruto hoped he wouldn't. There shouldn't have been any scenario where Shikamaru found himself sitting with a class of future hunters. So Naruto couldn't help but wonder what the fuck he was doing here.

When Shikamaru took a seat, Sasuke's eyes lingered on him before he got back to the lesson.

"As I was saying," Sasuke said, "ferals can be hard to spot. They're tricksters, and are the most dangerous of any other shapeshifter. You'll think they're human, but they're not. And once you know the signs, you'll be able to see and kill them within seconds."

Naruto scrunched his nose at Shikamaru's smell. It overwhelmed the classroom now, but the hunters would only assume it was body odor. In truth, Shikamaru was a ferret who slipped through the cracks—literally and figuratively—in order to find even the most confidential of information. Naruto often came to Shikamaru for social reasons, but Shikamaru only came to him if he found information that put someone at risk.

He nibbled on his lip, glancing from Shikamaru to Sasuke. For him to walk into a school of hunters, it had to be vital information. But as he saw that Sasuke and Shikamaru were in the same room, he couldn't stop remembering how Neji died because Sasuke just happened to have been in the same restaurant.

What if Sasuke could see Shikamaru for what he was? He wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in his head. Wouldn't care that Shikamaru was a close friend.

Wouldn't care that he didn't do anything wrong.

Sasuke would kill Shikamaru, and him, the moment a simple rumor spread about them being shifters.

"I should leave." He muttered.

Sasuke whipped his gaze to him, and that was when Naruto realized that he'd spoken aloud.

But Sasuke didn't say anything, and by the time class ended, Naruto waited for Shikamaru to relay the information to him. It wouldn't be easy to do with Sasuke here. But as Shikamaru slipped a wrinkled paper in his hand, he realized it was doable.

He furled his hands around the note. The classroom was empty, and now they had to wait several more hours before the next class arrived. Until then, Naruto would have to practice the story of his moms death until there was no more emotion in his voice as he told it.

Until then, he couldn't look at the note.

"The late student sure did stink." Sasuke said. Naruto glanced at him. Sasuke had his arms crossed, eyes narrowed in an angry glare. Was he still simmering about Shikamaru being late?

"I bet he needs a shower." Naruto said, "I haven't smelled something that nasty since I went dumpster diving with my sister."

Sasuke furrowed his brows. "Yeah. He does need a shower."

Sasuke looked towards the door, then back to Naruto. "You mind finishing up?" He asked.

Naruto blinked. There were dozens of papers to go through, and he hated having to do them by himself, but having Sasuke leave gave him an excuse to look at the note, and it wasn't as though Naruto could say no without risking all the sucking up he'd done to get this far.

"Sure." He shrugged as if it were no big deal, and waited until Sasuke was completely out the door to unfurl the paper.

He almost vomited as he read the words.