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The heat rolled off the concrete in nauseating waves, weeds distorting through Sakura’s half lidded eyelids. Feet dragging, she side-stepped the poor genin tasked with removing such weeds. While even normally opposed to crawling around on the pavement, the recent heatwave truly furthered their misery.
Sakura wiped the already accumulating sweat off her lip and tried her best to not look at her senpai - so dignified in the academy and unfortunately punished with such a reward. Man, genin had it tough.
Weaving through the early morning crowd, she made her way to the academy, dodging flushed toddlers and irritated parents alike. The classroom blessedly had a fan, but even with all windows open, could not fully distract from the stuffy feeling of sticky kids crammed into a single room.
The day positively crawled by, with one student even fainting - though whether it was genuine or she did it to escape was debatable. Naruto’s antics were predictable, though he somehow seemed even more frantic than usual, while most people were just fighting to stay awake.
Even Iruka sensei was in a mellow mood, though it didn’t really last long after Naruto started wriggling around jerkily.
“Naruto! What exactly is distracting you so much?!”
Naruto and Kiba snapped to attention and guiltily glanced at each other. Behind them, Ino shrieked, which sent off a chain reaction of screams by her posse. Curiosity piqued, Sakura craned her neck (already sore from dozing off into her textbook!) to see what all the commotion was about.
Clinging to Naruto’s hideously orange jumpsuit was the biggest, slimiest lizard Sakura had ever seen. Pale green and wrinkled, it was a sight for sore eyes. Letting out a screech, she hurried to lean away from the now wandering reptile. And then, it disappeared from Naruto’s back. One moment it was there, and then, it wasn’t.
All chaos broke loose. Everyone started shouting - the girls in disgust and the more crude of the boys in jest, poking at the others to see if the lizard had wandered up against any of their backs. Iruka-sensei, already at the end of his rope, looked like he was about to combust.
In the middle of all the screaming and shouting for order, the classroom door opened with a large bang, ricocheting off the wall and bouncing back into the intruder’s face.
A quieting of the class. It was the Principal. Sakura flushed, unable to meet his vexed expression. Iruka sensei was nervously flapping his hands around now, trying to explain what exactly led to this scenario. In the meantime, Naruto was inching closer, and closer to the windows.
Naruto suddenly stopped in the middle of the aisle. Everyone was looking at him, even the professors halting their conversation to stare wide eyed. With horror, Naruto looked up. Perched on his offensively blonde hair, was the lizard.
Cue further screaming from everyone in close vicinity. Sakura sighed and rubbed her eyes.
Kiba was reaching out, trying to grab the lizard from Naruto’s head, while the idiot was dancing around trying to dislodge its grip using the power of gravity. Hah.
“Stay still Naruto! Stop moving around!”
THWACK.
Naruto lay stunned on the floor as the lizard scampered off happily, hopefully to greater pastures than the monotonous classroom it had unexpectedly terrorised. Behind him was Sasuke, textbook in hand and sly smirk tugging on his lips. Kiba was howling in laughter and Iruka sensei breathed a sigh of relief.
Of course, Naruto was not so happy.
“WHY YOU!!!! TEME!!!!”
It began to rain, droplets first trickling down the window panes and then strengthening to a relentless hammer. The lizard danced happily amongst the downpour, and dove down into the cosy undergrowth. The genin outside groaned in relief. And Sakura could not help but wish she had just stayed in bed today, despite how cool Sasuke had been. Eyes slipping closed, she gave up on the fight to have a good day, and took full advantage of the atmospheric lull the rain brought.
Konoha’s vibrant greens and pleasant weather awaited her in her dreams.