OOO
Ninja Academy…
"Ami?"
"Here, sensei," the above girl answered to Iruka, who was currently doing role call for his class as per the usual routine.
Nodding and checking off her name, he then went on to the next.
"Choji?"
"Here!" the Akimichi exclaimed through a bag of chips.
"Satoshi?"
"Here!"
"Kiba?"
"Yo!" came the reply from said Inuzuka, currently sitting with his legs kicked up on his desk somewhere in the back row. The teacher quickly spotted him and nodded in acknowledgement to his presence, but frowned a split second later.
"Feet. Off!" Iruka said in a loud and dangerous tone of voice. The member of the dog clan quickly took his finger out of his ear and did as he was told, lest he be punished for the small act of rebellion. "Better."
With that insubordination quickly dealt with, the man drawled on. "Shino?"
"Here," the Aburame droned back in his usual tone of voice.
"Excellent. Shikamaru?" Iruka exclaimed, looking up. When he received no reply on the first call, the Chunin raised an eyebrow. "Shikamaru Nara?" The class's collective attention immediately began panning left and right for the next few seconds of silence, before all eyes eventually fell onto the middle row in the center of the room where every student within peripheral range could see said boy lying with his face on his desk and arms crossed under his forehead for support. It was plain to see exactly what the problem was, which had Iruka's eye twitching.
"SHIKAMARU NARA!" the teacher yelled out, startling the entire room.
A low groan came from the boy as he slowly raised his head, looking back down towards the front of the class with bags under his eyes and an incredibly drowsy air about his character. He scratched his head when he saw his teacher glaring back up at him.
"I'm here," Shikamaru yawned, figuring that it was him that all the fuss was about. Though the entire reason for his existence here was to sit in conformity with the rest of the cabbage patch, it didn't mean that he had to follow protocol to a tee. It also didn't mean that he couldn't be aware of his surroundings either.
Satisfied, Iruka furiously ticked the boy's name off before moving along. "And don't go falling asleep again!" Hoping that the class slacker would at least obey that command, though in all likelihood he probably wouldn't be able too, the man chose to move on with his list. The next name that came up didn't have him holding his breath in the slightest. "Naruto!"
Several seconds passed as the teacher waited for a response. But after a certain amount of time ticked by and nothing was born from his initial inquiry, Iruka looked up at the class with a glare. He'd half-expected this development, yet proceeded on a steady course, "Naruto Uzumaki? Has anybody seen him?"
"No," was the immediate reply from the vast majority.
"Why would anyone give a rat's ass about that idiot?" a random boy in the middle row asked rather unpleasantly.
"He's a slacker and a nuisance. Let's just forget about him," another student, this time a girl, spoke out, earning her a round of nods of agreement from the rest of the room.
Iruka sighed as the mutterings regarding the whereabouts of their most troublesome classmate continued. In his honest opinion, his best guess was probably the most likely one. The brat was either wrecking havoc across the entire village under the ever watchful yet oblivious eyes of the local guard or he was off somewhere gallivanting about, wasting time, and making random proclamations about becoming this community's leader some day. Kami knew what the world would be like if that kid somehow got in command and started signing treaties on his village's behalf in the big seat.
Maybe that was the reason why some of the other teachers had repeatedly failed the kid in a lot of his theory work, because every adult who knew him by nature was unconsciously concerned for the future of the world's wellbeing. This had nothing to do with his umm… 'ahem', baggage problem, mind you.
With the issue highlighted and the mystery established, the Chunin lowered the clipboard with the list of names on it and under the drone that had escalated in volume amongst his students Iruka began scratching his chin in silent contemplation.
"Damn it, Naruto. What in the world are you doing now?"
Was he going to need aspirin after this one?
Based on previous events which have resulted in his summoning to the Hokage's office multiple times and being grilled out by swamps of angry villagers, yes, he probably was.