Sands Through the Hourglass: Scratches

[Naruto_Seme]

One day, some time a while back, I found myself sitting at my computer with little to do, which, needless to say, left me bored out of my wits. And so, I decided to start writing a series of unrelated drabbles based in the Naruto world. I'll probably continue writing in this series whenever I feel like writing something at random, so don't expect any continuity from chapter to chapter and just try to view each one as a stand alone fic. I've already written four chapters/drabbles, but two of them contain shounen ai/yaoi themes that the moderators might not want me to post here. And so, I will be posting only those fics without any special pairings. I hope you enjoy it. =^_~=

Sands Through the Hourglass

by Talisha Hibdon

DISCLAIMER: The disclaimer telling you that I don't own Naruto or any of the cast therin was buried in a Desert Graveyard. >=D
SUMMARY: Each grain of sand that passes through the hourglass represents a moment in time that has come and gone.- A mix of short vignettes both AU and non-AU.

CHAPTER RATING: G
CHAPTER PAIRING: none

~Scratches~

"Let me see it, Naruto."

The boy blinked up at his sensei as he knelt down to attend to the busted lower lip and the purple hue slowly darkening his pupil's eye. He let out a long suffering sigh and reach into his pocket where he kept his handkerchief and his healing salve handy. He wiped at the blood oozing out of the already clotted cut on his lip and at the random scratches about his entire face. "Naruto, why do you let them get to you? You wouldn't get beaten up nearly as often if you would learn to just leave well enough alone."

"But they were..." the blonde little wild child began before trailing off into a stubborn pout that made his whiskered cheeks puff out.

"Hmm?" Iruka prompted, hissing through his teeth at the particularly harsh gash above the kid’s right eye. But Naruto refused to flinch, even though it stung terribly. "What's that?"

Naruto shuffled his sandaled foot into the playground dirt below. "They were saying mean things about Iruka-sensei."

The teacher sighed again and gave Naruto a second once over, silently noting to himself that his little wounds seemed to be healing even before his very eyes. It was one of the few times he was glad to the monster living inside of the boy. "I don't need you to fight my battles for me, Naruto."

Naruto puffed his cheeks out even further, the little crease between his eyebrows growing deeper. A sure sign of his increasing displeasure. "Fine. Maybe I just shouldn't bother caring anymore..."

Iruka rolled his eyes and ruffled the kid's golden spikes of hair, making the hairdo seem even messier than before. "Don't be so defensive. I wasn't scolding you. But those were just words, Naruto. It wasn't anything worth getting hurt over."

The fair haired boy peered up through his lashes reluctantly at his Academy teacher, who was currently staring down at him with an ever patient smile, amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes. "Then... you really don't hate me after all?"

The smile fell flat from his face. That question hardly seemed amusing. "Did those kids tell you that?"

The child nodded and began to fidget uncertainly.

Iruka let out a deep breath and put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "You're being silly. Of course I don't hate you, Naruto. I never could do that."

Stormy eyes returned to summery blue as he looked up in wonder, a large grin slowly brightening his scratched up face. "Really?"

"Sure," Iruka returned his grin and rubbed his head again, this time with more tender affection than what one would expect from a mere school teacher and more like what one would recieve from a loving father.

Naruto couldn't contain himself. He threw himself at his sensei, wrapping his arms tight around the middle of his waist and smothering his face into his stomach. Iruka was caught off guard and barely managed to retain his balance. The lad was stronger than he looked. Even so, he beamed down at that golden head and returned the embrace with one arm, uncaring that he was getting his chuunin vest dirty with blood and dirt.


And another grain of sand passes through the hourglass.


~*~*~*~

EDIT: For anyone who MIGHT be interested in the shounen ai/yaoi pairing drabbles, please feel free to PM me.

[Sky_Crawler]

O.O VERY DESCRIPTIVE O.O

Where did you learn to write like that? Nice style! Hmm....

[Naruto_Seme]

Originally Posted by Soushouryu

Is he allowed to post that?

I removed the link to avoid conflict. You can just check out my homepage on my profile if you really want to read any more of my other fics.

Originally Posted by Sky_Crawler

O.O VERY DESCRIPTIVE O.O

Where did you learn to write like that? Nice style! Hmm....

Well, it took me a lot of time and a LOT of practice to get to this level. The authors who have influenced my writing style the most and have given me the most inspiration are J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Jane Austen, and Gregory Maguire. I've read many college level books since I was 10, and English was always my best subject. Granted, it has been YEARS since High School and so my spelling and grammer has gotten a bit shaky. But there it is. =^_^= So glad you liked it! And thank you for the compliment!

[Soushouryu]

I didn't mean to offend (if I did), just that those two specific Japanese terms combined with a link don't necessarily mean appropriate things for little kids yeah?

[VermilionOne]

Unfortunately, we begin spiraling into an endless political/philosophical debate at this point, so I'm going to ask that the topic be dropped.

Also, Naruto_Seme, go into your options and activate your PMs please.