The Bento Club [Solo/Mission]

“Wah! Hey! Stop pushing!” A familiar voice rang out as he was being ushered down the hall. Satomi doing his best to put the breaks on, planting his feet hard into the floorboards as he was coaxed along with some firm encouragement. His stubbornness was however no match for the insistent chuunin tasked with escorting the genin to the classroom.

“Satomi Furukawa, you're a genin now. So act like one!” The chuunin words had some bite behind them as he scooted ornery shinobi down the hall. “Besides, Satomi, it's only for the rest of the day.”

Satomi relented with a cynical huff. “But I've never taught anyone before, how am I suppose to teach a class of twenty-odd anything?” Despite his growth in recent months, the young boy wasn't too far removed from the Academy himself and didn't expect to be back there again—at least not so soon.

“Relax, you don't need to teach. I've left busy work for you to assign them, you just have to watch them. Piece of cake!” The Academy instructor flashed Satomi a reassuring smile as the pair reached the classroom door. “Besides that you just need to give them their homework before they leave for the day.” It certainly seemed like a piece of cake to Satomi, not to mention from the sound of it, it sounded like he wouldn't even have to lift a finger today. Piece. Of. Cake. The chuunin would spin back around on his heels shortly after parting ways to face Satomi again, a gleam of concern filled his eyes for a moment before being blinked away and masked behind a sheepish smirk. “A word of advice, keep a close eye on The Bento Club.”

“The Bento Club?” Satomi raised a brow as a feeling of contempt slowly formed, the validity of the previous notion that the day would be a piece of cake seemed jeopardized in a single sentence. “What's a bento club?”

“Not 'a bento club', 'The Bento Club.” The chuunin chuckle as he turned back around with an excusing wave as he hurried off. “Don't worry, you'll know them when you see them~”

“The Bento Club, huh? Feh! I'm a genin now, I can do this!” Satomi proudly declared as he swung the door open and was immediately slammed by what could have only been the wailing of a thousand demons, or a room full of twenty-two students by Satomi's count. All chatting, carrying on, and generally doing what one would expect a collective of young unsupervised children would do. That was all except the far back corner on the upper rise of desks where a band of four students huddled among one another. At first glance none of them seemed to have anything in common with one another. Not to be that sort of person, but having 'been there' not too long ago, Satomi could definitely pin certain stereotypes to the group.

There was 'The Natural': his obvious smugness was palpable as he slouched at his desk as dark strands of hair hid his callous gaze. There always seemed to be one in every class and being reminded of the one in his own class was almost enough to burn him right up. Of course he pulled double duty as Mr. Popularity, the prince of this years Academy class. Naturally attracting some of the near buy girls with his 'cool guy' attitude. Feh! I was pretty cool too! Satomi grumbled internally as he continued to take stock of the class.

Then there was the smart one, 'The Brain': While several of the other students wore glasses, hers were the only pair framing eyes actually studying the material given to them by their instructor before he was forced to leave on an emergency. Nothing about her appearance was overly noteworthy either, a rather Plain Jane as it were. Of course she was just as enamored with The Natural as the other girls, she refused to be outright obvious over her obsession. As such her orbit was the furthest of the clique from him, which may in fact had just made it more obvious.

An unseen war was raging in the classroom, clashing auras battling it out between The Natural and 'The Punk'. Only could care so little about talent or popularity as The Punk, it was the polar opposite of the The Natural and their aura of complete disregard for it all was constantly at odds with the aura of smugness of the other. Her appearance only accented her disdain, wearing an aggressive scowl to match her tattered and mussed attire. ]i]Now there's the Queen of Cool![/i] Satomi beamed, his eyes falling on the last member of the group: 'The Weirdo'.

The Weirdo was a strange case. You can have The Natural's raw talent, The Brain's smarts, or the cool factor of The Punk's rebel without a care attitude, but you can still become The Weirdo. The kid with something just... off about them. Much like this boy, they are often fond of eccentric style choices like bright colors or wild hair and often avoided by the rest of the class. This one however seemed to have found his place among the others, even so far as having a seat right next to Mr. Popularity himself. Satomi let out a dispirited sigh as he was reminded of the time he had been tied to one of the target post  in the school yard. He was definitely his class's weirdo.

Finally stepping in front of the class, Satomi made a few failed attempts to call the students to attention before picking up a hefty text book and slamming it down on top of the instructor's lectern. The entire class fell silent in an instant letting the sound of the genin clearing his throat go unchallenged as he put on a big bright smile. “Hi! I am Satomi Fu--”

“Oh look, a new kid!” Satomi was again so rudely interrupted by the antics of the scowling punk in the back of the room, only his scowl had morphed into something of a sneer.

“I'm not a student!” Satomi quipped, trying to keep his smile. “I'm the substitute!”

“You can't be much older than us. Who let you play teacher, kid?” Satomi could feel the smug venom dripping from the student's words as the dark maned boy flipped his air out of his face and stared down the genin as he balked at the notion that Satomi would be put in charge of them. Satomi could feel the fire of competition welling again as he gnawed on his bottom lip before swallowing his pride to return to a calm composure, he wouldn't let another oh-so-cool naturally gifted, arrogant class prodigy get to him again! Nope, not one bit! He even allowed an awkward chuckle as he pointed towards the back of the class.

“Ichita-sensei put me in charge here!” In spite of the bullish huff, Satomi's tone was eerily sweet on the ears. “I am Satomi Furukawa, genin, and your substitute teacher!”

“Well if you're a genin, then I'll have no trouble graduating at all.” All the girls in the class erupted in giggles and cheers while the boys all 'oohed' at Satomi's expense, the smugness was exceptionally strong with this crop's student's naturalist.

Feh! As if! Satomi scoffed to himself. So it would seem that he'd found 'The Bento Club' Ichita had warned him about. “That's a great attitude to have, but a shinobi isn't all about strength!” The young genin beamed. “Everybody has their own Nindō—their ninja way, but every shinobi should abide by the same core set of tenets as every ninja of the village hidden among the stars should follow." Satomi's smile grew as he felt the eyes of the class settling on him, focusing on his words rather than his age or appearance. Well, most of them anyway, three of the four members of the club still seemed less than impressed.

“Oh really? Like what?” The naturalist jeered, but before the genin could reply another voice spoke for him. The girl was very soft spoken as she adjusted his wide plastic-rimmed glasses, a hint of timidness in her voice as she answered for Satomi.

“'A shinobi must follow their commander's instructions.' One of the basic rules all shinobi must follow.” The raven-haired boy sunk in his seat, admitting defeat as he settled in his seat with an incoherent utterance under his breath as the smartest of the group spoke up to put him in his place. Meanwhile Satomi stood smugly and triumphantly ahead of the class, there was nothing more that needed to be said as he turned his attention to the stack of papers on the podium before him. A lot of which looked familiar to him from his student days, basic knowledge and with a side of rudimentary physics.

“Psst... you got put in your place real good, eh?” The goofy-haired child giggled as as he leaned to his left to whisper to the brooding child next to him, the smugness a little more than a wisp surrounding him.

“Shut up, idiot.”

“Oh-hay! That's no way to talk to your friend!” The little weird kid whined, his face scrunched into a firm show of disapproval. The two boys sat and had a pout off as the bespectacled girl giggled behind her hands.

The class as a whole soon settled back in, returning to their given class work. The sounds of pencils scratching on paper filled the classroom, as Satomi looked for a piece of chalk to scribble out some lesson notes of his own on the board per the instructions left for him. Only there wasn't any chalk on the board, even the erasers were missing—how strange. Oh, there's a drawer! Satomi hummed as he prodded around the podium in his quest, his fingers looping into the inset handle for the storage compartment before giving it tug. His face showed immediate regret as a familiar twang reached his ears. Time all but slowed for the genin as he watched as his hand pulled the draw out only to receive a face full of meticulously collected chalk dust much to the whooping and cheers of the class.

If he didn't know better, Satomi would think that Miyamoto had an apprentice among the class. Wiping his eyes, the boy snorted performed his best dragon impression as he snorted out a plume of chalk powder as his eyes immediately sought out the clique of misfits in the corner. An eyebrow twitching as he waited for the guilty party to reveal themselves, though it wouldn't take long as the strange child seemed quite proud of his antics.

“Score another one for Naoto!” The boy had a cackle that would put any hyena to shame and blasted it on high.

“Way to go, Naoto!”

“Some shinobi...”

“'A shinobi must prepare before it is too late.' Or more aptly, always be prepared.”

Satomi shook it off with a smile and chuckle of his own, even if inside he was fuming a little. That... could have gone better. He'd casually finish removing the chalk, determined to not allow the class delinquents get the best of him as he glanced up at the clock to make note of the time before returning to the drawer. Carefully this time, he dug around for a stick of chalk to find success this time. Satomi turned to the board jot down a few brief notes per the handwritten instructions left behind, however he was puzzled by one particular set of directions included.

Please provide a homework assignment to the class. - Ichita

Satomi chewed on his inner cheek as he returned to the lectern to scribble out some notes of his own at the bottom of the page before looking out over the class. “We've all had our fun and class is almost over, I've been asked to assign your homework for this evening--” Satomi's words were, as predicted, met with a chorus of groans. “But it will be an easy one,” the very mention of word 'easy' was enough to turn the class back around in his favor. “'A shinobi must always put the mission first.' I want you to go home and put some good thought into why this should be and have an answer for Ichita-sensei tomorrow.” And with perfect timing the bell rang to dismiss the class for the day and signal the completion of another mission for Satomi as stood next to the door to see the other children out of the classroom. Well, all but the five from the back who stopped before him.

“I didn't think you'd stick it out.” The dark haired boy abruptly quipped, his arrogance fading just a little to show just a smidgen of genuine admiration. Just a touch though, nothing most would pick up on.

“Yeah, teach! I have to hand it to you, I thought you were a goner after that shot to the face.” Another piped up with a cheerful cackle.

“While you may falter, 'a shinobi must never show any weakness'. Especially against The Bento Club.” The girl beamed, nudging her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her index finger.

“...” The class punk had little to add, opting instead to offer his silence as praise enough. The four of them turning together and marching out of the classroom, Satomi didn't have the heart to let them know he'd ratted them out in his notes to Ichita. It would certainly mean detention for the group and the last laugh for the genin, although something told Satomi that the four weren't strangers to spending to a little extra class time.

Approved.