Who are you calling a monster?!

The moment the words "tomato monster" landed, Naruto Uzumaki blew up.

He sprang from his chair, its legs scraping across the floor with an ear-piercing screech, then pointed straight out the window.

"Who are you calling a tomato monster?!"

His voice was loud enough to carry across half the floor.

The kids from the other classes outside the window froze at first. Once they saw who was angry, however, their flicker of panic vanished completely.

"Well, look at that. The demon fox is mad."

Someone snickered, and a roar of mocking laughter erupted, much louder than before.

The boy who had shouted "tomato monster" stood at the front of the crowd. Far from being scared, he got even more excited. He pitched his voice into a babyish whine and dragged out the words.

"The tomato monster and the demon fox have teamed up-we're sooo scared-"

The crowd burst out laughing, some slapping the window, others stamping their feet.

For a moment, the air outside the classroom was filled with merriment.

The students still in the classroom exchanged glances, then ducked their heads and pretended to put their textbooks away. Not one of them looked inclined to get involved.

The adults at home had long since warned them about the demon fox: stay as far away as possible.

Uzumaki Hayashi lay slumped over his desk without even changing position.

A tomato monster?

He nearly laughed out loud. With that pathetic vocabulary for insults, they actually had the nerve to embarrass themselves in public.

Besides, he wasn't really a little girl. What could a few comments about his looks possibly cost him? There was no reason to take them to heart.

Having lived so many years across two lifetimes, he couldn't be bothered to join a bunch of children trading insults.

He had planned to stay right where he was and run out the clock until class started. Then everything would be fine.

Unfortunately, his deskmate had other ideas.

Naruto Uzumaki stood beside his seat, his chest heaving. The louder the laughter outside grew, the tighter he clenched his fists.

They had called him a demon fox for so many years that he had long since grown numb to it.

But insulting Linshi-that was out of the question.

Naruto Uzumaki saw red and forgot everything else. He charged out of the classroom, planted himself in the hallway, and pointed at the boy.

"You jerk! Fight me one-on-one if you've got the guts!"

The raucous laughter in the hallway abruptly stopped.

The boy looked him up and down, every inch of his expression dripping with contempt.

Inside the classroom, Sasuke Uchiha sat by the window, his gaze now utterly cold.

He stared hard at the civilian boy in the hallway and sneered inwardly.

After last night at the training ground, he knew Linshi's strength better than anyone. Did trash like this really think he had any right to provoke him?

He was practically asking to die.

In the hallway, the boy stepped forward and shoved Naruto Uzumaki in the chest.

Caught off guard, Naruto Uzumaki stumbled back two steps.

"One-on-one? Sure." The boy grinned nastily and dusted off his hands as though he had just disposed of something filthy. "Meet me at the training ground downstairs. Whoever doesn't show is a coward."

With that, he turned away. The other children immediately flocked around him, and the whole crowd marched downstairs.

Inside the classroom, Uzumaki Hayashi buried his face in the crook of his arm, his shoulders twitching.

From holding back laughter.

That "we're sooo scared" had sounded so obnoxious that he had accidentally cracked up. But laughing aloud really wouldn't have been appropriate, so he could only bury his face in his arms and force it down until his shoulders shook.

Naruto Uzumaki knew none of this.

Once he regained his balance, he stood there trembling with anger, ready to give chase. Before he ran off, though, he couldn't resist glancing back.

That single glance made his heart feel as though something had seized it and squeezed hard.

Through the window, Redhead, the transfer student, lay over his desk, his face buried in his arms. Only his red hair remained visible, and his shoulders were still shaking.

To Naruto Uzumaki, it was obvious: Linshi was crying, shedding tears over what had happened.

His mind buzzed, and blood rushed straight to his head.

He was such a good person.

He had saved Naruto in the back alley, pressed money into his hands, and stood at the front of the classroom saying he wanted to create a world where everyone could be happy.

Why should someone so kind and so beautiful have to endure people pointing in his face and insulting him? Why should he have to feel so hurt that he hid over his desk and cried alone?

The more Naruto Uzumaki thought about it, the angrier he became and the more his heart ached. Even his eyes reddened.

He turned and charged downstairs, running faster than anyone.

Today, he was going to make them pay for Linshi's sake!

The clatter of footsteps in the hallway faded into the distance, and the classroom soon fell quiet.

Once Uzumaki Hayashi had finished stifling his laughter, he lifted his head and let out a long breath.

The whole world was peaceful again.

He rubbed his cheeks, sore from laughing, and was just about to change position and lie back down-

A figure suddenly stopped beside his desk.

Sasuke Uchiha stood there with both hands in his pockets, looking out the window and pointedly refusing to look at him.

Uzumaki Hayashi remained seated and tilted his head up, waiting to hear what Uchiha Sasuke had to say.

"Naruto may be dead last, and he may be an idiot," Sasuke Uchiha began, his voice taut, "but today, I think he did the right thing."

He turned his head a little farther aside. His lips moved, and he seemed to struggle with himself for a long time before continuing.

"Last night... I attacked you by accident. I'm sorry."

"So I'm going down there too. I'll stand up for you."

Once those two sentences were out, he gave Uzumaki Hayashi no chance to respond. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, lifted his chin, and strode toward the stairs.

He didn't walk quickly. Each step was steady, his back ramrod straight, his entire bearing practically proclaiming, "You can count on me."

Uzumaki Hayashi watched the back of his head as he kept up the act all the way to the stairwell.

Seeing Sasuke head downstairs, quite a few classmates followed. When Sakura, Ino, and the others left, they even gave Linshi reassuring looks.

At last, he was the only person left in the classroom.

He looked at the empty doorway, then out the window, unable to process it for quite a while.

What on earth was all this?

It had been a perfectly ordinary break between classes. People had gathered to stare at him and give him a nickname. His deskmate rushing out to challenge someone to a fight over it was one thing, but now even Sasuke Uchiha had gone downstairs to "stand up for him."

He hadn't said a word or lifted a finger from start to finish. How had he somehow become the central figure in this fight?

Uzumaki Hayashi sat there for a while, then sighed in resignation.

He had no choice but to go.

The mission panel had spelled it out clearly: those two were rescue targets who had "suffered long-term bullying." The boy downstairs looked big and strong, and if Naruto Uzumaki, the class's dead-last student, actually fought him, he might not come out ahead.

If either of those two walking headaches so much as scraped their skin, who could he cry to about his long-term mission? Who would give him his guaranteed B-rank ninjutsu then?

Uzumaki Hayashi stood up, secured his ninja tool pouch around his waist again, and slowly made his way downstairs.

Fine, he'd go take a look. It wasn't as though anyone would die.

Probably.