[center][img]http://baku-panda.org/images/naota_posticon.png[/img][h3][color=deepskyblue]Naota Nara[/color][/h3][/center][hr][hr]
The midgets were parading through the doors.

Herded like cats, and with arguably even less of an attention span, the academy students straggled from out of their classes. As they did, one head would pop up from among the crowd, briefly appearing amid anxious glances before slipping back down to the ground. Another moment and then his head would pop up again, as the child literally hopped up and down, his head seemingly on a swivel as the boy seemed to be looking desperately for something.

The [i]Jounin[/i] had returned to the village? Was it true? Did that mean that the war was over?

Did that mean that Shikato had come back as well?

Try as he might, Naota could not see any indication that his brother was anywhere to be found. Even still, he never stopped looking for him. Anxious and fidgeting as he stood around the school yard, largely oblivious to the snippets of conversation that passed over his head or between his friends. There was talk of the war.

There was [i]always[/i] talk of the war.

So what was different now? At last, roused from his own wistful thinking, the raven-haired youth slowly warmed to the realization that something was wrong. 

[i][color=#8b4513]"You're actually taking kids? To the front lines? That girl literally has a PUPPY to defend herself, and you want to send her in? What about that kid, the one there the Uchiha brat eh? He looks like he would die if I stared at him too long!"[/color][/i]  

Turning his head up, the faun-eyed Naota found himself observing a one-sided exchange between a pair of older ninja. The look on the face of the one who had spoken conveyed volumes more than words alone.