The Arts

I know that there are tons of Naruto high school fics around here, but I couldn't help writing one! There's nothing better to do on a hot summer day than to write high school romances for my favorite Naruto pairings. :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, sadly, so I guess I'll have to appreciate the fact that Fanfiction exists.

Since the election for mayor of Konoha was won by Tsunade, a new building was under construction in the Eastern part of the city.

Tsunade announced that the building was going to be a new high school since there were none in the eastern part of the enormous city. The school was actually part of a bigger picture. Konoha was ranked as one of the most polluted areas due to the amount of carbon dioxide that the citizens were distributing into the atmosphere, and unless they did something to change that, drastic measures would have to be taken. Thus, Tsunade ordered the construction of the new high school because she assumed parents and teenagers would not drive every day, back and forth, to an entirely different part of the city, minimizing their total output of that harmful gas.

Besides, she wanted to teach the future of Konoha a thing or two, so she took the liberty to appoint herself as principal.

'This will be a very interesting year.' Tsunade thought, while inwardly smirking.

It would be an interesting year indeed.

XXX

Two Months Later

Beep, Beep, Beep,

Sakura sighed as she buried her face in her soft pillow and pulled the warm blanket closer around her body. She remembered that today was her, and everyone else's, first day at the newly built high school.

She was very pleased that the new high school had been built because it was a lot closer to her house than Suna High was, and therefore she had been granted a full extra hour of sleep. She thought that she would feel less tired by waking up at seven in the morning instead of six a.m. but, to her surprised horror, she felt exactly the same as she had felt the previous year: sleep deprived.

Reluctantly, she got out of bed and stepped into the bathroom, almost screaming when she saw her face in the mirror. Her eyes were puffy and swollen from sleeps and they had black bags underneath them. Her short, natural, bubble-gum pink hair stuck out at every angle possible, and she was pretty sure that the see-through substance that had accumulated at the corner of her mouth was drool.

She showered quickly to tame her wild hair and proceeded to dress herself with gray jeans and a navy blue tank top. Even if it was the first day of school Sakura saw no need to 'dress up'. What was the point, anyways? Most people forgot what they wore on the first day of school after a week. She knew that a lot of the girls dressed up to impress boys but Sakura did not have anybody to impress, anyways.

She grabbed her backpack and shoes and ran down the stairs, stopping at the table to eat the granola bar she had taken out of the cupboard. Her parents had already left to work. Both of her parents worked in the medical field, thus pressuring her to enter the same profession. They had never actually told Sakura that she must do it, but the idea was implied, nonetheless. However, Sakura did not oppose to the idea of being a medic, as long as she got to pick what kind of medic. Both of her parents were surgeons, but she preferred researching about diseases and trying to find antidotes and such.

She headed out the door, deciding that she would walk since the new school was only ten minutes away from her house. Besides, exercise was good for the body and it was a lovely day outside. The sun shined in all its glory and a few birds were chirping brightly. The smell of freshly cut green grass wafted through the air and she breathed in deeply of the sweet and fresh scent.

"Hey, Sakura, is that you?" A cheery voice said.

The voice was very familiar to Sakura, and her face split into a huge grin when she caught sight of one of her best friends, Tenten. Sakura and her had attended Suna Elementary School and had developed a close friendship. Tenten also lived a block away from her so they often got together, making their friendship even stronger.

"Hi Tenten!" Sakura greeted, mirroring Tenten's cheerfulness.

"I'm so glad I caught up with you, Sakura," Tenten began, a smile on her face. "Or else I'd have to face walking all alone through the halls of the school looking like a loner."

Sakura giggled and nodded at Tenten, knowing fully well that she did not like to be left alone. She was always in need of constant company because she was afraid that others would think she had no friends. How Tenten suspected such things, Sakura did not know, but everybody had their quirks.

They kept on walking towards the school, and as it entered their line of sight, they gasped out loud at the size of it, seeing as it was twice the size of Suna High.

"Wow," Sakura said, as the approached the gates which had Konoha High written on it.

"Wow indeed," Tenten said, still gaping at the building.

Their staring was interrupted when two familiar faces approached them, and when Sakura and Tenten took notice of Hinata and Ino, they almost squealed with delight as they started hugging each other. A mixture of 'forehead', 'panda', 'princess', and 'Ino-pig' was heard through their laughter.

"Don't tell me you guys are attending Konoha High too!" Ino exclaimed, her voice raising a few octaves higher.

"Well, duh! Of course we are! Why would we want to spend an hour in the car driving to Suna?" Sakura responded.

Ino, Hinata, and Tenten were Sakura's best friends. Sakura had also met Hinata and Ino at Suna Elementary School and they also developed a close bond between them. However, Ino and Hinata lived further away than where Sakura lived, so they did not see each other as often as Sakura and Tenten did, but the friendship between them was just as strong.

"I'm so excited!" Tenten yelled, glad to be surrounded by even more people.

"Yeah, me too," The shy Hinata said.

The girls soon started chattering about their summers and the places they visited when they were interrupted by the obnoxious sound of a bell ringing, signaling that it was time to enter their forum rooms.

"Stupid bell," Tenten muttered.

"Yeah, I know right! It's the first day of school for crying out loud; couldn't they have set the bell a few minutes later?" Ino asked to no one in particular.

"Well what kind of impression would that give people?" Sakura asked, rhetorically.

"Still, I don't think they're going to give anyone detention if they're late a bit." Ino countered.

"Better safe than sorry," Hinata said, and Tenten nodded in agreement.

"Aww, you guys!" Ino pouted. "You're no fun."

"No, Ino," Tenten said. "Detention is no fun."

"Anyways," Sakura said, trying to change the subject. "Who are you forum teachers?"

"Kakashi-sensei," The three girls replied in unison.

"Awesome!" Sakura cheered, completely ecstatic. "Me too!"

She was really glad that all of her friends would be in the same forum class as her because that meant that they had, more or less, the same scheduele. Sakura was taking an advanced course on biology that she knew the other girls did not even consider about taking, and she knew Hinata and Ino would take art. Unfortunately, Tenten and Sakura did not have many art skills. Tenten was taking orchestra, as she was really talented in playing the violin. Sakura was pretty sure that Hinata and Ino had never even touched an instrument in their whole life, much like herself. It was safe to say that each girl had different interests in subjects.

They fell into easy chatter and finally reached their forum room, where they were met by half an empty classroom and not a teacher in sight. Sakura recognized some faces, but not all of them. She saw Kiba and Shino, who had also attended Suna High. Sakura recalled that Shino and Kiba were best friends, but personally she had never really gotten the chance to know them. Shino mostly kept to himself and Kiba was just a loud prankster that sometimes aided Naruto in his 'evil' doings.

She smiled as she thought of Naruto, who Sakura considered the brother that she never had. Sure, he was obnoxious, loud, and rude, but he was a very good friend and a person that everybody could rely on. She had first met him when they were young, and she would definitely consider him as her boy best friend. She wondered whether he would also attend Konoha High. She did not see him in the classroom, but knowing Naruto, he was probably going to be late. That was, if he planned to leave Suna High. She had never really talked to Naruto over the summer as he left with his uncle, Jiraiya, on a cruise that had lasted the whole summer.

'Pshh," Ino said, interrupting Sakura's thoughts. "See you guys? Not even the teacher is here!"

Sakura sighed as she realized that Ino would not let the matter drop. Ino did always have a thing for being 'fashionably late'…

"Well, since we're now here," Hinata said, trying to make the best of the situation, as always. "Let's pick out our seats."

"Yeah," Tenten said, agreeing with Hinata for the second time. "If we would've come later, all of the good seats would be taken, and we would be forced to sit in the back next to the air conditioner."

Ino simply sighed but complied as she sat down at a table next to Sakura in the front. Tenten and Hinata sat next to each other right behind them. Ino turned around to face her other two best friends when she caught sight of four gorgeous guys entering the classroom.

Sakura stared at Ino, about to ask her if something was wrong, because it was an unusual sight to see Ino at a loss for words. Sakura followed her line of sight and a look of recognition dawned on her face. Ino was a sucker for guys, and everybody knew it. Still, Sakura could hardly resist pulling her gaze away from them either.

One boy had long black hair that was tied into a low pony tail, with eyes that looked exactly like Hinata's. The other guys trailing behind him had a lazy expression on his face, and his hair seemed to take the form of a pine apple. She could tell that there were more people behind those two, but she was too short and could not see past the other boy's heads.

Sakura registered fan girl squeals around her, but she was certain that none came from her mouth or her friends.

"This is such a drag," The pine apple haired boy said.

"Shikamaru," The long haired boy said, revealing his friends name. "I couldn't agree with you more."

"And as I was saying, a lot of my friends will be here, and I know you'll like them! Oh wait, there they are!" A familiar blonde exclaimed, pointing to Sakura and her friends.

Naruto quickly made his way to Sakura, enveloping her into a bone crushing hug.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, tightening his grip on her. "I haven't seen you in forever! Eh, Sakura-chan, have you grown shorter?"

Under normal circumstances, Sakura would have been glad to see Naruto and would have gladly returned the hug if he had not insulted her height. She would have punched him right in the face if it wasn't for his bone crushing hug, and she would have yelled at him to butt off if he wasn't restricting her flow of oxygen.

"What's wrong? Why is your face turning blue?" Naruto asked, as he registered the look and color Sakura's face.

"Dobe, you're hugging her too tight." A silky voice said from behind him.

"Oh, sorry!" Naruto apologized, letting her go.

Sakura stared at her savior, wanting to thank him, but her words caught in her throat. The person before her was a complete stranger, yet Sakura felt drawn to him. He was pale, with cold and dark eyes that made her repress a shiver. There was absolutely nothing funny about him, despite the fact that his dark blue hair resembled a chicken's ass.

"So guys meet my friends!" Naruto said to his three friends enthusiastically, breaking Sakura out of her reverie.

"The pink haired girl is Sakura Haruno. She's like a sister to me since I've known her like for all my life. She's really nice at times but sometimes she abuses me." Naruto said sadly, and his three friends chuckled lightly.

Sakura felt her eyes twitch. She abused him? She had never done so before, except for the occasional punch which he so rightly deserved, but she was certainly going to abuse him now.

"You baka!" Sakura screamed, loosing her cool. "I abuse you? I haven't seen you in months and this is what you're saying about me, right in front of my face?"

Sakura was prepared to go on a full on rampage, except for the fact that Naruto quickly apologized and told her to take it easy. He sounded like he truly meant his apology, so Sakura decided to let his comment slide, just this once.

"Baka," Sakura muttered under her breath.

"Nice to meet you all." Sakura said sweetly to the other three boys, trying to make it seem like she was a total and complete angel.

"Don't worry, Sakura, we all know very well how Naruto always over exaggerates things. We don't really think that you abused him." The pine apple haired guy said, nonchalantly.

Sakura was grateful that they knew Naruto's true colors, but the fact that Naruto said that she abused him was still a little bit unsettling to her.

"And this is Ino Yamanaka!" Naruto yelled, trying to change the subject. "She's really loud, uh, no offense, but she's a good friend and all."

Sakura was sure that Ino was going to declare a full out war on Naruto, but to her amazement, she kept quiet. She was staring so intently at the pine apple haired guy that Sakura bet Ino had not even registered what Naruto had said about her.

"And the girl with brown hair into two buns is…" Naruto said, while making his way to Tenten's side. "Panda-chan!"

"Naruto!" She screamed, bonking Naruto on the head. "How many times have I told you not to call me that!"

"All right, sorry, sorry," He said sheepishly. "Her name is Tenten and she's really cool and outgoing. She's also good with weapons, so be sure to stay on her good side. Her accuracy is like deadly, fo' realz."

"You betcha!" Tenten said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What's your last name?" The guy with long hair asked.

Sakura saw Tenten stare at him, and she suddenly felt pity for Tenten, although she would never show it because Tenten absolutely hated pity. She felt pity towards her best friend because she did not have a last name since she was adopted. Her family was great and everything, but Tenten refused to call herself by their surname.

"It's not mine," Tenten had told Sakura when she asked her why.

"I don't have one," She replied bluntly.

The boy that had asked her name narrowed his eyes, but said nothing in return.

Naruto knew that Tenten was really touchy when it came to family issues, so he quickly began to introduce his last friend, Hinata.

"And that's Hinata! Hinata knows Neji since she's his cousin." Naruto said, while pointing to the guy that asked about Tenten's last name.

"She's really shy and kind and sweet and she is the only person that has never bonked me on the head. To that I am grateful. Thank you, Hinata!"

"You're w-w-welcome, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata stuttered, while a faint blush spread across her cheek.

Naruto gave her his flashing signature grin and Hinata turned different kinds of red. Sakura, knowing that Hinata had a major crush on Naruto, wanted to spare her friend some humiliation, so she asked Naruto to introduce his friends to them.

"Oh yeah, okay, so the guy next to me is Sasuke Uchiha. He's all stoic and cold and stuff but once you spend some time with him you'll get used to it. I'm pretty sure his favorite pastime was killing puppies and in his free time he likes to write depressing poetry."

The girls laughed while the boys, excluding Sasuke, chuckled a bit. Sakura was not sure about the puppy killing, but she could definitely see Sasuke by his window on a rainy day crying his eye out while he expressed his feelings with a pen and paper. He just seemed like the type.

"Dobe," Sasuke said, obviously irritated by Naruto's antics.

Sakura was surprised when Sasuke did not bonk Naruto on the head. She safely assumed that he was accustomed to Naruto's silly behavior and did not take his comments to heart. Sakura had done the exact opposite, and could not help but wonder how long Sasuke had known Naruto in order to not lash out at him. Naruto had never mentioned a Sasuke before, so she was pretty sure that they had recently met. But Naruto introduced Sasuke as a friend, so they did not just happen to bump into each other on their way here. Sakura decided that Sasuke just kept his emotions in check, since he really had not displayed any emotion except annoyance since he had stepped into the room.

"And this guy that makes me want to sing 'Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?' is Shikamaru Nara." Naruto said, interrupting Sakura from her thoughts once more.

Naruto had always been a jokester, but she wondered how his new 'friends' could stand his constant teasing and mocking.

"He's like really lazy but super smart. His IQ is over 200."

"This is troublesome," He muttered lazily, while leaning against the teacher's desk.

Sakura highly doubted his IQ was over 200, but anything was possible. If natural pink hair was possible, than she supposed his IQ was too. She made a mental note to talk to Shikamaru later. She would determine herself if he was intelligent or not.

She turned towards Ino who was still staring at Shikamaru. She was in the exact same position she had been since he had first walked into the room, and Sakura wondered if Ino had even blinked since then. She elbowed her friend to bring her back to reality, and when Ino realized she had been caught, she stared at floor embarrassed, without a doubt.

"This guy over here is Neji Hyuga. He's also kind of like Sasuke, but he's not depressed and stuff. He's really in to martial arts and meditation and stuff like that." Naruto said.

But before anybody could say anything else, a white haired man decided to enter the class.

"Okay everybody, take your seats, I'm Kakashi and I'll be your forum teacher from now on."

"You're late!" Most of the class said in unison.

"Well you see, I was lost on the road of life… Wait who am I kidding I just went out and bought the new edition of Icha Icha Paradise." He said, as he sat at his desk, taking out a green book.

Sakura noticed that he had a mask that covered half of his face, and she began to wonder why that was so. She saw as he opened the book, only to close it shortly afterwards.

"Okay, I know that this is the beginning of school, but we're getting right down to work."

"Yeah right!" A kid with blonde hair and green eyes yelled form the back. "You just want us to be busy with work so you can read your perverted book!"

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Kakashi began. "You'll all be assigned a project regarding the Arts. Most people fail to see how important things in the Arts truly are, and I want you to find out for yourself how important and useful it can be in real life. There are four topics that I will assign."

About half of the students groaned in protest, but Kakashi held his hand up signaling for them to stop.

"You'll all be assigned partners, and no, you may not pick your partner. I've taken the liberty to do so."

That comment earned him even more groans and Sakura could feel everybody's anxiousness in regards to their mystery partners.

She turned to her three friends and said:

"I hope I'm paired up with one of you."

"Ditto," Ino said.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed." Tenten said, crossing her fingers to show that she was seriously.

Hinata only nodded in response.

"Okay so the first pair is Kiba and Shino, and your project is about Music."

"Yes!" Kiba exclaimed, very enthusiastically, high-fiving Shino. "

"The second pair is Karin and Suigetsu, and you will be doing a project about Art itself."

"Awww!" Karin screeched. "I wanted to be paired up with Sasuke-kun!"

"Yeah, too bad," Kakashi responded.

"The next pair is Choji and Amaya. You're project will be about Theatre."

Nothing was heard as said people stared warily at each other.

"Next are Ami and Hiro, and your going to do a dance interpretation."

Sakura barely took notice of the other teams. All she knew so far was that Hinata, Ino, and Tenten had not been called out, and there was a good chance that she was going to be paired up with one of them. Doing a fun project with one of her best friends was something she would not say no to, as it was just another excuse to get together.

"The next pair is Ino and Shikamaru and you're going to be doing something about Theatre."

Ino did not say anything in protest, much to Sakura's amazement, but when Shikamaru said: "How troublesome," Ino demanded that she switched partners.

"The next pair is Naruto and Hinata, and you'll be doing Dance." Kakashi said, totally ignoring Ino's remark.

"That's great!" Naruto yelled eagerly.

"This is going to be so much fun, don't you think Hinata?" He asked her.

Hinata simply blushed and nodded quickly, hoping that she would not faint right on the spot. Sakura could tell that Hinata was quite pleased with the pairing, not that she would ever admit it.

However, Sakura was less than pleased. Only Tenten, Sasuke, and Neji remained to be picked, and she really hoped that Tenten was placed with her. She could not stand doing a project with someone as cold as Sasuke, no matter how good looking he was. She also could not see herself spending time with someone as indifferent as Neji. The odds were not in her favor, but there was still a small chance that she would be paired up with Tenten. Sakura crossed her fingers and silently prayed.

"The next pair which will be doing a project on music are Neji and Tenten."

Sakura heard Tenten take a large intake of breath, and Sakura's worst fears became reality. Because Tenten was paired up with Neji, that meant she was paired up with Sas-

"And that leaves the last pair who will do a project about Art, Sasuke and Sakura."

"No way!" Sakura heard Karin screech. "Why does she get to be paired up with Sasuke-kun?"

Sakura sighed as she realized she would not only have to somehow manage having an ice cube as a partner for her project, which he would probably make her do all by herself anyways, but she also had to deal with fan girls accusing her of stealing their precious Sasuke away.

"Oh, and the project is due this Friday." Kakashi said, while opening his green book.

Suddenly, Sakura had the urge to take it away from him and smack him on the head with it really hard.

XXX

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