Hi, this is ScarletInk314,

This is my first fanfic, and i would appreciate it if any readers would give a review. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but please don't flame me if you didn't like it...

Oh, and by the way, i don't own any Naruto characters. I am just trying to entertain in a non-profit way.

Enjoy!

Soft rays of sunlight hit the floor of a cream-carpeted floor through the newly-cleaned window. Two little wild birds sat outside on a slender, fragile tree branch, twittering away in happy oblivion to the sharp coldness of early morning.

It was a beautiful, early morning…until the soft rise and fall of a chest inside the house came to a shuddering stop.

It swelled as its owner sucked in a deep breath.

And collapsed as a shriek that could be heard several streets away woke up everybody else in the building.

Sakura Haruno sat up abruptly, from her nightmare, staring around frantically with bloodshot eyes. She relaxed as she realized there was no one in her room, then stiffened again as footsteps stormed down the corridor and pretty much broke down her door.

"Will you shut up for god's sake? It's only…" Ino Yamanaka halted in her brief tirade as she took in the sight of her friend, and slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle giggles.

"Oh my gosh…Forehead, you look like...like…"

"Yes?" Sakura's voice was made of steel. Ino shrank back slightly.

"Uhh, never mind…" She trailed off, and then burst out again, "But…hahahahaha, man, you have no idea how much I wish I'd had a camera with me when I came in!"

And no wonder, Sakura thought absently in the back of her mind. With sleep-deprived eyes and a bubble-gum pink haystack on her head, a photo would make the ultimate blackmail object. Maybe she would threaten to send it to Sasuke or something, so he could snigger at it with his gang of minion friends and pin it up on the school notice board for the rest of the student body to indulge in.

"Look, I'm sorry for waking you up at this time in the morning—" Sakura glanced at her alarm clock for a moment without really registering what it showed, "but you'd better go back to sleep unless you want to look like a—" She stopped, and looked back at the clock. What she saw set her mood on fire.

"HOLY CRAP! WE'RE LATE! Come on, no time for breakfast Ino, we've got ten freaking minutes to get to class!" Tugging on a pair of black jeans, a purple t-shirt and old sneakers, Sakura grabbed her bag and an apple and literally dragged her friend onto the streets, not even pausing to let her catch breath before dashing at a mad pace toward the Konoha High, visible as a small structure from where they were standing.

Ten minutes later

"Sakura…Forehead, stop…stop, we're here!" Ino gasped as she struggled for breath. Sakura looked down at the girl clinging to her wrist, and said with a slight frown,

"Ino, you really don't exercise that much, do you? Sometimes I'm really surprised at how you manage to stay skinny. Besides, we've got to get inside; our destination is in a classroom, not the front gates, so unless you want for both of us to start school late you'd better hurry up!" Sakura was already several strides ahead; Ino had to muster up all of her last resources of strength to catch up.

Inside the classroom

"Oh man…we came here for NOTHING?" Collapsing into a random chair, Sakura fought the urge to regain her energy and find Kakashi sensei so she could send him flying all the way to the moon and back. She should have remembered that on first periods with Kakashi sensei there would be no need to hurry to school; he was generally more of a late person than most of the class.

Sure enough, though, half an hour after they had arrived he waltzed in and promptly opened his mouth to make up one of his pathetic excuses. However, before he could utter one syllable, the majority of the class roared at him about being a sad, sad liar.

He simply shrugged.

"Whatever…free period," he muttered, then made himself comfortable in a corner and pulled out his little orange hentai novel.

Sakura sighed. It was always free period with this teacher; he was always too lazy to teach anything. Perhaps a tad like Shikamaru, who took advantage of the time to stare through sleepy eyes (not that he didn't sleep enough already) at the clouds outside, then sit back as much as he could in his chair and doze off. Currently his torso was twisted slightly to the left as he gazed with lazy wistfulness out the window. Presumably jealous of how the clouds could spend their time doing whatever they pleased.

Snapping out of her thoughts, it dawned on Sakura that she wasn't really doing anything either. She turned back to talk to Ino – and got a faceful of dark, spiky hair. Sakura reeled back, gagging at the horrible sensation of hair in her mouth.

"UURRRGGGHHH….GAHHHH….WHAT THE HELL, YOU EMO CHICKEN! YOU AND YOUR STUPID HAIR GEL STINK LIKE A CAT FROM THE SEWER!" she choked.

Sasuke raised one eyebrow in that (admittedly) cool way he did. His trademark smirk completed the look.

"Well, well, Miss Huge Forehead, I must say, isn't this ironic? Your giant head must be 99% fluid, considering that you didn't even give a second thought to the fact that first you called me a chicken, then a cat. It would not be very nice if I ate myself, don't you think?"

Sakura's eye twitched once. A small vein pulsed in her temple. Quickly pushing her rising fury down, she forced a toothy smile onto her face and spoke in a syrupy sweet voice.

"For your information, Sasuke-kun, I did not say that you were a cat, but that you merely smelled like one. And on top of that, I don't think you really understand what I'm talking about. If I had said that you were both a chicken and a cat, it would have been eternally relieving riddance of a stubborn, ugly little chicken-cat mutant in my way." Sakura's grin screamed triumph.

And Sasuke didn't like it.

"So? I don't really care. To be frank with a big ugly forehead, there are plenty of other chicken-cat mutants I feel are my priority to terminate. Guess what? Topping that list is YOU, Haruno." He leaned back with smug satisfaction, and then added, "Congratulations, Forehead, you've finally come first in something. Consider yourself honored."

And he got up, lifted up his bag without any apparent effort and left a silently steaming Sakura jammed to her chair with her fists clenched so hard they had turned white.

As he turned to sit down beside Naruto, his eyes locked with one of the people on the other side of the room.

Sakura was standing. Her chest heaved with hate, and her jade eyes, half-hidden behind seemingly dark pink locks, tunneled ferociously into his. Despite their green hue, they burned like the gates of hell.

Her mouth opened. In the blink of an eye, Sasuke pulled out a pair of headphones and turned up the music.

Even then, he heard the terrible sound erupt. And looked away.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The entire school literally keeled over as their eardrums rippled with violent vibrations. Even Kakashi sensei looked up from his book in mild astonishment.

And as the birds scattered and the source of the shriek stormed out of the room, one thought entered his head.

This year was gonna be interesting.

So, what didya think? Good? Bad? Please review!!