A/N: This is my first fanfiction posted up here to so any comments are welcome. Constructive criticism will be loved. Hehe. I apologize before hand for any OOCness of the characters, grammar or spelling mistakes. If you find any please point them out and I will work to correct it.

p.s. Bold is for flashbacks or memories. Italics are character thoughts.

Disclaimer: In case I forget to say this in future chapters, I don't own Naruto. Doi.

"It shoulda burned to the ground!"

"….ing preps."

"Hope one of 'em died."

"Wonder who done it."

A small sigh escaped a young woman's lips as she allowed her messenger bag to slide from her shoulder and land in a heap on the cracked and polluted sidewalk. Winter winds pushed through the neighborhood, scraping up small pockets of light snow and swirling them in the air.

Emiko smiled faintly, her eyes gazing ahead of her at a rundown playground. Like most else in the neighborhood it was dirty and rendered almost unusable but Emiko still adored the small playground. There was a rusted slide that was only about 3 feet long. Next to it was a set of three swings. On one end was seat-less swing, one on the other end had a seat connected by only one side. That left the middle as the only one useable and although it was rusted it still worked.

Emiko reached down and scooped up a hand full of snow in her gloved hand. Immediately her fingers began to shiver and prick upon contact. It wasn't surprising, one black glove was worn out with small holes in the palm and fingers and the other was fingerless and frayed along the edges.

As she flung the snow into the wind she shifted her gaze down the street to gaze at her 'beautiful school'.

No matter how much I love used and old things this is just ridiculous, she thought to herself as she studied up and down the building. It might have been a nice school when first built but it was long past its expiration date, the paint on the window frames and main entrance door was chipping, the falling dull red paint revealing the warped wood beneath.

The bricks that actually made up the majority of the building were weathered and broken, giving the school an air of instability. The walkway to the school was still covered in snow and Emiko wasn't surprised as she knew that cleaning the walkway to a school for a bunch of 'hooligans' wasn't on the list of priorities of the caretakers of the city.

Student milled around in front of the school, some sitting on the steps that lead in to the school while others were busy talking about the fire at Sir Gideon's School for Academic Achievers.

"Emi-chan!" Emiko turned just in time to get a full throttle hug from one of her friends as he knocked her into the snow.

"Hey, Naruto." She coughed, grinning faintly as she attempted to clear snow from her face. He sat up, grinning broadly as he plopped down in the snow, a clear amusement in his eyes as he played with the snow.

"Is that a new jacket?" Emiko asked as she stretched a hand out to feel the new clothing. Naruto grinned before standing up to showcase his jacket; it was bright orange, only sullied faintly which was surprising considering Naruto's ability to get anything dirty within minutes. Emiko watched happily, Naruto had been wearing a hand-me-down from a local shelter for months and she had been worried that the tattered coat wouldn't provide enough for her friend.

"Where did you get the money?" She asked curiously as she continued to look over his new wardrobe. He wore plain jean pants as always, they were the cheapest to buy and the longest lasting, under his jacket Emiko was quite sure she could predict he was wearing his trademark orange t-shirt with the school logo scibbled upon it.

"Some lady gave me the money for catching her cat, Tiger," he scratched the back of his head in a sheepish way. "I don't blame the thing for runnin' away either." Emiko nodded happily before she stood.

"Come on we're gonna meet the others at school," she stated before she grabbed her bag and began to lead the way to school.


"Emiko!" The brunette turned to see a pink-haired girl waving her over. Naruto waved eagerly back and Emiko laughed. Her amusement immediately prompted him to give her a slight glare, trying to hide the sprinkling of pink on his cheeks. Regardless of the warning look from her friend Emiko found his crush on the pink-haired girl amusing.

"Hey, Sakura," Emiko greeted her calmly as she deposited her bag against the school wall and leaned against the brick, ignoring the sense of worry as she heard a brick crack under her weight. 'Stupid school,' she thought to herself before turning to survey who else had joined them.

Their group consisted of the few kids not interested in violence, gangs, sex, rivalries and cliques. Emiko had started it when she was in 6th grade when she noticed Naruto being shunned and quickly became his friend, from then on she was the person who collected the strays from each clique and formed her own group. Each person was allowed to be themselves in the group and they all knew they could count on each other should the need arise.

"Ohayo Hinata." Emiko smiled to the shy girl who managed a quiet response. Hinata due to her quiet nature and apparent wealth had been an easy target, she had the money to attend Sir Gideon's but had found it terrifying and even worse than Aka High School.

Emiko gazed over the group and found everyone there: Shikamaru, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata and Ino.

"Did you hear about Gideon's?" Sakura spoke first on the topic that Emiko knew had been coming.

"Hai, fire." Emiko wondered why it was such a big deal. Other than the fact that the rich kids would have to go somewhere else to enjoy their state of the art technology and classes she didn't know why everyone was so excited.

Ino chose to explain as she quickly recognized why Emiko failed to be so excited about the fire and half destroyed school. "They don't have enough room at all those high end schools so they're sending some kids here."

At this Emiko smiled broadly, laughing slightly as she thought of the idea. ''Cause a rich kid can survive here,' she thought to herself as a fight erupted 10 feet away on the school walkway.

Kiba grinned evilly, his thoughts full of ideas about how to greet the new students. It was well known that to reach Gideons some kids had to pass through Aka neighborhood therefore only fueling the hatred between the students of both schools. Aka students would of course throw trash and toss bullets at the black, sleek, leather interior cars like it was second nature but the Gideon students were innocent as they would try to run kids down or yell insults at those who happened to be walking by.

Just about everyone at Aka High had endured some form of berating from the Gideon kids, Emiko wondered how many kids at Gideons actually passed through Aka to get to Gideon, she'd occasionally seen new cars carrying kids clad in high end uniforms who watched the feud grow as though it was a television show.

"Kiba calm down, maybe they're not all bad." Hinata tried to insist but Emiko shook her head to couple Kiba's protest.

"Are you kidding me! Not all bad!" He made a noise of discontent. "They should have burned with their school." He growled angrily, Kiba was one of the kids constantly caught and taunted by The Uniforms, as they were called. Emiko understood his anger, having been jeered at more than once. Before memories could come up she shoved them aside and resorted to the only thing she could think of to distract the conversation and lighten the mood.

"Orange peels!" she declared lightly and they all stopped instantly.

"You should think of a new phrase to stop the conversation." Naruto stated matter of factly only to feel the pain of Sakura's fist upon his head.

"How troublesome…" Shikamaru said in a tired voice and Emiko glanced at the spiky haired kid leaning against the wall beside her.

"I-" Ino was cut off as a bell rang and Emiko grabbed her messenger bag from the ground before she lead the group towards the front door.

"'Ey sweet tangs." Emiko scowled and tilted her head to see a brutish young man towering over Hinata, Sakura and Ino, each was staring at him in either shock, terror or disgust. Emiko could almost taste the smell of drugs and alcohol surrounding him but her reaction didn't change as she stepped between them. There was a reason they were part of her group, they were her friends and she was an instinctual protector.

"Back off." Her hands itched to go to her hips but she knew with this kind of guy that it could send the wrong message and she didn't want to chance it, she wasn't a great fighter and he easily outweighed her.

His sleazy grin seemed to flip into an immediate frown as he looked at her. She was rather plain in his mind, athletic build so not many curves, she was tall with brown hair that was pulled into a messy bun at the base of her neck and a pair mismatched brown and blue eyes. He didn't really care about, eyes weren't on his mind. Her lips weren't blooming red and her lashes weren't thick and her skin was pale. Unattractive, he thought in one word and his attention immediately turned back to "da beauties" she shielded from him.

Naruto glanced at Kiba and Shikamaru who both seemed interested but not worried and he gave his trademark fox grin, they were definitely members if they knew already that Emiko wouldn't need help.

"Baka, back off." Emiko warned him again. He gave a small hoarse laugh and tried to carelessly swing his arm to knock her aside but instead of feeling her being casually swept aside a series of small pains shot through his arm. Immediately his eyes turned and he saw with faint shock that she had caught his arm, deliberately disobeying the rule that men go over broads in the high school. Her nails dug deeper into his skin and he shook his arm violently to break her grip but found that the sudden jerking movement only caused more pain.

"Bitch let go." He seethed and her gaze hardened before he felt himself shoot backward and skid to a stop on his back. Silence ensued as the groups finally noticed what was going on and whispers began to dart around the crowds Growling in his throat he stood up and looked to see her drop her foot casually before rejoining her friends to walk happily into the school.

"Emi-chan!" Emiko turned to Naruto who was really the only person who used that name for her and grinned as she saw the brilliant smile upon his face. "That was awesome!"

Sakura nodded in agreement but couldn't help voice her worry.

"One of these days you're going to meet someone who is going to match you though…" Emiko turned to her and began to walk backwards, hands behind head with laughter dancing in her eyes.

"True but it won't be that shocking since I'm not really formally trained or all that good anyway." She stated carelessly. Shikamaru sighed and stated his renowned saying of how troublesome. Emiko laughed and immediately jumped towards him to corner him in a headlock causing Shikamaru to protest a little before his lazy nature caused him to simply resign to the head lock.

"How troublesome…" Emiko and Shikamaru voiced in unison causing Shikamaru to blankly stare ahead as the group laughed happily at the antics.

"Come on." Naruto opened the classroom door for them and they each stepped in, few were in the classroom, which wasn't surprising since most students would probably skip school anyway. Those who were already in were busy changing chairs so that they could have one that didn't rock and squeal at the tiniest of motions. The desks were too dangerous to change as nails thrust themselves out of the aging and damaged wood. The top of each desk was engraved, colored and beaten with any kind of graffiti possible.

Immediately Emiko grabbed her seat by the window and set her bag on the cracked ground where it would rest peacefully for the entire day. Aka had hired enough teachers so that there would be enough that each student could have bells and classes in different classrooms with different teachers however only the dedicated teachers appeared everyday so the class schedule had to be rethought and it was decided that each class would be assigned to one teacher who would attempt to teach all the classes.

The desks were arranged in aisles with two desks being beside each other in one aisle and then a space for a walkway before the next aisle would begin. Naruto sat in front of Emiko in his usual desk. Sakura took the seat next to Emiko with Ino across the aisle from her. Shikamaru and Kiba as usual grabbed their seats behind Emiko and Sakura.

"So who do you think is going to be coming? I wonder if it'll be like the popular kids of their school or the dorks." Ino began to wonder aloud and Emiko allowed her head to smack the table.

"Bad idea." Kiba stated from behind her causing her to raise her head and eyebrows in curiosity as she turned back to him. Immediately he struggled to stifle his laughter which of course brought attention from the others and they all began to laugh. An annoyed expression crossed her face as she wondered what would be so amusing.

Sakura finally chose to explain. "They repainted the desks this morning to try and look better for the new students." She giggled. "I guess your desk isn't fully dried." Emiko groaned and once again dropped her head to the desk before cursing when she realized what she'd done. Another burst of laughter broke through the group as they watched her get up and leave for the bathroom to try and clean up.

Emiko sighed as she jerked open the classroom door and continuously rubbed her forehead to hopefully remove some of the paint. Not bothering to look up to see where she was going she collided with a group just outside the door and unwilling to care she easily pushed past them and headed towards the bathroom, not noticing the abrupt silence through the school and its inhabitants.

The bathroom luckily wasn't far away and she hurried to the bathroom to inspect the damage. 'Great,' she thought sarcastically as she inspected her reflection in one of the unharmed mirrors. A plain girl stared back, two splotches of wood colored paint upon her forehead. Emiko hurried into action and turned the handle for water, the girl's bathroom was a place where most everything worked because it was where the females of the school came to gossip and redo their make-up. Emiko couldn't speak for the boy's bathroom since she'd never seen it but she was willing to stake a bet that the girl's cherished and respected their bathroom more than the boys did.

After a few minutes of scrubbing Emiko sighed, the paint was mostly gone but was replaced by tinged pink spots where she had been forced to scrub. 'So much for pretty,' she thought to herself disdainfully before she stepped away to regard herself fully in the mirror. 'God I hate mirrors' she glowered at the reflection as though by doing so she would morph into something pretty.

A pair of tattered jeans hung loosely from her hips, holes appearing to display her pallid knees and worn rips around the tattered bottoms. She wore her brother's converse that he'd grown out of and it was clear they were a hand me down as their former bright red color was reduced to a dark blood color by dirt and wear.

At the front there was a hole and a rip formed on the side of one displaying her black and blue socks. The laces had long worn away from one shoe and Emiko had replaced them with thick, broken rubber bands that would be replaced every week by new ones she found on the ground. Her other shoe's laces were frayed and nearly broken but what did you expect when you stole them from kid shoes that had been thrown out.

She hated those shoes, they fit her and they had been handed down from her brother who was 3 years older. 'Stupid big feet,' she sent a cursing glare at the shoes before returning to look at the mirror as though it was a drug she needed but hated.

Lastly she stared at her shirt, naming all the ways that she could fix herself if she was only willing to be anorexic. 'Damn it,' she thought to herself as she pulled on her worn out, hunter green wife-beater to hopefully change the look. Her black jacket was just as aged and used as everything else if not more so but despite the holes in the pocket and the rips along the sleeves she'd grown quite fond of it. Her brother had told her it had been her grand-mothers and she had cherished it ever since then.

Around her neck was her mother's last Christmas present, a knobby and unraveling blue and brown scarf. To match her eyes, her mother had reasoned.

Realizing how warped her thoughts had become Emiko raced out of the bathroom, cursing the room and all the mirrors in the world for her self doubt. Instead she focused her mind on orange peels to hopefully push the clouds of self loathing back until another time when she could be alone.

Her footsteps echoed down the halls until she stopped outside her classroom and tugged the door open. Looking up Emiko realized that there were 4 new people standing in front of the teacher's desk, each wearing a look of either: hate, apathy or scorn at the woman who was trying to mark down each of their names into her student log.

Her eyes darted over each one as she made quick assessments and judgments of each one. One was about a head taller than the others, his dark eyes and pale white hair contrasting greatly. His body language yelled to everyone 'You're below me!' and Emiko couldn't help but sigh as she watched him speak so arrogantly to the teacher with a smirk clearly plastered on his pretty-boy face.

"Toko Toya." His voice stated blatantly that he believed she was a child who couldn't understand him and he proceeded to try and tell her how to spell his name. Not willing to take any more Emiko grabbed the handle of the door and spared a glance at her friends who understood the look and each covered their ears, a few in the classroom following suit as they saw Emiko.

A loud crash echoed painfully throughout the room and Emiko was sure, throughout the hallways as well. The floor shook for a few seconds and Naruto grinned as he looked to see that the students at the front had shut up, the one who had been speaking before turned to see her at the doorway, grinning proudly as she kept a firm hand on the doorway as though to dare him to say anything.

"Kigurashi. What are you doing?" The teacher asked politely and Emiko looked over to her abruptly.

"Closing the door. It was stuck." She lied before pushing past them and taking her seat.

"Why'd you have to make it so loud." Naruto asked with a hint of a whine in his voice. He none the less laughed and gave her a congratulatory high five.

"Class," The group's attention turned to the teacher as she stood before them, clipboard in hand. "As I'm sure you all heard Sir Gideon's was burned badly-" At this several students cheered and laughed, ignoring the glares pointed at them by 2 of the 4 new comers. "Now, now, I know you don't truly feel that way."

"Iie, we do!" Kiba spoke up to interrupt her attempt at making her class seem more civilized and welcoming to the new students. Emiko laughed for a second but quickly caught herself by turning it into a cough. Shikamaru, taking his chance, slammed her on the back in an attempt to 'help her'. She glared playfully at him which he shrugged off and mouthed 'for the headlock.'

"Class." The teacher stated firmly. "These will be our new students until their school is fixed." She gestured to the four students standing beside her. 'Did she really have to wave at them? It's not like we don't know that it's them.' Emiko thought to herself as she leaned back in her chair to find a comfortable position to observe the new comers.

"This is Toko Toya." The gaze of the class went to the young man from before who looked at them as though they didn't deserve to see his beautiful self.

"This is Nagasaki Megumi." The young girl raised a hand to wave but immediately stopped under the gaze of her fellows. Emiko cocked her head to one side in curiosity as she caught the girl's eyes and smiled faintly which she managed to return. 'She might not be so bad.' Emiko sighed, remembering what her mother would say in this situation.

'Treat them all as potential friends.' She knew she would regret it but decided to at least follow her mother's advice for a day to maybe see how the four new students would react. Her attention returned to the girl, she had curled, golden brown hair, half of which was pulled back into a small ponytail, and bright, friendly hazel eyes. Her clothes were clean and well kept, maybe even ironed as Emiko noticed few if any wrinkles in her white blouse and floor length blue skirt.

"This is Shiiro Kyoko." The fourth person was introduced and the class looked to the last person in line. 'Whore,' Emiko let out a sigh of exasperation as she realized her no judging promise would be hard to keep. The girl had black hair that was cut chin length and gelled to keep straight. Her eyes were deep blue although Emiko couldn't be sure with the heavy black eyeliner, mascara and bright purple eye shadow. Her blouse was unbuttoned just enough that if she tipped one of the flaps her bra would be visible.

'Like a cheap flip book,' Emiko thought to herself. 'Flip through it, it's amusing but worthless.' Immediately she cursed under her breath as she realized what she had thought. 'I never think of my friends this way,' she reasoned and eventually realized that it was simply because of the history between the two high schools that she was willing to be harsher upon them.

'They're all just transfers from…Peru…' she thought to herself as she looked back at the girl, determined to follow her mother's advice and treat them equally. It was hard with the girl wearing expensive jeans with purposefully made holes to make them look worn and aged. 'I-' she shook her head and stopped the thought before it could start.

"Now then, there are still some seats that are available and working…" the teacher paused as she searched for open seats that weren't clearly works of Frankenstein. "There, Shiiro you may sit next to Yamanaka." Ino's face paled and Emiko heard sniggering coming from Kiba as the girl sauntered her way through the aisle to slowly sit beside Ino, the look upon her heavily make-up face suggesting that she would rather sit beside a pile of manure.

Emiko calmly sent her blonde friend an encouraging smile to reassure her that she would be okay which she gratefully returned with a smile of her own.

"Nagasaki, you may sit beside Uzumaki." Emiko leaned forward a little more as Naruto waved her over, a happy grin upon his face. It was noticeable that Naruto's friendly nature was eagerly welcomed by the girl as she quietly made her way to the desk. Just as she was about to set her things down a bag thumped upon the desk and everyone followed it to see a dark haired young man standing beside the desk.

"Uchiha, your seat is over there." Emiko realized he must have been the person she'd missed the introduction to and studied him. His face was blank, his eyes were onyx and empty and Emiko noticed to herself that he seemed completely void of anything human like.

"Nagasaki, sit in my seat." He stated monotonously, his voice commanding just enough that the girl turned to the teacher who pointed to a seat beside the white haired Toko. Beside her Emiko heard a small gasp and turned to see Sakura practically with hearts in her eyes. Her mouth fell open in shock as she watched Sakura then Ino stare at him as he sat down beside Naruto.

'Oh no…' Naruto's eyes were narrowed and his mouth was quivering, it was clear he was ready to yell at the boy who had arrived as though he owned everything. 'Which he actually may.'

"Who-" Emiko lunged forward and clamped her hand securely around his mouth to muffle the yells before she jerked him back towards her.

"Naruto calm down, no fighting you're already in trouble since you got caught spray painting the principal's office and the gym." Truthfully she wasn't sure why she didn't want him to start a fight with the dark haired boy, now sitting diagonally ahead of her, but she decided that it was best to just stay out of his way.

Naruto tried to turn his head away but Emiko held it in place, ignoring the snickers coming from Kiba and Shikamaru who were both entertained at the sight. Finally he nodded and she gradually released him.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO SIT HERE AND I WAS GOING TO MAKE A NEW FRIEND!" Emiko winced and dropped her head to the table which gratefully had finished drying and groaned as Naruto continued to disrupt the entire class with his ranting at the guy sitting next to him.

"Dobe." Naruto stopped, staring at the boy incredulously before he continued to yell at the otherwise quiet and unperturbed Uchiha.

"Uzumaki! Be quiet or you'll have detention!" The teacher attempted to yell but found it futile as the class began to laugh. "That's it! Detention!" This of course had no more effect than her threat and Emiko leaned back in her chair once again.

"Let the games begin…"