-Second Button From the Top-
Chapter I: Konoha High
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.
The school for army brats. That's what the general public knew them as. No one called them Konoha High anymore, although that was their official name. What little respect there had been for the school was lost since the "Itachi incident". Apparently a deranged pauper who had been sculpted into a fine-tuned killing machine had caused a mass slaughter in the Uchiha faction. The media gobbled up the story, and Konoha High was nearly closed.
Sakura sighed as she reflected upon these unsavory facts. The brochure was well crafted enough – touting the institution's high tech facilities, first class teachers and high matriculation rate to Konoha Ops (Japan's elitist central intelligence department). But that didn't cover up the fact that most of the students enrolled were the toughest, roughest kids that ever lived on the streets. It was well known that Konoha High recruited mostly from the slums. Poor people had more to lose. They would give it their all. They would work twice as hard because they had no other choice. They had nothing going for them. It was either succeed or back to the slums you go.
Sakura weighed her meager options. She could continue with her job as a bar tender at Joe's; working long shifts and constantly fending off sexual harassment... or she could go to Konoha High, be fed and boarded, collect a monthly stipend and take the chance of being killed or severely injured in the process…
3 months later
"As many of you have guessed, we are not a normal school. We don't house insufferable, whiny teenage hormonal disasters. We foster discipline, excellence and perseverance. If you want to whine, whine elsewhere. If you expect to be pampered then this is not the school for you…" the headmaster droned on at the podium.
After weeks of debating and a little push from her employer (well, he fired her to provide an incentive) she was finally at the infamous Konoha High. The school was pretty big and old fashioned. She had not seen one TV screen or car since she stepped past the institution's gates. Not that cars would find much purchase on the rough streets composed of cobblestone and dirt. Communication was obsolete as well. All mobile phones and electronic devices were confiscated upon arrival (not that she had any). The only tolerated way of communication was by messenger birds. It was as if the school was trying to limit their communication with the outside world.
"Ow!" Sakura winced as someone shoved her in the ribs, bringing her back out of her reverie. She turned her head irately and discovered that the perpetrator was a rowdy blonde with whiskers across his cheeks. She glared. He winked. She scooted a little further away from him.
Sakura tried to focus back on what the headmaster was lecturing about while absentmindedly smoothing down her uniform. She had been surprised when three sets of standard issue Japan high school uniform had been sent to her. With a school as dedicated to military intelligence as Konoha High, you would have thought they would have snazzier uniforms. Apparently not. The uniform for girls consisted of the usual white blouse with the trademark blue jean sailor suit collar and short navy skirt. For boys it consisted of the traditional white linen shirt, black jacket and pants. All the uniforms had the school's insignia emblazoned on it in yellow.
She snuck glances at the odd crowd surrounding her. Everyone was wearing the same uniform but everyone was wearing it differently. The statuesque blond beside her had her blouse knotted below the chest, baring her midriff. Her eyes were outlined in smoky blue to match her irises and ridiculously skimpy black stockings completed the look. Another girl straight out tossed the blue jean collar, accessorizing with a sleeveless jacket that had pockets and straps filled with knives and shuriken. There was less variety amongst the guys, but no two were alike. This had his jacket buttoned to the top, that left it hanging open completely and one had actually torn the jacket into tatters...
The blonde beauty caught Sakura looking at her. She assessed Sakura briefly, tossed her hair back and extended a hand. "Hey Cherry, I'm Ino Yamanaka in Class 3."
"Hi Ino-san, my name is Sakura Haruno, I'm also from Class 3. This is the first time we've met, please tolerate my faults." Sakura took her hand shyly, grasping it for the briefest of moments.
"Sakura huh? With that hair color? Suits you. Why all the fancy talk? You ain't one of those pretty missus that bought their way in eh? Trying to play ninjas and samurai?" Ino smiled prettily at her pocket mirror.
"Well –"
"Anyhow pretty, I'm only here for one reason; I heard the instructors here are really hot. There's this one called Genma that's pretty cute, but Hatake's the real hottie. I saw him in one o' them Bingo books, and I heard he's teaching here before they transfer him to Konoha Ops." Sakura saw that she took out some eyeliner and began applying it.
"Oh –"
"I'm starting to take a liking to you doll. Now you just hang on to me real tight, and I promise everything's gonna be alright, kay? Kay."
Sakura smiled bemusedly at Ino, wondering if all her classmates were going to be as eccentric as her. She spent the rest of the headmaster's address listening to Ino talk about whose ass she thought was cute and what type of guy was good for a girl and what type was not. Sakura nodded along, barely listening, occasionally inserting a noncommittal "mhhmm". But Ino didn't complain, she wasn't picky about her audience.
At length the headmaster's speech dwindled and died and they were escorted out to their respective classrooms. Sakura and Ino headed towards Class 3 and were apparently the last ones to arrive. Thirty or so students stared back at them as they clumsily located a seat at the far left. Mostly they were ogling Ino.
"...Okay, I'm going to skip the crap because I don't like wasting my time," a hard faced middle aged man with an unattractive slash across his face barked out, he was presumably the tutor for this class, "Monday to Fridays from 8AM to 3PM you will be here, working your asses off. My name is Ibiki and you will refer to me as Master Ibiki. I will be teaching and demonstrating. But I'm not your friend, nanny or mother, you will not ask questions, you will not approach me, you will not talk to me period."
"Then how are we supposed to learn teme!" a loud mouthed blonde shouted out. Sakura recognized him as the obnoxious boy that had injured her ribs earlier on.
THWOK! A dart hit the table where the blonde's hands had been placed previously.
"You WILL NOT, I repeat, WILL NOT, TALK TO ME." the tutor thundered. The poor boy looked a little queasy.
Ibiki paused for a moment so that it would sink in. "...As for learning. That would be the responsibility of your sempai. Here at Konoha High we offer a wide variety of clubs that you can become a member of," here the man chuckled, "clubs for assassination, hand to hand combat, weaponry, infiltration…" at this point even the moodiest looking of kids started to perk up, eyes as large as dinner plates, listening with rapt attention, "I only teach the basic stuff, they're the ones that you really learn from. You will spend the next few days with sempai from the Konoha Ops. They will choose you to be their kohai according to which skills you have and which you lack. Get to know them, get them to like you. They should be arriving at about, oh, now."
"This is what I'm talkin' about yo. There some seriously hot guys among those sempai I hear." Ino whispered into Sakura's ear.
The door to the classroom opened and a rag tag bunch of older kids filed in, laughing and pushing each other in jest. They looked to be in their twenties, some younger. None of them wore uniforms, instead they all seemed to be fitted into their own custom made combat fatigues. It wasn't hard to see who specialized in weaponry and who excelled in physical combat.
While each person was going through their self introductions, Ino wasted no time in pointing out the most famous personalities in the ensemble. From what Sakura could garner, there was Asuma the brilliant tactician, Guy the martial arts beast and Kurenai the espionage expert.
There were three individuals that especially caught Sakura's eye. They obviously knew each other, they were obviously close, and if there were such a thing as "cool kids" in Konoha High, they were obviously it.
"Ino-san, who are those three?"
"Only the best of their class," Ino said with great pomp, "the red head with the face paint is Rin, said to be the best medic since Tsunade herself. The guy with the goggles is Obito, said to be among the deadliest in hand to hand combat. And the one in the middle is the one I told you about. Hatake, the genius…" Ino smirked, "I'd slap that."
"How do you know so much?" Sakura marveled.
"Back when I was training with my dad - nearly everyone in our family goes into military intelligence you know, and half of them end up in Konoha Ops - he made me memorize a little book of names, "the Bingo Book" he called it. He said to avoid the people on the book at all costs if they were to be my opponent on the battle field. These three were on the top of my list."
Sakura wondered briefly about Ino's background and what scary talents were hiding under her rather vapid face, before turning her attention back to the trio. Although Ino was making a lot of fuss about the guy called Hatake, personally she was more drawn to Rin. She liked her carefree look and audacious red hair. Besides, being a medic seemed like the least dangerous of all the occupations – if you could call them that – that the school offered. She was determined to make Rin like her.
As Sakura's eyes roamed the room her eyes briefly locked with the guy in the middle; Hatake. She took in his disheveled hair, strong jaw line and clean cut figure. His physique definitely wasn't unique in the classroom; most guys bore his sleek, athletic look. There was something different about him though, something that held her gaze. The way he stood perhaps, or the way his eyes seemed to look right through you. He had a presence.
Hatake stared back at her nonchalantly. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly upwards. She would have noticed it had she taken an advanced facial analysis class, but she hadn't and she didn't.
And so she had no clue about just how screwed she was.