Author's Note

Author's Note

Yet again, another story I decided to write. I know, I know… I have a shit-ton of stories, most still unfinished, but I'm positive this story is worth our time.

Anyways, this story was inspired by two things: A picture I found browsing photobucket, and an awesome story by this girl on named Kate. In my story, much like Kate's, all the young ninja from Konoha go to a regular high school; no ninjutsu, no special powers, nothing. Just regular kids leading regular lives in a regular town… except most of the characters are rich.

Now, I realize there are a few stories out there like it and this one may parallel Kate's story to an extent, but that makes some sense since her story was my inspiration… along with that pic from photobucket…

Anywho, let's get on with this story…

P.S. My story has Shikamaru as the main character, whereas most similar stories have those from team 7 in the lead. Also, I made an original character… you'll see…

"Shikamaru… Shikamaru?" Came the voice of Yoshino Nara, my mother.

"Hn… go away…" I grumbled, still tired from the previous night. Maybe Choji and I shouldn't have played Shogi until 1 AM after all…

"Damn it boy, if you don't get your ass out of bed right now, you'll miss your first day of school!" Now her voice was stern. Actually, she was yelling. One would think that after 17 years of parenting me she'd be used to my laziness, but no

"Fine, fine… I'm up." I decided to get out of bed if it would shut her up. Anymore protesting would make her more troublesome than necessary.

"That's more like it. Here, I ironed your uniform and breakfast should be ready by the time you are." Now, she was obnoxiously pleasant. She put m uniform on the end of my bed and left, smiling like an idiot.

I hate mornings.

I decided to not risk her being angry again, so I grabbed my clothes and went into the bathroom to take a quick shower. When I was done, I towel-dried my hair, put it up in it's usual high ponytail, and went downstairs and found Shikaku, my father, eating his breakfast, still in his pajamas.

"Good morning, Shikamaru." He greeted with his mouth full of scrambled eggs. "Your mom made your favorite."

I took my seat across from his, facing the window that overlooked all of Konoha. I wasn't very hungry, so I sat there, nibbling on toast and poking at my eggs, yolk spewing from its protective bubble. Eventually, this caught Shikaku's attention.

"Something wrong, son?" He inquired, eating the last morsel from his plate.

"Yeah, I'm sick. I'm staying home." I said, knowing he'd believe me and not ask questions. Unfortunately, Yoshino heard me.

"You're not sick and you're not missing school, especially your first day. If you don't want to eat, fine, I just hope you'll be okay until lunchtime. Now eat what you can quickly; Choji should be here soon."

Wow, she was surprisingly calm. She probably doesn't want to frazzle me on the fist day of school which is a big deal, evidently. Deciding not to dwell on that, I ate two pieces of toast, a strip of bacon, and a sip of orange juice before getting up. The second I left the dining room, the doorbell rang. I grabbed my school bag, put on my shoes, and answered the door to find my best friend, Choji Akimichi, standing at the door, grinning his usual grin.

"Later." I called out to the parentals before shutting the door and leaving the apartment to walk to school.

"Good morning Shikamaru." He greeted me. "Excited to start our Junior year of high school?"

"It's just another school year," I reminded him, "it's really no different than last year."

"Oh, right." He replied, disappointed I wasn't sharing his enthusiasm. "I guess you're right."

I looked at him and felt a little bad, so I decided to cheer him up. "Well, Junior year does indicate that we're halfway through high school, so I guess it's a little exciting."

He looked at me and smiled. "That's right!" He nodded as we continued walking.

School just came into view right as we walked in front of the Yamanaka residence. Their huge front lawn was edged with brilliantly colorful flowers, perfectly cut grass, and a stone pathway leading to their lavender colored mansion. Just looking at it gave me a headache.

But, no headache could compare to the one that walked out the front door of said residence, Ino Yamanaka. She had pale blue eyes, long pale blonde hair, and her fingernails painted purple. When she stepped out, she spotted us and ran to catch up.

"Shikamaru! Choji! Good morning!" She called out as she began walking between us.

"Good morning, Ino." Choji responded. "You look nice this morning."

I wish he hadn't said that…

"Oh, thank you! I just started using this new facial scrub last weekend…"

My mind trailed off right then. I make it a point to not complement her because she'll go off on how she grooms herself and other uninteresting girly crap. She's so troublesome.

Luckily for Choji and me, we didn't have to listen to her feminine rant for too long, since she only lives three blocks away from our school. We were about to cross the street, and Ino was finally quiet, when a sleek black Jaguar drove in front of us. I hoped Ino didn't notice that the people in the car were the Uchiha brothers…

But like most other things in my life, that was a disappointment…

"KYAAA!" Ino squealed a little more than a foot from my ear. "Sasuke-Kun! "

I sighed and rolled my eyes as we stepped off the curb, crossing the street to get to Mezamero High school.

"Catch you guys later!" She said with a giggle in her voice as she ran off to join the crowd of girls that were waiting for Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha to leave their vehicle and pass them to get to school.

I hate squealing fan girls. I'm glad I don't have any.

Choji and I walked through the front doors and saw Principal Tsunade talking with three students I've never seen before. They must be freshmen.

"So, Shikamaru," Choji said as we sat on the benches in the commons, "are there any classes you're looking forward to?"

I shook my head. "Not particularly."

"Come on, there has to be one." He insisted.

I sighed and slouched, hands in my pockets. "If I had to choose, I guess it would have to be either Study Hall or Lunch."

He laughed. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to lunch, too."

"You would." Came a third voice and, upon turning around, I discovered that said voice belonged to none other than Naruto Uzumaki.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Choji asked. I could tell where this was going.

"Well I mean you're just so fa-..." He looked over and saw the 'shut-up-or-I'll-shut-you-up' expression on my face. "...-antastic. Heh, I mean, lunch is the most important class, right Kiba?" He asked Kiba Inuzuka who had been sitting next to him.

"Nice save." He replied.

"So," Naruto continued, "how was your guys' summer?"

"Loads of fun!" Choji replied. "We beat the .Hack:Infection game." He gloated.

"Really?" Naruto inquired.

"Twice." I corrected.

"Oh yeah, twice." He agreed.

At this point, Kiba had turned around. "You guys didn't seriously spend the entire three months of summer just playing video games, did you?" With that question, he seemed slightly concerned.

"No," I replied, "we went swimming in Choji's family pool, watched TV and played Shogi."

"Woah, dream big!" Kiba replied, sarcastically.

"Well what did you do?" My best friend asked, irritated.

"I did a lot of jogging with Akamaru every morning, went fishing, and we had a family reunion in Korea."

"Oh, so you ate Akamaru?" I said, jokingly.

"Funny."

There was a short, pleasant silence... until Naruto spoke up. "You guys want to know what I did this summer?"

"No." All three of us said in unison.

"Well, my mom and I went camping..."

My brain shut down as a defense mechanism. If I hear him talk too much, I lose IQ points. I know I have a few to spare, but not to something as dumb as that.

Just then, the three students that were talking to Lady Tsunade walked by. One was a boy with spiky brown hair, another boy with slightly messy red hair and dark black circles around his eyes, and the third was a girl.

She had her sandy blonde hair in four ponytails, blue-green eyes, her uniform's top untucked, and a kind of tomboyish-ness about her. But, there was something about her; I couldn't quite pinpoint it. All I knew at that point in time was that she was so... breathtaking. And, when I looked at her, it was like everyone else in the commons disappeared. By the time I remembered where I was, I was happy to realize that she never glanced my way to see how retarded I must've looked.

"... don't you think, Shika?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah... wait, what?" I questioned right as the bell rang.

"Never mind, I'll ask you later."

Everyone got up and scattered to get to their first period classes. I, unfortunately, had to split up from my usual group. The reason: I'm in trigonometry while Naruto, Kiba, and Choji are in Algebra part 1. I would be in that class had Asuma-sensei not tricked me into taking an IQ test, wielding a result of about 200. That's when he had this bright idea of putting me in a class that might challenge me.

I hate him for that.

I skipped going to my locker because I didn't feel like fighting my neighbors for space to get into there; I went straight to Trigonometry. I took my assigned seat which was in the very back row in the middle column; lucky me. I sat there, sharing into nothingness, listening to the students file into the classroom, finding their nametags, and taking their seats. I could hear everyone dropping their books onto the old-as-hell desks, and sitting, gossiping over what everyone did during the hot season that just ended.

The bell rang and Asuma-sensei was nowhere to be found. This struck me as odd because 1) first class on the first day of school, no teacher would want to be late; 2) Asuma-sensei is never late; and 3) the door was open and his stuff wasn't here when it usually is. He's usually here before the sun is even thinking about rising.

I scanned the classroom to see who was in my class. Most of them were seniors, but I did see Neji Hyuga and Tenten... um... hmm... of all the years we went to school together, I never learned her last name. But, none the less, she was here, too.

I looked at the empty desks; one in front of me, one to my right, and one next to that. The seat in front of me had the nametag for 'Temari', and the one next to me said it was designated for a 'Kankuro'. Great, more people with only a first name. But the third empty seat... I couldn't read that far, so I don't know whose it was.

Just then, one of the kids from before walking with that girl sat next to me. He was the one with the brown hair. When he sat next to me, I figured he must be Kankuro. Behind him was that new girl that transferred here in the middle of last year that has long, straight blonde hair with purple streaks and violet eyes. I think her name was Ririn Kamachi. She spoke with Choji a little, but I never really knew her. She just took her seat next to Kankuro and began speaking with Tenten who was in front of her. Then, all that was left was one empty seat and a missing teacher.

"Hey, you." I heard Kankuro trying to get my attention. I turned my head and looked at him. "This is trigonometry with Sarutobi-sensei, right?"

"Let's see, you found your name written on a desk for this hour. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're in the right place." I replied. I know it sounded rude, but right now at 8 AM, I was not in bed where I should be, so I guess one could say that I was cranky.

"Wow, public school kids are real jerks." He said, turning around. I ignored him and tried practicing sleeping with my eyes open. That's when she came in; the girl that caught my attention this morning. She came in and took her seat... right in front of me...

So that's Temari. Pretty name; pretty girl.

The second bell finally rang and, still, Sensei hadn't arrived. Everyone sat in their respective seats, but continued chattering. I hoped Asuma-Sensei would get here soon because the noise was getting to be too much.

"Hey, Temari?" Kankuro leaned over to speak to the sandy-haired goddess. "Where the hell is the teacher?" He seemed to be getting impatient. "They do have teachers here, right?"

That last phrase caught my attention.

Just then, she spoke. "Of course they do you nimrod. Otherwise, they'd be home schooled, too. I swear, you didn't get the intelligence gene..." She then turned back around and faced the front, doodling on the corner of her paper.

I sat there, absorbing what I heard. They were home schooled apparently... but why would he think this public school didn't have any? Wait... the last thing she said... I swear, you didn't get the intelligence gene. Are they related?

My thoughts were interrupted by Lady Tsunade telling everyone to be quiet as she walked to the front of the classroom. "Sorry everyone, but Sarutobi-san will not be joining us for the next week and a half." I would have taken that as grim news, had she not said that with an upbeat attitude.

"Why not?" Tenten demanded.

"Well," the principal continued, "the teacher for the Literature and English classes, Yuhi-sensei, just got taken to the hospital. She's having a baby."

"But what does that have to do with Asuma-sensei?" I asked. I knew those two were good friends, but why would that mean he had to miss class?

Lady Tsunade gave a big smile as she said the next, very shocking three words. "It's his baby."