-
The sun shone above the beautiful, ordered, practically-crime-free city of Konohagakure. It's was seven o'clock in the morning, and school was beginning. The students of Konoha High School were filing into the school, but instead of walking straight to where their individual classes were, they were all crowded around the principal's office, wondering what those "clink, clank, clunk" sounds were for. The students were able to see three unidentifiable silhouettes standing in front of Tsuande-sensei's desk, but that is all.
Hyuuga Neji, the school's smartest thirteen-year-old, activated his Byakugan and peered through the window. He discovered that the unidentifiable silhouettes were a beautiful girl who looked about fifteen, a boy who looked about fourteen, and a Goth who looked about twelve. The boy and the girl were emptying their many pockets of . . . knives, daggers, guns, and poison injections? The boy had apparently stripped down to his boxers a little while ago and was removing a gun holster from his waist. Who the hell were these kids? Didn't they know that no one was allowed to take weapons to school? A blush crept onto Neji's cheeks as the girl slipped out of her shirt to remove a few more daggers. Perhaps he should stop watching . . . but she was pretty hot.
-
"GAH! I'm late!" screamed a blond boy named Uzumaki Naruto who was running down the halls.
His best friend, Uchiha Sasuke, the seventh grade's personal dark-blue-haired student, ran after him, grumbling something that sounded like "I told you to get a move on, but no, you had to . . . ." and the rest of his sentence is lost to the world. The two boys made a sharp left turn and entered homeroom. Naruto came to a screeching halt, and Sasuke slowed down calmly.
"You're late," said the brown-haired teacher standing in front of the class.
"Sorry, Iruka-sensei. Naruto was dawdling again," Sasuke said.
"So? You could've gone ahead without me!" Naruto replied loudly.
"If I did that, you never would've showed up," Sasuke retorted.
"Go to your seats, NOW, Uchiha-kun, Uzumaki-kun," Iruka-sensei ordered, pointing to their seats.
"Yes, sensei," the two boys said in unison.
Sasuke seated himself in his desk in the back corner. Naruto plopped into his seat next to the window that acted as the divider between the front of the class and the back of the class.
"Now that everyone's here, I have an announcement to make. We have two new students. You may come in now," Iruka-sensei said.
The door opened and two people walked in. One was a boy with brown spiky hair clad in torn jeans, a ripped T-shirt, and a torn-up jean jacket. The other was a red-headed Goth with a tattoo on his forehead; the tattoo was the kanji for love. Naruto's jaw dropped at the sight of the red-head. There wasn't anyone who looked remotely like him in Konohagakure. Sasuke's eyes widened; where had he seen the insignia on their headbands before?
"Their names are Kankuro and Gaara. They're transfer students from Sunagakure," Iruka-sensei continued.
Sasuke gasped. That's why it looked familiar! The insignia was the symbol of Sunagakure, the city that was a thirty-mile drive from there with an incredible amount of crime! His brother had warned him to stay away from anyone who was in Konohagakure with that symbol on them, and to warn the police immediately because anyone who left Sunagakure was obviously up to no good. If only Sasuke could remember exactly why that was!
"Would you two like to introduce yourselves?" Iruka-sensei asked the two boys.
"I'm Kankuro and I'm fourteen." Kankuro began, but he was cut off by a snigger. He glared in the snigger's direction. "The reason I'm in this grade is because Sunagakure doesn't have a high education expectation, but Konohagakure does, so that's the only reason. Oh, and Dad's rich which is why the stupid police actually let us move. If any of you are really as smart as you make yourselves out to be, you know that the only way to get out of Sunagakure is to pay a huge amount of money, like in the billions."
Kankuro left it at that. They stood up there for a minute until Kankuro nudged the red-head. Naruto could've sworn he heard Kankuro mutter "say something" before the red-head opened his mouth.
"I'm Gaara and if any of you have a brain you'll stay out of my way and leave me alone," the red-head said.
Kankuro nudged him again as though he wanted him to say something else. Gaara didn't speak again, however, so Kankuro gave up on it and asked Iruka-sensei where their seats were.
"Kankuro-kun, you may sit next to Hyuuga-chan. Gaara-kun, you may sit next to . . . Uzumaki-kun," Iruka-sensei directed.
Gaara and Naruto locked gazes for a second. The blond gulped. The cold glare pierced through him like a sharp knife, installing fear in him. He gulped again. Gaara stepped slowly toward the empty seat next to Naruto. It seemed to take forever, even though it only took one-and-a-half minutes.
Kankuro quickly took his seat next to Hyuuga Hinata (as her nametag said her name was underneath the leaf symbol). The dark-purple-haired girl blushed and kept her gaze off of him. Kankuro raised an eyebrow, then remembered how Gaara was when he was really little and not allowed outside of the house.
'So, Konohagakure still has shy kids. Cool,' Kankuro thought before putting all of his attention on Iruka-sensei.
-
"Uh, hi, I'm Temari. I'm fifteen, but since Sunagakure has a poor education system, I guess I'm a little dumb compared to the rest of you since this is eighth grade. I'm the eldest of three. My younger brothers, Kankuro and Gaara, are in seventh grade now, but Gaara's the only one who's supposed to be in seventh grade. I am from Sunagakure, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to hurt any of you. I'm not any of those people who cause the trouble, I'm just the girl who has to protect herself is all, and I probably should shut up now before I further embarrass myself," Temari said, laughing nervously.
Neji, Tenten, and Lee spared glances at each other, and they knew what each of them was thinking. They had known each other so long that that was possible.
Lee was thinking: Sunagakure must be awful.
Tenten was thinking: Poor girl. I think we should help her. What do you think Neji?
Neji was thinking: Sure, Tenten. You in, Lee?
Lee thought back: Of course!
The three of them then concentrated on what was happening in the outside world. Temari was assigned the seat in between Neji and Lee, which was in front of Tenten.
"Now, class, I have an assignment for you all. You are all to tutor someone from the seventh grade. Hyuuga-kun, you shall tutor Uchiha-kun. Tenten-chan, you shall tutor Kankuro-kun. Rock-kun, you shall tutor Gaara-kun. Temari-chan, you shall tutor Uzumaki-kun," the teacher continued on and on like that. The only thing that processed into Temari's mind was that this Tenten and Rock were going to be tutoring her brothers.
"Psst. Hey, which one is Tenten and Rock?" Temari whispered to Neji.
"Tenten's behind you, and Rock Lee is on your other side," Neji informed.
"Thanks," Temari said then looked over at her shoulder to the girl behind her. "Tenten, Kankuro's my brother, so I thought that you should know that Kankuro sort of has an ego problem."
"'Kay. Thanks for the tip. I'll try to be gentle," Tenten whispered.
"Lee? Gaara's my other brother, and he's not the most friendliest person. He takes defending oneself to an extreme. You might not want to even try. Sometimes he acts like he'd harm one of his own siblings," Temari whispered.
"Don't worry about me, I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm not one of the best martial artists in this school for nothing!" Lee whispered, giving Temari a thumbs-up.
The blonde smiled worriedly. That was sort of what she was afraid of, that he'd fight back. That only encouraged Gaara.
-
Red Roses2: Short, I know, but hey, it's getting started. Review, flame, praise, critique, do whatever. Just put more than a ". . ." Someone actually did that in a review. It was kind of pointless.