Author's Note: I had the idea of writing something darker today, and I couldn't help but type this up. Let me know what you think, is it too much? Also, Itachi's a little AU in this, but someone had to be nice to Sakura!

I got the idea of typing out the class schedule from the story TheCherryOnTop (can you see how similar it is?) I also really wanted to write about a mysterious boarding school, so we'll see how this goes.

I had just gotten home from school when my life changed.

It was eerily quiet inside - it was like I knew that something was wrong immediately. Carefully, I stepped through the living room, still wearing my backpack. I was sixteen - just starting my junior year of high school.

"Hello?" I called. My mom must have been home at least.

There was something wrong. It's strange how when someone tells a story about something tragic that it's like they almost knew that something horrible had happened before they saw the terrible thing. I never really understood until it, that feeling, happened to me.

It was in the kitchen that I saw them. My mother and my sister on the floor; dead.

"M-mom," I said, staring at them in shock. Surely they weren't... this couldn't be happening.

I walked closer, and saw that her eyes were still open, a look of horror on her face. I couldn't bear to look at my sister - a year older than me, and my best friend. It was like my mind had shut down. I stared, blankly, at the only family I had left in the world. They were gone.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I screamed.

The car pulled up, but I wasn't ready to get in. It would mean that I was about to leave everything that I ever knew. I didn't want to stay in my house anymore, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with these... people either.

Back in the kitchen, on the worst day of my life, a man had been in my house waiting for me.

"Don't scream," he had said. "I'm not here to hurt you." He was wearing a strange uniform - all black, with his long hair tied back into a ponytail.

I just stared at him. Later, I thought that he could have been the killer of my family and I wouldn't have known. But I couldn't think then, so it was good that he was actually there to help me.

"My name is Itachi," he said kindly. "I'm here to get you away from here."

"Why are you here?" My voice sounded like it should have belonged to someone else. "What..." I trailed off uselessly.

"Sakura Haruno," he continued, "you're not safe here. There are people who are looking for your father that want to eliminate him. They came to your house looking for him." He continued to talk, but I wasn't listening anymore. My father was dead - my mom had told us that when we were kids. He had died in an accident at work. Being a firefighter wasn't the safest profession, after all.

"My father's dead," I interrupted him. "You must be talking about the wrong person."

Itachi shook his head sympathetically. "No, he's alive," he said. "Your mother knew all along, that she would never be able to see him again in our... line of work."

I shook my head. "This can't be happening."

"You're in shock," he said, "but we need to go. Now."

Outside, there were other people dressed in black uniforms. I had to wait while they made sure that no one was in the house. Then, they told me I was to be relocated to another city.

"What?" I said. "I can't just leave... where am I going?"

"That will be arranged," said a woman with hair so black that it almost looked dark blue, "there's nothing here for you anymore."

"Konan, please," Itachi said. "We can give her some time to grieve for her family. Be there for the funeral, at least."

"That wouldn't be a good idea, Itachi," she replied cooly. But still, I was allowed two weeks to grieve. The funeral was probably the worst part. The rest of the time, I stayed in my room, only eating when anyone on duty (they took shifts guarding my house) made me.

I still wasn't sure who they were. Something told me that they were associated with my father - but if they were, then why wasn't he here? Why had he left in the first place?

The night I left, it was raining - reflecting my mood completely. I couldn't even think about what had happened to my mom and sister, much less that my father was still alive. I could barely focus on what I was doing.

"We're taking you to a boarding school in New York," Itachi told me, before we left my house. I had spent the last hour packing away the belongings that I wanted to take with me - mostly clothes, but also small things that might have meant something if my mind wasn't so blank. "It's far enough away, and well-guarded. You'll be safe there."

I ignored him, and the umbrella he held out for me, and set off for the car. It was black, just like everything else these people seemed to have. The driver, a man with smoothed-back grey hair, helped me with my luggage.

Itachi continued talking once we were in the backseat. I think he meant to be reassuring, but I had no desire to talk to anyone at that moment. "My little brother goes there, you know. Maybe you'll meet him there - he's your age."

"That must be great," I said dryly. The school itself was called Konoha Academy. I had never heard of it, but apparently it was prestigious or something. Not that it mattered to me.

"Your father went there too," he said. What was it with these people?

I didn't reply to that. If my father had been alive the whole time... would that mean I would get to meet him?

My expression had apparently been enough. Itachi gave me a small smile. "You won't meet him anytime soon," he said. "He's not in the country. I'm not even sure if he's heard about what happened, to be honest."

"Why did they want to kill us?" I said. "Why did they want my family?"

"We'll have to explain later," he said apologetically.

I didn't feel like talking anymore after that. If I was going to be uprooted from everything that had been important to me, then why wasn't I allowed to know? Itachi wouldn't budge either, he seemed nice enough, but I wasn't going to get anything out of him.

Two plane rides later, I found myself shuffling up to a gated school. The fence was made of iron, and I could make out the shapes of buildings inside through the darkness. Itachi accompanied me to the main building, where we were called into the Headmistress's office. There was a woman with short blond hair tied back into a (slightly) messy bun.

"Sakura Haruno," she said. "We've been expecting you." I noticed a plaque on her desk that read "Headmistress Tsunade". "And you, Itachi," she smirked, "I haven't seen you in years."

Itachi nodded. "It's nice to see that you're Headmistress now."

"Thank you," she smiled again, but it was real now. "Enough with the formalities, I'm sure you're exhausted." She was addressing me now; I just stared at her.

She gave me some paperwork to sign, I didn't read over most of it. I was so tired from traveling that I just wanted to go to sleep. Once we were done with the paperwork, she handed me different clothes on hangers, including a few skirts, blouses, black shoes, and even a pair of pants.

"Your uniform," Tsunade said, "is to be worn at all times during the school day. The only times that it is acceptable to go without a uniform is during weekends and if you are told specifically by a staff member or myself that you can do so. Do you understand?"

I only nodded at her. As someone who had gone to a public school my whole life, I had never had to conform to a uniform.

"Good," she said. "As you probably know by now, Konoha Academy has a prestigious reputation. Only the best of the best of students get into this school. Some of the most powerful people in the country have gone here in their youth..." she trailed off. "You will do your best to uphold the school's reputation. It was a special favor to your father that got you admittance to this school, nothing else."

"I understand," I said, feeling a little like I was joining a cult or something.

"Good," she beamed, "Shizune will show you to your room now." She gestured to the doorway, where a kind-looking woman with short dark hair was smiling at me.

"I'm going to leave you here," Itachi said, "but we'll see each other again." I was a little sad to see him go, but I wouldn't admit it.

"You'll be staying in this building," I had followed Shizune out of the main building of the campus (it was still hard to see everything when it was so dark out), and down a pathway past a few more buildings. Finally, we stopped in front of a large, multi-storied building. "It's the dormitories where everyone in the school lives. You're in room three sixteen," she handed me a key. "Your roommate is the same age as you, you can get properly introduced in the morning." Shizune smiled. "I know that you're coming from a hard situation," she said, "but we're here to help you. It'll get easier."

"Thank you," I replied, feeling awkward. I made my way into the building - Shizune unlocked it for me - and up the staircase until I hit the third floor. It was an old building, I could tell.

My roommate was already asleep when I made it to the room. In the dim lighting that opening the door caused, I could see a mess of blond hair from underneath her blankets. I had always wondered what it would be like to live with a roommate, but now that I was actually doing it I would have given anything to be home again. A quick look at my cell phone told me that it was around midnight - I hoped I didn't wake her up.

My bags had already been placed in the room, and someone had even made my bed for me. Too tired to feel anything but relief, I slipped into bed in the clothes I had been wearing all day and fell asleep.

A shrill ringing woke me up the next morning. I jumped, and sat up too fast - I was suddenly dizzy.

"Oh, you're here." My roommate, a girl with long blond hair stared at me from her bed. "Sorry if my alarm scared you - I need it to wake up in the morning for class." She talked to me strangely, like she wasn't sure if I was smart enough to understand.

"It's fine," I said. Tsunade had given me a class schedule the night before too. Hastily, I grabbed it from the bedside table and tried to decipher it:

Student Schedule
Konoha Academy

Student: Sakura Haruno
ID Number: 647813
Grade: 11

8:30 - 9:15 - English

9:20 - 10:05 - Chemistry

10:05 - 10:20 - BREAK

10:20 - 11:05 - Pre-Calculus

11:10 - 11:55 - Writer's Craft

12:00 - 12:45 - LUNCH

12:50 - 1:35 - Visual Arts

1:40 - 2:25 - Fitness

2:30 - 3:15 - French III

"My name is Ino Yamanaka," my roommate continued. "I thought I was going to get a single room this year, but here you are." She sighed, like it was the biggest inconvenience.

"Sakura Haruno," I said, still looking at the schedule.

"Have you ever been to a boarding school before?" She eyed me curiously.

"No," I replied, "I've only ever been to public school." I wasn't sure if I liked the way she was looking at me. Like I was something to study instead of an actual person. Was this how everyone was?

"Here's something you need to know about Konoha," she told me. "Anyone who gets in here is either rich or smart. Or both. Mostly rich though, since there aren't a lot of scholarships. A lot of us have important parents. Basically, we're all here to become someone great. Not everyone can handle it," she concluded, still staring at me.

"That's... interesting," I said finally.

"Don't worry about fitting in," she said, getting up and moving over to the long mirror by the door. I watched as she swept her hair up into a long ponytail. "Just be quiet and stay out of the way, you won't be too humiliated." She didn't talk much after that, just grabbed some clothes and a small bag and left down the hall, probably going to take a shower in the community bathroom.

I didn't have a lot of time to unpack before class, so I took out some clothes for the day. Thankfully, I had been smart enough to bring shampoo and everything else I needed to shower, so I was able to do that before trying to find my first class - English.

We had an option of going to breakfast, but I didn't bother. I didn't want to see my new peers yet. Instead, I waited until Ino left the room (giving me the advice to wear nude panty hose with my uniform instead of socks - apparently only the younger students wore the knee socks), and sat on my bed. I missed my family. My sister, Hana, had always helped me pick out what I wanted to wear for every first day of school I had. Now, I was starting again in the middle of the fall semester - it was already early October - and I was wearing a uniform.

It took me a while to get myself motivated enough to leave the room - that was the hardest part. But I did it, and it wasn't so bad.

Until I met the rest of my classmates, that is.