Sakura Haruno's Junior High career wasn't something she was too proud of, since kids continuously told her she had a large forehead. It wasn't like she purposely asked her Mother and Father to reproduce and give her features that other students could make fun of (but even if she did have that power she'd probably ask for the total opposite). Internally, Sakura wanted to be looked at like her best friend Ino was looked at; pretty, beautiful, and any other synonyms she sometimes felt hopeless about.
Sakura was confident in her school work, and even enjoyed the occasional sporting event, but it was Ino who attracted all of the boys when they went some where. Inside her mind, she spent hours comparing herself to her childhood friend, but in the end nothing changed, and it only made her feel even more depressed. What really sucked, is when she finally found the courage to talk to her Mother about these situations, her Mother would go on a rampage about how Sakura was beautiful just the way she was!
Sakura sighed as she glanced sideways at her smiling best friend, Ino, who appeared to be oblivious to Sakura's melancholy mood. She dragged her eyes away from the long-haired blonde, and looked up at the scene before them. It had taken them eight years to get here (not including their many adventures in Pre-K), and finally they were standing before the colossal building, "Konoha High School. . ." The pink haired girl sighed, and then giggled at the irony.
Ino looked over at her, and smiled a warm smile with frowning eyes. Sakura looked up at her, and returned it, glad that they became friends again in Junior High. The reason they were separated in the first place, was because they actually allowed a boy to get in between them. This boy's name is Sasuke Uchiha, and although he could easily take advantage of all of the girls in the school, he didn't. This forced a lot of people to believe he was indeed, perhaps, gay.
'Konoha High School'
By: GaaraFox
Chapter I: Here We Go
Ino chuckled and Sakura looked over at her with a puzzled look, as if she were reading her previous thoughts, "We're finally here!" She exclaimed, adjusting her purse on her shoulder.
"Time goes by really fast. . ." Sakura looked up towards the sky, suddenly feeling a pinch of sadness tug at her heart.
"It goes by too fast!" Ino laughed, and Sakura even admired the way that sounded. "But it's not so bad." She shrugged, and together they walked through the tall, iron gates that was the entrance to their new school.
Past the two large gates was a courtyard in front of the building, which had convenient benches placed in various places for students to sit and interact in the morning sun. A variety of trees and small bushes were placed on luscious green squares of grass, and in between the squares were interceding paths of concrete. Although, these structures never interfered with the thick concrete walkway that shot a bee line to the front doors of Konoha High School.
Slowly they began their path to the front doors, glancing around the courtyard to capture the developed faces of their fellow classmates, and even some other students they'd never seen before.
Sakura bounced her eyes from left to right, and first caught sight of the same old annoying blonde with fox details she'd known since forever. She rolled her eyes when she noticed that he hadn't changed a bit, and still needed therapy to get away from the color orange. Sitting next to him was the shy but beautiful Hinata Hyuuga, who was reading one of her seven-hundred page books. He was watching her thoughtlessly - 'If he even thinks' Sakura thought with a smirk - and didn't appear to be bugging her, because everyone knows she's had a crush on him since. . . 'Hell, even I can't remember!' Sakura internally rolled her eyes.
Next, they noticed the raven-haired boy that destroyed her and Ino's childhood friendship. He was standing against a tree with one of his legs propped up on the trunk, looking down at the ground in either silent meditation, or actual sleep. He appeared mysterious and lonely when his eyes were closed, but when they were open you couldn't help but walk past him and think, 'Bastard.' Even if you'd never seen him before! Sakura nodded her head, he was just one of those people.
Then they caught sight of Chouji, who was sitting on the ground, lazily eating a bag of potato chips, "He hasn't changed, either." Ino muttered under her breath. At first Sakura thought she was talking about Chouji, but then she realized who was next to him. The male she must've been speaking of was Shikamaru, who was laying on the ground next to Chouji, probably gazing up at the clouds. Although, it was difficult to tell if his eyes were open or closed from where they were standing.
Eventually she tore her eyes away from him, and recognized Hinata's cousin, Neji Hyuuga. He was sitting on the grass, possibly thinking of reasons why he hadn't left yet, or why he even decided to show up. This whole ordeal must not be that big of a deal for him since he's no longer a freshman, but an arrogant sophmore. Actually, Neji is sort of like Sasuke in a few ways, because they both always look like they're either pissed off, or deep in thought.
Sakura and Ino stopped walking when Ino pulled out her phone to begin the texting frenzy that would anger her parents and lower her grades. 'That isn't so bad. . .' Sakura was just grateful that she actually had something that Ino didn't, good grades.
Still, the light depression wouldn't fade, and Ino was probably texting some really hot upperclassmen that she met online. 'Which reminds me. . .' Sakura shuddered as she caught sight of the round eyed, fuzzy browed freak that lost his name because of the numerous nicknames people came up with, 'I know it's something stupid that has to do with nature. . . And it used to remind me of Jet Lee. . . Oh yeah! It's-'
"Rock Lee!" Gai exclaimed, finishing Sakura's thought. He had his hands on Lee's shoulders, and was most likely preaching to him about how proud he was that he has made it to his second year of High School! 'Yay. . .' Tears began to pour like rivers down his face and she rolled her eyes, but soon stopped all of her thoughts when she saw someone leaning next to the school.
Sakura squinted her eyes, trying to get a better looked at him, "Hey, Ino?" Sakura called to her best friend as she kept her eyes on the mysterious figure.
"Huh?" Ino asked, keeping her eyes and thumbs on her extremely fascinating cell phone.
"Who's that guy standing next to the school?" At the corner of Sakura's eye, she noticed Ino lift her head and look over in the direction her best friend was looking.
"You don't remember?" She replied to her question with another question.
Sakura looked over at her, "Remember what. . .?"
"Sakura, they explained all of this last year!" Ino threw her arms up in protest, clearly not wanting to explain it again.
"I seriously have no idea what you're talking about." Sakura laughed, and Ino rolled her eyes.
"Basically, all of the High Schools in all of the villages have decided to send a few of their students to other schools, just so they can experience what it's like to be in other village's schools." Ino shrugged her shoulders, "It's sort of like a. . ." She snapped her fingers, looking for the right words, "A Student Exchange Program!" She pointed, smiling triumphantly.
"Are you sure that's not just the name of it?" Sakura teased her and she glared back.
"Oh, shut-up, you smarty pants." Ino complained, and began her texting adventure once again.
Sakura lightly chuckled, and then glanced around the courtyard, 'The Exchange Program would explain why Shino isn't here.' Then she looked back at the boy standing against the wall, feeling an alien emotion crawl up inside her.
"So do you know him?" She asked curiously.
"How could I? He's from the Sunagakure-"
"Suna?" Sakura interrupted her.
"Yeah," Ino sighed, a bit annoyed at the sudden interruption, "And plus my Dad told me I shouldn't talk to him because of some weird thing that went on in Suna. But even if Daddy hadn't told me anything," She glanced over at him, "I still wouldn't talk to him." Ino shivered and brought her attention back to her previous phone.
Sakura then glanced back at the boy by the rock, his blood red hair amusing her until she thought of her own pink hair, and then giggled, 'I don't care what Ino's Dad told her, my Dad always told me not to judge others by appearance.'
Suddenly everyone began walking towards the two fronts doors as a warning bell went off, urging them to get their butts moving to class. Ino and Sakura quickly dug in their bags, fumbling around for their schedules, "Ugh!" Ino began complaining, 'Is this really the first time she's looked at her schedule? We got it last week. . .' "I have World Geography first." She rolled her eyes but then looked over at Sakura with a smile, "Well, at least it'll be with you, right Sakura?"
'Uh-oh. . . I forgot to tell Ino that I decided to take Art, and now we're not in all of the same classes!' Sakura tentatively looked up at Ino through her eye lashes as they entered the front doors, gracing her with a very innocent smile. Ino slowly began changing her expression into a glare, and was about to repeat her previous question more harshly until Sakura began running down the hall. "Sorry Ino! Gotta go! First day you know! Can't be late!"
"You changed your classes without telling me, didn't you?" Ino yelled from a mass of students and tried stepping on her toes to see Sakura, but she was soon gone. Ino huffed and folded her arms, indecisive about what to do, but eventually gave up and dragged her feet to first period.
Meanwhile, Sakura was running down the halls and zig-zagging in between people, causing a few of them to give her disturbing looks. She usually did this just for the fun of it, like it's some sort of training at school in which you have to avoid and dodge your "enemies".
"Hey! Watch out!" A girl called from behind her. Sakura had accidentally hit her arm, which caused the girl's books to fall to the floor. Sakura's mind was quickly buzzing, and there was absolutely no time to simply stop and chat. She honestly - and not just an excuse - didn't want to be late on her first day!
"Sorry!" She called from behind her, hoping that was good enough for the girl.
Subtly, Sakura began noticing that there were less students in the hallways as she bolted to her class, and eventually her spontaneous fun turned into anxiety, 'Crap, I really am going to be late!'
"Almost there-!" The pink-haired kunoichi-in-training stopped abruptly, and was now laying on the floor rubbing her head with her eyes squinted. She looked up to see who was the cause of her injury, and all thoughts in her mind stopped before she was able to scream obscenities. Sakura became momentarily paralyzed and her brain felt numb as she searched for something to say to the person she'd run into.
"Watch where you're going." The redhead from this morning spoke. His sea foam eyes seemed to hold complete apathy for absolutely everything.
"Oh, right. . . Sorry. . ." She lightly blushed from embarrassment, and was hoping he would help her off of the ground.
He didn't speak a word, or respond in any way as he turned into the doorway that was her next class. Sakura slightly smiled at the irony, but couldn't let go of his unusually rude behavior.
"Hey, that's my class too." She tried to innocently start some sort of conversation.
This time, instead of not saying anything at all, he turned and looked at her with an emotionless expression. 'I guess that's his way of giving sarcasm. . .'
'Wonder what's shoved up his-'
'Eww. . .'
'Baka, you're not supposed to literally think that!'
'Hee hee-'
Suddenly the bell rang, and Sakura found herself walking into her classroom, with everyone already seated, staring at her as if she were a complete moron. At least, that's how it appeared to be in her mind, because she knew she wasn't the most popular girl in the school, but of course, that didn't really bother her too much. Sakura had always found the perfect way to balance her insecurities, and that came with just accepting herself! . . .right.
'I think I'm late. . .'
Sakura stayed frozen in place, not sure about what to do next.
'Now you really do look like a moron. . . Say something!'
She sheepishly scratched the back of her head and said, "Hi?"
Oh gah, when I went back and read the other version of this, I was like ::le gasp!:: because seriously, there were a lot of errors! Actually, I wrote that when I was like... 12? 13? And now that I'm 15, I've decided to go back and correct a lot of things, but the characters in order, establish personalities, force the grammer to make sense, and produce words that are actually in the dictionary. -Sigh- Although, for some peculiar reason, I've noticed that this story has the most reviews. I'm not entirely sure why you guys loved the poorly written version so much (with that really long, poorly written schedule that made no sense what-so-ever), but regardless, you guys asked for me. I hope you're okay with my changes, if not, then you can yell at me if you want to. -Shrugs- Although I'm warning you, I'm a pretty apathetic person. -Smiles a Sai smile-