Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Viz Media and the manga author do. I only own the plot and the O.C.'s.
First day at a new school in a new town. I glanced down at my outfit that consisted of a black jean jacket, white t-shirt with a big horse on the bottom left corner, with a pair of dark blue jeans, and white sneakers. I pulled my tight pony tail tighter and fidgeted with the short, light brown bangs that covered my forehead. I was ready to go with all my notebooks and pencils in my backpack and my car keys in hand, but there is one person I am waiting on: Naruto. Without fail that boy is chronically late. He woke up 15 minutes before we had to leave. The blond boy was running around the new house getting dressed and eating breakfast at the same time. On top of that he was not being quiet about it and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Naruto, get your ass into the living room now or I'm leaving without you," I warned as I tapped my foot.
"Umeko, language!" my cousin and guardian roared from the kitchen. "Naruto, hurry up or you'll be late for school!"
"I'm coming. Believe it!" he yelled from his room.
I rolled my eyes again. "I'm going to the car now!" I yelled to the knuckle head. Then I spoke to my cousin, "Later, Iruka. Have a great day at the tutoring center!"
"Thanks! You have a great first day." He smiled as I walked out the door.
I stepped outside and shielded my eyes from the sun. I singled out the key on my keychain that went to my used black Ford Escort and unlocked it. I sat inside and waited for the blonde annoyance that is Naruto. But as usual I got impatient, started the car, and honked the horn.
"I'm coming!" he bellowed loud enough for everyone to hear. "Believe it!"
"Just get in the car!" I snarled as I raised my hands in frustration. "I don't want to be late and if I am, I swear to Kami that I will kill you!"
He stepped outside wearing a orange and blue t-shirt and jeans that flared out a bit. "Just announce it to the whole world, Umeko," he complained as he sat down in the seat next to me.
"Put your seatbelt on," I growled as I put the car in reverse.
"C'mon. It's what maybe 10 minutes away." He crossed his arms.
"You know the rules, Naruto." I closed my eyes and counted to ten. This was not the best way to start the day, but this was the daily routine. I should be use to it by now.
"Fine," he pouted as he fastened the belt. "There are you happy!"
"Immensely," I told him as I pursed my lips together.
When we arrived to the school the first stop was to the office to pick up our new schedules.
"Hello, I'm Umino Umeko. I'm here to pick up my schedule and locker assignment along with Uzumaki Naruto." I glanced to the now bored fox-faced boy.
"Ah, yes. We were expecting you." The blonde middle aged woman beamed. She picked up some papers. She handed one to me and the other to Naruto. "Here you go. You're locker number and combination are written on it. Have a good day and if you have any problems, don't hesitate to ask."
"Thank you." I grinned back and I pulled my companion out the door with me.
"What do you have first?" I asked after we were out of the main office.
"I have Phys. Ed.. What about you?"
"Health."
He took a glimpse at my schedule. "We only have one class together and that's the last class of the day." He was quiet for a moment. "Oh, looks like we have the same lunch break and advisor. Wanna meet for lunch?"
"Sure," I said and stole a glance at my watch. "Well, we better go and find our first class. See you later."
"Yeah, later." He waved as he went in the opposite direction as me.
I strolled into my first class of the day only a few students were in there. One was a girl in lavender top with her hair up in four pony tails and bangs falling into her face. There was a boy in a white top and black mesh undershirt and he looked completely bored. The other was a boy with a bowl hair cut, bushy brows, and a tight green top. That was just plain messed up!
I continued walking to the desk. The teacher was going over some paper work, but from what I could tell, he too had the bowl hair cut and was also wearing a green shirt. I cleared my throat when I finally approached the desk.
"Hello! I'm Gai-sensei! You must be the youthful, new student in my class!" he exclaimed. "What is your name?"
"Umino Umeko," I replied as I handed him my schedule to make sure I was in the right place and put my finger into my ears to clear them out after the teacher's unnecessary yelling.
"Here you go!" He handed me back the paper. "Sit anywhere you like!"
I heard the others in the room groan and I shook my head to get rid of the loss of hearing that was coming to me. Did he have to yell? Kami. It was bad enough around Naruto, now a teacher. Ugh, this was going to be a long rest of the school year!
I sat in the first seat I reached and leaned against my arms while staring at the clock. I watched as it got closer and closer to the designated time for school to start. I don't really remember what happened after the bell ringing besides a bunch of kids getting in the room as fast as they could before the tardy bell sound except that I took notes on some aspect of puberty with everything being exclaimed and every other word an adverb or an adjective. The bell for first period to end didn't ring quick enough.
I rubbed my temples as I went to my next class. Luckily, it was something I would enjoy: Algebra II. It was taught by Sarutobi Asuma. I tiptoed into the classroom and a man, I presumed it was the teacher, was writing several equations on the board.
I didn't want to interrupt him, but I had to. "Sar-Sarutobi-san." Why did I sound nervous?
"Yes," he answered as he continued scribbling on the board.
He was making it harder than it needed to be. "I'm the new student."
"Oh, hold on one moment," he said as he put the expo marker down and turned around. He had a beard and wore black pants and white button-down shirt with a black tie. The math teacher reached out his hand for the paper and I gave it to him. "Umino Umeko, welcome to Algebra II and you are one of the few sophomores in this class. Had Algebra I in ninth grade, I presume?"
"Thanks and yes." I took my schedule back and sat down close to the front. I set my back pack on the desk and pulled out my math notebook. Putting the pack underneath my desk and opened my notebook to the first unmarked page. I let out a deep sigh.
I noticed as more students trickled in which included the bored kid from first period. He sat down next to me and stated, "You in here, too. It must be a drag being so ahead of everyone else."
"Not really," I replied. "What's a drag is that I had to move here."
"Whatever," came his uninterested reply.
Shoot me, now, I pleaded in my head. I began to write down the equations the instructor had on the board and started some of them. Before the tardy bell rang, a handsome guy wearing all black with dark purple makeup on. It may have been odd, but it was intriguing. I watched him as he walked to the back of the class. As a result, I felt my face turn red.
Halfway through the class, we were working on the problem that had to do with the Pythagorean Theorem. I raised my hand and answered it.
"Very good," he praised.
We worked on the rest of the problems. The last few seconds of class, he instructed, "Work on problems 10 through 25 and bring them back tomorrow."
"Umeko," he called as I stood up. "Go to the back of the room and grab a copy of the blue book on the shelf." He pointed behind.
"Thanks," I acknowledged as I walked to the back of the room. As I walked out of the room, I said, "See ya, tomorrow, Asuma-sensei."
"You, too." He took a couple strides to the white board and wiped off the markings.
Third period was so boring. I had keyboarding. It was taught by a guy with what looked like he had a burn scar on the left side of his face. His name was Raidou-san. All that happened was tedious typing.
Fourth, I had English. Entering the room as I had in my previous classes and walked up to the teachers desk. Before I said anything, a woman wearing a simple red dress. "Hello. You must be the new student," she greeted and smiled. "You may sit down where you want to."
"Thanks." I tottered to a desk and sat down next to the girl that was in first period.
The tardy bell rang. The teacher began to speak, "All right, guys. Today we will be pairing off for our project. Remember, you will be presenting these in three weeks," Kurenai-sensei announced. "You can begin to pair off right now."
"Hey, new girl." I felt someone poke my arm. I turned in the direction of the blonde girl.
"Yeah," I responded.
"Hey, I'm Temari. Would you be my partner?" she asked.
"Sure," I agreed. "By the way I'm Umeko."
"It's nice to meet you." She smiled.
"So, what do you want to do this project on?" I inquired.
"Strong women in literature," She offered. "Or the flawed and weak female characters in literature."
"I like it." I gave her two thumbs up. "How about we discuss the project during lunch?"
"OK." She nodded her head.
"Oh, wait I'm meeting Naruto for lunch unless you want to join us?" I proffered.
"Yeah, but who's Naruto. Is he your boyfriend?"
Opening my mouth in shock and felt the bile rise. "Um, no. We live together because we are family. You know he's like my brother."
"Oh, sorry."
"No problem. You didn't know." I waved my hand.
"Hey, join me to my locker before we go to lunch. So, I can tell my brother, Kankuro, that I won't be joining him for lunch today."
"Sure," I agreed.
"Class, I'm sure you have found a partner by now," she declared as she gazed across the classroom. "I hope you read what I assigned last night for you in The Glass Menagerie. Can anyone tell me what happened?"
Temari raised her hand. "Tom leaves his home for good, but regrets it later on, because of his sister."
"Very good, Temari," Kurenai-sensei applauded. "Can anybody tell me why?"
Nobody raised their hands, so I did. "It's because he left his sick sister with his crazy mother. His sister had Pleurosis. So he is very worried about what happened to his sister. But at the same time he doesn't really regret leaving home."
"Very good, Umeko. I take it at you last school already covered it." She smiled. "Anything else we haven't covered?"
I raised my hand again. "This play is semi-autobiographical. His sister instead of having pleurosis was actually schizophrenic and he also left home because he couldn't take living with his mother anymore."
"Wonderful, Umeko!" she exclaimed and bell rang. "All right class. Next time we will have a test on the entire play. Be prepared!"
"Follow me, Umeko," Temari urged as she grabbed my arm and pulled me out of classroom just as I had clenched the pack. Her locker was very far from the classroom. As whirled the lock around, she asked, "Where's your locker?"
"Um, its 225," I answered.
"That's right across the hall." She pointed behind herself.
A guy walked up to us. It was that guy from second period with the purple makeup. I froze, looked down at the white floor, you know, the tile that's always on the floor, I got to know it really well- down to the very last scuff mark, both hands squeezed the one strap I had slung on my shoulder, and my face felt warm.
"Hey, Temari," he said as he finished approaching us.
"Hey Kankuro," she said as she put her books in her locker.
"Who's your friend?" he asked as my face got hotter.
"Oh, this is Umino Umeko. She just transferred," she introduced. "Umeko, this is my twin brother, Kankuro."
"He-hello," I stuttered. What the hell is going on? I never stutter.
"Hi," he stated, chuckling a bit. That just made the blushing worse.
"Kankuro, I won't be joining you for lunch. Umeko-chan and I have a project to work on and decided to sit together," she told him.
"Sure," he stated. "Nice to me you, Umeko."
"Nice to meet you, too," I concurred as Temari and I walked to my locker. I quickly opened it and stuffed every item in except my schedule in which I folded and put into my pocket.
As we walked to the lunch room, Temari and I never spoke, but she was sneering the entire time. After getting in the lunch line to get salad, I started looking for Naruto, but I didn't have to try very hard. I heard him above everyone else and he also had spotted me.
"Umeko-chan!" he yelled from where he was sitting and waved his arms around. I felt my face warm up. I swear I'm going to kill that boy!
"Hey Naruto!" I said as I sat down next to him. "This is Temari. I hope its ok that she joins us." I pointed at my new friend as she sat down.
"No problem." He shrugged and pointed at the guy across from him. "This is Inuzuka Kiba. We decided to have lunch together because of an English project."
"Same here. You must have Kurenai-Sensei," I asked.
They nodded and Naruto replied, "We have her for third period English."
"Cool," I said before I shoved a forkful of salad and pepperoni goodness into my mouth.
I watched as Naruto stuffed as many ramen noodles as he could into his mouth. That boy would live off of that if Iruka and I let him. At least at school he didn't start shouting and/or singing his declaration of love for what he considered heavenly food. But when he drank the broth and set the bowl down, some of the liquid started dripping down his face.
"Idiot, table manners!" I screamed.
"What?" He just gave me a blank star and threw one of the many napkins I had taken. Both of us knowing full well a situation like this would arise. Naruto's new friend chuckled.
"You're embarrassing yourself and me." I glared at him.
"Well, I'm not yelling for the whole world to hear. You're just like Iruka. Always yelling at me." He chugged his milk. I rolled my eyes. Idiot. He's lucky we were at school and it was our first day here, because I wanted to hit him.
"Naruto," Kiba interrupted. "She's not the only one who has a loud voice and getting everyone's attention." The brown, spiky haired boy winked at me.
Naruto gasped.
"Thanks," I told Kiba and finished eating my salad. I got a closer look at Naruto's friend. He almost had a canine like face with upside down red triangles painted on both cheeks, almost fang-like.
"No problem," he whispered into my ear. It had sent chills down my spine.
"Hey Umeko-chan, Kiba's coming to our place after school to work on that project," he proclaimed and scratched the back of his head.
"OK," I replied. "Do you need me to take you home, Naruto?"
"No," Kiba answered. "I drive to school. So, I'll be taking him."
"Are you going to tell, Iruka?" I asked.
"He'll find out when I get home, if he is still at work when we get to the house." Naruto leaned his head against his hands.
"OK, but don't blame me when Iruka decides to kill you."
"Umeko, I'm allowed to go to other people are allowed to the house and vice-versa when it has to do with school," he reminded me.
"I know." I sighed. Then I diverted my attention to Temari. "So, do you want to go to my house or yours?"
"How about mine today and then yours tomorrow?" she suggested as she ate her lunch.
"I like that." I nodded my head in agreement.
"Who do have for homeroom?" Temari asked.
"Um," I mumbled as I pulled out my schedule. "Shizune-sensei."
"She's cool," Temari voiced. "She teaches public speaking."
"That's awesome."
"What do you have after that?" She continued.
"P.E. with Anko-sensei," I answered.
She had look of pure terror on her face. "You are in for it rough, new girl. Anko-sensei is brutal."
I lifted both eyebrows. "That tough, huh." I shook it off.
"Don't take the class lightly. She's broken people for less," She advised as she nodded her head in my direction.
"Understood," I joked.
Temari opened her mouth to say something, but as soon as she did, the bell rang. "Well, meet you at my locker later?" she inquired as she took one last mouthful of food.
"Yeah." I nodded as I got up and threw my garbage away on my way out.
Homeroom was a breeze. The teacher was a nice, sweet woman with short black hair and wore a navy blue dress. But nothing really happened there.
I walked into the brightly lit room. Noticing a woman with short, spiky hair wearing a tan jacket, white shirt, and black shorts with a whistle tied around her neck and something round in her hand. That had to be her.
I made my stride longer to get to her quicker. "Hello, are you Anko-san?" I asked when I approached her.
"Yes," she answered, not even taking a glimpse at me. "Who's asking?"
"Umino Umeko. I'm the new student," I told her.
"Oh!" She turned toward me with a sickening smile plastered on her face. "Goody!"
Now, I will admit that scared me. I don't know why but it did.
"I'm guessing you don't have clothes to change into, do you?" she asked as she eyed my ensemble which consisted of pants and a t-shirt. I shook my head. "Well, what you have on is good for today. Join the others, now."
Boy, once class started, Temari was right. Anko-san was one tough teacher. I've never done so many nickels and dimes in one class period. But it was nice to have a challenge every once in awhile. I'm just glad it wasn't the old gym class standard of dodge ball. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but it gets a bit tedious after playing the game year after year in gym class. I've also never prayed for a class to be over as soon as it started either.
Walking into my history class to see who I presumed to be the teacher with almost shoulder length hair, wearing a suit and tie, and a toothpick sticking out of his mouth. I stopped in front of the desk. He smiled. "This is Honors World History. You must be the new student."
"Yes." I smiled back as I handed him my schedule.
He chuckled as he looked it over. "You wouldn't happen to be related to the new tutor at the tutoring center?"
"Yeah, he's my cousin." I took my schedule back as he offered it back. "Why?"
"Because I work there as well," he said, simply. "And I was one of the people who interviewed him. He came well recommended."
I sighed as I smiled weakly.
"What?" he asked, surprised.
"Now, I have to be good," I feigned being upset. "Or you'll tell him."
He laughed. "That is true. But I doubt I'll have as many problems out of you as the other new student by the name of Naruto."
I snorted as I as down in chair at the front of the class and directed my thumb at myself. "You have no idea. But if you have a problem, I'll scare him for you."
The rest of the class was predictable with students trickling in and discussion going into full swing with some students answering or asking questions or not participating at all.
Class went predictability in Honors Biology with a teacher who had long, spiky hair that rivaled someone I use to know. So for most of the period, I thought of that old friend while I pretended to pay attention to the teacher.
The last class was music which I had with Naruto. The teacher was a creepy looking guy. Creepy was actually an understatement for Orochimaru-san. He actually reminded me of a snake in every way, but he voice was twice as slimy. During the class, I wasn't able to hear him lecture, because of Naruto asking stupid questions about the teacher.
"Uzumaki," The weird teacher reprimanded. "Is there something you need to say to the whole class?"
"No, Orochimaru-san," Naruto mumbled.
The teacher grinned as the bell rang.
"Good going, idiot," I yelled as I left the music room and went to meet Temari. Naruto kept up as much as he could.
After I reached my locker I took out what I needed and nearly knocked into the opened locker. "What the heck? Who ran into me?"
"Sorry, Umeko-chan," Naruto whined. I should have known who else would.
"Get what you need and go," I voiced, tiredly and turned to walk away but bumped into someone. Today just wasn't my day, but whoever I collided with smelled nice and felt guy like when I pushed myself away. Please don't let it be Temari's brother or some other guy I met today. I glanced upwards and saw the face of Kiba. I blushed and averted my gaze to the floor. "Sorry."
"Hey." Kiba smiled. "Umeko that's okay."
"Hey, Kiba. I've got to meet Temari. See you later." I waved as I marched away.
Temari was still putting books into her pack when I approached her and I tapped her on the shoulder. She twisted around. "Hey," I said.
"Hey." She tossed a notebook into her bag and zipped it up before she slung it onto her shoulder. "You ready?"
"Yeah, are you ready?" I asked jerking my head around searching for Kankuro. "Do you have to tell your brother?"
She shook her head. "He's already left. So we can go."
"Cool." I lead the way to my car.
As we walked into her gigantic house, we heard loud, rock music play. Temari told me that was a sign that Kankuro was home.
"Follow me," she instructed as she lead me to her room.
Before we reached her room I notice a boy with short, vibrant red hair lurking in the doorway of one of the many rooms we passed. I smiled and waved at him. He disappeared into the room.
"Who was that?" I inquired as I stepped into her large, immaculate room.
"That was my younger brother," She answered with hesitation. "Gaara." She sat down at her bed. "You can put your stuff down anywhere."
We started on our project by throwing of ideas within the two topics we had thought of earlier. Two hours later, I had to leave.
I stood up. "Temari, I gotta go." I tossed my pack on my shoulders. "Later."
"Let me show you out." She guided me back outside. "See you tomorrow."
"Hey, Iruka," I greeted as I walked in. "What's for dinner?"
"How was school?" Iruka asked. "Curried chicken and rice. Sound good to you?"
"Yeah," I replied as I walked towards my room with my stomach groaning. "It was great. I made a new friend."
Naruto's door opened and stepped out Kiba. "See you later, Naruto." He grinned when he saw me. "Hey, Umeko. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," I agreed with a smile and marched into my room.
I throw my pack onto my bed and parked myself there too. I grasped a pictured I had on my nightstand from a few years ago of Naruto, Iruka, a silver-haired man, and me. I hadn't spoken to him in years. I wondered if should call him. Staring at the phone debating on whether or not I should. He may not want to speak to any of us at all. Who cares? He's the one who said I could call day or night. With a wave of confidence that surged through me, I clasped the phone in my hand and dialed his last known number. I tapped my foot on the floor as I heard the ringing until the high pitched whine that followed with a feminine, yet computerized voice telling me that the number had been disconnected.
"Oh, well, maybe it wasn't meant to be." As I laid down on my bed in the fetal position and waited for dinner for finish even though I should have been doing my algebra homework. But whatever. I just wasn't in the mood.
A/N: Anybody who can guess who the mystery, silver-haired guy is gets a digicookie!