Welcome to Konoha Academy, one of the most prestigious preparatory schools on the West Coast. We have a vast array of students, ranging from talented individuals who have earned a place, and sometimes a scholarship, at this school through their academic merits to overprivileged, snot-nosed brats whose parents were able and willing to pay the exorbitant tuition fees.
Two of our most promising freshmen this year are Hanabi Hyuuga and Gaara. Although all students from the Hyuuga family have maintained a tradition of academic excellence, Hanabi Hyuuga is considered a genius even for their family standards. Five years her sister's junior, Hanabi has been placed only one grade below Hinata. Gaara (his records indicated no last name) has earned a full scholarship to Konoha Academy based in his outstanding test scores and his groundbreaking research (conducted while he was only in middle school). He and his siblings migrated to the United States not long ago, following the fall of the Soviet Union. Let us hope that this academic year be filled with pleasant surprises.
Hinata sighed as she pulled out her handkerchief with her pudgy fingers and dabbed at the moisture collecting on her upper lip. The three Hyuuga children stepped out of Neji's Bentley Turbo R and parted ways. Hinata had offered to escort Hanabi to the main office, but Hanabi had refused, not wanting to be seen with her weird and clumsy older sister. Hinata walked toward the Hiruzen building and pulled down on her skirt, wishing that it covered more of her stumpy legs. She was disappointed that she had not lost enough weight over the summer—she had actually gained some—and began to get anxious. To calm her nerves down, she pulled out a milk chocolate bar and wolfed it down. It made her feel better instantly.
Hinata checked the message board at the entrance of the Hiruzen building and learned that her homeroom this year would be in H213 and her teacher would be Iruka Umino. She felt a strange sense of glee since Iruka was the uncle and guardian of her two-year crush, Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto's parents had died in a car crash when he was only a baby forcing Iruka to enter fatherhood at a tender age of 18, since Naruto had no other blood relatives. His godfather, Jiraiya, was barely making his own ends meet, but had graciously sent monthly stipends to Iruka to help care for Naruto.
Naruto had not been popular at the academy because he was loud, rather dull-witted, and not nearly as wealthy as most of the other students. His guardian Iruka was able to secure enrollment and a partial scholarship for Naruto, despite his below average grades, because Iruka was a faculty member at the Academy. Hinata had admired Naruto since freshman year, the first time she had met him, because he possessed something she lacked—an uncompromising sense of self worth that did not seem to diminish even with his countless failures. Moreover, he was one of the few boys who recognized her and went out their way to talk to her even though she was overweight and fraught with a severe anxiety problem.
The first bell rang and the other students began to pour into the classroom. She spotted Kiba Inuzuka, who gave her a cursory smile and took a seat toward the back of the classroom, and Shino Aburame, who gave a curt nod and took the seat behind her. She tried to see if she recognized anyone else in the class. Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki, and — shootshootshootshootshootshootshoot I'm in a class with Naruto! Hinata's upper lip and temples began to perspire, her pace quickened, and her breathing shortened, and before she realized it Hinata began to hyperventilate.
"Hinata, calm yourself."
After hearing Shino's voice, Hinata nodded and focused on taking long, deep breaths. Her heart was beating hard but at least it was no longer fluttering. If she were going to befriend Naruto this year, she would have to keep from getting a panic attack whenever she saw him. She nodded once more, this time to herself, and closed her eyes.
"Hinata? Hey, I almost didn't see you there."
She turned to the slightly raspy voice. Oh dear.She crossed her arms over her waist, hoping it would hide her muffin top.
"Um...Hi Naruto. How was your summer?"
"Kinda lame. I had to work seven 60-hour shifts! But hey, at least I can buy a used Pinto soon," Naruto grinned.
Hinata blushed. Despite not being a stellar student, Naruto was a hard worker. He helped Iruka pay for their expenses and his reduced tuition by working at a shipyard across the bridge from the school. Though his job was far from glamorous Hinata was amazed (and secretly envious) that he was practically self-sufficient at a young age.
"Oh, that's wonderful," Hinata managed to squeak out after failing to think of anything clever to say, "Um...will you be working during the semester, too?"
"Yeah, but probably fifteen to twenty hours a week tops. It's illegal otherwise, you know?"
"That—that's—that's—underforture—unfortunate..." Oh bother, get a grip, Hinata!
"Heh, I'll live."
Moments later, Iruka passed out their schedules. Naruto and Hinata noticed that they had history together and Hinata spent the next few minutes dabbing her face with her handkerchief.
Hinata felt happier than usual as she breezed through her first four classes. Perhaps this year was going to be better than last. However, fifth period was her most dreaded class—gym. Hinata did not loathe exercising (she actually had a surprisingly high stamina). She hated gym because of those offensively short gym shorts. Of course, Hinata felt that anything above the knees was too short, but these showcased her cottage cheese thighs to the world. Thank goodness she did not have gym with Naruto.
The students were instructed to sit on the floor of the gym as coach Guy Might, or Mr. Might, ran back to his office to look for his missing class roster. Hinata crossed her legs and checked her watch. It's only been 10 minutes? It can't be! She suddenly felt something poke into her butt. It felt like the rubber toe of someone's tennis shoe. She listened to the voices behind her and singled out two female voices belonging to Kin and Tayuya. It didn't seem like they noticed that something of theirs was lodged in Hinata's large posterior. She wanted to move away but was afraid that any sudden movements might draw unwanted attention to her embarrassing situation. She began to sweat bullets. Before she could do anything else, she heard Kin whisper.
"Pst, Tayuya, look at your foot."
"Ugh, that's nasty! You can see her crack!"
"Ew sicky! And it's all sweaty too."
Upon hearing them mention her sweaty crevice, Hinata pulled the back of her shirt down in an attempt to salvage what was left of her pride. The two girls started to giggle. Fortunately, Mr. Might returned at that very moment and ordered that each of them stand and say aye when called upon. After roll call, he announced that they would not start exercising that first day, but they should be ready to put their fire of youth to good use starting the day after. Hinata was disappointed, as she had looked forward to running laps since she was already drenched in sweat.
The bell rang, and Hinata scampered off to her final class, World History. She was happy to finally see Naruto again after having only homeroom with him, but walked in the classroom to see that he was already seated beside Sakura and was trying to flirt with her. She clumsily walked down his aisle, almost tripping over several backpacks, and hoped that he would at least notice and say hello to her before she took a seat at the very back of the classroom.
"Hey Hinata, this one's empty," he pointed to the seat next to him.
"Naruto...thank you!" Hinata shuffled back down the aisle she came from and up the next aisle to sit at her designated seat.
"I'm trying to figure out why Sakura won't go on a date with me," said Naruto loudly, "Hinata, do you think you can convince her for me?"
"Idiot Naruto, it's pretty simple to understand for anyone with half a brain, " Sakura said exasperatedly, "I don't have a penis. You don't have a vagina. And I don't have the interest."
"Bah, fine. Believe me, it's your loss. A lot of girls would go on a date with a stud like me. You'd date me, right, Hinata?"
"Um..." Hinata didn't respond quickly enough, as her heart was laden with both excitement for the idea of Naruto asking her out on a date as well as disappointment that the chances of him asking on a real date are close to nil.
"She's not saying yes, retard. That's probably her polite way of saying no. God, where is Hatake?"
Almost as if on cue, Kakashi Hatake walked in.
"Sakura, don't you mean Mr.Hatake?"
Sakura ignored the question, "Why are you late? If you don't finish all your official business soon, you won't have time to pass out books!"
Despite her mild envy of Sakura, Hinata admired the girl's almost overzealous devotion to learning and achieving. Sakura was an type A to the letter, and was the captain of the school's Science Bowl team as well as captain of the badminton team. She was what most people could call a sexy geek. Despite lacking the curves that her best friend Ino was blessed with, Sakura's big, round forehead graced her with an alienesque beauty.
At the end of class, Naruto hastily bid Hinata farewell and lingered around an angry Sakura. Hinata left the classroom a bit more dejected than when she first entered it, and met up with her sister. She told Hanabi to tell Neji to go home without her, as there were some things she wanted to do first. After leaving the school campus, she walked across the bridge to the local dance studio.
"Hinata, it's nice to see you again! How was your summer?"
"It was fine, Miss Yuuhi. How was yours?"
"Busy. I started seeing this wonderful man. Oh, and we had a ridiculous turnout. I hope some of them come back next year."
"I'm sure they will, Miss Yuuhi."
"Hinata, how many times do I have to tell you to just call me Kurenai," the teacher smiled, "Shall we do jazz today?"
"Of course, Miss Yuuhi."
The reflections in the mirrored walls mimicked the dance of two figures, one a tall, lean woman and the other a short, portly girl, both possessing the grace of a swan.
When Hinata returned to the Hyuuga Estate her cousin Neji asked where she was for the last three hours. Hinata lied, saying she was at chess club.
"Hn, maybe you should have joined a sport instead," Neji sneered, "And you might want to think about taking a shower."
Hinata said nothing but smiled politely and excused herself.
Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit shit shit SHIT! Naruto pumped his legs as fast as he could. Next time, I won't wait around for her, I won't.He had stayed later than he should have because Sakura had asked him to carry her book bag to her car and then insisted that he carry her badminton equipment to the gym. Now he was running like hell after the 51, and would be really late for work if he didn't catch it. To his dismay his usual bus had been early. I'm such a loser...
Almost miraculously, the bus halted to a stop before going across the bridge. The driver glared daggers at Naruto as he stammered his apologies. Thankfully, he would only be ten minutes late now. When he arrived at the shipping yard, he bumped into Temari, a porter with a slight Russian accent.
"Temari, don't tell them I'm late. Please, please, it's my second time this month, PLEASE!"
"Hmph," Temari growled, "Lazy Americans. Hurry before they catch you."
Three hours later, Naruto went back to the lockers to change and go home. He saw Temari heading to the women's section.
"Temari! Heh, thanks for earlier. Do you wanna get dinner? It's on me today."
"I must return to prepare dinner for my brothers. But you are welcome to join."
Naruto was tickled by the prospect of a free meal. "Hehe, you sure it's OK? Where do you live?"
"Yes, you are very welcome. My home is a fifteen minute ride South on the 40."
"Wow, you live in the tenements? I mean, uh, I'll be out in a bit."
"What are the tenements?"
Nothing, see you in five minutes!"
