along came ino

Summary: Before Ino came along, Sakura was just your average spineless fool – always making a fool of herself and screwing things up. However, given confidence from her new best friend, Sakura is able to step into the classroom with a smile on her face without getting slammed into the floor the next second. She even has the guts to ask out the school's eye-candy, Sasuke! When Sasuke unexpectedly says yes, that's when the troubles begin and Sakura finds herself in a world of predicaments.

A/N: Finally got to revise this thing! Anyway, I changed a few things – instead of "You and Me," the story will be called "Along Came Ino" and no, it's not a rip-off from "Along Came Polly." -_- Again, my work kinda sucks since I write half-heartedly (but that's only 50% of the time…).


The Klutz
This is me, can't ignore it.


Sakura looked up at the huge building and heaved in a deep breath. This was her first day of school at Konoha High. She was transferred here after some excessive and consistent bullying from her last school. I hope it's not like last time, she thought to herself nervously – the horrible flashbacks replayed in her mind. She shook her head to erase all the bad thoughts and walked up to the office. So far, so good, the teen said to herself optimistically. She tried to avoid all objects that she could possibly knock down by accident and such. She must've missed something, because the next thing she knew she was face-planted onto the floor!

Sakura sat herself up – a stinging pain on her ankle. She tripped on a loose swatch of carpet.

Great, she frowned, I tripped on a piece of carpet. A freaking piece of carpet! She looked around her and realized that she had accidentally scattered her belongings during the fall. She sighed and looked over at the receptionist - who was busy reading a magazine. Well, isn't she helpful? Sakura thought sarcastically. She began picking up her things. Just as she reached for the last item – her prized possession, a Twilight book (which she'd read over 13 times) – a hand snatched it away from her.

"Hey! Give it ba-" Sakura looked up to see a handsome being. No, not handsome. That would be underestimating his looks. He was a gorgeous and godly being. His jaw and chin – chiseled to perfection, a perfect head of dark hair; full, soft, pink lips; breath-taking onyx eyes as dark as coals and more beautiful than the night sky, and a fair, milky complexion. He was absolutely beautiful.

She must have been staring at him for awhile, because the boy seemed to falter a bit from her gaze and cleared his throat a few times to get her attention. Sakura snapped into reality, the mysterious boy pushed the book towards her again.

"Wha – oh, thanks!" Sakura blushed and rubbed the back of her head nervously. Gratefully taking the book back, she thrust out her hand, half-expecting the boy to help her up. He didn't. Sakura quickly withdrew her hand and stood up, dusting herself off.

She slowly made her way to the counter. The boy was still standing there. Maybe, he's new too? She inconspicuously inched towards him, stopping when their shirtsleeves were about to brush against each other. "So," the transfer student said, breaking the silence, "are you new here, too?"

He didn't answer.

"I'll take that as a no…" Sakura lowered her gaze towards the counter. She felt stupid. Here she was, standing next to probably the hottest guy in the world and she had nothing to say. That and everything she said ended up sounding really dumb, "Um… what's your name?"

However, just as the boy opened his mouth to speak, the receptionist returned (Sakura: She was gone?) and handed a small box to him. "There ya go, Sasuke. And tell that Kakashi that he'd better not lose another ELMO or I'll chop his little weenie off."

The person she assumed to be 'Sasuke' did nothing more than nod his head. He left the building. Sakura followed his figure with her eyes before he finally disappeared. "Ahem."

Sakura's head whirled back to the receptionist.

"And the reason you're here, missy?" A hint of coldness in her voice.

The audacity of this woman! Sakura gulped and replied shyly, "I'm, uh, Haruno Sakura. I transferred here from Rose Academy."

"Hm," the receptionist (who Sakura grew to dislike even though she'd only met the woman for a few minutes) typed on a keyboard and began scrolling through a computer, "Wow that's pretty interesting."

"Me? Ah, well I lot of people tell me that–"

"No, I wasn't talking about you," she waved Sakura off, "there's an all-you-can-eat buffet at Wok n' Roll. Huh, who knew."

The teen shot a glare at the middle-aged woman, "Um, will you please give me my schedule?"

"Uh huh, hold on, now sweet pea."

Ten minutes. It took the damn lady ten minutes to search up her name, print out her friggin schedule and send her out of the office. Sakura stomped out of the office building with the paper clutched in her hand. She tried to dismiss the memory and looked over her schedule.

Haruno, Sakura's Daily Schedule

PERIOD 1: HEALTH—SHIZUNE/RM501
PERIOD 2: GEOMETRY—KAKASHI/RM302
PERIOD 3: HISTORY—ASUMA/RM505
LUNCH A
PERIOD 4: ENGLISH—ANKO/RM412
PERIOD 5: BAND—KURENAI/RM403
PERIOD 6: SCIENCE—IRUKA/RM210

"Hmm, well, I can't go to first period – it's already past it," She looked at the watch on her wrist, "Second period's almost over… I should probably head over to third period then."


Sakura scanned for a building marked with a big '500' on it.

Ah! There it is! Indeed, there was a blocky structure with a shiny plaque announcing that it was the 500 Building. Sakura's heart beat faster and faster. And she didn't know why. Was she afraid that the kids would point and laugh at her? Was she afraid that the teacher wouldn't like her? Maybe that was why her hand was shaking when she was pulling on the door. Hands, quit it! I can't be like this! It's only the first day of school, it's not like I'm trying to deactivate a bomb.

Walking down the hall of the 500 Building, her eyes were caught on a door; a metal sign expertly-nailed into the center.

RM 505

This was it. Now, all she needed to do was wait for the bell to -

RINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

The door flew open and slammed poor Sakura in the face. She fell to the ground – the world suddenly slowed down. Sakura could feel her schedule slip from her hands; her feet sliding off the ground. And then… she was on the floor. How on earth did that happen?

She planted her hands onto the floor and sat herself up. Her books and papers were scattered everywhere, just like before. Only, there wasn't an insanely hot guy to help her up. She sighed, and ignored the giggling of clique girls as she sluggishly gathered her things.

"Hey, you want some help?"

She looked up excitedly, half expecting it to be the boy she ran into earlier. But, no. It was just some weird kid with spiky blond hair. And whiskers.

"You need a hand?" The boy crouched down and held up her binder.

Sakura pursed her lips and snatched it from him, "Thanks."

She quickly straightened herself out and brushed off the dust off her clothes.

"Hey," the weird blonde kid scratched the back of his head and grinned, "I'm, uh, Naruto Uzumaki."

"Oh, well," Sakura took in a deep breath. She really didn't want to be talking to this freak right now, "My name is… is…"

She couldn't possibly tell this guy her name. He was such a weirdo! It was no doubt that if he learned her name, he'd be hanging all over her the next day, thinking that they were best friends or something. And she did not want that. No. So, she glanced over to one of the clique girls (yes, the same one that was laughing at her) and took notice of the brand name on her bag. Louis Vuitton.

"My name is Louis Vuitton."

Naruto winced a little and smirked, "That's an… odd name."

Sakura pretended to be appalled and insulted, "I'll have you know that I am half-French, and I take pride in my name!"

Now, for the finish…

"I didn't know that people could be so… rude!" She huffed and stomped off.

She could still feel his eyes on her, which was a bit unnerving, but at least now he would stop bothering her.

Sakura took a seat in the front—the one just in front of the teacher's desk. She really had no idea why anybody was afraid to sit there. I mean, if you had pretty good vision, you could spot the answer key sheets on the teacher's desk. And plus, if you were a goody-two-shoes, the teacher could see right away how much of a hard-working student you were.

The bell rung as Sakura laid out her second pencil perfectly align on her desk. A good student had to be ready and prepared, after all. She put her crossed hands and smiled at the teacher—this was a pretty pathetic move, but it helped her win points with the teacher (even if it gave her a bad reputation and made her more prone to bullying).

After everyone sat down, Asuma stood at the front of the room and cleared his throat, "Kids, today we have a new student. I want you guys to welcome her as much as you can—and in a friendly and polite manner," at this he eyed several students, "Miss Sakura Haruno, would you please stand up and introduce yourself to us?"

The pink haired girl rose from her seat, "My name is Sakura Haruno. I recently transferred from Rose Academy—which is an all-girls' school," she smiled sweetly at her classmates, "I hope we can get along with each other and be friends."


Class had gone pretty well, in her opinion, anyway. She could tell that most of the kids hated her and were annoyed by her teacher's pet complex. But, hey, haters were gonna hate, right? She drew in a sharp breath as she entered the cafeteria. It was filled to the brim with different groups of people—punks, scene kids, hipsters, emos, hippies and druggies; cheerleaders, nerds, gangsters, frat boys, jocks, and of course, the preppies. She stepped a little towards the nerd table, but stopped herself.

No, she didn't have to sit with them. At Konoha High, she was a new person. Just because she was a smarty-pants last year didn't mean she couldn't slide into a different clique this year.

Might as well pick a bold choice, she thought to herself.

And after a moment of hesitation, Sakura walked over to where the preppies sat.