A/N: I wrote this story way back in 2008 and I'd been working on it up until 2011, but then it kind of went on a hiatus. I published it on Quizilla and it so far has 42 chapters but is currently unfinished. I started it when I was 12 so it was pretty bad and angsty, so I decided to revise it after so many years! Woo hoo! This chapter isn't too much different but the characterization is drastically different, though. I'll be trying to revise all the other chapters and finish this story (as well as the sequel I had planned). I hope you like it. This story is my baby. This is exciting!

If you want to read the original story, you can find it under my account on Quizilla: aikalovesong.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the characters, plot, etc. etc. etc. I just own all of my OCs (of which I realize now there are many) and dialogues and blah blah blah. Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine. It's 1:43am here.

Akimi strode through the cafeteria line, glancing over the lunch options with disdain. Every now and again the school kind of forgot that their lunches were supposed to be food and served a myriad of neutral-colored items that kind of resembled edible foodstuffs but were questionable. She managed to find a few items that looked okay and grabbed a milk carton. She headed back towards the table she always sat at but was surprised to see someone new sitting there.

A blonde girl was giggling loudly, leaning close to the lean, tan boy that Akimi recognized as her friend and crush. The girl continued laughing a bit too loudly, gaining the attention of several students around them. "Iruka-kun! You're so funny."

Iruka looked slightly uncomfortable with the sudden attention and his face burned a rosy shade of pink. He glanced down shyly and managed to get a good look at the girl's chest which was filling up her partially unbuttoned blouse with the aid of a black push-up bra. He looked up quickly, adverting his gaze from the girl. She leaned closer, scooting to the edge of her seat. She was practically straddling Iruka by the time Akimi got to the table. She set down her tray, casting a wary glance at the two.

"Hi Ayane," she said softly. "Hi Iruka."

"Hi Akimi," he replied, giving a quick, short wave. Ayane hummed a reply but kept her eyes trained on the tan boy in front of her.

Akimi waited a moment, poking at the beige lump on one of the plates, then turned back to them. "Where's your lunch Ayane? Are you going to be eating with us?"

The girl glanced over her shoulder at the brunette and sighed, flipping her hair as she turned back to Iruka. "I should go. The paparazzi's starting to ask questions." She smirked as she stood, trailing a finger along Iruka's shoulder before glancing at Akimi. "Later 'Kimi." She strutted off towards her table filled with the popular kids. It was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic and malicious or was genuinely offering a parting word to the girl.

"Yeah, bye …" came Iruka's late reply. He noticed the brunette girl looking at him and he cleared his throat and turned back to his tray, scratching at his cheek. "H-Hey, Akimi …."

"Hey."

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye as she struggled to open her milk carton.

"Um … why …. why are you sitting with me?"

Akimi turned to look at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you usually sit … somewhere else. So why are you sitting here? With me?"

The girl paused for a moment, still clutching the paper carton in her hand. She glanced around the room filled with chattering students and then back to the brown-eyed boy. She smiled softly. "Because you're my friend."

A warm blush graced his face and he nodded, "Yeah, I know that... but you never sit me with at lunch. You're usually... I dunno. Nevermind, I guess it doesn't matter."

"Okay." She turned back to her milk carton which was proving to be unnecessarily difficult to open. She peeled at the paper opening and squeezed it in an attempt to pop it open. Frustrated with no results, she gripped it tight with her fingernails and sighed heavily. She gave it another squeeze in hopes that it would open but it didn't. She let it go and dropped it onto the tray. Immediately a long thin spray of milk came spurting out of the side, leaking from the indentation of one of her fingernails. Milk began to coat her tray and one of her dishes.

"Oh! Your milk is leaking!" Iruka exclaimed, pointing out the obvious. Akimi tilted the carton onto its side quickly and stabbed a clear plastic straw into the leaking slit and began sucking down the milk. Iruka stared at her a bit puzzled. "You're …"

"What?" she asked, pulling away from the straw now stained white with milk.

"You're kind of … weird."

Akimi laughed softly and shook her head. "Whatever."

"No, really."

"Sure thing." She surveyed his tray and spotted a spring roll that she wanted. With a quick hand she struck out and grabbed it, pinching it between her index and thumb finger.

"Hey! Give it back." Iruka reached for the spring roll but she held it away from him. "That's mine."

"You have two of them," she began, motioned with her free hand to the second roll still on his tray. "I don't have any."

"You have one."

She paused and glanced down at the one she held. "Well … now I do."

"If you wanted one you should've gotten one."

"They didn't have any."

"Well that's a shame. It's still my spring roll."

She pondered for a moment and for half a second Iruka thought that maybe he'd get it back, but he knew better and a fraction of a second later Akimi had stuffed the roll into her mouth and was giggling wildly as she fended him off, trying to swallow and not choke. She turned back to her tray only once she had swallowed all of the roll and picked up her sideways carton to drink some milk.

Iruka looked over her tray and plucked one of the dumplings from a bowl.

"Hey! Wait! That doesn't equal one spring roll. It's twice as big... plus it's one of the only good foods I got today. You can only have half – or I get your other roll." She crept her fingers along the table to snatch the other spring roll from Iruka's tray but he slapped her hand away.

"Hmm, I think I would like my other spring roll..." He took a moment to debate with himself if he really wanted to swap two rolls for one dumpling.

"Here," Akimi offered finally, "decide how much is half and then put that amount in your mouth."

Iruka looked confused and glanced between the dumpling and the girl.

"Just do it."

"Fine, fine." Iruka eyeballed the amount and put half of the round dumpling into his mouth, the other half sticking out. "Lii dis?"

She nodded, "Yep, just like that." She turned in her seat to face Iruka and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Whad aa ew duin?"

"Just wait." Akimi took a moment to analyze the situation and the best way to tackle the obstacle that was dividing the dumpling exactly in half. She glanced at Iruka and saw the confusion and hesitation in his eyes. He didn't trust her. Oh well. She grinned suddenly, mischievously.

"You don't know weird," she said quickly.

"Ha?" he asked around the food. But before he could get an answer, she leaned in close to him and slowly tilted her head to the side, parting her lips to envelope the other half of the dumpling in her mouth. It had the illusion of a kiss from several angles. Iruka's face immediately burned bright red and he looked anxious. Beads of sweat dotted at his temples as his body temperature rose steadily.

Akimi easily bit through the soft doughy dumpling and pulled back, watching bits of cabbage and other filling tumble to the ground. She smiled warmly as she ate her half of the pastry. Iruka's mouth hung agape with the dumpling showing. Akimi was sipping her milk, staring at him through long lashes. She pulled off the straw, a round drop of white milk resting on the curve of her bottom lip. "You know, you should really eat your half before I decide to eat it myself."

Iruka could tell by the gleam in her eyes that she was just teasing him but it was enough to get him to shut his mouth. He swallowed hard without chewing and drank his own milk painfully slow. He avoided eye contact with the girl as he turned back to his tray, his appetite suddenly suppressed.

Akimi glanced around the cafeteria but no one seemed to be paying any attention to them. Everyone was busy in their own life; laughing, talking, making plans. That was high school. People were busy with parties and boyfriends and girlfriends and passing tests. She cast another glance towards Iruka who was huddled over his tray, his blush staining his entire face up to his ears and down his neck a deep crimson. She smiled to herself then turned her attention to her iPod that she pulled from her jacket pocket. One of the great things about the high school was that they hadn't yet banned electronics.

The girl shuffled through the songs until she found one that she could easily hum to, Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse, some American band. She pushed her dark purple earbuds into her ears and bobbed her head along to the tune, humming the lyrics until the chorus came. She didn't mind if her friends heard her sing without any accompanying music but it was the momentary burst of inner courage and forgetting that she was sitting in the middle of the lunchroom that caused her to softly sing the lyrics.

"I'm falling even more in love with you, letting go of all I've held onto … I'm standing here until you make me move, I'm hanging by a moment here with you … I'm living for the only thing I know, I'm running and not quite sure where to go … And I don't know what I'm diving into, just hanging by a moment here with you ..." She kept her head bobbing, her foot tapping along to a beat unheard by her lunchmates. "There's nothing else to lose … there's nothing else to find … there's nothing in the world, that can change my mind … there is nothing else … there is nothing else … there is nothing else..."

Akimi glanced over out of instinct to see her tan-faced friend staring at her. She pulled out one of the earbuds and stared at him. "Huh?"

He shook his head, "Nothing."

"Oh, okay. ...You sure?"

"Yeah."

She pushed the earbud back in and began nodding her head again to the song. She didn't notice that some of the kids at the table had moved away for a quieter conversation or that Ayane had fixed her attention on another helpless boy three tables over. She didn't even notice that her friend was watching intently, wondering what song she was listening to and if there was any meaning behind the lyrics.