**This is an AU where the cast of Naruto are going to high school. I hope you enjoy it! This is my first fan fiction.**
Chapter 1: A tussle with muscle
Naruto opened his eyes groggily, his ears ringing. He was flat on his back, a blue sky above him, unsure of how he'd ended up there.
Have I been sleeping? But he wasn't in bed. He could feel grass beneath him.
He tasted something metallic and probed his front tooth with his tongue, wincing as he realized his lip was split. Above him faces edged in on his view of the sky, his fellow classmates, all looking down on him with varying degrees of pity, disgust, or amusement on their faces. One of those faces registered anger, but she wasn't looking at him. Red haired, green eyed and pretty, she was shouting something he couldn't quite hear over the ringing in his ears, to someone he couldn't see. What was her name again?
Sakura. That was it. Naruto shook his head, trying to clear it. He knew where he was now. He was near the track behind school, getting the crap beat out of him by Kiba, a jock. His hearing cleared up, the jeering and catcalls and the chant "Fight! Fight! Fight!" filling the void.
Naruto climbed to his feet, and turned to face Kiba. At nearly six feet tall with messy brown hair, Kiba was an athletic wild-man whose two greatest joys were football and fights. Spitting into the grass at his feet, Naruto grinned at Kiba, already envisioning the jock sporting a broken nose.
I can't believe he just knocked me out! Lucky shot. Naruto had never gotten along with Kiba. They had never fought before, but this confrontation had been brewing since they'd met months ago. They'd gotten into a pushing match after Kiba made a wisecrack about Naruto and a dog. Kiba's haymaker had come out of nowhere. He opened his mouth to taunt Kiba, but the jock beat him to it.
"What a pussy," Kiba laughed, eyeing Naruto up and down. "You look like shit, and all I did was slap you a little."
Something snapped inside Naruto. Seeing red, Naruto bared his bloody teeth and surged forward, tucking his head in as he barreled into Kiba, bringing them both to the ground. Kiba gave a surprised "woof" as they hit the dirt. Naruto felt a surge of satisfaction as he levered himself up to slam his fist into the jocks chin.
Kiba, enraged, shot back with a return right-cross to Naruto's jaw. Naruto was ready for it this time and barely felt a thing as he traded blows. On top now, Naruto rained down blows on Kiba's face and chest, his whole world a red haze.
Whap. Pussy, huh? Whump. Bastard! Whap. How about now! Whump. Huh? How about now! Crunch. Whap. Whap. Crunch.
Suddenly he was being restrained, his arms pinned. He was being dragged off of Kiba, who lay very still. Still seeing red, his only thought to lash out at Kiba, it took him a minute to realize four other kids had him by his arms and feet. His head pounded as it cleared up, his breathing ragged, as his vision returned to normal.
Sounds he had tuned out came back in a rush. The crowd had stopped its chant and was now a confused murmur, the gossip already spreading as those in front relayed what they had seen to those who couldn't see in the back. One of the students gripping him, Neji, an honor roll student, was trying to get his attention.
"C'mon man, it's over." Neji was saying over and over again, his blue eyes concerned.
Beautiful Sakura, head cheerleader, one of the most popular girls in school, looked at him with disgust before kneeling next to Kiba's form. For the first time, Naruto saw the blood. It was everywhere. Blood on Kiba's face, his neck, his torn white shirt. Blood coated Sakura's smooth tanned hands as she smoothed back Kiba's hair and told another student to get a teacher. Blood on Naruto's torn knuckles, which throbbed with every beat of his heart.
The four students gripping Naruto relaxed as they felt him loosen up. Letting go, they formed a barrier between Nartuo and Kiba, Neji eyeing Naruto as though expecting him to rush back over for the coup de grace.
Naruto knew three of them, kind of. Naruto had started at this school a few months ago and he still didn't know everyone's name. He certainly hadn't made any friends, especially today.
There was Neji in front, long brown hair tied together. Beside him stood Lee, wiry arms crossed, a small frown on his face, sporting a bowl style haircut and bushy eyebrows. Shino stood on Neji's other side, wearing a large coat despite the days' warmth, with his hands in his coat pockets. Naruto couldn't see his eyes thanks to the sunglasses Shino always wore. The last student Naruto didn't know, and was already drifting off, clearly wanting to distance himself from the fight.
Naruto started around the group toward Kiba but they shifted to block him. Naruto threw up his hands in surrender, backing off.
"Alright already!" he snapped, exasperated. "I'm not going to attack him."
"Look, you won, alright? You should just go man," Neji said, his arms open, palms toward Naruto in a calming gesture.
His jaw started throbbing, and with that realized he hurt everywhere there was to hurt. Legs suddenly wobbling, he backed off more, taking in the scene. The crowd was dispersing now that the fight was over, so he could easily see Sakura talking to Kiba as he stirred at last, a concerned look on her face. In the distance from the gymnasium a teacher was trotting behind a student who was pointing the way.
Behind Naruto was the track field, and behind that a fence bordering a small forest, and escape.
Great, a teacher. They're going to blame this all on me. Deciding to take Neji's advice, he took off towards the forest, ignoring the ache he felt in his gut. He felt like a jerk. And so on he ran. Before he knew it, he was in the forest, the trees flashing past in a blur. Coming across a small road, he paused, leaning against a tree trunk, his sides splitting in pain.
Panting, he took in the scenery around him. A small single lane road wound through pine trees and thick brush on each side. Birds chirped invisibly while dragonflies danced through the soft rays of sunshine that filtered through the branches above. Somewhere out of sight, he could hear the rush of water through a brook.
Calm and peaceful, it was the exact opposite of the chaos he'd left behind. He slid down the tree he was against to rest, drawing his knees up so he could rest his head on them.
It wasn't fair. His step father Orochimaru, a world renowned scientist, was constantly on the move. His research took him from continent to continent, from China to Africa to the United States, and as a result, Naruto had never gotten to put down roots anywhere for long. He didn't usually have trouble making friends, but this school was different.
No one here seemed to want to give him the time of day, let alone a friendship. Going to school as an outsider was hard enough, but he was learning that high school was a whole new ballgame. As a freshman coming to a school with people that had known each other their entire lives, he felt an invisible wall go up every time he approached a clique of people.
Someone might speak with him in class only to run off and ignore him as soon as the bell rang. He sat alone at lunch, usually somewhere out of the way so he wouldn't have to see all the people having fun together, knowing they would never let him in.
He supposed it didn't help that he was fashionably challenged. His baggy blue jeans were ragged and out of style, his orange shirt with the swirl in the middle made him stand out because he wore it whenever he could.
He shrugged to himself. So what? Orochimaru has told him, in his indifferent sort of way, the shirt had been his real dad's. He loved the shirt. He liked his jeans. He might not fit in, but he felt right when he wore them. It felt normal in a way nothing else could. If questioned closely he might admit that there was a part of him that didn't want to change his style out of rebellion towards his peers. How dare they judge him? He knew he was stubborn, but he wouldn't let it go. Maybe he couldn't; it was who he was.
Naruto stayed where he was as the sun sank in the sky and the shadows lengthened around him. He knew he should go home. He also knew he didn't want to. Orochimaru wouldn't care if he came home one way or another. Not really. His step mother might have cared, had she still lived. But five years before she'd contracted a wasting sickness, the kind only one in a million got, the kind the doctors couldn't identify well enough to treat, and she'd passed on in her sleep.
She had cared. She'd had soft hands, a soft voice, and smelled like flowers in spring. She was the reason Naruto had been adopted in the first place, and her memory was the only reason Orochimaru continued to support him now. Support might be too strong a term. Allowed to exist under the same roof might be better. Orochimaru never failed to let Naruto know how much of a burden he was. Naruto was never quiet enough, strong enough, smart enough. Good enough.
Sometimes, Orochimaru would slip drugs into Naruto's food. Orochimaru thought it was a secret but Naruto could taste the difference, and sometimes feel an effect too. Naruto knew his step father experimented with drugs as part of his studies. What those studies could be really was a secret. A few times, Naruto felt tempted to go to the police. Expose Orochimaru for the jerk that he was and be done with it. He stopped himself every time.
So he was a lab rat. At least his step dad left him alone as long as he stayed out of the way. The alternative was to be taken away into the system again, and he would do anything, suffer anything, to avoid going back to that.
Twilight fell, and he knew he couldn't put off going home any longer. With a sigh he stood up, and followed the road back.
To be continued…
Okay, that's the first chapter. I definitely have a good idea of how this story will end. The pairing will ultimately be Naruto/Sakura, and a smidge of Naruto/Hinata. Let me know if you like this so far. I need all the encouragement I can get.