Chapter 1

Tenten

Growing up, she was almost always alone. Being the granddaughter of the Prime Ministers and the daughter of Konoha's most respected lawyer did that to you. She had a few friends from elementary and middle school, but once Tenten began high school, she began to see less and less of her friends. She didn't mind being alone, she liked the isolation she faced everyday walking through the halls, sitting at home, or going out on the weekends. It gave her time to be creative.

Tenten had a passion for art. Mostly she drew, but she also dabbled a little in photography. The human form fascinated her, and being able to capture it in motion, gave her so much joy.

For months, Tenten's parents argued about how isolated their daughter had been lately. They noticed that she didn't hang out with friends, or talk to anyone. She was always buried in her sketch book, or her laptop editing photos. Something needed to change. So, like any good parent, they talked to her first.

Tenten was sixteen, and like every teenager, she disagreed with her parent. She explained to them how much she actually liked being alone, and the reasons behind her feelings. They still disagreed. "Honey, you need to make friends." She mother told her every morning.

"I have friends," she always responded. She didn't.

Finally, her parents decided that a change was needed, so they had Tenten transfer from her long time private school, to a public school. On her first day at Konoha High, her mother got her up extra early, to do her hair and make-up for her.

Tenten was having none of that. She went back to sleep.

On the way to school, her mother just talked and talked, Tenten on half listened. "Make lots of friends, okay? I wish you would have let me do your hair and make up for you, don't you get sick of the same two buns and black eyeliner every day?" She didn't. "They have lots of different art classes you can take here. Do you have your schedule? You have all your school supplies right?"

Tenten tried to draw a little, but the ride was bumpy and it was too hard to control her movements. "Yes mom, I have everything, and I'm probably not going to back any new friends…it's the middle of the year."

"Tenten, it's the first day of the new semester, you'll be fine!"

Her mom pulled up to the side entrance of the school. She climbed out of the car and slammed the door before her mom could yell, "I love you sweetie!" Tenten looked around, there were a few inviting trees she could sit under at lunchtime.

She started on the path to the door, but was stopped when from a distance she could hear a loud booming approaching her fast. She spun around fast to see a black car speeding, much too fast, through the parking lot. The car was covered completely in stickers. She could only make out a few; Green Day, Pierce the Veil, and a few other probable band stickers. The car pulled into its spot, and all at once, five guys climbed out. Close behind, a red car, going the same speed, with the same booming music followed and pulled into the spot next to them and five girls climbed out.

A blond guy ran up to the driver of the red car and picked her up and spun her around before she got the chance to lock her car. Another girl, one with pink hair wrapped her arms around one of the guys and they started towards the building.

Tenten couldn't stop staring at the group that approached her, they seemed…perfect, but not in the sense that her prestigious parents would deem perfect…perfect as in, they were exactly where she belonged. The girls laughed at something that the blond guy had said as they passed Tenten. She followed them into the building, listening carefully to their conversation.

"Did you fuck her, Neji?" asked the guy with the pink haired girl hanging on him.

"Yeah," was Neji's answer, "kinda boring though."

"That's a shame," said another one of the guys, this one with a tall ponytail sticking straight up, "she wasn't ugly."

The group turned a corner before Tenten could hear the rest of their conversation. She sighed, and pulled out her schedule from her purse. She wandered around for a little, in search for her homeroom. She found it just in time for the bell. She quickly took a seat in the back of the room and set her books on her desk. Students started to file in and take their own seats, following Tenten's previous actions, then turning to talk to their friends.

The teacher entered into the room and wrote her name on the bored. The bell rang. "Good morning everyone! Welcome back, I hope you all had a good, long weekend. For anyone that may be new to my homeroom due to a schedule change, my name is Kurenai Sensei-" she was interrupted by another student entering the room. She glared at him for a moment then said, "It's the first day of a new semester Neji, try not to continue your habit of being late."

"Sorry Kurenai Sensei. I got a little lost on my way here."

"You've been in my homeroom since you were a freshman, I highly doubt that you forgot how to get here over your weekend. Take your seat Neji."

He did as Kurenai instructed, but Tenten couldn't take her eyes off of him. He was definitely the one driving the black car earlier, but she hadn't gotten a good enough look at him until just now. His long hair reached his lower back, but was tied off at the end. His eyes were hypnotic…completely white. Her eyes studied the rest of his face. He had a small silver hoop piercing the side of his nose, and two other hoops punctured the left side of his bottom lip. He reached up to brush a strand of stray hair away from his eyes and the sleeve of his leather jacket fell to reveal white scars all over his wrist. Oh…

The teacher took attendance and reiterated school rules and policies to the class. She finished with ten minutes to spare, and the rest of the period was left to the students. The girl in the desk next to Tenten leaned over and tapped her on the shoulder. "You must be new," she smiled, "I'm Hinata."

Tenten looked up to meet her eyes. They were just as white as Neji's. "I'm Tenten," she replied.

"I noticed you looking at Neji." She whispered. "He's single."

"I-I'm not looking for..." she blushed.

Hinata laughed, "I know, I'm just teasing you. Neji has that effect on everyone, it's kind of annoying to be honest."

"What are you talking about?" Tenten looked up to see Neji approaching the two of them. He took a seat on top of Hinata desk and ruffled her hair. She then his hit had away in retaliation.

"It's nothing. Neji, this is Tenten, she's new."

He nodded to her, then turned his attention back to Hinata. "Naruto, Sasuke and I are going to the point at lunch, wanna come?"

"Are you just inviting me or are you inviting Sakura and Ino too?"

"If you wanna drive them they can come too."

"Yeah sure we'll go."

Tenten didn't want it to appear that she was eavesdropping so she opened her sketch book and shaded and old drawing she started but never finished. She had never gone to the point, but she knew what it was. The seniors at her old school went there a lot to make out with their significant others, or to drink and do drugs. Sometimes parties were even held there.

"Sasuke lost his stupid nose ring in the parking lot on Saturday. He wants to go look for it before it closes up again."

"Why didn't he and Sakura go look yesterday?" she asked.

"Apparently he was too hungover to leave his room without his parents realizing something was up, so he just didn't."

"Typical."

The bell signaling the end of homeroom sounded over the intercom, and students fled from the room. Tenten was alone again. She sluggishly gathered her things and headed toward her next class.

Neji

"Jesus Christ Sasuke, how the fuck do you keep losing this stupid thing!?" Naruto complained.

"Not my fault. Sakura keeps knocking it out."

She giggled at the comment while everyone else gagged.

"Where were you when it fell out?" Ino asked as she scanned the black top.

"You expect me to remember that? I was so wasted I don't even remember what Sakura and I were doing."

His girlfriend frowned at him. "Let's not make that a habit."

"Found it," Neji interrupted, bending down to pick up the black hoop.

Sasuke took the piece of jewelry from him and attempted to push it through the hole in his septum. "Fuck, it closed again!"

Everyone rolled their eyes. "Come on," Neji sighed, "I've got a needle in my car."

Back at the cars, Sasuke laid back on the hood while Neji and Naruto cleaned the needle and clamp with rubbing alcohol that Ino had in her work bag. They climbed up on the hood, next to Sasuke and without warning Neji shoved the clamp into Sasuke's nose and moved it around a little, watching for where the closed hole entered and exited. "Don't lose this one, okay? I'm getting sick of redoing this for you every time Sakura gets a little too rough on your face."

Sasuke laughed from deep in his throat. "You're just jealous you don't get lucky as much as I do."

"That's an inaccurate statement."

"You should watch what you say dumbass," said Naruto, "Hyuga's holding a needle to your face after all."

Sasuke didn't say another word. Neji continued to inspect the old nose, making completely sure that he wasn't going to fuck it up. He took the needle from Sakura and lined it up to Sasuke's nose. He didn't even warn Sasuke, or tell him to take a deep breath. He just shoved it right through.

"Ow! What the fuck was that for you jack ass!" He sat up, the needle still hanging from his septum.

Neji put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and pushed him back down, "I told you to lay back. You're gonna pass out if you don't."

"Well this is an exciting first day back to school," Ino sighed from her place against Hinata's car.

"I think there's a new student," said Naruto. "She's in my math class."

"Yeah, she's in mine and Neji's homeroom," Hinata answered. "She seems nice. Her name's Tenten."

"Yeah she's in my Government class," added Sakura. She looked at Neji, who then glanced up at her to acknowledge that he was listening, "she was sketching the entire time. She was pretty good too."

"Sounds like someone else we know," Sasuke glared at his friend that hovered over him.

Neji didn't answer any of them. He pulled the needle out from Sasuke's nose, then took the black ring from him and slid it gently through the fresh hole. "Don't lose this one," he reiterated.

Sasuke attempted to sit back up, but was pushed back down by both Neji and Naruto. "I think you want to pass out," Naruto glared.

They all leaned against the windshields of Neji and Hinata's cars and watched the frozen lake in front of them. "I'm assuming we're not going back to school anytime soon?" Sakura asked.

Everyone shrugged, "We all have an open hour anyways, who cares?" said Naruto.

"I'm going back for art class," said Neji.

"Shocker…" Sasuke raised his eyebrow sarcastically.

"Are you banging the art teacher too?" Naruto teased.

Neji grinned in response, "No. Not her."

"Which one this semester?" Ino asked.

"His calculus teacher for sure," Hinata rolled her eyes. "I've seen her car in his driveway more times than I can count."

"How does your mom not give a shit about any of this!? My parents are on my ass all the time, just about having Sakura over!"

"Yeah, same! Every time Hinata leaves, my mom and dad back me into a corner with the sex talk!" Naruto yelled.

Neji shrugged. "She's never home. She doesn't know."

"Have you ever thought about what would happen if someone found out about all your teacher student affairs?" Sakura asked.

"It wouldn't be my problem. They're the ones sleeping with a minor."

"I don't think that's a very healthy attitude to have on the matter…" Hinata voiced her opinion.

"It probably wasn't very healthy that he got his tenth grade science teacher fired either," said Sasuke. "Just because you didn't like the bitch didn't mean you had to seduce her, then tell on her."

"I didn't tell on her."

"Oh, I'm sorry. You purposely had your mom walk in on the chick on top of you, then let her jump to conclusions. Pretty evil if you ask me."

Neji shrugged. "She had it coming. I wasn't the only one she was 'taking advantage of', I only saved all the other students from being her victim."

"That's only half true, and you know it," Ino corrected. "Sure, she was the one that came onto you and all the others, but you always have the power to say now, and you probably shouldn't have set her up like that."

"It was a good way to pass the time."

"Why do you like teachers anyways?" asked Naruto. "I don't get the appeal. Not that I have eyes for anyone other than Hinata, but I still don't get your view."

"Experience. They know what they're doing."

"But there's no genuine connection that way," said Naruto. "It's a hundred times more fun when you're doing it with someone you love." He grabbed Hinata's hand and kissed her cheek.

"Tried that. Didn't like the outcome."

Everyone immediately silenced as they remembered back to freshman year, back to when most of them hardly even knew each other, before Naruto and Hinata started dating, before Ino transferred to Konoha High, before Neji changed.

Sakura was the first to speak, "why are you still letting that run your life?"

"I'm not. I'm over it."

Nobody wanted to argue with Neji, if they had said one wrong word, everything would fall apart. So they chose to stay silent.

A/N: Please review! I'd love to hear what you think so far!