Preternatural Education

Sakura sighed as she watched raindrops chase each other down the glass, nothing but darkness and trees whizzing past the window as the car drove along the winding forest road.

"I was told that it snows at Christmas here." She heard her father say, in an obvious attempt to start conversation. That would make sense, what with it now raining in summer.

"Mmm..."

"And I've heard good things about your new school." Her father prompted further, probably hoping for a bit more of a response than the unintelligible grunts she, as a teenager, communicated with.

"Whatever." Was that better? Sakura slouched into her seat further.

"I really do think you will like it in Konoha, Sakura." Wow, her dad was persistent. "Once you've settled in to our new house and you've started your new school you won't even think about that Madame Medicine place."

"Madame Medicina's," Sakura corrected her father for the umpteenth time. "is the best Healers school in the country! All the best, most successful Healers went there. If you cared anything for my future at all you would have sent me there."

"And that wouldn't have anything to with all your friends going there?"

"Well...there's that too." She said reluctantly.

"Sakura, we have been over this. You know I can't afford that school right now." Sakura noted her fathers shoulders sag slightly.

"Why'd you let me go to such a good primary school then?"

"Well, I could afford it then couldn't I." Bet her father wishes he hadn't tried to start the conversation now. "You think I wanted the company to go under, Sakura? We're lucky I was able to find another job at all, especially during these times." He took a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing. "This move is going to be difficult for both of us, Sakura. You just have to...give it a shot at least."

"I know..."Sakura said grumpily. "But dad, a public school? It's not even specialised! Its gonna be full of all...non-Healers..."

"Now Sakura, I did not raise you on such prejudices!"

"I don't mean it like that." Sakura crossed her arms. "I just mean it's going to be weird, not going to a specialised Healers school."

"Hmm..." Her father didn't seem entirely convinced, beginning to regret sending his daughter to such a snobbish school for so long. "Well, your new school is supposed to have a fairly good Healers program anyway so its not like you will be missing out on anything."

"Nah, only Madame Medicina's Academy for the Healing Arts."

"Sakura!" Her father hit the steering wheel in frustration. "If I hear one more thing about that stupid school..." He's comment faded off, leaving the car silent once more.

"It's not a stupid school." Sakura muttered feebly before staring out her window again. They were still passing nothing but trees. How big was this forest anyway?

It was quite a shock when her father lost his job. Haruno Reiji had been a very successful businessman, working long, hard hours to get to his executive position, and his family had been able to live the life of expense-free luxury. Of course, it just took one little mistake. Just one little court case and suddenly his company was no more. Gone were the large house, many cars and exclusive primary school. Now what did they have? A single car, a boot full of belonging and a rental house. Sakura's only consolation was that she was able to start High School at the same time as everyone else. She wouldn't have been able to live with herself if she had to join mid-year.

There are 3 types of educational facilities in the country. Com (Combined) schools were made up of all things supernatural. There were, of course, the Healers, the Telekenetics and the Mindbenders, all humans who had learned to tap into there magic potential, but there are also the non-humans, ie. Demons, Vampires, Spirits. Because the student range is so vast, mixed schools were known for being absolute shambles. Spec (Specialised) schools focus on only one aspect of the supernatural education. Normally quite exclusive (and expensive), the most common revolve around human "magical" learning, though Vampire academies were not unheard of. Ord (Ordinary) schools were for normal humans, those not wishing for a magical education. Though they might seem boring, Ord schools are the most common, as studying magic, especially at Com schools, come with some risks, risks that are too high for a lot of parents.

The supernatural world had not always been known by the human world. The two worlds had first collided around 120 years ago, during an event know as the …... incident. Since then, beings once thought to be mythological had slowly established themselves into human society, bringing their knowledge and culture with them. Humans, eager to advance their way of living, soon learned how they too could use the strange powers available to the "mythological" beings, by using the "magic" potential known as "chakra" found in every living thing. These new found powers did cause some trouble, started a world war or two, but over time, humans became used to using chakra, and though not everyone chose wield such abilities, it was taken for granted that if they could if they wanted.

"Are we there yet?"

"Well aren't you being the annoying eight year old in the back seat." Her dad replied, laughing to himself.

"Shut up." Sakura allowed herself to smile as she hit her fathers arm in mock annoyance. "I just meant that there has been nothing but trees for the past hour and a half. We've been driving for 7 hours already, we gotta be getting close now."

"Don't worry. It's only another 3 hours." He could not help but laugh at the look of horror on hid daughters face. "Haha! I jest! I jest!" He raised one of his arms in defence as his daughter went to hit him again. "Konoha should be coming up soon. Half an hour tops."

Sakura restrained from hitting her father again, too relieved that the horror that was this road trip was at its end.

"Unless the car breaks down or something."

"Dad! You're gonna jinx us!" She didn't restrain from hitting him this time.

"Ow! Sakura, you hit harder than you mean too!" Though her daughter was too busy giggling at her fathers pain to pay much attention. Seeing her laugh like this reminded him so much of her mother.

"DAD! WATCH OUT!"

Reiji spun his gaze back to the road ahead of them, just in time to feel the sickening bump that represented something that had once been in front of the car relocating to the back. And not just by going around, either. Slamming his foot on the breaks, Reiji made sure that the car was still in his control as it stopped before taking off his seatbelt swiftly. "Hurry up! We gotta help him!" he heard Sakura say frantically.

"What was it?" He asked his daughter, only to find that she had already left the car and was running down the road like a life depended on it. Following suit, Reiji made sure to grab his mobile phone before taking off after Sakura. He should have been looking at the road. What if he had seriously injured someone? What if they ended up as a paraplegic or something? What if they ended up dead? He had already typed the emergencies number, ready to press call, when he caught up with his daughter who was standing before the injured body of...

"A fox?" Reiji asked, feeling guilty at just how relieved he was. "Sakura, you shouldn't have yelled out like that. We might have crashed." He hadn't hit anyone. He hadn't killed anything...yet. The poor creature was still alive, but in obviously incredible pain. Its breathing was laboured, blood beginning to come from its mouth, and its back was on a strange angle. Its red eyes seemed to be watching them warily and it whimpered slightly as they got closer to it. It didn't look very good...

Reiji looked at his daughter, who was looking at the fox in horror and...confusion? After a few seconds of shock, she seemed to shake herself awake and lifted her hand in front of her. After a moment of concentration, the hand began to glow a greeny-blue colour as she knelled down to heal the fox.

Neither of them were expecting the fox to start growling and spitting as the hand got closer. Despite its poor condition, it managed to block every attempt Sakura made to get to any of its injuries with its sharp, possibly rabid teeth.

"Stop it, you stupid animal!" Sakura cried in frustration as she barely dodged another aimed bite to the hand. "I'm trying to heal you! Quit growling!"

Unfortunately, this only seemed to make the fox more determined, flattening its ears against its head, and after a couple more attempts it even managed to, somehow, get to its feet and hobble into the bushes on the side of the road, growling as it went.

Sakura stared at the spot where the fox had disappeared too in shock. What had just happened? Was she just refused treatment...by a fox?

"C'mon Sakura." She heard her dad behind her. "I left the car running. We better get back before a forest spirit steals it or something."

Not sure if he was joking or not, and not really caring, Sakura followed Raiji back to the car, her thoughts still on the injured fox. It had been hurt pretty badly. Too badly to survive, really. Why wouldn't it let her heal it?

While on the road again, Reiji noticed that his daughter was still in deep thought.

"Don't worry about it, Sakura." He said, hopefully reassuringly. "Animals can be very protective, especially when injured. It didn't know you were trying to help."

Sakura knew her father was right. She had dealt with enough injured animals at her last school to know just how aggressive they could be but...for some reason it seemed different. The way it seemed fine with their presence until after she tried to heal it. The way it did the impossible and stood to get away, everything on weird angles and...wrong. And also the fact that she was sure that she had seen a person run in front of the car, just as her dad had been distracted. A person with blond hair and whiskered cheeks...

[End Chapter 1/Prologue]

A/N: Yay! First chapter of first fanfic! I am quite excited, though I have no presumptions on anyone actually reading this. There must be so many excellent stories out there with no reviews, and mine is far from excellent so it is only fair. If you did read this, however, and wish to review be my guest. It would probably make me jump up (and down) 12 times in joy.

To be honest, I only have a slight idea of where I want this story to go. Concepts, characters (though I have no idea what Shino could be/do. Any ideas?), bits for the next chapter and some cool scene ideas that I'll probably try and put in somewhere (if I end up writing any more. I really hope I do. It has been plaguing my dreams for weeks/months now).

Also, with /'s in mind, any relationships will be entirely BYO context...hopefully. Sorry if this saddens anyone...

((I have no idea what I'm doing...any help is appreciated.))