Author's Note: Heyy all! Miss me? Lol, I kind of went AWOL there eh? I think I've been on the site once since I uploaded my one-shot. I haven't even been keeping up with reading all of the stories I'm following. I feel horrible! BUT it's winter break in like, two weeks, so I'll be able to catch up then :) ...Assuming I'm not working 24/7. Anyway, anyway, New fic :D I'm a little rusty so go easy on me. I promised my bestie kyoyalover I'd upload a chapter before Christmas, so here it is :D Who knows, I might even have another one up before then ;P

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything remotely associated with it.

Monday.

I stepped of the school bus and the first thing I did was yawn, my breath creating a miniature white cloud in front of my face. I dragged my drooping body over the sidewalk to the main entrance of the school, maintaining that any classes beginning before eleven was just a cruel and unusual punishment.

I yawned again when I entered the dilapidated building, lifted my glasses and ground the sleep from my eyes, silently cursing myself when I remembered too late that I'd applied mascara and liner earlier that morning. I licked the tip of my index finger and ran it under my eyes in case I had smudged my makeup. I yawned again and cracked my shoulders and neck in a futile attempt to work the stiffness and soreness from my muscles.

"Leiko! Leiko!" someone called from behind me. I wasn't awake enough yet to tell who it was.

A grave, grumbling sign escaped my lips and I let my heavy head fall against my locker while I waited for whoever had been calling me to catch up.

"Leiko guess what!"

"Why are you yelling?" I grumbled.

"I'm not yelling," came an indignant reply from a pink haired student. "Now guess what!"

"What Sakura? What could you possibly have to tell me at," I fiddled with my glasses and checked my watch. After waiting a moment for my drooping eyes to adjust, I continued, "At eight twenty seven in the morning and not at a more decent hour?"

"Don't be grumpy! This is big news?"

"What's big news?" asked another voice coming up behind us.

"I wasn't talking to YOU Ino," Sakura answered back curtly.

"Someone tell me what the news is so I can crawl into my locker and go to sleep," I whined.

"There are new students here! They're here for the new semester, they just transferred," Sakura explained. I wasn't registering any of what she was saying, but I did my best to look interested.

"Yeah," Ino cut in, "I saw them in the principal's office this morning. There are two boys and a girl, the youngest is our age, but..."

"'But'?" Sakura asked.

Ino's expression changed to one of concern, "He looks really... scary."

"'Scary'? What are you talking about?"

"You'll see when you meet him. There's just something weird and unnerving about him, and I've been hearing rumours."

"What kind of rumours?" Sakura asked.

All this talking was giving me a headache; I really wished they'd take their conversation elsewhere. I had no interest in new students, rumours, or anything that didn't involve me going back to bed... I needed a serious caffeine boost.

"Well, the rumour is that they were FORCED to leave their old school. They're saying that the guy was causing all sorts of trouble at his old school. Picking fights and all that. I heard he put a bunch of kids in the hospital and there was other stuff too! A bunch of family pets went missing; they're saying he's the one responsible for that!"

I couldn't believe the two of them were buying into this; the looks on both Sakura's and Ino's face said that they were genuinely worried about their safety. I didn't understand it, they were just rumours. I of all people knew how easily they could get blown out of proportion. "Does the 'he' have a name?" I asked, finally adding myself into the conversation.

"'Gaara' I think they said his name was," Ino answered. "I didn't catch the names of the other two. They're older than us. One's a senior and the other's a junior or something like that. There's also a rumour that-"

Ino was interrupted by a brain splitting dinging coming from the speaker right above my head. Dear God, why? Next year I was going to make a point to change lockers to a more quiet, less frequented, part of the school.

"Tell us about it in the locker-room," Sakura suggested. "We've got gym first."

I mentally punched myself for not 'accidentally' sleeping through my alarm clock this morning. I'd forgotten Gym was first today, and I was so not in the mood for Gai Sensei's 'youthful enthusiasm.' I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose. Today was going to be a very, long day.

Sakura grabbed my free arm and tugged me along with her, "C'mon, let's go. You know Gai is going to make you run extra laps if you're late." I just grumbled in response. "You know, you should go see a doctor or something about your constant fatigue. You could have a serious problem."

'Yes,' I thought, 'gym class before noon is a serious problem.'

Sakura, Ino and I filed into the change room and began weeding though our respective lockers. I just stared into mine, trying to backtrack to the day when I had last washed my gym clothes. How long had it been? Were my gray sweats and black tank still safe to wear? I pulled one item out in each hand and took turns smelling each of them. After a moments deliberation I concluded they weren't toxic yet and went ahead slipping them on.

We all suited up fairly quickly and I was just about to leave the locker-room with the others when I noticed the soft spoken, timid, Hinata Hyuga standing alone in the corner getting changed. I stared her down for a moment, even though she wasn't looking at me. There was always something that had bothered me about Hinata and I'd never quite been able to put my finger on it.

"Don't even think about it Leiko!" my own voice demanded of me suddenly. I turned to see my doppelganger standing commandingly with her hands on her hips a few feet away. My sister was so protective of Hinata; I hadn't even done anything yet.

"You should just mind your own business," I snapped back at her.

"You should just try to be a little nicer."

I sneered at Reiko and rolled my eyes. Watching her was like seeing a cloning experiment that had gone horribly wrong. I would dare to say that no set of twins on the planet looked as similar as Reiko and I did, but our personalities were polar opposites. Our long, silver hair was cut and styled the same way, our eyes were exactly the same shade of gray and even our mouths had a matching pair of tiny clefts on the bottom lip. But after two minutes of talking to either one of us you'd always be able to tell us apart. Reiko had always been the goody-goody; the polite vigilante for truth and justice. Rei always had her homework done, got perfect grades and was liked by everyone in the school. Everyone except me. I hated her; she made me sick.

I shoved past Reiko leaving her and Hinata alone in the change room and hustled out onto the bleachers in the gym where we would all meet before we began an activity. I took my usual seat beside Sakura and Ino; they were going on about something, but I was only half listening to their conversation. I was more awake than I had been even ten minutes ago, but I just couldn't be bothered with their gossip; it was always the same: Naruto was an idiot, Sasuke was hot and the tests coming up were going to be difficult. I rolled my eyes and leaned back against the bleacher behind me. Reiko and Hinata came out of the locker-room and took seats on the far end of the bleachers. I shot them a sly smile, but paid them no further attention after that.

Gai sensei was across the gym talking to another teacher and it looked as though we were still waiting for a couple of the guys to show up, so if I was lucky I might be able to snag a moment or two of peace before the hellish realm of the Gym Class was fully upon me.

My eyes were just beginning to close when a huge banging noise coming from the boy's change room had me jolting awake. All heads turned towards the unsettling noise. Another quick knocking noise had Gai leaving his own conversation and hurrying into the locker-room. Everyone's attention was captured; no one was speaking in an attempt to overhear anything that might be said in the adjacent room.

"Everyone out!" Gai's muffled voice ordered from behind the closed door.

The door to the change room was thrown open and out marched, with expressions of annoyance and contempt, Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru and a new kid that I had never seen before.

He was, in a word, shocking. I'd never seen such devilish red hair on anyone before, but that wasn't the only thing about him that caught my attention. He had black liner around his sea-foam eyes and I recognized the Japanese character for 'love' tattooed above his left eye. He was wearing a set of metal rings on his long, pale fingers and had a number of piercings in his ears. There was a studded leather wristband on his right arm that was almost identical to the one I wore on my left. There was something about him, he reminded me of Sasuke; he had a dark, self-interested aura. More than that though, he approached with a threatening look on his face. An involuntary shudder passed through my body for the briefest of seconds.

"That's him! See, what did I tell you!?" Ino whispered harshly in my ear, obviously having noted my reaction. "He's scary! He's got an I-could-kill-you-just-for-looking-at-me-wrong look in his eyes!"

"Relax Ino," I sighed, but part of me was starting to wonder if she wasn't right.

The four boys made their way insolently over to the bleachers with Gai trailing commandingly behind them. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, he said, "Alllriiight, ten laps, then everyone gather around and we'll pick teams." No one moved. "Go people! Let the power of youth explode!"

This man was seriously going to be arrested one day, I could see it. Ten years from now I'd be sitting, watching the news on TV and they'd be talking about a crazy, eccentric, high school Phys. Ed. teacher who had escaped from a psych ward. I just knew it.

We all got up warily after the kerfuffle with the boys and started our laps. I couldn't seem to tear my gaze away from the redhead. What had Ino said his name was? Gaara? He didn't move at first. It didn't look like he was going to run with us at all, but Gai but his hands on his hips and said something to him that I couldn't quite hear with all of the stomping of feet around me. Gaara had a warning, dangerous look in his eyes that made me feel another fight was about to break out, but he started running behind us without incident. I turned my attention forward and saw Kiba and Shino running alongside Naruto, their heads inclined slightly towards him, no doubt probing him for information. I checked over my shoulder and saw Shikamaru keeping pace with Choji, probably telling him what had happened. Sasuke was in front with Ino and Sakura flanking him, but I knew Sasuke wouldn't tell them anything; that was the way he was. There was only one person more self-important and conceited than I was, and I was looking at him.

Sure enough, Sakura and Ino started slowing down. I watched as their bounding blonde and pink ponytails got closer and closer to me.

"You get anything out of him?" I asked to feign interest; I already knew the answer.

"No, he wouldn't tell us anything."

Surprise, surprise.

"What do you think happened?" Sakura asked me, as if I somehow knew more than she did.

"New kid always catches hell for something," I answered. Like I had any idea.

We all ran our laps without much complaint; all the while Choji and Shikamaru were falling further and further behind. So much so in fact that nearly everyone had lapped them before they had finished. Choji I could understand, he was practically running for two people, but Shikamaru? Shikamaru was just lazy, or how did he put it? 'Selective participation'?

We all gathered round in a loose group formation when we had finished our laps. We had all had to wait an extra couple minutes for Choji and Shikamaru to finish but that was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Alllriiight! We are going to start basketball today. Ino! Sakura! Team captains. Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who goes first."

I really didn't understand why we had to go through the process of picking teams. The teams were always the same; they had been since elementary school. Naruto and Sasuke were never on the same team. The first and ONLY time someone had tried that all hell had broken loose. Ino and Sakura, and Reiko and I, were never on the same teams for that same reason as well. Neither pair could cooperate nor work well together if put on the same team; but on the other hand, having the pairs on separate teams fueled a divine air of competition between the players. Choji and Shikamaru were never on the same teams, but for a different reason. They worked well together to be sure, but that was only if they worked at all. To get either of those two to give more than ten percent effort always seemed to be asking too much. No captain wanted both slackers on their team. Then there was Kiba and Shino. Most people considered Shino to be more than a little weird for his odd hobby of collecting bugs and the fact that he never said much, but no one disliked him and he was about the same skill level as Kiba so the two of them were, more often than not, on different teams as well.

There was no guesswork involved; the whole process of picking teams just seemed to waste time. The only question to the teams was, who would get to pick first? Whoever got to pick first always picked-

"Sasuke!" Ino called, having won Rock, Paper, Scissors. No guesswork involved. Right from day one, on every day, in every gym class, every year, Sasuke was always the first one picked for team activities.

I played out each captain's moves in my head. Because it was Sakura and Ino picking this week, Naruto would be picked last and he would end up on Sakura's team because for Ino to pick him would mean a guaranteed loss.

"Reiko!" Sakura called, as I knew she would. Sakura and I were friends, but it was no secret that she and Rei were closer than she and I were. I didn't mind that though. I was closer to Ino than I was to Sakura anyway.

"Leiko!" Obviously. I stepped casually over to her side.

"Kiba!"

"Shino!"

"Hinata!" No matter who picked first, it always seemed to work out that Rei, Sakura and Hinata were on the same side. Another reason that selections like this were a waste of time.

"Shikamaru!"

"Choji!"

The choices continued; always the same. But something occurred to me then. This class WASN'T going to be the same. There was an extra student this time around. I listened with a little more enthusiasm than was usual to see how things would turn out.

To no one's surprise Naruto and Gaara were the last two standing. It was Ino's choice. The obvious selection for her would be to choose Gaara as putting both Naruto and Sasuke on our team would be equivalent to a forfeit, but she wasn't making a choice. She was scared of Gaara as she had so voiced earlier; she didn't want him on our team, but she didn't want to lose.

"Make your pick," Gai ordered from the sidelines.

Ino's eyes narrowed and worry lines formed at the corners of her mouth. "Naruto," she called weakly and the whole class let out a unanimous gasp.

This was going to be an interesting game.

Author's Note: Hey guys, so yeah, this is the revised version of chapter 1 for those who are just tuning in. I hope it all makes sense; I did a kind of haphazard edit, so yeah.

Man, I forgot how much there is to consider when you're writing a Fic. For instance, I wanted the characters to play a game of outdoor soccer for the gym class, but I'd made a point in the beginning of stating how cold it was and that it was the start of a new semester. That means its February; you can't play outdoor soccer in February.

Also, as it is, I am told 'Leiko' means 'arrogant child' and 'Reiko' means 'beautiful child.' Just for anyone who was wondering. That's actually how I came up with the title, as I was originally going to write with Reiko being my protagonist instead of Lei, but I do have a way to work around this a little later on ;) Lol, 'Triste' by the way, means 'sad/sorrowful.' How perfect did that work out for me!? :D