Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto characters, I just bend their storylines and character profiles to suit my own schemes. Bwahaha... :P

Chapter One

Hinata Hyuuga walked up to the school gates on the first day of her senior year of high school, feeling expectant, as though this year would be completely different from her first two years of high school. There was no specific reason. The high school had not changed in the last three years that she had been there. It was still the same white three-story building surrounded by a small lawn with shady trees for the students to relax beneath before and after hours. She looked no different from the end of last school year. She still had long black hair that had a bluish purple sheen when the light hit it, was still just short of five and a half feet, was still a rather quiet girl with a shy demeanor. She wasn't planning on changing her image, since she was happy with who she was. She was no longer the petrified antisocial girl she had been in junior high. She wasn't going to take the school by storm. She would leave that up to her best friend, Sakura Haruno, who wanted to break away from her old self after finally giving up on trying to hold herself and her boyfriend Sasuke Uchiha together.

Sasuke had never been emotional, but Sakura had still loved him for as long as any of their friends could remember. When he had finally said yes to her, she was in ecstasy. But he was never very interested and it strained Sakura to no end trying to keep him from drifting off on his own. Hinata personally thought that it was about time for Sakura to move on. He had only been holding her back and her best friend had deserved more. But that was in the past and the break up had been clean, though Sakura still stiffened when he was near, still a little hurt by it all.

Hinata was drawn away from her thoughts when, behind her, a voice called out her name enthusiastically. She turned to see Sakura herself running up to her, the arm not holding her school bag waving happily. Hinata stopped and waited for her friend to catch up. When she was finally next to her, Sakura grinned widely and bent over, catching her breath. A blue headband held her short pink hair back with a leaf symbol on it, the school's symbol. They were the Konoha Oaken Ninjas and Sakura had a lot of school spirit. She wore the school uniform, like Hinata, with navy blue pleated skirts and button up white blouses with navy colored ties. They had special gold pins on those ties to signify their class. Second years had silver and freshman had none. Hinata was a little jealous of Sakura, since she looked good in the school uniform. In just about anything, actually. Hinata's only claim to fame, so to speak, was her family's famous eyes. So pale gray they looked like molten silver, it was Hinata's one feature she was proud of and could confidently wear without worries of being one of many.

"Good morning!" Sakura finally said, straightening with another bright smile. Hinata quietly returned the greeting. Sakura looked at the school building like Hinata had been doing moments before and smiled softly.

"You know there's plenty of time before class. You didn't have to run, you know," Hinata told her. Sakura grinned and shrugged.

"It's just that you always leave early and walk to school yourself, even though you could easily take the car with Neji-san. So I wanted to meet up with you early, so we could hang out for the first day of our senior year." Sakura trailed off and looked a little serene. "It's already our senior year. This is the last year here."

"I know. It's hard to believe that after this year, we'll all be leaving for college or work or whatever," Hinata replied. They walked off together towards their homeroom class. On the way, they were joined by their other friends: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, TenTen, Inuzuka Kiba, and Akimichi Choji. Luckily, the group had scored another year together in the same homeroom. Their first year of high school had been lonely for some of them, being scattered into several different classrooms.

As they walked into the classroom, they were greeted by their homeroom teacher, Iruka-sensei. It seemed like he had followed them throughout their lives, since he had taught them in elementary school as well as junior high before following them even into high school. Hinata took a seat in the back of the classroom by the window while her friends took various seats around the room, dividing up into little clusters. Sakura took the seat in front of Hinata and TenTen sat in front of her. Ino sat to Sakura's right and Shikamaru sat in the back just one seat beyond Hinata, leaving the one next to her empty. The others dispersed themselves close by as well, with Choji in front of Shikamaru, his best friend, Shino in the second row of the second column of seats, and Kiba on the far side of the room just in front of the last row.

Sasuke walked in just a moment before the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the day. Sakura stiffened, but relaxed when he sat down on the other side of the classroom, behind Kiba. She turned around to Hinata and they began to chitchat about various things they had done over the summer break.

"You know," Sakura said after a short pause. Iruka-sensei kept an eye on the class, but pretty much let them talk among themselves so long as they didn't get too loud. He would get stricter as the year got on, but for now, he let them talk off the summer energy. "It doesn't quite feel like this year should be our senior year. I mean, he hasn't come back yet. He should be here for our senior year."

Hinata knew whom Sakura was referring to, and she agreed completely. He had left over two years ago, and he hadn't been back for even a visit yet.

"I know what you mean," TenTen agreed. "You'd almost expect that grinning knucklehead to be walking through that door right now, acting as if he hadn't left at the end of our freshman year."

Sakura sighed in agreement. "He was such a dork, always grinning at everything. I know that the kendo team misses him. He was such an amazing athlete, when he was being serious." Suddenly she smiled. "You know, I got a letter from him a few weeks ago and he hinted that he might come back this way. Maybe even before we graduate. Wouldn't that be so cool? To have the nine of us back together again?"

Hinata nodded in agreement. "To be honest, I almost expect him to come through that door right now."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, almost as if summoned by Hinata's words. The girls looked up in surprise. They traded glances at one another and watched as Iruka-sensei walked to the door to greet the person. His figure blocked their view and he spoke quietly with them, so they couldn't hear a word. Watching him expectantly, the group held their breaths as Iruka-sensei turned and announced to the class the guest.

"Today, we have an unexpected arrival. Many of you will recognize him from a few years ago when he was with us." Hinata and Sakura traded astonished glances-it couldn't possibly be… "Let's give a warm welcome to our new student, Gaara from Suna High." Iruka-sensei stepped to the side, revealing a pale, quiet red head in the other school's uniform. As Iruka-sensei directed him to a seat (the one between Sasuke and Shikamaru), Hinata and Sakura exchanged disappointed glances and both girls laughed weakly.

"I almost freaked out, thinking it was really him," Sakura said. "But I suppose it's too much to think that Naruto would come back suddenly without saying a word beforehand."

"But that was so unexpected," Ino admitted. "My heart almost stopped when Gaara knocked on the door." The other girls laughed at that. Conversation turned to how long it had been since they had seen Gaara, back when the kendo team had gone to nationals with Suna jointly. Hinata let them talk as she stared out the window and thought about when she had seen Naruto last.

Naruto Uzumaki. That was a name that was practically the key word for their freshman year memories. Back then, he had been the center of the group with his silly antics and determination to be the best in the kendo club. Best in the nation, actually. Not many people had liked him, but after being partnered with him in junior high on some big project, he became friends with Sakura and Sasuke, and then the rest of the group. Back in the old days, Hinata could barely speak a coherent sentence to him without stuttering, she had been so shy. She had the biggest crush on him, and still had feelings for him, even though she tried dating Kiba when he asked her out, but it wasn't the same and they went back to being friends.

Naruto had left at the end of their first year to travel with his guardian, Lord Jiraiya, his late father's mentor. He sent letters to everyone during that time, but Hinata cherished the ones he sent to her personally, though he had always said that he had a crush on Sakura, who never took him seriously. She had always viewed him as a brotherly pest. It was his letters on hearing of Sakura and Sasuke's break up that got her through the heartbreak, helping to remind her to keep a smile on her face, though never once did he mention in his letters that he would try to take Sasuke's place. And Hinata would know, since Sakura shared all her letters with her.

When another knock came at the door ten minutes before homeroom ended, Hinata barely acknowledged it. Instead, she looked out the window at the gardens below as Iruka-sensei went to answer the door. Her daydreams were broken when she heard an "Oh!" and saw Iruka-sensei step out and close the door behind him.

The class exchanged surprised glances, wondering what caused their sensei to leave. They saw his shadow and that of another person's shorter than him talking enthusiastically. The door muffled their voices and was shaded so that the students couldn't see who the other person was. They all jumped in surprise when Iruka-sensei enveloped the other person in a bear hug as he slapped the unknown person's back enthusiastically.

Releasing the other person, Iruka-sensei walked back into the classroom, while saying, "Just wait a minute. Let me do the introductions for you." The other person chuckled and Hinata got goose bumps. She recognized that laugh.

Turning to the class, a grinning Iruka-sensei announced to the classroom, "Though he is incredibly late, I would like to introduce to you all, again, a new old student. Give a warm welcome back to-" Iruka-sensei stepped to the side to reveal a tall blonde young man, "Naruto Uzumaki!"