Ten-year-old Naruto stared at the clock on the wall behind Iruka. It read: 12:59. He was in the middle of class at the Ninja Academy, and it was a Friday, so everyone was in a particularly good mood.
"One minute until recess..." Naruto thought, placing a hand on his chin and his elbow on his desk. All the other students around him seemed to be slowly coming to this realization, until Iruka realized not one person was listening to what he was saying.
He sighed loudly, and thirty heads jerked in his direction. "Alright, we can start the countdown, I suppose."
Everyone grinned, except for one boy with dark hair who was busy avoiding the looks girls were giving him.
"Ten...nine...eight...seven..." Naruto cheered with everyone else, but secretly wondered what he would do that recess, particularly since nobody usually wanted to play with him.
"...six...five...four...three...two..." Across the room, Sasuke sighed, not even bothering to join in. He hated recess, and from the looks he was getting, he could tell that this one was going to involve a lot of running.
"ONE!" Everyone got up and charged out the door, heading towards the playground. Naruto found himself in the center of the mob, but could still see the upper-class-men heading out in front of his class. He sighed. They just had to have recess with the older kids.
In the back of the group, a small pink-haired girl walked with her friend Ino, another girl named Hinata tagging along behind them. Ino pointed out Sasuke, who was a few feet ahead of them, and Sakura forced a smile. Hinata looked from the girls to Sasuke nervously, knowing Sakura also liked Sasuke.
"Again?" Hinata asked Ino. Ino looked back at her with a grin, obviously out of the loop about Sakura's crush. Hinata shuddered to think about what would happen if she knew.
"Yup. I feel like running, so I guess today's one of those days!" Ino cried. She missed the eye-roll that came from the girl next to her.
The last of the students reached the playground, the warmth from the sun enveloping all of them. Ino put a hand over her eyes and looked around. "There he is!" she exclaimed, and Sakura and Hinata barely made out Sasuke across the playground. They both sighed and waved goodbye to Ino, who ran to join the mob of girls that was already forming around him.
"Hey, you two!" a voice called out as Hinata and Sakura took a seat at a nearby bench. They both jumped and looked up at the approaching girl, who was slightly taller than them and had dark brown hair, which was up in two buns. She was obviously an upper-class-men. "Oh...sorry if I scared you," the girl said with a smile. "I don't want to come across as a bully. I just wanted to know if you two wanted to play a game with us?" The girl pointed over her shoulder at some other kids across the playground, who also looked to be her age. One was a guy with long hair, another had a weird green outfit on, and the rest were too far away to recognize.
Hinata gave Sakura a look that said, "You handle this."
Sakura gulped and looked up from her place on the bench, but after a moment came to the conclusion that the girl meant no harm. "Um...we're kind of waiting for our friend, so...no thanks. But thank you for your offer."
The older girl shrugged. "No problem. Let us know if you change your mind, though." She turned and walked away.
They were so busy watching her leave that Hinata and Sakura cried out in surprise when Ino plopped down next to them, panting. "Hey guys!" she puffed.
"Ino, you scared us!" Sakura exclaimed. "Gave up, huh?"
Ino nodded. "Sasuke's a fast runner! He must train a whole lot to outrun all of us!" She noticed the girl retreating from them. "Who was that?"
Sakura followed Ino's eyes. "Oh, her...I don't know. She didn't tell us her name. She wanted us to play with her and her friends."
Ino gasped. "Well, it's a good thing you said no! Never trust eleven-year-olds like her! They always bully us!"
"Well...she seemed kinda nice..." Hinata pointed out, and Sakura nodded.
"It's all part of their plan. Some eleven-year-old girls like that are...different. Have you guys had that talk with your moms yet?"
Hinata and Sakura shook their heads. "What talk?" they both asked.
Ino hunched over and leaned towards them like she was about to tell them a secret. "You know...about your period!"
Sakura and Hinata went red. "Oh...THAT talk..." Sakura said. "Well...I thought I was kinda young for it, but yeah. Why?"
Ino leaned in closer and whispered, "Well, from what I hear, when girls get that...they change. It's like being a werewolf, except its once a month for a week, instead of during a full moon. They get mad for no reason, or sad, or happy, it's like they have some kind of disease!"
Hinata and Sakura gasped. "We're gonna turn into werewolves?"
Meanwhile, Naruto wandered around, walking up to random boys like he usually did. "Wanna play a game?" he asked a group who seemed to be doing nothing.
"No!" they all said in unison. Naruto sighed and walked away. He searched for the only boy he seemed to be able to relate to, and finally found him, running away from a mob of girls. He sighed again.
"I would even rather do that than nothing..." He looked down at his feet and followed the ground in the direction of the benches. He would just relax there. When he felt like he was close, he looked up and saw a few girls sitting on one of the benches. He recognized the one with the pink hair immediately. "Sakura-chan!" he thought with a grin. "I wonder what she's talking about over there...maybe me!" Taking care not to be spotted, Naruto took the long way around the girls and ended up behind them. He found a nearby bush and sat down behind it, listening to their conversation.
"No, silly! I said we'll be like werewolves!" Ino was saying. "That's why we don't talk to the eleven-year-olds! If they have their period, they could be extra mean to us! Who knows what they'd do?"
"But...couldn't ten-year-olds get their period too, Ino?" Hinata asked.
Ino scoffed. "Of course not! We're immune!"
Sakura looked at her. "I don't know Ino, that doesn't sound right to me..."
Ino shrugged. "Well, that's what I hear..."
"Did your mom tell you that?" Hinata asked.
"No. But I'm sure it's true. Otherwise, why would we be friends with each other?" Ino asked them.
Sakura and Hinata gave her clueless looks. "I don't know. I guess you could be right..." Sakura said doubtfully.
Ino frowned. "Whatever, don't believe me. I'm not tired anymore, though. I'm gonna go run after Sasuke..."
Sakura sighed and looked back at Hinata. "Well, I'm getting kind of bored. Maybe we should go play with them..." Sakura suggested, looking in the direction of the girl who had talked to them earlier. Hinata frowned.
"I don't know...what Ino said kinda scared me..." she said. Sakura tapped her chin in thought.
"Well...how about we just ask her if she has her period? And if she says no, then we'll play!"
Hinata shrugged. "I guess that'd be ok...but do you think she'd mind?"
Sakura smiled. "Probably not, she seemed nice enough, right?"
Hinata nodded slowly. "You're right, let's go!" They got up and walked in the direction of the girl.
Naruto watched them go, and with a confused look on his face, he stood up from the bushes. "Periods...that's what they were talking about? He frowned as another question popped into his head, and he wandered off in the opposite direction of the girls. Naruto Uzumaki was on a mission to get his new question answered, and he knew the perfect person to ask. "Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cried, spotting the man in question.
Sakura and Hinata walked nervously up to the older kids, tapping on the girl's shoulder. She turned around and looked at them with a smile. "Hey! Decided to play after all?" She held up a small ball in her hand and showed it to them. "We're playing a game called baseball. Did you two want to join?"
"Sure!" Sakura exclaimed, exchanging smiles with Hinata. "But first, can we ask you something?"
"Of course. Oh! You probably want to know my name, right?" the girl said as two other boys walked up behind her.
"Um...not exact-"
The girl cut Sakura off. "I'm Tenten, this is Neji..." She pointed to the boy with long hair. "...and this is Rock Lee!" The boy in green smiled at them and gave them a thumbs up.
"Uh...nice to meet you, but that wasn't our question..." Sakura said. Tenten frowned and looked down at her.
"What did you want to know, then?"
"Well...we were just wondering...do you have your period yet?"
Sakura could tell something was wrong as soon as the words left her lips. A vein popped up in Tenten's forehead, Rock Lee snickered and put both hands on his mouth to keep from bursting out laughing, and Neji cracked a small smile. Sakura looked at each of their faces, confused.
"Was it something I said?" she asked. Hinata tapped Sakura on the shoulder as Tenten's face turned red and Rock Lee's laughter increased.
"Um...I think we should go now..." Hinata whispered.
"No, no, she has to answer the question first, right?" Sakura asked, looking up at Tenten, who seemed to be fighting a battle with herself. "Are you okay?" Sakura asked. Tenten closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, clenching and unclenching her fists.
"...I'm fine," she finally said, opening her eyes and smiling at them through gritted teeth. She turned around and shot Rock Lee a look, and he quieted down. Neji have her a teasing look and she glared at him, before turning back around to face the younger girls. "That's not something you should be asking. That's all." Tenten settled for not hurting them.
Sakura cocked her head. "Why not?"
Tenten blinked. "Just because. Listen, this is getting weird. Are you two going to play or not?"
Sakura and Hinata shrugged. "Sure," Sakura said, walking past her to the rest of the kids. As they passed by, Tenten heard Sakura whisper, "Since she didn't hurt us, the answer must be no..." Hinata nodded in agreement, and Tenten blushed red and turned to Rock Lee and Neji.
"Please tell me you didn't hear that..." she mumbled. They both grinned at her.
"I cannot tell a lie," Rock Lee raised his right hand honorably. Neji shook his head with a smile, turning away to head back towards the field.
Tenten glared at his retreating back, and then looked at Rock Lee with the same expression. He quickly scampered away. Tenten followed behind, marching angrily with her fists by her side.
Meanwhile, Naruto ran towards Iruka, who was observing the other kids from a bench in the shade. He passed by two boys on the way. One had his arms crossed and the other was munching on a bag of chips. The skinnier one ducked and pulled the other one down with him as Naruto jumped over them. They watched him run away without looking back, and the skinny one shook his head and mumbled, "What a drag..."
Naruto reached his teacher, huffing and puffing until he caught his breath. Iruka stared down at him. "What is it, Naruto?"
Naruto looked up at him. "I have to ask you a question!" he shouted. Iruka leaned back slightly and covered his ears.
"Okay, shoot," he replied after a moment.
Naruto's eyes stared into Iruka's innocently, and Naruto asked, "When do I get my period?"
