There was a crack. Her eyes trailed the thin crack of black in the seemingly never ending white of her ceiling until it thinned out. How had that gotten there? She mused with herself, thinking how it could grow and that it didn't really matter the next second she heard a crash. That was probably her sister. She sighed, closing her eyes and wanting to duck under her blanket to sleep some more. She was absolutely unmotivated to go to school. Today and every other day there would come she would always hate going to school. She heard the wind blowing outside, there was rain as well, she could hear it hitting her window.

"Lena!" Another sigh escaped her lips as she opened her eyes again, watching her white ceiling. She loathed Mondays. She loathed Mondays when she had to go to school, and she loathed them even more now that she had to go to a new school. It didn't start until 9. At least the schools in Japan had that running for them, sleeping long in the morning. Sadly she had a half-hour long train ride to school plus half an hour with the bike to the next train station.

Why do we always have to live so far from the city?

She sighed a last time, glancing outside and huffing before glancing at her clock. If she wanted to shower before school she would have to stand up now or it would be too little time to get everything ready in time. A last deep breath before she sat up and stretched her arms up into the air, arching her back till she heard a few pops, and then slumping back into the softness of her bed. Her calm was broken as her door burst open.

"Ever heard of knocking Bitch?" She groaned, knowing fully well that her sister had just entered her room.

"Shut up little Bitch! Dad asks if you want fried egg on toast? And I need one of your pullovers." Another groan as she heard the door to her walk-in closet slid open.

"Leave my clothes alone Bitch… go and wear your own!" She sat up, her hair ruffled and tiredly dragged herself out of her bed. Stretching her whole body this time she walked over to the door to her closet, crossing her arms she leant against the door-frame and watched her sister look around.

"Don't you have something more cute?" As her sister turned she raised a brow and took in the appearance of her sister, she wore a white button-up shirt with a black little fly around her neck, thought loosely made and an equally black skirt. White thighs and no slippers, despite the custom.

"That our school uniform?" She asked and went past her sister, rummaging shortly she pulled out a dark-gray sweater that was two sizes too big and gave it her sister. A short mustering followed by a nod and she pulled it over her head.

"Jup, but yours is some other color, something about different year different color or shit like that, well than, see ya little Bitch." She sighed and threw a longing look at her bed, just a few more minutes…

"Up up and off to the fight! Let's win this war…" Her enthusiasm equaled zero. Pulling a new pair of underwear from the containing boxes as well as a black top and short shorts to wear under the skirt just in case she went off to claim the bathroom for half an hour.

She looked at herself, shutting of the hair dryer to let the rest of water in her hair dry naturally she took in her appearance. Still in her underwear and top plus shorts only she looked like herself, her skin slightly flushed from the hot water and her half-dry hair in slight curls around her face, her diagonal fringe framing her face and a few rebellious strands curling around her face. She frowned, pushing her thin red glasses up she ruffled the towel once more through her hair before hanging it up to dry. It was still a little bit strange to change from the bath-slippers to her pink fluff slippers every time. Well, at least she used her slippers unlike her sister.

In the kitchen a nice smelling breakfast was awaiting her and she happily gave her father a hug before sitting down. She put the bacon aside to eat it last as she just loved the taste and began to eat the fried egg on toast. A glance to the clock told her that she didn't have all that long anymore and hurried up to get to her room, taking the plastic-bag that contained her uniform before. Back in her room she stuffed the needed things into her school bag, the brown bag was strange but gave a nostalgic feeling of the long ago times where even in Germany people used those.

She was strangely happy to get the one her father had used back in his days as she checked the list the school had given them for the needed materials. Bag fixed and at the ready she put it next to the door before she pulled out her uniform and tried it on. She button-up shirt was a little bit tight around her chest but she guessed that couldn't be helped, the skirt was fitting just nicely, what she found strange as she had a pretty curvy body but wasn't used to skirts fitting so well. However it was incredibly warm under it so she could understand why people rolled their skirts up, she did too, but only about two inches so it would be all that noticeable.

"Little Bitch?! Come we need to get going!" She rolled her eyes.

"Coming! Just a second!" She screamed back and fast got herself a beige one size too big sweater to put on over her uniform. Her sister was right, hers was a deep green, but she was just a first year so she supposed that was to make it easier for the teachers to tell the students apart. Instead of the thighs her sister wore she decided for simple white knee-socks. Grabbing her bag she fast picked one of the small water-bottles from the kitchen before getting to the hall and switching from her slippers into the black shoes she had to wear for school. Her sister was already outside, at least the rain had stopped, but there was still wind tossing the leaves around. Well, it was the end of summer after all, and it seemed fall wanted to get there a little early.

After she had gotten her bicycle she drove after her sister, soon having caught her. At least they had luck and the drive wouldn't be up- or downhill, they had tested the way beforehand to make sure how long they needed. While her sister drove before her at the side of the simple street she listened to music, it let the drive seem less boring and less long as well as it let her get a clear thought through her head. As they reached the station the two locked their bicycles together into one of the stands and got onto the station. She was happy that her ticket had arrived before school started and that they had not had to get it first thing when in school.

They already had their schedules and gotten shown once around school just after they had gotten enrolled into school. The school had looked nice in summer, with green everywhere and bright rooms with high windows. It was really a beautiful school and the only thing she liked about school, she dreaded the lessons till deep into the evening. When they entered the train it was relatively empty and they had luck to get a seat, so sitting down they both listened to music as she always looked at the stations. Kanji was the worst problem when they had gotten to know that they would move to Japan. Learning the language was not that much of a problem as the teacher they had was good and a native thus they had gotten their accent nearly drilled out of them, but the kanji was something she still found hard to memorize.

She could read easy texts, that far she had already been but the more kanji came together the more she got confused, so she had opted for her usual way of learning: reading books. She didn't know why but it had helped her greatly to read and she slowly got the hang of everything, thus there was a book with her all the time. Nearly all of the summer they had spent here was passed reading and furnishing her room. She stifled a yawn as she suddenly felt a strange recognition of the kanji now displayed. Oh! That was their school. She bumped her sister with her elbow and nodded towards the sign, a nod from her sister that she knew it was their get-off.

She was honestly impressed with the people in the train, sure it had been stuffed full, they had after all rode the train till nearly the center of the city, but that so many had gotten out with them and even more had gotten inside the train… wow. In Germany that would not have been possible, or rather, nobody would have attempted it. Her sister dragged her with her out of the most and tried to find out where they had to get out.

"That way." She pointed towards one of the stairs where not only people in suits but also in uniforms from their school were getting up. Following the string of people the two caught quite a few stares. Of course, their pale skin-tone together with the dark-blonde hair weren't all that normal around the mostly black or brown-haired people. However she had seen a few outstanding colors already. It was a little strange as it wasn't allowed to dye your hair in school thus she had to change her normally red-dyed hair to the usual dirty-blonde she normally spotted. As they reached the gate her older sister raised her hand.

"I'll leave you here then; we don't know each other, clear?"

"Sure. See you home then." They parted, as her older sister went up into school. She already knew her sister would probably have at least those she shared classes with as her friends by the end of the day, while she could be lucky if people didn't find her strange. Sighing she walked over to a free bench under a green tree, she had no idea what kind of tree it was but she didn't really care. She searched first for her schedule, and of course she had to have PE right after homeroom. At least she knew where her homeroom was, thought dragging herself all way up to the highest floor? Not that much in her wishes-list, but beggars can't be choosers or something like that.

A small glance on her watch told her that she had still a quarter hour time until it would ring, so she decided to use that time. While it seemed students were still lingering outside, meeting their friends after the big summer break and shooting her strange looks she decided to get to her classroom and get a nice seat right in the first row so she could at least catch what the teacher had to tell. Making her way up the stairs she decided that she hated stairs just as much as she hated Mondays. On the highest floor she went down the hall and looked for her room number, here and there students were running around, laughing. It was a pretty nice atmosphere until she ran into somebody.

It was as if the nice air had been sucked away with a snip of a finger. Holding her nose she whimpered at the pain, looking up she got to stare into the harsh dark eyes of a tall boy, he wore the same green as uniform as she did which let her guess he was the same year. But still, her nose hurt and he wasn't even going to say sorry? Telling herself to keep calm she would offer a sorry herself now, he wanted to be rude? Okay, two could play that! Huffing she sidestepped him and wanted to walk away but a hand grabbed her arm and whirled her around, she hissed at the pain in her arm.

"Ouch! Let go!" He stared at her, eyes narrowing.

"You should excuse yourself when running into someone."

"Well, then you should too! I obviously wasn't the only one not paying attention." She glared at him. Sure, just like her, always opening her big mouth.

"What are you doing there Kankuro?"

Oh great! Another one! God damned me, didn't he?

She glanced at the red-head who had spoken in such a monotone manner it was strange.

"She ran into me and didn't even say sorry!" Suddenly his head snapped forward and Lena could see a hand still in the air that obviously had given this 'Kankuro' a slap to the back of his head.

"Baka! Let the girl go. You always run around and now you think you can go and scare some middle school kid? Come or we may be late!" The harsh words of the woman seemed to make the boy regret his actions as he let go of her, however she wasn't all that happy at being called middle-school kid. Sure, she was damned small and even her sister always made fun of her but damned be she if she let that sit on her.

"I'm not some middle-school kid!" She snapped and huffed before turning and stalking to her class. Finally there she only had about five minutes left and sighed, there were already some people in the class and chatting. The chatter was broken as she entered and instead people decided to stare at her. To hell with it all, ignoring the staring people she walked to the seat farthest to the right by the windows and sat down in the first row, getting out her book and began to read. The chatter broke out again but this time hushed and she didn't need to hear the people to know they were talking about her.

Yes do that, talk about the small pale girl with strange hair and big eyes.

At least it finally rang and a flush of students seemed to rush into the room, followed by a second ring and a teacher with long brown hair pulled into a pony-tail with a long scar over his nose and cheeks. He looked friendly and seemingly took them all with a smile in.

"Welcome, my name's Iruka. I know most of you from middle-school but there are a few new faces in this class. We won't do much today, just some seat arranging to get you a little mixed. That way you can get to know each other faster and form a good bond with your class. I'll inform you in advance of the field trip around march next year where we will be away for three days. Forms will be given out later, now first attendance-check." He sat down behind the teachers-desk and got a book out of the drawer. He called out names and the people replied, until he came to an 'Uzumaki Naruto'. As nobody answered he sighed and scribbled down a note to further go down the list.

"Braun Lena." It still was strange for her to hear it.

"Here" She said in her calm and small voice, she felt all the stares on herself and her neck heating up, however attention shifted from her to the door as it was burst open. It revealed a sunny-blonde haired boy with sun-kissed skin and a smile even as he huffed for air and leaned against the frame of the door. He grinned and pulled himself up, there were strange whisker-like things on his cheeks, three each.

"That are only five minutes Iruka-sensei!" He said loudly and if one was able to read body-language one could see that Iruka wasn't even angry, just tired.

"Sit down on one of the empty seats Naruto." He grinned and scanned the class before seeming to pout and scan the class again.

"Whoa! None of my friends are in this class, Iruka-sensei!"

"Sit down Naruto!" He snapped and the blonde flinched before sulking and walking up to a free place around the middle of the class-room. Iruka finished attendance and then held up a small tower of cards as well as an empty shoe-box.

"Each of you will take a card out of this shoe-box, there are numbers on them. I will draw the seating-arrangement on the board and give the seats numbers, you will sit where your number is. When there is partner work you will work with the person to next to you. That means four teams per row." He stood up and walked down the row, Lena was a bit nervous that she may get a bad seat in the back of the class-room but had luck, a small number meant she was in the front of the room. They all waited until everybody had a number and Iruka had drawn the seating arrangement. After that all hell seemed to break lose as friends seemed to be ripped apart and enemies were put together. Lena had to change to a seat two to her left and now sat next to the blonde boy that was late and sulking. He fell into his chair more than anything else and puffed his cheeks.

As the turmoil seemed to still rake on she pulled out her book and read further, she wanted to get through this, there were a few more kanji she was still not familiar enough with in her opinion. She failed to notice the blue eyes now getting a fixation on her. Naruto mustered her. That girl was strange, for one was she smaller than even Sakura, and she was already the smallest person in their age-group he knew. Then there came the fact that she was nearly as pale as Sai, though nobody was as pale as Sai, that idiot was a sheet of paper! Another strange thing were her eyes, they seemed to big, too wide open and her lashes too long. She had to be an alien!

"Hey… are you an alien?" He saw her flinch shortly and then get all stiff with his question, maybe she was like Sakura and would tick out beating him up? He didn't even know why Sakura tended to do that, it's not like he was being rude, at least he thought so. The girl buried her nose deeper into the book and went on with ignoring him, thought he was pretty sure she got red.

He was rude. Incredibly so! But, she had to have patience with the stupid, he obviously didn't know any better, no normal person would have asked that question! Thankfully homeroom was soon done with even if she had the bad luck of being paired with the blonde idiot for partner works in the future. She could already see it, she would probably do all the work alone. With a sigh she dragged herself down the next stairs, everybody had rushed out of class to get to the next one, but she just hated PE. It was absolutely not her class and she didn't want to have to participate in it, but what good would it do? None.

With a bad feeling she let herself plop down the last stair and walk over to her locker, after they were shown the school they had been in the school once more, to stow away their PE-clothes and a second pair of normal clothes just in case something happened. Now dragging herself to PE with her clothes in hand she would get a locker there to but her bearings into and then change. She didn't want to but had no choice of the matter as she had to go to school for another three years. Oh Joy! In front of the Gym there waited a beautiful woman, smiling at her friendly.

"I'm Yuuhi Kurenai, your PE-teacher and I'll show you your locker, come."

"Hai, thanks. Braun Lena." It was still strange to say her name in the wrong order. She followed the woman and got into one of the change-rooms for girls. There already were a few changing into the PE-uniform and now staring at her. After she got her locker and opened it with the same combination as her locker in school had she decided to change as fast as possible. She wasn't all that good-feeling about her body, but that could be because she was a little bit thicker than what was considered normal. With her back to the other girls she fast slipped on the white shirt and dark-green shorts. She was happy they went nearly to her knee and weren't just short shorts, the Shirt she had made sure to get at least one size bigger than she actually needed to hide her figure a big more.

PE began with the teacher telling them to run a few laps to get warm, but from the mass of students it seemed two classes had PE together. She saw the blonde boy from homeroom again, he ran with a few other boys that were probably his friends. She looked down at the ground. Would she even make friends? Sure the question he had asked was rude but it was what everybody here probably thought… she was an alien.