DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters, places or themes affiliated, the month of April, PA Days (university has no PA Days...!), holidays (which we almost never have), and a whole lot of other things that we don't have time to list out, right now.

Esperwen: Portal is back! Please forgive me! I meant to post throughout all of last week. Seriously.


Chapter One: Academic April

April can be an important time to people. For some, it signifies the approach of a new season, but for the eleven portal-users this was not the reason they were so concerned. For others, the Monday of the third week of April is a day off from school, due to it being a PA Day. The portal-users attended school, as either students or a teacher, but since the PA Day did not apply to highschools, this was not the reason why the portal users cared about April. In fact, the portal-users were feeling fairly stressed about April. Why? Because during one sunny Friday, they had been reminded of the due dates of at least three major projects each, informed of the dates of at least two important tests or exams, and there was, of course, the monumental distribution of:

"Report cards!"

The Math teacher who was Michelle, Shaun, Hinata, Kyle and Nat's homeroom teacher, had uttered those two, hateful words with a seemingly mocking smile. She was also the only one in the room who was feeling perky at that moment. The four abovesaid teenagers were especially tense, that day.

I have to get good grades! Hinata White thought, doing her little finger trick like she usually did when nervous, I know it's only grade eleven, but if I can't get good grades, I can't get a scholarship, and I need one if I want to go to college.

In this world, eleventh grader Hinata (of the Hyuuga family, once upon a time) had been moving between foster homes since she was twelve; now, she lived with Denise, but she didn't know how long she could stay. Her social worker had said 'something around a year', but there were never any guarantees for Hinata. Still, though she was quiet, Hinata had grown tough from her past, shaky three years. She still stuttered when talking to strangers, teachers, and a certain blonde classmate, but she was a very determined, smart and hard-working individual.

I think I did alright, Shaun Anderson thought, adjusting his sunglasses with a finger, But I've only been in this school for this one semester; I hope they tranferred my marks from my old school properly.

Thanks to his father, who worked with a large business, Shaun (or Aburame Shino, in another world) had moved to his current neighbourhood when Mr. Anderson had been transferred to work in the big city. Arrangements for his academic marks had been made, but nothing about the school system was flawless, as everyone knows. But of course, Shaun was intelligent, and always tried to use it to the best of his abilities; if there were any problems with transferring his marks, Shaun would still be able to make a comeback, somehow.

If I don't get at least a 75 average, my parents will make me go back to my old school, Kyle Douglas thought, burying his head in his arms, on his desk, And then I'll have to live with my great-aunt again! Ugh, she's a nice old lady, but her house smells awful, and she's scared of my dogs...

Kyle, or Inuzuka Kiba as he used to be called, was the eldest son of frequently travelling parents; his mother was a travel agent, who personally inspected different destinations, while his father was a scientist who was working on a project in another country. Originally, he had lived with his mother's aunt, but after learning about the successful sports teams and experienced coaches at the school he was sitting, he had transferred over the first chance he got. He planned to use his strength to be a police officer, and all of his physical abilities from Konoha had stayed with him when entering our world, giving him a definite edge.

How many assignments did I forget to hand in? Nathan Makizu thought, counting on his fingers worriedly, Let's see...three in English, four in Health, maybe two in World History...

Nat, or Uzumaki Naruto, had been brought up with his younger brother by his grandfather, and had lived downtown. He had also heard of the sports programs in this school, and since Kyle's mother was Nat's grandfather's travel agent and family friend, Nat was sharing an apartment with Kyle at a nearby building while they attended their school. Though he no longer had chakra, Nat was still a good athlete; he planned on going to the Olympics and gaining at least three gold medals after breaking a few world records. He had come from a poor neighbourhood, and he wanted someone to shine a little glory on it; his feisty nature made him the perfect candidate.

I should've done my homework, Michelle Salanga thought, her hands shaking while she clasped them together in her lap, I know I could've done at least five percent better on all of my tests, if I had only done the work. That's mostly seventies on my tests, right there!

Though she was a hard worker as Inuzuka Michiko in Konoha, Michelle was a notorious procrastinator in her grade. She was rather shy around unfamiliar people, so only a handful of people knew that what she lacked in academic discipline, she made up for when taking care of her friends and family. Some of her friends even jokingly called her their mom, from time to time.

At another side of the school, a certain English class was also steeling itself for recieving their report cards. Side by side at the back of the classroom, Corey, Phil and Isaac showed no outward signs of any particular worry.

Meh...thought Philip Jones, sitting balanced on his chair with his legs in a lotus position, I did my best. ...okay, not really, but I know I did okay.

Communist teachers with idiotic marks...Corey Smith thought to himself darkly, I mean...yes, I am a happy person...stupid talk-show therapist, forcing his mundane self-help remarks into my brain, making me assimilate...

Hn, 17-year-old Isaac (with no last name) thought, eloquent as usual.

Phil, also known as Raiko Firu, Corey, or Hyuuga Korii, and Isaac, better known as the infamous Uchiha Itachi, were three all-around normal students. If they cared more (or at all) about their schooling, they would be exceptional students; all of them had good IQs, knew all the lessons that they heard when (or if) they attended class, and understood everything in the classes they had chosen for themselves. But, they were more apathetic than most people were, and probably the students most left alone by the teachers; their constant usage of dark clothing and naturally intimidating auras kept most people at bay, which was all right by them. Except for the people in their hallway, where all of their friends' lockers were, they didn't care about school or the rest of humanity in general.

In the furthest corner of that high school, there was an isolated hallway. There was an ongoing legend that the architects of the school kept the hallway apart in this fashion, because the courses held there were the least popular ones (because nobody likes to take the Arts), and umours whispered that once those classes were cancelled, blowing up that area would be no problem or safety threat, due to its separation from the rest of the school. Which was complete nonsense, of course. And as it happened, one of the classes held in that hallway was music, which was also Denise's homeroom.

Ugh...I hate report cards, Denise Tomas thought, shifting in her seat while waiting for her teacher to reach her name on the class list and hand her her marks for the semester, Can I help it if they give us stupid projects that I don't care about?

Called Deniizu in another world, ninth grader Denise was famous for her poor academic discipline with several grades and most teachers. She had a 'tough girl' reputation, however, so like three of her male friends, she was more often than not left alone by other people. The only times she excelled, if she attended class, were during Music, Gym, and Math; the only class she consistently attended was Music. And, if you read 'Portal - Transitions', this was only because she and the teacher had made a deal with each other: if she attended and worked hard in class, then he made sure all her absences from class disappeared.

She should have been the more careful with these theory homework I assign, the tenth portal user, Ionel Stoica, thought, mildly upset, Instead of 80, she may have had the 90. Maybe even a hundred.

Ionel, or Satoki Inel in Konoha, was a music teacher in most of the portal-users' school. In his late forties, he was the same enthusiastic, musical individual (with the same poor grammar) as he was in the other world. And of course, he was also the hacker that cleaned up nine students' attendance records; they very often skipped Monday's lessons to switch worlds, after all.

The same 11 to 12 o'clock timer was on the 11 portal-users' greenhouse; the greenhouse only revealed itself on Monday, as it always had. But even Denise knew that they could not skip every Monday for class; for one thing, Inel had to teach other classes, and for another, teachers would eventually become suspicious if all nine friends kept disappearing for one day of each week.

Sometimes Inel stayed behind in their home world; his group, Team 13, did not always require him to teach them in Konoha, and he already had a reputation for randomly disappearing, as many Konoha jounins might tell you. But the other students still needed to stay in school on some Mondays; sometimes Pauline and only Team 8 would return, sometimes just Pooriin with Itachi, or Firu, if they were on important missions that they didn't want to leave for too long. The whole group travelled together only occasionally, usually just once every three weeks. Also, during long breaks, such as their free week during spring break, or winter holidays, when they could spend more than just three or four days in Konoha, they had decided that if even one person could not go, none of them could.

Such a problem had happened just three months before, all throughout January. Since they had already been on an 'extended trip' during winter break (when really they were taking part in their first Chuunin Exam, among other things), and since they had academic exams in January, none of the portal-users could skip school, which meant that neither could Pauline.

This was not the case for the next Monday; all of the abovesaid portal-users could go into Konoha for three days. This was the first time that they could travel as a whole group back to Konoha since spring break. Unfortunately, some of the portal-users knew that if the marks on their report cards were not high enough to meet their parents' expectations, then that would require less dimension-hopping in the near future. All in all, the portal-users couldn't wait for summer to come, and the school year to be over, because if they didn't have school, then there wouldn't be a need to attend classes or study, and they could spend even more time in Konoha.


Esperwen: Ok, because I am two days late, I am going to post another chapter. But after this, I'm updating only on Tuesdays, so remember that.

Denise: I'm alive! You didn't decide to just stop writing!

Esperwen: What're you talking about?! I love writing! I just haven't had very much time, lately. University teachers are slave drivers...