Introduction: Before School
Brightly colored leaves danced in the September breeze as two boys clad in uniforms consisting of indigo pants and buttoned collar t-shirts slowly walked through the morning sun.
"Yes! We're finally here! Isn't it great?" The chubbier of the boys grinned excitedly.
"Would you calm down, Choji? It's just high school," the taller boy sighed, "just a larger building that we're forced to walk around in all day."
"You take the fun out of everything, Shikamaru."
"You can't take fun out of something that wasn't fun to begin with."
"C'mon, how can you not be excited? We'll have all new classes and meet new people. This is the start of our future! Maybe you'll even get a girlfriend," Choji chuckled, elbowing his friend's arm.
"Woo," Shikamaru stated in a deadpan manner while twirling his finger in the air.
The two approached the front doors of a large, old-fashion building made of yellow bricks. As they opened the antique doors, they were greeted with a burst of screams and laughter flowing through the large hallway. It was as if they had walked into a party, except everyone there was wearing the same exact thing.
"Hey pineapple head! Look out!" A boy on a skateboard yelled, referring to Shikamaru's spiky black hair tied back in an upward fashion.
Shikamaru and Choji quickly moved out of the skateboarder's path, Shikamaru sighing, "I hate it here already."
A pink haired girl in an indigo skirt and a white, short-sleeved blouse made her way through a blur of students in order to get to her locker. 'Sakura' was neatly written across her denim book bag in glittery pink ink. Just as she was closing the metal locker door, a group of boys rushed past her, one of them causing her newly retrieved books to fall to the ground.
The boy stopped and looked down at Sakura picking the books off of the floor, "Ah jeez, sorry about that," he half grinned and ruffled his spiky blonde hair.
"Oh, no, it's alright. Accidents happen," Sakura didn't even look up at him.
"Well here, let me help yo-wahh," another group of students ran into the boy, causing him to fall onto the maiden, his hand landing on her rear.
For a moment, Sakura was silent. Then, realizing what just happened, she pushed the clumsy boy off of her and glared bullets at him; her beautiful sea foam eyes as the guns. In a flash, the boy's expression changed to fearful as he saw the fierce girl's fist flying towards his face.
"Pervert!" Sakura quickly gathered her things and walked away from the confused blonde laying on the ground.
"Please Tenten?" A scrawny looking boy with a bowl-cut hairdo asked desperately of his female companion.
"No." The girl took another bite of a rice ball the size of her hair buns and continued to walk.
"Just a little…"
"I said no."
"But Tenten…"
"Look, Lee, if you're so hungry, then next time try getting up early enough to make yourself breakfast!" She stared icily at the whining boy.
Lee's stomach growled, causing the boy to groan.
"Jeez, you are such a baby, Lee," Tenten threw him the rest of her rice ball.
Lee's large eyes lit up in happiness and he began dancing around with the rice ball, "I jump youthfully for the kindness you have shared!"
"Stop spinning or all the rice will fall out!"
From a couple of yards away, a long haired boy with bandages wrapped around his forehead smirked as he watched the strange event. He began walking closer to the two and rested his hand on Tenten's shoulder. The girl stopped yelling and turned around to face whoever dared to touch her.
Tenten smiled, "Oh, hey Neji."
Neji looked past her at the boy gleefully hugging half a rice ball, "Tenten, what is Lee doing?"
"Do you really want to know?"
Neji paused for a moment, in thought, "I suppose not. We should get going. School will start soon."
The two began to walk towards the large school building with Lee spinning beside them.
"Hey, where's your cousin?" Tenten question Neji.
"She went on ahead."
All eyes turned towards lockers W205 and W206 as a feminine scream pierced the students' ears.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew, EWWW!" the screaming blonde girl jumped around, clinging to her locker door.
"Please calm down," the boy next to her said monotonously as he leaned down towards the ground.
"Just get them away from me!"
"It's not like they were going to bite you or anything."
"What kind of freak brings a bunch of creepy looking bugs to school!" she continued to yell at her locker neighbor, her long hair swinging in its ponytail.
The boy stood up and pushed his sunglasses up on his face, "Beetles."
"What?"
"To be precise, these are a rare type of beetle. You simply called them bugs."
"I don't care what they are, just pick them up!"
"Might I remind you that you are the one who bumped into me, causing me to hit the lid of my container, which, in turn, released the beetles," his voice remained calm and steady.
"Why did you bring your 'precious beetles' here in the first place?"
"Science project."
"It's the first day of school, how can you already have a project due?"
"Has anyone ever told you that you ask a lot of questions?"
"Ew! I think one's climbing up my leg!" she immediately latched back onto her locker door.
"I believe I asked you to calm down," the boy picked the beetle off of her leg and returned it to a container, "There, I've retrieved them all."
"Thank you," the girl said aggressively.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I must put these in the science lab. Goodbye Ino," he turned to walk away.
The blonde girl looked at him in surprise, "How did you know my name? Who the hell are you?!"
The strange boy stopped and slowly turned to face her, "Your name is written on that mirror in your locker."
"Oh, right," Ino felt embarrassed for not realizing this, "Well still, who are you?"
"My name," he adjusted his sunglasses once more, "is Shino," and with that said, he walked away.
A swarm of long violet hair strictly followed behind a fragile looking girl as she jogged through the school hallway, eyes glued to the floor. 'Just find class 302. Don't make eye contact with anyone, just find the class,' she thought to herself. She felt a sudden impact to her chest and fell to the floor. Across from her sat a redheaded boy glaring in her direction and looking as though he were ready to kill. Taking in the realization that she had just run into the boy, the girl quickly got up and ran to help him.
"I-I'm so sorry," she extended her hand to help him up.
The redhead completely ignored the apologetic gesture and got himself up, saying to her in a cold tone, "Just watch where you're going."
"Y-yes, you're right. I-I should pay more attention. S-sorry," she spat the words out quickly and nervously, "M-my name is Hinata."
"Whatever," the boy walked farther down the hallway to a pair of upperclassmen.
"Jeez, Gaara, if you had been any colder to that girl, she would've turned to ice," the female of the pair chuckled.
"Nobody asked you, Temari," Gaara continued to walk and the two followed behind.
"I'm just saying that you need to be a bit more respectful to girls in the future. You wouldn't want to turn out like our idiot brother over here, who gets hit every day for accidently insulting a girl," Temari pointed to the male upperclassmen walking beside her.
"At least I talk to girls. All the guys are too scared to even come near you," their brown-headed brother retorted.
"Why don't you shut your mouth before I shut it for you, Kankuro!"
"See, there's that temper of yours that scares everyone away. That and those spiky blonde puffs you call a hairdo."
"Why you stupid…"
"Both of you shut up. You're getting on my nerves," Gaara lazily stated as they turned a corner, disappearing from Hinata's sight.
7:45am, only ten minutes until the start of class. A raven-haired boy switched his gaze from the watch on his wrist to the building in front of him. His slate black eyes were full of emptiness as he scanned the old bricks. He really could care less about the distance voices inside or the worn textbooks he would be learning from. None of it mattered.
The boy sighed. He would have to be the good little high school student that everyone expected him to be, whether he liked it or not. He would play his life according to everyone else's rules until he would be able to leave that horrid place that held so much pain. Someday it would all be behind him and he could forget.
He looked at his watch again; 7:50am. The boy walked slowly towards the building, stopping only to notice a small patch of rubber blending into the neat yellow bricks; a shoe.
"Oi, you up there!" he yelled loud enough to scare the birds around him.
The shoe three stories above began to move, quickly being replaced with the heads of a sleepy looking boy and a dog.
"Class starts in five minutes. You might want to get off the roof," he continued.
"Really? Already? Okay, well thanks, um…," the boy on the roof stuttered.
"Sasuke."
"Alright, Sasuke, I owe ya one," and with that said, the heads disappeared.
Upon entering the building, Sasuke was met by a voice coming from a loudspeaker. It said eagerly, "Welcome, students, to a fresh new year! I hope you enjoy your time here at Konoha High School!"