"Yo," Naruto said into his phone. "I'm at school and I got your schedule and shit from the office. Just haul your ass to school every mornin' by eight-thirty. We share two classes."

"Idiot," was Sasuke's charming greeting. "I told you to stay the fuck away from my shit. Too hard to understand?"

"I'm gonna ignore that, Princess Uchiha." Naruto generously declared. He grabbed his Chemistry book, shoved it under his arm, shut his locker and then he looked up towards the hall, trying to spot people he knew.

Which were a lot. People he knew, that is. After all, he was pretty well-liked.

But there weren't any in the hall right then. That was because there were freshmen here, tons of them. Naruto frowned. The reason he'd been to school early was to grab Sasuke's schedule and compare it with his. He couldn't understand why the every freshman batch after his class was early on the first day every year. Nobody else came to Konoha High early. That was messed up. Everyone knew the cool kids, at least, headed to school around eight-thirty, not fucking seven.

It's because they had a reasonably cool principal. Tsunade was super laidback unless you broke her rules, which were pretty much set in fucking stone, even if there were only a few of them. Break them and she'd turn into a raging bitch. Other than that, you were gold.

So, for reasons known only to her, Tsunade let students arrive at school around eight-thirty when classes actually started instead of being there at the official time (which was seven) to attend the morning assembly, which was never really all that important since it was used for pointless morning announcements and other useless crap.

Makes you wonder why she didn't just ditch the entire morning thing.

Naruto dodged a train of rushing freshmen—what the fuck were the rushing for? It wasn't even eight yet; the bell had yet to ring—before making his way down the hall towards the double doors that led to the field and took a moment before continuing.

"I'm gonna see you at The Ramen Stand in ten. Be there. Don't wanna accidentally lose your documents and all the rest of this crap if you don't show." He held his breath; this could go either way. His closest friend wasn't exactly very patient, especially not in the morning and particularly not with him so he waited for Sasuke's answer.

Silence on the other end.

Then, "Did you just fuckin' threaten me?"

Jesus Christ.

Naruto laughed as he jogged over to his bright orange Jaguar in the parking lot. "Well, I tried. Just be there, okay? You gotta know, you comin' back from Oto means we got a potential quarterback in our circle. The guys need to meet you. Well, re-meet you or whatever, since you knew 'em when you left in middle school."

More silence. Naruto mentally braced himself.

"No potential about it, fucker."

Thank fuck.

Naruto laughed again. "Great, whatever. See you in ten."

Sasuke had already disconnected.

Naruto opened his car door, tossed his book and Sasuke's files in the passenger seat and angled in. Getting behind the wheel, he gazed out through his windshield as freshmen milled about, some shuffling through the wide double doors to the school and others lounging around the football field and took a deep breath.

He wasn't an avid believer in fate, destiny and all that shit. All he knew was, there was something coming, something huge. Something that was going to tilt their world on its axis. Or at least, his. And he couldn't ignore that damn feeling. So he wasn't going to try.

What he was going to do, though, was make this year at Konoha High something huge. Something fun. Because that's who he was; fun, animated and always up for a good time. And he was ready to give it his all into making this year good. After the shitty junior year from hell they'd had, they deserved at least that—but then again, that was another story entirely. Everything from now on was going to be something new, something great. And now, with Sasuke coming back to Konoha from Oto meant he'd have his old best friend back too. Coupled with their killer football talent this year, not to mention all his other buddies, he was going to make this senior year the most remembered shindig in Konoha.

His gaze snapped up towards a group of girls skirting his car, and he grinned when two of them looked at him longer than necessary, clearly liking what they saw.

"Hell yeah," he murmured before pulling out of the parking lot to head for the café just ten minutes away from school where he'd asked Sasuke to meet him and the guys.

Senior year was looking up already.

Ino was pleased.

Sai had called her again. Not that she picked up, of course. Everyone knew it was good to keep them waiting.

So she'd kept him waiting.

She'd only been on a few dates with him, liked him well enough and chatted with him every other day. He was a good guy. If you could ignore how weird he was, of course.

She let the current call go to voicemail again.

"Is that Sai?"

Ino looked up from her phone to see her best friend, Sakura, staring at her with a knowing expression.

One thing to know about Sakura: if it didn't have anything to do with her own love life, she never missed much.

"Yep. I'm giving him the hot and cold," she answered.

Sakura sighed. "Jesus, Ino. If you like him, be real. If you don't, don't string him along."

"I'm not stringing him along," Ino insisted. "He's a nice guy."

"Exactly what I mean. You don't like him."

"I do like him."

Another sigh. "'He's a nice guy'? You don't like, like him."

Ino didn't have a good answer to that.

Sakura leaned over the table on her forearms and held her gaze. "Just talk to him, Ino."

And as usual, Sakura was right.

Ino exhaled heavily. "Where would I be without you, Sak?"

"Breaking hearts all over Konoha High."

Ino laughed as she reached for her phone again. This was one of the many reasons she loved Sakura. Her best friend was not only effortlessly gorgeous, effortlessly popular and equally effortlessly friendly all around, but she was super smart, way funny and totally sweet. Times like this, she would honestly wonder where she'd be without Sakura Haruno.

She figured hungover and face-first in a ditch with a dead cell phone in the deep jungles of Madagascar was probably a good guess.

Ino dialed Sai's contact and slid out of her chair towards the counter of the coffee bar. The Ramen Stand was a small, cozy café, frequented by several Konoha High students. This was where everyone met before and after school, a tradition Ino and Sakura had yet to break, though Hinata, the third part of their best friend loop, had called earlier to tell them she was running late so she'd just meet them at school.

Ino knew she'd never do that. Run late for school, that is. Because if she did, she'd miss morning coffee at The Ramen Stand and that was a big, fat no. The coffee was delicious and there was hardly a morning where Ino could go on without coffee.

Therefore, The Ramen Stand.

"Ino?" She heard Sai's voice on the phone.

Well. It was now or never. "Hi there. Sorry I missed your calls before. I called back as soon as I saw them. Do you think we could talk, Sai?" She pressed her lips together. Christ, she sounded like such a flake.

A pause. "Uh… aren't we talking?"

Ino cringed. This was hard. "Um, yeah. But I meant face to face, you know? Do you think maybe you could wait for me at the cafeteria at lunch?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay," Ino said. "That's it. I'll see you later."

"See you."

Okay, Ino thought to herself as she disconnected. That didn't go too bad.

Now she just had to give Sai the brush-off.

Jeez, that'd be a loving conversation.

"Done with him already?" She heard from behind her in that voice—man, his voice.

She nearly jumped out of her skin before she turned around to face his dark lazy eyes.

Crap, when did he come in? She scolded herself for not noticing and fleeing immediately the second he did.

Shikamaru Nara. The laziest and most careless person she ever knew. Also, the one of the smartest and most watchful.

Also still and probably always will be the only person she'd never get out of her head.

Yes, this is why she was so dysfunctional and screwed up most of the time.

They'd gotten together in the middle of junior year. It started amazing. To say it ended badly was an understatement. He thought she was a judgmental bitch and she thought he was a lazy asshole.

Neither of them were wrong.

But that didn't make it hurt any less.

Four months into it, they broke it off. They simply didn't work anymore. There was never a snapping point. She just woke up one morning and decided she couldn't do it any longer (his every day of lazy dickheaded-ness helped making the decision). And it turned out Shikamaru felt somewhat the same for her (he had his own words to describe it, of course).

She never regretted her decision. She was way too good (and way too hot, she knew) to be roped down to a guy who didn't give a damn when she flirted or got pawed at by someone else. She didn't need an unreceptive asshole. She needed strong yet gentle, loyal, smart, sweet, understanding, kind and somewhat wild. Granted, Shikamaru was a few of those things. But he was not all of them. And her dream man was all of these, or at the very least, a respectable six out of eight. Even as a little girl, she knew what kind of man she'd want when she was older. When she was ten years old, she'd promised herself not to settle for anything other than her dream man. And now, at seventeen (nearly eighteen soon), she knew she would stick by that decision. She'd stick by it even if she was old, alone and a cat lady. Nothing but her dream man. She deserved that.

The part that sucked worse was that they could've remained close friends as they had ever since they were kids (the only other childhood friend she still had was Sakura) if they hadn't gotten involved.

After the break up, she went to great lengths to avoid him. That was easy, considering the blowout was on the last day of school, and avoiding him in the summer couldn't be too hard. But whenever she'd see him around town, he never stopped being an asshole, so she never stopped being a bitch.

But all of that didn't mean she wasn't still hopelessly in love with him.

She never said she wasn't foolish.

"Why do you care?" She asked a lot more sharply than she intended to.

And just like every time she said something to him, she hoped to God he didn't open his mouth to hurt her.

"I don't."

And just like every time she hoped he didn't open his mouth to hurt her, he did.

"Just wonderin' who the next target is," he went on, his eyes holding her gaze. "Don't go for the football team."

She raised an eyebrow.

He explained, "Football season's coming. Don't need anyone off their game if you're fuckin' with their head."

Asshole.

Complete and utter asshole.

"Fuck you," she spit out and he simply shrugged, so she turned her back to him and faced the coffee bar.

She absolutely hated him, detested how he brought out the worst in her and loathed how much his words freaking hurt.

She wished she could write him off as just another worthless jerk who said shit about her. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't.

So she long stopped trying.

Instead, she tried to ignore him. And failed epically, of course.

"You gonna assure me or what?" He asked from behind her.

What the hell he was talking about, she didn't want to ask. She diligently kept her eyes on the back of the short little redhead in front of her to avoid ripping his head off.

The redhead was wearing a totally out there black bra underneath her thin white T-shirt.

Jesus, tacky.

Even Ino knew that was slutty.

"Are you?" Shikamaru's voice sounded again.

And even though curiosity killed the fucking cat, she couldn't help herself from swiveling her head and catching his eyes.

Ugh, his eyes.

There were three things about Shikamaru that made her fluttery.

One was the way he used to make her laugh. He didn't set out to do it. It just happened. He had a heavy hand with sarcasm; always honest and witty, and was good with dry humor. The second was his voice—deep and smooth. Low. He didn't bother to speak unless he wanted to, but when he did, Ino always found herself listening.

The third was his eyes.

There were two people Ino knew with the best eyes ever. The first was Sakura. She had beautiful emerald eyes, super light and glowy when she laughed and super dusky and sexy otherwise. They were gorgeous. Eyes she knew guys could fall in love with. Not that there wasn't a whole lot other of her guys could fall in love with—because there totally was, her best friend was stunning—but the eyes were definitely somewhere at the top of the list.

The second person with eyes that made her want to stop whatever she was doing just to look at them when they looked her way was Shikamaru. They were dark, deep and obscure. Almost shadowy. They looked at you like he knew everything about you, stuff you hid from the world and stuff you didn't even know yourself.

They made her restless and intrigued her. She always loved them.

Right now, she hated the power they had over her.

"What?" She asked him.

"You gonna stay away from the football team or what?"

She flinched inwardly. What was wrong with him?

"Though, the basketball team," he continued, "you can take on. Don't give a fuck about basketball."

Seriously, what was up? This was a whole other level of asshole. Never was he this bad.

Maybe by doing this on the first day of school, he was fulfilling the quota he lost in the summer when they had no reason to meet every day and therefore be mean to each other.

Yes, that had to be it.

Ino wisely decided she'd keep her mouth shut. She'd let him get out what he needed to and part ways peacefully—for now, of course—since there was only so much she could deal with before she had her coffee.

The tiny little bell above the door jingled and Ino turned to see someone walk into the little coffee shop.

Dark hair, dark eyes. Great shoulders, a tall, fantastic build with a lean but muscled body, the confident yet simple strides he took inside which Ino knew meant he was completely in control of himself, the way his deep blue T-shirt and faded jeans made him look absolutely Delicious with a capital d.

He was hot.

And also very strangely familiar.

He walked by them with a bag slung over his shoulder and his hand pocketing a cell phone, heading straight to the table in the corner where the guys from the football team were sitting (they always sat at that one table by the side window). As he did, Shikamaru greeted, "Uchiha."

Delicious Hottie's eyes flashed to him—wow, he was seriously hot—and he lifted his chin at Shikamaru and kept heading towards the end table.

God, why did he look so familiar?

Ino watched as he tagged an empty seat from nearby, pushed it to the guys' table and sat down. And then the guys immediately started talking to him.

Was he a transfer? Because he sure as hell wasn't in Konoha High the past three years. The guys obviously knew him. That probably meant he was an old friend or maybe a student from Suna, their friendly neighbor-school over in the next town.

But why the hell would someone from Suna High be in Konoha at eight in the morning? It was more than an hour's ride away.

Something suddenly clicked in her brain, and she inhaled sharply. Shikamaru had called him Uchiha. And if memory serves, they had a mini Delicious Hottie back in middle school.

Sasuke Uchiha.

Jesus Christ.

Ino turned her wide eyes towards Sakura at her table, who was looking blank and staring back at her.

Shit, shit, shit.

Every girl had a guy in her life that meant a lot to her. Ino figured hers was Shikamaru.

Sakura's had been Sasuke.

Or at least, that's what Ino thought.

Sakura had called Ino the moment she saw him. Ino had been out sick that day, but that didn't mean she didn't verify he was super cute the next day. Sakura had never outright admitted it, but Ino always suspected she definitely liked him. That was back in middle school when their teacher, Iruka, paired her and Sasuke together for the year—something that had Sakura delighted and Ino playfully jealous but completely happy for her best friend. Then at the end of the year, Sasuke had to move to Oto. When he left, it had been hard for Sakura. But she'd gotten over it. Then they headed into high school and she went from seriously pretty to a pure knockout. Then she went on dates. Then she had fun.

But whenever Sasuke came up—which was infrequent, but not unheard of—she'd get this look in her eyes. She hid it well, though. But Ino knew Sakura. And one of those times when they'd lie on Ino's rooftop outside her window under the stars, she had even admitted that sometimes she missed him.

And now he was back.

God, they didn't need this. Sakura didn't need this. She'd had an absolutely crappy junior year (so had Ino, but then again, so had everyone) and an even crappier relationship she'd gotten out of. This was senior year, something to enjoy. Sakura was a straight A student, head of the fundraiser committee, class president three years in a row, co-cheer captain with Ino and partied like wild child. They'd even agreed to up their shit this year. But now? Sasuke Uchiha was back and he'd likely screw with her head.

Fuck that.

With her impending talk with Sai looming overhead, not to mention if Shikamaru's behavior was even an indication of how he'd be during school, senior year wasn't looking too good right now.

Also, Sakura didn't look too thrilled either.

"Move it, Blondie," she heard the voice she loved and despised say from behind her and she snapped her eyes back to the counter to see that Slutty Redhead had long left the line and was now staring open mouthed at Sasuke.

Christ.

Ino moved forward and ordered Sakura's favorite skinny vanilla latte and instead of her regular order (which tasted good but was mostly just to wake her up every day) she gave herself a treat and went with a caramel mocha topped with calories she knew she shouldn't entertain, but did anyway knowing she'd need it to face the day, especially a day that already looked pretty fucking bleak.

As she paid, the door burst open and she saw a pleased-with-himself Naruto Uzumaki heading inside.

Ugh.

This was surely going to be a shitty day.

She did not like Naruto. Even though they all existed in the popular crowd, they never had a reason to meet (and she thanked God for this). No matter how much Sakura said he'd been a sweet guy back in middle school, Ino was definitely not a fan. Not back then, not now. He was messy, loud and generally annoying. Not her forte. She'd rather stick with herself with needles than ever hang out with that.

Even if she hated him slightly less now because of the messed up shit he had going on last year.

She saw his eyes at the guys' table and then she saw them run across the shop. And if she was right, he did a double take when they reached Sakura. Then another one when they reached Ino and Shikamaru, after which he grinned at the latter.

She had ten guesses what that grin was about and she didn't need nine of them.

Motherfucker.

So the break up had been public (along with a number of other things last year, of course), but that didn't mean Naruto had to be stupid about it.

But then again, he was stupid about a lot of stuff, if last year was anything to go by.

He passed her by with a quick greeting pat at Shikamaru's shoulder (at this point she grimaced, she didn't like being in close vicinity of two people she could do without, these being Shikamaru and Naruto) and ambled to the guys' table.

Then she departed for her table quickly for several obvious reasons, but didn't look up in her haste when she heard the bell jingle and almost spilled her coffee when she hit something solid.

"Whoa there, woman. Ease up on the tornado," she heard as two strong hands on her arms steadied her.

She caught her breath when she looked up at Kiba Inuzuka's roguishly handsome face. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded, not wanting to say much because they were being gawked at by the whole coffee shop. But since she was who she was, her brain finally kicked in and she answered. "Uh, yeah. Thanks."

He grinned, and boy, it made his face look even better. Playful, almost. "Don't thank me. That's Ramen Stand coffee. It'd be a federal offence if it was on the floor right now."

Ino laughed and she straightened up. She didn't know much about Kiba. What she did know was that he was attractive, funny, threw good parties and used to be totally into her best friend.

But for a tiny, teeny slutty second she wondered how fun it'd be if they hung out. She dismissed the idea as quickly as it entered her brain. There was too much of a crowd around her. She did not need to be adding to that. There was no room for guys in her cluttered life.

And she owed Sai some explaining about them dating and how she wasn't really into it, all the while completely dismissing the fact that she had totally loved flirting with him (it was her favorite sport, flirting).

Yes, no room for guys.

God, she was such a slut.

She smiled big at him, "That's true. Thanks again, though. See you around."

"Yeah," he replied as he rounded her and began to head for the ever-popular table today by the window. He turned and called back, "See you."

For another teeny, tiny slutty second, Ino let her eyes wander back to the counter where Shikamaru stood in his favorite color. Black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers. He was paying for his coffee. He wasn't looking at her.

She navigated through the morning rush before she got to her table and slumped down in front of Sakura.

"Don't say it," said Ino before she could even blink, knowing very well Sakura now had a point against her.

She watched as her best friend still opened her mouth anyway, very likely ready to ask about The Shikamaru Confrontation (which they knew would be bad since it was the first day of school, but Ino didn't want to get into exactly how bad it had been) or comment on the little Kiba display. But before she could, Ino whipped out her defense, "If you don't say it, then I won't say it."

Then she watched as her best friend's eyes snapped questioningly to the back of Sasuke's head where he was still sitting at the table with the guys and slide back again to Ino.

Then she clamped her mouth shut.

One-all.