Bang, bang, bang!

"Naruto get up!" I heard through the door. I could hear my mother's footsteps heading down the stairs. She was loud in the morning, and it was only irritating when she woke me up which was quite often.

I tried to pull the covers over my head to block out the world; I didn't want to get up today at all. I don't know how long it had been that I sat there under those covers. After a while, I heard the footsteps coming back up the stairs.

I could only guess that is was my mother before I heard another loud bang on the door. "Wake up now Naruto! You're already late for school," she called through the door.

I groaned before pulling the blanket from over my head to see my alarm clock. It wasn't where it normally was. It was actually across the room, on the floor, unplugged, with the face hanging on by the electrical wires. "Dammit," I said before yanking the blanket off me and jumping out of bed, grabbing clothes as I ran around the room. I then ran to the bathroom for a shower.

Ten minutes in the shower, two to get dressed, one to grab breakfast, another one to get into my car, and out of the driveway. I was in a hurry because today was my first day at this school. I was already worried enough with the fact that I had to move. Going to a new school however just wasn't my cup of tea for this type of morning.

By the way, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. This was the beginning of a school year, well, two months in really. And I already had to move to a new school. The reason for that? Well, it's a secret. A big one that I me and my family had to live with. The only people who knew were my mother, my grandfather, and my brother Menma.

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I could see the sign to the school, and wanted nothing more than to turn around and head home and for my bed once again. My house was a good thirty-minute drive from the school, so it was probably already almost second period, so I would somewhat have an excuse to go back home.

When I pulled into the parking lot of the school, I got out of my car, and locked it behind me. Heading toward the front office, or at least what looked like the office, I bit my lip. A new school meant new people, new bullies, new friends, and new favorite teachers.

I walked into the office, with a raven haired woman who sat at the front desk. She looked up, and smiled. "I'm going to guess that you're new here," she spoke softly.

"Am I that obvious?" I ask with a slight chuckle. I knew it was obvious because of two reasons. One, I'm late. Two, this lady has never met me before.

"Well, that's the teacher's parking lot." She said, pointing out the door behind me. Turning around, I could see my car sitting between two cars, one a BMW that was beautiful all together, the other, a silver Audi R8. My favorite car ever. I hadn't even noticed when I had pulled next to it. Okay, maybe there were three reasons it was obvious for me being new.

"Oh, I'll go move it, where is the student parking lot?" I ask, heading for the door.

"Don't worry about it, and get in here!" Someone yelled from the doorway behind the black haired woman. It made her and I both jump.

The raven woman flicked her head toward the doorway as if to say 'go on in'. And with reluctant compliance, I went in.

A woman that was sitting in a large chair met me; I could tell by the scowl on her face, that she was the principal of the school. She had blonde hair that was tied up in two ponytails. And wore a gray tank top that looked like her boobs were about to pop out of, and a green jacket so that she had her shoulders covered.

"My name is Tsunade, and I'm the principal, my word here is law. Don't like it, and I'll have you transferred out of here faster than you can blink." She said with strict authority. But something behind those words seemed false.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I don't think I'll be transferred out that quickly." I said, almost going against what she had just said to me. I wanted to come off as someone who wouldn't easily be pushed around.

She nodded, as if understanding, typed something into the computer, and printed a paper. Handing it to me, "This is your schedule, learn it, live it." She said with something menacing in her voice. "Shizune!" She yelled, and the raven-haired woman came running in.

"Yes ma'am?" She voiced in a hurry.

"Take Mr. Uzumaki here to his second period." She said and turned to her computer again.

"Most certainly my lady." Shizune said, and motioned for me to follow her out the door.

And without question I did just that. I didn't pay much attention to what she way saying, I was thinking about how well this would play out. I challenged the principal's rule in less than ten minutes of being in a new school, and I was stuck in gym second class of the day. If there was one thing that I hated more than having gym class, it was the boy's locker room.

It was what I dreaded most about going to school. Despite being a senior, I never took gym class, and I needed the credit to graduate. That is what I hated, the school system made people take classes that they didn't even like, so that they could have their lives 'open up' later on when they get out of school. But they never taught you anything you'd actually need to use later on, like how to buy a house, or how to file taxes.

I found it all to be bullshit honestly, but I've been able to keep my grades up for the longest time. The only reason I even had to transfer was because of one incident that I got caught in. That was the only time it had ever happened to me, and I wasn't going to let it ruin my life.

When Shizune held the door open for me, I walked in without question, and allowed her to get back to her job. There were boys everywhere that were half naked. Some were dressed in only their underwear, and others were actually fully dressed.

I headed over to the office, I peeked in, and shook my head. Our gym teacher looked stupid. He wore green spandex, and orange ankle weights. He had a bowl cut of black hair. He looked either crazy, or stupid, or maybe a mixture of both. I guessed the latter.

"Excuse me, sir?" I asked, walking in.

The man jumped up with a dorky looking smile on his face, "Well good morning! What ca—who are you?" He asked, cutting himself off midsentence.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I just transferred here." I say. He seemed to be pleased with my answer, though he still annoyed me by how he looked. No sense of style.

"Well, I am Might Guy, I am your gym teacher!" He hollered. Almost blowing my eardrum out of my head, I winced.

"Yeah, cool." I said in a melancholy tone, "I need a locker." I added while I shifted my bag on my shoulder.

"Oh, right." Looking through his paperwork, he wrote some numbers down, and handed me a paper. "You're between Kiba, and Shikamaru."

Walking out, I shook my head, as if I know who they are, I ask myself with a slight chuckle. Yeah, Guy was obviously stupid.

Looking at the paper, I read the locker number, and headed that way. A boy was sitting there, dressed in what seemed to be his normal clothes, because he was wearing pants and a jacket. He had his dark brown hair put up in a ponytail that sat on top of his head. He looked up lazily, and nodded to me. Then he went back to looking at his phone.

Another boy was standing by him, talking. His skin was tan, and you could see all of his muscles through the under armor tank top that was hugging his stomach and chest. But the most noticeable thing that showed on him, were those alluring red tattoos. They were strange, captivating even. But there was something about them that seemed so familiar.

He didn't seem to notice me looking at him, which was good. Because at the moment, I don't think I could pull my eyes off of him.

At the moment, I didn't get why I couldn't stop staring at him. He was both intoxicating, and captivating. This was probably the reasoning as to my behavior.

When he'd noticed me, he raised a brow, "You okay kid?" He asked as he got closer, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh?" I questioned with a start, I had moved myself into daydreaming right there in front of him, and got lost in my thoughts. "Oh; yeah. Sorry, I just have things on my mind and stopped to think." I tried to play it off.

He laughed and shook his head, "Daydreaming while looking in the direction of a half-naked guy, people would think you're gay." He smirked at me and leaned a little closer, "Are you gay?" He asked in a low whisper to where only him, the boy with the ponytail, and I could hear.

"Kiba stop picking on him." The other boy said, stepping in. "You sound like a homophobic douche."

The boy with the red tattoos laughed at the other's comment, "Ouch, harsh there Shikamaru. Sorry, didn't mean to come off that way!"

"Sorry about him," the other, apparently named Shikamaru, said as he stretched out his hand, "I'm Shikamaru Nara, that's Kiba Inuzuka." He said with a warming smile.

I took his hand and shook it, "Naruto Uzumaki. It's nice to meet you."

Shikamaru was already locking his locker, "You might want to get changed, or you'll be late to get outside." He said as he turned around and headed for the doors. I wondered about him, he told me I'd be late but he wasn't even dressed out for the class.

I didn't say anything toward that, just started putting in the combination to the locker, and pulled it open. There was slight rust on the inside of it, but nothing more. A hook was pushing out of the top so that I could attach my backpack.

After doing so, I unzipped the bag and pulled out the orange gym shorts that were in there. Slipping out of my pants and into the shorts as fast as I could, I searched around in my bag for my shirt, which I couldn't find. I remember having set them out, but I also remember just running past the shirt and shorts and grabbing the shorts. But I don't remember grabbing the shirt to go with it.

Groaning, I started to close my locker when Kiba looked toward me, "You're not changing your shirt?" He asked.

"I guess I forgot it at home. I was in too much of a hurry to grab one." I said with a shrug.

"Well here, I have an extra one, if you want?" The boy with the red tattoos said, looking through his locker.

He pulled out a gray shirt that held a red swirl on it. I didn't complain, or question, that he was giving me a shirt. I just said thanks, and changed as quickly as I could. Shoving my shirt into my locker, I closed it as quickly as I could, and locked it.

The shirt smelled strange. But I figured it was because it wasn't my shirt that I'd notice the smell. It was obviously the smell of the guy who gave it to me. I liked it, it was a strong scent, but it also smelled clean.

Kiba was already almost out the door, so I had to move quickly to keep up with his pace. "What are we doing today?" I asked, mostly because I wasn't one for the physical fitness thing.

"Well, he normally has us start with exercises to get all your muscles warmed up, and then we'll probably be doing the three mile run." Kiba said, without looking back toward me.

"Three miles?" I gawk at the idea, "and we're supposed to be running that in what kind of time frame?" I ask.

"Yeah, why is that a problem for you? And we just need to run it. No time frame." He said with a cocky grin that just seemed so right with his features. "Most people walk it, except for me, Neji, and Lee. Everyone else normally just walks and talks with their friends. Though if you want, I won't run it, and we can talk." He added.

In all honestly, I was happy to hear him say this. He seemed to be nice enough to be a friend. So I didn't hesitate to agree to it, "Yeah, that'd be great!"

"OKAY YOU YOUTHFULL PUPLIS! LET'S START WITH EXCERSISES!" Guy hollered.

"YES SIR!" Someone from the crowd hollered back.

I looked over in the direction of the student, and by gods what I found was a Guy lookalike standing there with his hand raised in a solute. Biting back a laugh, I shook my head in disbelief. The kid had to be Guy's son. There was no other way to explain it.

As we were stretching out, I felt all my limbs pop, all the muscles I haven't used in a long time started to feel sore already. There was no way that I was going to run, for any amount of time for this class, if I couldn't get my muscles working again.

Within ten minutes of doing this, we stopped, and I was as sore as I've ever been. That's when Guy spoke up again, "NOW RUN MY PUPILS RUN!" He hollered out, and the lookalike took off high speed down the track. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that child was on speed or something; maybe he was ADHD.

There were a few people that also started jogging on the track, and one other dark haired boy started off in a jog, but he seemed to be getting faster with each step that he took. I just watched as everyone was running down the track.

"Come on, I don't want to be the last ones done." Kiba had said to me, and we just started walking down the track. "So talk to me, since you're new here, you don't really know anyone do you?" He asked. Of course, that was true, so I didn't deny it.

"No one, other than you now; I came from Leaf Academy." I said, not thinking too much as to what I said.

"Oh, so you're a rich kid than?" I heard him ask with a slight chuckle.

Biting my lip I shook my head, I wasn't considered rich when I went there, I was actually considered poor. "No, I'm not rich. I got in via scholarship. But they took that away and I was kicked out last week." I said with a huff and a shrug of the shoulders.

"Well, why did you get kicked out the school year just started? That's a high up there school. It must have been something serious for that to have happened?" He seemed like he was reading too much into it, and probably judging me on that too. But he would have never guessed the reason, and I was thankful for that.

"Actually, it wasn't that serious." I lied, "Just speculation on their part, and they blew it out of proportion."

"Speculation? May I know about it?"

"I'll tell you some other time. I don't really want to get into it." I said looking out of the corner of my eye at him. "Enough about me, tell me about you." When I told him to talk about himself, I could see his lips curl into a slight smile. As if he wanted to, but what came next kind of surprised me.

"Naw, I want to hear about you. I'll tell you about me afterward."

I was sure that he wanted to talk about himself, he seemed the type. But then again, I was never really a good judge of character when it came to this sort of thing.

Nodding, I sped up my pace a little, so he would have to as well. "Well I guess I could say that I'm the more art kind of student, and that I don't really care for any of this Physical Education stuff." I start, and I can tell that he is already looking for something to say about it. But I continue anyway.

"I live with my mom in a three bedroom house; my dad moved out and got with some woman that I really can't stand. I own the orange Dodge Challenger that's currently sitting in the teacher's parking lot, and I don't think the principal likes me very much here. She threatened to kick me out." I say all of this within a moment of seconds, so I stop to take a breath and to see if he has any input on the matter.

"Wow, all of that in a few seconds, I'm surprised that you can manage to say all of those different things without missing a beat on it." He said. Of course, I wasn't paying much attention as to what I said. I just said things as they came to mind. "I guess it's my turn?" He asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. Just anything that comes to mind I guess?" I said this as more of a question than a demand.

"Well, I live with my mother, and my sister. They're both vets, and I would like to be one too one day. I've been here at this school since freshman year. I'm the star player for our soccer team already, and I am also going to be on the swim team. So I love sports. I don't have a car, so I have to take the bus. And the principle here doesn't like anyone." He said all of this as in copying every subject that I said before hand.

Out of everything that he'd said, I started to enjoy being around him. I may not like sports, but I did find jocks to be attractive.

He then started talking about his family, and funny times that he'd spent with his friends. I just listened throughout the whole time. I said nothing, laughed when I knew he was being funny, and nod when I knew he was looking for a response. He never asked me anything of my life. But with that time that was passing by, we eventually got to the last of our three miles. Stopping, we were both laughing quite a bit about a story he'd told me about when his dog had chased Shikamaru around trying to bite him in the butt.

He seemed to be a good person, and he was fun. I had no problem with being his friend.

Back in the locker room, I opened my locker, and started to remove the shirt that Kiba had given me. That's when I heard him laughing behind me. I stopped and turned around; he was with Shikamaru, and another boy who I didn't know the name of. He had with black hair that looked like a cockatoo.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but when the dark-haired boy looked my way, I got the feeling he said something about me. I turned back toward the locker, and heard a loud popping sound. I didn't want to pay attention; dropping his shirt on the bench, I switched to my pants real quick, and put my shirt back on. And as quickly as I could, I left the locker room and headed out toward the gym, where we were supposed to meet before they released the class.

I hurried out of the locker rooms so fast, that I hadn't noticed that I'd dropped my schedule. It was only after the bell rang for lunch that I tried to find it, but couldn't. After getting a carton of juice, I backtracked toward the locker room, following every step that I took. When I got into the gym, I saw him.

Kiba was laying down, in the middle of the gym, one leg resting on the other. I could tell that he was waiting for something, or someone. But at the moment, I didn't care. He and his friends were making fun of me, and that just set me off. I went to turn and walk away, but I heard his voice call out toward me.

"Forgot something did you?" He asked. When I turned to face him again, he was sitting up finally, and holding up the schedule that Tsunade had printed out for me.

He had an apologetic smile on his face, as if he knew why I ran out of the locker room so quickly; sighing, I walked toward him and reached out for it. But he pulled it back. Motioning for me to sit down, he smiled a little.

Sipping my juice, I was somewhat reluctant to sit with him. But we were the only ones in the gym. So I guess it wouldn't hurt if I were to sit with him. So with a sigh, I sat down and crossed my legs. Raising a brow, I said nothing as I sipped on the juice that was now empty, just there to make noise.

"I'm sorry." He said flat out.

"For what?" I asked, although I knew what he was apologizing for, I wanted to hear it from him.

"For what Sasuke was saying. He was being an asshole." He said, "He doesn't like new kids, and really doesn't like it when people 'steal' his friends. So he always tries to bully them. He's also a little homophobic, and I think he thinks you're gay."

Nodding, I bit my lip. I was being stupid, and I know that. But I didn't want to apologize, not yet anyway. When he handed over my schedule, I took it easily, and almost sluggish. To be honest, I didn't want to leave the gym right now. Not if he was going to stay in here with me.

"Well, I'm hungry. Wanna go to the café and get something to eat?" He asked, he was smiling like he was when we were out on the track. Raising my juice box, I smiled half-heartedly. I already had gone to get food, but I didn't have enough for really anything to eat. So I didn't want to walk all the way back over there just to watch someone eat.

"Well how about I go get something, and come back here?" He asked, "That way you won't have to move from here, and I'll know right where to find you." He added with his same smile.

"Yeah, that sounds good to me."

"Great, oh, if it's okay I'm going to ask my friends to come over here too? There're quite a few of them though, so I don't know if you want to meet them all in one go?" He asked, seeming to take my feelings into account.

"That's quite alright with me. I don't mind." I said.

He smiled, nodded, and ran out toward the café. That smile, the one that he'd been showing me since I met him. It was intoxicating, captivating, and sexy. All of which were pretty much the same thing, but without each other, there was no way of explaining how it looked. If he'd smiled like that forever, I wouldn't mind who he was friends with, and which of them talked about me behind my back.

It was only moments later where I was regretting even thinking that; when he and his friends walked back into the gym. There he was, at the lead, and then followed Sasuke, Shikamaru, some fat kid, the dorky kid that looks like our gym coach, Neji from gym, a pink haired girl, a blonde haired girl, and girl with two buns on the back of her head.

From the moment that I saw them, I could tell what was going on. The pink haired girl and Sasuke were at least a couple, they were holding hands. Naji and the girl with the buns is a couple, and Shikamaru and the blonde are a couple.

When they all sat down, I just smiled at the people that were with him. They didn't seem too bad, aside from Sasuke, who just seemed to be annoyed by my presence. Though I really didn't seem to care that he thought of me annoying. I found that him being around me was just as annoying. But I didn't care about that. I had my sights on something else.

When they all had sat down, the girl with pink hair smiled toward me before sitting next to me. "Hello, who are you?" She asked with a smile. And I could tell that from her talking to me, Sasuke seemed not too happy about this. But by how they were acting with one another, she didn't pay attention to what it was he wanted. "I'm Sakura by the way." She added.

"I'm Naruto, nice to meet you." I said with a smile.

Smiling, she crossed her legs and pulled out some food. The people were busy talking with one another, not really noticing me. I didn't say anything about this however because I didn't want to be a bother to anyone. As I watched the people talking, I observed some of the things that they were doing.

Sakura kept glancing over at Sasuke, and smiling, even though he was not looking toward her in the least. Lee, the boy that looked like the coach, seemed to be doing the same for Sakura. It was as if everyone in the group was in love with another. Except Shikamaru, and Choji, the fat guy, who I learned not to call fat or else you'd get hurt.

But it wasn't only those two who were looking at one another, Ino, the blonde girl, was doing the same to Sasuke. And Neji and Tenten, the girl with the buns, were doing it to one another.

This is about the time that I noticed something. Something that almost anyone would want to hide. It amused me quite a bit. But I said nothing, although I couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Asked Kiba; I forgot the reason I had agreed to meet this group of friends in the first place, until I heard his voice.

"It's just…" I start, but I can't figure out what to say about what I've noticed. "Everyone here is just so interesting in their own way." I finish.

"Oh? And in what way am I interesting?" I heard Ino ask.

I was always blunt when it came to telling people the truth. If they asked for the truth anyway, I never really enjoyed lying to people. So I made it my habit to tell everyone the truth. But I knew that what I've learned so far was going to get me in trouble with everyone here. So I decided to bite my tongue, in a sense.

"Well come on, how am I interesting?" She pressured again.

"You're to the point, and seem like you like to argue with people." I say, knowing that I could tell that was how she was just by how she acted. I didn't dare go near the subject of whom she liked; for fear of getting punched.

She smiled happily, knowing that I hit the nail right on the head.

I opened my mouth again to speak, but the bell rang just as the words were coming out of my mouth. So the lunch break was over, and my day was to continue on to whatever class I had next, which was physics.

Getting up, I grabbed my things and headed off toward the doors that lead out to the courtyard, and the main building. It was when I heard a voice that I stopped and turned. Seeing that it was Kiba, I smiled again, but the smile faded once I saw that Sasuke was following him. Of course that guy would be following him too.

"Yeah?" I asked, now generally curious as to what the reason for him calling my name was.

"We have physics together." He said. I could tell by the pinch in Sasuke's nose that he was not too happy about that. But he wasn't able to do anything about it, and neither was I. But since that he did that, I smiled widely.

"Oh, is Sasuke in there too?" I asked, leaning in forward so that I could see his scowl past Kiba.

"No, he has government this period." Kiba announced.

"Thanks for announcing my classes." The bird headed boy said before he stalked off angrily.

"What crawled up his ass and died?" I asked.

Kiba laughed with a howl. It was funny to hear because it sounded kind of like a dog. But that wasn't something that would bother me either way.

Throughout the day, I was mostly having fun. Kiba seemed to be in my gym, physics, and English classes. And my art class on the next day. Though four out of eight classes wasn't the best thing ever. Here we had four classes a day, and the next day were the other four.

After English class it was the end of the day. I hadn't really planned on doing anything that day so when Kiba had asked me to hang out with him, I didn't refuse. He had also told me that he didn't want to go home just yet and that he didn't have soccer practice today, so he had the afternoon off. Of course I didn't mind it; I enjoyed hanging out with him from the first time I had talked to him.

"Would you like to go to my house? I have games, and food, and stuff. If you want to play anything or do something." I said.

"Sounds good to me." He noted with a great big smile. That smile, it was just the thing I wanted to see, and I wanted to see it from that day forward. I wanted to see it the next morning too.


Alright! Here we go! I am so sorry for the delay in this, but I hope everything turns out to everyone's liking! This chapter, not much has changed between it and the first version! The most noticeable change however, might have been the mention of Menma. Obviously if you read the first one, you're going to know who Menma is, and what his role is around here. But don't worry, he is still here! Somewhere…

Thank you all for being such awesome readers. I hope I can make you proud with this remake of the first story I'd written on here!