Hi! I'm now satisfied with this chapter enough to post it. So knock me off my high horse and pick out what's wrong! lol.

My POV situation is weird. It's not first person, but it's centered around one person (usually Tenten). This will most likely switch whenever it's convenient.

"Ugh!" Tenten smacked her head against the wall. "Why didn't I get here a week earlier?" she moaned to herself. "I could've gone to orientation, and I wouldn't be having issues right now!"

A voice behind her made her jump. "I think you have issues anyway. I mean, you're having a conversation with yourself."

Tenten blushed and turned to see a boy with a spiky black ponytail leaning against the lockers. He smoked a cigarette casually, looking pretty bad-ass, she had to admit.

"Shut up!" The blonde next to him punched him in the head. He dropped his cigarette.

"Ow! Damn, Ino!"

"Sorry about him." The blonde girl rested her hand behind her neck and grinned. "I'm Ino." She wore her super-long hair in a ponytail with a purple tank top and denim skirt, and her aquamarine eyes were beautiful. To be honest Tenten felt a bit shabby in her plain pink Chinese-style shirt and ripped jeans.

"Tenten."

"And this jackass is Shikamaru."

"Tch." He rested his head against the wall.

"Let me show you around!" Ino said brightly. "Where do you have to be?"

"Ah, Earth Science."

She gasped. "No way, me too! Come on, it's right…here!" They walked inside and Ino gasped again.

"What?" Tenten smiled. Her new friend…or acquaintance, or something, was interesting, and she also seemed to be very comfortable with this place. She hoped they'd be in more classes together.

"Sasuke Uchiha," she murmured. Tenten raised an eyebrow.

"Who?"

"He is so cute, and he's in our class! I can't believe it! Look, but just don't be obvious." Ino pointed inconspicuously toward the back corner.

Damn him, he had taken her favorite spot. Back right corner, next to the window, strategically picked for privacy. His emo hair was styled to perfection, and his shirt was dark-blue. He had coal-black eyes that stared out the window in an almost practiced faraway look.

"Eh."

Ino's jaw dropped. "What do you mean, "eh"?! He's so hot!"

She shrugged. "Sure, he's cute. If you like that sort of thing."

"Whatever, more for me."

Tenten laughed and sat down next to Ino, who had raced to sit beside Sasuke.

"Hi Sasuke," Ino said seductively.

"Hn."

"SASUKE!"

The boy jumped at the sound of another squeal. "Jesus," he mumbled.

A girl with light pink hair sat in front of him. Her tiny red hoodie clashed with her hair, but she still looked cute. A blush spread across the bridge of her nose and she smiled shyly. "Hi, Sasuke."

"Hn."

"Not much of a talker, is he?" Tenten muttered with a smirk.

"Oh! Hi…" the pink haired girl said with an awkward smile. Why couldn't she remember her?

"Sakura, this is Tenten. Tenten, we call her Forehead Girl."

Sakura blushed and sat down in front of her to catch up with what they did over the summer.

-2nd Period (Gym)-

Tenten hopped up and down to get ready to run. Their teacher had earlier told them that they would be running 100 laps a week. She seriously hoped that he was kidding or bad at math, seeing as that would mean twenty laps a day, coming to a total of five miles. Every day. Not fun.

And another thing. Gym class was co-ed.

Normally this wasn't really a bad thing. Tenten was secretly a tomboy, and she loved to play sports with guys. No worrying about hair or dirty shoes, just kicking some ass. But running? She did not appreciate hormonally-challenged perverts studying which parts of her anatomy bounced the most while she ran around a track, thankyouverymuch.

She sighed and took off at the sound of him yelling, "Go!"

A boy dressed all in green sped past her, a grin on his face.

Is he on steroids? she wondered incredulously. She needed to get ahead; she had more stamina than this. She had to find someone to match pace with.

Her eyes caught a boy with brown hair, much longer than most guys would wear it. It swung when he ran and she giggled at the sight.

His head turned and he stared at her. Tenten's stomach dropped, but she just stared back with an earnest look on her face. It was like staring at a solar eclipse.

When he finally broke his gaze she looked him over. Loose clothing, but his arms were well-muscled. And his eyes…his eyes were mesmerizing.

-Lunch-

"Before you get any further into school, you have to know who's who. Well, the important ones at least." Ino tossed her hair and sat. Sakura and Tenten did the same. (er, minus the hair-flipping.)

"You already know Sasuke. He's the most important…" She tilted her head and tried to think.

"What's with you and Shikamaru?" Sakura interrupted (probably to get her mind off Sasuke).

"Nothing!" Her cheeks tinted pink. Sakura looked at her with a smug, all-knowing look until she snapped, "He's just my dad's best friend's son, okay? They used to hang out and brought us along. Choji and his dad came too, but they're total stoners now."

They glanced over at the two of them. Shikamaru was attempting to sleep, but his eyebrow seemed to have a twitch at the moment. Choji ate contentedly beside him.

"Y'know we can hear you," Shikamaru said, opening one eye.

"It's not like you'd get up and do anything about it, lazy ass."

"Excellent point." He closed it and buried his face in his crossed arms.

"Moving on…" Ino continued with her search. "Oh! That's Kiba."

"What about him?"

"He's insane."

"Oh he is not." Sakura rolled her eyes.

"The boy brings his dog to school!"

Tenten's eyes widened. "How?"

"That jacket he wears. He looks a lot cuter without that stupid hood…but anyway. He just smuggles him inside. Akamaru's so cute, and he trained him not to bark or anything while they're in class."

"Huh."

"Don't forget Shino."

"Oh right! He's really smart, but really antisocial." Ino pouted at this. If you were antisocial, Ino would either beat it out of you or eventually give up. She'd given up with Shino.

"And we're not really sure if he hates Kiba or if they're best friends." They pondered this as Kiba flicked the boy's head repeatedly.

"So who else?" Tenten encouraged. She looked for someone recognizable. "How about…him?"

Ino smirked. "Neji? He's the second most popular guy in our school. Why, are you interested in him?"

That was a dangerous smile.

Speak carefully.

She went for nonchalant. "Please, I don't even know him. I remember seeing him from my gym class, that's all."

"You're in his gym class?" she squealed. "Well aren't you freaking lucky!"

Tenten smiled to herself and looked over at him again. Now that he was out of his gym clothes he looked even cuter. Though she'd never really liked the preppy look before, she was definitely willing to make an exception. But she had to know about his eyes. They were so different.

Neji…

"Don't ask him about it." Sakura told her, realizing what she was thinking. "It runs in his family. Trust me, he's wicked sensitive about it. These guys used to make fun of him for it."

"But Hinata took it harder."

"Hinata?"

"Neji's cousin," Sakura supplied. "She's really shy now, hardly ever talks. And when she does she stutters a little, poor thing. Oh, but the weirdest thing about Hinata is that she has a crush on-"

"OI! SAKURA!"

She groaned. "Naruto…"

A boy with an orange skull-cap and cargo shorts sat down next to Sakura. His blonde bangs peeked out from under the hat, hanging messily over his innocent blue eyes. He grinned at her and she grimaced in reply. "Who are you?" he asked when he saw the unfamiliar face.

"I'm Tenten." God, she was getting tired of introducing herself.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I-"

"-like ramen," Ino finished. "We know."

"Bitch," he mumbled, earning a punch in the head.

"See, that's why you never say it out loud," Shikamaru explained.

"Hey, Pineapple-head. Shut the hell up."

Tenten giggled.

-4th Period (English)-

Their whole group filled the classroom. It seemed that everyone had English now, even him. Tenten fiddled with her pencil, wishing it were her pocketknife. She loved that knife; it was like her security blanket. Whenever she was nervous she would just flip it out and feel at ease. But no, it was a "weapon" and "not safe for others around her". Bullshit. Tenten knew how to handle a knife.

"In this class, we will be reading Shakespeare," their teacher said, handing out the books. The title read: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Some flipped through the pages idly. "You will be reading in class and at home, but no skipping ahead. After every scene, you will write a paragraph in your own words explaining what happened."

"But this is in Old English," Naruto moaned.

"That's the point. Your job is to interpret it. And take off the hat." The blonde mumbled something unintelligible and probably not very complimentary, but pulled his scull-cap off.

"But he can hardly understand normal English," Sasuke interjected with a smirk. She pointedly ignored him and turned to get more books.

"You say something, asshole?!" The blonde jumped out of his seat. Sakura yanked him back down before the teacher noticed.

"Naruto," someone whispered. He jumped and whipped his head around to see a girl sitting behind him. Her dark hair fell in her eyes and an oversized sweatshirt completely hid her form.

"What?" he asked, craning his neck to hear her better.

"I…I could…" He nodded encouragingly. "W-would you um, like m-me to help?" She blushed deeply, but looked relieved that she'd finally finished speaking.

"With translating?" His face lit up. "Yeah! That'd be great!"

She smiled softly.

"But, ah, who are you?"

The girl looked fairly crushed but answered quietly, "Hinata."

"Are you new?"

Sakura, who couldn't help but overhear (as she was sitting next to them), palmed her forehead in exasperation.

"N-no. We…we've been in the same school s-since kindergarten." She rested her chin on the desk dejectedly. Naruto thankfully noticed her depression and tried to make up for his memory lapse.

"God, I'm sorry! I'm such an ass! Shut up!" He held up a hand to Sasuke, who was about to add to the statement. The dark-haired boy shut his mouth and scowled. "…Would you…still help me, though?" He looked at her hopefully. He resembled a blonde puppy, his eyes even bigger and bluer since he was looking so remorseful.

Hinata melted and nodded vehemently. "Of course!"

"Hyuuga, Uzumaki!"

Their heads snapped up guiltily.

"Do you have something to share?"

Hinata sank low in her seat and attempted to get the collar of her sweatshirt above her cheeks, which were flaming red by now. Naruto said nothing for once, just stared at his knees.

"As I was saying. Next class I want to know your opinions on the characters, based on what you read in these scenes." She wrote the page numbers on the board and turned to face them again. "You may start reading now, and you can work amongst yourselves."

Naruto turned his desk around and grinned at Hinata, who blushed. She obviously wasn't used to attention being focused on her. Well, semi-focused. (This is Naruto we're talking about.)

"Sorry." He tilted his head at their teacher.

"But it was my fault," Hinata protested, looking very distressed by the fact.

Naruto waved it away. "Meh, don't worry about it. Sakura! Come work with us!"

The pink-haired girl glanced longingly at Sasuke, who was apparently working alone (shocker XP), but nodded after a moment. She turned her desk to face theirs and smiled.

-

"Hey, Neji," Tenten said without thinking.

The boy looked at her warily. "Yeah?"

"D'you want to work with us?" she asked, feeling incredibly stupid and awkward. Luckily she didn't blush easily like that poor Hinata girl. Ino did nothing to help these feelings when she gave her a "What the hell are you thinking?!" look.

He still looked at her warily, as if she were going to jump him in the middle of class. "…Sure," he finally said and moved to sit with them.

She took a stab at conversation. "You're in my gym class, right?"

"Yeah."

"Is the teacher always like that?"

"Unfortunately yes. He's insane, and so immature. I had him last year."

"Fantastic. But we don't really have to run as much as he says, right?"

"No. If we don't want to run, we had to beat him in some kind of "challenge"."

"What do you have to do?"

"You can decide, and our Science teacher told me he always loses at rock paper scissors."

Her lips twitched.

He shrugged. "It worked anyway. So I just used the weight room all year instead."

Ino opened her book and started reading. She would fill her friend in later. But right now she was actually getting along with Neji Hyuuga, something she'd thought was impossible to do until now.

Tenten sighed in relief. "That's good."

"You can lift weights?" Neji looked at her more closely, now noticing how athletic she looked. Tenten was at a loss. She wasn't sure if she should be flattered or annoyed.

"Yeah."

He sensed the tension in her voice and backpedaled. "Most girls here aren't really physical. They're more the starvation-diet type." Why did he care? This had to be the longest voluntary conversation he'd had in…a while.

Her only answer was "Psh", which he decided was a good thing. They sat in comfortable silence for a while until they remembered they were supposed to be working.

-

"Okay, I don't get this at all."

Sakura groaned while Hinata just smiled indulgently. "It shouldn't be this hard, Naruto."

"T-Titania and Oberon m-meet by accident and start arguing," Hinata explained.

"But what about? They're just talking about rivers and shit!"

She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks again and giggled nervously.

Sakura shook her head. "I'm not about to spell it out for you!" she hissed in exasperation.

Shikamaru sighed and leaned his chair back so he was next to Naruto. "They're fighting because Titania won't have sex with him anymore. And Oberon's mad because she's a slut, but not with him."

"Where does it say that?!"

He smirked. "It's all in there, just in Old English." The smirk was jolted off his face when Ino kicked his chair. He toppled over backwards and swore when he hit the ground.

"Titania's not the slut, Oberon is! Look at how long Titania's lines are when she tells him what he did wrong."

Shikamaru rubbed his head irritably. "Her lines are only longer because she's a woman and can't stop bitching."

Choji laughed quietly to himself as he watched his old friends fight. In a sick sort of way he really had missed this.

The bell rang suddenly, startling everyone except Sasuke. He'd packed up his things a few minutes ago so he could slip out before everyone else.

Ino stood up and shouldered her messenger bag. "Tenten, come to CanTeen with us," she said with a bright smile. (1)

"Eh?"

"It's this after-school thing. Come on, or we'll miss the bus!"

Tenten nodded and let herself be dragged away. "I'll see you later," she called over her shoulder. Neji raised a hand in acknowledgement.

Once they were down the hall and had met up with Hinata and Sakura, Ino squealed. "Please tell me you think he's cute?"

"He is cool. And kinda funny."

Their jaws dropped. "He's funny?" Sakura asked, not sure if she heard right.

"In an odd sort of way, yeah. Haven't you guys talked to him before?"

They stopped at Hinata's and Sakura's lockers, which were next to each other. Ino shook her head for all of them. "No, he doesn't talk to anybody!"

"He must think you're special," Hinata said with a shy smile.

The girls finished putting their things away and Tenten went downstairs to her locker. "Let's just meet out front!" Ino yelled, running for hers down the hall.

-

"How did you get here before me?" The long-haired blonde jumped when she saw Shikamaru at his locker. "You were like the last person to leave."

He shrugged but didn't pull his head out.

"How was your summer, Ino?" Choji asked, grasping for any sort of friendly exchange.

"It was great! I went to camp." She grinned at him and glanced at the guy who currently had his head in his locker. The smile faded a bit and her expressive eyes took on a desperate glint. Her throat constricted and closed off on the words she couldn't say.

I missed you guys.

She settled. Her eyes flickered back to normal and she tossed her hair, confidence regained. "You going to CanTeen, Pineapple-head?"

He sighed and grabbed his backpack. "Nn-hn."

"Well come on then!" Ino grabbed their hands and started walking. "I'm not going to be late because of you two," she said sternly. Choji just smiled. She was bossy, loud and overbearing, but it was just her way of saying she cared about them still.

I spose I'll end it there. The next chapter will put more about the afternoon; It'll probably take FOREVER for me to update after that, because I haven't really planned any further ahead than that, so my apologies in advance. Forgive me if I favor ShikaIno at first! They're my favorite pairing and I just do it unconsciously. Plus they have more chances to be dynamic. Everyone else's is kind of slow going if I want to do them right. Especially the SasuSaku, but I promise I'll do it in good time.

(1) Since most people won't know what it is, CanTeen is a teen center where I live. It's this big house with foosball, TV, air hockey, a pool table, etc. (and by etc. I mean a lot out back where people smoke and have sex and just generally make bad decisions, and trees to climb and glomp people from above. They never see it coming. xD) There's also a kitchen where you can make popcorn and ramen (yes ramen! I don't even have to write it in! J ). Buses take you from school to there, and they can give you a ride home on another one. Sometimes a lot of really weird kids go there, but I'm making it a place where everyone just goes after school.