Author's Note: Omg, I'm so nervous! It's been so long since I was updating. I wonder if I'll ever get used to the anxiety, lol. I hope you guys liked the first chapter... I suppose you must have if you're reading the second one :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything remotely associated with it.

To no one's surprise Naruto and Gaara were the last two standing. It was Ino's choice. The obvious selection for her would be to choose Gaara as putting both Naruto and Sasuke on our team would be equivalent to a forfeit, but she wasn't making a choice. She was scared of Gaara as she had so voiced earlier; she didn't want him on our team, but she didn't want to lose.

"Make your pick," Gai ordered from the sidelines.

Ino's eyes narrowed and worry lines formed at the corners of her mouth. "Naruto," she called weakly and the whole class let out a unanimous gasp.

This was going to be an interesting game.

Even Gai was silent for a moment, something that was weirdly unusual for him. It was hard to believe he ever stopped talking. "Well, alllriiight then," concern knit itself into Gai sensei's face. "Suit up and start a scrimmage, I've got to run down to the office for a moment."

I silently berated Gai. What was he thinking!? On any other day leaving the class alone to have a game wouldn't have been such a bad idea, but today? There had already been one apparent fight and now Naruto and Sasuke were on the same team! Shit was going to hit the fan the second he left the room. That reminded me...

I scooted over to enemy territory to see Choji and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, did Shikamaru tell you what happened?" I whispered.

"Yeah, he said Sasuke and the new kid almost got into a serious fight. He said it started out of nowhere too. One second it was fine and the next they were shoving each other into lockers. Shikamaru and Naruto tried to break it up but by then Gai showed up."

"He doesn't know what started it?"

"He didn't really say."

"Crazy," I commented, and for a moment wondered why I even cared.

Choji and I broke away and got suited in our jerseys; red for my team, blue for theirs. I shrugged into mine and it was painfully tight, especially around the chest. It had been a miracle Choji had squeezed into his. I wondered if the jersey was cutting off his blood circulation. I supposed we'd find out in short order if it was.

I had been worried about my gym clothes being beyond their expiry date, but the jerseys I knew ought to have been burned at the turn of the century. They could soak the damn things in bleach for a week and still not get the smell out.

My team sent me up to be center. Basketball wasn't my best sport by any means but the only person I'd ever lost a tip off to was Sasuke and he was on my team for this game.

Ino, Shino, myself and two others made up the first line, leaving Naruto, Sasuke and a handful of other miscellaneous students to be spares to sub in at regular intervals. 'For Heaven's sake,' I thought to myself, 'at least put Sasuke and Naruto on different lines if they have both have to be on our team.' Was it really that hard to figure out? I wanted to speak up, but didn't end up saying anything. This was sure going to be interesting. Sasuke and Naruto were already glaring daggers at each other on the bench. On the other side of half court Sakura, Reiko, Hinata, Choji and Kiba were our first opponents.

Yeah, this was going to be a very interesting game.

I took my place at center against Sakura and got into a crouched stance, ready to jump. A kid showed up with a ball, checked both sides of the court to make sure everyone was ready and tossed the bright orange sphere into the air. I won the tip off as usual and spent just a moment considering that it must be luck that let me win every time, on account of I had no real aptitude for sports. The ball arced back towards Ino and the game began in earnest.

The teams were about evenly matched and everyone took equal turns switching on and off with two exceptions. Sasuke was on the court about 90% more than he was off and Gaara hadn't been on at all. It looked as though we were going to be able to keep the game relatively civil until Gai got back, until Reiko made a switch with Hinata.

I hadn't even meant to, but Hinata was so petite. When I bumped into her to try and gain possession of the ball, I knocked her back and she fell hard to the ground.

Before I could even make a case for myself, Rei shouted, "What the hell Leiko!?" and stormed over to me. Her team was shouting inaudibly in fury, and my team was shouting back in defence. "What are you trying to prove?" Reiko barked at me, stepping so that there wasn't even an inch of space between us.

"Get out of my face!" I told her flatly. It had been an accident and nothing more. I had been staying out of Hinata's way for quite a while now; it was presumptuous of her to judge me based on what I'd done in my past.

"Leave her alone! She didn't do anything to you!"

"It's none of your business!"

"Hinata is my friend, it IS my business!" I could see she was about to shout further, but her gaze was suddenly captured by something behind me. I turned to see that another argument had broken out. Naruto was in the midst of taking a swing at Sasuke, who easily dodged it and returned with his own. "Yeah, well, here we go," I sighed and ignoring Rei, Sasuke and Naruto and everyone else, I banished myself to the sidelines.

It was right then that I saw a tall, less than jolly, green giant storm into the gym from the hallways. About time Gai showed up. He was correcting his sense of timing, if only he could do the same for his wardrobe. "I'll take her to the infirmary," I heard him shout over all the other voices. "I leave you kids alone for ten minutes and all hell breaks loose?"

'Well, really,' I thought, 'what did you think was going to happen?'

I watched disinterested as Gai lifted Hinata to her feet. "As for the rest of you; no talking and push ups until I come back."

I heaved a sigh.

Gym class before noon, always a serious problem.

The bell finally rang and dismissed us. I'd never seen so many downcast students rush for the door so quickly. I worked my way through the ever crowed halls, finally able to breathe after the constraining atmosphere of the gym... although, maybe it had just been that constraining red jersey.

I'd been so shaken up because of gym I needed to run over my schedule in my head to figure out what class I had next. Phys. Ed. with Gai? Check. Next was Psychology with Kurenai sensei. After that I had Math with Asuma, Social Studies with Iruka and Chemistry with Kakashi sensei. Psychology and math were my favourite; I wasn't sure about how I felt having them in the middle of the day though. This morning had been so stressful that it would have been nice to have started with those classes, but it may have been equally nice to have had them at the end of the day so that I could have something to look forward to. Granted, chemistry wasn't too bad either and classes with Kakashi sensei were always... 'interesting.'

I shuffled into psychology with a heavy sigh and took my usual place in the far corner. I liked sitting at the back, I could observe the class without them observing me. The very idea of people watching me made me very uncomfortable. Besides, teachers were predisposed to call on students in the front row anyway. I crossed my arms over my desk and laid my head down on the makeshift pillow I had created with my hands. In the back of my mind I wondered if Hinata would show up to class; she looked like she had been in a lot of pain. I felt a momentary pang of guilt for what had happened, but in all honesty, it was only an accident.

"Oh, here you are," a startled voice spoke up suddenly. I lifted my head from my warm nest and glanced around. All eyes were trained on the door where a redheaded boy stood with an indignant look on his face. "You're Gaara right? The new student?" the teacher asked. "I'm Kurenai sensei, please come in."

Shocking. There really was no better word. He looked quite a bit different in his regular clothes; he looked a little more sinister, which I would have figured to be almost impossible.

As if we hadn't been listening, Kurenai addressed the rest of us. "Class, this is Gaara, he's new to Konoha High. He's just transferred from Suna if I am not mistaken. Please make him feel welcome."

'If she only knew,' I thought sarcastically.

"Gaara, there's an empty seat next to Leiko, why don't you sit down there."

Oh dear.

All eyes shifted from Gaara, to me, and back to Gaara. There were other students in this class who had also been in gym with me. They were giving me sympathizing glances and glaring daggers at Gaara. The phase, 'If looks could kill,' came to mind. There were a handful of students who had obviously heard about what had happened this morning and were shooting equally unfriendly glances towards the redhead. The others I assumed had been hearing rumours themselves as there wasn't a single student who wasn't wearing a wary look. It wasn't even noon yet and it felt like Gaara had already made an enemy of the whole school.

"Alright class, please open your reading books to chapter two," Kurenai called.

The rest of the class shifted around in their seats to face the front, but I kept my eyes trained on Gaara. Despite his ominous aura there was something, captivating, about him and no one could deny that he was attractive... in a dark and dangerous kind of way. He wore a heavy black hoodie that was by no means new; tiny tears along the seams of the cuffs and collar could testify to that. His long jeans had a metal chain clipped to the side and were beginning to fray at the bottom.

"Uhm, hey," I mumbled as quietly as I could manage when he pulled his seat out to sit down. "I'm Leiko." I offered my hand nervously. I didn't really want to, but it seemed to me that this was not someone I wanted to make an enemy out of right off the bat. When I got no response from him I continued with, "We're in the same Phys. Ed. class too," and then I mentally slapped myself for bringing up the train wreck that had been gym. "You're from Suna eh?" I asked casually, hoping to change the subject and evoke some kind of a response from him.

The response I got was not the kind I had been hoping for. Gaara shot me a warning death glare from the side and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end.

"Alright," I murmured under my breath.

I turned towards the front, determined to focus on the lesson but I found my mind wandering. Who was this guy sitting beside me!? Furthermore, who did he think he was, glaring so threateningly at me as he had. I didn't want to believe the rumours Ino had been spewing this morning but all the evidence was seeming to point in that direction. Gaara had started a fight with Sasuke within the first ten minutes of his being here. Granted, Sasuke wasn't the easiest guy on the planet to get along with either. As well, his persona seemed to fit what Ino had been saying about him. The dark clothes, the malevolent, hateful look in his eyes... A transfer to a new school could be hard on anyone though, right? At the same time part of me felt that I was in a lot of danger by being around him, but part of me felt that he was just a kid the same as the rest of us; part of me, against my better judgement, wanted to trust him. The back and forth argument in my head must have continued for a lot longer than I thought because my stupor was only broken off when I caught the middle of a conversation that two guys were having in front of us.

"...she said his siblings were nice enough. A little weird, but what do you expect of kids from Suna, right?"

"I heard that he..."

Those idiots! They were sitting right in front of us! Did they really think we couldn't hear them? I stole a sideways glance at Gaara, his expression hadn't changed from the moment he sat down. Quite frankly that worried me the most. I had half a mind to reach out and kick the backs of their chairs to get them to shut up but just then the bell rang.

Thank God.

I hadn't even had a chance to stand up and start packing my things before Gaara was across the class and out of the room. I now had my own rumours I could add to the assortment that were spreading like wildfire thought the school.

Sakura jumped me in the halls.

"Ohmygosh Lei! I heard what happened?"

"What happened?" I asked back, lost in thought.

"What do you mean? Kurenai made you sit by him!"

Record timing.

"Oh that," I muttered. I hadn't even made it from class to my locker before half the school had found out. The information centres around here were like spider webs. If one kid knew something, the information spread up and out at a breakneck pace.

"Are you okay?" she demanded.

"Am I okay? Sakura, he sat beside me, he didn't perform surgery on me." Although, I might need a session or two of therapy for that look he gave me. An internal shudder quaked up my spine.

"Why are you taking this so lightly? That guy is dangerous."

"Says who?"

"Says everybody!"

'Yeah?' I thought. 'Well everyone once said that I-'

I couldn't finish my thought as Sakura interrupted, "Lei, you seriously need to stay away from this guy. You are like, the only one in the whole school who is not freaking out."

"Sakura, really, if he was that dangerous they wouldn't let him come here," I explained logically, although I was starting to have my own doubts.

"You're the one in psychology; you know how these things work. He's unstable, he could snap at any second."

I didn't reply.

"You're the one who told me about that case study you looked into. The guy who burned the house down when he was six, and then shot his girlfriend and cut his arm off!"

"Sakura, he shot his arm and stabbed his girlfriend," I corrected.

"Yeah! And they didn't do anything about him until he killed that one girl. Do you want to be the girl that Gaara kills? And don't forget what that guy threatened to do to his psychiatrist when he was in prison! He threatened to beat his head in and eat his brains! And-"

"Sakura!" I interrupted, only decibels below shouting. "I'm the one who told you about the case. I know what happened!" I was really getting tired of this, and the topic was making me sick. I brought my hand up to my face and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Sakura, I don't feel well. I'm going to take a walk. Take notes for me in math will you?"

"But-"

I didn't give her chance to finish before taking off down the hall and out the back door of the school.

Part of me didn't understand it. Why was everyone being so cruel? How would they feel if they transferred to a new school and people were saying those horrible things about them? I did have to admit to myself that I was worried a little, I mean, most rumours did come from somewhere, but still...

I sat down, leaning back against the wall of the school. The cold bit through my tight jeans and through my sweater at the back. My breath came out in little white puffs of steam and almost instantly my nose and face began to go numb. To combat the frigid temperatures I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around myself. It was still far too early in the year to try and leave the house without a coat but the stinging air was helping to clear my head.

I took another couple deep breaths of the crisp air and decided it was time to go in. Getting in trouble for being late was one thing, getting in trouble for outright skipping was another. I slid back up the wall, cracked my neck and back and started walking. The quickest way to math from here would be to go in through the west hall doors, so I rounded the corner of the school and-

-bumped into a tall, warm, body.

Author's Note: That case study? Actually happened. Just sayin'.

So, wow. I reread my old Mello fic... Dear Lord! How did you people understand I word I wrote? I was confused by my writing and I wrote the darn thing! You know what I think the problem is? When I'm writing something, I know what's going on in my head and it's so clear to me it's like I don't feel the need to write down everything that I'm thinking. You know? So you guys only get about half the story. Anyway, I'm going to try and work on that :) And for the love of God, if you find spelling mistakes, even small ones, please tell me. I'm sure some people might find that annoying, but really it's a lot easier for me to fix if I can catch them right away. The last thing I need is another 'He took my SHIN in his hands and forced me to look up at him.' I mean, that's just weird ;P