EDIT 2012:
I added a scene to this chapter, to add some character to Aoi, but besides that, most of it was kept the same. (I just changed some phrasing to make it sound more like my current writing style.)

Hello again! If you are reading this, than that means that you liked the prologue and want to know what happens next (or at least I hope you do). This chapter will focus on Aoi Coulter (my OC). I really hope that she doesn't sound like a Mary-Sue; I hate those. I know the title of the story is cheesy; I just suck at making titles.

I don't own Naruto, though I wish I did!

Special thanks to Mmyself29, who was my first reviewer. Thank you so much; your review made my day! Now, on with the story…

-Chapter One: The Ordinary and the Extraordinary-

Seventeen-year-old Aoi Coulter sighed as she walked into her high school's cafeteria. She scanned the room for her usual table, only to shake her head when she realized that all the seats were filled. Again. She wasn't surprised at this fact; she didn't like any of the people she sat with. She just ate lunch with them so that she wouldn't have to eat alone. Now that they had found someone to replace her, this was exactly what she had to do. Saving herself from the humiliation of eating alone in the cafeteria, Aoi left the noisy room and walked to the library. This is where she would eat whenever her table was full. The librarians didn't mind; she was quiet and never left a mess.

Aoi quietly unzipped her lunch bag and unpacked her lunch. Today's meal was a turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich, potato chips, and a bottle of water. She spent the first twenty-five minutes of her lunch period eating. Once she was done, she looked at the clock on the wall and saw that she had twenty-five minutes left. Since she had no homework from her previous classes, she pulled her sketchbook out of her bag and flipped it open to an unfinished drawing.

Aoi was an artist, which was one of the reasons she didn't have many friends. Though she was talented at drawing, her school was all about sports and looking attractive. She couldn't care less about sports, and with her straight, neck-length light brown hair, brown eyes, and short stature, her appearance was more on the average side. On top of that, she still had braces, which made her look younger than she already did. She also loved anime, especially one called Naruto, which was another reason people didn't like her. Very few people at her school liked anime; most people thought of it as being stupid and childish.

Aoi sighed again and started to finish shading in her drawing. It was a picture of Akasuna no Sasori, one of her favorite characters from Naruto. Instead of drawing him in anime style, she drew him realistically. Her entire sketchbook was filled with realistic portraits of the Akatsuki. She saved Sasori for last because he was her favorite character and she didn't want to mess the drawing up. Once she was finished, she put her sketchbook and pencil case back in her messenger bag. She saw that there were only five minutes left until fifth period was over, so she decided to close her eyes and daydream.

Of course she dreamed about the Akatsuki after just finishing a drawing of one of its members. They were her all-time favorite characters in Naruto, even though they were supposed to be the antagonists. Yes, they did kill countless people, but they were also outcasts, just like her. She didn't belong at her school; they didn't belong in their home villages.

Her eyes snapped open when she heard the bell ring. She gathered up her stuff, thanked the librarians, and ran to her next class. Sixth period, as well as seventh and eighth, went by fast, and soon the school day was over. Aoi rushed to her locker, grabbed all her necessary schoolbooks, and literally ran down the hallway.

Once she got outside, she stopped, the cold November weather taking away all her energy. This proved to be unlucky; a group of people approached her, condescending smirks on their faces. Though she didn't know them by name, Aoi knew that they were unpleasant; they messed with her many a time. Gulping, she gripped her sketchbook tighter, holding it to her chest. Because of the weather, she was not in the mood to be picked on; she just wanted to get to her car without any trouble.

Luck didn't seem to be on her side; as soon as she moved, the group circled her closer. Her stomach clenching with suspense, Aoi spoke. "Can I help you?"

The leader, a tall girl with thick blonde hair and a penchant for neon-colored clothing stepped forward until she was barely a foot away from Aoi. "Don't be rude; I thought you'd like some help carrying that heavy bag and sketchbook."

That seemed to be the cue for one of her friends, a gangly boy with scraggly black hair, to lunge forward and pull Aoi's bag off her shoulder. This caused the shorter girl to shift her sketchbook to one hand while the other allowed the boy to take the bag and throw it next to his feet. Hurting her arm wasn't worth losing a couple of textbooks and notes. While she was distracted, Neon Puke (Aoi nearly snickered when the nickname popped into her head) ripped the sketchbook out of her grasp.

Now Aoi panicked. Her drawings were precious to her; if they somehow got damaged, she didn't think she'd be able to create them exactly the same as she did before. "Give it back!"

"Oh come on, I just want to see your work; it can't be as good as the art teachers say." The taller girl carelessly flipped through the book, and Aoi's stomach clenched. When she stopped on a particular page, the brunette's heart sank.

"If you were trying to draw me, you did a hell of an awful job. My makeup looks so much better, and I wouldn't wear that tacky bathrobe."

"It's a cloak!" Aoi found herself saying, trying to reach for the book. "And that's not supposed to be you!" Deidara looks so much better than you, anyway.

"Don't deny it; of course it's me. I bet this is one of your strange fetishes, am I right? I've never seen you with a guy, nor have you seemed interested in any, so you must swing the other way. And now you're drawing me? You're such a freak. Ugh, this is embarrassing!"

Neon Puke stepped out of Aoi's range and held the sketchbook over her head while she used her free hand to rifle through her purse. Once she found what she was looking for, she smirked. As soon as Aoi got a glimpse of what she was holding, her heart nearly stopped. The blonde flicked a lighter, smirking. She held it under the sketchbook, laughing when the page started to singe.

At that moment, Aoi saw red. She was tired of being picked on, but she took it without a complaint, and without fighting back. Until now, that is. Her art was her life; she would not tolerate it being messed with. Narrowing her eyes, she ran at Neon Puke, pushing her as harshly as she could. She grabbed the sketchbook while the taller girl was surprised and held it tightly to her chest.

Neon Puke looked like she wanted to punch Aoi, but when she looked around, she saw that a teacher was in their line of sight. Shaking her head, she smirked again. "I hate to cut this short, but I don't want detention. See you around, freak." She nodded, and she and her friends walked away, disappearing into the sea of students and cars.

Shakingly grabbing her bag, Aoi willed herself not to cry, at least not until she reached her car. Forcing a stoic expression on her face, she walked, counting her steps to distract her. It wasn't long before she reached her destination, but by the time she got there, her suppressed tears had subsided into a numb pit in her stomach.

Once she got home, she walked up the stairs to her room and flopped onto the bed, the horrible feeling returning. She pulled her sketchbook out of her bag, terrified of how much it was damaged. Luckily, all her drawings seemed to be intact, minus some singing on the bottom of the Deidara one. I can pass that off as an intentional effect. Relieved that her artwork was unharmed, Aoi hugged the book to her chest. A few tears escaped from her eyes, but she wiped them away quickly. Now that everything was all right, at least for the moment, she closed her eyes, ready to relax. All she wanted to do now was watch Naruto, and since it was Friday, she didn't have to start her homework right away. Before she put in a DVD, she looked at herself in the mirror, trying to think of happy thoughts. She internally chuckled while she brushed out her brown hair. Why the heck did my parents name me Aoi? That's Japanese for blue, and I'm not blue at all!

Right as she thought this, she was reminded of Hoshigaki Kisame, the blue-skinned, shark-like member of the Akatsuki, and she snickered. She started to hum "Blue" by Eiffel 65. Kisame's theme song.

Feeling a bit happier than she did before, she grabbed a random Naruto DVD and put it in her DVD player. As the title menu played, she realized this disk had the episodes where Sakura and Chiyo fight Sasori. Every time she watched them, she found herself cursing Sakura and yelling at the screen. She never really cared for the pink-haired kunoichi, but now she downright hated her after she and Chiyo killed Sasori.

She stopped the DVD when she heard her parents' voices downstairs. Thinking that it was time for dinner, the brunette quickly turned off her TV and started to walk downstairs. She stopped when she realized that her parents were talking about her.

"I just don't get it, I had plenty of friends in high school," said Rosaline, Aoi's mother. "Why can't she just be like everyone else?"

"I don't know, maybe it's a phase. She'll probably grow out of it when she goes to college next year," answered Julius, Aoi's father.

"I doubt it; she's always hated interacting with people, even when she was young," replied Rosaline. "I just wish she'd find herself a best friend, or even a boyfriend. That would show that she was at least a bit normal."

Aoi felt her face beginning to turn red. She knew that her classmates thought she wasn't normal, but her parents thought so too? She knew that she really didn't go out much besides the bookstore, the art store, and the library, but she didn't find that unusual. Some people liked to hang out with friends; she liked to read and draw. Alone. Okay, maybe that is a bit weird, she thought. But still, this put me in a crappy mood, and I wasn't having a good day to begin with. I'll go to the art store after dinner. Getting a new sketchbook should cheer me up.

Deciding her plans for the night, Aoi tried to make her face look normal as she walked down the stairs. "Hey," she called out, a fake smile on her face, "is dinner almost ready? I want to go to the art store to get a new sketchbook, and it closes at nine."

"Dinner's ready now. We're having lemon pepper chicken," said Julius. If Aoi didn't hear the conversation before, she would have been thrilled; lemon pepper chicken was her favorite. Now, it was just ironic that she would be eating her favorite food when she really didn't want it.

Julius and Rosaline tried to make conversation with Aoi, but she didn't feel like talking. After awhile, the two adults talked amongst themselves, leaving Aoi to eat in peace. After she was done, she cleaned off her plate and told her parents that she would be back in two hours. She went upstairs to grab her car keys and her messenger bag. After making sure that her purse was in the bag, she ran back downstairs, put on her coat, and headed out the door.

It was November, and naturally, it was cold outside, especially when one lives in the Midwest. Aoi shivered as she got into her car, hoping that it would warm up soon; she hated driving when she was cold. It was a twenty minute ride to the nearest art supply store; by the time she was there the car was toasty warm. She almost didn't want to leave it to go back outside in the freezing cold, but she wanted to look around the store more. So she reluctantly left the car, locking it behind her, and quickly walked through the parking lot and into the store.

She immediately felt her mood lighten when she looked around. She saw aisles upon aisles of markers, colored pencils, sketchbooks, and even sculpting clay. When she looked at that aisle, she giggled to herself. Deidara would love this! She walked back to the sketchbook section; that was what she was planning on buying, after all. She always got so distracted in this store. When she looked at the sketchbook she really wanted, she saw that it was really expensive. Aoi didn't like to spend money, so she decided to get a cheaper one; the paper wasn't as good, but she still could draw effectively on it.

Since she still had plenty enough time to drive back to her house, she decided to look upstairs; that's where the fabric and jewelry-making supplies were. Aoi was no good at sewing or making jewelry, but she liked looking at all the different colors and textures of fabrics and the different charms for jewelry. She was looking down the jewelry aisle when something caught her eye. It was a dark red jewel with silver wire wrapped around it in some sort of swirling pattern. It had no price tag on it and Aoi wasn't sure if it was for sale, but for some reason, the jewel called out to her. She had to have it. She decided to go downstairs and ask a worker to tell her the price. If it was too expensive, she could always ask her parents to buy it for her as a Christmas present.

She started walking down the steps when she suddenly lost her balance. She tried to keep her balance, but slipped down the rest of the stairs. She still clutched the jewel in her hand, unable to stop herself from tripping over the last step and hitting her forehead on the edge of a table next to the staircase. She felt a searing pain in her head, and soon she blacked out. But not before the jewel started to glow…

And that was the end of Chapter One! Sorry about the cliffhanger; I just thought that this would be a good place to end the chapter. I am also sorry if this was really boring; I wanted to really give a good description of Aoi and her life. The Akatsuki appear in the next chapter. If you want Aoi to be paired with anyone, now's the time to ask, since I'm not that far into the story yet.

I also apologize to Sakura fans. I don't hate her; it's just that most Sasori fangirls hate her. Sakura is all right (except when she killed Sasori, then I didn't like her for awhile, lol). She's not my favorite character, but there are other characters I hate way more than her, lol.

In anime, appearance reflects someone's personality. That's why I gave Aoi brown hair and brown eyes. She's supposed to be very ordinary looking. Most characters have one unique part of their appearance (Pein's piercings, Deidara's bangs, Tobi's mask, etc.) so I gave her braces to make her seem younger. This is to make her seem more socially awkward too.

I hope you enjoy the story so far! Chapter Two is coming soon!

EDIT 2012:

I hope this made the chapter more exciting. I added the part where Aoi was getting bullied just to show that she was not liked at her school.