Chapter 2

The need-to-knows~

Temari's POV

I stared at my schedule

Homeroom - Hatake Kakashi

Yuhi Kurenai - Home Economics

Sarutobi Asuma - History

Shizune - Biology

Deidara, Sasori, Konan - Art

Maito Gai - PE

Lunch

Genma - Math

Morino Ibiki - LA

Konan, Deidara - Chemistry

Morino Ibiki - Psycology

Mitarashi Anko - Drama

Sakura's POV

We just finished Bio with Shizune-sensei and I was heading to Art with Konan-sensei, when I saw the new girl standing in the hallway, staring intensely with a perplexed expression on her face at her schedule.

I nudged Tenten next to me and hissed, "Oi, oi, shouldn't we be helping her out?" She looked over at the new girl then grinned and grabbed the other two.

She dragged the lot of us over to the new girl, who looked up warily as we approached.

"Yo! You're the new girl right? Need some help?" Tenten offered with a friendly smile.

She stared at us for a moment then hesitantly said, "Uh, yeah sure thanks. I just don't get why there are three teachers for art." I chuckled and Hinata smiled softly, "D-deidara-sensei teaches sculpting and clay-molding. Sasori-s-sensei does wood-crafts and Konan-sensei is teaching origami".

The new girl tilted her head to the side and nodded slowly. "So which one do I go to?"

Ino grins and shrugs, "Whoever, whichever one you're interested in, although, you have to decide on one for the rest of the year, by the end of next week."

The girl nodded, turned to the side then started and turned back to us again, "Sorry, uh…pardon my manners, but who are you?"

"Introductions!" Ino yelled excitedly. She grinned and winked at her, "Yamanaka Ino."

I smiled at her warmly, "Haruno Sakura."

Hinata blushed and looked down nervously, "H-hyuga Hinata."

Tenten grinned and pointed to Ino, "The loud, bossy, fashiony one." She poked me, "The nerdy, girly girl and hopeless romantic." She threw an arm around Hinata, "The shy, quiet one." She pointed at herself and winked, "Inoue Tenten, the tomboy who has a thing for sharp pointy objects. Nice to meet you…"

Seemingly warming up to us, the girl grinned back and said, "Subaku no Temari, the tough girl whose a bit of a sadist." Tenten chuckled, immediately taking a liking to her, she threw an arm around the girl, "Well, welcome to the group, you're with us from now on. We'll show you ropes and the need-to-knows of Konoha High!"

PE~

"GGGGOOOOOOO AND SHOW THE WORLD WHAT THE POWER OF YYYYOOOOUUUUTTTHHHH IS!"

Temari sweatdropped but started running laps, along with the rest of the grade. Hinata and Sakura came up on either side of her. "Yeah, Gai- Sensei is a little…"

"Eccentric?" Temari offered flatly. Sakura grinned, "Yeah."

Tenten was in a tight mini race against Neji and Lee up at the front of the group of running (hormonal) Juniors. Tenten was barely breaking a sweat as the three raced each other around and around the indoor track. Neji was grinning smugly as he overtook Tenten by a bit. And Lee was yelling about "YOUTH!" with the other two sweatdropping.

Temari looked on admiringly at Tenten and whistled, "And I thought I was fit."

Sakura chuckled, "Yeah, Tenten's pretty crazy. She can totally kick-ass. She does jujutsu, she collects weapons, she can play any sport. Well to sum it up…she's a total guy." Temari grinned, "Yeah I can see that… look at her go."

"Can't say the same about Ino though." The two laughed as they saw the pale blonde at the back of the group.

Walking.

Lunch~

Ino plopped down on the cafeteria seat and panted heavily. "Phew that was tiring."

The rest stared at her. She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, to break it down for you, we're a very community orientated…community. Everyone knows everyone. And if you do something, the whole school's gonna know by the end of the week..or by lunch, y'know it depends. Social circles go by: Nerds, Jocks, Bitches, goth-emo's, the 'middlemen', and the popular groups. The nerds are well… the nerds. The bookworms, study freaks etcetera. The Jocks are work out freaks who only care about themselves, looking good and girls. Bitches consist of fangirls, sluts…well, bitches. The emo-goth dudes are like punks, rock-enthusiasts, the lot. The 'middlemen' are those who are pretty much nice to everyone and everyone else in between. Normal people. The popular people are those boys sitting over there."

Ino pointed to the table where Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Shikamaru and Sai were sitting.

"Sometimes Chouji, Shino and Kiba join them too. Even Lee."

Temari raised an eyebrow, "Oh you mean that kid in green spandex with the bowl haircut and thick eyebrows?"

Temari recalled a boy looking nearly identical to Gai-sensei, tears streaming down their faces as they mused over the wonders of "YOUTH!"

Hinata nodded.

"Wait...so where do you guys fit in?" Temari asked, quirking her brow in puzzlement.

"Umm..." Hinata mumbled. Tenten scratched the back of her neck. Sakura frowned, deep in thought and Ino bit her lip.

"Uh...we don't really...know..." Tenten muttered, trailing off.

Temari frowned, "You don't know?"

"Well-" Sakura began. Ino sighed and cut her off, "That's the thing, like we totally don't know where we go..."

Temari's frown deepened, "What do you mean you don't know? Surely you have to go at least somewhere. Like...I mean like one of those normal groups...or something."

"Well, you s-see," Hinata blushed, biting down on her lip.

Ino grumbled and pointed to Sakura, "Sakura can be considered a nerd. She's a bit of a book worm and study freak."

"Oh yes, there's this 'unspoken' social circle of like 'elites' the kids who are children of important clan heads. Hinata is an heiress but she doesn't hang out with them, so she's pretty much a nerd."

"Tenten is like a...jockette? Jocks can be considered sport-freakers and Tenten signs up for most sports every year and gets into pretty much all of them. But she doesn't hang out with them. I mean, she does because there are decent jocks and jockettes out there but she isn't very close to any of them."

Then Ino paused with a resigned look on her face, "And I, I used to be one of the bitches. But that was at the beginning of freshmen year and I thought they were nice and all but later I realised how spiteful they really were and then I met Sakura who, by the way, I've known her since we were kids but I had no idea that she joined KHS and we hit it off again. For a short while it was just the two of us but then one time, we bumped into Hinata getting bullied by those 'elites'," this Ino spat out with a good amount of distaste.

"And we took her into our little group. Then this other time, we saw Tenten arguing with a bunch of jerk-ass jocks and we helped her escape from Tsunade-sama, who was rounding the corner, might I add, and we hit it off."

Then Ino ran a hand down her face and turned back to an attentive Temari, "So if you put a nerd, an elite, a jockette, a bitch, and now a...emo-goth-punk together, no offense Tema," Ino said off-handedly.

"None taken," Temari shrugged. Secretly rejoicing at the fact that in such a short amount of time, Ino had already taken to giving her a nickname. It felt nice, she thought, I've finally found a group of gals who just don't seem to care.

"What exactly do you get?" Ino's question was answered with silence. "See? That's just...how it is. We don't exactly fit in anywhere. I mean, you, me, Sakura and Hinata could be considered elites but Tenten..."

Temari's eyes narrowed into slits, "Tenten what?"

Tenten sighed, "FYI, I'm an orphan," she shrugged impassively.

Temari's mouth formed an 'o' and she shot Tenten a sympathetic look.

Ino continued, "And we can't really be considered 'middle-men' so..."

"Wouldn't that make you guys a popular group?" Temari dead-panned.

"Wel-..." Ino started.

Temari poker-faced, "I mean if you have connections in pretty much every single social circle, wouldn't that be considered-"

"P-p-p...popular?" Hinata questioned in a hushed voice, but her voice grew louder and higher pitched.

Temari nodded, "Yeah I mean-"

"Holysweetjesusmotherofgodshitdamnned." Ino breathed.

Sakura frowned, "But there's no way we're on par with...them."

Temari rolled her eyes along with Tenten who said, "Oh my god, does it matter?"

"Yes yes it totally does," Ino stared at them in horror, "How could you say it doesn't?"

Tenten rolled her eyes and Temari recalled Sakura's last comment.

"So who are those guys?" Temari inquired curiously. Ino grumbled at her friend's indifference, "I swear you're just like Neji," but explained:

"That blondie with the blue eyes is Uzumaki Naruto, the hot head. No parents to know of, guardian is his uncle Uzumaki Nagato. Troublemaker, rebel, but a pretty nice guy. But he can be a little dense. He's obsessed with ramen. As you can see. Oh yeah, and Hinata has a not quite so teeny tiny crush on him.

Now, the hottest guy in school, Uchiha Sasuke. Black hair, dark eyed dude. He's got all the girls dropping at his feet. He's pretty cold to most people, but a decent guy when you get to know him. Now, he's not all looks, he's got pretty good brains. Consistently high grades. His brother, the infamous Uchiha Itachi, graduated a couple years back. He might come back to teach, but who knows.

Then there's Hyuuga Neji, Hinata's cousin. He's the guy with the long dark hair and the white eyes. The Hyuuga family prodigy. He's predestined to do some great whatever. He'd be considered 'elite'. He pretty much excels in everything. A pretty cool, calm, cold guy. Recently though, he's kinda warmed up to people. Tenten'll tell you.

Now that pineapple head, that guy you sit next to, that's Nara Shikamaru. His family is known for their intelligence, but he's the particularly smart and lazy one. Our dad's are really close so we're like childhood friends. We're like a...trinity...thing. Our dad's are clan heads you see. He hangs with those guys, but his closest friend outside of that group is that…uh…chubby dude, stuffing his face with chips, Akimichi Chouji. Our dad's are all really close so yeah. Shikamaru's the epicenter of lazy. Try talk to him and he'll snore away. Everything TOO TROUBLESOME. That jerk. But other than that he's a generally nice person. Always cool, calm and level-headed.

Last but not least, Sai. He's the nice guy with no emotions whatsoever-"

Here the rant was stopped by Sakura who held out her hand and silenced Ino. She smiled lightly and shook her head, "No. Sai just doesn't get emotions. He's kinda awkward. He always ruins the moment. But he's learning. And he's quite a nice guy…despite the…um, awkwardness…I guess?" Sakura looked pointedly at Ino.

Temari nodded slowly, "Huh…okay. So are they like some popular clique, thing that like lives in some cheesy mansion with all the girls they can get?" Tenten chuckled, "Sorta. Kinda. They're like the popular group with the fangirls and all. Skip the cheesy part though. They're all softies on the inside. But they're total players. Most of them have slept with more than half the female student body. But don't judge them too much, after all, everyone's got a story to tell."

"Oh and here's the thing, Hinata and Neji are cousins right? So Hinata's father owns this MAJOR corporation, and is like insanely rich, so last year, the two of them got really good results and so he bought both of them these mansion villa like things. So over the weekends for sleepovers, hanging etcetera; we sort of 'commune' there. And it's the same for the guys."

Temari grinned and wrinkled her nose ,"Cheesy. Cliquey. But sounds awesome." The girls laughed and high-fived.

Boy's at lunch~

Naruto plopped down on the bench and eagerly grinned at his ramen. Sasuke rolled his eyes and delicately dropped a French fry into his mouth.

Sai smiled his creepy smile and pointed over to the Sophomores, who seemed to be starting a fight. "Oh, this is what Gai-sensei talks about. Youth, yes?" Sasuke groaned and shook his head, "What in the world goes through your head? And don't ever quote Gai-sensei again. We don't need another Lee."

"Although we should see what all the commotion is about," Neji muttered.

The group walked over except for Shikamaru, whom they dragged along. "What the hell going on here?" demanded Sasuke as the Sophomores shrunk back at the sight of one of the most feared groups in the school, peering down at them with a dangerous look in their eyes.

A dark brown haired sophomore with purple tattoos decorating his face (whom they'd never seen before), sauntered over to them, tilted his head to the side and grinned cockily. "Wassup dudes? You think you rule the school? Lookie here, I don't care who you are but my business is my own. So stay out of it." Kankuro smirked at them, expecting their wrath but they didn't react, in fact they looked intrigued.

His smirk faltered and he cocked his head to the side again. Naruto suddenly grinned, grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously. Neji chuckled, Sasuke smirked, Sai fake smiled and Shikamaru yawned with just the tiniest hint of a smile.

Kankuro stared, bewildered as he was swept off by Naruto as the rest followed. The group of remaining sophomores stared at the retreating figures in awe and confusion.

Yeah I know it took FOREVER but I've been busy. Hope you enjoyed!

Things are spinning into action :D