"What the hell have I got myself into?" he thought as he walked down the hall. Desperately trying to figure out what was going on, he scanned the crowd, hoping he'd see somebody he recognized. And just then the somebody he'd recognized hit him at full force in the form of a tackle hug.
"Sasukeee!" Naruto yelled. He had thrown himself in a tackle hug straight at the Uchiha, catching him off guard and resulting in him being knocked to the ground.
"Owww… Naruto, can you please get off?" Sasuke said, rubbing his head.
"Right, sorry Sasuke!" Naruto said brightly, climbing up off him and offering Sasuke a hand. He accepted and soon was back on his feet.
"I can't believe you're finally here! We are going to have soooo much fun this year!" Naruto said, nearly bouncing up and down with barely contained enthusiasm. Sasuke couldn't help but smile at his friend's insane-like happiness.
"Yeah, it's great to see you. How was Malaysia?" Sasuke asked.
"It was ok. Mum got malaria, but we brought medicine with because dad is paranoid. I guess it saved us this time" Naruto said, still having trouble containing his glee. "How was your summer?" he asked, calming down a bit more.
"Shitty" Sasuke said.
"Oh, why?" said Naruto, his face falling.
"One, because you weren't there, and two, my brother was home. God he makes my life a living hell" Sasuke said bitterly.
"Oh, now you make me feel bad about leaving" Naruto said, looking sad.
"Naw, you had fun. Your parents are gone most of the time, you deserved to spend time with them" Sasuke said, wishing now he hadn't mentioned his summer. "So, how do we know our classes?" he said, trying to direct the conversation away from the touchy subject of family. Naruto smiled again.
"Well, we should find the schedule for our home rooms on the cork board. I hope we're in the same class" Naruto moaned, realizing something that would puncture his happy balloon.
"Oh yeah I-" Sasuke was cut off by several boys running toward them. They stopped in front of Naruto.
"Not to worry Naruto, the Hyūgas have got it all sorted out!" a boy with messy brown hair and red streaks on his cheeks said.
"Oh thank god Kiba. How did you manage that, Neji?" Naruto said to a boy with long brown hair tied back on a ponytail.
"Hinata and I just kept dropping subtle hints we wanted people to be in the same class. He got it all worked out" the boy named Neji smiled.
"Are Sasuke and I in the same class?" Naruto said hopefully.
"Yup" Kiba said. He then turned to Sasuke.
"You must be Sasuke. Nice to meet you. I'm Kiba and this is Neji, Shikamaru, Choji, Lee and Shino" he gestured to the boys behind him. Lee and Choji smiled and waved.
"Who else is in class?" said Naruto, seeming a little hopeful.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" said Kiba in a bored tone of voice. Neji smirked.
"This wouldn't have anything to do with Sakura, would it?" he said, his tone teasing.
"W- well…" Naruto stammered. Neji smiled.
"Happy birthday dunce" he said. Naruto gave a delighted yell and flung himself at Neji.
"Ow, ok Naruto, you can get off…" came Neji's muffled voice from behind the hyperactive ninja. Naruto eventually climbed off him and Kiba said,
"I got him to put Ino in too"
"Why? She's a loudmouthed bitch" said Shikamaru lazily.
"She's a hot loudmouthed bitch" answered Kiba dreamily. "I noticed Neji also put Tenten with the class" The rest of the boys sniggered. Neji turned red.
"I just felt bad for her. I mean, Sakura and Ino are together, and Hinata put herself in the class to be close to you-know-who…" at this point Neji cut off and winked at Naruto. He looked completely puzzled. "So I thought it would be nice to put her with her friends" he finished, somewhat defiantly.
"And because you like her" Kiba added. Neji scowled and snorted.
"Whatever. We should probably get to class. We don't want to be late for class sign-ups again. That was hell last year" Neji said.
"What happened?" asked Sasuke, joining in the conversation. The rest of the boys cracked up, but Choji looked sulky.
"Choji was last in line, and had to sign up for ballet classes with Lee because it was the only Physical activity left. Trust me; you do not want to see Lee in a tutu" Kiba said, trying to be serious, but failing miserably. Sasuke tried to imagine that. It made his mind burn.
"Come on" Kiba said, and led the group down the hall to a door labeled D1. He opened it and the rather large group filed in.
"We should find our seats. They used to let us pick our own, but people kept sort of throwing paper bombs and Sai at their neighbor in the middle of the class so they stopped letting us choose" It took him a while to find his seat, but when he did he noticed that Kiba and Naruto were on opposite ends of the room.
"Hm… I wonder why" He thought sarcastically, remembering his elementary days, when Naruto and he used to sit together and talk the whole time, resulting in them being split up and put at opposite sides of the room. Just then he saw the door swing open. The girl Hidan called Sakura Haruno and her friends entered the room. Judging by the way the dark haired girl looked at Naruto and went totally red, he guessed she was Hinata. The blond had a slim hourglass figure and he thought that must be Ino which left the last, brown haired girl to be Tenten. He looked at them for a few seconds, and to his surprise, when Sakura found her seat, it was right next to his. She put her book bag at her feet and gracefully slid into her seat. He felt his face grow hot. He suddenly realized why Itachi was so eager to make this girl his. She had a soft face, pale skin and he was reminded of a cherry blossom tree. She was pretty, even if she had a slightly large brow. Her face relaxed on her hand as she looked around the room. He stared at her for the next few minutes until the door opening again caught his attention. A man with silver gray hair walked into the room and the class quieted immediately. He walked up to the front of the class and Sasuke could see his face was covered half by a mask. His right eye was closed and had a long, ugly looking gash through it. He looked around the class for a few moments and then started to speak.
"Well then, for those of you who are new to this school, I am Kakashi Hatake and I will be your teacher for this year. Be warned right now, that I am the strictest teacher here, and I will not tolerate people bringing their weapons into the class rooms. That includes sai, Katana, shuriken, and any other large swords, and no Kevin, that includes those new fangled things called guns" a boy with bright blue hair at the back of the class put his hand down, disappointed. "I would love to have hands on experiences here, but unfortunately it seems that the other teachers disapprove of this, and I have been overruled yet again at the annual teaching improvement meeting" the class gave a disappointed sigh. "Now, we are going to have signups for different classes. You will all take the basic math, geography, history, science and samurai hunting classes, but you may sign up for extras. Please note you must sign up for at least two. If you feel like taking more you may, but make sure you can handle the work load. Now we are all going to get up from our seats in a nice orderly fashion, because if anybody gets internal bleeding again the person who did it gets a week's worth of detention. Go" But neat and orderly was not the way Sasuke saw the situation. People were shoving and kicking each other to get to the front of the line. He noticed Sakura reach the second to first place in the line and calmly kick the person in front out of the way. As Naruto was rushing down the aisle he grabbed Sasuke and pulled him into the fray.
"What the hell are you doing?" he yelled at Naruto.
"Dude, if you don't fight to get to the front of the line you'll end up like Choji and Lee! Trust me, this happens every year. It's the norm!" Naruto yelled back. Resigning to his fate, Sasuke managed to beat people out until he was 5th in line out of 30 people. He had to admit, it was a lot cooler than his other ninja school. At least they could actually kick and punch people without having to wear sparring gear. After a few minutes, Kakashi surveyed the line.
"Good," then he looked at the front of the line "Miss Haruno, first again I see" she smiled.
"Well, what will you be signing up for this year? Everything again?" he asked, as if he knew what she signed up for last year.
"You read me like a book" she smirked. "Everything except agricultural studies, it almost put me to sleep"
"Good choice. I've never been much of an agriculture person myself" Kakashi seemed to be on good terms with most of the students, making small talk with them as they requested their classes. When Sasuke got to the front of the line, Kakashi surveyed him with interest.
"Sasuke Uchiha? You're Itachi's brother? I've had him in my class before. Didn't listen much, I hope you'll be different" Kakashi said. Sasuke nodded silently. He ended up signing up for the all the classes, except agricultural studies. After everybody had signed up Kakashi dismissed the class.
"C'mon, let's go. We don't want to miss the big kick start of the school year" said Kiba.
"The big kick start…?" Sasuke questioned.
"It happens every year. It's basically a battle for the right to rule the 10th grade. It's usually Karin aka the bitch in training, Suigetsu and Jugo against the Konoha 11, now 12…" Kiba nodded respectfully at Sasuke. "And they always lose. Since no one has had time to get their weapons this year no one will be dying… shame… I would really love to kill Karin someday… maybe when I get out of school" Kiba added hopefully. The group of boys started down the hall. Sasuke thought it would take a while to find them, but to his surprise, it was more than easy to recognize where the girls would battle it out. They found their path blocked by a massive crowd that was forming a ring around 7 people. On one side were Sakura, Hinata, Ino and Tenten, and on the other was a girl with bright red hair and glasses, a boy with light blue hair and more than average pointy teeth and a bulky looking boy with orange hair. Sakura was smirking at the girl in the middle, who seemed to be saying something.
"Good, I think we made it in time" Naruto whispered. Sasuke opened his mouth to speak but Neji put a finger to his lips, telling him to be quiet.
"So Karin, still continuing your bitch training? I see you've improved" Sakura said, still smiling.
"Shut up forehead! I'm tired of you winning year after year after year! You're going to get it this time!" the girl in the middle screamed.
"So, you once again think resorting to violence right away is the way to go. Haven't you learned that you can't beat me?" Sakura taunted. Karin growled.
"Suigetsu, Jugo! Let's show them they can't taunt us without getting away with it!" Karin yelled. The two boys stepped forward. Sakura ginned and dropped her book bag she was carrying. She looked from Ino to Tenten to Hinata. Sasuke felt Kiba and Naruto stir beside him with anticipation. Karin charged at Sakura, which was a big mistake. Sakura merely stepped to the side tripped her. Karin collided with the floor. The crowd laughed and Sasuke didn't think Karin would last one more minute. She was losing really badly. The whole side of her face was scraped up from falling, and several well placed punches on Ino's part left her nose bleeding and eye blackened. Sakura kick her in the stomach and Karin doubled over in pain. Sakura just smirked.
"Had enough bitch?" she asked. Karin gasped and gazed angrily up at her. Sasuke saw it coming before she did. Karin grabbed Sakura's ankles and flipped her up, sending her crashing to the ground. For a moment Sakura lay there still.
"That should teach you to mess with me like that, forehead girl!" Karin hissed angrily. She limped over toward Sakura, and rolled her over to see if she was really knocked out. "Should have seen that coming bitch" thought Sasuke as Karin found out Sakura wasn't really knocked out. Karin got a face full of fist and Sakura jumped up laughing,
"Fell for it like an amateur!" everyone stood there shocked. Sakura looked around.
"Oh, like I would be taken out that easily!" Sakura said, crossing her arms and looking at the crowd.
"We knew you weren't taken out!" Ino said proudly looking at Sakura. What she didn't see was suigetsu behind her, about to hit her.
"Ino!" Kiba dashed forward and grabbed Suigetsu's arms and arm locked him. Naruto smirked.
"This is it!" he grabbed Sasuke and pulled him forward with the rest of the group. Sakura raised her eyebrows and said,
"Boys, so glad you could join us"
"You don't really think we'd let you hog all the fun now would we?" Kiba said, ignoring the angry Suigetsu trying to get out of the arm lock.
"Ah well, we should probably finish this" said Sakura. She kicked Karin back again. Suddenly she stopped and listened. She threw a glance at Kiba and he let go of Suigetsu. Karin took this chance to attack Sakura, hitting her in the face with all her strength.
"Ha, couldn't dodge that now, you little slut!" Karin boasted. She looked around, hoping to see people cheering, but everyone was dead silent. Sakura was smiling evilly.
"W-what are you guys staring at?" Karin stammered. She turned around. Standing there was the vice principal, Lady Tsunade.
"Shit… Tsunade I can explain…" she said, but to no avail. Tsunade turned to Sakura.
"What happened Sakura?" said Tsunade, her eyes narrowing. Sakura put on a face full of fear.
"Ino, Tenten, Hinata and I were walking down the road and Karin just hit me. The boys tried to help me but Suigetsu and Jugo stopped them" she said.
"What?" Sasuke thought. "That didn't happen at all. Why are they lying?" He tried to walk toward Tsunade, to tell her they were lying, but Naruto stopped him.
"Dude, don't. It is the way things work in this school. Tsunade knows Sakura is lying, but Karin showed weakness by not restraining herself when a teacher is around. That's going to get you killed in real life. She'll be punished for not doing it silent enough" Naruto whispered.
"You three, Karin , Suigetsu, Jugo, come with me. Detention for attacking another student!" Tsunade ordered. The trio shot one more look of pure hatred at Sakura and sulkily followed the teacher. The crowd gradually dispersed. Sakura smiled.
"Guys! It's so good to see you again! How was summer?" she asked.
"Ah, it was ok. How about you?" Naruto asked, reddening slightly.
"Psh… it was boring. I went to the coast with the girls though. Lots of guys. Ino was in love" Sakura snorted. Kiba looked jealous. "Who's this?" she asked, looking at Sasuke.
"Oh! This is my friend Sasuke Uchiha!" Naruto said happily.
"Uchiha? Itachi's brother?" she asked, her eyes narrowing. He could tell she was thinking of Sasori.
"Yeah" he said.
"Oh, your brother showed me a picture of you. He must care for you a lot" she said. Sasuke snorted.
"Yeah, right. Itachi loves me about as much as he loves school… which he hates" Sakura giggled.
"Well, we have places to go and certain bitches to beat up, see ya!' she called, and turned away with her friends to head down the hall. Once she was gone, Naruto turned to Sasuke.
"I think she likes you… lucky son of a bitch" he muttered.
"Why? She just talked to me" Sasuke said, confused.
"Sakura. Never. Giggles" Naruto said firmly. Kiba still looked sulky and walked away muttering something about "Coast" and "Ino" and "boys" Shikamaru said he was tired and Chouji headed off to the cafeteria. Everybody slowly dispersed, leaving Naruto and Sasuke standing in the hall.
"Well, how about a tour?" asked Naruto. Sasuke nodded and followed Naruto down the hall.
"Here is where all the classes are held. Out the school and to the left is the activities field, where there is weekly battles, and down this set of stairs is something we call the core" Naruto said.
"The Core? I think I've heard my brother mention it once or twice…" Sasuke trailed off.
"Yeah, he probably would have. The Core is like a mini shopping mall under the school grounds. Students can have shops and businesses here, to make a little money and all that. Your brother actually runs a shop down here. A weapons one. It's pretty popular except it's not open most of the time; I think he's just too lazy to get around to actually running it. Maybe you can change that. Over there Sakura and Ino joint run a flower and café shop. It's usually fairly crowded in there, except they haven't opened up yet. And speaking of your brother…" Naruto said. He pointed at a largish group sanding by the drugstore.
"Great… he told me he didn't want to see me for at least a week" Sasuke muttered. He watched the group for a while. Deidara said something and Itachi shoved him backwards into Konan. Konan hit him on the head and Pein scolded her.
"Yeah, let's just get out of here before they notice us" Sasuke said. He grabbed Naruto's hand and led him out of the main hall.