-Chapter One-

-Your Strict Father-

Sarutobi Ino sat in her first period English class, impatiently awaiting the arrival of her perpetually late teacher. If she wasn't so worried about what other people thought of her, she would have spent the first half of each English class doing something more entertaining or productive.

As she sat in her desk, Sai walked into her field of vision. Sai was the most popular boy in school, and every girl, Ino included, wanted to be with him. He had silky black hair, smoldering dark eyes, and the body of a god. All he had to do was walk past a girl and her knees would collapse and she would lose the ability to think. There was just one thing stopping Ino from fully pursing her crush.

Her father's stupid dating rule.

Her father had instituted his stupid dating rule at the start of freshman year. Ino had come home and talked non-stop for nearly three hours about a cute boy in her pre-calculus class and her father had flipped out. He had always been over-bearing and over-protective, but this was much too far for Ino's liking.

He had screamed and yelled and told Ino she was far too young to be thinking about boys in that way. She had countered with the fact that everyone she knew was dating and that was when her father had set his rule.

Ino could date, when Sakura did. And her sister was a shrew who would never date.

Akimichi Chouji walked through the front doors of the school, with every intention of making this last year special and different from all the previous years. He would no longer feel content with living in the shadows. He would find something that would make this year spectacular.

Just then, a brown-haired boy walked out of the office and spilled his books and papers all over the floor. It was almost as if the universe was giving him a sign. He gathered his courage and walked towards the boy.

Chouji had never had many friends. Being on the pudgy side, many kids chose to bully him over befriend him. As a result, he had grown into a shy teenager who normally kept to himself. He didn't talk to people unless it was necessary.

But as he bent down to aid the brown-haired male, he kept his resolve to change in mind. This year would be different.

"What's your first class? That map is ancient; I can show you where your class is a lot better than it can!"

"It's English, and your directions would be great."

Sarutobi Sakura walked into her first period English class and inwardly groaned. It was just her luck that her first period class on the first day of school was taught by none other than the perpetually late Hatake Kakashi. She had been purposefully late for nothing. She turned to her friend Tenten, who had a smug look on her face.

Tenten had told her every single year since they had started coming in late that it was pointless. This year, she just happened to be right. Sakura could just hear the 'I told you so' that Tenten was containing for fear of being beheaded by Sakura's wit. Sakura rolled her eyes at her friends' expression and walked into class taking one of the four empty seats at the back.

A quick scan of the room showed that Sakura's twin sister Ino was sitting at the front of the room, talking animatedly to one her legions of conformist lackeys. Sakura had a hard time considering any of the people Ino associated with as her friends. The only common interest they shared was an insatiable need to be liked by the masses. It was definitely not enough to build a friendship on in Sakura's (anything but) humble opinion.

She turned her attention back to Tenten who had begun making small wads of paper. Sakura loved her friend dearly but found her penchant for spitballs disgusting. She averted her attention from the gross habit of her friend, back to the door.

Thirty-five minutes after the class bell had rung, Kakashi graced the class with an appearance. He walked in like he hadn't kept them waiting for nearly half the period and took his place at the front of the class.

"Welcome to your last year of high school. Now I know people have told you this for years, but this is a truly important year. If you don't pay attention or put in the work, you will most likely fail. This class may seem like a waste of time, but not coming or coming in late-"

The typical welcome to school rant was cut short by the untimely arrival of two black clad teenage boys. They stood in the door for a moment, eyeing the two seats at the back.

"Uchiha, Hyuuga, thank you for joining us today. Now, are you in or out, because I could care less?" Kaskashi fixed then with a hard stare that said they didn't really have a choice and he did actually care. The two boys turned to each other, ignoring the stare. There was a moment of silence in which the two seemed to communicate telepathically before they shrugged and walked into class. The boy with short raven hair took the seat beside Sakura and looked over at her.

"So, what'd I miss?" he asked her. Sakura gave him a reproachful look before turning back and pretending to pay attention to what Kakashi was talking about. She found it very hard to take the silver-haired man seriously. He seemed to pay about as much worth towards school and attending classes as she did. Yet here he was, lecturing the class about how important doing the work and putting in the effort was. If there was one thing Sakura couldn't stand (okay, there were a few things), it was a hypocrite.

Kakashi had just begun handing out that semester's syllabus when the bell rang and the four punk students sitting at the back of the room stood up in a hurry and left, even before the handouts reached them. It wasn't as if they would be attending enough classes to care about what each day would be like.

Uchiha Sasuke walked out of the principal's office and headed towards a row of lockers decorated with rock and indie band stickers and graffiti. At one point, the school had tried to clean up the lockers, but they were quickly returned to their vandalized state. Sasuke headed towards a particular locker peppered with several different band stickers. Standing to the side was a boy with long dark brown hair and clad entirely in black.

"Welcome back to hell, Uchiha," the brown-haired male monotoned once Sasuke was in earshot.

"Glad to be back, Hyuuga. Last year here and I plan to go out with a bang," Sasuke responded. He opened the sticker-covered locker and grabbed a few books. He thrust them into his bag and turned to his friend. "Smoke?" he asked. His friend nodded and they headed out towards the backfield.

They spent a half an hour outside smoking and catching up on the past few months before deciding to make an appearance at class. They walked through the deserted hallways in silence; neither felt the need for small talk.

"This class may seem like a waste of time," the voice of their English teacher floated out into the empty halls, "but not coming or coming in late-" The speech stopped as the two dark clad teenagers entered the classroom.

"Uchiha, Hyuuga, thank you for joining us today. Now, are you in or out, because I could care less?" the silver-haired man inquired. After silently agreeing to attend this class, the two walked towards the empty desks at the back. Sasuke turned to the person sitting next to him, a girl with surprising pink hair. A smile crossed his face; there was something about this girl that intrigued him.

"So, what'd I miss?" he asked to cover up his staring. She gave him a look that told him to leave her alone in a very rude way and turned back to the lecture.

Sasuke turned to look at the front, the smile returned to his face. Something in him told him this girl would be the one helping him go out with a bang.

Sarutobi Ino sighed as Kakashi handed her two extra syllabuses to give to her sister and her sister's friend. When Sakura and Tenten had hurriedly left, Ino wound up collecting the paperwork for them. She didn't get why she was forced to be a letter carrier for someone who didn't even want the package in the first place!

Ino really hated her sister sometimes. Her attitude just ruined everything good. When they were twelve, and their mother was still alive, she had taken them bowling for an afternoon. It had started out as a great bonding exercise for the female Sarutobis, but Sakura's attitude had soon reared its ugly head and ruined the day. She had begun criticizing every move Ino made and eventually, the blonde couldn't stand it anymore.

Sakura had always been hypercritical even though the rosette was nowhere near perfect herself. Ino had no idea what had given Sakura the authority to be the ruling body on what was right. But, whatever divine right had bestowed this power on her sister, no one could say she never used it. Sakura could barely get through the day without making some snarky comment about her peers and the like.

"Earth to Ino," Ami called as she waved her hand in front of the blonde's face. Ino was pulled from her musings about her sister to find she had exited Kakashi's class and made her way out to the courtyard. The courtyard was the exclusive area, where the whose who of the school met during their free period.

Ino zoned into the conversation long enough to hear that Ami and her equals (the stupider of the 'pretty people') were talking about their split ends and the various hair care products they needed to fix them. Ino may have been popular, but she went deeper than skin tone and complexion. She cared about politics, world issues, and current events. She began people watching to avoid loosing IQ points. However, her gaze didn't go further than the group of boys directly across from her.

Standing, talking to his friends, and looking effortlessly sexy was none other than Sai, the most popular boy in school. Ino's breath caught in her throat. Earlier that day, while she had been impatiently waiting for Kakashi to appear, her friends had relayed the latest rumour mill information. The most intriguing and important piece of information was about the latest object of Sai's affection. If the rumour mill was spewing out some truth, Sai had been paying special attention to her. All of her friends had pointed out the way his eyes followed her at the beach or that he only seemed to talk to her at parties.

A scarlet blush crossed her pale cheeks as Sai looked up from his group of friends and made eye contact with her. He gave her a flirty smile and excused himself from his friends. He sauntered over to Ino, standing less than two feet from her, a very personal distance. If Ino had been anything but her confident self, she was sure that his very presence would have turned her into a babbling pool of mush.

"Hey, Ino, that dress looks fantastic on you. Nobody else could pull it off like you," he flirted, his eyes raking over her body. Ino was very confident with her looks and didn't mind the appreciative appraisal. The two bantered and flirted back and forth for nearly the entire free period before the bell rang and they had to pull apart.

Ino spent the rest of the day in a daze. She had never had such a flirtatious meeting with Sai and she had enjoyed it immensely. She desperately wanted to spend more time with him, to extend their flirtatious encounters into something more if only she could get around her father's stupid rule.

-To be continued-