Disclaimer: These characters are not mine...except Hikari, sort of (I forgot to put this here last time, huh? Well, I'm too lazy to put this on the first page -someone please tell me if this just has to be on the first chapter or someone will die or something)
It was early in the morning, but despite that, Ino was restless. Drumming her fingers across the desk, she sighed and stroked away a strand of her platinum hair behind her ear. It was ten minutes into class, and her friend, Sakura, was missing. There was no coral-pink head in the room to be seen.
'Come on Sakura, you're never late,' she muttered softly to herself, worried about her smart friend. They had planned to meet ten minutes before class, but Ino hadn't even seen a glimpse of her petite friend. Frowning, she studied the heads of the girls in front of her. There were various hair colors, ranging from dark brown to light blonde, but Sakura's pink hair was a definite in-commodity, and even Ino's own platinum hair was a bit unique.
'This is the Konoha Hikari all-girls private school,' she thought. 'No, this is definitely not good, why do I have to come here? At least in public schools there are some boys…' she drifted off, contemplating the abundance of the fairer sex in her school and the total absence of the opposite gender. 'Well,' she continued on 'at least I have Sakura to keep me company…' she continued to prattle on in her head, completely oblivious to the teacher's lesson and successfully distracting herself from Sakura's absence.
Down the hall in a nearby restroom, Hikari, also known as 'Hi-ro-chan', was cleaning up, wiping her face and salvageable parts of her clothes with a wet paper-towel.
"I'm so sorry for spilling orange juice on you Hi-ro-chan!' Sakura almost pleaded as she leaned forward, watching her new friend clean up. She backed away, and with a polite smile said "I'm just a natural klutz, right?" The smile didn't reach her eyes.
Hikari glanced at her. "It's not of consequence," she plainly stated "It wasn't your fault. And my name's Hikari."
"Right, right," Sakura replied as she walked over to a mirror. Earlier that morning Sakura had given her new roommate a small campus tour, enjoying the girl's company as Hikari followed behind, graceful like a cat. They had made it to the school cafeteria with time to spare, and Sakura had ordered some orange juice, which had found its way onto her companion as Sakura was bumped from behind. It was an embarrassing moment, and as Sakura watched her newly-found roommate walk and move with clam and graceful mannerisms, she found herself feeling a little bit too clumsy.
She sighed. "I just suppose, I mean, I would like to forgive you for my actions," Sakura said, "I mean, last night, I was tired and usually wouldn't react so dramatically to a spider, and this morning I acted like a clumsy little girl–"
"Sakura." Hikari cut her off, "It's no problem, really, and you're rambling on." Sakura blushed, and stopped talking.
"Uh, okay," she replied, unsure but a little less embarrassed. She noticed that Hikari had stopped drying herself, but that her school uniform blouse was stained a lovely peachy-orange. A nice color if you're not about to be introduced to your new classmates at a new school.
Still Embarrassed, Sakura began talking. "We could go back to the room, and, uh, get you a new uniform, if that's alright," she said, half-smiling.
"Okay," was the quick reply as Hikari walked out of the bathroom and made her way to their dorm room. Sakura quickly followed, and together they made their way to the room, already severely late for their first class.
A while later, Ino noticed the door to the classroom open. It was over thirty minutes since class started, and Ino watched, amused as a short, slender, very pink girl entered the room, a light blush adorning her features. 'Ah.' Ino thought with a smirk 'Finally, she comes. Nice and grand entrance, Sakura.' But what she was not excepting was another girl, around the same height, to follow in after her.
Taking in her appearance, Ino was shocked. She was beautiful, with long hair darker than any other girl's in the room and a pale complexion. The others girls in the classroom noticed, too. Some vibes were not friendly. The girl seemed unaffected.
"Hello, sensei, sorry we're late, we had a...spill to clean up." Sakura explained nervously, her arms behind her back. The female instructor stopped her lesson and looked surprised.
"Sakura!" She exclaimed "You're not the type to be late! Where have you been? Cleaning?"
"Uh, sort of, sensei," Sakura meekly replied.
"Sort of?" The teacher sighed. "Well, this is the first time, but this musn't happen again! You are a mature young lady, and ladies can not be late!" She said with her hands on her hips, eyes scorning.
"Ah, sorry, sensei, it won't happen again, I promise." Sakura looked sheepish. "Also, sensei, this is my new roommate, a new student." The instructor waddled over to the two of them. Her glasses fell over the scrunches in her nose caused by the woman's scrutiny. Realizing who it was, the woman's face brightened.
"Ah, yes, I remember hearing about you. Come, come, introduced yourself!" She tugged Hikari to the middle of the room. A little shocked at her change in mood, Hikari took a few moments to recompose herself, but calmly said her name. "Hello, my name is Hokomari Hikari, it's my pleasure to meet you." She gave a polite smile and a small bow.
"Good, nice to meet you. Isn't it, girls?" asked the teacher. A chorus of polite yeses came. "Okay, you two sit down now. Hikari, you can sit by Keiko," a small, dirty-blonde raised her hand at her name being called "and you, Sakura, can sit down at your normal seat. Don't be late again." the woman lectured.
"Yes, sensei, thank you." They both took their seats. Ino watched Hikari as she sat down in the second row next to Keiko, hoping to catch her eye and send a friendly wave or something. The teacher continued her lesson, but Ino didn't notice, instead she saw where Hikari was focusing her attention: not at Ino or the teacher, but at Sakura.
"Hey, Hikari, you in any sports?" Sakura's question was returned with a dark, blank, stare.
"No." she replied. They were together in the cafeteria, eating lunch. Sakura avoided orange juice like the plague, but was also amused by her partner's choice in fruits. Hikari seemed to have a thing for tomatoes.
"Oh, well," Sakura said, "I play volleyball for the school team. We have practice tonight. Do you want to come? See if you like it?"
After a few moments of silence, Hikari gave her answer. "No, I'll pass."
"Oh" Came Sakura's reply. "Uh, too bad, it'd be fun." She looked a little downcast.
"I don't like sports." Was the answer.
"Ok," she replied, a little less perky than before. They continued to eat, mostly with Sakura filling in the spaces with small chatter and Hikari listening, replying with short answers here and there. She didn't seem to mind listening, however, and Sakura liked having someone that would listen.
After lunch was over they went their separate ways. Hikari knew that Sakura was sad about her not liking sports, but Hikari thought it'd be better if Sakura didn't know that she not only did enjoy sports but that she was also experienced in fighting. And that she had been sent to protect Sakura, and had two other teammates protecting her behind the scenes.
Later that night, when Hikari was sure Sakura was at her volleyball practice, she entered the bathroom, shut the door, and turned on the shower. Slowly undressing herself, Hikari was nearly undressed when she saw herself in the mirror. Shocked, she turned around, her back now facing the mirror side. Though it was her body for the time being, she really didn't want to look at herself in the mirror. It wasn't right, even though as it was her, because it was a feminine body that was not hers.
She hadn't been around many girls in her childhood, and no one had really talked to her about how girls acted, thought or just the subject in general. Girls, she thought, were one of the few things she did not know much about. They just confused her. She didn't not understand why she sometimes felt attracted to them, which was a feeling that was relatively new for her. But it didn't matter, she supposed; she had to finish this mission, and she wasn't going to let some strange feelings cloud her actions. Leaving on her skirt, she put her fingers together in a seal and said "Kai." A cloud of smoke surrounded her and then dissipated, leaving in her place a very different person; a young man.
Sakura was beat, tired, and sweaty from her volleyball practice. She had thrown on some sweats and a t-shirt, and was making her way back to her room.
"You going, Sakura?" Ino asked.
"Yeah" was the reply.
"Alright, see you later," Ino said. "Oh, and, ask Hikari if she wants to join the team!"
"Uh, I asked her, and she said she didn't like volleyball." Sakura replied.
"Ah, too bad, some help would be nice." Ino said, and then had a curious look.
"How about track or cross country?" she suddenly asked. Sakura thought for a moment. "Yeah, good idea! I'll ask her." Ino smiled. "Alright! See you!"
"Later!" She gave a slight wave, turned around, and left, on her way to her dorm.
Uchiha Sasuke, also known as Hikari in his girl form, let himself relax in the warm shower water. His body felt good to him, normal, familiar, and definitely better than the soft girl body. Not he particularly disliked a girl's body, he just didn't like it on him. It was entirely foreign, and he found himself glad to be back in his firm, muscular form. He had been tense all day, unused to being surrounded by so many girls for so long. At least they weren't swarming him; after all, they believed him to be a girl. But it would still take some getting used to. He also had to smile more than he was used to, but Hikari has no reason to be impolite. She's just a normal girl, after all.
He scrubbed his now-short hair with strawberry shampoo, which he found strange, but it was necessary for him to smell like a girl, too, if he was going to pull this off. Allowing himself a little while longer of relaxation, he let the soap bubbles run down his lean body until they were down the drain. He turned off the water, got out, and wrapped a towel around his waist. Getting another towel, he started drying the dark hair plastered to his face when he heard the outside room door opening. He froze.
"Hikari, is that you?" Sakura called. Swearing to himself and berating his carelessness, he stayed frozen on spot as she browsed inside the room.
"Hikari?" She called again. He was more than aware that her seeing him like this, in his nearly naked male form would destroy the mission. But he, as of now, was unsure of what to do. If he transformed back into a girl, surely she'd hear? But it seemed he had no choice, as she now came to the bathroom door, which he remembered suddenly he'd left unlocked.
Yay, second chapter done, though I don't really like this one. I don't think the characters are very true to the manga, but whatever. This was more like filler, but I felt like getting it done tonight. In the first chapter I think I made Sakura too skittish, so I tried to fix it but...oh well
Thanks for the reviews!