Ok, I'm back for the 3rd chapter of TOAL, which I think is great. And thank you kumori hunter, sraylight66, and I'd also like to thank the community My favorite stories 3 for adding me. Please read and review the chapter or story if you have any questions or suggestions. It is definitely appreciated.
"Naruto, what would you say if I said I thought you were really cute?" Haku asked me. He wasn't looking me in the eye which I found strange. It's been almost a month already; I thought he was at least somewhat comfortable around me. The question in itself is strange, but I'm kind of strange anyway.
We were standing outside of the school waiting for school to start. The brunette was standing in front of me awkwardly with his head down. People were buzzing all around us, busily chatting away with their friends. Kyuubi was just with us, but left after Haku whispered something in his ear. What he said, I have no idea, but the conversation ended with a blushing brunette and a winking idiot.
"Um, I'd say that you were really cute too." Well it is true. It's only polite to give out a compliment if someone gave you one, but Haku kept blushing like that and it was making me feel uncomfortable.
"Oh, t-that's nice. Um, Naruto I was wondering, would you-" Before Haku got to finish whatever he was going to ask, Kiba came barreling into me. I barely managed to keep my balance. How could I when you have 165 pounds running full speed in your direction?
After I pried the wild animal off me I hit him as hard as I could on the top of his head. The results were immediate as the feral brunette fell to the ground, cradling his head in the fetal position. I almost started to laugh, but then I remembered Haku, who was still in front of me.
"Sorry for the interruption Haku. Now what were you saying?" I tried to straighten my snug uniform of wrinkles, but to no avail. I was startled to find a hint of panic in his soulful brown eyes. He shook his head quickly and scampered off to wherever he goes when he wants to be alone. He tends to do that a lot, so I'm not too worried about him right now. Right now, I'm kinda pissed of the idiot on the ground that interrupted Haku. I crouched down on the ground, giving the sweetest smile I could.
This is an interrogation act that I learned from an old friend of Kakashi-sensei. His name was Ibiki, and he was hands down the creepiest guy I had ever met in my then at the time 10 years of life. Besides the man's facial scarring, everything else about him scared the crap out of me.
"Now Kiba dear, please tell me why you felt the need to tackle me this morning." His adam's apple bobbed up and down, and I could tell he was quivering in fear. Good to know I haven't lost my touch. Ibiki-san would be proud.
"Um well, I uh gotta go." He shot off like a rocket, trying to get away from I suppose. On any other day I would have chased him, but today I just felt drained. You know that period of time after you get to a new school. At first you're really excited to meet new people, and new teachers. It's really a blast. But then you start to get used to it and all the glamour you that was there starts to tarnish and the under layer shows. It really sucks when that happens, but its life.
I got off the ground seconds before the first bell rang everyone that was still in the courtyard, filed out to go to their respective classes. Today was the 2nd block schedule so the lineup was different from that of Monday, and Tuesday. After Kakashi-sensei's class I had history, and foreign languages.
As I made my way to my favorite teacher's classroom I ran into one of the many familiar faces I became familiar with. His name was Sai, and he was a bit creepy, but you couldn't go to school here and not be. Or so I've heard.
"Hi dickless." Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that he's extremely vulgar, and brutally honest whether you wanted to know or not. I waved at him and kept walking. I knew he was going to follow me (even if I didn't want him to). He was actually a nice guy, albeit emotionally stunted and socially awkward, but I'm going to work with him on it. I blame all his problems on his father. I didn't know him personally, but from the little I did get Sai to admit his father, Councilmen Danzo kept him locked in the house until he was 13. The only human interaction he had was with his tutors which I doubt actually talked to him.
"Hello Sai, how are you this morning?" My question lacked the general enthusiasm it usually did, but then again so did I.
"I'm fine." He said with that fake smile he usually has. I sighed out loud to voice my displeasure to him.
"Sai, please work with me here. If you don't feel like smiling then don't. You might think that smiling at everything helps, but masking your problems only makes them worst in the end. So don't. Ok? I got to go. See ya!" I walked in the class room leaving him out in the hallway. I ignored all the girls' stares as I made my way over to the 'emo corner' or so my brother called.
"Gaara, Sasuke, and Neji; As punctual as ever I see." They didn't even bother with acknowledging my teasing (as I was used to it).
"What did Sai want?" Sasuke said. See Sasuke was the most emotional of the trio. He always blew his lid when I riled him up enough, which I find hilarious. He was pretty hot if I do say so myself, but almost everyone I hung out with was. Hm, strange. His skin was extremely pale, but his black hair, and dark clothes, made a nice combination. He had the deepest brown eyes; they were so deep that they almost look black in the right lighting.
"Oh he just wanted to say hi, and bye." I sat in the seat in front of Sasuke, and in between Gaara and Neji. Absolutely no one sat in this seat, because the glares from the 'emo trio' would have made them crap themselves.
"Oh, that's surprisingly nice of him. You sure he wasn't being inappropriate?" Neji asked. Oh, I love Neji. He's always insanely worried about me. It's kind of cute, because he gets all red in the face and his white eyes turn silver with little twinkles in them.
"Neji calm down. He can't help it. That's just his way, so no worries." He then proceeded to try and peel the paint in the room with his glare. It was just so cute that I had to pinch his cheeks. I don't think he appreciated that, but I didn't care.
"Hn." Gaara snorted. Gaara, my red headed watchdog. Gaara was really different from Neji, and Sasuke. He only spoken when he found it necessary, which I found boring, but when he did speak he usually said something funny or threatening. But I knew firsthand that he was a brownie. I say brownie because under his nutty topping and crunchy glaze, there laid a soft and warm center. Not to mention that he likes chocolate, like a lot. Like so much so that he would willingly molest a fat guy if he had even a square of chocolate in his back pocket.
"So are we done with the 20 questions?" After they finished giving me disapproving looks we got to work on a new project that was assigned to our group. We technically didn't have to start now since the teacher wasn't here, but our groups were full of over achievers (me included). The project this week was to create an original short story that has a morbid twist in it. I thought it was kind of funny because all my partners are sort of morbid. They didn't really find it that funny when I told them, but what do they know?
xXx
"Do you think we could put Sasuke-kun in our story?" Sakura Haruno asked her group. The group consisted of Namikaze Kyuubi, and one Inuzuka Kiba. Normally the girl wouldn't have even dreamed of being in a group of what she considered Neanderthals, but she was a girl on a mission. She was trying to get in the good graces of the redhead, because his twin was close to her Sasuke-kun.
"No." They both said with an exasperated voice. That was the ninth time she had asked something Uchiha related. The two teens didn't even want to be in a group with her for this project, but they couldn't turn the girl away after she had asked them specifically. Not to mention she was a pretty smart girl when she wasn't Uchiha crazy.
"How about we ask your brother if he has any spare ideas he could loan us. Maybe we could bounce ideas of each other." Kiba suggested, like the redhead he was also getting tired of the pinkette. He looked at said pinkette when her eyes glittered like she had just won the prize.
"My dear Watson that may have been the best idea you have come up with all morning."
"Why do I have to be Watson? I want to be The Sherlock Holmes to your Watson." Kiba whined. Kyuubi just rolled his eyes before calling over to his blonde counterpart.
I looked over to where my idiot twin was calling my name, like the idiot he was. 'What?' I lipped. He didn't reply. He just waved at me to come here. I figured that it had something to do with the project so I decided that I would help him.
"Umm, I'll be back guys, carry on." I said.
Kyuubi and Kiba immediately leaned over to whisper in my ear and share the predicament.
"Dude, we are so screwed, while you and the brain troop are over there getting A's, your brother and I have been dying."
"Oh, Kibbles, I'm sure it's not as bad as you make it seem." I said, trying to lighten the mood. Anytime last week I would've ignored him in favor of the girl in front of me, but that crush was shortly lived. I found out how shallow she was, when I asked her out for some ramen one day. The girl bored me to death when she told me about how her heart only beat for Sasuke's good looks. Not to mention that her skirt was always shorter than school regulation. That tight piece of cloth just screamed open invitation to me.
"No it is. Every other sentence out of her mouth is about that duck butt emo guy you hang with. Come on you got to help us with some ideas or something." I sighed, knowing this was going to happen.
"Ok let's get down to it then." I said loud enough so that Sakura could hear me. The two teens round me scooted back, grinning triumphantly like they just convinced me to do something that I was already going to do.
"What do you guys have so far?" Kyuubi opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura beat him to the punch.
"Well we have Sasuke-kun set up for the main character." She said so dreamily that it made my stomach turn. I gave her the sternest glare I could, which is saying something relating to who my group consisted of.
"Excuse me, but I don't think the others in your group agreed with that seeing as how their looking right now. You all have to agree or your story is going to be shitty." She looked offended, good. I'm not taking debate for nothing. I could feel the smugness from the teenagers beside me as the girl gaped like a fish. It made me feel great. I linked my hands together on the desk to complete my intimidating posture.
"Who cares what you think?" She yelled.
"Apparently your partner's since they called me over here. So instead of wasting all our time, with your bratty tantrums we could be working on your project." My brother and the mutt had to hold their hands in front of their face to keep from laughing as I gave Sakura a good scolding like her parents should have a long time ago.
"Don't you have your own project to finish, instead of meddling in affairs that have nothing to do with you. Sasuke-kun was right when he said you were a dobe."
"Not that it's any of your business, but my group and I have already finished our story, were busy working on our second one. It's going pretty good though. And when Sasuke, said that it was in a joking manner, but you wouldn't know that would you? You haven't even been close enough to smell his shampoo, yet alone hear what he says. Or have you? You know, stalkers are a turn off Sakura-chan." The snickers gradually got louder, until it was full blown laughter.
"Now that, that's out of the way," I turned in my seat until I was partially faced away from the irate pinkette.
"First you need to build up a plot, with one main character, instead of trying to think up a whole crew by yourself. Now the theme of the project is that it has to be a morbid horror story, or it has to have a scary turn of events at the end. Now I think that all three of you could do that if you worked together. Its' not that hard really, just try to find some common ground. Kay?"
I got up without waiting for an answer. I really did think they could pull it off, despite the totally unharmonious feeling he got whenever he was over there.
"What required your attendance over there?" The Hyuuga asked. I sighed, shaking my head and sitting down. I really didn't feel liking relaying that troubling incident.
"So how was the she-monster? Horrible I hope." The smugness in Sasuke's voice was extremely irritating at the moment, and it wasn't helping my headache at all. That prick. I didn't even grace his comment with a response as I laid my head down on my desk and imitated a new friend of mine. I slept.
xXx
(A/N: Sasuke-centric view.)
Sasuke Uchiha. Star student, soccer captain, loving brother, and freaking annoyed. The reason for said annoyance? Sakura Haruno. The girl was like a freaking leech. No matter how brutally he rejected her she still came back the next day and attached herself to him and fed on his life force.
"Oh Sasuke-kun today was so horrible!" She harped in his ear. They were supposed to be doing homework, in their study hall, but this thing kept talking to him. "You know that Uzumaki loser?"
He perked up at this, glaring at the little pink head of air. She must have taken this as an agreement or something because she looked extremely pleased with herself.
"Well, today during that project thing in Kakashi-sensei's class you know the one. Well, the two idiots in my group decided that they didn't like my totally awesome idea, so they got that loser instead. And that weirdo had the balls to tell me that my idea sucked. I mean who does he think he is talking to me like that? Right Sasuke-kun?"
"Hn. You probably said something stupid enough to warrant him saying something to you." And with that he turned and moved to another table.
Short, short, I know, but I'm out of inspiration for this piece, but the next chapter is going to delve deeper into Gaara's life. The reason being is that he is still a potential winner to Naru's heart. I'm still on the fence about creating a poll for them though. But you can vote now by sending in reviews or such.
Candidates: Neji, Gaara, Sasuke, Itachi, Haku, Kimimaro, Sai, or someone you suggest.