Rating: T (for now. might have to change it to M)
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no rights to Naruto.
Hi :)
Kizashi Haruno had always had a great sense of humor. Whether it was because of his parents always yelling at each other or because his wife seemed to always have a chip on her shoulder and he felt the need to bring her down to earth, who knows why. But the moment the father saw his daughter faint over simply seeing two, in his opinion plain, kids entering the house, he absolutely lost it.
Not a day went by that he didn't make a joke or some sort of reference about the incident in front of her, and friends, and strangers. Anywhere and everywhere they went he'd make a comment, much to Sakura's chagrin.
Things had gotten even funnier for Kizashi once it was found out that his daughter indeed had gotten into Iruka's class, just as Sasuke had. At one point all Kizashi had to do was smile at Sakura and she'd immediately groan in anguish.
Now Kizashi wasn't doing this to be mean to his daughter. In fact, he was trying to teach her a lesson, albeit in his own awkward way.
Sakura had been overly confident with herself to the point where, while it was true that she had passed the test and made the cutoff, but just barely. Where she had done exceptionally well with the science, math, language parts, she almost failed the writing. Her 'story' was all over the place, as if she was just writing down exactly what she thought, how she thought it. Or so her teacher had written down on the paper.
During the entirety of her vacation, Sakura had stuck her nose in every book she could get her hands on, forgoing seeing her friends or actually having fun. She had royally embarrassed herself in front of the boys, just as she had embarrassed herself and her family. Instead of trying to keep up with her long flowing pink hair, she had asked her mom to just chop it all of, so she could 'have more time being a better student', as she put it. She still kept her red ribbon though.
Kizashi and Mebuki were extremely proud of their daughter, regardless of her test scores. She had made it into her dream class, and after finding out she was the very last one to make the cutoff, she started studying hard. Many children don't care about that, but surprisingly Sakura was different.
"I have to do good if I want to become a doctor," Sakura said at the dinner table, the night before the first day of school.
"Why do you want to be a doctor anyway? You do know it's not all glamorous and you'll see blood and things oozing out of bodies and long hours and-" Kizashi cut himself off, scooping pees into his mouth after seeing his wife's expression.
"What he means," Mebuki started, giving her husband a stern look, "is what made you want to be a doctor? You've talked about it from time to time but never explained why. What appeals to you?"
Sakura just stared at her parents. How could they not know? It should be so obvious!
"I want to help people," Sakura bluntly stated.
"Oh," Mebuki replied, just staring.
"May I be excused? I'm done."
"Sure, honey. Get a good night's rest," Mebuki smiled.
"Don't stay up all night thinking about boys!" Kizashi shouted after Sakura with a laugh.
Just a second later and Sakura heard a bang on the table and a scream from her dad. Sakura smiled to herself.
Silently opening up her door to her room, Sakura sauntered over to her bed, crashing down onto the red blanket. Throwing her hands behind her head, she stared up at the darkened ceiling, only illuminated by the moon's light coming in from her window.
Starting to doze off, Sakura remained on her bed, thinking away, waiting for sleep to overcome her senses and drift her away into an internal dream.
'Tomorrow is a new day. I wonder what it's going to be like. It's been awhile since I made a fool of myself in front of Sasuke. And Ino. Do they know where they placed? Who else is going to be in my class? Where am I going to sit? Will I get to choose? What if i'm stuck with all of those girls….That won't be good at all.
'I wonder if I'll get along with anyone. I'll have Sasuke, but I'm not sure if he'll want to even talk to me after I fainted. And he also said he didn't know me in front of that mean boy. What was that about? Is it because I was being bullied and he didn't want people to know we were friends? Are we friends? I'd like to think so.
'I know I'm friends with his brother. Itachi….I wonder how he's doing. Is he still sick? I haven't heard anything in a long time. I guess if he was doing any worse, Mama would've told me. But am I friends with him? I've talked to Sasuke more than him but….He was easier to talk to. I just felt so comfortable with him. So we've gotta be friends.
'Right? I am. I think. You know what! It doesn't matter. This is my year. I will make it on my own. I've studied hard. I spent all of my time trying to do better, better myself. No one is going to bring me down!
'….
'I hope.'
Not taking much time, Sakura finally succeeded in falling asleep with that last thought.
First day of class and Sakura Haruno is the first to arrive, trying to show her dedication to her new teacher.
"Ah Ms. Haruno, welcome," the young teacher of 22 said, motioning her to come in. Iruka Umino was his name, teaching the top students at Konoha West. He wore a pretty standard outfit, consisting of a midnight blue button down, tucked in dress shirt, with black slacks and a light tan belt. His brown hair was pulled back into a high spiked pony tail. The dark gash running from cheek to cheek across his face darkened his looks dramatically. Sakura had heard many rumors about his charm and good looks but as far as she could tell, he was pretty average.
Keeping a firm grip on her red notebook and pencil, Sakura scurried into the classroom, looking around in a hurried fashion. Normal white walls with motivational posters were covering the walls. Each desk held three students, and each had a different colored bandana.
"Mr. Iruka, where do you want me to sit?" she inquired, slowly turning to face him. Studying his facial features, Sakura felt curious as to how he had gotten his scar directly across the middle of his face, but chose not to ask. Yet.
"Let me see," Iruka replied, staring down at his chart. "You'll be sitting at 2B. Middle row, middle seat," he said with a slight smile.
Sakura briskly glided to her seat, eager to start class, eyeing the white bandana placed in front of her suspiciously.
Slowly but surely the classroom began to pile up. Sitting at the table behind her was a lazy kid who was constantly complaining about having to be there and thankfully Hinata. Sakura smiled at Hinata, who in turn quietly nodded her head. The boy just raised an eyebrow.
At the sound of the door opening, Sakura noticed Hinata's face turn a glorious shade of red and darted under her desk. Questioning her friend's odd behavior, Sakura turned her gaze onto the person who caused it.
Naruto. The blond wonder quickly rushed up the short amount of stairs and hurriedly plopped down onto the seat to the right of Sakura.
"Hey, Sakura! Remember me?" Naruto beamed with a lopsided smile. "I knew we were going to be classmates, but had no idea we'd be seat mates too!"
"Yeah, should be fun," Sakura smiled back.
Nothing the classroom was starting to fill up, she noticed the desk in front of her was still empty.
"I wonder who is gonna sit there," Naruto said Sakura's thoughts out loud.
Slightly grinning, sakura shrugged.
"Not sure. I'm actually curious about this seat," she said, motioning to the seat to her left.
At that moment Iruka cleared his throat. Gaining all of the children's attention, he began, "Everyone, this is Kai Adachi. He just transferred here from Konoha South. Give him a warm welcome and show kindness," he finished with a slightly warning tone.
The person in question was standing next to Iruka with a silly grin on his face. Rubbing the back of his strawberry red hair, causing his hair to become even more messy, he awkwardly laughed.
"Nice to meet everyone," he said, continuing to laugh, weirding some people out.
Like Sakura, everyone in the classroom immediately began studying him. He wore a brown shirt with a big bright red x across the middle and tan pants. Average. His flaming red hair seemed untamable. That, or he just didn't bother with learning what a brush was used for. He had slightly tanned skin, lighter then Naruto but darker than Sakura.
Making his way up the stairs, Kai stopped at the middle row. On closer inspection, Sakura noticed that he had bright green eyes, the same shade as her own.
Emerald staring at Emerald, Kai was the first to look away.
"So uh..I guess I'm sitting here," he quietly said, moving the chair away from the table.
"We got the new kid!" Naruto shouted with glee, earning a raised brow from Sakura.
"I'm Naruto! Don't forget it!" he said, shaking Kai's hand.
"Someone's happy to be here," Kai said to Sakura, smirking.
Slightly laughing, Sakura extended her own hand towards him.
"Sakura," she said with a small smile appearing on her lips.
Holding her hand for gingerly in his own, Sakura took the time to stare at his features close up. Small nose, same eyes, normal forehead, some freckles on his cheeks. Average. 'Nothing interesting about him,' Sakura thought.
"Kai," he finally said, realizing he was holding her hand for far too long.
Quickly letting go, Sakura turned her gaze back onto the bright blond who was nudging her repeatedly in the ribs, but not before she locked eyes with the boy who had bullied her a year prior. The boy slightly growled at her, still clearly mad at her for innocently bumping into him. He sat down next to the lazy boy.
"What?" Sakura growled, glaring at Naruto.
"This is Temari!" he shouted, pointing at the girl sitting in front of him.
"Yeah," the four ponytailed girl said, clearly not amused.
"I'm Sakura."
"Yeah," Temari took a deep sigh, staring at the front of the classroom with bored teal eyes.
"Guess she's not much of a talker," Kai shrugged.
"Guess so," Sakura replied.
"All right class, settle down," Iruka shouted.
Rapidly turning in her seat, eyes ablaze with determination, Sakura jumped up from her seat.
"But Mr. Iruka-"
"Call me Iruka sensei."
"Ok. Mr. Iruka sensei. The desk in front of me is still missing two people and I know Sasuke is supposed to be here. Maybe he's just running late….Or…" Sakura cut herself off when she noticed Iruka's stern face aimed directly at her.
"Just Iruka Sensei, and I don't really need to tell any of you what i'm planning, but I have two of your classmates out running some errands for me. Sasuke being one of them," he said, with a slight sigh at the end. Scratching his head, he moved over towards the middle of the classroom.
"By now i'm sure you all have introduced yourselves to the people at your table. And if you didn't, now is not the time to do so. Wait until i'm done," he said, clearly his throat.
"Now, if you'll notice, there are different colored bandana's on your table," he said, picking up the violet bandana from Temari's table.
"Each of you have one, and right now I'd like you all to tie it on a part of your body that is easily seen. Your head, neck, arm, wrist. In those areas."
"Ahh man…What a pain. I don't like where this is going," the boy behind Sakura said quietly.
"Can I put it like this?" Naruto asked, placing his white bandana across his face, in the same spot as Iruka's scar.
"N-Naruto!"
The classroom erupted in laughter at the blond's joke.
"I was being serious though," Naruto whispered to Sakura.
She smiled, as she removed the red ribbon from her hair and replaced it with the white bandana. She neatly folded the ribbon onto her desk, trying her best to take care of the old ribbon.
"Were you really? I think you should put it across your forehead, like this," Kai chimed in, tying the bandana in said place.
"Yeah, I guess," Naruto shrugged back, placing the bandana in the same location.
"This year is going to be a little different from the previous, so listen up. I requested a bigger classroom, thus adding 2 more tables, meaning 6 more students than normal. So for those of you who were in the bottom, be grateful," Iruka smiled, trying to ease the tension.
Sakura inwardly groaned at herself.
"Each table had the same colored bandanas. You will not be a team. Each non individual assignment will be done together. Every project and every activity as well. Since this is the first time most of you are in a class together, it's only left to be presumed that most of you don't know your teammates. That's why I devised a game for you all."
"We're gonna win! Believe it!" Naruto shouted, banging his hand on the table.
"Not this again. I thought we all told you to lay off the stupid saying?" the lazy kid said.
"YOU all agreed, Shikamaru. I never did," Naruto retorted, glaring back.
"I don't know Naruto. You have to remember that Sasuke is in this class, and he single handedly destroyed us at any game we ever played," the rather chubby kid stated from the table next to theirs, munching away at a bag of chips.
"Shoji, I didn't see you! Gimme some!" Naruto shouted gleefully, drooling partially.
"When did you bring in chips? Ehh Enough!" Iruka interrupted the chatting children.
"There is no real winning team. It's all about teamwork, and learning about one another. Getting to know each other's likes and dislikes. And…" he trailed off, leaving a pregnant pause in his wake. He passed out a piece of paper declaring the rules of the game.
'No hitting, no name calling, no cheating. Ok, pretty average things,' Sakura thought to herself, reading the paper eagerly. Darting her eyes to the bottom of the page, she slightly trembled.
"What does this mean?" Sakura shrieked.
"Problem, Sakura?" Iruka asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Yeah, I got in fair and square! I'm not getting kicked out because of my loser team!" Temari shouted.
"You haven't even met them yet."
"They better not slow me down. And if they do, they'll be the one cut, not me," Temari retorted, crossing her arms.
"Y-You can't be serious!" Naruto joined in.
"I am. I may have asked for the two spare desks, but I never had any intention of keeping them. And Temari, you're right. If your team fails, you might not be the one to be kicked out," stated Iruka, as he walked back to the center of the classroom.
"The three bottom teams will have a sort of voting process. They themselves will determine who should be here and who should go to one of the other classrooms."
"But why? How is that fair!" Sakura shouted, face turning red, feeling faint.
"It is. Year after year I teach students who only wanted to be here so they could meet the opposite sex. They're not here to learn. I'm done with that. Prove to me you want your spot in this class."
Biting her lower lip, Sakura looked down at her table. Even after barely making it into the class, she might be kicked out. She knew she messed up with how she treated her test last year, but she thought she was going to be able to put it behind her and focus on her ultimate goal. Her ultimate dream.
"Hey…Are you ok?" Kai whispered, voice full of concern.
"Oh. Yeah. I just…We need to win," she replied, determination covering her delicate features.
Studying her face for a moment, Kai grinned and nodded his head in agreement.
"Like Naruto said. We'll win, 'believe it'," Kai laughed, making Sakura laugh in return.
At that instant, the door slid open and the boy Sakura was dying to see again walked through.
"Sasuke…" she whispered, not noticing Kai's gaze still on her.
At his arrival, multiple girls in the classroom began to shout. Nobody noticed the girl entering behind him.
"Hi Sasuke!"
"Oh Sasuke, I can't believe we're finally in the same class!"
"Sasuke, switch spots with this kid! Sit next to me!"
"Get up pale guy. Move! Move! Move! Switch with him instead!"
"Settle down. What did I get myself into to," Iruka said aloud, one hand rubbing his temple.
"Take a seat."
Almost in a possessed motion, the hidden blonde behind the boy grabbed onto his arm.
"It was SO much fun setting everything up. To-get-her," she slowly accentuated each syllable, trying to gain everyone's attention.
"Come on Sasuke, let's go sit down at OUR desk," she beamed at the boy.
Sakura noticed that the two had already been wearing their violet bandanas, causing a swell of jealousy rise up. Sasuke was wearing his on his upper arm, and Ino had hers around her neck. Sakura silently snorted.
Sasuke, not caring one bit about the girls' protest, lead the two to the remaining open seats. Looking around the room, he tried to size up everyone in the room.
He was surprised to see Choji was there. Gradually moving his gaze to the uppermost row, he laughed at Shikamaru and Kiba. He truly didn't expect them to be there, but most of all, noticing bright blond at the desk before theirs, he never expected to see Naruto.
Continually roaming the room with his obsidian eyes, he stopped in his tracks the moment they laid on the emerald ones he had seen long ago.
The day that he and his brother had gone over to her house, she had fallen ill, or so he'd been told. He hadn't seen or heard from her sense that time just a few months ago.
Thinking he was being a gentleman, waiting for her to sit down first, Ino let go of Sasuke's arm and tried sitting down next to Temari, in the middle seat. A big hand gripping on her arm stunned her and prevented her from doing so.
"W-whats wrong?" Ino questioned, smoothing out her dark violet dress.
"I want to sit there," Sasuke replied, moving the chair next to him, motioning for her to sit there.
"Oh. Of course. You wanted to pull out my chair for me but I almost sat down. How silly," Ino laughed at herself, embarrassed.
Sakura silently gagged at herself. Naruto and Kai sniggered.
Sasuke, feeling forced, pushed Ino's chair in after she had sat down and proceeded to sit down in the middle seat, in front of Sakura. He turned his head and silently nodded at her, making Sakura's heart pound.
'I'm so happy…but why do I get the feeling of impending doom?' Sakura thought to herself, feeling every girl's dagger-filled eyes upon her.
Kai noticed the glares his teammate was receiving, and he glared back, putting his arm around her.
"What are you doing?!" Naruto said in a hushed tone.
Kai raised and eyebrow and moved his chin towards the glaring girl diagonal from Naruto. Naruto slowly moved to see the face and stuck his tongue out at the girl, placing his arm behind Sakura as well.
"Hum…" Sakura started, unsure of what to say. All of this attention was foreign to her. Unwarranted attention that is. She was used to getting yelled at by the girls, what with her constant arguments with their leader, Ino. But having someone, let alone two people, actively defending her felt different. It felt good. It felt comforting.
"Thank you."
"Not a problem. We're a team after all," Kai replied.
"-Tournament style. Look at the board and you'll see where to meet after lunch," Iruka finished saying, making Sakura realize that she had no heard a single word of what was said due to the 'Sasuke distraction'.
"You're dismissed for an hour."
Choji was the first one out the door.
"Do you know what he said?" Sakura turned around, asking Hinata.
"Uh-uhm…Y-yes. B-but…" the timid girl tried saying, avoiding Sakura's team's gaze.
"You can tell us during lunch! Let's go!" Naruto shouted, pulling Sakura up to her feet and down the steps; Simultaneously pulling their other teammate with them.
Lunch was normal enough. Except for the fact that Hinata's face was beat red. And she couldn't speak.
Growing frustrated with the situation, Sakura soon gave up on getting any information out of her.
"I'll see what's going on," Kai said, sensing the tension, "Naruto, come with."
"What's wrong?" Sakura half-asked, half-demanded.
"N-Nothing. I just-" Hinata started but was interrupted by a loud bang.
"Come on! Just tell me!" Naruto was screaming, sitting on Kiba's table.
"Shoulda been paying attention, idiot!" the boy screamed back.
Noticing her flinching, Sakura followed Hinata's eyes.
"Are you afraid of Naruto?" she asked.
Turning to look at her friend, her face turned a darker shade.
"I understand. I don't really know him, but he seems very unpredictable," Sakura said, still watching her teammate.
"All Iruka sensei said was we're gonna be playing the games in (munch munch) tournament form and (munch munch) to look on the board to see (munch munch)-" Choji started explaining.
"Look at the board, see what game you're playing and who its against. That's it," Shikamaru finished for his friend, with a bored expression on his face.
"Ahh. Thanks," Kai nodded, pulling Naruto off of the table.
Hearing a bunch of screams from girls, Sakura looked towards the commotion. Sasuke. It had to be Sasuke.
A group started swarming the poor guy; Girls from their class and girls from the others.
'I guess everyone has lunch at the same time,' Sakura sighed to herself, feeling bad for her friend. She wanted to run over there and push all of his fangirls out of the way, but before she was about to stand, her teammates had returned.
"Hmm?" Ino questioned, arms latched around Sasuke's arm. She noticed he started slowing down his pace, and was staring at something. Upon inspection, she realized he was staring at the forehead's table.
"Come on Sasuke!" she gripped him harder. "Let's go in the corner and get to know each other!" she flashed her pearly whites at him.
"Hn."
Sakura felt someone was staring at her but when she looked around, she noticed everyone was busy talking amongst themselves. The Temari girl was with two boys, one with redder hair than Kai's and one with dark brown hair. 'They look like they could be siblings,' she noted.
The boy that was labeled as pale was sitting at a table by himself, drawing. Sakura's number two bully, right after Ino, although Ino was more of a rival than anything else, bumped into him.
Not apologizing, she accused him of trying to grope her. The boy simply began drawing again, not letting her accusation faze him.
Following the girl with her eyes, she noticed she was walking away from everyone. Turning in her seat to get a better view, she saw her walking towards Sasuke and Ino, whom were sitting alone on the grass under a shady tree.
Looking sad for a split second, but not wanting Ino to see her, she quickly turned back in her seat. Returning to the conversation in front of her, Sakura listened in as Naruto and Kai decided to make a battle plan.
"So, from what that Shikamaru guy says, we're going up against him," Kai said pointing at the three quiet people at the table farthest from theirs.
Sakura recognized the one girl with the brown hair tied into buns. The other two, she didn't have the faintest idea as to who they were.
"That's Tenten and Shizune. The guy is Shino," Naruto answered everyone's unasked question.
"H-How do you know them?" Sakura asked, abashed.
"It's my job to know everyone in the school," Naruto replied, earning questioning stares.
"My dream is to become the leader of this whole town! A leader knows his people, and that's exactly what I have to start doing now."
"Good for you," Kai chimed in, smiling, smacking Naruto on the back.
"Now tell us what you know."
"Well….," Naruto began.
Sakura became unfocused again when she heard Ino squealing. Quickly turning to see what her problem was, she saw the absolute worse thing she could ever see.
Ino was squealing in 'fear' of what looked like a spider, as Sasuke had his arms wrapped around her, holding her off of the ground.
'Ohhh. That Ino! Making Sasuke hold her. Let along bridal style!' Sakura screamed in her mind, narrowing her eyes.
Catching sight of her intended victim, Ino moved herself closer to Sasuke and stuck her tongue out at the pinkette.
Sakura neglected to notice Sasuke straining from underneath her. Neglected to notice Sasuke yelling at the blonde, failing to keep her calm. Sakura neglected to notice that the entirety of the time Sasuke was sitting in the grass with Ino, he never once looked at her. Sasuke had kept his eyes fully on the pinkette, causing Ino to explode with anger.
Ino was jealous of Sakura stealing Sasuke's attention without even trying. Sakura had neglected to see any of that, enraging the blonde even more.
"That's it!" Sakura slammed her fist on her table.
Turning to see the people at the table staring back, worried, shocked, possibly scared, Sakura continued, "We've got to win! There's no way i'm letting her win! No way!"
"Yeah! Believe it!"
"We can do this. It's just a bunch of silly games after all."
Filled with determination, Sakura cracked her fingers, showing her partners she was serious.
'There's no way I'm going to lose to Ino. My team is going to come in first place and poor Ino will lose and be kicked out of the class. Chyeahh!'
Next chapter will be about the tournament. Can't wait to start writing!
Toodles for now.