Chapter Three

Sakura's POV

It seemed like the day before the first rehearsal seemed to go on for a week. I was nearly falling out of my seat by the seventh period. Finally the bell rang and I nearly jumped from my seat to the door. I ran to my locker and got all my stuff together. I stuffed all my homework and binders and books in my pink messenger bag and ran down to the auditorium. I was nearly there when the nasty vice-principal Mrs. O'Neill (A/N: Sorry for not using a Naruto character! Couldn't think of anyone. But she is based on my vice principle. But if you can please tell me!)

"No running Ms. Haruno! You nearly plowed me down!" The six-foot two women yelled.

"Sorry I'll be more careful next time." I tried to get past Mrs. O'Neill but she was determined to lecture me.

"No not sorry and run off," she glared "You need to be aware that it's dangerous to run around a school hallway."

"Mrs. O'Neill I'm gonna be late to the first rehearsal."

"Yeah I guess you are," she put her hands on her hips "You see, if you hadn't been running you'd be there by now."

I was so not in the mood for a lecture. It was bad enough half, maybe even more of the cast and crew hated me, but now Mr. Kakashi would hate me two. I just knew it. He would hate me and my acting career would be cut short. And it was all Mrs. O'Neill's fault.

"Please, Mrs. O'Neil, I'm gonna be in so much trouble!" I was close to begging on my knees.

"You all ready are for talking to a teacher like that! Detention. Tomorrow after school. 2:30"

"But we're doing act two tomorrow! Can't I have detention Wendsday?"

"Fine. Tomorrow and Wednesday after school." Mrs. O'Neill said coldly.

I knew I couldn't argue any more with her. I was late enough as it was already. Finally Mrs. O'Neill let me go. I walked until I turned a corner than I ran as fast as my legs would let me go. I reached the auditorium and swung the auditorium door open. As I open the door Mr. Kakashi stopped in mid-sentence. All the head in the seats turned to look at me nearly killing me with their icy glares.

"Ah, Sakura, we were afraid you weren't going to join us." Mr. Kakashi smiled.

"I'm sorry I'm late," I blushed as I found the seat next to Ino. "I can't come to rehearsal tomorrow." I said sliding into my seat.

"Oh why not?" Mr. Kakashi frowned. Suddenly I picked up on his fake disappointment. That was my punishment; telling everyone in the play about my personal life.

"Um, detention with Mrs. O'Neill." There was some sniggering through out the room.

"Oh too bad." Mr. Kakashi said in that same mocking tone. "Oh well, seems like you will do some reading Setsuna." A mousey looking freshman in the front row smiled widely. He nodded. "So now that that's settled lets get started shall we."

Naruto's POV

Finally, rehearsal was done. For some reason that night my teachers decided to give me a shitload of homework that night. I was walking out to the front of the school with Shikamaru and Temari, who at the moment were talking about some girl Temari had met.

"Yeah, we're hocking up this Friday," Temari smiled dreamily.

"What does she look like?" I asked.

"Uh, gorgeous."

"How gorgeous?"

"Almost as gorgeous as Shika," Temari gave Shikamaru a big hug. Shikamaru just rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like troublesome woman.

Poor Shikamaru had the worst luck with girls. His first girlfriend in eighth grade only dated him because she wanted her popular boyfriend to be mad that she was dating, as she put it when she dumped him, "a total loser." Then there was Temari. He thought he'd got it right. And they were a pretty good couple; Shikamaru was lazy while Temari was a "little firecracker" as Mr. Kakashi would say. But half way through sophomore year Temari broke up with him and came out. Poor guy was crushed. Temari promised him that he could watch her make out with girls all he wanted. He said he would pass.

We walked out to the front of the school. Temari's dad was waiting for her so she had to go. Shikamaru soon followed. Hinata and Tenten wee walking to the Hyuga place. Kiba's older sister gave him a ride. But where the hell was Jiraiya?

Jiraiya was my god father and I lived with him and his wife Tsunade since my parents were dead. They were… not your typical parental figures. Tsunade always had a beer near her, it didn't matter if she was drinking it or even if it was open, but it was always there. Jiraiya, though a married man was the biggest pervert known to man kind. And let's just leave it at that.

"Where is that old man?" I muttered to myself.

I looked around to see if anyone was there. Right across from me, sitting on the bench was Sakura. I frowned. I waited a few minutes to see if Jiraiya would come. When he didn't it looked like I had no choice. I just can't stand being quite for too long.

I walked over to her. "Hey," I said pulling at the draw strings of my white and orange striped sweatshirt.

"Hi," She said giving me this why-the-fuck-are-you-talking-to-me look.

"So, you're not gonna be at rehearsal tomorrow, huh?"

"Yeah, but is that really any of your business?" she asked irritated.

I thought on my feet and said: "Well, I was just thinking, while we wait we could go through some of your lines. You know so we would have something to do while we wait."

She pressed her lips together like she was thinking. "Sure, I guess that'd be OK."

"Cool."

I sat next to her on the bench. I pulled out my script and she pulled out hers. We went through her lines until her dad came to pick her up.

"Well, I'll see you later," she waved and even smiled at me as she walked to her car.

"Yeah, You too," I waved and smiled back from my spot on the bench "Bye."

"Bye."

I was all alone waiting now. I leaned my head so I was looking at the sky. It was that weird time, where the sun's going down, sow the sky's kinda blueish-purple and the clouds are pink, and there airs getting colder cause it's late September, and everything's pretty, and why was I so happy? Maybe it's her? I thought. I shook my head. No. Not at all. She hates me… well not hates, I mean she just read her lines with me and smiled at me and…no. No you don't like her. She's totally not your type. Besides you'd never hear the end of it from Tenten. I kept on arguing with myself until old perv finally picked me up.

A/N: I'm worried there might be some typo's in this chapter because I wrote half of it at 1 AM Thursday night. Sorry. So I read a review that said that the set up for the couple NaruSaku was kinda weird, so first that last bit of this chapter was kinda lighting the match for the fire…that was a weird metaphor… But also that was kinda how it was in the series. The development (at least on Sakura's side) was kinda slow, so I was trying to use that as an example. Also I'd like to thank all the people who keep filling my inbox with e-mails that say people have responded, or have added the story to their favorites or are updated by each new chapter or whatever. So, yeah, please Review…kindly.