Chapter 4
Naruto came home that evening to an empty house. Which was perfectly fine with her, since she wanted some alone time anyway. She walked upstairs to the bathroom, deciding to get in the shower. She took off her shirt and bra then looked in the mirror. The girl looking back at her wasn't really her, just some impostor that gave in and went with the status quo. Naruto then turned on the taps and splashed cold water on her face, watching the make-up run down her cheeks. She didn't know who she was anymore. What had possessed her to dress and act like a slut today? Naruto was very ashamed with herself. She always told herself she would never give in, but before she even realized it, she did. Even though she didn't get the 'revenge' Kiba was talking about earlier today, she brought herself down lower than them. She'd given up her self-integrity. Pissed off with herself, she ripped off her skirt and threw them in the trash, along with her top. She was destined to make one mistake after another. Naked, sobbing, and cold, she finally turned on the shower to a scalding temperature and stepped under the scorching spray. She bit her lip as the heat of the water abused her skin. She refused to move. She slowly felt the water wash away the lies and deception from the day. Unable to take the pain any longer, she quickly turned on the cold water. Soon enough the water cooled, soothing her tortured skin. Naruto closed her eyes letting her skin cool before trying to wash it. She soon deemed it okay to wash and poured her vanilla scented body wash onto her luffa. Just because she wanted to be a guy, she didn't have to smell like one.
"Naruto, honey, are you home?" She heard her mother yell.
"Yeah, I'm just in the shower." She yelled at the top of her lungs as she squirted vanilla scented shampoo into her hand. She lathered her hair then quickly washed the suds. After that she quickly conditioned, shaved, and turned the water off. Pulling a towel around herself, she made haste to her bedroom. She stood in front of the mirror examining her body. It looked the same as it always did, and that irked her. Sighing, Naruto went to her closet and put on a baggy shirt and some shorts. She quickly brushed through her hair and put it up in a messy bun before running downstairs. Naruto entered the kitchen to greet her parents and froze instantly. Sitting at her table was the Uchiha family. Naruto blushed when she looked down at what she was wearing. She didn't even have a bra on for Christ sakes!
"Nice of you to join us, Naruto." Mikoto smiled sweetly.
"Umm, I'll be right back; I'm going to go change." She said before running from the kitchen. She felt like punching Sasuke and his brother, Itachi, for the looks they'd given her. Jeez, men. She ran upstairs and threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, before releasing her hair from its messy bun and putting it into a high ponytail. Considering herself presentable, she remade her entrance.
"Hello, Mom, Dad I wasn't expecting company." Naruto glared at her parents. Her mother giggled but Minato sympathized with her.
"Sorry dear, I told your mother to warn you beforehand." Minato said while looking at his wife.
"Naruto, your father and I will be leaving for the weekend; will you be okay by yourself?" Kushina asked her daughter, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Naruto said turning to face Sasuke.
"That was a cute outfit you had on, Dobe." Sasuke teased, causing her to become flustered.
"Thank you Sasuke-Kun, It took me five hours to pick out." Naruto said sitting down in the only empty seat at the table. "So why are you even here?" Her mother cleared her throat in disapproval.
"Humouring my mother." Sasuke stated simply.
"Hello Itachi, haven't seen you in while… What have you been up to?" Naruto asked. Her mother seemed to approve as she escorted the adults into the living room.
"You look lovely Naru-Chan-" He observed, not bothering to hide his amused smirk. "-I've been busy with university, so I haven't been around much."
"Oh yeah, I have to start thinking about Uni." Naruto said dropping her forehead on the table. The Uchiha brothers chuckled at her cuteness.
"You still have one more year after this one to worry about it." Sasuke pointed out. Naruto nodded forehead on the table. "Also, I want you to be careful when you're with Neji tomorrow night." Naruto lifted her head up to look at Sasuke. The concern in his voice had shocked her.
"Neji is nice." She said blushing.
"Just be careful." Sasuke said before getting up to join the adults in the living room. Naruto stared after him in complete amazement.
0-O-o-o-O-0
Excitement coursed through Naruto's veins causing her to blush, when she saw Neji holding a red rose in front of her locker. She was dressed girly again today, just toned down a bit, so she looked more casual. She sported a simple black girlish v-knack t-shirt, with a purple design on it, and her usual grey skinny jeans. She made her way over to her locker and smiled. "Good morning." Neji smiled back.
"Good morning, here, I got this for you." Neji said handing her the rose.
"Thanks, you didn't umm have to." Naruto was quickly becoming very shy.
"Don't worry I wanted to." Neji said before kissing her cheek. "I'll see you later." Naruto blushed, turning to fumble with her lock.
"Hey girl! Wow, are you trying to imitate a tomato?" Kiba said as she fought with her lock.
"Here." Suigetsu pushed her out of the way and opened the lock for her.
"Thanks." She said, putting the rose in the top of her locker.
'OOooohhh! Naru-Chii got a rose." Kiba teased.
"From one flirtatious Hyuuga, who didn't even know you existed until yesterday." Suigetsu made a point.
"You have a point." Naruto said looked at the rose. "Sasuke was over last night and 'warned' me to be careful around Neji." She said, having second thoughts about her date tonight.
"Uchiha was over at your house? Why?" Kiba asked.
"Mothers have been best friend since high school. We've been over this before Kiba." She said grabbing her Calculus book.
"Right, but Uchiha didn't even know you existed until a week ago." Kiba pointed out.
"Yeah, but who was the one to carry her to the nurses office." Suigetsu added.
"That was a chance of luck, if he hadn't been in the hall way TenTen wouldn't have run into him." Kiba pouted, clearly not taking the fact that Sasuke saved her very well. Naruto was about to speak when the intercom went on.
"Would Ino, Sakura, Karin, Naruto, Haku, TenTen, and Sasuke please report to the office, thank you?" Naruto sighed handing Suigetsu her books.
"I don't know how long this will take, so take my books for me." Suigetsu nodded as she turned to make her way to the office.
0-O-o-o-O-0
The girls gave Naruto a dirty look as she walked over to where Sasuke was leaning against the wall. She didn't say anything as she sat in the chair beside him. Sasuke continued to stare at the other girls as they giggled and started babbling between themselves. Soon enough, TenTen showed up with Haku on her heels. Naruto smiled warmly at Haku, as she sat in the chair beside her.
"Sorry for getting you all dragged into this." Naruto said, now looking at the floor.
"No problem, I mean, who would do something like that?" TenTen said, eyeing the giggling girls in the corner.
"Your cuts seem to be healing fast." Haku said, smiling. Naruto turned to look at Sasuke. He just shrugged his shoulders, staring at the principles door as it opened.
"I have two rules; you are to be quite while another is talking, and if anyone says anything out of turn they will be suspended right then and there. Come, get off your asses and get in here." Naruto smiled at how classy her aunt was. Tsunade was Kingston's principle and was always in a bad mood. Each of the teens made haste into her office.
"Now, Naruto your parents informed me that these girls cut those marks into your face, is this correct?" Tsunade asked. Ino opened her mouth but quickly closed it when Tsunade snapped. "You're just lucky she didn't choose to press charges!"
"It is true; they were the ones who did this to me." Naruto informed her aunt.
"And you two." Tsunade pointed at Haku and TenTen. "Tell me your side of this, how are you involved?"
"TenTen is my cousin and was showing me around because it was my first day here." Haku started.
"And we heard crying coming from the bathroom and found Uzumaki-san half conscious, laying in a puddle of her own blood!" TenTen finished.
"I see. Uchiha, tell me how the hell you got involved in this." Tsunade said as Sakura raised her hand. "What is it Sakura?"
"This isn't fair; you're not even letting us tell our side of the story." She stated.
"I'm getting to you girls, I want to hear their side of it first." Tsunade said and nodded to Sasuke.
"TenTen was running down the hall and found me. She brought me to Naruto and I took her to the nurse." Sasuke explained in an apathetic tone.
"I see, now girls it's your turn, Karin?" Karin smirked.
"We never touched her. It's true we said some things to her at Sasuke's mother's party, but we haven't done anything else. Actually, we tried to stop her." Tsunade raised an eye brow.
"Yeah, we did. See, we went into the girl's bathroom like we do every day at lunch." Ino started.
"But when we walked in we saw Naruto with a knife, cutting herself! We didn't understand so we tried to take the knife away, but she cut me." Sakura held up her right wrist showing off the cut as evidence. Sasuke glared at the girls.
"I see, and Naruto, why would you be cutting yourself?" Tsunade asked, having to play along.
"I wasn't. I got mad at Sasuke and needed to cool off so I went to the washroom. They were the ones that grabbed my hair and forced me to the ground while Sakura said, and I quote, "You know, you always remind me of a fox." end quote. She then took out a knife and cut three marks into my cheeks." Tsunade nodded looking at the girls.
"I heard you asked Sasuke out, he turned you down, and you couldn't handle it." Ino giggled.
"You shouldn't have been so surprised. He's totally into me and everyone knows it, right Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said.
"I'm sorry, but I don't go for the stuck up jealous bitches that harm my friends and are annoying wastes of space" Sakura stared at him. Everyone could tell she wanted to get up and flee from the room, but couldn't.
"Uchiha, not another word out of you. Same goes for you Sakura."
"Okay, we have two well thought out stories, and three people who weren't there when it actually happened, so, I say we have a vote." The three girls protested.
"What? That's not fair!" Ino yelled.
"That cross dresser is clearly on that He/She's side!" Karin thundered causing Haku to flinch.
"Yeah, they are going to vote for that stupid tramp." Sakura shrieked.
"Thank you girls, for making my job that much easier." Tsunade announced. They all looked at her, in question. Then it hit them… They'd all spoken out of turn. "Ino, Karin, Sakura, you are at this very minute suspended from school for the next two weeks. You all will stay behind while we get a hold of your parents and tell them what you have done. As for the rest of you, you may go back to class." Naruto, Haku, TenTen, and Sasuke wasted no time leaving her office.
"So why aren't you pressing charges?" TenTen asked once they were safely in the hall.
"Not worth it." Naruto explained. "Plus I hope they'll grow up someday. They don't need a criminal record in high school."
"That's admirable of you." Haku said.
"I think it's stupid." The three girls turned to look at Sasuke.
"Oh and why the hell is that." Naruto snapped.
"Because they'll take this as, 'fine, we only got in a little trouble for this so let's try something ten times worse next time'." He did have a point.
"You have a point, but so do I. I'm hoping they'll learn from this." Sasuke chuckled.
"You always look for the good in people don't you?" Haku broke in.
"Well yeah, everybody has some good in them; they just get caught with the wrong group." Naruto explained.
"Hn, I'm going to class." Sasuke said turning and walking away.
"Haku, I think we should do the same." TenTen said while taking Haku's hand. "We'll see you later Uzumaki-san." TenTen said and started towing Haku off.
"Just call me Naruto!" She yelled after the other girls before walking off to the last five minutes of her first period class.
0-O-o-o-O-0
Naruto's team threw her in the air as she scored the winning goal. She could hear the crowd scream in victory. Yes, she did it! She finally proved that she was good enough to be on the guy's team. It wasn't her teammates that didn't want her on the team. It was the other team that was iffy about it. They were always more careful with her on the floor, but today she gave it all she had. She yelled in excitement as she was carried off the floor.
"Girl, you're amazing!" Kiba yelled.
"Fuck yeah, finally beat them!" Suigetsu said setting Naruto on her feet.
"Thank you Thank you-" Naruto bowed. "I'll be signing autographs later this evening." She giggled.
"Fuck yeah party time! Don't be too long in there." Kiba said pushing her into the girls change room. Naruto smiled. Her night was only going to get better.
