Hey there, It's Saturday again and time for a new chapter of ATKA. With me getting a new phone it means I can now write while on the move so hopefully I'll meet my target of 2 and a bit chapters by my exams. Fingers crossed. Although my new drawing tablet may inhibit processes(see i'm revising), I promise that writing will my first priority after i finish my piece of work to put of dA. Anyways on with the story

Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto (unfortunatly, otherwise Sakura would be with Lee and Naruto would be with Hinata, and so on... :3 )

Sakura and Ino headed back to their dorm to get changed from their uniform before heading into the village. Not only did she want to look around the village, she had to get some supplies for lessons, since she had to borrow a pen off Ino for school.

So she went to her room and checked her phone, she had no new texts but stared at the photo of her and Gaara which was her background. She smiled and got changed into a long pinky-red top and a pair of warm grey shorts and she was almost ready. She brushed her hair and put a blue ribbon around it to keep some of her hair out of her face as it had gotten quite windy after their P.E lesson.

Sakura went down into the kitchen and, as she waited for Ino to get ready, got herself a glass of juice. Tenten was in the living room on the phone to her parents. Once she finished the conversation with them she went and talked to Sakura for a bit but left saying something about having to go meet Neji for some training. She didn't know what Tenten meant about training but her inner feelings told her that there may be something going on between the two but she didn't have any evidence to back it up since she didn't know her all that well, so she disregarded it.

Finally Ino came down the stairs wearing a short purple vest and a short purple skirt cut off down the sides, she wore bandages around her stomach and her legs, and wore a blue ribbon with the school's leaf symbol in the middle around her waist. Sakura wondered what was with this school and bandages

'What's with the leaf and bandages?' Sakura asked.

Ino's eyes shifted slightly and said 'Should we get going then?'

Sakura nodded, both to the question and to her lack of an answer, she understood that she didn't want to answer but she would get an answer eventually off somebody else.

They slowly walked into the village, light-heartedly chatting and laughing. As Sakura looked around, the village wasn't all that big, the building were traditional and were mostly drab colours. However the things what were sold in them weren't. Ino seemed to ignore the shop which contained all the cool things, like a shop for weapons(which confused her to why there was a shop dedicated to things like this, in a village like this). However, Ino did ask Sakura if she could stay where she was for 5 minutes as she rushed back and got something. When she had returned she had a big bag which had the same symbol as the weapon shop on it. Something was definitely up and she didn't like being left out of the loop.

Then a miracle happened.

Ino and Sakura had finished their shopping and was wandering around when they decided to go for a drink in a coffee shop in the middle of the village. As they ordered their drinks, sat down and waited for them to arrive, Lee walked in. Sakura noticed her was wearing the clothes he had when she first saw him yesterday and he looked normal again. Ino also noticed him and her face fell almost like a thousand meters. He spotted them already sitting down and walked over to them and took a seat.

'Please tell me it's just a joke.' Ino said worriedly

'What do you mean?' He said curiously, he had no idea what she was talking about

'You... your clothes...' She managed to stutter going red in the face, obviously embarrassed

'What about them?' He asked

Ino took a deep breath and said, 'It is starting this week right?'

Lee laughed and Sakura liked the way it sounded, 'Not this week no, is that what you were worrying about?'

The coffee's then arrived and Ino grabbed hers and gulped it down in one go and then her eyes watered as it burned her throat.

'You'll be okay if I leave you with this guy right?' She said gesturing to Lee.

'Yeah I'll be fine, see you later.' Sakura said smiling at the fact that Lee had rather comically hung his head and mumbled to himself 'I'm now called this guy and not my name.'

'Make sure she's back safe, got it?' She threatened.

Lee blinked in surprise, 'Of course I'm not going to let anything happen to her. Nothing happens in the village anyway.'

'Whatever.' she said and she stormed out, supposedly going to the school to change.

As she did Lee went and ordered a drink and Sakura sat and sipped her coffee, she had no idea how Ino gulped it down because the tiny sip burned her lips at the first touch.

Once Lee sat down, Sakura couldn't help herself and just blurted out, 'What the hell was all that about?'

'Oh, you mean Ino? She gets angry easily.' Lee said.

'No I don't mean Ino, well that's partly it, but anyway' She said rambling on as she sometimes did, 'What was the deal with the conversation? What's not starting this week?' Inspiration suddenly struck her, 'and Why does the village have so many strange shops selling weapons and scrolls of sorts?'

Lee sat there looking a little shocked he didn't know what to say but he decided that the truth may be a better option.

'Well, okay. But try and keep it a secret, I never told you anything and neither did Ino.' Lee said. Sakura nodded and he continued, 'Well you see, the school isn't just for teaching us, it's a way of separating us out from the normal people and us.'

Sakura asked 'What do you mean "normal people and us"?'

'Well, we aren't normal. Well, how can I put this, have you noticed that you may be different to other people? Have you done strange things without realising it and people shunned you for it?'

Sakura thought back through her past and remembered something what happened after her and Gaara became friends. She was playing tag in the school courtyard and Sakura was running away from her friends, however she ended up being cornered and she thought to try something stupid and she ran up the wall and ended up on the room. Everyone was creeped out but Gaara was the only person who kept talking to her, it was why she became so attached to him as a friend, because he was treat the same way.

'Yeah, I did something and people just didn't want anything to do with me anymore except one person.' She said without giving details, she felt like she could trust him but she didn't want to scare him by telling him, but he was persistent.

'Will you tell me?' He asked, 'I mean you don't have to if it's too personal but I'm just curious.'

He wasn't giving Sakura a choice so she decided to tell him the truth.

'Well, I walked up a tall wall and ended up on the roof.' Sakura said quietly.

'Really? That's quite tame when you hear some other people's stories.' Lee said

Sakura looked at him quite shocked, it didn't bother him. 'What's your supposed story and what does that have anything to do with it?'

'Me? I punched through a solid brick wall.' Sakura's eyes widened and he continued, 'I rarely get angry but this time I did because my friends were being insulted and a punched the wall to vent out my anger rather than hurt the guy but it wasn't what I wanted. The school rang my dad and he was so proud of me and he told me everything, as I'm going to tell you now.'

'Well?... Go on then.' Sakura said impatiently.

'Okay well. You see how we are special doing strange things like that, it's because we have the ability to become exceptional people. We're ninjas.'

Sakura stifled a laugh and repeated, 'We're ninjas?'

'Yes. We are ninjas or at least we can be. A lot of this school is just to fool parents but what goes on behind the scenes is a different story. We train as much as we can and we prove ourselves weekly.'

'And that's what Ino meant about is it on this week?' Sakura said a bit sceptically, she didn't believe him, but she also didn't believe he would lie to her like that and make something this far fetched up, she was so confused.

'Yes. My dad runs a tournament held every week to win money to go towards school fees and other things but it's mainly to test ourselves.'

'And you...what? Fight each other there?' Sakura asked. 'Is the big building in the school grounds the arena?'

'To both them questions, yes?' Lee said

Sakura sat thinking for a minute. So if Lee is telling the truth then that means that I'm a ninja, but why didn't my parents say anything, do they even know I am or are they just playing dumb.

Suddenly she said to Lee, 'I don't believe you. I don't believe my parents would send me here without knowing what goes on "behind the scenes" as you put it.' She stood up and grabbed her bags and started to walk off from him without saying goodbye, she just wanted to get out of there away from him, how could he do this to her when she was starting to consider him a friend.

'Hey wait up.' He said quickly catching up to her.

'Leave me alone, I don't want you here.'

'Look, I made a promise, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. So that means I have to follow you back to school. I won't talk if you don't want me to. I hope you can forgive me.' Lee said finally and true to his promise, he never said a word.

Sakura had time to calm down and realise if he's telling the truth then he must know why I was chosen to come here.

'Do you know if my parents were the one's to contact the school?' She asked.

'I do not. But the school always goes to the parent's first if the child is ninja worthy otherwise the parents send their children here and the children are none the wiser.' Lee said

Sakura resolved to phone her parents when she got to her room, she needed to know the truth, once and for all but first she still wanted some answers and she hoped to god that this was all true and not some way to have a laugh at her.

'So everyone in our class has ninja qualities? Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata and Tenten? Are they all ninja?'

Lee nodded, 'Yes, they all have their special abilities.'

'And they are?' Sakura prompted as they got to the school gates.

'Well lets see, Shikamaru has powerful manipulation skills, he can control people's shadows and stop them in their tracks. Kiba has great animal qualities like enhanced hearing and smell and with his dog Akamaru they are a powerful force. Hinata and her cousin Neji control the byakugan, which an ability to see more than they can with the naked eye. Tenten is very adept with weapons.' Lee recited.

'And what about you?' She asked curiously.

'I don't have any special abilities, I'm just unusually strong but I try to push myself to the limits as much as possible to further enhance my strength.' Lee said quite sadly.

Sakura noticed this and said, 'I would say that's a special ability in my opinion, just don't push yourself too hard, don't want you getting hurt'

Lee's eyes lit up as if Christmas had come early, he was obviously not used to compliments like that, 'Th-thank you, I'll try and be careful.' He managed to stutter.

Sakura noticed they had reached her dorm and went inside after saying goodbye to Lee. She didn't find anyone in the dorm which Sakura thought was good, so nobody could eavesdrop on her conversation, which she didn't think would happen but she couldn't be sure.

Sakura went to her room and grabbed her phone and rang the home phone number. After about an age, her mum answered.

'Hello?' She had the radio playing in the background, so Sakura knew she must have called while she was doing the housework.

'Hi mum.' Sakura said

'How are you doing? How was your first day? You eating well?' She said rapidly through worry.

'Mum I'm fine. School was good, I had my first P.E lesson and for the first time actually had some competition in tennis. Actually I was going to head down to dinner but I wanted to ring you first.'

'Aww that's sweet of you. Hope your having a good time.'

'Mum? I have to ask you something.' Sakura said.

'What is it sweetie?' Her mum said embarrassingly, but since nobody was around to hear her she dismissed it and carried on.

'When you decided to send me to this school, did the school contact you first?' Sakura asked.

'Why do you want to know that?'

'Just curious. Did they though?'

'Yes. Lady Tsunade just rang out of the blue saying that you had been given a place at the school, we did a bit of research and found it to be the perfect place for you. Do you not like it there? Is that what it is?' She asked Sakura worriedly.

'No mum, I said I'm fine, I just wanted to know. Anyway I have to go now my friends are calling me. Talk to you later, Tell dad hi.' Sakura said quickly knowing that in her heart Lee was right after all.

'Okay Sakura, honey. Goodbye.'

'Bye.' and Sakura hung up.

So she was a ninja after all. That was a bit of a shock for her, she didn't know what to think. She still had more questions and unfortunately Lee couldn't help. She knew that only one person who could. Lady Tsunade.

I know it's a bit sudden but I have the characters basically where I want them and I was planning on Sakura waiting before she found out but I want her to be stronger so hence I have her find out some things now.

So please Read+Review of you have time(which I'm sure you do xD) , arigatou gozaimasu xx