Yo...

long time no see huh...?

(please don't kill me)

Here's my excuse-- I got bored of Naruto. And have been bored for a while now. But I was stuff able to work on this story for a while.
And then this whole thing started with my sister about Prince of Tennis...
I told her it was stupid
She said I didn't know that since I'd never seen it before (she's 8, and she's never seen it either)
I told her "with a name like Prince of Tennis, it's got to be stupid/cliche"
She told me to prove it
We watched episode 1 together
I've been hooked ever since. -rolls eyes-

And with that new addiction, Naruto slowly faded from my interest. A lot. I find the plotline of the whole manga really tedious now.

And so, I regret to inform you, but this story will be discontinued from now on. I simply don't have the interest to continue. This story's original purpose was to show people how schools work in Japan, and show the different legends and references Kishimoto had used to create his epic. But boredom gets in the way of intergrating all that into this fic. Hence the discontinuation.

I tried for several months to at least get one more chapter done, but alas, it can't be done. So below is the half-of-a-chapter I managed to write before my interest entirely gave away.

Yeah... that's about it o.o"

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Naruto. But I guess I own this plotline, as dead as it may be.

Warning: Major OOCness. But that's 'cause my interest was waning. Live with it

Chapter 7:

Uniforms

The beginning of June called for a change in uniforms, even if there were still unbearably cold days every now and then. No one had bothered to remind Naruto however, and Tenten had left for school early for cleaning duties. So when Naruto walked onto the school grounds in his winter uniform and saw everyone else in the summer uniform, his face turned bright red and he ran into the classroom as quickly as possible. He was early enough that there shouldn't be too many people in the class, but he was surprised to find only one person occupying the room. And it was that person of all people.

"What're you staring at," Sasuke said, glaring at Naruto.

He wasn't staring. Sasuke just looked extremely out of place in a white short-sleeved button-down shirt, that's all.

"Good morning to you too," Naruto said back, looking away awkwardly.

Sasuke grunted in reply and went back to writing what ever he was writing in his notebook. Naruto didn't know whether to be relieved or mad that the other boy hadn't commented on his uniform switch, or lack thereof. Even so, there was still the Kabuto issue to address, something he hadn't been able to ask about since it happened, but it wasn't his fault that Sasuke had suddenly decided to change break locations. And since no one was in the classroom for some really weird reason, now would be a good time to ask.

"If you had the time to get here so early, why didn't you think more about your appearence? Namely your uniform?" Sasuke asked casually, still writing in his notebook.

In anime, this would probably be about the time that Naruto would fall over with his only his legs seen upright and twitching. But that could be painful. So instead, he walked further into the classroom, slammed the door behind him and threw his book-bag at Sasuke's head. After all, if anyone should get hurt, it should be him. Sasuke, being the no-fun person he is however, leaned back just enough to dodge the bag without pausing from his writing. Naruto pouted.

"Why are you here so early then?" he countered, crossing his arms.

"Track practice," was the answer, and Sasuke finally closed his notebook. "Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. The dog's still on the field, if you're wondering."

"R-right…" By dog he meant Kiba, and Naruto had completely forgotten that he and Sasuke were on the same track team. "Why'd you join track anyway?" "To annoy Kiba I bet," he thought to himself.

"Why do you care?"

Typical Sasuke answer.

"Well… 'cause there are tons of other clubs or teams you could've joined. And with your house and all, I'd have thought you'd have joined archery (1) or somethin'," Naruto explained, almost stuttering.

Onyx met blue as Sasuke glared at Naruto, who involuntarily took a step back. As the two became stuck in a glaring contest, the door suddenly slid open and in came none other than Hinata. All three stared at each other for a couple seconds before Sasuke stood and left the room, brushing past Hinata less than nicely. Naruto glared after him.

"W-was I… interrupting something…?" The Hyuuga asked cautiously, walking slowly into the room.

"Nah… The stupid Uchiha's just being a jerk," Naruto answered, putting his hands behind his head.

"What happened?"

He slouched. "I don't know… I just asked him why he joined track when there are plenty of other sports out there, and he got mad," he attempted to explain.

Hinata looked down slightly. "Did you mention a-archery…?"

Naruto blinked. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

She walked over to her desk and hung her book-bag on the hook on the side, her eyes downcast. She sighed softly once before turning to face him.

"It's an old family issue of h-his," she said quietly. "To the best of my knowledge, he and his parents used to a-argue about how he should join archery."

"So then, why didn't he?" Naruto asked tensely. It seemed like a very touchy subject, and he didn't want to pry too much. "I mean, it'd make sense for him to..."

Hinata shook her head though. "It's not my place to say…"

He nodded understandingly. "D'ya know where he ran off to?"

She lightened up a tad and smiled softly. "He's been hanging around the trees near the field lately. Nara-san and I figured you h-hadn't noticed the change."

Naruto thanked her and ran out the door, down the hall and downstairs to the first floor. Back in the classroom, Hinata finally figured out that she had been alone in the room with Naruto for the past couple minutes and proceeded to pass out.

The blonde was painfully aware that his outfit was causing a lot of unwanted attention, but at this point he couldn't do anything about it. If he ran home to change he'd be late, and that was worse than being stared at all day; Even if Kakashi didn't even set foot in the classroom before he got back. He rounded the corner, changed his shoes at his locker and ran out the front door. Going around to the side of the building, he slowed his pace to a walk, spying Sasuke sitting on a branch of a tree, gazing into the forest.

"Hey, Uchiha-san!" he called out, and was surprised when he got a raised hand in response.

"Why… do you call me that?" Sasuke asked slowly, leaning up against the trunk of the tree and not making eye contact.

Naruto looked at him, puzzled. "What: Uchiha-san? Should I not call you that?"

The other boy shook his head slowly. "No… it's fine…"

Naruto was still puzzled. Sasuke seemed rather out of it, but he could guess that their earlier conversation had been the start cause. He sighed to himself and figured out his next words carefully.

"Look…" he started, still unsure. "I guess it doesn't matter what team you're a part of, and I'm sorry if I offended you in some way. I can't know every family issue that…"

He stopped himself when he felt Sasuke's eyes on him.

"Hyuuga-san told you." It wasn't a question.

"Well… kinda..." Naruto admitted awkwardly. "She didn't say much though. I was going to ask you about it. I-if you don't mind, I guess…"

Sasuke sighed, but resigned himself to explain it to the other. After all, if he told him to bug off he'd have to put up with Naruto staring at him all day trying to figure it out. He turned himself on the branch so that he was facing Naruto, looking at the blonde only long enough to catch his puzzled look before closing his eyes and sighing. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"It was… a stupid argument…" he said tentatively, looking up into the clouds and ignoring Naruto's gaped mouth, who couldn't believe Sasuke was speaking directly to him. "My brother... he played for the school archery team, and took them to the nationals. My parents expected me to do the same. It's always been like that: what ever he does, I'm expected to do the same…"

"So you joined track to avoid archery?" the blonde asked, starting to see where this was going.

The other just shrugged. "Kind of. Track is much like archery in that it isn't really a team effort. One can do their best without a whole bunch of people depending on them, or becoming the 'star player'. That's why I joined."

Naruto nodded slowly. He hadn't really seen it that way before, but there somehow always managed to be at least one player on a team like basketball or baseball that was put in the spot light more than others, kind of like the team's secret weapon. Even though it was called a track team, it was really just the individual that participated in an event, did the work by themselves and got the medal. It wasn't the school's medal, it was the individual's.

An awkward silence followed as the two boys contemplated their respective thoughts, only to be broken when the sound of screaming could be heard from the field. It wasn't normal screaming though; oh no, we couldn't have that. No, it was fangirl screaming, the high-pitched "KYAAA!!" that we all know and hate. And some us of love and participate in, but that's beyond the point.

Naruto first looked in the direction of the fangirlling, then quickly at Sasuke for an explanation. He didn't get one; Sasuke had gone back to ignoring him, which figured if he thought about it. Without saying anything, he ran off in the direction of the field, reminding himself that Kiba was on the field, apparently.

Sure enough, as he rounded the corner onto the track field, there were a bunch of girls in the stands, looking almost identical in their matching summer uniforms and all screaming at the top of their lungs as Kiba finished another lap. Naruto watched, amazed as the other boy grabbed a quick sip from his water bottle before getting into position for another lap around the tarmac. The coach gave him the signal while starting his stopwatch and off he went again. The girls screamed some more. While turning the bend to finish his lap, Naruto caught Kiba's eye. The dog-boy quickly finished his lap before jogging over to the blonde, a big toothy grin plastered on his face.

"Yo, Naruto-kun!" he called out, his grin deepening when he saw the look of utter amazement on the other's face. "Don't mind the chicks; they're all a bunch of scatterbrains anyway."

"Yeah but... They're all here to cheer you on, Kiba-san," Naruto managed, still staring at the amount of girls in the stands. "You're really popular, huh?"

"Hm, ya think so?"

Naruto nodded.

"Well then, I guess I am!" Kiba grinned some more. "Ya jealous?"

Naruto chose to laugh that one off.

"Yo, by the way, any reason you're in your winter uniform?" the other boy asked out of poor curiosity.

The blonde sweat dropped. "Umm... no?"

--

As Kakashi stood at the podium taking attendance for the last 10 minutes of class, his gaze wondered to the large black blob that was in the corner of his eye. Looking up, gave a little groan.

"I guess you didn't attend the opening ceremony at the beginning of the year, did you Uzumaki-kun," he sighed.

Naruto turned a brighter red than he already was, trying to ignore the snickers he heard around him.

"N-no sir..." he managed.

Kakashi gave a low sigh. "Then I'll remind everyone while I'm at it: uniform change at the beginning of June and at the end of September. Everyone got it?"

There was a chorus of 'yes's and 'sure's all around. Along with a couple more snickers. Naruto nodded and tried to hide himself in his arms.

"Well then," Kakashi continued. "Seeing as we only have a couple more minutes left of this class, I'll just give you your homework to complete by next class."

(1) – Archery – Yeah, they have archery teams in Japan. No fair huh? ANYWAY, archery is considered very… how d'ya put it… 'culturally refined'… nah, that's not it… well, it's a culturally important sport, and it's hard to be good at it (to the Japanese standards at least; I've done archery and it's not terribly hard) and… I dun know how to explain . it's like… T.T I give up… I think you get the point. Naruto thought that Sasuke should do it because it's a traditional sport thingy, and Sasuke's house is traditional… to extreme standards… and so on… T...T I'll shut up now.

There ya have it. The last half-of-a-chapter. This will no longer be updated, but because the summery's too long to say that, I'll just put this as completed even though it's not.

Thanks for sticking with me, no matter how short the ride was!