Arashi: Still don't own Naruto……stupid disclaimer. Enjoy the story. ^^

Gaara always changed in the stalls. He didn't want anyone to see exactly how many scars he had, or how skinny he was. Sure everyone made fun of him and called him a pansy for changing in the stalls, but who the fuck cared about what they thought about Gaara? So today he grabbed his revealing uniform and went into one of the stalls. Now you have to understand something about these stalls in particular. All of the locks were broken. It was as if someone had come charging into the changing room, yelling and beating the shit out of stalls and lockers as if they were the bane of his existence. It was peculiar. And irritating. But nevertheless they were all broken. Gaara always feared that someone would come bursting in while he was in the middle of changing. So this whole 'changing into strippe- …gym clothes' was stressful.

Gaara tried to secure the stall door before he started to change, ignoring the normal 'pansy', 'woman', and other encouraging words hurled at him from some of the guys. Usually they just leave it at that. But today was not Gaara's lucky day. In the middle of changing, the door swung open to reveal a rather large guy asking in a loud voice 'can I borrow a tam…pon?' The last word dropping into a whisper as he spotted Gaara's half exposed body.

Crisscrossing on his back and torso were very deep scars interrupting sickly pale skin. One scar in particular was extremely gruesome. It was the word 'murderer' carved into his lower back- obviously not done by Gaara. It was a vicious red and slightly raised off of the skin… a burn scar.

"Dude… what the fuck?" the rather large, obnoxious boy asked, taking a step back. Gaara yelped as he was brought out of shock and flew backwards, trying to cover his chest with his almost scar-free arms. His arms only had a few scars, nothing that would raise suspicion. He spotted Neji looking curiously over at him. Neji's eyes widened in surprise and shock, before he turned away, pretending he didn't see.

"Go away! Close the mother fucking door!" Gaara yelled, trying to yank the door out of the large guy's hand. The door didn't move, reminding Gaara of his size in comparison to the jackass who opened the door. By now the whole changing room was staring at Gaara. Growling, Gaara kicked the dumb ass as hard as he could in the shin. It worked. The guy yelped and grabbed his shin in pain, letting go of the door. Gaara grabbed the door and held it shut, putting his weight on it as well.

Fuck. Gaara was in deep shit. Goddamn punk and his sarcasm… So now, not only was he severely instable and insane… he was the poor pity-sympathy basketcase that needed to be fixed. Just great. He got enough of that at the stupid asylum. He listened as he heard the whispering boys file out of the room. After a few moments there was a dead silence in the changing room.

"Shit!" He yelled, loud enough to cause his throat to go raw, and making it echo in the tiled room. His body shook as he broke down, sliding down the door, letting go of it. The door slowly creaked open, leaving the bathroom stall open, revealing a small boy, clutching his bare shoulders sitting cross-legged on the cold tiled floor, shivering.

"Nothings wrong… I'm not different… I'm the same… the same. The same." Gaara started to mutter to himself.

"…Gaara?" A smooth voice asked from above. Gaara gasped and looked up. It was Neji.

Gaara inwardly whimpered. Neji was the last person that he wanted to see his scars. Gaara wished to show Neji his strengths, not his weaknesses. Neji was the first person that ever spoke to him… Naruto doesn't count. Gaara admitted, yes he liked this boy, but he wasn't gong to do anything about it- he didn't even know if Neji liked boys. But he did know that his scars weren't normal, and he didn't like to share.

"Don't… don't look at me." Gaara said softly, looking down.

"Who?" Neji questioned, looking down at his friend.

"Nobody."

"That's a lie Gaara! Who?" Neji spat out, mad that his friend would lie to him like

that. He had asked the group if they could hold the same service that they had for Naruto, protection, love, all that jazz, for Gaara. Neji wanted to protect this boy. And he couldn't do that if Gaara was lying to his face.

"It was nobody! Nobody! He was nobody!" Gaara yelled, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself rather than Neji. The brunette sighed, knowing this wasn't going anywhere. That doesn't mean he was going to drop the issue, it just meant the subject was close for now. He grabbed the red head's shoulders, pulling him to his feet. Gaara's head was resting against his chest, his feet limp on the floor- he was simply dead weight.

Neji blew his hair out of his face in frustration. Did Gaara need to be so broken up about it? They were just scars! He shook the boys shoulders roughly. He knew this wasn't the best course of action, but Neji was desperate to get Gaara back to being his normal, introverted, sarcastic self-- not this poor, shivering bundle of nerves.

"Get a hold of yourself! I'm sure nobody even noticed them! It's dark in the stalls! Jesus Christ! I'll tell you what, if anyone says anything I'll punch them in the face. I hate it when you're sad, Gaara. Please look at me." Gaara looked up at Neji with wide watery green eyes. His face started to stretch in a very unfamiliar pattern to him. Halfway through accomplishing this odd reaction, Gaara realized that he was smiling, and stopped himself. But it was enough for Neji. It was just a small upturn of the corners of his lips…even though it was barely there, he was still smiling. Gaara placed his feet firmly on the floor and placed a hand on an arm holding his shoulder.

"Thank you. I, I needed that. Now," Gaara said, trying to turn the mood from depressed to playful, "what are the chances that I can use this to get out of P.E.?" Neji's eyes widened at the sudden change, but eventually snorted and replied 'like I'd let you.', before throwing Gaara's shirt at him telling him to make himself half-decent. Gaara hid his happiness at the change in mood as he pulled the shirt over his head and chased Neji out of the changing rooms and into the gym.

Even though everyone was whispering and pointing at him, Gaara treated it as white noise and tried to get through P.E. with his …friends? Exercise was always taxing on him. He didn't really ever get out and exercise in the asylum. In fact, after he had collapsed after school on his first day, they had to give him an energy booster and a supplement so he wouldn't be so exhausted by the end of the day.

Gaara panted heavily as he ran with his friends. Ever since Gaara had ran with him, Neji would hold his hand so he wouldn't fall behind. Gaara loved every moment f contact. It was strange, when he was in the halls, he hated it when people bumped into him or touched him; but if he was in an isolated group (like with Neji or Anko) he had always craved for their touch. He didn't know why, but he craved it so desperately he had caught himself on several occasions 'tripping' just so he could fall onto, or hold someone for 'stability'. Everyone probably thought him to be a klutz. Gaara paused on his train of thoughts due to the fact that they were now lining up on the side of the hall.

"Alright students of youth! Time for a wonderful, and youthful character building game! I present to you, Dodge Ball of youth!" Gai-sensei yelled excitedly, lifting up a bright red ball. Gaara gulped.

"Oh shit." Gaara said, loud and clear into the silent gym, which immediately caused a round of laughter to go by. However, these laughs fell upon deaf ears. Gaara was mentally preparing himself for public humiliation.

"Alright! The two youthful captains are… Tal Higasaki, and… Ayame Ichikaru! Yosh!"

The two mentioned rose up from the bleachers with exaggerated tiredness. The two stood up by Gai-sensei and sighed before they pointed at random people to be on their team. Since the class was so big, they did it by rotation. The first five up would start, then when someone got out they were replaced by one of the team members that hadn't played. Once you were hit, you couldn't go back into the rotation, however to stop kids from getting out just to sit and do nothing, you had to do push-ups till the end of class once you got out. To Gaara, this plan was satanic. He was going to get out the second he stepped in.

Gaara turned out to be on Ayame's team with Naruto, who immediately bounced up to him

"Hey Tony! I like the things you dooooo! Hey Tony! If I could I would be you! The one and only tiger! The one and only taste! You make a breakfast from good to GREEEEEEEEEEEEAT!" An obnoxious sing-song voice rang out as a loud blonde flung himself at Gaara. Gaara raised his eyebrow and pried the clingy blonde from his form. About halfway through the song, the two were joined by the rest of the group, who had been picked via peer pressure.

"What? You look like a tiger because of the marks on your chest!" Naruto said tactlessly when he noticed Gaara's puzzled face. Neji did a face-palm. Sasuke and Itachi did an anime fall. Gaara's aura just darkened a few shades.

"Who is this 'Tony' you seem to know so well, and what does it have to do with a tiger?" Gaara asked pointedly. Naruto gasped loudly and covered his mouth in feinted shock. Drama Queen.

"You don't know who Tony the Tiger is?" He gasped out in horror.

"No."

"It's a cartoon tiger that is the mascot of a crappy children's cereal." Neji supplied sighing at Naruto's antics. Gaara just shook his head. He was tired of things being referred to that he had no idea about, yet it seemed like universal knowledge to everyone around him.

"It is not a crappy cereal! It is god in an obnoxious blue box! Well I'd be more like Jesus because Ramen is god… so Frosted Flakes is kinda like the son of Ramen… in divine terms that is." Naruto objected (read: ranted).

"Did you just compare Jesus to Frosted Flakes?" Itachi asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Well duh!" Naruto yelled back enthusiastically.

"Did you forget to take your Ritalin today?" Sasuke questioned.

"I never forget!"

However before that subject could be thoroughly explored, Gai-sensei blew the whistle and the first round started. Gaara and the rest of the group had been put in the rotation reserves, so they were just standing, watching the game. Gaara winced as one kid was hit in the face and he flew three feet backwards on his ass and skidded another four. The kid scrambled off the court to go do push-ups, holding his nose tenderly. Gaara really didn't

want to play. Maybe he could pull a fake seizure or something and get excused from the game. He decided to try it.

"Oh!" he yelled, clutching his chest, making his eyes spaz. He bent his knees inward and started twitching dramatically, "The… pain! No! Ahhh!" Gaara gasped out with a flourish, decorating his performance with some drool. "Save me!" He knew that his caretakers could tell he was faking it, but that wasn't the point if Gai-sensei bought it, he was free.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Neji asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Shh!" Gaara shushed him, still trying to look convincing.

"Ahhh! Dizzy… can't stand… anymore. Must… not play… dodge ball…" Gaara pretended to gasp out. However, before he could finish his little scene, a bright red ball hit him square in the chest. He yelped, rubbing the little sore spot the ball had created.

"Gaara! Stop that nonsense and pay attention! You do not want to miss this youthful event!" Gaara growled in response. Apparently, he wasn't a very good actor.

"Ahh, damnit." He muttered, wiping the drool from his chin, and straightening his posture. He sighed, it seemed he would have to play anyway.

"Oh! That's what you were doing!" Itachi said, his face brightening up, "I didn't know what you were trying to do. You're a pretty shitty actor, you know that right?"

"Oh, shut up." Gaara's eyes widened as he realized he was next if someone got out. However, right before he had to run in, the bell rung and Gaara wanted to kill something.

"I faked a seizure for nothing?!" He yelled, stomping his foot. He growled and made his way to the changing rooms. Nobody bothered Gaara when he went into his stall to change back into his clothes, which Gaara supposed he should take as a positive thing, but he still didn't like that it had to come about by him being violated in a stall. Well that's what he referred to it as.

Art was next for him, so he started to make his way through the maze of people that he was slowly becoming accustomed to, even though he didn't like to be touched all that much. And being in a crowed hallway filled with teenagers that don't give a shit, you tend to get jarred around a bit. And especially after today's incident, he was a little jumpy.

Sighing, Gaara sat in his seat and waited for his perverted art teacher to make an appearance.

Gaara fell into his thoughts after waiting with no results for a total of three minutes. It was weird. Even though it had only been a week, he felt as if he had found the best friends of his life… he knew that was pathetic, but it was true. They were nice to him, they tried to make him laugh (only Anko did that), and then there was Neji. Sure, Neji was pretty- very pretty- but he was kind as well. Every time Gaara thought he knew Neji and had him figured out, Neji went and did something that puzzled him. Gaara was infatuated with the boy. At first Gaara wondered if he actually liked boys (Anko had supplied him with the answer: "Awww! Is little Ga-wa having sexuality issues? Well then, let me help you… you're gay."). Anko had always been painfully right in everything she said, so Gaara just took it all in stride.

Gaara pondered on his other friends, they all probably considered him an acquaintance… oh well. He considered them all very good friends, he hopped sooner or later that they'll think that too.

20 minutes into class, Kakashi waltzed into the room, his nose stuck in his orange book of porn. After dog-earing his page, Kakashi slowly looked up to his irritated classroom.

"What?"

"You're twenty minutes late, sensei!" The room yelled back at him. Kakashi's eye looked as if he was amused for a split second, before he loped up to the rarely used whiteboard behind his desk. Picking up a blue marker, he started to write out a series of instructions.

"Today we are drawing nude models." He said, setting down the marker. Gaara immediately snorted at this, and the rest of the class began to laugh hysterically; somebody even yelled out "Pervert!".

"Hey hey now… We are drawing nude models to further our understanding of human anatomy and how the drawing of humans can relate to the anatomy of other beings that we will draw. The nude model will be here in a few minutes. Try not to laugh or anything, this person is at a large personal risk by doing this." Gaara rolled his eyes. Trust Kakashi to find a way to integrate nudity into a simple art class. Large papers and various pencils were passed down the tables as they all waited for the model to appear.

Muffled talking was heard outside the door, before the door started to slowly creak open.

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Arashi: Please read and review.