Yes, it's official. This is officially my highest earning story. I have more reviews for this than for the pokemon fic, Make Your Move; my previous record holder. I have broken 50 reviews; I am so happy. Thanks guys :).

Also, updates are probably going to get a little less frequent. My mum has cut my computer time to one hour on Mondays through to Thursdays, so it's a little tight.

--

The excitement of winning the baseball game lasted the whole weekend. Naruto was hailed as some kind of hero by all those who had watched. On Sunday, he found some random people he had never spoken to telling him that he really could hit a ball far. It was a first, and Naruto knew that he definitely was on the way to stardom. Sure, he had expected Sakura to worship him too, but she hadn't come to the game, so Naruto couldn't really blame her. The good thing was; Sasuke Uchiha had gotten his name written in the mud.

People were laughing, yes LAUGHING at Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto caught some kids talking about how Sasuke really was a violent person. Well, what Naruto heard was that Sasuke was "Psychologically challenged,"

But it meant the same thing. Sasuke Uchiha was now being thought of as mentally unstable. He spent the whole of Sunday in the cabin, reading books. Naruto had figured that he may have gone and seen how Sakura was doing, because Sakura hadn't actually seen Sasuke punch the Kusa guy, and therefore, she wouldn't laugh at him, but instead, he just kept to himself.

Naruto had thought things couldn't get any better.

But then came Monday. Yes, MONDAY. The most evil day of the whole week.

--

With Monday, came the School Assembly. That meant singing Konoha High's stupid school song, listening to Principal Tsunade and Neji Hyuuga talk for an hour, and watching people receive awards for really stupid things. Oh and announcements, announcements made by the people who captained various things, such as Ino Yamanaka.

Ino already had a very loud voice. It was good for insulting people. She didn't need a microphone to get everybody to hear her stupid self, but still she stepped up to the mic to give her speech about whatever.

"I have a feeling this is going to be completely irrelevant to the school program," Naruto sighed as Ino adjusted the microphone in front of her.

"Yeah…" muttered Hinata, all eyes on the podium.

Something very strange had happened to Hinata during the baseball game. Normally, she would avoid looking at Ino, not wanting to catch her glance. But this past weekend, Hinata had been pretty confrontational about all of it. It was like she had learned to accept that just ignoring it wasn't going to solve the problem.

"Heya guys, this is your cheerleading captain, Ino. I just wanted to say that some of you didn't turn up for our Sunday training on Sunday…"

Naruto heard Hinata give a very little giggle next to him.

"S-Sunday training on Sunday…" she whispered, "She is a bit silly, isn't she…?"

"Uh… yeah," said Naruto. He exchanged a confused glance with Gaara, to the other side of Hinata.

Hinata was laughing at Ino's stupidity.

Well, that was progress.

"So anyway," Ino continued, "I was pondering the meaning behind why you guys didn't turn up, and I got the answer! It's because of me, right? The fact that I broke my wrist? Aww guys, even though I can't cheerlead, it doesn't mean I'm leaving. I'm still the captain of this team! I have got someone else coordinating the acts during the performance bit, but I'm still attending trainings, and trainings are still on! So please come along! You're not going to miss me… so don't worry…"

"Thank you, Miss Yamanaka,"

Principal Tsunade virtually pushed Ino away from the podium. Ino staggered down the stairs as she couldn't grip the rails with her broken wrist.

The Konoha High hall was pretty small. They were still a public school, so they didn't have much money. The students sat on little portable chairs which they had to move to the back of the hall after each assembly. The stage wasn't that big either.

"Any other announcements?" Principal Tsunade asked, adjusting the mic to her height. She was a very big and strong woman. Most of the teachers at the school were male, but Principal Tsunade was probably stronger than all of them put together.

The thing was, while she used to be a teacher, as soon as she hit the position of principal, she made sure that she lived the easy life. She mostly sat in her office, gambling on the net. She also only addressed the most important of problems, and the only time you ever saw her was during the Monday assemblies. At all other times, she would always get someone else to deal with the problem, unless it well and truly was, her problem.

"Oh, no announcements? Well that's good; dismissed. Make sure to get to your next lesson on time,"

--

"What class have we got now?" Naruto asked Hinata, as they too stood up to move from the assembly hall about five minutes later. Hinata gave a little shrug, "I think we have maths,"

"Yes, we have mathematics," said Gaara.

The three of them left started to leave the hall. No matter how much excitement the weekend had given them, a Monday always left everything washed out. Another whole week left until the next weekend. Right now, that meant another whole week left until the prom.

Oh yeah, the prom. It had come very, very quickly. With only a week left, everybody seemed to have gotten themselves a partner. Everybody except Naruto, Gaara and Hinata. Kiba and Ino were still an item, and they had apparently already bought everything they required (They wouldn't shut up about their prom gear anyway). Sasuke and Sakura were still presumably going to the together, although there was now a chance that neither of them would show their face; so it wasn't like Naruto was going to get Sakura to go with him either way.

Considering that everybody got dismissed at the exact same time from Assembly, it was kind of strange how almost nobody else seemed to be in the maths classroom. Well, more unfortunate than strange; considering that the only people there were Kiba, Shikamaru and Ino.

Naruto's group had gotten pretty used to ignoring Kiba by now. Well, they didn't need to bother really, because Kiba just ignored them. Ino was the one who did the taunting, and Kiba was just her arm candy.

Today however, even Ino was too busy sweet talking Kiba to taunt them. Hinata, who was now an expert at walking very fast whenever she saw or heard Kiba, instantly found herself a seat at the front of the class, her manner of seating signaling the other two to follow.

Despite the fact they were sitting as far away from the enemy as possible, Naruto found that it was impossible to block Ino's voice out. She that thing about her. What was it called… oh yeah, annoying bitch syndrome.

"Oh, Kiba darling… mind if Shikamaru sits to my side today? I mean, this is an important lesson…" she crooned.

Naruto felt like he was going to feel sick as the scarily soppy sound of Ino's voice wafted closer.

"…And as sexy as you are baby, you're not as intelligent as Shikamaru, and yeah… I kinda don't want to fail maths,"

In other words, she was saying "Kiba can I sit next to Shikamaru so I can copy his answers, because you're too stupid,"

God, why wouldn't Kiba take the hint? She was only using him so that she wouldn't look unloved.

"Oh my god!" whisper-squealed Hinata randomly - Ok, the random squealing wasn't strange - but the talking when Kiba was around part was. Naruto looked up to see what the commotion was. And he didn't even have to look around to find it, considering that it had just walked in the door.

Sakura was back. Only she wasn't very Sakura-like anymore.

Her face was pasty bloodshot, revealing many days of tears. Her once perfect pink hair was a total mess, with strands hanging crimpled around her face. Even her emerald green eyes seemed to have dimmed in color. The poor girl looked so thin too…

"Sakura-Chan…" Hinata whispered. Sakura either didn't hear her or ignored her. She kept walking to where she used to sit, with Ino and Shikamaru – But Kiba's butt was filling that seat now. Unfortunately, Ino had noticed Sakura's attempt.

"Finally decided to come out of hiding, Haruno?" she said sweetly. Kiba and Shikamaru looked around at Sakura too.

Sakura was sweet, but she came up with the best comeback lines to things. This time however, she just ignored Ino, turned around, and put her things on a desk at the front of the room. Ino stared.

"Hmm, It would be nice if you just said hi,"

"Forget it Ino, come on, hurry up and copy my answers before Kakashi Sensei gets here. This is such a drag…" Shikamaru muttered - Ino heaved a sigh and soon enough, her pencil was scribbling away in her book.

"S-Sakura-Chan…" Hinata called softly across the isle in between the classroom. Sakura actually looked up this time.

"Do you w-want to sit with us…?"

Sakura changed gear, and was instantly back on ignore mode; she gave a slight incline of her head which looked very much like a no, and she opened her mouth; but no sound came out.

"Then we'll sit with you,"

To Naruto's shock, Hinata was already piling her books up again. Next second, she had stood up and was moving to sit next to Sakura.

"Hinata wait up,"

Naruto hadn't bothered to open his books yet, so he just took his pile and followed Hinata.

"Coming Gaara?"

Gaara had been scribbling away in his sketchbook. Like Sasuke, he seemed to draw a lot; and the thing was, he was a pretty good artist. It was actually getting kind of annoying now. How could Gaara be good at Sport, Academics AND Art all at the same time? Sure, people were now thinking Naruto was pretty cool for his performance at baseball, but Gaara was getting some attention too. Too much attention.

"Huh… Oh right, I'm comi-"

"GAARA OHMIGOSH!"

Oh, SURE, right when Naruto was thinking about Gaara getting too much attention, another fan girl bursts in. Gaara looked up from packing up his things.

"Oh, Hi Matsuri,"

It was the other Suna Academy kid. Naruto hadn't seen her for a while now, mostly because she was either looking after the cheerleading team nowadays or hanging around with Sai.

"I-I haven't talked to you for ages Gaara! I think maths and art are our only two classes together…"

Well, Gaara didn't look like he wanted to talk to her. He was scooping up his books rather quickly, and not even looking at the girl.

"Um… where are you sitting Gaara?"

"I'm moving over there with my friends,"

Matsuri followed Gaara as he moved, and then her face fell when she noticed that there were no other seats in that section.

"O-oh…" she said, walking past Naruto and coming to a halt in front of Gaara's new desk, "Anyway… Gaara, I was wondering if you wanted…"

Gaara still wasn't looking at her. Well, Naruto considered that a little bit rude, but maybe Gaara was just sick of all the fangirlism he was getting. He did get too much, anyway.

"MATURI HUN, THERE YOU ARE,"

Oh dear god no; just when the class seemed to already be full of the weirdest people in the whole school, another moron jumps in.

"Oh, heya Sai! Well, um… nice talking to you Gaara…"

Naruto and Gaara both turned towards the jester of the maths class.

As per usual, Sai stupidly batted his eyelashes at them.

"Oh dear Matsuri… why you talking to these losers…"

He made a letter "L" sign with his left hand, waving it at Naruto.

"…I'm sorry; I just took a detour through the bathroom and I'm oh so sorry for making you go to class alone, Matsuri! Come on, let's sit back here,"

"Coming,"

Matsuri shuffled away towards Sai. She too looked like a pretty miserable girl. Naruto had no idea as to why this was, considering that she WAS a cheerleader. And every other girl at the school seemed to be dying to get on the cheerleading team.

That brought Naruto back to Sakura. Matsuri and Sai's little interruption had made him forget about Sakura. Thankfully, Hinata hadn't been distracted. She was still watching Sakura intently, her big eyes widened even further as she watched Sakura. Naruto made to say something comforting too… buuut Kakashi Sensei chose that perfect moment to walk in.

"Hello, how are we today,"

The general murmur of "good Kakashi sensei," was even quieter than usual today.

"Before we start, I'd like to point out to a certain person who decided not to answer the question, that the square root of sixteen is four,"

Oh yeah; THAT. The question Naruto didn't answer because Sakura had told him what the answer was.

Naruto He hated maths. It was full of smart people.

"…what a pity that we now have to do an entire lesson on Square Roots when we could be doing something more impressive for our student teacher… everybody say hello to Subaku no Temari; our student teacher…"

Naruto hadn't seen Gaara's sister since the day that Gaara had started at the school, but here she was again. She couldn't possibly have been much older than them at all, she was twenty at the oldest. In a way, she was very pretty.

Naruto gave Gaara a little nudge.

"I thought your teacher was student teaching art not math,"

"Hmm?" Gaara looked up from his sketchbook, "What was that?"

"I thou-,"

"Ahem, in Suna, we are all very multi-talented,"

Gaara had opened his mouth to speak, but he had been interrupted by his sister herself. Forget her being pretty. She was just another arrogant teacher, once you got to hear her.

"Huh?" said Naruto, looking at her. She wore a lot of make-up, and in the slightest, she didn't even look like Gaara. Unlike him, she had eyebrows, and her hair was blonde. A sort of dirty blonde. She wasn't bottle blonde like Ino, but Naruto got the feeling that she didn't differ much in personality.

"I'm just saying, that at Suna Academy, we are taught to excel in all classes, not just one. I am capable of teaching maths and art,"

"That's nice to know, lady,"

"You're a friend of Gaara's, no?"

"Y-"

"Miss Subaku! I finished the project you assigned me to…"

Oh all the people in the class, the least likely to get randomly hyper was Shikamaru, so it really did come as a surprise when he decided to randomly run to the front of the class holding a sheet of paper.

Temari Subaku turned away from Naruto and looked at Shikamaru instead.

"What's with him?" Naruto snarled. Gaara shrugged;

"My sister says he's a smart boy,"

"Um, he hangs out with Ino Yamanaka. That instantly deletes all chances he has of being a smart boy,"

Before Gaara got a chance to add to the conversation, Kakashi Sensei coughed rather loudly.

"That's enough, Mister Nara, back to your seat,"

Shikamaru didn't do what Kakashi Sensei had told him instantly. Temari-Sensei actually gave him a little pat on the back and told him that they'd "catch up later" before he went to sit down again.

"Right-o," Kakashi Sensei continued, "Now we can actually begin this class. Temari Sensei will be teaching, while I sit down and take notes. Be good for her, okay?"

"Later Naruto-Kun," Gaara muttered, opening his own exercise book. Oh yeah, Gaara was a studious person. Naruto sighed and threw open his book while Temari wrote things on the board.

"Alright, so I believe we're doing squares and square roots today, so…"

"Uh, miss," Sai called out through the murmur which had started at the apparent stupidity of studying something as basic as squares.

"Yes?"

"I believe we like already covered this. Yeah, we did, in like, seventh grade,"

There was a little bit of laughter from the back of the room. Mostly from Ino and Kiba. Temari-Sensei looked around at Sai.

"Your name is Sai, right?"

"That's right, Madam,"

"I hear you really are an intelligent student. Thanks so much for taking our Matsuri around. And yes, we have covered this, but apparently your teacher wants us to go over it,"

Bah. Wasn't she supposed to have like… an attitude? Her hair looked dangerous. Even she looked a little evil. Why on earth didn't she tell Sai off for his cockyness?

"Alright, so as I was saying, squares. Squares are numbers which you get after multiplying a number by itself. So for example, one squared is one, two squared is four, three squared is nine, and so on…"

Talk about how you had learned this in seventh grade all you want Sai, but Naruto still didn't get it. If it's a number multiplied by itself then why on earth was the number next to the number always a two. Squared numbers are not multiplied by two. What the hell; that number should be different each time…

"Now, when you wish to find out Square Roots, then you basically need to find out what number, multiplied by itself, gives you the number you're looking for the square root of. Does everybody follow?"

The rest of the class actually nodded, but the little subscript twos written next to all the numbers on the board still confused Naruto. He scribbled out his working. Why was this woman going on to the roots when Naruto didn't even get the SQUARES. AND WHAT DID THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SQUARES ANYWAY? Squares are little four sided shapes, not numbers.

"So for example, the square root of sixteen is four, and the square root of twenty five is five. These numbers, which have whole numbers for square roots are called Perfect Squares, however if you are wishing to figure out the square root of a number which isn't a perfect square, then it is important that…"

"Hold up a second, Temari," Kakashi Sensei interrupted.

"Oh, right, am I going too fast?"

"No. Now… Naruto as you probably know, this lesson is particularly for you,"

OH THAT'S NICE. Go and blurt out that Naruto Uzumaki is failing maths to the whole bloody class. Real smooth Kakashi Sensei, and since when did teachers organize a totally new class just because ONE STUDENT is failing in a particular area?

"What about it, Kakashi Sensei?" Naruto muttered. Kakashi Sensei sighed;

"Instead of scribbling in your book, please take down the notes which our lovely student teacher is writing up, and at least try to follow,"

"Right,"

"Can I continue?"

"Yes,"

"Alrighty, as I was saying, if you wish to figure out the square root of a number which is NOT a perfect square, you're going to have to know the squares which are closest to it on either side. So if I said that you were to figure out the Square root of six, then you'll have to know the square roots of the perfect squares on either side so that you can-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,"

"What the hell-"

Sakura - who Naruto had only just noticed hadn't been taking notes - had stood up abruptly and given off this loud and high pitched scream.

"Sakura-Chan, what's wrong…?" Hinata squeaked.

Sakura fell back into her chair, her arms moved fast, knocking a book off her desk as she reached for her back, where something big and white had appeared.

"What's going on…?"

"S-somebody threw something at me," Sakura said, not looking at Hinata, and still staring at the front. Hinata bent over and looked at Sakura's back.

"I-It's a s-spitball…"

Ew. Spitballs. It was such a Kiba sort of thing to do; only Kiba was so far back in the room that the idiot could not have possibly been the one to aim it. Spitballs were so anti-Ino anyway, so it wasn't really like him. The culprit was far more likely to be Sai, who was sitting right behind them. When Naruto looked around to see what Sai was up to however, he found that Sai was still taking down notes.

"Okay, WHAT ON EARTH is going on here," Kakashi Sensei stormed over to their table, "I am being serious now, we are having a student teacher come here from such a prestigious school, and you are carrying on and interrupting. Miss Haruno, why haven't you taken down any notes?"

Oh, so Kakashi had only JUST noticed that Sakura hadn't taken down any notes, and she hadn't been told off yet, but Naruto had been? That was still a bit unfair.

"S-She got spitball'd," Hinata offered.

"Right. So this little ball of saliva and paper is the reason you just mucked up my class, miss Haruno?" Kakashi Sensei asked. Sakura nodded.

"Well, I haven't been pretty happy with you lately anyway. You skipped two classes last week, failed to submit your homework, and haven't taken any notes this class at all…"

"B-But, I-I'm sure that Sakura-Chan already knows how to do square roots!" Hinata squealed helped.

"Stay out of this Miss Hyuuga. Right, Miss Haruno; I believe that a detention is in order,"

"W-WHAT?" Hinata squealed, louder than last time. Sakura gave a little sob.

"She needs a detention, she'll have to catch up on everything she's missed,"

"B-But Kakashi S-Sensei,"

"No buts Miss Hyuuga, be quiet and go back to your work,"

"N-No, you don't know what she's been through,"

It sure was strange seeing Hinata stand up to teachers. She had never done it before, but now that she was, she sounded so confident.

"Miss Hyuuga. I told you to be quiet, looks like that's another one to the detention room,"

This was pretty unlike Kakashi Sensei as well. He wasn't so picky over punishments. Maybe things were tougher at Suna Academy, and Kakashi Sensei didn't want to make Konoha High look like a bunch of sissies. It's a pity it was a bunch of sissies.

"Hinata Hyuuga, I would like you to report to detention after school. Now go back to your work, or I'll have a word with your father,"

Hinata gave a little gasp and then, she gave up. Naruto didn't know much about Hinata's father, but apparently he was just like Neji, just bigger, and nastier. Either way, Kakashi Sensei was just being unfair right now. Who CARED about impressing Suna - Konoha High would NEVER be as great as Suna.

Right now, Maths didn't matter to Naruto anymore (Not that it ever mattered).

"Kakashi Sensei, that's just stupid, Hinata and Sakura; they're going through a lot… A certain someone has been treating them like crap and I think I know who shot that spitball!"

Instead of instantly throwing Naruto into the detention pit as predicted, Kakashi Sensei actually enquired.

"Who?"

"Sai,"

"Huh?" said Kakashi Sensei, raising his eyebrows, "Sai, show me your notes,"

Sai held up his page, "I didn't do it Sir, honestly. Look at my work,"

Sai's page was covered with writing. Believe it or not, the kid actually was actually the top of class 11A. It had been a mistake of Naruto's to overlook that.

"Alright, Naruto, hold up yours,"

Naruto sighed and lifted his page. There was one word written on it; "Square".

"That doesn't matter. Sai still threw the spitball…"

"Naruto Uzumaki, I think you're lying. Detention for you too,"

"WHATTTTTTTTT?"

"It's settled. Does anybody ELSE want to say anything?"

Temari Sensei was glancing between the three new detentionees, and she really did look disgusted now. This was just plain ridiculous.

"Alright. Uzumaki, Haruno, Hyuuga. Detention, straight after school today. Show up, or there will be consequences,"

The rest of the class went without anybody uttering a single word. Naruto chose to keep his mouth shut; not for his sake; but for Sakura and Hinata's. He didn't want them to get into any more unneeded punishments. The thing that still bugged him though, was Sakura's lack of reaction to the detention thing. Sure, she had screamed when she had been spitball'd, but it was something any girl, Ino and Hinata included, would do. But when Kakashi Sensei came up however, she had no protest towards the detention. It was like she didn't care about her clean reputation anymore. Like she didn't care about anything anymore.

Even when the class finally ended, Sakura was the first to leave. She dashed out of the classroom, leaving Naruto, Hinata and Gaara. Naruto hadn't exchanged a word with either of the other two since the before the class had started, and as they left the room, Gaara was once again called aside, this time, by his own sister. This left Naruto and Hinata to leave and go to recess alone.

"Kakashi Sensei is a bit of a prick, don't you think Hinata?" Naruto asked casually as they left the building. There was a sunken feeling in his stomach - the feeling of having done something wrong. Just two days ago, he had been the hero of the baseball game, and now, he was in detention. Naruto had only been in detention twice in his whole school life. And he had thought that with the whole popular thing going on, he would never have to go to detention again.

"Well… I guess he's trying to impress the Suna Academy… my father talks about competition between schools a lot…"

"Gaara's sister isn't that bright either. Did you see her with Shikamaru earlier? What the hell… gee, I wonder what she's talking to him about now,"

"I-I bet it's about us,"

"Us?"

"S-She saw us be m-morons in that class. I d-don't think she wants Gaara to hang with us. N-Neji used to say the same thing about Kiba, he said I shouldn't be friends with him… but I didn't listen, maybe I should have,"

"Speak of the devil,"

Kiba, Ino and Shikamaru were all coming in their direction. Accompanied by Sai and Matsuri. Oh, what a group.

"Hey Sai…" Ino was saying, "You were the one who did it right? The one who made Sakura scream like a wuss,"

She didn't even make an effort to conceal her voice as she walked past. It was like she didn't even notice Naruto and Hinata standing right there.

"Yep, and I wasn't caught at it. See, it pays to be smart Ino,"

"You're a pretty good guy, Sai. We should… join forces,"

…Right. Sai and Ino? Join forces?

Naruto made sure they were safely around a corner before exploding.

"So it was that creep. Bah, I'm gonna get em-"

"N-No Naruto. I think we should get S-Sakura to help us too. I-I think we s-should get her help, and sort everything out… after detention,"

"After detention?"

"Y-Yes Naruto-kun. All three of us; get Ino Yamanaka and everybody close to her back. I'm sick of this,"

"Okay, I'll help you. That sounds like a good idea,"

It really was sort of strange how Hinata seemed to lack a reaction to the detention as well. Naruto had expected her to crumble as well. Hinata's family were, after all, the people who seemed to know the rulebook of the school back to front and inside out; and Naruto was pretty sure that none of them had ever gotten a detention before, ever. Instead, Hinata just seemed even more determined than before.

"Hey, Hinata… It's so was not like you to talk back to a teacher like that, I'm kinda impressed,"

"I wanted to show Ino Yamanaka that we mean something,"

"Uh… no offense Hinata, but Ino kind of laughed at us,"

"That wasn't all. I wanted to show Sakura-Chan that we're on her side, and we're willing to back her up,"

Oh. So that was it. Well it did make sense… only, maybe Sakura didn't get it. Whatever it was, Naruto was willing to help as well. He turned to Hinata and gave her a small smile.

"Yeah, you know, I see your point. Let's help get Sakura back on track,"

--

Very boring chapter, I know. But it's very long too D:. Was originally longer, but I cut another part off it and made it into a second section, because it totaled a lot. My emotion sucks, and I hate the part where Sakura screams, because it's so fake :O. Damnit; oh well, R/R please :3. And don't be scared to give me critique, because I need it. A lot.