Gaara-san had been kind enough to drop me off at the infirmary. He left a few minutes before Ino and Sakura arrived, much to my surprise.

"What happened?" Ino cried. She, along with Sakura sat beside me on the bed. Iruka-sensei, the school doctor, treated my wounds. He cleaned them gently before applying an ointment to my face, adding a band-aid as well. I wasn't sure of how many I had on me. I'd lost count after nine of them.

Sakura reached out to gently touch my face with her fingertips. I winced, my entire body shuddering with pain. "Ah, sorry!" she squeaked, immediately pulling her hand back. Her eyes were filled with concern. That look always made me feel warm inside.

"Don't worry, Sakura, it's nothing serious," I smiled, trying to ameliorate her mood. I placed my left hand over hers, hoping to reassure her that I was fine. She returned the smile.

Iruka-sensei tapped me lightly on the head, frowning in disapproval. "I've never seen so many wounds on a female student before," he said, picking up my arm to carefully wrap bandages around my sprained wrist. I flinched, gritting my teeth to try my best and bear it. Luckily it was my right hand. I was a lefty. "Exactly what did you do to get these wounds in the first place?"

I liked Iruka-sensei, as I did most of my teachers. He wore his shoulder-length, brown hair up in a ponytail and had a slash of a scar just above the ridge of his nose. His skin was certainly darker, in comparison to mine, but held a tan quite similar to Naruto-kun. He was kind and understanding with the very aura of Buddha himself. I could see why Naruto-kun attached himself to sensei. I felt calm whenever I was around him too.

"I f-f-fell," I stammered, afraid to directly meet his gaze. I was a horrible liar.

Sensei said nothing for a moment and merely shook his head with an exasperated sigh. He went on and continued treating me. "Is that so...?"

I took it he hadn't bought my lie.

"Now are you going to tell us what happened, or will we have to beat it out of you?" said Ino, as she uncharacteristically cracked her knuckles towards me. Never in a million years had I ever thought that I would see that.

"Oh hush, you know you'd never beat her up," Sakura scoffed, grabbing the other girl by her leg to forcibly have her sit down. Ino crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

"That's true, but I can tell she's keeping something from us, forehead." Ino regarded me with suspicion. I quickly returned to sipping my cup of tea, hiding my face behind the cup.

Sakura patted the side of my face. "You don't want to talk about it with us?" she asked, pouting.

I shook my head. The last thing I needed was for them to beat the living daylights out of those girls. It was my own problem, and something I definitely did not need to drag them into.

With a sigh, Sakura stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles on her shorts. "I'm going to take a shower, is that okay with you?"

I nodded. "Th-the clean towels are in the closet next to my bedroom."

Uchiha-san leafed quickly through the book before looking back at his notes to jot down a few more things. We were in the school library, and since it was free period for the next hour, I decided to accompany Uchiha-san. There were a few students here as well, mostly girls. They took to hiding behind bookshelves and giggling as they watched Uchiha-san. Others took to glaring at me, but did nothing. As scared as I was, I tried my best to ignore them and possibly, help Uchiha-san.

"Um, Uchiha-san, do you n-need help with anything?"

He sighed and removed his glasses, pinching the ridge of his nose briefly before putting them back on. "I'm fine."

"Would you like something to dr-drink? Are you hungry for anything?"

Suddenly, he shut the book he was reading and glared at me. "Okay, stop that."

"S-Stop what?"

He lowered his voice, grinding his teeth as he spoke. "You're just watching over me, no one said anything about you having to attend to my needs."

I lowered my voice as well, hoping that none of the girls were listening in on us. "Yes, b-but I just want to make sure you're comfortable at a-all times. I mean, I heard from the headmistress th-that you haven't attended a public school at all in the past three years."

He tightened his fists, the veins clearly visible beneath his pale skin. "That old hag..." he muttered. For some reason, I could suddenly envision flames behind him. Hoping to calm him down, I decided to ask him a question that had always been on my mind.

"Weren't you...lonely though?"

And just like that, the flames suddenly vanished into thin air. He blinked several times as he stared at me.

"I have maids and caretakers everywhere inside my house."

"Oh no, I-I don't mean like that. I meant to say, w-weren't you lonely without any friends around?"

He gazed at me momentarily before returning to the book he'd been reading earlier, leafing through it with absolutely no interest. Shrugging, he muttered "Not really."

I folded my hands in my lap and looked down at the table. "Wh-When I was younger, I was really sh-shy."

"Was?" he snorted.

My face went red. "Everyone w-would pick on me because I was q-quiet in class." I couldn't tell if he was still listening or not, but went on anyways. "At that time, during my fifth year in elementary school, I wanted to quit so badly." Without realizing it, my voice became softer as I spoke. "I told my parents, 'anything but there, please don't make me go back to that place!' And my mother," I smiled as I thought of her. "She asked me if I had any friends, but I didn't say anything. I was...I was so embarrassed. I didn't want her to know that I didn't have any. No one liked me. They made fun of my eyes and told me that I was ugly. But...I didn't tell my mother about any of it because I didn't want to. I...I thought that she would be ashamed of me."

I glanced up to briefly catch Uchiha-san's eyes watching me. Glancing back down, I continued. "At that time, when I didn't answer her, she just smiled at me and patted my head. I started to tell her again that I didn't want to go back to school anymore, and without even giving her a reason. She...she picked me up and held me close to her. Her body was so warm at the time that I didn't want to let go. I remember wishing that I could stay next to her forever."

A breeze blew in from the window to our left that someone had opened earlier, causing the white curtains to billow momentarily before settling back into place. I brushed aside my hair, tucking the strands back behind my ear. Warm sunlight fell over the table we sat at, warming our pale and cool skin. Uchiha-san closed his book and took off his glasses, leaning back in his chair as he listened to me.

"My mother whispered to me that I would someday find friends, friends that I could rely on. I didn't understand what she meant at the time, but the next day after school, I was bullied again on my way home. They threw rocks at me and whatever else they knew would hurt me. The girls, in particular, seemed to really hate me. Even to this day, I still don't know why they did it."

"I never did think of you as a fighter," he mumbled, rolling his pencil around on the table.

Closing my eyes, I let my mind drift off to that day, they day I met Sakura and Ino.

"They...They saved me. Both Sakura and Ino got into a fistfight with the girls. I remember watching as they pulled at their hair and punched them." I giggled to myself. "I know I shouldn't laugh, but I can still remember how they looked that day. Their hair and clothes were all messed up. And they asked me if I was okay." Smiling at the memory, I could feel my voice breaking as I spoke. "We...We were in different classes, but they...they became friends with me anyway. I was so confused, yet...happy at the same time. Happy that they chose someone like me to be their friend."

The tears slid down my face before I even realized it. Sniffling, I wiped at my eyes. "Ah, I-I'm so stupid, I can't believe I'm crying over something like th-this..."

A minute passed by before Uchiha-san stood up to gather his belongings.

"I can't stand people like you," he muttered.

I lowered my head, regretting the decision I'd made to speak to him about such things.

"Beating yourself up over something stupid that happened a long time ago. You're not as bad as you make yourself out to be y'know."

In a few seconds, I'd found myself alone in the library, blushing furiously at Uchiha-san's words.

A/N: Er, sorry for keeping it so short. I don't have enough time since my computer's being stupid right now.

Read and review please! Um, if it's not too much trouble that is... (blush.)