Outside, the academy playground was filled with children from all years playing with each other or eating their lunches with their friends. In the shade of the trees, the friends had their lunch boxes out with their food, eating and laughing with each other, along with Neji and his year friend Tenten. Sakura liked the older girl; she was independent and focused on her ninja studies unlike some of the other girls the ten year old she had come across who seemed to be more focus on falling in love with some handsome, brave ninja they would fall in love with on a mission then caring whether they were fighting for the good of the village; something that the poor prodigy from the Hyuga clan had to live with every day and since she was in a good mood, even felt sorry for chicken butt who for some reason had millions of fan girls following him around all day. At the moment, both girls were debating over which weapon was better, a kunai or a senbon, until a shadow blocked the winter sunlight. Looking up to see who it was, Sakura could only see large canine teeth blocking her vision.
"Hey pinkie! Mind if I sit here?" Kiba asked but did not wait for a reply as he just sat down next to her. Not caring at all that he nearly sat on her sandwich that her adoptive mother had made this morning with her favourite ingredients; sausages. The ten year old had to work quickly to push her food out of the way so that she wouldn't have to eat butt flattened sandwich.
"What do you want dog boy?" Naruto eyed the fellow from their class suspiciously but his question was completely ignored as Kiba's puppy eyes were all focused on the pink haired girl.
"So you want to go on a date sometime?" He inquired, his large teeth beaming in the light. We're ten years old and he's already thinking about dating? Sakura wondered to herself but couldn't really blame the whole idea on him as some of the girls in her class her already planned weddings details to their marriage to Sasuke Uchiha.
"I'll pass thanks." She rejected politely as she began munching back into her food. However, despite the sad look she was expecting to see on her sparring partners face, he looked... fine.
"Don't worry, all the girls changed their mind in the end." He grinned at her and Sakura couldn't stop the huge sweat drop falling down the side of her head.
"What girls?" Tenten mocked him and everyone in the group started laughing, apart from Kiba who looked slightly embarrassed now. After a few moments of abnormal silence, the new addition fit into the group perfectly. Though, Naruto and Kiba seemed to rub off on each other in the wrong way still because of their similar personalities but seemed to get along fine in the end.
Halfway through lunch, Sakura excused herself to the ladies room, leaving the two boys to argue who was better than the other. It didn't take her long to find it as she used her abilities to map out the whole school in her head, so she knew where everything was and every person. Which was why she was not surprised to find a large group of girls standing in front of the bathrooms, one of them being the blonde girl that Sakura had trouble remembering. Just as she placed a hand on the door, a hand shot out and barred her from entering.
"Five yen please." The tall girl snorted sarcastically and some of the girls laughed, though the new student found it difficult to understand what was so funny.
"I wouldn't even pay that to have your face reconstructed." Sakura snapped back, sending the whole area into silence; over the years of abuse she had received on the lower levels of the hidden villages living environment, the pink haired girl had learned to stand up for herself. Besides, Sakura had a strict human rights policy that all people should be allowed to go to the toilet when they need it. The head girl, who barred her entrance, only seemed to grow angrier as her face turned to a strange tomato red colour.
"You've got a problem with my face." She hissed, a spray of spit falling on the pink girls face but she refused to move an inch of her muscles and stood her ground firmly. Sensing something strange, Sakura looked out of the corner of her eye to see the blonde girl with the high ponytail giving her a pleading look to not push it any further. A little too late for that, the new student told herself as she knew that when you attacked a woman's appearance that was no turning back.
"Not yet but I soon will if you don't let me pass." She eyed the girl, refusing to back down. As the two of them stared at each other in a silent take down, the other group of girls stood and watch waiting for someone to make the first move. Under per pressure, it was the bully who through the first punch. As the fist came at her face, Sakura jumped back and aimed a high turning kick towards the taller girls head. Shock but the speed and flexibility it took to stretch her leg up that high, the bully didn't have enough time to block the advance, and had her face smacked into the side wall. As the girl sank to the floor holding her face in pain, Sakura went to the bathroom.
First day and I already got into a fight, Sakura thought to herself later on when she was sitting down with her friends again finishing off lunch and she was explaining to them what had happen on her visit to the girls toilets. She hoped that no one would tell on her because even though deep down her knew she gave the student a piece of her own medicine that she would get in trouble with the adults. Still, I suppose it could have gone worse! The pink haired girl thought to herself. I could have got in a fight and lost!
After lunch the students of the ninja academy were again back inside their classes learning ninja theory. As Iruka sensei had his back to the class, most of the children found the opportunity to whisper among themselves, sending glances at her before noticing that she could see them and turned away again, embarrassed. It there was one thing that Sakura hatred apart from having pink hair, a slightly large forehead and bullies then it was when other people talked about her when she was right behind them. Honestly, it was like every person thought they had an invisible wall around them to hold in all their secrets as they whispered to one another and these people wanted to be ninja's!
"I heard she knocked her head off and the medics had to reattach it to her spine." One student gossiped in the row to her left and Sakura had the sudden urge to bang her head on the table. Where do people get these ideas from? She wondered to herself.
"Seems like you got yourself a bit of a reputation already Sakura." Naruto grinned, elbowing her in the side. I didn't want it to make like this, Sakura wanted to say out loud but chose to keep it to herself. She hoped people wouldn't begin calling her The Head Knock Offer or something that was a bit easier on the tongue. Honestly, all she did was kick the girl around the head, the girl was positive that worse fights had happened; it was a ninja school after all. Maybe it was because she was the new girl that made her stick out more than the rest. The whispering began to die down when their teacher turned to them and threaten to make everyone stay after school if they didn't listen. So thankfully she was allowed to write her notes in peace. That was until she heard someone's tummy rumble, she tried to ignore it but the sound only got louder. Looking up, she saw a chubby boy sitting in front of her with spiky, light, reddy brown hair trying to muffle the sound up with no success. Reaching down into her back she picked up the bag of crisps she had left over from lunch and poked him on the back. The boy looked at her with a worried expression on his face.
"Here, have this." She ordered, passing the food over to him. Gratefully, the boy accepted it and shot her a nervous smile.
"Thanks." He whispered back and dug into the treat he had been giving. After a while the noise disappeared and for a short while. Until she heard snoring. At first she thought it was her imagination but when it continued she look up to see the boy with the dark ponytail sitting next to the hungry boy asleep. Wasn't he the same guy that was asleep this morning to, she wondered to herself and stared at the boy with great interested.
"Don't bother trying to wake him; he'll just fall back to sleep again." The chubby boy told her, noticing her staring at him.
"Choji's right, Shikamaru could sleep through a whole war if one suddenly happened." Naruto joked and Sakura couldn't help but smile, the guy with the ponytail was very unusual.
"But won't he get in trouble." She asked the boys around her, worried that Iruka sensei would tell the sleepy boy off and punish him but everyone else didn't seem very worried but this fact.
"You worry too much you troublesome girl." A lazy voice muttered and her attention turned towards the dark brown eyes that were now open and staring right at her. Sakura found it quite offensive to be called 'troublesome' but she didn't push her luck, she had already drawn the line today with the bathroom incident and worried that if she caught the teachers' attention she'll cause a bigger problem for herself. For a while the small group talked, only stopping to write down important facts they needed to know (well everyone except Naruto and Shikamaru) Sakura really liked Choji though it got him a while to open up a bit at first since he was rather shy and had a bit of a confidence problem and Shikamaru just found everything to much effort and 'troublesome' though she had to admit he did seem very smart and thought his sarcastic humour was quite funny. Finally, it was time to go home and everyone packed up their stuff and headed out.
Sakura, Naruto, Hinata and Neji, stood at the front entrance of the playground waiting to see if any of the adults were going to walk them home. They said if no one showed up in fifteen more minutes than they would just walk home and leave a message for Kakashi that as usual his tardiness had unexpected consequences. Around the playground they could see other kids running to meet their parents or friends to walk home with and despite her short arrival she saw three of the boys she had been introduce to today give her and her friends a wave goodbye.
As they promised, after twenty minutes, the small group was walking home after leaving a message for Kakashi to say they were at home as they made their way home. Their first stop was the Hyuga compound, where Neji and Hinata said goodbye and went to Lord Hyuga for some training, leaving Naruto and Sakura to journey home by themselves. They both talked about (well Sakura did most of the talking) about how exciting the pink hair girl first day of the academy was. It was better than she expected, the girl had made some new friends, she hadn't butted heads with Sasuke Uchiha in the slightest way and not mention she had kicked Kiba's butt in her first taijutsu lesson. All in all it had been a very good. However, before they could reach the door of their house, smoke suddenly busted out of nowhere and the children couldn't help but choke a little on the smoke.
"Thanks for waiting for me guys." Kakashi confronted them with a pretend hurtful look on his face. His younger siblings weren't buying it though.
"You shouldn't be late." Naruto pointed out, waggling his finger in a telling of manner.
"I was only half an hour late!" The silver haired man whined in his defence (in all fairness that was kind of an achievement for him) but before more could be said, the loud barking of a puppy could be heard and suddenly, Sakura finally found herself tackled by a puppy.
"Woo boy!" Sakura couldn't contain her laughter, as the puppy continued to lick her face. The girl could understand why he was so frantic to see her as this was the longest they had been apart ever since she got out of the hospital and the half earless dog got a little stress if he didn't see her for a long period of time. "Man have I got lots of things to tell you about today." She squealed excitedly, as she hoisted the puppy into the air and then placed him beside her so she could get back up.
"How was your first day of school Sakura?" Minato asked as the family sat around the table that night eating dinner. As soon as the questioned was asked Sakura went off on one explain how amazing her day was and all the new people she met. The adults could not get rid of the smile on their faces as they watched the young girl talk with a smile on her face. The only thing she left out was her fight by the toilets but she told herself they didn't need to know that.
But if she thought she had a lucky escape then she was completely wrong. However, she wasn't confronted until bedtime when she was grabbing her toy owl off the bedside table and Minato came to tuck her into bed. As he sat on the side and pulled her covers up, Tomi came in dragging his tired feet along the floor and placed himself in the door basket at the end of the bed.
"I'm glad you had a good first day Sakura but we need to talk about the fight you got into today." He spoke firmly and the girl new the game was up. Busted! Sakura told herself as she sat herself up slightly. How did he find out?
"It was her fault." Sakura defended herself, not to mention it was the truth since she would not of gotten into the fight in the first place if the girl had not been blocking the door to the bathroom, plus it wasn't like the girl hadn't been warned, earlier that day she had told the whole class she hated bullies; did no one heed any warning from that? Instead of looking angrily or annoyed like she thought he would, the Hokage insisted that she told her side of the story and listened carefully to what she had to say. Sakura did her best to try and stay neutral with the information she was giving him but couldn't help but let little outbursts of rage escape every now and again. After she had finished, she had expected some kind of long boring lecture to boring; again she was proven wrong.
"You had every right to defend yourself Sakura but you can't solve everything with violence next time you just walk away." The Hokage told her but the young girl wasn't actually convinced.
"Yeah but I'm going to be ninja I can't just turn my back on anything that gets a little rough!" The girl protested.
"Yes that is true but remember this." The firmness in his voice made Sakura sit up a little straighter as she listened to her adoptive father. "You must remember that you are a soldier and yourself, you must keep the two different people separate, if you let your feelings come in to your profession you could end up making a mistake you will regret for the rest of your life and you must let the shinobi life consume your ordinary life otherwise it will destroy you. It up to you to learn which one must do what." With that he pulled the covers up to her chair and wished her goodnight. The loneliness gave her time to allow what the man had said to sink in.