Hello! I hope everyone had very happy holidays! I know I did! Not much to say except that I don't own any aspect of Naruto! Enjoy this chapter, and please leave a review!

Alyson awoke the next morning to the sound of an unfamiliar alarm clock screeching. It took her a moment before she realized the clock belonged to Sakura, and that she was at the Japanese girl's house, rather than her own home overseas. Alyson fumbled around for a few moments before she found and silenced the alarm.

Hesitantly, she slid from beneath the covers and made her way to the bathroom down the hall. Alyson quickly showered and dressed, then ran to the mirror to check her appearance. She frownedslightly as she gazed at her reflection. She wasn't used to wearing a school uniform, and she felt rather silly in one. Alyson was still surveying herself when Sakura walked into the room, a large smile adoring her face.

"Breakfast is ready whenever you are," the pink haired girl informed her. Alyson managed a weak smile and nod in return. As if she were reading the young American's mind Sakura added, "You don't need to be nervous about school. You speak wonderful Japanese. And you'll fit right in with all my friends, so you shouldn't worry about that either."

"Arrigato," Alyson said, the frown leaving her face. Feeling much less ill at ease, she made her way into the dining room where the rest of the family was already eating. By the time Alyson had finished her meal the nervous feelings once again began washing over her. She was immediately distracted from her worries by a knock at the door. Sakura announced that the knock meant it was time for the pair of themto head to school, and they both bide the Haruno family goodbye.

Sakura flung open her home's front door to revel a grinning Ino on the other side. "Ready for the first day back?" the blonde asked. Sakura took a deep breath and nodded vigorously.

"I am so glad to be home," she told her best friend.

The three began making there way towards the school and Ino turned her attentions toward Alyson, "How about you Alyson? Are you nervous about starting at a new school? Especially, since you are in a foreign country and all…"

The brunette pondered the question for a few seconds before answering, "No, I'm not too worried." And at that moment, it was the truth. The sun was shining brightly, warming Alyson's face, and accentuating the leaf's brilliant fall colors. She was in Japan, which was somewhere she had wanted to live ever since she was a child, and from the way Ino was treating her, it looked as though Alyson had already made some friends. At that instant, it was impossible for the American to be unhappy. Worry? The word seemed practically foreign to Alyson.

She beamed at Ino. "This country is so beautiful and all of Sakura's friends are so nice that I'm sure I'll have no problem adjusting to the change."

The blue eyed girl let out a small laugh in return. "Just wait until you get to know some of our friends better. They are not quite as civil as they may appear," she warned.

"Naruto and Kiba are extremely loud," Sakura notified Alyson.

"Sasuke and Neji have a tendency to be aloof," Ino added.

"Oh, so does Shino!"

"Lee has a propensity to be quite overzealous."

"Hinata is really shy, but she is actually friendly if you get to know her."

"Chouji is a pig. He eats way too much. If you're not careful he might mistake your finger for food and bite it off."

"Shikamaru is exceptionally lazy."

"Yeah…I mean…wait…hey!" Ino cried. "That's my boyfriend you're talking about!"

"Oops," Sakura said, blushing slightly from embarrassment. "I guess that fact slipped my mind. I haven't known that you were dating for even one full day. Give it time to sink in."

Ino folded her arms across her chest, obviously still slightly unhappy with Sakura's comment. "Well, Shika is a genius, even if he is lazy," the pink haired girl added.

All traces of Ino's frown faded from her face. "Yeah! He scored way over 200 on his IQ test," she proudly informed Alyson.

"Can you guess what our fault is?" Sakura asked her American exchange. Alyson decided that it may be dangerous to respond to the question, so she simply shrugged and shook her head.

"We gossip too much!" Ino exclaimed merrily. Sakura laughed loudly and nodded in agreement. "Anyway, where were we?" the blue eyed blonde questioned.

"Hum…" Sakura trailed off. "Oh yeah! We never told you about Tenten!"

Ino's eyed widened. "Oh yeah, Tenten. She puts school work before everything else. She can be kind of dull at times…"

The gossip session went on for quite awhile, but by the time the trio arrived at the high school the focus of the discussion had shifted.Ino and Sakura had ceased talking about their friends and were now forewarning Alyson about their teacher's quirks. Right before they crossed the threshold into school Alyson was being cautioned about the Biology teacher.

"Jiraiya-sensei is a huge pervert! Watch out for him!" Ino advised.

"Ewww! Yeah, he is such a perverted old man! I catch him trying to look up my skirt all the time!" Sakura chimed in.

As she pushed open the door, Alyson what exactly she had gotten herself into when she entered into the exchange program.

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Uzumaki Naruto nervously ran his fingers through his blond hair, trying to tame any fly-away strands. "Do I look okay?" he asked Lee. The heavy browed boy thoroughly looked Naruto over before giving him a thumbs-up.

"You look like the epitome of beautiful springtime youth!" he loudly exclaimed. Naruto rolled his eyes, but decided to take the black eyed boy's comment as a compliment.

"Lee, you should stop stealing Gai-sensei's catchphrases," recommended a voice behind the boys. "They aren't cool. It's no surprise you don't have a girlfriend." The friends whirled around to find Kiba grinning playfully.

"Gai-sensei is an embodiment of coolness! Don't insult him!" Lee said in a hurt voice. "And you're not one to talk about being single! You don't have a girlfriend either!"

Kiba scoffed noisily. "I don't want a girlfriend," he informed Lee.

"Yeah right!" Lee yelled. "I see the burning flame of love in your eyes every time you look at Hinata-chan!"

Kiba looked mortified, and his face immediately turned a deep burgundy color. "Who told you I liked her?!" the brunette demanded.

"Ah ha!" Lee shouted triumphantly. "So you admit to liking her?"

"No!" Kiba spat out. Naruto shook his head and turned his attentions away from his bickering friends towards the small mirror that resided in his locker.

This morning the young basketball star had spent extra time preening. He gelled his hair, splashed on cologne, and had even brushed his teeth. Though it was against the school dress code, Naruto decided to leave his shirt untucked. In his opinion, it made him look much cooler.

He wanted to look perfect for Sakura-chan. Naruto got the feeling that he hadn't impressed his crush too much in the airport the previous afternoon. Today he planned to sweep the cherry blossom haired beauty off her feet with his mature behavior and good looks.

Down the hall, Sakura was opening her locker, and Naruto knew his chance to talk to the pretty girl had come. He gathered up all of his nerves and strolled up to his green eyed crush. Naruto refrained from calling out "Oi! Sakura-chan!" like he typically did. Instead he politely greeted his friend, "Ohayo Sakura-chan. How are you doing?"

Sakura, who had been engrossed in organizing her locker, looked up. She examined Naruto for a few moments, and then began blushing. "I'm fine Naruto-kun," she responded. "How are you?"

This time it was Naruto who was late in responding to the posed question. He was in shock that Sakura had called him Naruto-kun. He had been waiting his entire life for Sakura-chan to attach that suffix to his name. It sure beat being called Naruto no baka, which was the only thing Sakura had affixed to his name since they first met. "I'm excellent Sakura-chan," the blonde finally managed to spit out. "You're looking very pretty today," he added for good measure.

"Me?" Sakura asked pointing to herself. "Me? Naruto you are the one who's looking ho… I mean…" she trailed off. "Well… let's just say your looks changed drastically during last year," Sakura finished.

Naruto was too dense to realize that Sakura had almost said he looked hot, but he was ecstatic all the same. She had noticed that he looked different from the scrawny boy she had once known. "Yeah, well basketball really whipped me into shape," Naruto told her.

The two talked about how they had spent their junior year until the bell rang, indicating that the students should get to class.

"It was really nice talking to you Sakura-chan," Naruto informed the girl. "Have a good day!"

"You too Naruto-kun. See you in class," Sakura said. And with that the two departed ways; each heading towards their lockers. "I have a feeling this is going to be a good year," the blonde thought to himself. "A very good year."

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Sakura sat in Advanced Writing, bored to tears, as Ebisu-sensei droned on about the different ways in which sentences could be formed and arranged. She felt her eyes slowly shutting and her head gravitating towards the desk when she was snapped back to the realm of the conscious by someone hissing her name. Sakura looked around, trying to figure out who exactly the owner of the voice was. When her emerald eyes fell upon Ino, her best friend winked, and dropped a piece of paper on the floor.

Assuming the paper was a note for her; Sakura extended her foot out and dragged the message towards her desk. As quietly as possible, Sakura unfolded letter and began reading its contents.

Sakura:

What's going on with you and Naruto? I saw you talking to before class, and you both looked pretty into each other! So spill girl, what is the deal! Do you like him?

PS: He did get pretty hunky while you were gone, ne?

Sakura cheeks had a pink tinge to them by the time she finished reading Ino's note. Had it really looked like she was interested in Naruto while she was talking to him? She didn't want people thinking that! She most certainly did not like that blonde brat.

"Well…he's actually not that bad," said Sakura's inner voice. Knowing it was pointless to contradict her inner self, since she always said what Sakura was truly thinking, the pink haired girl wrote this response:

Ino-chan:

Well, I'll admit that Naruto did get better looking, and he is definitely more mature. I'm not yet sure if I like him though… but I wouldn't turn him down if he asked me on a date…

Sakura folded up the paper, and slid it back towards Ino. Unfortunately Ebisu-sensei turned around at the very moment Ino decided to pick up the note.

Frowning, he said, "I certainly hope you are passing notes concerning different ways to form sentences." He then strode over to Ino and snatched the paper out of her hands. The teacher unfolded the note and quickly scanned it. Much to the relief of both girls, their sensei did not read the note aloud. He simply crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash. "Next time I catch you passing notes I am sending you to the office," Ebisu informed them.

Sakura breathed a huge sigh of relief. She felt as though she had just gotten away with murder. The green eyed girl would never have been able to cope with the embarrassment of having all her classmates learn that she had a tiny crush on Naruto. Not to mention the horror of having Naruto himself learn this bit of information. Now that she thought about it, she didn't even want Ino to know. Sakura was glad that her friend had never had a chance to read her reply.

The rest of the class period flew by uneventfully, as did the rest of the day. Ino invited Sakura and Alyson to hang out at her house after school, but Sakura wasn't in the mood. She really had to sort out her feelings for Naruto and Sasuke. The cherry-blossom haired student just wanted to be alone, to have silence, to think.

Since Alyson seemed to be eager to go to Ino's, and becasue Sakura wanted to have some solitude, she gave the American permission to visit Ino's house without her. Sakura knew she was supposed to stay with her exchange student at all times, but her head was too clouded with emotions for her to think straight.

Sakura rapidly walked home and shut herself in her room. "Do I like Naruto?" she asked herself. "Or do I still like Sasuke-kun?" For once in her life, Haruno Sakura didn't know who she had a crush on.

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The brown haired, black eyed boy was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the basketball whizzing towards him until it was too late. The bright orange ball collided with his head, violently jerking him back into reality. He angrily spun around, his fist tightly clenched. "Who did that?!" he barked.

"Quit yapping Kiba. It was your own fault," replied the cool, calm voice of his teammate, Uchiha Sasuke. "Maybe if you paid attention to practice, and not all the girls," he said, motioning to the bevy of females who were watching from the bleachers, "then you wouldn't have gotten hit in the head."

The rest of the basketball team burst into laughter, and Kiba's face began boiling with anger. He let out a low growl and began charging towards Sasuke. His fist was coiled back, ready to strike Sasuke's face, when their coach jumped in front of him.

"Oi! Kiba!" Coach Iruka cried. "Don't start fights or you'll be sitting on the bench next game!"

Reluctantly, Kiba dropped his fist. "Fine," he mumbled. "But he started it," he said grumpily, a dark look spreading over his face.

"Let's stop here for today," Iruka proclaimed, sensing that he had better end their practice before Kiba and Sasuke decided to kill each other.

The team collected all the basketballs, put them away, and then began heading towards the locker room. They were quickly stopped by Coach Iruka, who said he needed be make a quick announcement before they could go home.

The boys stopped in their tracks, and turned to face their coach, intently waiting for Iruka's announcement. By the look on Iruka's face, Kiba could tell that this announcement was not something he would be happy to hear. The coach cleared his throat then began to speak.

"As you know every year Konaha High throws a Fall Formal dance. Each year a different club or team from our high school hosts the dance, and as a reward, they receive all profits from the tickets they sell. Our basketball team desperately needs new uniforms, so…"

"Please don't tell me our team has to put on the dance," Sasuke interrupted.

"Gomen nasi Sasuke-kun, but yes, we are. I volunteered us to put on the Fall dance," Iruka informed the team. Simultaneous groans escaped all the boy's mouths.

"How troublesome," whined Shikamaru. His teammates all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Stop complaining," Couch Iruka snapped. "Doesn't the team need new uniforms?" he asked. There was a chorus of mumbled yes's, and many head bobbing up and down, concurring that the team was in serious need of new uniforms.

"Then suck it up and host the Christmas dance," Iruka demanded. Somewhat unwilling, the team agreed to put on the dance. Their coach proceeded to inform the Konaha basketball team what exactly hosting the dance encompassed.

They needed to advertise, set up a table during lunch where students could buy tickets, arrange for a DJ, and decorate the gym. Iruka decided the most efficient way to accomplish these tasks was splitting everyone up into small teams, each with a different duty.

"Kiba, you and Naruto are in charge of advertising and finding the DJ. Chouji and Shino you get to sell tickets. Lee, Neji, Sasuke, and Shikamaru, you have to buy the decorations and set the gym up for the dance." The team grumbled about how much work they had to do, but Iruka eventually got them to promise that they would all do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

Iruka was about to tell the guys to hit the showers when he remembered one final thing he had to notify the team. "By the way," he began. "Since we are hosting this dance you must attend it. No exceptions," he said sternly, cutting off Sasuke who had opened his mouth to protest. "You must all be there, and you all have to have a date or you will sit out for the rest of the season." By the severe tone in his voice and the glare in his eyes, the team could tell their coach was serious. Iruka dismissed them, and the boys glumly made their way to the locker room.

"This sucks," Kiba stated as soon as they were out of Iruka's earshot.

"Putting the dance on is enough of a hassle, but now we have to attend it with as well. It's too much work," Shikamaru said, sighing lazily.

"Hey at least you have girlfriend!" Kiba yelled. "Think about us poor souls who are single!"

"Oh c'mon, it will be fun," Lee argued. "Plus we get new uniforms!"

"New uniforms are not worth being rejected by every girl in this school when we ask them to the dance," Kiba told Lee.

"You'll find a date," Lee insisted. Kiba snorted, and shook his head.

"No way, they'll all want to go with Sasuke-kun," he said in a very perturbed tone. The rest of the team all agreed with Kiba, and shot Sasuke accusing glances.

"What?" Sasuke asked. "You know I hate having all the girls fawn over me."

"Doesn't stop the fact that the all like you, and find all of us annoying," Naruto said. Sasuke kept quiet, and the rest of the team dropped the subject.

Kiba stood in the showers contemplating the announcement Coach Iruka had just made. A small part of him was excited about attending the dance. The a few moments he had visions of dancing with Hinata-chan: he looking dashing in a tuxedo, and she looking gorgeous in a flowing purple dress that perfectly accentuated her lovely eyes.

The brunette hastily shook the vision out of his mind, because he knew it would never come true. The fact remained that Hinata liked Naruto. The chances that she would actually go to the Fall Formal with Kiba were slim to none, and leaning towards none.

"What are you thinking about?" Shino asked, disrupting Kiba's train of though.

"Not much. Just that having to go to the dance sucks," he said gruffly.

Shino lowered his voice so that only Kiba could hear it and said, "If you want to go with Hinata I have a full proof plan that will assure she is your date to the dance."

Kiba wasn't sure what Shino's plan was, but he was positive it wouldn't work. However, it wasn't as though he had anything to loose by listening to his friend's scheme. "Okay, what is this big plan of yours?"

The black haired basketball player shook his head. "Not now. Come to my house after practice and we can discuss it."

Kiba agreed to go to Shino's, but was still skeptical that his teammate would get Hinata to go to the Fall Formal with him. "Shino better have something good up his sleeve," Kiba thought. "Because I don't want to spend the rest of the season on the bench."

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Yea! I am done with the third chapter! It is certainly a long one! So, what did you think of it? Good? Bad? Please leave a review and let me know what you think! And I am sorry if I got any details about Japanese high schools wrong! I really don't know much about them! Gomen!