Chapter Five

Sakura soon realized just how rarely a new student came to the school; those excited whispers she heard earlier, the ones that were only died down by a childish prank, roared louder than ever. Her new first period teacher, Mr. Hatake as she had decided to call him, directed everyone to do it in a more organized fashion, telling them all to raise their hands so she wouldn't feel too overwhelmed. To her surprise, they actually listened.

Naruto once again jumped on top of his desk, looking around as he tried to raise his hand higher than anyone else's. He succeeded. "Hey, when's your birthday!"

"What?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. It was one of those questions that wasn't necessarily strange, but . . . Why would he ask that? "Is there a reason you need to know?"

"So I can get you a present," he replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Alright," she muttered to herself, still not so convinced. She liked the idea of receiving gifts from a boy, though. "March Twenty-Eight."

"Next month!"

The rest of the class continued on with questions like, 'Have you ever had a boyfriend?' or 'What was her old home like?' She didn't really want to answer either of those in particular: Both made her heart sink. She was rather glad when Naruto would half interrupt these people and instead made her feel better like, 'What's your favorite kind of animal?' and 'Since you're in all AP classes, you must have a high GPA right?'

"Lucky you," Naruto said with a pouty face as he sat back down in his chair fully, putting his elbow on his desk and holding his head in his hand. "I think my GPA for our last report card was like . . . a 1.3 or something."

The class laughed loudly at him and even he laughed. It was by then that the class bell rang and everyone abruptly stood, some of them whispering thank-yous for getting them out of class. She was a little upset Sasuke said nothing to her the entire class and not when he walked by, but a few other male students did.

"Wow," one said, a wide smile on his face. "You're even cuter close up!"

"R-really?" Something about Naruto and him hitting on her didn't faze her, even though it didn't happen often. With this guy, someone she didn't even register while in class, her shy side came and she blushed at the compliment. "Thank you . . ."

She nodded respectfully and said her goodbyes, beginning to walk out the front door when the second male of the three slammed his hand to the wall in front of her, stopping her. He smirked.

"Come on," he said, his voice filled with a lecherous desire. She could almost taste it, and an instinct of fear rose up. Why hadn't she ever learned to stand up for herself? "All we want is a phone number today, Sakura."

"Today?" she repeated in a small voice, her eyes towards the ground. 'What did they mean by 'today'? I hope they're not expecting more . . .'

"Hey, knock it off!"

Pushing the boy out of the way was none other than the one who had made her answer every pointless question under the sun: Naruto, who gave each of the other boys a deadly leer. At first they laughed a little, but a fierce blow was delivered to one of the troublemakers' face, knocking him against the wall and making him second guess. It wasn't enough to knock him out and the three quickly hurried out of the classroom.

"You okay?" Naruto asked, patting her shoulder a bit. She shuddered at the touch, but she knew, or at least she was sure that this touch was okay. She nodded, and suddenly wanted to cry. Not because she was scared; it was more like she hated herself for being afraid of something like that. Didn't girls want that to happen to them all the time?

'I just . . .' as much as Sakura loved to fantasize, real life wasn't so kind to her. She wanted a relationship, a trusting love so badly, but how could she do that when she hated boys who were merely asking for her number? They probably did have worse intentions from the way they acted, but still . . . Even then, she had to learn to stand up for herself.

Everything in her life lately though, not just this, was crashing. It was all going down.

"It's okay," Naruto said, then again for a second and third time. He didn't want to hug her; that would probably make the situation worse, since she was just harassed. Her hands covered her face and her bangs fell over as she started to cry a little. He jogged over to the teacher's desk where Kakashi-sensei was sitting, leaning back in a chair reading a book with a white cover over top of it.

"Sorry I used my karate in class, Kakashi," he said, taking the tissue box. The older of the two waved it off, not taking his eyes off the book. He barely seemed to realize Naruto had used his first name, as if he were used to the calling. Naruto smirked as he went back to Sakura- his master, his teacher, was a very strange man indeed.

"Here you go."

Sakura lifted her head a bit and took a few tissues from the box and wiped her face with it, the make-up she was wearing smearing over her face. 'Great,' she thought, her arms trembling a little. 'Now I won't look like that pretty girl those boys were going after.'

After a moment she looked up at Naruto, who didn't have the box anymore but still had a few more tissues in his hand in case she needed them. She felt like crying some more, but something inside her just didn't have the initiative. They met eyes for a few moments, and he smiled. "Wanna talk about it? I have this place I go when I just wanna skip class- its great!"

'Skip class?' Sakura thought, an electric shock running through her. She'd never done that before in her life. In fact, she really enjoyed her classes and loved to learn. But this offer was something she really couldn't resist. She hadn't had anyone to talk to since she came here, and while she very well could run to the school guidance counselor, maybe speaking to her own peer would be best. "Sure . . . thank you."

Barely before the bell rang and while late students were rushing to get to their classes on time, Naruto and Sakura hurried out into the hallway and jogged a little, slowing sometimes under the eyes of teachers waiting for their lessons to start. To her, even though they only ran down the hallway, it was a long one since she had never been down it before. She wanted to look around and maybe even count how many white checkered spots on the floor there were as opposed to the black ones.

They finally came across the very last one, and Naruto looked around, jumping a bit when the loud bell for tardiness sounded. He quickly opened the door and ushered her in, closing it as quietly as he could. It was dark, but Sakura could faintly see stairs before her, and Naruto's shoes clanged against the steel steps. She saw his hand vaguely being held out to her, and she took it, hoping she wouldn't fall.

Instead of a ceiling above them there was an off sideways door and Naruto pushed on it, revealing above the both of them a sunny light and a baby blue as far as they could see. He stepped further until he was out on the top of the school building, pulling her up as well. It was windy and her hair was blowing over her face, but in a way the view was incredible. She relished in a sort of free spirit thinking, looking at the infinite amount of green land stamped with cherry blossom trees that strode around the school. The petals blew up so high that there were many piles on the top where they stood.

"This is amazing!" she said excitedly, running out to the edge of the building. She looked down, learning how high she was and feeling brave for it. It changed her mood instantly to a happy one, and she was glad she learned of this spot so early. "What a view . . ."

"Yup!" Naruto agreed, standing next to her. Looking down, she almost lost her balance and fell, but the shorter of the two grabbed the back of the collar of her shirt and pulled her back. She choked a little, but she was still grateful nonetheless. He sat down, his legs dangling over the edge and she did the same. It was still morning so the sun wasn't exactly up yet, but it was rising. It was astonishing to watch. "So, what's bothering you?"

'Oh.' For a moment she had completely forgotten the reason she came up here in the first place. Just looking around alone made the dark feelings go away, but Sakura still thought it best to talk about it since she knew that as soon as she walked back inside, the murk would arise again. She lifted one of her legs and rested her chin on it, wrapping her arms around it as well. "Well . . . I don't know where to start."

"Start by why you moved here," he said, and it was almost as if she were a target board and he threw the at the problem dead-center. Had he read her mind? "Going to a place like where I live isn't really a good sign, especially with money."

Sakura began slowly, beginning to talk faster as she felt her emotions rile up. "Mom and Dad . . . they've had their own business ever since I was little, and it was really nice and it did really well. Then they started to argue and fight, and they never talked to me, and . . ." She felt something crawl up her throat, making it hard to speak. A sizzling hot water arose in her eyes and she squeezed them closed. "Things just . . . went wrong."

Naruto didn't say anything, and part of her was surprised about it. He already was the gentlemanly type, she could say. A little bit of an arrogant jerk, but he certainly knew morals even if he was immature. Didn't he have anything to say? Anything?

There was a long silence between them, and Sakura glanced over his way for the first time. He caught it and smiled, reaching into his pocket and holding out more tissues, which she gladly took to clean her face. 'Say something, please! I don't know . . .'

"The sky is really pretty, isn't it?" he said out of nowhere, surprising her yet again. It made her angry, and she scrunched up the now wet cleaner in her hand. Did he even listen to her this whole time? What a jerk! "I bet both of your parents are at work right now, looking up at the same sky and thinking the same thing. Imagine that!"

. . . Maybe he was paying attention. But while it didn't have much to do with her situation and he didn't even know the tip of the iceberg, it made her feel so much better. It wasn't sympathy, or an 'I can relate' story he fed her. It was just something . . . nice.

He laughed some in a boyish way, the way she heard his laugh already many times earlier that day. "The only difference between them and us is that they're not skipping."

She giggled herself a little at that; it wasn't funny, but it was uplifting. She smiled back at him, a warm feeling settling in her stomach. Her cheeks felt the same, but it wasn't a blush. It was very comfortable. She didn't ignore what things he said before, but still, she didn't know what else to say. "Yeah . . . the sky really is pretty . . ."

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I still like this chapter a lot. XD So sweet! Naruto's just too adorable. -hugs him-