Lost and Found

By: Junsui Kegasu

A/N: Whoo! I return! Sorry for the delay. I could've SWORN I had the first four pages saved, and then it was like…non-existent so I had to start over.

Disclaimer: Kishimoto-sama is the owner of Naruto. I shall never own it, just use it's characters.

Chapter three
Homeroom – Kankurou
Kankurou was very glad for his seat in the back of the room. He had a nice view from here. The bops here were actually HOT! He could probably live here if he wanted!

Well, it all depended on the cafeteria food…WAIT! DO NOT THINK ABOUT FOOD! He had only been in the room for fifteen minutes and people were already beginning to call him 'fatass' and 'lardo'. It sucked.

Everybody was just having random conversations. Who bopped who, who was sexier, which teacher they could bop, you know. Random stuff like that. Their teacher seemed to be getting into one of the conversations about some of the girls.

"Really! Wow, those freshmen…naughty naughty little girls!"

"Yeah, I know, sensei!" came the giggled reply.

Kankurou sweat dropped. His silver-haired sensei, who had been introduced as Kakashi, was horribly perverted. He felt bad for the poor girl that he got caught up with.

When did he get out of here again? About five minutes?

That was still too long. Judging by the noise coming from behind him, Gaara was probably not enjoying himself. It was like a very loud concert, combining both rooms together.

He leaned back in his chair, just enjoying himself in the environment. It had been Kankurou's goal, even as a young child, to be normal. However, with his bro- father, he told himself firmly. There was NOT going to be any blame placed on Gaara for what happened back in Sunaga. Anyways, with his FATHER being in his life, nothing could ever be normal.

He looked around. He couldn't really be described as normal here either. At least, not with his dress sense. All the other boys were clad in brightly colored t-shirts with sagging jeans. He himself wore a black t-shirt with the words 'silence is golden, but duct tape is silver' printed in silver and gold. He noticed that Gaara took his fishnet sleeves, so instead, his arms were covered in numerous wrist bands that had weird stuff on them, such as 'you smell funny', or 'dumbass'. His pants did not sag. (although they made funny noises if he moved enough! Praise the chains…) On his face, he had painted his trademark kabuki face marks (the ones he had in the beginning. The new ones are really scary…) Happy to find that Konoha High did not have a dress code, he took full advantage by jamming a black hat on his head so that no one could see his hair.

Looking at the clock, he noticed that the bell would probably ring in a moment or two, so he started gathering up his stuff (which he had scattered all over his personal space) and began stacking them in a sequence that worked only for him (i.e. – Smallest at the bottom, largest at the top) and watching as they toppled over before the bell rang.

"Dude, Kank'?" Said a boy with spiky black hair. Kankurou blinked. Where had this kid come from, and where did he get off calling him 'Kank'?

"Who are you?"

"Huh? Me? Abumi Zaku. My foster siblings and I reside in the back. We don' want you to be pulled in by those preps and whores out there. Wanna come sit with us?" The boy gestured towards the rest of the class.

"Sure, why not." Kankurou shrugged. If he had friends, he'd be considered normal. And he always jumped at a chance to be normal.

Homeroom – Temari
Okay, there were perverts in the honors classes too, Temari concluded. Ever since she had walked into the room (late, mind you) they had been staring at her.

Scowling, she mentally cursed herself for wearing what she had. Although her clothing was not unbearably tight, it didn't hang off of her like Gaara's did. (Well, nothing ever hung off her and Kankurou as it did Gaara. That's just how it was.) Her lime-green top went a little past her hips, but it was fitted, although not skin tight. Her jeans we just a general size, so nothing was really too uncomfortable there, so why were the boys staring! She was ready to beat them all over the head with her binder.

"Hey, you. Will you go out with me!" A boy with…blue…skin said.

"Um, sorry, I'm really not interested in a relationship right now." She flashed the blue boy an apologetic smile. "Plus, I don't even know your name! Have you no courtesy?" Now she was just trying to get acquainted with others.

"Kisame" the blue boy said, disappointment evident in his voice.

"Oh. You seem like a nice person, Kisame-san. Could you help me become acquainted with the others?" She flashed him another grin.

"Sure. See that guy over there?" He pointed to a boy in the back, talking to another boy. Both boys had long, black hair. The one Kisame was pointing to kept his in a long ponytail secured by a red rubber band. He had twin markings that went from just below his eyes, following his cheek bones. He was wearing a large red hooded sweatshirt and black jeans.

"His name is Uchiha Itachi. He's a friend of mine." Kisame then pointed to the boy that Itachi was talking to.

This boy kept his long, black hair down, and it reached to about halfway down his back. His skin was horribly pale (Temari thought that it may be paler than Gaara's) almost bordering on white. He (like Kankurou) wore face paint, except; this boy only wore the purple stuff around his eyes, which were a gleaming yellow. He wore a purple t-shirt and black leather pants. He looked kind of strange to Temari.

"That's Orochimaru. He's a good person too, even if he looks funny."

Temari couldn't help but giggle at that. "He doesn't look THAT strange…"

"Meh. Maybe not. It's kind of freaky, though, I mean, he's part of this foster family with three kids in the year below us. He like…controls those kids. I feel bad for them."

Temari nodded, turning her attention back to the teacher.

Physical Education – Gaara
Gaara winced as he entered the locker room with his gym uniform. He knew there was no going around changing, even on his first day. The teachers made it very clear that if he were to not change, his father would get a phone call home. He almost didn't care, but then he realized just how hazardous that could be to him, and decided to start thinking up excuses for the many bruises he had acquired in the past week or so all over his arms and legs.

He found where his locker was and dropped his stuff off in the big locker next to it. (Okay, for our school, as I said I'm basing this off of that, in our gym locker rooms, there are two lockers that you get. One is very small and is used for storage overnight. Then, there is one larger that is used for storing your clothing and other stuff while you're in class. It's a bit confusing at first, I suppose. The small lockers have numbers, and the large do not.) Realizing that Kankurou's shirt was almost down to his knees, he slid off his pants first, replacing them with the pair of shorts he had gotten. These shorts went about an inch or so past his knees, and the waste band almost didn't fit. Of course, he would never tell the teachers this, as the shorts were the smallest size.

Quickly glancing around to see if anyone was watching, he pulled the shirt over his head, and folded it neatly before putting it in the locker. Noting that where he had been punched this morning was now a really deep purple, he slid the gym t-shirt (also quite large on him) over his head and removed the fishnet sleeves before walking out of the room.

Surprisingly, he was one of the first ones out there. He guessed that everyone liked to lag, especially the girls. One of the teachers approached him.

"Gaara! Hi! Welcome to Konoha High!" said the teacher. He had long (shoulder length, about) brown hair that was pulled back in a black bandana. He was chewing on…something. Gaara couldn't tell if it was a toothpick or a needle. "We need to get stuff like your height, weight, age, birthday, you know, health stuff.

If it was humanly possible for him, Gaara would have paled. He knew he was underweight. He knew he was WAY underweight. What would this teacher think?

"Follow me." He said, walking into a back room. "By the way, my name's Genma, and I'll be your phys-ed teacher."

Gaara followed, numbly.

"Step on the scale, please."

Gaara silently did so, watching as Genma tilted the weights on the bars to suit him.

First, he put it on an average weight, about 120. Too much. He went down to 100. Too much. Genma frowned. 90. Getting closer…80. Perfect.

He looked at the redhead, bewildered. "L-let's check your height…" he raised a measuring tool out of the scale and had Gaara take of his shoes. The boy was only five feet tall, and just barely that. (GO SHORT PEOPLE!) "Umm…well, you're slightly under-average with height, but don't be too concerned about that. I'd be more concerned about your weight; you're about 16 pounds under something minimally healthy. Eat a good lunch, kid. I will send a notice down to the nurse about it. Do you have any eating disorders?"

Gaara shook his head. Did he? Not intentionally.

Genma frowned. "Okay, well, when was the last time you've eaten."

"…" Gaara wasn't even sure himself. When had he last eaten? Oh yes. "I had two poptarts this morning."

"What did you have for dinner last night?"

"We had just gotten into town last night, really late, so…none of us really had anything."

"Yeah, okay, this is definitely going down to the nurse, and probably the counselor too. You can go join the class; we're just shooting hoops today."

He just nodded and walked out.

Out in the large room, he noted most of the students from his classes before.

Hear that, kid? Underweight. As in, not healthy for you. Which means it's not healthy for me. Start eating something, or I'll mess with your mind to force you to do so.

'Again, your fault.'

Hardly. Start eating.

Gaara rubbed his head as he felt a migraine coming. Of course, the demon would do something like this.

"OY, GAARA! CATCH!" Naruto yelled, throwing a ball at him.

Gaara was caught completely off guard. The ball came strait for his head and collided with…

…A wall of sand.

"…Holy fizzle…HOW DID YOU DO THAT!"

Gaara blinked. Oops. All the students were crowding around him, wondering where the sand could have come from.

I'm just special like that.

'Thanks for ruining my silent and invisible existence here…'

Welcome, kid.

Gaara glared at nothing in particular and resided at one of the benches on the side for the rest of class. It's not like Genma really cared, anyways. He was too busy freaking out over his weight.

Sometime toward the end of class, Genma came back in, telling Gaara that he needed to get his lunch and go down to the counselors office as soon as class was over, and that he should go and start changing back now so that he'd have the entire 47 minutes of lunch with the counselor (the administrators refused that anyone be taken out of English class)

In truth, the redhead was grateful for the excuse to change alone. He was afraid that someone would ask about the very large bruise on his stomach. It really did hurt, especially if he tried to run. He hoped it healed soon, then, as in physical education, there was a tendency of running.

Poking at it gingerly, he winced as a wave of pain went through. This was going to be here a while…

Finally finished, he scooped up his stuff and walked out to go get the lunch Temari had packed (She ish a moderate cook in this; not horrid, not excellent.) and then find his way down to the counselor.

Tcch. Counselors. They never did much good for him. All the ones he had been to in Sunaga either hated him or were deathly afraid of Shukaku. Therefore, he couldn't ever trust them in confidentiality or for his own safety. One counselor had tried to kill him, but the sand had been there.

See? I have my uses.

'Not very many.'

Undoing the lock, he pulled open the bright orange locker, grabbed the black bag and locked it back up again in about 2 seconds. If he had been one for smiling, he would have. He had skills.

He occupied himself while walking across the school to the counselors office by trying to keep his head clear, and in doing so bumped into someone.

"You again! Is there something up with you that you like to bump into me!"

Gaara looked up. It was that kid from before. "Listen, I'm sorry. I have a lot on my mind…" he managed to mumble.

Neji was taken aback. Generally, people didn't apologize to him after he had yelled at them. They just kind of kept moving. He sighed; might as well be nice. After all, the boy DID apologize. "It's okay, really. What lunch are you in?"

"…Next hour."

"Ah. So am I."

"…I won't be there today. I have something in the office they need me for."

"Oh. Well, for tomorrow, I sit in row two by myself. Feel free to join me."

And with that, they departed.

Health – Kankurou
"Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that prevents your body from sleeping at all, or at least a required amount. Without me going any further, who can name a sign of Insomnia?"

Most of the class wasn't even really paying attention, so they probably wouldn't know.

Kankurou weighed his chances. Get on the teachers good side by naming the one he knew, or not…

Ah, hell! He was smart! He could prove it! Jamming his hand into the air, he waited for acknowledgement.

"Kankurou? It's nice to have you volunteer, even though we have been studying things like this since the beginning of the year."

"Darkened circles around the eyes"

"Excellent! Do you know an insomniac?"

Kankurou didn't say anything. That was Gaara's privacy.

"Anybody?"

Again, he kept silent.

The teacher sighed. "Okay, let's move on to why, although people in your age group would think staying up all night every night would be fun, is horrible for your health. Please read pages 134-141 in your book and do the response questions on page 141. If it is not finished, it's homework."

Most of the class groaned. Kankurou didn't think it was that bad. The response questions were horribly easy.

'Whatever. Best to start now so I'll have more time out of the house when I get home. As long as my homework's done, I have that freedom for a while…'

Physical Education – Temari
Temari shot another basket, fuming. The boys apparently thought she was the best thing that came to this school. Or at least her body was. She was ready to slap one upside his head! I mean, all this flirting, this staring…She had never got any of that in Sunaga. Most people had feared her and Kankurou in addition to Gaara, so she had never really had anyone look at her like this.

That's not to say she liked it. It was horrible, having to be so self conscious about what she was wearing. She had never had to before! Perhaps she'd get used to it.

…But she'd never get over the disgust! Never! Konohagakure had absolutely no common courtesy to be found within their high school students!

While she was having this mental rant, she hardly noticed the physical education teacher, Genma, approach her.

"Temari-san?"

"GHAA! I mean! Hi! Yes!" Temari tried to make it look like she hadn't been caught off guard.

"Were you busy?"

"Oh, no, not at all! Go ahead."

"Oh. Well, I just thought that it was part of your business to know this. Do you realize that your brother is at least 16 pounds underweight?"

Now, someone with not as many wits as Temari would have inquired which brother. But, of course, because of her brain, she immediately remembered that not only did Kankurou not have gym, but that he had always been slightly on the heavier side. (Which does not mean he is fat. This simply means that he was a more a medium frame compared to the ever-frequent small frames) That meant Gaara. And she knew that. However, it would be awkward if Genma-sensei knew that she knew that.

"Ah…No! I knew that he was always on the tiny side, but never that it was a danger!" Actually, some of that was true. She hadn't expected a full 16 pounds.

"Well, he is. I have sent him to the counselor and the nurse knows, and I forgot to send a notice home to your parents about it. Would you kindly bring it home, please? And do encourage your brother to eat more often. It doesn't sound like he eats much of anything."

'Well,' Temari thought. 'I'll bring it home, but my father will never see it.' "Ah, of course! We will try to help him as much as possible!"

Genma smiled. "Thank you. Are you sure he's never been prescribed with something such as anorexia?"

"Positive."

"Also, I forgot to ask other information in my bewilderment. What's his birthday and age?"

"January 19th 1991. He just turned 14." She supplied.

"Thank you. I didn't ask you, did I?"

"Nope. August 23rd, 1987. I'm 17."

"Thanks again. Please, resume with class. And you don't need to be so violent with the ball."

Flustered, Temari dropped the ball she had been dribbling and flashed a sheepish grin (Temari likes smiling, can you tell?).

Counselor's Office – Gaara
"So, Gaara, do you know why you've been called here?"

Gaara just glared at the carpet. "I don't know. Genma-sensei said something about being too thin."

"Yes. You are underweight, and here at school this concerns us. Gaara? Please look up at me."

The redhead sighed, then tilted his head up to meet the gaze of Iruka-sensei.

"Have you ever made yourself throw up?"

"Never."

"On a daily basis, how many times do you eat?"

He shrugged. "It varies. A lot. I'd say 2 on an average."

Iruka sighed. "Well, you don't seem to be lying. Tell me then, do you eat willingly, or are you usually forced?"

"Willingly."

"Are you starved or are you just not hungry."

Gaara kept his gaze the same, and made no move to show that he could possibly be bluffing.

"I'm just not a hungry person."

Thankfully, Iruka nodded. "Okay. Well, Gaara, there doesn't appear to be anything really wrong with you that can trigger this. I will continue to meet with you, and we will start graphing what you eat to see how this came to be. Being underweight is not just natural, Gaara.

Gaara nodded, blankly.

"However, you are to eat your lunch in here. Just so we know that even though you bring a lunch, you don't just throw it out. This is just for today."

Again, the boy nodded. Picking his lunch bag off the floor, he opened the top flap, pulling out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He seemed to consider eating it, then reached in and pulled out a red apple, package of string cheese, and a brownie.

Iruka smiled. He seemed just like a young child. Of course, most of his students did to him.

Skip to after school, because the authoress is LAAAZY.
"So, Gaara, Kankurou! How did school go?" Temari asked cheerfully.

"Boring. I was tired the entire day." Kankurou drawled, getting out his music again.

"…It wasn't horrible." Gaara mumbled, keeping his gaze glued to the pavement.

As the silence sunk in, Temari's smile slowly faded. 'So much for conversation…' she thought.

When they turned into the driveway, Temari could hear Gaara suck in his breath and noticed Kankurou's head banging became a bit more jerky, kind of nervous. She felt the tension rising. Their father was definitely home. They could only hope that he was sleeping.

Entering as quietly as possible, the removed their shoes and Temari tiptoed upstairs. She was just getting to the second landing when she heard it.

"WHERE TH' FUCK WERE YOU!" A crash soon followed, and it sounded like something had broken. Temari sprinted downstairs to find Gaara had been blasted into the floor right by a large lamp, which had fallen on him.

She clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming, knowing that she couldn't interfere. The man would certainly kill her baby brother if she did. She quickly dashed back up to her room and dove onto her bed sobbing. 'Where was Kankurou?' floated into her mind.

Kankurou peaked out from where he was hiding in the hallway leading to their house. He felt that if Gaara were to get really seriously injured, he'd try to fend of his father, or at least carry the boy up to his room. Normally, his father was careful (or as careful as you can be, drunk) to not break any bones, because that would mean hospitalization, which could both blow his cover and cost money.

Kankurou could never help wincing at each of the blows his father dealt the boy. They were just…so brutal. And today seemed to be especially so, he noted as the boy was driven into the ground again and again as their father beat him.

Upstairs, Temari could hear everything. The shouts of their father, and the occasional noise from Gaara. All of it just broke her heart. Tore it in little pieces. It seemed like an eternity before the screaming died down and she heard Kankurou carrying Gaara up the stairs. She flung herself out the door and into Kankurou's room to prepare the bed.

"How bad was it?"

"I'm not sure. I think we're going to have to use some type of cover-up this time…"

"I hope not…he gets rashes…"

"I know. But it may be really noticeable. That bitch was like…slamming him repeatedly into the ground."

"I'll go get some water and a cloth to wash some of the blood off. Is there any glass shards from whatever fell?"

"It was a lamp, and no, I don't think so."

This was normal after any beatings, her and Kankurou talking like this. Temari couldn't help but feel bad; their father only ever beat Gaara. Never had he lay a finger on Kankurou and her. It made her feel horrible that her brother was being ganged up on like this.

She gently hugged the small form on the bed in front of her.

"Gaara…"

HA! PHEW! Finally done!

:pant pant: This was a long chapter! Be happy, peoples!

REVIEW CORNER!

lilramona – I updated! I'm very glad you like this story so much to keep telling me to do so .;

Hkokuryuha – Yes, yes Neji did seem like a jerk. I tried to portray him as friendlier above.

Hurricane-rider – O.o; I made it longer, just for you! If you don't know my number it's 4-

RP: WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STUPID!

Oh yeah, we're on public internet. O.o

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