Author's note: This fanfic is like an alternate reality for all the Naruto characters: they are normal teenagers, not ninjas, and go to a (relatively) normal high school (of course it can't be completely normal, as the teachers will be people like Kakashi (that mysterious pervert) and Gai (just plain weird), but the classes will be normal things like math). But though the characters' lives are different (i.e. Sasuke's brother is as he once was, and not evil, and Sasuke's parents are alive; Naruto's parents are still dead, but because of a car accident which is how he got those cute scars XP and NOT a demon fox), they still look the same (though not their outfits, as Kankuro looks like he is wearing pyjamas, Sasuke looks like he's wearing an acrobat's spandex suit, and Ino seemed to have gotten tangled up in bandages. And Tsunade's outfit is not a very… conservative one, especially not suitable for a principal), and their personalities are basically the same (not completely, for instance of course Sasuke isn't all bent on vengeance, as there is nothing to avenge, but he is still rather serious, and Hinata is still quiet and shy, etc., etc., etc).

Second part of Author's Note: Pairings. Only one thing to say: though this fanfic will not be only mushy mushy knutchy knutchy (lol… that's fun to say), there will be a lot of fluff, and a lot of pairings. Here they are: SakuNaru, ShikaTem, NejiTen, and some surprise ones later (bwahaha). (One of the reasons I made Hinata a new student is so that I don't have any guilty feelings about pairing Naruto with Sakura.)

And… third and last part of the Author's Note: The names of the towns and cities are fictional. My own little Narutoverse. (I can't have them living in Konoha, or the other hidden villages, because there's cars and stuff in my story, and the streets of Konoha aren't exactly ideal for cars.) I'm naming all the cities and towns by making stupid, nonsensical phrases in English (or just taking a random word) and then translating them into Japanese with my handy-dandy Japanese/English-English/Japanese dictionary. (For instance, the city they live in is called Chisaii Hayashi –Little Grove, even though it is not all that little and is not really a grove. It just sounds cool. I won't even tell you what the other names that may pop up mean XD.) Anyways… it is time for the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I merely dabble in his world, whether he likes it or not.

Italicized words thoughts.

Oh, I almost forgot! (I know, I know you just want me to shut up with all these post-story drabbles, but I have to mention this: as I said before, they all look the same aside from their outfits, and that includes the Hyugas' cool eyes (at least I think they're cool), which may seem a bit… odd, when I first say that, but think about it! It's anime; there are often creepy features about people like that in anime, the most prominent one being their hair. Like Kakashi's… in real life he would need enough gel to slick down a grizzly bear for that 'do. And in DragonBallZ? (I absolutely hate that show, but I still know about it.) Their hair is even more like that! So when you think about it, the Hyuga eyes aren't really that out of place, even in a non-ninja setting, if its anime we're talking about. However… I just can't think of a way to get the Uchihas' sharingan eyes in there. Now those would draw attention even in anime. If you can suggest a way to get the Uchiha family to have sharingan eyes without everyone making a cross sign when they pass, that would be appreciated. If not, I'll just make sure their eyes stay normal. (Although Kakashi is still going to have one; I've already thought of a way to get that to work.)

And finally!... the story.

CHAPTER ONE – Enter the characters!

It was cold for early September. Yamanaka Ino huddled her chin deeper into the high collar of a blue, cozy puffy coat. The chilly morning breeze tossed the one strand of platinum blonde hair that fell across her face back and forth, and she shivered as the same wind crept icy spider fingers across the back of her legs. I really shouldn't have worn a skirt, she admitted to herself. But I have to make a good impression on the first day of school. And anyways, it had looked warm through the window. It was true. The sun was shining, and the wind wasn't strong enough to really show in the trees' movements. But it was definitely strong enough to chill bare skin.

Ino, her face towards the ground, caught a glimpse of movement ahead, and looked up. Her strand of hair fluttered across her eyes again.

It was Sasuke, also walking to school alone, a few yards ahead and across the street. Ino smiled to herself wistfully, remembering the good ol' days when she would have yelled "Sasuke-kuuun!" and ran ahead to glomp him. Now she didn't; she had gained enough sense over the last year to realise it was actions like these that were probably the main reasons he couldn't tolerate his fan club. It had been sheer torture at first to force herself to be less ahem forward with him, as at least that way she had gotten the result that he had noticed her that day. Staying quiet around him meant being ignored completely. But it was worth it in the end. She could talk comfortably around him now, as long as she ignored the lurching feelings in her stomach.

It was lucky, really, that Sakura had made her realise she should quit her screaming fangirl days. Sakura had gotten over Sasuke first. Ino could still remember the shock she had received when the pink-haired girl had told her this. After all, it was utterly impossible. Sakura, give up on Sasuke? Ridiculous.

And yet it had happened. Somehow, by some freak of nature, Sakura had realised she had liked someone else for some time now. It was who that certain person was that made it, if possible, even more of a bamboozlement than that first bit of information about no longer liking Sasuke.

FLASHBACK (Sakura's POV):

A fly scuttled across the ceiling. The ceiling that constantly annoyed her, being there every time she awoke, always gleaming its sickeningly cheerful white down at her; the first colour she saw when she woke up, the last colour she saw before drifting back into merciful sleep. It was hell. She couldn't even lie on her stomach to get rid of the sight, and turning her head didn't make a difference; the walls were white, too.

At least she didn't have anything, really, to worry about besides boredom. Nobody had been fatally injured or killed in the car crash; the people in the other car had gotten out unscathed, her dad had suffered only from a broken arm, and her mom only some painful cuts and bruises. It was her who had gotten the worst of it, as the car behind them had rammed into the back of their vehicle.

A broken back. She was utterly paralyzed for now, though so drugged on painkillers it at least didn't hurt. She had been devastated when she had woken up in the hospital bed and told of her plight, thinking she would be a cripple for life, but apparently not. Technology was wonderful enough to be able to get her back to normal, though it would take a while.

But life in the hospital was as dull as it got. Friends and her parents visited her frequently, but in between she had to spend the time sleeping even in the brightest hours of day, or watching that white ceiling.

The fly took off as the door opened. Sakura twisted her head to see her favourite nurse, a plump, pretty woman, standing in the doorway. "A visitor for you, Miss Sakura," she announced. Sakura nodded to let them in.

Naruto pranced into the room, wearing his usual grin. Sakura had to grin back. Though she wouldn't admit it to anyone, especially not Ino, who would probably get mad at her and accuse her of being a fair-weather friend, Naruto was her favourite visitor. He came every day to tell her of news from the outside world, touching and colouring it with his customary humour, of course, to the point where it was mostly fiction. Some days he would generously bring them each a cup ramen, though he would always finish his first and then eye hers so hungrily that she always gave in and let him have her half-full cup. Today was not such a day; he instead presented her with the tiniest teddy bear imaginable. Sakura held the miniscule thing, the size of a golf ball, in her palm, and stared at it blankly.

"I won it," Naruto announced proudly. "It was the school fair yesterday, and I won it just for you, Sakura-chan!"

"Um… Arigato, Naruto. Domo arigato gozaimasu." She said with a small smile, and she meant it. Though it was a puny thing, she felt her heart lift with gratitude. Winning it was always so much more special than just buying it.

After Naruto left, Sasuke visited. Sakura was confused when she realised she had called him "Sasuke" when he'd entered. Not Sasuke-kun. Sasuke. When she asked, he told her "Naruto-dobe" had spent two hours, the entire contents of his frog bank, and the last of his brain cells trying to win a gigantic bear for her. In the end, he had ended up with the minute one, but was as proud as if he had accomplished his original goal.

"How did he use up the last of his brain cells?" asked Sakura. Sasuke smirked.

"It was one of those games where you try to toss a ball into a ring. On the first try he aimed too high and it bounced off the ceiling and hit him on the head."

He left soon after. Sakura waited anxiously for another visitor, but none came. She sank back into sleep.

She never knew how long she had slept when she woke up. Her waking hours were so irregular she had stopped trying to even keep track of the date. All she knew when she woke up was that Naruto was back, with ramen.

"I'm not hungry," she told him truthfully. He looked dejected at first at her refusal, and then cheered up when it dawned on him that now he could eat her share as well. He talked a mile a minute at her through his mouthfuls of noodles, and ended his stories with the news that a nurse had told him she wouldn't have to stay in here much longer.

He broke off abruptly when he saw the tears start to slide down her cheek. "What's wrong? Sakura-chan!" he panicked.

Sakura tried to stop crying, but couldn't. Somehow the bear had triggered this first bit of hypersensitivity, and now the news that she would be able to leave soon cracked her rational self. It was always Naruto that brought the cheer to these dull days, always Naruto that had been so nice to her, was always happy and funny. Sometimes it annoyed her that he never got down, but deep inside she envied him for it. "Nothing… wrong," she assured him, wiping her green eyes. "There's something in my eye," she lied.

Naruto was concerned. "I'll look," he said, leaning close to peer worriedly into her eyes. It would have made her laugh, or clobber him over the head (depending on her mood) other times, at how he fussed over her, but this time, she did something that surprised her as much as him. He had been so sweet, through this whole ordeal. Now, he was too close not to take advantage of this. She couldn't help it.

She kissed him.

END OF FLASHBACK (back to Ino's POV):

Ino smirked to herself when she remembered Sakura telling her of the hospital incident the first time. She had thought Sakura had been playing a trick on her at first, and when she saw the other girl was serious, she wasn't sure if she was going to faint or die laughing. But she stopped making fun of Sakura when she saw how happy she was with Naruto. And she started envying her when she realised Sasuke talked to Sakura more and seemed to like her more now that she was only friendly towards him; it was this that had made Ino stop gushing over him as well. Ino was also jealous of the fact that Sakura had managed to get over him so easily, with the realisation that she liked Naruto. She wished she could find someone she liked more than Sasuke, and just get over him like that, too. But that wasn't going to happen. She was still infatuated with Sasuke, and he was still totally indifferent.

Speaking of Sasuke… Ino looked up again when she heard his voice, and she realised he was no longer alone; he had been stopped by a passing girl. Ino scowled before realising it wasn't part of his fan club, it was a girl who must be at least four years older than him. As she got closer to the two, Ino recognized her as one of their school's graduates from two years ago, when she had been in grade nine. The girl's named eluded her at the moment, but she had been well-known in their school, even throughout the younger grades, as the head photographer for the yearbooks. She had long black hair and a pale, pleasant face.

"Hey. It's Sasuke-kun, right?" asked the older girl cheerfully. Ayamae, Ino remembered. Masashi Ayamae.

"Just Sasuke will suffice," Sasuke replied icily. The girl laughed.

"Just like your brother, I see. That's what I wanted to ask you about. Just to make sure you're the right Sasuke… your brother is Uchiha Itachi? Graduated the same year as me?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I thought so. You look like him. Man, your brother is a doll," Ayamae laughed. "So where's he living now? I haven't seen him around. Did he move?"

Sasuke looked at her coldly with his dark eyes. "He doesn't want annoying girls fawning over him all day. You're just like the rest of them, aren't you?"

Ayamae faltered in her happy chatter. "Wha –no!" Her hand floated up to her mouth, her index finger crooked and held to her lower lip in distress. "No, that's not it, really! Just, I'm taking courses to become a journalist along with a professional photographer, and I've got this project to design a layout for a journal about graduates from Chiisai Hayashi High who've gone far and are succeeding well in what they've trained for, are getting known… you know… and, well… your brother is a definite; he's a hero among young scientists. I just haven't really kept in touch with him since we graduated and now I don't know where to find him."

"Hn." Sasuke seemed to be thinking of if he should believe her or not. Finally he shrugged. "Well, I'll tell you you're pretty much out of luck. He's in university. Where is irrelevant," he said as she opened her mouth. "It's far."

Ayamae closed her mouth, looking faintly disappointed. "Oh. Okay." She turned to go, and then turned back to him, smiling cheerfully again. "Gosh, but you look a lot like your brother. Only I'd say you're even cuter. Too bad you're a bit young for me, ne?"

Sasuke gave her his customary cool glance and shrugged. "I'm going to be late for school," he said, and continued walking.

"Bai-bai!" called Ayamae, waving at his back.

Ino caught up with Sasuke as they neared their school. "A bit old for you, isn't she?" she asked innocently.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder quickly at her, taken by surprise. When what she had said registered in his mind, he went, "pft," and turned back around.

"She seemed to like you. Don't you think she's pretty, though? There's nothing wrong with liking older women, don't worry," teased Ino.

Sasuke glared at the blonde girl. Ino decided she'd better change the topic.

"So… grade ten! I'm not very enthusiastic about it, to be truthful. No more days at the beach… my tan's going to be completely gone in no time…" Ino sighed wistfully, and then realised she had just said that out loud. She didn't want to talk about girl issues around Sasuke! She cleared her throat awkwardly. "So, are you joining the soccer team again this year?" she asked Sasuke, who shrugged.

"I might," he said vaguely. Ino took this to mean yes. "Are you cheerleading again?"

"No," Ino said flatly. She knew the rest of the cheerleaders would be mad at her for quitting, as she was their captain, but she was exasperated about having to keep kicking all the other cheerleaders (except Sakura) in the butts, so to speak, to get them to cheer for the team, and not just Sasuke. "I joined the girls' soccer team, though." She told him. "Sakura joined volleyball."

"She quit, too?" asked Sasuke. He was unusually talkative this morning, to Ino's enjoyment. He smirked. "The cheerleaders are screwed."

Ino agreed. The captain and co-captain both quitting the team in the same year… Sakura and Ino would have to hope they didn't get mobbed in any dark corners. But once the remaining cheerleaders got over the shock that they didn't have anyone to keep them in order, there would be general delight in the realisation that now there would be tryouts for new captains, which all of them would enter.

"Hey, who's that?" Ino asked suddenly, as they entered the school yard and she spotted a girl with short purple-black hair standing awkwardly beside Neji, Lee and Tenten, looking a little left out. She seemed to cringe towards Neji most, as if everyone was trying to kill her and he would protect her. "Is she Neji's girlfriend or something?" she asked with a frown. Tenten would be disappointed if that were so; all the girls knew Tenten liked him.

"Hardly, as she's his cousin," said Sasuke.

"How do you know?"

"Just a guess. He told me over the summer that his cousin was moving here this fall, and she looks a lot like him."

"Yeah, that's true…" Ino looked sympathetically at the girl holding her two index fingers together nervously. "I'm going to go say hi," she said, veering towards the group. Sasuke drifted off to join his two main friends: Naruto and Sakura.

The girl gasped as Ino tapped her on the shoulder. "Huh?" she said in fright, turning around.

"Ohayo gozaimasu," said Ino cheerfully. "You're new here, aren't you?"

"Uh… h…hai," stuttered the girl. The three she was standing by had turned to see who was there, and waved at her.

"Hi, Ino," said Tenten cheerfully, while Neji and Lee nodded in greeting.

"Hi," responded Ino.

The girl had seemed to relax a bit. "You're I-Ino? My name's… Hinata," she said shyly.

"So you're new… I guess you don't have your schedule yet, do you?" Ino asked. Hinata shook her head. "You should go get it. Do you want me to show you the principal's office?"

"U-um… okay…" Hinata looked over her shoulder as they started towards the huge, red brick building, perhaps hoping to see her cousin coming with her for protection, but the three stayed where they were, barely taking notice as Hinata left.

Ino tried to start conversation as they walked, hoping to break through the girl's shyness. "So, where'd you move from?"

Hinata muttered something unintelligible. "Pardon?" asked Ino.

"Tsumetai," Hinata said, a bit louder. (A/N: snicker… there's one of those dumb town names… man, I am really abusing the Japanese language here…)

"Oh yeah? I've been there! It's really nice!" Hinata smiled timidly back as Ino grinned. "So how come you moved?"

Hinata's face closed; her smile disappeared. Her eyes were lidded as she looked down and muttered, "My… my dad, got a job here… so…"

Ino put an arm around her sympathetically. "Oh, I understand. I would be so pissed at my parents if they made me leave all my friends and everything."

Hinata shrugged slightly and muttered something so quietly all Ino managed to hear was "not… many friends… and… parents… really strict…"

Ino decided she'd better stop talking of this subject. They were approaching the principal's office now anyways. "Here's the principal's office," she announced. "I'll wait for you here, okay?"

Hinata looked terrified at the news that Ino wouldn't be coming in with her, but Ino gave her a big grin and the peace sign, sticking her tongue out playfully. Hinata managed to return a weak smile, and turned to open the door.

Hinata's POV:

Her hand trembled as she laid it on the cool metallic door handle. What was the principal like? If Ino, who had been so nice up until now, wouldn't even come in with her, he must be really scary. Hinata remembered her old principal, a tall, thin man with grey hair and a Hitler moustache, and who yelled louder than even her dad, and her knees trembled. What if this one was like that… or worse?

The door opened and she edged through, closing it with a sense of imminent doom. The sharp click seemed to tell her there was no going back, and Hinata looked around the room nervously. Astonishment mingled with her terror.

The principal's office was a mess. Stacks of paper lay haphazardly on top of filing cabinets with their drawers wide open and spilling a variety of junk; little decorations and pieces of jewelry were scattered across the wide, polished mahogany desk by the window. Hinata would have though the ornaments were confiscated items from students, but shouldn't they be in a drawer or something? Several photographs in frames stood on various surfaces, and a large bottle of what looked suspiciously like sake stood on the corner of the desk.

Finally, the most surprising thing was the top of a blonde head resting on top of two arms on the cluttered desk, the shoulders of the owner rising and falling as it snored. Hinata gulped, and cleared her throat.

The head shot up. An attractive young woman with a diamond-shaped tattoo on her forehead wiped drool from the corner of her mouth as she looked around sheepishly. She wore a casual white button-up shirt, which might have looked suitable for work if it weren't so rumpled from sleep, and a red neck tie, wrenched in a sadistic bow around her neck that made Hinata feel like she was strangling just looking at it. "Wha -?" the lady said dazedly, and spied Hinata looking shocked. "Oh. Hi," she said sleepily, still blinking groggily. "I was afraid it was one of the teachers; they always get mad when they catch me napping. You won't tell them, will you?" she asked Hinata.

"Uh, um! Of course not!" she stuttered. The principal was a woman? And one like this especially… she acted more like a naughty student than the director of the school. The principal smiled confidentially and heaved herself up from her desk with a gusty sigh, as if it took outrageous amounts of energy to greet a student. She had a pleated skirt, the same shade of red as her neck tie, and Hinata saw she wore a considerable amount of slim banded rings on her fingers as she extended a hand for Hinata to shake.

"I'm Tsunade," she introduced as they shook hands.

"I-I'm Hyuga Hinata. I'm new… I just needed a… timetable, so…"

Tsunade was already rummaging through the drawers behind her desk, digging furiously so that Hinata knew they must be as cluttered and unorganized as the rest of the office. "Hyuga…Hyuga…" she muttered as she now leafed through papers. Her fingers paused suddenly. "Hinata. There you are," she said triumphantly, plucking a sheaf of paper and tugging furiously to free it from the drawer. It ripped slightly as she added force to extract it from whatever was piled no top, but Tsunade didn't seem to notice or care. She held it out to Hinata, who took it quickly.

"Arigato, Tsunade-sama," she said, hastily turning to scuttle from the office.

"Bye! Have fun in our school!" Tsunade called after her. When Hinata turned as she shut the door behind her, she saw the lady already settling her head back on top of her arms as she prepared to go back to sleep at her desk. Nope, she didn't seem so bad.

Shikamaru's POV:

Shikamaru yawned widely as he leaned against the chain link fence that surrounded the school yard. It was bad enough that he had to wake up so early, after two months of being used to sleeping in late, for the first day of school, but that he'd missed the bus and had to walk was sheer torture. Damn, school's a nuisance, he thought with a sigh. So much noise, clutter, hurry, rushing from class to class… no time to just relax. And people were always pressuring him to join a sports team, and laughing at him when he joined the chess or math club. It was lucky that he had Chouji as a friend; he could use not wanting to leave him behind as an excuse not to do extracurricular sports.

It wasn't that he was out of shape or anything; he just liked to take things easy rather than running around after a ball or walking things with sticks. In grade eight he had dared to join the soccer team, as it was the going thing, but he hadn't stayed for even a week. It was hell. It would have been bad enough just doing the sport, but no, there had to be cheerleaders waving their silly fluffy pompoms and jumping around like deranged fleas, shrieking their heads off, super-athletes like Lee and Sasuke to show them all up, and then, to top it all, their Coach was a girl. And not just any girl; a totally sadistic one, by the name of Mitarashi Anko. Her reputation was as the worst P.E. teacher or coach you could get, even more hardcore than Gai, and she lived up to it.

Nope, no amount of pressure or blackmailing was getting him to join extracurricular sports this year.

Shikamaru drew his crumpled schedule out of his pocket and looked at it. At the top it read: Nara, Shikamaru. Grade: ten. Homeroom teacher: Asuma. Student Code: FJH. His locker number was in the corner: 182. Better put my stuff away before the bell rings and the halls are all crowded, he decided. He glanced around to see if Chouji was anywhere, but couldn't see him. It would be futile to search through the throngs of students anyway. The Nara child wove his way through masses of people. One large boy stepped back just as Shikamaru was passing behind him, and he stepped sideways quickly, colliding with someone.

"Watch it!" They snapped. Shikamaru found himself being glared at by a slightly older girl with four ponytails (?) and a face that would be pretty enough if she didn't have that murderous expression.

"Hah… just what I need, to get on the bad side of a psycho chick…" he muttered to himself, sweating.

"What was that?" she snapped.

"Nothing, nothing…" This is why I don't like girls, Shikamaru said to himself. They're so bossy! And ones like this just freak me out. "So sorry, my lady," he said mockingly, hurriedly escaping before she could sock him or something.

He pushed open one of the double doors to the school and looked at the nearest locker number. 254. That would mean his was pretty far away, to the left. He finally found it and pulled it open, breathing a sigh of relief when he found it clean. Last year he had been left a locker that was a total mess; swear words scrawled across the inside of the door, gobs of gum stuck to the coat hanger, and something that looked horrendously like dried puke cemented on the bottom. He had carried his backpack with him the whole year.

He plunked his backpack into the locker and unzipped his coat; it was warm in the school. As he began to tape his schedule onto the inside of the door, he paused, frowning. He hadn't even looked at his schedule when it had been sent to him over the summer, but now something looked wrong. The first square on the grid read:

Math11

Sarutobi Asuma

201

Eleven? He thought, frowning in confusion. They must have messed it up. He scanned his schedule for any more mistakes, and his frown deepened. English eleven with Hatake Kakashi. Science eleven with Namiashi Raido. Art eleven with Gekkou Hayate (A/N: As this is alternate reality… Hayate is still alive! Yaay!...:does a little dance: ...:sees people watching:...:clears throat nervously, sweatdrops:). Only P.E. was in a grade ten class. P.E… he looked quickly at the square again, and groaned. He had Anko this year. Gai had been tough enough on them last year, but no, the school seemed to want him dead by the end of the year. At least situations were different: there would be more students in the normal gym class than on the soccer team, which would give Anko less time to torture each student, and there would be no cheerleaders. But actually it didn't make much difference, as in a normal P.E. class there would be girls where there weren't in soccer. It was either soccer, where the girls cheered, or normal gym, where the girls played. I guess they're basically even, Shikamaru thought, taking his combination lock from the small pouch in his back pack and slamming his locker door shut. Instead of having taped his schedule up, he still held it crunched up in his hand. He would have to ask Tsunade-sama about it.

He passed by Ino and a girl he didn't know as he made his way towards the principal's office. He opened the door as loudly as he could when he entered, as past experiences told him she was probably sleeping, and this would be a good way to wake her up.

Unfortunately, she was wide awake, fiddling with a pen as she slouched in her chair. She frowned at him as he closed the door unnecessarily loudly behind him. "Nara-san, show a little courtesy, please," she told him.

"Gomen, Tsunade-sama," Shikamaru apologized, with an inward grimace. "I came to ask –"

She held a hand up. "First open that door and close it gently," she ordered. Shikamaru scowled as he obeyed. She must be in a bad mood, wanting a power struggle, he thought grumpily.

When he had done as she'd bid, she settled back in her chair with an air of exaggerated satisfaction. As if me closing that door quietly really did anything for her, he thought in irritation. "Tsunade-sama, I came to ask about my schedule," he told her politely.

"Yes, I thought you would," she said with a smile. "First thing first, I'll tell you none of that is a mistake."

"But –" Shikamaru started, and paused. "You're bumping me up a grade?"

Tsunade nodded serenely, and added with a touch of her wry humour, "You were unusually slow in figuring that out. I would have expected more from you, Shikamaru."

Apparently she wasn't in such a bad mood after all. Women… so unpredictable, he thought with a slight sigh.

Tsunade leaned forward, her elbows resting on her desk and fingers laced together. "Shikamaru," she said confidentially. "If you are uncomfortable with such settings, you can come to me anytime and I'll put you back in a grade ten class. I don't want you to be intimidated, but I think this is a good idea, to let you progress at your own speed. Your parents gave their permission for this, and I think it is for the best too, as to not stifle your natural intelligence, but if you want to stay with people you know…"

"Um… are there any other kids my age in the grade eleven classes?" he wanted to know.

Tsunade nodded. "Haruno Sakura has also been put ahead a grade in English, and… let me see…" she thought for a second. "Oh, yes. Aburame Shino –his name evaded me; he's so quiet- is in your art class. You both are excellent artists," she said warmly.

Shikamaru smiled at her compliment, but the news that Sakura and Shino were in two of his new classes wasn't all that much of a difference. Sakura was pretty annoying, though she and Ino both had matured considerably over the last few years, and he didn't really talk with her. Shino was definitely as much of an artist as Shikamaru, maybe even better, but, though they both had a passion for drawing, they didn't acknowledge their similarities and hang out or anything. Shino crept Shikamaru out. He seemed to be able to talk to bugs, and why did he wear those sunglasses, even in class? Well, aside from in Gai's class; there was every reason to wear sunglasses there. What kind of whitener did he use, anyway?

Tsunade brought the teen's mind back from its wanderings. "Well? If you need some time to decide…"

"No, no. I'll accept," Shikamaru said, feeling treacherous towards Chouji. "I'll be fine."

The bell rang.

Kiba's POV:

"Akamaru! Go home!" Kiba yelled. The small dog whined and looked pitifully up at him, but Kiba forced himself not to be taken in by the "poor puppy" act. "I can't take you to school, boy," he said for the fiftieth time. "Dogs aren't allowed." He turned to walk away, and, like during his last attempt, heard the skitter of the dog's claws on the sidewalk after him. He turned in frustration. Akamaru sat down to blink at him coyly.

"Akamaru, you've already made me miss the bus. I'm going to be late enough for school as is. I don't want to have to go back home with you to lock you in again." Besides, you'd just escape again, he added to himself. Last time he had been two blocks from his house when he'd noticed he wasn't alone. He'd brought the dog back and locked him in his room, but, as always, Akamaru somehow got out, and here they were, merely a block from the school, and in the same predicament.

Kiba growled at the small dog. "Go home," he snarled. Akamaru didn't budge. "I'll lock you in my locker if you don't," he said. Akamaru whined and thumped his tail against the road, but still didn't move. He must know I'm bluffing, Kiba reasoned. He didn't let it even come close to being a possibility that the dog didn't understand him. Akamaru was much too smart for that; he understood English (A/N: actually, that would be Japanese, as that's what they speak. My bad) as well as his owner.

The Inuzuka child gritted his teeth as he continued to walk to school, his dog happily trotting behind him. He couldn't turn back home; his efforts to keep Akamaru there would be futile, and it would only make him later for school. There was nothing else he could do but keep walking. "Well… you've obviously won, so I may as well not make you suffer," Kiba sighed, stopping in his tracks. The dog beside him looked up expectantly, barking happily when Kiba picked him up and unzipped the top part of his parka to let the dog rest beneath his chin, his customary spot. "You are so spoiled," Kiba said with a smile as he continued walking.

The school grounds were empty, and the side door Kiba tried was locked, which was too bad, as it was closest to Ebisu's Math class, which he had first, according to his schedule. Guess I should go to my locker first, anyways, Kiba thought, changing direction to head for the main doors, which were always open.

Tsunade was waiting by them for tardies, as usual. She gave Kiba an exasperated smile. "Late on the first day, Kiba? And…" her eyes drifted down to Akamaru's head poking out of his jacket and she frowned. "Pets aren't allowed in school, Inuzuka-san. You'll have to take him home."

"What do you think I've been trying to do? Why do you think I'm late for school?" Kiba yelled. The principal's eyes narrowed dangerously, and he added quickly, "Tsunade-sama."

Overlooking his rudeness, Tsunade directed her displeasure towards the dog. "I see. He's an escape artist?"

"Yeah."

"Well… I guess you could chain him up outside," Tsunade told him.

"But…" Kiba protested while Akamaru whined, but Tsunade looked at him so dangerously he shut his mouth. "Well… I don't have a leash with me."

"I'm sure we'll find something," Tsunade assured him. "I'll take care of this; you get to class."

Translations for the few Japanese phrases/words used:

Arigato –thank you

Domo arigato gozaimasu –thank you very much

Ohayo gozaimasu –good morning

Hai –yes

Gomen –sorry; pardon me

-san –Ms., Mr., Mrs.

-sama –Ms., Mr., Mrs. (formal)

Bai-bai –(self explanatory. I think we can all figure it out.)

Well? Hope you liked it! I know I'm unlike the majority of people on this site, in the sense that I'm really descriptive and therefore the story is a bit slow-paced in some peoples' eyes, but, though its this feature that loses the interest of many, I know there must be some more people like me who enjoy reading this kind of story more. Please review if you liked it; the more reviews I get, the sooner I'll update.