CHAPTER ONE!

It was five a.m. Uzamaki Naruto awoke as a ray of pinkish sunlight found its way through the window next to her bed and rested across her closed eyelids. Groaning, she pulled her rumpled covers up over her head and turned away from the light. I hate Mondays, she thought to herself. Then she sat bolt upright in her bed. The covers flew off her lithe body and into a crumpled pile on the floor. Gotta get up! She told herself fiercely, hanging her legs over the side of the bed so her toes lightly brushed the floor. Yawning, she stretched languorously, like a cat, and ran her hands through her straight blonde hair.

"Mmmm…take a shower…" Naruto muttered to herself. She stood and walked across the room to the small bathroom. Since she lived in a small apartment, pretty much every room was cramped, but since rent was really cheap, she managed to get by. Plus, it was right next to her high school.

Stripping down, Naruto turned on the shower and stepped in. The hot water washed over her, drowning her early-morning fatigue and making her relax. Her mind wandered, as it always did this early in the morning, to Uchiha Sasuke, the class heartthrob, who she, like almost every other girl in the high school (including a few guys), had a huge crush on. Since they both had the same classes, she got a chance to see him a lot, but she couldn't strike up enough courage to call him up so they could go out together on weekends. So, she went with her friends wherever they all felt like going. Usually, they went to see a movie or took the train downtown for a day.

It was fun, Naruto thought as she stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel hanging on the doorknob, which hadn't gotten into the dryer with the rest of her laundry and was still slightly damp. Wandering out to her bedroom, Naruto began rummaging through her drawers for something to wear. She pulled on some underwear and a bra and picked some black jeans up off of the floor and pulled those on, as well. Then, she looked through her shirt drawers and slipped into a random t-shirt.

"Nah," she said, and threw the shirt to the floor into a pile of clean pants. She fished around in the drawer and brought out a black tank top with a low v-neck.

"Too much cleavage," she grumbled as she tried it on and looked at herself in her mirror. "Don't wanna get written up again…" she looked through the drawer again and found an orange tank top.

"Modest enough," she nodded when she saw herself in it. "Now, where'd my jacket go…" she went past the dinky little kitchen and opened the coat closet near the front door. She pulled out a little black jacket with zippers and pockets in random places-a work of Naruto's sewing genius. Or not. It was sloppy, in a weird, artistic way, and Naruto loved wearing it. She got a lot of admiring looks from boys when she wore it.

Naruto went back in the bathroom and blow-dried her hair, and then used her hair iron to straighten it. She looked around the room for her brush and began to brush her hair until she was satisfied with how it looked. Throwing the brush onto the floor, she gathered all her books and folders and stray pages of her sketchbooks and placed them neatly in her forest-green messenger bag, along with her pencil case full of various pencils and pens she used for art.

Naruto's stomach grumbled. She grimaced. Oops, breakfast! She thought to herself, and went into the kitchen and peered into the fridge. There was a carton of milk and a few cooking and baking necessities. Naruto grabbed the milk, checking its expiration date.

"Still good, that's lucky." She muttered, and poured herself a glass. Setting it on the small table, she went over to the counter and took a package of Pop-tarts out of the box. As she sat down, her gaze went almost automatically to the clock. It was 6:30.

"Shit!" Naruto exclaimed, and stood up. Hurriedly gulping down her milk and a bite of Pop-tart, she rushed back to her bedroom and grabbed her bag, pausing to rush back to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She ran to the front door, slipped her shoes on, opened it, and locked it behind her.

As she ran down the stairs and out the front door of the apartment complex, Naruto fumbled in her bag for the various bracelets that she kept in the front pocket. She yanked on the zipper of the bag and smiled triumphantly as she produced several beaded bracelets from its forest-green depths. Slowing down to a fast walk, her shoes crunching in the snow, she slipped the bracelets on.

Ready for school, I guess, Naruto thought, still kind of miffed about it being Monday. After all, it was the start of a new school week, and all there was to look forward to was five whole boring days of never-ending, dull work. At least I did all my homework, so I won't get any crap from my teachers, Naruto thought.

"Hey! Naruto-kun!" a voice said from behind her. She looked around.

"Kiba!" she said happily, and backtracked so she could walk beside her friend. "Good morning! How are you on this...er…lovely Monday morning?"

"Hmph. Tired. Mondays are a bitch." He pushed some of his scruffy black hair from his face. "Of course, Akamaru makes sure I wake up at the proper time. Maybe he should go to school instead of me…" Kiba patted the head of a small dog, who was sitting snug in Kiba's jacket. The dog growled softly.

"Akamaru going to school? The teachers don't even like you bringing him in the first place," Naruto laughed. "Fat chance of them not noticing."

"Yeah…" Kiba scratched a place on his head thoughtfully. "Oh, well. Akamaru's not the best at algebra, anyhow." Akamaru's growl deepened.

"Plus, there's the fact that Akamaru can't speak coherent English," Naruto reminded her friend. Kiba laughed.

They reached the school and went inside, teeth chattering from the cold outside. Their friends hailed them from where they stood every morning while waiting for class to start. Rock Lee, the boy that had a crush on Naruto, leapt over to her, as energetic as he ever was.

"Naruto-kuuuunnnn!" he cried, and threw himself upon her. "Naruto-kun! I missed you!"

"We were apart for two days," Naruto grimaced as Lee's warmth enveloped her. "I think you could stand that, couldn't you?" She shoved him off of her and walked over to her other friends with him trailing behind her, blushing furiously. One of her closest friends, Uchiha Sasuke, being protective of Naruto, was glaring at Lee.

"Hey guys. Oh, Sasuke, lighten up, buddy, it's Monday! Don't you love Mondays?" Naruto smiled. Sasuke gulped and looked away.

"Uh…not really." He said. His straight black hair concealed his face. Naruto turned from him and greeted the rest of her friends. Sakura, an exuberant girl with pink hair, bounced up to her and handed her a CD she'd borrowed, thanking her. Kiba was laughing raucously at something a strange boy named Shino, who had outrageously spiky hair, had said to him. Neji, a weird, pale-eyed boy, stood slightly away from the group, the usual anti-social emo kid. Naruto woke herself up by energetically going around and saying hi to everyone she knew.

"Geez, Naruto, what's with the exuberance? It's seven in the morning. Eh, mendoku se. You're as bad as the freshman sometimes," said Shikamaru, a tall boy with a ponytail who complained about everything and was lazy, but he was tops in every class and was labeled a practical genius. He placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Whatever. Did you do that math homework we had? That one was a real pain in the ass." He snickered. Naruto frowned playfully at him and poked his forehead.

"It was probably easy for you, Einstein. I pretty much BS'ed the whole thing. You know I can't factor worth shit!" she pouted.

"Well, I offered to help you, but you said you could do it on your own," he placed his hands on his hips in mock anger. "You should stop being so independent, Naruto-kun."

"I only refused because you have no tolerance for slow people!" Naruto giggled as Shikamaru shook his head, his cheeks glowing pink, and walked slowly away.

"See you in math." He said as he trudged up the stairs toward his class. Naruto looked at her watch, checking the time.

"Crap! Sasuke! Sakura! We're going to be late for art!" she gathered her things and they walked quickly toward the art room. They entered the classroom just as the bell rang. Thankfully, their teacher wasn't in there.

"Phew!" Sakura sighed. "That was a close one…It's a good thing sensei wasn't in here…"

"Yes…it is a good thing he wasn't…" said a silky, snakelike voice behind them. Naruto gulped and looked around. A tall man with waist-length jet black hair stood behind them, grinning. His amber eyes flashed as he ran a long, pointed tongue over thin, pointed canine teeth.

"O-Orochimaru-sensei!" Naruto stuttered. Their sensei chuckled and pushed a lock of his pin-straight hair from his pale, yet stunningly attractive face.

"I'd take points off from your grade for being late, but seeing as you were only a mere few seconds late…" he sighed. "I'll let you go this time. Have a seat, you three." He strode to his office. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

"Close one," said a white haired young man with glasses, who was sitting in the corner. He smiled and waved at them.

"Hey, Kabuto," Sakura said, sitting in her chair next to Sasuke's. Kabuto shifted a few papers he was working on. "What are you creating this time?" she asked. Kabuto was Orochimaru-sensei's only AP student this semester, so he acted as the art teacher's aid.

"Just a few paintings. Same ones I was working on last week." He pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose with the tip of his middle finger. "Orochimaru-sensei's working me hard."

"I would believe so, you're trying to get into an art college. They seem kinda picky." Naruto said, chewing on the end of a pencil she had taken out of her bag. "As for me, I'm done with the art biz after this class. I like doing things my own way. In art college, they'll just tell you 'Draw this!' and 'Paint that!' and you can't do any pieces that are your own style, if you know what I mean. Society expects too much from us these days," she concluded, and leaned her stool back on the cabinets behind her. Sasuke smiled at Naruto.

"I have to agree." He said in his usual cool, cunning tone. Sakura blushed, as she always did when Sasuke even spoke a single word around her, and was about to speak to him when a lanky blonde girl dashed over to Sasuke and practically tackled him football-style.

"Oh! Sasuke-kuuunnnn! Why didn't you answer my phone calls this weekend?" she squealed. Sakura frowned.

"Ino-pig! Get your filthy, mud-ridden hooves off of Sasuke!" she snarled. Ino snapped around and began what was a normal conversation between the two girls.

"Call me a pig! Well, you, Billboard Brow, need to freakin' lay off! Mind your own business!" She growled. Sasuke gave Ino an icy glare.

"Ino. Could you please stop calling my girlfriend Billboard Brow? It's really getting old…" he groaned. Ino blinked.

"Girlfriend?" she clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. "Yeah, right. Good one, Sasuke," she laughed. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not joking. I'm actually surprised that you didn't hear about it. It's been, oh, a week, right Sakura?" he asked Sakura, who blushed furiously and nodded. Ino's jaw dropped and she slowly made her way back to her seat.

"You guys need to stop this, it's almost getting routine…" she yawned. "Where's Orochimaru-sensei gotten to? Are we gonna have class today or what?"

"Probably not." Kabuto snickered, expertly defining a line in his painting with a slight flick of the paintbrush he was holding. "Just kidding. I believe he's probably looking for his lesson plans. You've seen what a slob he is."

"Mmm, yeah." Naruto buried her head in her arms. "Wake me up when class starts."

"Class starts now, Naruto-kun…" Orochimaru's snake-like hiss of a voice crooned in her ear. She sat bolt upright and looked around. Orochimaru-sensei was standing behind her, sneering sinisterly.

"We're going to start our final projects today, class. Now, please open your notebooks and take these notes for me…"

"Gah!" Naruto cried once they were out of the classroom. "What a shitty day!" She and Sakura waited outside for Sasuke to finish speaking with Orochimaru-sensei about his project sketches. When he came out, he looked almost traumatized. He hurried the two girls along and didn't say a word until they were well away from the art classrooms.

"Dude. He is a total pedophile. No, seriously," he whispered as Sakura and Naruto sniggered. "He kept…touching me. It was really weird."

"What? He touched you?" Naruto said in a low voice. "Um…not to seem nosy, or anything, but was he touching places he shouldn't have been? 'Cos if he was, let me at 'im. The lecture he gave me during class really fired me up," Naruto's voice escalated to a growl. Sasuke shook his head. His fine, wispy black hair flowed into his face as he did so.

"It was my neck, but, you know, it was more of a…caress, I think. And he told me he thought I was attractive, too. Ugh…I have the chills. He really creeps me out." They reached Sakura's and Naruto's homeroom and stood outside, against the lockers.

"We should really tell the assistant principal," Sakura said. "That's against school regulations, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it was only once. Maybe he was a bit out of it today. If it happens again, I'll go to Iruka-sensei." He smiled at Sakura. "Don't worry about it for now. I should go," he said, looking at his watch. "Homeroom teacher's been a bitch bout being on time. See ya later." He waved at Naruto, and gave Sakura a peck on the cheek. Several freshman girls passing by glared angrily at Sakura as Sasuke made his way down the hallway.

Sakura and Naruto walked into their homeroom. Naruto nudged her pink-haired friend in the ribs.

"Aww, didya see that, Sakura-chan got a kissy-kissy!" she squealed. "When's the wedding? Can I come?" she giggled.

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura laughed, shoving her companion playfully. They sat down in their usual seats as the late bell for homeroom rang. Their teacher, Gai-sensei, leapt dramatically into the room as it did, slamming the door behind him.

"GOOD MORNING, MY LOVELY, YOUTHFUL, TOTALLY EXUBERANT STUDENTS! IT'S HOMEROOM TIME!" he cried, his perfect black hair swinging around and shining in the glaring glow of the ceiling lights. He gave them all a thumbs-up. "Why don't you say good morning to your hip homeroom teacher?"

The class groaned an "exuberant" good morning to Gai-sensei, and then most of the students dropped off to sleep or worked on homework that was due next block. Gai sighed and sat down at his desk, automatically scrawling his signature on a note for Shino, who had been absent the previous Friday. Shino, still as silent as ever, nodded his thanks to Gai-sensei as the note was handed to him, then went and quietly sat down. Gai stood up again, holding a paper that Naruto saw was an e-mail from the school board.

"Alright, kids. I got an e-mail this weekend, and here's something to break the monotonous drone of the school day…" he said happily. "Tomorrow, we'll be getting a new student in this homeroom!"

Everyone immediately ceased whatever they were doing and looked up expectantly. There were murmurs of "A new student?" and "Is it a hot guy?" all around the room. Their sensei smiled, his white teeth gleaming garishly.

"Yes, the new student will be a boy. His name is Gaara…looks like they don't have last names on the western continent, hmm…Anyway, I want you all to make sure that he fits in with the rest of you."

"The western continent?" Naruto asked. She looked wide-eyed at Gai-sensei. "You mean the desert, right? So he's a transfer student, then. Cool!"

"Yes, he and two other students qualified to transfer to this school for the art program, so I expect they'll be in your class, Naruto and Sakura," their teacher gave them a thumbs-up as he flopped back into his desk chair. "Make sure you help him with whatever he needs!"

Naruto gave Gai a mock salute, crying, "Yes, sir!" And, as she did so, Rock Lee burst into the room with an armload of books, yelling for Gai-sensei.

"Gai-sensei! Gai-sensei! I finished all the notes and essays you wanted for this week!" he panted as he dumped several folders onto Gai's desk and began riffling through the contents.

"Lee! Those aren't due until next week!" Gai clapped a hand to his forehead. "Lee, sit down," he motioned to the desk in front of his own with his hand. Lee obediently sat. Gai placed his elbows on the desk with his fingers interlaced.

"Lee, what have I told you about this overwork thing? You have to understand, I know you like being an overachiever, but…" he paused. "But…I think this may be damaging to your mental and social health. You have an art class this semester, do you not?" Gai asked calmly. Lee nodded eagerly.

"Yes, yes, I'm in Naruto-kun's class," he said happily, looking around at Naruto, who was sitting a few seats behind him. She was chatting amiably with her friend Hinata.

"So," Gai said. "You have art projects and homework, too, I presume?" he asked. Lee nodded.

"Yes, every week." He smiled. Gai sighed and closed his eyes.

"Lee, this is a lot of work to cope with. I really think you should just spread your workload out. Now, mind you, I don't mean you should procrastinate, like some people I know…" he glanced at Naruto. "But just spread the work out. You've been exhausted in class lately."

"Roger!" Lee said, and saluted smartly. Gai chuckled.

"Ok, Lee, you should get going. Remember what I said," he called after Rock Lee, who was dashing out of the classroom again, laden with his books.

Gai shook his head and glanced up at the clock. It was 9:15. He leapt out of his seat and pointed at the door.

"GO MY STUDENTS! GO FORTH AND LEARN!" he cried dramatically as the bell rang for class. Yawning, his students walked out of the classroom and, with all the exuberance of tortoises, they wandered down the halls to their next classes.