Hey again! I just noticed the name of this chapter sounds like a name for some Roald Dahl book! "Hinata and the Centipede." "James and the Giant Peach." "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Well I think that all sort of fits. I was at a loss for what to name this chapter, so I just took the two most significant people/things in it and named it after them. Before I spoil anything else, I'll stop now!

Chapter four

Bell 1: Hinata and the Centipede

Hinata walked into her geography class, attempting to feel and look as confident as she could. She did not want to be stepped all over as she had been at her last school. Things in her classroom were rather calm. People were in their seats tending to silent reading, drawing, or other things. One boy, however, would not keep still.

"Want your bugs back? Come get em' Shino!" A short and energetic spiky-headed blond boy leapt up onto a desk, a jar of assorted bugs and insects in his hand. He waved it up in the air tauntingly.

"Naruto," growled a calm yet annoyed voice beside him. "Give me back my bugs and I promise not to critically injure you." The boy, who was apparently Shino, wore a gray jacket buttoned up as far as just above his mouth. He wore small circular shades and seemed to have his hands constantly rested deep within his pockets.

"Injure me huh?" asked the boy named Naruto, passing the bug jar from one hand to another and sticking out his tongue. "You need your bugs to use any of your jutsus or attacks. And looks like I have them right- OW!" Shino had swiped Naruto's feet out from under him, sending him falling to the floor. Shino used that time to grab his bugs back. Hinata's eyes widened. She really didn't like being the bystander, having to always watch other people get hurt. She ran to catch Naruto before he suffered too brutal a fall. She just barely got him, getting smooshed herself in the process. Naruto looked around.

"Hey! What happened? Why didn't I get hurt?" then Naruto gasped. "The power of the nine-tails fox must have saved me!" he slowly looked down at his stomach in glee. Shino just sighed and bonked him on the head.

"You idiot!" Shino said, as Naruto held an anime-style bump on his head in pain. "That girl beneath you, who is probably getting squashed to death right now, caught you." Naruto's eyes widened, and he quickly jumped off Hinata.

"Sorry!" he said with a big smile while scratching the back of his head. "I wouldn't want to hurt my savior, now would I?" he asked. Hinata turned red. Just as she did, her ankle flared up in pain. She cringed and ran her hand down the back of her calve to her ankle. As soon as this happened, a vision from Hinata's past came flowing into her mind.

"And as for you." The tall shadowy woman's height in contrast to the small girl was very intimidating. The girl shivered. "You are weak and fragile." Hinata bowed her head. "People like you will never succeed. If it weren't for the help of you're friends, you probably would not even be alive right now." She began to brush back Hinata's dark hair in mock worry. Hinata had begun to cry into her sleeve. "I'm right aren't I?"

"N-no, you are n-not," Hinata stuttered quietly to the floor between sobs. The shadowed over woman wrinkled her brow.

"Is that so?" she asked as she stroked her chin thoughtfully. Hinata was confused as to why she had not been incinerated then and there by this woman because of her answer. "Come a bit closer Hinata," Hinata stood her ground. The shadowed woman laughed icily. Her laugh was pain to her surroundings' ears. "It's alright, little one, I will not hurt you." Hinata was hesitant, but she slowly came forward. "Now, show me your left ankle." The tall woman said in a twistedly sweet tone. Hinata did so. Just as she did, her ankle was immediately seized by the towering woman. Before she knew it, she felt great pain on her ankle, as if she were being branded. After she opened her eyes to look at the damage, all she could see was a small circle with three swiggly lines coming out from the center, as if they were flowing like water.

"Do you see, now?" shouted the tall woman, grabbing the squealing Hinata by her collar and lifting her up a foot. "Not only are you weak, but you are ignorant as well! This is why you will not make it. Trusting your enemies just because they tell you to? You will certainly perish long before the others." Hinata bit her lip, knowing perfectly well who the 'others' were. The titanic woman slowly brought down Hinata as she hissed, "I'm not the only one who sees it. They do too."

"You ok?" Naruto asked worriedly. Hinata had unconsciously shed a tear as she recalled this moment. Naruto had thought it was due to his falling on her. "I hope I didn't squish you that hard!" Hinata waved her hand in a nonchalant manner.

"I-it's n-n-nothing N-na-naruto." She stuttered, a habit that she thought she had kicked with the help of her friends over that past summer. She only stuttered when really nervous about something…or someone. But it is actually the farthest thing from nothing.

"Oh, well, I'm Naruto Uzamaki!" said Naruto happily, holding out his hand. Hinata looked at it for a while speechless. She blushed more. For a little while, they both stood in the same position. Naruto cheerfully holding out a hand, and Hinata too bashful to take it. Naruto's cheerful face soon turned to confusion."Um, ok then. I'll be at that desk over there if you have questions or anything." Naruto took back the hand he had held out and then pointed to a desk in the back corner of the room before walking away. Hinata was too embarrassed to even notice the increasingly sharp pain in her ankle. She mentally slapped herself. How could you be so stupid? He offered you his hand, all you had to do was shake it! SHAKE IT. HAND SHAKE. It's not that hard, Hinata!

"You'll have to excuse that one," sighed a voice behind Hinata. Hinata turned around to see Shino shaking his head. "I believe he is a recent escape from the asylum." Hinata's face began to take on its usual shade of pale.

"Oh…" she said, giggling at the humor as she looked over her shoulder at Naruto, who was then reading a comic book.

"A thousand years of pain! Classic!" Naruto laughed obnoxiously.

"You should have let him take the fall," Shino said half to himself. Hinata was sure that if she could see his eyes, he would be rolling them just then. "I'm Shino Aburame," said Shino, choosing not to hold out his hand, as he was under the impression that this girl didn't take that offer very well.

"Hinata Hyuuga," said Hinata quietly, looking him in the eye, er, lense.

"You wouldn't be related to Neji Hyuuga would you?" asked Shino curiously. Just as Hinata was about the answer, the teacher arrived.

"Ok guys, have a seat, all of you," said a man with a mask covering his nose and down, and a forehead protector that limped to cover his left eye. He had gray hair that stuck in some gravity-defiying way (AN: then again, is there ever an anime character without gravity defiying hair?). "That means you, Naruto. Get down from there!" Naruto had abandoned his comic book and had taken to crawling up the wall for some reason.

"I'm just practicing chakra control Kakashi!" explained Naruto, giving the teacher puppy eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," said the teacher, as if he had heard this excuse many times before. He threw a kunai just inches by Naruto's head. Startled, Naruto unstuck from the wall and fell to the floor, this time with no one to break his fall. Naruto cried anime style and rubbed a big welt on his head.

"Kakashi!" whined Naruto.

"Do take a seat now Naruto," said the teacher, pointing to Naruto's desk. Naruto succumbed and reluctantly sat down.

"Good. Now, I'm Mr. Hitake Kakashi, but you may simply call me Kakashi if you like. I will be your Geography teacher for this year," said the teacher. Hinata had been sitting next to Shino, who was prodding a centipede.

"Don't die on me now, Ursula!" Shino begged the small motionless bug in a whisper.

"Is there a problem Mr. Aburame?" Kakashi asked tiredly.

"Yes, Mr. Hitake. Ursula is dead!" said Shino in a depressed tone.

"Ok, who is Ursula?" asked Kakashi in an I'm-too-old-for-this voice. He walked over to Shino's desk.

"My centipede- no, not that one, that one…yes." Shino said, pointing out "Ursula" to Kakashi. Kakashi was obviously ticked that his class time was disturbed by the death of a centipede. Kakashi sighed. Gai will never let me live this one down…I'll just have to make a lesson out of it. Kakashi thought to himself for a second. How will I make a lesson out of a centipede? Ah, I have an idea…

"People, gather round Shino's desk," said Kakashi as he walked over to pull out a map. The students obeyed and each sat around Shino's insect-infested desk. "Everyone take a look at, er, Ursula." Shino pointed Ursula out, and all the students leaned in to look at it, all of them wondering why on earth they were all examining a dead centipede (AN: Let's just assume that in this world, centipedes don't curl and shrivel up when they die.) "If you look closely, she has an intricate design down her frame." They all looked closer at the centipedes back and all nodded once they saw the design. Kakashi then picked up a book. He attempted to lick his index finger, only for it to be blocked by his mask. Deciding it wasn't that necessary anyway, he began to flip through the pages. He stopped at one. "Centipedes with such a design are rarely found in Konoha, and are native to the Sound Village." He pointed to the region in the Sand Village in which the bug came from. Everyone paused at the mention of the Sound Village, then looked at the bug.

"Well then, thank God it's dead!" said a happy Naruto, suddenly appearing behind Hinata causing her to jump in her seat. He laughed. "Sorry!" he said to her. Shino was angered.

"What do you mean 'thank God it's dead'? First off, Ursula does in fact have a gender, and second off-"

"That's enough Shino, no need to get defensive," interrupted Kakashi stepping between the two boys. "And though Ursula here may be from the Sound Village, this does not mean she possesses the same evil as them. She is only an insect after all." The students nodded, and many 'well, I knew that already' and 'I wasn't worried for one second' words were passed between each student. Kakashi laughed to himself. Great save if I do say so myself.

As the chit-chat arose, Naruto pulled a chair up to Hinata's desk. "Hey, what's your name anyway? I feel like we've met." At this, Hinata blushed lightly.

"I-it's Hi-hinata Hyuuga." Naruto's eyes widened at her last name, and before he could make the signature remark about Neji, Hinata said, "And n-no, I d-do n-not believe we have met before." She managed a small smile, and noticed she was gaining slightly more control over her stuttering the more she talked to him. Naruto thought for a bit longer, then shrugged.

"Well, we are now!" he said. "Now let's try this again." He held out his hand, and this time, Hinata shook it. Naruto smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Hinata Hyuuga!" Hinata's small smile grew more and more, but the two's moment was broken when Kakashi asked them all to take out some paper and a pencil. The two without looking reached for a pencil. They ended up grabbing the same one, leaving their hands touching one another's. (AN: I know, the cliché accidental hand hold, but I thought it would work nicely with these two.) They both blushed incredibly, and quickly pulled their hands away.

"Sorry," they both said at once, before blushing even more. Naruto stood up.

"I should go to my desk now," he said. Hinata nodded. "See you later Hinata!" He walked back to his desk. Hinata's face was still burning. Shino, who had been wrapping Ursula's centipede corpse neatly in a tissue, had seen the previous events and smiled. Things are already heating up between those two, he thought. They will realize it soon enough. He shook his head, still smiling.

Hinata looked at her hand that Naruto had put his own over. She smiled, and began listening to Kakashi. Even though we have only just met…I suddenly feel like I've known him before too.

That's the third. I'm almost done with the fifth, but it may take a bit of time only cuz I have to finish and proofread it, but when i do I will post it right away! There is a slight motif going as you might see, but though there is a motif, each character will have very dinstinct stories to them. In two more chapters, the girls will be together again so it won't be single character chapters all the way through. The answer the things are drawing closer, so look for the next chappie!