Hey again, thanks for your reviews everyone! I am truly honored. Seriously, I'm so weird I will rush to my computer after school or soccer like "MUST…SEE…REVIEWS!" Well, not exactly like that, but you know. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy this chappie!
Chapter 5
Bell One: Sakura's Close Call
Sakura sat at her place in math class while the people surrounding her mingled. Like Tenten, she felt slightly intimidated by all the people who had happy pasts with friends and families, whereas her's and her friend's were the complete opposite.
Getting bored of sitting, Sakura took out her calculator and began to play around with random features. Games, graphs, cheats…cheats? Without thinking twice, Sakura deleted them (AN: I know I'm controlling where this is going, but that little fool! Who deletes cheats? Well I guess my conscience would pester me to do the same). She took a lot more joy in solving problems then taking the short cut around them.
"Why, hello there!" Sakura looked up at the source of the voice. It took all her might not to flinch when she saw his appearance. He had a shiny ebony bowl cut, a spandex green suit and the biggest eye brows she had ever seen. "Who, may I ask, might you be?" The boy asked in a loud and clear voice. Sakura stuttered a response.
"S-sakura Haruno," she answered, still in surprise.
"It's very nice to meet a girl of such youthful spirit and appearance such as yourself Sakura Haruno! I am Rock Lee. But you may call me…" he spun around a few times to add to the effect. "LEE!" He struck the nice guy pose with a nice ping of his pearly white teeth. Sakura blinked.
"It's very nice to meet you Lee," said Sakura, not wanting to come off rude to her first possible friend in this class. Lee took this as a welcome, and slid into the seat next to her.
"I know how it feels to be alone in a crowd of people! If there is anything I can do to make your new kid experience any easier, please inform me!" Lee said, leaning in closer to Sakura. Sakura scoot to the opposite side little, and smiled.
"Thanks Lee! I will." She ignored his odd appearance and decided he was a very nice guy. He, unlike everyone else in the room, took the time of day to talk to her so he deserved her undivided attention.
That is until all of a sudden, there was collective gasp amongst the females of the room. Sakura looked up.
"Sasuke!" "It's Him!" "Sasuke's here!" were just a few of the many remarks Sakura over heard from the girls. She looked at Lee, confused.
"That's Sasuke Uchiha," sighed Lee with annoyance and even a little bit of anger in his voice. "He's pretty much the king of this place." He pretended not to notice Sakura's interested expression.
She looked at the doorway where the rest of the girls were staring. Walking slowly and nonchalantly was a dark blue haired boy with his hands jammed in his pockets. He ignored the whispering and staring that was quite blatantly taking place around him. He had a blue short-sleeved shirt with a large collar and the Uchiha family crest on the back, along with khaki shorts and arm protectors. Sakura blushed. No wonder he has so many fan girls…he is really hott. I swear I've seen him around. Probably at the mall or something. Unfortunately, the fact that her ankle stung every time she looked at him mildly took away from the effect.
"Are you alright, Sakura?" Lee asked worriedly, noticing Sakura's slight cringe of pain.
"Uh…yeah," replied Sakura. She could tell she trusted Lee already, but not nearly so much as to trust him with her and her friends' secret. "I'm fine." But it wasn't fine. Sakura was beginning to remember something she was desperately trying to forget.
"You certainly are the brainy type aren't you?" asked the tall shadowy woman of Sakura. Sakura folded her arms.
"That's right. So I know enough to get me as well as my friends out of this 'fate' you seem to be going on about." Sakura had thought she had won, but she was far from it. She was now caught in a body bind caused by a strange incantation. "No…" she grunted as she strived to break free. Even though she was strong, she was not nearly strong enough to break the tight grip this invisible force had on her body.
The mysterious woman walked over the struggling Sakura and quickly slapped her palm to Sakura's left ankle. Sakura was too well bound to scream, but her pain was indescribable. As soon as it was done, the invisible bind let loose it's hold on Sakura, and she tumbled to the cold hard floor, panting.
"You always were a know-it-all," said the towering woman, walking back to her original post. "If you're not careful, that oversized brain might become a bit of a burden for you." Sakura stood up and brushed the dirt off her legs. "Who knows…maybe when you need it most…it will turn on you." With that, the large woman faded away, leaving a wounded Sakura to ponder.
Sakura stared intently down at her desk, trying to look for a greater meaning within what the woman said to her. But as hard as she thought, she found nothing.
"Sakura…? Hello?" Lee slowly waved a hand in Sakura' s line of vision, perking her up again.
"Oh um, my bad," Sakura said as she composed herself. "I just sort of spaced." After this was said, Sakura looked back down at the main focal point of the room.
Although she was just as entranced as every other girl in the room, Sakura pretended not to pay attention to Sasuke and began pressing random buttons on her calculator.
As Sasuke began walking through the many desks, the pink-haired girl caught his eye. What's this? He thought to himself. A girl who's not pointlessly drooling over me? This seems interesting. He brashly walked by all of the swooning fan girls and sat in the seat beside Sakura. Especially since I already feel a sort of connection.
Sakura pretended to only just notice his presence, as she put a halt to her random typing. She looked at him and smiled. "Hey," she said, feeling envious eyes and glares boring into her from all directions.
Sasuke played it cool as usual. "Hn," he replied. Sakura frowned. Alrighty then. She took back to her random button hitting, disappointed in Sasuke's lack of welcome.
"That's one odd equation you have there," said the voice next to her. So now he speaks. Sasuke was peering slightly over at her calculator. Sakura looked down to at her calculator screen and immediately turned red in the face with embarrassment.
1dfvgj4568:\-345gld k1zd er)fdsgg(xtsjf
Error occurred
"Uh…hehe…about that." As smart as Sakura was, she could not summon up an excuse to slip out of this one. Why was that?
"Hello, Class, I'm Akio!" A man, whom Sakura assumed was the math teacher, appeared before all of them. "Welcome to your first math class!" he said cheerfully. Someone likes his job a lot. Akio walked to the chalkboard and quickly but neatly wrote something down. They were questions. "This is a small questionnaire about you! I would like you to put down your answers on a separate sheet of paper, then exchange them with your neighbors so you can learn more about one another."
"That's a great idea, Sir!" said Lee, glancing at Sakura who hadn't noticed his implication. Akio smiled.
"I'm glad you think so." Akio said, as he passed a piece of loose-leaf to each person in the class. "You may all begin now."
Sakura put her name down and numbered her paper. She looked at the first question.
1. Are you new to this school?
Yes
2. If so, where did you go previously?
A different school3. Do you have any siblings?
No4. Do you have friends you've known for a while? If so, who are they?
Yes. They are Ino Yamanaka, Tenten, and Hinata Hyuuga.
5. What is your favorite subject?
Math6. Were you born in Konoha, or elsewhere?
Sakura bit the head of her pencil at this question. Should she answer the question correctly and say elsewhere? But if she did that, she risked Lee or Sasuke asking her where in particular, and there was no explaining where she came from. But then, she couldn't just say she was from Konoha, because then people would wonder why she didn't come to this school in the first place. Sakura, the smart and crafty kunoichi, was left completely stumped over one small question on a meaningless questionnaire. Sakura left it blank, in hopes it wouldn't be much of a future problem.
7. Do you often get good grades?
Yes.
Sakura moved on to the last question, happy to know there would be no more risky stumpers.
8. Do you find yourself attractive?
This did not stump Sakura, but it did confuse her. Why the heck was this on the questionnaire? Of what significance is it to our neighbors either? She just shrugged and answered it anyway.
I guess so.
Sakura put down her pencil and looked around the room. Everyone except for about four people had finished before her because of the time she took pondering the sixth question. Lee was on of the four people not to finish yet. He had finished all except the fourth question.
"I certainly have long term friends," he said to himself. "I'm just having trouble remembering them." Sakura saw that he had Kiba, Shino and Chouji written down, but Lee felt that that was not enough to impress the girl next to him when she read his questionnaire. "Aha! I know!" Lee scribbled down the word "Gai". Sakura scrunched up her nose. A teacher? Lee put his pencil down. The rest of the class had finished as well.
"It looks like we have all finished, so I would like you to exchange in this fashion…" Akio began to number off pairs. As he numbered off, there were a series of cheers and groans concerning the pairings. When Akio got around to Sakura's desk, he turned the papers around to read the names. "Sakura Haruno with…" he looked at another paper. "Sasuke Uchiha." Cool. Maybe I'll actually get to find out some stuff about this guy! Lee's face fell. He had been preparing what he hoped would be impressive answers, and was sad that they were in vain. With a small glare at Sasuke, he exchanged his paper with the girl on the other side of him.
"I will be in the lounge for a bit to drop off some papers," said Akio as he picked up a stack of papers on the corner of his desk. "I trust you guys to be responsible young adults and stay quiet." He walked out of the room.
"So…here." Sakura held her paper out to Sasuke. He took it and set it aside, but did not look at it. "Maybe you would want to give me yours?" she asked him, hoping he knew what they were assigned to do.
"Why should I let a random stranger know personal facts about myself?" He asked without looking at Sakura. Sakura grew slightly angry, but tried not let it get the best of her. But as soon as her ankle ached again, she grew annoyed and it was too late.
"Hm, let me clarify the meaning of 'exchange papers' for you," said Sakura, offended by Sasuke's attitude towards her. "You give me yours, I give you mine, and we both read them."
"Why should I want to read about a stranger?" he asked, still fixing his eyes forward. Lee, who had been listening to this, slammed his fist down on his desk, cracking it, and stood up, earning a lot of unwanted attention from the class.
"Don't you treat a new student that way, Uchiha! I don't care how powerful or smart you may be, it is wrong to be rude to a girl whose only wish is to get to know you!" Lee shouted at the Uchiha boy, ignoring all the girls evil glares at him for yelling at their angel. Sasuke continued to look forward as if he had not heard Lee at all. This only angered Lee more.
"Well then, Uchiha, if you are so sure of yourself, how about a fight?" Lee shouted louder at Sasuke, knowing he could never resist a challenge. Sasuke then shifted his gaze at the bowl-cut boy.
"I don't usually like fighting over stupid things," he said with a sideways glance at Sakura who returned it with a glare. "But this time I will make an exception." He stood up from his desk, and he and Lee began to stare each other down, normally the first phase before a hard-core fight. Sakura could sense the negative heat formulating between the two, and fearful of what may happen, she stood up.
"Please, don't fight!" she said, coming in between the two. Just then, Akio had walked back into the room.
"Did I just hear the word 'fight'?" he asked as he made his way up to the desks of Lee, Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura gulped. They were in trouble now. Fighting was not exactly the thing 'responsible young adults' would do.
"Sit down Miss Haruno," he said coldly. Sakura quivered as she sat down. Her ankle was bugging her again. Akio looked at the two boys with a very disciplinary look on his face. As cheerful a spirit as he had, he meant business when people disobeyed him.
"If you two boys were planning on going at each other in my classroom, you are sorely mistaken." He shoved the two boys away from each other, but they did not drop their death glares. "Now, I don't care who started it or who deserves it, I will not have my students tearing each other apart whenever I leave the room. Thank God there wasn't any damage done before I came back." He looked at the two boys sternly before ending his speech. "If this happens again, it's detention."
Lee folded his arms. Detention? It will take a whole lot more than a mere detention to keep me from defending someone dear, he thought as he sat back down in his desk.
Sasuke thrust his hands back into his pockets and closed his eyes. "Hn," he said simply as he walked back to his desk. Why waste my time on that bushy browed idiot? I have deeper concerns on my mind…he looked over at Sakura…like getting to the bottom of why I sense a strange feeling coming from that girl.
Sakura blushed when she caught Sasuke looking at her. He may be a jerk, but he's still really hott! "Ow!" Sakura suddenly exclaimed, as the ankle pain rapidly increased.
"Are you alright Sakura?" asked Lee worriedly, bending down on one knee to examine Sakura's ankle.
"Wait…er…don't!" Sakura said as she tried to yank her ankle back, but it was too late. Lee had folded Sakura's sock over, which she had pulled up over he ankle after Kiba had noticed, and his eyes widened. Sakura squinted her eyes shut. Uh oh…
"Sakura, I had no idea you got tattoos!" he gasped as he looked at the design. It was a circle with three straight lines coming from the center.
"Why Sakura, I didn't know you were that kind of a person!" Akio said with a wave of his finger. "Don't go overboard! I don't want one of my students to become one of those gang mobster crackpot troublemaking…" he went on as he walked back to his desk.
Sakura opened her eyes, relieved. Sasuke, even though he was still peeved, had noticed the commotion too.
"Uh, yeah, me and my friends all got one on our ankles not too long ago." Sakura said to Lee, telling him the same lie Tenten had told Kiba.
"You did, huh?" Sasuke asked, leaning in closer to look at the design. He narrowed his eyes. Can it be?
"She just said she did! Why do you doubt her answer?" Lee said angrily as he hopped to his feet, pointing an accusatory finger at Sasuke. Before Sasuke could respond, the bell rang.
Lee gathered up his stuff and head for the door. He turned his head back at Sasuke. "This is not over, Uchiha!" with that, he left. Sakura waved him goodbye, and he waved back.
Sakura then got up to leave as well when a strong hand on her wrist brought her down into her chair again. "What are you doing?" she asked Sasuke. Sasuke looked at her seriously.
"Where did you go before you came here?" he asked her, not letting go of her wrist.
"Uh, why do you want to know?" Sakura said, as she sweated a bit in her temples.
"Just tell me," he said as he narrowed his eyes. Sakura searched for something, anything that would work as an excuse to get herself out of this. Not to say she didn't enjoy the fact that the class hottie was holding onto her wrist and leaning in on her, but this was not exactly the manner in which she would have wanted it to be done. In her fantasy, interrogation was not part of the script.
"Uh, I have to go meet up with my friends, sorry I have to go. Right now." She leapt up really fast, yanking her wrist free along with her. She bolted out of the room as fast as she could. As she walked down the long hallway, she looked over her shoulder. No one. That was WAY too close…
That took a while! I didn't expect for it to be that long, but cool! Just a heads up, I have nothing against Lee, I repeat, I have NOTHING against Rock Lee! He is one of my favorite characters, so for any of you Rock Lee fans out there, I didn't intend to insult him in any way. Besides that, I would also like to point out that I do not think that all people with tattoos are gang mobster crackpot troublemakers. I just added that to fit Akio's perfectionist character. So I hope that cleared some things up if any of you had problems with those two parts of the chapter. I'm going to start the next one, but it may take a little longer than this one only because school has started and the world as we know it is coming to an end. When that ones done, I swear there will be a lot more questions answered, trust me! Thanks for reading, R and R!
