Sasuke sat there quietly watching the exchange between teens, it was starting to give him a headache. Just like the rest of the class he sat and did nothing, it wasn't any of his business, and it isn't very Uchiha like to get involved in others affairs, he reminded himself.

During the whole exchange Sasuke took notice of Naruto's every facial flinch, every eye flicker and every shift in his body. Everything his genius mind could gather from this information was telling him that there was definitely something more to the story than what Inuzuka was letting on.

Everything that Naruto said reverberated in his mind. It all made sense, 'Why would Kiba be around him? And what could this video have possibly shown?' So many questions built up inside the young Uchihas mind.

'That was another thing, who gets their face slammed into a desk and proceeds to laugh while swiftly and calmly subduing the attacker like nothing happened?' he continued his own inner questioning.

Yep, Sasuke was definitely getting a headache. All this and he hadn't even made it to lunch yet. Deciding that he was just going to ignore the situation he continued on reviewing the math chapter they had been working on. Finally the longest math period he's ever been subjected to ended. Neji takes it upon himself to show Sasuke to his next class.

"So, are you going to tell me about what happened back there?" Sasuke asked the Hyuga.

Neji looks a little irritated but then replies, "I just needed him to know that he's not to mess with you."

This time it was Sasukes turn to look irritated. "I don't need your protection, Neji, I'm quite capable of handling myself."

"I know, I know, I just haven't seen you in so long, then I heard that he walked you to class. I just didn't want him thinking you were going to be his next victim." The pale eyes teen defends lightly shrugging his shoulders.

Figuring now was as good a time as any to indulge his curiosity Sasuke asks "How well do you know Kiba, you sure you can trust him? And what is this video that I keep hearing about?"

Responding coldly he says, "I've known Kiba for as long as I've lived here, I'll have his back no matter what. As for the video I can send it to you and you can see for yourself."

Still not sure what to make of his first day Sasuke simply gave his usual Uchiha response "hn."

Not having the same class with his friend, Neji drops Sasuke off at his History class with Kurenai sensei. After making his usual introduction Kurenai, a woman with a light complexion, long wavy brown hair and eyes with a unique reddish pigment sent him to his seat.

Upon making his way over he realised the girl he was to sit beside wasn't squeaking and whispering about him like all the others. He could tell that she was blushing as she stole glances at him from the corner of his eye though.

Letting out a sigh 'here we go again' he thinks to himself.

"S-sorry S-sasuke I didn't mean t-to stare. It's me H-hinata, Neji's cousin." She managed to say in a stutter.

Turning in his seat a bit he notices the lavender coloured hair and the pale lilac eyes 'no doubt she's a Hyuga' Sasuke muses.

Upon closer inspection of the girl he notices how her lavender hair trails down over her shoulder resetting on top of her rather voluptuous breasts. Sasuke almost blushes at his thoughts but he doesn't, he's and Uchiha, and Uchihas don't blush.

Seeing as he knows her he takes the time to be a tad polite "Hello Hinata, it's been a while."

Giving Sasuke a small smile she says "Yes It has, it's very nice to see you again." She seemingly lost her initial nervousness upon realising the raven actually remembered her.

With that class continued on as normal. Even with the girls whispering and the annoying Haruno girl trying to get him to go on a date, Sasuke was grateful for the lack of drama his previous class had.


Naruto sat in the office with tissues shoved up his nostrils to absorb the blood from his injured nose. He was in no hurry to have this conversation. The principal Mr. Hiruzen was actually really nice to him, but he knew that after the events of this morning, even he wasn't going to be able to hold off a phone call home.

"Mr. Uzumaki, what brings you here?" ask Beatrice with a hint of concern seeing the blood soaked tissues hanging from his nostrils.

"I'm here to see Mr. Hiruzen." he states, not bothering to hint on why he is to see the principle.

Just as the receptionist was about to ask for more information a gruff voice greets "What do I owe the pleasure Mr. Uzumaki?"

There stood a short little old man with balding grey hair, light orchid coloured eyes, deep facial wrinkles and age spots.

"Don't call me that old man!" Naruto shouts in an almost playful tone.

"I'll stop calling you that when you start showing me some respect." the old man chuckles.

"Tch, like that will ever happen" snorts the blond.

"Exactly, so what brings you here? You don't usually get sent here." He asks.

Sighing in defeat, the blonde says "Neji Hyuga."

The principal's face contorted to show serious concern. "Come to my office, we'll talk there."

Getting up and tossing the bloodied tissues in a passing garbage reciprocal he walks into the principal's office. Hiruzen closes the door behind them. "Please take a seat and explain what happened."

Naruto went into as much detail as he could remember, causing the old man to frown slightly. "I'm sorry Naruto but I'm going to have to call your father. As you know Neji is a Hyuga, and his family are huge benefactors to our school. As much as I hate to admit it, they will never let this go unpunished even with him being the instigator."

Naruto looks down at his lap with a dejected look and lets out a shaky sigh. "I know old man, I know."

Sorrow is written all over the elders face, he really wished there was something he could do for the boy but the matters were out of his hands.

Naruto breaks himself of his trance and begins to stand and leave. "Well I better get going, this is now the third class I'm late for today."

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about something else, ask you something actually." he says uncharacteristically timid, stopping the blond immediately in his tracks.

Given the date, Naruto is sure he knows what this is in correlation to. "It's about them isn't it?" he asks softly, as if both Hiruzen and himself would crumble had he asked any other way.

"Yes, as you know next week is the anniversary. I know I have no right to ask you, but the school is commemorating them and he would want no one else to pay tribute to them then you. I know they would want you to, so I'm asking would you play something at the memorial assembly?" The old man solemnly asks. He had very little hope that Naruto would accept his request, but it was what his grandson would have wanted.

The air in the room became palpable, neither moved nor spoke for what seemed like hours. Naruto looks down at his feet not wanting any eye contact right now, then finally breaks the silence with a rather shaky voice "I don't know if that's a good idea, I would probably just ruin it and tarnish their memories."

"Please Naruto, for him, for them! I know I have no right to ask, and I know the students here can be a bunch of stuck up little assholes, but this is what they would have wanted. No one else could make it as meaningful as you." Hiruzen pleaded, clasping his hands together in front of him like he was about to pray. In his own way he kind of was, this is the only thing in his mind, the only appropriate tribute.

Battling in his mind, Naruto is torn. He owes it to them to pay tribute, hell he knows that he'd be selfish not to, but there is no way that him being up on that stage would go unnoticed by a school filled with so many who now hate him. While Naruto is thinking it through, they stand there in utter silence, the elder dare not speak for the fear that even the simplest of sound would cause all hope to shatter.

An almost unperceivable "Okay." came from the boy's mouth. He knew that it was not a day for him to be selfish. He would suffer if it meant it was for them, for their memories.

Looking at the boy with admiration Hiruzen says, "Thank you so much Naruto, I know this would make them so happy. I want you to go to the music auditorium and begin practice. Until the assembly next Friday, instead of History this period I'll be exempting you from class to rehearse."

Waving his arm a bit frantically Naruto insists "Please you don't have to do that, I'll be fine without all that time. Besides, my father wouldn't be pleased about me missing so many classes."

"I'm not taking no for an answer you'll go there now, And Naruto, your father won't find out about this, I promise." The old man says firmly as he walks over to his office door, opening it for the blond to take his leave.

Feeling as there is no room to argue, Naruto slowly retreats from the office. Lost in thought he walks his way to the music auditorium. The room is large enough to house the whole school. It had huge ceilings and many rows of seats, each row elevated more than the previous. The whole room gave the vibe of an actual theatre with a stage large enough to house a full orchestra.

Naruto made his way back stage to where instruments for kids who aren't able to purchase or use their own are kept. Quickly finding an old, most definitely out of turn acoustic guitar he makes his way on stage, choosing to sit on the very ledge allowing his legs to dangle.

Taking several minutes to tune the guitar, Naruto was quite happy with himself, it had been close to a year since he's picked up an instrument. He always continued writing, but after that night he couldn't bring himself to actually play, so seeing he was able to still quickly tune a guitar gave him a slight sense of pride.

"I'm sorry, you guys should be here today, not me." he solemnly says to himself, lowering his head with the look of agony playing across his facial features.

"No matter the pain it will cause, I'm doing this for you. I miss you guys so fucking much." he says, his voice breaking, betraying the calm façade he's put up.

With that Naruto looks up and begins to play, completely ignoring the bell to signal lunch.


History was rather boring, Sasuke didn't find the whole topic they were on particularly interesting. He was currently staring at the clock, willing the time to speed up, but to no avail. Out of nowhere he feels his phone vibrate. The only people who have his number were his family and now Neji so he was curious as to who it was.

Neji:

Hey I forgot to mention Hinata was in your class, tell her to take you to meet us by the cafeteria when class ends.

Sasuke:

Ok

Neji:

Also I'm going to add you to our group chat.

Sasuke:

please don't...

Neji has added (xxx)xxx-xxxx to the group chat.

Kiba:

Yo Neji who's this?

Neji:

Too late :)

Sasuke:

I hate you.

Neji:

No you don't :)

Sasuke:

...

Kibas:

Yo! Sasuke welcome to the group!

Shino:

Welcome.

Ino:

OMG Sasuke-Kun! 3

Sakura:

I knew you couldn't stay away from me Sasuke-Kun! 3

Neji:

Calm down Sakura, Ino, stop teasing him. Hinata I told him to get you to bring him to the cafeteria at lunch alright?

Hinata:

Of course!

Sighing, Sasuke silences and locks his phone, sliding it back into his pocket ignoring whatever useless conversations were going on in the group chat. He was now sitting there brooding, wondering what would compel his friend to throw him to the sharks. The rest of class creeps by ever so slowly, finally the bell rings, signaling the start of lunch.

"Are you ready to go Sasuke?" Hinata timidly asks.

'She is kind of cute, and she doesn't squeal at me like every other retched female I seem to come across' he thought to himself, immediately swatting the thought away. ' No! She's Neji's cousin!' He reminds himself.

Nodding his head and responding with a simple "hn'' they make their way out of class walking side by side not saying a word. Sasuke was more than grateful for this, there was enough sound with all the whispering about them.

"Hey, do you mind waiting here? I just need to drop some stuff at my locker and I don't want to make you backtrack." She nervously asks.

"Hn" is all the response he gives. At least he's not being dragged half way across school like with Kiba.

Upon waiting for Hinata he hears the sound of a guitar strumming. 'Hm, must be by the music room' he muses.

Then he heard the voice of who he presumed was playing the guitar. The voice was beautiful, powerful, deep and...sad. Curiosity getting the best of him for what felt like the millionth time today, he walked towards the source of sound. Before reaching the doorway to what he assumes is the music room, he can hear all the anguish in the boy's voice, somehow he feels he knows this voice. Peeking in through the doorway he is greeted by the side profile of none other than Naruto. 'I've never heard this song before, do he write it?' he finds himself wondering.

Without even realising it he stood in the doorway, watching and listening to the beautifully sad song. For someone with such a deep voice he had such a wide range of vocals. Naruto, feeling he was being watched, stopped playing and turned to see his audience. Seeing it's none other than Sasuke he inquires, "I'd think you of all people would know how rude it is to stare. Or is this about earlier? Because if it is, don't worry I'll keep my distance."

Before Sasuke had a chance to respond Hinata interrupts "Sorry I took so long Sasuke we can-" But cuts herself off upon seeing Naruto staring at the two of them from the stage.

Hinata begins to blush upon seeing Naruto and in just barely louder than a whisper she asks, not quite believing what she's seeing, "N-naruto-Kun, you're p-playing again?"

Sasuke was extremely confused over this 'is she blushing? Does she like him? Shouldn't she hate him too after the things he supposedly done?' were all thoughts swirling around in his mind.

"Hey Hinata, you know Neji won't be happy if he finds out you spoke to me." he whispers back giving her a sad smile, seemingly ignoring her question.

"O-of course, my apologies." she stutters, bowing slightly then quickly taking her leave.

Sasuke quickly follows behind Hinata, "What was that about?" he demands.

"Please don't tell Neji!" she pleads, looking at him with big watery eyes.

"From everything I've been told about him, shouldn't you want to stay away from him?" Sasuke asks confusedly, raising an eyebrow at her. Things regarding the blond just keep contradicting themselves.

Ignoring his questioning almost in her own world she mumbles "he was playing again, it's been almost a year since he's been in that room."

A little irritated over his previous questions being ignored he asks, "Hinata, what are you saying? This is serious, Neji won't want you hurt!"

"NARUTO WOULDN'T HURT ANYONE!" she shouts unintentionally. Quickly cover her mouth after realising her outburst. She immediately apologies bowing her head "I am so sorry Sasuke, please forgive my rude outburst, I was way out of line!"

Looking at the usually shy, quiet girl rather confused he just shakes his head slightly "It's fine, really. You mind telling me what that was all about though?" he inquires furrowing his brows ever so slightly.

Sighing, she gives him a slight nod. "It's just, he's always been nice to me and anyone really. I've never seen him so much as look at someone maliciously and I've known him since grade school. Normally I listen to Neji, I know he cares for me, but when I saw Naruto in the music auditorium again it was a bit shocking. He hasn't played music in almost a year."

Taking a moment to process the new information he says "alright, I won't tell Neji, just be careful, we both know how Neji can be."

"Of course, Thank you Sasuke-Kun!" she beams.

"Alright, we better go meet Neji." Sasuke reminds her.

Nodding her head she leads them through the hallways until they are greeted By Neji, a group of people he's already sort of met, and a couple more faces he hasn't seen before.

"There you are! What took so long?" Neji asks, narrowing his eyes at the two slightly.

"Hinata had to go to her locker before we headed over." Sasuke speaks up, not wanting the girl's protective cousin to get the wrong idea.

"Hm, alright well let's go sit and eat, then we'll get to the introductions." Neji informs while holding the door to the cafeteria open motioning for everyone to follow.

They all grab their tray and make their way through the lunch line up. After grabbing their meals they all made it to a table in the far back corner of the cafeteria.

As soon as everyone was situated Neji spoke up, "okay, we're going to go around the table clock wise and introduce ourselves to Sasuke."

"Well you know me, I'm Neji Hyuga."

"We met this morning but that stupid freak interrupted us! We also had History together didn't we? EEEE. I'm Sakura Haruno." she says, batting her eyelashes and grabbing on to Sasukes arm rubbing her chest into him.

"Umm Sakura?" A short, pale boy with dark brown hair in a bowl cut with large dark eyes and extremely thick eyebrows begins to question her.

Nervously laughing, Sakura retracts herself from Sasuke and greets the boy "oh Lee! You know I'm just being friendly, he comes from families like my other friends, I'm just trying to welcome him babe."

Chuckling to himself "oh of course, forgive me my lovely flower, I should know to trust you. I'm Rock Lee." he says with a huge smile giving Sasuke a thumbs up.

Sasuke was slightly grateful for the boy, but also pitied his ignorance.

Smiling gently "You know me, I'm Hinata Hyuga."

"You also met me this morning but were interrupted by that freak and Ms. billboard brow over there. I'm Ino Yamanaka." she says Clamping onto Sasuke in the same fashion Sakura previously had.

"I'm not going to lie, this kind of makes me feel like I'm in an AA meeting. You know, like I'm Kiba Inuzuka and I'm a drug addict." he burst out laughing and slapping his thigh at his own joke.

"That's because we're all sitting in a circle saying our names like they do in AA meetings. I'm Shin-." A tall boy wearing a hoodie, sunglasses and a scarf says, but gets cut off by Kiba.

"Yeah, yeah that was the point in my joke Shino. That guy is Shino Aburame. Kiba says using his thumb to gesture towards the well hidden teen.

"I'm Sai, do you fuck a lot of girls? You seem quite popular with them." A very pale teen with short coal coloured hair and matching eyes asks with a creepy lifeless smile.

"SaI!" the whole group shouts, earning the entirety of the cafeteria no longer just the admires to turn around and stare.

"Alright everybody, show's over!" Neji yells giving the room a glare that tells them to turn around and go back to minding their own business.

"What?" Sai asks, completely clueless and still with that creepiest smile on his face.

"Neji, I think I'm going to go." Sasuke sneers and begins to get up.

"Come on, we're sorry about him, Sai didn't really grow up with much human interaction, so he doesn't know what's acceptable to ask at all times." Neji tries to defend the clueless group member while simultaneously trying to convince his friend to stay.

"I really am sorry, I meant no offence, I just was curious, I will refrain from asking about your sex life in the future." Sai says while trying to contort his face into what he must think shows he's sorry.

"Fine, just...don't look at me like that, it's fucking creepy." mumble Sasuke.

"Excellent, now you Sasuke." Neji demands.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha." he says uninterested in this whole social interaction.

After the awkward introduction, lunch went by better than Sasuke would have thought or cared to admit. There were a few groups of girls, some boys that would try and fawn over the hot new Uchiha, but being in the group of elites, they were all seasoned in the art of dismissing crazed fans. Sasuke was actually pleasantly pleased to see that even the two rabid girls from this morning had seemed to calm down, though he's not sure if that's just because Sakura's boyfriend was there now, and the creepy kid Sai was occupying Ino. Regardless, even Sasuke had to admit that this place was better than schools in the past.


"Had a feeling I might find you here." The voice of a lazy teen echoes through the Music auditorium.

"Oh shit sorry, I forgot about lunch, did you eat?" Naruto responded sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. He had gotten so focused on the music that he didn't even realise seeing Sasuke and Hinata must have meant it was lunch.

"No it's fine, I shared some chips with Choji. Shikamaru reassures the blond.

Moving his hand up, now running his hand through his blonde locks restlessly Naruto sighs "Still, sorry I gaped lunch. It's been...a day."

"I kind of figured. But why are you here? Don't get me wrong I'm super proud of you for finally picking up a guitar again, but what brought this on?" he gingerly asks the blond, not wanting to step over any boundaries.

Looking down at his lap with a frown on his face he tells his lazy friend "Hiruzen talked to me today. He asked if I could do something for the memorial assembly. He kind of guilted me into it but-"

Narutos gets cut off when Shikamaru finishes his sentence with the correct information as opposed to the nice bullshit Naruto would have filled in. "But you are too nice and couldn't say no even though you knew it was going to be torture on you not only playing, but playing in front of these stuck up assholes?"

Naruto chuckles, "That about sums it up."

"What a drag." he says smirking at the blond, pleased he was at least able to get his blond friend to chuckle.

The moment changed instantly when Naruto realised something "Hey! What happened to English huh?"

"Oh that, yeah I fell back to sleep, sorry." he says, giving the blond his best apologetic smile. He really didn't mean to miss class, it just sort of happened.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto scolds the lazy teen, but not seriously, he knew it was going to happen, it always does.

Shikamaru takes a seat to listen to his friend play for the remainder of lunch. He really did miss watching and listening to his friend play. He found his voice very soothing when he played softer, mellower songs, but that in no way diminished his ability to scream-sing for his harder songs. His voice truly was resilient. 'Hopefully this will give him the push he needs to continue, he's way too good to throw his talent away' Shikamaru thought while also realising it was a miracle he hadn't fallen asleep to the soothing sound of his blond friend.

The bell rings bringing both teens back to reality, one packing up a guitar, the other finding the motivation to stand. Both manage to achieve their goal, and set off to their next classes after bidding each other farewell.

Naruto had Gym class next and always made sure he was the last one in and out of the changeroom. He didn't want anyone to see the state his body was in on any given day, not that it would bother him, they probably wouldn't care anyways. His teacher was Gai-sensei and he was eccentric to say the least. He wore a dark green body suit which in no way complimented his large dark eyes with eyebrows so bushy they didn't seem human and jet black bowl cut hair style. But he was a nice guy and knew how to put your body through the wringer.


After lunch was over Sasuke realised he didn't get his gym uniform for his next class. He had forgotten he was supposed to meet his guidance counsellor Iruka-sensei in order to get his uniform. Iruka is a middle aged average height man with tanned skin, chocolate brown hair that was held up out of his face in a spiky ponytail, matching eyes and a very long scar that ran from his right cheek over top of the bridge of his nose then across his left cheek.

After receiving his uniform, which was a plain white t-shirt with the school logo of a red swirly leaf and a plain black pair of knee length shorts Iruka asked him if he'd like him to show him the way to class. Having no idea where the gym was he accepted the man's offer and followed him towards the changerooms.

Sasuke was pretty sure he was going to be late to class but there wasn't much he could do about it now. He entered the changing room and was met by an almost naked blond.

Naruto was slightly bent over just finishing sliding off his jeans. Usually being the last one to change he didn't expect anyone to come in after him so his ears immediately picked up the door opening when the raven walked in. Not wanting to alert the stranger who just walked in, he pretended he hadn't noticed them and went about his business of changing and waiting to see if they were going to do or say anything.

Sasuke couldn't help but stare, he didn't even realise it. He noticed how his skin was thoroughly tanned all over, how you could see the definition of the muscles in his back with the simplest of movements. Sasuke could admit that he was good looking for a guy, and he obviously took care of himself.

Suddenly realising he was creepily staring at the blond, not wanting him to notice and get the wrong idea, he was turning to find his gym locker when he noticed a variation of tanned coloured skin. He was covered in dozens of scars, all ranging from different shapes and sizes.

'What the fuck?' he thought to himself.

He's never seen so many scars before. Then he noticed something that made his stomach drop. 'Are those scars from bullet wounds?'

All of a sudden they're gone, the blond pulled his shirt down covering the scar filled canvas that was his back.

"If you're going to keep staring you may as well take a picture." Naruto says with as little emotion as possible. He was a bit irritated that the teen just stood there watching him change.

Realising he's been caught he does the only thing he can think of to maintain his Uchiha pride, he insults the blond. "Tch, don't flatter yourself who'd want to look at a dobe like you."

After a brief flash of regret Naruto says, "Touché teme, tou-fucking-ché." before closing his locker and making it out the door leading to the gymnasium leaving Sasuke by himself.

"Fuck."