Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Yo wassup, dogs?" A loud boy yelled as he entered the room. "Where've you two been?"

"Zaku," A raspy voiced snapped. "Keep your voice down."

Kiba walked in behind, the reprimanded student. When he did, he felt like he was about to throw up.

"Holy shit!" Kiba shouted in alarm. "What the fuck happened to you?"

"Shut up, Kiba." A girl snarled. "Dosu is feeling a little…under the weather, right now."

Zaku stared in shock at his friend, Dosu. "That's the understatement of the year! Half of his fucking face is burned off!"

A voice, as rough as sandpaper, replied. "There was an accident, a few weeks ago. Kin and I were going to exact some revenge against that Sasuke. Things did not go as planned and I was rushed to the hospital for severe burns to my face."

Dosu paused for a few seconds to rest his coarse voice. Seeing, Dosu's trouble finishing, Kin stepped in. "You were unlucky enough to come in while we were changing his bandages. It has to be done once a week, and it is easier for me to help him."

"Those damn Uchihas always getting the best of us!" Zaku roared, punching the wall next to him. "Next time we'll show those punks not to mess with us."

Soon after Dosu the wrappings were in place, Kiba remarked, "Hey, you can only see your left eye. That's a hell of a lot of bandages. You look like a mummy. How long will you need to wear them?"

"The doctors said anywhere from six months to the rest of my life. So, no time soon."

"What were you guys trying to do for this to happen?"

"I would rather not talk about it."

"That's cool," Zaku responded. "Oh, before I forget, we came here to ask you guys for a few favors."

"What?"

"We got a job that we need some more people for; you in?"

"Of course."

When Naruto woke up, he noticed that Shikamaru was, again, not there. Shrugging, he jumped out of bed and raced to the cafeteria. He stopped right outside the doors, and peaked in to make sure that a certain redhead was not there.

Relieved, he skipped to the Ramen stand and loaded his tray to the max.

"Hi, Haku!" He greeted as he jumped into the seat next to the longhaired boy. "Did you have good day yesterday."

"It was fine. Unfortunately, after you were nearly killed by Gaara--"

"God! I am so tired of hearing about Gaara. Gaara this; Gaara that; watch out for Gaara; careful Gaara is right behind you. Isn't there anyone else in this school to talk about beside him?"

"That you need to watch out for? No. You are way too far Itachi and his gang of friend's notice."

Seething in his chair, Naruto growled. "Fine. Where is the weight room?"

"Why?"

"I am tired of being the new kid, who gets his ass kicked around."

"So, you are going to train?"

"Non-stop for days on end if I must."

"No offense, Naruto, but you look like someone like Shikamaru."

"What's so bad about the Nara kid?"

"Nothing he's just really lazy, and never completes his promises."

"I never go back on my word; that's my new way." Naruto slammed his hand down on the table. "I don't quit, and I don't run!"

Everyone in the cafeteria stopped in mid-bite. They were all watching the new kid; usually it took at least a few months before insanity started to hit. Seeing, their entertainment calm down, they went back to eating and talking.

"Well, after that, I hope you follow through."

"Thanks Haku. I'm done and want to get an early start. Please, tell me where the gym is."

"Sure."

"Naruto!"

Naruto looked behind him, to see Kabuto jogging towards him. When the silver-haired boy was near him, he slowed and fell in step with the blonde.

"Hey, Kabuto, what's up?"

"Actually something huge, in my opinion at least. I'm running for student council president."

"Cool! Good luck, man. I'll vote for you."

"Thank you, Naruto. However, I was curious if you could do me a favor. I am running against Sasuke Uchiha--"

"I just want to say right now, that I am not going to be a part of any sabotage plans."

Kabuto chuckled. "No, it's nothing like that. I need you to help put up signs, hand out flyers, pretty much act as a campaign manager."

Naruto was stunned for moment. "You'd really let me be your campaign manager? Thanks, man! No one has ever let me do something like this!"

Kabuto smirked. "Well, I couldn't ask for a better person. There are others working on it as you probably guessed."

After blinking his eyes, Naruto nodded vigorously. "Of course, I knew that. Why wouldn't I?"

"Meet with Ino today after school, so you can start working on it—if you don't mind, of course." Kabuto said completely ignoring Naruto's antics.

Naruto lost his smile. "Sorry, I can't do it tonight. I have my detention."

"Oh, right, silly me." Kabuto responded, slapping his palm to his forehead. "I forgot. Will tomorrow night work, then?"

"Yup. See you there." Naruto gave a huge grin and continued on his quest to the weight room.

"Hey, newbie!"

What is it with this hallway? Is this where people wait to ambush me? Naruto thought.

"Yeah?" he asked, seeing a strange girl striding toward him. She had twisted her hair into two buns, and was wearing boy's gyms. No doubt, that this was a tom-girl. "Who are you?"

"I am Tenten."

"Any last name?"

Suddenly, the girl snapped. Shaking a fist at the new boy, she yelled, "None of your business, douchebag!"

Naruto took a half step back, and raised his hands in an effort to calm the girl. "Sorry, I didn't mean any offense."

Tenten took a deep breath. "So, what's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki." He replied without hesitation.

"I hate you."

Naruto blinked in surprise. This was one really strange girl.

"I hate your type." She continued.

"You think that you're all cool. You think you can just walk in and step on all the losers here. But, you are dead wrong!"

"I don't know where all this anger is coming"

"Like hell you don't! I heard about what you said about Chouji. He did not deserve it, and worse he knows all about what you said. People delight in making fun of him anew, 'cause even the new kid laughs at him."

Naruto's face darkened. He was angry—with himself, the girl and the world in particular.

"Look, I know what it's like to be humiliated and made fun of. I would not wish it on anyone. Sometimes, I am brutally honest, and it came out"

"Don't give me any of those lame ass excuses! I bet you were never teased."

"At my last school, everyone hated me."

"Tell me why, and I may believe."

"No," Naruto said, his frown still plastered onto his face. "It's…personal. I am not going to share it with anyone, especially some girl I met five minutes ago."

"Maybe, I was a bit of a jerk," Naruto continued talking over her attempted rebuttal. "But this is a new school, and I don't want to be the loser, anymore. If you had the chance to start yourself over would you?"

"No!" Tenten exclaimed, without hesitation.

"Y-yes. I would." A soft voice whispered from their side.

Both Naruto and Tenten looked over to see a small girl, staring at them—Naruto in particular. When she realized that she had been spotted, she squeaked and froze—her entire body perfectly rigid and straight.

"Hello, Hinata." Tenten greeted a little annoyed. "Would you mind explaining to us what you just said?"

"W-well, I thought that if I had the chance to be someone else—recreate my self—I would take it. I don't want to go through life, the shy, rich, loser girl." Naruto had to strain his ears to hear the short girl.

"And I would rather have friends that truly cared about me." Tenten spat. "Hinata we're friends, right?" After seeing Hinata nod, she continued. "Would you change yourself, if it meant losing me as a friend?"

Hinata quickly glanced at the blonde boy, before she answered quietly. "I would want b-both: to r-recreate myself, to make n-new friends and to k-keep my old f-friends."

"Fun as this has been, you two, I've got to go, now. See you later!" Naruto abruptly left, sprinting down the hall.

Seeing her victim escaping, Tenten chased after it.

"Get back here, you jerk!"

Hinata watched the two leave, poking two of her fingers together. She liked the new boy, and did not really like Tenten trying to make things difficult for him.

As Hinata walked into Physics, she sighed and sat down at her seat. Few students took the course long enough to get into AP Physics. Most took Biology or Chemistry. Even though, she had been in this class for weeks—since school started—she still did not know any of the other students.

Hinata was perpetually shy, and could not bring herself to talk to any strangers, which meant she did not make many friends, which meant she was less confident in herself, as she continued in a never-ending spiral of self-loathing and insecurity.

Sakura and Tenten were the only people she considered to be her friends, but at times Hinata secretly thought that they only barely tolerated her presence. No, I am just being paranoid, again. Sakura and Tenten really are my friends.

The other handful of students were talking and laughing, while Hinata sat at her desk, attempting to make herself as small as possible.

"Settle down class." The teacher yelled as he walked in. The chain smoker was one of her better teachers. Many of the faculty members at the school were extremely rude to the non-elite. Baki, Orochimaru, Zabuza, Ibiki, and Ebisu--even Anko and Hayate at times—were all snobby. Nice to the ones with promising futures, and terrible to those worth nothing, in their eyes.

"Hello?" Hinata's heart beat faster, as she watched her crush, Naruto walk into the room. "I was told to come here. I just transferred so I may need to catch up."

"We'll deal with that later. Just sit next over there."

"Next to that girl…Hinata?" It had taken a few moments to recall her name.

"No, you'll be sitting next to Sasuke Uchiha. The boy with black hair."

"Okay."

Once Naruto sat down, Asuma began his lesson. "We will be quickly reviewing projectile motion, today, to make sure none of you forgot since last year."

"Shino." Asuma pointed at the boy with his cigarette, as he called on him. "If I drop a bomb from a plane going 300 miles per hour, what is its acceleration? Neglecting air resistance, of course."

A creepy, silent in the boy answered; his voce was soft, but strong, and devoid of almost all emotion. "In the x direction 0, and the y direction 9.8m/s/s, assuming of course that they are on earth."

"Very good. Kimimaro, neglecting air resistance, if I punt a football 50 miles per hour at an angle of 30 degrees above horizontal, what is the initial velocity in the x direction."

After a few moments of punching in the numbers on his calculator, Kimimaro answered. "43.3 miles per hour, sir."

"Excellent! Who would care to explain how he got that? No one?" Asuma scanned the classroom. "Naruto, how about you."

"Uh…he got that by…err…I don't know."

"Are you stupid?" The boy next to Naruto, asked. "This is one of the easiest problems Asuma will give us. What are you doing in AP physics, if you don't even know the honors physics material?"

"Settle down, Sasuke." Asuma said, intervening before a fight broke out. "Why don't you help Naruto out."

"Of course, sir. All you need to do is take the cosine of 30 and multiply it by 50. It is simple."

"I see that most of you grasp the concept, but just to be sure, turn to page 127 in your books, and do these problems." Asuma said pointing the board, where the problem numbers were, with his cigarette. "Naruto, please come here."

When Naruto was in front of the teacher's office, Asuma whispered so that none of the other students could hear. "Boy, you seem a bit shaky with this stuff. Are you sure that you'll be okay in this class? There may have been a mistake, and even if there was no mistake, we can still bump you down into another class."

Naruto ground his teeth together. He knew that Asuma was trying to help him, but it was aggravating all the same.

Barely unclenching his teeth, Naruto responded. "No thank you, sir. I am perfectly capable of handling it?"

"Even if you put all of your effort into it, some kids just don't get physics. I'm going to move you down, son. It'll be better, trust me."

"No, sir. Wait. I need to prove to everyone that I'm not some moron on legs. Let me take this class, and I swear if I fail the midterm, that you can bump me down."

"If you manage to get a C, you can stay. But, remember when you fail it, you won't get a credit for either class."

"With all due respect, sir, I am going to kick that test's ass."

Author's Notes

Naruto's loss against Gaara is what will motivate him to become the stamina monster he is in the show. Since Demons don't exist in real life he can't draw on that strength. By the way, what should Kyuubi be or how should it appear. Would he be a student? That would be really wierd though, and his abilities wouls have to be greatly depowered.

Dosu got burned, because I needed a way to cover is face. Most people don't walk around with their faces covered in real life without a real reason. Maybe some freaky people do, but Dosu certainly would not.

I am goinf to keep piling even more problems onto Naruto. This will keep going for a while, or until he loses everything--whichever one I feel like having come first.