Breaking the Music Chapter 2: Name: Dull, Drab, and Boring, a naruto fanfic

Neji's Ten Tips in Becoming a Successful A+ Student

Do all your homework

Pay attention in class

Tutor someone

Get someone to tutor you

Date someone who is smart

Date someone who is dumb and try to convert them to smartness

Study two hours more then you should

Read Five books a day

Call up your friends for study sessions

Yell at said friends for not appearing at study sessions and refuse to talk to them ever again.

Breaking the Music

By FlightAngel

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I do own this story: so you steal, I kill

I personally, detestably, hate and will always hate the prospect, idea, mention and actually in-being of school. The whole concept just really ticks me off—the clean, white-polished walls, musty-smelling carpet, talkative chatter of multiple cliques and the monotonous drone of the dorky dorks. Sitting alone in my own little bubble in the middle of Spanish break, I have my headphones clamped firmly down upon my ears, listening to various tunes drowning out the chatter, bobbing my head up and down.

How I hated school.

The teacher, smoking like a chimney pipe by a half-open window, was reading an old classic—Huckleberry Finn. I hate classics, and I despise our Spanish teacher. I don't even remember his name. His bushy black hair crawled down his face and formed a rather thick, yet neatly trimmed, beard that made him look old.

Did I tell you I hate facial hair?

I never get facial hair in the mornings—even after I'd reached 'puberty'. The multiple razors by our family sink all belong to my brother, who's a hair-producing monster. I swear, I can see stubble growing just an hour after he last shaved it. It's pretty disgusting. Thankfully, Kankuro keeps his face clean-shaven, because it would look pretty silly with facial hair and paint and it'd probably piss me off so bad I'd kill him.

Literally.

I'm zoning back into Spanish again. The teacher stops puffing on his cigarette for two seconds to tell us we're dismissed, and we all happily rush out of the classroom. I'm trying to get to my locker, but the two people who just had to share the lockers next to me are standing right in front of mine, chatting about—guess who? Sasuke.

"And then—he was so totally like, 'Hey' to me and I was like, 'Oh my god!' and he walked away so cool and all I could feel the room start to chill!"

"Like, oh my god!"

"Totally!"

I growl, turning the volume up higher on my iPod and attempt to wait them out. They were two empty-headed, yet oddly honor student, girls who were in two out of seven of my classes. I can't seem to remember their names either (hey, I'm not one to remember names ok? The only people I really remember are Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Temari, Kankuro, Hatake-Sensei, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and… er… ok, that's all I can remember now…)

I glance at the clock in the hall and growl louder for the girls to hurry up. Said girls, however, did not seem to catch point and continued to chatter. Finally, pushed on by the fear of being late, I actually push them apart and start opening my lockers.

Both girls gasp at the indignity.

"Puh-lease?" The blonde girl said, mascara blinking gold in the sunlight (gold mascara? What are girls wearing these days?) "Like, what the heck is wrong with you, volcano boy?"

My brow twitches at the mention of 'volcano boy'. I've heard worse comments about my hair, but, nevertheless, it still pissed me off. Biting my tongue at the prospect of losing my reputation, I open my locker, put in my Spanish and Writing textbooks, and take out my supplies for Trigonometry and World history.

The magenta-haired girl, who was probably feeling particularly mean that day, 'accidentally' bumps into me and spill my supplies all over the hallway floor.

"Oops," She crones, innocently. The other girl snickers.

Feeling a rather familiar emptiness at the bottom of my stomach, I slowly retrieve all my books and tools and stuff them into my bag before she had another chance to do anything else. Slugging my (red) backpack over my shoulder, I try to scurry away to my class but they stop me.

"Hey," The blonde says sweetly as she leans against a locker, blocking my exit, "Want to ditch with us?"

Now, I've learned a few tricks since I came to Konoha. When Temari ordered me to stop killing, she also ordered me to hit the root of my problem—my anger. She pointed out to me that it wasn't anger that was the problem, it was how I handled anger.

To avoid anger-tantrums and someone ending up on the floor dead, I had to pick up some things in the world of sociable people. Don't ever talk back to a bully. Ignore or run when someone tries to pick on you. Stand up for other people. Try to look insignificant. Don't tell others that you're dangerous.

Now was so not the time to deal with this. Quickly ducking under her arm (and hearing her squeal) I hurry off to Trigonometry fast as I can go.

I barely make the bell and receive an incredulous look from the sensei (and yet again, I can't remember her name). Naruto, who sits right next to me, leans over as I wiggle into my seat, "Dude, where were you?"

"Chick bait." I mouth as I took out my tools and notebook. After I got into high school I got pretty serious about my grades. And if I wasn't, Temari would surely be after my throat for it (or maybe with a razor…). My goal before this year was to score at least a B in all my classes, even the ones I hate or am bad at (like Spanish and P.E.), while this year there was something more.

But I'll talk about that later.

I feel a piece of crumpled-up notebook paper get shoved into my hands, and I look beside me to see Naruto give me a little wink. I open up the note.

Hey, so who were the chicks?

I scribble down underneath,

I can't seem to remember their names. Help?

After casually placing it onto Naruto's notebook, I struggle to pay attention to the teacher's droning voice. However, she had this voice that just seemed to always put me to sleep (don't ask me why) and I felt myself nodding off when the notebook paper was shoved into my hands again.

Circle who:

Blonde with long ponytail. Blue eyes, likes to talk. Crushes on Sasuke

Pink-haired (dye-ecstatic) brainy. No common sense, green eyes, whiny voice. Crushes on Sasuke

Dark brown hair tied in two buns. Usually wears pink, doesn't talk, violent. No crush.

Dark black hair, long, tied in two pig-tails. Shy, doesn't talk, stalker. Crushes on me.

I circle 'Blonde' and 'Pink-haired' and hand it back to Naruto.

As I yawn and take out my graphing calculator from my backpack, Naruto's writing something down on the paper in his lap, occasionally looking up from his seat, feigning interest at what the teacher was talking about.

Blonde is Yamanaka Ino

Pink is Haruno Sakura

Dude they're both bitches, they used to pick on me a lot in junior high when you guys were gone. I can't believe they haven't grown up yet!

The last statement was followed by a badly sketched frowning face. I snicker as I stare at the wobbly thing, thinking about what Neji would say if he'd seen the paper in my hands.

I scribble back.

Nice drawing.

Can I ask you a question? What's up with you and the Harvest Festival this year?

The teacher wants us to open up the 'Y equals' function on our calculators now. Why are we doing this if we're in trigonometry? I'm copying the function written on the board when something sharp, dangerous, and cold stabs me hard at the back of my head. I don't do anything but flinch at the small shock of pain, turning around and finding a mechanical pencil rolling around the floor.

Looking up, I catch a particular boy's eye and glare very, very hard. He's in all my standard classes and Spanish, and is probably the most annoying guy I've ever come to know excluding Naruto, since he's annoying, but not bad annoying.

Naruto's leaning back in his chair, mouthing words to the other boy. "What the frick was that for, Kiba?"

The other boy, who had pulled down his dark grayish hood mouthed back, "He was falling asleep." I grit my teeth in anger.

When the bell rings I immediately leave for World History, not pausing to say anything to Naruto, Kiba, or anyone else for that matter. It was later that I remembered that Naruto never responded to my question about the Harvest Festival. I clench my teeth again.

Why were people keeping so many secrets away from me?

I pick at my food.

Neji, who's sitting next to me, must have felt some sympathy for me since he gave me two slices of his chicken-steak-thing. I chew on it slowly, like a cow chewing cud. Wait, why was I comparing myself to a cow?

"So she asked you out?"

"Hn."

"What? What, answer me! I can't trust all these rumors flying around, you know how girls gossip!"

Sasuke sipped his vanilla coke, "Hey, boys gossip too."

Naruto mercilessly stabs a big glob-thing identical to the one sitting on my plate in frustration. "Sasuke!"

The ebony-haired beauty just shrugs it off and turns his cheek. Naruto's positively fuming.

"Ok, be that way! Anyways, did you know that your mindless fan girls were bullying Gaara today in the hallway?"

I cringe a little at the comment. Being a bully myself and having people scared of me at my old school five years ago makes me instinctively flinch at the mention of being 'weak'. Sasuke looks a little surprised at this too, and turns around enough to look at me at the corner of his eye.

"Really? Who was it? No, don't tell me," He sighs, massaging his temple, "I know—Sakura or Ino, right?"

"Worse," Naruto says solemnly, "Both."

Everyone hisses in sympathy for me. But, since I'm not a very sociable person and therefore doesn't know the popular, nice, hot, whatever-it-is people in our school, I felt sort of confused at my 'misfortune'. Ok, so were those girls really that bad?

Naruto leans in and whispers, quietly, "I heard that they actually bullied this one girl so bad she actually stopped talking for a whole year. She didn't come to school, and she tried to commit suicide twice before she was finally placed into a mental institution under the 'self-mutilation' ward."

Everyone shivers. Except me, of course, since I've had my own share of violence in my life (with me delivering the violent acts, of course).

"There was that one other time," Neji says thoughtfully, putting down his fork, "Where they thought this one guy was gay and so that actually constructed a bunch of paper-mache penises and glued them all over his locker. All of them had the same words written in neat sharpie on the side—'suck me'"

Everyone gags. Except me. Again. We all look at Sasuke, who's eating seafood dumplings and paying no attention to us whatsoever. He looks up.

We stare.

He blinks. "What?"

"Horror stories?" I suggest in a trying-to-inform-you way, "About Ino and Sakura?"

He shudders, like a bad memory just passed by his mind. "Damn, there's too many to count.. I am their 'idol' right? They've tried to ambush me so many times it isn't funny…"

We all lean closer to him as he continues, "Once, when I was going to the bathhouse, I felt myself being watched. Every time I looked back, though, I didn't see anything. When I was almost there, however, I spotted the blinding light of a camera on flash and knew instantly it was one of my fan girls. I walked faster, then, before I knew it, the ground fell from below me. Luckily I caught onto the edge, pulled myself up, and ran full speed all the way to the bathhouse until I actually got there."

We wait. "Go on…"

"Hinata, your cousin, Neji, told me later that Sakura had planned to catch me in a pit she'd dug in the middle of the road (who knows how?). Neji—" Sasuke shudders, looking at the unblinking blank-eyed boy, "I didn't know how Hinata had it in her, but she started to describe in full detail, exactly what Sakura was going to do to me once she caught me. It had something to do with ropes and chains and candlesticks and lots and lots of pictures." Neji and Naruto start gagging while I keep staring at the Uchiha.

"What?" My eyes narrow, "I don't get it."

Naruto moans, a hand at his throat, "Bondage, Gaara, Bondage!"

Neji has a hand over his eyes and is sighing, like an old man. "Girls…"

Sasuke looks at me curiously, hand cupping his chin delicately in an extremely feminine manner. I had to resist the urge to stare at how girly Sasuke looked at the moment. "Hey, you have any odd stories about Sakura or Ino besides that encounter today?"

I move that green blob of goo from the left side of my plate to the right side of my plate. "Hm… not really… well… there was this one time. It was in seventh grade, when I was still pretty dangerous. That pink-haired girl—"

"Sakura," Naruto chirps in. I growl.

"—ok, Sakura, tries to trip me and I grab her ankle and fling her onto the floor. She had a cracked skull and was in the hospital for days." I ruffle my hair and sigh, "Temari was really mad at me for a month, shouting about how I promised to be 'good' and 'not kill' and when I told her I wasn't intending to kill her, just hurt her a little bit, she just totally exploded." I stop. "Uh… Yeah… that's my story."

Naruto's fanning himself with his science notebook, which he'd pulled out of his backpack, "Man. Who knew fan girls were so tough?"

Neji and Sasuke, who had millions of fan girls trailing after them every day, look at each other knowingly.

I sigh.

I will never understand the power of the fan girl, will I?

"I'm getting married!"

Kankuro chokes on his bento and spits pieces of meat all over my noodles. I look at him disgustedly, pushing the bowl towards him.

"It's yours now." I inform him.

"Guys!" Temari says exasperatedly, putting down her Pearl Milk Tea. "I'm serious!"

We're all sitting at this weird Chinese restaurant just a block down from our flat in the downtown area of Konoha. The walls were painted this shade of fake, oily red and the chandeliers were more brown and green with age then white. Temari had wordlessly brought us here to eat dinner tonight instead of cooking us a homemade meal (which was good for us because Temari had the cooking skills of an elephant on drugs) and wouldn't tell us why.

Until now.

"Ne-chan," Kankuro chokes out, "You don't even have a boyfriend."

I nod. We would know. Kankuro and I, were, unusually, very protective brothers. Since our family was so shattered and messed up, it made us instinctively try to hold together what fragments of a family we had left with each other. Which meant keeping the family together. Which meant not letting anyone else in the 'circle' unless they are approved by everyone else.

Temari put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me if I don't tell you guys every last bit of my social life! I've been dating my boyfriend for three months!"

My can feel my brow twitch.

Three months?

Kankuro immediately sits up and takes a hold of the front of my sister's long-sleeve, like he would do to a gangster who had just back talked to him. "How extensive has your relationship gone? Have you held hands? Kissed? GONE TO BED!" He's shouting and everyone in the restaurant turns around in their chairs to stare at us. Temari's turning a shade of red, either from being very, very embarrassed or from being choked by my brother.

"K-kan—" She coughs and struggles to pry his fingers off her shirt, "Kank-kur-r-ro! Le-e-t m-me go!" They wrestle around for a while until the manager of the store rushes in and threatens to kick us out if we 'continue to cause a disturbance'. And Temari calls me troublesome.

After Temari finished taking egg-roll crumbs out of her hair and mopping up the spreading stain of the spilled sweet-and-sour soup while Kankuro's attempting to wipe the mess of orange sauce all over my shirt (I give him a good glare and he shrinks away), we all sit in silence for a good five minutes. Me: twiddling with my food (the scallion-pancakes, not my Kankuro-infested noodles); Kankuro: Attempting to finish his half-eaten bento and looking at my bowl of noodles nervously; Temari: Struggling to stay calm and stabbing her broccoli and beef like it had just told her that it was the one that raped her and dumped her in a street somewhere downtown. Ok, just for the record, that never happened since my sister's so strong she'd probably beat the crap out of anyone who even dares look at her funny, much less grope her.

"So…" Kankuro says, "How long have you been… engaged… to… him?"

This was my cue to speak up. "Two weeks ago."

Temari looks up at me, startled. "Wait, how did you know?"

I point to the ring she was fiddling with on her finger. It wasn't extraordinarily big or anything, shiny, silver encasement and had a flower/swan decoration carved to form the outer ring. She blushes light pink.

"The night you came home from 'work'," I say in a low monotone, "You looked like you just won the national lottery or something. You even let me eat all the cookie-dough ice cream in the refrigerator, even though you have a no-ice-cream-after-ten policy. You forgot to brush your teeth. You were humming in the shower. I didn't know what was up, so I didn't say anything."

Kankuro suddenly bangs his fist on the table, causing everyone within a twenty feet radius to jump up in shock, "Oh, so that was it? That's the day you let me go to sleep without taking my shoes off even though I'd trekked mud all over the flat!" Temari's eyes narrow.

"You were the one that trekked mud all over our pretty white carpet?" She says slowly. Kankuro looks like a trapped deer in headlights, instinctively putting his fingers into his mouth and starts biting his nail like he would mow the lawn.

"Er…"

I decide to intervene. "When are we going to meet him?"

Temari looked at me, frowning. "Who?"

"Your boyfriend?"

Temari took up her spoon and tapped it against the side of her light-fuchsia glossed lips, thinking. "Oh… haven't thought about that yet…"

I can feel that familiar killer-intent-anger swelling up at the pit of my stomach, slowly rising up my throat, into my mouth and onto my tongue. First she springs on us her intent of getting married, admits she was sneaking around with a man around our backs and then just forgets to arrange a meeting between us? I slowly open my mouth. "Temar—"

A waiter magically appears by my side. "Check?"

We all stare at him.

I can feel my brow twitch.

Talk about killing the mood.

Author's Note: I'm figuring out the best way to do things. I need a beta-reader, too, since I seem to make a lot of mistakes concerning homophones and grammar. Please Review!