Just a Note: The whole Neji being nicer to Sakura thing isn't significant, it just points out that he really doesn't like Ino (she tried to hit on him remember? And he's afraid she'll corrupt Hinata). Just wanted to clear that up, I don't like NejiSaku, one sided or not. It's going to be SasuSaku and NejiTen all the way.
Sasuke may seem a bit OOC here, but only because he is being a complete sadist.
Thank you my lovely reviewers! You have made my day!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Here is New Classes, New Problems pt. 2! Featuring the other girls and their mishaps.
Sakura was not in the highest of spirits. It wasn't the fact she had been forced to double back after going in the completely wrong direction (though she was tired), or that her teacher wasn't even in class yet. It had everything to do with the feeling of complete mortification in the pit of her stomach.
Uchiha Sasuke was here, at Konoha. The Uchiha Sasuke. The only boy for whom she had ever made a complete fool of herself. She hadn't just been a fan girl; she had been one of the worst ones. Looking back now, Sakura would cringe and wiggle with embarrassment. Didn't she have better things to do?
Oh why oh why was I such an idiot!?
You were twelve, get over it! Inner Sakura snapped. Running all over campus had put a decisively sharp edge on her tongue.
You have absolutely no sympathy for me. After being such a fan girl, I wouldn't be able to show my face around him again! Sakura could feel a blush coming on just from thinking about how besotted she was.
Just suck it up and ignore him. We probably won't see him very much.
Shut up. Let me mope in peace.
"Sakura?" Sakura turned in her seat to face Hinata, who was looking at her anxiously. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine Hinata," she gave her friend a small smile, "but thanks for wondering." Hinata raised her eyebrows skeptically and opened her mouth to suggest otherwise, before suddenly clamping it shut, face reddening. Sakura noted a disturbance in the corner of her eyes, and turned to see what had caught Hinata's attention.
"Dattebayo!"
A boy with bright blond hair, whisker marks and blue eyes had bounded into the room, looking around the room in complete excitement. "Is Kakashi-sensei here yet?"
"Are you kidding? The bell hasn't even rung yet! He probably won't come until halfway through the period Naruto!" someone shouted to him.
The blond shrugged, "You never know, last year I almost got busted for being later than he was; I only was late by about twenty minutes." He looked around the room and almost immediately fixated on Hinata. "Hinata-chan! I looked everywhere, but I didn't see you yesterday! Where were you?" he bounced his way over to where the girls were sitting. With each step he took closer to Hinata, her blush grew more pronounced.
So this is Naruto. Sakura and Ino had been both shocked and delighted when Hinata announced to them that she had found someone she liked very much. Shocked because Hinata had shown no interest in anyone before that time, and delighted because Hinata deserved whoever she wanted. The only problem was that Hinata was just too shy: she had blushed and stuttered just telling them his name. Sakura had to wonder how the girl kept consciousness around her crush. She concluded that Hinata probably didn't.
"I-I was h-helping Sakura-chan around the school." Said Hinata almost inaudibly, pushing her forefingers together, a habit she reverted to when nervous.
"Who's Sakura-chan?" Naruto's gaze drifted from Hinata to Sakura and back again. "Who's that?" he asked Hinata, pointing at Sakura, his finger just inches from her nose.
Sakura felt her eyebrows twitch. Hadn't anybody taught this boy that pointing was very rude? Ignoring Inner Sakura's suggestion of biting his finger off, she pushed his finger away from her face and smiled at him, "I'm Hinata's friend, Haruno Sakura. Who are you?"
"Uzumaki Naruto! The number one shinobi in all of Japan!" he gave her the peace sign and a toothy grin, "Welcome to Konoha! Where do you come from, Sakura-chan?"
"Suna High before this," replied Sakura, smiling.
"Suna? Did you know Gaara?" Naruto looked extremely excited.
"Yes, his sister is a friend of mine." Sakura laughed as his eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open.
"You're friends with the Sand Witch?!" he screeched, causing more than a few heads to turn. Sakura opened her mouth to reprimand him, but Hinata beat her to it.
"Don't call Temari-sempai that." Admonished Hinata, a slight frown appearing on her pretty face. Naruto stared so incredulously at her that she reddened and averted her eyes.
"Hinata-chan?"
"I-it's j-just not a very n-nice thing to say." She mumbled, her voice growing softer with each word. Naruto just laughed and rubbed the back of his head.
"I guess not, sorry Hinata-chan. But seriously," he turned back to Sakura, "you're friends with the girl who causes concussions with that fan she carries all of the time?"
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Nothing, but considering what Gaara says about her, she is just too scary to be anyone's friend."
"Gaara's a younger brother; of course he says those things. You shouldn't believe them all. How do you know him anyway?"
"He's a friend of mine."
"Oh?" Gaara's never mentioned Naruto before
"Heh, I was the guy who beat him at the Shinobi games in freshman year, you know, when he was all angsty and emo?"
"Yeah, I remember that." Ah, so he's the densest, toughest idiot in Japan that Gaara's mentioned.
He fits the description.
I dunno about that, he seems pretty nice to me.
That is irrelevant, honestly, you should know by now… Sakura chose just to tune out Inner Sakura and turn her attention back to Naruto.
"…well, he's still kinda emo, but anyway, what did you come here for?"
"For my studies. And the shinobi team."
"Are you going to try to be a kunoichi?" For some ridiculous reason, Naruto looked very excited.
"Yeah,"
Naruto grinned, "That'll be AWESOME! What about you, Hinata-chan?" He turned back to Hinata, "Why won't you try out? I'm sure Neji wouldn't mind." Hinata reddened even more and was about to reply (or Sakura thought she would faint), when an all too familiar voice said, bored;
"Dobe, stop harassing Hinata. Neji will have your neck if he hears anything evenly remotely incriminating." Uchiha Sasuke walked into the room right as the bell rang. Several girls squealed and flocked to the door, all of them trying to gain his attention. He glowered in annoyance and tried to push his way unsuccessfully through the crowd.
"Watch it, teme!" snapped Naruto, "I'm not harassing Hinata-chan!" he turned to Hinata anxiously, "I'm not harassing you, am I?" He was so close to her that the tips of their noses were almost touching.
Thud
Hinata fainted.
"Hinata-chan!" yelled Sakura and Naruto at the same time.
"She fainted!"
"Way to point out the obvious, dobe." Sasuke managed to extract himself from his fan girls and had made his way to their little group. Sakura got out of her chair and began to try to revive Hinata, which was not only necessary, but also meant that she didn't have to look at Sasuke.
"Hinata…" she spoke softly, gently tapping the side of Hinata's face with the palm of her hand. As she worked at bringing her friend back to consciousness, Sakura could hear every word of Sasuke's and Naruto's current conversation.
"Who's that?" Sasuke evidently didn't recognize her, much to Sakura's relief. Though how he couldn't, considering her hair color was a little odd.
"That's Sakura-chan! She's an aspiring kunoichi!" Sasuke didn't say anything, but for some reason Sakura felt holes boring into her back. Apparently, she was on the receiving end of one of his famous Uchiha glares. Despite her mind's protests, she felt the skin on her face and neck heat up.
"Hn. I thought so." Sakura stiffened abruptly for a moment, and then went back to her attempts to awaken Hinata, trying to ignore her (she hoped) former crush.
"Thought what?"
"Something your abnormally underdeveloped mind could not grasp."
"I knew what that entire sentence meant! Don't call my mind squishy!
"…I didn't call your mind that. And be quiet, dobe. She's waking up." True to Sasuke's words, Hinata was stirring. Her eyes opened halfway, blinking a couple of times before opening fully. She sat up quickly with a small gasp and blush, looking around the room to see if anyone else had witnessed her fainting spell.
"Hinata-chan, you're awake!" Naruto jumped over the desk and peered so closely into Hinata's face that she almost fainted a second time.
"She's fine, you idiot." Sasuke's hand grabbed Naruto's collar and dragged him away from Hinata, much to her relief and his irritation. To Sakura's annoyance, Sasuke hadn't ceased watching her, even as she ardently avoided eye contact.
"Watch it you bas-"
"Do you really want to finish that sentence, Naruto?" a deep male voice asked. All eyes turned towards the door, where a silver haired man wearing a mask stood, an orange book tucked under his arm and a cup of tea in the other.
"YOU'RE LATE!" shrieked the class.
"Well, there was a student whose pet tarantula got loose so-"
"LIAR!" was the response.
"Fine. Well Naruto?"
Naruto gulped, "No, Kakashi-sensei." He jumped into the seat besides Hinata's and smiled at her, which she shyly returned. Sakura also returned to her seat, keeping one eye on Sasuke as he looked around the room, deciding were he should sit.
Please behind Naruto, behind Hinata, across the room, somewhere, anywhere, far away from me!
If Sasuke heard this mental cry, he ignored it, choosing to sit right in front of Naruto, right next to Sakura. Catching her eye, the corners of his mouth tilted up in a barely visible smirk, the one that said I do remember you, but I think I'll have some fun with your head first before actually talking to you. It was so obvious, that Sakura temporarily forgot her embarrassment and glared at him. Unfortunately, he just looked even more amused. Irritated, Sakura turned her head to stare out of the window instead, hoping he would take the hint and stop watching her.
He didn't.
Why is he staring at me? It's getting kinda creeeppyy.
Because he finally noticed that we're hot!
I doubt it; he looks like some predator sizing up his prey.
That is a good thing, a very good thing!
How is being considered prey a good thing?
…
…on second thought, I don't think I want to know. And I'm not a masochist, and you shouldn't be either!
"Haruno Sakura?"
Sakura was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost didn't hear her name being called. A quick jab to her spine by Hinata quickly fixed that.
"Wha? Oh, here." Kakashi nodded and continued to take roll. When he finished, he took out his orange book and began to read it. Sakura wondered why no one was annoyed about it when he began to speak.
"Welcome to my math class. For those of you who don't remember, I'm Kakashi, your math sensei. My first impression of you is that I am, yet again, completely surrounded by idiots."
"Ah stow it, Kakashi-sensei. You know you love us!" called Naruto, so loudly that Sakura had to fight the urge to clap her hands over her ears.
"No, as a matter of fact, I don't. Now shut up while I explain everything."
As Kakashi explained the rules and regulations of his class, Sakura felt Sasuke's gaze on her. It was extremely disconcerting, she knew he was still staring at her, but every time she looked out of the corner of her eye, he was looking away.
Ugh, I just had to have him in my first class ever at this school. Sakura slumped down in her seat dejectedly. Why me?
It's Fate, darling.
I hope not.
When the bell that signified the end of the period rang, Sakura gathered up her things, determined to make it out of the door and as far away from Sasuke as possible.
She had been almost to the door when Naruto had grabbed her arm and dragged her off to the side to let others exit the class.
"Where are you going next, Sakura-chan?"
"Science with Yuuhi Kurenai."
"Shoot, I have Social Studies. But teme has the same thing; he can show you the classroom!"
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me!
The hell? That's weird…
"No thanks, I know where the labs are." Sakura tried to leave again, but Naruto instantly reattached to her arm.
"But Sakura-chan! You'll get lost! Hey teme, get over here!" he shouted across the room to where Sakura presumed the Uchiha was.
"No, I'll be fine. Really!" Sakura forced a smile and tugged out of Naruto's grasp. Once her arm was free, she made a mad dash for the door, only to have her other elbow grabbed by the Uchiha.
"Come on, I don't want to be late." He stated gruffly. Ignoring her attempts to get him to loosen his grip, Sasuke left the classroom with Sakura in tow and several fan girls glaring balefully at her. Naruto grinned nervously at Sakura sent a death glare in his direction as she was pulled out of the room.
"W-why did you ask Sasuke-san to sh-show Sakura the classroom?" Hinata asked timidly, coming up behind him. "He's n-not particularly social, after all."
"Yeah, well, he kept eyeing her all period, so I decided to give him a chance to talk to her." Explained Naruto cheerfully, not noticing Hinata's look of horror. "It's not everyday that the great Sasuke-teme is interested in a girl."
"B-but s-shouldn't you have asked Sakura-chan about if s-she wanted to talk to Sasuke-san first?"
"She won't mind." Insisted Naruto, "And Sasuke won't hurt her, nothing to worry about."
"I-it's not Sasuke I'm worried about," began Hinata, but Naruto cut her off.
"Trust me, it'll be fine. Now lemme see your schedule, I want to see how many classes we have together." Hinata handed the slip of paper to him and Naruto eagerly scanned it, and then let out a delighted whoop.
"Yes! We have three more classes together, Hinata-chan! Including our next one—we should get going!" Naruto tucked his books under one arm and grabbed Hinata's hand with his own and set off in a sprint for their classes.
N-Naruto-kun i-is touching me! The sensation was making Hinata's head feel pleasantly swimmy, and had she not been worried about Sakura's mental health at the moment, she probably would have lost consciousness.
"You know, I can find the classroom on my own." Sakura remarked offhandedly as she was dragged down the hall, drawing quite a few stares from passer by.
"Not according to the dobe."
"You took advice from someone you call a dobe?"
"Of course not." They were outside the building and walking down the path towards the science labs.
"The labs aren't hard to find, I could find them myself."
"I know."
"Excellent, now let go of my arm, and I'll get there myself."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I have my reasons." The enigmatic response caused Sakura's blood pressure to shoot up a few notches.
If I die from stress, I am going to kill Fate in the slowest, most painful way possible!
Before she could begin to formulate horrible tortures for Fate, Sakura realized that Sasuke's grip had slid from her elbow to her wrist, his fingers brushing the skin of her palm, raising goose bumps. She yelped with surprise.
"Something wrong?" he inquired lightly. His expression was carefully bland, the one Sakura recognized that he used when he wanted to hide his emotions.
Yes! You are paying attention to me, you are teasing me, and you are a, uh, a what?
Sasuke-kun is a complete and total sadist?
Precisely. And do not call him 'Sasuke-kun'.
"It's nothing, Sasuke. Let go of me."
"Not until we are inside." They reached the classroom door and Sakura yanked out of Sasuke's grip and practically ran into the room, Sasuke following calmly behind.
I'm going to go crazy!
Crazy is putting it mildly, Sakura-chan. We're going to go insane. Like Sasuke-kun!
I despise you.
While Ino wasn't quite suffering the hell Sakura was, she was certainly almost there.
Not unlike Sakura, she had gotten completely turned around trying to find her class. But unlike Sakura, she had no Hinata to point out the correct direction, only a very bad map and her own intuition. She found the building her class was located in, only to realize that it was a complete maze of steps and hallways and classrooms, with half a dozen different letter-number combinations jumbled everywhere.
So it was perfectly natural that when she saw someone else wandering the halls of the vast building some fifteen minutes after the bell rang, she wasted no time pouncing on him. Ordinarily she probably wouldn't have gone near this boy (the pineapple shape of his head was for some reason, in the very back of her mind, a very bad thing), but as of right now, she was desperate.
"Excuse me," Ino grabbed on the boy's arm and yanked him around to face her. "Could you please tell me where B-12 is? I'm new and --" completely lost she was about to say, when the boy very rudely interrupted her.
"Tch, how troublesome. Find it yourself. It's in the building." He shook her off his arm and continued to walk down the hall.
Oh no he didn't Ino at first only gape after him, before righteous anger settled in and she set after him.
No one talks to me like that!
"Excuse me!" she grabbed his arm yet again and turned him around to face her. She let go of his arm and instead grabbed a handful of the front of his uniform, jerking him down so that their eyes were level.
"Wha?" the insolent boy sounded, of all things, surprised.
"You heard me!" Ino yanked on his shirt a bit harder, bringing their faces closer together. "It is common courtesy for a boy to help a girl when she asks for it. Everyone knows that! Didn't your mother teach you manners?"
"She's working on it, the troublesome woman." The boy muttered, one eye twitching. Ino guessed that it had more to with a bad memory than how irritating she was acting.
"What's wrong with being troublesome?"
"It gives me too much work. Now will you please let go of me?"
"Give me one good reason why you can't at least tell me where Asuma-sensei's class is?"
"It's too troublesome to tell you, but I will show you. So just follow me." Ino was startled enough to let go of his shirt. The boy took advantage of the moment and began to walk away again. After a short pause, Ino set off after him.
"Why?"
"That's where I was going."
"…then why didn't you tell me!" Ino was getting quite frustrated.
"You didn't say 'Asuma', you said B-12, which has no meaning to me."
"But if you're in his class—"
"Exactly, I know I'm in his class, I just don't know what room his classroom is."
"Then how is following you going to accomplish anything?"
"I know where he is."
"So what you're saying is, you know where he teaches but you've never, not once, seen what number his room is?"
"That is correct."
"Why not?"
"You ask many troublesome questions."
"So?"
"…" They walked in silence for a few minutes, before Ino remembered something she had forgotten to ask.
"Excuse me, what's your name?"
"Shikamaru." For some odd reason, Ino felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, as though in foreboding what was to come.
"I'm Ino." Ino could've sworn that Shikamaru stiffened slightly, but the movement was so subtle that she couldn't tell. But he clearly didn't want to talk anymore, and Ino was tired of trying to provoke him.
"We're here." They reached the end of the hallway, and Shikamaru grabbed the handle of the closed door and opened it, entering before Ino could. Muttering about lack of chivalry in the modern world, Ino followed him into the classroom.
"There you are Shikamaru!" a man with black hair and a short beard greeted Shikamaru with a cheerful familiarity. "You're almost as bad as Kakashi."
"Sorry Asuma. I slept in. It was the first time all summer that I didn't wake up to my mom's screaming. I just had to take the opportunity." Several students in the class snickered or sighed. A few even murmured 'typical Nara', rolling their eyes as they did so. None of them seemed to notice Ino.
"I can vouch for that," declared a stout boy in the back, "I probably should've woken him up, but he was too stubborn."
"I don't doubt it, Chouji." Answered Asuma, his eyes going to Ino, "What's your name, miss?"
"My name is Yamanaka Ino, Asuma-sensei." Said Ino, giving him a short bow. She decided rather quickly that she liked the man; he didn't scrutinize her, act rude, or anything.
"Ah, yes. You're new here, right?"
Ino nodded.
"Welcome to Konoha Academy. Why were you late?"
Ino blushed "Well, I got lost…"
"Perfectly understandable. I'm sorry about that; the idiots who renovated this building didn't quite understand the concept of lettered buildings. So how'd you find this class?"
"Shikamaru." Asuma's eyebrows rose with interest.
"Shikamaru is this true? You decided that something was actually worth the trouble for your lazy ass?" Shikamaru gave him a look that said clearly 'are-you-an-idiot?' and went to sit next to the boy called Chouji. Ino followed him, not because she wanted to, but because there was only one other seat open, and it was next to his.
"Alright, now that everyone is here, I'll continue with the next rule: Don't be late." Several students in the class snickered at the meaningful glance Asuma sent at Shikamaru and Ino, the former rolling his eyes while the latter gave an embarrassed smile.
Once Asuma had finished reciting the rules (which Ino for once had chosen to listen to, the guy not only had contempt for a great deal of them, but he made the ones he liked sound like they made sense.) he had passed out their textbooks and told them to talk for the remaining half hour.
She could definitely deal with this.
Since the girl-boy ratio was about 1:3, and that the girls present weren't interesting at all to talk to, Ino began to absently flirt with some of the cuter boys around her person. To her delight, most of them weren't just pretty faces. Contrary to popular belief, Ino did have standards; she wasn't easily taken in with good looks.
Behind her, Shikamaru let out a snort as the eighth boy who chatted with her went away looking down hearted. "What's this stupid game you keep playing?"
Ino glowered at him. "What game?" she bit out. This boy was really getting on her nerves.
"You know, leading them on like that, they aren't dogs you know." Ino wondered briefly if she punched Shikamaru, would Asuma notice. Ino glanced furtively at him, he appeared to be rolling a cigarette in the hallway and chatting with the teacher with red eyes and black hair Ino had almost sworn in front of.
"I am well aware of that, though their behavior sometimes suggests otherwise. Leading them on?" Ino raised an eyebrow, "That's not leading them on, genius, that is called 'flirting', a concept you have yet to be exposed to."
"Don't be too sure of that," remarked Chouji off-handedly, eating from the bag of chips he had hidden under his desk, "He's never flirted, but he has had girlfriends."
This information threw Ino slightly off kilter.
"He managed to go through the trouble of having girlfriends?" Chouji gave an affirmative nod and Ino turned towards the lazy ass. "Maybe I misjudged you, Shika-kun!"
Shikamaru and Chouji both choked, but the expressions on their faces were completely different. Chouji was holding in barely suppressed laughter; Shikamaru just looked pained.
"Please don't call me that."
"Why not?" asked Ino innocently, "your real name is much longer, so I need to shorten it if I'm going to be talking to you all year. Even if you don't talk back." It hadn't taken much for Ino to decide that she liked teasing Shikamaru.
"Fan-tas-tic." Muttered Shikamaru, leaning back on his chair and closing his eyes.
"Well, I suppose I could call you Pineapple-chan, then, if you don't like Shika-kun." Ino found the confused look on his face immensely amusing.
"Pineapple-chan?" he repeated, bewildered.
"Your hair." Ino reached over and yanked on his ponytail gently. While it was probably a gesture of close familiarity and would be considered a source of gossip, Ino didn't care. For some completely bizarre reason, it was perfectly natural to her. And it was fun.
"I do not have hair like a pineapple." He stated monotonously, not bothering to try to get her hand off his head.
"Actually, you do." Remarked Chouji, cocking his head to one side. "Your head is the fruit, and your hair is the leaves." Shikamaru glared at him.
"Thank you!" Ino flashed a cheery smile at Chouji, who simply grinned back.
"No problem. I've been waiting for someone to notice."
"Sure, take the troublesome girl's side. See if I care."
"Oh stop sulking, it's not like she's your wife or anything. So stop reacting." Both Ino and Shikamaru stared incredulously at Chouji.
"He's reacting? He barely did anything!"
"She's my what?"
"Yes, that's his way of reacting. You get used to it, eventually."
"You're ignoring my question." Chouji regarded Shikamaru with a look of mild surprise.
"This is new, you actually care about whether I ignore you or not." Chouji smiled at Shikamaru's completely lost expression.
"You used a metaphor that was completely below the belt."
"Aw, is little Shika-kun embarrassed?"
"Please don't start."
"Too late."
"I'm confused. What's the big deal?" Piped up Ino. She honestly couldn't figure out why Shikamaru was so worked up about a little teasing. Sure, Chouji was implying that she and Shikamaru were intimate, but what was so embarrassing about that?
"Nothing you need to worry about. And Chouji, just butt out."
"Fine, but if you and Ino are late again, I will show no hesitation in giving a suggestion as to why you were late."
"Oh? And what would that suggestion be?"
"Ino, you tell him." For one long moment, there was silence. Ino flushed red and opened her mouth, about to give some lame excuse about not understanding either, but Fate intervened.
"Ino? Is that you?" a boy with messy brown hair and fang marks painted on the sides of his face walked up to her. Ino quickly pounced on the opportunity to get out of what had become a very awkward conversation.
"Yeah, that's me!" she grinned at him. "Haven't seen you in a while, Kiba-kun."
"Same here. I'm actually a bit surprised you remember me."
"How can I forget? Sakura and I practically threatened you and Shino to take care of Hinata properly." Ino was glad to see him, make no doubt about that. Kiba was pretty much the only boy she could trust completely to treat any girl, no matter what the girl's disposition, with respect and kindness. His mother and sister were impressive feminists who had drummed it into his head the idea that if he didn't treat women with respect, he would be castrated.
Taking into the fact that his family owned a veterinary hospital, this was not an idle threat.
"Yeah, and we have been. It's fun, playing her big brothers and being able to actually talk to her. She's really nice and funny. Her only flaw is that she doesn't stop talking about the idiot." He brightened, "but you're here now, so Hinata can talk your ears off about Naruto, and I won't have to listen."
"You don't dump her on Hana when she starts? You're even more chivalrous than I thought."
"Sis is in college, she can't exactly be at my beck and call. She has homework and her boyfriend to tend to." Kiba said 'boyfriend' in a very 'ewww' tone.
"Boyfriend?"
"She and the Uchiha started going out around last year." Kiba scowled, "they're getting pretty serious about each other. And I don't want to be related to Sasuke."
"Your sister is dating Sasuke-kun-"
"No NO! Ew, I'd be even more traumatized if that happened. No, the Uchiha has an older brother, remember?"
"No."
"You know the guy with a ponytail and black nail polish called Itachi?"
"Oh yeah! I forgot about him."
"Considering that you have the attention span of a puppy, that's understandable." Ino laughed and punched Kiba lightly on the shoulder.
"Aw, you don't mean that!"
"Yes I do."
"And I mean it when I say you can't hold down a girlfriend!"
"You wound me." Kiba placed his hand on his heart, a fake puppy dog pout on his face.
Ino giggled, "No I didn't. How's Akamaru?" Liking the new subject, Kiba immediately went into a rant about how much his dog had grown, what his dog was eating, how it looked, etcetera, etcetera.
She passed the rest of the period in conversation with Kiba. When the bell finally rang, Ino bid goodbye to her friend reluctantly (with the promise that she, Sakura, and Toyo would sit together with him, Shino, and Hinata at lunch) and pondered the best way to hunt the elusive science labs. Belatedly Ino realized that she probably should have asked Kiba, but he had already left the room. Asuma was no where to be seen either. Only some random boys were in the room, and Shikamaru and Chouji. Ino watched them for a moment, and then just decided to take a plunge.
"Hey guys," she walked up to them, "Would you mind telling me where the labs are? I'm afraid I'll get lost again." Chouji opened his mouth to respond, but Shikamaru beat him to it.
"How many times will you bother me?" demanded Shikamaru.
"As many times as I have to." Said Ino, annoyed. "No need to be so snippy."
"I'm not 'snippy', you are merely being a completely trou-"
Chouji quickly intervened, "Ignore him, Ino. Just follow us, we know where Kurenai is."
"Thanks, but won't you be late for your class?"
"No, we have Kurenai-sensei next too." He picked up his books and headed for the door, Ino following him and Shikamaru lagging behind.
"What's Kurenai like?" asked Ino as they walked across campus.
Another class with the lazy ass? Grreeaatt.
"Pretty nice, as teachers go. She lets us eat in class sometimes, after we have food labs. Her eyes look kinda creepy sometimes, but you can get used to that. Asuma's crazy about her."
"Really?"
"It's the worst kept secret in the school, well, at least after Jiraiya's crush on Tsunade." Added Shikamaru nonchalantly.
Ino grimaced, "Please tell me you're joking."
"I don't do jokes."
"No, you do that stupid monosyllabic thing. That's so much better."
"Actually, it is." Sacasm was a foreign language to Shikamaru.
"How do you put up with him?" Ino asked Chouji, pretending Shikamaru was an insignificant fly that could not understand a word she was saying.
"He's been my friend since I was a kid. Shikamaru isn't all that bad. And he likes BBQ chips."
"Why does that ma—" A hand was promptly clamped over her mouth. Shikamaru increased his pace until he was abreast with both Ino and Chouji.
"Unless you like getting your ear talked off, I suggest you become very quiet." He muttered into her ear. Ino couldn't exactly say anything while Shikamaru's hand was over her mouth.
So she bit him.
"You two really remind me of some cheesy chick flick, you know." Chouji remarked offhandedly as the labs came into view. "But not the main couple, you know. Just the best friends who won't admit they are being immature kids because they like each other."
"Excuse me, but you are being very rude and upfront about the romantic life of someone you have only just met!" Furious, Ino stalked ahead of them, her back stiff as a rod with anger. The two boys watched as she practically slammed into the door before remembering to actually open it and stomp through.
"Seriously though," Shikamaru said in an undertone, "You are acting overly friendly with her. What the heck are you doing?" an expression of alarm suddenly settled on his face. "Please don't tell me you have a thing for that troublesome girl."
"I don't," Chouji assured his friend, "and I have no idea what I'm doing. But she's familiar to me. Not like those girls you have to watch the way you act around them. She just feels, well, safe to talk to. I don't know why, but she is. Weird, huh?"
"Definitely," agreed Shikamaru, "Almost as weird as that thing about Fate that Neji was ranting about all summer."
"Nutcase prediction if I ever heard one."
"Definitely. This year is going to be normal and relaxing."
"With Ino around?"
"Let me daydream. It's not like we'll be hanging out together all that much."
Sorry about the wait! I was actually considering deleting this chapter, since it's mostly filler, but I decided against it.
Just a note: There will be smidges of Itachi/Hana throughout the story. If you don't like it, well, just skim the parts. Don't flame me.
Up next: Lunch, then PE, where problems arise
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