A/N: I'm so sorry it's taken so long for me to post this .; *bows repeatedly* please forgive me. There's been so much going on and I wrote another fic only to find out fanfiction. net didn't host it e_e so now I have a livejournal account where I will also post stories. I'll put a link in my profile if anyone wants to have a look~! Oh, and this and the next chapter I'm writing were meant to be one chapter but it got waaaaay to long so I had to cut it in half, but that means the next chapter will be posted in the next week or so.

Gaara pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it, frowning, perplexed. He put the phone back to his ear. "School?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm coming round now and a friend will be meeting us at the hotel to get everything sorted and give you your uniforms. I've got to go now, just getting in the car." He hung up without waiting for a reply.

Gaara hung up too and put the phone down on the table between the beds before flopping back down again.

Naruto had been waiting for the call to end and had sat down next to Gaara on Gaara's bed. He poked Gaara one more time in the stomach. "So? What was that all about?"

Gaara turned his head to Naruto, still frowning slightly. "Apparently we're going to school. Whatever that is..." He stared up at the ceiling, wondering what Kakashi could have been on about. "Oh, and don't poke me. It's annoying."

A foxy grin slipped on to Naruto's face. "Oh really?" He then commenced to continuously poke Gaara on either side of his stomach. "You know how I like annoying people." His grin became wider.

A growl emitted from Gaara's mouth as Naruto continued to make a nuisance of himself. He pulled himself up and grabbed Naruto's arms pulling him down to a lying position. He straddled Naruto's waist. "My turn?" He smirked softly and poked Naruto's chest. He began poking Naruto and heard a squawk from under him. "So you're ticklish, are you?" He stopped poking and began tickling Naruto.

Naruto writhed and struggled under Gaara. "N-n-no fair Gaara...Get...off." It took a conscious effort for Naruto to stop laughing and choke out those words. He finally found the strength to push Gaara off him and sat up, panting. "So, anyway, what do we have to do to go to 'school'?"

Gaara sat up as well, having been pushed on to his side when Naruto got up. "Just wait here for Kakashi. He said he was bringing someone who would sort it all out." A knock on the door made them both turn to it. "Speak of the..." Gaara muttered as he stood up and went to the door. He paused as he heard voices outside.

"Well, look who it is. Just the cute guy I wanted to see." Gaara could almost see Kakashi's grin through the door, by the way he said that.

"Very funny Kakashi. So what's all this about? I've got to be at school in an hour and you know that." Gaara didn't recognise the voice, but it sounded angry.

"I told you what this was all about, you even brought the uniforms-" Kakashi's voice was cut off by the other man's.

"Yes, you told me. And as you might have guessed I don't believe you." The man sighed. "I mean, how do you expect me to believe the cock and bull story you gave me? How do I know that this isn't another one of your tricks?"

Gaara couldn't take listening at the door anymore and opened it, coughing slightly as he did to get their attention. The man he didn't know jumped and turned around as if shocked to see anyone there. He went pink, embarrassed. "Umm, he was telling the truth?" Gaara nodded and looked at Kakashi, seeing a faint smirk on his face. Gaara opened the door wider and gestured for them to come in.

Naruto stood up as he watched the men enter. "Uhh, Hey?" He smiled uncertainly at the man. "I'm Naruto and that's Gaara." He pointed at Gaara, who was still holding the door. "Who are you?" He asked rather bluntly.

The man smiled at him. "I'm Iruka Umino. I'm a teacher at the school you'll be going to." He deposited two bundles onto the bed beside Naruto. "These are your new school uniforms."

Gaara closed the door with a click and walked swiftly to the bed as Naruto backed away from Iruka. Gaara sat in front of Naruto as Iruka looked perplexed. "What kind of teaching?" Gaara glared at Kakashi. "Is that what school is? A place like where we just came from?"

Iruka frowned perplexed and shot a look at Kakashi, who looked just as confused. It then clicked to Kakashi what they meant. "Ahh, I see. No, it's nothing like where you were. You don't have to worry about being hurt if you get anything wrong." He turned to Iruka. "These two have had a lot of troubles in the past and have never been to a mainstream school. This may be a lot of hard work getting them to fit in and understand how it all works."

The frown left Iruka's face to be replaced with a more concerned and pitying look. "Oh, no problem." He turned back to the boys with a sympathetic smile on his face. "You don't have anything to worry about. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

Gaara and Naruto looked at each other and stepped closer again, feeling less worried. Naruto spoke up. "What is a school exactly?"

Iruka answered the question, without asking questions back, which was quite a struggle for him. "A school is where children learn subjects which can then be used in later life when they decide to get jobs. Subjects like Maths, Science, English, etc." He smiled at them. "Anything else?"

Gaara stood for a moment thinking, before answering. "If Kakashi's right and we don't get hurt for being wrong, how do we get punished? And you said children, how many people are at this school?"

"You don't get punished for being wrong." Iruka had to consciously keep his smile from slipping, wondering what kind of things these kids had gone through. He'd got a garbled version from Kakashi, but not any details. "Being wrong isn't bad, people learn from their mistakes. You will be punished if you do something bad, but I'm sure you two wouldn't do that would you?" He waited for a nod from both of them before continuing. "And to your other question, there are about four hundred pupils at the school." He laughed at the shocked faces on the two boys. "Anyway it's almost time for school to start, so could you go get changed? And then I'll take you to the school and around it so that you won't get lost." Iruka stood up and both he and Kakashi left the room so that they could get changed.

Naruto picked up the school uniform and held it up in front of him. "What do you think Gaara? Do you think this is all going to be OK? Like we'll fit in? We're not exactly normal are we?" He frowned and started changing. "I really don't know what to expect." His voice sounded muffled as he'd been taking his top off at the time.

Gaara also started changing. "I don't know either; I guess we'll just have to take our chances. And I guess we can always make a run for it again if it doesn't work out. But I kind of trust Kakashi, I can't imagine him sending us somewhere bad." He picked up part of the uniform. "What do you think this is?"

"I was wondering that." Naruto also had picked it up and was frowning at it. It was a long thin piece on material that got wider at one end, which ended at a point. Both boys looked at it trying to figure it out. "A belt maybe?"

Gaara shrugged and threw it back on the bed. "Whatever, I can't be bothered with it anyway." He watched Naruto tie his around his trousers. "Shall we get going then?"

Naruto nodded and they both walked towards the door. Naruto opened it, grinning. "We're ready! Shall we go?"

Iruka frowned at the uniforms. Both looked scruffy, with their shirts untucked and top buttons undone. Gaara also just had the jacket slung over his shoulder. But there was something even more off. "Wait a second. Where are your ties?"

Naruto tilted his head to one side. "Ties?"

Iruka took his jacket off and showed them his tie. "It looks like this but is a different colour."

Naruto laughed. "Oh, that! I thought it was a belt." He took it off from around his waist and looked at it and then at Iruka's. "How did you make it do that?"

Gaara went back into the room and grabbed his off the bed before returning and closing the door behind them. As he came back he saw Iruka doing up Naruto's top button and explaining how to do up a tie.

When Iruka was finished he turned to Gaara, not noticing that behind him Naruto was loosening the tie making himself look scruffy again. "Do you want me to show you as well or did you hear what I said to Naruto?"

Gaara stood looking at him with his usual emotionless look. "I heard what you said to Naruto, but I'm not putting this on. I don't like things around my neck." He gave it back to Iruka and walked forward to Kakashi. "Are we leaving?"

Kakashi laughed at the look on Iruka's face. "I wouldn't try and make him, he won't listen." He turned to Gaara. "Yeah, we're going." He walked off towards the door before stopping and turning again. "Oh yeah, and please remember your seat belts this time."

"Alright, alright already! Will you please stop it already?" An irate Kakashi stepped out of his car, having spent the whole trip listening to Iruka try and persuade Gaara to wear his tie and Gaara outright refusing.

"But Kakash-" Iruka started before being interrupted.

"No 'buts'!" Kakashi sighed. "If you haven't got him to wear it yet, can't you realise you're not going to?" He came closer to Iruka and muttered to him. "How about leaving it until he sees everyone else wearing them? Maybe then when he's being stared at he'll feel more like wearing it."

Iruka thought for a second and nodded, before jumping as he felt someone behind him.

Naruto had got out of the car and was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. "Oi, oi, what you talking about?" He grinned at them. Gaara just waited with his hands in his pockets and stared at the school building in front of them.

Kakashi laughed. "Not much, nosey." He looked at his watch and sighed. "Well, I'd better get back to the station before Jiraiya grills me for being late. I'll come see you at the end of the day to see how you've got on." With that he walked back to his car and left them to it.

Iruka also looked at the time. "OK, we don't have as much time as I thought we would so the tour is going to have to wait. Maybe we can get some of the other students to show you round. For now let's just go see the head teacher and sort all your timetables and everything out." He smiled at them both. "How does that sound?"

Naruto looked up at Iruka, confused. "Head teacher?" From the look on his face you could imagine the weird images that were going through his head.

Iruka nodded. "Yes, we'll be going to see her, she runs the school."

"Oh, I see." Naruto's mind instead started thinking about the people who had run the laboratory, even though they hadn't seen them in years.

Iruka led them into the school and through the corridors, until they came to the head teacher's office. As they approached they heard a thud echo from within the room and a raised voice speaking.

"What the hell are you playing at Jiraiya?! You couldn't have told me this a little bit sooner? And maybe in person instead of across the phone?" The person stopped for a second, listening to someone speak before continuing. "...Alright, fine. I'll do it but you owe me big time, you hear!" Another thud was heard, this time sounding like plastic hitting plastic as whoever it was slammed a phone down.

Iruka laughed nervously, trying to get the happy atmosphere back from Naruto. Gaara's expression hadn't changed much and he was actually looking more interested than he had a few minutes ago. Iruka knocked on the door and got a growl from the other side, which he took as an invitation to enter. "Hey, Tsunade. I brought the new students here."

The woman who had been facing out of the window, turned around quickly. "Ahh, thanks Iruka." It seemed she was trying to keep her voice level and not start shouting. She straightened her top and sat back down behind her desk. Gaara and Naruto stepped closer to the desk so that they were standing in front of her. "Welcome to our school. I am Tsunade, the head teacher here. If you have to talk to me you will call me 'Miss', OK?"

"Yes miss." The reply mostly came from Naruto until he elbowed Gaara to join in.

Tsunade stared at them. "Good. I'm glad you understand." She frowned and leaned closer to the two of them. "Iruka? Where's his tie?" She nodded towards Gaara.

Before Iruka could answer, Gaara did. "Please don't talk about me like I'm not here." He glared at Tsunade, who sat back in her chair, stunned. "I don't like things around my neck so I'm not wearing it."

Naruto laughed slightly, trying to break the atmosphere. "Umm, we've...umm, not exactly had good experiences with things like this, so-"

He was stopped by Tsunade raising her hand. "Fine, I get it. I just got off the phone with the police so I know. Alright, I'll let you off about the tie, but I don't want any trouble with you guys, you hear? No getting into fights or anything, OK?" She waited for them to nod before continuing. "Right, now we have that sorted, how about we get back to how you're going to fit in here. So what are your names anyway?"

Naruto grinned. "I'm Naruto and this is-"

He was once again stopped by Tsunade raising her hand. "Let him tell me himself." She stared at Gaara. "Go on, what's your name, kid?"

Gaara stared at her indifferently. "Gaara." He then looked away and went back to staring out of the window.

Tsunade sighed realising how hard this was going to be. "Iruka, will you be their tutor?"

Iruka nodded, smiling, having hoped she would say this. "I think that will be a good idea, they'll probably get on with my group well."

"Good. Now all we have to think about is the timetable and what to tell the other teachers. We'll have to tell them something so that they won't get suspicious." She frowned, thinking. "I'll think of something, maybe abusive parents? Kept them locked up inside? And we can just tell the other students that they've had a tough time and to be nice to them, like we normally do. How does that sound?"

Gaara stopped staring out of the window and turned back to her. "I have a question. Why do you know about everything that's happened to us?"

Tsunade grinned mischievously. "That would be because I am best friends with someone high up in the police. And when you're very friendly with someone, you know when they're lying and it's easy to persuade them to tell you the truth." He turned back to Iruka. "Anyway, as I only found out this morning, I haven't had chance to make them timetables, so who in your class would be a good guide for now until we know what their levels are in the subjects?"

Iruka thought for a moment. "Probably Kiba, I can imagine him getting on well with these two, most people get on with him. And he wouldn't mind showing them around."

Tsunade nodded and stood up going over to the filing cabinets. She opened up one of the drawers and flicked through, before pulling out a folder with 'Inuzuka Kiba' written on the side. She leafed through it before pulling out a sheet. She then proceeded to a photocopier in the corner and printed two extra sheets. Coming back she gave the pieces of paper to Naruto and Gaara and slipped the original back into the folder. "There, those are you're timetables for now, until we know your ability in lessons."

Naruto stared from her to the photocopier in the corner. "How did you do that?"

Before Tsunade could reply with another question, Iruka interrupted. "I think it's time we got you two to lessons, don't you think, Tsunade?" Tsunade stared as Iruka ushered the two boys out of the office, wondering if this was really going to work out.