Sakura slowly became aware that she was staring at Sulky, mouth gaping open. She promptly shut it. He looked as shocked as she did, only with less visible emotion, considering the fact that he seemed incapable of using more than one default facial expression.
"Sulky?" She said disbelievingly. The students around began to take notice, looking around at them. Neji looked at her sharply, a hint of confusion and suspicion in his pale eyes.
"Sakura?" Sulky replied, in the same disbelieving tone. Neji looked back and forth between them both.
"Uchiha-san, please take a seat." Kurenai-sensei said with a frown on her pretty face.
"This is great!" Sakura shouted happily. The class fell silent, and Sakura blushed as about twenty pairs of eyes swivelled around to stare at her.
"Do you two know each other?" Neji asked.
The class erupted into whispers.
"That girl knows Sasuke-kun?"
"Have you seen her before?"
"I think she's new."
Sulky ignored the intense stares he was receiving, and stepped towards Sakura, "I guess you know my name now."
"I guess you really weren't being paranoid." Sakura smiled, looking around at all the people talking about them. She paused, licked her lips and added, "Sasuke."
Sasuke gave her a smirk.
"Uchiha-san!" Kurenai snapped, "Seat. Now."
Sasuke sat down next to a girl with long black hair and bell earrings. She gave him a seductive smile.
"Right, now that Uchiha-san has graciously deemed it time for the class to begin, let's discuss Kekkei Genkai…" Kurenai-sensei's lecture was one of the most detailed and interesting descriptions of bloodlines Sakura had ever heard. By the end of the class, her book was filled with notes on Kekkei Genkai and its cultural ramifications.
Sakura noticed that Sasuke wasn't taking notes. He was looking out the window with a bored expression.
If Kurenai-sensei noticed his lack of attention, she ignored it. After Advanced Genjutsu was over, Sakura hurried to the headmistress' office, her timetable signalling she had an appointment with her. The waiting room had a dentist feeling about it, all the occupants were looking uneasy and dread hung in the air. Sakura sat down on a wooden bench, next to a sleeping Shikamaru, who had been kicked out of class by an irate Kurenai-sensei.
The Headmistress' door creaked open slowly. A white face appeared in the doorway, "Haruno Sakura. The Headmistress will see you now…" It said gloomily, before slowly withdrawing into the shadow of the room. Sakura took a deep breath, gathered her courage and entered the room.
"Oh Sakura…" A new voice moaned, "Get rid of that light."
Sakura slid the door shut with her foot.
"Cheers." Tsunade said, rubbing her forehead. She was sitting at a large desk, sake glasses and bottles littering the surface. She had her arm in a pool of alcohol, oblivious to the fact that her sleeve was currently soaking up sake.
"Rough night?" Sakura asked, without sympathy. She'd endured too many nights of her aunt and her assistant wailing on the karaoke machine.
Achy Breaky Heart was no longer allowed in the flat.
Or any show tune.
Shizune looked just as pale and ill as Tsunade, dark circles around her eyes and beads of sweat visible on her forehead. "The worst," She grunted, "I can't remember anything from yesterday."
"I don't think I had breakfast." Tsunade said mournfully. Her stomach growled.
"You did, but you threw it up all over me." Shizune reminded her.
"Oh yeah."
"Tsunade – " Sakura started to say.
"Tsunade-sama." The headmistress corrected, her words slurred, "Show some respect."
Sakura looked at the mess of sake and paper on Tsunade's desk pointedly, "Respect? I'll show you some respect if you can tell me how many fingers I'm holding up." She held up seven in front of Tsunade's face.
Tsunade's eyes crossed. "I'm hungry." She mumbled.
"Oh for God's sake!" Sakura shouted and rounded on Shizune, "Why you did let her drink? You know how she gets when she's had alcohol. And you!" She turned back to Tsunade, "Why are you here, at your job, drunk?"
"Sakura…" Shizune warned.
"No! I'm tired of you! I'm tired of finding alcohol bottles in the laundry, the washing never being done, you gambling all our money and losing, and you –"
"Sakura!" Shizune snapped. She sighed, and lowered her voice. "It was the anniversary of his death yesterday."
Sakura's hand, which she had been pointing at Tsunade accusingly, dropped down to her side limply. "Dan?" She was horrified.
Shizune nodded, jaw clenched and tears glittering in her eyes.
Sakura turned back to Tsunade. The woman was slumped over her desk, holding a sake bottle loosely. Sakura gently eased it out of her hand, and threw it in the bin.
"I'll clean up the office, Tsunade-sama." Sakura said kindly. The older woman gave her a weak smile, her face wet with tears.
It took only ten minutes to clear the office of all sake bottles and stained papers, five more minutes to wipe down the desk to get rid of any stickiness and twelve and half minutes to cheer Tsunade up.
"So, Sakura," Tsunade said when everything had been cleaned, "I wanted to let you know that there's going to be an exam held soon. You're a bit new to the school to be entered, so it's your choice whether you want to participate or not."
"What kind of exam?"
"A tournament, of sorts. I'll give the rank of chuunin to whoever impresses me."
"I will participate." Sakura said firmly.
"You'd be up against some of the strongest genin in the country."
"Bring it on." Sakura punched her fist, enthusiastic. A tournament! A chance to not only prove her skills, but become a chuunin in the process!
Chuunin was one of the highest honours a school could give you. It meant that your lessons were upgraded, you were given a sash and had unlimited access to the library. Twenty. Four. Seven. For a geek like Sakura, this was almost too much.
The best thing about being sent out of class for falling asleep was that you could simply fall asleep again outside the headmistress' office and no one would move you. Shikamaru was snoring gently, his chest rising and falling as he slept, head resting against the wall, his body in an uncomfortable-looking position on the bench. There were a few light footsteps, the muffled sounds of Shizune talking and Tsunade replying, and then Shikamaru – a light sleeper – became aware of a presence in front of him. He cracked open one eye, and immediately his vision was filled by someone's cleavage in his face. He moved backwards quickly, cracking his head against the wall painfully. He groaned and rubbed the tender spot.
When he looked up, the owner of the cleavage was smirking at him. It was a girl, a little older than him, with dark blonde hair in four pigtails and blue-green eyes, which were currently sparkling with mischief. She was dressed in a sleeveless black top that barely covered her chest and black skinny jeans with big boots. She had a tattoo of a kanji letter on her shoulder. "Have a nice nap?" She asked, her tone mocking and a little sultry. Shikamaru scowled and moved further away from her. She leant in closer.
"Who are you?" He asked, suppressing a yawn, still feeling sleepy.
She placed her hands on her hips. "Temari. And you're my new boyfriend."
Shikamaru stared at her warily, half wondering if he was still asleep. "A little forward, don't you think?"
"My policy is to live in the now." She replied, still smirking at him.
"Look, lady." He finally gave in to the yawn, "you obviously have some issues, you know," he made a vague gesture towards his head, "up there, so I'm just going to go back to sleep."
Temari placed her hands on the armrests of the bench Shikamaru was occupying. "And you obviously misunderstood me. When I said you were my boyfriend, I wasn't asking."
"I am not going to date someone who is, one, obviously crazy, two, someone I don't know, three, older than me." Shikamaru counted off his reasons on his fingers, "Plus, you don't just force someone into a relationship."
Temari blinked. Then slowly smiled. "I like you." She announced, "I think I'll keep you."
"Good luck with that." He snorted and then closed his eyes in a hopeless attempt to get back to sleep.
He opened his eyes hurriedly when he felt something warm and wet on his lips.
Temari laughed at the utterly shocked look on his face. The door to the headmistress' office opened and a short, red-headed teen with thick dark lines around his eyes walked out. "Done already?" Temari asked, sounding disappointed.
The red head looked at Shikamaru briefly, eyes lingering on the blush on his cheeks before looking back at Temari. "Come, Temari. Leave the kid alone."
Shikamaru bristled at the term 'kid' being used by someone so obviously younger than himself. Temari left obediently, but not until she'd blown a kiss at the lazy teen on the bench.
Shikamaru, despite being a genius, couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that his first kiss had been stolen by a girl he didn't even know.
"Favourite food?" Sakura asked, eyeing up the dumplings with something like lust. She smoothed her polka-dot dress down, trying to protect it from the various spills of the cafeteria.
Sasuke shrugged, picked up an apple and inspected it briefly before putting it on his lunch tray. "I don't have one."
"Liar. OK, favourite music?" Sakura began to ladle the dumplings into a bowl.
"None."
"Boring. Type of girl?" Sakura asked casually, her mind on the delicious prize that awaited her once they got to their table. Mmm, dumplings.
"What?" Sasuke's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "I don't like any particular kind of girl."
"Oh sorry. Type of guy?"
"I'm not. …" Sasuke trailed off, the tiniest blush barely visible on his cheeks.
"Hm, you are mysterious. I bet I can guess what all your favourite stuff is, though." Sakura grinned, making it a challenge. Sasuke finally finished loading his tray – full of tomatoes, the weirdo - and they sat at a table near the canteen's window.
"Guess away." He sighed, beginning to bite into his apple.
"OK. Favourite food? Tomato." She smirked when he looked surprised, and pointed at his tray, full of the ripe fruit, "Kind of a giveaway. Favourite music? Heavy metal, right?" She mimed playing a guitar, strumming with her hands.
"Wrong."
"Crap. Right, type of girl. Um…" Sakura stared intently into his face. He stared back, confident that she wouldn't be able to guess. After all, it's not like he kept his favourite type of girl on his lunch tray, right? Unlike the tomatoes.
"Quiet!" She shouted triumphantly. A few students gave her odd looks.
"Wrong."
"Damn. Uh, shy?"
"Not even close."
"Pretty."
"I don't care about looks."
"Says the guy who clearly gets through a tub of hair gel a day. Intelligent."
"Yes."
"Yes! Point for me." Sakura made an air grab of triumph. "Oh! You don't like quiet… so you like loud!"
"Actually, the volume of the girl isn't that important to me." He muttered sarcastically, spearing another tomato with his fork.
"Long hair?"
Sasuke made a face.
"Short hair?"
Sasuke made a little 'so-so' gesture with his hand.
"…Bald."
Sasuke wordlessly ate another tomato, ignoring Sakura completely.
"Skinny."
"Why are we doing this again?" Sasuke exhaled, annoyed by Sakura's incessant, rapid-fire interrogation.
"It's fun!" Sakura said perkily. At Sasuke's glare, she deflated. "You could always ask me some questions."
"Fine," He said, so quickly that Sakura grew worried. What was he going to ask…? "Type of guy?"
"Nice." Sakura said promptly, "sweet, considerate, funny and modest."
Sasuke looked pained.
"What?" She asked, confused.
"Nothing," He dismissed it with a shake of his head, "Favourite food?"
Sakura wondered if he was changing the subject for a particular reason. "Dumplings. Obviously." She smiled dryly, gesturing at her own tray full of dumplings.
"Music?"
"All types!"
"Impossible."
"No, honestly!"
"Even rap?"
"I love rap!"
"…No you don't."
Neji Hyuuga had one friend. Sakura had seen him about town, always clad in sportswear and leg weights, never casual clothes and was always yelling about Youth and The Importance of Dental Care.
Sakura met a nice, sporty girl called Tenten in Taijutsu class. She had a surprisingly sweet voice and had her hair in cute buns. Taijutsu class should really have been renamed, 'The Class That Kicks Sakura's Ass,' purely because she couldn't seem to get through one session without bruising something in an awkward place. Her coccyx, for instance. Funny to say, not so funny once you've had it smacked against the floor repeatedly by an over-zealous guy in spandex. The guy in spandex was also the guy in sportswear, Neji's only friend, Lee. He was adorable, once you got past the eyebrows and the borderline-disturbing relationship with his teacher. Sakura's first Taijutsu class had been both painful and embarrassing. Spandex does everything for one's figure, but doing lunges and stretches in a class full of equally flexible green spandexed students means you have to find a particular spot on the ceiling and stare at it like it contains the meaning of life. Anything to avoid making eye contact.
She had walked into the massive gym, shoes squeaking against the floor, heavy gym bag gifted to her by Shizune cutting into her shoulder. The class were all clad in green spandex, and were all jogging around the gym, chanting, "IF I CAN'T JOG THREE HUNDRED LAPS I WILL DO FOUR HUNDRED PUSH UPS." Even Neji, she saw, was jogging obediently, though he was not wearing spandex. As he neared her, not even sweating or out of breath, he lifted her bag from her shoulder and, ignoring her protests, hauled it off to the corner of the gym were the students' bags were kept. Sakura was struck by the genuinely nice action of the stoic older teen, and just stood there, watching him jog.
A mistake.
"PERSEVERANCE IS THE FRUIT OF YOUTH." A deep voice suddenly bellowed from behind her. She shrieked, instinctively striking out behind her with a kick. It was caught by the most bizarre person she had ever seen in her life. He had a neatly trimmed bowl cut and massive rectangular eyebrows. He too was wearing spandex. It was a struggle to keep her eyes on his face. "You! Haruno! Your kick lacks heart!" He declared, striking a pose. He blew on his whistle and shouted, "Lee! Neji!"
Lee ran to the teacher's side so fast he was like a green blur with eyebrows. Neji sauntered casually over to them.
"You see this, Haruno?" The teacher – Sakura dimly recalled he was called Maito Gai – gestured to his two male students before him, "Strong fist!" He pointed to Lee, who had a look of immense concentration on his face. He punched the air. "Gentle fist!" Gai turned on Neji, who gave him a withering glare. Gai blew his whistle in his face. "And you! Haruno. Weak fist!"
Sakura scowled.
"You take this for an insult, huh? Having a weak fist does not make you weak, Haruno. A weak fist can be changed. Lee, for instance, used to be pathetic! Totally weak! An embarrassment of a ninja!" Lee nodded passionately. Neji rolled his eyes. "But he trained and trained and trained until the FLOWER. OF. HIS. YOUTH. BLOSSOMED." Gai's voice was either a boom or a roar. He could not seem to lower the volume. Sakura wanted to claw her own ears off.
"And Neji!" Gai roared. "He couldn't hurt a fly before attending this class!"
Neji looked indignant.
Gai shook his finger at him. "Physical strength is not like emotional strength. Being able to beat up a few guys does not make you strong if you don't have the willpower to beat up the rest. Hard work! Determination! And you too, Haruno. May have a STRONG FIST."
"Not a gentle one?" Sakura asked, trying to make a joke. It was like trying to kick God in the shins. Gai was not amused.
"No, Haruno. You are strong fist type!"
"How can you tell when you haven't seen me fight?" She asked, confused.
"LEE." Gai bellowed. "Get the TRAINING MAT."
Lee dutifully rushed off and dragged a blue mat out.
"Now. Haruno! Lee! Fight!"
Lee hopped onto the mat nimbly and held out a hand to help Sakura up. The moment she was securely standing, Lee outstretched the same hand in a distinctly badass pose. Sakura had a feeling she was not going to last long.
"Begin!" Gai shouted.
Lee was a blur. No other word could describe it. One moment Sakura was looking at him and the next he was behind her, hooking one leg around hers and digging and elbow into her back.
He promptly sat on her and held her arms behind her back.
"Get off me!" Sakura shouted, humiliated. Lee responded by loosening his grip slightly, like the gentleman he truly was.
From her squished position against the training mat, Sakura saw Neji's face, looking amused. Rage swept through her. Sakura swivelled on the mat, gaining some momentum, and trapped one of Lee's ankles between her own. It was far too easy, after that, to spin Lee around enough to break his grip on her wrists, and hit his collarbone with the heel of her hand.
"See?" Gai grinned. "Strong fist."
Lee kicked off of her to protect his face. Sakura leapt up and made as if to punch him with her right hand whilst her left foot snapped towards his face.
Lee caught the kick, just as she predicted, and she punched him with her left hand. Or at least, she tried to punch him. Lee simply moved his head away from her fist, and quickly captured that hand too. He held her left foot and hand up as she wobbled, off-balance.
"Call it a tie?" Lee asked nicely.
"No," Sakura sighed, "You win."
Lee released her and silently punched the air in passionate triumph.
"YOSH! Lee, that was excellent!" Gai roared.
"Gai-sensei!"
As Lee went to embrace his teacher, he accidently knocked Sakura off the training mat and she landed on her coccyx.
"Ouch." She said weakly.
"Are you alright?" A feminine voice asked, sounding concerned.
Sakura looked up. A tomboyish girl bent down to her level, with big chocolate brown eyes and her hair in buns. She was not wearing spandex either, just like Neji. "Yeah, I'm alright, thanks." Sakura said gratefully, allowing herself to be pulled up by the other girl.
"I'm Tenten." The girl gave a sweet smile, "And don't worry. Every single one of us – except for Neji – has been defeated by Lee at some point. Taijutsu's his best subject."
Gai and Lee were embracing, both of them sobbing with happiness.
"Yeah, they're weird." Tenten said bluntly.
Sakura, coccyx and ego still sore, was not pleased to see Neji easily defeat Lee in a one on one match. The self-satisfied look he threw at her afterwards served only to piss her off further. When she looked at Tenten to see her reaction to Neji's rudeness, Tenten was frowning at him, and he was smirking back.
As Sakura left Taijutsu class with a bruised lower back that made her walk with a hunch, she realised instantly that every student she passed was staring at her. A tall girl with big blue eyes and long platinum blonde hair stood in her way, flanked by two other girls.
Sakura was tired, sweaty and her hair was no longer in a secure bun, but fell to her ears in straggly bunches. The girls each gave her an incredulous look that started with her scuffed shoes and ended with her messy hair. They then burst out laughing and pushed past her. It was beyond humiliating, especially as they had all looked so effortlessly beautiful.
Sulky
Ignore them.
04/09/11
13:06:18
Sakura glanced up from her phone to see Sasuke at his locker, watching the girls walk past.
The blonde stopped to talk to him. Sakura couldn't hear his reply, but it had to be harsh, judging by the scowl on his face and the way the blonde immediately blanched and tottered off with her friends, in a hurry.
Sakura mouthed 'thank you.'
Sasuke gave a little wave in acknowledgment.
I definitely used the word 'coccyx' too much in this chapter, lol. I wonder how many times? Hinata and the rest of Team 8 will return shortly, and the grand arrival of Naruto will hopefully be spectacular! Anyone guess who the bitchy blonde was? And yes, the Taijutsu class was the most fun I've had writing in a long time. I get the feeling this chapter was way too long, sorry.
Thank you, everyone who reviewed or faved or alerted or even secretly quite liked this story. I didn't expect such a warm reaction!