Lucky Charm
by EikoDoll
Chapter Three: The Popular Girl Attacks
It was a beautiful Wednesday morning and the perfect time to be in school.
However, Naruto sat quietly on the ground of his apartment room; he was in no mood to go to school today and cause trouble. Although, deep down inside, he knew he was actually going out of his way to avoid a certain pink haired girl.
That bitch was crazy.
Naruto checked the time and sighed.
8:30 a.m.
She should already be in class.
KNOCK KNOCK
Naruto exhaled the breath he had been holding in out of relief and picked himself up. As he walked to the door, he laughed to himself, wondering why he was so afraid of such a small, pathetic girl anyway. He turned the knob and opened the door with a wide smile on his face.
The smile disappeared when he saw the devil standing right in front of him.
Naruto mentally screamed.
Why won't she just leave him alone!
Sakura Haruno clenched her fists, looking at him in fury. "Do you know how long I waited for you at that stupid brick wall?" she looked deadly as ever. "Because of you I have the seventeenth tardy this year!"
"That pales in comparison to my hundre-"
"I DON'T CARE!"
Naruto stepped back looking over her suspiciously. "Wait a minute. How do you know I live here?"
Sakura let out an irritated breath. "How do you think? I secretly followed you here yesterday because I knew one day something like this would happen." she eyed him darkly.
Naruto gaped. "You mean...you stalked me?"
She ignored that awful statement that would have made her throw up. "I have a Spanish test today, so lets get this over with." she quickly walked over to the extremely confused boy.
"Wait!" he said, holding his hands up for protection. "Why are you doing this!"
"Hold still. This'll only take a second."
"No! I want an explanation."
"I said hold still!"
Sakura tried to jump on him, but Naruto was quicker and hid himself behind the couch.
"Why are you trying to rape my lips!"
"It's none of your business!"
"My lips! My business!"
Sakura chased him all over the room while Naruto threw objects behind himself to keep her from attacking him.
"Stop! JUST STOP!" demanded Naruto.
Both Konoha students stopped in their tracks trying to catch a breath. Naruto held his arms in front of her just in case she tried to do anything sneaky.
"If you don't tell me what's going on, I'm going to tell everyone you're in love with me." he threatened, hoping to god it works.
It didn't seem like it. "Oh yeah right. Who in their right mind would believe you?" she rolled her eyes in disbelief.
"If you're gonna be attacking me like this everyday, I think I deserve a good explanation." he reasoned with her, yet still in a state of shock.
For a moment they stood there in silence.
Naruto still held himself up defensively, and Sakura looked like she was clearly deep in thoughts.
If she told him she discovered he had the power of luck with the touch of his lips, she didn't exactly know how he would react. If Naruto was just an average, teenage, hormonal boy, he'd abuse that power to kiss all the pretty girls in the world! Although Sakura had a strange feeling deep in her gut: he didn't seem average at all. Outcasts like him are never average. Should she take a chance? It would be extremely exhausting trying to force herself on Naruto every single day; she just didn't have that kind of energy. Maybe, just maybe if she explained her actions, he would give in and make life a lot easier for her.
"Okay. Let's just take a seat and I'll tell you what's going on." she calmly negotiated.
Naruto still looked defensive.
"Oh stop acting like an idiot! I'm not going to attack you." She scoffed at his stupidness and sat herself on the couch.
Straightening himself up, he slowly walked to the couch and grudgingly sat himself down...waaay on the opposite end.
"I'm all ears." he eyed her carefully, as if she were going to jump him any second.
Sakura stared straight ahead, refusing to make eye contact. She was a little embarrassed. "There's actually something I want to know first..."
"And what's that?"
Naruto watched as Sakura moved uneasily in her spot. "Have you ever kissed anyone? Besides me of course."
He looked completely flabbergasted. "None of your business!" he mentally waved a fist at her. A small blush appeared on his face.
Sakura guessed that was a no. "Fine, fine, stupid question."
"Damn straight! Now tell me what's going on. Why are you of all people trying to kiss me every morning?"
The girl sighed. "Well, it all started when I crashed into you and we accidentally kissed."
That fateful Monday was permanently burned and scarred into Naruto's memory. "Y-Yeah. So what?"
"After that happened, I was forced to take a history exam in Kakashi-sensei's class, but I didn't even study! I had no idea what any of the answers were."
"What's your point?" Naruto raised a dubious eyebrow.
"So after I took the test, Tsunade called me into her office. She assumed I cheated because I ended up getting an A+."
"Okaaaaaay."
"But actually, it's all because of you." she looked up at the blond boy with a spark of hope in her eyes.
She was really starting to freak him out. "Whoa, whoa, hold up." he quickly stood up and backed away from her, realization suddenly hitting him. "So you think kissing me is going to make your grades better?"
Sakura grinned. "I'm glad you're not as stupid as you look."
"You're crazy!"
"I'm not crazy. You're a walking, living lucky charm." she said in pure confidence.
Naruto looked down at her pathetically. "After all these years, you still believe in that crap?"
Sakura threw him a distraught look, but grudgingly held herself back from insulting him. "So are you going to let me kiss you or what?" she said impatiently.
For a second, he looked like he was carefully considering it.
NOT
"Get outta my apartment, crazy psycho bitch!"
All of a sudden, Sakura felt surprisingly strong arms pick her up. Naruto threw her over his shoulder and began walking.
"Hey, let me down!" Sakura pounded his back furiously.
Naruto did as she said, and dropped her right outside his door. "You better hurry and get to class! You don't wanna miss failing that Spanish test, right?" he smirked deviously and slammed his door shut in her face.
Sakura fumed.
She definitely hated that boy!
But she'll be sure to get him next time.
"Hey, Neji. I DARE you to ask her out."
A boy with long, dark brown hair peacefully ate his lunch. "I'm not going to ask out anyone who's been with Uchiha." he said spitefully.
"Aw, stop making excuses." Kiba, a boy with red fang tattoos on both cheeks, elbowed Neji teasingly. "You're just scared."
Neji ignored the comment, although he couldn't help but look over at the girl with unusual pink hair. She was surrounded by her usual group of friends, eating peacefully five tables across of himself.
"If you ask Sakura out, I'll take a shot at your pretty little cousin." Kiba casted a look full of longing at Hinata Hyuuga.
"Like you actually have a chance." said another boy with long, spiky black hair tied in a ponytail.
Kiba snarled. "Shikamaru, you're just jealous 'cause I have a better chance with Hinata than you do with Ino." he almost laughed when the spiky haired boy nearly fell out of his chair.
"Shikamaru doesn't have time for stuck up girls like them." an overweight boy defended, looking over at the most talked about group of girls in school.
"I guess the same doesn't go for you. I see you staring at them all the time, Chouji." said a mysterious, bushy haired figure.
"S-Shino! That's not true." Chouji crossed his arms and embarrassingly looked away. "I don't stare at them ALL the time."
A boy with bushy eyebrows stood up hastily with determination in his eyes. "I don't care which girl any of you stare at!" his smile showed off his radiant white teeth. "But Sakura Haruno is off limits!"
No one even bothered to tell him that was more impossible than Shikamaru dating Ino,
or Chouji getting a girlfriend less fatter than him.
Neji silently scoffed and continued to eat his lunch. He didn't quite understand what the male population in this school saw in that certain group of girls. He lifted his eyes once again to see Sakura Haruno bite the bottom of her soft, plump, glossy lip...
The white eyed boy cleared his throat.
Well, maybe he understood a little.
"Let's just get straight to the fact and be done with this stupid conversation." Shikamaru retorted. "Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Hinata are the four most unreachable girls this school, or possibly this whole city has to offer. Guys like us don't have a chance in hell. In fact, the day Naruto Uzumaki makes a friend is the day one of those girls actually makes an effort to give us a 'hey' and be on their merry way. We don't even have a chance in our imaginations, so let's find girls that are actually a little closer in OUR league and stop kidding ourselves." he finished telling his friends the bitter and ugly truth.
They all looked down in disappointment, but knew he was right.
"Goddesses like them are purely meant for the gods." stated Shino.
Their eyes instantly fell on a raven haired boy eating lunch by himself. As always, he ignored all the obsessed stares of girls and boys alike.
'Sasuke Uchiha.' they thought simultaneously,
and a bit resentfully.
The boys remembered when the four goddesses competed for the affections of Sasuke Uchiha, quite possibly the hottest guy in the world. It was friendly competition; no stabs in the back or dirty tricks. And in the end, Sakura Haruno won his heart. There were no hard feelings afterwards, and obviously they remained friends.
"I still don't see what all the fuss is about." Neji retorted. "Besides his looks (and even I can admit that), what's the big deal?" he watched the drooling female population stare obsessively at Sasuke as he chomped on an apple.
Shikamaru grunted, lazily picking at his broccoli. "You see, Neji, Sasuke is what you would call 'cool'. And everyone knows girls chase after the cool guys." he said knowledgeably.
"Pfft! So you're saying all I have to do is be a heartless bastard and I can get all the chicks I want?" Kiba sarcastically remarked.
"In order for that to happen, you'd need to at least look HALF as good as Sasuke." Shino stated bluntly and as a matter of fact.
"Shut up!"
"What I don't understand," said Lee, ignoring all the banter. "is why Sasuke dumped such a youthful cherry blossom such as Sakura-san."
They all wondered in silence.
"Either Uchiha's an idiot," Neji secretly glared at the raven haired god. "or he thinks he's better than her."
The latter seemed more believable.
Sakura muttered curses under her breath, not even bothering to eat the lunch her friends treated her to...again.
"Hey." Tenten nudged Ino and Hinata. "Is it me, or does Sakura look a little depressed?" she whispered secretly to them.
"No duh, Sherlock Homey." Ino rolled her eyes.
"It's...ugh never mind." Tenten didn't have it in her to correct Ino. "I think the break up is really taking its effect on her." she whispered in concern.
Their friend actually looked more irritated than she did depressed, but at this point, concerning the famous Uchiha, they couldn't tell the difference.
"Poor Sakura." Hinata's sympathetic eyes followed Sakura's frown. "Any ideas on how to make her feel better?"
Ino shrugged. "Hey, if Sasuke Uchiha broke up with me, I'd be devastated and cryin' over a bucket of ice cream."
"Sakura?" Tenten finally called out.
The pink haired girl broke out of her trance and forced a smile. "Sorry, guys. How long was I out?" she smiled sheepishly.
"For quite a while now." Hinata smiled sadly at her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I guess." Sakura shrugged. "Except I just found out I did really bad on Kurenai-sensei's test today. When she looked over my work, she gave me a really disappointed look." she said in distress. "I knew I should've forced him to kiss me when I had the chance." she muttered secretly to herself. "Oh, by the way, thanks for lunch. I keep forgetting my wallet at home for some reason." she smiled, attempting to completely devour her food. "Oops. I forgot the ketchup. I'll be right back." getting up from her seat, Sakura casually walked away.
The girls looked at her with even more concern.
"This is worse than I thought. She's hiding her emotional pain through school work!" Tenten looked very exasperated.
"Of all things." Hinata watched her friend standing patiently in the ketchup line. "We know she doesn't have the slightest care about school and her grades whatsoever."
"And she knows we know that!" Ino aggressively took a bite out of her french fry.
"I guess Sasuke really gave it to her, huh?" Tenten sighed sadly.
"That devilishly handsome monster." Ino muttered.
"As best friends, it's our job to make sure she gets over him." said a determined white eyed girl.
Ino gave her a nod. "Agreed."
"Right." said Tenten. "But how?"
The blond one in the group smirked. "Isn't it obvious? The only way to get over a man is to get another man."
Hinata shot her an unconvincing look. "I highly doubt that."
Ino tsked her. "I don't expect you to understand, Hinata. You never had a boyfriend." she stated truthfully, as the purple haired girl blushed.
"You never had a boyfriend either, Ino." Tenten snorted.
"Well I watch a lot of soap operas, so I think I should at least know what it's like!" Ino bashfully defended herself. "Besides, we can't all be man-haters like you, Tenten. Hinata, Sakura, and I aren't lesbians."
Tenten flushed. "I told you to never say that in public!"
"Whatever! Look, I'm only thinking about Sakura's well-being."
"And hooking her up with a boy when she just got dumped by one is going to help her?" the brunette glared.
"Yes. Yes it will." Ino stuck out her tongue immaturely.
Hinata purposely got up and sat herself between the two girls before they would start tearing each other apart. "So who do you have in mind, Ino?" she interrupted before Tenten would make a nasty retort.
The pretty blond girl shrugged. "I don't know. Umm, maybe..." she started, searching for a suitable male in the cafeteria. "Oh, gosh. This would be a lot easier if the boys in our school were actually cute." she pouted when she couldn't find a single guy to fill the hole in Sakura's broken heart. Suddenly, her eyes widened when they fell upon a certain dark haired boy. "Ooo! Ooo! Ooooooo!" she tried not to point.
"What!" Tenten nearly slipped out of her seat when Ino abruptly shouted in her ear.
"Get this." Ino smirked proudly. "Neji Hyuuga."
Hinata frowned. "I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Oh, come on! He's probably the best looking guy in our school behind Sasuke. Plus he's smart, he's respectful, he's perfect!" Ino argued.
Both Tenten and Hinata still looked unsure.
"Well, that's true. Even though he does hang out with a bunch of weirdos..." Tenten casted a glance at one of her classmate, Lee, and his bushy eyebrows.
She shuddered.
Hinata watched her cousin, who was seemingly engaged in a serious conversation with his friends, and shook her head. "No. That's really not a good idea."
"Why not?" Ino pouted. She thought Neji was perfect!
"He's basically another Sasuke Uchiha." The white eyed girl explained. "Perhaps a little more social and a little less stoic, but he definitely comes close."
Ino grumbled under her breath. "Fine, we'll cross Neji off the list."
The search continued.
"Oh!" Tenten's brown eyes caught a certain boy sketching underneath the shade of a tree. "How about Sai?"
Hinata considered this. "Well, he is very handsome."
"Almost as much as Sasuke." Ino nodded her head thoughtfully. "He's also smart."
"And a very talented painter." Hinata added.
"Plus he's pretty nice." reminded Tenten.
"Although..."
"He seems a little fake to me."
"And he does have the tendency to bad-mouth people."
The girls looked at each other in defeat.
"Good boyfriends are so hard to find these days." Ino sighed.
"Like you'd even know." Tenten scoffed.
"Lesbian."
"Boyfriend-less."
Hinata sighed, forced to listen to their endless banter.
After lunch, Sakura headed straight to her next class.
She couldn't help but wonder why her friends acted so weird when she got back from the ketchup line.
What were they hiding?
Then it hit her!
"Noooo. How could they possibly know?" she pounded a fist into her hand.
Somehow they knew she was secretly hiding the fact that she had been kissing Naruto for luck in order to get A's on her tests.
"I should have been more subtle." she cursed herself.
As soon as the bell rang, Sakura leaned against the wall of the abandoned corridors, obviously not concerned with class at the moment.
"Hey, Sakura!" she heard one of her classmates shouting and running towards her. "Why are you just standing here? You're going to be late for class!" the girl warned her. "You definitely don't wan to miss Iruka-sensei's class this time."
Sakura didn't seem to care. "Why's that, Shiho?"
The girl pushed her glasses up with an index finger and looked at Sakura with disappointment in her eyes. "We have a quiz on blood cells today! Section two. I thought you knew."
The emerald eyed girl snapped back to reality. "Are you serious! Another quiz? Why can't I ever catch a break? Every fuckin' day." she grumbled, tempted to bash her head against the lockers and end her life.
"I don't know, but I overheard Iruka-sensei talking to Tsunade-sama in the office yesterday. He said if you fail one more test, he's going to have to fail you for the whole year. Which means..." Shiho shifted uneasily.
"Summer school." Sakura looked devastated.
Her life was over.
Well, it was decided. Sakura didn't have any more time to waste.
"Thanks, Shiho!" she smile gratefully at the glasses-wearing girl and started to run.
"W-Wait! You're going the wrong way!" Shiho watched helplessly as Sakura ran in the opposite direction of Iruka's class.
A mischievous blue eyed boy sat next to a box full of horse manure, a rope extending about fifty feet, and toilet paper he 'borrowed' from the girl's bathroom. Don't even ask how he got the horse manure. He wasn't quite sure how to go about with these three objects, but he needed to be clever. Whatever prank he was going to pull of today must be well thought out and absolutely hilarious. He immediately pictured the image of Tsunade baa-chan as the target.
No, too easy.
Perhaps Kakashi-sensei?
Nah, even easier.
Naruto Uzumaki stared at the objects next to him and frowned. "What the hell am I supposed to do with horse shit, rope, and toilet paper anyway?"
Today was not a good day. His brain wasn't functioning well enough to think up of brilliant pranks.
Especially after that witch completely fried it this morning.
Her kiss was like a curse or something.
"I thought I'd find you here."
That voice was all too familiar.
'Oh what now!' Naruto shouted in his head, staring straight into emerald eyes.
"Of course you'd be here." she said throwing a glance at Tsunade's door. "Trying to think of a prank to pull on Tsunade, huh? You're starting to get really obvious." she insulted the number one most unpredictable kid of Konohagakure High.
Naruto looked angrily at her. "I'm not gonna kiss you, so you can just forget it!" he attempted to get up and leave. He faced Sakura to give her one last glare before he would walk away, but then he saw that familiar evilness in her shiny emerald eyes.
And he made a dash for it.
Unfortunately, Sakura knew this was coming and sprinted after him. Naruto didn't look back. He began to sweat nervously, very aware that she was closing in on him.
She was like some kind of speed demon!
He wouldn't be surprised if she really was a demon from hell, with that dark aura of hers...
Naruto came to a dead end and nervously tried to look for another way out.
"Running away is useless."
He nearly screamed in terror when he heard Sakura's voice behind him.
"Just leave me alone!" he turned to come face-to-face with his fears, backing up against the wall as she walked closer to him.
He was trapped. The only possible way to escape was to run straight towards her and hope she moves aside. As he was about to make a dash for it, she seemed to have caught on and made a dash towards him as well.
"Oomph!"
Sakura brutally tackled Naruto to the ground and pinned him down.
All of a sudden, he felt immense pressure attack his lips.
Oh, god...
"Mmmmmphmmph!" nobody could hear his muffled cry for help.
When Sakura was through with him, she ran to Iruka's class leaving a very shocked Naruto frozen stiff.
She hoped she wasn't too late.
"Section two quiz, here I come!" she grinned evilly, and laughed all the way down the corridor.
As soon as Naruto snapped out of his shock, he watched a pink blur run out of his sight.
Her kiss was as deadly as ever.
And this time it tasted like watermelons. Naruto concluded she owned a wide variety of flavored lip gloss.
"Curse you, Sakura Haruno."
Sakura slowly walked home after school in low spirits.
After she completed Iruka's test, she pretty much forced him to correct it then and there in front of her eyes. To her unsurprised delight, she received an A+. Iruka was very pleased, but negatively told her if she failed one more test, she better get ready for summer school.
But that wasn't the thing that bummed her out.
After Iruka's class, she headed straight to Kakashi's. Surprise, surprise, a pop quiz! Sakura confidently took the quiz without the slightest fear,
and failed.
The silver haired joy kill called her in after class to discuss her poor grades. Like Iruka, he told her if she failed another test, or even a petty pop quiz, he would be forced to fail her for the entire year, and then,
summer school.
Sakura's head dropped.
And that also meant no cherry, red convertible! She seriously wanted to cry.
The moment she failed Kakashi's test was the moment realization hit her:
Naruto's kiss was only good for one test.
Her life just moved up an entirely new level of complicated.
Sakura had five classes a day: history with Kakashi, Spanish with Kurenai, math with Asuma, science with Iruka, and gym with Gai. Teachers always warn a student ahead of time when they're supposed to take the next test/quiz, but Sakura has the tendency to NOT pay attention, and that worried her. She is, after all, a professional daydreamer in class. However those damn pop quizzes just pop out of nowhere! Especially in Kakashi's class. Oh how she hated that man sometimes.
One kiss had the power to get her an A on ONE test.
The girl gagged when she realized she would have to kiss Naruto Uzumaki more than once a day...
FIVE times a day...
gag. gag. gag. gag. gag.
Although, Sakura imagined what it would be like if he actually used his tongue...
"Oh sick! SICK! I can't believe I just thought that!" she shook her head violently.
The kid's just a plain loser, and kissing the biggest loser Konoha High has to offer is the ultimate humiliation.
But then again, there was summer school...
and that was pretty humiliating. You either take summer school to receive more credits or because you failed a course. And seeing as how Sakura is currently a senior, going to summer school only meant she had failed. And not only one class...
Damn that Sasuke Uchiha! It's all his fault! He was definitely her greatest curse.
But that wasn't important right now.
'What am I going to do? I really don't wanna go to summer school...' she complained, feeling extremely displeased with her complicated situation.
She couldn't risk failures anymore. And it wasn't entirely because of summer school. Tsunade would be all over her ass if she failed senior year. And she could say 'bye-bye' to her cute, cherry, red convertible. She had so much to lose!
Not to mention it was very troublesome wasting so much energy trying to get Naruto to kiss her every morning. It would be even more troublesome trying to kiss him before every class without anyone finding out about it.
'Argh! I hate my life!' she mentally screamed. "But at least I know what to do now." she said grudgingly, sighing in contempt.
First thing's first.
She headed straight in the direction of Naruto's home.
A/N: Thank you guys so much for reviewing! I LOVE THEM ALL! And I hope I got to answer most of your questions - the story is kind of a mystery, isn't it? LOL. Anyway, let's celebrate for another successful chapter! :D