Cheerleaders
Silent Acceptance

I gulped as I walked to the Jocks table. Naruto quickly ran to my side to walk with me, Sai on my other side. My face must have been red as radish, because Sai kept looking at me with this worried look. "All right, take two!" Naruto cheered, laughing.

Shikamaru snorted.

"Just to rekindle all of your memories, this is Sakura Haruno. She will," He glared at me, "hopefully," He muttered, and then looked back at his friends, "be eating lunch with us." He announced, grinning widely.

Kiba raised his can of coke as whistled.

I hunched over a bit to hide my blush. Naruto pat my back and gestured towards the empty chair in front of him. "Thank you." I mumbled, and then made sure there was a third chair for Sai. All three of us sat down and took in the silence.

"Oh, I'll be right back. I have to buy my lunch." Naruto said, running off as quickly as he came.

I sat closely next to Sai as I took out my bento box, spotting sushi in it. My favourite: Sashimi and California Rolls. I snapped apart my chopsticks and paused. Kiba rose from his chair and brought his lunch tray with him. I thought he was about to leave the table, but suddenly he sat down in Naruto's empty seat, right next to me.

I looked up at him, and he inched closer, posing with his elbow on the table and his head in his palm. "Sakura, Sakura, Sakura," He repeated it like a mantra.

My face flushed as I tried to keep it hidden. His hand reached over to push back my hair, making me flinch. He only smirked at this.

"Jesus, Kiba, you're scaring the poor thing. She's almost as bad as Hinata." Shikamaru muttered.

"She didn't faint." Neji mumbled, as though surprised.

Kiba pulled his hand back, my hair now behind my ear. "Isn't she adorable? She's not like cute, like Hinata, she's more like… pretty." He said, as though arguing with himself.

I stuttered and dropped my chopsticks.

I heard Sai move before Kiba, but for some reason Kiba was bending down to get them as well. I instinctively pressing my legs together and put my hands on my skirt. I heard Kiba burst out laughing, and found myself biting back my own laughter, though small. His head popped out from under the table, actually holding one chopstick. He laughed as he tossed it to me, and I caught it.

I turned to look at Sai, who, instead, politely smiled and placed it in my open hand. I heard some scoff and turned to look. I halt a bit, half-looking at the raven haired boy, as anyone would. I then looked down to my food.

"What?" Kiba snorted.

"Tch," Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Stop being such a suck-up."

Kiba sat up straight. "What'd you say?" He challenged.

"Whoa, whoa. Guys!" Naruto said as he hurried to the table. He came to a stop, observing the table. "Hey… Get off my chair." Naruto muttered quietly to Kiba.

Kiba smirked at me before heading back to his chair.

"Oh god, now everyone's looking at us." Shikamaru whined.

"No, they aren't," Chouji said, tossing a chip into his mouth, "They're staring at her." He said, glancing towards me.

This time, I didn't look away. "Me?" I practically whispered. I suddenly realized how quiet the room was.

"That's what happens when you run out of the cheerleader tryouts, then dare show your face here, not even bothered, THEN come sit at our table." Neji told me.

"Don't say things like that! You it sound worse than it is. Besides, she did not come sit at our table, I invited her here." Naruto said, frowning.

Neji rolled his eyes, as if to say 'yeah, yeah, I know'. Somehow, I realized that the fact that Naruto had invited me made things worse.

"Oh god." Another voice suddenly said. There were so many of them. It was hard to keep up. It was Gaara.

"Hn?" Sasuke said.

"Lee." Gaara deadpanned. Everyone seemed to shut up and stare as the 'Green Beast' made his entrance, spotting the table in a matter of seconds.

"There's goes a peaceful lunch." Chouji said, taking his chips with him as he stood up. The others simply sat there, staring, some even shaking their heads.

"Sakura-san?"

Everyone seemed to sink low in their chairs as the boy clad in green dashed to our table. My eyes widened a bit and I inched closer to Sai. Lee made his way through all the tables and chairs and walking people, arriving right behind me in a matter of seconds.

"Naruto-san. Did you bring her here?" Lee blurted out to Naruto.

Naruto scratched his head as he spoke. "Well, yeah, I mean, I wanted her to meet everyone…" Naruto trailed off.

"Dear Sakura-san," Lee started. I was forced to turn around and look at him. He looked down at his bento box and held it out in front of me. "Please, take this, and remember the very look on my face as I gave this to you." He said.

I tried to get my mouth shut as I slowly nodded my head and accepted to food held out inches away from my face. "T-Thank you…?" I mumbled, turning around again and putting it on the table. He swift rounded the table and took a seat, his eyes tearful. He sniffed as he wiped them from his eyes, a wide smile spread on his face. I stared at him as he just stood there, returning my gaze. "Um…" I started, "You must be hungry." I said. I pushed the food across the table and it slid right to him. He grinned down at the food and found himself wiping tears again.

"My sweet cherry blossom, who's presence affects me more than no other, you are so generous!" He weeped.

I just stared at him. I glanced at Sai, who was also staring, despite being a bit weird himself. As soon as everything settled down, and Lee had left (apologizing profusely for ten minutes before doing so), the cafeteria began to clear out. I was gathering my things, hands half full, as quickly as I could.

"I'll get that." Sai said quietly, grabbing the can of juice and walking away to throw it out.

"He's quite attached to you." I suddenly heard, jumping at the sound of the voice. Naruto was behind me, glaring at Sai's back.

"Naruto-kun…" I murmured, "He doesn't know anyone here. Please, don't be angry with him." I begged.

Naruto's glare vanished as he turned to me. "I'm not angry, Sakura-chan." He lied.

I wanted to frown at him.

He shrugged. "It's just… He kind of reminds me of Sasuke." He whispered.

I blinked. "Sasuke-san?" I poked my head past Naruto's head, but quickly hid again when I saw that said boy was approaching.

"Dobe." He said, alerting Naruto of his presence. "Let's get to Math, already."

I had math.

"Just wait a minute; don't you think there's something up with that guy?" Naruto hissed, eyeing Sai.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Naruto. "Don't tell me you're jealous." He muttered.

Naruto whipped around. "Jealous? Of who?" He retorted.

Sasuke scoffed. "Of Sai, idiot." He then started to smirk, "You're jealous because, of…" He paused.

My back was turned to them, so I couldn't see why he'd stopped, but suddenly I heard someone stomp their foot. "Sasuke!" Naruto growled.

"I thought you had Hinata?" Sasuke murmured, taunting him, I guessed.

Sai was coming back. I turned around to see Naruto swing his fist at Sasuke. The targeted boy ducked and slid around the blond, sprinting towards the exit doors. I stared, alarmed, as Naruto chased him off.

"Sakura-san." I heard. I turned back around, a little disoriented. Sai smiled down at me.

I blushed and smiled back, but kept my head low to hide it as we walked to Mathematics.

It wasn't supposed to be happening. I was supposed to be next to Sai, the only person I could ever possibly feel the slightest comfort next to, but instead, Naruto was, and I was next to Sasuke. I had silently protested. I was supposed to be Sai's mentor for the day. Now I was next to someone who made me hyperventilate for five minutes every time I glanced at him. … Not that Sai didn't.

"Alright, class. Today we're doing group work," Our teacher, Hatake Kakashi, announced.

I struggled to keep from smashing my head through the table.

"We're going to have a race, but, the thing is, you will be racing against your partner. You will be given 3 sheets of paper. There will be one paper for each race." Kakashi said, now handing our paper. I shuddered a bit as Naruto called out Sasuke's name. Sasuke turned, and the brief movement of his arm passing near me and resting on the table behind us sent a small wave of his sent.

I took in a deep breath, my eyes closed.

He turned back around, after having given a deadpanned answer to Naruto, who was now kissing his teeth and looked down at the papers that had landed on his desk. I looked down to mine as well, and found a crumpled note on top of it. I slowly reached for it, looking around the classroom to try and find the sender.

No one was looking at me. Just as it should've been.

I pushed the note aside and looked down at the papers on my desk. The first said: "ALGEBRA". I let out a deep breath; algebra was my best subject. The next said: "Geometry". I groaned. The last one: "Arithmetic". Arithmetic…? Arithmetic?

That would be the easiest, no wonder it was last.

"Ready, set…" Kakashi looked down at his chronometer, "Start!" He said loudly. Immediately, the class was thrown into the rushing sound of screeching, squeaking pencils.

I stared at the paper. Blinking. Blinking. I picked up my pencil and scribbled down my answers.

…

"Done." I whispered to myself as I looked up at the clock and wrote down the time. I smiled and put down my pencil, leaning back in my chair.

"Oh?" I heard. I turned my head to see Sasuke smirking at me.

My eyes widened for a few seconds, then quickly narrowed. I leaned it to look at his time. I glared at his paper angrily. Two minutes ahead of me. "That's so unfair." I muttered. He wasn't looking at me, instead, he looked ahead, smirking in triumph. I struggled to find something to say, my mouth opened and closing, but got nothing. I crossed my arms over my chest and closed my eyes.

Something suddenly hit the side of my head. I opened one eye. There was a crumpled ball of paper on the ground. 'Again?' I thought. I leaned down and picked it up. As I pulled myself back up, I felt Sasuke's eyes on me. I pulled the paper close to my face as I unfolded it as carefully as possible and read it.

ytf didn't you read my other note, woman? Jesus.

… Making me risk my ass to send another…

TO THE POINT. Why'd you run off from tryouts?

All the girls sucked.

You're in, whether you like it or not.

Don't even try running, silly. I'll catch you.

Sincerely,

Ino.

I gawked at the note in disbelief. I was in? I was IN? What was happening to me?

"Cheerleader?" Sasuke murmured. I whipped around to see him leaning over my shoulder. I nearly jumped off my seat when I realized how close he was. He slowly pulled back to his chair. "You ran from the tryouts?" He asked in disbelief.

I felt my face flush in embarrassment and I quickly looked away. To the front of the class. Ino was staring at me, glancing back and forth between Sasuke and I, and then something behind us. Her eyes twitched a bit, and then she quickly turned around again. I looked back at Sasuke, who had noticed as well.

A few seconds later, the murmuring behind us, which had been going on for quite some time, grew a bit louder. I turned my head and saw Naruto speaking with Sai and using rude gestures. My eyes widened. "Naruto-kun!" I hissed.

He flinched, as if I'd yelled at him, and quickly turning his threatening glare into a kind – fake – smile. "Oh… Sakura-chan… hehe." He mumbled, scratching his head. Sai turned to look at me. I let my gaze lock with his, but he quickly looked away, cheeks slightly tinted. My eyes widened a bit as I glanced at Naruto, who seemed to have forgotten me and was glaring at the back of Sai's head.

I just turned back around to face the teacher, thoroughly confused and wondering when the race for the Geometry paper had started.

I was being dragged. She'd come out of nowhere, grabbing my bag and suddenly bringing me somewhere. Sai hesitantly followed. "Jesus!" Ino said. I'd soon learned that she said that a lot. As well as; "God, woman!"

I gulped as she came to a stop and I stumbled onto my feet, turning around. She knocked on the door, marked 403, and kept glancing at me as we waited for someone to open it, as though I'd be stupid enough to attempt to run off again. I tiny girl opened the door. She looked up cautiously, eyeing Sai and I, but calmed as soon as she saw Ino. Her eyes were wide and beautiful and her hair was long and dark. The sunlight coming in from the classroom's window seeped inside, reflecting off of her head. There was a very dark, almost unnoticeable purple-like tint to her hair. She was part of the cheerleading team and, if my knowledge didn't fail me, she was named Hyuuga Hinata.

She smiled shyly and opened the door wider, inviting us inside. I had to grab Sai's hand and drag him in; since he refused to do so, on his own. My heart fluttered at the short contact. Inside, the most unusual scene unfolded. There were girls, stretching, some practicing lines, and some seemed to be thinking of movements, doing them only slightly and nodding their heads.

"Hey, hey!" Ino said clearly. Everyone slowly dropped their rhythm and turned to look at me, some raising their eyebrows when they saw Sai behind me. "I've finally brought in little Sakura-chaaan!" She sang, opening her arms widely in my direction.

Some of the girls smiled at me, while the rest just blinked and stared. Hinata tugged at my jacket's sleeve. I looked down to her; her head reached my eye level. "As I'm sure Ino has told you, you've been accepted into the cheerleading squad." She whispered.

My eyes widened as I looked up at Ino. "But Ino, I-" I started.

"No worries, my friend!" She reassured me, sliding between Hinata and I and putting one arm around my shoulders. "Let me introduce you to the team."