.:LOVE PARADOX:.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any Naruto characters, no matter how rich I get. Damnit I'm poor.

FLASHY ENTRANCES ((CHAPTER ONE))

I can only hope this was the right choice, thought the tired-looking blonde woman at her desk. She kneaded the space between her eyebrows, hoping to relieve the pounding headache she felt coming on.

"Here, have some sake, Tsunade-sama," soothed a gentle voice to her right. Tsunade groaned in relief, hand reaching out to grope the air blindly until a sake bottle was safe within her grasp. She hurriedly took a swig without even pouring it out and slammed the bottle back down.

"Thanks, Shizune," she croaked in a grateful tone. "I really don't know what I'd do without you…"

Shizune let out an exasperated sigh, one hand holding TonTon while the other perched on her hip in a mock-anger position.

"Tsunade-sama, without me you would not be where you are right now!"

"Which is why I'm grateful, alright?" Tsunade waved her off, already getting slightly tipsy from the great gulps of Sake she was taking in. On the corner of her desk, peeking out from piles and piles of nothing but paper, lay her beaten-up name-tag – "President".

Shizune decided to forgive her just this once, knowing that Tsunade needed to get drunk tonight. Oh Tsunade-sama…you need to believe you made the right decision. She will be fine…

"SHIZUNE!" Tsunade roared, startling her out of her thoughts. "MORE SAKE!!"

"Yes! But only one more bottle, okay?" she chided. As the Chance Orphan Co.'s President's private secretary, Shizune still held partial control. After all, without her, Tsunade would be gambling her life away and not working at all.

"JUST GET ME MY…uhh…SAKE, yeah, sakeee…" she mumbled, head lolling on her desk and scattering more papers in the process.

Inside her mind, Tsunade wasn't drunk at all. She was still worrying over whether she did the right thing or not. Should she have sent her there? All by herself?

"Tsunade-sama, I think you made the right decision…" Shizune called from the backroom. She shuffled back with a serene expression and another bottle of sake.

"Sakura can take care of herself just fine, you know that," she continued. "And you cannot keep her forever, no matter how much you wish she was your own daughter…"

Tsunade mumbled something unintelligible. Shizune, somehow, made sense of it, and pulled a sad face on.

"You cannot adopt her, Tsunade-sama…" she said gently.

"Mmm…I know, Shizuneeee…" Tsunade buried her head in her hands, not even taking the sake bottle from her secretary's outstretched hands. No matter how much she begged for it, she wasn't allowed any children anymore – adopted or not. Oh, Sakura…please don't hate me…

A moment of silence filled in between them, until a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed the bottle.

Sakura will be fine, so please cheer up, Tsunade-sama… Shizune whispered to herself.

"We're here," the cab driver said. She looked back, only to find her passenger sound asleep.

"Oh my…dear, wake up please – we're at the school now," she called, moving back a wrinkled hand to gently shake the teenage girl lightly.

"Nng…?" yawned her passenger, blearily opening her eyes before shutting them tight at the blinding light.

"Come on, sweetie…or else you're going to miss your first day of school, and that wouldn't be good," the kind old lady chuckled. The girl finally blinked her eyes open and realized what she was just told. She grabbed the edge of her mask, which was connected to her black turtleneck, and slipped it back up.

'Thank you very much for driving me here, Obaa-san, I'm really grateful…and what time is it?" She answered her own question by looking at the clock in the car quickly.

"OH MY GOD IT'S FFF…FIVE FORTY?!" she screamed, hurriedly opening the door and grabbing her big sports bag. Then, remembering something, she turned around and bowed respectfully to the cab driver.

"Thank you! Um…the money for the trip?" she laughed hesitantly.

"Don't worry about it, young one, I haven't seen someone so kind like you in a while. Your mother, I believe…? She paid me beforehand, so it's all settled," the driver said, giving a kind smile. She didn't catch the falter in the girl's smile at the mention of "mother".

"Oh, well than…um…thank you for waking me! I have to go now, so…uh…have a nice day!" she finished lamely, cursing her idiocy inside. What kind of stupid farewell was that?!

"Have fun in school!" the old lady called back, watching as the pink-haired teen rushed inside the huge school gates. On the side, a brass nameplate said "International Institute of Learning". In smaller words beneath that inscription, was "High School, Divisions A-C" in slightly less bolded font.

Absentmindedly, the old lady turned to look at her clock. And then she realized something important.

I hope the girl realized my clock is late by around an hour, she sighed. That means it's already 7 something…oh dear.

"Fuck, I'm going to be late on the first day, I have no fucking idea where my dorm is either, and FUCK I still have to go to the Main Office to get my registration finalized!" Sakura mumbled to herself, looking around with no sense of direction whatsoever. She didn't see anybody around.

That's weird…there should be at least some kids hanging out or something, she furrowed her brows. The entrance yard was completely blank of human life…until she saw someone stepping out of the nearest building. Sakura sighed in relief, hurrying over to the said person.

"Hey!" The person turned around, looking at her blankly. An unruly mop of silver hair was piled onto his head, and he was wearing a mask – just like her's, which startled her considerably. Once she caught up to him, she realized he was…really tall. Almost two heads taller than her. Probably a senior or a teacher…or not, he didn't look like teacher material.

"What's a student still doing out here," he said, giving her a nonchalant tone. Sakura sensed the suspiciousness beneath it though, and the fact he was slightly amused at seeing she was wearing a pretty identical mask to his. So he's not a student, then.

"First period doesn't start until 6:20, right?" she asked back, confused. "I just got here, so I'm a little late, but I should have enough time to unpack and…"

The man held up a hand, stopping her tirade and…giggling. Do men giggle? She just stared.

"Here, here…" he said gently, taking her by the shoulders and spinning her to face a huge clock near the doors of the building he'd just came from. "Take a look at the time, little lady."

For a second, Sakura thought she was seeing things. And then she looked closer, blinking repeatedly.

It says…7:15…FUCK IT SAYS 7:15………..

"Oh, fff—I mean, ugh…" she moaned, dragging her hands over her face. "I thought it was 5:50 …"

"Well, it's alright, you're not the only one late," the man behind her laughed. He held out a hand for her to shake, which she took gladly.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi, a teacher here at I.I.L High. Division A, of course" he said simply, other hand scratching the back of his head. A headband curiously covered his left eye, so whenever he smiled, all Sakura saw was the crinkling of his right eye.

"Oh, I'm in Division A, I think," she said back, trying to hold back her urge to beam a ridiculous smile at him. Probably because they seemed kind of alike…in the mask sense, of course. Sakura liked to wear her mask – it allowed her to express many feelings without people realizing so, and it gave her a sense of security. She preferred to keep to herself, even though her outward personality acted cheerful to some.

Kakashi blinked. This was his new student? Nice mask, hehe.

"Well…I think I'm your teacher then. You're…Sakura, right?" he guessed. She nodded. He paid no attention to the fact her long hair was pink-colored, nor the fact her eyes were an impossible shade of jade. After all, he wasn't normal himself either, right?

"Aa." She wasn't paying much attention to him either, instead opting to shift her gaze around the entire school entrance courtyard. Her face wasn't smiling anymore – it'd settled into an emotionless gaze just as quickly as he had seen her seem grateful.

Great, just what I need. Another student with serious issues… he groaned inside.

"Well, you need to get to your dorm first, so follow me and I'll lead you to the front office."

"Hn."

I'm getting an uneasy feeling about this girl… he sweatdropped. She's got my mask, and she's talking the Uchiha talk. Not to mention mood swings…And no last name. The Uchiha talk?! Damnit…

"Why aren't you in the classroom if class started already?" Sakura asked, her voice tone monotonous.

"Eh…you'll figure it out eventually," he said vaguely, waving his hand randomly and using the other to pull a bright orange book out from a bag strapped to his thigh. Sakura looked closely at the book cover…

Icha Icha Paradise?! She was appalled. That's those disgusting pervert books that Ero-sennin writes…

"That's written by Jiraiya, isn't it?"

Oof. Kakashi had stopped in the middle of walking down one of the hallways, standing stock still. And then he turned, ever so slowly, to face Sakura, with a downright appraising look on his face.

"You know Jiraiya?!" he asked, his one eye glowing with hearts. She backed up one step, wary of his weird behavior.

"Uh…yea. I used to see him like three times a month." The stupid Ero-sennin would come by to visit Tsunade all the time, in vain attempts to try to catch her and Sakura, or even Shizune, naked. Perverts.

"Sakura," Kakashi pronounced dramatically, pulling her into an abrupt hug (Where she cringed, disliking human contact a bit), "You are officially my favorite student from now on!"

She wiggled in his grip, growing more uncomfortable every second.

"Can you let go, please?" In the last few words, the pitch of her voice rose an octave in nervousness.

He seemed to understand something was off, so he promptly let her go. He was about to remark on her mask as well, before Kakashi was suddenly weirdly tackled down by a flying ball of orange, black, and yellow. Sakura just stared, not in the least shocked or surprised, as if this happened to her daily.

This happens all the time with that kid Ero-sennin brings around sometimes. Never saw him that much, though…

And as the ball of bright colors started ranting at Kakashi and standing up, she looked closer to realize he was that same exact kid. What a coincidence, she thought sarcastically. I'm going to kill Tsunade later…

"Naruto, what are you doing…" Sakura closed her eyes tightly, wishing she could just get to the Main Office already. He clambered off Kakashi and stopped ranting once he heard her voice.

"S-s-sakura?!" he yelled incredulously, deep-blue eyes wide. She rolled her eyes and moved forward to smooth his shirt down a bit, which didn't do much. He was wearing their school's uniform – incorrectly, of course, but wearing it nonetheless.

For men, it consisted of a black long-sleeved dress shirt, standard black slacks with a belt of your choice, a tie of any color, and black shoes – dress shoes or the optional flip-flops, which she saw Naruto wearing now. There was also the outer jacket – also black in color – which had a mini pocket near the left-breast with their school's symbol on it.

He's not wearing any of it properly, Sakura noticed. Naruto's shirt was wrinkled messily, and the top three buttons were unbuttoned without even being tucked into his pants. The orange tie was hanging loosely in his hand having ripped it off to try to strangle Kakashi with it. The jacket was nowhere to been.

"Yes, it's me, now can someone bring me to the Main Office?" she asked with a patient tone, completely contrasting her real thoughts.

"Of course, Sakura-chan! Anything for you!" Naruto yelled out his cheerful laughter, to which Sakura cringed, and then proceeded to take her hand within his and drag them together to the main office. Behind them, Kakashi was lying on the floor, swirls in his eyes – completely forgotten. Poor Kakashi.

Thanks to the super-speed running of Naruto and his endless hyperness, they arrived in no time in front of two big, glass doors. Sakura could faintly make out many people working at desks through the fuzzy glass, and turned around to tell Naruto thanks, and that he should go back to class now, but that never happened.

Instead, she was dragged once again right into the office, causing everyone to stare at them.

"I'm AMAZING, BELIEVE IT!" Naruto roared happily. Oh my god, we're dead… Sakura moaned.

"Oh shut up, Naruto, and go back to class you IDIOT," yelled an equally familiar tone from some room in the back of the office. Sakura paled.

Oh no. Oh nonononononono. NO. Please don't tell me that's who I think it is…

Unfortunately, it was. From that very room, Jiraiya looked out with an annoyed face, before catching sight of Sakura.

"Naruto, you genius! Good job getting Sakura here; now give her to me and GET BACK TO CLASS."

Naruto let out a small 'eep', muttered under his breath about 'stupid Ero-sennin' or something, and then smiled at Sakura giddily.

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan! Make sure you get in my class, okay? I'll wait for you, believe it!" he yelled, and then left as fast as he had come. Skipping. He still has to yell everything he says…ugh.

Sakura received pitying and curious looks from the office workers, and she just shook her head sadly before trudging to where the Ero-sennin waited.

"Oh come on, cheer up, little Blossom," he crowed, eyes already growing to a playfully lecherous state. Which received him a throbbing bump on his head…courtesy of Sakura's clenched fist.

"Shut up and give me my schedule, Ero-sennin," she scowled. I think I artificially inherited Tsunade's bad luck from some horrible twist of fate. Fuck.

"I could punish you now though, heeheehee… I can do whatever I want as Principal here!" Sakura paled.

"So, that being said…" He rummaged through the mess on his desk (it reminded her oddly of Tsunade's) to pick up a plastic-wrapped package. Tossing it at her rather aimlessly, he went back to shuffling through the mess again.

"That's your uniform, there's three sets in there…" He tossed her a folder this time. "And that's your schedule, and any other stuff you need to know will probably be in there. If not, just ask somebody…"

"What about my dorm room?" She asked. This was something she had to make sure was alright and acceptable, because knowing the damned Ero-sennin, she was scared she might end up with…a senior pervert. Sakura visibly shuddered at the thought of it.

I could always have Tsunade beat him for doing that and then change it quickly…Hnn. Nice idea. I kinda like that. She inwardly giggled maniacally. Living with Tsunade meant taking immense pleasure in beating Jiraiya up, no matter when, why, or how.

This time, Jiraiya pivoted slowly on the spot to face her, his face forming a scarily happy expression.

"Oh, I made sure you had the best living requirements…" he cackled, leaving Sakura really freaked out.

Shit. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Oh my FUCKING god, I'm going to get RAPED. I'm GOING TO DIE.

"So, here are your keys," and he tossed the goddamned little silver and plastic things at her, "and one of them is a card to get into your main Dorm building. The keys are for your dorm room, and then your own room, and some other random stuff like drawers and blah."

"What about…my roomate?"

He gave that scary look again, eyes glowing in sadistic mirth.

"Don't you mean roommates? Oh, I'm positively sure you guys will love each other…"

And without another word, he tossed her a map of the campus and promptly shoved her all the way out of the building.

Ok, just remember, Sakura…you only have to remain calm, collected, and cool. Just the three C's. God, that sounds lame… Sakura slapped her head, cringing. So not helping. Alright, you're going to get through with this by yourself, and prove your own worth… and you're NOT going to fall in love, no matter what, alright?

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, letting all emotions run past her mind.

Hn.

Cold, emotionless Sakura was now in place.

Not hesitating one bit, she picked up her tattered sports bag and swiped the flimsy white card against the reader. The dorm was a pretty small townhouse-like building – only fit a couple kids, she figured.

"PASS! PLEASE PROCEED," it beeped. She barely even glanced at it, just sweeping by smoothly. Sakura was now a goddess – her face was rigidly free of any emotion, giving nothing away – only an ice-like aura of calculating beauty and intelligence floated around her.

This is the only way I'll be able to handle everything, she thought sadly.

Sakura didn't want to make any close friends.

She trudged in, kicking off her boots at the entrance. Looking around, the entrance hall was a pretty small, enclosed hallway. The walls were a pleasant shade of black she found comforting, and led to a direct turn left. Once walking inside, a rough welcome mat would be right underneath you – to the right were shelves containing various shoes.

Impeccably organized, she noted. A girl did that? Maybe. But the other shoes all look to be men's…and there's the same flip-flops Naruto was wearing.

Praying she wouldn't be the only girl there, she decided to respect whoever organized it all and neatly lined up her black ankle-high boots next to the rack.

Good thing they were those rock-climbing kinds, she absentmindedly thought, referring to how painstakingly huge the school campus was.

Figuring no one would be home (she had to get used to saying that) since they would be in class, Sakura didn't bother quieting her footsteps and just followed the winding hallway.

At the end, it widened into a huge living room. The décor of it all seemed too…manly, for her tastes, but she supposed she could change that later. It was comfy enough, with lots of cushions and beanbag chairs. A huge widescreen TV was built into the wall farthest from her, since the backs of the sofas were facing her. She noticed random game systems spread out on the floor in front of it.

Good. At least someone has a source of entertainment for me to hijack.

The living room led to the kitchen, which was blaringly white and almost blinded her on sight. It reminded Sakura of the cleanliness of hospitals, where she often helped Tsunade, and the clean lemon smell floating around didn't exactly help in visualizing who lived here.

The décor seems real manly, but it's unexplainably neat. Oh my god, what is it's a GAY MAN?!

Sakura's eyes flickered a bit, showing her obvious discomfort yet trying not to betray her outer facial features.

She looked around the first floor completely. In the back of the kitchen was the dining room – a really big dining room. The other side of the kitchen led to another hallway that connected with the entrance hall. If you started from the entrance hall and walked all the way forwards, the stairs would be right there. To the right would be another lounge room – this one filled with books and a big desk, like a study room. There was a door in the back of the study room – Sakura opened it to find it was a bedroom.

She didn't notice the little white Cherry Blossom flower imprinted onto the front of the black door. Instead, she realized the room looked empty – save for a bed, desk, and some clothes drawers and closets. A door near her left opened up to a small bathroom.

So figuring no one lived in this room, she dumped her bag onto the white bed non-too-gently.

I guess I'll just take this one. Easy enough.

Sighing, she figured taking a look around upstairs anyway. There wasn't much – only three other bedrooms, which she couldn't open because of them being locked up. Not like she would go snooping in other people's belongings, of course, but she did want to know who lived here…and if there were any females other than her.

Sakura didn't spot any bathrooms, so she deemed it safe to think they each had their own little one just like her room.

Upon walking back to said room, she finally noticed the little Cherry Blossom, and gave a little smirk.

Jiraiya is getting uncreative, I'll say…

Her wristwatch said it was now 8:16. She'd already missed first period, so second period…ended at 8:30, she saw, flipping through the folder Jiraiya gave her.

Inside was information on her schedule – which she found kind of exasperating – and the rules by which the school abided by. It was nothing much different from the usual, except that students in lower divisions would call students in higher divisions by "sempai", regardless of age.

The paper decreed her as a special student of Division A, having gotten in through hard testing and a full scholarship. Because otherwise, Sakura would've never been able to have a remote chance of getting any good education at all.

Man, being an orphan kind of sucks…

With the silence of her new room, and lying on the bed just thinking calmly, Sakura only heard the soft ticking of her wristwatch next to her ear.

Slowly, she started to feel her eyes getting drowsy and her mind disobeying the warning that she was missing the first day of school. She didn't even have the strength to pull her mask down.

I hope this will be the place…where I…will…be able…to…open…up…

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N – 07.25.08 (treeshie)

I ALWAYS WRITE ON BIRTHDAYS. Today just happens to be my best-friend's birthday. Happy Birthday, Luvvie! Dedicated to you especially.

Alright, I'm currently considering shooting myself for writing a modern high school fic on Naruto. I'm slightly scared of myself, so yeah… The problem is I don't have a gun, which makes everything harder. Oh dear.

I hope you guys thought it was okay. Read and review, please? I never get how some people can get five million reviews after the first chapter (exaggeration), so I'm putting it down that either my stories really are just as sucky as my brother makes them out to be, or…I'm just downright unlucky. Unless there's a trick to getting reviews.

Oh well. Please read and review like I said earlier, and I sincerely hope you liked it. Feel free to criticize me all you want – I'm weird. I like criticisms. Thanks for reading -- (IF I GET ONE REVIEW, I'LL JUMP FOR JOY…)