Ok guys, I may not have mentioned before, but the date is very important *coughs*. Sasuke doesn't appear in this chapter, sorry! Something much bigger had to take place 0.0. I don't own the characters! And here we go:

Chapter 3: Crash

September 11, 2001

Fall Semester


It was really quite early in the morning. 7:42, to be precise. Today I was on my way to school already; I had a lot of things to get done before teaching my classes. My first class wasn't until second period (there were actually no English classes first period), so normally I could afford to arrive at school much later. The city was quiet around me and the only noise I could hear was my car's engine. Not that I minded, really-it was a nice change from my ever so loud classroom.

I had been right the first day of school when I'd predicted my students were a noisy bunch. After having a few days to dissect the 'problem areas' of the room, I came up with the two main sources of noise.

The first one was mister smart aleck, Naruto. He, along with his good friend Kiba, took it upon themselves to provide the class with 'entertainment'. If they weren't cracking jokes about me, they would bother each other and the rest of the class with ill-thought-out pranks and schemes.

Naruto's appearance was just as loud and disruptive as his personality. He had spikey blond hair and hyper-electric blue eyes that seemed to grow in size when he became amused. What I found strange about him was that every day he wore a tacky, neon orange jumpsuit that clashed horribly with his hair and eyes. But then again, I wasn't really up to date on the whole fashion thing. Maybe clashing colors were in?

The other root problem was named Ino Yamanaka. Blonde and gorgeous, she commanded the attention of those around her. She was the school's future prom queen and future queen bee of the popular crowd. Boys drooled after her, but she didn't have a permanent boyfriend. Everybody knew her, and as far as she knew, everybody liked her. She was the queen of gossip-she always knew who was cheating on who, who liked who, and what the next homecoming theme was going to be. She wore heavy eyeshadow, shiny lipgloss, and was never seen without a pack of pink gum.

Needless to say, it was painfully obvious that Ino wasn't too bright in the academic department. I found it a wonder that she'd managed to actually advance as far as 10th grade. She was a very slow reader; the few instances when I'd called on her to read a passage out loud in class had been...unbearable.

During class Ino was always texting on her phone, whispering and giggling with her group of girls, or trying to attract the attention of some of the nicer looking males in the classroom.

I sighed as I pulled into the school's tiny parking lot. I killed the engine, got my things, and exited the car. From the parking lot my classroom was a bit far away-I had to pass through the central square all of the classrooms surrounded, and then make my way to the hallway farthest on the other side. My classroom was the last room in the building.

I took out my set of keys and unlocked the door. Even though it was really out of the way for me to get to, I found that I sort of liked my classroom. While no students occupied it, I could find a separate sort of peace in it. It was always very light in the classroom-the left wall was entirely made of glass.

I took a seat at my desk and glanced at my wristwatch. It was already 8:23! I still had a lot to get done, especially since today was going to be my first department meeting. The meeting was supposed to start at 8:45, and I still had to prepare a roster of my student's previous district testing scores. In addition, I needed to write out some kinks in my original curriculum I had planned. I took a ballpoint pen out of my desk's drawer and got to work.

The minutes passed slowly, but I finally finished with my roster and my edited curriculum. Breathing a sigh of relief, I gathered my papers and left my classroom. The moment I stepped into the hallway, I could tell that something wasn't right. The hall was unusually empty-by this time at least a few teachers would be arriving.

I hesitantly continued on my way to the meeting. It was 8:49-I was already a few minutes late! I picked up my pace as I rounded the corner of the hallway. The staffroom was within sight now, and-I ran straight into a frantic Iruka.

Iruka was a fellow English teacher; and he was also one of my closest friends. But that aside, shouldn't he have been at the meeting by now? Unless-

Iruka shook me forcefully by the shoulders.

"For fuck's sake," he cried, "Get into the staffroom! A plane's crashed into the World Trade Center!"

Panic. I couldn't think. Panic Panic Panic. I pushed Iruka aside and ran into the room to find all of the teachers huddled and focused on the tiny T.V.'s screen.

There was smoke and fire and everything was horrifyingly REAL. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen. How could something as catastrophic as this have happened? Were we safe here? We were rather close by, after all. What-

At 9:03 on a Tuesday morning in September, I watched as a second plane crashed into the World Trade Center.

xD *cough* bet you guys didn't see that coming when you first started reading this fic. How was it? I wish I could do more justice in portraying such a tragic event, but...apparently I can't. Anyways, reviews are much appreciated!