All right, Sakura, you can do it, she thought to herself as she stared at the classroom door. She had passed the tests a month ago—easily, she knew, although nobody had told her exactly how she had done on them—and now all she had to do was open the door and go inside to meet her new classmates. The Hokage himself had given her the admission form, and he had even bought her a pretty new dress to wear on her first day, saying that he was proud of her for doing so well.

She had no idea why she was so nervous. Most of the other children in there probably wouldn't even know her, since they had been privately tutored. It was no secret that the majority of the academy students were from the old, well-established ninja clans, and those families rarely sent their children to the public school Sakura had attended. She couldn't have been the only one from her class to pass the test, though, and all it would take would be one person to recognize her and start the teasing and bullying all over again.

Enough, she told herself firmly, remembering a line from her favorite book, one written by, somewhat ironically, the Fourth Hokage. A ninja does not ignore fear, but she cannot feel it so strongly that she lets it distract her from her duty. Opening the door cautiously, she peeked in, then slipped through the half-open doorway when she realized nobody in the large room had noticed her presence at all. Fear or no fear, a ninja also knew the wisdom of observing a situation before diving headfirst into it.

While the majority of her new classmates were sitting in their seats and talking with their neighbors while they waited for the teacher to arrive, two dark-haired boys were crowded around a third boy's desk, apparently arguing with him, if their animated gesturing was any indication. The seated boy's blond hair initially caught her attention, as she had only ever met one other person with that color hair—a girl in her old class named Ino—but after assuring herself that he was in fact a boy, and not Ino, she quickly lost interest in the argument and resumed her examination of the room.

Much to her relief, she didn't recognize any of the people in the room at all; apparently, if anyone else from her old class had passed the tests, they were in other classes. Most of the seats had already been taken, leaving only a few in the front row and one beside a boy with spiky black hair in an odd style who seemed to be sitting a little bit away from the others. She knew she didn't want to sit in the front, where everyone would be staring at her and could throw things at her while the teacher's back was turned, so that left only the seat beside the boy with strange hair.

Mustering up her courage, Sakura walked over to him. "Um…hi," she said quietly, pushing her over-long bangs out of her eyes with one hand. "Is anyone sitting next to you?"

The boy looked up at her and shrugged, then returned to whatever he had been doing before—staring off into space, apparently, Sakura decided. She was a bit put off by his attitude, but at least he hadn't been actively unfriendly, and she would much rather be ignored than made fun of.

"Well…I'll sit here, then, if it's okay," she said, then sighed minutely when he didn't answer. Deciding to take it as a sign that he didn't mind, she set her books on top of the empty desk and sat down. Shortly thereafter, she was immensely grateful she had chosen that desk, since it was somewhat out of direct line of sight from the door.

Ino… Sakura groaned to herself. It figured that the person she had just been thinking about would choose that moment to step into the room. While Ino was far from the worst of her old classmates, she was still a very unwelcome reminder of those times, and Sakura saw her dreams that these new people would become her friends end with the blonde girl's appearance. No doubt she would tell them all about how everyone had hated Sakura before, assuming they didn't already know from their parents.

To Sakura's surprise, though, when Ino glanced in her direction, she gave no sign she even recognized her, choosing instead to join the arguing group centered around the unfamiliar blond boy. She was sure Ino had seen her—her hair was, as far as she knew, completely unique in the whole village—so why hadn't she come over to tease her?

Maybe…maybe Ino doesn't want to be mean to me any more? Sakura wondered, barely able to believe the thought. The blonde had never been nice to her, but she had also never been one of the ones who started the taunting "games," so Sakura didn't know what to think of the other girl. Without any of the others around, perhaps Ino really would start to be nicer. It was something to hope for, at least.

That train of thought was abruptly cut off by the entrance of the class's teacher. Everyone who had been standing up went to their seats, and most of the people talking grew quiet. The lone exception seemed to be the blond boy, who continued to talk with the boy sitting next to him—apparently extolling the virtues of ramen as opposed to yakiniku, if Sakura was hearing him correctly.

"Kazama-san!" the teacher finally barked out after waiting a few moments for the boy to finish. "While following a proper diet is indeed important to ninja, I assure you that neither ramen nor yakiniku would appear on a well-balanced menu. Now, shall we proceed with more relevant topics?"

Both boys flushed with embarrassment, and the blond boy winced when a few members of the class began to snicker. He muttered something that Sakura couldn't hear from where she was sitting, but whatever it was, it apparently satisfied the teacher.

Stepping up to the podium mounted in the center of the front part of the room, the teacher cleared his throat. "My name is Umino Iruka, but you all can call me Iruka-sensei. I will be your main instructor during your time at this academy, so while you will have other teachers for certain specialized lessons, most of your time will be spent with me. As I'm sure you can figure out, that means it is in your best interests to make sure I don't ever have any problems with you."

He had stared directly at Sakura during the last part of his speech, and she got the distinct impression that he was referring specifically to her. Aside from that one dark spot, the next few hours proceeded without incident. From the roll call, she learned that her resolutely uncommunicative neighbor was named Nara Shikamaru and the blond boy was Kazama Naruto, the son of the Fourth Hokage. Unlike her old class, nobody had laughed at her or muttered insults when she gave her name, even if Iruka-sensei had glared a little.

- - -

When time was called for the class to head outside for a short lunch break, Sakura automatically headed for the seclusion of a tree set a small distance away from where most of her classmates were sitting. As she unpacked her lunch of rice and a few vegetables left over from dinner the night before, she took a moment to be grateful for the opportunity to attend the academy.

It was already so much better than her old school; even if she hadn't made any friends yet, the teacher was the only one who didn't seem to like her, and that could be because he was just strict. If he would yell at the Fourth's son, who was supposed to be some kind of incredible prodigy according to a few conversations she had overheard, then he probably just didn't want her to start any trouble.

Not that I would, Sakura thought a bit sadly, but as far as adults' reactions to her went, suspicion was one of the milder ones, and hopefully he might change his mind once he saw that she didn't want to do anything but learn. She had even taken almost a page of notes from the morning history lecture, despite having already read about what the lesson covered. As she swallowed the last bite of her lunch and put the container back in her bag, she decided to start reading her new textbook. It was the first book with real ninja techniques she had ever seen, and she couldn't wait to see what it had to say.

She had just started reading the first page when she was startled by a shadow falling over her. Looking up from her book, she instinctively flinched back when she saw several of her classmates standing in front of her, Naruto in front. She couldn't make out their faces very well, but based on past experiences, she was sure none of them were friendly—an assumption which was abruptly shattered when the blond boy plopped down across from her.

"Hi, I'm Naruto!" he said with a happy grin. "I know pretty much everybody else in our class, but you're new. Ino-chan said you went to her old school, but she wouldn't tell me anything else about you."

Sure enough, she could see Ino in the small crowd, half-hidden behind one of the others, a very large boy with brown hair whose name she couldn't remember. She looked more than a little embarrassed to be there, but to Sakura's surprise, she didn't look like she was going to do anything mean. She hadn't even told the others about how everyone in their old class had hated Sakura, apparently.

"Oh! Um…I'm Sakura, Naruto-san," she answered his unspoken question, flushing slightly as she realized he was waiting for her to say something to him. "I…there's nothing really interesting about me, I guess, so that's probably why Yamanaka-san didn't say anything."

Naruto laughed, though not in an unkind way. "You sound like my mother, Sakura-chan," he said, stressing the suffix almost comically. "We're all going to be ninja together, so it's kind of silly to be so formal, don't you think?"

Upon hearing that, Sakura almost felt like crying from happiness. Even though she knew Naruto was just teasing her, only the Hokage had called her Sakura-chan before now. Those few sentences he had just spoken seemed to offer the fulfillment of every hope she had about coming to the academy—acceptance, maybe even friendship—but while part of her was happier than she could ever remember being in her life, another part was wondering what the smiling boy would say if he knew the truth about her, especially given who his father had been.

Despite that dark thought, she found herself smiling hesitantly back at him. "Okay…Naruto-kun," she said. It felt a little awkward to add the familiar suffix to his name, and she couldn't help but wonder for a moment if he would reveal that it had been a horrible trick on her, that Ino had told everyone all about her and now they all hated her just like her last class had. When Naruto continued to grin at her, though, she found herself relaxing.

I guess I was right…maybe everything really will be better now.

- - -

Later that afternoon as Sakura sat slumped over on her threadbare couch, she found herself doubting that thought. While nobody had been mean to her—Ino had even said she liked Sakura's dress, her eyes and voice clearly indicating that what she really meant to say was "I'm sorry"—she had a sinking feeling that perhaps she wasn't cut out to be a ninja after all.

The morning classes had been easy enough, but the afternoon classes had been completely different. Iruka-sensei had met everyone outside at the end of lunch and directed them all to a big open area with a number of wooden poles on one side, where he announced that they would be testing their shuriken throwing before dividing up into groups for lessons based on ability. Sakura had never thrown a shuriken before—didn't even own any, and had no money to buy them even if any shop would have sold to her—but when she had tried to tell him that, he only shrugged and told her that the academy couldn't supply weapons to every student who attended.

Translation: Not my problem, demon girl. She wasn't sure why she had been surprised by that, but it had still hurt.

She had managed to get through the test by borrowing a few from the person standing next to her, a boy named Shino who talked almost as little as Shikamaru, but in the end, that had only further depressed her. None of the ten shuriken she threw had hit her pole, marking her as an abysmal failure next to her classmates, all of whom had hit with at least three. Naruto and a black-haired boy whose name she hadn't learned had both hit with all ten, prompting smiles of approval from Iruka-sensei.

The end result, of course, was that Sakura found herself assigned to a decidedly sullen-looking teacher's assistant for remedial training, and while she didn't mind that part so much, she was sure everyone else must be convinced she was pathetic. If they hadn't after the throwing test, they certainly did after the next and final class of the day: introduction to ninja techniques.

"Pathetic" failed to adequately describe her performance in that class. Because none of the students knew any techniques yet, at least officially, Iruka-sensei had begun teaching meditation techniques designed to draw out and strengthen one's chakra. While they practiced, he had gone around and performed a simple technique that would show them how much chakra they currently had, in the form of a glow around their bodies. At the end of the year, he said, he would repeat the technique so they could see how much they had grown.

Most of the students had glowed a dim whitish-blue. Naruto's glow had been the brightest, which somehow failed to surprise Sakura, though a few others—including the black-haired boy who had done so well in the shuriken lesson, as well as Ino and Shikamaru—weren't too far behind him. She had been a little surprised at how brightly Ino had glowed, since she remembered reading that it usually took longer for girls to develop their chakra, but perhaps the blonde was just particularly strong.

Sakura, though, had failed to glow at all, causing more than a few odd looks from her classmates as well as a blank-faced stare of disbelief from Iruka-sensei. He had ended the class early after that and rushed off somewhere, and, humiliated, she had taken advantage of her classmates' confusion to slip out of the room—though she had not allowed herself to cry until she had reached the safety of her apartment.

Is it because of the seal, maybe? she wondered, able to think more clearly now that she had calmed down a little. What if it's using my chakra somehow, and that's why I don't have any?

She really needed to try to reread that scroll of seals she had found, Sakura decided; even if it was confusing and made her more than a little uncomfortable, it was the only source of information she had access to that might help her understand what had been done to her. Sighing a little, she stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress. It was still early enough in the afternoon that most people should be at work, so hopefully she would be able to make it to the library without seeing anyone.

- - -

As Iruka waited for the Hokage to call him into his office, he tried to conceal his fidgeting as best as he could. With a wry smile, he wondered if this was how his students felt when they had gotten in trouble for something, even though he had been the one to request this meeting with the Hokage, not the other way around. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, one of the pair of chuunin guarding the door to the Hokage's office nodded to him.

"You can go in now," the young man said, opening the heavy wooden door. "Hokage-sama has another appointment in half an hour, so please be brief."

Iruka made some noncommittal reply before walking past the two guards and into the inner office. While he sincerely hoped he wouldn't be long—especially since he didn't want to be there at all, really—he had a feeling that the Hokage would be quite interested in what he had to say. He was almost shamefully interested in the demon girl, from what Iruka had heard, treating her more like a daughter than the monster everyone else knew her to be.

"Ah…Umino Iruka, yes?" The Hokage's voice broke him out of his thoughts, reminding him that even if the man was old and his judgment questionable in certain matters, he was still the Hokage and as such deserved respect.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," he said, bowing deeply. "Please, just call me Iruka. I'm sorry for disturbing you, but something happened in my class today, and I thought you might want to know about it."

The Hokage appeared to be deep in thought for a moment, then smiled widely. "Of course, now I remember. Today was Sakura-chan's first day at the academy. May I assume that you are her teacher?"

Trying to fight the urge to grimace at hearing the Nine-Tails' vessel referred to so casually, Iruka nodded. "That's right, Hokage-sama. She performed…adequately in the academic classes and poorly in the first practical class, but that type of behavior is fairly normal for students who don't come from a ninja background."

Truthfully, the girl's performance had been far more than adequate in the morning history and literature lessons. He had been forced to call on her several times when hers had been the only hand raised, and she had gotten every question correct, even the ones over material he was sure none of the students would have covered yet. More than that, she had appeared so interested—even happy—during the classes that his appreciation as a teacher for a worthy student almost managed to overcome his feelings of disgust for the thing that had killed his parents.

He shook his head and continued speaking, aware that the Hokage was eyeing him in a rather disconcerting manner. "The incident I came here to talk to you about, though, was during the ninja techniques class. Since that class is the first time most students, ninja families or not, begin working with their own chakra, I started with some basic meditation techniques.

"To make things more interesting, though, I used a standard low-level diagnostic technique to show them their chakra fields; I find it helps the younger children when they can actually see what they're working on. I have a feeling, by the way, that this class has the potential to be quite exceptional."

"But I doubt that is why you came to talk to me, Iruka-san," the Hokage gently interrupted, his tone, despite its softness, a clear request to get to the point.

"The Haruno girl has no chakra," Iruka said bluntly, deciding that he really didn't care about trying to find a tactful way of presenting the information. "She cannot become a ninja, and I recommend that she be withdrawn from the academy as soon as is practical."

For a moment, the Hokage looked so puzzled that Iruka wondered if he would need to repeat himself, but then the man started to laugh. "Ah, Iruka-san, that is nothing to be concerned about," he finally said.

Now feeling distinctly annoyed, as though the situation was a joke that only he failed to understand the punch line of, Iruka frowned. "Hokage-sama, I'm quite serious. Even the Rock boy in the second year has chakra reserves, though his coils are damaged to the point where he can't use his chakra externally. A student with no chakra at all cannot…"

"You see?" the Hokage asked as Iruka trailed off, feeling distinctly foolish. "A student without chakra wouldn't be a student at all, because he or she would be dead. The first rule of chakra manipulation is that every living thing generates chakra."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Iruka said, though now he was more confused than when he had started. "But I don't understand why the diagnostic technique would have failed, then. Is it because of…well…"

"The Nine-Tails?" The Hokage shrugged. "To be honest, I don't know. Perhaps the technique you used simply isn't sensitive enough to register her chakra, or perhaps the seal is interfering in some way. My successor was far more knowledgeable about sealing techniques than I am, so I'm afraid I don't really know what the possible side-effects might be."

Iruka nodded, even if the explanation hadn't really helped at all. "Thank you, Hokage-sama," he said. "I guess I'll just have to teach her like the others and hope that her chakra reserves develop over time, unless you have any suggestions."

Upon hearing this, the Hokage looked as though years of age had fallen off him, though at first Iruka couldn't understand why. "I should be the one thanking you, Iruka-san," he murmured. "Sakura-chan has such potential, but until now, her teachers have been unable to look past their hatred for the demon she carries within her. If you can simply treat her as you would any of your other students, it would be more consideration than she has ever received before."

"I…yes, Hokage-sama," Iruka managed to stammer out, feeling somehow ashamed, both for his earlier thoughts as well as for the apparent behavior of his colleagues. As he bowed and walked out of the office, he found his thoughts turning to the pink-haired girl in the red dress who had smiled so brightly, he now suspected, just because he had actually called on her to answer a few questions.

- - -

The next day, Sakura walked into her classroom feeling much better than she had when she left. Although several hours' study of the scroll of sealing techniques had failed to shed any light on the problem with her chakra, she had arrived back at her apartment that evening to find a slightly-worn leather satchel containing one set of shuriken and another of throwing kunai sitting propped up against her door, with no note attached or anything to indicate who had left it there.

At first she had been afraid to touch it, wondering if someone would jump out and accuse her of stealing it, but after a few minutes had passed with nobody appearing, she picked the satchel up and took it inside with her. The weapons inside were second-hand, with several nicks and scratches marring their matte finishes, but she didn't care about that, and careful inspection of the satchel had revealed a clan insignia embossed into the leather on the inside surface. It was so faded that she couldn't tell what it was supposed to be, though. Regardless of who had left it there, it was exactly the type of gift she needed to cheer her up; someone had obviously seen or heard about at least one of her problems and had done something to help her.

As she set her books down on her desk and tucked her bag under her chair, she looked around and noticed that several of her classmates were looking at her a bit oddly—not exactly in any sort of unpleasant manner, but more as though they weren't quite sure who she was or what she was doing there. She turned to Shikamaru to see if he knew what was going on, but he had his head down on his desk and appeared to be snoring.

Somehow I'm not surprised, Sakura thought, giggling to herself a little. She had only sat next to him for one day so far, but she could already tell he wasn't exactly the most motivated person around. Sighing slightly, she looked around to see if anyone else looked like they might talk to her. She was still a little early, though, and the only people she recognized in the room were Naruto and Ino, neither of whom she really felt like talking to.

Semi-apology or not, she still didn't feel comfortable just walking up to Ino and starting a conversation, and after all the time she had spent yesterday worrying about the possible effects of the Fourth's seal on her chakra, she wasn't sure she wanted to try talking to Naruto either. It wasn't fair to him, she knew, especially since he had been so nice to her the day before, but what if his father's seal really was doing something bad to her chakra and making it so she couldn't be a ninja? Then again, how was that any different from how all the villagers treated her because of the demon inside her?

Regardless of the outcome of her internal debate, it appeared she wasn't going to be given a choice in the matter, as Naruto had apparently noticed her entrance and was now walking towards her. "Good morning, Sakura-chan!" he exclaimed, putting the same emphasis on the suffix as he had the previous day at lunch.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun," she replied shyly, trying to keep herself from blushing at his tone. He wasn't trying to be mean, she knew, but she wasn't used to people teasing her in a friendly way and was unsure how to respond.

Apparently that was good enough for him, though, as he sat down in the desk in front of her and turned around to face her. "So, how did you do that thing with your chakra yesterday?" he asked excitedly. "That was really cool how nobody could see it. Is it a bloodline ability like Hinata-chan's? Sasuke-kun—" he waved in the direction of the boy with spiky black hair who had been so good at shuriken throwing— "has a bloodline ability too, but his probably won't show up for another couple of years, and I'll still be better than him even when he does get it."

Her mind reeling under the verbal onslaught, Sakura could only shake her head in confusion. "I…um…don't know," she said. She had never even considered the idea that what had happened might not actually be an indication of something wrong with her. "I don't really know anything about my parents, but I don't think I have any kind of bloodline."

"Oh, okay." Naruto looked somewhat disappointed at that bit of information, but then he shrugged. "I don't have any bloodline ability either. You really don't know how you hid your chakra, though? That would be so useful on missions, I bet."

Sakura was beginning to get the impression that talking with Naruto was akin to trying to swim away from a waterfall; he just seemed to keep going on and on about whatever he felt like talking about, and she could only try to keep up with him. As she was about to answer him, though, another boy walked up, an unfriendly expression on his red-striped face.

"Oi, Naruto," he said, nodding to the blond boy before turning to face Sakura. "What are you doing talking to her? My mom said she's not good to be around, and you saw her yesterday. She doesn't even have any chakra, so she'll never be a ninja." The tiny white dog perched on his shoulder barked once, as if to emphasize his words.

Sakura felt her face crumple, and she quickly looked down so neither boy could see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. I should have known, she thought bitterly. Everything was going too well…people were being nice to me, and even Iruka-sensei wasn't very mean. I should have guessed that nothing would really change.

Everyone's parents had no doubt told them about her, and now they would probably treat her just like her old classmates had. She had had one day to see what things were like for everyone else, but that just made it worse. Before, she had only been able to imagine what it was like to be someone other than herself, but now she knew, and she desperately didn't want things to go back to the way they had always been.

She wouldn't let them see her cry, though. That was one rule she had made for herself that she had sworn she would always follow, because crying only let people know that they had managed to hurt her. Her eyes stinging from the effort of holding back her tears, she stood up and pushed past the two boys, walking quickly out of the room before breaking into a run when she was sure she was out of sight. So intent was she on getting away that she didn't even notice the confused voice calling her name from inside the room she had left.

- - -

Author's Notes: Many thanks to everyone who sent in reviews; they're most appreciated! Regarding this chapter, it's been a while since I've read the manga, and I don't really remember too much information being presented on what the early schooling is like, so I apologize if anything here contradicts canon too grievously. Hopefully this chapter didn't come across as too slow-paced, but I wanted to lay a firm groundwork for the next chapter, which will cover a much greater span of time. As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!