YAY! new chapter, this one's long, (5 whole pages on word document!)

thanks to all those who reviewed my Prologue and I hope you'll stick with me thoughout the whole story. it took me a while to see where I wanted to go with it and now i have a pretty good idea, so i will be uploading every two weeks or once every week depending on how busy that week is for me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. saldy...

Chapter I: "Texts and Dreams"

Temari shuts off her alarm and begins to tremble. She was sure her aunt was insane. Who the hell kept their house at 64 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius)? Didn't she understand that her brothers and she came from a city in the middle of a desert? She pulled her covers above her head hoping it would get her warmer.

Temari rolled her eyes as she heard the murmur of her aunt's favorite talk show from downstairs. God she was noisy. A loud bang from downstairs finally made Temari sit upright fast, spinning her head. A month hadn't been enough to get accustomed to her aunt's weird ways, what on earth was she doing now?

Temari threw off her covers and ran downstairs to the small kitchen, only to find her aunt staring intently at a page on a cooking book. Her mouth moved as if reading to herself. Kankuro followed right behind Temari, his hair wild from moving too much in his sleep.

"Anko, what are you doing?" Temari asked staring at her aunt. Anko looked up, her black eyebrows rising in surprise.

"Hey, kidos," she smiled, "Just trying to make some breakfast, that's all."

"It's six in the morning Anko," Kankuro stifled a yawn while rubbing his eyes. "Don't scare me like that; I thought you were a burglar or something."

Anko laughed at this. Her laughs where always loud and hoarse, always making you want to laugh yourself, and it vaguely reminded Temari of her mom. Kankuro made a comment about not getting enough sleep and walked out of the kitchen going back to bed.

"I'm supposed to make breakfast," Temari said crossing her arms. She'd put on her alarm for this reason. Temari knew her aunt would try to somehow take care of them, the same way she would when Temari and her brothers would come visit Anko during summer years ago. But she was 18 for God's sake; she could be living on her own by now. "Remember I told you we could take care of ourselves?"

"Well, you are now living under my roof so I thought it is right for me to make breakfast," Anko said proudly. Temari smirked at this; Anko was no more mature than herself. Anko brought out an egg and attempted to break it over the pan. Eggshell pieces flew all over. She cursed to herself.

"Seriously I can do it," Temari insisted, laughing silently at Anko's attempts at cooking.

"No, I will." That was one thing Temari and her aunt had in common, they never backed down until they go what they wanted. "Damn, how do you do this?"

This finally made Temari laugh out loud. It wasn't rocket science and considering Anko took care of kids for a living, it surprised Temari that she couldn't even cook one egg. The fact was that Anko was still single even at the age of 28, and though she taught sixth graders and coached the girl's middle school soccer team, she'd never really cooked for anyone. Temari felt a feeling of appreciation for her aunt's efforts to take care of them. Nobody back home had really bothered with her and her siblings after their mom died a week after Gaara's birth. She was glad Anko had decided to take them in this year, despite being so young and not having kids of her own.

"It'll get me prepared for a family of my own," Temari remembered Anko had once told her when Temari had asked her why she had taken them in. It was nice to know her and her brothers weren't being a burden on Anko.

Temari helped Anko make breakfast when Gaara suddenly appeared at the table. He was already dressed wearing gray jeans, a black hoodie and black converse. Temari knew Gaara never had a problem with getting ready early, but whenever Gaara got ready extra early it was because he wasn't able to sleep, and she could defiantly tell with the dark purple circles under his eyes that he had gotten no sleep all night.

"'Morning, Gaara." Anko said cheerfully setting scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice in front of him. He nodded in reply. "It's my first time cooking, with the help of Temari of course. Hope you enjoy!"

Gaara tried a scoop of eggs and made a face quickly hiding it by drinking some juice.

"Well, how is it?" Anko said her eyes wide.

"It's great," Gaara managed to croak out. Temari smiled at her brother's attempt to make their aunt feel good. Anko's smile almost reached her eyes. Temari made sure she fixed her own breakfast.

After breakfast, Temari went back upstairs to her room. Her room was on the left side, at the end of the hall with no other bedrooms next to it, but the game room. The room was smaller than her brothers' room, which was on the right side of the house next to Anko's; but they had to share it, at least she had privacy. Her room had a queen size bed that took up most of the space in the room and only a small desk with a chair. Her laptop sat on her desk, and her new books and school supplies spilled across the small room she had left on the floor. It was what Temari would consider an organized mess. Temari really liked her new room, it was comfy.

Her closet was full of things from what she wore back in Suna, but it was also filled with a bunch of new clothes she had gotten with Anko at the mall the past few weeks. She pulled on a pair of jean shorts and a baggy long-sleeve purple shirt that slightly fell of her shoulders. Her hair was pulled into her usual four pigtails. Temari looked at herself in the mirror, thinking she looked presentable. Her mossy green eyes held determination; she was ready to face anything. Starting today she would start fresh and forget everything that had happened. Satisfied she got her things together in her bag as she called out for Gaara and Kankuro to get ready to leave.

"You and the boys better leave now. Konoha is a large city, don't expect to get anywhere in less than 20 minutes," Anko said. She was leaning against Temari's doorframe holding out the keys to her car.

"What do you mean 'you and the boys'? I thought we were driving there together?" Temari asked.

Anko smiled. "Nope, it's just you and the boys in my car, I mean your car." She extended her arm further suggesting that Temari take the keys from her.

Temari's eyes widened. "You mean it?"

"Of course! You're eighteen. I think you deserve it."

"Thanks Anko!" Temari reached out to take the keys and hugged her aunt. It felt strangely weird hugging someone like this, but Temari liked it.

"Get going," Anko finally said. "I'll text you whenever I don't have a class to teach."

Temari laughed. "Are you implying that I break the rules on my first day of school and text you?"

"As if you're such a good girl," Anko smiled winking at her. Temari smiled back as her aunt left for work.

Temari grabbed her backpack and ran down the stairs where Gaara was already waiting for her at the front door looking tiered.

"Where's Kankuro?" Temari questioned.

"Still asleep," Gaara replied.

"What? That idiot!" Temari dropped her bags and ran up the stairs once again. Once she reached her brothers' room she banged on the door with force. "Get up you dumbass. I swear if you make us late for our first day I'll make you clean the garage!"

She heard something fumble and fall inside and then a faint "Ouch!"

"I'm coming," Kankuro said, sounded like he was still half-asleep.

"You can walk to school, you idiot!" Temari threatened with a final bang on the door. She reached the front door where Gaara stood in the same spot. "Let's go." She said firmly. He followed without asking any questions, not wanting to get on his older sister's temper.

They got into Anko's—now Temari's—black tiny Jetta, throwing their bags in the back seat. As Temari turned on the engine a panting Kankuro appeared out front door, trying to put on his black leather jacket while wrestling a binder into his bag and eating a piece of toasted bread at the same time. He made it into the backseats of the car before it was out the driveway.

"You got lucky," Temari said looking at him through the rearview mirror.

Anko: Hi….wha zzz up?

Tem: Anko I'm in school. We've only been apart for 15 minutes.

Anko: oh, yayyyhhhhhh... I will rescue U if the skool catches on fire

Tem: …thanks Anko…

Anko: K! xoxo ;)

"A teacher texting," called a smooth voice behind Anko. "That's something you don't see every day."

She twirled around to see Kakashi Hatake sanding behind her, one hand in his pocket the other holding up a book under his face.

"Kakashi being late to class, now that's something you don't see every often," Anko countered sarcastically pointing at the school clock above them. Kakashi smiled the way only he could, with his eyes both shut. Anko felt like ripping the mask of his face just to see his real smile.

"I guess I could work on that," he said. "But you're the one who needs to remember to attend the teacher conferences." Anko gasped. She'd completely forgotten about the teacher meeting she was supposed to go to yesterday. Why did they have to have one during summer break? Even if it was just a day before school started. He turned around to leave. He raised his free hand waving it as a farewell as he called out, "Just don't forget about the one we have next week."

Anko felt herself flush. She stuck her tongue at his back on instinct and she swore he him laugh as he made his way to the Konoha High School building.

That bastard is so lucky, Temari thought looking over at Kankuro as she walked down the hall with him. They'd ended up getting up in the same homeroom.

They'd gotten to their new high school with 10 minutes to spare, but she and her brother had been hauled into the office of their principle, Lady Tsunade (whom they quickly found out had a worse temper than Temari) as soon as they got there, and then they were handed their schedule and a map to the school by the principle's assistant, a nicer lady named Miss Shizune, who smiled at them apologetically each time Mrs. Tsunade blurted out her need for some sake.

Now they only had 3 minutes before the bell rang. There was the faint sound of sneakers squeaking on the floor as people rushed to get to class and a few yells across the hall of "How was your summer?" and "I haven't seen you in ages!" as people embraced. They managed to make it into their classroom before the bell rang.

"Ah, you two are the new students from Suna, right?" said a middle aged man with a dark bread who was standing in the front of the class. His breath smelt strongly of nicotine. "I'm Asuma. Welcome to Konoha High. Take a seat, please."

All eyes were on Temari and her brother as chose their seats. Unfortunately, the two only empty seats were far from each other. Temari took the seat closer to the window while Kankuro took the one in the corner. The guy behind her had his head on his desk and both arms around it, as if trying to catch up on sleep. A nice girl who sat next to Temari introduced herself. She wore her brown hair in two buns. They exchanged schedules to see what classes they had together.

Shikamaru Nara hated going to school. It wasn't because of the fact he had to go and learn things, he always thought having an education was essential to life, but he hated school because of the fact that he had to get up so early and actually go to school. He'd considered being homeschooled many times before, just so he could wake up whenever he wanted, and learn whatever he wanted, but then he began to think about having his mom as his teacher and then he thought it should be illegal to have someone as scary as her teach.

There was always the fact that his friends went to school with him, but he hardly ever saw them because he had skipped a grade in eighth grade (his teacher claiming he was a genius). So he had to put up with stuck-up seniors while his friends still had fun being juniors.

He usually got to school early because his mom was always nagging him in the morning about how to get to school on time, and at least if he got to homeroom early he could have a few minutes of peace.

"How's life, Shikamaru?" Asuma greeted him.

"Troublesome as ever," Shikamaru replied waving hello to his favorite teacher Asuma, also a good friend of his dad's. He was lucky to have someone as cool as Asuma his homeroom teacher. He took his usual seat next to the window and laid his head on the desk, his final attempt to get some sleep before school started.

Shikamaru's mind floated into a limbo, halfway between being asleep and awake. He heard the sounds of his classmates rushing in and taking their seats, the soft murmurs of backpacks being opened and closed. He faintly heard the voice on his classmate Tenten speaking to someone. Tenten was a good friend of his. Shikamaru like her and the way she wasn't snotty like other seniors.

Tenten seemed to be speaking kindly; there was an exchange of papers and then a voice belonging to a stranger. The voice was a perfect pitch, clear and rich, like maple syrup. The kind of voice Shikamaru would love to listen to for ages until he fell asleep to it.

But it wasn't helping him fall asleep. The more he listened the more he felt images came to mind. The voice belonged to someone he didn't know, and yet it was so familiar.

"What! Don't you want to make a comment?"

That's it! He had heard the voice before! It had only been about a month since he heard it. It sounded a little different than when he'd first heard that voice. Back then it had been harsher and almost broken, but today it was strong. The realization made Shikamaru snap his head up from his desk, startling everyone around him. A blond haired girl in front of him stared at him. Her green eyes wide full of recognition and her lips slightly parted with shock. It wasn't just him who remembered her. She remembered him as well.

"You okay, Shikamaru?" Tenten laughed at Shikamaru's unexpected movement.

"Um, yea, just a bad dream," Shikamaru said after catching himself staring at the girl in front of him. The blonde girl gave him a dark look so powerful it made Shikamaru wish he'd never looked up.

ah! poor shikamaru! first his mom at home and now this blond haired girl at school?

haha, tell me what you though about it? (also did you like the slight Anko/Kakashi? i figured since she is going to be such an important characer she deserves someone ^.^)

-Cyan