Chapter Five:

Disclaimer: There are characters in here from two stories, but it is mostly based around the world of Wicked. The others are from the manga Naruto. None of the characters belong to me, but the way I manipulate them is mostly original.

"Yes, darling boy! Of course you can stay on campus as long as you desire! I even have a room opening in one of the private dorms. You'll get along just fine, I think!"

Elphaba froze and pressed her ear to the door, wondering who on earth was speaking with Madam Morrible and how in Oz they were able to get on her good side.

A low, grating voice replied to the shrill old woman. "Thank you, madam. I'll do all I can to help out around the campus. A few pointers and tips would be great to start me off . . ."

"Oh yes, well . . ." he eager old woman started off immediately, "the library is in desperate need of dusting and organizing. I'm sure that stiff young sprig, miss Elphaba, will be willing to help you. She loves that place. The cafeteria needs to be straightened a bit . . ."

Elphaba shut her eyes and pulled herself away from the door, her dark eyes wide with disbelief. What was he doing? He was supposed to go home! "Sir Uzumaki?"

The blonde turned to look at her, his blue eyes amused. "Um, it's just Naruto. I'm not one for titles, believe it."

The green girl nodded, taking his arm. "When did you say your friend was going home?"

"Um, he was supposed to leave today. Why?"

At that moment the very red head strode out of the office, stopping only to nod at the three who were gawking at him. Even Elphaba, who usually wouldn't waste her time caring.

"Gaara? What--?"

He waved a hand at Naruto, cutting off the excitable boy's words. "I'm going to stay here for a while, Naruto. I like this place, and I hear they have some sort of wizard. I plan on meeting him." He nodded to Hinata and began walking away, the very tips of his fingers brushing against Elphaba's wrist.

Any other case she would have flinched away from the contact, but she just stared at him as he stalked down the hall, as experienced as any wicked witch. She even found a smile playing at her lips, a real smile. She caught herself quickly, turning on the perplexed Naruto with wrath. "Who does he think he is? Why is he staying?"

Naruto shrugged at her, glancing over his shoulder. He seemed to jump to attention and wilt at the same time, the very severe Madam Morrible watching the three of them. She smiled sweetly at Elphaba. "Thank you, miss Thropp, for bringing the new students here. They might have had a hard time of it by themselves. I trust you'll be helping them to catch up in their studies while they are here as well?"

Elphaba just shrugged. She never made promises to the Morrible.

But the old woman took it as if she had enthusiastically agreed. "Wonderful! They will be well guided under your--" she looked at the girl up and down for the millionth time since Elphaba had come to Shiz, "colorful assessments. Now, you go and enjoy your weekend with miss Upland. I'll finish up with these two." She licked her lips in such a way, it looked as though she was more considering eating them than getting them rooms.

Hinata looked back at Elphaba, frightened. Her emerald friend could only shrug, again, before waving goodbye and stalking away.

It was only a few minutes later when she came across a very unhappy Galinda, who had been forced to climb out of her window to escape their room.

"There you are!" she cried, seizing her friend's wrist. "Elphie, I was stuck in there all night! I swear you broke the lock! Where is my Ama, she should be back by now with the vacuum! Do you think Shen-Shen will let me use her shower, I'm so frazzled! Just look at my hair!"

It was all Elphaba could do to survey the frizzy locks with a straight face. "So?"

"I'm a disaster! All thanks to you! Well!" She flipped her hair haughtily and turned to flounce away. "I shall go to the showers in the dorm and fix myself there!"

The emerald girl felt more pity for the girls who would have to wait on her as she polished herself to perfection. She sighed and decided to go unlock her room and try to clean things up, the daunting task almost dissuading her. But Elphaba was a rock, and boldly walked straight up to their door. After jiggling the lock twice and unlocking it once, she easily stepped into the room.

Her dark eyes where huge and her green face almost went white with what she found. Galinda had obviously tried to clean up with the few wash rags they had, only succeeding in making a couple of soggy wads of colored cloth. Elphaba sank onto her bed, sending up a cloud of dust. She closed her eyes, wishing she had a different room mate who had the sense to take care of their room.

"Need some help?"

She leapt up, grabbing a nearby window pole Galinda had pulled down to get out of the room. She turned, her eyes flashing and ready to defend herself.

A leisurely snake of sand whipped out and took the pole away, the red head standing in the doorway and watching her with an amused chuckle. "Easy, there. I don't think that'll be of much help anyway."

She scowled at him, sitting back down onto her bed and trying not to stir up too much of the power. "Unless you can somehow magic all of this mess away, there's nothing you can do to help."

The powder suddenly seemed to transform into a colorful whirlwind, every grain in the room whisking up into the spinning ball. Elphaba blinked as the ball flew out of the window to explode and be carried away by the wind. The jade-eyed boy still stood in her doorway, his arms crossed and frowning. "Happy?"

She stood, looking around at her room. The only trace of the mess that was left was the damp washrags, which she was unwilling to touch. "Y-yes, I suppose I am. How did you do that?"

"Training."

They looked at each other for a little while, then Elphaba turned so she wouldn't have to look at him. "That was-- well, you really helped out. I would have been cleaning for hours. I guess I'm trying to say," she took a deep breath, turning to look at him again, "thank you."

He chuckled, a handsome sound. "That was a bit like pulling teeth. Is that what it takes to get gratitude from you?"

She flared. "It also takes a little bit of humility and a lot less pride, sir!" She tried to stalk out of the room and push him aside, but her hand didn't even make contact with him.

"Let me go!" She turned, surprised to see her hand engulfed in his sand. "Oh, wow."

He grinned, dissolving the sand for an instant only to wrap it around her waist and pull her back into the room, shutting the door behind him. "You like it?"

She blinked, but Elphaba Thropp was hard to impress. She shrugged and looked him square in the eye. "How on earth do you manipulate sand? Some sort of spell?"

He shook his head, the messy red hair scattering across his handsome face. "I was born with it. Shukaku was implanted in me when I was born and the sand moves to and against my will." He looked away, his jade eyes distant. "The sand rushes to protect me, keeping me from harm even if I don't want it to. I can manipulate it to do what I want as well."

Elphaba nodded, her brilliant face shining. "I see. What about Naruto? Is he able to do anything incredible like that?"

"He's actually incredibly resilient to pain and fatigue," said Gaara with a shrug, "and he seems to have unlimited stamina."

The green girl nodded, looking away. "I see. What about Hinata? Is she just normal?"

He laughed, making Elphaba twitch and look at him. He had the most beautiful laugh. She took a moment to wonder what her laugh would sound like if she ever actually laughed instead of insanely cackling. Gaara looked at her, his jade eyes sarcastic. "Hinata is able to use byakugan. It allows her to see the flow of chakra that runs through our bodies. She has a special technique where she can stop the flow of chakra through their veins."

"Byakugan? Chakra? What are you talking about?"

He grinned, just the very edges of his mouth turning up. "It's our magic."

She nodded, allowing herself a grin as well. "Well, I'm sure it's not like the wizard's magic."

Gaara shrugged. "Probably not."

"Gaara! What are you doing here?!"

He turned, his jade eyes widening with horror when he saw Galinda standing in the doorway behind him. He jumped back, running for the window. Elphaba took a step back and watched him as he ran by, but he wasn't fast enough for Galinda.

She pounced on him, grabbing his ankles and trying hard to pry him off of the window sill. "Come on, Gaara-sama! Let's go out for some tea and cake and we can talk about our favorite music! Then we can tell each other all about our childhood and-- ouch! That hurt!"

He kicked at her again, hanging onto the window for dear life. "I don't want to have coffee with you! I don't even listen to music! And there is no way I am discussing my childhood with you. Let me go!"

"Fine, then what do you want to do? Gaara!" She wrapped both arms around his legs, grabbing hold of her bed with her feet. "Come on! We can have fun together! Just give me a chance!"

"Never!"

Elphaba had both hands clamped over her mouth. A bubbling sensation came over her, causing her to close her eyes. The strange feeling bubbled through her throat and chest again, a weird, merry noise bursting from her mouth from under her hands.

Galinda held still, twisting around to look at her. "Why miss Elphaba!"

She opened her eyes and let her hands fall, looking at her friend. "What?"

Even the red head was looking at her with a smoldering admiration as the blonde girl leapt up, her face overjoyed. "You were laughing!"

Elphaba smirked at her. "That's impossible. I don't laugh."

"Every person who can speak is capable of laughter," Gaara stated, standing and brushing himself off. He grinned at her, the bare edges of his mouth turning up. "I'm proof of that."

Elphaba tilted her head so that the sharp nose stuck out even more. "I don't laugh. I've never laughed before. It's not--" she stopped and searched for a word, "normal."

"It's the most normal thing in the world, to laugh!" Galinda sprang forward and took her green friend's hand. "Oh, Elphie! You're becoming normal!"

"Never!" Elphaba snarled, tearing her hand away and dashing out of the room in near panic. Normal? Ha! As if the infamous Elphaba Thropp could ever hope to be such a thing! She found herself running into a small garden and sitting down on a bench, panting lightly so as to catch her breath.

"Elphaba?"

She leapt up, her fury out of control, and sent a ball of fire crashing toward whoever the speaker was.

The fire dissolved around Naruto, who was standing before her with a face like stone. He took a few long strides and grabbed her wrists, his strength surprising. "You can use the fireball technique? Where did you learn that?"

She was almost shaking, her wrists hurting from the furious grip of the blonde boy. "I don't know! I'm sorry! It just sort of-- happened!" The emerald girl tugged herself away and covered her face with her hands. With a sharp turn of her foot and a graceful bound, she had fallen flat on the other side of the bush she had run into. "Owch!"

"Oh, are you alright, miss Elphie?"

A soft, tentative hand found Elphaba's hard shoulder, and she looked up to see a worried Hinata crouching over her. "Y--yes, I'm fine. It's been a-- difficult day."

Hinata nodded understandingly. "I understand. That Morrible lady insisted that we join the sorcery class, even though Naruto and I insisted we shouldn't."

Naruto shrugged. "She mentioned spells and stuff that doesn't make sense to me. I mean, c'mon! We don't know how to do that fancy stuff."

Elphaba half-smiled, letting her long black hair cover her face again. She couldn't believe how much she liked these newcomers and how well they excepted her! It was almost as though they were perfectly used to people who look like freaks. She wondered over the thought for a moment and looked up at them. "Naruto, Hinata?"

They both responded at the same time, "yes?"

She almost smiled again, standing up and righting herself with dignity. "Do either of you have any interesting stories? If you do I would love to hear them."

Naruto laughed uproarously. "Do we have any stories?! Ha! You'll have to come with us and sit down for the stories we can tell you!"