Okay, since last chapter was pretty boring, I'm going to give you more of an exciting one. You might not like what happens, though.

Disclaimer -- I do not own Naruto, or the characters.

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Next Wednesday

Only one and a half weeks. That's how long I've been here. Yet, for some reason it felt much MUCH longer than that.

It could be the possibility that every day I hear fangirls talking about me behind my back.

Or that I'm pretty much failing my classes.

Or that I'm stuck with the two "pretty" boys of the school for roommates.

Ugh.

Or it could be some other reason, but so far this school sucks.

I guess it might be better than my other school, where I had no friends at all. I was pretty much a loner, and that was why my grades were pretty high.

No one could interfere.

But I wasn't happy.

And I'm not happy now.

But I think I would rather be here than at my other school.

At least I can talk to people about my problems here, rather than let them build up inside of me until I finally explode.

And I don't have to deal with my Aunt and Uncle.

I smiled at the thought.

My Aunt and Uncle never had a child but they wanted one so much. I remember when my Aunt was told that she wasn't able to have kids, she was frequently trying to adopt children.

And then, when my parents died, they took full responsibility of me.

I hated that.

They had me do the housework -- all of it, while they would do nothing. It felt like the story of Cinderella.

And then, if I brought home a 90% on a test, I would get in trouble.

They would send me to my room.

They never hit me, but verbal abuse can be just as terrible.

My Uncle would blame me for what happened to my parents, when it wasn't my fault at all.

But he started to make me believe it was my fault. It was a car accident; there was a drunk driver.

Ever since then, I vowed to myself never to drink and drive. My Uncle would tell me that it's my fault about what happened to his sister, and sometimes he would send me to my room for that.

As if I'm not going through enough with their death.

And then, they would threaten to send me away when I was bad.

What can a twelve year old do, though?

Not old enough to drive, no other relatives -- I was stuck there. For three long years.

Until I found out about Konoha Academy. Where I could go to escape them.

And that's what brought me here. At the age of fifteen.

I no longer felt alone. Or hated -- by important people, anyway. Yeah, fangirls aren't important.

As I thought about all the events that happened in my short life, I didn't realize how fast the time had passed.

I started searching through my backpack for the item I was looking for.

My eyebrows pulled together. "Where is it?"

I pushed some books, and other papers aside. I thought I had it when I came home from the park.

Recently, I had been spending most of my time at the park Ino and Sakura had introduced to me over the weekend.

I took out everything from my backpack and squinted my eyes, trying to remember.

"Where did I leave my journal?"

If anyone sees that,

Oh no.

I yanked the sheets off of my bed, and searched underneath everything -- ripping apart the room.

I crawled underneath the small space beneath the bed, and looked to see if it fell.

It wasn't here.

Crap.

Maybe it fell out of my backpack. . .?

But someone probably found it by now!

And they're reading it!

I've been writing in that journal for the past five years of my life; if I lost it now. . .

I can't!

Just as I was getting ready to leave, Neji walked in the room.

"Looking for something?" He asked me.

"Yeah. A journal. I think I left it at the park."

"Oh."

"And I was just about to leave," I said pointing towards the door.

"It's getting late," Neji observed.

"I know. That's the point." I pointed outside. ". . . And it's supposed to rain."

"Wait until tomorrow."

"No! It'll get ruined!" I protested.

"So? It's dangerous this late at night," he explained.

I smirked. "Worried about me?"

"No," he said. "I'm just warning you. Some people in this school can get violent."

"Oh, I know," I told him. "I have just the thing."

I searched through my belongings, and tossed the item into the air, catching it. "See?"

Neji looked like he had just seen a ghost. "Is that. . .?"

"Pocket knife? Yep." I smiled.

I could see him gulp. "You're not allowed to have those."

"I know that. I'm not stupid. But . . ." I brought the blade closer to my face. "Rules are meant to be broken, right?"

"No," he said. "Rules are meant to be followed."

"Agh. You're such a goodie-goodie." I waved my hand back and forth.

Neji looked at me unbelieving. He must've thought I was crazy.

Perhaps I was.

I made the blade face towards the ceiling and I threw it in the air, catching it right between my fingers.

"I'm good with weapons. Always have been," I said, smiling.

"Put that away," Neji growled.

"Fine," I sighed. "When I get back, I'll throw it away."

Neji shook his head, realizing that I had already won this discussion.

"Hn," he mumbled. I wonder if I'm ever going to completely understand what that "syllable" means.

I was almost there. I could see it faintly in the distance. The park.

At night, it looked completely different.

It wasn't filled with the cheerful faces of the young children, and the teenagers chatting happily away.

It was deserted. That's what it was. The fountain in the center was glistening right below the moon. It looked better than it did during the day.

I walked as slowly as possible -- enjoying the moment. I headed towards the bench that earlier I had been sitting at.

It was really dark, and there were no lights.

All the students were supposed to be in their rooms right now.

But, I'm "Breaking the Rules" again.

Oh, well.

Then I saw it!

My journal! It was underneath the bench! I had dropped it.

I ran as fast as I could, and picked it up. I flipped through the pages and noticed that no one had looked through it, as far as I could tell.

One of the pages was a little bit torn, but that could've been from anything.

Relief spread through me.

I was as happy as anyone could ever be now.

But, as I turned, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked to the side.

The hand was gripped tightly, and I tried to shake loose.

"Hey?" I said to the person, still not seeing who it was.

"Hello," a voice I had never heard before whispered in my ear. It was a guy.

"Excuse me, I have to go now."

"Oh. Right," the guy said. I thought he was going to let go. "Why don't you come for a walk with me first?"

I looked up at him. "No. It's late."

He sighed. "Too bad."

I smiled to myself. "Can you let me go?"

The guy's grip on my shoulder tightened.

"I guess I'll have to use force." The guy grabbed my hand.

My eyes widened -- half with fear and half with anger.

This is what Neji meant by "danger."

Immediately, I twisted the guy's arm, and flipped him over onto the ground.

"Not so tough now, huh?" I said.

The guy looked angry, and stood up, brushing off some dust from his pants. I could see his teeth were showing.

Now, I finally had a good look at him.

He had silver hair, which was tied back in a pony-tail. He wore large, round, thick-framed glasses, and he was only a few inches taller than me. He had an evil look in his eyes.

I could take him down. Easily.

He adjusted his glasses, and continued to walk over towards me.

I spat on the ground, prepared for an all-out war.

I touched my pant-leg. I felt in my pocket the knife from earlier. I smiled. I wouldn't use it until absolutely necessary.

One of us isn't going to make it out of here unharmed -- and it won't be me.

"So? You going to come like a good little girl?"

"Never," I stated harshly.

"If only you would come, it wouldn't have to end like this."

I expected an attack, but he didn't move forward or anything.

He snapped his fingers. I looked at him, very confused.

What was he doing?

But I soon knew what it meant.

Suddenly, four guys came out from the bushes.

One was a very large one with orange hair.

The other a tan-skinned guy with dark brown hair.

The next was a guy with blue-ish hair.

And lastly, the one who was the most scary, was a guy with white hair and eyes that seemed to pierce through you.

I gulped. I could easily take down one guy, maybe two.

But five?

This was pretty much impossible.

I didn't understand why these people would attack me. I've never seen them before in my life.

And, it seemed they knew I was going to come.

That's when it hit me.

Is it possible . . . that they were hired by someone?

Someone . . . who hates me?

Were they hired to get the journal out of my backpack, and then wait for me to come and get it?

It made sense.

But maybe I'm just over-thinking things. Maybe it's just some perverted guys who just happened to be here?

But who would hate me that much to try and kill me?

I smiled to myself. That doesn't eliminate too many people.

I'm hated A LOT in this school.

But why would anyone hate me that much?

Who could . . .?

But my thought was interrupted when the five guys grabbed both of my hands and started pulling me somewhere.

I yanked away as hard as I could. They punched me in the face, to try to keep me from moving.

It hurt, but I kept trying.

I tried to free my right hand so I could grab my knife but it was no use.

I didn't give up, though. I stomped on the guy's feet that had control over my hands, and twisted their arm until it cracked.

I escaped from them for a moment -- long enough to grab the weapon out of my pocket.

I held it out, and smiled. "Come and get me."

The guys stood still, waiting.

I was wondering what they were waiting for.

I didn't really want to get in a fight (okay, maybe a little bit) but I would try not to unless it was completely necessary.

But I really wanted to hurt these guys.

I clenched my fists.

I could feel the knife.

While I was still in my thoughts, I realized something.

This was the perfect chance to escape.

Wow. I feel stupid. It took so long to realize.

I stared at them for a long moment.

I'm going to run in. . .

Three, I thought to myself.

I gulped. They were still staring.

Two. I started to get nervous. My legs were shaking.

I could feel myself getting scared. One.

This is it, I thought. Zero.

I turned around and ran in the opposite direction. I could hear loud footsteps behind me.

They were coming faster. . .

. . . and faster.

I almost stumbled a few times, but I continued running.

It was getting a lot darker. I could barely see, now. There weren't any lights anywhere.

The footsteps were getting closer.

I took a peek behind me and saw that he was only about ten feet away.

I picked up my pace.

That's when I tripped. Over a bench.

A wooden one.

I landed inside a puddle of mud. It was pretty gross.

I felt something sharp against my face.

I could feel blood trickling down.

The bench was knocked over, and my ankle was sore. My head felt like someone had just stuck a thousand needles inside. That's when I realized my knife was gone. I brought my hand up to feel the blood trickling from my head.

The knife. . . I had tripped, and it scraped my head.

Ow.

The guy who had been chasing me was now looking down at me.

I had to give up. I was in a terrible state right now. And I didn't want to die. Yet.

My head had crashed into the tree. And it was very difficult for my eyes to focus.

It looked like the guy had two heads, or something. And they were moving. I could see stars -- not the ones in the sky, obviously.

My head kept falling down, and I tried bringing my knees closer to me to support my head.

The guy looked at me in disgust, and started to move forward. He yanked me up by my shirt, and then dropped me on the ground again. I was pushed into the tree.

He started to walk away.

"W-Wait," I croaked out. "D-Don't leave!"

"Our job here is done," he announced and left. What did he mean by that? His job?

I could see him walking away, and before he was out of sight, I saw some other people joining him. I figured it was just his partners.

But then they started beating him up. Hitting him. Punching him. Kicking. Anything you could think of. I could barely see it, but I did -- I witnessed it all.

I thought my mind was playing tricks on me or something. Then, one of the guys walked over to me. His hair was very dark, and as far as I could see, his eyes were the same. Coal.

They weren't his partners.

The dark-haired guy called out to the others, "I'll take her to the nurse. Wait here."

"Yeah!" One agreed.

I looked up at him with fear-filled eyes. Who was this guy?

"Can you walk?" he asked me. He seemed like a different person than how he had acted when he almost killed that one guy.

I shook my head. I felt useless like this. It was the worst feeling of my life. Being a burden to other people.

And it was embarrassing. If I hadn't been such a klutz, this wouldn't have happened. It wasn't smart to be out when it was this dark.

The guy bent down, and put one arm underneath my head, and another underneath my legs.

I could still feel the blood running down my face. He was running very fast. I couldn't believe the speed.

Before I knew it, we were inside the nurse's office.

I could see the guy's face in more detail. He looked like someone, but who?

Coal eyes, Black hair, Probably has a billion girls chasing him. . .

Who?

He looked older than me by just a few years.

My mind obviously wasn't working. Brain damage, or something. That's not good.

It was right on the tip of my tongue, but I still couldn't figure out who.

"Oh my," the nurse said, rushing over to us. "What happened?"

The guy cleared his throat. "Someone attacked her, and she ran away, but tripped, and crashed into a tree."

Was he watching? How did he know? Then, I realized he left out the part with the knife. Either he hadn't saw that, or he didn't want to get me in trouble.

Either way, I smiled.

"She's lucky I was there. Along with my friends," the guy quickly added.

"Oh, yes. She is lucky. I'll take care of her now," the nurse said, and motioned for the boy to leave. I didn't want him to leave, I wanted to ask him who he was.

But I couldn't speak that much. Everything hurt.

When he had left, she took a look at me -- carefully examining. I felt like some sort of test subject.

"We'll have to get you cleaned up, first," the nurse explained. "Then, we'll see what we can do."

I tried my hardest to nod my head. I felt safe now, for some strange reason.

I wasn't sure.

But I really hoped that this lady knew what she was doing.

I sighed from relief, and I wanted to fall asleep, but I didn't yet.

Falling asleep in a nurse's office isn't the smartest thing. I shivered.

Needles. Ew.

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THE END

This was actually kinda fun to write. If you haven't guessed who the guy is, I'll tell you in the next chapter. It's not that hard to figure out -- his personality is just different. I'm not too good at "action scenes" if you haven't noticed, so if you have any criticism, make sure it's constructive. I'm always open for suggestions, too. :)