A/N: Okay, so this is my first Naruto fanfic. Yeah, that's it. Just a note, though, for the people who might be expecting it—as I usually am whenever reading these high school AUs—some of the pairings in this one may not be the typical ones. Just thought I'd warn everyone now in case that's what you're looking for. Seeing as the story takes place in an All Boys academy, you can probably expect a bit of yaoi, too. Nothing explicit, given the rating for this story is at T, so don't expect that either.

With all of that covered, I think it's safe to say that I can start now.

Chapter One: For the Sake of Education

"Are you sure about this, Hinata?" The aforementioned, pale-eyed girl turned abruptly towards her pinkette friend. "We don't have to go through with it if you don't want to anymore, we'll understand." Three other girls, a blonde, a dirty blonde, and a brunette, nodded their agreement from beside her, smiling. The girl named Hinata just shook her head frantically, blushing.

"I-it's okay, you g-guys. I…I really want to go through with this," Hinata finished as defiantly as her soft voice could sound. Sakura, the pinkette, widened her grin before nodding in confirmation at her friend's choice. They were all currently sitting in Sakura's mom's car, on their way towards the infamous Konoha All Boys Academy, with the brunette, Tenten, sitting at the far left door; the dirty blonde, Temari, sitting to Tenten's right; the blonde, Ino, sitting to Temari's right; Hinata sitting at the far right door; and Sakura sitting shotgun with her mom at the wheel. It seemed questionable, four girls going to an all-boys academy in order to enroll, but they were decidedly within reason.

The unofficial "leader" of their little posse was Sakura Haruno, the pink-haired, emerald-eyed beauty that, though she lacked the more prominent curves that her blonde-haired friend exhibited, was still able to pull off a well-balanced body type. She was the most intelligent of the five, and despite her appearance, was also very strong. When she was younger, she had issues with herself and lacked a sufficient amount of confidence, but as she grew older and made friends, her self-esteem skyrocketed, and she became headstrong. Dressed in her black V-neck shirt, red-and-white sleeveless vest, and black biker shorts, she was something of an eye-catcher.

The second official member of their group was Ino Yamanaka. Her mother ran a local flower shop, and through working regularly on weekends and free time after school, Ino grew to love flowers and their symbolism as much as her mother did. She had blonde hair tied into a high ponytail and baby blue eyes that shined with confidence and slight mischievousness. Her skin was fair, and her hourglass figure brought boys swarming to her almost on a daily basis. Though she dressed in a way that made people assume she was something of a slut, she was really only somewhere between being flirtatious and being an "innocent" seductress. Truly, she had never gone that far in any of her relationships, and for this, her hope of finding her true love was dampened.

Hinata Hyuuga and Tenten, whose last name was still unknown, were the third and fourth members. Tenten was something of a tomboy, her hair in buns and her clothing usually a mix between less feminine women's clothes and men's clothes. She took martial arts, mainly those that used weapons, and was someone to watch out for in case she became angry. Out of the group, she was the most athletic, playing a variety of sports, though she wasn't the captain of any of them.

Hinata, on the other hand, was the most timid out of their entire group, and at their old school, the entire school. She had issues with stuttering, even when she wasn't nervous, and rarely spoke her opinions out loud unless prompted. However, though her demeanor was shy, she was really very strong-willed. She had been put down most of her life, had her self-esteem targeted more times than all of them could count, and she managed to get through okay. She was not the strongest, nor the smartest—though she was a close second to Sakura—or even the prettiest, but she was like an invisible glue that held the group together with her peaceful ways.

Temari, the final member to join, was the oldest of the five, and also one of the bigger threats. She had been captain of a few sports teams at her school in Suna, but when she moved to Konoha, she opted not to join any in an attempt to improve upon her schoolwork. She was the bully repellant, threatening anyone who tried to hurt her friends in any way, and in turn, they offered her their friendship, something Temari found rare. She had joined most recently, having only lived in Konoha for a year, and she had told her friends about her two brothers, both of whom went to Konoha All Boys Academy, their current location. This piece of information had sparked an idea in their shy friend.

It was a well-known fact in their little group that Hinata never asked for much. She hardly spoke up, and when she did, they would all listen attentively. On the first day of their summer break, they had all met up at the park to enjoy the first day of their three month freedom period, and Hinata had declared her idea for them. Konoha High School was a mediocre school; the education was about average, the students were mostly rather dull, and there was almost no excitement year-round. They had all claimed to have suffered through a prison of a high school, being stuck in such a boring place, and that was what really had Hinata's cognitive processes going.

FLASHBACK

"Freedom at last!" Tenten shouted to the open air as Hinata, standing next to her, giggled at her widespread arms, as if she were embracing the sky. Sakura and Ino were off buying ice cream for the group, and Temari was sitting on a bench looking out at a duck pond.

"I-it f-feels nice, doesn't it?" Hinata asked in return, staring up at the clear skies, something she found to be a good omen. Stretching her limbs, Tenten made a sound of hearty agreement, glancing over at where Sakura and Ino were walking back to their location.

"Yeah, it feels awesome to be out of that boring ass school!" Ino cried, making a faux disgusted face. The others laughed in amusement at her dramatics, something they knew Ino to do often. Suddenly, Temari frowned.

"That's dandy and everything, but you know, we have to go back next year." There were cries of disappointment and some of slightly exaggerated agony as they realized the truth in her words.

"Don't remind us! This is a good reason why we need to enjoy our summer while we have it," Sakura pointed out. The others nodded in complete agreement. Suddenly, Hinata felt an idea coming to mind. The other girls noticed her changing facial expressions, from amusement, to worry, to fear, then to defiance.

"Hinata-chan? Is something wrong?" Sakura asked, which made Hinata shake her head.

"N-no. I w-was just wondering s-something. Temari-chan, y-you said your b-brothers went to K-Konoha All B-Boys Academy, right?" Temari nodded at this, a look of confusion washing over her face.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It's j-just…wh-what if w-we enrolled there…? I h-heard their education w-was the b-best in K-Konoha…" Hinata trailed off, and Ino's face lit up suddenly.

"And if we went, we'd be around a bunch of hot guys!" The other girls rolled their eyes playfully at that comment, having already half-expected it from her. Sakura rubbed her chin thoughtfully, rolling the idea around in her mind. She made loud thinking noises as the members of the posse waited anxiously for her answer. Ten seconds passed, then thirty, and then something that felt like an eternity before Sakura finally smiled.

"I think it's a good idea. I mean, what do we have to lose?" Before the other girls could cheer, Temari made a snorting sound.

"Only your virginity when they realize we're all girls and they decide to molest us."

"Then we should go undercover as guys! We have to, anyway, since we can't get in unless we're boys. It's, after all, an All Boys academy," Tenten noted. The others nodded at the idea, except Temari, who was still a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but decided to be there with them in case something did happen and they needed help. Suddenly, a thought occurred to them. They turned towards the shy member of their team, confusion bordering on suspicion as plain as day across their individual faces.

"Why would you want to join? You don't seem like the type to hate school, no matter which it is, and you're too much of a goodie two-shoes to consider lying to an entire campus of people," Temari asked, her suspicion clearest out of all of them. It was true, Hinata was much too reserved and shy to find herself complaining about where she was educated, especially with her level of appreciation for the little things, and for as long as any of them could remember, Hinata had never done, or even thought of doing, anything that would go against rules.

"I...I just think i-it would be a n-nice ch-change in scenery...Y-you know, a br-breath of fresh a-air," the shy girl stuttered out. The other four still looked mighty suspicious, and the way Hinata was fidgeting, it only raised more questions. They all had a hint, even a tiny one, that Hinata was lying-though for what reason, they could not fathom-but in all of their time in knowing her, they had not known her to lie. Ever. There was a chorus of "hmm"-ing before Sakura sighed, allowing her doubts to drop. Even if Hinata was lying to them, Sakura had a feeling that it was for a good reason. Out of all of them, even herself, she expected Hinata would need a good reason before doing something so rash.

"Hinata, I'm not entirely convinced, to be completely honest, but whatever your reason is, I'm sure it's good. Right, girls?" From behind her, heads nodded in agreement. The odd tension in the air cleared, and Tenten let out a cheerful cry.

"That settles it, then! We're enrolling in Konoha All Boys Academy!"

END FLASHBACK

Lost in her memory, Hinata didn't even realize the car had stopped moving and that the other girls were waiting for her to get out of the car.

"Hina-chan, we're here," Sakura's mother called affectionately to the dazed girl. Flustering at holding up the group, Hinata quickly scrambled out of the vehicle before closing the door soundly behind her. From the driver's seat, Sakura's mom wished them all good luck before speeding away to her job on the other side of town. They waved until the car was out of sight before staring up at the large campus before them. Truly, Konoha Academy was one of the more prestigious buildings in the city. Before them was the large office building where they were to meet the headmaster of the school, to the left of that building was what they could assume was the actual school building where the classrooms were located, and to the right of the office was a building that looked like a dormitory. They all inhaled and then exhaled deeply before heading towards the office building. Once they were at the door, they shifted routes to the right, out of the door's path. Sakura dropped a backpack on the floor, the same one she used to carry all of her belongings in, and unzipped it to reveal a number of disguises for them to use.

"Hinata-chan, since you have short hair, I'll just give you this baseball cap and this hoodie to hide your chest. Tenten, I think you're fine, but you may need to put a hat or bandana on for the hair. Ino, you need these baggy clothes to hide any curves and you need to pull all of our hair back into a ponytail and try to hide it in your collar. Temari…you might need a full-on disguise. We need to hurry so we can enroll, get our dorms assigned, and try to settle in. Luckily, school doesn't start until tomorrow here, so we'll have time to adjust. Everyone okay with the plan?" There were collective nods towards Sakura as she threw the disguises at each recipient, putting on her own before zipping her pack back up and making sure her team looked enough like boys to pass. She surveyed them all over once before deciding they were good enough. With a loud breath, she pulled at the front door to the office and held it open for the others.

The inside of the office building was crisp and neat, with a secretarial desk right at the front and a door to their left that said "Headmaster" on a golden plaque. There were some fashionable flowers and cacti placed around the room, and sitting at the desk before them was a, surprisingly, a woman wearing a neatly pressed office suit and skirt, holding what looked like a pig in her arms as she did paperwork. At the sound of a small bell on the door, she looked up quickly, noticing the oddly dressed "boys" standing at the front door.

"New students?" The woman asked to them, which earned her a few out-of-sync nods. She nodded back to them politely. "The headmaster is in the door to your left. She'll get you through all of the paperwork, and then assign you dorm rooms." The small group took a detour to their left, entering the separate office with a small click of the door. To their surprise, once again, a blonde, busty woman sat in the headmaster's seat, and had a look of irritation on her face, as if she was trying to burn a hole through the paperwork with her eyes. She looked up, her facial expression changing.

"Shizune, wha—oh, new students?" She looked at the bunch with a critical eye, as though there was something off about them. The five began sweating under the scrutiny, not used to such a burning gaze. Then again, they expected this from a woman who practically ran an institution full of nothing but boys.

"W-we're here to enroll in the academy," Sakura started, trying her hardest not to break under the pressure. The headmistress raised an eyebrow at that, her lips tugging upwards at the ends only slightly.

"Oh really? Is there anything you'd like to tell me about yourselves before I get you through all the introductions?" The smug look on her face was enough to have them breaking out in a whole new wave of sweating. She, however, saved them the chance to speak. "Actually, I don't feel like hearing any excuses today. Why are you girls trying to get into an all boys academy?" Sakura sighed, having a feeling that she already knew. She decided not to try and beat around the bush, seeing as though it wasn't any use.

"We wanted to enroll here because this school has the best academics in Konoha, and honestly, our old high school was boring. The recreational programs here aren't bad, either." She hoped the excuse was good enough.

"Oh? Are you sure you want to enroll here? As you might already know, an all boys academy isn't exactly the safest environment for young ladies. Especially since all students are expected to stay in the dormitories, and those places have no supervision."

"No supervision?" Ino asked incredulously. The others were shocked as well. The headmistress just laughed.

"Our school, though it's the best in Konoha, is underfunded and understaffed. We don't have enough money to pay for someone to supervise the boy's dorms. The school isn't held responsible for anything they do in there, either. It's your choice if you still want to enroll, I'm really not going to stop you anyway, but you need to make sure this is what you want. There's no turning back after you've entered." The five girls, dressed as boys, turned to each other and had a silent, telepathic conversation. They stood for minutes, though it felt like hours, before they reached a conclusion.

"We'll do it," Sakura answered for them, an adamant expression on her face. As if to support their decision, the others nodded defiantly as well. The headmistress grinned at their display of confidence, stamping blank forms on her desk. She held the forms out for them, revealing them to be personal information forms.

"My approval. You just need to fill them out and return them to Shizune. Remember to get your parent to sign it. Have a nice stay here, and my name is Tsunade. Your dorm rooms and floors should be on the forms."

"I can't believe we made it in!" Sakura cried out in relief as they exited the office building and made their way to the dorms.

"Yeah, that was really nerve-wracking just now. She's pretty awesome for running this school," Tenten commented, looking up and down at the form in her hand.

"I'll say! By the way, what dorms are you guys in? I'm on the tenth floor, room 1021," Ino breathed out. She stretched her muscles, which had tensed sometime during their enrollment process. She couldn't deny her admiration for the woman, though. She was definitely tough.

"I have room G507 on the eleventh floor," Tenten answered.

"S671 on the sixth floor for me," was Temari's answer.

"I-I got th-the eighth floor, r-room 863," Hinata added in, frowning at the fact that they were on separate floors.

"Seventh floor, room 775," was the final answer from Sakura. "This sucks, we're all on different floors scattered around the building."

"Well, there's no turning back now. We'll find secret routes to each other's rooms later. We need to get to know our roommates, too," Tenten stated, now frowning. She didn't like the idea of having to share a dorm, but neither did the other four.

"I hope mine aren't total perverts," Ino and Sakura said at the same time. They all shared a laugh at that, though they were all hoping for the same thing. Once they were in front of the dorm buildings front doors, which were made from steel and stood imposingly before them, they all took a deep breath.

"Time to welcome our new home for the next year or so," Sakura said, though her tone was light rather than grave. Negativity would only make it worse on them later. There was a round of mumbled encouraging words to each other before they reached out to the door handle…

Headmistress Tsunade stretched her sore muscles from being in a desk, hunched over paperwork all day. She gave a satisfied sigh when some of her bones cracked and the tension in her body lifted slightly. Her office door opened to reveal Shizen and her pig, Ton-Ton, with a calendar in hand.

"Tsunade-sama? Are the bus preparations ready for tomorrow's baseball game against Shinobi High School?"

"Huh? Oh, right, that. I scheduled the bus to come pick up our baseball team already. I think the boys are having their own little pep rally in the dorms today before the big game," Tsunade answered Shizune, who nodded and exited, resuming whatever work she was doing before she had entered. Stretching one more time before returning to her paperwork, Tsunade came upon a sudden realization.

"…Did I mention to those girls that they were having a dorm pep rally today?"

…and the door suddenly opened on its own. Frozen with her arm reaching towards the handle, Sakura looked up at the person opening the door, along with the others. The door stopped midway between being opened and closed, the person leaving the dorms stopping to look at the group waiting to enter. In their silence, despite the loud crashing sounds and yelling from behind the door, the girls drank in the appearance of the exiting boy. He was tall, at least taller than they were, and he had dark hair, though it was hard to see from under what looked like a black baseball cap—with school insignia—and a faded green hoodie. Perched on his pale face were a pair of round sunglasses that covered his eyes from view. He wore a black T-shirt that wasn't loose, but wasn't tight under his faded hoodie, revealing a somewhat muscular build. He wore black uniform pants, one hand jammed inside his pants pocket. His other hand was busy pushing the door open.

There were no reactions from either side for a few seconds before the boy raised his eyebrows and continued to open the door, stepping out and holding it open for them. He muttered a very quiet apology, which revealed his voice to be deep and smooth, and waited for them to pull themselves back together. Sakura snapped out of her stupor first, taking hold of the door in his place with a grateful smile.

"Oh, thanks a lot!" She said quickly and a little louder than normal, causing the others to jump out of their own worlds. They expected the boy to walk away after that, but were surprised to see him looking at them, at least they thought he was looking at them through his glasses, intently. "Umm...?" They looked skeptically at him.

"I have never seen you before," he said simply. They blushed slightly, but tried to hide it.

"Oh, we're new here," Tenten answered this time, coughing to hide anything incriminating. The mysterious boy raised his eyebrow again at this, though his face was still as stony as ever. Temari decided to jump in this time.

"Think you could show us around?" He paused a moment, before shaking his head no. Before they could ask why, he continued.

"I don't advise being in there at the moment." If anything, his monotonous tone and rumbling voice made the sentence seem more foreboding than normal.

"Wh-why not?" Hinata asked quietly, trying her hardest not to stutter. Not mentioning her shy, girlish voice, her stuttering might give them away.

"Pep rally." At this, Tenten lit up.

"Pep rally? That's awesome! Think it'd be cool if we joined?"

"Suit yourself." He walked away from them silently, heading towards an open field behind the dorms. They watched him leave, then faced each other.

"He was kinda weird," Temari finally commented. The others nodded slightly.

"Yeah, but he's polite. He talks so formally," Sakura added.

"He looked like a drug dealer, seriously," Ino said, shivering at the idea of their dorm having a druggie in it. "Except for the hat, maybe."

"Not much of a talker, either. But who cares! There's a pep rally going on in there, we need to join them!" Tenten cried excitedly, and they all forgot about the hooded boy in an instant. Excitement began to buzz in their ears as they reached for the handle again, this time actually grasping it and tugging. Nothing happened.

"What's th-the m-matter?" Hinata asked quietly. Sakura made a strange face as she pulled at the handle clasped in her right hand.

"…It won't open."

"What do you mean 'it won't open,'? It was open just a second ago!" Ino exclaimed huffily. Sakura muttered something about how she shouldn't have let it close while they were busy talking before attempting to tug at it again with both hands. Using all of her might, she heard the door creak loudly as it dislodged itself from its hold on the other door, suddenly becoming lighter to pull. Once it finally came loose, they all cheered silently at the feat.

"That's one heck of a door," Sakura mumbled, pulling it now with only one hand. "I wonder how he got it to open so easily." However, any other pondering on the matter was quickly silenced as they peered, wide-eyed, at the commotion going on inside the dorm. There seemed to be a cloud of steam billowing through the hall where doors to different rooms were lined up, and within the giant steam cloud were numerous boys running around, some half naked and others completely naked, cheering and screaming their heads off with school baseball caps and baseball uniforms. The girls, as boys, dropped whatever they were holding in shock at the utter chaos behind the giant metal door. The crowd in the celebration didn't seem to take notice of the door opening, nor did they see the people standing outside of it, so the five just slammed the door closed as fast as they possibly could before retreating around the corner of the building they had seen the other boy take refuge to earlier. They panted heavily, trying to catch their breaths and slow their hearts down to a normal rate.

"Holy…"

"That's one hell of a pep rally," Temari said, smirking. She wondered faintly if her brothers were in the pep rally as well. She wouldn't put it past Kankurou, but Gaara was a different story. Hinata just blushed, her face beginning to resemble a cherry as she couldn't quite voice any coherent thoughts.

"How are we supposed to get to our dorms now?" Ino cried exasperatedly, holding her head in her hands. Nobody answered, not quite sure of how to answer. From around the corner, they heard the sound of metal creaking again, and the loud slam of the metal door as footsteps met their ears. There was a loud voice calling, though it was slightly muffled. The voice got closer, suddenly becoming clearer to hear, and they recognized the voice yelling to be rough, but not scratchy, and it seemed to be calling a name.

"Shino! God damn, where the hell did you go? AGHH!" The frustrated boy yelled, now perfectly clear to the girls. The footfalls became quicker and louder, and before they knew it, the boy they assumed to be the owner of the voice came dashing by them at a speed they almost couldn't comprehend. However, before he passed them completely, he stopped, turning to face them as they crouched oddly on the side of the building. He looked at them with a confused look, before grinning.

"New students?" He asked them, his voice somewhat eager. They didn't think they would be able to respond adequately with vocals, so they nodded. "Cool. By the way, did'ja see a guy go by here? He's kinda tall, wears sunglasses, looks like a druggie? Ring a bell?"

"We saw him earlier, but we didn't see where he went," Temari decided to answer. The boy's smile drooped, and they could've sworn his ears did a little, too. After observing him closely, they noticed that compared to the first boy, this one had nice, tanned skin. His brown hair was wild and sticking out in all directions, over, around, and under a headband on his head with the school's symbol on it. He was one of the ones running around half naked, his shirt lost somewhere amidst the celebration. When he had grinned, they noticed his extremely sharp canine teeth. With his bare chest exposed, they noticed his somewhat defined muscles and abs, as well as his medium-large biceps and forearms. He wore a pair of basketball shorts in the school colors, and he gave off a dog-like impression. Suddenly, a sharp smile was back on his face, stretching across.

"You guys wanna look for my friend with me, then? I can show you 'round campus at the same time, it'll be fun," he offered. "My name's Kiba, by the way. Kiba Inuzuka." The girls all looked at each other before coming upon a silent agreement to go with him, if only to benefit from the tour. Or get to know him to see if they had a chance with him.

"My name's Ino…ichi. Inoichi Yamanaka! It's a pleasure to meet you, too, Kiba-kun!" Kiba flushed as the blonde went impossibly close to him. For a moment, Kiba felt afraid for his life, before just grinning and backing away a bit.

"I'm Saku Haruno. Thanks for offering to show us around campus," Sakura said, shaking hands with the boy. He grinned even wider, if it was possible.

"I'm Hi—ashi, Hiashi Hyuuga," Hinata stated quietly, trying to sound more masculine.

"The name's Tenshi," Tenten said, sharing a handshake as well.

"And I'm Temaru." Kiba nodded to all of them before motioning for them to follow him. He led them along the wall until they were in a different part of the campus, one they didn't recognize. Kiba explained each building, gesturing to each one.

"You've already seen the dorms, so over there is the lab building. We only go in there sometimes, but it's pretty much banned. That doesn't mean we don't go in there for fun, though," Kiba snickered. "On that side is the water fountain—don't throw any coins in it or anything, you'll lose money that way—and over there is the office. Next to the office is the huge Academy building where we endure hell for six hours a day. Our school sends us our schedules through our dorm mailboxes, so we don't get them until tomorrow. Or really late tonight. And…I think that pretty much covers campus basics," he finished, pleased with himself. He placed his hands on his hips in a conclusive pose, which only flexed his shoulder and back muscles.

"Let's see…anything else I should tell you guys? Hmm…Oh! First day of school always totally rocks because it's practically free period all day long. If you join me and my friends tomorrow, we're sneaking out of classes to go check out the girls at the all girls camp across that lake behind campus," Kiba told them, grinning like an idiot as he imagined it. "It's really awesome. The girls there are so hot! And I'll be damned if they don't find us sneaking into their camp sexy. Trust me, you'll enjoy it." Unbeknownst to him, the girls were giggling in their minds at the irony of it.

"So, we're looking for your friend, right? The guy in the green hoodie?" Sakura asked, which earned her a nod from Kiba.

"Yeah, that's him. He's a little on the quiet side, and a lot of people find him creepy, but he's a cool guy. Needs to lighten up, though. It's like he's got a stick up his—" And suddenly, a large hand landed roughly on Kiba's shoulder, causing him to freeze.

"Kiba." Nervous chuckling spewed from Kiba's mouth as he tried to move away from the offending hand, finding that he was unable to.

"Oh, Shino! Buddy! I was just looking for you! You can…totally let go now…" After only a moment's pause, the hand came off and went back into the pocket of a hoodie. Kiba let out a small sigh of relief, rubbing his shoulder as he whimpered slightly. Some of the girls giggled lightly at the scene.

"S-so…your name is…Shino?" Hinata asked. He nodded in assent, briefly looking her up and down as if inspecting something. A shiver ran up her spine as she flinched almost imperceptibly.

"So, now that we've all met, let's say we head back to the dorms, huh? I bet'cha you guys haven't found your rooms yet because of the partying, am I right?" They nodded appreciatively before the small group headed back to the large dormitory building. They couldn't tell if the noise level had died down due to the fact that the metal doors seemed to block out all of the noises. Once again, Shino pulled the metal door open to reveal a now mostly empty hallway, save for a few boys lying on the floor, seemingly drunk out of their minds, and a few just standing outside to hang out with their friends. Heads turned and whispering began as the group walked down the hallway to where an elevator was located.

"I didn't think guys did the whole gossip thing…," Ino mumbled as she looked at some of the guys whispering to their friends and pointing, some breaking into laughter. Kiba somehow heard her and laughed.

"You talk about us like you're not one. Besides, ain't no girls here to pick at us for it, so why not? We're all human, and it's one of the more interesting things around here." Kiba tapped at the up button next to the elevator door, waiting on the door to slide open. After about thirty seconds, the door's opened to reveal a boy with a lazy expression on his face and a high, spiky ponytail. He was slouching, with his hands in his pockets and a towel over his shoulder, as he trudged by them.

"Hey, Shikamaru! What're you doing down here?" Kiba greeted cheerfully, earning a sigh from the other boy.

"Changing out towels again…Chouji dirtied this one beyond repair…again. So troublesome…," he said, yawning as he waved his hand slightly before continuing on his way. Kiba waved back, while Shino only exchanged nods with Shikamaru. They stepped into the somewhat rusty elevator compartment, which creaked a little under their combined weight.

"Ahh…maybe it's better if one or two people took the stairs. This elevator's been here since, I dunno, forever and a half, so it's kinda suckish. Just tell me what's the first floor you need."

"I think the closest one we need is the sixth floor, right?" Sakura turned to her friends, who nodded. Kiba nodded, too, then turned and nodded at Shino. Shino stepped out of the elevator and turned towards the nearby door, which had a sign reading "stairs" on it in bold letters. Kiba clicked the button for the fifth floor and then the button to close the elevator doors, causing the doors to slide closed. A short rumbling shook the metal box before it started to move, the strange swinging it was doing wasn't making them feel any better.

"It won't fall, it's cool. I've ridden on this thing like, a million times. Just, watch out for Chouji. If he's on here, try not to go on with him. He's a little on the fat side, but don't say that to his face, or he'll punch your face in," Kiba laughed, causing the others to look worried. The compartment slowed, coming to a halt as a strange sound went off and the doors opened, revealing the hooded boy waiting for their arrival, leaning casually against the wall. The group followed the hallway until they came upon the room Temari was looking for, room S671. Keeping down the nervousness in her stomach, Temari reached for the door handle, grasped the bronze object, and turned it. The door slid open easily, and as it widened, they all peered in to see who her roommates were.