Freddy almost threw up when he saw the school. It was huge! The walls were a beige color, and the building was about two stories tall, and had large windows.

He saw older kids hanging around, and some of them looked dangerous. And the teachers! They patrolled the outside like hungry-

"Shark!" Derrick yelled by his ear, jabbing a finger in a direction. "Dude, look!"

Freddy did not look. He was sure he was about to faint, or hurl, or piss his pants. Maybe all at once.

Sam uppercutted Derrick. "Dickhead, stop screwing with Freddy!"

"No I'm serious! I saw a shark! It was blue and everything! I swear!"

Amy, of course, was completely unaware of the shark-or-no-shark commotion and grabbed Freddy's arm.

"HEY! People are going INSIDE! Let's go INSIDE, Freddy!"

And then she disappeared into the crowds of people, dragging Freddy along with her. He shot a look that said "help me" over his shoulder.

Amy bobbed and weaved through the overwhelmingly large crowd of people, eventually pushing herself and Freddy through the front doors.

The main office was off to the right, parallel to the cafeteria. Halls spiraled away, and there were trophy cabinets against the wall. The carpet was a confusing mix of blue and gray, and the walls were a pale blue.

Amy felt disappointment crash against her. She had imagined this place full of inspiration and fun and life and new experiences. She expected danger at every turn and an adventure awaiting her. This was... this was...

"Boring," Sam sighed, thinking around the same thing.

Amy just nodded. She sighed and got out her schedule, glad that at least she had some of her friends in her classes.

They all had homeroom together, and they made a great deal of using the map to find their way together.

"No, it's down there! We are by room 1008, which is tenth grade!" Dan argued.

"But if we cut through here, we could be in a few minutes!" Derrick jabbed his finger at something on the map.

"Dumbass! If we had listened to Dan we could've been there already!" Sam punched Derrick in the stomach.

"I think we should ask for directions."

"Shut up Freddy! No one asked you!" Derrick snapped, rolling on the ground in pain.

"Don't talk to him like that! Learn some freakin' manners!" Sam kicked him in the side.

"We're going to be late," Riley pointed out.

"Riley, no one likes Negative Nelly," Derrick panted.

"Where's Amy?" Freddy asked, looking around for the missing person.

Amy appeared around the corner. "Guys, I found it! C'mon!"

Dan sighed as he and his friends followed Amy. He had forgotten how annoying they were, and how most of the time everyone almost always disagreed with each other.

They walked into Homeroom just as the bell rang, and took the leftover seats.

Riley slumped into her seat, her curly black bangs getting in her eyes. The teacher wasn't even here, and Riley could feel her mood souring. There was something demoralizing about the whole classroom.

There were no colorful pictures, or diagrams. Just seats, a desk, and a whiteboard.

Her schedule had said she would be in this same room for 'social studies', but there was nothing in the class that hinted exactly what they would be studying.

Pein, or should he say Mr. Paine, opened the door to his classroom. Any chatter was soon silenced as soon as he walked in.

Young faces looked up at him. They were so full of innocence, naivety, and promise. All he had to do was nudge them in the right direction and they could be so gre-

"Oh my god, he looks like a serial killer!" a boy with a mop of blond hair whispered to the girl beside him.

The comment probably bothered him more than it should, but really. His looks weren't that bad. Pein had managed to get rid of the rings on his eyes, but the piercings wouldn't work if he used chakra to cover them.

Pein walked to the boy's desk, looming over him

"Boy, what is your name?" Pein put a sharp edge of steel into his voice.

The boy looked up at him. A normal person should have been quivering in fear, maybe groveling at his feet. But this boy just grinned at him.

"They call me Derrick... Derrick Mercedes."

He sounded almost smug.

Pein narrowed his eyes dangerously. He could kill this child in less than a second, and he didn't have to use any chakra either. But in a way, Pein couldn't. It would be a dangerous way to ruin everything he had built up for himself in this world. This child was untouchable. Physically, anyways.

"Well, Mr. Mercedes, what can you tell us about your country's economy?"

The child looked confused, and Pein almost slapped himself. He had said 'your' instead of 'our.' The child had picked up on that, and maybe he might start asking questions. And ask questions he did. Pein held his breath as the child opened his mouth to challenge his-

"What's an economy?"

The bell rang and Derrick got his ass out of there. Everyone had laughed at him for not knowing what an economy was! Derrick was pretty sure it had to do with plants. Eco- meant plants, right?

Dan was thinking as he walked to second period. Mr. Paine had said something about "your country." This was deeply disturbing. He had been told to report any suspicious behavior, but Dan had no way of doing this at the moment. All he could do was pray to God his assumptions were wrong.

Sasori blinked at the class. The class blinked back at him, expectant. He sighed and glanced at the clock. Wasn't there supposed to be some type of bell, to signal when he was allowed to start the class?

The bell finally rang, just as a tall, loud blond girl walked in, calling over her shoulder, "Ooh, it's seventh grade all over again, Sammy. 'Does Africa have a flag?' Oh, Derrick'll never learn," and laughing loudly.

Sasori sighed again as she took her seat. Girls like this one taxed his patience, especially since so much of his chakra was being used to conceal the more obvious, unnatural parts of his puppet body. For once, Sasori missed Deidara. Deidara would either blow this girl up for him or use... other means... to distract her and hold no regrets. He had a thing for tall blondes.

The biology class blinked again, all except for the loud blonde, who was examining the room in detail and scribbling idly in her notebook. Sasori sighed, remembering that he disliked to keep people waiting, but he couldn't quite think of this group of nameless morons as "people."

"Okay, class," he finally began, sighing again. "I need to take atten-"

He broke off when he heard a loud gasp from the front of the room. He looked up, panicking, to see the annoying blond girl staring at him with wide hazel eyes and a half-open mouth.

What? he thought anxiously. Had his concentration slipped? Had the puppet body's spinning claws been visible for a moment? Did this girl immediately know he was unlike her?

If she knew, this could be a very long year.

Or a very short one.

Kisame's legs were shaking. Sure, he had seen the worst the world had to offer, but he knew how to handle that. But what he didn't know was how to handle teenagers, without killing them. Kisame didn't even have Samehada to scare them.

The students sat and watched their teacher sweat and shake, with open mouths.

What is it? Kisame almost screamed at them. He was using chakra to cover his gills and make his hair brown, and even to smooth the edges of his face. What could it possibly be?

A kid with a mop of blonde hair raised his hand.

"Uh, why are you blue?"

Kisame's blood froze. He had forgotten to change his skin color!

How was he supposed to explain it to these people?

Another student glared at the blonde boy.

"Shut up man, he's probably sensitive about it."

Kisame suddenly had an idea.

"Look over there!" he shouted, pointing out the window.

The students looked out the window, and seeing nothing they turned back to the front.

"Hey, where's the teacher?"

Konan circulated the classroom. She could hear Deidara's class being very loud, down the hall. She had half a mind to march down there and yell at him. Her class, however, was being very quiet. For her first lesson she had decided on teaching them how to make an origami bird, and to give them all a good grade no matter how it turned out. Konan was a firm believer that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

One student, however, wasn't doing the work. In fact, he had his mouth hanging open and was staring. At her. For a horrible second she thought that he somehow saw right through her disguise, but then she noticed the drool coming out of his mouth.

Konan walked to his desk.

"Is something wrong?" she asked in a light voice.

The boy pushed his dark hair out of his eyes and whimpered a quiet "No."

"Well, Mr," Konan looked at his name on his binder. "Freddy Masen, why aren't you doing the work?"

The boy looked up at her. The slobber was gone and his face resembled that of a kicked puppy. "I forgot how to do the first fold."

Konan sighed, and sat in the empty seat beside him.

"Here, you have to make it a perfect square first." Konan held his hands and guided him through the steps.

When she was done, she walked away, leaving him with a perfect paper crane and a stupid grin on his face.

Riley was speechless.

The P.E. teacher had shouted how much fun they were supposed to have. And then he had them play a game of dodgeball. Riley had hung back, because she couldn't throw very well anyways. Then the teacher had gotten so excited over the game he had joined in, on the other side.

A girl name Cynthia snickered.

"Look at his mask, he is probably retarded," she gossiped to her friend.

Riley decided she didn't like Cynthia. And coincidently, a ball that Mr. Tobi had 'randomly' thrown hit her right in the face.

"WOOT!" The teacher shouted, doing a weird dance that made students giggle.

Riley noticed a boy named Jimmy eyeing her and gripping a ball. When it came flying towards her, she skipped out of the way.

Mr. Tobi sympathetically patted Jimmy's back.

"Don't worry! I can get the pretty girl out!" Before Riley could figure out who he was talking about, Mr. Tobi threw a perfectly aimed curve ball at her.

Riley wheeled back and tripped, falling to the ground as the ball passed over her head.

A couple of people laughed at the teacher, who couldn't even get a small freshman girl out.

The teacher seemed to fume for a bit, before devoting the rest of the class to get Riley out. And five minutes later, everyone was out besides Riley and Mr. Tobi.

Mr. Tobi flung a ball aimed at her legs, Riley stepped out of the way. Mr. Tobi aimed a curveball at her face. Riley stumbled away. She couldn't catch or throw, but she had just discovered she was amazing at dodging. Or maybe Riley just had amazing luck.

"Riley! Riley! Riley!" The class cheered her on. Riley was confused at how they even knew her name.

Mr. Tobi was getting frustrated, his throws getting less accurate and more powerful. He pulled back his arm, in what seemed like another half-assed throw, but something made Riley shift her feet a little.

Peew!

The ball was a bright red bullet, streaking to her.

Riley had tried to block it with her arms, but she landed gasping on the ground. Her head bounced painfully off the wooden floor. And the ball was somehow lodged between both her arms. The class erupted in cheers.

Riley stood up, dusted herself off, and looked at the ball.

"Maybe it is luck," Riley said to herself.

"X to the fifth minus X to the fourth over twelve to the fifth plus eight-point-eighty-seven times X squared," Itachi explained, quickly drawing it on the chalk board. He was thankful that he had been given a higher level class. So far, Itachi wasn't sure he had the patience to be able to teach a class of duds.

The ninja turned around to observe the class's progress. All of them were writing it down, and some trying to solve it. Itachi's sharp eyes honed in on a black hair boy with blue eyes already halfway done. He didn't want to startle the student, so he walked around the room before silently coming behind him. The boy noticed Itachi anyway, jumping up and throwing his head over his shoulder.

Itachi grew uneasy. A normal person from his world wouldn't be able to detect him, but this boy did. Maybe it was just a trait native to this world, nothing to be alarmed about. But in his line of work, a ninja quickly learned that you had to consider all possibilities.

The ninja tried to keep his eyes from narrowing, and put a hand on the boy's shoulder to reassure him. Itachi jerked his hand back in surprise and quickly backed away.

When he had placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, a shock went up his arm and it felt as if his chakra was being sucked through a straw.

The student looked at him.

"What?"

Itachi let his sharingan whirl, using the remnants of his chakra to cover it up.

Interesting, he thought to himself.

Kakuzu watched the English class scribble down answers. All he had to do was tell them how hard the course would be, and they got right to work.

Interesting, the ninja thought. A strange ripping sound caught his attention.

A girl with black hair and red highlights was rubbing two pieces of paper together. Kakuzu quickly got a bad feeling.

"What are you doing?" he almost snarled at the girl.

She looked up at him with dark eyes, and continued to rub the papers.

She said nothing.

"I sai-"

"I heard what you said, and I'm making fire."

"What?"

"I'm making fire," the girl repeated.

Kakuzu almost blinked in astonishment.

"Why?"

"Because this class is too boring. And too hard. So I'm lighting it on fire."

"That won-" Kakuzu began, but stopped when he noticed a strange liquid on the paper. And the smell of smoke. His hand darted out like a snake and ripped the paper from the girl's hands.

Woooooshk!

The two pieces were smothered by orange flames, making the girl yelp in alarm. The fire jumped from his hands onto his hidden stitches. The students couldn't see the stitches, but they could see the fire snaking along his arm. And his arm was falling apart. Kakuzu grabbed a red contraption with his other hand and pressed the trigger. White foam shot out and covered his face, waist, and arms. The small fire was put out.

"Oh my god! That was so coooool!" the girl howled.

Kakuzu growled. He was standing there, wet, his arm hanging off, covered in foam while a girl laughed at him. He should kill her, her family, her friends and-

Then he remembered what Leader had said.

And his paycheck.

Kakuzu walked out of the class.

Meanwhile, the girl held her sides and laughed.

"Coolest... thing... EVER!"

The six friends lounged on the football field. They were hanging around after school, like they always did on the first day of school.

"And the teacher walks up, trying to look all scary and crap and he says "What are you doing?" and then I'm like "Making fire, bish!" And then he sai-"

"You started the fire?" Riley asked.

Sam glared at Riley. Then she opened her mouth and paused.

"...No...I didn't." Sam winked at her.

"Oh my god!" Derrick mocked. Then he stood up, cupped his mouth and began yelling "Samantha Abbott started the-"

"Shush!" Riley snapped, taking one of his arms and dragging him back to the ground.

Derrick looked at her in surprise, and Riley quickly explained.

"My head really hurts, from falling in gym."

Derrick snorted. "I thought Amy was the clumsy one."

Amy made a small noise of protest.

Riley rubbed the back of her head. "Well, the teacher was really getting into the game, and I tripped over a ball."

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Well, Mr. Tobi belongs in a mental hospital anyway, and he really shouldn't be anywhere near children, from what I've heard."

"Maybe we could sue him," Derrick added.

"Doubt it," Freddy muttered. Amy nodded in agreement.

"You should keep your stupid ideas to yourself, Derry," she suggested sweetly.

"Derry? What kind of name is that? Sounds like dairy, and I am not a cow!" Derrick scowled at her.

"Debatable," Freddy grumbled. Amy giggled.

"No, you're a moron, and comparing you to a cow would be offensive. To the cow." Dan patted Derrick's head.

And then suddenly Dan stopped and rubbed his chin, a gesture often used when he was thinking.

Dan was so sure he had missed something earlier. Something he noticed about all the teachers. It was so important, how could he forget it? Sometimes he was just so-

"Calling names is not nice!" someone said.

"The names!" Dan snapped, the pieces finally fitting together.

His friends looked at him like he was crazy.

"The teacher's names, they aren't English or American. They are Chinese or Japanese. All of them," Dan explained. He was seeing so many patterns and 'coincidences' right now, it was crazy. His head felt like a slowly filling balloon, about to pop.

"Dan, why do you care so much?" Riley asked carefully, observant as usual.

Oh, how badly Dan wanted to explain everything to them. Where he went. Why he went. Why he had changed so much. Instead he swallowed his words and a little bit of his pride, opened his mouth and said, "No reason."

Of course, not one of his friends believed him. They knew him far too well. More than he should let them. But they let it go, some not caring enough and a few of them guessing.

Dan just hoped none of them guessed right.

Soo, this is Fox, and I get a corner all to myself today, because Lillie's off doing some project.. or something.

So, yeah! Hope you all enjoyed it, and please review! Sooner or later I'll put up a poll asking you guys who your favorite characters are, and I know Lillie's been talking about putting up a poll concerning pairings, but in the meantime please just leave a review and let us know what you think!

Until next time, all!

~~~Fox~~~