Chocolate colored eyes slowly fluttered open and shot closed again at once. The girl groaned and rolled onto her side. She had looked right into the sun. Searching for her alarm clock, Tenten stretched her arm and patted around on the little table next to her bed, but couldn't find anything. Confused she opened her eyes and glanced around.
White table, white desk lamp, but no sign of her alarm clock. She furrowed her brows and raised her head to look around her room. But it wasn't her room.
For a second a shock ran through her - where was she?!
But then all the memories of the previous day flooded back to her.
"Ah... Right..." She mumbled and got up to check her phone for the time.
9:22 AM. Tenten sighed. It was too early to be wanting to get up, but too late to really go back to sleep again. She could just as well get dressed.
Slipping out of the bathroom a few minutes later, completely dressed in black tights and a longer, light-pink colored shirt she headed for the stairs, her long hair cascading down her back.
The kitchen looked ... clean. The brunette stepped over to the sink.
"Aha! Got you..." She mumbled. She couldn't see any dishes. Hinata must've cleaned them up the night before even though they told her not to. This girl was way too kind.
Tenten opened the fridge and pulled the milk and the orange juice out, poured herself a glas of the latter and put it back in. The cereal was another problem.
Where would I hide, if I was a box of cereal... The brunette thought and started going through the drawers.
"Morning." Said a voice behind her and she jumped so bad that she hit her head on the drawer she was currently searching.
"OW!"
The other person didn't even say sorry. No, she just snickered at her clumsiness. That could only mean one person.
"Morning, Ino, nice of you to scare me to death." Tenten grumbled and closed the drawer.
"Sorry." Ino giggled and wiped an imaginary tear from her cheek. "What are you doing in there anyway?"
"Looking for cereal."
"Ah. Can I have some?"
"No."
"What?" Ino looked a little dumbstruck.
"No. I haven't found it yet." Tenten giggled at her expression.
"Oh. Try the top drawer on the left!" Ino suggested. Tenten shrugged and stepped over. And there they were, three different kinds of cereal!
"H-How did you know that?!" The brunette exclaimed surprised.
Ino just shrugged. "I'd hide there, if I was cereal... What?" She added as Tenten looked at her funny.
"Nothing." She mumbled and prepared their cereal bowls.
"Do you want some coffee?" Ino asked and started to work on the coffee machine.
"Sure." Tenten said and sat down with a spoon.
Footsteps could be heard and Hinata and Sakura appeared in the door to the kitchen.
"Good morning." They greeted, still a little sleepy.
"Morning. Coffee?" Ino greeted back.
"Please." Sakura sighed and sat down.
"I'd like some tea, is there any?" Hinata asked and started to look through the drawers.
"I guess I saw some over there." Tenten said and crunched her cereal.
"Are there any plans for today?" Ino asked and Hinata shrugged.
"T-The books and time tables aren't ready until tomorrow..." She said.
"I-I'd like to look around this place. My group were the last to arrive last night." Sakura said from the other side of the table. She was still a little uncomfortable around these girls that seemed to already know each other, but she wasn't about to let herself be the outsider in this. Those were her new roommates, she would go to school with them and live with them. They'd be together almost 24/7. She was determined to get along with them.
"How about we'll introduce you to the boys and lure them into coming with us, too?" Tenten grinned.
"Sure." Sakura smiled. The sooner she got to know everyone the better. She wouldn't have to be all anxious about finding friends anymore.
The boys had started their day not that different from the girls.
Sasuke had risen first and started to cook up some coffee, the smell of which had awoken Kiba and Akamaru. Naruto was crawling into the kitchen just now, craving for the black liquid. Kiba just laughed at him and took Akamaru out into the garden through the door next to the sink for his morning walk.
The blond had not so much as sipped his beverage when a shrill ringing sounded from the front door.
Naruto looked at Sasuke who sat at the kitchen table in his pyjama pants, reading the morning paper - wherever he had gotten that from. Their eyes met for a second, then Sasuke casually turned back to the paper. Naruto sighed and walked to answer the still ringing door.
The sun was blinding him as he opened the door. Upon blinking a few times, his vision cleared. The sun wasn't as brigth as he had thought, it was being reflected by the shiny blonde hair of one Yamanaka Ino, who currently wore a pretty cocky grin edged onto her face.
"Oh, Naruto, you didn't have to strip for us before answering the door." She laughed in his face.
Naruto - only now realizing that he was wearing nothing but his pyjama pants - blushed furiously.
"Ah, m-morning, I-Ino, G-G-Girls." He tried to play it off.
"All right, all right, let the poor boy off." Tenten giggled from behind Ino. "Or else he or Hinata might faint."
Ino turned around, surprised. Hinata? She burst out laughing when she saw that Hinata's face was equally as red as Naruto's.
Still giggling she turned around, pattet the blond boy's upper arm and slipped inside, followed by a still giggling Tenten and a highly colored Hinata.
But that wasn't all. A pink haired girl stepped up to him, a faint blush on her cheeks as well.
"Er, hi, I'm Haruno Sakura. I live with Ino and the others." She introduced herself shyly.
"Er, hi!" Naruto mumbled. That was quite a cute girl!
"I-I'm Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto." He took the hand she offered him and shook it awkwardly.
"Well, come in." He smiled at her, getting back to his old self.
"Thanks." Sakura smiled at him sweetly and followed him in.
Ino was still giggling when she entered the kitchen just the same time Kiba did from the door that lead to the garden.
"Good morning." She cheered and giggled again as she saw their dress-ups.
Sasuke wore checkered long legged pyjama pants and was reading a morning paper. Kiba wore pyjama pants, too, and a sweat jacket with a furry collar over his bare chest.
Well, well, she had to admit, she got herself quite well built friends there.
"What have you done?" Sasuke asked without looking up.
"Nothing!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah right." Kiba scoffed, but hugged her with one arm as he passed her. "Coffee?"
"Sure, thanks." Ino smiled at the warm welcome.
"Hey, me too!" Tenten's voice rang from behind Ino and the blonde girl quickly freed the doorway and walked over to Sasuke and sat next to him, ruffling his hair.
"Agh. Yeah, good morning to you too, Ino." He snatched her hand off his head and then motioned for her to look over at the others.
The blonde followed his look and saw Kiba handing Tenten her coffee mug with a loving smile. The brunette took it and thanked him with a nice smile, accompanied by a small kiss on the cheek.
Ino's eyebrows shot up and turned back to Sasuke with a growing grin on her face. Sasuke caught her gaze, raised his left eyebrow a little and returned her smirk. The smirk stayed on his face when he released her hand and went back to his paper.
Her coffee mug was placed before her by Kiba and she mumbled a 'thanks', still grinning at Sasuke's profile.
Naruto lead Sakura into the kitchen, where Ino already sat between a giant dog and a boy with jet black hair that took her breath away immediately. He was just so good looking.
"Dobe, how about you get some more chairs." The darkhaired boy said without looking up from his paper.
Sakura furrowed her brows. Dobe? Who was that supposed to be?
"Argh! Teme!" Naruto yelled from next to her. "You know, sometimes you're as lazy as Shikamaru!"
And with that he stomped off.
"Where is he anyway?" Tenten asked.
"Who?"
"Shikamaru!"
"He's still asleep." Kiba said and shrugged.
"You gotta be kidding me." Tenten said.
"Nope."
"Ah, have you tried to wake him up?" Ino asked.
"Of course we have." Naruto said as he stomped back into the kitchen with two additional chairs. "But he just won't get up. He just rolls over and falls asleep again."
Ino sighed. "I'll nag him out of bed in a second. Just let me introduce you first. This is Sakura. Haruno Sakura. She lives with us. Sakura, this is Akamaru, Kiba's dog-"
"How come you start with introducing Akamaru?" Tenten chuckled and leaned against the counter next to Kiba.
"The nicest first." She shrugged and received an approving bark from Akamaru.
"Ha!" Sasuke said. "Wait, you..." And with that he grabbed her and tickled her sides madly.
"S-s-stop! I-I-I-" Ino gasped. "SASUKE!"
The surrounding people laughed at their behaviour.
"So, Sakura, this is Sasuke, as you might have heard. Uchiha Sasuke. Then this boy next to me," Tenten continued Ino's introduction, "is Inuzuka Kiba, my best friend."
"Yeah, I've heard of you." Sakura smiled.
"Oh no, what have you said about me?" Kiba looked over at Tenten, a pained expression on his face.
"Only the worst things I know." She grinned evilly.
"Yeah, right." Kiba rolled his eyes.
"So, you already know Naruto and the last one is Nara Shikamaru, the one that I will nag out of bed right now." Ino picked up again.
"Oh, I already feel sorry for him." Sasuke mumbled and got a hit over the head.
She tiptoed her way into his room. She had found his room last, of course, but at least she had found it. He had the same room as Hinata, light green painted walls and dark furniture.
"Shikamaru, get up. It's almost noon. We want to take a look at the village, get to know the other classmates... maybe meet some other people from around here... Are you even listening to me?" She ranted.
A low grumbling sound came from the bundle of blankets. She could see some hair peaking out. It was let down. Ino stopped. She hadn't thought of that. What would he look like with his hair down?
The blonde shook her head and sent her blonde locks flying. That wasn't the time to think about things like this.
"Shikamaru I'm warning you. Get up now, or you'll regret it." She said threateningly.
More grumbling.
"Okay, you wanted it." She mumbled to herself and took a few steps back from his bed.
Then she measured where he would be and jumped.
Shikamaru's eyes shot open in a flash and stared at her in shock.
"Morning." She smiled at im sweetly.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" He growled.
"Mh, maybe." She answered non-chalantly.
"That's not funny, girl." Shikamaru growled at her again and turned onto his back, running his hand through his hair.
"Yeah, well I don't think so either. It is pretty sad actually, that you still haven't managed to get up. We want to check out the village, meet some new people... Spent some time together, you know?" She spluttered on while she wondered if his hair was as soft as it looked. It looked really nice, she had to admit that.
"So what do you do to your hair?" She asked him, following her train of thought.
"What?"
"I said what do you do to your hair? It looks so soft." She explained.
"Nothing." He scoffed and eventually got up. He sat on the side of the bed and put his hair in its usual high ponytail, then stretched.
Shikamaru slowly turned back around to face her.
"What?" She asked.
"Won't you leave?"
She scoffed and stretched out on his bed. "Nah, I think I like it here."
"Yeah, right." Shikamaru smirked and stood up by himself, collecting clothes from his cupboard.
"Argh, okay." Ino sighed and got up to walk past him. "Just hurry up, lazy ass."
"Hey." He called out to her.
"Hm?" Ino turned in the door frame.
"Don't you ever wake me up like that again." He said dangerously.
"Then don't sleep in anymore." She scoffed and left.
"So is he up?" Kiba asked as he and Akamaru came up the stairs and met her halfway.
"Yes." She grinned. "He's getting up right now. Where are you going?"
"Getting dressed. I know, I'm eye-candy and you girls would be delighted to have me walk around like that all day-"
Ino scoffed openly.
"But I can't afford another bunch of fan girls at this school." He continued as if nothing had ever happened.
"Another?" Ino laughed at him.
"Yeah. I had some at Middle School. A whole bunch actually." He shrugged. "Ask Tenten."
"I will - and you better didn't lie to Mama, boy." She pointed her finger daringly at him while walking down the stairs.
"Hey Tenten!" Ino called as she set foot on the last step and Kiba chuckled.
"Yeah? What is it, Ino?" Tenten's head stuck out of the kitchen door.
Ino came at her laughing. "Did Kiba really have a 'bunch of fan girls' at Middle School?"
"Yeah, actually he had. How did you know?"
"He told me on his way up." Ino told her and sat down on her chair next to Sasuke. "So he really did have fan girls?"
"Yeah." Tenten shrugged. "They were always following him around in groups. Always giggling and whispering and they were hating on me big time. There were always loads and loads of little notes in his locker and in mine. It was awful. Oh! Except Valentine's Day!"
Sasuke snickered and Naruto asked: "Why's that? Did you get a day off or something?"
"Did you have him all to yourself?" Sasuke grinned from behind the paper.
"No, you dumbasses." She scolded them. "But he got an incredible amount of chocolate. So we met every Valentine's Day and ate it."
"It was a feast." Kiba had reappeared, leaning against the door frame and grinned down at Tenten, who was sitting in front of him, turning her back slightly to be able to look at him.
"It was." She grinned back.
"So, let me get this straight." A voice behind Kiba said. "You met every year on Valentine's Day to eat the chocolates other girls gave you."
Shikamaru appeared behind Kiba, an eyebrow raised.
"Well... yes." Kiba shrugged.
"You had dates! You've had dates on Valentine's Day for years!" Ino squealed, clasping her hands.
"And pretty mean dates at that." Sasuke chuckled from next to her.
"Huh? Those weren't dates!" Tenten exclaimed quickly.
"Of course they were!" Naruto laughed at their faces. Both were blushing rapidly.
Sakura and Hinata giggled into their hands at their embarrassed friends.
"Ah well, calm down. I had dates on Valentine's Day, too." Sasuke tried to calm them.
"Yeah, like loads." Naruto grinned at his best friend.
"Oh yeah." Shikamaru sighed, while he put cereal into his bowl.
"Oh, so you had fangirls, too, Sasuke?" Ino asked.
"Yeah, I guess. Awful bunch." He sighed.
"You're kidding." She said.
"No, I'm not." Sasuke said. "The others had them too. Ask them." He motioned over towards Naruto and Shikamaru.
"Seriously?" Sakura asked in surprise.
What kind of boys were they?! Okay, they were kind of good looking... okay, pretty good looking, but fan girls?! Seriously?!
"Troublesome lot." Shikamaru sighed.
Naruto chuckled. "I thought they were very nice."
"That's because they brought you enough food to last for days - every day!" Sasuke laughed at him.
"Shut up, Teme!" Naruto yelled.
"Yeah, Sasuke, none of us went on as many dates and cut the girls off afterwards as you." Shikamaru backed the blond up.
"Well, what was I supposed to do?! They would've never stop nagging otherwise." Sasuke defended himself and put the paper down. "They just wanted -" He opened his mouth again to say more, but was interrupted rather roughly.
"Woah woah boys, we get it." Ino said rather loudly and put her hands up in front of her. "You've all been ridiculously popular. Won't happen with us, don't get your hopes up. So could you two lazy butts get dressed now so we can get going already?"
Sasuke and Kiba stared at her, flabbergasted. Naruto grinned at the blonde.
Grudgingly Sasuke got up, grabbed Naruto roughly by the back of his neck and dragged the yelping boy out of the kitchen.
When the door slammed behind them, Shikamaru burst out laughing.
"Oh Ino!" He laughed. "I've never seen Sasuke look that bad in an argument with a girl! It'll drive him nuts for days!"
Kiba chuckled and clapped her back from next to Akamaru.
"Ah, he'll live." Ino shrugged.
When Naruto and Sasuke returned, Sasuke still fuming a little, they headed off for the centre of the village.
It was a pretty village, the girls thought. All houses were white as the ones they had seen on their way in, only a few buildings had mosaique patterns on them. There were several small stores for groceries, some basic clothes (mostly black, grey and dark blue, the girls were taken aback by that!) and school utensils like paper and pens.
It was afternoon when they approached the centre of the village. Ino almost expected to see a weekly market propped up there, it would fit the image of the village, but she was disappointed.
They approached a large free space - where a weekly market could've taken place with no doubt - but instead, there were - still closed - cafés around it and a large fountain occupied the middle.
The girls were in awe. What a pretty foutnain that was! Thin lines were curling around the whole thing, decorating it, in the middle, where they supposed an actual fountain would appear once school started, stood a very aesthetic sculpture of a woman and a man dancing, surrounded by waves. It mgiht've been rather classic but it was still very pretty in its perfect white. Ino wondered how on earth the sculpture and the fountain could be that white! They were outside all day in every weather!
"Oh no." Kiba sighed next to Tenten and she looked at him, woken from her trance.
"What?"
"Girls." Kiba said and nodded towards the fountain.
Tenten and the others looked from the boys to where Kiba had motioned to. In fact, there was a rather huge bunch of girls, all standing in groups and talking to each other. The girls' jaws dropped a little. How could they not have seen them?! They stood all around the fountain!
Ino looked back to the boys to ask a question, but was silenced by the looks on their faces. Shikamaru, Kiba, Sasuke and even Naruto looked anything but excited to see the girls. Their faces had turned into scowls and they shot little daggers at the girls talking around the fountain.
"Come on, you don't even know them, you can't hate them yet!" Ino exclaimed instead.
"Watch me." Shikamaru grumbled.
Ino sighed. They were so troublesome!
"Suit yourselves, I'm going to meet them." She said and turned around in a rush, letting her hair collide with Sasuke's face who stood behind her, and stomped off towards the fountain.
Naruto could hear Sasuke growl angrily at her and shook his head at the blonde, a grin sneaked across Naruto's face. That girl had some nerve.
The other girls needed only a second to follow Ino towards the bunch of girls - and boys as Tenten noticed when she neared the crowd.
"Split up?" She asked the others while they were still walking.
"Yes." Ino said and the other girls nodded. They split only a few feet further on, each diving into the crowd on her own.