Zuko drove his car down the street, toward the high school. Shierra was seated in the passenger seat beside her brother. The teenage girl was practically jumping out of her seat in anticipation. The young adult turned to look at his strange sister.
“Shierra, could you please sit still? If I crash this car because of you distracting me, you’re dead,” Zuko stated. He had just gotten his new car over the summer, and he was not about to hurt his baby now.
“I can’t help it! It’s my first day of high school. This is so major! I can’t wait!” Shierra practically yelled at the top of her lungs. Voicing her thoughts aloud encouraged her to jump up and down even more.
“Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. You look like you have to pee yourself,” Zuko said seriously. Well, he tried to say it seriously, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face as he glanced at his baby sister.
“Alright, I’ll stop,” Shierra sighed sadly. She took a large breath to calm herself down. As she exhaled, she stared out the window at all the houses whisking by.
All of the houses were evenly spaced apart, and each house gave off a homey, comfortable vibe. It was only to be expected. Konoha was, in Shierra’s opinion, a great place to live. It wasn’t annoyingly busy, but it wasn’t completely cut off from civilization either. It was a beautiful place to live, in every sense of the word.
“So Zu-zu, will you be sitting with my friends and me at lunch, or is that against the rules too?” Shierra asked in a teasing voice.
She was referring to the rules that he had stated earlier, about freshmen being quiet on the first day of school. But she didn’t think that that meant that any of the other age groups had to ignore them either.
Shierra got her answer from Zuko’s silence. She saw his eyes glance at her nervously. “Oh my god! You’re not sitting with us?!”
“I can’t!” Zuko yelled back.
“Why not?!” Shierra screeched in return.
“It’s part of the rules!” Zuko replied.
“Explain,” Shierra growled fiercely.
Zuko sighed. “As part of the tradition, none of the other students are allowed to interact with the freshmen. It’s almost considered a betrayal to your own class if you do. The point of this is so that the freshmen can figure everything out for themselves. And if they can’t…then those are the prey for the senior predators.”
“The punks,” Shierra clarified.
“Right,” Zuko replied. “I’m sorry, Squirt. But this is how it is. As long as you and your friends don’t screw up today, things will be cool for the rest of the year.”
Shierra fell back against her seat in exasperation. “Ugh!” she groaned loudly. “I haven’t even gotten to school yet, and there are already a lot of stupid rules.”
Zuko chuckled. “I know. Sorry. But you’re tough; I think you’ll be alright.”
A few moments later, Zuko pulled into the student parking lot. There were already a lot of students there. The parking lot was filled with excited juniors and seniors who were lucky enough to have their own cars. Other students were arriving via their parents or school bus.
Zuko parked the car and got out. Shierra followed his lead and exited the car. The boy walked over to his sister and whispered, “If you need anything, just text. We’re still all here for you if you need us.”
Shierra nodded and gave her brother a small smile. It was nice to know that he and her other older friends would still be around. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Zuko replied.
He gave her one last knowing smile, and then he walked off to find his own friends. Shierra watched him for a moment as she saw him head over to his best guy friend, Nuka Zabini. The boy with brown hair and sunglasses greeted Zuko. Nuka was wearing a green leather jacket over his school uniform, adding some color to the drab uniform. She saw the two boys talk, and then they glanced back at her. She smiled at them, and Nuka grinned in return.
"Okay, here we go," Shierra thought to herself in encouragement.
She walked off toward the courtyard, where a bunch of tables were placed. She intended to wait there for her own friends. As she walked, she passed Hatani and Tenten Sanjay. Hatani was another of Zuko’s good friends. Shierra smirked to herself. She was convinced that Zuko and Hatani would be dating by the end of the year. Tenten was a year older than Shierra. They only knew each other through get-togethers that Zuko and Hatani and any of their other friends would have. But Shierra and Tenten were cool with each other.
When the two sisters saw Shierra, they smiled in her direction. Tenten tried to give a reassuring smile to the younger girl. Shierra took that as support, since Tenten had gone through this last year. Shierra nodded her head back to the brown-haired girl.
The raven-haired girl made her way over to the courtyard, where a bunch of tables were placed around. Her brother had already told her that students were allowed to eat outside if they wanted. These were probably lunch tables.
Shierra looked around for a place to sit when she saw her friend, Sai, sitting at a table next to a giant oak tree. She smiled as she went over and sat across from him. “Hey, Sai,” she greeted.
He looked up at her from the book he was reading and gave her one of his famous fake smiles. Then he turned back to the book.
Shierra grimaced at his reaction. Usually, he at least said ‘Hello’ with that fake smile of his. What’s the deal? “Sai, are you alright?”
He looked up at her and smiled again.
“What are you doing? You can’t even say hi now?” Shierra asked.
“He’s taking the whole invisible thing very seriously,” a voice from behind the girl said. Shierra turned around to see her good friend, Sasuke, walk up to the table. He sat down beside her and glanced at Sai before turning back to Shierra. “I drove him to school today, and he didn’t say one word the whole way over.”
“What? Sai, you can talk. You just can’t scream everything you’re saying,” Shierra said.
Sai stared at her like she was crazy. He pulled out a pen and a piece of paper before he started writing. After a few moments, he handed the sheet of paper to Shierra. She held it up and read:
You said that we have to be invisible. Talking is not being invisible, and you are now breaking your own rules, Stupid.
Shierra instantly began to hit her head on the table repeatedly. Sai was a nice guy… sometimes. But he was just so clueless. What she meant by the text was not be loud. Obviously, he just misinterpreted the message, just like he misinterprets everything. Seriously, he needed to get some tutoring lessons on how to be social. He never seemed to pick up on anything anyone was saying unless it had to do with schoolwork.
Sasuke took the note that Sai had given Shierra and read it. After a few seconds, he snickered. “Stupid…” he chuckled. He only laughed because it was ironic. Sai could call Shierra stupid all he wanted, but everyone in their class had predicted that Shierra was going to be valedictorian when they all graduated.
Shierra punched Sasuke in the shoulder. The black-haired boy flinched. She was also pretty strong when she wanted to be.
“Shut up, Chicken-Butt Head,” she mumbled.
Sasuke’s eye twitched when she said that. He was used to girls falling head-over-heels for his looks. Nearly every girl in their grade—and a lot from other grades as well—had fallen for him. Not that he enjoyed it. Because now, those silly little crushes had evolved into infatuation, which was now getting to the point of stalking. And that’s why he was close with Shierra; she had never had a crush on him like his fan girls did. And it was quite refreshing to have a girl to talk to without her drooling on him. But still… he hated it when she was brutally honest with him, such as calling him Chicken-Butt Head.
“You know, you could be a little nicer,” Sasuke said.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Shierra asked. The boy beside her just sighed in defeat.
“Hey y’all,” a happy voice said from behind. Everyone turned to see pink hair bobbing up and down. Sakura took a seat beside her best girlfriend. “So, how’s everyone’s first day going?”
“Sakura, we just got here. School didn’t even officially start yet,” Shierra reminded.
“So? I’m talking about the social part of school. Did you find any cute guys yet?” Sakura asked eagerly.
“No, but I think Sasuke’s favorite fan girl has just spotted her interpretation of God,” Shierra pointed to a bubbling blonde in the distance. The girl was running as fast as the speed of light over to their table. Sasuke instantly paled, making him look completely transparent.
“Hide me,” Sasuke whispered frantically as he scrambled under the table. The blonde girl ran up them, and with no sign of Sasuke, she sighed in disappointment.
“Where’s Sasuke? I know you know where he is,” the girl pointed at Shierra accusingly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shierra lied.
“Just tell me where he is! I know he was just here!” the girl shouted.
“Ino, could you possibly take your little shrieking session elsewhere? Some of us want to keep it low key today. And your annoyingly pitchy voice is going to set the Earth off its axis,” Shierra countered.
The girl named Ino scoffed. “Pfft, you’re such a nerd. I can’t believe I’m still standing here anyway with you dorks. I have to go find my Sasuke.” With that, the blonde girl stalked off.
Once the coast was clear, Sasuke pulled himself up from his hiding spot. He took his seat on the other side of Shierra. He was inhaling and exhaling deeply to lower his heart rate. The two girls snickered at him while Sai continued to have that blank expressionless look on his face.
“Aw, look at this,” Sakura laughed. “The great Sasuke Uchiha has been scared out of his wits by a petite blonde.”
“Yeah, but that petite blonde has the equivalent tackling strength of a football player,” Sasuke retorted. He instantly shivered at the thought of Ino running at him, hugging and squeezing him like a teddy bear.
“Well, well,” a voice said. Everyone looked up to see Kiba standing behind Sai. The brown-haired boy took a seat at the table, grinning widely. “Looks like this is the official meeting spot for our little group.”
“Very observant of you, Kiba,” Shierra said. He smiled at her comment.
The girl quickly placed her hand over her face, trying to block anyone from seeing her blush. She wasn’t a fan girl of Kiba’s, but she will admit that she had always thought of him as handsome. But they were good friends because of their interest in animals and nature. It gave them a lot to talk about during biology class.
But the last thing she really needed was someone thinking that she did like Kiba. Shierra did not date. That was a fact. She was too focused on keeping up with her studies. And even though everyone said that she was easily going to become top of the class when she graduated, she needed to make sure that she didn’t slack off. The worst thing that could happen was to get distracted or egotistical when it came to grades. Shierra had to make sure she did everything she could to keep her grades high.
“H-Hello, everybody,” a small voice greeted. Hinata was walking up to the group, Shino following.
“Hey, Hinata,” Kiba greeted. Kiba and Hinata had been friends since kindergarten. She was the calm to his wild, and he helped her to become more independent. Their friendship was actually rather touching.
“Thanks for the greetings, Kiba,” Shino said sarcastically.
The brown-haired boy raised an eyebrow. “Well, maybe if you didn’t blend in so well with that tree, I might have seen you.” Shino didn’t reply; he just leaned against the giant oak tree that provided shade over the table. Hinata sat beside Kiba.
“Well, it looks like the gang’s all here. How troublesome…” a lazy voice commented. A familiar munching sound could be heard from the same direction that the voice had come from.
“Hey, Shikamaru. Hey, Chouji,” Shierra greeted. She didn’t have to turn around to see who the pair was.
“Geez, you don’t even bother turning around to look at us when you greet us? Women… so annoyingly troublesome,” Shikamaru said as he came to stand in front of the table. Chouji stood beside his best friend. The two boys had been friends since they were two-years-old. They were inseparable, and they looked out for each other.
“Actually, you’re wrong, Shikamaru,” Sakura said as she pointed at the pineapple-haired teen. “Not everyone’s here yet. We’re still waiting on Naruto.”
“Geez, what’s wrong with you, Shikamaru?” Shierra mocked playfully. “Your observation skills are slipping.”
“That’s what happens after he doesn’t leave his house at all during the three months of summer,” Chouji teased.
“Hey, man… there’s no need to be cruel,” Shikamaru said. “Troublesome friends…”
“Where is Naruto, anyway?” Kiba asked. “I would’ve thought he came to camp out here last night; he’s been so excited for high school to start.”
“I don’t know what happened to him,” Shierra shrugged. It was indeed perplexing. Naruto had been talking about freshman year since sixth grade. It would have been assumed that he would be the first one of their group to arrive.
“He’s definitely going to make a big show of his entrance, whenever he gets here,” Shikamaru said.
“And then he’s going to get us all killed by seniors,” Sasuke sighed.
“I texted him not to. C’mon, Naruto is not that much of an idiot,” Shierra said to the two boys.
“Wanna bet?” both boys said simultaneously.
Just because the universe loves to prove Shierra wrong, a car pulled up to the drop-off area. Naruto emerged from the passenger seat, and the car drove off after he shut the door. The blonde boy took a look around at the school and grinned.
His friends, however, were gaping at him. He was wearing his new black jacket with the orange whirlpool symbol on the back. Even though the school uniforms were already black and white, his jacket was pretty noticeable. Or maybe it was just that his personality pulled all eyes in his direction.
"Please don’t do anything stupid; please don’t do anything stupid…" Shierra chanted inside her head.
“HELLO, KONOHA HIGH!” Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs. “MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI! AND ALL YOU PUNKS WILL BOW DOWN TO MY AWESOMENESS!”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Sakura muttered as she stared at the blonde.
“I told you,” Shikamaru said as he lazily placed his head back, his eyes closed as his face stared at the sky.
“Oh, like you’re always right,” Shierra hissed.
“Actually, I am,” Shikamaru countered.
Darn. That was true. It’s a shame the guy was so lazy. He could easily have graduated from college by now.
Naruto was now walking across the courtyard. Students and teachers alike were staring at him like he was some kind of weird mutant. Actually, his friends were still under investigation of that theory.
The boy with the whiskered face stood in front of the table where his friends were hanging around. He grinned cheekily at them. “Hey, guys. What’s up?”
The group of teens stared at him like he had just grown an extra head, which could be possible, considering his friends were trying to find out if he really was a mutant.
“What’s up? What’s up?!” Shierra hissed as she repeated his question. “Naruto, didn’t you get my text this morning?!”
“Text? What text?” Naruto asked. He quickly tried to remember his morning. Then it hit him. “Oh yeah. My battery died.”
All his friends stared at him. “Idiot,” Sasuke muttered.
“WHAT’D YOU SAY, JERK?!” Naruto screamed at his best friend.
“You’re an idiot,” Sasuke repeated.
“Why I oughta…” Naruto muttered as he made his way to punch Sasuke in the face.
Shierra stopped him by grabbing his arm. “Naruto, the text I sent you said that you weren’t supposed to wear anything besides the school uniform. It’s a tradition for all freshmen on their first day of school.”
“Well, that’s dumb. Why?” Naruto asked.
“I don’t know. Zuko told me this morning. He just said that the seniors will target anyone who breaks the tradition,” Shierra said.
“Yeah, Hana said the same thing,” Kiba said, trying to prove to Naruto that Shierra wasn’t making this up as some kind of weird joke.
“Well, if it’s that important, I’ll take the jacket off. Geez…” Naruto muttered.
“That’s not all,” Shierra interrupted.
“What else?” Naruto asked.
“Zuko also said that we have to be quiet today. We weren’t supposed to attract attention to ourselves,” the raven-haired girl explained.
“And dude, you just attracted the attention of the entire village,” Kiba laughed.
“Oh…” was all Naruto managed to say. He glanced around to see that everyone, indeed, was staring at the group of freshmen, namely him.
The rest of the group discreetly looked around as well, trying to make sure that some big thug didn’t decide to attack them. All eyes were staring at the group, and the teens instantly grew nervous. But everything seemed to be safe… for now.
Kiba tapped Shierra’s shoulder, and she turned to look at him. He pointed over in another direction, toward the student parking lot. Shierra then noticed that Zuko, Nuka, Hatani, Hana, and her boyfriend, Sokka, were staring at the freshmen group. Each of the seniors had different expressions on their faces.
Zuko was shaking his head in disappointment at Naruto. Nuka was laughing hysterically, even though on the inside, he felt sort of bad for them. Hatani was appalled at Naruto’s outburst in front of the whole school. Hana’s eyebrow was raised in surprise, but she really had no idea how to react to something like that. Sokka adjusted his glasses, trying to avoid having to deal with this awkward situation.
Shierra turned back to look at Kiba. “Well, this is certainly not how I intended our first day of high school to be going.”
Suddenly, her cell phone started buzzing. She reached into her purse and opened her phone. It was a text from Zuko.
She read the message: Get inside ASAP before someone decides to slaughter you guys.
Shierra turned around and looked back at her brother. He nodded his head, indicating that she needed to move. His friends had the same serious expressions on their faces.
“Alright, guys,” Shierra said as she stood up. “We should head inside.”
“I agree,” Sasuke said. “Before Naruto decides to embarrass us again…”
“Shut up, jerk!” Naruto exclaimed loudly.
Shierra grabbed Naruto’s arm and dragged him along. “Let’s just go, Naruto!”
“Fine, but I’m only going for you. Because you’re my forever girl!” Naruto said happily.
The raven-haired girl groaned at her whiskered friend. He had always had a crush on her, ever since they met when they were five. Seriously, he needed to get over it. She would never accept him as anything more than one of her best guy friends. He was probably like another brother to her, but he wouldn’t understand that. His mind was always on trying to think of new ways to get her to go out with him.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Naruto. Just get inside,” the girl ordered. The group was following her toward the school building, where all the classes would be held.
Just as the adolescents were about to enter the school, a gang of seniors moved to block the entrance. They were all extremely buff. They were wearing black leather jackets with a picture of a bull on the back.
The one in the middle, presumably the leader, stepped in front to stare down the group. He had dirty blonde hair and green eyes. A disgusting smirk was plastered across his face. “And just where do you think you kids are going?”
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Chapter notes: Yeah, I know I haven't updated this story in a while. I've been busy trying to write another story, which isn't even posted yet. I've also been working on my new story, The Reincarnation of a Legend. So yeah...
Just a heads up: I do not own Naruto. Any characters that are recognizable from the manga/anime belong to their owner. Also, people who are supposed to be oc may have names from familiar shows, such as Sokka from Avatar. I use the name, not the actual character. Zuko belongs to Avatar, but his personality is different in my fanfic. Same with Sirius; he belongs to Harry Potter, but his personality may be a little different in my fic. I only own my oc.
I think that's it for disclaimers...Okay then, read on!
Chapter end notes: So what did you think? Did you enjoy my interpretation of the Naruto gang? I understand if you think that this is a little weird, but bear with me, please. Things get more interesting for the characters later in the year.
Anyways, tell me what you thought of this chapter in a review. I love to hear your comments, and I can't read your mind....that would be an awesome superpower...