I do not own Naruto only my own characters

My name is Naomi[1] Yoshida, I'm 16 years old and all my life I’ve been home schooled due to the fact that my parents moved around a lot and I wanted to evade sad goodbyes and stuff like that. But for some unknown reason, they decided to settle down here in Konohagakure and now they had this great idea to sign me up for private school. So here am I, in front of this building that had a sign above that read: ‘Konoha Private High School’.

“Why couldn’t I just stay home?” I asked myself.

I took a deep breath and walked through the gates. I walked down a path in between two grassy areas. There was a big fountain in the middle of the field; I walked around it and towards the front where I saw a blonde-haired woman standing there. She had on a gray businesswoman outfit and her hair was in two pigtails and a purple emblem was on the middle of her forehead.

“You must be Yoshida Naomi. I’m Tsunade, the school’s principal,” said the woman.

“Nice to meet you,” I said politely.

“Well, welcome to Konoha Private High School. Now let me show you to your dorm and then someone will show you around.” she said while walking me inside

When I walked into the place, I followed her down the halls. On my right was a wall which had posters up of the football team that read ‘Go foxes!!!’ or “Go and destroy the Eagles!!!’. On my left there was a glass wall that gave you a view to the outside. Soon we walked out of
the building and walked towards another building. We walked through the door and we stopped in front of a door that read A506. She knocked on the door and a girl with a high blonde ponytail opened the door.

“Hello, Ino,” said Tsunade.

"Hi, Tsunade-sama!!!” said Ino.

“This here is the school’s new student, Yoshida Naomi, and she will be your new roommate. I hope that you could show her around and tell her the rules of this place.”

“No problem, Tsunade-sama!!! Leave it to me!!”

Tsunade turned to look at me. “Now Naomi, go in and she will tell you everything you need to know,” she said.

I turned and walked into a room which was painted purple. There were three beds. One of them had polka dot covers with a stuffed teddy bear sitting on top of it. Another one was pink mixed with a light blue and had a bunny sitting on top. There was another one that was empty. They were all ordered in a parallel way when you entered the room and they were sitting next to each other. The empty one was next to the window.

“So you’re Naomi, huh? We’ve been hearing a lot about you,” said Ino. “Glad to meet you, I'm Yamanaka Ino. Come on, let me help you make your bed.” She motioned for me to help her.

We both worked together to make my bed. My covers were a baby blue color mixed with light purple. I set everything down and she sat down in front of me.

“OK, first things first: I'm Ino, but you already know that! It really is a pleasure to meet you, Naomi. We’ve been waiting a long time for your arrival. Hope we can be the best of friends,” said Ino, and I smiled.

“I hope so too, Ino,” I commented.

“I can tell you’re gonna fit in just fine. Come on, I’ll show you around. By now everyone is in the dinning hall. So don’t expect us to bump into anybody.” She smiled at me and we walked out, me leaving everything in the room.

“OK, the very first rule that you must understand is that this school is divided into three buildings. Female, main, and male.” We walked out of the building and walked towards the main one. She turned to look at me just midway of the path “That’s the girls’ building,” she said, pointing to the building we just walked out of. “That’s the main one, where most of all our classes will be,” she pointed to the building that we were heading towards. “And that’s the boys’ one.” She said and pointed to a building that was really far away. It was on the other side of the school garden. “We are not allowed over there during the night for obvious reasons, but some kids do it anyway.”

“Why would they do it?” I asked.

“Because they’re stupid like that. Tsunade-sama has her ways of finding you.” She smiled.

We kept walking and Ino showed me around the main building where almost all the classes were. She also told me a few rules, like no running in the halls or no food in class and stuff like that. She said not to be afraid in my first day of school and that I was bound to fit right in. We went to go get my schedule and I read over it.

1. Chemistry
2. Math
3. PE
4. Drama
5.Lunch
6. English
7. World History

“Yay!!! We have all of our classes together!!!” Ino said, pulling me into a friendly hug. She pulled away. “Come on, let’s go get breakfast.”

She walked me to the lunchroom, which was filled with people and noise. I followed Ino to a table where a girl with short, pink hair and green eyes, a girl with long, raven-blue hair and white eyes, and a girl with brown eyes and hair were sitting. I felt all of their eyes on me and I blushed like crazy. If I had known that I was gonna attract this much attention, then I would have dressed in something less noticeable. We sat down and Ino presented me to the girls. The pink-haired girl’s name was Haruno Sakura; the raven-haired girl’s name was Hyuga Hinata; and the brown-haired girl was Tenten.

“I am so glad we get new uniforms this year. Our last uniforms were yucky!!!” said Ino and stuck her tongue out at the last word of the sentence. “In my opinion, I think that the new uniforms are much much better.”

“Ah-greed,” said Sakura. “So, Naomi-san, what school do you come from?” she asked, looking at me.

“I um, I don’t come from any school. I was home-schooled all my life,” I admitted.

“Really?” asked Hinata. “Why did your parents decided to sign you up for school all of the sudden?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

“Then that means that all of this is new to you, right?”

“Yep.”

Ino patted my back and I looked at her. “Then don’t worry, we’ll help you get accustomed to the people. I mean, high school is not that bad once you’re used to it.”

“Yeah, in fact, high school is the bomb!!!” added Sakura.

I smiled and they started to tell me about school and the way people would act. I could already tell that I would like high school way better than being home-schooled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto and his friends were at their usual table, when Kiba sat down and leaned in.

“Hey, you guys heard?” he asked and they all nodded no. “The new girl arrived today.”

“How do you know?” asked Shikamaru.

“I got my ways,” said Kiba all high and mighty. “Can’t wait till we meet her.”

And then, as if he was calling her, the doors to the lunch room flew open. Naruto and his table turned to look who it was and they all saw Ino walk in with a girl with light creamy skin walking behind her. The girl had blonde hair and was looking sporty-chic in a blousy orange-and-white striped rugby tee and black short shorts. She sat down with Ino. They all stared at the new girl and everyone looked at each other except Naruto.

“If that’s the new girl, then I call dibs on her,” said Kiba.

“You can’t call dibs on her,” said Lee.

“Why?”

“Because I was gonna call dibs on her.”

“Guys, you can’t call dibs on a person that you don’t even know,” said Shino.

“Huh, you’re just trying to get her all by yourself,” argued Kiba.

The guys started to fight but Naruto wasn’t listening, he kept staring at the new girl. Her blonde hair looked soft and silky; her light creamy skin looked delicate, as if it could tear easily kinda like paper. He couldn’t quite see the girls face but hoped that he could tomorrow when school started again. He hoped that he could at least have one class with her. He smiled; maybe they could become friends right away.

“Hey, Naruto!!!” Kiba threw Naruto a piece of bread.

Naruto turned to look at him. “What was that for?!” he replied madly.

“Stop daydreaming about my future girlfriend.”

“As if! Why would she want to go out with you?”

“I just have a feeling.”

“Sure, sure.”

Naruto started to eat his ramen. School started tomorrow and the only reason they were here today was to get everything straightened up. Naruto was going to share his room with Kiba and Neji. Then a thought hit him.

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t join the Sasuke fan club,” commented Naruto.

“Yeah, I mean, Sasuke gets all the girls. How about at least one doesn’t join the club?” added Neji.

“Let’s just hope that he doesn’t fall in love with her. You know how it happens in the movies: the hot stud falls in love with the girl that doesn’t love him back,” said Lee.

“Sasuke? Falling in love? Don’t make me laugh. That’s like asking Justin Beaver to sing a Marilyn Manson song. It can’t be done,” joked Naruto and the table started to laugh.

“Really, imagine Justin trying to sing one of those songs - he would just kill the song!!!” laughed Shikamaru.

As the table kept on telling jokes, Naruto hoped that the new girl would like his jokes but also hoped that she wouldn’t like Sasuke too. Loosing Sakura to Sasuke was bad enough and he didn’t know if he could take another hit like that. Let’s just cross our finger and hope for the best,thought Naruto.

I felt someone tugging on my shoulder; I slightly opened my eyes to see Ino in her bunny pajamas and her hair all messed up. She was getting ready to push me off the bed.

“OK!! OK, I'm up!!” I said, sitting up and raising my hands as if giving up.

She giggled. “Come on, Naomi. You don’t want be late for your very first day of school,” she said

I got up and put on my uniform. It included a white, pleated skirt; black, long socks; and brown, lace-up boots. I put on a black, long-sleeve shirt with a white, princess seam jacket with black outlines, with the pockets inside the jacket so no one could see them. There were Konoha leaves as buttons to button up the front and also on the sleeves, and a red bow knot just below the neck. I fixed my hair into a half ponytail and tied it with a red silk ribbon. I walked out to see Ino all set to go.

“You look so cute!!!” squealed Ino.

I smiled. “Thanks!!”

“Come on!! Let’s go get breakfast.” She grabbed my hand, then her books, and we walked to the lunchroom.

We walked in and we walked towards the same table that we sat in before. It was a booth that was sitting next to the window that gave you the view to the pool that they had here. I could only make out chairs, light posts, and the outline of the pool from here.

“Don’t worry we’ll go to the pool soon,” said Sakura, making me look at her.

I smiled. “I was just looking outside for a minute.”

“Wait till you see the football field.” She smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto woke up and sat up to see Kiba and Neji putting on their new uniforms. He yawned, stretched his arms and scratched the back of his head. Their room was a chocolate color; Naruto’s bed was beside the window, Kiba’s bed was next to his, and Neji’s was on the other side of the room. Naruto had brown covers with a mini-pillow in the shape of a bowl of ramen that he won on a carnival once. Kiba’s bed had gray covers with a white dog pillow and Neji's had a light blue cover with the Hyuuga symbol on the headboard.

Naruto stood and went to go get ready for school. He guessed that he kinda liked this new uniform better than the last one. It was a black shirt with a red tie and then a white waistcoat with black outlines and the buttons were Konoha’s leaf symbol. Over that was a white jacket with black outlines, two side pockets and leaf buttons. The pants were plain white, and the socks shoes were both black.

“Hey, Neji,” said Naruto.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“What classes you got this year?”

“Same as you. Now hurry up or we’re leaving without you.”

“No, wait!!” Naruto shouted, trying to stop his two friends from leaving him behind. He was trying to put his shoe on.

He fell on the ground and cussed a little; he put it on, then grabbed his books and walked out. He walked towards breakfast. They sat on the east side of the lunchroom in a large booth big enough to fit the entire group. Naruto looked around for the new girl but she was nowhere to be found. He sighed and hoped to see her soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ino had dragged me to a tiled bathroom that had six stalls. A mirror was right above the water faucet. She was fixing her hair by brushing it. Sakura and the others decided to go on to class; they wanted to come but Ino told them to go on without us.

“Excited about your first day of school, Naomi?” she asked while putting the brush away and then got eyeliner out from the same pocket, and then started to apply some.

“Kinda. I mean, what if I don’t fit right in?” I asked, looking at her as I leaned on the green wall with my books on my hands

“Don’t worry,” she said as she put the eyeliner in her pocket. “Something tells me that you are going to fit in.” She put her hands on my shoulders with an assuring smile. “Besides, if you don’t fit in, you already have us!!” she said, pointing at herself. The bell rang and she gasped. “Oh my god!!! Run!!!” she said, grabbing my hand then her books. “If we run we might make it.” She dragged me down the halls. I saw a door about to close. “Wait!! We’re here!!” she said, pushing the door open.

A man with a black beard stood there and then the tardy bell rang “Almost late on your first day of school, Ino?” he asked.

“I'm sorry, we got caught up in the bathroom,” said Ino.

The man sighed. “Come in already,” he said.

She smiled and pulled me inside; we stood there on the doorway. I blushed twenty different colors. Did I had to make such a dramatic entrance on my first day of school? I saw Sakura sitting next to a black haired boy and that was about it for our group. I saw Ino whispering something to Asuma. He then looked at me.

“Class, we have a new student joining us today,” said Asuma

Oh no, please tell me I don’t have to do an introduction like in the movies!! I thought.

“Her name is Yoshida Naomi.” He put his hand on my right shoulder and walked me to the front of the room. I felt my face getting hot. “She’ll be joining us for the rest of the year and this is her first year here. So I hope that all of you will be nice to her.” Was it getting hot in here? “Is there anything you would like to say, Naomi?” he asked, looking at me.

I blushed even more, if it was possible. “I, uh…. Well… I don’t know…. Uh… No, I guess?” I heard Ino sigh.

Asuma smiled at me. “OK, now you will be sitting with….” he started, looking around. I only see two tables where I could sit. One was with a brown-haired guy with black eyes and the other one was with a blonde guy with crystal-blue eyes. “Uzumaki Naruto, since he and Ino don’t work well together. Naruto raise your hand so she can see who you are.”

“But Asuma-sensei, are you sure? I mean, Naruto is not exactly the sharpest person in this school,” said the brown-haired guy, and there were a few chuckles.

“HEY!!! At least I got a higher grade than you last year in this same class!!!” the boy I knew as Naruto said while looking at him.

“I am aware of that, Kiba, but Naomi here had an outstanding score for this class and I think that she might be able to help Naruto.”

“But if I made a bad grade, shouldn’t I be sitting with Naomi?”

“No and that’s final. Naomi, go and take a seat with Naruto and don’t worry, they’re like this all the time,” he said, looking at me with an assuring smile.

I started to walk towards the table on the south side of the room. Ino went to sit with the boy I knew as Kiba but that didn’t matter to me. What mattered to me right now was my clumsiness; whenever I got nervous I would become really clumsy and the stares of my classmates weren’t helping at all.

Please don’t let me trip, please don’t let me trip, please don’t let me….

I tripped with my own shoes, and there were a few chuckles and my face turned red like a tomato. I reached the table and sat down immediately, sitting my books in front of me and my hands on my lap. I let my hair fall down my shoulders and cover my face; I had to calm down before I said something embarrassing. I started to doodle whoever knows what till the end of class. We were allowed to talk as long as we stayed in our seats.

“Hi.” I looked up to see Naruto, who was smiling widely at me. “My name’s Uzumaki Naruto but you already know that. You’re Yoshida Naomi, right?”

“Y-yes.” I answered.

“Can I ask you something?” I nodded my head ‘yes’ and he took my drawing of something. “What is this suppose to be?” I shrugged my shoulders “Because to me it looks like a deformed, pregnant frog.”

I chuckled and took the drawing back, lightly touching his fingers. “It kinda does look like that.”

“So where do you come from?”

“Sand Village.”

“What school did you go to?”

“I, uh, I haven’t gone to a school. All my life I’ve been home-schooled.”

He became quiet. “Soooo you’ve never had any friends before?”

I chuckled. “Yes, I did, it’s just that I never got close to them, due to the fact that they were busy all the time.”

“What about boyfriends?”

“If I didn’t had time for friends, what makes you think that I had time for boyfriends?”

He chuckled. “You’re right, sorry.”

Even though I just met him, there was something about him that told me that I could trust him. Never in my life had I ever felt like this. I felt that I could open up to him, tell him about me, but I didn’t even know anything about him other than his name. I felt that if I looked too deep into his crystal-blue eyes, I’d be bound to drown in them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto took a deep breath and said hi to Naomi. He was surprised when she told him that she’d never had a boyfriend before, because she was really beautiful. Her creamy light skin was so soft and looked so delicate. He felt her violet eyes pulling him in; he felt as if they sucked his energy out. She was prettier than he imagined. It was so hard to believe that she’d been single all her life. The bell rang, and she gathered her things up.

“What do you have next?” he asked.

“Um, let me see,” she said, taking out her schedule. Naruto crossed his fingers, hoping she had math next with Iruka-sensei. “Math with a guy named Iruka,” she said and Naruto felt himself relax.

“Hey, that’s where I'm going next. Mind if I walk you?”

“Um, Ino is gonna go with me.” And, as if calling her, Ino walked over.

“Ready, Naomi?” Naomi turned to look at Ino and nodded yes.

She then turned to look at him. “See ya in second period then,” said Naruto, and she smiled at him and then she left with Ino.

Naruto grabbed his stuff and walked out of that class.

“NARUTO!!!!!” screamed Kiba, jumping right in front of him and making Naruto jump.

“What?!” replied Naruto.

“I hope you weren’t flirting with my soon-to-be-girlfriend.,” Kiba said and they started to walk towards their next class. “So what did you find out about her?”

“You want her 411? Go get it yourself!!!”

“Aww, come on, just one thing?”

Naruto stared at him “Fine. She’s been home schooled all her life. There, now bye!!” said Naruto and walked straight ahead.

“Aww, come on, you got more info than that. I would tell you,” Kiba said, trying to keep up with him.

Naruto let out a long sigh. “All she told me is that she’s never had a boyfriend before. There. Happy?”

“Wait, she’s never had a boyfriend? Then that means that I'm gonna be her first kiss. See ya, Naruto. I hope she has PE next,” Kiba said, running away.

“Hate to break it to ya, but she has math next with Iruka!!” shouted Naruto

"God Dammit!" Kiba complained.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sat down in the front next to Ino, and she started to tell me how hard this class was, but I wasn’t afraid. I was really good at math. Iruka then told me to go to the principals’ office, and then Naruto walked in and Iruka asked him to walk me there. We left our stuff and walked towards the office.

“So how you like school so far, Naomi?” he asked, and I turned my head to look at him.

“I like it so far and I gotta say, it’s nothing I expected to be,” I replied.

“What, you expected it to be haunted and scary?”

I giggled. “No! I expected it to be, you know, hard to fit in. Mean girls, people bullying other people.”

“Well, Tsunade-sama has a good way of keeping things under control. Here we go, this is her office,” he said and I turned to look at him.

“Arigato , Naruto!!!”

I gave him a warm smile, turned and walked in. I saw a short-haired girl sitting in front of a computer, typing. She looked up at me.

“Hi, Naomi. Well, come on in. Tsunade has something to tell you and don’t worry, it’s not bad,” she said and I followed her to Tsunade’s office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto liked the way Naomi giggled, he couldn’t help but think that she’s so cute.

“Well, Tsunade-sama has a good way of keeping things under control. Here we go, this is her office,” he said and she turned to look at him.

“Arigato, Naruto!!!”

She gave him a warm smile, and his heart skipped a beat and he blushed. She walked in, not seeing his blush, and Naruto stood there. He smiled. She made him feel so happy, being with her made him smile, and time seemed to have slowed down. He wanted to be her friend, but he hoped that someday they could be something much more than friends.

"Naruto, you didn’t even know her that long," he said to himself.

His thoughts went to Sakura, his life-long crush. He couldn’t love Naomi, he just met her an hour ago. Maybe he liked her, but as a friend. Besides he'd been working to get Sakura's attention all his life and he wasn't about to stop now, especially when he was sure that he was gonna get a date with her and then they could be happy together. Naruto smiled. Maybe Naomi could help him hook up with Sakura.

I was sitting on the apple-pie scented office with Tsunade-sama, who sat across from me behind her desk. She was typing something on her computer.

“I want to apologize for not have being able to show you around the other day,” she said, now looking at me. “I just had so many things to do that day. Anyway, how do you feel about school so far?” she asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

“So far, so good. Ino presented me to some of her friends and I feel as if I can fit right in.”

“That’s good. I expect the best from you. You got an outstanding score for the entrance exam, the best in school, I’ll give you that,” she said, looking at some papers. “Anyway, if you ever feel like changing classes, just tell me and I’ll see what I can do,” she said with a friendly smile

“But enough about that, let me tell you what I was supposed to tell you yesterday. As you saw yesterday, there are three floors in this building. The cafeteria, school kitchen, sports hall, swimming pool, changing rooms and office are on the first floor. By the office is also a staffroom and school store. I will note that the latter two are off-limits for students who are not accompanied by an adult member of the staff. The archives contain your current file. This file contains absolutely everything about you, but since this is your first year in a boarding school, the only data we have on you is your name, birth date, family, etc. That’s where all the trouble you ever get in is filed as well. I expect you to keep it empty. Is that all clear for you so far?” she asked.

She stared at me and her facial expression was no longer friendly as before, but serious and severe. I slowly nodded yes as all the data was slowly registered in my brain. Yeah, that’s another thing about me: I'm really slow when it comes to understanding things. For example, my older brother loves to tell jokes, so he told me: ‘One time, a man came to town on Friday, stays for three days, then leaves on Friday. How did he do it?’ ‘His horse name was Friday’. You know how long it took me to actually get it? Practically all day.

“The classrooms are scattered on the second and third floor. On the third floor is the school library and school physician’s office and workroom. The dormitories are separated in two different buildings, the boys’ building in the west side of the school and the girls’ in the eastern. The school day begins at 9:00 and ends at 15:30. What you do in your free time we don’t care, you just have to follow the rules.”

She handed me a yellow book that was not so big but not so small either. I guessed this was the rule book. I took it and flipped over it. How many rules do they have?

“You will have permission to go outside the school district when the school day is over, but only if you’re back by 21:00. We have no definite time for lights out…” She waited for me to say anything but since I didn’t, she kept going. “… but I still advise you to go to bed at 22:00 to be able to manage school the next day. But, it has to be silent after 21:30 out of consideration to your classmates. And, as a last point, I just want to point out that no one, no matter if it’s a girl or a boy, may be present among the opposite sex’s dormitories after the clock has struck 21:30, for obvious reasons. Have I expressed myself clearly enough?”

It took me 10 minutes to record the data into my brain, and then understand what 21:30 and 22 meant. I nodded yes again, and she smiled friendly at me. She told me I could go back to class now, so I walked back to class. I knocked on the door and Iruka-sensei said to come in. When I walked in, my face changed ten different colors. I completely hated being the center of attention. I don’t like the spotlight being on me, I don’t like being a leader, and I don’t like all the attention. I’d rather be a follower, an outcast, another person who’s sitting in the bench, a member of the crowd. I walked towards my desk and sat down. We took some notes on what was expected from us, rules and what we’d be learning.
The bell then rang and we walked to PE. I went to the girls’ locker room and changed into my gym uniform, which included black shorts with white outlines and a white T-shirt. We then walked out and sat down on the bleachers, waiting for class to begin

“Guy-sensei may scare you a bit. He’s always talking about youth and stuff like that,” said Ino, fixing her ponytail.

“Wait, Gay-sensei?” I asked and she nodded. “Hey, G…” I was about to ask him what we’d be doing today, but Ino put her hand on my mouth.

“GUY-sensei, G-U-Y. Not G-A-Y” she said and let go of my mouth.

“Oh, well, who had the bright idea to name him that?! I swear, it sounded like Gay!!” I commented and she chuckled. We then burst out laughing.

GUY-sensei then told us to start running around the football field. After gym we walked to drama with ‘Kurenai-sensei’, and after that we went to lunch. We got our lunch and walked to a U-shaped table. I recognized the girls from our gang but didn’t recognize the boys.

“Hello, peoples!!!” said Ino. I sat down beside a pale kid with black hair. Ino sat in between us. “Guys, this is Yoshida Naomi. She’s new here and has been home-schooled all her life. Now Naomi, it’s time you meet the gang. Sitting next to you is Inuzuka Kiba – he has Chemistry with us – and next to him is Hyuga Neji , Hinata’s cousin. Next to him is Tenten, and next to her is Lee Rock. Next to him is Akimichi Chouji, who’s best friends with the guy next to him, Nara Shikamaru. Next to him is Aburame Shino – he likes bugs – and next to him is Hinata, then Naruto, then Sakura, then Sai – AKA my boyfriend – then me and then you!!” she said cheerfully. “You ok?”

“Y-yeah,” I said, trying to stop my head from going in circles. “Just remembering their names.” I smiled and started to eat my fries.

“Glad you could join us, Naomi!” said Kiba, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. I looked at him and blushed.

“HEY!! Stop hitting on Naomi!!” said Ino, slapping his hand. “She doesn’t even know you.” Kiba groaned and took off his arm around my shoulder. I stuck the straw into my juice box, and the table soon was full of talking. The others were talking across the table, telling how happy they were that they were back to school and how much they loved the new school uniform. They asked me about myself and I told them about my family shyly

“Hey, guys. Heads up. The Hell Children are coming this way,” Shikamaru muttered, glaring at the group of kids walking towards us.

“Hell Children? Who are they?” I pestered. Kiba turned to me.

“They’re the Hebi Gang. We call them the Hell Children because we believe they are actually Satan’s children.”

“Oh…” I mumbled. The Hebi Gang walked up to our table, and then stopped a few feet in front of our table

“Hey, Forehead. You still haven’t bothered to change that horrible color of that pathetic mop you call your hair?” the magenta-haired girl with glasses said to Sakura, clearly making fun of her.

“You dumbass, you practically have the same hair color as her, Karin.” Said a tall boy with white hair.

“Shut your big fat mouth, Suigetsu!” the girl, now identified as Karin, snapped at the boy I now knew as Suigetsu.

“Speak for yourself…” said a brown-haired girl with bangs going over her left eye.

“Do I have to say it to you too, Mizuki [1]!?” Karin snapped at the girl.

“Try it and I’ll kick your ass!” Mizuki shouted back to Karin, raising a fist to her.

“Guys. Enough,” said a short, green-haired girl with pigtails. “I don’t need you guys fighting.”

“You’re not the boss of us, Yumiko[2].” Karin glared at the green-haired girl.

“Zip it, or I will punch you in your crappy, lousy face, Pinky.” Yumiko threatened, grabbing the collar of Karin’s school uniform, and pulling her down so she was eye level with her. Karin gave off a worried look and gulped. Yumiko let Karin down. She looked at me, and then an evil, mean smirk grew across her face. “Hey, look. There’s the new kid we’ve been expecting. Looks like she’s lost her dignity already by hanging out with the rest of these losers.” She clicked her tongue “Too bad, she would have fit perfectly in Hebi.”

“Heh. She must feel right at home,” Mizuki mocked me. The rest of the Hell Children started to laugh.

Ino stood defiantly. “SO?! She doesn’t care. Besides, nobody wants you to spoil her and fill her head with bullshit!!!” Ino clenched her hand, holding the urge to punch them in the face. The Hell children fell silent and stared at her. I stared up at her. I owed her one.

Then, I saw another boy walking towards us. He had dark, raven-colored hair, and onyx eyes.

“God. I leave you alone for ten minutes, and you’re already at someone’s throat? We aren’t even done with the first day of school and you’re already starting a fight,” The boy said, sounding irritated. But his eyes remained emotionless.

“Hey, don’t look at me and Suigetsu. It was all Karin. Besides, where were you, huh, Sasuke?” Mizuki glared at the onyx-eyed boy known as Sasuke. He was silent for a moment. He looked at the rest of the Hell Children.

“Juugo,” he stated plainly. The rest of the Hebi Gang either sighed, groaned, or rolled their eyes.

“Fuck, not again. That guy…”

“Come on, everyone. I think these guys are already freaked out by us enough,” Karin stated, glaring at Sakura.

“Don’t you mean are freaked out by you?” Yumiko teased meanly.

“Enough. Both of you. Now let’s leave,” Sasuke stated coldly. The Hebi Gang gave us a group glare and walked away. We were all silent for a moment, until Ino sighed and sat back down.

“That was Uchiha Sasuke, the group’s leader. The hottest and coolest guy in school, but don’t bother flirting with him. He would never acknowledge you, ” said Ino.

“KYA!!! But that’s what makes him so dreamy!!! He’s such a bad boy!!!” squealed Sakura.

“And Sakura has a major crush on him. He doesn’t acknowledge any of his fan girls because he doesn’t care. And if he were ever to acknowledge you, then he wants something from you. So don’t even bother,” Ino finished saying.

“…And you don’t wanna get on their bad side either…” Naruto groaned.

“Well… wasn’t that… pleasant…?” I mumbled awkwardly.

“Well, that’s Hebi for ya… always aiming to make your life complete crap…” Kiba whined, lying his head down on the lunch table.

“Look out mainly for the girls, though. Yumiko, Mizuki and Karin… they’re all major bitches,” Ino said, rubbing her temples. “And don’t even think of flirting with Sasuke in front of them or you’re dead meat.”

“Why would she flirt with Sasuke?” Lee asked, and she looked at him and smiled.

“You’re right. Sorry, Naomi.”

“Arigato, Ino,” I said and she turned to look at me.

“For what?”

“For sticking up for me.”

She smiled sweetly at me. “No prob!! Besides, no one in this table would want you to become a member of their gang. You’re too sweet for that.”

I smiled at her and we kept eating.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Hebi Children sat down at their regular table that was in the far right corner.

“Man, Karin, you really wanted to start a fight today, didn’t you?” said Suigetsu, sitting next to Sasuke.

“Shut up, Suigetsu,” replied Karin.

“Did anyone else noticed the new girl?” asked Yumiko.

“Of course we did, dumbass, who wouldn’t have noticed her with you laughing at her,” barked Karin.

“Hmph, whatever. Pinky.”

“Although the new girl is pretty cute,” Suigetsu added, looking across room, staring at the blonde. “Like Yumiko said, too bad they got to her before us.”

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t become a nuisance or else,” commented Yumiko, drinking her apple juice.

“Well wasn’t that an… interesting class?” I said mainly to myself. Ino, Naruto, Hinata, Sai, Neji and I walked out of the class. The reason I said that was because our sensei for that class was a guy named Morino Ibiki and he was really strict. Not only that, but two of the Hebi members were in that class, Nakamura Mizuki and Uchiha Sasuke, and thank god I didn’t have to sit by them.

“Get used to it. Ibiki-sensei is strict like that. And watch out when there are tests out!” Naruto warned , who was walking to my right.

“Well just one more class and then we can go to the outside world!!!” said Ino, with Sai’s arm wrapped around her shoulder.

We walked to World History, which was taught by Hatake Kakashi. Sai went to Mitarashi Anko’s who taught Art class and Hinata went to Yamoto’s class who taught Psychology . The rest of us walked to World History . We walked through the door and, to our dislike, three Hebi members were sitting at the very back. Hozuki Suigetsu, Suzuki Yumiko and Uchiha Sasuke turned to look at us. Yumiko and Sasuke glared at us but Suigetsu was smirking at me. Ino placed me down on the front seat of the first row and she sat behind me. Naruto took the seat to my right and Neji sat behind him. The tardy bell rang and Kakashi-sensei closed the door.


"Thank God the day is over." Ino said while stretching her arms over her head. We all stood and walked out of that class. Naruto yawned.

“Meh, it wasn't that bad..." Naruto said. “Sometimes it’s more boring!!”

"I agree, sometimes it’s worse. But I'm still glad that school is over,” commented Ino. "Sooooo, how was your first day here, Naomi?" I snorted a little.

"It was....interesting," I said with a smile. I rubbed the back of my head. "I do like it here though. I love everything! I could do without a couple of the students, though..."

"Don't worry about them. They're trouble makers. I advise you steer clear of them, " Neji recommended. I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I got that. I already don't want to be involved."

“Just don’t get in their way and they will leave you alone.”

We said bye and walked towards our assigned rooms. Ino threw her books on the nightstand and fell on the bed. Hinata and I sat down and set our books beside us.

“I’m so glad school is finally over!” said Ino, looking up from the pillow to look at us “Bad thing is…”

“We have to go back tomorrow,” finished Hinata, laying back on her bed. “And homework to be done with.” She rubbed her temples.

I laid down on bed and stared at the ceiling while Ino and Hinata started to talk. OK, so maybe boarding school was a LOT different from being home-schooled. At least at home I didn’t have to see scary looking girls who would kill me if I ever were to bother them. But at least I get to have more friends than I ever would have if I had been home-schooled. I wondered why the Hebi children were mean to people that they didn’t even know and why would they bother Ino and the others? Then again, I haven’t been hanging out with them long enough to know what exactly is the main reason of why they hold a grudge against them. I thought back to their leader, Sasuke. Why is he the leader? I rolled over to the side and looked outside the window, seeing the tress and to the setting sun. Something hit me on the face and I looked over at Ino.

“Huh?” I asked.

“I asked you something. Didn’t you listen to me?” she said, sitting up and looked straight at me.

“Sorry, but no,” I said kicking my shoes off.

“What you thinking about?”

“Wondering,” I said looking back out the window.

“About?”

“Just comparing private school with being home-schooled,” I said, not looking away from the orange sky and the dark trees. That wasn’t the only thing I was thinking about; the other thing was the Hebi gang.

“How is it going so far?” asked Hinata, breaking my train of thought.

“So far I like it!” I said, finally looking at them.

“It gets better!” I smiled a sweet smiled at them.

“OK, now we have to do this homework!” whined Ino as she took out her math book and flipped the pages. “Seriously, only Asuma-sensei has the great idea to give us homework on our first day of school! Ugh! I hate having to do homework!!” Hinata laughed and I looked out the window once again and hugged my shark plushy
“Hey, Naomi.” I heard Ino.

“Yeah?” I asked, looking at her

“Could you please help me? I heard that you got an outstanding score on the algebra test.”

“Sure,” I replied and walked over to her bed to help her. After wards, Hinata and Ino talked about how people had changed. I just ignored it and kept looking out the window and wondered what high school had in store for me. Maybe it was gonna be fun and entertaining. After all, isn’t that what always happens in the movies?

We woke up and it was basically the same drill as yesterday. The only unusual thing was during Chemistry, where Naruto and I got into an interesting conversation
“Konichiwa, Naomi-san!” he said cheerfully. .

“Konichiwa, Naruto-kun!”

“We’re lucky that Asuma-sensei hasn’t left us a lot of homework,” he commented, taking his pencil out.

“What you mean?” I asked, a little confused, writing down the question of the day.’

“Normally, Asuma-sensei would have left us an assignment on what we did over the summer.”

“Why?”

“Well, he’s just curious like that,” he said, taking his eyes off his paper and looking at me. “I’m surprised he didn’t.” I shrugged my shoulders and started to write down the answer. “Uh, Naomi-san?” he asked and I looked at him.

“Yeah?”

“Do you know the answer?”

I couldn’t help but giggle at his question. I smiled at and told him “Ksp = [Ca][F]^2 ”

“Uh, how you got that?” he asked, more confused while writing it down.

“It’s a little complicated.”

“Aw come on, please?”

I smiled and was about to tell him when Asuma-sensei walked in and the class started. I didn’t really pay attention because it was a lesson that I had already learned but took notes anyway so I wouldn’t look like a smart-aleck. The bell rang and I started to gather up my things when the intercom came on.

“Yoshida Naomi, please report to the library. Yoshida Naomi ,please report to the library.” I froze.

“You know where it is?” I turned to look at Naruto.

“No and I feel as if I would get lost.” I asked, trying to keep cool. Before I had started school, my older sister, Aiko, who is now in college, had told me about her three Cs . She told me that if I followed them then I would be OK . The three Cs stood for: Cool, Calm and Collected

But by now I wasn’t following any of them and I didn’t know if that was good or bad. She had more experience with people because she was used to them but I wasn’t.
“Want me to walk you there?” he asked.

“Sure!” I said, relieved that I wouldn’t have to look around or walk around the school like a retarded person. He smiled and motioned me to follow him. We walked out and I waved bye to Ino, who was too distracted with Sai to notice me, since he had come to pick her up. Naruto stopped me when we were in front of a glass door.

“OK, here we go,” he said.

“Arigato, Naruto. Why you think that they called me here anyway?”

“Well, they DO have to take your picture for your ID card; we all take it a few days before school starts.”

“Why?”

“So we can get them as soon as possible.” He smiled at me and I felt light-headed. “Want me to take your books to Iruka-sensei’s class?” he asked.

It took me a minute to come out of La-La land. “Yeah, I would like that.” I smiled and he took my books. our fingers brushed and I felt a shiver run down my spine.

“OK, then, see ya back at Algebra,” he said and walked past me. I turned to look at him turning a corner. I shivered one last time and walked inside. It was done faster than I thought; they gave me a tardy pass and I walked out, only to find out that I didn’t know my way back. The tardy bell rang and I started to panic. I walked down the path that I saw Naruto walking down, my mind occupied with so many different things. I bumped into someone, making both of us fall down to the ground. I looked up and I jump off him. He groaned and looked at me. His eyes were a dark color, a dark that scared me. They were emotionless and cold. He looked at me and smirked.

“You’re that new girl. Naomi, right?” he asked.

“Y- yeah,” I managed to say while he stood and stared at me. I quickly got up, not wanting to look inferior to him.

He reached out. I closed my eyes, scared of what he would do. There was something about him that made me scared, but what? Was I just scared because of what the others had told me about him? Or was it just a feeling that he made me feel? I felt him brush a hair strand behind my ear and I opened my eyes. He stared at me and I tried my best not to stare at his eyes.

“Hmph, let’s see how long you keep that pretty face.” He whispered and walked past me. I felt a pressure lift off my shoulders as I heard his footsteps getting farther and farther away. I shuddered as if a cold breeze had blown over me. What did he mean by that? I jumped at the sound of my cell phone, which brought me back to reality once again. I took it out and saw that I had gotten a new email from my sister. I decided to check it out later tonight, if I had time.

I put up my cell phone and walked back to class. Luckily, I found it not so late. I walked in and sat down where I sat down yesterday. I gave Iruka the note and took out my binder. I kept thinking of what my sister e-mailed me. I wasn’t lying; school was fun so far and I knew that it would stay that way. I hoped.

My meeting with Sasuke has had me a little uneasy this whole day. Not just the fact that I can't understand what he meant with:

‘Let’s see how long you keep that pretty face.’

Or the fact that he was considered the school’s hottest and coolest guy, including that he was the leader of Hebi, a group of kids that I definitely DON’T want to mess around with. I found myself asking myself questions in the middle of Kakashi-sensei’s class. Would Sasuke always turn all of his ‘fan girls’- as Ino had said they were known as – down or just used them for… I shook that dirty thought away before I could even think of the word. If he only used them or turned them down then what made him so attractive? Why do the girls keep following him like idiots? I let out a sigh; I guess I’m just gonna have to find out but there’s no way I’ll get involved.

Or you can ask Sakura. I thought. At least that way I won't get killed. I added as the thought of the three girls came into my mind. Mizuki, Yumiko, and Karin.

What made them want to be mean to people and why do they mainly bother Ino and her friends? Then again, I haven’t hung out long enough with these guys to know they are the main ones they bother. Karin seemed to have some serious business with Sakura. Mizuki seemed like she didn’t have a problem with anybody but still decides to be mean to everyone. And Yumiko seemed to be the meanest of them all and, despite her height, she practically scared the crap out of Karin when she had snapped at her. I don’t think I even wanna get involved with her, not with any of them the very least. But if I had to choose, I guess I would go with Mizuki; at least she doesn’t have a problem with anybody.

The guys I couldn’t seem to decide. I don’t know enough about Suigetsu to actually know if we could ever get along. Sasuke, well I don’t know about that one. And I think they mentioned another member of Hebi but I can't seem to remember his name. Either way, I don’t think I want to mess around with any of them.

“And that includes our lesson for today,” said Kakashi-sensei, breaking my train of thought. The bell rang shortly after and I noticed everyone was starting to put their books up so I did the same. I walked out and waited for the others to come out. Suigetsu, Yumiko and Sasuke walked past me. I stared at Sasuke and remembered the words he said to me. I felt a cold chill run down my spine and shuddered at the memory. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand and I was starting to get goose bumps. I shook all of it away. I watched as they walked down the halls to meet up with the rest of the Hebi gang and saw how the girls’ eyes sparkled when they saw Sasuke. What is so attractive about the Uchiha? I wondered.

“Hey, Naomi-san!” I heard a too familiar voice say behind me, and I turned to look at Naruto.

“Hi,” I said, “what happened to the rest of the guys?”

“Well, they’re inside asking about when we will go on a field trip.” He smiled warmly at me and I had a strange reaction. I felt… comfortable, my mind went blank and I forgot all about Hebi. My heart had skipped a beat and I just stared at him. “Hey, you ok?” he asked, bringing me back to reality.

I shook my head. “Yeah, I just…”

“Zoned out? Don’t worry, that happens to me sometimes,” he said, cutting me off.

Not too much later, everyone else walked out of class. Ino said that since tomorrow would be Friday, we should go to the mall and hang out. We invited everyone and they told me that I was going to meet some other friends that don’t go to this school. Ino and I walked towards our dorm to see Yumiko bullying some freshmen.

“How about you leave them alone, Yumiko?” Ino asked.

“Well, look who we have here,” said Yumiko, who had let go of the freshman and turned to look at us. “If it isn’t the new girl and Yamanaka, what are you doing here?” I hid behind Ino when she noticed me and the two freshmen girls left as soon as Yumiko turned her back to them.

“How about you go get a life!” said Ino.

“I have a life, thank you very much”

“Oh, for God’s sake! You following that asshole Uchiha around like a little lost puppy is called ‘having a life’?”

“Excuse me? What did you just call Sasuke-kun?” she said as if she might’ve heard wrong.

“Asshole. Is there a problem that I called him that?” defied Ino, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“As a matter of fact, yes there is.”

“Stop lying to yourself. Only because you’re one of the closest girl friends that Sasuke has does not mean that he could EVER love you!”

“Shut up, blondie!!”

“Whatever, shortie!!!”

Ino and Yumiko were sending death glares at each other and their distance had shortened. I knew that if they said another word to each other, something bad would happen.

“Ino, we have to go back to our dorm, remember?” I said trying to break their glares. Ino looked at me and calmed down. She let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, you’re right, sorry, Naomi. Lets go, she’s not even worth it.” She shot a dirty look at Yumiko again.

Yumiko scoffed. “Looks like you’re running away like always, you little slut.” Ino clenched her hands, and I intervened again.

“Ino, let’s go!” I started to drag her away.

“Hey, Naomi!!!” I heard Yumiko call out to me. I stopped and turned to look at her along with Ino. “You’re new here, so I’ll make things clear for you. You mess with me or anyone else in Hebi and I swear I’ll make your life a living hell,” she threatened.

“Oh shut your horn, Yumiko,” snapped Ino and we walked away. “I swear, if you hadn’t cut us off we would’ve started a fight,” commented Ino. She stopped and let out a long sigh then turned to look at me. “Sorry, but as you can see, Hebi bothers you the first time it gets,” she said with a warm smile and we kept walking. “Can’t believe we used to be friends,” Ino whispered and I looked at her. Her eyes only reflected sadness and pain.

“Ino?” I asked shyly, and she answered with an ‘hmm?’ “Never mind.” I shook my head. Why would I wanna know why Ino used to be friends with Yumiko? I didn’t want to be considered as a nosy person, I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t even have one week under my belt and I was already in everybody’s business. It was better to not say anything and keep my mouth shut till I’ve hung out long enough to ask a personal question. Besides, I don’t think Ino would tell me about it.

We walked towards our dorm and I helped them with their homework. The next day went by so fast, that before I knew it we were outside waiting for the others to come so we could leave. We were so eager to leave that we didn’t even bother to change. The guys only took off their jackets and vests with their shirt out and they loosened the tie. Some of the guys weren’t going, like Shino, who said he wanted to stay and study his bugs. I shivered at his excuse, which I hope he didn’t notice. Lee said he was going with Guy-sensei to go do some exercises, Chouji said that he was going to go visit his family because they where going to have a special dinner since his grandparents came over to visit. So the only ones coming were Naruto, Kiba, Neji, Sai and Shikamaru.

“Alright, we’ll see you in the mall then. Bye!” Said Ino, stealing a kiss from Sai. We waved bye and walked off. The girls were gonna drive in one car and the guys in another car. We walked to Ino’s silver Volvo. “I say since Naomi is new, she should ride shotgun.” and Hinata, Tenten and Sakura on the back. Once Ino turned on the car, ‘Love the way you lie’ by Beyonce featuring Eniminem started.

It didn’t take me long to find out that Ino loved to drive fast: she made sharp turns when needed and I felt as if I was flying by the other cars. I was surprised no cops had tried to stop her, not that I didn’t like it. She kinda reminded me of my sister in this category, only my sisters’ car was a red sports car and she loved to take the freeway. We arrived at the mall and we were there first, not that it surprised me. It would have surprised me if the guys would have gotten there before us. We walked straight to the food court and sat down at the biggest table there, which was next to a fountain. I noticed other young people staring at us and some talking while looking at us. The others simply ignored it and started talking.

“Nothing ever beats the weekends,” said Tenten.

“Got that right,” agreed Sakura. “Wait until Homecoming starts coming up and we’ll be the very first in these stores buying the cutest dress before anyone else gets them.”

“I know! I can't wait till Homecoming. What is it going to be this year? Boys’ choice or girls’ choice?”

“Does it matter? We already know who we’re going with,” chimed Ino.

“Ah, hello! Both you and Tenten already have a date. Like always, we know that you’re going to go with Sai and that Tenten is going with Neji, but some of us don’t have a date,” argued Sakura.

“We all know who you’re going to ask, Sakura, and we all know what he’s gonna say. Forget about Sasuke, you’re just wasting your time!” snapped Ino. “Every year you ask him and every year he says ‘no’ and every year you end up heartbroken for no smart reason at all!”

“Why can't you understand? I know he’ll say ‘yes’ eventually.”

“Whatever!”

“What are we discussing?” asked a familiar voice. Ino turned and saw Sai. She smiled and hugged him.

“Sakura, homecoming,” she said and Sai understood.

“Oh.”

“You know I can take you to the dance if you want, Sakura-chan,” offered Naruto who appeared behind Sai. Sakura didn’t say anything, just slumped on her seat and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Just you wait,” she said before looking away.

I stared at her and got lost in thought until I felt someone sitting next to me. I turned to see Kiba.

“Konichiwa, Naomi-san!” he said with a smile and I blushed when I noticed how close he was.

“K-k-konochiwa, Kiba-kun,” I said, trying my best not to blush.

“You’re gonna meet some new people today, Naomi. They’re from another school.”

“How come?”

“Well they just are… here they come.” He pointed towards a group of kids walking towards us. One had short, spiky red hair with heavy eyeliner, and he was wearing a brown shirt with a black jacket over it and jeans. The one standing to his right was a girl with spiky, dirty-blonde hair, and she had on a jean skirt with a light purple spaghetti shirt. To his right was a guy with brown hair, who was wearing a pair of jeans with a T-shirt that had a drawing of puppets. They reached our table.

“You’re here early,” said the red-haired boy.

“When are we late?” asked Naruto.

“Almost every time.”

“Whatever!!”

“Hey guys, this is the girl we told you about,” said Ino, all of the sudden making me stand. “Her name is Yoshida Naomi and she comes from Sand!” I felt my face get hot.

“Nice to meet you, Naomi, we’re from Sand too but we study here because we don’t get as bored,” said the brown-haired boy. “Either way, I’m Kankorou. This is my sister, Temari”

“Konichiwa,” said Temari.

“And that is Gaara. The smartest one of all us.” Gaara simply smiled at me and I smiled back.

“What you mean ‘smartest of all us’?! A squirrel is smarter than you!” snapped Temari.

“Shh!!” Kankorou shushed her, pressing a finger to his lips.

I chuckled and sat down again. Ino sat on the other side of me and Gaara, Temari and Kankorou sat in front of us. I then found out that Kankorou loved to joke around, Temari was a little more serious and Gaara was the most serious out of all the three of them. Naruto was a joker too, Kiba a flirt, Shikamaru who I could tell had a crush on Temari was just a lazy person, Ino was obsessed with a diet but Sai told her she looked fine, Sai loved art and didn’t mind to speak his mind, Hinata was shy like me, Sakura had a hard character, Tenten was a bit of a tomboy, Neji was serious. We laughed at one of Naruto’s joke and I took a sip off my coke.

“Hey, bakas, you’re at our table,” said a female voice and we looked over to see Hebi.

“Excuse me? But I don’t see your name on it,” Tenten said.

“We always sit here,” said Karin. She was wearing a shirt that showed her belly-button with a pair of jeans.

“Get lost, we were here first!” replied Temari.

“Nobody was talking to you, baka!!” snapped Mizuki, who was wearing a long-sleeve black dress that reached her knees and was puffy from the waist down. She was wearing a necklace and a pair of boots.

“What you just called me?” snapped Temari, standing to be face level with Mizuki.

“What, are you deaf now?”

“Temari ,let it go,” said Gaara when we noticed she was clenching her fist. “Let’s just go, we didn’t come here to fight.” He stood.

“Scared like always aren’t you, Gaara?” I heard a male voice say this time, and Sasuke walked from behind Yumiko. He glared at Gaara as if he was a sore. He had taken off his vest and had his shirt tucked out with his tie undone and wrapped around his shoulders. His shirt had two buttons undone and his jacket was still on. The girls started drooling as soon as they saw him.

“Uchiha Sasuke,” Gaara murmured.

“Oh god, not again,” whispered Ino.

“You ran away last time we started a fight. Are you too much of a wuss to actually stay and prove me wrong?” mocked Sasuke.

“I don’t have to, I know I am,” growled Gaara.

“It didn’t look like it last time we fought.”

“Just leave him alone, Sasuke!!!” screamed Naruto, standing from his seat. “You always wanna start crap when you see Gaara, don’t ya?!”

“Butt out, dobe [1].”

“No, I won't! Gaara and the others are my friends and if you think I’ll just stand here and watch, then you’re wrong!”

“This is none of your business, Naruto” hissed Sasuke.

“If you mess with my friends, then it is my business,” snapped Naruto. I couldn’t help but admire Naruto right now. I admired how he stood up for Gaara and was now at Sasuke’s eye level and glared back at him.

“Sasuke, let it go,” said Yumiko, trying to pull him back.

“We’re not on school grounds, so I don’t see how we can’t fight” he replied.

“What would your brother think!” Sasuke started to laugh and then out of nowhere punched Naruto, making Naruto stumbled backwards.

He stumbled back and then looked at Sasuke. His eyes then changed. They went from a friendly, soft blue to a cold and hard blue. He clenched his hands and then punched Sasuke back; Sasuke looked at him and threw another punch and soon I was witnessing my very own first fight. They had moved the tables and made trays fall down. People near to us crowded around to witness the fight and the ones sitting close moved to a nice distance so they wouldn’t get hit. I stared as Sasuke and Naruto were throwing punches and ducking against each other. I tried to move but couldn’t; I was frozen in place. When the police looked like they were about to get involved, Sai pulled Naruto away and Suigetsu pulled Sasuke away, both holding them down

“Let me go, Sai!” said Naruto, trying to break fee from Sai’s grasp. I noticed then how strong he really was. I could see his muscles through the sleeves of his shirt and quickly looked away.

“Calm down, Naruto!” Sai replied calmly.

“Let go!” Naruto shouted back.

Sasuke pulled away from Suigetsu’s grasp and fixed his sleeves and shirt, then glared back at Naruto. The girls around looked at Sasuke as if he was a piece of candy. What did the guy have that attracted so many girls? I kept asking myself. Was it the fact that he was a bad boy and girls love bad boys, especially when they’re hot?

“Listen dobe, don’t butt in where you’re not called,” he said coldly.

“I told you before; if you mess with my friends then it is my business, teme [1]!”spat Naruto.

Sasuke clenched his fist, ready to start another fight. Yumiko grabbed his right fist with her hands and he turned to look at her, his eyes containing nothing but coldness and rage. However, she looked at him with eyes that I never could’ve even imagined she could have: loving eyes. They were warm and soft.

“Don’t Sasuke, don’t waist your time on these amateurs,” she said softly. Her voice was as warm as honey and it was in a tone I had never heard her use or thought that she could use. Her voice was always cold and mean, not a single hint of friendliness in it. So I was really surprised. Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath and let it out, he turned his attention back to Naruto, opening his eyes. He snatched his hand free from Yumiko’s hands and walked out of the food court. The others glared at us and soon joined Sasuke. There was an odd silence then. I looked around and noticed the police starting to back away. The tables were out of place and the chairs turned over. The floor was full of trays of food and drinks, and the people looked around at each other.

“Ow,” said Naruto, breaking the silence and soon the food court was filled with voices of teenagers talking about what just happened. I turned to look at Naruto. His right cheek and left temple were red. I suppose from where Sasuke had hit him? “I got a headache now,” he said.

“Naruto!” replied Sakura madly, and we turned to see her stand and walk over to Naruto and punch him in the head. “Don’t ever start a fight with Sasuke-kun!” she said madly.

“Sakura-Chan, why did you hit me? That only made it worse,” whined Naruto, he rubbed the place where she had punched him.

“He did not start the fight, Sakura,” interfered Shikamaru. “Sasuke’s the one starting crap. You know he is and the only reason why you defend him is because you like him.” He stood to be at her eye-level.

“Yeah, and so what? I like him and I will defend him any time I want and how many times I want!”

“Just shut up, Sakura, we’re not in a mood to hear you scream about Sasuke!” snapped Ino. Sakura glared at her and left the food court. Ino sighed and stood along with the others to tell everyone around that everything was alright and that the show was over. Naruto sat beside me, still rubbing his head.

“Gomennasai[2], Naomi-Chan,” he apologized and I turned to look at him.

“For what?” I asked him.

“For the fight, it’s just that…” he kept rubbing his head. I asked Ino for her purse then took it and handed him some pain pills.

“Ino gets sudden headaches at times and is too lazy to go to the nurse.” I explained, he smiled and took them from my hand.

“Arigato, Naomi!” he gave me a friendly smile and popped the pills in his mouth before gulping it down with his drink that managed to survive the fight. My heart fluttered for some reason when he had smiled at me.

“Alright, we have to go back to school grounds. I do not want to be in the middle of anther fight,” said Ino and we turned to look at her.

“OK!” Naruto jumped up as if his head had never hurt. “Let’s go, Naomi.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me up to my feet. “Then I guess I’ll see you Monday?” he asked me.

“Yep, first block if not lunch” I answered.

“Alright, bye guys, bye Gaara!” Ino said and pulled me away then led me back to the car, with Hinata and Tenten not far behind. I rode shotgun again and went back to campus.

“Ino?” I asked her while she drove.

“Yeah?” she answered not taking her eyes off the road while Tenten and Hinata talked about what had just happened.

“What about Sakura?” I asked her.

“She’s gonna call her mom and tell her to pick her up. This isn’t the first time this happens, both the fight and Sakura getting upset for being told to shut the fuck up about Sasuke,” she replied madly.

“I hope Naruto didn’t get hurt badly,” said Hinata all of the sudden.

“He’s fine, don’t worry,” I answered her.

“You sure?”

I twisted around the seat so I could face her. “Hai, you can trust me.” I gave her a reassuring smile.

“Girl, you know Naruto has had worse fights than that. That was nothing compared to the other fights those two had had,” Tenten said and Hinata turned to look at her.

I shuddered at that thought. They had worse fights? I thought this one was bad but then again, Naruto didn’t really get hurt other than getting a major headache. I wondered how many fights those two have had so far. We arrived at campus and Ino parked the car where it was when we left, Hinata and Tenten walked away together talking about stuff that I didn’t know about. We said bye to Tenten and walked into our dorm, and both Hinata and Ino slumped in their beds while I sat down on mine.

“Ugh, that did not go like I had planned it!” groaned Ino.

“Don’t blame yourself Ino,” said Hinata.

“I know but…” she let out a long sigh. “Never mind, I should’ve known they would’ve start a fight. They always start a fight if they’re not on campus.” She grabbed her brown teddy bear and nuzzled her face into it. She pulled away and turned to look at me. “What a nice way to relax huh, Naomi?” I shrugged my shoulders “I’m really sorry but it’s just that… Naruto and Sasuke don’t exactly get along. In fact they’ve been enemies since I can remember.”

“Why?” I asked, hoping I could get some information about their relationship.

Ino turned to look at me “Because Sasuke was always popular and Naruto was jealous because he didn’t have a lot of friends at first. Sasuke always picked on him, because Naruto wasn’t as bright and didn’t get things the first time around.”

I just listened closely. After they both had gone to sleep I was still awake, looking up at the ceiling that had glow in the dark stars and started thinking of them both: Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto was always friendly, hyper, kind, sweet, and everything a friend should had. My thoughts went to Sasuke then; he was the complete opposite of Naruto. He was cold, mean, rude, and serious. I noticed the difference and shuddered a bit. I don’t know when or how but I fell into a deep sleep. The next day Ino woke me up.

“Wake up, Naomi,” she said and I looked up at her.

“Hmm?” I asked her half asleep.

“Come on, tomorrow its Sai’s and my fourth anniversary. I want you to come with me to go get him a gift!” she clapped her hands together and I could see her giving me a cheerful smile.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes “Why doesn’t Hinata go?” I asked her and glanced at Hinata’s bed and noticed that the dark indigo-haired girl was gone.

“Because she had to go with Neji to go visit their parents.” She explained and that made me wake up. I reached for my phone but fell in the process with the sheets tangled around my legs.

Ino giggled “What’s up with you?” she asked me.

I let out a disappointed sigh when I noticed I didn’t have any form of message. No voice or text message. “Mom and dad said they were gonna call or at least send a message to see how I was but didn’t,” I answered her and sat on the bed.

“Why don’t they just come?”

“They’re on a business trip.”

“Oh, well that explains a lot. So, are you coming?”

I rubbed my head. “Why not?” I didn’t have anything better to do.

“KYA! Arigato, arigato, arigato!” she pulled me into a friendly hug. “Tenten went shopping really early and Sakura is still pissed about yesterday. Take a shower, get ready and wait for me outside!” I laughed a bit and did as she told me. I walked out wearing a cute white sundress with brown flip flops, and I sat down on a marbled white bench.

“Hey, Naomi!” I jumped when I felt someone hug me from behind. I looked back and smiled.

“Ohayou gozaimasu [3] Naruto-kun!”

He jumped over the bench and sat next to me, he was wearing a grey shirt with a few white designs on it along with some jeans. “What are you doing up?” he asked.

“Ino wants me to go with her to choose something for Sai since she said tomorrow is their anniversary,” I explained.

“So that’s why he had to leave early.”

“Huh?”

“Sai, he left really early this morning.”

“Why didn’t…”

“Asleep.”

“Oh.”

“But I have nothing to do. Do you think I could come with you guys?

“I don’t know, but then again you are friends with Sai so…… yeah.”

He smiled and hugged me, and a light shade of red formed in my cheeks. “Arigato!”

I laughed a bit. “But don’t you wanna go see your parents?” I asked then he let go and fell silent. It hit me a few minutes later that I had hit a sensitive subject.

Idiot, idiot, idiot! I kept saying in my head, slapping myself.

“I don’t have parent, they died a long time ago,” he answered.

“Gomennasai, I didn’t mean to…” I started to apologize.

“Don’t be, you’re new here so you didn’t know. It’s alright, really.” I looked at him and he took out a green crystal necklace from underneath his white shirt. It was simple but pretty, and it had a black thick string. “My father, he gave it to me when I was a kid. A few weeks before he died.” He looked at the crystal and I saw sadness in his eyes. For some reason my heartache at how sad his eyes were made me want to take that sadness away but didn’t know how or why. Maybe because he was my friend? “I never take it off.” he finished his sentence and let me look at it. I gently took the green crystal in between my fingers and looked at it.

“It’s pretty,” I commented and the smile that I love came back. There was something off though, I couldn’t tell what but there was. I then noticed his eyes. They were a sad blue; they weren’t happy like his voice or smile.

“Aww what a cute couple!” said another female voice and we both jumped then turned to look at Ino. I blushed twenty different colors.

“I-Ino! Why would you say that!” stuttered Naruto.

She giggled. “I know you two just met like five days ago but now that I think about it, you two would make a cute couple.”

“I-Ino, don’t say that…” Naruto whispered.

“I’m just teasing ya!” she smiled at him and Naruto smiled back.

That’s when I noticed; he was smiling but not his eyes. Couldn’t Ino see that? Couldn’t Ino see that he was in reality sad and not happy? I stared more deeply into his eyes and wondered, did the others see it too or was I the only one that could see through his smile? My guess would be that it involved his parents, but I didn’t want to ask anymore. A pain in my heart throbbed, I wanted to take that sadness away, I wanted to see those happy eyes that made my mind go blank for some reason and made me zone out. Why though? I could never understand why exactly but I didn’t really care because all I really cared about was to take the sadness away or to at least make him forget what caused him pain.

Naruto smiled, but I knew that it was a fake smile, and I didn’t say anything. He sat back down on the bench, Ino sitting beside him and me on the other side of Ino. She let out a happy sigh and looked up at the cloudless blue sky. I glanced at Naruto, trying to see if he was still sad or not but I couldn’t tell, he was out of my view.

“I have a feeling that today is gonna be a good day,” Ino said, breaking the silence. “I was only teasing both of you. Besides, we all know that you’ll like Sakura forever,” she stated and I froze.

Was that why he was always so sweet, kind and thoughtful with her? I thought back to when I had just come here and I could already tell that Naruto had a special liking for her, but I couldn’t tell what that had meant. A pain started to build up in my heart. It was a pain I had never felt before. I leaned back on the bench not wanting to take place in this conversation. Maybe, just maybe if I didn’t pay attention then maybe the pain would go away.

“But Naruto, admit it. She will always love Sasuke. You don’t have a chance with her,” Ino began, wanting to reason with him.

“It doesn’t matter; I’ll keep trying and before you know it we’ll be together! I know she likes Sasuke; I know she has liked him ever since first grade but… I’m willing to wait till she opens her eyes and sees that I love her more than anyone else,” he replied.

“But Naruto… what if, just what if you meet someone else? Someone that would be able to make you happier like no one else can? Are you gonna let her go and keep waiting for Sakura? Or just forget about Sakura and keep moving on?” Ino asked him.

Naruto thought for a minute, and I turned to look at him. He seemed so deep in thought right now. I looked deep into his eyes, trying to find and see if he was still sad. But the sadness that was once there? Gone. I wanted to know if that was Sakura’s doing or something else. A part of me wanted to know but another part of me was scared of what the answer was going to be.

“I don’t know, I guess I would forget about Sakura and go for the other girl. I can’t really say, I'm going to have to live the experience,” he said and gave Ino a goofy smile.

Ino sighed then shook her head. “Oh, Naruto, what are we gonna do with you?” she asked him.

“Nothing, I wouldn’t be the hyperactive boy I am today,” he said. “Now come on! Let’s go get Sai’s present!” he added then jumped up, and Ino stood after him. “C’mon Naomi!” he grabbed my hand and pulled me up to my feet.

We then walked towards Ino’s car. The thought of Sakura being able to take Naruto’s sadness away in a matter of seconds made another pain grow in my heart. This one was different though. It felt like if a fire had started to build up in the pit of my stomach and it was only intensifying. I tried to shake the feeling away, not liking one bit how it felt. I couldn’t get rid of the feeling so easy but I wanted it gone. Maybe if Ino and Naruto hadn’t talked again the feeling wouldn’t have come at all, but who knows?

~*~

‘Konoha Private High School. School of the wealthiest and smartest children of today. A place where students are welcoming and warm and also the home of the Fox,” read Ino, her blue eyes scanning the pamphlet that she had gotten from the front office. She shook her head “And home to the most dramatic teens” she added and threw the pamphlet over her shoulder, missing the trash can.

“She shoots, she misses,” said Hinata without looking up from her Algebra book. “No wonder no one wants you in their basketball team,” she added, making Ino glare at her.

“Whatever!” she snapped, then sighed, laying on her bed.

I looked at her through my book, trying to figure out the problem. These last three weeks had gone so fast and they had turned out to be fun and somewhat lecturing . During those three weeks I hadn’t been able to see neither my parents nor my sister. Though everything wasn’t that bad; I had learned about the gang’s likings and I could tell but I think it would be a long list. Though somehow I was like Ino; we both loved shopping, doing each others’ hair and such, but sometimes I thought I was more like Hinata; I was still shy in front of people that I didn’t knew.

“Why do you have that pamphlet anyway?” asked Hinata.

“Eh, its fun to add more truth to pamphlets - they don’t tell all the truth!” she answered.

Hinata didn’t say anything and just focused more on her book.

“So Naomi!” said Ino.

“Hmm?” I asked, not looking up as well.

“You’ve been here for three weeks, so tell me… is there any guy that you know… sweeps you off your feet?” she asked. This made me look up to see a smiling Ino. “So? Is there?” she asked.

I tried to say something but I couldn’t, I was tongue tied. I was going to say no but it felt as if I was lying. I mean, I was pretty sure I didn’t like anyone at this school and besides I didn’t have time for that. I had to study so I could pass the final exam and graduate so instead I just blushed and looked down making Ino squeal in delight.

“I knew it! You do like someone!”

“Ino, you don’t expect her to know. I mean, she’s been home schooled all her life, how will she know how love feels like?” interrupted Hinata, saving her page and placed it on her nightstand.

“Hey, no matter what, a girl always knows when a guy sweeps her over her feet,” Ino said, looking at her but her eyes turned back to me. “So is there anyone? You know that someone that makes you feel all fluttery in your stomach, but at the same time also makes you feel something else?” she asked.

I couldn’t say anything, I was tongue tied and my mind was trying to think if there was any person that made me feels that wayThat special feeling whenever we touch, whenever I look at his eyes, and all that? I don’t think I had ever felt it. Ino grabbed my book, putting it away and made me look at her; she smiled upon seeing my blush and I could tell what she was thinking.

“Who?! Who is it?!” she asked excitingly.

“Ino, you’re scaring the girl!” Hinata commented. “Maybe that’s the reason she’s blushing! You know she hates the attention.” She pulled Ino away.

Ino shook her head in denial and folded her arms in front of her chest, “I still say she likes someone, she just hasn’t found out yet.”

“I-I-I don’t like anyone.” I managed to say, “I-I-I don’t think I do because if I did then my heart would tell me, right?” I added.

“Yeah, but sometimes you can be so clueless that you might not notice.”

“Ino!”

“Owie!”

I giggled seeing Hinata slap the back of Ino’s head. It was fun to see them both argue because normally nobody would win. I shook my head and decided to go to bed since tomorrow would be Monday. I knew Ino was right, though; I was sometimes so clueless that maybe I was having such reactions towards someone without noticing. I just wished that my heart wouldn’t have the crazy idea about giving me a hard time about finding the right one, like Ino would put it .

~*~
“Alright,” said Kakashi, making me come back to the present world.

My mind had been around the conversation I had had with Ino and Hinata but still no matter how hard I tried no one fit that description. I sighed, knowing it was making me space out of class and it was something I rarely did knowing I had to pay one hundred percent attention. I looked at Kakashi with a stack of papers at hand.

“Now that everyone is done with the pop quiz, I am going to assign you partners to work on this small packet. All you have to do is read the passage, answer the questions and tell me how it is relative to the world today,” he said and started to hand them out.

I looked around and thought who I might get. Well, I was good with Neji and we normally finished quickly. Ino, well we were good but the thing was that she would normally talk about gossip; not that I mind, but sometimes I could get rather tired of it. And I liked working with Naruto; he made the projects fun and the way he made me feel warm inside made me comfortable. The way his eyes always looked so cheerful and happy and I look at them made my heart flutter in a way that I had never felt before.

“And Naomi and Sasuke,” Kakashi said, breaking my train of thought once more.

Huh? I thought to myself, turning my head to look at Kakashi. Did I hear right? Did he say Naomi and Sasuke? I slightly turned my head to see where the raven haired boy sat at. I couldn’t help but shake a bit and gulped.

“Well now get to work,” added Kakashi.

What was he thinking! I had never worked with Sasuke before and I wasn’t liking how Yumiko was looking at me. It was days like this that made me want to be like a turtle. I wanted to have my own shell so I could hide inside it. Well, the sooner the better, I thought as I stood and walked towards him. Yumiko was working with some red haired girl with big round glasses and she was making her do all the work. Suigetsu was working with Ino, and I could tell they weren’t getting along. And Naruto with Neji, but at least they were friends. I took a seat beside Sasuke, letting my hair cover the side of my face and placed the paper on the table. He grabbed it and flipped through the pages.

“Alright, I read you write and answer. Got it?” he asked, well more like ordered. I could hear the coldness in his voice.

“A-A-Alright…” I managed to say and dared to look at him. He was staring at me; I couldn’t help but look at his onyx colored eyes. I felt drawn to them, I could see the coldness in them but if I looked past that I could see a boy that was hurting inside.

“Would you stop stuttering?” he asked and looked back to the paper.

“O-O-Okay…” I said then slapped myself mentally. “I-I-I m-m-mean… I’ll shut up now.”

Sasuke let out a loud sigh of annoyance and put the paper on his desk and started reading. I turned my head and tried so hard to look around the room but my eyes were always brought back to his eyes. I could tell he knew I was looking at him by the way he would glance at me, making me want to stop but I couldn’t stop myself.

“Would you please not stare at me!” he yelled, making me jump and the class get silent.

“I-I-I’m sorry, I d-d-didn’t mean to,” I whispered and looked down at my lap.

“Mr. Sasuke, is there something wrong?” asked Kakashi.

“No, there is not,” Sasuke replied.

I looked at Kakashi nodding and turning his attention back to his book. Someone knocked on the door, making Kakashi leave the classroom. I could feel the tension starting to build between Sasuke and me. He sighed and leaned back on his chair, I dared to glance at him and he had his eyes closed. He opened his eyes and looked at me.

“I don’t like being stared at, I don’t like stuttering people, I don’t like people that beat around the bush, I don’t like a lot of things and I don’t feel like telling you all of them,” he stated.

I didn’t say anything thinking that it was best. I answered the questions without hesitating. We were done quickly; I looked around trying to see if anyone else was done but no one so far.

“Let me check.”

I turned to look at him and nodded. As I began to slide the paper towards him, his hands caught mine, to stop me, as he said. His fingers were really warm, like he had been holding them near a heater for a really long time. But that wasn’t why I jerked my hand away so quickly. When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us. He didn’t seem to notice and that was good for me. He handed me the papers and didn’t say anything else, I wanted to keep it that way. That sudden feeling why had I felt it?

“Time’s up,” said Kakashi after some time. I stood, knowing Sasuke wouldn’t go and turn it in. “Everything alright, Miss Yoshida?” Kakashi asked.

I nodded in denial “No, everything’s fine Kakashi-sensei” I answered and gave him a small smile so he would see that there was nothing wrong. But of course I knew better than that.

I took a seat looking down to my lap, I could still feel the electrifying feeling that I had felt when my hand made contact with Sasuke’s but…

“Naomi!” Naruto whispered as his hands slammed on my table making me jump. I looked up at him and automatically I looked into those crystal blue eyes. My heart fluttered in ways that sometimes made me feel light headed. “Did he say something mean to you?” he asked, making me pop back to reality.

“Uh…” I shook my head trying to get my thoughts together. “No, no he didn’t,” I answered.

He sighed heavily and closed his eyes, thinking. “If he tells you anything rude, let me know alright?” he asked as he opened his eyes and smiled at me.

“Y-yeah… sure,” I stuttered.

He smiled. “Alright let’s go then!” he said and it was like he knew the bell was about to ring because right after he had said that the bell rang .

Later that night I couldn’t get any sleep again; Ino’s words came back to my mind but so were the reactions that Naruto made me feel along with what I had felt when I made contact with Sasuke. I didn’t get it, why was I feeling that for both of them. Wasn’t I supposed to only feel them towards only one person? I rolled over so I could look out the window. Maybe I was wrong and was thinking about it too much.

Yeah, that’s it. I’ve been paranoid ever since I had that talk with Ino. Just give it three or five days and everything will be back to normal again. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

If there’s one thing that learned in English class so far, was how much of a love-struck person Ino could be at times. Don’t get me wrong, not that I can’t stand it, but her talks about ‘love’ and ‘Prince Charming’ and ‘the right one’ could drive anyone insane. I wonder if every girl goes through that stage once in a while and I sure hope that I don’t, since I don’t want to be talking like that at all.

She reminds me so much of my sister in some ways; I remember when she used to read to me so that I would go to bed and how her eyes would seem so distant as she thought about her prince charming and all, but that wasn’t the thing that intrigued me the most. It was the way that they saw life, the way they thought of it in some ways that I could not understand, in ways that I so desired to see life but simply couldn’t no matter how hard I tried. I wished that I could just open up to everyone around me like they were my friends already, I wished to be able to think that my prince charming would come for me and that he would take me our own castle.

Why cant I speak up or tell my opinion not caring what the others might think of me, how come what’s so easy for others is harder to some other people? How come what I find so easy or as Ino says ‘piece of cake’ is hard for them? Must everyone be different then, so that life wouldn’t be as dull and boring as Ino would say, but then wouldn’t that make life easier for everyone?

Sometimes I wondered if I'm even from this world at all. I was so different from everyone else, I wouldn’t think the same thing as the others. Everything they see, I see it in some different kind of way. Nothing is the same when I'm around them, I just feel different. As if I were an outcast. But isn’t that what I really am?

How come so many girls thought that the play Romeo and Juliet was so romantic while I thought that it was completely pointless? This is the way that I see this so called ‘romantic’ play.

Juliet was young and beautiful, Romeo was young and handsome, so far everyone I know agrees with me, but it’s the next part that I don’t get. Why would Juliet kill herself when she could’ve found love with someone else and forget about Romeo completely, why take the dagger and pierce your chest with it? Why die over Romeo at all? Wouldn’t it be way easier to forget about it and continue on with life?

“You don’t get it.” Ino whispered, not wanting to disturb the other students that were watching the movie.

“You’re right, I don’t,” I replied. “And I don’t think I want to get it,” I added.

Ino exhaled a desperate sigh, “It’s love, love was the reason this happens in the book. A love so great that she – or they – wouldn’t have been able to replace.”

“Yes they can, people find love, break up and fall in love again. Happens everyday!”

“No! That’s only because it isn’t the right person.” She argued and brushed her bangs. “One day you’ll understand, when you find the right one,” she encouraged.

“No, she won’t. She hasn’t found love yet and probably never will and you wanna know why?” interfered Yumiko, making us turn to look at her. Ino stared back at her with a hint of annoyance in her eyes. “Because she doesn’t even know how it’s supposed to feel. Hell, she doesn’t even know the definition of it!”

“Yes, I do! It’s a strong feeling that you feel towards the opposite sex.” I replied.

Yumiko rolled her eyes. “Admit it Naomi, you haven’t had a boyfriend in your life and you never will because you’re such a weird and a creepy little girl.”

“Yumiko o shatto (1)! You wouldn’t know love even if it was right in front of you, unless that ‘love’ either comes with loads of money or a major hottie or he just happens to have the name Sasuke,” Ino snapped.

Yumiko scoffed, “Why don’t I return the favor? I mean, why don’t I do what you did to me?”

There was an odd silence following. I felt the atmosphere in the air starting to change slowly to a very uncomfortable one. Did Ino do something to Yumiko? Then I remembered. They used to be friends but something happened that made them stop being friends and become enemies, but what was it? Was that what she was talking about?

“You better not or I swear I will knock you back to the Middle Ages.”

“Why don’t you try and see what happens.”

“Gladly.”

“You can’t fight, Ino.” I intervened making Ino look at me then looked back towards Yumiko and glared.

“You better not do it, you slut.”

“Me? A slut? Look who’s talking!” She then started to laugh mockingly.

“Do I need to send you to the principal’s office?” asked Ibiki, making us turn to look at him and shake our heads in denial. “Good, now watch the movie,” he ordered and we did as he asked.

I looked at the TV screen to see that the movie was exactly at the ending. Where Juliet had just woken up only to find her beloved Romeo dead beside her. I still don’t get it, why die over someone? She had a long life ahead of her, she could’ve found someone else, maybe even fall in love with a prince and still be happy.

Then again, who was I to judge? I've never fallen in love, heck I didn’t even know how it feels like. How can I judge someone when I don’t know how it feels to go through that? Who knows, maybe I would do the same, though I really doubted it. Would I ever feel the kind of love Juliet felt towards Romeo? The kind of love strong enough to commit suicide in order to be with him?

I released a sigh as I looked down to my notebook. I didn’t want to think about it anymore, it was giving me a headache. Love was so complicated to me, I could never understand it right that way. It was another thing that I could never truly understand. No matter how hard I tried to figure it out, I would always end up with a headache.

The bell rang, releasing us from this period and I made my way to History class. I couldn’t help but notice that Sasuke was already in his seat. I shivered as at the thought of the events that took place yesterday. Oh, was I glad that all that was over.

I quickly took my seat, not wanting him to notice that I was looking at him since it was something he hated. I let my hair fall down from my shoulder to cover my face. I didn’t want him to look at me and if he was looking at me, I didn’t want to know about it.

“Alright class,” started Kakashi while he closed the door, “last time we worked with partners things didn’t go well…” he automatically looked to the back where Sasuke, Yumiko, and Suigetsu sat at. “And I want you all to understand that you must always work as a team and don’t make just make your partner do everything.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he meant Yumiko. “That’s why we are going to work with partners again today.” I stopped writing as I heard this.

“But with different people, right?” asked Ino, hoping he would agree.

“No, the same as yesterday,” he noted. “Well, what I want you to do this time is write a succinct report about something that we had talked about so far. I want you to write it in you and your partner’s point of view.”

Oh, so now I had to talk to Sasuke? Last time I tried doing that, things didn’t work out so well. Maybe I could just write it all by myself without asking anything at all. It’s not like Sasuke would give me his opinion at all since he didn’t seem like a talkative type of person.

“And if I see someone doing all the work, both will get a big, fat zero in the grade book,” he warned.

Well there goes my plan, unless Sasuke doesn’t care about his grade – which I doubted – and still lets me do all the work. I would take that any day. The guy was just too intimidating, seriously what did the girls see in him? Maybe I should ask Sakura, she would know. Since she seemed to have the longest crush on him, as far as I know.

“Begin.”

I sighed, not sure if I was nervous or scared or both. I stood and noticed Sasuke tapping his pencil on his desk, his eyes reflecting nothing but coldness. I took a deep breath and started to walk towards his direction before I felt a warm hand grabbing my right arm, making me stop. I looked down to see Naruto holding my arm while looking towards the board, lost in thought. He closed his eyes and released a long sigh before he looked at me. I looked at those crystal blues that always made me think that if I stared too much I would drown.

“If he’s mean to you in any kind of way…” he began, “let me know.”

I looked at him and nodded slowly, I felt my heart skip a beat for some reason, but didn’t really pay much attention to it. He smiled softly at me and released my arm. Though I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to tell him since I don’t want him to get in a fight or something because of me. A light shade of red formed across my cheeks as I thought about it.

‘Stay calm and collected. Do not stutter, do not stare and keep your cool.’ I thought to myself as I took a seat next to him, putting my binder down in front of us, using my hair to cover my face like I had done so many times. I took a deep breath and reminded myself to stay calm and that he was just another boy…. A very intimidating one at that.

“What do you want to write about?” I asked while looking down to my lap, knowing if I looked at him I would probably start with the whole stuttering issue all over again.

“Don’t you know it’s impolite to not look at the person you’re talking to?” he asked.

“Not like you’re polite.” I snapped and as soon as I said those words, I regretted it. I felt his hand grab mine tightly, making me look at him.

“Oh so you think you know me now?” he whispered harshly. “You think that only because we talked and I told you a little about myself makes you think that you know me already?” he added. His tone, his eyes, and his facial expression were no longer emotionless; they were aloof, making me shiver. .

My hair was covering the side of my face, making anybody else unable to see the fright on my face and my eyes, and since we were sitting t the very back and no one else was sitting behind us, then no one could really tell what was going on.

“Let me put this straight, Naomi. You better not judge me if you don’t know anything about me,” he hissed. “Everyone thinks they know me but they don’t know shit about me, so how about you do me a favor and don’t ever think you know who the fuck I am,” He added.

We stared at each other for a long time, him giving me death glares and me reflecting nothing but fright. I felt so weak, to be just sitting there taking it when I really didn’t even judge him at all and it kinda slipped out. I know that if it had been Ino in my place she would have at least snapped something back at him, but I just felt so weak to be under his glare. I felt like I was the prey and he was the predator, that I was the weak one, the one unable to fight back no matter what.

He finally released my hand and turned to look down at his book so he could choose what we would write about. I quickly pulled my hand away and set it on my lap, not wanting to get caught in his firm grasp. I just wanted this whole thing to be over; I didn’t like sitting next to Sasuke. He always made me feel nervous and I didn’t know if it was in a positive or in a negative way.

When the bell rang, I was relieved because it meant that I was finally free from working with Sasuke. I grabbed our paper. We hadn’t talked at all. We did everything on our own accord and then Sasuke read over it and highlighted everything that we should put in the real paper and to be honest, that way was better. I didn’t want to talk to him if it meant that he would start being mean. I stood, grabbing the paper, and made my way to the front to go turn it in.

I walked up to Kakashi’s desk and placed it where everyone was placing theirs. Afterwards I went to go get my stuff but someone stood in front of me, stopping me. I looked up, seeing Suigetsu smiling down at me.

“Well, nice to see you have time to talk me for a while.” He commented.

“Uh…”

“I knew you were the kind of girl to be shy but I never thought you would be this cute.” He added making, me blush.

“You coming or not Suigetsu?” snapped Yumiko, as she walked towards us.

She turned to look at me and rolled her eyes. “Let’s go,” she said before she shoved me aside and walked out, following Sasuke, who had just walked out of the room.

Suigetsu released an annoyed sigh “Mesu inu (2) ,” he mumbled and smiled at me. “Catch you later, amai mono (3)” he said before he walked past me.

I sighed, not wanting to think anymore about today. I reached and grabbed my stuff before I walked out, but was stopped by Naruto as he was waiting for me by the door. He looked at me and smiled softly before he offered to carry my stuff but I declined. He nodded and walked me towards the girl’s building, where I saw Ino disappear with Sai.

“So Naomi…” he started. “Did he treat you bad in any kind of way?” he asked.

I was about to say yes, but I didn’t want him to get in a fight with Sasuke. The only thought about both of them engaging in a fight and one of them turning out to be badly injured made my heart ache in pain and sadness. I didn’t want anyone hurt just because of no real reason.

“No, we worked in silence but we figured out how to work it out.” I replied, feeling slightly guilty about lying to him especially when all he was doing was caring for me. The very thought of him actually caring for me made me want to jump up and down with excitement, but of course I stopped myself from doing such an embarrassing thing.

“Ok, then, but if he’s still mean to you let me know, alright?” he told me and I nodded.

I don’t know why, but I somehow seemed to react in different ways towards Sasuke and Naruto though they were both really similar. Naruto made me feel comfortable and happy while Sasuke made me feel nervous and gave me goose-bumps once in a while, but of course I wouldn’t tell them any of that. I wasn’t in a mood to figure out why I was feeling that towards each of them anyways.

Naruto didn’t want to say anything as he heard her response but she was a bad liar; he knew that Sasuke did something to her. Well, more likely told her something because the entire time they were working on the paper, he kept an eye on them and they didn’t seem to have any problems with getting along, but he knew Sasuke. He knew that he had his ways of scaring the shit out of people while putting up a show that they’re his friends.

He didn’t get something though, why would she lie to him about it? Weren’t they supposed to be friends and weren’t friends supposed to tell everything to each other? Was she defending Sasuke? The very thought of it saddened him, he didn’t want her to be another Sasuke fangirl like Sakura and so many other girls he knew that would try everything to get his attention would always end in failure.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow then, right? In Science?” he asked her.

Naomi nodded in agreement with a sweet smile on her face. “Right, don’t oversleep, okay?”

“Okay.” He returned the kind smile before he turned and headed back to the boy’s building.

He put his hands in his pockets while he looked down to the ground, lost in thought. He just seemed to think of so many questions and yet he couldn’t seem to find any answers, though he was scared of knowing the answer. He walked inside his dorm, seeing that the others weren’t there yet. He was glad; he didn’t want to explain the long face to them. He sighed and took off his uniform jacket and threw it on his bed before he lay down on his bed.

Why did Naomi lie to him, why defend Sasuke from him? Doesn’t she trust him, isn’t he her friend? Did she like Sasuke the way Sakura did or was starting to feel that way? The very thought of that saddened him, he wanted to know yet he didn’t. He didn’t want to get hurt again; Naomi meant so much to him in ways that he didn’t even know yet.

~*~

“Hello weekend and goodbye school!” chirped Ino as she stretched and fixed her hair. “Alright, this weekend we are super busy.” She added

“Why?” asked Hinata.

“Uh, The Fall dance, Hinata. We have to get everything before anyone else does!” Ino replied, “And this will also be Naomi’s first dance, right Naomi?”

I didn’t listen to her question; I was looking at my cell phone screen sadly. I had started school in August and now it was October and during those three months I haven’t heard from my parents. I knew they were okay but they were probably too busy to call me, right? I mean, the only thing I got from them a simple text saying ‘hope you’re having fun.’ But I knew exactly why they didn’t bother to call me, something I didn’t want to think about.

“Naomi?” repeated Ino, making me look at her.

“W-what?” I asked.

“Are you okay?” she asked me. I nodded. She stared at me for a moment, as if trying to see if I was lying or not. “Okay, then as I was saying – or asking more likely – this is your first dance, right?” she asked me.

I nodded. “Yeah, I mean unless a family meeting counts,” I replied, making her chuckle. Meaning that normally the times when I dance was when the whole family got together and celebrated.

“Then today we head for the mall!” Ino chirped as she dragged me and Hinata out to the parking place.

Well, the weekends were always fun with Ino around that was for sure, though it was almost impossible to get her out of the mall. What was Sai’s secret to get her out of there? That was something we would all like to know. As we made our way towards the parking lot we saw Sakura and Tenten there. Sakura was texting someone, but we didn’t had any desire to find out who. Tenten was wearing a pair of jeans with a red and white shirt, and her hair was up in her usual buns. Sakura was wearing a mini skirt with a pink tank top and a jean jacket over it, her hair spiked out at the ends with a cherry blossom pendant holding her bangs back.

“Finally, you guys took forever!” greeted Sakura as she put away her phone.

“Ugh, nice to see too Sakura,” replied Ino as she brushed her bangs out of her face. “Let’s not fight now alright? Let’s just go get our dresses, I do not want to get the undesired ones.”

“Yeah, I want a cute red one!” Tenten commented while she took a seat in the back of the seat.

“Really? I want a blue one,” Sakura added as she took a seat next to Tenten.

“Purple!” Ino added as she got in the driver’s seat.

“Um… I really don’t mind…” added Hinata as she took a seat beside Sakura.

“You, Naomi?” asked Ino while I took a seat in shotgun.

“Um… well I don’t really know. I mean… my sister said she wanted to be the one in charge of my make up and dress and hair. So I'm not really allowed to get one without her permission.”

“Well you should tell your sister that she should trust my instincts,” Ino said, smiling softly at me as she started the car.

“Well anything that Sasuke would think is cute would be okay for me!” Sakura thought out loud as she squealed at the random thought.

“Sakura…” Ino whispered.

~*~

Not far from Ino’s group, Yumiko, Karin, and Mizuki watched closely. No one said anything but everyone was thinking the same thing. It was that time again and they weren’t looking forward for it. Fall dance, because of one simple reason: fangirls. All of the fangirls would go and try to find out Sasuke’s likings so they could get the perfect outfit, make up, the perfect everything, hoping that he would fall madly in love with them, but it never worked.

They all knew Sakura was definitely going to be one of them, one of the many. How did they know? She was always trying to accomplish that dream but it never worked. And they’ve had enough of her and it was time that she learned a lesson.

“I’m tired of that hoe! We have got to do something!” Mizuki said, breaking the silence.

“We will do something, don’t worry about it,” Yumiko replied.

“But what? Billboard brow won’t stop. We’ve done every single prank that comes to mind and yet she doesn’t stop!” Whined Karin.

“Shut up, Karin, we don’t need your whining right now, okay?” snapped Mizuki.

“Oh, look who’s talking! The one that always cries whenever she doesn’t get her way!” snapped Karin.

Yumiko groaned, “Anata no ryoho wa, Seiko o shattodaun! (1)” Yumiko yelled back, annoyed.

Yumiko closed her eyes trying to enjoy the wind blowing through her hair. It always clamed her nerves down and now she knew she had to calm down. She was tired of Sakura and all of the damn fangirls that keep thinking Sasuke could love them. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes slowly. She stared at nothing in particular; she just stared off into space.

Slowly, a smirk found its way to her face. From ear to ear, like the Cheshire’s cat smile, though her smile was a crooked and sinister one. Karin and Mizuki shuddered, knowing what that meat, though they already had an idea it wouldn’t work out, either. It never did. Not against Sakura, at least, but what if this time it was different? Well, if Sakura wasn’t going to learn the easy way, then she’d have to learn the hard way.

“I have a plan,” she finally said as she let her hair flow with the wind sideways, not caring if it was getting in her way of seeing the bight blue sky.

“No, don’t make it as complicated like the last one! I still have bruises from it!” fussed Karin.

“Stop whining! Why do you always have to make a scene whenever we come up with a new plan?” asked Mizuki, annoyed.

“What do you mean ‘we?’ it’s always Yumiko that comes up with the plans! And probably because they always have to do with something heavy, disgusting, plain gross, or if we’re unfortunate, all of the above!”

“Either both of you shut up and listen or get lost and get ready for a life full of hell,” Yumiko snapped. “I am not in a mood to be dealing with your shit,” she added before she sighed and turned to look at them.

“Fine, we’ll shut up now… just tell us the plan and let’s get this over with,” Karin sighed as she shifted her glasses.

“Talk for yourself, but she’s right. Either way, we end up doing your plans anyway.” Mizuki said before she folded her arms in front of her chest and waited for Yumiko to start talking.

“Mizuki, your uncles have a farm, right?” asked Yumiko.

Mizuki arched an eyebrow not sure what she was going for but if it was what they needed. “Yeah, but…”

“Then call them and tell them we are going to spend the weekend over there. I think it’s about time that Sakura learns a lesson. Along with all the other fangirls,” Yumiko replied as she walked past them and walked down the hill, the plan unfolding in her head.

“When exactly are we going to do this plan of yours?” asked Karin as she followed her.

“Well none other than the place that she so wants to surprise Sasuke. Nothing other than the Fall dance, Karin,” she replied.

“But the whole… oh… I get it! You’re going to embarrass her in front of the whole school! Man I can’t wait ‘til then!” added Mizuki while she laughed.

“Come on, we have to go over the plan, I want this to go perfect.”

~*~

A sigh escaped my lips as I looked over the dresses wondering what would Ino and the others would choose. I wasn’t allowed to look at the dresses without my sister, or at least that’s what my sister said before school started. I watched as Ino walked in and out of the fitting rooms along with Hinata and the others. They looked so excited over the fact that the dance was almost happening. I, on the other hand, was nervous. This was my first dance that I would ever attend and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was going to be like the ones I saw in TV.

“What you think, Naomi?” asked Ino as she walked out and she fixed the straps of her dress, looking at her reflection in the mirrors. Though I couldn’t even get my reply out before she answered her question by herself.”Ugh, what was I thinking? I mean orange is so not my color and this dress makes me look fat! Purple is definitely my color,” she said before she turned to look at me. “Help me, Naomi!”

“Well, if you would let her talk, maybe she could answer, Ino,” commented Hinata as she walked out.

We both turned to look at her, Ino squealed and ran to her. “You look so cute in that dress, Hinata! Blue is definitely your color.” I smiled as I looked at the dress, a wavy royal blue dress that was slanted on the bottom. The dress reached her knees and the straps tied behind her neck.

“You do look really pretty in that dress, Hinanta,” I commented and smiled softly.

“Really? You guys think so?” she asked.

“Would we lie to you?” questioned Ino, placing her hands on her hips.

Hinata chuckled. “No, no you wouldn’t,” she replied, I chuckled and stood deciding to at least look at the dresses. Maybe I could choose one and then return it if my sister didn’t approve of it.

“You know what I was thinking? You should definitely ask Naruto to the Fall dance this year!” I stopped as I heard Ino say that.

I turned slightly to look at both of them with a confused look on my eyes. “Ask out?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, Hinata has had the biggest crush on Naruto ever since they met and this year she has got to ask him out!”

“Ino! I don’t think he’ll want to go with me. I mean he always asks Sakura and she always says no.”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask!”

I started to space out not hearing what they said afterwards. Hinata liked Naruto? But Naruto liked Sakura, but Sakura liked Sasuke, and who knows who Sasuke liked. I looked down to the ground, not knowing why the feeling of sadness washed over me. I didn’t know why but the thought of Hinata and Naruto going out broke my heart. I mean, I understand if he would say yes to her, they knew each other ever since elementary school. But that would mean he would be out of my reach that I wouldn’t be able to be with him any longer.

Wait. What was I thinking? I didn’t even like Naruto like that, I only liked him like a friend and that was it. But then how come the simple thought of him dating Hinata made my heart hurt? It was the same feeling whenever he would flirt with Sakura but I only thought of it as a feeling that I should ignore. I should be happy if he wanted to go out with Hinata or Sakura.

I jumped as I heard someone screaming then hugging me tightly. “Help! Someone call the police!” yelled Ino while looking around for someone.

I pulled away and looked up, recognizing her, a smile found its way to my face before I turned to look at Ino. “Sono daijobu, watashi wa kanojo no shitte iru. (2)”

“Huh… last time I checked you didn’t know anyone.” Ino replied.

“It’s not like you know that many people outside of school… no offense,” added Sakura as she walked out of the fitting room with the dresses she had just tried on.

“It’s okay, I understand.” I said before I turned to look at my friends then at her. “This is my sister, Airi (3). Airi these are my friends. Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura, Tenten, and Hyuga Hinata.” I introduced.. “What are you doing here anyway?” I asked

“Well road trip, a dance is about to happen and my friends and I want to look fabulous and I also wanted to come see how my little sister was doing soo…”

I turned to look at the others and smiled but noticed they all looked confused “What?” I asked.

“I think it happened again.” Airi said before she chuckled and stood beside me, “We don’t look anything alike now do we?” she asked them, giggling a bit.

“You can say that again,” added Tenten as she placed the dresses back in the rack.

I sighed not surprised really. I have blonde hair and violet colored eyes with peach colored skin and she has dark hair with brown colored eyes and really pale skin but she managed to get some color on her skin with make up. Mostly because she has more genes from our fathers side of the family and I have more genes from our mother’s side of the family. But what made it more unbelievable was the fact that she was more of a people person than me, there was also another difference that people knew but that was mostly only the people in our family or our family’s business companions.

“Okay, so what are you doing here?” before anyone could answer she gasped and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t tell me…”

“Fall dance!” finished her two friends as they chuckled knowing what was about to happen.

“And you didn’t tell me about it?!” yelled Airi, freaking out.

“She was, I wanted to choose her dress but she said that you were the one in charge of her wardrobe for the dances,” Ino complained making Airi chuckled.

“Well yeah, but if you pass my test of clothing then you can help!”

“Hmph, I'm not scared. I know I’ll pass it.”

They both laughed. “How about we go get something to eat? I'm starving, what do you guys think?” She asked to all of us. “Oh sorry, these are my friends Yue and Kaida Nakamura,” Airi added, noticing that she had forgotten to present her own friends.

“Typical of you to forget about us. We’re not surprised,” responded Yue.

We all agreed to go eat something at the food court. We got to know each other and as I had already suspected Yue and Kaida were sisters, the simple fact that they both looked very alike kinda gave it away. Both had light blue hair with minty colored eyes and peach colored skin, the only way you could differentiate between them were that Yue had her bangs over her left eye and had her hair longer than Kaida. Kaida had her bangs over her right eye and her hair was shorter than Yue’s.

It didn’t really surprise me that my friends had liked my sister. She had that vibe to her, making people like her by just giving her five minutes of talking. She was one of those people that got along with every single person. No matter who they were, I even thought that she may get along with the Hell Children but probably not. If there was one thing that my sister did not like, it was bullies.

As we drove on our way back, Ino and Airi were talking about fashion, a language that I could never understand really. As we got down, my sister followed me and Ino and the others said their goodbyes. Once that was over, my sister asked me to show her around. I agreed and told Ino and Hinata that I would be there as soon as I was done talking to my sister. I walked with her towards the courtyard; walking outside, my sister gasped in amazement.

“Wow, this place is amazing!” she noted as she walked towards the fountain in the middle of the courtyard.

I smiled and looked around as I walked closer to her; the courtyard had four grassy sections in each corner, and one of them had a tree that offered shade to the table under it. There were chairs and tables around for lunch. The round fountain in the middle had the water shooting up, and there were three levels of the fountain. In the top one a fox stood in the middle.

“My school didn’t have a fountain!” she commented and smiled softly at me as she turned to look at me before she took a seat on the edge of the water. “So tell me about what you think of school so far?” she asked me.

I smiled and took a seat beside her and explained everything about everything here. Though of course I skipped the part about the Hell Children; I didn’t want her to get worried about me and hiring bodyguards. I didn’t know if she would do it, but knowing her she might. She told me about the things that were happening in her school.

“Have you talked to them yet?” she asked me.

I directed my vision to the fountain. “No, you know the answer to that,” I replied. “You?” I asked.

Did I really need to ask? I knew the answer to that. Airi was the perfect daughter to them. Graduated early from high school and is already on her last year in college. She was smarter than me, she got straight A’s, she was a teacher’s pet, class president, student council president, and an honor student. Almost perfect but of course there were things that I was better at than her. But to our parents that didn’t mattered.

“Yes… last night… didn’t they call you?” she asked me, she didn’t even gave me a chance to reply before she started talking again. “Oh my god! I told them last night that they should call you today! Wait till they hear me out! This is your first time at a school and you need all the support you can get from your family!”

“Sore nitsuite shinpai shinaide kudasai.”

“Anata wa ‘sore nitsuite shinpai shinaide ‘nani o imi suru nodesu ka’?” I jumped as I heard her reply, she closed her eyes taking deep breaths. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at me. “Naomi, how can you say not to worry about it? You’re their daughter too and they have to also recognize you too.”

“I know that you’re probably pissed but--”

“No, I'm not pissed. I'm infuriated that our parents can’t even spare five minutes of their time to talk to you!”

“They sent me a text--”

“Text messages don’t count! You are not having an actual conversation with them.”

“I don’t see why you are getting so mad about it. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this and you know that.”

“Yeah, well at least at home they used to say ‘hi’ at least.”

“Uh, yeah because I was there when they got home and they didn’t have much of a choice.”

“Alright, alright but then how come they enrolled you on a private school? Why not just any old public school?” she asked.

I sighed “You know why, that would look bad for their friends. They’re one of the richest family in the Land of Fire and you know how much they care about public appearances.”

I sighed and turned my torso around so I could look inside the fountain. I reached out and dipped my index finger into it and started to move it in a clockwise motion. I stared at my blurred reflection for a minute; it hurts to know your parents play favorites with their own kids.

“I’ll talk to them. I’ll tell them to call you,” she commented, breaking the silence.

I shook my head in denial “Don’t, they don’t want to call me. I want them to call me only if they do really want to call me. If you tell them to call me, I’ll feel like if they were being forced to.”

She sighed and turned to look at my actions; she reached down and copied my actions. “Still, it’s their responsibility.” She whispered before she pulled her finger out and hugged me close. “Take care alright? And when I get to the university I’ll call mom and dad and tell them to call you alright? They should still call you every once in a while.”

I shrugged my shoulders and nodded; she pulled away and gave me an encouraging smile. Saying goodbye once more, she waved and walked out of the courtyard. I offered to take her to the entrance of the school but she said she remembered it and didn’t need any help. Releasing a sigh, I turned to look back at the water showing my reflection.

“I didn’t know your parents played favorites too” a male voice said. I turned my body to try and see where it came from but I couldn’t see anyone. I shivered, thinking it was rather creepy. Great, I was hearing things now. I heard something fall near the sakura tree making me look at the one in front of me.

When I saw the male walking towards me, I saw him and I couldn’t help but be surprised. Since when had he been listening to my talk with my sister?

“It’s not polite to eavesdrop,” I whispered, recalling the last time we had been together.

“You actually talked like a normal person this time,” Sasuke replied as he looked at me with a bored expression.

“Not my fault you can be intimidating at times,” I whispered.

“First time I heard that one,” he replied. He walked closer to me and looked inside the fountain. “Do you hate her?”

I looked at him confused. Hate her? “What do you mean?” I asked him.

He shook his head and looked up at the sky. “Don’t you hate her because your parents prefer her over you?”

My vision turned to the ground, not sure what to say to that. It was true that a time came that I used to hate my sister but that was when I was a kid. But soon I found out that I hated something that was never change. I released a sigh and started to braid my hair.

“Yes, but I was a little girl back then and now… I don’t. I mean, there’s nothing I can do to make my parents notice me if I follow in her footsteps. I’d rather find something I'm good at that she can’t do well,” I replied and glanced at him wondering what he was thinking.

His expression was blank and distant. He was thinking of something, but I didn’t know what he was thinking of. I shrugged my shoulders and sighed.

“Your parents also play favorites?” I asked.

He chuckled and shook his head before he answered. “Looks like you really don’t know anything about me,” he thought out loud before he ran a hand through his hair.

I tilted my head to the side, not really sure what he meant by that I tried to recall anything close to that that either Ino told me or someone else did but I couldn’t recall anything. He sighed and shook his head as if shaking away a bad thought, I didn’t want to ask him what he was thinking. I didn’t want him to think I was the type of girl that wanted to know everything. He looked up at me.

“Your parents play favorites?” I asked anyways.

He shrugged his shoulders and stuck his hands in his pockets before he looked up at the sky. An airy breeze made his bangs flow over his eyes making him look… breathless as Sakura would say it. A light blush found its way to my cheeks as I brushed my bangs over my ear.

“I don’t see a reason for you to know that,” he replied, before he looked back at me and shook his head. Then afterwards he turned around and started to walk towards the boys’ dorms.

I shivered as I noticed his silhouette blend in perfectly with the shadows was it me or was this guy beyond creepy? I made a mental note to ask Ino about it later about his parents playing favorites, knowing it was a lost cause to ask Sasuke or anyone else for that matter. Though I couldn’t help but think that maybe just maybe, we had something in common.

Sitting on my bed while waiting for Ino to come out of the bathroom, I pondered over what had happened over the weekend. Was it just me or was it creepy that I had something in common with THE Uchiha Sasuke? I mean, maybe it was a coincidence, but what were the chances of two completely different people having the same family problems? I gazed at my reflection in my mirror as I absentmindedly brushed my strawberry blonde hair, oblivious to the fact that it was knot-free

A sigh broke my train of thoughts. I was able to put down the brush and turn my head to see Hinata. She was already ready for school, both of her hands leaning on her side on the bed. I tilted my head, wondering what was bothering her.

“Machigatte Hinata wa nanidesu ka?” (1) I asked, making her look up at me as if she had just realized I was there. She shrugged her shoulders and looked back at the ground. “You know you can tell me anything right?” I reminded her, though I knew it wasn’t necessarily true But really she didn’t knew me as well as she knew Ino, so what were the chances of her telling me?

“It’s just… I don’t know if I should ask him,” she whispered. Well clearly, I was wrong. I tilted my head to the side, confused. “I don’t know if I should ask him to go to the Fall Dance with me.” she clarified.

That’s when it hit me. She had to be talking about Him, who else would she have wanted to ask but was too shy to do so? “You mean Naruto?” I asked her, and she nodded. I chuckled, smiling “You should ask him. You’re a funny and kind girl Hinata, I bet he would love to go to the dance with you,” I encouraged, and she looked up at me with a hopeful look.

“Y-you really think he would say yes?” she questioned and I nodded. She smiled at me relieved. “Naomi-Chan arigato! Byoki sonotori ni sur!” (2)

I smiled at her, glad that I was able to help, but for some reason I felt sad. Sad because I had encouraged her to ask Naruto out, to ask him to go to the dance with her? Was it because of how Naruto would react? No. That wasn’t it. I wasn’t sad because of that, I was sad because… because…

“Ready!” yelled Ino as she walked out of the bathroom with her uniform, make-up, and hair done. Meaning we could all go to the lunch room to get our breakfast. We nodded and grabbed our books before we walked out.

~*~

He held a small cherry blossom bouquet in his right hand as he waited for her outside of the lunch room, sure that she was going to show up sometime soon. He admired the flower that he loved so much because it reminded him of the one he loved. He knew she would appreciate the gesture. A smile adorned his face. He could already hear her reply to his question: “yes” he could already picture the scene in his head. Hearing footsteps once again, he looked up hoping this time it was her. His smile widened at seeing the pink haired female he’d been waiting for almost all morning.

“Ohayo Sakura-Chan!” (3) greeted the blonde haired boy as he approached her.

She offered a kind and sweet smile, a smile that always took his breath away and made his heart skip a beat. “Ohayo Naruto,” she greeted. Her eyes caught the cherry blossom he was holding in his hand, making her arch an eyebrow wondering what it was for, though she already had she already had a faint idea.

Naruto looked down at the flower and smiled as he raised his arm so that she would be able to take it. “For you Sakura-Chan!” he said happily.

Sakura shook her head, her suspicions confirmed.
“Well… I wanted to ask you something Sakura-Chan,” he said cheerfully, with confidence. “I wanted to ask you if you’d like to go to the Fall dance with me!” he added, his arm still stretched out for her to take the cherry blossoms.

She looked at him, then at the flowers, and sighed shaking her head. “Naruto, you always do this. You know the answer to that,” she started making Naruto’s smile slowly disappear and his arm dropped to his side. “I don’t want to go to the dance with you, I’m going to ask Sasuke if he wants to go with me,” she added as she smiled at the very thought of the Uchiha. “I know he’ll say yes.” she thought out loud.

A light shade of red adorned her cheeks as she thought of the future she wanted. Their first kiss, their first dance, their first everything! She knew if Sasuke said yes then everything in the world would be perfect, for her and for him. She would prove all those who kept telling her that Sasuke would never love her wrong, and would rub it in their faces. Her thoughts went farther to the future, when they would both get married and she would finally become Mrs. Uchiha Sakura. THAT was her dream.

On the other hand, the blonde haired male could only think the opposite; he wanted her to forget about Sasuke because he would never love her back. He wanted her to open her eyes and see that he loved her more than anyone ever could. In his head, he was the one she married, he was the one she would be saying ‘yes’ to. Though the look on her face said otherwise, he had a feeling that it wasn’t him whom she was thinking of.

“Sakura, you can’t wait for him forever” he whispered softly as he looked down at the cherry blossoms he held in his hands.

“And you can’t wait for me forever either, Naruto,” she snapped, releasing a sigh she brushed her bangs out of her face and looked at him sternly. “Naruto, my feelings towards Sasuke won’t ever change,. What I'm trying to tell you here is that you should forget about me and try and look for someone else.”

Naruto looked at her with a hurt and saddened expression. “I can’t,” he whispered before he shook his head. “I’ve tried but I can’t, Sasuke could never love you as much as I do!”

Sakura shook her head and sighed. “That may be true but I love Sasuke, and as long as I do, I’ll wait for him,” she said before she walked past him and into the lunch room.

Naruto looked down at the ground in defeat. He didn’t know what he could do to make her see that they belonged together, that Sasuke could never love her the way he did. Sasuke would never praise her as much as he did. He glanced at the cherry blossoms clutched in his hands, shook his head, and threw them away.

Well, one thing was for sure; as long as Sakura couldn’t see the way things were meant to be, he wouldn’t give up in gaining her heart. He would wait, just like Sakura, but he’d be more affectionate and loving towards her in a way that Sasuke never would.

~*~

As I sat in chemistry looking out the window my little talk with Hinata over and over; I wasn’t sure why my brain was doing this or why my heart ached with pain at the thought of Naruto going out with Hinata. I should be hoping that Hinata does get the date with Naruto, because when you think about it, they would make a cute couple. I heard the seat beside me move, and I turned to see Naruto as I heard the seat beside me move; I turned to see Naruto taking his seat.

It was weird; he normally always greeted me with a happy and cheerful “Ohayo” but not now it. I bit my bottom lip, pondering whether I should ask him or not about what was bothering him. His cheerful and happy blue eyes were different again, with those that always made me want to make them go away and change them with the ones I loved. Crossing his arms on the table then placing his chin on top of them, only making me more curious.

“What’s wrong, Naruto?” I questioned.

He looked up at me and forced a smile. “Morning, Naomi-Chan! How are you this morning?” he asked.

I stared at him, not sure what to say. I could tell his cheerfulness was forced and that he was sad, but I wasn’t sure. Something inside me knew that Sakura had something to do with it.

“Naruto, what’s –“

“Good morning class” greeted Asuma-sensei as he walked in, closing the door, cutting me off. I turned to look him and sighed; now I wouldn’t be able to ask Naruto.

Feeling someone tap me on the arm, I turned and saw Naruto. “Hey, is it okay if you pass me the notes later? I'm not feeling up to copying notes,” he said to me; I stared at him for a moment.

I nodded. He smiled in ‘thanks’ before he laid his head back down. The thought about Sakura being the source of his pain only made me somewhat mad and at the same time hurt. To know that he was suffering over someone that wasn’t worth it made me mad, but the thought of seeing him sad because of her only made my heart ache. Why couldn’t he see that she wasn’t the one for him? Shaking my head, I decided not to think about it anymore and just to start focusing on the class.

During lunch I couldn’t help but be rather worried for Naruto. For the remainder of the day he was rather depressed, and I wasn’t sure why, but no one else seemed to be asking him what was wrong. They all noticed that he was in a sad mood.

~*~

“He got rejected again,” informed Ino as she brushed her hair while looking at her reflection in her dresser. “He asked Sakura if she wanted to go to the Fall dance with him. I'm sure she said now."

"Well it's weird that she keeps saying no, you would think that she would at least give him a chance."

“Yep, makes sense… Hey, where’s Hinata?” asked Ino as she finally noticed that our friend wasn’t in the room.

I scratched the back of my head and smiled, knowing where she was, but I wasn’t about to tell Ino knowing that either way Hinata would tell her later. I looked out the window and wished her luck; I hoped Naruto would say yes to her question. I wanted her to go out with Naruto so he could see how much she loved him. I wanted him to see that someone could make him happy in a way that Sakura couldn’t. There was a pain in my heart though, I wanted Hinata to be happy but then why was my heart aching at the thought that he would be taken away from me forever? I shook my head in denial trying to ignore those feelings, wanting to forget about them.

I let my blonde hair fall from my ponytail and ran my hands through my hair, soothing my scalp. I stood and walked over to my dresser to take a seat in front of my mirror and started to brush my hair.

“You know I’ll keep asking until you tell me right?” she questioned as she turned to look at me.

I looked at her for a while, I shook my head in denial and winked at her, “Don’t worry, you’ll know soon enough” I replied. I continued to brush my hair and gulped as I was about to ask her my own question. “Hey, Ino?”

“Yeah?” she replied as she took off her make-up.

I bit my bottom lip wondering if I should ask her something that I had been wondering about ever since my weird confrontation with Sasuke. I remembered he asked me if my parents played favorites, and I had a feeling he was going through the same thing as me. I hadn’t had the guts to ask Ino nor Sakura about that, not wanting anyone to think that I'm just another fan-girl. I sighed and turned on my chair to look at her.

“Um, I heard this rumor about Sasuke. Do his parents play favorites?” I asked, trying to sound as uninterested as possible and tried not to meet her eyes.

“There was a meeting and everyone that was an Uchiha and still working had to attend. I don’t knew the specifics as to what they were going to talk about but the workers wanting to leave already didn’t notice that something wasn’t right with one of the machines. I think it overheated making it explode along with the others. Everyone in the building died, no survivors were left. Sasuke and Itachi didn’t go because well… they were minors and they didn’t have to be there. As for Madara he was a senior so he was retired and was watching over Sasuke and Itachi. Though shortly after the explosion Itachi left to go to another college but I don’t think that that was his decision. Sasuke means the world to him and he wouldn’t just abandon him when his little brother needed him the most.” She looked out the window and shook her head “Don’t bother with the Uchiha’s though, its better to stay out their way.”

~*~

There was a lone figure sitting outside of the dorm in the courtyard. He looked up at the moon. He liked being alone at times like this. He was saddened that she had rejected him, that the love of his life had said no again. A light breeze blew. He normally would’ve shivered seeing as he was only wearing a white T-shirt with the leaf symbol on the middle, but somehow, he didn’t feel anything. He looked up to see the dark sky, his blonde bangs partially covering of his crystal blue eyes.

“A half moon,” he whispered. Just like how my heart feels, he thought to himself as he shook his head. In half because the one he loved wasn’t with him.

He didn’t feel complete without Sakura by his side, without the one that he loved being there for him. His heart didn’t feel whole, it felt as if it was missing something, something important and he knew what that was. He shook his head and decided to forget about everything. What was the point in sitting and crying over something?

“Alright, that’s enough sulking Uzumaki Naruto! Time for your old self to come back!” he shouted not caring that it was night, knowing no one was around.

“N-Naruto?” questioned a soft and shy voice that he knew too well.

He turned his body to see Hinata standing there; she was looking down to the ground with a light shade of red on her cheeks. He couldn’t understand why she was so shy and so quiet. Must be a girl thing, he figured.

“What is it Hinata?” he asked her as he walked over to her and a cheerful grin formed in his face.

“U-um, I was wondering if you would like to go to the… you know… the d-dance… w-w-w-with me?” she questioned, her gaze directed at the ground as she prodded her index fingers together.

Naruto was somewhat surprised that she had asked him that. No one ever asked him to go to a dance with them. He was rather happy that someone asked him and smiled, nodding cheerfully without thinking about it twice. Well, he didn’t want to upset her and he knew how rejection felt so he didn’t want her to feel how he did.

“Sure, I’ll love to go with you,” he answered.

Her face turned beet red and if it hadn’t been for him grabbing her hands, he was sure that she would’ve fallen to the ground when she fainted. He wondered why she always did this. Though many people found it annoying, he found it rather cute. Shaking his head, he picked her up and decided to go leave her at her dorm.

~*~

Ino and I were both seating in our beds waiting for Hinata. I was wondering what was taking her so long. She huffed and turned to look at me with a pleading look, begging me to tell her where she was and what she was doing. I slowly turned around not wanting to tell her, I promised Hinata I wouldn’t tell her. Hearing a knock on the door, Ino jumped up and ran towards the door and was about to scream when she noticed someone else.

“Naruto?” she said, but then stopped as she saw an unconscious Hinata on his arms. “Thank you, um could you place her down on her bed?” she asked kindly.

He did as she asked and laid her down on the light purple color sheets before he turned to look at us, smiling widely. I wondered how he didn’t get caught since it was way past our curfew and he needed to get back to the boys dorm.

“Tell me again how you didn’t get caught?” asked Ino as she looked at him while she pulled the covers over Hinata once she had taken off her shoes.

Naruto laughed nervously while he scratched the back of his head, not sure what to say to that. “Well… it’s a secret route that I know, so don’t worry about me getting caught anytime soon.” he replied.

“You do this all the time?” I questioned.

He laughed and shook his head before he stretched. “No, only when I want to mess around or scare someone.” He waved bye and as he headed towards the door, but Ino stopped him.

“So what was Hinata telling you?” she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and tapping her foot, awaiting an answer.

Naruto blushed and looked away. “Well, I have a date for the dance now,” he said, and took the advantage of a shocked Ino to make his escape not wanting to be questioned anymore.

Inos’ eyes had grown wide with shock and her mouth was hanging open. Her arms had fallen beside her hips wondering if she had heard right or not. I, myself, looked shocked. I felt an ache in my heart, the same one as before. Tears wanted to form in my eyes, but I didn’t let them. I didn’t know why I was feeling saddened at the fact that he was going to the dance with Hinata.

I should be happy. Hinata was always in love with Naruto and she deserved him way more than Sakura did. Sakura didn’t appreciate the love that Naruto felt towards her but I bet Hinata would. I gulped and decided to break the awkward silence. It was then that I noticed that I had been gripping the bed-sheets.

“Well, I think we know now why she’s passed out,” I joked and brushed a lock of my hair over my ear, chuckling.

“Oh my God! Tomorrow we are going to ask for details alright?” Ino said as she turned off the lights, already too excited about hearing the story and making her own version of things.

I released a sigh wondering what had happened. I wanted to know how she asked him, though the pain in my heart wouldn’t go away. I decided to ignore it and simply go to bed. I shifted onto my bed and looked out the window. I closed my eyes feeling tired and fell asleep but, not before I felt something wet fall from my eye and down my cheek.

Ok first of all, I want to apologize to everyone that is reading this story and I have not updated it at all. I am truly sorry for not updating but so many things have been happening. First of all, it's the school that is pressuring me too much. Having to study 3 hours total for Zoology and the ACT then I have to work on a project, then shower. So my whole day is gone on that alone. Last year of high school is not fun when it comes to work! Two, my beta-reader told me she could no longer do it. Therefore I cannot update until I find a new one and get a reply back. I'm truly sorry about this but hope soon I'll find one and be able to post the next chapter. Though I will say that next semester my schedule WILL be a lot more freed but sadly I can’t update anything without a beta-reader. I will give you a hint on what happens in the next chapter, it includes a dance, a girl and a boy, and a slow song. That’s all! I hope I get a chance to update soon, if you know anyone that could be my beta reader, please let me know!

The girls’ building was like a madhouse; girls were running down the hallway freaking out about their hair, their dresses, or their make-up. I didn’t know if this was how things normally rolled when there was a dance involved but I was sure it was. Girls walked down the hallway holding their dresses up so they wouldn’t step on them, freaking out when they didn’t find what they needed.

I ran down the hallway with a box full of make-up, hair accessories, and jewelry occupying my hands. I easily evaded the girls that were looking for their friends to help them; after all, I did not want to bump into them making everything in the box fall down. I knew that they would yell at me and then storm out, leaving me alone to pick up all the stuff. I pushed the door of our dorm open and placed the box down on the bed, panting. Looking up, I saw Ino and Hinata about to be ready.

Ino’s dress was long and purple, with spaghetti straps that tied behind her neck. There was a silver curly design under the breast area going all the way around her back, along where the spaghetti straps started to become thin. The back was uncovered, starting to cover from above her waist and down. Her shoes were silver high heels with four straps and in the middle had a thin design with fake diamonds.

Hinata’s dress was a sleeveless, king blue color with a V-neck, while the bottom was slanted and layered. The dress also tied back behind her neck and her back was uncovered. Her shoes were golden heels with blue gems on it. I didn’t know the type of hairstyle that she was going to have. I couldn’t help but think that the dress helped bring out her eyes and the dress fit her perfectly along with Ino’s dress.

“Thank you so much, Naomi! You’re a life saver!” exclaimed Ino as she turned to look at me with a big smile on her face but frowned seeing that I wasn’t ready. “When are you going to start getting ready?” she questioned as she stood and looked through the box, looking for something.

“Whenever my sister tells me to start getting ready,” I replied as I started to mess with my shirt. My hair was up in a messy ponytail; I had on a plain T-shirt with the high school logo on the front and a pair of blue jeans with tennis shoes on. Hey, they were making me run down the halls like a mad-person. I wasn’t about to run with heels or anything else other than tennis shoes. What if I fell and broke my leg?

“Naomi, what does your dress look like?” Hinata asked as she untangled her hair and went to turn on the curling iron before she placed it on her dresser.

“Naomi, you can’t expect us to believe that you have no idea what your sister is going to make you wear,” Ino reminded me.

I shook my head, knowing that it was pointless to argue this with her. I didn’t know what my dress looked like, what color it was, nothing! My sister had never bothered to send me a picture; instead I had received a simple message reading:

‘Finally found your perfect dress! You are going to look adorable in it!’

To her, days like this were when she loved me being her Barbie doll and I let her do whatever style she wanted with my hair and everything else. I had no idea how to apply make-up, let alone know what was the difference between name brands and whatnot. That’s why I never did anything to my hair or clothes when she wanted me to dress up. I didn’t want her making a big fuss over it when all I tried was to help her out. Apparently, everything I did to my face or hair made it harder for her to fix.

“Fine, I still don’t believe you though. Now, Hinata, remember if the shoes start hurting you while you’re dancing with Naruto, don’t hesitate to take them off. I’m sure that many other girls will do the same but I made sure that it wouldn’t be an eight-inch heel. Seriously, who would even think of going to a dance with a heel that high?”

Hinata and I made eye contact before we started laughing; it was funny to see Ino talking to herself whenever it came to fashion because we hardly ever understood what she was saying or what she meant. Shaking my head, I stood and took out the stuff that they asked me to bring them from the front office.

“Stop laughing at me! At least I'm trying to help her out!” Ino snapped as she glared at us for laughing at her but soon joined in laughing.

Hinata chuckled and shook her head. “Don’t worry Ino-chan, I remember everything you taught me; from how to dance properly to how not to stutter in front of Naruto-kun.” A light blush formed on her cheeks as she recalled her date with the blonde-haired boy.

I smiled at her and patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry about anything. I’m sure that tonight everything is going to turn out alright,” I encouraged. The pain in my heart that I used to feel a few days ago eventually went away or more like it became easier to ignore it. To me now, it was Hinata’s big night. “Well, I better go take the rest of the stuff to Sakura and Tenten.” I picked up the box again and thankfully it was lighter now. “Do you guys need anything?” I questioned as I turned to look at them.

“No… Wait!” Ino said as she ran towards her side of the dorm and looked through the drawers, throwing clothes over her shoulder. “Ah-ha!” Standing up with a tie on her hands, she smiled and placed it in the box.

I looked inside, wondering what it was doing in Ino’s drawer and why Sakura or Tenten would need a tie. I balanced the box on my right hand and took it out with my left hand. “Um… who is this for?” I asked.

Ino had taken a seat back in her dresser as she started to pull her hair up in a high ponytail. “It’s for Naruto. He didn’t have any matching ties so I got him one but I forgot to give it to him. Could you please go give it to him and perhaps maybe help him put it on? I doubt he would know how to tie a tie.”

I arched an eyebrow as I looked at her rather confused. “Doesn’t he wear one for the school uniform though?” I asked.

Ino chuckled and shook her head as she started to curl her hair, “No, they’re all clip-on ties. See, this is exactly why we humans are getting dumber and dumber! Next thing you know, we won’t even know how to tie our own shoes!”

Hinata sighed and shook her head, seeing that Ino was about to get in another argument with herself. She smiled softly at me and motioned for me to go so I won’t have to listen Ino complain about the uniform and how the new fashion is making people dumber and dumber. I, without hesitating, used that opportunity to leave the room.

I walked down the hallway wondering if Tenten had a date for the dance. I remembered her mentioning that she wanted to go with Neji but I wasn’t sure if she asked him out or not, or was it the other way around? Shaking my head, I decided to not think about it or else I was going to get a headache trying to figure this out.

Knocking on Sakura and Tenten’s dorm, I looked back inside the box, seeing that everything was there that they needed. Tenten opened the door wearing her dress already. Her dress was a strapless red ball gown with her hair down and curled; red heels with a bow on the[back were in her right hand. Even though it was weird seeing her with her hair down, she looked pretty, a new look that really suited her.

She smiled as she stepped aside so that I could walk in; I looked around seeing that Sakura wasn’t anywhere to be seen and that their other roommate was applying her make-up. I waved at her in a friendly matter before Sakura walked out of the bathroom wearing her dress. Sakura was wearing a dark knee-length green dress. There was a green flower in the middle of her breasts and leaves were made of emeralds. She was wearing silver heels and her hair was wavy with the tips of her hair spiking out.

“Naomi, you’re here!” she greeted as she hugged me, then moved the stuff away from her bed so that I could place the box down. “Thank god that you can help us or else we would be in a lot of trouble trying to figure out what we would do… what is a tie doing in here?” she asked as she took out the red tie.

I took it from her and chuckled. “Sorry, Ino wants me to go leave it with Naruto,” I explained as I chuckled, hoping they wouldn’t think that I was going to wear it.

“Naomi, are you going to the dance?” asked Tenten as she took a seat on her bed while she fixed a few other things in her hair.

I looked at her and nodded. “Yeah, I'm just waiting for my sister to tell me she’s here.”

“Your sister?”

“Yeah, she’s the one in charge of my dress and all that stuff, you know. Everything that you do on this kind of days.”

Tenten and Sakura chuckled and shook their heads. “Well we hope to see you there, I don’t think it would be as fun without you,” said Sakura and sighed. “Well we better let you go. I know Naruto and he still hasn’t figured out that there’s something missing in his tuxedo.” Sakura shook her head before she smiled softly at me and patted my shoulder. “You’ll have fun.”

I chuckled and walked out of the room before I started to head to the boys’ building, with the tie in my hands. I had left the box back with Sakura and Tenten. Then it hit me: I didn’t even know Naruto’s dorm number! How am I supposed to find him, when I don’t even know where he was at? I stopped as I started to freak out, wondering how I was going to find him without roaming the halls.

I took a deep breath, figuring that I didn’t have much to lose, right? I mean, it’s not like I'm going to bump into anyone that I didn’t want to. The only person I really didn’t want to come across to was Sasuke. It has been weeks since that night; the night that has been haunting me. Was it me or was that guy beyond creepy, or was it the fact that he had been listening in to my conversation without us knowing until he made himself known? Did that mean that he could easily do it again? I shivered at that thought as I walked through the double doors that led me to the guys’ building. It couldn’t be that creepy, right? They were probably as busy as the girls were, so they wouldn’t even notice that I was there.

Though, I was dead wrong; the guys weren’t going as crazy as the girls were and that only made me more worried. Did that meant that they were going to notice me?

‘Idiot, of course they are! You’re not even supposed to be here!’

I gulped as I walked down the hallway trying to see if I could find someone, anyone to ask if they knew where Naruto was, but to my bad luck no one was in the halls and I didn’t want to knock on a door and have the chance to see a guy shirtless.

“Anata wa ojo wa koko de nani o shite iru no?” (1) asked a male voice from behind me. I turned and calmed down as I noticed that it wasn’t Him.

“I… um… I came to give this to Naruto… do you know what his dorm number is?” I explained to Suigetsu as he walked towards me. I closed my eyes as I saw him raise his hand up. But I didn’t felt anything but a simple strand of hair being picked up and brushed over my ear. I opened my eyes only to find him way too close for comfort.

“You shouldn’t roam the halls by yourself, Ojo.” (2)

“W-well Ino wanted me to do it. She’s busy doing her make-up and stuff.”

“Right, cause right now it’s a madhouse over there.” Shaking his head, he stood up straight and smirked down at me. “H125.” I tilted my head to the side with a confused look in my face. He chuckled and sighed. “Naruto’s room number: H125,” he repeated.

“Oh… arigato, Suigetsu-kun!” I smiled and waved bye before I turned and went to look for the room.

“Don’t mention it, Ojo,” he replied loud enough for me to hear.

Well at least I can deal with Suigetsu instead of Sasuke, though I didn’t like the nickname that he had given me but I guessed I could deal with it for a while. It wasn’t like I talked to the guy that much. I sighed happily when I found the dorm and wondered if they were in there. Taking a deep breath, I raised my hand and knocked on the door.

I waited patiently as I started to wonder what my dress looked like. I was nervous; this was my first dance ever. What if I made a fool of myself? What if someone asked me to dance and I stepped on their toe? Just the thought of it made me not want to go to the dance. When the door opened, I snapped out of it and looked up to see Naruto.

“Hey Naomi-chan, what are you doing here?” he asked me.

I smiled, noticing that he had on his tuxedo pants and his white shirt on and was only missing his jacket and of course his tie. I raised my hand so he would be able to see the tie. I knew he would notice then that he didn’t have one.

“So that’s what I was missing,” he whispered to himself, not wanting to be heard but I did anyway. He reached out to take the tie from me and walked over to the mirror. “Arigato, Naomi-chan!” he added as he looked at his reflection, trying to tie it but it became his personal ‘mission impossible’. I giggled softly and walked over to him.

“You should practice more often,” I whispered as I made him turn to look at me and started to tie it for him. Due to the fact that I would do anything to please my parents, I thought that maybe one day Father would need help in tying his tie and I would be there to save the day but that day never came. If it had, I didn’t know. He would probably ask his perfect daughter for help or even Mother. “Next time I won’t be around to help you,” I added as I kept my eyes locked on the tie, doing every step carefully as I hoped that I still remembered how to do it.

He chuckled nervously and nodded. “Yeah, I should but I just don’t find the right time to do it.” Though it sounded more like an excuse to me, I let it slide. “Besides, it’s not like I’ll wear it ever again! If I did I could always get someone to do it for me, right?”

I shook my head and couldn’t help but scoff at his idea, then looked up at him but froze at seeing how close we were. “Well I don’t think a guy would feel comfortable tying another guy’s tie and not all girls know how to tie a tie, Naruto.”

“Well I could always call you and ask you to tie it for me.”

“What if I’m very far away and can’t make it?”

“Then I’ll go to you.”

“Really? Even if I’m at the other side of the world?”

“I’ll go after you, no matter how far away!”

I smiled softly at him, finding it sweet that he had said that but I was sure he was only being funny. As I looked up at him, I couldn’t help but get lost in those eyes again. Those blue eyes that always seem to look through me that always made me feel safe and happy. As we stared at each other, I felt a hand wrap around my waist slowly and pull me close to him. I placed both my hands on his chest, without thinking of my actions. We were both staring deep into each other’s eyes, oblivious to the fact that our faces were getting closer and closer. I felt my heart starting to race. Never had I been this close to him. Never had I felt my heart jump with such joy, with such happiness. I slowly started to close my eyes as we kept getting closer and closer, our lips centimeters apart…




DUN-DUN-DUN!!! Yep, I am ending it right there! Haha! >:D I know, I’m evil. Would they kiss? Would they not kiss? Then you’ll have to wait for the next chapter, normally I was thinking of making this a REALLY long chapter but I am having some difficulties with how to start a POV for someone.