Disclaimer: I will not own Naruto. I will never own Naruto. I am not planning on killing anyone in an attempt to own Naruto.
Gaara’s Point of View
Gaara stared into the dusty smudged mirror where his own pale face stared back at him. It’s depressing to say the very least when he looked at himself. There are distantly seen words in his mirror some written in permanent ink that had faded while other’s had been written in smudged black eyeliner. There is nothing extraordinary about Gaara Sabaku. Well, actually his appearance is a bit startling but the world gets crazier every day. He looks nothing like his sister and brother. Gaara has a mop of messy naturally red hair and mint green eyes that are always hidden underneath many layers of black eyeliner.
His sister is a blond with brown eyes and his brother has brown hair and eyes. They’re, in Gaara’s opinion, what could only be defined as normal.
However Gaara was a freak. An outcast at Konoha high school. The mirror doesn’t lie. He shoved two little nubs in his overly pierced ears and left his sickeningly warm bedroom for the hallway. One of his ears is pierced three times and then once on the cartilage the other is just pierced two times. As usual as he waited for his toast to finish he burned it and then coated it with marshmallow cream on it to mask the bad taste. Temari stared at him with disgust but then again, that was how just about everyone stared at Gaara. He did his best to ignore her and didn’t really know why he couldn’t because he really did honestly hate her. Gaara Sabaku hated her, and Kankuro as well, but most of all he hated his father. He hated his father more than anyone. Hated him because he hurt Temari. Hated him because he hurt Kankuro. Hated him because he hurt his mother before he died. And Damnit, Gaara hated his father because he hurt him.
Temari was one of the popular girl’s in school. She wore short skirts and tank tops every day and pretty much in her opinion led the perfect life for a teenage girl save for Gaara. Temari hated Gaara almost as much as he hated her. She hated him because he embarrassed her, even though it was unintentional, every time any of her friends came to their home. He hated Temari because she had never once treated him like a human being, but merely a disgrace to her reputation. Temari hated Gaara’s tattoo more than anything. The word “Love” was forever imprinted directly on his forehead.
Kankuro was one of the jocks in school. He had tons of friends and bullied kids like Gaara for fun. He played every sport known to man and had slept with every cheerleader for every sport in the whole school. Kankuro was not only an asshole but his actions sickened Gaara. Kankuro probably hated Gaara for being the black dot on hi fine popularity slate but he never made a big deal out of it. He just ignored Gaara for the most part.
Munching on his overly sweet toast he made his way to the bus stop old messenger bag covered in homemade patches of his favorite bands and listening his CD player. Gaara couldn’t afford an ipod like everyone else in the school. He had blown his savings for a year on once huge stereo system. Of course, this was no waste; his stereo was his most prized possession. The song was “Build God, then we’ll talk” by a relatively new band no one at his school had ever heard of called Panic! At the Disco was ringing through his ears. He found the song a bit addicting, like the cocaine his brother did on Saturday nights after winning the football games. He arrived at the bus stop his foot tapping ever so slightly to the beat of the song.
There was no one else at the stop. Temari and Kankuro already had driver’s licenses and so they drove but were to bastardly to take him along. Gaara was only fifteen and a sophomore and most students were a year older than him. He wasn’t some genius that got to skip a grade or anything he was just born around the right time. No other students lived in this neighborhood. It wasn’t a poor place, but he wasn’t rich or anything. It was just farther from the town than most neighborhoods.
The bus pulled up around five minutes later and Gaara climbed on sitting in his usual seat of the one with the “Emergency Exit” window. It was closer to the door and no one really sat around that area. Everyone tried to cram in the back because that was where all the “cool kids” sat. The bus driver gave him an appreciative look in his silence and pulled the door shut. A lot of people hated Gaara. Most of the teachers did because he listened to music in class, zoned out, chewed gum, and wore makeup. Most of the students did because they were too shallow to get to know him and hated him because the popular people declared him a loser. Most people on the streets glared at him and were none to quiet in calling him a fag. However, the bus driver did not hate him because he never made noise, never picked fights, and never made a mess out of her bus. This didn’t remotely boost his ego but it was sort of refreshing to see her kind eyes every morning. The song changed to a less energetic one. After another five minutes of driving, Gaara and the rest of the students filed off the best and into the high school.
The students dispatched to their own little posses and having no real friends Gaara made his way to homeroom. His seat was right in the back corner where he was surrounded a jock, a prep, and one other person who couldn’t really stereotype. He put his CD player in his black hoodie’s front pocket and put the cord from his earpieces down his shirt so it was very hard to see.
“Class, I am your substitute teacher for today. I assume this is homeroom so when I call your name please say ‘Present’ my name is Ms. Kurenai and I will be filling in for Ms. Kin today.”
The woman had a weak look to her. Not really a woman, more like a girl. Gaara decided he didn’t like her very much. She went through calling the names and as usual Gaara zoned out his attentions focused more on the boy beside him. His name was Sasuke Uchiha; he was in all of his classes and was very popular. Not a snobby popular like Ino Yamanaka who sat in front of him or a bad-ass popular like Kiba Inuzuka who sat diagonal from him, but a popularity created only be the fact that Sasuke Uchiha was HOT! It seemed everyone was competing for Sasuke’s affections. Boys wanted to be him, Girls wanted to be with him, but Sasuke didn’t want to be around anyone. Something Gaara cold honestly relate too.
“Gaara Sabaku.” Gaara wasn’t listening but staring into his hands thinking about how much he hated Ino while the music softly played in his ears. “Gaara Sabaku? Is he not here?” ‘The bitch’ as he often referred to Ino as in his own thought turned around and glared at him however he was honestly still oblivious.
Ino poked him painfully hard right on his tattoo and he looked up. Everyone was staring at him. He felt his face go a nasty shade of red as every eye focused on his embarrassment.
“Err…here?”
Well, almost every eye. Shikamaru was fast asleep and Sasuke was staring straight ahead probably thinking about what a dumb ass he was. Ino smirked nastily and turned back to the front her blond pony tail flipping in a “what a reject you are Gaara” kind of way. He felt a pang of annoyance at her but resumed his gaze to the floor turning his thoughts to whether or not he should paint his nails during lunch or wait until he got home.
Homeroom ended and Gaara sped off to Chemistry. Chemistry was a very annoying class to take. Professor Orochimaru was a very hard teacher and always selected about two or three students at the start of the semester to pick on more than any. Of course one look at Gaara with grape flavored lip balm, loads of black eyemakup, a tattoo, and nails painted at least twice a week upon force of habit, he had been selected immediately. The other person tortured readily in his class was Sasuke. Some people believed it to be a bloodline thing, Sasuke’s older brother Itachi had been one of Orochimaru’s favorites to harass, and Temari and Kankuro had gone through hell here as well. Gaara sat down in his usual seat and opened his textbook beginning to read to Periodic Table of Elements. Because of his need to have constant vigilance he always got to Chemistry as fast as he could and would skim through the chapter before class would begin.
Two minutes later the rest of the class filed in and Gaara turned off his CD player and removed the earpieces. Orochimaru started the day by telling them they were going to have to create a diagram with the top ten most important elements used today. Most of the class groaned. Gaara just hoped it wasn’t going to be some kind of group project.
“Each student will compile what they believe to be the five most important elements. Then I will pair them with another student and together they will create the diagram. I’m also using this little activity to determine your new seating arrangements. So start compiling your top five you have ten minutes.”
Gaara scribbled down his answers hoping they weren’t entirely off and leaned back in his chair a little crossing his arms in a relaxed way. Three minutes later Professor Orochimaru started pairing people together.
“Yamanaka, Nara, you’re together,” Ino and Shikamaru glanced at each other, “Hyuuga, both of you, together.” Neji glared at Hinata who looked away, “Inuzuka, Haruno you two together.” Sakura and Kiba didn’t even react, “Haku, Aburame together.” Haku and Shino exchanged a look, “Tenten, Uzumaki” Naruto smiled at her and she smiled weakly back with a face that registered ‘oh why me!’ “Yokushi, Sabaku” Gaara sighed but didn’t look even though Kabuto was flat out staring at him, “which leaves Uchiha and Akimichi. You and that person will now be sitting beside each other. If I said your name first get up and move your things to that person.” 1
Kabuto and Chouji who were sitting next to each other didn’t move so Gaara put his textbook in his bag and sat himself beside Kabuto while Sasuke sat down two bodies away beside Chouji. Their answers were completely different but that was okay because Gaara didn’t much care what he got in the class and Kabuto obviously didn’t care because he had repeated the tenth grade three times. When they finished Kabuto turned the diagram in to the professor and sat back down. During that short thirty seconds Gaara had watched Sasuke work. The guy had all the artistic skill in the world or he was just naturally precise because the lines in diagram were straighter than an arrow and he wasn’t using a ruler. Chouji just seemed to be telling him what to do. He had really neat handwriting as well. Gaara could tell as he wrote “Silver” on a perfectly straight line.
“Hey Gaara quite fantasizing about Chouji and listen, Orochimaru is about to call your name and make you do something.”
To Kabuto’s surprise Gaara actually responded, “I was not fantasizing about that oaf you imbecile.”
Kabuto only smiled and Gaara giving him one final mascara coated glare before he turned to stare at the professor. Orochimaru indeed somehow managed to get Gaara in front of the class to ‘describe his diagram’. Gaara had only rolled his eyes, read off the list, and returned to his seat his face a bit red. It was sort of refreshing that he hadn’t stuttered though. He stuttered when he was in front of people or when he was aroused. He didn’t even really stutter when he was embarrassed, but he did for some reason or another when he was in front of people. Orochimaru cleared his throat once Gaara finished and gave him an evil glare.
“Mr. Sabaku, your answers were entirely off in every way possible!” The class looked up enjoying seeing Gaara being attacked like the young sadists they were, “How can you possibly expect to pass tenth grade turning in work like that! Maybe if you spent less time with your sister’s makeup you would make better grades!”
People had their fists shoved in their mouths to stifle their laughed. Gaara hardly found it amusing and found it even less amusing when everyone looked at him for his reaction. Even Sasuke Uchiha was glancing at him out of the corner of his eyes. Gaara smirked and hoped he wasn’t about to stutter.
“Painting my nails twice a week is hardly something to be ashamed of compared to jerking off to the periodic table, professor.”
There was a unified gasp and a very tense silence swept over the room. Everyone was staring at Orochimaru and Gaara was smirking feeling rather proud of himself for pulling off a good comeback without stuttering or to his knowledge going red.
“Two essays Mr. Sabaku. Five pages of the Periodic Table. Five pages on masturbating. On my desk tomorrow. Single-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman. Go to the principals office immediately.”
Gaara stood up, shoved his things in his bag, swung it over his shoulder and glanced back at the room. Everyone was staring at him. Two dark deep coal eyes were now fixated on his own and he stared back and for the briefest second nodded to the owner of said eyes before walking out the door. ‘Holy shit,’ Gaara thought as he headed to Tsunade’s office, ‘I just…burned Orochimaru. That’s worth any essay or punishment, and if Tsunade suspends me I’ll have an excuse not to turn in those essays anyways. Not like he’ll care he’ll probably just flunk me. Who gives a fuck?’ He pulled out his earpieces and turned on his CD player as the office came in sight. Sighing he opened the door, gave the office assistant Ms. Shizune a look, and sat down in one of the chairs for bad kids. The other chairs weren’t taken, most troublemakers, though you could hardly call Gaara one considering he never spoke, don’t act up until after lunch when they have had time to get high on sugar or otherwise. About ten minutes later the phone rang softly at the front desk and after a ‘yes I’ll tell him’ she stared at Gaara and indicated to go to the back room where Tsunade’s office was.
Rolling his eyes he stood up and went to the back room where the overly endowed for a school principal was sitting. She glared up at him and hung up the phone she was cradling on her left shoulder.
“Sabaku, I just got an interesting call from Professor Orochimaru. He seemed to be talking about a bit of disrespect, care to go on?”
“He was harassing me not only about my work but my appearance,” he said dully, “I didn’t like it.”
“Oh,” she said her eyes narrowing over the honest emo boy in front of her, “And what did you say in your defense.”
Gaara’s face reddened but he spoke stutterlessly, “I told him that painting my nails twice a week was no shame compared to masturbating to the periodic table of elements.”
Tsunade burst out laughing. Honestly, did the woman have any shame? When she regained her composure several minutes and shirts going dangerously low she fixed her face, “Good one Sabaku, Orochimaru always did strike me as that type,” Gaara raised an eyebrow, “what’s your punishment?”
“Two essays. One on the periodic table, and one on jacking off.”
Tsunade let out a loud snort and smiled at him. Even though he was supposed to be here for punishment she had taken a liking to him, “Well, if you ask me Orochimaru got what he deserved, your essays are enough to put up with, go back to class.”
Gaara raised an eyebrow but nevertheless stood up and left. Once he was walking down the hall the office phone rang again and Shizune answered.
“How badly did you punish him?” she asked, but on the other line he heard Tsunade let out a snort, “Punish him? No way, he made me laugh.” Shizune raised an eyebrow and strained her desk bound self to get a glimpse of the boy walking away, “He didn’t seem talkative to me, let alone funny.” Tsunade’s smile was evident in her voice, “He wasn’t talkative. Come back here, lets have some fun Shizune-chan.” The brown haired woman blushed, smiled, and hung up the phone.
Gaara walked back down the hallway and glanced at a clock on the way. Chemistry was over and the little halleluiah song would have echoed in his brains except his CD player already had a song going through his brain. He headed into Japanese class about ten minutes late but apparently Iruka had been informed for he didn’t seem to care. He sat down in his seat, the middle seat in the second to last row and began to daydream ignoring everything Iruka was saying about ‘vowel consonant vowel consonant’ and was just about to fall asleep completely before there was a series of loud obnoxious automated shrieks coming from just about every direction. Gaara sat up alert and saw most everyone was standing up and heading for the from door most of them chatting nonchalantly to each other all of them leaving behind their things. Confused he adjusted his bag and got in the very back of the line behind Sasuke Uchiha.
Eventually Gaara managed to figure out it was a fire drill. As usual the entire grade attempted to make it out the same double doors at the same time and for the most part he just kept his eyes glued on Sasuke’s hair to make sure he didn’t get lost. It wasn’t until most of his class got out the door until anything superficially humiliating happened to him. Just as they were pretty much where they were supposed to be someone pushed Gaara very hard square in the back causing him to topple forward with a lot of force dragging Sasuke down with him. ‘Oh god oh god oh god oh god!’ he thought his back aching in pain and springing up off the pretty boy beneath him, “I’m sorry Sasuke,” his face now positively burning as he helped him to his feet, “I’m…sorry.”
There was a moment of silence between the two boys both rather red in the face as they stared at each other and the same thing was running through both of their minds.
‘Ho fuck he’s CUTE!’
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Well
TEACHERS: Chemistry: Orochimaru/Japanese: Iruka/Algebra: Kurenai (sub.)/Kin (regular)/PE: Genma/Literature: Jiraiya/Advanced Art: Kakashi/History: Kisame/English: Kimimaro