Out of Her Sight and Out of His Mind

Today had been an interesting day for her. It had started out with her brother forgetting her on his way to school. That was his punishment for the past two weeks after he had sent both himself and her German Shepard barreling down the stairs for being reckless and playing in the hall with him. The poor dog had ended up with a few broken ribs and couldn't move around much. Now he had to be her 'seeing eye dog' for the time that her dog was healing.

As the two got into their homeroom all of their friends gathered around her desk like usual. Though she couldn't tell what they looked like she knew they were a wonderful group, truly good kids and great friends. Since they had been little they had always looked out for her.

As they sat in homeroom she heard the door open. Quietly she listened for foot steps. It had proved to be some what of a chore since the class was still pretty loud for her, but she got it. The foot steps were quiet ones, ones that had held a gloomy and uneasy tone to them. It wasn't anywhere near nervous, just like they were used to having to tread lightly, to make their presence unknown. Her head tilted to the side and her brother had noticed.

"Shina is everything ok?" She shushed him still trying to listen as the conversations kept up around her. She at least caught Iruka-sensei telling her to raise her hand and saying the boys name. She was curious as to what the boy might have looked like. As she listened for his light foot steps she heard them getting closer and took in a small breath as he walked by to his seat. He smelt of coffee, nicotine and mint. It was a weird combination, but to her it still smelt good.

Once she heard him take her seat she ignored the conversations and her brother trying to get her attention.

"So you're the new kid, huh? Uchiha Sasuke was it?" She smiled and waited for an answer from the quiet teen behind her. After a few moments when he hadn't answered she figured he had only nodded and wasn't much of a talker. As she was about to say something else a voice had ripped through her train of thought.

"Shiiiiiinaaaa!" Said girl turned in her seat to her brother beside her. "Why are you ignoring me today? I told you I was sorry that I left without you. I forgot!"

"But Na-chan, you knew about-" Again she was cut off, but this time by her brother's best friend.

"You left the house without her? What kinda brother does that?" He laughed and the two boys began their familiar bickering.

"Can it dog breath! It was an accident. I'm just so us-" Nartuo began.

"Thank you Kiba for seeing it at my level." She paused turning back to the boy behind her. "Anyway! We're being rude! We have a new kid here and he's bound to feel awkward that we're ignoring him."

"No, I'm fine actually. Watching the three of you was proving to be quite amusing." Shina only nodded and then began introducing him to their crew. She had always liked making new friends and she was hoping that maybe he could become a new one. Though it didn't seem like that was going to happen. The tone of his voice had proved to her that this boy who sat behind her was more of a loner. He seemed a little weirded out about meeting so many people. During announcements a few of her friends where whispering to her like they usually did and she began to giggle. Kiba had told her some new jokes he had found on the internet and Hinata, Sakura, and Ino had asked her to go to the mall tomorrow to go shopping. Shikamaru hadn't said anything except for how troublesome homeroom was for himself. That's what had made her really giggle.

First period for her was boring and dull. She had listened to everyone talk. The newest gossip she had picked up on had been about the 'hot new kid' with raven hair and pale skin and a cool attitude. She could only imagine what he looked like. A boy on the taller side with perfectly smooth flawless skin, raven colored hair that swept across his head in one of those movie star windswept fashions. She had remembered what people used to look like, but that only brought up bad memories and horrible pain so she shook the thought away. This had caused her to have a headache. Probably one of the worst. As the days went by her headaches had been becoming worse and more excruciating.

By the time second period had rolled around she had reverted to wearing her sun glasses, the ones Ino had bought her because she was tired of seeing those bland looking ones that were given to her by the state, and closing her eyes. When Naruto had come to take her to her next class he saw the sun glasses and worried about her.

"How bad is this one?" He asked, concern lacing his words. Shina only shrugged.

"Bad enough, but I'll manage until we get home. If not, I'll just have Kiba or someone take me to the nurses office or something. Well we better be off or we'll be late for second period." She smiled hiding her pain like she did so often.

"Shina, let's just go call Jiraiyah. He won't mind taking you home so you can rest." Shina grabbed her bag filled with what she needed and took Naruto's out stretched hand.

"And I can rest perfectly in class or in the nurses office if I have to. Jiraiyah doesn't need to come to my rescue every time some thing's wrong. He has a life too, no matter how perverted he may be, he still has a life too." The last thing she wanted to do was go home. She hated having to rely on people so much, she felt bad.

The entire second period Shina had slept through it. When the class was over with finally Naruto went over to his sister and tapped her shoulder calling her name. She jumped at the contact, but calmed once she knew what was going on.

"Feeling any better?" Naruto asked with a small smile on his face. Shina nodded and they walked to the cafeteria. "Would you like anything to eat?" He then asked. Shina thought for a moment.

"No that's ok, thank you though Na-chan. I think I'm just going to find a quiet class room to sit in ok?" She said holding onto the wall and finding her way to the door.

"Do you want me to come with you or take you there or something?" He offered again. She shook her head and walked along the wall her hands roaming around feeling for something so she could tell where she was.

She had made it successfully to a classroom with the help of her friend Kiba. He had found her in the middle of a hallway trying to find a classroom and decided to go over and help her out. Kiba had always been a big help to her when she needed him most and felt like she couldn't talk with anyone else.

When she had made it inside she shut the door taking in a deep breath as she slid down the door pushing her hair back. It took her a couple of seconds to realize she wasn't alone like she was hoping she was. She could smell the mint, nicotine and coffee she'd smelt earlier. She then heard someone sigh heavily.

"Oh, Sasuke. I'm sorry am I disturbing you?" She asked staying on the floor . For a few moments she hadn't received an answer so she stood up and felt around for a desk so she wouldn't trip and look like a fool. She then felt really frustrated. "Um, I'm sorry, but where exactly are you. I'm not used to such quiet people..." The young boy looked to her she wasn't more than five feet in front of him. How could she not tell where he was?

"One desk right three down." He said coolly and she moved to sit in front of him. She played with her hair and revealed a couple of scars on her temples going down and spreading out towards the back of her head.

"Thank you." She smiled sheepishly. When he saw that his heart raced for a minute till he calmed himself. He turned his head away to look out the window.

"Hn," Was all she got out of him. She got even more frustrated with his answer, but then asked him another question.

"So how are you liking Konoha High?" She asked trying to keep her smile. He shrugged though she hadn't seen it.

"Ok." She frowned.

"Not much of a talker huh?" She waited for an answer. Again he shrugged looking to her face again and he could see all of the frustration plastered on her face. This confused him even further and he sighed.

"No, not really." Suddenly her face brightened. And she made a small happy noise. He was just glad that she didn't squeal like a lot of other girls did.

"Finally more than one word! I knew you were capable of it." She laughed and something inside him made him smirk and almost smile with her. Quickly, before she could notice, he schooled his expression into his normal emotionless one.

"Hn," She just giggled then looked up like something was calling her attention.

"Well looks like lunch is over." She smiled and not a minute later the bell rang. "Talk to you later." As she stood she giggled to herself and placed her hands on some desks to navigate her way out. At the door stood Kiba and Naruto.

"C'mon Shina! We'll be late." Kiba called smiling at the petite girl. She closed her eyes smiling and laughing.

"Okay, okay. Give a girl a break!" She took Naruto and Kiba's outstretched hands and walked out of the room. After that Sasuke hadn't seen Shina or anyone he was introduced to this morning until the last period of the day. Gym.