Konahagakure High School

So, I started the day with getting a heaping detention under my belt. Great... Though, I did have the satisfaction of getting to beat the living crap out of Maruka, and that brought me great pride. Others have tried to beat him up, and many have succeeded, but none have succeeded in securing the he got the same sentence they did. The bell was going to ring soon, so, as I strode out of her office, I held my head high. Even as I entered Kakashi-sensei's classroom to grab my bag as the bell rang. I could still feel the blood that gushed out of his nose on my fists and under my nails. It made me a little smug to say the least.

Lauren caught up with me after class, "Dude!" She chimed, a wide grin plastered on her face, "I bet that cock sucker is steaming right now!" She did a fist pumping motion in the air.

"I'm sure." I muttered.

Lauren sighed, "I wish I could've stayed in Kakashi-sensei's class a little longer." Her blue eyes glazed over with her regular dreamy look. I rolled my eyes because the more she thought about it, the redder she became.

"You better keep whatever fantasy your sick mind is cooking up under wraps because we need to get to Asuma-sensei's class." I said.

Her face flushed even deeper, "Sh-shush!"

I rolled my eyes, "Let's go."

I walked a little ways down the hall—Lauren following behind me—until I reached room 106. This was Asuma-sensei's class room. He was a good enough teacher. He would occasionally forget and light up one of his smokes in class, and have to put it out after he took a puff from it and remembered we were in school. So, many would assume he was very laid back, and for the most part, he was. The only time that changed was when he absolutely HAD to be serious.

As we walked in, I sat at my lab table near the back of the class. Lauren was my partner, but only by luck. Asuma changed them every two weeks, and today was the two week mark. I could only hope that he didn't shove me in a group with Maruka or Uchiha.

Lauren leaned against the table, her eyes glazing over with that dreamy haze. I shook my head. She'd had a crush on Kakashi-sensei since elementary school. She didn't have him until high school of course, but her fantasies still ensued. And knowing Lauren, I wouldn't want to be in her mind when she was having those fantasies.

I never saw any use in having crushes. I've only had one in my life. I haven't had one since. He was my first crush, and I'll never forget him. It just disdains me to admit who he's related to.

It wasn't long before my parents were killed in that drive-by shooting. I was young at least four or five. I was impressionable and, unfortunately, innocent. My mom worked at the Uchiha family's police station. She worked as the receptionist at the front desk, so I got to come to work with her on occasion. The Uchiha family came to see me as a sort of mascot, and many of them became fond of me. So, I went as much as I could.

There was one time that I sat by my mother, coloring pictures for the officers in the station. They always seemed to like them, and I loved to present them to them. Today, I'd decided to draw a portrait of Fugaku Uchiha, the chief of police. He was one of my mother's favorite officers. He was a father of three children and the figure head of his clan.

He walked in one day, his eldest son and child by his side. This boy was very handsome, even at the age of nine. His jet black hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and his onyx eyes were intense, yet still compassionate. He accompanied his father through the door. I didn't pay much attention to him until I ran up to the chief and handed him the—rather cartoony yet still accurate—portrait. I was tiny, even at the age of four, so my tiny arms stretched the picture up into his hands.

"Is this for me?" He had asked. I nodded excitedly as he smiled softly, "Thank you, Hana. This is a very good picture. I think you've got some talent." He turned to his son then, "Itachi, why don't you keep Hana company for a moment while I go put this in my office."

I looked up to him as he said, "Yes father." I can still feel the blush that rose to my cheeks then as if it was yesterday. Sometimes, if I don't catch myself, that blush rises to my cheeks and I have to squelch it before anyone notices.

His onyx eyes dropped to my face and he smiled, "You must be Hana." He crouched down so that we were nearly the same height, "My father's spoken highly of your drawings. Perhaps you'll draw me one sometime?"

I nodded, giggling like a little girl with that ridiculous crush. I still remember every smile, every kind word. He was my first crush, and always will be. I even drew him a portrait, which I doubt he kept. But when he smiled and thanked me, I felt like the most important person in the world.

I was sucked into reality when Asuma-sensei walked into the room, "Alright kiddos, Today is the day you change partners." I hadn't even realized that the class had filled up with other students.

I could see the hopeful gleam in many of the girl's eyes as they peered hopefully at Sasuke. I knew better. Asuma usually put those together who he thinks would work well; therefore, many of us were together more than once. Lauren and I had been paired at least one time before because it was very clear that we worked very well together.

"Before any of you get any ideas, I would just like to remind you that I am the one who picked the partners, so don't be getting any ideas." He stated, a smile on his face and an unlit cigarette between his lips. He began to read off names, and many of the students' faces fell around the classroom when they weren't put with their friends or crushes.

The first set of names that stood out were, "Maruka and Shikamaru." Maruka fist pumped and let out a tiny cheer. The second set were, "Lauren and Shino." I stifled a laugh at that one.

Lauren stood up to move to where Asuma pointed as Shino sat there, "Just...don't get any ideas walking beehive." Shino didn't react; in fact, he ignored her. I forced down the laugh as the last set of names caught my attention.

"Hana and Sasuke." I stopped dead, my stomach dropping into my stomach. My legs felt numb as I looked disbelievingly at Asuma.

"What!?" I sputtered. He pointed to where we were to sit. Sasuke moved but I had to force my legs to comply. They were as heavy as lead as I grabbed my messenger bag and ambled over to the table.

I sat down and he visibly cringed away from me. I couldn't even feel the anger that would normally be pulsing through me at his response. I felt numb, dead almost. Of all of the people in this class room, Sasuke was my lab partner. A lump of embarrassment formed in my throat, and I didn't bother trying to force it down. I hated this boy and he hated me. It was very common knowledge, and not many forgot it. I despised this boy more than even Maruka, and I really detested him.

I kept my head in my notes as Asuma-sensei carried on with the lesson. I didn't participate, didn't speak, didn't look anywhere but my notes—which were practically a perfect copy of every word he had spoken. This feeling of dread spread rapidly. These next two weeks were going to be miserable. Unfortunately, Asuma-sensei docked points if you didn't try to work with your partner; otherwise, I would completely ignore the douche bag. But, I couldn't. My grade depended on it.

I could feel the eyes of many angry girls as they bore into my back. I wanted to be one of them right now, so they would have to sit next to the douche bag wonder. I would love to be Maruka and sit by Shikamaru. Sure he was lazy, but he was tolerable. Hell, I wouldn't mind sitting next to Naruto, the hyperactive knuckle head. I would've rather sat anywhere else but here.

Speaking with Asuma-sensei about it would only make him extend my sentence and force me to sit by him until we learned to "work together." So now, I was going to have to stick this out like a survivor.

The rest of the class was agonizingly slow. We sat at opposite edges of the table, keeping as much space between us as possible. I was yanked from my own mind forcefully when sensei announced something about a project.

"Your assignment is to do a joint report on the properties of—" I tuned him out at this point. He wrote it on the board, and it was a joint project. That meant I would have to work with him on it. My luck, was horrible.

When the bell rang, Lauren met me in the hall outside of class.

"Bad luck getting stuck with Uchiha." She muttered as he passed.

"If doesn't speak to me, I won't speak to him." I concluded irritably. This day just couldn't get any worse.

We walked a little further down the hall to Kurenai-sensei's class. She taught Jutsu 101, so her class was very big. In front was the class room, and the back was the area where we sparred and practiced our jutsu honing skills. We had leader boards for each grade. Our grade was the junior class, so, of course, we had our own.

Of course, the pretty boy was top of the scoreboard in jutsu training and raw talent. Sakura was top in chakra control. Uchiha in genjutsu—only because of his stupid Sharingan—and ninjutsu. Kiba, shockingly, held the taijutsu for the juniors. I was average in most of them, except in taijutsu, where I fared relatively well. I'd always been decent in sparring if they weren't too much bigger or smaller than me—which says a lot because I'm relatively small in height, probably the shortest female in our grade.

"Okay guys, file in." Kurenai ushered us to the back of the class, "Don't bother sitting down, we're going to be sparring today. If you've already sparred in Gym this week, I'm sorry." She walked to the center of the navy blue sparring matt. "To make it worth your while, we're going to have a tournament over the next hour. Whoever has the most defeats, wins some points to go toward their status on the leader boards."

There was a soft murmur of excitement around the room, "Great..." I heard Lauren mutter spitefully. She was never much good at sparring. She was always docked because she fought dirty. She'd always use the excuse that it wasn't going to be fair in the real world, and more points would be docked from her grade. Needless to say, she's got a pretty low grade in Jutsu 101.

I smirked at her, "Can't handle a little challenge?"

"What," Lauren smirked back, "S'not like you can beat me."

"I beg to differ." I glanced up at our instructor.

"Now, to ensure that there isn't any rigging to ensure wins, we'll be using the computer to randomly choose opponents. When one is defeated, they will be taken from the database." She said, "Any questions?"

"How far can we go?" Kiba was the first to pipe up.

"Clarify, Kiba." Sensei smiled lightly.

"I meant, how far can we go before it's considered fighting dirty?" He and Naruto smirked at each other.

"No blood or bone breaking. No biting and clawing, of course. No smothering or suffocating. No doing anything that can endanger your opponents life. No weapons—yes, Akamaru is considered a weapon." She said cutting Kiba off, "If the opponent forfeits, you're to accept it. Once you forfeit, you only get one chance to withdraw it. If you don't accept their forfeit, you are eliminated and your opponent wins by default. By now, you know the rules. I shouldn't have to tell you what fighting dirty is. I'm sure some of you have mastered it."

I couldn't help but think that was aimed at Lauren.

"Alright," Kurenai-sensei chimed, "Why don't we see who our first two opponents are?"

Some of them were random students. Then Sakura was paired with another—she won. Ino and another—she won. Naruto—won. Sasuke—of course he won. Kiba won. Shikamaru forfeit—not shocking. Shino forfeit. Maruka won. Lauren lost.

By the time it reached around to me, I was fired up. My name was the last to be called, and I was getting antsy. I didn't know the boy that I was up against well. Didn't know his name, didn't really care to. His pale brown hair, brown eyes, and scrawny frame was unimpressive to say the least. The only thing I probably needed to watch were his long—and probably bony—arms.

When it really came down to it, I won. By a landslide. He wasn't very steady on his feet and what little stability came off as clumsiness, so he was easy to trip up. That eliminated half of the class of thirty. fifteen left.

The next two were Maruka and Sakura, "Sorry, not going easy on you, sk-" He lost by default because of foul his language. I felt smug, especially since he carried the marks from my beating. I did that...

The next two were Ino and Kiba. Kiba won, of course. Naruto got paired with poor Hinata, so he only won out of sheer luck. Eventually there were only two of us left who hadn't sparred. I was one of them, and the other was another boy I didn't recognize. I took him down with a little bit of struggle this time.

The hour continued like that. Eventually it was down to six of us. Me, Naruto, Kiba, Uchiha, Sakura, and a boy named Hazaru—a transfer student from the Kumorigakure Academy in Kumori, the Shadow Village.

The first two were Sakura and Hazaru. Surprisingly, she won with sheer strength alone. He gave her quite a struggle, but it wasn't enough. Next was Naruto and Kiba. Their power struggle went on for what felt like forever. There were some moments when you'd think that the hyperactive wonder would win, but then Kiba would counter him and the tables would turn. Their spar was at least ten minutes long before Naruto finally tired Kiba out. They were both nearly out of energy, so he won in a short burst of energy.

Then, last. It was me and...and...you've got to be freaking kidding me. The last two to spar were to be me and the little Uchiha pedigree. The dread continued...

As I started to step onto the mat, the bell rang. I let out a sigh of relief. This wasn't going to be pretty. That much I could tell already.

"Alright, this match will continue tomorrow." Kurenai said, dismissing everyone. There was a dejected murmur around the classroom.

"Man, and I wanted to see her take him out." Naruto gave me a goofy grin and a large thumbs up.

I felt grateful, but I knew that if I charged in arrogantly, I would lose.

Lauren met me outside, "Can you believe it!?" Her face was set in a scowl, "I fucking lost! One of those weirdos beat me!"

"You're calling people weird?" I said skeptically, raising a brow.

"Well—shut it." She pouted. We walked several doors back up the hall to room 104 where Iruka-sensei taught math.

This class was the worst. I hated it with a fiery passion that wished death upon those that created the subject. Math had to be my worst class. There were times when I barely carried a B in there, and I would have to study with Ebisu-sensei—our Literature and Linguistics teacher.

As if math wasn't bad enough, Ebisu was and is the WORST tutor EVER. He expected us all to get everything the first time he said it, without fail. If we didn't, he treated us like incompetent morons that didn't know our left foot from our right. If, by some freaky miracle, we got it the first time, his praise was a lecture on how well studied you have to be to become a Hokage—like anyone but Naruto cares about that. And then to top it all off: Everyone knew—Naruto just pointed it out—he was a closet pervert.

Don't get me wrong, Iruka-sensei is an amazing teacher. I just hate math, and unfortunately, I don't really have anyone to go to for help at home. To be completely honest, I don't have the guts to actually raise my hand and ask questions in class. Half the time, I let Lauren do it for me, but I still have to explain it to her later after I've gotten it. Otherwise, I just discreetly go to tutoring during study hall—which, luckily, Ibiki doesn't make a big deal out of. (Now, if it were Anko, that would be a different story, but I got Ibiki's hour.)

I sat in my desk at the back of the class room. This was where all of the slackers or not-so-smart kids sat. I fell under a different category, I just sucked at this subject. I took notes on the trigonometry and trajectories lesson that Iruka wrote on the chalk board. (This tall board expanded across the whole front half of the room, enabling him to use most of the wall to teach. I thought it was a little excessive, but his lessons are usually in depth.)

The bell rang when the board was about half way covered with chalk writing and notes, "Alright, no homework tonight, just study your notes and be ready for a quiz tomorrow." There was a groan of disapproval throughout the classroom, "Would you rather have homework?" He challenged.

"No!" Several people called out.

"Then study." He said simply, turning to the board. I rolled my eyes, never really participating in his class-wide banter. My eyes traveled down to my notes. Almost an exact replica of the board with a few tweaked words or doodles on the side of the page. At least I could partially understand them...

Study hall was the normal boring hour. I spent most of it trying to explain what we'd just learned in math class to Lauren. Unfortunately, every time I'd managed get her attention, I'd lose it because she'd get distracted by my doodled pictures on the edges of my paper. I would have to fight to draw her attention back to me.

"The picture doesn't have anything to do with it." I sighed irritably for the fifth time.

"Then why is it there?" Lauren challenged. I let out a sigh of annoyance.

"Because I was bored."

"But-"

"If you don't pay attention and quit letting your ADD kidnap you, I'm going to punch you in the boob." I snapped.

"Ow." She pouted, guarding her chest.

Naruto scooted closer to us, "Psst, Hana?"

I glanced at him, "What's up?"

"Did you get the last part of the notes?" He muttered, thinking he was being stealthy.

"Yes." I said.

"Can I copy it? I got most of it," He assured me.

"Yeah," Naruto did a little fist pumping motion as I handed him my paper. He turned it over to the back and began to copy my clean and orderly notes. I glanced at his paper and I cringed. Chaos. That was the best way to explain it. His messy handwriting on top of the disorder of his notes made it difficult for my to read, especially from this angle. From now on, I would just have him start copying mine, word for word.

I turned back to Lauren to start helping her again. She had very neat and narrow handwriting, but her notes were chaotic too. I was starting to hope that Naruto would hurry up.

"Hey, Hana?" Naruto muttered, there was clear amusement in his voice.

"Yeah." I said absentmindedly, too focused on Lauren.

"Why's there a picture of Sasuke's cut off head on your paper?" He gave me a cheeky smirk.

I ignored the warming of my cheeks, "Because there is. Why?"

"What does that have to do with math?"

"Nothing, smart ass. Just copy the notes and give them back." I muttered spitefully.

"Can I draw it on mine?" He snickered.

"N—I don't care." I sighed irritably.

"Sweet!" I rolled my eyes.

Lauren peeked over his shoulder, "Well I'll be damned...there really is a severed pretty boy's head drawn on your paper."

"Pay attention damn you." I grumbled.

"Okay, okay, wouldn't want cha to punch me in my boob." She teased.

The rest of the hour passed and when Naruto finally gave me back my notes, the bell rang. I put my notes in my messenger bag and walked with Naruto and Lauren to the courtyards to eat lunch.

The court yard was at the very center of the school, right outside the cafeteria. One nice, warm days like this, students could eat and hang out for an hour in the court yard. As long as we cleaned up after ourselves that is... We could even leave and come back if they had a senior's pass or a teacher's permission. There were still some people that preferred to eat inside, but today was too great of a day to pass up, and we took advantage of it.

Luckily, the yard was huge. It ran almost the length of the school. And, since it was at the very center of the school, student's from the University could use it too. (Konaha High was connected to Konaha University by two narrow hall ways and this court yard. I, personally, didn't care, but there were many student's that threw fits over it because many of those from the University were either big or intimidating. They didn't bother me.)

There was a large cherry blossom tree in the center, it was already blooming and budding, littering the yard with its pretty petals. Naruto usually ate lunch with us. Occasionally, Kiba, Hinata, or even Riyame would sit with us, but today, we sat alone beneath the tree.

I pulled out my homemade lunch of rice dumplings. Naruto had his signature Ramen, of course. As he pulled it out and opened it, he let out a sigh of longing, "Ah—still warm."

Lauren gave us both a look of slight reproach. She didn't pull anything out. There were days when she didn't eat. Her parents were either too drunk or too hungover to cook for her—leading me to believe that she wasn't much of a cooker—and she didn't have any money to buy food from the cafeteria.

Naruto didn't seem to notice until I gave her over half of my lunch. Lauren's eyes lit up, "Are you sure?" As she looked over the food, a little drool began to slip from her mouth.

"Yes," I muttered, "I wouldn't have offered them to you if I wasn't."

"But won't you be hungry?" There was earnest guilt ringing through her voice.

"No," I lied, "I won't eat it all anyway." Naruto gave me a hesitant look. He knew I could eat quite a bit, but he didn't say anything.

"Here, have some of my lunch," Naruto smiled, "You need to eat more than that Hana."

"I'm good. Eat Naruto." I muttered. I knew I could just eat a larger supper when I got home. I didn't need so much food. Lauren needed all of the food she could get. I've been able to see her ribs in gym class for the past few days, and I'd started to get worried. I was chubby, I didn't need more food—or at least I thought so.

Naruto hesitantly looked down at his Ramen, it was one of his favorites and he was salivating as much as Lauren was at the moment. I rolled my eyes and heaved a sigh, "Just eat."

When they both dove in, I couldn't help but smile and laugh at them.