Beep! Beep! Beep! The alarm clock buzzed to life, loudly waking you up from your much needed sleep. The sunrise that seeped through your shades caused you to hiss from the small amount of light that penetrated your eyes. You angrily grumbled curses as you repeatedly smashed the off button on your own personal devil, wishing the world wasn’t trying so hard to wake you up. Once the beeping finally stopped, you sat straight up on your bed, mumbling more curses at waking up so unceremoniously as you raised your arms to stretch and crack your stiff limbs. You rubbed your tired (E/C) eyes as you glanced at the time on your alarm clock. 6:00 a.m. Huh, oh yeah. I have school today. At a new school, far, far away from the one friend I had before. Great.

        You’re a new freshman at a new high school called Leaf Village High. In fact, it was your first day, and you were not too happy about it. You were transferred here a couple weeks ago because of your old principal making you move. Apparently, he could do that somehow. According to him, the school has ‘more opportunities’, but you never knew what he meant by that, since this new school wasn’t very well known at all for anything. It was only a regular old boring high school. But it didn’t matter what you thought of it, since you were literally forced to move and you couldn’t talk your way out of it. Your old principal was rich, so he bribed your dumb adoptive parents to have you move, and he even offered to pay for your new apartment. Of course, your ‘parents’ agreed quickly to get you to move out of their house. They hated you, and you were more than happy to get away from those awful people, it was the only good part about this whole fiasco. Plus, your old principal was one of the kindest and wisest people you’d ever met. He was a good man, the only true father figure you ever had, and he knew what was best for you. There was only one thing that held you back though. James, your one and only best friend, and your adoptive brother.  

        In your old town, you lived with James and his abusive parents, your adoptive parents. You never knew your actual family since they had died in a car crash, or at least that’s what your ‘parents’ claimed. They hated you, and even though they adopted you, they never let you use their last name, so you kept your biological parents’ last name. Unfortunately, they were the closest thing to a family you ever had, even though his parents treated you both like slaves. They made you do all kinds of labor from dawn to dusk, doing everything they didn’t want to do. You and James were practically treated worse than Cinderella. The worst part was that James had a serious heart condition that they always neglected, which is why you always tried to help him out, even if you would get punished for it. Your ‘parents’ were pure torture, and you felt horrible at leaving your only friend to deal with them alone, and leaving him in general. That’s what held you back, and since his parents were actually disgusted with you and never wanted you in the first place, they had made sure that your ties to both them and James would be severed once you were gone. They wanted nothing to do with you, and they wouldn’t allow you contact with their son, your only friend, in any kind of way again. Even their numbers ‘mysteriously’ disappeared and were blocked from your phone before you left. They only left you with your memories, which no one could touch, not even them. You would miss James, and you will never forget your first and only friend. 
        
        But now you live alone in a fairly big apartment with no one to look out for you but yourself. It was pretty cozy, with its nice bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc.. The only problem was that it got too quiet all the time, which was something you weren’t used to. Luckily you had enough time to apply and get a job at a small café, The Iris, to pay rent, since your rich principal would pay for everything except the bills. But that was expected, even though you wished otherwise. At first it was a little overwhelming to you, since this was sprung on you so fast and you had never lived on your own before, but now you’ve come to terms with this new start, already used to the quiet apartment you now call home.

        Stopping your thoughts on memory lane, you lazily rolled out of your bed your principal so kindly paid for and went to do your morning routine of picking out your clothes, a shower, and then changing into said clothes. You were allowed to wear whatever you wanted, since this school stresses individuality or something, and doesn’t make you wear school uniforms, or so you’ve been told. Good thing too though, since you didn’t like skirts or dresses at all and wouldn’t wear them for anything in the world. You walked over to your dresser and picked out a black shirt with a drawing of (Favorite Anime) on it, some black pants, and some red shoes. The last thing you did was fix your (H/L) (H/C) hair into (Hairstyle of Choice). You were very simple, only wearing comfortable clothes. If people didn’t like your appearance that much, they can just suck it. That was your philosophy on fashion. 

        After you were done with everything, it was about 6:45, an hour before you had to start walking to school, which you hadn’t realized until now. Why did I set my alarm for 6:00 in the morning then!? I’m so stupid! You guessed that it was because your old school had started way earlier than other schools, so you and James used to wake up at 6:00 on the weekdays and 7:00 on the weekends to serve your ‘parents’. It must’ve been a force of habit you didn’t realize you had. Since you now had enough time to do whatever you wanted, you decided, for once, to eat breakfast. You made some scrambled eggs, toast, and a big glass of orange juice. While eating, you watched whatever was on TV today, which was mostly some junk and the news. After forty five minutes you got bored and decided to just get to your new school early. Early bird catches the worm I guess. You grabbed your backpack and headed out the front door into the nice, fresh, crisp air.

        You lived more inside the city, so you passed many restaurants, cafes, shops, hotels, houses, apartments, skyscrapers, and all kinds of other buildings. It all looked very beautiful to you, even though you’d much rather see it all lit up at night. The smell of the city didn’t bother you, as you continued to walk on this brightly lit day. It was as if there wasn’t any polluted air at all, even when different cars zoomed by you the road. You also passed by many dark alleyways, and you made a mental note to avoid these places as much as possible and freshen up on self defense skills later.

        You finally reached the school with thirty minutes to spare, which to you wasn’t too bad. So far as you expected, when you looked at the school, it appeared to be a normal three-story high school, although it did have some color to it. The walls were made with clean bright tan bricks, and dazzling white stones surrounded big clear windows spread evenly throughout the whole building. Every class must’ve had their own windows, which was fortunate, since you liked to look out the windows during classes and day dream. In the distance you could see trees near the back of the school, but you couldn’t see if they went any further back or not. A tall shining silver flagpole was at the front of the path to the entrance doors of the school, a golden flag with a green leaf symbol in the middle raised high and waving to the slight breeze that blew through the area.

      Now that you’ve actually seen it, this school didn’t seem as bad as you thought. The brighter colors actually gave a positive vibe, but it still seemed pretty normal so far. Groups of students scattered the well kept lawn in front of the school, chattering, gossiping, or even yelling. You paid no mind to them, since you had to go straight to the principal’s office to get your schedule and then find your way around. You walked along the path up to the front doors and opened them.

      When you stepped inside the school, the inside didn’t look as bright as the outside, but it was still normal just the same. Small lockers, classrooms, and students scattered every which way. Nothing new. So this is my new school huh? You sighed heavily. Even though the outside looked charming, school was still stupid school to you. Something tells me that this is gonna be a long first day, isn’t it?

        You found the principal’s office right away to the left of the front doors, and you entered a light bluish room. A secretary lady sat behind a long oak desk, typing away at a grey computer in the center, which was blocking most of the secretary from sight. A glass figure with a dressed up pig labeled Tonton sat next to a nametag that read Shizune. Despite two other computers on the desk, it was only her there. You didn’t understand why they had three secretary seats with only one occupied, but you quickly ignored this, because there was most likely a reason that you didn’t care too much about. You walked up to the desk and stood as close as you could get, gaining her attention. She looked up at you with a heart warming smile.

        “Can I help you?” She cheerfully asked. It startled you a little because she sounded as if this was heaven itself. Is it me or does she seem too excited to be here? Now that her face was out from behind the computer, you saw her features more clearly. She had white colored skin with a little tan to it, which somehow brought out her black eyes more than one would think. Shoulder length black hair rested against her cheeks with black bangs on her forehead that framed her face quite well. From what you could see, she wore a rather fancy blue long sleeved shirt, but you couldn’t see the rest of her attire since she was still mostly hidden behind the desk. You looked at her with a bit of a poker face and answered her.

        “I’m here to see the principal.” She closed her eyes, her smile growing wider.

        “Ah, you must be the new student then! Welcome! What’s your name again?”

        “(Y/N) (L/N).” She did some typing, then told you to go inside to the door on the left. You thanked her and walked to the door she described, the name Principal Tsunade in the center of it. You knocked on the door and heard a loud ‘come in!’, signaling you to proceed. You entered, and right away you were taken aback by the huge mural that adorned most of the room. There were paintings of different sceneries as the background, with kids adorning angelic smiles surrounding an older fatherly figure. In white cursive writing over a night sky at the top middle of it all read:

        You had heard about this person before. He was the old principal before this Tsunade person, who died mysteriously in his own home. He was apparently the nicest and most efficient principal the school ever had. Many students had even looked up to him as a wise old grandfather. So that’s what he looked like. It must’ve been so sad to lose him like that. He actually looked familiar to you, however, you just couldn’t think of where you’ve seen him, although that didn’t really matter at the moment.

        You quickly averted your eyes so it seem like you weren’t staring at the mural, you didn’t want to rude. You were pretty sure Principal Tsunade knew him well, so bringing up memories wouldn’t be the best thing to happen. The first thing you looked at was her desk, which had a glass figurine similar to Shizune’s on top of it. It was a white with a blue back slug labeled Katsuyu. When Tsunade noticed you, she gestured for you to take a seat, and you quickly took the only chair there, trying to distract yourself from the beautiful mural. You finally paid attention to Tsunade’s features. She was a very busty, blonde woman who wore a white V-neck shirt with a dark green jacket that was all unbuttoned. Her hair was styled into two low ponytails resting on her shoulders. She looked very young, but you had heard that she was around fifty years old. I guess she aged well. Really well. She doesn’t look a day over twenty five!

        “So you are (Y/N) (L/N), that my old friend recommended to go to my school.” Her voice came out quieter than when she told you to come in earlier. It was weird to hear a voice like hers go from loud one second to soft and gentle the next.

        “Yes ma’am.” You tried giving a polite smile to be nice, but you only managed to curl the ends of your lips up the tiniest bit. A little embarrassing on your part, but it’s not like you smiled too much.

        “In that case, your paperwork was already faxed in, and I have your schedule right here.” She reached for a folded piece of paper on her desk and handed it to you. “Do you need someone to show you around?”

        “I think I’ll be fine.” You immediately replied. She gave you a look that said ‘really?’.

        “Are you sure? This can be a pretty big and confusing school for newbies like you.” Newbie? Really? Despite her warning, you weren’t worried at all. You knew that you’d find your way around eventually. You did it before at your other schools, so you can certainly do it again. Thank goodness you had a very good sense of direction.

        “Mhm.” You nodded your head. She still gave you that same suspicious look, wondering if you could indeed find your way around, but eventually she gave you a cheeky close eyed smile, accepting your answer.

        “Alright, if you say so.”

        “Thanks for the offer though.”

        “I hope you grow to like it here then, and good luck.” She flashed you another smile before gesturing that you could leave.
        
        You left her office and walked past Shizune, who called out to you before you could leave the office.

        “Hello Miss (L/N). Do you have everything you need?”

        “Yup.” She looked around you as if searching for someone and you turned around as well, but there wasn’t anybody else in the office. You both looked back at each other with confused faces.

        “Didn’t Lady Tsunade assign you a guide?” So that’s what that was about. 

        “I told her it was fine. I can figure it out on my own, it’s no big deal.” She studied you the same as Tsunade had,.

        “Are you sure? This school’s pretty big. Bigger than many other schools. And if I remember correctly, your from (School Name), which I know is smaller than this one. I mean, it won’t take long to-” You laughed at her tone. She sounded like a mother whose child is about to have their first day at kindergarten. It was pretty funny.

        “You sound like a worried mother or something.”

        “I’m speaking the truth (Y/N). I’m just trying to help.” You let out your last set of chuckles as you looked her straight in the eyes.

        “Trust me, I’ll be fine Miss Mom. I have a very good sense of direction.” She studied you once more, and finally accepted the fact that she wouldn’t be able to change your stubbornness one bit.

        “Alright. Just don’t get lost okay?” You laughed again.

        “I’ll be fine. Seriously, trust me. I have experience.” You turned and started walking back to the office door. 

        “I better not see any tardies on your record!” You playfully rolled your eyes and left, going back into the hallways and began trying to find your first class.

        Just as you thought, it wasn’t hard to find your first period class, which was Literature with a teacher named Kakashi Hatake. You walked into a surprisingly empty classroom, although there was only five minutes before class started. You expected some early birds to be here talking, or even just someone doing something, but it was just a suspiciously looking ghost town. You nevertheless took the second to last seat on the far side of the room, your back facing one of the two large windows at the back wall, and placed your bag next to the chair. You leaned your right arm on your desk, rested your head in your hand, and began daydreaming. It wasn’t until there was only one minute left when you started seeing people come in and sit down. No one must care about tardiness then. Even though they could easily see you, they didn’t acknowledge your presence, fortunately for you. You were hoping that the teachers at this school don’t do the whole ‘introducing new students’ bit the whole day. You hated attention. 

        Not long after the bell rang, you found that you had picked the best seat in the house, in your opinion anyway. It was pretty secluded and far off from the more noisy people. Sure some sat by you, but they were pretty quiet and in their own little world. The noisiest people, who you guessed were all the popular kids, sat all the way on the opposite side of the room where the door was. They were the farthest away from you, which you were thankful for. They’d only torment and annoy you if you so much as set foot in their field of vision, you knew their kind all too well from your old school. The popular ones here seemed colorful and diverse though, you’d give them credit for that. From where you were, you could see one with long pink hair, long bleach blonde hair in a high ponytail, short spiky blonde hair, and one kid with hair that looked like a Duck’s butt. His name is now officially Duckbutt. Heh, that’s pretty funny.

        Another five minutes of sitting and resting passed before the teacher, presumably Kakashi Hatake, came in. His most dominant features were his spiky silver hair that seemed to defy gravity, and a black mask that covered his whole mouth and left eye. It could just be to cover some kind of scar or something like that. It actually looks kinda cool. He wore dark blue jeans, a loose long sleeve dark blue shirt, and a silver t-shirt on top of it. It was an interesting choice of clothing for a teacher, but hey, you wouldn’t judge. As soon as he cleared his throat, everyone started to quiet down, for once.

        “Sorry for being late, class. I got lost on the path of life… again.” He sheepishly said while rubbing the back of his neck. Everyone just rolled their eyes like it was the most annoying thing in the world. Does he do this all the time? No wonder people didn’t come here until the last minute, literally. Sheesh. He never noticed his new student, as he seemed to be too rushed to get class started due to his ‘accidental’ lateness, which you sighed in relief to. Wew! At least he doesn’t see me, or doesn’t care. I hope it’s the latter. “Alright class, get out your books and open to page-” You were getting your book from your bag when the door to the classroom was slammed open.

        In the doorway stood a tall red-headed male with pale white skin. He wore a black hoodie with his hands in the pockets, baggy black sweatpants, and black shoes. He had a red ‘love’ kanji symbol above his left eye, no eyebrows, and too much thick black eyeliner all around his sea foam green eyes. It looks more like he’s got bags, but whatever. Maybe that’s just his style. It actually doesn’t look too bad on him. It highlights his features pretty well. He was scowling viciously at everyone, and he gave off such a dark aura, you really didn’t like this kid. While everyone had a look of pure terror, you only raised your brow in confusion. This guy didn’t look that tough, and even if he was, he still wouldn’t scare you. However, no one else seemed to think so, you thought you were the only one not pissing their pants right now. Hell, even Kakashi looked nervous, but he still held his ground. You just rolled your eyes and looked to the front where Kakashi was. “Ah, Gaara. You’re late.” Look who’s talking. ‘Gaara’ just grunted and walked into the classroom. You glanced at him and noticed that he was actually walking towards where you were sitting. That’s when you realized that there was only one empty desk left in the entire class, the one to your right, next to you. Awe shit.

        He scanned the room as he walked to the desk, surveying everyone’s expressions, which were all pale with fear. When he sat down, his eyes met yours with a questioning glare. He didn’t know who you were, and was probably wondering why you weren’t terrified of him like the rest of the class. When you held no other reaction, his glare intensified to the point that it would surely send any ‘average’ person cowering in their place. But you weren’t afraid of him, and you had every intention to show that. You immediately glared back, showing you don’t and never would fear him. He wasn’t even the most intimidating thing you’ve seen. Besides, there was no way you were going to be bullied around like a weak little kid in this new school. He showed shock for a millisecond that you dared show resistance to him, like he’s never had someone not be nervous around him, and he hardened his glare back. You raised your upper lip in annoyance and anger, and looked as if you were about to snarl.

        The tension in the air was so thick and suffocating, everyone must’ve felt like they were in Antarctica from the cold atmosphere. Your glaring contest between the both of you was almost pure animalistic, dangerous and feral. After a few moments, he slowly turned back to the front, hesitatingly breaking the eye contact, and you followed as well, though you weren’t sure why he broke it. You soon figured it out, as that little ‘show’ was enough to get Kakashi to notice your presence. “Ah, well apparently it looks like we have a new student today.” Dammit! You clenched your right hand into a fist with your index finger trying to crack your thumb knuckle. It was something you did to calm yourself down, and not curse out loud in front of everyone. “Why don’t you introduce yourself?” Son of a- Luckily, not everyone heard Kakashi single you out, they were still worried about how Gaara just glared at you, so only about half of the class was really paying attention. You felt a little headache coming on, angered that what you didn’t want happening, was happening. You wanted to get this over with so you opened your mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Kakashi before you could utter a single word. “I’d prefer it if you stand up.” Bull. Shit. Your right eye twitched in annoyance, but you quickly composed yourself and stood up. You swore you saw Gaara almost bring his lips up to a smirk, almost. You almost glared at him, but you stopped yourself since there was the possibility that it was your eyes playing tricks on you. Then, you finally introduced yourself.

        “Hey. My name is (Y/N) (L/N) and… yeah not much else to say but that.” Kakashi looked at with you with his only uncovered eye, raising his eyebrow.

        “I’m sure you have more to say than that. How about what you like and dislike.” How about I dislike this?        “Uh, well, I guess I love animals. Hm, and I dislike… a lot of things…that’s it. How was that?” He sighed, probably annoyed at how stubborn you were, but you didn’t care. It’s not like you wanted to say anything in the first place.

        “I suppose that’ll be enough. You may sit.” You quickly sat back down. You hadn’t noticed until now, but apparently when you were talking, all eyes had averted to you. They must’ve come out of their stupor and realized something was happening. Gaara was the same, though he actually glared at you, seemingly annoyed with you for some reason. You wouldn’t be intimidated or be put down by him though, your pride wouldn’t allow it, so you glared back. He seemed taken aback for a moment again, and he intensified his menacing scowl with sea green eyes burning hateful holes into your (E/C) ones. His aura grew darker and colder the more time passed, but you never faltered in the slightest. He still didn’t frighten you one bit. Everyone stared wide eyed again, scared shitless as they sensed the tension brewing between you two, and some even started to sweat. Kakashi came to the rescue for everyone who was freaked out. “Alright everyone, pay attention. Eyes up front. Now, open your textbooks and-” He then started his boring lecture for his lesson.

        Once Kakashi started talking, you snorted at Gaara, saying that you didn’t have time for this, and turned your head back to Kakashi, annoyed with that little glaring contest you had in the first place. You still felt his eyes on you for a few more moments before he turned his attention away from you. Finally, jeez. What the hell was that anyway? 

        The period was almost over when you started feeling pretty tired. You were able to keep yourself awake, something  you learned from past experience, but you still needed to lean your head on the desk for rest. You crossed your arms and layed your left cheek in the crook of your arms, still keeping your eyes up the front, refusing to meet anyone else’s gaze, especially Gaara’s. Luckily, Kakashi wasn’t one who seemed to care too much about what anyone did during class, since he always seemed to want to read this book he had on his desk, which you couldn’t see the title of because you were all the way in the back. Hope he isn’t a perv. Heh nah. No way he’s a perv. He doesn’t seem like one.  
 
        The bell finally rang once class was done, and you stretched your arms up as everyone rushed out of the room, except for Gaara, who took his time. While Gaara was still leaving, you heard an extremely loud male voice yell across the room. “Hey, newbie! OVER HERE!!” You turned your head to where the voice came from and raised a brow. It was one of the assumed ‘popular kids’, the boy with the spiky blonde hair, who was giving you a closed eyed happy grin and waving at you. He wore a black t-shirt, an unzipped orange hoodie that had black sleeves, a necklace with a crystal pendent around his neck, black pants, and orange and white shoes. Despite his ear piercing loudness, you detected deep innocence and generosity. He couldn’t be talking to me, could he? Well, I don’t think anyone else here is new, but what does he want? Oh great. “Come on! OVER HERE!” You pointed at yourself, just to make sure he was really talking to you. He chuckled a little. “YES, YOU! COME HERE!” You figured this would be interesting, since he gave off very energetic good vibes, and looked like he had no ill will. Plus, all of the others had left, so he had no back up if he tried anything. You grabbed your backpack, slung it over your shoulders, and walked over to the boy.

        He had to have some kind of ADHD, because he couldn’t sit still at all and wait for you, he sprinted and met you halfway across the room, even though he wanted you to come to him. He gave you another one of his grins and held out his hand.

        “Hey! My name’s Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it!” You stared at his hand for a moment before replying.

        “Do you need anything, ‘Naruto’?” He looked at you quizzically, as if he didn’t know what you were talking about. The only reason people talked to you was one, to use you; two, to bully you; and maybe even three, both. He laughed a little, as if the answer was obvious.

        “Of course I need something! I wanna be your friend!” This was certainly… unexpected. This had never happened to you before. Not even people who wanted to use you would ask something like that out of the blue. Why would someone want t o be my friend? What are you planning?

        “Why? What’s your game, ‘Naruto’?” You said sternly. He stared at you with even more confusion and pulled his hand back down to his side.

        “Nothing! I just wanna be honest to goodness friends! Duh! Come on, pleeeeeeaaaassee??” He gave you, by far, the most cutest and innocent puppy dog eyes you’ve ever seen. You found yourself involuntarily smiling at this, and you couldn’t seem to stop. Oh come on, it’s just an act… isn’t it? You didn’t necessarily know if you wanted to believe him, but you had to admit, having an actual friend would be nice, and being at a new school where no one knew your reputation from before was beneficial. You really did want to change around these new people, and making friends was your ticket to a better life. Although you didn’t really know him, he didn’t know you, your past, and he seemed like at least a nice person. You made a decision. You held out your hand and gave him a genuine friendly smile, something you had only ever done with James.

        “My name’s (Y/N) (L/N). Nice to meet you Naruto.” He perked up and quickly grabbed your hand and shook it, along with the rest of your body in the process. You laughed at his enthusiasm, becoming even more happy at the fact that you now have a new friend, a real one at that.

        “Nice to meet ya too (Y/N)!! Believe it!!!” He finally stopped shaking you and gave you another smile. After he stopped, your head swayed a little from dizziness.

        “Man you got a nice grip. I’m like super dizzy now.” He gave you a sheepish smile and rubbed his neck nervously.

        “Maybe I got a little carried away.”

        “No it’s cool! I just didn’t expect it is all.” By this point, you finally snapped out of your dizzy spell and looked straight at Naruto. He looked relieved and gave you another big smile. Suddenly he looked like he just remembered something important.

        “Oh! Let me see your schedule! I wanna see if we have more classes with each other!” You reached into your pocket, pulled out the paper, and handed it to Naruto. As he scanned it over, his smile widened, if that was possible. “All right! We have next period together!!! Come on, before we’re late!! Here, I’ll show you the way!” Before you could say anything, he grabbed your right wrist and ran out of Kakashi’s classroom, dragging you along with him. Maybe I have something to look forward to after all.