Chapter 7
Hah! That's a Likely Story
Her math class went by rather quickly. Tenten was one of the oldest girls in the room, but being used to it, she didn't really mind; in fact, she was even pretty close with a few of the underclassmen, who teased her good naturedly about her math skills (or lack thereof).
Much to her surprise, however, she found Lee (the Guy who looked like Gai. Ha, ha.) sitting in the front of the room. When he saw her, he gave her a solemn salute, and greeted her very formally. Tenten giggled, and waved back. The whole period, their teacher went over the math book they were using for the sake of the new, male editions to the class, and assigned a short review packet home with them, just to make sure they were all on the same page. It wasn't until 6th period, where everyone she'd sat with at lunch, as well as several other people were in, that things started getting noisy.
"Home Ec? What the hell? We didn't have this at our school!" said (shouted) Kiba rather loudly.
"Well, neither did this one, until today," explained Iruka sensei patiently. "It's a new and permanent edition to our curriculum. Tsunade-sama, after a conference with all the teachers, agreed to integrate a-"
"Why do we need the class for anyways? All women's work…" muttered Shikamaru, suppressing a yawn.
"SHIKAMARU, YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!" hollered Ino, already in a bad mood from having to deal with yet another class she shared in common with Kiba.
"Will we be able to eat in this class?" asked Chouji over the noise.
"Pfft. Only the stuff you make yourself," said Sasuke, rolling his eyes.
"OOH! THEN LET'S MAKE RAMEN!" shouted Naruto excitedly. THUNK.
"Ow! Teme! What'd you do that for?"
"What do you do in Home Ec, anyways?" asked Tenten.
"Stop being such an idiot, dobe."
"How was I being an idiot, you bastard? And why did you hit me? It hurt!"
Neji sighed. "I don't know, but probably like, cooking, sewing, cleaning-"
"Also things like financing, finding careers and managing money and stuff too. Just basically anything you might need to know in order to survive on your own." Put in Sakura. She grinned at Neji. "You used to live by yourself, right Hyuga-san? Hinata told us about it."
"Ooh, we're making ramen in this class? I'll eat ALL of it!"
"Oh! I would like some too! Ramen is so YOUTHFUL AND NOURISHING!"
"Oh did you?" Neji replied, glaring terrifying cold daggers at Hinata. She, sitting a row ahead and two seats over, squeaked, and ducked her head.
"S-sorry…" she stammered.
"Chouji, Lee, you guys are not allowed to eat all of the ramen. Think of how the others would feel. Think of how I would feel. Besides, Narut-"
"Damnit Shikamaru! Don't just turn your head and ignore me! I'm talking to you!"
"Hn." Neji replied, looking away, expression normal once again. "I was kidding Hinata." She blushed, and started to apologize again. Tenten laughed and leaned forward to wrap her arms around the girl's shoulders in a teasing hug.
"Class! Please, settle down-" Iruka sensei feebly tried to regain his class's focus.
"Why should I even bother listening, there's nothing worth listening to-"
"WHAT?" shrieked Ino, and started pummeling Shikamaru with her fists.
"Shut up, Kiba, nobody CARES how you feel-"
"No, youthful Kiba-kun is right! How could we be so thoughtless, my friends? As punishment, let's run 50 laps around-"
"Hey, Ino, love, maybe you should stop," said Tenten, trying (rather unsuccessfully) to hide a smirk as she went over to where her blonde friend was still hitting Shikamaru over the head and his shoulders, his arms raised up, trying to block her blows.
"You're such a dobe. Why do you only think about ramen? Maybe this is why your grades are so bad-"
"So where did you live? You're only 16 or 17, right?" Sakura asked Neji curiously.
"You guys! Please, stop talking! Class has started already,"
"Lee, dude, chill. You seriously don't need to run around this friggin' huge school just because-"
"But I wanted RAMEN! It's not my fault that the tests are too stupid for me!"
"Yes, but my uncle offered to pay the bills, and allow me to continue staying in the house I was living in with my father until he died, and my father left an account with enough money to buy food and clothes and things until I'm of age for the inheritance, so…"
"Waitasec. Who's too stupid for who again, dobe?"
Sakura's eyes widened. "Wow. Sorry," Neji shrugged, as if it were no big deal.
"No! I must fulfill my promise, or I could not possibly live with myself! My honor would be scorned!"
"If you say so. But don't expect me to be doing any laps around anything with anyone." said Chouji, reaching into a bag of chips.
"D-didn't father hire a housekeeper for you Neji?" asked Hinata, turning around. She smiled slightly. "I heard from one of the maids she came storming into our house shouting something about being fired, and disrespected by a snot nosed brat or something."
"Whoa, you guys have maids?" interrupted Kiba, astounded. "I knew your family was rich and all, but jeez," he said, looking at Neji.
"Ok, Ino. My arms are getting sore now, you can stop already."
"Yes, well," said Neji, his eyes hardening. "It's an extremely rich, provided household, but they're all too stuck up on old fashion ideals and outdated protocols that its difficult to get anything real done."
"Oh, wow. That's-"
"SHUT UUUUUPPP!" roared a woman in the doorway at the top of her lungs. They all turned to look at the two teachers blankly.
"Thank you Shizune-san. Anyways," said Iruka into the shock-induced silence. "As we were about to say, this class is a combination of first and second years, focused on a unique curriculum new to our educational program. Every other day, you will get a free period, in other words study hall." He put an emphasis on the word and glared at the boys especially. "This will also be counted as your homeroom period, in which announcements and class activities will be conducted. I will be here to oversee all of you. If anyone misbehaves or is too loud, they will be sent to the office, where they can do their work in Tsunade-sama's office. On B days, you will have Shizune-sensei here to teach Home Ec; cooking, cleaning, sewing, money management, financing, taking care of families, anything else you might need to know to survive the world on your own." Sakura and Neji smirked at each other. "Any questions? Yes Naruto,"
"Will we be making ramen?"
"Perhaps in our cooking unit. I'm not sure." Shizune told him.
"Ooh, cool! I want a beef bowl-"
"Just go to the ramen shop down the street, you idiot. God," said Kiba, rolling his eyes.
"Any other questions?" interrupted Shizune. "Good." She continued, without giving them a chance to speak. "Now, I need a volunteer to pass out the class syllabus…"
oOo
"Uwaaaaaaah, finally!" said Tenten with a satisfied stretch. The bell had (finally) rung, freeing them Jiraya's confusing, embarrassing introduction lecture about the true meaning of literature (most of the class had their heads hidden in their hands, or were sinking as low in their seats as they could go. Tenten had watched their sensei talk with a puzzled expression on her face while Neji stared stonily ahead, not meeting anyone's eye). "Thank goodness we won't ever have so many classes in one day again."
"What do you mean?" asked a surprised Neji as the two gathered their bags and walked out into the noisy, crowded hallways.
"Holy crap, there are so many people," muttered the smaller girl, before returning his gaze with equal surprise. "Whadoya mean what do I mean? Block schedule starting tomorrow. I think it'll probably be a B day…"
So that was why the schedule had been so confusing. All the boys had been wondering how anyone could survive taking twelve classes every day. "So we have…six periods a day?"
"Mhm. Every other day. Wait then how did you guys do it?"
"Nin Academy had seven classes every day, but three trimesters of different class schedules, which I guess your school doesn't have," he explained to her with a shrug. "The workload was insane, but we had shorter class times, I suppose,"
By now, he was leaning down to talk directly into her ear, as the level of noise in the hallways escalated. She tried not to think about it, but there was a little part of her shivering in delight at the deep, soothing vibrations of his voice against her cheek. Instead, she grabbed his forearm so they wouldn't get separated, and dragged the two of them off to a less crowded, side stairwell.
"Man, a couple hundred new students really do make a difference," laughed Tenten, and she turned to face the Hyuga with a playful grin. "So where you off to now, Neji? My excellent directional skills are at your disposal."
Neji couldn't help but feel his lips twitch up. Despite knowing each other for so little time, he, and most of the other guys, already knew how bad Tenten was with directions. She even got slightly confused in her own school sometimes.
"Actually I was thinking of calling Hinata and seeing if she needed someone to walk home with her. I might be moving in with them in a few days so I need to speak with my uncle about it."
Tenten nodded. "Yeah, she mentioned something like that. Let me know if you need any help moving," She started a little at the sensation of her phone buzzing in her pocket. Fishing it out, she slid it open and put it to her ear.
"Yeah, Sakura? I'm on the second floor right now, where're you? Uh huh…help you? With what? Ohhhh, haha again? Yeah sure we'll be right down," she motioned with her head for Neji to follow her down the stairs. "Oh it's just me and Neji. Is Hinata with you? Oh okay then, see you in a bit." She jumped down the rest of the stairs and looked up at Neji expectantly. "Sakura said Hinata's down here too so we should go find them. You need to go to your locker or anything first?"
He shrugged. All his notebooks and binders where in his bag, and he was carrying most of the text books. "Not really."
"'Kay, well, let's go rescue Sakura then before she accidentally murders someone. Apparently your friends are there too, and everybody's acting up again, and she says she's the only sane one there. Which is really pretty funny if you think about it…" She laughed loudly as the two of them walked in the direction of the raucous shouting and shrieks (that sounded an awful lot like Ino) they could already hear from several hallways away.
oOo
The days passed in a blur, students of both genders getting used to the new environment of the school with so many extra students. By the end of the month, Tenten felt like she'd known these boys for her whole life. They had so many classes together she was able to learn each of their individual little quirks, the same way they were learning hers, and the other girls'.
Shikamaru, for example, always seemed to be either yawning, complaining, or sleeping. Tenten found it amazing he even bothered getting up to go to school everyday at seven thirty in the morning (then again, he was often as late as Kakashi, loping into English scant seconds before their perpetually tardy Sensei). More often than not, he would find a desk in the very back and immediately drop his head onto his forearms for another nap, until he was forced by the bell to relocate, and repeat the whole process. Tenten had never seen anyone sleep so much in her life.
And yet, every time they got their test or quiz results back, Shikamaru would always have at minimum, a 100%. He even got extra credit for the extra information and "exemplary structure" (whatever that meant, laughed Tenten in her head). She found out from Neji that the lazy Genius Boy could have technically graduated from high school two years ago, but had been so unmotivated that he put it off and ended up doing the regular high school courses with everyone else. As it were, everyone begged/payed/bribed him for homework help in all their classes.
Then there was Shikamaru's best friend, Chouji, who always appeared to have a bag of chips (and took serious offense at being called...the "F-word"). One would marvel at the fact that he seemed to carry around such a large stock of snacks every day. But upon careful observation, Tenten realized that he really only had two bags each day, one for before lunch, and one after (he'd shown them to her too. They were actually heart-healthy, whole wheat, low-sodium baked crisps. Sakura had ardently approved). He just seemed to have an amazing ability to ration the bag equally between the three hours before and after lunch. Ino told them that it was a childhood habit.
"The teachers always got mad at him for bringing too many snacks in kindergarten," she said airly, concentrating on painting her left pinky blue. She held up her hand to admire her handiwork. "Sensei told him to only bring two, so he figured out a way to make them last the whole day."
"Woww, that's pretty impressive," said the bun-haired girl, looking up from her spanish homework on Ino's bed. "How can one measly bag chips last someone for three hours?" She shook her head. "At least have something more substantial, like a sandwich or something-"
"Tenten dear, only you would think to bring in a chicken Panini from home and eat it in second period as a snack, right BEFORE lunch,"
"Shut up, Sakura! I get hungry! Wait so Ino, you went to kindergarten with Chouji?" Tenten was always curious, and loved hearing her friends tell stories about the past, before they all became friends.
"Yeah, lazy-butt Nara too. I also went to the same elementary as those two. Didn't meet Forehead girl here 'til middle school." she said, throwing a knowing smirk at Sakura. "Poor little pinky, such an outcast because of her ugly hair and violent temper, sitting all alone, every day, by herself until I swooped in, and-"
"Oh shut up Ino-Pig!" came the snorting reply. "It's not like you had any friends in middle school either!" She turned to Tenten with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "Ino was so scary in middle school! All the girls were intimidated as hell-"
"Not my fault I have no patience for stupid chicks," threw in Ino, sticking her nose in the air, trying to look haughty.
"…And she wore this crazy, catty eyeliner-"
"Hey! Don't diss my makeup! Just because I had a sense of style back then-"
"And she was like, the gang leader of this harem of boys who obeyed her every command-"
At that, Ino laughed. "Okay, I'll admit, that part was a little crazy." She turned to Tenten. "Yeah, I really didn't have any girl friends back then, and I'll admit," she glared at Sakura, who winked back cheekily. "–that I WAS a little messed up back then." She pointed an accusatory finger at the pink haired girl, who stared back innocently. "But YOU weren't exactly spotless either, Miss 'The-world-is-out-to-get-me-so-damn-if-I-don't-fight-back'."
Tenten was rolling around on the bed in laughter. She had heard this part of the story before. Apparently, Sakura and Ino both appeared to be quite the middle school delinquents back then. Ino, who had been much less social, and more reserved than she was now, really did have a bunch of tough-looking guys following her around everywhere (she claimed it was because nobody else was brave enough be friends with them, the poor dears). And while they never actually did anything bad, or illegal, per se, their very presence, and united front behind Ino had everyone – teachers, students, staff members – terrified of them. Ino had entertained them all with stories of how some of 'her boys' were actually super sweet, and had "these adorable crushes" on the good girls, but frightened everyone so much with their serious faces that all their attempts to do good deeds (or to confess their feelings) had been misunderstood.
Sakura, on the other hand, had been the loner, openly defiant of her teachers, of classes, homework, school rules, and other students. She hated all the boys, and hated all the female students, thinking that all girls were selfish hypocrites and two-faced in front of different people. Because of this attitude, and her tendency to mouth off without care for consequences, she was often the target of petty, middle school bullying.
Which, in the end, only reinforced her twisted belief.
When she and Ino first met, Sakura had said apparently something snide about Ino ("Don't call me Blondie!" she shrieked, to Tenten's extreme entertainment). Ino had responded by promptly punching her in the face. The two got into a gigantic cat fight and was rewarded with detention together every day for the rest of the term. Ironically, this ended being how the two became such good friends (Tenten shook her head, amused and more than a little perplexed. These girls were so weird).
So apparently, in the end, Sakura and Ino teamed up to make up for each other's faults, Sakura probably being Ino's first REAL female friend ever, and Ino slowly convincing Sakura that it was okay not to hate everything.
"…And that's why you can't blame Freddie. Which reminds me," said Ino, breaking Tenten from her reverie. "So, Tenten, dearest. What's the story with you and a certain sexy, white-eyed cousin of Hinata's?" She smirked when Tenten widened her eyes and turned a little pink.
"Wh-what do you mean, Ino?"
"Oh don't play dumb Tennie, you two are ALWAYS together and we KNOW Neji doesn't just hang around any girl he doesn't think is…special…" she had on a sly expression that Tenten really, really did not like.
"Well, I mean, we're friends, so-"
"HAH! A LIKELY story!" She had pounced onto the bed, looming over a terrified Tenten, looking very much like a cat that just caught the canary.
"Ino," interrupted Sakura, looking like she was trying not to laugh. "Maybe we should give them some space instead of meddling…"
"Shut up Forehead! If we leave them alone, NOTHING interesting is ever going to happen!"
"Glad I'm here for your entertainment," muttered Tenten, as she turned back to her homework. "Wouldn't it be more fun to pick on Hinata anyway?" Everyone, except perhaps a few of the slower boys, and the hyperactive blond himself, knew about Hinata's gigantic crush on Naruto. The poor girl fell to pieces every time he came within hearing distance.
"She's just as bad as you!" Ino flapped her hand derisively as she jumped off the bed, exasperated by her friends. "I love that girl to bits, but she really needs to have some self confidence to match that hot body of hers!"
"Maybe if you gave her like…two-thirds of yours, everybody would be perfect," said Sakura with a smirk, taking out her gigantic Biology book from her backpack on the floor. "You know, balance out the proportion of confidence and 'hot body' a bit. Ahh!" She shrieked when Ino threw a chair cushion at her. She grabbed the pillow and chucked it back. Ino dodged to the side and the cushion hit Tenten square in the face.
"Hey!"
"Haha oops! Sorry Tennie-cha-"
"Ah! Tenten! What are you doing? Leave Pumba alone!"
"Sorry, but Pumba is taking a one way trip to…DIVINE RETRIBUTION!" Tenten threw a stuffed pig like a baseball at Sakura's head.
Scrambling up, the girls all started screaming and laughing, chasing each other around the room until one of Ino's brothers came in looking pissed off and stiffly asked them to be quiet.
oOo
When she finally got home that night, Sakura fell face first onto her bed, tempted to remain in that position forever, until she finally had to shift her head because she couldn't breathe.
She loved her friends, and she loved laughing and joking with them about their past, but she was glad they never asked about before she and Ino had met. Sakura went through great pains to forget, and move on, but seeing Sasuke again…
She closed her eyes and forced down a sudden wave of shame.
"You are not that girl anymore," she whispered to herself fiercely, trying to keep her breathing under control.
She jumped at a sudden loud buzzing sound, and looked up to see her phone vibrating on the desk, signifying a text. Crawling across the bed, she grabbed it and flipped it open. Speak of the devil.
I'm bored. What page did the Calc homework begin on?
Shaking her head wryly at his perfect timing, Sakura quickly typed back a reply.
You do Calculus in your spare time? (p.47-52)
She laid her head back against the pillow with a sigh, staring at the ceiling. The phone tickled her hand when he replied again.
What, you don't?
Finished already ^_^ Got back from a "study session" with some
friends. You should try it sometime. They're very effective.
I'm sure. But you're not friends with the Dobe.
Yes, well actually I was being rather sarcastic, thank you.
Welcome. What are you doing?
She replied, and tried not to snatch her phone up too eagerly when it buzzed again.
For everyone actually FOLLOWING this story, so sorry for taking so long to update! The other chapters have been rewritten a bit, just so you know. (I've come to realize just how much my writing style has changed in the past few years O. o)
Actually I really just continued this chapter out of curiosity. What do you think? Is it worth continuing? :S
PLEASE REVIEW, or I will NOT be motivated at all to continue the story Dx