3 months of nothing then a new story out of nowhere. And yes this is my first non-Naruhina fic... and it's Highschool AU (oh my).

Real quick: Yes this is a highschool fic but i plan on doing it the right way. NO lame cliches (or very little of 'em) NO references to pop culture (includes music) and NO 'text speech'. If you've had a bad experience with Highschool AU please don't let it deter you from reading this.

I think that's it for now. Hope you guys enjoy and feel dictated-er i mean free... feel free to review :)

(A/N: Football meaning 'soccer' not american football)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto but i do forget to include the disclaimer alot!

The Song of Life

Chapter 1: Auburn Leaves

Autumn was always known as the season of change. The weather changes, people's clothing changes, and the colors from the sky to the ground changes. But one of the few things that are almost always the same were those unique idiosyncrasies that can define a person.

"Nani! You're kidding right? Football is my life! I... I can't just drop out!" the blond teen exclaimed.

The scar-nosed instructor shook his head, "Naruto, you know if you want to keep playing you have to keep your grades up. We went over this at the beginning of the year," the man said as he handed the boy over a sheet of paper, "Look at your marks of the last six weeks. Four D's a B and a C,"

The young male pouted as he read, reread, and re-reread his grades, "No F's" he said lightly. Obviously his teacher didn't find It funny. "C'mon Iruka-sensei there has to be someway I can play again," he nearly begged.

Iruka reached for his cup of roasted tea and looked towards his desktop screen, "The league competitions doesn't start till spring. If you can manage to bring your average up to a two point five by the end of the semester you can play again," he explained.

"Yatta! I'll do it! Don't worry Iruka-sensei I won't let you down, but I'm late to practice so I'll see you later," the blue eyed student grabbed his duffel bag and shot towards the entrance.

"Hold it Naruto! Where do you think you're going?"

The boy gave his teacher a confused look, "Ano... practice?" he was replied with a firm shake of the head. "But I thought you said I can stay on the team?"

Iruka shook his head once more, "I never said that. I said you can play again after you bring your grades up. For now your suspended from the team,"

Naruto's jaw dropped, "But-but what the hell am I supposed to do!?"

The six year instructor smiled at him, "I'm glad you asked. In order to improve the chances that you bring your marks up I'm going to assign you to after-school study hall," this made the blue-eyed student drop his face. "I'm sure your familiar with the route," he said with a continued smile.

With a sigh he answered, "Hai,"

It was an unbearable walk towards the dreaded detention room, or what the academic advisers like to call it, the room for educational reinforcement. Either way it was just not a fun place to be, especially when you know you were missing an intense and exciting practice.

The moment he stepped foot in the dreaded room he let out a sigh. His blue eyes scanned the room of empty chairs. In fact all but one of the desks were filled. Sitting in the currently occupied chair was a familiar looking redhead. He swore she could be in one of his classes. That thought lingered as he took his seat.

The mentioned girl didn't even bother looking up at the sound of Naruto's entrance. She just kept her head down on her arm as she continued to tap the eraser side of her pencil on the mostly blank sheet of paper. The only thing filled out was her name, the date and the right margin of the paper, which was covered with random little doodles.

"Temari!" the blond quietly exclaimed.

The redhead looked at him oddly.

"Ne your name... It's Temari right?" He was sitting two seats to the left of her. And from the moment his butt hit the seat his mind went to work figuring out her name. After a few seconds he recognized her as the girl from his history class.

This time she glared, "It's Tayuya... idiot," the seventeen year old didn't even bother whispering the last part. She could care less what he thought anyway. There were bigger things to worry about. Like figuring out this damn homework and making sure she gets out of academic probation. The last thing she wanted was to fail out of high school and be sent to finish her education back home, if she could call that place home. That was definitely not an option.

Naruto frowned. At least he got the 'T' part right. Then he wondered who Temari was... but he quickly shook that thought away. Instead he decided to pull his bag out and work on the several past due assignment. Perhaps this was why he wasn't out on the field right now.

For the next few minutes he tried to focus on his assignment but that wasn't working out the way he hoped. His eyes kept glancing from the clock to his partially opened duffel bag and the shin guard that peeped out the slot. "Ugh... I'm getting nowhere..." he sighed.

Tayuya easily trumped his irritability with her own. The difference was she didn't feel like having to express it every five seconds. Out of boredom she decided to raise her head and glance at the hopeless blond. That was her first mistake.

The moment she turned her head, he decided to look up and meet her gaze. To him this was an invitation for conversation, "Oi, so what are you here for?" he asked with a friendly smile.

She ignored it and turned her head away, "What do you think," the redhead sneered. It seemed like a dumb question in her opinion. Why else would a person be in study hall after hours.

The blond frowned, "Ok... well I'm Naruto," after another few moments of awkward silence he spoke once more, "You have any idea... how long the duration of the Edo period was?" the teen said as he read from his history worksheet.

'sometime from the early seventh century til the mid nineteenth century' she thought. But to hell was she going to help him. She had her own problems. Like... how to find the length of the hypotenuse side of a right triangle given theta and an adjacent side.

By now her silence and uncooperative attitude was getting to him. "I can help you with that problem if you help me with mine," he suggested.

This caught her interest but quickly realized how silly that notion would be.

Seeing her doubt he hoped out of his desk an took the one next to hers, pushing it even closer. After a few seconds of analyzing the paper he grinned, "So take the ano theta number and do cosine to it," he looked around her desk, "you have a calculator?"

With a grunt she sat up further as and grabbed her unused calculator from her bag as he leaned his elbows on her desk. The annoyed teen carelessly tossed the device at the others hand, "There"

He didn't comment but instead continued with the calculations. "So this number equals ano... the adjacent number divided by hypotenuse so just multiply it by your adjacent number... and you get this!" the blue eyed male grinned even wider after finding the solution.

Unbelieving of his solution she looked over his work. It looked correct enough, "I took you more of a dumb ass type," she almost chuckled.

This made him frown, "The hell made you think that?"

"You really want me to answer that?" his frown stayed, "I take it back. I still think your a dumb ass,"

In his eyes she went from an uncaring unhelpful girl to being an unappreciative and still unhelpful jerk-girl. "Says the girl who couldn't solve her own math problems," he retorted.

Her face hardened, "I missed that day's class,"

This time it was his turn to chuckle, "Yeah probably. Iruka-sensei told me I had to learn the lesson plan and teach the class that day. He said it was a good way for me to learn," the boy explained. He shifted back to his own seat and took another good glance at the girl. "You're in my math class right? Or maybe history?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe. I have 406C after homeroom and 412C after that," the way he smiled probably mean they were classmates in one of those classes.

"Ha I knew it. I'm in both at the same time. You sit in the back right? I remember sitting back there earlier in the year and there was a redhead who sat next to me," he babbled.

The teen unconsciously combed her fingers through her hair, "It's auburn not red you idiot,"

"Stop calling me an idiot!" he defended, albeit a bit immaturely.

"Fine then genius, help me with the rest of these problems" she just found her save from dying in the wretched room. And with Naruto's duty to pride he completely missed the trap.

"Fine!" his eyes once again scanned her paper not catching the little smirk the girl had on her face.

"There!" he cried as he slammed his pencil on the desk.

Tayuya looked at him with mouth agape... "That's it? You only solved 5 problems!"

The blond gave a sheepish look, "Ne, those are the only ones I had to teach in class..."

The auburn headed girl shook her head in disappointment, "I should have known. Guys are all so predictable, always a let down," her voice held a very subtle hint of pain but was unnoticed by the blond.

"Hey that's not fair! I helped didn't I? I bet we can still figure out the rest," he said assuredly.

She couldn't help but let a chuckle escape, "And what makes you so confident?" it seemed a bit odd to her that he'd seem so willing to help her out. 'Probably just his pride getting in his head... figures,'

The male gave her a wide grin, "'Cause I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I taught myself that first part so I don't see why we can't figure out the rest together,"

Something about him she couldn't help but admire, despite the annoying peppiness. Pride or not the boy really seemed happy to help her, something she wasn't so used to from strangers. That was her mindset as her eyes followed his figure out the door, "Where the hell are you goin'?"

Naruto stopped mid step and looked over his shoulder, "To get books, duh" he teased.

He closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her, and thus failed to see the pencil that hurdled towards him, "Idiot," she humphed. Though she was amused by the way he rubbed his head after getting nailed right between the eyes, luckily it was the eraser side.

The blond rubbed his forehead a few times, making sure there were no pencil marks, "Oi, after I help you with math you'll help me with history right?"

She looked away as he waved him off which he took for a yes, 'Only after I'm done... if I feel like it,'. When the girl felt he was gone she reached for his paper, 'Not too bad... a few things I'm not too sure but I think I remember some of this stuff...' hesitantly she reached for her pencil...

It wasn't long before he came back with two rather hefty books. One was a large math book that covered everything from remedial algebra to trigonometry. The other was a history text book that was supposed to cover everything they were targeted to learn during this semester.

He walked in with both books held in one arm as if trying to show off his strength, "Got em'"

Tayuya didn't spare him a glance as she rested her chin on her palm and played with her pencil, "Good for you,"

Not really liking the feeling of being ignored, he let the math book slide from his grip and slam on the desk loudly. That definitely got her attention.

The female student was easily startled by the intrusion. With a glare she tried to pick the book up and align it towards her, surprised by the amount of force she had to apply to lift it.

Seeing her struggle the blond held his arm out and flexed it, gesturing his strength. He freely gloated with his eyes closed once again following the obvious pencil through from the red head, "Itai,"

"Stop acting like a meat head and use your brain for something," she chided, her eyes already glued to the table of contents looking for the appropriate chapter.

He brushed off the attack and scooted closer to her and peered over her shoulder. Though on the inside Tayuya was a bit uncomfortable with his proximity but given the situation she decided to swallow the feeling this time.

"There! And this time I really mean it," he proudly exclaimed.

Tayuya was rather surprised they finished so quickly, "Yeah I guess so..." she mindlessly spoke while admiring her... er their work. A quick glance at the clock showed they barely had a minute to spare.

After being having to be drained of happiness being forced to read the large boring book, he was more than happy to toss the object aside, "Ok so now let's get started with my assignment," but before he could even reach for his bag a sound of footsteps grew.

"That's enough for today," Iruka said as he walked in. The man leisurely walked toward the two, "Very well done Tsuyu-san. I'm sure if you keep this up you'll be out of academic probation in no time," he praised.

She gave him a half-hearted smile and a nod before she started packing up.

Naruto was ready to say something but his instructor beat him to it, "And where's your work Naruto? Please tell me you managed to get something done?" he asked disappointingly.

"Nani!? I was helping her this whole time! Tayuya c'mon tell him," he urged.

Holding back a smirk, she shrugged her shoulders, "He did help me retrieve my pencil a few times," referring to the times she flicked her pencil at him.

The blond's eyes immediately started twitching.

"Now Naruto... I actually believed you when you said you'd take this chance seriously. If you're not going to give an honest attempt then you should just leave and spare me the time," he criticized.

The irritated boy gripped the sides of his desk, "I really did mean it. But I was telling the truth about helping her out!"

Shaking his head, the man excused the young woman, "You're free to leave Tsuyu-san. Naruto, I'd like to talk to you for a bit,"

Tayuya could here the blond groan as she left the room. She began whistling a happy tune while padding the right side of her bag felling the same lump, as she always did to make sure everything was in place. Her mood quickly changed the moment she took a step outdoors and cold breeze nearly knocked the wind out of her.

'Who's dumb idea was it to make skirts mandatory uniform,' she thought while pulling down her dark blue plaid skirt as far as she could. And to make matters worse a familiar shadow lurked not too far from earshot. The red head knew exactly who it was. "Get the hell away of Shoh" she shouted. Her eyes kept straight ahead not wanting to look anywhere near him.

Not bothered by the cold, the lanky stranger blew a breath of smoke from his cigarette, "Still acting like a little brat Tayuya?" he shouted across the school yard.

She increased her pace towards the bus stop as her arm raised and a middle finger rose to the sky. This gave him a nice chuckle. Luckily for her the bus arrived no sooner than she arrived. "Fucking prick" she whispered underneath her breath.

Naruto got home with a similar mood. "Stupid girl," he grumbled after slamming the front door. The blond barely heard the sound of a low groan. Turning the corner to the living room, his sight fell upon a giant mess of playing cards scattered across the floor. Kneeling in the middle of it all was a distraught man.

"You shouldn't go around slamming doors kid," the white-haired man suggested.

The blond dropped his backpack on the floor and proceeded towards the kitchen, "Shouldn't you be writing your pervy book or something,"

"Snappy today aren't we," the man dusted himself as he stood to his feet, "So what happened in school this time?"

Naruto sighed. He didn't mean to seems so irritable, "Just a bad day I guess," His hand rummaged through the fridge to get the near empty carton of milk, "Iruka-sensei said I couldn't play football until I get my grades up," he took a swig of the carton, "Then this jerk-girl tricked me into helping her and took all the credit," the carton was then crushed and tossed into the trash can, "Then I had to stay to listen to another one of sensei's lectures!"

Jiraiya was barely paying attention until he mention 'girl', "Girl you say? Was she cute?"

The blue-eyed student tried to give him a dark stare but his milk mustache killed whatever kind of vibe he was sending, "I swear that's all you care about," he said off offhandedly.

The older male slowly walked towards him, "You know that's not true," he put his hand on the blond's shoulder, "I bought you that nice desk in your room hoping that you'd use it to study. Tsunade would kill me if she thought I was just going to let your grades slip and flunk out of school,"

Naruto smirked, "You bought that desk for yourself to write with... but you couldn't fit it in your room,"

Jiraiya's face fell, "Ah, well only at first. I could have returned it you know,"

"Cheap perverted old goat,"

This made the man jump to his feet and pose, "Who you calling an old goat? I'm built like a stallion,"

The blond laughed, "Hope that's not how you pick up girls,"

And once again the middle-aged man's face fell, "Ah, why don't go study something,"

He decided to just do as the man says and finish up his work. He quickly grabbed his bag and set it next to the kitchen table. Without looking the boy whipped out his worksheet and a pencil.

Jiraiya on the other hand was put on his 'manly' apron and started the frier up. "So what's this about a jerk-girl,"

Naruto was surprised to find that the majority of the answers were already written down. It definitely wasn't his hand writing. On the bottom right of the paper was a small doodle of a girl pulling her lower eyelid down and sticking her tongue out, "She's not really a jerk," he said with a smile.

"She cute?"

'Kinda yeah' he thought. The teen was lucky his guardian had his back turned or he would have exposed a faint but noticeable blush, "Stop bugging me I have to finish this,"

I went through a few changes in my head in the way i wanted to approach this fic, especially where i plan to take it, though i admit the path is still pretty foggy. Have yet to completely decide on some KEY moments yet to come.

Oh! and i've decided to make this fic 'M' rated due to future explicit material.

Don't forget to Review - Add to Favorite - Add to Alerts - and print out, laminate, and make a pocket sized for your wallet :P

!!PRESS IT!!

ll . ll

ll . ll

===Jl . lL===

\\ . . . . . //

\\ . . . //

\\ . //

\V/

"