Sunlight filtered wearily through tattered navy curtains, and onto an unreasonably messy blond head and lightly bronzed cheeks, marred by three faint whisker- like scars. An ugly toad clock on the dark wood nightstand began croaking groggily. One time, two times, three times; before falling silent. Seconds passed before a chorus of croaks began to urge the boy into consciousness. The boy groaned angrily and smacked its warts, commanding silence. He slowly rolled over and tiredly rubbed his eyes. Cerulean drifted to the door that was slowly edging open. A small, shabby, fox scampered in, its six tails wagging in contentment.

"Morning," he grumbled. The fox sniffed and Naruto sighed. His eyes slid to the ceiling, it was peeling, cracking, ready to give. Like he was. He languidly stood and roughly rubbed his face. He had to shower, needed to. To wash off yesterday. It was a routine. How he survived. He let the heat incinerate it all away.

Draped in his well-worn towel, he opened the package containing the Konoha High uniform sent to him last week. He rolled his eyes and pointed at the button-up. Kurama huffed indifferently, "Right."

His cellphone beeped, signaling for the baby fox's breakfast. The ginger ran out onto their tiny balcony to finish off the squirrel he had caught and his platter of fresh fruit. He slowly grabbed his bag and trudged out the door. Naruto hesitantly walked to the train station, mentally preparing himself for anything. For everything that would surely come. It wasn't necessary though. By the grace of whoever ran the universe, it was a relatively quiet trip, almost pleasant, even with half the cart staring at him with distaste. That was normal. He contentedly strolled to his favorite food stand in the entire town, Ichiraku Ramen. He lifted the flaps hanging from the doorway and breathed in the scent of freshly made noodles and broth. The stool creaked as he sat down at the old oak counter.

"Hey Gramps, can I get a Miso Ramen, please?"

"Hello to you too, Naruto." A deep and calm voice replied. Tuechi was a short fifty year old man who was covered in wrinkles, and had tired but eternally kind eyes. His short curly grey hair was matted to his forehead underneath the chef's hat, probably from the constant steam of cooking noodles. Naruto smiled weakly.

He was extremely fond of the old man, grateful, for so many reasons, "I'm sorry, I just have a lot on my mind. Good morning."

The blond fiddled with the vase full of chopsticks, absent- mindedly. The old man slowly slid them out of reach, "What's going on?"

"I got transferred."

Tuechi stared at him skeptically, "Did you blow up another teacher's desk?"

Naruto slowly raised blue eyes, "That was purely accusation. They had no real proof!" The old man waved his towel as if to surrender, "Besides, that was back in September."

"Well."

He sighed heavily and pushed his blond locks back, "There was no reason. Just biased, judgmental hypocrites wanting to get me out."

Ayame, Tuechi's understudy came from the back, directed a brief greeting to him, and disappeared to the back once more, "Eat up, Naruto, and don't worry about the bill."

Naruto smiled tenderly at his elder, "Thank you Gramps." He really adored him, may have even grown to regard him as a father figure. There was no disrespect. No judgments. He wasn't that orphaned delinquent. He wasn't that kid whose parents ran away and were murdered. He was just Naruto. He ate slowly, relishing every bite.

"Hey, Naruto?"

"Mhm." He replied blissfully.

"Doesn't school start around eight?"

He slurped the noodles that were dangling from his mouth, "Yes…"

"It's 8:20."

He groaned loudly and dropped his head onto the bar top, "Damn it!" He grabbed his bag and began to run before halting and abruptly turning around, "Thank you, Tuechi."

"Go on, boy."

She always sat in the back of the classroom, the corner furthest away from the door. No one would notice her. They couldn't say she was in their way. She'd be in no one's drama. The tragedy of all this is that she could be in the center of the room, on the teacher's desk, and no one would notice her still. Now say by some miracle she was noticed, no one would take heed of what she had to say. Stuttering, fumbling, and choking on every sentence, every word she spoke; it was frustrating, she knew this. Pale eyes scanned the classroom under a dark fringe. She discretely watched as Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka walked into the classroom, skirts too short for the middle of January. Despite their sluttish tendencies she wished to be like them: calm, confident, and beautiful, albeit only on the outside. She sighed and watched as a flock of girls scurried up to the duo, shrieking and giggling, not knowing that the two only entertained them to feel superior. Hinata grimaced at the silly flock who were so unaware. Then Sakura's piercing green eyes turned and immediately caught her. She reflexively dropped her gaze and hoped she'd done the same. But of course, that was not in the stars, "How are you today, Hinata?"

Her voice dripped with sickly sweet disdain, Hinata could feel the undermining in waves. She peered up at the pinkette who had moved to loom over her desk, "I'm f-fine, Sakura."

"Great! So, Ino is having this HUGE party say, March?" She looked back at the blond who waved her hand in an iffy manner, "And I would LOVE if you came. The whole school is coming, well, not the WHOLE school you know."

She flicked emeralds in the direction of Shino Aburame. He was actually quite charming, but he made even Hinata seem cool to most, "T-thank y-you for the offer, b-but no t-thanks- ."

"I'll see you there then." She smiled and turned back to her faction.

Kakashi, their homeroom teacher, walked in then; forty minutes late, pornography in hand, and his usual mask of indifference, "Sit down."

Hinata bent over her desk top, forehead in hand and elbow on desk, and exhaled slowly. Naturally Sakura didn't care what she had to say. It pained her to say that there was a hierarchy here and Sakura was the Queen. Whatever law she passed came to be. Break it? Well no one did that. Sakura was worse than Satan, she conceived him. Hinata would never openly display this but she loathed anyone who considered themselves 'popular' and treated others like vermin for mere entertainment. They were scum, and devoid of a heart, soul, and independent brain. She inhaled deeply, sat up straight, and waited for Kakashi to call her name.

"-Anno, Aikyo, Shinari- ." The room's door banged loudly against the wall as a panting blond stood crouched over, holding his side. He breathed deeply and rose to his actual height. He was perfection. Five foot eight inches of tanned, muscular but not too muscular gorgeousness. He had messy blond hair, the bluest eyes Hinata had ever seen, and a beautiful sheepish smile, "This is our new student, Naruto Uzumaki."

"I'm so sorry." His voice was deep but not a baritone, barely a tenor, regardless it made Hinata flush ten shades of red.

Kakashi flicked his dark grey eyes over the blond before sighing as if he were exhausted, "Yes, well, you can make it up to me in detention."

Naruto frowned, "Whoa, now let's talk about this," upon receiving a blank stare he continued, "C'mon, I'm new, I couldn't find the school. I was lost."

Kakashi regarded this intensely, setting his paper down, and rubbing his face, "I see your point. I also got lost for quite a while this morning."

Ino groaned loudly and flipped her bangs out of her electric blue eyes, "You're lying. You got caught up reading your raunchy books and touching yourself, Mr. Hatake."

Hinata and three fourths of the classroom's jaw dropped.

"Do you have to be an unfiltered bitch this early in the morning, Yamanaka?"

Her platinum locks whipped through the air so quickly Hinata felt the gust six rows away, "Fuck you, Inazuka!"

Kiba flicked his nails, "Oh, Sweetie, I can do without aids," Ino's face turned purple and Kiba quickly sat up, remorseful, "But I'm flattered, really, I am."

"Detention, both of you. Uzumaki go sit, uh, next to Hinata. Hinata, your hand."

She jumped and hesitantly raised her hand. His eyes scanned the room and she felt when they landed on her. She slowly lowered her hand and pressed it to her chest. Her heartbeat was frantic, beating too fast or not beating at all. She could not tell. He was halfway there. Three quarters. Then she saw it. Saw Him. The careless way he donned his uniform. Halfway buttoned collar, faded black undershirt, tie hanging loosely, sleeves pushed not rolled up to his elbows, tattered black shoulder bag, and scuffed up dirty converses. A semblance of indifference but in reality it was neglect.

He noisily sat in the desk to the right of her. She looked out the corner of her eye and gasped. He had light scars across his cheeks, three on each side. Cerulean quickly locked onto her and she saw his pain. It was buried deep, but it was there, "Hey?"

"Uhm, yes?" She peeked around the curtain of her hair.

He reached out and grabbed a few strands, holding them closely to his face, "Is your hair blue? Like navy?"

"N-no," she breathed out, "It's b-black with a violet blue t-tinge. Genetics y-you know."

"Mmm," he flipped it between his fingers, squinting a little, before dropping it and abruptly sticking his hand out, "Naruto."

Hinata stared as the hair fell and dangled at her elbow. Her breath nearly gone as she whispered, "Hinata."

"Hm, Hinata." Naruto heard a soft noise of approval from her. He looked at her again. He could see the tip of her nose and a few eyelashes, aside from that it was a thick curtain of hair that reached down to her elbows. She was soft looking, her voice was gentle, she was obviously extremely shy, and just a smidgen of weird. Who was he to judge though? He grasped her tiny hand, it felt like silk, but looked like porcelain, "Nice to officially meet you Hinata."

"Likewise Naruto." His name spoken from her tongue was like soft piano music. She looked up from underneath her bangs and smiled sweetly at him. He was speechless. She was beautiful. Her cheeks were dusted pink, but everywhere else was the porcelain ivory of her hand. What really knocked the breath out of him was her eyes. They were pearls with shades of a very light amethyst mingling within, which conflicted exquisitely with her long curly black lashes. Naruto stared dumbly at her as the bell rang. She slowly removed her hand from his, which he had forgotten to release, packed up her books, blushed darker, and stood, "S-see you l-later Naruto?"

He nodded.

Sakura watched the interaction between the two and smiled sardonically at Hinata as she walked by and out the door. Ino smiled smugly at the pinkette as she continued watching the blond boy, "I told you."

"Don't be so smug, Ino. I admit, it was interesting to witness but she will never win."

Ino followed behind as Sakura haughtily walked out, "Win what?"

"His heart of course."

She tucked her bangs behind her ear and leaned against her locker, "What?"

"I mean, he is sort of, kind of, beautiful." Her green eyes glittered mischievously.

"Ugh, stop being so damn cryptic, Sakura. You know I hate that."

"Ino. Hinata wants him, and I want Hinata at my mercy, so I'll take him from her. It won't be hard, look at me." she twirled, her cotton candy curls bouncing between her shoulder blades. Multiple whistles and cat calls were thrown her way and she smiled and arched an eyebrow at her friend.

"Of all the things you could do, why this? Why her? She's completely irrelevant."

"To let everyone know that no one is safe. Not even the sweetest, most shy, and most irrelevant girl," Ino rolled her eyes, "This school, these people, life is game dearest. And I must win."