Lonely Girl

"Open your books to page…" Blah, blah, blah. Whoever hired Iruka-sensei as a teacher obviously needed to get their brain checked, Hinata thought. She fiddled with her long dark hair absentmindedly, while her teacher droned on and on. Nobody paid attention anyway. Looking around the room, she could see that every one of her classmates were half-asleep. Even Sasuke, the genius of the class, looked bored. 10 minutes until the bell, she told herself.

"Hey, Hinata" She turned toward Naruto.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?" She asked calmly. Stay cool Hina, stay calm. Her heart beat louder and she blushed. Thank god he didn't know that she liked him.

"Can…"

"Naruto!" Iruka-sensei yelled. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Yes sensei"

"Pay attention!"

Hinata thought she saw a smirk on Sasuke's face, a table to the right.

Yes, they shared tables. Hinata had been lucky enough (or rather unlucky- it depended on the situation) to be sharing one two-people table with her crush Naruto Uzumaki. The tables were attached to raised platforms; one just a little higher than the other and it reminded Hinata of a lecture hall, only, filled with juniors. There were 4 rows in all, with an aisle separating the tables from each other and the seats were formed from the table behind them.

The space in front of the seats and tables was a huge space for the teacher to use. In Iruka's classroom, he had a nice little desk in the corner by a window that had basically nothing on it. Gathering dust, Hinata would think. Across from his students was a blackboard that was filled with equations and symbols that Hinata only pretended to understand. Yup, you guessed it; Iruka-sensei taught math. A subject that should have been banned from the schools centuries ago, she thought with a smirk.

Her thoughts, as black against math as they were, were interrupted by the bell and the shout of her seatmate.

"Yes!" Naruto yelled, raising his hands in the air. "Finally; I'm outta here!" He raced toward the door, only to see that Sasuke had beaten him there. He let out a string of curses.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka hollered over the noise of 16 year olds racing for the door and the safety of the hallway. "Come here!"

"Ah man" Naruto whined and reluctantly made his way to his teacher. Hinata gave a slight giggle at her crush's scowl and escaped the dungeon and Naruto's jailer.

"Hey what's up?" As soon as she walked outside of the classroom, she was assaulted by the sounds of her fellow schoolmates… Only they weren't talking to her. She was used to it by now. Being the only outsider, with no friends, was nothing new to her. Sure maybe she had a few, but it seemed like they were her friends only when they bothered to. But yet, it still made an ache in her heart and she would desperately wish that she could be like the people around her.

She made her way to her usual spot- on the wall that surrounded part of the courtyard in which everyone was gathered. It was a nice isolated spot, away from the crowds and different cliques. Although she desperately wanted some place to belong, Hinata loved her privacy at times, and this was one of them.

Today, there was another person sitting along the low wall. Lowering her head, Hinata chose the farthest end and quietly sat down, her bag at her feet.

"Nice bag" Hinata looked up startled. It seemed that in the time it had took her to settle herself on the wall; the person beside her had chosen to move a little closer.

"Uh thanks" The person had a voice that sounded vaguely familiar to her. Where have I heard that voice before? She wondered. Obviously, the person with whom she had spoken was male. Unless it was a she-man in disguise… Hinata brushed that idea aside. He wore a black hoodie that covered his face and baggy jeans. His hands were in his pockets and he was slumped against the wall… rather gracefully, Hinata thought. She thought she could catch a glimpse of white earphones in his ears.

"No really, it's cool" He repeated, probably sensing the doubt in her voice. Hinata looked down at her lavender backpack with its silver key chain that sported her family crest. It was nothing special.

"So uh…" she started, "I've um never seen you around here."

He snorted. "I'm around."

She blushed. "I meant here, as in over here." She patted the stone wall.

"Hn, you don't want me here?"

"No!" she blushed. Why couldn't she get anything right? "I was…"

"Just curious" He finished for her.

"Yeah"

"Well, then why are you here?"

"I…"

"Hinata!" Both looked up in alarm.

"Damn!" She thought he heard him say, as the pink haired Sakura Haruno came rushing over.

"Have you seen Sasuke?" She asked, a bit out of breath.

"Oh…" Hinata felt slightly disappointed. It's all about Sasuke is it? "No."

"Okay." Sakura's face reflected Hinata's disappointment. "Uh… I guess I'll see ya." The leader of Konoha High's cheerleading team bounded away, already in search of the school's heartthrob.

"So are you a Sasuke fan girl?" Hinata had almost forgotten that there was someone next to her. She turned back to him and noticed that he was eyeing the crowd warily.

"As if" she snorted. Why was she being so bold with this boy she barely knew?

"Good." She was glad he didn't ask why. "I don't like girls like that." That last comment threw her aback.

"Why?" she asked.

"They're rude and obsessive and a bit abusive. They don't care how he thinks or how he acts, just on how he looks!" This person seemed to get more fired up as they talked, Hinata thought.

"Wow." She said into the silence that followed. "You sure seem to know a lot about this."

"Yeah, I guess." He said. It was almost sad the way he said it, she mused. "And they don't deserve him…" He added, so quietly that she almost didn't catch it.

"What?" Just to make it clear, she told herself.

"Nothing" he said quickly. And nothing always means something, she couldn't help but think. For a moment, she wished that he would tell her. And them common sense overrides emotion. She barely knew him…

For the second time that day, her thoughts were interrupted by the bell and she stood to go. At almost the same time she stood, he stood too.

"So… uh… I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, I'll be around." If she could see his face, she would have thought he would be smirking. The courtyard was almost empty by now, but the two were just standing there, each reluctant somehow to move. She shouldered her bag nervously.

"So I'll be going…" She took a step and then realized that she didn't know his name. "Um…" She turned back to him and found that he was gone. He walks fast…

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The class was in an uproar when Hinata finally arrived, puffing and out of breath. Curse those stairs, she thought as she sat down at her desk, this time next to Sakura Haruno who was busily chatting with her best friend/arch enemy Ino Yamanaka across the way.

"Oh my god; did you see what Sasuke was wearing today?"

Hinata turned away in disgust. What was so great about Sasuke anyway? She had her own nickname for him… Wanna hear it Sakura? It's Ice Queen. Don't you see how cold he is? Can't you feel yourself getting frost bite from his charms? Done with her silent ranting, Hinata turned her attention to the board. Typical… it was blank. And their teacher was sitting at his desk, reading a book labeled HISTORY OF KONOHA. But seriously; Hinata remembered the time when Naruto had looked at the book when Kakashi-sensei wasn't looking and had immediately gotten a nosebleed. Their teacher had cleverly replaced the covers of his book so he could read it in class. Of course, he wasn't fooling anybody.

"Oh you naughty, naughty girl!" Was his favorite expression, Hinata had found. As was, "Oh baby yeah!" and "Oh come on! You know you want it!" Thankfully for the students, the deal was that if the students didn't spread the gossip, Kakashi would let them have a free period. Who chose these teachers? Hinata thought she might go crazy at Konoha High!

The silver-haired man was now blushing and Hinata made a face. Yuck. Instead, she looked around the classroom. Sakura had now moved over to Ino's table and was sitting on the desk, legs in the aisle, talking animatedly, surrounded by a small group of girls that Hinata knew were all Sasuke's fan girls. Move on, Hinata told herself.

In the corner, farthest from Kakashi-sensei's view was the group of boys- Kiba, Naruto, Shikamaru, Choji and Shino. Naruto whispered something to the group and they burst out laughing. Hinata felt a twinge of jealousy and turned away. What was so great about friends anyway, she thought bitterly.

"So you really weren't a Sasuke fan girl." She jumped, almost shrieking.

"What the hell?" she whispered fiercely to herself.

In Kakashi-sensei's class, Hinata sat right next to the window, which she stared out of most of the time. She turned slowly toward the window… and there he was, the mysterious boy from the courtyard.

He was sitting in the huge tree outside of the class, two stories from the ground.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, throwing a nervous glance over her shoulder to her oblivious classmates.

"Sitting in a tree." He said calmly. She noticed that once again, his hood was over his head and covering his eyes.

"Yeah, I know that, but why aren't you in class?"

"I don't think Kakashi would care much if I'm over here." He shrugged. "And if I reach out my hand like so…" He reached out his hand and slowly grasped the windowsill. "…I'm technically in the classroom."

"But isn't that kind of dangerous?" Hinata asked weakly. "What if you fell?"

"I haven't fallen yet, have I? And I really wouldn't have cared if I had." He said indifferently. Other boys Hinata knew would just say that to look macho, but Hinata had a feeling that this boy meant it sincerely. He withdrew his hand.

"Well I think it's dangerous" she said firmly after a moment. "Do you want me to worry?"

"You'd worry?"

"I guess"

He paused, considering this. "I would if I could, but I wouldn't come in even if lightning struck the tree." He said finally.

"Well then, I'll just worry." Somehow, she knew better than to ask him why. He never asked her why, instead accepting her answers without comment. Why shouldn't she do the same thing for him? It was obviously something he didn't really want to talk about and Hinata did not want to break their growing friendship.

"Please don't- I won't fall. I've been climbing trees since I was little."

"So what makes you think I lied to you and that I really am a Sasuke fan girl?" She asked, deciding to change the topic to something safer. She leaned her head on her hands. He in turn, stretched out along the tree, one leg hanging precariously off.

"I didn't think you lied, I… was just being careful."

"Careful huh"

"Yeah sorry"

"Its fine, I get it. You don't like fan girls."

"Pretty much" So full of surprises, she thought. They were quiet for a few moments.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto-kun" she acknowledged, feeling the familiar flutter in her chest.

"Who's that?"

"Oh… uh… that's…" She turned toward the window, half wondering if he would disappear like he did in the courtyard. He was still there.

"Isn't that?" Naruto started and her mystery friend tensed into a crouch as if he would jump to the ground. "Hey, it is!" He laughed. "What the hell are you doing in the tree?"

"You know him?" Hinata asked incredulously.

Naruto gave her the well-duh face. "You know him too." He frowned. "It's…" Suddenly, Naruto's mouth was covered by a hand; the boy's hand. He had reached over and covered his mouth.

"Shut it!" he growled. Once again, Hinata had a nagging feeling like she should know who he was.

"What the…?" Immediately the whole class was alerted to the presence of Hinata's friend.

"Who's that?"

"Do we know him?"

"Oh baby!" Hinata would have rolled her eyes at her oblivious teacher if things hadn't turned out like this.

Her friend groaned quietly. "Damn." And then his hood slipped.