A/N: During my time in which fan fiction hated me, I started another story. I am the essence of terrible, no? So, here it is! This is a Naruto AU, written in first person. It's a college AU, by the way.

Discalimer: I don't own Naruto, just the idea behind my story.

Taking a deep breath, I headed up the steps of a huge school. There were countless others surrounding me, charging up the stairs as well. I hardly recognized people that I had known for years. They walked past, talking in their own groups. I felt so... out of place among people I used to fit in so well with.

It was not an unusual feeling for me. Not anymore, at least. I, Yamanaka Ino, have gotten used to being ignored.

It is not a pleasant feeling, for sure. But it is one that stops bothering you after a while.

I have been home the whole summer. I think I got two calls from Sakura asking me to go to the movies or something, one from Hinata, and a few from Shikamaru, asking for my dad or something. Not really the best conversations in the world, let me tell you. I guess I deserved it. I haven't seen them in so long. But I thought they'd at least try to make contact.

For the past two years, I had been studying abroad. At first, I tried to write my friends as much as possible. But soon, the letters from them stopped coming. So my letters stopped going out, too. I didn't mind - At the time. I was having far too much fun in another country.

But now I wish I had kept sending those letters. Maybe I wouldn't be walking up these seemingly never ending stone steps by myself right now. I sighed, and walked up the steps with less vigor than before. I saw a familiar pink head pass without a word. I wanted to say something, but couldn't. It had been so long without real contact... That would have just been weird. And anyway, she was trying to catch up with someone. I glanced up to see who my ex-best friend was charging toward. It was none other than...

Nara Shikamaru. My eyes widened, and in my moment of surprise, I tripped on the stairs. I closed my eyes expecting to feel the hard stone beneath. But instead, I felt a strong pair of arms catch me.

I opened my eyes when I felt I was on my feet again to see my savior. Rock Lee stood next to me, looking me over to make sure I wasn't hurt.

"You should be more careful, Yamanaka-san. You could have been seriously hurt." I blinked a few times, trying to figure out what had happened. This... was Lee? He was so much better looking than I remember. Much more muscular, too. A lot can change in two years, I guess.

"Yeah, I guess I should. Thank you, Lee-san." I rubbed my head a bit. What was Lee doing here?

"Are you sure you're okay?" He looked at me. I could tell he wanted to be somewhere else, but his chivalry wouldn't let him leave a girl in distress.

"I'm fine. I'm just wondering why you're here. Aren't you in the sophomore class?" After I finished my sentence, I wished I hadn't spoken. What if he had been held back? I might have insulted him!

He chuckled. "I'm helping out with Freshmen Orientation. Speaking of which, I'm running late. Nice to see you again, Yamanaka-san." I muttered an incoherent response at his fast moving back. The first person to acknowledge my existence today was someone like Lee, who only talked to me because he had to save my sorry ass from getting hurt.

I couldn't remember much about Lee. He was always a bit weird in high school. No one really talked to him, aside from Hyuuga Neji and Tenten. In my sophomore year, he had started to look better, but still no good enough for any real attention. Sakura had started being nice to him, and we used to eat lunch with him sometimes. But now, I would be lucky to be seen with him.

Yep. A lot can change in two years.

I continued my trek up the stairs. "Do these things ever end?" I muttered to myself.

Right as the last word got out of my mouth, I reached the top. Oh, the irony. If I had know that was going to happen, I'd have said that about 2,000 steps ago! I made my way into the auditorium. I was bigger than I had originally thought it would be. I looked around for anyone I might know.

Naruto was with Sasuke, and they were talking to some red head girl. She couldn't keep her eyes off the washboard abs or the muscles of the blonde, or the smart and sexy face of the raven haired boy. Wait... Naruto had washboard abs? There was no way I was going to even try talking to them. Someone I had once ridiculed for being short and stupid was now towering and buff.

Damn.

I should have learned to keep my mouth shut back then.

I searched for somewhere else to go. I didn't want to stand there for too long. People might start to stare. That was one thing to avoid. People's eyes. You scan the heads fast, look for anyone you might know with a seat nearby. If there aren't any, walk down the isle like you're going to sit with someone so no one starts to feel pity and 'makes' room for you in their group. If you sit in the middle, near a few people, it seems as though you know people. And then no one really notices you. So that's what I did. I moved quickly toward the center, smile on my face. No one paid me any mind. It didn't bother me. The less people that noticed me, the better. I took a seat near a group of strange looking kids between the middle of the auditorium and the back of it. I pretended to be interested in what they were saying. So interested, in fact, that I didn't notice someone coming to sit next to me.

"Hey, Ino. Long time no see." Startled, I turned to see an old friend of mine, Akimichi Choji. Okay, I lied when I said I didn't have any real contact. Choji and I spent a lot of the summer together, because Shikamaru didn't have time for either of us. I now knew that he was occupied with Sakura the whole summer.

"Choji! It's so nice to see a face that actually remembers who I am." This made him laugh. I had forgotten that Choji was attending the same university as I was. I felt terrible for forgetting, as he was the only real friend I had at this school. "Man, this place is such a downer. I've seen everyone I used to know, and all they do is walk past me."

"Yeah, I know how that feels." I winced. Choji's words stung a bit. Back in high school, I had completely ignored him. Maybe a hi or two and some friendly advice on his weight, but nothing serious. He wasn't as popular as I was, so I didn't bother with him. I really was a rude kid. Two years away did me a bit of good, I suppose. I guess I'd take being nice and ignored over popular and mean. Choji was better than a lot of friends I used to have.

"So, who are you rooming with?" He asked, hoping for a change of subject, which I was more than glad to comply with. I took out my registration packet. I had completely forgotten to look at my roommate. It was suggested we call each other, but I never got a call. And since we didn't move in until after orientation, I didn't feel the urge to know.

"Hmm..." The name caught my eye. My eyes widened. "Sakura..?"

"Ah, you got Sakura! I heard that she requested for someone, I bet it was you. Shikamaru and I are rooming together." I still couldn't believe it. What if I was not who she requested, and we didn't get along at all anymore? Ino feared that this would be the case.

"I'm glad that you--" My sentence was cut off by the loud noise coming from the speakers.

"All freshman, please take your seats and silence yourselves. Orientation is about to start." Choji and I exchanged glances, and turned our attention back to the woman at the podium. She had black hair, and looked pretty young.

"Please, give a round of applause for our Dean!" Everyone clapped, but it soon died. A woman, who looked like she was in her mid-twenties, stepped on stage. She couldn't have been that young, but man, she looked that young. And I had never seen anyone so well endowed.

It must have been plastic surgery.

"Welcome to Konoha University! As the Dean of this prestigious school, I am glad you all are here. Hopefully, this will be a good year for all of us." She stopped, and looked around the room, as if to pick out the troublemakers and the good students. She continued talking, but I quickly zoned out. I had been here for maybe an hour, and I was already bored out of my mind. I was barely listening, until she said something about Sophomore Mentors. I quickly turned my attention back to our speaker, trying to figure out what she said.

"For those of you who have zoned out, I will repeat myself. We have a tradition here at Konoha University to randomly assign sophomores to our freshman. These sophomores will act as mentors to you all. There is one mentor for every freshman. Some of them might be juniors, so don't freak out and think your mentor has failed." She laughed, which got a nice laugh going in the auditorium. I didn't see what was so funny. Apparently, Choji did.

"Choji! Why are you laughing?" I whispered.

"I don't know, but everyone else is. So I figured I should." Nyaa, that was just like Choji to have no idea what was going on.

"To find your mentor, please proceed to the tables along the wall. Once you have received the paper, go back to your seats! I expect you to move in an orderly manner! You are college students, after all." But her words were wasted. Almost everyone got up, and ran over to the tables.

About half an hour later, Choji and I departed from the crowd.

"Nyah, Choji! Who is your mentor?" He looked down at the paper, and frowned.

"Some kid named Neji Hyuuga. I think I remember him from high school. The one with the long hair."

"Ah! I remember him! He was cute. Lucky!"

"Ino... I'm a guy. A straight guy."

"Oh, right..." I gave him one of my signature 'Oops!' faces. I rubbed the back of my head, and grinned sheepishly.

"So, Ino. Who did you get?"

For the first time since receiving the card, I glanced down at it. First thing I saw was my own name, my room number, my roommate, a few other things about me, and then I saw it. The name of my mentor.

"Aw, shit." I wanted to go slam my head into the wall. Hard. Repeatedly. I mean really, what are the odds?

"Ino...? Do I have to look for myself?"

I mean, sure, he's not bad. He's actually pretty cute, now! But still. Why. Him.

"Alright, Ino, I'm taking it." Choji snatched the paper out of my hand. I still had my eyes closed.

But our history just didn't go well. I mean, he stalked me for a while. He was basically the reason I wanted to leave so quickly! And that creepy hair... I shuddered at the thought of it.

"What's so bad about him, Ino?"

Oh nothing! If you don't count the fact the man is a complete, utter, undeniable JERK!

"He always seemed nice enough."

I thought so, too! But really! Ventriloquism ain't that great! And he's so... creepy!

"Kankuro would make a great mentor!" I wanted to slap him. It was a good thing that he didn't know the guy had stalked me, or I would have.

"If anyone wants to exchange, come to the end table right now with your slip!" I grabbed my slip from Choji's hand and took off for the table. I wasn't the only one. Good. At least there would be people to exchange with.

I saw Sakura running up there, too. I wondered who she had. But right then, I was not going to stop her and ask.

"Yamanaka Ino: You wish to exchange your mentor?" The woman took my slip of paper.

"Yes, please! Anyone else!"

"If you say so. We have another mentor that just opened up. Here you go." She had marked out Kankuro's name and replaced it with another one.

I glanced down at the name as I broke away from the crowd.

Choji stopped me from running into a wall. "Who'd ya get this time?"

"Someone better, I guess." I handed him the paper with the name written in pen.

"If you say so. I personally always though he was weird."

So did I. My mentor was...

A/N: Don't you just love the way I ended this one off? Anyway, I know that college's don't do mentor programs. But I wanted to do one so bad. So I made up my own way of college. (Yeah, that makes no sense.) Hopefully this one will do well. I had a ton of fun writing it, and I want incentive to write the next chapter. Read and review, please! n.n

Rai Lockhart