Hello. This is LuxaLucifer, age 17 here. I wrote this story several years ago, starting when I was 14 and finishing when I was 15. It remains my most popular story to date, so I've left it up. This does not mean I like it. This does not mean I don't want to print off a copy just to flush down the toilet. There are chapters ahead hat I really, really dislike. There are still chapters that I like, though. It was a learning process. I've left all the author's notes intact, despite my deep inner suffering about being 14 once.

Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto.

Hi.

Sakura Haruno scurried up the stairs to her new school. Today was her first day at Konoha School of the Arts, and she was excited. Her mother, Tsunade, worked there as a martial arts teacher and had often talked about getting her in, but not until sophomore year did it actually happen. In addition, it made her proud to be there; according to Tsunade, students rarely got in unless they were very talented.

She passed the security guard and gave him a tentative wave. He smiled back, and then focused on his actual job. Sakura chided herself for distracting him and then made her way to the second stairway.

The first thing she thought of was that there were a hell of a lot of stairs for this school. She reached the third floor, where Tsunade had told her that her locker would be and entered.

Before she could go anywhere she bumped straight into someone. Her face turning red, she apologized as she looked up.

"That's all right." said a cheery voice. The boy was about her age, with blonde spiky hair and three marks on each cheek. Sakura smiled.

"I hope I didn't mess anything up." she said.

"Nope. Sasuke and I were just seeing which classes we had this year." The blonde motioned towards a sullen raven-haired boy next to him.

"On the stairwell?" asked Sakura. The two boys shrugged.

"Why don't you introduce yourself before me, idiot?" asked Sasuke in a low voice.

"Oh yeah! I'm Naruto Uzumaki and this emo over here is Sasuke Uchiha."

"Ignore him. I'm not emo."

Sakura knew he was probably telling the truth, but the way this kid dressed you couldn't really tell.

"I'm Sakura Haruno."

"So, what's your first period?" asked Naruto eagerly.

Sakura had no idea how Naruto could just open up to people like that, but it somehow worked.

"I'll tell you if we move." replied Sakura, pointing to the stairs behind her, were an angry redhead looked ready to attack if she didn't move.

"Ok!"

Sasuke didn't say anything.

Sakura managed to find her locker and drop off all her stuff while listening to Naruto's chatter.

"Yeah, so Sasuke have been best friends for, like, five years now, ever since we came to this school in sixth grade. And we know all the teachers here-well, at least I do- so I can totally see if you got the teachers from hell." rambled Naruto. "What's your art major?"

"Visual Art."

"Cool. I'm a Theatre major, and Sasuke's-" Naruto let out a snigger. "A dancer."

"Shut up." growled Sasuke.

Sakura found it really weird that they had warmed up to her after about five words. Was everyone here like this?

"So who do you have first period?"

Sakura checked her schedule. "Someone named Shiranui, for history."

"Cool! You have Genma! Me and Sasuke do too!"

"Sasuke and I." muttered Sasuke as they made their way to the class, which was way too far from her locker for Sakura's liking.

They entered the class, and Naruto went off to chatter to the same redhead that had been on the stairwell. Sakura took a seat near the front of the classroom, next to a girl with a blonde ponytail.

The girl turned to her. "You met Naruto, huh?"

Sakura smiled. "Yeah. He's...explosive..."

The girl laughed. "Nice. That's a good way to put it. I'm Ino Yamanaka."

"Sakura Haruno."

Ino leaned back and put her feet on the desk.

"Are you allowed to do that?" asked Sakura, surprised.

Ino snorted. "This is Genma's class. You get to do whatever the hell you want here, as long as you pass. Besides, the music hasn't even started."

At KSA, Music was played in-between the halls instead of bells. The Jeopardy music played as a final warning to get to class, while the first music was whatever the artistic director saw fit, so they usually got oldies. Sakura didn't really mind.

Ino liked to talk too, and Sakura listened. Eventually a Bob Dylan song started playing, marking the fact that there was only four minutes till the start of a new school year. At that time a man ambled in, something long and pointy in his mouth. He had shaggy brown hair with a bandanna tied around his head and wore a pair of ripped jeans with an old band T-shirt.

He sat down in the teachers' desk, which was already messy, and propped his feet on the desk like Ino had. Sakura suppressed a giggle.

The man shifted, and Sakura realized he had a long, thin needle in his mouth. Wasn't that dangerous! The Jeopardy music played and students rushed in, not eager to be late but reluctant to say goodbye to summer.

The music ended, and class had officially begun. After a few minutes he shuffled to the front of the class.

"I'm Genma Shiranui." he said in a slow, southern drawl. "I don't really like being called Mr. Shiranui, because that makes me sound old." He made a disgusted face that made Sakura want to laugh. "I'm a teacher, which makes me old enough, but you can just call me Genma."

He grabbed the attendance sheet and scanned through it.

"Abarame, Shino." he called, sounding bored.

"Here." said a tall boy wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of sunglasses.

"Akimichi, Choji."

"Present." mumbled a larger brown-haired boy through the potato chips he was eating.

"Haruno, Sakura."

"Here." said Sakura.

"Neji Hyuga."

A boy with long brown hair and violet eyes yelled contemptuously from the back row, "Oh, c'mon, Genma, give it a break. You couldn't tell us apart if your life depended on it, you fa-"

He was cut off by a smack from another classmate, who growled something unintelligible but whose meaning was clear.

Genma rolled his eyes. "I'll certainly remember you." he muttered. "Does anyone else have a smartass thing to say before I move on?"

The room was silent, except for the lone snigger from Naruto.

"Nara, Shikamaru."

There was no reply, just a lazy wave from a boy with spiky hair arranged in a high ponytail.

Genma went on to call Tenten Mitashi, Gaara Subaku, Naruto, Sasuke, another Hyuga named Hinata, and Rock Lee.

Afterwards Genma slouched back on his desk, standing there with hands in his pockets.

"I don't really think you need a syllabus at this point in you lives, do you?" he asked, much to the happiness of the students. At least in this class they wouldn't have to suffer the tedious boredom of pages of rules.

"I want you to pay attention to me, don't be a jerk-" He glared briefly at Neji. "Do your homework, respect each other and learn enough to pass. It'd be nice if I had some students that actually cared this year, but we'll see. That's pretty much it. Our course will cover World History."

"What does that cover, specifically?" asked Rock Lee.

"The history of the world."

Students smirked at this sarcastic response. Naruto grinned. "That's cool! Hopefully you won't make this class boring, like most history classes!"

Genma shrugged. "Depends on what you think of me."

Sakura realized one things right then: that Genma really didn't care what they thought of him.

That thought aside, the rest of the class went by smoothly, with Genma clearly illustrating what he wanted in terms of cooperation, his means of punishment and his total intolerance of idiots, all without making anyone bored or uncomfortable.

The fifty minute period ended and the music started playing. Sakura left and checked her schedule. Her next period was art, on the fourth floor. She groaned. More stairs.

Sakura grudgingly climbed her way up to the next floor, where she found her art class, which was taught by a man named Sasori that Tsunade had mentioned once or twice as pretty cute, although Sakura didn't go for men twenty years her senior.

Sasori seemed nice enough, even if he was obsessed with puppets, which was not the kind of art Sakura wanted. She had also caught a glimpse of a gang tattoo, a red and black cloud that marked that you belonged to the most notorious gang in the city, the Akatsuki.

He saw her looking at it and assured her that he had left years ago, but Sakura wasn't completely convinced.

Third period she had Geometry, with a Mr. Morino. He, unlike her other teachers, did not offer up his first name. Sakura was a little intimidated by him, with two scars on his face and how just plain huge that man was. He was a little gruff, but not horribly so, and Sakura couldn't tell how this class would turn out.

Fourth period was her extra period, which she had filled up with music, since she'd taken P.E. the previous year. The teacher was a Mr. Izumo Kamizuke, who also requested to be called Izumo, and his student teacher Kotetsu Hagane. Sakura enjoyed the first day, although she found it a little creepy how close the two teachers seemed.

Then she had lunch, where she sat with Naruto, Sasuke and about fifteen others she didn't know. Naruto then took the time to see the rest of Sakura's schedule.

"Hmmm…You've got Asuma next same as us, and…"

Sakura just had to comment. "Asuma Sarutobi? My mom talks about him. He's the Principal's son, right?"

"Yes." said Sasuke.

"Yeah, but how'd your mom know that?" asked Naruto, his earnest face twisting with surprise.

"Oh, my mom's a teacher here. Tsunade, if you know her."

Naruto and Sasuke's faces both showed shock, the first real emotion Sakura had seen Sasuke have.

"Y-You're her daughter?" stuttered Naruto.

Sakura laughed. People who met Tsunade before they met her always acted that way.

"Yeah, I take it you know her?"

Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. "We took martial arts last year for our P.E. credit. Tsunade's scary!"

"We learned a lot." added Sasuke.

Naruto looked at Sakura. "So who's your sixth period?"

Sakura glanced at it. "Someone called Hatake."

"No way." said Sasuke in a low voice. Sakura looked up and realized both boys were staring at her.

"Let me see!" said Naruto, and he snatched the paper.

"Oh my god, she actually does have him. She's got the Advanced Literature class."

"What?" asked Sakura, confused. "What do you mean?"

"The Advanced Literature and Writing class is two periods instead of one, reserved for only the best Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors, taught by Kakashi Hatake, the biggest bastard at this school. Advanced Literature is the only class he teaches that's available to anyone lower than a Senior, as he usually just teaches them. This school is so small he teaches four periods of Seniors and the Advanced Literature class." said Sasuke, stringing together the longest paragraph he'd ever said to Sakura.

Naruto nodded. "I had a detention with him once. It was scary as hell, you know? He has this…this aura that gets to you. How'd you get in his class? He only takes really good students."

Sakura shrugged, a little embarrassed. "When I entered the school, Mom had me take some sort of writing test. Maybe that's it."

"It is." said the brown-haired boy from Genma's class. "I got in too. What a drag. My dad made me take the test, and unfortunately I got a 100%." he grumbled.

"At least you won't be alone." said Naruto. "You'll have Shikamaru, too!"

As Sakura ate her lunch it occurred to her that she didn't know if she was glad about that.

After lunch Asuma's class went by fairly quickly. He was a tall man with a thick beard and smoked during class, which Sakura was pretty sure was illegal, but no one seemed to care. Probably because Sakura had caught a glimpse of Principal Sarutobi smoking a pipe.

Then it was time to go to Hatake's class. Sakura nervously stepped thorough the door to his classroom. The first thing she noticed was that the man was sitting at his desk already, not roaming about like all the other teachers at the break time.

He was tall, although not Mr. Morino's height. Shaggy silver hair fell over one eye and stuck up at odd angles. He had a black cloth wrapped around his left eye, while his open eye was gray, almost black. He was handsome, and probably the youngest teacher she'd seen so far.

"Are you going to sit down or just stand there staring at me?"

Sakura jolted at the sound of his voice. It wasn't particularly low, but it had a rough edge to it, the kind of bitter voice that seems mad at the world.

"Sorry." she said awkwardly, and took a seat at the front of the classroom. Shikamaru wasn't there yet, but as far as she could tell, Shikamaru was late to everything. A few others were in the small classroom, but not many and all of them were upperclassmen.

Shikamaru made it moments before the Jeopardy music ended. He slid into the seat next to Sakura and they listened to the finals chords of the music before Kakashi spoke again.

"I am Mr. Hatake. Apparently you are all good at writing, or else you wouldn't have passed that test as well as you did. I want you to know right now that passing a test does not make you smart. If you fail in my class you will immediately be put in lower class, away from me."

He motioned for a tall, blonde boy to get up. "Why don't you pass out these papers, Deidara?"

Deidara snorted. "Like hell I'm gonna do that, Hatake. Do it yourself."

Hatake's eyes narrowed, but he smirked. "Fine, if you think being a smartass is going to get you anything less than a failing grade. May I remind you that if you don't pass this class you're going to flunk out of your senior year? Might be worth mentioning. But I'll pass out the papers, as you suggested."

He got up slowly and grabbed the sheaf of papers. As he took a couple steps, Sakura became horribly aware that he limped heavily onto his right side, making his progress slow and uneven. That explained why he'd been so reluctant to get up. Sakura glanced at Deidara, who glared at Hatake, apparently accustomed to Hatake's limp. She looked around and saw only a couple people were surprised. Her fault for being new, she guessed.

Did you know?" she whispered to Shikamaru.

"Know what?" asked Shikamaru blearily.

"About his leg."

"Oh, that. Didn't really notice it before." Shikamaru yawned. "Why does it matter?"

Sakura shrugged. "I don't know." At that moment a large hand slapped a paper on her desk and she saw Hatake making his way past her desk.

"Read. Comprehend." was all he said.

Sakura picked up the paper and realized she was staring at a test. On the first day? She remembered what Sasuke had said about this guy being a bastard. And yet Sakura couldn't help but be a bit sorry for him. If it were her, she'd be bitter too. Especially if she was stuck teaching kids who didn't really care English in an Arts school.

"All of you better answer all the questions, or you'll be staying after school to have an unpleasant talk with me. Got it?"

The got it, even Deidara.

She wrote her name on the test and squinted at the questions. She found that none of the questions were very hard, just meant to assess them. She answered the first half easily and had only a few minor problems with the second half.

What is your favorite piece of literature?

That was the last question on the test. It surprised Sakura, and she had to think. She had a lot of favorite pieces, but overall she'd have to say The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was strange for a teenage girl with pink hair to like Lord of the rings, but she wasn't going to lie. She couldn't pick either one, so she wrote both.

After that she turned the test in, the teacher's only response was to read it through. Shikamaru turned it in a surprisingly short time later and Sakura had the pleasure of watching Hatake's eyebrow raise at his answers.

Sakura had nothing to do but wait for others to finish, so she pulled out her sketchbook. She loved to draw, and it was what had gotten her into this school. Her only problem was inspiration. Sometimes if she just let her fingers move she'd come up with pretty good results.

That was what she did right now. She loved to draw people, and she usually took from her surroundings, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when she ended up drawing Mr. Hatake, Nevertheless, it was weird, especially since the man was so mean. But here she was, drawing a manga-style version of her teacher.

Blushing slightly, she put her sketchbook away. She glanced at the clock and then remembered that this period lasted twice as long. Is this how school rewarded smart people? By giving them teachers who were assholes?

Out of boredom she pulled out her sketchbook again and doodled. Bored, bored, bored. She almost wished he would assign something so she could just do something.

After the last person had turned in their test and he had skimmed through it, Hatake cleared his throat and the class focused their gaze on him.

"I find that if I bother with a syllabus, none of you bother to read it, so I didn't bother to write it." His visible eye landed on each of them in turn. "I will tell you what my expectations are. You are not to goof off, to screw around, you are to give me your best efforts and not do anything that would get me in any trouble."

Sakura found his upfront style a bit like Genma's, although the History teacher was a lot more at ease and seemed to have a great deal better people skills.

"Each of you need to grab a Literature book off the shelf and open it to page 394."

A couple students started shuffling to the back, Sakura included.

"Now!" commanded the teacher.

Shikamaru grumbled and groaned but did as he was told.

The next hour went by faster than Sakura thought it would. They read a few poems Hatake told them to. Sakura had never read them before, and they were mostly about loss and suffering. Then again, most poems were.

"For homework, I want you to write me an essay on a neighbor of yours. I don't care who, as long as its your neighbor. I want five full paragraphs, and whoever doesn't give it to me gets an automatic detention." said Hatake at the end of class. "Oh, and Shikamaru and Sakura? Come see me after class."

Sakura swallowed nervously. Why did he want to see her? And Shikamaru? He didn't really seem to care though. His lack of curiosity and worry was pretty irritating.

The music started playing and all the students bolted for the door. On the way out, Sakura saw Deidara flip Hatake off. Hatake returned this with a sarcastic smirk and holding up a red grading pen.

Shikamaru slowly made his way to his desk, Sakura matching his pace. Sakura really didn't want to talk to this man, but she wanted a detention even less.

"You two" said Hatake without getting up. "Were the only two that had interesting answers to the test. Every student seemed to pick a piece of literature they thought would please me the most, so almost all my answers were telling how they loved Shakespeare. Like hell they do. God, I don't even like Shakespeare. Although…" he looked at Sakura. "You put down two answers to that question, which meant you didn't follow the directions and therefore got the questions wrong.

"Could you get to the point?" asked Shikamaru, yawning. "I wanna go home."

The teacher's uncovered eye scanned Shikamaru carefully.

"I get your meaning. Don't want to be around kids any longer than I have to, either. Look, Mr. Nara, instead of writing an answer you drew a picture Harry Potter defeating various 'bad guys' as you so elegantly put in your caption." There was the ghost of a smile on his haggard face. "And you, Ms. Haruno, put an piece of writing down that has survived several generations and usually interests teenage boys. That intrigues me. The whole reason I'm talking to you right now is that I want you to know that I'm going to have great expectations of you."

Shikamaru grumbled a little bit and Sakura didn't say anything.

"Now get out of here." He waved impatiently.

Sakura and Shikamaru left, Sakura's mind whirling. What was with that guy? He was a total bastard, mean and sarcastic, not to mention the amount of homework he had assigned the first day. And yet when he had talked to them, he had seemed almost nice! And then there was his eye and leg. What had happened to him?

Sakura was determined to figure it out. But for now, she had to do that jerk's homework.

Kakashi Hatake sighed and stared bleakly at his paperwork. It was his fault for assigning a test on the first day. Sifting through the crap people gave him was never fun. Especially when about half the Seniors purposefully gave him the worst answers possible, most of them mocking him some way.

They'll be sorry. He thought with cynical amusement. 'when they get their grades back.'

"Hey Kakashi, you in here?" called a voice from outside the open door,

"No." replied Kakashi, knowing full well that his obvious lack of invite wouldn't stop his friend from coming in.

"There you are." said Asuma Sarutobi as he entered the room. "Thought you'd never leave this room, you recluse."

"I'm not a recluse. I'm an unhappy antisocial bastard. I'd be a happy recluse if you'd leave me alone."

"Bastard? Sounds like your students are getting to you." said Asuma jokingly.

""Oh, shut up. All your students like you. Hell, they give Genma less trouble than me, and he's completely gay." retorted Kakashi. "And here's little straight me, hated by the student body."

"Oh whatever." grunted Asuma. "So, what're you doing tonight?"

"Not going to the bar with you. I'm grading papers right now."

"You really think I'm going to bring you to the bar? I'm not an idiot, Kakashi. I was going to invite you to dinner with Kurenai."

"I don't think she'd appreciate grouchy old me being there. Besides, I really need to grade these."

Asuma rolled his eyes. "On, come on Kakashi. And Kurenai was the one invited you. Genma'll be there too. And homework on the first day? Now I actually know why your students hate you."

. "You obviously won't leave me alone until I come, so whatever." said Kakashi grumpily

He struggled to his feet, wincing as his left foot made contact with the ground. Asuma watched him with concern.

"You all right there? How's your leg doing?"

"How's it been doing for the last three years?" replied Kakashi testily.

Asuma shrugged. "I can't help it. It's hard to see you in pain."

"It's hard for me to see you at all."

"Why am I friends with you?" muttered Asuma.

"I don't know, why are you? You're the one always chasing me down." said Kakashi, limping alongside Asuma as they made their way to the elevator.

"You are an grouchy old man, aren't you/"

"What does that make you? I'm younger, remember? You're getting as old as your dad, you old geezer." taunted Kakashi.

"Oh, shut up, you hypocrite."

Kakashi shut the elevator door on Asuma, who scowled and had to take the stairs. Kakashi leaned against the moving wall. Everything was the same, so why did he feel like something big was going to change?

1. This is how I do my Author's notes. If you don't like, well...tough luck.

2. I redid this chapter. I like it better now.

3. The End.