Chapter Title: A Line Crossed

Chapter Rating: PG-14

A/N: This story was definitely inspired after listening to Possession by Sarah McLachlan and Possum Kingdom by The Toadies, creepy and stalkerish. First chapter will be short, but they will get longer. Expect a Full Circle chapter by the end of the week maybe sooner.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

The first few days of school were always exciting; it was the other one hundred and seventy-seven that sucked. There were new teachers, fresh faces, and hot guys to meet. Classes were always easiest during this adjusting time, no homework usually. At least that was how Sakura felt stepping into her second year of high school, first year of private, despite having to walk to her new school on a hot humid morning. She liked to look at things from a positive view. Half full, not half-empty.

At least she would be getting her driving license soon, her sixteenth birthday was in two weeks and she planned to skip school to go get it. Two years ago it wouldn't have mattered if she got her license or not, her mother or father would have gladly given her a ride to school. Now, well, it mattered.

She arrived an hour early, more than enough time to find her locker and first class, which happened to be Geometry. She didn't want to admit she was nervous, but the constant fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach was making her nauseous and her steps were wobbly as she walked down the crystal clean halls of Konoha High. For a private school, it was huge, she didn't think this many rich kids lived in town. Apparently they did, for only the elite could get in, and the only reason she could get in was because her uncle took her in when her parents died. He was possibly the richest man in Konohagakure, and he insisted on sending his niece to a privileged school.

Sakura told herself leaving her old friends and comfort zone might be good for starting a new chapter in her life, maybe here she wouldn't be constantly reminded of the past. She wanted to believe that, she really did. She only wished she were a better liar.

So wrapped up in her own world of anxious thoughts and past sentiments she didn't look before she rounded a corner straight into the chest of some poor soul. She fell flat on her butt, feeling as though she had hit a wall. "I'm so sorry!" Please don't let him be mad, she begged, mentally cringing when she saw it was a teacher she had so carelessly run into. "I wasn't looking where I was going, I-"

"Yeah, no shit."

Huh? She almost replied dumbly. How rude! Blushing furiously she stood up grabbing her book bag. "Well excuse you, but it seems you also were not looking where you were going." Jackass. He smirked at this, and Sakura realized how oddly handsome he was. Long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, half his comely face covered with it like some sort of emo rock star. One mischievous blue eye regarded her, making her legs tremble with the tension.

He leaned down ever so smoothly, and whispered into her ear, "Maybe I was looking, hm." He brushed passed her, not touching her with anything except the heat of his body. Sakura stood stone still until he vanished down another hall.

What the hell was that?

She began straightening her crisp navy blue jacket and uniform skirt, dusting off the invisible specks of dirt, completely infuriated; how dare he…he…he what? What exactly had he done? Though very creepy, it was nothing she could report him for that was for sure. She'd only look like a tattletale. She could only hope she never ever ran into that guy again.

The day passed quickly, like a whirlwind had picked her up and thrown her from one classroom to the other. Most of the time she kept to herself, but a few people had the courtesy to introduce themselves and ask if she needed help finding anything. Of course she politely declined not wishing to be a burden on anyone.

It was the typical high school setting, with the popular kids, mean girls, jocks, cast-offs, fat kids, and emo children. At least this was nothing new, she supposed high schools were the same everywhere. A very simple, yet intricate formula of social evolution.

It gave her a headache.

Lunchtime rolled around faster than she would have liked. Not that she didn't enjoy food, she loved the stuff perhaps too much. However seating was limited, and spots filled up fast. Half of them already gone by the time she arrived.

Hesitantly she entered the cafeteria, bracing herself for the roar of voices, slippery floors, and piled trash. Quickly she found a table with no one else sitting. Taking a shaky breath she began to open her brown bag when she felt someone standing menacingly behind her. The aura felt hot and angry and was meant to intimidate, however Sakura was hardly put off. She had been in many fights with girls and guys who had tried to screw with her at her old school, she doubted there would be anyone here whom she could not win against.

She chose to ignore the other person until they spoke up, "Umm hey new kid, that's my seat. So if you could get up and move that would be just peachy."

Sakura nearly laughed at her request, but chose to turn and study this newfound adversary. It was a tall slender girl, with sharp blue eyes and an impressive length of blonde hair. She wore the standard uniform with the top unbuttoned far too low for any self-respecting girl, and the plaid skirt rolled up past her knees. Perfect.

"You know what would be really peachy blondie? If you would get the fuck away from me before I'm forced to kicked your skinny ass." Sakura looked her dead in the eye, her face completely emotionless, inwardly begging her to try something, anything.

Instead she did something that completely took her off guard. She smirked, not a mocking smirk, but an impressed smirk. "Hn." The blonde walked around to the other side of the table, sitting across from Sakura's stiff form. "You got guts girl, I'll give you that. Name's Ino." She held out an extended hand with perfectly manicured nails.

Sakura took it, not wanting to seem like a complete bitch, shaking it like her father had taught her. Not too hard, but not weak either, just right. "Sakura."

"Yeah, I know. We have four classes together." Sakura blushed embarrassed she hadn't remembered who she was, or even seeing her at all. "Don't worry about it, it's tough being the new kid. I don't really sit here by the way, I was just testing you. You looked like you really wanted to kick my ass!" She laughed at the last sentence, somehow finding it hilarious.

"Testing me?" Sakura frowned, utterly confused. She wanted to test to see if I would stand up for myself?

"Well you see I'm co captain of the Martial Arts team, it's my job to go recruit. You seemed like a martial arts kind of girl. You gotta pass my test firth though." She slurped on her blueberry slushy, staring expectantly at Sakura.

"So, did I pass?" Sakura asked more amused than curious.

Ino laughed in her girlish fashion, "I believe you are the first person to announce you will kick my ass, so yeah you pass. What do you say, are you interested?" She sounded truly sincere, but Sakura was wary of the offer.

"I'll think about it," She promised.

The blonde squealed in delight, "Sweet, we have a practice after school in the main gym. You can sit and watch if you'd like."

"Okay." She might as well, she didn't have any plans except to go home and do…nothing. Only her and her uncle lived at the mansion, there were no servants, or cooks, or pets, only them. Most of the time her uncle was holed up in his room, his depression having taken a huge toll on him after he lost his wife a little over a year ago.

"Oh my gosh, Tenten and Hinata will be so excited to meet you! They have B lunch so they won't be joining us today, but sometimes the two lunches do crossover. But anyway…" She stopped seeing the other girl lose interest, her intense emerald eyes looking past her. Ino turned to see what it was she was so absorbed by, snorting she smiled to herself knowingly. "Hot, right?"

Sakura shook her head, coming out of her reverie. "What?"

"You know what." She cocked her head to the side indicating the teacher's table at the far end of the cafeteria. "Seems like you have a thing for the art teacher. He is super cute, but is he weird as hell."

"You're telling me." Sakura replied prying her eyes away.

Ino's shiny blue eyes grew huge, "So you met him?"

She shrugged, and couldn't help looking at him again. He was staring straight at her. "You could say that," She answered slowly, averting her gaze back to Ino.

Ino's grin spread wide across her face. "Oh yeah? How?" She looked as though she were anticipating some mind blowing answer, Sakura made a confused face what was with her?

"I ran into him this morning, neither of us were looking where we were going, it was really strange. Nothing too exciting though." She added seeing Ino's face contort into unbridled enthusiasm. Ino made another squeal, this one a little louder than the other, "You might want to get that checked out."

"Oh. My. Gosh." Punctuating every word, and ignoring Sakura's jibe. "You ran into Deidara? Like literally ran into him?"

Feeling suddenly very uncomfortable Sakura made a motion with her hand waving the story away regretting having mentioned it, "It wasn't anything, we apologized and went on our way. Wouldn't it be Mr. Deidara at least?"

"Oh no," Ino answered very seriously, "He hates when the students call him Mr. he likes to be on an even level with us, you know?"

Sakura frowned at this, why would a teacher care if he were on the same level as his students? There should be boundaries, granted it was a small line crossed she still found the notion of calling a teacher by his first name disrespectful.

She could feel his forceful gaze on her again, not even wanting to confirm her suspicions she simply moved a seat over so that Ino blocked his line of sight. Much better. "Why'd you move?"

"Seat moved too much," She lied.

Her newfound friend moved to sit across from her again, but Sakura shook her head. "No, no you're fine there."

Lunch ended soon after and an hour later she found herself sitting in her last class of the day. Art class. Purposefully she sat at the back of the class, unsure who her art teacher was, and wary that it was whom she suspected it to be. Ino had said this Deidara was an art teacher after all, and she wasn't about to take any chances.

The bell rang loud and clear Sakura's stomach full of crazy butterflies, more so than even this morning. The door handle turned every-so-slowly revealing a flash of bright blonde hair, "Good day class! Hope everyone is having an excellent first day of school." Fuck, it was him. Good day indeed. She covered her face with her free hand hoping he hadn't noticed her, and began doodling on the white scratch paper on her desk.

"My name is Deidara," He began, writing his name on the dry erase board. "I will be your art teacher for the rest of the semester, hm." Her drawing became darker as she pressed harder, four whole months with this whack job? "Please do not begin drawing on the paper on your desk until instructed to do so, hm."

Sakura's face went crimson looking up, again she found his visible eye trained upon her. Turning her pencil around she erased the pencil markings, careful not to tear the paper. Nobody else had seemed to notice, all heads turned towards their precious sensei. Now taking the time to study the other students, they seemed to be completely absorbed by his presence, they followed his every move, and seemed to hang on his every word.

What was so special about this guy?

Sure he was handsome, he might have been charismatic even, but nothing extraordinary. Nothing came to mind that would make them act in such a manner. In all of her other classes the students were not transfixed on the teacher, in fact the teacher was lucky if he had one or two taking notes. But this guy, he had all of them, not one was looking off somewhere or dozing.

The class went on as normally as could be expected. Surrounded by mindless slaves Sakura followed the teacher's instructions as closely as possible so she would not be called out again. She tried not to make eye contact with him, which seemed impossible for every time she would look at the board he was focusing on her.

The bell rang in due time and the spell over her classmates dissipated, the cloud was lifted and the golden path to freedom lit up. "Be safe my students, I will see all of you tomorrow, hm."

The class unanimously agreed that they would indeed be safe, and that they could not wait to see him again. Sakura was about to make a quick undetected exit when Deidara called her name. She gulped, her stomach dropping and her heart pounding, what the hell did he want?

"Sakura could you stay after a few minutes hm, I would like to speak with you." Several catty glares came from the female students, and even one from a guy.

She backtracked excusing herself from the doorway, wishing very badly now she had ignored him and continued to walk away. When the last student exited a very awkward silence ensued, she cleared her throat uncomfortably when he didn't speak for several minutes, instead leaning against his desk watching her yet again. "You said you wanted to speak with me?" She urged.

He smiled, a very charming, handsome smile that would have sent most of her female classmates fainting. However to her it came off as creepy, and even a little psychotic. "About this morning-"

"Don't even worry about it." She interrupted sensing where this was heading already.

"I wanted to apologize for my rude behavior, hm." He continued as though he hadn't heard her.

She shifted uncomfortably, biting her lip, "Really it's not a big deal, I had totally forgot about it. Forgive and forget that's my motto." She laughed nervously hoping to ease the tension, it didn't work.

"Oh really?" He took a step forward, as she took a step back. "Do you have any other mottos I should know about, hm?" He asked with another step forward, and another, until Sakura was backed up against the wall. Her heart racing and her mind screaming at her danger! Danger!

He approached slowly, then held a hand on the wall blocking the exit and trapping her. His other hand reached up and tenderly traced her jaw line, she couldn't move, couldn't breathe, all she could do was stare memorized by his incredibly blue eye. His powerful aura washed over her, and somehow she knew there was no way for her to fend him off. She was helpless, in her worst dreams she was never helpless. There was always some course of action to take, but something wasn't right here. There was something wrong with this guy.

"Stop." She barely managed to whisper, her throat dry. Maybe if he knew she wasn't like the other girls, she didn't want his attention or affection he would go away, perhaps he had gotten the wrong impression somehow.

Her plea did not help her plight one bit, it urged him on. "You want me to stop, hm?" He leaned in very close to the curve of her neck. She felt his hot breath as he breathed her in, she swallowed her distaste. "I highly doubt you want me to stop."

"No, I really do." She insisted, placing leaden hands on his chest attempting to push away. He let himself be pushed back, shocked to see she was actually shaken by his actions. "You do realize what you are doing is illegal right?" Encouraged by his surprised expression she continued, talking as though he were a small child. "I'm a student, you're a teacher, you can't do this."

He smirked, mockingly. "I can do whatever I want, there are no rules for the likes of me hm. You must come to understand this, Sakura."

Her eyes grew wide with alarm, searching his face for any sort of deceit. For some reason she had no doubt about his claim, not after watching how her classmates cooed and fawned over him. Just who was this guy?

Thankfully there was a knock on the door, Deidara was gone in an instant, faster than her mind could process. He was already leaning back against his desk on the far side of the room. How did he move so quickly? She nearly fell to the floor breathless from their encounter.

"Come in." Sakura ran out of the door as soon as it was open, not even bothering to see who it was that had unwittingly saved her.

She ran until her legs felt as though they could no longer support her. Through those huge shiny hallways, past empty classrooms and the cafeteria. Soon she found herself in the middle of the soccer field by herself. She vomited feeling utterly disgusted with her weakness. How had she not been able to simply move, to knee him, something, anything to get him to back off. It was like she had been paralyzed, not by fear, but by some invisible force. How far would he have gone if there had not been a visitor? She shuddered, still able to feel the way his hand had ghosted the lines of her jaw.

She realized with trepidation she had missed a good chunk of the Martial Arts practice, there wouldn't even be enough time to actually find the Main Gym to sit and watch. She had really been looking forward to seeing how skilled the kids were at this school. Kicking up a patch of field dirt she headed home, still unable to shake the feeling of being watched.