Oh boy, it's been a while since I've written a chapter story! This was originally intended as a one-shot

that I'd upload when I was done. However, Miss Jade had me keep adding

and adding until it was a full blown story. I can't complain though, it was fun to write! We'll have to see

how long it takes me to finish this one and don't laugh at my crappy title

please! Thank you and enjoy! (And review, God Damnitt!)

P.S. Sorry for any mistakes, I'm my own editor and have very little patience!

The Thin Line

Chapter 1:

"Ino, are you really going like that?" Her mother circled her with a look of slight disdain on her face.

"Are you aloud to do that to your uniform? I mean… Isn't it inappropriate?"

Ino pulled her navy blue school skirt down slightly, hopefully enough to get her mother off her black. All though what she was being nagged about was the black halter-vest over her white school shirt, with its long sleeves rolled up near her shoulders, her cross tie undone, and her sleek, black thigh highs currently adorned her legs. Her black Mary Janes completed the look.

"Don't worry, mom, it's a rich kid school, so long as we pay the tuition they don't mind. Besides, I'm still technically wearing the uniform. Anyways, I gotta go! It's a twenty minute walk and school starts in half an hour!"

Ino hurriedly picked her book bag up and threw it over her right shoulder.

"See you after school!" She ran out the door, slightly excited to start a new school as a junior.

"Don't forget the cram school forms!" her mother yelled down their shrub surrounded walk way after her daughter.

"'Kay, Mom!" Ino yelled back and slowed to a walk as soon as she knew she was out of ear-shot of her mother. She scratched at the fancy crest on her shoulder, slightly hidden by her rolled up sleeve.

Who puts the crest on the sleeve? She thought. But the thought was soon drowned out by the sound of a motorcycle making its way up the street behind her. She caught sight of it as it sped beside her and instantly noticed the slightly hidden crest on the driver's right shoulder; it was the same as hers.

Wow, I didn't know anyone in high school drove… I wonder if I'll ever meet that guy…? Hmm, probably not!

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The school looked like any other school in Japan, except the campus was larger, looked much newer and as soon as you walked in everything seemed much brighter instead of dimmer. Ino took a deep breath and made her way inside. The halls were somewhat populated, students walking up and down. Ino stopped at the entrance and looked at the small cubbies, each with either a pair of shoes or slippers in them. She read the names below each one, not sure if she had one or not, until a woman, appearing to be in her mid thirties, came up to her.

"Good morning, how may I help you?" The woman had shoulder length, black, wavy hair and deep crimson eyes.

"Umm, my name is Ino Yamanaka; I'm supposed to be starting school here today?" She shifted nervously.

"Ahh, you're the one they said was coming a month late. You're a junior, aren't you?" Ino nodded. "Then you'll be in building C. I'll escort you there, it's a big campus, you might get lost."

"Thank you very much!" Ino bowed her head slightly to the woman who began exchanging her gray slippers for her shoes. They exited and began walking down a small sidewalk.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Kurenai Yuhi. I'm the girls P.E. teacher. So, are you excited to start school here?"

"Oh, I am! I always liked moving to new places and trying new things…"

"Well, this is definitely going to be a good experience. Ah, we're here!"

They came upon a building identical to the other two they'd passed, the only differences being this one was much larger.

"This building is for all the juniors and seniors. I believe you already have a cubby and slippers prepared for you."

They searched through the cubby holes until they found Yamanaka, Ino in bold, black letters near the bottom. Ino exchanged her Mary Janes for the purple slippers in the cubby and silently pondered the reason for wearing the heels in the first place. Kurenai quickly explained the directions to the building's main office so she can find out where and what her classes were and who her teachers were.

Ino made her way to the main office and a man named Iruka Umino quickly lead her to her classroom, #4 which was on the third of five floors in the building. Iruka knocked on the door to the classroom, which was opened by a man in a dark polo shirt and slacks. His hair was spiked up and he was angrily chewing gum.

"Good Morning, Sarutobi-Sensei, this is-"

"Ino Yamanaka… Wow, she really is blonde. Come on in, you're lucky we always start class late."

With that Iruka left and Ino stepped into the classroom. She looked around to find the students were similar to that of her last school. There were obvious groups of preps, Goths, jocks and so on. Some girls dressed strictly in their uniform, some changed theirs up like Ino had and some simply looked like sluts. The guys seemed to enjoy altering their uniforms too, keeping their shirts un-tucked and rolling their sleeves up to reveal their arms. The only difference between this crowd and the one at her previous school was that they all looked a great deal better as well as a great deal richer. Diamond bracelets and gold chains everywhere, Ino felt incredibly under-blinged. Sarutobi-Sensei grabbed a meter stick and banged it on his desk, causing nearly everyone to jump and quiet down immediately.

"Get in your seats, we're starting class now! And this-" he jerked the meter stick in Ino's direction, "is our new student. Go ahead and introduce yourself," the man sat in the chair behind his large desk and relaxed the meter stick on its top. Ino bowed slightly.

"My name's Ino Yamanaka, it's nice to meet you all."

The female population of the class followed the leaders of their cliques and gave lazy hi's and waves while majority of the male population took the introduction as an excuse to eye Ino, most of their eyes lingering on her legs and chest.

"All right, put your eyes back in your heads before you get a stand," Sarutobi-Sensei stated, noticing where they boys' attention was. "Ino, why don't you take a seat near… let's try and find a good apple… Hinata! Raise your hand."

A pale hand wearing a large, baby blue ring on the ring finger slowly went into the air. It belonged to a girl with shoulder length, navy blue hair and pale, lilac eyes sitting next to a window. Ino travelled a few rows back to sit next to the girl. She gave a weak smile.

"Hi, my name is Hinata Hyuuga; it's nice to meet you Ino."

Ino smiled back and the class began.

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"All right, class, that's enough of the exciting world of chemistry for today! Tomorrow we have a lab so meet me on the 2nd floor in room five! And remember to bring your brains, you're gonna need 'em! Got it?"

"Yes, Gai-Sensei!" the class responded with mock enthusiasm to their overly-hyped Chemistry teacher. When the man finally left the room everyone seemed to release a relived sigh, it was lunch time! They'd endured History, Calculus and Chemistry and the class had earned their break. Hinata put away the Chemistry book she had shared with Ino.

"Thanks again for sharing, Hinata, I'll try and get my books after school."

"It was no problem, especially since he thought I was explaining everything you missed, he didn't bother asking me any questions!" Hinata gave a small, warm smile before she was patted roughly on the back.

"Hey, Hina, wanna go on the roof to have lunch?"

Ino looked behind Hinata and found a pink haired girl. Her cross tie, like Ino's, was undone as well as the first couple buttons on her shirt, revealing a bit too much for school. Her skirt was obviously rolled up and she wore black thigh highs with white stripes at the top. She noticed Ino and waved at her.

"Hey, new girl, you can come too. I'm Sakura." Ino gave her a, slightly fake, smile.

"Nice to meet you. How long's lunch?"

"An hour and fifteen so get your lunch and let's get to the roof!"

"Whoa, that long? And you don't have to have lunch in class?"

"Duh, now come on, let's go! Everyone's waiting!"

The girls quickly grabbed their lunches and Ino found herself being pulled by Hinata, who was being pulled by Sakura, up three flights of stairs to the roof. The sun was shining bright and they settled behind a large generator of some sort. The shaded area was already occupied by a small group of teens. Ino sat leaning on the wall shielding the generator and was introduced to everyone by the, annoyingly perky, pink-haired girl.

"Hey, you guys, this is Ino, she's a new girl. Ino, this is Ten-Ten, Kiba, Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Sai, Lee and Neji-"

"That's Hyuuga-Senpai to you, child." Sakura rolled her eyes at the senior.

"What ever. Hey, Ino, I just have to ask, are you a natural blonde?" Ino paused in mid-bite of her sandwich and slightly raised an eyebrow.

"Well, yea, I am…"

"Seriously? That's can't be natural, it's so... blonde!"

"Shut up, Sakura, you claim yours in natural, ya pink-haired freak!"

"Shut up, Kiba!"

"Oh my God…"

"What, Ten-Ten?"

"Look who's coming up the stairs!"

All heads turned to the roof's entrance to find a very small group of guys making their way through the door. They crossed the roof and sat on the other side, shaded by the wall of another generator.

"Oh my God…" Sakura sighed, "I didn't know they'd be out here! If I did I'd be coming up every day."

"That makes two of us," Ten-Ten agreed.

"What are you guys talking about?" Ino asked, finally tired of being left COMPLETELY out of the loop. Hinata scooted closer to Ino, deciding to explain why suddenly everyone's attention has shifted to the new five boys on the roof.

"You see, those five are the most popular guys in the school, period. They're all seniors. The one with the weird tattoos on his neck and spiky hair's name is Kisame Hoshigaki, champion swimmer. No one's been able to beat him since elementary school. The blonde with the bang is Diedara, he's an artist. He spray paints a wall of every school he goes to. He's done two walls here. And, you see how he keeps his hands together like that? And how he's always moving his fingers? He's molding clay, I think it's some sort of therapy for him. The one with the red hair is Sasori, he's supposed to be a genius, and he probably is. The white-haired guy is Hidan, and he's… Well, people call him… a "slut". He has sex with any and every girl he can get… He got kicked out of his last school for sleeping with the principal's daughter…-"

"But what's so bad about that?" Ino interrupted Hinata, "that's not a reason to kick him out of school…"

"They did it in his office…" Hinata blushed slightly and Ino's eyes grew wide.

"Oh, well… wow."

"Yup," Hinata said, then continued her introduction of the boys.

"The last one, with the long black hair, is Itachi Uchiha. He's the leader, practically every girl in the school wants him but he's never had a girlfriend… Well, an actual girlfriend. They say he has flings and stuff but he never claims a girlfriend. He doesn't seem to care…"

"You guys are talking about Itachi!" Sakura entered the conversation. Ino and Hinata both nodded.

Sakura stood up abruptly, "I'm gonna go talk to him! He and I are friends you know," she winked at the two girls and strolled over to where Itachi and his gang were sitting.

"Well, this should be entertaining," Shino muttered and Ino couldn't help but stare at him for a moment.

I didn't know he could speak… The boy wore dark, round sunglasses over his eyes and a jacket with both it and his shirt collar pulled up. Whether or not he was hot in that jacket Ino could not tell for the life of her.

Everyone watched as Sakura stood in front of the group of boys and put her hands on her hips.

"Hey, Itachi, how's it going?" Said boy was wearing his school uniform with the sleeves rolled up and his shirt un-tucked, the top few buttons undone to show off some of his tanned, muscular chest.

"It's Uchiha-Senpai to you, Kohai," Sasori spat at her, already annoyed by the pink-haired girl's presence. His shirt was also un-tucked, only the top button of his shirt undone.

"Wow, Sasori, aren't we-"

"Sasori-SENPAI, you twit."

Sakura rolled her eyes, "-sour today."

Sasori rolled his eyes as well and Itachi gave Sakura a slight wave, looking at his cell phone instead of her face.

"Yo."

"So, what do you have planned for-"

"Umm, Sakura?" The pink-haired girl turned around to see Ino scratching the back of her head.

"What?"

"Uhh, well, I thought you should know… Everyone's splitting your lunch!"

"What?"

Sakura looked past Ino to see everyone, except Hinata, picking happily through her red, flower covered bento box.

"Hey! You bitches get away from my lunch!" Sakura pushed past Ino completely and sprinted over to fight off the hungry teenagers from her meal. Ino giggled to herself.

"Good thing I already got what I wanted!" She turned around to find the group of boys looking at her. Itachi leaned forward a bit, pulling his spread knees up and resting his elbows on his them, relaxing his arms.

"You're new." It was more of a statement then a question. Ino nodded.

"Hmph," Itachi leaned back, the sound was more of a confirmation of her confirmation. Hidan snickered as Itachi laid his head back against the wall, closing his eyes and releasing a deep sigh. As Itachi exposed more of his neck Ino noticed he was wearing a necklace. It was thin and silver with a silver pendant that looked like a swirled cross, she'd never seen anything like it. Ino leaned down and eased her fingers under the pendant and slid her thumb over it.

"Wow, this is really pretty…" It glimmered as a ray of sunlight slid out from behind a cloud and hit it just right. Ino smiled, "where'd you… get… this…?"

Ino noticed all the boys staring intently at her, as well as Itachi, whose face shown a bit of amusement, but not the normal kind. The type of arrogant amusement that some guys experienced, like they were better than everyone else. Itachi showed a hint of a smirk and was suddenly a breath away from her face.

"That's a good question. Look it up."

After those words that tiny bit of emotion, that small, cocky smirk was gone and his face was as emotionless and aloof as ever. He laid his head back on the wall and closed his eyes.

Ino's face had turned completely red before she could even feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. She stood up straight and walked, briskly, back to her group as Hidan, Diedara and Kisame began laughing for, seemingly, no reason. Only they, and Sasori, knew that the only thing that gave Itachi any emotion at all was unnerving girls like Ino.

Ino returned to her seat next to Hinata and was asked several questions like "what did he say?" "What did he do?" and, of course, "Why are you blushing so much?"

Ino couldn't bring herself to give any of them a straight answer. The image of Itachi's face just a breath away from hers was burned into the backs of her eyes as well as her mind. Every time she closed her eyes it was all she saw and she couldn't help but hope that he would have leaned in for a kiss…

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"Good morning, my young minds! Is everyone ready to explore the exciting world of Chemistry?"

And, once again, "yeas" and "woots" filled with mock enthusiasm echoed through the room, just as they did every Chemistry class.

"Good! Well, first off everyone make two single file lines, one for lab coats and another for goggles! Then I'll assign lab partners and tell you what incredible side of Chemistry we will be exploring today!"

Everyone did as they were told, getting into single file lines and getting their coats and goggles. When everyone was equipped and ready Gai-Sensei did exactly what he said he would, he paired everyone up. Of course, being a teacher, Gai-Sensei found extreme delight in pairing up people who don't talk to each other, people who didn't know the other existed and polar opposites. And, of course, he used the excuse "in life you'll be paired with people you don't know or like and will be expected to do your job just as well!" No matter how different a student was from their partner both also would take extreme delight in telling the other what a load of bull shit that was. Ino did the same thing with her partner, Gaara.

She'd never seen Gaara in the class before so being paired with him was a surprise on both ends. She didn't mind though, Gaara was beyond sexy. He had his short red hair in the messy but hot style and a tattoo on the left side of his forehead; a character that meant Love, or a love for death. With the vibrant hair and pale, blue eyes he was a complete knock out.

"So, my children, time to start our experiment for the day! You'll be testing the chemical reactions of 3 different metals in water! The notepads at your station are for recording your observations. Use your tweezers and drop first into the water Group 1, Lithium. When that observation is finished then do Group 1, Sodium and Group 1, Calcium! Do NOT touch ANY of the other elements at your station. Now, begin!"

"Want to do the first one?" Gaara asked and Ino nodded, taking the small sample of metal and dropping it into the beaker of water.

"Wow, it's steaming and sizzling…"

Gaara quickly picked up the notepad, drew a graph and wrote the information down. Soon they dropped the second sample in and then the third. The most they saw was steam and bubbles throughout their observations and only a couple minutes later they were standing at their station bored out of their minds. Ino found herself staring at the red head; even in the lab gear he was still hot. Gaara soon caught her staring and she blushed.

"Enjoying the view?" Gaara asked, standing up straight to stretch his back. Ino smiled slightly.

"Yes I am, doesn't mean you can get cocky about it."

Gaara chuckled. He leaned over and placed his elbows on the counter, massaging his temples.

"Why does everyone take so long to do this? I'm dying here…"

Ino glanced at the several other samples at the table and quickly got an idea.

"Let's try something else."

Gaara looked at her and raised a crimson eyebrow, but, nonetheless, stood up straight once more. Ino smirked and looked closer at the several elements on the lab table, "let's try stuff from group 2." Gaara nodded and selected Barium. They dropped the metal in and were quickly disappointed when absolutely nothing happen. Then Gaara randomly selected another sample, Radium from Group 2. They waited for a reaction and were, once again, disappointed. Ino looked at the elements.

"Have you just been choosing from group 2?" Ino asked. Gaara nodded and she smiled.

"Let's try something else then!" She smirked and picked up an element from group 1, Potassium. The pair looked at the metal and dropped it in the tank. Sparks immediately began flying and they felt something tug on the backs of their lab coats. They were quickly pulled to the ground as the small piece of metal violently erupted into an array of sparks and smoke. The teens, now on the ground, began laughing.

"Was that Potassium?" Gai-Sensei asked, hauling the two off the ground, again by the backs of their lab coats.

"Yea," Ino answered between small giggles. Gai-Sensei sighed heavily.

"Thank Heaven! I thought you guys used Cesium!"

The two's laughing quickly calmed and they looked at their teacher, "what would have happened if we used that?" Ino asked.

Suddenly the sound of an explosion filled the room as well as a thud on the floor. Everyone looked to the back of the room to see smoke, a busted beaker, and a boy with bright blue eyes and spiky blonde hair slowly rise from the floor. He grinned nervously and rubbed the back of his head.

"Oops."

"I'm guessing THAT would've happened."

"NARUTO!"

TBC

Author's Notes: You know, this was supposed to be my first ever one-shot and it's being uploaded long after 2 previous one-shots, funny, huh? I've been working on this for a long time and looove to procrastinate! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and stay tuned for the second one! Read and Review for me! Plus, for once the Lemon will not come immediately so be patient, you'll get some! =P

SEE YOU NEXT TIME!