A/N: Fixed up and ready! I have changed the timeline somewhat, so for a little while it might not line up with the rest of the story. Just bear with me, please. I'll try to fix it as soon as I can.

17 years from present day

11 years from the day life went on

[Teacher POV]

Papers shuffling, waiting, waiting. First day of school. First year as full fledged teacher. Kindergarten!

I walked around the room again, giving it a final look over as the early bell rang. Everything was perfect: the tables had four name tags a piece, each with a brightly coloured chair and a little storage block for school supplies.

And then, a mother with a little girl with short pink hair came in, the girl clinging to her mother and not intending to let go. I walk over to them, plastering a welcoming smile on my face.

"Hi! I'm Miss Arika, what's your name?"

After the initial reaction of staring at me in a horrified manner (the girl) and a desperate pleading look (the mother), I decided to take a different approach.

I knelt down towards the girl, and shone the full blast of my smile at her. Then I held out my hand and asked, "You seem like the type of girl who likes to colour. Do you want to come see all our paints and crayons?" I had jumped out on a limb here, praying, but it seemed to work. She nodded, and slowly detached one of her small hands from her mother's skirt. I held out my hand to her, while telling her a bit more about all the different colours and brushes, and big papers we had.

Still detaching herself slowly but surely, the little girl glanced up at her mother, who smiled a very relieved smile back to her.

"Why don't you tell the nice lady your name, sweetie, so you can go have some fun while Mommy goes to work."

Typical. The stereotypical mother taking to her daughter. But hey, it worked.

Her voice was quiet, but I easily heard a 'Sakura'. I stood up with the girls hand and walked back to the table with her name on it. We deposited the tiny pink schoolbag, then we meandered over to the back shelves, home of art supplies, board games, and blocks.

Sakura's mother smiled at me when she slipped through the door, I noticed out of the corner of my eye. I also noticed the next child come in. I slipped away, letting Sakura do what she would for a couple of minutes, and walked to the door.

A little boy with dark glasses stood before me, a good distance away from his father, who was backing away and turning. I introduced myself, but he didn't give me a chance to say much more than that. He just stated, "My name is Aburame Shino. I like bugs." Simple, blunt. I like this kid. I could tell he was quiet, but he had personality. He went off and did his own thing once I had shown him his spot. In particular I saw him looking with great interest at the butterfly posters I had on the wall.

This repeated several more times (ten, to be precise), one of the most notable being the brown haired boy with red triangle on his cheeks, and a puppy sitting on his head. He boisterously pronounced himself to be 'Kiba & Akamaru', pointing to the absolutely adorable puppy on the latter. He sat with the dog for a couple minutes before going to talk with some other children. I could see he immediately attached to Shino.

There were also two cousins, named Neji (shoulder length dark hair, taller than his cousin) & Hinata (very short navy blue hair, very shy). They were rich, as they came in with bodyguards (who were reluctant to leave their charges, but they did after some 'coaxing'). Immediately, I noticed their eyes, which were a very light lavender colour, and pupil-less. It was odd.

Figuring it must have been a family trait, I continued, and soon discovered that Neji was rather protective of Hinata. He was also very... emotionless. And he kind of scared me.

Hinata, on the other hand, was extremely shy, but a truly sweet girl. I introduced Hinata to Sakura, figuring that would work well. Neji I left to his own devices. He was smart, and was soon working on a logic problem at his table.

Within 15 or 20 minutes, the whole class was here. I could see some groups already forming, like the little spiky blond boy called Naruto and his obvious animosity yet gravitation towards a smug black haired boy named Sasuke, who had the same tendency.

There was also a trio that had arrived together, (family friends, I guessed) consisting of a chubby little boy with swirls on his cheeks called Chouji, a sleepy boy with pineapple hair like Sasuke's named Shikamaru, and a little blond named Ino.

2 things were painfully obvious about Ino, right from the get go.

1: She was talkative, and
2: She considered her friends boring, as she was already gravitating towards Sakura, Hinata, and a brown haired girl with 2 little buns on her head named Tenten. They lumped, as the only girls in the class, and it was obvious that it was the start of a good friendship.

The final boy in the class was a black haired, bowl-cut sporting ball of energy. He was named Lee, and he was friendly to everyone.

Not everyone was friendly to him though. Exhibit A: he tried to talk to Neji. Neji looked him up and down, and proceeded to give him a verbal beating. A very mean one, at that.

Standing up, I immediately started to walk over there, as that is the teachers responsibility, ne?

But Tenten beat me to it. She looked at Lee, who had quivering lips and humongous eyes. She then looked back at Neji, sitting there stoically. I guess she saw something she didn't like, because she proceeded to jump on Neji. Pushing him off the chair, Tenten gave him a physical talking to equal his own that Lee was on the unfortunate receiving end of. I ran over, in my 2 inch heels and skirt, and tried to pull the fierce little panda off the stunned other one. She would not come though. It took Lee, who was watching the scene looking completely baffled, to make her let up.

By mumbling out through tears "Tenten, you don't have to be so physical...," then sniffling.

Tenten stopped and sagged in my arms. Thinking she was done, I started to pull her up, but was proved wrong when she gave Neji one last punch straight at the nose. Then, and only then, did she let me pick her up and carry her away to the other side of the classroom where she sat in a corner.

Don't think Neji got off easy though. After his nosebleed was cleaned up, he went straight to the opposite corner. They glared at each other from across the classroom.

Ah, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Sarcasm.

Lee, Sakura, & Ino immediately went to sit with Tenten. Hinata went to Neji's table, got the puzzle he was working on, and brought it to him. She stood there for a moment, talking to him in her trademark shy stutters, then went to sit with her other friends. What a sweetheart! All of the others simply looked on, before continuing with what they were doing previously. Sasuke & Naruto were fighting quietly and relatively nicely, Shikamaru & Chouji were sitting in companionable silence, with Shika napping & Chouji munching. Kiba & Shino were locked in a quiet, elementary debate about which was better, bugs or dogs, with Akamaru looking between the two and woofing every once in a while. Very sweet.

Right then, the start of school bell rang. The class filed into their seats, and looked up at me expectantly. This was, after all, the first day of school. It was then I noticed that somehow, all the groups ended up next to each other. Including Neji & Tenten AND Lee. Great. Might have to change that. Well, for certain, it was an interesting class, and I was in for an interesting first year.

Return to