Apartment 7

Neighbors

"Here's your lease papers and your key," The shady looking man says as he hands over the silver piece of metal as well as a manila envelope. Smooth hands accept the cold piece of metal eagerly, fingers exploring the edges and indentations.

"Oh, I guess I should mention that you'll have two roommates, they should be arriving tomorrow." His voice is slightly muffled by the bandana he wears wrapped around his mouth. The bandana itself isn't bad, but in combination with the eye patch, it just screams 'Sketchy: Steer Clear!'.

Sakura smiles to herself. As long as she was out of her dormitory, she didn't care. She clutched the key to her chest and practically skips away from her landlord. She walks towards the parking lot where her white Camry sits and grabs the first of the boxes containing her things.

Big green eyes admire the complex. It was nothing special, a couple of two story brown buildings consisting of breezeways and outdoor stairwells. The only other feature of the complex was a small pool and an old school basketball court with rims that are missing nets. But now it was her apartment complex with her apartment.

She smiles and heads towards the center building, but before she reaches it a white puppy, with brown ears and squinty eyes, confronts her.

"Oh! Well hi there!" She sets down the box and kneels towards the puppy. "Can I pet you?" Sakura slowly lifts her hand up to the dog's nose to let it sniff her. Seeming to like what he smells, the dog leans into her outstretched palm. It happily wags its tail and lets out a small yip when Sakura begins scratching his ears.

"Where's your owner little guy?" After letting out another bark, the puppy jumps into Sakura's chest causing her to tumble backwards to the ground.

"Akamaru!" The puppy jumps off and runs towards a boy with spikey brown hair, walking towards them. "Whoa, are you okay?" the boy says when he spots Sakura sprawled out on the ground. He offers a hand to help her up.

"Thanks, I'm fine." She looks down at her red dress and notices that it now has small, muddy paw prints decorating it.

"I'm really sorry about that, I'll pay for the dry-cleaning and everything."

Now that she's off the ground Sakura gets a good look at the boy. He wears khaki shorts with blue sandals and, despite the hot summer weather, a blue hooded sweatshirt.

"It's totally cool, I love dogs." Sakura says with a charming smile. "I'm Sakura, and I'm guessing you're one of my new neighbors?" Sakura starts to pick up the moving box.

"Kiba." He smiles revealing abnormally pointed canines. "Let me help you with that." Kiba relieves her of the awkward square. "Which apartment are you?"

Sakura grabs the envelope from the ground and opens it. Reading the first paper inside, she replies "Seven."

"Oh, you got number seven?" Kiba asks, his voice hinting that she's missing a valuable piece of information.

"Yeah… why?" The pink haired girl replies apprehensively. She follows the boy as he leads her to the center building.

"Nothing! Just people say that it's haunted." Kiba pauses for dramatic affect. "The tenants of that apartment usually only stay for about a month, two months tops."

"Well you don't have to worry about me leaving anytime soon, that dodgy landlord made me sign a year long contract." Sakura mutters sourly.

"Kakashi? Yeah... he's a weird one." They walk slowly down the breezeway. "One time I caught him talking to his dog."

"That's not that weird." Sakura replies eyeing the puppy that looks like it's trying to trip Kiba up.

"Yeah, except he was debating politics with it. Actually, debating isn't the right word. He was flat out yelling at the dog to agree with his views of genetic engineering."

Sakura lets out a chuckle, but Kiba's face is dead serious.

"I'm thinking he's on drugs, why else cover your face up like that all the time?" he states before stopping in front of the last door on the right. "Well, here's lucky number seven."

Sakura glances at the paint-peeling wood with an off kilter, backwards seven in the center of it.

"Even though it's haunted, it's a good apartment. I mean you have the pool right out here." Sure enough, looking left Sakura sees the small pool where a game of "chicken" is currently taking place. Bikini clad college girls occupy almost all of the surrounding lounge chairs and cheer on the competitors.

"Wow, do all of them go to Konoha University?" Sakura says, not spotting anybody that looks over 25 years old.

"Pretty much, I don't think Kakashi rents to anybody older than him. He's a closet pervert." Kiba shrugs nearly dropping the box.

Sakura blinks away from the pool. "Oh! Sorry, you probably have other things to do. Let me just unlock the door."

"No problem," Sakura pushes the door open and Kiba continues speaking. "I'm actually not doing anything all day. Want me to help you finish carrying all your boxes?"

Sakura is silent as she gets her first look inside her apartment. To the right is a small room with a washer and dryer inside. No Laundromat for me anymore. She thinks happily. Further down the hallway on the right side is an open kitchen with a bar that partly takes over the living room. On the opposite side of the room is a sliding glass door with only a strip of grass in front of the porch before it reaches the parking lot next to the pool. A brown couch, looking a little worse for wear, leans against the wall opposite from a small table with an even smaller TV on top of it.

The living room causes the apartment to have a U shape which then leads to another hallway. On opposite sides of the hallway are two bathrooms. Well that could lead to an awkward situation.

Another door on the right side of the hallway opens up into a little room containing a petite bed (which should really be called a cot). A large window looks out at the parking lot and a tiny bedside table completes the minimum furniture.

There's one final door at the end of the hallway. Sakura walks up to it and jiggles the knob so it opens. It reveals a room is basically the same as the last one except it's a little bigger and has a window seat that looks into the breezeway. Seeing the window seat, she instantly claims this room as her own.

"So do you want me to?" Kiba asks standing back in the living room.

"Want you to what?" Sakura replies, confused.

"Help you carry the rest of your boxes." He repeats.

"Oh! Yeah! That'd be great!"

As the rest of the day went by, the two began to like each other more and more. Sakura finds out that Kiba's studying veterinarian sciences and becomes ecstatic. "I'm pre-med! So it's kinda the same!" She jumps up and down, pink hair flying with her.

"Yeah, sorta." Kiba half-heartedly agrees. "Mind if I put on some music?"

"Not at all," Sakura replies as she sets a box down on the kitchen counter.

Kiba produces an iPod and some portable speakers from his pocket. He assembles them together and soon enough sweet music starts spilling from the speakers.

"Oh my gosh! You like this band too?" Sakura skipps giddily from her spot near the couch, over to where Kiba stands.

"Of course!" Kiba says while taking one of her hands and making her twirl.

The two go on for about an hour: talking, dancing, unpacking, and badly singing along with the words. Akamaru had made himself comfortable on the couch and watched the whole performance.

Once all of the boxes are unpacked the two stand back and admire their work.

"Wow! We make a good team!" Sakura says with a bright smile.

"Yeah we do!" Kiba pauses and nervously ruffles his hair. "So…uh… there's a party at this one girl's apartment tonight. Would you maybe like to go… with me?" He gives a shy smile, but is quick to add, "It'd be a great way to meet more of the people here."

Sakura looks up at the boy and smiles at his shyness. "That sounds like a lot of fun." Kiba's eyes light up when he realizes that she just said 'yes'.

"Really?... I mean… cool…" He quickly regains his composure. "I'll swing by at 8?" He asks as if checking for reassurance.

"8 sounds good." Sakura walks him to the door.

"Okay," Another smile from the brown haired boy. "I'll see ya then!"

Sakura shuts the door behind Kiba and saunters over to the fridge. Opening it up and seeing nothing but empty white shelves, she decides to go to the grocery store. However, when her phone buzzes and "New message from: Dad" is displayed on the screen she knows that the much needed shopping trip will have to wait until tomorrow.

Are you settled? Call me.

Sakura sighs and presses the "Call Contact" button. She had moved out last year in order to start her freshman year of college. However, during the last month of school her mom died, so she moved back home over the summer in order to take care of her father. Realizing that she couldn't stay home and attend her sophomore year classes, her father had insisted she get an apartment close to school. Even though it was his idea, he still didn't like it. Sakura still worries about him a lot – he just lost his wife of 21 years – so she made a promise to herself that she would call him as often as possible.

The phone only gets half of a ring in before she hears the click that signals that her father answered.

"Hi honey. How is everything?" Her dad's voice is cheerful, like always.

"It's good, I just finished unpacking."

"Really? That was fast."

"Yeah, I got help from a neighbor." She says while walking to her newly claimed room.

"You already made a friend? That's great honey!"

"Yeah, his dog kind of ran into me." She lies down on the bed (cot).

"His? Now Sakura, you're in med school. You don't have time for boys." Sakura rolls her eyes at her father's dubious tone.

"It's fine dad, he's just a friend." She glances at the family photo on her bed. "How are you doing?"

"Don't try to change the subject." Her father's tone is stern, but she knows he's not completely serious. He never really was the hard-ass that he claims to be. Sakura can't help but chuckle when she thinks back to how whenever she would doing something mischievous as a child her father would yell as a show for her mother, but then turn around buy her ice cream out of guilt.

Her eyes start to water at the memory of her mother. "Seriously Dad, how are you?"

"I'm holding up," She can almost see the fake smile masking the pain. He had worn it all summer and it worried her more than if he would just flat out cry.

They talk for a little while longer about her classes this semester and how they were going to be more difficult. Eventually she glances at the clock.

"Wow, it's 7:15 already." Sakura states.

"Yeah, I better let you go. You're probably going partying or something." He replies, catching her hint.

"Yeah… partying…" Sakura laughs nervously knowing that her father didn't approve of drinking.

"Sakura..." The serious parental tone was back.

"Bye Daddy! Love you!" Sakura says quickly before hanging up.

Half an hour later, Sakura was putting the final touches on her hair. She was wearing a casual strapless red dress with silver flip-flops. She had curled her long pink locks and pinned her fringe back with a sparkly clip. Sakura had never been one to pile on the make up, but she had used some sage colored eye shadow to accentuate her emerald eyes.

Satisfied with how she looked, she walked towards to kitchen, her pink curls bouncing all the way. She pours herself a glass of water and sits at the table, reading a news article about a drug ring bust.

A couple minutes later, there's a knock on the door. Opting out the need for a purse, she grabs her key ring – now with her new apartment key on it – and heads towards the door. When she opens it, Kiba stands there in a black button up shirt and khakis.

"Wow…uh… you look amazing!" He says with a slight blush.

"Thanks, you look pretty dapper yourself." Lacing her arm through his they walk together through the apartment complex.

"So who's the host of this party?" Sakura asks.

"Her name's Tenten," Kiba states. "She's cool, but she gets really jealous if you go near her boyfriend, Neji." He gives out a small chuckle. "She even yelled at me one time for apparently 'getting too friendly' with him." Sakura laughs at his statement, but Kiba's face sobers. "No, I'm serious. She almost threw a knife at me."

They arrive at a door with the number 13 emblazoned on it. Music blares from within along with the shouts of university students with too much alcohol in their system.

Kiba opens the door and motions for Sakura to enter before him. She steps in the apartment to see multiple young people scattered everywhere; some are dancing, some are hanging around talking, but the majority is crowded around a Ping-Pong table where what appears to be a very intense game of Beer-Pong is taking place.

Kiba gestures to a girl whose blonde hair is tied up into four spikey ponytails. "That's Temari. She's cool, but her brothers are kind of crazy." Kiba leads Sakura over to her.

"Hey Temari, this is Sakura. She just moved into apartment 7." Temari smiles at Sakura, revealing her perfect teeth.

"Apartment 7, huh?" She taps her index finger on her chin. "Isn't that the haunted place?"

"Thanks what I've been told." Sakura lets out a nervous chuckle. "Though Kakashi failed to mention that detail when he told me about it."

Temari lets out a joyful laugh. "Yeah that guy is kind of a sleaze ball. Have you caught a glimpse of his hentai-stash yet?" When Sakura shakes her head Temari continues speaking. "It's massive."

Sakura directs her attention to the Ping-Pong table where a boy with long dark hair and seemingly opaque eyes is tossing a white ball into a red solo cup situated in front of a redhead man who appears to be wearing eye-liner.

"So who's winning?" Kiba asks.

"Neji's been pulling a tough game, but Gaara's in the lead by one cup." Temari adds.

"I don't want to be around when either of them lose." Kiba says with a small shudder.

"Hey! Kiba!" A girl with two buns on the top of her head walks over and gives Kiba a hug.

"Hey Tenten, this is Sakura. She just moved in." Tenten gives Sakura a once over before pulling her into a hug too.

"Hi! Welcome! What's your major?" Tenten asks her speech sluggish under the influence of alcohol.

"I'm pre-med."

"Wow! Really? You must be smart!" Without another word, the tipsy girl skips off to talk to somebody else.

"She seems… nice?" Sakura says earning a laugh from both Temari and Kiba.

"Yeah, that girl can not hold her liquor." Temari says with a slight eye roll. Suddenly, loud cheering erupts from the crowd and the red head irritably stomps away from the table.

"Looks like Neji won." Kiba states.

"I better go get my brother before he causes any problems." Temari says and with a quick 'it was nice to meet you' she runs off after the angry boy.

"Now my youthful friends! Who wants to go against our reigning beer pong champion?" A boy with a bowl haircut stands on the table yelling and throwing punches in the air.

Sakura is going to inquire about the overly enthusiastic college student when Kiba grabs her arm and raises it in the air. "The new girl wants a go!"

Sakura tries to pull her hand out of his grasps and mutter a 'no thank you', but Temari, now on the other side of the room yells. "Yeah! Give the new girl a shot!"

Several others in the room start chanting "New girl! New girl!" when, the boy with the bad hairstyle jumps off the table and lands next to Sakura. "Why, you look so youthful! What's your name, beautiful flower?"

"Sakura." She replies, her face starting to heat up from all of the attention.

"Even your name is youthful!" He exclaims and Sakura could've sworn that she saw his pupils turn into hearts. The boy grabs her hand and leads her to the end of the table where Gaara had been standing earlier.

"Do you know how to play?" The boy, Neji, standing opposite of her asks as he shakes his luscious hair.

"Of course." Sakura says still a little unnerved that she got roped into this.

"Good, so there's no excuse when you lose." He states softly while tossing the Ping-Pong ball up in the air.

"I wouldn't be so sure. I did attend quite a few high school parties." Sakura responds trying to defend her honor.

With a slight scoff he tosses her the ball. "Ladies first."

Sakura grins and gently throws the white orb. She's rewarded with a light plunk, informing her that it had just landed in the front, liquid-filled cup.

Neji frowns and downs its contents. "Beginners luck."

He throws the ball and it smoothly lands in one of her cups. Sakura drinks the warm liquid and takes her turn. The ball hits its target again.

"I already told you," She says as smug as Neji was only moments ago. "I'm not a beginner."

They go for a couple more turns, neither one missing a cup, but both were looking a little bit unsteady on their feet. Eventually, both only have one more cup remaining in front of them.

The crowd from before has gotten larger in the anticipation that Neji might actually get beat. People are yelling and placing bets.

I've got this. Sakura thinks to herself, but the world is tilting an awful lot. She throws the ball and watches as it hits the rim of the cup. Slowly it bounces and hits the opposite side of the cup. The room grows hushed and it seems as if things are moving in slow motion. The ball circles the rim and ends in the beer when a small plop.

Everybody starts cheering as Neji bitterly chugs the drink. Excitement grows as he sets up to throw the ball. People are clapping widely and a drumroll has stared from somewhere within the apartment. The sphere soars through the air and bounces off the rim of the cup and onto the floor.

Everybody goes silent, their eyes bugging out of their heads. Neji angry storms over to where Sakura is standing. Her emerald eyes go big in fear as the intimidating man looks down on her.

He raises a hand and for a moment Sakura can't even move.

Oh my god, he's going to hit me!

His hand comes down and rests on her shoulder. He smirks at her slightly and utters a "Congratulations."

Sakura's vocal cords are frozen as her mind registers that he didn't actually hit her. Neji leans in closer and says quietly, "It will not happen again".

By now the crowd has resumed with their drunken partying and are paying little attention to the Beer-Pongers. Sakura finally finds her voice and is about to contradict Neji's last statement when in a blur of movement something silver lodges itself in the table between where her middle and ring finger were sprawled.

"Back away from my man, bitch!" A furious Tenten runs over and starts drunkenly yelling at Sakura about how Neji was hers. The pearl-eyed boy grabs her waist from behind and pulls her away.

"Don't worry about her, she won't remember any of this tomorrow." Neji states as he carries the intoxicated girl elsewhere.

"Wow, she must have been really drunk, otherwise that knife would have hit your hand." Kiba says as he swings an arm around a slightly shaken Sakura. "Come on, I'm gonna introduce you to more of the residents."

The two hang out at the party for a couple more hours: dancing, drinking, and having a good time. Eventually Kiba asks Sakura if she's ready to go home. She nods and says goodbye to the people around her, most of which had been relaying her Beer-Pong performance back to her.

The pink haired girl and the brown-haired boy both stumble their way across the apartment complex. Reaching her door Sakura fumbles with her keys slightly. "Thanks for inviting me Kiba, I really appreciate it."

Kiba smiles, gives her a hug and steps back. "First day and you've already made yourself a legend. Not too shabby." They say their adieus and Kiba takes his leave.

Sakura walks into the apartment and shuts the door behind her. She slips off her shoes and makes her way to her new room. Changing into some pajamas, she lies in bed and shuts her eyes ready for some much needed sleep.

She looses consciousness for only five minutes before a banging noise jolts her from her sleep. Her eyes snap open and her hands instantly reach for the pepper spray located in her purse. Now armed with the small pink container, the girl opens her bedroom door.

She walks down the small hallway and is horrified when she hears the banging again, this time it's coming from one of the bathrooms. Very cautiously she opens the door and flips on the lights, aiming her pepper spray in the process. After her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness, Sakura is stunned/relieved to see the bathroom empty.

She pulls back the shower curtain only to find more emptiness. Sighing slightly she shuts off the lights and closes the bathroom door. Drinking on my first night alone in a new place probably wasn't the best idea. She makes it two steps towards her bedroom before the shower in the room she had just inspected turns on.

Screaming all the way, a very horrified Sakura runs to her room and slams the door shut behind her. She searches in her purse for her cell phone and punches in the number of the only person nearby.

"Hello?" A very sleepy sounding Kiba answers.

"Kiba! Help me there's a ghost in my apartment!" She's practically in hysterics as she yells into the little pink phone.

"Sakura? Are you okay?" His voice sounds more alert now.

"No! There's a fucking ghost trying to kill me and I'm all alone!" She realizes she's panicking, but her alcohol-riddled brain can't think of any logical solutions.

"Hang on, I'm heading over there now. Stay on the phone." Sakura relaxes slightly before the banging from before is heard again.

Acting like a seven year-old, Sakura ducks under her bed sheets and brings the cellphone even closer to her ear.

"Okay, I'm outside your door, come out here and let me in." Kiba says calmly.

"Are you crazy? I'm not going back in that hallway!"

"What do you want me to do then, bust down the door?" Sakura considers this for a moment before she eyes her window.

"Come around to my window." She says.

"Are you seriously going to crawl out of your window?" He tone sounds belittling, but Sakura couldn't care less.

"Yes that's exactly what I'm going to do." She hears Kiba sigh, but not a minute later he's knocking on the glass. Sakura springs out of her bed and pulls the window open. She eagerly shimmies out of it and lands on the grass ass-first. Akamaru immediately comes forward to lick her nose comfortingly.

"So, I take it you want to crash with me tonight?" Kiba asks helping her to her feet for the second time that day.

"If you wouldn't mind." She looks up at him and smiles.

Five minutes later they enter Kiba's apartment.

"I'll just crash on the couch," Sakura says as she moves to the welcoming piece of furniture.

"No way," Kiba lowers his tone to a whisper. "My roommate's kinda a freak, you can take my room and I'll take the couch." Sakura mutters a thank you and Kiba leads her down a hallway to a slightly messy room that reeks of old pizza.

He sets Sakura up in his bed and turns to leave.

"Thank you!" Sakura calls out as Akamaru jumps up to share the bed with her.

So first night in my own apartment was a failure… oh well, at least I get to meet my roommates tomorrow.

Sakura ponders what the girls will be like as she drifts off to sleep.

A/N: Please review!