A/N: God, chapter 3 took me so LONG to write, and I don't know why. Urgh. I was despairing about it being so short, and it turned out to be longer than any of the others. It figures.

Chapter 3

Finding Tenten turned out to be a rather stupid idea, Sakura admitted about five minutes later. In the confusion of the incident that had just taken place and the fury that still coursed through her, she had forgotten that she still hardly knew her way around the school. Furthermore, she had no idea where Tenten had gone to meet Hinata. Angry at Ino, the world and mostly herself, Sakura wandered the first floor blindly.

These are all classrooms, she noted to herself after a few minutes. Why would Tenten be here? I’m so lost. Caught up in these thoughts, the shock she received when she walked right into someone was immense. She looked up and with a start saw the boy she’d seen sketching at the basketball practice. What was his name again?

“I’m so sorry!” she apologized profusely, mentally kicking herself. What a great way to start off. “I’m new, and I got lost, and I…well, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“I see,” the boy said. He had a most curious look on his face, Sakura noticed—sort of calm and expressionless. When he spoke, it wasn’t exactly cheerfully, but neither was it quite anything else. In his hand he carried the sketchbook and a black pen.

“I’m looking for Tenten, see, and I can’t find her, so I…got lost,” she finished rather lamely.

“Ah,” said the boy, nodding.

“I…guess I’d better go find her,” Sakura said awkwardly. This really wasn’t how she’d like to have anyone’s first impression of her, but it was too late now. “I’m Sakura Haruno,” she added as an afterthought.

The boy smiled a smile most often seen in school pictures—that is, his mouth moved, but his eyes still remained the same calm gaze. “My name is Sai.”

“Uh, see you later,” Sakura said to him and rushed away, face burning with embarrassment. That made twice today she had been involved in collisions. Was this her destiny here at Konoha Academy?

“Hey! Hey, Sakura!” A loud voice broke through Sakura’s thoughts. She looked up to see Tenten sprinting down the hallway with another girl behind her, frantically trying to keep up.

“What are you doing here?” was Tenten’s greeting when she reached Sakura. “I thought you were going to unpack.”

“Ino had other plans,” Sakura replied with a grim smile.

“That Ino.” Tenten shook her head. Then she smiled. “Oh, yeah! This is Hinata Hyuuga.”

“Nice to meet you,” said the other girl softly with a shy smile. She had short black hair and, Sakura noticed, the same milky eyes as the “hot” guy Tenten had pointed out earlier.

“Are you related to—“

“—Neji?” Tenten finished for her. “Yeah, they’re cousins. It’s the eyes, right.”

Sakura nodded. “They’re very…unusual,” she said, hoping not to offend Hinata.

“It’s a mutated gene. We all carry it,” Hinata explained quietly, a slight flush appearing on her cheeks.

“I’m always trying to get her to hook me up with him,” Tenten added with a devilish grin, at which Hinata flushed deeper, mumbling something incoherent.

“It’s okay, Hinata, I know that it wouldn’t make a difference anyway,” said Tenten with a sigh. She turned to Sakura. “It’s almost dinner, want to head to the caf?”

As they went back down the hallway they came across Sai, who was sitting on the ground, idly drawing in his sketchbook. As they neared him he stopped what he was doing and watched them pass by.

“Hey, Sai,” Tenten said as the three girls walked past, and Hinata uttered her own quiet greeting. Sakura gave a nod of acknowledgement and hurried on. She could feel his gaze still resting on them as they headed on their way, and she didn’t like it. It was a relief when they rounded a corner.

“So, why were you guys back there?” Sakura asked Tenten and Hinata as they left the classrooms behind.

“Oh, Hinata needed to get some work from Asuma-sensei so I came along too,” Tenten explained. Hinata blushed. Sakura could already tell that the girl was very shy and did not press further.

Tenten steered them through another hallway to a large, open room. Tables were everywhere, and a few people were scattered around, sitting on benches and idly chatting to each other. Large posters were tacked onto the walls at intervals; the one nearest to Sakura read “EAT HEALTHY OR YOU’LL DIE”. Tenten saw where Sakura was looking and snorted.

“Their idea of scaring us into shape. Come on, let’s get a seat.” Hinata and Sakura followed her to a table by the far wall, where they all took a seat on benches.

Suddenly a loud buzzer rang, causing Sakura to jump. “That’s the dinner bell,” Tenten said knowledgeably. “Everyone should be coming in now.” Sure enough, almost as soon as the words left her mouth about fifty people stampeded into the cafeteria, with more pouring in behind them. Sakura saw a tall girl with four blonde ponytails scope the room, spot Tenten and wave. Then she came over to their table, a girl with long black hair close behind her.

“Wonder what crap they’re giving us tonight, eh, Tenten?” the blonde said with a grimace. Then she noticed Sakura sitting beside Hinata. “Hey, who’s this? A new prisoner?”

“I’m Sakura Haruno,” Sakura spoke up, slightly intimidated by the sight of these newcomers. Suddenly, surrounded by so many people, she was very aware of the fact that she was the only human in the room out of uniform.

“Cool. I’m Temari, and this is Kin,” the girl said, sliding in next to Tenten. Kin said nothing, just sat down with a vague half-smile.

Then a loud voice yelled out. “Hey! Guys! Come get your food!” There was a loud commotion as all 673 students in the cafeteria (who had just finished sitting down) stood up and charged over to where the food was being served. Sakura followed them, feeling a bit dazed.

“What does it look like today, Kiba?” Tenten asked the buy standing next to them in line.

“Akamaru and I’ll check,” the boy said with a grin, poking the small white dog perched on his head. Sakura recognized him as the boy who had pushed Naruto over at the basketball practice.

Kiba and Akamaru sniffed the air for a few seconds while Tenten, Sakura and a few other people watched, most of them expectantly, Sakura curiously. Finally Kiba stopped and looked at them. “Garlic, definitely, and it smells like beef,” he said. Akamaru yapped. “Oh, yeah—and cheese. Looks like it’s Garburcheese day!” Everyone around him groaned, with the exception of Sakura.

“What’s Garburcheese?” she asked, deciding not to wonder about how Kiba could know this by smell and how he could (apparently) understand Akamaru.

“You’ll see,” Kiba said knowingly as the others snickered.

Finally—or perhaps all too soon—after grabbing a tray from a huge, towering stack, Sakura was standing in front of the serving counter. Behind it were two grumpy-looking men wearing hairnets, aprons and rubber gloves.

“Umm, a small serving, please,” said Sakura timidly to one of them, holding out her tray.

“Look, kid, here you take what you get,” the man replied. The plastic fork he was gripping between his teeth waved up and down as he talked. “HI, MY NAME IS GENMA!” the nametag around his neck proclaimed cheerfully.

“Yep,” said the other man with somewhat of a laugh. Happy face stickers bordered the exuberant “HI, MY NAME IS RAIDOU!” printed on his nametag. “Now here’s your Garburcheese,” Raidou said, loading two dark brown lumps onto a paper plate and shoving it in her direction.

“But—“

“Just take the frickin’ food!”

Slightly taken aback, Sakura accepted the plate and, trying to keep the disgust from her face, set it on her tray. She took a carton of milk from the large heap sitting on a table. Then she went over to the table where Tenten, Hinata, Temari and Kin were already sitting.

“Yeah, I forgot to say, there’s pretty much only one choice here,” Tenten said apologetically.

“It’s okay,” Sakura replied. She gingerly poked one of the odd hard shapes with the end of her finger. “Um, what are these…?”

“Garburcheese,” Temari answered promptly. “That’s a hamburger with grilled cheese made on garlic bread.”

“Genma and Raidou are always…experimenting,” Tenten told Sakura.

“Just be glad it’s not Spaghettiloaf day!” Temari laughed.

“You get used to it,” Hinata assured Sakura quietly.

“…thanks,” Sakura said with a grimace. She picked up a Garburcheese, studied it a moment, then set it down again. Lying to herself it was too hot to possibly try to eat, she looked around the cafeteria. In the center was a table with all the boys from the basketball team sitting around it, talking loudly and laughing. Nearby were Ino and all the girls from S.A.S.U.K.E.L.I.S.P., talking seriously. Sakura could see Sai sitting at a table by himself, ignoring his food as he frantically drew something in his book. She also noticed another boy sitting at a corner table on his own. But something seemed weird about it.

She poked Tenten and pointed. “Who’s that?”

Tenten looked. “That’s Shino.”

“Why is his table black?”

“It’s not. Those are bugs.”

With shock Sakura realized that indeed the table was swarming with black bugs of all shapes and sizes. “What are they doing?” she asked in horror.

“He feeds them, I guess,” Temari answered with a shrug.

“…oh,” Sakura replied, disconcerted. She scanned the cafeteria once more, the Garburcheese lying forgotten on her plate. Her eyes rested again on the table of the basketball team. Naruto, Kiba, Kankurou…someone was missing.

“Where’s Sasuke?” she blurted out.

“Sasuke?” Tenten repeated.

“Sasuke Uchiha?” Temari added.

Tenten began to giggle. “Oh, God, Sakura, don’t tell me you’re on of them!”

“One of who?” Sakura asked, perplexed.

“Like Ino and her precious Sasuke Lisp—oh, excuse me, I mean S.A.S.U.K.E.L.I.S.P.,” Temari said, imitating Ino in a rather nasal way.

“I don’t get it, what’s wrong with Sasuke?” Sakura said, feeling even more confused and, in spite of herself, a bit hurt.

Temari and Tenten snorted. “Nothing, just that practically every girl in school is in love with him—“

“—his sexy hair—“

“—his gorgeous eyes—“

“—but no, he won’t have any of them—“

“—which makes him all the more, you know, wanted—“

Sakura half-listened to this exchange, caught between wanting to speak out indignantly and wishing they would just forget the whole thing. Instead she stared blankly at the poster on the wall by their table. “IF YOU EAT LOTS OF SUGAR YOUR TEETH WILL TURN TO BOOGERS” the letters shouted out. Underneath them was a rather gruesome picture of a mouth being attacked by little green gremlins.

Four or five minutes later, Tenten and Temari finished their session of bashing Sasuke Uchiha, all girls who liked him and virtually anything and everything associated with him. Hinata was picking at her Garburcheese and listening to the conversation with a somewhat worried expression; Kin just ate her food with a stony face.

“Aren’t you going to eat your food?” Tenten questioned Sakura.

Sakura looked down at her two cold, untouched Garburcheese. “I’m not hungry,” she said indistinctly. It was true to some extent; a number of things in the last while had caused her to lose her appetite.

“Oh, and to answer your question, Sakura,” Temari said, “Sasuke doesn’t live at the school. He lives with his brother.” She took a swig of her milk.

“Oh,” Sakura replied, now ready to drop the subject of Sasuke. She took one more peek at the Garburcheese, which was now soaking in its own grease. Well, now she definitely had no appetite. Abruptly she stood up.

“Where are you going?” Hinata asked, clearly confused. Tenten and Temari looked at Sakura inquiringly. Kin stared off into space.

“Oh, well, since I’m not hungry I figured I might as well, you know, go unpack and all that stuff, so, um, I’ll see you guys later,” Sakura answered rather quickly. Before they could respond she grabbed her tray, dumped the paper plate (now completely brown with grime) into a garbage can, added her tray to the now-diminutive stack and rushed out of the cafeteria. In a few minutes she was back in her room.

“I guess I might as well unpack now that I’m here,” she said aloud, her voice echoing in the empty space left by Ino’s cronies. She shivered. In the dark, rainy January evening, the small room was left dim and cold.

She unpacked systematically, placing socks and underwear and pyjamas in the small bureau by her bed. With distaste she realized Ino had claimed some of the drawers as her own when she’d had the room to herself. Sakura promptly took the items that occupied these drawers and dumped them in a pile on Ino’s pillow. She hung up her stiff, unworn uniform in the closet, unconsciously making sure they were not blocking the poster of Sasuke’s face. Then she found a small framed photo of her and her parents.

Do I really want to remember every day why I’m stuck here? she thought, studying the photo. It had been taken at their house about a month ago, during winter holidays. “Whatever,” she replied to herself, and stuck the photo on the bureau.

The rest of her belongings didn’t take long to put away. A hair brush. A couple of books. The few clothes she could wear off-campus. Unpacking finished, Sakura flopped onto her bed and kicked at a couple of candy wrappers, remainders from Ino’s club meeting.

I suppose I’ll brush my teeth, Sakura thought, realizing she really didn’t feel like seeing anyone. So she took her toothbrush and toothpaste from home and set out for the washroom at the end of the hall. She brushed her teeth, washed her face and inspected the showers, which were large and, thankfully, quite private.

Sakura headed back down the hallway, deciding it wouldn’t hurt to actually go to bed really early for once. She didn’t know what else she could do; besides, some alone time might do her good. She had just decided this when she unexpectedly spotted an odd black shape slumped against the corridor wall and gave a yelp. As she got closer she realized who it was.

“Sai! What are you doing here?” she half-gasped, half-yelled, heart still beating quickly.

He looked up at her, hand still moving the pen on the paper of the sketchbook. “I’m sitting against the wall,” he answered her.

“I know, but—why?” Sakura asked, flustered at finding a guy—this guy, for that matter—in the girls’ hallway.

Sai stood up without saying anything and turned to walk to the stairs. Then he stopped and pivoted. “You have pink hair,” he remarked, and walked away, sketchbook tucked under his arm.

Sakura stared after him, not quite sure what to think. Shaking her head, she went back to her room.

Hehe, looking forward to writing chapter 4...classes...TEACHERS...muahaha. XD Review, s'il vous plait. (That means please, I'm randomly lapsing into French...)