Transitions (A Naruto High School Story)

Chapter 1: Sakura

A/N I've had a story in the works for awhile now that I keep adding to and rewriting, so while I organize it into something publishable, I've decided to write this to fill time. It will have quick but short updates. Also, just a heads up, who is a student and who is a teacher/faculty member/adult is completely random! For example, all of the Akatsuki are students except Kakuzu, and the Jonin (Kakashi/Gai/Asuma/Kurenai etc) are in school at the same time as the rookies. I hope you enjoy :3

Once again the heat of summer had cooled to a breezy fall. The first leaves changed color around the parkway as Sakura gazed out the passenger seat window. This fall would be different. This was her first year of high school.

All her middle school teachers had talked high school up. "In high school your teachers will expect" fill in the blank, "in high school you will have to" blah blah blah. There will be more and more difficult classes. Hours of homework each night. Reistration for college.

Sakura pushed those warnings to the back of her mind. All she could think about was what she had observed.

For one, everything was massive. The school was divided into two buildings, one for academics and the other for arts and athletics. The school possessed multiple fields and a track, and a gentle slope led down to a river that the crew team used for practice. Crew team... If she wasn't so invested in lacrosse, Sakura would try out. The people she met from that club at the open house seemed wonderful.

The main school building was far more vertical than she was used to; stairs ascending to a fifth floor as opposed to her middle school's measly two. More space for the fields, she figured. The challenge of climbing stairs all day long didn't scare her much, but the fear of finding herself in unfamiliar hals did haunt the back of her mind.

Third of all, she didn't know how much of her classes would be her classmates from middle school and how many would be new. She felt apprehension at both options: if all her peers were new, would she be able to make friends? And if they were all her old peers, she would just be dealing with the same people as usual, but she may be forced to watch as they all changed and grew apart. It may be better to leave them ain the past, she thought. She will have already ripped the bandage off.

Sakura had found something out about herself during the summer. She learned the phrase compulsive heterosexuality, and in a startling few days, realized her whole life she had been compulsively heterosexual. Until then she had thought the way she felt when Ino leaned in close to apply her makeup, or when Hinata slept peacefully next to her during their first sleepover together, or when Tenten squeezed her shoulder and smiled at her after a hard game, were different and much better than anything she ever felt for Sasuke, or any other man for that matter.

Their car pulled up around the drop off. Sakura climbed out and so did her mother, to take a photo of her in her uniform and backpack in front of the school's boundless opulence. When they finally left Sakura stepped back to wait for Ino.

She made use of her extra time taking in her surroundings. Two trees flanked the main entrance, turning colors from top to bottom in a beautiful display. Hedges and some kind of ground cover plant grew in raised beds with rims a few students used as seats, no doubt in a similar situation to herself. A sandwich board stood at the bottom of the stairs, reading "Look for THIS" with a drawing of a stylized drawing of a red cloud "for directions!" In case there was any confusion as to what that meant, two students wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the cloud stood at the top of the stairs loudly announcing they would help people find their classes. Sakura appreciated the thought from the imposing school.

Right when it started becoming uncomfortable to stand around and people-watch, Ino rounded the corner. She looked as lovely as ever. They embraced in a flurry of squeals and how-are-yous.