At Dawn (A Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 1

I stood up, grabbing my backpack that had been sitting beside me. I often wonder how one minute I could be thinking about school and the next colored hair. After opening the door I slid in to the passenger seat. I relaxed back into the worn leather seat as we drove down the paved streets. On the edges the few trees that there were had leaves that were turning gold. I glanced over at Kami. Though her face was neutral she was griping the steering wheel for dear life. It was weird to see Kami so paranoid cause she was a very calm, level-headed person. But here she was jumping ever so slightly every time a car pulled up to an intersection. Her orange painted nails digging into her palms. For the first time I noticed a ring on her middle finger. It had a white gem and a symbol carved into it. I wonder where she got that.

~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~

We pulled up before a reasonably large one story brick building. Outside stood a sign with the word Dawn painted on it in red. A large crowed of students stood on the cement out front. Milling around chatting and calling out to each other. Slinging one of my backpack straps over my shoulder, I stepped out of the car.

"See you in class." Kami seemed more relaxed now that we were at the school. "Don't expect any special privileges just because you know me." As soon as I closed the door she drove off to some teacher parking area or something.

I turned to the building feeling slightly nervous. What do I do now? I asked myself. I looked around for something to do. I spotted a stretch of grassy lawn with a couple trees here and there to the left side of the school. Not many people were hanging out over there leaving plenty of space to sit down unlike the place I was standing where I could hardly stay on the curb. Walking over to it something caught my eye. It was a strange plant, like a giant Venus Flytrap or something. Normally I would have thought that maybe the gardener imported a tropical plant from Brazil but here the plant was sticking right out the side of a tree! I glanced around looking to see if anyone else saw it. About ten feet away a boy in a dark green t-shirt and jeans stood frowning at the strange plant but besides him no one else seemed to notice it. He pulled out a pad of paper and wrote something down quickly. When he was done he put the pad away and shook his light brown hair out of his eyes then walked off.

I began to make my way over to him but then I heard someone call out to me. "Hey Nami!" I turned around to get tackled into a hug. After a minute of looks and failed attempts of trying to separate myself, my captor let go."It's great to see you! I've hardly seen you the whole summer!" My best friend Cora exclaimed, bouncing up on her toes. Her strawberry bond hair flying around her face. She wasn't usually this hyper as far as I remembered.

"Uh, Cora? Did you have a bucket of sugar for breakfast?"

"Nope! Cinnamon rolls!" That made sense. Anything that contained sugar made Cora bounce of the walls. It was almost like hanging out with a squirrel who just had six espressos.

Cora opened her mouth to say something else but a loud bell cut her off. The crowd of students made their way through the front doors pulling us along.

~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~

The morning had flown by in a rush. I had met a few of the teachers including: Mr. Hayashi the Biology teacher who had to be in his early twenties, black hair pulled back into a low ponytail with onyx eyes and already had a fan club within the first ten minutes. Mr. Ningyō one of the art teachers (apparently they had two) who, I swear, was like seventeen, eighteen years of age, bright red hair which was slightly darker than fire engine red and somehow looked completely natural and who made a point in giving anyone who couldn't sit still a death glare. Mr. Āto the other art teacher who was about the same age as Mr. Hayashi, who had long blond hair which he kept down with blue eyes, wore gloves and had a speech impairment which made Cora crack up. Which had resulted in making him mad and start to yell at her which only made Cora laugh harder. I also meet. Well, saw the school accountant Mr. Jack who went by his first name only and wore a face mask along with sunglasses inside all the time. It turned out that Kami or Miss Hana, as she instructed us to call her, was the only female staff member.

Apparently principle had some 'emergency' or other and couldn't show up today. Unfortunately he wasn't the only one absent at their welcoming ceremony. For some reason the history teacher wasn't there either, even though he was on campus.

Cora and I were now on my way to history class to finally meet the teacher. The halls were basically the same, white walls with large cork boards filled with announcements nailed to them. Gleaming red tile floors reflecting the lights above. Groups of students lined the edges of the hallway milling around chatting. Out of nowhere a fully grown man came skipping through the hall singing a song without lyrics at the top of his lungs. He wore a swirly orange lollipop mask and a navy blue jumpsuit. I stared at him as he rounded the corner and continued singing without a care in the world. Everyone was dead silent as the strange man's voice faded away.

"Who. On earth. Was that?" Cora asked to no one in particular. She had finally seemed to calm down from her sugar rush.

"That was Tobi the janitor," said a voice next to me.

I yelped and wheeled around to see a boy with light brown hair falling into his grey eyes. I recognized him form this morning outside. "You're the one who also saw the giant plant outside."

A look of surprise crossed his face. "You saw that?"

"Yeah. And what was it?"

"Just something I am doing research on." He said quickly.

"What research? What plant?" Cora questioned.

The boy looked uncomfortable as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "Uh... Have you heard of the Naruto books?"

Cora's eyes lit up while I inwardly groaned. Naruto was Cora's favorite books series or manga or whatever they called it of all time. She had forced me to read through the first part and every sleepover at her house consisted of a Naruto marathon. I didn't have anything against it in fact (though I would never admit it to Cora) I actually liked the series.

"Yeah, so?" Cora answered for both of us.

"You know of the group called the Akatsuki?" We both nodded. "Well if you could pick any people from your life so far to represent the members who would you chose? You can give me your answer tomorrow." And with that he started walking off.

"Well aren't you informative?" Cora said grumpily, crossing her arms.

I frowned. "We don't even know your name."

The boy paused then looked back. "Cain. My name's Cain."

"I'm Nami and this is Cora." Cain nodded and continued walking.

We watched until he was gone. "Isn't he interesting." Cora stated.

"Come on! We've got to hurry or we'll be late to class." We ran down the hallways all the way to the classroom.

~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~

I drummed my fingers on the desk I was sitting in. To my right was Cora who had dozed off two minutes ago. There were about twenty other students besides Cora and I. It was ten minutes past when class was supposed to start, eight minutes since Cora and I got here. There was a feeling of great uneasiness going around the room. Several of the students were debating whether or not to go down to the office to see where the teacher was.

Suddenly a man walked in closing the door behind him with a firm click cutting through the conversation. His unexpected entrance made Cora shoot up straight and look around wildly. He was in his early twenties, slicked back silver hair with purplish eyes. He wore a white button down shirt that had the top four or so buttons undone to reveal a silver necklace: a circle with a triangle inside.

Slowly he turned to the back of the classroom sending a glare that made everyone quickly shut their mouths. "Alright! Listen up you little f***ers! I will be your f***ing history teacher. You may refer to me as Herman. You f***ers got that sh**?!?!