COTE x Naruto: New Beginnings

Chapter 1: D for Defective

It was with great disbelief that Sakura boarded the ANHS school bus. She couldn't quite believe she'd actually gotten accepted! She had been sure they'd reject her application, yet instead, she'd been accepted, and suddenly, the prospect of a bright future no longer seemed so unreal.

Her mother had been worried at first, but then she too became overjoyed at the opportunity Sakura was presented with and wholeheartedly approved. They'd even gone out and gotten Chinese food in celebration, which was something Sakura hadn't eaten since her father had left the family.

She felt jittery just thinking about it all; in less than an hour, she would be standing in the auditorium room at the ANHS campus, listening to the welcoming speech the principal held every year. In a few hours, she would be sitting in her seat in a classroom that would be hers for the next three years.

It really did feel too good to be true.

The bus came to a stop and the other students and the people employed at the various facilities at ANHS all got off the bus. Unthinkingly, Sakura followed the crowd of students, until she too stood in the auditorium waiting for the welcome speech.

The whole ordeal ended up being quite boring, as well as painful; her feet hurt after all that standing. Many of her yearmates seemed to think so too, but all of them, including Sakura, were forced to endure it in silence. When it was over, she exited the auditorium with the rest of the student body, wondering where the heck classroom 1-D was. Luckily, it wasn't long before she found a school plan, where she along with other presumably first years stopped to locate their classroom.

In the end, she found it easily and quickly took a seat at the front of the class where her name tag was, feeling grateful that she'd been assigned a seat from which paying attention without being disturbed by her classmates would be easier than it would've been in the back.

Most of her classmates were in class already judging by the amount of people there as well as desks with bags or pencil cases on them. The class was going to start in 10 minutes after all.

And oh, were they loud. But they were high schoolers, and high schoolers were known for being noisy. It felt almost funny to see, though, as back in the auditorium, all of the upper years seemed very serious and well-behaved.

She decided not to dwell on the matter any further and instead observed her classmates. Some were already socializing; she could see three guys loudly joking around, which prompted a beautiful blonde girl in front of them to shoot them glares, whispering something to four other girls who nodded along sympathetically to whatever she said.

Some people were sitting alone, too. For example, a girl with long black hair sitting at the back of the class, looking very disgruntled and serious at the same time. Occasionally, she turned around to look at the brown-haired boy sitting next to her to tell him something, the same serious expression still present.

A few more interesting people entered, for example, a striking boy who did not look their age at all with his dyed blonde hair that went a bit past his shoulders. He exuded such an air of confidence and, well... something else that made everyone not only notice him but slowly edge away from him.

Almost too soon, the bell rang and the teacher walked in. Sakura was seriously starting to feel insecure, because oh was this woman striking as well. She actually looked a bit like the black-haired girl in the black - they both had the same distant air about them - although, to Sakura, the teacher seemed a bit warmer than the girl at the back of the class.

She was also dressed sharply, with a suit on and her hair tied neatly to stay out of the way. She looked regal, a sharp contrast to her soft features.

Her smooth and somewhat deep voice immediately captured everyone's attention. She introduced herself as customary and went over classic homeroom stuff. After finishing her introduction, she proceeded to hand out the school's admissions guide, which was a document Sakura had seen and studied before.