Welcome to Gaia! ::

Chapter One

“As a reminder, the House Yule games will begin the Monday before the Solstice,” Sarutobi announced at breakfast as he looked over the rows of tables in the great hall, “Unlike the Entrance Games that welcomed our first years, you will be working together with your House against the others,” at this he seemed to gaze longer at the table decked with red tablecloth that had golden and silver birds embroidered in it longer than any of the others, “I trust that any problems you have with your fellow housemates will be long resolved before the opening ceremony of the games arrives.”

With that he sat down, “Man, why’d he have to single us out?” whined the blond boy that was piling ramen into his bowl.

“I’m assuming it’s because of all the houses, we were the ones that had the most infighting at the beginning of this term, setting a new record,” sighed the boy with long burnet hair and opaque pale eyes next to him, “For my part in that, I apologize.”

“There is no need Neji,” chirped the glossy raven haired boy sitting across from them both, “We will just show them our youthfulness and determination in the games,” he grinned, “It sounds like a good bit of fun does it not?”

Both of the other boys glanced downwards from their seat at the table to the red-haired boy that was sitting by himself, reading a book while he ate some rice, “He hasn’t really said much since the entrance exams,” Neji mused, “You don’t think he’s still the same…”

“He hasn’t tried to kill any of us since then,” Naruto chewed his lip, “And the prize for the games is pretty big… we’re going to need him.”

“Man thanks for saving me a seat!” Chouji exclaimed as he sat down next to Lee and started to pile his plate, “Hey did you guys hear? We’re getting a transfer.”

“At this time of year?” Neji narrowed his eyes, “That never happens. Who is it?”

“Some girl, she was being shown around the House by Iruka-sensei when I was coming to breakfast, that’s why I’m late,” Chouji said as he ate a bun, “She’s weird though, I said hi to her and she just stared at me like I was about to eat her.”

“Pretty sure that if you put hot-sauce on her, you probably would,” Naruto commented dryly, “Did she look strong at all? We’re going to need all the help we can get in those games.”

“That’s the truth,” a voice behind him said and he looked up to see the white-blond boy a few years older smirking at him, “And since the seven years won’t be participating, you’ll be going against my team. Think you brats can pull your house outta it’s hole?”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but we already shown ourselves to be superior to your house,” Neji said, “I easily defeated Hinata and Lee already bested Sasuke.”

“Princess Useless isn’t playing and,” Shane turned to Lee, “How long are you going to be in those crutches? House Seiryuu has this in the bag. All you guys are good at is beating up each other.”

“And Pokemon! We’re really good at Pokemon!” a girl with long white hair said as she appeared at Shane’s elbow, “Took me forever to get my DS working here, but I got it,” she rolled up her robe sleeve to look at her watch, “And crap! We’re late for Acupuncture. We better hurry or Professor Anko will make us into pincushions!”

He shrugged and walked away, “I coulda handled him Kotonii,” Naruto muttered.

“Aww, your such a cute lil uke!” she exclaimed as she pinched his cheek, then lowered her voice, “Seriously guys, get it together, I’ve been playing second fiddle to him since my first year and I really want to smear a win in his face,” she waved as she skipped off, “Don’t be late to any classes! We’re not going to get disqualified for something stupid!”

There was silence for a moment and then Lee stood, leaning on his crutches as he hobbled down to the end of the table.

“What’s he doing?” Neji snapped as he jumped up, he and the other two boys staring as their friend started to animatedly talk to Gaara.

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“Why are we stopping in Professor Oro’s room again?” the teenage girl asked her companion as a hand went to straighten her red ponytail, “We haven’t had any of his classes in a long time.”

“He just wanted to see the leading seven years,” Itachi assured her, “You can wait for me at your job if you want Yuko, I know Professor Tsunade will be upset if you’re late.”

“That’s only if we have any patients, which we won’t this time of year,” she sighed, then frowned, “But the House Games are starting next week, I better get going to help prepare. Especially if House Suzaku is the same as it was at the beginning of the year.”

“Don’t worry about them,” he smiled, as she started to walk away, “Oh, about your request… I’m not going to the family New Year’s gathering.”

She stopped and turned back to him, “Are you serious?”

He shrugged, “Sasuke wants to be the center of attention for once, and it’s time that he saw some of the responsibilities that came with it. I figured I’d step quietly aside this time.”

She placed her hands on her hips, “So… nothing to do with me.”

He smirked as a crow landed on his shoulder, “Not at all. See you in a bit,” he opened the door to the classroom, leaving her huffing angrily in the hall.

“See if I don’t ask Sasori instead then!” she yelled after him before stomping away.

He glanced after her, then turned his attention towards the class, closing the door behind him, “About time you got here.”

Itachi looked toward the shadowy figure in the back of the room, “Is what you told me true?” They made a slight movement like a shrug, and he slowly nodded, “Then I’m in.”

“It’ll be dangerous. You could very well die.”

“I have things that I want to protect,” he said quietly, “Even if that does mean my reputation and my life are thrown away to do it.”

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“And this is where your classroom is,” Iruka said happily as he led the small girl with scraggily cropped fiery hair into a mostly empty room, “Kakashi will be your teacher until he thinks your ready…” he gasped as arms wrapped around his waist.

“Go have a seat over there,” waved the silver-haired man, “I’ve got something to talk about with him.”

“Kakashi!” gasped Iruka, “We talked about this! Not in front of…”

“This is remedial social skills,” Kakashi pointed out as he nuzzled the brunet’s neck, “What’s wrong with letting them know how to express themselves?”

“We don’t want them to become perverts!” he cried at the older man, “Now will you please listen…”

The two lowered their voices so that the occupants of the room wouldn’t hear, and the girl went to sit on the floor in the center of the room, looking around with wide turquoise eyes.

“You can sit in a desk,” a voice said and she turned to see the only other person there staring at her, “You weren’t at breakfast.”

She shook her head, and Gaara pointed to the desk next to him, “Sit there,” she did as he said, seeming to not care that he was studying her, “I only started eating with the House again a month ago. I was on probation until then.”

He didn’t get an answer and he frowned then returned to his studies, glancing at her over his books a few minutes later when Kakashi returned from his daily molestation of Iruka.

“It’s great that we finally have another student in here,” Kakashi said happily, “Now…” he glanced at the paper Iruka had given him, “Mira? I was told you’ve never been to school before, want to tell us what you were doing before then?”

She shivered seeming to shrink into herself, and he nodded, “Right, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s a long road here,” he smiled, “But we’ll have some fun on it, that’s a promise.”

Her classmate was openly staring at her now, wondering just what it was that she was so frightened of, a small part of him thinking back to the conversation he had overheard at breakfast, where Neji had said that it was unusual for someone to enter the school after the term had begun.

So what happened to bring her here now? And looking for all the world like a scared mouse waiting for the cat to eat her.

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“And so if you pay attention,” yawned Kaze as he placed his head on the desk, “Your dreams can tell you things that you plain don’t notice in the waking…”

“Uh, Professor?” Neji called, then sighed, “He’s out again.”

The hawk on the teacher’s desk pecked at Kaze’s cheek, with only a hand swatting and a mumbled, “Not now ‘Yato…” as the reply, and the Hyuuga turned to face Lee.

“You could have been killed,” he hissed.

“We need to all work together,” he grinned, “Besides, you changed for the better, why can he not?”

“What are you two talking about?” piped the twin bunned girl that was sitting next to them.

“This idiot’s death wish,” Neji sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Lee, you can barely walk because of what happened at the beginning of term.”

“Lady Tsunade says she can make it better after the holidays,” Lee said, “Should we not try and wake the Professor instead of worrying about that though?”

“Wait, you talked to that scary kid?” Tenten asked, “Lee! Even his sister’s mean!”

“I thought it worthwhile to talk to him,” he huffed as he crossed his arms, “Besides, Kotonii-sempai is relying on us to defeat House Seiryuu and regain her honor. We shall need all the help we can get.”

“So glad I’m in House Byakko and not have to worry about that,” she commented, “I…”

“You guys are going after House Seiryuu?” piped a voice and they looked up at the effeminate boy that spoke, “I have a particular vendetta against them.”

“Please tell me it doesn’t have to do with our house’s professor,” Tenten said as she covered her face with her palm.

“They called my Zabuza an uncouth barbarian!” Haku exclaimed, “And that was the nicest thing that was said by those lousy brats, I’ll help any way that I can!”

“You two are in a different house!” Neji cried, “Just what…”

Haku held up some needles in his hands, “I can help by training you. All your house really lacks is teamwork. Besides, there’s nothing in the rules about forming an alliance for the house games,” he lowered his voice, “In fact, remember last year? It’s encouraged.”

There was a loud screech from the front of the class and all turned to see the professor’s hawk with his claw on the chalk board as Kaze blinked and looked up, “And that’s why it’s important to write down your dreams, they may be trying to tell you something important,” the bell rang and he blinked in confusion as he looked at his watch, “Uh, homework, write in description your dreams tonight. Bring them in for interpretation tomorrow.”