WHOEVER INVENTED THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE was going to be at the other end of Sakura's fist. The poor girl was at her wits end and it was showing. Gaara and Kakashi stared warily at the other end of the dining table, their lunch forgotten as they listened to her mutter angrily in a language they couldn't comprehend. 

Kakashi dared to speak to her, "Saku—"

"—What?" She growled, whipping her head to face him. 

He backed away a bit. "I was asking if you wanted some sushi. Or tempura. Or anything to add to your empty plate?" 

Right. It was lunch time. She had forgotten. 

"Not hungry," she muttered, looking back down at her accursed workbook and notes. "I'll eat later." 

"You will eat now." Gaara ordered, dumping an okonomiyaki onto her plate. 

Sakura shrunk a little before setting her things away in defeat. It was hard to object to the red head's demands because he had that deep, intense, 'obey me or else' voice. 

"Alright, alright..." She sighed, picking up her chopsticks. 

"You're studying real hard, Sakura," Kakashi noted. "Are you that worried for the entrance exam?"

"Of course," she answered. "I don't know enough about this country's history just yet. And then there's the English portion. While I admit that learning another language is interesting, English is just... too complex for me. I only have about... five weeks to learn enough to ace this exam."

"You should just focus on passing. You don't have to get a perfect score you know." He didn't want her to crash and burn. Kakashi knew very well that his old student was practically a perfectionist when it came to things like test scores. She was the most academically gifted student back at the Academy after all. 

She was a genius, but not a natural-born one like he was, but through hard work and dedication. 

"I know, I just want to do good." She said through a mouthful of okonomiyaki. 

"Pace yourself." He said sternly. 

"I am, I am," she said in hopes to placate him. 

"No you're not," Gaara deadpanned. "I heard you reciting all the wars Japan has participated in out loud at two o'clock in the morning."

She blushed in embarrassment. "Oh, you caught that?" 

"Your room is right next to mine. Also, you forgot to turn off your music." 

She gave him a sheepish smile. She got a little too addicted to this radio app called Spotify she found in her laptop. Who knew listening to music while studying felt so nice? And the music from this world was amazing. 

"Sorry..." 

Kakashi waved a hand in her defense. "Ah, let her have fun with the technology. It's certainly interesting here. Speaking of this world's tech..." Gaara and Sakura exchanged uncomfortable looks when they noticed the glint in his dark eyes. He cleared his throat and spoke out loud, "Alexa, where can I find the best erotica novels?" 

A female voice coming from nowhere replied, "Would you like to order from Amazon?" 

Neither of them knew what that meant yet. 

"No, I'd like to get it manually." 

"The best erotica novels can be found in Barnes & Noble, located 7.1 miles away from here." Alexa answered. 

"Seriously? You're talking about that now? We're in the middle of lunch, sensei!" Sakura scolded him. 

"There's always time for reading, Sakura-chan, don't be a hypocrite." He said, sending a meaningful look towards her textbooks. 

Her jaw dropped. "My books are educational! Your's is just porn!" 

Alexa's voice chimed as the television in the living room switched on. "Searching for 'porn'..."

Gaara choked on his food.

Sakura's eyes widened in horror. "NO! No, Alexa, don't!" 

─────•~❉🌸❉~•─────

"Who were the Axis leaders of World War II?" Gaara asked in his monotone voice. 

"Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy, and Emperor Hirohito of Japan." Sakura answered with confidence. 

He nodded. "And the Allies?"

"Franklin Roosevelt of the United States, Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union."

"What group set up Japan's first ruling dynasty?" 

"The Tenno...?" 

"Correct. How did the seas isolate Japan?" 

Sakura opened her mouth but was cut off by the sound of the doorbell echoing throughout the house. 

Kakashi was lounging at the living room, enjoying his newest porn book Fifty Shades of Grey. He flipped to the next page and said, "Sakura, you deal with that."

"Lazy ass," she grumbled, but reached out for her phone anyways. She tapped on the security app and spotted a white and (mildly) red haired woman standing in front of the intercom camera. 

She had never seen the woman before. Hopefully she wasn't a friend of the Hagiwaras or something. She turned on the microphone and spoke, "Can I help you?" 

'Who is it?' She saw Gaara mouth and shrugged in reply. 

"Um, hi there! My name is Todoroki Fuyumi. My father came to... er, visit(?) the day before?" The woman said. 

"Your father...? Endemi—I mean, Endeavor?" Whoops. She had gotten too used to hearing Kakashi murder that man's hero name. 

Fuyumi nodded. "Yes. He informed me that the Hagiwaras moved out and um, well... I wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood! I also brought some chocolate taiyaki as a gift." 

Sakura lit up. "Oh! Come in then!" 

Gaara gave her a dry look that basically said 'I can't believe you're letting a stranger into our house'. She couldn't help it, she loved sweets and anything chocolatey and besides, Kakashi allowed Endeavor in just so he could make fun of his hero name to his face. 

Poor Gaara, he was the only one with common sense. 

Sakura opened the door to allow Fuyumi in, and like a proper human being, she slipped off her shoes before fully stepping inside. She already liked her more than her father. 

Fuyumi was obviously awed by the interior by the way she was looking around. "I've never really been in the Hagiwaras house before they moved away. It really is impressive." 

"Thank you," Sakura smiled anxiously, relieved that she didn't seem to notice that the furniture never changed. "And thanks for bringing in the gift. I love sweets." 

"It was no problem...?" 

"Uchiha Sakura," she supplied. "And that's Gaara and Hatake Kakashi." She gestured to the red head at the dining table and the silverette on the couch. 

"Uchiha-san." Fuyumi finished. She did a double-take when she glanced at Kakashi, eyes popping out when she noticed the cover of the book he was reading. 

Sakura noticed. "Y-you can, um, set that box here." Hastily, she began leading her towards the dining room and as far away from her perverted sensei as possible. Fuyumi smiled kindly at Gaara, who returned it with a more awkward version of his own. 

"I also brought this as an apology gift," Fuyumi began as she set the box of chocolate filled taiyaki on the table. "My father was pretty angry when he left to come here and judging by the way he behaved when he came back... well, I can deduce that he wasn't very welcoming to you." 

"Nope, not at all." Kakashi replied with a shake of his head. His eyes were still plastered onto the goddamn book. "He only stayed in my house for about ten seconds, but managed to yell at all of us and left his burnt shoe impressions on our pavement. That, and he never even bothered to remove his shoes before stepping into the house. I give him a zero on proper etiquette."

Fuyumi looked quite flustered from the poor critique of her father. Sakura pitied her, but her dad was seriously a jerk. 

"Sorry about him... he has, um, his moods." 

"Ohhhh," Kakashi made a noise of understanding. "Time of the month?" 

She blushed. "E-eh—?!"

"—A-anyways!" Sakura hastily cut in. "Todoroki-san, why don't you stay here for a little while? There's enough taiyaki to share." She suggested, opening the box and seeing the large pile of fish-shaped sweet treats. 

It took a while for Fuyumi to agree to the offer, but she finally did. So now she was sitting with her and Gaara, who looked out of place between the two chattering females. 

It was then when Fuyumi noticed all the books and study materials on the table. "Oh, I take it you're preparing for your entrance exams? What high school are you planning on going to if you don't mind me asking?" 

"UA—the general education to be specific." Sakura answered. 

Fuyumi immediately choked on her taiyaki. 

"T-Todoroki-san?!" She almost shot up from her seat. 

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she coughed slightly. "Sorry. You just took me by surprise. You're going to the UA High School?" 

Sakura nodded. 

She turned to Gaara, who was nibbling carefully into his taiyaki. Kakashi disliked sweets so he wasn't getting any. "Are you going too?" She asked him. 

"No. I... haven't decided where to go yet." He lied.

Fuyumi nodded in understanding. "I get you. I had trouble too. I'm sure you'll pick one and be accepted." 

Gaara nodded awkwardly. "Thank you..." 

"Are you two siblings by any chance?" 

He nearly dropped his taiyaki. Much to Sakura's surprise, Gaara looked almost... appalled by the question, which she found offensive because there was nothing wrong with being related to her! 

"No," he said quickly. "Sakura and I are close friends. Who are living together." 

"With me too," Kakashi added. 

"Yes... with him." Gaara said sourly. 

Fuyumi looked mildly intrigued. "Oh... so your parents...?"

"Mine are dead and Sakura's are far away, so they entrusted her with Kakashi." He said bluntly. It wasn't technically a lie. Gaara's parents were both deceased and Sakura's parents were literally a world away from her. 

Fuyumi was momentarily speechless. "O-oh, uh, I'm so sorry for asking..." 

"It's fine." 

She tried desperately to change the topic. "So, uh, UA! That's really impressive. It's a hard school to get into—with a 0.2% acceptance rate." Sakura could see Gaara's eyes slowly turn wide while Kakashi snapped his head to give them an equally surprised look. 

A 0.2% acceptance rate?! What the fuck?! Sakura internally screeched. Why the hell are entrance exams even a thing here?! 

Fuyumi didn't catch the horrified, doomed expression Sakura was sporting and continued on, "My little brother's planning on going there too. Though he's been recommended and he's trying to get into their hero course. Maybe, once you get accepted, the two of you can meet up and get to know each other!"

Why did it sound like she was trying to get her to be friends with her brother? The way Fuyumi spoke reminded Sakura all too much of how she would 'suggest' Sarada to play with Shinki. Of course, it would always fail. Their personalities were too similar and Shinki calling her 'Salad' was more than enough to doom any potential of future friendships between the two. 

Sarada was just too vindictive (like a certain someone she didn't want to think about right now). 

"What's his name?" Sakura asked, bringing herself back to the conversation. 

"Shouto," Fuyumi beamed. "He's very eye-catching. One half of his face consists of red hair and a teal eye while the other is white hair and a grey eye. You won't miss him. He's really quiet though, maybe a little aloof too. Though he's really nice once you get to know him!"

Oh yep. A basic rundown on how he looked and his personality traits? She was totally trying to string her and her brother along for a possible friendship. She didn't know why Fuyumi would want a stranger she barely met to befriend her younger brother though. Did she trust her that much? 

After half an hour, Fuyumi finally left, saying something about needing to prepare dinner before her father got home. Sakura cheerfully bid her goodbye while Gaara and Kakashi gave a wave. 

As she shut the door, she could feel her soul getting sucked out of her body. 

"So... 0.2% huh." 

Kakashi looked up from her book to give her a sympathetic look. "Yep." 

"...I really need to get back to studying." Dammit, and she had been enjoying her short break with Fuyumi so much! 

Gaara looked at her with pity. "I'll help." 

─────•~❉🌸❉~•─────

"Ashikaga Takauji is a general who rebelled against the emperor and made himself Shogun due to land disputes with the samurai, thus starting the Ashikaga Shogunate... The Gempei War was a Japanese civil war in 1100s between the Taira and Minimoto clans... The Iwakura Mission—"

"—Sakura—"

"—was a diplomatic mission around the world to gather information on other countries—" 

"—Sakura." Gaara interrupted her for the umpteenth time. He stopped walking and grabbed her by the shoulder. 

She froze, looking up from her notebook. "S-sorry?" 

"We're passed the UA gates now." He told her. "Take a good look at your school." 

She looked ahead and nearly fainted. 

UA High School was huge. Was it's massive size so necessary? It could probably fit about twenty Academys from her home world! The building was shaped like a large 'H', but that was only the main building. From all around, she could see various other structures in the perimeters. 

"This school's huge..." She whispered in pure awe. 

Gaara nodded in agreement. "It is. People weren't kidding when they called it prestigious." 

That only served to remind her of its drastically low acceptance rate. Her mood plummeted once more. 

He noticed it. "You'll do fine." He told her seriously. "You're one of the smartest people I know." Shikamaru was the other smart person he knew, but his intelligence differed from Sakura's. While he was the strategic sort of smarts, Sakura was the book smart. Exams were her thing. Hell, he saw her during the written test of the Chunin Exam and she had been the only one who didn't cheat. He wouldn't be surprised if she had perfectly aced it too. 

He hoped he was doing this 'comforting' thing right. He was still getting used to that (but hey he was getting better!) and at least Kakashi wasn't here to silently judge his attempts. The older man had decided to stay back at the house to finish reading his erotica novel—for the tenth time since he bought it. 

His compliment brought a pretty smile to her lips. Ahah! So he had done something right! 

"Thanks Gaara, I needed that." 

He smiled back. "I'd wish you luck. But you won't need it." He noticed that were less people outside. "You should get going. The exam's will start soon." 

"Right, of course," hurriedly, she tucked her notebook into her back. "What'll you be doing?" 

"I'll be taking a look around," he replied. It was an impressively large school. He was curious. "Don't worry. I won't get caught by security or any cameras." 

She nodded in satisfaction and, after a brief wave of goodbye, she stepped through the large doors of the building and disappeared from his sight. 

Since only those attempting the hero course had two portions of the entrance exam, the school started off with the written test. The proctor in charge was a bulky looking hero called Vlad King. According to the excited murmurs of the kids around her, he was the Blood Hero and had a Quirk called Blood Control. 

Creepy, but admittedly cool. Sakura wondered if he could control anyone's blood or was it just his own? Was it all types of blood? What about white blood cells or red blood cells? Or—

She was getting off track. 

Anyways, Vlad King gave them the instructions of what to do: no cheating, all phones must be turned off, and anyone caught with their phones out were immediately kicked out. After that, the tests were handed out. 

It was ten pages long, front and back. Some questions were multiple choice, some were fill-in-the-blanks, others required a whole paragraph of information and there was even a small essay portion. 

They were given three hours to finish. 

Sakura's brain went into overdrive the second the timer started. Her hand was practically a blur as she answered all the questions, flipping to the next page, or erasing whenever needed. A bead of sweat was building down her brow, but she wiped it away and continued on. 

She could hear some poor kid weeping over his test papers. Her heart clenched for the boy; he probably wasn't doing well and realized that his dreams were crushed. She pitied him, but she wouldn't let his quiet cries distract her any further. 

Once the three hours passed, Vlad King ordered everyone to stop and went around grabbing their test papers. After that, he instructed the hero course hopefuls to step into the next room where a 'Present Mic' would debrief them on the next portion of the test. 

"Exam results will be sent out a week from today. If you don't receive one in the mail, make sure to contact the school. The information you need will be on the website." Vlad King stated, before allowing them to leave. 

Several kids stayed since they were waiting to get picked up, or to talk to their friends about how they thought they did. Sakura stayed so she could get a breather. 

The test... wasn't actually that bad. It was pretty easy thanks to all the dedicated studying she had done and Gaara's help. She had to admit, she felt pretty silly worrying about it so much to the point of losing sleep. 

She stepped out of the building and waited for a few minutes for Gaara to return. He blurred to her side in an instant, everyone failing to notice. 

"How was the test?" He asked with a curious tilt to his head. 

She beamed at him. "Easy peasy. Thanks for helping me study." 

He shook his head. "It was no problem. I wanted to help." 

"How was exploring the school?" She asked as they began to walk away. 

"It was interesting. I saw those trying out for the hero course outside. They're battling robots." 

"Robots?" 

"Yes. Large ones too. And the school has several areas designed like cityscapes. It makes me wonder where these people are getting such money..." He pondered. 

"Taxes." She snorted. 

"You're probably right," he said in an amused tone. "When will you know your results?" 

"They're sending it out by mail next week," she replied. "I can't wait to see my score...! Hey, if I do really good, can we go back to that French cafe with the nutella crepes?!" 

"Absolutely not." 

─────•~❉🌸❉~•─────

Sakura was panicking. More than a week had already passed and she had yet to get her exam results back. Did that mean she failed? No wait, didn't Vlad King say something about having to contact the school should that situation arise? She couldn't remember anymore because she was too busy panicking about her lack of results. 

This was not good. She needed to know whether she was accepted or not! She had to be accepted because the only way to getting close to going home (other then setting herself, Gaara, and Kakashi on a wild goose chase) was to get into UA and find this 'Doctor'! How else would she see Sarada again?! 

"You're pacing." Gaara stated, and it was beginning to make him dizzy. 

"I haven't gotten my results back." She muttered, looking down on the floor as her mind busied itself with frantic thoughts. "A week's already passed and I didn't get the letter back." 

Gaara opened his mouth to say something to soothe but was interrupted by Kakashi's perfectly calm voice. "Hmm? A letter you say? Would this letter happen to have a fancy UA seal on it?" 

.

.

.

Sakura stiffly turned to him. He was relaxing on the couch, reading his goddamn porn again. 

"What." She said flatly. 

All too casually, he raised a stark white envelope with red wax seal. Lo and behold it had the word 'UA' stamped on it. 

Sakura's jaw dropped. "T-that's the letter! Where did you find it?!" 

"Oh, it arrived in the mail five days ago, but so did the erotic literature novels I ordered, so I kinda forgot about it. Sorry about that." He replied with a happy looking eye smile. 

Gaara gulped inaudibly and decided not to intervene. 

Sakura fell dangerously quiet, but her face was turning red with rage. 

"YOU HAD IT WITH YOU FOR FIVE DAYS?!" 

Gaara winced. 

Kakashi smiled innocently. "Maa, maa, Sakura-chan, I accidentally forgot about it. There's no need to be so mad at me..." 

"Sensei, you ass, I've been waiting for it for days!" 

"Well, patience is a very valuable trait to have—"

"—Oh just give me that!" She stormed forward and snatched it out of his hands. She opened the envelope and pulled out... a small circular device? She set it down on the coffee table in front of them and proceeded to stare at it in pure confusion. 

"Um," Gaara spoke up. "What is that?" 

The device answered by springing out a holographic video. 

"Fancy," Kakashi whistled. Sakura was still too angry to glance at him. 

Standing before them was a... single combination of many animals. An chimera that looked to be part dog, mouse, and bear. There was a scar over his white-furred face and he was smartly dressed. 

"Hello Miss Uchiha Sakura!" He greeted in a happy voice. Sakura almost greeted him back until she remembered that this was just a recorded hologram. "My name is Nezu, and I am the principal of our esteemed UA High School!" 

"That thing's the principal?" She heard Kakashi mutter. She swatted his arm and told him to shut up. 

"I personally requested to make this video for you once I saw your exam results. In case you haven't guessed it yet, you've passed the entrance exam! And not only that, with a perfect score as well! I was the one who created each and every question, so I was very surprised to see that someone had actually managed to ace all of them. Such a feat hasn't been seen in nearly a decade, so congratulations miss Uchiha! We are very happy to have you at UA." 

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Kakashi smiling down at her, no hint of teasing on his expression. "See? Told you you'd make it in." 

"School begins on April 6th. You will be in class 1-C, for General Education. Classes start at 8:25 so make sure you wake up early! Further information is in the letter provided. Hope to see you soon!" 

Nezu gave a short wave before the recording ended.

"I'm now one step closer..." She whispered to herself. 

"You know what to do once you get in, right?" Kakashi asked her. 

She nodded dutifully. "Yes. Look around for the 'Doctor' and 'Nomu' those two women mentioned."

"And then contact us." Gaara stated. "Keep tabs on them, but don't do anything yet until we're with you." 

"Of course." 

After the relief of her acceptance died down, the doorbell rang. 

"Ah, it's your friend again," Kakashi said, looking down at his phone. He had just recently bought a phone case that was full of cute looking dogs. 

"Hi Todoroki-san!" Sakura greeted her excitedly. Despite the age gap, Sakura felt a kinship between her and the older woman (besides, Sakura was technically older than her anyways). Fuyumi just radiated this sort of motherly attitude for Shouto that Sakura had for Sarada. 

"Hey Uchiha-san! I've been meaning to ask you this but I never got the chance; have you gotten your exam results yet?" She asked. 

"Yes and I passed! How about Shouto?" 

"Oh that's wonderful! He got in as well! I was wondering if you, Gaara, and Hatake-san would like to eat out with us? A celebratory dinner! It'll be on me!" 

Kakashi snatched his phone back. "Sure. We'll be out in a bit." Hey, it was a free meal, how could he help it? 

They found themselves inside a fancy Japanese restaurant. Todoroki Shouto turned out to be not what Sakura was expecting. Sure Fuyumi had described him to her, but she didn't think his physical features would literally be split in half... She never mentioned the scar on the left side of his face though, but even that failed to mar his obvious beauty. 

She was spot on about his personality though. He never spoke once and didn't bother with any false pleasantries. At least she knew he wasn't fake, though his behavior disturbingly reminded her of Sasuke... 

But Shouto was a helluva lot more tolerable since he wasn't going around killing people and loudly swearing his vengeance every ten seconds. Nor was he running around the world while his wife and daughter were patiently waiting at home for him for the past six goddamn fucking years without bothering to get up his lazy, insufferable ass to contact them just once rather than send them gifts like empty promises—

The chopsticks in her hands snapped in half. 

"Ahaha, sorry about that..." She laughed sheepishly as Fuyumi handed her another pair. 

Breathe, Sakura, breathe, she told herself. 

Yep. All in all, Shouto was much more preferable company. 

"Shouto," Fuyumi smiled. "These are our new neighbors since the Hagiwaras moved. Uchiha-san here will even be attending the same school as you soon! You'll watch out for each other, won't you?" 

He didn't even glance up from his soba noodles. "Sure." 

This was the most awkward dinner ever, and she had lived with Gaara for a year. 

"So your father's that flame hero, right?" Kakashi hummed. 

Shouto's entire body stiffened and a dark glint crossed over his heterochromatic eyes. Fuyumi posture turned tense as well, glancing uneasily between Shouto and the dinner guests. 

"What about it." He asked, finally looking up. 

Sakura regarded him meticulously, knowing that Gaara and Kakashi were doing the same as well. Shouto obviously wasn't fond of his father, but the look in his face told her it had nothing to do with the common 'my dad's always busy at work and is rarely home' issue. Not only that but the way Fuyumi was acting was suspicious too. She was too nervous, shrinking into herself in her seat as she tried to discretely shoot Shouto looks of warning. It wasn't like she was trying to say 'Oh Shouto, stop embarrassing us', but more like 'Shouto stop right now, people aren't supposed to know what it's like back home'. 

"What was his name again?" Kakashi wondered aloud. "Endemic, right?" 

The dark atmosphere disappeared in an instant. 

Shouto blinked up at him and stared for several seconds before he nodded. "Yes, that's his name." He replied stoically. 

"A-actually it's Endeavor..." Fuyumi corrected nervously. 

"No, no," he shook his head. "Hatake's right. It's Endemic." 

"Suits him well," Gaara complimented. Shouto blinked at him too, momentarily speechless. 

"Must not be so fun living with him," Sakura chuckled, and Shouto stared at her too.

For a second, it seemed that their comments had broken the boy because he looked to have stopped functioning entirely. Then, he turned to her and said in a more serious voice, "You're absolutely right." 

Fuyumi watched them with a gaping jaw. This was not how she expected the dinner to go. 

But you know what, she thought as she listened to them discuss how their father's piss poor mannerisms, at least they're getting along. 

— author's note —

Fuyumi: I'm gonna invite our neighbors to dinner in hopes Shouto would get along with Sakura!

Sakura, Kakashi, Gaara, & Shouto throughout the dinner: *roasts Endeavor*

Fuyumi: Miscalculated but ok

Fuyumi's all too aware of Shouto's anti-social tendencies and like all concerned moms (or sisters in this case), she wants him to make friends. Lol have you ever had ur mom force a friend on u before??? I hate it when that happens cuz all that ever creates is an awkward atmosphere.

Also, ninjas are EXTREMELY observant, so it shouldn't be a surprise that Sakura, Kakashi, and Gaara noticed the suspiciously bad relationship between Shouto and his father. Though it's kinda sad that literally no one else, even the heroes, noticed it...