Tsunade sighed, rubbing her forehead in exasperation. She looked up at the blond sitting before her, her lips flattening into a hard line. Her eyebrow twitched as the boy reached forward and pushed the plaque with her name on it out of place, but she refused to say anything. She had a feeling he was just trying to annoy her, and while it was working, she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction. She knew him well enough-the organized desk, the small plant in the corner, the diploma on the wall. It would all drive him crazy. He was the type to want to turn everything upside down. Which was exactly the type of attitude that got kids like him in trouble more often than not.
Ms. Tsunade was a well endowed woman, with long blond hair, green eyes, and a bosom that was hard to miss, to say the least. She looked much younger than her actual age; circulating rumors dictated that it was from a mix of plastic surgery and voodoo magic. Whatever it was, she wasn't quick to give up her secrets, or her age. She seemed to have a perminant scowl on her face, though one should be so lucky to be the principle of Konoha High School, also known as KHS, home of the fox, the lamest mascot ever. People had tried to change it in the past, but Tsunade refused to budge on the matter, saying that it meant something to her, whatever that was.
"Deidara," she sighed, and the boy looked up from where he had begun to mess with a small slug figurine, brushing his bangs out of his blue eyes. "This is the third time this year. I don't know what to do, anymore." Tsunade tapped her fingers on her desk. He didn't look too worried, and it annoyed her. "I'm aiming for expulsion." That should get him.
"With all due respect, Granny Tsunade-"
"You'll call me Ms. Tsunade, Deidara. I'm not even old enough to be your grandmother," Tsunade spat, her eyebrow twitching. Deidara nodded solemnly, hardly effected by the words that normally had her students cowering.
"With all due respect, Mrs. Tsunade." She went to correct him, but he continued with a grin. "It was art! Pure art. I was simply expressing myself as the staff of Konoha High suggests that I do, yeah. You wouldn't want to go against the District policy, would you, hm?"
"You know very well that this isn't what we mean when we say we want you to express yourself," Tsunade said robotically, struggling to urge she had to pick up the paper weight that was awfully close to her fingers and throw it at the cheeky brat's head. "We want you to express yourself safely. 'Safely' does not mean putting exploding paint balls in the girls locker room." Deidara huffed, blowing his hair out of his face and crossing his arms as he leaned back in his seat. "How did you even get into the girl's locker room, anyhow?"
Deidara grinned, beginning to lean forward as though he were going to get into an exciting story, but Tsunade closed her eyes and put a single finger up, her other hand coming up to pinch the bridge of her nose.
"Never mind. Forget I asked." Still smiling slightly, Deidara leaned back in his seat and shrugged his shoulders, but he looked less put off. "I'm going to have to call your mother."
"What? No!" Deidara's eyes widened and he shot up, slamming his hands on Tsunade's desk. The little slug figurine jumped. "You can't do that! She'll kill me!" If there was one thing in the world Deidara was afraid of, it was his mother. He could already picture the wrath he would have to endure. He glowered at the little sadistic smirk that grew on Tsunade's face, annoyed that she had gotten through to him.
"Sit down, Deidara," Tsunade demanded. The blue-eyed boy glared at her for a moment, and she glared back. After several long seconds Deidara looked away and crossed his arms, sitting down begrudgingly. "You will be suspended for the rest of the week. When you come back I'll be requesting a conference with you and your mother so we can figure out what we're going to do about this. I'll call her to come pick you up," Tsunade said as she picked up the phone. She shot a hard look at Deidara. "Now get out of my office."
Deidara trudged out of the office, feeling rather disgruntled. He glared down at his black uniform shoes, shoving his hands into his pressed pants pockets and blew a strand of hair out of his face. The teacher's had no control over the boy-they hadn't since the fifth grade. No one really knew what happened, and no one ever asked. At the end of the fourth grade he was shy, always sitting in the corner and watching the other kids play games on the playground from far away, and when he came back after summer break he was the wild one. The rebel. He didn't listen to what anyone told him, he went by his own rules. He became a pain in the-
"Suspended?"
Deidara looked up, surprised to find a familiar red-headed boy standing in the office. He held the strap of his book-bag lazily, his brown eyes half-lidded as though he didn't have the time nor the patience to look at anything properly. His tie was loosened, and his shirt sleeves rolled up. His pants were still pressed, however, and his shoes shiny. The blond figured that had something to do with his grandmother.
"Yeah," Deidara grinned crookedly. The red-headed boy half raised his eyebrows, before giving up and shrugging his shoulders, glancing out the window in a rather distant way. Deidara wandered over to the secretary who didn't look too impressed, by the way she glared at him. Strange; she was normally pretty cheery. She had seen him enough times to knew what came next, however, and sloppily began to write a pass.
"Idiot," he grumbled in response. Either way, as Deidara took the note the secretary wrote and sat down, the red-head followed suit and sat down on one of the cushioned chairs beside him. The cheap furniture creaked slightly as he crossed his ankle over his knee, leaning back, far more relaxed than he should be in the school's office.
"What are you doing in here, anyway, Sasori, hm?" Deidara questioned, pushing his hair out of his eyes once again. The red head brandished a strip of pink paper with writing on it that Deidara didn't bother to read.
"A career conference," Sasori scoffed, folding to paper with two fingers and pinching it closed, then making a sharp crease with his short finger-nails. "They're trying to get me to try out for tennis again. Honestly, it's a waste of my time-I already told them that I wasn't doing it this year." He swiftly made two more folds on opposite ends of the paper.
Deidara rolled his eyes leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knee's. Of course, he couldn't blame them. For the last two year's Sasori had been the rookie champion of the Kanto Region Tournaments. He was a rising star, and already colleges from around the world were begging for him to join their teams. But in his last year of high school he had decided that he no longer wanted to be a tennis player. For whatever reason, Deidara didn't know, but he figured that it was Sasori's choice and the school could at least stop bothering him about it.
When Deidara asked him why, Sasori had simply told him that he wanted to focus on his art, and that he didn't have the patience for tennis any more. If there was anything that sounded like a Sasori thing to say, that would be it.
His action on the tennis courts had gathered him a bit of fame, either way. Even before he had moved on to high school everyone knew who he was. All of the sensible girls had crushes on him, and all of the sensible boys wanted to be him. Even most of the staff looked up to him like he was some sort of god. With that kind of popularity, it got around school very quickly that Sasori had decided not to join the tennis teams again this year, and many rumors were floating around as to why that was.
Deidara knew better than to listen to them. If he knew Sasori, then there really was no reason. He had probably simply decided that tennis was boring. So he ignored the rumors. Even despite his popularity, Sasori ignored them, as well. He wasn't the type to pay attention to that sort of thing.
"For how long?" Sasori asked after a bit of silence. He folded his paper several more times, then unfolded and re-folded another way. Deidara sighed.
"The rest of the week. Mom's going to kill me, yeah," he added, almost as an after thought as he hung his head, picturing the torture that would ensue. Surely she would hang him by his toe-nails, or even worse. Take away his X-Box.
"Probably," Sasori sighed. He folded the paper one last time, before pinching both ends and pulling them apart. He had made a small bird.
Deidara looked up, glancing half-heartedly at the clock. She would be there any minute, and if he kept her waiting he was pretty sure that only meant she would scream his ears off for an extra twenty minutes. He didn't want to give her any more ammunition against him, despite the fact that he was hesitant to go anywhere near the Dragon Lady.
He stood, stretching out his arms and taking and extra second to roll up his sleeves. Sasori glanced at the clock, as well, before giving an exasperated sigh and began tapping his foot impatiently.
"I should go. Otherwise she might decide to tie me to the back of the car and drag me down the high way. Hm," Deidara sighed. He reached behind his head and pulled his pony-tail tighter before making his way to the door, waving over his shoulder lazily. "See you later, Sasori."
The red-head listened to the door shut, and tossed the pink paper bird on the table beside him. He was tempted to throw it away, but he figured that whoever was here to talk to him might want to use it as his pass to get back to class. He glanced at the clock again, his patience quickly wearing thin. Honestly, whoever it was that had asked him to come before school could at least have the decency to be there when they scheduled their appointment.
Sasori watched the seconds tick by on the clock, tapping his foot rhythmically. He dug around in his book bag, looking for something to do, but he had already completed all of his homework for the day and he didn't have a book to read. He strummed his fingers impatiently, picked at his nails, shifted positions once, twice. He felt himself steadily growing more and more impatient.
When he heard the office door open again he almost sighed in relief, looking up. Whoever it was, he didn't recognize. He found himself unable to help but glare at the wispy blond, as she wasn't who he wanted nor expected. With an annoyed huff he turned away and glared out the window, wondering exactly how long he would be stuck waiting.
Katsusaki Mo squinted out the passenger side window, glaring up at the green-and-white pride-monster known as Konoha High School. Not particularly prestigious, nor particularly expensive; she had expected this was where she would be going. After doing a little research her mother had excitedly proclaimed that she was wondering about getting her into the private high school across town called Oto, but Katsusaki knew better.
"So? What do you think?"
She thought it was hideous, terrifying, narcissistic and hypocritical. The students milled about the front entrance, sitting on the stairs and chatting. It seemed KHS couldn't decide whether or not to be strict-with their dress code being a white button-up and green tie, boys wore black slacks and shoes and girls wore green skirts and black flats-or to allow it's students a stroke of individuality. She wasn't sure whether it was from the staff simply not caring, or being over-run, but many of the kids had brightly colored hair or piercings or some rogue tattoos. The girl's hiked up their skirts to show off their thighs and the boys loosened their ties and rolled up their shirt sleeves. Everyone had at least the top button undone. Katsusaki watched as a girl wearing knee-high rainbow shocks sped past on a skate-board, her hair dyed a violent purple.
"It looks nice." Katsusaki forced a smile on her face and turned towards her mother. Takara was a beautiful woman, and the exact opposite of Katsusaki. She had long, black hair that fell down her back and over her shoulders in waves, and violet eyes that seemed to sparkle with her smile. Her teeth were pearly white, and her figure seemingly perfect. More than a few times Katsusaki had wondered if she was adopted-surely such a beautiful, fashionable woman couldn't have plain boring Katsusaki.
Pale skin, green eyes, white-blond hair and a walking-stick insect appearance made Katsusaki often wonder if she was simply a ghost, ready to be taken away by the next wind. Takara told her that she looked like her father. She would have to take her word for it.
"Why does she get to go to the cool school?" Katsusaki glanced at her younger brother in the back seat. Even he looked remarkably like their mother, with his dark skin and hair and violet eyes. They were almost spitting images of each other. Katsu wondered if that confirmed her adoption.
"Because she's sixteen and you're twelve, Hikaru," Takara answered quickly, barely glancing at her youngest.
"So?"
"When I called they said that they had all of your papers in the main office. Why they didn't simply send them in the mail along with your uniform is beyond me," Takara sighed. She grasped the steering wheel, her bracelets jangling against one another. Katsusaki made a small noise of agreement, grasping the door handle and opening it, only stopping herself at the last second before she smacked a kid who was walking past and not watching where he was going. He tossed an expletive over his shoulder without stopping, and Katsusaki winced, already hearing her brother repeating it ten thousand times just to spite their mother.
"You be careful, ok?" Takara called as Katsusaki stepped out. She turned around and quickly shouldered her backpack, glancing behind her mother as another parents honked their horn obnoxiously. Her mother glared over her shoulder, looking plainly annoyed.
"Okay," Katsusaki replied, taking a step back away from the curb slowly, not sure if her mother was done yet, but somewhat in a hurry to get into the school and get it over with.
"And have a good day," she called, smiling. The impatient parent honked again. Katsusaki looked again-it was a woman in a rather expensive looking car, and for whatever reason she looked absolutely furious. Her long bottle blond hair was pulled back in a stylish bun, and her eyes were hidden behind what looked like designer sunglasses.
"Alright, mom," Katsusaki answered quickly, feeling somewhat nervous. The woman looked about ready to tear someone's head off. Katsusaki figured she better run inside now, before her mother got her car smashed up due to some misplaced road-rage.
"Mo!"
Katsusaki sighed and stopped, turning around robotically. Takara looked at her oldest child and only daughter and smiled somewhat sympathetically. She knew it was hard on her children to be moving around so often, going to new schools and having to so often make new friends. It was hard to be alone.
"I love you, Mo," she called. Katsusaki glanced around her, wondering if she was going to be mocked for being called after like a child. She realized quickly that no one seemed to notice her-she was practically invisible here. Maybe that was for the better.
"I love you, too, mom." With that she turned around and hoped that it would be the end of it. She walked to the stairs stiffly, counting down from thirty, and once she reached zero she turned and glanced behind her. With one final screeching honk from the furious blond woman, her mother rolled up the window and drove away. Thank goodness.
Katsusaki turned, and was promptly knocked to the ground.
She squeaked in surprise as she fell straight on to her back-side, and it took her a moment to realize that she hadn't run into something-someone had run into her. And they clearly didn't have the time to stop. She looked up, dazed, as whoever it was dashed around her. Someone with blond hair. A boy or a girl-their hair was impeccably long, but they were wearing the male uniform-she didn't know.
"Sorry!" They tossed an apology over their shoulder, leaving Katsusaki in the dust.
"Hey, Deidara! Watch where you're going!"
Katsusaki turned away just as the blond haired boy was getting into the Dragon Lady's care. She just caught several of the words-"What in the he-"before the car door slammed shut and she ripped away from the curb and left in what must have been record timing.
It took her a second to realize that there was a tall, muscular boy holding a long arm out to her. It took her another second for her to realize that he was offering her a hand to her feet. She stared for a moment, before looking up at the towering boy before her. Blue hair that practically stood on end, dark eyes, and more of those rogue tattoos she mentioned.
"Sorry about him," he chuckled. "He's an idiot-he doesn't know where he's going half the time." Katsusaki sat there for several more seconds, staring dumbly at his hand, and just when she thought he should be offended he began to laugh. "What are you waiting for? I don't bite." He stopped for a second, then shot her a lopsided grin. "Hard."
She took his hand and he pulled her effortlessly to her feet. She shouldn't have been surprised by his strength, but she was certainly intimidated.
"My names Kisame Hoshigaki," he said smoothly, bending down and scooping up her bag. He held it out to her, and Katsusaki found herself staring rudely again before she accepted it.
"Uhm, Katsusaki Mo Outoya. You can call me whatever variation of my name you like." She winced, wondering if it sounded too rehearsed. If it did, it had reason to. She had been introducing herself the same way for years now.
"Shrimp it is, then," Kisame grinned, flashing bright white, and maybe too-sharp teeth as he stared down at her. She was at least a foot shorter than him, if not more, and Katsusaki found herself blushing at the nick-name. "You must be new."
Katsusaki blinked up at him, then glanced down at herself as though she had a board strapped across her chest with 'Newbie' written in neon. When she found none, she looked back up at him, clearly confused.
"I am. How did you know?" She blushed slightly, unable to help it. Kisame shrugged.
"I can just tell."
"Oh."
They stood there for several seconds, and for every second that passed Katsu could feel her face growing redder and redder. Finally, she couldn't take the silence any more, and she quickly turned to make her way inside.
"I-I have to go. It was a pleasure to meet you, Kisame," she called, and she turned so quickly she almost smacked right into another unsuspecting student and she made her way up the short stair way that led to the doors. They called after her, but she was already making her way into the building, suddenly feeling much more embarrassed.
She missed Kisame's half-wave and curious stare after her before another boy called to him and his attention was pulled away.
Katsusaki sighed once she was out of Kisame's line of sight. The air conditioning was on, even though the front doors were opened, and she tugged at the sleeves of her winter uniform where she had pushed them up slightly. For a moment she stood there, in the middle of the hallway, fumbling with her shirt and trying to hold on to her book bag at the same time, struggling to hide the rising panic she could feel in her chest.
The other students moved around her, laughing with their friends, slamming lockers and chatting loudly. The hallway was filled to the brim with noise, and she felt as though she was drowning in it all. She stared down at her hands, tugging at her sleeves though she wasn't quite sure why she was still doing it, because she had pulled them down as far as she could go. She realized that she didn't know where the office was, and wondered if maybe she should have asked for Kisame's help, but would he have even helped her in the first place or would he have just called her shrimp again and laughed at her for being so incompetent maybe she could ask someone around her but what if they scoffed at her and-
Katsusaki stilled for a moment. She closed her eyes, and breathed in slowly through her nose. One, two. She was fine. Three, four. She had done this countless times before. Five, six. Being calm was the key. Seven, eight. No matter the situation. Nine, ten. Breathing is the most important thing.
She opened her eyes, her heart rate much more steady, and looked up. Step one, look around. She did-there were people in every direction, sweaty, fleshy bodies fighting for space in the narrow hallways. But beyond them she could see door ways, and beside those doorways were numbered plaques. Step two, think. She had been told that the office was near the C-wing, and as she took a closer look she noticed that the numbers followed a pattern; C13, C14, C15. Step three, move. She followed the flow of people, and when she finally managed to break free, she was delighted to find herself standing in front of the office.
She smiled, somewhat proud of herself. She stepped forward and pushed open the door, and was greeted with the calming, business-only manor that most school offices tended to have. She had seen enough of them to know that, in retrospect, they were all the same:
Secretary behind the desk looking either somewhat disgruntled or much too peppy, sometimes chewing bubble-gum and sometimes not. Potted plant in the corner to liven up the place. Several chairs placed in a neat line, a table beside that, and some career counseling pamphlets to top it all off. Occasionally, there would be a student sitting in the chairs for some reason or another.
Katsusaki found herself looking at one such student, and she froze. Not because of his rumpled clothing, or because of the way he sat like he owned the place, or because she was having some romance-novel moment (because she certainly was not - in fact, quite the opposite.) No, none of those things. Katsusaki found herself wanting desperately to turn around straight away and run all the way back to where she came from because she was sure she was receiving the most terrifying glare she had ever been given in her entire life.
The boy stared her down for a moment, and Katsusaki stared back with wide eyes, her heart practically leaping into her throat. She was sure he was about to shoot her - thankfully, she managed to get away with a close encounter with her very first heart-attack as he looked away, deciding to focus his glare out the window, instead.
She hesitated at the door, but before she could manage to convince herself that the best option would be to simply turn around and leaved before the boy decided he was going to take whatever bad day he was having out on her, the door fell closed behind her and clicked shut. Katsusaki flinched, but it was enough to shock her out of her daze and she forced herself to move forward.
The secretary behind the desk was the much-too-peppy type. She had short brown hair and fair skin, and her desk was covered in little pig figurines. Her name-plaque read 'Ms. Shizune.' She wasn't married, but it made sense, seeing as she looked rather young yet. She looked up at Katsusaki with a pleasantly surprised smile.
"Hello! How can I help you?" She chimed, grinning. Katsusaki offered a tentative smile back.
"Uhm, I'm new." She inched closer to the desk, as though she were afraid there was a trap door waiting if she got too close. "I have to pick up some papers-"
"Oh, yes! Hold on just one minute," Ms. Shizune chimed, hitting the 't' just a little too aggressively. She paged through a couple papers on her desk, flicking through a file, and let out a triumphant sound when she found what she was looking for. "Outoya, Katsusaki Mo. Is that correct?" She looked up, her brown eyes wide and sparkling. Katsusaki nodded affirmation, wondering how anyone could seem so peppy at such an early time in the morning. "I have everything you need right here."
Ms. Shizune was quick to hand over several papers, listing off what each one was as she went.
"This one tells you all the rules you need to know - it's sort of like a syllabus. It's simply school policy. This one is a flyer about all the clubs and activities we have going on in the school. It's quite a long list, and some of them have already started up, but if there's anything you're interested in don't be afraid to come down and talk to me - we can get you all situated. And this one is your schedule. Don't lose it! It's very important. It's a fine of seventy-five cents if we need to print you a new one." Shizune glanced around, then placed her hand flat beside her mouth and began to whisper as though she were telling a secret. "But we just say that so we don't have kids coming in here all the time asking us to print a whole bunch of them. If you lose yours, don't be afraid to come in and ask for a new one, ok?"
She winked, and Katsusaki nodded, not quite sure what to do. She glanced over at the scary red-headed boy. Certainly she didn't think that she was being quiet enough that he didn't hear her?
"Oh, and one last thing." She pulled out a little card and set it on the desk with a slight 'snap.' "This is your id. It's really important that you don't lose this one, because it costs two dollars to replace. That's the company that print's it's fine, not ours, so we can't really help you with that." She waved her hands in front of her rather comically, and Katsusaki couldn't help but smile, even if it was only out of her need to be polite. "We don't get new students here at Konoha High School very often, so I guess we're not really used to it. Normally we would have someone to show you around-oh!"
Ms. Shizune turned and acted as though she had just seen the red-headed boy for the first time. She grinned as he looked up at her, still appearing somewhat disgruntled, but at least he wasn't directing his harsh glare at Katsusaki this time.
"I'm sure Mr. Akasuna could do it - when he's done with whatever it was-"
"No!" Katsu shouted. Ms. Shizune jumped and turned to her, surprised. Behind her the red-headed boy raised an eyebrow. Katsusaki blushed brightly, averting her eyes as she gathered her papers quickly, laughing nervously. "I-I mean, no, no, it's ok. I'm sure I can find my way on my own, thank you. I wouldn't want to burden anyone. Thanks for the help and everything! Really, it was super nice of you. Bye, now! See you again soon!"
Katsusaki slammed the door behind her. She leaned against it and let out a breathe of relief. That was a close one.
She waited a moment to calm her rapidly beating heart, her eyes closed. She took several deep breaths before opening them again.
And promptly found the halls completely empty.
Her eyes widened and she jerked away from the door in a sudden panic. She was late for her first class! She realized she didn't even hear the bell ring. Frantically she flipped through her papers, dropping the activity flyer in the process and didn't bother to pick it up as she came to her schedule. Her first class started at 7:40. English, with Mr. Hatake. She glanced at a clock on the far wall. It was already 7:42. A sense of dread filled her, and she decided that she would have much preferred if she had just turned around and walked straight out the doors when she had the chance. She was already going to leave a bad impression on the first day.
Quickly she made her way through the hallways, searching desperately for some kind of map as she went along. The further she walked, the less likely she felt she was going to find one. She searched frantically, but it didn't seem like there was one in sight. She frowned, having remembered seeing one...
Inside the office.
With a groan she smacked her forehead. How could she be so stupid? She could have at least checked the map before rushing out the door like some kind of scared-y cat.
"Why are you hitting yourself?"
Katsusaki jerked from her thoughts and looked up to find someone staring directly at her. She blinked once, twice, before blushing furiously.
"I-uhm. I'm sort of lost," she answered honestly, feeling her face growing hotter. The teacher - clearly he wasn't a student, though with the way he loosely wore his tie and had his shirt sleeves rolled up made it hard to believe - stared at her for several more seconds before looking to his right.
Katsusaki followed her gaze and almost fell over. There one the wall was exactly what she had been looking for. There was even a little gold star on the page, and next to it someone had written 'You Are Here,' in blue Sharpie. She opened her mouth to make some sort of a comment, or excuse or something, but nothing came out and Katsusaki opted instead to simply bask in her own humiliation. She glanced at a clock. There seemed to be an abundance of those in this school. She found she was six minutes late at this point. She was probably already marked tardy. There was no way her teacher was ever going to like her. She could kiss all of her good grades good-bye.
With a sigh, the man ran his hand through his springy silver-white hair. It was a shocking color, particularly because he looked so young. Katsusaki wondered if it was natural.
"I've got a little time, I guess. Where are you headed?" He asked. Katsusaki glanced at her schedule again.
"A13. English with Mr. Hatake," she answered, then looked back up at him. He gave no indication of even having heard her, simply stared at her with his dark, almost black eyes.
"I'm headed in that direction anyway," he replied casually, stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking past her, back the way she had come. Katsusaki turned on her heel, glancing at the map on the wall. It looked like the easiest way to get there was to go the way she had been going - but this man was clearly a teacher, and who was she to deny his help when clearly she needed it? "Come on. We can't keep 'em waiting."
Katsusaki hurried after him, folding her schedule and putting it in her uniform book-bag along with her id. She followed the man down the hall in silence, and he barely seemed to notice she was there. He didn't even glance back to check if she was still with him or not.
Eventually he came to a stop outside of an open door. Katsusaki peeked inside. Clearly it was a teachers lounge.
"You're going to have to wait out here. Sorry it's so out of the way. The math teacher's make the best coffee," he chuckled, turning into the lounge. Katsusaki pressed her lips together, but she didn't say anything. Surely now that she had a teacher with her, Mr. Hatake couldn't hate her, right? A teacher was the ultimate hall-pass.
Still, she found herself glancing at the clock. Ten minuets now. Maybe it was still possible for him to hate her. Could she get kicked out of a class here for being ten minutes late?
The teacher came out beside her, holding a paper cup filled with coffee, and he pointed as he sipped. Katsusaki took his direction and followed him down the hallway, this way in another direction. He seemed intent on taking his sweet time, and the whole way he didn't make another comment. He simply kept drinking his coffee.
Katsusaki found herself feeling incredibly relieved as she noticed the room numbers now had A's in front of them, and she had to stop herself from running ahead of him into the class room she belonged. She stayed respectful, following behind him until he stopped in front of A13. The door was open, and the class inside was filled with the chatter of working students. She smiled in relief, and turned to the teacher.
"Thank you so much," she breathed. He simply shrugged in response, too busy sipping his coffee. "I don't mean to be a bother, but do you think you could come inside for a second, just to, you know..." she blushed, glancing inside the room. She couldn't see her teacher yet, but the students were beginning to notice there were people standing outside their classroom.
The teacher raised an eyebrow and glanced into the classroom behind her.
"Yeah, I guess so."
Katsusaki grinned gratefully.
"Thank you so much," she repeated, and she turned and walked into the class room, less hesitant now that she had her ultimate hall pass. She looked around for the teacher, expecting to find them at the front of the room, and when she didn't she glanced towards the back, hoping to find him at his desk. But he wasn't in there. Did he step out for a minute?
"Alright class, settle down." Katsusaki jumped and turned, her eyebrows coming together in confusion as the teacher that had led her down there walked over to the table that was placed at the front of the room and set his paper coffee cup down on it. "We have a new student - what was your name again?" He glanced over at her, scratching his head curiously.
She froze. For a second she stared, processing the information, her eyes wide. Then the pieces fell together and - there it was. This was Mr. Hatake. Mr. Hatake had led her to his own room, having been late for his own class. Fifteen minutes late, in fact. Because he went to get coffee from the math wing, because the math teachers made better coffee. The silver haired man was Mr. Hatake.
"I-I, uhm," Katsusaki coughed, turning to the students swiftly. "Hello, my name is Katsusaki Mo Outoya. You can call me whatever variation of my name you like." That was the easiest part, saying the lines she had rehearsed. She gave a polite little wave, and Mr. Hatake coughed.
"Yeah, that. Uh, go sit down next to..." He glanced over his class. It was rather small, and the students were relatively dispersed. "Kakuzu. Kakuzu, raise your hand - or something..." He muttered as he turned around, shuffling through several papers on his desk. Katsusaki shifted nervously, glancing over the class, wondering who 'Kakuzu' was, exactly.
Finally, near the back, a brunette with the most strikingly vibrant green eyes raised his hand half way up, looking none-too-pleased at having to be placed next to the newbie. Katsusaki blushed and made her way to the back of the room, her head ducked down, and quickly took her seat beside the boy.
"Alright, let's see," Hatake grumbled, digging through the messy piles of paper he had on his front table. After several long seconds of shuffling, he finally seemed to find what he was looking for. "We'll be reading The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I want you guys to think constructively - not like last time, when you gave me half-assed answers. You're in Honors English for a reason, and I want you to show me why you're in here." He shot his students a short glare before licking his thumb and leaving piles of papers on the front desks to be passed back. "You'll read it, and then we'll have a discussion tomorrow. Consider this your homework. You can get started in class today, but that means no talking unless you've finished ahead of time and want to discuss it with some of the people sitting around you."
Katsusaki took the packet as it was handed to her and glanced over it once, reading through it briefly.
"Ah, Kakuzu?" Mr. Hatake called. The brunette looked up, clearly looking annoyed. "Would you mind getting Katsusaki up to speed before you start reading?"
Katsusaki glanced at Kakuzu and flinched at the harsh glare she was being given for his inconvenience. His green eyes were hard not to look into, which only seemed to be to draw her into a trap. He scowled somewhat, and Katsusaki noticed a long scar along his jaw, disappearing underneath his somewhat shaggy hair.
"You'll need that book," Kakuzu bit out, jabbing his finger in the direction of the book shelves to Katsusaki's right. She turned to look, finding herself staring at a whole bunch of books, none of which seemed to be titled 'That Book.' "And these notes." He slapped his notebook down on her desk, making her jump. "You can take it home for one day. If you keep any longer than that I'm going to charge you. If there's any damage done to it, you're going to be the one buying me a new note-book and re-writing all of the notes I have in there, as well as paying the late fee. Got it?"
Katsusaki stared at him, her eyes wide, and she made sure to nod as quickly as possible, even if it was a little stiff. If anything, that only seemed to make his glare become harsher.
"Got it?" He repeated, practically snarling.
"G-got it!" She yelped. Only when he turned away to glare at the rest of the class did she realize that they were all staring. She felt herself blush again and was quick to hide behind her short blond hair, ducking her head.
He didn't need to do much else. The entire class swung back around, going back to their own business. Kakuzu rolled his eyes before getting to work, ignoring the way his skin itched out of pure irritation when the new girl glanced at him every so often.
Maybe if he pretended she didn't exist, she would leave him alone.
A/N : So after a bit of speculation, I sort of realized that this fanfic was absolute crap. Total crap. So I'm re-writing it. I'll leave the other chapters up for now, but those that have been rewritten will be marked at the bottom, so you know.
Oh, and on another note, I'm considering taking a beta reader. I've never used one before and I don't really understand how it works. I think that I send someone the version I've completed, they read it through and correct any mistakes, then send it back and I credit them, right?
REWRITTEN VERSION
I own only Katsusaki Mo Outoya, Takara Outoya, Hikaru Outoya and the plot-line. All other characters and names belong to the author of the Naruto Manga series and those affiliated.