Ok, so i'm just going to say that this popped into my head and demanded to be written. Yes the two debates in here i've actually had at my lunch table. Things seem disorganized and skip around from view points a lot because this chapter was just meant to get Tawny with the Akatsuki.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, if I did then the Akatsuki would have taken over the world long ago.
Could anything possibly be worse than this? The agonizing pain brought on by this torture was almost enough to make its victims scream. The room stayed silent, for they knew if they complained it would only get worse. Thus they took the pain quietly. This torture was, as expected, the most ingenious way to make you suffer. One torture chamber courtesy of the government, torture sessions handed out by one Mrs. Floyd. That's right, the thing that made all these teenagers (for that was the age range of all the victims) squirm with unease was a high school course. Not just any high school course, mind you, it was Nutrition and Wellness. At the beginning of the semester it was Personal and Family Finances. Nobody, except maybe four or five people, even signed up for the stupid elective.
One girl in particular complained the most about Mrs. Floyd outside of class, dreading even stepping foot in the classroom lest she be devoured by the demon in disguise. Said girl was watching Mrs. Floyd with narrowed gray eyes, her face contorted into a scowl. The she-devil either didn't notice or didn't care that the girl sitting in the back was plotting ways to end this class forever.
"Miss Moore, why don't you give me the definition of Cardio-Respiratory Endurance." The nasally, high-pitched voice shattered the daze of her victim.
"Sucks to be you Tawny." Snickering slightly Lilah, one of Tawny's friends, turned her attention back to her doodles. Tawny sighed and pushed her black hair out of her eyes.
"Cardio-Respiratory Endurance is how well your heart and lungs can keep up with your activity." Tawny felt her heart swell with victory as she saw the fake smile slip from Mrs. Floyd's face. Man was she glad she actually read over the terms earlier. Before Mrs. Floyd could respond the bell rang and the class sped from the room.
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Tawny's laugh filled a dimly lit meeting room, the sound coming from a sort of hologram that hovered above the center or the mahogany conference table. The hologram looked more like a giant television you saw at basketball games or something, the ones that had screens on all sides so everyone in the stadium could see what was going on. Nine figures watched as Tawny got into a debate about samurai and vikings with someone at her lunch table. The discussion quickly turned heated, lasting quiet awhile, and Tawny managed to drag the rest of the table into the debate. She argued with a few others, whose reasons were weak and quickly broken. Soon she had the whole table agreeing with her that a samurai could beat a viking in a fight, even the one she started the debate with grudgingly agreed.
"Is she the one?" A hollow male voice floated from the middle seat on the left side of the table.
"Would we have wasted a whole month watching her if she wasn't?" The voice that spoke this time was directly opposite of the first voice, sounding gruff and low. Distinctly male.
"No, I don't suppose we would Kakuzu. She just doesn't look like much." Kakuzu grumbled a bit before falling silent. A new voice piped p from the head of the table. "She isn't much, Sasori, but what we want rests deep in her subconscious. You'll find out what I mean in time, if she proves to be the one we need." In the wake of the powerful, commanding voice came a deafening silence. Everyone's attention once again turned to the girl who was now writing in a notebook in class.
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Tawny sighed lightly as she stepped into the school. After spending a weekend alone (again) she really didn't want to be around so many people. However, as soon as she stepped in the building she knew something was off. The anxiety and dread she felt every day wasn't there. In its place was a sense of waiting, almost like when you know somebody got you a gift and you're just waiting to see it.
Tawny sat down with a thump at one of the many round tables in the cafeteria, noticing that at least something normal was happening. Every day Tawny pulled her butt out of bed and managed to come sit alone in this room at 7:15 without fail. There was always a few people in there, but no one she knew or talked too. They always talked a little loud, just as they were doing now, and snippets of their conversations slipped into her ear.
"Yeah, I heard....teacher convention....all gone....substitutes..." Tawny zoned into their conversation, piecing together what she had heard and what she was now hearing. Apparently there was a teacher convention a few states over and all four of her teachers were gone. It seemed a little strange to her that she would be having four substitutes a day.
Tawny paused in her musing, a smile worming its way onto her face. This convention meant no Mrs. Floyd! She cheered silently to herself. Not to mention she didn't have to deal with Mrs. Cleft. Downside to getting rid of those two teachers were that she couldn't see Mrs. Cromwell...ah well, once that teacher convention was over she could!
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Tawny sat down at her computer and quickly typed in her password and username, relaxing into her chair once she was logged on. The only two friends she had in this class had to take their biology EOC. She had taken that last semester when she had biology. So now Tawny sat alone in CBA (Computer Business Application). She glanced towards the teachers desk and saw a very young man with red hair and deep, soulless mahogany eyes. She looked away, not wanting to get on the new sub's bad side. It wasn't that she was scared of him, because she wasn't. Maybe a little weirded out by the way she studied her and rest of the class, or maybe it was because her gut screamed at her that something was wrong. Tawny just didn't want on his bad side because she didn't know how long he was going to be here, nobody knew him or how he'd act, and he could make her life hell in this class. Silently he wrote his name on the board, clearing his throat lightly.
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"My name is Mr. Lee," Sasori lied easily, annoyed already at the way the people in this world addressed senseis and adults, "your assignment is on the board. Don't complain about it and turn it in before class is over or you get a zero." He heard a few people grumble and turned his eyes to see his targets reaction. The girl just looked over the assignment and started, slipping ear buds into her smallish ears.
About halfway through the class, 45 minutes to be exact, Sasori looked up as his target snatched her assignment off the printer, stapled it, and slid it into the tray before taking her seat again. Mentally he noted that when she had something to do she kept focused and plowed through it without complaint. She was smart too, not even asking about what to do (Sasori thought that the rest of the kids whined about not knowing what to do). Then again she might just be like that in this class because she liked it or some reason. He'd have to ask Deidara how she is in his class.
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Tawny slung her backpack over her shoulder, slipped out of the room and headed to her locker. Joyous day! No tall people blocked it! Tawny wiggled the door, the only way to open the stubborn thing, and grabbed the binder she needed when it opened. As she walked to her most dreaded class, she took the time to think. Something was off about Mr. Lee, he didn't look like the teacher type. She had a sinking feeling that Mr. Lee wasn't even his name, only she didn't know why. Maybe it was stress finally catching up to her. Seeing as how she wouldn't even see him until tomorrow she pushed it out of her mind. The only thing Tawny needed to worry about now was the sub in Mrs. Floyd's class.
When Tawny walked into the classroom she could hear the mutterings of the boys, talking about how hot the new sub was. She caught snippets of the conversations and heard something about a nice ass and a beautiful face. She took her seat and looked over at the teachers desk (again) to see the woman they were talking about. She had long blond hair that had the top part pulled up into a ponytail, a section hanging down to cover her left eye. The right eye was a pretty blue. Apparently she heard what the guys were talking about because her eye twitched and she wrote her name on the board.
"My name's Mr. Arte, hm." The voice and the grunt were definitely male. The class got really quiet, and Tawny saw her friend Cody turn to give her an incredulous look. That was the last straw for Tawny. She found herself clutching her sides, tears streaming down her face, and on the floor. She couldn't breath, and the laughter just wouldn't stop. When she calmed down enough to get back in her seat she could see everyone hiding smiles, snickers, or laughter. Mr. Arte, on the other hand, didn't seem to find any of this funny. He shot Tawny a very nasty look, and her gut told her that he was just like Mr. Lee.
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Deidara was not amused. Who did these brats think they were! His target was the worst of them. Hell, she even fell asleep once while he was talking! Not to mention the laughing fit she had earlier in the class. He could only hope that she had given Sasori as hard a time as she gave him, all this was out of partnership spite of course. Maybe Kakuzu and Itachi could put her in her place. Hopefully. He almost laughed in relief when the bell rang, only to realize he had two more classes full of brats to deal with.
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Tawny slipped into her seat, getting out her paper and calculator. She had always felt a mixture of feelings for geometry. She felt dread because of the work, and a sense of calm that working the equations gave her. It was a steady pace she worked, not to much effort going into thinking about the problems, but it just took so...long.
By this point in the day Tawny gave up any hope of having a sub that didn't give her the creeps. It was a good thing she had given up, because this sub's eyes screamed impatience and a violence he wouldn't be scared to use. He seemed pretty tan, had green eyes, and scruffy brown hair. He sat relaxed in his chair, sipping coffee and reading the paper. He glanced up uninterestedly to scan the room, letting his eyes settle on Tawny. She shifted uncomfortably and picked up the test review that was on her desk.
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Kakuzu noticed that the target hated asking for help. Out of the twenty five problems on the review only two gave her trouble, but she didn't come ask him for help until the second one. The first problem she had toyed with for about five minutes before realizing she needed help. Instead of crawling to him and whining like the rest of the brats, she asked one of her friends. It seemed that she would rather ask for help from her peers (her friends to be more precise) than from her superiors.
Unfortunately for her, when she asked about the second treacherous problem they didn't know. Even when she asked him for help she only wanted to know the equation that she was missing. He gave her the least amount of help he could, and she took it happily. Even if she would rather have not asked for help.
"Mr. Stein, could you help me with number twenty?" Great, another brat who didn't want to do their work by themselves. Kakuzu grumbled a bit, hating his cover name, and turned to help the kid. Why anyone would want to be a teacher he would never know.
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Oh happy days! Lunch was actually edible today! The chicken sandwich Tawny had gotten screamed at her to eat it, the mashed potatoes that were salted to perfection whispering lowly at her to devour them, and that lovely red apple demanded for her to bite into it. Conversation around the table flowed over her as she ate, content to observe for the moment. Until her friend Josh said something sexist again.
"Guys are better swordsman then girls. That's just how it is."
"Maybe in strength Josh, but in speed and balance girls are usually better."
"Not true! Guys have better stances, so their balance is better."
"It's not about stances you dunderhead. A girl naturally has a better center of gravity. Since a girl has the balance and are lighter, then the girl gets the speed and most likely the precision."
"Guys are still stronger, and better at fighting."
"Strength isn't all that matters. If I was fighting you and you took a swing at me that was full of power and missed, you'd be left wide open to an attack. If I could move quick enough to get in and get you. Game over."
"You still need the strength to get me. And what if I didn't miss?"
"If you hit me then i'd have to rely on what remained of my balance and speed with a wound."
"See! We are better." Tawny could only sigh at this.
"If you take a guy and a girl that are exactly alike save for gender and give hem the exact same training, then it will depend on the terrain and the other outside variables on who will win. If you factor in that guys are naturally hot heads and tend to go berserk, like Daniel here, then they will most likely loose."
"No! If a guy goes berserk then he gets stronger"
"If an opponent remains level headed during a fight he will always defeat the enemy that has shut off his mind for strength."
Tawny could see that Josh was subdued as he nodded his head and agreed with her. The others at the table laughed at their meaningless debate and carried on with their conversations.
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Tawny walked to the field house, opening the door to her history class. All of the girls were staring at their new teacher dreamily, obviously smitten by his looks. She had to admit he wasn't bad looking. He had raven hair pulled into a low ponytail, the base resting on neck, and deep eyes so dark they looked black. He was standing, leaning against the counter and surveying the class with cold indifference. Again a small sliver of fear wormed its way into Tawny, but she stubbornly stomped it out. What unnerved her the most was that he, like the other three subs, seemed the study her closer than the rest.
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God how he hated being around these kids. The girls tried to flirt (with the exception of the target who stayed quiet and read) or stared at him, he could hear the guys talking about how he wasn't all that great, and they all expected him to talk the whole time and explain the notes they were to take. Instead he put the notes up on the smart board, switching to the next slide when he thought they should be done. After the first three slides (and much whining from the slow or lazy kids) he told them to stop whining and get the notes from someone later. He noted with some satisfaction that the target and a few others easily kept up with the notes.
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A week passed by rather quickly. During that week Itachi, Deidara, Kakuzu, and Sasori watched their target quite closely at school while Zetsu kept an eye on her while she was at home. Between the five geniuses they had come to the conclusion that the target was strange. She had such contradictory views that it was almost funny. She hated people interaction (a few people she didn't mind, depending on her mood) but at the same time Zetsu found she hated to be alone. She hated the noise of people and wanted it to just be quiet when they went on a nature walk in Deidara's class, but she needed noise going at home when she was alone and she needed the noise of an air unit when she was going to sleep. She was a violent person, but if she ever hit someone she felt bad about it. They had no idea what went through her head. Her personality seemed to change so much that even she might not know what she felt.
One thing they found to stick out like a sore thumb was that she wasn't happy. She didn't like the way the world was, she felt stuck in her life, disliked her government, the town, and she really disliked a lot of people. Zetsu also found out that on Monday and Wednesday she went to Taekwondo classes. Zetsu would watch the classes undetected and noted what he saw. Her kicks and flexibility were good bordering on great, her punches didn't look that strong and her stances needed work. Curiously her knee strikes were relatively weak, but her elbow strikes were quite powerful.
Zetsu also noticed that on Friday her stepbrothers came to visit, and picked up that the target would be home alone for almost the whole day on Sunday when her stepbrothers were taken home. As the five reported what they knew to Pein, using the chakra holograms of course, they could see him thinking about when the next time a chance like this might appear.
"Take her today when she's alone. If you have to knock her out then do it, if you have to hit her a few times then hit her. Under no circumstances are you to kill her or break anything. Dismissed."
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Tawny sat on her old blue couch, snacking on a sandwich and watching Criminal Minds. Her yellow lab, which had just been lying by the couch, got up and started barking at the front door."
"What's up? Mom and Scott aren't home yet." The barking didn't stop, in fact it seemed to intensify. Tawny opened the back door and whistled. "Outside Sport." Sport took one last glance at the door and slipped outside. Once she had closed the door Tawny went and looked out the front.
Nothing. Just like she suspected.
Tawny turned off the t.v. and threw away her paper plate before heading up the stairs to her room. She shut her door silently and walked over to her bed. She made it halfway there when a strong arm wrapped around her torso, pinning her amrs to her side, and a hand clamped over her mouth. Before Tawny could even start thinking again a pair of red eyes appeared in front of her. She stared mesmerized at the swirling comma like dots in the eyes before everything went black.
QUESTION! Two actually. 1) Who do you think Tawny should end up being with? 2) Is it easier for you to read a story in third person or first person?
Reviews are greatly appreciated, but you don't have to if ya don't wanna. You see any mistakes about the characters then go ahead and tell me.