Disclaimer: No… (looks for copyright papers) Sigh. Still not mine. Though I keep searching on ebay.
Warning: KisaIta (not much in this chapter…), SasoDei, gaijin bashing… Swearing. That's about it.
This is most definitely the longest chapter I have ever written in my career of chapters.
Don't expect it too often :D
2. Gaijin
Sasori usually walked home. It was cheap (free, more like), efficient, and it gave him exercise. Which he didn't need, but got anyway. He was used to it.
"Home" was a rather large, by Japanese standards, apartment complex. Five rooms: His, his grandmother Chiyo's, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a room for laundry. Hardly glamorous when the largest room (the kitchen) was 15 x 10. It was also on the third floor.
He took of his shoes once inside and set them neatly by the door as he called, "Tadaima, Obaasan."
"Okaeri nasai, Sasori," his grandmother called back. "How was school?"
"One-hundred and seventy-six percent on the last science test," the red-head answered in a flat-toned voice, making his way to his room. "And Orochimaru is planning something. I'm going to my room to study for my assignment. Please call me for dinner."
His grandmother sighed as he walked past her. Gangs weren't something she wanted him to be involved in, but at the school he was going to, it was more of wishful thinking on her part. Gangs were a given in a school where they taught the shinobi ways.
Sasori heard her sigh as he left, and knew what she was thinking about. He didn't worry, though, as his skill was more than enough to keep himself protected… probably the only thing that kept his grandmother from pulling him out.
Dropping his schoolbag by the door, he pulled out the booklet of information Rei-sama had given him. He began to read.
Name: Taiga Deidara
Race: American born, father of Japanese descent
Age: 17.3 yrs.
Village: Iwa
Status: Second year chunnin
Academic: 99.7, Top of class
Athletic: 100.0, Top of class
Background:
Father works with American Embassy; Japanese descent made him an ideal diplomat. Has gained much respect from the Japanese Government. Was transferred two months ago for a three-year term, and brought his family along.
Before changing countries, he had perfect scores at one of Tokyo Cultural School's sister institutions in Los Angeles, California. He has adjusted admirably to the school system in Japan, and his strange fighting style is rather interesting; he can create multiple clay creatures including flight-capable birds that he appears to detonate when in position. An interesting tactic he has created and employed since coming here is an interesting use of Kage Bunshin and his clay, producing exploding clones. At this point, it can be assumed that he is an explosives expert, and we, Akatsuki, do not have one at this time. It is firmly suggested that he be brought into the group to work for us.
His personality is antisocial. He seems to want nothing more than to study or spar. Strangely enough, medical records drawn up on him show no allergies or illnesses, but he had been brought to various medical institutions for numerous injuries spanning broken wrists to third- and second-degree burns, amid the more mundane cuts and bruises. They do not appear to be a result of sparring. In any case, he does not try to make friends and seems to discourage any contact possible.
"Do not appear to be a result of sparring"… probably abuse, or maybe just plain bad luck, Sasori thought to himself. Discourages contact… antisocial and withdrawn, an introvert, or something else. Despite reflecting on this paradox for a few minutes, he could not resolve it.
He checked the teen's stats on the training grounds.
Average Hours per Day: 5
Registered Spar: 237 matches to Iwa chunnin
Losses: 0 matches to Iwa chunnin
Draws: 0 matches to Iwa chunnin
Wins: 237 matches to Iwa chunnin
Impressive. He hadn't lost a match yet. That explained his 100.0 percent score. Now… Academic Stats. Let's see if he's on par with our intellect level, Sasori thought with a grim sort of pleasure.
Art: 100.0 percent
History: 100.0 percent
Literature and Western Literature: 99.6 percent
Mathematics: 100.0 percent
Science: 100.0 percent
Training: 100.0 percent
Hah! the red head thought triumphantly at the boy's Literature and Western Literature score, conveniently forgetting that most of the other members of Akatsuki had worse scores. In reality, only he and Itachi actually got a higher score than this kid Deidara. Everyone else was below a ninety-eight score.
This still didn't stop him from feeling incredibly important. Stupid gaijin, he thought with a sense of victory, you should go home.
Deidara walked into his homeroom feeling out of place, as usual. An American in a room of foreigners, from a country that didn't take kindly to his country to boot. (1)
A mouse in a room of cats, without a mouse hole to bolt to. Hmm… three guesses on what happens to it.
And right now, you could literally feel the hostility radiating from everyone as he stepped over the threshold. He supposed defeating all of the foreigners in the room from the country that didn't like his just didn't make his situation any better. Make that a cat which the mouse had dropped a hot iron on.
Not that he had a choice. His father only expected the best, and if you didn't make the best… well. Too bad for you, here's another bruise to add to your ever-growing collection.
Mutters punctuated his arrival. From his study of Japanese (that he had started as soon as he learned they were being transferred, though he spoke it at home in Los Angeles), he could understand what they were talking about most of the time. Sometimes the slang and pop references were incomprehensible, though.
"Stupid gaijin…"
"Bastard. He cheated."
"On you, maybe. He must have on Seiji-"
"Yeah! There's no way he could've beat Seiji in a fair fight!"
Deidara winced inwardly as he silently made his way to his desk, trying not to limp too much from when his father lost his temper last night. Seiji Takamura was the most challenging opponent he'd faced in the past few months, obviously the leader of his homeroom class. They didn't take kindly to a gaijin defeating all their best fighters without breaking a sweat, though they'd been polite enough in the beginning. Now he faced open hostility if he ever ran into any other Iwa chunnin. Genin, too. Jounin and ANBU were too aloft to care.
He managed the twenty minutes in homeroom before they were excused to go practice with the other chunnin on the Iwa training grounds, a huge building in their sector of the school campus. The whole campus was in a sort of circle, with a huge structure in the middle of the 30 square kilometer area for all the academic classes. The rest of the school grounds were divided into sectors for the various "villages" that split the Academy Students into separate groups, which formed the base for the villages.
There were five main villages (Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Iwa, Kumo) (2) and four lesser villages (Ame, Kusa, Taki, Yuki) (3). Each had a symbol on the headband that was part of the uniform used that displayed what village you fought for. Changing villages was commonplace, but you were hailed as a traitor from your original village, and the hazing that followed could be brutal. Few stayed after a year.
The uniform itself only changed as you gained rank. For example, Academy Students had absolutely nothing, as they were not part of any village. Genin had the headband, as proof they had graduated Academy, but hadn't attained chunnin level yet. Chunnin had a flak-jacket, and jounin had a souped-up version of the same jacket. ANBU walked around in light armor most of the day and masks with animal faces, since their curriculum was to basically go on suicide missions into other villages' sectors and try to steal specific things that were later reclaimed by the invaded village's ANBU- if they succeeded in stealing it in the first place.
Deidara managed to hide his limp, and spent most of the morning practicing katas. They were easy, allowed him to think, helped with his stance, and cleared up his chakra system. Most of the Iwa nin ignored him completely, though several still glared at him openly when they thought he wasn't looking. Thankfully, no one tried to get in his way, and by lunch he was hungry and ready for the academic part of the day.
To his surprise, as soon as he'd sat down, someone came over and stood at the other side of the table, just looking at him. He stared at the newcomer, a red-head with flat, brownish-red eyes, and asked, "Can I help you?"
"You are Taiga Deidara, correct?" The teen's speech was precise and slightly clipped. The blonde started to get irritated.
"Hai. And you are?..." he paused as he waited for the other to introduce himself.
"Aka Suna no Sasori." He sat down abruptly.
Deidara stared at him a few seconds longer, shrugged, and went back to eating. Shrimp and octopus sushi… at least the school made good food.
"You defeated Takamura Seiji, didn't you?"
Sasori, or whatever his name was, was really starting to annoy him with that tone of voice. Still, he stayed polite. "Hai."
The other teen was silent for a while.
"What do you know about the group named Akatsuki?"
The question came after five minutes of silence, so Deidara was somewhat surprised. He stopped eating and thought for a minute.
"Er… it's a highly selective group of shinobi and kunoichi, and you can't join unless offered. There are… uh… six male members and one female member. The leader of the group is Rei-sensei, a history teacher. Um… that's it."
The red-headed teen looked rather mollified.
"Would you be interested in joining the group if you could?"
Deidara started to suspect there was something more going on here than just a casual conversation. All the lessons from his previous school on interrogation were running through his head like crazy, and he suspected he was taking some sort of test. What of, he had no idea. He wasn't that interested, either.
"Yeah… it'd be interesting." And maybe his father would like it and leave him alone for at least one night.
Sasori looked for a second like Christmas had been cancelled. A blank face came up in time, though, for the next question.
"Will you join then?"
Deidara was so startled at the question he nearly yelped. "What?"
The red-haired teen gave a small sigh, a tiny gesture that indicated his carefully- not really- impatient dislike. "Our leader, Rei-sama, would like you to join. I am supposed to offer you the invitation. Will you join or not?"
The blonde bit his tongue. He did not like this guy at all. Saying that his leader would like him to join and not the group was a clear indicator that they, too, probably didn't like him. So, he ignored his common sense that started screaming at him.
"No," he said flatly in response, not bothering to hide the look of disgust on his face. He picked up his tray and left the boy behind, not knowing or caring what the other's response might have been. He left his tray at the counter deigned for them, and left the lunchroom with a grim elation running through him.
Damn Japanese, he thought through clenched teeth as he made his way to the main building. Just because I'm gaijin doesn't mean I'm stupid.
"That went well," someone said dryly. Sasori glanced up to see Itachi, Kisame, and some other blonde kid sitting down across from him in the spot previously occupied by Deidara.
"Kami, Sasori, what did you do?" Kisame asked disgustedly. "He looked like a nice kid, and you ran him off."
Sasori sniffed irritably. "He's a stupid gaijin. How should I know why he does what he does?"
"Gaijin or not," Itachi said, "it's pretty easy to piss someone off, no matter what nationality they are. Rei-sama isn't going to like this."
"You mean he was offered to join too?" the blonde kid asked curiously. "How many of us are you guys trying to get in?"
"It was four, before Sasori ran off one of our prime candidates," Kisame grumbled. "You, him, a guy called Tobi that's annoying as hell, and some girl."
The kid shook his head. "You mean Tobi? That idiot? He's useless. Even stupider than I am." He turned to Sasori. "Sorry, the name's Uzumaki Naruto. What's yours?"
"Aka Suna no Sasori," the red-head said, with a sense of déjà vu. "Don't tell me you're gaijin as well."
"Nope," Naruto said cheerfully. "My dad was, though. Born and raised in Japan, thankyaverymuch."
"How would you know that if you're an orphan?" Itachi asked.
"Hey, I wasn't an orphan until I was four," Naruto said, waving a hand. "Dad died in some freak accident, and mom stayed alive until I was old enough to start noticing things."
"Oh."
"Anyways, Sasori. You need to go talk to Rei-sama. He wanted all of us to check up with him sometime during lunch on how our recruiting was going.
Sasori cursed in three different languages in his head. He did know quite a few Russian swear words that he'd picked up from Kisame. He did not want to go see Rei-sama at the moment. Nevertheless, he got up and muttered "See you," to the others, and left the lunchroom.
He reflected on the way the recruiting discussion had gone. He decided if he hadn't been so… well, mean, maybe the kid would've decided to stay. And what was with the whole "Yeah, it'd be cool," and then the "Hell no," bit? Gaijin were so contradicting. They made no sense whatsoever.
Glumly, he knocked on the door to Rei-sama's office.
"Come in, Sasori. How has your attempt at recruiting gone?" the teacher asked as he walked in.
"He declined," Sasori said flatly, not going into details.
"Really?" Rei-sama did not seem angry, merely thoughtful. "Do you know why?"
"No."
The teacher raised an eyebrow at this. Damn it, Sasori cursed furiously, I forgot he can tell when you're lying so easily!
"Are you sure?"
"…yes." He must have a death wish. Who knew? He didn't. He thought he'd been pretty happy with life.
Rei-sama seemed slightly disappointed in him as he regarded him steadily.
"Very well. You may go," the teacher said at last.
Sasori turned and walked out the door, alert for any signs of attack. He was pretty sure Rei-sama was pissed, and that usually brought an injury on whoever had caused it. But he managed to get out the door without receiving any bodily harm.
What Sasori didn't know was that Rei-sama was not angry with him, but angry at himself. He had completely forgotten Sasori's intense dislike of gaijin. Stupid! he scolded himself. And sloppy. Very sloppy. He wouldn't make the same mistake again.
He couldn't.
To be completely honest, he had known the threat Orochimaru and his renegade village of Oto posed for Akatsuki long before Sasori had come upon the knowledge. And what he knew told him that they needed all the help they could get.
He had really hoped that Deidara would join, because the kid was talented. He had taken out Iwa's most promising candidate for the jounin exams in two minutes flat, and defeated the rest of the chunnin in less that that. Besides that, he was an explosives expert, of which Orochimaru had several. Less talented they may be, Akatsuki had no one to oppose them.
But instead of making sure that Deidara would join, he had assigned Sasori to recruit him.
And Sasori hated gaijin. With a passion. He thought they were stupid (most were, sadly…), and to top it all off, the kid was American. Sasori's grandmother's brother and husband had been killed fighting the Americans in World War II, and she had hated them for that. She had passed on the hatred to her grandson, who lived with her after his parents were killed in a plane crash- and of course, it had to be on an American plane. It didn't matter that this happened sixty or so years after the war.
He had to get that kid to join.
With that in mind, he got on his computer and tracked him down. Deidara's next class was science with Kishimoto Nitan as his professor. He quickly typed a message to the woman to send Deidara to his room as soon as the bell rang, and waited.
The bell clanged, signaling lunch as over. Deidara stood outside his science class, waiting for Kishimoto-sensei to open the door.
However, when the teacher saw him, she said, "Taiga, there you are. Rei-sensei would like to see you in room 131. He'll give you a pass back as soon as he's finished talking to you- it has something to do with your test scores, I think."
Deidara listened to this with a slowly sinking heart. That bastard Sasori told their leader I refused, and now he's going to kill me! he thought, panicking. I'm so screwed.
He bowed politely to the teacher. "Arigato, Kishimoto-sensei." He turned and walked down the hall- room 131 was two corridors over and three rooms to the left. As he walked, he tried desperately to get a hold on himself to keep himself from funning far, far away and never coming back. Two things stopped him: a) He was not in his home country, and as the son of a diplomat the Americans would think the Japanese had kidnapped and/or killed him, and war might ensue, and b) he had nowhere to run except for home, and with the sort of father he had that was not a very good idea.
Upon reaching the door to room 131, he nearly dropped and ran for it, but forced himself to open the door and walk in. Rei-sensei sat behind a desk, frowning at something on the computer placed there. He looked up when Deidara said tonelessly, "Gomen… did you wish to see me, Rei-sensei?"
"Ah. Taiga," the teacher said, waving a hand vaguely to a chair. "Please sit down."
In silence Deidara sat down in the chair, schoolbag sliding to the ground. One hand rested on the pouch of chakra-and-gunpowder-enriched clay he wore at all times.
Rei-sensei shuffled through a few papers on his desk, and abruptly asked, "Why did you refuse to join the group Akatsuki?"
The question surprised Deidara, and he almost let it show before clamping his blank mask in place. "Gomen nasai… I do not know what you are asking, sensei."
The man sighed, briefly closing his eyes as he sat back in his chair.
"You were offered a position in the group of talented students I lead, called Akatsuki. Why did you turn down my offer?" he asked in barely accented English.
Deidara couldn't hide the shock on his face this time. Belatedly, he remembered to answer the question.
"Er… gomen. I refused to join because it was obvious that Sasori-san did not want me to join, and in fact seemed to not even want to talk to me. He acted like just another Iwa nin, so I decided it was pointless," he replied grimly in Japanese.
"'Another Iwa nin?' What do you mean?"
Deidara shrugged. "Well, they're all pretty pissed I beat Takamura Seiji. It just… compounded on their dislike of gaijin and centered on me."
"Ah…" Rei-sensei murmured to himself. He watched the blonde thoughtfully.
"Let me explain the situation at hand," he said eventually, leaning forward to look Deidara straight in the eye. "Akatsuki is a group of the best students I could find out of all the villages and all the age groups. In normal circumstances, I would have asked you to join in a few months after watching you a little bit longer." Here he shifted and his tone took on a grimmer sense.
"However, at the current time we cannot afford to wait. A… former student of mine, known to you perhaps as the professor of ninja history Orochimaru and I had a… disagreement. He is now determined to wipe me and the rest of Akatsuki out, no matter what the consequences.
"Right now, he is gathering numbers of students at this school to him that he can command. He currently has a group, by my estimate, of almost twenty times our size. That's two hundred ninja of varying degrees of skill- and it's growing daily. Before too long, he'll outnumber us by more than seventy to one.
"That's where you come in. I searched for the most talented ninja not already influenced by him, and came up with four candidates. You were already on the list- I've been watching you for about a month now- as well as two Konoha genin and an Ame chunnin. Bluntly, we need you- and I think I can say for certain that one of our members, Kisame, would like to meet you. I'm asking you to at the very least give it a try. Come to one of our meetings, and see how you like it."
He stopped and waited. Deidara was silent for a long minute, thinking quickly. It wouldn't hurt to give it a try; he might find it interesting. From Rei-sensei's explanation, they really needed him, and he was probably going to be offered to join in a few months anyway.
"All right," he said slowly. "I'll come to a meeting and decide from there."
The teacher smiled with, it seemed, genuine happiness. "Good," he approved. "The meeting starts five minutes after school, and we meet in here. I'll see you then."
It was a dismissal, and Deidara accepted the pass and left the room quickly.
The bell signaling the end of the school day found Deidara making his way back to room 131. Because his Western Literature class was five doors down, he got there early enough to meet one of the group already waiting outside the door.
A rather short teenager in a chunnin flak-jacket and a black cloak with white-lined red clouds combining long black hair and empty black eyes that Deidara almost mistook for a girl leaned against the wall next to the door. His headband identified him as a Konoha nin. He glanced at the blonde, and did a double-take. He looked slightly surprised.
"Aren't you the kid Sasori ran off?" he said in a soft voice. "What was your name… Taiga Deidara?"
Deidara shrugged. "Hai."
The guy gave a small nod, hesitated, and extended a hand. "Uchiha Itachi," he said.
Deidara looked at him, then at the proffered hand, and grasped it briefly. He nodded back. "Konichiwa."
"So," Itachi went on. "You decided to join after all?"
Deidara shrugged again. "Rei-sensei asked me to try it out at least," he explained.
Itachi nodded in a satisfied way. "Good," he said. "Sasori's pretty much the only one in the group that really hates gaijin."
They were interrupted by a tall boy with blue hair and… gills? What?
"Itachi you bastard," he said angrily to Deidara's conversation partner. "You left me alone with this idiot!" He pointed to a grinning genin with spiky blonde hair and another Konoha headband.
Itachi looked slightly amused. "Gave him a rough time, did you?" he said to the grinning kid, who nodded. "Good. He's far too smug most of the time." He turned to Deidara, and motioned to the shark kid. "This is Hoshigaki Kisame and Uzumaki Naruto," he told him. "This is Taiga Deidara, the kid Sasori ran off. Rei-sama asked him to do a trial run."
Naruto clapped. "Good for you," he said cheerfully. "Sasori's a prick. Don't let him stop you from doing anything."
"Nice to meet you," Kisame said to him, and seemed to really mean it. His headband had the Kiri symbol on it- four wavy lines. He also had a black cloak on. "He's right- Sasori can be a prick when it comes to gaijin. Don't worry about it."
At that moment, Rei-sensei slid the door open. "Come on in," he said to them, just as two kunoichi came up. One was in what Deidara recognized at last as the uniform for the group, and had blue hair with a flower in it on the right side of her head, from Kumo. The other was a tall Ame chunnin with brilliant green hair that must have been hell to dye.
"Takikko-chan!" Kisame said. "And Yuri-chan! This is Deidara." He waved to the Iwa nin. "He's ignoring Sasori and coming anyway."
"That's good," the girl called Takikko said. "But can you move so we can get in? You're blocking the doorway." The two girls slipped past them and went into the room beyond. Kisame followed them, and Deidara walked in with Itachi and Naruto. They took their seats on various desks around Kisame's choice of seat.
A few seconds later, Sasori and a green-haired golden-eyed teenager with a Kusa headband and both wearing a cloak, entered deep in conversation about puppets.
"They ones that are so lifelike make me hungry," the Kusa nin complained. "I can never go to any theatre with them as the attraction. It sucks."
"But if they're that lifelike, it means they are art," Sasori said heatedly. "You can't eat art!"
"Watch me," his companion snapped.
"Zetsu!" crowed Kisame. "This is Deidara." He seemed to have designated himself as official introducer, or something.
The green-haired kid looked at him, blinked, and said, "Konichiwa. From Iwa, right?" He glanced at Deidara's headband. "So you're the kid who took out Takamura? That's cool."
Sasori on the other hand looked at him tight-lipped and followed Zetsu to sit down near the two kunoichi after glaring at Itachi and Kisame. He then proceeded to ignore the blonde.
Two more students burst through the doorway: both chunnin, one came from Taki and one came from Kusa.
"Hidan and Kakuzu," Kisame said to Deidara. "Oi! Bastards! This is Deidara, from Iwa."
Hidan looked at him intently and demanded, "Are you a believer?"
Kakuzu, on the other hand, waved briefly and said, "You're the one who took out Takamura Seiji? Way to go. He was a smug bastard. He needed to be taken down a peg… or two, or four."
Hidan didn't seem to be able to let go of the believer question. "Are you or aren't you?" he asked insistently.
"No, he's not you idiot," Kakuzu said disgustedly. "Now shut up." He pulled the silver-haired teen over to the corner closest to the door.
"We shall begin, then."
Everyone fell silent as Rei-sensei spoke. He lounged in the chair behind his desk.
"Zetsu, report on how you are doing with Tobi," he said calmly.
"He can be annoying, but he's interested," the golden-eyed boy replied. "He was going to come today, but he got detention for talking too much in one of his classes."
Someone, probably Hidan, snickered. Zetsu grinned helplessly and shrugged.
"I think we have Masuda Yuri here already. Masuda, would you like to speak?"
The green-haired girl nodded. "I think I'll stay," she said. "I need something more challenging to do."
"Ah. That's nice. We can fit you for a uniform today after the meeting, then."
Naruto waved a hand cheerfully saying, "I want to stay too, this is cool! And I can prank you all!" He laughed, and rubbed the back of his head when everyone turned to look at him.
"Very well," Rei-sensei said amusedly. "We'll have you fit, too, then." He nodded to Deidara and his tone changed to a more business-like one.
"Now, does anyone have information on Orochimaru?" he asked. He got up and walked to the blackboard, picking up some chalk. He wrote at the top Information as everyone turned to look at the board, excluding Takikko, who got up and sat behind the computer on Rei-sensei's desk. She did something, and sat poised and waiting. The teacher glanced at her and she nodded.
"All right. We know he has a large following in the school, and they're called Oto. Their numbers at this time are about two hundred." He wrote down "Called Oto" and "200." Takikko started typing, and Deidara realized that she was like the secretary.
"His second in command is Yakushi Kabuto," Yuri said. "Konoha nin, rank is ANBU. He specializes in the medical field- he's taught personally by Tsunade herself, along with Haruno Sakura."
"Great. That's great," Rei-sensei said enthusiastically. He wrote down what she'd just said, as Takikko recorded it.
"He has a group of five students called the Sound Five," Itachi said coolly from where he sat. "One of them, the leader, is from the Kaguya clan. There's an Earth Technique specialist, a spider summoner, a pair of brothers who share a body, and a flutist with a bad mouth who make up the rest of the group."
"Many of his followers work with sound incorporated into their techniques somehow," Zetsu offered.
Rei-sensei wrote very fast, Deidara discovered. He was almost finished with all that information already. Takikko was typing furiously.
"I'm pretty sure Orochimaru's a gay pedophile," Hidan called. Kakuzu and Kisame snickered.
"Uchiha Sasuke's joined up with him," Naruto said. His earlier cheer had disappeared, and he seemed sad about this information. Itachi had stiffened. "He still hates Itachi and Orochimaru's offered him power."
Rei-sensei scowled as he wrote down this information.
"Won't Orochimaru know a lot of jutsus we've never heard of?" Kisame queried. "He's a damn history teacher. He reads a whole bunch of crap like that."
The teacher pointed to Kisame. "Exactly," he said. "We need to do a lot of research if we want to beat these guys. He's probably taught them a hell of a lot of tricks." He wrote down "Jutsus" and underlined it twice.
The discussion went on for another hour, mostly speculation on what Orochimaru had, didn't have, what he was planning, and what he was likely to do next.
At the end, Sasori was still very angry. The stupid gaijin looked like he was enjoying the meeting a lot. At least, he looked a lot happier than he had at lunch today.
When the meeting was at last over, he waited until everyone but Naruto, Yuri, and Deidara had left, and casually waited outside the door, eavesdropping on what they were doing.
"So Deidara, you gonna stay?" he heard Naruto ask.
An indistinct murmur answered the genin as the sound of Rei-sama opening the closet that held several spare Akatsuki cloaks came from the room. He heard the girl Yuri say something to the teacher.
A few minutes later, Naruto and Yuri made for the classroom door. Sasori did a few quick handseals and threw an invisibility jutsu over himself just as the two exited, talking about something. As soon as they were gone, he dropped the jutsu.
"Ah, Deidara…" a muffled bit "…choice?"
"I think I'll stay," he heard the gaijin say.
The sound of rustling cloth. "Try this," said Rei-sama.
The next part of the conversation was too indistinct for Sasori to hear anything. Not that he needed to. He stomped furiously into the classroom.
"Why did we need to invite him?" he snarled angrily to Rei-sama, pointing to the blonde and ignoring the fact that he shouldn't have revealed that he was outside the door all along.
The teacher scowled to see him. "Sasori," he said in a clipped tone that should have warned him to shut up and stay silent while leaving really fast. "He is here because of his talent and because we need him."
"But why a gaijin?" the red-head argued angrily, blatantly ignoring (again) what he should have been doing at this moment. "We can do perfectly fine without him. We can get much more talented Japanese students. We don't have to have an American!"
Deidara was staring at him, mouth open in surprise. The blonde looked furious and… hurt?
"Enough."
The tone was quiet enough and so full of poison that Sasori finally snapped out of his ranting mode and listened to common sense.
"I thought you would have seen how badly we are outnumbered here," Rei-sama went on, voice very quiet. "Obviously, I was wrong. If you don't want to be part of this group anymore Sasori, you can turn in your cloak now."
Sasori bit his lip to keep himself from arguing further, shook his head, and bowed. He turned and left, disappearing in less than two seconds.
Damn you, gaijin. Why the hell did you have to come here? he thought bitterly as he stalked down the hall.
A/n- If you're thinking "OMG, they'll never get together!" about Sasori and Deidara, don't worry. They will. That's why I started writing this story after all.
I am also putting up an edited first chapter. Due either to my exhaustion or oversight, as surprising amount of errors ended up in it. I also cleaned up a few scenes and made them flow better.
(1)- Because America basically vaporized half of Japan's population and then took complete control over the country, preventing them from having an air force or a navy, Japan isn't too happy with us. The Japanese are a very proud people, and now we basically defend them if they get attacked. Because it's the least we can do after taking away their air force and navy.
(2)- In order: Leaf, Sand, Mist, Stone, Cloud
(3)- In order: Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Snow
You know, until last summer I didn't know why so many different countries disliked Americans so much. It wasn't until I had to sit between my sister and a reallllly fat, obnoxious and inconsiderate American dude that I found out. He took up all of his seat and half of mine- not to mention that I had to endure this for ten hours.Did I forget that he got up three different times to go to the bathroom- when he sat in the window seat?
And thanks to all my reviewers- you made my day guys!
