Here's Chapter two... But I owe you all a HUGE apology. TT.TT You're all so freaking nice, giving me all the reviews and stuff!! :3 I had planned on having this out by Sunday, but I didn't have the time to type it out and everything. D: I'm sorry, this chapter's not going to move very quickly either, I'm trying to build it up. And I do realize that Sasori's acting a bit OC, but I promise it's only for now. He's still traumatized by the whole rape thing. He'll get better eventually! So special thanks to Secret Sheik, my wonderful Beta Reader!! And also to Yin's Crescent, Livefreedieyoung, black55widow, DeiLicious.FriDei, ChaseYoungluvr, xXxFallenXxXAngelsxXx, Hidanluv XD, Dimunda Ice Eagle, Manyara, The Lord's Fallen Angel, Deidara's Model, Kyuuka-Kyuubi, crystalheartlover, Utsuro, Skilled defense, Tweaked-uniquness, sapphirephoenix97, RandomlyCheesey and cherrySUNSETx, for all the beautiful reviews and helpful input and support from the prologue and chapter one! You guys keep me writing!! -tear-
Credits: Were I the owner of Naruto, Itachi would've killed Sasuke a long time ago, all of the Akatsuki would fall madly in love with their partner during the funeral, Sakura would be grovelling at Sasori's feet for mercy, and Kankurou would get more screentime.
Chapter Two
Deidara heaved a sigh of relief. He had, by some god-sent miracle, found his way to his Chemistry class. Kami, the place was ridiculously huge. The classroom was set up with the teacher's place up front, and a large assembly of acid-proof student desks arranged randomly before it, set for three at each table. Deidara looked about him, searching for anything reassuring in the vast room. His one visible eye found a mess of flaming red hair at a desk near the back: Sasori, from his dorm building.
The redhead was sitting with a bored expression at his chosen seat beside another freshman, chin propped up in his hands, dark eyes blinking lethargically. "Hey, un," Deidara greeted him in a friendly tone. The shorter one only supplied a halfhearted 'meh' sound in return. Unperturbed, the blond carefully maneuvered his way over to the brunette that was also seated at the table and took his own place on the other side of Sasori. The smaller boy widened his eyes slightly in surprise at Deidara. Before the transfer student could ask what was the matter, a short girl with a pale pallor and long, black hair appeared behind him, coughing softly. "Ah, you're sitting in my seat."
Deidara looked up into her coal black eyes in annoyance. "Great, un. I'm sitting here though." The girl scowled darkly at the blond, tossing her curtain of hair with a soft 'humph'. Sasori cocked his head at the newest classmate. His eyes expressed strange gratitude.
The other boy lifted a blond eyebrow in question. "What?"
"Tsuchi Kin's my… stalker, or something, and now you're in her seat, she can't cling to me—" A louder voice sounded loudly over Sasori's quiet explanation. "Hey, can you move? I can't see the board from any other seat."
The redhead groaned as the student to his left hastily scrambled away. He tiredly put his forehead on his palm, head slightly tilted to face Deidara. His deep red eyes flashed in an irked manner, mouth twisted into a sore grimace. His face dulled when Kin suddenly burst out, "Hey, Sasori-kun!" The boy continued to glare in Deidara's direction, who was then grinning with silent laughter.
Kin coughed impatiently. "Sasori-kun, your hair looks so nice, today…" As she reached out a hand to stroke her prey's head, Deidara's eyes widened as Sasori's narrowed, and the blond instinctively pulled back into his chair, watching as his fellow classmate hissed, ducking away from the girl. "Don't touch me," he growled scathingly. Obviously, he was not one for Public Displays of Affection.
Kin pouted haughtily at her unwilling victim, saying dismally, "Why're you so you so mean, Sasori-kun?" But her whining was cut off when the classroom door slammed shut behind a grizzled looking man, the Chemistry professor. Deidara blinked, not wanting to miss his first lesson. But Kami, no one else in his newfound group of friends was nearly that edgy around other people, except maybe that Itachi person.
To his bewildered amazement, when he dared to look back at Sasori, the redhead was coolly sitting with his arms folded over his chest, eyes gazing down at the frantic professor with mild boredom as he attempted to deliver his start-of-the-new-semester speech.
Was the boy absolutely schizophrenic or something? He'd been spastically jittering in his seat just a moment ago; then, as soon as Deidara turned his back, Sasori returned to his careless, emotionless demeanor.
His one visible, azure eye widened in shock as the redhead turned his face to look at him, lifting a thin eyebrow in inquiry to the excessive staring again. Deidara flushed, realizing that Sasori had lost his semi-friendly manner from before, and was looking at him in disdain. The blond felt the dark blush claim his cheeks, and he slunk lower in his seat. He awkwardly sent his attention back to the waving professor, eagerly describing the countless formulas they would be exploring that half-year. For the rest of the excruciatingly long class, Deidara shifted his look back to Sasori occasionally, much relieved to see no more schizophrenic mood swings, although the current emotion was rather hostile.
--xoxoxo--
Finally, the professor shut up about his beloved rules and regulations for the new semester, though they were identical to the semester before. Sasori sighed softly, stretching out his arms in front of him. Two and a half long, useless hours. Even when they actually began the lab work, he'd have to put up with Kin, begging him to allow her to assist him in the process of mixing chemicals, as she was a chemistry major, and he was only taking the ridiculous class to put a science course in his record.
The redhead stood up as the class was dismissed, gathering his canvas bag containing all of his books, none of which had been needed for the over-talkative professor's torturous lecture. He reached in the folds of the rough material, trying to retrieve his schedule for the week.
"You have Theater next, Sasori-kun." Kin supplied gravely, her ebony eyes cast at the tiled floor, hugging her Dalmatian print bag to her bosom sorrowfully. The redhead allowed a sick smirk to twist his small mouth. He loved all of his major classes; Kin hadn't come to this college for its fine arts, therefore, was forced to leave him with breathing space when he went to those precious moments.
Still, how she knew so much about him… He'd never know, nor care to find out, how she knew even his damned schedule. "Thank you," he muttered in a contained voice, walking quickly away from her. When would it finally hit her that he was sick of her stalker-esque presence? Hopefully, it would hurt her hard enough to keep her away permanently…
It was outside of the classroom that he felt a tug on his elbow. Sasori flinched roughly, a chill clenching his stomach as he remembered the ordeal from only two nights past, frigid claws running hungrily over his naked arms, a sick wetness crawling over his bare collarbone. His fists balled up instinctively, pivoting around quickly to face, to his barely stifled relief: only the newest student, Deidara.
"You're going to Theater then, un?"
The scarlet eyes slit, as his heart still throbbed falteringly in his chest. "Yes, I am."
"Could you show me the way? I'm going there next, but Tobi wasn't very clear when he told me where my classes were, un…"
Sasori surveyed the bold, taller blond carefully. "Don't make me wait though, brat," he replied as a cold answer.
Deidara twitched at the continued nickname from the past weekend, hurrying after the redhead. Apparently, he had a superiority complex as well. The striking blue eye narrowed in slight anger. "It's kind of obvious, but didn't notice before, even if you've been here much longer, I could beat you up any day. I'm much taller, un, and I probably outweigh you by a good deal too, hmm." He retorted, wounded, to the walking boy's back.
"I know," was the simple, flat response.
Deidara rolled his visible eye. He'd teach Sasori what art was in Theater then, and show him who could be superior. That cocky attitude seriously pissed him off, what with his irritatingly short speech and could-care-less half closed eyes that always seemed to mock him, shadowed rose irises finding amusement and annoyance in him. "Stupid, stuck-up little kid," the former Iwa student mumbled darkly under his breath in an inaudible volume, narrowing his eyes in aggravation. Scorpion, was his name? Well, he would take away that bloody stinger and wave it in front of the 'scorpion', laughing as the once-overconfident loser flapped his claws pathetically, pleading for mercy and admitting that Deidara had been right and was most definitely superior. "Teach that smug little kid who was the real brat…" He grumbled quietly.
"Done talking to yourself yet?" The 'brat' tossed the blond another one of his damned cocky little leers. He continued to stride forward, returning his gaze to the front, obviously having fun by incensing his temporary charge.
Deidara scoffed impatiently, scowling at the boy. "Huh, at least I'm not dead scared of people touching me, you—afraid of being touched, un." He finished lamely, not at all having the effect he had intended.
"Aphenphosmphobia?" Sasori supplied, his voice swollen with cockiness.
The blond hissed in loss, trying to regain his footing in the verbal joust. "What, so you actually spend time looking up all these freaking mental phobias, un?" He challenged scathingly, a hint of laughter in his voice.
The redhead shrugged faintly, answering calmly, "Maybe I do have that fear. Along with other fears. But really, who doesn't have a fear at all?" A sick thought flitted through Sasori's mind. 'Virginitiphobia- the fear of rape,' he thought wryly, a sneer curling his lip. Again, the scene replayed in his mind. Being spun around, forced to look into Orochimaru's cold, unfeeling eyes. Feeling his knees buckling under him as he gave way under the extra weight, the hard, throbbing as his head collided violently against the wall… Then, the frosty prickling of foreign hands, pushing him into a state of succumbed humiliation, kicking him into shame—
"Hey," Deidara snapped, and Sasori was grateful for the pull away from his blackened memories. "Isn't this the Theater section?" He was boldly poking his guide on the shoulder, gesturing towards the large, dome-like structure before them. The redhead blinked, shivering slightly one last time, nodding slowly. "Yeah, yeah, it is. We're starting a new performance today, so we'll be on the stage."
He sighed inwardly, thin eyebrows furrowed in despair. He couldn't think how to survive anymore… Not when he faced perpetual terror every night he had to journey back to the dormitory, so scared that he would be attacked any second. It was even worse when he was supposed to be asleep. Sasori had taken to dodging to the library, taking on an alibi of studying for courses he claimed to be unusually trying. He didn't dare ask for shelter in a friend's room, that would only arouse suspicion, and of course, Orochimaru would make him suffer. He hadn't seen his roommate in a while, thankfully, only in crowds for breakfast or walking to classes, and Sasori had been careful to duck behind others as to avoid the piercing yellow eyes. He hadn't even been in his own room, only to retrieve the occasional item, which he did as little as possible, when he was sure Orochimaru would be far away from campus. Sasori was turning into an insomniac, losing sleep every night, shifting uncomfortably on the library's scratchy sofas, too terrified to truly close his eyes, always seeing Orochimaru's tall figure framed in the door about to smother him again.
"Sasori, get your ass up here," came a high voice, once again shattering his thoughts. The redhead's crimson eyes flashed warily as he found himself somehow in front of the stage, apparently having incredibly navigated his way to the platform, though he had been so submerged in his fragile thoughts. He blinked in surprise, looking up the planks to face a classmate. He turned around to check if the blond brat had followed him or not. Deidara was standing with his weight on one foot, studying him concernedly, an unmistakable frown of worry on his expression. The redhead grimaced to himself. How plain had his detachment to the world been? In an effort to cover his aloof behavior, he demanded waspishly, "What're you staring at this time, brat?"
The transfer student huffed, the look of concern evaporated completely. "I thought you were comatose, un, and you sleepwalking like the moron you are."
Sasori chuckled dryly. "I don't need your worry, brat. Just hurry up, we need to start as soon as possible."
--xoxoxo--
Deidara found himself still sitting by the odd redhead. He'd been fine in Chemistry, but all of a sudden, he'd had another stupid mood swing and was now acting pissy again, for some insane reason.
He uncurled his legs from underneath him, crossing them tightly as he looked at the people cheerily discussing what the new semester's performance should be over. The ideas being tossed back and forth were ludicrous, but he had to admit, they were clever.
"…a parody off of Pinocchio, yeah…"
"…I like that, give the puppeteers a real job this time around, eh, Sasori?"
"Dipshit, he doesn't care about what you say."
"Whatever, guys, shut up and stop arguing. Toshio, no swearing in my class. So what's the story?"
"We decided that Pinocchio is going to fall for the fairy that turns him into a real boy, or something stupid like that."
"No ideas are stupid in this class, Oda. Hey, new kid, Deidara, any input?"
The blond let the bang flop messily in his view, cautiously voicing his thoughts. "Doesn't this seem a little cliché, un? Maybe we should try for something else besides romance. I mean, it can still be there, but we should put a political statement or other in there too, to spice it up a bit in humor, un."
The teacher, a youthful, dark-haired woman called Kurenai-sensei raised her head thoughtfully. "I… like that… You're pretty good, Deidara. So, what do you guys think? What political statement should we include?"
The entire assembly pitched in unison, "Gay rights." As the gathering burst out in laughter at the curious agreement, the blond looked carefully out the corner of his eye at Sasori. As expected, the boy still sat lazily with one leg propped up over the other, chin resting on his knee, fingers tying and untying his shoelaces uninterestedly, twirling the strings over his digits. Deidara sighed softly, before shifting around to face the rest of the class. Of course he wouldn't have supplied any form of public participation…
"So," the drama professor observed, "that clearly tells us that all the people involved in acting are either gay, bi, or support gay rights, hmm? Another artistic stereotype."
The students broke out snickering again, and Deidara felt a grin spread over his thin lips. This class really was fun and involving… Comfortable in the friendly environment, he continued, "So yeah, the fairy would be a guy, and he and Pinocchio fall in love, but Pinocchio's dad doesn't approve of gays, so…"
"So he kills the fairy and mounts him as a puppet as well, thus sapping the life out of Pinocchio, ending the story in a tragic but eternal note."
The entire stage fell silent at Sasori's words. Wide eyes swiveled to gaze at the redhead, still twisting his shoelaces. Small smiles began to appear on faces, as they took in the deep thought. "Depressing and deep as always, Akasuna?" Kurenai-sensei noted, a hint of admiration just traceable in her bright red eyes. But the approval was strong in the atmosphere.
Deidara stared at Sasori again, astounded by the puppeteer's input. However, he couldn't believe the redhead's steadfast devotion to his form of 'art', if that was what it could be named. "Nice idea, but eternity's no way to end any decent play." He commented, readying himself for another argument.
He growled in his throat, as he caught the dark red eyes rolling in exasperation. Sasori's reply was ominous and tired, as if speaking to an idiot toddler. "I'll finish this with you later, brat." He warned, a steely edge to his voice.
Deidara grinned gloatingly. He'd won for the time being, and that was a start. Kurenai then interjected, unaware of the triumph that she was cutting short for her newest pupil. "Great, we've got an idea now. Okay, we should start to work on the script, just filling in the bare minimum details. I like the progress already, guys."
"Wait," came the voice of one of the puppeteers, "are we using puppets for Pinocchio? Because I know Sasori and us can make them, and perform for the play, but for people to take the performance seriously, we need full-scale—"
"I can make them." The red-haired boy cut in, folding his arms over his chest again in a way that suggested he was wounded by the thought that he would not have been able to meet such high standards of puppet-making. The speaker flushed in a mixture of shame and fear, clearly frightened that he had upset the intimidating freshman.
Kurenai-sensei looked between the two, nodding hesitantly. "And control one efficiently?"
Sasori shrugged with one shoulder, his scarlet eyes staring coldly at something in the distance. "If someone supplies the voices for the puppets, I can control multiple bodies, actually."
Deidara's azure orb widened in amazement. His interest was piqued immediately, and he blurted, "Really? How many can you control, un? At a time?"
The redhead looked at him with the same annoyed expression. "I've only ever tried five life-sized puppets at a time, but I'm sure I could go further if I trained."
The blonde's breath caught in his throat as the information sunk in. The boy certainly didn't seem the type to lie about something like this, and modesty or exaggerations were both improbable… Finally, he'd found a creative outlet to match his own in skill, although puppets that didn't self-destruct or evaporate would never be exactly equivalent to his art. "Wow," he commented lamely, "that's… insane, un." How the hell was that even possible?
Sasori caught the transfer student's incredulous look. While the rest of the sprawled-out class began to happily return to ideas for the play, obviously already adapted to the ominous puppeteer's impressive mastery, the redhead offered unexpectedly, "If you don't believe me, after this class, before noon, I can show you."
The sculptor nodded, keen to take any opportunity to solidify his slowly growing ties with the band of Akatsuki. Flinching to himself to ensure that he wasn't hallucinating and that Sasori wasn't joking about showing him, Deidara turned quickly, rejoining the discussion of the play, claiming his place in the class already, as an excellent spring of ideas and plot twists.
For the rest of the remaining class, Sasori did not put into speech any more words or suggestions, only listening from the sides, head cocked childishly in an effortless way. Deidara seemed the polar opposite, freely piping in when he felt an improvement in the script was needed, warming up to the gist of the involving class much better than his red haired friend had.
When the enjoyable course had ended, Deidara sat in confusion for a while, looking for his bag, blue eye squinted in wonder. As the rest of the students flooded out behind him and Kurenai-sensei bid them good-bye, he still crouched on his knees, feeling ridiculously stupid. Then, he was aware of Sasori standing in front of him, holding his bag out wearily. The blond grinned lopsidedly, laughing as he stood up as well, gratefully taking the shoulder bag from the redhead, who rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"So, are you going to show me your puppets, un?" Deidara inquired in a peppy manner, rolling on the balls of his feet. Sasori didn't reply, only walked away, shrugging his canvas bag higher on his shoulder. The blond frowned, frustrated, thinking that he had almost gotten the boy to speak more for a while. Rushing to catch up, he followed close behind, watching as the shorter male walked along the hallways like he had traced the steps countless times over. After a while, he realized that they were in the Art vicinity, where the rooms constantly smelled of fresh river clay, wood shavings and glaze. "I have Pottery tomorrow," he informed his acquaintance contentedly, scuffing at a stray paint tray, watching as it skidded across the corridor softly.
"The Pottery teacher here is an idiot," Sasori replied stonily, his voice flat and plain. "If you want a decent art education, you either ignore him or drop the class." Deidara cringed, wishing that he had been left to find this out for himself, rather than have to enter the room the next day with a bias from the redhead.
He awkwardly shuffled after the boy, blue eye flat with disappointment as he saw that there was only the dense scent of pine and balsa wood hanging in the atmosphere. The blond craned his neck as Sasori disappeared behind a cabinet, fishing for something, probably his puppet. What the pale student retrieved resembled a very ugly, horned assembly of wooden hunks. It had a mess of dark, brown hair like a mane over its head, and three eyes bulging from the face arranged in a triangle. The thing had a very large chin, and emblazoned on it was the Kanji for 'Bird', or 'Crow'. Its mouth lolled open, revealing rows of jagged, white, wooden teeth. To add to the disturbing factors, the puppet had multiple limbs dangling from under a tattered black shawl it wore draped loosely around its neck. It leered at him, wide, cavernous mouth clacking open and shut repeatedly.
Deidara recoiled in horror, his mouth clearly twisted in revulsion. Sasori did not let this reaction escape his sharp gaze, and he snapped darkly, "What, brat?"
Still sputtering, he blabbered out, "What—what the hell is that thing? It looks like a—like a freaking mutant bear!"
Blackened rose irises slit dangerously as Sasori tucked the puppet protectively behind himself. He spat sourly, "It's a fucking battle-puppet, what'd you expect?"
"It's not even life-sized, un! And what the hell's a battle-puppet then?" Deidara protested in wonder, thrusting a hand at the wooden figure in dismay.
"Karasu is made to be deadly in a fight. He's got slots where I can install knives, but campus obviously doesn't allow that kind of thing. And of course he's not life-sized; they wouldn't let me keep something that big in the storage!"
Still unconvinced, the blond frowned. "You weren't trying to make him humanoid, were you..?"
Sasori growled in his throat, shaking the rattling puppet. "Of course not, do you really think I'm that bad? He's supposed to look like this. No one would take a human-resembling puppet in battle seriously. He's meant to intimidate, brat."
Deidara sighed in defeat. "Un…" He muttered in hopelessness. "So, then show me how you can control so many of them."
Obligingly, the redhead reached back in the cabinet and drew out four more puppets, one appearing to be a flat-bellied salamander of sorts, another looking like a copy of 'Karasu' and with a larger stomach, but the last two were actually human-like. One was obviously a female, with long, chocolate hair and deep brown eyes that stared blankly forward, the other a male with flaming red hair, not unlike the puppeteer's, and the same thin, dark brows, with set black eyes under them, gazing into space. Deidara blinked in surprise. "I have life-sized versions of them still at home." Sasori explained quietly, affixing the strings to his digits. The blond studied the couple's face, understanding as he recognized the long lashes, heavy eyelids and of course, the hair, that appeared on Sasori. They were replicas of his mother and father.
Before he could pursue the thoughts, the five puppets began to wriggle, each moving smoothly, almost as if they had thoughts and body functions of their own. The large, azure eye widened as it observed the show, disbelief clouding his vision. But indeed, Sasori's fingers were twitching quickly back and forth, tugging and prying deftly, a look of intense concentration on his face. Entranced by the display, Deidara stared back and forth between the now dancing puppets and the redhead. He started, when a loud 'beep' noise permeated the still atmosphere, which had been in perfect harmony with the rhythm of the clacking wooden joints.
The puppeteer sighed, halting the show and reaching into his front pocket to retrieve a dark red slide phone, making the salamander and his supposed parents jostle as they moved with his hands. As the boy was reading a text message or something else he had received, Deidara grinned broadly, extremely awed by the impromptu spectacle. "How… how did you do that, un?" He demanded animatedly, his visible eye alight with excitement.
"Training my ass off since the first grade…" The redhead answered in monotone, eyes still skimming the message. "Hey, brat, do you want to go alien hunting with us tonight? Pein's idea."
The new student knit his brow in confusion. "Huh? How do you hunt..?"
Sasori sighed, plainly tired of having to explain so many details to the blond. "We're only sneaking out of campus at midnight, going to the cornfield just off the South Gate, and running around there for an hour or so. We're not really looking to hunt aliens, that idiot Tobi just named it that, since he learned about crop circles, and the name stuck."
"Are we allowed to go off campus? Is it trespassing? What if we get caught?"
"Who gives a shit? Coming or not?"
Deidara smiled slightly. His newfound group of friends apparently had a lot more oddities hidden behind their customs than he had first estimated. He could adjust quickly, so a spot of illegal wandering wouldn't hurt if the friends still went to the trouble of doing this. It couldn't be that bad.
"Alien hunting, un…"
I really actually do love Kinny, but she just seemed the only one I could picture as his stalker. It was originally going to be Tayuya. XDDD Please review, and I hope to see you again next chapter! :3
