Chapter 3

E.S.A.

The Akatsuki's lawyer stood up hesitantly from his seat. For a strange reason he felt this strange urge to tell the Judge this suggestion that had been plaguing his mind since the trial had begun. He really didn't know how the idea formed in his head to begin with, it just sort of popped into creation. It sort of felt like some kind of supernatural force or something had control of his thought patterns. To his current knowledge no one had ever tried suggesting something of this nature to a Coalition Judge before.

He pushed the troubling thoughts to the back of his mind, walked up and stood in front of the Judge, "Your Honor, before the verdict, I have a suggestion to make. We all know that the Romulan War is going on. With all of our starships and their crews being destroyed by Romulan remote drone ships, Starfleet is currently recruiting more heavily these days. Instead of giving them prison time, why not have these ten civilians help out the Coalition by joining Starfleet." he suggested.

Such an unorthodox suggestion created a new fresh wave of conversations that swept through the courtroom. The lawyer chewed on the corner of his bottom lip nervously, as he waited for the Judge to accept or deny the idea.

From the Judge's gavel, bangs filled the air of the courtroom once again. Conversations ceased and the many eyes in the courtroom once again focused on the Judge.

"Strangely for some unknown reason I like your idea more. However we must let the Jury decide if these ten people are guilty or innocent first." said the Judge.

The Akatsuki's lawyer calmed his nerves down a little bit and walked back to his chair and sat back down.

The Judge pushed her glasses back up and addressed the Jury, "Those all in favor of not guilty, raise your hands."

Two hands rose.

"Those all in favor of guilty, raise your hands."

Ten hands rose.

"It has been decided that these ten civilians are found guilty for the crimes they have committed. Instead of time being served in prison, their sentence instead will be to complete four years of Earth Starfleet Academy and join Starfleet after wards. This case is now adjourned." the Judge addressed the courtroom.

The young Judge sighed as she stood up from her seat and packed up the few papers that she had into a folder. She then picked up her padd, positioned both items under her arm and followed the crowd out of the courtroom.

This case is a first in my judging career history and never again shall I dare to repeat it. She thought as she took a left at the end of the hallway, heading for her next appointment.

She didn't mind that it was a simple easy case to judge, but she didn't like how it turned out be such an unorthodox one. Usually she was a strict follower of the rules and regulations and was quite confused on how she came to agree with civilians lawyer idea.

She walked down a semi-empty hallway, the noise from her shoes hitting the floor echoed off the walls. When she reached her next appointment, she pushed her glasses back up and sighed as she walked into the courtroom. I hope this next case is better. she thought, as the door closed behind her.

/(0lo)\ (0/_\0) (=0_0=)

Konan, Kakuzu, Pain, Deidara, Kisame, Sasori and Hidan were surprised that they didn't get a harsher sentence and Itachi however felt that he knew what had just happen. While Zetsu was the only one who knew what Tobi had done. Once the crowd of people had cleared the courtroom, two security guards walked up to the table that the Akatsuki currently sat at.

"We were ordered to give you these." informed the tallest guard, as he handed each Akatsuki member a padd device.

"All you have to do is complete the Earth Starfleet Academy Registration Form that is on there and once that is done they will send you dates and times for your Entrance Exams." informed the other guard.

The two guards then walked away and left the courtroom. Relived that the case was now over, the Akatsuki's lawyer stood up from his chair and held out his hand to Tobi.

"I'll say good luck to you guys and hope that you will do well in the next few years." he said, smiling.

Tobi took the lawyer's hand and shook it, "That's nice and all but we'll be just find."

The lawyer released Tobi's hand, grabbed his padd off the table and quickly exited the courtroom. The Akatsuki followed right after, entering the huge marble hallway.

"What do we do now?" asked Konan.

"We find a library. Come on." answered Tobi, as he started walking down the hallway.

Groans came from the other members when they heard the word library, which led most of them to claim that Itachi was the most studious bookworm type person in the group and not them. What really ticked off the Uchiha was when the group tried to say that he should be the one to do all the book work and not them. So after Zetsu was able to stop Itachi from using his Susanoo on the group at that moment, they all reluctantly followed Tobi. They all relearned an important lesson and that was never to get an Uchiha angry...ever.

Three hours later, after a fare share of fights and asking around along the way, the group of shinobi finally found a library. Tobi led the group up the entrance steps and into the very old building. The inside of the building wasn't really that big. One side had a small area of books and such, while the other side was dominated by computers and other electronic gadgets and the checkout area was smack dab in-between. Tobi told the group that they were there to study for their Entrance Exams. So the shinobi found a table, sat down and filled out their Academy Registration forms. When they were finished, the shinobi individually went off on their own to find books to help them study for the exams.

Tobi scanned the shelve that was in front of him, his finger dragged across the book spines as he read them. He wasn't really worried about the Exams at all, since he knew an easy and quick way to gain some knowledge of the world that they were in. He continued to scan the shelve until his eye caught sight of what look like a few helpful books. He pulled down one that read 'History of Human Space Fight' on the front in fancy white font. Five minutes later he returned to the table that they were all sitting at, arms filled with six heavy books. He harshly placed the books down on the table, sat down and opened up one that read 'The Cultures and Customs of the Mid to Late 21th Centuries' on the front.

Pain looked up from behind his book pile when he heard something being placed harshly on their table.

"Isn't reading all that a little bit too much?" he asked Tobi.

"Not really." Tobi answered, as he activated his Sharingan and disappeared behind the book that he currently held in his hands.

Pain just shrugged his shoulders and went back to his reading.

Meanwhile right next to where Tobi and Pain sat, Deidara focused his attention on folding a piece of paper into a triangle. He was utterly bored with studying the books that he had gotten from the library shelves. There was only one reason that he was bored with the books and that was because they didn't have his type of art in them. Usually if the books didn't have his favorite type of exploding art, he would not read them. Once he was done folding the piece of paper, he flicked it over towards the person who sat in front of him.

Sasori kept the paper on the table and flicked it back towards Deidara. Once the paper had stopped at the very edge of the table, Deidara flipped the little corner sticking out. He then picked it up and then aimed it towards Sasori's hands which had formed a goal shape. Face screwed up in concentration, Deidara flicked the paper triangle. The paper flew across the table and in-between Sasori's fingers.

"Six points for me, un." said Deidara.

"You just got lucky." replied back Sasori.

"Really, well let's do round two then, un." replied Deidara.

They kept the paper on the table and flicked it to each other, repeating the process til it stopped at the edge of the table in front of Deidara. He aimed the paper towards Sasori's fingers once again, and then flicked the paper. The paper flew, but didn't reach its destination. Instead it burst into black flames and landed in a smoldering heap on the table.

"You should be studying, notplaying paper football." said Itachi, as he wiped the blood coming from his eye onto his sleeve and then went back to his book.

"Jeez, Uchiha's are no fun, un!" mumbled Deidara.

Itachi had looked up from his book at that moment, grabbed a pencil and threw it at Deidara's head.

"OWWWW! What was that for, un!" hissed Deidara.

"I don't need to hear, to know what you just said." informed Itachi.

Damn Sharingan! thought Deidara, as he focused once again on the boring books.

A few hours later the Akatsuki were kicked out of the library due to closing time. They walked down from the old worn steps of the library and took a left once they had reached the sidewalk. An hour ago they found out that their exams would be held the next day at one of the academy's testing rooms. As the group of shinobi silently walked, the sky turned from a combination of pinks to oranges.

"Where are we going to stay for the night?" Zetsu asked.

"We're going to spend the night in the allyway that we first arrived in." answered Tobi, as he led the group down another street.

To Be Continued...