Chapter 3
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction…

They had been stalking Kyuubi for 2 days now. "Today is day two, no progress was made, and subject seems to be distant from anyone. And terrified of poodles…. I mean puddles. Subject has just eaten a granola bar and is heading to second period. He seems to have art."

Itachi hit Deidara over the head, "We don't need commentary. And how did we drag Sasori into this?" He asked pointing at the redhead who was leaning against the lockers with the same hat on as Deidara, staring at his nails.

"You got a problem with that Uchiha?" Itachi mumbled something and began stalking Kyuubi once again.

Kyuubi looked at his folder, as he was mumbling to himself walking down the hallway, Itachi following close behind. So far Kyuubi's day had been like any other students. He just went to classes, learned and went on with life. Never once had they seen the vice-principal call him over into his office (Kyuubi passed by the office multiple times on the way to classes).

Kyuubi walked into the art room and sat down in front of his easel. He mixed colors and began working on an already sketched item. Itachi looked through the window to the art room, "You have this class next, don't you Deidara?" Deidara nodded and walked into the class bowing to the teacher for being late. He set up his easel next to Kyuubi and watched the other paint for a while.

"Uuuwah! Senpai, you're amazing, how do you do that?!" Kyuubi stared at him a little flustered and began painting. "Well you know… I just think of it and then sort of… do it, you know?"

Ah ha, so Senpai is a shy type is he? Thought Deidara as he watched some more before going to his own picture, he looked out the window to the class room door to see Itachi gone. "Huh, I wonder where he went."

"Where who went?" Kyuubi asked. Deidara placed his hand behind his head and waved towards Kyuubi, "Oh nobody in particular, just a weasel."

Kyuubi looked at him strangely before mouthing, "oookay…" and returning to his painting.

**

Itachi on the other hand was doing some cold hard time… in the principal's office.

"Now you see Uchiha-kun, life is like a masterpiece. NO! Like a novel! All things are written out perfectly and wonderfully and won't cause you any trouble if you just read the book!" Itachi stared at the crazy old hermit man.

"Yes, sir. But what does that have to do with me coming here?" Itachi asked, a hint of 'dude-you're-freaking-me-out' in his voice. The old hermit man had long white hair, and wore a green Gi, a red overcoat and wooden geta sandals. He looked like a man who was about to go fishing (considering there was a fishing pole in the background), he also had two red markings running down from his eyes that kind of scared the bajeebers out of him.

Jiraiya looked at the poor sophomore and held up three fingers.

"Three reasons Uchiha-kun. Number ONE! You were caught skipping classes to spy on someone. NUMBER TWO!! That certain someone is Namikaze Kyuubi, the student body president. And NUMBER THREE!!!" He paused and began to chuckle. He waved a hand, motioning for Itachi to come over. Once Itachi cautiously moved forward he whispered, "I want to pull a prank on the vice principal and I need your help."

Itachi's ears perked up at the mention of the vice principal, his arch nemesis. "Alright. What do you need me to do?"

The principal grinned widely, "Well you see, the vice principal and I go way back. We actually went to high school together, along with the school nurse. But you see over the years I've been known to others as a pervert, when really it is he, Orochimaru that is the bigger pervert than I. He seeks out his prey on young unsuspecting boys, a pedophile, and a disgrace to perverts everywhere for what he does. And then when you have your back turned he swipes the poor unsuspecting girls too!" To this point Jiraiya seemed to have tears in his eyes.

Itachi stared at the principal once again confused. "A disgrace to perverts, is there a secret coven or something?" Jiraiya held his hand up to motion Itachi to stop talking. "No, dear boy, there isn't. But, I do think that our vice principal needs to be taught a lesson…"

"If you don't mind me asking, what did he do that made you so upset with him?" Jiraiya froze and became a little pale.

"If you must know…. Tsunade, our dear friend the school nurse, went to Prom with him instead of me…"

…

All was silent throughout the school.

"That's it?" Itachi asked.

"YES THAT'S IT!! WHAT DID YOU THINK IT WAS?!!!" Itachi was being shaken around by the man and he held up his hands. "Okay, okay, I'll help you out. But in return I want to know something as well."

Jiraiya nodded, "Alright then, go ahead."

Itachi stared him straight in the eye, "What's the relationship between Kyuubi and Orochimaru?" Jiraiya laughed a bit.

"Oh that's an easy one, Orochimaru is Kyuubi's--" Someone opened the door and interrupted. "Jiraiya-sensei, you have a call on line 2." It was Shizune the secretary.

"Oh... thanks Shizune, well run along Itachi. We can't let you be stuck in here all day."

"But wait, you haven't told me their relationshi…" Jiraiya held up his hand and began talking on the phone meaning the conversation was over with.

Itachi turned around and began mumbling, "No good principal…." When he ran into something hard. Bowing his apologies he saw Orochimaru standing there.

Orochimaru smirked at him, "Well, well, that's odd. Jiraiya doesn't usually take boys into his office; he usually deals with the troublesome girls."

Jiraiya yelled from his desk, "Just put a sock in it Orochimaru, we'll settle this after lunch!!" He then returned to his phone call, "Sorry about that, yes that will be fine."

Itachi began walking, sensing Orochimaru following behind him. "You must be Uchiha Itachi, the sophomore in the high level class. Kyuubi talks a lot about you." Itachi looked at Orochimaru, sort of interested in what he was saying (since it was about Kyuubi).

"Oh really?" Itachi asked and kept walking down the hall to the front of the office; Orochimaru held up his hands and shook his head from side to side.

"Yes, he says that you're a real pain in the neck and that you should just jump off a cliff with that damned uncle of yours." Itachi felt two horrible arrows go through his body, one of telling him he's a pain and another comparing him to Madara.

"How… very thoughtful of him." Orochimaru grinned as he saw Itachi keep walking, with a flinch at the harsh words.

"Yes, he says that you're such a bother to him, your mere presence is most unbecoming." Itachi turned around and bowed. "I'm so sorry Orochimaru-sensei, but as you can see I'm late for my next class, we cannot stay and chat with each other."

Once Orochimaru was out of sight Itachi clenched his fists, that man was a dead man.

**

He stopped following Kyuubi around after that. Knowing that Kyuubi hated him was one thing but knowing that he thought he was a bother was even worse, a bother that was compared to his uncle. He wanted to know why Kyuubi hated Madara so much, and why he hung out with Orochimaru every lunch and why he was so madly in love with the fiery red head.

Deidara ran and sat down next to him at the lunch table. "Hey, where'd you go? I kept following Kyuubi around but you just disappeared. So what say you about following him some more to gather more data?" Itachi shook his head.

"It's alright Deidara, we shouldn't follow him anymore." He was once again back into his state of depression from the other day.

Deidara was sad for his friend; it was rare for Itachi to be sad, or any emotion other than angry or jealous. But to see him in this state was just… unbearable.

Deidara nodded and sat down, "So what do you want to do now? I mean Kyuubi is boring to watch all day."

Itachi stood up sighing and walked out of the lunchroom, Deidara looked at Sasori and the rest of the gang, "Was it something I said?"

Sasori looked up and stared at his boyfriend, "Uh, yeah. It started with a K and ended with a yuubi."

Deidara ran out of the lunchroom and after Itachi with Sasori following close behind. "Itachi, Itachi!!"

"Uchiha-san!" Itachi turned around, not to face Deidara and Sasori but to face the person they were looking at who was running towards him worriedly.

"K-Kyuubi… senpai?" Kyuubi panted a little bit and smiled just a little bit at Itachi. "You forgot your wallet near the art room. I found it when I came out of the art class. What were you doing there; as far as I know you don't have art."

"Ah, um… well… you see…" He couldn't just tell him that he was spying on him.

"I took it senpai." Kyuubi turned to Deidara who looked at little down. Kyuubi went over and smacked him slightly on the head with the wallet.

"Please don't steal from others Deidara-san. It's not nice." Kyuubi then turned back to Itachi and handed it over, "May I suggest you keep a better eye on it. Who knows what someone could do with your identification."

Itachi took it, a little flustered and confused. Kyuubi was being so nice to him, "Um… thank you senpai. But… why are you talking to me?"

Kyuubi furrowed his brows and was confused, "You make it sound as if it's a bad thing."

Itachi held up his hands in defense, "No, no, no, that's not what I meant. I mean…" He paused and looked slightly depressed, "I… thought you didn't like me. That you thought I was pain in the neck and that I should just jump off a cliff like my bastard uncle."

Kyuubi looked at him astonished and really confused, "When did I say that? Who told you that?"

Itachi looked away, "Orochimaru-sensei." Itachi was then startled as he heard Kyuubi punch a locker causing a huge dent to go through it.

"That stupid brother of mine always has to get into MY business. I'm not a kid; I can take care of myself. Those stupid brothers are always trying to run my life to how they see it fit, like I'm some sort of puppet. Well I don't see any strings attached to me, do you?!" He asked Itachi who was very stunned. Kyuubi continued his rant, "I may be the youngest but I sure as hell know what's right and what's wrong. Oh that brother of mine is in so much trouble when I see him next, twisting my words like that. How could he?!!"

Itachi then cut in, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, and wait! Your BROTHER?!!"

Kyuubi stopped his rant and looked at Itachi, "Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, he's my older brother. How else do you think I can afford to go here? He's the vice-principal and pays for the stuff that isn't covered by the scholarship."

Itachi could not, for the life of him, see any resemblance between the two whatsoever. "So, older brother, you two look nothing alike."

"Oh well, um... You see he's the oldest of my brothers, I have quite a few. He had a different mother then me; I mean really, he's fifty years old."

"So… there isn't a special relationship between you other than you're siblings?" Itachi asked worriedly.

Kyuubi waved his hand, "Oh you know, I have to make him box lunches because he hates the school food. And he has this strange notion that just because we have different mother's means we should date, which is totally disgusting. Of course he's only joking. I mean can you really see me dating a man that old and related to me? Who would ever come up with the idea of that?" Kyuubi laughed, "Well it was nice to talk to you Uchiha, and I do hope we can talk again soon. You're so much fun to talk to. I have to go to class now, student government. Bye!" Kyuubi walked away and Itachi felt a weight lifted off of his shoulders.

"Well there you have it boys!" Deidara started, clapping his hands together, "There was nothing at all between them, so we can get back to our jolly old school lives and be on our way."

Itachi watched Kyuubi walk down the hall and saw the redhead look at his folder again. Deidara looked down the hall as well and then hit his fist against the palm of his hand as he got an idea.

"Oh, now I know who he reminds me of! Belle from Beauty and the Beast! How she's always got her nose stuck in a book, well Kyuubi always carries that folder around and is constantly looking at it."

Itachi thought on that and then nodded, "For once I agree Deidara." Kyuubi was Belle, his beauty, and as he thought of it he must be the beast.

"A beast in the eyes of his beauty for a while, but soon his beauty will come to know that he is truly kind and then he will fall in love…And will have sex till the morning rises."

Itachi hit Deidara really hard on the head. "What did I say about commentary?!"

The halls were then turned into a battle ground because Sasori was now attacking Itachi for attacking Deidara who was attacking back at Itachi. Students were told to avoid the hall at all costs.

**

Hearing a knock on his door Orochimaru looked up, "Ah Kyuubi, what brings you here to my office?" Kyuubi walked over angrily and slapped Orochimaru on the cheek.

Orochimaru looked up, a little bit of blood dripping from his cut lip. "What was that for?"

"How could you betray my trust?" Kyuubi asked and began walking out of the office. Orochimaru ran out after him. "Kyuubi, Kyuubi wait!"

Kyuubi stopped and turned around, "I know exactly what you're trying to do. And it's not going to work, it didn't work for the others and it most certainly won't work for you. No matter how much you try to blackmail me I won't do it!" He said and began walking again.

Orochimaru growled and yelled, "Remember who's paying for your schooling Kyuubi!" Kyuubi stopped and turned around with a fake smile. "Oh yes. Do tell Jiraiya-sensei 'thank you once again for accepting me as your scholar for the third time.'"

Kyuubi left the office, leaving Orochimaru angrier than ever. It was all because of that damned Uchiha brat. He would just have to take care of him.

TBC

Ahahahahahahaaa! Oh brother. Kyuubi's a rambler.

Next Chapter: TRACK TEAM TRYOUTS, will Itachi make the cut?

Reviews are Welcome