Authors Note:

I know I'm slow. Deal with it. :)

Nah, I'm kidding. Apologies to all, and thanks for the reviews. I'm glad you all enjoyed chlorine princess. BTW, I'm currently obsessed with Vanity-sama's "Just Like Heroin." It's under my favorites. And it's brilliant. I adore her OCs, which is weird for me to say. XD

Disclaimer:

Still don't own any of Naruto. I do cosplay as Ino though.

You, Me, And Everyone Else

Ch7

Last week I had the strangest dream

where everything was exactly how it seemed

where there was never any mystery-The Postal Service, Sleeping In

That pizza was some grand pizza.

Would have been so much grander had it been ANY other delivery boy but Tobi. What's so bad about Tobi, you may ask? Well. It isn't that he's so much a pain in my ass as he is a pain in my ass. The kid stalks my brother. And I mean STALKS. Follows him at any opportunity, tries to dress the same, tries to talk the same, calls him Sempai even though they're the same age...

The doorbell rang with my pizza, and I was jolted awake with innate pizza sensing capability. Sasori and Deidara were still holed up in Dei's room, I could only hope they were making out or something for Dei's sake, so I had to haul myself up to answer the door myself. And there it was.

Tobi.

Tobi, with his effing stupid happy grin, with a jolly hello for me and my gauze covered forehead. I suppose the situation could have been worse. It could have been, say, Kisame, or someone else equally as full of insults for me. Or Zetsu, the crazy man who talks to himself...

I had no idea why a quarter of Akatsuki worked at pizza hut.

It might've made a normal person choose another fast food place, but considering seventy-five percent of all Akatsuki meetings happened in my basement, I guess I didn't mind. I wasn't allowed to attend most of the time, once I actually got my ass handed to me by Hidan-the-grand-priest for not leaving. I sat in on at least one meeting though. I think. Or it could've just been this one time Dei had a birthday party...

It was still some grand pizza, better after I was able to slam the door shut in Tobi's face. He sat and tried to ask me if my brother was home, and I lied and said he wasn't. Then I slammed the door in his face, and I'd say he had a disappointed look on his face but he wears that stupid mask so I wouldn't know.

I ate my pizza in relative peace, then I brushed my teeth and all that and crashed. With Mildred.

Funny how things blend together after you go to bed and then wake up. It's sort of like BAM, wake up stupid! Each morning.

I was surprised to go down to the breakfast table and see Sasori politely eating cereal next to Dei, who was deriving spiritual meaning from his Cheerios.

I pulled my pants to their original position instead of that ridden-up-the-ass syndrome that happens after sleeping, and headed for the toaster. Two pieces of butter only toast later, and I was back upstairs staring into my immense disaster area closet.

Most of the clothes really sucked. But I prevailed, slipping on a pair of slim-line straight-leg dark jeans and a baby blue Hello Kitty baby doll tee. Topped it off with a white glitter belt and black mary janes. My hair... I just... left it. I did brush it, don't get me wrong, but I didn't want to do anything with it. Locked myself in the bathroom for a good 20 minutes to do my makeup, matched my eyeshadow to my t-shirt and everything out of habit. I've worn cosmetics since the fourth grade. It's pretty gross. Shikamaru called me stupid when I first started, and so I punched him in the gut. Chouji, bless his heart, didn't have the nerve to tell me to my face that I looked like a child prostitute.

As close to perfect as I'd ever get, hack cough as if, I stood around all prepared for school waiting for my sibling and pseudo sibling. Sasori came down the stairs talking on his phone, to Yakumo I think, and Dei stumbled along after looking like a zombie. Hell if he wasn't going to still drive us to school though. While in the car, Sasori shotgun of course, he finished his phone conversation and snapped his phone shut moodily. Then he seemed to cheer up once he looked in the rear view mirror at me, except it was this sort of scary grin...

"Hey pig, my little cousin's in your class. Met him yet? Transferred in yesterday." I squirmed a bit at his tone of voice. I looked back at him.

"...Who's your cousin?" I thought immediately of what I'd heard from TenTen the other day. About Subaku No Gaara. Then I made a connection of what I'd heard from Sasori on the first day of school, about his three cousins from Suna...

"Oh, he's real sweet, Gaara." My eyes widened, and actually, I think even Dei managed a strange strangled sort of sound.

"...Uh... So... he's not..." I felt my eye twitch a bit. Sasori laughed at me.

"Straight from juvy? Hells yeah. Transferred because your school is more accommodating." Dei sighed, pulling into the parking lot.

Huh. Drive seemed so much shorter today. Maybe because there weren't any strange turns or detours...

"Go screw your girlfriend or something and stop harassing my sister." Angry. Very very angry.

Despite that it wasn't directed towards me at all, I bolted as soon as possible, and not because of the usual reason of Dei not supposed to be related to me. I knew something had been up this morning. Definitely didn't feel like getting involved today of all days though.

Why hadn't I seen the Sand transfer kids yesterday? With all the hype buzzing you would think-

ouch. I hoisted myself off the ground. Damn people standing in hallways being...people...

"Sorr-"

...Shit. Damn. Er. Shit again.

I'd never seen anyone shorter than me and more threatening than me, with eyes covered in the darkest eyeliner rings I'd ever seen in my life.

I tried the 'nervous laugh.'

"Sorry! I guess I wasn't paying attention..." My soul. Oh god my soul. I felt it being torn away from my body and being ground into a thousand pieces and for some reason I couldn't stop thinking of raccoons but he kinda looked more like a panda then a raccoon and oh god. I grit my teeth together and tried to force some semblance of a smile.

Actually he was kinda cute.

In that moody killer panda sort of way.

So there we were, Gaara and me, staring at each other, and this kid isn't even going to offer me any word, and then I feel this jolt in my back and I end up falling straight over again. And I thought I had some good ninja reflexes going on here, ninja reflexes my ass... And you know what, the fact that my forehead was sitting on top of Gaara's combat boots didn't register as much as the fact that there was someone sitting on top of me.

"UZUMAKI. I'M GOING TO KILL YOU DOBE." Sasuke?! Sasuke yelling at... Naruto... Judging from distance... I rolled over, dumping whoever had been on my back to the floor.

Bright orange deer hunting season sweatshirt. Bright yellow hair. My fists auto clenched.

"Will you watch where the hell you're going?!" I shoved him away from me on instinct, shaking my head and getting up from the floor. Again.

Lord knows why I end up in an all out floor brawl. Hallway brawl of words, and all I could bring myself to do was stand there because it was... well... interesting. Sasuke actually went and helped Naruto up, then slapped him upside the head.

Maybe Itachi dressed Sasuke that morning. Or maybe someone else did. It just definitely didn't seem very Sasuke. His pants were tighter than mine were, his shoes were black and pink checkered vans slip ons, and I'm pretty sure I owned the black Panic! At the Disco sweatshirt he was wearing. Maybe he was just sick of being asked out by girls. This was pretty desperate though. He still managed to look adorabley straight. Then again he's an Uchiha. Uchiha's always looked appealing to either gender, no matter what they did.

I forgot about panda boy until he brushed past me and everyone else really rudely. Didn't even say anything. I would've been afraid, but once you get that panda image stuck in your head, it's really hard to be afraid unless he's staring directly at you.

Back to that hallway fight that managed to be the weirdest I'd ever witnessed. There was Sasuke, and Naruto, glaring at each other as usual -except if you looked closer you'd see something else there-. Nothing was weird with that, not even Lee running by shouting:

"Today's assembly shows an entourage of youthful courage and endurance! Required grades 9-11!"

I guess maybe it seemed weird because I was actually standing around to watch it.

Sasuke's still eye candy. Queer as ever but he is damn pretty.

Then came someone else I'd managed to never see before in my life, which is saying something considering everyone around here attended the same elementary and middle school. If Sasuke's tight pants were out of the ordinary, this kid had him beat hands down. With a belly shirt. A nice six pack to go with that too. Earrings, eyeliner, straight black hair, an oversized zipper hoodie, pink converse... And this really cocky-ass smile.

"Uchiha."

I saw Sasuke open his mouth and respond, however I couldn't hear it due to another Lee announcement. This time for Spring formal.

Homecoming hadn't even passed yet.

Naruto squirmed around a bit. It kinda looked like he just had to pee really bad.

"Sai, Sasuke, just shut up..." He was hit with twin glares from the two straight as rainbow individuals.

"Shhh, Naru-chan, this is business." Sai, I'd assume that was his name because Naruto addressed him that way, pet Naruto on the head like he was a dog or something. Sasuke was starting to get twitchy, I could see. He was getting pissed.

Sai neatly sighed, dramatically wiping a hand across his forehead.

"Fine, fine, go make out in a broom closet already. Acceptance doesn't mean defeat." Naruto's jaw dropped open, and he made a few incoherent noises before I was abruptly cut off from the conversation.

Sai linked elbows with me, and pulled me down the hallway like we were the bestest friends in the world.

"Come along, Miss Beautiful," he sort of sang it to me as my feet lagged behind while he was pulling me along at a faster than normal walking speed. When he smiled I swear his eyes did that upside down 'U' that they show in anime cartoons.