Wow...I can't believe it. 200+ plus reviews...I'm in awe, thank you guys so much for loving this story and being so wonderful as to review and tell me so XD I know this chapter's a little shorter than previous ones, but hopefully it's to your guys' liking! Chapter entitled "Chaos Theory" not because it follows the...theory of...chaos theory...(i just used the word theory 3 times...^^; er...) which says that an event happened due to a series of very random happenstances, but just because the events of the chapter were chaotic XD (sorry, I feel kinda bad titling the chapter after a theory when it doesn't really come into play in the chapter at all!)
Congratulations to waterflame4991 who got my 200th review! Your prize is in chapter 11, and to rebellious-and-ditzy-bookworm, I hope you enjoyed your gift this chapter!
Disclaimer: Anything that looks even a little bit recognizable in the real world isn't mine, which, unfortunately, includes Naruto. Sigh. Well, on to the chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Chaos Theory
"Guys, we're going to Bellflower Square!" Kisame announced as soon as he entered the common room. Five pairs of eyes stared him down with various looks of quizzical doubt reflected in their multicolor depths.
"What…do you mean?" Zetsu asked, voicing the question everyone had been thinking.
The shark-faced senior grinned mischievously as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I mean; we're going to go in for some espionage. Come on, we'll take my car."
=*~*~*=
"What was that all about?" Ino asked as soon as Sakura had hung up.
The rose-haired girl blushed and shrugged. "Not sure…" she admitted with a small smile. "Th-they wanted to go watch a movie but I…I was…"
The blonde raised an amused eyebrow. "You can go if you'd like. They're your housemates, after all."
Sakura laughed, not at all diffident around her new female friend. "I'd rather go shopping."
"So. The Akatsuki wanted to take you out to the movies."
Viridian eyes flickered shyly to the ground. "Th-that's what they're like around me," she said, her cheeks flushing traitorously as she spoke. "They're…pretty nice."
"Tell me what else they do for you," Ino teased, leading the way through the square to the elevator that would take them to the food court. "We'll grab some ice cream and you can tell me all about it; they sound like fun!"
Sakura found she was laughing in spite of herself. "I guess you could say that. They aren't boring, that's for sure."
Ino's cerulean eyes sparkled with pent up curiosity and mischief as they picked out their ice cream choice and found a table. "That sounds like a phrase that has a story behind it. Wanna tell?"
With a little grin, Sakura began to recount everything from the moment she had first become a part of Akatsuki dorm.
"Wow…" Ino breathed when Sakura was done, "You have to be kidding me."
The viridian-eyed girl's cheeks matched the shade of her hair. "Um…"
"It's not a bad thing!" Ino hastened to assure her, cerulean eyes sparking. "My goodness, you managed to crack the Akatsuki! They like you!"
"We-well we're h-housemates," Sakura stuttered, feeling herself go crimson. "I-I don't…"
"Right, you weren't here in middle school," the blonde interrupted. "You wouldn't know…"
The rose-haired girl gave her a quizzical look.
"Back in middle school, Itachi and Sasori were both in different dorms; Itachi in Konoha and Sasori in Suna. They personally requested transfers into Akatsuki when they became high school freshmen, and the Headmaster agreed to it because they didn't get along with their respective dormitories at all. Itachi was a loner who only cared about his little brother, and Sasori pretty much stayed holed up in his room all the time. The other Akatsuki members pretty much stayed away from the rest of the school. They don't 'like' people."
"I-Ino they're not like that…"
The other girl shrugged. "It's possible. Apparently Zetsu was part of the garden club his first semester here…but he quit right before winter vacation. Deidara used to get made fun of in eighth grade because he looked like a girl…well," Ino corrected with a wry smile, "mostly because he looked like my twin sister and it's really hard to distinguish genders when you're a gangly blond kid with long hair when you're thirteen. And everyone finds Kisame kinda scary…he has those tattoos and he has gotten in fights before."
"But they're not like that!"
"Hey, hey, calm down," Ino said, holding her hands up in a placating gesture. "I'm only repeating what other people have said. I can't say I've had much experience with the Akatsuki, and well, they've been stuck with Orochimaru as their dorm manager for the last year and a half, so I can't exactly blame them for being antisocial. Anyone would be if they were stuck with that man."
Sakura nibbled the end of her ice cream spoon thoughtfully, licking away the last remnants of her tropical sorbet with a small frown marring her forehead. "Why was he their dorm manager?" she asked at last. "They never explained."
Ino swirled around her pudding-flavored ice cream as she thought about it. "Well…dorm managers are typically students of good standing who live in the dorm and make sure everyone gets along. They have to volunteer for the job, and it comes along with a pretty substantial scholarship, I've heard. I guess there just wasn't anyone willing to be Akatsuki's dorm manager until you came along…and Orochimaru-sensei volunteered for the job when no one stepped forward."
"Oh…"
"But hey, you're here now and they obviously like that," the other girl added, sky-blue eyes bright. "Don't dwell on it too much. We've got shopping to do!" 'Well guys,' Ino thought as she led Sakura away, 'I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to think there's more to this than just male territorialism…and if they really do like Sakura…she deserves to know about it.'
And surrounded as Sakura was by guys, she, Yamanaka Ino, was going to be the one to break the news to the cute, innocent, rose-haired girl.
=*~*~*=
"Jiraiya-san…why did you want to meet here?"
"Isn't a mall where you kids like hanging out?" the snow-haired Headmaster of Hishin Academy asked with a smirk. "I was trying to put you guys at your ease."
"Jiraiya-san," the cerulean-haired girl sitting beside the first speaker said in her quiet voice, "you are failing."
"Konan-chan…that was harsh…Daddy feels hurts."
The soft-spoken seventeen-year-old rolled her eyes at his remark, though it didn't stop a tiny smile from tugging at the corner of her lips. "Jiraiya-san, you are not Pein and my father. You put yourself down as 'Uncle' in our guardian papers."
"Er…"
"Jiraiya-san, the reason why we were called here?" Pein asked, directing the conversation back to the original topic. The bustle of the place was beginning to irk him a little, and it reminded him clearly of why he had insisted on attending a small private school in the next town over with his cousin. The crowdedness was just too annoying here.
"I wanted to discuss your decisions with you both," Jiraiya replied, now back in Headmaster mode. "Konan, you want to stay at the Amegakure School for the Gifted, but you, Pein…" the older man gave the eighteen-year-old a quizzical glance. "What brought this on? I've asked you both repeatedly to transfer to Hishin Academy, but this is the first time you've agreed to consider it."
Both he and the navy-haired girl set curious gazes on the young, carrot-haired man.
"Attending Hishin will help me get into the university I want to go to," "Hishin is offering classes that I can't take at Amegakure," and "I want to start working as a student intern at a firm near Hishin," were all good, honest statements he could have made, but a flutter of pink appeared in a doorway and disappeared around a corner, and words came out before his mind had a chance to rein them in.
"Something at Hishin interests me…"
=*~*~*=
"Itachi, the Rules are not to be broken."
He had known this conversation would have to take place eventually, and now that the group had split up into individual pairs (and one trio of Zetsu, Hidan, and Kakuzu) it seemed like a pretty ideal time for Kisame to bring it up. He was only mildly surprised that it had taken his best friend this long to bring up the subject.
"I realize that, Kisame. You told us so in no uncertain terms when you first brought up them up, the first night Sakura spent with us. We all agreed to abide by them…though I'm a little surprised no one thought to ask you why you were so adamant about them."
"Hey, Sakura was the new kid to Hishin and the only girl in our dorm. I thought we ought to put down some ground rules to how we ought to behave around her," Kisame retorted, crossing his arms over his chest with a sharkish grin. "Squirt needs someone to look out for her."
Itachi raised an eyebrow. "And the way to do that is by threatening Hidan with starvation and me with a weekend of suspension?"
"I did not threaten you with suspension!" Kisame protested as he took a quick glance into a nearby clothing boutique. "I'd have tried for you not being able to go to the movies with us. I know you; given the chance you'd somehow weasel your way into sitting next to her…and then where would she be?"
"Sitting next to me in a movie theatre," Itachi replied with sardonic amusement at Kisame's grunt of irritation.
"Shut up, you know what I meant."
The raven-haired Uchiha merely shrugged in response and led the way to one of the mall's department stores, his pace measured and unhurried.
"But, like I said," his gill-tattooed best friend began again, "you can't just break the Rules. And unexpected kisses is a definite violation!"
The words, "I was merely trying to stop her from hyperventilating," leapt to the forefront of his mind, but voicing them would mean he was effectively denying the pleasure he'd got from it, and the fact that he'd wanted it, and he couldn't bring himself to speak the lie. Even stolen, he'd relished the feeling her soft lips molding gently to his, and the thought of committing such perjury disgusted him. So he said nothing.
They continued on, circling twice through the women's apparel section of the department store, in silence, each contemplating his own thoughts, until the onyx-eyed junior finally broke the hush between them.
"Make up my penalty now," he said, stopping them in front of some changing stalls. He shrugged impassively at Kisame's inquisitive glance. "Kissing her was between me and Sakura. It isn't the business of the others."
The shark-featured senior raised an eyebrow in response. 'No one would believe me if I told them Uchiha Itachi, indifferent ice prince of Hishin Academy, didn't want the rest of his dorm knowing he'd kissed a girl.'
But he could understand the sentiment. Kisame knew what Sakura meant to the eldest Uchiha.
"Fine, but you're getting two penalties because it was her first kiss. You won't be walking her home on Monday like planned, and if we run into Sakura and Ino today, you're going to hide."
"If you insist," Itachi replied, a touch irritated. He had been looking forward to more time spent alone with the rose-haired girl; ever since she had requested Sasori's help in chemistry he had been irked at how little time he had with her alone. But he'd apparently touched an overprotective nerve in his best friend and was getting something of a comeuppance. "But don't expect me to forgive you anytime soon for this," he added wryly.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever y-,"
"What about this shirt, Sakura? Come on, you should try it on!"
Both boys froze, exchanging a startled glance. They had been so intent on their conversation that neither had noticed the appearance of the girl they'd been looking for, until the mention of her name made them realize her proximity.
"Crap!'
In a single swift movement, Kisame grabbed ahold of the dressing room doorknob behind the shorter male, opened it with a wrench, and thrust the Uchiha inside, slamming the door shut just as the girls came into view.
"Kisame?"
He turned with a shark-like grin. "Hey ca-, I mean, Sakura. Hi, Ino. What are you guys up to?"
"Shopping," Sakura replied with a small quirk of her petal-hued lips. "And you? I thought you were watching a movie with the rest of the dorm today."
"Yup," Kisame replied with a smirk as he leaned back against the door of the changing stall, his weight effectively keeping it shut. "Dunno what's happening with that. I lost track of the others."
"That's unfortunate," Sakura said lightly, her fingers closing on the doorknob to the changing room beside them.
"Yeah," Ino added with a tiny, challenging smirk. "Especially since Bellflower Square doesn't have a movie theatre attached to it."
Iridescent jade eyes flickered from one friend to the other, suspicion leaking into their green depths. But just as her lips parted to voice those thoughts…
"Oi, we don't have all day, Sakura, go change!"
And she was unceremoniously shoved into the changing room.
"You guys are pretty obvious," Ino said offhandedly as soon as Sakura was sequestered away.
Kisame raised an eyebrow. "You think so?"
"Well it's obvious to me, anyway," the blonde replied with another tiny smirk. "More than obvious. Sakura's just…kind of oblivious, I guess."
"Nice way of referring to your new friend," Kisame remarked, still leaned against the other changing room door that was now slowly moving outward, as if their was someone on the other side that was putting a good deal of effort into getting out.
"Don't get me wrong," Ino said sharply, her cerulean eyes narrowing. "I like Sakura, and I want to be her friend. And as her friend, I'm trying to do my best to look out for her. You shouldn't-,"
"Hey, Ino?" Sakura's voice called from the changing stall, "Can you take a look at this for me?"
Huffing at the inopportune interruption, Ino gave the tattooed senior a look that clearly said the conversation was going to be continued later, and stuck her head into the other room. "Looks good! You should get it."
"It doesn't…its not too low cut or something?"
Kisame quirked an eyebrow, amused by the suddenly renewed efforts of his best friend to escape the other changing stall.
"No, no! Geez, Sakura, you look fine, stop fretting. Now change back so we can buy that."
"Okay, sheesh, I can figure that much out Ino!" but there was no heat in either of the girls' statements, and Kisame understood that they were merely teasing each other, much like he did with his fellow housemates.
"As I was saying," Ino continued as soon as the changing room door was closed once again, "You guys shouldn't play around with her like that. She's a lot less used to male company than most girls, and while she might not pick up on little nuances like I do, she's a smart girl. She's going to figure things out sometime, and if you keep toying around with her, she's going to get hurt."
"Hey, don't act like you're the only one looking out for her," Kisame replied with a snarky grin. "I'm doing my best to keep the guys in line, and I don't want to see her hurt any more than you do."
Penetrating azure eyes drilled him with a gimlet-like gaze. He was surprised to find himself actually discomfited by it, and finally shifted under the look, uncrossing and re-crossing his arms across his chest.
The girl smirked. "Alright, Kisame-san. I believe you. And because, as Sakura's friend, I think she's a good influence on you and would benefit from deepening her relationship with you guys, I'm going to help you out a little." The grin widened as Kisame glanced to her in surprise. "That's right, I'm going to help. Sakura told me today that she really likes to go stargazing."
"What?"
Ino shrugged nonchalantly as the door to Sakura's changing room began to open. "Have you ever been on the dormitory roofs, Kisame-san?"
And then she and Sakura were waving goodbye, disappearing to purchase the shirt, leaving a slightly confused senior in their wake.
The door at his back shifted slightly, a deadly calm voice issuing from the other side.
"Let. Me. Out of here, Kisame…"
=*~*~*=
"Mou, Kisame can be so weird sometimes," Sakura muttered to herself as she dumped her dirty laundry into one of the two washing machines in the dorm's first floor laundry room. It was Saturday, the day after her somewhat strange trip to the mall, and she was using the time spent on laundry to mull over the events of the day before. "Was he stalking us?"
'Yeah right…' except that she couldn't exactly disprove the thought. If Bellflower Square hadn't had a theatre, there was no reason for him to be there…and she'd found out later that none of the others had gone to see a movie either… It was more than a little confusing.
"Well…maybe they decided not to go so I wouldn't feel left out?" she thought out loud, trying to reconcile her housemates' actions with what she knew of guys. That thought was more comforting than the possibility that her entire dorm had gone to stalk her little shopping spree. "Naruto and Sasuke do that for me sometimes too…" 'Yeah, that's probably what it was,' Sakura assured herself. 'They're just really considerate.'
"They're surprisingly nice," she giggled.
"Who's surprisingly nice?"
Stifling a startled yelp of embarrassment – she was holding a collection of bras in her hands, which she quickly shoved into the open washing machine in front of her – she whirled around. "Hidan!"
"Well?"
"N-nothing! No one, I mean, argh, it's nothing important," she finally grit out, turning away from him to pour detergent into the water in her washing machine as the silver-haired male drifted towards her.
"Didn't sound like nothing, seriously."
"Well it really isn't any of your business," the girl said with a roll of her eyes, though she tempered the gesture with a quirky little smile. "Don't worry about it," she teased, noting the look on his face. "I'm going to be reading in the common room in a few minutes so…" a light blush skated across her cheeks; she wasn't used to extending friendship towards guys but she was obviously willing to try it when they were nice enough not to go to the movies without her, "join me?"
"Hell yes," he returned with a grin as he haphazardly dumped shirts and pants into the other washer.
With a nod, the girl disappeared out, the cute blush still in place.
"Damn, I'm acting weird around her," he muttered as he poured in detergent and turned on his washing machine. "Seriously…" He laid his forehead against the whirring appliance, it and the machine next to it vibrating in time with each other.
"Hidan?"
The senior straightened quickly, jerking himself around and to the door as Zetsu let himself into the laundry room. "Yeah?"
"Hey, my favorite shirt got ketchup down the front, mind if I chuck it in with your stuff?"
Hidan shrugged. "Do whatever the hell you want," he replied, flicking a thumb over his shoulder without even bothering to look back. "Just put it in that one."
Zetsu nodded as the senior stepped around him and out, opening one washing machine to throw in his black-and-green t-shirt before leaving without a backward glance.
The identical washing machines whirred in the silence of the empty room.
=*~*~*=
"Weird, is this one of mine?" Sakura wondered, sorting through warm, honeyed-apple scented laundry a few hours later. It didn't look like it. She couldn't remember having ever owned a black shirt edged with falling forest-green maple leaves down the left side…but then, she couldn't say she remembered a third of the clothes she'd laundered that day. She had a sneaking suspicion that her wardrobe had suddenly increased by several shirts, a couple of pants, a sweatshirt, and a cap, but this particular article of clothing wasn't one she could see herself (or Naruto or Sasuke…well maybe Sasuke…) buying.
"Eh, maybe Sasuke-kun bought it over the summer?" she wondered to herself as she shucked off her sky-blue t-shirt and pulled on the warm, sweet-scented, maple-leaf shirt of unknown origin.
She had to admit the soft cotton was unspeakably comfortable.
She went back to sorting through her clothes with a tiny grin on her face, the result of the really comfortable shirt, until she came across the sweatshirt she'd gotten off a stranger three days ago and the smile dropped off her face like a lead weight.
"How am I ever going to give this back?" she wondered unhappily, fingering the warm article of clothing as nervousness spiked through her system. "I have no idea who he is…"
"Sakura."
Still half-buried under her laundry, laundry she was loath to extricate herself from (it was just so warm!), she twisted around to call through the door. "Sasori?"
"The others wanted to know if you preferred Chinese or pizza for our take-out tonight."
Sakura grinned; after a week and a half, she'd gotten used to her housemates occasionally asking for her opinion on food. It was…rather sweet of them. "Chinese? We had pizza last week I think," she called back, returning to her laundry.
"See you downstairs in half an hour."
And half an hour later, she was making her way downstairs, a book tucked under her arm and still dressed in the wonderfully comfy shirt, straight into an argument.
"Look, I damn well don't have your shirt, seriously!" Hidan growled, his arms crossed over his bare chest.
"Well I put it into the washer. Shirts don't disappear into nowhere!" Zetsu retorted irritably, facing off against the older male.
"I don't fu-," Hidan's voice died away abruptly as Sakura appeared at the doorway.
Noticing the senior's attention focused on something behind him, the green-haired junior spun around, his liquid-amber eyes going wide as he took in Sakura's attire.
She was clad simply in a pair of flannel pajama pants, the pattern a cute print of brown and gold sparrows in a beige background. Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was clasped in her hands. Rose-hued hair fell into wide viridian eyes as a shy blush began to suffuse her cheeks. Clinging loosely to her feminine curves was the shirt in question.
I love Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland (and Through the Looking Glass), and though I haven't read it recently, it did inspire a little fic called KING (which I decided to write when I noticed that word is also a combination of the first letter of the names of my four favorite Saku pairings, Kakashi, Itachi, Naruto, Gaara...see??? SEEEEE?!...ahem.) so I thought I'd give the book some tribute in Belonging. Not sure if KING will actually get finished or posted, but I'll keep you guys updated on that.
Can anyone guess my favorite scene?? It's probably not hard XD I happen to love the Ino-Kisame interplay as both make sure that the other is looking out for Sakura's interests. Oh and erm, the story is going to pick up from here, so it will more cover the highlights of Sakura's first semester more than her day-to-day life, because otherwise this story wouldn't be finished in under 30 chapters...it'd go on for a good...oh...400. Or something. And who wants to read something that long? For that matter, my brain would probably die out before I finished and then where would any thought of a sequel be?? XD
Thank you for reading and the muse will happily accept all cookie donations to speed her creativity and writing, etc!