After their valiant escape from Tsunade's wrath, Hidan's group stopped halfway down the path he'd selected for them. He stood in the middle of the hallway, facing the three eighth graders he was forced to drag around the building for the day.
"Where the fuck am I supposed to take you three?" he complained.
"What about the, um, library?" Hinata shyly asked, pointing to a door on the left with the label 'Media Center' upon it. Hidan surveyed her for a moment, surprised that the girl had actually formed a sentence.
The senior shrugged. "Why not?" he said and led them inside.
The library itself was quite spacious, most of the shelves pushed up against the wall, or stacked domino style around the tables that centered the room. The only inhabitants at the moment were a few students roaming the aisles or seated at the tables, some sleeping, and the librarians who'd taken up refuge in the back rooms.
"It's awfully quiet in here," Neji commented, scanning the rows of books with his pale eyes.
"What'd you expect? It's a fucking library!"
"Shush," a black haired librarian chided, pressing a finger to her crimson lips. He glared at her as she returned to the back room.
"Stupid Kurenai..." he grumbled. As he turned back to the kids, Hidan noted that something was off. "Where'd your sister go?"
"Cousin," Neji corrected.
"I don't care if she's your fucking grandmother! Answer the question!" He lazily gestured to his left, where Hinata was reading through the various selections on a particular shelf.
Hidan groaned and walked into one of the aisles, trying to get as far away from them as he was permitted to at the moment. Shikamaru strolled over to where Hinata was, looking over her shoulder. The shy girl gave him an acknowledging smile before going back to what she was doing. Neji stayed where he was, glancing around as if he was trying to see everything at the same time.
Shikamaru yawned, "Libraries are troublesome," and leaned back onto the shelf, which, unfortunately, decided it didn't want to support his weight. The two teens jumped away as the shelf began to fall, catching the bookcase behind it in it's descent. The momentum toppled that shelf as well and the cycle continued down the row like a chain of dominoes.
The last thing Hidan was expecting that day was to have a mountain of books raining down on him, but that's exactly what happened when he noticed a bit too late that the shelf was leaning over him.
"What the-!" his yell was cut off as bookcases came crashing down on his persona.
"Uh, sorry," Shikamaru said, unable to find the correct response for burying someone alive. The students glanced between each other, not quite sure what to do in their current situation. The books shifted slightly as Hidan attempted to rise from his makeshift grave, any and all comments he made coming out as muffled, incomprehensible screeches. The bystanders looked on in utter confusion, many rudely torn from their slumber. The white haired teen continued to yell, making plenty of noise, but not a bit of it understandable.
Kurenai leaned out into the main area again, finger pressed firmly against her lips.
"Shush."
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After several minutes of digging, Hidan was finally removed from underneath the bookcases and books piled on his body, sore and unhappy. The senior was intact, minus several cuts and bruises, but he blatantly refused to let them be treated in any form or way.
They decided it best to leave the library after that little incident, if decided was a synonym for being kicked out by Kurenai.
Hidan had completely given up on touring the young students around, opting instead to lead them up and down the various hallways, muttering to himself the whole way. Whatever the middle schoolers caught of his ramblings usually involved a swear word, Jashin, or a death threat directed towards a certain ponytailed Nara who didn't seem, from Hidan's point of view, sorry in the least. (In reality, after about five unsuccessful apologies, Shikamaru gave up on the white haired teen and filed him under his ever growing list of troublesome people.)
"This is pointless," Neji whispered to the others. "He's not paying us any attention so let's just show ourselves around the building."
Shikamaru shrugged. "Might as well."
"But, w-won't we get in tr-trouble?" Hinata asked, already fiddling with her hands.
"Your call," Neji told her as she watched the two boys walk off. Hinata glanced between her options. She didn't like the idea of aimlessly roaming the high school, but she also didn't like the idea of being left alone with Hidan.
Swallowing a lump in her throat, Hinata ran off to catch up with her cousin.
It would be a while later when Hidan finally dropped his rant long enough to turn around.
"What the fuck?!
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"Hm, where to go, where to go," muttered Deidara as he looked about. He watched the young students for a second, Ino immediately averting her gaze, still embarrassed about her earlier misunderstanding regarding his gender.
Naruto shifted glances between the two of them. "Are you sure you're not re-"
"Yes!" both long haired blonds interjected.
"Just asking -tebayo," he grumbled. Gaara merely rolled his teal eyes.
Deidara sighed. "Well, since Tsunade's forcing me into this, un." He looked around a little more. "This way, I guess," he told them and began walking.
They hadn't gotten too far when they encountered three students, two boys and a girl, like the set up of Deidara's own group.
"Neji! Shikamaru! Hinata!" Naruto yelled down the hall. They stopped what they were doing, giving the others time to catch up. Hinata quickly turned a light shade of pink at his presence.
"What happened to your guide? That white haired guy," Ino asked.
"Hidan," the sophomore filled in.
"Yeah, him."
"He was being troublesome, so we ditched him," Shikamaru answered with a yawn.
"Hidan's always troublesome, un," the blond commented. "Word of advice though. Don't let him catch you. If he does, all hell will break loose." He studied the worried faces they now displayed for a moment, then added a "See ya, un!" before leaving with his own group.
The awol trio watched them leave, the younger blonds waving cheerful goodbyes. Gaara did nothing as usual.
"Well, that's that," the brown haired Hyuuga commented, going back to their roaming. Hinata stayed put, then slowly began to drift towards the other group. "Come on Hinata," Neji said, snatching his cousin away by the arm.
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Deidara, after that brief meeting, still had no idea where to take them for the so-called "tour", which was really just detention using torture in the form of three middle schoolers.
He sighed. "I'm supposed to show you the school, but the school's so boring, un. I know! I'll show you guys the exterior!"
The blond grinned. Any excuse to be outside was good enough for him. He led them downstairs and around the corner, focused on the exit at the end, as indicated by the glowing red sign above it. As he reached the door, he pushed on it, but nothing happened.
"Dammit! The door's looked." He pushed harder at the door, going as far as to apply his full weight against it, but it refused to budge. The kids simply stood back and watched him. Deidara sighed and concentrated on the map of the building he'd etched into his mind, looking for the next closest route. "One of you get that door over there, un," he told them, gesturing towards the opposite side of the corridor. Gaara, who'd been the closest at the moment, was the one to open it and hold it for the rest of the group. Deidara let the other two blonds go by before he headed in himself.
The sophomore had only gotten partially through the doorway when Gaara decided he didn't feel like holding it anymore and let go.
Deidara learned two things in that moment.
One: The school's doors hurt like hell when they closed on your arm.
Two: Redheads were evil.
The latter had been a long running theory of his after knowing Sasori for so long. Gaara confirmed it by watching the blond remove his injured limb from the door's grip with a bored expression and turning away as if it never happened.
"You nearly broke my arm!" Deidara hissed.
Gaara's response remained unchanged.
Deidara glared at him a moment longer while rubbing at the sore spot. Why'd it have to catch right there?! he thought. Naruto began to open his mouth to comment.
"Nobody say anything, un!" he snapped, silencing the retort before it could come out.
"May we continue?" Gaara asked in a flat tone, daring to challenge the blond's statement.
Deidara groaned and began walking. "So evil."
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Sasori sneezed.
"Bless you," Kankurou said while Sasori rubbed at his nose. "They say when you sneeze that someone's talking about you."
"I doubt that," he answered in an icy voice. The redhead glanced over his shoulder at Kiba and Sakura, who were still arguing. Shaking his head, he turned back around as they neared their next destination. So far he'd already shown (pointed out was probably a better term) them the gym and the library. They would've gone inside the latter, but a rather loud crash from within steered the group away.
Sasori walked up to a door on the right and peered in the room. "Looks like he's here." He opened the door and led them inside. "Okay, this is the woodshop." He glanced over to a desk in the corner. "And that's Yamato-sensei."
A brown haired teacher with piercing black eyes looked up from the paper he was writing. "Hello Sasori. Are you helping with the middle schoolers today?" He nodded grimly, watching the three of them roam about the room.
"Hey Sasori, is this one of your puppets?" The redhead blinked and walked towards Kankurou, who was leaning over a life-sized mannequin with no defining features.
"That thing? It's just something I did out of boredom." He moved closer and tugged at one of the hair-thin strings attached to the puppet, making it lift it's arm. "It still needs work."
"Oh. I still have those three puppets you made back in Suna, you know."
Sasori gave him a look that said 'why?', but didn't voice the inquiry.
"What does this do?" Kiba asked, reaching for a lever in the vicinity of a large saw.
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Kiba spun around to find himself face-to-face with Yamato, whose expression had gone completely blank, eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. He backed up several feet.
The lights suddenly dimmed and Yamato pulled out a flashlight, illuminating his face to add to the eeriness. The eighth graders huddled together.
He spoke again. "A former student of mine fooled with that lever too. He lost his hand because of it." The trio jumped as he moved even closer, trembling slightly. Sasori, who was not one to be intimidated, remained unfazed.
The teacher started laughing, shutting his flashlight off and returning the lighting to normal. "That's always fun to do. Don't worry kids, I'm just joking." They slowly nodded. Sasori sighed and practically dragged them out of the classroom, where they soon snapped out of their daze.
"I think I might take that class," Kankurou told them.
"I'm not," Sakura replied. "Well, maybe if Sasuke does..."
"What is it with you and Sasuke?!" Kiba snapped. "Of all guys, why him? He's the biggest jerk on the planet!"
Sakura's face went blank and she lifted her hands together, cracking the knuckles on each hand. Kiba went wide eyed and took a few steps back as Sakura approached, arm reeled back, ready to strike. As the pink haired girl's fist came flying towards him, Kiba jumped to the side last minute, the attack zooming past him....
...and right towards Sasori.
Her punch connected dead on with his right arm, with enough force to push the redhead back slightly. Sakura's hands immediately flew to her mouth to hide a gasp.
"Ohmygod, areyouokay?!" she blurted out quickly, unsure of how the high schooler would react. Sasori glared at her for a moment and walked off.
"Wow, he must be stronger than he looks," Kiba commented, feeling he was safe from her wrath. "Naruto told me first hand exactly how hard your punches are."
"That's not it," she said as they continued to follow the sophomore. "Something felt off, unnatural almost."
Kiba snorted. "You're exaggerating," he told her and went to catch up with the others. Sakura lagged behind for a little while longer before she quickened her own pace, unaware of the bruises beginning to form on her knuckles.
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Meh, kinda short compared to the last two chapters, but after I typed this, there wasn't really much I could add to it.
My inspiration for finishing up this chapter was Hidan and Kakuzu in Shippuuden!!!