Apologies for taking so long! I hope you enjoy this bit of sidetracking. It's a continuation from the last filler chapter, so the little Akatsuki story will be a bit of a side story throughout the main SasuNaru story. I just love the Akatsuki.

Disclaimer:

Deidara: You don't know how hard it is to do something serious like this while watching Spongebob, yeah.

Sasori: It's not like being an idiot is hard, because if it was, you wouldn't constantly be doing it.

Deidara: That isn't what I meant, you jerk. I meant the disclaimer, yeah!

Sasori: AMB11 doesn't own Naruto. That wasn't hard, you numbskull.

Deidara: Pshht I know that. *Snickers* But I did get you to do it for me, yeah.

Sasori: I'm gonna kill him! *Deidara runs screaming*

Kakuzu: What they don't know is that it was actually my turn. Oh well, I still get paid.


Chapter 11: The Norm

"Is that the Uchiha?"

Itachi, pulled his backpack higher up on his shoulder subconsciously when the whispers around him grew louder. His fingers rested delicately at the bridge of his nose, the absence of his glasses reminding him once again why everyone was staring at him when he could usually get around unnoticed. He hung his head a bit lower, trying his hardest to get the hair that was pulled back from his face to fall back to it's usual place.

"Get your head up old man." Itachi sighed wearily when a heavy hand rested itself on his small shoulder. The short young man turned his mildly angry gaze on the giant beside him.

"They're staring." Itachi stopped at his locker on the left side of the hall, spinning through the combination impossibly quickly, and digging out his heavy history text book.

"Yeah? I guess they are." Itachi looked up questioningly at Kisame at the tone of the tall boy's voice. Did he not notice the awkward or frightened stares the two of them were getting?

"You... Didn't notice?"

"Of course not. People are always looking at me!" Kisame clapped Itachi on the back, the smaller male stumbling under the heavy onslaught, slamming his locker shut a lot louder than he'd intended. "If people are going to stare, why should I care about every person that does? I mean, I'm something to stare at after all. I'd be more worried if I didn't get strange looks."

"You would?" Itachi slung his bag back onto his shoulder and shoved his textbook into the large pocket, focusing his gaze once again on his large companion.

"Yeah. I've gotten so used to being watched, that if somebody wasn't looking, I'd have to give 'em a reason to look." The blue-haired teen winked jerkily and slammed the locker of some upperclassman as they walked past it. "Listen kid, you're an Akatsuki. Don't let people walk all over you, or else we'll all regret letting you in."

"I see." Itachi tightened the stylish ponytail at the base of his neck and raised his eyes up from the tile floor.

"Who slammed that locker?" Kisame and Itachi froze in their steps at the teacher's voice, and turned slowly to face the older students being confronted. The two young men looked from the teacher to Kisame, and flinched at the angry look the underclassman shot them in warning. "Well? Was it you, Haku, or was it your boyfriend here?"

"We broke up, and you know that Iruka." Zabuza crossed his arms angrily and shared an angry look with Haku. "Anyways, it wasn't us."

"Well," Iruka pinched the skin between his nose to calm the headache forming from the arrogance of the two seniors, "Who was it then? Someone's got to get a write up." Kisame took a step back, and Haku's eyes flickered over to the small movement. An eerily feminine smile lit up the teen's face, his dark eyes narrowing.

"They did it." Iruka turned to face the odd pair standing a few steps away. A vein in Kisame's neck bulged out at bit, his pointed teeth clenched together tightly; he was going to mangle the gay twerp for ratting him out later.

"Well, Hoshigake. This doesn't surprise me-"

"Mr. Umino. Let's not jump to conclusions, shall we." Itachi's eyes narrowed threateningly when he took a step forward, his fingers shoved into his back pockets. Kisame put a hand on the small teen's shoulder to hold him back, but receded when Itachi's bloody gaze turned to him momentarily in warning. The corners of his lips slipped up into the gentlest of smiles as he regarded the teacher. "That wouldn't be a very good idea." Itachi's smile fell to a grim slash.

"Iruka! You're going to let him threaten you?" Haku pulled Zabuza out of the way when Itachi approached the group in measured steps.

"We really must be going Mr. Umino. Thank you so much for understanding." Itachi shook the teacher's hand politely, the smile returning to his face when Iruka nodded slowly in agreement. Itachi released his hand and turned slowly, smirking triumphantly at the older students when he walked by, proud when they glared in response. Iruka rubbed his eyes furiously, swearing repeatedly in his head. He blinked to get rid of the itchiness in his eyes and to clear the tears from his vision.

The bell rang loudly in the hallway, and the students hurried to their lockers to get last minute things, kiss partners goodbye, or to avoid the two students walking down the middle of the hallway. Zabuza and Haku scurried off into the crowd in the opposite direction of the younger students they'd confronted.

The young teacher stumbled back into his empty classroom and sat at his desk, sniffling a bit. He dropped his forehead to the cool wood, glad that this period was his planning period and that he didn't have a class. Iruka wiped a tear that fell down his cheek with the back of his hand, his mouth folding to a grim frown.

"How'd he do it? I... I couldn't look away even though it hurt." The brunette groaned and rubbed at his neck, sitting back in his rolling chair. He glanced out the window of his room that looked out into the hallway and glared at the back of the monstrous teenager and his slight companion. "No one would believe me anyway."

"What the heck did you do, kid?" Kisame shouldered the classroom door open and laughed when the students already inside the room jumped in surprise.

"I'm persuasive." Itachi shrugged halfheartedly and dumped his bag onto his desk in the middle of the classroom, sliding into the seat gracefully. Kisame dumped the kid out of the seat next to Itachi's and pointed to his original seat in the back. The disheveled student gathered his belongings angrily and stormed to the back of the room in a fit of rage, taking the seat beside Konan in a huff.

"Kisame, where's Deidara?" Itachi raised his eyebrow in question.

"Everybody duck and cover, yeah!"

Kisame pushed Itachi out of his chair and did his best to cram himself under his desk, just managing the feat before a smoking object crashed through the window and onto Ebisu's desk, sparks flying everywhere. A few pages caught fire, the entire desk top catching flame within seconds, smoke rising in a black cloud to the white-tiled ceiling. Itachi peeked over the edge of his desk, eyes wide at the charred mess at the front of the classroom. The tiny red-head that was ducked down in the aisle behind him tapped him on the shoulder.

"Found him." The two of them smiled. Sasori held Itachi's intimidating gaze with his honey-colored stare while they waited for the sprinklers to come on and put out the fire. There was a second explosion at the front of the room, and several of the students rushed past the flailing firework to the door. Itachi put his hand on Sasori's back and nudged him in the direction the others had fled just as another spit of sparks flew from the front of the room. The Uchiha ducked down and covered his head when another firework shot through another of the large windows and whistled over his head.

"We're getting out of here kid!" Itachi felt himself getting lifted and vaguely registered that the red-head that had been inching towards the door was thrown over Kisame's other shoulder before the giant rushed toward the door, kicking the exploding object out of his way. Students were crowded into the hallway from all of the different classes as they evacuated the wing of the building.

"Why is no one panicking? Two fireworks just exploded in our classroom and everyone is just ambling along. Those girls are texting on their phones!" Itachi pulled the rubber band out of his hair and tied it back again.

"It's because Deidara blows stuff up all the time around here. They never prove it's him though, even if they know it is. No film or witnesses." Kisame shoved a few dawdling students into the lockers to clear the way, Itachi and Sasori trailing swiftly behind him.

"So this is a regular occurrence?" Itachi brushed a bit of the dust from the sleeve of his jacket and hurried down the front steps after his companion.

"At least once a month, but he does smaller stuff more often." Sasori jumped down each step individually and sprinted to keep up with his taller classmates. "We had a test after lunch, but now they have to let us out to investigate the explosions."

"But there were witnesses that it was a firework." Itachi loosened his tie and undid the top two buttons on his shirt. He slung his blazer over his shoulder and hurried to keep in step with Kisame, a ruckus off to the left of the courtyard drawing his attention. "What's going on over there?"

"Idiot's gone and got himself into another fight. Suppose we should go get him?" Sasori nodded at Kisame's question and sped after the enormous teen, Itachi following closely on their heels. A stream of swear words that even a sailor would have qualms about repeating floated from the center of the ring, and Itachi finally understood the situation a bit better.

"That's Hidan right? Does he fight often- Be careful!" Itachi tackled the brunette in front of him to the ground, a small firework buzzing directly over his head. He looked down at the fierce-looking girl that he'd knocked out of the way of the explosive until she heaved him off of her and jumped to her feet. "Are you alright?" Itachi stood and brushed himself off, ignoring the call of 'Sorry' from the blonde that was heading his way.

"Fine." The girl blushed under the large tattoos that covered her cheeks and hurried after her friend, glancing back at Itachi when he shrugged and ran after his fellow gang members.

"Who was that, Hana? Is he new?" Kurenai tucked a bit of her overly curly hair behind her ear and pressed her lips together when her normally tough friend blushed.

"He just transferred into my class from Japan. I thought he was kind of a geek when I first saw him, but he actually seems cooler than I thought." Hana adjusted her ponytail when Kurenai smacked her upside the head. "What?"

"He's with Fish Boy, Tiny Tim, and Pyro Boy over there trying to break up the idiot albino's fight." Kurenai frowned and pointed a red-nailed finger at her best friend. "Akatsuki, girl. Off limits." Kurenai looked at the group over her shoulder and blushed when she caught Itachi's eye. He waved a two fingered salute and smirked handsomely before dropping his stuff on Sasori and diving into the fight after Kisame. "But there is something about him I can see someone liking. Just wish he was taller."

"Don't we both, 'Nai."

. . . . . .

Itachi rammed his shoulder into Haku's stomach and rubbed it to get rid of the numb feeling when the senior fell to the ground. Hidan hit Zabuza with the handle of some sickle he'd stolen from the groundskeeper's shed and laughed when the older man dropped to the ground in pain.

"Hey! Hey! That's enough man." Kisame knocked the sickle from his friend's hand and dragged him backwards by his shoulders in a strong headlock. The enormous teen glanced at the crowd surrounding them and then at the two older boys cowering in front of them. "Now would be nice Blondie!"

Deidara set off a few bottle rockets outside of the ring of shouting students and smiled when they scattered. Kisame slung Hidan over his shoulder and rushed out of the circle, Itachi hurried after them and over toward Sasori and Deidara.

"Do you guys ever get in trouble for this kind of mess?" Itachi was gasping for breath when the group finally made out the front gate of the school where Kakuzu was waiting for them. He fixed his hair and shoved his jacket into his bag.

"Nah. The school's used to it by now. They kinda turn a blind eye, yeah. Besides, Hidan's dad is the mayor and Kakuzu's pop is a big-time lawyer." Deidara explained while looking through his bag, occasionally dropping a few poppers on the concrete sidewalk to startle passersby. "The students think that we're funny, and the one time a parent actually tried to sue, turns out that the fight was three feet off campus and they lost so badly that they moved out of Konoha. We usually just get detention, or at worst, suspension if we get caught, yeah."

"Most of the students are either too embarrassed by the outcome of the fight or are too afraid of us to rat us out, so we don't get caught often. It's not a great deal seeing as we still get busted big time, but if no one says anything, we can slip out of getting in trouble. You've already saved my butt twice in the past two days just by negotiating a teacher out of writing me up." Kisame elbowed Itachi and grinned mischievously. "This is just the norm for us."

Hidan rubbed at a few off the cuts on his hands from where he'd grabbed the sickle, Kakuzu offering to stitch them up for an outrageous price. Kisame refused to put Sasori down, and the red-head seemed to have fallen asleep slung over the blue-haired teen's shoulder. Deidara set off a sparkler and threw it into the street just as a young man drove by and flipped him off. Itachi glanced between all of his companions and jumped when Zetsu jumped over the school wall and ran down the street towards the red-eyed young man's house as fast as he could, the gardener rushing through the school gate and towards the ambling group of teenagers. They all took off, turning right at the end of the street, automatically going to Itachi's home, and he wondered when his home became the spot they all instinctively ran for when they were being chased.

"Get used to it, kid. This is the norm for us Akatsuki."

Deidara dropped a firework behind them that filled the entire street with smoke and set the grass on the side of the road on fire. Itachi glanced warily at the group that he was running with, and smiled when Kakuzu tripped Hidan, claiming him to be a sacrifice.

He could get used to this.

. . . . . .

End Chapter 11


1. I hope you all found this entertaining, despite how short it is. Expect to get back to the plot after this, but there will be more Akatsuki in the future!

2. I'm not gonna rant long seeing as this is a short chapter, I shouldn't fill it up with yet more useless crap. Thanks for reading!

R & R, Love AMB11.