"Have you seen the scores on this kid?" one of the academy administrators whispered to one of his co-workers.

"What did another Rukongai rat make it in?" he said as he looked through some of his papers.

"Well, yes, but- here, look at this," the other insisted, showing the copies of the new student's test scores in front of the other.

"What- Yagumo, I'm trying to work here!"

"Just look at them, Tagami! They're not like the scores that we normally get from the Rukongai students," Yagumo insisted.

"What? Did he manage to spell his own name?" Tagami asked wryly.

"More than that! Just look!"

"Fine," Tagami grumbled taking the test scores from his friend and looked at them. Yagumo watched the other's face intensely and couldn't help but grin when he saw his eyes widen and his mouth drop open.

"See what I mean?" Yagumo asked, feeling pleased with himself from managing to make the uptight Mr. Tagami lose his composure.

"This... did he cheat?" Tagami asked.

"I don't think so, there was no one else taking the test today," Yagumo explained. "There was no way for him to cheat and the proctors said that he was confident throughout the whole thing, one of them even thought that he looked bored."

"Bored?" Tagami said incredulously.

"Well, at least that's what Ogawa said, the others just talked about how sure of himself he was and how it took him almost no time to do whatever they asked of him," Yagumo said.

"Well then..." Tagami huffed, feeling a little confused, but trying to hide it by shuffling through some of his own papers. "Whatever. Stop bothering me, I have to get back to work!"

"Yeah, yeah," Yagumo grinned. "Just wanted to let you know. He's being put into all the advanced classes. Some are even saying that he's the newest prodigy."

"Newest prodigy," Tagami scoffed. "I wouldn't go that far..."

"Well, you never know," Yagumo said as he shrugged his shoulders and took back the test results. "We haven't had one in a while. I'd say that we were due for another sooner or later."

"That isn't how it works," Tagami hissed, furiously rifling through his paperwork.

"Well, whatever," Yagumo said with a grin. "Just wanted to let you know. See you at lunch time?"

"Sure," Tagami sighed glad that one of his more obnoxious friends was going elsewhere. "See you later."

¸¸.•¨¯`•. ¸¸.•¨¯`•. ¸¸.•¨¯`•.¸¸

Sasori looked around the academy's campus as he was being shown around by one of the professors that taught at the institution. He was explaining to him that locations of his classes, eating halls, libraries, study halls, dormitories, gymnasiums, training grounds, teacher's facilities, administrative offices, and everything else that the academy had to offer. The professor also told him that he would be taking him to get his uniform, his schedule, and his room assignment after the tour was completed. Luckily for him, the new term wasn't due to start for a couple of days and he would be able to prepare himself before the term began.

"Do you have any questions before we end the tour and go to get your set of uniforms?" the professor asked, turning to look at Sasori.

Sasori thought for a moment and ultimately decided that the questions he had would probably be answered in his classes. Boredom had set in during the long tour around the academy's sizable grounds and he just wanted to get his stuff and settle into whatever room he would be assigned to. Apparently he would also be getting a 'roommate'. Hopefully they wouldn't annoy him too much.

"I'm fine," Sasori replied, looking at the other with his usual apathetic heavy lidded gaze.

Apparently this professor found his expression to be as unnerving as most other people thought it was and they quickly made their way over to where the academy supplied students with their uniforms.

It took them little time to find something in Sasori's size, seeing as he wasn't especially large or small in size. Apparently the academy did see a wide variety in size for uniforms, some of which had to be specially ordered in advance, but luckily Sasori was average at best.

After this they stopped by one of the administrative offices that had created Sasori's class schedule. Apparently Sasori had been sorted into the 'advanced' classes, whatever that meant. When he had been enrolled at the ninja academy in Suna, there hadn't been enough children for them to make distinctions between classes.

But he had been put in advanced kidou, hakudo, hohou, and kenjutsu for first years. This would continue for the next six years, steadily advancing in each subject until around the fourth year when he would begin to specialize his fields. Apparently you could begin specializing in different fields such as the biology, technology, communications, chemistry, intensive hakudo or kenjutsu training, or programs that would prepare you for either the onmitsukido or the kidou corps.

Sasori wondering which ones he would decide to 'specialize' in. Of course, when he had been younger his own specialization had already been chosen for him. However, since this option was no longer open to him it would be interesting to discover which academic path would be most suitable for him.

"You've been assigned to room number three-eight-four in the boys' west wing."

Sasori was jolted from his musings by the professor, Mr. Akemi.

"Your roommate already arrived a few days ago," Akemi continued. "He'll let you know the ins and outs of your new living area."

Sasori thought it was a little inconsiderable of him to just dump the responsibility of finishing his tour to some guy who had only just arrived a few days ago. But it seemed that he didn't really have a choice in the matter and he simply had to hope that the other guy felt like telling him where the bathrooms were and where he should go if he felt thirsty at one o'clock in the morning.

"Alright then," Akemi stopped at the door that was marked three-eight-four and handed Sasori the key. Sasori took it with the hand that wasn't holding his new uniforms and his schedule.

"If you need anything, feel free to ask your roommate, your peers, or any of the faculty. Have a pleasant first day of school. It starts on Wednesday," Akemi told him before clapping him on the shoulder and walking away.

Sasori looked over his shoulder at the retreating figure and glared slightly. He truly disliked people that wasted his time like that by neglecting their jobs, especially since introducing himself to his new roommate promised to be painfully awkward. But, since he didn't really have much of choice, he might as well open the door.

"Hello?" Sasori called as he opened the door with his key and poked his head in.

"'Allo? 'oo iz zere?" a voice called out.

Sasori walked through the door and passed through a short hallway that had what looked like a small closet and/or pantry door to the left side. Sasori also had to climb up a step, kicking off his shoes on the mat that was obviously there for people to leave them there.

"Your new roommate," Sasori got right to the point.

"Sheet," his new roommate cursed. Sasori raised an eyebrow at the expletive, and at the thick accent. Suddenly he heard a muffled thumping and he walked farther into the room.

To his immediate left there was a bed stuck into the corner with a small night table attached and a dresser at the other end, a similar configuration could be seen on his right, but unlike the left side it seemed to be occupied. At the end of the room there was a large window flooding the room with light and two desks were standing next to each other under it. On the far right wall there was another doorway that Sasori guessed contained his cursing roommate.

"'Oo ze fuck screwed up because I was told zat I would be getting a room of my own!"

Sasori placed his things down on his bed and turned to raise an eyebrow at the door that had just slammed open and his roommate came scowling into the room. He was actually one of the scruffier people that he had seen in quite some time. He had scruffy, unwashed brown hair that looked as if it had bits of dirt stuck in it, dark eyebrows, dark, irritable eyes, the skin around his eyes looked prematurely wrinkled and there were dark bags underlining them as well. Sasori looked closely at the cigarette was resting to the side of a pair of scowling lips and wondered where he had managed to find any in this technologically backwards afterlife. To top this all of he had yet to change into his school uniform and was wearing a black t-shirt, brown slacks, and a pair of fingerless gloves. Oh, and he had a shovel strapped to his back to complete the image which also explained all of the random dirt stains that could be seen on his clothes and on various parts of his body. Sasori just wondered where the boy had managed to find a pair of pants...

"So? 'Oo are you?" the man asked crossing his arms.

"...your roommate?" Sasori said slowly as if he was talking to someone that was particularly dense.

"You know what I meen, beetch," the man narrowed his eyebrows and took a drag from his cigarette, the smoke blowing out from his nose. "Tell me your name."

Sasori narrowed his eyes a bit, but not enough for someone like this...thing...to know.

"Sasori."

"Iz zat so?" he grumbled. "Well, I don't appreciate ze surprise, when did you get 'ere?"

"Two hours ago," Sasori told him.

"Ughhh," he gave a disgusted sigh. "Ze ugly, annoying, twitchy one just left you 'ere, didn't 'e? Akemi? I knew I would not like zat one."

"Yes," Sasori said, agreeing with most of what he had said except for the twitching part. He couldn't recall the man ever twitching in his presence, but perhaps the amount of dirt that seemed to exist on this man's person brought out the OCD in the professor.

"Well, since we seem to be stuck 'ere togezer for some time, I suppose I should tell you my name," the man said thoughtfully, almost to himself. "My name iz Christophe DeLorne, otherwise known as 'Ze Mole', but I am not at work."

"... 'ze mole?" Sasori had to repeat. He wasn't sure he had heard that correctly.

"Yes," Christophe said his eyebrows furrowed deeper, creating more lines on his face. "Do you have a fucking problem with zat, beetch?"

'He called me a bitch again,' Sasori thought, his anger worsening by the second.

"Not with that, no," Sasori answered honestly. "But call me a bitch again and I'll rearrange your internal organs so that you'll be spewing blood for hours until you die a painful death. Again."

Instead of infuriating the man further like Sasori had predicted, it only seemed to amuse him and he let a slight smile grace his lips.

"Well, it seems zat we might get along after all," Christophe said, putting his hands on his hips and looking at Sasori appraisingly. "But if you touch any of my things I shall 'ave to keel and bury you with my shovel."

Sasori rolled his eyes and shrugged indicating that he didn't really care what the hell the other was saying. And he didn't really care about the other's belongings.

"As long as you don't touch any of mine."

"Zat iz acceptable," Christophe said as he plopped down on his bed, leaning forwards and resting his forearms on top of his knees.

Sasori was weirded out once again about the intense stare he was receiving from his decidedly very weird new roommate.

'Whatever,' he thought to himself irritably as he opened up his bag and started taking out some of things he carried with him. He would fold and put away his uniforms last, his own stuff taking priority over clothing he had received just a few moments ago. Although when he had taken out his puppets and some of his wood working skills, he noticed a sudden increased intensity in the stare he was getting from the person on the other side of the room.

"Were you Japanese?" Christophe asked suddenly.

"What?" Sasori asked, rather confused at the sudden question that didn't really make sense.

"Japanese? Were you from ze country of Japan?" Christophe clarified with a roll of his eyes.

"Where's Japan?" Sasori asked, as far as he knew there was no such country in the world he had come from. This, however, only furthered Christophe's confusion.

"You are from ze Rukon, yes?"

"...yeah," Sasori replied, not sure where this line of questioning was going and why this had anything to do with the existence of 'Japan'.

"And you are speaking Japanese, yes?"

Sasori stared at him blankly. He wasn't aware that the language he was speaking had any specific name. Everyone in the elemental continent spoke the language he was speaking. Occasionally a certain region had recognizable accent, but that was as far as it went. There were rumors that different languages existed in other parts of the world, but mostly it was believed to by myth and no one had ever thought to go out and check.

"Ze language that you are speaking now," Christophe said slowly as if he was now the one who was trying to communicate with someone particularly stupid. "It iz ze same as the one ze others are speaking, oui?"

And Sasori didn't know what 'oui' meant, but he was going to take a leap of faith and take that the other meant it as a 'yes'.

"...yes?" Sasori answered.

"Zen you are speaking Japanese," Christophe finished explaining, still looking a little frustrated. "But you 'ave never 'eard of Japan?"

"No," Sasori said shortly, getting frustrated with the other's fixation with a country that he had never heard of.

"Well, I suppose zat you do not look Japanese," he mumbled to himself. "I 'ave never seen nor 'eard of a Japanese ginger..."

Sasori had also never heard of the term 'ginger' applied to a person before, but he wondered what a plant had to do with a person, especially him. This Christophe was weird...extremely weird...Maybe he was perhaps, insane or mentally retarded. The possibility seemed highly likely.

"What country are you from?" Christophe decided to get right to the heart of the matter.

"Why?"

Christophe gave a frustrated sigh and he took another drag from his cigarette, "Because, I am curious. Although you are not Japanese, it iz weird zat you 'ave not 'eard of ze country yet you speak ze language."

"Wind."

Christophe blinked at the sudden answer that he wasn't really sure was an answer.

"Wind? What about it?"

"You asked what country I'm from," Sasori said. "Wind country."

"...wind country."

"Yes."

"..."

Sasori raised an eyebrow at the blank look on the other man's face.

"...you... 'ave died right? You were not born 'ere in ze Soul Society?"

"Yes," Sasori said, frowning. Why were they still discussing this?

"I died about a month or so ago."

"Uh-huh," Christophe grunted, taking a few more drags on his cigarette, flicking the ashes into a cup that he had sitting on his side table. He ran a hair through his hair, making it look even messier than before, if that was even possible.

"Well, I am also from ze land of ze living and I 'ave never 'eard of a place called 'wind country'. As far as I know, no one has gave their country such a odd sounding name."

"Okay?" Sasori was wondering why this mattered to the other so much. So he had never heard of wind country before, why was it such a big deal?

"Well, last time I checked, all of the countries of ze world have been discovered," Christophe said flatly. "So either you are crazy or you are not from ze planet Earth, but somehow you speak Japanese."

"You said that I speak Japanese," Sasori reminded him.

"You are speaking it right now!" Christophe shouted, looking angry. "Perhaps I should 'unt down zat worthless bastard and tell him zat I don't want a crazy for a roommate."

"Do what you like," Sasori responded mildly. He mentally rolled his eyes, if anyone was a crazy, it was Christophe, not Sasori. "But it doesn't change the fact that I have never heard of a 'Japan' before, so I guess that we're even."

Christophe huffed, but didn't get up to go tell anyone that his mind was addled. He continued to stare at Sasori as he continued to unpack, but Sasori decided to ignore him as he had done before. Hopefully, the other would get over whatever problem he had with this situation and leave him alone. If not, he could always make good on his promise for reconstructive surgery on his internal organs. He hadn't done anything fun in a while.

Sasori had put most of his things away by the time afternoon had arrived. All of his clothes had been washed during his stay at the Shiba household, courtesy of her assistants, and those were the first things that he had put away in his new set of dresser drawers. Next he had rearranged his puppets and his tools, putting the majority of those things on his desk so that he would have a proper work space. Perhaps he could eventually utilize the corner space that existed between his dresser and the desk for future projects.

His money had been tucked away with his clothes and the leftover food that he had, left covered and neatly organized it in one of the drawers of his bedside table. The travel bedding he had been carrying with him now seemed to be obsolete so he folded that and fit it into the bottom dresser drawer, leaving the middle one empty for him to put his uniforms.

All the while, Christophe was still in the same position, smoking cigarettes, and giving Sasori his full attention as he busied himself with his own things. Sasori knew that pretty soon his already thin patience would run even thinner and he wouldn't be responsible for any of his actions. Maybe if he had managed to pick up some of those chemicals he could have made some untraceable poisons... ah, well. Wishful thinking never really got a person anywhere.

Thanks to Grocamol, TheBlackSeaReaper, Dead End v1, Slayer End, Mr. Hourglass, and foxeatfox for reviewing! Thanks to Darksageknight, Mental Panda, Auska Chan, Shadowfreddy, maoh65, ciuphacapra, oakwilde, and sagotomi for adding this to their Story Alerts! Thanks to ocsummers, Shadowfreddy, Kiriari, Swampflare, and LolAvatarWolfs for adding this to their Favorites! And thanks to you for reading! It got 4,332 hits (almost as much as my most popular story), 1 C2s, 37 faves, and 25 alerts! It really means a lot to me that you're enjoying the story. So I can't thank you enough.