Normal POV

Kabuto Yakushi was a…fairly level headed man. He was intelligent in all realms, he was patient most of the time with students, and he enjoyed the work that he did. However, the silver haired teacher couldn't deny that certain topics interested him more than they should have…

He enjoyed teaching students, but he also enjoyed observing them. He liked watching them interact. You know—be embarrassed, be angry, hide their emotions from one another. It was almost a comedy act to him, and he received immense entertainment from watching them squirm. To see their faces darken in anger, to see their jaws and muscles clench as if preparing to throw a punch or spit curses at one another. To watch as their skin flushed pink and their breaths became louder and quicker…for some reason all these prospects enthralled and captivated him.

Thankfully though, not many people knew this about him. However, one of the people who did know was his dear and trusted subordinate: Orochimaru. After all, two individuals with similar interests couldn't hide from each other for too long.

Yes, the snake-like teacher had consulted Kabuto two years ago when he'd just started to work at the school, and since then the two had relied on each other. For what, you ask? Well, all students were interesting…but they didn't get the chance to meet them all. Their classes were too small and there wasn't enough time in the day to scope out prey after-hours. Looking through records would essentially get them nowhere anyway…

Therefore…

"Grading papers, Sensei?" Kabuto questioned, leaning against the doorframe to Orochimaru's private office. The snake man didn't even blink in surprise at his appearance—actually, he grinned. Orochimaru had been expecting him to visit soon. After all, trimesters had just changed…

"Ahh, Kabuto," he said, setting down the pen in his hand. "I've been waiting."

"I apologize…," the younger teacher said sincerely and suddenly walked forward, setting a stack of papers on Orochimaru's desk. The pale skinned man immediately leaned forward and picked them up, his gold eyes scanning them intently.

"…But here are my class rosters for third trimester."

Humming, Orochimaru turned the page and continued looking. Finally after what seemed like at least five minutes, the science teacher's face lit up happily.

"Ahhh, so you're the one who got her," he said, turning his gleaming eyes up to Kabuto. The silver haired teacher cocked his head to the side questioningly.

"Her?"

Picking up his pen once again, Orochimaru quickly made a circle on one of the sheets and then handed it back to him.

"She's someone I had my eye on first trimester," Orochimaru continued, folding his arms. "Sadly, nothing was ever able to come of it." Smile widening, Orochimaru looked up to Kabuto. "So I urge you to take advantage when you can."

Blinking, Kabuto looked down at the paper which had been handed back to him, his eyes focusing on the singular name that had been circled.

Aerin Grey.

Smirking, Kabuto pushed up the glasses resting on his nose.

"I'll be sure to keep my eyes on her then."

By now, a couple weeks into the final trimester of the year, Kabuto had realized why Orochimaru had been so interested in the girl.

The first thing that he had noticed was her connections; it wasn't often that you could find a person hanging out with the Konoha 12 group and then flawlessly switch to being with the Akatsuki. She had connections on both ends, and everyone seemed to like her. But the other thing was that…she didn't seem to care.

From what Kabuto could tell, she wasn't the type of person to reach out and try to become popular with everyone. On the contrary, she seemed like the type of person that would have been fine having no friends and simply conversing when she had to.

She had become a favorite among different groups because she had felt neutral towards them.

But that wasn't the only thing that caught his attention. Besides befriending the Akatsuki and Konoha 12, Aerin was expressive—in both voice and body language. She didn't take shit from Hidan, joked with Kisame, blushed when they teased her, and got angry when Hidan touched her.

When she was with Naruto or Sasuke in the halls you could see the love she had for them on her peaceful face, even as the two boys argued.

Aerin was a bundle of neatly kept emotions—and Kabuto really wanted to see what would happen if she lost it for once.

Grinning to himself, the science teacher snapped his laptop shut and then stood, adjusting his tie. First hour would be starting soon, and he needed to get prepared.

However, as he exited his office and stepped into his classroom, another thought came to him.

Aerin wasn't bad looking either—and while attitude and emotion meant more to him—it certainly was a plus have prey that looked nice too.

Chuckling, Kabuto moved around and started to prepare his lab stations for the day. He had a plan forming, and he wanted to put it to use soon.

Where Orochimaru had failed he would not—because unlike the snake teacher no one suspected him. His façade was too put together to be questioned…and his activities had yet to be noticed.

Kabuto would not mess this up—because Aerin having been moved into his class was a blessing, and he would enjoy his time with her while he could.

Three weeks into the trimester, Kisame and Hidan started to get weird vibes from Kabuto. Up until then he'd been pretty normal, and they hadn't been concerned about him…but now something felt like it had changed…and that wasn't good.

What? Why are they concerned, you say? Well, they were the Akatsuki. They kept tabs on everyone—their teachers included—and they knew that the silver haired science teacher didn't have a clean slate. Even if nothing had even been reported or caught…he certainly wasn't an innocent man—that much was easy to tell…

But apparently not to some people.

"Eh?" Aerin blinked innocently. "What do you mean 'be weary of Kabuto sensei'? He's perfectly fine! He's one of the best teachers I've had this year!"

Kisame sighed and ran a hand through his dark blue hair. "Yeah, I know, but…I'm just getting bad vibes from him, alright?"

"Well that's understandable," Aerin replied nonchalantly. "But I'm not receiving those vibes, and I think he's just fine."

Kisame wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her skull—to tell her that Kabuto had done some pretty fucked up shit before (or, so it'd been rumored)—but he didn't. Instead he sighed again and gave up on the conversation. It was just a feeling he'd gotten after all—and there was no way to prove the rumors true. It was all speculation, and he was sure Aerin could handle herself anyway, but…

For a moment he thought back a week ago to when she'd been held hostage by that rival gang.

All Kisame wanted was for her not to become a part of another fucked up situation that would stay within her memories forever.

"Kisame," Aerin suddenly spoke, placing a hand on his arm. Kisame jolted out of his thoughts and looked down at her. She sent him an assuring smile.

"If it makes you happy I'll keep my eye out, alright? But I don't think you need to worry about Kabuto sensei at all," she said with a wry smirk. Chuckling slightly, Kisame nodded in agreement.

"I suppose you're right," he said and then looked over to the sleeping silver haired idiot beside him. "Now let's fucking wake Hidan up so we can get this experiment done."

Immediately Aerin started grinning as Kisame raised his fist and smacked it into Hidan's head. The Jashinist woke up with a start.

"Oi! What the fuck was that!? Why'd you?—oh, fuck you guys."

The next day, Aerin suddenly found herself alone with the teacher Kisame had warned her to stay away from. She had stayed after class to ask him about a problem she'd gotten wrong on her quiz—since she was 99% sure she'd gotten it correct.

I mean, hell—sure Kisame had told her he'd gotten a bad vibe, but if Aerin had gotten marked off a point on accident then she wanted that one point back!

"Um, excuse me, Kabuto sensei?" she asked tentatively, peeking her head back into his office. The sliver haired teacher had retired to his desk immediately at the end of the hour, as he always did.

Blinking, Kabuto looked up at her, his eyes wide in surprise. Aerin swore that she saw some different kind of emotion slip into them for a moment before he stood and smiled at her.

Aerin shook her head, saying that Kisame had probably just made her paranoid.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there," he said sincerely and the stepped out from behind his desk. "Is there something you need?"

"I got a problem wrong on the quiz you handed back today," she explained, holding up the paper. Kabuto tilted his head to the side curiously and walked up beside her, looking at the paper in her hand. "I just wanted to make sure that you didn't mark it wrong on accident…"

"Oh?" he laughed and took the paper from her, their hands brushing. He looked over at her with his dark eyes, a teasing grin on his face. "Are you inferring that I made a mistake?"

"No, of course not!" Aerin said honestly. She really had no idea if she was wrong or not…she just wanted to confirm her grade was all…

Kabuto hummed and looked over the paper. However, before he could say anything, the warning bell rang. Aerin blinked in surprise and looked over at the clock on the wall. She hadn't thought that it'd take this long.

Sighing quietly, Aerin looked up to Kabuto, expecting him to still be looking at her quiz, but instead his eyes were locked on her. She couldn't tell what he was thinking at all…

"I don't want you to be you late for your next class," he said after a few seconds, smiling again. He walked over to his desk and set Aerin's quiz on the top of one of his stacks of papers. "So how about this: if you want, stop by at the end of the day and I'll have an answer for you, alright?"

"Actually," Aerin replied, causing Kabuto to raise his eyebrow. "I have lunch right now…"

"Even better," Kabuto said with a smile and then patted the spare seat beside his desk. Aerin blinked and hesitantly moved to sit beside him. He was close—closer than she wanted to be to a teacher (unless it was Kakashi, because she loved him in her own way) when she was the only student in the room.

Just calm down, she told herself as Kabuto started to point out the mistake in her equations. Apparently she'd added up the numbers wrong—a simple mistake that everyone was bound to make at some point.

"However, I will say though—," Kabuto spoke up, breaking her from her internal thoughts. He sent her a friendly smile. "—your scores in this class are near perfect. I wouldn't worry about getting one or two problems wrong every once in a while."

Laughing, Aerin rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, it's just that my junior year is almost over, and I have to start thinking about colleges this summer so…"

"Ah, that's understandable," Kabuto nodded and crossed his arms. He turned to face her, a thoughtful look coming to his eyes. "So you're planning to continue onto college then?"

"Well, yeah," Aerin said, as if it was obvious. "I mean, kids nowadays don't really have any other choice, do they?"

Kabuto laughed. "I suppose you're right about that."

Aerin smiled in response and then suddenly stood, grabbing her backpack. Kabuto raised his eyebrows in surprise and mimicked her, abruptly standing. Aerin blinked in surprise at the sudden motion and forced a smile in reply to the large one Kabuto was giving her.

…she didn't want to admit but Kabuto was starting to creep her out as well. Certainly, he seemed very kind, but there was also something about him that she couldn't quite place.

"Thank you for your time, sensei," she said, bowing her head slightly, and then turned to leave.

"Wait a minute, Grey!" he called and Aerin froze in shock when there was suddenly a hand holding her wrist.

He was too close.

"Sorry, Kabuto sensei," she said and glanced back over her shoulder at him, a fake happiness in her tone. "But I really need to eat before lunch is over…"

"Alright, I understand," Kabuto sighed in defeat, but contrary to his tone his grip on her wrist tightened dangerously. "Just allow me to ask you one more question, okay?"

Pausing, and her tension still high, she bit out, "What?"

"Are you allergic to any type of medicine?"

Aerin blinked in shock at the question, mindlessly replying, "no?"

She turned her head back to glance at him, very close to finally asking him not-so-nicely to release her, but her voice caught in her throat when she saw him grinning deviously. In his hand was a long needle, and before she could even think to scream or run the needle was in her arm, and the hand that had been over her wrist clamped onto her mouth.

"Well, that's good to know," the science teacher chuckled as Aerin cursed into his palm, her vision already beginning to blur.

She should've listened to Kisame. She should've listened to Kisame! Why hadn't she listened to Kisame?! After all, if an Akatsuki member had a bad feeling then it must've really been bad, right?!

However, she didn't have long to scold herself any further, because her limbs went weak and her sight blurred even more. Aerin caught sight of the science teacher's devil-like grin once again and wished so badly to punch him. She thought that he'd been her first good science teacher…

Fuck. She was stupid.

"Knowing you're not allergic to anything makes things easier on me," he said teasingly as Aerin's body finally gave out. The science teacher leaned down as her eyes fluttered shut and she fell into him, placing his lips right beside her ear.

"I wouldn't want the fun to end before it can begin…"

When Itachi walked into Ebisu's class, he was surprised to find that Aerin wasn't there. She was usually the first one to arrive, and he would be moments after her.

However, briefly Itachi shrugged it off and walked over to his seat. A minute later Deidara waltzed in, a forever spastic Tobi right on his heels. The two other Akatsuki members took their seats beside Itachi…and then the bell rang. And there was no Aerin.

Itachi couldn't deny that he was a bit worried. Usually Aerin was always here…and she hadn't seemed sick at all when he'd seen her yesterday…

He got a bad feeling.

Flipping his phone out, Itachi quickly opened a previous text conversation that he'd had with Kisame and typed out a new message.

Did something happen to Aerin in your class today? She's not here. -12:38 PM

A loud, pointed cough from Ebisu had him quickly putting his phone away, but a couple moments later his pocket buzzed in reply.

Kisame:

Nah, she was fine dude…why? You think something's up? -12:40

Itachi shook his head, trying to dispel his worry. Maybe he'd gotten a little too attached to seeing her in class everyday…

Not sure. Just a bad gut feeling is all. Probably nothing -12:41

Itachi waited for Kisame's nonchalant reply, laughing at him and teasing him with something along the lines of "what? Do all you Uchiha's like Aerin now?" but it never came. The reply he did receive came some time later, and it wasn't the one he'd been hoping for.

Kisame:

…I'll check it out. -12:58 PM

Itachi blinked in surprise.

That didn't assure him at all.

Is there something going on? -1:01 PM

Kisame:

Idk. I'll check it out. -1:03 PM

Itachi released a sigh and shoved his phone back into his pocket, ignoring the glare Ebisu had thrown at him for texting in the middle of class. He knew he wouldn't be getting any more information out of Kisame at the moment.

Hopefully everything was okay…

Everything was not okay.

Kisame cursed and stomped down the hall through the hoards of students racing for the buses or their cars.

He'd managed to get a hold of Sasori during fifth hour, who had confirmed that Aerin was absent for his class with her too. However, when he'd gone to the front office and asked Shizune if Aerin had come in sick or if she had left the vice principal had been confused.

Aerin had never come to the infirmary or office…and according to the attendance records; she's skipped her last two hours of the day as well.

"Fuck."

It had to have been Kabuto.

Stomping out of the office, Kisame immediately turned towards the science hall, his eyes hardened in determination. He was going to kill Kabuto if he was behind this.

However, just as Kisame was nearing the silver haired teacher's room, the door opened…and out walked Hidan of all people, a passed out Aerin being carried on his back.

The Jashinist instantly froze at seeing Kisame standing there.

"Hidan?" the sharkman spoke up, completely appalled. "What the fuck?!"

"Hey, it's not what you fucking think!" Hidan argued quickly, his face red with furry—or was that embarrassment?

"Then what the fuck is going on?" Kisame growled, crossing his arms sternly. Hidan scowled and motioned towards the classroom he'd just exited. Questioningly, Kisame walked forward and peeked his head through the doorframe.

On the far side of the room he could see the door to Kabuto's office wide open, and on the floor of the carpeted room inside he could also see a pair of legs on the ground.

"Holy shit," Kisame whispered and glanced back at Hidan. "Did you just murder our teacher?"

"What? No!" Hidan replied immediately. But to Kisame's surprise he sighed tiredly and adjusted his grip on Aerin, starting to walk down the hall. "Whatever, I'll tell you on the way, alright? Let's just fucking go."

Blinking, Kisame stared after him for a few seconds before jogging to catch up. Clearly something had happened between Kabuto, Aerin, and Hidan…but he honestly couldn't assume what.

It had been established already that Hidan hated school, and that he only came because it entertained him for part of the day—that was it. Hidan hated the work and the people all the same—the only people he could actually stand to interact with were the other Akatsuki. And maybe Aerin—but it's not like she voluntarily spoke to him or anything. She was forced to, because they were in the same class—so that didn't really count.

Anyway, Hidan hated school. But you know what he didn't hate? His pendant. His circle and triangle silver pendant…that he had fucking lost.

God dammit.

Cursing madly, Hidan stomped down the halls of the school. It was the middle of fifth hour, and he had simply walked out of his class to go and search for it. His necklace was more important than learning English anyway.

Fuming in anger, Hidan decided that he was going to try and retrace his steps. He remembered having it first hour, because he'd been cleaning it off with his shirt…but in his second hour they'd been working with wet clay, so he'd taken it off because he didn't want it to get dirty again.

Immediately Hidan paused and threw his backpack off his shoulder. He searched through all the pouches for a minute—remembering that he'd thrown it in one of them—but came up empty handed.

"What the fuck?" he whined, running a hand through his hair.

…then he remembered something else. In third hour—when he'd fallen asleep again—Kisame and Aerin had taco'd his backpack.

His necklace must've fallen out and none of them had realized it.

Cursing again, Hidan picked up his bag and turned, heading towards Kabuto's classroom. He prayed that his necklace would still be there—or else he'd have to find Kisame and Aerin and beat the shit out of them.

A minute later Hidan arrived at the silver haired teacher's class, and tentatively glanced inside. It seemed that he wasn't teaching a class this hour because no one was there—Kabuto included.

Silently, Hidan snuck into the room and padded back to the table that he, Kisame, and Aerin shared. He searched the ground for his necklace, and then checked the surrounding area too, but came up empty handed once again

"Dammit," he sighed. He wanted to be angry but at this point he was just becoming sad.

Frowning, Hidan glanced around the room once more and then realized that there was only one more place for him to check—Kabuto's office. Maybe he'd picked it up for him, after all—but the door was locked.

Well, that wouldn't be any trouble for him at all.

Grinning slightly, Hidan easily found a paper clip that someone had littered on the ground and picked it up. He then walked over to the door of Kabuto's office, bent the clip a little, and proceeded to pick the lock.

Twenty seconds later the door clicked satisfyingly, and with a proud grin Hidan stood, pushing the door open. However, he only got one step into Kabuto's office before he froze.

On the far side of the room was a couch, and on that couch was Aerin—sleeping. Thoughts of a million possibilities flooded Hidan's mind, but they all stopped when he noticed duck tape binding her wrists and feet.

"Oh fuck," he breathed and on instinct jogged over to her. How did Aerin always manage to end up in these situations? Well, Hidan realized that he had been the cause of at least two of "these situations" himself—but if it was him causing her trouble then it was okay. If it was Kabuto?—fuck him. He had no right.

Hidan raised a hand and placed it on the side of Aerin's neck. He had no idea if Kabuto had done anything to her—so first thing he needed to do was make sure that she was actually alive.

And she was.

Huffing slightly, Hidan then reached into his pocket and pulled out his switchblade. He popped the blade open and then carefully sliced through the duck tape binding Aerin's hands and feet.

"Man this dude it pretty fucked up," Hidan whispered to himself, looking over Aerin once again. Then again, he was too—but it was different, alright?!

Hidan stared at Aerin for a minute, debating how to handle this (or her), but just as he was reaching to pick her up the lights to Kabuto's office flicked on. Instantly Hidan froze and turned to meet the surprised look of the silver haired science teacher who had just entered. Kabuto's surprised look, however, didn't last very long.

"Well, well," he chuckled darkly, his face morphing into an angry snarl. Kabuto reached behind him and closed the door that had been opened, twisting the lock shut. Hidan narrowed his eyes and poised himself in front of Aerin as the science teacher turned to address him again.

"I must say you're the last person I expected to see in here," Kabuto said, crossing his arms. Hidan remained silent. He didn't know what to say because he honestly didn't really know what was going on. He'd found Aerin by complete accident—but he sure as hell wouldn't be leaving her here with Kabuto at the very least.

"Nothing to say?" Kabuto teased and stepped over to his desk. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out a needle and a vile. Hidan watched in shock as Kabuto filled the needle with the clear liquid and then flicked the tip, causing some to come out.

He looked like an evil doctor about to experiment on some helpless girl. Too bad for him—Hidan wasn't a helpless girl. In fact—he was the exact opposite: a 6 ft, well-built, threatening 19 year old male.

"Now," Kabuto laughed, quietly taking a step towards the two. "If you try and fight me then I'll be forced to inject you with this, and you'll forget everything that happened here. So…what will you do?"

Hidan blinked. Wasn't it obvious?

"Well," he said and stood at his full height. Without a seconds notice he lunged at Kabuto, and the silver haired teacher went down with a startled cry. Hidan landed on top of him and instantly raised a fist, punching him in the face before he could recover his bearings.

The punch left Kabuto stunned for a few seconds, so Hidan took his chance and reached for the needle that had been knocked out of his hand. However, just as his fingers skimmed the plastic of the syringe, a hand shot up and wrapped around his neck. Hidan winced in pain and glared down the slightly bloodied teacher still underneath him. Kabuto no longer seemed to be in a playing mood, his grip deathly tight around Hidan's airway.

Shit, he cursed internally and moved past the pain, wrapping his hand around the needle that Kabuto had forgotten about.

"Fuck you," he struggled out and stabbed the needle into Kabuto shoulder. The teacher cursed as the liquid flowed into his arm, but it wasn't more than a few seconds before his grip dropped from Hidan's throat, and his eyes rolled back into his head.

Clicking his tongue angrily, Hidan crawled off the science teacher who had passed out (he wasn't dead because Hidan could see him breathing) and rubbed his sore neck. There would definitely be bruises there tomorrow…

Sighing, Hidan ignored Kabuto—not giving a shit if he woke up in a few hours with a sore neck and a sore face—and stood up. He walked back over to Aerin and with a little challenge maneuvered her so that she was on his back, his hands on her jean-covered thighs and her arms wrapped around his neck.

Once he was sure Aerin wouldn't fall off him and crack her head on the floor, Hidan turned, stepped over Kabuto, and then exited the office.

"…And then you ran into me?" Kisame questioned, taking a sip of the Coke in his hand. He'd led Hidan back to Aerin's house after they'd run into each other—and while he was sure Aerin would hate him later for having shown her least favorite person the way to her house, Kisame was sure that she'd get over it.

"Yeah," Hidan confirmed, his eyes wandering around her family room.

"But won't Kabuto sensei fucking get you expelled or suspended when he remembers what you did later on?"

The Jashinist shrugged. "I don't know, dude. That bastard mentioned something about "not remembering" shit if he injected me with whatever had been in that needle, so if I had to fucking guess, I'd say that when he wakes up he won't remember anything."

Kisame snorted. "Or at least that's what you're hoping."

Hidan huffed a laugh in response and then the room became silent again.

"So, do you think Kabuto injected Aerin with that shit too then?" Kisame questioned. Once again, Hidan shrugged.

"I guess we'll find out when she fucking wakes up."

"What will you find out?" Aerin's voice suddenly broke in. Hidan and Kisame blinked in shock, their heads turning to find her standing in the enterance way to the family room. She tilted her head to the side, blinking innocently.

"Also, why is Hidan in my house?" she asked, her eyes narrowing as she looked towards Kisame. The sharkman laughed nervously, rubbing the back of head. He knew she wasn't gonna be happy about this…

"So, how was your day?" Hidan butted in, ignoring the fact that Aerin was angry about him being in her home.

Both Kisame and Aerin paused in shock. Had he really just asked such a sincere question?

"Well," Aerin said, somewhat caught off-guard. "English and History were fine, and then we had that quiz in Kabuto sensei's class…"

Suddenly she stopped, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"I…after that I don't really know," she said, missing the look that Hidan and Kisame shared. "I went to ask Kabuto sensei a question before lunch and then…"

"You got sick," Kisame lied flawlessly. Aerin blinked, looking up at him in surprise.

"I did?"

"Yeah, apparently at lunch you had some bad food and some random chick found you passed out in the bathroom," Kisame confirmed, nodding his head. "So, you got shipped up to the infirmary. At the end of the day you still hadn't woken up, Shizune had to leave, and I just happened to be walking past the nurse's office with this guy at that moment," Kisame said with a shrug, pointing a finger to Hidan. "So, we picked you up and brought you back home."

Aerin was staring at them in shock, not sure what to say.

"Well, uhm," she said and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry for putting you through all that trouble then…"

"Oh, it was no trouble!" Kisame replied happily and stood. He stepped past Hidan and walked over to her, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "Hopefully you feel better."

"I think I'm already better right now," she laughed and patted his back. Kisame grinned in response and then stepped back, looking over to Hidan.

"C'mon idiot, let's get out of here," Kisame said, and with a sigh Hidan reluctantly stood from his spot on her couch.

As Kisame and Hidan stepped past Aerin and started towards the front door, Hidan suddenly remembered something.

"Aw, dammit!" he yelled, scaring both Kisame and Aerin. "I never found my fucking necklace!"

"Necklace…?" Aerin mumbled quietly, and then suddenly clapped her hands, apparently remembering something. Without a word she brushed past Hidan and Kisame and ran into her kitchen. She stopped in front of her backpack (which Hidan had been thoughtful enough to grab on his way out of Kabuto's classroom) and started to rummage around. A couple seconds later she said, "aha!" happily and pulled out what she'd been looking for.

It was Hidan's pendant.

Grinning at Hidan's dumbfounded look, Aerin walked up and placed the silver pendant in his outturned palm.

"I noticed that it'd been left on the floor before I went to talk to Kabuto sensei," she explained as Hidan continued to stare at her in shock. "I figured I'd try and give it back to you if I saw you in the hall, or I'd give it to one of the other Akatsuki members…," she rambled. "But, I guess at this point I'll just give it to you now."

For a few seconds a silence stretched between them before Hidan finally found his voice.

"Thank you," he said, his fist enclosing around the necklace tightly. Aerin blinked in shock at his words—never having expected to hear such an expression come from him of all people—but nonetheless smiled in response.

"No problem!"

"C'mon," Kisame said and clasped a hand on Hidan's shoulder. "Let's get outta here."

Hidan simply nodded, turning to follow after the shark-like teen.

"We'll see you tomorrow!" Kisame shouted back at Aerin as they padded down her driveway. Aerin laughed in response from the front doorway and waved at him.

"See you!" she said, and once they were out of sight closed her door.

As Hidan and Kisame climbed into Kisame's car, Hidan couldn't help but ask, "are we really not gonna tell her what happened?"

"I don't think we really need to," Kisame replied, starting up the engine. "After all, as long as Kabuto forgets that you beat him up to protect Aerin, then he'll probably forget that he had Aerin altogether."

Hidan grunted in agreement. "He'll probably try to fucking nab her again though."

"We'll make sure he doesn't."

"'We'll'?" Hidan echoed, raising an eyebrow at the blue haired teen. Kisame blinked innocently.

"Well, you did protect her today, after all."

"It's not like I did it on fucking purpose."

"But you still did it either way," Kisame argued, and Hidan huffed, crossing his arms. Kisame only sniggered in response, earning a glare from Hidan.

"Shut the fuck up," he said, and Kisame held up his hands defensively.

Of course Hidan wouldn't want his reputation of a psycho bad-boy ruined. If someone found out he'd actually helped to protect a girl that at one point he'd tried to assault in gym class, then people would begin to question how deviant he really was—and he couldn't have that.

"I won't say anything about it," Kisame said, and instantly Hidan's glare on him lightened.

Kisame would never understand Hidan's thinking or motivation to do the things that he did—but then again, that was probably a good thing. If at some point Kisame was ever able to understand the Jashinist, then something was surely wrong with him, and everyone needed to be concerned.

Hidan was one of a kind…and hopefully also the only of his kind.

Hello! I told you I'd update at least once more before school started (for me)! And I have. Haha.

Hmmm, what to say, what to say...

I finally got my schedule for the year. Our school district actually managed to get schedules out before the day before school started this year. It's pretty much a miracle.

Anyway, my schedule goes (1st-5th): Symphony Orchestra, AP Psychology, Japanese 5/IBDP, Yoga, and Statistics. It's not too bad of a schedule and I can't really complain about it, but I will anyway lol.

The Symphony Orchestra teacher got switched, and the guy I have now I don't like. I talked to him once last year, and we were both sarcastically mean to each other. I hate him, and I can only guess he doesn't like me. Hopefully this won't make me hate Orchestra my final year. Also, my Statistics teacher is the same lady I had for Algebra 2 two years ago, and I fucking hated her. Her last name is Sweet but she's not sweet at all. Hopefully she better at Stats then at Algebra...

But at least I have Japanese. That's all I care about. I can deal with Yoga and Psych.

And...yeah. Seniors don't have to go in on the first day of school until 8:30, so that's cool too.

I'm so fucking ready to do this. I just wanna start senior year and get it done. I want my GED and I want acceptance letters. That's all I want.

Also, I'm babysitting my little cousin this week (Mon, Wed, Fri). She's 11, so she's not really little, but I'm getting paid 150 bucks to play wii games with her all day, so that's pretty cool. I've spent the money I've earned so far on these three things: A Karasuno High School (Haikyuu) key-lanyard, a Gavin (from AH) keychain, and a Murasakibara (from Kuroko no Basuke) keychain. I'm totally doing senior year in style lol.

And...I think that's all I've got to say. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE AS SCHOOL STARTS UP! Hopefully you like your classes and teachers. If not, hang in there either way!

Also, thank you again for all the favs, follows, and reviews! Every time I check the number just keeps going up and up, and it makes me incredibly happy! So, yeah, thanks.

EDIT: I made a new, new poll to break the tie breaker on my last one! It seems that no one really likes Bodyguards (which is kind of good because it was my least favorite), but Does It Even Matter? and Sleep Or Be Killed are tied! Please help me out and go vote again!

Also, I'm thinking about starting "Alright, This is Great" back up again...if any of you have read it or still want it to continue, let me know...alright? Thanks!

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