Hello people,

sorry it has taken me over a month to upload one measly chapter... I hope you can forgive me, but i have drawn some (pretty terrible) ilustrations to try make up for it a bit. And ecause i was hoping to illustrate this fully as i wrote it but never had enough time. If you want to see them, my deviantart acount is xeveryonesxfangirlx

i think the best is probably the one titled "retourned" so far, but there are only three.

Chapter 36

Cereal

The morning had been unusually quiet in Hidan's dorm. The Jashinist had barely spoken, and once the tears and blood had been cleaned away, Kakuzu didn't know what to say. Pretending nothing had happened wasn't easy, but Hidan wasn't into talking about his feelings and Kakuzu didn't know what to say. The awkward silence between them didn't help things, but Hidan couldn't even look at his room-mate knowing that his eyes were still red with tears.

As soon as possible, the Jashinist had shut himself in the bathroom again; in order to shower and fix his hair; taking longer than necessary in order to avoid his dorm mate. But someone had to break the silence.

"Kuzu?" Hidan called from the bathroom, running gelled fingers through his hair, as he heard the older boy leaving their room for breakfast. Kakuzu paused halfway through the doorway, thankful that Hidan was talking again.

"Er," Hidan began awkwardly, not sure how to begin; he wasn't used to asking favours from his dorm-mate "Can you, ya know, save a space for me at breakfast?"

"What? With us? But you're on Deidara's side…" Hidan flinched slightly at the words, before giving his hair a few final tugs and leaving the bathroom.

"It's my side, but I don't think I'll sit there today. I need a fucking change. And besides," his voice dropped almost to a whisper, "there's some shit going on…" Kakuzu's eyes widened, comprehending.

"Yeah, you can sit with us, don't worry." He replied, a little too quickly.

"I'm not worried."

"…Good. Bye then." Kakuzu's forced smile was obvious despite the mask he was wearing and Hidan returned it grimly. For a moment, the Jashinist opened his mouth again, on the verge of saying thank you, but he didn't. Hidan couldn't admit that he needed help, least of all from Kakuzu.

The door swung closed and Hidan flopped backwards onto the bed. Today was going to be a long day. His mind began to wander back to the mornings events, and he sat up again quickly. Thinking was not something he wanted to do right now.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke lay in bed, facing the wall; waiting; Listening. The blinds were closed and the lights were off, but already dawn was beginning to creep in. And the Uchiha couldn't sleep. Not for want of tiredness, or because of the light, but because something was missing.

Or more specifically someone.

Sasuke wasn't worried about Naruto's safety; he knew he was perfectly capable of looking after himself; in fact he was more angry than concerned. The blonde had disappeared in the middle of the night- surely, as his boyfriend, Sasuke had the right to know what was going on?

Kiba's ventures were bad enough when he knew about them and if Naruto had chosen to keep this one secret from him it had to be even worse. Sasuke hated Akatsuki high as much as he hated his brother, but he couldn't stand Kiba much either.

The dog boy had a control over Naruto that Sasuke didn't and he knew far more about him than Sasuke did. They had been friends since primary school and Sasuke often wondered if Naruto would choose Kiba instead of him if he had the chance; after all, Kiba was fit, popular and daring, and whatever was happening tonight only added to the list of things Kiba new about Naruto that Sasuke did not.

The door handle rattled and it swung open, hitting the end of Sasuke's bed with a small 'thunk'. Sasuke didn't move. He listened as the door was closed again; more carefully this time.

He waited until Naruto had snuck back into bed before speaking. "Where were you?"

He heard the sharp intake of breath as Naruto realized he had been caught. "I…I didn't want you to know…"

"I can tell that. Where were you?" Sasuke hissed back.

Kiba knew. He was sure of it. Why couldn't he?

"Akatsuki."

"And why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't my idea; I didn't want to do it. It was Kiba's fault… but you wouldn't have believed me anyway so I thought it was best you didn't know."

"What? You think keeping it a secret was going to make it right?" Lack of sleep always made things seem worse, but Naruto knew the disgust in Sasuke's voice was not solely his imagination.

"I didn't want to hurt you."

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything, I just helped Kiba. Please, It wasn't right, I know that, but I didn't have much choice. You know what Kiba's like. Can we just go to sleep? You'll find out in the morning, I'm feeling guilty enough already; I don't want to explain."

Sasuke lay in silence, too proud to act properly hurt. Too hurt to go back to sleep.

Xxxxxxxx

The morning was cold but bright; sunlight glinted off the high, pointed rooftops of Akatsuki high.

Beside the main school was a newer one-storey building that served as the uniform shop, music room and dining hall. White paint was peeling off the outer walls and the windows were either draughty or boarded up, but the kitchen staff did their best with what little food the school could budget for, and while the meals may not have been pleasant they were at least edible.

There was a small entrance foyer, filled with broken chairs and music stands. The sound of boys talking and eating filtered through the blue painted double doors lead from the foyer to the dining hall area, making Deidara stop abruptly.

Sasori narrowly avoided walking into him.

"Are you okay?" The red-head asked, stepping backwards.

"No, un."

"Sorry, stupid question I guess…"

"They all know, don't they, yeah? They can't not have noticed…"

Sasori stood awkwardly behind him, trying to think of some form of silver lining. "At least we don't have to worry about, you know, 'coming out'…"

"It's not that… I mean it is kind of un, but its mainly Hidan I'm worried about… Actually it's probably better this way, yeah" He turned around, grinning, "I'm proud to have someone like you as a boyfriend."

The smile was genuine and dazzling, and Sasori wondered why he hadn't thought of saying that earlier. He was determined to make it up to Deidara somehow, but it wasn't going as well as he had planned.

"Wish me luck, un…" Deidara said, determined. He was about to turn around again, but Sasori tugged him back, leaning up and wrapping his arms around his neck, kissing him.

And just as suddenly as it had begun, the kiss ended. Thin fingers gripped the arms of their uniform blazers and they were torn apart with what was probably more fury than strength. Deidara was flung sideways into the wall, whereas Sasori tripped backwards into the music stands. There was a loud crash as they began to topple over but Hidan ignored it, marching between the two of them and straight through the doors into the dining hall, his head down; avoiding eye contact.

The last of the music stands settled and the two boys remained where they were, shocked into silence.

"are you oka—" Sasori stopped, realizing it was the same question he had asked earlier, and cursing himself for not being better at this kind of situation. Deidara walked over to him, still visibly a little shaken. "Don't worry, yeah, I'm fine. I've got you now, I don't need… him… un…" He held out his hand to help the red head up.

There was not as big a reaction as Deidara had expected as he walked into the room, and in fact he felt almost disappointed at the lack of attention. He wrapped his arm around his boyfriend protectively and they crossed the hall together earning nothing but a few muffled whispers and curious glances.

In the far corner, next to the grand piano Hidan had just sat down next to Kakuzu; slamming his tray down and successfully spilling water onto his cornflakes. It didn't matter, he wouldn't eat them anyway.

From the other side of the table, Itachi glared at him.

"Hey guys," Hidan grinned with false enthusiasm receiving nothing but an awkward silence.

"Good fucking morning to you too".

"Will you please refrain from swearing at our table?" Itachi asked, although it was more of a demand than a question.

Hidan was about to retaliate, but Kakuzu kicked his leg meaningfully. It had taken a lot of persuasion for him to persuade Itachi to let him sit at the 'popular' table.

"So… how are you guys?" Hidan began again, "I don't get to speak to you much, but you've got to be more interesting than that lot" He gestured to where Deidara and Sasori were now sitting, along side Tobi and Kisame.

"Heh, they're not all that bad…" Zetsu's light side contradicted, but Hidan took no notice. "Tobi's more intelligent than he seems"

"Tobi?" Itachi asked incredulously, "Deidara or Kisame I can understand, but Tobi is intelligent?"

"Just because you don't know him that well –Just because you fancy him..." His fists clenched, and Itachi smirked.

"I'd say darkie won that argument." Itachi concluded, before Hidan cut in,

"But Deidara is worse, he's so immature and… I dunno" Hidan paused "He's so fucking pathetic…"

"Language, Hidan," The Uchiha drawled patronizingly.

"I think Deidara has had more than his share today," Kakuzu interjected "Just cos we're popular doesn't mean we spend our lunchtimes taking the piss out of you."

"Don't you think I've had a worse day than him?" The Jashinist hissed back, momentarily dropping the confidence act.

"Sorry," Kakuzu muttered, alarmed at Hidan's sudden change in demeanor "I didn't mean it like that".

Itachi was glaring at them by now, not used to being left out of the conversation.

"Don't you eat anything?" Zetsu asked, eyeing Hidan's cereal hungrily.

"Not breakfast; the cornflakes taste of soggy cardboard. It's not fucking natural…"

The bowl was whisked away from him before he could finish the sentence, much to Itachi's amusement.

Zetsu looked up to the Jashinist's indignant expression, "What? We're hungry…"

"You could have asked…"

"If you don't think we're polite enough, you could always go back to your little friends over there…" Itachi paused, gesturing to where the other side were sitting. "Oh wait, you couldn't could you? Because something tells me they don't want to be friends with you anymore..." He smirked, waiting for a reaction, but got none. Puzzled, he looked back down at his empty bowl, but the moment he looked away a large dollop of mushy grey cornflakes hit his head and began to trickle slowly down his face.

"Hidan! That was my breakfast!" Kakuzu yelled, before realizing who Hidan had flung it at.

In as dignified a manner as was possible Itachi used his hands to remove as much mess as was possible, before standing up and stalking icily out of the dining hall.

Hidan let out a bark of laughter, "Two- Nil to me…".

"What did you do that for? I know you don't like Itachi, but he did let you sit with us. Bastard. But we've got to admit, it was quite funny…"

As the conversation struggled onwards, Hidan forced himself to keep smiling, sensing Deidara glancing at him from the other side of the room. He had to at least pretend that he fit in; he didn't want to go begging back to his old best friend when things didn't work out.

But perhaps he wouldn't have to; things seemed to be going pretty well so far. Kakuzu was still a bit quiet after the morning's events, but Zetsu seemed like a genuinely nice guy, if a bit different. Without Itachi, Hidan found himself in his element. The popular group may have been small, but sitting at their table, Hidan could feel in control of the whole school.