Chapter 19: High School Orientation Arc - Art and Memories

Took me slightly longer than I thought to finish this chapter. But anyway, here's part two of the Akatsuki's first day at high school!

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto and the Akatsuki, I would be blowing up fireworks with Deidara while flying around on a giant clay bird. Unfortunately, that is not the case...


Kaiya's POV

"True art?" I asked Deidara, surprised. "What do you mean, true art?"

"What's this I hear about art?" chimed in Sasori, nearly scaring the living daylights out of me by appearing behind me.

Deidara scowled. "It's nothing, danna! Just let her answer the question!"

"You already know the answer, brat," Sasori commented lowly. "Art is something eternal that can be preserved to last forever. Like human puppets, they will always remain beautiful forever."

"Nonsense!" growled Deidara, and I backed away from the two fighting boys. "Art is an explosion! It can be described as something fleeting, especially since art can never truly last forever. My art can show you how it's really supposed to be!"

Sasori furrowed his brow. "Prove it, brat."

Deidara suddenly paled, realizing that he had no clay on him. Then, just as fast as he had paled, his face turned red with anger. "Why don't you prove it, puppet boy, if you're so proud of your eternal art?"

"Cut it out!" I cut in, pulling the two apart. "This is your first day at Kestrel Heights! Exactly what kind of impression do you plan on making by fighting over something like that? Even Eiji is doing better than you!"

I pointed towards Hidan, who was somehow holding up a pleasant conversation with Daichi. Turning back towards the arguing artists, I glared. "Now make up."

Deidara scoffed. "Why should I?"

"I said, make up," I growled. "Before I tell Konan about your behavior. I'm pretty sure that she will not be very pleased when she hears that two certain Akatsuki members were at each other's throats while they were attempting to go undercover as two high school students. Don't you want to go back to your own world? I mean, I usually don't care too much about arguments like this, since I see them happen all of the time, but I do feel like assisting you guys in returning to your world.

Grimacing, both artists apologized to each other, but I could tell that they were still quite bitter. But before I could go off and ask somebody something, Deidara stopped me yet again.

"You still haven't answered my question, Kaiya," he muttered.

I huffed, still disappointed. "I don't want to." Quickly, I walked away from him and Sasori before I could be asked a third time.

However, I knew exactly what my answer was at that point. I was simply afraid that if I told Deidara and Sasori what art felt like to me, then they would start entering an intense argument. The same exact kind that scared my little sister.

Suddenly, somebody tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to look into the emotionless eyes of Konan. Even while disguising herself as a girl named Osaka, she continued to show no emotion, which kind of scared me slightly.

"Kaiya," she asked me, "do you believe in ghosts?"

I nodded in reply. "Yeah, sometimes I do have dreams of ghosts. Sometimes they're just fictional ghosts, and sometimes they're the silent ones of my parents."

And then there's Yahiko, I thought to myself, remembering the smiling orange-haired fisherman. Somehow, he still manages to smile after he dies, and even remembers how to laugh. That was the actual day when I first started believing in ghosts.

"Osaka," I started, writing my name, "can you whistle?"

She seemed to think about it for a moment, then sighed. "I've never really tried whistling before. Usually, I focus more on origami."

"Why don't you give it a try?" I suggested. "Just a simple whistle isn't going to hurt you. It's actually quite fun, see?"

To demonstrate, I pursed my lips together and tried to show her how to whistle...until I realized that I had forgotten that I couldn't whistle. I knew that Naoki and Kagami could easily whistle, but me, on the other hand, couldn't.

"Uh," I sweatdropped nervously, "Osaka, please give me a second…"

As soon as I tried again, I heard a pleasant whistling sound. At first, I felt proud of myself for finally being able to whistle, but frowned five seconds later when I realized that the whistle was not coming from me. Pausing, I looked around, wondering who in the world could whistle so nicely, until my eyes fell upon Konan.

She's…amazing, I thought to myself, my eyes widening. I wonder if any other member of the Akatsuki knew about this. Konan sounds like a whistling bird!

Deidara and Hidan, who had been conversing with some other students, dropped their sheets and spun around. When they saw Konan whistling, both of them gasped in awe. Even a few other students in the class were wondering who was whistling such a soothing melody.

When she had finally finished, the class clapped and cheered. She appeared to be startled at all the attention she was receiving, but simply nodded and went off to seek another student. I was about to as well, when suddenly, Misako-san called the class to order.

"Students," she began, "It appears that we have our first winner!"

My eyes widened again. Already? It's only been about fifteen minutes! Or maybe more time than that has passed by, since Deidara distracted me with the question that I couldn't really answer?

Some other students gawked in surprise, but Misako-san continued to smile. "Let's give it up for Takumi-san!"

How? I wondered as everybody clapped for the usually quiet Uchiha. Just a few minutes ago, he was asking me how the worksheet worked!

But still, I had to admit that he had probably done well, so I cheered for him along with the crowd. The only ones not cheering, however, were the members of Akatsuki. Deidara seemed quite jealous, Hidan was glaring at Itachi, and Konan and Sasori just remained emotionless, like they always were.

Just as soon as Takumi went up to collect his prize for finishing first — a pink vial of bubbles, to his dismay and Deidara's amusement — the bell rang.

Okay, more than thirty minutes have definitely passed.

"Come on," Daichi smiled. "Let me show you guys to the next

Daichi and I continued to lead the Akatsuki to each of their classes throughout the entire school day. To my surprise and relief, none of the Akatsuki members seemed to be misbehaving anymore.

However, we did have a very close call back in History class. Good old Hidan, being the annoying kid he was, had complained about all the different religions that people in the past had believed in. He had thrown a couple of very colorful words into the midst of his rant, disturbing our poor teacher. Even more, he had almost mentioned Jashin, this random god that he worshipped, but Sasori slapped a hand over his mouth just in time. Had he had said the name of his god, their cover most likely would have been blown. Luckily, he had seemed to calm down a little bit when the teacher had moved on to discuss revolutions and civil wars. Of course, I had mentally facepalmed at that. I mean, it was already quite obvious to me that he loved blood, murder, and massacres.

Sadistic, I muttered to myself, but still a complete half-brained idiot.

During lunch, Daichi and I gladly taught the Akatsuki to buy lunch for themselves.

"All you have to do is stand in line and grab a tray," I explained, though Daichi was giving me a funny look. "Then, you fill it up with food, get some utensils, and then you're good to go."

"Sounds easy," grinned Deidara. He then proceeded to walk straight to the area where the food was, but I yanked him back quickly before people could accuse him of cutting in line.

I shook my head as he glared at me. "You've got to wait in line," I mumbled. "Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to everybody else who has been waiting patiently to grab a bite to eat."

Konan nodded, and Sasori just groaned, as if he was already used to things like this happening.

But then again, I thought, Deidara is an S-rank criminal. Who expects a guy like him, who goes around and carries out dangerous missions of some sort, to patiently wait in line for food at a public high school?

"What kind of food do you eat here?" asked Itachi. "Everything appears to be quite orderly and organized around here."

"Today, I think they're serving burgers," I told him. "But the type of food they serve usually depends on what day it is. The menu constantly changes, so…"

"What's a burger?" inquired Deidara. "I've never heard of such a—"

I covered his mouth, but Daichi had definitely heard the things that Deidara had blurted out. Daichi gasped in utter disbelief at the Akatsuki member, twitching about what he had just heard.

"Masaru," he choked out, "are you kidding me right now?" He turned to the rest of the Akatsuki. "Your friend here is just joking, right?"

Sighing, they all shook their heads no, and Daichi looked as if he were under attack by a bunch of aliens that had just beamed up the school. Suddenly, his eyes gleamed, and I jumped away slightly, my cheeks turning pink.

I knew that look well, since sixth grade. It was Daichi's version of a very serious and fire expression, which only appeared whenever something was totally off. Apparently, the Akatsuki never eating burgers before was one of these major pet peeves.

"We're getting you burgers," he growled lowly. "Now."

I watched as Deidara shivered, and I giggled slightly, earning a silent glare from him. The rest of the Akatsuki members just sweatdropped, still not knowing what a burger was.

"Wait and see," I told them, handing them lunch trays. "Usually, they'll hand you the main course, but you'll have to choose your own sides."

"I see," muttered Sasori. "I'll wait for you at one of the tables in this 'cafeteria'."

"You're not hungry?" I asked him, then realized the real reason why he was stepping out of line. "Oh, yeah...I understand."

He simply nodded before snatching the nearest table, which was a round table with a large white umbrella on top. He sat down in one of the chairs that surrounded the table and patiently watched us as we got our food.

Turning to Daichi, I attempted to explain the situation to him.

"They weren't used to using lunch trays and fast food," I told him. "Where they lived, there was no fast food."

He continued to shoot me a questioning look. "Are you sure that not a single area in Japan has fast food?"

"No," I quickly replied. "I meant that just their old town had no fast food, and just ramen, takoyaki, and sushi."

Although I completely made up the last part, Daichi bought it, since he had never traveled to Japan before. "That's a shame," he remarked. "Despite how unhealthy it is for us, it's still pretty good food. I never thought that there would be a day that I met somebody who hadn't eaten that stuff yet, but I guess miracles do happen."

I giggled softly at his remark, but was interrupted by the lunch lady ordering Deidara and the others to pay for their lunches. I was wondering why they were taking so long until I finally realized it.

The Akatsuki did not have any money on them to pay for their food.

Grumbling to myself, I pulled enough money to pay for everyone's lunches, satisfying the lunch lady. Daichi gave me another odd look before we all proceeded to join Sasori underneath the umbrella table. Deidara and Daichi sat on either side of me, munching on their burgers.

"Wow," said Deidara. "These are actually pretty darn good!"

"I know, right?" grinned Daichi. "It's amazing how you guys have never eaten them before all of this! I mean, seventeen years without fast food? How does that even work?"

Laughing, I scooted closer to Deidara to whisper a threat into his ear.

"You all owe me big time," I angrily whispered. "Next time, have Hidan steal Kakuzu's money or something, or else you're just going to make me broke."

He smirked. "Gladly."

Scowling, I turned to Sasori, who was just sitting there doing nothing on the other side of the table. He appeared to be eyeing everyone's burgers, but I couldn't tell if it was out of boredom of envy.

"So," I began, trying to start a conversation. "What do you think of Kestrel Heights so far?"

"It's actually not that bad at all," admitted Hidan. "Aside from waking up at 6:00 AM, there are a couple interesting things to learn about—" he smiled crookedly at me— "like war."

"It's fine," muttered Itachi. "At least not so many girls are after me anymore."

Sasori remained silent, unsure of how to feel about the school so far.

"Quite nice," answered Konan. "The classes are quite interesting, though I am not sure about the other students."

"It's pretty cool," replied Deidara. "But Kaiya, why does Art have to be the final period?"

I shrugged. "It's just the way it works around here. Fujimoto-san prefers his art classes to be closer to the end of the day, since he feels more at ease and less rushed in the afternoon. But on the other hand, Misako-san holds all of her English classes during the morning so that she can go home and pick up her kids quicker."

"Still," Deidara muttered, "it sounds like a very strange way of organizing classes. At least we'll be able to get to it in about an hour or so."

"I believe that we're making random objects out of clay," I told him, making his eyes light up with interest. "You like playing with clay, right?"

He grinned. "You bet!"

Off to the side, Sasori groaned, but calmed down slightly after I explained that clay objects were not the only things we made in Art. There were paintings, mosaics, and even wood carvings, the last one catching his attention.

"Art's the best class, in my opinion," remarked Daichi. "Not only are the projects and teacher very nice, all of the seniors that assist Fujimoto-san are really helpful as well. There's Miyuki, who's really good at drawing, Chizuru, who's just amiable in general, and Sasaki, who assists people without asking."

"Agreed," I added. "Although they are our friends, they usually sit at their own tables, and the only class we have with them is Art."

"Hn," muttered Itachi, simply nodding.

I turned to Deidara, who seemed to be deep in thought. "Translation?"

"Takumi's probably saying that the girls sound nice," he translated. "but just as long as they aren't annoying fangirls."

I cocked an eyebrow. "All that from one hn?"

Deidara only shrugged, then whispered his response in my ear so that Daichi couldn't hear him. "The Uchiha language is very strange, just like Itachi. But based on his tone, you can distinguish it, un. How much longer do I need to be like this today?"

"Just for another hour," I whispered back. "Then, we go to Glory Meadows Elementary to pick up Kagami."

He nodded, and all of us continued eating our burgers in silence, aside from Sasori. He just sat and watched us, almost enviously, as we munched on our food. At one point, I felt tempted to just hand him some apple slices, but remembered the reason why he wasn't eating and decided not to offer the food to him.

After the bell rang, we all continued our high school day, watching the clock as time flew by like birds. Finally, after about an hour of waiting, it was time for what would probably be Deidara and Sasori's favorite class.

"Good afternoon, students," greeted Fujimoto-san. "I'm pretty sure all of you guys know what you're doing today."

A girl with black hair and a white bow on her head raised her hand. "Clay figurines!" she shouted, and the teacher nodded.

"That's correct, Miyuki," he said. "Now, I have set piles of clay on the countertop on that side—" Fujimoto-san pointed to where they were located— "of the room. You are free to make whatever you want today, as we are just beginning the unit."

Deidara looked super happy, but Sasori grumbled angrily again, resignedly grabbing two piles of clay for him and Deidara. I smiled, then grabbed two piles of clay for myself and Daichi, but Chizuru, another black-haired girl sitting in the back, had already beaten me to it. She had even gotten clay for Itachi and Hidan, shocking me with how much she could carry at one time.

I sighed and sat back down, beginning to shape my pile of clay into objects. With my hands, I squished it around and flattened the lump of clay, making it resemble an extremely flat pancake.

The Akatsuki was just copying me, crushing their piles into giant pancakes. Hidan was using a pencil to carve some weird symbol into the pile of clay. It resembled a symbol that I was very familiar with: a triangle inside of a large circle. However, the one I was thinking of had the circle inside the triangle, as well as a vertical line in the middle.

Of course, Deidara was having a blast with his clay — not literally, of course — and was creating many different animals with them, such as small birds, spiders, and few bats as well. He seemed quite thrilled to be able to make his art again, but at the same time, disappointed when we all had strictly told him that he couldn't blow it up. After all, the tiniest explosion could get all of us expelled, and maybe ultimately revealed.

Sasori was just rolling his clay into one long worm, then pulled them apart to make separate pieces. Rolling each part into a sphere, he then used his puppet strings to stack them on top of one another. I would have stopped him, but he was letting his hands hover on top of the clay balls, making it look like he was actually picking them up instead of using chakra.

Itachi eyed his clay intently as he cut it into four different parts. He rolled the first three into little spheres, then carefully shaped the fourth part into some sort of narrow rectangular prism. Then, he pushed together the three balls of clay, and placed the rectangular prism at the very end, sticking it into one of the spheres.

Dango, I thought immediately.

At the other side of the room, Chizuru was helping Daichi with shaping his clay, teaching him how to make a small bird-shaped piece.

Konan used a couple tabs of paper that she hid in her pocket to cut her clay into the shape of the center of a flower. Then, she cut the leftover clay into around six petals, flattening the clay again each time. When she finished, I marveled over the flower she had created.

"That looks very beautiful, Osaka," Fujimoto-san commented as he passed by our table. "What kind of flower is that?"

"A rainflower," she replied plainly.

I did study flowers and their meanings every now and then, and after Konan confirmed that she was making a rainflower, I was curious to why she would actually make a flower that was not well known. At first, I thought she was only making it just for fun, but when I glanced at her eyes, something unrecognizable seemed to flash through them as she placed another petal onto her detailed design. Her eyes glittered slightly, as if they were close to tears. But as quickly as I had seen them, they disappeared.

There's got to be some sort of meaning to her design, I thought. Rainflowers can symbolize three things, after all.

First, it could mean a simple "I love you back". It was a fairly common usage for the flower, which was rarely used to represent things. Second, it could also mean "I must atone for my sins". I was pretty sure it wasn't exactly this one, since Konan was part of the Akatsuki and did not seem to have any intent on defecting from the organization. Third, it can mean "I will never forget you". Maybe Konan missed her parents or something, since there wasn't really—

Suddenly, I remembered.

Yahiko, I thought. Maybe she's thinking of him, since he had mentioned that she was one of his best friends when I had talked to him in the Pure Land. But why at a place like this?

My hands subconsciously began to shape my clay into a large round ball again, even though I had just flattened it out. But initially, I didn't notice, since I was too busy trying to interpret Konan's meaningful creation.

All three, maybe? I pondered. Or at least all of them but the second one? I mean, Yahiko seemed to have some sort of crush on Konan from the way he blushed when he talked about her, and he died twenty years ago.

Deciding not to talk to her about it, I returned my focus back to what I was making, surprised that my pancake had somehow turned back into a lump of clay. Sighing, I was about to shape it again when all of a sudden, the bell rang, signaling the end of school.

"Aw, come on!" groaned Deidara, having to leave all of the clay behind. Eventually, Sasori and i had to drag him away to make sure that he didn't try blowing any of his creations up at the end.

But as soon as Daichi and I were about to walk out of the gates, Chizuru ran after us, calling our names. We stopped and turned around, surprised.

"Um, hey," she said shyly. "Is it okay if I join you guys tomorrow at your lunch table?"

Daichi and I quickly nodded. "Of course! You're free to join us anytime."

She beamed, continuing to walk out the gate. "Thank you!"

That was my first day of high school with half of the Akatsuki. Somehow, we had all managed to make it out alive and in one piece, with no blood, broken bones, or paper cuts anywhere. Hidan had not lost his head — both figuratively and literally — and seemed rather calm during the school day, but once Daichi and Chizuru had gone, he had reverted to his annoying self.

But of course, more trouble was to come anyway, in so many different forms. I just wished I had seen all of it coming beforehand before they charged at our family and slapped me hard in the face.


A/N: Of course, when I had hoped for no projects this week, boom. Science report in the face. Luckily, I was still able to finish this chapter today, though I may or may not be procrastinating now...

Question: What artist do you agree with more, Deidara or Sasori? I believe that Deidara is slightly more correct than Sasori, since nothing really does last forever. And yeah, I kind of like loud explosions.

See you real soon!

— Tenshi —