Tobi was awaken from his daydream when a strange exchange began taking place beside him. "Come on, Neji, I'll pay you 4000 yen!" someone was begging. Neji sighed.
"Show me the money first," he said coldly. Tobi leaned back in his chair and saw Hyuuga Neji standing with someone Tobi didn't recognize. The person he didn't recognize held out the money and Neji took it, and held out a picture. The person snatched it and looked at it eagerly.
"Wow. . ." the person said, and began walking off. Tobi, curious and naïve, walked up to Neji.
"What pictures are you selling?" he asked. Neji blinked.
"Nothing," he replied. "Now go away."
"If you aren't going to tell me, I could always ask that guy who just left."
"I'm not going to be the one to tell you."
"Why?"
"Go away, Tobi."
"Fine." Tobi turned and walked to the other side of the room. He found the person who had just bought the picture sitting at a table with his friends.
"Wow, I never thought. . ." one was saying. They were obviously looking at the picture. Tobi slunk up to them.
"Can I see?" he asked casually. "I don't have enough money." The person eagerly allowed Tobi to join the circle and Tobi stared down at probably the worst thing he could've seen that day. A rage boiled in his chest, and he almost turned around and punched out Neji, but he stopped himself. He had to get more information before going berserk and getting himself into a fight he couldn't win. "What is that for?"
"Haven't you been curious about Deidara's gender?" a person beside him asked, not taking their eyes from the picture. "Well now we have proof. Kinda disgusting, isn't it?" Tobi wrinkled his nose and grabbed the picture. "Hey, what are you doing?!" the person cried, all of them turning around.
"You've had your fill," Tobi growled, running out of the library.
Tobi was terrified of Deidara's friends. He would love to spend more time with his boyfriend, but his friends were the kind who picked fights when they got bored and had friends out of school who were even tougher and meaner. But Tobi was more scared by the picture in his hands. So, taking a deep breath, Tobi made his way to where Deidara and his friends hung out. He found Hidan with the front of Itachi's shirt balled into his fist. "You want to say that again, Uchiha?" he screamed.
"No, I don't pander to your poor hearing," Itachi replied, swinging his knee into Hidan's stomach. Tobi watched, eyes wide with fear, and wondered if Deidara had even told them he was pregnant. Or even gay for that matter, this crowd looked too mean to accept him. Tobi cleared his throat, and eventually everyone looked over at him.
"What the fuck do you want, you piece of fucking shit?" Hidan growled.
"Hidan! I am goddamn tired of you taking out all your anger on other people every time you and Kakuzu have a fight! Shut your fucking gob for five minutes!" Kisame groaned. Hidan opened his mouth, and Itachi clubbed him over the head.
"He said shut it, smart ass," Itachi growled, pushing Hidan off of him and turning to Tobi. "Now who are you?" he demanded.
"My name's Tobi-"
"Deidara's not here today. Sorry, come back tomorrow," Hidan said.
"I-I know, but. . ." Tobi shoved the picture forward. Hidan snatched it and stared at it. Tobi hoped he wouldn't think it was funny. Hidan just stared. Itacih peered over his shoulder, and now even Pein was staring. Kisame and Konan both got up to take a look at it. Hidan cleared his throat.
"You didn't take this, did you?" he asked.
"N-no! I think it was Neji!" Tobi cried. Hidan glared down at the picture, and went to rip it when Itachi grabbed it, holding it close to his nose.
"Inuzuka Kiba. . ." he said slowly. "You can see his head behind Deidara. Should we assume it was just them, or go nuts and beat the shit out of everyone?"
"I'd say anyone who has a picture, and anyone who can't tell us who else was involved," Pein said. With a malicious grin Hidan ripped the picture in half.
"If you find any, we'll collect them and fucking burn them," he said evilly. Suddenly Kisame seemed to notice Tobi.
"Where'd you find Neji, Tobi?" he growled.
"The l-library," Tobi stuttered.
"Let's go!" Hidan cried, and they all shot off down the hall. Tobi took deep calming breaths.
Kakashi sighed. It had been one of those days where you wake up and tell yourself that you just don't want to have to deal with anything. And you half convince yourself that nothing is going to go wrong. But only half. The other half is smiling sadistically and saying "You fucking wish, bastard."
And yes, now Kakashi said with two very bruised teenage boys in his office, trying to find out what the hell had happened.
"So you say Pein, Hidan, Kisame, Itachi, and Konan all came up and randomly pummeled you?" Kakashi asked. Kiba nodded, and Neji said nothing. "And you're sure you did nothing to provoke them?"
"Yeah! We weren't doing anything, when they came up, surrounded us, and totally beat us up! No reason at all!" Kakashi sighed. This was really one of those days.
"So it was a completely unprovoked attack. Five against two. Is that what you're telling me?" Reluctantly, both of them nodded. "Right. You may go. Send in the other five," he called to the secretary.
"Ok boys, and girl, it's your turn," the secretary said without looking up. Pein stood up quietly, while Kisame had Hidan by the arm, not wanting him to do anything stupid. Itachi and Konan were completely silent. Itachi sported a split lip, and Hidan a black eye, but on the whole they were mostly unharmed. They all managed to find seats and somehow all fit in front of Kakashi's desk. Then again, he did have a rather large desk.
"Ok, care to tell me why you attacked Neji and Kiba?" he asked. Silently, Itachi slid forward a single photograph. Kakashi peered at it and felt sick. Sitting back, he cleared his throat. "What is this?" he asked, voice hoarse.
"Neji was selling them," Pein said.
"And Kiba helped him take them. Look, you can see his head." Hidan pointed to it in the picture. Kakashi nodded. It was sort of hard to confuse Kiba with someone else. And for once, Kakashi was at a loss for smart questions to ask.
"So you beat them up because they did this to your friend?" he asked, coughing.
"Yes." they all answered. And for once, Hidan's answer was somewhat civil.
"Why didn't you come straight to me so we could've handled it without violence?"
"It's not like any of you here care about us. And besides, I think we were pretty lenient." Kakashi raised an eyebrow. The Uchiha genius never failed to amaze him.
"Oh? No one cares?"
"You can't possibly admit you would care if we got expelled or not. I believe apathy is your forte, and if asked, any other student would admit the same."
"All right, all right. How was five against two lenient?" Kakashi asked. Itachi sighed, as if such a trifling question were the hardest ordeal ever.
"Can't you see? Neji's shoulder. . ." Itachi pointed to the picture. Kakashi, against his will, looked back at the disturbing picture. Sure enough, a shoulder was in the picture.
"So this proves Neji helped Kiba."
"Yes, and it proves someone else took the picture. That means it was three against one. So I'd say five against two was more than generous. If we wanted to be nasty, we would've caught them on their own." Kakashi sighed, rubbing his forehead. He never genuinely liked Deidara, or any of his gang, but this was overstepping the lines by a long shot.
"No matter what they did-"
"You know you don't mean that," Pein said, speaking for the first time. "You're as curious as we are as to who else took this picture. But you have to punish us, don't you? It's the rules, and you might get fired if you let us off." Pein rose, crossing his arms over his chest. "But let me tell you, if I could go back to the beginning of this day, I would only change two things: One, I would've made sure Deidara was all right. And second, I would've still beat up Kiba and Neji, but only sooner, before the pictures got out. And I'm sure the four others involved on the right side of things would be willing to go through numerous tortures for the sake of a person who would not have gotten the proper justice they deserved." Silence followed Pein's little speech. Then, slowly, Konan stood beside him, then Hidan, Itachi, and Kisame all followed suite. No one said a word, all of them looking fierily at Kakashi. And Kakashi was speechless. He had never even imagined something this mature and proud from a gang of hoodlums. Had he ever stopped to wonder what actually went through their heads? Of course he had. And what had he come up with? When their next fight would be? How they could piss him off more? But that wasn't what they really thought about. These were young people with such a passion and a mind for what they thought was right, that they would do what they thought was right, and anything in their way be damned.
"See me in my office after school," he grumbled. "You may go." And silently, all of them left, single file, behaving the best they had in their entire lives.
"S-so, what happened?" Tobi managed to stutter. To his horror the only one that turned around was Hidan.
"We're staying after school. Pein gave a kick-ass little speech, and we got off pretty easy."
"I'm staying too," Tobi blurted.
"What?"
"If I hadn't told you about the picture then you wouldn't have gone up and done that. And-" Tobi sighed. "I feel as responsible as you guys do."
"Hello?" Deidara groggily answered his phone. He had begun to get cramps again, and was rubbing his stomach when he dropped his phone in shock. Sighing, he rolled over and picked up his phone. "Sorry, I dropped my phone. Is this Lee?"
"Yes, Deidara-san."
"Thought so, un."
"Deidara-san, I'm so sorry! We should've chased those boys down and gotten the camera from them!" Deidara felt a rock drop in his stomach.
"What?"
"They spread the pictures all around school. I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you."
"I- I'm going to puke-" Deidara dropped his phone and shot into the bathroom, only just making it as the putrid bile flew from his mouth. After that he dry wretched a few times then washed out his mouth and made his way back to his room. He picked up his cell phone, hands shaking. "Sorry, I got sick."
"I'm so sorry, Deidara-san. I wish I didn't have to be the one to tell you, but I was too worried not to call."
"Um, this might seem rude of me, but. . .what about my friends? They didn't see the photos, did they?"
"Oh, I only heard a rumor. . ."
"Come on, tell me please, un?"
"Mind you it's probably not the truth, but I heard they beat up Kiba and Neji. All five of them." Deidara grinned at Lee's words.
"Thought they might do that. Probably the watered-down truth, hmm. What-" Deidara cleared his throat. "What about Tobi, un?"
"Tobi stayed voluntarily after school, I think. Tobi's a nice person." Lee replied. Deidara stayed silent for a long moment.
"Yeah, un. I guess he is."
"We're in the same English and writing class, right? Do you want the homework? I can bring it over, if you want."
"Um. . .no. I'll get it tomorrow."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'll so you tomorrow, un?"
"I guess. Are you sure you're all right?"
"I'm fine, un. Thanks for checking in!"
"All right then, bye-bye."
"Bye." Deidara closed his phone and sighed. He was seriously torn between crying and leaping for joy. For the first part, he was going to have to face a major scandal and fifteen times the stares. But on the other hand, a nearly complete stranger had taken the time to worry about him. What an elevating first.
A/N: Short chapter, I know, but it was either sort of short or amazingly long, so I decided not to include the next scene with Kakashi and the gang minus Deidara and plus Tobi. I'm also going to have to do more with Itachi, maybe get that ten foor pole out of his ass. . . or let Kisame do that. . .IDEA! Review please, or else you get no more!