AN There's a very good reason why this update is so late. No, really there is. A fantastic reason.

…I was lost on the road of life?

On another note, I'm looking for a beta-reader for this fic. Someone with knowledge on verb tenses would be preferable, since I kind of suck at those, as well as someone who would help me make sure the characters are as IC as they can get in a high school setting. Please PM me if you're interested/want to know more. I promise I'm a pretty laid-back person :o)

Chapter Four: Churning

Jiraiya absently shifted his head to the right, allowing the wad of sculpting clay to sail over the top of his ear and crash into the wall behind him. Deidara pouted from his seat, getting ready to toss another ball before Jiraiya turned and glared at him, causing the clay to land with a light 'twunk' sound onto the desk.

It had been a rather boring meeting, their fourth one- well, third since Jiraiya had taken charge, anyway- and it appeared that nothing was being accomplished. Kakuzu stayed long enough for the role to be called before he slinked away, and Itachi was not much better, even having the gall to write his signature on the sheet before Jiraiya had even arrived. Sasori was alright, in a taciturn kind of way, as he simply sat and continued whittling on some wooden project of his while Deidara, Jiraiya's number one pest, made goading comments and tried to hit their mentor with art supplies. Jiraiya wished this wasn't the case, as the art supplies were part of the allocated budget.

That left Konan, and the two deadbeats that hadn't shown up to a meeting since the first one apparently. Konan wasn't anything like the sweet little elementary school girl Jiraiya had instructed a few years ago. Sure, she had been a shy kid, all elbows and awkward, but now the girl-er, young woman- was severe and stoic, very cold in personality. Jiraiya was a bit uneasy around her, not sure what she was here for or what she expected out of her instructor.

As if hearing the mental cue, she looked up from her origami to glare at him. Jiraiya shirked back a little in his seat, his sandaled feet sliding off from the top of the teacher's desk where they had been previously located.

Jiraiya sighed again, bobbing his head down to dodge a wad of clay while Deidara swore, something had to change about this 'Akatsuki' club. If they were going to make any progress and appease Tsunade and the board of trustees, severe changes were going to have to be made, Jiraiya was going to have to take a stand and whip these kids into art-performing shape! It was just how it was going to be, if the sports program and the academy itself was going to continue to receive funding. No mercy.

"Alright," Jiraiya said, clearing his throat and standing up to his full height in that commanding way that instructors stood.

There was absolutely no reaction from the room, save for Deidara rolling another non-toxic, post-modern projectile weapon.

"Things are going to change about how I handle this club," again, no one bat an eyelash and Jiraiya was starting to feel a little worn down. As well as annoyed. That never bode well, "Starting next meeting, we are going to have a well-thought out, organized list of activities that will prepare you all for-"

"Boooring," Deidara cut off.

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at the offensive student, "Iwa, if you don't quit your…your sassing I will suspend you!"

Deidara's own eyes narrowed, before he blew a rather undignified raspberry, leaning back in his chair. Jiraiya noted with some satisfaction, however, that he set the glob of clay down.

"As I was saying, we need to start being proactive- winning awards, setting a distinguished name for Namikaze-"

"My art isn't for awards, un!" Deidara cried out in protest.

Sasori didn't say anything, but straightened in his seat, the whittling blade reflecting the light from the outside windows. Konan also seemed displeased at the notion, Jiraiya could tell from the way her permanent frown slid down another millimeter.

"Well, unless you can come up with another way for the Akatsuki club to get recognition, that's just how it's going to be," Jiraiya proclaimed with authority, "Konan."

The blue haired girl turned to glare at him.

"Your job for the next meeting is to find this Pein and Haruno girl, let them know that absence from the club is unacceptable. I'll talk to Itachi and Kakuzu. Is that understood?"

She scowled, not that it made much of a difference from her normal features.

"…Good. Starting next meeting, Akatsuki will be undergoing a new dawn," Jiraiya said, a flair of the dramatic settling in him.

In response to the rather horrible play on words, Deidara tossed the clay at his head with all of his might.

Jiraiya, obviously fed up with the kid's attitude, shocked the entire class by snatching it away from his face at the last second and throwing it back at him. Deidara seemed surprised from the unscholarly action, causing him to jerk as the clay connected with his shoulder, which in turn caused the leaned back chair he was sitting on to topple all the way over.

With startled eyes, Sasori quickly turned to help his friend up, while Konan's glare lessened at Jiraiya with something border lining respect. Jiraiya cleared his throat awkwardly while he waited for Deidara to get off the floor.

"That's it. See you all next week."

ooo

The alarm went unheeded as Sakura lay nearly comatose on top of her work desk, a nice puddle of drool leaking out from the corner of her lips to land wetly on her math homework. The poor, stressed out second year had been up for most of the night trying to catch up on assignments she had pushed aside in favor of helping Sasuke-kun with their group project. And while Sasuke sped breezily through most homework, a natural talent, it took Sakura a considerable amount of studying and hard work before she had an end result that was anywhere near comparable. His subsequent disregard of how much time Sakura needed for her own studies annoyed her sometimes, and in cases like last night, even hurt her as she pulled yet another all-nighter.

Blearily, the girl still in her school uniform from yesterday cracked open an eye, absently closing and opening her mouth to get the odd morning breath taste out of it. Her back and neck felt rather tense, and it didn't take much for her melon sized brain to deduct that she had fallen asleep at the desk in her room as opposed to her comfy bed.

"Uh," she muttered with great enthusiasm, rolling her neck from side to side and flexing her sore fingers.

A set of tired eyes landed on the alarm clock, before she sighed heavily and brought her fist down on top of it. After a few seconds' more of drawing out the inevitable, Sakura stood up and started to get ready for the day.

ooo

"You've got one of the worst attitudes I've ever encountered," Jiriaya said pointedly, not bothering to beat around the bush as he stared at the senior student in front of him.

It had taken a considerable amount of effort to track the kid down, seeing as his teachers had no idea who he was, only recognizing him for his brilliant papers and test scores. It was obvious that Akatsuki wasn't the only school activity that Kakuzu was bailing out of. Apparently class was also a waste of his time.

Kakuzu was hardly affected, "And you've got one of the worst holds on authority."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed at the comment, his mouth pressing into a frown, "Whatever your opinion of me is, I am your principal and you made a commitment to Akatsuki."

Kakuzu snorted, crossing his arms while his eerily intense green eyes bored holes into the older man, "I'm not going to hold to it then."

Jiraiya faltered for a moment, "What?"

"I'm not showing up, deal with it," Kakuzu said dismissively, turning to walk away.

"You can't just quit Kakuzu! Think about the funding for Namikaze-"

"Here's a thought, how about you make Akatsuki something worth attending instead of using that old scapegoat about the school funding?" Kakuzu said with a bit of a sneer, "Because right now it's only a waste of my time and I could be doing better things."

With that, the kid sauntered off, leaving a fuming principal in his wake.

Jiraiya huffed, that kid was so damned lippy!

A silence descended over the man as he stared at the ground in contemplation.

As much as he was loath to admit it, however, the lippy kid did have a point.

ooo

She'd been glaring at her for the entire lunch hour.

Well, perhaps that had been an exaggeration, as Sakura had her back towards the senior tables, but it certainly felt like she had been glaring at her the entire time. It made the sophomore girl's spine tense as her chopsticks idly pushed around the food within her bento. Beside her, Ino remained wonderfully oblivious, talking to some girls Sakura wasn't particularly friends with about the rumors surrounding Yuuhi-sensei and Sarutobi-sensei. Sakura wasn't paying attention, but she caught stray words like 'coffee stain' and 'her breath absolutely reeked!'.

Sakura swallowed her food hardly, trying to muster up enough courage to face her and her glare.

She'd recognized the blue hair, and Sakura wondered what she had done to offend the stony teenager. Surely her ditching the club meetings would have been more of a favor to the senior girl, as she didn't seem to really like Sakura. Actually, she didn't seem to really like anyone, which led to her participation in an art club being rather bizarre.

Slowly, like a lamb cornered by very hungry lions, Sakura swerved in her seat and paled when she realized that her assumptions had been correct. A few tables down, the blue haired girl was staring at her with what one could only assume was a form of reserved annoyance. Sakura wasn't easily intimidated, but when she saw the older girl get up from her seat and start walking over towards where she and Ino were sitting, her fight or flight instincts immediately kicked in.

"I've got to go sorry bye," she said quickly, standing up and not even making an effort to clean up her lunch mess.

"Forehead, what are you doing?" Ino asked with that special blend of irritation and concern of hers when Sakura knocked over her carton of milk.

Sakura gave a shaky smile that didn't fool observant blue eyes for a moment, "Oh, it's nothing I just remembered a study session and-"

"We need to talk," came a low, feminine voice and Sakura winced.

Ino's eyes went wide at seeing who was addressing her best friend, the somewhat infamous Ame Konan.

"I didn't do it!" Sakura blurted then immediately wanted to hit herself as Ino rose an eyebrow in confusion and Konan frowned.

"That's the problem, you haven't been doing anything," her tone was cold, and something about her understated manner compelled Sakura to listen to every word, "Jiraiya-" Sakura found it strange that she addressed their principal so informally, "-sent me to remind you that attendance is still mandatory for Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki?" Ino drawled out slowly, the name familiar but not registering.

Konan seemed to notice the blonde for the first time. She stared at her for a few beats before her deadbeat gaze returned to Sakura, "Are you reminded?" She asked flatly.

Sakura swallowed hard, "Sure."

For a moment, Sakura almost imagined a flicker of relief across her features, "Good. You know when we meet."

As soon as she left, and she was all grace and smooth movements and Sakura felt a tiny flair of jealousy, Sakura deflated like a balloon, sitting down next to Ino.

"Wait, wasn't Akatsuki that weird art club you joined?" Ino asked out loud after a few seconds.

Sakura pounced on her like a cat on a baby bird, "The club you made me join!"

Ino's eyes narrowed, "Hey Forehead, don't blame this on me! I only wanted you to go to the one meeting."

"But, I! You! But!" Sakura was trying to find some righteous indignation, but her mind kept rewinding back to that day a few weeks ago, where she had wrote down her name on the paper. She hadn't been aware that she was selling her soul at the time, but it had been all her. As much as she hated to admit Ino being right about anything, it was true. She didn't have to sign.

"It's a good thing I didn't join too. The thing feels like a cult," Ino said, tossing her golden hair over her shoulder, before flippantly diving right back into the conversation the girls around them were having.

Sakura groaned very loudly as she slammed her very big forehead against the very hard table.