Riayu: I FEEL SO BAD! It's taking me forever to write this chapter! I've been semi-busy lately, and really lazy. I usually save my fanfics for when I'm not writing a bigger work, but I really wanted to get this out. So now I'm writing this and a novel.
Psy: I'm sure they don't mind as long as you don't take two weeks to update.
Riayu: Bursts into sobs But what if it does! I'm so sorry!
Sharin: Great, now she's crying. Great job, Psy. Great fucking job.
Disclaimer: Thank God she doesn't own Naruto, otherwise, we'd all be fucked.
Riayu: What's that supposed to mean?
Sharin: If we were one day late, you'd go into a whole guilt trip!
Riayu: I hate you.
The shrill beeps of the alarm clock earned it a good wallop, hard enough to send it clattering to the floor. A deep voice moaned and a body shifted, causing the mattress to creak.
"I swear!" Psy moaned, pulling her head out from under her pillow so she could glare at Zetsu's back. "How can you be so noisy in your sleep?" She kicked him once to rouse him then leaned over the edge of the bed to shut off the still-beeping alarm clock.
"So I can go back to sleep for another three hours," Zetsu mumbled from his cocoon of sheets.
"Well, now I can't go back to sleep." She kicked Zetsu again. "Why not set it to when you'll actually wake up?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. "Or is that too simple for you?"
"Shut up and go back to sleep." Zetsu mumbled, earning a harder kick.
"Don't you tell me to shut up!" she shouted, staring as he slowly emerged from the sheets.
"Shut the fuck up and go back to sleep!" he roared, his yellow eyes blazing with fury. "She was just trying to help." He said in a much quieter voice, his eyes flickering with compassion. "Well, she's a stupid, cunt sucking bitch, so I don't give a fuck."
Psy stared for a moment before kicking him a final time, knocking him out of the bed, before storming out of the room. In the doorway she paused to collect the clothes lying there, then she walked through the suite and out the door to the elevator, dressing as she walked. By the time the elevator dinged and the doors slid apart to let her out she had her shirt on backwards and her pants on but unzipped. She stepped into the suite she shared with Naruto and Sasuke, located the bathroom in the darkness, and flicked on the lights. The clothes she had so hurriedly tried to put on were off in a half second. She started the shower, stepping into the hot water without bothering to adjust it.
She stood in the steam, allowing it to relax her for a moment, then she snapped her eyes opened. The irresponsible, stupid asshole of an idiot. She scrubbed herself then stepped out and dried. Slowly her anger mounted until she couldn't wait until lunch to sink her teeth into his flesh and rip his heart out.
She dressed in a tight black shirt, a pleated black skirt, and knee high boots, applying dark eye shadow and eyeliner, painting her lips a luscious red before leaving the suite to attend her biology class.
There was that weird kid again with the crazy hair and weird eyes, her hand always moving the pencil over her notebook. Go on, look at me again. Psy dared silently, clenching and unclenching her fist beneath the desk. And the little freak did. Psy glared straight back at her, a malicious smile creeping across her face. Bad idea, kid. 'Cause now I'm gonna have to kick your ass.
The girl looked at her notebook then up again, back and forth a few times before she finally noticed Psy's death glare. Immediately, she had her biology book out and her nose buried in it, her body quaking with fear.
Class was over fifteen minutes early and the kid who was as-good-as-dead was out of the door in a flash, pulling up the hood to her sweatshirt and tugging her bag behind her. Psy noted the band logo on the hoodies and color of the bag, following the girl slowly. She wouldn't do this like a coward behind the gym; she would do it in the quad so everyone could watch.
There she was, jogging across the quad as she frantically tried to keep her hood up, even though the day was sunny and warm. Psy caught up easily and grabbed the strap of her messenger bag to yank her to a halt. As the girl's body spun around, Psy pulled her fist back and let it fly, smashing it into the girl's jaw.
"Hey!" the girl yelled, stumbling back a little. She held a hand to her jaw and stared at Psy with wide eyes. Psy smiled, dumped her bag on the ground, and ran at the girl, swinging her fist again.
"Hey! Stop it!" The girl cried, dodging the swing. "I don't want to fight you!" Psy ignored her and swung her right fist, 'causing the girl to dodge left and run straight into an uppercut. People were gathering to watch the fight, some already cheering a little. The girl stopped, staring around with doe eyes, then jumped out of the way of another swing from Psy. Off came the sweatshirt, which was thrown down with the messenger bag, and the two of them were circling.
"I really don't want to fight you," the girl said, her gold eyes pleading.
"To bad, 'cause I really do," Psy said, smiling again. She ran at the girl and punched her straight in the gut, bringing her elbow down between the girl's back when she doubled over. The girl sprawled across the ground, falling still.
"You're a terrible fighter," Psy said, spitting on the ground beside the girls head before collecting her bag and walking off the quad. She walked down one of the sidewalks, ignoring the people that yelled at her when she stepped through their groups or split up couples, dodging obvious attempts to cause her pain or humiliation.
She was the first to enter her graphics design class and immediately sat at the back of the room and opening her account on the computer she was seated at. She ignored her professors talking and worked on the design she had started the day before, a lioness with an eight-pointed star in her eyes and blood dripping from her fangs. She had already sketched the lioness on a piece of paper for her art class, but she wanted to see it in 3-D. She had the shape of the lioness's head and ears completed perfectly by the time class was over, the eyes already beginning to show a little on her face. She immediately packed up her supplies, logged off of her computer, and walked back out into the morning air. Chemistry lab was next and she was glad that she had decided to always leave a pair of sneakers in the teacher's room. She slid them on before pulling on a lab coat and goggles, sweeping her long black hair back into a neat bun.
"Students, I have someone to introduce you all to!" Their teacher announced, smiling widely. "This is Kimimaro; he'll be our graduate aid for the rest of the semester. Psy, raise your hand." She did so without thinking, then looked around to see that her partner was absent. "Kimimaro, you'll be working with Psy today on this lab. She's our brightest student, so I'm sure you'll get along fine!"
You've got to be kidding me! Could this day get any worse?
"Weren't you friends with Kaki in high school?" Kimimaro asked, his eyes going hard as soon as he was next to Psy.
Of course it can!
"I was, you got something to say about it?" she asked, setting up a Bunsen burner and lighting it on the first try. She pulled out a test tube and poured powder and a liquid solution into it before setting it on a stand over the flame.
"No, nothing to say," but Kimimaro was smiling a sick smile as he added a drop of dark blue liquid to the solution over the flame, causing a plume of purple to form. Lab wasn't over fast enough for Psy, but the minute they were done she had her sneakers off and her boots on, putting her lab coat and goggles into her cubby hastily before running out of the door. Zetsu was waiting for her outside the building, leaning casually against the wall.
"I heard you got into a fight today with some weird looking kid," he said, trying to keep up with her brisk pace. She was silent. "You're not still sore about this morning, are you?" he asked, trying to take her hand in his. She wrenched it away. "What's your problem?"
"Do you really want to know?" she asked, wheeling around to stare at him. "My problem is that there's some deranged freak of a guy following me around and getting into my pants, then being a total asshole to me every time we finish having sex. He can't even decide whether he's a nice guy or the world's biggest fucktard! That's my problem, and I'm getting rid of it. Don't talk to me anymore, okay?" She smiled and walked away, pleased by the lack of a familiar set of footsteps behind her. But there was another pair just in front of her, and she didn't like them either.
"What the hell did you beat up Sharin for?" Itachi asked turning and falling into step with her.
"I'm sorry, did you think we were actually still friends after you killed my best friend?" Psy asked, staring straight ahead.
"She wouldn't want you to blame me, and you know it," Itachi hissed at her, a pained look in his eyes.
"How could I know what she wants? She's dead, remember. And last time I checked, dead people do go around telling their living friends who to blame. So I'll blame whoever the hell I want to blame, and I blame you and Deidara."
"Why'd you beat up that freshman?" Itachi asked, ignoring her comment.
"'Cause she looked at me."
"Everyone's looking at you; you're dressed like a whore."
"She looked at me yesterday too," Psy said through her teeth.
"Heaven forbid someone looks at you."
"What do you care anyways? I thought you said you wouldn't love someone again after Kaki died. Or are you just looking for a way to sate your snake?" She wheeled around and spit on the ground in front of him. "You're disgusting."
"You don't know what she's been through," Itachi said, glaring down at her. "You don't know how hard it is for her to be here."
"And guess what," Psy said, smiling sardonically. "I don't give a rat's ass! I wonder what Kaki would think if she knew you were falling for someone you can't have known for more than a few days. I bet she'd be cry, maybe she'd commit suicide if she could."
"Don't you talk about her!" Itachi said, shaking. "Don't even mention her name!"
"Why not? So you don't have to feel guilty every time you have sex?"
"Do you think she'd be happy with the way you are now? Do think that she wouldn't mind the way you're treating everyone? You're mad at the world because your friend is gone, so you snap at every person that looks at you when you don't want them to."
"Of course I'm mad at the world; it took away my best friend and stuck me with a bunch of assholes! The world obviously hates me, so why shouldn't I hate it back? Just leave me alone, okay? Nothing you say can make me hate you less, but everything you say makes me hate you a little bit more." She turned and walked away from him, back towards the quad. She ate a hurried lunch and spent the last half hour of her break in the art studio, inhaling the smell of the place.
She worked on their first project, painting a nature picture. They were supposed to a rough sketch, a detailed sketch, then ink and color it, and finally put it on the canvas. Most of the class was still back at the detailed sketch, but Psy was just about ready to put it on the canvas. There was usually someone else in the room, someone in a baggy sweatshirt and paint-smeared cargo pants, the hood of the sweatshirt pulled up to obscure any defining features, but that person had yet to arrive. Psy was still unsure of whether it was a boy or a girl, but she was sure that the person took their work very seriously. They never talked while they were in the room together, just worked silently on their paintings, but the mysterious person would often pause when passing by and point silently to a part of her sketch then point to the canvas, where it had either come out perfectly, or needed to be revisited. Psy could never find the courage to do the same.
But Psy was feeling bold that day, so she walked over to the other person's easel and looked at the nearly completed work. It was a woman standing with her back against the trunk of a tree, her hands out with the sun floating above them, a green meadow surrounding her with mountains in the distance. The woman didn't seem to belong there, wearing black combat boots and a pair of camo cargo shorts with a tight tank top that didn't cover her midriff and fingerless gloves on her hands, her burgundy hair cut short and styled into wildness. The tree that she stood against was old and twisted, moss creeping up its trunk as its branches stuck out like arms. Lost in the leaves of one branch was a bird's nest, and in it was a clock. The tree looked completely out of place, just as the woman had, among the concrete buildings and slate colored sky, smog rolling through the alleys.
Sharin: Why are you ending there?
Riayu: Because I can? And it seems like a good place to end to me.
Psy: You might be an idiot. How is that a good place to end? I'm staring at a picture!
Riayu: Hey! Don't you give me your sass, or I'll make you regret it.
Psy: I'd like to see you try!
Sharin: Psy, you're an idiot.
Riayu: You all read that, right? She wants me to try. I can't be blamed for what happens to you. Right, reviews, please! If you do, I'll give you a magical box that instantly fills with your favorite kind of candy! Thanks so much for reading!