Chapter 27

I didn't even bother to hold in my laughter when he walked in the room. I didn't see the point really. He already knew it was me who had committed the act, who had shamlessly turned him into a walking pink barbie doll, and I wouldn't have denied it anyway. I mean, it was such a beautiful sight really, who would want to deny that they had been the one to do it? Not me.

He walked with his head held high, trying to salvage his lost and diminishing pride and glared harshly at me. At which point I merely grinned and waved, biting my lip to keep back the loudest of my laughs at bay.

The others weren't so noble. The moment the gym doors had closed behind him, it got eerily quiet for a span of three seconds before erupting in an uproar of hysterical laughter. Really, how could you hold it in when a person who thought themself better than anyone else came catwalking into a gym with pink shorts and a shirt. Plus socks. It was impossible not to find it amusing.

"Sasuke?!" Naruto choked and laughed so hard his face turned red.

Kiba fell to his knees clutching his stomach, the basketball he had been holding bounced to floor, forgotten. "Dude, pink is so your color!"

I heard someone snort behind me, and when I turned I found Kankurou doubled over and laughing just as hard as everyone else.

Someone even had the gall to wolf whistle at him. At which point his face turned the same shade as his clothes.

I stumbled over to my gym bag in the corner and dug through it until I produced a camera. Perfect.

"I'm guessing you had something to do with this then."

Whirling around and clutching the camera to my chest, I came to face to face with gleaming, bright eyes. Gaara. I reined in the surprise and instead gave him a look of indifference, eyeing him in a way that could be taken as inspecting him. As if contemplating if it would be in my favor to tell him if I really was behind Sasuke's new wardrobe choice.

It was just for show. Of course I was going to tell him, Gaara put Sasuke in a coma before I even got to this school. In a weird, abstract way he was entitled to know who was messing with his previous victim.

"And if it was?" I inquired, slipping the camera in my pocket.

He quirked a brow at me. "Then I would have to say....you could have done better."

"No way! That was one-hundered percent genuine prank-...." I stopped talking abrubtly and gave him a silly grin while shrugging my shoulders. "Alright, you got me. It was all me. I turned him pink."

Gaara rolled his eyes and smirked. "Should have known. What's the camera for?" he nodded to my pocket.

My hand rested on it over the fabric and I shrugged. "Blackmail."

He frowned. "Why do you need blackmail, Matsuri."

"Because he knows."

"......."

Gaara, with one final look at me, turned and walked away. For a second I was annoyed that I didn't get the chance to ask him if he wanted to help me get the yaoi pictures. We were a team when it came this stuf anyway. My partner in crime.

Yet my partner in crime was walking away and left standing by my gym bag.

"H-hey! Wait a second, I wanted you he- "

"Stay there."

The command rang out sharply, only loud enough for my ears, and it immediatly stopped me in my tracks. Which surprised me. I'm usually not one to follow someone else's commands to easily but yet here I was listening to him like an obediant dog.

And the funny thing was, it didn't bother me, because somehow I knew he was going to do something to help me. That, and the fact that he was walking toward Sasuke made me stay put.

I watched as Gaara walked casually up to Sasuke, like nothing was about to happen. His lips moved as he spoke something and Sasuke's face looked confused, then angry. Furious actually. At this point, Sasuke said something something smart to Gaara - from the sarcastic look on his face - and looked everything like a stuck up prince.

Gaara's fist whipped out and connected with Sasuke's nose so fast I hardly saw the movement. If I had blinked, I would have missed it. One second Sasuke was smirking at Gaara, the next, Sasuke was on the ground holding a bloody nose.

It got deathly quiet in the gym, no one dared to move. Then everyone's cries of excitement, shock, and joy echoed around us, bouncing off the walls and slamming back into our ears almost painfully.

It took a few minutes for Asuma and Gai to regain control of everyone, but when they did, and after they had sent Sasuke to the nurse, Asuma turned to Gaara who was standing with his arms over his chest and a bored look on his face.

"Sabaku, office. Now." He sighed and gave a sharp look to Gaara.

A basketball slammed down onto the floorboards of the gym, and everyone turned to see a seemingly pissed off Kankurou.

"Well fine, but I don't see what I did." he said sarcastically, a grin stretching across his face. A few laughs were heard once more in the gym while Asuma glared lazily at him.

"Gaara. Go on before I send both you and your brother to the office."

Gaara turned away from everyone and made his way to the doors leading out. On his way, he passed me and paused. He leaned over so he could whisper in my ear, and I smiled at what he said.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about him anymore. Not for a while."

I giggled and winked at him as he walked out of the gym, a satisfied smirk on his lips. I put my camera back in my bag and walked back over to Naruto, Kiba, and Kankurou. Shikamaru was lounging under the goals.

"That was interesting." Kiba noted and looked past me to the gym doors.

"No kiddin'!" Naruto laughed and gave a foxy grin. "I knew Sasuke would come out of the closet soon, it was only a matter of time."

"If you listen real closely, you can almost hear the dying screams of thousands of fangirls." Kankurou said, and cupped a hand around his ear while mocking a high pitched scream under his breath.

I laughed. "Touche."

"So what was it about anyway?" Kiba asked and looked at me.

I frowned. "Why do you automatically look at me? Why do you assume I'm the cause of this?"

Kiba's brow rose. "Well, I wasn't assuming you. I just thought since Gaara is your boyfriend you would know why he just sent Sasuke on the verge of another coma."

"But now that you got all defensive, we know that you were behind this." Kankurou put in and smiled wickedly at my annoyed expression.

"Of course she was, look at that innocent face! That should be the dinger right there! No one is that innocent." Naruto said and pointed at my face.

Rolling my eyes, I growled, "Well, he got what he desereved and that's all I'm concerned about. Besides finding out what Gaara's punishement is of course."

Kankurou waved a dismissive hand. "Nah, you don't have to worry about that. Jiraiya falls for Gaara's charms every time. Even if the man isn't gay, Gaara is so easy to believe and easy for him to scare you into believing him, the worst that could happen is he would have to clean up the courtyard."

I shrugged. "Doesn't sound too bad. Could be worse."

Naruto nodded, his blue eyes bright. "You know, we should skip gym and go wait for Gaara outside in the hall."

On impulse I reached out and whacked him on the back of the head. "Yeah, because that would be so easy to explain when a patrol teacher sees four students - that should be in class - standing around outside in the hall. Simple."

Kiba muffeled a laugh at Naruto's wounded expression. "She's right though."

I hit him on the head too. "Watch it!"

"What?!"

"I'm a 'he' you dimwit!" I hissed. "Think before you speak!"

He grinned apologetically. "Force of habit, sorry."

"You know," Kankurou said, gaining out attention. "I was just wondering. What are you going to do on graduation? You know, are you just going to stay a 'guy' or are you going to drop the bomb on the whole school when you shake hands with the higher-ups?"

I bit my lip and frowned. "Well, I want to go out with a bang, so why not drop a firework, that has been personally designed by me, to light up and leave a message in the sparks?"

"Now that's a bang." Naruto said.

Kiba and Kankurou nodded in agreement. I shrugged. "To be honest, I haven't really put much thought into it. As I figure, it'll just come to me when I get up on stage. Maybe I'll tell, maybe I won't."

The other students in the gym began filing up for the day's class on 'freetime'. Which included 100 laps around the gym and 250 pushups and 200 situps. Ha, like I was joining in on that. I, plus Naruto, Kiba, and Kankurou usually ran the first lap before diving into the cover of some bushes by the corner of the gym and waiting out the other kids.

You would think they would get so tired they would just quit. The only ones that ever do finish the laps are Lee - of course - and Tobi. But that's only because Tobi spends his time running away from Deidara who is constantly threatning to stuff Tobi in a locker. Tobi never catches that Deidara isn't really running behind him the entire time, but leaning against the wall of the gym until the mask-wearer comes around the corner before jumping behind him and starting a whole new round of threats.

Sometimes I honestly feel bad for Tobi. But, I will admit it quiet the form of entertainment for us while we wait out the others before jumping back in for the last lap and playing up our exhaustion. On the situps and pushups, we usually hide out in the locker room or in the janitor closet. Anything is better than listening to Gai give his rainbow speech and prance around with waterfall tears in his eyes.

As we head outside to run the laps, me and the others split on the first lap and relax in the sunshine behind the bushes. I would really miss these times after graduation. Which was in only a few days. The prom too. I fought back the misery at the thought of the end of the year and forced myself to watch and listen to Kiba and Naruto fight over the dynamics of a bra.

"I'm telling you, they are used to hold their weapons!" Naruto argued. "The bigger they are, the bigger the guns!"

Kankurou snorted with laughter. "Well duh! Boobs are the weapons! Those things can make a man have a heart attack."

"No, I mean they can hold lazers and machine guns and bombs and God knows what else!" The blonde protested.

Kiba shook his head. "You both are wrong."

Kankurou and Naruto turned to face him. "And what, oh-wise-one, are they for then?" Kankurou asked sarcastically.

Kiba made a show of sitting like a wise man and smiled knowingly. "They are..." he built up the suspense painfully before leaning foreward with a twinkle in his eye and a lopsided grin on his face, resting his hand flat on the ground. "The perfect pillow!"

Kankurou and Naruto crowed with laughter while Kiba basked in his glory. I watched them from my place on the grass, lying on my back. Usually, I would want to hit them - would hit them - for being sexist with me right there. Instead, I watched them joke around and was grateful that I was given the chance to have them as my friends, and to have the exprience at the school.

I don't see how I would have made it otherwise. Nothing would have been so...durable if I had never been forced into it. For once, I silently thanked my foster parents for making me come.

Please excuse any grammatical errors and the rush-edness of this chapter, but I am typing my fingers to the bone on trying to get as many chapters as I can posted for my stories because I finally got my grandpa's aircard back, but he needs to take it back home with him so I am very limited on my time. I'm sorry for the long waits but if it was my way, I would have a chapter posted everyday! Please review, I put a lot humour into this chapter and I won't to know what you guys think please! Thank you!