Hello everybody! It is yet another exciting installment of... (overly used dramatic pause...) DARIUS WEASTLY HIGH SCHOOL AKATSUKI GANG!!! Yes, yes this is the Konan chapter you have all been waiting for! Not only is this Konan's debut chapter but also we get a little peek into Hikomi's past. Enjoy ^__^
P.S. For those of you who read Remembering me I think you'll recognise the new OC in the story (wink)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto but all OCs belong to me and only me so hands off you rabid fans!
Chapter 3: Houdini can't make an escape this good.
Breath in, breath out, nothing to it. My hand hovered inches away from the door knob. On the other side of this door was my "friends" from school. How the heck did they find me anyways? I never told them where I lived. How did they even leave the school anyways. You needed a pass to leave school grounds.
Okay , I need to calm down and analyze my situation... some of the richest kids in school are in the tiny living room in this tiny bungalow... okay enough analyzing the situation. Taking one more deep breath I opened the door to my room and stepped out.
"Hey, there you are, un' Deidara greeted, in a forced normal tone. "Nice place."
"Yeah..." Kisame added, giving the small cramped room another look over, making a slight face. "Its...homely."
"Why are you guys here?" I said short and too the point. They all cringed as if my voice was tinged with ice. I pushed the the thought aside and instead I focused all my energy into giving them death glares.
"If you stop glaring we'll tell you." Itachi who appeared behind me said calmly.
"EEAHCK!" I yelled in surprise, jumping forward, landing on the couch next to Deidara. He and Kisame laughed as I-with my head held high- got off the couch, positioning myself next to Tobi.
"Are you okay Hikomi?" Tobi asked me. The boy leaned just a little too close to my face. It was very daunting considering he was a whole foot taller than me.
"I-I'm fine" I took a step away from Tobi and walked right into Hidan.
"Hey, are we just going to stand here wasting our time on the outside or are we going to grab Hikomi and get going!"
"What are you guys talking about!" I yelled, pulling my short brown hair.
"Oi! Oi! Just calm down." Hidan slapped me over the head, it was painful but it did calm me down. After what felt like my millionth deep breath I cast a pleading glance to Itachi.
Itachi gently grabbed my arm and pulled me to the front door explaining. "We're going to the mall."
I am out of my element, in unfamiliar territory. I am... at the mall.... with a bunch of rich kids. Now normally you'd think that this wasn't such bad thing. Well for me, someone who has nothing more than a mere hundred dollars to my name can't afford going to mall. Now I never was one for shopping, I never had money to spend. Back then when it was just me and my mother and any money I got went to house payments, bills or food. I, like my mother had worked two jobs, it was hard at first for I had school on top of everything else.
I loved my mother, and my mother loved me but it was that love that took her away from this world and away from me.
"Hikomi!"
With a jolt I remembered where I was, at the mall with all my rich friends but memories of mother still clung to my outer consciousness. Here I go again, caught up in the past.
"Hikomi!" This time I was snapped out of my daze with yet another slap to the back of the head.
"Ahh!" My arms instinctively covered my head, my eyes scouring the faces of the people standing before me in this crowed mall. Though I already knew who it was I just wanted it to be known that anyone who tried to hurt me any more would suffer my wrath.
The male right at the top of my black list for the night punched me friendly in the arm causing me to stumble over and almost have a humiliating trip. "Come on Hikomi." Hidan laughed. "Enjoy the time outside, get a tan or something you bookworm, you really need to get out more."
"Hidan!" I kicked out at the males shins, "Its night and I'm not a bookworm!"
"Yeah, yeah whatever." He gave me a shove in the back causing me again to loss balance.
Yes we were at a crowed mall at 9pm Friday night, TV told me that this was the norm for average teenagers such as myself. I don't know why I'm comparing TV shows to real life, maybe it has to do with the fact everyone was acting like those actors on TV. Well most of them, Hidan and Deidara were flirting with some girls and Kisame sorta stood off to the side throwing in a joke or two here and there. Meanwhile Itachi and Sasori watched the other three oblivious-or at least they pretended-to a group of girls that swooned over them.
One of the girls meet my eyes and she winked at me. Instantly I stiffened up and quickly looked away, sticking close to Kakuzu whose intimidating nature scared off all the mall girls. The girl who winked at me giggled and jointed her friends who were trying to talk with Itachi.
"Pein should be here any minute." Kakuzu said casually from right next to me. He watched Hidan flirt effortlessly with a petite blond. If someone didn't know Kakuzu they would think that he was jealous of Hidan but I knew better. Kakuzu would be jealous of Hidan, he would rather cut his own hand off than be wish to be like Hidan. Hate was too strong, too simple of a word to describe Hidan and Kakuzu's relationship. They despised, tolerated and on Hidan's part some what respected the other all at the same time. It was truly beyond me.
In any case Kakuzu's words reminded me what Itachi told me on the drive over to the mall. Everyone had gotten passes to leave the school to enjoy a night out on the town. For the males that meant going to the mall- it was a particularly large mall for such a small town- and flirting with the local girls.
They were all there minus Pein who had to pick up his girlfriend, it came as a bit of a shock when I first found out. It had to be hard to maintain a relationship at a all male school and the only way of leaving said school was through a pass rarely issued.
As if by some silent alarm in the guys heads they brushed away the girls and grouped together in a lose formation just to the right of me.
"Hey what's going-" I started to ask when I saw the unmistakable orange hair flashed through gaps in the crowd. 'How did they know that Pein was here? Some guy psychic thing?'
Pein's orange head wasn't the only thing I saw, striding along side him, perfectly in sync was a beautiful girl, no older than I was. She had long, rich blue hair pulled into a lose bun at the top of her head, a white paper rose nestled into the bun accentuated her features.
Deidara and Hidan bravely wolf whistled, Pein growled in return and made a threating move towards them but the girl stopped him with just a simple touch on the hand. Pein instantly calmed down and turned to stare into the girls eyes.
Beside me Kisame rolled his eyes and explained. "That's her, Pein's girlfriend, Konan."
"Konan." I repeated under my breath, it was a beautiful name. I watched with rising envy as Pein pulled Konan into a gentle kiss, oblivious to all the spectators around. Konan was so beautiful, she was tall and graceful like a swan.
When she set her deep sapphire blue eyes on my plain brown ones. I gulped and stepped back involuntarily, I snapped my head down and muttered a meek hello.
She let go of Pein and bent down to meet me eye to eye, with a warm smile on her face she said, "Hello, you must be the new kid Pein was telling me about..." She paused, her face forming slight frown lines as she thought. Seconds later her face lit up with recognition "Hikomi! Minoru Hikomi right?"
I turned away from her again to hid my blushing face. "Y-yes." I said simply, I couldn't help but feel inferior to her exotic presence. Konan was the girl that I dreamed of being in my wildest dreams. Popular, beautiful and wealthy. At least I thought she was wealthy, her light blue jacket and faded purple short skirt looked like they belonged on a model.
"Okay, enough introductions." Pein said sharply, "We have about four hours before we have to head back to the school and I don't want to spend it lallygagging around!"
There was no doubt that Pein was the leader of their gang, Akatsuki. At school he held his head high and had the demeanor of a natural born leader. So when Pein gave an order it was followed through, no questions asked.
"So where we off to first, un?" Deidara said casually as we made our way through the huge mall, Hidan winking at passing girls with Kisame. Pein walked at the front of the group, his arm wrapped tight around Konan's waist, sending clear signals to all guys that she's taken. I however was at the very back trying to sneak away but Tobi kept pulling me back in every time.
"How 'bout the sports store?" Kisame suggested, "I need new cleats for soccer."
"Let's go." Pein flicked his wrist forward giving the okay as they headed for the nearest sport store.
This is my chance. Hikomi thought furiously, she couldn't stand this anymore, she was never much for crowds, seeing how too much noise gave her a massive headache. 'I'll just sneak off, gab a taxi home and tomorrow apologize.' It was a perfect plan but executing it was the hardest part. She made five failed attempts to escape, each time being thwarted by Tobi.
"Look! Look! Hikomi-kun! Look at this odd thingy!" Tobi held up a large white jock strap like a child proudly showing off his latest booty.
A light blush came over Hikomi's face. "T-tobi you should put that down r-right now!"
Tobi ignored Hikomi and pulled the the jock strap onto his head like a hat.
"TOBI TAKE THAT OFF RIGHT NOW!" Deidara jumped over a short shoe display to bash Tobi hard on the head.
"OW! Sempai that hurt!"Tobi wiggled out of the head lock Deidara held him in and run around the store like a disobedient three year old.
'This is it.' Hikomi thought as Deidara chased Tobi around the store, sending the manager into a frenzy. 'I'll just tip toe away nice and easy' Hikomi had moved not three feet when Konan grasped her arm.
"Hey Hikomi," Konan said cheerfully, a kind, gentle smile gracing her face. "You're new to the school right?"
Hikomi sent one last pleading glance to the doorway before turning back to Konan, a fake smile on her face. "Y-yeah"
"Well how do you like Darius so far?" The blue haired girl politely asked.
"Um..." Hikomi tried to not break eye contact but Konan was just too pretty, a faint blush edged it's unwelcome presence across her pale face. "It's ok, I guess... t-the teachers are nice."
Konan growled at the word "teacher", like a scab you pick at, painful to look at and even more painful to poke and pick. "I'm glad you got good teachers." She huffed, Hikomi's eyes grew wide at Konan's sudden change in behavior.
"I-is something wrong Konan?" Hikomi's long forgotten feminine instincts kicked in and she grasped Konan by the hand. The girl's hand clenched involuntary, wary at the sudden touch. Hikomi gave her hand a soft squeeze and Konan finally loosened up, releasing a pent up sigh.
"I'm sorry." She said. "I should not have taken my anger out on you." She smiled sincerely and glanced quickly behind her should to see Pein yelling at Tobi. Her head snapped back around to Hikomi and in low tone she said, "It's just that we got this new teacher at my school and he's a real creeper."
"R-really?" Hikomi gasped surprised. "why doesn't the principle do anything about?"
"That's just it." Konan pursed her lips, "Madame Flouretta, she's the principle, thinks this guy is so posh and gentlemanly. She doesn't listen to any of the things we tell her about him because she just thinks were a bunch of unruly monkeys."
"H-he's not that bad is he?"
"Not bad?" Konan gave Hikomi the classic "W-T-F" look. "He flirts with all the girls and forces them to stay after class just to harass them."
'-stay here for a sec' child'
No... Hikomi didn't mean to remember it.
'I want to show you something-'
No! I don't want to remember you! No... she can't remember now after all those years she spent to repress it.
'I won't hurt for long, just be quiet and let me do all the work'
"NO!" Hikomi wailed, there was a crash as she backed into a shelf, knocking over a rack of baseball bats. "...no..." Her knees gave way as she feel to the ground. The memories flooded back, the same memories after years of therapy she had finally repressed. The worst night of her life, she didn't want any of it, she never asked for it. 'I didn't want him to-'
"Hikomi!" Pain blossomed across my face and my vision flashed red, every thing faded to black and in a heart beat my vision. I was laying down on the cold tiled ground, a crow of people-foremost my friends- was gathered about me. I quickly got up and repeatedly told everyone that I was fine. The Akatsuki gave me mixed glances, they clearly wanted to ask when the deal was but I made it clear from my body language that I didn't want to discuss it.
Pein decided that I would be a good idea to get out of their quickly so as I apologized to the manager the guys and Konan cleaned up things that feel from the shelves.
I had hoped that the guys would forget all about my little fit back there and they would have if it weren't for Tobi.
"What happened to Hikomi back there?" He asked so innocently, I cursed that cheep angle like innocence of his, like a little child with big round eyes. He was being to cute to ignore.
Then again I didn't want to talk about it. A shiver ran down my spine as it started to came back to me. I punched it down, my will winning. "I-I don't want to talk about it..." I trailed off and hung my head after the others, Konan sent me a cheery smile but I didn't return it. Contenting myself with dropping the topic and changing the subject I asked where we were going next.
"I want to hit the piercing store, I need some new stubs" Pein quickly answered. I nodded, refusing to make eye contact with the others. I didn't want them to see my discomfort or see my desperate plot to escape hidden behind my sad face.
I wanted to escape at the piercing shop but after one look at the multi colored Mohawks and cracked up guys with more piercings than Pein. I thought it safe to stick close to Kakuzu... just for safety...
The next place we hit was the book store, luckily for me there was some stuffed animal for a children show there(okay who hosts that kind of things after 8pm?) and the throng of parents and kids was menacing.
The guys wanted to try their luck anyways because Itachi, Kakuzu and Kisame needed books for English.
My plan this time around was to crawl through the mass of people to lose the guys then double back around and make a straight shot to the door. My plan was perfect until one minor flaw. I swear Tobi knew that I was trying to escape, how else could be be there ready to grab me halfway through the the crowd, pull me into a giant bear hug and begs me to listen to the stuffed animal read a book.
Coincidental? I'm starting to think not.
After many a struggle and a lot of swearing on Hidan's part they made it out of the store in one piece.
Tobi got to pick the next place and I knew then that he wasn't out to stop me. Tobi's pick was the toy store, childish yes but the perfect place to lose the others and make a daring escape, also yes.
"Hikomi!" Tobi grabbed my arm and pranced into the happy, toy filled store with me dragging along side.
"Should we help him?" Konan said from beside Pein, feeling sorry for the poor boy to dragged into such a childish store.
"Think we should go in after them, un?" Deidara suggested, remembering his first trip to the mall with Tobi. The kid had dragged him around everywhere, even into the fountain because he wanted to take back the "wish penny" he threw in. He justified it by saying he wanted to save the wish for later.
"I'm not going into some crappy kid store." Hidan whined eying a group of girls out of the corner of his eye.
"Then don't" Kakuzu slapped Hidan on the back of the head, Hidan replied in kind with a few curses.
"Let's just get Tobi out of there before he gets high off all the excitement."
There were a few nod's of agreement, yes they learned their lesson last time. Tobi + excitement = immense mental pain for them.
"I'm going in." Konan said quickly and bravely charged into the store leaving Pein gasping in surprise in her wake.
Back with Tobi and me, or just me now since I managed to pry myself free and distracted Tobi by pointing him to some super bouncy balls.
I was now home free, well as close to it as I can get. I pulled a sharp turn around a aisle corner, only to snap back around. Konan was standing in the middle of the aisle, standing tall and obliviousness to the wall of stuffed animals on either side of her.
"Where did those to go?" I heard Konan faintly ask her self. Using a stuffed panda as a cover I spied secretly. It wasn't the best spying spot for I could only see about half of her but at least it hid me from being seen which was the more important part.
"Excuse me." Konan's sharp voice demanded. The first thing that ran through my head was that I was spotted, peeking back around the panda I saw that she wasn't talking to me at all, in fact she was facing the opposite direction. Another stuffed animal blocked my view of who Konan was speaking to, but I didn't need to see him. In fact, I was glad that I didn't.
"Konan!" The person's rich, deep, male voice exclaimed.
"Mr. Hiyashi!" Konan said taking a set back, her arms stiff at her side. Her petite form shacking. "w-what are you d-doing here!?"
"Well kitten, first of all please call me Yoruai." I knew that voice. It was the same voice as before, the man in my memories. That smooth silky voice that was like the wed a spider, once caught you can never escape.
His image started to force it's self into my mind, in another second all that pain and humiliation would all come back and this time there would be no escaping it.
"Don't call me kitten," Konan growled darkly, temporarily pulling me from those even darker memories.
"Please child," A hand snapped out, quick as a viper and graped Konan by her wrist, pulling her out of my view.
I didn't have time to think because I acted so quickly, I dashed down the other aisle and shoved hard, pushing a shelf of it's rungs and sprawling out in the aisle over, I smirked when I heard a deep gasp of pain and curses.
Konan knew this was a sign to escape and so she did, once she was clear of the aisle way I grabbed her wrist and made a dash for the entrance, it did not stop once was dashed clear of the clear wide open door, not even sparing a glance behind I ran and kept running.
Finally after a hard run, my lungs burning for air I dashed to the side and into a wood carving store. With a jerk of guild I remembered that I was still holding on to Konan's wrist, my hand glided of hers and politely I asked, "Konan I... I didn't hurt your wrist did I?"
Konan wheezed heavily for a few moments and gave me the universal sign for "I'm okay", the thumbs up.
"W-what... was... that... all about" She grasped my shoulder for support, lifting her beautifully sculpted face up.
"Y-you s-seemed to be in t-trouble..." I stuttered, a blush burning across my cheeks, I hoped Konan was too tired to notice.
"I... was." She gave me a bright smile, "Thanks for helping me back there..." Konan's voice trailed off as she stared inquisitively at my face.
"Konan is something-" Before I could speak any further Konan's hand moved up from her side and before I could expect what she was doing it was too late.
"I... I knew it!" A mischievous smile on her lips, her hand clutching my chest. In almost a gloating manner she exclaimed, " I knew it! You are a girl!"
Dun, dun duuuun! Is Hikomi's secret out? Will the others find out? And what about Hikomi's past? Just how is our favorite gender crossed heroine Hikomi and the new teacher at Konan's school related? We'll then why don't you review (hint, hint) to find out!!!