Chapter 15: The Book
'Not long ago, in a far country lived a princess.
She was the prettiest in the land or so she was told by all the men. One day when she was playing at her family's lake she came across a boy sleeping against a tree at the edge of the lake, curious she walked over to him.
Leaning over him, she slowly reached out to see if he was alright. Suddenly a hand grabbed her arm and the boy's eyes opened "ahhhh!!" the princess screamed pulling back, the boy shocked, let go of the princesses hand causing her to stumble back and fall into the lake.
"Help me!" she yelled and the boy pulled her out, "are you okay?" he asked, the princess nodded "I'm fine, but who are you?" she asked.
"Kyron" the boy replied "well Kyron, I'm Fraya" the princess said curtsying.
"Nice to meet you Fraya, are you from around here?" Kyron asked, Fraya was surprised by the question but didn't show her surprise "yes I am, I take it you're not from around here are you?" she asked, Kyron shook his head "no why?"
"No reason" she replied with a smile.
Iaf closed the book with a snap earning a few glances from the rest of the class but she didn't notice she was deep in her thoughts 'this sounds like the first time I met him, I've only read about a quarter of the book (it's only as big as a CD case) yet it sounds like how I met him I wonder…'
Iaf flipped to the back of the book and read the last page.
"After not seeing his princess for over a week Kyron went in search of her and learned that the princess's family had sent her away to another country to keep them apart, in his rage Kyron attacked Fraya's family and seriously injured her father, the king.
Kyron escaped the country and vowed to never stop searching for his love, he looked up to the moon and stars and said "my love for my princess will never die as long as there are stars in the sky and the crystal moon will light the way to my love"
And from that night on Kyron set off in search of his love with high hopes that they would see each other again.
"Okay, who wrote this?" Iaf whispered to herself angrily, she turned the book around and her eyes widened at the name 'he…he…he wrote a book about us, that bastard!' she thought , slamming the book on the table (in hopes of destroying it) and grabbing paper and a pen to write her report on 'why must you do this to me… Kirin'
Iaf felt someone tap her shoulder causing her to jump, she whirled around to see Sasuke and Gaara sitting at the table behind her but Gaara had his hand stretched towards her probably because he was the one to tap her "yes?" she asked.
"Is something wrong?" Gaara asked, Iaf looked at the ground "I don't want to talk about it" she replied "but-"
"Fine" Gaara said cutting off Sasuke's reply.
"Thanks" Iaf said turning around.
As she was finishing her book report she heard Sasuke pester Gaara "why did you do that?" he harshly whispered "everybody has something they wish to keep to themselves, if she doesn't want to talk about it we are not going to force her" Gaara replied "but remember that Hikari asked us to look after Iaf or else she kick our ass and I pre-"
Snap!
Iaf stood up, still holding the pencil she just snapped in half "Kakashi-sensei, can I go to the toilet please?" Kakashi looked up from the book he was reading and nodded "thank you" she grabbed the book report on her desk and handed it to Kakashi when she passed his desk "why are you giving this to me?" he asked, Iaf stopped at the door "because I'm finished" she stated, she heard a few 'huh's and 'what's.
"So you're telling me that you read a 300+ page book and wrote a two to three page book report in… 35 minutes?" Kakashi asked "yep" Iaf replied nodding "you can read it if you want" she added before leaving.
When Iaf entered the toilets she went to the sinks and splashed water on her face "damn it Hikari, why are you threatening my friends?" she growled as if expecting an answer "isn't Hikari-san your sister?" a voice asked causing Iaf to jump, she turned around to see a girl about her height and had blue hair pulled up into a bun standing at the door looking at her, Iaf recognized her as one of the people that was standing with Itachi and Sasori at the beginning of class "you're in my Japanese class aren't you?" the girl nodded "you're Iaf-san right?" she asked, Iaf nodded "can I ask you a question?" Iaf nodded again.
"That Akatsuki member you defended, why did you do it? Not many people in the school like the group" the girl told Iaf who sighed "because he's my friend and I will protect and defend my friends no matter what. You see I haven't had many friends before so I cherish the ones I have now, including my friends in the Akatsuki" Iaf explained, then turned to face the girl completely "no offence but who the hell are you anyway?" she asked, the girl smiled "that's right, I haven't introduced myself have I? Well my name's Konan" Konan replied.
"Konan… Konan, where have I heard that before?" Iaf wondered "I'm also in the Akatsuki" Konan informed her, Iaf clapped once "that's where I've heard it before, Tobi said that Pein and Konan weren't there when he introduced me to the rest of the Akatsuki… WAIT! You're that Konan?!" Iaf exclaimed taking a few steps back, Konan nodded "uh… why did you come here anyway?" Iaf asked "to ask you the questions, why did you stand up for Tayuya?" Konan asked, Iaf looked down "for the same reason I stood up for Tobi, she's my friend and my friends are like my family. When Tobi started saying those things about Tayuya I didn't know what to think so I just shouted angrily, but now I can't really talk to my friends and now he most likely hates me a-and I-I-I ju-just don't w-want to th-think about i-it" Iaf exclaimed bursting into low sobs, Konan moved forward and pulled Iaf into a hug.
Iaf's eyes widened in shock before she completely broke down, crying into Konan's shoulder Iaf barely heard the toilets door open. She felt Konan tense then tighten her grip on Iaf, Iaf still crying heard the door open and close as whoever entered, left.
Konan loosened her grip "is Tobi the one you think hates you?" she asked, Iaf nodded meekly "I-I just c-can't st-stand him ha-hating me" she chocked out "I felt s-so bad about our fight at recess and after what I said I-I don't blame him f-for hating me, but then when Sakon and Ukon s-started teasing Tobi I-I just got s-so mad and-"
"Iaf" Konan said cutting her off "Tobi doesn't hate you" she told her, Iaf's eyes widened "wh-what do you mean?" she asked.
Konan sighed "you may not know this but right after your fight with him, Tobi came to us and told us what happened then begged us to watch out for you thinking you wouldn't trust him around you" she explained "really?" Iaf asked "yep, he begged each of us until we accepted. Kisame and Deidara accepted straight away, next was Sasori, Kakuzu, Zetsu and Itachi, Pein accepted because he wanted to find out who had caught the Akatsuki's attention and me being his girlfriend accepted too, and Hidan… he flat out rejected"
"Surprise, surprise" Iaf muttered.
"Well he very reluctantly accepted after 15 minutes of Tobi's 'please, please, please' etc. and the others glaring at him, but I think some of the members are a bit annoyed with you for what you said and only accepted because Tobi was the one to ask but don't worry, give it a bit of time and they will forget about it" Konan reassured her, Iaf nodded "I think I better get to class, this is turning out to be a very long toilet trip" Iaf said walking towards the door, Konan smiled "you're right"
Iaf opened the door and let Konan out first before following, halfway back Iaf stopped "um Konan-san…?" she trailed off, Konan turned around "yes?" she asked "can you please not mention anything about what happened?" Iaf begged, Konan looked confused for a moment before nodding "thank you" Iaf said and continued walking to class.
When they entered the classroom Iaf immediately felt all eyes on her "why is everyone staring at me?" she asked Konan who was glaring at a random girl in the class "my guess is the girl that walked in on us told everyone what she saw" Konan replied, Iaf panicked "what? Nononononononononon-"
"Calm down, just ask your friends not to say anything and I'll ask mine and make sure the girl doesn't tell anyone else" Konan said patting Iaf's head "really?" Iaf asked looking up with sparkles in her eyes, Konan laughed and Iaf could have sworn he heard a few gasps "of course, you're my friend and friends look out for each other, right?" Konan replied "thank you" Iaf said giving her a quick hug before going over to the boys.
As soon as Iaf sat down she was interrogated "is it true you had a break down?"
"Why didn't you tell us you were sad?"
"What's going on between you and Konan?"
"Wh-"
"Stop!" Iaf said cutting them off "please one question at a time, now to answer your questions, Sasuke yes I did have a break down and Shikamaru the reason I didn't tell you was because I didn't want to burden you with my problems" Iaf explained "and my relationship with Konan is just good friends, now any more questions?" she asked, Sasuke opened his mouth to bombard Iaf with more questions but Gaara spoke first "are you alright?"
"Yes thank you, I'm much better now" Iaf replied smiling.
Ding dong ding dong
"Time for our next class" Sasuke said as the boys got up "guy wait!" Iaf called out as she stood up "please don't tell anyone about me crying" she begged, the boys nodded and left.