A/N:
Hi! This is a full re-write and update of my story I originally began posting here in 2010. It's been a really, really long time! For anyone who read 'I Love' and is here to see the new version - thank you so, so much. I love you. The reason that I am posting the update as a new story is because I don't want to take away something that might hold precious and positive memories for folks, just because I have an urge to fix or change things now that I'm coming back to it. I've seen comments from readers, now that I found my password again, who come back to 'I Love' because of nostalgia, and I find that so beautiful and it really, really moved me. I love you.
In the re-written version, the core elements and plot are the same, but I added a lot more build-up to Konan's relationship with Pain, more foreshadowing for the wild turn the story takes in later chapters, and more sex, because Konan deserves to have a good time.
To anyone out there reading this - I love you! Thanks for your time. Sorry it took me this long / hello to any new readers! I hope you're having a lovely day.
As a blanket warning, I originally wrote 'I Love,' the fic this is a rewrite/update for when Pain's identity had not been revealed, etc, so Nagato doesn't exist in this story, and Yahiko is the character Pain's dad. It's all a bit of a weird tangle, but please bear with. Love you!
Konan sighed, looking out at the pounding rain. It was lovely. Rain was her favourite weather. It was so calming, and peaceful... it really was a wonderful experience, to simply watch the rain, listen to it fall.
It wasn't a wonderful sensation at all to be standing in the cold, completely drenched, banging on the door of a school that looked more like a gothic asylum than anything else. The building was pitch black against the grey sky, with tall, spiked metal fences surrounding the unkempt grounds and chips and cracks in almost every windowpane.
Konan sighed: the paper flower in her hair had long since been discarded as a lost cause, having become so soggy she was worried it would disintegrate. She banged on the door again. She knew she couldn't possibly be in the wrong place, but just to be sure, she re-read the brass plate erected above the huge door. St. Misery's School for the Artistically Gifted. This was the place, alright. Her new home for the next two years, or until her father decided differently. He had wanted her out of his hair, and this was about as far away as he could send her. "You'll love it," he'd said over the phone last week as she was on the first of 3 trains. She wasn't quite as confident, but then, she didn't have anywhere else to go, and the building was... lovely... in its own gothic, scary-looking way. She did a double-take, noticing literal gargoyles leering down at her from the balustrade. This place was crazy...
Finally, somebody opened the door. It was a girl, dressed in a high-collared black dress with a light grey apron tied around her waist with a thin black bow. Konan liked her outfit. She wondered if the girl was a maid, judging by the apron - was this place fancy enough for maids, even with the broken windows!? The girl had dark brown hair, around the same length as Konan's own blue hair. She smiled and cocked her head to the side.
"Konan Ame?" she asked.
Konan nodded.
"Come in. Lady Tsunade would like to meet you before you get settled. She's the Headmistress. I'm Shizune, her admin assistant."
Konan nodded - Ok, not a maid - and followed her inside, wringing out her hair and trying not to drip too much on the front mat.
"Follow me."
Shizune seemed happy just to tell her about the place as they mounted long staircases. Konan looked around her as they walked; there were paintings all over the place, loads of sculptures in different styles, and doors to classrooms that had all been decorated, presumably by the students. Many were painted, others were carved. Some of them were covered with clay figures, some had paper-mache people on them, or hands coming out of them. Some even had metal dragons and animals that seemed to leap out at her from the wood. There were mobiles hanging from the ceilings, paintings and murals and sculptures and wood carvings and stories or poems that went ceiling to floor, wall to wall...there was art of almost every kind decorating the stone walls. Konan almost strained her neck, looking around herself.
"...your baggage arrived two days ago, so it's lucky that it didn't rain until today..." Shizune was still talking, Konan realized suddenly. "Here you go. This is Lady Tsunade's office." Shizune said, stopping outside ornately carved double doors (with some not-so-ornate carvings along the bottom: swear words, grotesque faces, dicks of various shapes and sizes...). Shizune knocked twice, then opened the door, beckoning for Konan to go in first.
Konan walked inside.
Her first impression of the room was that Lady Tsunade had tried to create a haven in which she could pretend that there weren't hundreds of teenagers running and shouting and who-knows-what-ing right outside. The walls were a calming shade of pale grass green, and the carpet was ocean blue. There were huge windows behind the large mahogany desk, shielded from a view of the rain by long white curtains, which swayed in a soft breeze. Lady Tsunade herself was sitting at her desk, scribbling something down on a pad of paper. Following a pointed nod from Shizune, Konan walked forward and sat down on one of the wooden chairs. Feeling awkward, she watched Tsunade write, taking her in.
Tsunade had mid-length pale blonde hair that was tied back in two pigtails, kind-looking brown eyes, and —she felt her jaw drop— the biggest boobs Konan had ever seen. Konan herself had no curves to write home about (or even to mention over coffee). These were massive. Bazongas. Beach balls. Watermelons. Forget sweater puppies, they were sweater St. Bernards.
How bad does her back hurt!?
A stern ah- hem caught her attention. She flicked her eyes up to Tsunade's face, which was wearing a very practiced my-eyes-are-up-here expression. Konan blushed.
"Konan Ame. It's a pleasure to have you here," Tsunade said, in a kind, straightforward voice. "Shizune has a copy of your course schedule for you, as well as a time table." Shizune handed Konan several sheets of paper, which Konan began to read.
Okay...
Monday: 9:00 - Origami 10:30 - Break 10:45 - Drawing 12:15 - Lunch 1:15 - Gym 2:45 - Performing Arts 6:00 - Dinner Lights Out - No Fucking Around.
Konan stifled a giggle. No fucking around...
Tuesday to Friday was much the same as that, except she had painting, sculpture, metalshop, sewing, and choir. Gym was every day (groan). Weekends were free time for individual projects, except for mandatory 'Special Events'. She supposed she'd find out what that meant later.
"Now, Konan," Tsunade began again, her tone a little sheepish, "Because of a slight mix-up in your arrangements..."
Konan looked up. A mix-up? Oh dear. Tsunade was shuffling papers, looking embarrassed. Konan looked to Shizune, who grimaced at her.
"...Because of the rather unique way in which you have been admitted to this school... I'm sure it's no surprise to you, your father was adamant that you join even though the term has already begun. He outlined to us his reasoning," she waved a typed letter, "and we are happy to accommodate, of course. However, since you are late, we were unable to secure you a place in the girls' dorm."
Konan waited for the other shoe to drop. This probably wasn't going to be good news.
"Luckily, your father, or rather his... secretary... hmm..." Tsunade squinted at a presumably indecipherable signature on the form. "Will we accept that? I mean I guess we have already, but I mean, come on..."
Shizune gave a discreet yet firm cough. Tsunade came back to herself, tossing the form in a drawer.
"I'll worry about that later. Anyway, we received consent for you to sleep in the room that we do have available, because one of the other pupils... er... couldn't attend."
Konan caught Shizune's eye right as she drew a finger across her neck meaningfully.
Um...?
"The room that has been prepared for you has its own en-suite bathroom," Tsunade continued, "So naturally, everybody's jealous. There is also a lock on the door." She was quite obviously straining to make this sound like a good deal. Amazing news instead of horrible news. "I have put every precaution in place to ensure that you will be completely welcome in the boys' dorm."
Boys' dorm. Boys. Konan's stomach fell to her feet with a splat. She had enough trouble talking to boys. How was she supposed to sleep in the same dorm as them!?
Soon enough, however, and with an unfortunately tiny window in which to think about it and panic properly, Konan was trudging behind a once-again blathering Shizune, headed for certain doom... the boys' dorm.
All the dorm rooms were on the upper floor, above the lunch hall and class rooms. The windows were taller up here, which at least made for a lovely view of the rain. And the shitty lawn and crappy driveway. Konan rolled her eyes.
Oh yeah, dad, I'm going to love it here...
Shizune stopped outside a set of double doors with thick iron handles, wrapped with a large black chain.
"What's that for?" Konan asked, her voice a little fainter than usual as she stared at the chained handles. It was the sort of thing you'd expect to see outside the gates of hell , not a dorm room... although maybe they weren't that different.
"Oh, don't worry about it," Shizune said breezily. She took a heavy key from her pocket and fit it into the lock, giving it a sharp twist. The lock clicked and the chains slipped off. Shizune wound them up and jerked the door open. "This is just to stop any night-time wanderers. Prevent vandalism. Keep 'em in. Prevent teen pregnancies, all that jazz."
"Oh, great," Konan said in a falsely bright voice. "Boo, vandalism. Hiss, pregnancy."
"That's the spirit," Shizune said with a sharp grin. "You'll be fine though."
"Um..." Konan wasn't sure how to take that. As a patronizing compliment? As a cutting insult? As a possibly overconfident claim about the strength of the lock on her door...?
"Anyway, it's mostly traditional. Frankly, the lock on the girls' dorm is way more important. They're the ones that really bother trying to sneak out to blow stuff up or start fires most of the time," Shizune sighed, striding through the doors. Konan followed quickly behind her and jumped when they clanged shut. "Your school uniforms are on your bed, and your luggage should have been brought up by now too."
"There's a uniform?"
Shizune nodded vigorously. " Oh yes. Anybody caught altering their uniform — cutting hems, sewing on lace, tearing sleeves, etc — is awarded, based on the artistic vision and detail of their outfit." Konan smiled: This was an art school, after all. "However," Shizune continued as they turned a corner, "Anyone who alters their uniform in a way that is against the dress code... yes there is a dress code... will lose privileges. We have had occasional issues..." Shizune coughed delicately and caught Konan's eye. "Students showing too much skin, or who don't want to wear a uniform, or any clothing at all... While it gives everyone a laugh —" Shizune seemed to be lost in the memory for a second as her eyes slid out of focus and a grin appeared on her face. "— it is not appropriate, to say the least. In any case, you can't alter your gym outfit too much, because that's the one that there isn't a back up for, in case your design doesn't work out."
Konan nodded, looking at the many colourful doors they were passing on either side, each with locks and bolts on the outside. She was starting to wonder if they were keeping zoo animals in here rather than teenagers...
"These are the first year rooms." Shizune pointed to four doors. "Second years—" Two doors. ("There was an unfortunate incident in metalshop.") "Third years... Fourth years... Here you are. Fifth years." They stopped. Shizune gestured further down the hall with her thumb. "There are seven years officially. We occasionally have an Eighth year or two, if someone fails their finals. We had a Tenth year a while ago, total no-hoper, but he died ages ago, so it's no big thing." Shizune flapped her hand airily at the idea of one of the students merely dying. So trivial.
Konan was hardly listening. She was staring at the Fifth year doors with impending dread. There were two of them, both with a large iron 5 nailed to the front. Shizune had stopped her directly in front of the one painted with an enormous fanged mouth. Shizune walked forwards, unbolted it, and entered, Konan following behind, very unhappily.
Inside there was another tiny corridor, with four doors facing each other. At the end was a fifth door, where they stopped. There was a chalkboard nailed to the front. "You can write your name here. Some people go a little crazy with it. You can take a day to decide what design you want to go for," Shizune said. Konan glanced around at the other doors with their chalkboards. She couldn't read the names in the darkness, but she could tell some of them shone as though coated in metal or glitter, and at least one seemed to have a load of spikes hammered into it.
"I'll do it later," she said, and opened the door.
Shizune pointed out the bolt on the door, and the key for the dorm on the dresser. "No copies are to be made of that key, got me?" she said sternly. Konan nodded and looked around.
She felt she could grow to love the room. It was small, and a little dark, but it had a tall window in the outer wall which looked out on a forest. There was a twin bed, a plain wardrobe, a storage closet, a small desk, and chair. The walls were a cool sea blue. There was a little bathroom to one side.
"You can paint the walls and the furniture, as long as it can be easily repainted. No texture work. Outside of that, do whatever you like," Shizune said. "This will be your home for the next year, at least."
Shizune reviewed everything else she would need to know, including the fact that there was a day off coming up, and an assembly. "Good night, and welcome to St Misery!" she said as she shut the door behind her.
Welcome to St Misery... Konan sighed. It sounded like a bit of a depressing promise.
She locked her door, turned on the light, and looked around properly. The school colours were grey and black, apparently. The bedspread was grey and black checks. A small grey carpet lay over the dark wood floor. The school uniforms folded on the bed were grey and black. She figured they were gendered — she could probably ask for pants, but luckily she was a skirt girl. Black pinafore, grey wool tights, grey collared short-sleeve shirt. Black skirt, black wool tights, grey collared long-sleeve, black tie. Black coat with a white raven crest.
Konan smiled, flung her jacket onto the bed, and went to the bathroom. Turning on the light, she inspected the mirror, polished sink, toilet, and shower, which didn't have a curtain, and— A HUGE SPIDER OHHHMYYYGODDDD.
Konan screamed loud enough to wake the dead and sprinted out of the bathroom. She tore open her case, grabbed her knives, scissors, everything sharp she had brought, and flung them at the monstrous, hairy arachnid that was crouched in the bottom of her shower, guarding the drain like a hellish guardian. She heard them smash into it but didn't stay to check — she sprinted right out again and dove for her bed, clawing her way under the blankets, shuddering. She hated spiders, and that was bigger than a fricking tarantula! She lay there, curled in a ball, until she thought she heard muffled laughter through the walls. Weird…
She cautiously crept to the bathroom, duvet cover wrapped around her for protection, and squinted suspiciously at the spider's remains. She gasped: her scissors, throwing star, hand axe, and kitchen knife were all embedded into a plate-sized rubber spider.
Konan, face burning with rage and embarrassment, retrieved the very-very-dead rubber spider. She chucked the knives and scissors into the bottom drawer of her dresser, and threw the spider into the garbage bin, stamping on it for emphasis. She had cracked the shower tile pretty badly. Kinda shitty, but she hardly cared. She started to plot her revenge on her new 'roomies'.
She unpacked the rest of her suitcase. Most of her drawer space went towards the heaviest thing in her luggage — her massive collection of origami paper. She knew the school had its own supply for students, but she had brought her own just for occasions like this. Before getting started, she crept to her door, unlocked it, and glanced down the tiny hallway. She foresaw bumping into the others in the mornings... She had changed into her pyjamas already (oversized black t-shirt, grey sweatpants — her own clothes largely matched the school uniform, ironically), and padded silently into the hall, eyeballing measurements. She cracked her knuckles, returned to her room, locked the door, and sat cross-legged on the floor, readying herself and raising the energy for what was to come.
It was late, but she wasn't tired. She was ready to scare the shit out of the first boy out of his room. She began folding her paper as fast as she could, feeling it almost come alive in her hands. She smirked as her project began to take form; she was gonna get the last laugh this time.
The next morning, Konan took a few extra moments in front of the mirror, nervous in spite of herself for her first day at her new school. She brushed her bright blue hair and put it half-up in its usual messy bun. She cleaned her piercings, washed her face, clipped on a silver chain choker, then put on her usual soft grey eyeshadow and eyeliner. She didn't wear much, but figured she should put her best foot forward on her first day. She folded a pale blue origami flower and pinned it in her hair, and slipped on her silver rings.
She put on her uniform — she had shortened the pinafore, sewn silver and black lace to the bottom hem, painted white flowers onto the buttons, and made a few artistic holes in the tights. She tied up her black Converse and swung her blue flowery bag over her shoulder, ensuring her schedule was safely tucked inside, along with her notebooks and supplies. As quietly as she could, she opened her door and took a final look at her handiwork, spread on the floor of the hallway. Then she stomped as loud as she could down the hall, making sure to wake up the boys at the ungodly hour of six in the morning.
She heard several moans, swears, and other irritated-boys-in-early-morning sounds, and smirked as she opened the door to the main boy's dorm hall, thankful she'd thought to leave early. Just before classes began, this surely would be swarming with horrible teenage boys, yelling and armpit farting and fighting, and... whatever they did...
Konan had never actually gone to a co-ed school before. Strictly speaking, she had rarely not just been home schooled by her dad's latest hire, or studied by herself for online school. It was unusual, to say the least, that she had been allowed to attend St. Misery's at all, but her father had been saying how busy he was with business lately, and that he had to travel a lot... Konan wasn't complaining. Or, she was trying not to complain — she was still dreading the fish tank of Axe body spray she would surely be trapped in from now until June. She sighed heavily and walked quietly through the empty hall, making her way to somewhere she hoped she could hide until breakfast.
Meanwhile, Hidan was swearing.
"Why'd she have to stomp through here like fucking Godzilla!? House-hippo-ass bitch..." he seethed.
Deidara entered Hidan's room through the adjoining door, rubbing his crusty eyes. "I dunno, man. She was probably paying us back for that spider," he said, nearly unintelligible through a luxurious yawn.
"Fucking enunciate! Are you even awake?" Hidan demanded, and threw a pillow hard at Deidara's head. It thwacked him straight in the face and Hidan ducked as it came flying back at him, snickering over Deidara's hissed threats. "Anyway, what d'you mean, paying us back? Fuck that bitch, I'm not standing for this kind of shit! I'm getting Pain and Itachi." He jerked the door to the hall open and stormed out, calling, "Wakey-wakey motherfuckers, this bitch has—"
Hidan's eyes fell to the huddled mass on the floor. He squinted in the semi-darkness. A girl was lying there, broken, spread-eagled. Nothing but a splatter of meat remained of her head. Her legs and arms were bent at horrible angles, and she was sprawled, broken, in a puddle of scarlet blood... an enormous, shining kitchen knife buried between her shoulder blades.
"YEEAAAARGGHHH!"
Hidan's scream acted like a starting pistol. Immediately, the other doors in the hall flew open as several more yells joined Hidan's. Deidara crashed into Hidan, sending them both careering to the ground, where they tried to untangle themselves and get as far as possible from the bloody corpse at the same time. Pain, his eyes gummy with sleep, had taken one look, staggered back in surprise, and tripped over an aluminum baseball bat laying on his floor, going ass over teakettle and crashing to the ground, too.
It was total chaos. Until Itachi, who had emerged calmly from his bedroom and was leaning against the doorframe, arms folded, gave a snort of laughter.
"You idiots."
That shut everybody up.
Pain staggered into a standing position, wincing, and looked closely at the body. "She's made of paper , dummies," he said calmly. As though he hadn't just screamed, too.
Hidan jabbed the body with his toe, and gasped in indignation and outrage when it folded over itself slightly. There was an unmistakable rustle of paper.
"That BITCH! I'm gonna fuckin' KILL her!" Hidan roared, and he was still roaring by the time they'd all gotten dressed and were heading out.
"You've said that at least four hundred times, Hidan," Itachi said irritably.
"Don't exaggerate."
They banged on the door of the other Year 5 boys. A scowling redhead jerked it open.
"Oh, it's you." he said, running a hand through his rumpled hair.
"Who the fuck else would it be!?" snarked Hidan.
"Hey Sasori. Getting up any time soon?" Pain asked, amused: Sasori was still in a hoodie and pyjama bottoms.
"Can it," snapped Sasori. "What in under god was all that noise last night? First there's a sound like a banshee singing opera—"
Hidan snickered. "That's the bitch who's staying in our dorm! The chick! We put a rubber spider in her shower, and she—"
Sasori's jaw dropped. "She has a shower!? "
"I know! " The entire troupe of boys exclaimed indignantly.
"Why do I have to wash my cock in the fucking communal showers with all these stupid moronic skidmarks watching when little miss missy gets her own space?" Hidan griped, glaring around at the couple other early risers who were blearily gazing out their doors for the source of the noise.
"Probably Tsunade and Shizune think it's compensation for having to stay in the boy's dorm," Itachi said.
"So, she goes and scares the crap out of us—" Deidara jumped in, filling in Sasori.
"—After you scared the crap out of her first..." Pain interjected, grinning.
"—okay, fine, after that, and then Hidan starts screaming like a little girl—"
"Hey! I object to that!" Hidan tugged Deidara's ponytail.
"Overruled," Sasori said with a smirk. "I heard it. You're making Mariah Carey jealous on those high notes. But yeah, I heard that. And then you all started yelling, and then there was the swearing, and I still haven't had any coffee..."
By this time, Kisame and Kakuzu had stumbled into the hallway behind Sasori, shadows under their eyes.
"Coffee. Where?" grunted Kisame by way of morning greeting, completely not listening to the rest of the conversation.
"But this bitch, she made a seriously realistic fucking corpse out of paper! It's in our hallway, fuckin' broken-limbed voodoo doll type shit," Hidan said, tugging the sleeve of Kakuzu's t-shirt, as though asking him to come and look. Kakuzu blinked at the hand on his sleeve and shrugged him off and didn't react.
"I think you need your eyes checked, if paper is fooling you," Kisame said on a yawn, and turned right back around to get dressed. Sasori followed, grinning as Deidara came with him, his head resting on Sasori's shoulder like he was trying to fall back asleep. Kakuzu shoved his hands in his pockets and strolled into the other dorm room to check out the scene of the 'crime.'
The other boys from Konan's dorm leaned against the wall together.
"So...anybody know her name?" Pain asked.
The others shook their heads. "She hasn't written her name on her board," Itachi observed.
Pain rolled his eyes. Typical. They get a new roommate, a girl , and nobody knows her name. What a way to start. He thought of the 'corpse' and snorted, in spite of himself. It was pretty funny. He bit down on another impressed smile and loped off to get dressed.
Once they were all changed, the group walked together through the huge doors of the boys' hall, discussing the new girl. They had finally got their rooming situation sorted just right and had settled into an established dynamic after Deidara joined the school last year, and the arrival of the new girl felt like it could go either way. She could be cool, might manage to fit in with them, or at least not bother them too much... or...
"What if she's just like Ino-bitch?" Hidan asked with a groan. The others sighed, rolled their eyes, or grimaced as one. Popular though she was, Ino Yamanaka in the year below them was both bossy and high-maintenance; not their idea of an easy person to live with. "What if she's butt ugly?"
"What, you think she's going to bring down the tone of our group pictures?" Pain asked, sarcastically.
" Sasori might think so, hm. You know he's shallow as a puddle," Deidara said, earning himself an elbow to the ribs.
"We haven't evicted Kakuzu yet, and he's not exactly Marilyn Monroe," Sasori pointed out, then laughed as Kakuzu shoved him against the wall one-handed.
"Ooh, Pain, your dream might come true," Deidara said teasingly. "Maybe you'll finally have a roommate who can pierce your guche for you without wanting to puke!"
"I don't want my guche pierced," Pain snapped, then paused, tilting his head. "Although..."
"Ewww!"
They all walked into the huge lunch hall, laughing, grabbed plates, piled them up with food, and sat down at their usual table.
In the meantime, Konan had helped herself to an apple, two pieces of toast, and a glass of orange juice, and had sat down at a table by herself. After finishing most of her breakfast, she took out her origami paper and started folding dreamily as she let her thoughts wander. She was soon surrounded by paper cranes, dragons, flowers, boats, castles, horses, butterflies, and swans.
After twenty minutes or so, she was joined by a blonde girl, who set her tray down and sat down opposite. She was really pretty — she had powder blue eyes and flaxen blonde hair in a sleek, high ponytail, side bangs sweeping over one eye. She asked her name, her year, and which room she was in. When she mentioned she was in the boy's dorm, the girl stared and scooted her chair closer.
"You're staying with boys? Ooooh... which ones?" The blonde girl asked.
"I don't know. I haven't met them yet," Konan said. "I woke up early."
"Aw, no fun! Oh well. I'm Ino Yamanaka. This must be your first week here, right? I'd remember you. "
Konan raised her eyebrows at the emphasis on 'you.' Did Ino think she looked weird, or something?
"Yeah, I arrived yesterday," she said, biting noisily into her apple, putting an end to the conversation.
Or so she thought. Ino waved over a friend of hers, who promptly sat down on Konan's other side. She leaned forward immediately, obviously expecting fresh gossip.
"This is Sakura," Ino said.
Konan smiled at the new girl around her apple, feeling awkward.
Sakura had bubblegum pink hair tied back with a red headband, a wide forehead, and striking jade-green eyes.
"Sakura, this is Konan. She's new, in fifth year, and she's staying with the other fifth-year guys. Not sure which room, but I mean, there's not a lot of choices as to who exactly it's gonna be..." Ino said with a giggle.
"You're staying with boys?" Sakura said in surprise. "Ew! Why?"
Konan gave up on her apple and put it down. "I was registered late. I usually travel around with my dad, or at least stay in the same city as him, but he's really busy at the moment or something, so I guess he thought it would be better to send me away."
"What kind of job does your dad have? Damn, I wish I could just travel around," Ino sighed dreamily.
Konan gave a one-shouldered shrug. "He runs a company. I don't really know a lot about it. He doesn't talk to me about that. But anyway, I think he signed a form, or his secretary did, saying to basically put me wherever there's space. So, I'm in an extra room in the boys' dorm. At least I get my own shower!"
Ino and Sakura goggled at her. "OMG! I am so fricking jealous," Ino whined.
Sakura blew a raspberry, crossing her arms. "Luck-eee. You don't have to take your life in your hands in the communal showers. I swear I got some kind of fungus from them last year," Sakura groaned, wiggling her feet. "You should sneak us into yours."
"Bitch, yes! We could just stay in Konan's room! Plus, we can hang out with everyone... play 7 minutes in Heaven..." Ino said, shooting a smirk at Sakura, who blushed.
Konan picked up her apple again and took another bite. It seemed like the conversation was carrying on perfectly well without her. She looked around the lunch hall, taking in the architecture, the rows and rows of tall windows.
It's raining again… how nice…
She was brought sharply back down to earth by a half-shriek, half-whisper from Ino.
"There he is! There he is! Konan, look !"
Konan blinked around, looking where Ino pointed with a glittering manicured finger. A boy, probably fourteen or fifteen, walked into the lunch hall. Hands in pockets. Pale skin. Dark hair. Konan looked from Ino to Sakura, wondering how they wanted her to react.
"Who's that?" she whispered.
Sakura and Ino half-scoffed, half-laughed. "Ummmm... Sasuke Uchicha! I know you're new, but come on. He is like the hottest guy in the whole school, everybody is completely obsessed with him, as if you have to ask why ..."
Konan wished they'd just left her to eat breakfast in peace... She glanced at Sasuke Uchiha again. He was facing away from their table. Possibly on purpose, she thought darkly. She thought his hair looked like the back end of a duck.
"So," Ino said, tossing her long hair and thwacking Konan in the back with it, "What have you done to your uni so far?"
"My uniform? Well... not that much," Konan said.
Sakura gestured for her to stand up. Konan obeyed, feeling a bit silly. Sakura and Ino's gazes flicked up and down her body, taking in every detail. Konan fidgeted.
"Well?" she asked, a little sheepishly.
"I think it's pretty." said Sakura. "I like the ribbons, and the lace..."
"You're pretty conservative, huh?" Ino asked, propping her chin on her hand.
Konan opened her mouth, not even sure what she was going to say to that. Um... Should I be wearing my thigh-high stockings? More chains? No clothes at all? Her father and the various manners and propriety experts he'd hired for her over the years would have rejoiced to hear her called 'conservative.' The thought made her roll her eyes.
"Well... what did you two do with your uniforms?" Konan asked, looking at the other girls.
Ino stood up immediately and twirled around, posing, as Sakura laughed and pretended to be a paparazzo, clicking an invisible camera wildly.
Ino had tied up the uniform shirt like Britney Spears, and was plainly wearing a neon pink bra underneath, which showed through. She had put a stick-on rhinestone flower on her bare hip. The uniform skirt was hemmed and folded over itself so many times it barely covered eight inches of her. She wore long white socks and heeled Mary-Janes.
Heads turned around them as she pranced and posed. Some guys were plainly enjoying the show. A couple people laughed. Konan wanted to sink into the ground from second-hand embarrassment.
Sakura had altered the collared shirt into a halter top, and had embroidered pink flowers around the hem of her skirt. She wore black tights and white Keds.
"You both look really cute," Konan said with a smiling, hoping she was keeping the second-hand embarrassment she was experiencing firmly on the inside .
Ino sat back down with a grin. Then she suddenly leaned forward, squinting at Konan's mouth.
"OMG, you have a piercing!" she exclaimed loudly, pointing.
Konan glanced around. A couple heads had turned at Ino's loud voice. She felt hot at the back of her neck. "Yeah, yes. I have piercings," she said in a low voice, hoping Ino would take the hint; she didn't like being stared at.
"Why did you get one there ?" Ino asked, leaning forward and staring as if Konan had dropped food on her chin. "Doesn't it get like, dirty? Or greasy?"
Konan frowned. "It's a labret. You just clean it like any other piercing. I mean, it took longer to heal than a few of the others, but now it's fine..."
Sakura snorted with laughter. "You know who you need to meet? That freaky orange-haired guy in your year."
Ino gaped at her and then burst out laughing. "Oh jeez, Konan, no . No. Leave the uber-goth freaks to their own affairs. Stay on the side of light, and normalcy! Stay with us," she said, taking Konan's hand and stroking it.
"Now, take Sasuke. Now that's a guy. A nice, normal, sexy guy without nails in his collarbones or whatever the heck is going on with what's his name..." she trailed off, watching Sasuke drink his coffee. Two seconds later, she seemed to have zoned out completely.
Konan extracted herself from the two girls, put away her breakfast tray, and left for her Origami class at the bell.
After her first class, Konan liked St Misery much, much better. The teacher was really cool (she actually wore paper!) and had praised Konan on her ability to manipulate paper almost subconsciously. Her name was Kurenai, and she was Konan's favourite teacher so far. During break, Konan stayed behind, feeling a bit shy but needing to ask about catch-up assignments, and she and Kurenai quickly got off-topic, talking about various paper-making methods.
They got so carried away that Konan was totally startled by the bell, and had to rush to Drawing, trying not to be late. She was so harried she bumped into someone in the doorway.
"Sorry!"
She looked up. The boy was tall — her eyes were level with his lips. She met his gaze, and opened her mouth in surprise.
He had spiky orange hair, violet eyes, and a lot of piercings. Snake bites, piercings up his nose, bars straight through and silver rings all the way up each ear.
Cool...
Konan felt herself start to blush, to her horror. She wondered if this was the boy Ino had been talking about.
"After you," he said with an easy smile, stepping back. His voice was low and pleasant.
"Sorry," she squeaked again, and practically jumped into the classroom.
The teacher, Kakashi, looked over at her. "Konan Ame, right?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Feel free to grab that empty seat while I take attendance..."
Konan looked around and saw an empty seat next to... another empty seat. Wow. A table to herself. She nearly scolded herself for inwardly complaining — breakfast this morning had certainly taught her the innate value of one's own company.
But still… I hope I can make a friend in at least one of my classes…
She sighed and sat down, fingering a hole in her tights anxiously as the teacher carried on calling out names. The orange-haired boy didn't come back.
Maybe he had the wrong classroom?
"Hinata...here...Temari...here...Neji...here...Sasori..."
"Here, unfortunately."
"Detention, unfortunately."
Konan glanced up. A few girls were giggling, glancing over at the boy who had spoken. He was sitting at the table across from Konan's. He had a slight figure and dusky red hair curling in gentle waves around his delicate face. His resting expression was dreamy, long lashes framing his soft grey eyes, but at the moment he was rolling them at the ceiling, arms folded. The boy next to him said something quietly and he turned, a wicked laugh lighting his features.
Konan looked over at the other boy. He had waist-length dirty blonde hair pulled into a high half-ponytail, and long bangs covering the left half of his face. He had sun-kissed skin, cat-like blue eyes framed by dark eyeliner, and what looked like several burn scars over his arms.
Kakashi continued the roll call. "Konan...here...Deidara...here...Pain's here..." he said, not even looking up to check.
Konan blinked. Pain? Is that someone's name?
She started doodling in her sketchbook, excited for class to begin, but a few minutes later, Kakashi finished the roll call, then announced that since there were no classes the next day they might as well start the holiday early and goof off. She looked up at him, confused, but he had already pulled out a thermos of tea, leaned back in his chair, kicked his shoes off, and was slipping what looked like an erotica novel out of his coat pocket.
The class immediately started talking. Konan slipped her earbuds in, turned her playlist up, and continued drawing, slumped forward with her head on her arm. She was exhausted. She wasn't an early riser by nature, and she'd been up before 6am today, and had barely gotten any sleep the night before because she was folding her origami prank. After a few minutes, her wrist started to slump. Her pencil hit the page and she fell asleep, breathing slow, completely unaware that someone had just sat down in the empty chair next to her.
Pain looked down at the sleeping girl. She was the one he'd bumped into on the way out the door, when he'd been heading for his locker. He'd forgotten his sketchbook, but judging from the huge amount of nothing all the other students were doing, and how many pages Kakashi was into his dirty book, it looked like he wouldn't be needing it. He started drawing anyway, adding more details to the tattoo design he'd been working on, but unable to help it, glanced again at the girl beside him beneath his lashes.
Her blue hair fell softly across her face and fanned over her shoulder. Her eyelashes cast shadows on her cheeks. An intricate origami flower was pinned in her hair. Pain glanced again at her labret and he smiled; it looked cute on her. Not many people at the school had facial piercings.
" Oooh, look at the dirty old pervert slobbering over the new girl~" Sasori stage whispered from the next table over, smirking at him.
" Oooh, new girl has a piercing, just like me, maybe she wants to be my special friend ~" Deidara joined in, making stupid kissy noises.
Pain shot them a glare but snorted with laughter in spite of himself.
"Shut up!" he whispered, but too late. The girl shifted, blinked, and sat up.
" Oooh , the slobbering old perv boy woke her up~" Sasori sing-songed softly, but not soft enough.
The girl glanced over at him, a little line between her eyebrows, before opening her mouth in a quiet yawn. She turned her head and froze, staring at Pain. Mid-yawn.
Pain bit his lips to stop from laughing, and tried to look friendly, but also not look like he'd just been checking her out.
Konan stared. A boy. The boy. The guy with the purple eyes and piercings and bright orange hair, sitting next to her, drawing, his wrist flexing, tendons... tendoning... and she still had her mouth open! She shut it with a snap and looked away, cheeks burning.
Earth, please open up and swallow me now… just a big yawning chasm to take me away… That would be great, thanks bestie.
She could feel the boy's eyes on her, and started to refill her led pencil like it was the most important thing in the world to avoid meeting his gaze. The back of her neck was burning.
"Are you new here?" The boy asked. He had a nice voice. Easy, nice to listen to.
Konan turned to face him. It was hard to meet his violet eyes without feeling her face heat up... and she really didn't want 'tomato-head' to be the first thing he thought when talking to her.
"Uh, yes. I got here yesterday."
"You in fifth year?"
"Uh-huh."
The boy smiled. His grin was fox-like, mischievous. He looked like an easy laugher. "I'm Pain," he said.
Konan nodded at him. "Nice to meet you."
Pain waited a beat and then snorted. "You know, when someone introduces themself, it is kind of common practice to return the favour."
Konan laughed. "Sorry! I thought you had more to say... I'm Konan."
"That's a pretty name."
"Thank you!"
"Suits you."
"Um, thanks... Is Pain a, uh, family name, or...?"
Pain laughed, and glanced up — then abruptly turned back to her. She turned to look at what he'd seen, but he quickly said, "I like your nail polish!" in an unnecessarily loud voice.
Konan looked over anyway, just in time to see the dusky redhaired boy and his blond friend making kissy noises and whispering something before they saw her looking and immediately pretended to be deep in loud conversation about the seating plan.
Feeling awkward, Konan looked at her nails. "Um, thank you." They had a black base coat, with white flowers splattered with tiny red bloodstains. She'd done them when watching Audition on her phone at the bus depot.
"What did you use for the blood spatter? A toothpick?" Pain asked. Konan blinked in surprise that he was asking her about her nail art technique of all things.
"Um, I didn't have one... I used the back of my earring."
"Really?" Pain leaned closer. "May I?" he asked, holding out his hand.
Hardly breathing, Konan nodded and lifted hers. He took it gently, tilting her fingers to the light. His hand was cool, with small calluses on the palm and fingers. She wondered if he was taking metalshop or woodworking or something. He smelled like wood smoke, white musk, and clean laundry. Konan caught herself noticing this and flushed, clearing her throat.
"It... it was kind of stupid, because the polish dried on the stud back and it took ages to get off, and I still haven't worn that pair again, but, um..." Konan trailed off, feeling silly.
Why did she have to ramble now , when he was so close, looking up at her, looking interested, a small smile on his face!? She knew she was blushing, she knew it . He smiled wider. Fuck! His eyes were mesmerizing...
"Um..."
WHAT IS HAPPENING!?
The kissing noises from the next table were getting louder. Konan looked over again. The two boys were clearly cracking themselves up laughing at them.
"Let me take your hand and kiss it , mwah , my lady..."
" Oooh , so romantic, so dashing... "
"If we kiss, will our piercings get stuck together?"
"Oh I hope so, and then we can crabwalk through the metal detector gates of life together..."
Konan took her hand back, raising her eyebrows at Pain, who had straightened up and was watching the two boys, too. It looked like he was caught between a scowl, a weary sigh, and amusement.
"Friends of yours?" Konan asked.
"No, I've never seen them before in my life," Pain said immediately. Konan bit down on a smile.
The other boys had plainly heard him and looked offended. They stood up and walked over, the blonde huffily crossing his arms, the redhead strolling with his hands in his pockets.
"Sooo... Mister hilarious..." the redhead said coolly, slinging an arm around Pain's neck and fixing Konan with a little smile. "Gonna introduce us?"
"I thought you didn't know them," Konan said to Pain with a grin.
"You're ashamed of us?" the other boy said dramatically, clutching his heart. "What are we, chopped liver?"
"You're about to be," Pain said, lifting the boy's arm off his neck.
"Ignore them," the blonde boy said to Konan, leaning against her desk. "What's your name?"
"Konan."
"Cool. I'm Deidara, and this dickhead is Sasori, hm."
"Um, I beg your pardon," Sasori said, freeing himself from the tiny girly slapfight he had been having with Pain and leaning across the table to gaze dreamily into Konan's eyes.
"Don't get distracted by these peasants, angel. It's just you and me and—hey!"
Deidara had seized the neck of his shirt and yanked him back off the table.
"Stop being a creep. Don't scare the new girl."
"Somebody's jealous," Sasori said sweetly. Deidara let go of him like he was dropping a spider and scoffed.
"I'm trapped in this relationship, save me, " Sasori whispered loudly to Konan, earning himself another yank backwards from Deidara.
"What classes are you in?" Sasori asked, relaxing into Deidara's grip at once and tilting his head back to rest on the blond's shoulder.
Deidara gazed at the ceiling clearly thinking, Lord, give me strength.
Konan showed them her schedule.
"Cool, you're in sculpture, painting, and drawing with me, hm." Deidara said, and Konan smiled back.
Sasori examined her schedule. "Let's see...you've got gym with me, Pain, and Hidan every day... You'll like Hidan. Well," he corrected himself, "You'll probably hate him at first. We all did, you get over it," he said, totally casual like this was a normal way to recommend new acquaintances. "Drawing, obviously...metalshop...and that's it." He handed her schedule to Pain, who gave him a sardonic smile before scanning the list.
"Drawing, gym, metalshop, and sculpture," he said. Konan smiled.
"Nice," she said, folding her schedule back up. "Are you guys all in fifth year?"
They all nodded. Sasori was giving her a rather thorough once-over with his dreamy eyes. Konan shot him a deadpan, unimpressed look when she saw him raise his eyebrows at her chest.
"Can I help you?" she asked him tartly, crossing her arms.
"You don't look seventeen," he said, totally unashamed of being caught staring. "Flat as a —" he hissed at Pain, who cleared his throat loudly right as Deidara yanked again on the back of his shirt, cutting him off.
"Yeah, well, I'm sixteen. And I might not be a D-cup, but at least I'm not, what... 5'4?" she said, arching her eyebrows and pointedly staring right over Sasori's head.
Pain and Deidara snorted with laughter. Deidara caught sight of Sasori's sour look and laughed even harder.
" Anyway ," Sasori said waspishly. "Why are you in fifth year, then?"
"I'm born in October."
"I mean, people born in fall and winter also exist…" Deidara said, rolling his eyes at Sasori.
"So, you're a Libra?" Sasori asked with a snort, ignoring Deidara. Konan had the feeling he was trying to regain some sense of dignity and disdain.
He's kind of cute, she thought. In a vain, bratty little baby way.
"Uh huh."
"Remind me never to ask for your opinion on anything... like what to have for dinner..." Sasori said out of the corner of his mouth.
"Nah, man, Libras are cool," Pain said, folding his arms and leaning back. "Aren't they supposed to give great advice?"
"Says here," said Deidara, looking at his phone, "Libras are diplomatic and urbane, romantic and charming, easygoing and sociable. And also indecisive, easily led, gullible, and flirtatious, hm."
The three boys looked at Konan. She felt like a fish in a tank.
"Well?" Sasori said expectantly, propping his head on his chin and fluttering his lashes at her.
"Well what?" Konan asked, feeling awkward.
"Flirt with us. Prove you're a Libra. Defend the noble legacy of your zodiac sign," he said playfully.
Konan blinked at him. He blinked back. "Um..."
Sasori bowed his head in despair. "She's terrible," he said. "Can't flirt to save her life, poor thing."
"Ah, I'm sure she's not so bad," Pain said. He met her gaze and gave her a tiny wink.
Sasori pretended to be sick into Pain's pencil case, and Deidara shot him a supremely unimpressed look. "Gross," he said. "Stop it. You look like Troy Bolton."
Pain stuck his tongue out at Sasori. Konan saw a flash of silver.
"You have a tongue piercing!? That's so cool!" she exclaimed.
Pain blinked at her in surprise. "Oh, thanks!"
The other boys rolled their eyes but Konan ignored them, asking Pain when he got it, if it hurt, what the healing time had been, so excited because she'd always kind of wanted one herself.
The bell rang. Pain asked if she wanted to eat lunch with them and their friends, and she accepted, happy that this time she would be eating with people who (presumably) wouldn't be yelling "OMG" out loud every ten seconds.
They all filled their lunch trays (Konan took another apple, juice, and a roasted veggie sandwich) and they all sat down at a long table, where a handful of other teenage boys were already sitting. There was just enough room. Konan squeezed between Deidara and Pain, and across from a guy with fine black hair tied in a low ponytail, dark red eyes, and deep eyebags.
"Yo Pain! Who's the lady?" A voice called from down the table. Konan glanced over to see who had spoken, and met the gaze of a burly blue guy with indigo hair and sharp teeth.
Um, okay...
"That's Kisame," Deidara said next to her.
"This is Konan. She's new, and she's in our year," Pain said to Kisame, who nodded, gave Konan a little wave, and went back to absolutely demolishing his meatball sub.
Pain continued with introductions, pointing to Hidan (a tall guy with slicked back silver hair and magenta eyes, shirt open on his bare chest); Kakuzu (another super tall guy with olive skin covered in stitches, long brown hair, and odd green eyes); and Itachi (the black-haired boy with the ponytail).
"...and that's everybody," Pain said and grinned.
"You have a lot of piercings," she blurted out, having just noticed about six more in his ears. He laughed.
"I sure do."
"Is that your only one?" Sasori asked, pointing at Konan's mouth. She shook her head.
"I have ear piercings, a bellybutton piercing, uh, a nape piercing... Umm..." She met Sasori's dreamy gaze and wondered if she should mention her nipple piercings. Um, maybe not. "And... some tattoos."
"Nice! Me too. What do you have?" Deidara asked, leaning over to her.
Konan glanced at his hands holding his sandwich and caught sight of two matching mouths on the palms of his hands. That must have hurt...
"Just a couple things here and there. Origami crane, origami flower," she said, pointing at her ankle and inner wrist. "I got a big back piece this summer, though! Angel wings," she said happily.
She loved them. They curved over her shoulders in a graceful spread, ending above her tailbone. The tattoo cost on top of the fee she'd paid for an actor to pretend to be her dad to sign the consent form had taken most of her summer job earnings, but it was so worth it.
"Cool! Any others?" Deidara asked enthusiastically.
"Yeah—"
"Where?" Sasori asked flirtatiously.
"Somewhere you'll never see," she responded cheekily.
"We'll see about that," Sasori said sweetly. "I can be very persuasive."
Deidara mimed shoving Sasori's face down into his pasta salad. Konan laughed.
"Your door has a lock on it, right?" Pain asked. Konan nodded. "Good. You might need it," he grinned.
The bell rang, and they put away their recycling and trays, and headed to gym.
Pain, Sasori, and Hidan were all in the same class with Konan. They separated to change.
Konan found a locker, pulled out her gym uniform, and started to change. She'd pulled on the black shorts and had just taken off her top, about to pull on the grey t-shirt, when Ino and Sakura came up to her, both smiling.
"Hey Konan!"
"Hey!" she said. "I guess gym class is mixed with fourth and fifth years?"
"Yeah," Ino said. Her eyes dropped to Konan's chest. She seemed to raise her eyebrow slightly at her black lace bra.
Konan pulled the grey shirt on quickly, feeling awkward all of a sudden. Was Ino judging her on the bra, her nipple piercings, her small boobs, or something else entirely? Or was it that Konan had forgotten a sports bra? Or was she misreading the whole thing?
"So... you're sure becoming a favourite with the boys in your year," Ino said. "All of them."
Konan frowned. "I wouldn't say that."
Sakura leaned against the wall and gave her a conspiratorial smile, like an invitation to share. "Come on , Konan. You sat with them at lunch. We heard they were all over you in your first class! Somebody's popular, huh?"
Konan shifted uncomfortably as she folded up her pinafore and put it in her locker. "Who's been saying that?"
Ino didn't answer. She gave Konan a concerned look that somehow didn't seem very genuine. Maybe it was the distracting glitter lipgloss she seemed to have put on since breakfast.
"Really, Konan. People are going to start talking about you. It's bad enough you're sleeping in the boy's room. If rumours start that you're flirting with them, or dating them, or—" She dropped her voice, but not quite as much as Konan would have liked. "—or worse, screwing around with them, then..." She pulled a concerned face. "It won't do anything good for your reputation. And who knows who it could get back to."
Konan raised her eyebrows and folded her arms. "But I only told you two I'm in the boy's dorm. How could anyone else know about it?"
" Please. Use your common sense, Konan. Word travels fast around here. We were probably overheard," Ino said like she was talking to a toddler.
Konan was starting to get pissed off. What's it to her? Did I ask for any of her fake-friend 'concern' for my 'virtue'? Come on!
"What, do I have a neon sign saying 'whore' flashing above my head? Or is that just happening for you?" she snapped.
"You—"
"Girls, hurry up!" The teacher roared through the door, making them all jump. "All the boys are ready! Chop chop!"
Konan shouldered her way past the other girls and left the change room. She spotted Pain and the others sitting on a bench, a little separated from another cluster of boys who she imagined were the fourth years. She recognized Sasuke Uchiha, who looked to be giving a snippy retort to the blonde boy next to him.
Konan huffed over to her new friends. She realized that her face must show how annoyed she was, because Pain raised his eyebrows at her, and Deidara looked over, concerned.
"Who spat in your mouthwash?" he asked, but she didn't get a chance to reply.
Might Guy, the gym teacher, came up right behind her and bellowed, so she jumped about three feet in the air, "Ten laps! Round the gym, let's go, go, GOOOOOO!"
They all leapt to their feet and started running.
Sasuke was the fastest. Hidan was near the front of the pack, too. Sasori and Pain kept pace with Konan, although she could tell that Pain at least was definitely being slower than usual on purpose. Ino and Sakura were all the way at the back, probably going slow enough to talk, and to see Sasuke when he inevitably lapped them, Konan thought peevishly.
"What happened?" Sasori asked her on their second lap.
Konan made an annoyed sound between breaths. "Ino and Sakura basically called me a slut and said the whole school is going to think I'm sleeping with everybody. And Ino was acting like it wasn't them who told everyone, when it so obviously was, because they're the only ones who know I'm sleeping in the boys' dorm."
Sasori almost tripped.
"Wait.. that's you!?"
Konan frowned. "Who's me?"
"The lunatic who nearly made Hidan piss himself this morning and interrupted my beauty sleep!?" Sasori exclaimed. Pain burst out laughing.
Konan started to laugh, too. "Um, well I don't know about that , but... I guess so?"
"You made that fake body out of paper?" Pain asked, sounding impressed. Konan nodded, and he whistled. "It was so cool."
"Thanks! Wait..." Konan's eyes narrowed as she looked suspiciously between them. "Then... it was you guys who put that stupid rubber spider in my shower!?"
"Um..." Pain said, grinning. "I mean it wasn't my idea..."
Sasori was laughing, but abruptly stopped when he caught Konan's expression.
"We really should be taking these laps seriously," Sasori said abruptly and picked up the pace. Pain followed suit.
"Hey! Get back here!" Konan yelled, sprinting after them.
They were all laughing by now. Konan kept smiling the whole rest of gym class, having fun teasing the others. She couldn't believe how happy she felt... It was like they'd been friends for years already.
They were playing volleyball that class. The teacher called for everyone to make groups of four. Before Konan could say anything, Pain had slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her towards Hidan and Sasori. She was surprised, but so relieved she couldn't help smiling.
And here I was scared of being picked last...
Konan was so happy... until she learned, very very quickly, that she sucked at volleyball. In her defense, she hadn't had a lot of opportunity to play any team sports, but somehow that didn't totally account for how terrible she was.
"What the fuck!" Hidan yelled as her serve hit him in the back of the head for the third time, messing up his hair. The only silver lining was that her serve was so floppy that it wasn't very hard, but still.
"I'm sorry!" she said, grabbing the ball again and psyching herself up for a fourth try, trying to ignore Sasori and Pain, who were laughing.
"You know what, I'm switching teams. You try dodging these fucking daisy shots at your head," Hidan said, ducking under the net, slapping Pain on the back and pushing him towards Konan. She grimaced at him, but he gave her a thumbs up.
"Okay, this time..." she said, throwing the ball up and bending her arm back, trying to time it right, trying not to notice Pain squatting lower and lower, clearly to get his head out of her line of sight.
She swung her arm down hard, made contact with the ball with a loud smack, and sent it flying in a direct arc, skimming the net, heading right on target...
Smack. "ARGH! FUCK!"
Just not the right target. The ball had sped at high velocity right into Hidan's crotch, and probably because he hadn't expected it to make it over the net at all, he hadn't even been looking.
They all burst out laughing. Sasori looked like he was going to cry, he was laughing so hard. Hidan definitely was crying, clutching his junk and rolling on the ground.
The rest of the volleyball game continued a little more normally, once Hidan had recovered. Sasori and Hidan beat them, but not by a catastrophic margin, mostly due to Pain's good reflexes. He high-fived her when she scored her single point, and Konan grinned back at him.
She decided that she was actually going to have a great time at St Misery. No matter how unfortunate the name of the school was.