- Chapter 03 -

Senpai noticed me

Akira sipped quietly the coffee she had bought on her way to school, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Her first day at school was worse than she had expected. Surprisingly, the ginger had survived it but it was unknown to her that her return back home would cost her precious sleep.

 Apparently, Gaara had dropped by her house the moment she had just returned from school, resulting him to see his childhood friend in the boys' uniform. The girl really wanted to explain herself to him after he questioned - quite angrily - why she was dressed like that but, unfortunately, her father had appeared at the critical moment. He was quite irritated as well because he had never liked Gaara nor his siblings for some reason, and demanded the red-head to leave. Needless to say, the clash between them ended with Gaara stomping away while Akira plopped on her bed and stayed awake the whole night, wondering what she had gotten herself into.

"And here I am, drinking a coffee which doesn't taste like a coffee and trying to figure out where the Chemistry class is," Akira mumbled under her breath and sighed softly. Finally, she decided to sit on the corridor and drink the rest of the bittersweet liquid.

Gaara. . . Why did it have to come to this?  the girl thought nostalgically, I just want to come back to school. . . Together with you, Sakura and Shikamaru. I want everything to go back to normal. I miss you so much . . .

"Oi! Fukui-kun!"

 The fake surname of Akira was heard clearly a couple of meters away from her, making her snp her head to the side. Her classmate with the silky blond hair was standing besides her, looking down at her figure.

Akira greeted with a nod of her head, "Hey, Deidara-kun."

"Where have you been? I was waiting for you yesterday in the cafeteria, un!" Deidara complained at the ginger who scratched her head at the remembrance of the mess back there.

"Eh . . . Actually, I want to apologize for that, Deidara-kun. I will make sure to join you today, though!" she replied energetically, making the blond male smirk. 

Akira smiled sheepishly at him - despite her being an outsider in this school as Hidan stated, Deidara had been friendly from the very start. She was so grateful to him for that because even though her presence in that school was secretly professional, she was a human being who needed friends by her side. The near future could only tell whether he would remain as a friend by her side, though.

"Why are you sitting all alone, un? You seem a bit lost," Deidara pointed out and looked at his classmate curiously.

"Well," Akira started as she stood up on her feet, "I'm lost, indeed. Do you know where Chemistry class number two is?"

"Yeap, follow me."

The two teenagers began walking onward, towards the destination of the wanted room. Their footsteps were the only sound that could be heard in the deserted hallway along with their soft breaths.

"Um, Deidara-kun," Akira broke the comfortable silence and slowed down her pace; the sign with the words 'Chemistry Class #2' hanging out of the door in front of them.

"Hmm?"

"Do you consider me a friend?"

The blond scratched awkwardly the back of his head and looked at the newbie, as if he was seriously thinking about his answer.

"Yeah, why not?"

"Cool!" the ginger beamed and smiled softly at him before opening the door of the class. "See you at lunch."

The door closed and left the male staring at it before leaving for his own class which he was either going to skip or blow up. 

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"Okay class, today I'm going to assign you the project you are going to work on for the first semester," the History teacher announced, earning some groans from her fellow students. 

She ignored their reaction and took out a bowl, showing it to them, "Pick out a paper from this box. The name of the second year student which is going to be chosen from you; this person is going to be your partner for the rest of the semester."

Akira just sat at the back of the class and kept quiet, drawing aimlessly doodles all over her notebook. She waited for her turn and when the box was thrown rudely at her by another student, she just growled lowly and grabbed a random paper. Giving it to the next student, the newbie opened the paper and glanced at it.

Itachi Uchiha.

The too-familiar surname she couldn't forget created unanswered questions. However, she waited patiently for the teacher to finish with the so-called poll and opened the classroom's door, from where the second-year students came inside.  Akira observed each delinquent with her eyes.

"Akira-kun?"

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei?"

The female teacher gave a warm smile at the new student, "Who did you get?"

"Um . . . Itachi Uchiha-senpai," the shortie answered quietly and soon, a taller male with the best facial features in the world approached her desk and sat besides her.

"Hello," the teen greeted gently. "My name is Itachi Uchiha and I suppose we'll be partners for the next three months."

Akira scratched her cheek out of awkwardness and smiled sheepishly at the Uchiha. "Eh, I'm Akira Fukui, Uchiha-senpai. Please, call me Akira. And . . . please take care of me through this semester," she introduced herself, finishing with a slight bow of her head.

The other just remained as calm as always and patted softly her head, making the girl shoot him a questioning look.

"No need to be so formal, Akira-kun. 'Itachi' is just fine and remember: we are partners now, so we must feel comfortable around each other."

Akira nodded happily and grinned at Itachi. She was relieved to see that at least a person in her new school wasn't behaving like a criminal, because that was what the others were acting like. But that surname . . . He must be Sasuke's runaway brother, the newbie thought intensively and came back to reality the moment she heard Itachi calling her name.

"Akira-kun?"

"Ah!! Eeh . . . Sorry, Itachi-senpai. I was in my own little world. D-Don't mind me," the shortie rushed to explain, resulting her to stutter uncontrollably and curse inwardly afterwards for making such a huge mistake.

 It was indeed a mistake because Itachi looked at her with an arched eyebrow, obviously not convinced. "Eeeh . . . I was j-just glad that senpai-- I mean, you! Yeah, you . . . eh . . . noticed me."

The onyx-eyed male was utterly surprised by her response but shrugged it off, not wanting to make his new partner feel uncomfortable or whatsoever. For the rest of the hour, they just chatted and decided how they were going to present the myths of Konoha, known as "The Dark Ages of Konohagakure". They were named like that because they were famed to be connected to "black magic" as the modern people were calling it but specifically known as "jutsus". Kurenai-sensei hadn't analyzed this task furthermore because there wasn't much information about the certain period of time. Besides, the gathered information wasn't proper for high school students to be taught and was banned from the history books.

"So I will come today to your house?"

Itachi nodded and tapped his finger on the desk, "I'm actually living in someone else's household so we'll have to start the project in my room. Also, ignore the disturbing noises from the other rooms". 

Akira nodded and started packing her things for lunch calmly. However, the girl inside her was screaming like crazy: I am going to be all by myself in a room with a boy?! Who I barely know?! Just--! Kami, help me! 

Her cheeks took a faint red color and the shortie quickly turned around, trying to think of something else but that.

Fortunately, the bell rang, signalling the beginning of lunch time. Akira remembered Deidara's invitation and quickly grabbed her belongings to leave but was abruptly stopped by her partner who happened to stand in her way.

"Akira-kun, would you like to join me for lunch? We need to finish our project's plan either way."

The ginger gave him an apologetic smile, bowing slightly at him, "I'm sorry, Itachi-senpai, but Deidara-kun has already invited me to eat at his table. Maybe another time."

"Deidara?" Itachi asked, furrowing his eyebrows slightly, "Fortunately for you, Deidara is, uh . . . an acquaintance of mine so we can still sit together". 

Akira tilted her head to the side in confusion but nodded and threw her bag over her shoulder, exiting the classroom together with Itachi. They were at the middle of the corridor when a blue-haired male appeared besides Itachi and slumped his arm around his neck.

"Yo, Itachi," the male greeted casually, attracting the attention of the newbie. Her eyes landed momentarily on him, only to be glued again forward as an instant. He had a pale skin color but in her eyes, it was like a light blue. She wasn't completely sure if she was crazy enough to assume something so extraordinary like that or if her eyes were completely helpless without her glasses. His hair had a deep blue color; such a weird appearance for a high school student.

The dark-haired male looked at the new arrival from the corner of his eye and only continued walking towards the cafeteria, "Kisame."

'Kisame' peered over Itachi's shoulder and looked at Akira who was currently playing with the stripe of her bag - the most interesting thing to do at the moment. 

"And who is that?" he asked his friend, furrowing his eyebrows at the sight of the short student. He was quite surprised to see someone walking together with Itachi; despite the fact that the Uchiha was famous around the school, he wasn't your average social person.

Akira's head snapped to the side and looked at the acquaintance of Itachi, confirming at the same time that his skin was as blue as the sky. "Akira Fukui, Kisame-senpai. Pleased to meet you."

"Don't call me by my first name," Kisame growled lowly, keeping the rule of honorifics at the back of his mind.

"I'm sorry, Kisame-senpai."

"You did it again!"

"Sorry."

The three of them arrived at the cafeteria and the shortie kept following Itachi and Kisame, assuming that he was going to join their table too. Yet, she almost fell on her senpai's back when they abruptly stopped in front of a table. Akira heard them greeting and recognized instantly Deidara's quirky voice. Thus she moved at the side and looked at the old and new faces.

Deidara; the blond bomber she had met yesterday and luckily, befriended her and invited her to join him during lunch. Itachi; the kind yet anti-social senpai who happened to be her partner in History class. Kisame; the scary blue-skinned upperclassman who was a good friend of Itachi. A red-haired short boy whose expression was always stoic. She could swear that she had seen him one day ago creeping out some of her classmates during class. And last but not least -

The girl's eyes widened in surprise as she pointed at the dumbfounded male, "You!"

"You!" the male copied her and glared at her. That was going to be one hell of a coincidence.

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Edited by me - 23-08-2018

Dedicated to @MadameAndySenpai (Andy-senpai) for being an awesome reviewer at the first chapter and slapping a smile on my face for the rest of the day XD Not so sure if you're still reading this fanfiction but I will dedicate this chapter to you any way!