- Chapter 13 -

Abnormality is Normal

"The principal would like to see Gaara Subaku in the office now."

Akira stood in the doorway, facing the teacher with her most serious and convincing expression of all. Her small 'trick' was working every time on teachers, not to mention that Mei Terumi would definitely fall for it. After all, she was the kindest teacher in the school -according to Akira, at least- besides Kurenai-sensei.

Mei's gentle gaze turned on Gaara, hardening for a split second before returning back to its polite form, "Subaku-kun, will you make us the honor of standing up and going to the office?"

A few students snickered behind him but, nonetheless, Gaara stood up and exited the classroom, sliding the door shut behind him. A small smirk was plastered on his face the moment he glanced at his friend and the female hid her own smile with the back of her hand. Who knew that the same trick which was performed for a serious reason before was now implemented for a completely ridiculous reason?

"Dumb as hell or really smart," Akira commented once they had entered another hallway, deserted from any form of life.

Gaara hummed in agreement and he glanced playfully at the long corridor in front of him, fighting back the urge to challenge his friend to a race until the end of the hallway. He had been the winner countless of times, certainly more times than a few when Akira was the one to reach the end first.

"Hey, wait for me!"

The two dropped dead on their tracks when they heard an all-too-familiar voice calling out to them from the direction they had come. Deidara finally reached both teenagers and supported himself on the wall, taking a few swallow breaths before standing upright again.

"What took you so long?" Akira questioned, plastering an irritated expression on her face. Acting like a boy was as hard as hell for her.

Deidara began walking normally besides Gaara, "It was quite a pain in the ass to escape Anko's class, you know? I still don't understand how she actually let you get out of the class, un."

Akira couldn't help but smirk evilly at his inquest and let a snort escape her mouth, "What can I say? Teachers love me."

"Annoying bastard. . ."

The three of them carried on walking with Deidara throwing some knock-knock jokes which were completely reflecting his black humor and Gaara side-glaring at the blonde. His apathetic stance against Deidara was clearly showing off; he didn't like that guy, definitely. Not to mention that he was too close to his best friend which was somehow suspicious of him.

Akira noticed the upcoming tense atmosphere and tried to come up with a random idea in order to prevent it from happening, "Uh. . . Wanna do something?"

"Something such as. . ." Gaara trailed off, noticing her clear nervousness.

Deidara smirked widely at the remembrance of something they could watch on his cellphone, "Well. . . I have some videos on my phone we could watch. If you get what I mean."

Gaara immediately understood what Deidara was suggesting and felt a sudden embarrassment engulfing his expression when he remembered that Akira was with them. On the other hand, Akira stared at them with a perplexed expression on her face, wondering what they meant by those references.

Deidara glanced at Akira and grinned wider, "I'm sure you haven't watched-."

"Brat!"

An all-too-familiar voice interrupted Deidara's sentence which turned their attention to the side where two figures were nearing them. Kisame grinned down at the midgets while Sasori scowled and considered watching out for the horoscopes in order to ameliorate his luck.

"Sasori-danna!"

"Will you stop calling me that, freak?"

Gaara and Akira glanced at each other and agreed in that way not to interfere in the sudden quarrel. Kisame watched from the side together with the two freshmen and laughed sharply at the fighting duo. Their fights had always amused him, let alone make everyone irritated which entertained him to no bounds.

Once the spirits had calmed down, Sasori found the right question to ask.

"What are you brats doing here anywyay?"

Akira rose an eyebrow as she glanced at the slightly taller red-head, "What are you doing here, Sasori? Last time I checked, you were in the classroom."

"Exactly; last time you checked. That bitch Anko is pretty easy to fool."

Akira was overtaken by surprise when she heard Sasori cuss; it was his first time doing such thing since their first encounter. Deidara seemed to be completely cool with this while Kisame was indifferent. But what else could she expect from a bunch of boys fooling around?

"Let's just tag along and see where the road will take us," suggested Kisame, who had been sitting there the whole time, unable to find something creative to do.

"I agree with him," Gaara suddenly worded and glanced momentarily at Kisame who just flashed his usual sneaky smile.

Without any further ado, the group stuck together and carried on their way around the school. It was a first time for Akira, roaming the hallways like this. For one moment, she felt completely badass but the feeling utterly faded away when she recalled the reason why she was doing this.

Her eyes caught the sight of something unusual up to now, more unusual than anything else she had encountered until then. She dropped dead on her tracks and observed the extreme sight in front of her.

There was a staircase which was leading to the basement of the school but, instead of it being open, there was a wooden construction protecting it with police line tapes being stuck here and there on it. In a first scope, Akira had thought that this was an ancient toilet room but the first stair step which was leading downstairs was visible and was taking down her quick assumptions.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice this earlier," Deidara's voice invaded Akira's personal bubble and managed to make her look at him. He looked with boredom at the construction, "It's been here for years, un!"

Akira took some steps closer to it, wanting to examine it better. The construction seemed to be recent and judging from the stickiness of the police tapes, they were recently added on it too. That must have meant only one thing: something had happened in this school last year which made them keep this room away from everyone.

"What happened which made you built this shelter around the staircase?" she inquired, receiving a groan from Sasori.

"Such a curious guy, really," the red-head spat in annoyance and leaned back on the wall. His expression was clearly showing that he was bothered by being forced to explain but deep in his eyes, a glint of excitement was sparking.

The five of them settled down on the staircase which was leading upstairs, in the seniors' classes. Akira made sure her back was hitting the wall since she didn't want to be near the sealed staircase; it was surely giving her the chills. Once they had all sat down, Sasori began narrating the extraordinary case of the basement staircase.

. . . . . .

It was a couple of years ago, when this school was still non-existent and this place was destined to be for the most wicked minds of society. All the teenage criminal minds were shut in here and were kept away from the outside world where they were considered to be monsters. Ruthless miscreations. And this facility was meant for them.

Konoha's Reformative Academy.

Everything was running smoothly; there were constant fights among the prisoners and there were even deaths- either from natural cause or from an 'unknown' reason. But they all considered it normal, seeing that this was reality for them at this point of their miserable lives.

That was until a new addition arrived in the academy and the rest of the persons began buzzing with curiosity about him. He seemed quiet and he was nothing like them, they couldn't see some kind of devil inside him. He was just a normal kid. Therefore, he was an outcast for them.

The boy was indeed normal. . . not. He was accused for assisting in the great fire of Konoha and since all the evidence was leading to him, he was immediately sent in the reformative academy. Whoever had sent him in this academy was completely right about the boy. Because what he did next reflected the face of evil.

The authorities of the school had realized that since the boy wasn't showing any kind of violent behavior, they were supposed to end his therapy and send him back to where he was sent from. However, the parents of the boy insisted. They made impossible possible and the authorities decided to give this boy a "special testament" which would be decisive for his future in the reformative academy.

Days passed and a big announcement came up. It was called "courage test". At least half of the academy students were escorted in the basement with individual supplies and instructions; they were going to be isolated in there for at least three days. This courage test had some rules: If someone was either injured harshly or killed, the rest of the students were obliged to fight with each other and survive in there for the remaining days. The ones who weren't going to comply to the rules were going to have their stay in the reformative academy extended.

As you can imagine, everyone complied to the rules and stayed silent in the basement. No one wanted to get killed, nor to get their sentences extended. However, not everyone shared the same opinion. Within the second half of the first day, a student was mysteriously killed. Thus, the game began.

. . . . . .

Akira stared with utter horror at the red-headed Akatsuki member. She didn't dare to speak a word, anything she were to say was going to make her situation far more worse. Yet, as if black magic was cast upon her, her mouth opened and spelled something.

"And what happened next?"

Kisame cracked up and accidentally bumped his head on the wall, thing which didn't even faze him. "What do you think? They all died!" he exclaimed as if it was obvious from the very start.

"Lies," Sasori retorted which confused Akira and Gaara even more, both glancing somewhere in between the two keepers of the story. "Almost everyone died."

"What are you five doing out here?!"

The company snapped their gazes on the newcomer which earned a gasp and a nervous twitch. In front of them, on the base of the staircase, was standing no one else than the principal of the school, Tsunade Senju. The irritation was clearly shown on her face, her facial features being scrunched up and her hands balled into two tight fists which were resting on her waist. No one dared to reply to the principal's angry question and all she did was to point at the direction of their classes, trying not to kick their asses.

Without wasting any more time with lame excuses or resistances -which would have surely earned them a detention with Ibiki-, the five students climbed off the stairs and headed back to their classes. Or at least, pretended to.

Once they had made sure the principal had lost them from her sight, they assembled back to a corner and all of them looked at Sasori. Especially for the new students, the suspense to know the end of this story was killing them.

"That boy. . . That boy was the one who killed them all. The silent boy who knew nothing but to clean his glasses and fix his bed before sleeping. The silent boy turned the tables and assassinated all of them," the red-head finished with his narration and shot his eyes to the newbies, desiring to see their perplexed and dumbfounded expressions.

Suddenly, the person they expected the least to react cracked a sarcastic smile, "This isn't right. There is no way this story of yours is true. It's just another legend which was made in order to scare off the freshmen." Gaara crossed his arms and glanced at Sasori with an amused expression crossing his face.

Sasori was ready to retort back to his words but Deidara stepped in and took his words out of his mouth, "But this so-called-legend is true. You can ask any freshman, un."

"I want proof in order to believe this."

"Then," Sasori cut in, "Just sit and listen. Last year, Ibiki-sensei had taken our class for a "courage test". He had told us that since we were to enter senior high school, we were supposed to have some kind of qualification in order to be considered men. Therefore, he opened the basement and let us in."

A sly smirk was formed on Deidara's lips and a chuckle left his mouth as soon as he remembered the continuation of this, "And guess what we found? The bones of the dead persons of the reformative academy! Ha! We were scared shitless back then, weren't we?"

Akira and Gaara watched as the three of them laughed uncontrollably at the remembrance of this unlikely event. The ginger head could feel her eyes widening and reflecting the confusion and disgust she was feeling at the moment. She wanted to say something but she was in a loss for words. The gagging sensation inside of her burned her lungs and her neck, instantly alarming her reflexes for what was going to come. Without being able to hold it back anymore, Akira made a run for it and tried to recall where was the nearest bathroom. Her hand covered her mouth in order to prevent herself from puking right then and there.

In the next minute, Akira had found the bathroom and was leaning in a sink, throwing up her inside-outs. The scene of dead bodies being morphed in skeletons had messed up with her insides and she could swear that this was the worst experience of her life. When she finished spitting her entrails in the sink, she fell down on her knees with her hands still embracing the sink. The icky taste of barf was still in her mouth and tongue, making her want to throw up again.

The door swung open and footsteps were heard coming closer to her fallen body. A set of hands caught her by the armpits and lifted her up after struggling with her motionless figure. Multiple pants left the other person's mouth before they managed to hold her up with her arm around their neck. The supportive system was enough for the person to help them move and for Akira to pull her feet in walking motion for once again.

"You're heavy, un," the person groaned as he struggled to pull her with him.

Akira easily distinguished Deidara's characteristic voice and way of talking and began supporting her body too by walking. Her whole system was still worn out from the whole gagging session but she could still keep up with his pace.

"Why. . ." she started, stopping momentarily to adjust to the horrible taste in her mouth. "Why did all of this happen?"

Deidara adjusted her position with his hand and kept looking forward, his fringe slapping his face every now and then, "Because we're simply not a normal school. And you. . . You just became a part of it."

"Tell me more." Akira couldn't help but greed for more information about this event. It was alarming her senses and adrenaline was rushing in her veins, like some kind of killing intent was waking up inside her.

Silence dominated the place and only the clattering of their shoes against the pavement could be heard. Deidara hesitated whether to reveal more information to the shortie or to conceal it. On the other hand, Akira was wondering whether she was living a dream or not. A nightmare, to be exact.

Finally, Deidara's lips parted and he let the phrase roll off his tongue with ease, like whispering a secret to her.

"The boy's name was Haku."

。。。＊ 。。。＊。。。＊。。。

I updated, oh yeah *dances like a lunatic* I hope you enjoyed this chapter, fellas! It didn't exactly turn out as I wanted but nonetheless, it works. [Also, check the media ;)] I have some important slash silly announcements to tell you so sit back and listen.

- This book reached 1K votes. DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH I WANT TO SCREAM IN JOY, MAKE A WHEEL AND SUFFOCATE YOU ALL IN A HUG?! Thank you ;w;

- My exams are coming up so there will be no updates for the period of 13.5.15 - 15.6.15. I hope you all understand :)

- WARNING: I understand that you think that I make Gaara and Sasuke seem kind of out of character. Well, that's because the Uchiha massacre didn't happen and Gaara was hated by no one, since this is an AU. Get it? I hope we'll avoid any further misunderstandings.

- Q: Can you think of any crack ships with Akira? -

Dedicated to potatertot for being an awesome commenter and reader of this story, giving me inspiration to write the next chapters and all.