The day after the dodge ball tournament between Tobi and Itachi was pretty normal compared to what happens on the playground. “Is everyone here?” Konan asked, “Itachi?”
“Here”
“Deidara?”
“Right here”
“Sasori?”
“*Snore* Huh? Oh, here”
Konan continued to call names until she got a phone call. “Uh… Okay, alright, I’ll send him down,” Konan said, “Zetsu; it’s time for your first trip of the day to Counselor Minato.”
“Alright,” Zetsu responded.
Little Zetsu got out of his lone desk and exited the room. He knew the way to the kind counselor’s office, he knew it too well. He’d been to the counselor’s office twice every day. He passed principal Pein’s office, with Hidan already inside although it was early in the day, and headed down the long hallway.
Zetsu stopped at a lone door, although it was lone, it didn’t blend into the grey Akatsuki School walls. The bottom of the door had red drawings of flames with the colors evenly blended with a slight mixture of orange. The door had the sign counselor below the window. Zetsu reached for the handle, but hesitated to turn. “Calm down Zetsu,” his white self told him, “You’ve been here for a long amount of time, so relax yourself.”
Zetsu listened to his voice of reason and turned the handle. The door opened to reveal a bright room filled with colors you wouldn’t normally see in an evil lair. “Come on in Zetsu!” the counselor kindly said.
Zetsu entered to the sight of kind counselor Minato. “Okay, Zetsu, tell me how your day is so far,” the spiky-haired blonde said as Zetsu took the seat on the other side of the table.
“Not much has been going on… Konan did our name roll call and we started to do a math test.”
“How’s that plant you were raising? Is it still growing well?”
“Yeah, the bamboo plant is really growing well… I only wish I could show you…”
Zetsu and Minato talked as if they were old friends. They talked about life, how their friends were doing, and some activities they enjoyed until it was time for Zetsu to go back to class. “Alright Zetsu, it’s time to go back to class. I hope you enjoy yourself, and I’ll see you at the end of the day,” Minato explained.
Zetsu nodded and got up from his chair to leave. “Wait,” Minato said before Zetsu opened the door, “Here, have some candy. I’m sure Ms. Konan won’t mind.”
Zetsu grabbed the candy and thanked the counselor saying he’d be back at the end of the day. Zetsu left the room, closing the door gently, and popped the candy the counselor gave him. He smiled at Minato’s kindness and felt warmest whenever he was in the counselor’s office. Zetsu then hurried to his class, opened the door, and sat at his lone seat. Konan noticed the candy inside Zetsu’s mouth, but said nothing as the seven year old enjoyed it.
Konan then blew the second whistle, signaling the time to throw. Tobi handed one of the two dodge balls to Deidara. Zetsu stayed in the back with Sasori watching in wonder if they were going to win with this new team player. Sasori sat on the ground working with his new puppet creation wondering where he should put the defense mechanisms and poisons.
Deidara crafted a clay owl and brought it to life in hopes of getting more of a better attack range. As he was about to hand the dodge ball to the clay owl, he heard Hidan taunting him from the other side. “Hey, Deidara!” Hidan taunted, “The only reason you’re handing that ball to that owl of yours is because you throw like a girl!”
Deidara was furious at Hidan. He wanted to use his jutsu to make him explode right there and now, but he knew for sure he’d be banished to the principal’s office, so he calmed down…... And threw the dodge ball at Hidan’s face!
The dodge ball slammed against Hidan so hard that it made him fall onto the gym floor. Kakuzu was stunned. Deidara had never done that before! Even Itachi and Kisame were shocked. “Oh My God! THAT F**KING HURTS!” Hidan screamed.
All eyes fell on Deidara who had anger filled in his eyes instead of kindness towards the opposing team.
Hidan sat on the sidelines, cursing that he was the first one out. Itachi became worried about Deidara’s anger and consulted his last two members of the dodge ball team. “I’ve never seen Deidara get so angry like that,” Kisame said shocked.
“I know, he is now actually a threat to us other than Tobi,” Itachi explained.
“So, what’s the plan?” Kakuzu said as he stole Kisame’s lunch money.
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it,” Itachi said calmly.
Itachi explained the plan to both and they agreed to it. Itachi’s team had never lost a dodge ball match and they had no intention to lose now. Kakuzu grabbed the ball that hit Hidan in the face and threw it in the air. “Kisame, now!” Kakuzu signaled.
Kisame grabbed his sword and took a swing at the dodge ball as if it were a baseball and hit it over to the opposing side at Sasori. However, the plan didn’t work so well because it hit Sasori’s finished puppet, now breaking it on contact.
Sasori was quiet for a few minutes, but then his face grew red with anger and he stood up and said, “WHO THREW THAT?!”
Kisame and Itachi stared at him with blank faces and then pointed at Kakuzu and said, “He threw it.”
Sasori grabbed the dodge ball that was just thrown and threw it directly at Kakuzu. Kakuzu desperately hit the floor, groaned, and curled himself into a ball after being hit in a place boys would not like getting hit with something. Kakuzu had to be dragged out of the field by Konan and he lay next to the bloody-nosed Hidan.
“Okay, that plan didn’t work,” Itachi said, “So, you have any ideas Kisa-“
Suddenly Tobi hit Kisame in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. “me,” Itachi finished.
Kisame steadily walked over to where his other teammates were sitting/laying and sat down clenching his stomach. “Okay, it’s just me then,” Itachi said to himself, “Both dodge balls are over here, so I just need to get the others out. I have no choice…”
Itachi released the mangekyo and used it on Tobi’s team. Deidara and Tobi snapped out of the genjutsu though. Itachi jumped up and threw both dodge balls. One hit Zetsu and the other hit Sasori. “Bulls eye!” Itachi said, “Got them, two more to go!”
Sasori and Zetsu sat on the sidelines as the only ones that were not injured and cheered for Tobi and Deidara to defeat Itachi. Deidara grabbed a dodge ball and chucked it at Itachi. Itachi was too quick though and caught it. “Sorry Tobi,” Deidara said as he sat on the sidelines.
“Itachi you may bring a player back to your team,” Konan said.
“No, I’m doing this by myself… Especially since they would be of no use to me,” Itachi said closing his eyes.
Itachi grabbed the dodge ball tightly in his hands as he and Tobi both approached the center of the gym. They stared intensely into each other’s eyes and threw the dodge ball.
Both Itachi and Tobi were hit, but the force of the dodge balls wasn’t great, so it caused no damage or injury to either one. “Game over, for the first time in Akatsuki School history, there has been a tie in dodge ball!” Konan announced.
All of Tobi’s team ran over to congratulate and thank Tobi for his work. Tobi was surrounded by his team, but he looked at Itachi with question to why he didn’t dodge or catch the ball he threw. Itachi looked away from Tobi’s stare and walked over to the gym’s entrance waiting for the remaining, non-injured classmates, to join him.
Itachi then glanced back at Tobi and his team. “For now, we have tied, but I will not lose to you new kid,” Itachi said to himself as Konan, Tobi, and the others came to the entrance to leave as well.
