Tenten wanted to meet for dinner after I finished tutoring, so I took my homework to one of the dining halls to work. It was quiet enough that late in the afternoon and it didn't seem worth the trek to our room just to turn around and come back. I took a seat near one of the huge windows, admiring the view. It reminded me a bit of Hogwarts. There were huge windows on one side, and the other side had the stations where you could get your food. The seating area was carpeted while any other area had pretty, expensive-looking white tile with the occasional accent, which was a metallic cut out of the school's crest set in stone and filled in with pretty glass pieces. The windows were floor-to-ceiling and cranked open so that a breeze could flow through on nice days like today.

A slight breeze blew through, scattering my papers across the table. "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" I scrambled to grab them before they got too far away. A few seemed to grow legs and get away. I almost knocked my chair over trying to get up to run after them. They landed under someone's shoe and I cringed, not wanting them to get wrinkled.

"Lose something?" I made eye contact with Kisame, feeling my face start to go red. His hair was wet from swim practice and he had a towel around his shoulders.

"S-Sorry," I mumbled, feeling a bit ridiculous. He chuckled, handing me the papers.

"No need to be sorry. Where are you sitting? I'll join you." I blinked before pointing to my table with the hand I had my papers in. His huge stride made it so that he easily got to the table before I did. He took a seat across from my original one, pulling a water bottle out of his backpack. The breeze came back, but this time I was prepared to grab my papers before they get away. He chuckled again, a sound that made my face flush. He rubbed one corner of the towel over his hair, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry about all…this." He gestured to his wet hair and the wet spots on his shirt. I tried not to let my gaze linger on his chest, where it clung very attractively. I could feel the blush creeping up my cheeks and down the rest of my face.

"It-it's okay," I said to the table, playing with my pencil and averting my gaze. Trying to get the attention off of me, I asked him how practice was.

"Coach is going to burst an artery if he keeps yelling at us like he does. I've got at least six inches on him so he makes us all sit down before he yells at us." He took a long swing from his water bottle, wiping the stray drips from his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Why do-does he ye-yell at you?" I couldn't imagine any reason to yell at someone as nice as Kisame.

"He says we're all going to get booted off the team if we don't get our GPAs up." He rolled his eyes. "It's the beginning of the fu—freaking year. There's not much we can do right now."

"KISA-KUN!" The squeal caught us both by surprise. A girl came sprinting across the dining hall. Her brown hair was in pageboy hair cut with blue streaks that I suspected were fake because they were longer than her naturally-colored hair. She had blue contacts that were just slightly off center of her iris, showing hazel eyes that I actually thought were very pretty. She also had blue braces and a slight lateral lisp. She flung her arms around him from behind, nuzzling his neck. That must be his girlfriend. I felt embarrassed that I had let my eyes linger.

"Hi, Yami." Kisame said, though his teeth were clenched tight.

"Kisa-kun, I missed you SO much this summer!" She cooed into his ear. He gingerly took unwound her arms from around his neck. "Did you miss me?"

"Sure." He said, shooting me an uncomfortable look. Oh. I thought, the realization hitting me. That must be one of the fans Tenten was telling me about. She seemed to notice me for the first time. She looked like she smelled something bad.

"Kisa-kun, who is this?" She glared at me. Her glare made me feel awful. I shrank into my seat. I didn't want to cause any drama; I just wanted to get my homework done.

"This is my friend, Hinata." He said, reaching across the table to pat my hand comfortingly. Yami almost literally hissed like a snake.

"Friend?!" She spat the word like acid. "Kisa-kun, you've never referred to me as your friend. You don't have any girls that are friends."

"I sure do." He said faux-pleasantly, his hand clenching mine a little uncomfortably. "Konan is a girl and she's my friend. Hinata is a girl and she's my friend, too, right Hinata?" He smiled apologetically. I nodded at my papers. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, we were having a conversation." Yami's entire posture went stiff. She clenched her teeth, her hands balling into fists. Her head tilted and she smiled at us creepily.

"Right. Kisame. Kun. I'm. Sorry. To. Have. Disturbed. You. Two." Each word came out harshly and made me shrink further down into my seat. Kisame was still holding my hand when she left, shooting daggers at me over her shoulder.

"I'm really sorry about her." He let go of my hand and I was surprised that I missed the warmth when it was gone. "She's one of the girls that likes me a lot. It seems like every guy in my friend group has a following as crazy as her."

"T-Tenten, my room-roommate said she had he-heard about that." I fidgeted with my pencil, focusing on that instead of his gaze. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him grimace.

Someone pulled the chair out next to me and sat down, surprising me. "Kisame!" Deidara said grandly. "What are you doing with Hinata?" He slung his arm over the back of my chair.

"We were just hanging out." He took another swig of water, eyes widening in surprise when more people sat down. The only other person I recognized was Hidan.

"Hinata saved us a table!" Deidara gave my shoulder a squeeze and I felt like I could melt into the floor out of embarrassment. The group of people was huge and took up the entire table.

"Glad you're useful for something." Hidan snarked when he saw me staring at him.

"You're one to talk." Deidara said and squeezed my shoulder again. I felt like the entire dining hall was looking at us. I sucked in a deep breath and looked around, my heart sinking into my toes when I saw that a lot of people were looking at us. At least, most of the girls in the dining hall were. It was a combination of glares and longing glances. My phone started ringing. I excused myself from the table to answer it, relieved when I saw that it was Tenten.

"What are you doing sitting with the Akatsuki?!" I scanned the room and saw her sitting close to the window. She waved. I didn't want to be rude and leave the table suddenly so I stayed put.

"I-I was wa-waiting on you and doing ho-homework and Kis-Kisame sat with me and the-then they were a-all there." I glanced back at the table. "Y-You should come sit with us."

"What? No way, I couldn't." She said but she was moving towards me with a big smile on her face. I giggled, hanging up my phone. I took a seat back down at the table and Tenten sat down next to me. The entire table seemed to be caught up in conversation.

"You're an idiot, un." Deidara said animatedly. "Art is fleeting! That's what makes it so beautiful, yeah!" Farther down the table, a slight redhead shook his head, making a sound of disgust.

"Art is eternal, and that's what makes it so beautiful." His voice was soft but I got the idea that when he spoke, people listened. Deidara crossed his arms and blew his hair out of his face with a puff of air.

"Let's ask the girls." He seemed to notice us and grinned. "What do you think? Is art eternal or fleeting?"

"Eternal, of course." Tenten said before I could even think about my answer. "That's why art galleries are so popular. If art is fleeting, you don't get to fully appreciate the beauty of it and see the little details. You can still enjoy fleeting art but I wouldn't call that art at all. The main appeal of art is getting to enjoy it for years to come." Everyone shut up, even Deidara who looked like he was going to retort after she was done but slowly shrank into his chair as she talked. The topic changed, and I pretended not to notice when the redhead came to sit next to our end, more specifically Tenten.