I need to inform you about the name system in my story. I will still use the original name for place, like Ame, Iwa, Suna, etc. However, in the story, they aren't exactly Japanese, so lower graders will not call the upperclassmen with senpai, and the teachers with sensei.

The archery club will be a bit different though. I specifically want the club to be Japanese style. It should be kyudo not archery as the members will use hakama and all, but for the sake of the story I will still call it archery club. There, the student will call their "coach" - sensei, outside from that, it will be the same as I stated above. Sorry if it is so confusing.

Chapter 4 – Choosing a club

Today was Wednesday, the day when the basketball club would had their first training session. Deidara could say he was looking forward to the end of the school day. He wanted to show how good he was at the sport, since he took basketball as an extracurricular back in his old school at Iwa and became one of their ace players.

He looked back at the clock on the wall. "Thirty minutes before the bell ring, un," he said to himself. Disappointedly, he averted his eyes back at the history teacher who was excitedly rambling about – of course – history, without noticing that the entire class wasn't even paying attention to him.

As soon as the bell ring, signaling the end of the lesson for the day, Deidara hurriedly packed his belongings and went to the changing room to change with more casual clothes consisted of a T-shirt and sweatpants. He then joined several freshmen sitting at the bleachers in the basketball court.

Some of them started whispering to each other as he sat down, but the blonde just ignored them. He had been used to people's attitude around him in the past two days, but he still didn't know why they did that.

He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. His eyes were watching several upperclassmen having a basketball match on their own. They were surprisingly good.

"Hey, you are Iwa right?" One of freshmen on the bleachers addressed him.

"Hm.." Deidara answered him lazily, eyes still focused on the students playing basketball.

"Why are you here?"

What a stupid question, he thought. "The same reason as you, obviously." And all of them laughed.

"You are kidding me." The same student said mockingly. Deidara eyes twitched. He wanted to snap at the rude teen but the coach chose to come at the moment Deidara opened his mouth.

"Okay children, time to warm up! Do twenty laps with your hands!" The coach with black bowl hair and thick eyebrows shouted energetically to all the students in the court.

"WHAT?!" The upperclassmen that had been playing before stopped and looked at the coach with surprised mixed with shocked expression.

"Mr. Guy, should you coach the soccer team instead of us?" The boy, who Deidara guessed, was the captain approached the man with the basket ball pressed between his arm and his waist.

Mr. Guy grinned broadly, showing his perfect white teeth, clearly didn't aware that his present there was unwanted. "Well, Mr. Asuma is busy so I, the Might Guy, will replace him for the time being!" He made a pose with his right thumb pointed out to himself in an overconfident manner. What a strange coach, Deidara thought.

Ten minutes later, the team captain gave in and let the man did as he pleased, aka made their life a living hell. They forcefully did what the substitute coach said and that exactly where Deidara currently was. Standing on both hands, trying so hard to balance himself, the blonde was in the verge of giving up. They weren't even close to twenty laps, heck, they barely get to three.

His hands were already shaking badly. His T-shirt clung to him like a second skin because of sweat. He predicted it wasn't long until he lost balance and fell to the floor. Thankfully, Mr. Guy took pity at his pupils' condition and blew his whistle, signaling the students to gather around him.

"Okay, children! You still have so much to learn! You need to build on your stamina more!" Mr. Guy pulled one of the students who was the most scrawny as a proof to his statement. The boy was embarrassed to the point his face became as red as a tomato. "But for now, I want to see you in a real match." The man said again, at the same time releasing the poor boy who hurriedly run to the back of the line, as far as possible from the weird coach. "The old member can go seat at the bleachers and watch the newbie play."

Mr. Guy then divided the newcomers into four teams randomly. Deidara was in the first team that had a match. He grinned ear-to-ear. At last, some action he was waiting for.

A whistle. Then the game began.

Fifteen minutes through the game Deidara had already fumed. This was getting nowhere near his expectation. They were in their second quarter of the game and never once the blonde got the ball, what the hell. He felt like an idiot just run here and there, following the opponent who had the ball. Even when he was close to get the ball, his opponent preferred to accidentally throw the ball outside the line or accidentally passed it to other member in Deidara's team which was still an opponent but they passed it anyway. It got worse when they were on their last quarter. One of Deidara's team accidentally threw the ball straight to his face and made him fell back on his ass with a throbbing head.

Mr. Guy approached him, shaking head and a pity expression was clearly shown on his face. Deidara never once felt this embarrassed in his whole life.

The coach suggested him to go to the infirmary and the blonde just nodded. He didn't have a nosebleed or anything, just a little dizzy, but he didn't see the need for him to continue the match. He was clearly had been shunned by the rest of the students here. He wasn't that stupid to not notice the obvious foul acts.

Deidara was gathering his belonging on the bleachers. He could feel pairs of eyes on him, looking down at him. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, tried to block their stare. He quickened his movement and in no time, he was half way to the exit door, never once looking back.

oOo

"So yeah….that's very much the entire story, un." Deidara concluded his story about yesterday event with dramatic sigh. He bit his chocolate bread and chewed absentmindedly. His eyes sight flew away into an imaginary world outside the window that only he could see.

The girl who stood beside the blonde boy scowled. "They are so mean! And to think of it, you didn't even do anything to them!" Ten-ten said angrily. "That won't happen at archery club, I assure you, Dei! You really should join us!" The girl patted Deidara's shoulder kindly to lift up the teen's spirit who smiled a little at the gesture.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it, un."

"It's nothing." Ten-ten grinned and followed Deidara's sight, which was looking at the blue sky.

They were currently on the second floor corridor, more exactly in the sophomore section; the third floor should be the junior and senior section. Deidara had been so out of it today and decided to visit his only friend in the entire school, which happened to be the girl he met at the bus stop.

So much for being popular. He exhaled. At least Ten-ten's attitude toward him was still the same. She was happy when Deidara visited her in her class, even though her friends seemed to oppose their friendship.

Suddenly, a realization hit him and his eyes widened slightly.

"Hei Ten-ten, do you…by any chance, know why they hate me, un?" Deidara now was facing his friend with a very serious face. Ten-ten, who heard the blonde's question, averted her eyes from the sky and looked at her friend, a bit guilty.

"I may have." She admitted. "But I don't believe it." The girl added confidently, looking at the blonde with firm eyes. Deidara looked at the other's brown eyes, searching for any sign of lying, but he only find a genuine honesty.

Deidara grinned widely. "Thank you, un! It means so much to me!" The gloomy mood that since morning haunted the blonde was finally gone. He became the usual Deidara, the upbeat and happy Deidara. The artist contemplated to hug the girl but decided against it.

"So.." Ten-ten started doubtfully.

"I still want to know why they shun me, un."

The girl sighed. "It's because you are from Iwa." Deidara tilted his head, confused. "I still don't get it, un."

"Iwa is an infamous town, don't you know, Dei?" The blonde shook his head. "I know its criminal rate was higher than the other towns and most of its people are rude and an asshole, but aside from that, I think it's not that bad…"

Ten-ten looked at her friend sadly. "I don't- we don't know what really happened inside Iwa, but here, in Ame, they report it like there were the most vicious, brutal, barbaric things that happened in Iwa. Iwa has been told as a rotten town. The people here despise those who come from Iwa. Actually, just a year ago the Ame government wanted to ban all the immigrants from Iwa because of this big incident concerning your kind that happened here."

Deidara was silent all the time the raven haired girl gave her explanation. He really didn't expect it was that complicated. He was born in Iwa and he had also lived there for fifteen years. He really thought Iwa was a nice town beside all its faults, at least nothing too major that would cause the world to go against the town. But again, he didn't know anything about the world.

"It's not fair…to judge one based on the others' fault even though, say, they are from the same wombs. However, that's not how society nowadays works. We are afraid for our life safety, any possible treats from outside to the peaceful life we have, must be eliminate before it is too late. If you ask who is in the wrong….I don't know the answer myself."

The bell signaling the end of lunch break rang through the school, breaking the silent that followed after Ten-ten's last words.

"Do you understand now, Dei?" She asked the boy; concerned as to how he would react to the new information he had received. Deidara just nodded, eyes casted down, looking at the floor.

"After school today, I'll come to get you and we will go to the dojo together, ok?" Ten-ten playfully hit the other's shoulder with her fist then walked away to her class, leaving Deidara to his own.

True to her words, the raven haired girl was waiting outside Deidara's class when the boy finally came out from his classroom.

"Yo!" The girl grinned, giving him a little wave. "Ready for some awesome experiences?" She teased.

Deidara just smiled slightly. He was still thinking about their previous conversation. His mood had been dropped to the lowest level since then, he couldn't even focus with the rest of his lessons of the day. It was because his name people knew he was from Iwa. Why should his ancestors have so much love for their birth land until they must make their family name the same with it?

Deidara really didn't look forward to the archery club visit, to all clubs in this matter.

The two friends walked side by side to the dojo where archery club usually trained. When got closer to the place, they really weren't expected that the dojo would be full of students, most of them were female.

"Uh…" Deidara looked at the crowd in front of him. They both exchanged look before also entering the dojo.

"What is this crowd about?" Ten-ten asked one of her friend, who also an old member of the club.

"This is all the students who want to join us!" Her friend answered, also looked amazed by the amount of students who interested in joining their club.

"Wow. Just wow." Ten-ten shook his head. She grabbed Deidara's wrist and pulled him to the empty lot to sit.

"Never thought the archery club will be this popular, un." Deidara sat down, squeezed between Ten-Ten and another girl with curly brown hair.

"Me too…but maybe it's because Ita-"

"Good afternoon, children." A voice cut through the girl's speech. The owner was a man who wore a hakama like the one Deidara saw at the entrance ceremony. He has a black hair that reached the base of his neck and his left eye covered by bangs.

"My name is Utakata. All of you will call me, Utakata-sensei." The man started. "I see there are a lot of students that interested in archery this year." His eyes swept around the room.

"But sadly, I need to inform you that our quota will be only twenty max excluding students who had already a member." The students started to protest but the man silenced them by lifting his hand. "We will evaluate your performance today and the next assembly and we will decide who will join us. That's all. Thank you."

Deidara was currently standing with other students at the dojo, practicing their stand and learning how to hold a bow with fake arrow. He glanced around irritatingly. The others looked so experienced in archery, whereas he had zero experience in the field. He tried to fix his holding on the bow but it always seemed wrong.

"You do it wrong." Someone said from beside him. Deidara looked at the stranger and huffed. "Then can you please tell me what is wrong and let me know how to do the right thing?" He scoffed.

The other chuckled, amused. "How rude." But he moved to fix Deidara's hands position nonetheless. The boy stood close to Deidara. His left hand touched the blonde's hand that was holding the bow, fixing the position, while the other hand lifting Deidara's elbow. "Straighten up your back." He instructed and Deidara did as he said. "Widen your feet." Again Deidara compiled.

The other released him to his own and took a step back. He observed the blonde's new position then nodded to himself. "Good."

"Thanks." Deidara gave the other a small grin, didn't realize that pairs of eyes watching them with jealousy.

"Now, I want you all to try shooting a target with a real arrow. First seven persons, stand at position." Utakata-sensei's voice rang through the dojo. The students hurriedly lined up against the wall to make a room for the first seven persons that would shoot and sat down.

"Itachi, come forward. I want you to give them an example." Utakata ordered and the boy who had helped Deidara earlier stood with his bow ready and took a position in front of one of the target.

Deidara heard some squeals from the girls.

Itachi gracefully raised his bow and drew the string. His stance and posture were perfect, straight and relax. His eyes focused on his target. Every student in the dojo held their breath. They looked at the figure of the raven like they were hypnotized by his charm, but maybe that was exactly what happened, even Deidara somewhat admire the upperclassman.

Itachi released the arrow and it hit precisely at the middle of the target. Everyone clapped and cheered, including Utakata-sensei. "Perfect as always." The man said. Itachi bowed and returned to his spot.

Now, it was their chance to try. Everyone was doing fine so far, not as good as Itachi of course, but at least they hit their target. Deidara was confident he could also do as good. How hard it was to draw an arrow and shoot a target anyway.

It was that hard.

Deidara groaned when once again his arrow missed hitting the target. It collided with the wall instead and several students muffled their laugh.

Utakata-sensei shook his head. He approached the boy and fixed his position. "Try again." He ordered.

Deidara released his arrow but missed again. He was getting frustrated by now.

"You are too impassioned, like an explosion." Utakata stated. "You need to let your mind calm, relax, like a flow of water."

"Well, I do love explosion." Deidara said matter-of-factly and all the students at the dojo laughed loudly upon hearing his remark, even Utakata-sensei was trying so hard to muffle his laugh. Deidara blushed brightly.

"Why don't you join fire fighter club or bomb maker club or something then?" Someone shouted. "Oh I forget, there are none."And they burst of laughing again.

Deidara had had enough.

"Just you wait, un." He said to the student that had mocked him through gritted teeth. "I will blow you up sky high, un!"

With that, the blonde grabbed his things and ran out from the dojo with face still red from embarrassment and humiliation.

oOo

Deidara walked aimlessly through the school corridor. His footsteps made an echo in the deserted corridor. He passed empty classrooms, which oddly, making him sad looking at how empty and lonely the classes were. Like him. He contemplated to beg the principal to let him go without he must join any club. He hated all the clubs here, or maybe it was just the students.

Suddenly his step stopped in front of a door. He could hear voices from inside it, the light emitted through a gap between the door and its frame. Deidara had this strange urge to open the door and peek inside. His hand was hovering over the handle, but he resisted and pulled his hand back.

"Yo-you want to come in?" Deidara turned around so fast he would get a whiplash.

There behind him stood a timid girl with long black-bluish hair. She was hugging two big paper bags on each arms with difficulty, trying not to drop them on the floor.

"Uh.." Deidara scratched his cheek awkwardly. Had he just been catched snooping around?

"I can open the door for you, un?" He said unsurely, trying to save the day.

"Pl-please." The girl said quickly, adjusting the bags in her hands that had started sliding down. Deidara smiled kindly and took one of the girl's bags then opened the door for them.

"Th-thank you…um…"

"Deidara."

"Thank you Deidara. I-I'm Hinata."

"You are welcome, Miss Hinata, un." Deidara said, bowing like a butler and let her went in first. He laughed a little when the girl blushed red.

They came inside the room and immediately bombarded by questions from a certain blonde girl.

"Where are you Hinata? What took you so long?" The girl placed his hands on her hips, leaning forward so her nose almost touching Hinata's. "We still have deadline to meet! And we need the materials or we can't do anything!"

"So-sorry Ino." Hinata looked like she was in the verge of tears. Deidara pitied her. What a bitch this Ino girl is. Deidara could swear he had met the girl somewhere.

"And who are you?" Ino raised her eyebrows at Deidara.

"I'm Deidara. Um…freshman?" He offered.

Deidara really didn't expect to be glomped by the blonde girl.

"You want to join us?!" Ino squealed near his ear, making him cringed. "You like….the first student ever to come to the art club to join! I started to think Sasori had scared all the student population by his ice king attitude, but I was wrong!" Hinata giggled hearing the other girl's comment.

Wait, art club?

"So...this is art club, un?" Deidara asked, surprised.

Ino released his hug and narrowed her eyes. "Of course! Don't tell me you come in here because you are lost."

That was exactly the case.

"Well…"

"Leave the poor freshman alone, Ino." Another student came in from a sliding door inside the room. The boy skin was pale and he had a short black hair. He was wearing a grey apron which was dirty by paints and holding a brush in his right hand. "Hinata, do you have the things I requested?" The teen addressed the raven haired girl and she nodded, taking out several items from the paper bag.

"Thanks." The pale student received his painting tools from the girl and went back to the room he was previous in.

"Sai, don't forget we will have to clean up in fifteen minutes!" Ino shouted to -Deidara guessed- the pale boy. She then turned her face back at Deidara. The latter gulped. The girl was scary.

"Ok listen here, newbie." She crossed her hand in front of her chest. "Do you want to join or what?" She asked sternly.

"I- I want…"

"Good! Welcome to the art club then!" The girl smacked him on the back, hard, and then glanced around the room, looking for something –or someone. "Where is Sasori? He needs to give the kid a kiss as promised!"

Deidara choked on his own spit and coughed several times as a result.

The poster…right. That's why the blonde girl was familiar. She was there with the redhead student at the wall magazine incident.

"I think Sasori will be back soon. He was either in theatre club or in student council like always." Hinata said. "He needs to lock this room, right?"

Ino tch'ed. "That pain in the ass and four tails-" She grumbled. "Always kidnap our head club to be their personal slave."

Deidara just listened to them quietly before he remembered something. "Is Sasori in the theatre club? He was in their play at the entrance ceremony."

Ino shook her head. "Sasori is our head club; he is in art club. But Temari- that four tails, always tries to make him join her club, saying Sasori in a natural actor or something." She snorted. "As if! The guy is just good for a certain role! Outside that….I don't want to ever imagine it."

"Oh.." Deidara was quiet again.

Didn't know what else to do, the blonde decided to look around the so called art club room.

The room was half size of the usual classroom, at least the current room Deidara was in. There was still a room behind the sliding door where the pale boy before came from. There we a big coffee table at the corner of the room with several chair pads around it. The wall though, it covered by paintings and wooden shelves with so many artistic things for the display, like origami flowers in a vas, small string puppets with a detail costume, a handmade mug, and so much more.

Deidara unconsciously walked to the said shelves and admires the work of art there.

"So Deidara…You are that infamous Deidara Iwa, right?" Ino said, sitting down on one of the pad chairs, followed by Hinata.

Deidara froze. He had already forgotten that he had been shunned from any clubs he joined because of he was from Iwa. Damnit. "Yes. What about that, un?" He said defensively.

"Relax." Ino said, now busy pouring out all the contents of Hinata's paper bags on the coffee table."We don't give a damn. What's wrong with someone that comes from Iwa anyway? Sasori came from that town too."

A little puppet with renaissance clothes that Deidara currently holding was almost dropped and met its destiny with the floor. "What? Sasori is from Iwa too, un?"

"Yup. He stayed in Iwa for one year or so before moving here, but originally from Suna."

"Has he been shunned by people too, un?" Deidara asked. He put back the puppet to the shelf and moved to another one.

"Hah! Quite the contrary actually. The guy is rather popular, even though he has a shitty personality if I must say so myself."

"Who has a shitty personality?" A bored voice said from the door step that neither of them realized it had been opened.

Sasori stepped inside the room and tossed his school bag on a rack near the door. "Are you gossiping about me again, Ino?" The redhead stared at the girl who gulped loudly and offered him a pathetic grin.

"I just want to tell our new member about our beloved head club, is that wrong?" She tried to divert the attention to the newcomer and actually, it worked.

Sasori's eyes shifted to Deidara direction and the grayish-brown orbs widened. "Deidara? What are you doing here?" Sasori's tone was one of that surprised but Deidara was oblivious.

The blonde felt his anger rising. He was disappointed, yes. He just felt accepted and now, this redhead must reject him like any other was. "I see, un. I am not accepted here too." He clutched his hand tightly. "I'm sorry for bothering you then, un."

Deidara walked quickly out of the room, passing the redhead boy without looking at his direction, but a hand grabbed his collar and yanked him back. "What the hell, un!" Deidara shouted when he almost lost his balance and fell on his ass. Almost.

A sighed. "That's not what I mean, brat." Sasori was still holding his collar and they glared at each other - ok, Deidara was, Sasori just stared at the blonde with his half-lidded eyes.

"Who are you calling a brat, un?" Deidara growled.

"Who else?" Sasori released him and joined the two girls around the coffee table. "Sit." He instructed. Deidara scowled, he didn't like the redhead already.

The blonde reluctantly approached the table and sat down as far as possible from Sasori.

"So…" Sasori started when Deidara had already seated. The other three around him were tense in anticipation of what he would say. "Welcome to the art club I guess." He said simple.

They let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding in relieve.

"I hope you can spread your creativity here." Sasori looked at Deidara for a moment before continued. "We accepted any form of art; just say what material you prefer to work with and we will provide it to you. Our supervisor teacher is Mrs. Kurenai. This room is our base that will be opened almost all the time as long as one of the member inside. If you want to go in and the door locked, you can get the key at the receptionist at the building where you had your entrance ceremony. Also, don't forget to take the key back at the receptionist if you have done with the room."

Suddenly Ino burst out laughing, it made the grayish-brown orbs twitched in irritatation. "Sasori, you are too uptight and formal! Like you are the receptionist lady herself or something." Ino said between laughs.

Hinata just chuckled, somewhat agreed at her friend's comment.

Sasori sighed and chose to ignore the girls. "I think that's all that you need to know, Deidara. Any question?" The blonde shook his head.

"So Sasori, about the kiss-" Ino cut in.

"No."

"Aww…" She pouted. "I still think it was a brilliant idea to recruit new members you know? We have been lacking of participants! And you must ruin it with the marker…even the chibi drawing of you too! No one will know you are our head club, otherwise, I bet right now our base would be crowded by your fans."

Sasori shot her a glare. "I have every right to ruin that inappropriate statement."He stood up. "It's time for cleaning up. I will lock the room soon."

All of them unwillingly started to clean up and sometime in the process, Sai joined them. After they finished Sasori locked the door and they walked together to the school gate, five of them. The school had practically empty aside for one or two students that, like them, was walking to the gate. The sky was painted red and orange from the sunset and the wind blew strongly at this time of the day.

They reached the school gate in no time.

"Ok this will be where we will part ways." Ino said. They then said goodbyes to each other and went to their respective home.

That night on his bed, Deidara lay down on his back with hand as a pillow, the other hand absentmindedly molding clay. He was happy he had found the club that wanted to accept him and the members was also fun to be with. They didn't judge or despised him.

Deidara's mind flew to the head of art club, the redhead boy with the name Sasori. Every time he looked at the boy, he had this nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was something familiar about him, but Deidara couldn't grasp what it was.

He shifted slightly from his position.

The blonde put his clay on the bedside table. Tomorrow, he hoped school would be better. Closing his eyes, Deidara went into a deep slumber.