The Recruitment

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HAIKYUU ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO HARUICHI FURUDATE, I ONLY OWN MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.

A/N:

Special thanks to Maehara Ryouko, Plexi Pink, and Yunrii for favouriting and following this story!

Also to everyone mentioned last chapter as well who continue to read the new chapters and review them, your support means alot and its the main reason why this chapter is out so early! I felt that the last one was indeed too short for the amount of time it took me to dish out and so here is the compensation for that. Since school has started for me T.T, I will be updating this story once a week on Fridays (please don't quote me on this as the time frame might get delayed during midterm season and such)! I hope everyone continues to read and find this enjoyable until then because I had a really fun time writing it.

Also I'm going to point out that although I tired to keep everyone in character some of you may find Konoha to be out of character (really out of character). I wanted to have a guy from Fukurodani to be into boy love (BL), and because Konoha looks very unlikely to be a fan of it, I decided to pick him...haha enjoy! Its only for humor and wont be a focal point of the series or anything like that.

Akaashi was seething. He was composed 99% of the time but in this instance, he was furious. The girl had trampled on his pride twice. And for the first time in his life he had genuinely been at a loss for words, he had choked. But, the situation was what it was now; the girl had gotten the tape and, he had told her that she could keep it; because he was a man of his words he couldn't take it back now.

When Akaashi got back to Furokodani Academy, it was late, but thankfully the school guard had not closed the gate yet. He tiredly walked towards the gym that was used for their practice, knowing full well that his teammates would probably still be there practising as the training camp was coming up and they did not want to be the school with the most amount of penalties at the camp. In the past, they've always been on top and they were determined as ever to maintain that spot. He spotted his capricious owl captain, and called out,

"Oh, Bokuto-san!" Bokuto turned his head, and upon seeing Akaashi, immediately looked the other way.

?

"Um, Bokuto-san? Did you catch the other two girls?" With his back towards him, Bokuto replied awkwardly,

"Uhh, n-no success here, hmm what about you..? Did you catch that other girl?"

Akaashi knew Bokuto was acting strangely, but he was too tired and annoyed to question his erratic captain, so he continued to talk to his back.

"No, but I got chocolate milk," He placed the white grocery bag near Bokuto, hands a tad bit sore from carrying it such a long distance.

"CHOCOLATE MILK?" Bokuto exclaimed, turning around-but still avoiding directly looking at Akaashi- Bokuto reached down and got the milk out of the bag. He greedily ripped open the carton and began to drink from it.

"Ah, that hit the spot!" Bokuto said cheerfully, after devouring the milk. Only Bokuto could finish a litre of chocolate milk in a matter of milliseconds.

"Thanks Akaa-" Bokuto began thanking Akaashi, but once he made eye contact with the setter he paled and looked the other way. He cleared his voice, and said lowly,

"I really appreciate this, thank you Akaashi. I'm sorry but I can't look at you right now, or Kuro or Kenma."

"I understand why you can't bear to look at Kuro right now, because he sent those girls after us, but what did Kozume-san or I do?" Akaashi asked, curiosity momentarily replacing his exhaustion.

"Uhh, it's not what you did but what you said- I mean what you wrote, well not what you wrote but what was written about you, about us, not like all of us but about Kuro and Kenma, and you and I," Bokuto explained.

"I don't understand, at all." Akaashi stated bluntly. Curiosity gone, he had no energy to digest whatever Bokuto said, he added,

"I'm going to retrieve my bag now, and then head home- it's been a very long day. I'll explain what happened to coach tomorrow morning, I'll see you tomorrow, Bokuto-san."

"The pink notebook Akaashi, the pink notebook!" Bokuto tried to explain further, but Akaashi ignored him and started to walk away, increasing the distance between him and the captain—after what he had dealt with today, entertaining Bokuto was nowhere on the list.

Walking towards where his homeroom class was located, he spotted Konoha sitting upright on a brown branch, hands glue to a pink notebook, eyes intensely glazing over the creamy pages. Akaashi hated being interrupted when he was reading, or concentrating on something, and seeing the green haired spiker so intently reading said notebook, Akaashi continued walking.

Wait

Akaashi abruptly stopped, and turned around, and looked at the notebook Konoha was reading. It was pink, was this the notebook Bokuto was so passionately talking about seconds earlier? If it had enough questionable material to diminish his normally, loud captains self-confidence then why did Konoha seem so at peace reading it.. in fact, he was flipping through the pages happily, quickly.

Konoha didn't seem to notice Akaashi standing a few meters from him as he continued on reading the book, reading the numerous number of stories pairing different Nekoma and other pop groups members alike, he seemed to find these kinds of stories quite…enjoyable.

Finally noticing Akaashi, Konoha jumped up,

"Uh Hey, Akaashi, I see you're back?! Where did you go?"

"It's…kinda a long story…" Akaashi said distractedly, eyeing the pink notebook.

"Oh, I see…well…it is getting late-picking up his bag- I guess I'll head home now too!" Konoha replied. He tried to nonchalantly put the pink book in his bag, but was suddenly interrupted by Bokuto,

"AKAASHI! The pink notebook- KONOHA why do you still have it? Are you blushing!?" Bokuto yelled, still avoiding eye contact with Akaashi. Akaashi sighed, understanding that he needed to deal with this whole pink notebook ordeal now, as when Bokuto got fixated on something he would soon forget everything else, and that was not what they needed right now. Not with the training camp coming up in which they could actually polish the ace's attacks, if Bokuto was to be this distracted then the whole camp would prove to be ineffective. Akaashi always thought ahead and decided to resolve said notebook issue now. Gently rubbing his temples, he looked at Konoha—if Bokuto didn't want to look at him right now, he would acquiesce—and questioned,

"Konoha-san, care to explain what's in this notebook?"

"Ohhh, i-its just some stories, haha, nothing special. I- uhh noticed that it belonged to a girl with the last name Yaku, and the print stamp on this book says Nekoma Highschool, so I-I figured…it belonged to someone related to Yaku-san the super libero from Neko's team…I wasn't planning on keeping it or anything! I was just going to give it to him?" Konoha attempted to give a plausible explanation. Akaashi didn't buy it, not only was Konoha's statement wonky, but Bokuto was whipping his head from the book to Akaashi then paling, and then repeating the same actions.

"You said it belonged to some girl with the last name Yaku…you are aware that having the same last name as someone doesn't make them your relative…right Konoha-san? Also, if it's just stories, why is Bokuto-san acting…so strangely- well more strangely than usual?"

"AHAHahhah I know that! I meant...Yaku Akane is friends with...knows...erm is related too... Yaku-san from Nekoma's volley team! hahah..." Konoha tried to explain himself desperately.

"I'm NOT a male Fujoshi!(a Japanese term that refers to female fans of manga, anime's, and novels that feature romantic relationships between men)" He added.

"What?" Akaashi said, very confused, supporting almost a dumbfounded look.

"WHAT? You know that brown hair freak Konoha? Can you ask her why she wrote such intense things about Kenma and Kuro, and Akaashi and I-" Bokuto began to question, but for the umpteenth time, he made eye contact with Akaashi, froze, and then turned away.

"I-I-I don't know her…I mean yes, I know her, yes, yes I'll ask her your question,

putting the pink notebook securely in his bag,

I'll go do that now…and NOT read the rest of this book." Konoha lied, eagerly getting up, and quickly walking away from them.

Akaashi was flabbergasted. He had a pretty good idea of what was inside the book as Konoha mentioned Fujoshi, and Bokuto mentioned Kenma and Kuro as a pair, and himself and Akaashi as a pair.

"Bokuto-san, it's just a story. Don't let it get to your head." Akaashi told his senpai sternly.

"Also, can you text Kuro-san and ask him why on Earth he sent those demon girls after us, especially the one with the ebony hair?" He added.

Bokuto childishly shook his head, and muttered to the floor,

"I can't right now Akaashi…sunflower hair clips Akaashi…"

Bokuto reached into his bag, and pulled out his phone. He handed it to Akaashi, and instructed him,

"You can text him for me…"

Akaashi took another long, sigh, and executed the command quickly. Scrolling through Bokuto's contact list, he found Kuro and double clicked his name and began to type,

Hello, Kuro-san

But stopped, as he realised how uncharacteristic and civilised that was of Bokuto. He erased the few words, and then typed,

HEY, HEY HEY! MISS ME? What was up with those three girls you sent to our school? They were WEIRD, and one of them faked to be my fan-WHY DO YOU KEEP RAISING ME UP TO BE LET DOWN?-okay anyways, who were those ladies?

Satisfied with his message, Akaashi clicked sent. He was about to hand Bokuto his phone back, when it lit up, notifying him that Bokuto received a message. That was quick, Akaashi thought.

Shut up you stupid owl, one hey is enough! AND you have…to be kidding me…I told this weird girl that she had to record your practice if she wanted to be our manager…I DIDN"T THINK SHE'D ACTAULLY DO IT…Ahh I'm so sorry man.

Before Akaashi could reply, Kuro quickly followed with up another message,

I'm really sorry man, I didn't think she would actually do it…I'm assuming the other two girls were her friends, one of them is Yaku's younger sister, don't worry I'll let Yaku know about her whereabouts today...I'll take full responsibility of what they did…

Akaashi knew Kuro wasn't lying, and since, the only damage done was him dealing with a crying girl, and 698 yen worth of chocolate milk, he typed, gritting his teeth,

IT'S OKAY Kuro-kun! No damage done, but please, never, ever make a joke like that again-

"Akaashi, are you texting Kuro-san?" Konoha said,

Akaashi jumped slightly,

"I thought you left Konoha-san,"

"Yeah, I was but when I looked back I saw you with Bokuto's phone-

Konoha looked over at Bokuto, who at this moment was now KO'd on the bench muttering, 'No Kuro…don't !)) #$$$( (Kenma...'

-and I was wondering if you could ask Kuro how he feels about Kenma,"

"No," Akaashi said bluntly, but when seeing the hurt expression on Konoha's face he added dryly,

"Why don't you ask him in a weeks time yourself at the training camp? By the way how do you know Yaku-san's little sister?"

"So she's his sister…I mean OFCOURSE she's his sister, and I met her through—UH gotta blast!" Konoha yelped, running away at full speed.

Akaashi stared at his receding figure for a few moments, and then went back to typing,

Like never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER make that joke again! Anyways, I'll beat you at every game this coming week! HOHOHO cause I'm THE BEST!

Morisuke Yaku walked out of his bathroom, towel tied around his slim frame, brown locks dripping with water. He put on a clean shirt, and a pyjama bottom, and then towel dried his hair.

"Oi, Akane you can have a bath now!" He said to his younger sister who was at the current moment frantically running around their house, turning over every lamp, pillow, cushion-anything that could be moved, making their house appear as if a tornado went through it.

"…Uh Akane…what are you doing?"

"ONI-SANN," Akane wailed, tears collecting in her tear ducts, throat parch, making her voice screechy.

"MY NOTEBOOK, MY PINK NOTEBOOK IS GONE," she cried.

"Your…notebook? Oh, you mean the one you always carry around with you? Did you check your school bag? Don't you always leave it in there?" He asked.

"OFCOURSE I checked there oni-san,

She stopped to wipe some tears,

-BUT IT'S Not there, Oh MY GOSH, did I drop it at Fu-Fuka-chan's house" Akane said, almost giving away the adventure her friends and her had taken earlier.

"Whose Fuka-chan?" Morisuke asked, he had never heard of that friend before.

"Um, transfer student? I, um, am going to check my bag again, gotta blast!" Akane yelled, running like a bullet train to her room, and hastily closing the door.

Ding

Morisuke's phone went off alerting him that he had received a message from Kuro, averting his attention away from his petite sister he read the text.

Yo, apparently Hachiouji…went ahead with what I joked about…and took Karui-san, and Akane-chan with her…I'm texting Bokuto right now, trying to do damage control…still can't believe they went through with it...Dear Lord...

"AKANE!" Morisuke yelled.

Rena, giddily placed the tape beside her pillow, this beautiful video will be the match that will light the romance between her lovely Kuro-san and her. She never knew this level of happiness was possible, she was so, so happy. She had thanked Nana a million times when she dropped by earlier to give her said tape, and then sent another billion thank you messages to the girl, who now thinking about it looked quite shaken up.

Oh she loved her best friend. But Rena also felt guilty, as right now, when she was on cloud nine, her other best friend, Akane was not. She had lost her precious pink notebook, and top of that, had gotten yelled at by her brother-or so she had said, whining on the phone to Rena, earlier that night.

But Rena knew when Kuro and her would begin dating, he would single handily go to Fukurodani, like the strong dark knight he was, and demand for the pink notebook. He would not stop until he had shut the owl up, and received the pink treasure! Oh her Kuro, was handsome, and so, so strong, how she loved him. He would also, most definitely, tell everyone at Fukurodani about her beauty, and make them all jealous!

Rena was quite delusional.

Oh her handsome, dark knight, Kuro Tetsuro—she should really call him Tetsuro now, because they were going to be an item soon, right?— would make things right! Rena rolled around her bed, getting all giddy. Tetsuro, Tetsuro, Tetsuro-kwuuuun she thought happily.

"My Tetsu-kun will send the vile creature who has my fair maiden's notebook to hell! The stupid creature will rue the day he was born, muHAHAhahahhaha." Rena announced to her ceiling.

"RENA GO TO SLEEP YOU'RE BEING TOO LOUD!," her mother yelled from the living room.

"Haiii!" Rena replied.

In two separate households, two young men, sneezed constantly. And felt very, very cold. One of the young men, Konoha, was hidden under the comfort of his covers, flashlight in one hand, and pink notebook in the other, giddily finishing the short stories written by the prodigy Yaku Akane. The other young man, Kuro, had just finished his nightly showering and was getting ready for bed, both thought simultaneously,

I'm getting a cold.

The next morning Nana trudged to school groggily, she had been up the entire night before thinking about the stunt she pulled all the while trying to mentally prepare herself for any subsequent reprimand to come; what her and her friends did yesterday was in-fact illegal, and if her school was to get wind of it her perfect track record would be down the drain.

Even though the setter guy had said it was okay to record them, she had no tangible proof of such an agreement—depending on how angry he was about the whole situation he could get her in some serious trouble. She had strong confidence in her ability to read people, assess their true intentions and then proceed accordingly and so she should feel at ease as her gut instinct about Akaashi was that he was someone who she could trust—true to his word. But, there was a slight sliver of a chance that maybe, just maybe she had read him wrong. Nothing was making sense to the raven-haired femme, her normal rational, calculative train of thought was overwhelmed by the fear and guilt she was feeling.

Nana was terrified, she was for the most part, a serious girl who focused primarily on school—in her free time she tended to the school fishes in the biology lab, or hung out with Akane and Rena. Her friends were both characters that differed from her significantly, she would even go as far as to say that they were in different worlds. But, at the same time, they understood each other, made up for the short comings of one another and together the 3 of them were whole. That's how Nana normally always saw their friendship, they all existed symbiotically—wait they're not specimens but she couldn't help her abstract way of thinking.

"ARGHHHH" Nana shouted right before she entered the gates of Nekoma, the odd noise elicited a few looks from other students walking in but Nana just brought both hands to her cheeks, and slapped her face on either side quite harshly to keep her inner turmoil at bay.

It was a school day now, school. She had things to focus on school, instead of reliving the events of yesterday; if Akaashi went to the teachers at his school with this, then she would be in deep trouble. But she could not afford to be distracted by that right now, it is what it is and she would deal with that when it happened.

Nana walked into the school and promptly walked up to her shoe locker, she opened her cubby, which was the top one, grateful that the shoe locker was positioned at just the right height for her 165 cm frame. She put her outdoor shoes in and then pulled her indoor ones over her heels. Straightening up she quickly brought out her small compact from her bag and checked to see how bad her eye bags were today.

Yikes, they were pretty damn prominent. She had forgotten to apply concealer this morning—Nana was way too out of it to correct her discoloured skin. Even eating breakfast this morning for her was done in slow motion so she sighed as she closed her compact shut. She'd have to find either Akane or Rena at lunch to have them fix her face, it was quite a mess.

"Oiiiiii! Naaaaaana-chan, why didn't you return any of my calls or messages yesterday?" Akane called out,

"Yeah Nana, you totally went MIA after you dropped by! We were worried about you, you know?" Rena added.

Nana turned around to acknowledge her two bestfriends who, although were grinning seemed to look slightly off their game too.

Ah, so their just as affected by all of this too huh..

After dropping the tape off at Rena's house the night before, she hadn't spoken to either Akane or Rena and instead opted to ignore their messages.

She was just too tired, too embarrassed, and way too guilty.

"Sorry Akane-chan, Rena-chan! I was just so tired after yesterday's adventure I fell asleep hahaha..." Nana lied, while trying to force a smile.

"But, you don't seem to look so good. Just look at your bags, yikes can we go do something about that now?" Akane piped up, her voice clear and strong as ever. Nana always thought Akane's voice made up for her lack of height, as she was very small, standing around 155 cm or so.

"No, not now. Homeroom should start in the next 10 mins and I need to talk to Sensei right now about the after class duties for the rest of the week."

"Nana-chan you're so serious sometimes! You can always ask him that later ya know? Lets go to the washroom now! AND then we can go see my lovely Testu-kun~"

Rena said while popping a bubble she blew out, it irked her that her friend seemed so out of it, she wanted to do what she could to help assuage the damage her friend suffered because well, it was her fault they had to be in such a big mess in the first place.

"Testu-kun? Why are you-" Nana began to say.

But before she could finish questioning her friend,

Rooster-head-Kuroo-san, interrupted,

"OI HACHIOUJI, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO YESTERDAY? IT WAS A JOKE. A JOKE. WHY DID YOU ACTUALLY FOLLOW THROUGH WITH IT!"

Rena straightened up and looked towards her Kuro and spoke up timidly, now hyperaware of all the stares and looks they were getting in the locker area. Kuro was a pretty well-known third year and to have him talk, well border line yell at a second year in such a stern way caused a few heads to watch the exchange.

"Testu-kun,

Fishing out the tape from her tote bag,

Here you go!" Rena exclaimed.

"I DON'T WANT THAT! Do YOU have any common sense? I WAS JOKING! Also, please don't call me that!"

"I'm sorry, Kuro-kun," Rena said, sniffing, frustrated tears running down her cheeks.

Sighing he looked around warily realizing his initial outburst got quite a few people to watch them curiously, scratching the back of his head awkwardly and looking away he continued his sentence

"I'm flattered you went all the way to Fukurodani but.. uh anyone would else have the sense to not blindly follow what another person says and—"

"Hey, what do you mean 'blindly' follow what another person says?"

Heads whipped as they saw Nana step up and inbetween the two teens.

Kuro had never really paid much attention to Nana but he though for the most part she was a quiet, good girl. Exact opposite of Rena so the way she addressed him, and by the low tone of her voice he could tell she was angry.

"I mean exactly what I said. What Hachiouji did could have really gotten Nekoma into some serious trouble regarding practice matches especially with the training camp coming up..."

Kuro felt seriously awkward. This girl was glaring at him, and he didn't do anything wrong, but he suddenly felt like the crook of this situation when all he had meant to do was simply lecture the wild girl to never do something like that again.

"Rena is a good girl who takes things at face value, if you told her to do something, even if it was a joke, she takes it seriously. It shows how much she values your words, so the one at fault right now is YOU. You should have been more careful of what you said instead of sending her on a wild goose chase, why couldn't you understand where she was coming from? Understand her feelings? What right do you have, to be mad at her right now?!"

Nana was breathing hard and still glaring daggers at Kuro, who seemed so shocked. He was rooted in one spot just staring with hazy eyes over the girl.

I'm the one whose being insensitive here? It's my fault now.. wait what is going on why does this second year look like she's about to literally rip my face off

Kuro was stunned, he had been bitten when all he had meant to make, was a simple joke. On one side Bokuto seemed displeased at him-not that he would ever admit, but he did care about Bokuto- and now, Nana was all but yelling at him infront of everyone.

Nana now was so upset and angry, she couldn't think straight. She had so much pent up frustration and anger from yesterday's events and no real outlet. But here was one, here was Kuro the one who had hurt her friends and tarnished her reputation. She wasn't going to let this off easily.

About to start yet another onslaught of accusations towards the now dumbfounded rooster head she felt a pressure on her wrist and as she looked up she was saw Rena's, crying face.

"That's.. enough Nana-chan. Don't say anything more to Kuro-kun, he's not the one whose wrong here... please stop. It's my fault, Kuro-kun is upset that I got caught! I need to record them again and not get caught!" Rena interceded, fire in her eyes, cheeks soaked with tears, and fist's clenched in determination.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Kuro and Nana screamed, simultaneously.

"No, please don't, no more Hachiouji! Fine, you win, you can be the manager- you all can be managers, just please no more!" Kuro pleaded, very desperate to stop the 175 cm beast, and her two smaller friends.

The bell sounded, signaling the beginning of homeroom and the crowd that gathered dispersed quickly so as not to be scolded by the teachers on account of their tardiness.

"YAAAAAY, MY TESTU-CHAN, you are the best !~" Rena yelled, encompassed in joy.

"NOOOOOOOO, I don't want too," Nana replied.

"PINK NOTEBOOK!" Akane added, her resolution from the night before was to join the team under the disguise as the manager, and then when they had a practice match at Fukurodani (which she assumed they would have, because the teams seemed close), she would turn into Sherlock Holmes and find her book, and then quit being the manager.

"We would all love to join, Kuro-kun,

Grabbing Nana's, and Rena's hands,

Well, we best be going, see you after school!" Akane added.

Akane dragged both of her friends towards their homerooms, she let go of Nana's hand infront of her homeroom, and continued holding Rena's hand, planning to let go of it when they reached their respective homeroom. Nana was too shocked from Akane's confirmation.

There was no way she would join the team as manager. Or so Nana thought.

"Team, I would like you all to welcome our new managers! Hachiouji-san, Kairu-san, and Yaku-san!" Nekomata-sensei said.

"WHAT?" Yaku Morisuke screamed.

"L-l-l-lovely ladiesssss~" Yammato Takatora, exclaimed, dancing around the room. Now I won't be losing to Tanaka anymore! Though Kiyoko-san is still the fairest in the land.

Kenma remained indifferent, giving them a quick nod.

"OUU, welcome!" Lev, Inuoka and Yuki stated happily.

Kuro tried to put on a brave face, but he was so, so scared of Rena.

There's no way this could get any worse Nana cried to herself.

"You girls joined at a perfect time! We are going to have our training camp in a week with the Fukurodani group!" Nekomata-sensei added.

Spoke to soon Nana thought.

"...And so, that's why, Bokuto-san and I missed practice and why Konoha-san has been glued to that pink notebook-it belongs to one of the girls," Akaashi told their coach, Takeyuki Yamiji.

"Haha, is that so..." Yamiji-sensei said, pushing his glasses up by his index finger.

"Wellll, Nekomata-sensei definitely didn't have anything to do with this, and Kuro doesn't seem like the type to normally cause trouble, plus you did give that girl your word that she could keep the tape-you might have turned a little soft Akaashi. Anyhow, we'll just forget about this incident. Now get to practice!" Yamiji-sesnsei stated.

"Hai!" Akaashi bowed, a little piqued at the soft comment he let out an irate sigh and walked to the side of the gym.

Changing into his gym shoes, he thought,

From this day on, I won't ever have to talk about that conniving girl-let alone see her.

"Oi, Akaashi," Yamiji-sensei called out,

"Why is Bokuto keeping a distance from you? Did you to have a fight?"

Geh.

A/N CONT'

The way this left off you all know we'll be having the fateful next meeting in the next chapter. I hope you're all looking forward to it!

Lucy Jacob: Your review made me so happy again ermahGOSH! Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm glad that although the chapter was kinda short, you still enjoyed it enough to fav it ^_^ And your review pushed me to update quickly! The pink notebook is actually quite important~ Thanks for also consistently reviewing, it motivated me alot!

LilweenGalatrass: Yayyy you found it funny! Ugh I know we have alot of those days but it makes me feel seriously good to be able to help alleviate that feeling even if its a slight bit!

Rheascarlet: haha I dont want you to be too distracted by this for your exams but wow im glad you liked it that much! I hope you'll have enough time to read this chapter as well, good luck on all of your tests & you're very welcome for brightening up your day!