I woke up and stared up at the ceiling, remembering where I was, and what situation I was in. I sat up and looked down at the covers that lay on the bed. They were extremely warm, and I had no trouble getting to sleep last night. The bed was quite comfy itself; it wasn't too firm like most beds were. I got out of bed and stood at the empty closet, remembering that I didn't have any other clothes. I grabbed a hair brush off the end table by the bed and ran it through my hair, tearing out the knots that had formed in my hair when I was sleeping. When I was done I sat on the bed and put my boots on, lacing them tightly. I stood up and heard a knock on the door.
"Come in." I said, putting the brush down on the table. Pein opened the door and walked in.
"We will be leaving to get your belongings soon. Follow me." He said. I followed him, closing the door behind me. We went through the door to the hallway and out into the living room where a few of the people I had met yesterday were. There was Itachi, Sasori, and Hidan in the living room. Without a word they stood up and followed Pein out the door.
"Lead the way." Kisame said, nodding ahead. I nodded and lead them to the little shack in the forest that I had built.
"You don't live in a house?" Itachi asked. I shook my head. I opened the door and grabbed a backpack and started to fill it with clothes, weapons and other things I would need. The others followed me in, looking around.
"So, you made this place?" Sasori asked.
"Yep. I've been living here since I was 12." I replied.
"Really? How old are you now?" Itachi asked.
"16." I replied. "I was the oldest in my family, but my mom was never home, so I was the mom a lot of the time for my younger siblings." I said, slinging the backpack over my shoulder. I grabbed my dark blue sweatshirt that had a red cat face on it and headed for the door.
"Oh. Cool." Sasori said. I started to lead the way out, it hadn't taken very long for me to get all of my things, and after all I didn't have much, just a backpack full of clothes and weapons. We walked back to the hideout after I had gotten all my things. Everybody else was sitting on the couch when we came back. We hadn't been gone very long but almost nobody was up when we left. There was lots of yelling going on. But it was mostly from Hidan to Kakuzu. Something about Kakuzu being a money-loving bastard and Hidan being a religious murderer. I shrugged it off and walked back to my room. I set the bag down and began to unpack my things into a dresser that had been placed into the room near the closet. I started to set the weapons on a cloth on top of the dresser. I wrapped them up and then put them into one of the drawers. I heard a knock on the door and turned around and answered it. Pein was standing there.
"If you're not busy, please follow me." He said. I nodded. I grabbed my dark blue sweatshirt and put it on as I followed him to his office. I zipped it up as I closed the door behind me. He leaned back against a desk and sighed.
"As you may have noticed, Hidan and Kakuzu don't get along too well." He said.
"Yeah, I saw that. That must be a lot to deal with." I replied. He nodded.
"As you see I have lots of paperwork to do also." He said, nodding to a huge stack of papers on the desk.
"And since the others are too incoherent to do paperwork, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me?" He asked.
"I don't mind. What kind of paperwork is it?" I asked.
"You just look through them and pick out the ones that seem worth doing and have importance. And the others just throw away. Someone else will do those, so don't worry about them. After you're done, give them to me and I will put them over there." He explained, pointing to a filing cabinet. I nodded. He handed me a stack of papers and a pen. I sat down in a chair by a table and started leafing through the papers, separating them into piles. Pein sat at the desk, doing the same except he had a bigger stack. There were quite a few that were unimportant that I set on the other side of the table and marked with an X. The ones that were important I kept in a stack on the other edge of the table and didn't mark them. I finished the last one and fixed it into a neater stack. I stood up and walked over to the desk where there was a trash can.
"Done?" He asked, looking up at me.
"Yeah. I just throw these away?" I said, nodding to the stack that wasn't worth looking at.
"Yes." He replied. I tossed them into the basket.
"Where should I put these?" I said, nodding to the other stack of important ones.
"Just set them here." He said, patting a stack of papers on the desk. I nodded and sat them down.
"Emmeline, you know you're free to leave anytime you want, right?" He asked, looking at me.
"Yeah, I know, but I like it here. It's much better than living in that little shack, even if you do have to deal with childish fights all the time. And don't call me Emmeline, just call me Emilie." I replied, smirking.
"Well they definitely do act like children. Sometimes it's something really stupid like, 'Kakuzu called my scythe stupid!' or 'He made fun of me because I'm made of wood!' Sometimes I think I'm running a daycare, not a group of S-ranked criminals that take care of important things." He said, shaking his head. I chuckled, smirking.
"Well, I practically took care of a daycare when I was a kid. I have four younger siblings. Two twin girls who were 3, and 2 younger brothers that were 2 and 4. And my mom worked a lot, so I was the one to cook dinner and clean." I said.
"What about your father?" He asked, setting down his pen.
"Oh, my dad. He left us before I was born." I replied. He nodded.
"Ah. Thank you for helping me, Emilie." He said, looking up at me.
"No problem. I don't have anything else to do, and I doubt the others would help you. They probably aren't even capable to sit still for more than 10 minutes." I replied. He chuckled and nodded. I smiled and chuckled as well.
"Pull up a chair and you can read these with me." He said. I grabbed a chair and dragged it over to where he was. I sat down and he pushed the paper towards me. I quickly read through it.
"A thief that has been stealing riches from people, so it's a bounty." I said.
"Right. So mark this one with a D. We'll do it when we are done with the other more important ones." He replied. I nodded and drew a D on the paper. He passed the next one to me.
"Rogue ninjas attacking villagers in the forest. Another bounty." I said.
"Yep. Another D." He replied. I nodded and wrote a D on that paper.
"I like your hand writing." He said, catching my attention.
"Oh, uh thanks." I replied. There was a knock on the door. He turned around.
"Come in." He called and the door opened. Itachi walked in, carrying more papers. He took a step into the room, but upon seeing me he stopped mid-step.
"Am I interrupting something?" He asked.
"No, of course not. We're just doing paperwork, Itachi." Pein replied and I nodded.
"Ok. Well, I have more paperwork for you." Itachi said, and set it on the desk, adding to the pile we hadn't done yet. Itachi then walked to the door but glanced over his shoulder at us before he shut the door behind him.
"Why is there always so much paperwork?" I asked.
"Because lots of things go wrong, I guess." Pein replied.
"That's true." I said, nodding.
"We're just the ones that have to fix it all." He said, separating the new paperwork.
"Pein? Can I ask you something?" I asked.
"Of course." He replied, setting down the papers and looking at me.
"Why didn't you just leave me there in the forest?" I asked.
"I could sense that you were strong and had been through a lot. It's hard for you to get traumatized more, if at all." He replied. I nodded.
"That's good, I guess. I just hope I'm not a problem. I don't want to cause problems here." I said, looking at the ground.
"You're not causing problems. You're probably the one who is the least likely to cause problems here compared to others." Pein replied.
"You can go. I can get the paperwork from here." He said. "Thank you for the help." He said. I got up and headed to the door. After that I walked back into my room and sat down on the bed. I walked over to the drawer and pulled out the weapons again, to make sure I wasn't missing anything. But one of the kunai slipped out of my hand, slicing my skin and falling to the floor. I gasped and looked at my hand. Blood immediately started to flow out of the cut, and onto my hand. I walked to the bathroom and washed off my hand until the bleeding stopped and then went back into my room. I picked up the kunai from the floor and set it on the dresser and then put the weapons away. I sat down on the bed and looked at my hand. The skin was sliced but it wasn't bleeding anymore. The cut was pretty deep but didn't seriously injure me and wouldn't constrict me. There was a knock on my door.
"Come in." I called. Pein opened the door and walked inside. I still looked at my hand that was cut, making sure it was clean. I didn't notice he was in the room till he sat down next to me on the bed. I turned my hand over and set it in my lap. I looked up at him and smiled.
"Did you need something?" I asked.
"Did you hurt your hand?" He asked, completely ignoring my question.
"Yeah." I replied. He gently took my hand from my lap and turned it over. He traced his finger along the cut and it started to glow green and seal up. I stared at my hand with wide eyes as he traced over the rest of the cut, fixing the rest. The pain in my hand started to slip away as it sealed up. When he was done I stared at my hand and wiggled my fingers. The skin was completely clear. No cut or anything. I felt his hand move to my chin and tilt my head up. I froze. He looked at me for a minute and then removed his hand. I still didn't move. I felt his hand move to my hair, his fingers gently wound through my hair and I looked at my lap. I turned my hand over again. It was still clean and there was no cut.
"Thanks." I whispered.
"For what?" He asked, confused.
"Healing my hand. That probably would've taken weeks to heal." I said. I looked up now, his hand was resting on my shoulder. I hadn't realized that until now, though.
"Was there something you needed?" I asked again.
"Yes. Um, there was. I just can't . . . remember." He said, looking down. "I'll think of it later." He said and stood up. I nodded and he left.
"That was super weird. Why would he do that? He's been acting weird lately, I wonder why." I thought. I guess that should be normal. Konan did die just a little bit ago. Or maybe he just acted like this all the time and I wasn't used to it yet, it could be that. I would have to ask Itachi later, he's been here a long time and should know. Actually, I should go ask him now, before they decide to go to bed. I got up from my bed and headed for the door. I opened the door and entered the dark and empty hallway. I started walking down it, keeping one hand on the wall just in case. I finally made it to the door, I opened it and light poured into the dark room, making a stripe of yellow in the darkness. I walked out of the door, wondering why there wasn't a light in that hallway. I walked to Itachi and Kisame's room. I knocked on the door and Itachi came and answered the door.
"Hi, Emmeline. Do you need something?" Itachi asked.
"I wanted to talk to you about something." I replied.
"Oh, ok. Come on in." Itachi said, leaving the door open for me as he walked back into the room and sat down in a chair by a desk. I closed the door behind me and entered the room. Kisame wasn't in the room now, and I wondered where he was but didn't ask.
"By the way, just call me Emilie. Emmeline is kind of a mouthful." I said, smirking. He nodded.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" He asked.
"Well, I noticed that Pein kind of acts weird around me. Is that normal or is it just me?" I asked.
"What do you mean by 'acting weird'?" Itachi asked.
"Well, I cut my hand earlier today and then Pein came in and healed my hand out of nowhere." I said, looking down and my hand and remembering the green glow that had surrounded my hand when he healed it.
"Hm. That is a little weird. I found it weird when you two were sitting by each other at the desk. The way he was looking at you was kind of, I don't know, different." Itachi said.
"So, what you're telling me is that's not normal?" I asked.
"No, not really." He replied and I nodded.
"Thanks, Itachi. I didn't know if it was normal or not. Obviously it's not." I said, looking down.
"Don't worry about it." Itachi said, standing up and putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure you'll get used to it." He said, smiling. I nodded and headed towards the door. I left and walked back towards the hallway. I entered the hallway, keeping a hand on the wall like I had before. My hand was travelling across the smooth, cold surface of the wall when I bumped into something. I froze and then took a step back. I couldn't have run into anything stationary, I hadn't run into anything when I left. I took another step back, still not knowing what I had bumped into. The thing I had bumped into suddenly reached over and grabbed my shoulders, paralyzing me with fear. I gasped and shut my eyes, I couldn't see anyway.
"Emilie?" I heard someone ask. The voice was very familiar. "Are you ok?" It asked. The grip on my shoulders loosened but didn't let go completely.
"Pein?" I asked, confused. It had to be Pein, no one else knew about this hallway but me and him.
"Come here, I can't see." He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards my room. His hand was extremely warm compared to my coldness. I had always been colder than other people, so whenever other people touched me, they always thought I was sick, or I was cold-blooded or something. Honestly, I had no idea why I was cold all the time, it just happens. We finally reached the door and he opened it, the light surprised my eyes, causing the pupils to shrink and making me cringe and shake my head.
"It is you. Sorry about that, I didn't know it was you." He said.
"It's ok. You just kind of spooked me is all." I replied. "Did you remember what you wanted to tell me?" I asked, changing the subject.
"No, I didn't. I can't remember. My train of thought is completely gone now." He said, shaking his head. I nodded.
"That happens to me sometimes." I said. Remembering a couple of times when I had something really important to tell somebody and then totally forgetting it.
"Anyways, are you settling in ok?" He asked. I nodded. "I hope Hidan isn't being too . . . well, like himself." Pein said, smirking. I chuckled.
"No, it's ok. I can tell he's quite a handful." I replied.
"That's good. Anyways, I better get back to doing paperwork." Pein said, walking towards the door. I nodded and he left. After that I laid down in the bed and fell asleep. But then woke up to yelling around 7 A.M. I got up and changed into a grey pair of skinny jeans and a black T-shirt. I didn't bother to put on shoes, I probably wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. I walked through the hallway, there was some light that streamed through the open windows so I could see now. I opened the door quietly and then walked into the kitchen. Surprisingly, they were all in the kitchen sitting at the table. Hidan was yelling at Kakuzu.
"You money-loving bastard! How dare you call my scythe useless!" Hidan yelled.
"All you do is get blood on the carpet and everywhere else! It was even on the ceiling once! How in the hell does that happen?!" Kakuzu yelled back. Itachi rolled his eyes. Kisame chuckled and then looked over at me.
"This is a great alarm clock, huh?" Kisame asked, smirking. I nodded and sat down at the table as well.
"Do they do this a lot?" I asked. Deidara nodded.
"Yes, they do this quite often. I don't even know why they're partners. They hardly get anything done anyways." Sasori said. It had just gotten quiet when a little orange-faced creature popped up.
"Hello, fellow friends! Tobi and Zetsu and back from our mission! Did you miss us?!" The thing yelled. It was in just a regular black cloak instead of the other ones, and was wearing an orange mask with black swirls leading to one hole, where the person could see out of.
"No, Tobi. Nobody missed you." Itachi said. I smirked.
"Is that a girl?!" The thing asked, looking at me weird. I nodded. "Who is she?! Is she new?! Why didn't anybody tell Tobi?!" The person apparently named Tobi, continued to ask questions very loudly.
"Tobi, this is Emilie. Yes, she is a girl. Calm down." Itachi said, looking at Tobi.
"Emilie, this is Tobi. He always talks in third-person and likes to hug people. Beware." Itachi said to me. I nodded and stood up and started to walk back to my room.
"Tobi is happy to meet you!" Tobi yelled, attaching himself around my waist and not letting go.
"Uh, hi. Please stop hugging me." I said, cringing at the contact.
"Ok!" Tobi said, and ran off in the direction of the living room. Suddenly, a huge Venus fly trap looking thing came through the door. Half of its body was black and the other half was white.
"Who the hell is this?" The black side asked. "Did we get a new teammate?" The white side asked.
"Zetsu, this is Emilie. Yes, she's new." Itachi replied. I nodded and walked back to my room. I sat on the bed, looking out the window that was in the room. There was a knock on the door and I got up to answer it. It was Pein.
"Hi, Emilie. I bet you've already met Tobi and Zetsu." He said. I nodded. "Ok, come with me." Pein said. I was pretty sure we were going to his office, where else would be go? There wasn't really any other place you could go without being bombarded by strange people. As predicted, we entered the office. It was quiet as usual. There were no windows, only a few lamps in the room. That's what we needed in the hallway. There were now four chairs around the small table that had been surrounded by two chairs before. I sat down in one of the chairs around the small coffee table and he sat down in the one across from me.
"I wanted to talk to you about something. It was the thing that I forgot about yesterday." He said. I nodded and pulled my knees up to my chest. I normally sat like this when I was in chairs. "So, you know everyone has a partner, right? Like, Kisame and Itachi for example. They go on missions together, and things like that." He said.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. And since Tobi isn't really part of the Akatsuki, he goes on missions with Zetsu because he doesn't have a partner." I replied, nodding.
"How did you know that Tobi wasn't part of the Akatsuki?" He asked.
"Easy. He doesn't wear the cloak. Everyone else does, except for him." I replied. It was quite obvious that we wasn't part of the Akatsuki. He didn't seem like he went on any important missions.
"I guess that should have been a bit obvious. Tobi doesn't really seem to care, though." He said, smirking. "Anyways, everyone else has a partner, as you know. And there are too many missions that are left undone, due to me not having a partner. I'm sure I could handle them myself, but it would be nice to have a back-up person. So, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind being my partner for the time being?" He asked, looking at me.
"I don't mind. I'm sure going on missions by your self can get a little bit difficult." I replied, nodding. "Not to mention the more difficult ones." I said.
"It can. But it's pretty difficult stuff. Are you sure you don't mind?" Pein asked.
"I'm sure. I'll be fine, don't worry about me. Been through a lot, remember?" I said. He seemed to just then remember how I had gotten here in the first place. I forgot all the time until I actually thought about it a lot.
"Right. I definitely remember." Pein replied, smirking.
"Someone ought to remember that." I said, smirking back.