Hi, everybody. Thanks for the reviews on my first chapter! Here is the second one. Keep the lovely reviews coming! ~

PART TWO [ #2: Because even the Evil can love. ]

"Ooh, Senpai! Lookie, look! You have a face!" a chirpy voice sounded from behind.

Upon hearing that, Deidara's nostrils flared and his eyes widened in disbelief. What was it that he had just heard? Was he THAT stupid? Didn't he realise that all along? Deidara couldn't believe the irony of it.

"Of course I have a face you dumbwit! What rubbish is that, un!" he almost screamed back at the orange-swirly faced boy. "Tobi, are you mentally disabled? You need help, un!"

Tobi stood in his tracks and stared at the blonde-haired bomber with a mixture of surprise and confusion. "Who's Tobi?" he finally exclaimed, flapping his arms wildly in the air. "Senpai, I think you need help, too! Why, uttering kawaii sentences early in the morning! That is what I have always expected from you, Deidara-Senpai!" Tobi let out a boyishly affectionate grin. Well, of course, no one could see it.

"WHAT?" Deidara's blood vessels were about to burst. He clenched his fist in a futile attempt to calm himself down, but failed anyway. "I'LL SEND YOU TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE AND RETURN TO THE AKATSUKI HIDEOUT MYSELF, UN!" he hollered, moulding clay into a shape of a bird. He then tossed it at a petrified Tobi with quivering arms.

"KATSU!"

Meanwhile, at the Akatsuki Lair

Pein stood there and stared at the Akatsuki members with his arms akimbo. No one seemed to be paying attention yet again. He sighed and rubbed his temple, trying to stop his pounding headache. One day, I'm going to leave this sickening place after I have completed my goal. With Konan, he thought to himself. At that, he smiled slightly.

"Shut up Hidan. You're not wanted around here," a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"...har?" a silver-haired Jashinist replied. Once the sentence registered in his hate-filled mind, he let out a nasty-sounding growl. "KAKUZU! SHUT YOUR ASS, I TELL YA'! HOW DARE YOU FUCKING TELL ME THAT! THE GROUP NEEDS ME AND NOT YOUR STINKY ASS YOU BOOTLICKER!" Hidan snapped and bit his lip, drawing blood. "I. Will. Bite. Your. Head. Off. One. Day. Fucker."

Kakuzu rolled his eyes and waved away his threats with one hand. "Whatever. Do what you want, Jashin-lover," he said with gleaming eyes as he took out wads of dollar bills and started stroking them affectionately. "I will not die if I have my loved ones with me right here," he stuffed the money into his pocket.

"Why you! GA-"

Pein stamped his foot in annoyance. How dare they interrupt his day-dreaming! They shall pay, he grumbled. Right where he was getting to the good parts with Konan, he got interrupted!

"Hidan, quiet. Everybody, listen up. You'd better. Before I send you to the pits of hell. I have something to announce, and it is very important. We have a very important mission, and it is about..."

"Pein-sama, Tobi and Deidara are not here yet," Zetsu cut in. The other members nodded in agreement, much to Pein's chagrin.

He couldn't believe it! He was interrupted again. And this time, he was embarrassed. In front of the group. How stupid. The Akatsuki would be a laughing stock if anyone found out that their great leader, Pein-Sama, could not even handle the members that were a rank below him.

"...Fine, we'll just wait until they arrive," he mumbled inaudibly. "You guys just-"

"PEIN-SAMAAAA!" a familiar voice screamed. "TOBI IS FALLING!"

The members stiffened in shock. "It's Tobi, that idiot, no doubt. And he's coming this way!" Zetsu said, startled. "What should we do, Pein-sama?"

"Ignore him," Pein said, exasperated. He was depressed as he had been interrupted. AGAIN. He did not even bother to count how many times this happened. He gave up.

Tobi suddenly let out a terrified yelp and crashed into Hidan, pushing them both to the floor. Hidan was too shocked for words, and simply stared at him with wide-eyes. "You bastard..." he regained his composure and flung Tobi across the room. "THAT HURT!" he screamed.

Tobi whizzed across the other members and slammed into the concrete-hard wall. Hidan grinned in satisfaction, but was dismayed when the cheerful member emerged from the dust, unscathed. "Tobi can fly! Tobi feels good! Tobi wants again! Tobi is a good boy!" he exclaimed, hopping around the room like a cat on hot bricks. "Senpai is good! Hidan-san is good!" he chorused.

Just as Tobi was in the middle of his little dance, a knock was heard from the entrance of the Akatsuki Hideout. "Deidara here, un. I'm coming in now."

Deidara strolled leisurely into the lair. "Hey everybody, un. I've got good news! I just sent Tobi flying off to the other-WHAT!" he paused and eyed the funky member in disbelief. "...I...thought...I...made you explode, un!"

Kisame smirked in amusement. "Thankfully, you're here just on time, Deidara-san. Everyone was waiting for you." he spoke up for the first time. Deidara gaped at Pein-sama upon realising that he was late and immediately settled down on a loveseat, trying his best to ignore Tobi and vowed to get back at him later.

Pein let out a cough. "Good, then. Now that everyone is assembled and all is quiet, I can finally, FINALLY, announce the mission for today. Even though we are the Akatsuki, a evil criminal organization that is not to be trifled with, we have needs to. And Konan just found out yesterday that somebody had eaten all of the food in our refridgerator. So, me and Konan will be going to the village to do some..." he trailed off. "What do you call that again, Konan?"

"Grocery-shopping," she corrected with a smile, ignoring the other member's stares.

"Yes," Pein returned a grin. "Thank you Konan. Now as I was saying, we are going grocery-shopping together, and I just realised...our hideout is very disorganized. As a criminal organization, we cannot afford our hideout to be untidy. I will therefore, be splitting you up into groups to do some cleaning-up."

Tobi danced around wildly. "Yay! Clean-up! Oh, I know, Tobi knows! Tobi is a good boy! Maybe we could use Senpai's hair as a broom...?" he shut his mouth as soon as he saw Deidara shaking in rage, cussing and uttering some sentences that innocent Tobi did not understand.

Pein creased his eyebrows in frustration. "Listen up. Stop talking, Tobi, and Deidara, calm down."

Silence.

"I will be splitting you up into different groups. Listen carefully now, I will not be repeating what I have said. Deidara, you will be with Kisame instead of Tobi. I expect no bickering."

Deidara breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, he would not be with Tobi. Kisame looked like a good partner, and he was looking forward to working with him. Kisame simply chuckled.

"Hidan will be with Tobi."

Tobi eyes gleamed in excitement. "I look forward to working with you, Hidan-san! Tobi is good! Hidan-san is also good!"

Hidan rolled his eyes and swore in disgust. "Shut up, stupid brat," he mumbled in irritation. Damn, I'm going to have a bad time, he cursed.

"Itachi, you will be with Kakuzu."

Itachi nodded. "Looking forward to working with you, Kakuzu," he said in a monotonous tone. Kakuzu's head began to spin. Itachi? Finally! He was so happy. It's about time, he thought to himself. Finally, I'll able to have some peace. Thank goodness I'm not paired up with Hidan.

"Oh wait, I made a mistake earlier. Sasori will be paired up together with Deidara and Kisame. And...Hidan, you will be paired up together with Itachi and Kakuzu. Tobi will be with Zetsu. That's all for today. Return to your rooms once Konan has distributed to you your missions. The cleaning-up will start tomorrow."

Protests and cries of dismay could be heard as Konan and Pein stalked out of the room.

The next day.

"Itachi-san, which way is it?" Kakuzu asked, staring at the map given by Konan. Itachi simply pointed in a direction which led to the village. "This way." he replied without a trace of emotion on his face.

Hidan grumbled and kicked at the soil with his feet. "Getting stuck with Tobi is one thing, but being with Kakuzu...sucks."

Kakuzu ignored him and, together with Itachi, entered a shop that sold cleaning supplies. Leaving Hidan to sulk outside, they selected the necessities they needed and went to the counter to pay for them.

"How much?" Itachi asked as the shopkeeper placed all of the supplies into a plastic bag.

"The total is twelve dollars."

"WHAT?" Kakuzu could feel his heart breaking into pieces. Twelve dollars? That was far too much! It might seem like a small amount of money, but to Kakuzu, it was worth a million gold bars. He shook his head, trying to compose himself. "Can you lower the price a little?" he croaked.

The shopkeeper glared at Kakuzu. "Excuse me, old man! Twelve dollars is already very cheap! If you buy from other shops, they will charge you at least a hundred dollars for these top-quality cleaning supplies! Take it or leave!" he replied angrily, getting a tad impatient with him.

A roar of laughter could be heard coming from the outside.

"Fine," Kakuzu muttered, his heart breaking as he took out wads of precious dollar bills to pay for the items. "I'll pay..."

"No," Itachi cut in. Passing wads of notes to the shopkeeper, he answered, "I'll pay for the goods instead."

At that, Kakuzu could only shed tears of joy.

The other side

"Hey, OW! That hurt, Tobi. You little ass."

"Sorry Zetsu-san! Tobi was just playing! Tobi didn't mean to! Tobi meant to hit Senpai! Tobi figures Senpai likes pain!"

"What the hell? Tobi..." Deidara struggled to control his emotions. "I'M NOT HIDAN, THAT PSYCHO! I DON'T LIKE PAIN, UN!

"Tobi knows! Tobi understands what Senpai is saying! Senpai said that he doesn't like Pein-sama! Tobi is smart!"

"Shut up, Deidara. You're making it worse, just leave Tobi alone," Sasori muttered in annoyance.

Kisame chuckled in amusement. "This is gonna' be a long day..." he said, trailing off.

Deidara pretended that he didn't hear what Kisame said and pounced on Tobi. "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL BLOW YOU APART, UN! STOP MAKING THINGS UP, UN!"

"Oh dear."

"Pass me a mop. Or I'll eat your hair."

"Tobi is a good boy!"

"Deidara! You're spilling water all around!"

"HECK, LIKE HELL I CARE, UN!" Deidara snarled. "KATSU!"

And to Deidara, what appeared before him then, was truly a work of art.

Well, not like Sasori agreed, anyway.

Meanwhile...

"Are you sure it was wise to leave the rest alone?" Konan asked , settling down comfortably onto Pein's lap. "They might make things worse."

Pein linked fingers with Konan. "Well, we needed a day off. Together," he replied affectionately. Konan giggled, her face turning a crimson red.

"Should we tell the members about us...? They already know that something is going on between us, anyway. Why should we hide it?"

Pein smiled. "Now, it won't be wise to do that, right? Hidan won't let us off once he finds out. And Tobi, of course. He'll be on our case for months."

Konan snuggled up to Pein and stroked his hair with her free hand. She was the only one who was allowed to do that, and that made her proud.

"Pretty weird, isn't it?" she sighed, looking up and admiring the view with him. "We're part of the Akatsuki...a criminal organization which supposedly has members with selfish desires and heartless killing intent. Never would anyone think that there would be a lovey pair among them...and that you, the leader, is one of the lovebirds."

Pein grinned cheekily. "Well, after all, even evil criminals like us need love in our lives," he replied simply, planting a kiss on Konan's cheek.