Claire: 2 of 4 revised chapters
Leah: More editing and changing stuff…Eva: As I'm re-reading these…I realize that I get stupider as the story progresses -.-;;;;;;
Chapter 2:
Why did people even make book cases anymore? They rarely seemed to hold books. Finding another one in the next room she was searching, Blue grumbled with irritation as she pushed aside an assortment of videos, scraps of paper, and small, useless figurines and snow globes. There were a few books hidden amongst all the clutter, but there were quite a few more on the desk that hadn't quite made it. Bored with search, she picked one up and flipped through it.
It wasn't really a book, more like a map, or rather a collection of maps. The entire page was filled with a large grid, over orange, green, and blue colored blobs. Many wavy lines weaved through and across the straight lines of the grid. They all had weird labels on them, ending in things such as "Street" and "Court" and "Avenue". You would think once you found the place, it would be obvious that it was a street or court, and you wouldn't need to label it. She was about to close it, when she noticed a small black label at the top in the right hand corner. It said "La Jolla".
The three girls the others had been sent to interrogate had mentioned a place called La Jolla. She had thought they had obviously been lying, but…This odd book didn't look like some kind of preconceived plan to throw them off. The girls had seemed genuinely surprised to see them. Blue closed the book and hurried out of the room to find Pein.
She found him standing in the hall, staring at the baseboards between the carpet and the wall.
"Hey, Pein, I found this—what are you doing?" she asked. He started and looked up at her.
"I was…on my way back down. There's nothing here."
Secretly, she thought he was just slacking off and just letting she and Zetsu do the work, but mentioning the strange book seemed to be more important.
"Right…anyway I found this book…" she found the page and showed him, pointing to the two black words in the corner.
"It looks kind of like a map…I suppose this means it is a real place," he mumbled, more to himself than Blue.
They heard footsteps and Zetsu came ambling down the stairs. He walked over to them and stood there. They both looked at him expectantly. "I found nothing," he said simply.
"…All right," said Pein, "Zetsu, you go get Hidan and Kakuzu. Blue, get Deidara and Tobi. Bring the hostages too. Meet back…in the first room."
xXx
Tobi slumped in his chair, looking solemn. Or at least, that's what he would look like if you could see his face. He was ignored by the other two, the silence still filling in for the words. Leah stared at Deidara. Deidara stared at Leah.
"You guys are kind of bad at interrogations," she said.
Deidara frowned. "Should that really be your problem, un?"
Leah raised her eyebrows at him.
He frowned again. "Fine, I gave up anyway. This is pointless."
Tobi looked up. "Um…Deidara-senpai, I don't really think we're allowed to—"
He stopped talking as Blue walked in.
"Leader wants to talk to us all," she said simply, turning and leaving without waiting for them to follow, which they did after exchange curious glances with each other.
XxX
One of the shelves was now unhinged from the wall, spilling even more papers and books onto the floor. The lamp had ceased rolling due to its being smashed into several dozen pieces in another game of 'trash the room escaping the murderer'.
"I'm starting to have some concerns for my safety," Claire said, no longer grinning, but still stupid enough to use sarcasm.
"Oh, really? Have we finally knocked some fucking sense into you, bitch?" Hidan sneered.
Claire rolled her eyes. "Manwhoresayswhat?" she said quickly.
Hidan looked at her as if she were speaking nonsense. "What?"
Claire laughed openly, and Kakuzu, despite his growing agitation, snickered. This caused a fresh spurt of anger from Hidan and he lunged at her again. She darted away from the door where she had been standing while Hidan continued to crash towards it. All of them were unaware that it had opened, and he crashed into Zetsu. Hidan got up, muttering what seemed like every swear word he knew under his breath and turning a little red in the face.
Zetsu, who seemed to be incapable of embarrassment merely coughed and said, "Leader has called a meeting." He waited for the three of them to pass him, all still glaring at each other.
xXx
Pein opened the sliding door, causing it to squeak slightly in protest. "Itachi, Kisame…"
Kisame quickly removed the kunai from beneath Eva's hair and hid it behind his back so Pein would not think he was disobeying his order not to harm the captives. The move was hardly inconspicuous, and Pein noticed, but made no comment on it. "What is it?" Kisame asked.
"I'm calling a meeting," he said simply before turning back into the living room. Itachi and Kisame followed without questioning him. Eva decided to stay back a bit. She was not eager to lose her hair that had just been saved by Pein's intrusion by invading Kisame or Itachi's 'personal space bubbles' or something like that.
XxX
Pein sat on the large white couch, a fire place not too far away, Durham at his side, and the dog was very content at the fact that Pein was absent-mindedly stroking him. Eva gave a snort of laughter; sadly her brief self-composure in the face of danger had faded now that she was among her friends again. Once again, all eyes turned on her.
"The Godfather," she explained. This was only met with more blank stares from the Akatsuki. She hung her head as her cheeks grew red. "Yeah, you wouldn't get it."
"Right," Deidara drawled, "Moving on…?"
"These three girls gave us the information that we were in a place called La Jolla. Normally, none of us would take their word for it, but we have proof. Blue, bring up the book."
She rolled her eyes as she brought the object up to him. She almost pointed out to him that she was not his own personal bitch and he could get it himself, but decided against it. No point in starting a fuss and she didn't even have the energy to be arguing right now. He took the book from her and folded it back to show them the page. The girls looked up to see what it was, but were puzzled once they realized it was just an atlas. The Akatsuki members, however, peered at it for a few seconds before responding.
"…It's a map?" asked Tobi.
"Yes. A map of La Jolla," Leader clarified.
"And your point is…?" Hidan led off.
"The other information the hostages have given us is most likely accurate—we are indeed in a different world. That being said, what information did each of you get? Kakuzu and Hidan?"
"We found out that the country is the United States of America and they are not allies of Konoha," Kakuzu answered calmly.
"And that Claire is a FUCKING BITCH THAT DOESN'T KNOW WHEN TO SHUT THE HELL UP!" Hidan yelled into her ear.
"So says the whore…" Claire answered quietly, leaning away from him and rubbing said ear with her index finger.
Leader cut them off before another 'colorful' argument could erupt. "Kisame, Itachi?"
"We also determined the location, which is consistent with the information Kakuzu and Hidan obtained. Also, there are no ninjas and there is no ninjutsu," Itachi answered in his usual monotone.
"Could you please be less enthusiastic? All that cheerfulness is irritating," Eva whined sarcastically. Itachi shifted his gaze over to her without turning his head. The motion was enough to get her to shut up and look at her feet again.
"Deidara, Tobi, what did you learn?" the Akatsuki leader continued, ignoring the side conversations.
"Only the location, un," Deidara replied, a hint of shame lit his words.
"They couldn't think of any more questions," Leah clarified.
Pein raised an eyebrow at his subordinates skeptically.
"So what are we going to do with them?" Zetsu asked, using a tone almost as lifeless as Itachi's.
"I don't think they've quite outlived their usefulness. They could be an asset because of their knowledge of this world," Blue mused.
"I'm not all too keen on trusting them…" Kisame grumbled.
"I actually asked Leah's opinion on this and she said not to kill them, not to hold them hostage, to trust their information and treat them more or less as mental equals…with the exception of Eva, un," Deidara said quietly, counting off the reasons on his painted fingers. Eva sent a glare at Leah, who merely smiled.
"Why would you ask a hostage their opinion on what to do with them?"
"Oh, sorry. How many questions did you come up with again, fish boy?"
"Don't start with me blondie…."
"Stop getting off topic," Itachi cut in. They both shut up immediately, "We need to decide what to do with the captives as soon as possible."
"Well—" Pein started, but Claire cut him off impatiently.
"—Okay, first thing, stop talking about us like we aren't here. That's bad manners. Naughty. Second thing—what you're talking about? You guys are in our world. Not the other way around. We should be in charge of you. So shut up, Mr. Bossy Ego Pants. Yeah that was really stupid of me…but it needed to be said!" Claire tried to give off the impression of authority, but it sort of failed. Everyone stared at her silently, mostly due to the fact that she had just interrupted the Akatsuki leader.
"Can I kill her?" Hidan asked after a moment, readying his scythe.
"I vote for that," Kisame said. He too shifted his grip on his weapon.
"But you guys can stay here if you don't kill us. At least until you can figure out how to get home," Leah offered shyly.
"But if we kill them…we get a place to stay anyway," Hidan tempted. Several of the others nodded eagerly at these words.
"Yes…but how are you going to go grocery shopping or get food unless you have an escort? Half of you can't even go out in public without drawing attention and the people out there are not as accepting as us. You guys may be good fighters, but I doubt you could go up against an entire army of trained military…people. They have guns and stuff, which are faster than swords."
"…I'm sure we can manage," Kakuzu said, brushing off her viable protests as if they were nothing.
Eva sighed. "But we don't have your type of food here—you wouldn't know how to prepare anything to eat. Also, wouldn't it be useful to have peoples who are willing to clean and stuff?"
"Willing is an overstatement," Claire murmured.
"If it'll save our lives…damn it, we're willing," she whispered back to Claire angrily.
"That could be useful…" Pein considered.
"What's the catch?" Blue demanded.
"Um…not killing us would be nice…and not destroying our house," she glanced angrily at Kisame, "And not cutting off our hair."
"Is that all?" Leader asked.
Eva briefly consulted Leah and Claire for further negotiations. "Our rooms have to stay our own unless we say someone can come in—we need privacy still," she continued.
Leader nodded. "We'll follow your guidelines unless we see fit to stray from them. Don't give us a reason to do that," he hinted menacingly.
She gulped, but managed to incline her head in a small nod. "Thank you."
"Okay then," Leader said decisively. "There are nine of us here and three of you. We outnumber you, so we will maintain order and you will do what we say."
"That's not what I meant…" Eva pointed out, "We need to have a bit of control here…I didn't mean we would be servants."
"Then what were you planning to be?"
"Good hosts?"
Pein raised another eyebrow. "I guess that's more or less fair. No matter what you call it, the duties are basically the same." Eva was about to protest again, but decided it was useless. "Is there anything else we need to be aware of?"
Leah raised her hand nervously. "I have an older brother and he's probably going to be home anytime now. He probably won't talk to you much, so you can ignore him. He's an idiot, but he provides most of our money, so, yeah."
"Does he…?" Kakuzu said thoughtfully to no one in particular. He had a mischievous glint in his eye.
Deidara cleared his throat. "So what now?"
"I kind of want to change," Eva said, sounding a little embarrassed, looking down at her pajamas—pink bunnies with bloody knives in their heads.
Claire gave her a disbelieving look, "It's four in the morning. We haven't even gone to sleep. You are weird," she said.
"Yeah, um, I'm going to get our guests settled before they eat me," Leah said, glancing at Zetsu nervously.
"I'll help you out with that once I'm done getting changed," Eva offered and ran back upstairs.
"I won't, I'm going back to sleep; good night," Claire stated. She promptly went back into Leah's room, crawled into her sleeping bag and did just that.
Bitches, they left me alone with them! Leah thought. She sighed and gathered Durham in her arms before he attempted to play with any of the Akatsuki members, since this would most likely result in his death. "Well, let's sort out where you're going to sleep. This is an eight bedroom house, and we take up four of them, so that leaves four. You'll have to share," she added nervously.
"You might have to limit that to three for the time being," Kakuzu corrected, remembering the mess that Hidan and Claire had made. He paused. "Weren't you three found in the same room? How do you take up four, even including your brother?"
"Yeah…well, Eva made us all watch 'The Ring' and we were all kinda scared so we all slept in my room," Leah explained, a little embarrassed. "Alright, moving on. I'll see if I can't fix that one bedroom later…All of the couches pull out into beds and we have extra mattresses and blankets in the attic, so I think it'll be fine. The attic can also serve as a room to any one who wants it. Do you want to see the rooms now or is there something else that needs to be done first?" Leah offered, her voice shrinking as small as Hinata's. It was quite obvious that she was scared. Who wouldn't be when in the company of nine known murderous criminals?
"As a matter-of-fact, there is something else. I want to ask some more questions," Leader replied from his seat on the couch. Cruel as it was to exploit her fear, he simply saw it as an increased chance to get information out of her. "How does Claire know about Konoha?"
"What?" Leah inquired timidly, not completely understanding the question.
"She said she wasn't an ally of Konoha. Since this is an 'alternate dimension' and you've already informed us that none of our geographical locations are the same, how did she know about Konoha when none of us mentioned it?"
Leah blinked. She quickly rummaged through her small arsenal of excuses, hoping they wouldn't see through the lie. "Well, he must have asked the question in context. Claire doesn't think much before she answers." This was true for the most part, though she wasn't entirely sure if Kakuzu had even uttered the word 'Konoha' in Claire's presence. She figured there was a good chance he had though, so she went with it.
"I have a feeling that you are hiding very valuable information. You know more about us than you want us to think." Leader pried, trying to get Leah to snap.
Leah swallowed, getting a bit frustrated since that lie should have freed her regardless of whether or not it was true. "I only know what I have observed in the past few hours. I swear I don't know much more about you," her hands were trembling slightly as she held them up in protest. Pein was better at interrogation than Deidara and Tobi, and much more intimidating.
"You're lying."
Leah shook her head. "I wouldn't lie in a potentially dangerous situation."
"How much do you girls know?"
Leah cracked, but only a little. She had to tell them something. "I know most of your names and that you're after something called jinchurikkis."
"So you were lying."
"NO! I told you I wouldn't lie in this sort of situation!" she corrected with a panicked voice.
"How do you know about the jinchurikkis?"
"I overheard Blue say something about capturing them. That's all." This was half true. She had heard Blue's comment earlier.
Leader narrowed his unique ringed eyes, studying Leah. He stood up. "That's all for now. Show us where we'll be sleeping," he promptly ordered
Leah let out a sigh of relief once they had turned away and proceeded to show them the various rooms she had mentioned before. They decided to keep it simple by staying in their partner groups as far as sharing rooms went. Itachi and Kisame decided to share one of the guest rooms that had a queen-sized bed and a trundle bed while Deidara and Tobi claimed another guest room that had a bunk bed. Leader and Blue were to get the room that Hidan and Claire had trashed once it was fixed, considering it was the biggest. Hidan and Kakuzu wanted the attic, which was directly above Deidara's and Tobi's room. Zetsu decided to sleep in the living room on the pull out couch. While they were deciding this, Claire had been shut up in Leah's room and Eva had begun to make an early breakfast for all of them. It was still only five in the morning.
xXx
"Should I make French toast or eggs?" Eva pondered under her breath.
"What's French toast?" a voice behind her asked.
She spun around, coming face to face with Kisame. "It's um…toast and…it has sugar on it and stuff…"
He nodded appreciatively. "Sounds good…make that."
She nodded too without really noticing it, reaching her hand up above her to grab the bread.
"You have weird clothes," he said before walking away.
She frowned. They weren't that weird…Well, in the eyes of a ninja they probably were. Her black short-sleeved shirt was adorned with random splotches of red that looked more like blood splatter then anything, while the seams were lined with silver safety-pins. A belt with a skull on it separated the shirt from her black pleated skirt. Her skirt was lined with red lace and her legs were covered in tights; black and red stripes circling down her leg until they met her scuffed combat boots mid-calf. Her blue tips, now clearly visible under the fluorescent light of the kitchen stood out even more against the dark eyeliner and black lipstick she wore. Her spiked-bracelets hung loosely over her fishnet gloves as she stirred together eggs and added milk, cinnamon, and other such ingredients.
A scream came from upstairs. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM, MAN-WHORE!"
Eva sighed. "Claire's up."
"Must be Hidan," Kisame noted absently. He had returned out of boredom a few minutes after she had started cooking.
"They'd be a good match, I might start shipping them," Eva murmured so Kisame couldn't hear. She stopped herself. "I'm talking to an S-class criminal part of the Akatsuki S-ranked criminal…who also happens to be blue…like he's a normal person…that's just weird…"
Kisame narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?"
"Just a guess. Now, be a dear and make yourself useful—go fetch the people for breakfast," she said in an English accent.
He decided to humor her and went to as she put it, 'fetch the people for breakfast.' "Weird clothes, weird…speech," he muttered as he ambled out of the room. "And knows information…that she shouldn't know…."
"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!" Another shout, verging on scream, echoed from upstairs.
"BREAKFAST, BITCH!" Hidan yelled back, slamming the door behind him. "AND GOOD MORNING TO YOU TOO!"
Eva smiled, stacking the still-sizzling pieces of toast onto a plate. Slowly, the Akatsuki members reconvened from their various positions around the house in the kitchen. They settled around the large glass dining table, eventually joined by a nervous Leah and an irritable looking Claire. The sky grew lighter and the moon beams gradually turned to sun. They illuminated the kitchen, and as the stack of toast grew, what would soon be a new daily routine slowly formed.
