When Sophie came to she thought she had been dreaming, but found instead that it had been all too real. Sitting up in the bed she found Shiloh, Jashin, and Buck sitting around her, the latter two growling at each other while Shiloh rested his chin on her leg. To her right, sitting on the desk, was a man with bright orange hair sat next to blue haired woman draped in her clothes, the man in a pair of jeans worn through at the knees.
She recognized them immediately and after a moment of uncertainty determined that they were real. No Cosplayer was that good. Not even the professionals. Konan and Yahiko, or Pain, or who ever he was right then, looked over at her when the dogs on the bed stopped fighting and Sophie found herself under the scrutinizing gaze of far too many people. Her head hurt, but she pushed that away.
"So…" she trailed off awkwardly, rubbing her left arm in nervous habit. The orange haired man smiled and she knew that it was Yahiko.
"Hello," he sounded cheerful, "How are you feeling?" his smile could have lit up the house when she gave a tentative one to him, shrugging and muttering an 'I'm alright'.
She cleared her throat.
"So am I in a coma or was there really a naked blue shark in here earlier?" she asked, and Konan cracked a smile before it was gone.
"Yes, Kisame was the first to find his original form. Do you know what's going on?" Konan asked, and Sophie gave another shrug and reached down to place a hand on Shiloh's head before realizing that that was probably not a good person to be a friend of.
"I think so? What exactly did Shelly tell you?" she was holding onto her rational train of thought as much as she could, focusing on the now instead of the how. Yahiko hopped off of the desk and walked over handing her an ice pack she hadn't realized he had been holding. She smiled at him gratefully and pressed the pack against her throbbing forehead.
"She told us that we are featured in some stories here and that you would recognize us. She also gave us a brief explanation of how it was possible but said you could expand on that?" the older woman gave the twenty year old an expectant look.
"Yeah, the multiverse, alternate realities. Uh, it's complicated. I understand more than I iterate. Basically there are thousands of parallel universes all stacked on top of each other. Each one is different, some are very similar, some are different. See, the way it works is like this. We're in one reality right now where you all are just fairy tales and stories right?" they nodded, "Well that probably means that our realities border each other and somehow overlapped, like, uh, like two circles of Jello that touch but never merge. Cosmic Jello."
Shiloh, or Toby as she assumed he was, crawled up onto her lap and she started petting him idly.
"Chances are," the young girl continued, pushing her glasses back up, "our worlds managed to overlap for one reason or another, and in the process you all got sucked into an anomaly that transported you here, and since your DNA would be fundamentally different from ours due to the composition of matter that would vary in each world it turned you into a form that was smaller and easier to adjust, or you traded spaces with these dogs and only change back with willingly shared DNA of the closest animals that share your original physiology. Assuming you weren't sent her purposely…?"
"We were attacked," Konan told her, folding one of the squares of paper Shelly kept stashed in the desk drawer, "they used a technique that knocked us all out while we were together for certain reasons," Sophie assumed that she meant they were sealing a jinchūriki.
"They must have found a way to punch through the walls of the worlds. That would have taken an incredible amount of power, focused for a very specific purpose. I doubt any one from here could do it."
"We have very different worlds," Yahiko commented, and Sophie nodded.
"Well you're from a reality where history took a different turn. Instead of taking the path of science, like we did, your reality took the path of Chakra and history developed differently, resulting in different cultures, as I'm sure you've already observed."
"We have," he agreed, and she gently set the beagle on the bed spread before throwing her legs over the side.
"Did what I just said make sense?" she asked worriedly. She sometimes babbled without realizing her train of thought went different ways than those she was speaking with.
"It made more sense than when Shelly tried to explain it," the orange haired man said, looking amused.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she just barely understands the theory of the multiverse, to the point that if someone talked about it she might know what they meant. I've studied it for classes before, taken tests, stuff like that," She looked over at the still-dog-Akatsuki before back up to Yahiko, "So why are they still dogs? And who were you? She was obviously Juvia."
"You used to call me Caesar. My name is Yahiko, and that is Konan. Those three are named Tobi, Hidan, and Kakuzu. Hidan and Kakuzu Shelly refused to change because of their tempers, and I believe she forgot about Toby all together."
"Sounds like her," Sophie agreed, though that was a lie. Her friend remembered things like that. Maybe not equations or scientific theories but people were certainly memorable. Maybe not always their names, but always them. "What about the others? Is everyone else human now? Assuming that's what you are."
"We are. Yes, everyone else is the way they should be. We were waiting for you to start talking further about arrangements. Shelly explained the legality issues with working and everything else. Can you stand?" her new orange haired friend stepped back from her and Sophie cracked her neck a few times before bracing her hands on her knees.
"Lets find out huh?" the girl grunted, black curls falling into her vision as she pushed herself up, blinking rapidly when the world blacked out for a second. It cleared a moment later and she brushed herself off.
I was sitting on the couch when they came out, Konan, Yahiko, and Sophie, plus three dogs trailing behind them. I hadn't asked how Yahiko was a live, it didn't seem like a good idea to reveal what I knew about them (which is everything), but I didn't dare lie. So I watered it down and prayed that Soph would come to the same conclusion. Evidently she had, as she was walking without one of the ninja dragging her. I had managed to scrounge up some of my dad and brother-in-laws old pants for the boys, except for Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara, who were stuck with mine and Sophie's sweat pant/pajama pants, plaid of course. We'd even managed to get some for the hulking shark man.
We didn't really have shirts that fit them, so mostly they were shirtless. Not that I was complaining.
"Hey," I greeted, raising my hand from where I sat between the artists. Nagato/Pein had sat me there when they wouldn't stop arguing over art. Soph glared at me and I winced. I figured she would be annoyed. It was my fault after all.
"I shouldn't be surprised by now, but I am," she grumbled, and took a seat on the coffee table in front of me, looking at the others. Pein was watching her from behind his mop of red hair, and I was very happy to see that he wasn't as dangerously thin as he had appeared in the show, probably because he was eating regularly now and not expending so much Chakra with all his paths. Who were not there, thank you very much.
"You can explain your reality things to them," I gestured to the others and Sophie nodded, launching into babble about alternate realities and what not. I understood it, but I couldn't explain it to save my life. It took her a few minutes to explain before the others nodded, except for Hidan who just growled and circled the floor for whatever reason.
"Can you get home?" I heard myself ask, looking at Pein and Itachi, who stood together beside the TV, out of sight from outside the window. We were on the second story, the garage bellow us and the bedrooms and attic above us. The Uchiha met my eyes and for a second I was terrified his were about to turn red before he answered me in an even tone, using Crispin Freeman's voice.
"We don't know," he replied, and I frowned a bit.
"Can I ask if you have any idea?" Hidan barked at me angrily and I turned and flicked his ear, "Don't give me that! You're the one that jumped me, asshole! No way am I kissing you. Ask Soph!"
"I'm not doing it!" she denied immediately, and I grinned when I remembered that she hadn't had her first kiss yet. She hit my shoulder, knowing the look by then and sat back, glaring at me.
"We do not," Pein told me, and I propped my chin in my hand.
"Is there any way we can help?" I asked, and I could feel their strange looks. I like helping people, and I like the Akatsuki. I won't excuse their methods, or their actions, but I did wasn't to help. It might fuck a lot of shit up if they didn't get back where they belonged.
"You can keep us here for the time being," the leader told me, and I nodded. This was going to be fun, I could already feel it.