Chapter 4: Intro Arc - Say Cheese
Here's the next installment of the story! I wrote it while on vacation, so please enjoy and review!
Disclaimer: I only own my OCs and the plot!
Sasori's POV
I sat alone in the corner, watching the bratty kid go off with the girl named Kaiya. Remembering what had just happened, I continued sulking and seething in anger.
"How dare she name me something as degrading and insulting as Rosie!" I growled to myself. "That little brat will pay for what she has done to ridicule me!"
"Danna? Are you okay, un?"
I turned around, knowing exactly who it was standing behind me. Deidara — or Firework, as he was now called — had taken a seat beside me, his eyes filled with worry. However, I decided to ignore him.
"Go away, brat," I hissed, extending my claws. "At least you got a decent name."
"Hey," Deidara meowed, grinning slightly. "It's okay. I thought that I was going to be named by Kagami as well, un." Suddenly, he began to giggle, as if the mere thought of the child was hilarious to him.
I stood up, extremely close to lashing out at him. "Brat, what's so funny? If you're going to gloat, then do it somewhere else. I don't want to hear it."
He let out a squeak and quickly backed away. "I just wanted to say that I was sorry, danna."
"For what?" I asked. "I can't think of anything that you need to apologize for."
"No," said Deidara. "I just felt bad that you had your name chosen by her and not Yukio, un."
"It's fine," I muttered, "but the very thought of it annoys me greatly. For some reason, I just feel like I need to get revenge on that bratty girl."
Deidara cocked an eyebrow. "How will you do that, un? We're just cats. I don't think we can use any jutsu in this form, Sasori-danna. And all of our weapons got taken away. I mean, come on! At least the jutsu could have spared us a kunai!" He clenched his paw in some sort of fist and cursed at the ceiling to emphasize his point.
"So?" I countered, extending my claws out again. "We've got these. There pretty close to puppet blades, though there's no poison or chakra strings involved. Besides, it would be futile to try and kill the girl. If she dies, then we may also be throwing away our only chance at reversing the jutsu that turned us all into cats and brought us into this world."
Deidara frowned immediately after I said that. "Wait, what are you going to do with your claws, danna?"
"I'm going to—" I started, but was interrupted by Leader-sama's announcement.
"All Akatsuki members!" he yowled, making sure that everybody could hear him. "Please assemble on the carpet immediately!"
Quickly, I rushed over towards the kitten that had been dubbed "Tiger", with Deidara close behind me. All of the other members seemed to know what was going on, but I had no idea, thanks to that stupid name that girl gave me making me forget my memory.
"I have called this meeting for one reason," he said solemnly, turning towards "Sasuke". "Itachi, you may begin."
The black cat nodded. "It appears that the children here seem to know who we are. I mean, naming me after my otouto can be something coincidental, but this time, it wasn't. The boy straight-up knew about the Uchiha Clan and the Sharingan, and it can easily be assumed that he knows a lot more. In fact, it is possible that he knows every single detail about the Akatsuki."
A ripple of shock rose from the cats, and even I was slightly disturbed.
"If that's the case," I piped up, "then our weaknesses are most likely out in the open in this world. Leader-sama, what do you wish to do with them?"
"Yeah, Leader-sama!" meowed Kisame. "Can we kill them?"
"As much as I want to, that is not an option right now," Leader-sama declared. "Those kids may be our only hope of getting us back to our world...assuming that it's even possible. For now, we have to inspect the entire house to see what more we can figure out."
Every cat nodded obediently. "Understood."
"Very well," Konan added. "You will go off in pairs and see what evidence you can find. Report back to me and Leader-sama immediately once your search is complete."
She flicked her tail towards the kitchen. "Kisame and Itachi, scavenge around the kitchen. They might have secrets concealed in their cabinets, like us."
"Wait," Hidan chimed in, "there are secrets hidden in our cabinets?"
Leader-sama cocked a brow at the periwinkle cat. "Uh, Konan…"
She immediately paled, then shook her head. "Forget that. Just...do your mission. Yeah, do your mission." Konan flicked her paw towards the kitchen in a dismissive shooing motion. The two cats nodded and scurried off, and Konan pointed her tail in a different direction. "Hidan and Kakuzu, search around this room and the hallways."
Both seemed unhappy with the fact that they had to go with each other, but they only gave curt nods before running off towards the nearest hallway.
"Tobi, Zetsu, Deidara, and Sasori," she continued, pointing towards the stairs, "go up the stairs and see if there is anything up there. Since the children came from upstairs this morning, I'm pretty sure that their bedrooms are up there as well."
"Understood," I muttered, but Deidara and Zetsu were looking around the room frantically.
"Wait!" Deidara was shouting, fear evident on his face. "Where did Tobi go, un?"
I could tell immediately that he wasn't at all afraid about Tobi's safety. Actually, he definitely didn't care if Tobi got injured or not, especially since Deidara was the one usually causing Tobi's injuries in the first place. Deidara was afraid of the things Tobi could do if he wandered off to random places in the middle of a meeting.
"Actually," Zetsu piped up, "I haven't seen him at all throughout the entire meeting. Knowing him, he probably got lost around here."
I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not, but a vein was popping in Deidara's head. "Why didn't you freaking say so, un? Don't you realize what could happen if we set Tobi loose in this place?"
"Like I care," muttered Zetsu's dark side. "It's not like he'll survive here, anyway. Don't listen to him! Tobi is a strong kid! He'll be fine, wherever he is!"
I watched as the two sides of Zetsu exploded into another heated argument, rolling my eyes. Turning to Deidara, I voiced my thoughts.
"Where the hell do you think the brat could have disappeared to now?"
Kaiya's POV
"Onee-chan!" begged Kagami. "Can we please stop for some ice cream? I'm hungry!"
I shook my head. "Kagami-chan, I just bought you a bag of Skittles, a box of Sour Patch, and three gumballs. Now you want ice cream?"
She pouted. "It's a hot day compared to yesterday, onee-chan! And then we can get some for the kittens, too!"
Giggling, I patted her on the head. "Very funny, my imouto. But cats can't eat candy. I don't know what happens if they do, but I'm pretty sure that the result won't be pleasant."
"But I still want ice cream!" Kagami complained. "It's not fair! You always take Yukio-nii-chan out for ice cream! Why not me?"
"It's not that I don't want to," I sighed, "but as much as I want to buy ice cream for you, I still need to save money for kitten food and toys. In addition, eating too many sweets isn't healthy for you."
"How?" she questioned. "I thought Naoki-nii-chan said that they made you grow strong and tall!"
I made a mental note to punish my brother for that later. "He meant that they make you grow the wrong way," I confirmed. "Remember the time when I took you to the cotton candy stand? Remember what that lady said? She said, 'Too much of a good thing is not good at all.' The same thing applies to ice cream, Kagami-chan."
Kagami pouted even more, attempting to make herself look small. She widened her eyes to resemble that of a crying puppy in order to convince me otherwise, but I ignored it.
"That doesn't work on me," I smirked. "Only your brothers are foolish enough to fall for a trick like that."
At that, Kagami stomped, hands clenched into fists. "Hmph! You're no fun, onee-chan!"
I sighed and patted her head once more. "One day, you'll thank me. Now, can you help me find the pet shop?"
Kagami looked around for a while, then pointed at a sign that depicted a ball of yarn. "Onee-chan! There it is!"
"Good job," I replied, "maybe I'll get you ice cream on our way back home."
In response, she clapped her hands playfully in delight. "Yay! Thank you, onee-chan!"
"Come on, you silly imouto," I teased, grinning. "We have to get home as soon as possible, in order to make sure that our brothers and kittens haven't blown up the house yet. Let's go inside the pet shop."
We steadily opened the door to the shop, hearing a bell ding as we walked inside. It wasn't the biggest pet shop in our town, but I assumed that it had plenty of kitten supplies. After all, it was better if I didn't have to take the car anywhere.
"Hello, girls," greeted the cashier. "What brings you here so early in the morning?"
I politely curtsied to her. "Good morning, Harumi-san. I was wondering if you had basic kitten supplies, since we took in a few of those balls of fur inside yesterday night."
"Oh, my!" she exclaimed, surprised. "I'll get you some supplies right away! What breed are they?"
I rubbed the back of my head nervously. "Well...you see, it's quite complicated, actually. I don't know what breed they are, Harumi-san."
"Do you have any pictures of them, maybe?" she suggested. "I might be able to identify them if you show me what they look like."
As I was about to shake my head in the negative, I heard a faint rustling sound from inside Kagami's backpack.
"Kagami-chan," I told my imouto, "what is that sound coming from your backpack?"
Her eyes widened for a second, but then, she shot me an innocent smile. "N-Nothing, onee-chan! There's nothing in my b-b-backpack!"
I squinted at her skeptically, and she shrank back. "Kagami-chan...did you bring one of the kittens with you?"
Realizing that she had been caught in the act, Kagami slowly nodded, her smile disappearing. "He was too cute, onee-chan. I wanted to play with him some more—"
"Which one did you take with you?" I asked, mentally facepalming myself five seconds later. It was already quite obvious which cat she had taken along with her.
She opened her backpack — which I noticed had been slightly unzipped for quite a while — and pulled out Fuzzsticks, placing him on the counter. Thinking that she was going to play with him, he jumped up and down with joy. Harumi-san's eyes were wide, as she stared at the strange orange and black kitten with one eye that seemed to change from red to onyx every few seconds.
"I have never seen this breed before," she gasped. "Can I take a picture of him? I want to show my boss in case she knows what it is."
"Of course," I said, giving her consent. She reached into her desk and pulled out a camera, but before she could snap a picture, Fuzzsticks leaped onto Kagami's shoulder in terror and hid himself out of view of the camera, shaking with fear.
"Aww," gushed Kagami, "Fuzzsticks, are you camera-shy? A photo isn't going to hurt you, ya know! Trust me, if she takes your photo, you'll be famous, little one! Everybody in our town will know your name!"
Fuzzsticks stopped shivering, as if he were considering the possibility of becoming a famous cat around our town. Finally, he leaped back onto the counter, but closed his single eye.
"Oh, I see," remarked Harumi-san. "Maybe he's just afraid that I'm going to use flash and damage his eyesight. Don't worry, sweetie, I won't. Trust me."
"Harumi-san is a nice lady," Kagami reassured Fuzzsticks, patting his furry little head. "When she says something like that, she means it. Open your eye, Fuzzsticks. It won't hurt! If you do end up getting hurt, I won't eat any sweets for three weeks!"
Fuzzsticks seemed reluctant at first, but eventually, his single onyx eye opened wide, and Harumi-san quickly snapped a picture of him, without using flash.
"There," she said soothingly. "All done! Here, I'll give you this as a reward for letting me take your photo!"
She reached into her desk again and pulled out a rubber squeaky mouse toy, with a silver bell attached to its tail. Dropping it in front of Fuzzsticks, we watched as he curiously poked the mouse with one paw. Realizing how soft it was, he pounced on it, jumping up and down whenever he heard the squeaky noise from it, combined with the soothing chime of the bell.
"I think he loves it!" squealed Kagami. "Thank you, Harumi-san!"
Harumi-san chuckled. "Now that I've got the picture to show my boss, I'll go look for some food for you. How many kittens of this kind did you adopt?"
"Ten," I answered, laughing as I watched her jaw drop in disbelief. "But they don't all look like Fuzzsticks. All of them have their own unique pattern."
"Goodness!" cried Harumi. "That must be quite a hassle for the four of you!"
She reached into her desk again and pulled out two very large food bowls, along with a huge bag of kitten food.
"Harumi-san," I asked nervously, "how many things are hidden inside your desk?"
She smirked at me, giggling to herself. "More than you would think," she answered. "All of this...well, it's thirty dollars for the food bowls and another sixteen for the food bag. And if you want extra toys, it will cost you two dollars each."
Upon calculating the total cost of everything, I rolled my eyes and pulled three twenty-dollar bills out of my wallet. "I think I'll take seven more toys."
Smiling, Harumi-san reached into her desk and pulled out an assorted box of kitty toys, piling all of the stuff we had bought on top of it. "Thank you, girls. Have fun taking care of your friends!"
"We sure will!" I said, carrying the box out of the shop.
"Mrrow…" groaned Fuzzsticks, yawning in Kagami's arms.
Kagami smiled softly, stroking the kitten's head gently. "I think he's getting sleepy, onee-chan. Good thing that Harumi-san's shop was so close to our house."
"No kidding," I replied. "Hopefully our brothers are taking good care of our other cats."
Kagami nodded. "Fuzzsticks will probably be happy to see his friends again, even if it's only been an hour."
We continued walking, Kagami cutely caressing Fuzzsticks's black and orange fur. Eventually, we made it back to our front porch, and she quickly ran up the steps to pound on the door.
"Knock knock, nii-chan!" she squealed. "We're home!"
The door opened five seconds later to reveal the panicking faces of Naoki and Yukio. I frowned, immediately knowing that something was wrong.
"What happened?" I asked, wondering what kind of mischief the kittens could have gotten into while we were all away. But as soon as my brothers glanced at the sleeping form of Fuzzsticks in Kagami's arms, they sighed in relief.
"We have no idea where that little rascal went," explained Yukio. "It was all quiet in the house, so we suspected that something was wrong, especially since Fuzzsticks is the loudest cat in the house. But next time you take him, Kagami-chan, please tell us first, okay?"
She gave him a thumbs-up. "Okay, Yukio-nii-chan!"
All four of us immediately began to organize the kitten supplies. Yukio dropped the food bowls in our kitchen, surprising Sasuke and Dragon, who seemed to be looking around for something there. Naoki stored the bag of kitten food away in the cabinet, in case any of the cats tried to grab extra snacks. But as I dumped out the toys onto the living room carpet, a loud yell came from the upstairs, where Kagami was putting Fuzzsticks to bed.
"Onee-chan! You still haven't gotten me ice cream, ya know!"
