Pein looked around at the teens standing in his office. He'd managed to gather Tenshi, Boom, Ahato, Heki, Hakushi, and Amaifuyu all at once without any bloodshed. Quite frankly, the leader was rather proud of himself. "You wanted to speak with us?" Tenshi inquired.
Pein waited a moment longer to look at the now eighteen-year-old female. Midnight blue hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, eyes half-lidded with indifference, black shirt and matching capris…she looked more and more like her Uchiha parent each day.
"I have a mission for all of you," Pein explained calmly. "I feel it best to inform you that for this assignment, you'll be working in two man cells-"
Boom interrupted him to jump and down, squealing happily. "Finally!" she cried, messy red locks falling into her face.
Pein smirked to himself at the sight. He was actually somewhat grateful for the girl taking an interest in bombs. An unexpected explosion had singed off a few inches of her hair, and now the locks barely hung down to the girl's shoulder. In contrast, Ahato's waist-length hair was held in place by a braid. After many long years, it was finally posiible to tell the difference between the teens.
"How long's the mission gonna be?" Amaifuyu asked.
"It's a fairly long assignment. Roughly…two years."
Now he had the kids' attention. None of their missions had ever lasted more than a fortnight; the lone exception to this occurred when a typhoon delayed Tenshi's return by nearly three weeks. So to be gone for that length of time…well, it was just unheard of. "What's the assignment?" Hakushi asked.
Pein now openly smirked at the youth. "Kids, your parents became Akatsuki due to their talents and strengths. Being a member of this organization is by no means a birthright; it's something you have to earn."
"So," Tenshi began, "what you're saying is-"
"Go out into the world and cause a little mayhem. Show the rest of humanity that you deserve to be feared. When two years is up, we'll decide if you belong in the Akatsuki or not."
"What happens if you decide that we don't belong?" Heki inquired.
"Oh, not much. You'll just have to live the rest of your life knowing that you disappointed your parents and everyone you've ever cared about in the world."
"…"
"You have one hour to get ready and say your goodbyes. Now go!"
--
"Whip…handcuffs…Boom, do you think I should take a collar or not?" Ahato inquired whilst filling her backpack to the brim with X-rated items.
Boom took a moment to inwardly grimace and decide that she really did NOT want to know what her sister was planning on doing with those items. "No. Just make Heki wear it. It'll be one less thing to pack." Ahato grinned and nodded before setting the collar aside. "Hey, which puppets are you taking?" Boom inquired.
"Just this one," Ahato admitted while holding up the doll Sasori had made for her at Christmas.
"Why? Danna would give you some of his-"
"But they're his, sis, and not mine," Ahato stated as if her reasoning should have been the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm only going to take this. I'll make my own while Heki and I are on the road."
"Danna showed you how to make them?"
The elder twin nodded. "Yup. He even taught me how to seal them in a scroll."
Boom nodded as she crammed a few more pounds of clay into her backpack. Seeing that nothing else would fit, she zipped the top closed and hefted the item onto her shoulders with a grunt. "Ready?"
"Yeah. Let's go." With a nod, the two girls walked out of their room for the last time in a two year span.
--
Amaifuyu had just slipped his spare set of glasses into his bag when a knock was heard at the door. "Coming," he called out while walking across the room. When he opened the door, his magenta eyes fell on Kakuzu.
The banker stepped inside the room as Amaifuyu stepped backwards, smiling up at his father. "Hey dad. What's up?"
"Hidan and I wanted to give you a little extra spending money before you left," Kakuzu admitted before reaching into his cloak and extracting a few bills. Each group had already been assigned a small budget, so to see the banker willingly giving out even more money was quite a shock.
"Holy shit, you're giving me cash?!"
"You and Hakushi aren't used to being out in the wild, so this is to help you at first," the miser explained. "But Amai, only use this in an emergency. You two aren't allowed to have any contact with any Akatsuki members once you leave the base. So spend it wisely."
Amaifuyu nodded as he accepted the money and hugged his father in one move. "Don't worry dad, I know how to be frugal, damnit."
Kakuzu smiled and returned the embrace. "That's my boy."
--
Hours later, the entire organization was gathered outside the base to see their children off. Most of the parents were simply staying near their offspring, trying to cram in a little bit of last-minute parent/child time. Konan was taking it the worst, and was actually crying while hugging her sons tightly. "My babies are all grown up now," she whispered before breaking into another batch of sobs.
"Mom, could you please let us go?" Hakushi wheezed out. The woman's grip on her sons was choking off all their air, and the twins were close to fainting.
Finally, it was time to go. The problem was, Tenshi and Boom had seen fit to disappear in the midst of all the farewells. "Where are those two?" Pein demanded.
"Hn," Itachi replied with a shrug.
"Maybe they already left, un?"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Everyone looked up to see a series of explosions light up the twilight sky, the sounds of the explosives echoing throughout the area. "Deidara, is this come kind of farewell gift?" Sasori inquired.
"No, un!"
When the smoke finally cleared, a large hawk could be seen hovering it the sky. Atop it sat two females; one a redhead, the other sporting dark-blue hair. "See ya!" Boom called out with a laugh.
"That's our cue, I guess," Ahato muttered thoughtfully. With a smirk, she looked to Heki and motioned towards the forest before them. "Come on. There's no way in hell my little sis is going to become an infamous criminal before me." Nodding, Heki ran westwards after the girl into the woods.
Amaifuyu and Hakushi seemed to catch on, and seconds later they were off as well, heading to the south.
"There they go," Pein murmured softly.
Deidara began sniffling nearby. "My little girls are off to go and kill people just like I raised them to." Soon he and Konan were crying together, with Tobi joining in a moment later.
"Life's going to be rather quiet without them around. Quiet? More like boring," Zetsu declared.
"I'm going back inside to rework the budget now," Kakuzu stated as he turned to depart. Hidan soon followed, and seconds later the duo was gone.
"I wonder what we'll hear about them," Sasori wondered aloud.
Pein could only shrug. "Who knows?"
"Itachi?" Kisame asked.
"Hn?"
"You think she'll be ok?"
Itachi didn't look to his lover. Rather, he stared up at the bird that was carrying his daughter away from him.
Tenshi looked down to the earth, eyes scanning the familiar landscape for the last time in a long while. Eventually, her golden eyes traveled back to the base itself, and locked with her fathers.
For a moment, the world seemed to freeze.
And then, without batting an eye, Tenshi grinned and extracted a very familiar ANBU mask from her pack. She slipped it onto her face for Itachi to see and then spun around in her seat. Now she was looking away from her parents, her past, and all she'd ever known, to focus her attention on Boom, the sky, and the future before her.
And as the children disappeared from sight, Itachi couldn't help but smile. "She'll be all right. I know it."
