(A/N) I would like to think that you missed me. Did you? TBNkurama: Uh, just saying Yes does not help in the slightest, but thanks for the enthusiasm. These are mostly drabbles, short little snippets.
"You want to do what?" Shisui asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Sasori-sensei said I had to ask permission to begin preparing a puppet body for me to transfer into when I am old enough."
Shisui sighed. "And he thinks he can transfer the tailed beast safely?"
Gaara nodded enthusiastically.
Shisui sighed again. "Fine, when you're old enough you can do it."
Gaara cheered quietly, sand swirling around him in entrancing patterns. He turned and ran off, presumably to start building the puppet with Sasori.
How that kid had managed to soften the heart of the famed Akasuna no Sasori, Shisui didn't know. But it was adorable.
(A/N) It was brought to my attention that I forgot to tell you why the Akatsuki are collecting the biju this time. This is a little while after they arrived at the base.
Almost the entire Akatsuki was there, except Orochimaru, who was busy, and Hidan who was not allowed to tune in. Mostly for fear of the children overhearing his foul mouth.
"We're here to announce three new members, and update our position on collecting the Biju," Pain said, standing solemnly at the head of the table. "Itachi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake brought Sasuke Uchiha and the Nine-tails jinchuuriki in. Sasori brought in potential member Deidara and the One-tails jinchuuriki." Pain nodded to each member as he spoke their names. Deidara was watching the kids in another room.
"So, uh, why exactly are we collecting the Jinchuuriki?" Shisui wondered.
"To give them a proper home and childhood," Sasori replied smoothly. "They tend to go missing ninja anyway, we're just speeding up the process. And giving them a nice home while we're at it."
Kakashi hummed. "No plans of world domination?"
"We had plans of world peace," Pain mused. "They were crushed pretty quickly, so we settled for peace for Ame and happiness for the Jinchuuriki."
"Maybe with all of the Jinchuuriki in Ame, the bigger villages will listen to us," Shisui offered. "Then we can make peace!"
Pain nodded. "We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, Kakashi, Itachi, the seven-tails is in Taki, we don't know who it is though, So reconnaissance will be needed before you can fetch them."
"Deidara says that Iwa's biju are being transferred into children, to let them hide easier," Sasori said.
Pain turned to Itachi. "If you wouldn't mind allowing Sasuke to accompany Sasori on that mission. It would be low risk, especially for Sasuke, as it would mostly consist of playing with other children and seeing if any two are ostracized. We'll send Shisui with one or two of the Jinchuuriki, and they'll do the actual fetching of the Jinchuuriki."
Sasori raised his hand.
"Yes Sasori?"
"Deidara mentioned he'd be too old for the transfer when it happened, that implies it'll happen after he's 16, which is when you can no longer place a biju in someone," Sasori said. "That means it will be done when the Jinchuuriki we have are around 12. We have plenty of time."
Pain frowned. "Kakuzu, you, Hidan, and Orochimaru will take turns harassing the Iwa Jinchuuriki. Don't kill or severely main, just harass. Make it seem like they aren't safe and try and get that table moved up. Sasori, you will be looking for Ukatato in the meantime. He is not affiliated with any village right now, so we'll try and get him on our side."
Sasori nodded.
"You have your orders. I will call you again if anything changes."
(Before Fuu, about two years in. Fuu comes about a month later)
Naruto was walking around Ame, saying hello to people, and just generally being an adorable 7-year-old kid. He glanced over, seeing Sasori coming in with a strange man. He ran over. "Sasori-nii! Who's that guy?"
"This is Ukatato. He has number six."
"Kit, let me out, I wanna say hello," Kurama insisted.
Naruto dutifully made the hand sign, channeling a bit of chakra to make a shadow clone of Kurama.
"Hello, Saiken," Kurama said, curling around Naruto's feet. "I see you finally got one of your jinchuuriki to go missing ninja."
Ukatato blinked, pulling a thingy out of his belt and blowing a few bubbles, which floated down, forming a tiny slug.
"I see you finally found a kit to 'parent', Kurama," the slug snapped.
"I have multiple kits," Kurama said happily. "This one's just my jinchuuriki."
Everyone stared at the two mini biju.
"Do you hate each other?" Naruto asked, blinking innocently.
The biju exchanged glances and shook their heads. "No, we don't, it's just playful teasing between siblings," Kurama explained.
Naruto thought about that for a bit. "Like how Shisui-nii doesn't like Hidan?"
"Uh, no, that's very different. They do hate each other. Well, Hidan doesn't care, but Shisui certainly doesn't like Hidan."
"Is that why Shisui-nii doesn't let us meet him?" Naruto asked, all innocence and sunshine.
"Shisui doesn't let you meet him because he has a foul mouth," Sasori said blandly.
Naruto looked confused.
Kurama nudged his jinchuuriki. "Come on, let's go show Ukatato his room, shall we?"
"Shisui!" Gaara shouted, running around the house, waving a scroll in the air. The puppet inside was much bigger than his eight-year-old frame, and Sasori had let him seal it away.
Shisui appeared around a corner, and Gaara crashed into him, sending both of them to the ground.
"Ow, jeez kid, what was so important you had to crash into me for it?" Shisui grunted, gently pushing Gaara off of him.
"I finished my first battle puppet!" Gaara happily waved it in the air.
"Oh? Why don't we go to a sparring room, and you can show me?" Shisui suggested.
It truly was a very impressive puppet, Shisui would guess it had been a Yamanaka, based on the long pale blond hair and slim frame, but he could always be wrong. The puppet was dressed simply, in a sandy brown robe that would permit movement, and weapon use.
Gaara had the puppet go through a few kata, displaying the weapons on the puppet. The others collected, staring at the interesting puppet. "My first puppet, Fubuki Yamanaka."
They took turns trying to cook for a while, with varying results. With nine-year-old children, that was to be expected.
"Naruto," Shisui began, staring at the attempt at food. "You're not cooking again."
Naruto drooped. "Aww, why not?"
Shisui gave him a deadpan look and poked at the attempt at whatever he'd been trying to cook. "When it ends up the consistency of jello, when it's not supposed to be, you did not cook it right. And you cooked it so wrong it ended up an unidentifiable bunch of gloop."
Naruto pouted, and Shisui ended up making ramen to cheer him up after that fiasco.
Itachi tried next.
"It's not terrible," Kisame hedged.
"It's about the right consistency," Shisui tried.
"It's got less spice then you do emotion," Naruto said bluntly. "You're joining me in not cooking."
Itachi looked almost sad, but got over it fairly quickly.
"You have officially joined the roster of cooking," Shisui told Gaara. "But uh, maybe pick slightly less clashing and powerful tastes next time."
Gaara took that gamely, Shukaku saw it as an insult and tried attacking Shisui's ankles, which failed because he was wearing thick boots. This was not the first time Shukaku had tried to attack ankles, which was all he could reach, so they all wore thick boots.
Kakashi couldn't cook very well, but he could manage. Fuu was enthusiastic, but not the greatest cook. Kyu could cook, no one was precisely sure why, but he could. Deidara burnt everything. Kisame was good at fish, just about nothing else. Konan was fairly good at cooking, and Shisui had designated himself as the permanent cook, something everyone was happy with, and the less said about Sasuke's cooking, the better.
"Are you sure that's not an eldritch horror?" Shisui asked, half-hidden behind Itachi, who was as unperturbed as usual.
Sasuke pouted at him. "It's fried rice!"
Shisui gave the monstrosity a dubious look, and shook his head. "Sorry Sasuke, that is not fried rice. At least, not anymore."
Sasuke pouted at him, but Shisui pacified him with a tomato.
(A/N) Aren't they cute? Poor Sasuke and his eldritch horror level of cooking skills. On the plus side, I can now spell eldritch without spell check! So, I have two stories, but only one open update day. Would you prefer to see Want the Boy, Beat him Up, a story where Shino stops the bullies instead of Ino, and when Sakura tells her parents, they give her an anti-fangirl talk, or Why Suna Hates Team Seven, a story where Sakura has magnet release, Sasuke's obsessed with Madara, and Naruto's a puppeteer. I, personally can't decide, so I'm asking you! If I could get help deciding here, that would help. A lot. The other one would be posted eventually, but after one of the other stories is finished. You have until Friday!
Uzumaki and Uchiha's spot just opened up as well, but it has two different options. The two options for UU's spot are Becoming a Missing-Nin with Your Cousin's Little Brother, where Itachi's eye is stolen by Danzo, and he dies at that cliff, and Shisui massacres the clan under orders, and then takes Sasuke and goes missing ninja, and Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind (name the reference and be logged in so I can PM you, and you'll get a sneak peek!) a story where Mito(Hashirama's wife) activates a seal and accidentally ends up in the Forest of Death with a five-year-old Naruto. Again, the option not picked will still be posted, just at a later date. Vote in the comments. You have four weeks from yesterday to decide before I tally up the final vote and post. The update during that period is a cute one-shot. I have polls for both of these up on my profile.
Just one more thing, congrats all you who read to the end, by the way, so, with my sheer lack of ability to have all of my story ideas updating with the current schedule, you have two options. I'm fine with both, so it really depends on what you lot would prefer. I can either continue like this, and just keep letting you pick what story you want to see each time a story finishes, or I can move to a three-week rotating update schedule. Your choice, I'll probably remind you of this each chapter until there's a definite answer. Maybe I'll do a poll, we'll see.