Chapter 31: Smile Quest Arc - Faults and a Fright Night

It took me a while to finish this special Halloween chapter (even though it's already waaayyy past October by now), so I hope you enjoy! If you did, please leave a review to let me know!

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing in this entire fanfic aside from my OCs and the plot.


Kaiya's POV

"So, how have you been doing with your cranes, Yahiko-san?"

The orange-haired boy smiled nervously, then make a flicking motion with his free hand before grabbing back on to his fishing rod. "Hey, you can drop the honorific! Even Konan doesn't call me that, or Yahiko-kun, either!"

I smirked. "You know, you should really watch your line."

"Huh?" he questioned, tilting his head. "I didn't curse at you. Actually, I don't curse at anybody, so what are you accusing me of?"

"No!" I snickered. "I meant the other line, as in your fishing line! I think that fish has been biting for around ten seconds by now, while you were too busy talking to me about cursing!"

His eyes widened, and he quickly turned back to the pond, where his float had sunk. Yahiko swiftly began reeling in his catch, tugging back on the line every time the fish tried to vainly yank him under.

"This one is another heavy fish," he stated, and with a final tug, he managed to pull the fish out of the water.

It was the biggest catfish that I had ever seen, and I was quite surprised that it had actually fit in that small pond. The fish was more than a meter long, its silver, star-splattered skin glittering in the light from the Pure Land.

Dragging the catfish ashore, Yahiko quickly took the line out of the fish's mouth, his scarf of stars twinkling as he did so. Suddenly, as he was about to place his hands over the fish, his brown eyes widened.

"Wait," he said to either himself or the fish. "Are you the same catfish that we caught so many weeks ago?"

The starry fish flopped and wiggled on the ground, confirming Yahiko's theory. Its stars seemed to glow in delight upon the boy being able to recognize it.

"I guess that's a yes," said Yahiko, placing his hands over the fish carefully. "Now let's get you all fixed up, little one, so that you can be on your way."

With that, a white, starry aura surrounded his hands, surrounding the catfish and healing it back to normal. After about twenty seconds of healing the fish with his chakra, Yahiko smiled at the fish, picked it up, and dropped it into the water.

"Will it do that cool thing again, whenever they feel satisfied with their care?" I inquired.

To answer my question, the same giant catfish resurfaced, doing a mid-air somersault before plopping back into the water, its scales continuing to scintillate and sparkle. It disappeared into the pond, leaving nothing but a small, echoing ripple.

Yahiko set his fishing rod beside the linden tree. "You know, Kaiya, I've been noticing that you're pretty good at origami as well."

"Thanks," I answered, "but Konan is much better than me at it. I couldn't make a paper crane in under forty-five seconds, even if you gave me three years! Speaking of Konan, she hasn't really spoken too much lately. All she really does is take a look at some locket of hers and share looks with Nagato, or Pein."

At the mention of the locket, Yahiko's eyes widened. "Wait, she still has the locket?"

"I thought you've been watching her for twenty years," I remarked. "Have you been too focused on her cranes to notice that necklace? Whatever it stood for, I still wonder why she keeps on rubbing the engraving on it while acting like she's so deep in thought…"

"Stupid, stupid me," muttered Yahiko, burying his face in his hands. "How could I not have known that she was still wearing the locket that I had given her? I thought she had sold it after I had died!"

"Hold on," I interrupted. "You gave her the locket?"

Yahiko nodded, a wistful gaze in his eyes. "We scavenged for items in an abandoned jewelry store, and I ended up risking my life to find that locket for her. And coincidentally, it was one with an engraving that perfectly described how I felt about her. It was kind of overly cliché, but still, I wanted her to have it. It was during the time in which I had developed feelings for Konan.

"What did it say?"

He took a deep breath, then exhaled, his cheeks turning pink as he told me the words that had been engraved on the inside of Konan's locket. "On the inside, it read, You're my Guardian Angel."

"Aww!" I gushed, letting my slightly childish side come out because of how sweet it was. "It is a bit cliché, but still, it's so sweet! You should have confessed to her after you gave her the necklace!"

He sighed, smiling as he began to reminisce about his past. "Yeah, I should have. But Nagato was there, and most likely, I probably would have made a complete fool of myself. Besides, that was a little before we established the original Akatsuki…"

"You were the original leader?" I gasped. "I thought it had always been Nagato, because of his...what were they called, Rinnegan?"

Yahiko shook his head. "Yes, I was the original Akatsuki leader until I died. However, from the very beginning, I knew that it wasn't going to be me who saved the world from the wars, but Nagato instead, because he was given those eyes when he was born. And Konan...well, she was important to both of us in our own ways."

"Oh yeah," I responded. "Speaking of your death, can you tell me how you died, Yahiko?"

His grin quickly faded to nothing but a frown. "I guess I can tell you, since you and your siblings know so much about us already."

"Not necessarily," I answered. "I don't know when your birthday is."

"It's February 20th," he replied. "The same as Konan's, coincidentally."

My eyes lit up slightly. "That's actually kind of cool, how you share your birthday with the girl you have feelings for. But still, if it's too painful for you to tell me, then you don't have to tell me your death story. I haven't told anybody that I've been seeing you, so your secret is safe with me."

"It is painful, but I've told this story many times, so I'm used to it," he muttered. Sighing, he began. "Well, it was a time when the Akatsuki was at its golden age. We were doing very well, having little conflict during that year along with an explosion of new members. Nagato, Konan, and I had perfected most of our jutsu, and our friendship was stronger than ever. In fact, the day that I died was the same day I had planned to tell her how I had felt…"

"That's so sad," I said, holding his hand in order to comfort him.

He simply nodded. "We did not expect any fights to happen that day at all. Especially not one with Hanzo of the Salamander, who used to ignore us and occasionally, even support us. Everything felt just like a blur when he attacked all of us in an ambush after kidnapping Konan."

I gasped. "This man sounds quite scary…"

"He was," Yahiko continued. "At first, we tried to stand up to him and take Konan back, but when he held the kunai knife to her throat, I...I thought she was going to die, right there and then. In addition, Hanzo gave Nagato a kunai knife and tasked him with the hardest decision of his life."

Yahiko paused, taking a deep breath. Anguish flashed in his eyes, but he quickly shook it off. I still noticed this anyway, but let him proceed with his backstory.

"It was either to kill me...or to let Konan die."

"That's so heartless!" I growled, feeling quite angry at the man who had done this to the founders of the Akatsuki. "But did he end up killing you? You said that was the day that you died..."

"No," he shook his head. "I ended my own life with Nagato's kunai before he could make a decision. I didn't even realize what I was doing until seconds later, when I heard her scream my name."

My eyes continued to widen in utter horror.

"And before a minute had passed, I was...dead. I had passed the leadership of the Akatsuki to Nagato with my final breath. I had sacrificed myself...to save the life of the girl that I had loved more than anything else."

For a minute, both of us were absolutely silent. I could not believe what I was hearing from the boy who seemed to smile a lot in the Pure Land, who had died at the age of only fifteen.

"Maybe your death ended up telling Konan how you truly felt about her," I said, trying to cheer him up a little. "You sacrificed yourself for Nagato's sake — for her sake — all because you loved her."

"I guess it could be interpreted that way," he sighed again, pain laced in his voice. The stars around his neck had lost their glimmer, and were now nothing more than a few scattered, faint specks.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to him.

"It's not your fault," he told me. "Blame Hanzo and his men for trying to mess with Konan. I wouldn't be able to ever forgive myself if I just stood there and watched her die like that, especially with me being the leader of Akatsuki. But at the time, I didn't have any time to think about the impact my death would have on Nagato and Konan."

I couldn't do anything at that point except for giving him a simple nod. "Is that why they're usually the most distant Akatsuki members?"

"Yes," he confirmed sadly. "All of my friends up here in the Pure Land say that I was the Akatsuki's light: the one who kept them on the path to achieving world peace. But now that I'm gone, they also say that the Akatsuki is now trapped in darkness, having become a feared criminal organization that is set on achieving world peace through any means necessary, including the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians. That's why I want to finish folding the cranes: to snap Nagato and Konan back into their original senses and personalities before I was killed."

Suddenly, as I uttered hushed words of reassurance to Yahiko, the Pure Land began to crumble around me, telling me that it was time for me to wake up. He noticed this as well, and quickly gave me a nod.

"Don't worry too much about me," he simply stated. "Today is the day you celebrate Halloween, isn't it? Try to have some fun with your family, and maybe the Akatsuki as well."

And with that, the dream dissipated into nothingness, the last thing I saw being the sparkles from Yahiko's scarf of glittering stars.

I sat up wearily, my eyes slowly fluttering open back in the real world. The sun rays flitted through my window, tickling my face as I yawned and stretched. But when I looked around the room, all seemed to be rather silent, and Konan and Pein were no longer in their sleeping bags. The light from the window was much brighter than usual, which kind of prompted me to check my alarm clock.

"Two in the afternoon?" I gasped, my teeth chattering nervously. "Oh my Kami! How long have I been out?"

Suddenly, the door handle turned, and an unknown man barged inside. He wore a black captain's hat with a skull logo embroidered onto it, as well as an eyepatch that covered his left eye. The pirate also wore a small white shirt with tatters, as well as long pants with a belt around his waist. Strapped to his belt was a large cutlass, but I could easily tell that it was merely plastic and not metal.

Although I knew that the weapon was fake, I backed up slightly, just in case he wasn't who I thought he was. But then again, his identity was already made obvious by his blue eyes, signature smirk, and his bleached brown hair tied in a high ponytail.

"Nice try, Deidei-chan," I grinned at him as his face fell. "Next time, don't make your identity so obvious with your hair, eye color, and the way you smirk. But I'll advise you that you should try using contacts, or just simply style your hair differently. Either that, or we could try a Sailor Moon outfit—"

"Hell to the no!" Deidara interrupted, beginning to seethe with anger. "And must you continue to call me that even when I'm not wearing a girl's outfit?"

I pouted in a Kagami-style fashion. "Hmph! You're no fun, Deidei-chan!"

He growled at me, his face turning slightly red. "Shut up! Now you're beginning to rub off on your little sister's and Tobi's personalities, un! One idiot was bad enough. Two idiots were even worse. Give me a break, Kaiya! Do you think I need three idiots running around the house here?"

I just laughed. "Knew that I'd get a reaction from that!" Suddenly, I remembered what time it was and began to panic. "Why didn't you or anybody else try to wake me up when it was eight? I know that we don't have school today because of Halloween and the fact that it's Saturday, but I don't really support the idea of wasting daylight."

"We all tried waking you up at that time," he retorted. "But it was you who wouldn't budge or move from your bed. Even when we tried to snatch away that stuffed fennec fox of yours, you kept on holding onto it, as if you were clinging on to your last hopes or something, un. In addition, Akane wasn't thrilled at all with the idea, and sometimes attacked the other members who tried to wake you up."

Upon hearing her name, Akane flew into the room, perching on Deidara's shoulder like a parrot. A miniature eyepatch covered her left eye as well, and she had a polka-dot cloth wrapped around her head to resemble a bandana.

"Awk!" she crowed, almost perfectly mimicking the sound of a pirate's parrot. I giggled, running over to Deidara to pet the bird across the back. At this, Deidara scowled.

"Why does Akane get a friendly greeting and not me, un?" he huffed.

I cocked a brow at him. "Why does it matter, anyway? Besides, you were the one who was trying to wake me up from my slumber, while Akane was guarding me fiercely."

"Whatever," Deidara retorted. "Anyway, I was wondering when we can get this whole Halloween thing over with. I'm not a fan of candy or little kids, but honestly, I like this costume."

"My otoutos are really good at selecting costumes," I muttered. "But still, I'm sure you would have looked better in a—"

"I get the point!" he roared, before I could suggest him dressing as a lady one more time. "But must we wait five more hours? I just want this day to be over so that I can begin to scare the hell out of the passerby with Hidan and possibly Zetsu, Kakuzu, and Kisame."

Suddenly, a light bulb clicked itself on inside of my head. "I've got an idea, but I doubt you're going to like it."

"To be honest," Deidara muttered, turning away, "I never like your ideas. But tell me what you plan on doing to make the hours pass by quickly, un."

Smirking, I told him my plan, but instead of yelling at me, he just shrugged.

"Hm," he said, voicing his thoughts. "I guess that will work, although I'm only doing this because some of them can explode and cause explosions with their attacks. What is this kid's show called again?"

"It's called Pokémon," I told him. "Kagami has watched a few episodes, but it's been quite a while since she has seen a new one. Perhaps we should just watch it, for her sake."

"For her sake?" he asked, confused. "What do you...oh." I watched as Deidara silently recalled our past conversation about Kagami and how she hadn't used to smile.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Let's go gather everybody, since...did they all get into their Halloween costumes this early, like you?"

Deidara nodded. "We wanted to bet on who would scare the most children other than ourselves, un. I placed my money on Hidan, since he's a...what costume did you get for him again?"

"Dracula," I told him. "The lead vampire, complete with tattered bat wings, glow-in-the-dark fangs, and dark crimson paint to look like blood. But still, when we bought it for him, it took me around thirty minutes to force him to deal with a fake weapon instead of a real one."

"Well, that's Hidan for you, un," he snickered. "Always behaving like a mindless zombie."

I giggled, then walked out of the door. "Come on. Let's gather everyone in the living room."

We walked down the stairs, the first thing I saw aside from a squealing Kagami being the Akatsuki all dressed up in their costumes, most of which we had chosen for them. Pein was very hard to approach, but with the help of Konan, we managed to get him into an astronaut suit. Konan was dressed up as a valkyrie, with small angel wings, a spear, and a suit of feminine armor. Sasori was wearing a Hogwarts wizard costume, since Yukio had pointed out that he looked a little like Draco Malfoy when his hair was bleached platinum blonde. Kakuzu had refused to let us buy him a costume and waste money, since he believed that he was already scary enough. However, my siblings seemed to have wrapped him in a bunch of toilet paper and dubbed him as a mummy. Currently, he was grumbling at vampire Hidan, while Kisame, who just wore a shark outfit so that he didn't have to hide his skin color, stood nearby and laughed. And coincidentally, Tobi was dressed as a Pikachu, though he still kept his mask on. In addition, there was another Pikachu mask right over it to divert any suspicions.

We had also managed to convince Itachi to wear a kitty costume, but we couldn't tell exactly what he had felt about it. After all, all he had said was "hn", "hn", and "hn" again. Kisame had barely managed to translate it to "I don't care, do whatever you want. I just want free dango", though Itachi's expression at the time had proved him wrong.

Zetsu was dressed as a ghost to hide his plant-like appendages, with a simple giant bedsheet thrown over him with two small peepholes for eyes.

"I guess this sheet will hide who I am from everybody," his light side said as I passed by him on my way to the living room. "I could care less about this annoying bedsheet. We'll just take it off when it's time for us to scare all the little children, since you guys won't let us eat them."

When I heard that, I slowly backed away from Zetsu, then ran over to Kagami and whispered the plan into her ear. Her eyes immediately lit up when I mentioned the name of the show.

"Hey, everybody!" she called, summoning everybody's attention. "Let's watch some Pokémon until the sun goes down!"

All of the Akatsuki quickly shuffled into the living room, wondering what the "Pokémon" show was. They all took their seats on the couch, and then my siblings and I filled the empty spaces. However, somewhere along the way, I ended up sitting right next to Deidara.

Well, more like he was forcing me to sit next to him by grabbing my hand and refusing to let go, no matter how hard I tugged on it. His signature smirk was plastered on his face.

"What are you doing?" I growled at him, and he only smirked at me more.

"Making you sit next to me on the couch, un," he explained calmly. "What's wrong with that?"

"Everything is wrong with that," I retorted, "Deidei-chan."

Upon hearing his nickname, he let go of my hand, and clenched both of his hands into fists. "Will you stop calling me that? I'm not a freaking— Hey! That was dirty, Kaiya!"

From the other side of the couch, I grinned triumphantly. "You snooze, you lose! And besides, you played dirty as well!"

The five hours passed by rather quickly, especially with all of us binge-watching about an entire season of Pokémon. Kagami and Tobi were constantly squealing at how cute everything was: every time Pikachu appeared on the screen, the duo gushed at how cute he was. Most of the other members remained indifferent, although Deidara was slightly interested in the Voltorb and Electrode that occasionally appeared. In addition, Ash's Butterfree caught Konan's attention somewhat, most likely due to its wings resembling paper.

When the last episode of season one ended, Naoki stopped to check the time, then ran upstairs to change into his outfit. Kagami tailed her brother, trotting happily up the stairs in order. To change into her fairy outfit.

"I guess it's time already," grinned Yukio, following his brother and sister upstairs. I only rolled my eyes, remembering what costume he had picked for himself. Then, realizing that I was going trick-or-treating as well, I raced after my siblings, excited for what was to come on the last night of October.


Kagami's POV

"Onee-chan!" I squealed, racing downstairs to show off my costume. "How do I look?"

It wasn't that special of a costume, but I had thought that it would look nice on me. I was dressed in a poofy pink dress, with a silver tiara adorned on my head. Fairy wings stuck out of the back of the dress, defining me as a fairy in the costume. Kaiya had managed to find me a glow-in-the-dark fairy wand to complete the outfit, which I fabulously waved around.

Tobi gave me a thumbs-up. "Tobi thinks Kagami-chan looks adorable!"

Remembering what had happened last night, I forced a smile in order to play along and stop myself from calling him out as who he really was. "Yay! Tobi-chan! You look cute in your Pikachu outfit as well!"

Deidara rolled his eyes at me, but most of the Akatsuki members just smiled at me. Only Itachi, Sasori, and Pein remained unfazed, but Konan seemed to be interested in my fairy wings. There was no emotion in her expression — as usual — but I could tell that the wings piqued her interest.

"Where's onee-chan?" I demanded, looking around the room.

Suddenly, I turned around, hearing somebody come down the stairs. There, on the steps, were Yukio and Naoki, both in their respective outfits. Yukio, of course, was dressed as a devil, with little clip-on horns and a long tail with a point at the end. In his hand he clutched a red trident, though like Hidan, he also didn't seem to like the fact that it was fake, but he appreciated the fact that it lit up. Naoki had simply dressed as a butler, with an elegant tuxedo, bow tie, cane, and a bowler hat.

"Ooh!" cried Tobi, dramatically cupping his face with his hands. "Naoki-san and Yukio-san look very nice as well!"

Although Naoki just nodded, Yukio took a bow. "Thank you!"

"What happened to onee-chan?" I asked, curious about why my sister wasn't coming down.

Naoki shrugged. "I think she had some issues with getting her outfit on. I could hear her complaining from a distance about something involving pins and ribbons."

As if on cue, a loud complaint came from upstairs.

"Dang it!" roared Kaiya from her room. "Where the heck did my safety pins go? And where did I put my fan? Ugh! This costume is killing me!"

Naoki rolled his eyes. "I told her not to wear that costume." Yukio nodded, but seemed more interested in testing out his glowing trident.

Around ten minutes later, Kaiya finally came down the stair, a slightly annoyed look on her face. Her hair was styled in high pigtails with long, thin ribbons, and she held a large folding fan that had a sakura pattern. She also wore a pink kimono, but it was much bigger and slightly prettier than the one she usually wore, with colorful butterflies instead of cherry blossoms.

"Well," she muttered calmly as soon as she reached the bottom step, "at least we can head out now. You all have your candy bags with you, right?"

"Tobi has a candy bag, Kaiya-chan!" the masked boy exclaimed, holding up a brown paper bag. All the other members of the Akatsuki said nothing, but raised their candy bags as well, which were all simple paper bags. Smiling, I held up my pumpkin-shaped bag, and my two brothers followed, holding up theirs.

"Alright then," she said, pulling out a flashlight and putting it around her neck. "It's time to get some candy."

"And scare the living c*** out of those kids," grinned Hidan devilishly, and Kisame and Zetsu grinned along with him.

"Seriously," Kaiya said, sweatdropping. "Did you guys actually place bets on who would scare the most children?"

Deidara nodded. "Didn't I tell you already, un? I placed around twenty dollars on Hidan being able to be the best scarer. Also, for every child he scares, that's two dollars from him to me."

"Twenty dollars?" scoffed Yukio, holding a ten-dollar bill in his hand. "On him? I bet ten dollars that Zetsu will scare more little kids."

Zetsu seemed rather pleased with my brother's decision, but Kaiya just glared at him. "Et tu, Yukio-chan?"

I didn't know what that meant, but I just wanted to get out there and start trick-or-treating with everyone. Opening the front door, I clicked on my glowing wand and motioned for everybody to follow me. "Come on! What are we waiting for? I wanna get some candy!"

Kaiya nodded, her smile reappearing. "You're right, Kagami. We've only got one night to collect as much as we can. Let's do this!"

My siblings and the Akatsuki filed out the door, and being the last one out, Naoki locked the door with a swift rotation of his fingers. Clutching my candy bag in one hand and my wand in the other, I led the way, waving the wand like a baton. With the Akatsuki following me, it was as if I had my own criminal marching band, just without any instruments.

I took off running towards the house right next to ours, which was brightly lit and covered with cobwebs. "This one first!"

Dashing towards the door, I politely knocked three times, waiting for the neighbor to poke their head out and offer us some candy.

"Do we just wait?" asked Sasori.

"Yup!" I responded. "Usually, we wait about a minute for our neighbors to answer the door. But if they don't appear by then, we leave and go to the next house, but make sure that it's well lit first."

Thirty seconds passed by, and yet nobody had answered the door. I was almost about to turn around and head for the next house when a woman opened the door for us, holding out a bowl of candy.

"Trick or treat!" I squealed, holding out my candy bag to the woman who had answered the door. "Can we have some candy, please?"

She sent me a sweet smile before dropping some assorted candy into the bag. "Of course you can, little one! And I'll give your friends and some, too!"

The Akatsuki and my siblings lined up at the door, and the woman gave a small amount of candy to each of them. Tobi seemed quite happy about it, but I only rolled my eyes. After all, I was still sure that Obito was just putting up an act while using a different persona. But still, something held me back from calling him out and removing his mask. So I kept it to myself, and watched as each member of the Akatsuki looked at what kind of candy they had received from the woman.

"Quick!" I said, racing towards the nearest lit-up house. "Let's go to the next few houses and get some more candy!"

We continued trick-or-treating this way for about another hour, with all of our neighbors gladly offering us candy. Some shot looks to the Akatsuki, most of them at Deidara, especially because he was using a living bird as a pirate's parrot. Actually, I wasn't sure if Akane was really a living bird or not, since she was just a clay phoenix that somehow maintained a mind of her own. I didn't have the slightest clue about how that worked, but I made a mental note to ask Deidara about it later.

But eventually, we ran into trouble, especially when that trouble was about a ton of kids and their parents. And when I averted my gaze to some of the members of the Akatsuki I could tell that they were absolutely dying to give them the fright of their lives.

Before any one of us could stop them, Zetsu and Kisame were already over there, sneaking up on the poor kids.

"Boo!" they both shouted, popping up in front of the kids. Zetsu revealed himself, taking off the sheet that disguised him as a giant ghost. However, most the kids did not seem to have a reaction, while a couple of parents just giggled. Kisame and Zetsu both frowned in confusion.

"We're trying to scare you!" roared Zetsu's dark side. "Don't you guys ever get scared?"

A number of the children shook their heads. "We're not scared of anything!"

A little girl who looked about six years old ran up to Kisame, surprising the shark-man. Courageously, she stood up on her toes, and playfully petted Kisame's shoulder, shocking the guy even more.

"Look," she said, looking at a pair of adults that I assumed to be her parents. "Nice sharkey."

Kisame twitched, but allowed the girl to pet him, since he appeared to be frozen to the spot. Zetsu slowly backed away, before any of the boys could pet him as well. He bared his teeth at them, very much like a dog or cat would.

Back where we were, Kakuzu sighed. "Those young ones need to be taught a lesson about how you really scare somebody. If they can't even scare one child in that group, then they're nothing more than a bunch of cowards."

He approached the group of kids in his mummy outfit, waving around some gray tendrils as if they were part of his costume. Kakuzu said nothing, quietly sneaking up behind the kids that looked like they were the youngest out of all of them.

Poking each kid's shoulders, they turned around, coming face-to-face with Kakuzu. He used his tendrils to tower over them, as if he were a mummy about to attack them.

"Look out!" one of them cried, a boy who looked no older than five. "It's the cursed mummy! Throw some candy at him to make him go away!"

Before their parents could do anything, the kids began chucking some of their candy towards Kakuzu, pelting him with countless candy bars, boxes of gumdrops, and even disposable toothbrushes.

"Ow!" he growled at the kids. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Ignoring him, the kids continued to pelt him with assorted candies. "Get him! Knock that old mummy dead!"

Kaiya looked as if she was about to help him, but instead, she burst out into gales of laughter. I began laughing at Kakuzu as well, and soon, much of the Akatsuki was guffawing at the torture scene ahead of them. Even stoic-minded Itachi was trying his best to stifle his laughter, though I was pretty sure that he wouldn't have been able to contain himself if it were Kisame instead of Kakuzu. Hidan had already doubled over laughing at his pitiful partner...that was, until one stray chocolate bar hit him in the eye.

Uh-oh, I thought, watching a very angry look grew on his face. This is not good…

Realizing the dangerous situation, Yukio made a lunge to grab Hidan's vampire cloak, but by then, the foul-mouthed guy had already dashed over to the kids, beginning to curse angrily at them.

"What the f****** c***, you God-d*** little s****?" Hidan thundered at the group, pointing his scythe at them. "Throw your f****** candy at some other b******, like that wrinkled b****** right there!"

He pointed towards Kakuzu, hoping that they would actually pelt the old guy with candy. Instead, they slowly backed away from Hidan, then ran away screaming, parents covering their children's ears.

I sweatdropped, staring at the Jashinist incredulously. Mentally, I wondered how anybody could use so much profanity in just two sentences, but then again, that was Hidan, after all. The majority of us stared at him, wide-eyed. Deidara's jaw dropped at first, but it quickly changed into a smirk, realizing how much money that he was going to earn. Kakuzu cocked a brow at his partner, then sighed, realizing that Hidan had just annihilated everybody at scaring children.

"Uh…" stammered Yukio, "I think we should just...get on with trick-or-treating? Yeah, let's get on with that…"

Hidan grinned, still unaware of the sum that he was going to owe Deidara. "Well, how was that? I told you that I could scare a ton of little s****!"

Kaiya slowly backed away from Hidan, moving towards the next few houses on the block. "Yukio-chan, you're right. Let's just visit these last few houses, and then we can head back home to enjoy some candy."

At that, Tobi and I squealed, but not with each other. "Yay!" I said, "I wanna have some candy, onee-chan!"

She smiled at me, patting my head. "Patience, imouto. We'll be home soon."

Once we had stopped at each of the lit houses at the end of the neighborhood, we turned back around and headed back towards our house. Each one of us had a huge amount of candy in our bags, with Tobi's bag almost giving way under the weight of the amount of candy inside. I kept my distance from him, but pretended to be happy still, all the way home.

As soon as we got home, I dumped my load of candy on the table and began sorting through the sweets. I separated each one by its flavor: fruity ones in one pile, chocolates in another, and sour candy in a third. My siblings and a couple other members of the Akatsuki repeated this process, but with their own candy.

Some of the Akatsuki members were slightly irked that they didn't get to scare the most kids, but in my opinion, this year's Halloween was a major success. We had managed to restock our supply of candy, and we were able to teach the Akatsuki all about the amazing holiday. The only problem was…

"Why do you have to take all of my d*** money, Deidara-chan?" growled Hidan angrily, handing the blonde a large sum of dollars.

Deidara only smirked. "Hey, it was a win-win, un. I bet twenty dollars that you would win, and you scared away both adults and children with your profanity issue." On his shoulder, Akane squawked in agreement, narrowing her eyes at the silver-haired man.

Hidan just scowled at him. "What the f*** are you trying to say, blondie? I don't have a d*** issue with f****** profanity! P*** off, b******!"

"Hey, I'm not a blondie anymore, you idiot!" retorted Deidara. "I have brown hair now, un! Just because your hair dye washed off so quickly doesn't mean mine has!"

I listened to their conversation and sweatdropped nervously. "Stop it, you two. You both got candy, so be happy! Even your leader seems to be enjoying himself right now!"

Pointing towards where Pein was indeed, munching away on a bag of Skittles, all three of us snickered at the sight that we had never thought we would live to see: Pein enjoying himself. But still, he wasn't smiling.

"Seriously?" grumbled Hidan. Realizing that Deidara had won fair and square, he sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll let it go for one f****** night and enjoy some candy."

He reached into his bag and pulled out a bag of Skittles as well, and quickly wolfed down all of its contents. I mean, he just ate every single one without bothering to share with Deidara.

"Um...Hidan-san?" I said, tilting my head to the side. "You're supposed to eat them one by one, not all at once. It loses its unique fruity flavor that way, and then it'll be no fun to eat."

"Well, why didn't you tell me that earlier, you little s***?" he growled at me, raising his plastic scythe in the air.

"S-s-scary!" I stuttered, then ran up the stairs in mock fear as I heard Deidara chuckling behind me. Hidan laughed as well, then stopped, realizing what he had just done.

"Oh, come f****** on!"


A/N: Longest chapter yet, although I hope it wasn't too boring. I wrote most of this with a sore back...

Question: Favorite cookie? I like Shortbreads from Girl Scouts!

Au revoir! See you again next time!

— Tenshi —