Joy was smiling softly, and whispered, barely audible: '….me? Cute?' I blushed furiously. She'd heard me. 'Stupid Deidara. Stupid Deidara. God. Damn. Stupid. Deidara!' I damned myself silently. Tobi seemed to have recovered from my explosion, because he hastily shoved a map under, nearly up, my nose. 'Senpai, what way?' he asked. I took the map, and quickly scanned it. 'Tobi,' I said softly. 'This is a map for Australia.' Tobi took back the map and looked at it with the eye that wasn't covered with a basketball like mask. 'Oops.' My annoying kohai shoved the map into his pocket unceremoniously, and raced back to his room.

'And Tobi?' I called. 'If it's in the middle of the ocean, it's probably Hawaii.' Tobi gave me the thumbs up, still running. 'Got it!' he replied. Then he ran into a wall. I sighed, and Joy looked away. 'Tobi is OK!' cried the Akatsuki rookie. 'Back in a sec!' I shook my head in frustration. 'You'd better be, un!' A few minutes later, Tobi had returned, thankfully with the right map. 'Took you long enough,' I grumbled. Taking the map, I started tracing out a route with my finger. 'We can go this way,' I said, still tracing the route. 'Shouldn't be too hard, right?' Tobi took the map from me, and followed my route with a gloved finger. 'Senpai, what about this way?' asked Tobi, tracing a new route. I was surprised. It was a good one. 'Through the Final Valley……good idea, Tobi.'

My kohai positively beamed. 'Thank you, Senpai!' I clapped my hands together, cringing when one of the mouths licked the other hand. But I was used to it. 'We're taking Tobi's route, leaving tomorrow. Joy nodded, and headed back to her room. Tobi gave me back the map, and literally skipped to his. I sighed. Why was I stuck with Tobi? Sure, he had pulled through with the route thing, but still……..

How was it possible that he was so immature? There was no way that someone at age 18 could be so stupid….. unless they were pretending. But if he was faking, what on earth did Tobi have to hide?

~~~
We were here. It had taken ages, but we were here. In Konoha. Tobi had pulled through more than I thought. His route not only shielded us from the pelting rain, but it got us to the hidden leaf village in half the time mine would have taken. Funny thing is- Tobi said this was his first trip to Konoha.
Joy pointed to a house close to the village gates. 'That's where my cousin lives,' she said in a barely audible whisper. 'Or at least, that's where she used to.' I nodded. It was close, so we could rest for the night and head over in the morning. Tobi nodded. 'I'll go talk to her! By the time I'm done she'll be begging to join Akatsuki!' he bragged. I rolled my eyes, sighing. 'We'll see, un.'

The next day, Tobi held true to his promise. At about seven o'clock in the morning, he headed over to Kairi's house, us in pursuit. The plan was simple, Tobi would go to see Kairi, and we would stay behind. If it wasn't Kairi, or if it was, and she started attacking us, we were backup. But only if Tobi needed it. Tobi skipped to the front door, and knocked on it loudly, slamming his fist against the strong wood, roughened and splintered from age. 'Hellooooo?! Anybody home?!' called Tobi, banging on the door again. 'Wait a minute….' Replied a muffled voice, distinctly female. It sounded tired. 'Yeah…,' whispered Joy. 'That sounds like Kairi…..' I grinned. At least she was alive. 'Open up, please!' called Tobi. 'I said, Wait a minute!'

'But it's COLD out here!!!' BOOOOOOM! 'WAAHHHHH!!!!!' Tobi wailed as he was sent flying, followed by one very pissed off Kairi. 'I said, wait a minute, you idiot! Can't you listen?!' Tobi pulled himself out of the wood debris of the cart he was thrown into. 'Wah…. Tobi is a good boy! Don't hurt Tobi, please!' Kairi shrugged. 'Hey, you should've thought about that before you woke me up.' I grinned. Tobi was finally getting what he had earned for the last three years. Kairi sighed. 'What do you want? When I hear that I'll decide whether or not to kill you, basketball head.' I snickered. 'Good one! ……have to remember that.' 'Basketball- oh, right. Tobi comes with a proposition. The mighty Akatsuki wishes for-'

'What's so mighty about them? About three of them have already been murdered by us chunin. You guys are wimps!' Instant anger. 'That squirt. Talking like she's the queen of the world, and we're street rats!' Kairi flinched, and turned towards where Joy and I were hiding. 'You know,' she growled. 'When you want to hear a conversation, it's polite to join it, not eavesdrop.' I stood up slowly, 'and whispered, 'Stay here, Joy.' She nodded, tears rolling down her face. 'wha- why's she crying?!' 'Hey, I'm here. Like the idiot was saying, The Akatsuki want you to join.' She eyed me suspiciously. 'And why do I want to join?'

'Cause we have a cool uniform!' piped Tobi happily. Kairi shrugged. .'You have a good point there- wait! Do you know how much money I can get from handing you in to the authorities?!' Tobi held up his hand. 'But! If you hand us in you don't get a uniform!' I growled, 'Tobi, shut up about the freaking uniforms!' Tobi stared at me like I had suggested forgetting about waffles. I said that once. He nearly died. 'Forget uniforms?!' He whispered hoarsely. Kairi tutted. 'That's low. You're evil.' 'Damn, now there are two of them.' 'Um, yeah. Well, do you wanna join, or should we trek home-'

'Like intrepid explorers!!!' cut in Tobi. 'I like intrepid exploring.' I whacked him, and yelled angrily, 'Beside the point!' Tobi rubbed his head, and walked over to a watermelon stall, fuming. 'But I like exploring…' he muttered. Kairi thought about my proposition for a minute. 'Besides the fact that I get your uniform- which is very tempting- why should I join?' I racked my brains for a second. 'Cause Joy-chan's in Akatsuki?' I said hopefully. The reaction I got was far from what I expected. 'Joy-chan! Is she here?! IS SHE?! ARE YOU HIDING HER FROM ME?!' Kairi yelped as she grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me vigorously. 'Where. Is. Joy-chan?!'

I heard rustling in the bushes were we were hiding. I turned around to see Joy-chan stepping out of the bushes, wiping her eyes with her sleeves. 'JOY-CHAN!!!' Kairi screamed excitedly, rushing past me so fast that she nearly knocked me down so she could see her cousin. 'OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!!!! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE HERE!!!' She said at an epic volume, hugging Joy-chan so fiercely it was more of a tackle knocking her to the ground rather than an act of friendship.
'GROUP HUG!!!' I hear Tobi shouting from the watermelon store, running in to join in on the hug.
'Oh no, Kairi might not want to join if she sees Tobi again, seeing as Tobi is going to be her new partner.' BOOOOOOOOOOM!!! I quickly detonate him before he can get there. The explosion finally caused Kairi to lose her grip on Joy-chan, allowing her to breathe. The smoke cleared and an ashen-covered Tobi grumbled back to his spot by the watermelon store 'Tobi likes hugging people but nooooo…'
'I'm in a good mood sooo…' Kairi says, walking up to Tobi and giving him a hug. BAM! 'Moment over'
'Haha, I'm liking this girl' I thought to myself
A dazed Tobi collapsed to the floor next to a Kairi with her arm outstretched.
'So, are you willing to join?' I ask. I could see that mentioning Joy-chan was a good idea as she said would.
'But only cause Joy-chan is here and the uniforms are cool. I still think Akatsuki are wimps, with me on the team though, it might actually get better.' Kairi smirked.
'Perfect' I smiled, then thought- 'This is excellent, now that Kairi is here then I'm never going to have to be Tobi's partner, AND I get to spend more time with Joy-chan!'