Foosha: Sorry everyone. It's been like... ugh.. I don't even have words to describe it. So I'll have Vash sum it up.

Vash: 6 midnight releases. Chemistry test that she most likely failed. Visiting family. Loads of homework. Etc.

Foosha: Don't worry though! School ends in a few weeks and things should be more regular! I have a three week Christmas vacation! Awesome! So until then I'll try to update when I can but I gotta study too!

Nicky: Foosha doesn't own the Akatsuki, Francesca, Rin or... hmm I don't think there are any other references in here besides Okamiden or DS's. So Nintendo stuff, too.

Foosha: And thanks for all the alerts you guys! You make me feel really special : P Special thanks to Miko Hayashi, Chillybean, Dust Bunnies Anonymous, Yuti-Chan, Crazier Than Hell, and DeeaE for the reviews! I really appreciate the support and feeback : D

Vash: 3, 2, 1... go!

The next day we arrived home around noon. Exhausted by the drive, Vash and I eagerly jumped out of our vehicles and ran towards the house. My duffle bag bounced roughly against my thigh, and eventually hit hard enough that it knocked me over, flat on my face. A weight dropped on my back and I could hear Vash groan.

"Ugh… Why did you stop?" I coughed and tried to wriggle free.

"It wasn't my intention… blahhhh I just wanna go inside! Vash, we need to invent teleportation!"

"Nicky? Vash?" I blinked and looked up to see Jen standing over us. Her face held an unfamiliar expression, one that didn't settle well with me.

"Oh… hey Jen. Uh, what's up?"

"Can I talk to you guys for a bit? Alone?" She nodded her head at the guys before walking back to the house. We are so dead. Sooo very dead. She must know. She has to know. Oh shit. I bet she talked to Rin's mom or something. Somehow she knew. Maybe Rin told? Or the crazy stalker neighbor? Shit shit shit shit. Now what? Vash removed herself from my back, pulling me up along with her and following Jen to the top floor of the house. I shot a glance to the guys who stared, confused. I held up a finger to say "wait". Hopefully they understood that…

"Nicky, come on," Vash called from ahead. I sighed and turned around to follow her. Relax. You're just overthinking this. It's probably just about something simple. Yeah… simple. Like… mail or something.

Inside Jen's Home

"Have a seat, girls."

I swallowed and took a shaky seat with Vash on the couch that sat opposite of Jen. Oh god I'm even more nervous now! What's going to happen? Casting a discrete look towards Vash, I noticed she was also nervous, though she appeared calm. I could tell by the slight fidgeting of her fingers. The atmosphere was quiet for a moment until Jen grabbed a bag from beside the armrest.

"I got your mail for you," she said, handing Vash the bag of two whole letters. Phew! It was something silly! See? No need to worry! Got all worked up for nothin'. "And… I didn't want to do this to you girls, but I'm going to have to kick you out." WHAT THE FUUU? Vash interrupted my raging thoughts.

"Wait, why? I'm not sure what we've done to justify that…" Yeah especially since we're step-sisters! STEP-SISTERS! DOES THAT MEAN NOTHING TO YOU? Boohoo… Jen sighed and crossed her legs, leaning back against the cushions to get comfortable. She seemed so much older in that moment. And tired. Not the Jen who likes to go out and be active and watch sports and Star Wars all the time with her son.

"Well… I was talking to Sarah Evans-" Rin's mom… "-and she mentioned how it was unusual for someone to rent out such a small space to so many people. Especially when they were all at such a young and "wild" age. Do you girls have anything to say about that?" Quick Nicky! Think up something! Anything! Just say something!

"Oh! Uh-"

"It's a complicated situation. Long story short, they are old friends of ours and have no other place to go, so we thought it would be okay for them to stay with us for a little while," Vash replied, interrupting my, most likely terrible, lie. Jen looked thoughtful for a moment, while I remained silent, picking at my fingernails until I noticed what I was doing. Argh! No! Bad Nicky! You're supposed to stop messing with your fingers, remember? Bad habit.

"Well… You're either going to have to help them find some place to stay, or you all will have to find another place to stay. I'm sorry, but I just don't like the thought of that many people living down there." Vash and I nodded slowly.

"Can we go talk to them about it then? We'll let you know our decision when we're done."

"Sure. Just tell me within the hour, because I have to go back to work later." And with that we were indirectly dismissed, filing ourselves out of the house and back onto the lawn where the rest of the guys stood waiting. Konan stepped forward to meet us.

"What's going on? Vash? Nicky?" I barely heard her, lost in my own fog of anxiety. What are we going to do? We can't just kick them out… and we can't expect them to live on their own either! I mean… one of them is bound to pull something stupid to get them caught if that happens! But… what else can we do? Leave with them? What would grandma say? Would she continue to pay my rent or will we have to find our own source of income? She'd definitely not be happy if she found out I was living with a bunch of guys…

"Nicky!" I blinked and saw everyone was waiting impatiently for my reply to something. Smiling sheepishly, I laughed.

"Uh… what was the question?" I'm sure had this been a less dire situation, Vash would have face-palmed at that, but she just remained serious.

"Nicky… what should we do?"

"Well… uh… we can't just kick them out," I rubbed the back of my neck and looked down at the ground. "…that just doesn't seem right so… I guess we have no choice but to find another place…"

"Even when you say that… what will our parents say? I'm sure they talk to Jen occasionally. So when she tells them about what happened…"

"Yeah… but what else can we do right now?" Everyone was quiet until Pein came forward.

"We will find a new place to stay." So glad you could clear that up for us. I didn't know we had to leave, insert extreme sarcasm here. Tobi hopped from the back of the group.

"Yes! And Tobi will help girlies carry all their stuff!"

"Yeah. I'll help too," Kisame agreed. Some of them nodded their heads slowly, and I was happy that we made a nice enough impression on them that they were willing to help us out. That or it would be too annoying for them to try to live on their own in an unfamiliar world. I smiled faintly to Vash, who returned the gesture.

"Well, I'll go tell Jen our decision then. I'm sure she will let us keep our stuff here for a few days until we find a place to stay. Nicky, keep an eye on them." Giving her a lazy thumbs up as she walked back to the house, I turned back to the group with less enthusiasm than usual. I felt emotionally drained for some reason. Probably the crazy trip on top of this serious decision has me stressed. Days like this I wish I could take a loooonnnng bubble bath. Yeah… and maybe we'll even find a place with a bath! That would be nice.

"Nicky." Coming back to my senses, once again, I noticed Pein was trying to talk to me.

"Oh… whoops. What is it?" But before he could continue, I realized something that suddenly excited me to no end, making a grin spread across my face. I pointed at him. "You said my name! You didn't call me "girl" or "you", you actually said "Nicky"! Hahaha! Awesome!" I almost hugged him. ALMOST. But I caught myself. He looked less than amused at my outburst anyway.

"As I was saying, I think someone is spying on us from the window of that house over there. Anyone you know?" I squinted in the direction he was looking and could see a face, but couldn't tell who it was exactly.

"Oh god, un. It's that weird girl, yeah," Foofy groaned, backing up farther from said home. Hmm… I wonder.

"I wonder if she lives alone…" I voiced my question. The rest of the group picked up on what I was implying and all stared at Foofy. He blinked at us and then held up his hands in an "x" shape.

"Hell no, yeah!" Inner me says to troll. Outer me says to be nice. What to do?

"Oh I'm glad you agree! Aren't you guys?" A few of them nodded while Foofy just turned red in anger.

"What the fuck, hm? I never said yeah, yeah!" I leaned towards Cal who was standing on my right, and covered my mouth with my hand as if to whisper something to him, but talked in a normal tone of voice.

"He must really like her if he just used a double-positive. I've never even heard of someone using a double-positive!"

"I SAID "I NEVER SAID YEAH, YEAH" HM!"

"So… you forgot to add the no? Is that why I'm confused?"

"I SAID NEVER! THAT MEANS NO WAY IN HELL, EVER, YEAH!"

"So… to make me understand… you did indeed forget to add a "no" to that sentence?"

"Fuck, sure, hm. As long as you understand what the no means, yeah."

"I get it. You meant, "I never said no, yeah yeah!" Right? Well I think it's clear to see who should go ask her for a place to stay. Foofy get on over there!"

"Hell no-"

"Deidara. Go now. Or else," Pein threatened in that scary/monotone voice of his. Foofy just grumbled to himself before walking over to the crazy lady's house. There was a tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see Vash.

"What's up?"

"Jen says they need to be out by tonight, but we can leave our stuff there for as long as we need to while we're looking for a place to stay. She just doesn't want them there," Vash answered, following my gaze on Foofy who appeared to be conversing with the girl at her doorstep. "So… why is he talking to Francesca?"

"Well… we're hoping maybe he can get us a place to stay…" From the corner of my eye I saw Foofy and Francesca make their way over to us. She was blushing somewhat while he had his usual look of annoyance. No one made a move to speak.

"Hey Francesca," Vash started, probably feeling more obligated to talk to her since she was the only person here who kinda knew her. "I'm not sure what he told you, but we're in a bit of trouble and need a place to stay for a bit until we can find a more permanent arrangement. And we were wondering…"

"Of course you guys can stay here! I already told Deidei that," the girl replied happily, playing with her long brown hair. Wait a second… how does she know his name? Vash was thinking the same thing apparently.

"Hang on… how do you know his-"

"Well don't just stand out here, let's go inside! I have room for everyone!"

We shrugged off Francesca's stalker-ness and followed everyone else into her home.

Francesca's House

It's been about an hour since we've settled into our temporary home. Francesca gave us a quick tour and showed us the basement which held four bedrooms and a decent sized living room with a couch. That's where we would be staying. We decided to figure out sleeping arrangements later and lounged around for a while. The Akatsuki had to be extra careful now that they were around someone who didn't know about their ninja identities. Kisame, Kakuzu and Cal all hid their obvious abnormalities. Maybe she already noticed their strangeness before though while stalking Foofy and just didn't care. Best not to think too much into it, probably.

I decided sprawl myself across the couch downstairs and play Okamiden to try to take my mind off the fact that I had to find a new home. It was somewhat helping. Yeah but as soon as it's night time that's all I'm going to think about. Ugh.

"Hey, what are you playing? Is it like that stupid monkey in a ball game?" I tilted my head backwards to see Cal sitting on the armrest.

"Where's everyone else?" He shrugged in response and snatched my DS from me.

"How do I play this stupid device?" I crossed my arms snuggly.

"Well I won't tell you if you're going to talk like that. You have to be nice, evil side. And you have to answer my question."

"He can't control himself sometimes. I'm sorry. What is your question?" I adjusted my position so I was now sitting up, cross-legged, facing him.

"What do you like to do?" He looked confused for a moment.

"What do you mean, girl?" I sighed and gave him a flat look.

"Like… what do you do for fun? In your free time? Like… a hobby I guess? I'm very curious about what ninjas do."

"I don't have free time really. Besides we have different interests. It would be stupid to try to have hobbies. We have better things to do." While talking, his expression became more agitated by the second as his brow furrowed in concentration on the game in front of him.

"That kinda sucks. I think I'd die if I didn't have free time or things to do during free time. Isn't there something both of you like?" Both sides were thoughtful for a moment.

"Well… we both enjoy human flesh." My eye twitched.

"Oh… that's right. You're like a zombie-ish plant man, right?"

"Would you like to be my next meal? I am pretty hungry right now…" Instinctively, I backed away from him, even though he didn't look up.

"Well if you eat me, then I'll never teach you how to play that game." There was a sigh and a reluctant "fine" before I felt the couch sink down beside me. He held the system up to my face and I took it gently. "All right, here's how it works…"

Vash's POV

"So you don't mind us staying here? It's kind of a hassle, I know, but we'll try to be quick about finding a new place to stay," I informed Francesca as we sat down to drink tea. Yay tea! I love tea. And coffee. Mmm coffee. She just shook her head and smiled happily while sipping her beverage.

"No! I don't mind at all!"

"Where the fuck is some food around here?" My eye twitched when I saw the Bitch and Stitches walk into the kitchen, one irritated and the other fuming.

"What the hell do you want?" The Bitch just folded his arms.

"Fuck you short whore, I'm fucking hungry and you bitches aren't doing a thing about it." Francesca turned around to face the Bitch who had made himself right at home on a chair beside us.

"Oh? Who are you?" She asked curiously. Suddenly, the Bitch's expression turned smug and he leaned on the table towards Francesca. Oh boy… I can see where this is going…

"I'm Hidan. You're pretty fucking hot." She giggled.

"Well aren't you charming. Hehe." Ugh I can't sit here any longer. I quietly excused myself from the table while the Bitch was distracted and scuttled into the front room, sitting down in a chair near the front window.

"So. When can I go back to get my money?" My expression fell when I noticed Stitches' reflection in the glass.

"No one is stopping you from going there now… except for the fact that Jen doesn't want you there. You'll just have to wait." There was a growl and some mumbling before I saw his reflection disappear. I sighed.

"Well... nothing too bad could happen at this point that would surprise me." There was a vibration in my pocket and I grabbed my phone, flipping it open to see an unfamiliar number. I answered anyway. "Hello?"

"Hey Vash, it's Rin. Is Nicky there? She isn't answering her phone."

"Uh yeah hang on… how did you get my number?"

"Nicky gave it to me in case she didn't answer her phone."

"Well… I'm worse at answering my phone than Nicky is… I'll go grab her. May I ask why you're calling?"

"…I just wanted to talk to her."

"Well… okay." I stood up and tried to find the door to the basement.

Nicky's POV

"Oh my gosh! Please just let me get past this part and you can play after! It's frustrating watching!"

"Shut the hell up woman! I'm concentrating!"

"Tobi wants to try! Zetsu isn't very good at this~!"

"Hahaha It looks simple enough. Let me try, Nicky."

"Hold on guys. Let's give him a little more time," I said to the group that had formed behind the couch, disregarding my own impatient comment. Tobi, Kisame and Deidara were completely transfixed with the simple game for some reason.

"Can Tobi play another game, Nicky-chan?" I gave Tobi a sideways glance. It's kinda weird talking to someone who always wears a mask. I wonder what he looks like. He must be really ugly… or maybe deformed! He could be like the Phantom of the Opera's brother! I want to see… but if he was that deformed, he'd probably get offended and cry. Aww poor guy…

"Oh what? Uh… I didn't bring any other game systems over Tobi. They're at home. Why don't you ask Vash if she has her DS?"

"It's okay, girly. Tobi found a toy to play with." I probably should have checked what he meant by that, but I found myself too lazy to care and continued to watch the agonizing process of Cal trying to draw a straight line for Chibiterasu to follow.

"Hey Nicky!" I turned around in my spot to see Vash standing on the stairs, her phone outstretched towards me.

"Who's on the phone?"

"It's Rin. She wants to talk to you."

"Nicky-chan! Someone wants to talk to you on your phone too~!" Confused, I shifted my position once more so I could see Tobi, who had my crappy phone in his hand, with some muffled noises coming from it. Vash stomped over to Tobi and snatched my phone from him, putting it up to her ear.

"I'm sorry, he's a child sometimes and doesn't know what he's doing. Who is this?" Her face suddenly went pale. "Wait, what? There's nothing wrong here! …No! He's not the thief that's been going around this area…. He said what? Well he's an idiot! …. I'm not a thief either! He just took my friend's phone! … No! Not like that! No wait-!" She let her arm drop from her ear and looked at me with wide eyes. "Nicky. We have to leave now." I shook with worry and excitement. Why am I excited? Something is wrong!

"What… what happened? Who did he call?" She gripped my shoulders, pulling me up with some sort of random strength.

"Nicky… he called 911 somehow. And somehow he hinted to them that he in fact wore a mask and they tracked where he was located. They know he's one of the thieves! They're coming here! Now! We have to go hide!"

"Wha-what? Well let's hurry then! Where?" Vash motioned to the guys standing around us to follow her upstairs while we talked.

"I'm not sure, we need to leave our phones though, or they'll probably find us. Oh! I have an idea!" She stopped mid-stair and put her phone up to her ear and started talking to it. Oh! That's right! Rin was on the line! Maybe she can help! Vash then closed the phone and tossed it on the downstairs couch. Sorry Francesca. I guess we should have thought this through better… I'm sorry if you get in trouble!

We all tailed Vash up the stairs, the guys being somewhat generous (except for Deidara and Cal) and let us go up before them. When we emerged from the door, we were met with the site of Smorehead flirting with Francesca. Pein, Konan, Spirit and Itachi random appeared next to them along with Kakuzu. Of course, Pein was the first to speak.

"What's going on?" In a rush of adrenaline I looked to Vash and nodded my head, knowing that she might not understand my intentions, and ran to Pein and Konan, tugging on their wrists towards the front window. I didn't want to alarm Francesca, so I figured it would be easier to bring them away from her. Pointing to Rin's house up the street I looked to the ninja eagerly.

"Can you teleport us to Rin's house with your ninja powers? We're in a very bad situation right now and I'd be happy to tell you about it when we're safe. Right now we need to get over there! Without being seen!" Pein gripped my forearm in a tight lock and I winced.

"What is the meaning of this? What has happened? I order you to tell me."

"Pein. Let's just go. You can interrogate her later, but it's best not to put us into an unnecessary situation." He huffed and relaxed his hold, but kept his hand there. He looked to the rest of the group who had been listening in, and they all disappeared instantly, along with Vash. The only people remaining were Konan, Pein, me, Marshy and Francesca. Pein gave a low growl and Konan immediately went to the albino and pulled on his shirt collar. There was some arguing but Konan won out in the end, pulling him away from the table and saying some reassuring words to Francesca, who was too busy waving at Marshy as he got dragged away. She motioned towards a corner of the front room out of Francesca's vision, where we met up before disappearing ourselves.

Holy crap! This is terrifying! I felt like I was falling, and my stomach had leapt into my throat before suddenly ending up on a familiar hardwood floor. Barely able to steady myself, I gripped tightly to the stable object besides me. I was roughly pushed away and ended up back on the floor.

"Idiot girl. What have you done now?" I shook my head and once my vision adjusted I noticed we were in Rin's dining room. The rest of the members gathered around, with Vash (who was clinging to a chair for the same reason I had been), and Rin who stood near Itachi. She looked surprised, but nonetheless happy to see us. I guess her mom isn't home… wait now's not the time to be thinking about that!

"It isn't her fault! It's your idiot member Tobi's fault! He dialed 911 which alerts the police! They can track your call from your location and now they're on their way here! We have to hide you! Now! And no objections or you guys can enjoy getting out of jail yourselves!" There was silence for a moment. Konan spoke from beside Vash.

"We can just use the Transformation Jutsu and disguise ourselves as other things." Now it was time for my paranoia to kick in.

"But what if one of you messes up? Like Tobi! Sorry Tobi but I don't think you could keep your concentration long enough. What if Rin I asked questions or something or they want to interview her and somehow you guys get seen? We should find a hiding place for you and then you can transform into something else. That way we have a backup in case something happens." Konan glanced at Pein who nodded. The smarter ninja jumped away quickly, leaving the slower ones and Vash, Rin and I, dazed. Vash was quick to recover and stood up.

"Hurry. Let's find these idiots good hiding spots so they don't mess everything up. Rin, you're a big girl. You know how to distract the police." Rin seemed slightly traumatized by the sudden action, but nodded anyway. She should be okay… she's smart. I hope she's okay. Or we go to jail forever!

We flitted around for a bit before successfully finding a spot for Marshy, Tobi and Deidara (much to his protests). We somehow ended up downstairs as we heard some heavy footsteps and booming voices sound from upstairs. Panicking I grabbed Vash and jumped in the walk-in closet beneath the stairs. Shit! Rin must have let them in! Someone must have seen us here or something! They aren't allowed to just storm in like that!

"What are you doing? We should have just acted natural!" Vash fumed while I just tried to move stuff so we could hide at the very back of the closet.

"I'm sorry but if I have to act in a high pressure situation, I'm going to mess up and it will all be for nothing! We have to hide! Now help me!" She didn't say another word and started moving boxes with me.

Once a bit of the ways in, we started moving boxes and clothes back in front of us when we heard someone stomping down the stairs

"Shit!" She hissed. We continued to quietly move boxes, all too aware of the voices that were progressively getting closer to the basement. I shoved a small box out of the way, accidentally knocking over a ceramic doll that sat precariously atop of one of the higher boxes, causing it to land with a crash onto the floor beside me. The movement outside stopped for a moment, before we heard a voice.

"What was that?"

"Oh uh… I have a cat so… it probably got caught in the closet or something.

"Well… we better let this "cat" out then."

Shit! I grabbed Vash and pushed her through the small opening I had created in the back of the closet, following close behind. She placed a pillow to cover the hole we crawled through and we sat scrunched up as we could, barely breathing in the dark. Now I just can't get claustrophobic… sh sh shhhh… calm down Nicky calm down.

"Meow." Alarmed, I nearly yelped until Vash covered my mouth when we noticed an orange cat beside us. Where the hell-? Wait! We can use this! I grabbed the cat carefully and slid the pillow to the side, pushing the animal to the other side in hopes that they would notice that and not go farther into the closet. I sighed internally until I heard a quiet whirring sound behind me. Vash apparently heard it too, as we turned around at the same time to see a vortex. Like an actual vortex! Did we turn on a projector by accident going through this mess? Suddenly we heard the door burst open, and some boxes started moving near the front of the mess. Instinctively, I scooted back farther, pulling Vash with me, until I felt the strange sensation of being pulled in. I gripped onto Vash tighter pulling her backwards with me into…darkness…?

THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! WHAT KIND OF SICK DREAM IS THIS?

Foosha: Sorry it's a cliff-hanger. :T It will continue though! Eventually!