Chapter 2

As Tobi held onto my hand and guided me threw the many halls of the Daybreak club house, I got a bunch of strange looks from the other members. Well they were strange looks if you consider a tilt of the head and a glare to be a strange look. It didn't make me feel weird that they glared; it was the fact that they were all glaring at me. Everyone I saw had their eyes narrowed when they first noticed me. It gave me an uneasy feeling like I had just walked into a bar and said the wrong thing out loud. It didn't really help that Tobi was excitedly shouting to everyone that my name was Re-Re.

Nothing for me to do but try to smile and go along with it. I wished that Deidara would correct Tobi, but I didn't think that he would. He probably got a kick out of seeing me embarrassed. I looked behind me to see if Deidara was there, but he wasn't. He was already gone. The only sane person I know here, and he's already left me to be alone with the lions! Maybe this wasn't my best idea, after a couple of hours I'll just ask their leader if I can leave, I bet they all sit around and play DnD together.

If that was the case, and they were all just nerds, then why did I have an uneasy feeling about meeting their leader? I couldn't quite understand it. It must just be that I'm scared of being rejected again. I told myself. With that thought I managed to calm myself and tried glance at everything we passed so I would know the way out when I wanted to leave.

That walk seemed to take for hours and Tobi just wouldn't stop talking! One more moment with this guy and I was going to rip my hair out, he was driving me crazy! "And we are here!" Tobi screams excitedly to me. I look up at the big set of wooden doors that had been painted a strange golden color. I got that uneasy feeling again as I stared at it. "Just go on in and talk to our leader!" Tobi says as he opens one of the doors. "Umm, Tobi, is this a good idea?" I slowly ask him. "Go!" Tobi says as he shoves me into the room. "I'll be waiting for you out here when you're done!"

And with that Tobi shuts the door and the room becomes dark and quiet. I stand in the dark wondering what I should do. Should I say something or should I wait to be talked to?

"Hello?" I say slowly as I take a couple steps into the dark. "Don't talk." A voice says in my ear. I flinched; the voice sounded like its owner was standing right next to me. "You're cuter when you don't talk." This time the voice sounded farther away so I relaxed a little. I stand there waiting for something to happen. "Why are you here?" The voice asks. "Oh, ummm I'm hear to join your group." I say shyly. "You don't look like a criminal to me."

"A criminal?" I say softly. I became confused by the voices words. Maybe I had just heard it wrong. "What makes you think that you can join?" The voice says and a tapping noise issues threw the room. I started to feel like I was being interviewed for a job all over again by that woman who wouldn't stop tapping her fingers on her desk. "Well I can cook…" I say uneasily. The dark voice cut in, not impressed by my skill apparently. "Cooking doesn't get you into this group, can you do anything else?"

I think about all the things that I could possibly do to impress this leader person, only one thing comes to mind. "I'm a trained medical ninja." I say slowly and wondering why that would have anything to do with DnD. The tapping on the desk stops and the door behind me slowly opens. A light is cast across the room. At a desk sits a shadowy figure of a man. "Welcome to the Akatsuki." The man says.

The Akatsuki? I think to myself as I slowly leave the room. That would mean that all the men I walked by were S rank criminals! I suddenly became scared for my life as I walked down the halls. Each step I took felt like it could be my last. Tobi didn't wait for me to get done, as soon as he said he'd wait he probably forgot about it. My legs started to shake as I walked. What am I going to do? There's no way that leader guy would let me leave now. I wanted to go sit in a corner and think about what I should do next. I put my hand on the wall to help support myself. I wanted to collapse I was so scared. I sank down onto my knees. The floor was cool and it offered a bit of comfort to me. I closed my eyes and I wished that I could just fade away.

There was the sound of cloth moving beside me. I slowly open my eyes. There's a pair of feet standing in front of me, I tilt my head back and look up. I see the familiar blond hair and a blue eye looking down at me. "Get lost, ummm… Ren?" He asks while making a guess at my name.

It was close enough for me, I struggle to stand up. Deidara eyes me slowly. "What were you doing on the floor?" I shake my arms to get rid of my frightened feeling. "Sitting." I manage to say. "Well it's getting close to dinner time and we need you to start cooking." I pay no attention to what he says. "Did you know that you're in the Akatsuki?" I ask. "Maybe I did." He says. "Why didn't you tell me?" Deidara ponders my question for a moment. "So you wouldn't run." He finally says.

"What does it matter to you if I would have run or not?" Deidara, who has become slightly annoyed, narrows his eyes and tilts his head to one side. "I didn't want Tobi talking to me and I'd like to eat something besides burnt eggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." "Fair enough" I mutter as I walk past Deidara and down the hall. "The kitchen is the other way." Deidara points out. "Right…" I mumble as I walk past Deidara again. "Kisame will already be in the kitchen, so don't freak." Deidara adds in as I round the corner. Ha ha ha… like I'm going to freak about being in a kitchen with an S rank criminal… around all of those sharp knives and other things used for cutting and chopping… I round another corner and come face to face with a guy with dark raven eyes.

He stares uncaringly at me as I stand in front of him. He studies me for a moment before he walks around me and leaves. I breathe a sigh of relief as he leaves. "That guy totally scared me." I think to myself as I start to walk down the hall again. I stop when I come to a set of double doors with I sign hanging above it reading 'Mess'.

This should be it. I open the door and my eyes widen as I look around it. That sign really did mean mess, and what a huge mess it was! The table had piles of dirty dishes on it and there were all sorts of things that had been spilled on the floor, and there was even some strange green sludge on the far wall. I hear a door open from somewhere to my right.

I look over and see a man with a blue face approach me. "Hi, I'm Kisame, you must be Re-Re. Tobi has told me all about you." The man says as he smiles at me showing his teeth. "SHARK!" I scream as I run to the other side of the kitchen. "It's a snaggletoothed shark!" I yell as I press my back up against the wall.

Kisame folds his arms and starts to laugh at me. "You just covered yourself in green gunk." I pull my hands off the wall and a trail of green slime comes with them like when you step in warm gum on the side walk. "No!! This was my favorite shirt!" I wine as I pull myself off the wall. Kisame continues to laugh. I glare at him as he laughs. "No point in changing now, go ahead and clean this mess up, I'll cook tonight." Kisame says with a smile.

I think about what Deidara had said about how bad Kisamie's cooking was. "Alright, I'll cook tomorrow." I smile an evil grin as I say it. I think to myself about how much Deidara is going to want to kill me. It's his payback for being such a smug jerk earlier. Kisame goes back through the door that he had first come through. I hear pots and pans banging together as Kisame talks to himself about how he needed to get a new waffle iron.

Kisame reappears threw the door holding a bucket and a handful of what appear to be dirty rags. "Start with the table, then work on the floor. Its ok if you can't get this place clean by dinner time." Kisame says as he smiles at me again. I walk over to Kisame and take the bucket and rags, this time I smile back at Kisame. Somehow I felt that I wouldn't need to fear Kisame while I was at the Akatsuki base.

I spent the next half hour cleaning the eating area of the kitchen and boy was it horrible! It was easy to move all the dishes off the table, but it was the crust on the table that was hard to clean off! The crust was made of petrified eggs and the burnt remains of anything that the Akatsuki members deemed worthy enough to flick at each other.

Once I had scrubbed the table down you could tell that it was made of beautiful red oak. I stood in a pile of what looked like molded pancakes and admired my work. Kisame burst through the kitchen doors carrying a big pot of something foul smelling. He set it down on the middle of the table then went back into his kitchen area and came back with some spoons and bowls. He set the bowls and spoons next to the pot on the table.

"Ok, I'm going to ring my dinner bell now. You'll want to hide in the cooking area of the kitchen to avoid being hurt, the guys come running in here like a pack of hungry wolves. They push and shove a lot to get at the pot." Somehow I didn't think that that was true, but I allowed Kisame to push me into the kitchen before he rang the bell anyways. It was ten minutes before anyone came into the kitchen.

Kisame told me the names of everyone who entered. Zetsu was the first one to show up followed by Kakuzu and Hidan. Tobi came in dragging Deidara along with him and Kisame said that Itachic didn't come in for his food tonight. Kisame said that I could eat once everyone else had eaten, but I turned down his offer. I was hungry, but not starving. Before I left the kitchen, I made Kisame a list of things that I wanted him to get from the market or wherever he went to get food.

The list had some basic breakfast and dinner items on it: Ham, eggs, bread, milk, chicken, and exct. I wondered through the halls of the Akatsuki before I came upon Tobi sitting in a room alone. I slowly enter the room.

"Tobi?" I say wondering if he could have fallen asleep while sitting up. No such luck for me that night. "Re-Re!" He says as he springs up off the couch he was sitting on. "The leader told me that if I was to run into you tonight that I should take you to your room!" Tobi says as he grabs my hand. "My room?" I say wondering where it could be. "It's just down this hall here, it's where everyone's room is! Look, leader gave you the room next to mine!" Tobi says excitedly as he pulls me up to the door of his room.

"That's wonderful Tobi." I say while giving a fake smile. "But aren't you supposed to show me my room?" Tobi thinks for a moment before saying; "Oh yeah that's right." He pulls me a couple of feet to the right and swings open the door to my room. "Here is your room he says pointing into the open doorway. "Thank you Tobi." I say as I walk into the room and close the door behind me.

There's a bed by a window on the north side of the room and a dresser and mirror on the east side of the room. There was also a closet in the upper west side of the room. I walk over to the closet and open the door to it. I feel on the inside wall for a light switch, when I don't feel one I look up at the closet ceiling and see one light bulb with a tiny cord hanging from it. I pull the cord and the light comes on. Inside the closet there are numerous pairs of the same outfit hanging form hangers on an old rusted bar.

A note was taped to one of the hangers. I pull it off and read it aloud "Tobi helped to pick out your clothing." I crumple the note up. "Oh great I bet its some clown costume." I take one of the hangers with its clothes off the bar and lay it down on my new bed. I lay out the outfit that Tobi had picked. To my surprise it actually wasn't that bad. Sure, the top ended a couple inches above my bellybutton, but I really didn't care. The pants were a bit odd though, the left leg had been cut off of them about six inches above the knee, but I would just have to get use to it because I didn't have anything else to wear.

I lay down on my new bed in my new clothes and start to drift to sleep, but then there is a small knock at the door. I sigh and get up thinking that it's Tobi and that he's come to say good night. I open the door, but no one's there. I think that its Tobi playing a trick on me, but just as I'm about to close the door I see a small clay bird with a note sitting under it on the floor. I pick up the bird and the note.

I unfold the note and read it to myself. "Thanks for making me sick." The note reads. I smile to myself because I know exactly who it came from. "Why don't you thank me in person?" I say aloud. I wait a moment but there's no reply. I chuckle to myself as I turn around in the door way. "Thanks." A voice says behind me. I quickly spin around and see Deidara standing right in front of me. I stare up at him and he looks down at me. It's scary the way he can get behind you without you knowing it.

I bite my lower lip wondering if he was going to start yelling at me for making him sick. "I drank that slop that Kisame made thinking that you had made it." I smile a little. "Sorry, I was on clean up duty." Deidara smirks a little. "So that was why the table was clean, let me guess, whatever you scraped off the table, Kisame put into the pot?" I ponder this for a moment. 'Hummm sorry, no, but that would have been a good idea if you had told me that earlier."

Deidara half laughs. "Watch it Ren that mouth could get you into trouble." I, feeling confident, reply with a smug little "Who could I possibly get in trouble with?" Deidara smiles and starts to walk away towards his own room. "Me." He says over his shoulder. I smile and close my door. I plop down on my bed and roll the small bird sculpture between my fingers. "What a strange guy." I say to myself as I put the bird on a table by my bed. I get up and turn the light off in my room before I finally settle down for the night.