A/n: Chapter two...meh. Chapter two.

There are a few differences between this story and the last one. One: there's no definite system; it's in no way technically predictable, no specific format for each chapter. Two: it's not regularly Chapter one: day one, Chapter two: day two; it's a lot more irregular in the timeline sense. Three: I made an actual plot for it! Really, there's an actual timeline and everything, that I made! So I know where the freaking hell I'm going with this!

Oddly, I'm still getting questions about Itachi. Didn't I already...? Fine, I'll spell it out. ITACHI'S ROLE IN THE FAMILY IS TOBI'S GIRL...BOY...PARTNER IN A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP! GOT IT? And no, I'm not mad at anyone who asked, I'm just...not in the best mood, I suppose. And kind of tired of this...and I'm not going to repeat this, okay?

I'm slightly disapointed at myself. I'm doing a horrible job of including everyone in Akatsuki. It seems to very effectively centered on Pein, Kai, Itachi, Tobi, and...just read the chapter. By the way, sorry I forgot to mention that random partnering change last time. Except it wasn't really random. It just is. I suck at a lot of things in writing.

Also...even though I seem to be loosing fans if anything, I'd still like to thank you all for your support. Wednesday was really crazy in the most literal meaning that you could possibly make from that. Really. And I think that the overall ending has something to do with this story and/or the people following it.

By the way, sorry it took so long for me to post this. I mean, maybe it's overall in the end about the same amount of time as usual, but it seemed a while for me. I want to say it's been almost a week? That's longer than usual. Sorry. I literally had about three total hours of computer time over yesterday and the day before, and Mom was pretty pinchy on my computer time before then.

Disclaimer: The vast majority of characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Not all though. You'll know who's mine and who's doomed to official death in the series.

It was two days later that Akatsuki again gathered at the breakfast table. After all, missions tended took place in villages, and villages were far away. If the mission had, for whatever reason, been to go to the front gate of the nearest village, touch the door, and return, it would still take the better part of a day, and their missions were most certainly a lot more complicated and time-consuming than that. Admittedly, they were but reconnaissance missions, not much more complicated than, "Go to this village; look for bounties, if any look easy enough to get quickly, get them; don't capture any Jinchuuriki yet, but feel free to look for them; oh yeah, and don't get killed."

And, two days later, Pein fully realized that he was right about something: switching Tobi and Kisame's places on the teaming chart was a bad idea. For one thing, Kisame and Zetsu…well, either of them alone would earn a vast majority of odd glances, but a Venus-flytrap-looking-person-thing walking the streets beside a blue-faced-shark-looking-person-thing landed them a picture of the front page of the newspaper. At least they got special discounts on everything, earned about twice as much money as they would have otherwise, and weren't challenged when they bumped into people.

The bigger problem, however, was Itachi and Tobi. Kai had once said that she was proud of Tobi for finding such a successful partner in love; maybe Itachi would be able to help Tobi realize that they were supposed to be heartless, merciless, cruel and cold killers, criminals who were going to take over the world. That Itachi would be a good influence on Tobi and his career in Akatsuki.

Two days after Pein sent everyone out on missions, they sat at the breakfast table again, and Kai leaned over to whisper into Pein's ear, "Maybe Itachi's too soft on Tobi-chan."

Pein had to agree; Itachi had to be really soft at heart to let things happen for Pein to see what he was currently seeing.

It was almost like when Tobi was still adding to the family, because it seemed that he was, it being the case that he was standing in the doorway with Itachi, he and his new partner both seeming content to merely stand in the doorway, observing everyone else exchanging nervous, suspicious, and/or surprised glances, for a very obvious reason.

A raven-haired, dull-eyed, ten-year-old, female reason that stood between Itachi and Tobi, holding one hand from each, looking about the kitchen with suspicion.

Silence remained draped over the threshold, until the girl turned her face upward to Tobi, raising an eyebrow expectantly. Tobi took a moment to notice, returned the stare, and then gasped in realization, "Oh! You're hungry, aren't you?"

The girl nodded curtly, squeezing his hand as he led her to the table and not letting go of Itachi's to form a three-person train that snaked its way around the table to Tobi's seat, glares and gazes following as they went.

Tobi pulled his own chair back and offered it to the child, who sat and let go of his hand to reach for the nearest eating utensil, then proceeded to stand on the chair to reach across the table and try to lift the rather large and heavy plate of pancakes, her knee falling into the boat of maple syrup until Tobi picked her up, sat her down again, and lifted the pancakes for her, placing the plate next to hers. She frowned but went on anyway, sliding the top half of the pancake pile onto her plate, bringing Tobi to a squeal. "No, not that many! You can't eat all of—"

The girl may have been young, but she most certainly could glare, and glare she did—well enough to shut Tobi up as she unceremoniously upturned the syrup boat over her pile to empty all of the sticky sweetness onto her mountain of pancakes.

As the child shoveled pancakes into her mouth rather impolitely but efficiently nonetheless, Pein cleared his throat, and Tobi snapped his back straight, yelping, "Yes, Sir Leader-otousama?"

"Tobi-chan," Pein began. "Care to explain this?"

"H-huh? Oh, w-well," Tobi answered, slouching his shoulders now and holding his hands near his chest, collected in fists except for each index finger, which extended to meet each other under his gaze. "Y-you see, there was a log in the road, and it caught on my foot, a-and I tripped and fell in a pile of mud…"

It occurred to Pein that Tobi's uniform had a long trail of mud going down the front of it. And the imbecile must have thought that was what he was mad at. "No, Tobi. That's not what I'm talking about."

Tobi's head came up, his expression under the mask no doubt pleading, as he whined, "B-but, it was raining out, and she needed somewhere to go, and—"

"Tobi-chan." All heads swiveled to Kai, who had taken charge even over Pein, each and every face bearing an expression of surprise. "This is Akatsuki, not a day-care center. We have no need for a child, nor the means to care for one, and for god's sake, how on earth are you going to take care of a child when you're supposed to be out on dangerous missions?"

"I-I can leave her…with you?" Tobi more so asked than suggested. "Blue-okaasama, you like children, right?"

Kai's expression clouded, but she answered, "That's irrelevant. A little girl would not be of much use here, she would be only a burden, and her parents at home must be worried sick about her."

"W-well, about that…" Tobi went on, leaving a pause for Kai to respond. She didn't, except to raise an eyebrow expectantly, so he continued. "W-we kind of found her on the street, and she was sleeping in an alleyway next to a trashcan—if she has any parents, I don't think they like her very much…"

Kai pursed her lips and closed her eyes, before finally answering, "Yes, well, the decision is not mine to make. Ask your father."

Pein mentally cursed Kai. How could she make him have to deal with all this? He inhaled deeply, eyes closed, wondering what on earth he was going to do. Aware of all eyes on him, save those of that little girl in question, he breathed out slowly, and announced, "The girl…can stay." Ah, Pein was too soft. It was Tobi's fault, though. "As long as Tobi takes care of her with no involuntary assistance." Because he knew nothing really about children, but he didn't doubt that Tobi would need help in one way or another, and it would be rather unwise to force cold-hearted S-ranked criminals to take care of a child.

Tobi jumped up, his arms in the air, and he exclaimed, "Thank you, Leader-otousama!"

Pein looked down and continued eating his own breakfast. "Yes, well, don't thank me when you wind up drowning in your own blood from some trap laid with her as bait." He took another bite.

Tobi froze. "Uh…what?"

It worked, and Pein grinned. "Love is weakness, my son. It can be a strength, but it's usually a weakness, and if you love that child enough to take her in here, she'll one day be the death of you, even if today she's the reason you're still alive."

He was suddenly aware of a sharp piece of metal flying through the air, and he caught it between his first two fingers just in time to stop the kitchen knife from giving him a ninth hole in his nose. Pein waved his hand away, dropping the knife on the table and revealing the mysterious girl holding herself in the position left from her throwing the knife.

That little girl just threw a knife at Pein, and with good accuracy for anyone, much less a ten-year-old girl.

She smiled, maybe not genuinely but definitely not intentionally deceptively. "I assure you that I will not be the death of Otou-chan," she announced, her voice relatively deep, giving her voice an illusion of age.

A/n again: Ummm...sorry I kind of jumped that whole Tobi/Kisame switch thing on you guys. But...I couldn't find a better way to do the thing. Muehe...yeah.

Preview: "Rude awakening" somehow seems like an understatement...(sorry for the short previews, it's mostly something like filler at this moment)

Tobi once gave Pein a book about parenting. And Pein somehow wound up bored enough to read it. It mentioned something about kids getting frightened at night by nightmares and crawling into bed with their parents. Pein could understand that, but this is rediculous!

Special: Grandchild: By "Grandchild" I mean this kid who just showed up.
And yes. She's Mary-Sue. So very really incredibly Mary-Sue you don't even know it yet. I'm kind of ashamed. Really. :shakes head: It's pathetic. I'd say I can't stand her and her Mary-Sue-ness, but she came from my own mind, so she's pretty much my fault, and seeing as I haven't yet totally remade her and her character and all that, I apparently can stand her somewhat. At least this should be entertaining. At least she's doing something in her Sue-ness. As in there's something vaguely resembling plot, if it's all disjointed and stand-alone.
Maybe she winds up being a little less annoying. She almost gets caught at some point when she sneaks, and...no, never mind. She's Mary Sue from beginning to bitter end. And let's hope that her end is indeed bitter. You know that there's something odd happening when even the author wants the character dead, but they're not.
Even her name is Mary-Sue. Literally. Her name is Mary Sue. Almost. Sort of. Kind of. I'll explain that more later.
Which reminds me of how evasive I am about her name in the story.