Chapter 24: The Picnic
One morning
"Ahhhh" Itachi, Jonathan and Sasuke rushed to the room that the girls were sleeping in and walked in.
"Where is the enemy?" Itachi asked.
"Where is the fire?" Sasuke asked.
"Where is the killer butterfly?"Jonathan asked and everyone stared at him.
"Hey, there are such things okay." Jonathan said.
"Ya ok we believe you." Rebecca said before asking, "Now what are you all doing in our room?"
"We heard screams coming from your room."Itachi said.
"What screaming?" Rebecca asked.
"Oh you mean our alarm." Hinata interrupted.
"Huh?" Sasuke was stunned.
"AHHHH" the alarm rang again.
"That's what she means." Regina explained.
"Oh, ok..." The boys answered in unison.
"So do you mind leaving our room now please?" The girls pushed the boys out of the room and slammed the door.
In the kitchen
"Where is my breakfast?" Jonathan screamed.
"Shut up! You ask the same thing every morning." Sasuke exclaimed.
"Yup, I have to agree. But I have a strong feeling that it is going to be worse."Rebecca said.
"Help, I'm hungry!" Jonathan screamed.
"I have to agree with that." Sasuke agreed. "I'm going out for some peace, bye."
"Wait for me!" Rebecca chased after him.
"Wait a moment you two, we can't have you two running out now. Everyone needs to gather in the kitchen to prepare for the picnic later on." Konan stopped Sasuke and Rebecca from getting out of the house.
"Picnic?" Rebecca asked.
"That's right! A picnic, an impromptu decision I made over the night."
They reluctantly turned and head back to the kitchen.
"Hurry up now or there'll be no food to eat." Konan hurried and went up the stairs to Pein's bedroom.
"Pein, you better wake up right at this moment before I break down your door and wake you up myself." Konan threatened.
"Hmm..." Pein replied.
"I'm giving you a choice. One, you continue sleeping, and I'll feed Jonathan sugar and you'll stay back to babysit him while everyone is out. Just you and Jonathan, while he's having sugar rush. Two, get up now and head to the kitchen to help out with everyone else. Choose now."
"Give me another minute... I'll be down..." Pein murmured.
After another minute or so, Pein finally appeared in the kitchen and took his seat at the head of the table. He slumped down on the chair and closed his eyes. Satisfied that at least Pein came down, Konan did not say anything more and allowed him remain in his position.
"Alright everyone, let's get down to real work now. Just do what I've instructed earlier on and we should be on our way soon!"
Lethargically, everyone sets off doing their own chores unhappy to be dragged into this without any forewarning but they soon perked up and went about their chores happily.
Pein was the only one by the table not doing anything looking at everyone with droopy eyes. Konan got a little annoyed by Pein's attitude of not doing anything at all and just looking at everyone with his aloof expressions.
They finally finished up preparing the food and items needed for the picnic. They set off and headed for the designated place that Konan had decided on. They were surprised to find themselves in a serene place and settled and played teamwork games to bond together.
"Why do we need to play such childish games?" Hidan complained.
"I definitely do not want to participate in any of these games." Kakuzu added on. "It's a waste of time. And time is money."
"Fostering strong bonds among us would ensure that each mission would be completed with more ease. Each time we complete a mission means more money earned." Konan convinced.
"Alright, that's it. Everyone now let's participate enthusiastically. Think of the money we could be earning!" Kakuzu cheered.
It was only late afternoon that everyone started eating. Hidan threw an onigiri at Kakuzu as a revenge for earlier during the bonding games which he successfully dodged and the onigiri hit the person next to him, Jonathan.
"What was that for?" Jonathan demanded. Hidan only point at Jonathan and laughed rolling about. Jonathan took up another onigiri and aimed at Hidan but he missed and it hit Kisame instead.
"Jonathan's so dead." Regina commented.
"Jonathan!" Kisame glared at Jonathan and a food fight soon started. Konan did nothing to stop and Pein was still by her side trying to engage a conversation with her. But Konan was still annoyed by Pein's aloofness this morning and refused to speak to him.
Itachi was just about to drink tea when an onigiri hit him on the face and splattered all over. He looked over to see who the culprit was but because it was so chaotic, he could not find out the culprit and decided to just randomly throw at someone. But karma came back upon him and he himself got involved in the fight.
"I'm sorry for this morning; could you forgive me this once? I slept really late last night and I just couldn't wake up this morning. You can't expect me to be so energetic in the morning with only two hours of sleep and I hadn't sleep for two days consecutively..." Pein was still trying to get Konan's attention by explaining himself.
Though everyone was engaged in the food fight, they were very aware of Pein and Konan Pein looks like he is talking to himself.
"Mummy and Daddy says we must never waste our food." Rebecca said to Regina.
"That's right." Regina agreed. They stood up and headed to the stream nearby to wash up due to the food fight.
"Today was much more fun than I've expected." Regina commented.
Just then, some Konoha ANBUs were on their way back to their village when they spotted Regina and Rebecca from afar. They decided to abduct them back to question them about the Akatsuki.
They strategise among themselves and went ahead for them. Regina and Rebecca sensed them when they were getting nearer and took their stance preparing for a fight.
The fight between the ANBUs as well as Regina and Rebecca went on for quite some time before the Akatsuki members realise that they were gone for some time. They came searching for them and hear the sound of metals clashing each other and headed towards the direction of the sound.
But by the time they even got near to them, they could only see the ANBUs running away with two lumps of unidentified things over their shoulders. They were too far away for the Akatsuki to rush up to them and they couldn't catch up.
As the Akatsuki couldn't find Regina and Rebecca anywhere, they deduced that they were the lumps of unidentified things on the ANBUs shoulders. Jonathan having realised that those 'things' were his sisters, he ran after the ANBUs and shouted, "Give me back my sisters! What did they even do to you?!"
"Jonathan! Come back here!" Kakuzu shouted after him. But Kisame went after him instead but saw him lying on the ground instead face-down. Worriedly, Kisame immediately poking him with his sword, "Are you still alive?"
"Jonathan!" Hinata came running along and immediately got down to work to turn him over and heal him. But to her surprise, Jonathan was not hurt at all by the doings of another ninja. But he was unconscious due to a trip and fall.
Suddenly, Jonathan popped opened his eyes, sat up and started yelling at a rock be the side, "You! You stupid rock! Stopped me from chasing after my sister, I'm gonna smash you into pieces."
"You do know that instead of wasting your time to smash the rock, you could have chase after your sister." Kisame reminded.
"Oh yeah!" Jonathan said and rushed off. But before he could get anywhere, he trip over the rock. Again.
"That's so Jonathan..." Was what everyone thought in their minds.