Title: This Just Isn't My Day/Chapter Nine

By: Ice-Eagle Y'Siri

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or the Akatuski or anything associated with Naruto.

Summary: Normally, I'm a very calm person. So just imagine me coming home with my friends and the Akatsuki in my living room. And all I wanted was a simple vacation annoying the heck out of the preps next door. Great. Just. Great.

I forgot to ask earlier, but I need a beta for my Naruto stories. I don't exactly know how to go about getting a beta, but I do need one, so if you'd like to be my beta or if you guys know someone that'd be a good one, I'd love to know.

Thanks and enjoy!
Ice

As the week passed and my concussion healed, the stress of having the Akatsuki living with us (My lovely self, Rian, and Cat) was taking its toll. Sure, they were fun/nuts/completely psychotic, but the work we had (I made some of the more tractable ninjas, like Tobi, help out) was a fairly large amount. Getting their clothes (along with ours) cleaned was an adventure in and of itself. Catherine was becoming so overwhelmed that she even drafted me 'n Rian to help.

Even though I was the one who filled the whole first floor with bubbles last time. Knee high.

Ahem.

Anyway.

From the way that Konan and Pein acted, Itachi and Sasori (Pein later assigned him to help) hadn't made any kind of headway for a chance at going back to their dimension. Then again, it'll probably take them a long time to figure how how do jump space-time-stuff-yadda yadda yadda. Hopefully, not too long, though. I didn't want to try to explain to my parents and other friends just what the Akatsuki was doing here.

"Aya! C'mere!"

I rolled my eyes as I departed from cutting up some cheese on the kitchen counter, "Yeah? Where are ya, Cat?"

"Where do you think?!"

Ah. Laundry room. Ooops.

"Coming, coming, no need to be so cranky-"

"-You weren't the one washing clothes for the past day, Aya."

I ducked and caught the (thankfully empty) laundry detergent bottle, "Yeah, I was, and so was Rian. The bleach you've been using for the bloodstains must've-"

Wait. IDEA.

"Aya?"

Oh. My. God.

This was GLORIOUS.

"Aya? You've got that look. What-"

I whirled around and started exiting, "Stay here. I'll be right back. I've got to find Konan."

Catherine-wet laundry in hand-looked baffled, "Sure? Just come back!"

Jogging around the house, I hollered, "Hey, Konan! Where are you?"

I skidded out onto the back porch to see Pein and Konan walking down the steps and into the nearby woods. Farther down the pathway, I could barely see Hidan and Kisame arguing about something, probably ridiculous. I put them out of my mind as the ninja I called for turned.

"Yes, Aya-chan?"

"When're you and Leader coming back?"

The two ninja exchanged expressionless shrugs, "Probably in a couple of hours, Aya-chan."

"Well, I'd like to talk to you when you get back, if you don't mind. I've got an idea."

"Alright. See you in a while, Aya-san."

"Bye Leader-and-Konan!" I chirped as I waved, then power-walked back into the house.

"What whazzat, un?" I giggled, "Nothing, Deidara. Have you seen Rian anywhere? I need to talk to her about something."

The blonde ninja pointed vaguely from his slouch on the couch, "Somewhere upstairs, un."

Being brave, I patted his head before starting to run up the stairs, "Thanks!"

I ignored his yell of indignation, "Hey, I ain't a damn dog, un!"

Climbing up the stairs, I roamed down the hallway and went up another flight of stairs. Rian's door was the first one on the right, while I had the room across from her, and Cat was diagonally across from me. Konan and Pein (presumably) were adjacent to me and the rest of the Akatsuki were on the remainder of the third floor and all of the second floor.

"Reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaannnnnn!"

"Yeah?" the yell came from inside the door, "Ya need me?"

Since her door was open, it was okay to go inside, so I jumped on her bed, "I've got the bestest idea freaking ever, Rian."

My best friend swiveled in her desk chair to face me, "What's up? Who's it this time?"

I huffed, "Silly Rian. Who do you think? Hidan. Duh."

Her eyes widened, "Oh. OH."

"Exactly. C'mon, get offa your Myspace-"

"-Facebook-"

"-and folllow me to the laundry room. Catherine doesn't know what's going on yet and I promised I'd help with the laundry."

My friend-if an Akatsuki (or heck, any normal person) looked at her-seemed to grin demonically, "Now I'm intrigued."

She turned her computer off and we trooped back down the stairs, passing Tobi and Kakuzu going in the opposite direction. Deidara was sculpting a figure of someone-it looked like himself, go figure-and Sasori/Itachi had retreated to somewhere else in the house. Ninjas are hard to keep track of. We made it past all of them without comment and moved down to the laundry room. Cat, in the meanwhile, had loaded most of the darks into the washer and I waved my hands at her hurriedly.

"Wait! Hidan's aren't in there, are they?"

Catherine looked confused, "No, they're right here. What-"

"We're gonna bleach his clothes. But I need to ask Konan about if there is some kind of color-preserving jutsu on all of his uniforms."

Both of my friends just stared. "Aya," Rian said slowly, "Why would they have that on their clothes? I mean, Hidan would probably WANT all of the blood or whatever to stay on his. C'mon. Freaky psycho here."

I raised an eyebrow, "Ninjas are vain, remember? Recall the whole incident with Itachi's and Deidara's hair."

Catherine and Rian shuddered and Cat said, "I don't want to remember. Ever. That was mentally scarring."

"Have I made my point?" My best friends glared.

Smiling cheerfully, I reached up on the shelf above the washer and dryer and picked up our industrial-strength bleach. Cat found it at some Home-depot-ey store one day, and it was wonderful for certain pranks. Since we couldn't figure a better place to put it, we just kept the stuff in the laundry room where it looked like it belonged.

Rian's eyes widened, "Aya, you're gonna use that? That stuff almost ate through the washer."

"Almost doesn't count. Quite worrying."

"The last time you said that the place was filled with bubbles," Cat grumbled, "And remember how long it took to get them out of the house?"

"Yeah, but you have to admit just how much shinier everything has been since."

"Why did we even let you try doing laundry again?" Rian rolled her eyes.

"Because she did her family's laundry for a couple of years without damaging anything, Cat."

"Oh, yeah."

I shrugged, "So I got a little carried away-"

"-c'mon, sweetie, don't lie."

I mock-glared at the two of them. Giggling, Cat started the dryer and Rian brought our own clothes down. Seeing the almost overflowing amount of clothes in Rian's hamper, I became slightly concerned.

"Jeez, Rian, what the heck-," I looked in her hamper, "Oh, heck no. No. No way. Rian, you are cleaning your shoes by yourself. There is no effing way that I'm going to touch these things. What possessed you to get them?"

Rian pouted, "Aw, c'mon, Aya, they're not that bad. You're overreacting."

I motioned Cat over to my side and pointed at the Disgrace Of Rian's Shoes, "Am I overreacting?"

"Yes," she responded, "You are. They're just neon-green-pink-and-orange Cro-" her eyes narrowed, "-You didn't tell me they were Crocs, Rian. These are the ugliest shoes I have ever seen. Ever. That's saying something."

"But they were comfortable! and under $15! And they're washable!" Rian wailed.

I glared, "The color combination I wouldn't have minded if they were on skater shoes or just plain old sneakers. They would've looked fly. But this? Crocs?" I shook my head sadly, "There is cheap shopping and cheap shopping, dear. You've just crossed that line by a lot. We are definitely tossing these in with Hidan's clothes when Konan gets back. Let's get our stuff done so that Hidan doesn't have anything to use for retribution."

"If he could even figure out how to use the machines," Cat pointed out, "Besides, I don't want him to see our underwear, girly and teenager-ly as it sounds."

"You've got a point, although I doubt we have any underwear he hasn't seen somewhere before."

Rian choked, "How-when did you find out that he-"

I gave my best friend a 'come-on,slow person' look, "The man walks around shirtless shamelessly and you think he's a virgin? I mean, gyawd, the ways he was pretending to hit on me was extremely frightening."

"Speaking of hitting on people..." Cat peeked both ways down the hallway, then shut the laundry room door, "Karie called my cell earlier today. She's having a party at her house and she's invited us to come. It's from eight to midnight. She says to bring something, but nothing spiked. Police are running a speed trap on her road tonight and Karie wants everything relatively quiet."

"I love how she put in the word 'relatively'," I noted dryly, "Is there any way we can back out of this gracefully? I mean, it's like a three hour drive there and another one back. Karie's all the way in Tallahassee. We'd get home at some ungodly hour. Are any adult authority 'keep-us-out-of-trouble-figures' going to be there?"

"More importantly, how many people are going to be there?" Rian added.

"Uhm...to the first question, her parents and her boyfriends' parents, and to the second question, the people we'd hang out with every day at the usual spot at our high school outside the art room."

I raised an eyebrow, "So like around 30-40 people. I hope to God she's not expecting me to make enough of a dish for that many people."

"Karie thought you might say that and the answer is no."

"Brownie mix, here I come."

"Can I help?" Rian perked up at my mention of brownie mix, but I shot her down with my next comment, "Rian. You. Nearly. Blew. Up. The. Kitchen."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did NOT. Besides that was a year ago-"

"-Irrelevant. Oh, yeah-did TOO."

"SHUT UP. BOTH OF YOU," Catherine opened the door leading to the outside world and sneaked a look in the hallway, " Oh, good. No one's in the hallway that I can see. Is the laundry loaded and stuff?"

"Uhm. Yeah."

"Then let's go take a walk or something and decide about this. Don't we need to talk to Konan anyway?"

I laughed a little at the mention of a walk, "I think everyone's doing that today. Hidan-slash-Kisame and Pein-slash-Konan are walking around too, although they're in the woods. Where are we going?"

While we exited the house via the front door, Cat answered quietly, "Just around the streets. Not far."

Cut to Pein and Konan, Konan's POV

"What do you think of them, Konan?"

Pein and I had been walking a fifty yards behind Hidan/Kisame and their shouting was proving to be a good sound screen. I ignored their argument and focused on Pein's question. What did I think of our hostesses?

"Well," I began as we ducked a branch, "They're hard to categorize."

"Don't, then. What do you think of them? Are they trustworthy?"

I shrugged. I only knew as much as he did about the three of them. The hostesses' equivalent to the Bingo Book, the Internet, was difficult for us to understand, and Kisame (though it nearly drove him insane to do so) had searched about the girls after they went to sleep and found nothing worth mentioning for any of them. There were no records of them besides what was located in that "demon-spawn excuse of a citizen directory" (said Kisame). So many people called each other different names on this Internet and so many had the same names. These people were either very unoriginal when it came to names or there were many more of these civilians in this world than we had originally thought.

This MySpace was not proving to be useful at all.

I summarized my thoughts with Pein and concluded thoughtfully, "For civilians, they are very brave. I believe that they're trying to keep us as-dreams that came true, to borrow a phrase from Rian. They do not wish for us to be so real as to get emotional when we figure out a way to go home. As to trustworthy, I think that all of them are capable of keeping their mouths shut, and so did you, Pein, since you didn't kill them immediately after we arrived. They're just pranksters. Intelligent pranksters, but pranksters nonetheless."

Pein nodded as we moved farther into the forest. The trees were different here; not like the large Poyaggi trees (1) from back home in Amegakure, but small, pale trees. Parts of the ground was damp, even marshlike, and many of the trees that grew in those areas here had their roots visible above the water. Poyaggi trees were more like the ones that Cat called "Live Oak" trees.

"That is what I had concluded as well, Konan."

"We let them live?" I forced the question. If Pein answered it with a yes, then he would stick to his word and see to it that the girls stayed alive for however long we were here. If he didn't answer, then he planned on executing them after all. Pein never broke his spoken word.

"They live."

I relaxed with a spurt of surprise. I didn't even realize that I was nervous about hearing his decision. Pein just raised an eyebrow, "You were actually concerned about what I would say, weren't you?"

I shrugged.

"You care for them, at least a little. Konan, we've only known them for a couple of weeks."

I frowned at Pein. We had stopped at the edge of the forest and faced the beginning of a beach. Hidan and Kisame moved on ahead, still going at maximum vocal capacity. Pein moved to relax against one of the large rocks and I followed, doing the same. Turning my head towards my Leader, I remarked, "I know that, Pein. But they're only civilians and we're S-Class ranked shinobi. We probably know them better than they know themselves. Also, they took us in and are trying to-acclimate?-us to their world. They didn't have to, Pein. They could have accepted us and then fled to gods know where and-with their military technology-would have been able to kill us all."

"Not if we got them first, Konan."

I shook my head, "But that is not the point. The point is that even though we are imposing on them and have already injured them, they have accepted it and moved on. They are doing very well for being on their own for the first time. Although," I added dryly, "it probably helps that we supposedly exist here as fiction."

"Yes," Pein replied, just as dryly, "It probably does."

I idly pulled a sheet of purple origami paper out of my pouch and began to fold it into a paper crane as Pein thought. I had hoped that he wouldn't kill the girls. They didn't deserve to die. At least, not for a while.

"Konan."

I looked up at Pein, "Yes?"

My fingers were still folding the crane as he replied, "Itachi and Sasori haven't found a way home yet."

I shrugged, unconcerned, "It's only been a couple of weeks, Pein. Besides, we're welcome to stay with Aya and Catherine and Rian for the summer. At the least, they have only a few months to think of something."

"Konan, Itachi's made new jutsu in less then a week. The longest it ever took for him and Sasori to come up with something-together, anyway-was two and a half weeks."

"But," I pointed out reasonably, "they've never jumped across dimensions and time before, now have they? I realize you are concerned, Pein, but we still have time. You know that as well as I do."

"Yes, but I'm feeling doubtful. What if they don't figure a way back? What if we never get home?" Pein sighed, "Those questions arise in my head a few times a day, at the least. If-"

"-If, if, if," I teased gently, "Pein. Relax for once in your life. We're not in the shinobi world right now. Taking a break isn't going to kill us. The girls aren't going to kill us. As long as neither you or I don't do anything monumentally stupid, the other Akatsuki won't kill us either. Not a lot is going on back home anyway-Sasuke is with Sound now and the Nine-tailed Fox container is on that three-year apprenticeship with Jiraiya-dono. We already have four of the Tailed Beasts (2). We have time."

Pein frowned, "I suppose you are right, for once."

I patted his arm gently and placed the crane in his hand, "For once?"

Pein regarded the crane in his hands thoughfully, "That is all you are getting out of me. I have something else to ask you."

"You know you can ask me anything, Pein, but I may or may not answer."

"I know," Pein looked out at the water broodingly, "Hidan's worrying me."

"I would be worried for a variety of reasons as well, Pein. Please be a little more specific."

Pein and I both chuckled. I fell silent at his reply, however, "Whatever he has planned for Aya concerns me. They way he flirts with her bothers me. I do not want her harmed."

I shook my head, "I do not think he intends to hurt her this once, Pein. The blatant flirting he does I think he actually means. While this is a miracle in and of itself, he will have a hard time with Aya, since she has," Here I frowned thoughtfully, "well, not a low opinion of herself, per se, but she sees herself very realistically."

"You mean..."

Males. I rolled my eyes, "She knows she isn't ugly, but she also knows she isn't the prettiest girl in the world out there. Aya realizes that she isn't the most incredible-in her opinion, mind-woman that Hidan's ever seen. She thinks that Hidan's way out of her league. As a consequence, she's not taking Hidan seriously. I also think this is one of the few times that she's been hit on seriously by someone and doesn't know how to react."

"I concur. What about the other two? Anything going on between them and the other members?"

"No. I think all three of them are trying not to take them seriously because when we leave they want it to be as painless as possible. I think that's also why Rian and Catherine are being so very careful, along with Aya. The other members-I'm not too sure yet. Maybe Deidara and someone. I didn't realize you wanted me to watch them for that reason."

"I don't," Pein traced the edges of the crane with his finger, "I am concerned for their well-being. All of them."

"As am I."

Pein nodded and pushed off the rock. I followed suit and we moved back onto the forest pathway, "Pein?"

"..."

I hesitated, but all this talk of not going back home had shook me a bit, "Together till the end, no matter what, right?"

Pein paused at my words. I stopped a few steps behind him. He held out a hand and I placed mine in his. For a short time, we walked back towards the house that way, then he let go before we could be seen. I smiled a little. He had put the crane in his collar.

I took that as a yes.

So! I haven't updated in forever!

But the dreaded things that begin with an E and end with an S and are E-S are a PAIN. I had been worrying about them and preparing for them for months (literally).

So, as a result, I was either too tired/brain dead/time-deficient to write. So I apologize. My bad. Since I have the whole summer now, I'll be able to write more.

Oh, yes. I can see you all just jumping in joy after that announcement.

1. Poyaggi trees are not real. I borrowed the name from a computer game I played.

2. I don't actually know how many of the Tailed Beasts the Akatsuki have at that point in the timeline. I forget. Don't bash me if the number's wrong. Just correct me through a review and I'll fix it.

How did I do with Konan and Pein? I HAD SUCH A FREAKING HARD TIME. They're so stoic half the time, and the other half of the time we don't know what they're like when they're by themselves. I hope I passed muster.

Heck, I hope I passed, period.

Please review, review, review, and no flames allowed.

Thanks,

Ice