Tenshi was running towards the Akatsuki base a top speed, a huge smile painted on her face. The thirteen-year-old had a weapons' pouch strapped to her hip and a small backpack on her shoulders. Within the confines of that second bag were dried food, a change of clothes, and a small scroll that up until recently had been within the walls of a temple.
Yup, Tenshi had just returned from her first mission, and was eager to tell her parents about her success.
The girl had been begging to go on missions for a while now, but Pein wasn't comfortable with sending her out by herself, since the other children were obviously too young to go on assignments yet. On the other hand, the actual Akatsuki members were required to go on missions far too dangerous for Tenshi, which left the girl high and dry. Finally, an opportunity had presented itself to retrieve a scroll from a poorly guarded temple that wasn't too far from the base. Tenshi had jumped at the opportunity, and had been sent out two days ago.
The mission itself was easy, almost to the brink of disappointing. Tenshi had sneaked inside in order to avoid combat, retrieved the scroll, and bolted from the temple without anyone noticing. Perfectly executed, if she did say so herself.
Her smile grew even wider when the Akatsuki base came into her view, and she slowed down to approach the base at a leisurely pace. With a small smile, she entered the base, and quietly shut the door behind her. "I'm back," she called out, walking calmly through the living room.
"Tenshi!" Ahato and Boom were sitting on the couch, practicing with their art as usual. Boom leapt up and practically tackled the Sharingan user, while Ahato spared the girl and graced her with a smile. "How was it?" she asked.
"It was fine," Tenshi replied with the air of a veteran ninja. She carefully set Boom down, and began walking towards Pein's office.
When she arrived at the entrance, she took a deep breath before turning the handle and opening the door. The leader looked up at the sound, and smiled at Tenshi. "I take it you had no problems?"
"None at all," she replied, gently setting the scroll on the desk in front of Pein.
"Good. File your report and turn it in ASAP, understood?"
"Yes sir," Tenshi answered. With a slight bow, she exited the room.
As soon as she was gone, Pein sat back in his chair and let out a content sigh. "Yes sir. I'm going to be sad when she turns into her dad and just 'hn's at me."
Not saying a word, Tenshi walked down the hall and went straight into her room, silently shutting the door behind her. Once inside and alone, she let out a whoop and punched her fist into the air. "Yes!" she began dancing around. "Go me, go me, I did it, I did it-"
"Tenshi?" Kisame asked.
The girl froze in mid dance, and very, very slowly turned to look at her parents, who were now standing in the doorway and looking at their daughter like she'd grown a second head. "Are you feeling all right?" Itachi inquired with a raised brow.
"Hn," Tenshi replied, her mind desperately trying to come up with a plausible excuse. "It's my…hormones!"
"Hormones?" the shark and weasel repeated.
"Yes." She began sniffling. "I'm a growing female! I can't help how I feel!" with an overly dramatic sob, she slammed the door in their faces. Once she was positive the door was locked, she grinned form ear to ear. "Oh yeah, I'm good."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~days later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The explosion reverberated through the base, startling most of the members and scattering Pein's paperwork all over his office.
"What was that?" the leader groaned from his seat.
"Boom," Konan replied as she began picking up the papers from the floor.
"I know it was an explosion-"
"No, Boom! Deidara's daughter!"
"Oh. Wait, why is she setting off bombs!?"
"Ever since Tenshi got back from her mission, the other kids want to go out too," the origami mistress explained. "They all have cabin fever to boot."
"I suppose I should do something about that," Pein thoughtfully stated.
"If you don't want this place to get blown to kingdom come," Konan agreed.
"Hmmm…" Pein snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. "Konan, tell the others to pack their bags. We're going on vacation."
The female blinked at her lover in surprise. "To where?"
"The beach."
--
All the members of the Akatsuki were highly dangerous criminals, trained in every skill necessary to be a great ninja and fully capable of putting those techniques to use.
As such, none of them were halfway qualified to control half a dozen children bouncing off the walls when they heard that they were going on vacation to nice, warm, sandy beach.
"Sweet, I can blow up a seagull!" Boom excitedly cried out.
"Not if I make puppets out of them first," Ahato vowed.
"Don't be ridiculous," Sasori cut in. "Seagulls make terrible puppets; and Boom, neither you nor Dei-dei are going to bring an explosives to the beach."
"Awww," the twins whined, blue eyes staring forlornly up at their father. "Danna's mean."
"It's still messed up how they call you danna," Hidan noted with a smirk.
"Mum, do I have anything to wear?" Amaifuyu inquired.
"You're Jashin-damned swim trunks," the masochist responded.
"But then my top's exposed!" the child cried out in alarm.
Hidan sighed and rubbed his temples. "Amai, boys normally wear shorts to the beach, not girl's swimsuits."
"No cross-dressing at the ocean!" Heki jeered.
"Be nice to Amaifuyu!" Hakushi commanded just before punching his brother to get his point across. Seconds later, the two were grappling on the ground and cursing enough to make Hidan proud.
"I'd like to remind you that it was you, not me, that wanted kids," Pein muttered to Konan as Kakuzu pried the twins apart from one another.
"I don't suppose there's any chance you and I could sneak out of this, is there?" Tenshi asked Itachi.
The weasel shook his head. "Forget it. Your poppa loves the sea."
"Hn."
"Hn."
--
Problems began as soon as the group arrived at the ocean. "Ahato, Boom, come here, un," Deidara ordered from his seat under an oversized beach umbrella.
"Why?" the redheads asked, standing mere inches away from the tantalizing salt water of the ocean.
"You're daywalkers like danna, so if I don't drench you guys in sunscreen you'll burn to a crisp, un," Deidara explained, already dipping his hands into a vat of sunscreen as big as his head.
Grumbling, the girls conceded and returned to their father to be slathered in the white cream. Heki and Hakushi were suffering a similar fate, while Amaifuyu was free to run about with no protection at all. "Damn kid got off lucky, getting your skin tone and everything," Hidan muttered to Kakuzu as he rubbed a large amount of sunscreen on his own pale skin.
In only a matter of minutes, though, everyone was back out on the beach and playing; well, almost everyone. Ahato and Boom were chasing seagulls, Amaifuyu (clad in swim trunks, amazingly) was combing the beach, and Heki and Hakushi were splashing around in the sea. Hidan, Deidara, and Tobi were also swimming in the ocean, Pein and Konan were walking along the sandy shore, and Sasori was watching his children with careful eyes, as were Kakuzu and Zetsu.
Kisame, meanwhile, was trying to drag Itachi and Tenshi out from under their beach umbrella. "Come on, you two," he coaxed gently.
"No," Itachi said.
"There's sunlight out there," Tenshi added.
Kisame narrowed his eyes slightly. "You both could use some sun. You're starting to look as pale as Pein, for PETA's sake."
"That's fine," Itachi stated.
"Better than getting skin cancer," Tenshi agreed.
"Hn."
By now, Kisame was very annoyed. "If you two don't come out of there now-" before he could complete his threat, two pairs of Sharingan eyes were staring at him, silently daring him to finish his sentence. "On second thought, do whatever makes you happy." The blood red pupils returned to their normal black and yellow states, making the shark shake his head and wander off towards the ocean.
Later that afternoon though, Tenshi did emerge from her hiding spot and swam alongside her dad in the sea. Even Itachi came out, but only walked along the edge of the beach.
By the time the day was over, everyone had at least dipped their toes in the water, Heki and Hakushi had both been attacked by aggravated crabs, Ahato and Boom had somehow managed to get burned through the thick layer of sunblock covering their bodies, and all the parents were exhausted.
Needless to say, Pein got a few days of peace after that, which was exactly what he'd wanted.
After all, he needed the kids to be relaxed when he told them that they were all going to start having missions now.
--
A.N.: for those of you who don't know, daywalkers are like ginger kids, but no freckles. we burn under florescent lights XD