The ten kittens eyed the girl curiously, watching her every move as she carried them up a steep hill. Only Sasori and Kisame studied her features and took note of her injury, the blood now dripping into the box from her head.
" I'm going to sacrifice her fucking ass to Jashin; this bitch has another thing coming to her if a stupid head wound hurts her that bad!" Hidan hissed, making his way to the blood and lapping it up with his tongue. To his displeasure, his fur refused to change color.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…Baka."
" Shut the fuck up, Kakuzu. Who fucking cares what you think? Just fucking wait, once I get back to normal she's a dead woman." A black kitten made his way up to Hidan his eyes glowing red.
" If you kill her, what do you suppose we do to get back to normal?" Itachi turned with a flick of his tail towards a bright orange tabby,"Leader-Sama?" Hidan growled at the Uchiha, but shrunk under the darker cat's red stare.
" Itachi is right, Hidan," Pein hissed, "Nobody touches her. She might know something." The girl peered down at them, blood in her eye, and gave them a crooked smile.
"Y'know, this would be much more peaceful if you guys would shut up and enjoy the ride. There's a reason I like dogs more, just saying," she said.
Hidan bristled. "What'd you say, you bitch? Say it again I fucking dare y -"
"Hidan! ENOUGH," Pein yelled. However, much to everyone's dismay, he threw himself up against the side of the box and sent the box tumbling out of Jean's hands. She screamed and tried to catch it.
"Dammit, Hidan!" Deidara screamed.
They all tumbled out of the box and onto somebody's lawn. Kisame landed on Deidara's head and fell to the side next to Tobi who screamed in delight the whole way down. The rest of them landed on their feet or on each other. Jean yelped when her knees hit the sidewalk, the sound of bone on concrete surprising her more than hurting her, and fell to her hip.
"What the hell?" she yelled, pushing herself up with a groan. A second later, among slightly dazed kittens, she snatched up Hidan and held him directly in front of her face, but just far enough to avoid its claws. "Do you know how annoying you are? Do you? Do I have to punish you? Because I swear I will. Just because you're a kitten doesn't mean I won't be hard on you and your fluffy freaking butt."
"I fucking dare you, you dumb bitch," Hidan hissed right before she dropped him for good measure. He landed with a grunt back in the box and she began picking up kittens once her hands were free, putting them back with him. She wondered slightly if she even had the money to support them back at home, especially with only her part time job as her only personal income, because even with Ren's full time job covering their rent and Heath's job as a police officer paying for their groceries and most of the bills, she'd have to pay for her own insurance, her own personal supplies, and her part of the bills, too. There were plenty of luxuries she paid for week after week so if cat food cost around five to ten dollars per package which could last...maybe a week (if she was lucky) then by eliminating her morning coffee run every other day it would free enough money in the end. Wait, would she buy the dry cat food or the wet cat food? Which was better for cats this age?
Taking off her jacket, Jean draped it over the box and secured it under her hands on the bottom. The kittens all mewed up at her in protest. When the rain started to poor harder, she cursed and tried to focus on the beads of water roll off the fabric while she jogged as smoothly as she could towards her apartment. At least she knew that the blood from her head wouldn't dry up and tangle her hair.
Jean slammed the front door with the back of her foot and kicked off her boots so they hit the wall next to the rug. She whipped her hair around and out of her face, spraying water across the room.
"Hey!" Heath yelled, glaring in her direction. He tossed a Life magazine on the coffee table and wiped his face. Jean smiled unapologetically.
"Afraid of a little water?" she asked.
"If you're trying to make fun of me because I can't swim then go screw yourself. What?" he added after seeing her frown, "Oh, I'm sorry-go screw yourself respectfully."
"You too, buddy," she snorted, moving upstairs towards her room. Heath followed behind her and tried to get a look over her shoulder.
"What's in the box?" he asked.
From under her jacket, Deidara was mewing almost frantically. "Who is that, un?" the blond cat said. Kakuzu shot him a look and tumbled into Pein when Jean hit the top step. The ginger cat angrily swiped at him with claws bared.
"Cats?" Heath asked, grinning deviously, "Purr-fect."
"Go bother someone else!" she yelled, darting inside her room and slamming the door behind her. Heath let out a sound of annoyance, but didn't try to follow her; once she could hear his footsteps receding she tossed the jacket aside and started removing the furballs from the soggy box.
"Hey everyone," she cooed, "Welcome to my room-please don't pee on anything or-or rip anything. Please? I can get you guys some food in a few minutes and water is on its way! At least you aren't in the rain anymore?"
"At least there's that," Sasori concluded, actually grateful, licking a paw.
"Danna, what are you doing, un? We aren't really cats, you know that right?" Deidara started. Sasori just stared at him and kept it up.
"Does it bother you, brat? Maybe if you learned to be more like a cat you wouldn't be as disgusting as a human," he said.
As Jean was pulling Pein from the box, she stopped to consider the black markings in his fur that represented his piercings, cocking her head to the side.
"Funny, your cute kitty birthmarks remind me of Pein-sama," she laughed, cupping him to her chest. Pein froze and stared up at her, kitty eyes slightly wider. When she put him down, the rest of the Akatsuki stared at him with curiosity and bewilderment.
" Pein? Do you know her?" Konan asked, padding over to her. He shook his head and looked away.
"Tobi likes girl-chan! Girl-chan is the only reason we're out of the rain!"
"Tobi, say one more word, and you'll regret it," Zetsu growled, his yellow eyes trained on the tiny calico.
"Stay here, kitties, I'm going to get you some water," she said, standing up and carefully stepping over them all. It would have been fine had it have not been for Hidan. The silver cat had been digging his claws into the carpet for five minutes before she started moving, so when he retracted them and sunk down into a crouch Kakuzu launched himself straight at him, tackling him to the ground. The two of them rolled around, hissing, spitting, and chasing at one another across the room, darting in and out of the furniture, jumping over the other Akatsuki and barrelling into their owner's legs. She yelled at them to stop and chased them around the room.
"Kisame-sama, watch out!" Tobi yelled. Kisame looked towards him, away from Jean who tripped over him one moment and stepped on Itachi's tail the next. The stoic kitten jumped and swiped at her leg, leaving four long claw marks on her ankle. Jean fell to the side and bashed her head against the nightstand-she went slack and collapsed on the floor. Thankfully, nobody was squished. Hidan and Kakuzu stopped just short of her feet and looked at her, waiting for any movement, but when nothing happened they glanced at the Leader, silently asking him what to do. Pein stood still, sitting next to Konan who looked slightly worried for the human.
"What do we do now?" Kisame asked, trotting over to sit next to Itachi. Nobody moved, nobody said anything, and nobody knew what to do about the unconscious, injured girl who moved them out of the cold.
Jean woke up with one of the worst headaches she'd ever had the pleasure of having. When she opened her eyes, it took her a couple of minutes to refocus her vision before she could even think of moving. In front of her were three of the ten cats who sat in a lopsided triangle, meowing quietly together. The taller of the three was the orange tabby, Pein, and the other two, Konan and Zetsu, sat opposite of him, mostly listening. She blinked groggily and looked down at her side where a couple of the cats were pressed into her side. Kisame, the dark blue cat was laying against her thigh and the blond, long haired cat, Deidara, was against her stomach. Resting up by her chest was Tobi who purred quietly in between snores. She saw that the troublesome silver cat was up against the bottom of the door with his paws, like he was trying to pull it open through sheer force. The black cat with red eyes and the dark red cat were sitting by her feet, mid-conversation when they noticed her wandering eyes.
"She's up," Itachi said with a deep growl from his furry throat. The Akatsuki simultaneously looked at her, except for Tobi who only snuggled deeper into the crook of her shoulder. Jean's eyebrows furrowed together when she saw them all watching her, sitting up and twisting her hair up into a knot. She frowned when she pulled her hand back and saw it was painted with blood.
"Dammit," she sighed, pulling Tobi into her lap with her free hand. He raised his head for
a moment and went back to sleep. Outside, the wind blew harder every other minute, shaking the trees by the window. Jean sighed, stood up with Tobi in her arms, and moved to the desk where she sat down and cuddle him, still dizzy. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Heath who was still probably downstairs eating cheetos and watching old reruns of "Criminal Minds" or "Forensic Files".
"Hello?" he said into the receiver between bites. The sound made Jean wince.
"Hey, I fell and hit my head and it's bleeding. Could you come fix it for me?" she asked, stroking Tobi's fur.
"Thank you girl-chan, that feels nice," Tobi yawned.
"Yeah, sure. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, it's just bleeding a lot more now."
"It was bleeding before? What the hell did you do to yourself?"
"Just please get up here and help me," she said.
There was a pause on his end and she could almost imagine him walking to the kitchen for the first aid kit he kept under the sink, the one in the obnoxious neon green backpack he had from high school. Jean winced when Tobi started kneading her thigh with his paws, claws gently prodding her skin.
"Aren't you a sweetheart?" she said, scratching his ear.
"What?" asked Heath.
"Nothing."
"Oh, I have an idea!" he cried, "If you let me play with the kitties I'll fix your face."
"Whatever, just hurry up," she said before hanging up.
A second later she heard him pounding up the stairs and knocking on her door; she didn't even need to say anything before it swung open, knocking Hidan backwards into the wall.
"Heath, no!" Jean shrieked, jumping up and shoving him out of the way. She closed the door and pulled Hidan up, yowling, from the floor.
"I'm going to fucking kill you! You hear me!" he screeched, "You're a dead man!"
Heath laughed and moved out of the way of his claws.
"Calm down little guy, I'm sorry! It was an accident!" he said, maneuvering around the other cats on the floor. Tobi was mewling down by Jean's feet, begging to be picked up after she dropped him to retrieve Hidan. She ran a hand down her face and scanned the room for the soggy cardboard box. If she could just put them away for an hour or two maybe they'd calm down enough to fall asleep, but would it be okay to reuse the box? It was disgusting. Maybe if she called Ren she could bring one ho-
"Why are there cats in your room?" Ren shrieked from the doorway.
"Hi sweetheart," Heath smiled, holding Kisame in his arms who looked uncomfortable and begging for an escape.
"Hi Ren," Jean sighed.
"And what the hell happened to your head?" She breathed, gawking at all the blood in her hair. A second later and she was dashing for the bathroom, hand over her mouth, eyes wide. Her sister rolled her eyes.
"What just happened?" Heath asked, staring at the spot she had stood in. Jean snatched the first aid kit from his feet and began yanking out supplies.
"You've never seen her freak out over blood before?" she asked, "She has this thing where if she even sees her own blood she starts puking."
"Well, what happens when she goes on her…?" he trailed off.
"What?" Jean asked, "Her period?"
"Yeah."
"She doesn't bleed a lot because she runs so much and eats so little," she finished. The gauze from the bag was now unwrapped and pressed against her head, even though the bleeding had pretty much stopped. Heath made his way over and took out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, more gauze, and medical tape.
"How did you even do this? Did you fall?" he asked.
"Yeah, I hit my head on the table and, when I found the cats, I only found them because I fell down that hill off of short street by the mall," she mumbled.
After he had helped her clean the cut and bandage it, he shoveled the cats into a new and bigger box from the basement, putting them in the corner of the room with a bowl of water. Jean was lying in bed with her head propped up on multiple pillows and Tobi on her side. She favored him for his energy and for his warm personality as a cat plus, since he stayed put with her, she thought it'd be okay to keep him with her. The other kittens were quieting down, a couple of them even calmed down enough to curl up and fall asleep. Only Pein and Konan were talking and even then it wasn't about anything important. Heath had just left the room to help Ren who, to her knowledge, was still on the bathroom floor. He couldn't do much, but he intended to help every way he could, even if that meant he'd only be there to pull her hair back.
Jean pulled the covers tighter around her and Tobi, trying to fight back the nausea from what she thought was from the concussion.
"Goodnight everyone," she said, looking towards the box. As tired as she was, she couldn't help but wish with all her might that tomorrow be less hectic.