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New POV: Caitlin

I sighed and rolled over, snuggling sleepily into whoever was sleeping beside me. It could have been almost any of my roommates - we were all scared after Shylah went missing. One second, she was sleeping peacefully on her bed, and the next, we had no idea where she'd disappeared to. It was scary, especially since we knew she'd never willingly leave without leaving a note.

Great. Now I'll never be able to go back to sleep. I groaned in frustration and sat up, looking around at my room. I paused. I looked down at the person sleeping beside me. I screamed. "HOLY SHIT!"

My unwanted bedmate - an androgynous blonde - jumped out of bed, suddenly alert. When he/she didn't see a threat, he/she turned tiredly back to his/her bed - only to stop and stare at me. We locked eyes for about ten seconds before he/she yelled, "HOLY SHIT, HM!"

I crawled out of bed and raced towards the door. "I don't know who you are or where I am, but I'm getting outta here!"

The blonde - I figured he was a dude, but some girls have deep voices - grabbed my arm. "How did you get in here?!"

I opened my mouth to tell him to screw off, but stopped. Something wet was touching my arm, right where his hand was. I screamed again, and he let go of me so that he could cover his ears.

Someone kicked down the door, and five of the strangest people I'd ever seen in my life entered. Then someone I recognized followed them in, rubbing her eyes tiredly and wrapping some sort of poncho thing around herself like a comforting blanket.

"Shylah!" I yelled, racing over to her and glomping the crap out of her.

She squinted at me, probably because she wasn't wearing glasses. "Caitlin? What the crap are you doing here?"

"I don't know!" Okay, so even after two years of living with the girl, I didn't know her very well. But my God I was so worried when she went missing yesterday. I suddenly realized that we were surrounded by irate, sleepy men. "Did these jerks kidnap you?"

One jerk pinched the bridge of his nose, seeming annoyed by the situation. "Do you know her, Shylah?"

Shylah nodded, patting my head as though she was trying to calm down a temperamental kitten. She'd actually called me that, once. "Yeah, she's one of my roommates from my homeland. She's not diseased or anything."

I glared at her. Of course I wasn't diseased! Who did she think I was? "How did we get here, Shylah?" I glanced at the six guys standing in the room. "And why do they all look so weird?"

"Hey, fuck you, bitch!" One guy with silver hair yelled at me. Normally I would have drooled at his shirtless figure, but I wasn't into irritable loudmouths. He was whacked over the head by the first guy who addressed Shylah, and that sparked a loud argument to serve as white noise for the rest of us.

The blonde guy had inspected a bed, and turned back to us holding three very familiar - and precious - objects. "What are these, un?"

I gasped. "My phone!" I made to snatch the things away, but the stupid blonde jerked his hands away. "Hey, Blondie! Give me my crap back!"

"Make me, carrot-top!" Oh, no, he didn't!

Shylah sighed. She did that a lot. She once told me that, unless it was caused by emotions, it was because she was having difficulty breathing. But don't worry, she sounded pretty irritated when she spoke up. "Y'know, I think you guys should all just calm down. You can go for five minutes without your phone, Caitlin." That was another thing about Shylah - where she was from, almost everyone had this kind of verbal tic where they said 'Y'know' and 'Don't'cha know' a lot. She had it in spades.

"Shut up!" I snapped back at her, trying to grab my things. "He insulted my hair! Nobody insults the hair!"

"Your hair is orange - it's not like comparing it to carrots is that unexpected." One of the remaining three guys who hadn't spoken yet told me. As far as I was concerned, he could shut his face.

I whirled on him long enough to spat out, "Yeah, well your hair is blue! I don't see anyone comparing it to the sky or anything!" I turned back to Blondie, who was having a surprisingly easy time playing keep away considering that I was almost exactly the same height as him. Shorty.

"Good comeback…" Shylah muttered. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her turn to the remaining two silent watchmen. "I can take her to Pein-sama, if you'd like. Just as soon as Deidara stops teasing her and gives her stuff back."

Blondie laughed, his smirk irritating me even more. "Why should I? She started it, hm."

One of the remaining two - the one who looked kind of like a blob on the floor - practically growled out, "Brat, give her back what you took. It's too early in the morning to deal with her whining."

"I'm not whining, I'm threatening and complaining!" I ground out, finally managing to pounce on the annoying little pest while he was distracted.

"Okay, okay, I'll give you your stuff back. I was just having a little fun, hm. I don't even know what it is, anyway." Blondie expertly evaded my grip, placing my things on the bed beside us before following the moving blob out of the room.

I suddenly noticed that the two who were arguing had left as well, although I could still hear yelling from down the hall. The black-haired guy turned to Mr. Blue. "Let's go, Kisame." Kisame followed, grinning at us as he left.

Shylah had waved to each of them as they exited, but she turned to me soon after. "Why were you sleeping with your phone?" She inspected the other two items. "Why were you sleeping with my phone? And the charger?"

I shrugged. "I couldn't sleep, so I decided to keep it with me in case you got the chance to call your phone." That was probably a bad idea - Shylah had never bothered to memorize her own number.

Shylah shrugged, wisely choosing not to point that out. "Well, let's get you ready to meet Pein-sama." She turned and exited the room.

"Who's Painsama?" I got the feeling I was saying that wrong. I followed after her anyway, hustling to keep up with her faster gait and slightly longer legs.

"His name is Pein, and 'sama' is a suffix. It's like calling him 'Lord Pein' in our language." Shylah took several different turns and walked up a few sets of stairs. I was beginning to feel lost when she finally opened a door, seemingly at random, and entered without hesitation.

"What do you mean, 'in our language'? We're speaking English, and so were the guys downstairs." I was feeling slightly worn out after climbing all those stairs, and Shylah's cheeks were tinged pink from the effort that neither of us was used to. The room Shylah had led me to wasn't too large, even for a single person, and was bare except for a drab-looking bed and a basic dresser. There was also a window, which had been opened to allow a chilly breeze that smelled of rain to blow through the room.

Shylah opened a drawer on the dresser, revealing a few measly outfits that she'd probably bought herself with maybe one hundred dollars' worth of cash. "I mean that the place we're in actually only has Japanese as its language. They don't speak English, so we shouldn't be able to understand them. Suffixes such as '-sama' and '-chan' are still used by them, but we understand each other without even realizing that there's a change. I only noticed it because the writing isn't affected."

I groaned. "So I'm basically illiterate. Maybe I should've taken Japanese in high school instead of French."

Shylah shrugged. She shrugs a lot, too. "Maybe. I understood it because I studied Japanese on my own. My school only offered Spanish I and II." She threw a pair of pants and a shirt at me over her shoulder, not bothering to look to see if I caught it. The joke's on her, though - I caught them.

"Your school sucks." I shut the door and stripped, not really caring if Shylah would get offended. I put the clothes on quickly. The fabric wasn't the type that I usually ended up having to mess with, for which I was thankful, but it also felt unusually light. I was surprised because I always thought Shylah went for heavy T-shirts and jeans.

"My school was an under-funded private school. It didn't have many options." Shylah stood in front of her dresser, seemingly lost in thought. I was about to say something, but she suddenly snatched something up, shut the drawer, and threw it at my face. "Here."

I spluttered, not expecting it. "Why'd you give me this long-ass scarf?"

Shylah rolled her eyes at my language, a small smirk on her face. "To cover up your hair, you redheaded stepchild."

Glaring, I rolled the scarf into a ball and threw it back at her. She folded it and put it back away, apparently not bothered by having a cloth basketball hit her in the head and explode on her in all its scarf-y glory. "You know I hate that reference."

Shylah moved around me, making sure to keep a decent distance. "Yeah, I know. I couldn't resist. You know I can't resist a good joke at someone else's expense." She opened the door and cast another smirk my way. "Shall we?" She didn't wait for my reply, instead taking off without me.

I stalked after her. "I thought you'd never ask," I muttered irritably.

Shylah snorted a laugh before going serious. It wasn't an extreme mood swing, but it was close. "When we enter, be polite. Don't be irritable or irritating. Be respectful, and let me do most of the talking." She glanced at me, a lighthearted smirk adding a playful quality that her voice lacked. "When he asks you questions, be honest, but don't feel bad if you leave out any details. If you want to keep some secrets to maintain our country's unknown factor, he'll understand. He won't be happy, but he'll understand."

I raised an eyebrow at her, feeling suddenly concerned. Shylah was by far the most easygoing of all of us, but that just made it all the more noticeable when she was tense or stressed. I was curious what kind of guy had convinced her to address him as "Lord Pein" and seemed to command a bunch of super-intimidating weirdoes. Maybe a little nervous, too, but I was sure there was nothing we couldn't handle.

Shylah stopped in front of some seriously imposing double doors and knocked. Just a simple knock - not particularly loud or great in number - but the knocks seemed to echo and reverberate through the hall, as though to tell us "Yes, the person behind this door is a big deal."

I thought I heard something from the other side of the doors, and suddenly a man wearing some kind of orange, swirly mask with one eye hole burst through them. I jumped back and squeaked, but Shylah just stood there with a small smile on her face as the overly-excited man-boy hugged her, yelling "Shylah-chan!" I think she secretly liked it.

"Tobi-san, it's nice to see you this morning." Shylah's voice was still ridiculously quiet, but she didn't seem nervous about being physically assaulted by the hyperactive stranger. "Tobi-san, this is Caitlin. She's from my homeland. I was just going to take her to see Pein-sama and let her know that it happened again."

'Tobi' whirled around, and I was taken aback by exactly how much he resembled myself and Shylah's sister on a sugar high (well, I'd be on an energy drink high). He was waving at me emphatically, even though he was maybe a few feet away. "Hi, Caitlin-chan! I'm Tobi! Tobi is a good boy!"

I barely had enough time to say, "Hi, Tobi," before he was off, running down the halls faster than my eyes could keep track of him. I turned to Shylah, one eyebrow raised, the other lowered to my eye. "Interesting friend you have, there."

Shylah opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by someone clearing their throat. We both turned to see quite possibly one of the most intimidating men I'd ever laid eyes on - and I'd just seen a few maybe ten minutes ago. He had bright orange hair - kind of like mine - and piercings aplenty, but quite possibly the most intimidating thing about him were his eyes. They were ringed and grey, an almost never ending kaleidoscope of pain and misery. Oh, hey. Pain. Pein. Well, the world is just full of surprises.

I was brought to when Shylah shoved me down into a mockery of a bow, probably before bowing, herself. "Pein-sama. Deidara-san found Caitlin this morning." After a few seconds of respectful bowing, she released me so that we could both right ourselves.

Pein stared at us before motioning us to enter a bit further. When we had done so, the doors seemed to swing shut on their own. Shylah winced at the sound, but if he noticed, he didn't react. "Have either of you figured out why this is happening?"

Shylah shook her head, and I followed suit. "Nope." When his eyes turned from Shylah to me, I managed to squeak out, "I mean, no, sir!"

He returned his gaze to Shylah, allowing me to breathe easy. "I suppose you will want her to stay with us." He looked me over for a few seconds. "How good are you at cleaning?"

We exited shortly after, Shylah leading the way to the base exit. "You convinced him to get me a room, food, and wages. How?" Shylah shrugged, so I continued. "And what did you mean by 'blood, gore, or vomit'?"

She stopped, looking me in the eyes. She rarely looked people in the eyes. "This is a criminal organization known as the Akatsuki."

I gaped at her as she continued walking. "Hey, slow down!" I called when my jaw finally closed. I chased after her.

"Hurry up."

We walked for a few seconds before we crossed paths with one of said criminals. It was the super-tall dude from before, the one who punched the loudmouth in the face. "I suppose you'll be wanting money, now." He had a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

Shylah shook her head, giving him a polite smile. "No, but thank you anyway, Kakuzu-san. Caitlin and I have other methods of obtaining funds for our necessities." She circled around him carefully, beckoning to me to follow her. "Ah, Kakuzu-san?"

'Kakuzu-san' turned around to face Shylah, seemingly irritated and relieved at something. "What?"

"This is my friend, Caitlin. Pein-sama has agreed to allow her to stay with the organization along with me. She has been given the same job as me, as well as the same pay." Kakuzu spluttered at this. "In return, our pay has been slightly lowered, since we'll be using less effort with our combined abilities." Shylah paused, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "I just thought I'd introduce you before we leave to go get clothes."

We left, finding the exit quickly and stepping out into the drizzling rain. I could just feel my hair begin to poof up even more at the humidity. "I suddenly wish that I'd held on to that scarf. Any chance we can go back for it?"

"Nope."

We had only taken a few steps before I felt the need to break the silence. "This rain is killer. How often does it do this?"

"All day, every day, I assume. I've only been here since I woke up yesterday. How much time has passed in our homeland?"

"You went missing yesterday. What, do you think this place runs on faster times or something?"

"No, I was just curious. Time dilation and all that - y'know, how one end of the world is almost a day ahead of the other." I knew she was hiding something. I wanted to call her out on it, but for once, I kept my mouth shut. I figured she had her reasons, and I trusted her judgment - in this situation, at least.

"So…" I started, fishing for a conversation topic. "Whose bed did you end up in?" I was hoping for a reaction. If I knew her like I thought I did, it would be totally priceless.

"Sasori's." Or… maybe I don't. That wasn't really the reaction I was expecting. I'd at least hoped to get some sort of rise out of her.

"Who?"

"The shortest one. He has a metal scorpion tail."

I mentally thought back to the members I'd seen before making a face. "The weird, round blob guy?" She nodded. "Ew!" I couldn't keep the morbid fascination from my voice, or the mischievous smirk from my face. "Was he any good?"

"Surprisingly so."

I spluttered, eyes wide. "I was just joking! I didn't actually think you'd-" Shylah was laughing. "Oh, you're good."

"Come on, Caitlin. You know the way I was raised, and you know I'm too lazy to rebel against it. Who do you take me for? Tracey?"

"You make it sound like she's a whore."

"Of course not. She's just one of the more promiscuous members of our group." Shylah did an uncharacteristic spin. It kind of scared me with how at ease she seemed.

I decided to try for a reaction one more time. "Some of them seemed pretty cute."

Shylah gave me a look. "You know I don't give a crap what they look like."

"Please. That whole 'I'm attracted to their personalities' crap is total bull. Even if you are, you have to admit some guys are dang cute." I smiled slyly at her.

"No, thank you. I'm asexual." Shylah sighed. It was the most carefree sigh I'd ever heard from her - she almost seemed happy.

"Do you like it here?" I asked. It was so weird. Back home, she rarely seemed this… peaceful.

"Did you know that, back in our homeland, you have about a one-in-twenty-thousand chance of being murdered? This world is so much more dangerous than ours. The risk of death rises dramatically, here. And being associated with a criminal organization as infamous as the Akatsuki? That risk just developed into an exponential number. Negative exponents, since it's a fraction." Shylah skipped forward a few steps and hopped in a one-eighty. When she faced me, her eyes were alight with something I'd never seen before. "In answer to your question, Caitlin, I've never liked anywhere better."

Great. Of all the people I could have been stuck in a foreign and possibly dangerous land, I had to be stuck with the one who enjoys it. Well, my day has just been ruined. Guess I'll go cry in a corner somewhere when we get back.

We walked through the city - Shylah told me it was named 'Amegakure' - in silence for a while, just taking in the sights. Well, she took in the sights. I fell back into old habits and did a little 'wealth requisitioning' work.

What?

Fine. I pick pocketed, okay? You happy now?

"So, when are we gonna go get me some clothes? My feet are killing me - in case you hadn't already noticed, I'm not exactly wearing shoes." I casually bit into a papaya I'd nicked from an open-air stall we'd paused by. What? Papayas are tasty.

"As soon as you feel you've gained enough money." Darn her for noticing.

I held it out to her. "I don't know how much I'll need. How should I know if I've gotten all I need to get?" I pouted at her.

Shylah counted through it. "Ten thousand ryo. To put that in dollars, I'd say approximately one thousand to one thousand five hundred in cash."

"Oh." It didn't really seem like much. I knew people who could spend at least twice that in half the time it took me to earn it. "Do you think this will be enough?"

Shylah entered a large building, and when I followed, it turned out to be Amegakure's version of a shopping mall. "I know where to go in order to get good deals. As long as you buy the necessities - no jewelry - we'll be fine."

"But I like jewelry!" I was too old to whine, but that wasn't stopping me from doing it.

"Hush, child. You will get your jewelry eventually. For now, we should work on saving up funds in case our host's hospitality wears out. I don't exactly want to be homeless and broke in this world, do you?"

"I hate it when you're right."

The stores had a surprising amount of good clothing. I wouldn't really call it stylish, but it was functional without being an eyesore. I managed to score a few nice pairs of undies, five pairs of shorts, three skirts, two jeans, ten different shirts/tops, two pairs of shoes, some warm socks, a dark blue rain cloak, and a pair of gloves for when I'd be cleaning. I also pick pocketed a few more people and convinced Shylah to buy some more clothes, as well.

It was a good day of shopping. Not my best - I had to go shopping with Tracey to actually have an amazing shopping day - but it was acceptable. Shylah had surprisingly good color-coordinating advice for someone who wears only black and blue and never goes shopping. I was pleased.

Although she was adamant that my clothes be made of a specific material. It wasn't enough for her to convince me to buy only light clothing that was easy to move around in. I had to buy the kind that didn't carry scents, which was stupid - I like my clothes to smell nice. Apparently they wouldn't smell bad, either, but I still wanted to smell like heaven.

And another thing - that specific material was usually worn by ninjas. Ninjas! How in the world are there still ninjas, today? I mean, I get that this is a different world - I don't know how that happened, either - but seriously? Ninjas with something called chakra that basically gives them super powers? It sounded a bit familiar, but I was sure I'd never heard of anything like it.

The Akatsuki were ninjas. I was beginning to wonder if they all had some sort of weird, physical deformity. It was probably caused by that chakra stuff. I was suddenly glad that I didn't have some part of my physical make-up that gave me super powers. I do not want all that on top of everything else I have to deal with now.

"So, wait up a sec." I mentally back tracked, stopping and forcing Shylah to stop with me. "We're basically in another world?"

Frowning, Shylah placed a hand on her hip and adopted a sassy pose. She was always so impatient with people who didn't pick things up quickly. "It would be more accurate to say we're either in another universe or an alternate dimension. Some of the physics and such that rule our universe don't actually apply, here."

I narrowed my eyes before resuming walking. "Like what?"

Shylah took the lead, heading back in the direction of the Akatsuki base-thing. "People here are naturally stronger and faster. Even the civilians - people who weren't trained as ninjas - could probably gain and keep muscle mass more efficiently than anyone from our home could. They have strange abilities that often defy the laws of space and time. I also get the feeling that 'stupid' for them leaves just as much potential as 'average' for us."

"Are we screwed?"

"No, just unlucky. We have to be careful."

I snorted. "Easier said than done."

When we got back, Shylah was told by the blob - I'm sorry, Sasori - that I could choose any room in the hall that her room was in. I had to be led there because, let's face it, this place is a maze. A twisty, turny maze that's designed specifically so that people who don't know their way will be lost to the depths of eternity, only to return as a spirit, ready to lead other unsuspecting innocents to their doom.

My room was no better than Shylah's. Actually, it stank of disuse and mildew. Shylah had grabbed cleaning supplies from a closet along the way and left me to fix it up, muttering something about hating cooking. I already knew that - I wasn't sure why she felt the need to reiterate it. Oh, well.

At the moment, I was lounging on my bed, waiting for Shylah to open the door and beckon me forth to clean the rest of this base. There was no way you could pay me to go out there without an escort. No thanks, I'll stay in my room, where it's nice and safe.

I sat up as the door creaked open to reveal Shylah. "Hey, girl. How was the great unknown?"

"Annoying," Shylah muttered as she motioned for me to follow her. "On the bright side, lunch slash dinner is ready."

"Oh, I didn't hear you call."

"That's 'cause I didn't call." Shylah gave me a look, and I remembered that she probably couldn't yell if she wanted to. The last time she yelled, her voice was sore for a grand total of three days, and she refused to talk for about half that time. It was kind of funny - especially since the reason she'd yelled was because her sister and I had gone on a little pranking spree.

"Wait a second, are you going to make me call them to lunch?" I asked as we entered the dining area. It was sparsely decorated with cheap, easily-replaceable furniture. It was devoid of color, which made me wish I'd been hired for my decorating skills rather than cleaning.

Shylah shrugged before entering the kitchen and returning soon after, her arms laden with various food stuffs that I didn't recognize. "Yesterday I'd just wait for one of them to come in and yell for the other members to hurry up. You can if you want to, though."

I shrugged and went to the doorway while Shylah continued bringing food in from the kitchen. "HEY, AKATSUKI! SHYLAH MADE YOUR FREAKING FOOD, SO GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE AND EAT!" I turned back to where Shylah was standing by the table, rearranging utensils and such while giving me an annoyed frown.

"You can eat, too. Not everyone's going to gather around the table for a nice little family meal, even if there are enough places for them. They don't have any particular seating order, so don't worry about that. It's really just first come, first serve." Shylah grabbed a plate, put some food on it, and filled a cup with tea before sitting in a seemingly random spot. "We're also allowed to leave with our food, but it's more entertaining to stay."

"What to you mean, 'entertaining'?" I asked as I grabbed a plate. There was a variety to choose from, and I recognized a few foods from when Emi would cook for us on occasion. I placed those on my plate, eyeing the others warily. I sat down once I'd grabbed a cup of tea, grimacing. "And why are there only tea and water?"

"You'll see. And because those are the main drinks during lunch that aren't super-expensive." Shylah handed me the utensils - a pair of chopsticks.

I eyed the chopsticks distastefully. "Do you have a fork?"

Shylah smirked. "Just pretend we're eating at an Oriental-themed restaurant. Get in character."

"I think you and Emi are the only ones who enjoy using these things. I prefer the good old fork and knife combo," I informed her while pointing at her with one of her precious eating utensils.

Shylah's reply was interrupted by the silver-haired loudmouth from before entering. "Oi, bitch, get me some fucking food!"

Shylah rolled her eyes. "I said it before and I'll say it again, Hidan. I made the food, you can go dish it up. Surely you can do that much."

Hidan glared at her and opened his mouth, only to shout a swear as he was whacked in the back of the head. Kakuzu pushed him out of the way as he entered the room, followed by most of the other Akatsuki members, as well as a few I'd never seen before. "Get out of the way, Hidan. Some of us actually want to eat instead of complain."

"Fuck you, Kakuzu!" Hidan shouted, pointing an accusing finger at him. Everyone else was either getting their food and sitting down, or getting their food and leaving. Tobi, Pein, and Konan (whom I'd met in the brief exchange with Pein) were the only ones who didn't stay, and I noticed a lack of Sasori's presence, which left two unoccupied seats.

Kakuzu sat down across from Shylah before glaring at Hidan. "Shut up and eat or just leave us in peace." Hidan opened his mouth, only to be punched again by Kakuzu. I gasped when his hand shot off of his arm, connected by some sort of mass of tentacles.

Shylah frowned at them. "I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to clean up all this food from the floor… again." I stared at her. "What? It happened yesterday, too." When there was a pause in the yelling, she added to everyone, "Oh, yeah. Guys, this is Caitlin."

Kisame sat across from me, ducking slightly under Kakuzu's thread things, since he was still using his hand to strangle Hidan. "Hey, Caitlin. I'm Hoshigaki Kisame." The quiet guy with black hair from earlier sat next to him, so he added, "And this is Uchiha Itachi."

I waved at both of them. "Hey." Itachi gave me a slight nod in greeting. I was distracted as Blondie sat down next to Shylah. "Is it always this rowdy around here?"

Blondie smirked at me. "I'm waiting with the explosions until later today, when the sun's out. The rain always ruins their beauty, hm."

"Explosions?"

Shylah just shook her head. "You'll see."

Hidan, meanwhile, had run around the table to attack Kakuzu. Kakuzu had gotten up in retaliation, and they were trading blows faster than I could keep track. They made their way around the room before Kakuzu grabbed Hidan's neck and slammed his head into the wall. Hidan kept swearing at him, kicking and punching whatever he could reach. Finally, Kakuzu got fed up and… decapitated… Hidan…

I screamed. Everyone turned to look at me, some irritably, others with distinct amusement. Shylah patted my head, and I ducked under it. "What the fuck was that?! He just… he just decapitated him! Why is no one panicking?!"

I turned to Shylah as she sighed. "Don't worry, I'm freaking out. I mean, we have to clean that blood up, later." I stared.

"FUCK YOU, KAKUZU!" A voice yelled from the floor. I whirled around and gaped at Hidan's glaring, talking head. "GET MY FUCKING BODY AND PUT ME BACK TOGETHER, SHITHEAD!"

Kakuzu glared at him, pinching the bridge of his nose. As Hidan continued screaming, he grew more and more irritable. Finally, he just grabbed Hidan and Hidan's now-walking body and walked out of the room. After a brief pause, he returned, distinctly lacking a loud-mouthed albino, and sat down.

I pushed my plate forward. "I don't think I'm hungry anymore." I ignored Kisame as he grabbed my plate and scraped the food onto his.

Shylah sighed. "I suppose that means you won't be helping me clean up the blood, either." I cast her an apologetic glance. "When it's laundry day, you're doing their underwear." Deidara had been taking a drink, and he spit it out across the table. "And you can do the dishes. When you finish with the dishes, don't worry about cleaning the rest of the building; you'd just get lost, and I did it all yesterday, anyways."

Kakuzu was glaring irritably at his plate while he ate. Shylah looked over to him and told him, "If you're mad about having to pay me, just remember that it's Hidan's fault."

"Isn't it his fault?" Kisame asked, grinning and pointing at Kakuzu as his glare intensified.

"I know better than to irritate a ninja unnecessarily." Shylah got up from the table, picking up a few plates that Itachi, Deidara, and I offered her. She set about clearing the table, and I was suddenly reminded of the one time we met her grandparents on her mom's side.

"Hey, Shylah. How was dear old Grandma Rosie the last time you talked with her?" I asked. She frowned at me - she didn't like discussing her private life in front of strangers. It had taken her until a few months ago to accept us roommates into the know of her family.

"She was fine." I was willing to accept that as an answer - that was the 'Shylah answer'. "Grandpa is doing well, too. They're still stubbornly sticking to their farm." Shylah's face lightened a bit with proud humor. "It's not like it really matters, anyway. Ask me about this when we get home, not while we're halfway across the world. And not while we're in front of random strangers." She sent the guys looks, but they looked unbothered.

After she'd taken the used dishes to the kitchen and the remaining Akatsuki members had left, Shylah turned to me. "What was the point of that?"

I glanced around, trying to seem innocent. "What was the point of what?"

Shylah rolled her eyes. "Why did you find it necessary to just randomly bring up my family in front of them?"

"You were clearing the table." Shylah opened her mouth before realizing why I said it and shutting it again. She shrugged and prepared the dishes for me.

I could hear distant yelling and swearing, and Shylah hurriedly rushed to the kitchen. She came back a few seconds later carrying a plate laden with meat and a cup of water just as Hidan stalked in, swearing loudly and sporting a stitched neck. "Oi, bitch! Where's the fucking food?"

Shylah set his food and drink on the table a bit harder than necessary. "There it is. Go ahead and eat; I have your blood to clean up." She walked out of the room to get some cleaning supplies.

"Blame that motherfucking miser for tearing my fucking head off!" Hidan called after her. He turned to me, grinning. "Did you enjoy the show, bitch?"

I stiffened at the look he was giving me before glaring at him. "Things like that don't just happen where I'm from."

"Yeah? Well they always fucking happen here! That bastard just likes doing it for the hell of it." Hidan grumbled before shoveling food into his face.

I resisted the urge to make a face at his table manners by going into the kitchen. I eyed the dishes. I suppose you can't clean yourselves, I thought before walking over and picking up the soaked, soapy rag.

I was almost done by the time Shylah placed Hidan's used dishes on the counter beside the sink. I turned to call after her as she walked back to the dining room, "What, he can't do that himself?"

She shrugged before leaning on the doorway and turning her head to face me. "It doesn't matter. He'd already left by the time I finished cleaning the blood up. How are the dishes coming?"

I focused on finishing the last of them up before replying after a few seconds. "They're coming along nicely. I always thought you hated cleaning."

"I do. That doesn't mean I'm in any position to complain, here." She paused. "How do you think the others will react?"

"Others?"

"Our roommates."

"Do you really think they'll just magically appear here in one of the Akatsuki members' beds? It might just stop with us." I placed the last dish in the drainer before grabbing a dry towel so that I could start putting them away. "It would probably be a good thing if it stops with us. The only one who'd be able to handle this place is Tish."

"Nah, Emi would do better than Tisha."

"Emi? Emi's practically afraid of her own shadow. There's no way she'd be able to handle waking up in some strange guy's bed." I paused to really think about which of our roommates would do best in this strange land. "Maybe Tracey would do well here. She has spunk."

"Tracey's annoying."

"You think everyone's annoying."

"True. She's just the kind of annoying that I think everyone would hate."

"No one hates Tracey." I finished putting away the dishes, then turned around to face Shylah, my hands on my hips. "Not even you."

"I hate everyone," Shylah muttered, but her harsh words were contrasted by a joking smirk. "Everyone except for Mischa, of course."

I didn't bother suppressing an eye roll. "Of course." I could hear yelling from the living room down the hall. It was punctuated by the sounds of fighting and the occasional small explosion. "Shylah, what are we gonna do?"

"'Do'?"

"I mean, how do we get out of here? We can't stay in this place forever."

Shylah smirked, crossing her arms casually across her chest. "We just got here and you already want to leave? And here I thought Tracey was the flighty one."

I glared at her, my hands once again on my hips as my temper flared. "Be serious, Shylah! Do you think time back home just stands still while we're… wherever we've ended up? You were missing all of yesterday - I've probably been missing all of today. My brothers and grandparents are probably worried sick about me - our friends are probably worried sick about us."

It was getting difficult to breathe - I wouldn't be surprised if I was having some kind of panic attack during my rant. "How long do you think we'll be here? A few days, weeks, months, years? I don't know where we are or how we got here, but there's one thing I do know - I'm not going to just sit around here while I should be trying to figure out a way back home. Now you can either help me, or forget that you have people who care about you and want to see you safe."

I was being a bit overdramatic, I knew; but I was scared. What if each of us was just going to be plucked, one by one, and brought here? What were we to do? Shylah had already pointed out how dangerous it was - and if I didn't believe her then, that little demonstration during lunch definitely brought home exactly how much danger both of us were in. And what if we never saw home again?

Frowning, Shylah sighed. She refused to meet my eyes, choosing instead to glance longingly at the door - a clear indication that she was tired of talking and needed to go to her room to recharge before she became overly snippy. "Freaking out isn't going to solve anything, Caitlin; neither is yelling at me. The best way to start figuring out how to leave is to analyze how we got here. We technically don't know that, and we have nothing to go on aside from the fact that whatever's happening seems to be targeting us and our roommates."

Shylah paused for breath. "As far as I can guess, there was probably some sort of weakening in an inter-dimensional wall that just so happens to be centered in our room, with the corresponding outlet being this base. It transfers us from there to here while we sleep because we are at our least active while we sleep. I would guess that the wall is sort of like a membrane to a cell - it takes certain things in and releases certain things back. Humans or living organisms can pass from our world to here, while something minor, such as carbon dioxide or oxygen in the air, could transfer into our home in almost unnoticeable amounts."

I stared at her. After a few seconds of silence, she glanced at me and frowned. "What? I couldn't go to sleep last night, so I just thought of a few things. It's not that unlikely as a solution as long as you make allowances for the existence of alternate dimensions. If I'm right, this actually makes way for a new theory about mental influences from one dimension to the other. I'd get into it, but I'm feeling a headache coming on and I'd rather not wait around in a well-lit room for it to turn into a migraine." Shylah turned and left.

I managed to shut my gaping mouth. "And that's just something she thought up while trying to go to sleep?" I shook my head. "Figures she could probably find a way out and she doesn't actually wanna leave."

Another abrupt chapter ending. I tend to just type in spurts of boredom until inspiration whacks me in the face with my keyboard and says, "Type this!" I'll still most likely be able to upload every Saturday unless I'm out touring colleges/universities (unlikely since I'm reliant on my mom to get me there, and she doesn't go places if there's no immediate benefit to her).

I enjoyed writing Caitlin. Towards the end I felt like she was becoming a bit OOC (not that anyone would know), so I had her freak out at Shylah. Not entirely unexpected, since their personalities are rather opposing - even though both of their exact opposites are two others. Caitlin is more confident and outgoing than Shylah, although she's also less willing to tolerate actions of violence, despite being a bit of a thief.

So, as you probably know, there are eight OC's, and each chapter is going to be an introduction for them. Who stays and who goes (because I'm probably not going to keep all of these OC's) can be decided by you towards the end of the story. Don't worry, I'll notify you when you can begin the voting thing. There are a few I reserve the right to keep, in case I feel the need to make a sequel - thus far, it's really only Shylah and her sister, because they're the only ones who really know about the Naruto-verse.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it even more than I enjoyed typing it.