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Please enjoy, even if I don't own any of the Naruto franchise/series/whatever you call it.

Reia's P.O.V.

Putting my hands on my hips, I cast a reproving glare at Tish, Caitlin, Tracey, and Shylah. While the first three had the decency to look ashamed of themselves, Shylah met my eyes with an unapologetic stare of her own. We were, therefore, locked in a standoff, neither willing to admit defeat and give the power of the gaze to the other.

Finally, from the sidelines, Deidara spoke up. "Why are Shylah and Reia glaring at each other, un? I thought Reia got along with everyone," he mentioned, notably leaving out whether or not Shylah got along with anyone.

From beside Deidara, Tiamat answered, seeing as Shylah and I were otherwise occupied. "Reia has a tendency to act as our surrogate mother, and Shylah has 'mommy issues,' I believe. She takes exception to any form of authority females try to exercise over her." After a small pause, she added, "I don't understand why Reia always gets into staring contests with her, though. Shylah is far too stubborn to lose a contest of implied authority."

As if on cue, my eyes watered and forced me to blink. Another loss at the hands of Shylah's childishness. "Shylah, what have I said about pickpocketing people?"

Shylah shrugged, a self-satisfied smirk making its way onto her otherwise blank face. "I usually tune you out around the time you open your mouth. Why? Did you have some tips for me or something?"

"No. Pickpocketing – stealing a person's hard-earned money – is illegal, immoral, and an unacceptable social behavior for someone your age. It-"

"Our age," Shylah interrupted.

"What?"

"You're only about two months older than I am; therefore, our age."

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sighed and gathered my thoughts after Shylah's… helpful… interruption. "Be that as it may, stealing money isn't acceptable. Not only that, but we're guests in Pein-sama's city, so stealing from his people is like stealing from him. It's not only a despicable form of behavior, but rude as well." There was a pregnant pause, and I found myself suppressing an exasperated sigh. "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"

"Yep," Shylah replied immediately.

"And what is that?"

"Stealing is bad, and rude to the person who's allowing us to stay here, and I should get a proper job if I want a steady income rather than stealing the income of others."

I blinked at the rapid-fire answer. "So you were listening?"

"Sure."

I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "'Sure'?"

"Do you have a problem with the way I speak?"

Sensing that was the best I'd get out of her, I sighed and relented. "Okay, I'll let you get back to… whatever it is you do nowadays." Turning to the other three, I once again raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do you three understand where I'm coming from when I say that stealing is bad?" They nodded rapidly, so I dismissed them and turned to leave.

From where he still sat in one of the dining room chairs, Deidara smirked at me. "What's so bad about stealing if they don't get caught, hm?"

"Uh, it's illegal," I replied, emphasizing 'illegal' for Deidara's benefit.

"You're talking to an S-ranked criminal, here. The only reason I don't steal is because I can make a steady income as a ninja and petty thievery is below someone of my caliber, un. What's the big deal if they need some extra money?"

"The 'big deal' is that we're not S-ranked criminals. We're not even close to criminals!" Remembering what I'd just had to lecture four of my friends on, I backtracked. "Well, most of us aren't criminals. The rest of us shouldn't have to be, because we're perfectly capable of getting our own jobs."

Deidara's smirk widened. "Trust me, it's better to work here for a room and food than have to pay Kakuzu with whatever small salary you'll earn in the rest of the town, yeah. If that means you're a little strapped for ryo, there are worse things you could be doing to earn some extra money."

I frowned in consideration. "I suppose it could be worse… That still doesn't make it right," I pointed out, leaving to return to the greenhouse.

Upon reaching the greenhouse, I opened the door to find Zetsu tending some of the more delicate plants in his newly-acquired ecosystem. In order to simulate the conditions his plants would undergo if released into the wild, he had added several other kinds of plants; as well as a pond, insects, and some small animals. It was all on an extremely small scale, given the size of the room, but sometimes I could imagine that I was entering a jungle through some kind of door that allowed teleportation.

Zetsu glanced up before returning to his plants. "I think the hakonechloa brought in some damaging bacteria with its dirt. I told you we should've planted seeds instead of fully-grown plants. We needed to make sure the plants would grow in this environment before we could use the seeds. Well, now we know. Let's get rid of the hakonechloa before it kills off everything we've worked for."

I frowned. "If the bacteria's already spread to the other plants, I don't think removing the hakonechloa will do anything to prevent any further damage."

"Damn. On the bright side, we know how to erase the bacteria from the other infected plants. We won't need you for this, so you can leave. That was rude. It's true; we don't need her help with this."

"Technically, you never needed my help with anything," I pointed out, the corners of my mouth twitching up.

"And yet you still come around where you're not wanted. We want you, Reia. You don't have to make it sound dirty. And no, I don't. I was just joking. We've been over this already. Your jokes suck."

I sighed and began tending the plants Zetsu hadn't gotten to, yet. While their arguments were funny on occasion, sometimes they tended to get repetitive. This is going to be a long day.

Tracey's P.O.V.

I giggled as I made the final fold of the origami weasel. For some reason, Itachi always seemed irritated whenever Mischa and Tobi made piles of weasels and gave them to him – more annoyed than he normally would be, anyway -, so I usually tried to use the origami techniques Mischa taught me when he wasn't around. At the moment, I was in the middle of making my twenty-sixth multicolored origami weasel. Why was I making so many weasels? Honestly, I don't even know.

"What's that?" Kisame's voice asked from just over me. I jumped and let out a short scream before tilting my head back to look at him. Originally, Kisame had scared the absolute crap out of me, but now I was used to him to the point where I didn't mind him so much anymore. Actually, he was pretty fun to hang out with.

Grinning, I held up my most recent prized origami. "I made a few weasels."

Kisame laughed, a slightly creepy and unnerving – but not totally scary – chuckle. "A few? I count twenty-six, including the one you're holding there." Damn, he's good. "Why're you up here? Aren't you usually following Itachi around the building?"

I felt my cheeks tinge pink. "Hey, I do not. Maybe he follows me." Remembering his actual question, I paused. "And he doesn't really appreciate my new love – origami weasels." For some reason… They're so fluffy and cute! Maybe no criminals love cute things… But does Konan? She's a girl, so she should like cute things! …Wait, Tiamat's a girl and doesn't like cute things…

My internal debate was interrupted when Kisame picked up one of my better-made paper weasels. "Why is the weasel multicolored?"

"It's rainbow colored!" I exclaimed, pointing my finger at my own rainbow-colored weasel.

Kisame raised an eyebrow, looking between me and my army of weasels. "Rainbow isn't a color."

"Yes, it is!"

"Um, what are y-you arguing about?" Emi's quiet voice questioned from the entrance of the living room. She was following Itachi into the room, and Itachi eyed my adorable origami creations expressionlessly.

"Emi! Smack some sense into this shark! He doesn't think rainbow's a color."

Emi startled in alarm the second I told her to 'smack some sense' into Kisame, and she glanced warily between all three of us. Finally, her gaze settled on me, and she furrowed her eyebrows in worried confusion. "Isn't a rainbow m-made of multiple d-different c-colors? It's n-not j-just one color."

I groaned and fell back as Kisame sent me an amused and triumphant – mostly amused – smirk. "Emi, you're supposed to back me up on these things! Girl power and all that!"

Emi frowned apologetically. "I-I'm sorry, I d-didn't know that I w-was supposed t-to…"

Shrugging, I resumed my original position kneeling in front of the coffee table. "It's no big deal. I understand that your need for honesty is greater than your love for our friendship."

Eyes widening, Emi stared at me in a panic. "N-no, it's not that! I-"

Laughing, I waved my hand as if to wave away her protests. "I'm joking, I'm joking. I'm sorry, that was kind of a low blow." After straightening my shirt out, I hopped up. "So, what brings you guys up here?"

"Are we not allowed to walk around our own headquarters?" Itachi asked as he opened his ever-present book and sat down. I am proud to say that over this past month and a half, Itachi has gotten used to me enough to start speaking beyond his 'hn's and use actual, full sentences. The same could be said of Emi, but I'm prouder of my own accomplishments.

I grinned at him. "Fine, then. Emi, what's up? How're you doing, girl?"

"I-I'm fine…" Emi muttered, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth. She sat down lightly at the far edge of the nearby couch. "Weren't you going to watch the Akatsuki train today?"

"Yeah, I was, but I kinda got distracted by making all these origami weasels and lost track of time. Why? Did I miss anything epic?" I cast a wide grin Itachi and Kisame's way, "Aside from the usual level of epic that usually goes on whenever a bunch of super-powerful criminal ninjas practice their fighting."

Kisame smirked, showing off his pearly-whites – or sharky-whites, I guess. "Nothing out of the ordinary, except that Deidara blew up Hidan for teasing him about Caitlin."

I rolled my eyes. "Ever since Shylah made that joke two weeks ago about Deidara liking Cat, Hidan's been making really crude jokes about them. He really needs to cut that out before Dei blows his head off and buries it somewhere. What'd he say this time, anyway?"

Kisame glanced at Emi, who was blushing up a storm. He glanced back to me meaningfully as Emi tried not to focus on what we were saying. "I think you're a little young to hear the specifics."

My grin widened teasingly. "Aw, Kisame, you do care!" As Kisame narrowed his eyes at me, I continued. "About Emi! Not me. You care… about… yeah…" I trailed off as his expression turned into a glare. "Okay, I'll shut up now." The glare persisted. "Hide me!" I squeaked out as I ducked behind the couch, putting it and Itachi between Kisame and myself.

Itachi glanced back at me quickly before returning to his book. Emi laughed quietly as Kisame stopped glaring at me and fell back into the couch in between her and Itachi, making them both bounce up and down repeatedly. Kisame sent a smirk Itachi's way as the Uchiha glared at him irritably, making sure to avoid making eye contact.

After a few seconds, Itachi broke the silence. "We have a mission, Kisame. We leave tomorrow."

Kisame's smirk widened into a bloodthirsty grin. "It's about time. What kind of mission is it?"

"Another bounty."

"That seems like all we can do anymore – that and attacking other ninja teams."

I popped up from where I sat. "Is it dangerous?"

Kisame turned back to look at me. "Every ninja mission is dangerous."

"Oh." I frowned and rested my chin on the back of the couch. "Be safe, then."

He smirked. "You do care – about Itachi."

Tish's P.O.V.

"No, you're fucking doing it wrong!" Hidan exclaimed, scowling at me.

My eye twitched in irritation. "Oh, I am? Guess what, dip-shit, I'm not a ninja! I don't know how to do this!"

What were we arguing about – or, more accurately, what was Hidan yelling at me for? It's simple, really – simple and stupid. You know how we're always getting into fights, right? Hidan always wins, and according to him, it's way too boring to always win so easily – notwithstanding that I always give as good as I get, within non-ninja standards. His solution for that little 'problem'? He's trying to teach me his fighting style.

Can I let you in on a little secret? His fighting style sucks. I've seen guys built like tanks use more blocks and dodges in their fighting style than he uses. S-ranked criminal ninja my sexy ass.

"How've you survived for so long against me if you can't fight worth shit?" Hidan asked incredulously, obviously ticked off by my lack of progress.

"Maybe because your fighting style sucks!" I yelled back, throwing a punch at him. Ninja that he is, though, he didn't bother dodging it. Instead, he grabbed my fist the second it hit, before I could manage to pull it back. Whirling me around, he'd put me into a chokehold before I could even react.

"How's that for a sucky fighting style, bitch?" He asked, grinding the words out into my ear. I could practically hear his smirk in his tone. "Damn, have you gained weight?"

I dug my heel into his foot and elbowed his stomach, loosening his grip just enough so that I could kick back right where the sun doesn't shine. "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to comment on a woman's weight? Dumbass…" Calling my farewell over my shoulder to where he was holding himself in pain, I started walking away. "See ya later. I'm gonna go talk to someone that I actually like."

"Yeah, right. You fucking want me, I know it!"

"So we can add 'delusional' to the list of things wrong with you, right next to 'dumber than a box of rocks'. Good to know."

"Hey, fuck you!"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Best time of your fucking life, trust me."

I rolled my eyes. "Do you know what you just used? Probably not, considering that you've never used it before. That lovely quality there is 'wit', and it tends to be rare – especially in people as stupid as you. Be proud; you'll most likely never be able to use it again."

"I bet if you kissed me it'd be the best damn kiss of your fucking life."

When I turned around to face him, he was smirking, and it was hard to tell if his smirk was flirtatious or predatory. "I bet if I kiss you I'd get some kind of disease. Drinking blood transmits all kinds of sexual diseases, I hope you know." Yeah, I knew that part of his 'jutsu' or whatever involved the consumption of blood. It wasn't fun to think about, and I wasn't about to kiss a guy who could turn around and act like a vampire.

If anything, his smirk widened. "Really? That's a damn shame, bitch, 'cause you don't get to choose." Before I could react – because, come on, he's a fucking ninja -, Hidan had closed the distance and placed his lips forcefully on mine.

Okay, I'm not gonna lie – it wasn't a bad kiss. It wasn't the best kiss, either, because criminal ninjas don't really get the chance to practice or anything. It was nice and I maybe kissed back because it'd been a while since I'd had a boyfriend and even longer than that since I'd been kissed – don't ask, it was a weird situation.

Of course, it was just a kiss. I remembered where I was and who I was kissing almost the second after I started kissing him back. Naturally, I did what any other girl would do – I knees him right in the family jewels. Maybe not every girl would do that if Hidan kissed them, but damn it, I'm not here to see how many men I can romance with my sexy body! Not that I'd have any trouble with that…

As he went down for the second time, I crossed my arms and glared venomously at him. "What do you think you're doing, dumbass? In what scenario playing through your stupid head was that a good idea?" I whirled around to leave, only to be confronted with Deidara and Caitlin, both wearing mirroring smirks.

"And Hidan thinks we kiss when no one's looking, un," Deidara mused smugly.

I scoffed. "Please. I've told him before, no man can resist my sexy body for too long without trying to jump me. I'm irresistible."

"Remind me never to fucking kiss you again, bitch," Hidan ground out from his rightful place on the floor. "Shittiest kisser I've ever met."

Oh no, he didn't! Uncrossing my arms, I aimed a vicious kick for his sides. As he rolled to avoid me, he had the audacity to look like it wasn't even that difficult – which made me try to kick him again. Finally, I got too frustrated to continue. "Fuck you! I'm out! Deidara, feel free to blow him to bits while you're here."

Stomping out, I did my best to ignore Deidara's and Cat's amused laughter. Stupid Hidan thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread. Well, I'll tell you, mister, you've got another thing coming if you think you're gonna get away with pulling that crap with me! I don't take crap from no one!

…That was a nice kiss, though…

Shylah's P.O.V.

"You can't be serious," I mumbled, half-pleading. Why, you ask? Someone (read: Reia) had convinced Zetsu to experiment with his greenhouse garden. By experiment, I don't mean that he simply introduced an exotic plant species or two. No, she somehow managed to get his mind set on crossbreeding a plant species that actively hunts humans like prey.

"I didn't tell him to do it; I just mentioned that all that some of his plants needed was a taste for human flesh and they'd be just as much man-eaters as he is. How was I supposed to know that he'd actually feel encouraged enough to start breeding his plants specifically for the qualities that make them dangerous to humans? It's not like I help." At my stare, she fidgeted until she broke and told me the truth. "Okay, so maybe I helped them a little. What makes you think he wouldn't have come up with that on his own?"

He didn't have anything like that in the manga series. "I think if he was going to think about it on his own, he would have by now." We remained silent for a few seconds, then I smirked as I thought of our situation. "Oh, how the tables have turned, the mighty have fallen, and the shoe has switched to my foot."

"Normally, I can't follow your line of thinking. The same can be said right now."

I rolled my eyes. "You're always the one lecturing me. How does it feel to be the child in this relationship now?"

Reia frowned. "If anything, you're a mildly mature child lecturing an adult who had a lapse in – It doesn't feel good at all." Her frown deepened before smoothing out into a contemplative expression. "Huh. I can see why you dislike it so much. This would get annoying after a while." Reia looked up at my smirk and lifted her chin stubbornly. "It doesn't mean you should go around stealing from people, though."

"Think of it as a good-will donation to the less fortunate – the less fortunate being us, of course."

"Shylah…"

"What? We are less fortunate than the people we steal from. Usually. Sometimes. I can't speak for Tisha or Caitlin, but I like to think they have some sense of remorse. I can't speak for myself, though, either; it all depends on how the mood strikes me at the time."

"Shylah!"

"Okay, okay, joking! Just joking, don't get your panties in a twist. Not knickers – you don't wear knickers. Do you wear knickers? No, that would require you to not wear a dress. You wear shorts under your dress, though, so that has to count for something. I don't think you wear heels, either, even though you're probably the shortest eighteen-year-old I've ever met."

"Shylah, why are you talking about what I do and don't wear?"

I flinched as Reia's words brought me out of my involuntary musings. "Yeah, I do that sometimes."

"I'm not sure if I should be pleased or concerned that being here has made you more talkative," Reia mused jokingly.

"Considering that the amount of talking I've been doing has a tendency to be more nonsensical than anything else, I'd say you should be worried," I pointed out, suppressing the urge to go off on another tangent.

We stood in Reia's room in silence for a few more seconds before Reia looked up at me, concerned. "You're not getting attached to this place, are you?"

"No. You?"

She frowned and blew out a sigh from her nose. "I… don't know. I still want to go home, but I don't miss it as much as I'd thought I would."

"Thinking like that's dangerous. If you start growing attached, it won't stop until you like it here just as much as home, if not more so." I glanced out of the window at the rain pouring down upon Amegakure. If they knew exactly how violent this world is, we wouldn't be having this problem… "Well, see ya later. I'm gonna go… see what Mischa's doing, I guess."

I left, walking the halls at random. I didn't know where Mischa was, but if I listened hard enough I would be able to hear her if I got close enough. It was kind of sad, considering that we used to be almost inseparable and now rarely talked or did anything together. Maybe if I found her, we could draw together.

As I turned a corner, I nearly ran into Tisha as she stormed down the hall. She stopped in surprise, leaving me to dodge quickly around her.

"Hey, Shylah, wait up for a second," Tisha called to me.

Well, I don't have anything better to do… "What?"

Reaching into her pockets, she fished out a small scroll before tossing it to me. "I lifted this off a guy a few weeks ago when I was… helping Tiamat buy a coffee table. I can't read Japanese, but I thought you might think it was interesting."

Opting to ignore the hesitancy in her sentence, I reached out and caught it with (in my opinion) surprisingly ample accuracy (for me). "Uh, thanks? The seal on the scroll hasn't even been opened, yet. What makes you think it's interesting, especially if you can't reach the language?"

"I don't know. How am I supposed to know what you find interesting?" Tisha sighed exasperatedly and put her hands on her hips. "Look, either keep the damn scroll or give it to someone else. I'm out."

Rolling my eyes, I stared down at the scroll and inspected it. The scroll was ornate, well taken-care of, but it also seemed several generations old. Weird… There's some strange ink calligraphy inlaid in the patterns on the sides of the scroll. I wonder… I walked the few short steps to Sasori's room before knocking and entering without waiting for a response.

When I entered, Sasori turned to me, one eyebrow raised despite the fact that the rest of his face remained impassive. "You are possibly the only person in existence to disregard manners when interacting with S-ranked nuke-nin."

"Tisha, Caitlin, and my sister act the way I do more often than I do. Your argument is invalid," I quipped, walking over to his bed and gingerly avoiding sitting on the areas covered in puppet parts.

"You're the only one to act this way towards competent ninja, since you seem to need me to specify."

"I don't discriminate."

"That attitude will get you killed, someday," Sasori advised as he returned to his puppet.

"Thanks for the friendly advice." I lazily tossed my most recent acquisition in the air. "Hey, do you think someone used fuinjutsu on this scroll? From what I can tell (which isn't very much), it looks pretty important."

"Where did you get that?"

"Tisha found it outside." At his incredulous stare, I continued. "After taking it from the guy she found it with, she gave it to me."

"Of course." He held out his hand in a silent request, and I complied by handing it over. "If your friend was able to take it so easily, this must not be that important. The seals, however, indicate otherwise."

"That's what I thought." A pause as he glanced at me. "Well, not exactly like that, since I don't know anything about fuinjutsu. But I at least thought to bring it to you."

"How did you know to bring it to me?"

I shrugged. "I hang out more with you than anyone else. Otherwise, I might've given it to Itachi or Kakuzu. Maybe Pein-sama, but he's probably busy right now. … Are you gonna open it?"

"Yes." Sasori stood and entered Hiruko, closing the protective shell over him before setting off at a surprisingly fast pace into the halls.

I followed, since he was taking my new scroll. He must think it's actually booby-trapped if he's going where I think he's going. Yep, he's going to the training grounds.

When we arrived at the training grounds, Deidara and Caitlin were there already. As usual, Deidara was attempting to subtly flirt with Caitlin, and Caitlin was completely unaware of all of it. It was almost worse than those reverse-harem anime where the female protagonist gets hit on and is always really surprised when they start fighting over her. I digress – Deidara was flirting with Caitlin, and Caitlin was typically oblivious.

"Brat. Go to the other side of the training grounds, and take these two with you," Sasori ordered.

Deidara smirked. "I got here first, Danna. Maybe you should wait your turn, un."

"You know I hate waiting. Stop testing me and get moving."

Deidara and Caitlin turned to leave, and I followed after them. When Deidara winked at Caitlin, they both walked extremely slowly towards the opposite end of the training grounds. After waiting for a few seconds, I remembered that Deidara was probably purposely trying to invoke Sasori's wrath and Caitlin was most likely playing along because she had yet to witness an S-ranked temper tantrum from someone other than Kakuzu. Don't tell him I said that.

Heaving a sigh, I placed one hand on each of their backs and began pushing them forward with all of my strength. "Deidara, I know you think it's funny, but I'm not willing to find out whether or not Sasori would be willing to stab through me to get to you for being, in his words, a 'brat'. Now let's get going so that I can read what's in that scroll."

Rather than resist as he could probably successfully do without any effort on his part, Deidara let me push him the entire way there. "Fine, Shylah. He probably won't kill you, but if you're that worried for your life…"

"Excuse me for having a sense of self-preservation."

Caitlin snorted. "A crappy one. Hey, are you talking about the scroll Tisha found?"

"Why would a random scroll be important enough for Danna to want to check out, hm?" Deidara asked as we reached the far end of the training grounds.

We watched as Sasori inspected the scroll through Hiruko. "Someone went through a lot of effort to put all kinds of protective seals on it, I guess. He'll probably make sure it's nothing too important before giving it back to me. If it is important enough for him to want to keep, it won't actually matter whether I still want it or not because I don't think I'd be able to fight him for it."

After a few more seconds, Sasori pulled out some materials and began doing… things… I couldn't tell what he was actually doing because I was too far away, but if I had to guess I'd say he was possibly trying to deconstruct the structure of the chakra-infused ink or something like that, not that I'd know because I'm not well-versed in the arts of fuinjutsu or anything. Or maybe he was consulting a book on dealing with unknown and possibly dangerous protective seals.

I could tell you all that went on in great detail while Sasori made the scroll safe to open, but I won't. Instead, I'll let you know that Deidara, Caitlin, and I watched in bored silence as Sasori fiddled with the scroll before finally opening it. I started to walk forward, but Deidara put a hand on my shoulder. I glanced back at him, and followed his gaze back to Sasori, who was finishing up making ninja hand signals to Deidara.

"What's he saying?" I asked, looking back to Deidara.

"The outer protective seal released a poisonous gas when he opened it. We have to wait over here until it dissipates, or until Sasori no danna gets tired of waiting and makes an antidote for us, yeah."

Caitlin raised an eyebrow. "His motivation will be his impatience and not his preference for keeping his partner alive?"

Deidara shrugged. "The idea is that if you're stupid enough to breathe in poisonous fumes when your partner has already warned you, you clearly don't deserve to live, un."

"That's not very nice…" Caitlin pointed out.

"That's the life of a ninja, yeah."

We barely had to wait ten seconds before Sasori took out another scroll and began making an antidote from the items within. After maybe a few more minutes, he was waving us over.

"Is it really a good idea for us to breathe this stuff in before we've had the antidote?" I asked cautiously once we'd walked over to him.

Sasori sealed all his items and put away both scrolls in the folds of his cloak before leading us out of the training grounds. "The poison is supposed to attack the chakra systems by entering the body through the lungs. I want to see how you and Caitlin react to it before I give you the antidote."

Caitlin and Deidara both made a choking noise behind us, but Deidara was the one who protested first. "Can the poison permanently damage my chakra system, un? If I can't make my art because of you, you're gonna pay, Danna!"

"I'll be doing the world a favor if I rid it of your pitiful art, brat," Sasori replied as we entered the main area of the base.

"Why you-"

"Ladies, ladies, you're both beautiful in your own ways. Sasori, could you please give us the antidote, now?" I quipped, raising my hands soothingly.

"Are either of you feeling any numbness, dizziness, faintness, irritability, nausea, or muscle weakness?" Sasori questioned rather than giving us the antidote.

"Yes, yes, and yes. Give me the damn antidote, Danna, un!" Deidara replied for us.

"I'm not. Are you, Shylah?" Caitlin asked, looking to me questioningly.

"Nope, but that might just be because we're both always irritable."

Sasori relented and handed Deidara a vial connected to a needle, which Deidara then used on himself. "We may have to wait a bit longer to see any adverse reactions on your part. Come see me if you experience any unusual symptoms that would indicate the poison is affecting you. Come, Shylah, we have to discuss your scroll."

As I followed him, Caitlin protested. "What do you mean we'll have to wait? If I die, it's your fault! Shylah and I will come back and haunt you for all of eternity!" Let's ponder the unknown (on Caitlin's part) irony of the statement. Had Sasori not been killed, he very well would have lived for eternity. An eternity haunted by Caitlin and me… The things we could come up with…

Caitlin's voice faded into the distance because, for some reason, she wasn't following after us in order to annoy Sasori into giving her the antidote. "Hey, Sasori? You don't think the poison's going to kill us or anything, do you?"

"The poison was designed to kill ninja by turning their own chakra systems against them. It has nothing to do, so it will most likely remain dormant until your immune system locates and destroys it. Should you end up coughing up blood as a result, let me know and I'll see what I can do for you and Caitlin."

I raised my eyebrows. "Thanks. How do you know the antidote will work for Deidara, though?"

"I'm a master of poisons as well as puppets. There are few poisons I can't find an antidote for, and even fewer that I haven't already made. Besides, if he senses something wrong with his chakra system, he will tell me. He's not entirely stupid, even if he does think art is fleeting." We stopped in front of the doors to Pein's office room. "Leader-sama, I have something that may interest you."

"Come in," Pein's voice called from inside, and the doors opened almost of their own accord. Pein glanced up from his paperwork (even a kage-like figure posing as a god can't escape it) and raised one eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Shylah seems to have come across an interesting scroll," Sasori informed him, coming forward and depositing said scroll on Pein's desk. "It details plans to mimic Konoha's Academy in an attempt to increase ninja forces and become a recognized hidden village. There are also several locations listed indicating scrolls containing techniques the village was planning on teaching their students."

"What village was this?"

"The scroll gives no indication, but it does give the reason they were here. Whoever lost this scroll was sent here to spy on your village in an attempt to find both weaknesses and prominent clan secrets." And he couldn't have let me read this, why?

Pein briefly closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "I know who you speak of. I was wondering if Tisha's thievery was the reason for his panic." He reopened his eyes. "I know where he is from. He has outlived his usefulness." A shadow flickered outside of the window, possibly one of his other bodies going to assassinate the man.

Exactly four-point-four seconds later, he returned his full attention back to us. "I will keep the scroll in the event that a third party comes forward with a retrieval mission for us involving its contents. You are both dismissed."

As we walked out, I couldn't help but wonder when I had qualified as one of his personnel for him to dismiss.

What am I going to do with the scroll? Is it a future plot point, or just something that I remembered I'd left unexplained and wanted to have my own little scene for? The world may never know...

As far as the poison currently running through Shylah's and Caitlin's bloodstreams, it won't affect them for this series. I mostly just put it in to try and convey that, even though the Akatsuki have been growing close to them, they're still S-ranked criminals and are more concerned with, say, seeing whether or not chakra-targeting poisons will affect chakra-less individuals.

That reminds me. Hidan and Tisha kissed. That's a thing. It's not going to lead to them having gratuitous amounts of sex with each other and then deciding that their extreme lust equates to love, in case anyone was wondering. It just kind of grabbed the keyboard from me and wrote itself.

For anyone thinking Deidara should've been more concerned with Caitlin as opposed to himself, he may flirt with her, but that doesn't mean he likes her enough for him to be more concerned with her safety than his own. To me, that's something a person who's in love would be more likely to do - or someone who hasn't been desensitized towards another's suffering since early childhood in order to become a cold-hearted killer.

I'm not going to bother asking a question no one will answer, so I'll just end this AN before it becomes as long as the actual chapter. Thank you for reading, and have a nice week! :3