My extended absence seems to have been just what the doctor ordered! I'm back, so please enjoy this un-proofread chapter.

Caitlin's P.o.V.

"Worst day of my life!" I groaned, rolling over in bed and trying to go back to sleep. "Just let me sleep through this whole week, and I'll be golden. As golden as the sun, or even a whole bar of gold." A wave of pain washed through my body, starting in my abdomen and reaching out to my head, feet, and hands. "Let this nightmare be over!"

There was a knocking sound from the door, and Deidara's voice drifted through. "Neko-chan, you missed breakfast, un. Are you feeling alright?"

I opened my mouth to either reassure him that I was fine or yell at him to screw off, but another bout of pain racked my body. "Oh, gosh, this fucking hurts!" I yelled instead, immediately regretting that I'd said anything.

The door crashed open to reveal Deidara, who glared into my room with a steely gaze. It would've almost been romantic, in a way, was I not lying on top of my blankets in only my underwear. When he caught sight of me, his eyes widened even as I scrambled to cover myself. "Sorry! You yelled, and I thought maybe someone was attacking you again, yeah."

Pulling my blanket further over myself, I gave Deidara my best glare. "Yeah, I'm in pain, and you're not making my situation any better. What the hell were you thinking, kicking my door in like that?"

Deidara glanced back at my door sheepishly, and I realized there were scorch marks on it. "Uh, I didn't actually kick it, un."

I let out an exasperated groan and fell back onto my bed, quickly readjusting my blanket when it threatened to slip off again. "Tiamat is going to kill me if Kakuzu makes us go out and buy a new door. Do you guys have a court around here so I can sue you for the cost of my door?"

"What makes you think I'd even pay you if you sued me, hm? I'm not exactly an obedient citizen."

"You'd better pay for that, Deidara," I shot back, glaring at him over my blanket. "If you value our friendship, you'll take the fall like a gentleman."

"What about S-ranked nuke-nin screams 'gentleman' to you, hm?" Deidara replied, smirking at my agitation.

"I was less focused on the 'gentleman' part and more focused on the 'friendship' part of what I said." Pulling the corners of my mouth into a pout, I looked down mournfully at the ground. "I guess our friendship just doesn't matter that much to you."

Deidara groaned and sat beside me on my bed. "If I didn't care about our friendship, I wouldn't have blown open the door to come save you from your imaginary foes, un. Fine, I'll make sure you don't get in trouble with Kakuzu for this."

I immediately beamed at him. "My hero."

"You owe me big time, Neko, un."

"Of course," I replied before impulsively pulling him into a hug and kissing his cheek.

Deidara turned away, his cheeks a light pink color. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with a half-naked girl kissing me on her bed, yeah."

I grinned slyly. "You know you love it."

Deidara waited outside of my door for me to dress after that. We made our way down to the training grounds, which for some reason was often left alone throughout the day except for the few hours it was reserved for training. Not that I'm complaining – something tells me that it'd be far less peaceful than it was.

…Notwithstanding the fact that Deidara always caused explosions. I can live with explosions – it's the excessive arguing and fighting that takes some getting used to.

I was so focused on my internal monologue that I didn't notice Deidara had stopped blowing up his own creations until he was standing right in front of me. "Are you feeling okay, hm?"

"Whoah!" I yelped, jumping into the air. "Don't do that!"

"What, act concerned for my friend's well-being?" Deidara feigned confusion, holding back a smirk.

"You know what I mean!" I waited a few seconds for my heartbeat to calm down – which it didn't – before answering. "I feel fabulous, all things considered. Why? Do I look sick or something?"

"Or something. You haven't felt weak since you breathed in the poison, have you, hm?" Tilting his head, he began his thorough ninja-inspection that felt too uncomfortable to be used for harmless matters like checking someone's health.

"Nope. I'm still kind of mad at Sasori for totally disregarding my health, though."

Deidara shrugged. "At least he'd give you the antidote instead of watching how the poison kills you. From what I hear, that's what Orochimaru would've done, yeah."

"Oro-wha-huh?" I asked intelligently. Sometimes it was glaringly obvious that I wasn't from this world, or even this universe if Shylah was to be believed.

"Oh, right. Orochimaru is another S-ranked nuke-nin, like the rest of the Akatsuki, un. He was even a part of it at one time, but he ran away after getting into a fight with the Uchiha. It says something about you if you're too evil for the Akatsuki, yeah."

"Why'd he get into a fight with Itachi?" Itachi seems like one of the most level-headed of the Akatsuki.

From behind me, Shylah spoke up. "Orochimaru has an unhealthy obsession with the Sharingan and the bodies of young boys and men."

"Gah!" I yelled, jumping yet again. "What is it with everyone sneaking up on me today?"

"I didn't sneak up on you, un. I approached you slowly within your line of sight."

"And I'm not nearly stealthy enough to be sneaking up on anyone. You're just being oblivious and blaming your failings on all of us." Shylah walked around so that she was in front of me. "I appreciate that no one denied Orochimaru's implied pedophilia tendencies."

"He's a pedophile?!" Deidara and I exclaimed simultaneously before Deidara asked a second question. "And how would you know, hm?"

Shylah rolled her eyes. "He's not a pedophile per se, he just has a habit of saying the wrong things to the wrong people – young boys, to be specific. Not that it wouldn't surprise me if he was found to be diddling all the young boys he surrounds himself with. It's all a matter of opinion, really. I mean, he's over fifty, with little interest in females aside from a few who are incredibly young."

I made a disgusted face. "Do all criminal ninjas over fifty lean towards pedophilia?"

"There aren't that many in the first place, but maybe you should ask Kakuzu, un. He's over fifty," Deidara informed me, smirking.

"Yeah, uh, no. … Hey, Shylah, why're you here?"

"Is this place suddenly off-limits, or am I interrupting something?"

"N-neither! Stop avoiding the question!" I spluttered.

"Fine, fine. I'm bored. Why couldn't you have figured that out for yourself?"

"Gee, I dunno, maybe I figured you had an actual reason."

"I can see I'm not appreciated here," Shylah sniffed, heading for the door. "I'll just go off to find people who don't mind my presence."

"Good luck with that, 'cause you'll need it!" I called after her. "Shylah needs a hobby."

"Do you believe that she read all the books in the library already, hm?" Deidara asked, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly.

"When she's bored, she can do strange and occasionally amazing things. She's also an incredibly fast reader, so it wouldn't surprise me. I don't know how she managed to work up the patience to sit down and read all of them, though."

"Does this mean we'll have to get her more books to keep her from annoying all of us, un?"

"She's not that bad."

"She's going around irritating S-ranked nuke-nin. Even if she's not that bad, she's suicidal, yeah."

"Maybe a hobby, then. I don't think Tiamat would be willing to spend large amounts of money just to keep Shylah occupied."

We stood in relative, slightly awkward, silence, until Deidara broke it. "Wanna go flying again, hm?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What's with you and being willing to get drenched just so you can fly in the air for a few minutes?"

"The training grounds have a high enough ceiling for us to fly in here without smashing into things. We can just fly around in here." Without waiting for me, Deidara stuck his hands into his clay pouches and began forming a bird.

I sighed and crossed my arms. "Do I even have a choice in this?"

"You can have an awesome time flying in the air with me, or wait for me on the ground and be bored out of your mind, un. You decide." He released an owl-like bird, which flew around for a second before landing and growing large enough for both of us to ride it. Deidara jumped on and offered me his hand.

"Well if you're gonna be like that, I guess I can fly with you," I relented, grabbing his hand and letting him hoist me up.

"I knew you'd see it my way, yeah."

Mischa's P.o.V.

I crouched down on all fours, readying myself for my attack. My target was reading unsuspectingly in her chair, completely oblivious to my intentions. I raised my haunches like a cat, and from beside me my partner in crime copied my movements. She turned the page of her book, and it was then that I struck.

"Hiyaaa!" I let out a battle cry and pounced on Shylah, tackling her off of her chair and onto the floor. Tobi followed soon after, adding his weight to the impromptu dogpile. We giggled at our deviousness and amazing ability to catch my sister off-guard.

Shylah sighed and frowned up at me from her prone position on the floor. "What is this, the fourth time this week?"

"No~," I denied, trying and failing to prop myself up. Sis stared at me disbelievingly. "Okay, maybe. Probably. Yes."

"Are you two tired of my lack of reaction, yet?"

My smile drooped and I glanced back at Tobi, discouraged. "Tobi heard Shylah-chan squeak in surprise, though, so we still caught you off-guard!" Tobi announced, making me perk up at the thought that I'd actually gotten her to make a startled noise.

"Really, Tobi-san, was it necessary to encourage her?" Shylah groaned in exasperation. "Get off me, you two – it's hard to breathe." When we obliged, she added, "And I'm always top, so being bottom just goes against my code."

I wrinkled my nose. "Ew."

"You make jokes like that all the time."

"Yeah, but you aren't allowed to make more perverted jokes than me."

"What did Shylah-chan mean, Mischa-chan?" Tobi asked from beside me curiously. His innocence was adorable, but sometimes it was a real hassle, especially when Obito probably knew what we were talking about. Although fake-scarring him was kind of funny…

"I'll tell you when you're older, Tobi-dear," I assured him, patting his shoulder and using a pet name like I was his grandma or something. "In the meantime, I challenge you two to a poking war!" I yelled, hopping up and pointing at both of them dramatically with my left pointer finger. No, I'm not sure how I managed to point at two people with one finger.

Shylah sighed while Tobi leapt to his feet enthusiastically. "Is this really necessary, Sis? I was reading a book."

"Yes it is!"

Tobi and I waited impatiently for Shylah to get to her feet, and when she finally did she poked my stomach. "Preemptive strike!"

"No fair! That's cheating!" I whined, holding my poor, abused stomach.

"I thought you wanted a poke war."

"War has rules, y'know! Sportsmanship and stuff that you're just disregarding when you attack me out of nowhere!"

Shylah shrugged. "All's fair in the name of love and war. That's especially true in regards to war, since you're more worried about staying alive than proper etiquette. Shall we get back to our own poke war?"

"Fine," I sighed, relenting.

Immediately, the three of us began aiming pokes at the others' stomachs, arms, and shoulders. We began using furniture and passersby as shields and obstacles as the battle grew more intense. Sis and I were pretty evenly matched, even though she was more ruthless than me, and Tobi was a good enough sport to not totally own us within the first five seconds. After a while Shylah and I teamed up against Tobi (because even though he acted like a klutz, he was still a ninja), and it got even more intense because Sis and I wanted to be able to say that we beat one of the most powerful ninja in history. I mean, we wouldn't say how we beat him or at what, but the general idea that we beat him was satisfactory enough.

We lost. For a few seconds it looked like we'd win, but then Tobi decided to prove that even the ditsiest S-ranked nuke-nin is still an S-ranked criminal and can easily beat two civilian girls. It was fun anyway, though, and it felt good to have the first poke war since we'd arrived.

"Tobi wins!" Tobi cheered, throwing his hands into the air in triumph.

Shylah rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, carefully avoiding looking at him. "A powerful ninja beat two civilian-level girls at a war of poking. Yes, Tobi, this is no doubt the highlight of your ninja career." If I wasn't mistaken, she was pouting.

Tobi gazed at her for a few long seconds before resuming his hyperactive persona. "Is Shylah-chan a sore loser?" He asked, leaning towards me and stage-whispering conspiratorially.

Sis scoffed, staring at him indignantly. "Yes, I'm butt-hurt over losing a game of poke war. You caught me."

I giggled and stage-whispered back to Tobi. "She's not used to losing things. The price of being good at everything, I'm afraid."

Shylah's stare (it was a glare, really) switched to me, and she looked affronted. "I'm not good at everything, and I don't even think I'm good at everything."

From the doorway, Tish's cackle sounded through the room. "Yeah, you're shit at cooking."

Puffing out my cheeks, I frowned at Tish. "Language, Tish. Do you really need to swear at every other sentence?"

Tish rolled her eyes while Hidan smirked at her smugly before pointing a finger at him lazily. "You're actually thinking of this idiot tailing me like a lost puppy. I actually have a vocabulary that I can use in place of my swears."

Hidan immediately rose to the bait, no one having taken enough mercy on him to tell him that she teased him on purpose. "Hey, what fucking vocabulary? You don't have shit on me and you know it, bitch."

I winced at the excessively vulgar language (not that this was him at his worst), but Tish just smirked. "I may not be a genius, but you can't hang around Tiamat and Shylah without picking something up. And I don't have to swear if I don't want to, but I also think swearing is fucking fun. You, however, need to use curse words as filler to give your slow brain time to complete your sentences."

"I can stop swearing whenever the fuck I want," Hidan argued as Tish turned to leave and go about her business. He stayed there, glaring after her, for a few seconds before realizing that she actually was leaving and hurrying after her to continue the argument.

I sighed. "Do they ever stop?"

From beside me, Sis shrugged. "It helps relieve the sexual tension, I guess. Or build it up, I'm not sure which they're trying to accomplish."

From my other side, Tobi flailed his arms in alarm. "Shylah-chan! Why does your mind always go to such dirty places?"

"Cleaning takes too much effort, so my mind's generally dirty no matter which part of it you're in. Don't worry; the members of the Akatsuki aren't nearly interested in sex enough to take advantage of the opportunity before them, and most of us generally feel too much like prisoners to willingly participate."

"Eh? 'Most'?"

Shylah glanced at me before smirking teasingly at Tobi, and I felt a sense of foreboding. "Some of us have actually grown accustomed to living here and forged friendships with some of you." Well, that wasn't so bad. "Like my sister, for example. It probably wouldn't take much for you to coerce her, if you so chose."

"SIS~!" I wailed, flailing my arms in a mimicry of Tobi's earlier actions. "You know I don't think like that!" Shylah gave me a look, and I rephrased myself. "I don't want to do that! It's – I – Gah! It's just not kosher."

Shylah raised an eyebrow. "First off, you are allowed to say the word 'sex'. Second, did you just compare that to a type of food?"

My face flushed, and my mouth opened and closed repeatedly. Tobi nervously spoke up. "Uh, that wasn't exactly what Tobi meant. I-I was just wondering who felt like prisoners so that Tobi and Mischa-chan could help make them feel welcome."

Shylah blinked. "Oh. No one feels that trapped – I just used it as a simplistic comparison in order to better narrate that the fact that we don't belong here is still at the forefront of our minds." With that, she turned dismissively towards the exit and began walking. "I didn't mean to go off on an unnecessary tangent and possibly strain your relationship with my sister. My apologies," she muttered before exiting.

We stood in uncomfortable silence after she left. Hesitantly, I took a deep breath and glanced up at him. For a brief moment, I paused nervously. The moment passed, and I voiced my question before I got too scared and backed down. "Um, will our friendship be… 'strained', as she said, because of this?" I queried, glancing briefly into the hole in his mask. There was no flash of red, but I tried not to get my hopes up that he'd respond positively.

Tobi tilted his head to the side like a bird inspecting an especially intriguing and colorful caterpillar, not sure if it would be worth it to risk poisoning and eat it. "Why would that strain our friendship, Mischa-chan?"

"I don't know."

"Neither does Tobi. Wanna go prank Deidara-sempai again?"

"You know it!"

Emi's P.o.V.

The beginnings of a smile began to pull at the corners of my mouth at the peaceful atmosphere. At the moment, the four of us (consisting of Itachi, Kisame, Tracey, and myself) were relaxing outside, the makings of an alcove serving to protect us from the constant rain. Currently, Itachi was reading, Tracey was staring at the continuous stream of texts her phone was receiving, and Kisame was just outside of the alcove, practicing against two of Itachi's clones. It was entirely possible that one of the fighting Itachis was the real one while a clone was reading, but I couldn't be sure.

As for what I was doing? To put it simply, I was watching all of them. It was less that I was fascinated by their activities (although if you ever have the chance to see a powerful ninja train, I suggest you take it), and more to distract myself from the texts my own phone was receiving. They were… less than pleasant, and I was trying to follow Shylah's advice to not give them the time of day. My cheeks tinged slightly pink when I remembered her telling me that I didn't deserve to have people harassing me.

The alcove we were currently in was seemingly unknown to the other members of the Akatsuki (Pein-sama and Konan-san excepted). According to Kisame, they'd found it when trying to avoid coming into contact with the other members a few weeks ago. Even the most mild-tempered of the Akatsuki had their limits, it seemed. After revealing its location to us, we began to come here regularly in order to avoid the commotion and chaos of the hideout.

Just as I was beginning to think that I'd heard the last of the nasty messages that regularly invaded my phone, it vibrated in my pocket. Swallowing nervously, I shakily pulled my phone out and mentally prepared myself for what I would see.

Suddenly, a hand snatched my phone away, and Kisame inspected it appraisingly. "What's this, Emi?"

My face reddened. Don't read it! "I-It's a phone, Kisame-san. It c-can be used t-to send messages over l-long d-distances. May I p-please have it b-back, Kisame-san?"

He smirked down at me and did the one thing I'd been praying he wouldn't do. He opened the phone. "Eh? What's this?"

I lowered my head in shame at what he was most likely reading. "A m-message…"

"What does it say?"

My head immediately jerked up and my eyes widened in surprise. "I d-don't know. May I-I see it?"

Tracey hopped up from where she was lounging on the ground. "Lemme see! I can translate it for you."

Rather than handing it to me as I asked, Kisame gave my phone to Tracey. She read through it once, her smile slipping, before reading through it several more times. Each time her eyes scrolled from the top of the screen to the bottom, she became more and more agitated, until she was scowling at the screen in a way I'd never thought possible for her.

"Tracey?" Itachi questioned from where he sat closest to the exit before rising and standing next to her. He put a hand on her shoulder, but rather than rejoice in the physical contact she shook him off and stalked to the mouth of the alcove.

"Those… those jerks!" Tracey yelled before chucking my phone as far as it could go. It had barely begun to fall to the ground before it crashed into a tree and landed in the mud in pieces. Tracey whirled around and stalked back to me, standing before me with her hands on her hips, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "How long has this been going on?"

I flinched at her glare, which immediately made her change her expression to a more encouraging one. From behind her, Kisame watched us with concern, but neither he nor Itachi seemed willing to interrupt us. "Um… Do you m-mean when w-we got here, o-or b-before that?"

"How. Long?"

"…F-five years…"

"And you never told anyone?"

"I-I asked Shylah, and she s-said to just ignore it, b-because I d-didn't deserve to h-have them saying those things t-to me. But she also said that if it c-continued, I should tell her again." Warmth rushed to my cheeks once again as the fuzzy feeling of someone caring about me entered my stomach.

"She should've told us."

"I asked her not to…"

"I'm gonna have a little chat with her." Tracey whirled around again, coming face-to-face with some seriously concerned criminals (concerned in a nonchalant way, of course). Her hand raised to scratch the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, guys. I'll be right back."

"I will go with you," Itachi stated, leaving no room for argument as he led the way back to the hideout. Tracey whined for a few seconds before giving in and following him away.

An awkward silence entered the alcove to replace the two who had left. I glanced around nervously while Kisame seemed content to scrutinize me for any hints as to what had just happened. "So… what did it say?"

"I-I still don't know."

"What do you think it said?"

I cringed, doing my best to avoid looking at him. How weak I must look, compared with what he's had to deal with his entire life. "Something… not nice."

"Oh?"

I could only nod, afraid of the judgment that would no doubt be plastered across his face if I ever looked away from my hands.

"I see. Too bad we can't go back with you when you leave, or I'd have fun shredding them to pieces." My eyes looked up to him involuntarily, and I registered that his grin held more malice than I'd ever seen before. It was gone in a flash, replaced with a calculating look that he directed at me. "Emi… Your friends aren't telling the truth about where you're from, are they?"

I froze in shock, unable to look away. How did he find out? This is bad! I can't lie to anyone, much less him! "What d-do you mean?"

He sat down in front of me, smirking like a predator who had finally cornered his prey. "I don't like being lied to."

Squirming, I tried to think of something clever to make up for my nervousness and set his suspicions at ease. I came up with nothing. Sighing in defeat, I decided it was best to just give in and get it over with. "I don't like lying."

Kisame laughed in a raspy, unused chuckle, startling me yet again. "You caved in quickly."

My face reddened. "I-I'm not a ninja, a-am I?" At his smirk, I continued, despite my instincts telling me that I'd only embarrass myself further. "I… hate… lying to people I care about. I try not to do it."

"Really, now?"

I'd thought it wasn't possible, but my face managed to heat up even further. "I-I didn't m-mean it like that! It's j-just – y-you just – I d-don't know!" I threw my hands into the air before quickly bringing them back down to cover my face. "I'm s-sorry. Forget I said a-anything."

"Very well. If you're not telling the truth about where you come from, then where are you from?" Kisame obligingly switched the subject.

"Another world…" At his incredulous stare, I hurried to explain. "Shylah thinks w-we somehow m-managed to move between d-dimensions. She doesn't know h-how it happened, j-just that we might n-not… actually be a-able t-to get back home…" I trailed off towards the end. Shylah had only told me that last bit of information, saying that I should do my best to teach the others about this world just in case we wouldn't actually be going home.

"We're stuck with the eight of you, then?"

"N-No!" I rushed to assure him, my words coming out more forcefully than I'd intended. "S-Sorry… At the m-moment, Shylah, Reia, Caitlin and I a-are also looking f-for jobs, while Tish, Tracey, and Mischa fulfill the duties assigned to us in return for our stay here. The hope is that w-we will e-earn enough money in o-order to become self-sufficient and eventually move into our own home. We r-realize that this will most l-likely take an extended amount of time, and so we didn't want to tell anyone in c-case the information made someone impatiens for u-us to leave."

"Do you still hope to go home?"

"Of c-course we do. I-It's just… With e-every week that p-passes, it b-becomes easier to r-resign myself to never going home…" I still miss my dad, though.

Kisame remained silent, mulling over my words. "I like secrets even less than lies." By saying that, he meant that he had to tell the rest of the Akatsuki.

I lowered my head, resigned. "If you feel the need."

A few seconds of silence passed before Kisame spoke again. "You're sure you don't like me?"

Tiamat's P.o.V.

I raised an eyebrow as the door slammed open. Rushing footsteps were our only warning before Tracey burst into the room, looking more irate than I'd ever seen her before. Following her was Itachi, although he seemed far calmer than his companion.

Tracey's eyes locked on to Shylah, who was lounging on a couch and reading a book, before stalking over to her and facing her with a strained smile. "Hey, Ice! We were just hanging out with Emi when something came up, and I had a quick question."

Without looking up from her book, Shylah replied in a bland tone. "Yes?"

"Why didn't you tell any of us, or have Emi tell us? She would've listened to you."

"I'm not in the habit of breaking confidences, and any fuss you guys made would only distress her more. As it is, I told her to bring her phone to me if the harassment persists. In case you were wondering, I was planning on destroying the phone when she handed it over. I'm assuming you took matters into your own hands?"

"Yeah, I did! How long have you known about it?"

"She told me when we first started receiving texts. I would guess that she's been keeping it to herself until now, since she felt she couldn't trust her dad to handle the situation properly and has known most of us for barely over a year. Would you like to continue this conversation elsewhere, since you're determined to be so confrontational about this?"

"I think we will!" Tracey exclaimed, clearly having difficulty keeping up her indignant and angry act. Shylah rose slowly (far too slowly for Tracey, who was hopping from foot to foot while she waited), before following her out. Itachi sighed, took out a book, and sat down on the now-unoccupied couch Shylah had previously been on.

"Should I be concerned?" I queried. No matter Itachi's answer, I most likely would have remained disinterested.

"Hn," was Itachi's reply, possibly even less interested in their drama than I was.

Sighing, I rose from my seat and began walking in the direction I had seen Tracey and Shylah heading towards. While I wasn't concerned that there would be a fight (Shylah was far too lazy for that, and Tracey didn't like physical fights), I also knew that Shylah could be rather trying when the mood struck her and interrupting her while she was reading was the best way to do so. So, while a fight most likely would not happen between the two, it still had the possibility of causing unnecessary complications.

Just as I turned a corner, Shylah and Tracey came into view, walking back towards me. Tracey seemed to have calmed down, and her typical smile was slowly creeping back onto her face. Shylah, meanwhile, looked a cross between bored and irked, glancing at Tracey's smile with ire.

I raised an eyebrow. "I take it your discussion went well?"

Tracey stopped, giving me a glowing smile, while Shylah simply continued walking past me. "Yeah!" Her smile dimmed slightly, and she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I guess I kind of overreacted. Thanks for not getting super-mad at me, Ice."

As Shylah turned the corner, we could hear her mutter, "Book…"

Tracey grinned once again, not at all put out by Shylah's apparent one-track mind. "I did kind of take her away from her reading… oops… Well, see ya later, Tia! I'm off to bug Itachi~."

I sighed and watched Tracey skip back in the direction of the living room. Sometimes I had a tendency to worry unnecessarily, and it seemed that this was one of those times. I think I would like to find another book to read… Maybe Kakuzu will be in the library.

Shaking my head at the thought, I walked towards the Akatsuki base's personal library. Does it really matter whether Kakuzu is there or not? I suppose it would be possible for him to recommend a book to me. Ah, oh dear. I seem to be becoming attached to this world, and the people within it. That will have to be remedied. How shall I go about doing so?

I opened the door to the library, my mind preoccupied with thoughts of maintaining my emotional distance from everyone I'd come into contact with since appearing in this new universe. Maybe I should keep my distance… Would that really work, when we all live in the same building? I may have to wait until we move out, in that case. But isn't there a saying about this? 'Distance makes the heart grow fonder', or some such thing… I'd rather not take the risk. Grabbing my head, I momentarily dropped my composure and let out a groan. "Agh! What do I do?"

"Tiamat?" An all-too-familiar voice questioned. There was no genuine concern in his tone, but I didn't expect there to be. It would be far too easy for me to despise him if there was any chance I thought he was putting on a false air of kindness. "Did you come here to read a book or debate strategy with yourself?"

I jumped nervously. Stupid! Isn't this where he normally goes when he's not out on missions? "I decided to look for some interesting reading material." Just in case I had annoyed him, I bowed in apology. "I am sorry for losing my composure and disturbing you."

Something flashed in his eyes, but it was gone too quickly for me to discern. For all I knew, it could have been his temper, or even mirth (although that was highly unlikely). "You seem to have a habit of losing your composure around me."

Forcing back the heat that threatened to show itself on my face, I crossed my arms and avoided eye contact. "So kind of you to bring that up when I do not even remember what I was doing. I am eternally grateful, I assure you."

"Perhaps you should exercise some self-restraint."

"I have been!" I argued, then tensed. How easily I seem to be forgetting my upbringing. Jeddah would be disappointed. Once again I bowed, although this time in a more hurried manner. "My apologies. If an excuse would mean anything, I have been missing my parents quite a bit recently. This seems to be affecting my temper."

"I didn't expect a civilian to be able to control their emotions when under stress. You haven't exceeded my expectations." This time, I managed restraint, and kept my emotions (especially my disappointment) hidden. To my surprise, he grabbed a book from one of the higher shelves that I would have needed assistance to reach, and held the book out to me. "You have already read through the lower books in this bookcase."

I gratefully accepted the book, I found myself once again fighting back the blood that rushed to my head. "Thank you for your assistance."

Whatever Kakuzu may have been about to say was interrupted when the door to the library flew open and Tobi rushed into the library. "Kakuzu-san~!" He yelled, while behind him Mischa entered the room and immediately collapsed onto the ground.

"What, Tobi?" Where he had been (partially) polite before, Kakuzu seemed to be holding in his irritation.

"Where did Deidara-sempai go? Mischa-chan and Tobi have been looking for him all day, and we still haven't found him anywhere in the base! We even asked Neko-chan, but she hasn't seen him since this morning! Has Deidara-sempai been ninja-napped?"

From the floor, Mischa sighed. "I think Sis was right when she said he and Sasori probably went on a mission."

"Eh? But why didn't he say good-bye to Tobi, then?" Tobi asked, his voice raising to a whine as he clasped his hands together in supplication.

"Mischa is right. They left for a mission just after lunch, and aren't expected to return for at least another month. We've been losing money lazing about here, so Leader-sama is having me assign some of the mission requests that have been piling up." Kakuzu turned to me. "Which reminds me. Have you seen either Itachi or Kisame? I have a mission for them."

I nodded. "I last saw Itachi in the living room, but he could have left in the time since I was there."

"No matter. I sense his chakra, now." With that, he left.

I sighed and opened my book, taking my place in a lounge chair near the back of the library. That conversation was short-lived. Then again, it wasn't going the way I wanted it to, so that's just as well.

I'd like to point out that even though Tiamat thinks she can hide her emotions well (and she can, in our world), that doesn't mean she's as effective against ninja who are trained to discern these things at a glance. As it is, Kakuzu is more or less just humoring her because she's polite. And no, she doesn't 'like' him romantically, yet - even though she's no stranger to men who are over twice the age of their wives, and she doesn't know exactly how old Kakuzu is, she has also spent all of her (admittedly) young life guarding herself from such emotions. It may be a while longer for her to warm up to that idea, unless I decide to be realistic and make the relationship more platonic.

To anyone who may still be wondering, yes, Emi was bullied for the majority of her school life (and worse than just texts), and yes, that's the reason she's so shy/introverted. I don't plan to make light of the fact that she's been bullied, as I know from experience that sometimes it's not quite so easy to just ignore it. Hopefully, I'll remember to bring this back into play later.

As for my extended absence, I plan on (hopefully) returning to my previous schedule.

To my dear, most recent anonymous/guest reviewer: I appreciate your defense of m story, so thank you! However, it didn't affect me in any negative way, so you don't have to worry about that in the case of any other negative reviews.

Please have an awesome week! =3