CHAPTER NINETEEN

PASSING THE TIME

Early Thursday morning on October twenty-fifth, Ren walked out of the police department as a free man. He quickly made it across the parking lot and down the street, beginning his long trek back home. Once he made it to the shop, he wasted no time in entering the building. Closing the door behind him, he walked across the reception area over and up the spiral staircase. Once he reached the door at the top of the stairs, he ran into a problem.

He unlocked the door with no problem, but when he tried to open it there in lay the problem. The door would not budge. Putting more force behind his push, the door would not move. Letting out a groan, he put his back against the door, and used his legs to push. He got the same results as before; nothing. As he increased the amount of force he applied on the door, he started to slowly slide down until his butt hit the floor.

"Son of a bitch! Someone open this goddamned door," Ren shouted after finally losing his patience. He was jiggling the doorknob while pounding on the door with his fist.

On the other side of the door, there was a groan and some shuffling followed by the door slowly opening. Looking up at him were the droopy eyes of their resident blond terrorist. The blond was struggling to stay away and remain standing up straight. Ren rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of the blond man's arm, guiding him out of the way as he walked through the threshold.

"Morning," Deidara mumbled as he was attempting to find his sense of balance when Ren had let go of his arm. He rubbed his eyes sleepily as he stumbled over to a stool at the kitchen island, where he promptly fell asleep with his face plastered to the quartz countertop.

"Ren, you're back," Sakura noted in surprise as she had walked out of her bedroom after finally pulling herself out of bed to see what the commotion was all about. She'd completely forgotten Ren was to be released that morning. At the sight of the expression on the usually playful man's face when he spotted her, she knew what was on his mind. His frown lines coupled with his hard eyes had given his thoughts away.

"How is she," Ren asked getting straight to the point, no need to pussyfoot around. On his third day stuck in that cell, he had gotten a call visit from Jade. At first he was confused when he realized the blonde had come alone, but then he was informed of the situation. At first he was in denial. Then his daughter's best friend had explained everything to the best of her ability, omitting many details due to the jailer standing off to the side, including their collective decision to inform him in person rather than over the phone.

"She'll make a full recovery. Though I think I went a bit overboard and ended up needing at bit of rest myself," she said with a laugh. "Now all that's left for us to so is wait for her to wake up, which should be at any time now."

Slowly the questions that had been gathering at the back of his mind, spilled from his lips. Sakura soon gave the man a retelling of the situation, beginning with Kakashi's shout for help, to the frenzied emergency surgery and the tense blood transfusion, and ending with them placing the girl in her room to rest. Ren nodded his head, taking in the information. Now, as he stood before the pink medic with most of his questions answered, he allowed himself to feel the full extent of the worry he had suppressed for the past two days.

"How did this even happen? Sure she's gotten a few cuts and bruises, but never anything like this. Shes never even had a broken bone before. Yeah, she doesn't have the best sense of balance, but her reflexes are amazing. I taught her better than that," Ren cried in frustration causing the sleeping blond to jerk violently awake. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep breath, his hand curling into a fist as he brought it down to rest at his side.

"That's the exact same thing Jade told me," Sakura mused, watching the worried father make his way up the stairs after receiving at pat on the head from the man.

"I'm bored, 'ttebayo," Naruto whined from his place on the living room floor.

"For once I have to agree with you, Dobe," Sasuke muttered, the whole idea of agreeing with the other boy, leaving a sickeningly sweet taste in his mouth.

"What did you say, Teme!" Naruto shouted sitting up as he rose to the younger Uchiha's jibe.

"Tch, Dobe." Sasuke turned his head up in annoyance. Soon the two boys were on their feet.

"Shut up," Sakura intervened before a shouting match could commence. Naruto's and Sasuke's eyes widened, both sitting back in their seats, or on the floor in Naruto's case, quietly. The other men, Itachi, Kakashi and Ren, in the room snickered. Sakura and Hana gave them all looks that instantly quieted them down.

"This is why Hinata-chan is my favorite, she's not scary like Sakura-chan," Naruto said leaning over to envelop the indigo haired girl in a warm embrace. Hinata started to turn a lovely shade red right before she passed out. "Hinata-chan!" Naruto started shaking the unconscious girl in hopes of waking her up. When the girl woke up only to fall unconscious again at her close proximity to the blond, the Uzumaki boy started to panic. "Oh, no! I killed Hinata-chan!"

"It's a wonder how he could remain so clueless all the time," Hana pondered aloud. "I mean, every time she's around him she stutters and blushes like there's no tomorrow. Do you guys think he'll ever realize that she likes him?"

"Did you guys say something," Naruto asked as his panic started to die down.

"I would say that's a no," Kakashi said looking up from his book for the first time, a book that he had seen Kim reading shortly before her accident; The Last Song.

At that moment two things happened. Nagato, with Konan trailing behind, came bursting through the front door and Jade and Deidara ran out of her room and down the stairs. Nagato was holding a golden retriever puppy and Konan was holding a few shopping bags.

"Look at the bundle of cuteness I found," Nagato exclaimed as he walked over to the group sitting in the living room. He held the puppy up for all to see. Konan rolled her eyes, dropping the bags at his feet, and taking a seat on the other side of Naruto.

"We need help," Jade and Deidara yelled out in sync. They were standing shoulder to shoulder with their arms hidden behind their backs.

"I'm not cleaning up after that," Ren said gesturing to the puppy held in the redhead's hands. He then turned to face the two blonde disaster-causing artists, suspicion evident in his dark brown eyes. "What did you two do this time?"

"What makes you think I did something wrong," Jade questioned feeling slightly insulted that Ren was quick to pin the blame solely on her. "It wasn't only me, it was Deidara, too."

"Hey! You were the one that screwed it up, un," the blond bomber accused, a scowl on his face.

"Shut it, Dei! It was your idea in the first place," Jade shot back in her defense.

"How cute, she even has a pet name for him," Konan gushed in a monotone, a hand placed delicately over her heart. Deidara shot her a glare.

"I'll ask again. What happened," Ren said in a tone that demanded an answer. His eyebrow twitched; either he was low on potassium or he was ready to wring someone's neck.

The two artists shared a look, having a long drawn-out conversation, their source of communication being overly exaggerated facial expressions, in silence before seemingly coming to an agreement. They started bumping shoulders, almost as if they were trying to decide who would make the first move. Jade sighed and lifted her left arm which prompted Deidara to do the same with his right, from out behind their bodies. When they held up their arms, their arms from the wrist down were incased in some type of clay or cement like substance.

"What happened to you guys," Naruto said as he fell to the floor laughing, taking Hinata down with him. Nagato laughed and Itachi smirked which caused Deidara to glare at the elder Uchiha. Ren let out a sigh of exasperation. It was always something with these kids.

"You two," he said pointing at the conjoined artists. "Come with me." He led them both down stairs and out behind the shop to an old tree stump. "Wait here," he ordered them like small disobedient children, and as he walked away, muttered, "I should just leave you two stuck together for the rest of the week. I swear if it's not one thing, it's another."

"Hey, it wasn't only my fault this time. It was an accident," Jade screeched, having heard the man. She blew a raspberry at the man's turned back as he disappeared into the tool shed.

"Put your thing on the stump," Ren instructed as he walked back over to the two idiots with a hammer clutched tightly in his right hand. "Don't freak out. Or feel free to panic, I really don't care." With that he brought the hammer down like in a carnival game of test-your-strength.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

"What was that," Hinata asked, glancing toward the living room window despite not being able to see out of it. She was still sitting on the floor next to Naruto.

"It sounded like Jade," Sasuke stated while Itachi bit back a laugh. After knowing the man for nearly a year before their deaths, Itachi knew with absolute certainty that the high pitched scream did not come from Jade.

"What should I name my dog," Nagato inquired, effectively changing the topic.

"Google it," Hana offered, much like how the residents of this dimension would say when they were faced with a question they didn't know the answer to, or just couldn't be bothered. She whipped out her phone and typed into the search engine. "The top five names are Bella, Lucy, Molly, Daisy, and Coco. Which one do you want?"

"Konan," Nagato asked his blue haired best friend. It seemed he was still incapable of making decisions without her input.

"I like Coco," Konan decided after a moment of contemplation, grateful her opinion still mattered to the redhead.

"Hello, Coco," Nagato cooed to his new puppy, making kissy faces at the little dog who gave a light yip,seeming to approve of the name, and liked his nose.

"Fearsome leader of the Akatsuki, right," Sasuke drawled. "At least Kakashi never acted like that."

Itachi gave a snort. "Apparently you've never seen him-" he was cut off from saying when a couch pillow was thrown at his head. He turned his head over in the direction the pillow had come from, and saw Kakashi nonchalantly turning a page in his book. Fine, then. He would save the man's secret for another time. Maybe he could tell his sister when she woke up? He was sure she would appreciate the laugh.

"What happened out there," Hana asked when she heard the door open, turning her head just as the three walked back inside the loft.

"Deidara started screaming when Ren brought the hammer down on the block," Jade managed to choke out through her breathless giggles.

"It's not my fault, un! I've lost both my arms before, and one time was because of him, un," he yelled pointing at Kakashi. The white haired Jonin just gave him one of his crinkled eyes smiles in return.

"Wait! So that wasn't Jade screaming! I'm surprised you didn't break a window, dattebayo," Naruto shouted. "Ever consider joining the opera?" Deidara turned scarlet at the statement.

"What do you guys want for dinner," Ren asked in an attempt to diffuse the situation. Before anyone could reply he spoke again, "Well you'll eat what I cook."

"Why do you ask, if you not going to listen to us," Jade pouted. Ren just shrugged.

"Where did Sakura-chan go," Naruto questioned no one in particular, finally taking notice of the girl's absence. As it turned out, everyone aside from Kakashi and Hana had been to invested in the group discussion to notice the pink hairs girl's disappearance.

"She went to go meet with Alex," Hana answered him.

At hearing where his former pink haired teammate was, Sasuke sunk deeper into the sofa cushion, a slight scowl on his face. Itachi patted his little brother on the head, only to have his hand smacked away and be glared at.