Edit (17/10/2021): Story title changed. Originally was 'Windows'.

—CHAPTER THREE—

"Here, 'Katsuki, 'Katsuki," Mollie sang, walking her way down the street. Josephine had gone from agitated to nearly hysterical, and was running up and down the streets of the suburb hoarsely whispering – and butchering – the name of the group. "Come out come out, wherever you are."

"This isn't working!" Josie cried, trudging up to her blonde friend and wiping the sweat from her brow. "You're not putting enough effort in!"

"Dear friend, besides that I really don't believe that your muppets have run loose, the fact that they're midget-sized ninja is what's stopping me from combing each blade of grass to even find them," Mollie reasoned, crossing her arms.

"Ninja?" Josephine repeated. "They're ninja?! Why didn't you tell me that to begin with?!"

"Because you would have started sniffing around like a dog!"

"I would have not!"

"You would have, Jose! When you get freaked you do the stupidest things, and you're beyond freaked out right now!"

Josie felt like tearing out her own hair. "Humour me, Molz! So they're ninja. No wonder they could—"

"Fucking kill it, Sasori-danna!" someone screamed, backed by some excited barking.

Josie perked. "Sasori? That's one of them!"

Mollie was stunned. Both of them looked down the tree-shaded road to see something small and black with a head of yellow blond sprinting towards them. Behind it was a giant white Labrador, tongue lolling and chasing after the muppet with sincere delight. Mollie remained unmoving but Josephine had sprinted towards the pony-tailed ninja, shouting to the dog to come to her. Further down the street a red-headed muppet came strolling casually around the corner with his permanent tired expression.

Ignoring that this 'Sasori' was the one who put artists to shame, Josephine once again tried to catch the attention of the canine. The dog barked joyfully and danced away from the blond muppet towards Josie, who scratched the animal whilst grabbing a nearby stick and throwing it as far as she could.

In the direction of Sasori.

He flinched – hell, Josephine flinched – when the canine barked and bowled towards him, and in the last second Sasori turned and ran straight into the power-line pole. Dazed, he tripped over the nuts that covered the streets from early morning shower and yelped when suddenly he got a face full of snout.

"Molz, get the blond!" Josie shouted. Anger flashed in her when she heard the tearing material. All that time, all those stiches, for nothing! She curbed that anger quickly. "Come on, doggy! Away from the cute little toy!"

The canine tilted its head and shook its tail several times. It took a couple more licks of Sasori before bounding up to Josephine with Sasori lodged between its teeth. It stood before her proudly, awaiting next instruction.

"Good boy," she cooed. He wagged his tail. "Now drop the toy." His tail stopped. "Please?"

Slowly the dog put Sasori on the ground and Josie bit back a moan of pain at the sight of her muppet. His arm was nearly torn off and there were multiple teeth punctures all over his body. Stuffing leaked everywhere. The dog looked at her expectantly, tipping his head, obviously waiting on her to play fetch with the toy.

Josie chuckled nervously at the glare she received from the figuratively bleeding red-head at her feet, as if daring her to do what the dog wanted. "Go home," Josie tried, pointing down the street where he'd come from earlier. "Go on, boy."

The dog whined, pattering his feet on the ground before taking a seat and licking away the drool from his chops. He glanced down at Sasori, pleadingly.

Josie instead reached down for a stick and tossed it far away from them as possible. The instant the dog turned she scooped up the saliva-soaked muppet and sprinted back to Mollie who was holding the blond muppet by the ponytail while he tried to break free. He stopped short at the sight of his leaking partner and gaped.

"Sasori-danna…"

"One word, Deidara, and I will de-stuff you!" the red-head hissed.

Mollie was pale, her thin lips nearly invisible. "What's going on, Jose?" Her voice shook.

"I don't know."

"Well, if you had let us properly search the area we might've had some answers for you, hmm!" Deidara yelled at them.

Josie and Mollie watched him wide-eyed. It was completely different seeing them in the dawn's light and mouthing off at her than in the dark. It was nowhere near as menacing. If anything, it was even more adorable.

"Hey, Deidara!" Mollie then snapped. "If we hadn't come looking for you, then your precious 'danna' and you would have gotten torn to shreds! What the fuck is a 'danna' anyway!"

Deidara growled. "I'm gonna blow you up, you lipless freak!"

"Who're you calling lipless, lipless! You're the one with no lips! You're a toy! You have a heart for a tongue!"

"Blame your screaming friend!"

"Hey!" Josie protested, cutting in. "Woah, woah! First of all, we're in the middle of a street at six thirty in the morning. Secondly, this little guy is figuratively bleeding. He honestly doesn't look too good. And thirdly, we need to find the rest of you!"

Deidara scoffed arrogantly. "Good luck with that, hm."

"You said you were scouting the immediate area. Considering your height, they would still be on the streets around our house. They can't have travelled far."

"Who're you calling short, huh?!" Deidara shouted.

Mollie grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and covered his big mouth, hissing in his shell-shaped ear. "Geez, Josie. You did good work. He even has the tongues on his hands." She grabbed one of his flailing limbs to show his palms, where small, pink tongues were sewed on. "They're adorable!"

Sasori coughed in amusement and Josie smiled uncertainly. "We should get going. You're handling this well, Molz."

"It hasn't sunk in yet. At all. I feel like I'm still asleep. Deidara, you have no tongue to lick my hand, so stop. Gumming me!"

Back at the house Mollie ended up tying both Deidara and Sasori together, then to the leg of Josie's work desk. She tried gagging Deidara as he refused to keep quiet but it did very little in stopping him. Josie was refereeing her, making sure that she wasn't being too rough on Sasori because 'you might be ripping more of his stiches out!' Mollie didn't care. She just grabbed Josephine's hand and yanked her to the front door.

They had taken one step out of the house before two more Akatsuki strolled across the driveway towards them; one with long black hair in a ponytail, and the other a giant blue popsicle. Josie and Mollie looked at each other as the shorter muppet pushed back open the front door and waltzed in, the gilled one slipping in silently after. Worried they were going in only to set Sasori and Deidara free, the two girls headed back in and found all four Akatsuki still in Josie's room, the new two sitting casually.

"Don't worry," the larger one said, settling onto Josie's bed and pushing over some of her dirty clothes. "We're not setting them free." He cocked his head at Sasori. "What the hell happened to you?"

Sasori scowled. Mollie just gaped, unbelieving what she was legitimately seeing. The other muppet, this 'older brother' she'd heard her own brother talk about, was browsing Josie's bookshelf, a hand to his mouth in thought. None of them seemed to notice the state of the room.

"So… you're all coming back?" Josie asked.

The popsicle laughed. "We did say we would."

"How was I meant to believe you?"

"It's good you didn't." His grin was very unsettling, especially as he was aided with sharp teeth.

Who the hell creates these sorts of characters? Josie asked herself.

"Although, a few of us won't come back so willingly…" he continued.

"The foul-mouthed one, right? And the idiot with the mask?" Mollie cut in. "Those two are the most annoying ones. They're the ones I keep hearing my brother imitate! I swear, Josie! The moment we collect these fugly numbnuts, I am going to drink myself to sleep again; I don't care that it's seven in the morning! I'll skip work even!"

The blue muppet laughed again. "Hey! Not a bad idea! What happened with these two?" He jabbed a finger at the tied up muppets. Deidara succeeded in shouting but the legibility was awful. Attention turned back to Mollie. "And what do you mean 'imitate'?"

The doorbell rang and Josie took the chance to escape the madness in her room and check the front. Her neighbour was there; a tall, big man tanned several shades darker than her. He was usually nice, but the moment Josie saw his heavy frown on her way to the already open door she slowed her pace and felt dread sink in.

"Morning, Aiden," she greeted.

"What the hell are you two up to so early in the morn?" he questioned. "Even up the street all I could hear was Mollie screaming her lungs sore."

Josephine giggled nervously. "Oh, she just hurt herself."

"On something that yelled back?" He crossed his arms, making his muscles bulge. "Her kid brother ain't here, is he? Didn't see, or hear him, arrive, until they started screaming at each other."

"Yeah!" Josie agreed, going with the flow. "He surprised us this morning! Real early this morning."

"Too early. Mollie's family needs to learn the meaning of silence," Aiden commented. "Tell her and her brother to keep it quiet, okay?"

"Yes. Absolutely. I'll do that." She fidgeted nervously.

Aiden took a step back before stopping. "By the way, I think I found one of his little toys in my pool."

Oh no, Josie thought. "Really? Has it got black clothes?"

"Yes. And an orange mask. He must have thrown it over the fence."

"Oh well, he's got a strong arm." She giggled. "Wants to be like his old man, ya know? Footy and sports and… such."

The man eyed her for a moment then backed off, telling her he'd retrieve the soaked muppet. When he returned, a trail of water in his wake, he dropped the doll into Josie's outstretched hands and left with a wave of his hand. She had just shuffled back into the house and closed the door when black arms were suddenly flung around her neck and an orange face was buried into her nape.

"Tobi's so happy you saved him! I am so happy!" he cried repeatedly.

Josie yelped, trying to pull him away, but each time she tugged he dug his feet into her cleavage to keep himself sticking to her. "Help!" she screamed.

Mollie came running, the blue muppet leaping atop the back of the lounge then stopping at the sight of Tobi. He just laughed while Mollie came to her rescue. Josie had her hands up, completely freaked out by the groping. As soon as he was off she shivered involuntarily, running her hands up and down her chest to rid of his wet velvety touch.

"This is getting out of hand," Mollie commented. Tobi was limp in her arms, tilting his head. "I can't believe this is happening." She turned Tobi around. "How the hell are you guys in these bodies?! Jose, aren't these the muppets you've been sewing for the past few months? I didn't realise it was them without their clothes on while you worked on them."

"Yes," she said sadly.

"What's going on?! Am I the only sane one here?!" She pointed at the blue muppet. "You! Kisame, right?! What happened with you guys on your end of this fucked up situation?"

"I don't know. We were all out with our partners, searching for the jinchuuriki," he responded. "That's the second time you've recognised us, by the way."

"How perceptive of you," she snapped. "And I only know a few of you."

Josie squeaked, hushing her friend. "They're ninja, Molz."

"Forgive me if I can't take these guys seriously while they're stuck in these ridiculous bodies. Real bodies? Sure. I'm not that stupid. I'll even wet my pants. But as muppets?" She shook Tobi, who cheered at the ride, and then dropped him. "They're nowhere near as intimidating."

Kisame chuckled and Josie blushed. "Well, they managed to knock me out."

Mollie snorted to hide a giggle and exhaled heavily. "Alright. Alright. Now, I can't quite grasp everything, but I'll help find whoever else we can before I go to work."

"Uh…" Josephine interrupted nervously. "Do you have to? Go to work?"

Mollie hunched over, already exhausted. Unsure if she would truly give in, Josephine collapsed to her knees and rubbed her hands together quickly.

"Please! You can't leave me here with them! Please!"

"Please!" Tobi entered. Josephine flinched at his random, spontaneous entrance but Mollie simply glared at him. "Pleeeaasse?"

"Well, we could force you to stay," Kisame added. He was lounging on the back of the couch, scissoring his legs.

Mollie snapped to him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You know at least my name. Leader would like to know what else you know, I'm sure."

She stomped towards him. "Are you threatening me?"

"Would you like me to? I certainly can."

He had not. Stopped. Smiling.

It didn't help that Josie had made him in a way where he did have a permanent smile, but even she could tell that he would be literally grinning if he could.

Mollie was eye to eye to him, bent over and hands on her knees as though she were talking to a kid. "I don't take kindly to threats."

Kisame chuckled. "A shame. I enjoy giving them."

Josephine, at some point, started clinging to a wet Tobi who had already glued himself to her when the atmosphere got thick. Figuring to hell with it, Josie was okay having something to squeeze to death if it worked her stress out at the same time.

"Alright, Kisame!" Mollie declared, grabbing him by the back of his neck and yanking him off the couch. "You're going in the bin!"

"Hey. Hey! Put me down! Itachi! Fuck, Itachi!" Kisame screamed as Mollie stalked towards the front door, flinging it open hard.

Josephine followed after in shock, cradling Tobi, but stopped when she heard an odd pitter-patter on the tiles behind her, and looked back to see 'Itachi' sprinting as fast as he possibly could considering his new height. She felt the wind as he passed her and barely had time to scream Mollie's name before she was tackled to the gravel driveway.

There was a loud crunch, Tobi's yelp of surprise and Josephine's audible curse before Mollie started yelling. "You mofo!" Flinging Kisame across the road she clawed her hands onto Itachi hugging her legs, failing fantastically at getting him off. "How are they so strong?!"

Josephine didn't know what to do besides dropping Tobi to the side and running to her friend. She wrapped her hands around Itachi's tiny, soft waist and pulled. "Shit," she cursed when he barely budged.

"Ow! Ow ow ow!" Mollie cried. "You're pulling my leg!"

"I'm sorry!"

Kisame was ready to lunge at Mollie when she suddenly threw up her hands. "Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!" Panting, relieved at the sight of Kisame halting and the reduced pressure on her legs, she bowed her head and exhaled hard. "I won't put you in the bin."

Josephine stepped back, surprised when Itachi came clean from Mollie and allowed himself to hang in her hands. She giggled awkwardly, looking to her friend. "I probably should have warned you about their strength."

Mollie growled somewhere at the back of her throat. "Ya think?!"