A/N: Sorry for the late upload (afternoon). I had to finish a job-related packet of paperwork yesterday and turn it in this morning, so that delayed the finishing of this chapter. Ye gods. A job schedule. I've never had one of those before. This may be the greatest unprecedented challenge to my stories ever. Luckily it's only part time.

More fuzzie wuzzlies. Prepare for the hugging and excellent gettings-along. I love this stuff.

Onward!

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Sasori

Once again, Sasori couldn't help but wonder what kind of movie this was. He had never thought about his life that way before Konan arrived, and he had thought the brief period of classifying his new life by genre after she arrived was over. Clearly he was wrong. He tried to focus on what the half snakes were saying, but he was very distracted by memories of all the vampires versus werewolves movies he'd ever seen.

He managed to concentrate enough to determine that Yahiko was happy and nobody had been hurt. That was extremely basic information. He had the vague thought that he wanted more. But he couldn't think up appropriate questions to ask. I can't believe we're in one of those movies now. Have I ever seen human bystanders that survived the action? I can't remember. How will I know what to do then?

"Sasori?" Yahiko elbowed him in the ribs, bringing Sasori back to the real world. "What are you thinking about?"

"Whether I've seen any movies with human bystanders who survived fights between vampires and werewolves," Sasori answered. "I'm not sure."

"We're not humans," Yahiko said cheerfully. "We're ninjas. We can handle it."

"And if there are any werewolves around, I don't know them," Satori said. "I know half wolves and full wolves, all of whom are sensible and trained."

Right. Not werewolves. Sasori shook his head to drive away those distracting thoughts. "I'm sorry. I didn't know I coped with this kind of stress by thinking of it as fictional. I just defaulted to the most similar kind of movie I know."

Satori nodded. "Entirely understandable. Say, do any of you have earth techniques?"

Where had that come from? "No."

"Darn." Satori glanced at the rocks behind him. All the other half snakes in his view immediately shook their heads. He argued back, "What? It was agreed on."

"I like my rock, and I won't have it moved," one of them declared. The others patted their rocks protectively. That left one rock unclaimed, which was known to be the favorite of others not currently present.

"Then we'll just have to make new rock," Satori said. He spoke in a way that Sasori liked. He spoke with certainty, but not the kind that comes with passionate determination and wishful boasting. More like it will be done -style certainty. Sasori immediately knew it was a bad idea to argue against someone like Satori, and respected him for it.

Evidently not even his own family could read his voice the same way. One of the other half snakes narrowed his eyes. "You're really good friends with that tiger kid, aren't you? That's why you're on his side."

"I can neither confirm nor deny being on any side." Now Satori started to shift uncomfortably.

"Ahem." Sasori hated to interrupt, but if there was a good place to interrupt this was it. "What did Ruta do?"

Satori stayed suspiciously silent, leaving the guy who had first protested about having his rock moved to summarize. Sasori had been there on several nights where Ruta had asked for things. He didn't get the feeling that Ruta was the sort to cause such ruckus on his own. While the other snakes weren't looking (because it would be rude to share what someone else did not want him to share), Sasori subtly narrowed his eyes at Satori. It will be done.

Satori's green eyes took on a mischievous glint as he fought to suppress a smile. Sasori returned his face to blankness and looked away. I won't tell. He liked this guy.

After everything was explained, including how the conflict had led to meeting the vampires, there was nothing to do but return to sunbathing. The half snakes had areas of plain skin on their bodies that looked perfectly normal, like human skin. How did they protect themselves from sun cancer? Sasori wondered that as he and Yahiko drifted on the water, letting the river's currents carry them around.

The river was unusually calm by the rocks, so it took a while to drift away from the half snakes. Sasori's t-shirt had moistened all the way to his skin by the time they were far enough to have a private conversation. He and Yahiko were able to lie on their backs without fear, both because of their chakra and because of floating. Perhaps the fact that he wasn't supporting himself entirely with chakra was what allowed the water to soak in. He must have been using some, though, because t-shirts normally did not need any time at all. They were like clothing-shaped cleaning rags. It would not be a surprise if it was normal to cut up old t-shirts for that purpose. Now I feel bad for just throwing them out. Not very eco-friendly of me. How long does cotton take to break down?

He was just relaxing into a promising thread of idle musings when Yahiko broke in. "Do you think Satori helped?" he whispered.

"Yeah." Now be quiet. Stop distracting me from my very important thoughts. He had read in a book about sleep that the wandering mind wandered in order to tag important concerns for the dreaming mind to address that night. If that was true, his thoughts now were very important. Sasori certainly did not want to stay up for another night of poor sleep just because he had failed to think enough the previous day. Maybe playing cards yesterday had helped; there was a lot of space in that game, to be filled with talking or thinking or whatever you chose. He had much greater understanding of the appeal of cards now. He wondered if all card games had these same qualities. Ahh, this is more like it.

Yahiko paid close attention to how still Sasori was lying. This was the same sort of stillness and stability he wanted to feel. So he said nothing, like Sasori did, and lay still, as Sasori did. He had no idea what Sasori was thinking, so he just looked up at the trees and listened to the water. It didn't feel like anything unusual or spiritual, but maybe that was the point? That spirits weren't supposed to be unusual at all? Perhaps if he looked at things the right way, he would see them in everything.

That is how neither of them noticed where the river was taking them until, with a jolt, Sasori realized he could see flying birds. He threw himself upright and looked around. They were in the middle of the lake.

His heart started to pound. What was going on with this lake? What could happen? He didn't feel like sticking around to find out. Sasori looked over to Yahiko, planning to grab him by the hand and run.

Yahiko had an expression of wonder on his face. He hadn't noticed Sasori sit up. His head was tilted the opposite direction so that he could watch his own arm as he swept his hand across the surface of the water. "Hey, I think I feel something," he murmured.

Sasori rose to crouch on his feet. He did not want this water soaking through his clothes. "What?"

"It feels different," Yahiko murmured. "Cooler. Sparkier? Is that a word? I think I feel more awake." That was the first thing that had alerted him to the lake water. He hadn't noticed the lake being any different from the river until they reached the middle.

"It feels good?" Sasori still wasn't going to touch it.

"Yeah…" Yahiko rolled over. He lay on his stomach, with his hands on the surface to keep his head up, staring down into the depths. He looked like he was pressing his nose up to the glass in an aquarium, but rotated 90 degrees. The dreamy smile on his face would not have been out of place in either context. "I feel closer to it somehow. Peaceful. It's beautiful." He looked up at the shore. "I feel closer to other things, too, and they look more beautiful. Look at those trees!"

Oh no. It's having effects on how he feels. On his soul? Sasori took his hand even further back from the water. The idea of anything affecting his soul was terrifying. He wanted to get the hell out of there. But Yahiko said it was peaceful, like a balm. And Sasori had not felt quite right since his soul was nearly pulled out of his body.

Was it safe? He would not risk anything unless he knew it was safe. "Yahiko?" I guess this is a promise, then. I'll try it, if it proves itself safe.

"Yeah?"

"Try spreading your chakra into the water again," Sasori said. "See if…" This sounds ridiculous. "If you can find out what it wants."

Yahiko looked surprised, but increasingly more pleased. "Okay. Yeah, that could be interesting!" He got up onto his knees and exclaimed in glee before plunging his hand in.

Sasori hoped he hadn't endangered his friend. After several seconds, Yahiko appeared to show no ill effects. He continued to grin, and even tilted his head as if to listen to the water. Maybe whatever's in this water likes him. Sasori couldn't hear anything. Part of his concern was the knowledge that soul-changing forces could be very, very personalized. He might react the opposite way from how Yahiko did. I hope it likes me too. "Are you getting anything?"

"Uh huh. I don't know what, but it's interacting with me. It's sticking around!" Yahiko looked a little confused. "I'm not sure this is the same as the water spirit in the river. It's different."

Sasori swallowed. "I didn't think sloshing around as if it was alive was something normal water spirits did. There must be something else in this lake."

Yahiko nodded. "I still don't know what's happening. It seems to like my chakra; it's kind of sucking at it. Not like sucking my chakra out of me," he said to Sasori's alarmed look. "It's just washing my chakra away really fast. I don't know why."

Oh, for fuck's sake. I'm going to have to risk it, aren't I? Sasori sighed. That was something he preferred not to do. Of course, it didn't earn him a lot of the good things in life that could only be acquired by risk, such as friends, but he was fine with that tradeoff. He was fine with it right up until moments like these, when suddenly he was not. "Keep letting it do that," he told Yahiko. Hopefully Yahiko's soothing chakra would protect him if the worst happened. "And hold still." Slowly, Sasori slid his hand into the water just below Yahiko's.

He gasped. The water did feel cool and sparky. His hand tingled, but not in a bad way. The tingling feeling spread over Sasori's whole body, touching each of his nerves at a level just below itching, then fading. And just like that, a faint irritation that Sasori had not noticed before went away. Every muscle in his body relaxed.

Sasori took his hand out of the water. "Wow." He was aware that he must look as stunned as he felt, and didn't bother to do anything about that, because there were much more important things to think about. The glistening of water on his skin did look different, more interesting. The lake looked more beautiful. He closed and opened his fist, and felt a sense of connection to his own muscles that he did not usually feel. "Wow."

Yahiko stopped releasing chakra and took his hand out of the water. Sasori looked just as enthralled as he had been, but that was very strange for Sasori. What had happened? Had soothing chakra spread through the water made him feel better? Or was it the other thing, the thing that had already been in the water? Maybe some combination had happened. Either way, Yahiko knew what he wanted to do. Should he, though? He knew Sasori didn't like that. He decided to anyway.

Sasori was surprised to feel Yahiko's arm wrap around his shoulders, pulling them closer. He prepared for a jolt of fear, but there wasn't any. Yahiko's weight and warmth were pleasant. Hey… This is what friendly touch used to feel like. I like touch. I've missed this. He allowed Yahiko to hug him closely from the side. Deidara did that, too. It was very nice.

"Sorry," Yahiko apologized.

"Nope." Sasori lowered his hand so that it rested on the surface of the lake. "It's gone. My soul feels right again."

"Really?!"

"Yeah." Sasori elbowed him lightly. "I didn't realize how much I missed this. Dei used to hug me like this often whenever we would hang out."

Yahiko's eyes teared up. He might or might not have played a part in helping someone reconnect to their friends. That was amazing. "That's a really good thing. I'm so happy for you!" He looked down at the water. "I wonder what caused it. I know it wasn't my chakra alone, but was it the thing in the water? Or did the thing in the water use my chakra, or combine with my chakra, or something?"

Sasori lifted his hand off the water. The idea of a lake being alive was still creepy. Worse, he didn't want to overstay his welcome. It had helped him; now he should go. "Either way, I'm better, and I wouldn't be without you. Thank you. Let's get out of here."

Kakuzu

Kisame's eyes darted around warily. That was how Kakuzu knew he was nervous, despite all attempts to appear otherwise. Kisame got vigilant in many of the same situations where he got grumpy and defensive. They had a lot in common.

Kakuzu sat back on the bench under the currently-unused lamppost and allowed his friend a full view of everyone in the front area of the park. There was a family with a little girl using another bench, two students examining flowers (he guessed they were students, because why would anyone who wasn't studying or practicing biology have such a strong interest in the flowers?), and a couple people walking through on their way to the trails. They glanced briefly at Samehada, but no more than they did at the young girl, who was just as likely to suddenly get in their way. The students mostly ignored Samehada once it was clear that he was only going to watch and warble, not get in the way of whatever they were doing. And the young girl ran over to Kisame. "Can I pet the sharky?"

"Sure."

The little girl squealed and ran off to do so. Kisame watched as the shark wiggled back and forth, lolling his tongue out when she reached his dorsal fin, and rolled onto his side for belly rubs. He took one more look over every person in the area and relaxed. "Nobody thinks it's odd for a shark to be in the park. She even talked about him like he was a dog. I'm glad for it, but how?"

"Just be glad for it," Kakuzu advised. "A lot of things are just inexplicable and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."

"I'm trying. At the rate I'm going, I'll be your age by the time I can do it," Kisame replied.

Kakuzu glanced at him. "How do you know how old I am?" Come to think of it, I don't look my age. Why am I treated as older? How do they know?

"I don't. You just seem…" Kisame made vague gestures. "I don't know. Something in the way you talk, or look at things, or something. You seem old enough for me to have made sense."

"You did. I don't look at all my age." Kakuzu glanced down at his threads. "Probably because of my original using hearts to live longer."

"How old are you?" Kisame asked.

"How old do you think I am?"

"Around...grandpa age. You know, the curmudgeonly old grandpa with a shotgun that gives life advice because he's seen some things."

Kakuzu nodded. "That's good."

"I'm not getting a number am I," Kisame muttered.

"Nobody is. Not even Hidan."

"Fine." Kisame looked away. Samehada yelped, drawing his attention, but when he looked he saw nothing except the little girl giving belly rubs. She resumed, and there were no further yelps.

"Does he usually do that?" Kakuzu asked.

"No. All kinds of happy sounds, but not a pained sound. He only makes those when it's serious." Kisame continued to look. Samehada curled up and nuzzled the little girl, which she returned with a hug. "Maybe she accidentally pressed too hard somewhere."

"Probably," Kakuzu agreed. He returned to watching the students. They were now writing and drawing, which proved it. Definitely biology students, or really young biologists.

The little girl was eventually called back to her parents, who got up and walked down the trails. The little girl followed along with her head turned like an owl's for as long as she could. Samehada warbled goodbye, then came back to Kisame and Kakuzu. He reared up onto his tail next to Kakuzu and chirped. Kakuzu had no idea what that meant, but Samehada was very much like a dog, so he petted the shark's head. The shark seemed happy with that.

One of the biologists came up to them. His red hair was in disarray and his round cheeks were flushed even more than they probably were normally. "Hi," he said. "I just wanted to say I've always appreciated sharks. I'm too scared of water to ever study them, but I love them. I just wanted to give her a hug and maybe take a picture?"

"Uh…" Kisame had no objection to the request, but… "Sure." He decided not to tell the biologist. The young man embraced Samehada and took a selfie with the shark. Samehada did not react to the biologist's choice of pronouns.

Samehada went back to closely watching what the biologists were doing, which thrilled the red-haired one. He resumed drawing with a big grin on his face. This gave Kakuzu the opportunity to ask about something he had only just now realized he didn't know. "How do you know Samehada is male?"

Kisame shrugged. "I don't."

"Then why do you treat him as male?"

Kisame's arms folded. "It's just easier that way. Besides, he never corrects me."

"He didn't react at all to the biologist's choice of words, either," Kakuzu pointed out. "That shark might not know what pronouns are."

Kisame stayed silent. Clearly he had not considered that. Clearly, he was now chastising himself for not being fully considerate of his shark. Kakuzu rolled his eyes. Neurotic self-punishing. I'm glad to have outgrown that. Kisame was right in describing him as the sort of old man who was tough, armed, and didn't give a fuck anymore. Kakuzu felt that he had aged well, and sometimes allowed himself to be proud of it.

But none of that changed what Kisame was thinking or feeling in any way. Kakuzu decided he could make an effort, just this once. "How would you know?" he asked, interrupting any unpleasant thought spirals Kisame might have gotten himself into. "Don't sharks have ways to know?"

Kisame shook his head. "Same's not a normal shark. Male sharks normally have claspers, which are extensions of their pelvic fins that look like a guy's thing. And females don't. But Same doesn't have pelvic fins at all. You'd have to look beneath those scales to know, and nobody ever has."

Kakuzu was starting to think that Kisame wasn't actually very much of a shark. Nothing stands out to me as strange about how he talks. That itself is strange. He should not sound like a normal man. "That's how humans know. Lighting conditions aren't always ideal underwater. How do sharks know?"

Kisame took longer to answer. "Probably by scent." He shot a glance at Kakuzu. "No, I can't tell. I don't know how male and female sharks are supposed to smell, if I have the ability to smell as well as a real shark in the first place, and assuming Same smells like other sharks. He might not smell like a real shark any more than he looks like one."

Kakuzu nodded. "As I recall, his original was a sword. It's entirely possible that he is sexless."

"I don't think so…"

"Why not? Didn't you just say you couldn't tell?"

Kisame leaned closer so Samehada wouldn't hear him say a certain word and come rushing over. "He treats Ducky like an infant. He even sings to it. There's no way he can be sexless if he has parenting instincts."

The mention of singing had Kakuzu thinking certain thoughts. But he didn't know anything about the parenthood roles of sharks, so he said nothing. "Makes sense."

Kisame settled back. "So that's how it is."

Once again, Kakuzu identified a flaw in this claim. Why? There is an obvious solution: just ask the shark. He imagined himself suggesting this and, to his surprise, imagined Kisame reacting poorly. Squirming in discomfort and looking away, unable to respond. Kakuzu knew he must be imagining this for a reason. Some part of him must have picked up previous indications that Kisame would not like this idea. Why not? It's just easier that way. Why?

Kakuzu stifled a laugh. It was so tempting to tease Kisame about being afraid of having a shark girlfriend. He wanted to. But he knew he shouldn't. Poking someone in the insecurities was a great way to close them off, and he didn't want to do that. But the temptation was there. He decided to wait for a better moment when the shark man would be more able to take such a tease.

"Ahh!" The red-haired biologist squealed like a fangirl as Samehada licked his face. The other one grinned and threw a flower into his face. If only the little girl had still been nearby, it would have been a party.

Nagato

"Huh."

He took a moment to think through everything Hidan had just said. Hidan, having tired of talking, turned the globe that sat on the demon boy's desk. The boy had graciously granted them the use of this private room. There was definitely a spy hidden somewhere.

It was easy enough to assemble all the pieces. Determining what the completed puzzles meant was harder. So, our bodies are based off of our original's souls. Some kind of 'soul bush' interacted with their souls, probably when they died, extracted information from them, and created our bodies and minds based off of that blueprint. That's why our life experience is so similar to their life experience, and we have similar personality traits. And if someone from her world were to only partially die, it's possible that only a part of their soul would be cloned, resulting in a clone that seems to be very different from the original. But that's only a hypothesis.

So what does this mean? Is it important or relevant? Can we use this to predict anything about ourselves, or find out more about our originals? The second possibility seemed most likely. If Konan was right that the little snake's bond with the demon indicated that his original's bond must have been very strong, then all the traits the clones had that were the same as their originals must have been the strongest traits. The most central, the most pervasive, present in all parts of their souls. Traits that the originals had but the clones did not have might have been weaker or more situational. Okay, so we can find out more about our originals. But how important is that? Nagato was not very curious about his original. He knew himself, and he knew a bunch of bad things that he had never wanted to learn. He wasn't terribly eager to learn any more of those. It was likely that everyone else would agree.

Is there any way this changes our lives at all? The more he thought, the more he came up empty.

"Well, that's nice to know," he concluded. "But it doesn't really change anything. We already know who we are and what that means, regardless of where it came from."

Hidan stopped turning the globe and squinting at it, and looked up. "You do, Moonlight. There are people that don't. This is important shit."

There are? Nagato looked back down at his feet, which dangled off the side of the desk he sat on. It was probably rude to sit on the desk, but the demon boy hadn't yelled at him for it, so he continued to sit there. Hidan knelt before the globe on his right. Nagato swung his feet back and forth as he reconsidered what others in the group might or might not think. Wait. He's right. Kisame didn't like to hear that his original betrayed people. But our Kisame doesn't betray people. His original must not have been entirely behind the idea of betraying people. Maybe he secretly hated it but it was his job, or he felt forced to, or something. And Deidara has his original's love of explosions, but not the same bloodthirstiness. Maybe his original wasn't a complete monster, just twisted in the wrong direction by circumstance. This could help a lot of people feel better about their originals.

"You're right," he told Hidan. "Thank you. I can't believe I missed that."

"You're welcome," Hidan chirped. "Okay, this one has got to be a jungle continent."

Nagato laughed softly. "Are you just saying that because it's green?"

"No!" Hidan looked very insulted. "I might not remember going to school, but I know things! I'm saying that because it's also right on the equator, with wide oceans on either side, and it's got another bit of land to the south to block off cold currents."

Nagato got off the desk and leaned down to see. All of that was true. "Still, you can't know for sure if it's a jungle continent," he said. "Not without having a detailed map of the ocean. The ocean isn't one thing; it's got rivers inside it, and lakes. It's not just one thing. I mean, it kind of is, because all of those parts are connected to each other and don't have distinct borders, but it also isn't, because they exist." He sunk to his knees beside Hidan. "How could anyone make a map of the ocean? I know land doesn't conform perfectly to imaginary lines either, but at least there are lines."

"Not sure about that," Hidan murmured. "I don't think there are lines anywhere."

"At bare minimum, there's the line of the horizon," Nagato argued. "You can tell the difference between land going up and land going down. And some cliffs are almost vertical, like a wall."

"Yeah, but…"

"And low plants that grow between trees in the forest. They form a line where the trees end. There are boundaries to forests."

"Yeah, but…"

"But what?"

Finally, he looked at Hidan, and saw that Hidan's eyes were glazed. The color of his skin didn't look quite right, nor the rhythm of his breathing. Did I do something wrong? I talked about the world as a whole, as a system. Did that do it? Is it closely related enough to set him off? "Hidan?"

"There're boundaries to colors, too." Hidan blinked rapidly. "But not real ones. Imaginary ones. Not… Just because things on land come in big pieces, in blocks, doesn't make them a real line. Water just comes in smaller pieces. No difference."

Nagato resolved to take careful steps away from this topic. "Like a picture with bad resolution and its pixels showing?"

"Yeah."

"So if you took a photo of the world, you think the land areas would be more pixelated than the ocean?"

Hidan's shoulders began to relax. "Kinda."

"Okay." Nagato looked up at the globe. "I think I see what you're saying. If ferns were smaller, there might be a more gradual thinning out as you approached the edge of the forest. And cliffs might appear steep, but that's because a force in the past tipped over some small and barely there boundary. The only thing maintaining that edge is luck, the fact that it's just how things happened to turn out. Cliff rock isn't different from other rock."

Hidan's eyes were deglazing. "Yeah. Thanks. It would've taken me a while to put that into words."

"You're welcome." Nagato turned back to the globe and stayed silent, waiting for Hidan to say whatever he would. He also tried to stop his hands from shaking. Sasori said the theological climate looked like a color field. And Hidan brought that up on his own, just now. The ocean, colors: there are ordinary things that are a lot like gods. If they're like gods, are they really ordinary? If there was a big-G God, was it the world? Might the universe be the embodiment of God, one and the same?

Nagato swallowed back a pang of loss. Yahiko was eagerly leaning into seeing the world as one big interconnected living thing. Now Nagato understood that to be another difference between them. He didn't want to see the world that way. It was scary. Better to be small and ordinary and pleasant than big and amazing and terrifying.

"Hidan?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think of me and Yahiko as like the moon and sun because we're similar or because we're different?"

Hidan stared back at him. Was there a slight purple tinge in his eyes? "Both."

.

A/N: I originally thought it an apt comparison because of their similarities, but Nagato has a point.

Claspers were mentioned in that same book about prehistoric life that I read when I was like 7. And the book about sleep and dreams, that I read just a month ago or so. I love mentioning stuff I've learned! It's so fascinating! No childhood is complete without an ample supply of dinosaur books.

Life is big and amazing and completely terrifying. But then you see a tree, and the tree makes everything worth it. I can't tell whether or not I'm terrified. Love all of you! See you next week!

*heart*