A/N: This feels good. ("This" referring to overall life circumstances.) Yes, there is no time pressure right now. This is ideal.

How much quicker things get done when there is no pressure to do them quickly at all.

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Konan

Konan stood in the middle of the room and listened. Voices, some of them recorded, came at her from all directions. Whatever she did not actively focus on blended together into a meaningless blur of sound. The quantity of things to look at overwhelmed the eye at first, but little of it was moving or changing. As she familiarized herself with the room and taught her eyes what could be safely ignored, it grew more manageable. She shifted her attention from the things to the people. There were a lot of young children around, families, some babies in strollers. They wandered around in ways that seemed alright to the untrained eye, but on closer inspection proved to be haphazard. Someone stepped backward into another person's path and apologized. People that seemed to be in a group together did not speak to or look at each other. The more Konan looked, the more she saw thinly-disguised chaos.

The real world leaves much to be desired. She started moving again. She went from exhibit to exhibit, pretending to be one of the visitors. Most other visitors were doing exactly the same thing. She passed a man who had stepped off to one side to take a phone call. A child exclaimed in amazement. Konan watched her until her mother pulled her away to look at something else. Her amazement was genuine. Then a pair of brothers walked up, both around 10 years old, and glanced at the display before returning to their discussion of what must have been a video game.

As Konan investigated the main hall of the aquarium, she understood what Kisame meant. The movements of the people raised minor alarms in her, as well. The rest of the bubble world possessed a subtle coordination to it that she hadn't noticed before. Even a crowded place like the bar clearly delineated which groups were together and which weren't, and she couldn't imagine someone accidentally stepping into another's path in that place. She saw, too, the banality that Kisame had pointed out. There was a lot of genuine amazement on the part of children, but also a lot of apathy, a lot of not really paying attention. It saddened her. She imagined Yahiko trying his hardest to be kind to someone and that someone just…not responding at all. Yes, the real world is exactly the danger Itachi thought it might be.

On her part, Konan noticed that all of her past training in formality was kicking in automatically. Without even thinking of it, she composed herself in ways that were dignified and unintrusive. She didn't feel capable of taking flight, arguing or turning to paper in this space. She knew from Solis' example that she could and the people here would behave as NPCs usually did, but instinct told her not to. She blended with the people, silent and unobserved. After a while of this, Konan noticed that she was feeling slightly drained. Perhaps in a more normal state, she would not have. But in her current state, just coming out of an emotionally imbalanced phase, it took noticeable energy to act composed and dignified. She consulted a map on the wall, left the main hall and headed directly to the stingray pool.

Her long sleeves prevented her from casually dipping her hands into the water, but merely watching the creatures circle the pool refreshed her. She did not know how long she had stood there watching when she realized someone had joined her. "They're beautiful, aren't they?" asked a woman with brown, curly hair hanging in ringlets. She seemed to be in her 30s. Her skin was tanned and her muscular legs suggested she enjoyed hiking. She looked like a happy sort of person.

"Yes. The way they swim is very relaxing."

"I've loved them since I was a little girl," the woman said. "We went on a vacation in the Caribbean. I saw three of them swimming in a shallow bay. They looked like they were playing together. I tried to play with them, but they swam away."

"I was just in the hall," Konan said. "It is nice, but noisy."

"Yeah, Kis likes it better out here, too. Not because of the noise. Because of the energy. He says I have a loving aura around me. Do I really?"

Ah. This must be Kisame's friend. "You do," Konan said with a smile.

"You can pet them if you like," the woman said. "And we sell treats over there."

Konan shook her head and held up one sleeve to show why. "Have you ever hiked through the local forest?" she asked.

"A few times. I saw a wolf once."

"Many if not all of the wolves in that forest are trained. Did you know that?"

"Really? I gotta go again."

"Kisame can introduce you to the people who train them."

The woman looked at her. "Are you…Konan?"

Konan smiled. "I'm sorry, I cannot recall your name."

"Tammy. Short for Tamitha. My parents had a weird sense of humor."

They watched the stingrays. Visitors came, interrupting them. Konan moved to the side of the room and sat on a bench to watch Tammy at work. The woman was wonderful. Konan could see how she had earned Kisame's trust. One of the visitors asked if that doll was ever going to come back. Tammy said he wasn't hers, so she would have to ask. A perfectly genuine affable smile stayed on her face the whole time.

"Is he ever going to come back?" she asked Konan when the people had passed.

"That specific one may not want to, but we have three others who are interested in exploring the outside world. They may. There are no plans yet."

"How is Kisame? I haven't seen him lately."

"He got mauled by a tiger over the weekend," Konan replied. "He is recovering. He may come back tomorrow."

"A tiger? Hot damn."

"Actually a friend transformed into a tiger."

"Hold on. Hold on." Tammy lifted a finger and shook it three times. "Hidan? That's the cat guy, right?"

"Yes, it was him. Before you ask, they were not angry with each other. It was a fight for entertainment and to test their abilities. I think Kisame learned more about himself than he ever wanted to know. I will leave it up to him to decide if he wants to gossip about it."

Konan got a crazy idea. She was in a known location, accompanied by someone she trusted. Perhaps it might be possible to…? Why do I feel as if I am doing something wrong? she thought while unfastening her cloak. It is only an outer layer of clothing. I am perfectly decent underneath. Still, as she shed her cloak and placed it carefully on the bench, she felt nearly naked. Her perfectly normal T-shirt and shorts seemed to tingle and sting as she walked over to the pool and placed a hand in the water. A stingray brushed against her palm. It did not feel like a brush. It felt like nothing she had ever heard described. She patted one stingray after another, entranced. There were three of them. Perhaps outside of visiting hours, they played with each other.

As soon as she heard footsteps, she removed her hand from the water and retreated. She put her cloak back on and was fastening it up by the time someone came down from the main hall. Tammy left the bench and chatted with them, but they were on their way out of the building. As soon as the doors closed again, Tammy elbowed Konan. "It must be hard being surrounded by boys all the time. If you ever want a girlfriend to hang out with, just say the word. Here, let me add you."

Konan stiffened, confused by Tammy's use of the world girlfriend. Perhaps she meant to say it as two separate words? I have seen what sorts of interactions men have with each other in this world, and I understand how they differ from male interactions in my world and why. I do not know the same things regarding women. It could be useful information to have at some point. "I have much to learn about women. I might do so." She and Tammy added each other as contacts.

Konan left the aquarium feeling unsettled. She pulled at her collar and adjusted her sleeves. They felt tighter and heavier than usual.

General

There was a meeting that night. Konan and Kakuzu agreed that one was needed. Kakuzu invited Hidan to come back and participate. They met in the sunroom, because this was news that did not need to be shared with politically unstable vampires.

The meeting did not start until Hidan showed up. "Heyo!" he called, poking his head in the doorway. "So, there's a lot I've been missing."

"Oh, I am glad to see you," Nagato said while standing. He gave Hidan a hug. Hidan purred into his ear. He smiled.

"Me too," Yahiko said, beaming. "Wait 'til you hear what a great time we had with Sasori!"

Hidan was also greeted by a very happy Samehada, who nuzzled his leg and chirped and trilled. Hidan released Nagato and looked down. The four plushies followed Samehada's example by standing around his feet and looking up at him. They still wore harnesses. Hidan bent down and patted them all on the head, then gave Samehada a scratch. The shark rumbled.

"C'mon, sit down," Kisame told him. "There's a lot to go over."

Hidan sat down. He glanced over at Sasori, who saluted him. The engineer looked a lot better than he had before Hidan left. Deidara was happy about that, slinging an arm over Sasori's shoulders and telling him he'd recovered just in time for all the chaos Hidan was sure to cause, yeah. Hidan laughed. "You fucking kidding me? You guys are the ones causing chaos! I leave for not even two days, and the whole place turns upside down! I hear the dolls have a little society now? And Kisame found a connection point to the real world? And Itachi's chatting up the wolf people?"

Kakuzu raised a hand and barked, "Ahem. I will explain all of those references in order." In order, he explained: the dolls were looking after their nonliving cousins. There was one room in the aquarium where the law of narrative convenience did not hold. The demon boy modeled his appearance after Sakumo's dead son, whose body his original self had possessed back in Konan's world. The vampires were renegotiating their territorial boundaries, and everyone was to stay out of their land until they reached a decision sometime in the next week. "Have I missed anything?" he asked Konan.

"I do not believe so," she replied. "Perhaps some minor things. Kakuzu and I have agreed that he is not to interfere with the plushies from now on. We also made a tentative plan with Hidan that Hidan should only come back when Nagato and Yahiko are ready to begin their experiment. Unless you two have decided that you are ready, his presence is for this meeting only."

"What experiment?" Yahiko asked.

"With being physically apart," Hidan said.

"Oh! That! Uh, we kind of had an important talk earlier. That might or might not be needed anymore."

"Yahiko is now capable of facing other people's unhappiness without fear," Nagato announced proudly.

"Excellent. How is he with apathy?" Konan asked.

"Apathy?"

"I explored the aquarium earlier. It seems that the so-called 'real world' is characterized by a high degree of apathy and people not thinking about or caring about things. Yahiko, you have developed the ability to press on if others seem upset with you. What if they just do not care, or they don't even notice that you are attempting to help?"

Yahiko winced. "I'm…not sure what I would do if someone mistook my trying to help for trying to hurt them. I could keep going without a response, but if someone turned around and told me I was really making things worse…"

"You have more development to do, then."

Kisame raised a hand. "Can we return to the part where I'm the only one who had access to this little bit of reality until now? That seemed to be pretty damn important earlier."

Itachi nodded. "I understand what Kisame's role in this group is."

"No shit?" Hidan's ears perked up.

"He is, quite literally, a realist," Itachi explained. "In touch with reality, serving as a filter of sorts between everyone else and the outside world. Kisame is untrusting, slightly misanthropic and dismissive of other people's opinions because outside people have a history of being unkind, unpredictable and irrational. Without him around, we would run the risk of expecting too much kindness and reason from others."

"I don't want to be paranoid, though," Kisame interjected. "I've always dealt with other people being that way by avoiding them. But avoiding all of humanity isn't a good thing to do. There have to be other ways of dealing with it."

Itachi nodded. "Such as locating trustworthy allies and gathering information about the wider social world through them. The shield technique, where you specifically asked her to accompany you during the donation-fundraising night in order to ward off attack, was another good idea. Developing the ability to locate and befriend others who can defend you is much more likely to work than attempting to avoid attack all by your lonesome. There is a reason why vulnerable, naked, clawless early humans banded together in groups."

"I never would have learned what friendly, trustworthy people looked like without everyone here, though," Kisame said. His cheeks flushed purple. "I mean, how are you supposed to find people who are sincere if you've never seen sincerity before? Or if nobody's ever been nice to you? Thanks, guys."

"You're welcome," Yahiko said with a huge grin on his face.

"By the way, I took your advice," Hidan said to Kakuzu. "I invited Jiraiya to come over for a visit."

"Oh hell yes," Nagato said immediately. "You suggested that, Kakuzu? Thank you."

"Wanna talk about it?" Sasori asked. "It worked for me."

Nagato hesitated. "Yeah, so… Guys… I've been depressed lately. Before that, I was angry. Hidan thinks I'm going through the stages of grief. So…"

"So everyone's going to be very nice to him. Capisce?" Sasori asked.

Itachi raised a hand. "I heard there was a whole spa day planned for you."

"Ooh, tell me everything," Hidan said, purring.

"Well, first, they used Little One as a surveillance doll…"

Itachi nodded along to the entirety of Sasori's story. When it was finished, he said, "That perfectly matches the advice I gathered on how to relax. Had you seen my message, or was it coincidence?"

"Total coincidence," Yahiko swore. "Wow!" He grinned proudly.

"There's something else," Sasori said. "Something that happened some time ago, which today reminded me of." His tone of voice told everyone that it was a very serious matter. Everyone sobered accordingly. "This isn't the first time people have done nice things for me and I didn't know why. Laurie did something similar. I think…I got her pizza to show my appreciation for her help. She said something about how I didn't need to bribe her to stick around; she was happy to help me out. I didn't understand what she said. Earlier, these two said they were making a whole day for me just because they wanted to. I didn't understand that either. I understand it better now, as an attempt to cure Nagato of his depression by having him help someone else, but at the time I had no idea why they would do this for me when I hadn't even asked."

Kisame shrugged. "I get what you mean, but the people in this group are clearly very different from other people. I wouldn't expect anyone else to go around doing nice things just because, but Yahiko's weird like that."

"I hadn't even asked."

"Oh. Are you a little mad that he did something you hadn't consented to?"

"No. It just doesn't make any sense. The chain of cause and effect is broken."

"No it's not," Yahiko said. "I like you. Laurie likes you. You're a good friend. Why wouldn't we do nice things for you?"

"That's not the question," Sasori replied. "Why would you?"

"...Why wouldn't we?"

"Ah, the two types of actions," Hidan said, nodding his head. "The ones you need a reason to do, and the ones you need a reason not to do. Sounds like Sunshine's just dying to throw spa days for people all the time, and the only thing holding him back is fear that it wouldn't be appreciated. And Laurie… I bet she is fucking grateful to you for saving her from that abusive boss situation, and helping you out now is just retroactive repayment as far as she's concerned."

Sasori thought about it. "I did help her in the past, didn't I? Do you really get spontaneous urges to show people movies they might like?"

"Not exactly," Yahiko said. "It's more general than that. But kind of."

"You'd like to cuddle underneath a blanket more, wouldn't you?"

"Yes yes oh gods yes," Yahiko immediately replied. He blushed. "...I like hugs."

"I see," Sasori said in his usual level monotone. "You look for any excuse you can get to express affection physically. Very well. I suppose I can do you a favor by occasionally granting permission."

"Sure! If you want!" Yahiko said through an enormous beaming grin.

"I guess I was projecting, then. I would need a reason to deliberately schedule hangout time with someone. It's not something I look for an excuse to do."

"More cuddles for everyone!" Hidan said, raising his arms in the air. He gave the four plushies sitting around him another round of head pats. "You guys have the right idea." Warlic raised his arms in the air.

"I have something to ask about," Itachi said.

"Wazzit?" Hidan asked while high-fiving Warlic.

"Yahiko still has work to do on tolerating rejection. Does anyone else have something they've not yet been able to work on? Something…missing?"

Kakuzu restrained his chakra so he could not give himself away and looked around. Konan did likewise. Everybody else took the question at face value. "I do," Kisame said. "I still wonder about my background. About my family history, my ancestors, going all the way back to the tiny seaside village where we split from the Hatakes. Why didn't my parents teach me how to be half shark? Why'd I have to figure out what this means for my life all on my own? I should have grown up steeped in traditions and family legends. Instead I was raised as a normal guy. Even though my parents must have been just like me." He received many murmurs of sympathy, but nobody else offered a way to relate. They couldn't. No other member of the group had any experience remotely similar.

"I can't really process what it's like to be the token normal guy," Deidara said. "Not here. I only talk about it with Laurie, yeah."

There was an extended silence while everybody else wondered if they had something to contribute. "It's kinda freaky to wake up with the taste of blood in my mouth," Hidan murmured. "I mean, I know the Other Guy's looking out for me and I'm on good terms with him. It's not that I don't trust him. But it's still freaky."

"I am the only one who can't get along with these damn plushies," Kakuzu growled.

"I am more reclusive than I thought," Konan murmured. "Unwilling and unable to share my true inner self. It feels like parts of it are locked away from me."

Samehada whimpered. The shark delighted in sensations, but there were certain sensations he was prevented from experiencing. The problem wasn't on his end. He made his desires as clear as he could. The trouble was that nobody else seemed to interpret him correctly. They were so busy in their minds that they didn't pay much attention to him. Samehada didn't think very much about himself, so he did not feel ignored or unjustly treated. Most of the time. Sometimes he thought of himself, and those were sad times indeed.

Itachi blinked. "I was not expecting to get so many answers. I thought there would be very little left by now."

"Yeah, hm," Deidara agreed. "I guess we're not done with the therapy circle part."

"Guess not," Itachi murmured. He couldn't help but glance over at Kakuzu and Konan. Kakuzu's face was stony. Konan averted her eyes.

"I got a good feeling about us, though," Hidan said. Everybody silently agreed to let the meeting end on that optimistic note. Hidan conversed briefly with Konan and Kakuzu, then left to return to the campsite. Itachi also conversed briefly with them. Konan's shields were up even higher than usual. She did not say a word. All four plushies tried to sit on Samehada's back simultaneously. They managed to fit, but at least one of them would have fallen off if Samehada had moved. The shark rumbled in delight and let them soothe away his worries. They were enough. For now.

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A/N: Yes, the pace is definitely speeding up. Ahhh, good stuff.

I would love to be less vague with Samehada's true desires. Really, I would. But in order to speak directly about it, I would have to think about it, and I avoid thinking about it. Sorry.

I still want the point where the whole story becomes a cute kitty omake to happen eventually, but I'm getting increasingly unsure if it ever will. A whole expansion I had planned for this story is effectively canceled. Some things that were set up early on regarding the layout of the hotel will not pay off. The scope of the story is narrowing before my eyes. That's what happens when you start out with no idea what the story is or what it's focusing on and later develop such an idea. I still want that one part to happen though. It's very important to me.

Well, see you all next week.