A/N: This chapter is both late and short because I really had a lot of trouble pushing myself to write it. I am getting very worried about my ongoing stories. I do not want to abandon them before they are done, but can I strike a balance between my writing life and the rest of my life fast enough to make that possible?

I'm afraid this chapter is awfully meta as a result.

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General

A large span of time before the nightly meeting was required simply in order to calm down. The meeting was held outside, on Konan's orders. She had declared herself to be in charge of Akatsuki-vampire relations, so the originals had to defer to her authority on that topic. As for why Konan thought it would be remotely a good idea to allow the vampires to listen in… Well, she wasn't one of the people who needed to calm down. Did that give her more credibility, or less?

"I bring news," Sasori declared. "An incubus visited the shop to tell me they want to know more about who was brought to life and how approximately yesterday."

Konan nodded once. "A report shall be prepared. You can deliver it tomorrow. Are there any other updates?"

Samehada chirped loudly. She pointed her tail at Original Hidan and purred. He huffed and turned his head away, muttering "Yeah, hanging out with the shark was alright." She went over to him with her tongue lolling out and nuzzled his leg. "Hey! What the shit! I do not do cuddles." She backed off. But everyone who saw this could not help but notice that he didn't reach for his scythe, not even once.

"We're just here to ask some questions before you people do whatever you want to do," White Zetsu said. "You told Obito we're in a story?" Obito was not present. The masked man had a strong feeling that his unstable mental state could do nothing but endanger group activities. Clone Yahiko had tried to comfort him, but he refused comfort. He seemed really unstable: brittle and in danger of falling apart into separate slicing shards. Letting him go to bed early seemed the safest option.

"Yeah," Clone Yahiko replied. "We've seen things happen that only happen in stories, that never happen in the real world. People getting their personalities rewritten. Things like that."

Zetsu looked uncomfortable. "Why did you tell Obito?" Black Zetsu asked.

"It was on accident, yeah," Deidara muttered with a red face. "He overheard me and Hidan talking about it and asked. What were we supposed to do, not answer?"

Zetsu closed their eyes. Clone Yahiko gulped. "It might not've done any lasting harm to his mental state."

"What do you know about his mental state?" Black Zetsu growled, opening his eye. "We are the ones who have looked after him all this time, and we've only ever seen him so fragile in or around moments of crisis. He is a seriously damaged kid. The amount of change and instability around here is more than he can take."

"The damage is done," Original Nagato declared. "We can check on him to see what results. Now then. We ought to start our planned activity; it could take quite a while."

"Do we want to know what your planned activity is?" Black Zetsu snapped.

"We're going to put together everyone's observations to try to find out which of our activities today were on-camera," Clone Yahiko replied.

Black Zetsu sighed in a very angry way as they got to their feet. They retreated back into the base. The door closed with a barely audible click. Only then did Original Nagato speak. He issued orders, gathering the clones into some kind of organized structure. Following his instructions, everyone was able to give reasonably clear reports that lacked tangents and resembled each other enough for meaningful comparisons to be made. Original Nagato kept track of it all in his handy little notebook. An hour after they began, he concluded, "The focus was with Itachi this morning when he spoke to us, several hours passed where its whereabouts are unknown, then it settled on our meeting and on events that happened shortly after, likely passing from Yahiko to us. Then it seems to have gone dormant for the rest of the day."

"I lack Hidan's talent for identifying it, but I believe it is here now," Konan said.

"Of course."

"Nagato," Original Yahiko began. "I have a suggestion."

"What is your suggestion?"

"Well… The focus reliably spawns conflict, doesn't it? Is it possible that it could have been on your clone this morning when he argued with me?"

"Very possible." Original Nagato wrote that down.

"That's something else that needs to be addressed," Kakuzu said in a loud voice that everyone could hear. He looked around. "Has anyone been feeling unusually willful lately?"

"What does that mean?" Deidara asked.

"It means you're not in a mood to put up with bullcrap or take orders. If Konan tried to order you around, you wouldn't listen to her."

"Are you asking this because Nagato argued with an original earlier?" Sasori asked.

Kakuzu nodded. "They downplayed it while we were putting together observations just now, not wanting to distract us easily distractible clones, but Itachi walked out on them after his panic and Yahiko did the same. A lot of people have been backtalking today. I want to know if it's spreading."

"Damn! That would've been cool to see." Original Hidan smirked.

"Doesn't seem like it," Deidara said, looking around.

"Good." Original Nagato closed his notebook and tucked it away. "We must have cooperation, or we will not be able to effect change."

"Yeah, cooperation, yay," Clone Yahiko muttered.

"Do you have a problem with that?" Kakuzu asked him, glaring.

Clone Yahiko's hands repeatedly pulled at the grass. "It's a little hard to concentrate right now," he said in a quick, sharp voice that took everyone by surprise.

"Go to them," Sasori said. Clone Yahiko leaped to his feet and ran inside. "Why are the dolls being forcibly confined? We tried that once before, and it turned out to be a bad idea."

"Because Original Nagato doesn't like them," Itachi answered. "The dolls disgust and frighten him."

"What?!" Kisame leaned forward, baring his teeth. Samehada let out a long, shrill cry of distress.

Kakuzu sighed. Original Nagato steeled himself against angry and accusing eyes. "They are blank-faced doll creatures. The unnaturalness of their existence cannot be ignored."

"They are adorable children, and how dare you mistreat them," Kisame retorted. Samehada growled.

"They are not children. They are imps," Original Nagato said quietly.

"He has a point," Sasori said. "But they're cuddly imps and they make us laugh, so we like them."

"If I may." They all looked at Konan. She looked into the fire and narrowed her eyes in thought. "I have never once perceived them as unnatural. They seem as natural as anything else in this world. Perhaps, by the time of their creation, I was acclimated to high levels of strangeness and so they did not bother me. As you spend time in this world, the dolls might bother you less."

"Conversely, the fact that they bother me indicates that the rest of this world is also going to be difficult to handle," Original Nagato replied.

"Yes. That may be the case."

"I hope this will not be a problem," Itachi murmured.

"What won't be?" Original Hidan asked, flicking his tail.

"It seems that this project - the originals attempting to assist our author - might run into complications because our author is a sort of person that they just don't like very much."

The originals didn't say anything, but their silence was enough of an answer. They didn't like this world. They didn't like the dolls. They didn't get along with the demon boy. They were frustrated with the clones. Itachi was 100% correct.

"Not to mention that 'assisting our author' means helping to move our entire story off-camera, which may just result in all of us ceasing to exist," Kakuzu said.

"What the shit?" Kisame asked. He wasn't the only one confused. Deidara still had no idea how to feel about it, and neither did Konan.

"That's the point of it all," Sasori said. "Stories are just stories. They're not real life. They're tools. They serve their purpose and get abandoned. I mean, it really isn't fun to think about ceasing to exist. But ever since Konan smashed my sense of reality to pieces, I've always had this feeling in the back of my mind like I was dreaming and would wake up someday. Doesn't anybody else feel like that?"

"No." Kisame shook his head, still bewildered.

Itachi squinted into the distance. "Something feels wrong. If having the focus on us creates a feeling of tension and bumpiness, then right now it feels so tense it's about to snap and bumpy enough to break a rear axle."

"That makes sense. How does that make sense?" Kisame asked.

"Are we in danger?" Sasori asked, looking around. But he spoke very quietly, so nobody heard him except for the originals.

Kakuzu reached for his phone. He unlocked it and then hesitated, confused. Who did I intend to call? He had a feeling of needing to reach out, but no specific person came to mind. Do I really want to disturb Hidan on his date about something he can't change? No. Who then?

In a louder voice, loud enough that people could hear him, Sasori asked, "What are we afraid of? What does danger look like in this case?"

Everyone looked around. Nobody could answer. What happens if the tension breaks? What happens if the axle cracks? They were afraid, but of what? Bodily harm? Mental harm? Some other kind of harm that their conscious minds couldn't envision, but some other part of them foresaw?

Original Nagato and Yahiko looked at each other. Where are we and what is happening and what do we do about it?

.

Meanwhile, Clone Yahiko was very upset at the originals for locking up his little ones. At least they didn't use the basement. Warlic ran out as soon as the seal on the door to the game room was broken, sprinting in circles in the hallway and waving his arms. The others ran out, too. Solis and Manta flailed their arms in complaint. Little One turned this way and that, looking everywhere, as though afraid something was creeping up upon him. Yahiko knelt down and gathered them all in his arms. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I won't let it happen again. You know what? I won't let it happen again." He looked toward the back of the building. "I'll take a little time to cool down. I shouldn't do this when I'm angry. But when I'm calm, I will take you right back out there and tell them to get over whatever problem they have. You guys don't deserve to be locked away. Never ever."

The dolls calmed themselves by climbing all over him. Yahiko found himself on his back with Solis sitting on his stomach, Little One attempting to do his hair, and Manta clinging to his legs while he held Warlic in the air. Clinging for stability while he shifted about, staying together through his struggles to find a comfortable position - this helped them all feel better. Warlic eventually had enough of pretending to fly. Yahiko placed the doll on his chest, his feet on the ground, and tried to catch his breath. He giggled as Manta climbed up his lower legs. "You guys are wonderful. I love you." Little One gathered up two bunches of hair and tied them together. Is he giving me braids?

Yahiko nearly forgot about his promise to march out back and confront the originals. "Oh! That's right! Guys, guys," he said, struggling to sit up. "We've got to argue with the originals so they never lock you up again, remember? We can do more playtime later." Warlic raised his arms. "Let's go."

Yahiko and the dolls returned to find the backyard in chaos. Something had everyone else on edge. Even the originals seemed scared, though they tried to instill order. Kisame kept asking what was going on; Itachi kept saying he didn't know. Sasori and Kakuzu scanned the area. Sasori saw Yahiko first and called out, "Attention everyone."

Yahiko stayed standing at the base of the steps, wondering what had happened. The originals composed themselves and stood up to face him. "How are they?" his own original asked, sounding apologetic.

"We had playtime, so they're fine now. What's going on? What happened?"

"It's unclear," Original Nagato replied. "Something about the focus seemed wrong. Its effects were much stronger than usual."

Can I do anything about that? No. Focus on what I came here for. Yahiko cleared his throat. "Well, um, that doesn't sound like something I can do anything about. And it doesn't change what I came here to say. I came out here to say that you guys should never lock the dolls up again. They don't deserve it, it's wrong, and I won't let it happen."

"There could have been other solutions," Original Yahiko said sadly. "I'm sorry."

Yahiko looked at Original Nagato. He was staring down at Solis with a strange pained look on his face. At Original Yahiko's nudge, the look vanished. He bowed his head once. "Yahiko is right. My apologies as well."

"They might be living dolls, not normal creatures, but they only want to be loved. You can't blame them for the way they were made," Yahiko said. "I love them just the way they are."

Original Yahiko smiled. "They haven't hurt anyone. Please give them a chance. At least give that one a chance; he seems to like you!" Solis was practically standing on Original Nagato's foot.

Original Nagato gamely knelt down and picked up Solis. Holding the doll at arms' length, he asked, "What is it you want?" Solis waved his arms. Original Nagato looked at Yahiko and said, "Translation?"

Yahiko smiled. "You'll find out what he wants. Give him time and let him do what he likes."

Original Nagato knelt down and placed Solis on the ground. "When am I supposed to do so? Before, after, or while wondering if the entire world is about to fall apart?"

Yahiko closed his eyes and concentrated. Tension. Bumpiness. He certainly seems to have some. I guess it's here. "Everybody stop talking. Nobody say anything."

The fire crackled. Crickets chirped. Leaves rustled in a forest breeze. The stars overhead were bright, and the darkness beyond the fire was comforting, like being nestled in a thick blanket. "It's gone," Itachi said.

"The focus?" Original Nagato asked.

"I don't feel the tension anymore."

"We're good?" Kisame asked.

"No, it's not gone," Yahiko said. "Listen." A breeze blew past his ears, whispering in its own language. The trees waved slightly. Warlic's tiny footsteps rustled faintly in the grass.

"What are you listening for?" Original Hidan asked. "Why do you keep listening for shit?"

"What do you hear?" Original Yahiko asked.

Yahiko sat down and pulled Warlic into his lap. The little doll looked up at him. He smiled. "Whatever was wrong earlier is alright now. Isn't that right, Warlic?"

"There still is a faint tension," Konan said.

"But it's impossible to be super tense with these dolls around," Sasori said. He reached out. Little One jumped and ran to him. Sasori patted the doll's head.

"Yahiko, how did being confined make those dolls feel?" Itachi asked.

"Stressed. Upset."

"In other words, tense?"

Yahiko smiled and gave Warlic's head another pat. Warlic crawled deeper into his lap, compelling Yahiko to hold the doll tightly against his stomach. If Warlic could have fallen asleep, he would have. "Everything's okay now."

.

A/N: I've been feeling downright surly lately. I still am, even after the wonderfulness that inspired the second half of this chapter. Expect more backtalk.

So then. Rar. Obligatory promo message for the next chapter.

Tsch, honestly...