A Collection of Akatsuki Days

Pein on a Picnic

The sun was hot, but not too terribly. In fact, if you went under a tree, you'd feel quite comfortable. There was no breeze, but that was fine.

Inside the base? Not so much.

It was any temperature possible, depending on the number of windows open and the contents of the room. Each of the members were doing his (or her) own thing - all except for one. And Pein was terribly bored.

Nothing held any appeal to him at all - he'd actually even considered asking Deidara to blow something up or for Hidan to talk about his religion. Anything would do, if he hadn't felt so lazy at the time. Now that he was restless and wanted to go somewhere, he was having a hard time figuring out where it was he want to go.

Suddenly, an idea struck his mind. It was probably an after-effect of watching too many chick-flicks with Konan the previous night, but at this point he didn't care.

He quickly gathered up all the supplies he'd need and after doing so, assembled the Akatsuki in the living room. "Akatsuki," he said, "we are all going on an outing. Together." This request was met mostly with a groan of annoyance or disapproval. Deidara and Konan, however, seemed to be very interested. Deidara loved the outside, frequenting it often, and Konan was just curious to see where they were going.

"I'd really rather stay inside and work on my puppets, Leader-sama," a certain redhead said, only to be glared at by the same interested blonde as mentioned before.

"Sasori-danna, you work in our little shop all day long," he said with a frown, "Why don't you come outside? I'll even take you flying, un."

"Diedara is right," Pein chipped in, gathering everyone's attention back on him now, "all of you need to get out a little more, and so whether you like it or not I'm ordering you all to go on this outing."

After a couple of groans and complaints more, Hidan said what was on all of their minds, "Well, if you're forcing us, at least fucking tell us where the hell we're going," a scowl accompanying every word.

Everyone looked at Pein expectantly, whom was very unwilling to share his plan. Finally, he said, "To the land of... places..." Vague, indeed, but satisfying for the time being.

Nodding, the group headed out silently. Once they were outside, however, Deidara made his clay bird and hopped on, aiming to simply fly around without any rules and restrictions from 'Leader'. The notion was quickly dispelled once Pein loaded everything onto the bird and sat behind the blonde, taking Sasori's seat. "Uhm, Pein-sama?" the blonde questioned, "You're... on my bird, un..."

Pein was very smart, and he had read Deidara's moves easily. He refused to allow the blonde a chance of escape when he had blatantly ordered everyone on this trip. He wasn't even letting Tobi skip out of this. "Is there a problem, Deidara?" he asked, allowing the authority in his voice hold dominance. Deidara was particularly submissive today, he knew, so it was no surprise when the blonde simply looked at Sasori sadly before answering.

"No, Leader-sama." His head hung low as he turned to face front again.

"Good." Taken as an order, the group set off. They chose to exit the way closest to Grass, so it wasn't long before they reached their destination. Wordlessly, Pein got out the blanket and the food.

Deidara, Konan, and Tobi did a happy dance on the spot. Itachi glared. Hidan for once had nothing to say. Sasori face-palmed in annoyance. Zetsu's black side was throwing insults while the white side talked about "how nice it was to be outside in the lovely meadow." Kakuzu grumbled about the cost of this "idiotic idea." As for Kisame... well... he hadn't stopped laughing yet.

Pein had taken them all on a picnic. And the happy Akatsuki were ery much outnumbered by the not-so-happy ones. 

"It's beautiful out here," Konan said, twirling around in circles before collapsing on the ground, breathless, her blue hair splaying across the grass.

Pein continued unpacking what he had brought: a change of clothes, for everyone (mainly Kisame, though, as there was a slow-moving river nearby), a fresbee, a list of "profitable items" to collect from the area "at least Kakuzu wouldn't be bored), a marionette (hopelessly broken, as to keep Sasori occupied with trying to fix it), a set of paints and brushes (Deidara is mental, let's remember, so they were sure to keep him in tow if he suddenly switched attitudes), a book (one that Itachi'd never read before and in large print), and finally, spikes and a hammer (with specific instructions to Hidan that they were for use on him, and no-one else). Once all the items were passed to the respective member he had brought if for, he sat down next to Konan in the grass and watched in amusement as the group of S-ranked criminals started playing like a bunch of five-year-olds.

Sasori was already working on the puppet, sitting back-to-back with Deidara, already painting something, on the crest of the gentle hill.

Kisame was going shark-happy in hte river, Itachi reading the book eagerly. Close to them was Kakuzu and Hidan, who were (respectively) hunting for non-existant items of high worth and slowly torturing himself to, not death, but serious pain nontheless.

Tobi ran around, and Zetsu was throwing the frisby at his face (the black side took over; who could really blame him?); for all they looked like, they were a bunch of normal ninja on vacation. Until you saw the coats, that is.

And in hte middle of it all was Pein, basking in the shade provided by Deidara's clay bird, thinking, 'You did good, Pein; you did good.'

He "did good" indeed.

                                                     >"Rinnegan..."<