Tobi stays awake the rest of the trip.
     Right before we get to the hideout, Deidara-Sensei tells the three of us that we’re going with our separate Sensei’s. We all groan and argue.
     “But I don’t wanna go with Itachi!!” Shoju complains. None of us are very happy about this news. I mean, sure Mini gets along really well with Pain-Sama, and yes, Shoju has way too much fun trying to kill Itachi and I’ll admit it is kinda nice being Deidara-Sensei’s only student, but we all rather be together causing hell for Deidara.
     Sensei shrugs “Sorry, un. But seriously, all we ever do together is waste time, and you all need to actually learn something new once in a while. Plus I’m just plain sick of all of you, un. It’ll only be for a month or two anyways.”
     “Still!!” Mini yells at him.
     “And how are we supposed to find said instructors in the first place?” Shoju asks.
     Deidara’s expression turns sour and mumbles “We’re having an in-person meeting this time, un.” oh joy! All the Akatsuki members will be at the hideout in person this time! Poor Deidei. He doesn’t like most of the people in the Akatsuki. Especially Itachi. All of them together in person will not be fun for him.
     “WHAAA!!!” Tobi cries suddenly. “Tobi doesn’t want Shoju and Mini and Shoni to leave!! Tobi likes them! And then who will keep Sempai from getting angry if everyone is gone??” and then he starts wailing.
     I jump off my bird and go over and hug Tobi. “It’s okay, Tobi. It’ll only be for a little while. And besides, I’ll still be here. Deidara-Sensei is my only teacher.”
     Tobi stops crying and sniffs. “So Shoni-Chan will still be here to play with Tobi?”
     “Yes, Tobi. I’ll still be here.”
     “Okay, un!” Deidara-Sensei says. “That’s enough. We’re here.”
     I let go of Tobi and climb back up on my bird as Deidara-Sensei opens the door. We all go in, dragging the beast behind us.
     I look around to see Pain, Konen, Hidan, Kakuzu, and Zetsu all already here.
     “About fucking time you all got here!” Hidan yells from his spot on the giant statue. He appears to be very at-ease with his cloak mostly off and his sword-thing held loosely in his hand. Judging by the scars on his bare chest and the blood on the floor, he just got done with a ritual.
     “Hey, un!” Deidara yells back at him. “It’s not my fault that my new partner is incompetent! We would have got the job done a lot faster if my students had been assigned to the beast, un!”
     “True,” Pain says, walking over to us, “But the three-tails was the weakest beast by far. I thought it best to assign the weakest beast to the weakest member. Believe me, your girls are strong enough to take on the strongest beast, which I will assign to them when the time comes. Don’t complain.”
     I can see Deidara-Sensei practically glowing under the praise of his students, but we couldn’t care less.
     “Pain!!” Mini cries at the sight of her Sensei. She runs over to the orange-haired man and hugs him. He just looks down at her. It may look like he doesn’t care about her to an outsider, but anyone in the Akatsuki knows that the fact that Pain isn’t trying to kill her for hugging him means that he at least cares for his student a little bit.
     I turn from the two of them to Hidan. He waves to me. “What’s up, kid?”
     “Hey Hidan.” I say, smiling slightly. I look around. “Hey, weren’t you supposed to get the two-tails?”
     “Yeah. We got her. The bitch nearly roasted my ass of in the process though. Jashin isn’t happy that I couldn’t kill her.”
     “I’m not even gonna ask.”
     “Good. Cause I don’t wanna fucking answer.”
     “And I’m assuming that Kakuzu never found his target.”
     “He got the wrong fucking guy! We thought we found it, then it turned out to be just some monk. Then we had to collect a fucking bounty for the guy, so we didn’t have to god-damn time to find the right bastard!”
     I turn to Kakuzu, who’s sitting on the finger next to his partner’s. “Hey, it was a good deal.” he says with I shrug. I roll my eyes at him and walk off to find Pain.
     “Pain-Sama!” I yell when I find him. He turns to me. “What is it, Shoniah?”
     “Where is Itachi and Kisame? They’re usually the first ones here.”
     “I can only assume something came up. They will probably be here soon.”
     And sure enough, just as he says it, the door to the hideout opens and the group walk in.
     Shoju turns from polishing her kunai and sees her sensei come through the door. She jumps up and runs at him. “Itachi-Sensei!!” She cries as she hug-attacks him, nearly knocking him to the ground. Kisame chuckles.
     “Shojuki!” Itachi scolds her once she lets go of him “I am not your enemy, it is not necessary to attack me on sight!”
     Shoju hangs her head and says in her mock-sorry voice “I sorry Sensei..”
     Itachi gives her a stern look and walks past her. I can see a little bit of a smile on his face. He couldn’t dodge that last attack, even if it was a hug-attack. That means that Shoju has gotten stronger. I can tell that makes him happy.
     Pain nods to the arriving team and says, “Well, now that we are all here, lets get started.” everyone nods and gets into position. The three of us decide to use our hologram instead of have all three of us try to balance on our tiny position, so we all sit on the floor near the door.
      Once we are all in our proper spots, Pain turns to us. “Shoniah,” he says.
     “Yes?”
     “It’s your turn to be lookout. Please use your Byakugan to keep an eye out with your real body.”
     “Alright.” I say. So I turn on my Byakugan and face the door.
     Then we begin.
     “This is going to take longer, isn’t it, un? Since we have two beasts to remove instead of one?” Sensei asks.
     “Yes,” Pain replies, “But the three-tails doesn’t have a Junchuuriki medium, so that one should only take a day or so.”
     “Ah.”
     So the net four days are spent extracting demons and keeping an eye out for possible intruders. There are none. God, even with all of the Akatsuki here in person, this is much less eventful than when we were extracting the demon from Gaara. Though I suppose that’s a good thing. Not so much emotion involved.
     Finally, we finish. And between extracting two demons and having my Byakugan on for four days straight, I’m out of chakura. I’m probably in worse shape now than I was in the fight with Chyo and Sakura. I want to close my eyes and go to sleep, but I don’t. I’ll be able to sleep soon.
     Shoju releases the jutsu and lays upside down against the wall and closes her eyes. Mini lets a bug loose and watches it as it flies around the hideout. All the other members find a comfortable position to either take a nap or plan their next mission.
     Deidara walks over to the crate that we use for trash and stuff. It’s full now. He wrinkles his nose in disgust and says “The trash is full, un. Someone take it out.... someone that isn’t me, un.”
     He looks around for a moment, and upon seeing no one volunteering, yells “Shoju!!”
     “Eh?” Shoju mutters, looking at Sensei blankly from her spot on the wall.
     “Take out the garbage, un.”
     She continues just to look at him blankly.
     “Shoju!!!”
     Still the blank stare.
     “SHOJUKI UCHIHA!!!!”
     “Fine, fine. Gosh!” she mutters. She somersaults upright and walks over. She’s about to grab the crate when Kakuzu races over and snatches it away from her.
     “No!! We can get five cents for every piece of colored glass in Konoha! That’s a bargain!!”
     “Kakuzu!!” Deidara-Sensei shouts, “We are not going all the way to Konoha just so we can trade glass for a tiny amount of money, un!!!”
     Then Shoju runs up and snatches the crate from him. Then I see her get an evil look in her eye as she makes a hand sign behind her back.
     All of a sudden Kakuzu gives out a blood-curdling scream of terror and yells “NOOOOO!!! MY MONEY!!!! IT’S BURNING!!!” and he starts trying to snatch non-existent objects out of the air.
     I turn to Shoju, “Genjutsu?” I ask. She nods and starts walking towards the hideout entrance, “Yup.” she says.
     Once the door closes, Kakuzu goes back to normal. “Huh??” he asks in confusion, “Where did all the money go?”
     “Shoju had you in genjutsu, un.” Deidara says. Then I hear him mumble, “Retard.”
     “What was that?”
     “Nothin’, retard.”
     “THAT’S IT, YOU’RE GOIN’ DOWN BLONDIE!!”
     “That’s what you think, un!”
     The two of them are about to start fighting, but Mini, sensing trouble, stops them both with her bugs.
     I figure that it’s probably safe to go to sleep, so I lie down and close my eyes, letting myself drift into unconsciousness...
     I wake up I-don’t-know-how-long later, and discover that all the Akatsuki members are still present, and that my team looks extremely worried.
     Upon seeing me awake, Deidara-Sensei comes rushing over to me.
     “What happened while I was asleep? How long was I asleep??” I ask him before he can say anything.
     The blondie looks at me grimly, “You were asleep for nearly two and a half days, un. And Shoju hasn’t come back from taking out the trash.”
     “After two whole days?”
     “Exactly, un.”
     “And you are worried?”
     “Very.”
     “Deidara, did it ever occur to you that this is Shoju and therefore is probably here, just hiding?”
     “Yes.”
     “Did it ever occur to you that this problem could be easily solved by holding up a chocolate bar and saying ‘I have chocolate, Shoju!’?”
     “Yes, it did, un. I tried it. Nothing happened.”
     At this I sit straight up. That is not a good thing. There are three things in this world Shoju cannot resist: kunai, Sasuke, and chocolate. Especially chocolate. If she is offered chocolate, even if she is on a top-secret mission and the one offering it is the one guy that could kill her, she will take it. If she didn’t come running when Deidara-Sensei offered it to her, she must not be here.
     I stand up and turn on my Byakugan. Everything becomes visible, and I start looking around or Shoju. There is not sign of her chakura for at least twenty kilometers.
     I turn it off and look over at Sensei, who is looking hopeful. I shake my head, “Nothing. She’s gone.” I say.
     “Dammit, un...” Deidara-Sensei mutters sinking to his knees. He looks as if he might be sick.
     “Hey,” I say, trying to cheer him up, “She’ll probably turn up here soon. And if she’s not here by tomorrow, Mini and I will go out looking for her, okay Sensei?”
     “No. The last thing I want is you two disappearing as well, un.”
     “You got a better idea?”
     “.....No, I guess not. Fine. If she doesn’t turn up by tomorrow afternoon you two can go out looking for her, un.”
     So I go off, tell Mini our plan, and we wait.
     And wait.........
     And wait.......
     It’s now around ten o’clock at night and I’m just about ready to go back to sleep when all of a sudden, the door to the hideout opens. I can’t see who it is in the dark, so I trigger my Byakugan. I see blood red chakura swirling around the person.
     “SHOJU!!!!” I scream. I run over to the figure and nearly knock them over with a hug.
     “Woah there, chubs. I don’t especially wish to be knocked over right now.”
     Yup. Definitely Shoju.
     Right as I let go of her, Mini comes rushing up and gives her one of her signature near-bone-crushing hugs. Deidara is also running over, his expression a mix of pure anger and pure relief.
     “Where have you been, un?!” he demands once Shoju is able to breath again.
     “I was taking out the trash.”
     “Well then, why the hell did it take THREE FRICKEN’ DAYS, UN?!?!” he does have a point, “THE TRASH DUMP IS ONLY A FREAKING KILOMETER FROM HERE!!”
     Mini and I giggle a little. It’s funny when Dei-Sensei is angry at Shoju.
     “Well.....” Shoju says, “I kinda got captured by Orochimaru while I was there....”
     “WHAT?!?!”
     “What the fuck is going on over here?” Hidan asks, coming over. I turn to him, “Shoju got captured by Orochimaru.” I say blankly. He turns to Shoju, “How the hell did you get captured by that dumb ass?”
     “Well, it’s kinda a long story.” Shoju says.
     “We got time, un.”