Mini immediately falls over in a hysteric fit of laughter. I also laugh, but more because Shoju- who is now standing up, hands balled into fists, breathing heavily and eye twitching- is entertaining when angry than at Tobi’s misfortune.
     Itachi picks up to bow that Shoju through at his feet and is about to say something when Deidara-Sensei snatches it away from him.
     “Why would anyone want to wear this thing, un? It looks big and bulky and like it gets in the way.”
     “Maybe that’s why Orochimaru uses them.” I offer with a shrug. “To keep people from running away.”
     Deidara looks at me, then at the bow. He raises an eyebrow and strokes his chin with one finger comically as he thinks. Then he hands the bow to Itachi, says “Happy birthday, un.” and walk off. Itachi looks from the bow to Deidara, now throughly confused.
     I get back up and follow Sensei. He walks over to Pain, who’s talking quietly with Mini. When he sees Deidara-Sensei coming towards him, he looks up.
     “What is it, Deidara?”
     “We need to tell the girls about training, un.”
     Pain sighs, “I suppose we do, don’t we?” then he turns to me, “Shoniah, would you please go and get Itachi-San and Shojuki-San and bring them here please?”
     I nod and head in Shoju’s general direction. She’s polishing her kunai with her cloak or something.
     “Shoju!” I yell at her. She looks at me, annoyed that I interrupted her. “What?” she ask flatly.
     “Pain-Sama and Sensei want to have a training talk with us and Itachi-San.”
     Shoju sighs dramatically and slowly gets up, feigning difficulty. “I suppose I could go get Itachi-Sensei.” she says. Then she strides off, yelling “ITACHI-SENSEI!!!” as she goes. I watch her as she goes, grinning to myself. I’ve basically lived with her since I was three and she still manages to amaze me every once in a while.
     A few minutes later we are all back in a small group consisting of Deidara-Sensei, Pain-Sama, Itachi-San, and the three of us. Kakuzu and Hidan walk past us and out the door, and I give Hidan a wave, which he returns with one of his crazy grins. Zetsu’s left already, Tobi’s joking around with Kisame, and I have no clue where Konen went to. Everyone is accounted for, so Pain gets down to business.
     “We-Itachi-San, Deidara-San, and myself-have decided that your training will be slightly different than normal.”
     The three of us look at each other with raised eyebrows. Different than normal? Usually our training just includes working on a few skills and a lot of goofing off with the occasional developing of a new jutsu. I don’t see much they could change about that except not letting us goof off as much, in which case I highly doubt it’s going to effect me at all. Deidara-Sensei is very lax when it comes to rules.
     “Instead of going away with your separate Sensei’s for months,” Pain continues, “you will each be trying to escape them in the shortest amount of time possible.”
     “REALLY?!” Mini yells, big smile on her face. This is like a dream come true for her. I can already see the gears turning in her and Shoju’s head. I really don’t need to think too hard about how I’m going to escape Deidara-Sensei, I’ve done it a million and a half times before anyways. Same probably goes for Shoju, but she has always liked to go out with a bang rather than disappear without a trace like me.
     The Sensei’s seem to be thinking up ways to keep us all from running away. Deidara’s grinning maniacally. He’s probably planning on tying me up with explosives or something.  
     “Well,” Pain continues, “I suppose we should let you three plan something or another, so off you go.” and waves the three of us away.
     Shoju and I look at each other, nod, and head outside. I turn and motion for Mini to follow us. Shoju and I have had a lot of spare time over the years and hence have discovered many secret hiding places, one of which is an old tree next to the river that guards the hideout. It’s close enough to the river that anyone trying to listen in can’t here a thing, but far enough from it that we can here each other. It also hides us very effectively. Mini doesn’t know about it because we’ve never had any reason to show it to her since she’s joined. She may be part of the family, but by force of habit Shoju and I don’t divulge information to her unless it’s absolutely necessary.
     Once we’re safely outside and the stone blocking the entrance closes behind us, Shoju quickly jumps up into the tree, closely followed by me and a rather curious Mini. I go to my usual branch, Shoju plunks down on her usual limb, and Mini seats herself right in the middle. Then she looks from me to Shoju expectantly.
     “Well,” Shoju says, “I don’t think this is something you can really plan.”
     “Agreed.” I say, “I think the most we can really agree on is a place to meet once we all escape.”
     “Let’s do that!” Mini chirps.
     “Fine then,” Shoju says. Then she taps her chin thoughtfully. I also begin to ponder a good meeting place. Mini appears to be lost in thought as well.
     After a good two minutes of solid pondering, the three of us look at each other and simultaneously declare “The temple.”.
     The temple is the place where Deidara-Sensei was first recruited into the Akatsuki. It’s old, mostly destroyed (thanks to Deidara and his compulsive need to make stuff go BANG!), and crumbling, but we often go there when we have nowhere else to go, so we all know very well where it is. Plus, it’s so blatantly obvious, that the Sensei’s wouldn’t even think of it (since Shoju’s a bit of a child prodigy, I’m a genius, and Mini’s really good at just about everything, including hiding).
     “Perfect!” I yell. “So how about we get away as soon as humanly possible, and we all meet there and don’t leave until the others show up?”
     “Sounds good”
     “Mmhmm.”
     “Then it’s settled. Now let’s go back in before the three of them have enough time to plot anything against us.”    
     Shoju does a back flip out of the tree and land squarely on her feet all the way on the other side of the river.
     “Show off!” I yell at her as Mini and I climb out of the tree ourselves. Shoju flashes us a overly cheesy grin. Then she waits somewhat impatiently for the two of us to hurry up and cross the river so that we can go back inside.