Boulders

Diamond

Kisame gasped.

Tobi gasped.

(Somewhere far away, Sakura gasped for absolutely no reason. Ino looked at her curiously.)

Kisame looked at Tobi.

Tobi looked at Kisame.

And Kisame dropped Toph.

▪~shopping~▪

"Do we haaaave to?" Toph whined, seeming unashamed at her childish behaviour. "This is the devil's errand, I tell you. Devil's errand!"

He knew she could feel the flat look Kisame gave her.

"Your clothing is well worn," he explained patiently. "Ninja are hard on clothing, and you only had a pair and a half to begin with. You need new clothing, or else you are going to be walking around in rags."

"Devil's. Errand." Toph said pointedly.

Kisame sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "When did this happen? Why me? Why must I be the one to parent this wayward child?"

"Because you love me," Toph deadpanned. "Can we get some takioyaki while we're out, dad?"

She skipped away, completely missing how the tall shark man froze in place, face flushing a dark purple shade.

"You just called me-" he cut himself off abruptly, looking away from where Toph was haggling at a food stall.

He'd just been called dad.

Kisame coughed, trying to rid himself of the fluffy feelings rising up in his chest and walked after her.

Upon seeing his distinct cloak, the vendor hastily changed his tune about his food even costing anything and the two (one-and-a-half, really) Akatsuki members walked away, both holding tiny waterproof boxes filled with tiny fried balls of octopus.

(They did get their shopping done, but Kisame had been almost totally out of it for the first few minutes, so he didn't catch it when Toph asked an employee where the Akatsuki-honoring stuff was.)

(He did not miss the blue shark plushie the worker gleefully gave to her, only pretended to.)

She had called him 'dad.'

(He was still in shock an hour later. A less obvious shock, but still shock nonetheless.)

▪~Card Games~▪

Toph sat in the meeting room, holding a hand of cards, surrounded by the other members of the Akatsuki.

(Except Kisame, of course, but he never participated in any games with them, so it wasn't unexpected.)

What were they doing?

Playing poker.

Was it a good idea?

Who knew. There was no one there to tell them no, though, so they were doing it anyways.

The prizes were simple dares. Deidara had made a rainbow smoke bomb for Tobi, who pocketed it with utter glee. Sasori, likewise, was down a puppet. It sat at Konan's elbow like a particularly spiky gremlin.

There was one person who'd lost more than a weapon, though.

Behind her, Konan whispered quietly into her ear, telling her what cards she held.

"You're going down!" Kakuzu slurred slightly.

He'd already lost several rounds, and he was down most of his clothes. (For some reason, every time he lost a hand, the winning member made him remove something. They hadn't planned it or anything; it had just happened).