Through the Rain

Konan trudged through the slush and mud of the fire country. Dirt caked the entire bottom half of her Akatsuki cloak and her hair was sodden and damp with rainwater, her normally present flower had fallen out several miles back, she didn't care to pick it up, nor did she give a damn about folding a new one, she just kept trudging. It had taken her mere hours to reach Konoha with Pein by her side, but she had been running then. She remembered the sensation, the wind ruffling her hair and cloak. She had been so full of confidence, Pein was with her, Pein, who had never lost a battle, Pein, God of The Hidden Rain, Pein, the one she loved, Pein, gone forever. Konan slumped into a puddle by the dirt road and cried. Next to her, the paper coffin that held Deva Pein's body, Yahiko's body, hovered just a few feet off the ground. Inside that thin shell of Chakra infused paper lay the man who had been her friend, then her god, then her lover. So close and yet forever parted. Konan's tears flowed into the muddy water. "Yahiko," she mumbled, "Nagato," and then finally "Pein." She brushed aside her tears but more replaced them, like a waterfall cascading down her face. "I love you." She wept. She wept until, eyes cloudy with tears, she fell asleep.

***

Whether it had been hours or years, Konan neither knew nor cared, they were gone, Pein was gone and Konan lived. Konan had endured pain just like they all had, like…. The very thought of Yahiko and Nagato's names brought a flood of fresh tears. She had been orphaned, she had watched her friends die, Yahiko, trying to save her from Hanzo of the Salamander and Nagato who gave his life to save the people of Konoha. She had endured terrible pain in the past, yet not even her orphaning had left her as alone as she was now. Konan's tears erupted in a flood from her eyes, falling in such quantity, it was hard to tell where the rain stopped and the tears began. Konan wept until she could weep no more. She saw not the boggy earth with her mind perceived, but the two boys forever in her mind, the cocky, Ginger haired, dreamer and the Chakra master blessed with the Rinnegan whose hair was the colour of spilt blood. The two children who had been her friends, her brothers, and when the two became one, her lovers. The two people who had solely defended her through her years to this point.

Yahiko,

Nagato,

Konan.

Just her left. Out of the three gutsy ninjas. The God and the Angel of Amegakure, only she was left.

"Konan,"

At first, she thought she was dreaming, that voice, as much as she loved it's tone, was gone beyond her reach.

"Konan,"

She thought the pain she felt was forcing these illusions on her, her mind wanting release from reality, for how could this, as much as she wanted it, be real?

"Konan."

She turned around. There he was.

"Konan?"

She could hardly manage the word

"P-Pein?"

"I'm here, my Angel"

"B-but h-how, I-I'm dreaming, you're d…." She didn't want to say it, "D-dead."

"I was" he said, Pein's voice was as it had been before his sacrifice, calm and composed, yet full of emotion, emotion he had only ever shown to her. "But I came back."

"N-no" she fought back her false hope "You can't…I-if I wake up, you'll g-go, you'll still b-be…." She choked on her tears, though whether they were tears of joy to see him, or tears of sadness because she knew it couldn't last, she could not tell.

"Konan", he touched her face with his palm, she stared deep into his eyes, deep and ringed, which to the other Akatsuki had only shown power, but had affection deep within them, which had always been for her. "You're awake, I'm here."

Konan screwed her eyes tight shut, begging for him, her God, to be real, but knowing he wouldn't be. But when she opened them again, there he was. She looked around, the paper coffin with had carried Deva Pein's body here, was broken from the inside, and there he was, real flesh and blood, The embodiment of her dreams.

"Y-You're really real!" She couldn't help but smile in wonder, tears still flowed from her face, but these were unmistakably tears of joy. "How?" she finally managed to ask.

Yahiko's face changed expression, showing Nagato's sorrow and guilt. "I'm sorry Konan," His composure was gone, his voice was raw guilt for what he'd put her through. "I transferred all of my consciousness into Deva Pein's body just before I died; it's a secret Jutsu I had saved, should my real body be slain. It took this long to properly take effect." He sighed, "I'm so sorry Ko-" He never got a chance to finish before she was embracing him, hugging him so close that he could not escape if he tried. All she wanted in this world was for him to stay, to be with her, in her arms.

Konan looked up at her childhood friend, her God and lover and smiled, something she had thought she'd never do again.

"Just to prove you're real…" she said, and then she was suddenly kissing him, so strongly and passionately, like there was no tomorrow, and he was kissing her back, their tounges responding to each other in a battle for control. She broke the kiss and lent back, smiling from ear to ear. She looked up at his heavily pierced face, past the spiky ginger hair which looked like a forest fire and into the deep, ringed, violet Rinnegan eyes that she adored. The moment was perfect, there was no need to say anything, but that wouldn't stop her.

"I Love you,"

"And I, you."

"More than the earth."

"I Know."

"Never leave me alone again."

"Not whilst we both breathe."

And then the pair smiled and Kissed again and again, and despite all the mud and dirt surrounding them, they were in Shangri-la, Nirvana, Paradise.

The Rain came down harder than ever, but Konan didn't care. The rain was theirs, as he was hers. Now and forever.

Pein and Konan

God and his Angel.