Leaning against a tree Lokier sighed, her eyes rolling back as she tried to catch her breath. Recently Pein had been really pushing their training in the swamp outside the city to the extreme, this most recent exercise had been going on since nine in the morning, and it was six in the afternoon now. Lokier had not been given a break even once, and had to use the time he was not at her back trying to stab her as a breather. Right now he had concealed himself, causing the young woman to remain on edge and keep her lilac rinnegan swivelling defensively.
"Shit." she murmured quietly, sensing something coming her way at rapid speed. Darting from where she was standing the young woman turned just in time to see the tree explode into a mess of moss and sharp splinters. This was getting ridiculous. "Pein, can't we have a break now? It's dinner time." Lokier called, trying to figure out where he was.
That was probably the wrong thing to ask as she could feel an impulse of his chakra force the hair at the back of neck to stand up.
"Never mind!" she squeaked, trying to create some distance between herself and his incoming presence. Coming past another set of willow trees Lokier practically jumped out of her skin as he appeared from behind the soaked bark and took a minute moment to make eye contact with her before he kneed her in the stomach and sent her hurting back the way she came.
Doing a minor summersault through the soft soil Lokier caught herself and grunted, this guy really was not giving her a break today. Coming at her the young woman leapt back and grabbed for her kunai to block the one he had hurtling down towards her in his clenched fist. Continuing to apply pressure Lokier soon began to lose the battle and swiftly moved her head out of the way when the kunai got past her defences and came towards the side of her head.
Without much thought she brought her knee up and tried to kick him, his body rising to follow her leg.
"Ha!" she cheered, before biting her tongue and cursing her loud mouth when his eyes swivelled to make eye contact once more. In the space of a few seconds his arm had bent and his below was brought to the side of her face, knocking her off balance as she went sideways. Though what truly sent her flying was his leg when he kicked her in the ribs and sent her tumbling across the ground for a fair few yards. There was a rule that Pein had drummed into her since the beginning of their training more than any other, and that was that she did not speak or celebrate until she knew she had actually won. If she did break that rule then it only ended in rather brutal consequences, and now she had broken that rule twice in a row.
At a result Pein had started kicking her across the ground like a football, and no matter how many times she tried to escape or retaliate he moved that little bit faster to keep the upper hand over her. By the time he finally stopped the white haired woman was pretty much just a crumpled heap on the floor, his eyes boring into her as she grunted and tried to pull herself together. This training session no longer felt like a lesson to her either, it felt like he was just torturing her.
"Useless." he uttered, using the ball of his foot to drag her onto her back. "We're done for the day, make your way back to the tower." he stated, disappearing as quickly as he usually did once he was sure she had understood his command.
Lokier did not particularly move at that point, and instead just lay there with her eyes shut. The thin sheets of skin slowly crinkling before she opened her eyes and examined the sky, the bleak clouds remaining above her as a constant reminder than it did nothing but rain in Amegakure. Shuddering Lokier pulled herself from the damp ground and shakily got to her feet, her hands using any tree she could find as a crutch whenever she felt another dizzy spell overwhelm her senses.
The least Pein could do was bring her back to the base when she was in such a critical condition, but then she supposed a few kicks were not detrimental to her health in his mind. Personally, she was waiting for the day he accidentally crushed her, maimed her or worse. Then she would see who the useless one was when her sensei ended up killing his own student he was supposed to be training, not liquidating.
Shaking her head in a vain attempt at keeping herself conscious Lokier groaned and stopped to rest, her body cuddling the tree she was propped up against for shelter from the predictable weather. Somewhere in amongst her constant cursing of Pein and her growing concern for her internal organs the young woman had fallen asleep, her body slumped over the uprooted trunks as she drifted off to someplace dark and quiet.
"I thought I hold you to head back to the base." she heard someone speak, causing her to regain consciousness and slowly turn her head to look up at Pein from the corner of her eyelids.
In response she had attempted to speak, though all that really came out was a pathetic mumble.
"A few kicks and you're unable to move." he sighed remotely, watching her tilt her head and divert her eyes to the ground. "Come on." he stated firmly, going to pick her up only to find her flinch away from him.
"Fine." she managed to speak, digging her nails into the tree as she stood up. "I'm fine." she corrected herself, taking a moment to try correct her bent knees so she appeared a bit more balanced and a little healthier.
Observing her the ginger haired man did seem that surprised as she fell over after a few steps, his anticipation for her to drag her face through the dirt preceding him. Uninterested in waiting any longer Pein took a few steps forward and lifted Lokier up, her hand shoving at his chest as she tried to escape.
"I'm fine." she protested weakly, peering up at him as she paused. "Why are there two of you?" she asked, one of her eyes opening a little wider than the other as she tried to figure out if her mind was playing tricks on her or not. Grunting Pein headed back towards the tower where only he, Lokier and Konan resided, though it was normally only Lokier that was seen wandering about as Konan normally disappeared for days at a time and Pein stayed in his office or private boudoir pretty much all of the time.
Back at the tower Pein had placed Lokier in her room and had went back to working in his office, deciding he would give her a few hours of rest before he forced her to eat her dinner. Recently he had been finding it hard trying to convince the young woman to eat, he was not sure what had influenced such a thing but it did not make their training sessions any easier when he had to train her on an empty stomach.
Taking a moment to look up at his clock a few hours later the ginger man soon stood up from his desk and vacated his office to go look for Lokier in her bedroom, who was still tucked up in bed when he got there. Unsurprisingly she was not at all happy when he woke her up and dragged her from her warm comfy bed to have dinner, and she did not seem at all happier when she did get something to eat only to have the leader stare at her intently to make sure she swallowed every last drop.
Dipping the piece of fish she had clenched between her chopsticks into a small pool of sauce the young woman stuck it in her mouth and mumbled as her cheeks shuffled up and down. She was practically falling asleep at the dinner table as she ate, and at one point had to be pushed awake when she started dozing off towards the end.
"There will be no training tomorrow. I've a meeting in the afternoon." Pein stated, while she simply looked at him.
"Really?" she asked, a few stray rice grains sticking to the side of her lips.
"Yes." he reaffirmed, while she gave a relieved sigh, she really needed a day of rest.
"I'll expect you to be fully rested for our next session a day from now." he firmly uttered, causing Lokier's expression to dull again as she turned her attention back to her rice bowl.
Hearing footsteps Pein glanced at the doorway, his rinnegan boring into Konan for a moment as she smiled a little and stopped whoever was following her from behind the wall stiffly.
"You're back late." he commented, while the blue haired nin just shrugged a little.
"I went to a small house party." she uttered, glancing at Lokier who was too busy finishing her pudding to really look round at her.
"I see." the ginger uttered, watching her scuttle off and drag a 'friend' with her past the door before Lokier could notice.
"I never get to go to parties." the white haired woman grumbled, glancing at Pein dryly.
"Until you've finished your training you're not allowed to leave this tower unsupervised." he responded calmly, finishing his green tea.
"I'm twenty years old, I can take care of myself." Lokier protested gently, frowning a little as she put her bowl down.
"I'm yet to see any evidence of that." Pein answered, standing up while silently motioning for her to clean up her mess and put her dishes in the kitchen.
"Maybe if you let me go out on my own I could actually prove it." she grumbled, stacking up her plates to carry them through to the next room.
Putting away the dishes Lokier sluggishly made her way to bed, though she did not sleep once she got there as she was quickly disrupted by something banging on the other side of her wall.
"Oh, for.." she moaned, rolling over to shove her face into the pillow. After a few minutes she got up, grabbed a pillow and a cover and went through to the living room to sleep there. She did not get to rest there either however, as Pein had wandered past and caught sight of her feet sticking out past the arm rest.
"What are you doing?" he asked sharply, annoyed to see she was not in her room. He was already tense enough having a stranger in the tower without Lokier sleeping somewhere different from where he knew she would be if anything happened.
"Konan's brought a 'friend' home." the young woman groaned, remaining on her side facing away from him with her eyes shut.
For a moment Pein mulled something over in his mind and let a low rasping breath escape his lips thereafter.
"Come with me." he uttered, waiting for Lokier to get up and follow him. Standing in front of him, while rubbing her eye, the young woman gave him a disgruntled glance when he rapped the blanket that was hung over her shoulders further around her body to cover her up. "Don't walk about like that." he murmured, soon turning to lead her down the hall.
Quickly the pair made their way past Konan's noisy door and deeper into tower, the ginger haired man taking a moment to check she was still behind him before he opened the door to his bedroom and brought her inside.
"I've not been in here for years." she commented, examining the room. There was a simple set of drawers aligning the wall and a cupboard at the window, both squeezing the large double bed, set underneath the window, together.
"You can sleep here for tonight." he uttered, leaving her in the room and locking the door behind himself as she gave him a confused and studious glance.
Shaking this off the young woman began to examine his bed sheets as she slowly made her way over and got onto the bed, her legs sinking into the soft foam mattress while her eyes seem to tilt back with joy when she finally fell forward and curled up to revel in the moment.
"Oh, it's one of those body-shaping beds." she practically groaned, quickly shuffling under the covers to get comfy on one side of the mattress. Rolling onto her back Lokier found herself in a strange state of restlessness, her eyes shifting about as she examined his room once more. It was pretty plain in this room, but then she did not expect anything fancy when it came to Pein. His luxuries tended to come down to furniture, especially chairs; and beds, apparently.
Tugging the covers further over her face the young woman peeped out to glance at the door, a small rush of air running past her nostrils. Pausing the young woman sniffed the covers, her eyes shutting as she realised that the leader's scent had permeated into the fabric of the duvet. Rolling over Lokier pulled the edge of the cover underneath herself, essentially wrapping herself up in the duvet as she snuggled up and sighed in a euphoric manner. Ever so slowly she fell asleep after that, finally comfortable and able to sleep now that it was quiet.
Meanwhile Pein had been finishing off a few documents that he had to read before sending off to various members of the Akatsuki, his eyes lolling up to the clock as he finally decided it was probably time for bed. Rising to his feet the ginger leader carried himself down the hall once he had locked up his office, the keys rattling on their hoop by his side as he ignored the noises still coming from Konan's room. Finding the right key once he got to his room Pein soon began to unlock the door, but his hand seemed to shift when he found the door was already unlocked. Pushing the door open quickly his face dropped when he found Lokier was gone, the room thrown asunder due to a struggle that had gone on here only minutes ago.
Thundering down the corridor Pein quickly made his way to Konan's room and practically threw himself through the door, his rinnegan shining venomously before stilling when he found Konan tied to the bed with something gagging her mouth. Apparently she had been trying to shout for help for quite some time now, and was glaring bitterly at him as he came over to un-gag her and release her arms.
"That bastard tied me up and left." she protested, rubbing her swollen wrists with an irritated expression.
"Where's Lokier?" he asked, frowning.
"Oh, god, Lokier!" she squawked, standing up quickly. "He said something about sacrificing her because she was a demi-god, he turned out to be a religious nutcase who has no idea we're considered gods, not really gods!" she exclaimed, trying to fix her clothes.
"Do you have any idea where he took her?" the ginger asked, rearing to go as soon as he could.
"He said something about the cliffs to the south." she answered quickly, while he pretty much darted off as soon as she mentioned 'cliffs'.
Elsewhere Lokier was shouting and screaming at the top of her lungs for her kidnapper to let her go, though her words fell on deaf ears as he carried her through the swap as fast as he could.
"You're going to make the gods so happy." he uttered, smiling in a bloodthirsty fashion.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lokier enquired, squirming about. In amongst their tussle he had managed to wind a wire around her body to keep her arms and legs shut and close to her torso to stop her kicking and punching at him, while he used a special parchment with a seal on it to blind her and stop her from using her eyes against him while she was asleep in the first place.
"If Pein is a god, then a god for a god will get me right up there with the other immortals." he stated, grinning. "He's too strong though, so I decided I would use the angel. Turns out she's not a virgin though, then I saw you. You've that god's eyes and the angel's virginity. What god doesn't like a virgin?" he asked, while she simply grit her teeth.
"You're a psychopath!" she shouted, yelping when he put her down on the ground roughly.
"We're here." he stated, while she stiffened.
Unable to see Lokier had to rely on her ears, her head slowly turning about as she ignored his footsteps for a moment to listen to the sound of wind whistling through the rocks below them and the trees in the distance behind them. This must have been the place were Pein had told her not to go, and she did not like that idea.
"We're not gods, we're normal nin. They think we're gods because we look over the town, there's a difference." the white haired woman barked, feeling the rope around her body loosen as he picked her up and put her bare feet onto a plank of wood.
"I believe otherwise." he stated, far too insane to really negotiate or reason with. Feeling a kunai being pushed against her back Lokier tensed and started to walk forward, the wind pushing through her hair as she stepped along the thin board.
"This is insane." she hissed.
"Keep walking until I tell you to stop." he stated, while she began to grow nervous and carefully paced her footing.
Finally being told to stop Lokier came to a halt, a nervous gulp rattling down her throat as she listened to the wind loudly thunder about underneath her.
"Gods, I've brought you an offering!" she could hear him shouting in the distance behind her, while she attempted to use all of her training to find some way she could get out of this, or jump at something to catch herself. There did not seem to be anything about her but a jagged drop however, and she was running out of time.
Still trying to think of something Lokier glanced up at the sky, it was starting to rain. Giving it a little thought the young woman quickly came up with a plan, her face staying firmly to the sky as she used her hands to try catch water. The seal was rigged to blow up if it was removed by force, so perhaps a little water would destroy the seal and break the explosive connection at the same time. Begging she was right Lokier squeezed her eyes shut as she rubbed the captured water onto the strip of paper, her fingers gently pulling at the paper attached to her forehead nervously.
With a bit of encouragement the tag soon came off, her eyelids slowly fluttering open so that she could check she was not an eye short. Glad she could see again Lokier remembered the first rule of training, do not celebrate until you know your opponent is dead. Quietly she reattached the bit of paper and slowly turned to see where he was, her eyes then slowly tilting down to see where she was. That was a big mistake of course, as her pupils became even smaller than usual, she was a lot higher up than she had anticipated.
"Oh god, I'm going to be a kabab." she whimpered quietly. Below her were thin jagged spikes amongst the rocks, the drop below marred by the darkness of the night sky.
Remaining deep in prayer the man's body slowly raised up as he got back onto his feet, his hands slowly shifting up above his head as he moved them into place. Quickly making the signals he needed to remove the stone the board toppled down towards the land below, a look of bliss coming over his face.
"Am I immortal now?" he asked the heavens, which had opened up completely now to make it rain uncontrollably.
"I don't know, let's find out!" Lokier shouted, lunging at him with the wire he had discarded.
"How the-?" he asked, dodging her as he pulled out a weapon. "So you are a god!" he shouted.
"No, I'm a really good nin." she grunted, stretching the wire until it was stiff with a menacing expression.
"You're immortal!" he squeaked, falling to his knees in such a way she simply paused. "They gave you the immortality and saved you!" he barked, while she just watched him practically curl in on himself and become a turtle.
"No, I escaped the board before you dropped me. I'm not immortal." she stated firmly, but he just seemed to continue to ramble on and on.
Lokier almost felt bad when he started crying, his shoulders twitching slightly.
"Oh dear..." she mumbled, lowering the wire. "Seriously, the gods didn't save me, you just failed to kill me. It's not the end." she uttered, examining him.
"Please, put me out of my misery." he wailed, making the young woman flinch when he started peering up at her like a beggar in the street.
"I- I would feel kind of bad if I did now." she uttered, feeling her stomach churn at the site of the snot and tears coming down his face.
"You're not going to kill me?" he asked, examining her.
"No, you're kind of pitiful, actually." Lokier uttered, tensing when he grabbed onto her hip and started crying even louder than before.
"You're such a merciful god!" he uttered, while she tried to pry him off her bare legs when she remembered he had kidnapped her from her bed.
When she found he was not going to come off with applied force Lokier just gave him a simple look.
"What should I do now, oh merciful god?" he asked, peering up at her as she just gave him a look of sheer confusing.
"You know what? Yeah, I'm a god. And as your god I'm going to ask you to stop touching me." she stated firmly, while he quickly jumped off and started bowing continuously at her feet.
"I'm sorry, merciful god." he barked.
"Look, I don't want to kill you. You kind of remind me of a swap salamander." she mumbled, rubbing the back of her head. "So I'm going to let you go with a warning." she stated, dragging him by the collar to his feet. "If you hurt anyone, or sacrifice anyone, I'll take your soul and feed it to the devil." she threatened him, while he just nodded quickly.
"Of course, but then how do I show my gratitude to you?" he asked, while she just gave him a simple look.
"How about every third week you bring a gift basket to the tower for me?" she asked, while he seemed to gleam at the idea.
Tensing Lokier turned upon sensing Pein's nearing approach.
"You'd better go before Pein gets here, he's not going to be a merciful being like me." she warned him, while he nodded heavily yet again. Lokier was pretty sure he had no brain cells to damage from doing it however, and so did not say anything.
"Yes, thank you again merciful god!" he stated, keeping his body turned to face her as he ran away waving.
"You're welcome, you nut-bag." she muttered, trying to smile before she turned away for a moment. She felt kind of good about herself for not killing him, but after a few seconds she swiftly whipped her head round to look at him. "Wait, you idiot, the cliff! The cliff!" she shouted, but he quickly went over the edge and made Lokier cringe.
Staring at the edge of the ledge from where she was standing Lokier slowly shifted her hands to either side of her body and let her distraught expression fade to one that was plain.
"I guess that was for the best." she murmured, twitching her eyebrow.
"Lokier!" Pein shouted, making her tense up and turn to look at him.
"Pein!" she called, glad to see a familiar face. Even if it was one that resembled thunder and lightening, and she did not like those two things one bit.
"Where's the bastard who kidnapped you?" he asked, glancing around with his fist lightly clenched. Clearly he was quietly plotting to rip their throat out with his bare teeth.
"I escaped and killed him." Lokier explained, smiling brightly.
"You did?" he asked, relaxing a little out of surprise.
"Yeah! Well, kind of. I escaped using the training you gave me and went to fight him, but then he just curled up and starting crying, so I felt bad." she explained, soon lifting her hand to point at the cliff. "As he was leaving, a changed man, he ran himself off that cliff." she sighed, while he wandered over to check he was dead.
Part of Pein had anticipated the body to be gone, and that Lokier had prematurely celebrated and trusted a threat so much so that she let him go, but when he leaned over the edge he found the body impaled on a few jagged rocks.
"I'm quite impressed." the ginger leader uttered, turning to examine Lokier who was kneeling on the ground in nothing but her onesie, which was essentially a top with elbow-length sleeves and short shorts for bottoms. Softening his stare he looked at her tired expression and strode over to pick her up, she had been through a lot today and was pretty much on her last legs at this point.
"I'm glad." Lokier murmured, rolling her head over to rest it against his chest.
"Are you?" he asked, keeping an eye on where they were going.
"I've never managed to impress you." she murmured, leaving her eyelids shut so she could rest them.
Remaining quiet the leader peered down at her as they walked through the rain.
"I have high expectations." he uttered, glancing up at the tower for a moment to show Konan he had found her. "I don't think there's ever been a time you've went below those standards, but if I complimented you on every job you did well you wouldn't know when I was truly happy to have you as my student." Pein murmured, while she began to smile softly. "That, and Konan would think I was going soft." he grumbled, finally making it to the tower so they could go inside while Lokier laughed gently.