Peaceful Moments
Chapter One
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
The young, blue-haired girl shivered under her light blanket. The fierce wind blew in from the mouth of the cave, making the flames of the fire flicker wildly. One of the other occupants of the cave was already asleep. The other was sitting by the fire, presumably keeping watch.
The one who was still awake turned towards the girl, the fire seemingly imbibed within his orange hair. Sighing, he moved over to her side. The girl was turned away from him, and the boy slipped down behind her unnoticed.
The girl took a sharp breath when two hands gently encircled her waist and brought her close to a warm body.
"Yahiko?" she trembled.
The boy, Yahiko, blushed slightly, but quickly brushed it off and scowled.
"You looked cold," he muttered. "Are you still cold now?"
The girl's eyes were widened.
"No," she breathed, reveling in the warmth of another body.
"Good," said the boy, trying to roll his eyes in what he hoped was an annoyed manner. "I don't want you to freeze to death."
There was no response.
"Konan?"
The girl did not move.
"Oh, come on," whispered Yahiko frantically. "I was joking!"
Then, he noticed her even, calm breathing and closed eyelids.
"Oh…" he said, slightly stupefied by the fact that she had fallen asleep in about two seconds. In my arms, he though rather uncomfortably…
In the morning, no sun rose to greet the population of Amegakure. Only the relentless, pounding rain shook the people awake.
Within the cave they called home, the Ame Orphans slowly woke up, one-by-one. Yahiko was the first; he started and shook his head wildly, before realizing the slightly awkward position he was in from the night before.
Gulping, he quickly slid his arms away from Konan and fled back to his spot near the dwindling fire.
His sudden movement nudged Konan awake next. Her eyes twitched slightly before opening, revealing the deep amber color of her irises.
Yahiko nervously glanced in her direction and saw her wide eyes staring at him. Heat rushed to his face as he quickly averted her gaze.
Finally, the third member of their little group, Nagato, awoke as well, his red hair covering his eyes completely.
"So," said Yahiko cheerfully, seizing on the opportunity to ease the situation, "did you sleep well, Nagato?"
"Yeah…"
Nagato looked at Yahiko with his purple eyes, slightly suspicious of the boy's behavior. He wasn't usually this cheery in the morning…
Later that day, after nightfall, although it was hard to tell when that was with the constant cloud cover pouring rain down, a fire once again crackled within the Ame Orphan's little cave.
Once again, Nagato was dozing, Yahiko was sitting, and Konan was shivering. A cold gust of air blew into the cave, bringing with it a few stinging drops of rain that splattered onto some of Konan's precious origami creations.
"No!" she cried, getting up and running over to them. Quickly, she gathered all of her paper and origami up to stash in a safe, dry spot away from the horrible rain.
"Relax," said Yahiko, rolling his eyes. "You make so many that you'll probably end up remaking all of them again tomorrow."
Konan turned to him, glaring with eyes filled with tears.
Oh, now this is a good situation to be in, gulped Yahiko.
"What did you say?" whispered Konan lethally. Her hair blew wildly in the wind, her neat bun coming undone as the origami rose she wore in her hair dissolved into sheets of blue paper.
"Nothing!" said Yahiko hastily. "Nothing, nothing at all!"
Figuring he might as well try to calm the seething girl down, he offered his precious seat by the fire to her tiny creations.
Konan's eyes immediately dried as she grabbed all of her things and plopped them neatly by the fire, making sure that they were close enough to dry quickly but not close enough to become ashes.
"Thanks, Yahiko," Konan said sweetly, going back to her blanket.
Grumbling, Yahiko sat across from the origami.
"Guys, please be quiet," muttered the supposedly asleep Nagato.
Konan giggled and Yahiko spared a strained smile, still thinking about his near-death situation that he had just escaped.
"You know," whispered Yahiko, starting a conversation with the origami across from him, "I don't get why she's so desperate to keep all of you. I mean, she's got hundreds of you now!"
He did have a point; her neatly lined origami was numerous enough to make a small army. Arranged by color and then complexity, her origami created a rainbow that flickered wildly with the fire.
"A bridge to peace…" muttered Yahiko, staring at the rainbow of origami. "That's what I want. Is that what you want too?"
"Yeah…"
"I know, right? A rainbow… like you guys… a seven-colored bridge to peace. I hope that I can make it happen."
"We do too."
"Yeah… that would be nice."
"We think so too."
Yahiko sighed.
"Look at me… talking to origami… and the origami is talking back too."
After registering what he had just said himself, which took the good portion of ten minutes, he snapped up to stare blankly at the origami.
"What?" he said hoarsely. "Have you been talking?"
A fit of giggles quietly erupted from a certain mound on the cave floor, covered in a blanket.
Yahiko glared at it.
"That was not funny!" he said, almost yelling as he marched over to the mound and plucked the blanket off of a laughing Konan, even while breaking into laughter himself.
"Shh," whispered Konan through her giggles. "You'll wake Nagato!"
"I'll make you laugh, all right," said Yahiko viciously, launching himself at the girl quietly while dissolving into a fit of laughter.
Of course, Yahiko had no idea what had happened the next morning when he found Konan within his arms for the second night in a row.