Hello, yes it's been a long time. Hopefully this will get some dust off my account and I can get back to entertaining all you wonderful readers.

I think we all know I'm not Kishimoto so no need for a disclaimer

Pain was spending his evening looking for potential candidates for a partner for Zetsu. True there was already 11 main members of the Akatsuki but Zetsu couldn't get close enough to their enemies. Pain thought that Sasori had finally met his end but the puppet master had proven he was far more formidable than originally thought of him. Apparently he has two different copies in his likeness that he controlled remotely from a distance when going into a battle. Now he was down to one. Well that somewhat put a spanner in the works about Deidara's partnering.

Anyways Pain's office was darkened only being lit by a desk lamp with cast an intense light over the files of all the potential candidates that were scattered about his desk. Pain himself was staring intently into the print of a Chunnin missing nin who specialized in imitation but he was very limited in Pain's opinion.

His ringed Rinnegan eyes shifted to the pile and he closed the file in his hands up before tossing it over his shoulder into a scattered and chaotic pile that had accumulate from his search behind him. He picked up another file and wasted another 10 minutes of his life span before repeating this toss. Again. Close up. Toss. He thought he'd had enough of this. So far nobody had even been placed in a consideration pile. He threw another file over his shoulder. The orange haired man didn't bother picking up another folder instead he leaned forward, placed his elbows onto the desk and rested his face in his palms from the stress.

He rubbed his eyes clearing the salty build up from keeping them open for so long without so much as blinking. He glanced over to the clock he had on the wall to his left reading "10:34 PM". Well that marked a time to stop. Three hours was enough. He stepped up from the desk chair and manuvered around the desk before pushing through the door into a hallway. He glanced around seeing Konan who was sleeping in a rather uncomfortable looking position on the cushioned bench that providing seating for people awaiting to come into his office. He let out a small sigh before bending down placing his arms under her sleeping form before carrying her off to her personal quarters.

For someone who recognized and respected his power to the full extent she worried a lot about him. Well he couldn't blame her. They've known each other since they were kids and they've been thorugh quite a bit of hell before they became members of the higher up Akatsuki. Madara was more than estatic about having the only rinnegan user living to be the organizations head. Zetsu and petty criminals weren't going to get the organization very far. Nagato Pain only continued to further impress Madara with the recruitment of Kakuzu, Hidan, Deidara, Sasori, Itachi Uchiha, and Kisame Hoshigaki who accelerated the Akatsuki into what it is today.

Pain pushed his accomplishments out of his mind since it only reminded him of his work which he clearly was mentally fatigued from. The inside of Konan's room was decorated with various origami and water colored impressions of the views of Amegakure hanging on the walls. He placed his foot under the bed comforter and pulled it back far enough to where he could lay Konan in the bed. After he pulled the cover over her shoulder as she tossed slightly from herself being moved from a hard bench to a comfortable bed.

Pain watched her with contented ringed eyes at her sleeping form. Peaceful just like she looked when she was awake. He turned away and closed the door quietly behind him. He let another sigh before performing a handseal and disappearing in a cloud of smoke. He was in the "chamber" where his real body was. He looked around seeing the other bodies that he controlled laid in a slanted bedlike structure. He walked forward to the center of the room where his real self, the red haired, emaciated, and fatigued Nagato, was hooked into the massive machine that allowed him to control all his bodies. The red haired Nagato could see himself through the Deva path and he quickly went to work with it.

Minutes had passed and the Deva path arrived with several IVs and packaged blood. Nagato had grown accustomed to doing his own bodily maintence himself by now and the pain of having IV needles taken out and replaced into his hardened blood vessels. He didn't even so much as blink when Deva removed the dirtied needle from his arm. Every so often he had to change the IV needle because of a hygeine issue and of the possibility the needle would rust inside the blood vessel and give him Tetanus or Hepatitis.

In less than a few minutes he was set for another few days of nutrient cocktails, blood transfusions and other medical drips that kept his challenged physical form alive and well enough to manipulate his bodies. The orange haired Deva Path turned from Nagato and walked to an empty cell that served as his resting place while Nagato slept.

Tommorow was a new day.

Author Notes:

I wrote this in less than an hour. More is soon to come.