"A thousand paper cranes were supposed to make wishes come true. Konan folds nine thousand and disproves the myth." An exploration of that group of tragedies, Akatsuki.
CRANES
Peel. Smoothen. Smile. Konan folds and folds and folds.
Nagato and Konan
Undoubtedly, Konan had loved Yahiko – he was her sun, her savior, her precious friend. Yahiko had been the one who never gave up, kept on fighting and inspired men to follow his vision. In the ruins of the fallen Amegakure, the three of them, desperate orphans of a war-torn country, scavenging corpses for food and doing everything to stay alive, had forged unbreakable bonds.
You are my life. You are my dreams. I will die for you.
When Yahiko was killed, Konan lost two people and not one, got caught in Nagato's meteoric rise to power, spent company with six terribly strong corpses, masqueraded as an angel when she knew all too well of mortality. When you were with a man who had power over life and death, things get complicated that way.
Jiraiya was not wrong when he said Konan was the kindest of the kids. She was, she was. But Konan also knew the price of being kind when you were shinobi. That is why she keeps her kindness on a leash, and selfishly guards those important to her.
Konan's loyalty is to people, not causes. She will not hesitate to sacrifice a dream to save a life.
Nagato is the opposite. He will willingly die to give fruition to his vision of a peace through vengeance and terror. It is not her place to convince him otherwise.
Instead, she makes him cranes suffused with memories of three children and a dog, a legendary ninja, paper roses and a neverending rain, and reminds him that she will always be at his side.
Konan lives for the living. She wishes, for both their sakes, Nagato would do the same.
Itachi
Before Itachi went missing-nin, he was the golden prince of the strongest of the Hidden villages, the heir to an old and revered shinobi clan. Out of the Akatsuki – war orphans, wanted criminals, brutes and madmen – he was most informed about theories on chakra, history, military strategy and politics, and better acquainted with the finer points of ninja culture and etiquette. Uchiha Itachi had been frightfully polite, with a refined manner and an easy confidence that bespoke his near-aristocratic background.
Konan had liked him, and trusted him the least, this daunting adolescent who killed his own kin to measure his power, who saw the world so terribly clearly with his sharingan eyes. Itachi's true strength and genius lay in his insight, his consummate understanding of human nature, his ability to read and predict his opponents' moves so thoroughly that most fights were over before they even begun.
That is why she knows something is up when he deviates from the mission plan. Itachi never does anything unintentionally.
When she folds cranes for him, she uses the finest, most expensive paper she could find and wishes him success on whatever he was working independently on.
Deidara
Deidara had been the loudest, the most reckless, and the most rebellious member of the Akatsuki. A mind all genius and passion and a talent for destruction. Born and raised in the art of annihilation, it was his sheer disregard for human life that made him one of the most dangerous members.
Konan had taken one look and saw a weapon masquerading as a boy. His art was a mere cover for the chaos that was inside him, an inferno that went up and up and up.
Deidara, she knows, is insane. He lives in the moment because he had no vision at all. His plan to for revenge on Itachi was as long-term as he got.
Konan whispers a one-time apology for taking away his youth and wishes for him to find a sense of self.
Sasori
He is a true child of Suna. Infamous, powerful, genius – perhaps more so than any of them.
But Konan still pities Sasori.
Sasori had an impaired ability to feel for anything but the perfect and eternal (brought about by an inborn respect for the timeless and his own traumatic personal loss).
In his eyes, men and heroes and nations were but a fleeting moment. Because of it, Sasori could betray his country and his Kage and start wars without caring.
Such a perfectionist, such discontent.
Sasori abhorred transience. He mutilated his own body and defiled his own flesh in defiance. Given a choice, Konan had no doubt, he'd turn the world into puppets.
She hoped he would finally find beauty. And meaning. And happiness.
Hidan
Hidan is approximately a hundred and twenty years older than her and has seen more wars, more death and more destruction than any of them.
Konan fears him the most, this saint-faced slaughterer who knows no limits.
Konan has never known a god save for Pein (but even then, she knows the mortal behind him) and does not know what it means to believe in higher power. But to Hidan, everything is secondary to Jashin. Hidan's god, she thinks, is a macabre mockery of faith, a creation of a mind so terrifyingly complex that it surpasses understanding, a reason to go beyond everything without wavering and a purpose to live for forever.
It is admirable.
She wishes for Hidan to meet his God.
Kisame
There is no want for attractiveness in Akatsuki, Konan idly notes.
Sasori, Deidara, Itachi, Hidan… all of them were fine-looking shinobi. It was just too bad about the malignancy in their souls that oozed out into their actions like pus out of a festering wound.
Kisame did not have that. He was a shinobi of extremely high caliber, a monstrous veneer, a higher level of sadism than normal. Amiable, accepting, even friendy, Kisame was as normal as they got.
It was just too bad that he, like his sword, gravitated towards power and willingly served worse monsters for a taste of it. He should have realized his own power was enough.
Of everyone, Kisame was the member who should never have been Akatsuki.
Konan wishes he followed his own path.
Kakuzu
For anything besides the material, Kakuzu had no sense of value.
Comradeship, loyalty, resolve, power, life… He had no recognition for what all these were worth beyond money and bounties. His allegiances rested with who could pay the most, who could help him get the more expensive targets.
Because of this, he will never realize the zenith and depths of human existence, the joy and horror of being alive.
Konan makes a wish that Kakuzu realizes what void, what abyss he is trying to fill with money and other people's hearts.
Tobi
A frightful shell of a once-god-of-a-man who sowed his hatred wherever he went. Who used all of them.
Konan just wishes he would die.
Nagato left her.
Itachi's sacrifice went to nothing.
Deidara died for no good reason.
Sasori let himself be killed.
Hidan's god didn't save him.
Kisame died following orders.
Kakuzu was a money-whore to the bitter end.
Tobi was still alive.
And Konan was lost.
She burned the cranes.
Owari
AN:
I don't usually ask this but please review. I really want feedback on how I interpreted a facet of the characters and it would be nice to also get your view on them. I withheld on some of them because I had a hard time grasping their character (Zetsu, forexample, I left out entirely because I just don't get the guy.)
Next up: An Epitome update! :3 Going for humor this time.
All is well for Hyuuga Hinata until she is captured by Itachi of the Sharingan and the Jolly Akatsuki. Sailing over the high seas with the most fearsome crew in history with Captain-of-the-Guard Neji and her own fiancé Uchiha Sasuke in hot pursuit, getting into bar brawls and continually being mistaken for a wench, and trying (in vain) to make sense of her kidnapper, what's a lady to do? ItaHina.
Features Superstitious!Hidan ("What the hell! She's a fucking girl! It's fucking bad enough we already have Blue and Blondie ("I'm a MAN, un!")!Oh, Jashin-sama, you might as well sink our asses now.")