It's been two months since I found out my special ability, two months since my village rejected me for it, two months I've been wandering around aimlessly, all alone, well, until today that is. The reason being is I literally bumped into a man who said his leader asked for him to search for me or something, he said it was because I would be a great asset towards their cause, I don't know what their cause is, but as long as I'm no longer alone, I'm fine with it. But how rude of me, I didn't even introduce myself, my name is Yokubo no Kanjo, for some reason my parents decided for my name to mean Desire Emotion, don't ask me why, I will never know, anyway, getting off topic, I am rather short, if you consider five foot one short, with straight, black hair that goes down my mid-back, but in the front, it is shorter and frames my face, in the back I have a somewhat large, light, pastel green bow with a black trim on the ends of it. My attire consists of simple ninja shoes, a black dress that reaches a little above my knees, with a matching pastel green trim on the bottom as well as a pastel green sash to go around my waist, once again, tied in a bow in the back, I honestly feel like I'm in a lolita costume at times, and finally, I have black knee highs to finish the look. My skin is almost just like a doll's, because it is pale and free of any blemishes, but it's not ghostly pale, it's porcelain, or something along those lines, and I have large, emerald green eyes. Though, when I activate my keikei genkai, my eyes gain black rings around my pupil, it's kind of creepy, but also pretty cool at the same time, but anyways, my keikei genkai allows me to read and manipulate a person's subconscious, making them see anything I want them to, for example, I could dive into it and then make them believe I'm a dinosaur. However, when this is activated, I am left very vulnerable to other attacks, and I can only target one person at a time. I call this ability Subete no Modoken, or All Seeing Eye. But, that's not all, my ninjutsu is also very special, I can dive into my subconscious to pull out my emotions and turn them into an attack, the attack varies depending on how I am feeling at that moment and time, but if the emotion changes during the attack, it will change along with it. But, back to the story, I think I've been blabbing on enough already.

The man who found me snapped his fingers in front of my face, I guess I was spacing out, "Hey, kid, are you listening to me?" He grouchily said, which I then looked up at him, all because he was a fucking GIANT, well, not really, he was just very tall, compared to me.

"Err..." I scratch the back of my head, grinning nervously, "What were you telling me... Mister..." I made a little hand motion to get him to tell me his name.

The tall, masked man, dressed in a black cloak with a red stripe going down the middle and red clouds outlined in white scattered throughout it, just groaned, looking upwards, crap, I probably really annoyed him, but how can spacing out annoy someone so bad, oh geez, here comes the anxiety again, "Kid, I was saying I'm going to take you to the Akatsuki hideout, and my name is Kakuzu."

I continued looking at him, wondering why he was wearing that mask, what was he hiding? I snapped out of my own thoughts, realizing he said Akatsuki, I've heard of them, everyone has, since they're a group of S-Rank criminals, and I think this means they want me to join... Meh, I have nowhere else to go, so why not? "Well, then, Mister Kakuzu, I would be honored if you escorted me to your wonderful hideout, then," I said, imitating a fancy person.

He simply looked ahead, giving a pissed off vibe as he walked, I guess I annoyed him again, geez, what doesn't annoy him? He interrupted my thoughts again as he began telling me about how far away it is, "Since I found you, or should I say, you ran into me," he then chuckled to himself, holy shit, he chuckled, HE. CHUCKLED. Okay, that's one thing off my now made up bucket list, he continued on informing me about our journey, "This will take a few more hours if we are to walk, lucky you that we were close and don't have to travel too far, but if we were to run the rest of the way, it would take around an hour, give or take, which would you rather do?"

I looked up to the sky, scrunching up my eyebrows, and placing my small, pointer finger on my bottom, light, rosy red lip, "Hmm... I feel walking would be nice, but I don't want it to take too long, so why not walk half and run the other half?"

Kakuzu nodded to me, "Fine with me, I don't want to carry you if you get too tired," I scoffed, rude much? "But, if I do end up carrying you, I would have to charge you, so maybe that would be better, I honestly don't know, but I would love the money."

So this guy only cares about money, great. Notice the sarcasm. My eye twitched a little, my lips forming a small scowl, "The fuck? You would charge me to fucking carry me if I get too tired? Dammit, I don't even have any cash on me!" If it was possible, I would have steam coming out of my ears, but instead, I huffed, puffed up my cheeks and crossed my arms over my chest.

Kakuzu looked taken aback by my little outburst, but he then returned to his apathetic state, "Money is the only thing that stays with you, therefore, money is love, and you," he leans down to look me in the eyes, allowing me to notice the abnormal coloration of a pure green iris and pupil, along with a deep, rusty red sclera, which I found super interesting, he continued with his little speech, poking me on the nose after every few words, "are no princess, so you should just appreciate that I'm even bothering to escort you to the hideout." After that nonsense, I heard him mutter some profanities about me and why he was assigned this job.

A WILD TIME SKIP APPEARED

After a long, and I mean LONG trip, which consisted of a bunch of arguing at first, that then lead to silence, and followed with more arguing, we finally reached the base, but it didn't really look like a base, "This looks like a boulder and a wall, this is no base."

Kakuzu looked down at me, I swear if looks could kill, this man would have murdered me ten times or more, "It's not a boulder and a wall, idiot," he made some hand signs before saying, "release."

I laughed nervously, "Did I say that out loud? Sorry 'bout that, Kuzu."

He glared at me, like not a regular glare, but an 'I'm gonna fucking kill you if you don't shut up' kind of glare, geez this man is scary, but pretty cool after seeing him move the boulder, revealing a long tunnel lit with torches, "Shut the hell up kid, and don't call me Kuzu, it just sounds idiotic, and I hate idiots."

"You hate a lot of things it seems," I grumbled to myself, hoping he didn't hear it, but I was wrong, he proceeded to throw me over his shoulder like I was the most weightless sack of potatoes there ever was. I began to pound my tiny fists on his back, "What the hell, man, put me down," I began to flail like a fish out of water, this action only made him grip harder, as well as earning a bonk on the head. Before I knew it, we were standing, well, more like he was standing and I was being carried like an object, which is starting to hurt my ribs, Kakuzu proceeded to knock on the door, hearing someone say "enter" or something close to that, which Kakuzu, still holding me over his shoulder, opened the door, walking into the dimly lit up room, which I do say, for a cave, it is very classy, someone had a good sense of style, and something tells me a girl did it, there's no way a guy could make a cave look good.

Kakuzu then plucked me off his shoulder and onto the ground, making me let out an 'oomph' sound, as I looked up, I saw a man with numerous piercings, spiky orange hair, the same cloak Kakuzu wore, and pastel purple eyes with many rings around them, covering the entire eye. Next to him was a beautiful woman, she had sea blue hair with an origami flower pinned to the left side, and a little bun in the back, she also had one piercing below her bottom lip, her eyes were an amber color, and she, as well, had the same, matching cloak as the two males. A voice stopped me from observing the two people in the room, "Yokubo no Kanjo, your unique powers are what caused your village to reject you, however, we want you to join the Akatsuki, those powers could be used to achieve our goal of a peaceful world with no violence or hate, you have the choice to join, but if you choose to no accept, we must kill you in order to keep our location and plans a secret from the rest of the world, so, I would like you to choo-"

"I accept." I interrupted him, causing him to look at me with one brow raised, one hand slightly raised as well, and his mouth still open as he was trying to continue speaking before I oh-so-nicely voiced my answer.

"Well then," He lowers his hand down, and his brow, looking her in the eyes, "that was easier than I expected," the blue haired woman let out a silent giggle at his reaction, "continuing on, I am Pain (Pein, however you want to spell it), but you are to refer to me as Leader," he looks over to the blue haired woman, pointing a finger at her, "this, is Konan, she is the only other female in this organization, so I guess you two could be good friends and do the stuff girls do, I honestly don't give two shits."

Konan smiled, laughing a little to herself, "I already like her, she seems nice and quite humorous."

Pain nodded at her, "Anyway, carrying on, each member is partnered with another member, you are going to be partnered with..." He thought for a moment, thinking of how the combinations of people would be best suited, "Kakuzu and Hidan-"

Being interrupted again, but this time by Kakuzu, closing his eyes, placing his left hand on his forehead, and waving his right in front of him, "Woah, woah, woah, no way in hell am I working with two idiots, I can hardly handle one."

"Too bad, I'm the leader, and what I say goes, so deal with it and try to get along, and NOT kill her like your past partners." Pain scowls at Kakuzu.

I faced Pain, then turned to Kakuzu, repeating the process a few times before finally pointing to myself and Kakuzu, "Wait one flipty doozling second, you're saying HE, killed HIS past PARTNERS? I don't wanna DIE, yet, that is, I mean, I know I'm going to die one day, but not by the hands of my own partner!"

Pain simply shrugged, saying, "Just don't piss him off." And Kakuzu looked down at her, saying, "Just don't piss me off." At the same time.

I simply sigh, slumping over, feeling defeated, "Fine... I'll try my best..."

Pain nods his head, tossing me a cloak, a ring, and really nice black nail polish, the cloak landed on my head, the ring hit me in the face, but yet, I managed to catch the nail polish, "You two are dismissed, try your best not to annoy him as much as Hidan."

I frown, rubbing my face where the ring hit, with Kakuzu dragging me out of the office, both of us mumbling profanities profusely as we exit the room.

THE WILD TIME SKIP USED SKIP TIME

Kakuzu lead me to our room, only to have Kakuzu pause in front of the doorway, allowing me to peek around him to see a man half naked, and oh my, he had a nice body, okay, Yokubo, stop staring at him before you start drooling and embarrass yourself, the man had slicked back, silver hair that reached down to the bottom of his neck, he was in the middle of a red circle, it looks like it was made of blood, I really hope it isn't, because that stains and smells bad after a while, however, when I checked him ou-I mean, scanned, his body, I saw this three bladed scythe sticking in his abdomen, as well as a black spear piercing his heart. I covered my mouth, my eyes going wide, gasping at what I saw, until the man turned his head to us, looking quite angry.

"The fuck Kakuzu! You're interrupting my ritual! Get the fuck out of here, old man!" He yelled at Kakuzu loudly, geez this guy has no filter.

"Hidan, shut up, this is my room too, and now it's also Yokubo's room too," Kakuzu placed his middle finger and thumb on the bridge of his nose, pinching it gently to massage it, showing he was very ticked off.

"Who the fuck is Yokubo?! Whoever it is they're ruining my ritual for Lord Jashin!" Hidan, I guess that's what the man's name is, since that's what Kakuzu referred to him as, but, all that Hidan received was not us leaving, but a bunch of threads wrapping around his neck, all protruding from Kakuzu's arm.

As Kakuzu grapples Hidan, he gives him a look of death, "Hidan, continue to piss me off, and I will not hesitate to pull your head off again, and I will not sew it back on. Now clean up this mess, Yokubo is coming in to see the room." Hidan groans and waves him off, grumpily getting up and picking his stuff up, putting it on a bed, which I could only assume is his own.

I peek out a bit more from behind Kakuzu, as Hidan cleans up his supplies angrily, swearing one day he will kill Kakuzu, but I have a feeling he never could, making me giggle silently to myself, though, somehow, Hidan managed to hear this silent giggle, only to look over at me, his eyes filling with lust.

He walks over to me, pulling me into the room from behind Kakuzu, "Why hello, pretty lady,my name is Hidan, may I ask yours?" He asks, trying to smooth talk me.

I activate my Subete no Modoken, looking right into his lavender eyes, when I invade his mind I turn myself into a horrendous monster only he could see, this action made him cringe, backing away slowly as I hiss and growl demonically, "This bitch is crazy! Get her the fuck outta here, Kakuzu! Get it out!"

I smirk and exit his mind, smiling innocently at him, "Don't fuck with me, and I won't fuck with you, and I'm not insinuating anything sexual, because seriously, I bet you have a lot of STDs, and I would prefer not to contract any."

Hidan glares down at me, "The fuck did you even do to me, you bitch!? And why are you even in our room!?"

Kakuzu chuckles at my response to Hidan before walking over and punching Hidan in the face, sending the silver haired man flying into a wall, "She's our new partner, and I expect you to not sacrifice her to your fake god."

"Lord Jashin is not fake! He is fucking real! He made me immortal!" Hidan growls angrily at Kakuzu, making me slowly back away from him and back behind Kakuzu, great, now, of all people in the world, I decide to be clingy to Kakuzu as if he were my life source.

"Hidan," Kakuzu looks down at him, his tone telling Hidan, 'do not fuck with me or I'll kill you or dismember you,' or at least I think that's what it meant, but as I see Hidan cringe and back away, I think my assumption was correct. Kakuzu then grabs behind my back, pushing me, surprisingly, lightly into the room, "This is all of ours room."

I look around the room, it wasn't too fancy, it had a bookshelf with some books in it, from what I can see, they're all classics, which I do like, there is also a single desk with papers on it, a lamp, and a wooden chair with a small cushion on top of it, as well as a pair of reading glasses, I could only assume belonged to Kakuzu, there was also a section in the corner where Hidan stored his weapons, as well as a small dresser to the left of it. To the right of the dresser, was a door that lead to a bathroom and a shower, "I like it, but mainly the bookshelf, I can see plenty of classic books, I have always loved classics, they are so beautiful," underneath Kakuzu's mask, as I made the comment about the books, I could see a faint outline of a smirk.

Kakuzu looked at me and nodded, "Classic books are great, especially ones like the Divine Comedy, 1984, and Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, if you ever wish to read any, go ahead, it's actually nice for once to have someone like these as well." He says, eying Hidan, insinuating he was not very good with any form of logic, as he said 'someone.'

I continued to look around, until my eyes landed on two beds, making me realize I wouldn't have my own bed, "Wait a second..." Kakuzu looks at me curiously as if nothing is wrong, "There are only two beds..." He continues to look at me, telling me indirectly to continue on, "Where am I gonna sleep?"

Kakuzu sighed, realizing that as well, "Hidan's bed is full of... Stuff..." Kakuzu shudders at the thought of what has happened in that bed, grumbling something along the lines of, "Nobody should have to suffer through that." He proceeded to think about the situation, "And I don't want to spend any money on another bed..."

I sigh, slumping my shoulders, "So I assume you're gonna say I'm sleeping with you in your bed."

He nods his head, "Precisely, if not you can take the floor which is covered in blood and other things that you probably don't even want to touch." Something tells me I'm going to have to viciously clean these floors if it's that gross...

I frown, "I would prefer not to sleep in such repulsive... Stuff..." I shudder like Kakuzu did as he thought of what is on Hidan's bed, "So I guess I have no choice but to accept your offer." Internally, however, I am freaking out, I've never even slept in the same room as a guy, let alone two, AND sleeping in the same bed as one! Fuck, what if something happens, what if... Ugh, mind shut up, let's not think of that, bad Yokubo Mind, very bad. Okay, I'm going crazy, I'm scolding my own mind.

Kakuzu nods his head, "Just don't do anything stupid and we will be fine, otherwise, I WILL make you sleep on the floor. Now follow me," he motions for me to follow him, which I do, "I am going to show you around the base, you best memorize at least the basic places you will need to go to," he tells me as we walk through the halls, this place is way larger than it seems, even with guidance, I am going to get lost at least a lot... I mean few, yeah, few, times. Kakuzu interrupts my internal conversation, in front of me I see, after a little while of walking, a decent sized kitchen, it had numerous drawers and cabinets, a refrigerator with a freezer attached bellow it, an oven, a microwave, a simple sink with a dish washer underneath next to it, and a coffee maker, at the end of the kitchen, where there was an open area, lay a circular table with six chairs around it, some coasters, and six table mats, "Here is the kitchen, we have all sorts of food and such, I hope you can cook, because everyone pretty much sucks at cooking, hell, Hidan managed to burn water, how he actually did that, I don't know, but he did," I giggled at the thought, how does someone even do that?

"I can cook actually quite well, when I was in my village, before I was kicked out, I cooked quite a lot for people, half the time just for fun," I smile softly at the memories of the happy people when I made enough to share with everyone, my village was small, and everyone shared with one another, but I frowned and a small tear slid down my cheek at the memory of how the villagers used to love me, but then their love turned into sheer hatred for something so simple... I didn't notice I was crying until I saw a teardrop hit the ground, bringing my hands up to my face to wipe away the tears, I put on a fake smile, looking up at Kakuzu, who strangely enough, looked concerned, but that look soon disappeared as I tried my best to stay strong and not cry about the past that has hurt me so much.

"Follow me," he says softly. Wow, he's acting really strange all of a sudden, just a few hours ago he hated my guts, how does someone's opinion change so quickly, well, then again, I did the same thing, so who am I to judge? As he says that, I trot over next to him, walking a little bit more we reach a room with a couch in the shape of an L with a coffee table in front of it, a stack of coasters stood on top of the coffee table, in front of the coffee table was a television, how the hell did they get satellite in here? Oh whatever, at least there's a television, "In here we have the living room, lounge room, family room, whatever you want to call it, this is where the members usually all hang out, on Fridays and, or, Saturdays, everyone, who is not on a mission at the time, all gather to watch a movie, it is completely optional, so you don't have to go if you don't want to," he explains to me as he points at the giant shelf full of movies, all sorted by genre, the horror section particularly catching my attention.

"Kakuzu," he looks down at me, "do you have any of the Saw movies?" I smile innocently like a child asking for a toy when they did something bad.

"I think we do, but I'm not exactly sure, you'll have to check, but, I will actually, for once, say this; I will buy the movies if you can get Tobi to watch them," I see a sadistic smile form under his mask, "I want to see that annoying thing shit, and, or, piss his pants, I hate that kid."

I smile just as sadistically, "Sounds like a plan to me." I hold out my hand for him to shake, "Deal?"

He shakes my hand, "Deal."

I laugh as we planned our evil deed to terrorize the annoying member named Tobi, "Say, Kakuzu," He continues to look at me, "you're not as bad of a guy as I thought you'd be, I think we should be friends, don't you?"

Kakuzu nods his head, "You're not as annoying as I originally thought, you're actually not annoying at all, unless you start whining, then you might be, I originally thought you were going to be like Hidan, but you're the total opposite when calm, so I guess we can be, as you call it, friends."

KAKUZU'S POV

Friends? Did she really say we should be friends? And I agreed? I haven't had friends in a long time, I don't consider any of the members friends, I consider them either annoyances or aquantences, so, here I am, with my first, so called 'friend' in a long, long time, am I going soft? Fuck, I really hope I'm not... Though, I do want to know more about her, she seems... Interesting, I guess I could say. I begin to walk over to the couch, sitting down in the middle, motioning her to come over and sit down. She trots over to me, sitting down gracefully next to me, this girl acts like a lost puppy, something tells me that she is going to follow me almost everywhere, but she's so obedient, which I do like, unlike Hidan who doesn't listen to jackshit that I say. I look over to her as I lean back to relax on the couch, "So, tell me about yourself, you don't need to tell me your past, I saw the tear that escaped your eye at the memory of it."

She looked at me in shock and a faint blush appeared on her doll-like cheeks when I said the last part, I guess she thought I wasn't paying attention, but, unknown to her, I am a very observant person. She looks down, messing with her fingers, that must be a nervous habit, I shall take note of that, "W-what would you like to know...?"

I had no idea she would be shy like this, is she bipolar? Something tells me she is, but I shouldn't assume something like that so quickly, shrugging I simply tell her, "Anything you wish, how you fight, what you like, dislike, hobbies, fears, accomplishments, things like that."

"O-oh..." She looks at me, and smiles, "On one exception!" Oh, so now she's happy, she was shy but now she's all bubbly, yup, definitely bipolar.

I look at her curiously, crossing my arms, "Oh? And what would that be?"

She then giggles before poking my nose, what a strange girl, "You have to show me what's under your mask!"

"No." I respond emotionlessly.

The young lass pouts pitifully, her eyes tearing up with crocodile tears, giving her best puppy dog eyes she could to add onto the guilty feeling, "B-but why nooooot?"

'I'm not going to fall for it,' I keep repeating mentally to myself, "Because I said so."

She whimpers, her bottom lip trembling, acting as pitiful as possible, "P-pretty please?"

'I'm not gonna... Oh fuck it,' I mentally slap myself after finally giving into the pitifulness, "Fine."

She then throws her hands in the air, cheering loudly, making me put one of my hands over her mouth, leading her to whisper a meek, "Sorry."

I groan silently at myself as I begin to take off my mask, allowing my long, deep brown hair flow out, laying itself on my tan skin, covering parts of my forehead, and trailing down a little below my shoulders, her eyes then sparkle with amazement as I reveal my mouth, the glass glow look of my stitched up sides of my mouth, I hate how I have those, but she seems so intrigued with it, what a strange girl... I then narrow my eyes at her, "There, happy?" I growl grumpily.

She nods her head vigorously, raising her hand to touch my stitches, what is with this girl? Who in their right minds would want to touch those stitches? But, all I see in her shining, emerald eyes was wonder and amazement, she didn't reject me like other people would, instead, she just became more curious of it, wanted to know more, she didn't care about my looks it seems, this is very rare to find in a person, she's actually turning out to be a really good person at heart, unlike me, who possesses not just one, but five hearts, "This is amazing!" She gingerly strokes the stitches on my cheeks, "Did you do this yourself? Why do you have the stitches? Why do you hide something so cool? " Yokubo bombards me with a plethora of questions?

Then, something happens, something I haven't done in a long, long time, I gave a true smile, though it was small, it expressed so much happiness to be accepted by someone for how I truly look, "Yes, I did this myself," her eyes fill with mass interest, urging me to explain, "I did it with the Earth Grudge Fear technique, which makes my body become almost like a rag doll, holding me together with many thick black threads, I can also stitch others up with them, though, according to Hidan, who I have to do it frequently to, I swear one day I'm going to leave him in a pit in pieces, it can 'hurt like a bitch' as he says. Finally, I hide these because people are scared of them, and I have it as a surprise attack, per se."

Yokubo's eyes twinkle as she proceeds to stroke my unruly hair, "Wow... It's so soft!" She gets up off the chair and runs around behind me, only to gently comb her fingers through it, which I have to say, feels very nice. Fuck, I'm letting my guard down, I'm getting soft already, and I haven't even known her for a day! What's wrong with me? Her gentle voice snaps me back into reality, "It's fun playing with your hair, Kuzu!" She giggles happily, running back over to sit next to me, smiling happily as can be before having a less playful look on her face, "Now, tell me exactly what you wish to know."

I sit back up straight, no longer leaning back on the couch, "How about we start with how you fight?"

She smirks, looks a bit cocky, but I could tell she didn't mean to look that way as she looks into my eyes, her tone signaling she is serious about how she fights, "I fight with my emotions."

I lift a brow, looking at her very curiously, encouraging her to go into detail.

"When I fight, I use a special technique known only to me that I know of, I assume only people who possess the Subete no Modoken can use this technique, somewhat like your Earth Grudge Fear technique, mine is called Philosophy of a Hated Subconscious, this allows me to dig deep into my subconscious, blinding myself from the outside world, but letting my live in my mind, however, I can feel what is going on, and can hear it too, but, what my senses pick up, I can create what I imagine is happening, such as if I hear screams of pain, I can change my surroundings to look like a battlefield with many people dying, which would cause me to feel scared, anger or sadness, or I could hear someone crying, and imagine a person in front of their family who was killed, and they are all alone, I would feel remorse or sympathy, but if I hear many people speaking at once, I could create an image of many people around me, making me paranoid or anxious, however, I am very vulnerable when I use this technique, so I must be protected, if the foes get too close to me."

I look at her in awe, this seems very interesting, I like where this is going, "May you explain what each emotion does?"

She nods her head, "Of course, each emotion creates many bullets, all in different shapes and sizes, circular, ovular, stars, hearts, whatever can be made, also, people I trust do not get harmed by any of this, I also like to name each different form, but here are what each emotion or feeling can cause; when I am scared of something, the technique changes to what I name 'Monsters Reside Next To Your Bed,' this creates numerous lasers that move upwards and also forwards, crisscrossing each other, the ones that go upwards then go down, when crisscrossing, they create smaller and smaller gaps, when each one hits it can actually inflict temporary paralysis on whomever it touches, and also when the lasers hit the ground, each one causes a decent sized shockwave."

My eyes widen at how powerful just that singular one sounds, no wonder the Leader wanted her, she then continues her explanation, "When I get paranoid, I like to call this Chakra Paranoia, I have tightly woven together, circular bullets come out from all sides and angles, like I'm trapped in a dome of some sort, when I have this activated, any foe who touches one of the bullets instantly has some chakra sapped from them and is transferred to me, as well as them getting slightly scorched," Holy shit, this girl is insane, who knew the mind could be this powerful with emotions?

"When I get very excited over something, the technique becomes 'Release the Hysteria' which creates many heart shaped bullets around me in a large circle that crisscross in numerous directions, but at the end of the circle, they begin to pile up, and steadily become denser and denser, but when enough layer on top of each other, they burst off into random directions, and act almost like shurikens or kunais." She looks rather proud of herself at this point, slightly arrogant, but I would be too if I was her.

"Holy shit, Yokubo, this is only three parts of it?" I lean inwards, full of interest as she nods, smiling happily.

"Yup! I'm not even close to done! Anyway, onto the next one, " She regains her composure, "When I get really cocky and full of myself, the technique changes to 'Suppression of Arrogance', this usually happens after I'm excited, the hearts from the previous attack, 'Release the Hysteria', return to me, including the ones that flew off, which then return at very high speed, working the same as they did before, but I also create new hearts that come inwards and when close enough, they circle around a few times, encasing me in them before shooting off, but these ones, however, are coated in a highly toxic poison, the box jellyfish's poison to be exact." She looks very proud of this, but in her eyes I can also see a hint of sadness, I believe this is the true reason her village kicked her out.

I lean over and place a hand on her head, ruffling her hair, which makes her squeeze her eyes shut and squeak, "I think that's enough for today, no? You can tell me the rest tomorrow, I can tell it's a lot to explain and you don't want to be here forever now do yo-" I was cut off by her hugging me tightly, "What are you doing?" I looked at her in shock, not used to any form of physical affection.

She looks at me with a childish, pouty expression, then matter-of-factly says, "Hugging you, Kuzu." She's back to her childish mood, so I think this means we're done explaining her skills today, after all, that was quite a lot of stuff to explain.

I look over at the clock, reading it's already 12:30 a.m., I then look back down at Yokubo, only to see her fast asleep, a peaceful, innocent expression lay on her face, she looked like one of the dolls you can buy that close their eyes, one of the very fancy ones. I gently hug her back, which I am not used to doing so it must be somewhat awkward looking, and gently stroke the sleeping girl's face, which causes her to nuzzle my chest and scooch up to me, she was curled up into a little ball-like formation, which was quite cute, if I do say so myself. Her tiny hand gripped my shirt gently, I felt somewhat like a teddybear, her small, pink lips were slightly ajar as she breathed through them. I smiled softly at her, continuing to stroke her hair for a few more minutes before deciding it was time to go to sleep, but then I realized, she had no pajamas, and she wasn't awake, a faint blush came to my cheeks as it dawned on me; if she were to need night clothes, I'd have to put her in one of my shirts and I would have to dress her, fuck, what do I do? I'm going to ask Pain. I pick the little Yokubo up gently, making sure not to disturb her, but when I picked her up she snuggled closer to me, grabbing my shirt with both hands and nibbling on it, well, as best as she could in her sleep. Something about this behavior tells me she has never had much affection in her life and craves it, she must feel very at ease right now, but I don't know if I'm correct or not. I finally arrive in front of Pain's door, knocking silently, trying not to wake my little Yokubo up, wait... MY YOKUBO? Why the hell am I saying? I really am getting soft... A stern 'enter' brought me back to reality as I proceeded to open the door, showing Pain at his desk with an eyebrow raised, very confused of why I have come in.

"And what brings you here, Kakuzu?" Pain asks, probably still questioning why I would be here at this time of night, and also why he, himself, is here in his office at this time.

I motioned my head to the sleeping Yokubo, "I don't know what to do to get her into any sleepwear, because I highly doubt this is comfortable to sleep in, the dress that is."

Pain looks at me, still confused, "Point being? You just strip her and put her in a long shirt or some shit."

"But that would probably embarrass her in the morning..." I look back down to the sleeping girl in my arms who began to nuzzle me.

"Since when did you care about anyone, Kakuzu?" Pain leaned over his desk, narrowing his eyes, but a cheshire cat smile appeared on his lips, "Don't tell me you're getting soft, are you, Kakuzu?"

I looked away from Pain, feeling a bit of heat rise to my face, "No. I'm not."

He smiles even wider, if that's even possible, "Oh really now, then why are you blushing?"

"I'm not blushing." I denied an obvious fact, I have to retain my manliness.

"Don't lie to me Kakuzu, you like her, it's so love at first sight!" He tells me, Konan laughing in the background at Pain.

"You sound like a teenage girl learning about all the new gossip at school, Leader." I smirk at him.

He pouts at me, "Do not."

My smirk widens, "Oh, you do, trust me."

"He's right, Pain." Konan juts in, laughing to herself.

Pain frowns, "But I'm serious you love her, you've never taken your mask off for anyone, thus, I feel like I've proved my point."

Konan places her index finger on her bottom lip, "Hmm... You're actually right, Pain, he hasn't ever done that for anyone, this is the first time I've seen his actual face."

"Exactly." Pain replied to her.

Yokubo began to stir in her sleep, muttering in a quiet voice, "Kuzu..." As she scooted somehow even closer to me while in my arms.

"She like you a lot, think of it as a woman's intuition." Konan says with a smile, "I feel she has already warmed up to you, now go and put her in one of your shirts and go to sleep, and something tells me you also didn't want to buy a third bed, no?"

My eyes widen, "How'd you know?"

Pain and Konan just shrugged, "It's typical of you to not want to spend any more money than need be." They said at the same time.

"Well, I'm going to head off." I muttered a "goodnight" to them and quietly shut the door, carrying the little Yokubo to the room. As I opened the door, I was greeted to see Hidan fucking a random chick, well, just finishing it, as he then slit her throat and threw her body in the corner.

"Oh hey, old man, how ya been?" Hidan says with a sheepish grin on his face, knowing he's fucked as I give him a look of disgust and death.

"You," I motioned my head to the door, "out. And take the body with you." Hidan grumbled and cursed me out as he trudged over to the body, lifting it over his shoulder, only to walk out the door flipping me off all the way out.

I placed the girl on our bed gently, wandering over to the dresser and pulling out one of my long t-shirts, "I feel so bad doing this, but I don't want her to be uncomfortable when she sleeps..." I mentally slap myself as I wander over to her, slowly taking off her shoes, then her knee highs, followed by her bow and dress, leaving her in only her undergarments, I quickly, but as softly as I could, put my tee on her, making sure she looked decent and would not be embarrassed if it was too short. I gave a caring smile towards the small girl's sleeping figure, tucking her under the blankets before I took off my shirt and crawled in next to her, when I did, she rolled over, laying her head on my stitched up chest, bringing my arm around her protectively, I began to stroke her silky, black hair, whispering to myself, "I may have just fallen for you, Yokubo no Kanjo... I just might have..." I closed my eyes and let sleep engulf my body.