Monopoly


3


Konami woke up, jolted awake, more like, as she panted into the darkness of night.

It had been just another nightmare, but this one was vastly different in comparison to the others in that it couldn't be related to the manga she usually dreamt of. Instead, it had been of something else, something she couldn't put a new to. All she could recall, as the memories of it skittered beneath her flashing eyelids, was that there had been a woman, standing alone yet surrounded, nearly engulfed, by flames. She had an expression of wretched loneliness ingrained in her features and just that very look made Konami's heart ache. It had been a curious start to one of her dreams but then that woman had begun to chase after her, yelling out something she hadn't wanted to hear. Konami, in the end, had been caught as blood red claws took hold of her. She had stared up with wide eyes as the woman morphed in front of her, changing even as she chanted her words. The last sight had been of a terribly scarred creature, their eyes had been bleeding out with what looked like molten gold as the substance dripped onto her face. Just as the being had released a scream into her ear, Konami answering with a blood curdling shriek, she'd woken up, soaked in sweat.

The words echoed in her ears now, one that had struck her very heart with pain. You're just a monster no one should have to treat kind.

She rubbed her eyes, sitting up in bed, she gazed around the room, her eyes falling on Konan's form with a long-suffering look directed at her. She shuddered, suddenly feeling very, very alone. Konami sighed into her hands, muffling the noise she created. Today, after all, would be the day they started their training with chakra manipulation, Nagato and her under Tsunade's guidance and Konan with Yahiko under Jiraiya's. That was only for now, until Konami was healthy enough to go through extended periods of time in the rain along with the rest of them.

She wondered if she would be holding Nagato back, being as he had the Rinnegan and all. He would be able to learn all jutsu with simple ease. She hoped she wasn't holding him back in that regard. Biting her lip, Konami shuffled out of the futon as she headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. Passing through the living room, she was somewhat surprised to see that both Tsunade and Jiraiya were at the table, the former reading and the latter writing furiously on his paper. She cocked her head and watched with curiosity as the two Sannin looked up.

"Is something wrong?" Tsunade asked, making moves to stand up. Konami held up a palm, pursing her lips. To avoid or not to avoid? To tell or not to tell?

"I can never sleep very well," she admitted quietly, glass of water forgotten when she came to sit beside the older woman.

"Insomnia?" Jiraiya inquired, "Are you troubled over killing that man?"

Konami quickly shook her head, "I don't care about that. He was a bad man, after all."

"I know a tea that could calm your nerves," Tsunade brought up, "though getting the proper ingredients could be hard."

The young girl shook her head, an amused expression in her eyes, "It isn't a big deal, and I'm used to it by now."

The two Sannin still looked troubled but Tsunade ended up shrugging before saying, "I'll let it slide for now, but if it happens to be detrimental to your studies and health, we're doing something about it."

"Right," Konami gave them a serious look of affirmation before it melted into a smile, "Thank you, Tsunade, Jiraiya."

The adults exchanged similar looks, looking pleased, before Jiraiya reached a hand out to ruffle her loose hair. She tried not to wince even knowing that brushing out the knots would take a bit of time now. Tsunade smacked his hand away and with a knowing glint to her amber eyes, she smoothed out the hectic strands, a small smile playing on her lips. Konami couldn't help but giggle.

"You're like a mom and dad," she commented before standing up to get that glass of water. When she came back, they were staring wide eyed at one another.

"Ne, Konami," Tsunade spoke up, voice thin and eyes pinched, "you don't think that we could be parents together, do you?"

The azure-haired girl took a hesitant step back, brows creasing as she tried to find hidden meaning, "Um," she started out with eloquently. She winced, "I, uh, I think you would be good together. As parents," she added as an afterthought. Konami didn't want her messaged to get misconstrued. She could be wrong though, they could end up killing each other if they were parents to a child.

Jiraiya gave a forced, hearty laugh, "Maa, maa, kids say the craziest things, right?" He nudged Tsunade with an elbow, who turned to glare at him.

"The craziest," the blonde repeated, voice at a deadpan.

Nervously, Konami laughed. After downing her water and setting down the glass, she gingerly walked away, murmuring a soft, "I'll try to go back to sleep..."

"Please do, you have a busy ahead of you," Tsunade called back, words said in a warning tone.

Thus, Konami clambered back into the shared futon with her sister, leaching off body warm as she got comfortable beneath the blankets. She closed her eyes in a visible attempt to get back to sleep yet it was futile as she released a sigh and gave up on getting back to sleep. Her eyes were wide open, imagining that they were melting just like the monster in her dream.


Child of a Frog is a Frog


Tsunade, when deciding to stay in Ame with Jiraiya, hadn't expected to come to like the brats that had begged for their help on another rainy day in the middle of a warzone. She had been surprised when she had discovered that these kids had actually had the gall to track down the newly named Legendary Sannin of Konohagakure and request blatantly for food and an apprenticeship. She was even more surprised by the fact that their main tracker was a girl with a particularly nasty rare disease. She can still recall the state Konami had been in, how on the verge of death she had been with a fever to boot. Tsunade couldn't help but admire the girl for the inner strength and determination she contained within her tiny body. It was by a miracle of sorts that the treatments had been going so well, to the point that she even had the strength to take down a chuunin of all things!

She didn't know what surprised her most about the young girl, the look in her eyes, an almost old-soul gaze that she had only ever seen on her grandmother's face, or the readiness to put her body through hell and back if it meant helping her friends and sister. It was heartwarming, in a way, being as she could relate. Her own little brother, even if deceased, was still a precious memory to her and Konami only served to remind her of her love for him. It was really surprising, being that these kids were starting to become the best sort of therapy compared to the usual way she handled things. They kept her mind busy with other things, and it brought out that longing to take care of someone within her, even if she hadn't known it was there.

Tsunade, often times, found herself wondering if they were doing the right thing by sticking behind while the Second Shinobi World War dwindled out. Shouldn't they be more active in helping others? Then again, Jiraiya had been dead set, after discovering Nagato's dojutsu, on training the brats into full-fledged shinobi. She supposed that it was just another one of his quirks that he hadn't immediately decided to take the kids back to Konoha, being as how precious such a dojutsu was. She couldn't fathom why he didn't even bring it up but she guessed that it had to do with the dreams Yahiko spouted off with, claiming he would save the Ame nation.

The Sannin's mind began to wander, wondering to herself why she had even decided to stay in Ame in the first place. She could have settled to heal up the girl once as best she could and leave her to her fate—Konami seemed plenty fine with it herself so it wasn't as if she were leaving a begging child. The thing was, Tsunade had long ago given up on Jiraiya when she had agreed to go out with Dan Katou, a man who shared similar views. In fact, even as she kept it from Jiraiya, she was sure she was starting to fall in love with the fellow jounin, she just needed that extra time with Dan. Yet, she didn't get that extra time, being as she had decided to stay back. Inwardly, Tsunade was groaning. She was an idiot, a fool just as he was, that she couldn't leave that lingering crush alone. It had been his fault for his shameless flirting that her interest had even been piqued in the first place but...

If she were honest with herself, her forgotten (never to be revived) crush began a few years ago, when the war started, and their trio had been united as fighting force for the aid of the war. They hadn't been able to see each other for a while before that time and when they did, he was his usual self, someone who never ceased in his mission to annoy the crap out of her. Yet, on their first mission, when Jiraiya had taken a particularly nasty blow in her stead, she had gotten to see a refreshing side to him and, dare she think it, cool. She inwardly flinched, recalling as she had only began to see many more sides of him that were good, but... That had been before Nawaki died, and she had met Dan.

Now, she was just concerned with why and what reason she had to stay with them.

The obvious answer would be that the kids needed her, especially Konami, but even then, they could be fine with Jiraiya alone. Another answer would be that she could use this as a reprieve, a vacation of sorts, to get away from Konoha and the prevailing happy feel it gave off, even despite the war. She wondered if she had never actually given up on Jiraiya and instead was still, subconsciously, attuned to him. She wanted to see Dan.

With a sigh, she found herself pulling out the blue stone her grandfather had given to her and gazing at it, picturing is around Dan's neck. She blinked the oncoming tears away and snuggled deeper into her thick blankets before throwing them off her. She wasn't a fan of wallowing, in fact, she had done that for far too long when Nawaki died. With a pang in her heart, she headed to the restroom to freshen up, brushing her teeth, before knocking on the kid's bedroom.

"Rise and shine!" Tsunade yelled down the hall even as she headed to the kitchen, in search of food. She was mutely surprised to see that Konami was already up, bustling around the kitchen with a spatula in hand. The young girl had been making something very strange that she had never seen before and the older woman moved forward slowly, wondering if Konami had finally snapped and was going insane.

The golden eyed girl spun around, eyes wide as she gave a slight gasp before her expression melted into a warm smile, "I wasn't able to go back to sleep last night and then I remembered these things, I mean, I thought of these things called pancakes. So I spent a bit of time trying to remember how to make the batter mix and when I remembered, I realized that we didn't have all the right ingredients. I had nearly given up hope when I saw that there were things I could substitute it in for," Konami paused, "I'm not crazy, I swear."

Tsunade couldn't help the laughter that bubbled forth, even coming to the point where she had to clutch her stomach, eyes tearing up while she begged her body to stop the torment. This girl! She was so quiet, always so serious that it made moments like this, Tsunade decided, merely cherishable, and highly humorous. She had never known Konami could talk so much, almost thinking that the young girl was working with a word limit. When Tsunade finally managed to reign in her boisterous cackles, with the few chuckles here and there, she gazed at Konami with mystified wonder. She was blushing furiously, looking helpless even as she worked on the 'pancake' off to the side on the skillet over the stove.

"You're seriously cute, you know that?" Tsunade came to pat the young girl's messy hair, who in turn seemed to brighten further, her lower lip trembling. Ah, there it was. That ever present shyness. It had always amused the Sannin, given how confident she usually was, how serene her expression could get while calmly gazing outside one of the windows. Tsunade wondered if Konami was aware of the presences she exuded, the knowing looks and the vibrant eyes that looked less like amber and more like gold. Still, she grinned, "I'm excited to try it then."

Konami seemed to beam, her eyes nearly coming to a close as her mouth stretched broadly. She gave a little laugh that made Tsunade want to pinch her cheeks for but paved off the desire as she took a seat at the low table, waiting patiently even when she watched the young girl flit across the floor boards with a practiced ease.

Before long, the rest of the household began to fill in with as much curiosity that Tsunade had about these mysterious things called 'pancakes', which seemed to be a sort of soft bread that continued to be piled up and stacked on the plate Konami had been using to store them. A few minutes later, the young girl came out, a smile playing softly on her lips, as she served them. Konami only came to seat herself once everyone had their plates full. They were hesitant, all of them gazing at the strange food with mixed expression. Tsunade released a snort before using her chopsticks to heft out a piece of the bread-like substance and taking a bite out of it.

With wide eyes she released a tiny gasp just as she chewed it, savoring the 'pancake' in her mouth, "It's good!" Tsunade wasn't even lying, it was good. It held such a strange texture, lightly fluffed and buttery, yet it was sweet, like dango and mixed in with a touch of salt. She looked to the girl once more, this time with awe. It was as if she were perfect, and the little girl's past actions had only solidified this feeling, being that she was a cutie, determined, obedient, a prodigy in the makings and now, of all things, she was a better cook than Tsunade was. She took another bite, almost groaning when it was just as good—if not better—than the last one.

The others had taken Tsunade's actions in stride, each of them having dug in. Konami's efforts were met with thickly-laid on praise.

"You should be my wife," Yahiko was saying, eyes wide as he spoke around a mouthful of pancake, "This is seriously the best thing I'd ever had!"

Konami wrinkled her nose, "You're my big brother, Yahiko. It's not like I need to be married to you for me to cook for you."

"Then, no guy is taking you away from us," the orange haired brat said earnestly, determined, "You're hereby forbidden from getting married."

Everyone laughed, watching on as Konami smiled, nodding.

"When did you learn how to make this?" Konan asked, her eyes confused but soft. She smiled, "You never did anything like this in the past."

Konami shrugged, "I wasn't big enough and we never had enough money…I actually have a lot of ideas for recipes."

Tsunade made a noise in the back of her throat before saying, "Experiment on us, Konami, feed us delicious food." She was almost sad that her plate was almost empty.

Konami's forehead creased, her lips drawing out in concentration, "Well, there was this thing to put on the pancakes but I don't know what it could be called or how to make it…"

It was a strange thing to say, as if she were speaking of prior knowledge that just had to be remembered. Tsunade kept the frown off her face as she gave the young girl a passive smile, "Where did you come up with these ideas?"

Konami cocked her head, as she always did when she was about to answer a question, "My dreams…? I think that's the case. I have a lot of dreams that give me a lot of ideas. I used to write them down when I was younger," Konami hesitated, brows creasing ever so slightly, "but those ideas were bad. They weren't for food," she went on, almost nervously, "they were for stories."

"You want to be a writer?" Jiraiya looked at her appraisingly even when she shook her head.

"I couldn't ever be, I wouldn't be able to."

It was one of those strange moments again, where Tsunade had the feeling that Konami's maturity level was much greater than appearances told. It was almost disconcerting, being as Tsunade, even being a clan kid, hadn't ever given off the feeling of being a grown adult. Konami looked sad.

"I like your cooking," Nagato suddenly spoke up, veering the conversation away from books and writing. Tsunade wondered, distantly, if he had done it on purpose, noticing the troubled expression on the six year old's face.

Konami seemed to brighten, gazing at Nagato with adoring eyes as she usually did, "Thank you."

He nodded in reply.

Tsunade observed them with new found interest. It almost felt as if they had kid crushes on one another, but that didn't seem to fit bill. Konami wasn't interested in romance, and neither was Nagato. They, out of all of them, looked to just find comfort in family moments. Perhaps, it was more fitting to categorize the two as a pair of best friends.

She nodded to herself, a slight smile on her lips as she gazed at the brats and her teammate, who was arguing over something with Yahiko, Konan watching on with humor in her amber eyes. Perhaps, it wasn't such a bad thing to be in this place, with these kids. Heck, she even entertained the thought that these precious moments was something apart of her destiny.


Child of a Frog is a Frog


Training had been going smoothly for the past few days. Konami still couldn't keep a fish alive, but she was slowly progressing. One thing that was certain was that she wasn't naturally inclined to iryo-ninjutsu. While she could take Tsunade's lessons with stride and be able to understand them, it was growing increasingly hard to actually physically accomplish something. She was even growing increasingly frustrated when her chakra refused to obey her. Of course, suppressing it was easy, but actually getting it to move anywhere other than her core, as she had been doing for the past year, was almost impossible. Tsunade kept reminding her that most six year olds didn't have the control needed to move their chakra inside their bodies, forget about distributing it. She had also kept repeating that due to her age, she wasn't expected to actually keep the fish alive until later, much later. For now, it was just something to advance her control further. Control, it seemed, was taking over her life. It was all she ever did when she wasn't studying the medical scrolls and books that Tsunade had been shipping in, or cooking. It was a schedule by now. During the times that she wasn't struggling to keep a fish alive, she was trying to get a cursed leaf to stick to her forehead. She had barely managed fifteen seconds, and that was with heavy determination and panting. Nagato, when the strain had grown too much on her, had even snatched the leaf from her, a slight scowl coloring his features.

Apparently, what was keeping her back from using her chakra properly was that most of it was just sitting around, collecting dust, while the rest was already working to keep her body alive. It was frustrating, knowing that she had extra chakra to expend but it was entirely useless to her. That was what she was currently working on; trying to find the siting chakra and making it useable. Otherwise, as Jiraiya was saying to her, she was in danger of having her nerves fried and her health depleting with using the only chakra that was keeping her body at homeostasis. It was proving to be a difficult task, one she was determined to bull doze through, despite all circumstances. She refused, refused, to be useless to her family. If worse came to worse, she would work on becoming like the pair of green Konoha-nin, the two thick-browed, bowl-headed taijutsu masters that she was useless in recalling the names of. Of course, she wouldn't be donning the gaudy outfit, but she would be sure to focus on taijutsu soon, if her body allowed it. Konami inwardly winced.

She really wished her illness didn't keep her back from catching up with the others.

By the way Yahiko bragged, he'd already been able to manipulate his chakra, molding and mixing the spiritual and physical energy easily together. He had been even going as far as to be able to channel it into his chakra pathways to all over his body's tenketsu points, keeping leaves stuck to his body as if it were child's play. It didn't necessarily mean he had great chakra control, only that molding it came easy to him. In fact, control seemed to be evading him like a fly, being as he was unable to distinctly tell which of the three hundred and thirty one tenketsu points he was directing his chakra to. Konan was much better in that regard, having had prior teachings from their father, and she had already gone on to start her lessons with water and tree walking.

Nagato was...

Well, he was a genius, picking up iryo-ninjutsu as if it were like breathing to him. He seemed as shocked as everyone else was when he'd managed to keep the fish alive with only five hours under Tsunade's supervision and two hours of practice. It was frustrating to say the least but Konami was determined not to be jealous, even when Tsunade began to pile on lessons on him, just for the sake of him being distracted with something. Konami was aware that this had to do with his eyes and Jiraiya's attempt at training him to use them properly. It was sort of turning into an experiment, trial-and-error, sort of deal, being as Jiraiya, nor anyone else for that matter, had ever seen the Rinnegan's true capabilities or how to reach those skills. Apparently, when Konami was able to be outside for extended periods of time, he was going to start learning nature manipulation, to test out if the rumors were true. So far, it looked that it would be a while before that would happen. Konami was as ill as ever, frustratingly so.

With little attempt to hide it, she groaned, leaning into Nagato's side to leech off his warmth.

"What's wrong?"

The young girl stared up at the older boy with a strange look, but sighed in the end before mumbling out, "I can't find the dormant physical chakra in my body."

Nagato gazed at her, slightly surprised as he murmured softly, "You don't look like the others do."

She snorted, slightly surprised by what he had just said, "Of course I don't, genetics and all."

He just shook his head, "N-No, I mean that your chakra looks different. You don't have a lot of physical energy, but there's…what did Jiraiya-sensei call it?"

"Spiritual chakra," Tsunade spoke up from her corner of the room, looking up from her book with a tight expression, "Nagato, this is new. You can see chakra?"

He nodded, looking dumbfounded, "I thought…So, not everyone can see it?"

"Idiot," Konami couldn't resist lovingly teasing him, ruffling his hair before leaning in more closely while wrapping her arms around his as se squeezed in more closely. It was something she had strangely taken to doing, after Nagato hadn't begun to hate her when she killed that man.

He seemed to brighten with a blush when she looked up with hooded eyes, "I didn't know." His voice nearly came out as a whine, causing the azure haired girl to nearly laugh out loud by how cute she found it.

Tsunade made a noise in the back of her throat before speaking up again, "Konami, we're going to change up tactics. I had my suspicions but Nagato had just made it easier on us."

Her brows lifted, "What do you mean?"

"You aren't going to be using physical chakra, you're going to be using spiritual."

She nearly frowned, "I don't understand."

The blonde woman groaned as if it were a hassle to explain but went on anyway, "Let's start from the very basics, right? Chakra, at its very basic nature, is life energy, something that all beings produce to some degree in order to survive. This is the very reason your health is so precarious, because you merely don't produce enough chakra to maintain what you need to live. This is what we've been trying to fix, by forcing your body to react to a sudden depletion in order for it to produce more being as chakra is created when two forms of energy, physical and spiritual, combine. Physical energy is ordinarily collected from each and every one of the body's cells and can be increased through training, stimulants, and exercise. Spiritual energy, on the other hand, is derived from the mind's consciousness and can be increased through studying, meditation, and experience. These two energies coming together will in turn make the created chakra more powerful. Therefore, practicing a technique repeatedly will build up experience, increasing one's spiritual energy, and thus allowing more chakra to be created. As a result, the ninja is able to do that same technique with more power. This same cycle applies for physical energy, except the ninja needs to increase their endurance instead. I had assumed that some of it was lying dormant in your body, because with your activities, you shouldn't have a problem creating chakra, meaning there's a block, something we've been missing, but doesn't affect your spiritual energy. There's an imbalance, making your body unable to create usable chakra unless we figure out how to fix your physical energy. I suspect your disease had affected that, but I've been keeping that at bay with our sessions. This means that we need to study your coils and figure out what has been damaged and what isn't."

"Okay," Konami simply said, many things suddenly making a whole lot of sense.

"Nagato? Do you think you can see chakra points?" Tsunade studied the red-head who in turn looked to Konami, a frown on his face.

"I wouldn't know what to look for."

"That's easy. We'll have you use Konan as a basis as someone healthy. You'll just compare the two and go from there."

"Okay," he mumbled out sheepishly.

"I'll go get her now then." Tsunade stood up after setting her book aside and promptly left the room, leaving the two to their thoughts.

"Do you actually think I'm an idiot?" Nagato softly asked, moments later.

Konami gazed at him with mild surprise before smiling, "No, I think you're a genius. I was just trying out what Tsunade and Jiraiya do, you know? They're very passive aggressive and insults are how they express their love."

"Those two must love each other very much then."

Konami nodded before leaning in more closely, "Ne, are you still afraid? Are you still angry?"

Nagato froze, but softened against her after a brief moment of silence, "No, I don't think I am. At them, that is. I don't know how I'd feel about any other Konoha-nin." His head drooped, revealing his sadness, "I still miss my parents."

The young girl made a noise before nudging him, "Tell me about them."

Nagato released a chuckle before tilting his head to face her, his forehead touching hers. He spoke softly, "My mother was a very kind woman, with the most beautiful long red hair. She came from an island that later fell to ruin. She ran away, I think. She was surviving alone for a while before she met my dad. He was cool, quiet and level-headed. My mom was always much more excitable, kind of like Yahiko."

"You take after your dad then? You're a very quiet person," Konami noted.

"Before…I was happier. You'd say I took after my mom, if you had known me then," Nagato sounded very sad then, and Konami felt even her heart ache.

She pulled away from him, abruptly standing up as she picked up a fallen scroll. With a quick glance to appraise its usefulness, she began to tear it up and set to work on her folding. She ignored Nagato's squawk of worry, and moments later, she held up a bird's beak to her face.

"Do I look cool?" She had asked him then, smiling even if it couldn't be seen, "You know, people are full of many layers, aren't we? You wouldn't expect me to make a bird's mask with a scroll that may or may not get me flayed as punishment, would you? Not normally, but people are full of many surprises, don't you think? Nagato, this you is merely another part, and all of us love it just the same as the rest of you."

He still looked at her with shock as moments ticked by with silence. Then, his face broke into a grin, laughing out in the loudest voice she had ever heard coming from him, "You're very cool!"

It was her turn to laugh then, the stress of the past week evaporating quickly as she went back to sitting next to Nagato, a smile on her face and folded beak in hand.

Tsunade arrived back moments later, drenched in water and scowls while Konan walked in with a breezy smile.

"Let's get started," the blonde snapped, obviously irritated by the rainy weather.

Konami resisted a giggle as the two sisters settled themselves side by side in front of the red-head. He assessed closely, eyes pinching with concentration. His eyes shifted seriously over the two girls almost disconcertingly before he finally spoke up, "It's at her heart. The damaged coil is at her heart."

Tsunade froze, an audible intake of air resounding in the air softly.

"What's wrong?" Konan's voice hitched, "Is it bad?"

Tsunade swallowed before forcing out a smile, "We'll be halting your training, Konami. You are unfit to be a kunoichi."

The young girl's world froze, her stomach dropping and her heart beating painfully in her chest, "Do you mean that I'm useless?" It hurt to even speak the words, much less think them— feel them. Tsunade opened her mouth but she quickly spoke up, "No, no, no, don't say it. Don't say it." She felt the hot, burning tears build up and with simple, furious blinks, they spilled over her cheeks, dripping to the bird's beak in her hands, "No."

"Konami," Tsunade started, but the young girl had enough of it. She stood up, mindless to the fact that her body was shaking, horribly. Wasting not a second, even as her teeth chattered and she suddenly felt the suffocating chill of reality, Konami ran out of the room, clutching a crumpled up beak in her hand. This wasn't, wasn't fair!

Why else was she placed on this world for?

She felt a sob bubble forth as she slammed through the front door, thoughtlessly running with heavy footsteps, the mud covering her naked feet. With fumbling fingers, she tore out the braid in her hair, the long locks cascading down her back freely before they soon became soaked in the rain's heavy downpour. Konami was gasping for breath now, her lungs burning with the effort to breathe, her heart pumping dangerously in her chest. She needed to—she needed to! What did she need to do? She couldn't even protect her family, she was useless to them this way.

Konami stopped, her body wracked with shakes and pain.

The rain showered over her, drenching her body with little care.

"I hate you," she spat out as she panted hoarsely, "I hate you!"

Who do you hate? Why?

"I hate the rain because it never stops. I hate the sun because it never shows. I hate my disease because it leaves me ruined. I hate this war because it left us all ruined. I hate myself because I'm useless. I hate this entire world because it allows itself to be ransacked by war."

She crumbled to her knees, a sob ripping through her chest. Konami brought her fist up to pound against the mud furiously, causing it to spray and fleck her cheeks.

"Am I not worth notice? Am I to be unusable to them? Would I never be able to change a thing? I don't care if I never pick up a single kunai again, but why is it me? Why can't I protect them, the way they do me? Why was I even born, if for no other reason than to suffer?"

She screamed then, furious and torn.

"Why!?"

Konami felt cold and hollow when the world began to fade away to nothingness.


Child of a Frog is a Frog


She woke up to being fussed over, a wet, warm cloth brushing up over her skin. She was hoarsely panting and she felt terribly hot all over. Her eyes opened then and she met amber orbs, the owner of them having a certain redness to them that indicated tears.

"Konan," Konami said softly, her throat sore.

"Be quiet, you idiot," Konan snapped, "How could you make us worry that much? You have a fever now, you stupid idiot."

Konami felt too empty inside to feel the guilt fully, even as it hung over her like a ghost.

"She's awake?" Yahiko's voice spoke up, sounding tired, sleepy as his chakra signature came closer, his brown eyes gazing down at her with bags and worry, "Konami."

"Yahiko," was her quiet reply.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault isn't it? I put the idea for us all to become ninja and I wasn't thinking of your health. I'm sorry, Konami, you don't have to become one, okay?"

She grimaced, "I would be useless to you then, wouldn't I be?"

He looked slightly surprised but he sharply shook his head, "I don't know how you got that idea. You're our eyes, aren't you? You're the one with a sensor's abilities, not us."

"Nagato can do that with his eyes," she reminded him and thought of the rain. She knew that he would be able to, in the future, use a jutsu that could sense using the rain. Or at least, that's how she thought it worked.

"Then, you're our…what's the word…caretaker? Yeah, you can make us delicious food and take care of us."

Konami tried to force a smile, "How would I be able to protect you all? I wouldn't be able to repay you."

Yahiko blinked, then cocked his head to the side in confused thought, "Repayment? I don't understand what you have to repay but…you being happy would be our happiness, right Konan?"

"Yeah," the older girl easily agreed, a gentle smile gracing her lips.

"I'll…I'll become the best sensor in the world, big brother," she tightly and stubbornly informed him, tears sliding out from her eyes even as she smiled, "I'll be of use to you, I promise." She just had to get well enough to practice taijutsu in the rain, she needed to build up stamina and work on extending her sensing range. So much so that she could see an entire nation. Konami, despite her earlier freak-out, would take on the entire world if it would aid Yahiko's dream. He had given her life meaning in the bleak times, along with Konan. She had to do something for him, to get this heavy weight of debt off her shoulders. It was a bit selfish but Konami didn't care at all.

"You're awake!" Nagato's voice rang in the quiet air, "You're awake," he repeated as he rushed to her side. She smiled up at him warmly.

"Don't be worried, I'm fine," Konami told him, as she saw the deep bags beneath his eyes, his Rinnegan. She wondered if it never shifted to anything other than that. It must be tiring to only see things with the dojutsu. Thoughtlessly, she brought a feverish hand up to cup his face, trace a finger over his features. He let her with little resistance, eyes pinched with soft worry. Don't look at me with such a face, I won't be leaving you any time soon, don't look at me with such a face. Not with that face. "Come close," she ordered him, bringing is face to hers as their eyes met. She studied his with apt attention, never wavering even as she knew that he could see so many things with them, "Don't fear over this, okay?"

He nodded silently against her forehead, "You can't leave me, alright? You can't die before I do, understand?"

"Yes." Anything for you.

"I'll fix you, okay? I'll become one of the greatest iryo-nin for you, okay? Just be patient and wait for me."

"Alright."

There was a moment of silence shared between the four of them before Konan spoke up.

"We should all get some sleep."

"I'll go bring in our futon, Nagato," Yahiko murmured, standing up, "We're sleeping together tonight."

Konami felt relief fill her. She hadn't wanted to be left alone, not when she was too physically weak to stand up. If she was more honest, she would even go as far to say that she just didn't want to be more than an inch apart from her family.

As soon as the futons were set up and everyone had settled down, Konami snuggled in closely to Nagato, her hand being held by Konan to the right of her.

"I think I understand the rain a little bit more now," she abruptly spoke up.

"Hm?" It was Yahiko.

Konami swallowed thickly before proceeding, "The rain is how the sky and ground embrace and connect with each other, to show their support and love. It's how the sky wipes the scars away, and protects the ground. Rain nurtures life, doesn't it?" As if to her words, the rain seemed to slow to a lull, becoming a gentle patter outside, a source of comfort.

"Then, isn't the sky just a big crybaby?" Yahiko joked, "I'm kidding…I like that idea a lot, it's nice."

"It makes sense too," Konan added, "The wars here have ruined Ame, so the rain continues to pour so that the ground doesn't feel lonely."

"That means, if we heal this land, then the rain would go away, right" Nagato pitched in.

It might have been from the lack of sleep, but the four suddenly burst into chorused laughter, giddy with the prospect of it.

"That's been our goal all along anyway. We'll make Ame thrive and let the sky know they don't need to worry so much anymore. Though, once in a while, rain can be nice, I guess," Yahiko told them. Konami could hear a grin on his features.


Child of a Frog is a Frog


"Konami," Tsunade murmured as she came into the room the four orphans shared. She sat up in her futon to find that she was alone in it. With one quick glance to the window, she quickly discerned it was somewhere in the afternoon.

"I overslept," Konami murmured into the quiet room before her gaze traveled back to the blonde woman in front of her, "I'm sorry for yesterday."

Tsunade smiled, slightly, before coming to slid onto the futon with quick motions and facing the young girl with a grimace, "I understand why you wanted to become a kunoichi. I hate to be the bearer of bad news."

Konami nodded, smiling nonetheless, "It's okay. I just have to find out a different way to help them."

"Be careful not to use any chakra. If you do, I'm worried that you'll severely compromise your health. Being that the damage of your coils is by you heart, I'm afraid it's inoperable… Maybe in a few years, I'll have something that could help you, but for now, you'll have to be left behind. I'm sorry."

Konami came to purse her lips as she took the information in. Then, she smiled, "Braid my hair, won't you?"

Tsunade looked surprised for a second, her eyes going wide with confusion. Yet the expression quickly melted into a warm one, "Alright."

Days passed by in boredom after that, with Nagato joining Jiraiya outside, donning on the ridiculous frog rain-proof jumpsuit that made them all look very cute. Tsunade was either inside the house, or outside with the others, but the majority of Konami's time was spent alone, writing. She used the free time to recall things from the past life, often remembering dishes and recipes to recreate in this world. She could even evoke the memories of different manga, like one about these things called 'ghouls' that were forced to eat humans to live. In that life, she had been obsessed with the show. Maybe that was how she became desensitized to death so quickly in this life?

Nevertheless, she wrote down that story as well, and soon that triggered even more memories, and stories to write down, like something about a witch's delivery service. Her favorite, so far, had been the one about a big creature, something called 'Totoro'. He was a neighbor to the girls in the story? Often times, Konami was generally frustrated with the things she couldn't remember. Yet, in the end, if she couldn't recall those tiny details, she'd make them up. That soon became her only source of entertainment when the others were out, training. She never showed the written stories to anyone, being as they weren't hers to begin with, but it was nice to remember the things she had been fond of in a different world.

Rapidly, the books began to pile up in her shared bedroom, being as the boys refused to keep to their room anymore but they were never touched. Sometimes, she would write everything in English, mostly because kanji was hard to write out or even to know. She would need to go to school to learn anything more than she knew now.

Before long, an entire year had passed with only one moment of considerable note out of everything, meaning as it had held heavy meaning to Konan from the original series.

Jiraiya had gathered everyone into the kitchen, next to the door besides it pointing to the blocks on the wall, "Konan is on the right, Yahiko and Konami are in the middle, and Nagato is on the left."

"What are they?" Yahiko asked, a confused scowl placed on his face.

"Our Hop-In planks," Jiraiya announced, as if it should have been obvious to them all.

"Hop-In planks?" Konan softly asked to the grin of Jiraiya's.

"Yup, the front of them are red, while the back is white. When you come home, you guys can hop on in and flip them around," Jiraiya did just that to Nagato's plank, revealing a frog's face on the white side of it, a wolfish grin on the Sannin's face. Konami restrained a giggle at the expression—it was just so cute when he was dressed up like a frog!—as she bit her lip. Jiraiya waited expectantly for questions even as the four orphans looked at him with a dumbfounded mien. The white haired man went on, "Anyway, when you're in our hideout, you turn your plank to the red side. Whenever you're about to leave, hop on over and flip ours to the white side first," Jiraiya pointed to the frogs picture when he flipped over Yahiko's plank as a demonstration, "The picture also reminds the others that you might hop in at any moment!" The Legendary Sannin was still smiling with that stupid grin, waiting patiently for the questions or praise at his genius.

Tsunade, in the back of the group, snorted, muttering on about how childish he truly was.

"Come on, seriously?" Yahiko spoke up, his scowl still planted on his face, a single brow lifted with confusion, "I'm trying to cut you slack because you're the Toad Sage and all, but come on. The suits should've been enough."

"But why do you want us to do this?" Konan spoke up, head tilted to the side cutely as she was dressed in her frog suit. Even Konami had received one and it was surprisingly warm, even if it made her look maddeningly cute herself.

"The area around us is still unstable," Jiraiya explained, "There's no telling when they'll come and target our hideout," he paused to assess the children's understanding before continuing, "We're at our most vulnerable when we're here, the more obvious it is that we're living here, the easier it is for them to mount an attack."

"So, if a plank is red but that person isn't here, it means that they could've been captured by the enemy," Konan summarized.

"And if it's white, but that person is in their room, then it means it could be an enemy that's transformed their appearance," Konami added, nodding.

"This way, we know right away when something's wrong," Konan ended, smiling with understanding.

"Very observant, girls. Unlike Yahiko," Jiraiya teased.

Yahiko sputtered, "I figured it out too! Kind of…" He trailed off sheepishly.

"This is our own personal code for all six of us, so that we can all be aware of the other's statuses. You can never let down your guards, even when you're here, you understand?" A chorus of nods all around before Jiraiya continued, "Now, I've prepared a hidden room and emergency escape route, just in case," he explained to them, lifting up a floorboard. "You'll be able to get away through here if something ever happens. Hmm, oh yeah, the plank on the back wall is Tsunade and mine," he pointed to it, after having placed down the floorboard, and the four orphans turned to look.

It was as he said.

"Ahh, now, it's time for our 'water-off-a-frog's-back' training! We will become like true frogs and face the elements along with everything else, to learn how to endure anything without moving a muscle!"

Yahiko hopped up from hit sitting position, "Hell yeah!" He then took off out to the side door, yelling back, "C'mon guys, let's get going!"

The remaining kids looked to the Hop-In planks, Nagato speaking up first, "I'm not sure Yahiko understood… Sensei flipped it for him this time, but…"

Konan just giggled as she turned her plank over.

Yahiko turned to gaze through the open door, grinning, "I'm gonna get stronger, and stronger until I can turn this country around!

Konan and Nagato stared after him quietly before they looked to each other with similar smiles as they followed after. Konami couldn't help but laugh when Jiraiya pointed an accusatory finger at the orange haired kid.

Yahiko gave a grin then, similar to Jiraiya's usual mischievous and slightly pervy one, while he waited to be scolded.

"Turn your damn Hop-In card around before you start worrying about the country!"

"You're just embarrassed your student has picked up your disgusting smirk," Tsunade remarked casually, a hand at Konami's shoulder.

Jiraiya's face flamed at having been caught, allowing the three kids to get a head start to their training grounds, "That's not it!"

"Yeah, yeah," Tsunade's voice was dry as she beckoned Konami back into the warmth of the kitchen, "How about we get started on dinner then?"

The young girl nodded, absent-minded as she simply said, "This is what's called happiness, isn't it?"

"I'd say so."

It was hard to imagine a different feeling being called that word, but nevertheless, the boring days passed her by easily after that.

Just to keep her brain awake, Konami had taken to drawing, when writing because too mind-numbing to keep up.

She was horribly bad when she first started out, creating inside jokes with herself over the time it took for her work to actually be presentable. There was still a picture of what should have been a crab, looking just like a bear, strangely enough, hidden deeply within stacks of paper.

Before long, however, she began to paint her drawings, Tsunade having been able to find the dye at the market, if only a bit too pricey in Ame's current economy. Because of that, Konami treasured each and every drop of it. She only wanted to do one thing with it anyway. With the chance to do so, the young girl decided to draw and paint something she had greatly longed to see, being cramped up in the house on most days.

With blues, whites, reds, oranges, and greys, Konami came to create an entire expansive sky in the bedroom, tacking it all across the room in a single afternoon that her family had all been out. It kept her entertained and excited to see their reactions. At the current point in time, she still only had a single thing to paint over, one that demanded excessive use of the brighter colors—part of the sun's rays.

"For you, I'd paint the sky," Konami murmured, thinking of her three most precious people. She then giggled at how dramatic sounded, brush strokes echoing in the silent room.

When it was all finished and up, hanging on the wall, she gazed at it with wide eyes, a small smile playing on her lips.

The sky, despite it being artificial, felt real, so much so that it almost felt as if sunlight was streaming in through the window, despite the persistent pattering of rain. Her laughter echoed into the room, as they slowly turned into sobs.

She didn't feel sad, that wasn't the case for the sudden tears.

Konami merely ached with the desire to feel the sun again.

But what about the stars?

She needed to recreate that too. After all, night was just as important.

Konami set to work, using up the rest of the paint and paper as she made the picture of a nighttime sky. Before long, the walls and her body were covered in paint and paper, making her feel giddy and light with her new creation.

They, her family, still hadn't arrived home yet, cueing a game of sorts as she played with the images. She rolled around on the pressed together futons and blankets, making a mess of them all. Her laughter rang throughout her fictional world, her own private sanctuary. She sobered up mere moments later when she abruptly stood up to take a bath. Their chakra signatures were coming close to the house, it felt like.

She danced to the bathroom, spinning slightly on her toes as her loose hair swayed around her shoulders. In her childish fun, she managed to pull off a clumsy pirouette, pivoting off her left foot as she twirled her way to the door of the restroom.

Her laughter followed her into the echoing room while she prepared a bath for herself. It had been a long time since she had had this much fun, especially alone.

With a small smile, she soaked in the water while feeling for the signatures of her family's chakra. When they were nearing, Konami rushed through her bath and getting dressed and was ready just as she could hear Yahiko's boisterous voice entering the hideout.

"Welcome home," she cheered with a grin as she saw them, Jiraiya coming in with a huge fish.

"You seem chipper," Tsunade noted.

"I painted the sky," Konami announced, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. In her happiness, she ignored the pain in her heart just as she pushed off the dizziness with pure determination.

"I want to see," Nagato murmured, smiling down at her in his cute frog suit.

"Ah, it must be pretty," Konan added, thoughtfully.

"Let's strip these stupid things off," Yahiko suggested, "and then go take a look."

"It's in the bedroom," Konami informed them as she bounced off to the sink to get a glass of water.

"She's almost like…" Jiraiya began before trailing off.

"A real kid," Tsunade finished for him but Konami paid no mind to it. She was just as concerned over her new found personality. She hadn't known it was possible for her to be this happy—it made her feel impossibly light.

Minutes later, once everyone had changed out of the frog suits and warmed up, they all headed to the bedroom of the four orphans. Konami slid open the door slowly, nervously.

Her artwork was met with a round of gasps.

"It looks…real," Tsunade murmured then, "Like back in Konoha."

Konami merely studied her work with a frown. She could still see many areas to improve on.

"It looks like we have a real artist in our little hideout," Jiraiya noted, "It's a shame that it's all on simple paper."

"We should get one of those easel things," Konan managed to get out, her eyes wide and bright, "This is seriously the prettiest thing I've ever seen."

"If it's not too expensive," Konami allowed, biting her lip.

"This sky," Yahiko started with, turning to the youngest girl with a bright, shining grin, "This sky will be our goal. We'll make Ame look like this one day."

Why couldn't she get this silly look off her face?

After that, things passed by much quicker while Konami spent the lazy days drawing, painting, or writing. She did a lot of thinking, and general planning for what was to come but her health wasn't looking to be getting any better. By the looks of it, she was to never be a shinobi. If anything, she could only amount to a genin status, but that couldn't help out much in the scheme of things. No, she needed to find a different way to help them out because she wasn't much for physically doing so. Because of this, she began to work on her sensing abilities. She probably should've asked Tsunade or Jiraiya for help doing so, but Konami didn't like bugging them when they had other things to worry about. However, for the most part, she was progressing smoothly, having been able to extend her range far enough to reach the village they frequented for supplies. She spent most of her time, after that, memorizing the chakra signatures, noting which the common signatures and which were just mere passersby. When she went into the market, only for the times she was allowed, she did her best to travel over the village to match faces to the chakra.

Over time, she was aware of all the activity going on in the entire town. She came to know the difference of shinobi, kunoichi, and mere civilian. Her senses had been growing so precise that Konami could now discern that very fact in mere seconds, memorizing the former and tending to ignore the latter. She was even able to find the ones attempting to mask their presence, making it almost a game to her. It was like shinobi peek-a-boo, where she would focus on the masked chakra and follow them, waiting for them to slip up and reveal themselves. It was a nice way to pass the time, she supposed.

Konami was happy, this way.

Yet, there did come a time, at the end of the first year spent together, that something came around to disrupt that happiness.


Child of a Frog is a Frog


"I have to leave," Tsunade said to everyone as if she were simply announcing the weather, packed and ready to disappear from their lives, "I recently received a letter from the Hokage with news that one of my dear friends has died in battle."

The air in the room had stilled.

Jiraiya was the first one to speak up, eyes dark, "Is it Dan?"

Tsunade wordlessly nodded, "His niece…"

"We'll miss you," Konami spoke quietly, clutching tiny fists to her drab dress, "I'll miss you." She was trying her best not to cry, coming to bite her lip.

The older woman came forward, hand outstretched as she rested a palm on top of the silken azure hair, "I love you brats."

Those mere simple words made the four orphans erupt in a chorus of sobs. With newly tear streaked cheeks and runny noses, they all converged on to Tsunade, coming to clutch desperately at her clothes and her thighs.

"We love you too!" Yahiko informed her with a half-sob, half-shout.

"You brats," Tsunade came to say, screwing with their hair and wiping away the tears that continued to spill over, "You guys are going to make me cry."

"That would be a first," Jiraiya said from a little bit away.

"Shut your trap, idiot," the Sannin snapped, gingerly fixing the orphans hair before gently pushing them away to kneel to eye-level with them, "I'll come back in a year or two, okay? It won't be permanent but I'll be back to visit at least once so don't be so sad." Her amber eyes reddened with unshed tears yet she persisted nonetheless, "You brats just need to learn how to be patient. When I come back, I expect you all to be shinobi worthy of being named the Saviors of Ame, you hear? Konami? I expect you to keep them out of trouble."

"Yes," came the orphans blubbered out response.

Tsunade wrapped them in a hug then, the feeling of something warm and real snaking its way through Konami's body. For some reason, it only made her want to cry more.

The embrace was over too quickly, Tsunade gone too fast.


Child of a Frog is a Frog


"I'm done," Nagato informed her softly, watching as she pulled her shirt over her chest. It had been weird, at first, when the red-head had taken over her treatment. He was just as good as Tsunade had been but it was still a strange feeling being shirtless around a boy. She had an entire separate life that had preached against skin-ship. It almost felt like she was breaking some rules even if their feelings for each other were purely platonic. What an odd thought.

She was merely seven, him being eight (going on nine), so it wasn't as if that was a current problem. She wondered what it would be like in the future, when she grew breasts, filled out, and went through a monthly period. There was also the hormones to worry about. So maybe, one day, she would stop looking to Nagato like a brother of sorts and he would turn into a love interest. Konami couldn't resist a wince at the thought. That wouldn't happen, she knew with certainty. Distantly, she was concerned over why Konan was able to fall in love with Yahiko. According to her books, they had been mutually in love, but then, her texts could always be wrong. Konami made a mental note to keep an eye on the two.

"Thank you, Nagato."

"Hn," he looked like he had something more to say.

The azure-haired girl nudged him, an inquisitive expression coating her face.

"I'm developing a jutsu for you. I don't want you to get your hopes up but…"

"Go on?"

"Tsunade-sensei had told me that the reason she couldn't operate on you was for two reasons. The first being that it's so close to your heart. She wouldn't be able to see if she's piercing a valve or anything similar to that when she's working on the coils. The other thing was that, well, aside from one groups methods of working on the coils and the tenketsu points themselves, there isn't a treatment for the common iryo-nin to learn. She mentioned, before she left, that she would be checking with that clan to see if they could help you out. But, because I have these eyes and knowledge of iryo-ninjutsu, I have been working on something that could help repair them."

Konami smiled at him as she enveloped the boy into her arms, "Thank you so much, Nagato. You know what? I wouldn't mind if it didn't work, I'm just so glad that I have you." She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, coming to hold onto him tightly. He held her back, with just as much warmth.

"I don't know how else I could repay you, Konami," Nagato whispered softly in her ear, "You've done so much for me."

"Just be by my side," she blankly ordered of him, wrangling a chuckle from him. It echoed in her ears before she continued, "You're the hope for the future, along with Yahiko and my sister. This means that you can't die before your dreams come true, do you understand?"

"You can't die either, Konami."

"Don't worry so much, I'm not like glass. I won't break on you."

"You better not."

Over the days, weeks, months that passed by, the three orphans in training began to grow powerful, each a prodigy in their own right. Konan had already come to develop her paper-ninjutsu, Yahiko expressing his desire to learn kenjutsu and water-based techniques. They were both formidable in their own right but Nagato topped them both, easily being able to accomplish great feats as if it were like breathing. He still spent most of his time learning iryo-ninjutsu from books but that didn't stop him from dabbling in all the jutsu he could get his hands on or mastering it two to three days later. Konami herself had worked on extending her range and senses further. Her hope was to one day be able to encompass Ame, in its entirety, under her watch—although that seemed quite a bit far off from what she was capable of.

"Guys," Konan's voice interjected, causing Konami to pull away from Nagato to look up to her sister, "Dinner is ready."

The three headed over to the table, the young girl coming to latch onto her sister's sleeve as they sat down. It was an odd thing she'd developed over time—perpetually being stuck to someone, leaching off their warmth and being assured of their safety. She'd even go as far as to sit on Jiraiya's lap when he was writing, reading a book quietly. When it came to Yahiko, she'd hang off his back like a monkey, dozing off like it was an afternoon nap. She supposed that was one of the causes as to why her eyes drooped in such a way, becoming heavy-lidded in their shape.

They were eating fish again, grilled as usual with a side of rice and tea.

"Thank you for the food," they all chorused, picking up their chopsticks in near synchronicity.

"Tomorrow, I'll start you on learning this water jutsu," Jiraiya was saying to Yahiko, who bounced happily at where he sat, eating.

"Take that, Nagato, I'm already going to start on a new jutsu tomorrow," the orange haired boy said, grinning at the boy who just smiled on with a good-natured air.

Konan just giggled, "I'd say Nagato still has a head start on you, it's like you're trying to have a hopeless competition with him."

"Whatever, Konan, you're just jealous that we're leaving you behind in the mud."

She snorted, "I'm creating my own techniques and I'm somehow being left behind?"

"My sister is the coolest," Konami said confidently.

"I've been betrayed!" Yahiko mimed something stabbing into his chest as he gave her a pained expression, "What happened to me being your awesome big brother?"

"My sister is the coolest," Konami couldn't help but repeat after taking another bite of rice with a deadpanning mien.

"She speaks only the truth," Konan beamed, stroking her little sister's hair as she leaned into the touch.

Nagato snorted from his place at the table while Jiraiya released a hearty laugh.

Yahiko just sputtered, "Just a while ago, she was calling me the coolest."

Konami considered this, "Yahiko can be awesome, Konan is cool, and Nagato is…amazing?" She thought back on what Nagato meant for her but found that he was more an object of affection than anything else. Like a cute puppy. She inwardly winced. He probably wouldn't appreciate that line of thought.

"Then you can be the cute one," Nagato said, smiling at her with a bright expression.

Konami distantly wondered why it didn't feel bad to be called such an adjective when it came from him. In fact, she was fairly certain she liked the pooling warmth that spread out her entire body at having been given such a compliment.

Eh, it would probably be the same if Konan and Yahiko called her cute.

"Let me be the lazy one," Konami simply joked, smiling back lightly.


Child of a Frog is a Frog


"Ah," Konami nodded with understanding, "So, that's how you can tell when food has gone spoiled or not."

"I'm surprised your parents didn't already teach you," Chiyo, the fruit stand owner, commented, "They looked like the smart type."

Konami blinked, cocking her head in thought, "Parents? Oh, um, they're just…older cousins. Hana, the woman, left a few months ago," and yet it still hurt to think about her, "on business."

"Ah, so that's how it is," Chiyo hadn't batted eye at the forced lies, instead, giving a kind smile, "I had been wondering why we haven't been seeing her around. Although, your sibling's features are strange. The boys."

Konami blinked, "The boys? Nagato and Yahiko are both adopted," it was weird having to lie, but it was necessary. Jiraiya couldn't be tracked down by any one of the enemies, especially when the war was still only barely waning out. He still had many, many foes in Ame, thus the four of them had been instructed to keep up a single façade, the one she was spouting off to the elderly woman currently, "Our parents died during one of the skirmishes, so my cousin is taking care of us until we can fend for ourselves. So…he'll be leaving in a few years too."

"Oh my," Chiyo gave a pained smile, "goodbyes are never fun, are they? You never know when you might see that person ever again, or if fate will have consumed them by now," She was speaking with bigger words than Konami was used to, cuing a blink from her part, but she readily gave a nod.

"Did you lose someone then?"

"Yes…" her words were spoken softly, "a grandchild. He should just be a little bit older than you. He was taken in the night about a year ago," Chiyo's warm eyes were now dark, her hands visibly shaking, "because he was special."

That piqued Konami's interest, albeit it was only a passing intrigue—there wasn't a lot of things to do around Ame, save for what she was quickly growing bored of. It seemed as if her curiosity was gaining the upper hand in terms of what she valued in life. Perhaps it was the fact that she knew very little of the world, despite her foreknowledge, and she could barely quench her thirst as it was. Jiraiya often found himself a victim to her unanswered musings.

"What's his name?"

A sad smile, "Shuyin—that was, is his name."

Konami nodded, "I'll keep an eye out for him then," she murmured quietly.

That only prompted a small chuckle, "It's been too long, I don't believe he'll be coming back anytime soon, but if there ever was a chance…"

"Chiyo," Konami gazed up at her with a smile, reaching out a hand to the elderly woman as it rested over her palm, "san…I think that good things happen, really." If they didn't, she wouldn't be alive—a lesson she would carry for the rest of her life.

"I suppose it is nice to have hope," the woman murmured softly before visibly brightening as she picked up a brightly colored red apple, "Here, free of charge."

The young girl blinked, a gracious smile coming to her face, "Ah, thank you!"

It felt nice, for a change, that she would be handed something, instead of her stealing it.

"Now, go on, don't want to worry your loved ones."

She released a small giggle in reply, smiling, "Right!"

She turned away then and began her journey to home, bags of groceries in one hand, and an apple as red as blood in the other.

With a small laugh to herself, enjoying the quite patter of the rain as it hit the umbrella tilted over her shoulder, she walked merrily, even going to the point of skipping and splashing in the mud on her way. It had been her job lately, to obtain the groceries as a way for her to exercise her deteriorating body. At first she hadn't been allowed to leave alone, as she was usually accompanied by Nagato or Konan, but then she was slowly able to be on her own after becoming familiar with the usual market goers. It was a nice thing, to be able to learn of others and their walks of life.

It was also helpful to match faces with signatures as she became able to truly know the comings and goings of the tiny village. She couldn't care less about the villagers, which might have seemed odd, but she had come to terms with her inability to form emotional attachments for others that hadn't proven to be worthy of her attention. Chiyo was one of the few that had managed to be interesting enough to speak with more than necessary. She didn't Konami like a child, instead, she was treated as if she could understand the complicated adult stuff. She didn't though, not really. Chiyo tended to use strange words that Konami hadn't ever heard of. It had gotten to the point that she had the sneaking suspicion that Chiyo wasn't just a mere fruit stand owner—they wouldn't possibly have to be so smart.

Nevertheless, there were others besides the older woman that piqued her interest. Like Sorato, a kind older boy who ran messages throughout the town for fees. Apparently he was a really fast runner, which was odd. He acted so slow around her, like he was never in any rush. She couldn't say if she really liked him, it was just that the difference in his actions and the way he carried himself astounded her enough to get on her list. She often spotted him as she left the tiny market and this time was no different.

She was almost eager to approach him—the first time she had actually done it—but laid back just enough to assess his chakra signature. It, as usual, was a vibrant one, which also added to her confusion. Maybe he was just simply tired all the time from running so much? But the signature wouldn't match with it. Often times, signatures reflected the person's personality and health. Konami's own signature was a muted, sort of dreary one, compared to her precious family. They all had bright ones, especially Nagato.

"Sorato," she abruptly spoke up, creeping up on the darker skinned boy as he leaned over the side, as if he were gazing at someone from afar. He jumped at her voice, surprising her. She hadn't tried to be quiet, but she supposed that might have actually come from living with shinobi—they never made a sound. It was one of the things Konami was especially overtly conscious of. She was the loud one now, the one you always knew was entering the room.

"Ah! Konami," he gave a grin as he indulged her in her strange distaste for honorifics, "how ya been?"

"What were you looking at?" Konami consciously avoided the question, coming to rest a tiny hand on a lock of loose hair. She rubbed at it absent mindedly, gazing up at him with a hooded expression. Small talk made her feel off, and she didn't like that sort of thing much either.

He seemed to brighten up at the question as he gave a grin and pointed at a pair of unfamiliars, men who looked like they were trying too hard to act like they were civilians. She nearly face palmed at their bad form as she shook her head sharply.

"Who are they?"

"Apparently they came to scout me to be a shinobi after having heard about me."

Her eyes instantly came to be pinched as she felt a nearly ferocious feeling of protectiveness for Sorato. It was largely unexpected to be felt but it made minuscule sense to her. She didn't trust the government run by Hanzo as far as she could toss him and well, the lazy, fast running contradiction was kind of her first friend being as Nagato or Yahiko didn't count—they were her brothers after all. She peered up at him then, scrutinizing over the boy, wondering if he thought something similar of her. Were they friends?

Alarmed by the sudden urge to ask, she gave her head a shake as she mumbled out softly, "You going to accept their offer?"

"Hell no," was his instant reply, "I'm not setting a foot into that death trap."

There was still something off about it though. Why had he been watching in the first place if he intended to never be involved?

"But…there's money involved, isn't there?" By way of his face draining of color, she was right. He sighed, and leaned down to look at her straight on, his gray eyes looking into her own with a slightly forced smile. He reached out his hands, resting them on her shoulders helplessly.

"You really are the observant type, and unrelenting at that! Honestly, you'd be a better ninja than I'd ever be..."

She swallowed thickly at his words, frowning but before he could pick up on it, she just spoke up, "I think you're fine the way you are. I like Sorato."

With raised black brows, his cheeks seemed to flush, his dark yet pale skin becoming more colorful in the dreary atmosphere, "That almost sounded like a love confession."

Konami blinked, surprised but found herself laughing at the mere mention of it. He was ten, of all things, and she was merely seven. An entire three ages apart was quite the stretch in a country always on the verge of death. Besides, she really only liked him because of the puzzle game he presented to her…

"How about this then," Konami murmured with a bright smile, "if you happen to like me in ten years, I'll be yours." Now what were those cliché words she had always heard spoken in the anime her past life liked to watch? "I'll grow up to be Sorato's bride!" It was like a joke to her, which might have been rude to him. But she knew that in the span of ten years, she'd be dead. It was kind of nice to set goals like that.

Sorato smiled at her then as he nodded, "Alright then, but I won't take you unless you really love me too."

Hmm, she wondered if she were even capable of the type he spoke of.

"Okay," she promised, palm suddenly feeling heavy with the bright red apple as her chest suddenly began to ache.

There was one thing she hadn't been considering after all this time since she had killed a man and since they had tracked down the Sannin. Of course, it wasn't that obvious even then.

But it would be soon.

It was to be painfully clear to her soon that she wasn't the Konami of a year ago.

She was changing.

Oblivious to it all, Konami just gave a small smile as she hefted the bag of groceries, "Well, I should be going. Be careful, Sorato."


Child of a Frog is a Frog


On her way to the market the next day—having underestimated the stomachs of growing shinobi—she absentmindedly folded paper, having mastered keeping an umbrella propped up on her shoulder as it kept balanced by her elbow. To add to her good mood, she was even humming a long, lost tune, somewhat sad and desperate sounding, but she recalled it being a favorite of hers. On the chorus, she even began to make up lyrics as she went on her way, secure in her sensing abilities to know when trouble was expected.

Yet, she wasn't exactly ready for what occurred next.

Behind her, as she passed by the mysterious lump on the side of the road, there was a groan, a very human groan. She had just assumed the lump was just a dead animal or something, nothing to be concerned over but that was a noise she had grown accustomed to. The person was hungry, most likely starving.

Konami paused in her singing, and felt the dog she had been making slip out of her fingers. She was reminded of Nagato, back when she had first found him laying on the side of the road.

Like that, as the image flashed before her eyes, Konami rushed to the person's side, looking on earnestly. It was such a weird, unexpected thing. She quite literally hadn't felt a signature coming from the small form even as it moved, the black cloak covering him opening up to reveal a boy with ravenous eyes. The moment he was revealed to look nothing like Nagato or anybody else in her family, she stood up, uninterested.

Or, it was more like she was trying to be aloof.

But the question nagged at her: Why didn't he have a signature?

She debated turning back but before the decision could be hers, she was leapt upon, her shoulder suddenly becoming a replacement chew toy as the kid tackled her down. She felt the air in her fly out as she gasped in an attempt to regain it. Her head felt suddenly very light and funny.

"Oh, you not food. Where food?"

Even with her hazy mind and useless body, she registered the uneducated words spoken and felt her hand inching for an opening in her jacket. The child seemed to understand where Konami's actions were going as they searched her until they finally obtained the uneaten red apple from yesterday. She had actually been saving it for tonight's dinner, but that looked unlikely now as she watched an androgynous child hungrily bite into it.

"Slow down," she whispered out even when it was intended to be a chiding, "Savor it." The apple deserved that much after all.

"Matter not."

She groaned to herself, amazed at how sharply the kid had said it.

She vaguely wondered why she was helping the kid out, but the thought quickly vanished as she quite literally could not think straight. Her eyes were still spinning and she wanted the world to stop that tilt.

"Ryuu hit too hard?"

Konami managed a nod, even as she felt the nausea build up from that as the realm around her shook.

"Ryuu, come back soon."

Great, she couldn't help but think, I'm left defenseless.

In fact, what chilled her to the bone, was the fact that she couldn't sense anything anymore. It felt, this being not even a bit theatric, like she had lost her eyesight, blind to the word. It wasn't helping any that her dizziness refused to dissipate.

Konami groaned and tried to force her way to a sitting position. It was a failed mission in the end, as she laid there in the pouring rain and waited for the boy to return.

He came, minutes—which had felt like hours—later, with an older man in tow. At least, it looked like an old man. Konami really couldn't be certain with the way her head was still spinning. She was afraid to move knowing that something was not right. It wasn't just her illness or her weak body. There was another reason for why her body was so slow to recover such a fall.

"What had I told you, Ryuu?"

"No touch others, Ryuu heard," the barbaric boy replied with, gazing down at Konami as she began to convulse uncontrollably. She felt the breakfast she had that morning empty out before her as she retched quite openly.

"It gets messy when you do," the man said, sighing, "Oh well, Ryuu, get on your gloves, we'll be taking this one back to our hideout."

"She live?"

"If we act quickly."

The moment they began to pick her up and move, the very action of her body moving when it was in such disarray, sent her into shock as her body seized. Mere moments later, she was sent into a world of black as her consciousness faded away.


Child of a Frog is a Frog - End


Unedited – Beta Wanted


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