Declaration: I do not own Naruto; I only want to play with him
Your reviews are very important to me, so please give me some
Haven for lost souls
War season
The three of me were on the move, leaping from tree to tree, in a steady but a very fast speed. It was a two and a half days journey from my fortress at Amekagure to the borders of the Fire land. Madara's spies located Orochimaru's hideout there, and I was on my way to pay him an unexpected visit. I had about two days to recruit him, because my emissaries already appointed me a meeting with Kakuzu near Takigakure in two weeks time from now. Kakuzu seemed to be eager to join Akatsuki. The scroll arranging the meeting was sighed by his own hand. Finding Hidan, however, was a different story all together; rumor says he was somewhere in the land of the lightning, But this was a huge country and I could not guess how much time will I need to locate him.
"Look over there." another self woke me up from my thoughts. I took his vision and I saw what he was referring to. Somewhere ahead of us, above the forest treetops, a heavy cloud of black smoke was rising to the sky. "Probably a village is being attacked," I said to my other selfs and they nodded. "War season."
"And not a minute too soon."
Same old story every year. My blood began to boil at the thought of it, and the poor villages, which could not afford the protection of their own country's ninjas, had always suffered the most. "Should I check it out?" my fat self asked.
I shook my head in disagreement "no time."
"But still, if there is an army over there, what will prevent it from invading my land? Don't forget that I left Amekagure defenseless." he said, "The three of me there, are still in no condition to…"
"Yosh, a point well taken. Let's go."
I instantly concealed my chakra, as I approached the scene. "Hide." I said to my other selves and they immediately disappeared into the shadows. I stealthed my way on to the ruined village and the familiar sights of plunder came my way. Broken fences, burning barns, butchered animals, and slain men. It remained me of my 'happy' childhood.
Soon I found the ones responsible for this atrocity, it was not hard to spot them, they were rather noisy. About thirty wild, brutal ninjas, obviously defectors, probably B-ranked criminals, running around the ruins, totally submerged in their destruction fete. I walked right into the main group of them, where the leader probably was, and they hardly noticed me. They all focused on a rape act that their leader committed. They were circling a women, she was lying on the ground, naked and bleeding, while the big bearded leader was roughly pounding her. All the others seemed to enjoy the show, cheering and shouting loudly about taking their turn. I stood about two meters form them, quietly waiting for somebody to take notice of me.
Finally somebody did. "Hey you, metal face, what are you staring at?" he said, and some of the others looked up.
"Nice coat, carrot head." another one noted and few friends of his began to laugh.
"Want to join?" one asked, how thoughtful of him.
"I am not in the mood." I replied.
"So what do you want, you pony tailed freak?"
"To kill."
It was then I decided that I am not going to lose one drop of chakra over those pathetic scumbags. I took my coat off, after all, it is a sham, it was brand new, and I drew out my katana from its sheath. All they did was to stare at me, just as well. In split seconds, three dead bodies were lying at my feet. Only then, they finely understood the gravity of their situation. Yelling and drawing shirukens and kunaies the finely charged. I managed to avoid the weapons thrown at me, and my sword found two more bodies to slash.
Their leader eventually realized what was going on. He left his victim and stood up and. shocked, he watched me, as I was killing his men in an alarming rate. "Over here!" he called for reinforcement, as I stabbed another one of his soldiers through his heart. Can't any of them perform any jetsu? I asked myself, why did I even bother? Oh, there it is. I sensed the building up of chakra. I took the viewpoint of another body of mine, and saw a man in my other self's blind spot, summoning his technique. A star shaped shirukin was imbedded in his throat before he finished his summoning words.
In the meanwhile, the leader had some organized attempt at me. Five shinobis with waving swords charged me all at once from different directions. I leaped up, and let their swords collide with one another. Then I landed back on the tangled metal, to disarm them all at once, while my kunaies found their way into their bodies. More and more ninjas came my way, and some mediocre ninjetsu were thrown at me, but no one escaped my katana, soon I was drenched in their filthy blood. Some began to understand that the situation was hopeless for them. They began to run away, I was not worried, my two other bodies were just in the right place to take care of that.
After only few minutes, all went quiet, and I realized that only the leader and I were still standing. I gave him the honor to be the first one to engage an attack, he was a mere chunin after all, but to my surprise, he thrown his sword and dropped to his knees. "Please, don't kill me!" he bagged with terror "I will do anything; I will serve you for eternity! Let me live and I will worship you as my god."
I narrowed my eyes at him. I am in need of a work force. Even Chunins can be useful. Leaving him alive will surely help to build Akatsuki's reputation… but then again… I lifted my sword and beheaded him with one clean sway.
Now it was truly quite, I could hear the wind passing through the trees. "Yosh..." I whispered and looked at my dripping katana. Time was wasting away. My other selfs came back from their hiding, looking at me with ridicule on their faces "You look good." I said.
"Thanks." I answered and then I felt a chakra aura, still lingering near. It was far more powerful than any of the ninja's I just killed. It was located behind a wreck of a cart. I lifted up my katana again and turned to investigate.
Behind the broken rubble, I was surprised to find a child, No more than twelve years old, A Genin, by her forehead protector, and a brave one too. She didn't even flinch at my sight, and I was a scary thing to look at, with blood all over me, dripping from my sword. I should kill her, I though coldly, I cannot be burdened with a child now. Her parents probably were killed just now, and world was a cruel place for orphans like us.
"Are you going to kill my now?" she guessed my thoughts, and I flinched, such a clever one.
She looked at me with her bright violet eyes, not showing any emotion, like a true Shinobi.
"Is that your mom over there?" one of my other selfs went to check on the poor wounded woman, they had the same blue hair. The woman was still alive but there was nothing I could do for her but to break her neck. The girl watched as I finished her mother and first tears shown on her little face.
"I am sorry." I said.
"It's ok, I understand." she said, tears now running free, but she was crying without a sound. She straightened up, wanting to die with dignity. Such a brave one, I was so impressed; I could not move my sword. Poor child, it must felt like forever, waiting for me to stop hesitating. A second later, I had made my mind and lowered my katana. Instead, I offered her my other hand "what is your name, little girl?"
"Konan." she whispered, looking confused and not taken by my invitation.
"Listen to me, Konan-Chan; you have to make a choice now. You can stay here and die with your parents, or you could become stronger and live on. What will you choose?"
"I…I don't know…" she started crying again, "every one I know is dead…I…I…"
"I will look after you." I have no idea why I said that, and the moment those words came out of my mouth I was very angry with myself.
"w-what?!" she opened her eyes so wide, and more tears came down her face.
"Come." I waved my hand at her.
My simple gesture set her running to my arms. I lifted her small body with the one hand that was free. Are you crazy? I asked myself. You know the answer, my self replied.
She snuggled on my chest, and her crying had worsened. I had no idea how to comfort her, so instead I resumed my journey that was interrupted. I gathered my coat and my weapons, and then I jumped back to the treetops. My other selfs, looked at the girl and eyed me with questing glares. "Don't you even start." I said angrily.
What can I do with her? Obviously, I was not going to bring her to Orochimaru, this was the worst thing I could do. Think, Pein, think. There must by a way out of this mass. How will I get rid of this child, who will take her? Life was so hard on everybody in this era, who will accepted one more mouth to feed? Only then, I remembered the nice elderly couple I once encountered on the borders of the Fire. The ran an inn, I once stayed in. The husband told me they have been praying to the gods to give them children, and the gods turned them down. A smile came to my face, well, this god will grant them their wish.
The little girl cried her self to sleep, which was a good thing, because now I hade some peace and quite, so I accelerated my speed to make up for the lost time.
It was well after midnight when I decided to make a stop and rest. The girl woke up, not knowing where she is, and she started wiggling in panic. "It is all right, Konan-chan, you're safe." I petted her blue hair.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"On our way, but now we will stop for the night."
She considered my words for a while. "I'm hungry," she said.
"Well, ok."
"Put me down."
"Yeah, right."
I lowered her to the ground, and started the regular routine of making a fire. She was watching me the whole time, while I was cooking our dinner. "There you go." I gave her a cup of my noodles and egg powder soup. She ate it up so fast and asked for more, so I gave her some of my share as well. One of my bodies will have to go to sleep hungry tonight. I will give her my bedroll as well, so one of my bodies will have to sleep on the ground tonight too.
She finished her dinner and began to stare at me again. "Will you rape me now?" she asked.
"What?!" I nearly choked on my food. Where did that question came from? Although a second later I remembered, she probably watched as her mother was raped. Poor child.
"Well, will you?"
"Don't worry, Konan-Chan, I will not rape you."
She was still not satisfied. "Why not?"
"Um… because I like boys better." I was not sure why I said it. I blushed horribly in the dark.
"Ok." she said and yawned quite loudly.
"Go to sleep, Konan-Chan."
And so, she crawled into the bedroll, and was asleep two seconds later. A crescent moon was peaking through the treetops, bats were flying around to catch their pray, owls and jackals howled in the dark. The wind breezed softly and I watched the girl as she slept, with a stupid smile creeping to my face.
.
A/N- same warning again- blood will be spilt in the next chapter too.
Oh… and if you are wondering about Itachi-Kun and Deidara-Chan, they still have some growing up to do. So please be patient, it should not take long.
