Disclaimer: I own nothing about this story but the plot and Seyeon
Seyeon stopped in midstride, her head turned to ward the direction of Pain's voice, a confused frown decorating her face.
"Someone to see me? But… who is it?"
Pain shifted his weight slightly from one foot to the other. "A young woman came to the tower, and asked to be admitted to see you" the self-proclaimed god hesitated for a split second. "She claims to be your sister"
Kisame felt his jaw drop; however, Seyeon seemed unmoved. "That's impossible" she said flatly. "My sister is dead"
Pain's eyebrow rose fractionally (given that he had not heard Seyeon's life story), but he continued. "She seemed very insistent about it"
Kisame looked at Seyeon, and the expression on her face made him feel rather unsettled; her eyeless sockets had narrowed, which made for an even more ominous effect on her that it normally did on a person who possessed eyes.
"Alright… take me to her" Normally, Pain would have disemboweled someone who spoke to him like that, but Seyeon was a member of his organization and (more importantly) he wanted to see how this played out. He wasn't curious, of course- he was above such things.
Pain slowly levered open the door to one of the chambers on the ground floor of the tower and stepped through, followed by Kisame, then Seyeon.
Seated on a hard, straight-backed chair in the middle of the room was a young woman with jet-black hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail. Kisame raised his eyebrows as he looked at her- the girl had human coloured skin, which made him doubt that she was really Seyeon's sister. However, her face shape and body were similar to Seyeon's.
Then she looked up at Kisame, and he blinked in surprise. The girl seated before him had the most unusual eyes he had ever seen (with the exception of the Sharingan and Rinnegan); they bore a striking resemblance to exotic marbles, with the top half, a piercing blue colour, melting slowly into a pale gold at the bottom.
The girl turned to look at Seyeon, and her frightened expression transformed into one of relief. Standing up, she took a half-step toward the blind girl, and as she smiled, Kisame saw that her teeth were small and pointy, just like Seyeon's.
Seyeon, her face cold an impassive, folded her arms. "And who, may I ask, are you?"
The girl stopped dead, a slight frown creeping over her face. "Sis… it's me. Valhalla"
Seyeon pursed her lips. "I doubt you'll be able to prove that"
Without a word, the young woman stepped forward, gently took Seyeon's hands in her own, and placed them on her face. Equally silently, Seyeon began running her hands over the girl's face, frowning in concentration. After a few minutes, she removed her hands and stepped back.
"Interesting" she said in a flat voice. Kisame glanced warily at her as she continued. "You look almost exactly like my sister, give or take a few features to account for two years of aging. However," her voice began to rise, "You are not my sister. I saw my sister die in front of me, along with my parents"
The girl's relief had clearly been replaced by fear again, and her the lack of composure in her voice made it obvious. "But… no, it's me! They didn't-"
"I don't know who you are or why you're pretending to be my sister, but I do know one thing- you will pay for mocking their sacrifice!" Seyeon's voice continued to rise until it became a scream, and she launched herself forward, her hands finding a hold around her throat.
The girl had no time to scream before Seyeon was upon her, and by then, the pressure on her airway rendered her unable to make any sound above incoherent wheezing. However, as Seyeon slammed her against the wall and prepared to watch her life ebb away, she felt herself caught in an invisible grip. Before she could register what was happening, Pain had pulled her off of the girl and Kisame had placed a restraining hand on her shoulder.
"Hey! What-" Seyeon cried, but Kisame cut her off. "We can't have you under too much stress- let Leader-sama handle this"
Pain had stepped forward, a long, crooked black pole that ended in a deadly point emerging from his sleeve. Raising his hand over the girl, who was now crouched on the ground, clutching her bruised throat, he spoke, his voice as calm and collected as if he were discussing the weather.
"For what it's worth, I'm rather sorry it had to end like this. However, this young lady is a member of my organization, and her desires are mine"
The girl looked up at the spike, tears rolling down her face. Then she turned to Seyeon, only to see that she had turned and was beginning to depart.
"Marisha… please…"
Seyeon stopped dead, then slowly turned around. "What did you just call me?"
The girl gulped. "I called you Marisha- the name our mother gave you. You've obviously forgotten that by now"
Seyeon's eye sockets widened, and she sank to her knees. "Seyeon! What's wrong?" Kisame shouted. Pain, on the other hand, simply stood where he was, then withdrew his spear.
Seyeon began to shake as wave after wave of repressed memories flooded over her. She remembered her mother calling her into their house when she was a small child, her father saying how proud of her he was as she proudly showed him her newest drawing, both of them smiling over her as she drifted off to sleep. She remembered everything.
And there, in the center of it all, was her older sister.
Seyeon slowly turned to the girl, huddled against the wall, and walked over to her. She shrank away, but Seyeon knelt down on the ground and pulled her into a hug.
"Val" she whispered. "I'm so sorry"
Valhalla burst into tears, and if Seyeon had eyes, she would have too. The two of them sat on the floor, gripping each other as if the other might drift away at any second. Kisame just stood behind Seyeon, feeling very out of place, and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Pain, ever the cool pillar of reason, didn't even blink.
Finally, the two girls managed to compose themselves, and they stood up. "So… will you come with me? We can get a house, we can start over…" Valhalla said, her voice trailing off.
Seyeon turned toward Kisame, then Pain, then looked back at her sister. "Val… I'm sorry, but I'm staying here. These people are my family now, and I can't leave them, any more easily than I could have left mom or dad"
Valhalla sighed and nodded. "I had a feeling you would say that. Well, alright then… I'll be on my way" With that she turned and made to walk out the door.
Seyeon grabbed her arm. "Wait- can't you stay here?" Valhalla's eyes lit up; however, Pain chose that moment to reenter the conversation.
"I'm afraid… it's not that simple" the sisters turned to look at him, identical frowns of confusion adorning their faces. "We are the Akatsuki- the most feared terrorist organization in the ninja world. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of hangers-on attaching themselves to our organization"
Seyeon's mouth dropped open. "You… how dare you! This 'hanger-on' you're referring to is my sister!"
Pain's eyes darkened dangerously, and Kisame instinctively stepped between him and the two girls. "Firstly: never speak to me like that. Ever. And secondly, while I appreciate your feelings, she presents no use to use. Therefore, she has no place here. I'm sorry"
As Seyeon glared at the pierced Ame leader, a funny smell began drifting through the room. Sniffing the air, Kisame asked "Des anyone else smell that?"
Pain looked at him, then toward the door, his eyes widening. "Not again…" Then, in a swish of his cloud-patterned cloak, he had run out of the room and up the stairs. Kisame followed, and after sharing a quick glance, Seyeon and Valhalla did the same.
Finally, Pain stopped outside a door a few floors up from the room they had previously been occupying. It was the same as all of the other doors in the tower, plain brown wood with an ornately carved handle; however, this one did have something remarkable about it- there was thick, black smoke curling out from under the door.
Pain threw the door open and strode inside. "Konan, when are you finally going to give this up?"
Kisame blinked in surprise. They were standing in one of the tower's many kitchens, and standing before them was Konan. She was wearing the blue pants and top that she seemed fond of wearing while uncloaked, with a black apron thrown haphazardly over it. The oven that she was standing in front of was currently spewing smoke, and whatever was inside is was clearly not fit to be eaten.
Konan sighed and tucked a stray wisp of hair behind her ear- she had apparently decided to forgo her usual paper-flower hair ornament, which Kisame thought was a prudent decision, given that if she hadn't, it would most likely be on fire right now.
"I know Nagato, but I'm so sick of having to eat whatever food Deidara and Tobi manage to either buy or steal in the city! All I wanted was to just have one single meal that wasn't either bought from a takeout stand or swiped out of someone's groceries"
Pain sighed. "I know it's rough, but we've traveled this road time and time again- you can't cook. None of us can. So, we'll just have to-"
"Uh… excuse me" Valhalla spoke up, raising her hand to get the attention of the room. "I can cook"
Pain turned to look at her, an expression of surprise crossing his face. "You can cook?"
Valhalla nodded. "Cook, clean… anything that needs to be done around a house, really. I was always indoors helping my mother as a kid"
Pain nodded, then stared at nothing in particular as if the refrigerator in the corner of the room had something fascinating written on it. Then he seemed to remember that there were other people present in the room with him, and he shook himself.
"Very well then, Miss…"
"Mizukadu"
"Miss Mizukadu, would you be interested in staying her in Ame as the caretaker of our headquarters?"
Valhalla smiled and turned to look at her sister, then shifted her vision back to Pain. "I would be delighted"
Pain nodded again. "Well then, would you be comfortable with starting your duties now?" he gestured toward the (still slightly smoking) stove.
Valhalla nodded. "I'll get right on it, Leader-sama" stepping forward, she took the apron that Konan was holding out to her and put it on, then began pulling pots and pans out of one of the slightly singed cupboards hanging on the kitchen walls.
"Well, my dear, does that fulfill you desires?" Pain asked Seyeon, slightly raising one eyebrow.
Seyeon smiled back at him. "That suits me perfectly, Leader-sama"
That night, when Valhalla's duties were done for the day, she and Seyeon changed into their pajamas and sat down together in the room they now shared.
"So… Val… how did you survive? I saw you run into the house, and then it…" Seyeon swallowed, unable to continue.
Valhalla sighed. "When I saw those kunai flying at me, a recognized the tags attached to them from sketches I had seen in Father's workshop; so, when I ran inside, I threw myself down the staircase into the basement and braced myself.
"I heard a massive blast, and a shower of flaming wood burst through the doorway and nearly landed on me. At that point, I doused myself with a bucket of water I found in the basement and ran back up the stairs, dodging flaming boards and falling chunks of masonry.
"When I got outside, I was just in time to see those men lift you up and take you away. I cried when I saw it, I'm not going to lie. You were the only family I had left now, and that was why I realized that I couldn't let anything happen to you; I had to be you big sister more than ever now.
"So I followed the men. They obviously thought they were home free, so they just casually made their way back to Kirigakure, then entered a large, nondescript building- you know, one of those big warehouse-type places no one really pays attention to. At this point, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to get in, so I decided it was time to play dirty.
Seyeon looked quizzically at her. She sighed. "You remember that boyfriend I had a few years ago who wound up being a total conman?"
Valhalla winced as her sister's mouth dropped open. "You didn't"
"Yeah, I went to him. I asked him if there was any way he could get me into that building, and keep me there. He said he could, but his fees for that kind of thing were way too far out of my price range.
"I went back to the burned-out shell of our house and found out that the bastards had taken our parents bodies somewhere, but I knew I couldn't dwell on that. I salvaged all I could of my life's savings from my room, then spent two months working at any job I could find to replace the money that I'd lost.
"Finally, I went back to him and paid for him to insert me. I didn't want to- those whole two months, I felt sick about how I was dealing with this guy again. But, I just had to remember that I was doing it for you. That was what kept me going.
"You know what happened, though, after I had finally paid him? He looked me straight in the eye and said 'I hope you get your sister back'
"I hugged him. I hugged him, and I didn't let go for a good few minutes. I really needed someone to hug right there. I realized that he wasn't a complete scumbag; he still had a heart buried under that cheating exterior.
"Then, I was in. And I was alone.
"For a year and a half I planned, I plotted, and I waited for an opportunity to set you free. But nothing different ever happened; every day the routine was perfect, impenetrable, and I had no hope of breaking you out.
"By the time two years had passed, I was hoping for a miracle. And apparently, you're something of a miracle worker. One day, just as I was walking my rounds, I was attacked by someone who dropped down from the ceiling on top of me- and when I woke up, they clearly weren't interested in what I had to say"
Seyeon, who had been frowning up until this point, gave her a puzzled look. Suddenly, it hit her, and she gasped and covered her mouth.
Downstairs, Pain beckoned to Kisame, who stood up from his arm wrestling match with Kakuzu.
Thank god he thought. One arm is nowhere near enough for that torture.
"What is it, Leader-sama?"
Seyeon stared (figuratively) at Valhalla, her face a mask of shock.
"It was you. You were the one who I attacked, and stole their uniform, and tied up and left in my cell… oh my god!"
Seyeon threw herself onto the floor, her head in her hands. And for the second time that day, if she could cry, she would have.
"Val… I'm so sorry… what have I done?"
Her sister stepped off of her bed and sat down beside her, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.
"No, it's alright- come on, Mari- it's okay! I was only stuck for about ten minutes; after that, another guard found me and let me loose. By that time, you were already long gone, and the project director was not happy"
Seyeon sniffed. "So… what happened then?"
"Well, without you, the project couldn't go on, so all of the guards were let go, me included"
Seyeon frowned despite herself. "Just like that?"
"The project heads knew that without you there, they would just be paying a thousand guards to guard an empty building. So, after I left, I prayed to Kami that you had made it out safely. I've spent the last week traveling, trying to find any clue or sign of you. Finally, I read a news article that said a man had been attacked by a "wild girl", who had blue skin and no eyes, in between Kirigakure and Amegakure. In a village near there, I was told at a hospital that a similar-looking girl broke out of the hospital after being visited two Akatsuki members. So, I put two and two together and came up with this"
Seyeon was silent for a moment as she let the new information wash over her. Finally, she struggled to make herself speak.
"Val… I'm so sorry…"
"Mar- or Seyeon, is it? - I'm the one who shouldbe sorry. My job as your older sister is to protect you, and I failed. I've been failing at my job for the past two years"
Seyeon looked at her sister, then smiled. "Well… here's where you can start making up for it"
Valhalla breathed a huge sigh of relief, then helped Seyeon into her bed. "Hey… I'll make you your favourite for breakfast tomorrow"
Seyeon grinned. "You always know how to cheer me up"
Valhalla laughed, and the two girls settled down into their beds.
"Goodnight Val"
"Goodnight, Seyeon"
Oh. My. GOD.
It has been WAAAAAY too long since I last updated my stories. I am so sorry- I'll start again immediately. In fact, this was just what I needed to get the creative juices flowing again.
Please review