A/N: In this chapter, a character named Hachirou is mentioned. Hachirou is someone I came up with solely for the reason of being one of Kakuzu's former partners. Also, I suppose this chapter would be rated with the nonexistent K++ because Zetsu's white-side used a rather crude euphemism...

Quite surprisingly, Pein made sure he wasn't with Konan when she gave birth. Instead, he had made sure that Madara was the one who had to deal with the abuse. At the last minute, the Uchiha had been declared Konan's midwife... or something.

Well, Pein wasn't actually sure what he had deemed Madara (midwife? midhusband?), but the Uchiha was in complete charge of assisting Konan through the pregnancy. At least, with the labor part of the pregnancy. By this time, only two people had discovered Konan's secret and brought it to Pein's attention. That had been Zetsu and Orochimaru. (Itachi hadn't gotten a direct answer from Konan, and you bet that he wasn't going to pry any further.)

Actually, Pein was quite surprised that Sasori or Kakuzu hadn't figured it out yet. And if they had, they hadn't given any hint that they had. But then again, they weren't very talkative... at all. Pein wasn't very surprised that Hachirou hadn't figured it out, though. Hachirou was a complete dunderhead. Why he was even in the Akatsuki was beyond Pein. (When all else fails, blame Madara, right?)

That aside, Pein had answered Orochimaru and Zetsu's suspicions with a simple, "Yes, you are correct... Is there anything else you want to notify my of?" And that's when the questions began to flow. Zetsu's white-side sure could talk. He asked questions about every little thing. He even asked questions about things Pein definitely did not want to talk about. ("Well, you certainly didn't waste any time with getting Konan in bed, did you, Leader?")

Orochimaru was a bit more tight-lipped with his questions. He asked Pein questions using the expressions he wore, and there was a limit to face-reading. In result, Orochimaru didn't seem to have too many questions to ask.