Chapter 14:

Aftermath

Jiraiya staggered into the room. Nagato was slung over his shoulder, severely weakened and out cold. Pinako, who had leapt up when Jiraiya burst into the room, gasped and rushed over to help support Nagato's weight. Together they carried him over to the sofa and laid him out. Pinako saw he was sweating, and she felt his forehead. He was having a high fever. She rushed to fill a small bucket with cold water, along with a couple of pieces of cloth. She soaked the cloth in the water and placed it on his forehead.

She looked to Jiraiya, who seemed worn out, but was unhurt. He had sank into a chair and closed his eyes. "Jiraiya Sensei, what happened to him?"

Without opening his eyes, Jiraiya explained the whole story as he had discovered. Nagato had been taken prisoner by Hanzo. Hanzo, upon seeing Yahiko's desperate reaction when he had threatened Nagato, had concluded that Nagato must be a very important official of the Akatsuki, and was therefore more useful alive than dead. Nagato was captured and kept in the dungeon. For one whole week, he was tortured for information. The Hidden Rain, who lacked the special abilities the Yamanaka clan of the Hidden Leaf Village possessed, who were able to dive into a captive's mind and extract information without torture, had resorted to their usual cruel, Draconian measures. He was beaten, malnourished, starved, dehydrated and not allowed proper sleep; he looked like he had lost a lot of weight. Pinako's face grew darker and darker as she heard more, and was so thankful Jiraiya had managed to recover him. She hated to think of what he must have gone through. She looked down at him and tenderly stroked his hair.

Jiraiya leaned forward. "It's important you realise that the torture may have more lasting effects than just the pain; psychological, of course. I have had the good fortune of never being captured and tortured, but I have met many who have… very rarely are they ever the same again. Nagato is going to need your support now more than ever." Pinako nodded determinedly. "Anything."

Satisfied, Jiraiya got up to leave. However, he paused at the door. He looked back at her, into her questioning eyes. "One more thing. Keep him away from Yahiko." And he swept out of the apartment.

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The Akatsuki was dead. Two weeks prior, the growing organisation showed great promise, amassing over thirty talented Shinobi. Many predicted they would be a great benefit, not just to Konoha but to the Ninja World in general. In only a few short moments, however, the entire force had been almost completely wiped out. Those who had been lucky enough to have been occupied with missions had survived. Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, Shikaku Nara, Hiashi Hyuuga, Shibi Aburame and Minato Namikaze attended the funeral. Each contemplated the fact that they had been saved by chance or luck or fate, and each were deeply grieved that they could not do more to protect their fallen comrades. Besides Nagato and Yahiko, they were all that remained.

Yahiko floated somewhere, in a land where time and space had no meaning. Around him were pictures, moving scenes, depicting the horrifying tragedy. Over and over he saw what happened, and felt as if he were near insanity. His nightmares were punctuated by the sound of a woman breathing, talking, crying. Sometimes, he could hear her singing, an ethereal sound filling his consciousness, engulfing him completely. This woman he could not see, but recognised very well. The woman never sounded cheerful, nevertheless, Yahiko clung to her voice like it was a rock in a strong river current, desperately holding on for fear of being swept away into his own madness. Other voices could be heard. A gentle, masculine voice. Another, stronger feminine voice. The voice of children as they whispered to him, sang lullabies to him. He felt them squeeze his hands, but he could not see them. They calmed him down, they kept him sane. And then, after how many days and nights he could not know, he awoke.

Konan lay beside him, asleep, with her head on his bed. He lay in what seemed to be a hospital bed. The moon and stars shone brightly outside. Thoughts swam around in his head, he could not make sense of them. Pippi and Tsuri, his twin daughters, lay asleep, curled up against each other on the chairs on the other side of his bed. Yahiko stared at their sleeping faces, their round faces and chubby sheeks, their blue hair that mirrored their mother's. Watching them gave him peace, gave him clarity. He sighed and smiled.

And then, like a powerful locomotive barrelling through a roadblock of cardboard boxes, it hit him. Everything that had transpired when he had last been awake. All the emotions, the horror, the blood.. It overwhelmed Yahiko. As a jounin, he had been taught that ninja must conceal and control their emotions. But he could not. He lifted his shaking hands, staring at the lines etched into them. The hands he barely recognised. He took a deep breath that caught in his throat, and looked up. Before him lay his own torn, bloodstained Akatsuki cloak, folded over the back of a chair. And he lost it.

Like a dam holding back too much water, the wall containing his emotions disintegrated. Tears fell from his face as he buried his face in his hands, giving great, loud, heaving sobs. He thrashed around, in anger, in frustration, in denial. He pounded the sides of his bed in terrible anguish, as Konan and his daughter were roused and tried to calm him. But he was inconsolable. Konan screamed for help.

Nurses and doctors came rushing in to try to hold him down. But he would not be contained. He gave a great howl, filled with so much pain and anguish that it trembled the hearts of these full-fledged ninja men and women, who had seen so much death and bloodshed. His eyes flew open, and there, once again, Konan saw the ripple patterns of the Rinnegan. She grabbed her daughters in her arms in an effort to protect them from their crazed father, who had thrown off his covers and jumped out of bed. The orderlies did everything in their power to restrain him, but he was too powerful; he overwhelmed them easily. Bodies flew around the room, toppling furniture and striking the walls. Konan spun through a number of hand signs, and a torrent of paper rose from seemingly nowehere, encasing Yahiko in a cocoon, leaving only his head protruding from the top. But he fought to free himself, bursting open this cocoon, charging toward what he saw as an attacker. He was delusional, Konan realised fearfully, as she once more attacked him with her paper. They wrapped around his legs and tied his arms. She drew in paper, forming a sharp spear. "I'm sorry, Yahiko." She whispered tearfully. "Shikigami Dance!"

And she pierced his stomach with her spear.

All at once, Yahiko began to stop fighting. Blood spurted from his wound. Konan had tried her best to avoid any vital organs, but the damage done was significant. However, Yahiko's wrath seemed to have been quelled. She ushered her frightened daughters out of the room to go get help. Then she rounded on her husband.

She gazed, speechless with horror, as he rose. He grasped the paper spear with both hands, and with a pained roar, pulled it out from his body. He stood, blood dripping from his side, and from the head of the spear. Konan backed up, pressed against the wall, eyes wide, still speechless. Yahiko raised the spear, its deadly, bloody tip pointed straight at her heart. He drew back his arm and flung it with all his might. She closed her eyes in the face of certain death.

BLAST! And she felt intense heat emanating from a point a few feet in front of her. She opened her eyes.

Lord Hokage strode into the room. He had burned the paper spear to a crisp with a fireball, and had not missed a step as he strode right up to Yahiko, raising his hand up, pointed straight like a dagger, which he plunged into Yahiko's open wound. He howled in pain and fell to his knees as The Third Hokage withdrew his hand, spun a number of seals and slammed his open palm onto Yahiko's head. A seal appeared there, the Rinnegan from his eyes disappeared, and he fell forward, unconscious. Konan slowly, gingerly walked up to him, and fell to her knees to check on him.

The Hokage stood grimfaced, as the orderlies warily entered the room once more. "Daddy!" cried Pippi, as the two little girls ran into the room to see their father unconscious in a pool of blood on the floor.

Lord Hiruzen faced Konan with an uncharacteristically serious face. "I'll be back for him once his wound has been looked after. He's going to be undergoing special training, to control his Rinnegan." He looked at the two little girls as they cried in fear, he knelt and ruffled their hair reassuringly. They looked at him, and he gave them a warm smile. Having at least managed to stop their tears, he straightened and left the room.

~Six days later~

Yahiko lay on his hospital bed. He gazed out of the window, at the grey skies threatening rain. He had no energy, no will to live any more. Trivial things like drinking or eating seemed meaningless, sitting up and getting out of bed was a chore. His only comfort and happiness was derived from seeing his wife and children. For this reason, he had forbidden them from visiting him. Everyday he thought about the pain that had occurred, that he had caused, the families he had torn apart, the wives he had widowed, the children he had orphaned. He did not deserve happiness. He did not deserve to be alive. His best friend, his little brother, had been brutally tortured and injured, his little sister had undergone so much heartache and worry. Yahiko had even attacked Konan. He despised himself.

Nagato was crippled, paralyzed from the waist down. Yahiko stared down at his own legs, fully functional and painless, and bitterly yearned to rip them off to give to Nagato. The crux of his torment came when Pinako and Nagato, in a wheelchair, had visited. After everything that he had put them through, after everything he had taken from them, they had visited him. And they smiled. They had actually tried to cheer him up. They didn't blame him.

He hated himself. He hated Minato for leaving them. He hated Nagato for not hating him. He could not bear to look at anyone.

The Hokage entered his room. Yahiko pointedly looked away from the old man. Calmly, Hirzuen Sarutobi stated. "Let's go."

Without a word, Yahiko got up from his bed. He did not bother going outside, he did not bother having himself discharged. He couldn't face the nurses and doctors who he had attacked. He simply jumped from the window. He did not protect himself in the two-story fall, allowing his legs to bear the full weight of his falling body, as they crumpled under him. He felt as they were about to break, and he relished the thought.

For two and a half months, he underwent strict and sever training under the Hokage's tutelage. Minato, Pinako and Konan would often watch the training sessions, in secret of course, as Yahiko still did not face them. They were appalled by Yahiko's complete disregard for the Hokage, his position and power, by the utter disrespect and indifference he showed the leader of his village. They were even more surprised with how calmly the Hokage accepted his treatment, how he casually brushed it off, how he would continue to work on Yahiko.

Yahiko did everything he could to piss off his teacher. He wanted to be a disappointment, a trainwreck of a student, he wanted to be beaten harshly for his rudeness. But the old man's calm, his composure, was overwhelming, at once driving Yahiko almost mad and spiking his respect for the Hokage.

Finally, he had deemed Yahikos control over the Rinnegan sufficient that he was not a danger to anyone, and he did not need further training. Konan was relieved by this news, as Yahiko, due the dawn till midnight training regime, had camped near the specified training field for the two months. She was glad he would finally be coming home. And he did.

But he was a completely different person. He was forever prowling the streets of the village, looking for any ninja who had been assigned missions, to take them on himself instead. He began to accept more and more dangerous missions. The squad members he was assigned with, including, at one time, Minato, complained of his reckless, impulsive behaviour. Instead of listening to them, he simply dropped out of any and all squads he was assigned to, and would undertake his missions alone. He was driving himself to self-destruction.

At home, Konan and her children would anxiously worry about him, and pray for his safety. Konan awoke, late one night, to find Tsuri wide awake, staring out of the window at the starlight horizon, holding a family picture in her hands.

Due to his reckless abandon and the fact that he just didn't give a damn about anything or anyone, Yahiko's missions had an incredibly high failure rate. When ninja around the village became less and less inclined to hand over their missions to him, he instead sought peaceful oblivion at the bottom of a bottle. He would sit in bars all night, drinking himself into a stupor. At nights, after tucking Tsuri and Pippi into bed, Konan and Minato, occasionally with Pinako or Jiraiya, would roam the streets of the village, to find Yahiko passed out in some alley, with a bottle of sake in his hands and a tortured expression on his face. Each night Yahiko would break Konan's heart, and each night Minato began to resent Yahiko a little more.

The breaking point came when Yahiko came knocking on Minato's door. He had found a mission, being hired by a shady man to carry out a very dangerous mission, of a very questionable variety. It was Kushina who had answered the door. She had completely lost all respect for the man she had once looked up to and aspired to be like, and now reviled him. His behaviour to her was absolutely atrocious, disrespecting her and throwing petty, snide insults until she had had enough, and had slapped him, as hard as she could. With her incredible strength, Yahiko had flown across the room, but he had emerged, laughing. He had begun to advance toward her threateningly, but she stood resolute and firm, eyes filled with anger. Minato had heard the whole thing.

Beside himself with fury and absolutely livid, Minato dragged Yahiko out onto the street, where he promptly began to beat the crap out of him, not holding anything back, beating him bloody and bruised until he collapsed onto the floor. Minato had contemptuously spun around and slammed the door. Yahiko lay on the floor, hurting all over, but absolutely exhilarated with the punishment. It was when he was considering going back the next night for more that he realised he had a problem. He dragged himself to shelter and mulled it over, accompanied ofcourse by a large bottle of sake, drinking till he threw up and passed out next to the dumpster behind the bar.

Yahiko gradually began to realise he was only hurting everyone around him more. His desire for punishment, his reckless charge toward getting himself hurt, or better, killed, would not only affect him but also the people he cared about. He came home one night to his young daughters rushing up to him at the door in tears, sobbing loudly. Konan had refused to come out of her room. The looks of love and hurt in his daughters' eyes, couple with the disdain shown to him by the woman who he considered his world, was too much for him bear, and broke his heart so badly that he knew it could never be repaired.

And it was through this journey of destruction and self-harm that he found himself on one knee on the roof of the Hokage Mansion. Lord Hiruzen gazed out over the village, saddened to hear his protégé's request, but inclined to accept it. Yahiko's voice was firm with conviction, however, tears streamed down his face. He apologised gruffly but sincerely for how he had acted toward Hiruzen, and was amazed when he brushed it off like it was nothing.

"You are sure about this this?" Hiruzen asked in his deep raspy voice, puffing on the pipe ever-present in his mouth.

"Absolutely."

"Very well then."

"One favour, please, Lord Hokage."

"Yes?"

"Please, take care of my family."

Lord Hokage bowed his head.

That night, Yahiko gathered all his things. He slipped on his sandals and left his house. He went around the village, saying his goodbyes to everyone who had ever helped him. He apologised to Minato and Kushina on his hands and knees. He said farewell to Tsunade, kissing little Sukina goodbye. He found Konan at the spot where he had proposed to her, where she had told him she was pregnant, where he would often come to relax and picnic with his family, where she would now come to cry and gather her peace while Yahiko was out on his binges.

"What is it?" she demanded curtly, refusing to turn around.

"Konan." He said solemnly. She could hear he was sober, and was surprised by his seriousness enough to turn. She saw him standing with a knapsack slung over his shoulder, fully dressed, wearing that Akatsuki cloak he now wore as a memento to all those whose lives had been lost. Her eyes widened. "Wha-"

And he kissed her, passionately, authoritatively, apologetically. He placed his forehead to hers. "I've put you and the girls through enough. I've put my friends through enough. There's nothing for me in this village anymore. Everybody hates me, for what I did that night, or for what I've done since. Everyone who was dumb enough to actually still like me, I've alienated with my own stupidity, my own selfish desires for redemption. So I'm leaving. I'll act as a spy now, and I will continue to protect the Hidden Leaf. No this isn't some dangerous mission-" he said as Konan opened her mouth angrily to speak "- this is it. What I expect would be my final goodbye to you." He pulled off his chain necklace, a final gift from his parents before they died, that Konan had seen him wear for as long as she could remember. "You keep that." He kissed her forehead. "And that. Keep them safe for me, because you know, I might not make it back." He smiled at her one final time, before he turned and disappeared, leaving her frozen and rooted to the spot. She had glimpsed the flash as he disappeared though. He had kept his marriage ring.

He kissed his daughters as they slept, not willing to wake them. Tsuri had woken, though, as she had once before, to see her father leaving. He had sensed her this time, though, and turned around to smile at her. It was her father's trademark warm smile, one she had not seen in a long time, and she sank back to sleep in happiness, unaware that it might be the last time she ever saw it again.

Yahiko had one final stop. He had burned his bridges with Pinako, as he had with so many people, but Nagato had remained adamant about their friendship. For everything Nagato had done for him, he felt he owed him something. So he found himself at their door.

He barged in without knocking, sweeping into the room, where the couple had been sitting on the sofa watching tv together. Pinako had jumped up in anger when she saw him. He activated his Rinnegan.

Using his Deva* Path, he flung her away, where she hit the wall and fell unconscious. Nagato gazed up at him in rage, but Yahiko didn't stop. He plunged his palm down, striking Nagato's stomach, driving the breath out of him. Nagato felt an intense heat, beginning from the where he was struck, covering his entire body, igniting his brain, before he finally sunk into unconsciousness. Yahiko left the two where they lay, closing the door behind him. And he walked out of the village.

The next morning, Pinako had awoken form her unconsciousness, to find her husband lying on the floor. She had rushed up to him and helped him up again, shouting and screaming angry curses at the demon in her life that was Yahiko. Nagato, too, had finally been fed up with him. He drew the line at attacking his wife in their own home. However, when news eventually reached them of Yahiko's departure, they had completely altered their feeling for him, and were deeply saddened. Yahiko had not attacked them.

Nagato could walk again.

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*Deva Path: The ability to use powers of magnetism (push/pull) exhibited by the main Path of Pain, made from Yahiko's corpse in the manga/anime.

So I have another chapter out. I'm going to try to release a new chapter every 4-7 days, so please check back then if you're interested in reading more. I hope this chapter wasn't too bad, I hope I captured everyone's emotions enough to paint a vivid picture of the people. I had originally envisioned this scene differently, with a lot less assholery, but ultimately it wen this way. Anyway, as always, I look forward to hearing reviews. Please, look forward to the next chapter!