I guess i've been gone for SUCH a long time! My apologies everyone! I just got very busy and lost encouragement to continue the story. I kept getting reviews, favorites and follows, and since it's summer, I decideded to please that are still waiting fr the new chapter. I apologize if it's sloppily written towards the end. I tried to continue from where I ended and didn't really feel it. But eventually I did. Thank you waiting and I apologize for the wait.

Disclaimer: Naruto DOES NOT belong to me.

Chapter 14

Pain couldn't count the amount of time he's been in his office doing absolutely nothing but worrying about his lover, Konan.

Things were terribly confusing. He just sat there with his head on the desks, eyes roaming around the room. He was worried about Konan to the greatest extent, it was killing him. He kept thinking about the tears that flowed down Konan's face earlier. He's never seen her like that. Ever. It scared him. No matter what he does, he couldn't seem to make things better. He always attempted to stand up for Konan but it was like she didn't want him to. It's like she doesn't want him help. It's not like she didn't want to, most of the time it's because he failed to do so. Even if Konan tells him not to do anything, he always tried to do it. He always tries to make things better, to try to be there but things always end up worse. Konan always ended up being angry at him. Things always ended up being quarreled about. They always end up separating each other. Pain didn't like that. He didn't like it at all.

Pain slowly lifted his head off of his desk and looked around the room. He realized that the papers he shoved off his desk were still scattered all over the ground. He didn't feel like picking them up. His depressed state weakened him. Pain continued to look around and noticed a picture of him and Konan. They were both smiling. He remember when they took it. They were so happy that day. They were enjoying each other's company with smiles on their faces. It was like the world couldn't get in their way. Where has the happiness gone?

Pain laid his head back down on his desk in frustrated. He let out a grunt as he pounded his fist repeatedly against his desk. What was going on?

His thoughts and actions were disrupted by a knock on the door. Pain slowly raised his head up and tried to straighten himself up. He failed at doing so as he placed his elbows on his desk and leaned his head against his hands.

"Come in," Pain miserably commanded.

Tobi slowly walked in. Once Tobi walked in, Pain felt a wave of annoyance fill him.

"What do you want?"

Tobi pouted, "I just came to check on leader-sama! You've been so sad lately!"

"It's nothing."

Tobi raised his voice, "Why are you lying, Leader-sama! It's something!"

Pain rubbed his temples, a headache began to form, "Tobi, go do something."

"I am doing something!"

"Go do something other than bothering me."

Tobi crossed his arms playfully, "Gosh Senpai, why are you being so mean?"

Pain wanted Tobi to leave him alone so badly. He's already had a bad day so far. He was stressed and just wanted some alone time. He wanted to sulk and be depressed alone. He didn't need, let alone want, someone to bother him at the moment. Pain just sat there and tried to block out Tobi's presence. He looked back at the picture of him and Konan he was staring at earlier. He began to get lost in the picture until Tobi decided to hamper his thoughts.

"Ooooh! Senpai! Is it Konan?!"

Pain's heart ached at the mention of Konan. He remained silent while putting his head on the desk. He honestly didn't want to talk about it, especially with Tobi.

"Senpai? Senpai! Leader-Sama! Senpai? Senpai! SENP-"

"What?!" Pain lifted his head a little. His headache was getting worse.

"Are you sad because of Konan?"

"Mmm, don't worry about it."

"Did you guys get in an argument again?"

Pain was puzzled. What did Tobi mean by again? Did they argue that much? Pain lifted his head higher and made eye contact with Tobi.

"What do you mean by 'again'?"

"You guys argue a lot, Senpai."

"No we don't..."

"Yes you do, Senpai. Yes you do."

Pain put his head back down in defeat. It was true. They did argue a lot and that's the only reason why Pain has been more stressed than usual. On the bright side, they always made up. Like now. They weren't mad at each other at the moment. The only reason why Pain was feeling like this was because he experienced Konan in a depressed state. He experienced her getting hurt mentally. He experienced the fact that Konan doesn't want him to do things to make things better. Or, is she stopping him from making things worse? Pain had no idea, he was just confused at the moment. Confused to the point he couldn't concentrate. He felt so much hate right now. So much hate towards Hidan.

"Oh! Senpai! Speaking of Konan. She seems sad also. She hasn't come out of her room and I saw Hidan head towards her room."

Pain began to tense. Hidan head towards her room? Pain began to tighten his fist. He didn't like the sound of that. He felt himself grow even more worried. He didn't want to feel like this.

"Tobi. Leave."

"B-b-b-but, whyyy?"

"Because I said so."

"Mmm, Senpai! How much work have you even done?"

"Don't worry about it," Pain realized he didn't do any work at all. His files and documents were still scattered all over the floor. He never found the strength to pick them up. He wonders if he will ever even find the strength to pick them up.

"..."

"Leav-"

A deep voice cut Pain off. The deep voice was coming from Tobi.

"Tell me to leave again, I'll leave you into despair. Don't let that girl get in the way with our true goal. If you don't step up and get things done then..."

The last words Tobi said made Pain's heart stop.

"I'll kill her."

Pain kept his head down, silence filling the air. Pain couldn't find anything to say. The fear of the death of Konan lingered in his mind. Pain could feel Tobi's eye gazing at him; staring at him as if he was expecting Pain to do something. Pain did absolutely nothing. He hated Tobi. He hated that man. He didn't want to be in the same room with him anymore. Pain wanted to be somewhere else. The terrifying words from Tobi still lingered in the air. The faint echoes surrounded Pain. It felt like someone stabbed him in the chest and drained away every last droplet of blood Pain had in his body. He felt paralyzed. Defenseless.

Pain slowly got up and started walking out of the door. Tobi was blocking the door way so he couldn't walk out.

"You're in my way."

Tobi took two steps to the side, letting Pain through. Pain walked through the door and down the hallway. He caught the words that Tobi said from a distance as he began to tense.

"My bad, Senpai."

Pain wanted to desperately punch the wall but he kept his anger in and started heading towards his room. He just wanted to take a nap. A nap that would strip away all of the stress that was present. At first, Pain feared that Konan would be sadder than she was before he left, but he decided not to worry much about it.

As Pain walked, he heard someone coming from the opposite end of the hallway. He was hoping that it wasn't anyone who would bother him. Pain just wanted to head straight to his room without any distractions. Sadly, the figure got closer and he noticed locks of silver hair. He could see blazing purple eyes glowing from a distance.

Hidan.

The one person he wanted to avoid the most. Pain knew Hidan noticed him also. He noticed Hidan was just staring straight forward, avoiding eye contact. Pain noticed that Hidan was happier than usual. He could feel it in his aura from a distance. This bothered him. Pain looked straight forward also, wishing they would pass each other and he wouldn't see Hidan anymore.

The atmosphere began to tense as Hidan and Pain drew closer. There was nothing but footsteps sounding in the hallway. The distance between them shortened as they continued their regular pace.

When they finally passed by each other, it was like it occurred in slow motion. Things were dramatic as the atmosphere thickened. They both kept a straight face as they walked past each other, feeling the wind from one another. The tension reached its climax as it slowly faded as they grew farther apart by their continued walking. Pain shifted his eye sight to the side, catching a glimpse at Hidan. He was still walking and didn't turn back to look at him. Pain finally looked back ahead of himself, coming closer to his bedroom door.

When Pain got to the door he could feel Konan's presence at the other side of the bedroom door. He wasn't sure if the girl was still sad, or whether she had gotten over it. He hesitated to open the door but then realized that he actually wanted to see his lover. He wanted to make sure she was alright. He wanted to clarify.

Once Pain finally opened the door, he was surprised when he heard Konan's cheerful humming. He opened the door wider and stepped in, noticing Konan's changed aura. When he left, she was depressed and upset. Now that he's back, Konan seemed uplifted. He wondered why this was so. He looked at Konan as she combed her purple strands in front of the mirror

Konan noticed Pain standing there and she quickly turned around to face him.

"Oh, Nagato! When did you get here?"

"I... I just arrived actually. You seem rather happy. Are you alright?"

Konan smiled, a twinkle displayed in her eyes.

"Of course! Everything's just fine."

Pain walked towards Konan, "Now that you're fine, forget about Hidan. He's nothing but a fool."

"What do you mean?"

Pain was confused as to why Konan asked. Wasn't the reason why Konan was sad in the first place? Wasn't Hidan the reason why Pain was having stress attacks throughout the day?

"What do you mean what do I mean?"

Konan giggled, "Nagato things are just fine. Hidan came and apologized. Everything's okay now."

Pain was appalled by this fact. So Hidan simply came to his room and convinced Konan to forgive him? That's utter nonsense! Pain could feel his headache slowly returning. He just didn't understand Konan's ignorance at the moment. He decided to try and clarify things in case he heard wrong.

"Konan, so you mean to tell me, Hidan walked into this room and made you forgive him?"

"It's not like he MADE me forgive him, he apologized. It was sweet."

"Sweet? It was sweet?" Pain grasped Konan's shoulders.

"Konan, that man made you run into this room not too long ago and made you cry a damn river and you're telling me that he's sweet?"

Konan annoyingly brushed Pain's hands off her shoulders, "I didn't say HE was sweet. I said what he did was sweet."

"Regardless," Pain brought his right hand to his head and rubbed it. His headache was getting worse.

Konan noticed this gesture and gave Pain a sorry look, "You should probably sleep that off, Nagato."

Konan brought her hand to Pain's forehead to make sure he wasn't generating any kind of fever. Pain slowly took Konan's hand off his head and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Konan asked, becoming worried about Pain's state. Konan placed her hand back on Pain's forehead but he refused to allow Konan to do this action.

"Nagato, I'm trying to check if you have a fev-"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Konan tried to bring her hand back up, but once again, Pain hindered her.

"Yes. I'm sure, Konan."

Konan felt discomfort, "Are you okay?"

"Are YOU okay?"

"What do you mean 'Am I okay?' I don't like this attitude you're giving me."

Pain steadily began to pace back and forwards in front of Konan, "Konan, you, you were hurt and that had me worried sick! Then I come back and you're happy and everything is alright."

Konan grew confused, "Don't you want me to be happy?"

Pain stuttered, "No, I, that's not what I meant. It's just that, you were so quick to forgive Hidan.. why?!"

"If you're going to keep asking that question then I'm done here, Nagato," Konan said with an eye roll. Her patience ran out and she turned around and finished combing her hair. She placed her paper flower clip into her hair and headed towards her closet and grabbed her Akatsuki robe.

Pain mumbled under his breath, "I know you wouldn't forgive me that quick."

Konan heard Pain's words with her sharp hearing and turned around, "Excuse me?"

"I said, I know you wouldn't forgive me that quick," Pain raised his voice at Konan.

Konan quickly paced towards Pain and looked up to him with an angry expression in her face, "how would you know, Nagato? Now you're over here making all these false accusations!"

Pain stepped closer to Konan, building up tension between them.

"They're not 'false accusations,' they're the truth! Lately you've been hanging around Hidan a lot lately. Smiling, laughing, and I bet you would even forget about me. You're always with him and now you'd forgive him after a terrible thing he did!"

"What are you trying to say, Nagato? Wasn't it you who told me we had to tolerate our members?" Konan used her index finger to gently stab Pain's chest after each syllable, "Wasn't it YOU who said that?"

Pain slapped Konan's hand away from him, "Don't touch me, Konan. Go touch Hidan. I'm sure you do anyway!"

Konan waved her hands in the air, "Now you're accusing me of cheating?!"

"Well, are you?"

"Cheating? Cheating?! Really, Nagato? CHEATING?"

"That's what I said, " Pain leaned in, "Cheat-ing."

Konan instantly couldn't take it and violently pushed Pain out of the way and headed towards the door.

Pain turned around towards Konan's direction, "Where are you going?"

"Away with you out of my sight," Konan slammed the door shut and left.

Pain's frustrations tripled as he yelled in agitation and stormed out of the room. The door knob created a hole in the wall due to the impact but Pain didn't care. He walked in a fast walking pace and shoved anything that was in his way, aside. He didn't know where he was going, considering the fact that him and Konan shared rooms. All he wanted to do now was to sleep things off, but he didn't want to be in a room where Konan once stood. He heading towards the back spare room and noticed Tobi walking towards him, but Pain was certain that he didn't want to deal with him.

The place was silent, and the only thing that made noise were Pain's stomps. He realized Tobi wasn't going to say anything, but he did notice that Tobi has the audacity to step into Pain's way. Without a second thought, Pain shoved Tobi out of the way, but felt his arm being grasped and twisted.

"Ahh!" Pain screamed in pain and was grabbed by the collar by Tobi. In response, Pain revealed no pain and grabbed Tobi's collar as well.

"Listen Tobi. I'm not in the mood, now let me go."

Tobi's spoke with a deep voice, "Certaintly, I'm not in the mood also, but I didn't appreciate the impolite shove. I don't think you realize that I am more powerful than you are and can kill you anytime I want."

Pain's grasp on Tobi's colalr tightened, "You think you're the most powerful guy in this world but I guarantee you that I can kick your ass any day. That day could be now if you don't let me the fuck go."

Tobi's eyes softened and he began to laugh as he let Pain go, "So naive."

Pain ignored Tobi's words and reached the room. He slammed the door behind him and stripped off his robe, shirt, and pants. He took off his headband and threw it aside. All he was wearing was a fishnet shirt and boxers as he climbed into the bed and covered himself with the covers.

Pain laid there and went through his thoughts. He was immensely angry but he found it hard to point out a specific reason. He suddenly stopped caring and focused on going to sleep.

Within a couple of seconds, Pains eyes grew heavy and he drifted off into a silent and peaceful sleep where he was separated from reality.