Pain was not very pleased with the idea of keeping the child around. Sasuke was a liability, a factor that did not belong in his plans.
Uchiha Sasuke was impulsive and only driven by his desire for revenge. He did not respect anyone he saw as weaker than him.
If he were left to do as he wanted, he would undoubtedly cause trouble for them all.
The Akatsuki leader grabbed the child and took it to the guestroom. It was one of the two rooms he had secretly sealed to prevent Zetsu from entering without using the door. He did not want him to sneak around in his personal space, and he was sure Natsumi appreciated the additional privacy, too.
Not that she knew about it.
Pain dropped the boy on the floor and closed the door behind them.
Sasuke shifted. He would regain consciousness very soon.
Seeing the boy's eyes starting to open, Pain stepped forward, trapping the child between the wall and his looming form.
Pain could see the confusion in the dark orbs before the child's gaze suddenly settled on him and clouded with anger.
"Who the hell are you? And where am I?"
A dark shadow passed over Pain's face. He did not like the disrespectful attitude. His eyes flashed and Sasuke groaned as an invisible force pressed him harshly against the wooden floor and rendered him completely immobile.
"You will remain courteous," Pain admonished him, dispassionately watching the child's futile attempts to fight off his power.
Sasuke glared at him. "Why the hell should I?!"
The pressure intensified.
"Because I have no qualms about keeping you like this until you behave like a civilized person."
Sasuke snarled and trashed helplessly against his invisible bonds.
Pain suppressed his urge to sigh. It would be a long night.
In the end, it took two hours for Sasuke to tire himself out.
Pain lowered the book he had picked up about an hour and a half ago. He rose from his bed and walked towards the boy.
Sasuke was silent and only blinked tiredly at the man's approach. Pain could clearly see the frustrated helplessness in the exhausted black eyes.
"Have you calmed down?" he inquired mildly, "Are you willing to listen now?"
Sasuke remained silent.
Pain took it as his cue to continue. "There is much you need to know, child. Prepare yourself. You will not like it."
Pain closed the door behind him and sighed.
"How did he take it?" a soft voice inquired from the other side of the hallway.
Pain turned towards Natsumi, absently noting the tray in her hands. "Badly. He threw such a tantrum that I was forced to restrain him. Twice."
Natsumi grimaced. "I hope he will calm down soon."
"As do I," Pain agreed. "For his own sake. My patience only extends so far."
The young woman nodded. "Fair enough. What should we do about Zetsu, though? I managed to distract him by asking after his plants, but eventually he will find out about Sasuke."
"They will not be left alone together," Pain answered immediately.
"That means Sasuke will need to sleep with one of us," Natsumi mused. "I could put a futon on my bedroom floor…"
"No," Pain interrupted her immediately. There was no way he was letting that boy close to her. "He shall stay with me. This way I can keep an eye on him and make sure he does not do anything stupid."
Natsumi nodded. "Okay. Oh, by the way. I brought something to eat." She handed him the tray. "Pizza and juice. Don't worry, I heated it up. I know you don't like it cold."
"Thank you," Pain answered and received it gratefully. "I shall return to my room. I suggest you get a few hours of sleep, too. You look tired."
"Good idea," Natsumi yawned. "But do you want me to bring up the laptop first? You could get him started on the episodes."
"That would be helpful."
"Good," Natsumi replied, smiling tiredly. "I'll put it in front of your door, together with a pair of headphones. You remember how to use it, right?"
"I will manage."
"Excellent. Good night, Jimmu."
"Pleasant dreams, Natsumi."
Sasuke stared grumpily at the plate the dangerous man had just handed him. "What is this?"
"Pizza," his captor replied curtly, "Now be silent and eat."
Sasuke eyed the food warily and gingerly bit into it.
It tasted good.
He quickly finished his plate and was almost disappointed when he had eaten the last piece.
"So… I am really supposed to believe that we are in an alternate reality and that there is a TV show about our life?"
"Oh?" his captor asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Are you finally ready to talk to me?"
Sasuke glared at him. "Well, there's hardly anyone else I can talk to."
"True," the man agreed easily. "And it shall remain this way until you can convince me that you are not going to do anything...foolish."
"I don't do foolish things!" Sasuke snarled. He was not Naruto!
"No, of course not," his captor replied. He sounded patronizing. "Planning to chase after S-rank missing-nin when you just left the academy is not foolish at all. You are not even half the shinobi your brother is."
How dare he! Sasuke threw the plate down and lunged at him.
He found himself looking up at the ceiling before he even realized what had happened.
"And you have just proven my point," the man commented calmly. He had not moved at all.
Sasuke opened his mouth to give a heated reply, but he was stopped by a soft rustling sound coming from the door.
His captor smiled slightly and walked towards the door, returning shortly with a strange object in his hands. "Perhaps this will convince you."
The next morning dawned way too early. Natsumi grumbled in displeasure and reluctantly forced herself to stand up.
Jimmu was already in the kitchen when she had finally managed to get herself presentable enough thirty minutes later.
"Good morning," he greeted cordially and placed a mug of freshly brewed coffee in front of her.
"Good morning," she answered automatically and greedily took the cup. "Thank you. You are my hero."
Jimmu threw her a vaguely amused look and sipped on his own cup.
They spent a few moments in comfortable silence.
"Any progress with Sasuke?" she asked finally. She could already guess the answer, because Jimmu did not look too pleased.
Her non-cat sighed. "He has just finished watching the first twenty-eight episodes. I believe it would be prudent to just show him the ones most relevant to him."
Natsumi thought he sounded rather annoyed. She hummed thoughtfully. "So everything until he gets the curse mark, him leaving Konoha, his final fight with his brother and the truth about the massacre."
"It is all he needs to know," Jimmu answered. It sounded final.
Natsumi shrugged, not caring about it anyway. It was Jimmu's world, not hers. So he was the one calling the shots. "If you think it's best. Your world, your call. Now to something more important."
Pain raised an eyebrow. "And what would this be?"
"Do you want strawberry or raspberry jam on your roll?"
She eyed the two jars critically.
Their breakfast ended with the astounding discovery that rolls could be cut in half and that nobody had to decide between strawberry and raspberry jam at all.
Natsumi was over the moon and despondent at the same time. "All those years I've always forced myself to decide on one jam while I could have had both of them! Why did I never think of it before?!"
Pain merely patted her on the head and stood. "I will check on the child. Have you seen Zetsu?"
"He is off looking for Koto," Natsumi answered calmly and stood to take the empty dishes. "He sounded quite eager about it, too."
Pain snorted. "I am not surprised," he remarked. "Zetsu takes quite a bit pleasure in scaring people."
"He's a sadist?" Natsumi inquired and pulled the spoon out of the strawberry jam. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me. I hope he has at least some table manners," she added and paused to lick the jam from the spoon. "It's not nice to play with your food."
Pain threw her an amused look. "You are really strange."
Natsumi grinned. "I like being strange. Life is too short to be normal."
"Indeed."
"He bit me."
"Yes, he did," Pain agreed.
"He bit me," Sasuke repeated, sounding more indignant this time. "He actually bit me!"
"We have been over that," Pain replied and placed a tray in front of the child. "I brought you breakfast."
Sasuke was not done freaking out yet. "He bit me, and I left for him!"
"A rather befuddling choice, indeed," Pain agreed and lowered himself on his bed. "I hope you do not make it a habit to run off with every man who gets physical with you."
"You tied me up," Sasuke shot back. "It that not being physical, too?!"
Pain smirked. "Certainly. But there is a distinct difference between me and Orochimaru, child. Unlike him, I am not interested in your body, even though you seem to be rather keen on leaving with me."
Sasuke flushed. That was not what he had meant.
"But we are getting off track." Pain gestured at the tray. "Eat, child, and watch. Once you have seen what you need to see, we shall talk."
Sasuke looked displeased, but still followed his directions.
Good.
He was learning.
Natsumi had just finished writing the last piece of code when Jimmu appeared next to her, his voice devoid of any emotion.
She immediately shut down her computer and turned towards him. "What happened?"
"He activated his Sharingan."
Natsumi blinked.
"He activated his Sharingan?" she repeated in disbelief. "How?"
"He saw himself killing his brother."
Natsumi groaned and sagged in her chair. "Of course, he did. We really should have considered this possibility."
"Indeed," Jimmu agreed. The stoic expression on his face told her that there was something else going on he had not voiced yet.
"What else is there?" Natsumi asked apprehensively, already expecting the worst.
"Sasuke is no longer obsessed with killing his brother."
Natsumi sighed in relief. "That's good news. No, that's excellent news."
For some strange reason, Jimmu did not look like he thought the same. "There is something else you should see." Jimmu gestured at the corridor.
Natsumi squinted her eyes and looked at the two figures approaching them. The first one was obviously a Pain clone, the second Uchiha Sasuke.
A seven-year-old Uchiha Sasuke.
Natsumi stared. "What the hell?!"
"It appears that that the backlash of the failed space-time jutsu was more… severe than I thought. It happened the moment he activated his Sharingan."
Tiny Sasuke wiggled in the clone's arms. "I want Itachi!"
Huh, it has been a while. Somehow I just couldn't decide on which way to go with Sasuke. ^^"
Amaterasu53 Well, he did throw quite a bit of a tantrum. But canon Sasuke would probably really flip out.
Carvaiine Yes, waking to Pain is really not the best way to start a day... no matter where you wake up.
Blu3b3rryT3a Too true. *xD* The apple would really be less trouble - and you can even eat it! *shoos Zetsu away from Sasuke* That