…..
Chapter 15: Akatsuki Princess
…..
"Jiraiya-sensei?" Asked Yahiko, his voice tight.
The silence interrupted, everyone glanced up from their work. It was a quiet afternoon, the rain pattered softly against the windows. The Toad Sage's students were dutifully attending to a reading assignment. Jiraiya put down his pen, he had been frantically writing, a deranged and scheming smile on his face — a common habit of his thatKonan had observed. "What's up?"
"What's a karmic relationship?"
Konan looked down at her reading in confusion. "What part are you on?" She asked, not wanting to fall behind on her reading while also wondering how a lazy student like Yahiko could already be on the next chapter.
Nagato leaned over to peer at his book, Yahiko tried to quickly turn away but it was too late. "You have a book inside your book." Observed Nagato innocently, nabbing a roughly bound packet from his friend's pages.
The kids look confusedly at Yahiko who was fast turning bright red with embarrassment. Jiraiya's eyes bulged at the sight of his novel being plucked from a genin training manual. "Hey! No one has even read that yet! That's the first draft for my publisher!"
Before Nagato and Konan could get a good look Jirariya made Nagato hand it over. Yahiko sunk further into his collar.
Jiraiya was then smirking, pointing to the bold red "do not" symbol on the cover. "My work is off-limits to you kids, okay? But I suppose I can't blame you for being curious, I was very curious about love when I was your age."
"You're reading about love?" Konan looked over at Yahiko accusingly, her nose scrunched in feign disgust, but her eyes twinkling in amusement. Nagato turned pink at the mention of the subject.
"No! I don't know what I was reading!" Yahiko exclaimed in weak self-defense, glaring at his sensei.
"Don't be embarrassed." Jiraiya shrugged. "Karmic relationships are sort of like star-crossed soul mates."
Konan turned to her sensei, intrigued by the mention of soul mates. She remembered fairy tales she had heard over the years, stories of princes and princesses destined to be together. "What do you mean about star-crossed?"
"It's when two people love each other despite the odds." He explained. "Karmic relationships are between people that have met in a past life, and now you are coming together in this life to clear karma between each other. It's not like a fairy tale romance, it's a type of grown-up relationship that's hard to control. It's like a soulmate that pushes your buttons, helps you grow into a better person."
Yahiko sunk further into his chair, his eyes wandering over to Konan.
Konan didn't notice his gaze, too busy absorbing her sensei's knowledge of the mysterious subject of love. "How do you know if you meet your karmic soulmate?" She asked.
He chuckled. "It'll probably be someone who annoys you, challenges you, and even though you want to push them away you can't help but feel a strong pull to that person."
"Oh." She squeaked, not quite understanding how you could like someone that annoys you.
Jiraiya observed his wide-eyed students, his expression softening. "Okay, okay, enough about grown-up things. You still have plenty of training to do before you worry about dating. I think the rain is letting up, let's get some rounds in today."
The pre-teen boys quickly forgot about the embarrassing topic as they tossed their studies aside, jumping up after their sensei to pull on their shoes and coats. Konan remained at the table, her eyes on the cover of her teacher's novel. She quietly observed the unsettling, but familiar feeling sitting in her chest. It was intangible, vague, but a silhouette of a sinking realization. It's as if she knew there was someone out there like that. She wondered what she did in her past life, if she could even deserve a prince charming she secretly dreamed about from time to time.
Konan's thoughts were startled when a large hand landed on her shoulder. She looked up, seeing the Leaf shinobi. "Sorry!" She blurted, jumping up from her seat. "I had spaced out."
She stood up but her teacher stopped her, a soft smile on his face. "I can tell you're worried about the karma stuff." He said. She hated how easily he could read her thoughts. "Konan, one day you will be a beautiful woman, and you can choose to love whoever you want."
She blushed at his fatherly advice, her heart warming at the reassurance. She nodded quietly, sharing a smile with him before dashing after her life-long friends, still feeling the weight of her fate in her chest.
…..
Konan was deliciously warm. Probably the warmest she had ever been in her life. She nuzzled against the source of warmth, absent-mindedly tucking her fingers into the fabric to keep them cozy. And then she heard some creature screech from outside, making her eyes flutter open. Her face was pressed against a broad chest. Obito. She swallowed, now hyper-aware of her physical being. At some point, she had flipped, so they had ended up facing each other in an embrace. Obito had his arms tightly around her. Tingling feelings stirred in her, feelings akin to her teenage romance with Yahiko not so long ago.
It had to be early in the morning, the mouth of the cave cast a dim light from the rising sun through the snow and ice. She wondered if he was awake; to test her theory, she glided her hand up his side, tracing lines across his arm and waist. Immediately his hand snapped up to her wrist.
"Stop that." He mumbled from above her head.
"Sorry." She whispered with a ghost of a smile on her lips.
He let her wrist go, throwing his arm over her. The timbre of his voice lumbered with sleep. "I thought you promised not to wake me up again."
She bit her lip, glancing at him. "Hmmm. I suppose I did."
A dark chuckle rumbled through Obito's chest. He re-adjusted himself, thrills rolling through her as his palm slid to find her waist beneath her shinobi issued thermal, his other arm shifting underneath her neck.
She thought that his touch felt odd, and she put her hand over his;curiously enough, the man was still wearing gloves. "Your hands are cold?" She asked.
"No, the opposite." He grunted out. He was not intent on talking.
"I don't think I've ever seen you with them off." She observed, shifting so she could look at his face.
His eyes remained shut. "It's something I never take off."
"Like your mask?" She dryly remarked, then smirking when his eyes opened slightly.
"Yes." He said with an air of caution.
"If you have ugly hands I won't see them under the covers."
He sniffed at that, squinting at her. "It's not that. It's complicated."
"You are an onion, you know that?"
"You do enjoy peeling my layers." He raised his gloved hand from the covers. "Fine. Go ahead. Remove it."
"Are you sure?" Her amber eyes went wide.
"Now or never."
At that, she reached up and pulled the skin-tight black glove…revealing a perfectly normal left hand.
She furrowed her brows, taking his hand into hers, her fingers smoothing over his knuckles. "What are you getting on about? Your hands are normal."
His face remained impassive as he watched her expression change. She slightly sat up, nudging at him to move his arm that her head rested on. He obliged, repositioning on his back so she could remove the other glove.
When she peeled it off, this time she was surprised to see porcelain white skin. Konan pressed her palm against his. His other hand felt the same as the rest of him, but it looked like it belonged to another person.
"You have a skin condition?"
"It's not that." He shook his head, his eyes trained on their hands joined together. She observed how large his hand was, his fingers extending long past hers. "It's related to the scar on my face."
She glanced up at him, noticing that his scar was on the same side of the white hand. It clicked. "Your right half." She couldn't see the rest of him with his high necked, form-fitting shirt.
"Yeah, my entire right side, pretty much." He confirmed.
Konan was curious, but she had a feeling that the story was off-limits. With how much she struggled to even get him this comfortable with her, she knew anything that happened before they met had to be very painful, and something he kept deep inside of him. "I won't ask." She said aloud, she smiled softly. "But thank you for sharing with me."
He answered with a long look, then turned on his side once more to align his form with hers. Its as if their chakras aligned as well, the hum of their connection an undercurrent between their bodies. Konan suddenly felt extremely hot.
She made a face. "I need to get rid of this sweater."
She wormed out of the suffocating thing, throwing the sweater lump to the side with Obito's discarded gloves. Konan welcomed the cooling relief in her light athletic top.
Obito's hands were back on her, skin to skin. He was awake and attentive now. He took a deep breath as if he was inhaling her. She could feel his pounding heart, and she marveled at how it matched her own. Her hand gripped his shirt at his side as his touch gently went across her back, making her shudder like a root in the rain. Her face was tucked in at the crook of his neck, and she pressed her lips gently to a spot beneath his ear. That made him fold into her further, their legs tangling to gain proximity.
His hand ran up and down the curve of her waist and hip as if he was admiring the lines of her. His fingers gently passed over her hip bones, making a strong pull behind her navel. He continued running his hand on her thigh, and then her backside.
She pressed another kiss against his collarbone. Then he traveled upwards, under her top, over her ribcage. She arched her back to the delicious torture, allowing him to roam wherever he pleased. His hand momentarily paused, he shifted his head, and instinctively, she tilted hers and sighed delightfully when his lips found hers. His touch continued and he kissed her lightly and breathlessly.
His hand skimmed the underside of her breast and then snapped away. She smiled. It seemed he hesitated at finding the ribbed edge of her bra.
"You can keep going if you'd like." She whispered.
"Impatient." He teased.
"Yeah, hurry up." She retorted jokingly, although there was a strain in her voice.
He gave her a half-smile, capturing her lips again. His tongue ran across the seam of her mouth, beckoning her to open up to him. She obliged, their tongues hotly running across from each other. She tilted her head more to grant him full access, her hand running into his dark hair as he pulled her further in. God, he's such a good kisser.
She moaned and that seemed to do something for him. He pressed into her harder, hands running all over. "You're so fucking soft." He said into her mouth.
It was as if they couldn't get enough of each other. She wished to melt into him. She clawed at his shirt, pushing it upwards to get rid of it. He reached behind him and pulled it off. Another layer between them, discarded.
Her palms smoothed out the angles and planes of his muscles. Like most highly ranked nin, he remained at his physical peak. He watched as she skimmed a finger down the jagged pigmentation of his split torso. Some shinobi-related accident, she decided, something that afflicted the right side of his body. Like his scar, the added character to his physique made him even more attractive.
"You're freaked out by it." He remarked darkly, following her examinations.
"Huh?" She glanced at him in confusion, his midnight eyes were hard, scrutinizing her reactions. He was ashamed of his form. "No, the opposite actually." She kissed the white of his collarbone, dragging her lips up the column of his neck. "You're unlike any other man I've ever known."
She made her way back to his mouth. The repressed desire was released. Lapsed judgment, soft skin, and amber eyes trapped his affection in her honeyed hold. He bit her lip, eliciting a whimper.
The play between soft and rough was something so uniquely shared between them as if two ghosts returned to their bodies, at last, to shake the melancholy and feel alive once more. She hadn't been with another man since Yahiko. While she and her teenage love had had their fair share of fooling around, they also had been awkwardly inexperienced, fumbling touches and knocking of teeth and joints. Her thoughts returned to the question of how experienced Obito really was, as he was thoroughly convincing with his wholly confident touch. She imagined he was so skilled at his disguise that he could play out any fraction of Madara's life down to the precise details, down to the point where the line between their identities blurred.
"Does it ever get to you?" Konan whispered, her words tickling the shell of his ear. "The pressure of being Madara?"
"You will never know." His hand gently grazed the piercings around her belly button. "I could ask you the same, Akatsuki princess. Always having to be perfect and polished. Does it ever get to you? Being folded up tighter than your origami?"
"You'll never know." She parroted, the pale half-moons of her fingernails digging into his shoulders as his hand pulled at the fabric of her leggings.
His fingers finally slipped beneath her waistband. "Unfold for me, Konan."
Her eyes fluttering shut as she obliged him, following the question he was asking with his hands. She shimmied out of her leggings and then hitched one of her legs over his hip. Her core was liquid fire, her heartbeat erratic. All of her preemptive speculations about his motives concerning her were thrown out the window. She was desperate to know his touch.
He caressed her thighs carefully, exploring the smoothness of her skin, the doors open to this new world. She clutched him tightly in anticipation, her hands in his inky hair.
Obito's deft fingers, at last, trailed up the curve of her inner thighs. His knuckles grazed against her core. Her blood raced, heat flushing on her cheeks. At that moment she felt like a woman her age, young and over the moon with the first taste of a budding romance.
Their shared heat and shared sorrows felt quite right in the damp, darkness of the cave. Spread and unflourished, Konan felt his hand light and hesitant as he dipped into her, the gold of her body, the well of her want was already apparent with the wetness between her legs. Her hands ran across the muscles of his back, thinking about how his body will haunt hers, his touch so delicate and endearing, it spoke against everything he became.
She arched into Obito's taction. He stroked her as if getting familiar with every fold and every ridge. "Do you know what you're doing?" She sincerely asked him, attempting to push him further along, wanting to feel the fire his long fingers could grant her.
"Easy now, I'm getting acquainted." He assured her. His half-lidded eyes found hers and his lips twitched into a slight smile as he sheepishly admitted, "It's my first time…technically."
She smiled at that, leaning in to press her cheek against his. "Let me show you." She whispered.
Her gentle hold guided his hand to the precipice of her desire, the bundle of nerves that made her want to fall off a cliff when touched. "Press there, like that." She instructed, finding her voice unsteady. "Carefully."
He obeyed her commands, she let out a strangled noise, clutching him harder as his hand made work of the axis between her legs. Pleased by the noise she made he grew more confident, his hand moving more quickly, circulating the bud of her intense desire.
The hot torrential storm-wracked her core, traces of electricity skittering across her skin. Her memory came alive as if her body had climbed out of its own coffin. For the first time in years, she felt intimately, emotionally connected with her pleasure, at the hand of someone important to her.
Someone so beautiful. And so broken. Her fingers scraped across his scars and his strange porcelain flesh. His body mended, her's more unraveled by his impish hands. He moved their positions, pushing aside the top part of the sleeping bag, hovering over her, building her pleasure. He watched her carefully. She squeezed her eyes shut, her Kunoichi instincts setting off alarms in her head at being pinned into a vulnerable position. She wanted to laugh at the ridiculous feeling, her battle tactics were too far ingrained in her. Only for him would she be like this.
Her training was quickly thrown aside as momentum built between their movements. She felt frantic, wanting to reach that edge of that cliff, wanting to fall. She was granted that as his fingers plunged into her, making her cry out.
He leaned over and pressed his mouth to hers, swallowing the echoes of her moans, his tongue catching her like midnight, fire in her mouth and in her blood. His fingers began to move in and out, undulating waves crashing against her coast. Her back arched, her hips snapping at his rhythm. "Oh, gods." She whimpered into his kiss. "Keep going."
He granted her wish, his corded muscle working her into a frenzy. The friction in her body was unbelievable. It was clear as day, the tension that they had let fester spelled out the inevitable connection between them, a bond that had existed long before. Why did I not consider he could make me feel like this?
Obito worked her over the edge, moaning into her ear as his body pressed against hers in all the right places. Konan saw stars, felt them shooting across her body; her wishes granted. Like lightning, the arrival was brutal and impeccable. A kunai hitting its mark. The shadows were momentarily chased away by the light in her body. She felt fuzzy and sated as she floated back down from the thundering clouds. Obito pulled away at the clenching of her thighs and noise from her throat, dragging his fingers coated with her essence down her hip, planting a kiss on her knee.
Konan opened her eyes just in time to see the red fade away from Obito's eyes. He was kneeling at this point, looking down at her, the sleeping bag thrown wide open. She welcomed the cave's chill on her heated body.
They stared at each other in somewhat of stunned silence, sweaty and trembling in the aftermath. A quiet between them that said, Did we just-?
Abruptly, Konan's stomach growled. He chuckled at that. She flushed red and reached for the cover of his sleeping bag, covering her lower half. He had seen and felt a good bit of her, peeked into the corners of her world, and she had not even been entirely naked but the vulnerability flustered her.
"I suppose it's breakfast time." He mused. He looked smug, his black eyes glittering in the dim light. Obito was pleased with his work.
"Yeah." She busied herself, finding her underwear and leggings, pulling them back over her legs and hips. "And then we should get going."
She pushed off the bedroll, coming to a stand. He followed suit, grabbing hold of the small of her back to draw her in. "Was I ok?"
Men and their great strides for validation. Her ears burned, she frowned, annoyed by the question. He had her like putty in his hands. "What do you think?"
That seemed to be a good enough answer for him, by the looks of his smile. He let her go, moving to redress and clean up the mess they had made of his sleeping bag and belongings. Konan folded up her things, expertly tucking them away into her shinobi pack, lingering on her whirlwind of newly discovered emotions. She looked over, finding him looking back at her. She quickly averted her eyes, nerves strangling her heart. She wanted more, much more.
…..
"Neh, Tobi?" Konan called out, looking down at the map. They stopped momentarily, for a water break. "There's a village about twenty minutes ahead. We could bypass it to make good time, but it'll be a good opportunity to stock up on supplies. It shouldn't set us back for too long."
He glanced over her shoulder. "Alright."
She looked up at him in slight surprise at how easily he agreed to it. Inwardly, she curled into a smile.
Konan was grateful to have her feet on a cleared trodden path rather than sinking into layers of snow, its mouth widening to a quaint forest community. They passed a faded wooden sign with the name 'Village of Songbirds
Almost immediately they came upon an elderly man attempting to haul a wagon of logs through a thick blanket of snow that drifted across the paved entrance to the town. It appeared that the wagon was too heavy to be taken over an icy lump. Obito wandered up to the man, and Konan stilled, dread filling her. Obito didn't approach anyone unless he needed something, or needed someone out of the way.
"Let me help you." Obito grunted.
The old man let out a gasp at the sight of the two strange-looking shinobi in their red-clouded cloaks. Konan offered him a smile of reassurance. He was barely able to get a word out as he jumped back and watched Obito take over the handles of the wagon, pushing it through the packed snow and over the lump. Having no choice, the old man followed, looking on warily as Obito kept pushing it until they reached paved ground once more.
He turned around and the man respectfully bowed. "Thank you, Sir." The old man said in a surprised but grateful tone. "That was very kind of you."
Obito clasped his hands behind his back. "Can you tell us where we can find the nearest supply store? My comrade and I are looking to re-up on our essentials."
The man pointed across the plaza. "Keep following our main road, you'll find a row of stores on the other side of the village."
They thanked him and carried on. Konan was amused that he had stopped to help an elderly man. She figured that their morning had put him in a very good mood.
His mood carried on. They had barely made their way across the plaza when an elderly woman with a long white and grey streaked braid had dropped her bag in a bank of snow. "Shit!" She cursed, legs wobbling as she gripped her cane, preparing herself to bend down.
Obito was suddenly kneeling in front of her, picking up her purse and holding it up for her. At first, she looked startled by him, but when she realized what was happening her face broke out into a saccharine smile as she accepted her purse. "Why thank you, young man!"
He nodded, standing back up to join Konan. Streets were fairly busy for such a small place, she observed that there were a lot of elderly people around than seen in a typical village. Storefronts specializing in canes and walkers or medicine for arthritis and back pains. Younger folks had busied themselves in shoveling the streets, making sure the path was clear for their elders.
They reached the food stalls. Konan was ready for lunch as the smell of hot street food wafted across. She turned to ask Obito if he wanted something when she realized she was meandering alone.
Slightly annoyed, she whipped around, her eyes scanning the crowd of grey-haired folks until she saw him, her shoulders relaxing. He hadn't strayed far, he was at a stall they had passed, helping a grandmother lift her grocery bags into her dolly.
She smirked at the sight, now curious about why the hell he was being so nice to old people. She wracked her brain, had he always been this well-mannered around them? She couldn't even remember the last time he's even been cordial with a stranger unless he had ulterior motives. This was the man that had wiped out dozens of people cold and remorseless.
"Soft spot for grannies?" She joked when he caught up to her. Konan was inside a small grocery store, filling her pack with some vegetables she had planned to make into a soup once they reached the hideout.
"Hn." He turned away from her to pluck some water bottles off the shelf.
She smiled at his reaction. She doubted this had anything to do with Madara. It was all Obito.
"Miss?"
Konan looked over to see a petite old woman. She was bundled up, her face flushed from the cold. "Could you please help me reach for the jar of fish sauce? I'm afraid I'm too short."
She looked up to see where the woman was pointing to, it was on the top shelf. She'd have to be on her tip-toes to reach it, but she figured she could get the job done. "Of course."
Before Konan could even attempt it there he was again, the Elderly Savior, reaching over to her to pluck the bottle off the shelf with ease.
He handed it to the woman. "Thank you so much! I don't see why stores always put essential things up on very high shelves. And there's never a store worker in sight when I can't reach something. I've already put in a complaint multiple times, but they've done nothing!" She turned to Konan, admiring the masked man beside her. "How lucky you are to have a tall husband!"
"Oh-I-uh-" She turned red but the woman was already wandering down another aisle, grumbling about high shelves.
"Are you ready?" Obito asked as if nothing happened. Konan looked down at her full basket, still perplexed.
"Yeah, I guess."
…..
"Hey, boss."
"What is it?"
"Look ahead, twelve o'clock."
The woman turned her head, wrapping her scarf tighter around her lips and nose. Her eyes widened at the sight as she zeroed in on the outlandish-looking pair of strangers, particularly, the beautiful young woman.
"I'm betting we have a nice lord who would pay a fat price for her." Said the henchman with a dark smile.
Her grey eyes narrowed, a smile growing underneath her woven scarf. The perk to living in a village such as this one was that it was impossible for outsiders to go amiss in the crowd of the grey and geriatric. "She's gorgeous." She watched them approach the blacksmith. Quickly she grabbed her nephew's arm, pulling him to the side of an adjacent shop. She peered over the corner.
"Where do you think they come from?"
She frowned observing as the young woman approached the local blacksmith, producing a kunai. "I think they're shinobi."
"Her?" He asked, dumbfounded. He scratched his head looking at them warily. "Girls that look like that don't become ninja."
"Oh don't be stupid of course they do." She snapped at him. Her fingers gripped her cane as the wheels turned in her head. "But that shouldn't stop us, it hasn't before."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I am. Look at her! That long lavender hair? We'd be set for several months just on her bride price. Mother will be pleased."
"So boss, what's the plan?"
"Go back to the Inn, get Akibara and Mitsugi. I want you to cut down the largest tree, make it look like it fell in front of the house during the storm last night. Got it?"
He saluted in understanding before vanishing into thin air. Her steely eyes turned back towards the male shinobi, watching the man with the orange mask, looming next to the girl closely. He looked tall and strong, the boys will have to find a way to incapacitate him before they get their hands on her. She adjusted her coat and began to walk slowly down the street, smiling once more as the dots began to connect. Oh yes, they'll hit the jackpot tonight.
…..
Konan felt satisfied a few hours later, having re-upped on food and supplies. They had even got their shuriken and kunai sharpened by the local blacksmith. Konan knew the day was getting late, and they had to make their way back into the winter forest to continue their mission before nightfall.
"Ninja!"
They stopped in their tracks as yet another older woman stepped in front of them, waving them down frantically, her big red glasses fogging in the winter air. "It's been a while since this village has seen Shinobi, I heard how you helped Toki with his firewood delivery earlier." She explained, out of breath from catching up to them. She was short and plump, but not as old as some of the other elderly in the village, her short black hair boasted a few greying streaks. "I'm wondering if you could help me."
Konan should have assumed that word would spread like wildfire at the sight of two foreign nin. Konan glanced at Obito, then smiled apologetically at the villager. "Apologies, but our business in this village has been wrapped up."
"Please!" She begged, her green eyes widening. "Last night during the storm a large tree crash-landed in front of my inn. It was too large for my neighbor's sons to move it."
"I'm not sure…" Konan's gaze slid over to Obito, certain this is where he'll draw the line. They were already way behind schedule. Cleaning up a fallen tree would set them back at least by two hours, cutting their window to nightfall very short. He was of course in charge of this mission, it was his word over hers.
"I don't have much money but I can offer you a good meal and a free stay at the inn for the night." She interjected, her expression hopeful.
…..
This is the inn? Konan's brows furrowed as she scrutinized the facade. The woman, revealing herself as Amayo, led them off the beaten path, following what was practically a deer trail until they reemerged in front of an old house in a secluded patch of dense woods. Next to the clearing was a small faded sign reading "Amayo's Little Bread and Breakfast." If Konan was just passing by, she would've assumed it was abandoned. A few windows were patched up, and the wood bending and bowing, tiles from the roof looked to be cracked on the ground.
As promised, a very large tree obscured the front entrance. Footsteps marred the snow around its large branches, marking the previous attempts to move it.
"So," Amayo said, spinning around to face them, emphasizing her desperation with a stretched-out smile. "Can you move it?"
Konan turned to look at Obito who studied the situation laid out for them. If he said yes, it meant they could stay the night. If it was up to her, she'd rather be in a shabby inn than out in the wintery forest.
"Hn. That's fine."
She clapped her hands, beaming. "Oh good, thank you so much shinobi-san! Now please take your time, and when you're finished I'll have a room waiting for you."
The Akatsuki leaders got into it right away, cutting a pathway to the door first so Amayo could get back into her house. Tobi used his fire jutsu to burn away the built-up snow, while Konan summoned a large paper shuriken, using chakra to spin it like a saw into the bark.
They made quick work of it, Amayo often appearing in her front window, studying the ninja's dismantling of the wood. By the early hints of the evening, they finished their work, Amayo already waving them inside.
"Come inside, you've been out for far too long." She ushered them in. "You'll be our only guests here tonight, this place is more of a summer getaway."
Konan and Obito were pretty used to shady situations, but even this house was a stretch. Konan looked around, perturbed by the intense smell of old must and incense. The furniture was antique and well worn, the walls crammed with strange talisman and curiosities with a good layer of dust. And photos! Dozens of photos haphazardly thrown up on the wall as they marched down the narrow hall. Konan peered closer, their walls were lined with lackluster framed photographs of families and weddings, lots of weddings.
"My mother is a third-generation matchmaker," Amayo explained with a grin. "That's how I also got tangled in the wedding planning business. As you can see, we've been blessed with many happy clients. So many wonderful weddings have taken place here."
Here? Konan looked around suspiciously. Maybe forty years ago, from the way it was looking these days. The only people in the house should be ghosts.
"Are you two married?" She asked innocently.
Nosy old hag. "We're comrades." Konan offered stiffly. That's the second time today. This man is in a giant black cloak and a creepy orange mask, how does that scream husband material?!
"Oh." She flushed. "Apologies! Just thought I'd try, you know, love being our business and all, and you're so beautiful-I'm sorry what's your name?"
"Misune." Said Konan without skipping a beat.
"Misune. So pretty! I thought for sure you'd at least have a long line of suitors."
Kind of. If you count the number of times rogue perverts hit on me. "Ninja don't have a lot of time outside of work to date." Konan explained coldly. "I'm afraid we miss a lot of milestones unless we get lucky."
Amayo suddenly pointed to a photo at the bottom of the stairs, a woman and a uniformed shinobi next to her, beaming with pride. It was noticeably less dusty than the others. "My daughter is married to a Jounin, you know? They live in the Village of the Hidden Valley. That's why I didn't hesitate to invite you here. Many people in this village are afraid of shinobi, but our family is very familiar with your kind, thanks to my son-in-law, we appreciate your work and sacrifice."
What an even weirder thing to say. Konan tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace. She was envious Obito gets to be the broody quiet one.
The innkeeper chatted away about the apparent "success" of her inn until they reached a door in the middle of the hall. She pushed it open. "Well here's your room for the night. Feel free to get settled in and join us for dinner. The bathroom is at the end of that hall, you'll find everything you need in the linen closet."
"Thank you, Amayo-san." Konan bowed in thanks.
"Thank you for the dinner invitation," Tobi interjected. "But we just ate not long ago. We'll probably be retiring for the night. It's been a long journey."
Konan tried not to look at him when he said that, just nodding and smiling along as they pushed past her. "Oh alright." She said, motherly concern appearing in her wrinkles. "I'm sure you're exhausted from taking that tree apart anyways. Have a good night!"
Tobi and Konan entered the room, shutting the door tightly. Konan sighed in relief, albeit too soon, as she flicked on the light. Both of them froze.
"What the fuck?" Konan whispered as they came face to face with porcelain dolls. Dozens of them. All staring with glassy eyes from antique surfaces across the room. Their ornaments and kimonos had faded from sunlight, some of their faces had smeared off, leaning sidewards on their doll stands. The room was crammed with stuff like it had been partially used as a storage closet. Weathered books and half-open scrolls, torn fans, bundles of old clothes.
"There's…so many," Konan said, peering at one of the dolls. Its blue eyes seemed to follow her as she surveyed the space.
Konan was too poor and too occupied with surviving a war to even dream about playing with fancy dolls or toys. She was once gifted a fluffy stuffed bear, but she quickly had to ditch it when it got ruined in the rain. Now, seeing the dolls up close, she was glad she never had room to put one in even if she did get her hands on one.
"Gives me the creeps." Grumbled Obito, dropping his back to the floor.
Konan shed her hat and coat, reaching into her bag to slip on her sweater. The small room only had one modestly sized futon. She wondered if they would share it. Her mind went to heated places.
"You know Tobi, you're very kind to have helped Amayo and the others today," Konan said with caution, a way to coax his secret reasonings for staying in the town.
He shrugged. "It's the least I could do. Besides, it was wiser to take up shelter here than out there. Now that we are in Hidden Valley territory, we wouldn't have made it far enough anyway."
"Something tells me that maybe we should've picked the forest tonight." She joked, motioning to the dolls.
"Is someone else here?" He turned around quickly, thinking she had sensed something.
She closed her eyes, then after a second. "Another old woman, I'm guessing the mother?"
"Her mother is here?"
"Yes, I sensed her in the kitchen. She has interesting energy." Konan said thoughtfully. "Which means this house is only really creepy, probably haunted, but from what I've gathered we should be safe for at least one night."
"The innkeeper. Keep an eye on her." He whispered, grabbing her shoulder.
Konan made a face, surprised he would suggest she was anything other than a harmless, maybe slightly weird, old woman. But this was Obito, he was the Lord of Having Hunches. "Alright, I will…is that why you said no to dinner?"
"Just a feeling that I have. Also…do you want dinner with two weird old matchmakers?" He asked, handing her a wrapped sandwich from his bag.
She smirked, dropping down onto the futon. "No. No, I don't."
…..
Konan was scribbling away mission details, Obito cleaning their newly sharpened supplies when a knock came at the door. Konan looked over at the orange mask, eyebrow raised, before she got up to answer the door.
Amayo was grinning ear to ear, holding a tray of tea. "I hope you don't mind if I drop off some tea for your evening, it's the least I could do for all your help today."
Konan took the small tray, thanking the woman before shutting the door. "Well that's nice I suppose." She quietly mused to Tobi as she set it down on the floor, the only available surface beside the bed. She stretched her arms over her head. "I'll be back, gonna go to the bathroom."
He only nodded, occupied with his task. Konan went back into the hall, a shiver passing through her. She tucked her hands into her sleeves, damn, this haunted house was cold. And loud. It creaked heavily under her footsteps.
After Konan refreshed herself in the surprisingly sparse, but well-kept bathroom she wandered back down the hall, curious about the other rooms. She stilled, listening to the distant sound of pots and pans downstairs. Sensing no one, she reached for a doorknob.
Locked.
She proceeded to the next one, noticing the handle was different. A red glass doorknob. Her fingers touched it, it clicked open and an unsettling feeling washed over her senses.
"Young Lady."
Konan slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, whipping around to find an elderly woman smiling up at her.
She was hunched over, a long white plait over her shoulder and thick red glasses on her button nose. "Curious?"
Konan hadn't even heard her. How could she have been so silent when this house was groaning at every movement? She quickly identified the lingering energy around her. This had to be Amayo's mother, the woman with a strange buzzing chakra.
Her bony hand latched on tightly to Konan's wrist, she peered up at the kunoichi with a small smile. "You are stunning. You must be the most beautiful woman back in your little village."
"Ahhh," Konan chuckled awkwardly, looking down at her grip clawing into her flesh. "Hardly."
"He seems to think so."
"I beg your pardon?"
She pointed with her other hand down the hall, towards Obito. "Curious pairing you two make."
Konan shook her head, now annoyed. She wasn't used to grannies grilling her about the pitiful morsels of romance in her life. "We're simply comrades. On a mission from our little village."
"Of course, of course." She said in her sweet tone of voice. "I'm sure even ninja like you wonder about your love life, no? I'm a matchmaker, I might be able to give you some insight if you'd like some."
Konan's expression dimmed. She shifted, uncertain. Obito would surely come looking for her if she lingered any longer. "No thank you, I should be getting back to my room."
The old lady's fingers dug further into Konan's flesh, refusing to let her drift away. "You want a powerful man. Someone who will keep you safe."
Konan furrowed her brows, her politeness and patience going thin. "Really, Ma'am, thank you for offering but I never been the type of woman to seek out-"
"You want a man who won't die easily."
Konan stopped short, dumbfounded at the old woman's intuitions nailing her like a dart to a bullseye. She so readily spilled Konan's truth, a truth that's never left the recesses of her consciousness. Konan used her strength, tearing her arm away, disconcerted by the impudent behavior and the nail marks now marring Konan's skin. "How would you know something like that?"
"I like to say I can read people's hearts." Her face wrinkled into a pitiful smile. "You suffered great heartbreak, and at such a young age. But you still have so much potential if you open your heart again."
Konan flinched as if she'd been hit, clutching her arm, stepping backward until she felt the red knob poke her in the back. "What if…what if he.." She struggled to formulate an explanation as to why she could never make her silly dreams of love come true. That the one man who fits that description is the only one she could possibly…
Possibly…
Her emotions were stuck in her throat. She didn't even know how she could paint him in that light, someone whose heart is as shriveled as hers, someone so insidious and yet so tender despite it all. A single man who could effortlessly bring down one of the Five Great Nations and help liberate her people from the oppressive occupation in the same breath. A man who is ruthless yet does not think twice to save her, despite claiming no one and nothing mattered to him more than the fate he was tethered to.
"You shinobi have such tragic love lives." Sighed the matchmaker observing her troubled expression. She opened her arms wide. "Normally I wouldn't take on clients like you, jaded and tarnished, but I did not expect such a beautiful, exotic flower to show up in my home tonight. I feel like it would be such a waste if you simply died by the blade of ninja life. Put your faith into me, know that I can give you a man who will always watch over you, who will give you everything you want in life."
Before Konan could protest, having enough of this nonsense, her body froze, limbs and thoughts going numb. She opened her mouth to scream before she couldn't anymore. The door with the red knob flew open. The matchmaker grinned, watching as hands and arms reached out, pulling the young woman into the shadows of what laid beyond.
"You won't be happy with me Kunoichi." Muttered the grandma to herself as she made her way back down the hall, thoroughly satisfied at how easy that was. "But once you're broken in, you'll make a lovely wife"
…..
Obito pressed against the wall, silent, waiting.
He was rewarded. The door flew open, its hinges screeching, reverberations of men's movement being felt in the walls. He watched the two brutes look down, finding the overturned tea set and a shattered cup. A trail of liquid going to an open window.
"Shit! He escaped?" Grunted one of the men, casually swinging his axe towards the broken window pane.
"How? That poison should have been strong enough to fully immobilize him." Said the other one.
Darkness leaked off of Obito's body. He gritted his teeth, his anger on a very, very short leash. Like the fucking idiots they were, they wandered to the window to see if he jumped. Falling for his bait.
In seconds, kunai were embedded into their backs, sharp exhales of death emitting from them as he pushed the two men over the ledge with little effort. Down they went, pulling the curtains with them as an attempt to save their falls. He watched them hit the ground with a resounding thwack.
His sharpened ears picked up on movement downstairs. There had to be ten of them. Out of nowhere. In a matter of minutes, they would realize two of their men are already taken out.
Obito kicked a teacup out of the way and gracefully strolled into the hall, his neck bending towards a noise at the other end. He found himself in front of a black door with a red doorknob. With ease, he kicked it open. A small stairwell. And then he smelled it. Lavender. This is where Konan had been, he looked over, noticing the bathroom two doors down, connecting the dots.
The man let the shadows swallow him whole, step by step, taking what turned out to be a narrow stairwell right down to the front room of the house. With a dead calm, he opened the warped wooden door.
He was greeted with a room of seven men, three at the entrance with swords. In the corner one of them held Konan captive, her head lolled over his shoulder. Obito's eyes cast downwards and his blood ran cold. Chakra-absorbing shackles around her hands and feet. Her orange eyes were open, dull, mindless. Genjutsu.
Next to his woman, who was currentlybeing manhandled by a man-made of two-brain cells, was none other than Amayo and her mother who just went slack-jawed at his entrance.
"How are you-?"
"Did you really think," Purred Obito, watching the way the men's blades rose towards him. "You could pull off killing and kidnapping S-ranked shinobi?"
At the mention of S-Rank, several of the men lowered their swords in uncertainty. Amayo went white as a sheet. Everyone hesitated except the matchmaker who took another look at Konan. She bellied out a great laugh. "Here I was estimating her bride price when I should've been looking into a bounty!"
Obito's eyes shifted red.
The manacles on Konan's wrists and ankles folded out of existence, and then before anyone could register what was happening, the man holding Konan was thrown backward, crashing into the desk behind him, Konan's entire form warping into nothing before their very eyes. All without Obito even touching her.
"Prepare to die."
The knell of death had rung. Blood splattered the walls.
Blood dripping down from frame after frame, leaking onto the photos of past men and their captured brides. Konan of the Akatsuki would never be destined to such a fate.
If there were no ghosts before, there certainly would be now.
The Akatsuki Lord was careful to avoid stepping into one of the many growing pools of red around the fallen traffickers who were thrown around the dingy and tattered carpet. Adrenaline had receded to his cold, calculated indifference. Madara had spent years crafting his protégé into a killing machine, so much so, Obito could dissociate in a blink of an eye.
He stepped over the matchmaker and innkeeper. He had been right to follow his hunch — what twisted old women they turned out to be. What he didn't expect is that they would be interested in the Paper Angel. But Konan was safe, with him. He stepped out into the winter air. It felt good on his skin, damp from sweat and violence.
Konan's lifeless eyes under the genjutsu scalded his visual-oriented memory as he vanished into the thick of the forest. No, he thought decidedly, he promised himself he would do everything in his power to never see her like that again.
…..
When the Hidden Rain shinobi opened her eyes she saw a stark black abyss hanging over her. The surface she laid on felt hard and cold. She couldn't move.
She wanted to cry out but her body was as good as a paperweight, fury embroiled in her chest.
Mangekyō Sharingan. She was trapped in Obito's genjustu.
She didn't know how long she was in there, drifting in and out in a timeless limbo, wondering what she did to deserve this punishment. She tried to remember exactly what happened before she lost consciousness but it was hazy. She felt a particular burning sensation on her arm.
And then sometime later,
"Release."
Her muscles relaxed. Konan inhaled sharply, gasping for air, eyes wide, heart pounding wildly as it was when she fell into the genjutsu.
"You know, I'm starting to wonder if you've become more a liability than an asset."
The soft raspy voice came from above her. Konan blinked, finding herself still lying flat, still in this concrete chasm.
Obito crouched next to her, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, his orange mask glowing in the dim directionless light. When her sight adjusted Konan glared up at him. "What do you mean by that?" She mumbled accusingly, slowly propping herself up on her elbows to get herself together again.
"Those two old women were traffickers. They tried to poison and kill me, and capture you to sell you off. I have a feeling they scouted you from the very beginning."
"Poisoned?"
"The tea." He explained. "I identified it right away, some cheaply scrounged together shade root. Pathetic attempt. And the matchmaker, I don't know who she was in a past life, but she managed to catch you in a powerful genjutsu. I assume it happened when you went to the bathroom."
She tried to grasp at fragments of her memory but everything was still so jumbled in her brain. "What happened?"
"I heard you start to scream and then it went silent. I skirted the perimeter. They had called in a bunch of men to take you somewhere. The inn was a front. I then traced back your steps. Found you, and killed them all."
"All?" She fixed on the oculus of his mask. "Even those old women?"
"Of course. They were a threat to you." He said it so simply like it was the most logical response that they must be eliminated if they are a threat to his subordinates. She wondered what sort of emotions were going through him when he found her.
"And to any other women, they could've tried to take in the future." He added, noticing her sour expression. "I'm not completely without reason you know."
"I also promised Nagato I'd bring you back safe and sound." He added.
"You're unbelievable." She mumbled.
"Not even gonna thank me for saving you?" He asked.
She was going to press him more for having the audacity to put her in his mental prison, but then his fingers brushed her arm, where the burning came from. She looked down, surprised to see angry red marks.
A red doorknob. The matchmaker in the hall.
Her wretched splotchy hands digging into Konan's arm, like a warning Konan didn't see coming. That's probably when she went under.
You want a powerful man. Someone who will keep you safe. A man who won't die easily.
She sniffed. "No. You couldn't even bother to release the genjutsu and allow me to take them out myself. Now get me out of here."
He leaned over, his mask hiding whatever expression he wore. She frantically tried to protest as his arms slid under the back of her knees and around her shoulders. Wordlessly, he picked her up like she was a bag of feathers. She would never admit it but the genjutsu had completely fatigued her body. He knew nonetheless.
"Fine, Princess."
The whirlpool sensations were back, as well as an unforgiving roll of nausea. Konan's eyes fluttered shut until the air changed and her whole being shifted. She pressed her cheek into Obito's chest, inhaling smoke and sweat and pine trees, feeling comforted and yet stupidly helpless in his arms.
…..
Author's note:
Hi hi hi! I missed you all! Burnout is a big giant BWORD. I needed to disappear into real life for a minute. I'm so happy to be back and to continue writing. Finishing this fic is still a big goal I intend to reach! Thank you for reading. Stay safe out there y'all.
Beta-read by the amazing Aishwarya !
To the reader who requested to translate this fic into Spanish (credited back to me) for wattpad: For some reason I couldn't reach your account on fanfic but my answer is CLARO QUE SI :) Avísame no ma' por mensaje porfa. Me alegra compartir el version español en mis plataformas sociales con los creditos y todito. I would translate myself if my Spanish wasn't so rusty LOL Muchas gracias!