Chapter 23: Smile Quest Arc - A Thousand Cranes
I wanted to post this sooner, but my computer was being a huge jerk to me. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for my OCs and the plot!
Kaiya's POV
Monday morning. A duration of time filled with complaining, work, and coffee stains, even though I didn't even drink coffee. A glimpse into oblivion, with everybody else groaning like the zombie apocalypse. Exactly what every eleventh grader needs in their crazy, crazy life.
But luckily, I didn't start out mine in the arid weather or the world of misfortune. Instead, I started it in the realm of what Kagami probably would have called Cotton Candy Universe or some other adorable name.
"Yahiko?" I called, searching for the spiky-haired goofball that loved healing fish. "Hello? Are you there?"
Unfortunately, the linden tree and the serene pond were nowhere in sight. I was once again lost in the endless world of pink and white clouds, as well as shiny stars everywhere. However, I could tell that he was not around, since the stars that Yahiko wore around his neck sparkled differently. Even I didn't know how I could tell something that would be so hard to differentiate, but then again, everybody did things subconsciously, good or bad. Especially on Monday mornings.
"You better not be messing with me, Yahiko!" I shouted into the distance, but turned pink with embarrassment when I received no response. "If Yukio-chan was here, he'd definitely roast you until you came out of whatever cloud you're hiding behind!"
Still no response.
What's the point of summoning me here if he isn't going to show up? I thought grumpily to myself. If he's not responding to me on purpose, then…
I began running towards the distance like I had last time, in case I would stumble across the pond and the linden tree again. There seemed to be no other spirits around to guide me towards the boy that had summoned me here, the one who looked thirteen but was actually thirty-five.
The one who most likely knew more about Konan and Pein's past than any other person, alive or dead, in any world.
Did he see the moment when she helped the little child that looked like him? I wondered. I wonder if that meant something to him…
Suddenly, my train of thoughts was interrupted when my ears picked up a different noise. My eyes lit up immediately, thinking that Yahiko was calling out to me or something. But to my disappointment, I confirmed that the noise was definitely not the voice of a boy...or even a human. Actually, it wasn't even a voice at all.
It sounded more like something was being made and altered, but it sounded nothing like weaving clothing or mining stone. I listened to the faint sound again, coming from my right, and ten seconds later, I was able to identify it.
Somebody in the Pure Land was folding paper.
Yeah, that had to be it. For a short period of time, I had practiced making origami objects, such as cranes and flowers, but I stopped once I had entered my sophomore year. Well, I didn't stop altogether, but I only folded something once a month. The rest of the time, I was more focused on my studies and being able to get good grades.
But from all that time I used to spend creasing and folding those little square sheets of paper, I had grown used to the sound. After listening to it for about a minute, I was one hundred percent certain that somebody was definitely making an origami object. I wasn't that skilled to tell exactly what the person was making, but it was definitely paper that was being folded.
I sped off in the direction, keeping my eyes peeled for any signs of inhabitants of the Pure Land. Although the noise got louder and louder the more I traveled towards that direction, I still couldn't see anything.
Finally, just as I was about to give up and turn around. I saw it.
The linden tree was there, and the pond was in the exact same position, just where it had been the last time I had seen it. Slowly, my eyes scanned the area until I found what I had been looking for ever since I had been summoned to the Pure Land on what would be a crazy Monday morning.
"Hey, Yahiko!" I called playfully to the orange-haired boy sitting in the boughs of the linden tree. "Over here!"
Upon hearing my voice, Yahiko paused whatever he was doing, leaping down and greeting me with a smile on his face.
"Oh, hello there, Kaiya!" he said. "What brings you here?"
I resisted the urge to slap him. "What brings me here? Weren't you the one who summoned me here?"
He shook his head, chuckling. "Don't you remember the last time I saw you? You came here naturally, somehow managing to establish a secure connection between this realm and your world. It's exactly like last time, but if I wanted to summon you here, I would have used a forbidden jutsu. But even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to use it, since it was stolen about two weeks ago."
"Stolen?" I inquired. "Who would do that?"
Yahiko shrugged. "Who knows? The Pure Land stretches endlessly, so it would be pretty hard for us spirits to track each other down. How's Konan and Pein been doing?"
"You mean, you weren't watching them?" I asked curiously. "Were you busy doing something up here or something?"
A grin spread across his face as he leaped back into the tree and motioned for me to follow him. "Come inside the linden tree and I'll show you!"
Although I was quite skeptical about being able to jump safely into the tree, I decided to try and leap into the tree as well. To my surprise, it actually worked, and I was able to perch on the boughs of the tree without slipping.
Smiling, his eyes full of mirth, Yahiko then disappeared inside the dense foliage, prompting me to follow him inside.
I eyed the curtain of leaves skeptically, then I swept it aside and took a step into the tree. I gasped at the sight beyond. It was as if we had entered a gigantic treehouse complex, with furniture, a television, ceiling lights, a kitchen, and...was that a flight of stairs?
"Where are we?" I inquired, lightly tapping the wooden appliances to see if they were real or not, afraid of breaking them. I felt like I had just stepped into a little pixie's home.
"This is my home," he explained, walking around the furniture carefully. "I'm pretty sure you want to ask how all of this can fit into the foliage of a linden tree, but let's just say that it's magic. I've been living here for twenty years already, ever since I planted the seed when I first came here."
"How did you get a linden seed?" I asked him. "And even more, I thought I heard someone folding paper up here. Was that you?"
"Oh, that?" Yahiko remarked, referring to the second question. "Yeah, I was practicing origami before you got here, but Konan has always been the master at it. I could never beat her at quickly folding things, no matter how hard I tried."
"What were you folding?" I went on. "It sounded like you were making something complex, based on all that creasing and folding that I heard."
Yahiko pointed towards a corner of the treehouse, where a massive truckload of origami objects was piled up. Upon closer inspection, I realized that all of them were origami cranes.
"Cranes?" I asked him, confused on why he would try to attempt doing so many. "Why are there so many of them?"
I watched as his smile faded, surprising me. "Actually, there aren't that many of them at all," he muttered sadly. "In fact, the correct words are 'not enough'."
"But why?" I continued. "Why would you need to make over five hundred cranes in the first place? I'm not sure why anybody would need so many, or if that number is even accurate."
"There's about eight hundred cranes," Yahiko explained. "For fifteen years after I got here, I spend literally every minute of my time watching over my two best friends, seeing what they're doing without me. But then, that's the time when I discovered the philosophy of folding a thousand paper cranes."
"What exactly does it do?" I said. "Is there a reward from the gods or something if somebody folds a thousand of those cranes?"
He nodded in confirmation, his gaze distant. "They say that if somebody folds a thousand cranes, their wish will be granted. So far, I'm pretty close to my goal. But for some reason, I feel like a couple of mischievous souls have been trying to sabotage me, since small piles of my cranes disappear randomly when I sleep. I know, we don't need to sleep, but I enjoy the warmth of sleeping peacefully in a bed rather than on a hard, wooden surface or a path of asphalt."
I bent over to pick up one of the cranes, observing how neatly it was made. "What are you planning on wishing for?"
Taking a breath, Yahiko looked up towards the ceiling, which was covered with a ton of glittering stars. His eyes appeared to be clouded with emotion, but it was one that I could not determine until he spoke his answer.
"Ever since I had to leave her behind," he whispered, grief laced in his voice, "I...I've just wanted to talk to her again. She and Nagato meant the world to me, and together, nothing could stop us. We were going to bring peace to everybody in the world, so that there would be no more wars, suffering, and most of all, pain. But now that I'm dead, I didn't realize that my death would cause them to aim for the exact opposite."
"Who's Nagato?" I asked, assuming that the girl he was talking about was Konan. Now that I had heard all of that, I was about eighty percent certain that Yahiko had a crush on her, and still does.
"Pein," Yahiko said simply, but with a wistful note to it. "A shy and funny boy, even after being orphaned and watching his dog be killed right in front of him. He loved peace, and was one of the most important parts of the original Akatsuki. I just wish Pein can return to his normal self again…"
"I hope so, too," I agreed. "But if it's Nagato you seem to be worried about, why do you want to speak to Konan instead? Is it because you had a thing for her?"
His face turned red immediately after I had said that. He clenched his hands and bit his lip, then he made an excuse to go get water.
I smirked. "You can tell me, Yahiko. It's already way too obvious. But did you not get the chance to tell her?"
"Girls," muttered Yahiko in shame. "That was the one thing I had major difficulty with back then. Although I loved how we got so many members to join the Akatsuki, we didn't receive any other girls, so every member we took in was a competitor in love. But yes, I had a thing for her. There was a time when I got so jealous when a man gave her a love letter, even though she rejected him. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell her about my growing feelings, since she had been more focused on achieving world peace with everybody than pursuing a romantic relationship. She had said so herself."
"I see," I responded. "Is that the only reason why you want to talk to her?"
Yahiko shook his head. "Although I've been wanting to talk to her about that ever since I started having feelings for her, it's not that important right now. I thought that if she or Nagato would be able to have a conversation with me, then maybe they could go back to their peaceful ways and smile again. Ever since I died, neither one of them has cracked a single one."
Suddenly, the interior of the tree house began to slowly crumble, and Yahiko turned back to me.
"I'll tell you more the next time you stumble into the Pure Land," he said. "Hopefully, I'll be able to see you soon. It was nice talking to you."
I smiled at him. "See you later, Yahiko. Good luck on folding the rest of your cranes."
The last thing I saw before I plunged into utter darkness was a soft smile etched on his face.
That morning, it all came flying back to me.
The memories. That time in Amegakure when I was nearly killed. What had happened because of the ninja with the giant salamander.
Worst of all, his death.
It had been the first time in a few years that I had received that vision of Yahiko. Yes, I still thought of him almost every day, but I've been trying to ignore the fact that he had died, in order to prevent myself from crying in front of everyone.
I saw him in Nagato...well, since he always talked using his Deva Path, which he made from Yahiko's corpse. But still, I did not expect to see a replay of the time he died so vividly, even though it was not the true way he had been killed.
The dream didn't start out as a nightmare. In the dream world, I had been plunged back into the time when I was still a young girl, probably about fifteen or so years old. I had been simply sitting in the corner of one of our Akatsuki bases, folding origami cranes. In fact, I had folded so many, that I the chair on which I had been sitting on had seemingly turned into a throne of paper cranes. Yahiko and Nagato stood by my side, counting each crane carefully as I continued setting them down beside me when I finished each one.
"Nine hundred eighty-six," they counted in unison, smiling each time a new crane was placed onto the pile. "Nine hundred eighty-seven...nine hundred eighty-eight...nine hundred eighty-nine…"
Watching my two best friends point at each crane while laughing, I had smiled lightly. Now that I had been much younger and blissfully oblivious, it had felt so much easier to be happy: to grin from ear to ear, spreading a great smile of joy. Even though some part of me had probably tried to tell me that this was all augmented reality coming from my brain, I had not heard it. My mind had simply chosen to ignore it, having been happy to spend some time with the only people that were important to me.
"Nine hundred ninety-seven," the boys chanted, eyes staring intently at me. From their expressions, I could tell that they were waiting for me to get to one thousand cranes. "Nine hundred ninety-eight...nine hundred ninety-nine…"
As I had begun to fold the thousandth crane, my smile had widened even more, my eyes gazing adoringly at Yahiko and delightedly at Nagato. But just before I folded the beak of the crane, I had decided to recite the wish early: the one wish that every single member of the original Akatsuki had shared.
Taking a deep breath, I had uttered the words.
"I, Konan, along with the rest of the Akatsuki, wish for world—"
I had not given a chance to finish that statement, for at that very moment, Hanzo and his men had burst through the wall of the base. Immediately, one had grabbed me by the throat, pinning me, Yahiko, and Nagato to the wall. Before I could make a move, the man that had pinned me down had held a kunai to my throat.
"What...do you...want?" Yahiko had choked out, glaring at the man who had been holding him down. Next to him, Nagato had been flailing, and for the first time, I had noticed that he did not have his Rinnegan. His eyes had been a normal hazel color, like mine and Yahiko.
Growling, I had lifted one of my arms and had immediately summoned a few of the paper cranes to attack the men. However, the man had quickly placed a chakra-suppressing seal on me, and the cranes fell to the ground uselessly.
Standing in the middle of the destroyed room, Hanzo had uttered the words that I had not wanted to hear at all in my dream.
"Burn all of the cranes."
One of the shinobi had nodded instantly, and had performed a Fireball Jutsu on the massive pile of cranes. Attempting to close my eyes, I had found that I couldn't, and was forced to watch as every single one of the flames caught on fire.
"Konan, get up!" Yahiko had been yelling at me. "Get up!"
However, his voice had not come out as his own. It had been Pein's. But still, I had looked at him in understanding, knowing exactly what he was trying to do.
"Hurry!" he had continued shouting. "Wake up, Konan! Save yourself!"
The last sounds that I had heard before waking up were the screams of both Yahiko and Nagato, as well as the crackling noise of all nine hundred and ninety-nine cranes being reduced to nothing but smoke and oblivion.
Now that my eyes had fluttered open to discover that I was sweating — probably out of all the fear that I had just felt — I looked around to see none other than Pein staring at me oddly. I swore that a flash of worry was in his Rinnegan eyes, but once he found out that I had woken up, the returned back to normal.
"What time is it, Na—er, Pein?" I asked, quickly correcting my mistake. He answered my question by fetching Kaiya's alarm clock from her desk, which now read 11:30.
"You overslept," he stated matter-of-factly. "I told Kaiya to call in sick for you, but what exactly did you dream about? Was it another one of those dreams?"
Although his expression displayed no emotion, his voice seemed to show that he was slightly — if not fully — concerned. Recalling everything that had happened in the dream, I nodded solemnly.
"I saw Yahiko," I slowly explained. "You were there too, but as Na—a child. We were folding paper cranes together in the corner of the base, when suddenly, Hanzo and his men infiltrated our base as soon as I had begun the thousandth crane. They surrounded us...and held kunai to our throats. He...he...he killed all three of us and burned all of the cranes."
His gaze softened slightly after I had finished retelling the horrible dream. His hand reached to grab the locket that Yahiko had given me so long ago, and opened it, revealing the letters engraved on the inside.
You're my Guardian Angel.
Both of us uneasily read the engraving over and over again, trying to remember Yahiko and the ghost of his goofy grin from back when we were young children. As my vision shifted to Pein, an unreadable emotion flashed through his eyes as his gaze flickered over the four words that had meant so much to me.
"Konan," he began. "It's—"
I cut him off by grabbing his hand, not wanting to think about Yahiko too much at the moment.
Pein's hand was cold. It definitely did not feel soft, since he had used so many hand seals in the past twenty years. There were a few scars here and there, which a couple of my fingers subconsciously traced in order to determine what weapon or jutsu he had gotten them from. He was glaring at me for the sudden contact, but in the end, he merely sighed, allowing me to hold on.
I didn't really care how his hand physically felt: the most important thing was that the feeling of holding his hand again was rather comforting, allowing me to relax and forget about the bad dream for a few moments.
But nevertheless, although I'd hate to admit it, I was slightly close to tears.
He continued to allow me to hold it for a little while, remaining emotionless the whole time. His eyes were closed, and instinctively, I began to softly close mine...until Kisame burst into the room.
"Oh good," he said. "You two are awake. Ready to get going on your part of the plan, Konan? Itachi's waiting for you in the kitchen."
Sighing, I let go of Pein's hand and proceeded to follow Kisame out of the room. But before I stepped out into the hallway, Pein stopped me, grabbing my hand and making me turn around.
He stared at me blankly for a few seconds, then sighed, his eyes closed in a solemn manner.
"Whatever you do," he muttered lowly, "just be careful, okay?"
I nodded. "I won't reveal anything, Pein."
I wanted to smile at him right there for expressing his concern, but I couldn't. Simply put, I did not remember how, especially after twenty years.
Begrudgingly, I followed Kisame down the stairs, quickly catching up to the shark-man.
"So," he asked me, "What are you going to make for Kaiya and Daichi?"
Shrugging, I opened the various cupboards to see what kind of food were there. "I don't really know. Perhaps something simple so that they can both enjoy the snack, especially since it will be around three hours after they have eaten lunch."
To be honest, I had absolutely no idea why I was even partaking in Kisame's ridiculous plan. But nevertheless, I decided to participate, since it was another thing that took my mind off of the bad dream and Yahiko.
Itachi was in the kitchen, making a couple small plates of dango for the two. Currently, he was stringing the dumplings together, making sure that he got the order correct: green on the bottom, white in the middle, and pink on the top. Exactly like the dango Itachi occasionally ate in his free time, but this time, he was the one making it. Usually, he went undercover to random tea shops with Kisame.
"I guess I'll just help Itachi with dango," I muttered to Kisame. "Honestly, I'm not sure what to make, since I don't go on dates with anybody."
The shark-man nodded, and I walked into the kitchen. Itachi didn't even look at me, but he acknowledged my presence with a quick "Hn."
"What can I help you with?" I inquired non-enthusiastically. Silently, Itachi pointed towards the plate where he was cooling the dango. Next to it sat a small pile of pointy sticks, like the ones used in shish kebabs.
"Are they dry yet?" I asked, wanting to confirm, and Itachi nodded.
Grabbing one of the sticks, I strung on a couple of the dumplings, making sure that I also got the pattern correct. Although I had never made the treat before, I quickly got the hang of stringing the little dumplings together, filling up a couple of plates with them and handing the plates to Itachi.
After a few minutes, we had finished making the plates of dango. Setting the plates down, Itachi and I quickly used the Henge no Jutsu to transform back into Takumi and Osaka, in order to avoid being caught by the public as the Akatsuki.
Grabbing the plates and heading towards the door, he turned back to me and said, "I've got to head back to school soon, before our lunch break is over. Let's get these to Kakuzu and Zetsu."
Nodding, I followed him out the door, running as quickly as possible to get to the park on time.
A/N: Pein shows his softer side to Konan...how sweet. However, this story is not going to be PeinKonan or NagaKonan. Like I said before, I love YahiKonan.
I just realized that this chapter ends on page 200 on Google Docs. Although I am quite happy about being able to write that much in just three weeks, I use 14 point font and not 12 point...
Question: Favorite Naruto ship of all time? It's definitely ObiRin for me!
See you real soon!
— Tenshi —
