Chapter 37: Smile Quest Arc - Running Like the Wind
Before I begin, I just want to thank everybody who has favorited, followed, and/or reviewed this story so far. Seriously, you guys are the best, and it makes my day whenever I see a notif from this site in my email. I love you all. *sends virtual hug*
Disclaimer: Eek! *stammers* Okay, I don't own Naruto or anything in this fanfic other than the plot and the OCs! *swats away authorities* Now go bug Hidan or some other guy, and oh my Jashin, is that a bazooka? Point that away from me now!
Konan's POV
On the first day of December, I woke up in a slightly panicked sweat.
Luckily, Pein and Kaiya were not in the room at the time that I had woken up. Both of their beds were deserted, the blankets thrown off as if they were wild animals. Once again, I had woken up late, probably because I felt as if I was getting more and more exhausted.
The sunlight tickled my face, trying to calm me down. Nevertheless, I refused to calm down, especially around that time of the year.
December was not one of my happiest months. Mainly because it was the month that I had been captured and Yahiko had been killed.
Being a strong kunoichi for the Akatsuki was much tougher than it looked. Day by day, I forced myself to hide my true emotions, even while I was in front of Pein. Well, he seemed to notice what I was really feeling underneath my wall of emotionlessness, but usually made no move to comfort me. As much as I wanted him to, I had to constantly remind myself that he was hiding behind his own walls as well.
Sometimes, I didn't know which one of us was more affected by the death of Yahiko.
Reluctantly, I got up, shaking away any thought of sadness and pain from my childhood. An uneasy feeling continued to rest inside my stomach, but nevertheless, I stood up tall, facing the window with a slightly determined expression etched on my face.
Today, I'm going to reclaim my lost smile, I promised myself, staring towards the sun. I'm getting tired of all of the darkness and rain that has overtaken me and swept me through my life.
The only problem? I still didn't know how to smile, not even after spending four months living with a family and organization who almost all knew how to smile. Even Itachi knew how to smile, though it was more of a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see him actually do that.
Turning towards the door, I exited the room, placing a few squares of origami paper in my pocket if I needed it. I was about sixty percent sure that I didn't but ninjas always had to be prepared, especially if they were in a different world.
As I exited my room, I ran into Yukio, who was standing in the hallway and holding a container of bubble solution. When he saw me, he greeted me, a distant smile on his face.
"Hi there, Konan!" he greeted me. "Do you want to come outside and play with my siblings and the Akatsuki? We've been waiting for you to join us in playing sports."
Sports?
Well, I knew what that was. However, I had no experience in playing them, especially since orphans like me did not really give them too much thought. For me, Yahiko, and Nagato, it was hard for us to really think about frivolous activities when we could have been killed at any moment in our lives, whether we were peacefully walking or fiercely battling.
But since we were not in our world at the time, I forced myself to nod. "Sure. Is Pein out there as well?"
I did not expect the affirmative as the answer to my question. "Yup! He doesn't seem like he's going to enjoy it, though…but then again, I think we need to teach all of you how to play our various sports."
Reluctantly, I followed Yukio downstairs, wondering what kind of sports the Hoshiyume siblings had set up for us. He led me to the front door, and I opened it, revealing the Akatsuki and about a mountain full of toys. Some of the toys had even been set up in a way, like a dart target being taped to the wall.
"Konan's awake, everybody!" Yukio announced, dragging me over. "We can start everything now!"
Kagami jumped up and down with delight. "Alright! Let's do our best, everyone!"
"What are we playing first?" asked Kisame, who seemed to be eying the darts for the target game.
Kaiya shrugged. "I don't know...Naoki-chan, Yukio-chan, do you have any ideas about what sport we should start off with?"
Naoki initially shook his head, but Yukio seemed to have an idea. "Let's play some badminton, onee-chan! We haven't played it in so long, so we can just set the net up on our lawn, right here!"
"Great idea, Yukio-nii-chan!" squealed Kagami, bouncing up and down in joy before running over to the toy pile to grab some sort of white cone-shaped thing with a strange pattern. "Onee-chan! Naoki-nii-chan! Can I help set up the badminton net and throw the first birdie?"
Naoki scoffed, but nodded. "Just don't break anything while you're at it, imouto."
She sent him an innocent smile before running over to her sister, who was dragging out what looked like a rolled up net. "I won't!"
The two sisters dragged out the net, then almost as quickly as they had pulled it out, unraveled it. Yukio disappeared behind the pile of toys for a moment, then came back with a mallet. At first, he grinned when he held it up in the air like a warrior, but Naoki snatched it from him before Yukio could do anything risky.
"Aw, come on, nii-chan!" Yukio pouted, raising a fist in protest. "Can't we all just have some fun?"
"That's what we're trying to do," his brother huffed. "Not killing ourselves and each other."
After a lot of arguing between the brothers, both of them turned to find the badminton net already up, just without any stakes in the ground to stabilize it. Sighing slightly, they managed to pound the stakes into the ground and stabilize the net, the same moment Hidan tried to run through it like a finish line.
"Ow!" he cried, rubbing his face as he ricocheted off of the net. "Why isn't the d*** net falling over?"
Before he could speak again, Yukio had appeared right in front of him, the mallet in his hand. "We're trying to set up the badminton net, you half-wit. And you're not helping, so get lost."
Hidan, of course, merely scowled. "Oh yeah? What if I don't f****** want to, little s***?"
Yukio raised the mallet over his head, poised in a striking position. "You do realize that I have a weapon in my hands, right? And I'm telling you this only one time: you have five seconds to run before this mallet comes crashing down on your worthless skull!"
I don't ever recall seeing a shinobi run that fast in my life.
"Let's just get started," suggested Kaiya, trying to break up the argument. Kagami-chan, do you want to help me form teams?"
The little girl clapped her hands. "Yes I do, onee-chan! Can Tobi-chan be on my team?" She pointed towards the masked man, who immediately ran to his best friend's side.
"Of course," smiled Kaiya. "Well then, I pick Yukio-chan for my team." This earned a cheer from her little brother and a protest from both Naoki and Deidara, though I didn't understand why the latter was protesting against it.
"My turn!" Kagami exclaimed again. "I choose Kisa-nii!"
Kisame walked over to Kagami's side, looking very thrilled...that was, until he saw Kaiya pointing straight at his partner. "Very well, then," she remarked, a smirk on her face. "Then I select Itachi."
The shark-man's jaw dropped dramatically, while Itachi just sighed at his partner's childish antics. "Hn," he mumbled, as talkative as ever.
Her eyes scanning the remaining Akatsuki members and Naoki, Kagami seemed to be taking a while to ponder her decision. Suddenly, out of the blue, she perked up and pointed straight at Deidara, of all people.
"Me?" he stammered, looking slightly ticked off and surprised at the same time. "Why do you want me on your team, Kagami?"
"Because you look like you would be good at playing badminton, Deidei-chan!" squealed Kagami, making some of the other members snicker. "And even more, you're my friend! I wanna pick my closest friends for my team!"
At this, Deidara turned towards Kaiya's direction and sent her a fierce glare. "Well? Are you going to stop that?"
Kaiya just chuckled and shook her head. "You befriended her, so it's your problem, Deidei-chan. Besides—" she paused to send him a very knowing smirk— "I've been waiting to face off against you in something for quite a while."
Deidara scowled, the whipped his head back around. "Hmph! Well, have it your way."
"Now who's the childish one that complains all of the time?" she lightly teased him, sticking her tongue out in a very unladylike manner. Her smirk only seemed to grow as Deidara's face turned red with anger.
"Shut the hell up, un!"
"Anyway," Kaiya said, realizing that it was her turn for the first time, "my next choice will be Konan."
I nodded curtly, then walked over to Kaiya's side of the net, flashing no emotion in my eyes or face whatsoever. Without being asked to, Pein joined my side, not uttering a word either. His golden necklace from twenty years ago gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting its golden beams everywhere.
"Zetsu-san?" Kagami asked, eying the plant-man. "Do you wanna join our team?"
Zetsu's light side instantly beamed, though his darker side remained indifferent. "Of course! But only to make sure Tobi or some other idiot doesn't screw up our chance of winning."
Just like Pein had joined our side, Naoki followed Zetsu to join his sister, tired of being ignored by everybody else. Only Sasori, Kakuzu, and Hidan were left, the former being the target of Kaiya's attention. Without giving her the chance to say anything, Sasori went over to her side, while Hidan joined Kagami's side. Well, that made Kakuzu's choice very easy.
Kaiya and Yukio handed out long rackets to everybody. "You use these to hit the birdie when it comes over to your side," she explained as they passed out the equipment. "Make sure that the birdie, or the thing with feathers, never hits the ground, got it?" We all nodded in the affirmative.
"Alright!" announced Kagami, holding up the birdie and tossing it into the air. "Let's start!"
And with that, she slammed her racket into the ball as hard as she could, with enough power to launch it over to our side of the net. Hidan and Kisame stared at their seven-year-old teammate with surprised looks on their faces, telling me that they had definitely underestimated her skills prior to the match.
The birdie flew towards me, and on pure instinct, I raised my racket and swatted it back, sending it soaring over the net. As Naoki raised his racket to deflect the birdie back at us, Hidan suddenly tackled him in an attempt to get the incoming birdie for himself.
"Hey!" growled Naoki, throwing the Jashinist off of his back. "What in the world was that for? You don't tackle people in badminton!"
Hidan merely scoffed at the boy. "So what? Isn't the point of the game to get the f****** bird to the other side, by any means necessary?"
Naoki sighed, then turned to Yukio, who was about to serve the birdie over. "I'm handing this idiot over to you, otouto. You know your job."
Yukio saluted to his brother, then slammed the racket into the birdie as hard as he could. It soared over the other side at an amazing speed, just before hitting what I assumed to be its mark: Hidan's right eye.
"The f***, b******?" he cursed angrily at Yukio. "Watch where you f****** aim the bird!"
Seething, Hidan got up and threw the birdie into the air, smacking it down with his racket. Unfortunately, he forgot that the point of serving it was to make it over the net, not into the net and making the birdie land on the same side.
The majority of us had a good laugh after that. I attempted to as well, but it came out as an emotionless scoff. My smiling abilities had still not returned.
Yukio took the birdie and swatted it again, then glowered at Hidan. "Listen, I want to just take the day off and spend some time with my family, okay? Can't you go at least one day without cussing?"
"Just leave it, Yukio-chan," mumbled Kaiya, smacking the birdie as it flew back to our side. "Enjoy the badminton game for now. I've got to say, it's been so long since I had last picked up a racket and swung at a birdie…"
Over on the other side, I watched as Deidara grinned and smacked the birdie right back to Kaiya. "I'm not letting that thing touch the ground, un."
Kaiya just smacked it right back at him, almost hitting his face. Luckily, he positioned himself in time and swung the racket again, sending the birdie spiraling right towards her.
"Neither am I."
On and on, they continued smacking the birdie towards each other's sides, and only seemed to be aiming straight at each other. On Deidara's side, I saw Kisame and Kagami flash a knowing grin at each other before backing out of the playing field completely. With her, Kagami dragged away a shocked Naoki, to whom she whispered something. Suddenly, a small smirk grew on his lips, and seconds later, everybody on the other team except for Deidara had left the match. Deidara didn't even seem to notice this: he just kept on swinging at the birdie.
I turned to Pein, and he only gave me a slight shrug. Then, we too, backed out of the match to give Kaiya her room. Sasori stepped back as well, using his strings to drag the rest of our teammates back, save for Kaiya.
Noticing that everybody had backed far away from the net in order to watch the showdown, a playful smirk grew on her lips. "Oh, you are so going down!" she teased playfully, grinning at Deidara in an attempt to annoy him.
Deidara just smirked back, accepting her challenge. "Well then, you're on, un!" he sneered, smacking the birdie back to her.
"If that's the case," Kaiya snickered, slamming the birdie back to the other side of the net, "then you've got to make better plays than that, Deidei-chan! This isn't as easy as flying on Akane!"
Continuing to keep a grin plastered on his face, Deidara smacked the birdie right back. "Watch your mouth, Kaiya! Don't underestimate the power of true art! After all, art is an explosion!"
"Oh?" she replied sarcastically. "Is it really? Last time that I checked, we weren't using explosions to play badminton! Besides, I bet that I can score more points than you at this!"
"Please," remarked Deidara, continuing to smirk, "I can score more points at badminton right now than you ever can in a month!"
"Is that a challenge?" Kaiya sneered, cocking both of her eyebrows at him. "Since a month is too long for me to keep track, let's just see who gets the next point in this challenge!"
"You're on!"
For what seemed like hours, they continued hitting the birdie, back and forth, back and forth. Both seemed to be extremely concentrated, though Kaiya seemed to gain a slight look of surprise every time Deidara hit the birdie back at her. Occasionally, she even dived on her knees just to prevent the ball from hitting the ground.
Deidara wouldn't let his guard down, either. I assumed that it was because he didn't want to lose to a girl, but then again, I knew some powerful men who had kowtowed down to a kunoichi that had defeated them. Her name was something that I had forgotten, since I didn't really like that memory as the ones I spent playing with other children.
Speaking of children, I had also completely forgotten about attempting to smile. Pein probably had as well, observing the squabble take place with an emotionless look on his face. My actions almost completely mirrored his, but I did find the match between Kaiya and Deidara to be rather...entertaining.
"I can hit the birdie higher than you ever can!" boasted Deidara, smacking the birdie yet again.
"Oh yeah?" countered Kaiya, cocking her brow in his direction. "Then prove it, you idiot."
She slammed the face of her racket on the birdie, letting it fly over to Deidara's side. Smirking, he hit it straight up as hard as he could, launching it up towards the cerulean blue sky.
Oh, I thought, realizing what Kaiya was tricking him to do. I see.
Once it had reached its terminal velocity, it began to free fall through the air, its feathers allowing it to drift slightly with the wind. After the tiny gust dissipated, the birdie continued spiraling straight down, which Deidara was completely unaware of until the last moment. When he looked up and saw the birdie coming back down on his side of the net, his eyes widened in sudden panic.
The birdie landed on the ground with an overly dramatic thud, sending Deidara into hysterics as Kaiya smirked in victory over the boy.
"I win," she declared, watching as Deidara glared at her. "But it's all for fun. Don't take it too seriously, Deidei-chan."
"How do I not take it seriously, un?" he pouted. "I just lost in a sports match to a freaking girl! Do you know how much that hurts my reputation as a criminal? How many more times are you planning to torture me throughout my life? What about the note you sent me?"
At that, Kaiya mock gasped. "Wait...you have a life? And a reputation?"
Deidara clenched his fists in fury. "Alright! You win! Can we move on to another sport? My wrist hurts from swinging that racket for so long."
"I guess you're right," mumbled Kaiya. "Why don't we play Capture the Flag?"
Almost all of the Akatsuki members tilted their heads in confusion. "That game sounds interesting," I said, though no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't force myself to sound excited again. "Can you teach us all how to play it?"
Kagami nodded, running back towards the toy hill to grab two small flags — one blue and one red — from the pile. "Sure thing, Konan-chan! Have you ever played tag before? It's almost exactly like that, where somebody has to—"
Somehow, after I heard the name of the game, I couldn't stop myself from taking a sudden dive into my past memories. My eyes widened, listening to the sound of the three-letter word echoing inside of my brain.
Tag.
Tag…
Tag…
[FLASHBACK]
"Yahiko!" I giggled, chasing after the orange-haired boy. "Don't try to escape me! Men can't outrun a kunoichi, ya know!"
In response, the boy smirked, continuing to sprint into the woods. "Yeah, but even shinobi have exceptions sometimes! I know for sure that you can't outrun me, Konan! Don't even bother chasing after me! Chase after Nagato, since he's much slower than me!"
The red-haired boy looked over at his friend with a look of disapproval. "Hey! That's not cool, you traitor!"
Laughing, I ran after the two boys, chasing them as we sprinted through the woods. Vines and leaves slapped our faces like whips, but did we care? Duh, no. Yahiko didn't even mind the constant thorny vines or any of the sticks that he stumbled on throughout the run, and neither did Nagato. Whenever a giant obstacle stood in our way, we would all cooperate and destroy it with our jutsu.
"You can run and hide," I teased spookily, "but anywhere you two go, I will always be no less than a moment behind…"
Yahiko's eyes lit up in mock horror, before he turned tail and sprinted further into the woods at a faster pace. Nagato and I kept the same pace as we laughed together, but that was a little before I realized that he was right in front of me.
And when he had least expected it, I playfully slapped his shoulder, laughing out loud.
"You're it!" I chuckled, racing away as quickly as I could to join up with Yahiko before Nagato could catch either one of us. Back there, he childishly pouted, trying to keep up with our pace. By that time, I had finally caught up with Yahiko, and both of us were laughing with glee.
Suddenly, Yahiko smiled at me, grabbing my hand and we swerved around some tall trees. "Come on, Konan. Let's leave him behind...he'll eventually catch up later. Nagato is definitely strong, but maybe could work on his speed a little." He paused and turned his head towards where we were heading, a small blush visible on his cheeks. "You know...it was a great idea for you to suggest that we played tag in the forest."
I felt my cheeks turn pink as well. "Thanks, Yahiko. I...thought that it would be a great idea to play a fun game and train ourselves at the same time. After all, too much work isn't always the best, right."
Silently, he nodded, and with Nagato on our tails, we sprinted further into the forest, all three of us laughing.
[END FLASHBACK]
"Konan-chan? Konan-chan!" shouted the voice of Kagami, shattering my dream and causing me to flutter awake. "Hello? Earth to Konan-chan!"
I jumped back, startled from my daydream. "Oh...sorry, Kagami-chan. But yes, I understand how to play Capture the Flag now. Who's going to be on the teams?"
She shrugged, then turned to her older sister. "I wanna do the same teams as last time, onee-chan! You and Deidara-san kicked us all off of the court, and that's not fair!" She turned away and pouted, crossing her arms childishly.
"That's okay with me," she replied. "We'll be the red team, and you can be the blue team. Now, let's hide our flags somewhere in the yard, and this time, we can use both the front yard and the backyard, even though we never use the backyard."
Kagami seemed to be very pleased by this. "Yay! I wanna play in the backyard! I wanna play in the backyard! Please?"
Naoki sighed once more at his little sister's antics, then shrugged. "Sure we can, imouto. But remember, no breaking anything."
The teams went off to their designated sides, nobody peeking at where the other team had hidden their flag. Kagami had handed the flag to me, so on instinct, I just placed it inside a thick bush and covered it with leaves.
After I was certain that nobody could see the flag, I went ahead and covered the rest of the bushes as well, trying to set up a few decoys in order to trick the other team. I followed Pein to the area which Kaiya had marked as the boundary between our teams, ready to run over and try to take their flag, wherever they had hidden it.
"Ready?" Kagami asked, standing by Tobi's side.
Kaiya, who was in between me and Pein, nodded. "Yes, we are. One, two, three, go!"
As Pein and Kaiya sprinted around the members of Kagami's team, I stood still, sending what seemed to be a threatening glare to her teammates, based on the frightened reactions that I got.
Tobi, who seemed to be getting impatient, suddenly raced towards me. Recalling the rules on how to play Capture the Flag, I tagged him by giving him a good slap on the back.
To my surprise, my playful side couldn't resist saying, "You're out!"
The masked man sat down in the spot, eying Kagami and waiting for her to rescue him. She seemed to get the message, because as soon as she ran over, she headed straight towards Tobi instead of our base. Quickly, I tagged her as well, then ran across the boundary to rejoin Pein and Kaiya in the backyard.
On the other side, Kaiya was running around in large circles, trying to evade Deidara and Kisame, who were right on her tail. Hidan and Naoki were being held back by Sasori's puppet strings, the latter of which was thrashing wildly. With a jolt, I realized that the only people left unguarded were me and Pein.
I sent Pein a look, and both of us shared a nod before rushing off towards a large patch of small flower bushes, where we assumed they had hidden the flag. With no enemies behind us, we shuffled through each bush carefully. But none of the flower bushes seemed to have anything inside them other than more flowers.
Suddenly, Pein reached inside the last flower bush, and with a knowing look in his Rinnegan eyes, yanked out the blue flag. However, it had not been all that silent, as Hidan and Naoki had noticed us as they broke free of Sasori's strings.
"Hey, Leader-chan!" roared Hidan, running at us with Naoki by his side. "Put our f****** flag down!"
After hearing that, all of Kagami's other team members turned towards us, charging full speed. Zetsu returned from the other side, bringing Tobi and Kagami along with him.
However, Pein was too fast for either of them, and quickly sprinted back to the front yard, where a few of our team members were waiting. When the saw their leader waving the blue flag in the air, most of them cheered.
"Go, Pein!" chanted Yukio, waving his arms in the air like a cheerleader. "You can do this!"
But Pein paid no attention, focusing more on the people that were behind him, and taking notice, his eyes widened slightly as he sprinted faster and faster towards our base in order to capture the flag. The flag's cloth flew with the wind, making a soft fanning noise as Pein continued running.
It felt rather...odd and queer, seeing Pein run off like that, when he usually never fled so fast from other people since that day when we had all played tag through the forest. There was no emotion in his eyes or on his face, but his actions made it seem as if he were running for his life. From where I was standing, I imagined Yahiko running in Pein's place, laughing as I chased him through the trees and laughed as well.
The vision and the sight just struck me as so incredibly funny that I just started laughing at the very spot.
Hearing the noise of my laughter sounded so foreign to me: it had been almost twenty years since I had laughed like that, with emotion poured into it. It wasn't a smile, but still, it was definitely a step up the ladder.
Most of the Akatsuki members turned towards me in surprise, especially Pein, who just froze in shock. For the first time in a long time, emotion clouded his gaze, and I could tell how surprised he felt by just looking at his face.
However, this left an opening for the other team, in which Hidan and Naoki tried to tackle him. Naoki shoved him towards Hidan, who grabbed him from behind by yanking on his golden necklace. Surprised, Pein tugged back, mouthing to Hidan, "Let go."
"Where's the f****** flag?" Hidan demanded, glaring at Pein and ignoring the question. "Give it to me now!"
"I said, let go."
Hidan scowled. "Nope! Not until you give up the—"
Suddenly, I heard a very loud snap, and both Hidan and Pein were thrown backward. I gasped in horror as they landed on top of each other, with Pein landing on top of Hidan. Both of them then gasped in horror at Pein's broken necklace, which had been thrown further back and was rolling down the street.
In the middle of the road, it stopped, just where one of the yellow dashes was. Pein stood up quickly, running to retrieve the necklace, but Naoki stopped him immediately.
"Don't," Naoki told him, pointing towards the left side of the road. "You're going to get hit."
We all turned our heads towards the left side of the road where Naoki was pointing, curious about what was coming from there. As soon as I saw the danger that Naoki was talking about, I let out a gasp of horror.
A car, zooming towards where the necklace laid at a speed of Kami-knows-how-much.
Pein's eyes widened, displaying his fear of the necklace being broken. Without hesitation, he extended his arm out in front of him, and attempted to bring on his almighty jutsu to blow it out of the way. "Shinra Tensei!"
A huge gust of wind blew towards the car, scattering tons of leaves that were forcibly blown off nearby trees. It created quite the whirlwind, pelting the car with leaves and slowing down its motion greatly. I was pretty sure that the driver was going to be killed, but to my surprise, the wind quickly slowed down as well, and left only a couple of dents in the car. The necklace, which he had also tried to aim at, had only budged a couple of inches.
Pein's Shinra Tensei had gotten significantly weaker, probably due to lack of training and being in a world where our chakra was significantly suppressed. I recalled it originally being strong enough to decimate an entire village, but now, it seemed to be just a little above a Great Breakthrough Jutsu. The wind gusts were dying down, and no longer affected by the wind, the car sped down the street, no way of stopping it.
When I heard the sound of breaking and glasslike shattering, I knew that the worst had happened. Pein stood there, eyes as wide as alarm clocks, staring at the entire scene as it unfolded. At first, the driver stopped, as if he was wondering what he had just run over. But a few seconds later, he shook his head and kept on going, not even bothering to look at us.
I watched in a mix of shock, horror, and remorse as the car rolled on, leaving nothing but a scattered pile of what used to be Nagato's treasured necklace, reduced to nothing but bits and pieces of broken shards.
A/N: There is a huge part of me that absolutely hates this chapter. Well, it's a very important plot point, but I wrote it all with writer's block. I guess those are the horrors that a benchmark test can do to our minds...
Question: Would you rather have Hidan or Kakuzu as a partner?
See you all next time, lovelies!
— Tenshi —
