~*~ Chapter 19 - The Reason ~*~
Yume-chan is avoiding me more than ever. She avoids everyone because she still holds a grudge because of the prank, but she avoids me more. I suppose it's because I never told her the reason for my mutism, but it made me realise something.
I could talk to Sakura when we were alone together. That means that she would never do anything to harm me. But what about if it was against her will? If that is the case, does that mean that other people in Konoha know about me? Am I a wanted fugitive now?
All these questions just fuel my desire to know the truth about Pein, and why he wants Yume-chan and me to be a part of Akatsuki. But I had one problem. Even if I could find him - and that will not be easy - how can I get him to fess up without talking and being afraid for my life?
Yume-chan, to my dismay, does not seem to have any interest in knowing the reason. She's as obsessed as ever with Itachi-san. She literally follows him wherever he goes. When he exits the building, she practices her fire jutsus in one of the training rooms in order to impress him. And she avoids everyone else. When I talk to her, she suddenly starts mumbling non-stop. When I strain my ears to listen, I hear words like 'suck-ups' and 'fucking annoying'.
While I am trying to come up with a plan, I am continuing my training with both Kakuzu and Kisame-sensei. Kakuzu is finally making me heal human wounds. The only downside is that I have to make the wounds on myself before healing them again. He says that it's good, that it will help me to become strong, because I cannot handle pain. He's correct on the second half of the sentence. I just don't see how hurting myself is helping at all. It just reminds me of my old self. My old, self-destructing self. Every now and then, he makes me focus chakra in my arms or legs, and makes me break something that is supposed to be really difficult to break. Like a marble or lead tablet every now and then, to keep my strength up.
Kisame-sensei is teaching me new, stronger water jutsus. By now, I can do the Grand Waterfall Jutsu, the Great Exploding Current Jutsu, Great Exploding Water Collision Waves Jutsu, and I am busy learning the Water Prison Jutsu now. He says that I am going to learn his favourite jutsu next, the Water Shark Projectile Jutsu.
Weeks pass, and with it, my seventeenth birthday. I do not tell anybody, because it's a day just like any other. But I think that Yume-chan is cooling down again, because she seems to have told Dei-kun, and he secretly got me a small heart-shaped chocolate cake and gave me an especially nice wake-up kiss early in the morning, just before I am due to start my training. At sunset, which is earlier now, he also takes me outside to the lake, but the winter brought snow with it. I managed to make a Water Prison just big enough for the two of us, and we sat crouched on the water, drinking hot chocolate, before going back inside again.
One especially cold winter's day, I am training with Kisame-sensei in our own training room, when he gives me a bit of odd thought.
"I think the Leader has a special interest in you and the other girl," he says. He stopped liking Yume-chan at the dinner after the secret of the prank was revealed, because she was so unnecessarily rude to me.
"Why would you say that?" I ask.
"He has never stopped giving us missions just so that we can train," he replies, "All of us are already strong enough. He's putting everything on hold so that the two of you can get stronger."
"That's ridiculous," I say, "Why would he do that? He doesn't like either of us."
"All the same, I think he knows more than he's letting on. Maybe he knows something about your ancestory."
"My ancestory wouldn't be of any interest to him."
"For all you know, one of your forefathers also came here, like you did, and he turned out to be a great ninja. There must be a reason you and your friend turned up right outside Konoha, right where you would be found by us. It can't all just be coincidence."
"Suiton Suirou no Jutsu!" I say, forming a bubble of chakra in the pool beside me and expanding it to form a large Water Prison so that I don't have to answer. I don't know what to say, anyway.
"You can do this jutsu well enough now," Kisame-sensei says, knowing that I don't want to talk about those reasons anymore. "I think you're ready to learn the Water Shark Projectile. It's the same principle as the Water Prison, only you sort of scoop up the water with your chakra and attack your opponent with it. More water will follow that water so that is takes the form of a whip of sorts."
More weeks pass, and Yume-chan eventually starts talking to me again. She started by saying 'good night' and 'good morning' again, and gradually started talking at dinner again. She seems a little down, and she doesn't seem to be following Itachi-san quite as much anymore.
I know what happened. He snapped again. She should quit being so obsessive. He's never going to fall for her if she continues being so obvious. When she whined to me about the situation, that's what I told her.
"Easy for you to say," she snaps. "You're always the one guys look at. You, with your freaking 'selective mutism' and 'shy attitude'."
"Quit it," I tell her, a little annoyed, "Good things are allowed to happen to me, you know. You're always blaming me if something good happens to me. Yes, Dei-kun and I are together. But I didn't swoon over him like you do to Itachi-san. That puts guys off."
"Whatever," she says.
"Are you ready to take on Pein yet?" I ask.
"What the hell, bitch? Not yet. He'll kill me in a heartbeat. I suck with Ninjutsu-"
"That's not what I meant," I cut across her, surprised that she would actually consider taking him on. "Confront him, about, you know, letting us join."
"He hasn't really let us join yet, though, has he?" she says, "Where's my purple manicure, and ring and, God, where's my cloak already?"
"They only have a limited amount of rings, and you're avoiding my question!"
"Yeah, sure, come on," she says, getting up.
I stare at her. "You wanna go now?"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"Well, maybe because it's the middle of the night. And you don't know how to get inside his room, and what are you gonna tell him?"
"Just watch, learn, don't talk, and follow me."
I sit looking at her crossing the room for a moment, before getting up and shaking my head and following her. We go to the very top floor, the fourth, which is empty except for a single door right at the end of the corridor. The door is made of metal, and covered in several sealing tags. There is only a small spot where there aren't any tags. Yume-chan lifts her hand to knock on it-
"What are you two doing here?"
I whirl around, and so does Yume-chan, to see Konan looking at us suspiciously.
"We want to see the Leader for a quickie," Yume-chan says.
"There aren't any missions available for anyone right now," she says, "Go to your rooms."
"We just want-"
"Go," she interrupts, a little snappily.
Suddenly the door behind us opens, and Pein steps onto the threshold. "It's alright, Konan. Go to sleep. I will handle this."
She nods and disappears with a flurry of paper.
"What do you want?" he asks us. I stand behind Yume-chan. He's still scary as hell.
"We just want some answers," Yume-chan replies, "Like, why you're giving us this much time to train? Why did you let us into the organisation at all, instead of just killing us on the spot? Those kind of answers."
He silently stares at Yume-chan for several seconds, so intently that she starts shifting uncomfortably. That surprises me. She never even flinches during a staring contest. But then I decide it's understandable, given the weight of a stare like Pein's. After a while, he shifts his gaze to me, and I automatically bow down behind Yume-chan's shoulder.
"Come in," he tells us.
I look up again, my surprise mirrored in Yume-chan's face. We follow Pein inside the room, and Yume-chan closes the door. The room is massive, but it is empty except foor a very large window, a chair in front of it and, in the far corner, a thick drape over what looks like it could be six different cases. I struggle to keep the smirk off my face when I realise what they contain.
"I wondered when the two of you would come snooping. You did so rather late," he says, turning the chair to face us and sitting down as though he's our king.
"Well, your little prank caused conflict between us, and we-"
"Don't talk to me like I'm your friend," he interrupts, a strange atmosphere spreading about that makes my heart beat faster and the tips of my fingers tremble. An atmosphere that induces fear. But Yume-chan keeps her cool well, even though she doesn't say anything. "Perhaps you have the right to know why you are here, even though telling you is a waste of my time."
He stares at us with that heavy look of his for several moments. I wait for Yume-chan to make some snappy comeback, but for once, she's clever enough to shut up.
"When the two of your first came to me, guided by Deidara and that idiotic waste, Tobi, I could sense something different about your chakra. The difference is too faint to be detected by these mediocre soldiers of mine. Perhaps one or two did, but they kept it quiet."
"What kind of difference?" Yume-chan asks.
"A very old kind. Very, very old. I knew what it was, but I couldn't put my finger on it. So I looked it up again. A few generations ago, two brothers resided within Konoha Village. Their chakra was special. In battle, they were nearly unbeatable, but seperately, they were just an ordinary, average shinobi. This intrugued the Hokage of the time, the Third, and he mentioned the brothers to his three students."
"The Sannin?" Yume-chan asks. Why can't she just shut up?
"One of these students was fast in turning his back on his village, but nobody knew about the experiments he was conducting on ninja to perfect his own techniques-"
"Orochimaru," Yume-chan says excitedly.
"I'm going to lock you up in a cell if you continue interrupting me," Pein threatens, and that menacing atmosphere intensifies, shutting her up again, "Orochimaru captured the two brothers, very careful in masking his tracks, and set about trying to find out their secret. Without meaning to, he became so obsessed and reckless that he killed them by accident, but not before discovering their secret. In battle, their chakra signatures synchronize, so that they formulate nearly perfect battle strategies in the most desperate times, and their bodies work together without their minds needing to. That made them the perfect duo."
"And we fit in that story ... ?" Yume-chan asks. I think to myself, Seriously, bitch, you're looking for trouble. But luckily, Pein ignores her.
"You are these brothers' descendants," he says simply.
"And how do you know that?"
"You have no need to know that," he says, "All you need to know, is that you will make the perfect soldiers for me, the perfect diversion for nuisances like that oaf the blonde Kyuubi boy takes with him everywhere."
"Does that mean we're going to get cloaks?"
"If you can prove yourself to me," he says. "In exactly two weeks, I am sending Hidan and Kakuzu after the Nibi. You will defeat her, and they will bring her here."
"Are you kidding?!" she says, "We're gonna die!"
"Stop it!" I hiss in her ear.
"Then you are not strong enough. Then you will be of no use to me. Now leave."