Impatiently Pain waited for their return. He had been knocking with a pen on his desk for hours and kept glancing at the clock. Finally he felt movements close to the entrance of the HQ: He almost jumped up and left the room. As soon as he closed the door his cold mask appeared on his face. Discovering the faces of the other members he felt immediately that something must've gone wrong. It wasn't the fact that they looked quite beaten, he was used to that. It was the blissful, calm though a little confused look on their faces. It simply was not natural at all. "What happened? What took you so long?" he asked. The others just shook their head and made room for Hidan. Natsuki lay in his arms, pale and lifeless. Pain's eyes widened. Carefully he took her in his arms and walked straight to his room, where he out her on her bed. As Konan noticed his facial expression she followed, as well did Hidan and Sasori. As Hidan closed the door behind himself Pain stared at him imperious. "She fucking changed. Besides her changing the memories of the Konoha-shinobi , she healed them, too. And when she saw that we were hurt, too, she did the same with us. When we woke up afterwards she was just lying there next to me in her blood, damn it. That's all I know, man…" It was clearly visible how much Natsuki's state affected Hidan. Pain turned to Natsuki. Understanding Konan put a hand on Pain's shoulder. "Can I be of any help in some way?" Sasori asked. "Leave some bandages and ointment here. I'll do the rest." Konan answered smiling. Sasori nodded, put the requested things on the desk and left the room. "It would be best if you left the room for the time I'm cleaning the wounds and bandaging her." Konan said turning to Pain and Hidan. Both walked hesitantly towards the door. In the end Konan simply shoved both of them out of the room and locked the door.
Half an hour later Pain and Hidan entered again and sat down on the bed beside Natsuki, both silent. "If you keep putting on faces like that, she'll never wake up!" Konan said strict. "The wounds on her back were severe but I saw some scars, which indicated that she already had injuries like that and did survive them. The only reason she is still unconscious is the huge loss of chackra. It seems that barrier of her uses up quite a lot even when she's only sleeping. But I'm sure she'll wake up soon." Even though no relief was displayed on the two men's faces, Konan knew better. She left the room to go lie down in her own for a bit.
"When do you think it started?" Hidan asked quietly as soon as Konan's steps had faded away. Pain paused long before he answered. "It must have happened after we parted. She didn't have it when we were travelling together." "How do you know though?" Hidan quickly replied. "She could have already had it but simply didn't show it. In fact she must have already had it. She is the daughter of a Goddess." Pain shot him a short hard glance. "But the powers activate usually only at a certain age. She simply wasn't old enough yet. I couldn't detect anything strange about her chackra when I met her first." Hidan got up. "Yeah, but you couldn't detect anything strange about her chackra now either!" He had begun to yell, perhaps out of frustration, out of desperation or simply out of tiredness. Whatever it was, it annoyed Pain. "How about, you give me an explanation then! She didn't tell me how it happened, yet. And if you probably would have eavesdropped anyway, right!" Even Pain had now raised his voice, getting tired of Hidan's questioning and expecting attitude. The worry about his little sister had left him awake during the last few nights. "Could you stop yelling? You both really are a pain in the ass when you're tired." Natsuki's voice sounded a bit scratchy. Both heads turned around in less than a heartbeat and stared at the girl which lay on the bed, wearily rubbing her eyes. "We should call Konan." Pain said looking at Hidan. Hesitant, since he had wanted to talk to her, too, Hidan turned to get Konan. For now Natsuki probably would have to listen to Pain's sermon. Hidan grinned at the thought and left.
Pain's eyes were fixed on her. Noticing that fact, her eyes stayed fixed on the door, Hidan had just closed behind himself. Somewhere in her mind she wondered what that grin had meant. "Why did you allow it?" "I didn't allow it, I provoked it. I called willfully upon my powers." "Even though you knew how dangerous it would be." Pain interrupted. She sighed and finally met his gaze. "Of course I did. Nii-san, I've lived with these powers for some years now. I know about the side effects. But I also know that they've the means to save lives. And that's all I did." Her voice had a soft tone. Calming she put her hand on his. He pulled it away and looked at her with now angry eyes. "You could've died! I told you to hold back! You didn't have to use your abilities except for changing their memories!" Surprised by his loud voice, Natsuki flinched. However she quickly overcame her surprise and yelled "Stop it!" Pain fell silent, cold eyes fixed on her. "I just told you. I've lived with these powers since my damn birth! I even used to fight with them for some time. The only reason I stopped using them was my mother. She kept trying to persuade me to become a real Goddess." A little quieter she added "Well, and my body couldn't fully keep up yet…" She shook her head, trying to get rid of that thought and continued. "I'm nothing more than a half-breed. And I do not want to become a Goddess. I like it here too much as to leave. So… before you try to tell me how to handle my powers, try to understand that I'm not the little girl anymore you saved on that bloody cold day. I might still look young thanks to my powers but I did become more mature. I usually know my limits and I can win battles on my own, with my own powers." She inhaled deeply as if she had forgotten to do it the last two minutes. Quietly the door opened and Konan entered, directly followed by Hidan. "Sorry… to interrupt. I'll come back later." Konan said quickly, having analyzed the situation. "No" Natsuki waved at her "We just finished talking. Pain was about to leave anyway." Konan nodded slowly. For a long moment Pain's eyes were fixed on Natsuki, then he turned and left the room without looking at anyone else.