We'd gotten to the village an hour later. My feet were killing me, but I didn't dare complain. What kind of a kunoichi would I be if I complained of walking?
By now, the rain had stopped. I still held my umbrella above my head, because I'd seen geisha do that. It was supposed to look . . . elegant.
I had to admit, this village was beautiful. People seemed to hang lanterns back up in harmony with my footsteps, re-lighting them. The water-tinted place shined brightly, along with the stars in the sky.
I looked up, watching as dark shadows hopped from building-to-building. These were Pein and Deidara, who watched me with protectiveness. They weren't the only ones watching though.
For once in quite a while, the people that were looking at me did not recognize me as "Amegakure's Angel". Instead, I was just a beautiful geisha who was carelessly walking alone in the streets.
Eventually, I'd reached the geisha house hidden in the center of the village. I walked through the back, Pein and Deidara sneaking in with me. When in there, I saw a all of the geisha.
They all looked similar to one another. Their ghost-like faces stared at us with curiosity. One, the tallest on as a matter of fact, came up to us, bowing.
We bowed back.
When she rose, she spoke in a deep, Amazonian-like voice. "My dearest respects to the Akatsuki. We are deeply blessed for you help in this desperate situation." she said.
Pein stepped beside me. "We are more than willing to do this for a neighboring village. I can assure you that we will not let this man harm another person again." said Pein.
The woman nodded. Then she looked at me, bowing once again. "Lady Konan, I have heard much about you. We are blessed to have you here." she said.
I smiled, nodding. Pein then spoke. "Let's go over our plans." he said. The girls nodded.
"So, Konan will just sit around, acting like she's learning your routines. When the performances are all over, you all will stay in while Deidara watches from the ceiling, just in case the man stays inside the building. Meanwhile, Konan will be walking outside, like most of the attacks. I will be watching from the rooftops there." he said.
I think I heard the whole room let out a sigh of relief, knowing that we three would not let anything happen to them. I was glad that I would be the most-likely to be attacked, even though that left me with the most-dangerous part in this mission. Even so, I knew that I could take care of myself.
Pein continued to talk. "We don't plan to kill these men immediately. We'd like to get some information out of them, such as names. We are also striving to understand the purpose of these killings." he said.
Normal POV
A few of the geisha scampered away, murmuring things to one another. Konan then turned to Pein, whose grey, ringed eyes showed worry for her. Konan's own eyes, more gentle and caring, seemed to tell him not to worry.
"Konan, he said to her. She nodded, telling him to continue. "Be careful during tonight's mission. We have reason to believe that he is a shinobi, and that he could be bringing more men tonight." he said.
Konan swallowed a lump in her throat. "Do you think that if there is more than one man, that they might try to harm geisha in the geisha house, instead of following me, like our plan includes?" she asked.
Pein shook his head. "It's not likely. These men like to take on one woman at once, and they always hunt at outside. The girls will be fine in there with Deidara. The only person's safety we need to worry about is you." he said.
Konan sighed. She was actually worried about this situation. She hated when women were taken advantage of, so perhaps, she'd be able to obtain revenge for the recent killings. Besides, she was sure that they were doing more than killing them.
_ _ _
When the performances were taking place, Konan was told to sit on the corner of the stage, and to wave a fan in front of her face flirtatiously. This made her look as if she was watching the geisha's dancing and singing routines, in order to learn them.
While Konan sat there, six men that were sitting in the back kept on looking at her. She was a bit uncomfortable with it, but she pretended not to notice. If these were the men or man that kept on hunting down these girls, then she needed to make sure that they had no idea that she was actually a kunoichi.
When the performance was over, Konan glanced upward for a few seconds. She saw Pein and Deidara, sitting in the shadows of the wooden planks on the ceiling. Pein seemed to tell her with his eyes, that now was the time.
Konan pretended not to notice as Pein carefully hopped down, without anyone else seeing. He wiggled his way through the small crowd of people. When passing the six men, he was extremely cautious. This gave Konan the signal that he also was suspicious of the men.
Now, it was Konan's turn. As the rest of the geisha slid into the dressing room, Deidara following, she made her exit. When she was out in the late-fall night, the cold hit her like a bullet.
She could just barely tell that Pein was following her. He carefully leapt from building top to building top, not even a shadow casting from the bright lanterns that hung from their poles. It wasn't until she hit a part of the village with no lanterns, that she began to hear footsteps behind her.
It was a fake case of fight or flight. Konan purely pretended to get panicky, deliberately trying to increase her breath and constantly look behind her. Each time she did so, the footsteps would stop.
Konan sighed inwardly, knowing that now was the time. She turned around, preparing for the largest case of one-person theatre that she'd ever shown. Hopefully, she was a good actress.
"Hello?" she asked a fake tinge of panic hanging from the very edge of her womanly voice. She had a deep voice for her age. When she received no answer, she called again. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
She sighed, turning around. She continued to walk, even though her toes were burning from the uncomfortable, tiny shoes that she wore. It was then, that it happened.
An icy hand gripped her by the shoulder. She let out a gasp as she was slammed into a wall, another set of hands grabbing her by the wrists. A man, two fingernail-made scars running down his cheek, almost stabbed her with a small hand-knife.
That is, before Pein ripped a hole through his chest.
End of Chapter Quote:
"An artist once told me that the world is my canvas.
Another artist told me that I need to cover the entire piece of artwork with color.
If that's the case, then I better start running."
-Me
