Chapter Six
At the same time that Severus had started heading for the infirmary, Minerva was heading for Shiori's room. Everyone within a four foot radius had heard what they had said to each other and Minerva had to admit that she was shocked. Shocked because she had never known Severus to be so heavy-handed, he was quite gifted enough to make a brief pass through the mind and most didn't even know what had happened. (She had helped him practice) though she was only mildly surprised that he had performed legilimancy on her. What had also shocked her was Shiori's violent attack. She could understand the anger to be sure, but she had never seen anyone move so swiftly. Why for a moment it looked as though she might kill him!
When she got to the room, she heard the sound of Shiori sobbing, interspersed with sharp gasping breaths.
"Shiori? It's me Minerva. Now don't cry dear I'm sure the Headmaster will understand-"
Shiori did not look as though she feared losing her job, in fact her eyes had the haunted look of someone who had been through the deepest of sorrows. In fact it seemed that Shiori barely registered her presence at all.
"Dead." She whispered to herself. "They're all gone…I'm alone now." She swallowed hard, arms wrapped around her knees, face both pale and splotchy and sniffled.
"Who is Shiori?" Asked Minerva gently.
"My friends, my family, my lover…" She whispered again, struggling to regain her composure and failing miserably.
"How exactly?" Minerva pressed delicately after a moment's painful silence.
"I was born in a military village where there were constant…uprisings against the government. My mother went MIA when I was one year old, my father and sister were killed because they were loyal soldiers-and I was left alone."
Konan may have been distraught, but not so much that she would tell the whole truth.
"How old were you when it happened?" Minerva asked.
"I don't remember…somewhere past my eighth birthday-I think." She said. "I banded together with two other children a week later. I hated the militaristic ways of our government. Killing and oppressing, getting rich off its soldiers, ripping families apart…."
For a while Konan became silent, realizing at last that she had been a part of everything she'd ever loathed.
"I entered it formally when I was thirteen."
"Thirteen!" Shouted Minerva, thoroughly scandalized.
"We were child soldiers, it is all too common an occurrence where I come from, they train us young and we die young. All for the glory of our village, I hated what they did to the children most of all. We were young and idealistic, we believed we could take it all down from the inside…but of course, in our naivety we underestimated them and I've lost many of my friends since then."
Yahiko had been the love of her life in her youth just as Deidara had been the love of her life in her adulthood and just as had happened with the ex Iwa nin, she had never told him so.
Then of course there had been Nagato her brother by heart, if not by blood and several other friends who had been killed by her own hand, once it had been discovered that they were spies and traitors to the Akatsuki. Madara had always believed she'd been too soft so she had taken it upon herself to kill them before they leaked too many secrets, but the pain of their betrayal or their deaths had not hurt any less.
"I'm very sorry." Minerva said and those were not empty words, she could not imagine what it would be like to live in such bleak and barbaric conditions.
She turned and gazed at her for a moment before a ghost of a smile graced her lips.
"Never make the mistake of feeling sorry for me Minerva. I have disrupted far too many lives to be truly pitied. I was never a victim of circumstances."
Minerva studied her for a long moment before asking, "Then what would you be?"
Konan thought about that for a time, before finally answering. "I was merely a participant on the road of life."
It was something she'd once heard Jiraiya-sensei say, when he was drunk and in one of his rare, philosophical moods.
Kisame and Zetsu spiraled down the bright flashes of swirling, colorful sky and landed with thumps and groans on a cold forest floor. Though Zetsu usually despised the cold air, the biting autumn chill brought relief to his roiling stomach. Both ninja lay there panting heavily, disoriented and nauseous, when they were suddenly accompanied by another falling body.
Kisame was up on his feet faster then Zetsu. He peered through the darkness and inwardly cursed at the sight of fair silvery hair and the wicked looking scythe strapped to his back.
"It's you!" He spat at the Jashinist. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Hidan made a choking noise as he struggled not to puke up his last meal. "Fuck-you-fish head!" He groaned.
Zetsu managed to prop himself up on one arm.
"I thought you weren't going to accompany us Hidan-san?"
"Guilty conscience?" Sneered Zetsu's Darker Half at the same time.
"What? Hell no!"
Though Zetsu had a clear strong grip on Konan's chakra trail, he decided that shelter and food would shut Hidan up, if only momentarily and they needed a temporary base of sorts. He was about to suggest making a campsite when a deep, heavy rain came out of nowhere. They sat there for a moment longer in the drenching rain when Hidan asked caustically.
"So what do we do now oh fearless leader?"
"We go find a hotel." Zetsu said simply. "There's no point looking for her till morning."
"Well no shit! But that's not what I'm asking and you fucking know it! Tell me, how the hell are we supposed to get back once we have ol'Blue in tow? Did you even stop to think about that? I don't see any sign of civilization so where we gonna get a hotel room? Where the hell are we even supposed to find Miss Prissy?"
"We simply find the boot that brought us here-" He began but was quickly cut off.
"And what if there is some sort of time limit or chakra limit on the damn thing and we get stuck here?"
Valid questions all, but Zetsu who was still feeling the effects of the strange jutsu had no patience for Hidan's incessant bitching.
"If you'd shut your ugly mouth I'll tell you." His Darker Half snarled.
Hidan fell silent.
"One we'll find civilization the old fashioned way dumb-ass! We search for it! Two I have a firm lock on Ol Blue's chakra signature, does that satisfy you?"
"Yeah whatever." He muttered rolling his eyes.
"Quit acting like a teenage drama queen Hidan!" Kisame snorted.
"What the hell did you just say to me Fish head?" Hidan growled.
"That's enough!" Zetsu snapped from both sides of his face. Really, of all the Akatsuki that accompanied him on those frustrating ordeal it had to be these two! Sasori, Itachi and Kakuzu would have at least remained quiet and been more useful. All these two did was bicker like Genin!
Kisame took to the top of the trees and spotted what looked like a small town below. They headed in the direction of Hogsmeade making sure to Henge before they got too close, staying behind while Zetsu found a suitable target, Kisame drained them of energy, which he noticed was like very weak chakra, though they had it in abundance. Soon, they were all sitting comfortably in a spacious room.
If there was one positive side effect about the incident between Severus Snape and
Shiori Nakamura, Minerva thought, it was that the legilimancy had broken through her seemingly impenetrable wall. The next couple of days, she actually seemed capable of conveying emotion, though it was muted and dulled compared to normal people. She had even laughed once at a joke Hagrid had made. It had been a quiet laugh, but the smile had reached her eyes before her face fell into a neutral state once more. However, the Foreign Language teacher was still aloof, even around the few people she befriended. No more had been said to her about Shiori's past and Minerva had the feeling that she had been spoken to in confidence and perhaps out of some sort of desperation.
Dumbledore had given both teachers a sharp reprimand. While he understood Shiori's need to defend herself, he would have rather she had not done it so violently. Severus had glared at her when she announced that while she could maintain a professional working atmosphere with him, she would not tolerate his or anyone else's intrusion into her mind and had Albus that she would not be held responsible for any teacher who attempted to attack her.
That being settled, Hogwarts began to prepare for the first Quidditch match of the season. Having nothing better to do, she decided to see what all the hullabaloo was about. Quidditch, thought Konan was interesting. It may have looked like some mad scramble but the teams were well coordinated and it helped to hone, sharp reflexes, speed and teamwork. In fact they reminded her of predators working together just a little, but they lacked the fierce instincts of animals and shinobi. Still, she thought as she shielded her eyes from the driving rain it was certainly fascinating.
Suddenly a slew of creatures that Professor Dumbledore had talked about during the start of school term called Dementors appeared and they went for one of the students, she was not sure exactly what they did to him but he fell off his broom from a dangerous height and began plummeting to the ground.
She moved quickly, pumping chakra to her legs and catching the unconscious boy midair. Once behind the stands she caught sight of the man who had transformed into the large black dog in the castle.
Sirius had never seen anyone move so quickly or jump so high in his life! He had certainly not forgotten the woman who wanted to kill him but before she could make a move, a Dementor flew towards her and Sirius took his chance to escape, though he felt guilty at leaving his Godson undefended.
Konan narrowed her eyes at the demon. It was hideous and seemed to be searching for something inside of her, feeling despair in the air around her, Konan emptied her mind of emotions and took a wary step back, eyes tracking the creature's every move. They seemed to feed and magnify bad emotion and despair she now remembered Lupin saying. She flung a kunai at it experimentally, cursing quietly when it passed through its body harmlessly. She dodged and ducked, the boy heavy in her arms, using a few evasive maneuvers and even a few genjutsu to try and escape it, but to no avail. The damn dementor just kept coming for them.
Albus had been curious about the swift blur that had snatched Harry from the sky and had vanished before his eyes. Searching round, he swiftly located his new teacher, who had the boy in her arms and was effortlessly dodging a Dementor intent on pursuing them.
With a swish of his wand, he sent the bright silvery phoenix to chase the dementor away. He was about to say something but thought better of it and smiled to himself as he used his locomotor spell to take Harry to the hospital wing. It seemed, just as he thought it would, that their Foreign Language teacher was full of surprises.
He had been stuck here for a week, searching, desperate and had finally found a clue though he had felt like an idiot trying to do simple sign language with human/horse demons. He had ambushed one and held it by the throat trying desperately to get it to talk. In frustration he had ended up pointing first to his hair and then to his sandals while repeating Ao! Ao! And sashaying like a woman. The dimwitted creature had finally understood him and had pointed towards a towering castle. He had spent a few days observing the goings on and he had even followed her to the town though she had sensed him and given him the slip even with that enormous man she was with. His mind was busy working on a plan to lure her out into the open and he finally spotted his little opportunity at an open window and slipped inside the castle, reveling in the fact that the teacher didn't even notice he had an extra student.
Author's Note:
So what do ya guys think?
Who do you think this guy is?
I bet you can't wait to find out!
Tune in next time for chapter seven!
Little Kunai