AN: So originally, like I said, this segment was supposed to between two to three chapters long. Well, after revising this chapter alone between three to four times; making it long and detailed to short and sweet, I just went with making it simple and cramming all the chapters together because they were too short to be published singularly. So, instead of two-threeish chapters, it's only one. Makes it easier for us both.

You can skip this entire chapter since its just filler, just do not skip the end because it will set up the next few chapters along with it.

Also, I changed the generic title of 'Act 1' to 'Mayfly Arc' and each Arc will be now labeled. I have gone back and changed the titles of each chapter to reflect this change.

Math725e: Thank you so much. Kind comments such as yours encourages me to write this bizarre of mine.

Now with that cleared, read and enjoy!

Warning(s): Language (High), Abuse (Mid), Genderbend (Low), Blood/Gore (Low), Out of Character (Konan)

…

Wasteland

Mayfly Arc

Chapter 14

Zetsu slept for the next three days. The morning after their first meeting, Kakuzu had barged into her room to awaken her and escort her outside so they may begin their training only to discover she was unbothered but his abrupt entrance. He tried to rouse her by means of violent shaking and screaming with no result. He made several more attempts throughout the day without success. The morning after, the conclusion was the same and he questioned if her human meal had resulted in brain damage and she had lapsed into a coma. To answer his concerns, he asked Leader about it, if something about it had been mentioned in the records about the Mayfly and ginger simply told him that consuming the amount of calories and multiple pounds that she had had probably overwhelmed her body and it needed to rest in order to disgust the sheer amount of it. It was a half-assed explanation, but Kakuzu accepted it as it better than nothing.

On the third day, Kakuzu's patience was wore thin and this time when he aggressively tried to rouse Zetsu and after a few hours it was successful as the girl slowly recovered from her food-induced sleeping coma. The first thing she did upon seeing him was cower beneath her covers, whimpering and trembling and the man rolled over his eyes from the teenager's pathetic behavior. He wrenched up the blanket shielding her from him and jabbed a harsh finger into her forehead making her flinch.

"Wash yourself and get dressed," He gruffly commanded, nose quirked up in a grimace from the stale smell drifting off of her. "Once you're done, come outside immediately. If you take too long, I will drag you outside myself. You've wasted enough of my time already. Understood?" Zetsu did not reply as he stared at him in silent terror and Kakuzu sneered. "Understood?" She jumped from the snarl and curtly nodded in reply, eyes glazed over with unshed tears. Satisfied, Kakuzu left her 'room' and outside to await her.

An hour later, the girl timidly left the cabin, clean, to an extent, and dressed with her clothes on backwards. Apparently Konan had only given her a single pair of clothing as she was clad in the blood-soaked outfit from days ago. Kakuzu greeted her by pointing at the ground in front of him. "Sit." She obeyed without hesitation as she plopped down in the grass, casting a concerned look behind her at the dozing Daora who was accompanying them for this training session to ensure the she did not attempt to run again.

Once the girl was in the sun, Kakuzu admired his own work. From a single human meal alone, the unnatural white colour to her skin had darkened into a healthier shade and she even appeared more plump then when he had seen her last. If this progressed, then she would soon be perfectly fit for their training regardless of the recovery times it took after each feast. He had done more in a single day than Konan accomplished in an entire week. He would have to remember to smear the results of his success in her face when she returned.

"Due to unfortunate circumstances, I have been assigned to train you in order to activate your Mayfly." He grumbled, adjusting his sunglasses on his nose. "So if you and I are to get along, I have composed a few rules I suggest you follow. Otherwise, I shall punish you as I see appropriate, understood?" Zetsu quickly nodded and Kakuzu wondered if she was just nodding to please him or she truly understood him. Nothing in her records spoke about her possessing autism, but at this point he was convinced it was because they had never tested her for it. Either way, he accepted her panicked answers. He reached into the pocket of his slacks and withdrew a personal notebook where he had drabbled down necessary notes for their training sessions together. He thumbed through the pages until landing on the one where he had neatly listed down the rules he intended to cement in her tiny mind.

"Rule One: Respect. I am your superior in every definition and you are to acknowledge that. I am not your friend and I never will be. I am not Konan. When answering or addressing me, will do so by 'Sir', nothing less. Anything else and I shall take it as an insult,"

"Rule Two: Compliance. You are to obey each and every instruction I give, no questions or objections. I am wasting my precious time to train your pathetic existence and I will not tolerate disobedience or complaints. Any backtalk or rebellion shall receive swift and harsh punishment,"

"Rule Three: Behavior. You are to be on your perfect behavior at all times. If you step out of bounds or act up, I will physically replace you back within the line. It will be more unpleasant each time I do. Pray I do not lose my temper or you will not survive,"

"Rule Four: Effort. I will be training you and I expect nothing less than one-hundred percent of your effort placed into it. I will not be merciful towards you so do not assume I will relent when you are tired or sore or plead for your pitiful life. You will be able to rest when I allow you to rest and I will not care if you wet yourself in desperate need of the bathroom. Failure to do so shall result to the revocation of your only source of food and other luxuries such as sleeping indoors or bathing."

"And last, Rule Five: Appreciation. Everything I do for you, I expect your upmost gratitude. That includes everything from the meals I supply you to your trainings. I also want you to thank me for sparing your life every day and your reward for doing so shall be the gift of living to see the next day."

Kakuzu snapped his little notebook closed and Zetsu flinched, having zoned out slightly from his lengthy reading. "Now, is this all understood?" The girl immediately nodded and he knew she was lying but did not call her on it. He would rather she did not properly listen and mess up so it gave him an excuse to vent his frustrations onto her. Afterall, she had already broken the first rule by failing to properly address him. "Good. I will not repeat myself so I suggest you keep everything I said memorized." Now that the easy part somewhat settled, now came the tedious process of actually training the girl. His favourite.

Kakuzu began his lesson by detailing at length about basic definitions such as chakra, shinobi arts and Kekkei Genkai to Zetsu, who obviously had never heard of any of it by the blank looks he inherited as though he spoke gibberish (he might as well be). After the elaborate explanations which he refused to repeat since she wouldn't understand it any better, he shifty moved onto training her basics of chakra control, a task easier said than done. Unlike the healthy chakra pathways of a regular shinobi, those of Mayfly hosts were needle-thin and restricted a normal flow of chakra. Due to this, they were incapable of jutsu besides that of their Kekkei Genkai, even that of the simplest jutsu such as clone and transformation jutsu. With this crutch, it crippled the girl's learning capabilities in regards to chakra control and restricted Kakuzu's teaching abilities. Implying he had these skills. He hadn't been a student since before the First World War and during then, academies hadn't existed. When he was child, teachers were just shinobi who were generous with their limited time and would take a few students under their wing but for a steep price. He could remember stealing money from his alcoholic father for classes. When the First World War approached, schools were built for the sole purpose of training kid soldiers. Compared to now, everything he had been taught when he was younger was either considered outdated by modern techniques or his new underling was incapable of exercising them (or would kill her). He wasn't a fucking teacher. What was Leader thinking? He wasn't, that's what.

Instead he educated her on chakra techniques he had read about in a book of modern techniques taught in academies of the Five Nations, or least modern during the Second World War when it was published. Even that, however, was too much for the girl's feeble mind to comprehend as everything Kakuzu said was either misunderstood or she was too scared to listen. By the umpteen attempt, he had become so frustrated that he began screaming demands at her and the juvenile bolted in reply. Daora quickly captured her, however, and dragged her back to its master's feet before waddling off back to its sunbathing. After taking several minutes, he soothed his flared nerves and exhaled deeply before focusing on the trembling child.

"Might I remind you of Rule Four?" Kakuzu explained calmly so not to spook the fidgety girl again. "If I do not deem your performance satisfactory, then I shall revoke your privileges. If you would like to sleep indoors tonight, then I suggest you actually try." Clearly, she had not listened accordingly before as he had suspected and this was breaking news to her as Zetsu's sunny eyes widened. Now she was listening. "Is that understood?"

She nodded instantaneously and without warning, he brought his open hand across the side of her head with enough force to send the petite teenage tumbling several feet through the dirt. She produced a shrill noise as she cradled her throbbing head and Kakuzu yanked her up harshly by her boney forearm, forcing her to face him. "Rule One. You are to address me appropriately when speaking to me! Obviously, you do not listen!" She hiccupped, a mixture of fluids leaking from her eyes and nose as she stared up at him. "Is that understood?"

Between her sobs, a series of wet groans released from the back of her throat as her lips trembled and flexed in the shape of words she could not speak. After a few tries, she managed to position her lame tongue correctly. "Y-yee-eee…sa-saa…sss-err…" She hissed out the jumbled mess of varying sounds that vaguely resembled words. "Yee-sss…sserr." While it was not a definite response, Kakuzu was able to tell what she was trying to stutter out so he accepted it for now.

"Good. That wasn't difficult, was it?" He freed her arm from his bruising grip and she cuddled the limb against her chest, a bright red handprint marring the pale skin. "Now, let us try this again and if you want to be warm tonight, then you better impress me."

"Yee-sss, ser."

…

Kakuzu was not impressed. "Trying" was too polite of a word to describe Zetsu's efforts. They were more like "frantic floundering about" as he instructed her through basic chakra concentration techniques. The miser made an effort to accommodate her with different mediums from leaves to sticks and even dirt but nothing worked. She was the definition of anxiety. He so much as breathed wrong and she would lapse into a nervous breakdown with tears and sniveling. He would have an easier chance at teaching a fish how to breathe air. It had taken all of his minimal self-restraint not to beat his message into the brat's thick head. By evening, no progress had been made, Kakuzu was heavily displeased and Zetsu had cried enough tears to fill one of the countless rivers littering the country. Even Daora was agitated as its relaxation was repeatedly disturbed by the minor's bolting. Once the chilled night air settled over the country, he retreated to the cabin, abandoning Daora to babysit the girl. He also locked the door behind him so she couldn't get inside and have the luxury of sleeping in a comfortable bed out of the cold. She would have to learn, and fast.

Unfortunately, time was not on Kakuzu's side.

…

Time wasn't on Konan's side either.

She had been stranded in Amegakure for two months, three weeks and four days. Originally, she was only supposed to handle a few paid contracts and be in the village for a brief check-up then return to Land of Rivers but tragedy had struck. Due to the heavy rainy conditions of Amegakure, obviously, it made construction difficult and hazardous. Smaller projects which did not demand urgency were only worked upon on Sundays, when the weather was clear, but larger projects required daily attendance to ensure quick build times. This was the case of a two rather massive projects that Pein and Konan had requested and they would perform frequent visits to ensure swift and acceptable progress. During her stay, one of their constructions had crumbled from the showers and killed three workers and done considerable damage. Work was halted as she had to console the families while searching for replacements to resume construction. When she had, she had overstayed her welcome longer than she would care for and was eager to return back to the cabin and check up on Zetsu. Every day that has passed her by, the girl's rate of survival with Kakuzu went down. By now, she was convinced the girl had a better rate of being struck by lightning, twice, then being alive. When the chance to depart presented itself, she took and ran.

After only a few hours' travel, the secluded cabin amongst the thick forest came into sight and Konan could breathe again, but only a little. It was late evening so one was outside except one of Kakuzu's masked creatures that was resting besides the deck. The winged monster ignored her as she passed it by into the cottage. Once inside, she made a quick b-line for the spare bedroom to check on Zetsu's wellbeing. She had purchased her new clothing from a secondhand store she was eager to show her also. However, when she opened the door, the room was void of the teenager. The air smelt stale and a thin coat of dust covered the few pieces of furniture inside, making it obvious she had not been there for a significant amount of time. She scoured the room before checking the rest of the house, including the bathroom with no success. When she entered the basement, Pein greeted her and she asked if he had seen Zetsu to which he had not and her heart collapsed into her stomach. The next second, her face was hot with rage and she charged upstairs to Kakuzu's room.

Kakuzu had just concluded another stressful day of training and barely had the chance to relax when a vehement knocking thundered in his ears. He efficiently guessed who it was and stood with a snarl to answer his guest. He yanked open door, which he had simply duct-taped back on, and was met with a fuming Konan who appeared seconds from pouncing him and disemboweling him with her bare hands.

"Welcome back." Kakuzu greeted stalely.

"Where is Zetsu?" The woman demanded, craning herself up to get in the brunette's concealed face. "I can't find her anywhere. What did you do with her, Kakuzu!?"

"I did nothing with the girl. Did you check outside? That's where I left her."

"Outside?" Konan parroted, her angered expression dissolving as she realized she had not checked outside. She spared him a glare before departing to pursue his claim and he snorted as he retreated back into his room.

Outside, Konan proceeded with the scouring of every bush and tree for Zetsu, even calling her name with no results. After several minutes of unsuccessful searching, she was prepared to stomp back inside and throttle Kakuzu for the girl's real whereabouts when a chirping caught her attention. At first, she confused the adorable noise for Zetsu since that was how the girl communicated before realizing it was Kakuzu's mask that was still seated by the porch. The creature emitted the bird-like sound until she looked at it to which it heaved itself to its tiny legs and waddled off, revealing it had been resting atop the mouth of a hole. She took it as a hint and crouched beside the hole, peering inside and noting it tunneled beneath the cabin like an animal burrow. In the semi-darkness, she caught a glimpse of something too large to be any hibernating mammal curled inside.

"Zetsu?" She called and the object shifted about for a moment before a pair of illuminated, yellow orbs peered back at her. She released the breath she had been holding. It was Zetsu.

"Zetsu." She cooed. The girl wriggled around in the hole before straightening herself and crawling out, greeting her with excited squealing and squeaking of "Ko" as she pounced into the woman's open arms. Konan cradled the teenager, unspeakably relieved to see her alive and in one piece, filth and smell aside. She even felt heavier from healthy weight gain. Perhaps she should have given Kakuzu the benefit of the doubt.

Any current or further compliments towards Kakuzu vanished from her vocabulary, however, when she released the Zetsu from her tight embrace and the dimming sunlight exposed the ugly, dark bruising marring the left side of girl's pale face. It was recent too, as the injury was a foul shade of purple and her cheek and eye swollen. A quick investigation revealed similar marks blanketing her arms also and a particularly alarming handprint across her throat. Konan was mortified. What had happened? Kakuzu. Kakuzu had happened. That bastard had been using the girl as his personal punching bag. She knew this would happen!

"Bastard!" Konan suddenly swore and Zetsu instinctively flinched, taking the uttered curse as being directed at her. "No, no, no. Not you, sweetheart. I'm sorry. Come here, let's get you cleaned up, ok?"

She escorted Zetsu back to the cabin where she spent the evening scrubbing her clean and applying ointment to her bruises and wounds. Afterward, she showcased all the new outfits she had purchased for her, much to Zetsu's audible delight, before putting her to bed. The exhausted teenager passed out the moment her head landed on the unused pillow and Konan quietly stepped out so the girl could sleep, and directly across the hall. Now, it was time to give Kakuzu a piece of her mind.

Kakuzu sighed from the violent banging on his door and glanced at the clock which only fueled his irritation. He stood but before he could answer, the force of the intense knocking caused the flimsy tape to break free and the door collapsed inward. He stared at it before focusing on his female guest who was standing outside, hand still poised for further obnoxious knocking.

"You-"

"Bastard!" Konan shrilled and before Kakuzu could react, the woman was poised in his face yet again. He scowled. This woman had no consideration for one's personal space. "How dare you lay your hands on, Zetsu!"

"How dare I? Simple. The girl disobeyed and I punished her as I saw appropriate." He replied candidly, unaffected with the knowledge he had beaten a defenseless child. He had abandoned his conscious quite a while ago.

"By beating and strangling her!?"

"Yes. You can at least thank me for being kind enough to feed her."

Konan fumed, her teeth nearly cracking from the force which she clenched them but Kakuzu remained unaffected by her animosity. There was nothing she could ever say that would make the man remorseful of his destructive actions towards Zetsu. Her only solution, at this point, was the absolute isolation of the girl from him.

"I'm going to train Zetsu." This triggered a reaction from the brunette as the man refuted the proclamation.

"No. I've spent months training that girl. All you will do is coddle her and undermine everything I've work to achieve with her."

"Maybe coddling her will actually work better than beating her every day!" She argued back. "I'm training her, and that is final, Kakuzu." With that, Konan turned and left to speak to Leader but Kakuzu was hot on her heels.

Leader had been quietly working on the endless mounds of paperwork that constantly plagued his desk when his concentration was rudely shattered as Kakuzu and Konan walked into his office, engaged a heated argument with each other over the tutoring of their newest recruit. The ginger watched, unable to inject a word as everything he attempted to say was buried beneath the barrage of insults being exchanged.

After a solid of this, his patience was eaten up as he inhaled deeply. "Would you kindly hush up!?" Both parties fell silent and Leader dumped his forehead in his hand with a mighty sigh. "What is this about?"

Konan slammed her hands down onto the broken desktop, causing it to jar. "I want to train Zetsu!"

"And why is that, Konan? Kakuzu has been perfectly capable of doing it himself."

"He has been physically assaulting her!"

"Has he?" Her face coloured a frightening red and Leader realized his foolish blunder and quickly scrambled to correct it before he suffered his female partner's wrath. "Kakuzu, I thought I told you to cease putting your hands on her." Kakuzu snorted at the man's bumbling attempt to save himself. Even Konan knew better.

"I refuse to allow him to train her any further. She will die if he does!" Leader sighed, cornered by his furious partner and eager to remove her from his back.

"Very well. I am hereby assigning Zetsu under your care, Konan." Before she could thank him for understanding and being merciful to the poor girl, he resumed the statement. "But when you are not here, she will fall back into Kakuzu's care."

"What!?" She roared, making Leader visibly flinch. She imagined behind the scenes, Nagato suffered an adequate scare.

"Why the hell shuffle the girl between us? It will only complicate things and interrupt her training. It would be best to just leave the girl with me instead of having us trade her like two divorced parents." Kakuzu opined.

"Or she is left with me and does not retrieve training when I am gone." Konan challenged, shooting Kakuzu a dirty look which the man returned with equal ire. Predicting another argument, their superior swiftly stepped in.

"Due to the unpredictability of our situation, Zetsu cannot be left without training while you are gone, Konan, or the awakening of her Mayfly will be delayed for time we cannot spare. Also Kakuzu, according to the contract you signed, it explicitly said you were not to inflict any harm to her. While I will not terminate your position from the Akatsuki, I cannot leave her solely in your care any longer. If you were to accidently do permanent damage to her, it would determent the organization." Leader explained, feeling like a judge to said divorced parents feuding over their single child. "While Konan is present, she will responsible for Zetsu's training. When Kakuzu is present, he will be responsible for her training. I will not negotiate any further on this subject. Now, both of you, please." Leader gestured them both out so he may resume his laboring and after swapping another silent stare down, Kakuzu and Konan went on their way.

…

Zetsu spent the next month underneath the overprotective wing of Konan. The woman resumed teaching her lessons about chakra concentration through the best medium she knew: Origami. During their breaks, she worked with the teenager on improving her impaired screech and reading skills. Within the first week alone, Zetsu had mastered using her chakra to bloom paper flowers and could speak several new phases including greetings and her own name. She could finally pronounce 'Konan' correctly also. By month's end, she was legends ahead in terms of knowledge, proving Konan right that actually praising the girl and rewarding her functioned better then beating her for every little mistake she made. If Pein had just left her in her care, then he could have saved the girl months of torture and mental scarring. At this pace, she imagined the Mayfly should be awakened naturally soon enough and once it was, she would petition for sole responsibility of Zetsu.

It was morning and they were taking a quick break from practicing basic chakra techniques when Pein spoke to Konan telepathically to speak with him. The blunette sighed from her partner's request for her presence and looked at Zetsu who was gleefully folding a paper crane Konan had recently taught her to make.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'll be right back, ok?"

"Ok. Goodbye." Zetsu answered, focused fully on her paper crafting. Konan smiled and raffled the girl's emerald locks before standing and leaving to the cabin to speak personally with Pein.

Kakuzu had been preparing himself for a bounty when he overheard Konan's obnoxious harping from the basement. He easily eavesdropped to her objections of returning to her duties and smirked at the plethora of information as he shouldered his bag, leaving his room to depart for his mission. Konan would soon be gone, which meant the girl would be under his command again and he could make up for the time the woman had wasted by playing mother. She had probably been teaching her female things like sewing or cooking instead of shinobi basics.

Outside, Kakuzu saw Zetsu sitting in the forest clearing, fiddling with paper and surrounded by various origami animals, confirming his suspicions. The juvenile noticed the colossal man looming over her and froze, eyes growing to saucers but she did not run like she normally did. Only stare and after a moment, he snorted, making her flinch.

"Konan will be leaving soon, and I shall be responsible for you again. No more arts and crafts and being cuddled like the toddler you behave as." He said, pointing at the crude paper crane the girl had made. She cradled the precious creation defensively against her chest.

"No."

He quirked an eyebrow the sudden rejection. "No?"

"No." She reaffirmed, the fear flooding her honey orbs now replaced with an apprehensive courage that failed to impress Kakuzu. It actually provoked him. Seems like origami wasn't the only thing Konan had taught her.

"Excuse me?" He grounded out, hunching over to the teenager's eye level and to his honest surprise, she did not shrink back and the close proximity seemed to reinforce her delicate fortitude.

"No!"

Kakuzu lashed out, grasping her thin arm and Zetsu gasped, dropping her paper crane. "You listen here, you little shit! You will not use that tone with me. Speak to me like that again, and I do not care about my fate from either Konan or Leader. I will punish you, harshly. Do you understand?"

"No!" She screamed and bore her canines, attempting to embed them in hand that had a death grip on her wrist. He wrenched his hand away before she could brandish it with a new scar and clasped a handful of her grassy hair instead, craning her neck into a painful angle and cocking back his other arm with his hand tightly balled. Before, he had just left a few innocent bruises but after he was finished with her, she would be lucky to have her disgusting little face intact. It would teach both her and Konan never to oppose him. Zetsu stared at the fist and as it descended on her, she squeezed her eyes closed in anticipation of the strike.

A shower of blood and an agonized scream rang out into the empty forest.

…

AN: It's done, it's finally done, and trust me, I did the best I could on this chapter. Earlier drafts of this were twice as long and drawn out so I rewrote the whole thing twice to slim it down. I finished it and wrote the second chapter so I could publish both one after another but I realized how short both chapters were so I combined them and edited them again. This is the result, I'm sorry it took so long. I also went back to the previous chapter and edited it because I did not like some sections. I only edited obvious mistakes. Anything else I did not so please forgive misspelling or mistakes I did not catch.

The next chapter may be delayed also due to summer classes but I will be working on it during my breaks between lessons.

Next Chapter: Kakuzu's actions results in a life or death situation for Zetsu.

Until next time.