AN: Like said last chapter, this one will be packed with exposition and plot points. Also, with douche Sasori included. After that we will return to your regularly scheduled action.

Majester: I love that you love this story so much that you marathoned it! It is such a huge compliment. I'm trying to make everyone unique from each other so the Akatsuki and everyone in it have a lot more life to them and you can connect to everyone. Wait until the rest of the members are introduced! Haha. But thank you, thank you for the awesome review and I hope to keep you reading!

Warning(s): Language (High), Genderbend

…

Wasteland

Red Dawn Arc

Chapter 26

Kakuzu hadn't thought things could get worse after being blackmailed into agreeing to be custodian to a second nightmare child. But, he also thought that no one and nothing could be worse than Zetsu. How idiotic he was.

Within hours of Sasori's recruitment to the Akatsuki, the redheaded boy unleashed a Hell upon the organization the likes that could be considered a one-manned Fourth World War. Zetsu was his primary target with everyone else being justified causalities. While in the organization, everyone was his enemy, not his ally.

It was the evening after and Konan made her daily check-up on Zetsu. After calming the teenager who was still considerably ruffled by everything that had happened lately, she decided to speak to their newest member. It was to introduce herself to Sasori, but also to establish to him that she was his superior as well as Sir Leader and she wouldn't tolerate his treatment of Zetsu, despite the tragedy involving his arm and leg. Her first impression of him had been soured by the bad taste of his rotten character during their brief encounter a several days ago but she wanted to give him a chance. Afterall, given his age, she considered him a child like Zetsu was. Yet, she prepared herself for the possibility of something similar as she knocked on the bedroom door of Zetsu's stolen room which was duct-taped back into the frame. A minute later, the door creaked open and a cinnamon-orb glared through the gap at the woman.

"Hello, Sasori. You and I met once before but I wanted to properly introduce myself to you now that you're the Akatsuki's newest member. I am Konan and I am the Akatsuki's second-in-command. I want—"

"Tch, so I'm goin' to be shrieked at by a harpy while in this organization? Splendid."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Ain't you supposed to be in the kitchen or somethin'?"

Konan's eyebrows crinkled in dumbfounding as her amber orbs stared at him. She wasn't so much insulted as she was flabbergasted that someone at his age could be so crude and inhospitable. "I ask you do not speak to me in such a manner."

"And I ask you to fuck off." Sasori retaliated.

Immediately, she opened her mouth to say something but then closed it as she decided against it. She heard enough and was done. So, she granted his request to 'fuck off' as she turned on her heel to leave. But not without one last punch to the ribs from the angry teenager. "Bitch."

Konan whipped her head around so quickly she was surprised it didn't twist right off her neck. She threw him a dirty look for the last misogynic remark but did little to phase him as he shut the bedroom door so she left glaring a hole into the wood. If she was a weaker person, she would've unleashed the fury of a woman scorned on him by inflicting him with a million papercuts. Instead, she took a breath to calm herself and walked away. She would be speaking to Pein about their newest addition's behaviour towards her.

With that, Konan decided that Sasori wasn't a person she was going to acquaint herself with. She had gotten off easy though and something she learned later was she hadn't been Sasori's intended target, just collateral damage.

…

It was morning after Kakuzu learned the devastating news that he was parent to not one, but two snot-nosed children and he had made himself breakfast. He ate while reading the newspaper with Zetsu seated beside him. She stared silently at her mashed puree of choice with her nose drawn up, poking at it with her spoon like it was something more distasteful than human flesh. There was the sound of a door creaking open then a certain someone screaming a second later.

"Oi! Bitch!"

Kakuzu lowered his paper to see what the redheaded devil incarnate was yelling about just in time to see something flying at him though he didn't see what it was. Instinctively, he activated his Earth Spear and held it up to shield his face. Whatever it was, it was soft as it harmlessly bounced off his arm and landed in his plate. Zetsu released a bloodcurdling scream and he glanced down at the unknown object in his breakfast. It was an orange plush cat with its head hanging by a thread, decapitated.

Sasori cackled like a hyena and Kakuzu slammed his hands onto the table, standing up. "You little shit!" But before he could grab the boy and strangle him, Sasori fled back inside his room and shut the door, leaving a steamed Kakuzu and crying Zetsu as she cradled her murdered, egg-drenched toy.

"Hush up, girl, it's just a toy." Kakuzu barked at Zetsu which just made her wail harder and after several minutes straight of this violation of his eardrums and sanity, he sighed. "Fine, fine! I'll fix it for you, just shut the fuck up!"

He kept his promise as after throwing out his breakfast because it was coated in faux cat fur, he washed off the stuffed kitty and stitched its head back on, much to Zetsu's squeals of pleasure and chatting of 'thank you' as she hugged it once he gave it back to her. Unfortunately, that orange cat wasn't the first or last plushie victim of Sasori's destruction and neither was his attacks on Zetsu for the day.

Just a few hours later, Kakuzu was alerted by Zetsu's screaming occupied by the ruckus of a struggle happening in the living room. When he ran out of his room, he found the girl restrained with Sasori on top of her and something in his hand.

"What do you have!?"

"A knife!"

"No!"

Before he had the chance to plunge the blade into the other teenager, Kakuzu grabbed it out of his hand then with his other hand, snatched the boy by his collar and chucked him backwards, off Zetsu. Once released, Zetsu fled not back to her hiding spot underneath the couch but instead, took off running right into Kakuzu's room. He didn't get after her for it as he switched his scalding gaze to Sasori who scrambled upward after striking the wall and vanished back inside the safety of his room once again. While Kakuzu failed to catch the brat again, he made sure as hell there wouldn't be a third incident today as he took the dining table and pushed it against the bedroom door so Sasori couldn't get out. Afterward, he returned to his room and found Zetsu hiding under his bed like a frightened feline and no amount of coaxing could get her out, so he left her, having it up to here with the drama already.

However, his effort to trap the redhead inside his room proved futile as later that night, he heard glass breaking somewhere in the cabin then a minute later, the front door opening so it was obvious how the boy figured out how to get out. Unfortunately, he couldn't also barricade that door.

This pattern carried out for the next several days with Sasori assaulting Zetsu at any chance he got, whether it be by traumatizing her with the desecrated corpses of her stuffed animals or physically attacking her whenever Kakuzu's back was turned for a second. It became so bad that eventually, she started hiding out in the elder's room and refused to leave except when he was with her such as for meals or bathroom breaks. Relief didn't come until Konan arrived in the middle of the week to take Zetsu to her dialysis appointment for a few hours.

After which, when Zetsu was dropped back off, she immediately sprinted back into Kakuzu's room. Something Konan found suspicious. Her suspicions grew when she saw the dining table flipped against Zetsu-now-Sasori's bedroom door. So, she decided to confront their neighbourhood moneygrubber about everything that was happening. When she trailed Zetsu to his bedroom and peeked inside, in the corner of the room she spied a pillow fort, made from the cushions off the couch with a moth-eaten sheet draped on top. Huddled inside with Zetsu who was reading the ancient dictionary Kakuzu had loaned her. Kakuzu was seated at his desk, labouring off the latest financials Sir Leader had given him to review and either hadn't noticed Konan or was ignoring her.

"What is happening?" Konan asked finally, resulting in little reaction from Kakuzu as he kept reading his numbers, taping his pen against his desk in a futile attempt to block her out.

"With what?" He inquired so she could specify with her question.

"Why is Zetsu in here? And is there a cause as to why you've barricaded the other bedroom door with the table?"

"Because that little shit is a terrorist."

"Firefly mean," Zetsu spoke up. "Hurt toys, hurt me!" She lifted up one of her plush toys as evidence and Konan saw the poor puppy dog's head was stitched on with black thread and had stuffing jutting out from its neck. The other toys laying around told the same story.

"Have you told Sir Leader?" She asked Kakuzu.

He snorted. "What is he going to do?" As disrespectful as that was, Konan knew he was right. Pein likely wouldn't do anything about it if Sasori didn't seriously harm or kill anyone or defy the Akatsuki or Pein himself. "I've got it under control. The girl is fine with me."

She had qualms with that claim, given the negative history involving the man and teenager, as she looked over at Zetsu for confirmation. "Are you ok, sweetie?"

To her surprise, Zetsu nodded and pointed at Kakuzu with her pink-casted arm. "Sir make Firefly no hurt." She knew the green-haired girl was incapable of lying so she accepted the elementary answer.

Though she was surprised Kakuzu was suddenly being so considerate to the child he once almost killed and maimed and apparently hated. Perhaps the lesser of two evils? She kept these observations to herself, not wanting to trigger the old man with the suggestion. Instead, she kissed Zetsu goodbye and took her leave.

The rest of the week went without much incident except one in which Sasori tried to sneak into Kakuzu's room through the window at night. He might've been successful if he hadn't been too loud when prying open the window and waking up Zetsu who then screamed. It woke up Kakuzu and upon seeing Sasori peeking through his bedroom window, got up and proceeded with chasing the teenager around the cabin until he dived through his own bedroom window where the man couldn't get him.

Besides that, with Kakuzu acting as Zetsu's personal bodyguard, everything was quiet.

…

Ryu was walking to his office after receiving a message on his pager which read 'Angel' meaning Konan had requested him. He was surprised, given he had just seen her a day or two previous for Zetsu's appointment and was worried that something might be wrong with Zetsu. He prayed for the best-case scenario that she was just experiencing a few bad side effects from the chakra dialysis, but he was prepared for the worse. When he arrived at his office, Konan was standing outside the door, wringing her hands. She gifted him a winning smile that could turn any man into mush and Ryu himself fought not to be infatuated by it.

"Hello, Konan-chan," Ryu greeted the woman, offering his hand for a shake which she accepted and he marveled over how soft her skin was. "I received the message you requested me. Is everything ok with Zetsu?"

"Oh, Zetsu is perfectly fine, her side effects have been minimal. I came because my partner would like to know if her condition has improved enough that she can be sent on missions again."

"Oh…" Immediately, Ryu's sunny disposition turned downcast and Konan knew by his melancholy tone and slumped shoulders that the news wouldn't be what she wanted. "I was going to speak to you about that; I just received her latest MRI results this morning. Please, step inside so we may speak in private." He unlocked the door and held it open for her to enter first then stepped inside after her.

She sat down while Ryu rummaged through his file cabinet for Zetsu's latest test results. When he found them, he placed the folder down onto his desk. "Here they are. As a reminder, here is Zetsu's first MRI," He fingered through the prints until finding the earliest dated one and laying it down in front of the orgamitress. She grimaced upon seeing the brain scan again. "Now, this one is what was taken after her first dialysis appointment last week," He placed down a new scan on top of the old one. Unlike the first one which was like a picture of the human brain that was splattered with ink, this one was a lot cleaner. The black substance infecting Zetsu's chakraways was much more deficient, perhaps a fraction of what existed before. Though, she found no pleasure in this good news as she waited for Dr. Ryu to deliver the obvious bad news. "And this is the MRI taken before her dialysis this week…" He laid down the last MRI.

At first, Konan thought he had accidently handed her a photocopy of the first MRI is was an identical to it. However, after she took a minute to observe it and pick out the subtle differences to separate the two such at the location of dots of the pollution, the horrid realization struck her as she gasped with a hand covering her mouth. "It…came back?"

Sighing, Ryu pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose as he bowed his head. "Yes."

"How? The dialysis failed?"

"I cannot give a definite answer, but it did not fail as evidence of the MRI from last week, but neither was it the result we wanted. It appears that little bit of infection we were unable to wash out was able to regenerate itself back to its original state. Because it is ungrained so deeply in her chakraways, it is doubtful we can expunge all of it at once."

"It did this in such a small timeframe?"

"Yes. Basically, I think how it is able to spread so quickly is because the infection is feeding off her unique chakra caused by her Kekkei Genkai." It was in a nutshell explanation. He didn't want to go into his lengthy thesis on how he suspected the Mayfly was, in reality, a Kekkei Genkai mimicking fungus that fed off bloodline's unique chakra. It was just a theory.

Despite this plain answer, Konan was left baffled. "It's feeding off her chakra?" She never heard of such a thing; she heard of infections which affected chakra or poisoned it but never 'eating' it. It sounded like a parasite instead of an infection. "Is there something that can be done to prevent that?"

"Unfortunately, no. It would require us to perform a chakra transfusion in which we would have to flush out all the chakra in her body then replace it with a donor's chakra, so the Mayfly couldn't function; an operation which has never been done and would kill her and the donor. Our last resort right now is to continue the chakra dialysis on her, but increase her appointments to twice a week, perhaps even three times a week. It'll keep the Mayfly's infection within safe levels and relieve the pressure on her brain, so she doesn't experience anymore episodes."

Konan rested her elbows on his desk and stared mournfully at the MRIs, sighing as she fisted her blue locks in exasperation, crinkling her paper flower in the progress. This wasn't the news she wanted to hear today but it was bittersweet. "That'll be too much for her…"

"I know…" Ryu laid a hand on her arm and gave it a consoling squeeze. "The Mayfly is such an aggressive bloodline, so our only option is be more aggressive. I'm so sorry, Konan-chan, and for Zetsu. She is one of the sweetest girls I've met."

She straightened up in her chair, laying a manicured hand on top of his hand and sparing him a strained smile. "Yes, I understand that. But, I'll do whatever I can to take care of her." Getting to her feet, she turned towards the door to take her leave but paused in the doorframe. "Thank you for everything, Ryu."

"You're welcome. It is my job."

…

Konan returned to the cabin to share the unfortunate news with Pein who was instantly wrung when his typically neutral female partner descended the stairs with a dark thundercloud rumbling over her bent head. He had sent her to receive a medical report of Zetsu's condition and it was obvious that she had was not good news.

"What is amatter, Konan?" He inquired of her, setting down paperwork on the turned over filing cabinet he was using as a temporary desk so may give her his full and undivided attention as she explained herself.

"I spoke to Dr. Ryu, Zetsu's primary. Her latest test results show the dialysis isn't having the effect on the Mayfly that we wanted, so she'll have to go to her appointments two days a week now, perhaps three."

"Oh my, it'll be difficult for her to function in the Akatsuki like that." Pein said and Konan delivered him the flattest look conceivable. Though, she shouldn't be surprised he was thinking of the organization over the well-being of one of its members. "Why had her dialysis failed?"

"He said the infection caused by the Mayfly cannot be eradicated completely and what survives is feeding on her chakra to replenish itself."

Orange eyebrows crinkled. "It is feeding on her chakra? I've never heard of a Kekkei Genkai doing such a thing," Konan shrugged and shook her head, signifying she didn't have any other answers besides that. She trusted Dr. Ryu knew what he was talking about as he was the expert and she was not. "Did he suggest if anything else could be done to contain the Mayfly?"

"The other solution would be a chakra transfusion. But, it is an impossible operation, and if it was possible, she wouldn't be able to use the Mayfly. So, the only thing that can be done is increasing her appointments per week."

"Otherwise, she would require a chakra transfusion so that the infection cannot feed and therefore spread itself?"

"Yes."

"Something this Dr. Ryu said was impossible?"

"Yes."

Pein said nothing else, instead he reclined in his squeaky desk chair while fingering one of his lips piercings, his Rinnegan staring blankly into space. Konan questioned if Nagato had lost connection with the cadaver. This persisted for a solid minute without him speaking and she decided to leave to Ame immediately to check that nothing had happened to her partner when Pein suddenly sprung back to life, making her flinch slightly from the surprising nature of it. "Konan, would you kindly bring Zetsu to me?"

"What do you want with her?" She snapped immediately, her maternal instinct triggering as she found his request of the teenager's presence suspicious considering he had never requested her personally like this before.

"Please bring her, Konan." He reiterated again, his monotone tone hardening into something more serious to hint to her he would not permit an argument over this.

Due to this, she obeyed him as she begrudgingly trudged up to the ground floor to retrieve the girl, dubious of his intentions. She located Zetsu still camped out in Kakuzu's room. Said man paid her no mind as she walked into his room to fetch the adolescent with Zetsu happily agreeing to joining her as she tailed her guardian to the basement.

"Hello, Zetsu." Pein greeted upon seeing her enter with Konan.

"Hello, Sir..." She uttered back, timidly.

"You can call me Sir Leader."

"Sir Leader…"

He twisted in his chair and gestured to the empty space in front of him. "Would you kindly come here?"

Zetsu hesitated, not stepping out from behind Konan and stared up at the woman with a curious look, waiting to be told why. Konan did not acknowledge it as she narrowed her amber orbs at the ginger, waiting for him to explain himself. Something he failed to do as patiently waited for the girl to step forward like requested, staring back with his pierced face stoic and incapable of being read.

She didn't want Zetsu getting antsy because of tension thickening between the adults nor did she want her to believe she couldn't trust Pein so finally, she nudged her while giving her a soothing smile that squinted her eyes into crescent moons. "It is alright, Zetsu, go ahead." Konan had never lied to her, so with her encouragement, Zetsu apprehensively walked through the basement and stopped in front of Pein. Even with him seated in a chair, her petite form barely measured the height of his headband.

"Hello," He greeted the girl again to pacify her. "Konan told me you are going to the doctor?"

She nodded without meeting his eyes as her caramel orbs analyzed the cracks in the cement flooring. "For monster."

"Monster?" His Rinnegan glanced at Konan was an explanation but all he got was her painted lips turned down into a sad frown that darkened her beautiful features as she stared at the child. "What is monster?"

Zetsu pointed to herself, lips quivering. "You are monster?" She nodded, watering gaze still downcast. "Why would you say that?"

"Hurt peoples…"

Pein nodded, starting to understand her childish logic now. He leant back in his chair, laying one hand on his knee while he made a spinning motion with his pointer finger. "Turn around please."

"Pein, what are you going to do?" Pein didn't grace her with a reply and Zetsu stared at her, glistening eyes silently pleading her for guidance, but Konan's faith in her partner was conflicted with her motherly instinct to shelter the girl from potential harm. She knew Pein would never do anything to purposely hurt Zetsu, but the fact he wasn't revealing what he was planning to do is what caused her skepticism. She never questioned Nagato before, so she couldn't let this be the start of it. "You can trust him, Zetsu, I promise." She inspirited her with a warm smile in order to erase whatever uncertainties she might have.

It was successful as Zetsu turned around with her large eyes never leaving the blue-haired woman. Bending over, Pein observed the back her neck, eyeballing the tattoo inked down it in thick, black letters that read '084'. He laid a hand over it and Zetsu flinched. "Now, this is going to hurt, but it'll be quick."

"Why hurt!?"

"It'll be ok, sweetie." Konan told her yet felt her heart breaking from the pure, unadulterated fear exhibited in those golden irises

"It'll be just a few minutes," Pein uttered, laying his other hand on her shoulder and detaining her so she could not break away as felt her starting to get fidgety. "I'll give you a countdown of three: three, two…one." It was then on one, something hard and burning hot was stabbed into her neck and caused Zetsu to emit a shriek so loud that dust fell from the overhead boards.

Thrashing, she tried to get away but Pein's bruising grasp kept her planted, and her hands flew up to claw and beat at the leader's offensive hands, her nails tearing skin but with no blood able to be drawn. He shot Konan a pleading glance and recognizing the silent request for assistance, she quickly stepped in. She gently captured the teenager's flailing arms and whispered words of comfort that were drowned out by Zetsu's pained wailing. As she held onto her, the macabre scent of something burning like flesh attacked Konan's nostrils and she noticed thin smoke billowing up from the back of her neck where Pein's hand was. Both struggled with restraining the surprisingly powerful girl and after a minute passed, Pein decided it had been long enough and jerked his hand off her neck with a snapping noise ringing out. He released Zetsu and she lunged into Konan's arms, sobbing against her chest and soaking her uniform was tears. It was then Konan spotted what exactly her partner had done to her.

"What did you do?" She interrogated him, addressing the black rod now implanted in the back of the girl's neck, pierced right through the zero of her old identification number.

"I performed a chakra transfusion. You have not forgotten what my chakra rods are capable of, have you, Konan?" He didn't believe she had but he decided to explain himself nevertheless. "With my chakra rod, I have injected my chakra into her and combined it with her own. With our chakras mixed, the Mayfly will be unable to recognize it and therefore cannot feed while leaving Zetsu able to use the Kekkei Genkai safely. Zetsu, you'll find your monster is gone now."

She peeked up at him with bloodshot eyes, sniveling. "N-no monster?"

"You and I share a special connection now. All long as you do not remove that rod from your neck, there will be no monster. Can I trust you to do that?" She eagerly nodded if it meant no monster but winced when the motion when her neck sting.

Konan stared at him, awed into silence at his brilliance. He had done what modern medicine could not and what medics declared as the impossible in minutes. Nagato's perseverance never failed to impress her and, in that moment, she could believe it wasn't the corpse she was gaping at but the real Yahiko. "Nagato…thank you…"

Pein held up a hand to prevent her further humbling him. "It is fine, Konan. What I do is not from the kindness of my heart but rather for the overall benefit of the Akatsuki. I cannot have a member in our ranks that is incapacitated." It was this that reminded Konan it was Nagato hiding behind the face of their old friend and her lips twitched into smile. "Now with that said and done, I would like to return to my paperwork please, if you will."

She decided to oblige his request but first, she checked Zetsu's new body modification. The skin was red and puffy where it had been cauterized to the black piercing. "Come on, sweetheart, let's take care of your neck, ok?" She said to Zetsu who didn't nod as it hurt too much and instead mewled like she did upon a time before she knew how to speak, making the woman's smile widened.

After the two females left, Pein sat back in his chair to drowse, with hands folded on his lap and eyes shut but facial features wrinkled with deep thought as he scrutinized the new chakra link with the Akatsuki's youngest member. Somewhere, in the darkness of a basement far away in Amegakure, Nagato shivered like the coldest wind had blew past him. This translated into his Deva path who shivered also. "I've never felt charka so…malicious. Why is Zetsu's chakra so warm yet so poisonous?" Nagato whispered into the dark with no answer spoken back, because there was no answer.

After several minutes, Pein's eyes reopened and he sat back up to return to his paperwork but also distract himself from the feeling of dread asphyxiating him.

It felt he hadn't just opened a channel with an innocent girl but a demon.

…

AN: Wow, I finished this chapter hella fast but a majority of it was dialogue and exposition, so it came out easier. Also, character development and foreshadowing!? -le gasp- Hmm, you'll have to wait and read!

Next Chapter: With Zetsu's Mayfly domesticated, Sir Leader decides it is the perfect time to send Kakuzu with Zetsu and Sasori on their first mission together. What could go wrong?

Until next time.