Konan
Still steaming with anger from Kakuzu's remark, yet also expending tremendous effort to hold herself back, Konan hadn't heard much of what Yahiko was talking about. He'd started a lively discussion with Kakuzu after something Kakuzu said.
Konan had turned away, looked at the trees. I really shouldn't tear Kakuzu to pieces. It wouldn't work anyway. He could probably break her leg if he fought back. How good would that feel? She shook her head.
Yahiko was very happy about something. His body language was open and expressive, and he was talking faster. She wondered if he agreed with Kakuzu.
Slow down. Slow. There is a demon. We do not know how to kill it. What next? She thought of Hidan. He probably thought this demon's powers, if nothing else, were super cool. She wondered where he was, how he was doing. I hope he's okay…
Kakuzu shouted something angrily, and Konan caught a glimpse of Yahiko running past her. He disappeared around the side of the building. "What the fuck does he think asking a demon how to kill a demon is going to accomplish?" Kakuzu asked rhetorically.
Time slowed. Konan's eyes widened. Yahiko… The demon. He liked ghosts. A slick feeling like blood crept over her hands, and Konan knew, as if the news had been delivered straight to her soul by a committee of gods, what would happen.
Her eyes traced downwards, every detail of Yahiko's disemboweled torso clearly outlined. No. She couldn't move. No. The building was at her side, then behind, and she was flying.
Yahiko was making cheerful noises as he tried to propel chakra out of his feet to go faster. He wasn't as good at it as Hidan was, but in the however long it had been that Konan couldn't move, he'd already made it to the edge of the wrong lawn. There he stopped. There Konan's vision narrowed.
She could see nothing but him, she must reach him, she must reach out - her hand wrapped around the back of his neck and they toppled forward onto the ground. He cried out and tried to struggle, but Konan's hand squeezed tighter and silenced him. How could you?!
She pressed his face into the dirt, held him down so he could not move or do anything. You...you… A red mist clouded her vision. Konan looked down at his beautiful head and did not see it, saw instead Yahiko throwing himself forward. Her teeth and claws were set ablaze. She was suddenly very aware of them and had a very strong desire to use them. You…
Her other hand came up over his shoulder. Just them the red cleared enough for her to see his hair instead, and Konan realized who she was holding. She also realized she was shaking, growling like some kind of feral beast, about to claw his beautiful skin off, and he was very lucky that she'd gotten a grip on the back of his neck or else his trachea would be broken by now.
She shook for a couple seconds before she managed to stuff her hand into her mouth and sate her desire to bite and tear that way. She could feel the bones of her hand crunch together painfully, and the sound itself sent painful sensations racing up and down her spine. It felt so good. Konan bit down harder, the pain releasing her limbs from their possession and allowing her full control once again. She stopped just short of breaking her own hand and bit the other one after she took it back from Yahiko's neck and stood up. A drop of red at the edge of her vision had the first hand back in her mouth before she was fully aware that it was her own blood. It tasted salty, and vaguely unpleasant. She did not dare to do anything else but lick at it.
Yahiko still lay on the ground, but was visibly tense enough that she could tell he was conscious and aware. He seemed to be fully aware of the danger he was in. An image of Yahiko throwing himself forward flashed again, and Konan felt the urge to yell. So only now does he feel like protecting himself? A deer bounded up, entering her vision from the left, across the wrong grass. A roar burst from Konan's chest and she lunged. The deer made a sound like screaming - she hadn't known they could do that, but it felt so good to hear - which was quickly silenced as her paper stabbed through it, ripping out flesh and muscle and bits of bone. She noticed that some of the paper was over her fingers, formed into claws. When had that happened? In fact, she did not remember using any jutsu at all. But the feeling of cartilage stretching and tearing beneath her new paper claws was too good to resist, so she tore out its throat. Blood was everywhere. The urge to yell and bite and tear was satisfied. She stood back, dizzy with delight, and wondered where the deer had come from and why. Must be a gift.
Her breathing eased back to normal and she dispersed the paper jutsu. There was the sound of quiet rustling as Yahiko turned to look. Konan suddenly felt nauseated. She looked down slowly at what he must also be seeing. The deer was in pieces, pieces that merged at joints whose inner workings were now fully exposed. The ball and the socket of its right shoulder were both visible despite the socket being filled with blood. Its skin was torn into jagged shreds, separated from the flesh beneath, and turned inside out in a few places. Raw muscle sagged like over slackened bowstrings. The deer's face was visible. It looked as if it was looking towards the heavens for a divine miracle that could save it. Konan saw all of this now as Yahiko would see it, understood it as he would understand it. She gagged, but had not eaten or drank anything for almost three quarters of a full day.
They both were saved when the deer's face dissolved. The upturned eyes lost their definition and flowed back into the rest of its body, all of which had turned black like the void. It was a black that no light would ever escape from. Yahiko let out a short, high scream as he caught a glimpse of Konan's cloak. Her cloak, formerly stained with blood, was now stained with the void, which was much clearer against the black fabric than the blood had been. It escaped from the cloth as easily as oil might flow out of water and joined the rest. The former deer was now a rolling black ball of darkness. Konan stepped back to join Yahiko, who had stumbled to his feet. He tensed, but allowed her to lean on his shoulder. They stared together at the darkness.
"Merry Christmas," came a cheerful voice from behind them.
Any dilemma there might have been was resolved as the darkness flowed around them in a wide circle to their left. They followed it as if drawn by strings. Behind them, on a rock that definitely had not been there when Yahiko had stood in that spot, sat the boy. He sat cross-legged and attentive, looking just like an eager school child. One of many things that were wrong with this image was the fact that his arm was missing. Konan's and Yahiko's eyes met his after the darkness flowed onto his left shoulder and condensed, taking the shape of the missing arm.
"Hi-hi," the boy followed up. After they failed to respond, he uncrossed his legs and waved them back and forth in the air. "Aw, no thanks?"
Yahiko blinked, and his expression of horror mostly faded. "You...you're that demon boy we were told about." The boy nodded and chuckled. "You made that deer?" He nodded again. "Uh...thanks…?"
Konan felt like crawling away somewhere and hiding. Oh gods. It's reversed. I thought I could protect him from the demon, but really the demon protected him from… Her stomach issued a quiet complaint, a faint echo of complaints she only now remembered from the previous night. Me. It was all wrong. And confusing. Her head started to hurt, and her eyes lost focus. Her hand tingled and sparked all up her arm. She lifted it up and sucked on reopened wounds without noticing. Her stomach quieted.
The demon boy looked at her and put a hand on his chin. "Hmm. I see, I see. You search for answers and find none. I hear your plea, and I...do absolutely nothing!" He giggled and clapped his hands. "Man that was awesome! You just tackled him like that, and then fought with yourself like that, and then the deer like that, and there's going to be a lot more of that kind of stuff before you can stop it. So cool! This is like…" He rubbed his hands together and said nothing. "I'm not gonna tell, because then you might get comfort and it wouldn't be authentic. Yeeee!"
Yahiko stared at the boy with mouth agape. "You like this? You can help, but won't? Even though...why?"
"More interesting this way," the boy flippantly replied. "I mean, imagine if someone who all the characters believed and trusted just gave them all the answers in the first five minutes of a horror movie and they all did the smart thing and the monster was dead by the ten minute mark. Bad moviemaker. Bad! This might be your life, but it's my movie, so I'd better direct it like a good director should."
Yahiko raised a finger to object. "You're talking right here with us."
The boy lost his smile. "Yeah, but I know all kinds of things you don't, and can do all kinds of things you can't, and there's almost nobody who knows or does the same things. I'm not really here, not like you are. We're not really here together. I'm not really anywhere." He crossed his legs again. "So since I get to look in from the outside, it's like a movie. Like that puppet guy can see other people being lovey dovey as a romantic movie. I'm not here."
Yahiko's face softened, and his eyes moistened. "Nobody? Not even the other demons like the one we found in town?"
The boy waved a hand. "Different kind. Those are all mythological demons that people invented, so they're all limited by human minds. They can't do anything and are pretty bad. I haven't bothered visiting The Hive for like years now."
Konan's wandering mind picked up "The Hive" and carried it over several continents. "The bar?" she asked. Okay, maybe it was only one continent, since they were still around the general area of what had happened to Hidan a couple days ago.
The boy nodded cheerfully. "That's what I call it!"
Yahiko's jaw dropped. Konan muttered, "That explains why it's so popular." The boy made a checking off motion.
Yahiko refocused on his previous point. "Can't you move somewhere where there are others? Do you not have a home?" He really seemed determined to avoid the implications of what the boy had just told them.
The boy was suddenly upside down in front of Yahiko's face. "I'm not gonna tell you everything," he chided. Then he was on Yahiko's back as if ready for a piggyback ride. "But I will tell you that I'm not going to tell you how to beat her, either. There is a way, but it's more fun if you figure it out."
Then he was in position to wrap his arms around both their waists. "Soooo, who wants to give the tour of my people zoo?"
Yahiko
Konan led him inside. "The first stop on this tour he's making us go on," she explained, "is here." She pointed to the lobby desk where the intake forms were. "This renegade decided it was a good idea to break the rules and operate without a body," she stated. "See how he's not even trying to get one. He'll be punished for that eventually, regardless of what Hidan says."
Yahiko saw several pages flip as if someone was looking through the forms. Ghosts? He paled and became short of breath. Ho-how many ghosts?! He looked around anxiously. He saw nothing, but that didn't mean anything. He looked back at the door. He looked away, tried to calm himself, but a whimper escaped before he could.
Konan stared, impassive and blank. How could she go from a few minutes ago to that? Yahiko stilled his trembling hands. "I...I don't like the thought...of...of being...watched," he explained. Why ghosts?
She turned away. "He calls this place a zoo. That implies enclosure, as does every ghost story I've ever heard. They won't be sneaking home."
Yahiko was almost reassured, until his jerk brain piped up with Unless he asks them to! That was a real possibility, after everything the demon boy had said. Oh no. Yahiko took deep breaths and mourned the loss of all the sleep his future might have held.
Konan gestured for him to follow and led him to the stairs. "I can't give you a full tour," she explained for the benefit of any listeners, "only a tour of the places I went when Hidan and I visited."
Yahiko tried to stand as straight as he could and show as little fear as he could. Everyone would laugh at me if they saw me freaking out like this. He was able to gesture calmly with his hand, and speak with only the slightest wavering. "The stairs aren't there."
Konan nodded. "Indeed they aren't. Fortunately, Hidan had full control over his chakra and was able to carry us both up the stairs by way of the wall."
Yahiko's task got easier as his success instilled further confidence. "Ah, so, you taught him how to climb things with chakra before you taught any of us?" he joked.
Konan stopped. She tilted her head. "No." She looked up the stairwell. "I don't remember telling him that chakra could be used in that way. All I said was that I could avoid the stairs, if only I could use my chakra. He never asked about what I would use it for. He just invited me to ride on his back."
Yahiko avoided fiddling with his hair as he thought. "Maybe he accidentally found out he could do that, like I did, and didn't tell anyone," Yahiko suggested.
"Maybe," Konan murmured. "He also raced me by using his chakra to grip and push off pavement just before that. That is rather specialized, but maybe it was reflex. It's a possibility."
Yahiko shrugged. "So, up?" That was where they went, both separately this time. Yahiko was glad he didn't have to give her a ride, and she didn't have to give him one. Wait, why couldn't she use her chakra that time? And what did Hidan say about the ghost?
He asked when they reached the top of the stairs. Konan paused to remember. "It's difficult to remember. I tried to scout the building using my butterflies, but I could feel my butterflies being taken from me, the jutsu being ended without my doing so. I flew Hidan around to investigate, but something about the hospital scared me. No, more than that. I became disoriented, couldn't fly. My chakra fell apart. It was like there was an aura of panic coming from the building."
Yahiko looked around. "Well, we were invited this time, so he'll make it a better experience. Right?"
"He'll make it a more interesting experience, whatever that means. I think my caution was boring him, so he had to break past it."
Yahiko wished he'd kept his mouth shut. Oh god I shouldn't have said that I was afraid of being watched. But… Oh god, he would have known anyway. He knew why I was here and I didn't even say anything. Yahiko prayed she would say something, break him out of this moment.
"As for what Hidan said, he had the audacity to claim that being bodiless was an acceptable lifestyle choice as long as it didn't hurt anyone. How can any respectable person think that?" She shook her head disapprovingly. Yahiko focused on that. Anything to avoid thinking about being surrounded by ghosts. Hordes and hordes of eyes watching his every-
"So why did Hidan think that?" Yahiko blurted.
Konan sighed. "Who knows? He'll believe any crazy thing. It's just ridiculous to exist in a world full of bodies and not have one. There are bodies out there right now, decaying, without anyone inside them. So wasteful."
"Well who wants a broken house?" Yahiko continued. How many? A giant mansion sized house...several in every room...how many rooms?
Konan paused, then shook her head. "Not necessarily the case. There are plenty of new bodies that are perfectly intact, but don't get anyone assigned to them. It makes no sense."
"Okay, and nothing else makes any sense either, so how many ghosts are there in this place?" Yahiko flubbed his efforts at subtlety. "And can we see them somehow?"
Konan glared at him. He saw her hands tighten. Uh oh. She did not move, just continued to glare at him. Yahiko thought he was going to lose control of his bladder if she continued to glare like this. Just before he would have, Konan spoke. "You are not afraid of what you should be afraid of," she whispered in a tone that indicated it was some kind of shameful personal fault.
Yahiko swallowed, a difficult task. "So, what should I be afraid of?"
Konan turned away. "What you did earlier was a good start. You should fear for your life more often. Try to develop some skill in that direction, will you?"
Somehow Yahiko did not think that this was the best time to bring up the value that was placed on bravery and self-sacrifice. He kept his mouth shut and followed her down the hall to the right.
Konan walked ahead to the far side of the first door and motioned for him to look in. "This is the first room where I looked for Hidan." Yahiko wondered how long it had taken her to look for Hidan in this mess. The room was filled with cat toys and signs that said, "Take me!" He saw a stuffed tiger, shrugged, and walked in to take it. The door closed behind him as he walked back out.
Konan stared. "Where did you get that?"
Yahiko looked back. "It was on the pile and said, 'Take me.'"
Konan opened the door and looked in. The pile of cat toys was gone, as were the signs. The jungle leaf design on the ceiling was gone, replaced by recently repaired plaster walls. There was a bed. He ducked behind Konan as a matter of reflex when the depression in the pillow moved. Konan closed the door.
She said nothing as they continued. "This is the second room where I looked for Hidan," she eventually said. "This time tell me what you see when you look into it."
Yahiko looked in. "There's a bookcase," he told her, "and it is covered with a blanket. The room is filled with treasure chests. They're all asking me to open them."
Konan looked down at the stuffed tiger. "Go on." So he went in and opened a chest with a picture of a lamb on top of it. He heard whispers as it opened. Good choice, little lamb, they said. He claimed his prize and got the hell out of there. The door again closed as he left.
His prize was a smaller chest. Yahiko opened it to himself so only he could see, and immediately went white and slammed it closed. His arms shut like a vise around it. Oh please don't let anyone have seen what's in there please no how does he know?
Konan opened the door to reveal a room with a bookcase that was not covered by a sheet, and otherwise empty. "I think I understand now what he's doing," she muttered. "Which probably means he's going to change it for the next room."
The next room already had its door closed and a gift basket sitting outside. The handle of the basket was covered with barbed wire. Yahiko scratched his head with the arm holding the tiger. "What does that mean?"
"It means it's for me," Konan answered. She did not provide any explanation for why she thought this. She did not need to, because Yahiko saw why she thought it was for her when she reached forward and, gripping the handle to lift it, said, "Wow. This is some good quality wire." Her blood dripped onto the wrapped package in the basket. Okay, so she likes that. That's okay. I really hope there are no weapons in there. He now knew that she was technically armed all the time, but that didn't have the same effect on his perception.
Inside the package was an instruction booklet. Konan opened it and flipped through the pages, growing increasingly confused. "It's empty." Then she flipped back to the very first page. "Except for this. It says: 'Sneak this under your brother in law's head when he's sleeping.' What the - I am not married to Hidan!"
Yahiko knew it might be a bad idea, but was unable to stop himself from laughing all the same. She glared at him, in a playful way this time, and retorted, "See how you like it when someone claims you're married to Nagato." That stopped his laughter almost instantly. Yahiko pretended it was just because he hadn't found that funny while she walked on. Why would she say that? What does she know?
The next room was festooned with decorative flowers, balloons, and a large sign with an arrow pointing to the open door that said, "Tools And Fools Emporium". Konan did not take a chance on passing the door, because she knew she would definitely look in, and stayed behind to take the toy and chest from Yahiko. He couldn't help but bounce forward. What could he have put in here? Yahiko's heart beat a little fast, but in a pleasant way as he looked inside.
There was a blatantly unnatural potted plant in the center. Not only was it all right angles, Yahiko also thought it might have been in 4 dimensions because he had trouble clearly seeing it. He didn't see just one plant when he looked at it, but multiple somehow, and all the versions he saw felt different, with some creating a feeling of anticipation, some a feeling of more distant hope, and others of recent and not so recent memories. He had not realized before that thinking of things at different times evoked different feelings, but understood that he had always felt differently even when he didn't realize it.
This realization was not his present. The potted plant was the center of a table, which seemed to be themed around the number 4. It was a 4 dimensional plant with 4-cornered leaves sitting on a table with a tablecloth patterned with number 4s overlapping each other, with 16 legs, all of which had 4 supports, and on top of the table next to the plant in a pattern that suggested the number 4 with the plant placed in the hole lay 4 bunches of white flowers, 4 flowers per bunch. Yahiko wondered just how far the demon's apparent mind reading powers went as he walked in. How did he know 4 is my favorite number?
His breath caught as he approached the table. Yahiko was suddenly assailed with the feeling that he was being watched from all directions, even ones that weren't possible. They saw his soul. And they judged it. He screamed.
Nothing happened. He screamed himself hoarse, then turned to the door. It no longer existed. Yahiko turned, trembling. The table was just as it had been before, except the tablecloth had a new design element. Some of the 4s in the middle of it formed an arrow shape. Yahiko ran in the direction of the arrow. Oh god please no I don't want to be here get a grip I can't I need to get out of here!
Konan tapped her foot impatiently. She'd been waiting for a good ten seconds, and he hadn't come out yet. Just then the door opened. Konan did a double take - when had it closed? She had no idea. Yahiko crawled out, hanging on to the doorway with both hands as he carried a something between his teeth. He smiled around it and made sure to stumble all the way out of the door before passing out. Konan went to check his pulse. He seemed to be alright physically, and his clothes were unharmed. But why was he covered with red, complementing a design of dark blues and greens on his back? She looked up at the door. What the hell had happened in there?
First she removed the disk from Yahiko's mouth. It contained a rolled note that said, "Congratulations! You have earned the First Royal Medal of the Lamb Division for your bravery and loyalty today." The other thing it contained was a soft dark red blanket that smelled vaguely of mint.
She looked up and peered as far around as she could. There was no sign of their host, though she heard giggles coming from behind the closed door. Konan looked down at Yahiko. He was fully and completely under. Looking like this, Konan couldn't see him taking action. The vision of him throwing himself on the kunai did not flash in her eyes. He looked just as beautiful as he always had before. She reached out and smoothed his hair gently back against his head.
He felt warm and comfortable as she carried him downstairs. Konan had forgotten she could be this soft and gentle. Their loot came along in a floating paper bundle. She smiled and, forgetting all about hunger, turned toward home.
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