Yahiko
Sorry!
Yahiko sat on the grass and wiped his forehead. It gave his hands something to do while he debated with himself over the use of plants for research purposes. He had seen a video once which talked about plants, and he had forgotten most of it. The one part he remembered was the part at the end, where the researcher investigated plants' mind reading abilities by threatening to cut off a leaf and then actually doing it. The equipment he had monitoring the plant's physical responses supposedly gave a huge leap just before the guy actually cut the leaf, but not when he only threatened to, which supposedly supported his hypothesis that plants could read minds. Yahiko was extremely doubtful of this "experiment," but he regarded it as a good video on general moral principles. Why not treat plants kindly at every opportunity? Why not treat them with respect, as living things whose lives matter? Doubly so now that they might have friendly wood spirits in them. That was also a factor.
For these reasons, Yahiko had apologized nicely to the bush before he did anything, and he had cut off as little leaf as he thought he could get away with. That was still quite a lot of leaf, because he did not have microscopic vision and therefore needed to sever a major vessel to see anything. He had apologized nicely afterwards, as well, and buried the severed parts near the roots. Until he could locate a book on the proper ways to pay one's respects to nature spirits, he thought it was better to apologize a few times more than he had to, and not a few times less.
Yahiko summarized his results now. I can soothe plants. Cool! The leaf he had cut and watched had eventually developed noticeable drops of fluid on the severed end. The leaf he had cut, touched lightly on its upper surface, and channeled chakra into while watching had not leaked noticeable drops of fluid. Therefore, he concluded, the odds were good that his soothing abilities could work on plants as well. Science!
Of course, there had been a secondary purpose to this experiment. While he was watching for fluid, Yahiko had also been watching the severed end in general, and he had made sure to cut both leaves at approximately the same point. As far as that went, he saw nothing happen. But I do not heal plants, just like I do not heal people. I guess making tissues grow is its own technique. Yahiko wondered what that technique was. If he could master it, it would be something he need never fear using. I'll need seeds for that, and whoever it was that made the flowers grow to full size in just a few hours. Yaha, I can't wait! He giggled to himself. It was his own version of the Tobi dance that Hidan had done.
Yahiko was just about to move on to his more conventional water jutsu when his phone buzzed. He hummed some kind of cheerful tune he'd long forgotten the words to as he checked it. His cheerful humming was interrupted with a gasp as he read and promptly reread the messages he was getting.
Konan's doing well, wants to go to town. Invited you along!
(cheerleader emoji) Holy #$%^#*$&!
Knock on wood for me!
Yahiko giggled some more as he stepped sideways and knocked three times on a tree. It was awestruck giggling. He'd hoped for updates, and he'd been very optimistic about those updates consisting of good news, but this! To be invited along with Konan for something…
It was nearly unimaginable. He would have hoped, and then sighed because such a hope was unlikely. Yahiko shook himself, shivering from side to side in his best imitation of a wet dog. Alright, focus. I need to take full advantage of this. Cheerful, but not in her face. Smiling, but maybe hold the laughing and dancing until later - she's probably tired. Tell her about my plans - she'd like to hear that I have some. Dignity. Strength. Throw her a rope, and all that. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it to maximum spikiness and disorganization, then used the same hand to smooth it back from his forehead. Today's going to be such a good day!
He texted Nagato, (cheerleader emoji) (thumbs up) great news! (heart) you're the best! and raced around to the front to meet them.
He spent a good several minutes looking up and down the street, taking the time to appreciate what they had. A few buildings up the street, an overgrown bush was beginning to clamber up the walls of some kind of office, covering that wall in faint yellow blossoms in the process. The sound of quiet permeated the air, except for where a couple early birds were beginning to chirp back and forth at each other behind Yahiko. He resolved on the spot to come out here again tomorrow, until the rest of the birds arrived and the trees became host to huge squabbling households of them. At that point he would continue to come out, and find a good place to sit and watch the birds as they covered the lawns too. He would also enlist Nagato in running at the flocks on the grass, just to watch them scatter like blown petals before the wind.
All this, Yahiko decided, he would tell Konan. Feeling was, in part, a matter of seeing. Getting outside to see more than the inside of her own head was exactly what was needed. Nagato was amazing. Yahiko was not surprised at all that Nagato's original would have been a leader. He would have had an advisor or two, to keep him on track, but aside from that Nagato was perfectly suited to being in charge of something. A cloud moved aside, and sunlight shone down onto Yahiko's hair. He shaded his eyes and kept looking, all the while enjoying the growing feeling of warmth on the top of his head.
Footsteps disturbed a small pebble right behind him. "Sorry," Nagato apologized unnecessarily. "We started a short debate about whether or not to take the car. It's not settled yet."
"No way!" Yahiko turned and looked fondly at Nagato, like one does at a dog that's acting silly. "We're walking. No question about it."
"Yeah…" Nagato's eyes were wide in that strange, soft way they were sometimes. Yahiko had noticed that nobody else seemed to receive this look. It was a special thing, only for the two of them. A pang brought moisture to Yahiko's eyes. That was just what Konan was missing: small things, only shared and understood between the three of them. He looked past Nagato's head and saw her. A spring morning wind was blowing her cloak back from her legs as she silently crossed the ragged parking lot. She came to a stop and inhaled deeply, glancing up the street. Yes! Yahiko remembered the earlier guidelines about not laughing or dancing too much.
"Can you feel it?" Nagato asked her. "The wind, I mean."
Konan brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear so it would not blow across her face. The wind changed direction to counter this tactic. "No," she said, resigning herself to this as she had to the constant rain. "The wind is very pleasant, nothing more."
Nagato explained, "I don't know if I mentioned it, but her offer was to take both of us for cloaks like she has. After that, whatever we want."
"Oh, yeah," Yahiko remembered. "Oh...Hidan was so excited to get his. It's a shame he's feeling too overwhelmed to come along. He'll probably have lots of fun with everyone else."
Nagato nodded. "We'll deal with it for the walk. Is it far?" he asked Konan.
She mentally estimated how long it had taken her and Hidan to reach the tailor's before. "Moderately. The distance to town at a slow walking pace was enough for us to have a full conversation about the differences between our world's plant life, and the distance between entering town and reaching the tailor's was enough for Hidan to elaborate on his memory problems. I would say that adds up to maybe two conversation's worth of distance."
"I've got a lot of things to talk about!" Yahiko kept himself from seeming too energetic about it in front of Konan. "I actually haven't felt the wind at all because of that."
"How was your training?" Konan asked politely as she started walking. She did not look at him, but he was not expecting her to.
"I learned a few things about my chakra." Yahiko told them of his experiment with the bush, and the results he'd gotten.
"Interesting…" Nagato thought on similar wavelengths as Yahiko. In a few short seconds or less, he would come to the same conclusions.
"That was all?"
"Well," Yahiko explained, "that wasn't all I was doing. Before I cut off its leaves, I apologized to it, and the same afterwards. Plants are awesome, and if succubi exist then wood spirits might too. I wasn't taking any chances. Do you think the library would have a book on how to show proper respect to nature spirits?"
"I was talking to Sasori while you were catching up with Samehada earlier," Nagato volunteered. "I asked him more about this idea Deidara was going on about, with us living in a video game. He said that Laurie had mentioned how this town is built strangely so that we have everything we need, and nothing more than that. So Deidara started freaking out that we might actually be in a game, and does that mean we don't have control over ourselves, but he called Hidan and Hidan said if this was a game, it was a good one, and he also said that it wasn't a game. Dei had no idea how Hidan could know anything like that, but he sounded pretty sure of himself. So he figured that he was making too big a deal of this, and talked to Sasori, and Sasori's actually noticed the same thing. Sasori had to get bike parts and tools once, and the hardware store mysteriously had all of them when there's no particular reason it should. In conclusion, yes, the library probably has any book you could possibly want or need."
"Wow." Yahiko stared up at a magnolia they were passing. It looked like it would have flowers soon, and it was a healthy and good-looking tree in any case. "I...don't know what to say about that." If he could have known how to say what he felt, he would have said that it was like being made angels in their own pocket universe, that it was amazing and strange and wonderful that something seemed to have been created just for them, that wasn't this proof that the universe at least possessed the capacity to be well ordered and kind? Instead of saying any of that, because he couldn't make up the poetry to do so that fast, he laughed once more in awe.
Nagato laughed along, more quietly, and took Yahiko's hand. "If your chakra has the same effect on plants as on people," he began, "does that mean you can test your jutsu on plants? If you could learn not just how to soothe pain, but maybe heal -"
"- I can get more seeds, and find out who or what made those flowers grow so fast -"
"- and learn or, worst-case, make up a technique, of course -"
"- I wouldn't need to be afraid of anything. I wouldn't need to change myself to be a ninja. I wouldn't have to just get used to hurting people. I could -"
"- distract enemies, and heal friends, or heal enemies too if you want, and it would all be entirely, completely right. Nothing would be wrong at all with being a ninja."
"Yes!" Their arms swung together. Yahiko was unable to stop a long, gleeful giggle. This hope that he would be able to experience rightness, even in the kind of life Konan led, was refreshing. It was life-giving. It was...new.
Yahiko stopped there and probed deeper. Was rightness really so novel? I can't find anything familiar about it. It doesn't feel at all like something I've felt before.
Konan stopped and turned back, not truly looking at Yahiko but enough that he could see she was talking to him. "No," she confirmed. "Your original did not learn medical ninjutsu."
Whoa. That speaking to his inner thoughts was something only Nagato had ever done before. She turned back and resumed leading them down the suburban street into town. She walked ahead of them, but Nagato and Yahiko saw something different. Yahiko curled his hand at his side, while Nagato reached out. Pulling ahead somewhat, he took Konan's left hand in his right. Her hand felt small at first, but then it curled into his with obvious strength. She dropped back and the three of them walked in one line. It felt strange - after all, this Nagato and this Yahiko had never had anyone but themselves. They brushed the strangeness away. Those words were all the proof they needed that she belonged.
"So there is such a thing?" Yahiko hardly spoke above a whisper. It was an awfully important matter.
"Yes." Konan pulled her hand free from Nagato's. "But the circumstances weren't right."
"No medical ninjas around to teach him?" Nagato guessed.
Konan nodded. "Only Jiraiya sensei taught us anything, and he was no doctor." She paused. "And after him… There wasn't time or opportunity to learn. One of the downsides of living in a war zone."
"Oh." That's a tragedy. To be so lucky to make it through a war zone, but even that's not lucky enough to be able to live as you should… That's awful. Yahiko wasn't the sort of person to say "good enough" to anything. If at all possible, he would always keep pushing for fullness and reaching the limits of one's potential. The idea of anyone, a version of himself included, not being able to reach their real potential was a travesty. It must be fixed as soon as possible.
He let go of Nagato's hand and looked up to consider the trees they were passing. He'd always wanted to be a little like a tree. They were a part of everything, but also above it. Such serenity was enviable. The trees waved up and down, slowly and gently, like rolling hills. A bird was perched on the end of one branch, watching them. It was mostly black but for the reddish-orange feathers covering its whole chest and belly. Yahiko smiled at it. That bird knew what was going on.
"Well," he said, "that needs to be fixed. Did you ever learn anything about medical jutsu?"
Konan was silent. Nagato heard her quietly sigh, almost inaudibly. "Not enough. It involves careful manipulation of chakra, to avoid hurting the patient, and I've seen many medics use scrolls and seals to assist them. That's all I know."
Yahiko was very happy upon hearing this. "Great! I don't have to do anything with my chakra to make it soothing, so it's probably just that way by nature. That means it would be really hard for me to accidentally hurt anyone, and my manipulation does look pretty careful. The way I controlled that stream was just how I wanted it to be, not out of control or dangerous at all. I could have a talent for it!"
"I'm not surprised," Konan murmured.
"Neither am I." Nagato had never bought into the idea that Yahiko was anything less than completely suitable in the first place. He only had to find his proper place, that was all.
Konan looked at Nagato sideways. She very much doubted they were unsurprised for the same reasons.
"Did Jiraiya sensei ever ask you two to dress as frogs?" she asked.
Nagato coughed. Yahiko fiddled with his hair. "There was the one Halloween where he helped us get costumes, and they were frog costumes. He took pictures of us in them."
Nagato coughed some more, then gave up his efforts to stop laughing. "Is there any reason he has such a thing for frogs?" he asked Konan when his breath was steady again. "We did look adorable in those, didn't we?"
Konan shook her head. Of course such an incident would have happened in this world. Of course. Some things were just too important and notable not to be carried over. "He was a powerful shinobi, a Sage, and he learned from the toads. He liked to call himself the Toad Sage."
"Whoa, wait a second." Nagato actually stopped in his tracks for a brief heartbeat. "Learned from the toads? You mean...talking toads?"
"Of course." She looked at him with obvious confusion. "What other kind of toads?"
"Your world has talking animals? Wow! This world only has those in fantasy stories, the kind that you would tell to children," Yahiko explained.
"It makes sense…" Nagato thought aloud. "Animals don't talk because they have different brains from humans, and even if they were smart enough, they would still have different throats and mouths. Harnessing chakra could help a species be smarter, and if there is a technique they can use to get around the differences in throat design...it could work…"
"How many books is it possible to check out at one time?" Konan asked.
Yahiko told her, and asked what she was planning to get. "Books about animal and plant life, and the biology thereof," she answered. "Hidan told me during our last discussion that wood is very durable in this world, and now it seems animals are different too. Everything I'm hearing supports the idea that the existence of chakra has altered evolution."
"I'd keep an eye out for books on human evolution, too," Nagato suggested. "Maybe you could find interesting parallels or divergences from human evolution in your world."
"Wood isn't durable in your world?" What do they use for building materials then?
"Not as durable." She provided examples of its limitations (ex: cannot withstand a human crashing against it), and elaborated on how quickly trees grew.
"I read a book where some trees grew really fast once," Yahiko recalled. "Although that was magic, and magic defies the rules of reality, so they were presumably just as strong as trees grown the slow way."
Thus started a vicious debate on magic, chakra, and the differences between the two. Konan had difficulty seeing any difference, Yahiko tried his best to explain his point of view but was persuaded into confusion before he could do so (he hadn't ever described the differences to himself, either; he just thought the two ideas felt different somehow), while Nagato tried his hardest to ignore both of them and make up his own mind.
"I think Yahiko was right the first time," he ultimately concluded. "What we call 'magic' is any force that is in defiance of the usual laws of physics. Chakra isn't magic because it is part of the usual laws of physics in your world, and it's become part of the environment here so it might not be magic here either. The effects of magic don't affect everything and they aren't constant, or else they would become part of the normal laws of physics and would no longer be magic. Magic has to be not normal."
"So if chakra did not circulate freely, and it was only used when people used it in jutsu, it would qualify as magic?" Konan really wanted clarification on this point.
"... Sure. If it is possible to tap into something that normally is completely inactive and make it active, that might qualify as magic. But not if you're just calling down stuff that already works."
"So Hidan's powers aren't magic?" Yahiko asked. "Since his god really does exist, and all…"
"But is his god active, that's the relevant part," Nagato argued back. He was really regretting his efforts.
"This is ridiculous," Konan pointed out.
"You say ridiculous, I say fun," was Yahiko's response.
Nagato shook his head. "I'm getting a headache. We can ask somebody else about the nature of magic later. Who's got another topic?"
They passed the spot where the civilian girl had looked right at Konan and saw only a reason to be envious in silence. Then Konan remembered something. "What is Halloween?"
By the time they got to the tailor's, she and Nagato were in complete agreement that it was unfair for all the best holidays to be clustered around one quarter of the year. Christmas was fine, but what about the other two?
"Thanksgiving's for celebrating bounty, so it makes sense that it would be at harvest time, and Halloween is all about spooky things, so it has to be at a time of year where the nights are long," Yahiko protested.
"But why are they the best holidays?" Nagato countered. "Aside from Easter, there is not one holiday in the rest of the calendar that is celebrated with candy, family fun times, and other good things that anyone can get behind. We've never celebrated Fourth of July, and actually, I don't even know of any holidays in the rest of the year aside from that and Easter. Why are there only two holidays in the entire rest of the year, and why is only one of those holidays any good?"
Yahiko had to struggle for an answer to that one. "People don't need holidays then? Why would you celebrate when just going outside is exactly as much fun as a party?"
"Then what about the other months of winter? January and February?" Konan countered.
"...There's Valentine's day, and… I don't know."
"See? Unfair temporal discrimination," Nagato declared. "Can we get some clothes now? I'm cold."
Nagato
I have never been happier to be right in all my life.
Yahiko was checking himself out in the mirror, enjoying the feel of his new cloak. "It's so warm!" he noted with joy.
Nagato was also checking him out. Specifically, he was paying close attention to the line where orange met black. Next he moved on to examine the shoulders. They were just begging to be examined closer, felt, squeezed, lovingly stroked…
Yahiko turned around, the bottom of the cloak flying wide, displaying his legs to maximum effect. "What do you think?" he asked.
Konan was very studiously looking elsewhere. Nagato propped himself against the wall and gave a thumbs up. Hawa hawa hawa hawa. This was an even better angle for his hair, but the way the cloak flattered his chest…!
"Are you okay?" Yahiko looked worried.
"Want," Nagato managed to get out. So kissable… An extremely vivid mental movie played in Nagato's mind. He could see himself stepping forward, taking hold of Yahiko's arms, kissing the daylights out of him while their cloaks fluttered romantically in the breeze…
"Oh, alright." Yahiko moved out of the way of the mirror. "Sorry for hogging it. All yours!"
He has to be messing with me. Please. He can't be serious. Nagato stepped up to the mirror and examined the cloak, noting with relief how thick the cloth was and how the sleeves fit just tightly enough. He's not stupid, and I'm not that good a liar.
Yahiko continued to finger the cloak's high collar. "I can see why Hidan wouldn't like it, but I think I can live with it," he muttered to himself. "Doesn't brush my neck that badly."
Konan looked sideways at him. Very sideways.
"I can see why Hidan likes his," Yahiko repeated to Konan. "I feel impressive in it. It's probably the black; all the strongest characters wear black. Has anyone told you about Star Wars yet?"
She shook her head, so he pulled out his phone and proceeded to show her pictures of Darth Vader. "He's kind of like Nagato, actually. He can hold people up in the air and choke them with his powers. Actually, I think a lot of characters do telekinetic stuff like that. It's probably just what the Force - that's the source of his powers - is good at. Heh." Having made this comparison, Yahiko examined Nagato closely. "Yeah, it is really similar. If these things were all black, he could do a decent Vader impression."
Konan said nothing. After two hours of conversation, her energy was running low. At least it had been useful and informative conversation. The past two hours had effectively been a second, unofficial training session with these little phone devices. Sitting still was apparently the cue to use these devices as part of one's conversation, instead of talking entirely from one's personal knowledge and opinions. Nagato had looked up tailoring on Google to find out more about what the man would be doing for the next two hours, and not only shared what he found but also took it upon himself to show her the way to Wikipedia. He'd left her his phone and started a conversation with Yahiko, indicating that she should use the search bar to look up what they were talking about. Konan was now very proficient in using search bars, as their conversation had included many references to popular culture.
After her fingers grew tired, she handed the phone back and began a lecture on the geography and climate of Amegakure, the village they were all from. Yahiko's phone was now stuffed full of information about every mold species there was, since that had been one of the first things they'd asked about after she mentioned how Nagato had used a Rinnegan technique to make it rain constantly.
"But wouldn't that destroy everything with water damage and mold and such? That would be horrible for a village!" he'd exclaimed with horror. Yahiko had backed him up with the Wikipedia article on black mold. They were reluctant to say as much, but they didn't have very high opinions of the quality of Original Nagato's village leadership. That was probably why they didn't question her claim that the rain technique hadn't led to particularly bad consequences.
Konan now had a headache from the questions they had inspired. They wanted to know everything, and she didn't have a Wikipedia article to leave them with. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Star Wars. Another thing that was so very important for no reason she could see, which would have to be remembered. Did they expect her to cram an entire world in her head, just like that? Did they expect she would want to?
"Um...is everything alright?" Yahiko put his phone away and looked concerned.
"I feel odd," she answered, troubled. "I appreciate your efforts to help me understand your world, but now I have two worlds in my head, and it feels very strange. All I have of my world is my own memory, but you two have so many things to tell you about your world. It feels almost threatening. I'm not sure I want to learn too much more about yours. I want to remember my home."
Yahiko went pale. "Oh, I'm sorry… Oh, gods, I…"
She shook her head. "Forget it."
He still felt horribly guilty. What had he been thinking? "I'm still going to apologize," he said softly but firmly. "Because I need to."
"What?" Nagato had waited until he was quite sure all his blood was where it should be and he wasn't going to accidentally kiss his best friend. "Did something happen?"
"We kinda pressured her with all our information and pop culture and things," Yahiko explained. "She doesn't have anything but memories, and here we are piling on."
"...Oh." Nagato looked more horrified than he ever had before. "I didn't even…"
"It's fine," Konan interrupted.
Nagato decided he'd better take her word for it. "So, I was thinking of asking some questions about my original," he stated. "You want to go and look ahead for someplace we can eat?"
"Oh, yeah!" Yahiko was more than smart enough to take hints he was offered. "Sure, I'll come back when I've found a place." He left, pausing outside the doors to shiver from the feeling of wearing his new uniform in public. He definitely understood why Hidan loved it so much.
Nagato paid for the both of them, thanked the friendly man behind the counter (who, though his fingers were sore, looked forward to more of these funny customers. He refrained from asking how many they had, not wanting to seem greedy), and left with Konan. They sat down on the curb just to the side of the tailor's, and watched the traffic pass.
A moment of silence descended. Konan turned to Nagato and said, "After that day, your original grieved the same as I did. That was when I realized we felt the same."
"Really?" Nagato sighed. "Other Me must have been a better liar than I am, if it took that long."
"No," Konan disagreed. "It was all different. Your devotion did not seem out of the ordinary, because Yahiko had great dreams and everyone else believed in him too. The way you interacted with him had no imbalance in it. We were battle-forged. I think, too, that he was satisfied. There was a prophecy Jiraiya sensei had received from the oldest and wisest of the toads, which said that he would teach a child that would grow to save the world, or destroy it. Once he saw that your original had the Rinnegan, he believed it was him that the prophecy referred to. Yahiko was at least as devoted to your original as Other You was to him, because of this belief. He thought that of course Other You would be a hero, it made perfect sense, and so he was willing to support Other You wholeheartedly. Receiving that devotion may have been enough. I had no idea you'd ever wanted more."
Nagato studied small cracks in the pavement. "That does sound like Heaven," he admitted. "All I've ever wanted is for him to look at me that way. This Yahiko does think I'm smart and strong, and he thought I should be a leader well before you said I had been, but it's not… It feels different. Not satisfying."
Konan put a hand on his shoulder. "How long are you willing to live unsatisfied?"
Nagato stiffened, then relaxed. "I've been working on that. Trust me. I'm fine."
"All right, then." Konan fell silent. Her hand started to feel heavier on Nagato's shoulder. He realized she was starting to lean on him.
He shuffled closer and put his arm around her shoulders, letting her lean on him. She sighed. "How are things?" he asked gently.
"Exhausting."
She looked more than exhausted, though. Nagato swallowed and asked the question. "And Yahiko?"
"I can't tell if this is the worst or best decision I ever made." She shivered.
Nagato looked around. Yahiko still wasn't back yet. "Okay," he reassured her. "Okay. You know, I have some things to talk to Yahiko about. What I said before is still true - I'm terrible at hiding things. And in this world, there's none of that context you had to justify things. He's not stupid, so how can he be…? I think he's messing with me. When he comes back with a place to eat, how about we go, sit down, get food, and I pull him aside for an interrogation? I'll tell him you need a break. He'll understand."
"And then we go visit the library." Her voice wavered on the last word.
"Yeah." Nagato shook her to cheer her up. "We have nature spirits to befriend, remember?"
"Mm."
He patted her shoulder. "We're not trying to be hurtful."
"You are not. I'm volunteering."
Nagato opened his mouth to say something, but didn't. Konan looked at him. He shook his head. "I just realized...I volunteer too."
Konan nodded. "Yes, I have noticed we go through many of the same trials." She stopped speaking then, and joined Nagato in watching the traffic. They pretended to watch the cars passing by, but in truth, both of them were only looking out for a head of glowing orange, shining against the blackness of night.
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