Hidan
In Hidan's opinion, the best way to wake up was to simply float up out of sleep like a long-submerged bubble breaking free. During such wondrous awakenings, he could swear he felt himself drifting inside his own body. At some point he would gain awareness, and from then on he would observe the gradual changes in his body and mind as he neared awakeness. He always started out feeling cozy and warm, with no idea that moving was a thing, much less desire to move. He would become aware of external temperature, then of his muscles' own heaviness, then of the pleasant smell of the carpet beneath him. It was good that he was too paralyzed to sneeze at that point; the carpet was dusty. He really should vacuum it. Such thoughts were part of Hidan's process of waking up. Suddenly Hidan remembered that there was such a thing as awake, and he was it.
Hey, I'm awake. He yawned, and subsequently purred as this movement caused the scythe to slide across his back. Its blades were warm and smooth; he wondered if a snake back there would have felt as pleasant. Nah. It's mine, which makes it special. He reached over his back and stroked one of its blades, while still purring. After this, he pushed his belly off the carpet (which it protested), and stretched. Then he laid his protesting belly back down on the fluffy softness and wriggled back and forth, stopping its complaints.
Mrrow. He did not deign to actually open his eyelids, but Hidan made his best estimate of the room's lighting conditions from what he saw through his closed eyelids. Aww, I'm gonna have to get up soon… He wondered who he was getting up for, and briefly imagined Nagato. His eyelids opened of their own accord, and Hidan sat up easily. Alright! Moonlight could use some more hanging out time. His imaginary tail curled around his leg and flicked at this thought. Hidan looked down and sighed. His tail was imaginary, and tomorrow it would still be imaginary. He looked to his left, where the stiff handle of the scythe had wedged into the carpet, so that only the lowest blade was barely in contact with his back. It was warm, but it would never bend. He sighed again. Mrrowww.
Hidan indulged in the sadness for a few more seconds as he stood up, separated himself from the scythe, and grabbed his cloak. Anyway, yesterday was awesome! He grinned as he zipped his cloak up to just below his collarbone. Talking with Nagato and Yahiko, just hanging out, was not something that Hidan could ever remember doing, now that he thought about it. He'd never just hung out with Kakuzu before, at least not in the same way, and he had the feeling that no such hangouts had occurred before he was eight, either. Wonder who I was back then? He would have had to be someone else, right? Memories are a part of who you are, and they're not a part of who I am now, so they must have been a part of someone else. That's just d'obvious. The real question is: if I met that fucker now, would I think he was cool or not-cool? He purred some more at the thought of hanging out with Nagato and Yahiko. They were cool. They were also both highly kissable, in his expert opinion.
Speaking of kissable, he wondered how long it had been since he'd last spent some time with Sammy. Shit, it's been a while. I'd better at least say Hi. Hidan leaned out of his doorway and gave the hallway a listen. He heard and felt signs of stirring and activity, but no one was out and doing things yet. More importantly, he did not feel the kind of cheerfulness that Sammy always exuded, so they were clearly not back yet. Aww. I'll just have to skip directly to Moonlight, then.
Sometime later, he shook his head in disgust as he cracked open Nagato's door. That is a bad kind of sleep. No-want. Resist! He looked inside. Nagato was nowhere to be seen. Hidan sniffed the door. If he channeled chakra to his nose it boosted his olfactory powers greatly (he'd danced quite a lot after discovering that), but he did not need to do so in such an enclosed environment and for Nagato's scent. He smells good. I just want to chew on his hair. Rrrrrr. There was no scent, which proved that Nagato had not left his room. So where was he?
Hidan walked in and sat on Nagato's bed to wait for him, laying the scythe on the bed behind him as he always had to whenever he sat down. Hidan sighed again. It was so very sad that his scythe, for all of its awesomeness, had this one glaring, crucial, utterly unmissable design flaw. How was it usable if its handle was stiff and rodlike? He couldn't sit down or use it as a proper tail or anything! Hidan filed an imaginary complaint with whoever was in charge of its design. That was a bad move.
His complaint was registered, but got no response. Hidan crossed his arms and growled churlishly. Typical! My complaints about the universe never go anywhere. Wait, is that a stuffed animal? It was a stuffed animal. Nagato had one on his bedside table, which Hidan had only just now turned to face. The room was otherwise bare of furnishings or personal touches, but this one bear with its orange, fluffy fur and the biggest, blackest, most innocent eyes made up for all of it. Hidan's eyes got a little moist. He named it Yahiko-bear.
I can't believe I've been neglecting Hobbes so much. I know Konan's been needing my help a lot, but that's no excuse for leaving him all alone without even a friend. He can be friends with Yahiko-bear! Hidan nodded firmly. He got up to get Hobbes and introduce the two, and that was when Nagato came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.
"Uh…" Nagato's response in most such situations was of the "freeze" variety. He also turned rather red. Hidan didn't like this feeling at all. It was a feeling of heightened awareness, only turned inside, so he could feel every tickle on his skin and every random twist of his guts. Hidan was ticklish, so being able to feel his skin so acutely was very annoying. He shook himself to get it off of him.
"Heya, Moonlight," he waved cheerfully. He then pointed to Yahiko-bear. "Seeing him makes me feel all guilty for how I didn't even get Hobbes a friend, so he's alone most of the time. You think they'd be good friends?"
Nagato tried to ignore the fact that Hidan was standing between him and his closet. If Hidan didn't care, why should he? "Um...yeah. I think they would be good friends."
Hidan smiled sweetly. He turned and patted the stuffed toy gently on the head. "Stay cute, Yahiko-bear." Then he left.
Nagato took a deep breath as soon as Hidan was gone, the better to relieve the feeling of suffocating with. Hidan was great, and having him here wasn't bad or anything, but it was more than a little overwhelming. Nagato rushed into his clothes, breathing a sigh of relief when he was all covered up. He couldn't help noticing that some areas of his shoulders and chest protested being covered up. Those complaints were disregarded.
Privately, he wondered how he and Hidan had managed to come up with the same secret name for the bear without talking. Well, it was a secret for Nagato at least. Officially, the bear was called something less creepy-sounding. Or rather, Nagato thought it might potentially possibly be taken as creepy. Yahiko would probably appreciate the gesture, but he didn't know about the other 65% of the time that Nagato thought of him. Nagato worried that he was obsessed, and that it was unhealthy.
Hidan came back, cradling Hobbes in his arms and gazing down at the tiger with loving eyes. "Here you go, kit," he murmured as he placed Hobbes next to Yahiko-bear. He turned Yahiko-bear so they faced each other. "Hobbes, Yahiko-bear. Yahiko-bear, Hobbes. Be nice to each other."
Nagato found this touching and sweet. "You sound like one experienced in the ways of caring for dolls," he murmured as Hidan joined him on the bed.
"Probably," Hidan confirmed. "I didn't have much of a childhood, but from what I do remember, I liked to talk to books and things that Kakuzu had as if they had feelings. I didn't have any real dolls, though. Did I ever tell you that I don't remember anything from before I was eight?"
Nagato's eyes were wide. "No, I don't think you have. I know you have memory problems - everyone does after that party, at least - and now I know that you can't see or go near the basement, but I haven't heard of anything else. How could a whole chunk of your life go missing like that?"
Hidan shrugged. "There was probably some reason for it. Kakuzu found me on the side of the road, so I probably ran away. Seems like there might have been something I wanted to forget. But I can't fucking remember what it was!" He threw down his arms and groaned. "Or any of the good parts! I don't remember anything from that time, except how to speak. I already knew how to do that when Kakuzu picked me up. I could also read and write. I had a bunch of skills, actually - didn't do too bad at riding a bike the first time. But things that aren't skills, information, I didn't know any of that shit! I remember learning about George Washington for the first time, and that guy who founded Buddhism (he was way more interesting), for example. Y'know. Basic shit."
"Wow." Nagato had so many questions about what it was like to learn things so late. He couldn't remember the vast majority of first and second grade, so he had no idea what it had been like to learn the basic facts that were taught there, but Hidan could remember because he had been older when he learned them. What was an eight-year old's perspective on those topics? Nagato had so many questions.
Hidan continued. "Seriously, I've never been able to get it. Why the fuck would people know all about some guy who led a bunch of ragtag troops to victory, and not know anything about a guy who escaped from imperial prison palaces and made whole discoveries about life and death and shit? He broke out like four times and got dragged back all but the last time! Those adventures are about equal in awesomeness and bravery and coolness, but I gotta give the Buddha extra props for being even less prepared then Georgy. He didn't even know what death and sickness were, but he was still able to think of doing work and hardship and shit. That's fuckin' cool when you think about it, but no, everyone knows about the other guy, just because blah blah heroic vaguely fatherlike figure and all that crap. Did Freud have anything to say about that?"
Nagato replied, "Well, most people learn things about the founding of their country and all that when they're still young enough to think of Mom and Dad as heroes. If you want them to think of those people as heroes, it -" He paused midsentence. "Wait, do you know anything about your parents? Anything at all?"
Hidan shook his head. "Nope. Not a fucking thing. My first memory is of seeing Kakuzu when he came over to see if I was okay. I don't remember anyone else." Hidan looked around, did not find a mirror, and settled for tracing his features with his fingers instead. "I wonder about 'em, though. Where'd I get my face shape from? My eyes? Do I look more like my dad or like my mom? Does my hair remember who brushed it way back when?" He rubbed his hair between his fingers. "I guess I don't need to know, but it'd be nice."
Nagato softly put a hand on his shoulder. "Um…" He shifted uncomfortably. "I, um… I knew my parents. I got my hair from my mother."
Hidan tried to picture a woman with Nagato's hairstyle. "Hey, that would look good on a lady." He folded his hands in his lap and looked at Nagato like a disciple seeking wisdom. "What was she like?"
Nagato looked down. "She was smart. Dad said I also got my brains from her. She took care of me. She took care of everyone. I remember…" He bit his lower lip. "She patted me on the head sometimes and told me I was a good boy and I'd grow up to be a good man. 'Now eat your vegetables!'"
Hidan patted Nagato on the head. "She was totally fucking correct." He watched Nagato smile and start to cry at the same time.
The redhead laughed quietly and wiped his cheeks. "Thank you," he whispered.
Hidan took his hand back. "You mind if I ask about the vegetables? What's up with those? I've never had a problem with plants."
Nagato laughed some more. "Neither did I. It's just a trope by this point, that kids and vegetables don't get along. I don't really know either."
"I just see myself as a giant monster. 'Fear me! All your cellulose will not save you!' And I tear them asunder, break them like the pretentious assholes they are, or, in the case of broccoli, graze peacefully on trees. I just destroy those fuckers," Hidan explained. "How was your dad?"
Nagato sniffled. "He didn't really know what to do with me, but he could get pretty fierce for me. Even if I had trouble talking with him, I knew he loved me. We had trouble understanding each other, but even if he understood nothing at all, I can still see him standing there at my wedding." Nagato sobbed. His head hung down, hiding both of his eyes. He curled up and made muffled noises of pain into his knees.
Hidan's eyes misted too. He fought to clear them. No, it didn't happen to me, it's not… Did my dad love me like that? He shook his head and scooted closer to Nagato, laying a hand over the redhead's shoulders. Weddings are very sad topics.
Hidan's breath shook. He closed his eyes, and felt himself dip dangerously low before he opened them again. Oh, crap. The sadness felt nice, but it softened him, opening up weak spots where he could change in response to outside influence. Ordinarily, making someone sad was good because they could change for the better. Being sad now was the opposite of a good thing for Hidan. He could feel the energy leaving him, his emotions drying up. Bad sleep. Bad. He stayed sitting with his arm across Nagato's shoulders, but he no longer felt the same about it. It felt odd, like something he wasn't deliberately doing, but just a part he was acting out. It's what I do. I'm the helpful guy. Hidan supposed it was good to have that as his part, instead of some other role.
Nagato
Nagato wiped his eyes. "I don't...really know who I'm going to have at my wedding now," he whimpered. "Or if I'm going to have one. Who would love me like that even if they didn't understand?"
Hidan was silent. His understanding had gone, but so had the strong emotions including love, so he didn't have an answer. Nagato looked up. "Hidan? Are you okay?"
Hidan took his arm back, with great effort. "Mmm." He shook his head as if shaking off water. "It feels like falling, like being buried," he muttered. "Like something setting into concrete. It won't ever change back. That's what it feels like. I know I can feel different, but it doesn't feel like I can. It feels like death - forever and ever and ever." He sighed and leaned forward, barely stopping himself from toppling to the floor.
Nagato grabbed his shoulder in concern. "Hidan -" Hidan groaned. Oh no. Is he going to be okay? Hidan's face twisted. Whatever was happening inside him showed no signs of slowing. Nagato tightened his grip. I don't want him to look like this. I have to do something. Nagato wondered what he could do. Yahiko had problems, Hidan had problems, everyone Nagato cared for most had something troubling them. And their troubles weren't going away. Nagato fought back frustration. The good moments didn't last very long in this place, and he was starting to get tired of that. What can I do for them? How do I go about fighting this? I don't know where to start. But then, he thought of his father. His father would do anything. He also thought of his mother, and the heart and mind he'd inherited from her. Hidan shook off Nagato's hand, mumbling that he was fine. That's not true. Nagato felt his courage firm up inside him. I can do anything too. I will. He pushed Hidan backwards onto the bed. "Stay here," he ordered.
Nagato left him there and walked straight down the hall to Konan's room, a very short distance. He opened the door slowly, eliciting minimal noise. "Konan?" he whispered.
Konan opened her eyes. She lifted her arm, flexed it, then wrestled herself vertical. "Thank you." She nodded gratefully at Nagato. "For the disturbance."
He looked back at his room, then turned and stepped inside. He closed the door behind him softly. "This is enough," he declared. "I don't want Hidan to feel the way he just told me he felt, or anyone else. Seeing my best friends worried and unhappy is getting old. I don't like it."
Konan latched on to the strength in his words, drawing power from them. "What will you do?" she challenged.
Nagato looked at her. He saw the way she was sitting up straighter and her eyes were more open. Did I do that? One answer to that question would be helpful, the other would not be. Nagato chose the helpful answer. I did. He sat down on the edge of the bed, facing her. "Anything," he challenged back.
His answer seemed to please her. He watched a flicker of a smile work its way around her lips. She lifted her hand and curled it into a fist, watching it as she did so. "I've recovered some chakra," she told him. "Not half the amount I usually have, and my reserves are only just beginning to be restored, but enough for now."
Nagato's eyes widened. "Wait," he muttered slowly. Some things clicked into place in his mind. "Chakra… is connected to emotions? How you feel?"
Konan questioned him with her gaze. "Of course it is, just like electricity. Chakra is very similar to electricity, actually. It can use the same pathways."
"So low chakra affects your mind as well as your body," Nagato realized.
"Both are the same," Konan corrected him. "They aren't separate."
"Not completely," Nagato agreed. "But people in this world don't have chakra, remember? They don't have that extra connection between the two. The mind and body can affect each other, obviously, but it's not as straightforward as that. If the body's tired, that has little to do with how tired the mind is in this world. The body and mind don't line up as closely as that. I didn't think that your feeling poorly had anything to do with your chakra," he concluded.
Konan blinked. The connection had always been so obvious. She had never thought that a person could fail to see it before. "What did you think was the cause?"
"Whatever was going on with your mind before," Nagato answered. "I thought your brain was obviously recovering from whatever had been wrong with it, and physical exhaustion was a contributor. I wasn't wrong, but if chakra also affects the mind, than it's a much bigger contributor than I thought."
He tilted his head back and sighed. "Although, now that I think about it, Hidan's mentioned that his chakra feels strange when you're feeling strange, so there had to be at least a one-way connection. I can't believe I missed that! We've just been providing food and letting you catch up on sleep, and waiting for your brain chemistry to balance itself out. Nobody thought that donating chakra or something would help get your mind back in balance. I have plenty of chakra; I could've…"
Konan grabbed his forearm. "It's not your fault. That would have helped, but not all of the way. I do need reassurance, and patience, and everything Hidan's been providing over the past few days." She hesitated. Then, in a strained whisper: "I even needed that funeral."
Nagato sighed. "The worst part is, Deidara was sweeping his brain with chakra to keep himself from feeling tired before we fought the succubus. That should've been a flashing neon clue right there." He looked down at her hand on his forearm. "But thank you."
Konan nodded. "In my world, nobody would expect a patient who was critically low on chakra to feel anything other than tired and unhappy. It's part of general knowledge." She looked down and wondered aloud, "How many other things that are general knowledge am I overlooking?"
Nagato, too, wondered about his knowledge. What things seem so obvious to me that they're invisible? How much of the world is actually completely invisible to me? How much of it do I need to see, and can I see any of it without first tripping over it like I did now? He didn't like contemplating the slippery nature of his own mind, but it had to be done in order to help anyone else. Hidan helps other people effectively, so he must have figured himself out. Maybe he could give me advice.
"I have an idea," he announced. "General knowledge is like unseen knowledge that fills in the gaps in formal lessons, right? So, you should tell us everything else, everything that you know we need to know. We'll be able to spot the gaps. And, if you think there's something you're missing about a topic that everyone else seems to understand, we could do the same."
Konan nodded thoughtfully. "That's a good idea." Her face flickered with pain, so briefly that Nagato almost thought he'd imagined it before he sternly reminded himself never to brush off anything as imagination. "What do you wish to know about chakra?"
"Let's follow up on what you said about chakra being similar to electricity," Nagato decided. "The same pathways… what did you mean by that?"
Deidara
Deidara yawned before pushing open the door to the shed. "Hey," he said.
"Hey," Sasori replied. "What time is it?" His stomach complained audibly.
"Breakfast time, yeah," Deidara answered. "You should take a break, yeah."
Sasori closed his eyes, exhaled meditatively, and put down his pencil. As he followed Deidara out into the cool morning air, his eyes widened. "This air…" He chose not to finish that thought aloud. "Thank you," he told Deidara, with great sincerity.
"Yeah!" Deidara chuckled. "Good thing I'm here, yeah? Who else would remind you to come out of your cocoon sometimes?"
Sasori smiled. "My thought bubble is nice, but you do have a point." He took a deep breath, watching the fog from his exhale drift into the sky. "I thought such heavy rain had to mean a cold front was coming in."
"Yeah, this is a good distance to have to walk, hm." Deidara was quite happy to step foot inside once more.
.
"So, I've been wondering who it should be," Deidara said over breakfast. "I did try to think of what I need to practice, yeah, but then Kisame called and I didn't get back to it."
Sasori tilted his head as he chewed his turkey sandwich. Upon swallowing, he said, "This sounds like a good idea. Our originals sound powerful, but also like a bunch of antisocial jerks. We probably have an advantage over them in teamwork. Partnering up for training would maximise our greatest strength. It's perfect for us."
He put the sandwich down and folded his hands, resting his chin upon them. "I think that's what we should be doing: maximising our strengths. It's no good fretting about all the things we can't do as well as they could. For you, let's see… You have a bird to fly around on, so you're pretty mobile. Big explosives are out since we're next to a forest, but you might be able to use small explosives as projectiles, like throwing firecrackers. You're better at hand to hand fighting than I am, but not by much. What you're good at is speed and distance."
"I've already trained with Konan," Deidara reminded him. "She's pretty good at the same things, yeah. But I'm not really sure about her, which goes against what you said about teamwork, yeah."
"Hidan's pretty fast," Sasori suggested. "He's no good at distance, though."
"Itachi has his eyes, but that kind of goes against my flying, rather than working with it," Deidara said.
"Kakuzu and Kisame are out, because they're not remotely at your level in hand to hand," Sasori declared. "I'd need a lot more practice with Laurie before I could help you, and I wouldn't be able to do a lot because I have to build something. Nagato's not any faster than usual, and he has way too many powers. Yahiko's similar, except he uses water, and I've heard that he's going to try something different."
Deidara tapped his fork against his plate. "Let's revisit Hidan, yeah. His scythe isn't helpful, but Konan makes weapons to throw, right? He can use those. And anyway, isn't not being able to catch someone at a distance a really big disadvantage for him? He should learn how to do that."
"If he does, you and that bird will get a lot of evasive maneuvers practice," Sasori said. He was imagining a fight between them now. "And he's energetic enough to keep up with you. Not to mention, Konan said your originals worked well together, when they felt like it. Yeah, I'm starting to warm up to that idea."
"Cool, yeah!" Deidara stabbed his breakfast with more force than necessary. "Thanks."
"No problem," Sasori replied. But he was smiling.
.
Dei, almost literally, stumbled into Hidan by accident in the halls.
"Sorry!" Hidan apologized. "I was just in a hurry to see if Sammy's back yet. It's been a while; I wanted to at least say Hi."
"And I was just going to find you, so we were both going somewhere," Deidara summarized. "I had this idea, yeah." He waved for Hidan to walk with him as they headed to Kisame's room.
"Training?" Hidan asked. "I know, I know, I'm the one who had the freakin' idea and I still haven't gotten the materials, but I'm working on it, okay?"
"Huh?" Deidara looked at him. "What idea?"
Hidan blinked. "No one told you guys? You did come in after I mentioned it…" He shrugged. "Well, anyway, I had this awesome idea for the other training room, the one that doesn't have the targets. I wanted to set up punching bags and shit. Ooh, speaking of which, I've got materials to get. Not just the punching bags, that other thing."
Now it was Deidara's turn to be lost. "I have no idea what you're talking about, hm."
Hidan elbowed him. "Remember when Konan told us about our originals and their powers? She said something then that she hadn't told me when I asked. She said my original could throw the scythe, 'cause he had it on a rope of some kind. So there I was, thinking that I'd gotten a total of jack and shit from him, but no, I actually can do more than fight someone face to face. Would've been nice to know when she first told me what my abilities were," he grumbled.
They got to Kisame's room, which was the last one before the basement stairs. It was silent. Hidan opened the door just a crack, and closed it almost immediately. "Figured. At least he sounds like he's having fun over there."
Deidara laughed. "Man, that lines up perfectly, yeah!" He punched Hidan in the shoulder playfully. "You want to be training partners?"
Hidan rubbed his chin. "Constantly chasing a moving target that fucking flies? Fuck yes," he proclaimed. "But… Fuck! I would need a lot of practice with throwing it more accurately and shit. All he was interested in was getting enough blood for a taste, and then he had this other thing that could kill someone no matter where they were. But that ability's fucking stupid, and too fatal to use anyway, so I've got catch-up work to do in order to use this thing as an actual weapon, and not just a blood collecting service." Hidan looked to his right, at the training rooms. "That's what I had planned for the one with the targets. But it would take a lot of time and shit."
"That's okay, yeah," Deidara reassured. "Let's just have a fight to see what we can do right now, with no training. Then you can practice throwing your thing, and I can practice flying with my bird and throwing my stuff, yeah."
Hidan held up a fist. "Cool beans."
Deidara bumped it. "Yeah!"
They stood there awkwardly for a couple seconds. "So, when do you want to…" I actually haven't thought this through, yeah.
Hidan gestured backwards at his scythe. "Can't, until I find a rope. It didn't come with one when I got it."
"Cool, cool," Deidara said forcefully. That's actually a huge relief, yeah! It gives me time to figure things out. "I actually need some time too. I haven't practiced flying in small spaces, but we've got trees around here so I need to, yeah."
"It might take me a few hours to greet Sammy and go shopping," Hidan estimated. "That should be plenty of time to find a good spot somewhere on this street and practice staying between the buildings."
Deidara stopped everything he was doing at the mention of the street. "Uh, how far do you think would be, um, safe?" he muttered while scratching his head. "That kid -"
"Is fine," Hidan reassured. "He'd love it! The actual grounds would make a bad place, because we'd be distracted by how fucking creepy they are, but anywhere far enough to not be distracting should be fine."
Deidara nodded. Hidan raised a hand in farewell. "So, I need to be getting shit. Hey!" He turned back. "If you see Moonlight around, tell him I said thanks a bunch. He helped Konan out of a thing that was weighing me down. Fuckin' amazing." And he left.
Konan? Deidara remembered what else he'd been thinking about last night. Yeah! I should go see if she's okay. He smiled at a memory that he now remembered as pleasant. She's not bad. If he needs more time than I do, I wouldn't mind testing myself against her, yeah. He went to go see her.
Konan
"So that's how that works…" Nagato looked down at the short rod Konan had retrieved from her hip pouch and handed to him. His head tilted in that subtle way that indicated he was thinking. Konan had just finished explaining that chakra's similarity to electricity was how the Six Paths Jutsu worked, so she wasn't surprised that he needed time to think. Even I consider it a controversial jutsu. And that was after we used it the first time to create Tendo…
A sour feeling swallowed her insides again, and her hands reflexively clenched into fists, as if she was going to fight someone. Konan struggled to make them relax. It's only temporary. That paralyzed feeling felt as if it was set in stone, but it was set in very flaky stone. Hearing a single word was enough to break it. I can feel differently. It doesn't have to hurt to think of Yahiko. I can learn to function around him. She opened her eyes and thought of Nagato's strength, borrowing it. The sour feeling abated. Konan smiled at her little victory over herself.
Nagato held up the rod just before his eyes. "If that's how it works, then I could use it for other things. I wouldn't ever use it on dead bodies, but the basic principles could -"
There was a polite knocking at the door. "Can I come in?" Deidara asked.
Konan flared her chakra, giving herself a little boost. "Yes."
Deidara pushed the door open, slid inside, and closed it behind him. "Hey, looks like you're doing well, yeah!" He looked backwards at the wall. "I just met Hidan, and he told me you'd been feeling bad, yeah. Speaking of which -" He turned to Nagato. "He wanted me to tell you he's really grateful, yeah. Or I think it was you he wanted me to tell - all he said was 'tell Moonlight,' yeah."
"That's me," Nagato confirmed. "He and Itachi have good eyes for symbolism. They both think of me and Yahiko as being like the sun and moon. I have yet to ask why." Nagato looked at the door. "As soon as I'm done here, I'm going to ask Itachi."
"What are you doing, yeah? What's that thing?"
Nagato turned up his left hand. "This is a chakra rod, that I can produce from my arms. It's not quite as freaky as it sounds. Konan was just telling me some things about how chakra works as it relates to these rods."
"Cool." Deidara suppressed a shiver. He turned back to Konan. "So, I asked Hidan to be my training partner, yeah. Figured I'd take some burdens off your shoulders. He said yes, but he wants to do a lot of training alone first to use his scythe better. I'm planning on doing the same, yeah, but in case he needs more time than I do, do you think you'd be up to helping me out?"
An exceedingly pleasant shiver went up Konan's spine at the mention of training, like a string of lights turning on and shining. Thank the gods, training! A small smile made it onto her face. "I would, very much. Training is comfortable, a regular part of the life I'm used to. It feels surprisingly good to hear you suggest that. I must have missed it terribly."
Deidara grinned. "Maybe you can come watch, yeah! Hidan and I planned to have one serious match before we'd done any training at all, just to see where we are. It'll be in a few hours, after he's gotten a rope for his thing, and it'll be somewhere on this street."
Nagato raised the hand holding the rod. "May I invite myself? This is the first time we've done anything like this - everyone will want to watch."
Deidara looked down. "Hmm. Well… as long as everyone stays out of the way, like on rooftops or several yards away, that could be okay, yeah."
Konan nodded. "Of course I will watch. Members of the original Akatsuki did not train with each other, so I have seen you fight together only rarely, and only as a serious battle where someone was in danger of dying. It would be interesting to see training matches where the style of fighting would be very different."
Deidara nodded. "Yeah! Sasori phrased it as 'maximising our advantages.' We're better at teamwork, so we'd better exploit that for everything we can, yeah." He clenched his fists. "So what if Other Me's more comfortable with big bombs, yeah? I can be just as good! I'd like to rub it in his stupid, psychopathic face how much better I am without being a psycho, yeah!"
Nagato nodded. "I was just thinking of how I can use the same techniques, but for much better purposes. We don't have to only learn from them. It doesn't have to be one way."
Deidara grinned. "That's just it, yeah! Woah… I'm all fired up now, yeah! I'm gonna go wash the bird off, get him ready for flight, and figure out which yard it's gonna be in, yeah!"
"I'll message Hidan and tell him to hurry up," Nagato said while pulling out his phone. He did just that after Deidara raced away.
Konan sat flabbergasted while he did so. They're competing with their originals? She had feared that telling them about their originals would frighten them. And this fear had been proven correct; she knew several of them were strongly doubting if they wanted to have anything to do with a ninja's life. Deidara, in particular, had had that strongly negative reaction when she first mentioned the explosives, and had seemed afraid of his powers. But now, he's no longer afraid of his original. He's angry. In the absence of fear, disliking their originals and wanting to be different and better than them could actually be helpful in training. Some of the ever-present darkness lifted, and Konan smiled broadly. The world was so much better than she had expected!
Nagato finished his message in time to see her. He smiled back, mirror neurons firing rapidly. "What are you thinking about?"
Konan relaxed her face back to usual, but the light inside diminished very little. "I always worried that telling you of your originals' crimes would drive you away. I never expected competition to set in. Today is filled with good surprises and hope."
Nagato nodded. "Actually, I think every day is, but how well they're hidden varies. I agree that it is very obvious today."
Konan closed her eyes to better savor this peaceful feeling, and hoped Nagato was right. I will choose to believe he is. That way, I can at least make an effort to find them.
There was another quiet knocking at the door.
Yahiko
"May I come in?" he asked.
"Yes," Konan replied immediately. Yahiko's heart skipped several beats. She's letting me into her room, while she's conscious, and so easily, too?! He gasped in joy and opened the door, closing it quickly behind him.
Woah. Yahiko was taken aback by the sight of her sitting up in bed, without her cloak. He had decided to wear his cloak, to make a good impression. Now he felt overdressed, since Nagato was in normal clothes as well. It's fine. They both think I look good in it, right?
Nagato smiled broadly. "Yahiko! There's good news." He invited Yahiko to sit on the bed next to him, and turned to face Yahiko as he did so. "I'll summarize: chakra is connected to the mind, so Konan's feeling much better now that she's recovered some. In the future, we could look into donating chakra if she runs low and feels poorly again. Deidara's going to have a match with Hidan in a few hours, and he's inviting people to watch. And, best of all…" He held up the rod. "Konan's been telling me more about what chakra is and how it can be used!"
"Really?!" Yahiko giggled. He'd been hoping to help her feel better by telling her about their idea from the night before, so the first piece of news was mind-blowing enough. Everything else was just astounding! He giggled some more. Wow, things are really looking up! "What'd you learn?"
Konan looked away from the incredible aura of happiness he was radiating. Her chest burned, and she could feel the ghostly sensation of being stabbed. It was hard to breathe all of a sudden. She wondered once more why she felt this way about him being happy. She loved him and wanted him to be happy. This was good. So why did seeing him happy make her react so badly?
She pushed that aside with her newly gathered strength. "Chakra is similar to electricity, and can be adapted to use the same pathways. That's how the Six Paths Jutsu works - by inserting chakra rods into a dead body, the rods come into contact with the body's nervous system. The rods are sensitive to chakra signals Nagato sends; they receive those signals and channel the chakra into the body's nervous system, stimulating it. The rod also sends signals back, so that Nagato - or anyone with the Rinnegan - can use the senses of all 6 bodies, seeing through their eyes. One rod is enough for this, although control gets finer as more rods are used. It also looks more stylish."
Nagato held up the rod. "This is the kind of rod she's talking about. I can make them from my arm, somehow."
Yahiko wrinkled his brow. One of the things she had said was clicking with him. Chakra can go into a body and stimulate it? Is that what she said? "Did you say stimulate?"
"Yes." His aura had retreated, allowing her to look next to him. "Even dead tissue can be activated, temporarily, by chakra. In living tissue, channeling chakra makes it stronger and more energetic."
Yahiko's eyes widened. "So healing -" He waved his arms around while he sorted out what order to say things in. "So healing is the body growing, and if chakra gives more energy, then that has to do with medical jutsu!" Yes! "I need to practice using my chakra to stimulate tissues and make them grow! That has to be it!"
Konan's eyes widened. "Of course...basic healing involves applying chakra directly to wounded flesh. That makes sense."
Nagato gasped. "Y-yeah!" He gave up his attempts to hold back and hugged Yahiko. "That's great!" Nagato was well aware that the happy feeling in the air was getting to him, making his joy greater than it would have been otherwise. He wasn't hysterical yet, so he allowed it.
Yahiko hugged him back. Now I just need something to practice with!
There was a not-so-gentle knock at the door. "Who's making all this noise?" It was Kisame.
Yahiko looked at Konan, who nodded. She pulled the blanket up higher to cover herself and wondered how many people were going to be stopping by before she had a chance to get her cloak. It was getting ridiculous. Yahiko opened the door.
"Nagato had good news for me, which I was very excited about," he explained. "Hi!" he waved to Samehada. The shark rattled happily.
"Oh, it's you." Kisame relaxed. "Thank god. I passed through the back yard and was scared out of my wits by that demon kid shouting at me. He told me to get you. You'd better go see what he wants."
Samehada chirred questioningly as Kisame left. Yahiko saw him shudder one last time, as if shaking off the demon boy's traces. He closed the door partway, turning back to Nagato and Konan. "Sorry, I should…"
Konan's eyes were narrowed, and her shoulders straight with alertness. "As far as I know, this is the first time he's come to reach us here," she murmured. "I am not inclined to take that as good news. Be careful."
Nagato nodded. "Ask him why he's here."
Heavy footsteps sounded from the hallway. Yahiko opened the door again to see Kisame come back. "Sorry, almost forgot to mention something," the shark man began. "I thought of it last night, when Sakumo looked worried after I told him about the demon kid. Ask the kid what he thinks of the Hatake Clan. I remember someone saying that he finds us interesting, and that's good, but what about them? Are they safe?" Samehada whined. The shark had not thought of that possibility. "Oh, and he might be visiting soon," Kisame said to Konan. "Sakumo's just that good-hearted a guy; he's already concerned about you. I told him to come in the morning, whenever he decides to." Kisame thought of everything else he'd experienced at their cabin. "Oh, and there's this one guy, Ruta, who's not at all freaked out by learning that he's a ninja. He wants to know all about it, and come up with categories and shit to organize all of our knowledge. If he actually was an ordinary guy of this world, he'd be a scientist. So he's probably going to be coming over as well. That's all I can remember that's urgent." Kisame left again, for real this time.
"Okay…" Yahiko sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Ask about the Hatake Clan, ask why he's here, be alert in case in case he's playing tricks. Got it." He waved at Nagato and Konan. Nagato waved back. Yahiko stepped out into the hallway and proceeded towards the back of the building.
He saw the demon boy sitting in midair on a platform of darkness as he came out onto the back stoop. "Hi-hi!" the demon boy waved.
"Hi," Yahiko waved back. "Um...I have questions."
The demon boy nodded. "I'm here because it's where Shark Guy was going, so it was convenient. I don't go near those people at all actually; I just leave them alone all the time. I don't do anything even near them, and no you don't get to know why. As for why I wanted to talk to you, well, I'm the only one of us that can talk." The demon gestured at the ground to his left.
"Only one of -" Yahiko started at the sight of another little boy running his hands through the grass in the indicated place. How did I miss him?! He's not that invisible! Wait, didn't Hidan mention not seeing him too? Yahiko sighed in relief. So he wasn't going blind, or at least he wasn't the only one. The toddler's whitish clothing did blend in surprisingly well with the light shining off the grass, but Yahiko still had no idea how he'd managed to miss the long black hair.
"You might have noticed him if you were normal," the demon speculated. "It might have something to do with that feeling chakra ability you guys have. He's all wrapped up, looking small and not making much of a splash in the chakra. A normal person would've been using their eyes, so they might've seen him. He might be anywhere, and you would never know…" The demon whispered this last directly into Yahiko's ear in a spooky tone of voice. When and how did he get back there?!
"It's a mystery!" the boy chirped. "Hey, do you know where that other guy is? I want to go zombie bowling."
"Who?" Yahiko didn't know who "that other guy" was.
"Oh, come on, you know who I'm talking about." The demon sounded impatient. "Big, powerful, super important, plays hide and seek with himself? And with me… Grrr, not seeing most of him is driving me nuts!" The demon boy was getting increasingly aggravated. Yahiko struggled to find something to say that would defuse him. What do demons do when they get angry? What can I do to stop it?
The little snake hugged his toy snake closer. That was when the back door opened again. "Yes!" Hidan exclaimed. "I'd know that sadness anywhere. Hey, kid."
"Oy!" The demon boy popped up directly in front of Hidan. Hidan rolled his eyes. "Go zombie bowling with me!" the demon insisted.
Hidan rubbed his chin. "How's Konan?" he asked Yahiko.
"She's better than I've ever seen her," Yahiko answered. It was true - he couldn't remember her ever seeming excited and happy in his entire experience with her.
"Alright then!" Hidan turned back to the demon boy. "I'll go, but only on one condition. I'm in the mood for bright green and sparkles this time."
"Yeah!" The demon boy nodded. "Bright green and sparkly zombies, to go!"
"Oh fuck yes." Hidan rubbed his hands together eagerly. He turned to Yahiko and explained, "Zombie bowling's when you roll a huge ball of bones, mostly ribs but some others too, at some zombies. Their limbs just go flying everywhere. It's pretty cool."
"You want to go bowling with people's dead family members?" Yahiko was horrified. Did the demon boy really use the cemetery as his own personal playground of the dead? I am never playing as a necromancer in any game again!
Hidan shrugged. "Only the ones that've been ignored for a while. And it's usually the same batch of dead guys each time, too - if he holds them together, his darkness doesn't make them fall apart for a good dozen or more bowling sessions." He shrugged. "Anyway, look after her for me, and be nice with the kid." The demon boy giggled and disappeared, while Hidan took off running in the direction of town.
Yahiko's jaw flapped up and down as he stared after them for who knows how long. Hidan? What? It was a shock to be so forcibly reminded that, even if they had fought a demon together, he didn't actually know the other members of the Akatsuki as well as he knew Nagato. They do have other lives, things I don't know about. Right. But even so, zombies? He never would've predicted Hidan would be into that.
A mild tugging at his cloak brought Yahiko back to reality. He looked down to see the snake boy holding his cloak. The boy looked up, allowing Yahiko to see that he really did have snake eyes and he really did look very sad. Yahiko's eyes welled up with compassion. A toddler? Oh my god, what's he been through? What does he need? He obviously could survive on his own, as demonstrated by his perfectly healthy appearance, but Yahiko thought he must be very lonely. It was possible the demon was the only one looking out for him. Yahiko's estimation of what kind of person the demon was rose many notches.
The toddler was still holding his cloak. He returned to looking at the red cloud on it. Yahiko let him. Poor kid… He's adorable, too. Who would leave behind a cute kid? Even if they hated snakes or something, I can't imagine anyone who could be so cruel.
The boy let go of Yahiko's cloak and backed up. Yahiko knelt down to talk to him. "Hey." The little snake was silent. "Um...I'm Yahiko. Do you have a name?"
The little snake's eyes tightened, and he squeezed the toy snake tighter. "Okay, that's all right," Yahiko backpedaled. "Um…" Why is he here? Yahiko looked around the backyard as he tried to figure that out. His gaze landed almost immediately on the stone platform filled with flowers. Of course! Hidan smelled snake the night it appeared. He must be here to help me with plants and things!
"I learned some really interesting things about healing," Yahiko told him. "I think I know how to do it now. You're the one that made all those beautiful flowers grow out of the stone, right?"
The snake nodded. Yahiko giggled. "Thank you! They look beautiful. I have no idea how you did that, but it's amazing. Can you show me?"
The little snake's lips trembled. Yahiko grinned as they lifted upwards, just a little. The toddler lifted his toy snake off his shoulder and held it out. Yahiko patted it, as he remembered Hidan had done. Wow, it's very soft!
The snake boy turned and looked around the backyard, before moving too quickly and silently for a normal toddler over to the far edge where the forest began, beyond the stone with the flowers. Yahiko followed him, and sat down across from where the boy sat down. The boy pointed at the grass between them.
Yahiko's brow furrowed as he tried to interpret this. First Samehada, now him. I need to learn how to interpret people who can't speak ASAP. "Are you going to show me?" he asked. "I mean, does this have to do with using powers?"
The boy nodded almost imperceptibly, and pointed at Yahiko. Yahiko could understand this. "You want me to use my powers?" The toddler nodded.
"Okay." Yahiko reached out to touch the grass. Do I actually need to touch it? If it was a real wound, that seems like it would make the wound worse, introduce bacteria or something. She said Nagato could send signals. Yahiko let his fingers brush the tallest blades of grass, and channeled chakra. He imagined his chakra reaching out of his hand, absorbing into the patch of grass. He continued to channel his chakra in this way even after being stunned to see the air between his hands and the grass blades fill with some kind of greenish light. Am I actually looking at my chakra? He channeled more chakra, and the green glow intensified. He noticed that it sparkled.
Yahiko let his chakra return to normal and sat, breathing deeply. Woah. That felt like using a second secret set of muscles I didn't know about, kind of. He could feel the places where the chakra had come from in his hand. He'd investigate that later.
For now, he looked closely at the grass, and cheered internally to see that the patch was greener than before. He hadn't noticed the occasional strands of brown or tan, but they had been there all the same, and now they were healthy and green. The grass did not look any longer, though. "I guess it doesn't work the same for me as for you," he told the snake boy. "Maybe using medical jutsu doesn't transfer enough chakra for it to grow, only enough to heal, or maybe giving something chakra doesn't make it grow that way. It looks like we have different powers."
The toddler nodded. He reached out with one hand. Yahiko felt energy following towards the boy, as if he was gathering it. He's a powerhouse! Naturally, the energy Yahiko felt quickly started to flow off of him, pouring from the boy in a faint greenish glow.
The grass immediately responded, stretching upwards as if reaching for the boy's hand. Yahiko's jaw dropped as he saw this happen to all the of the grass surrounding the toddler. For about half a foot around the boy, the grass grew very, very green and reached upward, until it was a couple inches higher than the surrounding grass. That was when the boy stopped and stood up, revealing that the grass he had been sitting on had grown the most. It did not appear to be the worse for him sitting on it.
A - a - amazing… Yahiko was so entranced by this that he did not notice the other effects of the boy's power until he shook himself and stood up, at which point he noticed that his pants had new holes in them at the ends of his knees where they had come closest to the patch of grass. Yahiko stared at these holes, and reached out to touch them. The weakened, frayed strands of fabric disintegrated when he touched them. They felt different, changed. He felt the material of his pants around the hole on his left knee. It was discolored and looked as different as it felt. Yahiko's instincts told him it would rip very easily if he pulled on it at all. He recalled that this pair of pants had a high cotton content. Is it rotten?
The boy touched his right leg, alerting Yahiko to his movement. He followed the little snake a few feet into the forest, where there was a fallen branch. The snake boy turned and put out a hand. Yahiko stayed back as requested. The toddler touched the fallen branch and repeated the demonstration.
The fallen branch immediately discolored and began to flake. Moss, fungi, and plants began to sprout from it. The branch creaked as it lost structural integrity, and the uplifted end of it sagged and broke off. Plants that must have been growing in the soil beneath it thrust upward through its decaying wood. In only half a minute, the branch was no more. Only a few separated chunks of wood that was already half-dirt remained when the little snake stopped. A dandelion was already sprouting out of the new dirt, looking very healthy and exuberant as it did so.
Yahiko's lower jaw had fallen and wasn't going to get back up any time soon. So he makes injured things heal, living things grow, and dead things rot? And all with that strange green-white glow that Yahiko could barely see coming off him. And his power worked on an area of effect around the boy, not directed even when he put out a hand.
Yahiko looked at this strange, powerful, and amazing child with wonder. "What are you?"
Froggy Goes "Ribbit"
"Hold still! Jeez, I can't take a picture if you're hopping around. You don't need to be that in character."
"But you said you wanted us to look cute!" Yahiko protested. "I look better with my hair visible, and the costume's covering it!"
"It's okay, I'll help." Nagato pulled the bulbous eyes of the frog upward so that there was space, and Yahiko reached in and pulled some of his hair forward.
Jiraiya hopped sideways and took a picture just as Yahiko was doing so, capturing his face wrinkled in a particularly cute way. "Hah! I'm keeping this one," he decided. "There's nothing women like more than a man with cute children..."
"What about me?" Nagato asked. "I'm not cute enough to get a picture?" He made his best impression of a frog's ribbit. It was surprisingly good.
"That's why the two of you need to hurry up and get into position already." Jiraiya crouched in his previous location.
Nagato and Yahiko put on their most adorable faces and waited for the flash. After Jiraiya checked the picture and confirmed that his heart was in danger of melting from the cuteness, Yahiko turned to Nagato and asked, "Wait, don't we have a picture from last year? Wasn't that cute?"
"That's different! It's obviously posed, just like this one is. See, women like candid cuteness the best," Jiraiya explained. "That means not faked for the camera."
"Did you just accuse us of not looking cute when we're not on camera?" Nagato asked. Yahiko burst out laughing. Jiraiya wondered why he bothered with this one.
He ignored the question and sighed, crossing his arms. The subdued way he looked at them next told them he was about to say something serious. "Listen, you two," he counseled. "When you're eleven, time seems to move slowly. When a year passes, it's one-eleventh of your entire lifespan, over 9%. Time passes faster for adults because a year is smaller. When you've lived for 25 years, one year is only 4% of the time you've spent on this planet, and it gets smaller the more years you have. That's why you won't understand what I'm about to say right now. Promise me you'll try to remember it for the future, when you will understand, alright?"
Yahiko and Nagato nodded. Jiraiya smiled at them. Then the subdued expression disappeared from his face. "Aw, I can't believe it's already over! Next year, you'll already be so big you won't fit in these costumes. I'll have to donate them. I can't believe how fast time moves. You're growing up before my very eyes! I'm lucky to have even one picture." He theatrically wiped the corner of his eye.
"It does feel tighter," Yahiko lamented. "Last year I had no trouble fixing my hair. I thought the costume had shrunk or something."
Nagato nodded. Secretly, he was glad they weren't going to be able to wear the frog costumes next year. The tightness was not helping his problem. He wondered if Yahiko had the same problem yet.
"Now, let's get you two equipped. I can't believe I've been so negligent, waiting until 4 days before Halloween," Jiraiya chastised himself. "I was always taught that you should be ready a week before, at the latest. Ah, well. I do the best I can."
He popped open the trunk of his car, which was parked some distance away, beyond the yellow light of the park lamp. After rummaging around, once bumping his head on the trunk and uttering some of the words he always told them they shouldn't repeat, he finally returned with a large, relatively shapeless sack, and a plastic pumpkin. "Who wants what?"
"I'll take the sack!" Nagato tried not to sound too eager. It was very important that he have the sack, and equally important that Yahiko not know why.
"You sure? The pumpkin's obviously better..." Yahiko eyed the orange jack o'lantern with desire.
"It goes better with your hair," Nagato told him. "The sack's mostly purple, which is kind of like red, which goes better with my hair."
"Okay!" Yahiko accepted most fashion-based arguments readily. "Yeah! I get the pumpkin!"
Nagato held the sack and breathed a sigh of relief that it covered his entire belly area, and then some. For the past couple months, a certain part of his anatomy had been acting up. Nagato wasn't worried about that; he regarded it as a curious phenomenon which sometimes felt nice. Nothing was wrong there. What he was really afraid of was what he'd read in that book that Yahiko had handed him when they were in the library. The book had said that that part of the male body did stuff because of liking someone and thinking they were pretty. If Yahiko saw, he would know that Nagato liked him and thought he was pretty.
Nagato sighed. Something felt wrong. Everything had always been fine; he'd always gotten along with Yahiko completely. But now, ever since it'd started happening, doubt was creeping in. For the first time ever, Nagato was thinking that maybe Yahiko didn't think he was just as pretty. Maybe Yahiko was different. Maybe there was something that they couldn't just talk about and fix. If Yahiko saw and knew Nagato thought he was pretty, he might say that he didn't think the same, and then Nagato would know this horrible thing was true. He held the sack closer. It was better to think that Yahiko thought he was pretty too, or might someday.
Jiraiya grinned at Nagato. "You do know that means you'll be the one carrying all the candy, right? The pumpkin's smaller, so Yahiko'll have to empty it into the sack."
"I know." Nagato would be perfectly happy to carry a heavier bag, if only it meant that Yahiko didn't say that he was different.
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