Samehada
Thin muscles are interesting. Are there different types?
Samehada thought there must be. He hadn't noticed before, but now that he had interacted with the ones used to open and close the tank's lid, he saw that the one which helped the lamp make light was clearly different. The others had been larger, with only one per shell, and that shell was thick and dark.
It had nested in the lid that it controlled, and it got wider for several inches as you approached the nesting end. The one in Nice Human's room was different. Its shell was flat and looked like it was about to split in two, as if there were two thin muscles sharing a shell. It disappeared into the lamp and nested in the wall, which was the exact opposite of what the others had done. Its shell was thin and golden, and it only widened in the inch right before its nest, looking more like a fancy crest than a real widening of the shell.
Samehada concluded that it must be a different kind of thin muscle. If that was true, should he call them something different? Samehada lifted his tail off the ground and waved it back and forth in the air, feeling his muscles as they strained. They felt long and round, like most of the thin muscles he had seen. But none of his real muscles felt anything like this doubled-up kind that Samehada was licking at. What should he call them then? Samehada could not think of anything else that was long and stringy and could be used to do things, except for muscles.
He poked the lamp's muscle with his tongue. Just like the other one, it did not respond. Samehada wondered if it had the same power. Did this one also use lightning chakra, or a different kind? It seemed he would only find out if he bit through its shell, which he didn't want to do. Nice Human slept here. If Samehada made the thing inside angry, it might attack Nice Human, and he wouldn't know to avoid it because Samehada couldn't tell him.
Someone came into the room behind Samehada. "Same? What are you doing in here?" It was Nice Human.
Samehada gave the golden-shelled thing one more poke with his tongue, just to see if he could scare it. Nothing happened. He warbled sadly. Nice Human crouched next to him and picked up the golden-shelled thing with his hand. "Have you been licking the cord?"
Samehada made a high-pitched surprised sound. They were called "cords"? Yay! He had a name to call them by now, and he hadn't had to go to all the trouble of thinking of something to compare them to. Did this mean his muscles were cordlike? Funny sounding word!
Samehada crawled onto Nice Human's back and proceeded to lick his orange hair in every direction at once. Nice Human laughed, then started to protest that his hair was going to look strange. Samehada stopped licking and saw that his tongue had made Nice Human's hair look half spikier than usual, half matted, and all of it was pushed over to the right. He warbled amusement while Nice Human tried to put his hair back in order.
When he was done, Nice Human stood up. It wasn't easy and he had to lean forward instead of standing straight to counter Samehada's weight. "Wow. I thought this would be easier from looking at Kisame," Nice Human said.
Samehada worried more about his length. Human Cousin's back was evidently larger; Same's tail was in danger of hitting the back of Nice Human's knees and keeping him from walking right. For the first time, the shark realized Human Cousin was different from other humans, and the difference probably had to do with being a shark. Other sharks were mostly larger than humans. Samehada was smaller than most of his cousins, but on a regular human's back he felt huge. He dropped to the floor and nuzzled Nice Human's leg as an apology.
"It's okay," Nice Human told him. "I'm just not that physically strong. I see why you get along with Kakuzu - he's probably strong enough to lift you." He crouched down to pet Samehada, which instantly made the shark stop worrying.
He stopped petting after only a few seconds. Samehada whined for more, but Nice Human looked up at the door. "I'm sorry! I'd love to keep petting you, but Konan wants to have a meeting in the backyard, which is why I came here. Let me get my cloak."
Same licked his hand and left the room, making his own way to the backyard. He listened for humans and stayed quiet as he did so. Secretly, he was hoping to catch Human Cousin telling the others about how Samehada had completed a mission all by himself, and Human Cousin had never doubted that he could.
The sky outside was dark, but someone had made another fire on the giant stone. Samehada could only see the fire's glow, not the fire itself, because the back door had a knob. It was biased! Samehada whined. If he was also a ninja and belonged right here with the others, why could nobody except humans use the doors?
Someone heard his whining and came over to help. Samehada tasted their chakra. It was Bird Person. Bird Person was dressed like Nice Human, Strong Human, Knowing Person, and White Claw Person now. Samehada wagged his tail. He was pretty sure that was good. The humans who dressed like that looked happier than they did before.
Bird Person grinned. "Do you think it looks good, hm?"
Samehada nodded.
"Yeah!" Bird Person's chakra was strong and warm, and his eyes were wide and happy-looking. He said, "I can't wait to see what everyone else thinks, hm," as he opened the door.
Samehada wanted to see that too. He raced down the steps and over to the fire, where Human Cousin was telling Thinking Human, "I finally checked after I fed the rest of them, and it turns out the lid's hydraulically operated, and it's opened and closed remotely. I have no idea how he -"
Samehada bit Human Cousin's arm firmly but not roughly, and pulled him in the direction of the back steps. Human Cousin and Thinking Human both looked at him, then at where he was pulling them to. They saw Bird Person. Thinking Human's eyes widened. Human Cousin's mouth dropped open, as if he was completely confused. Bird Person grinned.
"You guys like?"
Samehada chirred a question at Human Cousin. Why confused?
Itachi answered first. "It looks nice." He glanced at Kisame with his Sharingan activated.
Kisame felt the weight of eyes on him and closed his mouth. "I...have no idea." What did it mean that Dei was on her side now? Kisame searched himself and found no trace of either approval or disapproval. He no longer had any idea how he felt about associating with Konan. And it wasn't as if he'd thought Deidara was unlikely to throw his cards in with her; he actually hadn't thought anything at all about the blonde kid. Kisame concluded that what he felt was pure, 100% undiluted surprise. He shrugged. That was his answer.
Samehada sensed Bird Person's chakra flicker. Bird Person shivered before sitting down carefully, as if not wanting to get his new clothing dirty, so it must have been excitement. Samehada warbled happily and went over to lick his face in congratulations. Bird Person giggled and said, "Aw, thanks, yeah!" Samehada wagged his tail back and forth and nuzzled Bird Person's shoulder. The blond petted him back, and yawned. After all the excitement, his chakra was starting to get a little sluggish. Samehada nuzzled harder to keep him awake.
Kisame wondered how he felt about this. Was Samehada going to make friends with others and spend less time with him? The thought elicited vague negative feelings.
The back door opened again. It was Nice Human. "Hey, sorry I took a while, I found Same -" He cut himself off when he saw what Deidara was now wearing. "Dei? You -"
The excitement returned, and with it another surge in Bird Person's chakra. Samehada backed off and watched to see what Nice Human's face did. Yahiko's mouth twitched upward, and he smiled as Deidara stood up. Deidara walked over to him and turned briefly to either side, making his cloak shift back and forth. "What do you think, hm?"
Yahiko had no words, so he hugged the blonde instead. Deidara staggered back a step before hugging him back. "Uh… What's this?"
Yahiko gave him one last squeeze, and finally found some words. "Does this mean you're helping?" He stepped back and looked eagerly in Deidara's face, hoping the blond would say yes.
Deidara blinked. "Hidan told you?"
Yahiko looked confused. "Told me what?" He shook his head a second later. "No. Wait, I mean, he told you? The three of us agreed a while ago to, y'know, help her with stuff."
Deidara's mouth dropped open. "You did?"
"Yeah." Only now did Yahiko realize they'd never actually mentioned this to anyone. "It was right after she ran away when I came near her, so we knew I was making her feel bad somehow, and wanted to help."
Deidara snorted, then hiccuped, then started to laugh. "So you guys made a secret alliance or something behind everyone's back?" It made sense. So much sense. "That's - that's almost what I said earlier, yeah! I was just about to guess that!" He had no idea why this was funny, but it was.
Yahiko started laughing too because laughter was contagious. "Yeah, it is! I didn't even realize!" He punched Deidara in the shoulder. Deidara punched him back, and they silently agreed that this was all hilarious for reasons neither of them could explain.
Samehada chirped delightedly. He didn't understand why anything was funny, but laughing was always a good thing, so he raced over and bumped his head against both of their legs, chirping the whole time. Good feelings! Yes! Very good. He was happy because they were.
Kisame's mouth had fallen open again, and Itachi's Sharingan was activated. This was news. Kind of. In retrospect, it had always been extremely obvious that Yahiko, Nagato and Hidan were firmly on Konan's side, as well as each other's. Itachi wondered what he was surprised about. Kisame wondered why Samehada looked so happy.
Did the shark want to spend time with her too? As much as Samehada had proven himself to be entirely capable alone, Kisame still felt protective. That was one of his only friends, and he hadn't known her nearly long enough to trust in Konan's stability yet. Even if Same was completely capable, he still acted so trusting, it was hard not to think he could be easily taken advantage of…
Nagato and Sasori were conversing quietly with each other as they left the building, but they stopped before anyone could hear what it was they were saying. Sasori shifted the rod he had been running chakra through to one hand and looked around. Even though Deidara had asked for his opinion and he'd known it was coming, Sasori still felt mildly surprised to see the blond wearing a cloak that matched Yahiko's perfectly. Nagato's mouth fell open in a happy smile, and he ran forward to meet them.
"Dei! When did you get that? Why?" he asked. This was a very pleasant surprise!
Deidara grinned back at him. "Hidan kinda persuaded me to try and talk with her more, since we have so much in common, yeah. I had no idea I was joining something!"
"I told him that we agreed to stuff," Yahiko explained.
Nagato stared back at him. "Oh, you mean -"
"Yeah, that."
"Oh." Nagato punched Deidara in the shoulder. "Welcome to the club. We need all the help we can get."
Sasori's eyes narrowed. "What the hell?" He walked up to Deidara. "What did you accidentally get involved in?"
Deidara explained, "Apparently the three of them made a deal to try and help out Konan, hm."
At this close a distance, Samehada could feel Quiet Human's chakra withdraw. Was he upset? Samehada went over to him and chirred questioningly.
"No, I'm fine," Sasori said to brush Samehada off. "I just… Wait, you agreed to this?"
Deidara shrugged. "She has a lot of the same issues I do," he said. "I think I should talk to her, yeah. I'm not making much progress on my own."
Sasori hesitated. Finally, he shrugged. "Okay, if it would help." That was the biggest reason why he'd agreed to join this group in the first place, he remembered. It was because there was nowhere else for Deidara to get the kind of support he needed, for his hand-mouths and his war experiences and everything.
Deidara nodded. "I think it will, yeah."
Kisame beckoned Samehada back to him. The tangle of legs was getting a little dense, so Samehada obeyed. "Speaking of Hidan, where the hell is he?" Kisame asked. "It isn't like him to not be the first to call everyone for a meeting."
Itachi said, "Kakuzu mentioned that he had argued with Hidan, and Kakuzu isn't here either. It may have been a bad argument…"
"Aw man, I was looking forward to seeing what he thought, yeah." Deidara sat down by the fire. After everyone currently in the backyard had done likewise, he asked, "So is this meeting why everyone's out here?"
"Konan called it," Nagato said. "I don't know why. Sasori and I were talking about a completely new kind of technique that our originals never used, so she might have called this to talk about that. It sounded like she was annoyed at something, though. And she didn't say she was going to have a meeting after we first brought up the new idea; she said it after we talked about Itachi. I have no idea why she called this."
"And Hidan and Kakuzu argued, hm?"
Itachi nodded. "They did. Kakuzu was visibly upset, so it must have been bad. What were you saying about me?"
Nagato waved a hand. "I just mentioned what you said before about not being able to use any of your original's skills because they were too dangerous."
Itachi leaned forward and stared into the small flames. "In that case, she might want to talk about the applicability of our originals' abilities in general."
Samehada cried out in dismay. He hadn't heard that Thinking Human felt bad and weak. He immediately rushed over to comfort Itachi with extensive licking and reassuring rumbling. Not bad. Not weak. Strong! Strong, good-tasting chakra and lots of kindness. Chakra and kindness can't be weak.
Wait… Samehada remembered how he knew what Thinking Human's chakra tasted like. Right! Promise! Must tell Human Cousin about Thinking Human's goodness. He let out a high-pitched warble and went back to Kisame, bumping his head into Kisame's shoulder. When Kisame was looking at him with full attention, Samehada went back to Itachi, and started chewing on Itachi's arm. Chakra still tastes good!
Itachi smiled. "Ah, so it wasn't desperation after all. My chakra must genuinely taste good to him."
Kisame turned from his best shark friend to his best human friend. "Itachi? What do you mean by desperation?"
Samehada stopped chewing on Itachi's arm and pulled back, although he couldn't resist giving a last couple of licks. Itachi wiped the saliva off with his shirt as he answered, "I checked on him while you were on vacation. I found him very hungry, and made it a point to stop in regularly."
Kisame's mouth was open again, but this time for a good reason. A pleasant warmth spread through his chest. "You're the reason he didn't starve?" This was something tremendous for Itachi to have done.
"Of course." Itachi smiled at him. "I wouldn't leave your other best friend to suffer alone, would I?"
Kisame smiled back. "I guess not. Thanks."
Samehada wagged his tail and lolled his tongue out. This was good. He liked good things.
Nagato cleared his throat. "That was after your fake memories ended, right? How'd you feel? About Same, about everything?"
Itachi patted Samehada's snout. "It didn't cause me any distress, if that's what you're wondering." He closed his eyes to remember. "I was starting to realize that some things about myself didn't add up. My physical strength did not make sense. Neither did the way I thought, in terms of strategies and tactics. But none of that affected how I saw Same. When I was visiting Same, I felt like…"
What started as a short pause to reach for the exact words turned into a longer pause, then to a break. Itachi's eyes squeezed. He tilted his head. "I...do not actually remember noticing anything unusual about Same," he said slowly. "Nor did I worry about anything else when I was around him."
The others at the fire glanced at each other. It was involuntary, a search for clarity on this confusing idea. After glancing at Nagato, Yahiko blurted out, "Wait, your fake memories came back?"
Oh. Well, that was horrifying. Itachi nodded reluctantly. "It seems...so."
The gathering around the fire turned very, very quiet.
General
Then Konan emerged with Kakuzu.
Konan took her place next to Nagato, and Kakuzu sat on the other side of the empty spot where Hidan would be. Both of them narrowed their eyes at the silence. "What is it?" they asked, nearly in unison. Kakuzu leaned back as if he suddenly wanted to be less close to her.
"My false memories and NPC-like levels of awareness came back after they disappeared," Itachi stated flatly. He stared into the fire.
"When?" Kakuzu wanted to know.
"Before, when Kisame was on vacation and I watched Samehada."
"It's very unlikely Samehada actually existed at that time," Konan murmured. "Assuming, of course, that his existence is tied to Kisame. Samehada in my world is a sword, so he can't be said to 'die,' exactly. He hadn't broken or suffered a comparable fate by several months ago anyway."
"Wait a second." Kisame beckoned Samehada back to him. "Do you have false memories like we do, Same? Do you remember anything that doesn't make sense to you now?"
Everything made perfect sense to him now. Samehada had never been one to think too intensively about his life, nor had his life ever been particularly complicated. He shook his head no.
"He seems pretty happy-go-lucky," Yahiko said. "His fake memories might make perfect sense."
"Maybe." Kisame looked up at Konan. "Whatever. I can ask more later. What I want to know now is, why are we out here? And where's Hidan?"
Konan's eyes flicked over to Kakuzu briefly. "Hidan is thinking about some important subjects raised earlier, and we are out here to talk."
"Is he okay?" Yahiko asked.
She replied, "He will be."
Nagato swallowed. That's good. How bad had their argument been, exactly? The way she spoke indicated that question was not going to be answered now, so he pushed it aside. Worry later. "Um, talk about what?"
Konan paused. "Just... talk."
"Uh-huh." Sasori looked less than enthused by these instructions.
Konan sighed. "It seems as though every time I turn around, someone has thought of something new or is having concerns that need to be dealt with or is planning something. My knowledge of what is happening is falling further and further behind. I simply wish to get to know you all better and reacquaint myself with current events."
"That's a great idea!" Yahiko glanced around. He knew she wasn't the only one who needed to have a better idea of what was going on. But before that, he needed to know more about Hidan's situation. "So, Kakuzu, if you don't mind obviously… What were you and Hidan arguing about?"
Kakuzu threw the tiny end of a twig into the fire without looking up at anyone. "I think he's inconsiderate of me, and he thinks I'm inconsiderate of him," he summarized. "Current consensus is that we're both right."
"Oh." Nagato untensed. He hadn't realized he'd been so tense. "That's all? Something easy to work out?"
Kakuzu grunted. Nagato sighed in relief. "That's good. I'd rather not have to worry about him, though I will anyway, probably."
"Yeah…" Something about this was ringing bells in Yahiko's mind. "Huh…"
Kakuzu turned to Deidara. "Care to explain that?" His tone was distinctly hostile.
Deidara snorted. "I wanted to be a part of something," he declared. "Something actually real. Something important, yeah. I want to be involved in things and have the chance to help, yeah!"
Kakuzu's eyes stayed narrowed as he thought. The kid wants to throw himself into the middle of all this mess? He wants to have to deal with the worst of other people's craziness? Why would anyone want that? Nonetheless, he was intrigued. Damn curiosity. Going to get me killed someday.
"Speaking of possibly helping," Kakuzu said, "I've been following up on that paper." He turned to Sasori. "The idiot wasn't embezzling for personal gain. He might have started out hoping for personal gain, but by the time you get indebted as he apparently was, it's a matter of survival and trying to stay out of the deepest pile of shit. I froze his latest ransom payment. He's not getting out of the heap now."
Sasori's shoulders relaxed. "I wish I could say I was surprised. Deidara's told me how shady some of the workplace practices I put up with really are. It doesn't surprise me that my boss would be into something actually illegal as well."
"Perhaps it's not illegal, but he definitely deals with the wrong people," Kakuzu agreed. "But he should've thought of that before dealing, shouldn't he?" The glee in his voice sent shivers up the spines of almost everyone else. It was suddenly unclear whether the brightness in his green eyes was from the fire, or other sources.
Deidara gulped and looked away. "You and Laurie have a backup plan, right?" he asked Sasori.
"If I can figure out a way to get paid for it, yes," Sasori answered.
Yahiko nodded. "That's always the hard part." As sad as it was, he couldn't afford to be purely generous as often as he wanted to. Practicalities had to come first. I suppose that's a good thing. It keeps me from being too self-sacrificing, reminds me that I have to take care of myself. Nagato's always said I should take more for myself. Nagato was thinking the same thing at this exact moment.
Sasori blinked and took a closer look at Yahiko. "Yeah…" He shrugged and attempted a friendly gesture. "Stupid practicalities."
"I know, right?" Yahiko sighed. "I guess it's good to be reminded that I'm a person with needs, but…"
Sasori stifled a laugh. "That's exactly what Other Me was missing! 'Reminded that I'm a person.' I'll remember that."
Yahiko smiled. Samehada lolled his tongue out, which meant the same as a smile in his language.
"Great timing, by the way." Sasori proceeded to explain to Kakuzu how it was entirely too possible that Friday had been his last day working for the auto shop. "I should've suspected something was up when I had that rush of adrenaline on Saturday."
Deidara chuckled. "You think that had something to do with this? How? You're not psychic." He looked startled and turned to Konan. "Are we?"
"It's a known phenomenon to have a feeling of impending bad fortune and to see signs of it just before or when something happens," she replied. "I don't know how it works, but it's not surprising to hear."
Itachi blinked. "We can detect when the universe is about to turn against us?"
"Not reliably, but sometimes, yes."
"Gods above." Itachi wasn't normally given to exclamations of this sort, but did she recognize the meaning of what she was saying? What could possibly allow humans to know the workings of the universe? Of fate? Luck? The unanswerable could become answerable, and then, will we really be humans anymore?
"Some of us more than others, probably," Kisame muttered. "How much thinking can he possibly need to do?"
Konan said nothing, just looked at Kakuzu. He rolled his eyes. He understood it was meant to be a courteous gesture not to involve herself in what was rightfully his business, but he was the one who could use some recovery time, not Hidan. Though maybe that kind of thought's why we argued in the first place. "Hurtful words were said. Very hurtful. He's recovering," Kakuzu summarized as tersely as he could.
Nagato's shoulders tensed again. "Recovering?"
"Like I said, he will be fine," Konan reassured. "I'll be sure to let him know you are concerned. He'll appreciate your kindness, even if it is from a distance."
"You worry about him a lot," Sasori observed. Not my business. So not my business. I really shouldn't have said anything. It's so tempting to tease him, though. Just a little.
"I do that," Nagato justified. "I like to look out for people. It's what I do. What we do." He gestured to himself and Yahiko.
"Huh…" Yahiko did not notice the gesture, involved as he was in his own mind. He nearly had it: the understanding of what he'd been talking about earlier. "Hidan's right." The lightbulb didn't light up all at once, but it took only a few seconds. "He's right!"
"...About what?" Nagato asked.
"About you!" Yahiko exclaimed. "And me. He says you're like the moon, and you are! You have the same personality as the moon! That's what I was trying to say earlier."
Itachi folded his hands in his lap. Interesting. What is his explanation for this comparison? "I was not aware the moon had a personality."
"Of course it does!" Yahiko looked up at the mostly-full moon to help him explain. "The moon's bright, and offers peace, and light, and hope. But it's not very forward about it, and it only does so at night when there's nothing else, and it stays in the background. It's quiet. It's not like me. I'm more like the sun, because I like to be a lot more obvious about trying to make things better. I like to really try to get involved, really directly touch other people. I like to be louder and more lively, more active, and I never take a break or let someone else do things unless I have to. We trade off, and…" And I sound like I would burn myself out if I didn't have him to trade with. Is that what Konan was worried about? No; that can't be it. I've always had Nagato with me. Unless… Was Other Nagato able to keep Other Me from burning out? Or was he different? Not able to?
Nagato traced lines in the air. "So, the rock I painted that was dark, and restful - you don't think you would have made that?"
"Not unless I was trying to pretend to be you." Yahiko brushed his hair back with one hand. "I would have painted something bright and joyful, not that."
"Fascinating," Itachi murmured. "I thought the comparison was apt because of your relation to each other being similar to sun and moon deities. You think it's because of your habits and preferences being similar to the sun and moon themselves. I never considered that."
"I doubt Hidan thinks that symbolically. It's more likely that it's because Sunshine has orange hair, and Moonlight's pale," Kakuzu argued.
Nagato chuckled. "And then there's physical appearance. Wow, we… We're a perfect match. It's almost eerie."
"That explains why it didn't work," Konan whispered.
"What?"
"Nothing." She averted her eyes and stared into the fire. We all wanted to bring the Rain Village, and the whole world, out of the dark clouds of pain and grief and into the sunlight. After Yahiko died, Nagato and I failed to do that. Is it possible that it wasn't entirely our fault? Is it possible that we were attempting the impossible, and that our efforts to bring forth sunlight when we had lost our sun wouldn't have succeeded anyway? Tears threatened to come to her eyes, but she also felt a sense of relief. Perhaps her - their - failures weren't just because of personal shortcomings. Perhaps she - they - couldn't be blamed for everything. No; we needed him, but he was killed. Why was he killed, again? Never mind. Perhaps she could be.
"Except for our chakra," Yahiko said sadly. He hated to burst Nagato's bubble, but… "Sammy licked at some sunlight once and then tasted my chakra, and said I did not taste like the actual sun. But you do taste like the actual moon, so…"
"Hold on, wait," Nagato said while holding up a hand. "Same can taste sunlight and moonlight? They have chakra?"
Everyone looked at Konan. "We have no reason to think that animistic gods and goddesses such as sun and moon deities don't exist here," Itachi reminded everyone.
"So what?" Kisame argued. "All of that kind of stuff we've met has nothing to do with chakra. What about chakra?"
Konan glanced around before settling on Samehada. "Chakra is present throughout the natural world," she began. "Why wouldn't sufficiently powerful natural forces have it?"
"You only talked about animals and plants when we had a discussion of chakra that time," Nagato replied. "I've been assuming that only living things can generate or use it."
"That is true."
"Are the sun and moon alive then?" Nagato glanced upward. "How would that even work?"
Konan tilted her head. "Not alive, but nonetheless they are powerful beings. I don't imagine they can generate chakra, but they can interact with it. A man I knew plotted to use the moon to enhance and distribute a technique of his over a greater range than normal. I don't know of any similar use for the sun, but the moon is definitely capable of interacting with chakra."
Everyone looked up at the moon. It appeared perfectly still and inanimate to all of them. It was just a floating rock, held by the earth and lit by the sun. How could it be more powerful than the sun?
"Then again, in my world it is said that the Sage of Six Paths created the moon, so it's no surprise that it can interact with chakra if it was created from it in the first place," Konan mentioned. "The sun, of course, was there from the beginning. It's different."
"Who the what?" Nagato said. The moon, his namesake, was all that Yahiko had said it to be. But was it also as powerful as Konan said? Nagato was just as Yahiko described him, but under his quiet demeanor he apparently had enough powers that he couldn't even remember all of them yet. Oh god, it would make perfect sense. But created? There, they were different. Nagato and his powers hadn't been created by anyone else. They were his powers just because of who and what he was, from the beginning. Right?
"It's a Rinnegan-based power that you wouldn't want to use. Don't worry about it," she dismissed.
Itachi murmured to Kisame, "This is not what I had in mind when I said his connection to the moon might be because of his eyes."
"Can we please stop talking about the moon right now?" Nagato requested. "Just for tonight."
"Of course." Konan looked back down at the fire and shook herself. "The purpose of this meeting was to get to know all of you and your current concerns better, not for you to know irrelevant details of my past."
"You're not irrelevant," was Yahiko's immediate reply. "But yeah, I'm starting to get freaked out. I'm not afraid of night and the dark, but if I was…"
"Oh crap," Kakuzu said.
That wasn't a good thing to hear, and he wasn't a good person to hear it from.
When absolutely nobody asked him to elaborate (though Konan was working up the courage), Kakuzu elaborated on his own. "I was arguing with Hidan because I found out the vampires hate him. Vampires come out at night, and right now he's who knows where, alone."
Samehada whined. Kisame groaned. "Oh, shit." And Deidara curled one hand into a fist.
"If he's in danger -"
"We need to talk to the vampires," Yahiko said, cutting him off. His voice was steady and only gaining in surety. "The succubus hated Hidan too, Nagato and I thought of talking to her, but everything moved too quickly so we couldn't and Sasori almost died. We can't - we have to talk to the vampires this time. There must be a reason why everyone hates Hidan. We have to find out what it is -"
"It's pretty obvious why everyone hates Hidan, but go on," Kakuzu interrupted.
"And then we can work something out or figure out a way to fix - wait, what?"
Once again, Kakuzu found himself the center of attention. He groaned inwardly, but forged ahead. "It's fairly obvious, isn't it? I'm pretty sure I've heard some of you mention how -"
Konan coughed politely.
"How...he acts without thinking of his own safety and is more competent than he looks. I'm surprised he hasn't poked his nose in something and gotten himself into trouble already. Reckless dumbass."
Konan stared at him briefly, but looked elsewhere before he could even sweat. Whew. Close save.
"I'm volunteering," Nagato declared. "For the team that goes to talk to the vampires. He might be a threat to whatever they want, but if so, the blood thing is probably part of it too. And if he is in danger, I don't have time to explain what the blood thing is to anyone else."
"Me too," Yahiko said. "I may not know the right way to phrase things all the time, but Hidan said I have a face that makes up for it."
Against her will, Konan found herself designing the mission in her head. "Bring Deidara and Kakuzu," she said. "You will have an extraction team if you do this. That said, we have not been attacked, so we should not show force. This is as many people as I can recommend without risking escalation of hostilities."
Kakuzu facepalmed. Is someone up there trying to force me to make up with him?
Deidara got to his feet. "Stay here. I'll get back as fast as I can, yeah." And he ran off into the forest.
With that said, there was nothing left to do but wait. Nagato and Yahiko left the fire to whisper together about what they should say and how to say it. Konan wanted to give them advice on how to meet a potentially hostile force that may or may not decide to attack, but she knew it would be a bad idea. If she went to talk with them, she would not be able to stop herself from attempting to stop Yahiko from going. So she did not put herself in that situation, and instead stayed at the fire to wait with everyone else. The fire had burned low, so nobody was entirely visible anymore. Hair and cheekbones cast deep shadows over a third or more of everyone's face, and the wavering flames created the illusion of shimmering tears in everyone's eyes.
"You gotta be kidding me," Kisame complained. "I really, really hope those two are damn persuasive. Who's up for another succubus fight?" As expected, the answer was nobody.
"Worse." Sasori shivered. "That was only one demon. We are not remotely ready to face down an entire group of vampires, if it comes to that. How many are there, anyway? It could be a lot."
Itachi exhaled slowly through his nose. "I have faith in our most diplomatic members," he said.
"I don't have faith in anything," Kisame argued. "What are we gonna do if they decide the same thing the demon did, and go after all the rest of us just because we're friends with him?"
"Ahem." Kakuzu cleared his throat loudly enough to stop what he knew would devolve into a vicious debate that would leave everyone fearful. "I don't think so." Guess it's up to me to be the reassuring one. "These vampires are disguising themselves as lobbyists and doing what they can to push through townwide rulings in their favor. I realized they had something against Hidan when I saw that some of their positions receive a lot of focus, have incredibly low odds of being successful, and the only possible person they can affect is Hidan. I'm talking about trying to restrict access to the forest, which is an issue that nobody else cares about and that has no other support for or against. The succubus was impulsive and not very smart. These vampires are not impulsive and much smarter, which means they wouldn't immediately resort to killing." I hope.
Konan nodded. "Ironically enough, if I was with the original Akatsuki right now, I would be more worried about this situation. We are better at negotiation than battle; for them, the opposite was true. We have very reassuring odds of keeping this peaceful, in my view."
Sasori took a deep breath. He still shivered slightly, and his pallor had not gone away in the slightest. "So all we can do is hope. Great." He chewed the inside of his cheek. "If I could know all the details of where everyone is coming from, what we're planning, what odds we have…"
Samehada warbled sympathetically but reassuringly and crawled onto his leg, from which position he proceeded to lick Sasori's cheek. Sasori actually held him, which worried everyone else. Konan created a paper clone to retrieve the comforting blanket and one or two of the comfort animals Deidara had used.
Before the clone came back, there was a whooshing sound, and the fire briefly rose a little higher, shining off the white clay belly of the owl as it landed. Deidara leaped down, spider in hand. He immediately handed Stitchy to Sasori when he saw how frightened Sasori looked. "Let's get this over quickly, yeah! I don't want anyone to go to bed afraid tonight."
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