I'm excited to announce that I launched a new One Piece fan fiction!
Book name : One Piece : Why is that luffy better than our luffy
Join Luffy and the crew as they embark on a thrilling adventure filled with treasure hunting, new enemies, or unexpected allies. Get ready for epic battles, heartfelt moments, and surprises along the Grand Line!
I can't wait to share this journey with you all. Stay tuned for more updates!
Thank you for your support, and let's set sail together!
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Nagato
Neither Yahiko nor Nagato felt like going inside. Inside was some semblance of stability, normality. At this time of night, a cue to go to sleep. That would just be wrong. There was no way they would sleep or allow themselves to believe anything was normal, not until they had answers.
Deidara and Kakuzu stared at the two of them, wondering if they should try asking again, but they'd heard how scared Itachi sounded after just looking at Nagato and Yahiko with his Sharingan. Kakuzu had had enough. He stormed inside. Normality and sleep was exactly what he wanted after a day like today.
Deidara stayed with his owl, shifting from foot to foot and shivering as the muscles all over his chest tightened. He, too, felt like he could not tolerate normality or sleep. Trying to get to sleep in the middle of a warzone was ludicrous. Besides, he was in this with them now, right? Their cloaks all matched. He was part of the team now, looking for one of his own.
"You guys want Clay to stay?" he asked. "If he's far away, we could fly there faster than running, yeah."
Yahiko smiled. "Thank you." Those words were very deep and heartfelt, even to Deidara's relatively inexperienced ears. He really was one of them, with them.
Nagato tried to draw comfort from this pleasant interaction, but couldn't. Tears threatened and he felt a touch of nausea. What if Hidan is in danger? Maybe not from the vampires, but from what she said. From himself, or Jashin sama, or… He shivered with anxiety. Yahiko's right. None of what they said about him could make any sense. But even if he isn't bad, he could still be in a lot of trouble.
He couldn't believe he'd never thought of this before. Hidan always seemed in control, aware of what was going on and able to work with everything that happened to him. But was he really? Just because he could use a maelstrom to fly didn't mean he wasn't still caught in it. Nagato thought back over his interactions with Hidan.
Hidan couldn't remember things. He didn't know about himself, about where he'd come from or what he was. Something had to have taken that from him. Nagato chastised himself for being an idiot. Of course something had to have taken his memories. Memories don't just disappear for no reason! And then, there was the stranger that had taken over his body.
Who was that? Surely, normal sleepwalking could not cause a person's eyes to change color. And the way he'd moved! Nagato remembered how mechanical it had seemed. Yes, Hidan was definitely in very big trouble, and Nagato didn't know if he could rescue him, but he had to try.
Yahiko grabbed his elbow, stabilizing him. "Nagato? What's wrong?"
"I think we lied to Itachi," Nagato chattered through his teeth. "Think about it. He can't remember. He can't know things. And he sleepwalks, but not normal sleepwalking, more like someone was steering him around. The vampires aren't after him, but I think Hidan is in danger, and he always has been. How could I not have seen it?"
Yahiko pulled him over to lean against the bird, which was now crouching to accommodate. "It will be okay."
"How do you kn -"
They were interrupted by the back door flying open, releasing Konan in front of a swarm of paper butterflies. They poured out the door around her, as if they were pushing her along like a white river. The air filled with the quiet, whispering sounds of paper flapping as the butterflies spread into the forest.
Nagato stopped, remembering the last time he had heard this sound. He hadn't known Hidan for longer than an hour back then, but Hidan had slung an arm around his shoulder like they were old friends. The tears came, and he couldn't stop them. Please let Hidan be safe. Please. That arm around his shoulder would feel really good right about now.
Konan's face was severe and near-murderous. Her eyes looked like something was going to be on fire soon. "Itachi told me there was trouble," she said.
Nagato stood up and wiped the tears from his cheeks. More came. He gave up, and nodded. "There is. A lot."
Konan came to stand near him, offering silent reassurance. It did not have to be said that she was coming with them, because they all knew it. Nagato sobbed. "I really, really hope none of what she said was true," he whispered. Hidan's in enough trouble without any of it being true. It would make everything worse if it was. Oh god.
Deidara and Yahiko looked on. Deidara leaned over and whispered, "What who said?"
Yahiko hated feeling useless. He'd never seen Nagato this upset, and he couldn't do anything. It was horrible. "The leader of the vampires. She said that she thought Hidan was evil, or at least connected to and influenced by evil things, and she thinks she's protecting herself from him."
Deidara said nothing. They continued to stay silent while Nagato got his fear under control and Konan's butterflies searched. Deidara was just about to say something to break the gloomy mood when Konan shifted. She stood alert and looked around. "I've found him."
Yahiko gasped and raced to the owl, leaping onto Clay's back. Deidara did the same. "Let's go then!" Yahiko called. "Yeah! Um. Konan?"
Nagato had been about to hop up, but he stared into Konan's face instead. She stared back at him. "It would be best if Nagato and I approached him first. Gently," she advised.
Nagato's heart sank. There was only one thing about Hidan they shared that came to mind. Nagato gestured to his eyes, just to make sure. She nodded. "Yeah. We should definitely approach him first."
He jumped onto the owl's tail, which curled around him. He hadn't seen Hidan unlike himself since that morning when he'd caught Hidan sleepwalking. In a way, it would be good to see him that way again. Konan had not explained what he had seen. Perhaps she hadn't known. That leaves only one person I can ask. I need to know what was happening! I can't leave Hidan to go through that.
Nagato tried to remember what he had seen. He moved so mechanically. His scythe almost cut some things in a few places, but it was like he didn't even notice. Oh no... He didn't notice. He didn't even hear me until his eyes turned pink again. I won't be able to talk to him. Nagato buried his head in his arms and groaned. He was going to have to ask anyway, because he needed answers. This was just going to make it so much harder to get any.
Yahiko offered Nagato his hand, but Nagato shook his head. "I have to see for myself if he's okay." Konan sprouted paper wings and flew in front of the owl, guiding them to a spot northwest of the lake, near the river but past it. She touched down barely past the river, in a clearing close enough that they could hear the water's calm, quiet burbling. Everybody dismounted, and she and Nagato set off.
The ground quickly rose into a small hill. "Up here," Konan murmured.
Nagato did not respond, because he felt ill. The nausea was worse. He could feel his legs subtly tremble beneath him. His heart felt like it was pumping something other than blood. His breathing sounded harsh to his own ears. Nagato felt sick mentally, too. What am I even going to say? He tried to put words together to form an answer, but the words slipped away.
Nagato swallowed. I'm scared. He had never considered seeing that terrifying not-Hidan ever again after that morning, and now here he was planning to interact with it - him - whatever. Nagato remembered how, after seeing him, he'd gone back to his room and huddled, shaking, in terror until Yahiko came. That wasn't an option now. If he had something he was afraid of, he would have to deal with it. For Hidan, but also for himself.
Nagato forced himself ahead (though his legs suddenly became partially paralyzed the moment he asked them to move him closer to the hilltop), and pulled at Konan's sleeve. "I need to go first," he pleaded. His voice squeaked on the last word. Definitely pleading.
Konan's breath was nearly as fast as his, but she seemed to have trouble stopping herself from moving forward. She held herself still for two whole torturous seconds before nodding. She hoped whatever he wanted to do was quick.
Nagato nodded back and let go. Step by step, he forced himself forward. His legs threatened to mutiny every time he lifted a foot. His thoughts scattered. Yet, enough remained for Nagato to know that he had felt like this before. "I can ride Cthulhu like a pony," he whispered. "Of course I can. Hidan would say I could."
Speak of the devil. Just as he thought that, a human silhouette materialized from nowhere. There was a large open area beyond the hill, where light shone freely. Hidan's performance of sitting and looking out over the sight was excellent, marred only by how still he was sitting. Nagato shivered.
He held his right arm with his left as he walked up. Silently, he took a deep breath and sat down, not looking directly at Hidan. After a few seconds of sitting stock-still in terror this way, Nagato pinched himself harshly. He looked at Hidan.
And he almost as quickly looked away again. Right. That's what his eyes looked like. S-scary. In the faint moonlight, Hidan's eye color was more visible than before, but Nagato realized he could probably have seen it in complete darkness. That color was so much more than a color. Looking at it gave Nagato the feeling of something opening up beneath him, something which would sweep him up and run off with him in all different directions, motion so wild it would tear him apart into his constituent atoms. He clutched at his arm, reassuring himself that it had not happened, that he was still intact.
"Who are you?" he whispered. "Where is Hidan?"
There was no answer. Nagato checked from the corner of his eye, and saw no movement anywhere. It was like talking to a statue, or a coma patient.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Nagato looked up at his face. "Say something."
Silence.
"Anything."
Not a flicker of recognition.
Nagato took a deep breath and sat up. "Is there...anyone there?"
The wind rustled in the leaves overhead. Something made little movements in the bushes. Insects sang, not as many as there would be when full summer arrived, but a few. And that was all that happened. Despite the fact that he could feel that color on his skin, Nagato felt very alone. I'm the only person up here on this hilltop.
No! He shook his head, making his hair fly around his face. I am not. Nagato brushed his hair out of his face and into its usual arrangement, leaving his left eye visible. His heart hammered in his chest, but he scooted closer to Hidan, until there was only one foot between them. He struggled to swallow.
"I… I don't know who you are, or if you can hear me, or if Hidan can." Nagato curled his hands into fists for courage. "But I need to let you know. I care about Hidan. He matters to me. He's fascinating, and brave, and I have so much to learn from him, and... I want to be brave like he is. I want to handle whatever happens, like he does."
Nagato wiped his eyes, grateful for the excuse to shield himself from that color, even for a moment. "But I know something else. I know that he can't handle everything. I know that he's not always as happy as he seems. I know that there are some things only I can do that he can't, and I'm going to do one of them now."
Every part of Nagato's body started to shake separately, as if they all sensed what he was about to do. He told himself Quiet! and lunged. With one movement of his legs, he forced himself up, where he lost his balance and toppled forward. Nagato gasped as he landed on Hidan's shoulder, but he held on. He was now hugging Hidan's limp body. It was not the body of a statue; it was definitely the body of a coma patient. Nagato understood why he was propped up against a tree. It's nice that he was that considerate. Maybe, if he cares about this body at least, I can get through to him.
"Please." Nagato held on for dear life and whispered into Hidan's ear. "Please don't hurt him. Please keep him safe, and happy, and -" He started crying. "Please. I don't know what you're doing here but don't - don't take away - just - this is a good thing, a great thing, and please don't hurt it for him."
Nagato's greatest fear appeared in his head, unasked for. He saw Yahiko, lying dead and lifeless, on the ground. Nagato understood what that would be like. It felt like he was holding Hidan's dead body now. No! He's not gone. He came back! He's not dead! The cloak under Nagato's face was too wet to absorb any more. Tears started to pool and slide down the back.
Nagato felt a hand on his shoulder. "Nagato…" It was Konan. Gently, she worked her fingers in between his shoulder and Hidan's, prying him loose. Nagato closed his eyes and let himself be pried. Once separated and moved a few feet away, he found it so much easier to catch his breath and stop shaking. I heard different tears really do look different under a microscope. What do fear tears look like? Why am I wondering about this? Oh god. He took several deep breaths.
After those deep breaths, he opened his eyes again. It was an incredible relief to see that Konan had closed Hidan's eyes. She waved for him to come over. Having recovered some of his nerve, he did.
"What did you and Yahiko wish to talk to him about?" she asked.
Nagato blinked at her for a while before realizing what she was asking. "Uh - um… Yahiko. He - I'll get him." Nagato tried to stand, but it didn't work too well.
Konan reached up and forced him down. "No you will not. I will." She sent out some paper. Nagato grabbed her hand before it could leave his shoulder and held it. I need calm. Focus. I already begged, I'm done with that now. Meditate. Listen to the wind. He listened to the wind. By the time Yahiko came running, Nagato was ready to let go of Konan's hand.
Deidara had come, too. "How is he, hm?" he asked in a rush.
Konan grimaced as she pushed her hand into Yahiko's chest to stop him from looking too closely at Hidan. "Fine. He is fine. Go away."
Yahiko went over to Nagato instead. "Okay. Um. Is he ready to say anything? He looks like he's sleeping."
Or dead. Nagato stifled a sob.
Konan pressed a hand against Hidan's cheek. When no feeling of pain or motion struck her, she announced, "He is."
Nagato nudged Yahiko in the ribs and nodded. You ask. Yahiko nodded back and prepared some questions.
He waited for Hidan to open his eyes before asking them, though. When that didn't happen he turned to Konan. "Uh, it's a little hard to, when his eyes are… Is he really okay?"
Hidan took a deeper breath and sat up a little. He opened his eyes. They were purple. "Mm." His face was still too still to be comfortable, but it would do. Nagato was just glad he was able to look at Hidan's eyes without feeling pain.
Yahiko smiled and said, "Okay!" He rubbed his hands together. "We heard… a lot of stuff from the vampire lady in charge. I barely know where to start.
"Nagato told me about you needing to drink blood. She said that there are more people who need to do that - off-breeds, she called them - and that people who need to do that tend to be really dangerous. She said that 'your kind,' her words not mine, aren't really like either humans or vampires. That you see human people as different from you, as food, and you don't really care and could turn on us at any time." Yahiko's eyes flicked sideways. "I'm sorry, but she - I should say all of it." He tried to look only at Hidan, but failed a few times. "She asked if we'd seen any hungry looks, or violent instincts, or anything that looked like you thought of us as, 'like a lamb to the slaughter.'" He cringed violently.
"Do you...really care?" Yahiko did not know who he was asking. He looked at the ground to avoid meeting anyone's eyes.
Konan's face closed off. She remembered. She had come very close to killing him. She hadn't, but she could have, and all it would have taken was one more slip, one more second without full control of her battle instincts. One very small slip, and he could have been that deer. Slaughtered. Konan had done her best to avoid thinking about it, but she couldn't make the terror of knowing that about herself stop existing. For all the forgiveness that Yahiko could muster, now she knew: neither could he.
She also lowered her eyes to the ground, in shame. He was right to feel afraid. Afraid was exactly what he should feel, what he did not feel enough of on his own. Paradoxically, she thought she might be helping him. But she was also scaring and threatening him, which did not feel right at all. Which was true?
Regardless of what the truth was, she felt horrible. Only an apology could help. "I do care," Konan whispered. "I can't answer the rest of the charges, but that one is not true. I may hurt you - worse than I already have - and this may not work out, but at least I will not have made a conscious, willing choice to betray you."
"Eating is impossible," Hidan muttered. His voice was so flat and monotone that Nagato had to fight to stop himself from crying out in fear. "Because of the pain. Cannot eat while aware of the pain."
Deidara and Yahiko stared at him, both going pale. In this lighting, they hadn't noticed his eyes very much, but this voice was impossible to miss. Nagato elbowed Yahiko hard in the ribs and shook his head. No. No. Very much no. Do not go there. He mimed zipping his lips shut. Yahiko realized why his best friend had been acting so scared since they'd returned.
Yahiko conveyed this advice to Deidara before following it. "Oh. Y-yeah, that's… One of us said exactly that. That you couldn't be dangerous because hurting others was hurting yourself. She said that didn't matter because bringing Jashin sama over was harm enough."
He shook his head. "Speaking of, um, she gave us this whole history lesson on vampire history, and it sounded really bad. Basically, she said that Jashin sama used to be a vampire god, but then 'off-breeds' started to worship him and they could sacrifice way more blood than a real vampire could, so a prophet said that he preferred off-breeds over vampires now, and there was chaos, and then a lot of people started using the power they got from worshipping to try to take over the vampires, and the whole thing ended in, like, genocide? And now the only non-vampires who exist are in the human world and no vampire wants to be near them." He glanced at Nagato.
Nagato swallowed. "She thinks Jashin sama is a corrupt god, that he shows favoritism and encourages bloodshed by giving more power the more blood you spill. She asked us to destroy the symbol."
"Oh, gods, yeah." Yahiko had almost managed to forget what she had asked them to do. "Destroy the symbol, stop Hidan, and break his connection to Jashin sama. They're not willing to murder anyone, especially not a boy - but they want to do a lot of other things."
Konan choked. "De -" She coughed again. "Destroy his connection to Jashin sama?" Her chest spasmed some more. It increasingly sounded like laughter. "That - that is not possible." She placed the back of her hand over her mouth to stop it.
Hidan's brow slowly wrinkled in confusion. Nagato found it eerie, but fascinating. It was like watching a slo-mo video of someone becoming confused. "That's wrong." His voice had a touch more emotion in it than before. "Right, but wrong."
Konan glanced at him with her fist over her mouth. Deidara wondered what the hell was going on, but resolved to think about it later. Nagato hoped the increase in emotion meant the hairs on his spine could relax sometime soon. Yahiko was confused. "Which parts are right? Which parts are wrong?"
"All of it." Hidan's brow stayed wrinkled. His eyes were a lighter shade of purple. "Who belongs belongs. Who doesn't doesn't. To be alive, hunting, motion, pain… It's a type, not species. No preference."
Konan lowered her fist and picked up where he left off. "Jashin sama demands blood be sacrificed as a symbol of vitality. It requires a specific type of personality to worship him. Different, more relaxed personalities simply wouldn't be able to. I can't imagine Original Hidan performing those sacrifices joylessly. It's part of it all."
Nagato folded his hands in front of his face. "So those things happened, but she misinterpreted them. There was no switch from preferring vampire worshippers to preferring vampiric ones. The real cause was different."
"If there was a change, but it's all a matter of personality, then vampires have different personalities than non-vampires," Yahiko concluded. "Wait, that doesn't make any sense. How can non-vampires be different, all of them? He just said personalities aren't species-specific."
Nagato tapped him on the arm. "Yeah, but we're talking about vampiric humans. A very small subset of all humans. Large groups of people are always more diverse than smaller ones. And that's just statistical chance, not even taking into account biases, like if being vampiric causes people to have a certain personality, which it actually makes a lot of sense that it would... If you have to hunt to live, you'd enjoy it, right?" He traced lines in the air from conclusion to conclusion. "But no - that doesn't work, because vampires also have to hunt.
So if that's how it works, vampires should all be alike as well… Except that stories of vampires say they used to be normal humans before they were made into vampires, whereas, just needing a dietary supplement of blood would be a condition you have since birth. So, actually, vampires should be just as diverse as the normal human population, because a transformation isn't subject to evolutionary pressure. But if it's a lifelong biologically-based thing, it would be, so personality traits that enhance survival should be selected for." Nagato's eyes were completely glazed over.
He was no longer aware of the outside world, only of his thinking, which he saw before him as an elegant spider web of information tied together to form a larger structure. "Therefore, vampiric humans should have a way higher proportion of suitable personalities than regular vampires, so higher proportions of them become worshippers. Any given vampiric human is more likely to be a worshipper than any given vampire. Knowing that could lead someone to treat vampires and vampirics in different ways, which might make it look as though Jashin sama would rather have vampirics than vampires as worshippers."
He blinked and returned to the real world, looking around to see how impressed everyone was with his conclusion. Konan had a small smile on her face, but they didn't appear to fully understand. "Um, I mean… Evolution makes vampiric humans have personalities more like what Konan described, but it doesn't do the same for vampires."
Deidara nodded in understanding. "Oh, so, it's like redheads and freckles." He explained to Konan, "Around here, people who have red hair usually have freckles, because those two things are tied together by genes so it's really hard to have one without the other. Being a blood-drinking person and having a Jashinist personality is like that, hm?"
Nagato facepalmed. "No, it is not! That's completely different… Oh, whatever. It'd take too long to explain. Yeah, they're tied together like that. Kind of. Wrong reasoning, though."
Konan shrugged. "The whole isn't found without all of its parts, yet they persist in blaming only one part without thinking of the others."
Nagato groaned. "That's more accurate." She didn't even sit through high school biology! I guess a little knowledge really is more dangerous than none at all, sometimes.
Yahiko shrugged. "I don't really care about why, but I do care that they all have different personalities from vampires. That's the important part. So the vampire lady was wrong; vampiric people really do make better worshippers than vampires, and that's not anyone's fault. Jashin sama's not biased, he just has standards, and nobody can make themselves meet the standards or not. There's no reason for her to blame that on 'those dastardly off-breeds' or a 'corrupt god' at all!" He sighed in relief. That was nice and simple. A conflict caused by people not knowing things, so if they learned the full story, it would improve. He'd been afraid, ever since learning that this conflict was rooted deep in vampire history, that he had accidentally gotten himself into one of those unsolvable conflicts that nobody would appreciate his efforts to fix. Yahiko took a deep breath and sent up a mental thank-you to anyone who might be listening.
"Uh, guys… I know this sounds really bad, but you just said she's right to think that off-breeds or vampirics or whatever are dangerous, just because of what they are." Deidara finally got comfortable and made himself part of their 5-man circle. "Sounds kinda...racist, and you mentioned there was a genocide, yeah? Are we sure we want to be supporting that?"
Konan glared at him. "There is a great deal of difference between snatching rabbits and enjoying it, and murder. Tigers are dangerous, and yet they do not need to be killed because their dangerous instincts are controlled. There are actions one can take to protect themself. If the danger tigers pose was uncontrolled and nobody could find a reliable way to keep themselves safe, then they would need to be killed. Killing is a last resort for if there are no rules to follow to keep yourself safe, or if the rules are impossible to follow."
Nagato glanced at Hidan, who seemed to be letting everyone else do all the work of figuring things out for themselves. Huh. He didn't move at all earlier, and that was scary. But as much as I wished he would, he didn't really have to move. If he really has to or else they'll die, would he protect Hidan? He blinked those thoughts away for the time being. Even so, it was comforting to know that perhaps there was a reason behind everything.
Meanwhile Yahiko held up a hand. "Well, hey, wait. That might work for tigers, but people are different. People are so complicated you can barely find the rules before they change. She said some of them took their powers and tried to fight a war, and that sounds true. I can see why she'd get confused, when it's hard to tell who's being violent because of their personality and who's being violent for some other reason. How do you find out what's really happening?"
Deidara asked, "How does Hidan know what's really happening, hm?"
They both stopped talking and looked at Hidan. How did he sort through a whole religion to find the underlying structure that made sense of it all? Wait a second. Hadn't he said at the party that his original's religion was too disorganized to be a religion? How could he know enough people who worshipped Jashin sama to do it?
And what about Konan? They looked at her next. She'd known what he was saying well enough to elaborate. Konan raised her hands. "Those pages that told me how to install the symbol explained the reasoning behind some of the steps." She motioned to Deidara, who should know what she was talking about. "I read that I could use sap for the least important parts, for example, and it was written next to it that this was because I just needed a carrier of life force. I was told directly that Jashinism has to do with vitality."
The other three looked back at Hidan. Who had told him all about his original's religion? Wait, Nagato realized, how did he know it wasn't a religion? Even if Konan told him all about Jashinism, how would she know what the overall structure was like? How did I not realize that this doesn't make sense before now?
Konan tensed her muscles, wondering if she would need to defend him again. Kakuzu was the first to believe that Hidan was different and that he did not really care. Now all of Hidan's closest friends, excepting herself, thought that he was different and looked at him strangely too. She glanced at Hidan, waiting for a signal like the one she had received during the phone call. Would he need her help again?
Hidan's eyes slowly closed, and he leaned back, slackening. He did not need help this time. There was no immediate threat.
Konan exhaled slowly. "He must be very tired. We should return."
Yahiko sighed. "He won't answer the question later. He won't even remember, will he?"
"He's not answering it now," Nagato consoled. "That's the answer. We're done with asking him things." He stood up for the first time in well over half an hour. Woah. My legs are wobbly. Did they fall asleep? Regardless, when he saw Konan reaching for Hidan's arm, he joined her. Together, they lifted Hidan and began to carry him back to the bird. I hope he knows I care. I do. I can get past whatever this was, hug him, even. I hope he knows I'm not going to be scared away by a little thing like this.
Nagato looked up from his thoughts to see Konan. She looked him directly in the eyes, and smiled. Looking in her eyes, he could see that it was a very heartfelt smile, and blushed. "What?" he asked. "I'm not a coward." He smiled anyway.
Konan snorted. "It would not be cowardice to stay far from him," she whispered. "An average person would. You are very brave to stay."
Rather than make him feel good, this news hit Nagato's stomach like a bag of rocks. "I hope not," he replied. "One of the things I begged for was to not hurt Hidan, to keep him alive, and happy. If I have to be brave to stay, does that mean that other people might not?"
Konan nodded. "That is his worst fear. It was part of his argument with Kakuzu earlier. Kakuzu is newly committed to resolving his personal problems in order to not abandon Hidan. You also know and haven't left. You are the only two so far."
Nagato shifted Hidan's arm so that he supported more of his weight directly. "I won't, Hidan. I don't want you to be afraid. I promise."
Just as they reached the bird, Nagato felt something in him that he hadn't known was tense relax. He breathed deeply, and was relieved. It was over. He sat with Hidan on the clay owl's tail, and found himself almost giddy just from knowing that Hidan was peacefully and normally sleeping.
Yahiko looked back and smiled. He didn't know why, but something felt right all of a sudden. He turned away from the tail and looked forward. Nagato did not need his hand. Nagato's own hands were good enough now.