37 Chapter 37 : An angel's dilemma (4)

Naruto found himself walking through the streets of Ame far sooner than he had expected to again, he had his cloaking jutsu on as he carried the young woman through a mostly deserted street. Thankfully the rain jutsu was not on or Naruto would have been forced to use more caution, it was a good thing Naruto had been able to find out that the jutsu had a weakness; the blond had learned that Nagato could only keep the jutsu going for twelve hours before he had to stop for another six. Naruto did not know why it was this way, but figured that the jutsu had some kind of cost chakra or otherwise that stopped Pain from constantly using it.

He looked over his shoulder at Konan to see her glaring at him, before shrugging said glare off; at least she was no longer trying to break out of his grip anymore. Finally finding where he was looking for he set Konan down against a wall. Leaning down he grabbed the seal and pulled it off her mouth.

"You're lucky I can't do anything to you right now!" Konan growled out as she glared at him with a look that Naruto was sure would have could have killed other men.

Hell I'm sure Jiraiya would have died under such a glare he thought with some amusement..

Naruto gave her an uncaring shrug as he stood up and pointed just a little ways away, "tell me what you see?"

Konan frowned as she looked towards where he was pointing, it was a city block of Amegakure that she did not recognize, or at least it had been. The entire area was completely destroyed, with a large crater in the middle that held the metal buildings of Ame in them, sticking out making it look like a graveyard city. However she could not be 100% sure in her guess, the only reason she was even able to tell it was a part of Ame was because of the fact that she knew they were still in the village and the few pieces of debris and buildings sticking out of the ground in the area were Ame style buildings. "I don't know what am I looking at?" she finally asked as she decided to humor him.

"This place used to be a living district," Naruto said, "along with thirteen other sectors nearly 75% of Amegakure used to live there. This place along with seven others are nothing more than ruins now…"

Konan's eyes widened as she looked out over the devastation, when had this happened? She looked out at the destruction as she tried to remember what had happened to cause such devastation, her mind however drew blanks as she could not for the life of her remember what happened.

"Do you know how this place was destroyed?" Naruto asked as he looked at Konan with his piercing blue eyes. Konan shook her head and Naruto decided to tell her, "this was where your friend Nagato took out his revenge on Hanzo the Salamander after he killed him." he looked over at Konan to see her gaining a confused look, "this residence was where Hazno's family lived, do you know what happened to them?" the question was rhetorical, he knew Konan knew what had happened to the man's family. "They were killed and Pain decided to leave this place as a testament to those that would oppose him," Naruto said, "I hear that Hanzo had a wife and a four year old granddaughter. Nagato killed them without remorse and without regret, but you already knew that didn't you?"

Konan grit her teeth as she tried to justify Nagato's actions, she went through several counter arguments in her mind to help her deny what the blond haired man was saying. Yet everything she tried to think of, everything she wanted to say sounded hollow to her ears as she looked at the devastation.

"Did you know that this was not the only place where your friend exacted his revenge?" Naruto asked in a quiet voice. "Of the thirteen other living sectors six of them were destroyed the same as this one, anybody who Nagato even suspected of being even remotely loyal to Hanzo was killed along with their families. He didn't care whether they were truly loyal, just afraid to stand up to Hanzo or even were unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire; all of them were killed in Pain's quest for revenge." Naruto looked over at Konan when he heard a small sob, he turned to see the beautiful blue haired woman choking back tears as she tried to struggle against the idea that her friend could do such a thing. Naruto held in a wince, he never liked to hurt a woman be it physically or mentally; the blond shinobi was not sure if it was some kind of chivalrous nature or just that he could never stand to see others hurting, but it was always hurt to see a woman cry.

He walked up to her and kneeled in front of her, Konan slowly reeled in her tears as she looked at him. "I have one more place I want to show you," Naruto said and Konan was once again taken aback by the compassionate nature of his voice. "If I release your bindings will you promise to do as I say?" he asked as he looked at her with those eyes that seemed to look straight through her and into her very soul.

Konan was truly compelled to say no, not just because he was supposed to be her enemy but also because she was afraid. Her faith in Nagato had taken a large hit today and Konan was afraid that what this man had to show her would irrevocably shatter any confidence she had in the man she considered family. Yet for some reason she felt compelled to place her trust in this boy, no man she corrected herself. She felt a desire to place her faith in this man who even though she had only known him for a little while, was starting to remind her so much of her departed friend Yahiko. "I promise," she said at last as she decided to place her trust in the person who had captured her yesterday.

Naruto nodded as he undid her bindings and made her put her Akatsuki cloak in a seal, leaving Konan in a set of clothes that did nothing to hide her amazing figure. She was wearing a pair of black skin tight leather pants that showed off curvaceous and amazingly toned and beautiful legs. As well as a sleeveless skin tight shirt that covered just her neck and a little under 2/3rds of her C borderline D cup chest, leaving the outer edge of her chest, torso and shoulders bare. The shirt also had a diamond cut in the center just below her collar bone and a V cut on the bottom where the shirt split down the center and moved off to fall down to the sides, allowing Naruto a glimpse of her toned stomach which had four piercings around her belly button. Naruto mentally swore as he looked away with a blush and tried to get the image out of his head.

Placing the invisibility jutsu over himself Naruto grabbed Konan's hand to activate the invisibility jutsu over her too. Konan was startled as she felt Naruto's hand grabbed hers, not just at the contact but also at the odd feeling of familiarity it gave, or was it comfort she felt? As she walked with the blond shinobi Konan noticed that he was leading her farther and farther away from the center of town, looking over she saw that he was heading towards the outskirts of the area that Nagato had attacked when he gained entrance into Ame to fight Hanzo.

When they got their she noticed with some surprise that there was a cottage at their destination, it was made out of steel and looked fairly new; mainly from the fact that it was not only different from any of the buildings found in Ame but also because this area had been nearly destroyed by Nagato's assault and none of the buildings aside from that small cottage stood. However what really surprised her were the small group of kids who were currently playing with a ball, there were three of them, two boys and one girl. The three stopped playing as they looked over at Naruto as he dropped the invisibility jutsu, if Konan had been surprised before she became absolutely shocked when the three gave a shout of 'Oni-chan!' and rushed over to Naruto. The three soon surrounded the two of them and began firing off questions at Naruto, said blond just laughed as he lifted the three of them up; placing the girl on his shoulders while the two boys were in each of his arms. Now that she got a closer look Konan noticed that they could not be much older than seven or eight years old.

"I thought you were leaving Oni-chan?" said the boy on the left, a kid with messy black hair and green eyes.

"Hey Oni-chan, who's the pretty Onee-chan you brought with you?" asked the boy on Naruto's right arm, he had dark blue hair and brown eyes.

"Is she your girlfriend?" the girl with dark green hair and blue eyes as she leaned on his head asked with a giggle as she held up her pinky.

Konan was hit with a wave of nostalgia as she watched the blond interacting with the young kids, though she blushed at the compliment and question that were thrown at Naruto concerning her. It was in a way so much like how she, Nagato and Yahiko had been found by Jiraiya-sensei all those years ago. For a few minutes she zoned out before being brought back when she heard a squeal of delight, looking towards the source it was to see all of the kids on a clone of Naruto as they headed into the house.

"I found those three kids scrounging around a garbage can when I was trying to find information on Akatsuki here," Naruto said as he saw Konan look over towards him with a questioning gaze. "Do you know what they told me there dream is?" he asked Konan as he looked towards the cottage.

Konan shook her head, "no."

"They said they wanted to lead a rebellion to free Ame," Naruto said as Konan gasped in shocked. "Those three kids were the only ones to escape from Nagato's revenge. Apparently their parents had them hide in a secret cellar before they were killed, is this familiar to you?"

"It's almost just like Nagato, Yahiko and I when we were younger," Konan said as she saw the similarities between her old group and the three she had just met. They even had plans to free Ame like Yahiko had come up with after Jiraiya-sensei had left only this time it was against Pain rather than when she and her friends had been facing Hanzo, these kids were living like they had and she knew that it was because of her and Pain that they were. She felt tears begin to fall down her eyes as she realized she was no longer able to hide the truth she had denied to herself, with the startling knowledge that Nagato had lost his way when he took up the name Pain and became blind by a lust for power and the belief that he was god, her faith in him shattered. Falling to her knees Konan began to cry in earnest, without her faith in Pain who had become her reason to live she felt even more empty then after Yahiko had died.

Naruto watched as the woman wept and could not help the feeling of regret that encompassed him, despite knowing that she had to cast off the illusions she put up for herself Naruto still found it hurt him to see a woman cry. Curse my conscience, Naruto said to himself as he closed the distance between them and knelt down.

Konan was startled when she felt a pair of arms engulf her torso, feeling herself being pulled into an embrace as a warm feeling encompassed her; she instantly moved towards the small source of comfort she found. Pressing her head into a shirt she let out all of the pain and loneliness she had been feeling since Yahiko's death, after the death of cheerful boy who tried to act tough and be their leader had died Nagato had never been the same. He had started to become colder and colder with each passing day, so much so that Konan had to put up a wall around her emotions; a wall that had just broke. Konan gripped the cloth of the shirt she had buried her head into as she continued to let her tears fall unabashed down her face, she felt a hand start to make soothing motions as it rubbed her back and a voice whispered in her ear.

"It's alright."

Looking up she saw none other than the blond who had captured her and destroyed her faith in the one person she had left in the world. The same blond who had also in the short time she had known him reminded her of Yahiko and shown her a compassion she would have never expected from someone who was supposed to be an enemy. She look into his eyes trying to understand why he was doing these things, why he would strip away her beliefs yet at the same time why he was so nice to her despite them being enemies. It took awhile eventually she saw something she had not expected to see; pain, the young man's eyes were pools of pain and loneliness that she had not even seen in Nagato's or her own eyes. This boy she realized understood pain even better than she did, yet even then Konan could see that he still held onto his compassionate and caring nature.

"Who are you?" she asked even as tears continued to fall down her face.

Naruto brought a hand to Konan's face and gently brushed away a few tears, "I'm someone who understands pain." bringing his face up to his mask he slowly pulled it down revealing six whisker marks on his face, Konan's eyes widened in recognition. While she had never met the Kyuubi's Jinchurikki she had been given a general description, to think that this entire time she was with one of the people they had been trying to kill. "I am also a student of Jiraiya's, like you."

"That was how you knew who I was," Konan breathed as she finally figured out how he knew of her and Nagato.

Naruto nodded, "Jiraiya-sensei told me the story of how he met you three," Naruto said figuring it would be best to use his sensei's real name instead of his nickname for the man. "He had told me that he was going to get you three after the war and take you to Konaha with him, but received information you had been killed." Naruto shrugged, "to be honest I wasn't even sure it was you until I mentioned Nagato and Yahiko, all I had was your general description that gave me a hunch."

Konan felt light headed as she tried to wrap her mind around all the startling revelations today, it was all too much to handle in too short a time; it almost seemed like some kind of divine intervention from a real god. To think that the man before her was not only the Kyuubi Jinchurikki but also that he was a student of Jiraiya's as well, then he comes here and meets her showing her that Pain was not what she had thought he was. It was almost enough to make one believe in fate. She was brought back to the real world when she felt a hand cup her cheek, looking up she followed the arm to see Naruto with a concerned expression on his face.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I…" Konan paused as she realized she was not alright, "not really, this is all too much to take in."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "well then how about you don't think about it for now." Naruto stood up, lifting Konan who was still in his arms into a bridal carry. "How about we go inside and you can help me entertain the kids while I make some food," Naruto suggested with a smile.

Konan while surprised did not decline the idea as Naruto set her down and followed the blond shinobi inside, the two of them spent the rest of the day with the kids. As a clone of Naruto made food Konan and the real Naruto would spend their time entertaining the children, Naruto by telling them grand stories of all the places he had been to and Konan by teaching the little girl origami. Naruto had also tried his hand at the art but after several dozen paper cuts had given up, much to Konan's secret amusement. As the day wore on Konan was once again struck by the similarities of her own life, but this time they did not seem to hurt as much and Naruto had even gotten the woman to smile with a terrible joke he told. Eventually the three children passed out and Naruto and Konan put them to bed before the two found themselves sitting on a couch and looking outside at the rain, which had started up again.

"I guess I'm going to be here for twelve hours again," Naruto said to himself; well he could just flash away but he would want to say good bye to the kids. He looked over at his… what was she now? He wondered, since she was not really his prisoner anymore. Acquaintance? Companion? Friend? He was unsure but supposed it didn't really matter anymore. "What will you do now Konan?" asked Naruto.

Konan looked at him and sighed as she closed her eyes, "I don't know anymore," she said in a soft voice. "Nagato had been everything to me and now that I don't feel I can follow him…"

"You could come with me if you want," she looked up at Naruto in shock as he continued to speak, "I'll take you to Konoha and you can stay with me. I'll do what I can to give you a happy life, if you want one with me that is," he finished with a sheepish expression.

Konan actually smiled at the look she had often seen on Yahiko's face, "thank you… but I don't think that's a good idea, at least not right now. If I went with you Pain would get suspicious and if he found out I have left Akatsuki, I have no doubt he would try to kill me."

"Well yeah, but he would have to get past me," Naruto said as he puffed out his chest confidently.

"You would protect me?" Konan asked somewhat amused and somewhat shocked.

"Of course I would," Naruto said, "if you came with me that would make you one of my precious people and I always protect my precious people."

Konan smiled as she wiped an errant tear from her eye, thinking for a moment she looked back at Naruto. "I still think it's too dangerous, right now even as strong as you are it will not be enough to defeat Pain." Naruto winced knowing that at the moment it was probably true, "But if you wanted me to… I could spy on Akatsuki for you."

That got Naruto's attention; having a spy within Akatsuki would be the biggest boon ever, but… "That's pretty dangerous Konan-chan," Naruto said not even realizing the affectionate suffix he added, though Konan did as she gave a small blush. "Not only is it dangerous, but you would have to hide your intentions from someone you admitted to me meant the world to you. I myself would not want to do that, and I certainly wouldn't wish it on you."

"Thank you for your concern," she said as she unknowingly used the same words he had said to her this morning. "But I want to do this, you were right about him. Nagato has been dead for a long time, he is now Pain and I… I don't think he can be saved."

Naruto leaned over and wiped an errant tear that threatened to fall from Konan's eye, "if this is what you want I won't stop you. Just promise me you will be careful."

"I will," Konan promised a little surprised at the concern in his voice.

"Also… do you think you could occasionally visit these kids? They don't have anyone else and while I'll try to visit as much as I can…"

"Don't worry," Konan interrupted with a smile, "I'll look after them for you."

"Thank you," Naruto said.

For the rest of the night the two sat on the couch, eventually they both fell asleep with Konan using Naruto's chest as a pillow.

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