Chapter 9: The Pact

Konan

Sasori's gaze was already fixed on the door, waiting. Konan was still passing through the doorway as he began to ask, "How is Deidara?"

She finished stepping through and turned to him. "Deidara will be fine. Just...some unforeseen incompatibility." She glanced at Hidan. "I may have miscalculated you all."

Hidan bristled. "You mean you expected everyone to be a bunch of homicidal weirdos?!"

Konan stared at him. Did Hidan just say that? She was unable to think of a response. Hidan opened his mouth to say more, but stopped at the last moment and forced himself to look at her with more intensity. The scrutiny was almost worse. She looked around to see how everyone else was taking the news, and regretted it immediately, for they had varying expressions on their faces, all slightly different versions of the same look Hidan had.

This scrutiny was definitely worse. For the first time it was plainly obvious, almost tangible on her fingertips, what and who they weren't. A roomful of horrified, judgmental, defensive strangers stared at her. For the first time Konan thought she might understand a little bit of the loneliness that boy who looked much like Yahiko, Naruto, had lived through. Most of the eyes looking on her were a little angry, yes, especially Sasori since it was her claims that had driven Deidara out of the room, but the anger was nothing more than a glint. Her skin crawled, her mouth dried. The dominant expression she could see was...offense. Over half of them looked offended by her. Baffled by her existence, insulted by her perfectly normal and descriptive words, they looked at her as if utterly unable to fit her into their idea of a human. Several of them looked fearful. But she had never hurt them. Not intentionally. Not to cause harm, to help. But it was more than clear that in this moment, no one saw her existence as helpful.

Somehow, as she tried not to shrink away and wondered what she could do or say to prove her intention, it got even worse. The remaining less than half who had not taken her words with horror looked at her with eyes filled with pity, instead. Pity...for me. Because I missed something? I didn't know better? What do they think I am? I hate being pitied. I...Bastards. Cut them down. Defend! The desire to kill overcame her. The blazing hot feeling speared through all her insides, urging her to let it escape, to show them how utterly strong and pitiless she truly was. She was horrified. Konan could not think, could not do anything except stay still, stay silent in the hopes that none of them had noticed. Because the truth was...they were right to look at her this way. Was she human? She could not remember what being human meant. Jiraiya-sensei had something about that a long time ago, but she had helped kill him. I killed my own teacher, almost surrogate father. I didn't think much of it.

Without thinking now, she turned to Hidan. He had been angry before, but she could see traces of pity in his eyes now. She didn't even know how she knew what pity looked like in his eyes. He looked in her eyes, trying to figure out what she was. But hadn't he always known what she was? What did I do? No one was willing to step forward and give her an answer. Maybe I didn't do anything. Hidan could see what she was, always had been able to. But now not even he knew what to think of her. She was shamed, and humiliated, and could find no way out. Not one of them was what she thought they were. Not one.

"Hey," Yahiko whispered. "That's okay, I guess. I can forgive that. Whatever we were back where you come from, it's okay. Are...are you okay?" he asked, as the sound of his voice and his footsteps moving towards her came to a stop just a couple feet away. "Konan?"

She was on the roof. Konan looked to her side, but he was no longer there. On further reflection, she did feel as though some time had passed. It must have been hearing his gentle, deep voice utter her name. She stepped over a bit of crumbling brick and settled into a crumbled corner of the roof. It made a good place to be alone. Although it didn't make a difference, not really. By now she could have been alone in any place in the building whatsoever. The wind made some sound as it passed, not touching any part of her. The worst part was, she felt better already. It makes sense, in a way. I was always alone. At least here it's acknowledged.

She surveyed the land from her secure perch. It rustled with living things. That was good. Though she had never had one, somehow she missed having a hunting partner. The wind again passed in front of her, ignorant of her existence. She missed it. Missed what? Something unimaginable. So she closed her eyes and rested.

General

Yahiko reached out to hold empty air as she whirled and ran from the room. His hand hovered there in the air for a few seconds, disbelieving. Wait! I didn't mean anything! I...was only trying to help. He took his hand back as it sank in that she really wasn't coming back. What did I do? He wanted to look in her eyes, see what was in there. Just once. Just to prove she could trust him to. Maybe I didn't do anything.

Hidan twitched over his whole body and exclaimed, "What?" He looked around. "Oh. Shit. I just...forgot where I was for a second there. Like a blackout or something." He looked at Yahiko. "Probably you shouldn't just walk up to her like that dude."

Yahiko looked down and retreated back to the edge of the circle. You don't say. The reason he'd come was to help her, like he wanted to help people in general. Was that not enough? She had said he was barely capable of being a ninja in the first place, after all. Perhaps helping people really wasn't enough.

Hidan shut his eyes tight, tried to sort himself out. It was so hard, with so many people around! Even locating himself was impossible. He grew frustrated. "Okay, that was...fucking...fuck it! She didn't...fuck, that felt just way too shitty to put up with, all you assholes staring like that! Am - I mean, are we - no, no, fuck, is she like some kind of monster or something? The fuck was that?"

Nagato stammered. "It was… Well, it wasn't her, exactly. It was just that, all we asked for was what abilities we had as ninjas and what we were capable of. That's all we asked for, and instead she told us how we used to kill people and how good we were at it. I -" He looked at his hands again. "I get that ninjas are a kind of person that fights, but I don't want to pull out souls or anything. Firing missiles? I thought, when she said we used to be ninjas, that it would be something…" he looked around and gestured helplessly. "Something a little more like that trick she did with the paper butterflies. Which sounds really dumb now that I say it, actually."

"Perhaps that was all she had to share," Itachi murmured.

Kisame shook his head. "No, she did tell us what our originals were like in the process. 'Enemy' this, 'enemy' that. Even I don't think of the world like that. It was like she was using that word to mean everyone that's not us. Who does she think of as an 'enemy'? Are we close to being on that list?"

Hidan shook his head, still trying to get himself in order. "No, that… I didn't get any weird signals or anything while she was talking, just some other shit. Maybe thinking like that is just normal where she comes from."

Sasori's tone of voice was even, level, a proclamation of undiluted truth. "I don't want to become any more like a world where that's normal. I won't let anyone put up with that." He had nothing more to say beyond that. Everyone who mattered knew that he fixed things. Built things. It was a waste to him to do otherwise. And of course Deidara didn't need any more stress in his life. Sasori heard his own voice from years ago echo with advice just as wise as it had always been.

Kakuzu leaned back against the wall. "If my opinion matters to any of you kids, I'd like to point out that I don't disagree with what she said." He looked up to meet everyone else's gaze. "It is accurate to say that people always have a motive for what they do. In our world, it's only to get your money or your vote. In her world it's to kill you. I dislike the gruesomeness of that, but the concept is the same. There really isn't much difference to be horrified about. It only seems like it."

Yahiko looked up at him with a desperate tone in his voice. "No. That's not true."

Kakuzu did not think this was the time to let children down gently. "My point proven."

Even for the defence of his friend, Nagato's words failed him. He looked between Yahiko and Kakuzu. He doesn't get to say things like that. Not to Yahiko. Anger rose in him. "You know what? I don't give a fuck."

Yahiko turned in shock. Nagato continued, heedless. "My original could be...anything. He could be firing ICBMs, kidnapping the last rhinos for his collection, pulling out souls left, right and center. I don't give a fuck. I didn't come here to do anything like that, I'm not going to do anything like that, and neither is Yahiko. Keep nattering on if you want to, but we came here to make a woman who couldn't even look at us without pain feel just a little better, and that's what we're going to do." He turned to Yahiko, unstoppable. "That is how she looked at us. I saw it while you were looking at the paper. I didn't want her to look like that. I'm going to look for her. You...well, it probably is a bad idea, but come anyway. Just get out of here."

Hidan piped up. "Count me in. I'm all about people who need someone to talk to. That's my literal job."

Itachi frowned and opened his eyes. He was done thinking. "I believe most of us are overreacting. She did tell us what we might be capable of. She never said we must use these abilities for the same reasons our originals did. I think we are free to make our own choices."

Sasori's eyes moved to the left to look at him. "Yes, blowing up people with spiders is a highly adaptable talent that can be used for all matter of things that definitely won't get us in trouble with every law enforcement agency there is."

Itachi looked puzzled. "You have even less of a case than Nagato does. Missiles, for example, cannot be used for anything but death and destruction. However, Deidara's power is to make semi-living, useful beings out of nothing more than clay. It's his own explosive chakra; most likely he could choose when or if to detonate them. And the only talents you have inherited are the ability to build complicated structures and control them precisely. Explain to me how your original's sins mean that you can only choose to use that for evil."

Sasori's eyes moved away from Itachi's face. "I'm going to go find Deidara." With that, he left.

Kisame looked sideways at Itachi. "These aren't just abilities she asked us to learn about, Itachi. This is a thing she asked us to be. Konan seems pretty determined that we be ninjas and learn more about what that means. If this is what it means to be a ninja…"

Itachi nodded. "I understand what you mean, and I agree with you. But perhaps we shouldn't be so hasty. If that is what she demands, it is unfortunate. But I don't think she is that unreasonable. She did admit she has misestimated what we are capable of. Let's have a discussion about what can be expected of us and what can't first. I would still like to learn what illusions can be used for."

Nagato had been following Itachi's arguments with rising hope. Now he smiled eagerly. "I agree. It's sad to hear that I used to be like that, and it scares me to think I'm capable of doing anything so drastic as murder. I guess I can't look to Other-me for answers to what I am, after all. But that makes me curious too; just how did I manage to get like this from being like that?" He looked out the door. "Either way, I'm not doing any good for anyone in here."

Yahiko's first instinct was to follow, like usual, but this time he hesitated. I won't be able to do anything. She hates me. But as he looked at Nagato's back, he saw the strength in it. Ah, who cares? It's what I do. Even if I really can't do anything, I never want to be anything other than what I am now. I'm the sort of person that helps people. Including the ones that hate me. Hidan smiled back at him in response, and they left the room together.

Once in the hallway, Nagato stopped. He looked to the lobby, but didn't move. The lobby would be lit at this time of day, and he didn't think she'd be there waiting for them this time. He turned to Hidan. "You had some discussion with her last night, got to know her a little more than anyone else. Do you have an idea where she might be?"

Hidan scratched at his head and focused for a moment or two. She was probably still feeling what she'd been feeling just a few minutes ago, which meant that if she was nearby he should be able to feel it. He did not. He could've focused more to expand his field of view, but didn't bother. The fact that she wasn't anywhere in a radius of several rooms was more than enough information. Nagato was right. He had gotten some sense of what she was like last night. She seemed a little similar to himself, somehow. Hidan didn't know how or why he thought that, but would never consider doubting his instincts. He smirked and said, "Well, I know where I would be if I wanted to be alone."

He then led them at a pace they had to run several times to keep up with to the stairwell, up to the second floor, and over to the second floor's cross hallway which had in place of the kitchen some maintenance areas. Here there was access to the roof. He remarked that he hadn't used the stairs before so they were probably very dusty, but he figured they would like actual stairs better than the method he used to get up to the roof. Neither of them was willing to guess what that method may be and agreed they would.

It turned out the door was more disused that they'd thought. Hidan tried the handle, but the handle itself seemed almost gummed in position. When he finally succeeded in turning the stubborn mule of a thing, the door itself was even worse. The handle was too small for anyone else to assist, and when he let go the string of curses ready to leave his mouth in vehemence at the little object were cut short by the observation that the handle stayed twisted. Yahiko could not help but laugh at this. Nagato had to admit it was pretty funny. Hidan felt a little humored from their influence, but kept himself sober and waited for them to stop. When they finished he rubbed his hands together gleefully and chirped, "So, who wants to turn this obnoxious shit to splinters?"

Yahiko wondered, "If you're so happy, why don't you do it?"

Hidan glared at him with a surge of ferocity. "You think I'm going to dull my beautiful precious on fucking wood?! Besides, chopping through it would be disappointing. That's nothing like the reducing to splinters that I asked for!"

Nagato's brow furrowed as he tried listing things on his fingers. "Animals, no. Missiles, hell no. Dead bodies? I'm not even...NO. That was a really long list she said. Give me a few minutes…"

After about a minute and a half of watching his facial expressions change as he worked his memory back through the list of things Konan had claimed his original could do, Yahiko and Hidan were rewarded with a lightbulb expression and Nagato muttering "Oh, yeah, that could work. You guys, get out of the way." They did as requested, scattering to either side of the door and moving to the other side of the hall, just to be safe. Hidan began to bounce up and down on his toes, clenching his fists in front of him and prepared to do that same combination of sounds he had made the previous night. Yahiko felt like Spongebob in one episode where Spongebob had started chewing through his arms like popcorn in anticipation of something. Could they really do it? Could any of them really use jutsu, do all these fantastical things?

It was time for the truth of what they were to come out. Nagato's mouth dried. As he reached out and spread his hands a few inches from the door, he grasped the enormity of what he was about to try. It was one thing to think that he could be capable of so much more than he'd ever dreamed. It would be another to really prove it. The performance anxiety was huge. He knew that his friends must also understand the importance of this.

Slowly, to calm his racing heart, he closed his eyes and took slow breaths. It should be instinct, Nagato. Doing what you've supposedly done so many times before should be easy, muscle memory. Relax and let yourself go. He looked at his hands, those ordinary looking hands. It was unbelievable. Nothing about this felt easy or instinctual. He began to panic, thinking that he would surely make a fool of himself in front of everyone. No, no, I'm just psyching myself out. I just need to stop thinking. My mind is getting in my way. He grit his teeth and closed his hands, just a little, not enough for any of his fingers to meet. Stop thinking. Stop thinking. Stop thinking. Just PULL!

His fingers shot out from his palm. Yahiko jumped and bit down as if he did have his arms in his mouth like popcorn. Hidan jumped and gasped as the air around them shifted in a way that dazzled his senses, heightened as they were. Nagato gasped as he became aware for the first time of a current inside him, which now jumped its banks and surged inward. The portion of it that was in his hands really did seem to act on its own, changing in some way instantly. There was a great cracking sound, and they all feared for the structural integrity of the building around them. The cracking proceeded to shattering, and from there to screaming. The hinges alone had Nagato cringing, and Hidan and Yahiko covering their ears. The only part of the door not making noises no door should ever make was the frame, which had had more than enough of this. The hinges were too jammed to break. The metal plates holding each one were too solidly attached. The wooden frame the plates were attached to had none of these defects, and with a whoosh sizeable chunks of the wall came loose and flew towards Nagato. The door itself had also had none of these defects, and the hinge side had splintered loose. Before he could even process the danger, Nagato found the rest of the door in between him and the loose metal plates. His elbows unlocked and folded close to his body, the door coming to a rest against his palms and the loose hinges slamming into it on the other side.

For a moment, the scene was frozen like this: Nagato staring wide-eyed at the door only inches from his nose, his palms still spread, the door and the hinges refusing the orders of gravity. Yahiko gaping in awe from his position behind Nagato and to the left, his eyes still not having gotten around to sending the signals of Nagato turning and blocking the hinges with the door. Hidan grinning without knowing he was grinning, staring at the splinters flying harmlessly out to the side and flaking off the ruined edge of the door like brown pointy snow. Then the scene abruptly unfroze as instinct kicked into gear. Nagato's hands and the chakra inside them relaxed and the hallway echoed with the thud of wood crashing onto wood and metal bouncing off both. The signal was sent and Yahiko's brain began to process this blur of information. Hidan followed the door all the way to the ground, his head turning almost robotically.

As his hands relaxed, Nagato's mind did too and information could finally flow freely. In just a few seconds he understood what he had done. His breath trembled in shocked laughter and a small disbelieving smile spread over his face. He turned to his friends and saw then there, utterly real, and the smile grew into a broad open-mouthed expression of joy. "I - I did it! I pulled, and -"

"Right out of the frame. Took chunks right out of the frame." Yahiko met his eyes. "The hinges…"

Hidan proceeded to do exactly the bouncing, shaking his fists, warbling/chirping/squealing expression of joy he'd done the previous night, except at a higher volume. It lasted for a good five seconds, after which he wavered on his feet and turned to Nagato with eyes partially glazed over. "That was so, so, so FUCKING AMAZING! I...you...come here!" And Nagato found himself lifted bodily off the floor again as Hidan grabbed him and stumbled backward. Not even hitting the wall behind him stopped either of them from smiling like loons this time. Yahiko joined in from the side, and Nagato closed his eyes, soothed beyond measure by these two men holding him in their arms.

All too soon, Yahiko stepped back and the embrace came to an end. Hidan released Nagato with a grin, and they moved simultaneously to gather around the door where it lay. Hidan knelt down to make sure it was real, and picked up the hinges. With plates and chunks of doorframe attached, they were pretty heavy. He looked up at Nagato and lifted them up and down. "Fuckin' amazing. You know, I don't feel at all mad at your original if that" - he motioned to the visible dents in the door - "is what he left for ya. I could forgive him everything right now, or anybody else, even Stalin! This - so - Fuck." He shook his head in wonder.

Yahiko nodded. "Nagato, you just did...a miracle of some kind. Magic. Space magic!"

Nagato looked up. "Space?"

Yahiko started gesturing randomly, trying to reach for the words. "Yeah, not like outer space, more like...the space...between things? Push and pull, right? You can mess around with things at a distance like there wasn't a distance!" He laughed again, satisfied with his words this time.

"Y-yes...space magic," Nagato stammered. "That makes perfect sense. But wait - if I can, then Konan… Oh my baby jesus, she was right. You can, too, and Hidan, you…" He spun to face Hidan, and stopped. "You...did Konan say something about immortality earlier?"

Hidan's eyes lit up like a fireworks show. "Yeah, she did! I can -" he turned to the doorway, to the goal of Nagato's action. "Konan. She was feeling bad. Shit, we bring this to her, and there's no way anyone can feel bad!"

Yahiko gasped in horror. "Oh no, I forgot about her. I can't believe I did that. You're completely right. Let's go!" He plunged into the adequately-lit stairway without hesitation. Hidan knelt back down and placed the loose hinges in the dents they had made, and he and Nagato followed.

Konan

She was growing restless. It was not in her nature to be still, only sitting and brooding for long periods of time. The injured feeling of rejection, of humiliation, of being so alien in settings so familiar, all were now consumed by the pulse beneath her skin. It was hot, and sharp, and consumed even her own fear of it. Someone had to be wrong. Was it them, those strangers who did such a poor imitation of her family, lovers and coworkers, or was it her, the lost, helpless intruder in a land that rightfully belonged to the strangers? There was no doubt that something, someone was wrong. The bafflement and horror in their eyes had more than confirmed that.

She tried to calm herself, be tactful about this. NO. I have brought them together, told them of their past, promised to teach them. That is my purpose. Even if they reject me, even if they hate me, I made a promise to be there. I must try again. Go back down, see if cooler heads have prevailed. Try a different approach. Apologize. Be reasonable about this. Yet, as she forced these thoughts through, her hands gripped the crumbling brick beneath her. Digging in, her senses told her of a mountain, a wild mountain whose cliffs were hers alone to master. They told her of approaching rain. Her inner senses told her of battle, of bloodshed and death and fury, and every time they told her of the blood a vision came to her. It was a short vision. It was Yahiko rushing forward, his heart pierced by one of many very, very ordinary kunai. The vision would not stop coming. She tried imagining anything she could think of, up to and including the fabric of reality itself dissolving, in an attempt to get this state her mind was stuck in to do likewise. Are you okay? Konan? She had been wrong. Out of all of them, there was one who was just as she had known him. She could almost feel his blood spilling. He...he rushed forward...no, he was trying to save me, that's not...did he hear me? Her blood boiled red-hot with fury. She could feel his blood spilling from each little scratch of her nails. A growl started low in her throat.

There was a change. Her senses told her of something different approaching, something that moved swiftly like the wind. Only this could break through her vision, and it did. Her blood cooled to far below its normal temperature. What was I just thinking of? Did I just now want to...hurt him? How could I ever want such a thing? She felt sick. It didn't make any sense. He was just like her Yahiko, the man she had always wanted to be right beside. Wanting to hurt him was the same as wanting to hurt her Yahiko. And she had never wanted that, she had never wanted to see him hurt by anyone. There was no way she could want that. And yet her own thoughts had been clear as speech.

Konan tried to think of anything else, shove that aside. Thank the gods for that swift-moving sound. As it approached the ruined portion of the roof, Konan was able to focus on someone completely different. It helped that he spoke. "Hey! Konan! Some completely cool shit just happened!"

Several seconds passed between that announcement and the feeling of someone coming up close behind her. In between, his tread slowed, and there was a pause between when he stopped and when he knelt down just over her shoulder. After some hesitation, a hand closed firmly on her shoulder.

She smiled. She had not reacted to the first sounds, of course, because there was no need to. She could never mistake this man for another. The look she recalled in his eyes turned her smile bittersweet. Even so, she reached up and touched his hand. "Thank you."

Hidan paused. Why was she thanking him? The pain and anger, this new bitter sweetness...he didn't think his arrival had done anything worth thanks. Regardless, he shook his head. It was true, her feelings had distracted him from his own almost immediately. The triumph was fading fast. That was why he refocused now, to tell her as soon as possible. "Hey Konan, we did it. What you said - we proved it! You were right. We're super glad you told all of us about this awesome shit. It feels amazing."

Konan's eyes widened. Her fingers tightened on his hand, which was already doing wonders to soothe her, and she turned to face him. He grinned. "We did it! Nagato and Yahiko and I, we were worried about you, so we came up here, but the door to the stairs was jammed shut." He looked up over his shoulder. "What did that feel like?"

Nagato came up and stood over her. Unlike Hidan, he had no limits to his joy. His face was flushed, his cheeks stretched in a smile she hadn't seen for a very long time, and his eye shone. "The door was too stuck to open, so I thought of what you said. I remembered you said my original could push and pull things. Well, it turns out -" he was shaking with joy "- I can too."

He looked at Hidan, who was captivated. "I felt it, this chakra she told us about. I felt it inside me, and it felt so powerful. Most of it pulled, and the chakra in my hands changed somehow, and it happened. Just like that, a little change inside me and the door was cracking and squealing and it actually broke near the hinges just as they pulled free and I moved so quickly, I didn't even know I'd done it until later, and I put the door in between me and them. They dented it. The hinges didn't break, they pulled out of the frame. I took chunks of wood out of the doorframe itself!" He looked at his hands, held them out for Hidan and Konan to see. "I pulled a door out of its frame like it was nothing!"

Nagato's breath shook like he was going to break out in amazed laughter again. He sat down in front of Konan's turned head, just behind Hidan. "I didn't care. I was upset about being told I was a murderer in a past life, yes, but that doesn't mean I can stand to hurt someone now. I didn't care about anything before, I just wanted to be who I am in this world and help you, and now I don't have any words for how happy I am that I did. No one's really angry at you, it's just that hearing you talk about us like you expect us to be people we barely recognize was upsetting. We're not our originals. We belong to this world, and this portion of this world is nothing whatsoever like you seem to expect. You can't expect us to be anything like who you knew." With a smile, he held out a hand. "It was still good though, to realize I was capable of something I didn't think anyone could be capable of. Can you tell me more?"

A strange feeling came up inside Konan, a warmth to wash away all worries, all thoughts. She looked into her brother's eye, saw the sheer happiness that she hadn't seen for many years, and took his hand. They stood up together. Nagato was sincerely happy to see her, and Hidan next to her held her hand. For a moment, all was right. It was a beautiful moment.

Then she saw movement all the way over to the left, where she had not looked since Hidan had put his hand on her left shoulder. Her grip loosened instantly and a bolt of pain went through her. Yahiko was the first to forgive me. He always will be. He'd continue to smile at me no matter what, wouldn't he? Support me. Save me. She saw him crumble to the ground again, sliding off Nagato's shoulder and down onto the dirt. The warmth began to boil again. Konan fought to keep her gaze on Nagato, to keep herself from looking away. She might never be able to look at her former lover without pain again, but the least she owed him was not avoiding him.

Nagato's smile disappeared, and he held onto her other hand with a stronger grip. Why? Her eyes slipped off him, moving the faint trace of orange out of her field of view. Sharp, hot pain filled her every nerve. Why is he so much like his original? His original died because of how he was. Yahiko...you deserve better than that. You shouldn't… She realized then that she had outgrown Yahiko. Perhaps Nagato hadn't, but the way Yahiko could just forgive and forgive, over and over, die, as if it was all the easiest thing in the world, all of this pissed her straight off now. You don't have the right to do any of those things, Yahiko! And yet, the way he could, over and over as if it were easy, in a world awash with nations and people helpless to stop the endless cycle of their own anger, was awesome and intolerable. Absolutely intolerable.

It could not have been difficult to see the change in her eyes. Nagato's joyous feeling had long since been replaced with fear and worry. "Konan?"

"I will go see how the others are doing. See if they agree with you in the slightest." Her hand slipped out of his own without any resistance, although he held as tight as he dared. Only the disturbance of the air around him marked her passing, so quick he had barely seen it. Hidan was shaking with every feeling a human could have, most of them hurting him since everyone's positive feelings had disappeared rapidly over the last minute or so. Nagato stood shocked still with his mouth still open. The way she had looked at him had been so good, they had been so happy...and then she saw Yahiko. He had a terrible feeling something was very wrong, too wrong for him to hope of solving. He looked at Yahiko, who had a sad expression on his face. Yahiko turned a little red as he saw Nagato looking, and shrunk a little into himself. He had done that before, after Konan said his original was not mentally fit enough to be a ninja. Nagato's hands began to tighten into fists, ready to defend his Yahiko by any means necessary. But then he remembered the feeling from only a few minutes before, how ready to forgive he had been, and relaxed his hands by force. Yahiko would not want to be defended with anger. For his sake, Nagato's ability to forgive would have to be exercised more extremely than it had ever been before. He swore on his newly used power that he would do it, even if he wasn't able to. Especially if he wasn't able to. He turned to Hidan, who nodded.

With Konan's influence gone, Hidan was much more clearly headed, so they both got up and walked over to Yahiko. Yahiko looked up at them, hurt and confused. He asked Hidan, "Why does she hate me?"

Hidan tried to find something more to say, some softer way, but couldn't. "You hurt, dude. You hurt a lot."

Yahiko looked down and came to a decision. "Hidan...I trust you. Will you help her?"

Both their mouths fell open. This was extreme measures. Hidan and Nagato looked at each other. Nagato gestured for him to go on. So Hidan kneeled down in front of where Yahiko was sitting and said, "I promise. I'll talk with her way past my bedtime for as long as I need to, I'll stay right next to her, I'll get her a movie or shit if she needs something. I'll do whatever I can to help her. Sure as shit, Sunshine."

Yahiko smiled at him. "Thank you. I've never made someone feel bad just by existing before. I don't have any idea what it could possibly be. But don't worry about me, worry about her. If she ever does want to see me, let her. I'll be fine." He looked Nagato in the eye. "Really."

Neither of them liked the idea of that, so they maintained careful silence. Thankfully he hadn't asked for a promise. They stood up, with Yahiko looking much restored if disappointed. They started the slow walk back to the stairs down. After a few steps, Yahiko paused in mid-stride for a moment. "Wait...When did I become Sunshine?"

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