Chapter 159: I don't know...

Suddenly, rain broke through the clouds, ushering in one of this small country's typical torrential downpours. By this time, Konan and Toru had returned to Amegakure. No one greeted them at the entrance except for the shinobi guards, so they simply passed through the door in silence and quickly entered the tallest building in the entire village. The one that had those strange faces made of metal, the one where Nagato once commanded his organization, Akatsuki.

Konan, with the bodies of Nagato and Yahiko, with the silence with which she arrived, walked away from Toru, going to the basement of the building.

This left Toru alone, who walked up the stairs dejectedly. His mind again and again recalled that moment. When Hinata looked at him with that mask, when she held the kunai and without hesitation slit his throat.

She was exceptionally strong, determined, she had grown up and that somehow made Toru feel strange. Lately he had been experiencing emotions he couldn't understand, one after another, like strong waves hitting his mind.

In the end, he made it to the highest point of the building. He looked at this and felt nostalgic. Although it had only been four days since he had last been here, to him it felt like an eternity. On the entire trip back, Konan didn't say a word and that only lengthened the trip.

"Ha~..." As usual, he sat on the ground to watch the rain. Right there, he looked at his hands and as if it was an illusion, he saw them full of blood. He clenched his fist and let out another sigh. After a long second, from the sleeve of his robe, he pulled out the paper seal that was tied to his wrist. He placed it on the ground and clasped his hands together. "Release..."

*Puff* A small cloud of smoke arose and strange objects appeared above the paper seal. There were Toru's daggers, which previously belonged to his mother. He looked at them remembering some things he saw in Itachi's memories.

"The Bloody Thorn of Konoha..." That's what they used to call Asahi Kyoko during the war. Toru saw it in Itachi's memories. Among all the things that were on the seal, there was the black cloak that was also worn by Kyoko, some kunais, shurikens, medicine, among other things. However, what attracted Toru's attention the most was the bottle of sake that he had previously kept when he sent the Ajisai team on vacation.

He put everything away except for the cloak, daggers and sake. Likewise, he returned his gaze to the rain and grabbed the bottle. He removed the cap and from his robe took out a sake bowl and poured some of the liquid.

He raised his hand with the drink and toasted inside his mind. 'Banzai... for achieving my goals...' and poured the contents of the bowl into his mouth. He savored the sake a bit and then swallowed it.

"Is that sake? You're too young for that stuff..." Konan's voice was heard from behind him.

Toru didn't turn around and poured another bit of sake.

"I discovered it a little while ago. It helps me relax."

"That relaxation will soon become a vice. You should do that responsibly..."

Hearing this, Toru smiled. "Heh... you sound like my mother..." and poured another bit of this delicious drink into his mouth. He swallowed the sake without any care and let out a satisfied sigh.

Seeing that Toru didn't seem to listen to her recommendation, Konan walked over to him and sat down next to him. The boy watched the rain, silent and with an almost expressionless face, only this time he had a slight smile on his lips.

"Sake should be drunk in company..." she said. "To celebrate, to chat. Also to bring the hearts of the participants closer together. It's better when you drink accompanied than completely alone."

These words interested Toru. "You say it as if you already have a lot of experience drinking sake."

"In my whole life, I never sought solace in drinking. I had Nagato and Pain still with me, so I could resist the pain if I still had them."

"And now neither of them are..."

"That's right..."

Konan closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the rain. Toru looked at her and joined her in feeling. Then, he took out another sake bowl from her robe and poured some sake into it. He held out his hand and looked at Konan.

She noticed immediately and accepted the drink.

"Thank you..."

"You're welcome..."

*Glup x2*

They both drank the sake at the same time. Konan made a face that Toru thought was funny. He just smiled at the sight of it. In the end, she was right, it's better to drink in the company of someone else. They both drank two or three more gulps and in the end, Toru used his own knees to rest his elbows as he relaxed watching the rain.

"What are we supposed to do now?"

"I don't know" She had lost Nagato, the only leader of Amegakure. Soon, all of Amegakure would learn that Pain was dead, and the country would go into anarchy again.

They need a leader, someone to protect them and give them hope, but Konan could not take that position, she did not consider herself good enough for the job. She was not cut out to lead, but she was cut out to follow orders.

That aside, she also remembered some strange things Toru did during the attack on Konoha. If there were people this guy loved, then he took that time at the beginning of it all to get them out of the danger zone.

"We destroyed Konoha..." she looked him straight in the eyes. Both of their faces were a little flushed from the alcohol in their blood, but they were still within their five senses. "How does that make you feel?" she had always wanted to know what so much was in Toru's mind. What were his real motivations? Not those false cravings for revenge.

However, this boy's answer was....

...

...

...

"I don't know..."

"... What do you mean?"

"Just that... I don't know. I never knew..." He hid his face between his knees. "I got my revenge, I protected the people I'm supposed to care about. But still..." all the memories of the moment flashed through his mind. He held his chest tightly as he tried to speak. "I don't know... I... I don't know how to feel... ever since... I never knew what I really felt..." he looked up and picked up the bottle next to him.

He quickly brought it to his mouth and gulped down a large amount of the contents. Konan's eyes widened slightly at the sight.

"Ha~...I was always a weirdo" he turned his gaze back to Konan. "I never knew what I wanted..." and he smiled...he smiled like his mother did a long time ago.

"¡¿?!" Inevitably her eyes widened in shock at the sight of him. It was the first time Toru had ever smiled like that, it was a very beautiful smile, but at the same time sad because of the words that accompanied it.

That was when she understood. Everyone has a way of grieving what hurts them. Some cry, some stay cold and some... smile hiding what they feel. She knew that Toru's laughter was his way of crying, but it was so sad to know that Toru himself did not realize this.

How could someone so young be so broken? She didn't know the answer. Neither Nagato or Yahiko were like this in their youth, much less her. Could it be because everything was more difficult in those days? No, the answer was something else. But what was that something?

"I also want to..."

She snatched the bottle from Toru's hands and poured a large amount of the sake down her throat. She drank and then slammed the bottle to the ground as she let out a long satisfied sigh.

This left Toru a bit confused. This was quite weird and awkward. Well, he had also just realized that he had said some rather strange and pathetic things.

"I've been acting strange lately. It's not like me."

"Somehow I can understand that."

They both looked at each other and realized how strange this situation was. They both looked at the rain in silence, but even though everything was so calm and quiet, this was no longer awkward like in the past.

The silence between the two of them was very comfortable. They both felt relaxed at this moment. They let go of all the things that caused them pain and focused on feeling content and at peace.

They were both quite close, so close that their shoulders touched, but they still remained relaxed. Toru picked up his sake bowl and poured Konan another bit. She took the sake with an expression, though almost expressionless, relaxed. And so, together, they drank and went about their business.

"When we trained together with Jiraiya-sensei, Nagato was very shy and cried a lot, but to me and Yahiko, he was like a little brother we had to protect. In the end he..."

"In the end he was the one who ended up protecting you after losing Yahiko..."

"Yes. We never wished to become Akatsuki, but we wanted to bring peace to the world, so it was necessary to act."

"Now Akatsuki is nothing like it used to be. I'm not even sure if I should go back. Madara will most likely come to kill us, no, I'm sure he will come to kill us. He won't just let us go just like that."

"I considered that possibility too. So please, I need your help."

"Have you forgotten already? I told you I'd help you for a while. I'll be here until I manage to find something better to do."

They both looked at each other...

"Thank you. Maybe now you're the only thing I have left" She looked at the ground with moist eyes.

"I own nothing in this world. I am no one, I am nothing. I am no longer a ninja of Konoha, no longer a member of Akatsuki. It's hard to believe that I'm all that's left for you..."

"After Nagato or Yahiko, you're the only one I can maybe trust..."

"Konan..."

She looked up. Toru felt confused at that moment. He earned the hatred of his entire home village, earned the hatred of the girls who loved him. In this world, he was no one anymore and he had nothing. In his past life, he was somebody, but in the end he had nothing either. He was a lonely, emotionless man who became obsessed with protecting the world. He had a terrible childhood that broke his heart into a thousand pieces and turned him into a broken man.

And that didn't change in this new life. If someone needed him, if someone showed that they could give him some happiness, in such a pathetic and depressing way, he... he held on to that person....

"Uh..."

It felt strange, but she had a strange feeling in her heart. Unconsciously, her face with Toru's were getting closer. They were both bad, the world had treated them badly.

Maybe, just maybe, they were both just two broken souls trying to heal each other.

Their lips were close enough, but Konan realized what she was about to do, so she held Toru by the shoulders. "That was enough sake for tonight. It's already late. So, go to sleep..." She got up and left the place.

This left Toru confused. Even he didn't know what was going on. He looked at the bottle and realized that, sometimes, alcohol can bring out the most pathetic side of your being. So, he put away the leftover sake and looked at the daggers and cloak. He took them in his hands and went to his room.

-The next day...

The uniform of the Akatsuki organization lay on the small table in his room. Toru was getting ready to start the day, but now his entire outfit was different. He had a black T-shirt with the Asahi clan emblem on the back, knee-length shorts and white bandages covering his arms and legs. He put the cloak on top, then the scarf with the Konoha badge and finally he put the claw earring in his right ear.

With that finished, he opened the door and took one last look at that uniform.

'It's more comfortable like this" He closed his eyes for a second and continued moving forward.

***

When he reached that lake, walking on the water, he bit his finger and dropped a drop of blood.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

*Puff* That wolf appeared.

"Toru-dono. It's been four days since you summoned me, what do you need me for?"

"I want you to tell Team Ajisai that the vacation is over. Now I need them to research about the state of the ninja world in general, as much information as possible."

"Well... regarding that."

*Puff* A cloud of smoke in front of Okaminaru appeared, then three girls prostrated themselves before Toru.

"You won't need to call us, Toru-sama" Ajisai, in front of her teammates, stood up and looked at the boy. "We take our vacation as a way to travel around the different countries. It's all been quite hectic recently" (Ajisai).

"Right now, the Kages are heading to the Iron Country for a meeting" (Fuyo).

"Raikage, Mizukage, Tsuchikage, Kazekage and Hokage. They are all on their way to the Iron Country. They are accompanied by two shinobi. Seeing how all the villages are doing, this could be quite serious. It may take a week or so for them to arrive" (Suiren)

Toru touched his chin upon hearing this. Tsunade recovered very quickly from her injuries, so he was surprised at the strength that woman had to get up and leave the country.

"Tsunade sure is something..."(Toru).

"Tsunade, you mean the former Hokage? According to our research, right now, Senju Tsunade is in a coma. The one who took the role of Hokage goes by the name of Shimura Danzo" (Ajisai).

...

...

...

"Danzo...?"

To be continued...

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What was promised is due. Happy New Year to all, because the next chapter will be next month. Good luck to everyone and thanks for always reading. Now I have to go to a meeting. Bye XD