Dusk Till Dawn

12

Konan remembered times when she had fought to survive, cold nights when she had huddled close to Nagato in an effort to keep warm. The rain had always fallen, even then, and the siblings had almost given into the weeping of the village... until Yahiko had arrived. It had been Yahiko who supplied them with food and a means of defence; Yahiko had given them purpose.

It had been Yahiko who had first led them on this path; he had been the one to address the three Shinobi - the Sannin of Konoha - in search of food. He had called them out and the trio had been given the ultimate luxury; a roof over their heads, if only for a while.

Three victims of a war raging around them... Sand, Grass, Fire and Stone fighting against each other with Amegakure smack bang in the middle. Yahiko wanted to fight violence with violence, until Jiraiya told him what that would bring. Precious people, the Sannin had said, were the most important thing and, at the time, they had all agreed. At that time.

The Rinnegan and the death of the Earth's Chuunin had both shocked the group as well as excited them for it had been that moment that Jiraiya taught them.

Konan stopped her trail of thoughts before she got to the point where Jiraiya left them; if she dwelt too long on that then she would remember Pein's 'birth' and that was something even she shuddered at. It had been the death of both Yahiko and Nagato, Nagato changing from the caterpillar to a butterfly, one that would rather poison you that allow you to see it.

Her hands moved over to the case where the memory butterflies stirred in their holdings, calling out to be remembered. This was the very reason she stored memories; to forget was ignorance and ignorance was bliss... or so they said. She was one who could never allow herself to have bliss and to be ignorant... to be ignorant would be to deny her life and live a lie. There were reasons she had suffered and Konan loathed the day that would bring memory loss.

In truth, Konan was so tired, tired of the civil war, tired of wreaking havoc amongst the nations in order to collect beings of immense power, only to use them to create a devastating weapon. Even she knew that the introduction of the Bijuu's chakra would be almost apocalyptic but, due to the Dragon Sealing Statue, the powers would be chained together and constantly irritate.

Each chakra of one of the tailed beats was like one colour of the rainbow. They worked if they were present - but separate - and that would cause no damage whatsoever. If one were to mix the colours together - like the Akatsuki wished to do with the chakras - it would be a mess. Madara claimed the statue would contain the power but how could one man be so sure? Especially with the potency of the Kyuubi... even Pein would find that demon hard to deal with.

Konan looked over to the figure of the Godaime Hokage slumped on a chair, sleeping. She wondered who was looking after Konoha... or if Konoha was even aware that their Hokage was currently within enemy lines. If anyone in the Akatsuki knew that Tsunade was here then she knew Madara would set off for Konoha, if not in full attack then to at least collect Naruto.

Jiraiya was unconscious; Tsunade had purposefully placed him in an almost comatose state so that his organs would receive the full healing they needed. Tsunade had mentioned that she had never seen anyone as beat up (and alive) since Naruto... and he had the Kyuubi to deal with the healing.

"What time is it?"

"Almost dawn," Konan remembered the time when Pein had spoken almost the same words as she just did though it had been in reference to the Akatsuki name;

It's almost the dawn of a new world...

She shook her head and the paper flower shifted, allowing some hair to spill over her face, just like it had when-