The Prisoner of the Leaf

Chapter 7: The Flower II

Team 7 were eating happily at ichiraku before Asuma sensai walked over to them with his team and started talking to Kakashi pretty quickly and casually- Konan looked over and saw Ino blushing at him again and Shikamaru walking over slowly towards him, looking up at him with a slight glare:

Konan; " Can I help you? "

Shikamaru; " No just looking who my teammate has been obsessed with recently, we haven't been able to get any work done thanks to her ramblings, it's such a drag "

Konan; " Oh she talks about me that much huh? "

He looked over at Ino who had just tuned in to the conversation, winking at her before jumping down from the seat and walking over to her- he looked down at the girl and gently took her hand in his like a scene from Romeo and Juliet, he swiped her off her feet and into his arms bridal style with ease before running off with her and away from their teams. Ino was panicked at first but held on for dear life as he ran with her ever so carefully until he suddenly jumped onto roof after roof before landing on top of a random section of the wall and set her down- he sat himself, looking out as she quickly rushed to sit next to him with a bit of a gap between them;

Ino; " S-So uh, why did you bring me out here haha "

Konan; " You looked uncomfortable back there so thought I'd help you get away "

Ino; " Oh no, no I wasn't uncomfortable just nervous "

Konan; " What about? "

Ino; " O-oh uh well, I guess I just think you're really cool, I was scared of you originally after Naruto told us you were originally a prisoner but after seeing how calm and soft you were I guess I started feeling something for you- nevermind that though, haha, I'm sure you think Sakura's prettier than me since everyone seems to think so "

Konan; " Nah, I'd say you have her beat hands down- I have yet to see anyone prettier than you yet "

Konan spoke so nonchanlantly, not seeming to notice the effects of what he says but knew that he should just tell the truth; he turned to her and saw her face burning red before he quickly snapped his fingers to bring her back from her daze, she locked eyes with him and tried looking down to cover her face but she soon felt his fingers brush her long frindge out of her face before sliding it behind her ear and placing one of the flowers she gave him infront of it to pin it down; " there " he said with a smile before pulling away and looking out away from the village which Ino joined and looked away from him for the first time to finally see what he had brought her here to see.

The two kids looked out together on top of the wall, watching the sunset over the river leading through the village- the sunlight hitting the trees and water at such and angle that they shone almost magically as the bright horizon set over and the dark sky pushed the sun out of view but as they watched for longer and began to see all the nocturnal creatures begin to stir and wake, the glistening water reflecting each star as if it were a fish swimming around; they enjoyed the view until Konan felt something hit his shoulder and saw Ino was laying against him and falling asleep; " Must have had a long day ", he said to himself before taking off his jacket to make sure she didn't get cold and slipped it around her.

Konan eventually regrouped with the teams on the main road as they had began looking for them, they all seemed to have a mic of emotions when they say him walking down with Ino hugging against him; sound asleep and wearing his hoodie- the sensei's fist bumped eachother and looked away as Konan gently set her down so she was stood but still using him as support and slowly got her to wake up. Ino rubbed her eye, feeling something wierd around her as she saw Konan's jacket with the sleeves longer than her arms- she blushed and looked for him but slowly saw him walking away and wanted to say goodbye but instead hugged the jacket as she feared he was too far now to shout to and if she ran up then he might ask for the jacket back.

Konan got another round of questions from his team before splitting off with Sasuke so they could go back home;

Sasuke; " That was eventful huh, didn't think I'd be fearing death so early but anyway, what do you think of that Ino girl? She use to be obsessed with me back in the academy alongside sakura and some others but she switched to you quite quickly, don't you fear she'll switch to some other guy? "

Konan; " Not really, there's a difference between attraction and love but the line always seem finer than it is because people struggle to tell which is which because they tend to cross over but she seems to be truly in love with me since she started out scared of me and doesn't purposefully try get close or get my attention "

Sasuke; " I know what you mean, Sakura is always doing that; I don't know what to think about her since she seems immature and only attracted to me and not in love, she never really makes an effort to get to know the real me much and more just wants to be near me? "

Konan; " Don't worry about it Ke, you'll know eventually "

Sasuke looked confused at the nickname but laughed it off as they headed inside, Konan going off with both their ninja tools to polish and sharpen them and Sasuke starting dinner since Konan hadn't actually eaten much at the meal since he doesn't like eating with others, excluding Sasuke ofcourse. The brothers had an effecient system going on, Sasuke cooked dinner and went shopping whilst Konan did the majority of the manual labour being bigger and stronger due to prison.

Sasuke; " You seem quite in tune with others emotions but not your own, you avoided my question earlier when I asked how YOU feel about Ino, you do that a lot where you won't talk about your feelings despite you asking me constantly and immediately telling when I lie about it? "

Konan; " In the prison, you had two choices; let your emotions control you and become a bloodthirsty beast never hoping for redemption or hide your emotions away and learn to notice others so you could avoid dangerous situations or dangerous people in case something snapped and you ended up dead- I was the only kid there but that doesn't mean I got it easy, people were nicer and I got more protection from the sane ones but that doesn't mean I couldn't have died for looking wrong at one of the ones that snapped "

Sasuke went quiet, not realising how bad Konan had it compared to him- they both had it bad but Sasuke felt guilt for thinking no one could have it worse than him until he heard Konan's story; Both had their clans killed, Sasuke's was murdered by his older brother but he was the only survivor whereas Konan's was murdered by him by pure accident with a power he had no control over since he got no support with it, Sasuke was safe in a home and going to school where he had the option to make friends, Konan was locked in a cell, capable of being killed at any moment and had the option to become a bloodthirsty monster or an emotionless shell- Sasuke felt bad and Konan noticed, walking up to Sasuke and laying a hand on his head to comfort him;

Konan; " Don't feel bad, you must never feel guilty over thinking your life is bad since you'll never truly have it worse than someone- it just means that the moment your experiencing is the worst moment of YOUR life, it is YOUR experience no matter what others go through since that's there's to deal with, life's not a competition so don't feel bad for thinking the way you do since it's not a problem "