War Torn {A Naturo Fanfic}

Page 22

"These are yours." She said as she handed me a cloak with a ring on it. The ring was a bright blue color with the kanji symbol "綁" meaning "tie". "Sit with me. I'll paint your nails." She offered numbly and patted the spot next to her on the bed. I set down my things and gave her my hand. I had noticed everyone wearing an odd dark, grayish green nail polish, but hadn't thought much of it.

"You seem very close to Kisame, Hidan, and Kakuzu." Konan stated as she painted my thumbnail. I tried to keep my hand as still as possible. I always had a problem with shaking.

"Yes, but I'm trying to distance myself. I don't like how it feels now." I said, glad that I was telling someone. It wasn't good to bottle it up inside, but I couldn't have told anyone until now. No one would have understood. That might not change.

"I understand. I suppose that's why I don't have many friends. I get suspicious of people." She told me and I began to ease into the conversation.

"So do I. Even when I have good friends I tend to hate them a bit. Either they're annoying or ignorant or act like they're above me." I sighed as I watched her neat strokes on my nails. "Now it's worse than ever. All Hidan ever does is yell, Kisame is a good friend, but there's the whole "I'm not going to let anything happen to you" thing, like I can't take care of myself." I took a breath.

"I don't think Kakuzu is like that though. He gets angry a lot, but the reasons are rational. How he handles them aren't, but I'm no different. He only helps me when I need it too. He isn't on my back all the time." I love how you never think of these things until you talk about it.

"Go on." Konan encouraged. I did.

"I think it's because they're all older than me. They think I can't handle myself. Hidan is two years older than me, Kisame five, and Kakuzu...around seventy?" I took the time to think about it. That sounded about right. "I feel like I need to prove myself." Yes, that was exactly what I needed to do.

"Well, you will have the chance later in the week. Pein has arranged for you to fight each of the members of the Akatsuki including Chiya and Maeko, and aside from himself. He would kill you before anyone could stop him." I nodded at Konan, not doubting that.

"Good, I'll get a chance to kill Hidan and Maeko. This morning he decided to convert her to Jashinism." I told her, still beyond irritated about the situation.

"Your sister is a very stupid girl, Etsuko." She said while shaking her head.

"I know." I let out a long breath. "I suppose it will all catch up with her eventually; Hidan too." I said and tampered with the ring.

"It's been a long time since I had another woman to talk to. There is only so much Pein understands and I don't normally speak to anyone else." She said while working carefully on my pinky.

"Well I guess we can just talk and be suspicious of each other then." I said and laughed as I gave her my other hand. She smiled, which was yet another surprising thing to add to the morning.

"I would like that." She said and we continued our discussion. We talked about our families and opinions of the other members of the Akatsuki. We shared stories, some of which were funny, others not so much. We gossiped and talked about awkward things that would disturb men. After three hours we knew pretty much everything about each other.

The door opened once we were stretched out on the bed and Pein stood in the doorway. "I suppose Konan has told you about your training situation." He stated knowingly.

"Yes." I sat up expectantly.