The Emerald Necklace
***
Konan's POV
I ran out of the bedroom and headed straight to the living room where Chouji-san was eating instant ramen with Naruto-nii laughing as he held a stopwatch. Our other nee-chans and nii-sans cheered for him, not knowing I already entered the vicinity.
I sighed.
"Konan-chan, is something wrong?"
I looked up and saw Sakuwa-nee, with a worried face.
I shook my head. "Nothing nee-chan.." but suddenly, my eyes darted at Sakuwa-nee's neck.
An emerald necklace?
Flashes of weird events filled my mind.
The package. Tobi opening the box.. emerald necklace.. smoke..
Our adult selves.
Sakura's POV
My eyebrows furrowed the moment I saw little Konan held her head in pain. I immediately went to her aid but she slapped my hand away. My eyes widened. What's happening to her?
"Sakuwa-nee, what's wrong with Konan, un?"
Deidara stood by my side, worried for his friend. The other kids noticed and even tried to ask the little girl what's wrong.
I have a bad feeling about this. I don't know why, but Konan kept on glancing at my neck. I held the emerald necklace closer to me and looked away.
"Maybe she has a migraine, nee-chan."
"I hope you're right, Itachi.."
"Hey, what's wrong Sakura-chan?" It was Naruto. Chouji must've finished his ramen-eating dare he gave him a while ago. I forced a smile.
Maybe I'm too paranoid.
"Uh, well.. Konan-chan has a headache. No big deal, I'll just get some medicine in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure that's where sensei keeps them."
I left them in the living room and went to examine the cupboards. And after a few tries, I finally found some medicine. Reading the label, I failed to notice a person entering the kitchen.
"Sakura,"
I jumped at the sound of Sasuke's voice.
I turned to greet him, but as expected, he had this expressionless look on. I heaved a sigh. "What?" He glanced at what I was holding and shook his head.
"You can't keep them like this, forever. They are not kids."
I glared at him. "I know, it's jus that.. Tsunade-sama..she haven't given us any orders yet to release the jutsu! She said that..."
"Stop lying."
I looked down. Feeling guilty and pathetic all at once.
"You guys grew attached to the Akatsuki kids, haven't you? It's been what? Two months since they were turned into rascals, yet you still want to keep them?"
This time, I met his gaze and swallowed the lump in my throat.
"This is what's best for everyone! As long as they remain kids, the Akatsuki will no longer be a threat to Konoha or any other village in the Shinobi world! They won't even know what happened to them, Sasuke!"
He smirked and shook his head. And somehow, that made me nervous.
"They won't even know, huh? Goodluck on that one."
And wih that, he turned on his heel and walked away. I held the stone on the necklace again and inhaled sharply.
Suddenly,
"Sakuwa-nee, what happened to us befowe?"
I froze and looked down at Kisame. He was eavesdropping? Oh, shit.
I hid the emerald stone inside my shirt and patted his head, "Um, nothing. What you heard is just some uhh.. script me and your nii-san is practicing. Anyway, let's go back, shall we?"
Hesitantly, little Kisame nodded and followed my lead.
I just hope that what we're doing is still the right thing.
***
