Reflection of God (Pein Story)

Chapter 11.

At around eleven, the training session finally took place.

After having Pein contact her telepathically, she had left the hideout and met him in their now official training spot; a clearing a few metres away from the shores of the local lake. That way it gave them the best selection of all sorts of terrains, and allowing all chakra natures to be easily within reach. Kyo had had to resign herself to a brisk walk to the clearing, not wanting to seem too keen, but not wanting to be late, either—but eventually she arrived, watching Pein carefully as he removed his cloak and placed it to the side, revealing his muscles underneath.

Right away Kyo found herself unable to look away, and for a reason she couldn’t quite perceive. She’d seen other men in just a shirt, and others without one at all, and with several of them being ninjas, they too had had muscular bodies. But looking at Pein…suddenly the situation become utterly different, and automatically she began to analyse his body, only snapping out of it as she was within a few steps from him. Shaking off that unusual trance, wondering why that had happened, Kyo focused back in on the task at hand and called out a soft greeting, causing Pein to turn and face her with a nod. For a moment there was silence, uncertainty hovering in the air even with how authoritative both of them could be, their intense gazes locked, before Kyo finally spoke up, smirking as she said playfully,

“Am I to be calling you ‘sensei’, Leader-sama? Or something else?”

“I think we’ve both been ninjas too long for ‘sensei’ to be appropriate anymore, Kyo. We’ll stick with what we have. Are you ready to get going?” Pein shot back simply, reflecting her smirk, and nodding in agreement with his words, he stepped forward towards her, and the training began.

Kyo's ponderings had been proven right; his attitude did change as they trained. It was as if coming to this decision had lifted a weight off of his shoulders, as he was a lot more casual in her presence—even if he never lost his stoic, aloof manner in the meantime. But that was to be expected; before, Kyo had merely been a stranger who had somehow developed the Rinnegan without him ever having known about it and was working for another group of ninjas—he had every reason to be on guard. Now, however, she was one of them; a member of the Akatsuki. That meant he could treat her like he would any other member; a fact that brought a little more relief to Kyo than she would have liked.

To begin with, Pein chose theory, explaining different things about the Rinnegan and going over the information she already knew. It was clear Kyo had been studying it, as she finished sentences for him and was able to explain things herself as they conversed. Pein was glad of it, though, as it showed she really wanted to learn and had been willing to do whatever she could to learn control even when she didn’t have much to go on. Impressed at her determination and drive, he relaxed even more, eventually simply sitting down with each other as they spoke. It was then that he began to ask questions, though he didn’t exactly want to. It felt like that was all he had been doing to Kyo for the last few days—but he needed to know what she had been able to train with.

But it was obvious he didn’t need to ask much.

After a few minutes Pein could see Kyo was perfectly capable of dealing with the techniques, regardless of what he would be doing with her. As such, he stood up, and they moved onto the more practical side of things, starting with the basics to get a better idea of where they would go from there. Kyo knew a lot of things for a beginner who had heard of the Rinnegan only in rumour a fortnight ago, and Pein started off by helping her in perfecting her basics, giving her instructions on how to gain more control and understanding of them. He wasn’t about to treat her like a child, saying words slowly and clearly to make sure she understood—her intellect was above average. But he wasn’t about to push Kyo, either. He could comprehend that it might be difficult to learn all of this without any prior knowledge.

Though that thought went out the window a little while later.

There was no need to take things slow with Kyo. When he pointed out a way to perfect a basic technique, she repeated it the second after, and Pein could only look on in amazement as Kyo did the same thing with the rest. Though she sometimes paused after he explained something, he noted it was never because she was confused and didn’t understand; a look of incomprehension was never evident in her eyes. Instead it was merely a look of pure thoughtfulness as she ran over his words once again in her mind and allowed herself to fully understand every aspect of what Pein was suggesting. From there…it all just unraveled. With most of the techniques he explained, she picked it up within one try, the rest in three at the maximum, needing the other two to merely test out what she was doing.

Sometimes Pein demonstrated the ability himself, unable to fully describe what Kyo would need to do with words. That didn’t make things any harder for her, however, as she would then get up, move forward and replicate it in the exact same way as he had done. Not only that, but the theory was easy for her to remember, too. It was the kind of natural talent that Itachi no doubt had showed; but at one point when she practiced a technique, Pein slowed to a halt and simply observed her not in terms of her abilities, but of who she was as a person, once again wondering about her past and what had happened; how she had become like she was now.

Because a part of him couldn’t help but feel there was more to Kyo's instinctive inclination to pick things up like that. That maybe it wasn’t just natural…but something she had forced upon herself when she was younger. She had said she had lost her parents when she was very young, but there had clearly been a gap between that and getting noticed by the group of ninjas that had employed her for the majority of her life. In that time she must have had to learn how to survive by herself and develop her ninja abilities without any training. With the determination Kyo showed in front of him now, Pein contemplated if she had pushed herself to always get things right at the first try.

That way it would lessen time for training and she would be more capable and stronger—ultimately, more likely to survive. Kyo had had to be at the top of her game at all times in order to protect herself and to get missions to earn money. Though it can’t have stopped when she was picked up by those ninjas. Her obedience and mandatory respectfulness to everyone around her suggested that her employers had made her be that way. But if that was the way they treated her personality and identity, then this tyrannous attitude must clearly have extended into her ninja abilities. It wasn’t hard to imagine them constantly telling her to train and get stronger so she would be able to complete as many missions as possible. So by being able to learn things so quickly, she became a great asset to them; like a weapon, they could simply slot in a battle adaption as easy as anything that would strengthen it to a new level.

He had been alone for a time in his life…but he had found something to fight for.

What had there been for Kyo? How had she managed to retain her open-minded and philosophical attitude to life with all that had happened to her?

Pein's intrigue only increased with these thoughts, and when they took a break from training to get something to eat, he was unable to stop himself from speaking up. Only this time, their dialogue easily deviated from the training; of what they were doing and what Kyo would do once the training was over. It became a simple conversation, wandering over general topics and finding out more about each other. The similarities they had both thought were there became cemented as they talked, and the lunch break became a lot longer than they had intended. Even when the training session finished for the day, they still hovered in each other’s presences, chatting idly until Kyo said goodnight, wandering off to her room to get some sleep, her thoughts still on Pein. He merely watched her go as she did so, not truly comprehending the kind of things he was thinking or feeling at the moment, but knowing one thing for certain, at least.

He was going to give Kyo her identity back.