Reflection of God (Pein Story)

Chapter 12.

So Kyo's training continued in much the same way.

Slowly but surely she advanced up the different techniques available to her, mastering each chakra nature in turn and all the things she could do, making sure she maintained control all the while. Pein still couldn’t understand why she kept at the speed she did, and yet admired it at the same time. Everything she learnt she picked up instantly, and yet she wouldn’t allow herself to move on to the next level until she had practiced it for quite a while. If she got one thing out of place while doing the jutsu, Kyo got frustrated and did it again; it had to be utterly perfect in her eyes before she considered herself ready to go on with the training. It was her past affecting her this way—Pein knew it—but he knew it wasn’t his place. Fighting with a jutsu that wasn’t ready was a risk, after all…

Even if he could see she had perfected it hours ago.

It seemed like the perfect match for both of them. Pein's curiosity in Kyo's life and personality was sated as he spent time with her, but not in a way that meant he intruded in her privacy and personal space. He could come to understand her more—and ultimately come to understand himself and what was changing within him. Kyo, however, was beginning to see how she could adapt. For so long she had lived in a certain way, constantly obliging and never going against an order, but everything was changing now. A main focus of her life had always been self-preservation and survival, and a key element to that was being able to alter and adapt to the world around you when it began to change.

The more time she spent in the Akatsuki—the more time she spent training with Pein—the more Kyo began to realise just how desensitized she had been from the world; how blind she had been to so much around her. Her mind had been controlled into seeing the world one way, and one way only; but now it was all being fully revealed to her, and she could comprehend it. She could see the truth, and could deal with it all in a way she had never been able to as a child. Finally she was able to move forward in terms of her life, almost feeling as if her development as a person had halted when she had joined with her former employers.

But it wasn’t like that anymore.

That didn’t mean to say the whole situation was sorted. There were a lot of things happening around Kyo that she still couldn’t understand; that remained strange to her. Most of it was to do with Pein. He was teaching her and training her, just like he had planned it to begin with; but somehow it had become more than that. Just like it had done the first time, they would talk when they both stopped to get something to eat and take a break, sitting together in the kitchen and chatting about general things. When the training ended, there had been a couple of times they had just sat together, watching as the sun began to set and set the sky on fire with its bright colours, not needing to talk. It was those moments that got to Kyo the most. How was she alright with the idea of just sitting in silence with him? Her gaze would be on the sky, but she could feel his presence there—and it calmed her. The need for words just faded…and she merely found herself enjoying his company, nothing more.

Kyo just couldn’t comprehend how things had changed like this. As they trained, a friendship had begun to form between them, and it was the strangest sensation; something Kyo couldn’t help but think about in the moments before she went to sleep. Not that she would let it affect her training, and she tried as hard as she could to keep her eye on the game and focus on what she needed to do; on what Pein had recruited her for in the first place. If she didn’t, then she wouldn’t be needed here anymore, and Kyo wasn’t ready to give up on the Akatsuki yet. Although a lot of it was unusual to her, it was in a good way, and she felt freer than she had done in a long time.

Pein could see the change in Kyo as they hung out together, noticing a difference in the way she spoke or in something she did. The fact that she let herself spend time with him, talking during the breaks they had and after the training was finished was proof of that. Though her obedience never fully faded, still instantly complying with whatever he said, there were other things about her that began to take shape, and he could see more of her inner personality coming out. A fire that Kyo could possess if she found something to fight for, and one that started to reveal itself a couple of days later.

She was training with the different chakra natures that could be all be mastered through the Rinnegan. This time she was changing from wind nature to fire nature, one attack after the other, using two separate jutsu. Firstly she tried the jutsu on their own, just so she was able to understand how they worked and was able to use them to their highest potential—something Kyo spent a lot of time on in order to perfect them, as usual. Then she began to use them one after the other, slowly increasing the speed with which she did so, Pein wanting her to become fast enough to almost combine the two together.

This continued repeatedly, Kyo bordering on mastering it, Pein egging her on as she repeated the jutsu over and over again, getting stronger and faster each time she did it. But he couldn’t see the thought process that was occurring as Kyo went on with her training. She had remembered doing a similar technique like it when she had still been working in her old village—but it hadn’t gone as well as it was now. Although she had worked as hard as she possibly could in order to master it, her bosses had simply told her it wasn’t good enough and that she had to do it again, without even a word of congratulations for how far she had come in such a short space of time. That was utterly different to how it was now. Pein was pushing her, true, but it was because he knew she could do it, and had complimented her before on how quickly she excelled. Because of this, she felt a swell of confidence as she trained. They had pushed her down all her life, saying that without them, she would have been dead. Then what had happened? She was with a more powerful group; training with an ability that they didn’t even know she had—and Kyo wasn’t about to give it up.

She’d show them.

The moment the thought flickered through her mind, Kyo unleashed the chakra needed for the jutsu, only fully seeing how much power she had put into it once it had been performed. The area in front of her was engulfed in flames, only enhanced by the tornado that appeared, swirling the flames around until everything was on fire. The wind itself cut straight through the trees around her, destroying everything in its path. For a moment, all Kyo could do was stand and stare. She had always known she had had power, but never that it could be strengthened in this kind of way—by letting herself feel that drive within her. Passion had never come into it before; she had had to focus on the jutsu she was performing and knowing she was using it against an opponent; the motivation for why she was doing so was simply brushed aside. But now Kyo could see it meant more than that. That by finding a reason to fight…it gave you strength. More strength than could be gained through mere training.

Smirking at this thought, she glanced to the side to see Pein's reaction—only to find he wasn’t there. Her heart automatically clenched, frozen as she span around to look for him. But all that was around her was flames and destruction; Kyo had been paying too much attention to the jutsu to notice what Pein was doing; but with the force of her chakra, it would have easily knocked him away. It could have seriously hurt him. Kyo finally managed to force her legs to move, dodging past the debris and looking everywhere for Pein, calling out his name to try and get him to answer. She wouldn’t leave a stone unturned in her search for him, and pressed onwards, concentrating on nothing but Pein. For the first time in her life, Kyo dismissed the fact that he was her boss and her sensei.

All she cared about was finding her friend.