Reflection of God (Pein Story)

Chapter 13.

Pein paused for a moment, looking round and making sure that there was nothing else around him that could cause him to burst into flames or get cut in half.

Once he was satisfied with that, he quickly turned to the burnt patch on his shirt, patting out the embers to make sure they didn’t spread, glancing back up afterwards as he waited for the adrenalin rush to pass. He could only look around in awe at what Kyo had done, actually shocked at the amount of damage she had created. He had known she had a hidden fire within her—that could increase her power if she found something to fight for—but he had never imagined it would turn out like this once she let it out. It had just engulfed everything in a matter of seconds, and if Pein hadn’t already been on his toes and had the speed and reaction time, he could easily have ended up as destroyed as the rest of the surroundings. Even then he hadn’t completely escaped it.

The slight burns on his clothes proved that.

But the memory of Kyo's chakra exploding out of her and the flames coming towards him flickered through Pein's head, and he couldn’t help but smirk at it. Just like always, Kyo had managed to exceed his expectations to the highest degree. He’d have to make sure he was more careful next time, and guessed it was best to spend the rest of the day on control. Kyo probably wouldn’t be happy with it, after all, considering how perfect she liked her jutsus to be. To have it blow up like that was a sign of lack of control for her, and she hated the idea more than anything. Not that she would be able to convince Pein what she had done was a bad thing. By allowing herself to feel that drive and motivation, she had taken a step towards coming into contact with her true identity.

Then abruptly he heard someone calling out to him, and Pein quickly snapped out of his thoughts. Kyo was still around, no doubt, but after the jutsu he had had to back off swiftly to avoid the flames, and now she hadn’t a clue where he was. Knowing how focused she was on obeying her leaders and how she always made sure they were okay, he gathered she was a little concerned with what had happened. Wanting to tell her how impressive the jutsu had been as well, Pein turned and stepped past the debris, making his way over to Kyo and calling out her name in greeting.

Hiding a sigh a relief as she span round, she rushed over and looked him up and down, frowning in frustration at herself as she responded,

“Leader-sama! I should apologise—I didn’t mean for it to happen. I thought…are you alright? Did you get burnt?”

Her gaze flicked down to the holes in his shirt and the idea that he might be hurt. But somehow Pein couldn’t focus on that to begin with. The way she had spoken to him…questioned about his welfare…though she had called him leader, the tone wasn’t how he would have expected it to be. Kyo seemed a little more concerned than she would have been a while ago—more relaxed in his presence and treating him in a different way for once, not bothering with formalities and simply concentrating on what was in front of her. Namely—him. Not that that was a bad thing; if anything, it was good—a strange feeling erupting within Pein as he thought about it.

But realizing Kyo was beginning to blame herself and was convinced she had hurt him, he shook it off to reply quickly, taking a step towards her,

“Kyo, I’m alright. Really. My shirt’s a little burned, but not me. I got out of the way in time, and you didn’t hurt me.”

Immediately she raised an eyebrow in return, clearly not believing him in the slightest. Pein wasn’t exactly the type of man to admit he’d been hurt, ready to go on regardless. Not to mention he was training her; he most likely didn’t want her to refuse to do any more jutsus because she was afraid she’d hurt him, and therefore would avoid it by stating he wasn’t hurt. But smothering a smirk at how stubborn Kyo could be sometimes, her obedience somehow faded for the moment, Pein didn’t take his eyes away from her, both of their gazes locked together as he replied firmly,

“I promise you, Kyo, that I’m not hurt. In fact—I’ll prove it.”

With that, he peeled off his shirt, not needing to hesitate, pointing out the areas where his shirt had been burnt and showing that his skin was unmarred underneath. Not a scar marked his skin, the flames having not managed to get that far, and pointed out that fact out loud triumphantly. Kyo forced herself to not roll her eyes at his actions, merely nodding and admitting that he wasn’t hurt, swiftly turning away afterwards and heading back to their original training spot, keeping her eyes on the floor to try and think about anything else apart from how Pein was no longer wearing his shirt. Her mind could focus on nothing but the piercings on his chest and how muscled he was in general, and shaking her head slightly to try and force those images away, Kyo walked onwards.

Why did it matter? It wasn’t important, after all. Kyo worked around men a lot more than she did women, so it wasn’t the general idea he was male that was getting to her. She’d seen men without shirts before, as well, when they had to change or they had wounds on their torsos, and those who didn’t wear one in the first place. Each time she hadn’t felt like this before; it was human anatomy, when it came down to it, and being ninjas, then generally they had muscular bodies. So why was Kyo getting so affected now that it was Pein who was doing so? This unusual—fluttery—feeling in her stomach appeared, and she couldn’t see it in the normal way like she had always done before. Was it his piercings? Kyo hadn’t seen man with piercings on his chest before. They were unusual…but they weren’t something that disgusted her. If anything, they were interesting, and they only served to accentuate the muscles that were already on his chest—

Realizing what she was thinking, Kyo took a deep breath and glanced up at the path in front of her, getting slightly frustrated now. Looking at Pein shouldn’t feel any different than it did to anyone else. It wasn’t like it was attraction, or anything—and he was her boss. It wouldn’t be right. As such, she shook off all that she had been thinking and concentrated on the fact she had arrived back at the starting point, relieved as she saw that none of their things had been destroyed—having been just outside the destruction zone. Going forward, Kyo checked everything over, just to make sure, but finding nothing wrong as Pein finally caught up and arrived behind her.

“I think we’ll tone things down for the rest of the day, Kyo—just to make sure that you’ll have more control when you use the jutsu again. And you will be using it again—what you did was impressive.”

Trying to ignore the feeling of pride that appeared as the words came out of his mouth, Kyo continued looking over their belongings, thanking him quietly without taking her eyes away. Taking a moment to allow the feeling to pass, Kyo finally replied, standing and turning round to face him as she did so,

“Nothing’s damaged, Leader-sama. The flames must have stopped just before the clearing, so everything’s alright.”

But as Kyo's gaze reached Pein, she narrowed her eyes at what she saw. He wasn’t meeting her eye, glancing to the side as if he was deep in thought, his ruined shirt still in his hands as he fiddled with it slightly. It looked as if he was contemplating something, and Kyo allowed him to do so in silence, waiting until he finally surfaced from his thoughts, beginning casually as he looked back at Kyo,

“Kyo, listen. I know there’s been a lot happening, with you joining the Akatsuki and with me training you…but I want you to stop calling me Leader-sama. Just call me Pein.”

Kyo froze at first, staring at him in confusion; but then shook her head firmly, gathering her things and running off without another word.

So not quite the effect he wanted.