A Life with the Akatsuki [ABANDONED]

The Misadventures of Nagareboshi: Chapter Seven

“Your death is the last thing we want, kid.”

XChapter 7XX Providence X

“State your name,” the man says, making it come out more as a request than a demand. He runs a hand through his orange hair casually. At first, I thought he was putting too much effort into this ‘nice guy’ act, but I am beginning to think he might not be as creepy and evil as the anime made him out to be.

However, it does make sense. Despite what most people might think, the villains do have lives and people they care about or enjoy spending time with. So it makes sense that only on screen that he would seem like a badass ninja villain, when in reality, he is not all that scary.

In fact, I would even go so far as to say he is rather curious about me. For the first five minutes I spent in this room, we simply stared at each other in silence, sizing each other up. When he broke the silence, he complimented me on having fooled his members. It is at this point that I wonder if this is all a prank. But now, I am just confused.

“Nagareboshi Hitsumi,” I answer hesitantly.

Pein stares at me for a long moment, his purple eyes captivating my own. Finally, he brakes the spell by speaking, “That is not your real name. While everyone may seem to know you by that name, it is only an alias. What is your real name?”

I am stunned to silence. No one ever noticed before. Even when I was still adjusting to my new name and ignoring people when they called, I was able to fool Jounin. Now, I am completely accustomed to the name and there should be no reason for him to think otherwise. But there is no point to saying that.

“Nagareboshi is not my real name, but I have no intention of telling you my first name. Names have power and you have enough power with just my last name,” I answer while crossing my arms. On the outside, I try my best to seem calm and reasonable, but I feel like I want to beg for forgiveness because I talked back.

The silence stretches out and the temptation to back down grows stronger with each breath. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut? I am such an idiot and now he is going to kill me!

“How old are you?”

I jump a step back and hold out my hands, “Wait, I’m sorry, I-what?”

Pein looks at me in amusement, not the least bit surprised by my sudden exclamation. “I am not angry, Hitsumi. Now, will you answer my question?”

Cautiously, I nod. “Eighteen…”

“How much do you know about the Akatsuki?”

“Enough to wonder why I am here and not dead,” I mutter.

“Do you have any family in the Five Nations?”

I shake my head, “None that I know of.”

“How long have you practiced Chakra control?”

“About two months…”

And the interrogation continues for a good forty minutes longer. By the time he is finished, my mouth is parched and I want to take a nap. Many of his questions were easy enough to answer, but there were quite a few that I either had to dodge or make up the answer to. It’s not like I could answer truthfully to the question: How did you learn about the Akatsuki?

Pein knew when I was lying, but he did not push for answers on any of the questions, though I could sense his interest. After all, why would I lie on some while not on others? And some of those ‘others’ were very personal. At one point, I began to wonder if he was just pulling my leg with some of those questions. They were random, crazy, and completely unrelated to the subject. For example, “How do you feel about religion?”