Chapter 5 : An Angels Dilemma

Konan walked along the cold and dark halls of the tower she and Nagato had taken as their base of operations. Like all places in Amegakure (village hidden in the Rain) the building was the epitome of industrial-style architecture. Pipes ran along the walls and ceiling, the entire building was made of metal rather than wood or brick and gave the entire infrastructure a cold unfeeling air; it was the same everywhere in Ame too. Yet Konan noticed none of this as she walked through the hall, having long since grown used to the cold and unfeeling structures. She came to a stop at a door at the end of the hall, opening it she walked in and moved to the back where there was an opening leading to the outside.

Like always Nagato's god realm path or Pain as he had taken to calling himself was there sitting on the ledge as he looked out over Ame. The man did not even seem to notice the rain that was hitting him, though it probably had to do with the fact that the rain was nothing more than a byproduct of a sensory jutsu he used. A small twinge of pain caused a slight falter in Konan's steps as she walked up to what had once been the body of their friend, it was one of the few things that made her wary of the man she called a brother.

"You have need of my services Pain-sama?" she asked as she walked up behind Pain.

For a while Pain didn't speak as he continued staring out over the city, his city; finally, "An intruder was able to get into Amegakure undetected." Konan felt a small slip in her emotional mask as her eyes widened ever so slightly, Pain was able to sense everything that happened in Ame with his jutsu, so for someone to be able to slip past his guard meant whoever it was was an expert in stealth and knew not only knew that the jutsu was there but also its weakness. "I was only able to sense him as he was leaving my range. I want you to find this person and deal with them; we can't have someone finding out where Akatsuki is located yet. If they have left Ame I will need you to get in touch with Zetsu and track them down."

"Of course Pain-sama," Konan said in an emotionless voice as she put her mask back in place.

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A small green toad with orange spots hopped into a rather spacious cave. It was highly unusual for an amphibian to seek shelter in a cave during the rain. Most would assume that a toad would find it enjoyable to be in the rain, probably by some kind of lake or pond to allow the cool water to hit their skin as they swam or lazed about. However, while the toad looked completely normal to most people, the two people who were familiar with toads knew better. The fact that this toad was anything but normal became apparent when it opened its mouth and a young man crawled out, his form looking as if it was stretching while in the mouth. The person soon revealed himself to a man with spiky blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a long black hooded cloak that reached to the ground and covered his entire frame. He was wearing a black face mask that covered the bottom half of his face and had a Konoha Hitea-ate on his forehead.

Grabbing a scroll from his pouch the blond unrolled it and channeled some chakra into the scroll causing a puff of smoke to signal the contents being unsealed as a small pile of firewood appeared. The blond set up a small fire pit and pulled out another scroll, unsealing it revealed the contents to be fresh meat. starting a fire the, blond stuck the meat on a spit and began to cook it over the open fire adding spices as he rotated the spit, when it was done he brought a hand to his mask and pulled it off revealing six whisker marks on his face. Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze leaned back against the wall of the cave as he ate his food, his mind thinking about all that had happened in recent years.

It had been about two years and nine months since he had left on his trip with Ero-sensei. Naruto had learned many things in that time. He now had a powerful reputation and skills that Jiraiya said may be on par or better than or possibly even his father, though Naruto felt he still had a long way to go before he compared himself to his old man. Naruto had also started learning the ins and outs of Jiraiya's spy network. A year ago the blond had been officially introduced as the second in command and the one to take over in case something happened to Jiraiya. After learning about the spy and information gathering business the young Uzumaki Namikaze heir had set himself to building one of his own in secret, while it still was not as vast as his sensei's the blond had been able to get information faster than Jiraiya could with his network.

This was due to the fact that Naruto had not used other people for his network but rather an extensive array of seals partially based on the crystal spy orb that the Sandaime Hokage used to keep an eye on the village. The seal was called an information sealing array, what it did was pick up the vibrations and wavelengths that people spoke in. Those wavelengths and vibrations were sent through several seals that translated them into words, the words would travel through another set of seals and into one of several specially designed Kage Bunshin's variants that Naruto had sealed into a containment seal. Every month several clones would disperse and send information to Naruto who would have to take a day to sort through it all. This was easily Naruto's greatest and most extensive accomplishment with seals. Of course like with all great ideas and abilities this one had several drawbacks that made it problematic, the first was that when the clones dispelled themselves and sent information to Naruto it would take a full day of meditation to sort through them. This required him to find a safe place to be as he sorted through the information as if he was in battle it could easily leave him vulnerable to attack. The problem itself was mostly solved as Naruto had set up two safe houses where he could Hiraishin to should he require it, one was in Kiri and the other was in Kumo. His second problem was that eventually, his seals would run out of clones to send him information, each one had a total of five hundred so it would be a while before it ran out but it would eventually become a problem. The third problem was the information itself, when Naruto started putting the seal arrays around the cities he visited he did not limit himself to one place per city. Naruto had placed several seals in each city; places like bars, taverns, whore houses, theaters Naruto even had several in the council rooms and Kage towers of both Kiri and Kumo. A lot of information came in from those places and most of it was useless to Naruto, this meant he had to separate the trash from any useful information he got; and while it was nice to hear how Mei, Yugito, and Koyuki were doing he could see them whenever he wanted so it did not matter. No Naruto was after specific information, namely, he wanted to know everything he could about Akatsuki.

Unfortunately, his network had drawn up mostly blanks, the only information that was available on the group was already known to him. They had started off as a mercenary unit, taking jobs for a small fee, and because they gained a reputation of never failing a mission they began to get more and more jobs. After a while they began to express an interest in Jinchurikki and Bijuu in general, though so far they seemed to have only gone after Naruto himself. Other than that nothing had come up, the only thing he had been able to learn about the group was that there was not much to learn. Naruto only had one piece of information that he had decided to follow up and it was more a matter of having a gap in his info rather than actual information itself.

Amegakure.

The hidden village had been in lockdown for several years now, no one really knew the true reason but rumor had it that the village had been experiencing a civil war. Seeing as how he had no other leads to follow Naruto had decided to go to Amegakure, not bothering to tell even his sensei of his journey to the hidden village. When he got there he had still not been able to find out much in way of knowledge on Akatsuki themselves, he had been there for about two weeks but all he had found out was info about the two figures that were said to rule the village. A man known as Pain, who was said to have killed Hanzo the Salamander in single combat; an incredible feat considering the man had been rumored to be even stronger than Hiruzen Sarutobi 'the Professor' in his prime. This Pain also seemed to have a deep grudge against Hanzo, having killed not only anyone associated with the man but his family as well. The other figure was known simply as the Angel of Ame; apparently, it was a woman who was seen as Pain's messenger to the people. He had not been able to find out much more other than that Pain was hailed as a god and had a powerful sensor jutsu where he infused his chakra into the rain.

Naruto snapped out of his musings when he felt a presence just outside the cave trip a few sensor seals he had placed here before he went into Ame, he created a quick Kage Bunshin to clean up the mess he made while he went outside to investigate. Creeping outside the cave Naruto looked around the forested area, finding nothing he frowned. He was just about to go back inside when instincts had him rolling to the left, just in time as several shurikens came and impaled the spot he had been previously standing. He took a moment to observe the spot where he was standing and saw that the shuriken was white. 'Is that paper?' Naruto questioned before he dodged another set of shuriken.

Naruto quickly created a Kage Bunshin before replacing himself with it, and then hiding in the forest as he gained a quick breath and came up with a strategy. Creating several clones Naruto had each of them put the invisibility jutsu over themselves and move out to find the person who had attacked him. Hiding as well Naruto crouched down on a tree as he waited for the information to come to him, when it did Naruto found himself getting the image of a woman with blue hair and an origami flower in it and an Akatsuki cloak. She matches the description of the so-called 'Angel of Ame' but there is also something familiar about her…

Deciding not to waste another minute Naruto shot towards where the woman was found, shooting out of the trees he headed straight for the blue-haired woman. Naruto reached into his pouch and pulled out several kunai, throwing them he raised an open palm towards the sailing weapons.

"Fuuton: Reppusho! (Wind Release: Wind Gale Palm)"

A gale of wind shot from Naruto's palm and increased the speed of the kunai, the woman with blue hair was not expecting the attack and therefore found herself unable to dodge them all and ended up getting a few small cuts. In retaliation she made several paper shuriken out of her cloak which seemed to be able to turn to paper at will, she launched them at Naruto who made a slashing motion and sent a Kaze No Yaiba (Wind Blade) towards them. The paper shurikens were shredded as the Kaze No Yaiba continued on, the 'Angel of Ame' created paper wings out of her cloak which merged with her back and used them to soar into the air and evade Naruto's attack. With a great flap of her wings, several thousand paper senbon were shot towards Naruto in a literal hailstorm. Unsealing Susanoo Naruto began a deadly dance as he dodged and weaved between the senbon. Unleashing blasts of wind with his blade, hundreds of the chakra-coated paper senbon were either blown away or cut to ribbons.

Naruto took a deep breath as the small cuts from the senbon he could not dodge healed, looking up he saw that the blue-haired woman was still in the air. Deciding to bring her down Naruto launched several powerful blasts of lightning from his sword, as the woman began to focus on dodging he created a Kage Bunshin who disappeared in a burst of speed.

Konan continued to dodge the blasts of lightning and while she kept a calm outward appearance she was mentally cursing, whoever this cloaked figure was was good. So far none of her attacks had any real effect and while she knew her power was not the strongest in Akatsuki she was still around the middle-ranking in terms of strength and most people were unable to counter them so affectively, usually, they were too busy being surprised by the fact that paper could actually be used as a weapon to do anything. Deciding that she had too caught this shinobi by surprise she began to disperse into paper, however, her concentration was broken when both of her wings were sliced to pieces. Turning around she felt her eyes widen as she saw the blond ninja that had been attacking her right behind her, she was not given the chance to do anything as the blond sent a kick into her sternum. She soon fell through the tree branches, breaking a few on the way down and it was only thanks to her perfect chakra control that allowed her to form her wings to stop her descent while creating a small chakra shield to block out the wind resistance.

Landing on the ground she was soon forced to duck under a punch from her blond attacker, she jumped back to gain some distance but it was no use as the shinobi before she kept on the pressure. Realizing that she would need to fight back Konan channeled chakra through her hands, turning them into paper blades and using her chakra to make them hard. She began to attack the blond using swift strikes with the intent to kill, aiming for vital points like the trachea and lungs.

Naruto soon found himself on the defensive as he was forced to dodge and weave through her paper blades, the woman had an excellent style that was able to fully utilize her agile body. Unsealing Susanoo again Naruto began to meet her strike for strike, several tears appeared on their clothes as the two continued to battle but neither was able to get a good hit on the other. Naruto while physically far more powerful and faster than Konan he was hard matched to fight someone with two blades, having not done it before and was having a hard time keeping track of both blades.

Ducking a horizontal slash he was soon forced to dodge a thrust sent to impale his eye, turning around in a 360 degrees counterclockwise motion Naruto blocked another strike from her left hand. He tilted his head back to dodge a slice meant to open his neck, then brought his sword up in front of him to block her other hand. Deciding he needed to be on the defensive if he was going to beat this woman Naruto began channeling wind chakra through Susanoo, making a slashing motion with his blade. Naruto cut cleanly through the woman's paper blades and said woman leaped back as Naruto's sword passed through where she had been previously. The woman was just about to charge in again when she felt a prick on the back of her neck, then everything went black.

The Naruto in front of her dispelled in a puff of smoke as the real Naruto wrapped his arms around Konan's waist, picking her up in a bridal carry he made his way back to the cave.

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Konan groaned as she woke up and for a moment wondered where she was, her eyes opened to try and discern her location but all she could see at the moment were blurs. As she shook her head to clear her vision she tried to remember what happened. Nagato… Pain she reminded herself had sent her on a mission to deal with someone who had managed to evade his sensor jutsu until he was nearly out of the village. That was when she remembered she found him and they had fought, however after that everything went blank and she couldn't remember anything else afterward but assumed she had been defeated. Though that begged the question of why was she still alive.

"I'm glad to see you're finally awake."

Her head snapped to the source of the voice and saw that it was that blond shinobi sitting near a fire as he cooked some kind of stew over it. Her eyes widened and she tried to get up only to realize that she was tied and bound, she looked down at herself to see .8 grade ninja wire binding her arms and legs together. She immediately began to try and channel the chakra to cut the ropes but soon found out that she could not even feel her chakra.

"That won't work," the blond said from where he was, making it obvious he knew what she was trying to do.

Konan snarled at the man as real emotion showed up on her face for the first time in years, "What did you do to me!"

"I sealed off your chakra," the blond said with a shrug as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Konan's eyes widened, "What!"

"Would you stop shouting?" Naruto said in an annoyed tone, "Since you attacked me I decided to seal off your chakra." he looked at Konan and she could almost see the smirk through the blond's mask, "If you're a good girl I may give it back to you eventually."

Konan glared at Naruto as she began to struggle even harder. Knowing it was futile Naruto turned his attention back to his stew. Konan's struggle continued for half an hour before she realized that she would not be able to escape, without her chakra she was as helpless as a civilian and the wire was bound too tightly for her to wiggle free. With nothing left to do Konan merely stared up at the ceiling of the cave, about an hour later a delicious smell filled her nose. Turning her eyes she saw her blond captor kneeling down next to her with a bowl of stew.

"Are you hungry?" he asked and when he received no answer he sighed, "You know not answering me only hurts yourself."

"I'm not hungry," Konan finally said only for her stomach to betray her a second later, despite the situation Konan blushed in embarrassment.

Naruto chuckled, "so… hungry?" he asked again with amusement evident in his voice.

"Not like I can eat anyway in case you haven't noticed," Konan said sarcastically as she wiggled her arms which were currently tied to her body.

"That could be a problem," Naruto said nodding in agreement and causing Konan to scowl at the amusement in his tone. "And unfortunately I can't just untie you as that would ruin the whole point of tying you up in the first place, aside from the fact that I don't trust you not to kill me the first chance you get. Thankfully I have a way around that!"

Konan eyed him wearily for a moment as she tried to find out what he meant; when she did send him a glare that would have melted lesser men, "I won't be fed, least of all by you!"

Her stomach gurgled again and Naruto shrugged, "If your pride means more to you than living then be my guest and starve to death."

Konan bit her lip as she felt her stomach going off again while Naruto moved to get up, "Wait!" she said.

Naruto paused as he turned around, "Yes?"

"I…" Konan paused as she swallowed the bit of pride she had as a kunoichi, slumping her shoulders she spoke again, "I would like that food… please."

Naruto nodded as he went back to her, kneeling down he tenderly picked her up and set her so she was leaning against the wall. Going back he grabbed the bowl of stew before sitting next to her, scooping up a spoonful of the food he lifted it to Konan's mouth. Konan opened her mouth without protest as Naruto brought the spoon inside her mouth before she closed it, the woman's eyes widened as the flavor of the food exploded on her tongue. While she did not want to admit it, the food was some of the best she had had in a long time; strangely enough, she was reminded of Jiraiya and the times he would cook for her, Yahiko and Nagato when the man had lived with them. As she ate the food she could not help but spare several glances at her captor. She could not tell his age but from the sound of the voice he was fairly young, at least in his mid to late teens, and yet the way he walked and the confidence he exuded was the exact same aura she saw in most veteran shinobi that Akatsuki had.

"Would you like seconds?" her captor asked and Konan found herself taken aback by the kindness and warmth in his voice.

"Er… no thank you," she said blinking as she wondered why she was being so polite to the person who had essentially taken her as a prisoner. She looked at him again as he went to clean out the bowl and sealed it and the food in a scroll, finally she asked the question that had been burning in the back of her mind since she realized her situation.

"Why did you spare me?"

Naruto turned to look at her and tilted his head as he found himself slightly surprised by the question, why did he spare her? She not only attacked him but was also a part of Akatsuki so by all rights he should just kill her and be done with it. And yet…

Shrugging Naruto evaded the question, "I'm not sure, to be honest." he looked up at the ceiling before looking back at her, "considering the group you're with I probably should kill you." Konan instantly tensed even though she knew if he wanted to kill her there was nothing she could do to stop him. "Yet at the same time, something tells me not to." walking up to her he sat down and leaned against the wall.

Konan watched the man as he closed his eyes, she was not sure what to make of that last comment; most shinobi would have either killed her by now or at the very least raped her or something, yet he had done none of this and even treated her well. Deciding to get more information until she could make her escape she asked him more questions, "What do you plan to do with me?"

Naruto sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, "You know I haven't thought about it; though I do know I'm not gonna let you go back to that crackpot you call a leader…"

Konan's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Don't you dare talk about Pain-sama like that!"

"Pain," Naruto said as if testing it, "is that what he calls himself these days…" Konan's eyes instantly widened wondering what this man knew about Pain. Naruto looked over at her, "I wonder… are you talking about Yahiko…" he watched as her expression fell and realized with a small pang of guilt that her friend was dead. However that also left only one other option about Pain's identity, "so… Nagato is Pain eh?"

"How do you know these things?" Konan asked in a low and somewhat strained voice, she would not admit it but being reminded of her dead friend hurt. "Only a few people ever knew who we were, so how do you know this?"

Naruto hmm'd a second before speaking, "I'm not sure I trust you enough to tell you, maybe I will later though… if you earn my trust."

Realizing she was not going to get anything out of the blond she stayed quiet, eventually, Konan began to feel tired and despite being in the presence of an enemy ended up falling asleep. Naruto looked over at Konan and gently lifted her up, moving over to a sleeping bag, he unzipped it and tenderly set her in. now that she was asleep he took a small moment to study her; Konan had short light blue hair done up in a short shoulder-length cut with a small origami flower in it. Her face was perfectly heart-shaped and held a definitive feminine beauty that most woman Kunoichi or otherwise would be extremely hard-pressed to match; she also had a labret piercing under her bottom lip. Her skin was a milky white and despite wearing the Akatsuki cloak Naruto could easily see the feminine figure that rivaled Mei and Yugito's under it. He studied her face for a moment, now that she was sleeping her face looked innocent, peaceful, and even slightly vulnerable especially compared to the neutral or angry and annoyed looks she had given him when she had been awake. Resisting his natural urge to brush away a few strands of her hair Naruto instead tucked her in and got out another sleeping back from a scroll, laying in it where he went into a very light sleep.

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Konan woke up the next morning the same way she had last time, the only difference was the absolutely heavenly aroma that seemed to penetrate her nose. She moved around a bit and frowned when she realized she was much warmer than she had been last night, lifting her head she saw that she had been moved into a sleeping bag.

"Good morning!"

Hearing the voice Konan took her attention off of her situation she turned to look at Naruto who was currently over an open fire and had a pan in his hand. "Breakfast will be in just a minute," Konan blinked as she saw the blond flip something into the air and catch it back in the pan. A little while later he came up to her and sat down with a plate piled with what looked like a bread of some kind. Naruto unzipped the sleeping back before picking Konan up, much to her protest and propping her up against the wall, "Do you want any butter on these?"

Konan blinked again as she fought to maintain a neutral expression, "What are they?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side in a quizzical fashion before shrugging and decided to explain, "It's called French toast. Apparently they're a foreign food of some kind, though I have no idea where they come from. So butter?" he asked again, Konan merely shrugged causing Naruto to sigh, "I suppose we'll just try both ways then."

Cutting a piece of French toast off and sticking it with a fork Naruto brought it to Konan's mouth, said woman only hesitated for a second before taking it. Like last time the food was easily the best she had ever tried and did not hesitate the next time he brought the fork to her mouth. As Naruto continued feeding her Konan tried to figure the blond out, she had no clue why he was being so nice to her, even going so far as to give her food and placing her in a spare sleeping bag so she would not get cold during the night. Nor had he touched her inappropriately in any way, if he had she would have noticed since there were always ways to tell when someone had done something to her such as her clothing being ruffled or even removed entirely. Unfortunately, she could not come up with an explanation that may shed some light on the blond man's strange behavior, it was most vexing, to say the least.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Konan asked after she finished swallowing a bite of food since while she did not care about the man, she had yet to see him have any food and she had to wonder if he had possibly poisoned the food though she could not think of a reason why he would.

Naruto let out a small chuckle, "I already ate this morning before you woke up, but thank you for the concern."

Konan let out a 'humph' but continued to eat. When she finished, Naruto went about cleaning the dishes and getting rid of any evidence of him being there. Looking back over at Konan he sighed. Moving back to her he sat down as Konan watched him, for a while neither spoke as the two tried to come up with an answer to their thoughts, though both were thinking completely different things.

"Why do you do it?" Naruto finally asked as he figured beating around the bush would not help anything, nor get him the answers he sought.

"Why do I do what" Konan replied as she answered his question with another question.

"Why do you follow Nagato?" Naruto asked, "I mean I know he's your friend and all but really the guy's obviously gone mad."

Konan snarled as she tried to lunge at him only to fall on her face, "Don't you dare speak of him that way! You know nothing about him, or the pain he's been through! Someone like you could never understand!"

"Someone like me huh?" Naruto asked with sarcasm, "Well that's good because frankly, I wouldn't want to understand some megalomaniac with the desire and ability to kill people without remorse all for the sake of power!"

Konan began struggling more as this man insulted her one reason left for living, "Shut up! You know nothing! He's doing this to create peace!"

"Peace!" Naruto questioned as his incredulous tone turned into anger as her comment got the better of him, "How can trying to capture the Bijuu ever create peace! How could gaining that kind of power bring us peace! You think that killing off the few people who truly understand what it means to suffer that Pain will bring peace! You are either a fool or very naïve if you could even think holding such power would bring any kind of peace except the peace of the grave!"

"You're wrong!" Konan huffed as she stopped struggling having exhausted herself, "He is going to bring true peace!"

"Oh?" Naruto questioned his tone changing from angry to curious, "and what has your leader done to help bring about this 'peace'?" Naruto asked.

For a moment Konan was stumped, what had Pain done to help bring peace? For a moment her mind shut down as she tried and failed to find something, however, she quickly shook it off as the blond trying to get her to question her beliefs and faith in her friend. "He defeated Hanzo and freed Amegakure," she stated with conviction.

"I see," Naruto said as he nodded his head, "And what else has he done? Surely a man who would be so honorable as to free a village would have done something else," he looked over at Konan who had gone silent. "What has he done to help your people?" Naruto asked, "What about all the war orphans who became homeless due to your friend's rebellion? Did he try to help them? Or perhaps he helped to rebuild Ame and the homes that were destroyed?" when Konan didn't answer Naruto nodded, "I'll tell you what he did, it was nothing! Your leader did nothing to help Ame's people! Instead, he spends his days trying to gain power! He tries to find ways to capture the Jinchurikki and kill them for his own misguided goals, while his own people suffer!"

"Your wrong!" Konan stated in a strained voice and shook her head as she refused to believe what Naruto was telling her, there was no way what he said was true. Pain was trying to bring peace to the world, right?

Naruto seeing the young woman in obvious denial walked over to her and hauled her to her feet, lifting her up he carried her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing! Put me down now!" Konan yelled as she was unable to do anything else.

"No can do," Naruto said as the woman started to struggle. He created a Kage Bunshin that stuck a silencing seal over her mouth, "there is something you need to see. Now then please do me a favor and shut up."

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Naruto found himself walking through the streets of Ame far sooner than he had expected to again, he had his cloaking jutsu on as he carried the young woman through a mostly deserted street. Thankfully the rain jutsu was not on or Naruto would have been forced to use more caution, it was a good thing Naruto had been able to find out that the jutsu had a weakness; the blond had learned that Nagato could only keep the jutsu going for twelve hours before he had to stop for another six. Naruto did not know why it was this way but figured that the jutsu had some kind of cost chakra or otherwise that stopped Pain from constantly using it.

He looked over his shoulder at Konan to see her glaring at him, before shrugging said glare off; at least she was no longer trying to break out of his grip anymore. Finally finding where he was looking for, he set Konan down against a wall. Leaning down he grabbed the seal and pulled it off her mouth.

"You're lucky I can't do anything to you right now!" Konan growled out as she glared at him with a look that Naruto was sure would have could have killed other men.

Hell, I'm sure Jiraiya would have died under such a glare he thought with some amusement...

Naruto gave her an uncaring shrug as he stood up and pointed just a little ways away, "Tell me what you see?"

Konan frowned as she looked towards where he was pointing. It was a city block of Amegakure that she did not recognize, or at least it had been. The entire area was completely destroyed, with a large crater in the middle that held the metal buildings of Ame in them, sticking out making it look like a graveyard city. However she could not be 100% sure in her guess, the only reason she was even able to tell it was a part of Ame was because of the fact that she knew they were still in the village and the few pieces of debris and buildings sticking out of the ground in the area were Ame style buildings. "I don't know what am I looking at?" she finally asked as she decided to humor him.

"This place used to be a living district," Naruto said, "along with thirteen other sectors nearly 75% of Amegakure used to live there. This place along with seven others are nothing more than ruins now…"

Konan's eyes widened as she looked out over the devastation. When had this happened? She looked out at the destruction as she tried to remember what had happened to cause such devastation, her mind however drew blanks as she could not for the life of her remember what happened.

"Do you know how this place was destroyed?" Naruto asked as he looked at Konan with his piercing blue eyes. Konan shook her head and Naruto decided to tell her, "This was where your friend Nagato took out his revenge on Hanzo the Salamander after he killed him." he looked over at Konan to see her gaining a confused look, "This residence was where Hanzo's family lived, do you know what happened to them?" the question was rhetorical, he knew Konan knew what had happened to the man's family. "They were killed and Pain decided to leave this place as a testament to those that would oppose him," Naruto said, "I hear that Hanzo had a wife and a four-year-old granddaughter. Nagato killed them without remorse and without regret, but you already knew that didn't you?"

Konan grit her teeth as she tried to justify Nagato's actions, she went through several counterarguments in her mind to help her deny what the blond-haired man was saying. Yet everything she tried to think of, everything she wanted to say sounded hollow to her ears as she looked at the devastation.

"Did you know that this was not the only place where your friend exacted his revenge?" Naruto asked in a quiet voice. "Of the thirteen other living sectors six of them were destroyed the same as this one, anybody who Nagato even suspected of being even remotely loyal to Hanzo was killed along with their families. He didn't care whether they were truly loyal, just afraid to stand up to Hanzo or even were unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire; all of them were killed in Pain's quest for revenge." Naruto looked over at Konan when he heard a small sob, he turned to see the beautiful blue-haired woman choking back tears as she tried to struggle against the idea that her friend could do such a thing. Naruto held in a wince, he never liked to hurt a woman be it physically or mentally; the blond shinobi was not sure if it was some kind of chivalrous nature or just that he could never stand to see others hurting, but it was always hurt to see a woman cry.

He walked up to her and kneeled in front of her, Konan slowly reeled in her tears as she looked at him. "I have one more place I want to show you," Naruto said and Konan was once again taken aback by the compassionate nature of his voice. "If I release your bindings will you promise to do as I say?" he asked as he looked at her with those eyes that seemed to look straight through her and into her very soul.

Konan was truly compelled to say no, not just because he was supposed to be her enemy but also because she was afraid. Her faith in Nagato had taken a large hit today and Konan was afraid that what this man had to show her would irrevocably shatter any confidence she had in the man she considered family. Yet for some reason she felt compelled to place her trust in this boy, no man she corrected herself. She felt a desire to place her faith in this man who even though she had only known him for a little while, was starting to remind her so much of her departed friend Yahiko. "I promise," she said at last as she decided to place her trust in the person who had captured her yesterday.

Naruto nodded as he undid her bindings and made her put her Akatsuki cloak in a seal, leaving Konan in a set of clothes that did nothing to hide her amazing figure. She was wearing a pair of black skin-tight leather pants that showed off curvaceous and amazingly toned and beautiful legs. As well as a sleeveless skin-tight shirt that covered just her neck and a little under 2/3rds of her C borderline D cup chest, leaving the outer edge of her chest, torso, and shoulders bare. The shirt also had a diamond cut in the center just below her collar bone and a V cut on the bottom where the shirt split down the center and moved off to fall down to the sides, allowing Naruto a glimpse of her toned stomach which had four piercings around her belly button. Naruto mentally swore as he looked away with a blush and tried to get the image out of his head.

Placing the invisibility jutsu over himself Naruto grabbed Konan's hand to activate the invisibility jutsu over her too. Konan was startled as she felt Naruto's hand grabbed hers, not just at the contact but also at the odd feeling of familiarity it gave or was it comfort she felt? As she walked with the blond shinobi Konan noticed that he was leading her farther and farther away from the center of town, looking over she saw that he was heading towards the outskirts of the area that Nagato had attacked when he gained entrance into Ame to fight Hanzo.

When they got there she noticed with some surprise that there was a cottage at their destination, it was made out of steel and looked fairly new; mainly from the fact that it was not only different from any of the buildings found in Ame but also because this area had been nearly destroyed by Nagato's assault and none of the buildings aside from that small cottage stood. However what really surprised her was the small group of kids who were currently playing with a ball, there were three of them, two boys and one girl. The three stopped playing as they looked over at Naruto as he dropped the invisibility jutsu, if Konan had been surprised before she became absolutely shocked when the three gave a shout of 'Oni-chan!' and rushed over to Naruto. The three soon surrounded the two of them and began firing off questions at Naruto, said blond just laughed as he lifted the three of them up; placing the girl on his shoulders while the two boys were in each of his arms. Now that she got a closer look Konan noticed that they could not be much older than seven or eight years old.

"I thought you were leaving Oni-chan?" said the boy on the left, a kid with messy black hair and green eyes.

"Hey Oni-chan, who's the pretty Onee-chan you brought with you?" asked the boy on Naruto's right arm, he had dark blue hair and brown eyes.

"Is she your girlfriend?" the girl with dark green hair and blue eyes as she leaned on his head asked with a giggle as she held up her pinky.

Konan was hit with a wave of nostalgia as she watched the blond interacting with the young kids, though she blushed at the compliment and questions that were thrown at Naruto concerning her. It was in a way so much like how she, Nagato, and Yahiko had been found by Jiraiya-sensei all those years ago. For a few minutes, she zoned out before being brought back when she heard a squeal of delight, looking towards the source it was to see all of the kids on a clone of Naruto as they headed into the house.

"I found those three kids scrounging around a garbage can when I was trying to find information on Akatsuki here," Naruto said as he saw Konan look over towards him with a questioning gaze. "Do you know what they told me their dream is?" he asked Konan as he looked towards the cottage.

Konan shook her head, "no."

"They said they wanted to lead a rebellion to free Ame," Naruto said as Konan gasped in shock. "Those three kids were the only ones to escape from Nagato's revenge. Apparently, their parents had them hide in a secret cellar before they were killed, is this familiar to you?"

"It's almost just like Nagato, Yahiko, and I when we were younger," Konan said as she saw the similarities between her old group and the three she had just met. They even had plans to free Ame like Yahiko had come up with after Jiraiya-sensei had left only this time it was against Pain rather than when she and her friends had been facing Hanzo, these kids were living as they had and she knew that it was because of her and Pain that they were. She felt tears begin to fall down her eyes as she realized she was no longer able to hide the truth she had denied to herself, with the startling knowledge that Nagato had lost his way when he took up the name Pain and became blind by a lust for power and the belief that he was god, her faith in him shattered. Falling to her knees Konan began to cry in earnest, without her faith in Pain who had become her reason to live she felt even more empty than after Yahiko had died.

Naruto watched as the woman wept and could not help the feeling of regret that encompassed him, despite knowing that she had to cast off the illusions she put up for herself Naruto still found it hurt him to see a woman cry. Curse my conscience, Naruto said to himself as he closed the distance between them and knelt down.

Konan was startled when she felt a pair of arms engulf her torso, feeling herself being pulled into an embrace as a warm feeling encompassed her; she instantly moved towards the small source of comfort she found. Pressing her head into a shirt she let out all of the pain and loneliness she had been feeling since Yahiko's death, after the death of a cheerful boy who tried to act tough and be their leader had died Nagato had never been the same. He had started to become colder and colder with each passing day, so much so that Konan had to put up a wall around her emotions; a wall that had just broken. Konan gripped the cloth of the shirt she had buried her head into as she continued to let her tears fall unabashed down her face, she felt a hand start to make soothing motions as it rubbed her back and a voice whispered in her ear.

"It's alright."

Looking up she saw none other than the blond who had captured her and destroyed her faith in the one person she had left in the world. The same blond who had also in the short time she had known him reminded her of Yahiko and shown her compassion she would have never expected from someone who was supposed to be an enemy. She looks into his eyes trying to understand why he was doing these things, why he would strip away her beliefs yet at the same time why he was so nice to her despite them being enemies. It took a while eventually she saw something she had not expected to see; pain, the young man's eyes were pools of pain and loneliness that she had not even seen in Nagato's or her own eyes. This boy she realized understood pain even better than she did, yet even then Konan could see that he still held onto his compassionate and caring nature.

"Who are you?" she asked even as tears continued to fall down her face.

Naruto brought a hand to Konan's face and gently brushed away a few tears, "I'm someone who understands pain." bringing his face up to his mask he slowly pulled it down revealing six whisker marks on his face, Konan's eyes widened in recognition. While she had never met the Kyuubi's Jinchurikki she had been given a general description, to think that this entire time she was with one of the people they had been trying to kill. "I am also a student of Jiraiya's, like you."

"That was how you knew who I was," Konan breathed as she finally figured out how he knew of her and Nagato.

Naruto nodded, "Jiraiya-sensei told me the story of how he met you three," Naruto said figuring it would be best to use his sensei's real name instead of his nickname for the man. "He had told me that he was going to get you three after the war and take you to Konoha with him, but received the information that you had been killed." Naruto shrugged, "To be honest, I wasn't even sure it was you until I mentioned Nagato and Yahiko, all I had was your general description that gave me a hunch."

Konan felt lightheaded as she tried to wrap her mind around all the startling revelations today, it was all too much to handle in too short a time; it almost seemed like some kind of divine intervention from a real god. To think that the man before her was not only the Kyuubi Jinchurikki but also that he was a student of Jiraiya's as well, then he comes here and meets her showing her that Pain was not what she had thought he was. It was almost enough to make one believe in fate. She was brought back to the real world when she felt a hand cup her cheek, looking up she followed the arm to see Naruto with a concerned expression on his face.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I…" Konan paused as she realized she was not alright, "Not really, this is all too much to take in."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "Well then how about you don't think about it for now." Naruto stood up, lifting Konan who was still in his arms into a bridal carry. "How about we go inside and you can help me entertain the kids while I make some food," Naruto suggested with a smile.

Konan while surprised did not decline the idea as Naruto set her down and followed the blond shinobi inside, the two of them spent the rest of the day with the kids. As a clone of Naruto made food Konan and the real Naruto would spend their time entertaining the children, Naruto by telling them grand stories of all the places he had been to and Konan by teaching the little girl origami. Naruto had also tried his hand at the art but after several dozen paper cuts had given up, much to Konan's secret amusement. As the day wore on Konan was once again struck by the similarities of her own life, but this time they did not seem to hurt as much and Naruto had even gotten the woman to smile with a terrible joke he told. Eventually, the three children passed out and Naruto and Konan put them to bed before the two found themselves sitting on a couch and looking outside at the rain, which had started up again.

"I guess I'm going to be here for twelve hours again," Naruto said to himself; well he could just flash away but he would want to say goodbye to the kids. He looked over at his… what was she now? He wondered since she was not really his prisoner anymore. Acquaintance? Companion? Friend? He was unsure but supposed it didn't really matter anymore. "What will you do now Konan?" asked Naruto.

Konan looked at him and sighed as she closed her eyes, "I don't know anymore," she said in a soft voice. "Nagato had been everything to me and now that I don't feel I can follow him…"

"You could come with me if you want," she looked up at Naruto in shock as he continued to speak, "I'll take you to Konoha and you can stay with me. I'll do what I can to give you a happy life if you want one with me that is," he finished with a sheepish expression.

Konan actually smiled at the look she had often seen on Yahiko's face, "thank you… but I don't think that's a good idea, at least not right now. If I went with you Pain would get suspicious and if he found out I have left Akatsuki, I have no doubt he would try to kill me."

"Well yeah, but he would have to get past me," Naruto said as he puffed out his chest confidently.

"You would protect me?" Konan asked somewhat amused and somewhat shocked.

"Of course I would," Naruto said, "if you came with me that would make you one of my precious people and I always protect my precious people."

Konan smiled as she wiped an errant tear from her eye, thinking for a moment she looked back at Naruto. "I still think it's too dangerous, right now even as strong as you are it will not be enough to defeat Pain." Naruto winced knowing that at the moment it was probably true, "But if you wanted me to… I could spy on Akatsuki for you."

That got Naruto's attention; having a spy within Akatsuki would be the biggest boon ever, but… "That's pretty dangerous Konan-chan," Naruto said not even realizing the affectionate suffix he added, though Konan did as she gave a small blush. "Not only is it dangerous, but you would have to hide your intentions from someone you admitted to me meant the world to you. I myself would not want to do that, and I certainly wouldn't wish it on you."

"Thank you for your concern," she said as she unknowingly used the same words he had said to her this morning. "But I want to do this, you were right about him. Nagato has been dead for a long time, he is now Pain and I… I don't think he can be saved."

Naruto leaned over and wiped an errant tear that threatened to fall from Konan's eye, "if this is what you want I won't stop you. Just promise me you will be careful."

"I will," Konan promised a little surprised at the concern in his voice.

"Also… do you think you could occasionally visit these kids? They don't have anyone else and while I'll try to visit as much as I can…"

"Don't worry," Konan interrupted with a smile, "I'll look after them for you."

"Thank you," Naruto said.

For the rest of the night, the two sat on the couch, eventually, they both fell asleep with Konan using Naruto's chest as a pillow.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning the two woke up to find themselves in a very compromising position, Konan was situated between Naruto's legs with her head on his chest while one hand had somehow managed to slip under his shirt and was resting on his muscular pectorals. Meanwhile, Naruto had one hand wrapped around her waist which wasn't bad, however, his other hand was currently inside Konan's pants and was resting on what Naruto recognized as a very fine ass. To make matters worse for both of them, Naruto currently had a morning stiffy. As the two sported similar blushes on their face Konan shifted a bit, causing her to rub against Naruto's increasingly enlarged member. The blue-haired woman became positively mortified when she felt a low moan escape her throat as his length rub against her inner thigh, with a speed that would have made the former Senkou proud and definitely impressed the current one Konan shot off of him and sat at the edge of the couch.

For a while neither of the two said anything nor could they even look at each other. Eventually, Naruto coughed, "uh… listen I'm gonna go take a shower *A very cold shower* do you think you could start breakfast for the kids?"

Konan looked at him for a second before blushing and averting her eyes, unable to actually speak the blue-haired woman merely settled for nodding. Naruto got up and went to the small bathroom in the cottage, meanwhile, Konan went to the kitchen and began to prepare breakfast. After a cold shower to get himself under control Naruto came into the kitchen and helped prepare breakfast, thankfully most of the lingering embarrassment that hung in the air was for the most part gone as the two worked in silence. A little while later the three kids woke up and stormed into the kitchen chattering to Naruto and Konan in an excited fashion, it took a while but they were eventually able to get the kids to settle down enough to eat their food.

After that they spent their time telling the kids stories, several hours later the rain eventually cleared making it safe for Naruto to leave, much to the children's disappointment.

"Do you have to go?" the three kids asked at the same time.

Naruto smiled as he kneeled down so he was at eye level with them, "Yes, unfortunately, there are a lot of things I need to do and I can't do them here." he looked at each of them and noticed that the girl looked like she was about to cry, he moved his hand up and gently brushed away the small moisture in her eyes. "Hey now there's no need for tears," Naruto said with a smile, "this won't be the last time you see me. Remember with that seal in your house I can come and visit you guys anytime, so no crying ok?"

The little girl gave a small nod before throwing herself at Naruto, said blond wrapped the girl up in a hug as he rubbed her hair and whispered soothing words to the little girl. They broke away a little later and Naruto stood up and looked at the three of them, "Now do you three remember what I told you?"

"True strength only comes from protecting someone precious to you," the three said in unison causing Naruto to smile.

"Good," Naruto said, "I want you to remember that and make sure to protect and look after each other, can you do that?" He received three nods and smiled, "Alright then we'll see you later." He and Konan made their way outside and left the small cottage.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"You are later than I expected you to be," Pain said as Konan walked onto the ledge, not even bothering to turn and face her.

"He was a stronger opponent than I expected," Konan stated in her emotionless voice.

Pain turned around to look at her and saw that she did indeed look a little roughed up, her Akatsuki cloak was ripped in several places and he could see a few scars here and their denoting to where she had been cut. Turning around he put it out of his mind, so long as whoever had come into Ame was dead it did not matter. "Very well," Pain said giving Konan a clear dismissal.

Bowing slightly Konan left, walking through the office and into the hall. Eventually, she reached a door and went inside, looking around at her sparsely furnished room she sighed and walked into her bedroom. Throwing her cloak on the floor she fell onto her bed as she decided to get some sleep, as she closed her eyes her hand went up to clutch a necklace, more specifically the tri-pronged kunai attached to it as she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto sighed in relief as he flopped onto the bed in his hotel, it had been about two weeks since he had gotten out of Ame and this was the first time he had been able to rest in a bed since then. Opening his eyes Naruto stared at the ceiling in thought, he was going to meet up with Jiraiya again next month having received a message that they were going to go on a mission together. What it was he didn't know but was looking forward to doing an actual mission with his sensei, even though he had trained with the man for nearly three years now they had never done a mission together. He absently wondered if he should tell his sensei about what he had found, shaking his head Naruto decided against it for now. If Jiraiya knew that his two students were alive he would no doubt go to Ame and Nagato would kill him, for now, he would keep this a secret between him and Konan.

Naruto was knocked from his thoughts when he felt the new chakra recognition seal he had added to the Hiraishin kunai pulse. Sitting up Naruto began to concentrate as he felt out the sister seal to the one on his kunai. The seal was an alert for him to use the Hiraishin's ability to teleport other objects and people through the use of his chakra. His father Minato had also had the ability to teleport and warp other people and objects, to use this ability one had to have two kunai that would connect through the use of a specific set of hand seals and depending on the size and distance determined how much chakra one had to use to warp the person or thing that was touching the other Kunai. Taking his tri-pronged kunai in between his fingers Naruto went through a series of hand seals and began to pull on the kunai whose pulse he felt.

Suddenly Konan appeared right in front of him, looking confused and slightly disoriented as she held the kunai loosely in her hands. Her eyes then focused on Naruto and a small almost imperceptible smile came to her face, if someone had told her that she would miss a man she had met only two weeks ago and originally been her enemy she would have told them they were mad before slicing their throat with her paper blades. But she could not deny that she had missed the blond ninja, she found it odd that she could miss someone after only knowing them for a short time. But after he had broken through her emotional barrier she had felt lighter as if a burden had been lifted from her shoulders and the time she had spent with him and the kids had been some of the best she had in years, reminding her of the times Jiraiya had lived with her, Nagato and Yahiko. "Naruto…" Konan said in her soft and feminine voice as she gave him a small nod.

Naruto grinned at the woman, "Konan-chan was there something you needed, or did you need to tell me something?"

"I felt that it would be prudent to inform you of Pain's abilities," Konan said, "we did not get the chance to do that when I met you and it would be a good idea if you knew what you were up against."

Naruto nodded and patted the spot next to him, nodding Konan moved over to him and sat down on the bed as she began to explain Pain's power. The more Konan spoke of Pain the more Naruto felt that he was being drawn into the realm of myth. He had of course knew that the man possessed the Rinnegan which was the first and most powerful of the three great Doujutsu's and the only transcended bloodline known in existence. But he had not known what all of that entailed exactly; apparently, someone with the Rinnegan had the ability to use all five of the main elements and the sixth element of gravity. But what was truly astounding was how Pain was able to manipulate dead bodies that he possesses through the use of chakra transmitters. Pain had six bodies under his control; the god realm which Konan told Naruto was originally her friend Yahiko's body which had the ability to use the Rinnegan's gravity techniques. With it he could push and pull objects away from him, he was also the one who could use ninjutsu. The human realm was able to pull a person's soul from his or her body and read minds; this one was also fast and primarily used taijutsu. His Ghost realm path had the ability to absorb any type of ninjutsu attack. The demon realm was able to use a tail and held a number of powerful explosives and missiles it could launch. Animal realm path could summon large creatures to fight for him as well as the other paths through the use of space-time ninjutsu. The hell realm path had the ability to summon a demon to do his bidding, this one also had the ability to bring the other paths back to life.

Naruto sighed as he leaned back on his hands and tried to wrap his mind around the powers that Pain possessed, the blond could now see why the man called himself a god. With powers like his, it was easy to see that the man could very well be one, fighting him would be extremely hard and Naruto knew he might not be able to defeat the man as he was now. "That's a lot to take in," Naruto said slowly.

Konan actually felt a smirk come to her face, "now you know I felt two weeks ago."

Naruto laughed, "I suppose I do though mine is more of a feeling of being overwhelmed," they quieted down for a moment and sat together in comfortable silence. "Hey Konan-chan," Naruto said as he looked at her, "would you like to go get lunch with me?"

Konan blinked, "er… lunch?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Konan finished ordering her food at the small restaurant they had entered, she had never been to a restaurant before. When she had been an orphan she had not even lived in a city so she never got the chance to eat out, and after the war, she had not had the time as she ran around doing Nagato's bidding. The restaurant was pretty nice by her standards, the building had several booths and tables situated inside, the booths had soft red cushions on them and the tables had a small candle on them. There was soft music floating through the air, coming from a person who was sitting in a corner of the restaurant playing with a Junanagen (a 17 string instrument called a zither).

Konan looked over at Naruto to see him with his eyes closed humming a small tune in time with the music, "Naruto?" she spoke up getting his attention. "Why… why did you take me here?" she asked in an unsure tone. It had been on her mind since he had asked her to have lunch with him, she had never had someone take her anywhere even remotely nice, and was not sure why he was doing this for her.

"Do I need a reason to want to take you somewhere nice?" Naruto asked as he tilted his head to the side opened his eyes to look at her with an expression of slight confusion adorning his face.

"Well… I guess not," Konan looked down at the table, "I was just curious."

"You've never done anything like this huh?" Naruto asked in a quiet tone getting a nod to his question, "then that gives me all the more reason to do this for you!" Konan snapped her head snapped towards the blond shinobi as he grinned, "Since you have not been able to enjoy the pleasures life has to offer it gives me all the more reason to make sure that you learn to have fun."

"Fun…" Konan stated in a soft tone, she had not been able to have fun for a long time. Spending time with Naruto and the orphans in Ame had been the most fun she had had for a while, the most fun in quite a few years in fact. Between trying to survive as an orphan, fighting in a war, and running around doing Pain's bidding she had not been able to have fun of any kind for nearly a dozen years. She looked around at the nice restaurant again before shifting her gaze over to Naruto, as she looked at the blond she felt a small amount of heat rise to her cheeks. I wonder if this is a date? Konan asked herself as she looked around at the other tables, she had never been on a date before. Though she had read a little about them in the few romance novels she kept, this certainly felt like a date with the casual yet somewhat romantic atmosphere. Does that mean he likes me? Or maybe he just finds me physically attractive… while Konan was not vain she knew she was considered beautiful by most standards. Some of the missions she had done both during the war and for Pain afterward had her using seduction techniques to assassinate her enemies.

The food soon arrived and she tried not to think about the questions she felt as she began to eat. The meal itself was a quiet affair, Konan would occasionally throw glances at Naruto who was eating peacefully and seemingly unaware of her looks. In truth, he knew Konan was throwing him unsure glances but did not feel that teasing her as he would normally do was a good idea right now. After dinner Naruto took Konan out to walk around the town, hoping to get her to experience a life without fighting for a little while.

Konan looked around at all the people walking and talking in surprise, the place was so peaceful compared to what she knew. She looked as couples walked hand in hand as they looked in the windows of various shops; parents were walking with their children and occasionally buying them treats. She felt a small pang of sadness at having never had the chance to experience any of these things after her parents died when she was young, the part of her that had started to come out since meeting Naruto would have jumped at the chance to experience a normal life. She was shaking out of her thoughts when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder, stopping she turned her head she saw Naruto looking at her with a concerned expression.

"Hey, are you alright?" Naruto asked with a little concern in his voice.

Konan nodded, "yes, I'm just not used to this…" she gestured towards all the people around her.

Naruto smiled, "we'll just have to make sure you become acclimated to it." Naruto said as he grabbed her hand and began to pull her around the village, Naruto took her to all of the different kinds of shops, places such as sweet shops, souvenir stores, and clothing stores. Konan found that she was actually enjoying herself as they went around to all the different places Naruto took her to. By the end of the day, Konan had a genuine smile on her face as they went back to Naruto's room.

"Thank you for taking me out to dinner," Konan said with a small bow as she tried to hide the pink on her cheeks.

Naruto gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head, "you don't have to thank me you know. I wanted to take you out, in fact, I was wondering if you would like to do it again the next time we meet…"

Konan looked up at Naruto to see he had a light blush on his face as he averted his eyes, "I would like that," she said with a soft smile.

Naruto gave her his foxy grin, "Then it's a date!"

Before Konan could reply Naruto focused his chakra into her kunai, in less than a second the young woman found herself in her room right next to the paper seal Naruto had told her to put in her room. A date… Konan felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of going on a date with the young man. She found herself looking forward to meeting Naruto again and going on that date with him.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Three months later…

For the next three months, Naruto would use the Hiraishin to summon Konan when he was not with Jiraiya, she would give a report on what was going on with Akatsuki and then Naruto would take her out to do something fun. Letting Konan try out all of the activities and other such things she had missed in her life, whether it was going to a movie, having a picnic, or taking her shopping for clothes; not that he didn't love the skin-tight bodysuit she always had on, but he would always end up needing a cold shower after she left when she wore that. The fact that she continued to wear it even after they bought her clothes made him think she knew what it was doing to him and wanted to tease him, though it was hard to tell since she for the most part still kept a neutral expression except for the few occasions he caught her smiling. After the first three weeks, Konan and Naruto began to see each other more frequently, having started to grow closer together. Whenever Naruto was with Jiraiya he would often ditch the white-haired Sennin at some pub or whore house and summon the blue-haired woman, the two would usually go out to dinner or take long walks around or outside of whatever town Naruto was staying in.

As she continued to get to know him Konan began to open up to the blond a bit more, she began to tell him stories of when she was a little girl. Most of her stories involved Yahiko and the things he had done for her, she told the blond of how they had met and later found Nagato and had him join their group. She spoke of how Yahiko had declared that he would become a god and end the fighting in Amegakure, as well as stop the rain which Yahiko had likened to the people's tears. She talked about how they had met Jiraiya and he later taught them how to be ninja, staying with them for several months. After Jiraiya left them the three Ame orphans had begun to gain a reputation and other comrades who held the same belief as them, using the growing power they had spread their beliefs that war should be stopped without violence. However, that was when they had they had become a threat to Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure who much to Naruto's extreme displeasure had struck a deal with Danzo Shimura to help deal with the three. Konan had confided to Naruto about how she had been captured and Nagato was forced to choose between having Hanzo kill Konan, or killing Yahiko himself. The blue-haired woman told Naruto how Yahiko had thrown himself on Nagato's kunai and told Nagato to continue their mission to find peace.

When Naruto had asked her why she trusted to tell him this, her actions and answer afterward had shocked him. Konan had quite literally thrown herself on top of him and began to cry, the beautiful blue-haired woman told the blond how he reminded her so much of Yahiko; both in personality and personal philosophy. Yahiko like Naruto had desired to become the leader of his village, he had that never give up attitude that Naruto despite maturing greatly had never lost. Also like Naruto, Yahiko had the desire to become strong enough to protect Konan and Nagato much like how the blond shinobi was with his own friends. Naruto realized that he reminded her so much of her old friend that it was almost like she was with Yahiko whenever she spent time with him. When Naruto commented on this Konan said that she felt as if Naruto was carrying on the dreams of Yahiko instead of Pain. She had also confessed that when they were younger Konan had something of a crush on Yahiko who had become their leader when they were orphans and even afterward when they began their journey to bring peace to Ame.

Deciding that because Konan had trusted him with what he knew was her most painful memory he should trust her as well, Naruto began to tell her about his pain. How he had been hated for his whole life because his own father sealed the Kyuubi inside of him, the abuse and malnourishment he had suffered in the orphanage. Being kicked out of the said orphanage at the age of four where he was forced to live on the street for a year before the Hokage had found him and given him an apartment. He told her how the people of his village always looked at him with hate-filled eyes, telling their kids to stay away from him because he was a monster and how the parent's hate was eventually passed onto their children. Konan was horrified to know just how painful his life was, sure she had been an orphan but she always had Yahiko or Nagato when she was growing up and she had never been hated. Naruto had no one, even worse was that while it only happened a few times Naruto would occasionally get severe beatings by several mobs on his birthday, which was the same day the Kyuubi had attacked Konoha and been sealed into Naruto. The blonds only saving grace in the whole village had been the Sandaime Hokage, a few of his Anbu and a small Ramen stand who did not hold any prejudice against Naruto and treated him like a human being. It was then that Konan felt her respect and feelings for Naruto grow even stronger.

The two were currently sitting under a tree near a small beautiful lake with crystal clear water, as she watched the waves roll up and caress the shore Konan gave a smile as she thought about how her life had become a lot less bleak. She looked over at Naruto who was leaning his back against the tree with his hands behind his head, his eyes were closed and he had a small smile on his face. The peaceful look and feeling he gave off caused her smile to widen, she had spent quite a bit of time with Naruto in the last three months. Konan had thought about the blond often nowadays, even when he was not with her Naruto would often worm his way into her thoughts. Whenever her thoughts wandered over to the blond it made her think of the feelings she had for Yahiko, the desire she had to be with Yahiko had slowly been transferring over to Naruto. Konan didn't even bother to think about how or when this had started happening and instead decided to just accept it. If there was one thing in her life she had learned when living as an orphan, it was not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Being a bit bolder than usual, Konan scooted herself closer to the young blond and closing her eyes leaned against him whilst laying her head on his shoulder. Naruto opened his eyes and looked down at her in surprise, "uh… Kona-chan what are you doing?" he asked in a confused voice.

"I want to be near you," Konan opened her eyes to look at him, "do you not like me being this close to you?"

Naruto relaxed as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, "not at all, I was just startled. But are you sure you're ok with this? I mean. You do know that I will have to rebuild my clan?" Naruto had told Konan about this little bit of information a while ago, along with the fact that he had three women he was currently secretly engaged to since he did not want anyone coming after them until he felt he was strong enough to protect them.

"I know," Konan said in a voice that was just above a whisper, "I don't care about that so long as I can be with you." Naruto looked startled as Konan lifted her head off his shoulders and looked at him, "there was only one person I ever thought I would love. After Yahiko died I didn't think I would ever get to find someone like that again," she gave him a large smile. "But you showed me something when I had nothing but the desire to follow the dreams of a man who lost sight of his goals and became corrupted by power and a madman."

Naruto knew who she was talking about, aside from telling him about Pain and the others she also told Naruto about the true leader of Akatsuki, Madara Uchiha. Apparently, the old Uchiha leader was not as dead as everyone had been lead to believe; the man had not only survived his fight with Hasharima Senju but also had found immortality. Madara had been living all these years and when he saw the chance created Akatsuki, he used Nagato's desire for peace, warping and twisting it until there was nothing left but a man with delusions of grandeur. And even though Kyuubi refused to talk to him about it, Naruto was positive that Madara was the one responsible for its attack on Konoha on the day of his birth.

"After I met you I found something I had lost," Konan continued in her soft voice, "something I had not felt since Yahiko. The desire to be with someone and feel loved and hope, hope that maybe you can find a way to do what others couldn't."

Naruto frowned, "are you replacing me with Yahiko?"

"No, of course not!" Konan said in a shocked voice as her eyes widened, "while I admit the similarities between you two are close enough that you could almost be his brother, I know you are your own person. But you bring out the sides of me that only Yahiko could, that's why I want to be with you."

Naruto stared at the woman who basically just confessed her love for him, Konan may not have said it but Naruto had figured out woman enough to read between the lines of what they were saying to know what they meant. Nor had he detected a lie from her, so he knew everything she said was in fact true. Smiling Naruto gently cupped her cheek with one of his hands, caressing it in a tender fashion. Konan closed her eyes as she leaned into his touch and Naruto imagined that she would start purring any second now. "Thank you for being honest with me," Naruto said and gave the woman a smile as she opened her beautiful amber-colored eyes to look at him. "I won't deny that after our first uh… encounter I began to gain feelings for you too," Naruto said as Konan giggled remembering their disastrous first encounter. "So if you're ok with knowing I will have to marry multiple women I would like to give us a chance."

Konan's breath hitched as Naruto began to lean down, his hand going from her cheek to below her chin as he gently lifted her head to meet his. She slowly closed her eyes as Naruto's face came closer so she didn't see when their lips met, but she did feel it, and when it happened Konan felt a small jolt run through her body. Konan wrapped her arms around Naruto as she leaned into the kiss, Naruto did likewise as he wrapped his arms around her waist shifting Konan's position so she was on his lap. At the first the kiss was chaste and light, merely applying a bit of pressure against each other before Naruto gently took her bottom lip and suckled on it. Konan let out a soft moan as the pressure from Naruto's lips increased, when it did she was surprised as Naruto slipped his tongue through the opening she gave him and began to explore. She was unsure what do to at first but within a few moments and with some prodding from Naruto, she gained confidence and began to duel with Naruto's tongue, moaning out as she felt Naruto's appendage caress and entwine with her own. After a moment it was clear she had lost and let Naruto explore the inside of her mouth. When Naruto's tongue left her she pushed her own into his mouth and began to explore, a smile came to her lips as they kissed; Naruto tasted just like Ramen. Not surprising since despite not eating anywhere near as much anymore, that was what Naruto often took her to get unless she wanted something else. Eventually and much to their mutual disappointment the kiss ended, Konan sighed as she closed her eyes and snuggled into Naruto's chest.

"How much longer can you stay?" Naruto asked after a few moments of companionable silence.

"I can stay until tomorrow without Pain getting suspicious," Konan said after a moment of thought. "I usually leave the vicinity of his tower for several days to walk around Ame unless he calls, so we should be safe." Naruto nodded as he relaxed again, his hands began to lightly trail up and down Konan's side making the young woman feel a slight shiver. "Naruto?" Konan suddenly spoke up.

"Hmm?" Naruto mumbled letting her know he was listening.

"I was wondering if… I could spend the night with you?" Konan asked with a blush coming across her features. While she had stayed the night with him often, they had not slept together since that incident in the cottage with the kids.

Naruto felt his eyes widen slightly before he smirked, "Kona-chan are you making the moves on me so soon? I mean we just got together," Naruto spoke in a teasing tone.

Konan scowled at the blond as a large blush spread across her face before saw his teasing grin and it turned into a smile, she slapped his shoulder in a playful gesture. "No I meant…" she paused a bit to take a deep breath, "I meant that I want to stay with you… just for tonight at least I would like to feel your presence with me while I sleep."

"You know once all of this is over it won't just be for tonight," Naruto said in an amused voice as Konan looked up at him. "But since Ero-sensei is out on business today and won't be around for another few days you can stay with me tonight."

Konan giggled at Naruto's apt nickname for their sensei as she snuggled back into the blond.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that night they had gotten to the hotel that Naruto was staying at and got ready for bed, Naruto was the first to get his nightly hygiene activities out of the way. As the blond got into bed Konan went into the restroom to do her own routine, a little while later she walked out of the bathroom in just a small light red nighty that brought out her hair and blue lacy panties, Naruto noticed rather easily that she was not wearing a bra due to the fact that he could see her nipples slightly poking into the nighty and had to struggle to keep his natural reaction from coming to the forefront. The blue-haired woman moved over to the bed and got under the covers, as soon as she did Naruto's arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her to him, turning her on her side as the blond pressed his front against her back. "Good night Kona-chan," Naruto said in a soft whisper as he kissed the nape of her neck.

Konan smiled as she closed her eyes and moved closer to Naruto until they were practically melded together, "Night Naruto-kun."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"It's time for us to capture the Jinchurikki," Pain stated as once again all of those in Akatsuki met.

Konan watched from Pain's side as all of the others nodded at his words, the blue-haired woman knew this going to happen soon. Pain had been talking about going after the Jinchurikki once they found them all for a while now, it had taken three years but Pain had finally managed to find out where all of the Jinchurikki were located. She would need to find out where the members were being sent so she could tell Naruto.

Pain turned to look at two of the nine members that were here, "Sasori, Deidara how far are you from the target?"

The one with the hunchback look shifted, "we'll be nearing Suna, and the one tails soon…"

"Good," Pain said as his eyes pierced the others in the room, "I want constant updates on the status of your target, that goes for all of you!"

The figures all disappeared again, leaving the room empty save for the ugly statue.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto hesitated in his step when he felt his Kunai begin to pulse as he walked alongside Ero-sensei, looking over he made sure to see whether or not the man noticed. Once he was satisfied Naruto turned his attention to the kunai. After his success with the chakra recognition seal on Konan's Kunai, Naruto had put it on each of the girl's kunai that way he could summon them if they wanted to get out of their village. He had used it several times with Mei, Koyuki, and Yugito and despite the people they lived with freaking out when they were unable to find them Naruto and the girls continued to do it. Recognizing the signature as Konan's Naruto looked over at Jiraiya, "hey Ero-sensei one of the girls is calling me…"

Jiraiya gave his student a lecherous grin, "my boy I am so proud of you, getting three powerful and hot women like that!"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, "can it ya damn pervert! Gah if it's going to be like this every time maybe I shouldn't tell you and just flash away rather than listen to your pervy speech! And you wonder why the only woman you get are the ones you have to pay for!"

"Hey show some respect gaki!" Jiraiya yelled at his blond pupil.

"I'll show you respect the moment you earn it and stop peeping in the hot spring you perverted old coot!"

"Who are you calling an old coot!"

Naruto grinned, "The only one I see standing right next to me."

"You damn brat I otta-" he didn't get the chance to say anything else as Naruto disappeared in a bright yellow flash. He paused for a few seconds as he blinked at the spot Naruto had been standing, "damn gaki not giving respect to his elders. At least he's good with woman," Jiraiya said to himself with a small giggle as he pulled out a notebook, "it's too bad I'm not there to see anything happen but the idea's this kid gives me from what I do see and hear alone is a gold mine!" Jiraiya let out a perverted giggle as he began walking down the road, giving off perverted giggles as he wrote down the ideas for his next hit book, Icha Icha: Lone Warrior, a tale about a powerful shinobi with a tragic past who ends up saving the world and in thanks receives his very own harem. The white-haired man giggled as he began writing out more scenes for his book, he was sure this would be a great hit, especially when he released them in the limited editions he was creating; blond, blue, and red.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto flashed to the cave where he had first met Konan, finding nothing larger than a mouse within the sensor seals he had set up Naruto summoned the woman. The first thing the woman did when she got there was to wrap Naruto in a hug and plant a kiss on his lips, pleasantly surprised Naruto returned the gesture before they broke away. "Something wrong Kona-chan?" Naruto asked as he could sense a small amount of tension though it seemed to be leaving her.

Konan shook her head, "no just important information you might want to know." Naruto raised his eyebrow but didn't speak, "Akatsuki is going to begin hunting for the Bijuu now. Their first target will be the one tails, Sasori No Akasuna and Deidra the mad bomber are the ones assigned to this task."

"Suna eh?" Naruto mumbled more to himself than Konan, he looked up from his musings and gave said woman a smile. "Thank you for telling me this, Gaara is not only a Jinchurikki but a good friend of mine," leaning down Naruto gave her a tender kiss on the lips.

"Mmm… I'm… sure… you'll… come… up… with… ways… to… thank… me…" Konan spoke up between kisses.

Naruto gave her his foxy grin as he pulled a little bit away, "you know after I save Gaara I think I've got just the thing to express my gratitude."

Konan blushed at the implication and tone of Naruto's voice, though she was quite eager to see what Naruto would do for her.

Naruto looked out of the cave mouth as he thought about the information he had just received, a smile found its way to his lips. It would be good to see Gaara again, his smile grew into a grin; it would be even better after having Gaara owe him for saving his ass.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Omake: what Pain does when not stewing in his god complex.

Konan sighed as she walked down the hall towards Pain's office, she had just received some information on one of the Jinchurikki and in keeping with her cover was going to inform Pain about it. As she walked her mind strayed and she began to think of Naruto, she hoped to see the blond again soon. Finally, she reached the door leading to Pain's office, like usual she did not bother to knock on the door since Pain was usually outside anyways. As soon as she opened the door however she froze, her eyes began to widen to the size of dinner plates.

Pain was in fact in the office, his back to her as he sat in a chair and while this was unusual it was not unheard of. However what was unusual and most disturbing was a combination of the things he was doing and what was going on in the room. In front of Pain was a television, on said TV was the new Icha Icha Movie playing; which was rather easy for her to recognize, after all while she would never admit it she had the same movie stashed away under her bed. Pain himself was making unusual panting and grunting noises as well as mumbling what sounded like 'yes Akiko-chan' and 'damn that Jinchurikki' which was highly disturbing to her, especially considering that Pain's god realm was nothing more than a possessed corpse; and of a man she had once loved no less! The orange haired man seemed to be so preoccupied with his… activities he had not even noticed her presence.

For what felt like hours but in truth was only a minute or two, Konan just stood there with her mouth hanging open and her eyes nearly popping out of her sockets. Finally she turned on her heel and left, closing the door behind her so Pain would not know she had been there. She began walking down the hall and mentally swore to herself she would never ever mention what she saw this day, lest she get nightmares from this.