14. The World Shall Know Pain

When I begin to stir I could feel that my muscles were nearly back to their original condition so I opened my eyes and noticed that Sasori wasn't anywhere in sight. I hope I didn't embarrass myself last night, I should really learn to keep my emotions better in check.

I look around at the room I'm in as I contemplate what to do, maybe I will have to play it cool like last time and eventually run away... My mind quickly fell back onto the thought of Sasuke and a small lump formed in my throat, I really hope he's okay... I feel so guilty about dragging him into my problems.

The memory of our lips touching made me feel giddy, I wasn't sure how to feel... I wasn't even sure if I would ever see him again and he even hinted that... Our circumstances were just too different and I think that's what he was trying to tell me at the time. That it would never have worked out and I don't think I should linger on these sorts of thoughts for much longer.

"Morning un, you feeling any better?" I quickly looked up from my mental rant and see that Deidara is standing in the doorway with his head poking into the room looking smug.

"Sort of" I replied groggily.

"Where's Sasori?" I asked, a little more hurriedly, I remembered how close he had been to me last night, I thought of how his hot breath had been against the back of my neck giving me Goosebumps and I blushed a little.

"Why is your face so red? He went on a mission, un. So I'll have to show you around" He came in and closed the door behind him.

"Okay, Where's my bag?" I said as I pull the blanket off me and roll like a log closer to the edge of the bed. Deidara opens up the closet and puts it down beside me, I go to stand up but my stomach then makes the biggest gurgling sound ever.

"Suppose I know where to take you first, un" Deidara chuckles to himself as he walks back over to the door. "I'll wait for you here, hurry up though yeah?" He closes the door behind him.

I look down at my bag and take a deep breath as I unzip it, I wonder what awaits me outside... After meeting Pain last night I'm very curious as to what other surprises are in store.

I summon my thigh-high black pleated skirt and white blouse and get changed then summon a few Shuriken and Kunai then put them away in my leg pouch and tie it to my left thigh. I stroll over to the mirror and take look at myself, as soon as I see my reflection I stare at the massive birds-nest knot that was sitting on my head. Oh wow, this is tragic! What did Sasori do to it! I try and comb my fingers through it to tame it a bit.

I give up after a few strokes and tie it into a messy bun then open the door, I peek out to the left and see Deidara leaning up against the wall. I stared at him for a second because he just looked so interesting... I mean his confidence was glowing out of both ears and I couldn't help but smile inwardly.

"If Sasori was showing you around he wouldn't be very pleased hah. Hates to be kept waiting, you're lucky I don't mind so much" He says a bit matter-of-factly as he stands up properly and nods his head in the direction I was to follow him in.

We both start walking down the long weaving hallways and for some reason I didn't feel as though I was being kept against my will... It sort of felt like I was meant to be here in a sense. I didn't know if this was because everything that I'd been through so far was truly awful or because maybe for some unknown reason fate had brought me here for a good reason. We finally approached a large open room and I snapped out of my thoughts and gazed into the kitchen.

"Help yourself to anything yeah?" Deidara says as he takes a seat at the long Island counter bench and pulls out some white putty from a small bag that's strapped to his hips.

"What's that?" I ask curiously as I go for the cupboard. I was honestly more interested in what was in the cupboard, as I opened it I saw lots of food and I started to get excited.

"My art, un" He eventually says as the small clay bird in his palm now flies up into the air and begins to do circles.

"My Art is fleeting, a quick flash of sublime beauty. My art is.." He continues as he puts his hands together "An explosion!" He exclaims over passionately.

The little clay bird that was doing circles suddenly explodes, It was only a small explosion but enough to get my attention...

"It is beautiful," I say looking back at him for a second, he just smirks so I go back to pulling out some fruit and sit down next to him. I peer down at his hands and then notice that his hands have mouths on them and that the clay was being chewed by them, this must be some kind of Kekke Genkai. I take a bite of my apple. Deidara must have been the one who blew up Sasuke.

"Deidara, did you kill Sasuke?" I ask casually, it came out a little more casually than I'd anticipated actually, I must have sounded so cocky oops.

"Oh, that guy you were with huh? He will be fine, It wasn't a direct hit unfortunately but it was enough to knock him unconscious haha" He looks over to me with a massive smirk on his face.

This guy is so destructive I think to myself as I slowly edge away from him in my chair...

I start to peel my banana, I take a bite and chew slowly, then, notice that something green is emerging out of the ground directly in my line of sight which is just in front of the fridge... Does it look like a Venus flytrap? I keep watching it as it completely rises and the flytrap opens... My mouth falls open and some half-chewed Banana falls onto my lap as I see a black and a white face looking straight at me...

"So your Tila?" The white side of the face says. "Leader wants to see you now" The black side then says.

By this point, I'm feeling pretty confused. "Wait what..? You're a plant that talks?" I say looking up and down again then I discretely brush off the half-chewed food on my lap before anyone notices.

"I'm Zetsu, pleasure to meet you," The white side says. "Yeah I talk, I eat annoying girls like you too. got a problem??" The black side says.

Okay well, this is odd even for me, "Wait, Leader wants to see me?" I say focusing back on what was important. "Follow me," Zetsu starts walking towards the doorway so I get up quickly and follow him.

"Tila, I'll come to get you after your done, un" Deidara calls after me as we exit the room "Yeah okay" I call back to him before hurrying to catch up with Zetsu. I follow his as we walk down another twisted corridor until we eventually approach the last door at the end of the hall, he knocks and then waits for a moment.

"Come in" Leaders deep voice echoes from behind the door, Zetsu opens up the door and steps in. I follow in behind him and he shuts it, I take a step forward and approach the desk in which Leader is sitting behind.

"Take a seat Tila, Zetsu you can go," His heavy gaze fixes on me steadily. I pull out the deep mahogany coloured chair and sit. Zetsu melts away conspicuously back through the closed door and Leader and I are left alone face to face, his stare still intently on me.

When we had last encountered I had noticed that his eyes were different somehow but now that I can investigate more closely - my memory jolts. I had been told folk tales as a child of such eyes... It was known as the Rennigon.

"Now, I'm sure you remember the last conversation we had?" The stare he was giving me softened ever so slightly.

"Yes, I do" The nervousness evident in my voice, "You told me that you wanted to do something greater for this Shinobi world. I don't understand how you intend to do this or why you need me but...".

"I'll tell you now Tila, I intend to build a new world.. As for the how, I plan to capture all of the tailed beasts and then unleash them onto the five great nations" His look towards me now becoming sterner. The cogs in my mind begin to turn as I contemplated what he was saying.

I knew of the tailed beasts because my own village had been host to the seven tails, the Jinchuriki was a sweet girl named Fu. She stayed with my mother and me for a short time when she had only just run away from the village. She had told me many stories of how the villagers had hated her because of what she was...

I just cannot wrap my mind around Pain's reasoning for this sort of extreme resolution, I put my hands onto the desk and lean in a little closer, a look of concern sweeping over my face.

"But why? How could you want to do such a thing?" I finally questioned.

His facial expression doesn't change much, he just continued to glare at me. "Everyone shall know pain, you see those who do not understand true pain can never understand true peace."

I close my eyes for a moment and let out a small sigh. "So you're going to bring pain and suffering to this world to achieve peace? I have felt pain and I understand what it is to wish for peace but.." I was cut short again.

"We're both of the same breeds, after all... Motives for war are of no concern. Religion, ideology, resources, land, grudges, love, or just because... No matter how pathetic the reason, it's enough to start a war. War will never cease to exist... Reasons can be thought up after the fact. Human nature pursues strife." He pauses.

I stay silent and think about what he is saying, I am too young and have not experienced war.. But what I have experienced in my short life has been far from peaceful and what he is saying does have some abstract rationality to it.

"The reason I have brought you here is because you have the potential to help me achieve this goal. Tila, will you join the Akatsuki?" I look up at him again.

Pain was really contemplating some heavy-duty issues. I truly believe that his ideology has some abstract depth to it but his method is certainly questionable although I feel as though his objective doesn't fall far from where my own is...

If I'm honest with myself I too wanted to teach those who had hurt me the same feelings in return. Deep down I held a grudge, I would maybe even go so far as to say that... I wanted to kill them.

I snapped back from my thoughts and looked at Pain, I nodded slowly as I gave my semi-well thought out answer.

"Yes, I will join you".

Pain continued to stare at me for a moment. "Good, I've already got your things ready Tila" He reaches beneath his desk and then pulls out a cloak that resembled Sasori's. He sets it down on his desk and then opens a side draw and pulls out something small and shiny, a ring.

"Hold out your left hand" I do, he slips the small ring onto my pinkie finger. I look down at it.

It reads 'Sora' or sky. I push my chair back and stand up so I can put on my new cloak. I lug it over my shoulders, It is a lot bigger than I expected and my sleeves hang well over my hands.

"Tila, I'm glad you have decided to see things my way. I've made arrangements for a room to be set up for you but until then you shall stay with Sasori. I hope he hasn't been too hard on you".

I think back to last night again and how he had comforted me...

"He hasn't bothered me at all, if anything it's quite the opposite" Pain's face may have shown split seconds worth of concern but knowing me I probably had just imagined it.

"One more thing before I let you go, I want to get an idea of your skill level thus far so I will select a member for you to spar against sometime this week, then I will begin to assign you missions thereafter".

"Alright then. do I get paid?" I couldn't help but smile a little, I had never really had a lot of money and I wouldn't mind making some. If the Akatsuki were really going to be gathering tailed beasts then I expect it would come with a good price seeing as this task would not be some walk in the park.

"Indeed, I will need to introduce you to the accountant. Kakuzu handles all of the finances". Pain steps aside from behind his desk and walks over to the door "Tila, if you have any problems do not hesitate to come and talk to me".

"I suppose I'll be calling you leader from now on?" I say smiling a little

"That would be ideal" He opens the door and steps aside. "You're dismissed," He takes one final look at me as I step out into the hallway, I nod he closes the door.

I gaze down the hallway but all I see is darkness, wasn't Deidara supposed to come and get me?

I start walking back the way I had come, I didn't want to wait around for him. As I slowly walked I noticed that the walls were mostly made of dark stone, It was a shame but I was used to being in dark places by now.

"There you are. I didn't think you'd finish so early, Hm" I heard Dei call out from ahead. I looked up to see his blonde hair covering half his face as he approaches. He stops right in front of me and elbows me playfully "well? Un."

"Yeah, It didn't take much convincing" I chuckle elbowing back. He starts walking beside me and we head back down the gloomy hallway.

A thought pops into my head. "Can you show me the training area? I appreciate you showing me around by the way" I say. glancing at him from beside me.

"No worries, I'll take you there now," He replies. We pick up the pace and soon enough we reach a massive cave-like room.

"This is the training ground, lounge rooms down that hall and Sasori's room is back down that one, un" He points over to the two dark tunnels to the far right-hand side.

"Okay Dei, I'll see you later then?" I say. He gives me a cheeky confident look, did I say something wrong?

"Sure," He says cheekily. Huh? I can't figure out what that was about he walks off, I watch as his figure disappears into the tunnel we had just come from.

Okay that was weird I think to myself, how is that guy so cocky? Whatever, who cares? I just want to train! I have to beat whoever I'm up against. I'm assuming that this opponent will be a formidable one and I don't want to make a fool of myself!

I take off my cloak and put it down, time to get stronger.