Naruto Fic: "Akatsuki Dreams" 6/10 (PG-13) - Akatsuki, Pain
Title: "Akatsuki Dreams" 6/10 
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Pain, Konan, Yahiko
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,000
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers through Chapter 449.
Summary: In their final moments before death, the members of Akatsuki experience one last vision of their past, their present, and what could be. This chapter: Pain.
Akatsuki Dreams
by Kantayra
Chapter Six - Pain Dreams
Nagato awoke to the embodiment of his life.
His useless body hung limp, trapped in its cage. A thousand points of agony stung his limbs. Once, he’d tried to fight against the sensations, to push them back. He’d learned to embrace them long ago, however, and now they almost didn’t register. The sharp spikes were the background noise to his existence now, and he was only ever aware of them at that moment right when he was awakening.
To his right stood Yahiko, cold and dead and lifeless as ever, waiting for Nagato to breathe false life into him once again. To his left stood Konan, with head bowed, eyes closed, looking almost as lifeless as Yahiko while she awaited Nagato’s next move.
Dimly, Nagato remembered that he was dead, that all this agony should have ended, and that he had no more orders to give. This world didn’t seem to agree with him, though.
Instead, he reached for his chakra, forced it through the metal piercings that permeated his body, and willed Yahiko to move. Nothing happened. Nagato frowned, tried again, and then realized that something was different. In this world, Yahiko lacked the corresponding piercings that Nagato had given him. This Yahiko was entirely lifeless, lost to him.
Nagato turned his attention to Konan instead. She still hadn’t looked up, as if she had yet to notice he was awake. The Konan Nagato had known had always been much sharper to react. He opened his mouth to speak but, to his horror, no sound emerged. He tried again, but it felt as though something were pushing the sound back, trapping it inside his body.
Panic slithered through him as he realized that this observation worked on multiple levels. If he couldn’t reach out to Yahiko and Konan, he was trapped, inside this useless, frail shell, with no means of interacting with anything ever again. A part of him wanted to scream at the thought, but he held it back. Even in death, Yahiko and Konan needed him. He had stayed strong for them impossibly long, even though in reality he was so weak.
At that moment, however, his fears were assuaged. Konan blinked, as if life had suddenly been breathed into her body, and looked up to stare right at him. Eerily, Yahiko did the exact same thing. It was as though, no matter what had happened in the real world, in this world they were the same kind of being. Maybe they always had been.
Konan and Yahiko met each other’s gazes in a moment of solidarity that Nagato didn’t quite understand. Then, as one, they approached him.
Nagato tried to ask them what was happening, but his voice was still trapped in his throat. As he watched, though, Yahiko brushed his fingers affectionately down Nagato’s shoulder. Nagato was surprised to realize that he couldn’t feel the gentle touch at all, anymore, through the spikes sunk into his skin. It had been so long since he’d wanted to feel anything else that he didn’t even know when he’d lost the ability.
A hint of that old spitfire cockiness entered Yahiko’s eyes as his fingers circled the first piercing he encountered, and he grinned right before he yanked. Nagato braced himself, and there was…
Nothing.
He glanced down, puzzled that he felt no sensation in response to having the metal ripped ruthlessly from his body. Yahiko’s grin just grew wider, and he grabbed the next piercing.
At Nagato’s left shoulder, Konan had closed in as well. Her fingers soothed over skin that couldn’t appreciate the touch, before she gently pulled the first metal spike free, as well.
Nagato watched them work: Konan on one side, gentle and careful; Yahiko on the other, wild and reckless. They were efficient in their task, and Nagato watched as his arms, then his chest, were slowly freed from the metal implants. Neither of them said a word to him, but every so often one or the other would look into his eyes, as if checking for something.
Nagato’s realization came slowly, as they ripped him to shreds. It had been subconscious for so long now that he didn’t realize it at first, but the more they worked, the more startling it became, until suddenly it burst into his conscious thoughts once more:
The agony Nagato had embraced for so long was fading. Each spike pulled from his flesh was like a sharp breath of relief, blessed cool replacing the fire he had been forced to endure for so long.
Konan’s eyes met his, and a wicked little smirk quirked her lips, like she’d known something he didn’t all along.
Nagato reached out instinctively in response and, before he could even think about what he was doing, his arm stretched out to cover Konan’s hand, where she was removing the metal from his thigh. Nagato blinked in disbelief at where his limb had moved under its own power for the first time in decades.
Konan winked, and Yahiko laughed, and Nagato felt the strange urge to laugh, too. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d laughed.
The last of the metal was pulled from his feet, and he half fell, half stumbled forward in response. Konan and Yahiko caught him, trembling, between them. The prison he’d rested in for too long crumbled to dust behind him.
For several moments, he could actually feel. Yahiko and Konan were warm and strong, and Nagato couldn’t remember why he’d ever thought things would be any different. For a moment, he wished that this feeling would never end.
“Don’t be fooled,” Konan told him.
“This, too, is a prison,” Yahiko agreed.
Nagato watched and saw that it was true. Just as the metal had been pulled from his flesh, so now the flesh was being pulled from his mind. Soon feeling and body would be gone as well, and the only thing left would be…
“Freedom,” he finally croaked out to Konan and Yahiko’s knowing smiles.
So who dies next time? *dun dun dun* :P
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Pain, Konan, Yahiko
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,000
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers through Chapter 449.
Summary: In their final moments before death, the members of Akatsuki experience one last vision of their past, their present, and what could be. This chapter: Pain.
Akatsuki Dreams
by Kantayra
Chapter Six - Pain Dreams
Nagato awoke to the embodiment of his life.
His useless body hung limp, trapped in its cage. A thousand points of agony stung his limbs. Once, he’d tried to fight against the sensations, to push them back. He’d learned to embrace them long ago, however, and now they almost didn’t register. The sharp spikes were the background noise to his existence now, and he was only ever aware of them at that moment right when he was awakening.
To his right stood Yahiko, cold and dead and lifeless as ever, waiting for Nagato to breathe false life into him once again. To his left stood Konan, with head bowed, eyes closed, looking almost as lifeless as Yahiko while she awaited Nagato’s next move.
Dimly, Nagato remembered that he was dead, that all this agony should have ended, and that he had no more orders to give. This world didn’t seem to agree with him, though.
Instead, he reached for his chakra, forced it through the metal piercings that permeated his body, and willed Yahiko to move. Nothing happened. Nagato frowned, tried again, and then realized that something was different. In this world, Yahiko lacked the corresponding piercings that Nagato had given him. This Yahiko was entirely lifeless, lost to him.
Nagato turned his attention to Konan instead. She still hadn’t looked up, as if she had yet to notice he was awake. The Konan Nagato had known had always been much sharper to react. He opened his mouth to speak but, to his horror, no sound emerged. He tried again, but it felt as though something were pushing the sound back, trapping it inside his body.
Panic slithered through him as he realized that this observation worked on multiple levels. If he couldn’t reach out to Yahiko and Konan, he was trapped, inside this useless, frail shell, with no means of interacting with anything ever again. A part of him wanted to scream at the thought, but he held it back. Even in death, Yahiko and Konan needed him. He had stayed strong for them impossibly long, even though in reality he was so weak.
At that moment, however, his fears were assuaged. Konan blinked, as if life had suddenly been breathed into her body, and looked up to stare right at him. Eerily, Yahiko did the exact same thing. It was as though, no matter what had happened in the real world, in this world they were the same kind of being. Maybe they always had been.
Konan and Yahiko met each other’s gazes in a moment of solidarity that Nagato didn’t quite understand. Then, as one, they approached him.
Nagato tried to ask them what was happening, but his voice was still trapped in his throat. As he watched, though, Yahiko brushed his fingers affectionately down Nagato’s shoulder. Nagato was surprised to realize that he couldn’t feel the gentle touch at all, anymore, through the spikes sunk into his skin. It had been so long since he’d wanted to feel anything else that he didn’t even know when he’d lost the ability.
A hint of that old spitfire cockiness entered Yahiko’s eyes as his fingers circled the first piercing he encountered, and he grinned right before he yanked. Nagato braced himself, and there was…
Nothing.
He glanced down, puzzled that he felt no sensation in response to having the metal ripped ruthlessly from his body. Yahiko’s grin just grew wider, and he grabbed the next piercing.
At Nagato’s left shoulder, Konan had closed in as well. Her fingers soothed over skin that couldn’t appreciate the touch, before she gently pulled the first metal spike free, as well.
Nagato watched them work: Konan on one side, gentle and careful; Yahiko on the other, wild and reckless. They were efficient in their task, and Nagato watched as his arms, then his chest, were slowly freed from the metal implants. Neither of them said a word to him, but every so often one or the other would look into his eyes, as if checking for something.
Nagato’s realization came slowly, as they ripped him to shreds. It had been subconscious for so long now that he didn’t realize it at first, but the more they worked, the more startling it became, until suddenly it burst into his conscious thoughts once more:
The agony Nagato had embraced for so long was fading. Each spike pulled from his flesh was like a sharp breath of relief, blessed cool replacing the fire he had been forced to endure for so long.
Konan’s eyes met his, and a wicked little smirk quirked her lips, like she’d known something he didn’t all along.
Nagato reached out instinctively in response and, before he could even think about what he was doing, his arm stretched out to cover Konan’s hand, where she was removing the metal from his thigh. Nagato blinked in disbelief at where his limb had moved under its own power for the first time in decades.
Konan winked, and Yahiko laughed, and Nagato felt the strange urge to laugh, too. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d laughed.
The last of the metal was pulled from his feet, and he half fell, half stumbled forward in response. Konan and Yahiko caught him, trembling, between them. The prison he’d rested in for too long crumbled to dust behind him.
For several moments, he could actually feel. Yahiko and Konan were warm and strong, and Nagato couldn’t remember why he’d ever thought things would be any different. For a moment, he wished that this feeling would never end.
“Don’t be fooled,” Konan told him.
“This, too, is a prison,” Yahiko agreed.
Nagato watched and saw that it was true. Just as the metal had been pulled from his flesh, so now the flesh was being pulled from his mind. Soon feeling and body would be gone as well, and the only thing left would be…
“Freedom,” he finally croaked out to Konan and Yahiko’s knowing smiles.
So who dies next time? *dun dun dun* :P