[The Renegade] Chapter 6 - Konan's plea (Patreon)

Chapter 6 - Konan’s plea

Tall towers of concrete and metal, countless power lines, a chaotic system of pipes, a sky covered by heavy grey clouds, and the unending rain pouring down every day - that was Amegakure. It didn’t have the beautiful weather of Konoha, the picturesque appearance of Suna, or the beauty of Kumogakure. However, to Konan, Amegakure was her home.

Even as the torrential rain poured from above, Konan revealed a soft smile as she looked at the scenery below: several hundred people were hard at work, pooling their efforts together as one to accomplish their objective. But those several hundred people were all, in fact, one person. They were Uzumaki Naruto and his shadow clones.

After coming back from Sunagakure, in spite of how tired he was from the arduous trip through the desert, he went straight to work. Although Konan had already expected that result, Naruto was so disappointed with himself for not managing to secure a trading agreement that he couldn’t even look her in the eyes. Cleaning up the massive wreckage and destruction left by Jiraiya’s battle against Nagato was the only helpful thing he could think of doing at that moment.

‘I think the Land of Wave would be willing to help me, but they don’t have any resources that Amegakure needs. From what Konan told me, their economy is based on fishing.’ Naruto thought as he used an Oodama Rasengan to grind to dust a particularly large piece of a broken concrete wall.

He was trying to think of other solutions besides Sunagakure, but he could not readily come up with anything useful.

‘Then, there’s the Land of Snow, but it’s such a small country, I wonder, do they have anything there? There’s also the Land of Demons, but I don’t know much about it, and Konan doesn’t either. It’s so far away that it takes more than a week just to get there.’

Buried in work and his own thoughts, Naruto didn’t notice Konan watching him from the top of a nearby tower. And he didn’t notice the sudden arrival of another person either.

⁂

"I’ve been wondering where the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had disappeared to. I’ve heard about his defection from Konohagakure, but I did not expect to see him here of all places...  ...That is great. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone," a deep voice unexpectedly came from behind, but Konan did not appear to be surprised by it.

"What are you here for?" she asked as she turned around to face him.

The black cloak with red clouds on it and the one-eyed orange mask - it was none other than Tobi, or, as she and Nagato knew him to be, Uchiha Madara.

"Where have you hidden Nagato’s corpse?"

"You won’t find him here," Konan said, and her body dispersed into a flutter of countless paper butterflies.

But Tobi did not lose track of her. Following her chakra signature, he disappeared in a swirl and teleported right in front of Konan when her body materialised again.

"You’ve run away quite far. I thought you’d team up with Naruto to fight against me. After all, someone who even managed to defeat Pain is not an opponent I can take on lightly either," he said.

"Do you think I didn’t know one day it would come to this? I knew that you would appear before me. I’ve been waiting for you so I could stop you. With or without Naruto here, I will take you down."

A particularly strong gale blew, and a large wave almost submerged the two pieces of wreckage that Konan and Tobi were standing on - they were in the middle of a gigantic lake. The Lake of Amegakure was so vast that it would not be an exaggeration to compare it to an inland sea.

"Just because you used to be a comrade, don’t think I’ll show you any mercy. The Akatsuki does not put up with traitors. But I have one question. Why would such loyal members as you and Nagato both betray me? You and Nagato both approved of my Eye of the Moon plan. If you lost to Uzumaki Naruto, then it couldn’t have been helped. But... not only that Nagato sacrificed his life by casting Rinne Tensei for Naruto’s sake, but you also broke him out of the Hozuki Castle and are now offering him shelter here, in Ame."

Seeing Konan keep silent, Tobi pressed on:

"Naruto Uzumaki… you think he’s that worthy?"

"He is the light," Konan said. "That's why we all can carry the flower of hope."

"Is he now? Even after he defected from the village? Is he still the same after what Konoha did to him? Ah, no matter. Once I capture you, I’ll make you tell me everything. The Rinnegan was never Nagato’s, to begin with. I am the one who lent it to him as a child. Now, I shall take back what is mine."

The moment he said that, two large paper wings came out of Konan’s back, and she burst up in the air like a bird of prey.

Hiding her body amidst a myriad of deadly paper blades, Konan dived towards him with no hesitation.

‘Using a manifold attack, she intends to find a chance to attack me when I materialise. Fine. I know she must have some sort of strategy. But I’ll take her on, I’ll accept her challenge,’ Tobi thought confidently.

Several hundred paper blades passed through his body before he suddenly materialised himself and caught Konan in a chokehold.

"There you are!" he said triumphantly, activating his Kamui ability to suck her into the other dimension.

However, by the time he noticed her trap, it was too late. Right as he activated his Kamui, several dozen paper bombs were simultaneously detonated, creating a great explosion.

‘I will take you down with me to the afterlife!’ Konan thought, willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of killing him.

⁂

‘Maaan, is this rain ever going to end?’ Naruto thought in chagrin while he and his clones were carrying rocks and other pieces of debris.

The work was difficult enough as it was, but the heavy rain soaking him to the bone and hurting his visibility made it even harder.

Dispelling his clones, Naruto staggered as he made his way to the tower to take shelter from the rain. Being able to create hundreds of shadow clones was great, but the drawback wasn’t light, to say the least. All the exhaustion accumulated by his clones was transferred to him after they were dispelled.

As he huddled up in a corner, his clothes drenched from the rain and his body dead tired, the sound of rain almost lulled him to sleep. But then, a loud explosion booming in the distance made him jump to his feet.

"What’s going on?!" he said, and, not minding the rain anymore, he swiftly ran to the top of the tower to get a bird's-eye view of the village.

Even with his high vantage point, however, due to the heavy rain, he couldn’t see traces of an explosion in the vicinity.

But then, a chain of explosions started blasting one after another, eventually melding into one single extremely loud sound.

‘It’s coming from the lake!’ he thought and threw himself off the tower, starting to run as fast as he could.

As he sprinted towards the lake at his highest speed, what Gaara had told him several days ago came to his mind:

"I received word from Konoha last week that they have started sending search parties for you."

"Shit!" he cussed and forced himself to run even faster.

‘Did Konoha send a team to attack Ame because of me?’

He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if something happened to the Land of Rain because of him after everything that Konan had done for him.

But when he finally came out from between the sky-high towers and saw the expansive Lake of Amegakure, he involuntarily stopped in his tracks, stunned at the sight before him.

As far as his eyes could see, an enormous crack seemed to have ruptured the large lake in two.

"My god…" he muttered under his breath when he realized that, at that moment, the Lake of Amegakure did not consist of water but that it was made up of paper bombs!

It was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen until then. Just imagining what it would be like to fall into the crack that split the sea of paper bombs made his back break into a cold sweat.

It was as if the apocalypse had come. It took no more than 10 minutes for the billions of paper bombs to finish exploding, but for Naruto, it felt like an eternity.

⁂

‘My Sacred Paper Emissary technique has come undone. I didn’t expect it to take this much chakra.’ Konan said as she knelt on the surface of the water, trying to catch her breath.

"At least, Madara is-"

"-Is dead?" Tobi completed her sentence as he unexpectedly appeared from behind.

A disturbing squelching sound was heard as he stabbed a metallic rod into her back, piercing out through her stomach with it.

The shock of seeing Tobi still alive was so great that Konan almost didn’t feel the pain from being stabbed momentarily.

"How? You should be dead! I ran the simulations over and over. I was sure that this sequence would work."

Tobi pulled his makeshift weapon out of her back and kicked her away.

"Izanagi. I told you not to underestimate the visual prowess of an Uchiha, girl. You have miscalculated. Just like you miscalculated when you chose to betray me for Naruto. In the afterlife, you and Nagato can commiserate about being fooled by Naruto’s nonsense."

Although he was speaking confidently, Tobi too was on his last legs. The first explosion when he tried to suck Konan in with his Kamui had made him lose his right arm and left him greatly wounded, and in order to survive Konan’s 600 billion paper bombs, he had to sacrifice his left eye too in order to activate Izanagi and rewrite his fate.

"There is no such thing as true peace! There is no such thing as hope! Nagato only believed in Naruto because he wanted to find solace in his pathetic existence."

Stumbling away as she held onto her bleeding wound, Konan suddenly turned around and raised her hands up. A huge paper chakram took form above her hands, and Obito inwardly cursed at her resilience.

"Just like I believed in Nagato, I will also believe in Naruto!" she said as she hurled the large chakram at Tobi. "I will be a pillar to support his dream. Nagato and I never truly believed in your goal. You are darkness. Just like you used us for your plan, we have been using you too all along."

And with that, half of her body dispersed into a swarm of shurikens. Even with the visual prowess of his Sharingan, it took Tobi several good moments to dodge and block all the projectiles thrown at him. But he was slowly closing the distance as he did that.

Having almost no chakra left and with a fatal wound in her stomach, when he finally closed the distance and got to her, this time around, Konan couldn’t disperse with another paper body flicker to avoid his lunge.

"You called me darkness. Well then, I shall make you wilt," Tobi said, his voice filled with killing intent as he grabbed her by the neck and strangled her.

He had never expected he would almost die and be forced to use Izanagi in a place like this. He had never taken Konan seriously, much less think that she had designed the almost perfect strategy to defeat him.

"KONAN!" a scream came from the side, and Tobi only had time to turn his head towards the voice before someone’s shin smashed into his forehead.

The strength behind that head kick was so high that Tobi was sent flying and stumbling for over a dozen metres over the water like a skipping stone.

"Konan! Konan! Are you okay? Konan! Answer me!" Naruto said in a panic as he stopped her body from sinking into the water and took her in his arms.

"What did you do to her, asshole?" he screamed at Tobi, who was now getting back to his feet. "What did you attack her for?"

Despite the orange mask that was still obscuring the bottom half of his face, Naruto could tell that the Uchiha was enraged.

"I had not been prepared for this scenario," Tobi said, but it was more to himself rather than to Naruto.

Due to not taking Konan seriously, he had almost paid the price with his life, and, on top of it all, he had not foreseen the situation where he would have to face the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki in battle while he was in such a deplorable state - on his last legs while missing an eye and an arm.

"I took you too lightly. I should have known you would have an ace up your sleeve. After all, you were a member of the Akatasuki too. You have won this time, Konan. Savour the victory while it lasts because I will be back. You can’t run from me. You cannot hide from me. I will be back soon, and I will take what is mine."

Leaving those parting words behind, Tobi’s body disappeared in a swirl as he teleported away.

⁂

A few hours later, Naruto was sitting in the hospital’s waiting room, wrenching his fingers from worry while Konan was undergoing surgery.

Fortunately, Tobi’s metal rod had not damaged the spine, and it had hit too low to puncture the lungs or other vital areas, but it was still a grievous wound - it had broken a rib and perforated her stomach too.

‘It wasn’t Konoha; it was the Akatsuki, and they weren’t after me, but they were after Konan. Why did they attack her?’

His first thought was that maybe it was vengeance because she had left the organisation, but he dismissed that thought when he remembered Tobi’s last words - "I will be back soon and I will take what is mine."

‘What does Konan have that he wants?’

When the door of the operating room opened and a middle-aged man wearing a medic’s garments came out, Naruto jumped up from his seat.

"How is she? Was the surgery successful? Is she okay? Tell me-"

"Everything is fine," the doctor said, and he subconsciously smiled at seeing how worried he was for her well-being. "The surgery was successful, and she will make a full recovery in due time."

"Thank God," Naruto said in relief. It was as if a weight had been lifted off his chest. "Can I see her?"

"You can, but she is still out of it. The anaesthesia has not worn off just yet."

"I understand," Naruto said, but before he could go inside the operating room to see Konan, the doctor said:

"Young man, thank you for saving her life. Lady Konan is far more important for Amegakure than you might think. After Pain-sama’s passing, she is all that stands between Ame and the three large powerful countries surrounding us. At this moment, she is irreplaceable."

Inwardly, Naruto was surprised that the medic knew about Pain’s death because Konan had kept that fact under wraps from the general population.

‘He must be one of the higher-ranked shinobi in Ame,’ he thought.

"When my village and my friends cast me away, it was Konan who came to rescue me. Saving her life is the least I could do," Naruto said seriously. "Also, before he passed away, I promised Nagato that I would bring peace to Amegakure. I want to protect Konan and Amegakure… They are the only things that I have left."

The doctor patted him on the shoulder in understanding.

"Konoha’s elders and the Hokage must’ve lost their minds if they cast aside someone like you. But their loss is our gain. We are happy to have you here, Uzumaki Naruto."

⁂

The smell of antiseptic and the sounds of monitoring machines in the background let Konan know even before opening her eyes that she was in the hospital.

She was so groggy and drained that just opening her eyes felt like a chore. She had to blink several times before her eyesight finally focused, and the first thing she did was check what was the pain in her arm coming from: an IV was slowly pumping blood in her veins to replenish what she had lost.

Taking in her surroundings, she realised that she was not alone in the hospital room. As her amber eyes fell on the boy snoozing with his head on the edge of her bed, her expression changed into a gentle smile.

She had no doubts as to what would have happened if Naruto had not intervened when he did. Although her plan had been flawless and she had almost killed ‘Madara’ with her strategy, she had never imagined that the Sharingan would have such a riduculous power - the ability to rewrite reality.

‘All those paper bombs, wasted.’

Amegakure's precarious financial situation at the moment was not only due to its lack of commerce with its neighbouring countries. Collecting over 600 billion paper bombs had cost her a fortune. Much of the Akatsuki funds that she and Nagato had saved up over the years were spent on buying those paper bombs.

‘But it was all for naught. In the end, Madara escaped.’

But she shook her head to banish those thoughts for the moment.

‘At least I am still alive. I owe Naruto my life,’ Konan thought, bringing her hand to caress his messy and spiky blonde hair.

Although Naruto was exhausted from having worked in the rain with several hundred clones and then watching over Konan for many hours after her surgery, he was so concerned with her well-being that even when he finally fell asleep, it wasn’t a deep slumber.

The moment Konan put her hand on his head and caressed him, he woke up. However, he did not open his eyes. Her caresses were so gentle that he wanted her to never stop. Nobody had ever touched him in such a manner until then.

Eventually, still anaemic and tired from how much blood she had lost earlier that day, Konan fell asleep once again. Naruto did not move her hand away from his head. Instead, he continued lying with his head on the bed and put his hand on top of hers.

Knowing that she had finally woken up and that she seemed to be fine, Naruto finally allowed himself to relax, and, in spite of the rather uncomfortable position - he was sitting on a stool lying with his head on the bed - he fell into a deep sleep this time.

⁂

As he woke up the next day, Naruto found himself in a completely different place than he remembered. Instead of being in Konan’s hospital room, he was back in the room where he had lived ever since he had come to Ame.

Once he was done with his morning rituals and put on a new change of clothes, he went to the canteen used by the personnel working in Pain’s Tower to have breakfast.

If there was one thing that the Land of Rain did not lack in the least, it was food. Amegakure had an abundance of rice, tomatoes, fish, and reptiles of all kinds. That being said, although he avoided dishes based on lizard meat and other oddities, he still had a rich meal.

Soon after he was done, a masked shinobi - ‘Ame’s version of ANBU," he thought - came to his table and said:

"Lady Konan requests your presence in her office as soon as possible."

"Understood," Naruto replied, standing up.

⁂

"Is it okay for you to be out of the hospital bed already?" was the first thing Naruto asked when he stepped into Konan’s office.

"Naruto! You are here," she said as a form of greeting. "I won’t lie and say I’m already healed. But there are some things that I must tell you, some things that we must do that are far more important than my comfort."

When he saw how she propped herself on the desk to stand up, he quickly went to her side and helped her.

"Don’t push yourself too much," Naruto said.

"Don’t worry, I am fine," Konan said, smiling at the concerned look on his face.

"If you want to go somewhere, I’ll carry you instead. You’re in no condition to walk so much or use your chakra now," Naruto said as he turned around and lowered his body for her to climb on his back.

Konan was not the type to hesitate, beat around the bush, or pretend that she was embarrassed.

She slowly leaned her body against his and wrapped her arms around his neck as she got on his back.

Wrapping her legs around his waist when he stood up, she sighed in relief as she rested her chin on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Naruto."

Her breathy voice so close to his ear and the feeling of her womanly body flush against his back made his skin break into goosebumps.

"You’re welcome," he said, clearing his throat in embarrassment, inwardly hoping she did not notice how flustered he was at that moment. "So, where do you want to go?"

"I will guide you. Follow my instructions."

"Okay," he said, and, as he started walking, he grabbed onto her thighs to further support the weight of her body.

"Make a right now," she said, and he did as he was told. "Now take that elevator. Press on the button leading to the basement."

A few minutes into their walk, Naruto could not bear the silence anymore, so he asked:

"How is your wound? Am I walking too fast? Does it hurt?"

"It’s not fully healed, but it hasn’t opened. My paper jutsu helps greatly when it comes to bandaging and healing from stabbing or cutting wounds."

"I see. It’s good to hear that."

After two minutes, Naruto tried to start a conversation again:

"Why did that Akatsuki member attack you yesterday?"

"He came after something that belonged to Nagato," she answered. "We are going there now to retrieve it."

⁂

"Beautiful," Naruto uttered when the two of them finally arrived at their destination.

It was a very tall and spacious hall with a dome ceiling supported by thick round columns. The orange and purple marble floor resembled the rings of a Rinnegan eye, and the bed of white paper roses and the exquisite carving of angels on the wall behind it gave it a stunning appearance.

On the bed of white paper roses, two preserved bodies lay with their hands interlocked on their chests. They were Yahiko and Nagato.

"You can put me down now," Konan said softly, and Naruto squatted to help her get back on her feet.

Leaning on Naruto’s forearm as she walked, Konan slowly led him to stand in front of Nagato. After a moment of silence, she said:

"The masked member of the Akatsuki came here in order to steal Nagato’s Rinnegan. But the Rinnegan does not belong to him. The Rinnegan belongs to Nagato; it is a national treasure of Amegakure. I cannot let it fall into his hands."

"Who is that man? I saw he had a Sharingan eye, but, as far as I know, Sasuke is the only Uchiha left. Is he an Uchiha too, or did he steal the Sharingan from someone else?" Naruto asked.

"He calls himself Uchiha Madara."

"Uchiha Madara?!" Naruto said in surprise. He had hardly paid any attention to the Academy as a kid, but even he had heard of that name before. "Didn’t Uchiha Madara and the First Hokage die a very long time ago?"

"I do not know whether he truly is Uchiha Madara as he claims or not. But he does have the Sharingan, and he is one of the most dangerous shinobi in the world. According to the information that Nagato and I have collected on him, he is the one who caused Kyuubi’s rampage in Konoha on the day of your birth. He was behind the bloodline massacres of Kirigakure, and he had manipulated the Mizukage from the shadows with his genjutsu."

Hearing her words, Naruto finally connected the dots. He had still not forgotten the warnings of his father’s chakra remnants from a few months ago. He could still remember how the Fourth Hokage told him to be wary of the man with the one-eyed mask.

"If he’s so dangerous, shouldn’t we destroy the Rinnegan? We can’t let him get his hands on such a powerful doujutsu. Nagato was the strongest shinobi I have ever seen in my life. The Rinnegan is too powerful to let it fall into the wrong hands."

At his words, Konan bit her lower lip. Rationally, she knew that he was right. She also knew that Tobi would be unable to proceed with his plan without the Rinngean - he wouldn’t be able to control the power of all the tailed beasts and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path without it. However,

"I can’t do it. This is all that I have left of Nagato."

She couldn’t bear to destroy the last vestige of Nagato. As an orphan living in a cruel world riddled with war and death, Yahiko and Nagato were all that she had ever had. And, after Yahiko’s death, she had grown to treasure Nagato even more than ever before. The two of them had been her family.

Naruto didn’t know what to say at that. Inwardly, he wondered what he would have done in her place, but he could not find an answer to that question right away.

"I cannot let the Rinnegan fall into Uchiha Madara’s hands… but I can’t bear to destroy it either."

Saying those words, Konan turned to look at him and she took his hands in hers, her amber eyes peering into his.

"I want you to have it, Naruto."

"Konan, I-... I don’t know-" Naruto stammered, overwhelmed by the importance of the request she had just made.

"You're carrying the dreams of both Yahiko and Nagato. You are their legacy. I want you to take Nagato’s Rinnegan. Please," she pleaded, her eyes boring into his soul.