University of Konoha (Modern Naruto Various)

Chapter 12

Konan had brought the car around so Pain was sitting in the passenger seat while I sat in the back. I had my eyes closed, trying to stave off the headache I could feel coming. I wasn't paying attention to where we were going so I was surprised when Konan pulled into the parking lot of a diner. "You need to get some food in you. It's the least we could do for making you sick," Pain said. "Oh, you guys don't have to do that. It was my fault for drinking that spiked punch in the first place." "It's alright Asami. It'll be our treat," Konan told me. It was clear they weren't going to take no for an answer. "Alright." I followed them inside the diner and we were sat down immediately. It was late so the place was pretty empty. After we ordered our food, Pain sighed and said, "I should of known things would go wrong with Hidan involved. They almost always do." That reminded me... "Pain, Konan. Can you tell me about the incident that happened between Gaara and the Akatsuki?" They looked at me in surprise. "I thought you knew about it already," Pain said. I shook my head. "No one's been willing to talk about it." He sighed. "Then I suppose we should start at the beginning."

"Sasori, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro are actually from a village called Suna. Their parents knew each other and therefore introduced the siblings and Sasori to each other. They had hopes that they would get along. Sasori ended up making the decision to introduce the siblings to the Akatsuki much like it was for you. Ironically enough, it was a party much like this one. You've seen how obnoxious Hidan can be. Well a drunk Hidan is much worse. He was drinking at the party and ended up getting into a fight with another guy. The guy had a group of his buddies with him so of course it turned into an all out brawl. Some of us tried to stop the fight but unfortunately Gaara got caught in the middle and ended up taking a pretty bad hit to the head. He ended up having a minor concussion and some short term memory loss." Pain sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Understandingly, his siblings were furious with us. Naruto and his friends were pretty pissed too. Honestly, we feel pretty bad about what happened. We never wanted them to get hurt. But now we're on bad terms because of that." So that's what happened. Now everything made sense. Well almost everything. "Did Nagato and Zetsu get hurt somehow too?" I asked. A dark shadow passed over Pain and Konan's faces. "No... What happened with them wasn't related to that." Our food had arrived and we ate in silence. When we were finished I spoke. "If it's too painful, I understand if you don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry for prying." Konan shook her head. "No, no. It's ok. You're one of us now so you should know." It took me a minute to process what she said. I'm one of them. A warmth spread through my heart. "Thank you," I whispered.

"For you to truly understand Nagato's story, we need to tell you about our past. Konan, Nagato, and I were all orphans. We were raised in the same orphanage. Nagato was special. He was a sensitive soul who felt the pain of the world deeper than anyone else. Unfortunately, when he was fairly young, he saw his parents murder. It left a deep wound in his heart that we knew was going to be hard to heal. But the three of us ended up bonding and we stuck together. We were family for each other. We eventually became adults and left the orphanage. We didn't want to separate so we decided to go to the same school. That's when we started attending the University of Konoha. For a little while, life was good. We were happy and Nagato finally seemed to be getting over the wounds of his past. Our sophmore year, we decided to create our own fraternity- the Akatsuki. Konan and I thought this would be good for Nagato. A chance to make new friends and expand his world. Zetsu was one of our first members. Our little family grew. Life had never been better. But... at the beginning of our junior year, that's when things changed. The incident with Gaara happened for one. Nagato felt particularly guilty and devastated by that. It caused him pain to see a rift form between the two groups like that. Around that time, Zetsu was abroad for a science internship." I noticed Pain clenched his fists. Konan noticed as well and squeezed his arm reassuringly. He relaxed a little bit and gave her a grateful nod. Pain continued with his story. "Zetsu was caught in a robbery gone wrong and ended up being killed. That was the tipping point for Nagato. I think it reminded him of his parents murder. After that, he became extremely depressed and refused to eat. We tried so hard to help him but he was in so much pain. He eventually just faded away." After the story, I grabbed Pain and Konan's hands in each of mine. I felt the tears brimming in my eyes but I held them back. "I'm sorry for your loss. It must of been very difficult when you lost him." They smiled sadly at me. "That's why I go by Pain now. It's to honor the loss of Nagato and Zetsu." "What is your name originally?" "Yahiko." I looked at the two of them. I could see the sadness on their faces when they remembered those they lost. They must of had a really tight bond, the three of them. They really were like a family. Now I understood what Sasori meant about the group feeling down. I looked back to Yahiko. "I will continue to honor your friends memory by calling you Pain."