Akatsuki Babysitters? Rewrite.

Prologue

Their world was void of color and light.

In the darkness they learned to love the rain that poured over them day by day and embraced the frigid air that came with it. They didn't care that they grew cold. Frozen. Unfeeling. Blind to what their hearts would whisper.

But for them, their dying humanity had been watched from the moment they cracked to their descent into ashes.

Someone had an idea. And the idea was a naive little thing with bright eyes and the biggest thousand watt smile that any four year old could muster.

"It's not fair to them, Nagato," Konan insisted quietly. Her arms tightened around the small for in her arms as it shifted slightly before falling back to sleep.

"The world was never fair to them to start with," he said. His ringed eyes lingered on the fluff of pink hair before he looked away. "At least now, they can remember what it means to protect. She'll be introduced to them, and they will learn."

"Her condition—"

"—will give us a limited amount of time. She was put on this earth for a reason," Nagato interrupted. His heart hurt along with his words, but he pushed it aside. He knew what he had to do. "This is all that can be done. Sakura won't know any better, but they will."

Konan eyes burned. "Sometimes, I don't know whether or not you know how cruel you can be." She cradled her precious cargo close to her chest and disappeared on a flash of paper cranes, leaving Nagato to stare at the place she once was with heavy heart in a lonely room.

"It isn't cruelty," he murmured as he sat behind his desk, "but necessity."

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EDITED 1/29/18