35 Chapter 35 : Am angel's dilemma (2)

Konan groaned as she woke up and for a moment wondered where she was, her eyes opened to try and discern her location but all she could see at the moment were blurs. As she shook her head to clear her vision she tried to remember what happened, Nagato… Pain she reminded herself had sent her on a mission to deal with someone who had managed to evade his sensor jutsu until he was nearly out of the village. That was when she remembered she found him and they had fought, however after that everything went blank and she couldn't remember anything else afterwards but assumed she had been defeated. Though that begged the question of why was she still alive.

"I'm glad to see you're finally awake."

Her head snapped to the source of the voice and saw that it was that blond shinobi sitting near a fire as he cooked some kind of stew over it. Her eyes widened and she tried to get up only to realize that she was tied and bound, she looked down at herself to see .8 grade ninja wire binding her arms and legs together. She immediately began to try and channel chakra to cut the ropes but soon found out that she could not even feel her chakra.

"That won't work," the blond said from where he was, making it obvious he knew what she was trying to do.

Konan snarled at the man as real emotion showed up on her face for the first time in years, "What did you do to me!"

"I sealed off your chakra," the blond said with a shrug as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Konan's eyes widened, "What!"

"Would you stop shouting," Naruto said in an annoyed tone, "since you attacked me I decided to seal off your chakra." he looked at Konan and she could almost see the smirk through the blonds mask, "if you're a good girl I may give it back to you eventually."

Konan glared at Naruto as she began to struggle even harder, knowing it was futile Naruto turned his attention back to his stew. Konan's struggle continued for half an hour before she realized that she would not be able to escape, without her chakra she was as helpless as a civilian and the wire was bound too tightly for her to wiggle free. With nothing left to do Konan merely stared up at the ceiling of the cave, about an hour later a delicious smell filled her nose. Turning her eyes she saw her blond captor kneeling down next to her with a bowl of stew.

"Are you hungry?" he asked and when he received no answer he sighed, "You know not answering me only hurts yourself."

"I'm not hungry," Konan finally said only for her stomach to betray her a second later, despite the situation Konan blushed in embarrassment.

Naruto chuckled, "so… hungry?" he asked again with amusement evident in his voice.

"Not like I can eat anyway in case you haven't noticed," Konan said sarcastically as she wiggled her arms which were currently tied to her body.

"That could be a problem," Naruto said nodding in agreement and causing Konan to scowl at the amusement in his tone. "And unfortunately I can't just untie you as that would ruin the whole point of tying you up in the first place, aside from the fact that I don't trust you not to kill me the first chance you get. Thankfully I have a way around that!"

Konan eyed him wearily for a moment as she tried to find out what he meant; when she did sent him a glare that would have melted lesser men, "I won't be fed, least of all by you!"

Her stomach gurgled again and Naruto shrugged, "If your pride means more to you then living then be my guest and starve to death."

Konan bit her lip as she felt her stomach going off again while Naruto moved to get up, "Wait!" she said.

Naruto paused as he turned around, "yes?"

"I…" Konan paused as she swallowed the bit of pride she had as a Kunoichi, slumping her shoulders she spoke again, "I would like that food… please."

Naruto nodded as he went back to her, kneeling down he tenderly picked her up and set her so she was leaning against the wall. Going back he grabbed the bowl of stew before sitting next to her, scooping up a spoonful of the food he lifted it to Konan's mouth. Konan opened her mouth without protest as Naruto brought the spoon inside her mouth before she closed it, the woman's eyes widened as the flavor of the food exploded on her tongue. While she did not want to admit it, the food was some of the best she had had in a long time; strangely enough she was reminded of Jiraiya and the times he would cook for her, Yahiko and Nagato when the man had lived with them. As she ate the food she could not help but spare several glances at her captor. She could not tell his age but from the sound of the voice he was fairly young, at least in his mid to late teens and yet he the way he walked and the confidence he exuded was the exact same aura she saw in most veteran shinobi that Akatsuki had.

"Would you like seconds?" her captor asked and Konan found herself taken aback by the kindness and warmth in his voice.

"Er… no thank you," she said blinking as she wondered why she was being so polite to the person who had essentially taken her prisoner. She looked at him again as he went to clean out the bowl and sealed it and the food in a scroll, finally she asked the question that had been burning in the back of her mind since she realized her situation.

"Why did you spare me?"

Naruto turned to look at her and tilted his head as he found himself slightly surprised by the question, why did he spare her? She not only attacked him, but was also a part of Akatsuki so by all rights he should just kill her and be done with it. And yet…

Shrugging Naruto evaded the question, "I'm not sure to be honest." he looked up at the ceiling before looking back at her, "considering the group you're with I probably should kill you." Konan instantly tensed even though she knew if he wanted to kill her there was nothing she could do to stop him. "Yet at the same time something tells me not to," walking up to her he sat down and leaned against the wall.

Konan watched the man as he closed his eyes, she was not sure what to make of that last comment; most shinobi would have either killed her by now or at the very least raped her or something, yet he had done none of this and even treated her well. Deciding to get more information until she could make her escape she asked him more questions, "what do you plan to do with me?"

Naruto sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, "you know I haven't thought about it; though I do know I'm not gonna let you go back to that crack pot you call a leader…"

Konan's eyes narrowed dangerously, "don't you dare talk about Pain-Sama like that!"

"Pain," Naruto said as if testing it, "is that what he calls himself these days…" Konan's eyes instantly widened wondering what this man knew about Pain. Naruto looked over at her, "I wonder… are you talking about Yahiko…" he watched as her expression fell and realized with small pang of guilt that her friend was dead. However that also left only one other option about Pain's identity, "so… Nagato is Pain eh?"

"How do you know these things?" Konan asked in a low and somewhat strained voice, she would not admit it but being reminded of her dead friend hurt. "Only a few people ever knew who we were, so how do you know this?"

Naruto hmm'd a second before speaking, "I'm not sure I trust you enough to tell you, maybe I will later though… if you earn my trust."

Realizing she was not going to get anything out of the blond she stayed quiet, eventually Konan began to feel tired and despite being in the presence of an enemy ended up falling asleep. Naruto looked over at Konan and gently lifted her up, moving over to a sleeping back he unzipped it and tenderly set her in. now that she was asleep he took a small moment to study her; Konan had short light blue hair done up in a short shoulder length cut with a small origami flower in it. Her face was perfectly heart shaped and held a definitive feminine beauty that most woman Kunoichi or otherwise would be extremely hard pressed to match; she also a labret piercing under her bottom lip. Her skin was a milky white and despite wearing the Akatsuki cloak Naruto could easily see the feminine figure that rivaled Mei and Yugito's under it. He studied her face for a moment, now that she was sleeping her face looked innocent, peaceful and even slightly vulnerable especially compared to the neutral or angry and annoyed looks she had given him when she had been awake. Resisting his natural urge to brush away a few strands of her hair Naruto instead tucked her in and got out another sleeping back from a scroll, laying in it where he went into a very light sleep.