36 Tenshi no Ame

"Destiny is the only myth. The gods choose nothing. You chose. At every critical juncture you were given an option; you were given a way out. Yet you picked precisely the roads that led you here. You are at this temple, kneeling before me, only because you wanted to be." (The Poppy War, R. F. Kuang)

xxx

-April 4th, 6:27 PM-

(Unknown, Land of Fire)

"I don't trust the boy."

"He is eager to please and gets the job done," countered Nagato, or rather, his Deva Path hologram. "Not to mention, expendable and is not a wanted man. Better him than Orochimaru, don't you think?"

Konan, for the umpteenth time that day, glanced at the grotesque mask in her hand, noting the sharp teeth and protruding horns.

She inwardly shuddered. Something about the mask simply ticked her the wrong way.

"Remind me again why we didn't simply keep the beast for ourselves? You are well aware of how hard this could backfire."

"We will need the Demonic Statue and the beast sooner or later. The latter should serve as an adequate bait. Even for a tailed beast it possesses massive reserves of powerful chakra, thus the Statue can't devour the beast if it values its life. It craves power, above anything else, in order to make itself whole."

"Thus it would be within its best interest not to get blown into thousands of pieces," Konan muttered.

"Yes. In the worst case scenario we would simply have to deal with another jinchūriki, not a big problem. Our first priority as of now is to locate the Statue and if possible, retrieve it."

Konan utilised her last ditch excuse. "What does Madara say about this, or Mikoto for that matters?"

Now her leader looked visibly amused. "Who do you think suggested the plan in the first place?" His ringed eyes suddenly turned hard. "That aside, we will need to keep a closer eye on them in the future. They are getting more and more unpredictable these days. I'd rather not be blindsided. Stay on your guard, Konan."

Konan inclined her head. "Always, Pein-sama."

"Remember to administer the painkiller five minutes before the ritual. It should last long enough for you to release our target and heal yourself. If anything goes wrong, your apprentice should be able to assist you."

Konan arched her brows. A ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips despite her obvious annoyance. "Oh, so he's my apprentice now?"

"He is useful. It'll be a shame to let his potential be wasted by the likes of Orochimaru, who also happens to have the highest flight risk, in your own words."

"Fine... I'll keep an eye on him," Konan said, "for now."

Tendō smiled. "Fair enough. Good luck, my friend."

The kunoichi hadn't even had the time to blink when her partner's hologram blipped out of existence.

"Don't forget to take your supplements," Konan whispered softly to the now-dead communication line.

The violet-haired woman then muttered a quick prayer towards the souls of the departed, asking for both their blessings and forgiveness, before she rose from her lotus position and dusted off dry leaves from her coat.

Konan was double checking the preparation for the summoning ritual when a gray-haired boy, her "apprentice", flickered back into the clearing, holding a small sack of what she assumed to be their target's decomposing flesh and bones.

"Did you encounter any problem, Yakushi-kun?"

The teen smiled, his glasses glinted in the darkening forest. "Not at all, Ma'am. The guards are surprisingly abysmal. It was so lax that I ended up retrieving other samples as well."

Konan was given two scrolls, each one marked with a kanji for 'One' and 'Two', respectively. She resisted the urge to chug them onto the nearest wall. She settled with nodding her assent instead.

"I see that you have prepared the anesthetic as well," the teen observed. "Shall we proceed then, Konan-sama?"

Konan glanced down onto the Shinigami Mask in her hands.

"Yes," she intoned, "Let's."