The man Konan introduced as Nagato was another surprise, although in retrospect it shouldn’t have been. The forest of metal rods imbedded in his back were obviously the transmitter for the puppet technique that controlled ‘Pein’s’ six bodies, but they certainly weren’t improving his health. He could probably survive for awhile without the life support pod he was embedded in, but I could see at a glance he probably didn’t have more than a few years to live.
His own explanation of his plan didn’t sound nearly as crazy as the version Jiraiya had told me.
“Once we have merged all the bijuu into a single weapon the great nations will fight for control of it. Many lives will be lost before a victor emerges. But then the victor will have the means to terrify all enemies into submission, with a power that does not depend on armies or the strength of each generation’s ruler. The brutal, total wars of the past will be replaced with intrigue and carefully limited rebellions. After generations of rule the central government will eventually become corrupt and fall, but even then there will be no reason to raise armies and fight devastating battles over the countryside. Only possession of the bijuu weapon will be needed to rule, so the battles to control it will be the only ones worth fighting. The pain of war will not be eliminated, but it will be reduced to the smallest scale that human nature allows.”
“That seems surprisingly plausible,” I admitted. “The devastation of the initial war will be huge, until people realize what they’re up against and adjust to the new reality. But even one century of peace would make up for it, and this new system would probably last for ages. The new rulers could be tyrants, but they can still be assassinated and they don’t have as much need to fear rebellion, so on average they might even be better rulers than the daimyos. Only, why aren’t you setting yourself up as the first ruler?”
“No man with so much blood on his hands should be an emperor,” Nagato said solemnly. “Besides, the daimyos will struggle much harder to oppose a ninja usurper than one of their own. I shall leave it to fate to determine which of them will attain control over the weapon.”
“I see,” I replied. “So, what do you need me for?”
“Most of our other members are greedy men who believe they will attain the power of the bijuu themselves,” he revealed. “Only Konan and I know the truth, though Itachi may suspect. But my power exacts a heavy toll on my body, and the work on the bijuu container goes slowly. If I pass before our plan is complete Konan will need assistance to see it through.”
“Otherwise men like Kakuzu and Kisame really will gain the power of the bijuu?” I asked. “Yeah, that would be bad. Alright, we’re in. But you know, I could probably heal you. I can see that those rods would scramble anyone else’s chakra, but if we remove them the damage would be well within my limits.”
He glanced at Konan, who gazed back at him silently.
“No,” he shook his head. “I must retain the full power of this technique for as long as possible, or our plan has little chance of success. But I am curious what other hidden skills you possess…”
Needless to say, the other Akatsuki members were not impressed. They were used to seeing themselves as the strongest of the strong, and kunoichi just don’t make it to that level. We start out with less physical strength and chakra than male ninja, and contrary to popular belief we don’t have any compensating advantages. Add in the fact that kunoichi tend to specialize in seduction or medicine, and usually retire by their early twenties to raise a family, and it’s no mystery why there are a couple dozen male S-rank ninja for every female.
Most of them were professional enough to keep their mouths shut about it, since ‘Pein’ wasn’t the sort to do things on a whim, but every group has its hotheads.
“I can see why our leader wants you two around,” Hidan laughed as Hinata and I took our first look at the bijuu container. On discovering I was a seal master Pein immediately sent me to examine it and present my own analysis, which is a pretty sensible precaution with something so complex. You never know when even a junior assistant is going to point out that you’ve got an inverted seal or inappropriate coupling somewhere, and one mistake like that could result in this thing blowing up the first time we use it.
“I always figured that Konan chick had it bad for him, but if you two are as hot in the sack as you look I can see why he’d kick her to the curb,” the loudmouth went on. “But if we’re letting members in based on looks there’s a couple of girls back at the Prancing Kitten I want to recruit.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is he always this much of an idiot?” I asked Kisame, who was supplying chakra to the seal array as Itachi carefully inked in new symbols.
“Oh, don’t mind him, ladies,” the shark-faced man laughed. “He’s Kakuzu’s third replacement partner, so he probably won’t last long.”
“Hey!” Hidan objected. “Jashin has made me immortal, fish-face! You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”
“Uh huh. You keep telling yourself that. Anyway, anyone with a brain knows the leader wouldn’t have picked you two without a good reason. But I do gotta ask, are you two just medics or seal masters or something, or are you actually combat effective?”
“Want to spar when we’re done here?” I asked with an innocent smile. He gave me a measuring look, and grinned.
“Could be interesting.”
Most of Akatsuki’s members weren’t the sort to show all their cards, but they did do enough training to ensure they’d be able to fight together effectively. There was a massive chamber buried beneath Amegakure that they used as a training area, since the walls were chakra-hardened steel tough enough to withstand anything short of a bijuu.
Kisame was a fun opponent. I was faster and stronger than he was, but his sword was a bit of an obstacle and he had some interesting water jutsu. I went water myself and played with him for about ten minutes, before I went to full boost and pulled a trick he couldn’t counter. He was a good sport about it when I woke him up.
“Damn, you’re fast girl!” He growled. “Especially your techniques. I’ve never seen anyone do a sealless water dragon like that before. What was that thing at the end?”
I smiled. “Just an improved body flicker, believe it or not. My version takes perfect control, but it’s better at penetrating another ninja’s chakra aura and it doesn’t have that half-second delay between charging the technique and actually appearing. I just concentrate and poof, suddenly I’m hitting the back of your head with whichever technique I feel like using. Most of the big elemental attacks would still be slow enough to give you some warning, but a couple of my medical techniques are actually instant.”
“Nasty,” he conceded. “Guess I’ll have to do some training.”
“Hinata got the trick of scrambling her aura to keep me out in about a week,” I agreed. “Let me know if you want someone to practice it with. I could use another sparring partner.”
I found three serious problems with the bijuu vessel in my first week of looking at it, and one of them was a real flaw instead of something they’d put in on purpose to test me. It was a fascinating device, so complex that even an expert who’d worked on it could easily be mistaken about its real purpose. The parts to store and mix the chakra of the bijuu were taking up most of the effort, since they required massive amounts of power but were simple enough for anyone with a decent grasp of seals to work on. The rest of the array, the parts that were supposed to either create the bijuu weapon or split the power back up into human hosts, were such a tangle that even with my special advantage I had trouble deciphering them.