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Tobi’s laugh visibly irritated Konan when she helped the masked figure up.
‘Whatever this is, you’ve lost control.’ Tobi said. Sounding both tired yet amused.
‘You know better to touch.’ Konan retorted. Tobi responded by barking out a brusk guffaw, but when Konan only reciprocated with a razored glare he rolled his head and left, leaving Konan and the two outer paths behind, on the deck.
Konan waited til he was out of sight before releasing her jutsu. ‘He’s not wrong about the control part.’ She said as sheets of her origami paper fluttered to the ground where it had subdued the naraka path to reveal its spiky yellow hair. ‘Are you going to do anything about this?’
I hesitated in my response. The former jinchuuriki was strong to be certain, I had never before found a more integral body so suited for its purpose. Yet, as perfect as he was, he still had this small and somewhat unfixable flaw.
Finally, after an undue amount of pause, I told Konan I’d take it under consideration. She sighed, resignated, and plucked a stray piece of paper that had fluttered from the naraka path to the animal path. And, looking out to the ocean, flicked the paper into the dense fog covering its grey surface.
I released my hold on the paths and naturally the two newest acquired paths drifted together like some kind of strange chemical attraction. Without my regimented control they swayed with the motion of the ship. I had exerted to compartmentalise the problem and the effort had proved ineffective, and now in the still silent portion of this voyage I contemplated the issue at hand that caused the aforementioned incident.
My newest puppet, which hosted the naraka path, did not entirely adhere to prerogative. Its defiance was infrequent, not enough to classify as a hindrance to its functionality, but just a slight annoyance I couldn’t ignore. The common factor for this slight irregularity appeared to be the other newly acquired vessel of mine—
Animal path.
The naraka path was protective of it, and went fanatic anytime the animal path was situated in harm’s way. Unless actively restrained, it reacted badly when the other paths or another being approached the animal path, with Konan being an exception. And on this occasion, it had punched Tobi square in the face when Tobi tried to pry wide one of the animal path’s eyes.
Tobi was determined to appear not affected by the inability to interact with the two newly acquired paths. His clownish demeanor was a farce at hiding his displeasure at being unable to approach much less interact with the animal path. I cared not for the folly of Tobi harbouring such petty irritation, but must admit that Konan’s concern is founded on reasonable ground. If we do enter into a combative state it is possible that malfunction could result in possible out of control factors, though under the power of the rinnegan it hardly registered as a matter of significance.
The deviance didn’t so much irritate me as it fascinated me. No other puppet of mine retained any figments of their life before death. I did not know if this one was special due to it having formerly been a container for a tailed beast—that on some existential level the power of the rinnegan didn’t so much animate the body as it integrated itself within the fiber of its being. It may also give reason as to why the vessel so easily invoked the difficult and intricate demands of the gate of hell and accessed otherwise unnavigable channels.
All this conjecture was of course now but fragments, shrapnel, against the main reason why I decided to use the current vessels for the naraka path and the animal path, it was of a personal nature, I am unashamed to admit, vendetta to see these two under the bidding of my rinnegan, I almost wished that I had kept Jiraiya alive just to witness his proud disciples so subdued, at my bidding.
Before its death the naraka path was Jiraiya’s most recent disciple. In a way, he was my kyoudai, and like my battles with each of Jiraiya’s disciples, it had been personal. The very man who called training children like myself, Konan, and Yahiko into child soldiers ‘saving kids from the atrocities of war’ had never ceased to spread his brand of brainwashing across the land before I had ensured to personally bury him in the bottom of the deepest water across the five lands. The animal path, though never been trained by Jiraiya himself, was also closely tied to the man, being the only surviving disciple of the fourth hokage who was also a disciple of Jiraiya's, who happened to also be the father of the human that once was the naraka path. A man who had died due to the kyuubi’s attack, another fodder whom Jiraiya must surely have deemed ‘heroic’ in his own twisted view of the world.
Before their deaths, the animal path was close to the naraka path, the exact nature of their relationship I, thinking that it was of little consequence, did not bother to ascertain, whether it was as a teacher or a mentor or something more familially linked, whatever it was, its significance had been imprinted deep enough that the naraka path carried the bond even after its death.
All of this would sound ludicrously coincidental had I not known Jiraiya’s true nature. His firm belief in the legacy of misguided hope which he was determined to litter across the land. In our exchange before my deciding victory that finally ended his mad pursuit, I learned that he believed in a certain destiny, almost, when it came to the jinchuuriki container who ultimately became the naraka path, saw the most potential in this one to become a saviour of sorts—delusions of a dead man on an equally dead boy. Now Jiraiya rotted in the riverbed beneath deep waters. And this vessel, who once housed those untenable ideals, was now but a carrier for my jutsu, a cog in the complex and beautiful mechanism for our grand purpose.
Tobi himself seemed fascinated more by the animal path, having some connection to its former human counterpart in the past. The naraka path’s protectiveness of the animal path didn’t seem to raise suspicion for him, Tobi as well as what remains of the akatsuki had assumed that I was being cautious with my puppets after losing so many in the last war. I gladly encouraged such presumptions. Though not exactly content, Tobi was not upset enough for us to come to any true disagreement.
Until today, of course.
I wondered if he would bring it up with Konan or myself, he had never before questioned my effectiveness in carrying out the missions. Even if he insisted, I could not justify discarding either of the current animal or naraka paths. Their bodies were almost flawless when it came to execution of their respective outer paths. Especially the naraka path, whose unique physicality, whether it be because of his former role as a jinchuuriki, or something else, allowed me to perform a lot more daring feats, a luxury I very much relished. As for the animal path, though he was not more or less uniquely powerful, his excellent all-round ability made him feel like a worn glove, having no trouble in melding itself to its role whereas before him so many had struggled and ultimately failed to accept the ascended state.
As long as I let him be territorial around the animal path, the naraka path was completely fine, preferable, even, as Konan had clearly taken a liking to the naraka path. She had even decorated its golden hair with diadems of her beautiful white origami bouquet. At night the naraka path curled around the animal path, even though as outer paths they needed no rest, nor company. The sight of the two of them pleased Konan, so for the remainder of the journey across the misty ocean, I allowed them to stay outside of their containment units. The moonlight bounced off the gray of the animal path’s hair, as the naraka path leaned its head against the other’s frosted pale skin. I saw the animal path tilt its own in response.
‘No balance ever remains a state of permanence’— was a maxim I stumbled upon in my youth, back when Yahiko was still my friend and rival and not the Deva Path. A dictate that proves itself true over and over again. And once more, on this occasion, when we finally faced off against the eight-tailed jinchuuriki and his brother on the misty island.
Due to a miscalculation, a lightning jutsu had hit the naraka path, and completely and utterly destroyed it. Not even one complete strand of its blond hair remained after the lightning jutsu that practically elektrilised it, tore it apart, molecule by molecule.
Our side, me personally, suffered severe losses. Human path was also destroyed, and demon path lost half of its head and two limbs, very much being rendered useless as Konan wrapped what remained of it in protective armour made of origami paper. Deva path recuperated as the shark-man faced off the octopus for a final showdown. That was when I noticed that the animal path, who had been flawlessly maintaining the summons that protected the rest of us, was different, in some way.
I examined it, its chakra channels still opened to my command, its movement still swift and without the slightest delay. But there were suspicious trails of wetness running down its eyes that was different from the water being splashed onto him due to the surrounding combat. Separate from the rivulets streaming down from its soaked gray strands, something saltier, formed two distinctive, glistening streaks down its cheeks, one of which was chiseled by a vertical scar.
I knew it to be impossible, for the reanimated outer paths had neither soul nor consciousness, nor even anything akin to personality or sentiment. Even the former naraka path’s inclination towards this animal path could not be classified as such. But, in that instant, when the sun shone through the dense mist, when light played to trick my eyes, the water streaks almost looked like…
… tears.