Between Love and Death

  "How is he?"

  Voices…  All those voices…  Sound so familiar…

  "We won’t know for sure just yet."

  "When will we know for sure?!"

  "Once he drops dead.  If he's still breathing within the next couple of months he should be okay.  Not perfect, but alright."

  "Hear that, Tobi?"  Tobi?  "He may be alright!"

  "Yay!  Thank you, Saso-san!"

  "Get off of me, brat!"

  Brat?  Who dared call Tobi a brat?

  "He's waking up!"

  "Be careful; he may lash out in confusion.  He should be waking up confused and disoriented, and perhaps even frightened."

  The blackness that had been all Zetsu could see was quickly replaced by blinding white light once his eyes adjusted once again.

  "Oh..." Zetsu moaned, moving his black arm up to his face to shield his eyes.

  "Tobi, be careful!" Zetsu frowned at Kisame’s cry; what was Tobi doing?

  Zetsu tensed up, feeling arms wrapping around him.  "Zet-san!"

  "Ggmh oomph!"  Zetsu tried to tell Tobi to get off, but all that could come out was a strangled gargle.  When the arms wouldn’t leave he tried to take shelter in his flytrap.

  "Zetsu, don’t!" Zetsu didn’t notice the urgency in Konan’s voice as he closed the flytrap.

  There was a snap as the flytrap closed and all of a sudden it was near impossible for Zetsu to breath.  Just when the Kusa-nin thought he would pass out from the lack of oxygen, the flytrap was forced open and a white mask was placed over his mouth.

  "It's an oxygen mask," Kisame explained sadly, pulling his hands away.  "Your lungs were severely damaged from the poisoning.  We had you on the mask but you cut the cord just then.  Good thing we had an extra already set up."

  Zetsu's eyes locked to the wall, avoiding all eye contact with the others in the room with him.  He didn’t care what anyone had to say to him right now; he had just wanted to die.  Why did they have to but in and ruin everything?

  "We didn’t want to be saved, you know..." Zetsu mumbled.  "We wanted to die."

  Tobi started to cry as he heard this; he couldn’t bear the thought of being without Zetsu.  "I don’t want you to die!" He cried out.  "I love you!  You're my best friend!  And no one else tells Tobi that he's a good boy!"

  Zetsu glanced at Tobi, sadness welling in the pits of his stomach.  "We... l-lo--care... about you, too, Tobi..."

  "Everyone, out!" Pein ordered after Zetsu had spoken, and his voice held such authority there was no room for argument.  "I want to speak with Zet-kun alone."

Sasori left without one look back, Konan glanced warily at Zetsu, smiling sadly at him, before she left, but Tobi put up a fight, not wanting to part with his dear Zetsu.

  "I don’t want to go!" he shouted at Pein.  "Tobi wants to stay here!"

  "Tobi, go!" Pein demanded, pointing at the door.

  "No!" Tobi childishly crossed his arms, pouting.

  "Tobi!  Kisame, get rid of him!"

  "Come on, kiddo," Kisame said gently, grabbing Tobi’s hand and pulling on it gently.  "Zetsu wants you to listen to leader-sama."

  "But I want to stay!"  Tobi’s eyes held such a sadness in them that Kisame felt his heart melting.

  "I know you do, Tobi-kun, but you'll be a bad boy, and I know Zetsu doesn’t want you to be a bad boy."

  "But... Alright, Kisa-chan... Bye, bye, Zet-san..."

  "Bye, Tobi." Zetsu wheezed out.

  As soon as the door was closed, Pein began his questioning.

  "What were you thinking, Zet-kun?!" he asked, horror in his voice.

  For almost every word in previous conversation that day, Zetsu's gentler and more frightened personality had been doing the talking, but now it was the nastier and harsher personality that wanted to put a few words in.  "What does it matter?" Kuroi whispered.  "No one would miss us... Only Tobi."

  "No, Zet-kun, you're wrong." Pein said quietly.  "What makes you think that?"

  "We can see it in their eyes.  We disgust all the others.  We just want to be lo -- to be cared about.  No one else here will.  Only Tobi.  And maybe you, Pein-sama..."

  "I do love you, Zet-kun!" Pein exclaimed.  "I love all my subordinates here in the Akatsuki!  And you... you're my favourite."

  "Liar.  Konan-sama is your favourite."

  "You know what?” Zetsu looked up in slight confusion.  “You're half right.  Konan-chan is my favourite out of everyone here, but she's not my subordinate.  We've been together since we were kids; what do you expect?"

  Zetsu sighed and looked away, rolling onto his side and trying to go to sleep.  He felt bad about disrespecting Pein but at that minute he could've cared less; he didn’t want to do anything except do what he had set out to do; die.

  Pein sighed, and Zetsu heard him shuffling around behind him.  "Zetsu, I'll do what I must to keep you alive even if you hate me for it." The ginger spoke softly, approaching Zetsu from said man’s blind spot.

--LINEBREAK--

  Kisame had taken Tobi into his room to distract the child from his thoughts.  Itachi was in the room as well, lying on his bed reading his Icha Icha book, but as long as Tobi was quiet, Kisame knew that Itachi wouldn’t mind.

  "Kisa-chan?" Tobi asked, putting down the bottle of fish food he had been using to feed Kisame’s fish with on the fish tank's lid.

  "Hmm?"

  "Pein-sama has been in the room with Zet-san a long time... what do you think they're talking about?"

  "He'll just be asking Zetsu about what happened is all... He was really worried about the poisoning." Kisame petted Tobi's head, trying to comfort him.  "It's nothing to worry about."

  "What happened?" Itachi asked, looking up from his book, the first actual words he had spoken all day apart from 'hn'. 

  "Zet-san was poisoned!" Tobi cried dramatically, making Itachi flinch as the high-pitched sound hurt his sensitive ears.

  "Is he alright?" Though Itachi was asking for Zetsu’s wellbeing, he didn’t look concerned at all, nor did he sound concerned.  It was like he was just asking for the sake of it.

  "I thought you didn’t like Zetsu, 'tachi-kun?"  Kisame grinned, always up for trying to crack Itachi’s emotionless mask – though he hadn’t managed to do that yet, he hadn’t given up.

  "It's not that, it's just --"

  There was a knock on the bedroom door before Itachi could finish his sentence and Pein stepped in, he himself wearing an emotionless expression.  The ginger looked different to Tobi – more dishevelled and seemingly worked up about something.  It seemed like Pein had been in some sort of fight before he arrived at the room – or at least that was what Tobi’s childish innocence was comparing it to.

  "Zets-kun is ready for you, Tobi," Pein said gently to the young boy, looking at Itachi curiously; it wasn’t every day you heard him speak.

  "Why is your hair messy, Pein-sama?" Tobi questioned innocently, tilting his head; his curiosity did tend to get the better of him.

  "No reason.” Pein’s voice was cold as he answered the question, narrowing his eyes.  “Go now."

  Tobi obeyed happily, forgetting all about his curiosity and he ran down the corridor to the medical ward, looking forward to being with Zetsu again.

  Back in the bedroom, Kisame glared at Pein while Itachi returned back to his book, having no interest in anything else going on around him anymore.  "What the fuck did you do to him?" Kisame hissed at Pein.

  Pein smirked, running his hand through his messy hair.  "He's my subordinate, Kisa-kun; I can do what I want to him.  Besides, I don’t see you claiming him."

  Kisame’s eyes narrowed at these words; what was Pein talking about?  If he were speaking of what the Kiri-nin was thinking he was….  Kisame’s hands clenched at the mere thought, itching to grab Samehada; he refused to allow anyone else to touch his Zetsu.

--LINEBREAK--

  Tobi neared the medical ward, so excited to be able to talk to Zetsu again.  He pushed open the door, grinning from ear to ear, only to find out that Zetsu was fast asleep.

  "Oh, he's sleeping," Tobi whispered sadly to himself, walking over quietly to the bed.  "Have a good sleep, Zet-san."

  Tobi began to pull the covers over Zetsu but stopped when he realised that Zetsu was sweating as well as shaking; why would he be cold when it was only luke-warm inside the room?

  "Zet-san is shaking, but also sweating?  Hmm..."  Tobi couldn’t seem to work out how Zetsu could shake and sweat at the same time.

  "Tobi?" Zetsu whispered tiredly, cracking his eyelids open ever so slightly.  Tobi figured that Zetsu had awoken at his voice.

  "Yeah?” Tobi smiled.  “Did Tobi wake you?"

  "No.  Please, Tobi... be a good boy and find Konan-sama for me." Zetsu’s voice was almost pleading.

"Okie-dokie, Zet-san!" Tobi said happily, running out of the room without a second thought; all he wanted to do was please his master.

--LINEBREAK--

  "And then he -- he... He said he was going to give us what we needed to feel better..." Zetsu whispered, avoiding Konan's gaze, not even an hour later; as promised, Tobi had found Konan and they had both returned to Zetsu together, only to find Zetsu crying.  "... He didn’t hurt us... but he did it because we didn’t say no...  He was only trying to help...  He promised he wouldn’t do it again because it made us upset..."

  "Zet-sama, I..." Konan's mind was in circles as she listened to what Zetsu was telling her about Pein.  Pein couldn’t have... "Why would Nagato...?"

  Tobi tugged on Konan's sleeve, trying to gain her attention.  He was so confused as to the entire conversation.  "Who is Nagato?  What did Pein-sama do to Zet-san?  I don’t understand."

  For Zetsu, breathing was difficult as he tried to speak, and his distress was only making it harder.  He was wheezing and coughing as he once-again laid down some rules for Tobi.  "We do not want Tobi to know about this, Konan-sama."

  "Why can’t I know?” Tobi pouted sadly, looking hurt.  “Tobi's a good boy; he won’t tell anyone!"

  "We know, Tobi, just --” Zetsu begun to hack furiously, blood spurting with the force of the coughs, clutching his chest as Konan laid him back down, placing the oxygen mask over his mouth once more. 

  "Try not to get too worked up, Zets-sama," Konan said gently.  "It's not good for you; especially in this condition."

  Before Zetsu had a chance to reply, the door was thrown open and Kisame entered, looking angry and yet concerned.  "Zetsu!  I know what happened!  I am so, so sorry!"

  "Kisa-san," Zetsu said weakly, "not in front of my subordinate.  We'll tell him one day but he's too young to understand right now."

  Kisame bowed respectfully before straightening up and walking to the bed, sitting down on the chair beside Konan.  "As you wish.  Zetsu, please understand that if there is anything at all I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask."

  Zetsu closed his eyes with a sigh, nodding.  "Thank you."

  Kisame smiled before gasping as Zetsu groaned and shifted in pain.

  "Kisa-kun," Konan said gently to Kisame, "he needs to rest.  We'll let Tobi stay with him."

  Kisame nodded sadly.  “Okay…  I’ll come back later, Zetsu.  I’ll see you around.  Bye, Tobi-kun.”

  "Bye, Kisa-chan, Konan-sama!" Tobi cried, hugging them both before going back to his master's side.

  "Bye, Tobi." Konan smiled, petting the boy’s hair lovingly.

  Exiting the room, Konan quietly closed the door behind her.  She turned to Kisame just a few minutes away from the medical ward, a stoic expression on her face.  "I know how you feel about Zet-sama," she whispered, sympathy coating her voice.  "It must be hard for you, right now."

  Kisame nodded, frowning.  "I don’t know how to make him see... I mean, the poor thing has had such a horrible life... He can’t trust anyone completely; he'll never understand."

  "Kisa-kun, don’t give up hope; Zet-sama needs someone like you in his life.  I truly believe that you could rescue him from his past if you try hard enough.  Tobi won’t be enough; he'll only be able to bring Zetsu's trust back a little, but Tobi will never be able to heal Zetsu in the way he needs it.  That's your job; to work out how Zetsu needs to be healed and then heal him."

  Kisame nodded.  He wouldn’t let Zetsu down; he would show Zetsu love and compassion and help Zetsu move on from his past.  He would give Zetsu all the therapy the younger male needed, all the support he could give Zetsu.  He wouldn’t let Zetsu fall a second time.

  A/N No, Pein DIDNT rape Zetsu, okay?  It did get that far but as far as Pein knew Zetsu was consenting to it; he was only trying to help.