Questionable Loyalty

A/N: FINALLY an update. Due to recent revelations about Pein/Nagato in the manga I took a little break and thought long and hard, analyzing his personality in the light of the new information. Even so, I am not happy with how this chapter came out, so please review and tell me what you think?





CHAPTER 6



The rest of the night passed uneventfully for Kakashi – the roadside inn where his target was sleeping remained dark and peaceful, apparently not an establishment that organized loud parties for their guests every night. After all, the travelers who visited there were weary from the road and the weather and they valued their rest above all else, it seemed.



The jounin spent the night curled up in the junction of several large branches of a massive tree that formed a natural nest, unconcerned that the merchant might leave unnoticed because he was sure that Pakkun would notice it – spirit dogs, fortunately, did not need sleep like the real ones, or the humans for that matter.



He woke up with the sunrise and stretched, delighted by the fresh early morning air, all too aware that in only a few hours it’d be stiflingly hot again. Not to mention that they were traveling to Wind Country so it was bound to get even hotter.



About two hours after sunrise Nobuhiro loaded his pudgy form on his car and his driver cracked his whip over the horses’ heads, urging them to go.



The next few days were spent in the same repeated pattern – travel, stop at a roadside inn, eat, sleep, depart early in the morning but not too early. Kakashi followed them dutifully and lived off on energy pills, secretly craving real food but too dutiful to abandon his post to go hunting for something more substantial, even if Pakkun and the rest kept watch. The heat was most unpleasant and it got worse the closer they got to Wind. Kakashi’s jounin vest and uniform were stuffy and had long began to stink of sweat and all he wanted was a shower or least a dip in a cool lake somewhere.



Finally, two days after crossing the border of Wind Country, things came to a head. He had followed the merchant to a small valley nestled between high and jagged desert rocks. The car reached the middle and stayed there, waiting for someone or something. Kakashi found a suitable hiding place and settled there, waiting for the man’s contacts to appear.



Kakashi waited in his hiding place for a full day under the scorching sun, sweating, drinking the water he had left and hoping that the man’s partners would finally show up so they could all go home… And finally, right after sunset, a pair of unpleasantly familiar figures appeared at the other end of the valley and approached the car. They wore the standard Akatsuki cloaks and even from the distance Kakashi could see that one of them carried a large scythe. Kakuzu and Hidan then. Bile rose in his throat. Akatsuki was dealing in drugs to fund itself?



The pudgy man walked out of his car and approached the newcomers. After a brief exchange, he handed them a large briefcase. The larger of the pair, Kakuzu, opened the briefcase and looked inside.



Kakashi wasn’t sure what do to do – if he photographed them, that would undermine Pein’s agenda, and that was the last thing Kakashi wanted to do, but if he didn’t, he’d be helping drug-dealers have a free reign on his country.



His, however, dilemma was interrupted when Kakuzu suddenly looked up, right in Kakashi’s direction. The jounin stiffened and tried to conceal his chakra even more than he already did. After a few moments, the man turned to his partner and whispered something to him.



“Shit.” Hissed Kakashi under his nose.



He was expecting an attack, but what happened surprised even him. Casually, Hidan moved around the merchant until he was standing behind him, then, with a wide swipe of his scythe he suddenly lopped his head off. A fountain of blood erupted from the severed neck and drenched both men and the money between them. Kakashi jumped in surprise and bit his lip. The car’s driver screamed and tried to run, but a casually thrown kunai went through his throat. What the hell…?



Hidan turned around and looked up again, waving and beckoning Kakashi to come closer. Knowing that it was pointless to hide any longer, he stood up and deftly jumped from rock to rock until he was standing before the pair.



The three stared at each other for a while impassively, until Hidan’s face broke into a wild, slightly manic grin.



“Well, look who the wind brought, Kakuzu. What the fuck are you doing here, Hatake?”



“I could ask either of you the same question.” Kakashi hissed and resisted the urge to fold his arms over his chest. “Since when is Akatsuki doing business with drug dealers?”



Hidan’s smirk deepened, but his eyes were cold.



“We just had to kill a source of income to protect YOUR cover, you fucker. You could be a little more grateful.”



Kakashi glared and was about to give the brat a piece of his mind when Kakuzu finally spoke.



“Akatsuki needs financing, as you know. And as much as our leader likes to play god to the masses, he can’t make money grow on trees.”



“So Pein approved of this.”



“Our dear leader doesn’t care where the money come from, as long as they actually come, so we can assume that he approves.” Hidan said.

Kakashi took a deep, calming breath. It didn’t help much.



“How did you know it was me?”



“You hung out at the headquarters for so long that we’ve gotten used to your presence, Hatake.” Kakuzu explained, his deep voice rumbling from his chest. “It’s not easy to conceal yourself when we’re so attuned to your chakra signature already.” His peculiar eyes travelled down to the small camera Kakashi was holding.



“And I see you’re here on official business. I was right then – I would’ve known if Pein had sent you.”



Kakashi stuffed the camera in his pocket angrily. This was not what he had been expecting. He and Pein would have to talk again.



“If that is all, we’re leaving.” Kakuzu announced. “We have to find a new source of income now that we’ve killed this one because of you.”



Later that evening Kakashi sat on a rock and stared at the cooling corpses on the cracked, reddish desert ground, thinking that by now he should be used to Pein’s principle of the end justifying the means. Especially when the end was something that they all craved for so badly.




******************************************************


After Pein had left him at his new room, Kakashi had removed his clothes and spent the rest of the day sullenly lying in bed, trying to formulate a new plan of escape. The unlocked door, of course, was a great temptation, one that Kakashi dutifully ignored, too suspicious that it might be a twisted joke or an even more twisted trap.



When the sun set, a quiet girl came in and brought his dinner, leaving it on the desk by the window and with a small bow left just as quietly. Kakashi’s stomach growled and with a sigh he got up and dug in.



The next morning he finally made the decision to venture out of the closed but unlocked door. The corridor outside his room proved to be completely unremarkable – a dark terracotta floor and dark painted walls with rows of doors on either side – all closed, all locked. At the end of the corridor there was a large double-door gate with an elaborate lock in the middle of it. Apparently that was there the stairs for the upper floors were located. Unable to go through it, Kakashi backtracked his steps until he passed by his own open door again and then finally found both stairs and elevator down. Curiously, he took the stairs and checked out the next floor, and then the next, and the next. Each proved to be more lived in than the previous, more people working in the offices that lined up the walls of the corridor.



Finally, after a long descent, Kakashi left the building and found himself looking at a spacious square surrounded by other towers, if not as tall as this one. So he was free to roam Amegakure, eh? Time to put that to the test.



The weather stayed surprisingly good all day as Kakashi walked around the village and watched and sometimes talked to its people. Even more surprising was how happy said people were, calm, smiling, optimistic. Downright worshipful in their affection when he mentioned Pein – he was these people’s hero, no, their god, and they loved him unconditionally. Kakashi found the notion of divinity ridiculous and outrageous, but even he couldn’t deny that whatever Pein was doing, it kept these people happy. He had never come across a village, be it a Hidden Village or a civilian settlement where the leader of the community was so universally loved. Not even in Konoha, where there was always an underlying dissent among its citizens, who either thought that their Hokage was either a pacifistic goody-two-shoes or a war-mongering maniac. Such a duality was completely lacking here. It seemed so strange that a man who had waged so many attacks on other villages would be so universally loved, worshipped, in his home. Kakashi had assumed that he’d be considered a tyrant, but that wasn’t the case. Even when one elderly woman told Kakashi the grim tale of Pein’s coming to power, the massacre of Ame’s previous leadership and their whole families, she had smiled. There had been no condemnation in her voice, only love. How could they love someone who had killed children?



Deep in thought, Kakashi turned around a corner and realized that he was facing a large, cheerfully coloured building with a spacious garden, surrounded by a fence. In the garden there were numerous children of various ages, playing, running, singing. There was training equipment, so this wasn’t Ame’s Ninja Academy. What was it then?



He turned approached and addressed one of the older children sitting on a carved stone bench bench by the fence and reading a book.



“Hey, kid.”



The kid, a girl barely in her teens looked up to the masked stranger.



“Yes?”



“What is this place?” Kakashi asked.



The girl cocked her head to one side like a curious bird.



“You don’t know?”



Kakashi shook his head.



“It’s an orphanage, Sir. One of the many that Pein-sama has ordered to be built all around the Rain country.”