The One Demon Night Parade

Chapter Ten - Look

Nagato proved to be more suspicious of me than I initially guessed. After our 'contract' he told me he had to test me. He didn't know where I came from, so he didn't think to have me kill civilians from the Land of Fire.

But he did have me kill.

The blood was in puddles at my feet as I stared at the fallen corpses, their eyes wide in fear. Stuck like that. These poor creatures. I was the last thing they saw. My fire returned to me, fading out quickly. Nagato examined me, and I allowed a tear to slip down my face.

"You intend to harm innocents for your goal?" I finally choked out to the living corpse beside me.

"I was unaware a Yokai could feel compassion for humans," he said simply. My eyes found his, anger coursing through me. But I could do nothing. This was still a fake contract, a mission from Tsunade. Though I had forced it upon myself. I wondered briefly when I would meet the real Nagato. Whenever I made eye contact with this corpse of his, something tugged at my memory. I felt as if I would remember if Nagato and I made eye contact, weird as it was.

"Peace can only be found when the cycle of hatred is at an end," I tell him. He nods.

"We will find peace with fear. Through collecting all of the tailed beasts, all nations will fear us and cease wars," he answers.

"And how long will this superficial peace last?" I ask him. "Is this really what I sold myself for? A faulty peace that could end at the drop of a hat? The moment you lose control of the tailed beasts? I thought more could be achieved from joining you. The thought of breaking the contract seems more and more appealing."

He watched me for a moment. "And how would you do that?" He was unaware, it seemed, of a lot of things about Yokai. He claimed all his knowledge of them had been passed down, but clearly, the Sage knew nothing about Yokai. I tried not to let that bother me. A man slaughtered us all and didn't even bother to know everything about us.

"There is a way a Yokai can end a contract," I paused. "Suicide." I didn't bother to tell him that was only one way. There are a multitude of loopholes. Tsunade never specifically ordered me not to harm her, so I could simply silence her and kill her, and our contract would be done. 'Until her death, untimely or otherwise.' I could also have someone else harm her, like Satsuki. Or I could perform the ritual, but that was tedious. It took years to prepare, so a minor setback would be disastrous.

Nagato shook his head at me. "A rare creature, speaking of suicide so easily. Shouldn't you worry about creating more of your kind?" I laughed then.

"Yokai cannot directly reproduce," I tell him. It was true. "Yokai are created from spirits. But you managed to take that away, it seems. You sealed away everyone's spirits. And I recently realized how you did that." I faked a smile at him. "By melding their spirits so they could manipulate chakra instead. I think that took the rest of your lifetime to do, didn't it?" He didn't answer.

"I don't know that," he said simply. "I am not the Sage. I am Pein."

"You have some of his memories, and his eyes. To me, you are the Sage. The epitome of my hatred. But I can put that aside," I tell him. "I want peace. Though this faulty peace of yours could crumble, I could keep it. I, Kawa," I ignored the humor I found in my words, "swear I will continue to enforce peace after your lifetime."

"And what if you die?" He asks me. I look up at him, and I wonder if he saw how tired I was.

"Then perhaps peace will end," I say simply. "I would have to find a disciple," I smirked.

The two of us left the corpses to rot on the ground, and I merely wondered what kind of Yokai would have risen there had they not harnessed chakra. Every living being had chakra.

And that is why there was no Yokai.

The Sage taught the world chakra, that is how they harnessed chakra, and that is how the Sage ended the curse of the Yokai. But something was missing. Something was nagging at me. I couldn't remember. For the life of me, I simply couldn't. I felt that the Sage was the key to something else, something bigger.

"You say you visited the Sage upon his deathbed," Nagato suddenly spoke as we walked to our next destination. I didn't know what that destination was, though.

"Right before I took a nap," I answered.

"What did he say to you?" He asked.

"He cursed at me," I spoke honestly. "He said it was for the better that Yokai were annihilated, and that I should die as well."

Nagato was silent a moment. "That's odd," he murmured. I watched him for a moment. "I remember something of that nature, of a Yokai visiting the Sage, but I don't feel hatred from it." My fingers clenched into a fist before I released it, trying to calm myself. "It was more - hopeful." I smiled, and he flinched at my expression, though I didn't quite see why.

"He hopes for my death. Simple explanation," I say. He shook his head.

He seemed to ponder the proper words to explain his thoughts. "I never felt any sort of animosity towards Yokai in my entire life. In fact, I felt indebted and guilty."

I didn't answer. It only made my head hurt. Giving reasons for a genocide would make my hatred dim. I didn't need that. I wanted to remain ignorant. He went silent as well.

Nagato suddenly stopped walking, and a plant emerged from the ground. I stopped as well as the plant unfurled to show a man of two halves.

My entire being pulsed. The man showed no interest in me, but for some reason I felt I knew him. It hurt. It all hurt. My head hurt most of all, though. Something was tugging, struggling, and I felt like I knew something very important that had to be known right now immediately. The man left after some words with Nagato, but I could still feel myself hurting.

Nagato turned to me to suggest we keep moving, but I barely heard him. My breathing wouldn't function. My lungs were beginning to ache. I had to leave. I had to run away. I shouldn't see that plant man again. His eyes directly appeared in front of me, and he seemed to frown. I briefly noticed he didn't have his bracelet on when I felt something physically tugging at me.

Suddenly I fell over, my body touching a surface I didn't recognize. I had been teleported. My eyes found a type of metal container, and next to it were a pair of feet. Women's feet. I managed to look up to see the shock of a blue haired woman, and further up was a man with red hair. He shook it out of his face, and I saw the eyes of the Sage.

And that's when I screamed.