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“Aren't you ever...afraid of me?”
“Huh?” Yahiko looked over at his redheaded friend in surprise when he spoke so suddenly. “Where did that come from, Nagato?”
The two of them were seated on one of the couches within the Akatsuki base. The others were out working to keep Amegakure as safe as they could, but Yahiko and Nagato were here guarding the base. Though Nagato hadn't really been talking that much lately, not since...that incident.
Yahiko still remembered it well. Only about a week ago they had been ambushed, and in the process of trying not to kill them, he and Konan were hurt and nearly died. This caused Nagato to go into a rage they had only seen once before, when they were children, but this was much worse than then. All those shinobi who died, the blood lust coming from Nagato who just couldn't calm down until Yahiko tackled him to the ground. Ever since then, the redhead had barely spoken.
There was a long pause before Nagato spoke again, “You...never seem scared of me...even after I...” He couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence. Instead, he continued by saying something else, “Aren't...you worried that one day...I'll harm you or Konan?”
The Akatsuki leader didn't know how to respond to this. Though he never seemed to be afraid of Nagato, it was moments like that one day that he just couldn't believe that bloodthirsty male was his friend. Yet...he found himself more worried about Nagato instead of himself or Konan.
“What are you talking about? I know you'd never hurt us, after all, you only did that because we were hurt.” He honestly believed Nagato would never harm them in any way, but it seemed Nagato didn't think the same way.
“But what if I do? Yahiko I...I'm afraid of myself...of my power...” He was trembling, looking down at his hands, “Whenever you two are hurt...my head goes blank, and all I can think about is killing everyone. What if, one day, I kill you two as well?”
There was nothing but silence for some time, Yahiko thinking about what his friend was saying. Nagato was terrified by the thought of killing them, and seemed to believe it could really happen...Though Yahiko, he believed the opposite.
“Nagato...” The redhead looked up and when he did, he could see a warm, kind smile on Yahiko's face, “That will never happen, I truly believe you'd never harm us. We're here to control your power, Nagato. We won't let it happen, so don't worry!”
"I truly believe you'd never harm us."
"Do you still believe this...Yahiko?" The redhead whispered in a shaky voice, looking down at the two bodies that laid in a shrine before him. "Do you still...truly believe I'd never harm you...?" His voice was strained, he felt sick, his eyes stung with tears he refused to let fall.
"Calm down, Nagato! You need to calm down!"
"I thought you would control my power."
"Nagato! Wait, Nagato! Calm down, we're right here!"
"Why...why then...did you two...leave me?"
When he finally came to his senses, there were bodies all around. But two of the bodies he saw, caused him to scream in absolute horror.
He could barely stand, he was shaking, so close to crying and screaming just as he had when he saw their corpses. Though there was no reason to cry, crying wouldn't change anything.
His friends, his precious friends who meant the world to him were dead.
He was the one who killed them, he was the reason they left him.
He ran towards their bodies, hoping he would see their smiles, assuring him they were okay, that they were there for him. This was reality, that never happened.
He just wanted to see it, just once more even. Yahiko's warm smile that made him feel as though everything would be okay. Konan's gentle smile that calmed him. He wanted to see them.
He would never see those smiles again, they were gone forever. He fell to his knees, tears mixing with the rain, only able to whisper one, barely, audible sentence, "Please, come back-
-I'm afraid."