Title: Gladly
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Pein, Konan, Pein/Konan
Word Count: 334
Rating: PG-13
Warning/s: Light sexuality.
Summary: When faith leads to martyrdom.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I profit from bending the characters to my every whim and having them do what I want.
Notes: I've been reading too much, honestly.

His hands are rough and calloused as they glide across her skin.

She doesn't mind (not quite), even if his nails dig into her hips and draws blood (besides, she has no right to protest). Not even when his teeth make marks that are distinctly his (not that any mark would belong to any other) on her neck or when her head is yanked back by the hair as his lips start a burning path down the valley of her breasts. All that is hers is lifted up to him and he takes whenever there is time to spare; when there are no more villages to burn or people to kill, then he would indulge in that little piece of beauty left in a world of broken dreams and discarded wishes. But until then, he would content himself with their stolen moments and she would gladly give what she can to him.

Because she has always put faith in her God and all he decrees is unquestionably right. So when both of them are trapped (when everything finally falls and the world starts crumbling) and there is only room for one to go, she nods and bursts into a thousand paper butterflies to flit through the spaces in their metal cage. And as the enemy ninja approach, she prays one last time before erupting into a thousand flames that light up the sky in her final performing act. It is all he needs to slip out and in her last moment, she sees him run up the hill, away from harm, away from danger, bruised and bloody and torn at the seams, but still undoubtedly alive.

And all that matters is her God and his safety and she would gladly give her life up if he so ordains it.

He had ordained it and she had given her life.

The ashes fall like rain from the sky and she does not regret her life.