Hello and thank you everyone that has been keeping up with this fic until now! This is the grand finale that I have to present to you - not so grand, but definitely final.

I am too tired to write too long of a note (it's 3AM), but the reason I've been absent so long is the novel I was writing for a competition. I finished it a few days ago, so I might be working on more ff from now on. The last two months were rather hectic due to all the writing, so my sincerest apologies to everyone whom I've abandoned on this site. I'll get back to you soon!

So once again, thank you everyone for reading it and I'll see you again in my other stories!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the lyrics to the first song, they're by Rihanna.

Epilogue

One year later

The noise was loud as the bell rang and the metallic gates were opened with a screeching sound. An large mumbling mass shuffled in from the opening through a long, grey hallway with artificially white lighting. The group was moving in mechanical steps towards another gate, which was opened just as noisily again. The group was let through and then the gates closed again.

Standing in the midst, a girl dressed in an orange onesie that matched the rest of the crowd heaved a heavy sigh.

-x-

"Oh mama, mama, mama - I just shot a man down.

In central station

In front of a big old crowd.

Oh why, why

Oh mama, mama, mama - I just shot a man down.

In central station-"

"YO WHITE GIRL I'VE HAD ENOUGH. SHUT YOUR MOUTH HOLE OR I'LL COME SHOVE SOMETHING INTO IT."

Konan rolled her eyes. The girl next cell always acted like she was on a period. Konan had once asked her, whether she was having incubation period. The bruise from that fight on Konan's hip still hadn't completely healed.

She sighed and quit the song. She didn't like sitting in silence like that; her thoughts always began to wander and too often did they end up at Hidden High School. And its students. One in particular.

Konan shook her head. She didn't want to go there. Not today.

The bed she was sitting on was hard, as though there was no mattress between her and the metal bed base. She shifted her weight and cringed when the motion sent a pang up her body. Deciding she had been sitting for long enough, she hopped off the bed and started walking in circles in the cell.

There was noise coming in from outside, but that didn't bother her much. If anything, she found it useful for distracting herself from the past. It was ironic, though, how much the term "past" had changed in meaning for her during her time there. A year ago - before she had been locked up in that place - she had used it to refer to her childhood, almost a decade ago. Now she used it to refer to the time a year ago.

At times she got caught up in her thoughts, she started wondering why she could not let go of it, when it was already long gone. She could never return to it. After getting out of that cell, the least she would have to do was getting herself a new identity, if not leave the country again. Konan Iwaga was gone, all the people she used to know with her.

But if Konan was gone, who was she then?

The time she ended up with that question was always when she cut her train of thought off and started singing. She just did not want to think into it. It brought on emotions she did not want and feelings she wished to kill. Nostalgia and regret. They did nothing to help her overcome her habit of violence.

Besides, she did not need to think into it to know the truth - the truth why she could not let go of Konan Iwaga or the past.

The sole reason behind that was that, that was all she had left.

All.

She did not have a present - her pride did not allow herself to consider the time spent in prison anything more than a transition between two time periods.

As for the future - did she have one? Did she even want one? What did she want it to be like?

Those questions were the reason she was still behind those bars. There was no point in escaping, if she did not know where she was going to escape to. Those questions needed to be figured out first.

After a while, Konan could not take her own thoughts anymore and decided she needed another song to sing. Something to get her mind off the train of thought and quick.

As the past was all she could think about, the first song that came to her mind was one from the musical she had been long ago chosen to act in as Rika.

A song she never got to perform.

She took a deep breath.

"I know you would betray me

I know you would let go

Would never let true emotions show

But I can't deny

What I feel inside

Can't lie to myself

I think you're perfect

Oh I - I…

Can't turn off my heart

It's being torn apart

Can you hear the shatter, when the pieces clatter?

My hate is my essence

My gift and my present to you

I hate that I love you

Hate that I love you…"

That song had always been one of Konan's favorites. It was the one she could relate to the most. And now that memories were the only thing she had got left, while sitting in that cell alone as she was, it seemed to be the perfect song to sing.

"I hate your smile

But it keeps me alive

It's like the oxygen I need to breathe.

I may flip the bird

But have you ever heard

A heartbeat so loud?

This feeling will suffocate me."

"YOU'RE BREAKING MY FUCKING HEART WITH THAT SONG JUST LIKE I'LL BE BREAKING EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR BONES WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, HO."

Emitting a quiet snort at the outburst, Konan quieted and sighed again.

-x-

Konan was lying in her bed when she heard a sudden noise. She opened her eyes and saw the cell gate being opened and a man in a suit stepping in, escorted by one of the guards.

Konan sat up, eying the man warily.

"Prisoner 4509, Konan Iwaga, correct?" the man asked, reading the name off the papers in his hand.

Konan nodded. "Present."

"I have to ask you to come with me, miss," the man said.

Konan was confused. "Why?"

The look on the man's face expressed well his attitude towards unnecessary inquiry. "You have been discharged and are to be released. No more questions indispensable."

Konan followed the two men out in silence, looking stunned as she passed the cells of her fellow inmates, a few of whom showed their fists as she walked by and shouted obscenities. The girl was guided through a string of formalities. After filling out some paper work she received all the items she had, had on her when turning herself in - they were only clothes, piercings and a wallet. Inside the wallet she knew to be a key to a storage house where she had left the rest of her belongings.

It took only an hour. Before she knew it, she was already ushered out of the building and stepping into the bright sunlight that blinded her eyes momentarily. It was a warm spring afternoon and a soft breeze ruffled the girl's hair.

It felt so strange for her to be outside right then. She had not seen it coming and during that hour she had spent outside her cell, she had been given no explanations to what had happened and why she was being freed.

The building door shut behind her with a loud bang and she stepped off the porch. The large gray gates were opened for her as she walked off the prison grounds and back into the real world.

Konan stared stunned at the street in which cars roamed by in both directions, very few people passing by walking. The sudden rush of reality made her head reel and she felt like she needed to get away somewhere to collect herself.

"Still into the unpredictable, I hope."

Konan snapped her head towards the voice, discovering a familiar redhead leaning casually against the stone fence. Their eyes met for a moment.

"Hey, Konan," Pein said. "Long time no see."

The girl turned and started walking towards him, but passed the guy without a word and headed straight down the street away from the building. She did not have to glance behind her to know that he was following her.

She did not know the city well, so she kept taking random turns until she reached a park. She chose a random path and trod along it, wondering where it would lead her to, suppressing all thoughts involving the male still tracing after her like a foolishly loyal puppy.

Her arm was grabbed but she swatted the hand away and broke into a run, hearing the other quicken his pace behind her as well. She ran off the path across the large green lawn. Once again, just like that one time a year ago in a similar situation, she was put at a disadvantage due to the heels she was wearing and it did not take long for Pein to catch up with her.

Arms wrapped around Konan's waist, securing her arms against her torso. She used her foot to kick Pein off balance, but the boy did not let go of her, resulting in him landing on his arm on the ground with the girl still tightly in his embrace.

A few curse words left his mouth.

"Let me go, Nagato," Konan said.

"Not this time," the guy answered.

The girl sighed. "We are attracting unwanted attention lying awkwardly on the ground like this."

"I don't care."

"Could you sit up at least?"

Pein removed one hand from around the girl to push them into an upward position, before placing it back around the girl's torso.

"So it was you that got me out of there." It was not a question, Konan was just stating the obvious fact that she had figured out.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Figured you'd spent there enough time," Pein said. "And because I decided to follow your advice."

Konan raised an eyebrow, although the guy could not see it. "Just when did I advise you to stick your pierced nose in my business?"

"You told me to find my soulmate." The hairs on Konan's back bristled as she felt the guy press his lips against her neck, his warm breath caressing her skin. "So I did. After a year of search."

Konan was trying to push the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her out of her mind and squeezed her eyes shut, not saying anything.

"Why did you leave?"

Silence fell as Konan took her time before answering.

"I needed time alone. To think."

"What did you think about?"

"Life. Past. Present. Future and if I have one."

"Why wouldn't you have one?"

Konan did not answer.

Pein sighed. "If you left, because you felt like there was something wrong with the present, then maybe it's necessary for you to create a new one for yourself."

"How?" Konan asked and twisted her neck to look at the boy. How was she supposed to create one that she would have liked without even knowing what she liked?

Pein gave a small smile. "With me. I'll help you find your future."

His lips pressed against Konan's in a warm chaste kiss to which the girl responded very slowly.

"We'll get new identities, find a new place to live at, make a new start. We could even get legal jobs."

Konan laughed at the last part. "You make it sound so easy."

"That's how it's supposed to be."

Konan sighed. "Okay. I'm ready to give it a try." She pressed her mouth to Pein's again. This time the kiss was longer and deeper.

The sat there on the lawn for a while, Pein telling her about the graduation she had missed and events that had taken place during her absence.

After a while, Konan asked warily, "How's the Akatsuki?"

Pein caught the meaning behind her question and answered, "Deidara and Sasori went off to an overseas art college last year. They're supposed to come visit this summer."

Konan nodded her head thoughtfully. "I guess it's time for me to make a new start with Deidara as well."

"I guess it really is."

THE END