An unpleasant surprise.

'Gah! I just realized this now, but were we always so keen in staying in dark places?!' Konan's eye twitched slightly in annoyance at the lack of any visual identification at the figure, the only thing recognizable was the Akatsuki cloak. 'So hard to see...jeez...' She sighed as she got closer to the Tower. 'Wait...is that...' Her eyes then widened as she finally was able to make out the figure standing at the entrance. "..." Her figure quickly tensed up as she grit her teeth, before realizing that it would be a bad look if she even looked hostile to the one she was approaching.

"...Madara..." Konan greeted the masked figure curtly.

"A rather cold introduction, Miss Konan." Madara replied, though seemingly not caring. "And here I thought I would be a welcome sight after all this time." He shrugged his shoulders.

"A "welcome sight" isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to matters concerning anything related to you." Konan quipped back coldly as she raised an eyebrow at him while passing by him. "Now if you excuse me, I have my own matters to attend to." She stated while continuing to walk.

"The Nine-Tails Jinchūriki." Madara said something that made her stop in her tracks. "I'm well aware of what you were tasked to do." He explained to her as he approached her. "Since you're back, I would have ASSUMED that someone of your expertise and caliber WOULD have brought back the intended target successfully....and yet..." He was now directly behind her as he leaned down and whispered in a dangerous tone. "Somehow...you have not done that..." He then leaned back, resuming his normal position. "Why is that? I'm sure you could have just...infiltrated Konoha and snatched him up, then left before anyone realized anything had happened. So." Madara's Sharingan appeared. "What happened? As I recall, it's even been months, you had plenty of time to plan something great, whether it be elaborate or simple."

"An unexpected situation occurred during my mission. I don't think I should explain it to you." Konan stood her ground, though still not facing him.

"Oho..." Madara sounded amused by that statement. "Is that so? Because, if I must say, failing spectacularly in this way isn't a particularly strong good point. Your failure to capture the Jinchūriki will only delay the plans of "Peace" you and Pain have oh so seriously thought about and definitely worked hard to achieve so far, bravo." The sarcasm in his voice was evident as he mocked them.

"Don't you dare mock the plans we worked hard to get into the making to finally bringing true peace, Madara." Konan finally faced Madara, a far more vicious look in her eyes. 'Even if the new plan for peace will be replacing the old one, I can't give off any hints until we're ready!' She thought to herself. "The sacrifices we had to make to get to this point were high...and some were... irreplaceable!"

"Hmph." Madara only scoffed at her display, his visible eye rolling as he shook his head. "My deepest apologies then. No need to get THIS riled up over a silly comment. Still, we're getting off track here. The Nine-Tails, why did you fail?"

"As I said before, I don-" Konan started to repeat what she said earlier, but was cut off.

"Oh, but I think you will answer my question, Miss Konan." Madara stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "There are very many things I know. And when it comes to you, I can tell, you aren't the type to give up. You aren't the type to fail in this way. You aren't stupid nor are you clumsy, you are bright, intelligent, and powerful." He approached her as she backed up, until they reached the wall.

"..." Konan wanted to get a word in edgewise, but was unable to, though her heart did jump at the praise.

"You have managed to get this far in life because you have found ways to survive and thrive in this dangerous world of ours. Your jutsu is by far one of the more unique jutsus to manifest in this age. It is a great jutsu for espionage and infiltration as well as being on either an offensive weapon or defensive tool, a great balance if I may say so." Madara continued his speech. "You were the perfect candidate to go on this mission. There would be no better candidate, I doubt the other Akatsuki members could sneak into Konoha without causing a big fuss. I had great hopes for you in this one. So what happened?" He got really close up to her face as she turned her head to the side. "Tell me. Even if, in the near impossible chance you were found out and captured, I doubt you would be held down for long."

"...I refuse to tell you anything about why I failed." Konan grit her teeth again as she took a few moments to respond, trying to calm both her head and her heart. "An event occurred and I decided it would be best if I simply observed the situation." She did her best to be vague.

"For the length of time you were gone? If that were the case, you should have alerted Pain or I to this." Madara scolded her. "I still don't believe that, though. We can still do this peacefully, Konan, what REALLY happened?" Madara warned her in a low voice.

"...I won't say." Konan said finally after a few minutes, steeling her resolve while hoping this could still be enough to drive Madara off without having to use ****.

"..." Madara didn't reply, instead, in an incredibly quick movement, one of his hands wrapped itself around Konan's throat.

"GHK?!" Konan quickly went to remove it, but in a panicked state, she quickly looked directly at his Sharingan.

"Got you~" Madara spoke in a sing-song voice as he activated his Sharingan on her.

"N-No...No...." Konan's eyes very slowly dulled and blanked as the Genjutsu settled on her.

***

"Now then...I don't get to use this often...especially on relatively powerful shinobi." Madara spoke as he leaned down and began to implant a few suggestions. After he had finished, he spoke to her commandingly. "Alright, now that that's over with...Konan."

"...Yes..." Konan replied in doll-like fashion.

"Tell me what happened to you during your mission." Madara ordered.

"....Y...Yes...sir..." Konan began to open her mouth, but nothing came out.

"Still a bit of resistance, eh? I admit, that's actually quite admirable." Madara said, scratching his head in amusement. "Well, I guess I'll have to place you under an even stronger Genjutsu, well, it might break your mind completely though. Don't blame me, you should have cooperated instead of resist feebly." He mused as he got ready to use an even more advanced Genjutsu. That is, until he was interrupted by an incredibly pissed off voice.

"What. Are. You. Doing. To. Konan?!?!" Nagato shouted out in Yahiko's body, enraged, as he saw Madara standing with Konan, the latter seemingly in a trance-like state.

"Nothing, I was just getting some much needed information from her." Madara stated calmly as he noticed that the other five Paths of Pain have surrounded him. "Now now...I just placed her under...I didn't do anything yet. No need to make a fuss... I'll let her go right now." Madara then broke Konan's Genjutsu as she fell to her knees, gasping and coughing.

"KONAN!?" Nagato shouted at her in concern. "Are you okay?!?"

***

The first thing Konan heard was Nagato's voice as she tried to regain her breath. "Y...Yes! I-I'm okay!" Konan responded as she got up on wobbly legs.

"For the sake of our partnership and for all the contributions you made. I'll give you once chance, Madara. After that." Nagato warned Madara coldly.

"Hmph. I understand. Regardless, I WILL find out what happened to Konan when she had gone on her mission to capture the Nine-Tails. And why she failed as well." Madara then bowed and quickly phased himself out of existence. "I hope we can continue to work in earnest with one another." Was the last thing he said as he disappeared from their sight.

Very quickly, Konan stumbled forward, one hand on her head as she had a headache building up. Before she could fall though, she was caught by the newly acquired Animal Path of Nagato's paths.

"...Let's get you to bed now...Konan..." The female voice sounded out with concern as she helped Konan up and go into her room.

"...T...Thank you...Nagato." Konan thanked him, giving a small smile.

"Rest well...please..." Nagato stroked Konan's hair and soon left Konan to her rest, closing the door behind her.

"...So tired..." Konan talked slowly and tiredly as she laid her head down comfortably on the pillow. '...What did he do to me...?' Was Konan's last thought as she drifted off to sleep.