~0~0~0~0~
Kakuzu feverishly hoped that their contact would to turn up soon. The last three days with Hidan had been harder on him than the whole half a year spent together as partners… and previously he considered
that one of the most tiring period of his long life.
Though the priest didn’t mention what had happened – and was happening – between them, it was obvious that he didn’t let it go. Hidan wasn’t someone who believed in subtlety after all. Everything he did had a glaringly obvious reason.
Like how he started to waltz around completely naked whenever they were at the Inn.
He showered with the bathroom door open, he slept nude, he carried out his prayers and ceremonies without anything on… by all means he shed all of his clothing the moment he was through the door of their room.
Kakuzu was furious with him, but even more so with himself as he couldn’t deny that this little show affected him.
Hidan kept following him around on his rounds in the town as well. Not that he was any help in gathering information. When Kakuzu rounded on him and questioned his indifference about why Kumogakure wanted to capture him, he just shrugged and flashed one of his shit-eating grins.
“Isn’t that obvious? News got around of how special I am. They want the secret of my immortality, the heathen bastards. Don’t tell me you were never attacked for your – what do you call them?
Life extending techniques.”
He kept on grinning, flashing his teeth with his usual cocky, slightly insane way which Kakuzu had always found so irritating… and in the last few days, maddeningly, seductive as well. But that didn’t matter. He wouldn’t change his mind because of such a cracked brat.
Every time he was tempted he just imagined the self-satisfied look on the other’s face that would surely appear would he win against Kakuzu. That hardened his resolve.
So he didn’t bat an eye when Hidan stepped out naked and dripping water from the bathroom. He stared at the ceiling with grim determination when he heard the priest tossing and turning at night. He convinced himself that the priest just couldn’t sleep on the bumpy mattress and it wasn’t anything
else keeping him up. He ignored his own awakening arousal even when he heard the shameless idiot not-quite stifle a sigh that could just as well be a moan.
He even tried to be stoic when on their third night in town he found Hidan – crossing all boundaries of sanity – carrying out a ritual in their room. Although he couldn’t quite ignore the priest’s groans as he sunk the pike into his own chest and abdomen, chanting his stupid little prayers. Naked as he was, there could be no doubt that the self-torment caused him just as much pleasure as pain.
“Do you really have to do this?!” Kakuzu snapped when Hidan freed the weapon with an obscene smack from his flesh and their eyes met. “You are bleeding all over the place, it’s sickening… They will charge us extra for this mess you created.”
“I’ve no choice,” Hidan was leering at him, probably aware that Kakuzu didn’t really find the show repulsive. “As you don’t let me present a real sacrifice while we are in town, I have to offer Jashin-sama my own blood.”
“But you are not actually suffering any harm of it!”
“Jashin is benignant with his humble follower enough to appreciate the gesture.” Kakuzu could have kicked him for the fake devout expression on his face.
“The innkeeper won’t appreciate the bloodstains on the floor.”
“But you don’t really mind me doing this, do you, Kakuzu?”
He stood up and left without a word, which was as good as a confession.
You are too old for this shit, so get a grip, he told himself sternly as he roamed the streets without aim. He couldn’t let someone like
Hidan get the better out of him.
He ended up at the only brothel in the town. The owner, a voluptuous, middle aged woman in heavy make-up gave a scornful snort when he asked for the cheapest girl. Still the price was so scandalously high that he left the establishment without his business finished. He was not yet desperate enough to pay
that much for a whore. The last time he spent his money in this industry they have asked about quarter of this amount. Truth to be told, that have been some thirty years ago, give or take five years… or maybe ten… but even that didn’t warrant such a rise in the prices.
“Bloody Hidan,” he muttered as he walked back to the inn. Ignoring the priest’s knowing smirk, he went to the bathroom, made sure the door was locked and took care of his problem the solitary way.
On the fourth day the much awaited contact had finally shown up. The grey little man handled over a scroll containing the information their leader had gathered than disappeared so quickly as if he was never there at all.
“So where that bejeweled freak is sending us now?” Hidan leaned over Kakuzu’s shoulder, his chest touching his back as he looked at the scroll. Kakuzu gave him an annoyed glare and stepped away.
“
Pein-sama got some information on the whereabouts of the Two-tails. It is hidden away here, at the Land of Lightning just as it was rumored.” He contemplated the coordinates with furrowed eyebrows. “It would still take us some time to find the exact location.”
“So a Jinchuuriki, eh? Something that can prove to be a challenge at last. Although I hoped we will get to travel to a different country. I’m really fed up with Lightning already. The climate sucks, the villages are shitholes, and we never found a halfway decent place to stay…”
“Hidan. Shut up and let’s go.”
They were well out of the boundaries of the town when Hidan finally fell silent. The way he raised his eyebrows and made a quickly aborted movement as if he wanted to turn around told Kakuzu that finally he noticed that they were being followed.
“Hey…”
“I know. Let’s wait, we will see what they want.”
“Oh come on, Kakuzu! We didn’t have any action in ages! I’m becoming all rusty. They would make an ideal sacrifice.”
“We wait.”
“By Jashin, you are a boring asshole! If I have to wait, you have to let me take on all three of them.”
“If you want to. But don’t expect me to help out if you get into trouble.”
It was the second dawn spent out of the town when their stalkers made their move. Sneaky bastards tried to take down Kakuzu first, with a shuriken aimed straight to his forehead just as he was getting up. The masked Akatsuki didn’t bother with ducking, just hardened his skin and let the weapon fall off harmless as it met his raised forearm. Hidan, who was obviously just pretending to be asleep, jumped up with a shrill battle cry and grabbed his scythe.
Kakuzu quickly rolled out of the fire line as three Kumogakure nins charged on Hidan. When it became obvious that they would leave Kakuzu in peace if he didn’t get involved in the fight, the masked man leaned against the truck of a tree and let Hidan play.
The enemy trio wasn’t weak – but they weren’t strong enough either. The priest, if he deigned to pay some attention and not just rush ahead into battle recklessly was a great fighter. Kakuzu rather enjoyed watching him vaulting around, graceful but deadly, performing an excitingly macabre dance with his scythe. Kakuzu’s cock actually gave an interested little twitched when the first shinobi fell, the three red blades piercing his belly and emerging through his back. The ex- Takigakure nin pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He was really losing it.
In no time the second enemy followed the first, crumbling down in front of Hidan dying or at least mortally wounded. The last man standing cursed as he jumped away from the blades of the scythe, but not fast enough to avoid his blood to be drawn. Kakuzu involuntarily straightened as the priest licked the thick, red liquid from the tip of the blade. He would have never admitted it, but he actually liked watching Hidan shift forms.
The fair skin darkening to pitch black, the white markings of a crude skeleton – he was a different creature like this, some demon maybe, a true messenger of annihilation. It was a reminder that he was dangerous, not simply an irresponsible brat with a dirty mouth as Kakuzu usually thought of him.
The last surviving Cloud nin charged, but Hidan, now standing in the symbol of his god, simply stabbed his pike through his own thigh. The attacker fell face first to the ground. Hidan’s mad laugh usually got on Kakuzu’s nerves, but he was obviously getting used to it. Instead of usual irritation he caught himself looking forward to hear it again.
Definitely losing it. If I let Hidan rub off on me so, I’ll be a sicko as him in no time. Still, he didn’t turn his eyes away from the unfolding drama in front of him.
Hidan waited for his opponent to scramble to his feet and attack again before plunging the pike through his own stomach. The Takigakure shinobi fall down on his knees and coughed up blood. Kakuzu saw a trickle of blood dripping down from the corner of Hidan’s mouth as well, but that didn’t wipe the grin from the ebony face.
“Wh… what are you?” the dying ninja gurgled.
“I am Jashin-sama’s chosen one. I am… Death.” His enemy tried to leap at him with the least remains of his strength, but couldn’t reach the zealot before he plunged the javelin into his own heart. The man collapsed on the ground, while Hidan slowly sank to his knees, eyes rolled up in pained ecstasy, probably seeing the deranged heaven only he had admittance to.
Kakuzu shook his head in disgust. So bloody theatrical. At least he didn’t drag is out so much as he usually did. He walked closer as Hidan’s skin slowly turned back to normal. The priest’s eyes were halfway open but only the white showed and his lips were moving, murmuring his elated prayers.
Kakuzu checked on the fallen enemies, but all three of them were dead already. Other than all of them wearing headbands with Takigakure’s symbol, he couldn’t tell much else with looking at the corpses. As Hidan was still busy in his little Jashinist world, he crouched down with a sigh and searched their bags and pockets. He didn’t find anything of real interest or value, and as it was usual with shinobi, they carried next to nothing money on them.
“Robbing the dead?” he heard the disdainful voice of his partner from behind. “That is low, even for you, Kakuzu.”
“They will hardly need their money any longer. The scavengers wouldn’t make any use if it either, so why let it go to waste? I take you have finished your little comedy here?”
“Getting there, don’t rush me!”
Kakuzu gave him five more minutes before losing all his patience. He stepped up to his partner in the end and wrenched the pike from his chest. Hidan howled and pushed his hand to the wound, trying to force back his gushing blood.
“You fucking godless freak! Is nothing sacred for you?!”
“Stop whining, I have waited long enough for you as it is. Get yourself together and let’s get going.”
Hidan made a rude gesture, but he got on his feet nevertheless. He staggered after a step and Kakuzu automatically grabbed the back of his cloak to keep him from falling to the ground.
“Whoops,” a more pallid than usual Hidan grinned up at him, “I’m a bit dizzy. Must have lost more blood then I thought. Let me rest for a while.”
Kakuzu helped him to sit down and gave him some water. As a second thought he even pulled the least bloody shirt down from one of their opponents and handled it over to the zealot so he could clean himself up a bit. He knew from experience that Hidan would start to whine for a shower in a very short time
. The consecrated priest of Jashin had to be clean at all time. Bah! He should have tried to avoid getting bloody at every opportunity. Kakuzu had never known anyone else who washed himself that much.
“I love when you are being so caring,” Hidan taunted him when he handled him the rag.
“Shut up and get going already,” Kakuzu growled. “We are still in the vicinity of the town, and we don’t need to be located in the joyful company of three corpses.”
“All right, all right… slave driver!” He got on his feet and followed Kakuzu, stumbling at every other step, continuously complaining about the too fast pace. Gritting his teeth, Kakuzu turned back to him when he started to lag behind. He grabbed the surprised priest, thrown his hand over his shoulder then half carrying his partner he started on the road again. He was really fed up with setbacks and this was – this was the easiest way, really.
After a few steps, Hidan put more of his weight on him, almost as if he wanted to lay his head on his shoulder. Kakuzu would have betted on a larger amount that the brat was grinning, but he didn’t look down to his face to check. It was an improvement that he didn’t make any smart comments after all. Kakuzu swore that if the little idiot so much as opened his mouth, he would let hell loose.
~o~o~o~o~
Hidan knew from the neck-breaking pace Kakuzu set that the masked man was irritated. Still he was supporting, almost carrying Hidan for hours, so the priest decided to make best of the situation. The dizziness that had hit him after the ritual – and loosing too much blood could cause that even to him – was long gone, but he hadn’t said a word about it. It was rather pleasant like this, leaning onto the muscled shoulder of his partner with half of his weight. He even drifted off for minutes.
“Hey Kakuzu,” he broke the silence at last, “I think I saw a stream behind those trees. Let’s have a break so I can wash the blood off.”
Somewhat to his surprise, Kakuzu turned to the given direction without protest. He had to be really caught up in his thoughts – on most occasions he took it as a personal insult if Hidan told him when or where they should take a rest. The priest eyed his face from the corner of his eyes, trying to decipher what he might be thinking. It was hard to tell anything, with the mask and hood covering so much up. He could recognize Kakuzu being stoic or in rage even from the little bit that was showing – having seen those expressions most often. He couldn’t quite decide what was he seeing now, but certainly not these two most frequent emotions. He looked…maybe troubled. Hidan had always sucked at empathy, and he was sure that to try to read Kakuzu would be biting of more than he could chew.
“Why do you keep covering yourself up? I don’t see the point,” he told him straight away as they stopped, reaching up to tug on the mask gently.
“Haven’t we talked about this already?” Kakuzu pulled his head back in surprise, stepping away. Hidan felt a pang disappointment at the loss of contact. “It gives a tactical advantage in battle, if the enemy can’t see…”
“I know, I know,” Hidan waved this reasoning away as he took off his rather ravaged cloak. “But when it’s only the two of us. We are actually comrades, aren’t we?”
“Are we?” Kakuzu raised one eyebrow, but his tone remained light, teasing. “For me it looks like that we are fighting all the time.”
Hidan ignored that comment, focusing on rather the inspection of the self-inflicted wounds he caused during his ritual. They had skinned over completely by now, leaving only pink patches on his fair skin. Still, his whole chest was itching under the dried blood covering it. He could hardly peel off his pants as it stuck to his thigh around the now gone wound. He glanced up at Kakuzu, and was satisfied to see the red – green eyes watching him.
“I think I will need a new uniform,” he held up his torn Akatsuki cloak for his partner to see. “If treasurer – sama would purchase me a new one…”
“Forget it!” Kakuzu was apparently scandalized by the suggestion. “You should learn to take better care of your things.” He grabbed the cloak from the priest’s hands and studied the torn material. “If you wash it out and sew the holes up it will be good as new.”
“Who do you take me for,” Hidan laughed at that “a seamstress? I only know how to get things torn. Come on, Kakuzu! How much can a new cape cost? And may need new pants as well….”
His masked partner was obviously having an inner battle. Hidan cautiously took a few steps backwards – such inner struggles usually aggravated Kakuzu to the point when it became painful for Hidan.
“Wash them,” the older man finally thrown the garment back to him, “and I’ll sew them up for you,” he gritted out the words as if they had hurt him.
“Wow, Kakuzu, that is really nice of you,” Hidan quickly turned away as he was afraid laughter would burst out of him and was sure that he would lose a him a limb or two for that. Not that he was afraid of the old grouch– after all, he could hardy do anything permanent to Hidan – but he was about to wash the blood off from himself and not to get even dirtier. He was also hesitant to spoil the surprisingly easy atmosphere they were having.
He waddled into the rapid –flowing stream. The water came just above his knees, but was so icy that he couldn’t suppress a yell.
“What it is now?” he heard Kakuzu grunt behind him.
“It is bloody fucking cold, that’s what is! Jashin help me… this wasn’t a good idea after all,” he wanted to climb out, but Kakuzu blocked his way.
“Get over with it. And take your clothes with you.”
“You sadistic prick,” Hidan muttered, but splashed back to the middle of the drift. His legs already felt like blocks of ice. He crouched down and started to wash the dried blood off with hurried motions. Kakuzu stood on the bank and – this was Hidan sure of – laughed his ass off silently.
“You missed a spot there.”
“Fuck you. My balls have just shrunk to the size of a fucking
peanut, so I don’t give a shit what I have missed!”
“What will your Jashin say if his priest parades around filthy, in bloodied clothes? I thought that according to your regulations…”
“Shut. Up.” he continued scrubbing than rinsed his clothes without much enthusiasm before scrambling back to the bank, shivering violently from head to toe.
Kakuzu was ogling him again, but in his current condition he couldn’t be arsed to care about it. He pushed his dripping clothes into the other’s hands, and tried to find a sunny spot where he could get a bit of warmth. Unfortunately the forest was too thick for sunlight patches.
“Kakuzu, give me your cloak before I perish in pneumonia.”
“Can you catch pneumonia?”
“That’s not the point! Just give me your cloak!”
“No way,” the bastard snorted. “You should have taken better care of your own.” He studied one of the bigger holes on Hidan’s soaked cape before extending a thin thread from under the stiches on his forearm. Pushing it through the material he sewed it together.
“Ka-ku-zu… Kakuzu-chan… come on please, I can’t dress up in my own anyway, all of my clothes are fucking wet!”
“I said no.” He didn’t even look up from his work as he quickly and efficiently patched up Hidan’s garments.
The priest could have appreciated the gesture – if he wouldn’t have felt like dropping dead from the chill, that is. He waited until Kakuzu finished the work on his cloak and hung it up on a low branch before jumping on him.
“Have you gone completely mad?!” his partner, who he didn’t manage to surprise, pushed him away roughly. “Stop this, or you can continue this journey naked.”
“You’d love that you old pervert, wouldn’t you?” Hidan snarled, clattering teeth bared. “Come on, give me that lousy cloak! You can’t be such a fucking miser!” He charged on again, trying to get a hold on Kakuzu’s cloak and pull it off. The mean bastard tried struggle him off, but the one good thing about the skinny dripping had been that now he was just as slippery as he was cold.
“Hidan, this is the last warning I’m…”
The shivering priest pulled on the garment a bit too hard, practically tearing off one sleeve. A moment of foreboding silence followed.
“Whoops… what was this crap made of? Toilet paper? Would it have hurt you to give it to me…?”
Next second he was picked up and thrown back to the stream head first by an enraged Kakuzu.
To be continued…
