I don't own Naruto or it's characters. If I did, the series would be over by now.

Hidan looked at the ceiling of the cave lost in thought. He'd been laying on the ground for the past half-hour, hoping that the rain would let up but to no avail. He tilted his head back further and saw the water falling outside and a large figure silhouetted by the entrance. Kakuzu was unhappy that Hidan made him come inside out of the rain so that he could do a ritual. He'd been grumbling and cussing him out for taking so long. In truth, Hidan had been done the ritual for five minutes already; he just didn't want to go back outside.

'Come on Hidan. Are you done yet?' he growled, glaring over his shoulder at the Jashinist with those green eyes that gave him the chills. Hidan's eyes weren't the epitome of normal, but they didn't glow like his. His really were unnatural. Not breaking eye contact with Kakuzu, Hidan pulled the stake from his chest, smirking as it made a slurping sound that used to set Kakuzu on edge. Hidan personally thought that the sound of a heart being ripped out of a body was a few shades worse, but what did he know?

'Yeah fucker, let's go drown ourselves before we get too comfy,' said the zealot as he pushed himself off of the floor, his skin returning to its pale colour. He struggled with the buttons on his cloak with his bloody hands. The further delay caused Kakuzu to give a huff of impatience. Hidan rolled his eyes. 'I'm trying to save what little body-heat I have left. You got a problem with self-preservation?'

'I was just admiring the fact that you throw yourself into battle without a second thought but the thought of walking in rain gets you quaking like a cold kitten,'

'Shut the fuck up,' Hidan said as he retrieved his scythe from the wall of the cave.

'You're such a piss-head Hidan,' Kakuzu grunted, stepping out the door with a body in tow. Hidan bared his teeth at the taller man imagining all the places that he wanted to stab him with his scythe. Giving the weapon an experimental swing, he pictured it slicing through the green-eyed bastard.

'You know, you're always making fun of me for self-torture, but what is this?' Hidan wondered aloud.

'This is business. This body,' he gave the stiff form of a man on his shoulder a jerk, 'needs to get to the drop-off spot before sunset or the reward is halved,'

'And I should care why?'

'You should care because you think it is fun to ruin your cloak, get yourself beat up, put missions at stake due to your arrogance, and breaking your finger on the pedestal was the-'

'Hey hey hey! That was definitely an explosion that went off! Deidara was on his period and he couldn't handle a little joke!'

'Don't try to blame Deidara. It was your fault, and it had to be paid for. I sometimes think that you cause more trouble than you're worth. No, I'm wrong. I think that all of the time,'

'And your opinion is worth jack-shit to me so keep it to your own god-damned self!'

'Which god? God god, or the one in your imagination?'

If Kakuzu had been facing Hidan, he might have stood a chance, but his back was turned and Hidan brought his scythe down hard on it, breaking two of Kakuzu's hearts. A cry of pain escaped the Waterfall nin as Hidan yanked his scythe out of his partner. As he fell to his knees, Kakuzu made the hand signs for a jutsu and slammed his fists to the earth. Seconds later cracks began appearing beneath Hidan's feet. He dodged them expertly, only to fall into a bigger one that had been made behind him. He fell for a few seconds before sending chakra to his feet and running up the side of the hole.

Above ground level and filled with rage, Hidan jumped with his scythe over his head preparing to slam it into Kakuzu a second time. Before he could even land on the ground, Hidan was punched in the face by Kakuzu's detached fist and then wrapped up by his strings. With no hesitation, Kakuzu brought down the strings holding Hidan with such force that when he hit the ground, he disappeared into a crater. Hidan was choking from the mud that had landed in his mouth as Kakuzu made his way over to the edge of the crater.

'You are so predictable it hurts. An immediate danger distracts you from seeing what the next step in an attack will be. You jump backwards from a crack without even looking behind you and do you really think I will be sitting and twiddling my thumbs after you get out of the hole?' the strings tightened around Hidan causing him to grunt in pain. 'I can't even fathom where you would be if you didn't have immortality; probably rotting in a ditch because no one in their right minds would waste their time trying to bury you,'

'SEW YOUR OWN FUCKING MOUTH SHUT KAKUZU!'

'Why would I do that to myself when I could easily do that to you?' a string began prodding Hidan's cheek. Hidan was silent in rage. Usually he could brush Kakuzu's insults off like bread crumbs but between the rain and the walking, his patience was thin. 'I'll tell you why. Because I don't really want my strings residing in your stinking mouth for all eternity,'

'YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT ME SO STOP PRETENDING THAT YOU DO,' Hidan screamed to his partner.

'What is there to know?' Kakuzu's voice rose with impatience. 'You're an aggravating, obnoxious, bucket of slime who can't keep his mouth shut without help!'

'There is more to me than that,' Hidan mumbled and he let his head fall into the puddle, his ears submerged into the water and everything became muffled. He wasn't even going to deny what Kakuzu had said about him. He knew that he could be infuriating at times, but it was his way of dealing with things he couldn't do anything about like walking all day, the rain, and Kakuzu being his damn partner. He could hear Kakuzu saying something but he couldn't make out what it was through the puddle. Kakuzu must have gotten into the crater because he now hovered over Hidan as he raised his head from the water with the strings.

'So, what is there?' he asked seeming mildly interested.

'What?'

'What is in there,' he nudged Hidan's head with his foot, 'that I haven't seen before,'

'None of your fucking business; you wouldn't give a damn anyways,'

'Try me,' the zombie duo glared at each other until Hidan finally looked away. Kakuzu lowered Hidan with relative niceness (Hidan only saw stars for a few seconds) and Hidan found that a rock had appeared under his head so his ears weren't submerged in water. It's the little things that count. Kakuzu had also made a rock seat for himself beside the Jashinist. Hidan lay staring at the sky for a few seconds trying to get his thoughts in order.

'Well, I came from the Village Hidden in the Hot Springs, right? So it was a pretty peaceful village that didn't really get much trouble from anyone. Even when the war was going on, we only fought on the defense but for some damn reason, a group of ninjas trespassed on our borders and began attacking a small part of our village. When they were discovered, they fled but it was the part where my family lived that they attacked. My sister and mother were among the dead.

'I spent many years trying to follow clues as to where the ninjas came from, but I couldn't find anything. It was as if they vanished. Once the war had ended and everything cooled down, the village decided to become a fucking tourist attraction. When they wanted me to give up my forehead protector, I kindly told them to fuck themselves and they began attacking me.

'Well I couldn't die, could I? They didn't stand a chance. I sliced them down and then killed everyone else in the pansy-ass village. They weren't worth sharing the same earth if they were willing to give up the ways of the ninja to run baths for other people. That's a job for common people, not ninjas. I would never have been able to live like that while my family's murderers were loose. I still haven't found the bastards, but I hope they are alive so I can make their deaths as painful as possible,' The silence that followed Hidan's story was only broken by a rumble of thunder. Eventually Kakuzu spoke up.

'Well aren't you just the nicest human being around. I'm sorry I didn't take the time to listen to your sad, miserable story sooner; I might have been able to muster a sliver of sympathy,' Kakuzu mocked with a painful amount of sarcasm.

'Well I really don't give a shit about your opinion anyways!' Hidan huffed and turned his head away from the green-eyed nin. He had expected at least a small amount of understanding from his partner.

'If you didn't care then why did you bother telling me,' he asked and Hidan couldn't give him an answer.

'Because…because,' his thoughts flicked to the recent events of the day. Most days he would have gotten over his jab at Jashin with just a cuss and a violent thought, but today he had lost it.

'You can't give me a reason because you were hoping that I would care. Well, tough luck,I don't,' and Kakuzu got up, his threads retreating back to his body.

'You're just a fucking piece of work. You know that, right?' Hidan groaned as he got up and flexed his unused muscles.

'And once again, you are making the assumption that I care. You really are dumb,'

'I was the best in my Genin and Chunin classes thanks,'

'Yeah right. If you're going to lie then make it believable,' he chided as he hopped out of the crater. Hidan followed, picking up his scythe from a puddle. 'And now we have to run to make up for lost time. I hope you're happy,'

'I hope that with all the money you're going to get for this body that you will look at purchasing a better personality Rag-Doll,' a string from Kakuzu stabbed Hidan in the back and the zealot set off down the path at a pace he knew would soon cause Kakuzu to become winded and call for him to slow down. 'Catch me if you can Seamstress!' Hidan laughed as he dodged puddles and his partner's jabs with strings.

'Kakuzu does kind of care in his stoic, money-driven ways,' Hidan thought, 'He can hide his face behind his mask, but he can't hide his green eyes that reveal more about him than he would care to know,'