Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Immortal Innocence

"Fuck! Hurry the hell up, Kakuzu." Hidan muttered loudly to himself. He had been sitting on a rock outside of this village for over an hour now. The summer sun was starting to bake his bare chest and sweat started to form on his pale forehead. It was a good thing he was immortal, or he might have died of heat stroke by now. They were supposed to be on their way back to Hidden Rain, but Kakuzu had insisted they stop so he could pawn off the valuables taken from the daimyo they had just assassinated.

Hidan hated listening to Kakuzu bickering with the merchants, so he decided to wait on the edge of the nameless village while he conducted his business. That idea might have been a bad one, since Kakuzu would no doubt try to squeeze everything he could out of the merchants before he gave in. And since he could be quite stubborn, it might be another hour before he showed up.

So Hidan contented himself with alternately cursing his partner and staring absentmindedly at the local vegetation. His fingers found their way to his pendant, and he toyed with it, watching the light flash off the gleaming metal. How long had it been since his last sacrifice? Jashin would no doubt be requiring another one soon. He ran a hand through his slick silver hair and grinned in anticipation of the upcoming event.

"Meow!"

"What the hell!" Hidan exclaimed as he jumped at the unexpected sound. Glancing down at the source of the noise, he was surprised to see an orange ball of fluff sitting next to him. Brilliant green eyes met violet ones.

"Meow!" the kitten said again.

"Get out of here cat, It's too hot for this shit." he said to it. The tiny cat just continued to sit there, staring at him. Thinking that ignoring it would make it go away, Hidan stared down the road ahead of him. Then back at the kitten. Then he watched a bug crawl by on the ground. Then back at the kitten. He played with his pendant some more. Then looked back at the kitten again.

"Aww, hell!" he swore. "What the fuck do you want?" he asked it.

"Meow!" it replied.

Hidan knitted his eyebrows in irritation. Normally he would solve his problems in the usual way, with bloodshed. But animals were different than people. Jashin didn't really condone using them for sacrifice because they lacked the proper fear of death needed to please him. And innocent blood didn't appeal to him nearly as much as the blood of sinners. At a loss for what to do, he tried to swat the kitten away. Maybe that would make the bothersome thing leave, since yelling obviously didn't work.

As soon as his hand neared the kitten, it reached out it's paw and swatted Hidan on the palm. It's claws scored a deep enough hit to draw blood immediately. Pulling his hand back, Hidan inspected the wound. Three tiny trails of crimson crept down his flesh. Angry now, he snatched the kitten up by the scruff of the neck and was about to toss it away from him when he caught the look in it's eyes. The little orange furball was dangling from his hand without complaint and looking at him, completely unrepentant. There wasn't an ounce of fear or anger in the tiny thing at all.

A savage smile broke out on Hidan's face. Maybe the little devil would provide some entertainment after all. Dropping it gently by his side on the rock, he waited to see what it would do next. Curling it's fluffy tail around it's legs, the kitten lay down and began purring, while staring at Hidan the whole time. After a few minutes of staring at each other, Hidan tried to get the kitten to 'play' with him again. He tried moving his hand close again to get a reaction. Nothing. He even went so far as to poke it in the head. Repeatedly. It just continued to stare at him and purr softly.

Hidan dropped his chin in his hand. Well, that was certainly boring. Maybe he should have just killed it after all. Giving the idea some serious consideration, he turned to find that the kitten was no longer sitting beside him. Looking around, he spotted it about a yard away, staring at a patch of grass. Unable to fathom what could be so interesting and with nothing better to do, he watched intently to see what would happen.

After a moment, he noticed the grass vibrating slightly. Every time it did, the kitten would twitch it's tail and knead it's front paws into the ground. He looked on in anticipation as the grass began moving more violently. Without warning, the kitten pounced into the grass and disappeared. A few moments later it returned, with a small gray lump wiggling wildly in it's mouth. It had caught a small field mouse and was carrying it out into the open.

Hidan figured the kitten would just kill the mouse and eat it. But instead, it began to play with the helpless creature. He watched on in morbid fascination as the mouse was tossed into the air repeatedly, then let go, and just when it had tried to escape, was caught all over again. The kitten was not being gentle either. The longer the kitten played with it's prize, the more mangled the creature became.

When it couldn't run anymore, the kitten pounced one last time and landed the finishing blow to the mouse, crushing it's head. After sniffing it to make sure it wouldn't move anymore, the kitten sat above it's prize, licking it's paw contentedly. Reaching down, Hidan picked up the kitten and looked into it's emerald eyes.

"That was fucking awesome, cat!" he exclaimed.

"Meow." the kitten replied.

Maybe he would keep the little ball of fluff around for awhile. It certainly did some interesting things. He stood with it in his hands just as Kakuzu was exiting the village and making his way over to Hidan. His eyes looked angry and the way he was walking told that he wasn't very pleased.

"Did you not get what you wanted for the damn stuff?" Hidan asked.

"No. What is that thing?" Kakuzu replied, pointing to the kitten. The kitten looked at Kakuzu and hissed angrily.

"It's a fucking cat, what's it look like?" Hidan said, rolling his eyes.

"A demon." Kakuzu said.

"Hmm, I like that, seriously. I'll call it Demon since it doesn't have a name yet." Hidan said with a smile. He placed the cat on his bare shoulder, where it settled down to ride as the two ninja started walking away from the village.

"You're really gonna keep it? It's not worth anything."

"Hell yes! You should see what it did to a mouse back there. It was the shit!"

Kakuzu just rolled his eyes silently and kept walking. Hidan began describing in vivid detail how the kitten killed the mouse over and over until Kakuzu got tired of it and threated to stitch his mouth shut if he didn't shut up. Demon just hissed at him from his perch on Hidan's shoulder before falling asleep to the warm sunshine and the swaying beneath him.

The End