The Syndrome
Part 1: The Jashinst
Characters: HidanxHinata
Description: Toto, she's not in Kansas anymore. Not even remotely close.
Dedication: Azwhi, who wanted the pairing, and of course I will supply.
Warning: Vague spoilers for Shippuuden, OOC, blood, swearing, Hidan.
Rating: T

Prompt: HidanxHinata

Disclaimer: Characters and Naruto do not belong to me, but to Masashi Kishimoto. I am responsible for creating the situation, and the storyline only. Please do not take and use without my express permission. Thank you.

Word count: 10,186

A/N: Alright. I have a confession to make. This is REALLY long. Seriously. Don't expect any of the other chapters to be this long. Ever. I'm not saying some won't inspire me like this one has, but I was actually considering on not posting this to Kage no Monogatari simply because it was so long. Anyway, read, enjoy, and review! Thanks!

When Hinata wakes up, she's surrounded by men. Blood-thirsty, scary, cloaked men. One is even inches from her face, and the girl just goes with instinct on that one. Developed instinct that has nothing to do with Naruto. She jyuukens him out of her face.

"OH NO! DEIDARA-SEMPAI!" another yells frantically, and races over to the man now sitting up, holding his nose.

"Shuddup, Tobi! You're hurting my ears, mm!" the blond yells back. But he doesn't lash out in favor of pinching his broken nose shut, and then popping it back into alignment.

Hinata can hear the sound all the way across the room, and she winces. "S-sorry," she offers meekly, also an instinct she has developed. Then she realizes she probably shouldn'tbe sorry, because it's a bit obvious to her where she is at the current time. And Toto, she's not in Kansas anymore. Not even remotely close.

Anyway, she was pretty sure 'Deidara' had been eying her boobs.

The other two men with them burst into snickers at the commotion, drawing Hinata's attention. One of them is the man that took her. She can remember him, popping up in front of her after she sent her team running. She knows absolutely nothing about the vibrantly colored albino, short of what she can see with her own eyes.

But she knows right then that she had made the right choice in sending her precious genin back to Konoha. There's no way in hell they could have held up against Akatsuki at their current level.

"Wh-what do you w-want with me?" she demands, with as much bravado as she could muster.

Somehow, her stuttering was amusing, and the albino just laughed harder. The blue man beside him was slowly starting to calm, and offers her a very shark-like grin. "Who says we want something, Hyuuga-hime?" he asks teasingly. "You just showed up in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The albino gasps for breath, and adds, "Yeah... Tobi wanted a pet!" But he isn't capable of saying anything more, because he's too busy laughing.

It's really starting to annoy her. "H-hey! Stop l-laughing at me!" she says, which only serves to send him into louder peals. She reaches out for the first thing she can get her hands on - a brush - and throws it at him. It bounces ineffectually off his chest, but it's enough to cut him short.

He abruptly straightens and looks at her, looks at the blue one, and looks at her. He grins. "Gotta fucking problem, bitch?"

"Yes!" she snaps, managing not to stumble over the word. She frowns at him and points at her satchel, which is strewn all over the table beside her bed. That was where the brush had come from. "You went through my stuff!"

The albino smirks at his blue companion, getting an answering grin, and shrugs. "Yeah, so fucking what? There wasn't anythin' interesting. Not even a single damn vibrator."

She just knowsher face can light up a dark room, it's burning that much. "Y-you're disgusting!" she squeaks.

"Stop flirting, mm!" the blond said suddenly, now standing. "Help me interrogate her or get the hell out!"

The albino feigns a yawn, turning around. "Bo-oring," he comments, and leaves without another word. The blue one follows him out, and leaves her with the blond and the twitchy masked man that she fears is suffering from schizophrenia.

Somehow, this doesn't seem like it's going to be good.

xXx

She eventually learns their names. Hidan, Kisame, Deidara and Tobi. They're in one of many hide-outs peppered all over the continent, and both Kisame's and Hidan's partners are off on solo missions elsewhere. She also learns that Kisame's partner is none other than the much feared Konoha nuke-nin Uchiha Itachi.

After hearing that, she's actually a little glad that it's Kisame and notUchiha that is the one here with her. The thought of meeting the infamous Uchiha in person really terrifies her.

Hinata has occasionally heard mention of the mysterious leader of the Akatsuki, but none of them ever say his name. It's always "Leader-dono" this, and "Leader-dono" that. Even the leader's equally mysterious assistant is usually ever referred to as that "crazy lady". At least Akatsuki isn't gender specific.

Hidan doesn't leave her alone, of course. No, the zealot takes perverse pleasure in tormenting her, usually with hardly-subtle sexual advances, comments, flirtations. It unnerves her and annoys her usually.

Lately, though, he's stopped being hands-off. It's her own fault, really. When he'd accidentally brushed her side while poking at her wounds - under the guise of rebandaging them, but she knows he was just doing it to see her half-naked - she could have just not reacted. But no, she had to yelp and jerk away. The grin he'd given her, she knew, was a bad sign.

After that, his hands were all over the place. Fingers dancing up her sides, palm brushing her hip, her backside, nails digging lightly into her wrist. It never really hurt... it was a bit of a discomfort, but he never went out of his way to make her bleed.

From what she's gathered of his personality - both through observation as well as comments from the others - she is a little surprised that this is the case. Not that she's about to tell him as much.

xXx

It's the second time in a month that Hinata wakes up disoriented. For some reason, she's upside down, and there's a familiar butt in her face. A white, furry butt. "Akamaru?" she mumbles.

"She's awake!" she hears a voice yell, and Akamaru slows in his running, dropping to the forest floor. Then Kiba is dragging her up out of her hanging position, hugging her close and whispering that he's got her, he's not going to let it happen again.

Shino's beside them now, muttering that they need to continue soon, because otherwise the enemy will catch up. He has no ideahow right he is, for in the next instant, the five of them - yes, Kurenai-sensei is there too, as well as Lee, weirdly - are attacked. Kurenai yells for them to put up their guards.

Then she's engaged by slim, tall Tobi. Hidan roars as he attacks Kiba and Akamaru, while Lee races to fight Kisame. Shino is left to Deidara, and Hinata finds herself just standing there, watching.

She's not sure what to do. She should help her comrades, right? But, for some reason, there's this fog in her head that's keeping her from figuring out who her comrades are. There's laughter, mad laughter, and the ground is shaking with the force of the fighting. A loud voice is taunting someone, and someone else - someone closer to her - is yelling angrily, his words echoed by the low rumble of growling.

"HINATA, WATCH OUT!"

The words are thrown in her face, and her eyes widen as a white bird flutters in front of her. Then the world is white, her body is squeezed in a vise and she's flying. There's no noise, just the white. Hell, there isn't even any pain, and for a moment, she wonders if she's died and is going to heaven.

But then the white becomes less of a blanket, and more a tumble of messed-up hair. White hair. She's sprawled out on the ground, with Hidan crouched over her, face scrunched up in an expression of pain.

Hinata forces herself to move beyond the haze, the fog, and focuson the man. "H-Hidan? What..."

"Damn freak," he grunts, and collapses right on top of her.

She can hear the others approaching, yelling, trying to fight their way to her, only to be stopped by the other Akatsuki. She struggles quickly out from under the albino and glances toward the others. Then, swallowing, she braces his arm over her shoulders, uses chakra to get up and keep himup, and takes off.

She leaves them all behind.

xXx

Hinata tends Hidan's injuries the best she can. He doesn't wake up for a while, but as luck would have it, he finally does as she's changing the bandaging on his back. She knows he's awake because he moans in a weird combination of pain and pleasure.

It weirds her out, but she finishes quickly and helps him sit up. "H-how do you feel?" she asks worriedly, searching his face.

Hidan grins at her weakly. "Knew I rubbed off on you," he teases, and snickers when she blushes. Then he winces. "Where the hell are we, anyway?" He glances around. "And how fucking long have I been out?"

"We're in a cave," she tells him quietly. "Rain country. You were... unconscious for about a day."

He gives her a measuring look and finally pulls away. "Yeah? Why?" he asks, watching her very carefully.

Hinata fidgets under his gaze, looking down at her lap. "I d-don't know. I j-just... sort of... s-saved you. I-I think I was drugged... because I c-couldn't think very well at first."

"Yeah, Tobi drugged you earlier," the albino agrees, and grimaces. "Fucking Deidara..." He shakes his head, as if to clear it, and continues. "It's uh... Standard procedure if we have a prisoner whose calvary is nearby." He gestures toward her. "So you can't give away any damn information before we can get you back. If they even fucking manage to get you in the first damn place."

The Hyuuga nods slowly, having figured as much. It's a sound plan, after all. "H-Hidan? Can I ask... a question?" She peeks up when he says nothing, and he just nods, so she swallows and looks down again. "Why do you... I mean... what is Akatsuki..."

"What the hell are we plottin', you mean?" he asks, a grin in his voice. When she nods, he snorts and leans heavily against the wall. "Leader-dono wants world peace, but the rest of us have our own damn plans."

She peeks up again, nibbling her lip for a moment before she asks, "What's yours?"

"Eh, don't really got none, other than serving the almighty Jashin-sama," he says, smirking at her. He reaches out with the hand that isn't propping his weight up, and takes hers, interlacing their fingers. "I don't suppose you'd be interested in serving him, would you?"

"No," she says flatly, prompting a chuckle from the man.

Hidan releases her hand again, and it feels cold without his warmth. "Ah, can't blame a fucker for trying. You'd be a glorious Jashinist!"

She's nibbling on her lip again at that, giving the proposal a second thought. It's irrational that she even is, but... maybe... "Y-you think so?" she asks softly, regaining his entire attention.

He's grinning, obviously delighted to make her think twice. "I knowso. You're already fucking hot! I bet you'd be sexy as hell, covered in blood."

Maybe it's just that she's... she's tired of being taken for granted. She's tired of being ignored by the one man she has ever loved. She's tired of proving herself and proving herself, because nobody would believe she has any strength in her. Whatever it is, it makes her smile shyly at him, and say, "Show me."

Hidan's expression is like Christmas came early. Except she doesn't think Jashinists celebrate Christmas.

xXx

Three days later, Hinata jerks awake when she realizes they're no longer alone. There's a silhouette, standing with their back to the cave entrance, and beyond them, a lightning storm rages. The Hyuuga starts to scramble up, but Hidan's hand on her shoulder keeps her down. "S'just Konan," he says, sitting up. "The fuck do you want?"

The woman steps further into the cave, and her face is finally lit up by the dying fire. She's beautiful, Hinata thinks. Far more beautiful than the Hyuuga could ever hope to be. And she's wearing an Akatsuki cloak. The pieces click into place as Hinata realizes this must be the mysterious "Leader-dono's" assistant.

"Hidan," the woman says, voice soft and smooth, like silk or water over rocks. "We've been looking for you. Leader-dono was concerned to hear that our esteemed guest took off with you."

"Yeah? Why the fuck do you give a shit?" he demands, tense as he shifts slightly in front of the girl.

"You're one of our members," the woman says, smiling at them both. "Of course we care."

But both Hinata and Hidan hear what isn't said. She cares because if either of them went missing, they would then become an unchecked liability that she and her master couldn't afford.

"Hmph," Hidan returns, getting to his feet shakily. Hinata hurries to help him, and he drapes an arm around her shoulders before dragging her against his side. "Gotta new recruit, Konan. She's gonna learn my religion." He grins, and even though it's a bit blood thirsty, Hinata is beginning to like the expression on his face. Which is weird. But she can roll with that.

"Oh?" Konan smiles again, and it's a bit more real than before. She's pleased. "Then she'll have to become an official member of our organization, through initiation."

The albino shrugs. "Whatever."

Hinata eyes them both, and wonders - not for the first time or the last - if this is entirely a Good Idea.

xXx

Hinata is brought to the hideout and put into a cell, for "safe keeping" Hidan says. It's now that she starts to doubt her Life Choices. She curls up into a ball, fights the urge to hyperventilate and stares at a wall. She thinks over the things that brought her to this place, this choice.

She thinks about Kiba. Wonderful, strong, loyal Kiba. Kiba who has loved her since the day they were put on the same genin team, maybe even before that. And Shino; strong and silent, the perfect knight for any rescue. Her best friend in the world, aside from Kiba.

She's leaving them. She's leaving Naruto, the one man she has ever strived for. Hell, she hasn't even tried that hard for her father, but she changed everything so that Naruto would notice her. And he did, for a few minutes. But then he forgot again.

Then there's Kurenai-sensei, and Hokage-sama, and Sakura-chan. Sakura-chan, the only one out of team seven who ever bothered seeing Hinata for who she was, and the only one whom Hinata has ever hated just a little bit. It's not Sakura-chan's fault that Naruto loves her instead. Hinata knows this, but she's still jealous of the other woman. Even now, as she prepares to become something she isn't just for a little attention.

No, it's more than that. Hidan is... almost sweet, now that she's actually managed to gain more than passing interest. Of course, he's also gruff, and rude, and loud, and coarse. But... she can live with that, because he seesher. When he looks at her, he's looking at what she is. He isn't looking at what she can do for him, though she imagines that might be a tiny part of it. He's seeing her for her, and that right there is what made her decision from the very beginning.

He sees her as a woman, a kunoichi, not a bratty teammate or a love interest... or a wall.

So when Hidan appears before the bars later that night, surprisingly somber-faced, she stands up, resolve firmed once more. "You ready?" he asks, eying her. "You'll just be a minion, y'know, in the Akatsuki's eyes. Far as I'm fuckin' concerned, though, you'll be my apprentice. You really want it?"

She swallows the urge to smile at him, at the wary consideration on his face. "Yes, I want it," she mumbles, then scolds herself and speaks up. "I do. And I'm ready."

He breaks out into a vicious grin. "Hell yeah!"

The cell is unlocked, and he brings her to a floor even further below them. This floor is even darker than the prisoner cells, though not really as wet. Still, Hinata knows they're being watched as they walk down long hall after long hall. They come to a dead end, and she wonders briefly what's going on.

Then there's a plant, or a man, or something, leaning through the wall ahead of them. "Password please," he asks politely, and then adds, "Or I'll cut your fucking tongue out, bitch."

"Fuck you, whore," Hidan retorts, and grimaces. "I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world."

The man, his face barely visible amongst the leaves of some sort of fly trap, grins and melts into the wall. A moment later, a door appears to their left, and Hidan leads them through that as well.

She's brought into a large chamber. There is nothing in it, except a single altar dead center. Hidan stops and turns to look at her. "Go to the altar. There's a bowl." He reaches forward and grabs her hand, places a kunai in it. "A few drops from your finger should do it. Don't gotta bleed yourself out or anything." He smirks at her. "Don't break a leg, hot stuff."

She snorts in a very unladylike manner at that. "That was corny," she replies, and obediently walks away from him.

Her steps slow the closer she gets to the altar, until she stops completely five feet away. Hesitates. Then she swallows, reminding herself of her reasons, and continues to kneel before the altar. She does as he told her to, watching in morbid fascination as her blood drips into the empty silver bowl.

Silence falls for a minute, and then power surges. And it's realpower, too. Not just chakra, not just life-force. It's everything. It's pain, and anger, and sorrow. It's love and pleasure like nothing she's ever felt before. It's like running into the warm embrace of her mother, crying into her shoulder in breathless relief. It's like the Earth has reached up and dragged her down with it, clinging to her very soul, claiming her for itself-

And then it's over with. Hinata sits in a dark cavern, head down turned and eyes focused on her knees. There's an almost painful silence around her, trying to choke her. Her heart is hammering in her chest, her throat is closed up and her lungs hurt.

A hand on her shoulder brings her gaze up, to realize that she's surrounded by the Akatsuki members. Konan has knelt beside her, a tiny smile on her face. "Breathe, Hinata. Welcome to Akatsuki."

It's a feeling that she will never forget.

xXx

The Syndrome
Part 2: Learning the Ropes

xXx

Time passes. Sometimes quickly, other times it slows down to a heart breaking pace. Hinata doesn't leave the Akatsuki compound for a year. She spends some of the time with Hidan, and even has a civil conversation with Kakuzu (she suggests a money trick her father used to save, and Kakuzu suddenly likes her a lot more). Occasionally, she is able to sit with the others.

Konan will talk to her like they've known each other for years. Hinata thinks that the other woman is glad to finally have a girl to talk to, and not just girly men. This opinion is further enforced after Konan takes up her hair and braids it idly while they're discussing strategy. It's not the last time to happen, either, because Konan does notice how Hinata doesn't even protest.

She's starved for the attention too.

Tobi is strange. Sometimes he's quiet, in an absent way as he stares out a window or spaces out near a wall. Then he's loud and exuberant like Naruto. Hinata can never stand to be around him then, but when he's quiet, she barely notices he's there.

She has a feeling that he never forgets her.

Deidara-san tends to be a bit on the wild side. He'll be laughing and taunting one minute, and then switch to blind, white rage the next. His fingers are long, and slender, and she admits that she finds him attractive sometimes. Mostly because - weird mouths aside - she likes his hands.

He reminds her a bit of Kiba, when he's in a good mood, and she's even managed to get him to talk about what he likes to her. Not that it's hard to do, all she has to do is say that she sketches sometimes.

Then the blond is ranting about how true art is meant to be brief, final. He offers to show her, but Tobi suddenly appears and tries to glomp him. Hinata escapes in the ensuing scuffle.

Hinata can neverstand to be around Uchiha Itachi. She fears him, more than she fears any of the others. She cringes when he passes her in the hall, and breathes a sigh of relief when he's gone.

Of course, these encounters with the other members are far between. The group still has an agenda, and they are usually gone. For the first year, Hinata tends to get left behind a lot, though she usually has at least Konan to keep her company. Since they're in the Rain hideout, where the woman lives, she doesn't leave unless she has an important mission to carry out for her mysterious leader.

Still, in all, it's a rather pleasant year.

xXx

Soon enough, Hidan's lessons - which had been few and far due to his own duties - pick up when he tells her she'll start traveling with him. He teaches her about blood, and pain, and pleasure. He tells her that magic, glory, awaits believers.

He teaches her everything, the incantations, the rituals, the rules. Jashin demands blood, though Hidan says the God isn't particular about what kind. This relieves Hinata, especially when Hidan explains that he doesn't usually waste the blood of random bystanders. He tends to only offer the blood of his enemies.

It's a good idea, she thinks, and perhaps she should consider doing it too.

A month after she makes her first kill - a Sound nin outside the border of Hi no Kuni, leading into Yu no Kuni - Hidan tells her that she's ready to be taught the most important lesson. He takes her to to the marshes in Numa no Kuni, strips her naked and leaves her with only the words, "Have no fear."

Now she's alone, and Hidan is gone. There's no one to protect her, but she holds onto those words like a security blanket. She walks. There are critters occasionally, snakes sliding through the springy moss, that snap at her ankles hungrily when she pauses. A leech falls onto her shoulder at one point, but she swallows her fear and jerks it off, throwing it away.

There's something creeping after her, stalking her through the waters, and Hinata skitters away from it. A part of her knows that if she falters, Hidan will leave her to die, and that is not what she wants. She wants him to be proud of her, to kiss her on the mouth in celebration. She wants to feel pleasure at his fingertips, wants him to make love to her.

She knows it won't happen if she shows fear, and so she continues to walk. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do, but she is expecting an attack at any time. "Have no fear," spoken as if expecting her to be gobbled up.

Truthfully, she feels vulnerable, walking through the marshes without clothing like this. What if she's seen, spotted by a native? But the natives don't get the chance.

She's climbing a tree, seeking the yellow fruit in its boughs, hand reaching out for it... when something slick and wet wraps around her leg,slime curling up her skin. She yelps as she's dragged down, making a loud splatwhen encountering the watery soil.

Hinata thrashes, her only weapon her chakra. Something grabs her wrist, and she kicks out with her free leg. She escapes and scrambles up a nearby tree, crouching on a branch as she coughs out the marshwater in her lungs. Everything is absolutely still, the only sound that of the wind lightly blowing above the canopy.

Not even the marsh life speaks any longer, fearing the predator that grasped at her. Hinata reaches out and grabs a smaller branch, breaking it off of the tree and pulling it close. She snaps pieces off until it's pointed at the end, and then she waits.

The silence starts to lull lesser creatures into a false sense of security, and somewhere a toad croaks. Nearby, a bird sings uncertainly, chirping a call to his brothers. Stillness slowly comes to life.

Then something rises up out of the deeper waters beneath her. It's large, and so dark green it's almost black. Razor sharp teeth gleam wetly as it opens a cat-like maw, releasing a horrible scream like a hundred dying mammals. An incongruously placed paw reaches out for her, slimy tentacles thrashing against the moss and spraying her with water.

Without hesitation, Hinata screams back and leaps, driving the pointed end of the branch into its skull, determination vicious and animalistic. She breaks it off, leaving it there, and ignores the sting of claws in her thigh. She leaps away, holding what little remains of the branch before her like a shield.

Hinata watches the creature die, and then she collapses from blood-loss in the marshwater.

xXx

When she wakes, she's still there, the forest life loud around her, the cold corpse of the predator not far away. It looks like something that the gods put together out of leftover bits from other animals, and Hinata wonders if its alone, or if it has some sort of mate or pack.

But she isn't afraid. She's survived, she's killed it and lived without fear. The feeling is beautiful, pure and sweet like the taste of blood in her mouth. Blood? Ah, she must have bitten her tongue when she fell.

Speaking of falling...Pale eyes lower to stare at her gouged out thigh, and she momentarily boggles at how deep it is. She shouldn't be alive, hell she shouldn't even be awake with this kind of injury. Unless... Unless I passed Jashin's test.

The cold clarity comes to her without any effort at all. "Have no fear," and the unspoken, and you will never die. She's like him now; she's a Jashinist.

Pearl-colored eyes lift to stare at the thick canopy above her head, and she smiles faintly. "I'm yours, now, Jashin-sama."

Hidan's waiting when she limps from the marshes, and he grins excitedly when she beams at him. "You passed!"

"I did," she replies happily, and doesn't resist when he lifts her up and spins her around. Then he kisses her, and somehow she forgets about the mud all over her, or the fact that she's naked. Nothing else matters at all.

xXx

She and Hidan are separated, some months after that. He's trapped back in a valley, fighting Suna nin, and she's forced off toward the cliffs by others. She kills them, and races toward the caves she knows are there, because there is backup coming for the dead, and she needs to buy time to figure out a way around them.

It's on the cliff edge that she realizes she's backed into a corner, as it were. Naruto steps out of the foliage, staring at her in disbelief. "Hinata-chan?" he says uncertainly. His eyes are lowered, focused on the cloak she wears these days, and then he meets her gaze. "I don't understand."

She blinks at him bemusedly before dropping into a familiar stance. "Don't you?" she asks. "Isn't it obvious now? Don't worry about it, Naruto."

He probably thinks that's the first time she's not called him Naruto-kun, and it's certainly the first time that she hasn't fainted around him. "No, it can't be," he says, looking so betrayed.

Hinata feels a laugh bubbling up in her chest. "You really are just an idiot, aren't you? You're a fucking moron, Naruto."

"Naruto, around her neck," Sakura says suddenly, from the shadows.

His blue, blue eyes lower, and narrow. "No, that can't be- What has that bastard done to you!?"

She smiles at him, the pendant seeming heavier with his notice. "Nothing I didn't ask him to. And when I asked, he gave me everything I wanted," she tells him happily. "He's given me the world, and immortality. I'll never die, Naruto. That's what he's given me... It's beautiful."

Naruto looks sick, like he isn't sure whether he should vomit or not. "Come home, Hinata-chan. Come back with me..."

"What?" She's honestly surprised by the offer, but quickly reminds herself that he only cares because he's selfish. Naruto has always been selfish that way, always hated the thought that others would walk away from him for their own destinies. Look at Sasuke, and at Neji. They lived their lives in ways that he didn't like, and he'd gone so far as to change things.

"You can come back," he says, reaching out for her. "We'll face them together. They won't be angry, it's-"

She slaps his hand away, stepping back until her heel dangles over the edge of the cliff, only her toes keeping purchase. "You don't understand yet, do you, Naruto? I'm not the same person you knew... Once, I loved you, Naruto, do you see? And every time you turned me away..."

The blond is staring at her like she's struck him across the face, and she knows it's cruel, but it's also necessary for him to know. She doesn't want him to chase her like he does Sasuke, because she's happynow.

"Naruto, he didn't. He loves me too," she continues, voice soft, and mentally adds, I hope. "I won't ever leave him behind again. I can't go with you."

Naruto lunges forward, and she lets her foot slip deliberately. His voice follows her over the cliff, screaming her name.

xXx

Hinata isn't at all surprised to find herself at home when she wakes. Not the home she grew up in, but the home she's made for herself in the last year or so. Tobi is leaning over her, poking at her arm. He notes her state of consciousness and giggles. "You're awake, Hinata-chan!" He prods her arm again and she winces. "Does that hurt? That was very reckless of you, you know!"

"I wouldn't have died," she tells him bemusedly, and tries to sit up. But she aches all over and can't manage it at all, so she relaxes again. "Where's Hidan?"

"Oh..." Tobi gives her a helpless shrug. "We haven't heard from him or Kakuzu-san yet."

She isn't worried, not really. She knows that absolutely nothing in the world could ever defeat Hidan, or Kakuzu. The both of them are positively invincible. "Okay. You'll tell me when they get back?" she asks sleepily.

Tobi nods his head quickly. "Yes, of course, Hinata-chan!" he chirps. "We will wake you right away!"

It occurs to her, as she's drifting off, that it is a little odd for Tobi to be here with her. But it's not so odd as to keep her awake, and soon enough unconsciousness claims her like clinging fog.

She doesn't know another thing.

xXx

Her body heals quickly, the painful moments of consciousness few and far between because unlike her lovely Hidan, she's not a masochist and doesn't know how to stand it. But those moments tend to stick with her, even while she sleeps. They bring about horrific nightmares.

Sometimes, Itachi-san is there when she wakes, glaring almost venomously at Tobi, who has kept vigil at her side for some reason she can't even fathom. There's something odd between the two of them, but she can never understand what, and she likes Tobi a bit better than she likes Itachi-san anyway.

The dreams after those times are full of walking corpses and ravens pecking out her eyes. She screams so much while she dreams of this that the others are forced to tie her down until she wakes again. Eventually, someone makes the connection and Itachi is barred from her room.

She's a bit grateful for it, even if she feels shame for the fear.

The news of Hidan's defeat comes while she's awake, but no one else seems to notice it. Konan is in the room, whispering with Tobi about it. Tobi is irritated about the news and blames Kakuzu, who has also apparently perished.

Hinata dreams of bridges made from snakeskin, dissolving as she falls through them. She dreams of Jashin-sama, pale fingers caressing her face while he tells her that she has to find her beloved and save him. This is a dream she can't awaken from, and she doesn't want to. Jashin-sama is so wonderful, his form so intangible, almost as if it isn't there...

Her eyes open and she's alone. Hinata gets up and slips from the house, ignoring the pain. She has to ignore the pain. She has to find Hidan.

xXx

She follows an invisible trail. Her body aches but she doesn't stop, doesn't rest. Jashin-sama is telling her where to go, where he is, and when she comes to a stop in Hi no Kuni, the trail fades. She drops to her knees, pulling out a kunai.

And she hesitates. Her body hurts so badly. It hurts... she's pretty sure that though she's healed a lot, she hasn't completely recovered from the fall off the cliff. But... Hidan...

She digs. Life is nothing but pain, and sweat and effort. It's dirt beneath her fingernails, tainted black from her connection to the Earth. The sun has no presence here, no place. It's always darkness, always pain, always longing for more, for Hidan. Longing. She's longing for him so hard that nothing else can come between them.

Perhaps she passes out once, but as soon as she's awake again, she's digging. Tears have long since dried up, because they have no place in this either.

She works until she can't move any more. No, she could still move. She could still work, but in the darkness, her limbs won't obey her.

"Hinata."

A voice, and it's so familiar. Where has she heard it before, where?

She stares down at the dirt below her knees, her head clearing a little. She realizes she's running a fever, and she's been suffering some sort of delirium. But her fingers are closed around a hand, a very familiar hand that clutches back at hers.

The voice calls out again. "I can't let you continue. I have to arrest you."

But she smiles, because she has Hidan's hand. She'll figure a way out of this. She has to, because this is Hidan's hand and he's alive.

"Grab her and lock her with the chakra cuffs," the voice says to someone else.

Hidan's hand tightens on hers, and she squeezes back as best she can, fighting suddenly against the kagemane. A part of her realizes she must be on the Nara lands, and that's why he's here.

It's Shikamaru that has her, she knows. I have to escape...

Someone lands beside her, grabs her arms and jerks them behind her back. She hears Shikamaru hiss above them. "Oy, watch it, tosan," he complains.

Hinata's forced to wait, but now she knows where Hidan is.

xXx

When Hinata wakes, she's in a cell, and standing at the bars is Neji. His eyes are watching her, and his face is without expression. Pale arms are lax against his side, hanging uselessly. "Hinata-sama," he says, deep voice echoing in the empty room.

She grimaces as she moves to sit up. "Neji..." Her cloak is gone, as are her weapons, and her slashed hitai-ate. She's left in only the mesh undershirt, her underwear and the pair of ninja-issue slacks she'd been wearing before. All her hidden weapons are missing, and there are a pair of chakra cuffs on her wrists, limiting her chakra to the very least necessary to live. That is to say, she feels like a newborn kitten.

Her injuries have been healed, though, which is a plus. The chakra she can still feel a little bit is familiar. It's Sakura's.

"Why?"

The single, broken word is all it takes to snap her attention back onto her cousin. He's staring at her still, looking a bit lost and a bit betrayed and a bit as if someone had dragged the rug out from beneath his feet. He doesn't understand either, and it drives her a little crazy.

Why can't they see it? Why can't they understand that she does it out of love, just like she's done every other thing, made every other choice her entire life? She became a ninja because she loved her father and her cousin. She became stronger because she loved Naruto. She became a traitor because she loves Hidan. And because he loves her back.

"You will never understand," she says softly, lowering her eyes. "I can't make you understand." Because he didn't want to understand.

Her chest hurts at the thought, but she will not let her feelings control her.

"Fine," he seethes, lashing out because that's all he knows what to do. "Stay here and rot!" And then he's gone, just like the rest of them.

xXx

Nobody comes for her, from Akatsuki, but she hadn't expected anyone to do so anyway. Maybe Hidan would have, but he's buried twenty feet under, being smothered constantly. She stares in horror at the floor when she thinks of this, and she sits and waits.

Days pass. Weeks. Months. Naruto comes sometimes, and Neji lurks around the edges occasionally. Once she even sees Shino, standing in the shadows, staring at her without emotion.

And still she waits patiently, eats the food they give her because she won't die anyway, and waits. When Jashin demands blood in her dreams, she has to make due with rats, and fervent prayers in the night when no one is paying attention.

Then she wakes up in the middle of the night, a hand over her mouth and a familiar scent in her nose. Kiba. "I can't watch this anymore," he whispers, voice desperate and choked with emotion. "Hinata, please. Stop resisting. Just give them what they want!"

"But they haven't asked for anything," she whispers back when he moves his hand.

He just stares at her, uncomprehending. "Haven't...? Why?" he asks, disbelief covering his familiar face.

She's a little sad, watching him like this. "Because I won't give it to them," she replies, frowning. "Kiba, please understand... It's not that I don't love the people here anymore... I love Konoha, and I love my friends-"

"Then come back!" he yelps, and then pauses to look around nervously.

Sighing, she sits up and shakes her head. "I can't. I won't. I don't want to. I love Hidan, Kiba, and he loves me."

"He's a murderer!" he snarls furiously.

"So are you."

There's no answer for that. He's stunned into silence by the answer, and still can't find an answer when she quietly whispers, "So am I."

How can he deny that?

xXx

The Syndrome
Part 3: The Huntress

xXx

They're running through the forest. Hidan is laughing beside her, and Akatsuki is hot on their heels. Itachi's been dead for two months already, his brother a new member, but the boy has little interest in Hinata or Hidan specifically. No, it's the mission they stole from Akatsuki that he's interested in. And the scroll that the contact hired Akatsuki to get.

But Hidan is really interested in this scroll. He's told Hinata that it's a scroll placed on Earth by Jashin. Hidden from the other gods, so that they cannot destroy Jashin and take his place of power. He'd been so animated the night before, when he'd outlined to her just how they were going to steal the scroll out from under Akatsuki's nose.

Hinata wasn't really that surprised when they stumbled upon the redheaded girl - Karin or something like that - and Uchiha Sasuke. She had distracted the two while Hidan snatched the scroll, and then the two of them took off.

"Hi-na-ta!" Hidan sing-songed, grinning widely with excitement. "You're faster! Take the scroll to the rendezvous point!"

She grabs it from him as he starts to slow. "Alright!" she replies, knowing what he has in mind. He's going to sacrifice Uchiha Sasuke and the girl to Jashin. Some part of her is a little troubled by the thought, but it's easy for her to shrug it off. After all, Sasuke-san had betrayed Konoha long before she'd ever had the notion. Now? There just isn't a single thing they have in common.

So she moves on, leaving her lover behind to fight against the others without any concern for him.

xXx

An hour later, as she lazes about in a familiar swamp, she starts to wonder what's taking him. But she isn't worried. She thinks back to a time when she would have been, and immediately recalls her incarceration in Konoha. Then, she would have worried. Then, she would have cared.

But it was then that she had forced herself to kill off the last of her innocence, and become the killer that Hidan had already been trying to make her. There had been no other way.

xXx

Finally, Ibiki came for her. He brought her to a room with no windows, and drab, uninteresting cement walls. There was a single wooden door with steel hinges and no handle; it opened only when chakra was applied.

There were two chairs, and that was all for furnishings. He took one, she took the other, and she was strapped into it. "Hyuuga Hinata." When she said nothing, he frowned. "You can probably imagine why we are here."

Hinata could only stare at him. This was Konoha's torture expert, the interrogation man that got his hands on the worst of criminals and made them squeal like stuck pigs. This man was a legend, the kind that ninja mommies and daddies used to scare their children into behaving.

And she was terrified. He was going to kill her over and over because he didn't need to worry about her dying. He'd do it until she screamed the answers he wanted, but she was pretty sure she had no answers to give him.

"What can you tell us about the Jashin religion?"

That wasn't the question she'd expected him to ask. She had expected demands about Akatsuki, their hide-outs, their tactics, their plans. Not about her Jashin, the god that had granted her forever with the man she loves. She just stared at him, unable to come up with a single thing to say. Truthfully, she wouldn't even know where to start.

Ibiki continued after the silence settled and threatened to cling. "Does it have a weakness? Can we kill Jashinists in some way? Hinata, if you tell us what we need to know, we're willing to give you a complete pardon, and reinstate you as a ninja of Konoha-"

"You want to kill Hidan." The words were out of her mouth before she was even fully aware of thinking them. They were impulsive and reckless, but she didn't take them back. She didn't want to.

The man before her did not show any change of expression. He did, however, pause for the briefest of moments, long enough to re-evaluate the situation. Finally, he nodded. "Yes. He is an enemy of Konoha, and if we can find a way to kill him, then it would be to our advantage. Hinata, is there a way?"

"No," she told him truthfully, and then went on with, "Jashin-sama has granted him true immortality, as a priest of the order. He is the highest authority on Jashinism on Earth, and the most powerful. Even now, I bet Jashin-sama is pulling him back together piece by piece." Most of it wasn't true, of course. While Hidan wasa priest for Jashin, one of the few capable of inducting people into the religion, the rest of it was pure fiction. Well except of course that Hidan couldn't be killed.

This wasn't the answer Ibiki had been looking for, obviously. But he nodded anyway. "What about you? Supposedly, you survived falling from a cliff... We were aware that you'd been partnered with Hidan and the man Kakuzu. We are aware that you are said to be practicing that religion... Will you give it up to come back?"

"No." Truth again, and her fingers were clenching at the chair hard enough that she knew her nails would leave marks. "I will not. And I will not tell you anything else." She would have no fear, even in the face of the most terrifying man she'd ever met.

He must have seen it in her eyes, because he nodded and got up. Shortly after that, she was escorted back to her cell, and left on her own.

Ibiki questioned her again the next week, without gaining another bit of information. They tried two more times before it became obvious that she would not willingly give any weakness.

Then the torture started.

xXx

Hinata isn't really surprised when the redhead finally finds her. The girl is muddy and cranky and there's a leech on her arm that she's trying to pull off. But the girl is good with sensing chakra, and when the leech comes free, she throws it into Hinata's face.

The Jashinist woman ducks and dances away. She smiles at the girl, who complains at her about having to follow Hinata into this 'godforsaken jungle of mud and mosquitoes'. She talks too much, and Hinata thinks she's awfully shallow. She bitches about every single damn thing that crosses her mind, and in no time at all, the Jashinist knows all about her infatuation with Sasuke.

While she works through a plan to get Karin's blood, she's quiet. Very quiet, and it's starting to unnerve the redhead, who's had to abandon her glasses because she couldn't see through the mud on them. (When she complains about it, Hinata offers the thought of contacts, but this just seems to piss Karin off.)

Her chance comes, while Karin attacks her with kunai and rants about someone named Juuga (Juugo?) and forest animals. Hinata slips in under her guard, and slices her stomach, flipping away. Karin curses, and Hinata pauses on a tree branch to lick the blood. Then she taunts the girl, riling her up with ease, and leads her on a wild goose chase to a relatively dry piece of land.

Karin calls her gross, until she takes in the Jashinist's face and body. Hinata tosses off the heavy woolen cloak she's been wearing, brown in color. It thuds to the ground behind her, revealing her mesh undershirt and standard issue ninja shorts. And black and white all over her body, a vague outline of her skeleton.

She creates the circle, smiling at the stunned redhead. Karin doesn't last long at all after that.

xXx

Hinata didn't tell them a single thing. She screamed through the torture, prayed for deliverance, but she kept her mouth shut. Jashin hasn't come to her in her dreams again, and she was afraid that it was because she'd not been able to complete the ritual in a while.

It was after one particularly brutal torture session that Ibiki knelt before her again. She was laying on the floor, her blood staining the cement, breaths coming quick and sharp. The part of her that felt any camaraderie to this man, any loyalty, has been stabbed to death over and over. At this point, she wouldn't mind if he died. In fact, she planned on it.

"Hinata, I hate doing this," he told her, sad and sympathetic, pityingher like some sort of helpless child.

But the cuffs were still off, because they always took the cuffs off right before she 'died'. They learned the first time, when her death throes destroyed the links, that it was best that way. She's almost done drawing the circle in her own blood.

"Th-then..." She coughed when her own blood in her mouth went down the wrong tube. "Wh-why...?"

"Tell me what I want to know, and I'll stop," he said instead of answering, and he held his hand out to her. "Come on, Hinata. Tell me, and I can bring you back home, where you will be safe and warm and fed. You'll be happy again."

She took his hand, let him pull her up as if she was finally giving in. Her feet lost purchase on the floor, and she stumbled into him, but he straightened her, steadied her. Then she bit down hard on his wrist, enough that her blunt teeth broke through the skin and she tasted his blood. He backhanded her away, right onto the circle as she'd counted on. "Fuck," he hissed, staggering back. He looked up at her, and she could see the blood drain from his face.

Hinata bared her teeth at him, and dragged herself to her feet. She held up a kunai, stolen off of him when he'd helped her up. He took a step, and she slit her own throat. They both thudded to the ground.

xXx

Hinata finally just goes back for Hidan. When she finds him, it's to him cursing as Uchiha Sasuke systematically cuts him to pieces. The female sighs loudly, Byakugan activating as she closes her eyes. Sasuke has noticed her, and he abandons Hidan in favor of the bigger threat she presents.

"Where is Karin?" he demands.

She gives an offhanded shrug, chakra clinging to the tree branch, allowing her to hang from it upside down. Her hair is a waterfall beneath her, her cloak slipping off to join the marsh-water below, and she lets it. "Dead," she tells him. "She wasn't much of a challenge. Do you always pick such weak partners?"

He darts toward her, and she lets the chakra release, landing in a quasi-handstand only to pivot her weight into a two-legged kick aimed for his chest. Predictably, he grabs her ankles and spins her around, but she lets him. He throws her, and she lets him do that too, catching herself effortlessly on a tree branch as she passes above it. She shifts her momentum into an arc, using the branch to redirect her direction, before releasing herself and landing beside Hidan's head.

"Are you okay?" she asks him.

"Do I fuckin' look like I'm okay? Don't ask stupid questions, bitch," he retorts, which really just means that it hurts and he loves it but he's definitely being a baby about it.

"Do you have the scroll?" Sasuke demands of her.

She reaches into the satchel on her thigh, retrieving the dummy scroll they'd prepared beforehand. "You gonna take it and leave? We were double booked, and I'm not interested in fighting you, Uchiha."

"I'll leave if you give it to me," he agrees.

So she makes a show of reluctantly tossing it at him, and Hidan makes a show of getting really pissed about it. Uchiha eyes it briefly, nods, and takes off to find his partner.

xXx

For a moment, Hinata could only stare at the man twitching on the floor. He was in a puddle of blood - his own - eyes open and staring, but unseeing. His body slowly went still, and she finally forced herself to blink. Drew in a breath, and with it the stench of death.

She could feel Jashin's pleasure with the sacrifice. But she ignored it and looked around. She couldn't have been unconscious for more than a second.

No one has come yet. She glanced around, but there's no one rushing to the man's rescue. Didn't they hear him die? But no, she'd seen the thickness of those walls...

She got up, stumbling with pain as the death wound on her throat healed itself. Still silence, but that wouldn't last. She could get more gear later, but right now she just wanted to leave.

She opened the door, and somewhere down the hall, an ANBU turned toward the noise. She was already darting forward, and her stolen kunai buried itself in his throat. He gagged quietly, and she gently let him sink to the floor. Pulled out the kunai. Fled.

The next two were Genma and Choji. She got Genma first, a wound in his side that may or may not kill him. Then Choji finished gaping at her and lunged, arm growing. She used her quicker speed to duck under it, and moved upward. "I'm sorry, Choji," she whispered, and buried the kunai in the dip between shoulder and neck. He cried out and fell, bucking.

She left him behind quickly, knowing it was important that she get out of here before the real showy nin started to appear. Down the halls she ran, taking out two more unfamiliar ANBU, getting a shurriken stuck in her wrist. She stole a tanto from some man without a face, and someone else's weapons pouch. They were custom made, diamond-encrusted black steel.

Friend and foe had no meaning anymore. There were faces that were familiar, but her heart was locked away in her chest. She forced herself to take them down until she stood in the forest, Shino and Kiba and Kurenai blocking the way.

"Hinata, what are you doing?" Kiba asked, looking heartbroken, but she just stared at him. A part of her realized that the numbness spreading through her bones might never leave, but perhaps that would be okay in the end. No more hurting.

Kurenai saw more of it than her students, and her voice was sad as she spoke. "Hinata-chan... Please stop. Please come back, don't make us..." But Hinata only looked at her, and she sighed. "She won't."

Shino attacked without another word. He darted forward, bugs swarming. Hinata dropped back into a stance, gaze sharpening. There was only one way to save herself from his attack. Only one, and she started to spin.

xXx

The scroll contains a technique. A way to command the corpses of their victims in order to kill more. Hidan turns his nose up at it, so Hinata takes it and studies it. She realizes it is just a further control of what they already use. Their victims do not disconnect from them after death. They disconnect after the symbol is no longer in play. Meaning, as long as the Jashinist remains on the symbol, they can control the corpse of the dead.

"I'll have to find someone to test this on," she comments later that night.

Beside her, finishing the stitches on his left arm, Hidan just grunts in derision. His mouth is full of a coarse-textured roll of bandages, but he manages a quiet, "Not me," anyway.

She blinks down at him, pale eyes flickering over the jumble of stitches all over his body. "No," she agrees bemusedly. "I wouldn't."

Eyes like blood lift briefly to meet hers, then lower to his tending once more. "No, you wouldn't," he confirms. Because no matter how much she's changed since the day she woke up with Deidara in her face, she will still never, ever harm a comrade. Or him.

Hinata sighs and kneels in front of him. Normally, he'd bitch and moan about her helping him, but when she takes the thread and needle away, he says nothing. He watches her with not a word while gentle fingers carefully pull the skin together, locking it in place so that he will heal when all is said and done.

"Hinata." His voice is a breath, and she looks up, knotting the last stitch. He reaches out and drags her into a steamy kiss that steals her breath and makes her his all at once. Rough, calloused hands drag her into his lap, avoiding injury and pinning her in place. His mouth moves from hers, teeth scraping the tender column of her throat when he seals it there.

She can feel his intent firmly, the desire to claim, to brand, to advertise that she is his and no one else's. The woman arcs back, head thrown back, jaw fallen open. Helpless moans begin when he slides his hand beneath her shirt, fingers uncaring for gentle, wanting just the opposite.

She's his, she belongs to him in every way; body, soul, heart, mind. Perhaps it should scare her, perhaps she should run from it, but she won't. He's made her, created her from almost nothing until she is the woman that purrs at a tiny flash of pain; Hinata is his huntress, bred from the finest stock to the worst outcome.

And she won't have it any other way.

xXx

Hinata ran from them, distracted them from pursuit with her presumed death. She made it to Hidan and dug him up, and she ran. When they discovered this, she and Hidan were already halfway to Kumo.

She finally had to stop when she couldn't go on without crying anymore. She found a cave, she sobbed as she helped him put himself together, and then she retreated into the furthest corner of the cave. He didn't come to console her, and she hadn't expected him to.

She couldn't feel anything but remorse so intense she wanted to throw up. She hated that she'd fought them, that Choji and Genma may have died at her hand. That Ibiki diddie. It was a bitter, horrid taste in her mouth, and she was finally forced to empty her stomach.

Part of her was dying then, dying a slow and horrible death, and the best she could do was cling to what she had. That was Hidan, and Jashin, and the blood on her hands. Her ability as a ninja and a Hyuuga to kill. Her obligation as a Jashinist to spill blood over the ground.

The sobs gradually petered out, sorrow giving in to emptiness. When she pulled herself to her feet, she felt nothing. It mattered just as much as it mattered for her to lay on the ground still, and that was to say it mattered not at all.

Hidan opened his eyes as she knelt in front of him. He cracked a grin at her. "Done bein' a baby?"

She smiled back. "For now."

xXx

When Hinata's eyes open some time later, she just lays in his arms and thinks about all the things she's given up. Mortality, friends, family, the chance at having children. Perhaps the only thing she still mourns is the last, because Jashin will not permit breeding and so the moment they lost their ability to die, they lost the ability to conceive.

Perhaps it's for the best, she tells herself. If Jashinists could breed, well... There would probably be little Hidans peppered all over the brothels.

The thought makes her giggle, stirring her lover. He drags her against his chest, but doesn't bother wasting the effort to turn her to face him. His nose nuzzles the back of her neck, prompting her eyes to close in order to better enjoy the sensation.

"See?" he murmurs after a long moment.

She shrugs awkwardly, smiling. "My eyes are closed."

He actually chokes at that, and his teeth sink lightly into the muscles of her shoulder. "Dummy." He kisses the spot and goes back to cuddling. "I meant... You make a good Jashinist. I told you so, didn't I?"

Hinata doesn't tell him why she became a Jashinist in the first place, or why she went through with it all in the end. She's never told him, and she never will. She doesn't even know if he loves her back, or knows for what reasons she agrees with his sudden assessment.

She twists around, pearl meeting ruby, and smiles at him. "You're such an egotistical bastard," she replies sweetly. "I bet you think it's all about you."

"Oh it is, sexy, it is," he retorts cheekily.

"Blasphemer."

The look on his face is worth it.

~Owari

xXx

Another confession... I hope this inspires more fans of this pairing. I really do adore it, and so does my beta and bestest friend in the world, Azhwi. If, on an off chance, you are interested in reading more HidaxHina, please feel free to visit Azhwi's FFN page! We are working on an ItaSak called Sand Trails, but it also has HidaxHina in it. It's actually what inspired our love of the pairing! Thank you for taking the time to read, and please review!