Thanks to their long grey cloaks, which seemed to definitely be in trend in Kirigakure, the arrival of the two Akatsuki members remained unseen. Voluntarily, Hidan took on the task of going into the hospital and making inquiries about his sister. His simple argument was: "I catch less unwanted attention than you, scar face." Strangely enough, this poor insult restored a certain feeling of normality for Kakuzu. A few minutes later Hidan returned and shook, almost unnoticeable, his head. Kakuzu rolled his eyes. "So where is she then?" "That bitch only told me that our girl seems to be in one of the nearby villages but she is not entirely sure. Apparently she left this morning. We must have just missed her." Briefly they agreed on a meeting point before separating to do some research on the girl's whereabouts and abilities. Of course, using their striking politeness only…
The afternoon went by slowly. On hot days like this one, the usually cool humid air transformed into a heavy cage, which made the breathing even more difficult. Relieved she stepped back and wiped the sweat from her forehead. The boy relaxed and now lay peacefully on the bed. "Here, Shizuka." An older lady handed her a towel and pointed at the bloody hands of the girl. Thankfully Shizuka took the towel which turned red with all the blood in a matter of heartbeats.
As agreed the two men returned shortly before sunset to their meeting point. Judging from afar, Kakuzu knew that he had been more successful than Hidan, who seemed pissed off. "So?" "She appears to be in a smaller village about half an hour north. We could reach it before full sunset if we hurry." Without another word Kakuzu turned around and set off. Surprised by Kakuzu's hurry, Hidan followed quickly after.
She would have preferred to keep standing under the hot stream of water. She longed for the feeling of purity she once had. However, she was aware of the truth. She would never be able to clean her hands of all that blood ever again. Sighing she sat down on the guesthouse's bed. She wondered what the Sisters would think if they knew how her treatment worked. No one had ever been allowed to see her healing abilities except for one person… Again she sighed… Soon she would have to move on…
Being dazzled by a small silver shining dot, Hidan blinked irritated. His eyes narrowed to slits as he tried to spot anything else through the thick mist. "Over there" Hidan directed Kakuzu's attention to the silver shining spot. Addressed person nodded, surprised by how fast they had reached their destination. Unrecognized they entered the small village through the shabby gate. Again they took separated ways in order to not miss the girl this time.
No matter what she tried, sleep just wouldn't come to her. Sitting up on the edge of the bed, she stared at the big mirror. Bloodshot dark red eyes countered her look. Her normally almost golden hair had turned black. She noticed the few streaks which had come out of her ponytail. 'Fortunately, nobody can see me like this right now…' Shizuka thought.
Determined Kakuzu entered the guesthouse, not even bothering to talk to the reception girl. He did not need any keys to open the doors behind which he felt a trained chackra. He could barely stop himself from rolling his eyes as he found out that the guesthouse included 4 levels. Negative report on the ground, first and second floor. Being only a little pissed off (… yeah, right), he violently opened the first door on the third floor.
Suddenly the door was opened, giving off an impression of being almost unhinged. She was confronted with a completely masked figure whose green eyes were fixed at her, showing the person's confusion. Apparently neither the uninvited guest nor she herself were unsettled by the fact that she was only wearing underwear. For a long moment it was completely silent, both of them being busy with examining each other. Then the tall figure lowered its head, turned around and left, quietly closing the door. 'Weird…' She couldn't get rid of the feeling that that man had been looking for something. Since she wouldn't be able to fall asleep anyway she got up. Putting on a Yukata she threw another look at her reflection. Slowly the black hair and the red eyes began to fade and she noticed the first few golden streaks. Instead of using the door she left through her window, disappearing into the dark night.
Confused Kakuzu closed the door. The chackra had been… different. Only as he had ripped open the door, he had noticed her emanating chackra. But the description and the picture were definitely different from the young, slightly too skinny woman he had seen in the room. Shaking his head he ticked off the rest of the rooms on this floor as too weak and turned his attention to the last floor of this guesthouse.
„Are you sure that you don't want to wait until tomorrow, Shizuka-san?" The nun asked with an uncertain smile. Encouragingly, the young woman smiled and entered the house. Being greeted by a strong smell of decay, she fought back the choking impulse and approached the bed. The former shinobi lay motionless on the bloody bed. Sadly she observed her wrists which were scarred by fresh cuts. She hadn't had the perseverance to hang on to her life. Shizuka lowered her head and closed the woman's eyes. She was too late.
This time it obviously was Hidan who had been successful and not Kakuzu. "According to the Sisters she will be leaving tomorrow evening at the earliest since there are way too many patients." "Patients?" Kakuzu asked. Hidan nodded thoughtful. "There appears to be a disease which is carrying off many of those idiots in Kiri and the nearby villages." "Anyway, we still don't know about the girl's connection with the disease. " Hidan grinned arrogantly. "What?" Kakuzu asked irritated. He didn't feel like one of Hidan's power games. "There is something else you should probably know about…" Kakuzu raised his eyebrow while Hidan looked straight at him. "I didn't want the Leader to know about this but Shizuka, my sister, has incredible healing abilities by using her own blood. While I use my blood to take control over people and kill them, she uses hers to heal. She hates to control people like puppets and simply prefers to fight with her won strength. Back then she refused to join the training. Anyways, if she were to burn out herself, her appearance might change…" Overwhelmed by the fact that Hidan had actually provided so much of information without a single swearing word Kakuzu simply nodded. "Usually her hair turns black, her eyes dark red and she might look exhausted… Sounds like a cliché but unfortunately it's true. She never liked it either…" He grinned again, remembering her pissed off face whenever he had mocked her with her appearance. "F*CK!" Kakuzu spat through his teeth. This time it was Hidan who threw his partner a surprised look. "I saw her… in one of the guesthouses… Damn, I knew her chackra was different! Why didn't you tell me about her beforehand?!" "Well, where did she go?" Hidan asked excited, completely ignoring Kakuzu's attitude. "How am I supposed to know? It's not like I asked her!"
"I am sorry that I had you help me out." Shizuka apologized embarrassed to the Sister. "Don't mention it. We already owe you so much. You have saved so many lives in the past weeks." "Unfortunately, not all of them…" Shizuka added quietly. She had tested the woman's blood and had detected the disease as cause of death. She must have been dead for a few days which would explain the decay of the corpse. "I am sure that soon we will be free of that plague. God's intentions are unpredictable for us. Who knows, perhaps this disease and your intervention will have an effect on your future." The old lady replied smiling. Shizuka bowed thankfully and left, hoping her next patient would be livelier than this one was.
"What the fucking hell?! There is no way this shitty village could be any smaller and still we cannot fucking find her!" grumbled Hidan noisy. They had been searching for close to half an hour now. But each time they asked somebody for information they were either met by mistrust or ignorance. The bounty hunter's patience began to decrease as well. Not that he ever had much to begin with… They paced through an empty street when they suddenly heard loud voices, coming from one of the nearby houses. Suspiciously they approached it…
"Hurry! He will bleed to death!" the sister yelled. "He will not." Shizuka replied calmly. "Everything is under control. I request you leave this room, please, Sister. This is not meant to be seen by anyone." She nodded in the direction of the door. The young sister, however, was about to lose her mind. "Oh my lord, please save this poor man's life and banish the monster trying to take it away." The hysteria of the young one called the attention of two older sisters, who entered the room. Whereas one of them fainted at the sight of Shizuka's figure, the other one managed to keep her senses. "What on earth are you doing, Shizuka-san?" Shizuka cursed inside. After all, no one had ever seen her healing… Noticing that her patient's blood pressure was sinking rapidly and the microorganisms were spreading faster now, she turned her full attention towards him. "Leave this room immediately if you care about this man's life, Sisters! Right now I do not have any time to waste on your hysteria!" Her voice had become louder and more threatening.
Hidan opened the door and entered the house regardless of any consequences. He followed the noise and the excited conversation. At the sound of her voice his heart almost stopped. That was her. He destroyed the door with a single fist. He saw himself confronted with two older and one young sister who did not interest him though. His eyes fixed on a young blood-soaked woman who was bending over the bed and seemed to not have noticed him yet. Or she simply ignored him. "Shizuka…" he said calmly. He observed how her movements stopped to turn towards him. "Nii-san… Really?" Her dark red eyes shimmered surprised. He quickly stepped towards her and wrapped his arms around her. "It's been quite long, hmm…" She tried to put a little distance between them. "Nii-san, I am covered in blood and in the middle of a treatment!" She turned back to her patient, puttered around for a few more minutes before closing the man's wounds and then finally finishing up the treatment. She exhaled obviously relieved. "You do know that I don't care about blood." Gently, Hidan brushed the black hair out of her face since her hands were still drenched in blood. Uninvolved, Kakuzu waited at the door. Only now Shizuka remembered the nuns. Quickly she stepped towards the paralyzed women. Her hands hurtled towards the temples of the conscious ones. Before realizing what was happening to them, Shizuka had already pulled back and put a little distance between her and the two. Confused they blinked. "What happened?" "How is the patient?" the older woman asked concerned. Shizuka nodded smiling. "Everything is fine. He should rest next week and at the earliest start working in a month." She added with emphasis. Hidan grinned widely. Kakuzu was aware of what had just happened. "What is wrong with Sister Ama?" the young one worried. "She passed out. I guess she didn't rest enough in the past days and was too concerned about our patients' well-being… Cherishing her commitment." Shizuka kneed down next to the unconscious sister and carefully went with her hand from the cheek to the temple where she stopped for an instant before getting back up. "If you would excuse me now, honored sisters, I will retire for today. Tomorrow I will review the patients' states one last time before departing. I am sure that this plague will end soon. I admire your strong will, Sisters." She said smiling. 'That should be enough.' She added to herself. Slowly she pushed Hidan and Kakuzu to the exit. With a little bow she closed the door.