I don't know why but I really like this chapter 'cause I think it shows how Hidan's and Kakuzu's relationship is progressing. It was a pain in the arse to write but I guess I finally did it! I'll be trying to reach an amount of two thousand and five hundred words for each chapter, starting from here on out! XD

Enjoy. :)

*****

A few days later, Hidan snapped when he realised someone stole his art bag.

Now, that was crossing the line... His wallet, his pencil box, his shoes or uniform, maybe. But his art bag? Like hell he was going to let the fucker get away. Thus, Akatsuki High found themselves with one big problem on their hands. Hidan seemed to have been in a bad mood that day, even when just arriving in school, and got into an even worse mood when someone stole his precious in third period.

In gym, it just so happened that they were playing dodge ball. Twelve people were sent to the nurse's office in that two periods. During lunch, when someone cut him in line, it resulted in a fist fight which Hidan had won. The other three boys were sent to the nurse's office as well while Hidan got away without a scratch on him. The only good thing that seemed to come out of Hidan's mood was during art class. He had gotten some materials from Deidara and started drawing with so much anger and passion, it turned out to be a great piece of abstract.

"Hmm..." Kakuzu hummed while standing by Hidan's side to watch him work while all other students did their work as well. None of them caught his attention like Hidan's did, though. Hidan's work was raw with passion and emotion bursting forth. "Bad day?"

"You've got no fucking idea," Hidan muttered. His hands were aching from moving around so much and with so much force but he didn't care. In fact, every time he felt like stopping, he would force himself to go on and use even more force. "Fuck!" Hidan exclaimed when the red colour pencil broke. Deidara shakily handed him another one(he always carried three sets). Hidan snatched it and continued abusing the paper with as much brutality as he could muster.

Kakuzu just raised an eyebrow, nodded slightly in understanding before walking away to survey the other students. As long as Hidan did his work, he couldn't care less about him. Hidan paused in his drawing momentarily, giving Kakuzu a sideways glance before returning to his work with much less force this time. Kakuzu seemed to have...calmed Hidan down. Hidan's eyebrows were narrowed and he had finally stopped moving his hand. He seemed to be in a...forced calm. Deidara stared at Kakuzu before he turned to look at Hidan, looking at his friend's art work at the same time. "So, any idea who took your art bag?"

Hidan shrugged, letting go of the colour pencil. His hand wouldn't stop shaking, though. "No."

Deidara raised an eyebrow. That's it? No insults or death threats? What brought this sudden change? Deidara sighed and continued colouring his huge heart shape in a mixture of pink and purple. Valentines' Day was coming...

"Kiyosumi, that's indecent. Trash it and draw up a new one."

"But, teach! It's already almost done! I won't be able to finish by the time lessons ends if I start a new one now!"

"Then stay back and do it and then put it my locker before six. I'm sure you can handle that, can't you, Kiyosumi-kun?"

Hidan glanced over at his classmate arguing with Kakuzu and let a small chuckle escape.

*****

Kakuzu had finished his fifth lesson with Hidan's class and was in the faculty room, looking through Hidan's art portfolio. There were still so many art pieces to look through. Some of them were pretty simple. Some pictures were of his room, his house, his best friend(Deidara), amongst other things. What Kakuzu really liked where those that seemed to capture his soul and made him look twice or those that were highly creative. Like the one he was viewing now.

Subject: Your Plans In Life

Today: Got It Mapped Out

It was a picture of a map. Hidan had used olive, a dark yellow and brown to make it look antique and Kakuzu had to admit that it was a good idea. Hidan had even drawn in some crumples to make the map look more 3-D. The first stop on the map had a picture of a school that had the words, "Akatsuki Kindergarten" written on its side. Next to the stop, there was a small white box where Hidan had used red paint to mark a tick in it. The next stop was yet another building with the words, "Akatsuki Elementary" written on its side. It too had a bright, red tick next to it. The third stop was another building with the words, "Akatsuki Junior High" and there was also a red tick next to it. There were only three more stops.

The next stop was an uncannily familiar building of their school where Hidan had written, "Akatsuki High" on it and the white box next to it was empty. The next stop was a small shop with another albino's face above it, grinning. The white box next to this stop was empty as well. The sixth and final stop was a small globe with a small picture of Hidan's face above it, grinning and yelling the words, "fuck yeah!" It too had not yet been accomplished. It was a very creative idea indeed.

That's when Kakuzu spotted three boys outside in the hall with an art bag. There was a drawing inside the art bag. A drawing which style was just too obvious.

*****

School let out after two more periods or math and Hidan had immediately stormed out of the school and into the school compound, not even waiting for Deidara. He had been so rushed that Hidan was sure he was the only one out of their classrooms by then, thus, the compound was empty. Hidan was slightly calmer about the incident with his art bag but that didn't mean he wasn't pissed. He still fucking was. He had plenty of new art bags at home, but his project had been inside that art bag and now, he was going to have to start from scratch. The project he started on since Kakuzu's fourth lesson and that was due on his sixth.

"Hidan."

The albino whirled around, raising an eyebrow. "What the fuck do you what?"

Kakuzu smirked and brought out from behind him his art bag. Hidan's eyes widened and his jaw hit the ground. He never thought he'd be so glad to see his art bag, ever. The crumpled sides, the insides stuffed and messed with his colouring materials, drawing pad and all other art necessities seen through the transparent plastic used to make the bag. It was a piece of shit but Hidan loved it anyway. He immediately lunged forward, grabbing his bag and Kakuzu had to bite his lip to stifle his laughter. The first thing he did was open it and then sigh in relief when he realised his art work was still inside. The albino then raised his eyes to Kakuzu's, one eyebrow raised again in suspicion as other students started piling out of the school. "How'd you know it's mine?"

"Your drawing was placed at the back, faced out so I could see it. I'd recognise your art work anywhere," Kakuzu said with a shrug. Kakuzu then turned to leave and walked a few steps, leaving Hidan standing there, staring at his back. "You might want to start writing your name on your art bags."

Hidan looked back down at his art bag and then back up at Kakuzu, a small smile starting to grace his features. A real smile. "Hey, Kakuzu!"

The tattooed man looked back and seemed startled to see a grateful, happy smile on Hidan's face. Knowing the boy for a week and a half, all he had seen were smirks, grins, frowns or glares. Never a smile and he had to admit, it was a nice change. Hidan had a nice smile. He especially liked how his eyes lit up and made his magenta eyes sparkle. "Thanks, seriously."

They stared at each other for a moment or two before Kakuzu smirked, turning back to walk into the school. "No problem."

*****

Hideki smiled, standing behind Hidan as he added the finishing touches on the tattoo he was tattooing on a young man. Hidan had been taking tattooing lessons from Hideki since he had been twelve and every Friday or Saturday, or sometimes both, Hideki would allow Hidan to come to the shop to tattoo. That week, it was a Friday. Hidan had dropped off his school bag at home and then come directly to the shop. Pein hadn't thought of it as a good idea of having a high school student tattoo with them at first but after seeing Hidan tattoo someone for the first time when the albino was sixteen, he was quickly reassured that the teen wasn't going to drag their business down but instead bring more in. Other tattoo shops had seen this young talent and even tried persuading him to join their shops but no, Hidan would remain loyal to Inked Pleasures and to his brother.

"You're not doing too bad, Hi-chan," Hideki said, walking off as he cleaned his hands of ink. He sighed and sat at his desk where he was doodling, waiting for his next customer to come. He hadn't met the man... All the guy had said was that he realised his tattoos weren't as good as they could be and that he would be coming down for a touch-up, no matter how expensive. The man would be coming at seven and it was six fifty-five. It had been a busy day... Not to mention that he hadn't got much sleep last night, working on some documents. Pein forgot to pay the rent again...

"Done," Hidan claimed as he placed the tattoo gun back onto the table, starting to take his gloves off. He smirked at his own work before raising his eyes to his customer's face. Yes, that's right. His customer. Any money that Hidan made when tattooing would go to himself. It was Hideki's own way of giving Hidan his allowance. "Go take a look."

The young man got up from his seat and moved to the body-length mirror, eyeing his left arm in the mirror with admiration. "Nice work, Hidan-kun."

"You bet your ass it's nice work," Hidan remarked, smirk growing wider. He had to admit, this had been one of his best works so far. It was of a tiger in tribal form and instead of the usual black which the guy had wanted in the first place, Hidan convinced him to go with brown and damn, did it look better than if it had been in black. Hidan's customer chuckled, turned around and passed Hidan the money he owed him with a grin. Hidan put the money into his pencil box which he had put near-by. He turned to face his customer again. "Pleasure doing business."

The man chuckled and turned to Hideki who sat just a few feet away from them. He looked positively drained although the customer didn't seem to notice. "Didn't know you had such a talented brother, Hideki. Maybe I should designate him as my personal tattooist, huh?"

"Huh?" Hideki murmured, half-asleep. He folded his arms and put them on the table, resting his head on them. "Ah, yeah, you do that..."

The man chuckled, waving bye as he left. "I'll see you guys. I might be coming back next week. See ya guys then."

Hidan just smiled and waved before turning to face Hideki with a concerned but also annoyed look on his face. He sighed, crossed his arms over his bare chest and walked over until he was directly in front of the older albino. "Any more clients?" Hideki didn't reply, eyes closed, mouth parted and snoring slightly. Hidan rolled his eyes before he kicked the chair Hideki was sleeping in, jolting him awake. "Wake up."

"Huh? What?"

"Are there are any more fuckers coming?" Hidan asked, unfolding his arms and putting them into his pockets. He had already tattooed two people since arriving at the shop and was still raring to go for another. The shop closed at eight so Hidan had only one more hour to tattoo another person. Pein had already left after tattooing all his clients. He did not do walk-ins. He left those to Hideki, and on weekends, Hidan. Not that the Yuu brothers minded, not at all. Both of them loved tattooing and that's why Hidan couldn't wait to finish up his last year in school before dedicating himself fully to the shop. Apparently, no matter how bad his grades were, Hideki wasn't letting him drop school.

"There's supposed to be only one more with an appointment," Hideki said before yawning and stretching his arms. His tired eyes then looked into Hidan's one. "But I don't know about the walk-ins."

"Let me take the appointment, then," Hidan said. He didn't suppose there were gonna be any more walk-ins since they usually only came in the afternoon. His brother needed sleep for now. It was Hidan's turn to look after Hideki.

The older albino was about to protest but then thought about it for a moment. He was tired and he was sure Hidan could handle whatever it was this guy needed. Plus, if this guy had never seen Hideki before and since Hidan and he were so alike, Hidan could pass himself off as Hideki and all would be fine and dandy. He reached a hand up and placed it on Hidan's shoulder. Hidan got the message and supported his brother, pulling him to his feet.

"Look, I'm gonna go catch a few winks at the back, if the guys doesn't seem to know who you are, say you're me, alright? If there any problems, come look for me," Hideki instructed before trudging to back, being supported by Hidan. They had a small couch at the back where sometimes Hidan slept when waiting for Hideki to finish up on the last client on days when he came with him to work. It was quite comfy, actually. They even had a blanket since it got kinda chilly with the couch right underneath the AC. Hideki smiled when he finally got off his feet and onto the couch. "Alright, he should be arriving soon so go prepare the necessary stuff, 'kay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know the fucking procedure," Hidan sneered. Hideki just chuckled tiredly and turned onto his side as Hidan walked back to the main part of the shop. His brother had been working hard. Looking after Hidan and the shop wasn't easy. Oh yeah, the shop. Hidan looked around the shop he was in, sighing with a smile as he looked at the photos and pictures. All their life's works represented here on the shop's walls. Some of Hidan's own works were up there, as well. Damn, he seriously couldn't wait to finish school and become a full-time tattooist here.

The door to the shop opened and Hidan gazed away from the walls to the door, magenta eyes widening ever so slightly at the sight of the figure. Tall, tan, black hair and bright, emerald eyes. "Kakuzu?"

*****

Yeah, so the tattoo shop Hideki owns is called Inked Pleasures. Was inspired by a real tattoo shop here in Singapore called Visual Orgasm. I don't know how it relates but I was thinking of that shop when I came up with the name for Hideki's own shop. :)

Thanks to all those who reviewed! Reviews are appreciated and loved! :D