Silver & Cold

Chapter Three: Yugakure / / / Flashback in Black, White and Red

Four long days of traveling by foot finally brought the pair to the edge of the Yugakure village. Along the way Kakuzu had deposited the loot from his briefcase at a respectable bank, where his money was guaranteed safe under penalty of total annihilation. Hidan complained a lot about the distance, but all that mattered to Kakuzu was that he continued on their way to Yugakure. As they stood overlooking the city Kakuzu felt that then was as good a time as any to reveal exactly who his bounty was.

"We're here for Sang Waru, have you heard of him?" Kakuzu said casually.

~!~ Six Years Ealier ~!~

The gentle breeze and the birdsong that drifted through the tall pines outside of Yugakure were unaffected by the silver-haired teenager that ran haphazardly out of the village. The iron pathway clanged from his footfall and sent ripples through the steaming pools around him. The way that the young man kept looking over his shoulder would have made any observer think that he was being chased by someone or something. Yet, even when he reached the forest no one had followed him outside of the village. It would still be an hour before Kaiden's body was found dead in the middle of the Yugakure Ninja Academy's sparring room. The young man ran up the cliffside path, practically pulling himself up the precarious climb with the ropes that lined it.

His headband thumped against his collar bone as he ran, the silver plaque was stained with blood; the blood of Kaiden, his former teammate and best friend.

He finally had to stop and lean against a tree, trying desperately to catch his breath. It was almost as if he could feel the world spinning beneath him. He burst into a fit of coughing before he was able to look at his surroundings. Before him, surrounded by dark trees was a crumbling temple made of a strange black stone that reflected the sunlight. It was known in the village as the Temple of the Wicked Heart, or simply the forbidden temple. Until this moment he'd thought that it was only an old wives tale meant to keep curious children out of the forest.

He sat up and back so that he was kneeling in the dirt. He looked down at this hands that were muddied by the blood of his former comrade.

"Hello young shinobi. We've been waiting for you."

A deep, yet melodic voice startled the young man from his thoughts. He immediately moved away from the tree and backed away from the figure that had appeared before him. It was a tall man in silver and black Dō-maru armor with a dangerous looking naginata strapped to his back. His eyes were a startling violet that seemed to glow in the dim light that filtered through the canopy. The young man had never seen eyes that color before and he immediately withdrew a kunai from his hip pouch and took a defensive stance. The man laughed softly, as if he'd heard an inside joke. His plum colored hair was pulled back in a neat topknot that was held in place with a smooth silver slide.

"Your first instinct would be correct. You look like you would make a particularly interesting sacrifice to the almighty Jashin; but I wonder, that blood on your hands... I would like to hear your story before I kill you little shinobi."

"I'm not little, I'm sixteen you fucking jerk. Back the fuck off!"

"You've always been spirited Hidan, and now I think you're finally ready to find your true path."

"How the hell did you know my name?" As Hidan spoke the forest began to dissolve around him. The dirt beneath his feet turned to cobbled stone and the trees came together to form the familiar buildings of the Yugakure town square.

"I've known your name for a long time." The man's voice was disembodied now, as a crowd of villagers had replaced the lone figure.

They were all staring at Hidan. What have you done, where have you gone, they all seemed to whisper at once. Hidan fell back with a growl and came up hard against the edge of the central fountain.

"I didn't mean to kill him! We had an argument... He was going to ruin everything for me, he didn't understand that the academy was all that I've ever really had!"

What have you done, where have you gone?

A scream of rage and frustration tore from Hidan's lungs as he threw the Kunai into the nearest villager, his father. The kunai passed through his chest as if through thin air and disappeared.

"I didn't mean to kill Kaiden! Not really... I just... no one got it, no one would give me a fucking chance... and the one thing, they wanted to take it all away!"

Hidan collapsed to his knees and took his head in his hands. His body shook with the involuntary sobbing that overtook him. He jerked away when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he looked up he was back in the forest. The man who'd found him in front of the temple was standing over him.

"It has always been your destiny to turn your back on the people of Yugakure. Lord Jashin has been waiting patiently for you, and he appreciates your first sacrifice."

"What the fuck are you talking about! Back off!" Hidan pushed himself up from the ground using the tree behind him. He shrugged off the man's hand and swung at him with another kunai. The man dodged it effortlessly.

"Oh? You want to play?" The man grinned, a maniacal light coming into his violet eyes. Hidan raised the kunai again and stepped forward to slice at the man's abdomen but before he could even realize what had happened he felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder and looked over to see that the blade of the naginata had gone through his shoulder, just under his collar bone. He screamed in agony and collapsed to his knees as the man pulled the blade out of Hidan's body.

"Your spirit is strong but careless, and you must learn to harness it for Jashin's will."

"Shut the fuck up! I don't want to hear this shit, just leave me the fuck alone." He pressed a hand to his shoulder wound. The blood that poured from it was a startling sight as its fresh warmth mixed with the cold dried blood of Kaiden's. The man grinned again and brought the end of the naginata to his mouth so that he could reach out his tongue and lap up some of Hidan's blood from the wet metal.

Hidan stumbled to his feet and turned to run, but something suddenly stopped him, a terrible pain shot through his already punctured shoulder. It felt as if he was being stabbed again and when he turned around the man was standing there with the blade in his own shoulder.

"I'll do what I have to to make you slow down and listen to me Hidan. Come."

It was suddenly as if Hidan had no control over his own body. His right foot took a step forward, and then his left until he was within the man's reach.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing to me you sick bastard!"

"Huh, you are lucky... that Lord Jashin chose you for his own, otherwise I would make you mine right now. You would make such a stunning sacrifice." The man reached out a hand that was covered in his own blood and smoothed the hair away from Hidan's face until it was slicked back flat against his skull. He studied Hidan's dark green eyes before speaking quietly, "Much better. I am Sang Waru, but you will call me Waru-sensei from this day forward."

"Not in your dreams you jerk!" Hidan gritted his teeth, he may not be able to return to the village or his family, but he would be damned if he would let himself become the play thing of this man or his Lord. Hidan pulled his head back and spit in Sang Waru's face. Sang Waru twisted the blade of the naginata and pushed it farther into his shoulder, but Hidan felt it too, as if it were in his own body. Sang Waru then planted a kick squarely on Hidan's chest which sent him flat onto his back.

"You are correct Hidan, for you will be Lord Jashin's in reality and it will be the only reality you will ever know." Sang Waru pulled the naginata from his shoulder and placed the razor sharp point over his heart. Hidan could feel the needle-like end against his own flesh even though there was nothing visible there. Hidan looked down and around to see that he'd stepped into, and was now lying in, a curse mark that Sang Waru had spread in the grass using the blood from his own shoulder wound. He realized then that he was under some kind of strange blood curse and there was nothing he could do.

Sang Waru closed his eyes and slipped a silver beaded talisman from inside his shirt. He counted the beads nearest the pendant as he whispered something that sounded like a prayer. When he opened his eyes they were illuminated by a terrifying and entrancing glow. Then he thrust the naginata up into his chest.

~!~ Six Years Later ~!~

"Kakuzu! Have you fucking lost your mind?" After a long moment of shocked silence, those were the first words that came to Hidan when Kakuzu spoke the name of Sang Waru.

Hidan stood next to Kakuzu on the cliffs overlooking the former Village Hidden in Hot Water. The main road into town wound out of the forest to their left, and down a path carved out of the pale cliff walls. Once the forest ended, the dirt path joined a walkway made of a special iron that was only found in the nearby Shiro mountain range. The Shiro iron could withstand the heat of the water while not conducting heat itself and could only be melded into shape by a special Earth Style jutsu. The pathway allowed travelers and residents access to the village that was more or less an island surrounded by scalding pools of geothermically heated water.

"Damnit Kakuzu you fucking tricked me. How do you even know that name?" Hidan gritted his teeth and wrung the handle of his scythe.

"Keep it down." Kakuzu said with a growl as he nodded to the valley below and the steady string of tourists that were navigating the walkway.

"How do you expect me...you fucking idiot, you have no idea what he's like. You can't kill him!"

"I know." Kakuzu said simply as his red and green eyes met Hidan.

It was in that moment that everything suddenly made sense to Hidan. Kakuzu knew that he wouldn't be able to kill Sang Waru and so he had manipulated Hidan into coming with him. Kakuzu never intended to try and kill Sang Waru, he'd meant for Hidan to do it all along.

"If we meet him face to face he will kill you, you fucking dumb bastard." Hidan said quietly as he looked back down at Yugakure. He'd heard that ever since the ninja hierarchy within Yugakure had dissolved it had become renowned as a vacation spot. While the village's many natural hot springs were the main draw, the village had a vibrant underbelly of drugs, alcohol and gambling that came alive once the sun set. The town was supposedly ran by a warlord that raked in the dough like some fat pig whose dogs ran all around doing his dirty work. There were even rumors that this warlord only kept the peace as long as he was given a virgin sacrifice every other week. Hidan was always one for death and destruction, but in his eyes his former village had become a disgrace, a disgrace that Hidan had always tried to leave behind.

~!~

"Anyway, we won't find him here. I left him for dead five years ago." Hidan adjusted the strap of his scythe so that it was once again in its usual place against his back.

"Hidan, just a moment ago you made it sound as if he was here and waiting to kill us." Kakuzu had been expecting Hidan's rage. He'd even considered the possibility that Hidan might attack him for bringing him this far, but he wasn't about to give up now. He'd simply have to find a way to play up the nostalgic glimmer he'd seen in Hidan's eye. He sighed in annoyance, trying to maintain his cool. They'd come this far and all that mattered now was getting Hidan to agree to kill Sang Waru.

"I don't know if he's here or not...I thought I killed him, but..."

"I know he's here Hidan. He's more here than you realize. No doubt you've heard about the warlord that controls this village?"

"Of fucking course I have heard!"

Kakuzu wanted to ask: Are you really so dense? But instead he said "The bounty I am after is a tyrannical warlord by the name of Osoroshi War and I have reason to believe that he is the same Sang Waru that I've heard you mention in your sleep."

Hidan colored with mock rage, but Kakuzu could tell it was embarrassment. Hidan wasn't exactly the soundest of sleepers and more than once Kakuzu had found him sleep walking or crying out in the middle of the night. Aside from the ridiculously large sum of ryo he'd be getting from this bounty, he hoped that if they completed this mission that he'd finally be able to get some peace and quiet at night.

~!~

Everything Kakuzu was saying made so much sense to Hidan. Of course Osoroshi War was likely the very Sang Waru that Hidan had left on that bloody alter so many years ago. It wasn't hard for him to look down upon the iron path and imagine his sixteen year old self fleeing the carnage of Kaiden's murder. He'd murdered his best friend with his own hands, and shortly after that he'd murdered his family and single-handedly collapsed the very system he'd held dear. He had been responsible for destroying the ninja hierarchy of Yugakure, but he hadn't done it alone. Sang Waru had been the one pulling all of the strings, the strings that had been forcibly attached to Hidan's heart in the very forest they stood in now.

~!~ Six Years Earlier ~!~

"This will hurt, but it will feel so good..." Sang Waru thrust the naginata into his own heart and Hidan convulsed on the ground. It felt like his chest was going to explode. A wave of blood came up his throat and spilled over his lips. He was dying. Blood spilled from Sang Waru's mouth as he clumsily knelt down to straddle Hidan's waist.

"You're going to die now Hidan, but I..." Sang Waru paused with a laughing scoff that sprayed Hidan's face with blood. "Lord Jashin, will give you new life." Sang Waru grinned, showing his bloodied teeth. Hidan's vision was fading in and out and all he wanted now was an end to all of the pain he felt. In his delusion he could barely process what Sang Waru was saying and the last thing he saw before everything went black was Sang Waru's face closing in on his own for a blood filled kiss.

Hidan awoke with a gasp that drew blood into his lungs and made him cough so hard that he nearly threw up as he rolled onto his side. Sang Waru was lying beside him on the grass and smiled as their gazes met. In the large pendant on Sang Waru's necklace he could just barely see his reflection. He reached out and pulled the pendant towards himself. The few rays of sun that penetrated the tree canopy allowed him to see a face that was almost unrecognizable. A young face with slicked back silver hair, all features covered in blood except for his eyes. His lavender eyes. He released the pendant as if it had become a poisonous snake.

"What have you done to me!" Hidan screamed and pulled himself up into a sitting position.

Sang Waru remained on the grass, on his back with his hands resting behind his head as if he was watching the clouds. Hidan felt his shoulder, and then his chest, for the holes that had been there only moments ago, for the wounds that had surely killed him. Yet, there were no wounds that he could find. He was more sore than he'd ever been in his life but he was alive and apparently unscathed.

"What I have done, Hidan, is to give you immortality." Sang Waru turned his head to look at Hidan with an arrogant smile. Sang Waru stood up and rubbed a hand against his own chest. "Do you feel it- the power of Jashin?"

Hidan was sore, yes, but now that he looked up at Sang Waru's smiling face he realized that the pain he was experiencing was somehow sweet. It was as if he'd gone for a long run or had a good workout. He felt exhilarated. Sang Waru reached out a hand.

"Come and be with me, and live forever. Walk the unrighteous path of almighty Jashin and never again feel the rejection you felt from all of the people in your village, in your family."

"They wanted to become a peaceful village and dissolve the academy, but I... I've always felt these urges. I tried to contain them, channel them somehow, but I've always felt the desire to kill things to...," Hidan hesitated, but then reached up to take Sang Waru's hand.

"To bathe in their blood, I know. Focusing on building your skills as a shinobi helped you release some of that energy; but Hidan, you snapped and killed Kaiden because he and his father couldn't see how important it was for you to have an outlet. Kaiden was no friend to you, and now that he is dead you are free to be yourself." Sang Waru lifted Hidan to his feet, "A killer."

Hidan looked down at the pendant again, his own reflection wavering back at him in the dying light. Is that who I am? he wondered. His heart ached for Kaiden, but there was something else inside of him now, some new power just waiting to be acknowledged and embraced.

"Tell me about Lord Jashin."