Pein Consults
Hidan
I don't own Naruto.
"So, what's up?" Hidan said casually as he strolled into Pein's chamber, ignoring Konan's glare at his lack of etiquette, and plopped down onto the chair facing his leader. Not that he respected anyone other than Jashin-sama, but he WAS more powerful than him, and he had to acknowledge that.
"Hidan," Pein ackowledged him with a nod.
"Why do we have to do me now? I was about to do a damned ritual before you called on me!" Hidan complained.
"Good," said Pein, not looking at Hidan and instead pulling through a couple of papers. "We're going to talk about that later. But first, I've heard that you hail from Yugakure?"
"I don't want to talk about that blasted village," Hidan muttered mutinously. Yugakure, meaning 'Village Hidden in Hot Water', used to be a small ninja village until it decided to abandon its violent ways and tranform into a peaceful tourist village instead. Hidan, of course, being Hidan, didn't like it.
"Understandable," replied Pein. "By the time Yugakure surrendered, you have already joined the Jashinists. You murdered a whole quarter of the villagers before you left; quite a feat, if I may call it that. Impressive even for an Akatsuki member."
"How the hell did you know about that?" Asked Hidan, surprised but a little pleased that the leader knew of this. Man, was I THAT famous?
"Oh... I have my ways and means," said Pein, waving his hand modestly. "Now, here in this paper you've stated that you joined Akatsuki because of 'religion'. I'd like you to tell me more about your belief in Jashinism."
Finally, someone in the organization who is actually interested! Hidan shouted inwardly. Outwardly, he only smiled.
"Jashin-sama is the deity that looks over warfare, blood and death," Hidan began to describe his religion to his leader with enthusiasm. "Jashin-sama takes pleasure in utter destruction and massacare, because it supplies him with lots of blood. Thus, anything less than that is considered a sin. Those who serve Jashin-sama well is blessed by him with immortality so that he can bring more kills to him - in other words, me."
"And does your deity punish you if you commit a sin? That is, if you don't make a good kill?" Pein inquired further.
"Hell yeah, he does," said Hidan with a shudder; his god was the only thing that he truly feared in the world. "One who breaks the code is punished twice; first his fellow followers rip him into pieces, then Jashin-sama punishes him himself in the eternal flames of hell."
"I see," said Pein, nodding his head thoughtfully. "Your god certainly has his way of putting fear into people. Have you ever seen anyone being punished because he/she broke the code with your own eyes?"
Hidan flinched visibly upon his leader's words. Did he know? No, no way he would know... "Y-yes," he stuttered.
"Torn to pieces, were they?" Pein said, his voice tone unchanging. Two Rinnegan seemed to pierce through Hidan, looking through his soul. "Very tragic deaths they had to go through, they did. No wonder you've stayed loyal to Jashinism since then... isn't that so, Hidan?"
Hidan's breath stopped completely; not that he would die if he stopped breathing for a full hour, but the shock choked his lungs of any air and washed his brain of any reasonable thoughts. Suddenly his vision was filled with a hazy red glow, and the sound of two familiar voices began screaming inside his head...
"What a noble act they did to save you, your parents." Pein spoke.
That did it.
"Doton: Domu!" (Translation: Earth Release: Earth Spear)
CLANG!
Hidan was on his feet, acutely aware of Konan standing behind him with a paper kunai poised across his throat. Not that he really cared; what he did care was the fact that he was holding his three-bladed scythe in his hand, and that Pein had raised his left arm to block it from embedding itself into his heart. Of course, the Earth Spear Technique had hardened his skin to a degree that it was practically impenetrable.
It was slow for Hidan to come to his senses, but when he did he saw what he had done. He was not ashamed or anything (hell, he'd do that all over again if he could), but he was quite aware that he was screwed anyway. Slowly, he pulled his scythe back and slung it over his back. Pein withdrew his arm as well. Then, surprisingly, he beckoned at Konan to release him, and she complied. Freed, Hidan slowly sank back into his chair, lost for words.
"I'm not surprised that you'd freak out," was all that Pein said before looking through his papers again. But Hidan wasn't listening...
"Kill him!" A tall, bare-chested man holding a large blade bellowed at the woman, pointing a thick finger at her son cuddled up in her arms. Several people surrounded her and her husband, shouting "Kill it!" "The Betrayer!" "Oath-breaker!" lined with hundereds of curses woven through the words.
"No!" The woman screamed desperately, clutching the silver-haired child even tighter in her arms. "It's not his fault! I told him to leave! He is not to blame!"
One man pushed himself forward with a knife in his hand, only to be kicked back from the father. "You lay a finger on our son, and you're dead! Get it?"
The boy shook in terror, flinching away from the fire burning away in his comrade Jashinists' eyes; Jashin-sama's wrath?
He phased out, only to wake up a few moments later to find an old voice state: "If the boy is clear of blame, then someone else must shoulder it. Jashin-sama shall have his fill of blood, especially those of sinners."
His mother's grip tightened on him as waves of men advanced. Suddenly the boy felt her arms going slack around him, and looked up to see that a metal pike pulling back from where it had impaled his mother through the shoulder, ready to pierce the heart this time...
"It seems that we're around done, Hidan. I expect you to perform as well as you've done as an Akatsuki member so far," said Peinthe Jashinist shook himself away from his long-lost memory. His leader's Rinnegan no longer seemed so hypnotising, but now Hidan was terrified of him as much as he was afraid of Jashin-sama. What was this man sitting in front of him actually incapable of?
"Send in Kakuzu after you. Oh, and I would suggest you at least try and get along with him in the future," said Pein, signalling his dismissal. Taking the gesture only too gladly, Hidan quickly rose to his feet and scurried out of the dreadful chamber.
He now knew why Jashin-sama had willed him to wear this cloak.
Ha-ha, poor Hidan. For those who didn't understand this one, I'll explain: as a boy Hidan broke a Jashinist rule, and the cultists demanded his death. His parents refused to have their son killed, and the Jashin priests killed them instead. The event traumatized Hidan into being a zealot of Jashinism. Ah well, who likes having their past picked at, even if it was by your (awesome) leader? R&R.
