A/N: Hello! Oh, warning: some horror/depictions of bloody-stuffs. Listened to Crackernut [Nutcracker Remix] by Matthew Pablo while writing. Pretty awesome song.

Chapter IV.

The operating room was completely silent.

Sakura peered up at pitch-black surrounding her and slowly sat up from the table. Her shackles were off and the room was freezing. Her eyes gradually adjusted to what little light was available, and her breath fogged out in puffs from the coldness in the air.

She called out, "Hello?" but only the absence of sound greeted her.

The stillness of the room spooked her, and she scrambled off of the table. When her feet clumsily made contact with the floor, she slipped on something wet and sticky.

Her knees buckled and hit the ground, elbows cracking painfully against the tiles. She was leaning into the floor, panting softly, and her were arms covered in a warm, coppery syrup that she recognized as blood.

Sakura stifled a scream, and took several large gasps of air to calm herself.

"Ino?" she called out. Careful to not slip again, she rose and looked back towards the two surgical tables. Sakura still couldn't make much out, but she hesitantly reached out blindly and felt the two surfaces. Ino was not there.

Where is everyone? Where's Ino? Why is there blood on the floor?

Of course, no one was there to answer her questions.

When she moved to walk out of the room, after only a few tentative steps she nearly tripped over something soft and heavy—someone's body.

Her medical training immediately kicked into gear. Sakura leaned down and methodically felt the body, grasping for the arms. She clenched the heavy material covering their limbs and identified it as one of the heavy maroon cloaks the figures had been dressed in. Working her way up the body, she attempted to feel her way up to the neck to check for a pulse. Sakura didn't get far, though; the man's head was no longer attached to his neck. Her fingers slid through soft, coagulating flesh before meeting air.

Gagging, she turned away from the corpse.

I think it's time to just get the hell out of here. Safety first, ask questions later.

Without a moment's hesitation, Sakura rose and scurried towards the front of the room where the door was, mindful of the other darkened lumps littering the floor. As she reached out to grasp the handle of the door, she heard the faintest sound of something scratching against the tiles.

She was not alone.

Sakura froze. "Hello?"

The scratching stopped. Sakura hurriedly opened the door and let out a relieved sigh at the sight of the faint hall lights. She turned around, finally able to see, and took in the scene before her. Bodies, yes, she expected those, but...

Sakura looked into the corner of the room—where the scratching noises had originated—and screamed.

Hidan was kneeling, his knees grinding into solid rock, and he was clutching his head with one hand and the gaping wound in his stomach with the other.

The exact events of the past two hours were a mesh of scrambled, chaotic recollections that Hidan didn't particularly feel like sorting through. He had watched the situation unfold, detached, from his corner by the sinks; he recalled observing with some amount of suspicion as Kabuto retreated from the room only moments before hell had been unleashed.

At least, Hidan assumed something hellish had entered the room, based on the screaming.
He hadn't actually seen anything. Images of his fellow cultists being torn to shreds, their eyes and mouths wide with shock and confusion, were permanently branded into his skull. Hidan was no stranger to death. Hell, he felt quite at home in the face of a massacre. But this...

It's just because I didn't know what the hell was happening, that's all, Hidan told himself. It's no fun when there's no fight to it.

Not being able to see what was attacking you was just downright creepy, he decided. It was clear that no one else had been able to see it, either.

Except for her. And speaking of which...

"For the love of all that is unholy, can you pleaseshut the fuck up?"

The figure, currently huddling on the other side of the cave, made no move to respond. Her face was buried into her legs and her hands were clamped tightly over her ears, in a vain attempt to block out the world. Her black silken robe was littered with barely discernible blood spatters, and her hair was broken out of its usual ponytail, leaving the long blonde strands in complete disarray.

Hidan absently scratched the wound on his abdomen and followed the gash up to the deep claw marks trailing up his chest. They curved up his shoulder, leaving giant chunks of flesh missing as the scratches gouged down. It was a good thing he was immortal, otherwise he might have been worried. The other Jashinists had not been so lucky.

Sucks to be them.

He thought about asking to be healed—not that it hurt (of course not), just so that it wouldn't scar—but Ino couldn't bear to look at him. Hidan glanced over his shoulder once more and snorted. As if she'd be capable of doing anything that didn't involve sitting in a corner and sobbing.

What the hell had he even been thinking, dragging her here?

The answer seemed obvious enough: he hadn't been thinking. In retrospect, not thinking seemed to be the cause of all of his problems. Survival instincts had taken over—something he had little experience in handling since his introduction to immortality. The only thoughts in his head at the time went something along the lines of: get the fuck out of here, get the fuck out of here, and get the ever loving fuck out of here!

He hadn't even realized he was carrying the dead weight of a nearly catatonic woman until he had already landed at the entrance to the cave leading to an Akatsuki safe house.

And he was seriously regretting that momentary lapse in judgment.

The cave itself was rather unimpressive: it was about twenty feet wide at the longest point, but went deep into the side of the hill and had an impressively high ceiling. The inner portion of the cave was rocky. Near the mouth was the remnants of a fire pit, and a few feet from that were several rolled up sleeping mats. Deeper into the cavern, the ceilings became increasingly lower until the entire room narrowed down into a tight tunnel, at the end of which was the door to the safe house.

Maybe I should sacrifice her, Hidan mused to himself as he continued to observe Ino.

After a moment, he shook his head in response to his thoughts. No. I don't think that's an option anymore. And besides... can't kill her any time soon now, can I?

Not until he knew what the hell was going on, anyway. Somehow he doubted torture would be an effective means of getting her to talk. At this rate, it'd probably just make her even more hysterical. And maybe even drive her completely insane to boot.

Oh, who am I kidding? She's already there. I'm officially out of ideas.

Hidan cleared his throat in an effort to get her attention. It didn't work.

"So..." he started, "You're lookin' a little worse for wear. Probably wondering where we are..."

Ino's head was now turned slightly, as if cocking her ears. He was pretty sure she was listening, but it had been awhile since she had responded to anything he did, so he couldn't be too sure.

He was half right. Ino heard him speaking, but Hidan's voice flowed right through her and she was only really catching half of what he said.

Ino glanced down at the black silken robe clinging to her figure, noticing it damp and dark with blood. Stupid robe. Stupid weird cultists, with their stupid bathing rituals and stupid oil fetishes.

I guess I'm never getting my clothes back, she thought regretfully. That shirt was new...

"Unless you wanna take your chances lookin' for her and possibly get your head sliced off in the process—not that I'd blame you, that can be fun every once in awhile—we should probably lie low. No tellin' what's gonna happen now. Fuck if I know..." Hidan continued speaking, and Ino studied her robe more closely.

I wonder if this is going to stain, she became lost in thought; she remembered being back in Konoha, the day she purchased that shirt. How she had dragged Sakura and Choji along with her to go shopping. Tenten was off on a mission, and Hinata, well.. They didn't see much of her. They had tried to drag Shikamaru, but one deadpan look from him killed that thought. Not that she had any problem manhandling him, but he had been sitting there with a stupid cigarette in his mouth and an open shogi board in front of him—clearly waiting for someone that wasn't her—looking so damn put out that she didn't have the heart to haul him along.

"His hair is stupid, anyway," Ino murmured.

Hidan stared at her. "What?"

Ino continued muttering something under her breath that he didn't catch, and Hidan realized that she had completely interrupted him and obviously hadn't been listening to anything he was saying. Not that he cared about that last part.

"Sasuke's was much prettier."

Hidan groaned in frustration and proceeded to bang his head against the wall of the cavern.

"He doesn't even light them, you know, he just chews on 'em like it's a makeshift senbon and he's some idiot trying to do his best Gemna impression."

Hidan continued to let her talk, weaving a disjointed tale about people and places he didn't recognize. He knew that if he wanted her side of the story, he had to give her some time to recover, but patience was far from his forte and irritation was fast approaching his limit.

Maybe I should have stayed, he wondered. This chick wasn't the only person with answers, after all...

But there was screaming and blood and people twisting in ways he'd never seen; he could picture the faces as they were mutilated and confused because there was nothing there, nothing to attack in defense —except that wasn't entirely true, was it? There had been something there, because Ino had been strapped to that table, staring in open horror with wide eyes and screaming, "Demon! Demon!" and now Hidan just had to know. Had she seen Jashin? What did she mean, demon? Jashin was supposed to be a god.

It doesn't make sense, he thought to himself. Why would Jashin do that? He grants immortality to those that worship him, he doesn't massacre them. (Well. With a little help from some questionable and generally lethal religious experiments.) Death is meant for the heathens, the infidels, the human cattle up for slaughter and sacrifice.

Hidan still couldn't quite wrap his mind around the fact that everyone, all those Jashinists, were dead. And he would have been too if not for his experimental immortality.

After awhile, Ino's chattering died down, and she appeared to become a little more composed, as if silently contemplating something.

Here goes nothing.

"So... how're you feeling?" Hidan muttered, glancing at her warily.

She snapped to attention and clenched her jaw, immediately suspicious. "Why did you bring me here? Where are we, where is this place?" her questions were firing off rapidly, without giving him a chance to respond. "What do you want with me? Haven't you done enough?" Ino's voice tapered off brokenly, and he fought the urge to roll his eyes.

"Where are we?" she repeated once more, after he failed to respond.

"An old Akatsuki safe house, pretty close to Ōzora. You know, small town near the border-"

"I know where it is," she snapped. "And this isn't a safe house. It's a cave."

Hidan's eye twitched. "There's a tunnel in the back with a door that leads to the actual house, bitch."

"My name is Ino."

"Whatever."

"Why are we out here then?"

"Let's make a deal. You answer one of my questions, and I'll answer one of yours."

Ino was silent.

"Tell me what you saw back there, after the ritual."

She broke eye contact and looked at the floor. "That isn't a question," she deflected.

Hidan pinched the bridge of his nose, willing himself to not explode. No, too late. That was the end of his rope.

"I've had just about enough of this whole fucking day," he spat out, rising from his seated position and making his way towards her. "What the fuck did you see? What did this to me?"

Hidan ripped his bloodstained cloak open, exposing more fully the raw, jagged hole in his flayed stomach and the lacerations crawling up his shoulders.

Upon seeing Hidan's injuries—an undeniably grisly reminder of the slaughter she had so recently witnessed—Ino squealed, snapped her eyes shut and whispered to herself as she resumed rocking back and forth.

Hidan let out a slew of curses as he kicked the side of the cave in frustration. He counted backwards from ten, and exhaled slowly. Months in isolation had done little to teach him patience, but he had at least learned how to bring himself back from over the edge.

"Fine. Fine. Just go to sleep. We'll talk some more in the morning," He gestured towards one of the mats. "Place's hidden by a genjutsu, so don't worry about intruders."

Hidan moved back to his spot near the fire pit, leaned against the back wall and closed his eyes.

Ino regarded him carefully through half-closed lashes for a good ten minutes. When she was sure that he wasn't going to move or try to talk to her again, she moved from her corner and crawled towards one of the sleeping rolls. After what felt like forever—but was probably only a half hour at most—she fell into a fitful rest.

Ino jolted awake, an incredibly vivid recollection of the past night tearing her from slumber. She was sweating profusely, and momentarily panicked when she couldn't recognize where she was.

The cave. Hidan. Wait, Hidan?

She remembered then, but it seemed crazy nonetheless. Had she woken up in some bizarro land? Maybe she was still dreaming.

Ino turned towards her side and looked out through the opening of the cave. The moonlight was bright enough to illuminate everything slightly, but all she could really see was a mesh of dense foliage. No. This was no dream.

I want to go home.

But she was essentially alone, in the dead of night, with no weapons and only a thin robe to protect her from the elements. She had no clear idea of where she was or if anyone was even looking for her. What could she do?

Resigned, Ino attempted to return to sleep for a few minutes, but her body wasn't having any of it. She opened her eyes once more and idly glanced back towards the forest. Her eyes caught sight of a dark patch from behind one of the trees in the distance.

Ino stilled, her breath caught in her throat.

What the...?

The shadowy image didn't move. She thought for a moment that maybe it was just a figment of her imagination, and again attempted to will herself back to unconsciousness.

She opened her eyes for the second time. The blurred shape closer now, only partially obscurred by a tree. She swore she hadn't heard anything move.

It was the silhouette of figure. Short, shorter than she had been when she was still at the Academy, with elongated arms and claw-like fingers that stretched past its mid-calf.

She wanted to shout, "Who's there?" but her voice would not cooperate, and she shut her eyes again instead.

This time, she heard a light rustling, followed by a rush of air. The room stilled, and Ino held her breath, eyes still squeezed shut.

When she felt the lightest puffs of warm, moist air caressing her neck, Ino screamed.

Hidan tensed up immediately, his back aching awkwardly from the less than comfortable sleeping position he had settled into. The fire was out, and Ino was sitting upright on her sleeping mat, shaking uncontrollably and crying softly to herself.

There was nothing else in the cave.

"What is it now?" he asked irritably, and Ino pointed towards the mouth of the cavern but did not speak.

"What kind of damn ninja are you? You see somethin' in the dark and you start crying? Shouldn't you throw a fucking kunai or something?"

But she only shuddered at this, and seemed to fall deeper into herself. "It's followed me here..." she was whispering. "From that room, that night..."

That caught Hidan's interest. "What followed you?"

When he got no response yet again, he let out an exasperated sigh, muttered, "Fuck this shit," and left the cave.

Ino's head snapped up and she watched him leave in shock.

Where's he going?

"Hidan?"

Is he really going to leave me here, with...? she glanced around, but the creature was gone. Was it even there to begin with? Was she really going crazy?

Relax, Ino. Just relax. Let's look at the facts one more time. You're alone, in a cave, near Ōzora, in River Country, right near the border. You don't have any weapons or supplies, but there's supposedly a safe house connected to the cavern. All you have to do is stock up, head back to Konoha—it isn't that far—and you'll be home. You can report back that...

Well, she'd worry about that part later.

Ino rose, but her legs were shaky and she couldn't figure out if it was more daunting to head back through the darkness of the cavern, or to go into the forest. Before she could come to a decision, Hidan had reappeared at the cave's entrance. She felt a small amount of relief at the sight of him, and that alone was enough to horrify her all over again.

He was dangling a set of keys from one of his hands.

"I was going to dig this up in the morning, but since you can't seem to shut the fuck up, I guess we're going in now," he explained.

He brushed past her, traveling through the twisting tunnel in the deep end of the cavern, and Ino followed him into the darkness.

A/N: I'm contemplating revising this section, but we'll see. I end up revising everything at least a few times, anyway... I get to be my own beta! It's fun! Speaking of fun, I had quite a bit of that when devising the next few sections, but I'm itching to get back to Konoha. Oh well—in due time.