Chapter Three is now up though I shouldn't since I only got one review *cough cough* but thanks to Dragonball-Gal I'm putting up the next one. Enjoy my weirdness. And no a sixteen year old female girl living in the United States does not own naruto. God are you people crazy? Lol

Chapter Three – Frozen in Time

Hidan's eerie laugh sounded in the small wooded clearing. He sat upon a large boulder, a smirk played across his face, and his magenta eyes were shining with a insane glisten. One of his legs was stretched out before him, and his other was bent up at the knee with one of his arms relaxingly sitting upon it. His other arm was occupied with spinning his scythe around in circles; the hilt was making a little hole that got bigger every time it whirled around. "I have to admit the blonde fuck put up an amusing fight!" He chuckled.

"Hmmm." Was all Kakuzu mused towards the comment. "We need to find the girl."

Hidan huffed and grabbed the scythe in mid spin. With a glare at Kakuzu he wiped off his cheek, and looked at his hand afterwards. A smile played at his lips as he then looked down at himself. He was covered in blood and his pale skin was hardly distinguishable, along with his hair. Hidan blinked as his gaze caught sight of a drop of blood that was slowly making it's way down the top blade. He waited with a rare patience as it stopped at the tip and shook a little, before it finally fell to the ground; landing to meet with the other drops that had also made their way to the dirt.

Hidan smirked at the little puddle, and then turned his smirking glare at Kakuzu. "No fucking shit." Hidan spat with his usual zeal. "But she wasn't there, now was she?"

"You don't think I don't know that?" Kakuzu growled and turned so he was facing the albino priest. He was standing next to the boulder Hidan was sitting on, leaning against it until he turned to face Hidan.

"Heh, I was just checking you old bastard." Hidan smirked down at the miser from his post. Shaking his head he shrugged. "You must be getting forgetful in your old age. Hell, one would think I would be helping you out."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes dangerously at his silver haired partner. "Did you listen to Leader-sama when he gave the mission details?" Hidan looked at Kakuzu skeptically. "That's what I thought." Kakuzu pulled a piece of paper out from his pocket, and handed it to the younger man. "While you were retrieving your toy I made this out for you so I wouldn't have to explain it to you. You can read can't you?"

Hidan grabbed the paper and glared at Kakuzu. "Just checking." Kakuzu retorted. Hidan looked the paper over several times before raising his eyebrow.

"Dead and awake?" Hidan growled. "What the hell kind of name is that? Akuji is a male name, plus who would name a girl 'dead and awake'?" Hidan's rant caused Kakuzu to raise an eyebrow at the Jashinist.

"Why would you care? It's just a name, and plus she is nothing but different cells and microbes sealed together by strands of chakra." Kakuzu sighed. "She shouldn't exist. Now, let's go and fetch this concoction Leader-sama has us looking for."

Hidan continued to glare at the paper like it was the paper's fault for the name mix up. Kakuzu sighed and began to walk foreword. "C'mon lets go." He said as he stopped to look back at Hidan.

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck off. I'll be right there. There's no reason to hurry you dipshit." Something was bothering Hidan but it wasn't like he would tell Kakuzu about it. Hell, he'd never tell anybody about it. Why should he, besides it seemed that Kakuzu already picked up on his problem.

Why the hell did he care about the name? It nothing that he should be concerned about, especially since he never gave a flying fuck about anything anyways. Why did he care about it so much? There was no particular reason for it, it just bothered him. Hissing Hidan crumpled up the paper and threw it in the snow.

A smile touched Kakuzu's masked face as he noticed a small hint of pink touch Hidan's face. Though it was so small he doubted Hidan himself even noticed it. "I said let's go Hidan."

"And I said fuck off, you fucking bastard."

"Shut up and follow. If you speak one more time I will kill you." Kakuzu growled as he began walking again.

"Heh, as you could do shit to me you old fuck." Hidan taunted as he slid off of his perch and followed the miser.

~~~~To the protagonist! ~~~~

Akuji's eyes widened with shook as she took in the scene before her. Her shop, her second home, her place of comfort, was all but perfect. It was nothing like she left it last night. It was no longer standing, but lying in pieces, several hundred pieces. Wood was strewn everywhere, metal blades and all the different weapons lay bent and useless in the snow. Piping and wires accompanied the small plumes of smoke that rose from the broken wood; everything was everywhere. If one walked by they would see not a dignified little shop but a pile of rumble that was left to the elements so it could rot.

The girl fell to her knees as she noticed another thing wrong with this horrible nightmare. Blood was everywhere. It covered the boards and stained the snow. As she thought Daren must have been here, and she hoped to god that he was not still here. Because if he was…

She began to crawl foreword, slowly making her way into the rubble. Her eyes were still wide from the shock and her mouth was slightly parted to give way to an almost insane grin. Denial ran through her head. She had hoped that she was at the wrong outcropping. Hoped that this was the wrong building. Hoped that it wasn't blood. Hoped that Daren would come and rescue her from this hellish nightmare.

However, she quickly realized that this was not the case. Akuji stopped, frozen in place. Becoming a statue, her features frozen in time. Then uncontrollable trembles started to rack her body, and squeaks and cries began to swarm out of her mouth. Her eyes widened even more and her pupils dilated. Throwing her head to the sky she let out a scream of complete agony and unrelenting sobs quickly followed suit.

There lying still in the snow, as stiff as the ice itself laid Daren. His face was surprisingly peaceful and his eyes were closed. One would've thought him to be sleeping but the three huge gouges in his stomach told one otherwise. A small trickle of blood colored his chin and tried to continue down his neck however the brisk winds had frozen the crimson liquid. A two-inch pipe was intruding out of his body just below his rib cage, slightly towards the right. It also had the crimson paint bearing on its cold steel.

Akuji crawled foreword sobbing, tears streaking down her porcelain skin. Her lips were trembling and all the color was drained from her already pale complexion. And when she arrived to her destination she grew even paler. His wounds were almost too hard to bear for the young girl. Her hands flew to her mouth and she bent over. With a few gags and a cough she released the trivial bits of content her stomach was holding.

Her heavy breaths were coming out unsteadily as she gazed on the body. She reached a trembling hand towards the body and lightly touched the stiff hand. Akuji choked out a cry and moved closer as to comfort herself. She looked the wounds over and almost gagged again but through faith or luck it stayed down.

She slowly moved her hand over the wounds in his stomach. The girl wondered what kind of weapon would have made such a wound, but the thought quickly passed from her head when her eyes gazed over the pipe that was sticking from his abdomen. She leaned over and reached out towards the pipe, making the contact of metal to flesh. Akuji tried to remove the steel however it didn't move, didn't waver. She let go when she realized that it wasn't stabbed into him, but he was impaled on it.

Falling backwards, Akuji let out a small squeak and fell onto her behind. She sat up and looked at her hands and the blood that now covered them. Beginning to tremble she wrapped her arms around herself and cried. With an unclear mind her snapped back to its upright position and her movements became desperate.

Leaning over his body she ripped open his already torn shirt. With gasping breaths she put her hands on his wounds and began to pulse her chakra through him. The pulses were unsteady and hurried as she tried to heal the gaps in his waist. Huffing and rasping she hung her head when she noticed that they were not closing and she began to slow her attempts.

However, the sounds of a beat made her head shoot up. Somehow, someway she heard the noise over the howling winds, the desperate breaths coming from her chest. Her eyes widened as she seen his chest shudder quickly, up and down, in and out. He let out a gasp as she looked down at his waist.

The wounds were closing. Slowly, but they were closing. Akuji gave a choked smile and steadied her chakra, focusing more on healing him. His unsteady breathing was giving her hope, and she intended to use the spark that united in her chest.

After the holes were nothing but pink scabs she stopped healing and fell back into a more relaxed position, breathing heavily. However, this time it was more out of exhaustion than fear and dismay. With a small giggle she looked over at Daren.

"That was close wasn't it Onii-san?" She asked him with a light giggle, but a gasp came from her mouth when she seen the look of pain that was spread across his face. She cringed and put her hand on his cheek. "It'll be okay…" She tried to sound confident but…

With a cough Daren opened his eyes and looked up at her. Despite what has happened, and despite the pain he gave her the same smile he has been giving her all these years. Her heart jerked and a tear flew down her face. He lifted his head up, looked at the pipe and then cringed. "I guess it's as bad as it looks, eh?" Daren tried to giggle but all that came out was disheartening cough and a bit of blood.

"Shh." Was all the young woman could make out.

"Heh, Don-don't worry bout m-me." Daren shivered slightly, the sheen in his eyes was slowly dulling. "You ne-need to worry more abo-about yourself. They are com-coming for you."

Akuji's eyes widened as she looked down at him. She lay next to him and snuggled into his side, closing her own crystal blue orbs. "What are you talking about…" Akuji asked quietly.

"The men wh-who came here." Daren choked out. "They are after y-you. It's what they wanted…" Daren weakly lifted his hand and placed it on her head. He began to rub back and forth gently. His stiff movements reminded Akuji just how much trouble Daren was in. But the thought of all this being her fault hammered at the back of her mind.

"Hel-help me pull the piping out, onii-san. Then I ca-."

"No." Daren's response was quick to cut her off. "I-I cannot. I-I'm to weak…See? I told you that the snow was evil…" He tried to giggle but nothing came out but a pathetic wheeze. "You mu-must get to safety. Please, my little onee-chan…Remain safe…for me…for you're the only…One who…Matters…My baby, onee-chan…"

The metallic taste of blood filled Akuji's mouth as she bit down on her tongue to prevent herself from crying out. The hope she had built up in her chest had now winked down into nothing, as she heard nothing but the faint sound of Daren's beating heart. She grasped the tattered remains of his shirt with her hands as she snuggled into him.

Why now? Why him? Why couldn't they have taken her instead of him? He was all she lived for. Tears flowed freely down her face, but she kept her whimpers quiet because she had never liked to cry in front of him. She shut her eyes; she was tired of looking at the blank world in front of her. She hated herself. Her greatest skill, her triumph card, was absolutely useless. What had she brought him back from the depths for? Had it just to add more suffering to her heart? She wanted to shatter into a million pieces, just because the most important thing in her life was slipping away. Her onii-san, her pillar, her life was leaving her. And there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.

Daren lifted his head up weakly to give Akuji one last loving glance before he put his head back into the snow. His vision was blurry from the loss of blood and he couldn't move any of his muscles. Breathing was also getting impossible. He gritted his teeth and a small grinding noise was heard as his teeth mashed together. He coughed and opened his eyes to glance at the harsh, gray sky. Oh how he wished he could see the sun again, to feel the heat on his skin, instead of this bitter, remorseless cold.

He closed his eyes again, and with the last of his strength tightened the grip he had on Akuji. The storm rolled over them, not caring that a life was slipping away. Akuji lay, still as stone, silently sobbing and after a few minutes Daren let out a sudden shudder, blowing out the last of his breath in an unsteady rhythm. His heart skipped and he grew forever still.

Oh no, oh no. Daren's dead?!? Hehehe tune into my next chapter to find out what happens next!. Please send me those juicy reviews!