Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor the characters in Naruto. I just manipulate them like my own personal voodoo dolls.


Shards

Chapter Seven: Concoctions

"Are you alright?" asked Konan.

Hidan shook his head, searching the room frantically. "Where is Kakuzu? he asked, his confusion evident in his expression.

"Kakuzu was never here." stated the Uchiha calmly. "Your scythe hit the roof, and you promptly followed." he grinned, but Hidan ignored the quip.

There were more important things to worry about.

Like Kakuzu's disappearing act.

"That is fucking impossible. Kakuzu was just here." he exclaimed, pointing where his partner had been standing.

"I'm sorry Hidan, but there is no one there." murmured Konan softly.

The zealot stopped, taking a moment to think.

If she was right, it meant that he had begun hallucinating. The only issue was, he wasn't sure whether to not it was due to his guilt or his crumbling mind.

Neither option was that appealing.

As it was more likely that she was right, what was he going to do now?

Hidan could not admit that he might be going insane.

Enough of the members were already quite deranged, a prime example being Itachi.

Who names their pancake after their little brother? If you are going to name a pancake after anything, it has to be Jashin.

Perhaps Percy. Percy the Pancake.

Nonetheless, delusion and insanity were not necessarily good things – contrary to the popular belief within the hideout. Especially combinations of the two.

Ironically enough, seeing things that aren't there is never a good sign.

"Hidan, are you alright?" asked Konan for the second time.

This time, Hidan actually had an answer. The first half may have been a blatant lie, but it was an answer nonetheless.

"I guess I am just tired. Kakuzu made me sleep on the fucking bathroom floor."

The immortal yawned for effect.

If he was lucky, the rest of the Akatsuki wouldn't suspect a thing. People do strange things when they are tired.

Perhaps not see things that aren't there, but strange things nonetheless.

Itachi shot him a glare, before turning and sitting down at the table again - resting his forehead against it.

As far as Hidan was concerned, that meant Itachi believed him.

That, or he was just too hung-over to really care whether Hidan was telling the truth or not.

Either way, the zealot was happy.

Deidara nodded, accepting his fabricated excuse. Sasori quickly followed, then, luckily for Hidan, the two returned to their bickering.

"You know I am right." hissed Deidara under his breath.

For a moment Hidan was lost, before remembering that all these two argue about is 'the nature of art', and argue about who was 'right'.

It seemed that they were just picking up where they left off.

As long as the attention was no longer on his mental state, he was satisfied.

Sasori glared at him. "Never!" he exclaimed, before snatching the vial of elixir out of the blonde's hand.

"Aha! At last." cried the puppet master, grinning maniacally.

Hidan had all but forgotten about the vial that Sasori had been waving around about fifteen minutes ago – and that was before he had even eaten his pancakes.

Now he wanted pancakes again.

But what he wanted more than that was to see Kakuzu.

Even if he was going to get a beating when it happened, it was better than thinking he was seeing him, but actually not.

At heart, he was quite disappointed.

"Are you sure that you are alright?" asked Konan, interrupting his thoughts.

The question caught Hidan off guard.

Pulled back into the real world, the zealot wondered what could have given him away.

Some of his disappointment must have been evident on his face, he resolved, but deep down, he still not entirely convinced.

Paranoia was setting in again.

"Yes, yes I'm fine." grinned the immortal. "As I said, I am just fucking exhausted."

But that couldn't be any further from the truth.


[EndChapterSeven]