WS7:Not much more to say about this one. Enjoy the action and gore! 8D
Hidan: Oh yeah! It's about fucking time!
RB: Really, you two. Anyway, here's chapter 9. It's time to let Hidan loose on his unsuspecting enemies.
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9. Staying Alive
Hidan had been thinking. He'd been travelling with that idiot for five days now, five days since the bumbling priest had joined Akatsuki, that is. During that time Abel (yes, Hidan was slowly starting to use the idiot's name, having run out of appropriate insults) had been his bubbly self, but the jashinist hadn't forgotten what Leader had said in the meeting when the question about Kakuzu had come up.
Right now the priest was trudging behind Hidan, most likely tired after traipsing about all day. The jashinist still couldn't see why the fuck had it been so important to recruit that idiot. And why the hell did Leader call Abel 'Crusnik'?
"So, what can you do, anyway?" Hidan asked, breaking the silence.
"Eh?" Abel responded, startled. "Well, I... um, I'm... eh, I can..."
"Spit it out already!" Hidan snapped.
"Ehe, I can stay alive?" The priest offered.
Hidan rolled his eyes. "I know that. Anything else?"
"Well... umm..." Abel thought for a moment and then started to count with his fingers. "I can make a good camp fire, and I'm good with needle and thread. Oh, and I can use computers quite well."
Hidan was seriously starting to think that the idiot was intentionally avoiding the question. Or maybe he just was really stupid. Who really cared if he could sew? Akatsuki wasn't a fucking knitting circle!
"Can you actually fight? 'Cause, in case you haven't noticed, that's pretty damn important in these parts."
Abel seemed a bit lost at this point, or rather, backed in a corner. Hidan noticed they'd stopped walking and glanced up. It was almost evening anyway. He looked at the idiot priest again, noticing that for once Abel looked like he was really thinking instead of the usual 'eh, well, um'-litany.
"Well..." The lanky priest started, pulling something relatively small and metallic out from under his cloak. "I can use this."
The... thing he'd taken out was about a foot long and made of gleaming dark metal with a wood-layered handle of sort curving in one end. A cylinder of metal was attached to the handle, and from the cylinder left a thin metal tube. There was also a weird loop and a couple of sticks made of metal attached to the cylinder.
"What the hell is that?" Hidan asked, eyeing the device suspiciously. It didn't even have any sharp edges, how was it supposed to do anything?
Abel blinked. "Its a revolver."
"Yeah, but what the fuck is it?"
"You... don't have guns in here?" The priest seemed surprised, even alarmed.
"If I knew what it was I wouldn't have fucking asked, would I." Hidan rolled his eyes again at the idiot, who was thoughtfully tucking the 'revolver' away. The jashinist opened his mouth to ask more questions but was cut off by a tremendous yawn from his travelling partner, who them smiled sheepishly.
"Come on, Hidan-san, can't we camp for tonight? I seem to be falling asleep on my feet!"
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Well, suppose the idiot really did know how to make a decent camp fire. That saved Hidan the trouble, though the food supply was running dangerously low, and the jashinist was certain that if it came down to hunting their food he would have to take care of it. Not that he minded, really, but it was just so boring, staying put and waiting that an animal wandered close enough.
Besides, in a damn forest there was no one to steal a blanket from, and Hidan didn't like the idea of waking in the morning with his toes frozen off.
"By the way, what is your role in Akatsuki, Hidan-san?"
Hidan turned to look blankly at Abel.
"My role? I don't really have any role. I just have my own damn reasons to be in Akatsuki, like all those other bastards."
"Um... what might those reasons be?"
Hidan frowned slightly. Why the fuck was the idiot asking? Nobody else ever had, not even Kakuzu, not that he'd ever tell that money-loving bastard even if he did. If Abel wasn't such a featherbrained idiot the jashinist could have sworn there was an ulterior motive of some kind behind the question. Not that he intended to tell anything anyway, especially to a hippie like Abel.
"It's really none of your damn bu-" As Hidan looked, Abel's eyes grew wide and rolled back to his head, and the priest slowly fell forward, revealing three kunai embedded in his back.
Sharp pain exploded up Hidan's spine, turning to a scalding heat. Shit, poison. Hidan let loose a string of choice swears under his breath while staying upright despite the burn of venom spreading in his muscles.
Still cursing worse than a deranged sailor, Hidan threw his scythe at a careless ninja he'd spotted in a tree. The bastard dodged but never expected the sudden change in the scythe's trajectory, as the bladed weapon swivelled in the air, making serpentine turns and disappearing from sight for a second before swinging from the front and piercing the unfortunate ninja's head with one of the three blades.
While Hidan was busying himself with the first enemy ninja, another was creeping up from behind, aiming to hasten the poison's work, as the jashinist seemed resistant to it. The kunoichi straightened silently behind Hidan and grasped suddenly his forehead with one hand, drawing a sharp blade across his throat with the other.
Hidan hissed through his teeth and violently jerked his head back, hitting the kunoichi squarely in the nose. She staggered back, dropping her blade and instinctively trying to stop the flow of blood from her nostrils.
Hidan touched his neck, grimaced and reached a hand behind himself to catch the returning scythe. Soon there was a gurgling scream, a loud hiss and a smell of burning as blood spattered into the camp fire.
The attack of the ninjas was unrelenting though, and Hidan barely dodged in time a barrage of poisoned shuriken from an attacker wearing a scarf dashing at him from under the tree where he'd spotted the first ninja. Spinning like a top, Hidan brought his scythe to bear, and the enemy ninja only managed to dodge by a hair's breadth. The scythe blades hit the ground and Hidan jumped up, dodging a kunai and kicking yet another enemy to the stomach, sending him tumbling to the fire.
A hiss of cut air passed right over Hidan as he landed back to ground. The jashinist only had time to lean as far back as he could before the attacker's second swing, aimed to decapitate, hit. Hidan gurgled what might have been a curse as blood gushed out of his mouth and cut throat. To his opponent's (very short-lived) amazement, the jashinist took up his scythe and showed the would-be executioner how a proper decapitation was done. He cursed his neck wound and nodded slightly in vengeful satisfaction as the enemy head rolled on the ground.
The scarf-wearing one had meanwhile made some distance between Hidan and himself, and was now staring in amazement at the wound in the jashinist's neck. Wide-eyed, he took out a bladed whip, seemingly adamant in his intention of not approaching Hidan any more.
The jashinist spat out a mouthful of blood and threw again his scythe. The enemy easily dodged and, mindful of what had happened to Hidan's first victim in the battle, kept the bladed instrument in sight. This though, let to him missing the sight of Hidan coming from behind until it was too late. The jashinist kicked him to the ground and, reaching for his scythe, gouged him open.
Meanwhile, the now burnt ninja whom Hidan had kicked to the fire had scrambled up and, having had a very good view of his comrades' fates, decided to rather make sure the other one was truly dead than attack the albino again. He grasped a handful of silvery hair and held a kunai in his other hand, ready to slit Abel's throat, but suddenly his foot hit something (or was it the other way 'round?) and, losing his balance, he fell flat on his face just in time to momentarily escape detection by Hidan, who was whisking gore from his scythe and shouting slightly gurgled profanities.
"How fuckingrlgl... *cough* ...many more of you bastards is there? Get hergl... here, so I can slaughter you!"
The burnt ninja bolted upright, and ran. At the moment he couldn't care less of the reward or his bosses, as long as he could get away, far away.
Hidan threw his scythe after the bolting enemy, but the attack was quickly modified as Hidan was forced to strike the blades to the ground and propel himself through the air with the rope of his scythe to evade a jet of water aimed to his head. The stream ended as abruptly as it had appeared but a large body of smaller trees had turned to wet tangle of broken branches.
Hidan cursed, imagining what the ninjutsu could have done to him had it hit. He spun to face the direction the attack had come from, but only saw a calm little creek flowing innocently in the rapidly darkening gloom of evening. Glaring around to spot any other ninjas that might still be waiting for their chance, Hidan took a few careful steps toward the stream, and was suddenly knocked to the ground as an enemy landed on his back.
Hidan rolled onto his back, wheezing curses and kicking upwards. He only gained a hit from to the temple from a nunchaku for his troubles. Still kicking and cursing, the jashinist shielded his injured neck the nest he could with one hand while the other worked the rope attached to his scythe. This was going to be bloody difficult, what with this position and lack of movement space.
"Die, you devil!" the enemy snarled, finally succeeding in whacking Hidan's hand away and pressing the chain of his nunchaku against the jashinist's neck, the metal links slowly digging into the wound. Hidan couldn't curse or even breathe, it hurt so much, but his right arm jerked once more and a toothy grin, like a death mask, found its way onto his face.
The nunchaku-wielding shinobi's eyes widened and he let go of his weapon, his hands moving instead to touch the three crimson blade tips protruding from his chest. Slowly, coughing up blood, he fell to the side, and Hidan scrambled up, groaning wetly and shivering as he pulled the nunchaku chain out of his throat.
The jashinist braced for another attack, but none came. Looking around, he saw nothing besides the bloody corpses of five of the attackers. Was that all of them? No, wait. One had run away, and where the fuck had that water jet come from? Hidan checked his surroundings but it seemed that the remaining enemies had fled.
"Che! Cowardly fuckers-" The jashinist coughed up more blood, cursing. Suddenly he remembered that useless piece of baggage by the fire. Hidan headed back, not that he could do a thing if the idiot was dying.
"Oi, you still alive, you fucking..." The jashinist stopped on his tracks.
Abel was sitting straight again, and had taken off his Akatsuki cloak. He held the garment in his hands, poking a finger through one of the three holes in the back and sighing.
"Not even a week and I have to darn it already..."
"You... what the hell happened with you?" Hidan snapped.
"Um." The catholic priest looked sheepish. "I didn't get hit as badly as it seemed, I guess."
"So you were just playing dead all this damn time?"
"You were doing so well on your own, Hidan-san. I was planning a surprise attack, you know, but you didn't seem to need much help."
"Yeah right, you asshole." Hidan snorted, blood and air gurgling in his torn throat.
"Hidan-san? You're... bleeding."
"No shit sherlock." The jasninist held a hand to his throat, remembering something said earlier. "You said you're good with needle and thread, right?"
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RB: I think someone might have gone a tiny bit overboard with the gore. Or not.
Hidan: Man, that felt good. It's been a while since I've got to actually kill people! Maybe these bloody morons will even let me sacrifice someone soon...
WS7: He's like a little kid on Christmas. How twistedly cute.
RB: … Anyway. The next chapter is called Fragments of Faith and I won't say a thing about when it comes out, since whenever I try to even vaguely promise anything, we just end up being even more late.
