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"Hinata, why are you sick in the first place? You were completely fine yesterday," Sasori asked as they were sitting on her bed, watching a movie on Hinata's laptop. She laughed nervously and said, "Uh, well…"

She explained that her goal was to get to know Hidan better, with all the Jashinism and immortality and stuff. However, she absolutely cannot handle the gory stuff that he does – or gore in general, as evidenced by their time at the beach. "So I decided to marathon SAW and I got sick from throwing up too much…" she covered her face in embarrassment. Sasori laughed, and Hinata smiled at him. "You have such a nice laugh, Sasori," she said softly. He felt himself blush, even though it couldn't show up on his features. Instead, he stared at her, the smallest hint of a smile on his face.

The two of them continued on with the movie, watching a bunch of them in one sitting, intermittently getting up to refill snacks and drinks – all for Hinata, of course, since Sasori didn't eat much, if at all. After a while, Hinata started to chat with him about little things, which soon evolved into bigger things. She asked him what it was like before he became a puppet, and if he remembered at all how he died, and what it was like to be a puppet now. He was somewhat flattered by her curiosity, but didn't know how to respond at first.

Sasori lay down on the bed while she sat next to him. "I was… I was about 17 when I died, I think, so that's why I made my puppet-self look so young… it was the last image of myself that I knew of," he said. Hinata nodded, staring at his face and the parts of his 'skin' that were visible. "I think… I don't know, I really don't remember how I died at all, or why I was kept alive…" He lifted his arm and studied it. "I vaguely remember being stabbed, maybe."

Hinata reached out for the hand he was examining, and he stiffened again. She noticed him hesitate again, but she kept her hand there. She lightly traced her hand up his arm, amazed at how smooth it was. You could still tell he was made of wood when you touched him, but from afar he looked like a regular person. Sasori stared at her, wondering what she was so curious about.

"Do you think…" she started, holding his hand in hers, "… Do you think that Pein knows?" She looked at him and the two of them stared at each other for a bit. "I never thought to ask," Sasori said softly, sitting up slowly. His gaze fell to their hands again. They always held hands at work, but somehow this time was different. He was just noticing how soft her hands were, and how warm she made him feel. She had affected him so much these past few days, and she had no idea. His fingers interlaced with hers, and Hinata suddenly felt his stare. The intensity of his gaze was lost on her because of her focus on his arm, but now, when she looked into his eyes she saw…

They were leaning closer to each other without realizing it. Hinata began to close her eyes, feeling a fluttering sensation in her stomach. Sasori studied her face carefully, but pulled away suddenly. Her eyes fluttered open and she found that Sasori had backed himself into the wall, looking confused. He stared at her for a long while, which was something they've been doing a lot of these past few hours. Hinata began to turn red and put her hands on her face, flushing with embarrassment. "I-I-I… I'm… s-sorry, I'm –"

There was a knock on the door – it was probably Neji coming back from his day. Hinata looked to the door and then back at Sasori, who was already at the window, ready to jump out. "I'll see you at work tomorrow, Hinata," he said before leaping out the window.

Hinata stared after him for a few moments as Neji opened the door and walked in.

Sasori ran down the street for a few blocks before slowing to a stop. He was breathing hard, but not from running. What was happening back there with Hinata? What was he supposed to do? It was all such a mystery to him and it frustrated him to not know things. He leaned against the wall and lazily looked out at the street, full of people and life and just… stuff. But it was all background noise compared to the way Hinata stuck out in his mind.

This is too much for me, he thought, closing his eyes. He never got the chance to experience this sort of stuff when he as alive, so of course he wouldn't know what to do. But what was there to do now? He made his way back to the shop and sat at the cash registers, as usual. No one really paid any mind to him, since he looked as he always had – calm, cool, like he knew what he was doing. But there was a storm raging inside of him that had no way of coming out. He was starting to feel trapped in his own body, like there wasn't any way out. Sasori leaned back on his chair and sighed.

He glanced to his left and saw Deidara gathering up his sculptures, probably about to blow them up and replace them. Seeing Deidara go about his business reminded Sasori about their conversation last night at their sleepover.

"Sasori, you're more expressive than you think, hm,"

He stared at Deidara for a while until he noticed him staring. Deidara smiled and waved, then walked over to where Sasori was at the registers. "Where've you been all day, hm?" he asked. Sasori shrugged, absently twirling a pen in his hand. "I… I was at Hinata's house," he said softly. Deidara asked him why, and he answered, "She's sick, and I wanted to go take care of her – but we ended up just watching movies and stuff." Deidara looked at Sasori for a minute and saw how distracted he was. He smiled a bit sympathetically and patted Sasori's shoulder. "And how'd that go, hm?"

Sasori recalled how close his face was to Hinata's, and how her eyes were closed and how red her cheeks were and how soft her hand was and how they were so, so close to each other in that moment…

"Hellooo, hm, Earth to Sasori – you there?" Deidara waved a hand in front of Sasori's face and chuckled as he blinked back in surprise. "What, did something else happen at Hinata's house, hm?" Deidara grinned mischievously, making Sasori annoyed. "N-Nothing happened! I just… I had to leave her house quickly because her brother came home…" he stammered uncharacteristically. Deidara's grin widened even more. "And why would that be a problem, hm? Unless you two were doing something –" Deidara stopped after seeing the look in Sasori's face. It was something he'd never seen Sasori express before, something that seemed far away from his expressive vocabulary.

Sasori looked flustered.

His eyes were wide and his lips were pressed together in an anxious frown. His shoulders were tense, and the only thing missing was the red color of his cheeks, which couldn't actually happen because of his being a puppet. After a moment of observation, Deidara dropped the grin and replaced it with a smile. He reached out and ruffled Sasori's hair, making him loosen up a bit. "Hey, c'mon, now, I'm just kidding, hm," he gestured to the door and asked, "Do you wanna go take a break from everything and take a walk or something?"

Sasori stared blankly at him, confused at the offer at first since it wasn't what he was expecting. But he accepted the break anyway and followed Deidara out the door. They walked around and chatted about random things, getting into heated debates that were surprisingly refreshing to Sasori. Being able to call Deidara a little brat made him feel normal again.

They returned to the shop later that evening. Deidara decided that it was a good time to bring their attention back to Hinata."Y'know, Sasori," Deidara began, "I don't know what happened, hm, but I can tell that you were really affected by it." Sasori didn't look at him, but only stared ahead and listened. "It might do you good to just… take a break from whatever's eating you, hm, y'know?" Deidara patted Sasori's shoulder and left him with the thought.

Sasori looked on as Deidara disappeared into his room, and then looked around the dimly lit shop around him. The moonlight shined through the windows, casting strong shadows on the many shelves and kiosks in the store. Everyone was in their own rooms now, and it was about time for Sasori to do the same. He silently made his way to his room and sat at his work desk and absently organized it for the rest of the night, trying to distract himself from his ever-present thoughts of the Akatsuki's Hyuga.

Hinata appeared at work the next day. She walked in through the front doors and looked around. Usually she'd see Sasori sitting at the registers, but today he wasn't there. In fact, he didn't seem to be at his section of the store, either. She walked around a bit aimlessly for a moment, but then thought that he might not want to see her after what happened yesterday. She looked downward for a moment, remembering how confused he was and how he was probably mad at her now. Perhaps it was best if she just left him alone, then.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting the action calm her down. She looked toward the bookshelves and recalled her previous goal of getting to know Hidan. The bookshelves were tall as always, and the books were all strange as they had been. She scanned the many spines – some of which looked like actual human spines – but she couldn't seem to find The Bible of Jashin.

"You lookin' for this?"

Behind her, Hidan was holding up the book she was looking for. He had it held up for a few moments, but then he let it rest on his shoulder as he held it, since it was a rather hefty book. Hinata stared at him at first, somewhat intimidated. He was shirtless, but she never realized how many scars he had. In fact, they were very intricate scars, a lot of them tracing the skeletal markings he had when he turned black and white. She saw the scar of the wound he made at the beach, already feeling queasy at the memory. But she managed to gulp it down and smile as he smiled at her.

"Oh… um, well… yes, actually," Hinata said after a minute. Hidan's smile widened to a grin. "That's a first," he said, handing the book to her. It was a lot heavier than she remembered – did he add more pages to it? What kinds of things are written in here? "You want to know about my Lord and Savior, Jashin?" he asked eagerly. Hinata nodded, smiling at his enthusiasm.

Hidan walked away, beckoning for Hinata to walk with him. She followed him up the stairs, past Kakuzu's corner and into the part of the store where it was unnaturally dark. She wondered briefly why she was following him, but she passed it off as another one of Akatsuki's mysteries. She found out that it was actually just a curtain, one that was made of a kind of fabric that was darker than black, where if you stared into it you would be lost in a void of nothing. The way Hidan just swept it to the side was disorienting, since it seemed like he was pushing aside a void into another universe.

Behind the curtain was a small vestibule area that seemed to be the entrance to an even bigger building in the back. Hidan let the curtain sway behind him and stopped where he stood. Hinata looked at him and he gestured for her to look around. Walking around the small room, Hinata saw that there were little pamphlets and papers that talked about Jashinism and how to worship him and stuff like that. She flipped through it briefly, and then walked a bit more to look at the small art gallery.

The biggest painting was of a shadowed figure with a large circle with a triangle in it. She supposed that it was Jashin himself. All the other pictures were particularly hard to look at because of how gory they were, but the entire room was very nice and welcoming. "You can take a brochure, if you want," Hidan said from across the room. Hinata smiled at him and held up the brochure she already had in her hand. He walked up to a set of double doors and beckoned her to him.

"I run the Church of Jashin here," Hidan said, opening the doors and dramatically gesturing his arms out to show Hinata the Church. She didn't know what to expect, but somehow what she saw made sense. Usually when you hear "Church of," you think of a quiet place, brightly lit with pews and a huge altar at the front. However, this church was very different. Though there were pews and an altar and stained-glass windows in the back part of the church, the other half near the entrance – where the two of them were standing – was filled with a bunch of weapons, from guns to knives and other sharp objects. The contrast between the heavy weaponry and the peaceful altar was alarming.

Hinata stared in wonder at the area, and Hidan watched her reaction, proud of his hard work. "Isn't it beautiful? This place is exactly where I was meant to be," Hidan sighed wistfully as he gently petted one of the nearby machetes. Hinata felt a bit scared of all the sharp objects surrounding her. It wasn't her favorite thing being in the presence of many sharp objects. But she was still amazed at Hidan's skillful weapon crafting, and was even more amazed at how diverse a skillset all the Akatsuki seemed to have.

"Feel free to look around – you can sit over there if you like, read through the pamphlets and such," he said as he walked over to the counter in the corner. "You don't want to… explain any of this to me in your own words?" Hinata asked. "I'll let Lord Jashin speak for himself," he smiled and pointed up to the altar, where the same hooded figure was depicted, along with the same circle with a triangle in it. Hinata walked over to a seat, noticing that behind each pew was a small knife. The Jashin religion seemed very scary to her already, and she hasn't even opened the packet yet.

According to the packet, Jashinism was a religion based on destruction and chaos. Jashinists sacrifice through murder in battle or with their own bodies, and the entire process is really gruesome and bloody. Hinata briefly wondered why they would need a church setting if this was what it was all about, but she supposed that the people will need a quiet place to worship…

She glanced backwards at Hidan, who was polishing a scythe with three blades on it. He noticed her staring and grinned at her, and then walked over to sit next to her. They sat in silence for a few moments until Hinata decided to ask, "Are there other people who follow Jashinism?" Hidan answered, "Yeah, there are. But they're all far away, and there aren't any scheduled services or anything." He laughed for a bit and said, "Imagine the bloodbath that would be." Hinata smiled a little, laughing at the dark humor. "Sacrificing must be really… therapeutic to you," she commented after a bit.

Hidan looked at her. What a peculiar thing to say. Well, it wasn't peculiar, but he didn't expect it from her at all. Hidan knew that Hinata wasn't the sort of person to follow Jashinism, but he really appreciated her interest. All the other Akatsuki had either heard all about it already or just didn't care. All of them thought that it was all senseless violence and gore. None of them seemed to understand that Jashinism, like any other religion, was a way to be at peace with yourself and your surroundings.

"What do you believe, Hinata?" Hidan asked.

Hinata took a long moment to think. "I'm… I don't know what I believe, honestly," she said softly. "I don't know how to put my trust in something the way people do with religion… But I really like how people can find peace with themselves with it, y'know?" she had pressed her fingers together as they talked, which was a habit she didn't know she still had. She tried to kick the habit years ago, but whenever people asked her to talk about herself it made her uneasy. Who would ever want to know about her anyway? "But that's really lame, isn't it? Not being able to believe in anything…" she said as an afterthought.

Hidan absently played with one of the knives in the pews. "I don't think it's lame, Hinata," he said. Hinata looked at him, not sure what to say. "Religion isn't for everyone. There are a lot of other ways to find peace," he looked into her eyes for a while and then smiled. "Sacrificing and worship… It's a lot like thanking someone for what they've done… I do my daily rituals because I'm so fucking thankful to the Lord Jashin for giving me a path, for helping me find my way –" he stopped to see if Hinata was understanding. She looked at him with a gleam in her eye, one of admiration and happiness – not for herself, but for him. It perplexed him a lot, but he smiled at her anyway.

There was a knock at the door, and Hidan went up to answer it. It was Sasori, holding up a broken knife or tool of some sort.

"Hey, Hidan. I broke this knife again – can you fix it?" His eyes fell upon Hinata, who was staring right at him. Hidan took the knife and nodded. "Oh, yeah. Gimme a sec, I'll get you a replacement one for now," Hidan walked into a room to the side, and Sasori and Hinata were left alone.

Neither of them knew what to say. Sasori kept up his poker face, and Hinata was turning red. She looked like she was about to say something, but Hidan returned from the back room. He noticed the suddenly tense atmosphere and said, "Holy shit, did I miss something?" There was silence, but Sasori walked up to Hidan and said, "Oh, no. It was nothing. Thanks for this, Hidan," he took the knife and walked away. Hinata automatically stood up to follow him, but stopped when she was next to Hidan.

"Oh, um, I, uh –" she stumbled to find an excuse to leave, but Hidan just chuckled and said, "I hope you find your way, Hinata." She thanked him for the good times and smiled at him before leaving through the doors. Hinata walked straight past the gallery that made her stomach clench and burst through the curtains, grabbing the attention of Kakuzu, who was sitting in his corner of the store.

He looked at her, noticing where she was coming from and that she was holding a Jashinism pamphlet. "Yikes," he said, "Are you into that silly religion stuff now, too?" Hinata looked at the pamphlet and then at Kakuzu. She wanted to tell him that religion was important to a lot of people, but she didn't have the time. She had to find Sasori.

But when she made her way downstairs, she couldn't find him. He was probably locked up in his room or doing other things. She knew that he was avoiding her, and it hurt her a lot more than she could recognize.

She sighed and spent the rest of her time at work in the coffee shop under the stairs, reading up on Jashin and drinking coffee.

TWA

Sorry for the lateness! Canada and stuff, I have no excuse.