Chapter Thirteen
"Yeah I'm alive
But I don't need a witness
To know that I've survived
I'm not looking for forgiveness
Yeah I just need light
I need light in the dark
As I search for the resolution."

"I'm so glad you came here! It'll be great to work together," Akemi chatted, piling a uniform and apron into Kinshin's arms. "Redi-bosu really isn't so bad. If Yō can handle her, I'm sure you can."

Kinshin shifted the clothing in her arms to better keep hold of it. "Yō-san still works here? I haven't seen him."

"He washes dishes in the back. He's not very good with people." Akemi scraped a stray hair behind her ear and continued on, "You'll have to memorize the menu, but it's not that complicated. I'll even help you. For today, just stick with me and I'll show you the ropes."

Kinshin changed into a uniform—a simple, cream-colored yukata and tea-green obi with a white apron—and joined Akemi in the dining room, where customers were already coming in for breakfast. There were only two other workers in the restaurant, aside from Akemi and Yō: Mimoka, who greeted and seated customers, and Rina, the chef. Akemi told Kinshin that other waitresses came and went, but it was a demanding job that most people couldn't stick out.

At break, which came in the hour that the restaurant closed between lunch and dinner, Akemi, Kinshin and Yō ate noodles and shared a plate of dumplings, while going over the menu for Kinshin. Kinshin had always had a good memory, but after being taught by Shiori, her concentration was better, and she retained information more efficiently. It helped that Akemi had been right about how simple the menu was.

"Ne, Kakuzu…"

Kakuzu sighed and tried to fend off an oncoming migraine, adjusting the monk over his shoulder in an attempt to relive some of the pressure on the joint. Hidan had seemed to have something on his mind for days, and every time he had opened his mouth to bitch about something, Kakuzu had been half-expecting his dimwitted partner to voice whatever it was. Of course, Hidan still hadn't said what was bothering him (and, frankly, Kakuzu didn't really care), but something in his tone was different this time.

"Oi! Don't ignore me, asshole!"

"I'm listening."

Hidan growled a series of colorful curses under his breath before moving on. "What happened in Hot Spring Country?" he asked.

"Kinshin recounted it already."

"The fight, yeah. What happened after that?"

Kakuzu really didn't want to get into the details of what had happened after Hidan had abandoned them for those three-odd days. It wasn't any of Hidan's business, anyway. "People cried, What's-his-name proposed to Kinshin, and we left." There, thought Kakuzu, that ought to distract the nosy Jashinist.

"What? That cocksucker? Why didn't she tell me?"

"I don't think she knew it was a proposal." Kakuzu rolled his eyes. The girl really could be so thick sometimes. But he had been right, Hidan was sufficiently irritated at Naoki and probably wouldn't pry anymore.

Ahead of them, the exchange point came into view. Within the hour, the dead monk would be turned in, and Kakuzu would be thirty-million ryo richer.

By the time her two weeks at the inn were up, Kakuzu and Hidan still hadn't returned. Kinshin wasn't worried. Hidan had told her they might take as long as three weeks, after all.

"You can stay with us," Akemi offered, making Yō pitch a fit.

"It's too crowded with just the two of us, and you want to pack another person in there?" he yelled.

Akemi rolled her eyes and turned to Kinshin, "Ignore him. You can stay as long as you need to."

"Thanks," Kinshin grinned. "It shouldn't be very long. A few days, maybe a week at the most."

But it wasn't just a few days, and before Kinshin knew it, a week of monotonousness had passed. She was so sure that Hidan and Kakuzu would be coming back, that she hadn't paid much attention to the number of days she'd been without them.

Though it was boring, Kinshin loved working with Akemi and the others. It felt like a family: Rina, or Redi-bosu as Akemi so lovingly called her, was their grumpy matriarch; Mimoka was their chain-smoking, crude-humored aunty; Akemi was their big sister, who tried her best to keep the family together, even though no one else would help her; and Yō was everyone's little brother, who existed almost exclusively to be picked on. Kinshin wasn't sure where she fit into the equation, but everyone else seemed to feel like she was right where she belonged.

It wasn't until Yō came in one morning with some town gossip that Kinshin felt anything was amiss.

"Have you heard what they're saying?" he asked, and went on without waiting for an answer. "Word on the street is Konoha killed another two Akatsuki. Weren't yours headed toward Konoha, Kinshin-chan?"

"Yō!" Akemi hissed. She patted Kinshin's shoulder, "Don't worry about it. It might only be a rumor."

"What are the other ninja villages doing? Hibernating?" Yō muttered.

Mimoka snorted, "You don't even know what hibernating means, doofus."

"Yes, I do!"

"You guys aren't helping!" Akemi snapped.

Kinshin forced a smile, "I'm sure they're fine. But if they aren't back in a week, I'll go look for them." The decision gave her some peace of mind. They'd be back before then for sure, they had to be.

"Back to work! What am I paying you people for?" Rina commanded from the kitchen, and everyone scrambled back to their duties.

"You're really doing this?"

Kinshin looked over her shoulder, down that path that Hidan and Kakuzu had taken out of Shinigashi a month before. She sighed and returned her attention to Akemi, "I have to." She shifted her pack on her shoulder and grinned at the other girl, "I'd like to think they'd do the same for me."

Akemi lowered her gaze, "If they really are… Er, if things don't work out, you can always come back here. Redi-bosu says you can have your job again if you ever return."

"I know. Thanks."

The two girls hugged briefly, but Kinshin had to pull away quickly so she wouldn't lose her nerve. She wanted desperately to find the two criminals, but feared that the rumor was true and had no idea how she would cope if it was.

The next village was just like any other village, as was the one after that. It was remarkable how the same every place was, especially when the names of each was unknown. But Kakuzu and Hidan left a trail everywhere they went, whether they meant to or not. Encircled upside-down triangles drawn in blood were the best clues, but villagers were also very helpful in tracking them down. They tended to leave an impression.

The trail led Kinshin south-westward, to a monastery which had been attacked by two Akatsuki members more than three weeks previous, according to the monks there. Though there wasn't much evidence left of the attack, the number of casualties was proof enough for Kinshin. And if it wasn't, the surviving monks could describe Hidan and Kakuzu and their attacks flawlessly.

"I suggest you give up your quest," an old monk, Bansai, said to her that evening. "These foes are powerful; they've killed many of our strongest." The temple was still a wreck, but the remaining monks had set up a small area where they ate and slept while they worked on restoring it. This multipurpose area was also where Kinshin would sleep that night, having been invited to by the hospitable monks.

"I'd like to, really, but I can't. This is important."

Bansai nodded in understanding, "Then I will not try to stop you."

A second monk, Sentoki, handed her a chipped bowl of rice, and the girl bowed her head in thanks. He then settled down beside her to eat his own meal. "Word from Konohagakure is that they also killed Sarutobi Asuma."

"That's probably where I should go, then."

Sentoki averted his eyes from her and examined his rice, "They're already dead."

Kinshin bit her lip and looked to her own rice, "I have to see for myself."

"I saw what those monsters can do," he grit his teeth and glared at the memory. "They're heartless killers, and if they really are dead, good riddance."

"Sentoki," murmured Bansai gently.

He bowed to his elder and sighed, "Forgive me."

They finished their dinner in silence, and when night fell, the three monks and Kinshin slept.

The last village before Konohagakure no Sato was a fairly popular hangout for off-duty ninja. There were no brothels and few pubs within the ninja village, so many shinobi sought female companionship in the quaint town. The handful of bars were clean and welcoming, and it was in one of these bars that Kinshin seated herself in the corner and nursed a bottle of warm sake, listening in on the conversations going on around her, much like how she had gathered her information in the past. It took a little over an hour, but two Konoha shinobi had finally had enough to drink that they had grown less conscious of their surroundings.

"Oh, that Kakashi. Why not just make him the Hokage already, huh? He makes the rest of us look completely useless," slurred one ninja to his companion.

The other shook his head sadly, "What's it, now? Four Akatsuki he's killed-or at least been on the team? Know where I was while he was off making himself look even godlier? Border patrol."

The first scoffed in sympathy. "And chuunin nowadays! They're making us jounin look like academy students."

"You mean Nara's boy, huh?"

"And Tsunade-sama's apprentice. And the fox-brat."

"Naruto's a genin, remember. But being trained by Jiraiya-sama puts him up there, I guess."

Kinshin stifled a yawn. She wished the conversation would go back to Akatsuki, but she didn't suppose they were drunk enough for her to suggest it to them. She perked up when the word 'immortal' hit her ears.

"So much for that," snorted the first. "If a genin and a chuunin can take them out, they must not be that special."

"If anyone could kill them, then they aren't immortal, by definition."

"Shut up. You're such a freaking know-it-all."

"Just saying. But I heard Kakashi finished the one off, after Naruto downed him in one move."

"Ugh! And to think I could have been there, too, if I had started my rounds an hour earlier. They fought the guys right on my route. As it was, I got there in time to help haul the corpse off."

Kinshin had to squeeze her eyes shut. A corpse meant at least one was dead, and the way the two Konoha ninja were talking, both Hidan and Kakuzu had been defeated, but she was having trouble grasping the mechanics of Hidan dying. Either way, she had a lead: they had been defeated along the Konoha border. Granted, the Konoha border covered a lot of space, but it was more information than she had had that morning.

She started off for Konoha before sunrise. She didn't really have to worry about being detected; Hidan had said once that she'd never be able to mold chakra this late in her life, and as such she was no threat to any ninja worth his rank, and she'd be regarded as a civilian and left alone by any said ninja.

The terrain became less green as she went, and eventually all plant-life had been reduced to twiggy, dry shrubs that were few and far between. The dry earth cracked beneath her feet as she meandered through rock formations until, at last, she came to a place where scorch marks and gashes in the ground all centered around a large crater. It wasn't clear what had caused it, but there had definitely been a fight in the area. There were several sets of footprints all around the area, but only one direction had four going out and only three coming back.

She wasn't sure why, but she had a feeling that she should follow them. With no better ideas, she decided to give into her hunch and track the prints into the woods.

A/N: Vocabulary-
Obi: The wide belt that goes around a kimono.
Konohagakure no Sato: "The Village Hidden in the Leaves."

This seriously took more than two weeks to write? Pheh. It's not even that good. I kept having this problem where it was too short, so I had to keep adding in pointless scenes. You can tell on some of them. See, I can do filler, too.

One more chapter and an epilogue to go! Unless it's too long, and then chapter fourteen will be split into two chapters. We'll see.

The lyrics are from The Resolution by Jack's Mannequin.