"Jashin, it's really coming down." Kori muttered as she gazed out the tiny window of the room in the inn. The rain was pouring in sheets, like the whole world was under a waterfall. Her intention had been to be frugal by picking this little run down place, but discounts always ended in one disaster or another. For instance, the inn was full and only had one bedroom to spare...with one bed.
Kori glanced back at her traveling companion with a grimace.
"You're taking my Lord's name in vain now too?" The grey haired man said. He was perched on a low stool by the door, long legs sticking out, back leaning against the wall. He was too big for this room, too big for this town. Despite knowing him for as long as she had, his infamy never ceased to astound her.
"Why not?" She asked, and turned from the rain drenched window. "He seems pretty vain to me." She paused at the end of the narrow bed, eyeing it out of the corner of her eye. She didn't want to have that discussion just yet. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that the moment she brought it up, he'd say something stupid and the whole mission would be blown by her temper. Hidan always knew exactly what to say to rile her, and very few things ever survived. This mission was too important to turn out like that though. They needed this intel to continue with their plan, and it was why she had opted to come like this: in plain clothes, staying at a run down inn, demoting herself like some sort of commoner. It would be worth it in the long run, she knew. Damn her impatience...
Instead of instigating, Kori kicked through Hidan's legs towards the door.
"Where are you going, gorgeous?" He lulled. He'd been resting his head against the wall, but as she passed he came alive. Almost before he opened his eyes, he was grabbing for her.
Her kunai came down with finality and pierced through his hand.
There was a long pause, while her eyes yearned to take in the carnage, and he grinned at the blood seeping from his palm.
"Stop being such an idiot." Kori managed and released the dagger. "I'm going out."
They both ignored the bright red pooling on the floor, it wasn't like this was the first time she'd made him bleed. She tried to kill him dozens of times a day, but it never seemed to work...and she was willing to admit she never tried that hard.
She grabbed her long black cloak from beside the bed and slammed the door behind her as she left. It was missing the telltale red clouds of the dawn, but after the war and all the notoriety, one couldn't afford to be Akatsuki and be this close to Konoha.

The tiny village they'd stopped in was nearly deserted from the rain, but she ducked into a nearby store that seemed to have a little bit of everything. She shook out her blue and black hair at the door, careful to avoid eye contact with anyone inside. The last thing she needed was to kill anyone by accident. As she browsed the liquor aisle, a thought that occurred to her often popped into her head. Had she been in the Akatsuki during the war and survived, there was no way she wouldn't be recognized by her hair, like how Hidan would be. As it were, she was just another Mizushima from Konoha that people didn't know. There were some days that she wished it weren't so, wished that everyone knew her name and that of her people. Because they were going to accomplish what the others could not. They were going to succeed where the great mighty Uchiha had failed.
But, in the end, there was a small victory in being able to buy alcohol without being arrested. She ran back to the inn with a pack of beer and jerky under her arm while she shielded herself from the rain with her sleeve.

Hidan was in the same position she'd left him. Even the blood pool remained, but his eyes were dark and stormy, a sign she was probably going to regret stabbing him. In an effort to end the fight before it began, she threw him a can of beer. An offering. Broodily, he glanced from side to side like someone was going to judge him for giving up his grudge for alcohol. But after a moment, he popped the tab and took a nice long swig. Kori settled uneasily on the end of the bed, leaving her drenched cloak by the door. The room wasn't big enough for them to have any personal space, and she felt like she could feel his breath on her neck. The dampness from the window made her face feel sticky and the heat of the day refused to be washed away from the air. It was one of those sickly summer storms that offered no relief from the warmth. Trying to seem indifferent, Kori opened a can for herself, and soon his breath on her neck was not unwelcome.

"Why me?" Hidan's voice made Kori open her eyes. She was laying fully on the bed, jerky wrappers crunching under her as she moved.
"What?" She smacked her lips together. Water. She wanted water. How many beers did she have?
"Why'd you pick me for this mission? Why not him?" Hidan still adorned his stool like a sculpture, and the alcohol must have been messing with her eyes, because all she could see when she looked at him was that jawline, the bare chest, those purple eyes that were gazing at her half lidded. How many beers did he have?
This line of questioning wasn't unexpected though. Hidan had not hidden his feelings about her choosing someone else over him. In every respect but one, he was her second, her go to. All but one. The only one that apparently mattered to him.
"You're talents were better suited for this." She delivered the line she had prepared, and was thankful that some things couldn't be drowned with beer.
"Why him?" Hidan asked next, his eyes turning the shade of a sea storm at dawn; purple, deadly, and oh so incredibly sexy.
"What about him?" Kori swallowed, but it stuck in her dry throat like a garrote.
"Why did you pick him to be your lover?" He asked. The only aspect he cared about seemed to be this; her heart.
Hidan stood slowly. He knew if he moved any faster she'd take it as a threat, so he slunk, inch by inch, until he was leaning over her on the bed. "You know he can't feel. He doesn't have any skin." One of his black painted nails glided towards the clasps of her vest, ever so slowly. Kori eyed all of this with her good eye, blood unusually calm in her veins. He was not asking or waiting for permission, she knew. He simply did not want her to stop him until he'd gone as far as he wanted. "Unlike me." He continued, popping the first button at her throat. "Unlike you."
"Your point?" Her words came out sharp, but by the look on his face, she knew he was too drunk to be afraid of her, which was his mistake. Unfortunately, she was also too drunk to anticipate that.
"Wouldn't you rather be with someone you know you can please? Someone who longs for your touch?" His knee jutted into the mattress, causing her to slide into him even more. The room was so inconceivably tiny, she had nowhere to go, even if she wished it. Which...she didn't.
"Sasori longs for my touch." She said his name just to make Hidan mad. Her third, their teammate, her lover, the Red Scorpion. For a long time it had just been her and Hidan, rebuilding all the world it seemed like, but when Sasori came into the picture, the immortal punk got jealous.
"A longing that will never be sated thanks to his desperation." He continued.
"Desperation?" She asked, momentarily snapped from her fog.
"Honestly, what kind of man gives up his body? He doesn't understand what he's missing." The last clasp was open on her vest and he smoothly continued with the buttons on her shirt and pants.
"Where as when you touch me," in a quick change, Hidan thrust his hand under her back and dragged her under him, "I quake."
His nose brushed against hers as he licked her bottom lip. His breath smelled like sour wheat and addiction, something she was intimately familiar with.

To her loose beer brain, his argument was sound. It would make more sense to share her bed with a man instead of a puppet, to drag her nails up his arms and moan as he bleeds, instead of getting splinters. Her clothes were undone, and the bagginess only made her aware of how much she wanted them off. Her mind dragged up the fact that Hidan never wore a shirt, and her hands moved without her permission. She dug her fingers into him and heard a deep roar in his chest in response. His mouth was crashing down on hers a second later, and then he was on top of her and she was tearing at everything: clothing, flesh, hair. She wanted him to feel just as desperately as he wanted, as only he could. She wanted to be the one to make his eyes roll back and thunder strike through them.

Lightning clapped in the sky outside the room as the dense air swirled around the two bodies, and when morning finally broke through the storm, Kori awoke, and her first thought was,
"I suppose that's one way to discuss a bed." Shady beams of cloudy morning made it so she could see Hidan's arm and leg slung over her. If they had been anyone else, she figured it would have been romantic, but too her, it felt possessive. She pushed his limbs off, but paused at the sight of her scratched up arms. Hidan couldn't be bothered to wake, far too comfortable with her to think of danger, but Kori only grew more furious as she stared at him.
"He's not a puppet anymore!" She suddenly hissed and tore out of the bed. He woke with a start as she pulled on her clothes and still wet cloak.
"Huh-what?"
"He has a body, you idiot!" She screamed, afraid that the sudden pounding in her head was about six hours too late. Disoriented or not, he wasn't fast enough to stop her from leaving and she dashed out into the morning where they both knew he couldn't follow.

She wasn't crazy enough to think that Sasori would be mad about her sleeping with someone else, especially Hidan. But to her...it felt wrong. Despite her ambition, despite his lack of humanity...she was still a woman, and he a man. Her father once told her that one could have both a soulmate and a true love. At the time she thought that it had been his attempt to justify sleeping with the chamber maid, but it seemed that years later, his words rang true. How infuriating!