Itachi and Kakashi stared at the new addition, startled by the presence of a third person. It was a young man, with pink hair and silver eyes, wearing a black cloak with red clouds, bearing a huge red scythe on his back. His arms were crossed, but Itachi could feel the danger coming from him, judging by his angry glare.
Kakashi shot him a look, ready to engage in combat, but another look at the man's cloak gave Itachi a different idea. Placing his hands upwards in a peaceful gesture, Itachi tried to talk first.
"You must know me, I'm Itachi Uchiha." He introduced himself. He knew Akatsuki was interested in him, and he knew their leader ordered them to not harm him, and if he could avoid a fight, he'd be happy to use this advantage.
The pink haired man stared at him for several seconds, scratching his head. He muttered under his breath and Itachi could see Kakashi's hand inching closer to his sword.
"Fuck you're right. I'm not supposed to fucking harm you. What the shit are you doing here? Are you some fucking asshole like that snake guy? Is that why they fucking want you?" The guy released an angry sigh, looking upset.
"No, on the contrary, I want to murder Orochimaru." Itachi left out the part where he would interrogate the man before the killing.
"Oh good, I want to murder him too! I'm Hidan, nice to fucking meet you!" Hidan extended a hand in greeting and Itachi reached out to shake it hesitantly.
"So did you come here looking for him as well?" Kakashi finally joined the conversation. The pink haired man looked at him oddly for a while before shaking his head.
"Of course not, I knew he wouldn't fucking be here. I came here for nostalgia I guess. Can you believe I came from this shit hole?" Hidan laughed.
Casting a look at the poster with the pink haired baby and the pink haired man in front of him, Itachi couldn't help but ask: "Are you one of the test subjects of this experiment? Can you tell us more about it?"
Hidan walked around, looking at the lab with a nostalgic smile.
"Yeah, I don't fucking understand any of the stupid magic shit, but I was here, yeah. I was the only one who wasn't a fucking failure. Mom and Dad were the ones who fucking did all the work, the snake would only show up every now and then. He wanted a fucking source, whatever the shit that is. He wanted to take me too, but Mom convinced him I'd be useful to the research here so I stayed." Hidan removed the scythe from his back and hopped atop a table, sitting on it, dangling his legs.
Kakashi resumed looking through the scattered papers as Itachi tried to carry on a conversation with the foul-mouthed man.
"And how long ago was this?" Itachi tried to gauge how long ago it had been. The weight of Sakura's odd pink-hair burdened his soul.
"I don't fucking know. They left when I was a fucking kid, and Kisame found me God fucking knows when later. Apparently there was a whole war while I was fucking stuck here!" Hidan laughed, and Itachi frowned.
"That can't be right, how did you survive by yourself all those years?" Itachi hadn't seen any hidden supplies and even if Hidan had eaten all the other test subjects, there weren't enough rooms. The numbers didn't add up in Itachi's mind.
"Oh yeah, I can't fucking die. That's why I wasn't a fucking failure, duh." Hidan shrugged. Itachi and Kakashi stared at the pink-haired man incredulously. At first Itachi didn't believe him, but after he remembered Sasori's form despite his age, he suddenly thought that a second immortal being wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility. "Well, now that I answered all your fucking questions, can we fucking go? I want to hold it over Sasori that I recruited you!"
Itachi took a deep breath. He hoped the man was idiotic enough that they could avoid conflict, but it seemed inevitable considering his predatory grin.
"I didn't say I'd go with you." Itachi noted. He noticed Hidan's hand moving to his scythe and he reached out for Kusanagi.
The Akatsuki member was faster than expected, throwing himself at Itachi with reckless abandon. The scythe was mere centimeters to Itachi's head when it was stopped by Kakashi.
"Fuck off old man, Itachi's my prey, but I won't fucking hesitate to kill you too!" Hidan shouted.
"Respect your elders, brat." Kakashi tsked.
Tables and papers flew as the three of them engaged in a rapid melee, as Kakashi and Itachi teamed up against the Akatsuki. Despite their numbers, it was hard to contest the greater range of Hidan's scythe, and they couldn't approach him carelessly.
"Use some of your spells!" Kakashi shouted at Itachi as he parried another hit.
"If I do that I'd be cooking us alive. This place is essentially an oven." Itachi rebutted. He ducked past another wide swing and reached Hidan, cleanly slicing off the man's arm with Kusanagi.
"Fuck! You asshole! That fucking hurt!" Hidan screamed as Kakashi and Itachi took a step back. The man's right arm was laying on the floor and Itachi was proud of his victory for a short lived moment. Hidan reached down and grabbed his arm. He calmly placed it back in its original place, and the two Fire men watched in horror and interest as the flesh regrew, reattaching the limb to the body.
"He really can't die…" Kakashi muttered.
"Maybe I should cook him." Itachi wondered if he'd be able to survive the ever burning flames of Amaterasu.
"No, don't, I still have questions. This is the best lead we've had towards Sakura's origin, yes?" Kakashi looked at Itachi, who nodded. "Then I have a plan. Remember Zabuza?"
"I see."
"What are you two fuckers mumbling about, come here and let me pay you back thrice!" Hidan charged them again, prompting Itachi and Kakashi to separate. With a plan in mind, Itachi began pelting Hidan with small fireballs, not enough to set fire to the room, just enough to irritate the angry Akatsuki.
"You asshole!" Hidan roared as his hair was set on fire. He charged Itachi, who deftly dodged his attacks, weaving backwards with every swing of the scythe. Keeping Hidan focused on him, Itachi guided him towards the door to the hallway, parrying and ducking, keeping himself within Hidan's range to tempt him.
When he was close enough, Itachi stepped out into the narrow hallway, shooting another fireball at Hidan, to further taunt him. The enraged pink-haired man tried to follow him into the hallway, but his large weapon got caught in the door frame, blocking his advance. Hidan stopped in his tracks, confused as to the sudden blockage. He looked back to see what happened, and in his moment of confusion, Kakashi struck.
Fast as lightning, the old fox jumped towards Hidan, swinging his blade in a fast, clean motion. Hidan didn't have the time to react, as Kakashi's cut swept his head off his shoulders in a flash. Both Kakashi and Itachi stood alert, both of them slightly out of breath as they watched the head roll on the floor until it came to a halt.
For a short moment there was silence, and the two soldiers relaxed their stances for a bit until Hidan's loud expletives began filling the room once again. Kakashi approached the decapitated head cautiously, crouching down next to it. He pulled the head upwards facing it.
Hidan spit at Kakashi who dodged it.
"Just to make sure that you can't recover, we should lock you up." Kakashi smiled. He got up, heading towards one of the hallway rooms, stepping over Hidan's inert body.
"No! No! Don't lock me up you dick! I fucking swear to God I will fucking hunt you down and fucking kill you!" He screamed. Itachi stood to the side, watching Kakashi throw Hidan's head into one of the rooms, locking it inside. Itachi kneeled over Hidan's body, examining it as they waited.
Kakashi sat around the door to the room Hidan's head was in, listening to the pink-haired man's yells.
Itachi didn't notice any significant similarities to Sakura's. Besides the pink hair, the two of them didn't share any particular traits, and Itachi strongly believed that Sakura wasn't immortal, as she had gotten close to death too many times.
"I'll answer anything you want! Please don't leave me here! Please!" Hidan's yells turned into begs. Itachi stood up, recognizing it was time to question him once more.
Kakashi opened the door, walking inside and picking up the head once more.
"You cooperate and we cooperate."
"Yes, I'll tell you anything! Hidan whined."
Itachi sat around as Kakashi peppered Hidan with questions related to the Akatsuki and its activities. Itachi waited patiently for his turn to ask more questions related to Orochimaru's research. He'd already learned a lot, but he was curious as to the procedures used. However, despite all his questions, Hidan wasn't able to offer him any additional information, as he had been too young to fully remember everything that had been done to him.
"The last thing I remember was the snake saying he was fucking angry with the lack of fucking results and that he was moving the lab closer to home so he could keep a closer eye on Mom and Dad. And then they fucking left me here!" Hidan growled exasperatedly. "I don't fucking remember any girls or anyone else as we were all fucking separated in different fucking rooms all the fucking time!"
"I think that's all for now." Itachi nodded at Kakashi. The Spymaster placed Hidan's head next to his neck, and the tissue began to regenerate, connecting body and head. "We should leave before he's fully back." Itachi suggested. Kakashi agreed and the two of them left the freakish Akatsuki behind.
When they were back in the safety of Fire's Fort, Itachi asked Kakashi why the Spymaster hadn't wanted to take Hidan as a captive.
"For starters I want to make sure Akatsuki knows that we have information on them, and if they think Hidan's our source, then my spy will have an easier time, as they won't suspect him as the information leak for a while. Besides, I guessed you wouldn't want people to know that Sakura's potentially tied to Orochimaru." Kakashi answered.
"I don't believe that even she knows this. From what we learned today it's possible that the scientists Hidan called Mother and Father were not willing to give their result to Orochimaru, and hid the child." Itachi reasoned. Sakura was raised by the Yamanaka, left on their doorstep as a baby, there was no way she was some deeply infiltrated spy, Itachi reasoned, desperately clinging to this logic.
"Then do you think she's their success? Is that why they betrayed the snake?" Kakashi asked, wondering if indeed Sakura was just as special as the man they had just met.
"No, she can't be." Itachi shook his head. "If Sakura was a Source of Magic, any Wizard would have been able to sense it immediately. True Sources are very powerful and easy to discern." Itachi had never sensed any powerful magic coming from Sakura beyond her curse. If anything, Sakura's only oddness was her capacity to live with the course's dark magic.
"So if she's not a successful experiment, why was she smuggled away?" Kakashi wondered.
"Perhaps she's similar to Hidan in which she is a success in something completely unrelated to the original intent." Itachi pondered.
"What could it be, then?"
"That, I do not know."
Itachi didn't know what this new information meant, but he would surely resume the afternoon study sessions with Sakura.
The Pink Madonna: Many of Fire Citizens will be familiar with one of Fire's most famous artwork, the Pink Madonna, a lifelike painting of a pink-haired lady with bright green eyes. This painting was donated anonymously to the Fire Country's most prominent art museum, around the time of King Naruto's coronation. Due to the beauty and popularity of the portrait, pink hair turned into a fad among Fire Country's women, and potions to dye one's hair to pastel pink were in high demand. To this day there are different accounts of people claiming to be the elusive Pink-Haired Madonna, but none of them were the real one, and the true muse of this painting remains unknown.