Summary: Being buried alive since what feels like aeons, Hidan has given up all hope to see the light of day again. With Zetsu arriving to free him from his underground confinement, the worst seems to be over. But when the weight of memories threatens to overwhelm a mind, a changed reality proves difficult to face. [Zetsu/Hidan]

Author's Notes: This story takes place in an alternative timeline where the manga's war arc never happened nor the implications this arc put on several characters' developments. Among other things meaning that for the sake of this fic I'm getting all of my old head canons surrounding Zetsu out and ready, intending to make good use of them.

This being said… please enjoy!

TOWER OF SUNS

Chapter 01
Answered Prayers: Ghost Run

"That's news to me."

Zetsu turned his head, looking towards the voice that hadn't made an effort to hide its dismissal. His cynical side took control before talking: "Excuse me?"

Tobi came a step closer, gesturing at the ragged figure Zetsu was carrying on his back. "You taking food back home that has reached such an advanced stage of rot. I always assumed you preferred in a state a bit fresher." The mocking tone in his voice had been only weakly concealed. Now that Tobi had gotten what he had wanted and had become part of the organisation, he apparently no longer found it necessary to keep up a façade of politeness towards Zetsu. A change in behaviour that had answered one or two questions.

Zetsu held the gaze from the single eye staring at him from behind the mask. "He's not food. And he's not dead either."

The last sentence had managed to catch Tobi by surprise. Not able to suppress the bafflement in his demeanour fully, he took a better look at the torn figure carried on Zetsu's back, the wonder not voiced out but apparent how a person in such a bad shape could still be alive.

Zetsu waited a moment longer, giving recognition a chance to set in. Only when it refused to arrive in Tobi's expression did he continue to talk. "I went to get Hidan out. I finally figured out a solution, how to find a way around the seal set on that part of the forest."

"He's still been alive?!"

"I assume that's what immortality would do to you."

"He's rotting! That's rotten flesh right over there!"

Zetsu's demeanour stayed unimpressed. When it came to rot and gore, he has seen much worse. This aside, he had managed to overcome that annoying seal that had put a limitation on his ability to shift through objects and frankly, the thing bothering him the most at the moment was that Hidan seemed to grow heavier with every passing second Tobi continued to hold Zetsu up. "He's also been torn apart to pieces, but I managed to fix that. We assume the rest will recover as well."

The door opened and the next moment Pain was stepping in. His approval of the situation in front of him was apparent, even before he started talking: "Zetsu! Your plan had been a success! Wonderful!"

The statement seemed to have put Tobi into a more collected state of mind again. He straightened his back, banning the puzzlement from his voice: "Hidan recovering sounds good."

"It does", Pain agreed. "Plus, we're short with people at the moment to begin with." He looked at Zetsu, voice more collected now: "I trust you to take care of this in a smooth manner."

Zetsu's cynical side held back a comment, forbidding his brighter side to do any more than nod in agreement. Of course he would take care of Hidan's injuries, now that he had managed getting him back; it wasn't Zetsu's habit to start things just to drop them on other people the moment they got inconvenient.

Apparently feeling content with this reaction Pain nodded in return, continuing his way, leaving the room again. Tobi followed. Zetsu looked after them, after their leader. And after the person called Tobi. If that even was his name to begin with; it wasn't unusual for rouge ninja to take on another name once they had broken bonds with their former village. It was not like Zetsu knew much about his identity; he had seen the face of the person called Tobi only a few times: The youthful face of the man (almost still a boy) looked unremarkable, almost bland, the kind of face you forgot the very next moment after you had seen it. The only thing not being generic about it had been the man's violet eyes. A violet so bright that it almost looked lavender, the lagging way the left eye tended to move the only indication it had been struck with blindness at some point, leaving the right eye only with the ability to see.

But that was not important; the only conclusion that felt worthy to learn from the entire Tobi situation was that Zetsu had been a fool letting his guard down this strongly towards another person: People only tended to give him attention if they wanted something from him, it was a proven pattern he should have gotten used to by now.

The last few months had held many surprises, not all of them pleasant.

The weight on his back stirred, taking the wheezing kind of breathes that indicated the respiratory track was in anything but ideal current conditions. Zetsu's brighter side started talking before his cynical side could stop him: "Don't worry, we get you somewhere more comfortable now!"

Hidan made a noise that might or might not have been a conscious sign of agreement.

The last few moments or minutes or whatever the timespan was since the light had reached Hidan again had been a torture. His mind was barely able to form coherent thoughts, realizing not much more than that he had spent an unfathomable amount of time in agony. Unbearable tightness, darkness and pain. And loneliness. Cold, cruel abandonment that seemed to go on for aeons.

All of this had went on for an eternity, his only thought whenever he had been in a state to grasp on to some scrap of consciousness had been to pray. Reduced to the helpless state his body had been in, his only hope had been to trust in Jashin-sama, to ask he would have mercy and stop this state of constant suffering. One way or another.

And then all of this had suddenly ended. A voice, light, air and space, things seeming so simple but had made such a strong difference. But the pain had still been there, making it impossible to properly think.

Hidan had tried listening to the voice, concentrating on what it had been saying. But he hadn't been able to. His mind seemed so foggy, unable to hold a clear thought. The only thing he had been able to conclude had been that it had been a familiar voice, a voice promising incoming help.

Around Hidan there was still nothing but agony but it had started to gradually lessen. So had the pain. And the voice, the voice had stayed with him. Something in Hidan's mind told him that as long as he stayed with the voice he had reason to hold hope again that there was still something left in this world to put his faith in.