Chapter One
When I opened my eyes, I was back at the Akatsuki hideout. I promptly heard a glass breaking and cloth being violently ripped followed by a loud shriek. "DEIDARA-SEMPAI!"
Shaking the dizziness off and sitting up, I noticed a pair of gloved hands reaching around me and I instinctively shrieked loudly. Of course the hands, like every other thing in this world, ran right through me and Tobi clumsily fell onto the white marble floors a few feet in front of me. A whirlwind of small pieces of white paper flew around me and Konan appeared in front of me.
"KAKUZU STAND BACK! I'M GONNA SACRIFICE THE BITCH THIS TIME!" Kakuzu and Hidan came sprinting into the mess, the latter already swinging his scythe around recklessly and immediately upon entering the flurry of papers, tripped on Tobi and face planted. The Jashinist sat up angrily, grabbing the discombobulated Tobi by the collar and shaking him back and forth vigorously.
Kakuzu stood at the entrance looking at the mayhem unfolding before him and turned to Konan who appeared next to him. "Maybe try a gentler approach."
"That is rich-" She replied, eyes following as Hidan flung Tobi through the air in my direction."-coming from you, that is."
The papers stopped and I quickly side stepped Tobi's limp body flying into a pillar behind me.
The old man turned his head with a childish huff.
"Alright. That's enough." Konan called. Hidan halted and glared at her. "This isn't working."
Kakuzu nodded in agreement. "It seems like she's using some kind of jutsu. I cannot sense any chakra coming from her.
"Do you recognize it?" The angel of the Akatsuki asked.
"No."
She turned to me bemused, paper wings dissapearing and looked me up and down. Her expression turned unreadable and she spoke calmly.
"What do you want?"
I blinked a few times and gathered my thoughts. What did I want? I was just as confused as the rest of them.
"I don't know." I answered honestly.
Konan opened her mouth to speak but before she could respond, Hidan piped up loudly interrupting her. "You. Don't. Know?"
It was silent for a minute before Tobi groaned. Everybody ignored him.
"What are you doing here then?" Kakuzu asked. He didn't seem to care that much seeing as she didn't have a bounty and looked like a normal civilian.
"I don't know, I just woke up like this." I told them.
"What village are you from?" Konan asked again, just as calmly as before.
"Aren't we supposed to take her to the interrogation room?" Hidan chirped in.
Kakuzu visibly twitched. "Shut your mouth, brat."
"I'm not from a village." I said.
Hidan rubbed his chin thoughtfully and stretched nonchalantly, he had just returned from a mission and found Deidara moping around because his partner was replaced with Tobi. "What do we do?"
Konan sighed. "As far as we know, she's untouchable and no form of jutsu works on her. Almost like a ghost..."
Kakuzu snorted. "Ridiculous. There's no such thing as a ghost or this hideout would be a haunted house."
"Let's kill her and sleep, I'm tired as fuck." Hidan spoke. Konan and Kakuzu gave him an exasperated look.
"How do you suggest we do that?" The second-in-command questioned wryly.
It was extremely uncomfortable to listen to band of murderers discuss your death, but I was too interested to leave. It didn't seem like they could touch in my state either.
"It's easy. You find your enemies weakness, Konan-chan."
The orange masked man stood up suddenly and ran to my side, and brought his face in close proximity to mine. I could see a sharingan spinning wildly. It was my first time seeing it in real life and I have to admit; I was hypnotised. "Tobi thinks Ghost-chan is a ghost!"
"I'm not a ghost!" I said, trying to sound determined but it came out more whiny than anything. A feeling of dread had started growing in the pits of my stomach, appearing in a fictional world the first time felt like a dream, the second felt like the continuation of the first dream but now it was completely different. The characters in drawing were standing in front of me, speaking and reacting to me a if they were real. Everything in my body was telling me it was too.
The tension in the room completely disappeared with the echo of a quiet; "Huh?"
We all turned to the entrance door to see a very blonde, very confused and obviously newly awakened Deidara enter the room. His hair was out of his regular ponytail and completely down making him look more female if it hadn't been for his shirtless state showing off a very muscular physique. However, the large stitched up mouth on the left side of his chest didn't escape my attention. It looked like tattoo from far away but I remembered what it was capable of.
"Good morning, Sleeping Ugly." Hidan greeted sarcastically.
"Eat shit, uhn." Deidara replied promptly. He turned to look at me and glared fiercely. "It's back?"
"I'm not a ghost."
Konan glared at me. She was clearly losing patience. "What are you then?"
"I'm just a normal person! I don't know what I'm doing here."
"Are you willing to cooperate with us?"
I was just about to respond when I realized; they can't hurt me, they couldn't even touch me.
"No. I'm going home." With that I turned around and walked away.
Surprisingly they let me.
As soon as I was out of sight, I started sprinting. My hair whipped about madly hitting my back, the tickling reminding me that this was all too real. I didn't know where I was going or what I would do, all I knew was that I needed to get away from the criminals who could, on any other normal day, tear off my limbs and feed them to a carnivorous plant-human, but today was different.
The hallway, just like the first room, was grand, beautiful, something you would see in a movie and like a maze. The windows showed images of an endless dark and cloudy sky, no trees, grass or ground were in sight telling me that wherever this was, it was quite high up. In the middle of the hallway was a staircase, unlike everything else that looked white, shiny and elegant, the stairs were old scraps of rusty metal. The staircase rail was bent all the was to the ground, making it look like something, or someone, heavy had fallen on it. It was most probable that one of the Akatsuki members had gotten into a fight and just left it like that.
I stepped on the stairs and surprisingly they didn't squeak or make any noise at all. Then I remembered I was a ghost with no physical body and just jumped as far down as I could. Bad idea.
Eventually I had to stop running because my lungs were screaming at me, my legs were. Not that any one was following me I noticed after a couple of minutes.
I spent the night in the Akatsuki's basement which was so exceptionally large that I got lost. Just like the first room I kept appearing in, this one also had a cove ceiling that elevated with steep angled straight lines. It was dimly lit and full of wooden boxes piling up towards the sky. After a few hours of experimenting with my new 'ghost state' and walking around the storage room.
I sat restlessly pondering over my situation when the sound of footsteps rushed me to my feet. I climbed over the various sized boxes until I got to the large door that was halfway open allowing me a peek into the hallway. I watched the empty hallway, the only thing moving was the shadow of the flames on the torches on the walls. Nothing caught my eye so I turned around to the empty basement only for my vision to blur as a gloved hand sped towards my throat grabbing the flesh with great force, lifting me off my feet.
"Agh!" A choked noise escaped my throat as my hands came to pull off the fingers around my neck. Suddenly, the hand disappeared and I fell to the floor in shock, my feet giving up on me. My heart raced heavily and my vision was blurry, eyes hot and filled with tears. I looked up quickly, focusing on the bright orange mask sticking out from the black and grey theme of the room.
"Good morning." He spoke in a low, intimidating voice.
"W-what...? How did you—" Came my stuttering reply. So far nobody had been able to touch me, even Obito had flown right trough me.
"You underestimate me." He said arrogantly. The scarlet glow of the sharingan answering my questions. I gasped giving away my realisation. Obito Uchiha could travel to other dimensions, he could move all or parts of his body through those dimensions with ease. Was he the one that did this to me?
Then a thought popped into my head; 'He can kill me anytime he wants'.
All my instincts told me to run, but I knew it was futile. "If you could do that this whole time, why didn't you catch me earlier. You could've easily done it."
"You are right. Killing you wouldn't require much exertion on my part."
"No." I said. He cocked his head to the side, indicating that he was waiting for me to continue. "It's not that you wouldn't. It's that you can't. You must have a reason."
The Uchiha leaned his head back letting out a laugh. "You are observant."
"Why?"
He stepped closer and I shrunk back. "The sharingan is quite amazing. It has some unique abilities unlike some Kekkei Genkai."
He moved back, I noticed instantly our surroundings had changed completely, we stood in an empty, black universe.
"Years ago, I overused my sharingan and had an accident. When I woke up, I was alone in an entirely new world."
I blinked and the environment changed again, we stood floating in the sky, next to a skyscraper, I could hear the sound of traffic and looked down on the cars driving along the roads. We drifted closer to a certain spot, I squinted to focus on the recognisable shapes. "This is my—"
I was interrupted by my gasp, as my younger self walked out of the front door of my childhood home. Wearing a purple leather backpack and holding a Naruto manga book in my hand. I came to a bus stop and opened the book, flipped to the first few pages and started reading.
"That was the first person that caught my interest. You can guess why."
"Because of the book..." I concluded. Obito nodded, crossing his arms and looking down on my younger self.
A horrifying thought crossed my mind; could Obito Uchiha have been the one that brought me here? So many things were still unclear and the questions piled up in my head. My brows furrowed together as I looked at the man standing in front of me.
"I still don't understand why or how you brought me here..." I said.
"Reality is cruel. Things don't always go the way you want them to. What would you do in my situation?" I opened my mouth to answer but he continued. "The Eye of the Moon plan inevitably failed and I died."
I grew quiet. My mind spinning. "You died...?"
"But I came back. Not of my own will, I was ready to leave the world, yet somehow appeared here in the past. To the day Naruto Uzumaki was born. The only other anomaly in this world right now; is you." His voice was calm and steady unlike mine that came out unceremoniously inelegant.
"When you were in my world, were you also unable to touch anything? Like a ghost?" The question left my mouth before I could think it over properly.
"Correct. This happens because we can never fully enter other worlds with different energies. Since you are a creature with no chakra...you'll immediately die once you enter. Somehow, you are in my dimension and simultaneously in my world. It must be the universes' way of protecting you."
In summary, Obito died and reincarnated into his past self during the Kyuubi attack. And now somehow I was also brought into this mess. I wanted to disappear.
"Have you thought of dying? Maybe that will fix everything?"
He stepped towards me and I realised I shouldn't have said that, his Sharingan glowed ominously through the hole in his mask making me breathlessly fearful. I shrunk back, eyes looking down to the ground and hands curled up to fists at my chest. I must've looked like a frightened child in the eyes of Obito.
"I was right." He uttered quietly whilst reaching a gloved hand for my wrist and tugging it towards him. I leaned back to create as much space as possible between us, but he pulled me in closer. "You are completely useless."
"What—" I started but was cut off by his other hand grabbing my chin roughly turning my whole head towards him.
I instantly blacked out.
For the first time in my life I had fainted. I dreamt a long dream and when I finally woke up I was faced with my assailant. He was sitting on a large wooden box, legs spread wide and elbow sitting on one knee supporting his chin. I slowly stood up, legs feeling unsteady. He moved his head to look at me. For some reason he felt very calm this time, however that same aura of intimidation and power lingered around him, making me uneasy. At this point I just wanted to lie down in my bed.
But I also realised; that wish was unrealistic in my situation. Obito looked me up and down, his gaze lingering on my chest. I furrowed my brows unconsciously. I wanted to ask him what the fuck he was looking at but this was Obito Uchiha. You don't talk that way to Obito Uchiha.
"Obito." I said.
"Call me Tobi." He ordered. I made sure to remember that.
"Your energy reserves are...pathetic." I started at his dark voice and gasped. He looked at me amusedly, or at least, showed a body language that I interpreted as amusement. For a man whose face was completely covered with a mask, he sure managed to show a lot of emotions.
It took me a second to understand what he was saying. I was still shocked from the information dumped on me earlier. "Did you use your Sharingan?"
He didn't reply so I continued. "You said I don't have chakra. So how did it work on me?"
Lucky for me, my questions didn't seem to bother him as he answered smoothly. "You have something similar to Nature Chakra, which I'm sure you're aware of what that is."
"Do you...have some kind of plan? Is there any way for me to go home?"
"No." Ouch. He killed two birds with one stone. "I planned on killing you first."
I hated to agree with him, but he was right. Killing me would be the easiest since I had so much information on the group. I also quickly noted that I wasn't dead, so there must be a reason he hadn't done the deed.
"You think...I...could be of use to you?" I asked him slowly.
"I don't know." The Uchiha stated bluntly. "You have precious information. We can't have you running around telling the future."
"Did you use your eye to see what happens in the story?" My voice came out shaky.
Obito looked up. "It is not that simple." He started. "You have read these books, but not experienced it yourself, therefore your mind remembers these events differently."
"But then again, I've read the parts that you're not in that come together and either affect you or affect Naruto's decisions somehow. Is that why you didn't want me dead? Just in case you decide to change the outcome of the story?"
"It wasn't a story to me..." He said bitterly. "Your cooperation would be...appreciated."
"If I help you, you have to promise to send me back or find a way."
"You have me word."
I didn't like the way he said that.
"It's like walking next to a fucking retarded turtle." Hidan whispered to Kakuzu who completely ignored him and continued facing forward. But I'm pretty sure he agreed because we'd been walking for a few hours now and I was growing tired.
We walked past enormous tree trunks, big bushes, small bushes, big rocks, small rocks…
The more we walked the more agitated Hidan got, he, evidently, didn't have the patience of a Buddha. The Jashinist cries out exasperatedly, dramatically falling to his knees, head falling down facing the ground and stays perfectly still for a second. A lock of silver hair falls down in front of his face and he blows it back in place smoothly. Kakuzu continues walking.
I catch up to Hidan and bend down to sit on my heels, turning my head to get a look at his face. I opened my mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by Hidans gleeful expression as he slashed his scythe through me.
I frown at him. "I thought I told you that wasn't gonna work."
He doesn't answer but instead there's a snort coming from behind me. I look back and gape in surprise at Kakuzu choking two grown men up against a tree. One was a pale, blond, delicate man wearing simple brown pants and the same colored kimono. The other was a much darker man with thin, patchy hair and similar clothes. I noticed they both wore broken sandals. Besides the tree lay two large axes, they looked quite heavy and not like something those two malnutritioned farmer looking men could handle. A sound of surprise escapes me.
I peek down at my feet and another man, wearing a similar outfit to the other two, lies in a pool of his own blood. I quickly turn away and cover my mouth.
"Watch and learn, Ugly Bitch." Hidan grins at me while walking towards the other two. He confidently winked at me, meanwhile he was wasting his time acting like a fool, Kakuzu, behind him, snapped the attackers' necks, promptly dropping them to the ground. They died so fast, choking noises came from their mouths then there was a loud pop and crack that sent shivers down my spine and just like that they perished.
I was too astonished at my own unresponsive feelings of empathy to hear Hidan start an uproar in front of me.
"KAAKUZUUUU!" He cried. "DON'T YOU KNOW IT'S A SIN TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSES' SACRIFICES?"
"There's no need to waste time. We have an important mission—"
"Divine judgement awaits heathens ignorant to the pain of others." The Jashinist said as if he's reached enlightenment and we were all just ignorant fools., which is probably how he did think of others.
Kakuz stood still for a second before throwing his partner a glare. If looks could kill Hidan would be halfway reincarnated by now. I thought to myself that I really respected Kakuzu's patience, until they both ran towards each other simultaneously.
I ignored them both and sighed, we'd been travelling for a few hours together now and I was used to the constant deadly matches. I crouched down to sit on my heels and was faced with the sandaled feet of one of the dead men. The slipper was a simple wooden one, but what caught my eye was the sole of the foot. There was a tattoo there, I couldn't see the whole thing, a sharp black edge was visible from the angle I sat.
Even though I wasn't physically here, my body was still in need of relieving itself and taking in nutrition. In my pocket was a small black ring that, when put on, would allow me to physically appear for a while. Obito gave it to me whilst at the same time advising me to not use it more than a few minutes at a time.
I slipped the ring on my finger, instantly the smell of blood, sweat and grass entered my nose and my feet sand into the ground. By now Kakuzu and Hidan were full on sparring high up in the trees, I knew this only through hearing Hidan's crude and deafening exclamations coming from the tree crowns. I poked the sandal off with a stick and revealed a triangle.
'Underwhelming.' I thought. I don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't a black triangle in the middle of his foot.
I took off the ring and entered my 'ghost state' once more. The Zombie Duo were still going at it like there was no tomorrow, so being the amazing, independent woman I am, I decided to walk ahead. They were ninja who could run 40 miles per hour, a civilian like me would only slow them down, this was my way of being more productive.
Once they got back on the ground and I had the honor of witnessing Hidans arm getting reattached like a Barbie doll, I summoned up the courage to ask Kakuzu where we were going. I was thrown onto this mission with minimal knowledge of where we were going, what we were doing and how I was supposed to be of any help.
They both looked at me like 'Oh, that's right! She's here too…'
"We'll arrive in the Land of Frost soon. We're looking for this woman. " Kakuzu promptly tossed me a scroll without even looking my way. I caught it mid-air, or so I thought as it slipped right through my hands and landed on the ground.
It all happened in a split second. I turned around and bent down to pick it up, at the same time slipping on my ring. Unfortunately Hidan had the same thought and crouched down to grab it not expecting me to physically exist. Our shoulders collided and we tumbled on to the forest floor. I hit my head lightly on something hard and blinked several times before my brain reacted to the situation.
"Huh…?" Hidan was sprawled on top of me, holding himself up by the arms and staring at me in complete shock.
Kakuzu had stopped walking, talking and gazed at the scene in front of himself in bewilderment. "Hidan. What did you just do?"
"Nothing." He answered, not breaking eye contact with me. I took this opportunity to push against his chest and take the ring off. Hidan grabbed my hands and pinned them down so quickly I barely had time to tense up.
I made a noise that sounded like a mix between a chicken squawking and a dying cat.
"Fuck." I whispered. 'I'm fucked.'
Hidan grinned at me, eyes widening in amusement. "I fucking knew it. You can't pull that shitty trick now, Princess."
"Don't kill her." I heard Kakuzu throwing a casual glance our way as if a human wasn't being manhandled right in front of him, and continuing on his way.
I wanted to yell at him to come back, but one murderer was better than two I reasoned with myself. Maybe not if that one was a Jashinist.
"Let me go!" I whined. "The ground is dirty!"
He just snorted at me. "Do you have somewhere fucking important to be?"
"YES! Anywhere away from you, you-you-ugly asshole!"
I didn't see where it came from but there was a vial in his hand, with a long, shining needle. I hadn't even felt him move both my hands together above my head and holding my wrists with just one hand. With his other he stabbed it into my shoulder.
I shrieked and kicked him in the hip, although he didn't react at all. Instead he pulled out the vial and I observed how the glass part was filled with blood now— my blood. A drop of the red liquid hung on the tip of the needle which he, disgustingly enough, brought to his lips and licked. I recognized this action done by him, but I couldn't remember exactly what Hidan's abilities were in the anime. I grew up watching the series and forgot about it in my adult years, therefore making me completely bewildered at the sight in front of me. Heck, I'd even stopped trying to run from his grip and just watched curiously what he would do next.
"Ew." I let slip out.
"Ew yourself, bitch."
He jumped up and I immediately took off the ring, disappearing into my comfortable and safe ghost state. Hidan had drawn a perfect circle on the ground with a triangle in the middle. I would've been more impressed by his precision had it not been for his mischievous grin. His skin turned black and white.
"What are you doing?" I asked wide eyed.
"You feel something?" He asked in return, his hands went up to his chest and he squeezed his nipples hard.
I gasped at the pain and instinctively covered my chest. "What the fuck!"
Next, he held up a kunai and pointed it towards his stomach and went down in slow motion. I took off my ring, running with all my might and grabbed his wrist with both my hands, stopping him from killing me. I remembered now what Hidan's ability had been.
I felt pressure on my own wrists too. "Please don't do that."
He cocked his head to the side and looked down at me with a frown. I also noticed how much taller and heavier he was.
"Wasn't planning on it, really. But since you're asking so fucking nicely, how about you go down on your knees and ask again?" The Jashinist said. It took a second for his words to sink in and my face heated up. "I don't get why that shitty Leader would put a weakling like you with us. You'll slow us down."
He flung me to the ground and glared into my eyes, throwing the vial into the air before grabbing it back up and storing it in his pants. "Don't get any ideas. I'm just itching to fucking sacrifice you."
I glared right back but didn't say anything. He was right, I was completely useless. Hidan was basically holding that vial as leverage, making sure I didn't betray them in any way so he could immediately kill me. Just the thought sent shivers down my spine.
Before walking off in Kakuzu's direction he bent down and picked up the scroll that had fallen and turned around, eyebrows raised. "Are you fucking coming or are you gonna lay there forever?"
"I'm fucking coming." I mumbled, picking myself up.
Kakuzu didn't say anything, just looked me up and down to see if I was whole.
We walked in silence for a few hours and Hidan gave me the scroll to look at. Inside was the picture of a woman with long black hair tied back tightly, face framed by wispy bangs that sat above non-existent brows and the brightest pink eyes. She was pale and wore a lot of makeup, I couldn't make out her age but I roughly estimated she would've been somewhere between 30-35 years old. I gave the picture a long hard look, memorising as much as possible of her features.
"Who is she?" I asked.
"Are you blind, girl?" Kakuzu snapped.
Hidan snorted behind him. "Can't you fucking read, Princess?"
"No, I can't." I muttered back in embarrassment.
Hidan snorted again.
"That woman is a one-of-a-kind genius. I witnessed her talents 20 years ago in the Land of the Moon." The old mizer said.
"What did she do?" Hidan and I asked simultaneously like little children being told a nighttime story.
He didn't look at us, as if being immersed in his own thoughts and memories. "She took down a hundred men with one jutsu."
"Holy shit." I said in astonishment.
"Jashin-sama! That's fucking hot!" Hidan shook his head vigorously, yet, surprisingly, not a single hair moved from it's glued down position. I couldn't help but wonder what gel he used. "I love crazy bitches!"
"Then you should love yourself." I muttered quietly and forgot about the fact that ninjas had super hearing. So it didn't surprise me at all when he angrily turned around and flipped me off.
"Shut your mouth, whore!"
I glared at him, but stayed quiet. He gave me an unimpressed look. "Like I'm fucking scared of you, bitch."
I noticed something on the bounty. "But...um...Kakuzu-san?"
"-san?!" Hidan exclaimed.
"What?" The old man grumbled.
"This bounty is worth only 2 million ryo and it says 'Only Alive'. Is there another reason we're going after just her?" I also wanted to ask how a weakling like me was supposed to help, but all my bravery washed away as soon as his green eyes settled on me.
"You're not half as stupid as you look, girl." He answered patronizingly.
I heard Hidan let out a smug "heh".
"Unlike my partner." Kakuzu finished.
"Motherfucker!"
I slapped a hand over my mouth to hide the smile and giggles that were about to escape. "Thank you."
"And you are correct. My goal is something else."
"Something...more than 2 million?" I asked curiously. I heard Hidan groan in the distance but was too embroiled in our conversation to care.
At this point Kakuzu's eyes were shimmering. "A scientist. She left the Land of the Moon years ago. And she took her…'inventions' with her. Now finally, you have revealed yourself." He grabbed the bounty and gazed at it in childish excitement. "Kilala."
"Jashin-sama! How old is that fucking bounty?" Hidan asked...a reasonable question. It took me a second to register what just happened, but before I even finished the thought of 'Maybe he's smarter than he lets on' I was interrupted. "Oi, 'Kuzu! I didn't know you had it in ya'."
"Hidan." The elder of the group warned.
"Old—" I thanked Jashin—no, God— I thanked God for my ghost mode because the Jashinist didn't even get to finish speaking before flying through the air and into a tree.
Sometime after that, we found ourselves in a little tourist town, it looked like it was often used as a rest point for shinobi and travellers. Inns, restaurants and casinos lined up after each other gathering large crowds and people from all countries (I could tell from the Hitai-ate and clothes).
Kakuzu walked us straight into the first Inn that we saw, it was a large wooden building slightly off from everything else. It had hot springs according to Hidan, who I found out hated them for some reason. We got two rooms; one for Kakuzu and— since he had no care for our privacy— a room for Hidan and I to share. Suffice to say, we were not happy.
The Jashinist groaned as Kakuzu paid the receptionist. "Why, why, why?!"
We were all pretty tired after walking, and sleeping in the woods for days. Hidan stopped swearing as much, that was a sign of some serious fatigue.
The receptionist, wearing a kimono and a traditional hairstyle guided us swiftly to our rooms, whilst informing calmly about their exclusive packages.
'I guess she must be used to dangerous ninjas.'
Without a word, Kakuzu shut the sliding door in our faces and we were shown to the room across from him.
It was just a simple, traditional Japanese room, with a brown table situated in the middle.
"I'm fucking famished." Hidan declared. "I can't believe I'm stuck with a stupid bitch like you for two days."
I didn't know we were staying for that long.
"Wait. Two days? Why?"
He gave me a concerned look. "Are you fucking stupid and fucking blind?"
"No." I deadpanned.
He was getting on my nerves. I remembered the hot springs and being that we had been walking for several days without showering with any soap or hot water; I was desperate.
After telling Hidan I'd go take a bath and being waved off I left our room and got a little taste of freedom for the first time in a while.
What I needed was to find out where the hot springs were and some clean clothes. There was no way I could put these dirty clothes on clean skin. The problem was that I didn't have any money. The hallway was empty but I managed to find a worker near the end.
A girl, who looked to be around my age. She had black hair that was braided down her back and told me politely that all guests were given a yukata at the Onsen.
I put on the ring and cleaned myself for almost an hour, refusing to leave until I got dizzy.
The smell of soap brought a relaxed smile to my face as I walked down the corridor once more. The clothes I had worn so far were thrown in a random trash can, there was no way those would ever touch me again. I didn't know whether or not people wore underwear under Yukatas but I didn't have any choice and I sure as hell wasn't going to ask my roommate.
The hallway was dimly lit and narrow, in front of every door was a tray with a jug of water, 2 glasses and slippers. I was pretty sure Hidan hadn't taken any slippers, so I decided to go for the door with one pair left.
I expected the Jashinist to be impatiently waiting for me when I slid the door open but instead I found four men wearing all black and all adorning some kind of scar or tattoo on their faces.
We all stared at each other in befuddlement. On a closer look they didn't look much older than me, wearing matching black clothing and similarly shaved heads all in different stages of growing out. From my peripheral vision something caught my eye. Under their table was a large sack full of wads of cash.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" I gasped, using all the acting skills in my arsenal. I grabbed the wooden door and carefully slid it shut as they continued watching me awkwardly.
"Oi! Get ano—" A hand came out of nowhere from the dark and grabbed my arms, forcing me to turn on my heel. I almost crashed into them but instinctively put my hand out in front of me as a shield, I came face to face with a very toned and naked male chest.
"Tch! It's only you!" Hidan carped while sticking a toothpick in his mouth. Before giving me a chance to reply his eyes fell from my face and he smirked as we made eye contact again. "Nice tits."
"Thanks, Hidan." I replied dryly.
He turned to the room I had just accidentally entered and bent down to their tray, in his hand was an empty jug that I hadn't noticed before, which he replaced with our neighbors' filled one.
He grinned at me. "Problem solved."
So childish.
It was still mid-afternoon when Zetsu materialized from the floor of our room, scaring me half to death.
"Hidan. Leader-sama has sent orders for you and Kakuzu to immediately capture the Two-tails. She's headed in your direction as we speak."
Hidan disappeared within seconds, leaving me alone with the scary, overgrown weed. It turned around and faced me.
"Anahi. Tobi wants to talk to you. Wait here."
"O-okay." I answered as politely as possible.
"What a nice girl." I heard the white side muse as they descended into the floor again.