The gray of the early morning shown through the small window in his room and he peered around his door to see a stream of residents already starting to crowd the halls. Hidan rolled his eyes and grunted.

He was completely drained of energy, but took it upon himself to sneak in a quick cold shower. When he saw the stubble on his face he left it, and quickly redressed. He was walking down the hall when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey. You okay?" Hidan turned to see Itachi. The man's voice was low, and the bags under his eyes were apparent, but he looked far more alert than Hidan did.

"What do you think?" Hidan scowled.

"I heard about what happened in the greenhouse."

"Wow. Word travels fast around here," Hidan said.

"No. It doesn't. Kisame told me."

"What are you fuckin' him?" Hidan scoffed.

Itachi's breath hitched and Hidan raised his brows. Itachi looked around and quickly pulled Hidan into an unlocked janitorial closet.

"What the fuck, Uchiha? What the hell is your problem?" Hidan yelled. Itachi slapped a hand across Hidan's mouth.

"Shut up." The room was pitch black and Hidan felt the rod of a mop pressed up against his back. The two of them stayed silent as a figure walked by the door. Hidan pulled Itachi's hand off his mouth.

"Why the hell did you drag me in here?" he whispered.

"Kisame didn't just tell me about what happened in the greenhouse," Itachi said.

"Did he tell you he wants to stick it in your ass?" Hidan reached for the door handle but Itachi stopped him.

"Tsunade is no longer going to be the head of the institution."

"So? Who cares? She's a bitch."

"The man taking over views people as objects and his ideals of morality are corrupt. The people he employs are no better."

"Fantastic. Now let me out." Hidan's depression finally stole the last of his energy away and he ached to sit down. Itachi put another hand down to stop Hidan from leaving.

"It's more serious than that. That man is the reason I'm in here."

"Itachi I can't help you, and I don't give a shit. Thank you for being the bearer of horrible news, but I can't help you."

"Hidan listen to me. This man knows all about you and will kill you if it means he gets what he wants."

"Good. I hope he does kill me," Hidan said and slipped out of the closet. Itachi dug his nails into his palms and cursed under his breath.

Hidan knew he was doomed to die. It would either be here or out in the real world, and when it finally happened Hidan decided he would greet death with a smile like all of his scriptures said he should.


Kakuzu arrived at work unusually late, which unfortunately, did not go unnoticed by the staff.

"Good evening," Shizune said from the front desk. "You're in late. Everything okay?"

"Yes everything is fine, Shizune. I got caught up in dealing with the press today. That's all." Kakuzu continued walking but the woman hurried around the desk and stopped him before he could get out of the hallway.

"Wait! I have some notices for you!" She handed him a standard envelope and a few other folded papers, "And Tsunade wants you in her office for a meeting as soon as you can get there."

Kakuzu took the notices and nodded, but Shizune stepped in front of him again. "She wouldn't ask for your time unless it was important, ."

Kakuzu furrowed his brows. "Fine. Call her and tell her I'm coming up right now."


Kakuzu didn't bother knocking on Tsunade's office door.

"What is it now, Tsunade?" Kakuzu growled. He was thinking of Hidan as he stepped into the room, and how the young man might be on his way to the west wing. Kakuzu pushed the thoughts away as he angrily stepped up to Tsunade's desk.

"Are you going to answer me?" His deep voice reverberated through the room as he spun the desk chair around to face him. Kakuzu's rage immediately changed to confusion and concern when he saw the red-eyed face before him. The woman had obviously been crying, and now she looked up at him with a face full of agony.

"Tsunade, what's going on?" Kakuzu had never seen the woman so distressed before let alone seen her cry.

"They're getting rid of me," She said. "They're getting rid of me, and there's nothing I can say or do to stop it."

"Tsunade, what are you talking about?"

"What? Did you not read the damn notice? It's all over the fucking place, Kakuzu!" Tsunade leaned forward and Kakuzu smelled liquor on her breath.

"You've been drinking."

"No kidding," she took a half-empty bottle out from under her desk, "I lost the institute and I've failed my patients. Just because I'm a psychologist doesn't mean my coping strategies are perfect."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing! I did absolutely nothing! But the institute has become such a national spectacle from the whole Jashinist murder crap that the board is replacing me with some terrorist hell bent on imposing new strategies that he assures will 'give the public the peace of mind they deserve.' Whatever the hell that means!" Tsunade poured her face into her hands. "I don't know what I'm going to do…" Kakuzu tentatively put a reassuring hand on her back.

"Tsunade, who is the board replacing you with?"

"Read the damn notice, Kakuzu." Kakuzu turned to the desk and opened the envelope Shizune gave him.

Staff of the Amegakure Institute,

This notice is to inform you that Dr. Tsunade Senju will be stepping down from her position as head medical administrator and chief director at the hospital. After recent incidents concerning demands from the public, and the Institute's board itself, Dr. Danzo Shimura will be stepping forward to reprieve Dr. Senju of her duties. Please note that Dr. Shimura will be transferring his team of medical specialists to further assist in the training of the institute's present staff to establish the new principles and high standards the Institute's board has ruled upon.

Sincerely, The Amegakure Institute Board of Administrators

"Danzo…" Kakuzu growled, "Of course he would be behind this." Danzo Shimura had been trying to gain more control over the hospital since before Kakuzu even started working there. The man was known for his questionable ethical behavior and he insisted on using dangerous experimental therapy strategies. Kakuzu saw first hand Tsunade promise death to the man for suggesting they use a painful therapy method on patients. That was years ago when Danzo was still a doctor at Ame. That particular day was the day she was voted in by the board and Danzo was transferred away.

"Tsunade, are you sure that Hidan being here is the cause of this?"

"No. I'm not sure about anything anymore." Tsunade tried to pour herself another drink, but Kakuzu took the bottle away. "Maybe it is… indirectly," She said.

"Explain what you know," Kakuzu said.

"That bastard has been after my position for years, and he used the international uproar from Hidan's case to plea for stricter rules and "safety" measures for the institute. Then he put me up for indictment against the board and won." Tsunade rubbed her temples and sighed. "He's slowly voted in all his lackeys on the board's administration over the past decade, and it's been only a matter of time until they finally got rid of me. This was them seizing the moment." Kakuzu placed the bottle back on the desk.

"Drink up then. Sounds like you need it."

Tsunade poured the liquor into her shot glass. "I didn't call you up here to talk about me, Kakuzu. I called you here to give you a warning. After what I've been through I know that you're next on the chopping block. The board won't hesitate to use your criminal record against you if you don't comply with their rules." She drank down the swig of booze with a scowl. "They'll take Fuu away from you, Kakuzu. They'll make it so you can never see her again."

"Let them just fucking try," Kakuzu snarled. Tsunade gave a sympathetic glance and placed her hand on his.

"If you need help… I'm here. I don't like those bastards anymore than you do and, contrary to what the board is having everyone believe, I care a hell of a lot about the people in this place."

"I know you do." He gave Tsunade's hand a gentle squeeze.

"Why didn't we work out, Kakuzu?" Tsunade rolled her eyes, "I guess I could've tried a bit harder on my part, but it wasn't that bad- being with you."

"Tsunade… all we did was fight."

"I miss her sometimes too, you know. She was so sweet, you must have been so proud of her."

Kakuzu and Tsunade dated after his wife passed, and soon broke it off when the two realized they only used each other for their own metaphorical punching bags.

"You can't keep blaming yourself for what happened."

"I don't blame myself. Not anymore."

"Okay," Tusnade took another shot, "Okay."

Back in his office Kakuzu studied the picture of his daughter; running his fingers over her face, and trying to remember what it felt like to hold her. He took a deep breath and glanced at the clock. Hidan was late. After stowing the picture away he picked up his office phone and quickly dialed in for the guard's office.

"Hello?" Kisame's deep and raspy voice echoed into the phone.

"Hidan is late for our session. Do you know where he is?" Kakuzu said.

"Late, huh? Could've swore I saw him make his way up there just a bit ago… Okay yeah, I'm sure I saw him head that way. He's probably in the west wing somewhere. I'm sending a guard to do a quick room sweep and I'll get the guys in security to roll back the footage from today. I'm going to start searching near the entrance to the west wing. I'll call you when we find him."

Kakuzu heard the faint buzz of Kisame using his walkie talkie to call for the guards before the phone hung up.

He didn't want to wait though. What if Hidan was in trouble? What if he'd done something to hurt himself? The thoughts were enough to make him grab a tranquilizer syringe from his medical kit and take off through the west wing.


After 30 minutes of roaming the halls, Kakuzu returned to his office and re-dialed the guard's phone. It rang with no answer. Kakuzu cursed and ran out of his office so fast that he almost slammed into Kisame.

"Holy shit, Kakuzu! Warn a guy next time you wanna jump out like that!" Kisame was obviously stressed out as much as Kakuzu about Hidan's disappearance.

"Have you found him yet?"

"No, I'm on my way to check the grounds now."

"Fine. I'm coming with you." Kakuzu reached inside the office to grab his coat and the two hurried out of the building from the west wing's fire exit.

Out on the grounds the moon light spread across the grounds of the institute. Kisame unhooked his walkie talkie and spoke into it.

"Mei, what's your 20?" There was static and then a woman's voice spoke over the station.

"10-20 Floor 2 West."

Kisame bit his lip to think for a moment, "Roger that. I need guards to the grounds."

"Roger that," Mei responded. Kakuzu looked around the area and motioned to the entrance of the institute.

"I'm going to check the gate. Have some guards meet me there and the rest search the perimeter."

"Here," Kisame threw Kakuzu a spare walkie-talkie. "Let me know if you find anything." Kakuzu caught it and the two men started off in opposite directions.

"I swear if he tried to get out again I'll kill him," Kakuzu thought. He reached the gate and searched for any sign of Hidan. He didn't see any footprints, or torn clothing from trying to jump over the gate. He definitely didn't see any kind of struggle either.

"Shit," Kakuzu cursed. 'What if I'm too late and he ran off already?' Kakuzu clipped the radio onto his pants and started climbing up the gate.

'I'm getting too old for this shit," Kakuzu mumbled under his breath. At the top of the gate he looked out over the grounds. The gate was high enough to get a better view, but all he saw was the team of guards coming to help him search at the entrance. He jumped down on the outside of the institute, and he saw the guard manning the entrance lazily reading a magazine with his feet up on the counter inside the small office. Kakuzu scowled and banged against the glass of the guard box. The guard jumped and threw the magazine up into the air. He quickly pressed the intercom to speak.

"What- wha- what's wrong?" The guard's voice was shaky and he was obviously embarrassed from being caught slacking off.

"We have a missing resident," Kakuzu roared, "Check you cameras and make sure he didn't run out because you couldn't do your goddamn job!"

"Kakuzu!" The radio in his belt buzzed with Kisame's voice. "We found something on the mid-wing cameras."

Kakuzu pushed the button to respond. "I'm on my way." He turned towards the security guard again who was staring wide eyed at him. "Well! Open the damn thing! I'm not going to scale it again!"

The security team stayed searching on the grounds, and Kisame and Kakuzu ran back inside to the guard's station. The two bustled into a small room with at least eight monitors on the walls, and Mei, a tall woman with long red hair, focused intently on one of the screens. Kisame stepped forward to look over the woman's shoulder.

"What did you find, Mei?"

"We found him. Look at this- camera four, mid-wing." She rewinded the footage and, sure enough, there was Hidan. The monitor showed him struggling to walk up the stairs and then suddenly sitting down and holding his head.

"He's having a panic attack. We have to go find him-" Kakuzu said, but was cut off by Mei.

"Wait- watch what happens." The three watched as a little girl helped Hidan up and led him up the stairs into the west wing.

"Holy shit," Kisame squinted at the screen, "Is that..."

"Fuu," Kakuzu said, and the knot in his stomach grew tighter.

"This was over five hours ago. The cameras show them heading into the west wing, but they disappear after they get to the old ward. We don't have cameras there because that part of the building is locked down," Mei said.

"We've already checked up to the gates at the end of the west wing," Kisame said, "They weren't there. We could check the basement. They might have gone down the west wing stairs, but it's a long shot. Mei call the team in the west wing and tell them to go down and..." Kisame turned to look at Kakuzu, "Kakuzu? Are you alright? Kakuzu?"

"I know where they are," Kakuzu said.


Hidan stole an apple from an unsuspecting resident preoccupied with making spit bubbles and headed up the stairway to Kakuzu's office. He was starving and he'd barely eaten anything since the day before. He took a deep breath and continued up the stairs, taking bites of the apple along the way. Lately all Hidan could think about were the riots happening outside the institute, and how much he missed Konan.

"It's all my fault she's tied up in this fucking mess…" Hidan thought. "If I'd just pleaded guilty... none of this would be happening. I wouldn't be trapped here. I'd be fucking dead..." All of the sudden Hidan's head started to pound and he dropped the apple in an attempt to regain balance on the stairs. "My fucking head…" he started whispering to himself out loud, "If I'd just killed myself after… why didn't they choose someone else to perform the ritual… I'd be dead… but Konan...I would've never met Kakuzu… " He sat down on the stairs and held his head in his hand. The other hand clutched to the railing.

"Kuzu is my uncle, you know." Hidan was startled by the ardent voice of a little girl.

"What…" Hidan's head was pounding so hard it hurt to open his eyes.

"You're the one who punched my Uncle Kuzu."

"Yeah… well he punched me first… kinda." Hidan tried to stand, but lurched forward by accident only to have his hand caught by Fuu.

"Here's your apple," she said, handing the fruit back to him. "You dropped it." Fuu helped Hidan up the rest of the stairs and started leading him through the halls of the west wing.

"Where are we going? I think I'm going to pass out." Hidan was still holding his head, and although he could open his eyes, his breathing was starting to become affected by his sudden panic.

"Whenever I get confused Kuzu always takes me to go to my safe place."

"That's fuckin' great, kid. I... I don't want to walk… my head…" Hidan's breath hitched as he spoke and his hands were starting to shake with every step. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, and he was suddenly caught by the feeling of intense fear. Fuu caught on and shushed him.

"S'okay we're almost there. Everything is fine. You're having a little bit of a confusing day that's all." As Fuu spoke Hidan could hear Kakuzu's influence on the girl. She sounded just like him, calm and assertive, so he tried to ignore the voices in his head as much as he could and let Fuu lead him through the maze-like asylum to the end of a hallway.

"The gate's locked. It's a dead end," he said.

"There's a trick to it," Fuu roughly shook the metal of the gate and it lifted up off the ground, "I need your help to lift it higher," she said. Hidan lifted the gate over Fuu's head and the two walked under. When Hidan let the gate go it fell to the ground with a metallic bang. Fuu led Hidan to a heavy wooden door, and when she went to open it Hidan, for a moment, saw how frail she was. She looked so thin, and although her skin was dark like Kakuzu's, he could see blue veins popping out from underneath the surface.

"We're here," she whispered excitedly, and led Hidan into the room.

Hidan looked around at the small room. It was about half the size of Kakuzu's office and painted a soft blue. The floor was made of dark pine boards and the walls were decorated with colorful drawings, undoubtedly made by Fuu, of different animals and bugs. On the far wall was a colorful stained glass door leading out to a small rounded balcony. Fuu flicked on a light switch, and the room brightened from the soft glow of string lights hung around the perimeter of the ceiling.

"Nobody knows about this place 'cept me and Uncle Kuzu! He said it's one of the oldest rooms in the whole hospital!" Fuu giggled as she closed the door. She hurried over to the wall and gently removed a few drawings. Hidan slowly lowered himself to the ground and tried to focus on steady breathing instead of the manic thoughts racing through his mind.

"Look at this one!" Fuu held up a drawing of a large bug with four wings and too many legs to count.

"That… that looks like a monster," Hidan said, squinting at the illustration.

"How rude! He's one of my friends and he is very handsome!" She brought the picture to her face and gave it a kiss. "Now look at this one!" Hidan squinted in confusion at the drawing of a much too happy Kakuzu surrounded by hearts and flowers.

"That's Kuzu! I made him this drawing because he feels sad sometimes, too."

"I think you got the mouth wrong. That guy doesn't smile," Hidan said. Fuu ran back over and stuck the pictures back to the wall. She opened a small plastic tupperware and grabbed a box of markers, and then got some paper from a small wooden shelf.

"Here!" She handed a piece to Hidan. "Drawing always makes me feel better when I get crazy. I like when Kuzu draws with me. He's so funny." Fuu laid down on her stomach and started to draw. Hidan took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them he tried to pick up a marker, but his shaking hands prevented him from bringing it to the paper. He dropped it and Fuu looked up.

"You're so silly. No wonder Kuzu likes you so much."

"What does he say about me?" Hidan asked.

"That you hurt a lot of people and that's why you're here," Fuu said absentmindedly as she continued to draw.

"Your Uncle's an ass," Hidan mumbled. He tried to pick up the marker again, but his hands were still shaking.

"I'll help," Fuu said, and she took Hidan's hand and guided the marker he was holding to make a heart shape. "We're so silly! Hearts aren't green! They're red! We're so silly!" Fuu continued to laugh and Hidan saw that her lips were chapped and she had some missing teeth. Her nose was a bit runny and her eyes a little glossy as well, but her laugh was full, and it prompted Hidan to start laughing along too.

"We're so silly!" She repeated. "We're so silly!" Hidan watched as Fuu kept laughing and drawing. After she finished her picture she stuck it on the wall next to the others. She led him to a carpet with some pillows stacked against the wall and Fuu started taking out picture book after picture book. She showed Hidan her favorites, and told him which were Kakuzu's favorites. She read to him for a while, and when she struggled with the words Hidan helped her to sound them out. His headache was starting to reside and the shaking was getting better, but the panic attack left him feeling drained.

"This feels like a dream," Hidan said to her. "I'm so tired. I can barely keep my eyes open. This can't be real... can it?"

"Than let's sleep. Kuzu always says Sundays are for naps anyway."

"Oh is that… is that right?" Hidan yawned. "I didn't know it was Sunday…" Hidan rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

Fuu laid her head on Hidan's thigh and tried to finish reading her book, but soon her eyes became heavy as well. The little room was quiet and, as the moon's rays drifted about, the two slept.