A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed so far, it's now looking like 2 weekly updates, but I still have quite a bit pre-written. :)

Question answer: The Obsession. Huh. I wouldn't have guessed that for a boat name, but it makes sense I suppose!

Riddle: She was photographing him, first she shot the picture, then she developed it, then she hung it!

Disclaimer! Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, obviously.

Sacrifice

The first wolf lunged at Mika again, but the thirteen-year-old boy's senses were sharp, and he'd predicted the move before it'd even decided itself. He yanked it back by the tail just in time, gritting his teeth as the animal struggled against his hold and turned on him.

'NOW!' He growled, leaping sideways as the wolf swiped at him.

Finally, Mika complied, taking off in the direction toward the village he'd shown her. As she ran, she threw one more look over her shoulder, a mix of terror and concern.

'Just fucking go!' he snapped again, stopping three of the pack in their attempt at pursuit with a string of shuriken.

She nodded grimly, and moved off again, leaving him alone with the pack.

Hidan grinned as they circled him. 'Now it's a party.'

As Mika ran, she listened to the dying sounds of animalistic snarls on the wind. Her steps slowed as the wind began to drown out the noise, suddenly unnerved at having left him alone, seven to one.

'This is ridiculous', she thought out loud, grimacing. 'He's a ninja, he can take on a few animals…'

Coming to a complete standstill, she turned around tentatively. She could no longer see or hear them, but she hadn't really travelled that far. It couldn't hurt to go back and check on him, stay at a safe enough distance so that she wasn't getting in the way or anything.

Yeah, a quick check wouldn't hurt.

Mind made up, she broke into a sprint again, back the way she'd come. She panted as she ran, stamina nowhere near as competent as it should have been. She made an absent-minded note to work on that more, in the future. Rounding the last corner of corn field lined road that blocked her view of the wolf pack, Mika skidded to a halt.

Five of the seven were either lying dead on the ground or completely unable to move anymore, but the last two appeared to be holding their own. The largest one, that had first attacked her, was standing back a little as the sixth member of his pack scrabbled with the young teenager it had pinned to the ground. Hidan was holding it back with a pair of kunai crossed against it's thrashing, bleeding mouth. It's fangs bit down into the metal as its head flung from side to side, attempted to disarm him.

Mika watched, slightly capitvated by the motion of it's vigorous movements, and how well Hidan was keeping it at bay. That is, until the alpha chose to make it's move. It ran at the boy from the side, Hidan turning his head just in time to notice.

Pushing up against the wolf above him, Hidan forced his weapons further into it's jaws, causing it to yelp and relinquish the attack momentarily. Just enough time for him to roll away. But his movements were sluggish now, slower than before.

Mika barely even managed to cry out to him when the alpha's teeth sank into the boy's arm, ripping at the flesh as he sliced it's muzzle. It released him, and Hidan leapt away, dropping the kunai, but these animals were beyond surrender. They had lost too many of their pack by now, and they were livid.

Hidan backed away slowly, reaching into his ninja pouch at his hip and producing his last shuriken. It wouldn't do him much good against the two feral animals stalking towards him now, but it was all he had by way of defence. His magenta irises flickered rapidly around his surroundings, failing to find anything else worth using.

As the wolves launched into the air, his knees dipped as he braced himself, a dark smirk crossing his features. The smirk, however, was soon wiped clean and transformed into shock, when a ripple of black hair flashed by him, diverting the wolves attention as she made a dash for the discarded kunai.

'What the hell are you doing?' He demanded, furious.

'Improvising!' She grunted as she swiped up the weapons and spun on her heels to face their opponents, suddenly starting to regret her lack of plan when the larger wolf charged her. The other wolf, distracted, yowled in pain suddenly when Hidan took his chance to finish it off, having been able to retrieve the another fallen kunai in the moment.

Turning his attention back to the girl, he tensed when the wolf leapt at the twelve-year-old before him, eyes wide. Somehow, she managed to avoid a head on collision where her throat had been it's original target, but as it's teeth clamped over her shoulder, her eyes widened with realisation.

She had a perfectly clear shot at it's heart. Hidan had noticed, too.

'What are you waiting for, you idiot?!' He roared, fists clenching as he watched her hesitate.

Wincing with the pain as the wolf bit down harder, Mika's eyes squeezed shut. 'I'm so sorry…' She murmured, and then, with all the force she could muster, she plunged the little knife upwards, gasping in horror as the wolf let out a terrible howl.

It's hold on her shoulder loosened, enough for her to shrug away and watch in distress as the creature's features twisted in anguish. Her whole body shook as it's life slip away. The realisation of her actions hitting her hard.

Heart hammering almost hard enough to break a rib, Mika struggled to block out the sound of rushing blood coursing through her ears as her vision blurred. Eyes wet, she met Hidan's amethyst gaze just as her legs gave way, vaguely aware of someone catching her before she could hit the ground. The edges of her blurred sight began to blacken, until the colour had completely consumed her, and her consciousness slipped along with it.

When she awoke several hours later, a hauntingly familiar woman bent over her, Mika's mind reeled. She was back at the orphanage? But how…?

Wracking her brain as she scanned her vaguely returning memories, a chilling thought dawned on her. Had Hidan brought her back here? It was all Mika's twelve-year-old mind could come up with, and her stomach twisted in fury at the realisation.

That bastard… She knew she shouldn't have trusted him.

'You go first.'

'What? No way, you go first!'

'It's ladies first!'

'Oh so now you're being a gentleman.'

'Hey! Aren't I always?'

'If you were, then you'd go first.'

'If I was, I'd–'

'If you don't go first then I'll never tell, and you'll never know. Let's see who's curiosity holds back the longest.'

'…'

'…'

Mika smirked, she knew she'd win with that.

'Tch. Fine, I'll go first… Shit, I hate it when you win.' Hidan grumbled, settling into a more comfortable jog beside the red-haired girl, pocketing the kunai he'd be twirling.

They'd been on the move ever since the Konaha incident, only pausing momentarily to catch their breath. Hidan had been using this time to taunt Mika with his immortality, so they'd pretty much been arguing the entire time.

'So how do we go about this? You ask a question, then I answer or…?' He asked, still bitter about having lost the battle of who was going first.

'Just start at the beginning, moron.'

'Geez, no need to snap.' He spared a moment to dodge the rock she'd scooped up and thrown at his head, earning himself a scowl.

'Oh I see, allowing two kunoichi to pierce your organs is fine, but a rock you avoid.'

'Do you want the damn story or not?'

She huffed loudly, sarcastically miming zipping up her mouth.

A smug grin spread across his face as he began. 'That's better. So, I first started following the ways of Jashin when I was 17. Actually I discovered the religion just after the last time I saw you. Must have been… 5 years ago then…'

He'd always known about the temple, it just wasn't something Hidan was ever interested in, religion. He didn't see the point. All that time and dedication spent praying and bowing to something or someone that was very unlikely to ever even pay attention to you just seemed a giant waste of time to him. There was no God, there likely wasn't even a devil. Just evil people, and evil things.

A God was something people looked to when they'd lost all hope and had nothing left to lose, which was not a point Hidan ever planned on getting to.

So as Hidan passed the temple not far from his home in Yugakure, he was 100 percent intent on passing it by as he had done all his life. That is until, something caught his eye. Something just inside the open church doors. Something shiny.

His mind flashed back to a time with Mika, to a small chapel they had spent the night in, which had also donned similarly expensive looking items. Unfortunately, at that time, he'd had Mrs. Good Two Shoes on his back when he'd considered what he was considering now. To act upon such impulses now would not only help him erase some of the debt he'd built up in his village, but also seemed like a sly dig at Mika, which, even though she'd never find out, made him feel immensely smug.

Decision made, he sauntered towards the building, vaguely noting that there were no current chakra signals donning the area. Perfect.

It was almost too easy, church people were way too trusting. And why did a church need such expensive items in the first place? If their God was real, he'd want it to go to someone who was much more in need of it, like himself.

Nodding triumphantly at his reasoning, he crossed the threshold and arrived in front of the alter. On it, there stood two ornate chalices, a decorative brass incense burner, an extremely fancy monstrance, and what looked like a golden hilted dagger, which he thought odd, being in a church. Shrugging, he lifted the weapon to his eyeline, humming in admiration of it's craft.

'Maybe I'll keep this one for myself', he thought smugly. Wrapping the articles in the delicate fabric covering the alter table, he glanced around again to make sure he remained undetected. Then, after one final sweep of the church, he also managed to procure a metal receptacle shaped cup with an arched lid, and four silver candelabra.

His package clanged loudly as he slung it over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and began his swift exit. His footsteps echoed in the drafty building as he stalked up the aisle between rows of empty pews, but his escape was short lived.

'Tell me, son, what do you know of this temple?'

Hidan flinched at the sudden voice behind him. Odd, he hadn't sensed him approach. Spinning around and meeting an old haggard face standing mere meters away from him, he grimaced. Not out of fear, but aggravation. Now he'd have to kill a priest.

'That, as a place of God, he'd want these items to go to someone more worthy.' He commented dryly.

'Hm. I thought you'd say something along those lines. I was like you, once.'

Hidan rolled his eyes. 'I highly doubt that.'

'Tell me, where you going before you stopped by here?'

'Stalling won't help, old man.' Dropping the stolen goods still wrapped in their cloth to the ground with a unceremonious clatter, Hidan reaching into his pouch.

'Do you enjoy death?'

This question gave the teenager pause, gritting his teeth. 'Are you threatening me?'

To Hidan's surprise, the priest chuckled, leaning against the side of a pew and folding his arms comfortably. 'Quite the opposite, in fact.'

Hand curled around a kunai in his pouch, Hidan fought with his curiosity. He knew it'd be better to just finish the old geezer right here and now, but damn it his weird statements were intriguing him.

'Alright, old man. I'll humour you.'

Chuckling again, the man pushed off from the bench and strolled towards the items by Hidan's feet. The younger male tensed as he watched him lean down into the material, fishing out the dagger.

'Don't you think it's odd, to find such a weapon of death inside a place of worship?'

Hidan only shrugged, eyeing him cautiously.

'And this, it's called a ciborium. Do you know what it's used for?' The priest asked, lifting the metal cup into view.

'I've a feeling you're about to tell me…'

'See for yourself. Take a whiff.' He smirked, pushing it toward Hidan's face.

Pulling a face at the weirdness of it all, Hidan complied, accepting the cup and raising it to his nose. An eyebrow lifted as he identified the scent.

'Blood- ah!' He yelped in sudden surprise as the priest used this distraction to nick his arm, ever so slightly with the dagger.

'Sacrifice.' The man murmured cryptically, turning around and stalking toward the altar. Blood dripped from the blade as he raised it over the slab of bare stone. 'This is no ordinary alter, this is no ordinary church. It is the church of Lord Jashin, God of Pain, and Death. And he will punish those who do not do his bidding.'

The doors to the building slammed shut behind him and the candles on the overhead chandeliers flickered. Wind rushed through the pews and up towards the priest as he held the dagger out over the table, above his head.

Hidan watched, fascinated and somehow unable to bring himself to move. More crimson droplets fell from the dagger to the table, the red running together to form a large red circle. The priest's eyes slid shut as he began chanting in some foreign prayer, the blood beneath him now running in three straight lines in the middle of the circle, sporting an upside down triangle in the centre, each point touching the circumference.

A cold shudder ran through Hidan's body and finally shook him out of his stupor. With a growl, he gripped the kunai in his pouch ready to tear this freak's throat out before this got any stranger. He ran forward, almost reaching the altar when the preist's eyes snapped open, and he plunged the dagger downwards, directly into the centre of the bloody symbol.

All of the wind in Hidan's lungs was completely knocked from him, and he fell to his knees in shock and agony. His chest burned, hands clawing at the material of his shirt as he tore it away. Though his skin remained unmarred, he felt as though he'd had his heart ripped out. The pain was unbearable.

Collapsing onto his side, he craned his neck back just in time to see the priest kneeling above him, holding out a rosary with the same symbol he'd seen on the altar.

'Judgement has been passed.' The man spoke, but Hidan's ears were ringing. Slowly, the room began to swim into a darkness the teenager had no choice but to welcome, swallowing him whole as he slipped away into its depth.

When Hidan finally awoke, he was surrounded by strangers, all dressed entirely in black, as though at a funeral. He had wires and monitors attached to his body in various places, almost entirely stripped of his clothing. Wincing at the overhead light, he fought with the wires as he ripped them away one by one, vaguely aware of his wary audience, simply watching him.

Body now free from the last wire, his vision refocused on the people around him, recognising one as the priest from the temple.

'You… You bastard.' He ground out, finding words strange on his tongue, as though he hadn't spoken in years.

'You have been blessed, by our Lord himself.'

'Yeah? Well I don't feel very blessed.' He grumbled, swinging his legs off the table he was lying on and attempting to stand, balance wobbly at first. 'The hell did you do to me?'

'You became a sacrifice of Lord Jashin, but he has chosen you, to send you back to do his bidding, here on Earth.'

'…You what?' He stared at the priest, expecting a better explanation, but when none came, his eyes widened. 'You fucking sacrificed me?!'

'Don't you see, this is the ultimate blessing, Hidan.'

'I didn't ask for any blessing! And how the fuck do you know my name?'

'Calm down, son. All will be revealed soon. For now, you should rest. Your body is still adjusting.'

'…Adjusting to what? What have you done to me?' He repeated, frustration rising.

'All in good time, Hidan. Now rest.' He lifted his hand and brushed it over the teenager's eyelids, closing them gently. And for some reason, Hidan could do nothing but comply.

A/N: Feedback on Hidan's past so far would be greatly appreciated! Actually, feedback as a whole. It really helps me get a feel for what people think and what people would rather read :D

Question today is: What is a group of unicorns called? 3

And the riddle: A man left town on a horse on Thursday, was gone for two days, and came back on Thursday. How did that happen?

Peace out!