A/N: Hope everyone's staying safe given the current climate. The UK has been on lock-down for a few weeks now, so I guess I have no excuse not to update. Besides, I got a really encouraging review and it reminded me to get back to it! So thank you :)

Mosquito's have 47 teeth. 47! They must be the smallest teeth in the world.

And the riddle answer is 12. There's January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd… And so on :P

I still don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Deal with the Devil

'So, when're you gonna tell your stupid pal over there to fuck off?' Mika grumbled, scowling at the back of the Kakuzu's head for the thousandth time. They were almost halfway back through the land of fire, and despite Mika's moaning, Hidan had ceased to relent his hold on her.

'…He's not my friend!' Hidan exclaimed, completely offended. 'He's more of a colleague.'

'Whatever. He's pissing me off.'

'He can hear you, you know.' Kakuzu mumbled, beyond irritated by his companions' incessant bickering.

They both ignored him.

'He's just a grumpy old miser. You get used to him.'

'I don't plan on getting used to him, I plan on getting rid of him.' She huffed, folding her arms and leaning against Hidan's neck. She was restless, and her anxiety grew increasingly with every step back towards her wanted posters, especially now her hair was black again.

Hidan pursed his lips in thought. He knew the risk of taking Mika back so close to River country, but he had to choose his words carefully with Kakuzu. One wrong phrase and he's be instantly accused of attempting to harbour the reward for himself, which in reality, they both knew was bullshit. But his partner was nothing if not protective of his bounties, so Hidan was hesitating.

It was an odd feeling, having to tiptoe around the older male. Usually he didn't give a flying fuck whether his crass personality affected Kakuzu, for better or for worse. But this time was different, because it wasn't only him who'd be suffering for it.

Trying to convince Kakuzu to part with potential money would be like bartering with the devil, and that thought gave the Jashinist an idea.

'Hey, Kakuzu. How about a deal?'

Kakuzu threw him a withering glare. 'I assume this is in relation to the bounty you're currently lugging around for me.'

'Of course.' Hidan grinned, digging an elbow into Mika before she could spit something back at him.

'Then I'm not interested.'

'Aw, come on, buddy. You haven't even heard me out yet!'

Rolling her eyes, Mika muttered under her breath, 'I thought he wasn't your 'buddy',' but her words were halted when Hidan hoisted her upward sharply, cutting her off.

'I highly doubt you have anything to offer of equal value, Hidan.' The ever-stoic male hadn't even bothered to turn around throughout the exchange, but Hidan somehow managed to keep his tone light and friendly.

'Ouch, that hurts.' He feigned mock sadness, then brightened again. 'Well, I was just thinking I could owe you a favour or something.'

At this, Kakuzu's steps slowed. 'A favour?'

'Yeah, anything you like. Call it in at any time, I'd be in your debt.'

Hidan bit back a smirk. His partner was predictable, power-hungry, and he knew he'd worded that perfectly.

His steps now ceased altogether, Hidan pausing too several feet behind him. One green eye regarded him suspiciously, his cold expression calculating. Mika swallowed the lump forming in her throat under the scrutiny, but her friend's cheerful expression did not falter. He knew he had him.

'What is she to you?' Kakuzu asked suddenly, Hidan choking on his grin at the odd question.

'Wha– errr, she's… Wait, what's that got to do with anything?' He spluttered, incredulous that his partner would even wonder about something like that.

The older man watched him momentarily, then Mika, who's expression had frozen in shock, before casting his eyes away from them entirely.

'If you make me regret this, Hidan, I swear to all of your blasted Gods, I will hunt you down, and I will tear your heart out.'

The Jashinist felt Mika gulp again, but he himself was still reeling from the unexpected question to even be offended about Kakuzu's crude reference to his religion. He managed a nod, and they watched in silence as the ex-waterfall ninja disappeared into the treeline.

However, just before he left, Kakuzu paused again. He threw Hidan a meaningful stare. 'By the way, Hidan, our leader is almost ready to put stage two of the plan into motion. You had better be ready to do your job when he summons you.'

A few minutes passed, and Mika finally released the breath she'd been holding, shrugging herself off Hidan's back and grinning when he let her. She pushed her arms upwards, stretching her stiff muscles and cracking her neck.

'Wow, I really didn't think he was ever going to change his mind.'

'You have no idea…' Hidan mumbled in response, sounding distracted.

'I guess I should say thanks.' She finally smiled at him, a small, but genuine smile.

Snapping out of whatever reverie Kakuzu had left him in, Hidan threw her a smirk. 'I told you I'd figure something out.'

Her eyes rolled at his smugness. 'Hey, what did Kakuzu mean before he left, about your leader?'

Hidan raised an eyebrow at her curiosity and debated fobbing her off. But then, Hidan had never really cared much for their leader, or the organisation as a whole.

'I'm not exactly sure of all the details myself, that leader is almost as stingy with his plans as Kakuzu is with his funds… But I think the gist of it is world domination.'

Mika snorted. 'Oh, is that all?'

'Yeah, he gave me some long-winded lecture a while back about how they ultimately want to control the world, so that they can eventually put a stop to war. They also wanna thin out the population a bit…'

'Don't want much, do they?'

Hidan snickered, sarcasm suited her.

'How can thinning out the population ease war?' She wondered out loud. Then again, she supposed if there were less people, there's be less mouths to feed, less people to share land with… Huh. Maybe they were onto something.

'Leader thinks that by killing around one third of humanity, he'll be able to provoke their obedience by instilling fear in them. It's kind of a shitty plan, but he thinks of himself as some kind of twisted God. I don't really care about any of it, but the opportunities it provides me with for my rituals is hard to criticise. Most of the bastards they send us after deserve what they get, which keeps Jashin happy, and eliminating potential threats to Akatsuki keeps Pein happy. Guess you could call it a win-win.'

'Pein?'

'Our leader.' He smirked at her look of scepticism. 'Seriously. He's fucked up.'

'So what's stage two? Erm, and stage one, come to think of it?'

'Stage one was to gather enough money for stage two, which is why Kakuzu's been so active lately…' He grumbled, more to himself. 'But stage two is to build a mercenary army with that money, to buy loyalties, get them to fight for their cause and shit.'

'Isn't that kinda like what the shinobi villages already do? They get paid to take on missions, right?'

'That's what I said!' He yelled, sounding proud. 'But no, according to Pein this is different cause it's on a world wide scale. Which obviously leads into stage three. The execution.'

Mika wasn't exactly sure what to make of all this intel. On the one hand, she figured the intention of stopping war was decent enough, but she was pretty sure this was the entire wrong way to go about it. And a third of the population would be a lot of blood and loss. A whole lot.

'Are you sure you should be telling me all this?' She tilted her head, wondering why he was so blasé about it. But Hidan just shrugged.

'Like I said, I don't really give a damn about the organisation.'

She figured, since he was immortal, he didn't exactly have to worry about the punishment of death. 'But what about your religion? Doesn't that align with the plan to have a third of the population zapped down to join your God in hell?'

This time, Hidan looked positively insulted. 'I do not 'zap' people anywhere! Geez you're so uneducated. Jashinism is all about the individual. Each sacrifice is carefully prepared for and every one is different so that they can receive judgement in their rightful way, via the ritual. It's not just a bunch of homicidal maniacs running around blindly slaughtering villages.' And then, with a wink, he added, 'That's just me.'

Although it was a distasteful joke, she laughed anyway. The lines between right and wrong all seemed to blur around him, and while he might not have been the most articulate of preachers, he made it sound personal.

'Any idea when they plan to begin the final stage, then? You know, just so I can work on my bomb shelter.'

'You might need that actually,' Hidan chuckled, remembering another member and his love of all things explosive. 'Hell if I know when. But when it does, I'll come find you.'

Mika blinked, confused. 'Why?'

'Because I'm the only one who's not going to kill you, stupid.'

Against her better judgement, her topaz eyes flickered to his magenta, surprised by his blunt admittance. 'Even after I told you about my past, you still find me worth saving?' She asked, her voice small.

His hard gaze softened, almost sympathetically. The emotion was foreign on his face, but she found comfort in it, somehow.

Sensing a rising blush creeping onto her features, she shrugged the question off before he could answer. 'Doesn't matter anyway. I won't let anyone kill me but you.' She grinned, and he matched the expression.

'Guess you're going to be living a helluva long time then, huh?' The Jashinist chuckled, removing his giant scythe from a clasp on his hip and hooking into its usually position on his back. 'So where will you go now?'

Mika hummed, expression sobering. 'I think, I'm going to go back to Tanigakure. I've been running from that day for too long, and I think Hana's family at least deserve an apology from their mother's murderer.'

'…You have to be kidding me.'

'No, why?' She blinked, surprised by his suddenly dark expression.

'Oh no. I did not just practically sell my soul away all for you to backtrack and go home anyway! No way in hell. And I know that fucking miser will be thinking up the most blasphemous favour he can get me back with right now…'

'I'm not backtracking! I'm trying to move on! If I go there willingly I'll have the chance to convince them to reconsider whatever they have planned. I'm sure that the Land of Sound have figured out something's gone wrong by now, I mean it was three years ago I was supposed to be marrying that creep.'

Hidan bristled at the mention of the Sound ninja, but she continued, unfazed.

'And Hana had children. She had a whole family of kids who lost their mother because of some stupid political agreement gone wrong. And I'm at fault whether I intended it or not. This is just something I know I have to face, Hidan. I do appreciate getting the chance to without being dragged kicking and screaming into the village. Wouldn't exactly encourage my innocence, would it?'

The corners of his mouth twitched. He knew she had already made up her mind, and he knew this was no invitation to join her, no matter how badly he wanted to feel that bastard dying under his curse.

The words his partner had asked him echoed in his mind. What is she to you? Hidan didn't know if there was a name for what she was to him, but she was someone important. He hadn't realised until now, and he didn't know when it had happened, but somehow this girl, this woman, who both entertained and infuriated him to no end and whom he could not seem to shake no matter where he went, had managed to worm her presence into his life. And he knew if she were ever to leave it, he'd miss her.

Mika stood watching an array of emotions flicker across his face as he thought, and she wondered what he was thinking about. Finally, when it was borderline awkward, she spoke again.

'I'll see you again.'

Again, he scoffed, but he eyes remained soft. 'I know you will.'

A/N: I have a few ideas as to where this fic is going, like, I know the main plot points, but I keep getting more ideas for extra scenes and chapters! I didn't want to drag this out for ages, I think it's going to end at around 25 chapters. What do you guys think? Too many Too less?

Question of the chapter: What is the one letter that does not feature in any US state name?

And the riddle: How many cats can you put in an empty box?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! :)