Please check out my other story, Silver Spoon! It's getting all my attention right now. Enjoy the update!

Warning: gory imagery ahead

The Akatsuki meeting spot wasn't too far from the port city, just a week and a couple million steps. Sikas feet ached all the way to her hips by the time they reached a tiny town to the north, midway though lighting country. Though chickens outnumbered people here, it was quiet and nice with pretty flowers and nicely kept lawns, trimmed trees and hedges, and after turning down gravel road the flora only got nicer from there. At the end of the road was an old feudal style house, three stories tall and at twice as wide.

"Oh no way you guys live here?" Sika gaped, mouth hung open.

"No," Kakuzu grunted, "it belongs to an associate of ours. Meeting purposes only."

Up all three flights of stairs to a large meeting room, a long, traditional low table in the center set with tea and sweet dango snacks. A black haired man sat at the head of the table, dressed in the same red clouded robe as Hidan and Kakuzu. He was beautiful, not as beautiful as Hidan, but his skin reminded Sika of the color of bleached parchment and his long tresses of hair looked black as night, though she was unable to judge his age with the frown lines set on his features. Hidan eyed her, asking himself why someone who'd just left a whore house would be looking at men that way, especially criminals.

"Your early," the man spoke, his deep voice projecting over the room and commanding respect. Sika swooned.

"Better early than late," Hidan scoffed and threw himself down at the opposite end of the table, away from his leader. That creepy fucker made him nervous, especially with those eyes. It wasn't like he was jealous or anything either though, nope.

"Might I ask about our guest?" The leader asked, raising his eyebrows. It wasn't often their meetings had spectators and like any good leader of anything top secret, he was suspicious. Kakuzu grunted, jerking the girls arm to bring her around beside him, but Sika did not need an excuse to introduce herself.

"My name is Sika, uh, Otori, Sika," she grinned, practically love sick, her manners thrown out the window, she'd do anything to learn his name, "and you are?"

"Uchiha, Itachi," he replied, tone very flat, and very emotionless, "Akatsuki leader."

"Your the leader?" Sika gasped, "oh I wouldnt have guessed!"

Hidan would have been laughing, Itachi was a stoic asshole and he hated him, he deserved to be mistaken for a nobody. Certainly Hidan wasn't jealous, but why was itachi getting all the attention?

"Your so young and handsome!" Sika continued. If Itachi was flattered he didn't show it. Hidan set his jaw on edge.

"Leader, do you suppose it would be alright if Sika sat in our meeting today? She has... A condition," Kakuzu coughed, using the term condition loosely. Really he just wanted to keep an eye on her. Itachi nodded and Kakuzu sat down, jerking the tawny haired girl down with him. Not to be ignored, Hidan moved closer, setting one final time next to Sika. The rest of the Akatsuki attending began joining them shortly after.

First it was Kisame, the big, blue, hulking, bastard, and all of a sudden Itachi was old news. Being from the mist herself, meeting a real live member of her villages seven swordsman was almost too much for her. She shook his hand about a million times and gushed over his sword and pestered the shit right out of him with question after question.

No, he did not know her father, no, his favorite food was not sushi or sashimi, yes, he was born that color and no, he did not take vitamins for it.

Then Konan and Pein joined them, and Sika begged the blue haired woman to teach her to make a flower like the one in her hair. Hidan could see Konan biting her lip, her ball piecing rolling with irritation by use of her tounge. Pein was about two seconds from almighty pushing her though a wall.

The meeting was long and boring as usual. Handing out more missions, giving reports, being endlessly lectured about 'ethics' and 'practicality' and all this bullshit that basically meant don't kill anyone you don't have to, and then gave a Kakuzu an updated bounty list. Hidan hated it and he hated the Akatsuki. Really the only reason he was here was for his own selfish need for security, without Akatsuki he was one murderer, alone, with a huge bounty. Sika probably hated it more. Absentmindedly, she wondered who everyone was here if it was only Hidan and Kakuzu that missed a meeting?

"Moving on," Itachi continued, after near an hour.

Oh god, Sika thought, what had she ever done to deserve this?

A sudden, sharp poke to her hand attracted her attention. Looking down, Hidan had taken the paper sheet he was meant to take notes on, folded it up small, and written something on it. Peering down, Sika made out his hand writing.

"I'm bored," it read, a little frowning face with its tongue stuck out was drawn next to it.

"Me too," she replied and handed him back the pen.

"Let's play hang man," the jashinist suggested and Sika nodded. Hidan then proceeded to draw a set of gallows and then fourteen blanks. Sika wrote her guesses down next to it. The letter b gave the man a head, the letter d gave him a body, but the letters t and a gave her a little to work with. Ta and then a blank, then the letter a. Sika guessed I and that filled in a little more.

Ita, blank, blank I, then another I, clearly a part of the word is, then the a, and then the lone I in the middle of the last word. Oh, Hold on, Itachi is a something? Sika guessed a few more letters and ended up with p, c, k, and two arms, but finally she had enough to finish the puzzle.

"Itachi is a prick?" She wrote down causing Hidan to snicker. That was it alright. Hidan finished hanging the guy anyway, because damn, what was suffering without death? He had to finish him off. That made Sika snicker.

"Do you two care to share?" Itachi's cool, crisp voice asked and they knew he was talking to them.

"No," Sika murmured, feeling all eyes on her. Just like a school kid getting in trouble, and just like the teacher, Itachi went back to speaking. Hidan's eyes meet Sika's for just a second, still scheming, and he could see the delight in her hazel irises. She was having just as much fun as he was.

The meeting was adjourned after nearly two hours of drag out, monotone speech and some of the other members left, Hidan being one if them, going with a downstairs while chattering to himself something about ideas for mass destruction. Sika, head resting in folded arms at the table and tired looking eyes, choose to stay and finish her tea. After hearing all she'd heard, Sika wasn't sure she'd be allowed to leave alive anyways.

Sitting up and pulling from her bag, a well worn magazine from a few months ago, crumpled cover and all made its way to the table and she flipped pages to an often visited, dog eared page on these people. She'd read the page a hundred times, she knew every word by heart. Something here just didn't make sense. She knew it'd been off since the first time she meet Hidan and Kakuzu, but now something really wasn't lining up.

"So, your mercenaries?" She asked, cutting the silence in the room, "I have this that says..." She trailed off. She looked up, pushing the article in to the center of the table, but after she realized only four other people were left in the room, and all eight sets of eyes were on her, she felt a little sheepish.

Itachi cleared his throat, sat down his tea and picked up the magazine. He scanned the page, skimming the paragraph briefly before signing and setting it down. He moved very slowly and he spoke almost as slowly, like every move was calculated.

"This article isn't the whole truth. This paints us as heroes, as if we only do good things, but sometimes you have to do something bad to get good results," the ebony haired man spoke quietly, "Take for instance, Orochimaru, you are aware of him, correct?"

Sika was. She'd read an article about him too, ninja monthly had a profile article on him last fall, he'd killed the third Hokage after letting loose a huge three headed snake in the far away leaf village, attempting (and failing) to kidnap/curse a teenage boy and all.

"He's gone now. He was leading a small country which has since plunged in to civil war, that's bad, but an evil man is dead, which is good. It outweighs." The leader explained.

It took Sika a second to wrap her head around that. According to him, the Akatsuki was neither bad nor good.

"I still don't understand. Isn't it wrong to damage many lives in exchange for one?" She asked, sweeping golden locks over her shoulder. Her facial features told the leader she was intent on comprehension, but that wasn't something he could just give her. After moments of silence Sika accepted she wouldnt be getting her answer.

According to Itachi, the ends justified the means.

According to Itachi, the sound village would reach peace after its civil war, without help.

Sika wasn't so sure. If she knew anything as truth, things rarely went as planned.

After tea, Sika was involuntarily drug along with Kakuzu down to the ground floor. The masked man wouldn't let go of her arm and she knew better than to try to shake him. It was okay though, she was pretty sure he was going to feed her, and she wanted all the food she could get. Unfortunately, Kakuzu wasn't headed for the kitchen, he was headed to a sun room where his partner and two new people that hadn't been at the meeting were sitting.

Hidan was laying stretched out on a sofa, sleeping, while a blonde boy her age had his back leaning on that same sofa, concocted something in a jar, taking powders from other measuring cups at his feat and sprinkling them in, all while stirring a color changing liquid. A redheaded man much older than her sat motionless across the room from them, face unreadable. When the banker sat down next to him, he forced Sika down to the floor.

"Sit still," he commanded, but they both knew she wasn't able to do that. It was quiet for a while, save for the occasional sizzle from the blonde's science experiment, but quiet was boring and whatever he was doing looked fun. Childishly crawling on her hands and knees, Sika crossed the room and came to rest next to him, peering at his work. He spared her a single glance as he worked.

"Deidara, If that explodes in here, I swear, " the red head threatened, but Deidara ignored him. Well at least now Sika knew his name.

"What are you making?" She asked, leaning over to get a better look.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. And I'm making a substance to pour in to my explosive clay. There's too big of a bang when it explodes, too noisy," he replied, picking up a cup of pink powder and gently, ever so slowly, he began pouring it in.

"Wouldn't do what?" She asked.

As if on cue, Deidara unknowingly shook just a little too much in, and the jar exploded. Glass went everywhere, flying across the room and slicing anything in its path as the liquid inside it fallowed suite. Chemical burns formed right away on Deidara's exposed skin, red, angry and bubbling, and they should have blinded the girl sitting too close for comfort, but instead her eyes were covered.

"Son of a fucking- ahh!"

Above her, Hidan hissed in pain and drew his hand away from her face, gripping his wrist with his free hand. Sika gawked at him, seeing stars, as he gritted his teeth, swore and waited for the healing to begin, both unaware of the noxious fumes filling the room.

Sasori and Kakuzu were quick to react, Sasori yanking Deidara by his collar out of the room, but Kakuzu wasn't so nice to his partner. The banker grabbed Sika by her long hair and drug her, leaving Hidan to fend for himself. Smoke alarms were going off around them as they exited, the emerald eyes man depositing his money ticket in the grass outside the building and warned her to stay put as he walked off, intending to beat the shit out of Deidara and survey the damage done to his pocket book as well as the house. He bumped shoulders with Hidan, who walked towards Sika as Kakuzu walked away.

She stood up and meet him, clamoring to see his hand as he god damned and son of a bitched everything to heathen hell. Hidan's skin was already scabbing, shrinking, scarring and then returning to normal. He flexed his hand a few times, moving his fingers around before sighing and huffing.

"He fucking left me! Unbelievable! Seriously, he's another godless bastard headed straight for hell," the Jashinist grumbled, rubbing his hand just a little longer to chase away any lingering pain.

"That was really cool," Sika blurted, "How you handled that I mean."

Hidan tried quickly to brush it off, caught off guard. It hadn't been that big of a deal to him, and fir the first time he had to think of something to say, "it was nothing."

"Nothing?" She mocked, eyes as large as dinner plates. "you saved me. I mean look, I'm not even hurt."

"Well," he began, but trailed off, unable to finish his thought. It was true, looking her over, she was completely unscathed. He'd acted on instinct he tried to tell himself. He could see her pulse under her skin, her breathing hitched in excitement every so often and her pupils is dilated uncontrolled, blown larger than he thought possible. Why was she so interested in him? He didn't know. They sort of stared awkwardly at each other for the next couple moments until he pulled his hand from her grip. It was healed and she didn't need to hold on to it anymore.

"Hey!" Deidara shouted across the lawn from a doorway, his hands bandaged and a black eye forming, "it's safe to come back inside!"

"I'm gonna kick your ass so hard blondie, your gonna have to staple your dick back on!" Hidan shouted, narrowing his eyes and clenching his fists. He motioned for Sika to fallow him and lead her back in to the house. Deidara had disappeared but Kakuzu was sitting at the kitchen table, so Hidan decided to park himself there. Sika fallowed his lead.

"Will you tell me again about the commandments?" She asked, catching his attention just as he settled in to the dinning room chair.

"Sure," he cleared his throat, happy to share again, "One, share your pain and your pleasure."

"Go slow," she urged, trying to drink his words and memorize the shape of his mouth with every syllable.

"Two, all blood will be spilled for Lord Jashin and no soul will be left battered," he continued, speaking much slower, like a mantra, "three, two people can never have sex to create a child. Four, a person is never to offer themselves for profit and-"

"No, wait, tell me more about four," she wanted to come closer to him,to wrap her heads and her hands around his words. Was there more? More scriptures, more to listen to, more to read? She want, no, needed to know it all.

"A Jashinist should hold lord Jashin above all and hold themselves above all worldly possessions. Basically you shouldnt sell yourself out for anyone or anything," he elaborated. Talking about his religion made him feel smart, it was one thing he was good at other than fighting, and he spoke with confidence.

The gears turned in Sika's head.

"Suicide violates number one?" She questioned, "because I'm not sharing pain?"

"Bingo," the Jashinist grinned. For once someone was listening to him preach? No way! It was only silent at the table for a moment before Sika opened the table up for discussion on the principles of jashinism again. She understood suffering, on an emotional level, and the cult preacher's methodical tone was getting to her.

The pair drew a lovely parallel to each other. Hidan could hardly keep from hurting himself, he liked the hurt, he liked the stinging of his skin, he liked the ache deep inside when he plunged a weapon though his chest, though his heart, his lungs, his bones. He loved it more than he hated it, and he hated it a lot.

The preset was a walking oxymoron.

Sika didn't mind though. Someone else understood everything she'd been though and that was all that mattered.

Several others joined them at the table, namely the red head from earlier, Sasori, who spoke with Kakuzu in low tones even after the religious session was over. Somehow a conversation with the banker about a bounty turned in to a weapons discussion with the girl.

"Well, poison is clearly the quickest, or slowest, depending on your taste, way to kill someone. It's most efficient," the red head lectured, "no mess. And when things stay contained, it's easier to make my art."

"Art?" Sika questioned.

"Here we go," Hidan huffed. The quiet red head wouldn't let it go now she'd asked about it.

"Yes," sasori continued, producing a small vial of purple colored liquid from who knows where on his person, "this, for instance, a drop only takes a minute or two. After death I can begin making the left over parts in to a human puppet."

"She's a civilian!" Hidan tried to argue, but his captive audience had already been stolen.

"I begin by turning the skin to leather, and fit it with joints on a wood frame. I remove the innards and replace those with weapons, it takes endless hours of toying with the joints to get everything just right, but the final product is true eternal beauty."

The red heads face never changed, and his lips moved in a very unusual way, and that's when Sika realized, in pure horrified, disgust that he himself was one of the puppets. This man was a sick son if a bitch if Sika had ever seen one. She understood weapons, but not weapons that used to be people.

It was sort of ironic, the way she felt.

Did those people he killed, still stuffer? Did they know they were dying? Did it hurt? Did they move on to meet lord Jashin? Wait, hold on, was there a correct way to suffer? A correct way she should feel pain?

"Do you mind if I take this?" Sika asked, fingers headed in the bottles direction. It was small, but probably enough liquid inside to kill a bull elephant. It shone a bright amethyst in the lighting, it's triangular shaped bottle capped off with cork.

"Not at all," the red head replied as her fingers closed around it. Kakuzu scowled deeply behind his mask, and went to take it from her as she brought it closer to her person, but Hidan beat him too it.

Sasori knew what she was up to, and Sasori wanted it to happen. Seeing his action offended the other two men at the table, he excused himself under murderous glares, not that he cared one way or another. A new body was a new body.

"Don't be getting any ideas," the masked man growled. Sika gave him a sideways glance but didn't reply.

So Sika dicked around with Hidan for the rest of the afternoon, they played hangman a few more times and they ate dinner. No one used the dinning room table besides them, though each member, save for Sasori, went though the kitchen and served themselves some of the food that the house staff provided.

As it was, the house did belong to an associate of the Akatsuki. This associate was more than happy to lend his resources, because, you know, they were afraid, and their resources did include food and a full staff.

After dinner, Deidara joined them again and Kakuzu left. Sika learned that Deidara and Hidan were close in age, and much closer in personality. They both harbored some kind of murderous intent that hinged on mass genocide, in a way that was both intense and chill at the same time. Deidara made Sika uncomfortable. She was used to ninja and she was used to murder, but he made her uneasy. She kept her mouth mostly shut.

That was a paradox, Sika realized. Hidan had tried to kill her, on purpose, and Deidara had tried to kill her on accident, but somehow the blond with the strange kekki genkai seemed worse. Hidan was at least upfront about wanting to kill someone. Deidara seemed very unassuming, but he had to be some kind of crazy to be a part of Akatsuki. Eventually simple chatter about murder turned in to drinks.

Sika didn't drink, but Hidan drunk like a fish.

Deidara was a lightweight, which was to be expected since he was so small in stature. He was drunk three drinks in, but macho man Hidan was positively trashed by four. That was sort of surprising. Sika figured he must have a low tolerance. So, being an opportunist and having an active death wish, Sika got an idea watching the two men together.

"Hey, you guys, I think you should have a drinking contest."

"What kind of contest, yeah?" The blond asked, slurring his words with his face flushed.

"First one 'ta puke looses!" Hidan bellowed, laughing and pulling the drink glasses over to Sika. She took up the bottle and poured the equivalent to two shots in to each before passing it back to them. Hidan picked his up and tipped his head back, the liquid sloshing out of the cup and he downed it in one mouthful. He slammed the cup back down on the table and commanded another. Deidara did his a little differently, instead choosing to chug it in slow succession. He kept it tipped up and he kept drinking until his glass was empty, and he presented his cup to Sika too. They kept on like that for two more rounds until finally Hidan lost, tipping his head a little too far back until his chair fell over and he hit the ground.

"Oh shit," the blond boy muttered, downing the last of his drink so he could declare himself the winner. Sika knelt down and put her hand on the down man's forehead. He was out cold, passed out drunk, just like she'd wanted. She still needed to look concerned though.

"Do you think you could go get Kakuzu for me?" She asked, looking up at Deidara, "I'll stay here and try to wake him up."

"Sure," he slurred, and struggled to stand. After he finally got to his feet he staggered off down the hall, using the wall for support. Sika waited until he was out of sight to go for the vial Hidan had tucked away into his pocket.

She held the bottle up in the artificial light, turning and twisting the bottle to see how it would react. Air bubbles in the bottle sloshed around with it, filling space and maneuvering the liquid inside. A drop of this would kill her in a minute, she wondered what a whole bottle would do.

Beside her, Hidan groaned and opened his eyes, watching her though narrowed slits. Sika wondered if he could even see her. He was so out of it. He might be looking at her, or he might be looking though her.

"It's been fun," she muttered, popping the cork from the bottle. She stuck it under her nose and inhaled, and after finding it had no smell, she concluded that she'd die in a pleasant way, since it probably wouldn't have a taste to leave in her mouth.

"What?" He murmured, and then suddenly, his eyes went wide, "hey! Don't!"

His intoxicated hands grabbed for the poison bottle, but she was a lot more coordinated than him. She leaned away from his swipe and downed the bottle, the smooth, waxy substance sliding down her throat with ease. No sooner had she cast the bottle away were a pair of hands around her throat.

"Son of a bitch!" A voice behind her roared, and suddenly her jaw was being ripped open. She heard it crack, fallowed by white hot pain searing though her skull, and she knew Kakuzu had broken her jaw. He'd unhinged it from her skull and then broken it in two on the right side, the bone jarred and rubbed on itself before faltering and overlapping, tearing her muscles and sending her nerves into misery.

"Go find Sasori! Go! Now! Find the antidote!"

She knew he was yelling, no, screaming at Deidara, as his fingers found their way to the back of her throat. She wanted to suppress her gag reflex just like she'd been taught at the brothel, but her jaw hurt, it hurt so badly she couldn't think. She threw up, again and again until he finally dropped her, face down.

Someone's feet were running but she couldn't see who, she was too far lost in to a coughing fit, laying in a heap and failing to breathe. She'd been lucky it hadn't been her neck that snapped. Her vision was blurring, the edges turning white. Someone was talking again, but who she didn't know.

"Where's the antidote?"

"There isn't one."

"What do you mean there isn't one?!"

"I mean one doesn't exist."

"Fuck! Fuck fucking fuck!"

This was not like she imagined it. She was laying in puke and struggling to breathe, weather that was from throwing up or the poison she couldn't decide. This was not a quick, quiet, peaceful death where she slipped off in to a sleepy darkness. No, this was painful and downright terrifying.

"Kakuzu! Gimme something, a knife, anything!"

"Oh no, your not sacrificing her, this is your fault!"

"I don't give a shit! Give me something! Now!"

Something clinked and hit the ground near her with a thud. She felt the floor shift and heard it creek, a hiss of pain, a pause, and then she felt it. Cool metal buried itself deep in her guts, twisting and driving itself down further until it could no more. The pain in her jaw was nothing compared to this.

"Hidan!"

"By the power of God, the great, the powerful, the Devine, Lord Jashinist, I ask, I beg, for you to make this woman my sister and spare her heathen soul from the depths of hell and eternal damnation!"

All of a sudden her breathing failed all together. She gasped and choked and stifled, but still she was asphyxiating. Her body halted, she wasn't even sure if her heart was still beating, but the floor below her was growing wet and warm as she grew pale and cold.

"Hidan!"

"By the power of the God I hold dear, please, take her and make her your own!"

"Hidan!" A voice bellowed like a bull elk. Whatever it had been inside of her, radiating the cold twisted deep within, pulled away, tearing her flesh and skin more so on the way out. It hurt.

It hurt so bad.

This was a pain Sika had never felt. She couldn't feel her legs. Her chest was on fire. Ache radiated from her jaw. This was so prominent, like nothing she'd felt before. There was a weight on top of her but she barely felt it. She wanted to scream, she wanted to let sobs wrack though her body, but she couldn't. Nothing would move. Her world, in that moment, was made entirely of pain.

The weight above her lifted, and slowly, she realized, that had been Hidan laying on top of her. Not that she could see it, but he'd slit it own throat to sacrifice her, and then slumped over her until he regained consciousness.

"Well that'll sober you up," he coughed once, and sniffed. The room was quiet, the silence beginning to stale.

"My fucking money!" Kakuzu shouted, that had to be Kakuzu.

"Relax money bags," Hidan scoffed, "give her a minute."

Long strided, heavy foot steps approached next, and a deep, raspy, tired sort of voice that could only belong to Kisame spoke, "Anyone want to explain just what the hell is going on down- oh." The room probably looked like a war path. 'Oh' was right.

"Like I said," Hidan hissed, and then growled, "give her a minute."

But a minute, a full minute, passed and Sika was still caught in limbo. She was still in unbelievable pain. Her senses had been robbed, she was dead, she had to be. This was hell, Hidan was right about killing herself.

Her eardrums began to ache, pounding and ringing and thumping in to her already damaged head, vibrating helplessly and adding to torment. Then her throat was on fire, and a sound rung though the air. What was this? This couldn't still be the poison could it?

No, Sika realized, it was her. That was her own voice, screaming.

Her jaw bone ticked and then twinged, ticking again and again, fighting to fix, to adjust its place until finally it mended with the most intense agony of the night. Her jaw itself cricked and shuttered until it too repaired itself. Her chest, which up until now had been spilling its contents on the floor was mending with the same white hot fire that she'd felt when her jaw broke. She could feel bones realigning and her organs twisting back in to place like a gentle hand was nudging them back in to place. Her wound was closing, knitting itself together and scabbing, only to scar, and then allowing the scar to fade. Her pain lingered, just a few more seconds, becoming less and less until it was gone.

When her eyes opened, it was quiet again. She hadn't even noticed herself stop screaming.

"Sika, if you can hear me, say something," Hidan rasped, low and unsure.

She drew in a breath with what felt like a new pair of lungs,"Something."