I'm back! And insanely happy! One more week until Hidan and Kakuzu appear in the anime! XD I'm not obsessed at all…¬.¬
Ch. 6
Kakuzu had booked a room in a shady hostel on the outskirts of the Hidden Grass village. As he entered to inspect the room, he dumped his still unconscious partner on the nearest piece of furniture. Luckily for Hidan, it turned out to be a small sofa. Before moving to check on the sleeping quarters, Kakuzu stole a quick glance at Hidan. He had quietened down considerably in the last ten minutes. Kakuzu had almost torn the immortal's throat out when he had started shouting on the street again. Fortunately, the few onlookers presumed he was drunk, and left the two Akatsuki alone. Now, Hidan was breathing quietly, bar the occasional groan.
Kakuzu left him in the other room, and sat down on the bottom of the bunk beds. He was still waiting for Pein to contact him. He couldn't start a telepathic conversation with the leader, he could only respond to Pein.
He was getting impatient about the mission and worried about Orochimaru's plans. According to Sasori, the only way to get rid of the curse seal was to bring the victim to the brink of death, where upon the mark would truly activate. The piece of Orochimaru would come out, and have to be defeated. Kakuzu massaged his temples. That would be almost certainly impossible to accomplish with Hidan as the curse host.
Kakuzu thought hard. A suppresser might work, until a better solution was found. He would try it tomorrow; he was at his limit now, and needed rest.
He was about to lie down when he happened to look through the open door to the sofa. He looked back at the top bunk, and sighed. Finally, a night without that bastard's snoring.
The night past without incident. Hidan was till battling the curse mark. Kakuzu glared at his partner, as if the coldness of his stare would wake him. He would perform the sealing jutsu when the bastard woke up. Despite his resolve, he wasn't prepared to wait on him, and he went out to get breakfast, locking the door behind him.
…
Back in the dreamscape, Hidan's resolve was wavering. This impostor had succeeded in making him doubt himself. He shook his head again.
"That's impossible! No one can kill me, dumbass!"
The snake-eyed Hidan looked unconvinced.
"No one's ever perfected a tensei ninjutsu until now."
Hidan laughed trying to dispel his doubts.
"You're bullshitting."
The impostor laughed with him, except this time, the laugh wasn't like Hidan's. It was more of a low chuckle, and its tone was much more condescending.
"If you really feel that way, then forget my offer. But it will always remain open. For as long as you live."
Hidan raised his scythe threateningly.
"Get the fuck out of my head."
The impostor smiled.
"I will, for now."
He started to fade, and Hidan let out a breath.
"Shit, that took forever."
"Oh, one more thing."
Hidan raised an eyebrow, cursing under his breath.
"What now prick?"
Silence. Then-
"If you even want to speed up that taijutsu of yours, use my little present."
"Huh?"
At that moment, Hidan felt the mark burn. With a jolt, he realised it was spreading. He swore and held onto it.
"Not this shit again!"
The smiling impostor disappeared fully without another word, but Hidan barely noticed. The rest of the dreamscape was fading, and everything was turning black. Suddenly, he felt determined to get out of this place. He wasn't going to wait for another freak to appear. On a sudden impulse, he shut his eyes.
He opened them a second later. The weird landscape had gone. There was a ceiling in front of – no, above him. He was lying on something soft. It was daytime, and he could hear people outside on the streets, selling food and objects of interest.
He sat up suddenly, heart pounding, skin burning. How long had he been out of it? Whatever amount of time it was, it had certainly done the trick. Hidan felt incredible. He never felt so powerful before. His chakra was going crazy, multiplying every second. He had gained a new level of agility, which he demonstrated by leaping off the sofa, out the window, off the adjacent wall and landing precariously on the water tank on top of the hostel.
But that wasn't all that had changed. He jumped down onto the roof, ready to go back and get his things. He stopped as he caught sight of his reflection in the water tank. His expression clouded as he took in the black markings that covered almost half of the right-hand side of his body.
Even as he watched, the markings shone and moved further across his body. He grimaced as they made their way across his face. He could've sworn one went into his eye.
At that exact moment, another change happened. An overwhelming bloodlust erupted in him. He had to kill something, maim it, make it suffer or he would go mad.
He leapt down into the room to retrieve his scythe. The townspeople below would do nicely.
He stood on the windowsill and gazed hungrily at the people below. It had been so long since he had a potential massacre on his hands. He was going to enjoy this. Grasping his rosary in one hand, he tensed, ready to pounce on the nearest one; a merchant who had set up his stall a few feet away from the hostel walls. He leapt- but froze in mid air.
Some all-too-familiar black tendrils had speedily tied themselves around his wrists, ankles and waist. He barely had time to realise what was going on before he was flung back through the window and thrown on the floor. He turned his head and glared at his partner, who was standing, equally furious in the doorway. Two of Kakuzu's hearts were holding his down, and try as he might (and did) he couldn't break free. Kakuzu suddenly landed at his side and pressed a foot down hard on his chest. He bent down; eyes narrowed and voice icy.
"I told you a million times before; this is a stealth mission. No killing sprees, and for god's sake control that fucking curse mark."
"Don't you fucking lecture me again!"
Hidan's temper rose dangerously high.
"Let go of me you bastards! I'll slice you up so bad no one will know what you were, Stitches!"
Kakuzu straightened up, but didn't take his foot off Hidan.
"Big words for Orochimaru's new lackey."
"If you fucking mention that shithead's name again I'll-"
Hidan stopped, and seeming out of sheer stubbornness, manually tried to rein in the effects of the curse. The bloodlust disappeared, replaced by his usual feeling of hatred towards Kakuzu whenever he did anything like this. At once, he felt the marks of the curse retreat back the way they came, making him shiver. Hidan's energy was also draining. Once the curse mark had ceased activity completely, he felt suddenly out of breath and his tensed muscles went limp.
Only then did Kakuzu take his foot off. It returned a second later in the form of a hard kick to the side. The blow almost winded Hidan more.
"Aw, you fucking-"
He aimed a punch at the offending leg, but it turned out as a pathetic swipe, and then the arm fell back to the floor. The two hearts let go of him and merged with their main body.
Hidan pulled himself into a sitting position. He rubbed the cursed spot with his hand.
"What the fuck just happened?"
He got no answer.
Kakuzu had just finished covering the floor around Hidan in characters, and was now doing the same to Hidan.
"Hey! Answer my que- what the hell are you doing?!"
"Just stay still."
"Wha?"
"And if you even touch those symbols, I swear I will kill you."
Hidan looked closer at the characters. They were written in blood. Then, he heard Kakuzu making handsigns.
"Hey, hold on a sec-"
Kakuzu's hands clapped down on the curse mark, silencing Hidan. His eyes widened as he saw the markings rush from their starting positions up his arm to the mark. It wasn't a pleasant sensation, but he could stand it much easier than when he first got the curse mark.
The last of the symbols circled the mark and froze, staining the skin around it. Hidan realised his body had stiffened while the jutsu was going on, and flung out his hands to catch himself as it relaxed again. He turned back angrily to Kakuzu.
"What the hell did you do?"
Kakuzu 'hmphed' and turned away.
"It'll help keep the mark under control, since you obviously can't handle it yourself. No need to thank me for saving your useless ass. I don't know why I bother."
Hidan got slowly to his feet.
"I didn't ask for you to butt in, asshole. I was handling it fine by myself."
Kakuzu snorted.
"Going to massacre a whole village and give the game away to any bingo book holders in the area, not to mention letting that curse take you over is handling it really well."
"Shut the fuck up! Can we just go already? You're pissing me off, seriously."
Hidan hated when Kakuzu used sarcasm, and especially when Hidan was feeling like shit.
His partner may have replied to him, but he heard nothing. The effects of Kakuzu's jutsu suddenly hit home, and he fell back onto the sofa.
…
Back in Otogakure, Orochimaru sat in his lair and listened to three Otonin spies' reports.
"We're sorry, Orochimaru-sama, but we lost them after they left Kusagakure. The masked one is very skilled at shaking off pursuit."
The three shinobi contritely bowed their heads. Orochimaru waved it off.
"Well, you'll just need to try harder to hang on to them next time. You're dismissed."
The three vanished in a flurry of smoke. Orochimaru waited until the smoke had fully dispersed before getting off his throne-like chair. He walked rather aimlessly around his lab, running his long, pale fingers over the nearest pieces of equipment. Kakuzu would shake off any more pursuers easily now that he was on his guard. But now that Hidan had been marked, there was little else to be gained from shadowing them.
Orochimaru knew Hidan would survive the curse mark, whether his mind or body rejected it or not. That was where the problem lay. The curse mark's potency lay in its ability to kill off shinobi that were too weak to handle it and also, those shinobi that resisted the temptations put to them during the initial stages. In the past, if a test subject survived the mark, Orochimaru knew immediately that they were practically his. Hidan's immortality nullified that process of selection. Orochimaru could only rely on his wits for this one, even if his spies did track the Akatsuki pair down again, they couldn't just waltz in and read Hidan's mind.
He would have to play the opportunist and take his chance nearer to the time of transfer. Perhaps Hidan only needed more time to consider his offer?
Orochimaru looked away from his lab equipment and out at the nearest training ground. The newly formed group, the Sound Five were there, sparring.
It wasn't as if Hidan was his only candidate for a vessel…
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