At dinnertime, a waitress rolled a cart down the aisle and passed out food. Kakuzu kicked Hidan in the shin when he received their cheap food.
"What!?" Hidan peered over the edge of the blanket.
"Food," Kakuzu replied opening the aluminum foil wrapping.
"Oh, thanks," Hidan took his plate and set it at his side, "Mitsuko, wake up," he shook her gently.
She twitched her nose and inhaled the scent of food, instantly waking up. Hidan handed her a plate of food with a smile.
"We'll be arriving there soon, within the next hour. From there, we must travel to an out of the way village to throw off any suspicions," Kakuzu told both of them as he took off his leather mask and began to eat.
"Aw, we have to travel again? God, Kakuzu!" Hidan complained.
Mitsuko watched discreetly over her plate as Kakuzu ate his food. He seemed to just swallow it, rather than chew and savor it. He was very odd; Mitsuko had never seen anyone with no lips and such a long mouth.
"But once we get there, we'll get disguises so we can stay longer than we would as we are," he lifted the spoon to his mouth and slurped the steaming hot vegetable soup, "And we'll all live together in a shabby apartment or whatever."
Hidan grinned excitedly. Mitsuko realized that Hidan enjoyed being around this creep for some reason. It wasn't love. Maybe it was like how Mitsuko enjoyed hanging out with the one village girl, Yumi? Yumi always told her jokes and took the edge off of Mitsuko's busy day. Kakuzu made Hidan feel at ease.
"And I guess I can pick up bounty hunting again," Kakuzu sighed as he finished his soup and set it to his side.
"Would I still be able to kill?" Hidan whispered, leaning in towards the middle of the two seats.
"I don't care, do as you like but if you get caught, I'm not taking care of Mitsuko for you," Kakuzu replied bluntly with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"Alright," Hidan breathed, a plan already forming in his mind.
"What can I do, Kakuzu?" Mitsuko asked, trembling with fear as she made an effort of conversation with him.
His neon green eyes laid on her, uninterested in her normal human powers. "We'll find something for you to do when we get there," he told her like a patient parent.
Mitsuko sighed. She was hoping she could do something cool like bounty hunting, but then, she would probably have to work alongside Kakuzu. She quickly changed her mind; she didn't want to be around the creepy old man. She could stick with cleaning and such.
"Mitsuko can make some good food though! And she's pretty when she's fixing it too!" Hidan put an arm behind her, pulling her closer with a grin.
Kakuzu slowly shook his head; this wasn't like his partner at all. But it was nice that Hidan wasn't so cranky.
"He can't be killed. We've stabbed him over a million times, decapitated him and I blew him up. He's still alive. This has led me to believe that Hidan has encountered some kind of spell, even though he claims that it was a gift from his god," Shikamaru told Haru with one eye closed as they both sat on the brown couch.
Haru squinted his eyes, thinking hard.
"When you fought him, did you make mental note of his movements, his technique, and his weapon?" Shikamaru turned his head to face the younger version of himself; only Haru's hair was let down, wet and tangled in front of his face as he had just washed it.
"I caught him by surprise and he stabbed me in the arm with a kunai, out of reflex. After licking my blood off the kunai, he began to change," Haru turned and gazed at his dad through his wet, black locks.
"Black skin, white paint, indication of the third eye?" Haru nodded, "Then what?"
"He drew his own blood and formed a triangle within a circle with it. Is that how he can inflict pain?" Haru began to see through the veil. His father nodded.
"The jutsu he uses can only work if he is inside that shape. If you can get him out of that shape, you can do anything you want to him without inflicting pain to yourself. But we have to figure out a way to destroy him, completely," Shikamaru clenched his fists.
Haru stared at the wooden floorboards as he thought about possible ways to kill Hidan that hadn't been tried yet. He blinked and turned again to Shikamaru, "What if we burned him?" he suggested but Shikamaru didn't show any interest in the idea as he stared at his son, "Until he turned to ashes?"
With that, Shikamaru smirked. "That might be a plan," he said, patting his son on the head.
Haru smiled with pride. They were one step closer to destroying Hidan and bringing Mitsuko back home.