Oh hello, chapter 6 here. Next chapter the story will officially be moving up to 'M' status because of the limey bits :3 So I'll be putting the rating up when that comes out. Well, things move at a pretty fast pace here, but this won't be a very long story. Please enjoy and review. Everyone who has done so gets all my grattitude and a box of fresh cookies. :)

Chapter 6- The new comrades

Hidan didn't know what he was thinking when he did that. As he lay down and prepared to go to sleep, he felt fury rising up inside him. It was fury at the confusion he felt. Assuming that his hand just moved on its own was easy, but startlingly untrue. There was that need, that desire to comfort her, when she wore that sad expression, on top of the other desire within him as well. He felt himself weakening under these thoughts and that was what angered him so greatly.

The next morning, Mia was already awake and chatting to Yusuke and Ruriko like they were old friends. A smile was once again painted on her face, and on the surface things looked normal. Yusuke was sitting awfully close to her, though, with that stupidly carefree grin. Why was he even a Jashinist? He supposed that everyone had their reasons.

"Oh, Hidan's up!" Yusuke announced. "Have some fish. Ruriko went and caught some." He handed Hidan a stick with a small fish spiked on the end. "We cooked it while you were sleeping."

"Don't bother Hidan when he's just woken up," Mia laughed. "He's cranky."

He snatched the stick and chewed silently on the fish while watching the three of them. His eyes made contact with Mia's, but she flushed scarlet and looked straight back at the other two, continuing the small talk. He glowered at them more- it was like she was trying to avoid talking to him. Maybe he'd scared her last night.

"Sorry," Ruriko said with an apologetic smile.

Hidan narrowed his eyes and muttered a small string of colourful words at her. Something wasn't quite right here. Jashinists were never friendly, never cheerful or nice. The basic principle was to destroy life to honour Lord Jashin, not to preserve it with kindness. They were being overly cosy with Mia, too, who was naively accepting their company, drawing her in. But why? His nose wrinkled with suspicious distaste.

Yusuke frowned. "The mighty Jashin probably wonders what we are doing," he mused, nodding. "I haven't actually done a ritual in days."

Ruriko agreed silently.

"I'll just have to pray extra tonight, then, because there are hardly any people around here. Hidan, why are you two travelling in these deserted places?"

"Why the fuck would I tell you?"

"Well," Mia interrupted pointedly, "It's because Hidan was part of the criminal organisation called Akatsuki, and he could be recognised easily because of his crimes and association with them. It's simple, really."

"You can't skulk around in deserted forests and wastelands forever, you know. Ruriko and I were on our way to Hiyazawa anyway; we can take you there to enjoy the sights. It'll be good for this guy to improve his social skills, too." He pointed casually at Hidan.

Mia bounded to Hidan and clasped her hands together in a begging style. A warm feeling gathered in his trousers, but he pushed this feeling away to shoot out some rude words.

"Please can we go with them?" she asked, "Come on, I bet it'll be fun."

He stared at her for a long and excruciatingly awkward while, before nodding and saying, "Fine, but if it's uphill, you can forget it."

Yusuke cheered, and Ruriko supplied a friendly smile. And with that, the oddly mixed crew were travelling to Hiyazawa, the bustling and busy town a few miles down the road.
The central nerve was lined with food stalls and street sellers, shouting their trades down the road with determined expressions and waving their products at passers by, who smiled politely and either refused or went to sample the produce. Mia watched the children clasp the waiting hands of their mothers, toys in their other hands, and trade loving smiles. Mia's expression fell for a few seconds, before she seemed to remember who she was with and switched on her habitual sunny persona.

After the lengthy walk down the main street, the four found themselves in a thankfully human-less eatery place, sat at a bar with food and-somehow- all the things Mia had collected on the way to it.

"How did you manage to buy all that stuff?" Yusuke enquired.

"I didn't buy it," she replied, mouth filled with sushi.

He nodded. "Fair enough. Now, come with me, I need to talk to you…"

Yusuke grabbed her by the arm, dragged her roughly off the stool and gestured for Ruriko to come along. Mia's protests went ignored, as were Hidan's profane objections. He watched them drag her down and waited until they were in the bar's back room until following behind and eavesdropping outside the door. This was the kind of behaviour from them that he had expected, but he was nevertheless still intensely interested in what they would say.

"So…"

He heard a thump, like she had been backed into the wall.

"So, Mia, we have to take you with us, unfortunately." Yusuke's voice, the voice Hidan had been so used to hearing, surfaced. "We know all about you."

"What? I'm just an orphan, nothing more!"

Another thump. Why wasn't Mia defending herself?

"Did you know," Ruriko taunted, "how Hidan became immortal? It was the first successful Jashinist experiment, because that time, they used chakra from a kekkei genkai…"

"The Hayashikan clan were famous for the chakra they claimed made them impervious to death. Even if you beheaded them, they just didn't die. But unfortunately, someone did chop them all to pieces and bury them in another place, far from any humans. That bloodbath must have happened when you were a little baby…"

"In other words, the only Hayashikan intact, with all the immortality chakra, is you… We need you. Jashinists had to kill one to get the power of Hayashikan for Hidan, but then they were all decapitated. Even we don't know where they are buried. We need you chakra, Mia, to make our leader immortal. Now we know that method works, we can use you!"

This was the point where Hidan gritted his teeth. He rammed the door open and took Yusuke and Ruriko out in one deft swish of his blade. The blood splattered everywhere, staining Mia's shocked and pretty face, but he ignored it and grabbed her hand, leading her out of the room with the growing pool of blood spreading inside it.

"Damn those fucking bastards!" he cursed violently, still holding her hand.

"Is it true though?" she asked quietly. "Is that why… When I was little, people never came near me. They called me a demon child. Is that true? Am I… like you? Did your people steal my clan's power? I didn't even know who I was before now, but now I know…"

"It's true. I didn't know either, so don't look at me with that sad face."

She sniffed. "In any case… thanks for saving me."

"Why didn't you fight back, you fool?"

"I still hung onto the belief that they were my friends. I thought I would need people like that around me to be happy, but…" She looked at him wordlessly.

So innocent, naïve, so beautifully pure. He didn't care about anything anymore but responding to the aching need in his heart, in his body, too. He took her blood-stained face in his hands, having dropped his blade in a clatter to the floor, and placed his heated lips onto hers.