After having gone through the tree tops for nearly a full day, Shikamaru decided it would be best for Ino to get rest before finishing the trip to the forest.
"We'll stop here." Shikamaru stated.
"Right." Ino confirmed. And just hidden from their sight, the ANBU had heard what Shikamaru determined and agreed to take shifts watching the group until day break.
Shikamaru had had his eyes fixed firmly on Ai for most of the way there, and hadn't planned to let up on that, not even to sleep. Instead he convinced Ino that she should just worry about getting her rest as their medical nin while he watched the Akatsuki member Hidan, making certain he wouldn't try anything against them.
Though quite reluctant, Ino understood she just couldn't get through to him, so she agreed.
As a little campfire was set in the middle of the opening of the woods they were settled into, Ai set himself down to rest opposite where Ino and Shikamaru were.
His wounds didn't feel like they were getting any better, and he believed a good sleep was much needed. However, he decided to first ask Ino for her assistance.
"Uh, I-Ino." Ai spoke timidly uncertain of what her reaction would be.
"I was... just wondering if you could look at these wounds of mine. They feel like... like they're getting worse."
Ino looked at Shikamaru to see if it'd be okay with him since he was being extra wary about everything Ai did and stated. Shikamaru nodded lightly, with his hands in his pocket as he sat on the hard ground, before glaring back at Ai.
"Okay, lemme take a look." Ino stated walking over to him.
After closer inspection, Ino didn't have a very good diagnosis. She realized Ai's wounds were indeed getting worse, having not been healed that whole time. He seemed to have picked up a certain type of infection which needed more than her medical ninjutsu could heal.
Ino then decided she'd tell Shikamaru first.
"Wait here, I'll be right back. I just need to confirm something." She spoke calmly to Ai, who then nodded.
"I wonder if something's seriously wrong," he thought before taking in a huge breath and exhaling.
"He's really going to need attention fast if we don't want those wounds getting far worse than they already are." Ino spoke quietly to Shikamaru.
"Is it possible for you to just heal him enough to keep things from getting too bad?" Shikamaru inquired.
"Not like this. His wounds have been badly infected, so it's beyond what I can do right now. He'll get sicker if we don't do something soon."
"Well, " Shikamaru said thinking it over. "We can't risk going back now, only to heal him up so he can make a run for it." He looked downward from Ino toward the fire. "He'll just have to cope with it," Shikamaru decided.
Ino walked back toward Ai, not wanting to reveal any bad news, feeling somewhat sorry for the situation he was in.
"Okay, so for now, you seem to be fine. You're just probably tired from all the jumping around. Just get a little rest and you should feel better." Ino tried to be as composed as she could, not feeling justified in withholding the truth.
"Okay..." Ai replied. Exhaustion was heavy in his voice, which concerned Ino even more.
After everyone was settled, Ino managed to fall asleep and Ai as well, even before she did.
Shikamaru, however, stayed wide awake still distrusting of their passenger. Instead, he saw this night as an opportunity, before they made it to Hidan's burial place, he could set a few things straight, and so he called out for Ai, though not by name.
"Hidan," he stated, believing him to only be feigning his sleep for just the chance to escape, or worse. But with Ai feeling so worn out, it was showing not to be enough to awaken him.
And as Ai dreamed, he recalled yet another memory with his brother Hidan.
In this memory that played back to Ai, he and his brother were on a mission together, trying to gather information on enemy nin. Ai was to provide cover, while Hidan was to gather what he could, listening in, without being detected. However, with Hidan as anxious as ever to do harm to enemy Shinobi of his village, he blew the entire cover, but not before telling Ai not to screw things up by getting himself in trouble.
"I got you, you bastards!" Hidan yelled as he hopped down from the tree tops he and Ai were positioned on, and toward the enemies.
"What the hell...? What's a kid doing here?" One of the three ninja present asked aloud.
"Who the hell cares. They're obviously here to gather information on the plan. Take them down." Their leader commanded.
Fully confident in his abilities as a Shinobi, though still very unrefined, Hidan went in for a strike on the leader, disregarding the other two as insignificant.
"Hidan, we're supposed to gather info, and not give ourselves away!" Ai cried out, far too late to change Hidan's mind.
"Aww shut up wussy, and help me take him down!" Hidan was certain it'd be easier to get information out of them by taking in their leader and torturing him, than waiting around for them to spill anything important. But as Hidan looked his brother's way to berate him, he hadn't noticed one of the Shinobi was rushing in toward him and was prepared to strike him at his heart with a kunai.
"Hidan, look out!" Ai cried as he performed his hand signs high in the tree.
As Hidan turned to face the Shinobi whose weapon was about to pierce the vulnerable youth's heart, steam was released directly under the enemy nin, searing him, to which Hidan swiftly moved out of the way before he was caught in the steam as well.
"Hey you dumb ass, you almost burned me, too. Watch it!" Hidan chastised his brother.
"That's what he says for me saving his life?" Ai thought to himself.
The leader saw nothing to be gained by sticking around and battling children. "Grr, let's go nitwit," he spoke to the only other Shinobi left. "We don't have time for this. They've severely burned our contact, so now we can't relay the information."
As they made their escape, Ai jumped down from the nearby trees to where Hidan was.
"Damn it, they're getting away!" Hidan yelled about to make a dash after them, only to be stopped by Ai.
"What's the big idea, Ai!? We need to finish this mission!"
"The mission was botched the moment you decided to jump into action, Hidan. And you heard the guy; we killed the ninja who was their contact, so trying to sneak the information we needed is out of the question. And there's no way we're getting any info out of those guys without killing them like we did this guy. We just need to report back."
Hidan felt disinclined to do anything his younger brother ordered him to do, but he quickly figured he'd probably not be catching up to the ninja they were after, having wasted time listening to Ai try to talk him out of it.
"Yeah whatever." Hidan shrugged it off. "Can't believe you, the wussy, got to kill someone and I didn't. It's great you didn't just sit there and cry like a bitch, though."
Knowing that this was the best he'd get as far as a compliment and a thank you goes from Hidan, Ai happily accepted what his brother had to say.
"Thanks," Ai smiled.
"What're we going to tell everyone though? I knew they shouldn't have paired me with you." Hidan began to complain. "But since you're my brother, and they think you keep me from 'going overboard', I guess it had to be so. They should have at least given us another teammate, but I guess you're the only one who'll put up with my big mouth, like they said."
"Of course, Hidan!" Ai spoke in a chipper tone, to which Hidan gave him a peculiar look.
"You're my bro, my twin, so any mission that's yours is mine. We can always team up! I mean, you're the only one who puts up with my sensitive feelings, I guess," Ai said feeling a little embarrassed to bring it up.
"Ya know, as sissy as you are, you're definitely reliable and loyal."
Ai was somewhat stunned by Hidan. Reliable and loyal weren't words Ai was used to hearing his brother say to him.
"I thought you'd never be a real Shinobi like me, but I guess you actually can hang with the best of us." Hidan finished.
These were the best years Ai would remember with his brother, when he showed to be more than a blood thirsty criminal the world would come to knowing him as, but as a true big brother who had his own way of showing his love for his sibling.
"Haha, thanks Hidan." Ai said before dashing off for their village. "Betcha I make it back before you!" He laughed.
"Hey no fair you cheating bastard! You gave yourself a head start! You know I'm going to beat you, anyway, or my name's not Hidan!"
"Hidan!" ...
"Hidan!" ...
"Hidan!"
The name rang out from Ai's dream, back into reality where he slept on the hard ground, near the fire. Ai had just then realized Shikamaru had been calling on his brother's name, still believing it to be his own.
"Sit up. We need to talk." Shikamaru demanded to the now wake Ai.
"Uh talk?" Ai thought. And just then, he felt a sharp pain make its way throughout his entire body. "W-what is this?" He grimaced as he struggled to gather his breath.
"So ... what i-is it you want to talk about?" Ai painfully spoke his words, while sitting up, knowing he'd receive no sympathy from the now embittered Shinobi.
"Well, I decided I'd be the one talking, and you'll be the one listening." Shikamaru spoke frankly.
Shikamaru took a small breath, looking into the flames of the campfire, being reminded of the lighter of his sensei Asuma, as it flickered before him.
"From the start, I knew there was something just off with you, but couldn't quite place my finger on it," Shikamaru began. "But instead of going with my senses, with the logical thing to do, I let you convince me you were some helpful Shinobi, rather than the scum... the murderer you are." Shikamaru's words were cutting sharp at Ai.
"Because I had a lapse in judgment, I endangered everyone, my friends, my family within the Leaf to the same monster who took away my sensei."
Suddenly, Shikamaru's look became intensely fixed on Ai.
"I don't know how you managed to put up this facade for so long, or at all, for that matter. Everyone knows you're not that intelligent and little more than a crude brute at best, but I want you to know that I'm not buying it any longer, and the moment we arrive at the place I buried you, you're going right back in there. So whatever it is you have planned for the village, for my comrades... for me, it's going to fail, whether the Akatsuki's behind it or you're on your own for revenge."
Ai could almost feel the venom in Shikamaru's words work it's way through his system, crippling him from saying anything in response. It was that or the excruciating pain he was feeling that made him hold his tongue for that moment.
Ai knew he couldn't say much to convince Shikamaru that he wasn't his own brother, with a face that told otherwise, but just like he had done in the beginning to gain his trust, he felt it was worth trying again. He was just going to be himself not focusing on Hidan, but on his own dream of being a shinobi.
"S-shika..." Ai paused to take a deep breath, to help him ignore his own pain and focus on Shikamaru's instead. "Shikamaru, I'm ... sorry," he spoke softly, to which left Shikamaru in a slight shock.
"He's apologizing...?" But then he quickly remembered his own words about not falling for his put on anymore and figured even a cruel murderer would know that saying sorry would gain him favor with anyone naïve enough to believe him.
Ai continued on speaking. "I'm sorry I lied to you, and everyone else, but not about being who I truly am, but about what I really look like, and my beginning as a shinobi. I just couldn't tell everyone the truth since I found that in doing that, everyone would reject me before I could even show who I... truly was." Ai's breathing was growing heavier.
"I'm also sorry for what my brother's caused you to go through." Shikamaru became a bit more attentive to Ai's words. "I can't imagine what it must have felt like to lose your sensei to someone who doesn't care at all about other people's lives, but I can say that I'm greatly sorrowful for all the pain Hidan has caused, for all the pain I caused..."
"Bastard!" Shikamaru cried out.
"You think apologizing now will make it better!? And worse, you're not even truly apologizing for what you've done; you're detaching yourself, making it seem as if it was another guy's crimes, when you killed him! You killed Asuma sensei!"
Ai was partly shaken by Shikamaru's outburst.
"You can keep going on and on about how you're Hidan's brother, but everyone can see through that lie of yours now that your transformation jutsu's not in place. Just you wait; you're going to pay for every life you mercilessly snuffed out!"
Ino had awaken upon Shikamaru's rant, and felt a bit shaken up herself, not at all used to seeing the calm, collected, and relaxed Shikamaru so high strung. He seemed far angrier than when he first faced off with Hidan after their sensei was killed. Maybe it was because Shikamaru felt he partly failed to avenge his sensei, Ino wondered. But whatever it was, she felt she couldn't let him dwell in it too long.
"Shikamaru..." she thought to herself with concern as she looked at his hardened eyes toward Ai. "I'll take my shift now, Shikamaru," she spoke abruptly.
"Ino? Wh-... no. Just get your rest, Ino. I'm fine."
"Shikamaru, seriously, get some sleep. You're the brains of this operation, remember? If you're not at the top of your game, anything can go wrong." Ino gave him a comforting smile, hoping he'd take what she said to heart.
And with that, and a bit of time, she was able to convince him that she'd be able to handle herself as she kept her shift.
"You should probably get back to sleep yourself," Ino suggested to Ai who was still awake. She felt concerned for his health though she wasn't so certain she should be, not knowing the full truth.
"No, I'm... I'm alright."
"But you look exhausted."
"I definitely am" Ai said truthfully. "But if I do, sleep that is, I'll only dream of him again, and I don't want that. It's just too much."
"Him...?" Ino became intrigued.
"Yeah, my brother..." As the words left Ai's mouth, he began to feel hesitant to continue on, remembering what speaking about Hidan got him when he talked with Shikamaru.
Noticing his apprehension, Ino decided to reassure him, though she again wondered why she felt so calm around him.
"It's okay. I won't yell," she spoke softly.
"I ... I never meant for any of this trouble." Ino couldn't tell if the pained expression of Ai's face was because of his injuries, or because of what he had a need to say.
"I only wanted to continue my dream as a Shinobi, to be what I've always striven to be. I only wanted... to be my own man, my own Shinobi, and not have to live my life in the shadow of my brother and all of his actions."
Ino tried to bring herself to understand, and surprisingly enough to her, it was coming fairly easily. She couldn't stop the nagging feeling toward what Ai was speaking wasn't a lie. She couldn't believe that someone like Hidan, a merciless killer, someone who felt no remorse or regret for all the lives he took could fake such emotion and keep up such an act for so long.
"Hi- ... Ai" Ino called to Ai's surprise. "I don't think that until we get to Hidan's grave Shikamaru will trust anything you have to say, but I want you to know... I want you to know, I believe you."
Ai was stunned.
"I believe you are who you say you are. That you're not Hidan, and you didn't mean for any of this. I'll do my best to keep your health up until we're able to get you back to the village, but try not to push yourself too much, because what I didn't want to share with you was that... well, you have a really bad infection."
Ai was somewhat surprised, but not entirely. "I see."
"But, we have all the supplies we need back at the village, and we only need to get back there in time to make sure you're okay. Things shouldn't get too bad while we're out here, so long as I'm keeping your infection in check. And it won't be long til we arrive at the burial, so we'll be back in the Leaf before you know it."
Ai began to tear up for the sympathy Ino was showing him. "Thank you Ino." Ai told her as he choked back his tears.
"Yeah. You just get some rest okay?" she smiled his way.
Upon everyone's waking up and preparing to head out, Ai was in worse condition than when they set up camp.
Though Ino was fully understanding of how hard the rest of the journey would be for the ill Ai, Shikamaru wasn't all too convinced, though he began to have a nagging feeling, himself, that he decided he'd try to quiet by continuing to remind himself of what happened to his late sensei at Hidan's hands.
However, seeing Ai, and the look in his eyes made Shikamaru feel less bitter toward him and more sympathetic. He didn't look like the Hidan he knew. Even just before he buried him alive, Hidan kept with his same cocky attitude. He didn't once show a sign of remorse in his eyes, not once did he give a hint of helplessness and humility, even without his limbs attached. He always clung to the fact of his being immortal as something to get him out of any desperate looking situation, and none of that was showing in Ai, to Shikamaru.
For a moment, Shikamaru could feel his face reflect a bit of compassion toward the Shinobi he was so convinced to being Hidan. Ai looked his way, still wincing in pain from his injuries, and was slightly surprised to see such tenderness in Shikamaru's expression.
And just as suddenly as it showed, Shikamaru snapped out of it, feeling he was getting away from himself, and falling for Hidan's deception.
"The bastard took me hostage; why am I even slightly conflicted? I need to keep 200 moves ahead of this guy, so whatever he's got planned, won't work on us. I can't afford to let my judgment lapse again. Not when lives are at stake." he thought.
Moving forward, Ai was having trouble keeping up with the group, but dealt with all the pain he had as best as he could, determined more than ever to make it to his brother's grave to prove his own words; that he was Ai, and not Hidan.
Ai had felt a great sense of loss when he heard what happened to Hidan, though he couldn't deny he expected as much ever since he was a young boy. And just as he felt a sense of loss there, somewhere in him, he felt something similar to that when he lost Shikamaru's trust. He felt fully responsible for all of what was happening, though Hidan's deeds were what got him in trouble, and he believed that he even deserved all the pain he felt. Had he just been truthful from the start, maybe none of what was happening would have happened, Ai pondered.
Ai and the group were just a few yards away from the grave, and just before they reached it, it was decided upon that those within the ANBU would remove all the dirt from the burial with a special earth style jutsu they knew, and place it all back when necessary.
Once they got there, all were on guard with the exception of Ino, for when the dirt was removed. She had full confidence Ai wasn't Hidan trying to trick them, and seeing how sick he was getting, she didn't believe she needed to guard herself from him, in any case.
"Shikamaru, no matter what, I want to thank you for all you've given me in trust and in friendship, even though I've betrayed both." Ai swiftly stated before the completion of the jutsu, though feeling it'd fall in deaf ears anyway. But for Shikamaru, it hadn't. He heard clearly what Ai had to say, even though he denied what Ai had to say as being from anywhere sincere. But still, how was it possible, he wondered, for Hidan to hold such deception as he did. He wasn't that smart, nor that patient to drag such an act on for so long.
As they continued the earth style jutsu, circling the grave, Shikamaru looked on at Ai, while Ino looked on at Shikamaru. She felt he was acting very unlike himself now, but what then when he found Ai wasn't lying? How would he cope? She wondered.
Ai was breathing heavier than ever now, but convinced himself it wasn't because he was getting too sick, but more because of anxiety from the anticipation of seeing his brother, Hidan. How would he cope with such an image in his head, he wondered.
With the ANBU concentrating on the earth removal jutsu, and the minds of the other Shinobi preoccupied, none sensed the danger which was nearby, waiting for the chance to strike even one of the Leaf Shinobi down, waiting for their chance to get revenge on the Leaf Shinobi for what they had done.