The sky darkened. Black pressure gathered in the ravine. Soaring winds of darkness swelled up across the battle ground.
Hidan's eyes narrowed. Tricky. I'll take care of things. He glanced around briefly. "It seems you're trying to trick me, huh? Well, fuck you. I'm not so easily deceived!"
Tayuya's eyes narrowed. Now, I have things rigged up. Come on over.
Hidan rushed forward. His scythe swung rapidly through the air.
Tayuya tugged rapidly on the string. Light poured down from the razor-thin wire.
A boulder rolled down from the top of the ravine, slamming into Hidan's throat.
Hidan gasped in shock. His arm crushed against the wall, the bones snapping rapidly.
Tayuya's eyes narrowed. Let's see how you do against crushing. According to the information we were given, you've not been exposed to that. If that is the way your defense operates, then we have an advantage here. Shikamaru's and Genma's information indicated that he'd been attacked up until now with slashing or bladed weapons. That might leave a vulnerability elsewhere.
Hidan rose to his feet, straightening out the scythe. A grimace of rage crossed his face.
Tayuya scowled. Che. No good. How about this? Can you drown? She ran backward rapidly, charging up the hill.
Hidan's eyes blazed. He slashed through the tree cover.
Tayuya slashed downward. A rope slid along the ground, a rock cutting a channel through the soil.
Water rushed downward into the ravine.
Hidan spluttered, his eyes wide with shock. "Fu—" he managed before the water caught up his lungs. He struggled forward, murderous rage in his eyes.
Tayuya's brow furrowed. "Fuck, you're hard to kill," she remarked. "Don't you ever give up?" Drowning's out, crushing's out. If I could cut off his arm, sure, no problem, but that gets me a sight closer to that scythe than I'd like. Also, I didn't have time to set up that kind of trap. And he'd just pick it up off the ground. If he keeps fighting like this he can probably win solely on attrition.
"Listen up, shithead." Hidan stabbed a thumb into his chest. "This is the representative of Jashin on earth. Jashin commands that we spread divine pain to others, and cause pain to them. Now, you seem to fit the bill—unfortunately, you fucking just tried to kill me twice, so you're off the list."
Tayuya raised an eyebrow. "Neat. You did some praise of God while you were slaughtering?" She adjusted her grip on the flute. "Well, I'm going to be totally honest. You're a moron for walking in here." She glanced upward. "Kill you? Sure, I can't do that. Imprison you? That I can."
Hidan frowned. He tilted his head to one side.
Tayuya's eyes narrowed. That's a complete bluff. Took most of the time to set up those two plans. I don't have anything left but a bluff, and a time question.
Hidan started forward.
"Woah, woah, woah! Didn't you hear? You're going to die if you come at me!" Tayuya shouted, a flicker of fear crossing her face.
"Then I'll lose an arm, or a leg. I'll keep coming until I've torn off your arms." Hidan's eyes narrowed.
Tayuya growled. "Damn. Why did you come at me straight away?" She exhaled. So much for bluffing. The guy's a freak—totally lost control of himself, but I gotta admire his drive.
Hidan broke into a run. His scythe cut sideways, slashing through the air and the underbrush.
Tayuya tensed. "Wait! If you kill me here, you're going to go to prison forever!"
"Don't be an idiot. Can my skin be cut? Yes! Can I bleed? YES! But I will never die!" Hidan roared. His arms rose.
"I—sorry about what I said earlier—" Tayuya started.
"Too late! DIE!" Hidan's scythe cut downward.
The scythe stopped in midair, hovering.
Tayuya exhaled. She stepped to one side. "Fuck, that was too close." She reached downward, grasping the kunai at her side. "Aural genjutsu is my specialty. Sure, I prefer using my flute. But if necessary my voice is fine too." She wiped sweat off her brow. "Let's try this now—" Her kunai darted out, cutting into Hidan's heart.
Hidan screamed loudly. "Fuck this!" Blood trailed down from the opening.
Tayuya scowled. "Of course you survived. Fucking hell." Sourly, she lowered the kunai. "I really can't kill you, then?"
"You can't."
"There's nothing I can do?"
"Nothing."
Tayuya sighed. "Fuck, that's a pain in the ass. I can still win."
"Bullshit."
A silence fell.
"Think for one fucking second," Hidan replied calmly. "Your chakra will run out. And once it does, I'll be there."
"Yep." Tayuya's eyes narrowed. "I don't fancy my chances of outrunning you, either. I still have a chance."
Hidan's eyes widened. "A chance?"
"Yeah. One last shot. I didn't want to use this, but it's my last shot."
"What the hell are you talking about? You're alone!"
Tayuya's shoulders slumped slightly. She drew in a shaking breath.
The wind blew along the ground. Cold, cool, the color of empty blood trickled down Tayuya's heart. She looked around, her heart clenching in her throat. Where were her more pleasant thoughts.
"Look!" Hidan shouted. "Where are your words now? You're alone, with no one to help you!"
Tayuya groaned. "Shut up, dumbass. Just so you know, I volunteered."
Hidan's eyes widened.
"See, I knew this was a solo mission. I was prepared to die on my own. But, unfortunately, I'm getting depended on. Pain in my ass." A small tear trickled down Tayuya's face. "I'd be perfectly happy to die on my own, most days. We were a tight-knit team, Sound Five."
"Why are you yammering?"
Tayuya's eyes narrowed. I need more time. She cleared her throat. "You don't get it at all, do you? The importance of friends, of family, of kindness. What is the meaning there? Why is it necessary? That's probably what's running through your head right now."
Hidan's eyes narrowed. "Spare me speeches about friendship. I would prefer you removed my fucking head. Again."
"Ah, shut the fuck up. A guy like you probably couldn't understand anyhow." Tayuya drew in a shaking breath. Her fingers dripped with sweat.
"It won't last long, will it? Kill! Kill for the love of—"
"SHUT UP!" Tayuya screamed.
The air darkened.
Tayuya rubbed her temples. "For fuck's sake, do you even listen to yourself? I'm willing to bet there's not a fucking word that comes out of your mouth that ain't about some non-existent divine entity."
Hidan fell silent. Shadows formed over his eyes.
"But, there is one thing you just said that's right." Tayuya's hand reached upward. The eyepatch tumbled away as she tugged on it. Her lips curled upward. "I am alone."
Hidan's eyes widened.
The eye glimmered. Bright lines of crimson swelled upward from the depths of the eye, twisting around the brown and mixing into the colors of the blackness. Twisting spheres of light swelled up around the body, glowing brightly. The sound of a demonic piping flute echoed through the darkness and filled up the clearing with shadows black and cold. The sensation of water or blood, crimson either of which it happened to be, filled the space, swelling up to Tayuya's feet.
"Begidiam." Tayuya's eye narrowed. "This ain't your ordinary aural genjutsu now. This is synesthesia on a whole different level." Her hand touched the eye. "The second I released that shit, your body probably felt something, right? It's the whole thing. Your soul's feeling it. The entire area's feeling it. If I released this while my friends were around, they'd be caught up. The other thing? You can't break yourself out. Somebody else disrupting your chakra flow might cause problems, sure. But you're trapped. Forever. I'll stay a few days, to make sure that you stay fucking dead." She rubbed her eye. "Still don't buy that 'demon's eye' thing, but whatever." She picked up the eyepatch. Her eyes narrowed. "The whole thing with you is that you've been fighting forever against something you don't even fully understand. You hate the world, right?"
Hidan's face darkened. He fell motionless, blood tearing away from his flesh. His eyes bugged outward in shock.
"The trouble is where that fucking synthesis comes from. Why is it that you hate everyone? Even hatred has a reason, right?" Tayuya's eyes narrowed. "The reason, to my mind, is that you hate yourself. You hate your weakness, your incompetence, because it's something you yourself engendered." She smirked broadly.
Gnashing teeth slashed into Hidan's shoulder. He stared around, his eyes wide as he studied the clawing monsters rushing up his body.
"You can't die? That's a coward's way of fighting. Immortality, the only sure way to kill somebody. For you, then, a coward's death. To be devoured and devoured again by the maggots that infest a soldier's corpse, for all eternity. To be clawed to death by their fangs. To endure this torment until you die, a thousand thousand years hence, and then to begin again. To feel your foot slip on the mud as you flee, a bayonet plunged into your back." Tayuya's eyes flashed blue. Darkness surrounded Hidan's body.
Hidan's lips curled upward. "I see. Jashin chose another worthy disciple in this world, then!" He laughed loudly.
Tayuya's second eye, the eye glowing with a pale blue light, darkened. "What?"
"Demon of the Sound. It was destined. You, to fight me! I to fight you! It's uniform!" Hidan laughed loudly. Maggots crawled inside his mouth. "I was chosen as the failure!" he forced out between gurgles as the maggot crawled down his throat. "I was chosen as the sacrifice, to push that eye to greater heights!"
Tayuya's eyes narrowed. You're a lunatic. She grasped her eye, her expression darkening. The sky darkened, moonlight pouring down over the fields.
"Hey! Hey! That eye of yours—" Hidan dissolved into a fit of giggling unimpeded by the maggots crawling through his eyes. "You know why it's acting as it does?"
"It works. That's good enough for me."
"Heh." Hidan's eyes narrowed. "It ain't that simple. You've seen my 'ritual', right? It ain't the same thing as you probably think it is. See, what you're thinking right now is that my ritual is cheap. Easy. A self-induced state or something. But that's batshit crazy. If any dumbshit person who followed the practice was accurate, was allowed to become invincible, there's no way in hell that the order could persist. No, it's for the few small, unique people. My ritual allows another being to possess me."
Tayuya's brow furrowed. "The hell you talking about?" He makes a few interesting points, but seriously? What the fuck?
Hidan grinned. "I'll show you. This mud and so forth; I can't reach you. But as my last act, from one worshiper of Jashin to another. A blessing for one who can see the edge of the other side of darkness." He stabbed the knife through his stomach. His lip curled upward. "You should be able to see it like this, right? With that eye of yours? Hey, hey!" He spun his foot in a circle. "The ritual is prepared!"
A black void suddenly surrounded Hidan's body.
Tayuya's brow furrowed. "What the hell?"
"JASHIN! TAKE ME NOW! I have met your inheritor!" Hidan screamed loudly. Blood rushed down Hidan's chest. He fell dead in the clearing, a sound like a drum resonating from his chest. After a long pause, his chest exploded, blood staining the ground.
Tayuya's hand stretched outward, her face shocked. "What the fuck?"
The body remained motionless. Slowly, the black faded from Hidan's skin. A great cloud of blackness rose from the body, and then swept upward into the heavens.
Tayuya's eyes narrowed.
"Eh?" Hidan's eyes widened. "Jashin-sama?!" He grasped his chest.
Tayuya stared at the body.
"I see. He's elected to reward me with eternal suffering. That's fine, too." Hidan chuckled loudly. "Come, now! Let me suffer!" The maggots returned to Hidan's flesh.
The fuck is going on here?! Tayuya's head tilted to one side slowly. He just lost his heart, which means, yeah, he should be dead. What the fuck is going on?!
Hidan lay motionless on the ground. The blood trickled from his throat slowly.
Tayuya drew in a shaking breath. I mean, fuck—what the hell? Her hand brushed unconsciously over her throat. After a long pause, she knelt, gathering up the scythe. We need to get this fucking thing analyzed, and take care of Naruto. I'm running out of energy, but I can make a little difference, probably. She staggered. What the hell?!
Bright crimson blood swelled up around Tayuya's waist. She turned to one side.
The world had become a hellscape, conjured up by the left eye. The cracked plateau of solid-black obsidian glimmered, shadowy-dark.
A surge of hosts emerged from the darkness. Their shadowy hands reached toward Tayuya's throat. Tayuya recognized Sakon and Ukon, the deathly image of the dark sky, the screaming victims of her past. Their hands stretched outward, leaving marks on Tayuya's throat.
Tayuya reached downward, scrabbling in the stone for the eyepatch. For a moment, the hand didn't catch; panic flowed through her veins. Then she forced on the eyepatch.
The hellscape dissipated. Trees loomed over the field.
Fuck. Tayuya rubbed her temples. Well, at least I know why I was told not to use this thing unless I couldn't avoid it. Seriously, that's fucking messed up. She adjusted the eyepatch slightly. Must give delusional visions or something. Ecstatic ritual, right? A brief smirk crossed Tayuya's lips as she straightened. Kah. That's some fierce bullshit, all right. For the time being I'm keeping this thing under wraps. She rubbed her knuckles. Seriously, though—She staggered toward the bottom of the ravine. Her foot slipped on the muddy slope. She reached upward, catching her fall barely on the rock. Blood trickled from her hand. She swore in a quiet voice. The walls of the ravine slipped, pieces of broken shale descending from the corners of the ravine. Tayuya ran, her heart pounding. Fuck. Is this bad luck caused by the eye too?
The mud slid downward.
Tayuya ran away from the collapsing heavens, her heart pounding like a drum. Echoes of darkened sky passed through her thoughts as she rushed out of the dark corridor, leaping over the boulder into the sunlight. Shadows crept through the darkness of the bushes, concealing despite the high sun above the battlefield.
A/N: I'll most likely be adjusting the release time based on observation of time-quality of chapter and other relevant factors. A more accurate timeline will be released sometime within the next two chapters. Thank you for reading.