They've stopped to make camp for the night. Hidan twirls a pike in his hand, murmuring a prayer to Jashin before starting his nightly ritual. Kakuzu counts up the money he's made today to keep himself occupied; every now and then he shifts his gaze to the priest to watch him perform this precise ritual he's seen done so many times before.
He wants to laugh. Parasitism; that's all it was. He worships; bleeds, and offers sacrifices just for his god, and for it he's stuck with immortality that's only been driving him insane.
Hidan's only bleeding himself dry.
Eventually Hidan catches him staring and gives him one of his fake shit eating grins that keep Kakuzu from reading him. Kakuzu takes the chance to look over the mark that runs over Hidan's eyes. At this point it's only been reduced to a thin scar; by tomorrow it'll be gone completely.
That's something Kakuzu envy's about Hidan. He has no scars to hide; nothing to remind him of his past. He'll only need to push it to the back of his mind and it'll be like it never happened.
He glances at the corpses that lie at his feet as he attempts to wipe the blood off his hands only seceding in staining them farther. The ground around him is littered with corpses; all look just out of their teen years.
It's a pity, Kakuzu thinks. Kids just out of the academy always think they can take on anything and always seem to forget the difference between a simulation and real life. Kakuzu doesn't bother to check them for cash. If they had any they wouldn't have bothered with their failed ambush in the first place.
Kakuzu starts moving down the road; before he starts yelling at Hidan to hurry the hell up he catches something out of the corner of his eye, fly by his head just barely missing his face.
As he turns back to the road they came from he sees Hidan trying to whip off the blood on his scythe, cursing when the red stains refuse to come off. Kakuzu groans to himself; Hidan's always annoying when he has to clean that damn burden he carries.
Behind him Hidan's dropped to his knees; he has his head in his hands and seems to be clawing at his face. Kakuzu wants to ask him what the fuck he thinks he's doing but he's caught off guard once again, this time by the boy when proceeds to slash his throat in a desperate attempt to kill him. Kakuzu knocks him to the ground; giving him one hard punch through the chest he ends his life. Pulling his hand away he wipes the red liquid dripping from his hand onto his cloak and trudges over to his fallen partner. Hidan's half curled in a ball with his hands still covering his face, his screams have been reduced to dry sobs; Kakuzu can see blood slipping through his fingers.
They've missed one of the assassins. He's on the ground trying to grab weapons out of his fallen comrades. They won't do him much good though; there's a hole in his chest and one arm has been severed. Kakuzu decides it'll be easier (and less annoying) to put him out of his misery now. Before Kakuzu can lunge at the boy he's caught off guard by a loud scream from his partner.
It doesn't take him long to piece together what happened once he spots the boys kunai imbedded in a tree. Kakuzu curses the fact that his partner's lack of concentration is such an easy weakness and gives him a hard kick in the ribs. Though surprisingly he doesn't react to the kick; he doesn't even seem to notice.
Kakuzu takes a closer look at his partner; he's lying on his side still making wheezing noises; Kakuzu can see drool coming out of the sides of his mouth. Hidan's hands are still covering the top of his face preventing Kakuzu from seeing just how bad it is. Eventually with a little force (and a bit of cursing) Kakuzu's able to pry the zealots hands from his face.
Hidan takes his arms back and feels around the ground attempting to stand up. He manages to get on his knees; his hard breathing causes him to dry heave. Kakuzu watches drawn to Hidan's actions; Kakuzu's used every form of torture he could think of on him at least once and he's never gotten this kind of reaction. But Hidan's never been blinded before.
He finds that the damage was a lot worse then he thought. The kunai went straight through his eyes; the blood is preventing Kakuzu from seeing how deep it is but he knows it punctured his cornea.
Hidan drags his newly wounded fingers through the ground leaving behind a red trail that forms his symbol. Even after seeing this same ritual done so many times Kakuzu can't stop watching.
Hidan eyes meet his for a moment before he quickly turns away. Hidan makes a sound of offense; Kakuzu expects him to start bitching. Instead he throws back his head and lets out a laugh; Kakuzu wonders just what he's high on, but he can't keep his eyes off him for long.
He positions himself on his back in the center of the circle, and then holds up one of his pikes just above his heart. Mumbling a quick prayer he slowing plunges the pike into his chest.
Kakuzu can never look at him when he does this. He can never imagine someone willing to harm their self daily and actually enjoy it. The feeling of having sharp objects tear through his skin, breaking though his ribs, and ripping strait through his hearts, is still one of Kakuzu's most hated feelings even after all the years he's endured it. Especially since every heart he loses gets him closer to death.
The lack of medical equipment they carry proves to be an inconvenience. With no way to stitch over Hidan's wound, Kakuzu resorts to using a piece of torn cloth as a makeshift bandage; though it's more to keep Kakuzu from having to see it then anything else.
It's been over half an hour, their over a mile away from the battlefield, and Hidan still hasn't stopped his whimpering. Kakuzu finds it harder to bear then his bitching. Being so pathetic and helpless feels so out of character for him. Especially for someone who can endure getting his head cut off and continue to whine as it's being sewn back on.
After Hidan finds himself facedown after tripping over a root, Kakuzu decides he's had enough. He trudges over to the zealot and yanks him up by his collar. Ignoring the painful yelp he receives he grabs his partner's wrist and starts pulling him along; keeping his hold on the back of his cloak to prevent him from tripping again. After a few choice cruse words, his partner stays silent for most of the trip.
Kakuzu wants to quicken their pace. He doesn't want to be anywhere near here when the ANBU arrive. Unfortunately, Hidan's current handicap is preventing them from doing so. Kakuzu is normally patient when he holds them up but he finds his patients wearing thin very quickly.
Its quiet
The only break in the silence is his partners occasional coughing. He obviously punctured a lung, Kakuzu figures; just another burden from those damn rituals of his. The blood he hacks up forces him to turn his head to spit it out.
No doubt the feeling is similar to drowning.
He feels around the circle to see if he's finally got it perfect; cursing when he hits a snag in the design. Kakuzu sighs; it's been an hour and he hasn't even gotten the symbol drawn. Kakuzu wonders how much more blood he can lose before he passes out. Eventually Hidan gives up all together. Wordlessly he throws his spike down and trudges over to his partner.
Kakuzu is shocked to say the least. In all the time they've been together Hidan's never skipped a ritual. Even in heavy weather in with life threatening injuries he'd sooner give up a limb them skip a ritual for his god.
Once Hidan's in front of him he takes a look at the bandage that covers the cut. The cloth is completely red; bloods even started running down his face. Kakuzu tears another piece of the cloth and makes Hidan sit down so he can change the bandage.
The wound looks a little better but still not completely healed. There's still some blood oozing out of spots. Kakuzu's seen him with wounds bigger then this before; chances are it'll be healed in a few hours. What he doesn't know is how long he'll take to get his sight back.
Standing once the bandage is tied on, rather then dragging Hidan by his wrist again; Kakuzu takes his hand and gently pulls him along. He feels Hidan flinch at the contact of their hands but he doesn't pull back. This is the closest thing to sympathy Kakuzu ever shown anyone.
The puddle of blood forms a ring around Hidan's head. The shape reminds Kakuzu of a crimson halo.
Fitting for someone like Hidan; after all he's worked so hard to become the perfect Jashinist.
Any other time Kakuzu would be thankful for the stone cold silence between; but at the moment he can't stand it. The lack of conversation (even if it would be mostly one sided) has only seceded in making the day drag on longer.
By nightfall they reach the stopping point; Kakuzu leaves to find wood to start a fire. Once he returns he finds Hidan picking eagerly at the bandage around his eyes. He walks over to help him pull off the cloth. The blood sticks to him making Kakuzu pull off some skin that makes new small wounds.
Hidan can open his eyes again. The light from to fire is bright enough to make his eyes water. Kakuzu gets started on building the while he waits for Hidan's vision to come back.
Eventually Hidan gets to his feet and strides over to Kakuzu. When Kakuzu asks him what he wants Hidan tells him to move, he needs to perform a ritual or Jashin will smite him. Kakuzu glares, but moves away to let Hidan start; inside he's almost relieved.
He's back to being Jashin's perfect servant. This'll only be an event they'll never talk about again.
Kakuzu can feel the tiredness washing over him. He's timed Hidan's rituals before, and knows it should be over by now. Chances are he's fallen asleep at the end of it again. Kakuzu also knows this isn't a problem as long as he finishes praying beforehand.
Hidan expects Kakuzu to take care of him; he'll be bitching tomorrow if he doesn't. Kakuzu moves over to him, stopping when he's hovering just above him. He doesn't bother waking him up. Just reaches down a rips the spike out of his body in one quick motion.
He can hear the ribs cracking back into place; Hidan shifts but doesn't wake up. Kakuzu bends down and picks him up, then moves him so he's lying in the grass right next to him. He convinces himself it's just so he won't have to listen to him bitch about being sore from sleeping in the dirt.
Kakuzu knows he shouldn't be thinking about what happened today. He knows Hidan won't bring it up again; but it keeps nagging at him that Hidan went straight back to the way it was before even after Kakuzu saw his weakness. It's like Hidan trusts him not to use it against him.
Tomorrow everything will be like it was before; they'll fight to the point where they start breaking each others bones, and criticize each other just like they used to. But something between them will have changed that'll make them question their whole relationship.
Kakuzu knows this,
and it's just fine with him.