The ANBU surrounded the grave of Hidan, and continued performing their earth removal jutsu. At the same time, Shikamaru, Ai, and Ino waited in uneasy anticipation of what they'd soon see when the jutsu was complete.

"His entire plan is about to come undone," Shikamaru thought.

"What's going to happen with Shikamaru?" Ino wondered.

"I can't believe it's actually come to this," Ai said at heart.

And with a sudden rumble of the ground, the rocks and the earth that was piled into the hole that Shikamaru had dug some time back, made to be the permanent grave of his enemy, was lifted by the ANBU's jutsu as one solid mass and was set upon the ground near to where the Leaf Shinobi stood, with a loud slam.

"It's done," one of the ANBU stated as he breathed heavily, the jutsu having taxed greatly on his and his comrades chakra.

"Here it is. Here he is," Ai thought, still in great pain.

"Hey! What the hell is going on!?" All the Leaf Shinobi heard a voice echo from the now wide open hole. "Who's there!?" The voice cried out. "It better be someone to get me out of this damn hole!"

With shock, the shinobi stood in place, each wondering if their comrades had heard the same words they were hearing. All then looked toward Ai, who himself, was in greater shock than they.

"My ... brother, he's still alive... ?" Ai was astonished.

"What's going on...?" Shikamaru began to wonder, eyes widened. "There's no way... he's not..." Hearing the voice of Hidan coming from within the ground that he, himself, had buried him in was the last thing Shikamaru had expected, seeing that Ai, who he believed to be Hidan, was standing not three feet away. As Shikamaru looked on in amazement, Ai walked closer to the hole, only able to do so slowly for the pain which was crippling him, and also for not being fully ready to see his older brother after so long and after so much had happened.

When he got to the exact spot to see clearly within the hole, what he saw was shocking to him. It was Hidan's head, and it looked gaunt from where he was standing. He also noticed how all his other body parts were scattered in a mess.

"This can't be right," Ai thought. "I know I heard his voice, but that..." he gulped. "That's only his head."

As Hidan tried to get a good look at who was staring down at him from atop the hole, he began to speak. "And just who the fuck are you!?" This came as quite a shock to Ai, who tried to reason with himself about what he was experiencing.

"Maybe I'm just delusional from all the wounds. I have a fever, so i-it's just playing tricks on my mind." But this reasoning didn't fair so well as Hidan kept talking.

"Don't have anything to say, huh? Kakazu would do that shit to me all of the time, and let me tell you now, I don't have patience for it! Who the fuck are you, asshole!?" he asked more forcefully.

Ai then remembered when he was told his brother had gained immortality and he began to understand why the impossible was happening. "Of course," Ai said in revelation. "I was told he was defeated a while after getting immortality, but never that he ... died." Ai looked on toward his brother, truly amazed at the condition both were in at this reunion.

"Grrr, I'm getting really pissed off with you just staring at me! Are you gonna get me out of this fucking place or what you piece of shit!?" Hidan was becoming more irate with his brother, who he still hadn't recognized because of the angle at which Ai stood in his view.

"Hidan, it's me." Ai spoke softly, but just loud enough for Hidan to hear.

"How long-! ..." The sound of the voice had an instant hint of familiarity with Hidan. "Wha... A-Ai? Is that you!?"

Ai's face became clearer as he moved to a different point around the hole his brother was in.

"It is you! What the hell are you doing here?" Though his greeting seemed less than welcoming, on the inside, Hidan became more confident he'd be getting out of his confinement, upon seeing his twin. "I have to say, I never expected to see my pussy of a brother anytime soon, and at a time like this, no less."

Ai coughed heavily, continuing to show signs of his illness, and as his body came in clear view for Hidan, he was able to see the full extent of the damage Ai had acquired before meeting him.

"Wow, Ai. You look shittier than me. What the fuck happened?"

"It's noth-nothing." Ai collected himself, still subconsciously holding his wounds. "Hidan, I really didn't expect to see you again, either, brother, and never in a million years would I have thought I'd be talking with only your disembodied head."

"Yeah, well, some pussy did this to me," Hidan stated alluding to Shikamaru, as he looked on at the other members of his body. "And he left me here after burying me in rocks. Ya know, Ai, after you get me out of this hole, I'm gonna find the bitch boy that did this, and shove my detached foot so far up his ass! He will know the wrath of Jashin!" Hidan was becoming more animated as he remembered his last encounter with Shikamaru. But in a moment of puzzlement, he looked to Ai. "Wait, how'd you know where to find me, Ai? I thought you were still back at the village when I joined up with the Akatsuki."

The question took Ai by surprise. He knew it was a long story that led him to this point, and he really didn't believe he'd be given the time to explain it all to his brother with the Leaf Shinobi watching over him. It was either them who'd stop him, or he'd pass out soon from the pain before he could finish, he believed. He decided instead to clear up the misunderstanding Hidan seemed to have about his reason for being there.

"H-Hidan," he started timidly. "I... I didn't come to get you out of here, brother. I came to see you because I needed to prove my innocence," Ai went on.

As Ai was talking to his brother, the other Shinobi watched on in continual confusion and shock. Though Ino expected the situation which was before her, it wasn't as easy as she first thought it would be to process that she was in vicinity of both Hidan and Ai. The contrasting personalities was so apparent now, by what she could hear of their discussion, she then wondered how any one of them could have ever suspected Ai to being someone so crass as Hidan.

Meanwhile, the ANBU, just looked over to one another, not entirely certain what it is was they should do as Ai talked to his twin. They hadn't expected Ai to have been telling to the truth, so burying him in the hole was now out of the question. Questions that were raised in their own minds were in line with wondering if they should even believe the event they were seeing and hearing. Could this have been some high level genjutsu set in place to to fool them?

While these were taking in what they heard, trying to figure out if it were all a farce, and Ino was coming to terms with it all, Shikamaru stood in place with shaking hands, and sweat visibly falling from his face. He gulped. "Does that mean, he was... h-he was telling the truth?" he thoughts went on. "I... can't believe it. All this time, I've been unsettled, not acting like myself, and he's not even the one who took my sensei away. I should have known better. What would Asuma sensei think of me getting so bent out of shape, not using logic and running on emotion alone..." Shikamaru began feeling a great sense of shame for the way he'd behaved the past days.

"What the fuck are you talking about you? Are you saying you're going to leave me in this ditch!? You fucker!"

"Hidan, calm-"

"I won't calm down til you get me the fuck out of here! You think it's fun being in a hole all damn day!? I'm thirsty as hell! My mouth is dry as a desert, and it's fucking lonely in here! And you know another fucking thing!? It annoying as shit having a bunch of rocks piled on you! So you better be getting me out of here or I'll never fucking forgive you, Ai!"

The exchange between the twins went on, one trying his best to quell the other's hostile emotions. "Hidan, please. I ... Part of me really does want to help you, big brother, but... I can't. You have to understand that. I'm not in a position to do so even if I truly wanted without question." Ai continued to try to reason with Hidan to no avail.

"I don't have to do a fucking thing! I'm just a talking head and you expect me to tolerate your bullshit because of that!"

"Look, Hidan. I'm here with Leaf villagers, and I was more or less brought here by them so it could be proven that I wasn't, well, that I wasn't you." Hidan became somewhat intrigued with what Ai was saying.

"Huh? What are you going on about, Ai? You know I don't like being confused, so explain yourself clearer, damn it."

Ai took a deep breath and sighed, before explaining slowly and precisely what he meant. "Ever since you left the village, big brother, and made such an... infamous name for yourself, it's been hard for me outside of the village. People kept mistaking me for you, and some have even tried to take my life because of it."

Hidan looked on with furrowed brows waiting for his brother to finish what he had to say.

"So now, it's come to me having to prove I'm not you, in this manner, with the Leaf villagers who brought me here." And just as soon as he finished, Ai again cringed at the pain he was in.

"Leaf villagers... So that's how you found me." Hidan realized. "And just what the hell are you hanging with them for, Ai? They're the ones who put me in here!"

As Ai gathered himself, now being hunched over in pain, he responded to his brother. "Yes, I know. I've gathered that much. And because they thought I was you come back from the grave, I'm in the pain I'm in now," he explained.

"Wha..? You mean, they did all of that to you, Ai?" Hidan began to feel a sense of harm done to his pride upon hearing his little brother had been hurt by Leaf villagers, the same pool of Shinobi who sealed his fate within a deep hole in the ground, leaving him to be forgotten, to waste away in isolation.

"Just those Leaf Villagers wait," Hidan's temper began to rise, becoming more threatening in his tone. "When I get outta here, I'm going to slaughter every one of them before the great Jashin! Those bastards will pay! Every last one of them; man, woman, and child! Especially that shadow controlling bitch who put me in here!"

Ai then suddenly got a thought of Shikamaru, understanding it was he who was being talked about.

"If I see him again, he's going to wish he was dead with that retarded ass sensei of his!" Hidan continued his rant.

The Leaf Shinobi then began to speak to one another about taking Ai back and explaining their finding to the Fifth, along with sharing their disbelief to one another, though Shikamaru was unnaturally silent in their plans to go back.

"Shikamaru," Ino spoke gently. "Are you..."

"I'm fine, Ino. Just... Let's just get Ai back to the village, before he gets any sicker," he said in a somewhat embittered tone. Shikamaru wasn't really upset with Ino, though it sounded as though he was, and he was no longer upset at Ai, but had now taken all that frustration, all the anger and sadness which was building, and turned it in on himself. He felt so disappointed in himself. How could he, the Leaf's top strategic mind, let his emotions get the better of him, that he'd accuse an innocent man before having concrete evidence? Sure, he had the same exact face of Hidan, but the manner in which he behaved, how he not only helped save the pregnant woman they guarded, but ran away, instead of trying to fight back, when he was figured out, all was proof to show he couldn't have been Hidan. In his trying to be cautious, he almost cut short the life of someone who only sought to be free from an infamous reputation he hadn't, himself, earned.

Shikamaru chose to walk over to Ai, though part of him was reluctant for both his shame and his not wanting to see the actual Hidan in the hole, below.

Ai looked up from his conversation with Hidan, to Shikamaru walking toward where he stood. Though Shikamaru's eyes were toward the ground, Ai could tell there was something important he had to say.

"Hey! I'm down here you twat! What are you looking at!?" Hidan stated, still bent on convincing his brother to get him out of the hole.

Ai looked back down at Hidan, with Shikamaru still on mind. "I wonder what he's going to say to me. This is the proof he wanted, the proof I needed, and what a way it's been proven," he thought. "Maybe I'll still be allowed to join their ranks... or maybe they won't let me for causing all this trouble in the first pl-" And again, Ai was abruptly cut off in thought for a sudden sharp pain he felt throughout his entire body. "This is getting to be too much," he thought before his brother again called on him.

"Hey! Am I talking to my-fucking-self!?" Hidan was getting very annoyed by his being disregarded.

"I'm sorry, Hidan. It's just these injuries, they're kind of hard to ignore."

And immediately, with no warning, as Shikmaru had just made his way to Ai, there was a smoke bomb thrown from the top of the trees in the forest.

"An attack. Move." The leader of the ANBU calmly commanded, to which all the ANBU took positioning within he heights of the trees.

Hidden in the leaves, the Leaf Shinobi scoped out the area from their respective vantage points.

"I don't... see anyone." One ANBU stated from above the smoke.

And just then Shikamaru's loud yell could be heard, before an audible thud.

"What's going on?" one of the ANBU questioned to himself.

While Shikamaru and Ino were on guard for a possible attack, Ai couldn't bring himself to even standing anymore; the pain had become unbearable. He fainted toward the edge of the hole.

"Damn it. I can't see a thing." Shikamaru spoke aloud as he searched around for Ino, on the lookout for enemy an attack.

"Shikamaru! Where are you? I can't sense your chakra." Ino called out.

"Ino, careful!" Shikamaru cried, uncertain where the enemy could strike.

"Thought you could get rid of me, huh!? I'll save you two for later, but for now, I deal with the girl," the familiar voiced cried out, before Shikamaru felt a swift kick to his back. As he had his weapon drawn, he extended his hands in front of him, bracing himself to land on the hard ground, but was in for a surprise when he felt only air rushing passed him.

He let out a yell before landing hard.

"Damn it, what ... ugh, what the hell?"Shikamaru rubbed his head as he quickly tried to figure out his surroundings, almost lying flat on his back. "Where am I?" he questioned aloud.

"It's you!" a voice near to him spoke. "I was wondering what the hell all that smoke was about, but now that doesn't even matter."

"Huh, what..." Shikamaru was astonished when he saw the face of the one and true Hidan.

"I told you I'd be back to bite your throat out, but since you blew off my legs and I can't reach your damn neck, I'm gonna gnaw off whichever body part I get to first!" Hidan threatened Shikamaru just before biting his hand which was nearest to his mouth.

Shikamaru immediately yelled out in pain as Hidan berated him, while biting down.

"DI bwet dit wuzch yoo hoo mesched up Ai lie thaa(I bet it was you who messed up Ai like that.)" Hidan tried to speak with Shikamaru's hand muffling his enunciation. "Yoo hurr him didin yoo, yoo fuuker!(You hurt him, didn't you, you fucker!?)"

As Shikamaru struggled with Hidan, trying to keep his hand intact, he was able to pry Hidn's mouth loose from him, tossing Hidan's head up against the wall of the hole.

"Ah! You bastard!" Hidan yelled. "Blech! What is that, the hand you jerk off with!? It tastes terrible!"

In that moment, Shikamaru wasn't so much concerned anymore with Hidan, but more on getting out of the hole when he heard Ino's cry out.

"Ino!" Shikamaru yelled in hopes of getting a reply.

"Ah! Stay back you creeps!" Ino yelled again, as she maneuvered out of the grasp of what seemed to be other Shinobi. "Shikamaru, where are you!?"

"Ino, I'm in the hole; someone kicked me in here. You have to figure out a way to clear the smoke, Ino."

"Yeah, that's kind of obvious, Shikamaru, but what isn't obvious is how!"

"Give me a minute, I'll figure something out."

"Hurry! I can't spot these guys. The screen is too thick. It's somehow blocking my chakra sense."

Shikamaru got to thinking fast, trying to figure how he could get Ino and himself out of their more than desperate situation. Where were the ANBU? What was happening with Ai? Was he in on this somehow? Shikamaru believed these would be given answer soon enough, but now, somehow, he had to focus his attention on the immediate problem they were in, or else it might cost Ino her life.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait; been busy, so hope this chapter satisfies! The next one should come sooner, but I can't promise! Thanks for following the story all!