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"Fuck me, this trip fucking sucks." Hidan cursed, hauling his scythe higher up his shoulder. Kakuzu next to him sighed but continued trudging on through the muddy terrain.
As Hidan tripped over a root that stuck out of the ground, more expletives left the man, "This shit fucking sucks, this bounty has to be worth it."
"A dragon is always worth the trouble," Kakuzu grumbled, hauling up Hidan by one arm, brushing some of the mud that had splattered onto his cloak off.
Hidan himself grumbled some curses at the man next to him but continued on.
Soon enough, the duo was standing in front of a large cave, ominously looming over the surrounding area. Before either man could do anything, a loud resounding roar came from inside.
"Ok you big fuck, let's tussle!" Hidan shouted at the dragon that emerged.
As Hidan was about to jump in, Kakuzu laid a hand on his shoulder, "Watch out, this is a second-generation dragon. See the markings on its scales? We have to-"
"Yeah yeah, I get it, old farts are dangerous and we should work together." Hidan grumbled, facing Kakuzu, "Can you let go now? You're ruining my fun."
Kakuzu sighed but released the man, who immediately sprung into action.
Maniacally cackling as his scythe tore through the thick and hardened scales of the dragon, Kakuzu got out his staff. Holding it rather loosely, he charged up his first elemental spell.
Pelting a fire barrage on the side where the scales had been torn off, the dragon screeched in pain, before turning its eyes on Kakuzu.
"I'm down here motherfucker!" Hidan screamed at the dragon as he jumped up onto its back, launching another set of attacks. The dragon quickly bucked him off, before focusing back on him.
Kakuzu fired up an air strike, slicing and dicing through the side of the dragon. Guts and gore slowly pooled onto the ground as the dragon angrily blew fire around itself.
Hidan barely dodged the massive flame walls, this time going low and slicing at its belly. Kakuzu, having seen the effectiveness of his air strike, launched another volley.
The dragons belly got sliced open, effectively gutting him and causing him to fall to his side.
What the pair didn't expect was a loud "Thunk!" to hit the ground before the dragon could.
They had no time to focus on it yet, as the dragon wasn't dead despite their onslaught. Hidan was cackling away happily as he finally tore away the scales around its throat, Kakuzu quickly sending another air strike at its jugular, effectively decapitating the beast.
A very blood-soaked and slightly singed Hidan was having a party in the blood and guts, so Kakuzu decided to loot the corpse for valuables, like its claws and scales.
Yet when he approached, he was reminded of the thunk noise they heard earlier. He approached the site of impact and saw a lump covered by gore. Raising his brow, he charged up a water blast and fired it at the lump.
Washing off the gore revealed a stone statue underneath. It was something he hadn't expected.
Kakuzu approached the statue, noting that it was that of an elven woman with her hands clasped together in prayer. It was detailed, unnaturally detailed even. It seemed like the elf was hiding under a coating of brown stone-coloured paint.
Narrowing his eyes scrutinisingly, he knew there must be more to the statue.
"Hidan."
"What do you want now you bastard?" Hidan shouted, casually strolling over. When he was close enough to see the statue, he stopped.
"That's fucking creepy dude," Hidan muttered as he looked at the incredibly lifelike statue.
"We are taking it with us," Kakuzu answered back.
Hidan whirled around, "The fuck we aren't! I'm not going to carry that thing back!"
Kakuzu gave him the patented stare which caused Hidan to quickly shut up.
"I'll finish harvesting the valuables, you go finish whatever you were doing." Kakuzu simply said before going to do what he originally set out to do.
"Fucking miser and his stupid ass bullshit."
◇♡◇♡◇
"Holy fucking shit!" Deidara exclaimed, "Where did you get that?!"
Kakuzu looked on strangely as Hidan hauled in the statue to their guild. Deidara had ran up to them immediately when he noticed the statue.
Kakuzu looked at the younger man, "Found it in a dragon's stomach."
Deidara leaned in, examining it closer, "She looks exactly like a legend from the elven clan. Surely..."
And suddenly the elf was off, racing to a destination only known to himself.
"Well, that was weird as shit."
Kakuzu hummed in agreement, making his way over to the bar where his fellow guild member Kisame was running it for the day.
"Rough fight?" Kisame asked, grinning, as he slid a mug of ale his way.
"Quite the opposite," Kakuzu responded simply, placing the sack of materials on the bar top.
Kisame opened the bag, examining one of the scales, "These will fetch a nice price on the market."
Kakuzu hummed again as he took a sip from the ale, revelling in its bitter yet comforting taste. Just at that moment, Deidara came racing back with a book he had procured from somewhere.
Deidara slammed the hefty piece down on the bar top, seating himself on one of the stools as he quickly flipped through the book.
He stopped on a page, pointing at a well-painted portrait of a young elf woman, "Here! The statue looks exactly like her!"
Kakuzu leaned in closer, taking a look at the portrait. It indeed looked eerily similar. He quickly scanned the rest of the page for the information written down, noting her name to be Haruno Sakura. She was a proficient warrior, yet also a healer. Not only that but she had experience in earth magic. Sounds like she was quite the big deal.
Seemed like Kakuzu had said the last part out loud as Deidara hummed in agreement, "She was. Sakura-sama was part of the elite team of elves and the reigning guild, but was killed in battle against an unknown opponent. Her corpse was never found."
Some things clicked in Kakuzu's head, slowly turning around to look at the statue again.
Deidara, sensing his moodshift, asked, "What's up?"
Kakuzu stood up approaching the statue, the three remaining men observing him closely. Deidara sprung to action however when Kakuzu went to touch the statue, "Don't! This is now an important relic to the elven clan! It'll surely fetch quite a large sum of money!"
Not even deterred by the amount of money involved, Kakuzu began informing them, "There's a long lost art of earth techniques that are near impossible to master. I think this girl has managed to pull it off though."
Deidara looked confused, so Kakuzu elaborated, "With the combination of earth and healing magic, one could turn oneself into stone for an extended period of time or until someone else undoes the spell. Once turned into stone, nothing could harm this person until reverted to its human state."
"Are you suggesting..." Deidara trailed off as Kakuzu, a very experienced mage in, well, all areas of magic, brought up his staff to the statue.
Charging it with magic, the room watched on with bated breath as Kakuzu slowly uttered the word, "Release."
As soon as the earth magic hit the statue, it started crumbling from the top, revealing a sliver of pink hair springing out from the top. Slowly but surely, it crumbled until the person inside was fully revealed.
Once the last bit of stone crumbled away, the woman fell down to the ground with a gasp, painfully landing on her knees. Emerald green eyes darted around, taking in her surroundings. As soon as she saw Deidara, a fellow elf, she demanded, "What time is it?"
Deidara, shocked, barely managed to mutter out, "It's about evening now, but if you mean, like, the date, we're in the year 709."
Sakura regarded him for a while longer before bringing a hand up to her face, "709... it was 506 when I left so..."
"Wait, you're an old hag!?" Hidan exclaimed, pointing rather rudely.
Sakura, entirely miffed, responded, "I'm only 20, excuse you!"
Kakuzu sighed, as Hidan started arguing with the young elf woman. He looked over towards Deidara who was looking on awestruck, before landing his gaze on Kisame who looked equally as confused.
Before the chaos could get out of hand, Nagato and Konan came walking in from the front door. The partners looked stunned as the arguing pair stopped and looked over, painting quite the interesting picture.
Nagato looked over towards Kakuzu, which caused the man to sigh. Of course he had to explain everything.
◇♡◇♡◇
"So, you're the new reigning guild, huh?" Sakura curiously asked as they had all seated themselves in one of the meeting rooms along with the members who had not been there when chaos had broken out.
"Indeed. You were from the guild Shosen am I right?" Konan asked, having taken on the role of interviewer.
Sakura nodded after taking a sip of her sake cup, looking down at it "That I was," Sakura looked down as memories flitted in her mind, "We had taken on a mission too big for us. A second generation dragon in its prime at the time. We were never too combat oriented anyways, but the dragon was simply too strong for us," she looked back up from her sake cup, smiling softly, "I didn't think I'd ever be recovered so I just sealed myself up for eternity. Thank you for freeing me, I'm in your debt."
Konan smiled softly at the elf, "It's all good. The only thing we would want to ask of you is if you would be happy to join our guild whilst you re-acclimate to life in the here and now."
Sakura's eyes widened, "Really? Are you sure? I don't have the best track record now do I..."
"Don't you know how legendary you are?!" Deidara exclaimed as he slammed his palms down on the table, startling the poor woman.
Sakura looked utterly confused, so Deidara began regaling her with how highly regarded she was under the elves. Other members also added anecdotes of how their own race and surroundings had perceived her and her deeds.
As they continued bombarding the poor elf woman, Konan looked over at Nagato, smiling softly, "I think this will go just fine."
Nagato nodded, looking on fondly, "Indeed."