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It’s rare to have a quiet journey such as this.
Not that he wasn’t familiar with them; before he partnered with the religious zealot who came crashing into his life and just refused to die by his hand like his past partners. Not that he was intentionally trying to kill them but he always did better when he worked alone than he did working with others.
Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling something was up when they entered Yugakure together to meet with one of Kakuzu’s informants. He looked back when he thinks the jashinist isn’t paying attention, not wanting to be caught staring at him; the last thing he needed was to give the younger man incentive to tease him.
The first licks of winter made the air chilly; cold enough that frost formed on the ground yet still not enough to keep it frozen when the sun rose. It was night now as he could see his breath as they walked past bathhouses. He could smell the herbal mixes used for the baths from here, nose wrinkling under his mask as he moved.
He really thought when Hidan would be quiet he would bask in it; instead it just made him stressed and he felt as if the other was plotting something–even though he had no reason to believe that this brat could ever get the drop on him–before he stopped to check his map.
As the paper crinkled when he unfolded it, he heard Hidan finally make a loud groaning sound like some kind of irritated teenager forced to go out with his parents.
“Don’t tell me we’re fucking lost old man…”
“If you’d shut up and allow me to look, I could tell you where we need to go,” Kakuzu rumbled back as he looked it over, “Honestly have more patience.”
“Then maybe you’re stupid fucking informant should have chosen a different fucking village to fucking meet, old man,” Hidan’s voice was uncharacteristically soft as if he was somehow afraid to raise his voice here.
Now Kakuzu felt some concern bubble inside him as he looked away from the map to face Hidan. Slowly he leaned forwards to really get a better look at this younger man who by all means was a true immortal if he ever met one. Who scoffed and taunted their targets without fear of what they could do to them; because at the end of the day they always had the upper hand especially working together.
This time though instead of that overconfident, cocky attitude he saw what looked like anxiety trying to be masked with rage as Hidan crossed his arms. When he looked closer though for a moment he thought he saw fear in those fuchsia orbs before Hidan clicked his tongue and turned away.
“You got a staring problem?” Hidan gritted out, tensing at the invasion of his own personal space as Kakuzu continued to study him. The metal of Hidan’s headbang gives a glimmer in the light of the lanterns. Before he didn’t pay much attention but now that he got a closer look…
“You are from Yugakure?”
Hidan’s grimace deepened before he stepped back, “I thought that was obvious, I didn’t hide my headband.”
Now, he could understand the tension since he himself never liked the idea of going back to Taigakure unless there was no other choice. However he also was curious as to why the other held so much vitriol for this place. It wasn’t a ninja village anymore last Kakuzu checked so why was Hidan concerned?
“You seem on edge. Yugakure stopped being a shinobi village a while ago, yes?” He raised a brow at his companion who now was curling his fingers into fists by his side.
“Yeah, it did,” Hidan gritted out, a vein forming in his forehead as he looked towards one of the bathhouses; one that had more steam than most as he grimaced so hard Kakuzu wondered if his face would become stuck like that.
There wasn’t much he actually knew about Hidan now that he thinks about it. He never really bothered to ask; it wasn’t his job to know everything about the religious zealot who couldn’t die.
When the miser opened his mouth to speak, another voice broke through to cut him off.
“Holy hell in the mountain range, as I breathe in life, is that you Hidan?!”
If he thought Hidan was tense before, his entire body became as stiff as a marble pillar when a man about his age looped an arm around his shoulders with a grin and holding a clay bottle of what Kakuzu realized was sake.
The man was taller with soft brown hair and was staggering beside the other.
“Man! It’s been ages since I saw you walking these streets!” He laughed in a way that made Kakuzu’s lip curl into a snarl behind his mask.
However he was a little more concerned when Hidan lowered his head. Normally when he was dealing with someone he wasn’t fond of, the Jashinist had no qualms about using his scythe on someone. Especially when it was someone that he could actually kill without getting in trouble with their leader or Kakuzu.
Yet he seemed frozen; Kakuzu could sense the blood lust coming off him, yet he sensed something else. Something foreign to the older man when he would read his moods and shifts in attitude. They may keep each other at a distance but that didn’t mean Kakuzu wasn’t paying attention at all.
Right now he knew Hidan was struggling, as if having an inner argument with himself the longer this man had his arm around his shoulders.
“I honestly thought you were dead. Honestly, the house master was pissed when you seemed to just disappear into the night when you were supposed to remain outside on your knees!” The drunken idiot then tugged up the akatsuki cloak to look at said knees, “Holy shit you don’t even have scars?!”
Hidan’s lip curled as he glared down at him, a soft creaking noise heard from how hard he was grinding his teeth. All that hate..all that loathing directed at this place, this man who was tugging on his cloak…being too friendly to him…
“Man…it must have been a long time…why’d ya come crawling back huh? The world is too much for you so you came to see if the House master will let you work? I don’t know Hidan, he was pretty piiiissed,” he licked his tongue as he got into the other’s face, his breath making Hidan’s nose wrinkle.
He didn’t know what came over him in that moment; only that one minute he was observing them, then the next his foot connected so hard with this stranger’s chin he heard it when the jaw snapped. He fell back with his head smacking against the wall, choking and trembling as the sake bottle now lay smashed on the ground.
Hidan blinked in surprise and looked at Kakuzu, who was now glaring bloody murder at the drunkard before he grabbed his partner’s arm and yanked him along.
“Come on. We’re going to be late,” He rumbled, trying to ignore when Hidan slowly held on to his wrist when the younger man snapped out of his daze. He now stared at Kakuzu with big eyes as if he was seeing him for the first time.
He didn’t see the small smile that formed on Hidan’s face as they rushed away from the scene before anyone else caught them.