The Key To So Many Doors (Hidan Story)

Chapter 17

Freezing slightly, Shima snapped her head round to face her savior, unsure who it would be and whether or not she would be able to trust them—but as her eyes met his she relaxed entirely, whispering in shock in return,

"Hidan?"

Wondering how she hadn't noticed his disappearance from the battlefield, Shima made sure she revealed no sign of him being there, asking what he was doing, and what exactly was going to be happening now. Hidan said nothing to begin with, glancing around at the situation and making sure no one was truly watching, before gesturing for her to follow and starting to slowly back away and get out of sight, explaining softly as he did so, continuing to remain on his guard,

"I'm not running away—you've got to be fucking kidding me. But you're the main reason for all of this; not that I'm trying to blame you or anything. Though knowing that, I didn't want any of those fuckers to decide to abruptly turn round and use you to their advantage. So I figured it was best for me to get you out of the firing line as soon as possible, and...well, you know...here we are."

Smirking at that fact, attempting to push away the slight twinge in her heart that Hidan was concerned about her that much, Shima simply nodded in his direction when he glanced over, continuing to follow on behind him. Sure, in the perfect world, Shima would have liked to have joined in with the battle and to help out, but not wanting to make things worse, having already allowed herself to be captured to begin with, she opted to remain with Hidan and wait for things to finish. That was the perspective she forced herself to focus on, anyway, and not that feeling that washed over her as Hidan explained his reasoning and the idea that following him would allow her to stay with him a little longer.

Not that Hidan's words had been entirely truthful, either.

Sure, what he had said made sense, and in a basic form, had been true. There was a risk that those guys would use Shima to their advantage and gain the upper hand against him and Kakuzu, to be sure. Maybe those guys wouldn't have killed her, considering they wanted her abilities as much as they themselves did, but they would have been willing to hurt her, without a doubt. From the looks of things, they had been doing so already, so it wouldn't be much of a problem for them. Of course, Hidan and Kakuzu couldn't exactly let that happen and needed to make sure Shima would be okay—but it was the reason for why that altered between him and Kakuzu.

Kakuzu—just as always—viewed the mission as absolute; so no change there then. What Pein had ordered them to complete was top priority, even if he still went on bounty hunts time and time again, merely lengthening their missions and causing them to be late for whatever they had to do all the time. The reason he had been pissed off and annoyed with what had happened with Shima was because they couldn't complete the mission, and it seemed as if the journey they had taken to collect her and bring her there and had been a total waste of time—for him, at least. Only now they knew the truth of the situation and just how crucial Shima was, and therefore Kakuzu wanted Shima back; he wanted Shima safe—if only so they could finish the mission and finish it soon.

But it wasn't that way with Hidan.

Hidan wanted Shima safe because he cared about her. The idea that she'd been hurt upon arriving wasn't one he liked to entertain, let alone knowing the possibility that it could happen again was there. No; he wasn't about to chance that in the slightest, and so he had organized it so he could go and get her out of there; so he could free her and make sure she would remain safe while they took care of those guys. There was the idea that Shima would want to join in the battle herself—she could be just as aggressive and battle-loving as he was; something Hidan had experienced the first time they had come to help her out upon being kidnapped by these guys. But now, for the moment, at least, Shima seemed okay with merely keeping out of the way of these guys and letting the fight finish without her.

Finally having managed to reach a safe distance from the battlefield and having managed to stay out of sight for all that time, even with their slow pace, Hidan ducked around the other side of a large oak tree that was big enough to hide them both, crouching low to the ground as he did so. It was only now that he turned to face her, needing to tell her the truth about what they had figured out about the temple and her abilities. He had seen for himself and understood at least a little bit how she felt towards her abilities, and so Hidan knew he'd need to take it slow. But he wanted to convince her against her current views towards what she could do; to see things differently. Now the mission; even the fight disappeared from his focus as he looked back into Shima's eyes, eventually opting to skip past subtlety—not that he was particularly good at it anyway—and just began bluntly,

"Look, Shima. Back at the temple; I figured it all out. What was fucking going wrong with what you were doing!"

"What? You know why I couldn't receive a vision back there? No fucking way! What was it?" Shima instantly shot back, grinning with the idea that she wasn't losing her touch and could actually carry out the mission with Hidan and Kakuzu—only to falter slightly as Hidan added simply,

"Because you're the fucking key, Shima! Right from the start me and Kakuzu were trying to figure out what the key was to get into the temple sanctuary, but it was fucking you all along!"

For a while afterwards, Shima didn't know what to say; her smile from before slipping off as she stared blankly back at Hidan's gaze. She attempted to take words and form sentences, but her mouth didn't seem to want to work at the moment, and she remained in silence, her eyes never moving from Hidan's; but even that fact she wished she could change. Shima desperately wanted to turn her head away from his, so she wouldn't have to look at his expression—but she just couldn't. His eyes were so determined; so certain with what he was saying...but he was wrong. She knew he was. As much as Shima wanted to accept the idea of being something like this key, she couldn't.

She had often wondered, whether as a child or an adult, why she had been given this ability to have visions. It wasn't a gift, after all—merely a problem that got in her way and stopped her from truly being able to do all she wanted in life. Causing her to be isolated and pushed away from everyone around her. But Shima had known one thing. It wasn't special. Her clan had known that too, right from the beginning and it had first shown up. As such, they had treated her like she was nothing special; a blot on the landscape that marred their perfect world. And as much as Shima hated that fact; as much as she hated her entire clan and wished more than anything that they were dead...she couldn't disguise that feeling. Regardless of her aggression and her crudeness, those words and actions had wormed their way under her skin and into Shima's heart.

In a way, she wanted to laugh. With everything else in her life, she was entirely fearless and utterly carefree. She didn't give a shit about anyone else and didn't need to, didn't have to follow orders and could do what she wanted. If people insulted her, she brushed it aside within seconds, reacting with anger, true, but not truly because it would affect her. Only, just like always, it came back down to this. Shima had tried and tried to accept what she could do. She couldn't get rid of it, so she would just have to adapt to having it there. There were even times when she thought she had succeeded. But there was no point kidding herself. No matter what her feelings were towards her clan and those who had insulted her for what she could do...

She believed them.