The Key To So Many Doors (Hidan Story)

Chapter 23

It didn't take long for Shima to finish the guys left.

One by one they fell, and once they were all dead, Hidan and Kakuzu watched as stood there, the sheen of chakra around her and the glow that seemed to come from within her slowly dimming until it was gone, though there remained almost a hum of power in the air. At the same time, the images on her skin faded, in much the same way Hidan's did when he finished with a sacrifice, and she was left looking the same as she had done before. Not that Hidan would be able to look at her in the same way from this moment on. He had seen so much more from Shima in the last few minutes, and the small smile that had appeared as she had begun to fight now turned into a full on grin; especially as Shima turned to face him, a glint in her eye he didn't think he'd seen before.

At first, Shima wasn't quite sure what to do. It was like coming down from such a high; from an adrenalin rush she hadn't experienced in her life. Not that she was complaining; it had been amazing. Finally; she could see what her abilities could do if she just let them...and it felt better than she could have imagined it would. Then realizing she hadn't been the only one to have been in the room, she had turned to see Hidan and Kakuzu standing there, and automatically her heartbeat had increased a little. She was that used to people turning their backs on her when they saw her abilities that a part of her expected Hidan to do the same. Although this experience had allowed her to drop her anxieties about other people, considering how much she cared about Hidan, things were different with him. But then she saw his smile. A full, genuine one aimed right at her.

And she knew things would be fine.

So walking over to him, she grinned back, sighing in relief and happiness at all that was happening right now. Hidan didn't hesitate and wait for Shima to come over, however, simply heading forward to meet her half way, bursting out as he reached her,

"Holy shit! That was amazing! I—I mean...fuck! I didn't know—I thought...shit!"

Laughing at his inability to form sentences properly, Shima simply shrugged for the moment, responding casually,

"Eh, I didn't know either, you dick. But still...it was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself."

"You got that right, Miss 'my abilities are shit and I fucking can't show them to anyone and I hate them'!"

Rolling her eyes at Hidan's attitude, Shima still couldn't get rid of the smile on her face, regardless of what he was doing, merely continuing to chat as they stood there—though there wasn't much proper conversation while their excitement was still overwhelming everything else. But because of this, neither of them noticed Kakuzu as he headed back over to the sanctuary, and after checking first, and finding he could go inside, he entered into it and went over to the scroll. Once again he slowed to a halt, advancing slowly towards it and making sure nothing would happen if it touched it, and discovering everything was harmless, he picked it up and looked it over.

Only to find nothing inside.

The scroll was now blank. True, he hadn't had a chance to look at it before to know what was written inside, but it was a scroll that had contained a power. Clearly that meant there had to be some form of writing on it—or at least there had been. Now, however, it was clean, and therefore the power was gone. And Kakuzu had a good idea of where it had gone, even if he had missed half of the action that had occurred at the temple with Hidan and Shima. There was no way it was coincidence; that the moment Shima entered the sanctuary to get the scroll that these abilities abruptly turned up. That he came across her transformed like that and saw her fight like that only after entering the sanctuary.

Okay, he'd admit, what she had done had been impressive.

But he wasn't happy about it.

She'd just ruined the entire mission!

As such, he stomped back over to them both, pulling them apart from their little reunion to face him. With Hidan glaring and Shima raising an eyebrow at what he was doing, Kakuzu clenched his fists and gritted his teeth to attempt to keep his anger in check, prompting Hidan to spit simply,

"What the fuck's your problem?"

"What's my problem? WHAT'S MY PROBLEM? She's my problem, that's what!" Kakuzu screamed in return, Shima blinking in surprise, feeling her own irritation rising in return. Clearly Hidan's was faster than hers, however, as he was up in Kakuzu's face a second later, snarling,

"How is Shima the problem? She just saved our asses after fucking opening the sanctuary we needed to open in order to complete our fucking mission!"

"But that's just the point, idiot. Yeah, so Shima opened the sanctuary. It hasn't done any good. Take a good look," Kakuzu responded swiftly, lifting up the scroll to show the blank paper, before continuing on,

"When you opened the scroll, Shima, you let out the power. And we can't exactly take a blank scroll back to Leader, can we?"

"Hey! I didn't open the scroll! All I did was pick it up! So don't fucking blame me for something I didn't do!"

It was those words that instantly brought Kakuzu into silence, narrowing his eyes at what he'd heard. If what Shima was saying was true...then that changed everything. Kakuzu had thought that when Shima had gone to get the scroll, she had opened it to look inside. He had thought that the scroll worked by granting the power to whoever opened it and read the contents. But if Shima hadn't read it—then things became different. Maybe it wasn't just coincidence that Shima could have visions and was the key to opening the sanctuary. What if she was more than that? It did make sense; if she had that kind of power...a power given only to certain people and that connected her to temple lore...and the fact that she was the key to begin with...then it was logical that the scroll was connected to her as well. She had been the only one who was allowed to enter the sanctuary; Hidan had been kept out. Though Kakuzu hadn't truly seen it happen, the fact that Hidan had been standing outside and waiting was proof enough. But that meant that the only one who could get the scroll...was Shima.

Both Shima and Hidan watched as Kakuzu looked down at the ground, running through his train of thoughts in silence. Hidan was utterly confused as to why he was acting like this, his irritation still lingering in the back of his mind for saying all that stuff to Shima. But Shima herself was more nervous than angry. Sure, Kakuzu thought things through carefully; he was cautious when it came to battles. But he wasn't like this—with the situation he had just explained, Shima could have seen him being even angrier than he had been! So why was he acting like this? What did he know? Then a moment later she knew she was about to find out as Kakuzu returned his gaze to hers, making their eyes widen in shock and confusion as he stated bluntly,

"Then you've got to come with us."