One Of Us (Akatsuki Fan-fiction)

Chapter 20

"It was you! You're the slow one Kakuzu!" Hidan yelled. "And the world does not look that great from this perspective princess. It hurts! You both didn't help on purpose is that right?! You wanted me to get decapitated!"

The Leaf shinobi's eyes widened at the sight of a talking head, and of knowing that Hidan was not dead and truly immortal.

"You were the one who wanted us to stay out of it," both you and Kakuzu shot back.

"I really don't think you're in any position to complain," Kakuzu added. You nodded beside him.

Hidan rolled his eyes and laughed nervously. "Alright, alright point taken. So maybe I did tell you not to butt in, but uh... I assure you my friend it, it wasn't out of disrespect or anything like that. Anyway Kakuzu, would you mind helping me up for a sec?" Hidan requested. Kakuzu glared at him. "Come on, would ya? Just help me out. I'm a little bit of a situation here. Please Kakuzu? Old friend? Pretty please?"

I wish I had Dei's scope right now. You giggled. He looks and sounds funny when he's pleading.

The Leaf shinobi looked back and forth between the talking head and Kakuzu. No doubt they were wondering why on earth this looked like a casual conversation. You sighed as you felt a gust of wind rush past you and looked over to see Kakuzu holding Hidan's head by the hair.

"This is no ordinary injury!" Hidan cried. "The pain is unbelieveable!"

The two shinobi with Shikamaru were talking amongst each other, but you realized they had too many blanks to figure out what was going on. But that boy... you glanced at the boy you heard being called Shikamaru. He was able to figure out Hidan's jutsu, who's to say he won't find a way to fight against Kakuzu in their current state? You saw him smile and turn toward one of the shinogi beside him. He said something that you couldn't make out but by the looks of it, he was saying something about Hidan. Kakuzu turned his head towards the boy, you knew he wasn't going to let Shikamaru see through him the way he had done with Hidan. Shikamaru then turned to you. You tilted your head and simply stared cluelessly at him, a perfect cover to hide your strength; acting clueless.

Shikamaru looked back and forth between you and Kakuzu, you could see in his eyes he was calculating the odds. You sighed.

"Hey grandpa," you called out. He turned and glared at you. You smiled nervously and held your hands up. "Uh... I mean Kakuzu, you can take over from here right?"

"Just sitting back and watching the show?" he asked.

"What'd you come along for if you weren't gonna do anything princess?!" Hidan -well, Hidan's head- yelled.

You frowned and pointed a finger at him. "Unlike you, I want to keep my head on my shoulders than you." And besides, you glanced at the four Leaf shinobi. They're already in bad condition as it is, and I don't want to fight any of them. I left at peace with Naruto and the others, I don't want that to change.

"Have it your way princess," Hidan's head yelled again. "But believe me when I say-"

"Go ahead and tell him," you interrupted and waved a hand as you sat down and got comfortable. "I don't care. This is outside the mission I signed up for."

"Why you little-!"

"Shut up, Hidan," Kakuzu ordered. Hidan's mouth clamped shut.

You saw movement out of the corner of your eye and turned to see Shikamaru was trying to get up only to collapse on the floor once more. He coughed while the other two shinobi could only stand there. Your eyes narrowed as they looked from Shikamaru, to Asuma, to you and then to Kakuzu.