The Key To So Many Doors (Hidan Story)

Chapter 4.

That attack had certainly gone well.

He’d known he’d have to be careful with a pair of the Akatsuki in town; true, he wanted the same thing they did, and was willing to do whatever it took to get it, but if they caught on to what was going on and confronted him, things wouldn’t end up well for him. But at the same time, he’d known he’d have to be careful with Shima herself; she wasn’t some low-level ninja who happened to have the ability he wanted—she was a pretty powerful ninja in her own right. He didn’t want things to go badly with her either—let alone having both of them on his tail. But then he’d come across her talking with the Akatsuki this morning. She clearly wasn’t at her best; with the way she was rubbing her head and acting all lethargic…her fighting abilities definitely wouldn’t be at their top level. Then the Akatsuki had said they would leave and come back at 11:30, leaving quite a bit of time to act…and overall his mood had really gone up.

All in all, he couldn’t miss this opportunity.

So he’d quickly gathered a selection of his ninjas, headed over and attacked; although the struggle had gone on longer than he’d wanted it to, and he’d lost two more ninjas than he would have liked. But it had been a risk, he’d known that, and almost could be expected—not that it was important anymore; he had ­­Shima now, and that’s all that truly mattered. Now he, along with the rest of the ninjas, were now travelling back to the building he’d acquired on the outskirts of the village upon arriving here. No one really knew of its existence, and the Akatsuki would have no idea what was going on when they saw she was gone. In their eyes, no one was even supposed to know about the scroll in the first place other than them, let alone be coming after her! He was protected from any repercussions from anyone for definite, and by the time anyone had a chance of figuring out about the building and what he’d done, he’d be long gone, on the way to collect the scroll that he deserved a whole lot more than they did.

Glancing over at Shima as the other ninjas carried her, her face peaceful as she was carried but with her eyes darting back and forth underneath her eyelids. Wondering whether it was because of her ability to have visions or not and whether it was occurring right now, curious as to what she was seeing, he couldn’t stop the smirk that flickered onto his face as he considered it. The further into this he got, the more glad he was that he’d decided to go through with it. He wanted this scroll; the amount of power it held inside of it would definitely improve things for him. But not only that, but he had Shima now. She would have to help him out in order to get this scroll, no choice involved—but she couldn’t stay that way. He wasn’t about to just send her off once this was all completed. Think about what her abilities could do! Unlike the Akatsuki, he didn’t see Shima as a temporary thing, and if he could just get her to see that…he’d have her abilities at his fingertips, and it was that thought that kept his smirk on his face.

Though they had taken a longer, more winding route in order to avoid being seen by anyone, it didn’t take much longer before they finally arrived at the building, regardless of their detour. Heading straight inside, he ordered the ninjas carrying Shima to go right to a cell and put her inside. He’d made sure to hit her with enough sedative to put her out for a while, but he didn’t know exactly how long she’d be out for, and the risk of her waking up when she was still being carried around outside of her cell was not something he wanted to think about. So moving quickly, they took her right up to the cells, going along to the end of the row and placing her inside carefully, unsure about the effect of a lot of jolting around or pain would have on her unconscious state. Even when she was inside, however, he watched her for a while, observing as she shifted and murmured in her sleep, his smirk fully developing into a grin, before he finally turned and left to head to his office, needing to sort out the next part to his plans.

As such, it was alone that Shima finally woke up a while later, her vision swaying at first with the sedative and her earlier headache, until it eventually settled down to reveal a plain, dilapidated brick wall in front of her. Grunting with disorientation, Shima slowly forced herself to sit up, wincing as her head spun when she did so. For a moment she paused, taking a deep breath to help calm her mind, still feeling the effects of her headache mingling with everything else. Scowling at that fact, all that had happened not exactly putting her in the best of moods, she clenched her fists, ready to get the hell out of here right now. The only reason she halted was to let her disorientation fade—it wouldn’t help if she was stumbling all over the place with dizziness when she broke out, and there was no way she was risking being knocked unconscious all over again. She’d had enough of headaches and pain ricocheting around her brain. Looking around, she made out the cell and what is was like, glancing at the window and shuffling over to the wall. Closing her eyes for a moment, she used her chakra to let the headache and dizziness fade, allowing her body to return to full strength, before she used the wall as a prop and pulled herself up, taking a look outside the window.

From here she could see the village, just about through the trees, and knew exactly where they were. She’d passed by it herself when she’d first come to the place. At least now she knew how to get back; all she had to concentrate on now was actually doing so. True, Shima knew she’d left that message for the Akatsuki back at her place, but she couldn’t trust the fact they’d find it, and that they’d even do anything about it. No; the only thing she was going to trust was her own abilities—she could get out of here on her own. Things only changed as she leant against the wall once more, another vision hitting her. Apparently the Akatsuki were going to find the message; and apparently they were going to do something about it—and it wouldn’t take them long to do so, either. So taking that fact into account, Shima opted to wait for a few minutes; she might as well use their actions to her advantage, right?

Hidan had done what he could to keep Kakuzu back, but eventually he had had no choice but to give in and let him head back at 11:00. What the big deal was about waiting another half an hour, he didn’t know, but there was nothing he could do to change it now. So instead he simply followed on behind him back to Shima’s house; not that Hidan wasn’t looking forward to it, a part of him hoping she’d opted not to get dressed yet. He just couldn’t help but like her—he hadn’t been disappointed in his expectations, for sure. So it was with a smirk that he arrived at Shima’s house with Kakuzu, only hesitating as he saw Kakuzu halt upon reaching her door, not doing a thing to knock and get her attention. Frowning in confusion, he questioned out loud as to what the problem was, only to widen his eyes in surprise as Kakuzu pushed gently on the door, causing it to immediately open. But there was no way Shima would just leave it open, even if she knew they were coming back. No; something wasn’t right here, and as such Hidan instantly gripped the handle of his scythe as they entered the building, slow and silent as they advanced through the house.

Upon reaching the kitchen, it was clear there’d been a battle. Things were smashed, clearly showing the struggle—but it was also evident Shima hadn’t just sat back and taken it, two corpses littering the floor. But there was still no sign of Shima, and remembering her headache and how she hadn’t been at top form, Hidan couldn’t help but reckon she’d lost in the end, even if it meant she’d just been knocked out and taken away. Both he and Kakuzu scowled as they stood there, Kakuzu stepping forward to head over to the one of the bodies an inspect it. There were no marks that showed what group of ninjas he was from—if he was even part of a proper organization to begin with. But it was clear to both Hidan and Kakuzu that they were no longer the only ones after the scroll—though Hidan was a little happier about it than Kakuzu was. At least now he might get a few more battles into the mission.

It didn’t necessarily mean he was ok with the fact Shima had been kidnapped, evidently to get the information out of her that those guys needed, and even more so as Kakuzu voiced the facts out loud: that they had no idea who these guys were, let alone where they had taken Shima and what exactly they were going to do with her. Scowling at all of that, Hidan said nothing in return for the moment, instead going over to the second corpse, bending down and reaching out to see if there were any clues on him. Shima had to be able to give some sign of where she was; if she was able to fight back and kill these guys, it was clear she wasn’t helpless.

Something that was proven right as images began to flash into Hidan's head.