The Key To So Many Doors (Hidan Story)

Chapter 9.

Shima knew he was obnoxious. That had been evident from the start. But then again, a lot of people had told her she wasn’t the easiest person to get along with either; she just knew how to hide it better. Hidan didn’t bother to, however; he showed the world his personality, and if they couldn’t deal with it, then fuck them. He never tried to take things easy with Kakuzu, act neutrally towards their time together and attempt to keep the peace. If he wanted something one way, then by Jashin he was going to do whatever it took to make it that way. It was a similarity between the both of them that was altered slightly in each other; that was made unique by one another’s personality. It was why it didn’t truly bother her that much. Sure, there where times when she couldn’t help but shake her head at the audacity of his actions, but she never felt the urge to yell at him for him—not like the way Kakuzu constantly did.

It was something else entirely that was affecting the way she acted towards Hidan.

She didn’t know what to do about it. Shima liked Hidan; their slight obnoxiousness wasn’t the only similarity they had between them, and considering there weren’t many people out there Shima could truly say she connected with and shared a lot of traits, it meant she knew she could get along with him pretty well. Not to mention he was interesting. Living in the village she’d been living in for quite a while now, it was generally normal and monotonous. Sure, she got missions, got to fight and kill people and do stuff, but it was never truly all she wanted to do. The fact that everyone had their stereotypes and expectations meant Shima was kept back from letting the full force of her personality out. Those who were unusual or different didn’t fit in there, and ultimately moved on, leaving her to deal with the boring idiots who remained living out their dreary existences, and turning hers into the same kind of thing.

Though Hidan wasn’t like that. Much like the entirety of the Akatsuki, he was different. All of them had their unusual abilities—it was what separated them from the crowd and allowed them to be so powerful—and their personalities went along with it, being reflected through their power and abilities. But even so, Hidan stood out from them—he couldn’t help but do so. When he was that loud and determined to be noticed, he kinda demanded attention. You couldn’t avoid him; whether you wanted to or not, you knew he existed. Shima didn’t want to ignore him, however. She had had a few flashes of images to do with his abilities, and right away they had caught her eye. By doing this mission with him, she would be able to learn more about them—and Hidan himself. It was why she had started asking questions right away when they had been sitting around the fire last night. It was why she continued to ask questions about what he could do today. What he could do was awesome; but so was the way he described them; the emotions he revealed in his eyes as he spoke about what he could do and the religion that came with it. They just gave her more reason to like him.

And yet at the same time…a part of Shima didn’t like him, and it pissed her off with that notion. She couldn’t even tell whether she was angry at Hidan or herself about it. But whatever it was, it wouldn’t go away. Because it wasn’t just a case of her asking Hidan about his abilities; about finding out more about him and certain aspects of his life. Of finding out for herself whether they had similarities and accepting that fact. Hidan, in turn, was asking her questions. Although at first Shima didn’t mind. In a lot of situations as they travelled onwards and talked, she still didn’t. It was just certain questions that he came out with; certain statements that went along with them or that he seemed to be directing the conversation towards that made Shima freeze up and immediately close up around Hidan. It made her instantly push herself away and distance herself from him.

Suddenly that flare of hatred reappeared within her—even if she didn’t want it to.

That was when the insults came out; she couldn’t help it. But Hidan would say something, and Shima would automatically get angry, and just like always—and just like Hidan would do in the same situation—she responded to someone making her angry by using insults. By acting aggressively towards that person. Abruptly the only thing Shima could focus on was his obnoxious side and that his was much worse than hers. She was nothing like that and would never act like it. When her anger was gone, she had gotten used to that side of his personality; she had accepted it. But nothing could be accepted when Shima became angry. Not with Hidan…and not with herself. Why was she doing this? To herself and to him? It wasn’t fair on Hidan after all—he had no idea about this whole thing. He had no idea about her life or her past. She was just working herself up into such a state that she wanted to punch herself in the face as well as Hidan! Why the fuck was she acting like she was?

Not that Shima had ever had much control over her emotions.

But as such, she couldn’t control how she reacted to all of this—even if she knew, deep down, what this was all about. At first it hadn’t occurred to her, but as Hidan asked more questions about her, said certain things and treated her in one way or another, it finally began to dawn on Shima what was going on. It was the very topic itself that helped her to realise it: her visions. She had just been travelling with Hidan and Kakuzu as usual, and had just berated Hidan for something he had done or said—they all soon melted into one as time went by. But as Shima had turned back to the path ahead, she had abruptly been hit by a series of images; all of Hidan speaking or asking questions—but about her visions. Shima had learnt from a very young age that anything she saw in her visions was significant to her in some way or another, and clearly these were. And somehow…she was pretty sure what they were trying to tell her.

Shima was unsure about Hidan and what he was doing when it came down to her ability to have visions. The way he talked about them, the questions he asked…it had confused and bewildered her, right from the very beginning. Shima had discovered about her ability to have visions when she was pretty young, and to start with it had been something she had been proud of; excited about. It separated her from the rest of the population, and she could show off about it to the other children and even to the adult ninjas. No one else had this ability; she was special! But that view hadn’t exactly continued for too much longer. No matter how hard she tried to keep that mentality, it had never been treated as a good thing from the word go. Once people found out, they shied away from anything to do with it. Instead of special, she became a freak.

Shima hadn’t stayed around much longer, and the moment she had the experience and control she needed, she had left that place, no longer giving a shit about what anyone thought of her. She liked her ability; it had always helped her out and it made her better than everyone. What did they know? They’d never come across her power before! But even so…after finding out and seeing day after day what happened when people knew what she could do, Shima had opted to leave it be. If no one asked about it, she wasn’t about to tell. She never spoke about it off hand as a topic to be randomly talked about. If she was asked to tell something about herself; to say a bit about her life, she would stay silent about her visions until the very last. She had learnt her lesson.

But Hidan was different—in another way this time—and Shima didn’t know how to fully feel towards him because of it. They’d both approached her because they needed her abilities because of their mission, so she knew they weren’t about to dismiss her because of them. But Shima had figured they’d keep quiet about it for the most part, not wanting to think about the idea. When suddenly Hidan wanted to know everything about what she could do. What happened when she received a vision, how often she got them…so many questions about it all. He always loved to pick it as a topic when they were travelling—and Shima didn’t want him to. No matter how hard she tried to redirect the conversation, get in there and question him first before he could do so to her, he would begin the tirade. But she couldn’t put up with it much longer. Shima liked him as a person, true, but she wouldn’t keep talking about it.

 

It always went wrong—and she wouldn’t let it happen again.