Chapter 8

She was happy.

No, that was understatement.

She was giddy, delighted, content… Despite what they were doing and the situation they were in, the feeling that she was experiencing, she hoped it would never end. Her clothes were damp though and there was a cool draft flowing through the cave system so she hoped she didn't get sick later. Peeking out of the corner of her eye, she watched the tall male beside her. His clothes were damp too, but she was pretty sure he wasn't prone to sickness like she was. Suddenly, he turned his head away from her as he let out a sneeze.

Okay, maybe she stood corrected.

"Why are you staring at me?"

"No reason!" She grinned as she clasped her hands in front of her.

She was so obvious about everything. He sighed to himself as they kept walking. Hopefully Hidan was where they had discussed because he was getting agitated with the scenery. Memories of himself walking these same caves to and from missions flooded his mind and he would be more content if they would just go away.

A familiar chakra signature caught his attention and immediately, he grabbed Nozomi's wrist and pulled her to him as he peeked around the corner of the cave way they were in. Luckily, they were in the shadows so no one could see them. In front of them was an opening to another small lake with a small waterfall running into it. The water was slightly different from the others, having more of a white color versus the normal blue.

"Is this the right place?" A deep voice spoke, one Nozomi automatically recognized. It was the old man with the three-scarred eye from before.

"You calling me a fucking liar?" Another familiar voice, unmistakably Hidan's, spit out. "There's only one fucking place named the Spring of Toyo no Kuni."

Nozomi peeked around the corner as well. It was just the lead scientist, Hifumi, and Hidan's head. Frowning, she wondered where his lackeys were. Surely they didn't leave him and they weren't there when she and Kakuzu found Hidan's body.

Hifumi tossed Hidan's head to the side as he relished in the feeling of sheer glee. This was it. This was the answer to all of his prayers. "At last! I have found the Spring of Immortality! If I can harvest this kind of phenomena as my own…" He rubbed his palms together as he began to imagine the possibilities.

"Watch the rocks, jackass!" Hidan yelled as his head rolled along the cave floor and stopped against the wall. "Hey, fuck shit. There's something I forgot to tell you about that piece of shit waterhole you're standing by."

Hifumi, who was too busy taking samples of the water in tubes, didn't pay the male any mind. Once he collected enough, he immediately started to drink from the fountain, relishing in gulp after gulp.

Nozomi turned back to Kakuzu in awe. "The Spring of Toyo no Kuni? Something like that really exists?"

"The idiot made it up." Kakuzu shook his head.

Looking away from him in embarrassment, she turned her head back to the scene in front of him. A spring of immortality does sound like a fairy tale now that she thought of it. Why was she so gullible? As she watched Hifumi, something didn't seem right as the man dropped to his knees in agonizing pain. Finally, his lackeys started to appear. Nozomi watched in shock as it looked like the man's veins were nearly bulging out of his body.

"Yes… Yes! This is what I was waiting for!" Hifumi started to laugh maniacally. "The power! It's surging through my body!"

"Well, shit… That was unexpected." Hidan whistled lowly. "That was just supposed to be some random ass fountain."

Kakuzu rolled his eyes in annoyance and turned to Nozomi. Her eyes were fixated on Hifumi so he pulled her back into the hallway and tilted her chin so she was looking up at him. "On my signal, you're going to go retrieve Hidan's head and sew it back onto his body. I'll handle the rest."

Nozomi's eyes widened. "You want me to intentionally run out on the battlefield?" She looked out of the corner of her eye at Hifumi's growing power lust before glancing back at Kakuzu. If he was telling her to do this, then she should trust him. After all, he's never purposefully tried to cause her harm before, besides the lake earlier, but that was just an exception. Nodding in agreement, the two went back to the corner. On his signal, a smoke bomb exploded in the center of the room and the female made a run for it.

"Yeah! Let the fucking party begin!" Hidan cheered, itching to join in the festivities. Nozomi followed the sound of his voice and grabbed his head before dashing back towards the hallway. She let out a small shriek as she ducked, barely missing a few senbon needles that were flying towards her head. The smoke was starting to get thicker and her vision was getting smaller and smaller. "Can you hold my head steady, bitch? I can't fucking see anything!"

"I should let you drown in the lake." Nozomi rolled her eyes once they started moving. Just because she was tasked with helping him didn't mean that she forgave him for his wrongdoings. She nearly ran into the wall because of all the smoke, but was able to walk alongside it and feel her way back to the hallway.

"You should be fucking praising me." Hidan sneered. "I got you the damn golden ticket. Did you get to fuck the old bastard yet?"

Nozomi's eyes nearly stuck out of their sockets as she dropped Hidan's head on the ground. Hidan let out a string of curses as he barely avoided a rock getting stuck up his nostril. Placing her hands on her hips, she glared at him. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Fucking bitch! I got my head sliced off my damn shoulders for you and this is how you fucking repay me?" Hidan yelled at her. "I'm never helping your ass again! Put my head on my fucking body."

Nozomi looked at Hidan's body that Kakuzu left leaning against the wall before looking back at Hidan's head. This bastard has been rude to her the entire time and ruined her clothes out of pure entertainment, but now he wanted to boss her around? In his position, he couldn't do anything to her so she was going to take full advantage. Crossing her arms over her chest, the female decided to take her stance. "No."

"The hell did you just say to me?"

"I'm not going to help you until you apologize to me."

Hidan looked up at her before he burst into laughter. "Wow, isn't this some shit… You better put me back together right fucking now or I swear on Jashin I'll-"

"I've been nothing but nice to you since we met! I've never tried to sabotage you or hurt you-"

"Cause you fucking can't."

"-or ugh! That's the type of bullshit I'm talking about! I never asked you to stick your nose into anything! What do you want from me? A thank you?"

Hidan watched her eyebrow twitch in annoyance before a smirk found its way across his lips. "It's your fucking time of the month, isn't it?"

Fed up, Nozomi grabbed a fistful of his hair and dragged his head face first across the cave floor before sitting it on top of his body. Quietly, she pulled out her sewing kit and got to work, murmuring under her breath. "Just forget it. You never take me seriously anyway and I don't expect you to."

Hidan spit the loose dirt out of his mouth as he listened to her. It wasn't that he never took her seriously; she was just fun to mess with and an easy target. If he joked around with the old bastard like this, he would be buried six feet under and kicking it with the worms for all eternity. Once she hit a nerve, he flinched. "Ow, take it easy with that damn thing." Once he started feeling his fingers again, he smoothed his hair back in its original slickback.

"Damn it… I'm sorry."

Nozomi stopped what she was doing and looked at Hidan, who was avoiding eye contact with her. "...What did you say?"

"I said I'm fucking sorry alright? That doesn't mean I won't fucking talk shit anymore though. I'm just talking about the stupid fucking t-shirt." He glanced at the female as the tip of his ears burned red. "The fuck are you looking at? Hurry up!"

Astonished by his apology, Nozomi blinked before nodding and quickening her pace. A smile tugged on the ends of her lips as she thought about the whole encounter. It was really the small victories that made an impact. He definitely wasn't going to change for her, that was evident, but the apology made her feel a little better.

Once she finished, Hidan immediately stood up and cracked his neck. He had to admit, she did a pretty decent job since his head was on straight. Grabbing his scythe, he was ready to go out and make some sacrifices. By the time he turned around, the smoke had cleared and the lackeys were laying over top of each other, dead. Kakuzu entered the hallway with Hifumi's dead body slung over his shoulder.

"Fucking old bastard! You never let me have any fucking fun!" Hidan jabbed his finger at him.

"You're done already?" Nozomi asked. "I thought the fight was going to be longer… He looked like he was going to be tough."

"He was hallucinating. Overall, an easy target." Kakuzu walked past them. "Let's go." Nozomi nodded and immediately followed after him. Grumbling to himself, Hidan crossed his arms and started walking as well.

₪•₪•₪•₪•₪•₪

Two members of the Akatsuki walked together down a dirt path along the border of the Land of Fire, their straw hats shading their faces from the sun peeking through the gaps in the tree leaves. They had just finished their mission, so they were free until the next time their leader called on them.

"Where are we off to now?" The taller one out of the two asked. "Are we just going to sit around again?"

"If you have something else you'd rather do, I won't object to it." The other answered back as they continued. His partner smirked, revealing an interesting set of pearly whites.

The sound of laughter made the two stop in their tracks. A few feet away from them, a head and torso rose up out of the ground. "Looking for something to do, are we?"

"I believe we already have plans." The tall male lifted his hat up, revealing his blue skin. "It's free time."

"Not anymore." The newcomer responded. "Leader-sama has a new assignment for you, but this time the target needs to be captured alive. She'll be simple and easy to catch when she's by herself and she owes some important people so try not to damage the merchandise." With that, he disappeared into the earth leaving a piece of paper in his place.

The shorter male picked up the paper and analyzed it. It looked like it was ripped out of a bingo book. On one side was a picture of a female with short blond hair and blue eyes. Wanted for murder, embezzlement, and outstanding debt… Well, the story lined up there. On the back was a lackluster drawing of a map with a circle, no doubt showing where to find her. She was a lot closer than he thought. A note at the bottom said she would lead them where they needed to go.

"Hey, Itachi… Are we really doing this?"

"Leader's orders."