Chapter 16

'I…. I-I killed…!' Shaking her head, Hinata found her clothes and shoes in the dark room and put them back on. 'Now's not the time to panic. My friends are in danger.'

The gunfire hadn't stopped, though it had substantially slowed. Cringing in disgust, Hinata retrieved the knife and keys from the corpse before finally leaving the awful room. She closed and locked the door behind her, just to be safe.

Bleeding heavily from the cuts on her face and hand and the gash that appeared upon her head being slammed into the wall, the girl wasn't all that steady on her feet. Blood dripped to the ground occasionally as she stuck to the wall in the large open room.

It appeared to be a gymnasium of sorts but was under construction.

When she turned out through the only other door, it led to a hallway that had a staircase at the end. Two rooms were between the door and stairs, but they were empty when Hinata carefully peeked inside. Halfway up the extremely tall staircase, the dizziness had her clinging to the railing to keep herself upright.

With all she had, she continued moving until faint voices met her ears. She froze, eyes wide and a hand on the step above her. "-fuck is she? What are you thinking, kidnapping a girl like her? Don't you know how powerful her father is?"

It was Hidan. Hinata didn't cry. No, it wasn't the time for that. She crept up the stairs more stealthily, terrified to make a sound and give herself away.

"There's no sense explaining something logical to a fool like you. Drop the weapon, or I'll kill you. Then, I'll kill your friends and Hinata, too." That was Orochimaru's voice, but he sounded scarier than before.

At the top of the stairs, she realized they were in the first room of that hallway because Sasori and Deidara were sitting against the wall outside it, both with apparent bullet wounds that at least didn't seem fatal. It was obvious they weren't able to continue fighting, though.

Deidara's eyes jumped to her when she crept closer, widening as they took in her likely grotesque appearance. Sasori turned to see what had him shaken, only for an identical expression to arise on his face. They both wordlessly motioned for her to back off, to stay away, but she couldn't and wouldn't.

With the knife in hand, she kept the other on the wall to remain balanced as she peeked around the corner into the room. It was just as bad as she expected it to be. Corpses littered the room. Among them, facing her direction, were more of her friends. Itachi and Kakuzu were down, the former as pale as a sheet of paper and unconscious, while the latter seemed to be shot in the shoulder but was tending to the Uchiha while watching the events unfold out of the corner of his eye.

That left Hidan standing there with a gun aimed at Orochimaru, who pointed one right back. Luckily, the awful teacher's back was turned. Hidan had multiple cuts on his hands, neck, and face but otherwise seemed fine.

Hinata's plan was simple: sneak in, jump on the man's back, and hold on for dear life so Hidan could disarm and disable him. Since she only had a knife, there weren't many other options.

Holding her breath, she turned into the room. The moment she did, Hidan's eyes turned onto her, widened slightly, and quickly turned back onto their foe to not give her away.

'He's going to be so pissed at me if we survive this,' the girl thought as she approached Orochimaru.

Swallowing nervously, Hinata threw her life on the line and leaped onto his back. Immediately, all hell broke loose. The teacher's gun pointed over his shoulder, and he shot twice, one missing entirely and the other grazing her arm. Surprised by the sudden wound, Hinata wrenched the knife deep into the man's shoulder before losing her grip and falling to the ground on her back with a thud.

At the same time, Orochimaru turned to see her there and began moving his arm as though he would point the gun at her, only for a single gunshot to ring out behind him. Blood began pooling in a circle at the center of the man's chest, his yellow eyes wide.

Hinata cringed when it seemed he would fall forward on top of her, but Hidan grabbed his arm, wrenched the gun from his hand, and shoved him to the side. When his body hit the ground, no one made a sound for a long time.

Her vision blurring and distorting broke her daze, and the Hyuuga girl shakily got up, eyes trained on Orochimaru's body as though it would begin moving again. Once upright, she turned her head to look at Itachi. Kakuzu was too busy staring at her with wide eyes, but the Uchiha boy still wasn't conscious. Worriedly, Hinata stepped toward them, only to sway and lose her balance.

An arm came around her waist, a familiar voice cursing, "You could've fuckin' died, Hinata! What the hell were you thinking? If he turned around even a second earlier, you'd have been shot!"

The girl could only lean into his side, head lowering as she closed her eyes. Nothing she said would calm him, so she didn't waste her little energy responding. Everything hurt.

When Hidan spoke again, his voice was much quieter and genuinely concerned, "Hey…c'mon. Say something."

Yahiko's voice came from the doorway suddenly, "We need to go. The police will be arriving to investigate the gunshots."

She wasn't sure when, but Hinata fainted somewhere between the corpse-filled room and the exit of the building. Then she woke up to the sensation of someone touching her face. Resting did almost nothing to recuperate energy. The young woman felt exhausted like she hadn't slept in days. Groaning, her eyes crept open to see Konan looking down at her with tears in her eyes.

The girl's voice was barely a croak, "Hey, Hina. How're you feeling?" The blunette was cleaning her face with an antibacterial wipe.

A pinch on her stab wound distracted her. When she glanced to the side, Hinata saw Kisame stitching her hand. The blue-haired man grimaced when he noticed her looking, "You're lucky. The cut on your face doesn't need stitches."

The Hyuuga girl recalled how she received the wounds and gasped as her chest tightened dangerously, making it impossible for her to breathe, 'I killed someone! I'm a murderer!'

"Quick, Konan, grab that bottle over there and make her take one."

Sobs wracked her entire body as Kisame helped her sit up, a strong arm around her back as he watched the blue-haired girl come over with a bottle of pills and a glass of water. Hinata was forced to take one of them, fighting weakly the entire time. Then the muscular man held her still while Konan spoke to her in a soothing, reassuring voice.

Ten minutes passed. Then the Hyuuga girl felt relaxed and a little loopy.

The pair patched her up much more quickly after that. An hour or two later, they were finished. Stitches were on Hinata's bicep and palm from the stab wound and bullet graze, while her cheek had a few bandages to cover the cut.

Luckily, the gash on the side of her head wasn't as nasty as she thought and didn't even need to be stapled. It'd stopped bleeding by the time they arrived at his business, according to Kisame.

The blue-haired man is a veterinarian and runs it out of the first floor of his home, the second floor serving as living space and the basement acting as somewhat of an emergency hospital for anyone needing medical attention that would get into legal trouble if they went somewhere public.

While they'd worked, Konan filled in many of the blanks for Hinata.

Apparently, all of them were, indeed, in a gang, but it wasn't the stereotypical drugs and violence type that most would assume. She, herself, only joined at the beginning of the school year. Rather than do any of those awful things for personal gain, they try to prevent the actually bad gangs from affecting the lives of innocent people caught in the crossfire.

It was pretty much a vigilante group but less corny. Most of the group, called Akatsuki, was comprised of those with bad childhoods who wanted to ensure no other kids suffered like they did. There were a few exceptions, of course, like Itachi and Sasori.

Sasori's parents live in Sunagakure. He'd been sent to a summer school program a few years ago in Iwagakure, where he met Deidara. The pair hit it off. They ran into Yahiko when skipping classes, who recruited them to join Akatsuki. Deidara was living on the streets without parents, so he didn't need permission to leave, but Sasori simply sent a letter to his parents threatening to never see them again if they didn't allow him to travel as he pleased.

Itachi, on the other hand, met Kisame during a school tour in Kirigakure. The blue-haired man was in his first year of college and had volunteered to be the guide for some extra cash. The Uchiha boy overheard him take a call from Yahiko and asked some questions. The rest is history.

Unexpectedly, what surprised Hinata the most was that Yahiko was the group's leader. He's only twenty, so he'd have been in his teens when the Akatsuki first formed. How he managed to recruit older members like Kakuzu and Kisame, she didn't know, but he's apparently some sort of genius. The man graduated high school at fifteen, for Christ's sake.

'Now he works in the kitchen at my house…. Talk about a waste of talent.'

There were a few members that Hinata had yet to meet, but apparently, Kakuzu and Hidan joined together at the same time.

As Kisame described it, Orochimaru helped Yahiko first form the Akatsuki, only for the latter to catch him dealing in weapon smuggling. The teacher was ousted. A year later, he resurfaced as the leader of the Kunshu gang. Between then and now, he'd built a small empire on weapons and drug trade. Since their friendship ended the way it did, Yahiko felt responsible for not stopping his rise in power, which was why the two groups were at war.

'I wonder if the fighting will end because he's dead. Hopefully, no one steps up to take his place, but that's not likely since there's so much money at stake.'

They were lucky because, after all that violence, not one member of the Akatsuki died. Almost everyone had some sort of injury, but at least they're alive.

After making her eat something and drink water, Konan helped Hinata to the living quarters and into bed in one of the guest rooms. High as a kite, the Hyuuga girl told her blue-haired friend that she was beautiful and loved her at least three times before she finally let her leave the room. Then she was alone in an unfamiliar house, laying in a bed that wasn't her own, and too medicated to correctly grasp the seriousness of the situation.

Simply lying there staring at the ceiling seemed amusing, so that's what she did for a long time. The sound of the others talking and moving around faded until the house was quiet, and then the door to her room opened and reclosed. Turning her head, her slight smile faded when Hidan approached with an angry frown. Even loopy, she couldn't forget how humiliating it was to wake up alone in that motel room after trusting him.

"What d'you want?" Her voice was a little off because of the medication, but her unease was still evident.

The young man climbed into bed beside her, grumbling, "If anyone should be pissed, it's me."

Hinata scooted away from him, turning onto her side with a wince so she could keep an eye on him, but she still argued, "I have every right to be angry with you!"

"What the fuck? How? You're the one who got herself kidnapped. I told you not to go around alone, but you went and left the damn room!"

Tears welled in the girl's eyes, her voice wavering as she glared, "Pardon me for wanting to go home after being ditched. I was humiliated. I-I still am!"

Hidan's magenta eyes narrowed, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Stop playing dumb, Hidan! You…. You messed around with me and left so you wouldn't have to face me in the morning. At least own up to it."

The man seemed stunned for a moment before he closed his eyes with a deep sigh, hissing, "I didn't leave you there, Dumbass. Kakuzu called, and I didn't want to wake you up, so I went on a damn walk!"

'Wait…. What?'

Hinata's anger disappeared as she searched his irritated face, brow furrowing when those gorgeous eyes reopened to lock angrily onto hers. Unsure, she whispered, "...You're not lying, are you?"

Hidan rolled his eyes, "What kinda man do you take me for?"

The Hyuuga girl's tears overflowed, but her annoyance was beginning to return, "Well, what'd you expect me to think? I pretty much forced you to do stuff with me and woke up alone!"

The room was silent momentarily as they searched one another's faces.

When Hidan finally responded, he somewhat averted the topic, "You honestly think you forced me? You're a complete moron."

Her eyes widened, a little confused. He elaborated while coming slightly closer to the girl, "Do you think I've been putting up with your obnoxious ass for no reason? For Jashin's sake, you're thick in the head, Princess."

Hinata didn't know who or what "Jashin" was but moved past the fact, "What're you trying to say, Hidan?"

"I'm trying to say that I wouldn't have shown up last night at all if I didn't like you, and I can't believe you thought I'd fuckin' leave you like that."

"B-But you pretty much abandoned me; all of you did! I thought you hated me!"

A long pause followed her emotional admission. Hidan was now right in front of her, one of his hands holding her uninjured one with their fingers intertwined. The pink in his eyes seemed to glow in the dark room, but maybe it was just the drugs making her hallucinate.

"We only did that because we found out your dad asked you to spy on Itachi. None of us knew if you'd do it, but even if you didn't, getting as close to us as you had was putting you at risk. Everyone agreed it was better to have you alive and hating us than dead because we were selfish."

"It's not fair for you all to make that kind of decision for me. Did you not consider telling the truth?"

"No. It wasn't an option."

"Why not?"

Hidan sighed, his annoyed expression softening as his voice did, "I mean, just fuckin' look at you, Hinata. Someone like you shouldn't be in dangerous situations like that."

The girl felt offended, "What do you mean 'someone like me'? Am I not enough for all of you?"

"Damn it, no. That's not it," he paused to search her face before closing his eyes and speaking barely above a whisper, "I just get so paranoid and pissed off whenever I think of you getting hurt." They reopened to lock onto Hinata's stunned ones, "When Deidara brought up maybe coming clean to you about everything, I went the fuck off. Itachi agreed with me, so no one argued."

"You're all a bunch of idiots!"

Hinata squeezed his hand in hers, relieved her friends didn't hate her guts and angry because they'd made a serious decision without including her. Though she was upset, as she stared into the young man before her's eyes, it melted, and she moved to rest her forehead against his, looking downward instead of at his face, "I-I love you guys a lot, so please don't do something like that again."

It was quiet for a long time, neither moving nor saying a word. Minutes later, Hidan suddenly asked, "Are you going to sleep?"

She made a negating sound, pulling back to meet his gaze curiously.

He smirked, "Wanna take a bath?"

'That sounds amazing right now!' The girl wanted to say yes, but she couldn't. "I can't get my stitches wet."

"Who said you had to? Come on."

He pulled her, a hand wrapped around her uninjured hand's wrist, into the ensuite and began running the water in the large bathtub. Kisame had given her one of his shirts because hers had been ruined, and Hidan glared at it when he turned to face her.

Usually, Hinata'd be too nervous to comment or even make an assumption, but she was still on whatever medication Konan made her take, so she giggled, tilting her head with her gaze on his as he began undressing her, "Are you jealous?"

The shirt was removed, then her bra, then he slid her leggings down more slowly, eyes dancing over her body once she was completely nude as his glare disappeared, "Nah. Wear whoever's clothes you want. Just don't let them see you like this, or we'll have a big fuckin' problem." Calloused fingers ran up her sides as he came to a complete stand, warmth glowing in his eyes.

Hinata blushed but simply shook her head with a grin. The man undressed, too, and then they climbed into the bath.

A surprised hum left her mouth when he sat behind her and pulled her back to rest against his chest, a short laugh following soon after, "What are you…?"

"You can't get your damn stitches wet, right? So, I have to help."

Feeling giddy, the girl reached back with her uninjured arm to run a hand up his neck and into his hair, enjoying the feeling of his firm torso against her back with closed eyes, "And I'm sure that's your only reason for doing this."

Hidan seemed surprised momentarily, but then he moved her hair from her shoulder to press his lips into it, "You're being awfully brave, Princess. Don't tell me you've changed this much already. I wanted to take my time corrupting you." His arms came around her waist, one holding her against him and the other coming up so he could fondle her chest sensually.

The Hyuuga grinned to herself since he could see it, "I'm just high. Konan gave me something because I was having a panic attack."

The boy froze, "Why were you…?" Suddenly, his arms removed themselves from her body, his tone forced and enraged, "Kabuto…. He didn't-"

'So that man's name was Kabuto?'

"He almost did. I…I killed him before he could do it."

"Y-You killed him?!"

The happy-go-lucky feeling threatened to fade. Her voice became soft, "Yes. I didn't have a choice. He was….H-He, um…."

"Shut up. I get it."

Hinata's mouth clamped shut, eyes falling to the bubbles in the water.

"I'm sorry. If you and I hadn't gotten so close, that never would've-" The girl cut Hidan off, drastically uncomfortable with the fact that he was blatantly apologizing for the first time since they met, "You shut up! Of course, I'm gonna stick close to you."

When he didn't respond, she dropped her hand from his hair into the water, anxiously running her fingers over his lower thigh in a way that soothed her, "I-I like you, Hidan, but I don't want you to feel like you have to date me because you don't."

She laughed, and it was unhumorous, maybe even a little bitter, "Now that I think about it, you probably don't buy into that kind of thing, so I probably look like an idiot bringing it-" "For fuck's sake, Hinata. I'd have to be a dumbass not to ask you out at this point!" Slowly, Hidan placed a hand atop hers on his thigh, the other arm wrapping around her waist like it had earlier.

Her giddiness returned, a smile tugging at her lips as his fingers curled between the spaces of hers, "What took you so long? I would've said yes weeks ago. Don't tell me you actually believed I was only messing around with you to get back at my dad."

A chuckle vibrated his chest, the sound warm like honey in freshly brewed tea, "No. I didn't want your dad to find out and you to get in trouble. Don't really give a damn now, though, since you'll probably knock his fuckin' teeth out if he tries to hit you again."

Hinata laughed as she tried to picture that happening.

Lips returned to the back of her shoulder, tickling her skin as Hidan added, "If you don't, then I will. This had better be the last time you get hurt like this, got it? Your days of fighting bimbos on the roof at school are over."

"What! Why? You said I was cool that day!" The girl was half-joking.

"Oh, shit, yeah. You're a million times more badass than I thought you'd be."

The hand atop hers disappeared, reappearing on her skin as he ran his palm up the front of her body until his fingers gently wrapped around her throat, voice lowering, "If you really need an outlet for all that pent-up energy…."

"Hey, Hidan…. Let's get out soon, okay?"

The young man laughed loudly, sitting straighter and holding her still, "Sometimes you're too damn honest, Princess."

~

I plan on doing a few epilogue chapters, but the main storyline of this fic is pretty much complete!

Thanks to everyone for reading and providing feedback.

I hope you enjoyed it!