The temple had returned to silence with the portal’s disappearance; no one even breathed. But as the wind slowed and dissipated into nothing, it served as the sign for the Akatsuki to suddenly release their breath as one, and breathe heavily after thinking about what happened. They couldn’t even start accusing Hidan of something; at least not yet. None of them had ever seen anything like it—it had just come out of nowhere. All of them had been watching, and it hadn’t seemed like there was anything he had pushed or said that had made it come to life, and with that thought, they began to walk back over to the altar; slowly, but walking all the same.
“I’m not sure I understand what just went on here, un.” Deidara finally whispered, unable to stand the silence any longer.
“I know what you mean.” Kisame quickly agreed, all of them standing there, but not going within two feet of the statues. They’d already lost one member; they didn’t exactly want it to happen again. But nothing remained as to what had occurred. It was like it had never even happened. Narrowing his eyes at the statues and looking up to the gates, Itachi added,
“He didn’t do a thing.”
“It would be Hidan. Manages to set off a trap without doing a God-damn thing.” Kakuzu snorted at his disappearance, but said nothing more as Leader stepped forward and looked closely at the runes on the door, and then those on the statues. Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes for a moment with an imperceptible sigh, before turning to them all and stating firmly,
“This doesn’t change our mission. We still have to find out what exactly the ninjas have been taking from here. It is clear this temple has the power we need. If, by continuing in our mission, we manage to find out what has happened to Hidan, then so be it. But for now...all we can do is continue.”
“I wouldn’t be that worried. Someone that persistently annoying wouldn’t die that fucking easily,” Kakuzu added, shaking his head and following them to start studying the runes. None of them thought he was dead—it had been a portal.
But there was nothing they could do now.
He was gone.
Swallowing hard at the idea of walking around in the middle of a forest for the rest of his life, Hidan knew he had to do something. He couldn’t just stand around. There was no way for him to get back to the others here, so he might as well try and find some form of civilisation to set things straight. To try and see what exactly he’d gotten himself into. He hadn’t meant to start the portal off. It had been an accident! All he’d done was brush away the dust and suddenly it appeared; anyone could have done it. It just had to be him. Kakuzu—along with the rest of the Akatsuki—was going to give him hell once he got back to the temple after he made all of this happen.
If he even could get back.
Sighing, Hidan shook his head and taking a deep breath, glanced around in an attempt to figure out which way he should go. At first he scowled at no one in particular, because, as per usual in a forest, the place was filled with trees, and if there were any paths, they were for animals. Nothing appeared to be suited to humans in the slightest. So sighing once again, he picked an area that seemed a lot more open than the rest of the forest, and headed on towards it. It was best a place to start as any. It might not even lead him anywhere, but hey, it gave him something to do.
As he walked, he couldn’t help but think there was something strange about the forest. Like there was something humming in the trees. Whatever animals were there showed no signs of turning up, and it did nothing to dispel his cautions. It had to be important in some form if the portal had taken him here. Even if the area itself wasn’t, something special about it was what had drawn the chakra there. But without any idea of anything, he couldn’t make a definite guess, and walked on towards the horizon. It took him about fifteen minutes—he had nothing else to do but count—until he got to the open area, and he halted in surprise and confusion. He’d been walking for a while in the middle of a forest, and when heading to an open area of forest, he had expected a huge clearing, nothing more.
However, what he found was a path. It wasn’t marked with anything, just the forest floor, but the trees didn’t grow in the area, staying on the side of the path. It seemed natural in the sense that it was just the forest with no signs of humanity, but it wasn’t right in the meticulous way the trees suddenly stopped and made no move to grow. But whoever—or whatever—had made it; it was fantastic in Hidan’s eyes. It was a path; so now he only had two directions to choose from. Looking one way then the other, he narrowed his eyes at both directions, wondering where to go, when a sudden wind picked up around his feet and blew down to the right. Pausing for a moment, Hidan watched it as it went by, and eventually followed.
It wasn’t anything to go by, but Hidan took it as a sign.
So he walked. He started counting, but after twenty minutes he lost count, and all he could concentrate on was putting one foot in front of the other. It seemed like he was going in circles; nothing changed and nothing appeared on the horizon. All that was in front of him was a monotonous tunnel that wouldn’t end. He wanted to stop. To stop point blank and scream out his frustration, though he knew that it would someone make what was happening worse. The forest was paranormal; making a noise like that would only heighten that fact. Hidan couldn’t actually think properly anymore. There was nothing to think about; and even if there was, there was no point thinking it.
He was in the middle of nowhere, with no way of getting back.
There were no animals; no people to talk to, no food, and no water.
He had his scythe, but without people it wasn’t much good. So it was all he could do to keep going. Then as it got to half an hour he started hearing faint shouted voices. At first it was like they weren’t even there, and Hidan merely continued on through the forest. But as they got louder, and he was no longer able to dismiss them as just things in the back of his mind, he shook himself out of his mindless stupor and listened. There was something, somewhere. Something that involved people. And people meant food, water, shelter....it meant people themselves. His heart strangely beating faster at the idea of finding people again after what seemed like years of being alone, he sprinted in the direction of the voices.
Hidan’s eyes were on overdrive, checking every spot in the forest for whatever people there were. He didn’t care if they wanted to kill him or what weirdo’s they were, just as long as they were people and they had basic necessities. Then something happened that gave him a huge sense of Déjà Vu. Just like it had done with the temple, the village appeared out of nowhere, like it had materialized from nothing. He was glad the village was there; amazingly so, but there was something about the fact it acted the same way the temple had done that halted that feeling for a moment, until abruptly he was standing in front of the gates.
Hidan couldn’t remember how long he’d been walking.
And this village might not hold the answer to getting back to the others.
But he’d found civilisation.
And that was all that was running through his head.
