Hidan knew he must have looked strange.
He had stood outside of the village for about five minutes, just staring at the fact it was an actual village. With everything that had happened, it was a complete and utter fucking miracle. So when he finally managed to make his legs move and enter, a grin blossomed onto his face as he did so, and he began looking around the place to see what it was like. It wasn’t anything special, but, then again, it was in the middle of nowhere. He doubted it was near enough to any form of village or city in order to develop and bring new stuff in. Not that it mattered, anyway, and he continued walking through the streets, noting that not many people were around. He checked a few streets, but still found nothing, and continued wandering through, wondering where they all were.
Then finally, the buildings petered out to leave a clearing, which was no doubt the “village square”. And in it, the entire population (or so Hidan guessed) of the town was waiting inside. Whatever was happening, they seemed incredibly interested in it, and making his way to the outskirts of the crowd, he peered over the heads of those in front and saw a podium of some kind, with a man standing on it. He was holding a list, and every now and again he would look up, pick something from the table next to him and lift it up to the crowd, only for them to start waving their hands about and saying they wanted it. From what he could make out, he was selling something, and something that didn’t come often.
The crowd was too thick to really hear what he was selling, though, so all he could do was wait till it was finished before doing anything else. Crossing his arms and taking in a breath, he continued watching what was being held up, having never seen anything like it, until someone pushed through the crowd, having obviously got what they wanted, and began to go back home. Only once they reached the edge of the crowd, they of course saw Hidan. As he merely nodded in greeting at him, not having anything to say, he quickly uncrossed his arms and stood up fully as they came over, a glare in his eyes and a scowl on his face, and stood in complete disbelief as he snarled,
“And who the hell are you?”
Still not quite understanding what his problem was, Hidan paused for a few seconds more at his unjustified reason for slamming a finger accusingly into his face, before growling back,
“Why are you so interested?”
Though he wasn’t sure if those had been the right words to use as the man turned and spoke to another man in the crowd, the words going across like ripples in water, causing tens of eyes to twist round to look at him, and none of them looked particularly friendly. Hidan hadn’t really liked the place in the first place, considering he’d just spent an hour ambling through the forest. But now it was only heightening this fact. Within seconds they had surrounded him, and began pushing him and generally harassing him in every way possible, and though he could say stuff back to them all, he was at a slight disadvantage, not knowing the area and having no place to go. So for the moment his only option was to defend himself; and that was it.
Then abruptly a hand was placed on his shoulder and the person directly in front of him halted and blinked in surprise. Taking this chance at his vulnerability, the person stepped forward and with clenched fists, stated defiantly,
“What the hell do you all think you’re doing? What exactly has this guy done to disagree with every single one of you?”
Pausing for a moment, no one said a word, and they continued,
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. Just because he’s not from around here doesn’t ultimately mean he’s fucking evil. He stood on the edge of a crowd. Big deal. So why don’t you just back off already!”
Now Hidan could see it was a woman with long golden blonde hair, currently in a braid and hanging over her left shoulder. Wearing knee length skin tight shorts, a cropped jacket and bandages wrapped round her hands to her elbows, not to mention the way she was talking to the rest of the people, Hidan guessed she was the kind of girl who wouldn’t care in the slightest about jumping in head first. His eyes took in her bare feet a moment later, looking her over when something about her seemed so astonishing, everything came back as the argument went on. It was clear she wasn’t a favourite of theirs either, but something made them more inclined to listen; something about her was important to them. Though as another man came striding through the crowd, everyone parting and inclining their heads in respect for him, it was clear he did not share this inclination, and said back at her,
“You are not truly one with this town, so do not act as if you are. You shouldn’t be so insolent in matters like this. Now step aside and let me deal with the stranger.”
The entire place was quiet now, and though Hidan couldn’t see her face, he quickly assumed that upon the arrival of this authority she would move away and let him do what he wanted. But whatever he had been expecting, it hadn’t been what she did next: her fists clenched and she stood her ground, before stating calmly in return,
“I can’t let you do that.”
Hidan not being the only one to blink in surprise, quickly narrowing his eyes in confusion as to why she was protecting him so strongly, he still decided to remain silent, not really about to protest to someone helping him. This help was even more sacrificial than he thought, though; as the leader of the village glared viciously at her, and drawing himself up to his full height, responded icily,
“You have periods of free time between each visit here. Hopefully that time can be used for you to cool down. Take her out of here!”
As guards advanced towards her from all sides, she span around, taking in them all, and then looked up with big innocent eyes at the leader, biting her lip as she said, almost as if about to cry,
“10 against 1? How could you, ___? How am I supposed to get out of this?”
A small smirk came onto ___’s face as she said this, only for her innocent eyes to disappear as a smirk of her own flashed up on her mouth. A millisecond later and she was gone in a bang, smoke curling in two beams that intertwined and dispersed into the air.
Instantly the guards turned and turned again to look for her; coming up with nothing every time. Even ___ himself seemed anxious, knowing she wouldn’t be backing down from this and leaving Hidan on his own, but not having a clue as to what to do when he couldn’t see her and know where she was. A moment later a voice called out to them all, and spinning automatically to it, they all saw her sitting atop a pole stationed on the podium, wiggling her fingers in a wave as she greeted with a cheeky smile,
“Looking for me, sweetheart?”
Guards rapidly made their way over to her to grab hold of her this time, several climbing onto the podium, only for her to run to the other side and jump backwards onto a horse, waving once again as she did so. Two others followed her, jumping onto the remaining horses, only to find they bucked them both off and cantered off the moment they tried. Jumping back onto the ground again, she saw more people after her and ran for the piles of barrels nearby, cutting the ropes that held them all together and flipped her way over the lot, landing safely and unscathed on the patch of ground the other side, looking back to see people knocked to the floor and liquid everywhere. Letting out a laugh, she turned to the last three guards, now on horseback, and grabbed a coil of rope, darting back over to them. Jumping up to tie the rope to the saddle of the first guard, she flipped over all three while undoing the saddles, alighting easily on the floor; with one yank, they all toppled into each other, crashing into the ground at her feet, before she bowed at the crowd and their shocked faces with the total annihilation of the guards.
Dodging round a kunai whose trajectory had been altered with the fall, Hidan grinned in complete admiration at everything she had just done, and breathed,
“Wow.”
He was too impressed to come out with anything else.
