“Hey, Tsukai...is there something the matter?” Hidan eventually stated softly, stepping closer now she seemed to have calmed down, left only with confusion on her face. Turning to face him, she smiled gently, shaking off whatever had happened, and then said simply,
“Sorry. Just something she did, and I was a little angry at her, that’s all. Come on, let’s go.”
Knowing she didn’t want to talk about it, Hidan merely shrugged it off and nodded, taking a few more steps towards the cave. He didn’t know what had happened, but couldn’t help but think there was something more to the situation than what she was saying out loud. But it didn’t seem to be anything too serious, as none of the wolves around seemed to be looking worried, instead shaking their heads and baring their teeth in the same way Daichi had done when he had first met him.
If anything, they seemed to find it amusing, so smirking to himself, he shook it off for now and concentrated on what was happening in front of him. He was slightly excited to meet this wolf; Tsukai had mentioned that the influence of the temple on them had made them this size, and probably had done for years. Maybe if this effect had happened to them that long, and with Tsukai knowing Jashinism herself...maybe they’d met other Jashinists in the past. If there was anywhere to come into connection with his religion, then this would be it. And it filled him with an almost child-like anticipation.
Edging round the cave wall, Tsukai called out with a grin, and hearing a deep, gruff voice answer back, Hidan quickened his pace, only to grind to a halt as he truly saw who was occupying the cave. Several much larger wolves took up the cave, but that wasn’t what his attention was drawn to. A jet black wolf with the same kind of gold eyes Tsukai shared sat towards the back, but almost took up half the cave. He had to have been double the size of him—no, double the size of a guy like Kisame—and sat next to a female wolf who was slightly smaller than him. She was completely snow white, but shared the same gold eyes; and seeing this factor, he began to think it meant something, as only a select handful of the other wolves had this colour. It seemed to connect them, as running over, she hugged the female, and then moving over to the male, buried her face in his fur, as he moved closer and encircled his tail around her body in return.
Pulling away, she talked to him rapidly, and from the look on their faces, Hidan gathered they were going through traditional small talk; how’s things? How are you? And others like it. Waiting, he wasn’t bothered in the slightest, as it allowed him to get used to the whole idea of gigantic wolves. But a few moments later and the wolf looked up at him, and suddenly narrowing his eyes as he looked him over, he spoke to him in the ancient language of the temple. Glancing back at Tsukai, he didn’t know what to do, having never learnt or really known about the language in the slightest and not knowing how to respond. Tsukai turned back to the wolf to explain that he didn’t know, when the wolf shook his head and dealt with it himself.
“I’m sorry. I know not many people can speak the ancient language, but when I saw your pendant...it just came out of my mouth.”
Blinking in surprise, this factor was another thing to try and comprehend in his brain, as not only was the wolf absolutely massive, but apparently was bilingual, too. For a moment, he was dumbstruck, until the actual words he had spoken finally worked through his head, and frowning a little, he eventually responded,
“You don’t need to apologise. You...you fucking know what my necklace means?”
Chuckling deeply, the wolf shook his head once more, and Tsukai sighed, voicing out loud that she should have mentioned a couple of things beforehand. But dismissing that for a moment, the female wolf now focused on Hidan and began,
“Let’s try this again, shall we? My name is Toshi Shiroi and this is my mate, Yoru Kuroi. We are the elders of our wolf pack. We were one of the first to speak the ancient language. Jashinism is an ancient religion, and shares the same language. I have seen many pass through the forest—although it is not the same now.”
Blinking in surprise, Hidan was beginning to think there was a lot more going on with Jashinism than he had first thought. The kind of things he’d seen in the temple...they were in the same league as Jashinism was. He had always said he wanted to learn how to read them, but had never thought he’d be able to. Had never thought there was anyone who really could. But now he knew not only did the elders of the forest know of the language and Jashinism, but a human—a human he was friends with—did too, he could finally learn it. He couldn’t be certain whether Tsukai would accept to help him, but as he glanced back over at them both and at her, he knew she would. She had been willing to help him in the town when she hadn’t even met him, ultimately isolating her from the village for another while. If she had been willing to do that, why not teach him her language?
“As you are one of the Jashin brethren, do you—” Yoru asked quietly a moment later after allowing him to get used to the idea of this new information, when Tsukai cut in, sighing softly, and wondering what was wrong, she went on,
“He doesn’t know. We’re on the fucking outskirts of the world, Yoru, you know that. As the years have passed, so much of Jashinism has been lost to the mainstream world. He fucking came here by accident, tumbling through a portal, because he couldn’t read the runes. He knows nothing of what he could do.”
Excitement building up inside of him once again at the promise of learning new techniques, Hidan remained silent, waiting for what someone might say next. Yoru kept his gaze focused on the floor, thinking everything over, everyone watching as he did so. Hidan was wondering what he’d be planning to do with him, but Toshi, sitting next to him, already knew what was going on, and smiling to herself, looked away. Tsukai wasn’t ready to lose Hidan just yet, so all she could do was hope he’d be okay with staying a little longer.
“Well, I think that settles it, then. You’re one of the Jashin brethren, Hidan; you should know the whole truth about your religion. It is not fair that you should not know. And considering you know all about it, I think it should fall to you, Tsukai, to teach him.”
Widening her eyes in shock, Tsukai halted for a second, staring at Yoru. Hidan had no qualms about this, grinning instantly, liking the idea of spending more time with Tsukai in order to learn this language and his religion. Tsukai only paused as she thought over what had happened outside with the female wolf and Hidan. She still wasn’t sure what was going on, but then shaking it off, she realised Hidan did deserve to learn what he should know already, and it would help him get back to his friends. So grinning, she looked up at Yoru to determine the fact she’d accepted to teach him, before spinning round to say with the same engaging smile,
“I guess we’d better get started then, huh?”
This was going to be good.
He could tell.
