He had no idea what to do.
But he had to do something, at least, and as such, he began to head through the trees, his hand flexing over the handle of his scythe, ready to unsheathe it at any moment. He hadn’t met any creatures in the forest apart from the wolves, and if they were huge, who knows what else was. And they might not be as friendly as the wolves had been. Like humans, animals could have bad temperaments too. And not truly knowing about the forest, accidentally offending one of them could be a possibility. So he’d have to be prepared for a fight.
Tsukai knew it too. The forest was as old as time itself, and almost had a life of its own. It watched all that went through it and all that disrespected it. Hidan stumbled through it loudly without a thought as to perhaps keeping it down. It was the kind of thing he’d do—he just wanted to fight something. It was a personality trait of his Tsukai admired the most. When he chose to do something, he wouldn’t back down, no matter what. He held no qualms about consequences, and he didn’t bother with fear.
Tsukai liked a good fight as much as he did, but she had had to learn the ways of the forest; keep noise to a minimum and leave no traces behind her. Hidan would have to do the same if he wanted to discover more about the abilities he could have from Jashinism—it was how the temple worked, and it would help him connect with it to get back to his friends at the other temple.
But that was something to think about later.
Hidan picked his way through the trees and wondered how he was supposed to find Tsukai. Where would she go? Was she expecting him to do something that would allow him to find her? Embarrassing himself in front of Tsukai wasn’t something he wanted, and unless he could find a way of pinpointing her location, it was exactly what he was going to be doing. So scowling to himself, he went on, trying to get a feel of the surroundings and the atmosphere around him before finally attempting a search for Tsukai.
Though it would be just that: an attempt.
The only thing that stopped him was stumbling into a clearing; only to discover he’d inadvertently let his presence be known to a giant leopard. Freezing in shock, Hidan did nothing for a moment, hoping that it would just pass onwards and forget about him, and he could head in the opposite direction and away from it. But he knew it wouldn’t happen as he heard mews, and two cubs appeared from behind what he now knew as a mother. Cursing, knowing that would only make it more aggressive, he cursed again as it began to growl and advance towards him.
There was no way out of it now; she considered him a threat and was going to attack, no matter what he did. So instantly reaching for his scythe, he readied himself for a battle—how it was going to end, he had no idea, but he wasn’t about to go down without a fight, and being immortal would help a lot. So they began to circle each other, the cubs keeping back from the battlefield as he stared eye for eye at the leopard. He guessed keeping eye contact would only be a good thing, and drew himself up to his full height, not wanting to appear the weaker of the two now they were facing off.
For a couple of minutes, they continued to circle each other, though neither lunged forward to try and attack. It almost seemed like there would be no battle, until she crouched down, muscles tensed, and leaped. Dodging out of the way just in time, only now noticing claws, that with her general increased size were now the size of knives and as sharp. But surprisingly for a beast her size, she was remarkably agile, and she managed to slice him a couple of times without him leaving so much as a scratch.
Getting irritated at the whole situation, wishing Tsukai was here—or at least one of the wolves—Hidan scowled and gripped his scythe tighter. His anger rising the more he began to realise that even if he got out of this, he’d still have to find his way out of there and back to Tsukai, he crouched slightly and began to fight back, smiling as this time he just about missed her.
He was getting closer.
Then coming up with an idea, he started for her first, and then suddenly turned and went for the cubs, knowing she’d rather risk her life to save them than protect herself. Of course, he forgot it was the cubs that made her irate to begin with, and she went crazy, knocking him to the ground with a slash across the stomach and following quickly after. Her claws having ripped right through the cord for the scythe, he had lost it completely, and with nowhere to back off to, she advanced rapidly and Hidan just hoped his body could withstand the attack.
Until a shadow appeared and knocked the leopard down from the side, growling menacingly. Scrambling to his feet, Hidan could do nothing but watch as he saw Tsukai having appeared once again, but transformed into the warrior she had been in the village—maybe even more so. Continuing to snarl, she slammed into it again as it began to attack another time, sending it across the clearing, and standing her ground, glaring it fully in the eye, she hissed viciously. The leopard, at this, looked away, and Hidan smirked, knowing it was backing down now, and with Tsukai snarling one last time, it turned, and taking its cubs, disappeared into the forest.
Tsukai paused for a few more seconds as it vanished, checking to see if it was really gone, but once satisfied it was all over, she turned and faced Hidan with a smile. Hidan didn’t know what to say. He felt embarrassed at having to have needed her to save him another time, but at the same time he was glad he’d been able to see her fight again. Tsukai herself merely seemed amused, smirking and shaking her head as she came over, and rolling her eyes playfully, began,
“You really need to be more careful.”
“What? She started to attack me—I didn’t even provoke her.” He protested, trying to justify what had happened, but raising an eyebrow, crossing her arms, Tsukai simply responded,
“Yeah, but you saw she had cubs, that means they’re more aggressive than usual. But you just stumbled through the trees, creating tons of noise and disturbing every creature that lives in this place. Ultimately that meant you posed a threat to her, and leopards can be pretty fierce anyway—sometimes it’s all you can do to threaten them to get them to back down.”
Responding that he hadn’t known that to begin with, and therefore wasn’t entirely his fault, Hidan eventually rubbed the back of his head and began sheepishly,
“I guess I failed the test, huh?”
“Well, yeah. But you have a feel for the kind of things you’ll need, and that’s something I can’t teach you, so...it was more of a chance to see how things went than to test you, per se.”
“But...I was really that loud?”
Explaining that she was surprised half the forest’s population of animals hadn’t been attracted to that spot because of him, Hidan laughed and shook his head at his own noise. He wanted to learn; how else was he going to get back to the Akatsuki? For all he knew, they were long gone by now. But it seemed like it was going to take a good long while before he’d be ready to do anything, and as such, he sighed, and looking up at her, breathed exasperatedly,
“I’ve got a lot to learn, haven’t I?”
