Fate Wheel | Naruto

51| Brothers

"Where's Hidan?" Sasori asked, noticing that it was considerably quiet amidst his thoughts.

Haku, who was silently cleaning his needles with a handkerchief, shrugged. His clean trait was something Sasori noticed. "He went to get some water and catch some fish by the stream nearby."

Sasori blinked, becoming still for a moment. Hidan doing some useful for once? He was certain there had to be something behind his recent actions. The red-head had also noticed a couple of times where he was lost too deep into his thoughts and tried covering it up by saying something stupid or making fun of Haku's femininity, knowing the boy took offence to his insults but never acted upon his rage other than smoothly sliding an insult back. That, and he had been too insistent in getting work done himself other than relying on others to do it themselves. He refused to believe that Hidan was actually... maturing.

"I'm assuming that isn't normal behaviour for someone like him." Haku mused, delicately placing the weapons he had out back into his holsters.

"Something like that." Sasori muttered, leaning against the trunk of a tree as he stared at the clear sky. Initially, they had been meaning to leave sooner, but a sudden haste of rainfall delayed their travels.

"And you are worried?" Haku hummed.

The red-head released a snort. "Worried? More like, concerned."

"So you do not harbour any ounce of feeling towards him?" Haku pushed.

Sasori choked on the air. "What?"

Haku smiled sheepishly. "No, I mean, brotherly love. That's what you two remind me of, two brothers who argue consistently but somehow find their way back to each other, and because of that your bond is strong with one another. How long have you been travelling together?"

Sasori looked down in thought. "Around six years. We both came back to life around the same time and we both were lost and confused, it was hard adjusting to a peaceful lifestyle after being a killer for a long period in your life. It was also hard acknowledging the guilt and pushing it aside in order to become a better person."

"And how is he dealing with it?" Haku inquired after a short minute of pondering to himself. "The self-loathe, the regret, the grief. From what I heard, he had been worshipping Jashin- the deity of a cult known for it's primary teaching in slaughtering others to please their god, anything less being considered a sin. How does one exactly recover from being a person who believed that killing was the only way?"

Sasori furrowed his eyebrows. Like he, he assumed that Hidan had his own coping mechanism whether it'd be helpful or downright unhealthy. In the past, he didn't really care what Hidan did, so long he took responsibility for his actions and didn't involve the red-head. One way or another, he'd manage to involve himself as the duo did what they were best at and fled, all the while trying to fix the balance of their 'good and bad' scale, attempting to outweigh the bad by doing good. Sasori didn't realise that amidst the chaos of their friendship, that he had grown to care deeply about his friend.

"How?" Sasori asked, his lips tugging into a frown.

"They don't." Haku answered bluntly. "No one truly recovers from something like that. He is at a place in his life where he is lost and had been lost for a long time, being with you- someone he can seek companionship and have someone who is able to understand the situation he's in without trying to kill him- had been his anchor. But slowly, he's trying to find his own way, he had realised that he can't always depend on you and that itself is an issue for him. Hidan also understands the seriousness of the situation we are in and is trying to find a way to contribute in order to feel less useless, because deep inside he feels the need to do something that isn't bad."