Summary: Hunting for bounties, Hidan and Kakuzu find themselves in the Valley of Lies. But what is the secret behind this valley…?
The sun sank, and the forest was wrapped up in a darkness that was impenetrable even by the moonlight.
Hidan was up on a tree branch, sitting and leaning back against the tree trunk and taking a rest, when he suddenly heard someone call his name.
“Nn…? ‘the fuck you want…”
He rubbed his eyes and moved to let out a loud yawn. Just then, Kakuzu jumped over to the tree Hidan was on and slapped his hand over Hidan’s mouth.
“Mmph!”
“Look.”
Hidan wasn’t in the mood to follow orders now, but he turned his line of sight to where Kakuzu was pointing, and realised what was happening.
There were several lights. Someone was here. If they strained their ears, they could even hear them talking.
“He never stays out this late… Something must’ve happened to him…”
“Stop saying such unhappy things! We’ll find him, all of us.”
“That’s right. Besides, what do you think we Shangri-la villagers are, huh?”
Hidan swept Kakuzu’s hand away, and then looked at the people down below once more. They held torches, and were apparently looking for someone.
“They’re probably the bounty’s relatives…”
“Our bounty? You sure ‘bout this?”
The torches the people held also illuminated each and every one of their faces.
“Their faces are all wrong.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll handle this.”
Kakuzu took his Akatsuki cloak in hand and pulled it off. There were four masks on that back of his.
“…hey! Over there! There’s a body at the foot of that tree….”
“No… It can’t be… Darling!”
The villagers had found the corpse laid out beside the tree stump. Hidden under the wails resounding through the forest was the sound of threads ripping as one of Kakuzu’s “hearts” broke through Kakuzu’s flesh, jumping out of him.
Innumerous black fibres coiled to give it shape. This was Earth Grudge Fear, a forbidden technique from Kakuzu’s village, the Waterfall Village.
“What… What is this chakra…?”
Sensing Kakuzu’s menacing chakra, the villagers turned their heads up to look up the tree at Hidan and Kakuzu, but Kakuzu was even faster, and had already formed hand seals.
“Lightning Release: False Darkness!”
In that moment, a bright flash ran through the forest.
“…instant death, seriously?”
“You’d have taken too long.”
The lightning had hit the villagers straight on, and, unable to do anything, they simply fell to their deaths. Instant death.
Hidan got down from the tree and looked down at the villagers’ faces. He noticed something straightaway. “Hey, what the fuck. Their faces changed.”
Hidan’d only briefly looked at them earlier, from when their torches had illuminated their faces, but he knew for a fact that these fallen villagers here, all of them—their faces had changed.
Kakuzu looked at the face of the woman who’d run over to their bounty’s corpse earlier.
“There’s no mistaking it… This is our bounty’s family.”
“What the fuck does that mean? Lots of strange shit going on ‘round here.”
Kakuzu ignored Hidan’s question, and went to look at the faces of the other villagers who’d accompanied this woman.
“…just as I thought… That’s what’s going on… “The Valley of Lies”… How apt.”
“Hey, Kakuzu! Explain this shit to me, right now!” Hidan shouted, out of patience now.
Kakuzu finally turned over to look at him. “Hidan, all of these people, they were living their lives, constantly under the transformation technique.”
“Transformation technique? But why?”
“Because. All of them are bounties.”
“Huh?”
Hidan didn’t recognise the faces of bounties, but he nonetheless looked down at the corpses again.
“They were probably afraid of living with a target on their backs, fled from civilisation into this deep forest, and made the village.”
Kakuzu seemed to understand everything clearly, but Hidan was still confused. He pointed to the very first bounty they’d killed. “But, you recognised this dude.”
The moment this man appeared and Hidan had went after him, Kakuzu had known he was a bounty. That meant he hadn’t been using the transformation technique.
“Think back on what the brat said, when he saw this man.”
The brat in question was Hohozuki. Hidan tried recalling what he’d said.
“Um, I think he might be from the village… I don’t remember seeing him around, though.”
“If this man was in the village, I’d know him too, but…”
“This bounty probably released the transformation technique when he headed out from the village. That’s when he ran into us.”
That’s how Kakuzu knew he was a bounty. On the flipside, Hohozuki, who only knew this man’s face under the transformation technique, did not know who he was.
“Why the hell would he release the transformation technique?”
“Living a false life can be stifling, and he probably wanted to get away for a while. In the end, no one can really escape their pasts, after all.”
“Uhhh…”
Even after listening to Kakuzu, Hidan still couldn’t quite swallow the half-assed explanation. The only thing he knew for sure was that the village was packed with bounties.
“So ya mean the village is a…?”
“It’s a goldmine.”
Hidan and Kakuzu made their way to the edge of the cliff, which was bathed in moonlight. Hidan pressed his Jashin necklace to his lips, and offered up a prayer to Lord Jashin with a grin on his face.
“There might be big-name bounties in there as well. Don’t let your guard down. You’ll die.”
“Heh. If they could kill me, I’d let them, Kakuzu.”
It was as though that exchange was their cue, and the both of them took off.
“Allllllright! Lord Jashin! Imma kill all these fuckers! Every single one of them!”
Hidan landed in the village, screaming. There were several ninjas there, still applying the illusionary effects to the river to hide the village. When they saw Hidan, they all got into fighting stances, poised to attack.
“Who are you!?”
But, these were inexperienced, peace-loving idiots who usually only ran away from battles. And, with no intention of starting a ritual right there and then, Hidan simply raised his three-bladed scythe and sliced off their heads.
“Heh.”
Along with their deaths came the release of their transformation technique. The faces on the rolling heads changed.
Kakuzu was also killing other villagers under the transformation technique. To Kakuzu, who recognised the faces of all bounties, seeing the release of the transformation techniques brought him much glee.
“Hidan, I’m going after the village leader… There’s a high chance there’s a large bounty on his head, if he holds such a pivotal position.”
“But I wanna kill that fucker too!”
“There’s another target better-suited to you.”
“Huh?”
A large question-mark regarding Kakuzu’s words popped up in Hidan’s head, and just then, a familiar face appeared before him.
“Hidan-san…”
It was Hohozuki. The boy who said he’d wanted to join the Jashin faith. He’d probably heard the commotion and had come running out here. Right beside him was Ameyuki. It was the first time Hidan had seen him.
Hohozuki was staring straight at Hidan, and suddenly, he appeared to be no different from the other villagers who were scrambling around, trying to escape the sudden invasion.
“…I’m going to do a proper ritual, just you wait!” Hidan readjusted his grip on his scythe and sped towards him. “Starting with you!”
The blade headed straight for Ameyuki, who’d been hovering around behind Hohozuki. The blades went right through Ameyuki’s head.
“…’the fuck!?”
In normal circumstances, the skull would crack, and blood and brains would come gushing out. But, no such thing happened. Instead, Hidan felt as though he’d just sliced through loose soil.
“…s’this a clone!?”
Ameyuki’s body turned into a lump of earth, and it crumbled like dirt.
“An Earth technique…?”
Ninjas from the Rock Village were well-versed in Earth techniques, and Hidan figured this was a variation of their Rock Clone technique. However, Ameyuki’s clone did not disappear the same way as a Rock Clone, but was still solid in shape, similar to a Sand Clone.
“Fuck, I ain’t good at this analyzing shit…” Hidan muttered. He turned to Hohozuki and saw that his appearance was changing as well. “…’the fuck?”
Hohozuki’s appearance was changing into that of the clone Hidan had just destroyed: Ameyuki.
“Who the fuck are you.”
The boy who was supposedly Hohozuki looked down at both his hands with hollow eyes. Life gradually seemed to return to those eyes, and Hidan could feel chakra flowing out of him.
“…you gotta be fucking kidding me.”
Hidan could feel an inkling of a foreign type chakra, one that he had never felt before.
“I am… Ameyuki…” The boy who was supposedly Hohozuki said. “Since that day, I’ve been living life as Hohozuki… I mean, after all, I am just empty…”
“Huh?”
“Hidan-san… This entire time, I’ve been living in this village under the guise of my friend, Hohozuki… I kept a clone of myself beside me…”
In that case, the one whose eyes sparkled while listening to the teachings of the Jashin faith had been this boy, Ameyuki, all along.
“While I am myself, I also exist as a lie, as someone else… That was the clone, Ameyuki… And you killed him… So now, I am the real Ameyuki again…” At that, Ameyuki clenched his fist. “You… You’ve set me free!”
Ameyuki suddenly joined both his hands together and formed hand seals. He didn’t bother hiding his killing intent, letting it hit Hidan full-force.
“Oho, that’s the way to go, kid!”
Hidan raised his scythe and aimed for Ameyuki.
Ameyuki slammed both hands to the ground in an attempt to protect himself, yelling out, “Mud Release: Mud Wall!”
“Mud!?”
It was the first time Hidan had heard of a ‘mud’ release.
The part of the ground that Ameyuki touched was turning into loose mud. Then a wall shot up from it, it turned into muddy water, and hit Hidan head-on.
“Gah! Dude, this is gross!”
Hit by the muddy water, Hidan was covered in mud all over. Furthermore, the mud clung onto his body and it was slowly hardening.
“I am finally freed! Which is why… You… You, who I respect above everyone else… You, who are my ‘neighbour’… I must kill you! Mud Release: Bottomless Mud Hole!”
Ameyuki continued attacking Hidan, whose movements had already dulled and slowed.
“Fuck!”
A sinking sensation overcame Hidan’s body, and fast, and when Hidan looked at his feet, the spot on which he’d been standing had turned into mud—transfigured into a bottomless swamp. Countless numbers of hands reached out from within the mud, seizing Hidan’s body and pulling him towards the depths of the swamp.
“Shit!”
From the sleeve of his clothes, Hidan pulled out a piece of rope. He swung it and had it wrapped around a protrusion on a nearby house. Then, with pure, brute force, Hidan pulled.
“What in the flying fuck is this fucking Mud Release, you goddamn fucking piece of shit!”
He’d pulled himself up to the roof of the house, and when he looked down at the swamp, he realised it was getting wider and wider. It looked like the entrance to the underworld, almost.
If it’d been Kakuzu, he’d already have analysed and figured out the situation, but this was Hidan who was unskilled in this aspect. However, there was one thing he understood.
“It’s a bloodline limit, huh…”
A bloodline limit: abilities that were hereditary, attainable only through the blood passed down from their family’s previous generation. They were unparalleled abilities that faced the extremes of human emotions; envy, hatred… There were many who went out of their way to make those born with bloodline limits feel different.
Another Akatsuki member, Uchiha Itachi of the Leaf Village’s Sharingan was a bloodline limit, too. Hidan heard that he’d killed his entire clan, his fellow Uchiha’s.
“That’s right… I use Water and Earth Releases to give birth to a Mud Release… Calling it a bloodline limit is all well and good, but the strongest and most highly-praised ninja, Senjuu Hashirama, also used Water and Earth Releases to form his own exceptional power, the Wood Release…”
The Wood Release: A supreme and renowned Release that no one could ever hope to duplicate. What Ameyuki was using, was the Mud Release.
“To use our bloodline limit, my family had to grovel in the dirty soil… Everyone around us laughed at us for that…” Ameyuki looked down at his own dirt-stained hands. “I was ridiculed as well, and the only one who was ever nice to me… was Hohozuki… But…”
Ameyuki’s chakra split and swelled once more. “Mud Release: Mud Dolls!”
From the swirling bog appeared innumerous Mud Dolls in the form of humans. Hidan was the main target of these Mud Dolls, and they climbed the walls of the building to get to him, on the roof.
“Well, damn.”
Hidan swung his scythe at them, one after another, but whenever he sliced these Mud Dolls, they would simply grow back their arms and legs. They continued climbing, until they were finally surrounding Hidan.
“Sheeh, ‘the fuck are you guys…!?”
When the Mud Dolls touched Hidan, they forced the mud through his mouth and his nose, as though wanting to coat him.
Hidan choked.
The disgusting mud filled up his mouth, and it forced its way down his airway. Hidan couldn’t breathe. His entire body would be filled and covered with mud.
“Ngah…!”
Hidan brandished his sole spear, and pierced himself in the lung.
“Hah!”
His lung spat out blood that was mixed with mud that had forced its way down his airway. “…goddammit, this hurts like fuck! Damn it to hell, this is a different kind of pain, dammit!”
Even as he went on ranting, more Mud Dolls continued to appear from the swamp, one after another, and they continued going after Hidan.
Hidan kicked himself off of the roof and lunged straight at Ameyuki, removing the spear from his lung. “Fuck! You!”
Ameyuki moved to make more hand seals, but Hidan was faster, and before Ameyuki could finish his hand seals, the tip of Hidan’s spear had scratched his cheek. His skin tore, and blood sprayed.
There was blood on the spear tip. Hidan licked it off.
Immediately, monochrome patterns rose to the surface of Hidan’s body.
Hidan used the blood pouring out of his lung and onto the ground to draw the symbol of the Jashin faith. “Hahahaha! The preparations are compl—”
“Mud Release: Bottomless Mud Hole!”
Hidan had thought that would be the end of it, but Ameyuki used his technique again.
“Ack! The ground…!?”
The ground on which Hidan had drawn the Jashin symbol crumbled and turned to mud. Even if Hidan were to get away from the swamp and try drawing the symbol again, Ameyuki would simply aim his swamp there and turn the ground into mud again.
“Huuuuuuuh!? You gotta be shitting me!”
It was only then Hidan realised: He was possibly the least compatible opponent for this Mud Release.
Ameyuki raised both arms slowly, and the corner of his mouth lifted. “Show me more… Let me see you offer up prayers to Lord Jashin…”
Sensing bloodlust from above him, Hidan reflexively moved out of the way. In an instant, Mud Dolls fell from above and onto the spot on which Hidan had just been standing.
This was a village dug out from a mountain. The ceilings, the walls… All of it was made from rock and dirt. The ceiling began turning into mud as well, and the faces of Mud Dolls appeared within it. Pushed by gravity, they fell.
“Fucking mud assholes!”
Even then, Hidan was ready to take on the challenge, but then he heard a voice say, “Hidan.”
When Hidan turned to look, he saw Kakuzu standing on a roof, carrying an unfamiliar man on his back.
“Kakuzu! Gimme a hand here!”
“I’ve killed the village leader, but there’s a high chance there are other big-name bounties here… We’ve got to kill all of them. There are more villagers than I thought, so this will take some time.”
The man on Kakuzu’s back was probably the village leader he spoke of.
“Fucker! Just use your damn techniques and crush this whole village!”
“Are you an idiot. If I do more damage than necessary and they become unrecognisable, we can’t cash them in.”
“Yeah, well, I guess… Shit, you really think about nothing but money, don’t you?”
Kakuzu jumped and landed right next to Hidan. “There’s no point to you fighting here. Return to the forest. You’ll die.”
Hidan thought Kakuzu would be helping him out in the forest, but on the contrary, Kakuzu simply took off, aiming for the other villagers and leaving Hidan by himself.
Hidan grinned and then yelled to Kakuzu’s receding back, “Like you need to remind me, Kakuzu!”
Hidan leapt over the Mud Dolls, running straight for the village entrance, and then jumped towards the opposite cliff where the forest was. Ameyuki gave chase, landing in the forest as well, and then starting up his Bottomless Mud Hole technique again.
The land on which the forest trees had been planted turned into mud. The trees fell one after another, floating along the mud.
“I won’t let you get away, Hidan-san…! Every bit of dirt will turn to mud… As long as you are on land, you cannot hope to escape me!”
Hidan kept running, avoiding the mud, shirking the fallen trees. Hidan had to admit, it seemed futile. But then, a certain something caught his eye.
Hidan looked back, and once he had ascertained that he’d created a certain distance between himself and Ameyuki, he plunged his spear into his own hand. As though gouging something out, he swirled his spear around, making a larger wound, and blood came gushing out.
“Hidan-san, let’s end this!”
Ameyuki put his hands together to make more hand seals. But just then, an excruciating pain ran through Ameyuki’s leg. His knee buckled beneath him, and he fell upon the mud-soil mixture. He raised his head.
“The preparations are complete!”
Hidan had stabbed himself in the thigh, and beneath his feet was the Jashin symbol drawn upon… the giant tree stump.
This giant tree stump had been something for them to sit down on, and something of a landmark in these forests, and now, Hidan had used it as something to draw the Jashin symbol upon.
“Kakuzu, man, you sure know how to talk in circles.”
“There’s no point to you fighting here. Return to the forest.”
That’d been a hint. Drawing the mark upon the giant tree stump—that’s what Kakuzu had been getting at. And then, believing he had the home-court advantage, Ameyuki let his guard down, allowing Hidan to pull the wool over his eyes.
Hidan pulled the spear out, and then put it over the left side of his chest. It was Hidan’s win.
“I’d expect nothing less, Hidan-san…” Ameyuki smiled calmly as he stared at Hidan.
“I’m gonna fuck you up so badly with the pain of death!”
“Yes… That’s exactly what I want…”
Withstanding the pain in his leg, Ameyuki got to his feet, and then sat down, his posture perfect.
“I was despised by everyone, and the one who saved me from that, was Hohozuki… But one day, a group of ninja who wanted to do business with slave traders came to the village I was living in, and they took the village’s women and children… Hohozuki was one of those children…”
Ameyuki gazed far out into the distance as he recalled the events of that day.
“To save Hohozuki, I used the Mud Release techniques… I destroyed the enemy, more or less… That’s what put a bounty on my head… But people like those ninjas weren’t the only ones who wanted my head…” Ameyuki said, his eyes insightful. “The people from my own village who’d seen my powers grew frightened, and they tried to kill me…”
It was a common story. It was one of the injustices that infested this world.
“Hohozuki found out, and then he heard stories of this place, “Shangri-la”… He heard that we could throw away our pasts here, and forget everything, and live in happiness… But, on the night we’d planned to run away, the villagers had suspected our treachery and they killed Hohozuki…”
A tear fell from Ameyuki’s eye.
“I wanted to die with him, but Hohozuki told me to look to the future and live on, so I came to “Shangri-la” by myself… But even then… There’s no way I can ever forget Hohozuki and the fact that he’d died for me… There’s no way I can ever live in happiness, in “the Valley of Lies”…”
Even as tears flowed from his eyes, Ameyuki smiled.
“Hohozuki died because of me—he, who taught me about the light… But now, I can die by your hand, Hidan-san, you who showed me the light… I can become a sacrifice to Lord Jashin…”
Ameyuki was delighted at this prospect, delighted with all of his heart. Hidan could understand that much.
“Hidan-san, can I just request one thing? There are people who I want to sacrifice to Lord Jashin…”
“People you wanna sacrifice?”
“Yes…”
Before Hidan even replied, Ameyuki closed his eyes and put his hands together.
“Thou, shalt slaughter thy neighbor…”
Ameyuki began forming hand seals. It was a far more complicated combination of hands seals than the ones Ameyuki had used thus far, and he was forming them without a single pause or mistake. Chakra enveloped his entire body.
“First and foremost, the neighbours I need to kill are these people! Mud Release: Land Slide!!” Ameyuki suddenly got to his feet, and he stretched his hands out, up ahead of the forest, in the direction of the village.
Hidan could only guess what Ameyuki was doing, and he dashed up a tree. From the tree, he could see the village, “Shangri-la”.
“Holy shit…”
In one single moment, the mountain, in which Shangri-la was in, came crashing down. The earth and dirt that’d been holding up Shangri-la turned into soft, shapeless mud, and the entire village crumbled down, swallowed up by the deep river along the valley floor.
“Hey, what the fuck, man!? Is Kakuzu gon’ be okay!?”
He was worried for a moment, but then realised it was Kakuzu he was talking about, so he’d probably be just fine. Hidan snorted and then jumped down from the tree.
“You’re alright, kid!”
In Hidan’s right hand was his spear. The moment he stepped back on top of the tree stump, Hidan gave his heart a mighty stab.
“Lord Jashin’s… gonna be so damn pleased…!” Hidan yelled as the ecstasy of the pain of death rose within him.
“…thank you…”
Hidan looked over, and saw that, even as he coughed up large amounts of blood, there was a happy smile on Ameyuki’s face.
“So, you managed to kill him.”
Kakuzu had been in the heat of things, but he’d escaped the village safely.
Amongst those he’d killed were a few highly valued bounties, and Kakuzu had made sure to bring them back with him.
However, the most valuable bounty in that village had been… Ameyuki.
Ameyuki hadn’t just killed the ninjas who’d attacked his village, but his own villagers who’d killed Hohozuki as well. He’d killed them all. As a result, he wasn’t just a bounty on the black market, but an official wanted criminal in the Bingo Book.
“He put a clone of himself in the village. Even if it were just a clone, to put his appearance out there probably meant that, deep down inside, he wanted to be found,” Kakuzu said.
Hidan was lying on the tree stump, offering up his prayers. Ameyuki laid beside the tree stump, and Kakuzu looked down at him.
When Ameyuki had been guiding Kakuzu around the village, he’d been completely expressionless. Now, though, he appeared content.
Ameyuki had caused the deaths of the ninjas that’d attacked his village, the people of the village he’d been born and raised in, and also his friend. Ameyuki probably found the very existence of the Jashin faith, which encouraged slaughter as a means of saving someone, as a saviour to himself.
“In any case, when will you be done with your prayers? I want to get to the exchange point as soon as possible.”
Kakuzu always complained about this, even while Hidan was in the midst of the ritual. But, this time, Hidan was smiling, as though he didn’t care.
When Kakuzu tilted his head in question, Hidan answered. “It’s gonna take a while longer. We had a martyr today.”
End