1-Forest

Dreadful silence fills the forest’s atmosphere. The air is still. The forest animals do not dare disrupt this terrible silence. A foreign individual in a cloak covering the face enters the forest and soon the guardians of said forest will be alerted of the intruder. The mysterious figure moves swiftly and quickly through the forest grounds. Although alerted, the animals do not get in the way of this figure and go into hiding instead.

“Are you buried here?” the figure speaks once it finds the chakra it was looking for as it stands over a pile of rubble. The figure pulls down the cloak revealing the face of a woman.

“Indeed you are.” she mutters as she makes hand signs. “Shadow Transportation Jutsu” A part of the woman’s shadow separates from her own and slips through the rubble. A minute later the shadow reemerges, swells up to the size of a man, and rips itself open revealing the crushed, severed body parts of a man.

“Hidan...it’s been quite some time.” the woman comments serenely. Hidan’s crushed head merely grumbles something unintelligible due to the damage done. Without hesitation, she begins stuffing all of Hidan’s severed body into a large bag she had been carrying. “We’re leaving.”

With Hidan’s body inside the bag the woman rushes out through the forest. As expected from a guarded forest she encounters someone on the way out. A boy, no older than 18 she presumed.

“You’re trespassing territory, lady. You better give up easily if you don’t wanna get hurt.”

“Nara, I suppose.” she said calmly ignoring what he had just said.

The boy raised and eyebrow and responded. “Hey, are you listening? Put that bag down and-” He was cut off by the woman standing next to him. ‘How did she...I didn’t see her move.’ he thought surprised.

“You talk too much.” she said before punching him in the stomach and resulting it to be just a shadow clone.

“Got you!” she heard the boy shout in victory behind her. Her body turned around against her own will, bringing her to face the Nara boy.

“Early victory shouts usually lead to disaster...” she commented coldly staring at him.

“There’s no escaping the—” he began but got cut off when shadow spikes protruded from his own shadow and stabbed his shoulders and thighs. He yelled in pain as he fell trying to clutch his wounded limbs but being unable to move his arms. “You-you couldn’t be ‘her’...” he stuttered staring at her in shock as she turned around ignoring him and disappeared.

“Shadow Queen.”

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His eyes fluttered open with difficulty due to being closed for so long. Nothing but a plain ceiling meets his sight. His magenta orbs then continue to take in his surroundings; nothing but a plain, normal room, with normal furniture. Though one thing catches his interest; there is a bed across from his and someone sleeping on it with their back facing him.

‘Was I...raped?’ he thinks after observing the other individual and then looking down at his body that was only clad in a pair of black pants. ‘Sure doesn’t bloody look like it.’

Then, he suddenly remembered what had happened before he lost consciousness.  

“FUCK! HOW IN FUCKING HELL DID I GET OUT OF THAT FUCKING HOLE THAT MOTHERFUCKER BRAT BURIED ME IN!!!” he yelled sitting up in a jolt.

“Keep it down Hidan, I’m still recovering.” the person next to him spoke. He stared at the source of the voice for a few seconds before reacting.

“That voice, I’ve it heard before...Maru?” he stumbled out of bed and dragged his slightly numb body to the bed across from his.

He supported himself on the edge of the bed as he stared at the woman he hadn’t seen in years. Her body was curled up in a fetal position, her back still facing him, her hair was the same black he remembered only now it was cut short in a boyish fashion, and the dark blue eyes he so well remembered hidden behind her closed eyelids.

“It really is you after all. Fuck! Did you really get me out of that fucking hole?”

“I see you haven’t changed a bit Hidan.”

“Hey! Don’t avoid my damn question. And of course I haven’t changed, why would I? And would you open your eyes and look at me!” he cursed getting a bit ticked off. ‘She’s still with that serene and cool attitude...Nothing’s changed then.’

“Yes, Hidan, I did get you out of that hole. And it doesn’t bother me that you haven’t changed, it actually makes me glad. And don’t ask me to open my eyes. I wasted too much chakra using my shadow jutsu and putting your body back together. So I need to rest, I’m still too weak even to move. And you should rest too; your body was in a really bad condition.”

“Well, thanks for explaining.” he scoffed as he dragged himself back to his bed and plopped down on it. “So...what you’ve been doing these last 3 years?”

“I’ll tell you later Hidan, I really need to rest...”

“Hmmm...did you encounter anyone in that forest I was buried in? I think it belongs to the Mara...no it was the Bara clan or something...Damn it was—”

“Nara.”

“Yeah, that, that’s what the brat said.”

“Yes, I encountered a boy on the way out.”

“Hehe...You killed him right?”

“No.”

“WHAT?!” he yelled outraged. “Maru, you know that’s sacrilege! That boy could have been the bastard who buried me!”

“I know Hidan. But I had to administer my chakra well and I didn’t have time to lose killing a boy...I already did a ritual and asked Jashin-sama for forgiveness...Now please let me rest Hidan...”

Hidan sighed deeply and decided to leave it there. “Fine.” he said as he laid down to rest, mentally praying for Jashin to forgive Maru for her sin.