On a grassy hill just outside Hot Springs Village, a flock of finches pecked at the soil for food.
Suddenly, they scattered into the sky with a burst of wings.
The ground shifted.
A hand shot up through the dirt, clawing for air. With a sharp pull, the soil caved in and a silver-haired boy in a tattered robe dragged himself out of the pit.
His entire body was caked in mud.
Hidan.
Fresh off his little "church cleanup."
"Shit! Fuck! Damn it!"
He spat, brushing dirt from his hair and sleeves, face twisted in disgust.
"What kind of broken-ass cult builds their base underground? Couldn't find a nice mountain, a waterfall, hell, even an attic? Nah, they gotta put it in a damn crypt! Idiots…"
He kept grumbling as he smacked clumps of dirt off his robe, muttering about how unbearable it was for someone like him, who actually liked staying clean.
After the massacre, after every last follower of Jashin's cult fell to his system, Hidan had torched the corpses.
Flames devoured the entire hall until nothing but ash and blackened stone remained.
That part was fine.
The problem came after.
"Shit…" Hidan muttered, recalling the moment. "I forgot to leave one idiot alive to show me the way out."
His sense of direction was hopeless to begin with, damn near as bad as that Zoro guy from One Piece. And the cult's base?
A nightmare.
Dozens of tunnels, each splitting into forks that led deeper and deeper underground.
It was a labyrinth built by lunatics. No wonder no one ever found them.
With no choice, Hidan resorted to the dumbest, simplest solution.
He flipped the Bloody March Scythe around, used it like a shovel, and started digging.
One strike after another. Hours passed. Dirt piled up around him. His curses echoed in the dark.
Finally, after what felt like half a day, he broke through.
Fresh air spilled into his lungs.
"Ahhh…"
Hidan collapsed onto the grass, staring up at the wide blue sky.
"Oh, this is the good shit. Sunshine, birdsong, breeze… not like that gloomy, stinking hole down there. No wonder they all turned crazy."
For the first time in hours, he let himself relax, lying back against the soft earth.
"The cult's gone. Next… where the hell do I go?"
Hidan sat up, resting his scythe across his shoulder. The sunlight spilled over him, catching on the tears in his black robe. The skin beneath was exposed but the wounds were long gone.
That was the beauty of his body.
Immortal.
No matter how many times he ripped himself open with that curse technique, the injuries always healed. Unless his head got chopped off, of course, that was another story.
"Ugh…" Hidan groaned, scratching the back of his neck. "Which country's worth crashing first? Land of Water? Land of Fire? Or should I just throw a dart and walk in that direction?"
His face twisted in annoyance.
The difficulty of choice… the most bullshit kekkei genkai of them all.
He tilted his head toward the horizon, trying to weigh the options.
In the end, he grinned.
"Fine. Konoha it is."
There were three reasons for his decision:
--
Hot Springs Village was northeast of the Land of Fire. Close enough that even a road idiot like him wouldn't screw it up. Probably.
Konoha was the center of every damn story worth telling. If trouble was going to happen anywhere, it'd start there.
And most importantly... Konoha had the juiciest collection of Kekkei Genkai. The kind worth killing for.
The Killing System had changed everything.
With it, Hidan could steal Kekkei Genkai. That meant Konoha was the best target imaginable.
Whether it was the "show-off eyes" of the Uchiha Sharingan or the "glaring eyes" of the Hyūga Byakugan, both were worth drooling over.
But above all, it was the Sharingan that Hidan wanted most.
Just thinking about it made him grin.
He remembered Uchiha Madara in the anime, eyes glowing as he shut down enemies with nothing more than a stare.
Their will shattered.
Their strength crumbled.
"Damn… that's what I need. That's real flex power," Hidan muttered. "Forget fighting fair... I want to Aura farm too!"
His envy turned into hungry excitement. He could already picture himself flashing those crimson eyes, watching fools crumble before him.
Decision made, Hidan headed toward his small house on the edge of Hot Springs Village. Before leaving, he still needed to grab his things—equipment, a map, anything that could help.
Not that he cared about most of it.
The scythe and the system were all he really needed.
When he stepped back into Hot Springs Village, though, his steps slowed.
The place wasn't the same.
Before, it had been a quiet, cozy little village.
Peaceful.
Colorful.
Now… the streets were lined with grief.
White paper slips fluttered in the wind... offerings for the dead.
Everywhere he looked, color had been drained away, leaving only white.
The village had turned into a shrine of mourning.
For this small, isolated shinobi village, it was the heaviest tragedy they had faced in decades.
And the cause of it all… was him.
Hidan's smirk faltered.
He stood still in the middle of the road, staring at the sight before him.
Slowly, his smile disappeared.
His face settled into an expressionless mask, his eyes cold as he took in the village he had shattered.
Hidan's eyes held not even a flicker of sympathy.
No pity.
No regret.
To him, the deaths of these people weren't just acceptable... they were worth it. Their blood had forged him into what he was now.
Almost all of them, in his mind, had a reason to die anyway.
…Well, except for old man Bucura, that drunk who never bothered anyone. But fate had never been fair. And Hidan, of all people, had no illusions otherwise.
He strolled down Rose Street, the most famous road in Hot Springs Village.
His silver hair caught the sunlight, his steps slow and almost carefree.
All around him, the village drowned in mourning, yet not a single grieving villager spared him a glance.
Roses bloomed in delicate rows along the street. Their vivid red petals stood out against the drifting white prayer papers that filled the air.
Red and white. Beauty and grief.
The only thing missing was laughter.
The silence pressed down like a weight, but in Hidan's eyes, it was nothing more than powerless sadness.
Back at his small hut, the one that never truly felt like "his," Hidan searched the place one last time.
He found a rolled-up map tucked away in a drawer.
Unfolding it, he smirked. It was detailed, marking the five great nations and their hidden villages. Exactly the kind of thing he needed.
He washed quickly in the pool outside, scrubbing away the grime of blood and dirt.
Then he slipped into a fresh set of clothes, tied his scythe across his back, and stood at the door.
Without looking back, he walked away.
"It's time."
Hot Springs Village, famed for its peace and happiness, was no longer part of his path.
The real world, the wonderful world, lay in Konoha.
There, the stage would open wide for him... the future "Evil God."
And when the true flames of war ignited, no one would be spared.
Not even the peaceful little villages that thought themselves safe.
--
Phew…
Hidan darted through the dense forests of the Land of Fire. Towering trees loomed around him, their canopies blocking out most of the sunlight. Below, reptiles and insects thrived in the damp undergrowth.
It was a paradise for nature. For him, though? A pain in the ass.
"Damn it… how long is this forest supposed to last?!"
He leapt over a fallen trunk, swinging his scythe behind him.
"At this rate, I'll reach Konoha only to find Uchiha Itachi already 'rebelled' out of the village! Now that would be boring."
According to his rough guess, Itachi was still just a teenager at this point. Probably hadn't even entered ANBU yet.
Good. That meant the Uchiha clan was still intact.
If the massacre hadn't happened yet, then there were still plenty of Sharingan out there ripe for the taking.
But if he arrived too late…
Then most of the clan would already be dead, leaving only survivors like Sasuke, and taking Kekkei Genkai from him would be a pain in the ass.
That was why Hidan pushed himself now, weaving through the endless trees.
He wanted those eyes.
He wanted a pair of Sharingan before Uchiha Itachi tore through his own clan.
Once he had them, everything else... the plans, the power, the system would be so much easier.
"Just wait, Konoha… I'm coming," Hidan muttered, a crooked grin spreading across his face as he sprinted deeper into the forest.
--
After running for what felt like hours, Hidan finally slowed down, breathing heavily. He pulled out the folded map he'd stolen back in Hot Springs Village and glanced down at it.
"…Wait a second."
His brow twitched.
"…No way."
The map stared back at him like it was mocking him.
He wasn't even heading toward Konoha.
He'd been sprinting in the complete opposite direction the entire time.
Hidan froze. His eye twitched harder.
Then he threw his head back and roared.
"FUUUUUCK MEEEEEEE!!!"
His voice echoed across the entire forest.
The reaction was instant.
Birds exploded out of the trees in a panic. Deer bounded away through the brush. A fox yelped and vanished into a hole. Even the snakes slithered into hiding.
The whole forest seemed to curse at him in its own language... chirps, screeches, growls, hisses—an orchestra of "shut the hell up" aimed squarely at the silver-haired idiot standing in their midst.
Hidan stood there, fists trembling, veins popping on his forehead.
"Goddamn it… don't tell me I'm really turning into Zoro with this sense of direction!"
He crumpled the map slightly in frustration, then sighed, muttering under his breath as he started trudging the correct way.
"…Next time I see a road sign, I'm kissing it."
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