Tenten stared ahead. Her head couldn't comprehend what she saw - actually no, she could, she just didn't want to believe it. All traces of beheading - which is what she'd done to the person who she was fighting, - were miraculously gone, even though all the guy had done was put his head onto its original place. 

"Nasty, fucking little twerps! I'll kill you both and fucking sacrifice you to JASHIN-SAMA!" the guy roared, angry about his short-time beheading.

Now, let us backtrack a bit, just so that you kinda know what's going on.

Earlier on, Tenten and Sakura had been walking towards a pit stop, a little food stall on their journey where they'd planned to eat lunch and conserve money and food by offering chores as payment. Not that Sakura would help as much as Tenten, she just wasn't good at chores. So they were walking down a quiet little path when they see a disturbing site: A woman hung, bloody, above a circle with a triangle inside.

"What the fuck?" Tenten said, as Sakura said, "Who would do such a thing?" at the same time. 

"Hello." Said a voice behind the two kunoichi. "I'm Hidan. And you are Jashin's next fucking sacrifice. Although I like you, little bear." Little bear was referring to Tenten, with her hair in two buns on top of her head, which kind of resembled a bear. Tenten got the reference: it wasn't the first time someone had nicknamed her something hair-related. Sakura took a little longer, and as she was puzzling it out, Hidan attacked.

Apparently he was on a minor solo-mission to get more Jashin sacrifices.

He ran towards them, swinging his triple-bladed scythe, a common item of Jashinism, and Atkatsuki cloak billowing. "HAYA!" he shouted as he swung the scythe down onto Sakura. She dodged and gave him a power-punch to the stomach. Hidan flew backwards as Sakura grinned, and thought ahead, planning her next move. Tenten was one step ahead, she rolled out one of her Summoning Scrolls and summoned a hail of kunai and shurikan. Hidan jumped to avoid the deathly rain of metal, and swung his scythe out in order to catch Tenten.

"Pity, I liked you, little bear, but I guess you're going to die first!" Hidan yelled out, but Sakura punched the scythe from the air. Both girls landed on the ground and split up. 

"Summoning Jutsu!" Hidan heard from his right. Chakra coated needles flew out from the open scroll, aiming for the Jashinist. From his left, he heard a "Cha!!!" Hidan grinned. He let himself be hurt by the needles and swung his scythe up, where Sakura was, coming down to punch him. She clearly hadn't reckoned with Hidan's immortal capabilities. His scythe just barely grazed the side of Sakura's cheek, drawing blood. The scythe swung back to Hidan, who caught it and licked the blood off of his scythe.

He stabbed himself, and with the blood, drew a circle with a triangle inside, the exact same symbol that was beneath the dead woman who was pinned up on the tree.

"AAAHH!" Sakura screamed. The pain was intense, and right where Hidan had stabbed himself. Sakura began to sweat, grunting in pain. She tried not to shriek in pain.

"Don't fucking move." Hidan told Tenten. "Or else your friend here dies."

Tenten fell to her knees. "H-h-how? How are you so strong? We left to get stronger, but Ino was right. We'll die now. We're weak and useless."

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Enough of this fucking melodrama. It's easy getting this strong when you worship Jashin. So you wanna get strong, shitstains? Good luck, but you're dying." Hidan paused a moment. "Although I really like you, little bear, you would make a great Jashinist. And you too, I suppose, pinky. You have the suicidal instinct needed for Jashinism."

"What's Jashinism?" Sakura asked, no longer caring about the pain. If Hidan could talk, so could she. She wasn't gonna be beaten by some random guy.

"The worship of Jashin, the mightiest and only true god, the only god worth worshiping." Hidan answered, smug.

Tenten got up. "I wanna get strong. I need to get strong. I need to be stronger, to beat those stupid boys, I fucking NEED to! I want to follow the way of Jashin."

"Oh, you moved... that means your friend will die." Hidan tilted his head. "Good luck becoming a Jashinist, motherfucker."

Quickly, Tenten pulled out a scroll and summoned a weapon another hail of weapons, aware that it would hurt Sakura as well. But it gave her the distraction she needed. She ran after the weapon barrage and tackled Hidan, having missed purposely so that she didn't hurt herself or Sakura. The scythe stabbed her right in the back, but she ignored it, grabbed the scythe, and jumped up, bleeding heavily and waiting for an attack.

Hidan, unfortunately for him, had been knocked out of his circle, and was now powerless. Sakura ran up from behind him and gave him an extra strong bear hug that stopped him from moving into the circle again.

Tenten grinned at Hidan. "I'm gonna become strong, Jashin or no Jashin. If you won't teach me Jashinism, I'll just find someone else. Now, tell us were to find other Jashinists. Or else."

"Ha! Like you can kill me! I'm immortal!" Hidan yelled back. "I love pain, I inflict it upon myself! So what?!"

Tenten grinned. Sakura grinned. They looked at each other and grinned even further.

"Well..." Tenten began. "We could tie you up for hours on end... and you have to sit on your knees." 

Hidan's face paled further than his normal pale-ness. "N-no! That's not just torture, that's full on cruel! Anything but that!"

"So. Where are other Jashinists? Or, if you prefer, you teach us Jashinism. That makes you strong, right? Immortal, yeah?" Sakura asked.

"Well. Yeah, Jashinism makes you immortal if you sacrifice 100 sinners and pray to Jashin-sama every day before sacrificing them." Hidan said. 

"Look, just train us. We want to get strong. And we will get stronger. If you train us. We'll be Jashinists with you." Tenten said. "Then Jashin-sama will be extra-pleased."

Hidan thought about it. The two kunoichi had been strong enough to knock him out of the circle, even though they hadn't figured out how the Jashinist powers worked. Who knew how strong they could become once they were Jashinists. Then, he could force them to pay him back, and in return get whatever he wanted. Jashin would be happy that Hidan was trainging the next generation of Jashinists... but they weren't suicidal, he didn't think, and they hadn't even thought about death, or self harm. They weren't serious. Were they? They couldn't be.

"No! Jashin-sama doesn't accept fucking traitors!" Hidan yelled, twisted out of Sakura's  grip and grabbed his scythe.  Then, he swung his scythe towards Tenten, who was holding the end of the scythe, and had no opportunity to dodge. Tenten coughed up blood, and fell to the floor, releasing the crazy Jashinist's scythe. Next, Hidan went after Sakura, and a short battle began, that ended with Sakura losing.

"Pah! So weak! Jashin-sama only accepts the best shit, you two can't even begin to compare!" Hidan thought a moment. This whole battle had actually only been a test. He wasn't about to sacrifice them: they may prove useful in the future, and might actually want to become Jashinists. Hidan then just walked away, and disappeared into thin air. He was above the sacrifice's - the woman on the tree - head, on a branch as he waited to see what the two kunoichi would do.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!" Sakura whisper-shouted, unable to yell, but wanting to. "Why are we so weak?! Why can't we be like Naruto, or Sasuke, or Shikamaru, or Chouji, or Lee, or Neji, or Kiba, or Shino, WHY?!"

Tenten stirred, and looked at Sakura. "We lost, didn't we? We always do. We'll never be good enough. We'll never become Jashinists."

Sakura looked at Tenten. "Being a Jashinist - that was what would save us."

Ah-hah. Hidan thought. It all comes back to being a Jashinist.

"If only - if only, if only, if only, - we were stronger. If only I could do more than weapon-summoning, and you more than brute strength and healing." Tenten whispered. Then Tenten inched towards Sakura, who was nearby. Sakura did the same.

Tenten spoke. "Heal yourself Sakura, then heal me. Please. We need to follow that Atkatsuki guy."

Sakura activated 100 Healings. "I will. But -" Sakura's voice broke slightly "-do we really want to go to the dark side to get stronger. I mean, look at the sacrifice."

Already thinking in sacrifice terms, not the person. Maybe I did misjudge them, they do seem kind of like Jashinist material. I could make them think the way I do: that sinners must be punished. They are on a training journey, so them accompanying me as a change their mind might work. I just need them to follow me. Hidan speculated: the chances of success were particularly high for the little  bear, although Hidan didn't know why.

"Sasuke did." Tenten pointed out. "Now he's probably stronger than Naruto." Both kunoichi closed their eyes, and imagined the screams of the victims, just for power. But power that would make them catch up to their teammates, surpass them even. Power for a god. Power of a god.

They opened their eyes, once again refueled with determination and hope.

"I'm done healing, and I've been healing you too, although you didn't notice. Now c'mon, let's go." Sakura said in a normal voice. The kunoichi picked themselves up.

Rustle, rustle. "There! In the trees! Above the sinner!" Tenten said quietly. "He's there."

They leapt up onto the branch.

"Well kunoichi, your wish has been approved by the one and only Jashin. Follow me, and you'll become Jashinists." If you betray me or Jashin, you will be chopped up into pieces and die the most brutal death of all. Hidan added the last bit silently.

Tenten's and Sakura's eyes widened. A chance. They had a chance.

Hidan leapt off the branch, and then bellowed at the two. "C'mon, no time to waste! Plus, my name's Hidan, and if we're traveling together, it may be better for me to call you something other than little bear and pinky."

"My name's Tenten!"

"My name's Sakura."

The three started walking to the Atkatsuki hideout.

///