A/N: This chapter was written for the Sumigakure Halloween Event of 2016 prompt "Modern Grim Reaper/Ruler of Hell." It kind of went all over the place, but I had fun with it.

o.o.o.o.o

Hidan doesn't know what to think of what Jashin-sama has become.

Oh, he knows the woman isn't Jashin-sama, not really. His god has not taken a mortal woman's form by choice. She used Hidan as a channel and sucked out both his own life and his very god, and somehow left him alive.

(Possibly by accident. He doesn't ask, because then she might change her mind.)

So… Jashin-sama is somehow impossibly, terrifyingly, agonizingly dead. There is no whispered note of comfort in the back of his head, no reminder that even Hidan can have purpose, that even someone as fucked up as him can have a job that means something.

(Hidan knows he's not exactly perfect according to society. The Jashinist temples were the only places that ever took him in and said 'it's okay, you can have a greater purpose too.)

So… he turns to religion again. So his god has died and a new one has taken his place. She is older than him, at least, and powerful and deadly and already has some understanding of the job she's taken on as a new god of death.

She also doesn't seem interested in repeating the kiss from before. That's… a relief, honestly.

She does seem to find something hilarious and fascinating about taking his hand or touching his cheek or doing any number of things that put his skin to hers (with his old markings, and she looks terrifying and bold and regal in them, and she'd have made a wonderful Jashinist in another life, he thinks).

He remembers hearing stories that the Nibi Jinchuuriki tended to have a touch that somehow involved death. He hadn't expected it to be so literal, but as he watches the careful way she moves around people, he can see why she finds his presence comforting. She doesn't trust him at her back, but that's only common sense for most people.

(He cannot kill her. This, he knows. Her newfound immortality is more powerful than his ever was, and there are few that could take it from her. Her bijuu could possibly manage it. A Rinnegan, maybe. There are precious few options.)

He asks one night to teach her of Jashinist lore, to tell her what it is that his job was, what it was that Jashin-sama did.

Yugito-sama looks him in the eye, and nods once.

"I've already some idea, Hidan." (And the way she says his name sends shivers down his spine. This is his new god speaking, and not only does she know his name, but she says it like it means something important. Only Jashin-sama ever did that, and it makes him feel like more of his old god survived than he thought.) "I am not your Jashin, but I have some of his memories, bits of his knowledge. Matatabi knows more."

Matatabi. The Nibi. She is…

More than Hidan thought.

Hidan and Yugito go to the woods, and if some of the shinobi follow and cling to rock formations and bristled pines, it's not Hidan's business. His new god approves of their presence; it's not his place to judge who hears.

So he tells her stories. He weaves tales and legends, histories and fables, things he heard from scripture and things he heard from Jashin-sama himself.

(He mentions Kaguya and she bristles, demanding to know more.)

He tells her of the job she's taken on by becoming a New God, and she nods along and looks appropriately thoughtful, and considers.

"I will need to speak with the Raikage," She tells him, and he already knows that she still has her loyalties, but it grates to hear a god speak like that. "And I have no doubt that he will ask for some manner of compensation for the missions I will no longer be taking."

She reaches forward and touches his face, brushing a thumb along his cheekbone. He leans into the touch, because there's something both cold and warm to it, an ancient energy that quietly chants JashinJashinJashin against his senses. Or, well, it's not actually Jashin specifically, but that manner of power, that role in the world and…

It's Yugito-sama's power and role and legacy, now. She is now a god of death. She will do as she sees fit.

"Your job will be changing, Hidan," She says, and he knew it was coming but it's still a blow. He will do as she asks, but it's still not something he hoped for. "You will be collecting souls instead of killing people directly."

"I… can't actually detect souls that are already dead, Yugito-sama." He confesses.

She smiles, and her eyes glitter green and blue. "Then let's fix that, shall we?"

o.o.o.o.o

Yugito, in the end, is one of four Jinchuuriki left alive by the time the fourth war begins. Three, if one doesn't count the Kazekage, as he may be alive, but is lacking his bijuu.

Luckily for her, Bee is one of the others. She's grateful for that. He's one of her few real friends, and she trusts him more than anyone else.

She doesn't trust Hidan, but he follows her for the time being, not straying too far from Kumo when attending to his new duties. Akatsuki considers him a traitor, and Kumo doesn't like him, so he hangs around Yugito whenever possible. It's weird, but he hasn't tried to kill her again, and he tends to occupy himself with either silently standing behind her and looking intimidating, or cussing out anyone that isn't her.

She can order him around, though. It's kind of hilarious. She can keep it simple and just ask him to stop trying to cuss out the Raikage (the "do not cuss at" list expands a lot, but she leaves Bee off of it, because he doesn't care, and also that shit's hilarious). She can also ask him to get her a coffee or something while she's in a meeting or doing paperwork, and he'll actually do it. It's not even bad coffee. He's actually good at making her second-favorite drink. It's weird.

(Her favorite is milk, and no one is ever surprised by how much cream she asks for in her coffee.)

When the fourth war starts, Yugito tags along with Bee and Naruto to the Falls of Truth. Against her better judgment, Hidan joins them. He mostly entertains himself by arguing more with Bee, or trying to pick a fight with some of the island animals, or with that wood guy from Konoha.

The wood guy actually grows her a shamisen as a thank you after she tells Hidan to cut it out. Wood guy, apparently called Yamato, is fond of making non-military things with his powers in his free time; he can't do strings for the shamisen, but he's a pleasant enough conversationalist. They end up talking about architecture, which she doesn't really understand, but has plenty of miniaturized examples to look at, courtesy of Yamato, and she's disappointed to see him leave.

"Fucking pansy."

"Hidan, no."

The look he gives her is almost dirty, and she gleefully ruffles his hair as she walks past him, back towards Naruto and Bee.

o.o.o.o.o

Yugito sticks close to Naruto during the major battles of the fourth war. (Correction: she sticks close after one of her arms gets cut off and fed to the giant statue, because apparently that's how Konoha nukenin solve their problems. By feeding people/limbs/bijuu to giant fucking statues.)

She sticks very close, because she can see the manifestation of chakra that is the Sage of the Six Paths and his sons crowding behind Naruto and Sasuke, and they beckon her.

("Someone ousted Jashin?" The Uchiha wonders, staring at the markings that stand bare and proud upon her skin. "Finally.")

("Fuck you," is Hidan's oh-so-eloquent response.)

So Yugito is there when Sasuke keeps them clear of the massive genjutsu (would she have been caught? She doesn't know), though Hidan isn't. She's okay with that.

But Kaguya's whole thing is that she wants to suck all the chakra out of basically everything. She's good at it, too, and the Konoha team and the dead Hokage team have to employ hit-and-run tactics.

(Dead Hokage team. Zombie Hokage. Just… why. Why, Konoha, why. They see her and she has to waste a few minutes explaining what she is now. It's weird and complicated and the Nidaime looks way, way too interested in all this.)

("Tobirama, no." The Shodai Hokage insists.)

(The look on the Nidaime's face is delightfully stubborn.)

("Shodai-sama," the Yondaime, blond and beautiful even when flaking to bits and missing both arms, "I think that the appropriate phrase here is 'he does what he wants.'")

(Yugito thinks the appropriate phrase are "why are all the kage I've ever met except Sarutobi total weirdos?")

Anyway.

Kaguya sucks chakra.

Funnily enough, so does Yugito.

It's very awkward, because Yugito shucks off most of her outer layers, waits for the kids to create an opening, and goes in for a hug that's really more like strangulation. They spend a few minutes just trying to absorb each other, and it's a weird time all around, because Yugito is basically clinging to this woman's back as she tries to kill a bunch of teenagers, some zombies, a possibly not-evil Uchiha, and a very extraneous-feeling Hatake Kakashi.

You could try kissing her like you did Hidan, Matatabi's sluggish remnants suggest. It certainly makes some of the effects more powerful.

Yugito would very much like to avoid kissing anyone ever again, thanks. It's weird and gross, and even weirder and grosser when they don't want her kissing them.

Yugito really wishes it were easier to attack Kaguya from this position, but she has enough trouble just hanging on, let alone reaching up to stab out the woman's third eye or biting out her neck or something. The most she can do is curl her fingers inwards and try to grow out her claws in such a way that they pierce Kaguya's chest, which is a largely useless endeavor, as the woman does some weird thing with her bones to make it near impossible, because of course she does.

Yugito has to let go when the reverse harem happens, because even as dizzy as she is from all the attempts to fling her off, she can tell that it's a trap.

A hilarious trap, but still a trap.

(In the end, Yugito doesn't have to kiss Kaguya, because a bite with cat-sharp teeth works even better, and faster, and by the time the fight is over, Yugito brims with the power of two gods and feels like she might explode.)

(The Sage shows up to her as everyone wakes up, and they have a lovely little chat.)

(Yugito has a job lined up as soon as she dies for good, apparently, but since she's gone and made herself basically immortal, she gets to start now!)

(Hidan was right.)

(Ugh.)

She starts summoning the dead Hokage back from the dead for shits and giggles a few weeks later.

Matatabi finds it hilarious, and there's no better mind to have on your side than Senju Tobirama's when trying to figure out your new powers, right?

Right.