Disclaimer: Pretty sure I don't need to tell you I do not own Naruto. This fic is going to be dark, because well Hidan is in it and some liberties I have taken for this AU demand it. This is a modern day AU so sorry no ninja, but I hope it will be interesting to you in spite of that. Special thanks for Dimigex for letting me bounce ideas off you, helping me see how this could be more than a one shot, and making sure I stay in the right tense. I'll get the hang of that someday.

As always thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this!

Ino smiled into her glass as her mark was clearly taking the bait. And why wouldn't he? She had pulled out all the stops tonight, her favorite black dress that hugged all her curves, hem short enough to give an amazing view of her long, toned legs, and sexy fuck me heels. She had swayed her way into the bar less than an hour ago and immediately pegged him as her target.

He was everything she was looking for. Just under 6 feet tall, dark hair and eyes, sun tanned skin, perfection. Oh the things she had planned for him once she could get him out of this bar, out of his clothes, and into her house. Into her bathroom would be ideal.

The object of her imaginary attentions had finally made his move, prowling across the bar towards her with a predatory glint in his eyes.

If only he knew that in this case, he was the canary, she was the cat, and tonight she was on the prowl.

"Why do men have to be so damn heavy," Ino muttered before letting loose a muttered stream of curses that would make her father blush. She adjusted her grip on the plastic wrapping and gave a hard tug to get it over the rock it was caught on. Once she had her package over the obstacle she dropped the plastic, taking a moment to wipe the sweat off her brow and give her back good stretch.

She smiled as the knots in her shoulders loosened a bit, thinking back to earlier in the night. There was just something about watching the light go out of a man's eyes, feeling their blood sluggishly flowing between her fingers as they weakly struggle beneath her before going deathly still that reaffirmed her sense of purpose in the universe.

Ino smiled up at the stars before picking up the end of the bag again and continuing to pull it towards the spot she had prepared earlier. When she was almost to the secluded clearing she froze, plastic slipping from her fingers and heart jumping into her throat. She tried to calm the erratic beating of her heart so she could hear properly.

There it was again. From the clearing, less than 3 yards away from her, she could hear the rustling of either a large animal or, more likely according to her paranoia, a person moving about in the brush.

Stepping as lightly and quietly as possible through the trees she approached the clearing to investigate.

By personal design there was a full moon in the sky, which lit up the forest almost as well as the sun would. Being careful to stay hidden behind a tree trunk she peered out into the clearing to find the last thing she expected.

Moving about in the pale moonlight, tall, shirtless with slicked back silver hair, was a man. A man with near perfect physique, a man with a tight, firm ass and the kind of abs you could bounce a quarter off of.

A man dumping a poorly wrapped body into her shallow grave.

"Oh hell no," she hissed, who did this joker think he was using her grave to hide his body in? She had plotted out every step of this process, like she had the last 6 times, and this was throwing a wrench in her plans.

Ino took a deep breath, steeling her resolve before stepping into the clearing and calling out, in her most authoritative tone "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

The man whipped around, dropping the body just sort of the edge of the hold and eyes narrowed into a glare. "Where the fuck did you come from?"

"Don't worry about that," she said, shaking her head hard enough to whip her ponytail around, "step away from my shallow grave."

He lips twisted into a grin, the anger in his eyes being replaced by amusement, "your grave huh, you planning on dying Blondie?"

"No it's for someone else," she said, pushing her hair off her shoulder and throwing her most serious glare at him.

"Oh really?" He asked, stepping closer to her and eyeing her with a newfound interest. "Is Blondie a fellow sociopath?"

Ino folded her arms across her chest, "I am not a sociopath. I am high-functioning psychopath."

He grinned, stepping right up in front of her and close enough that she could see the color of his eyes, a striking shade of violet, her favorite.

"So what, you came and dug your grave before offing the chick? Or are you one of those feminists that only kills men?"

"Why, worried I might still be in the market for a victim?"

He laughed, stepping away and back over to the grave. "Oh you are very scary little girl, but seeing as how," he paused long enough to shove the body into the hole with his foot, "my corpse is already here I think that makes it my grave."

Ino felt her irritation spiking, but bit her tongue to keep from voicing it. She might be an experienced killer but something about this man's aura felt raw and animalistic, like any sudden movement might make him turn on her. Or maybe that is just how murderers felt when you caught them disposing of a body. This was, after all, the first time she had happened upon another who shared her particular hobby.

Arms still folded she moved slowly to stand near enough to look down into the hole, but out of his direct reach. Peering down into the hole and then back up to her fellow killer, "you know, there is room for two bodies down there and if they were ever found it would really throw them off both our trails, thinking the two are related to one another and all that."

He whistled, "so Blondie is deadly and smart, odd combination."

"Oh stuff it and come help me get my body over here."

She turned and started walking back in the direction she came from, only pausing for a moment to make sure he followed. He stared after her for a moment before shaking his head, chuckling and moving to follow.

For such a large man he moved through the trees behind her like a shadow, and she found herself looking over her shoulder to check that he was still there. When they reached the part of the trail she had left her own plastic wrapped corpse in he laughed.

"Something funny?"

His ever present grin widened slightly, "what's a little girl like you doing killing such big men?"

"Maybe I like them big," she answered, flashing him a flirtatious smile.

His smile changed, becoming a bit softer, less crazy and his eyes heated as he leered at her. "I could show you something big if size is that important to ya Blondie."

She shook her head, apparently he was crazy and fancied himself a comedian. Stepping in front of him and bending over, ignoring the whistle of appreciation from her companion, and picked up the feet end of her parcel. Ino waited for a moment for him to take the other end before sighing heavily and glaring at him over her shoulder.

"Well, are you going to help me or just watch my backside?"

He laughed again. "I think I'm starting to like you Blondie," he said before moving past her toward the body.

She smiled in satisfaction, always pleased to get her way, before his hand came down solidly on her ass. She jumped with a surprised shriek, dropping the man's feet.

Ino had an angry tirade on the tip of her tongue when, in an impressive display of strength, he scooped the package up and settled it on his shoulder.

He shot her a cheeky grin, "lead the way and I can do both."

Ino felt her cheeks flush, strangely flattered that this self-proclaimed sociopath apparently liked her ass.

He followed her diligently, and silently watching her backside, back to the clearing. While he easily threw the body down into the hole she dug around in the thick bushes for where she had stashed her shovel earlier in the week.

"Blondie is prepared, I like a girl who thinks ahead," he said, a surprisingly light tone to his voice as he picked up his own shovel where he had discarded it earlier.

The both started shoveling loose dirt into the hole, slowly covering up the evidence of their crimes. A few silence filled minutes passed before Ino felt the need to fill the void.

"So," she started, grasping for something to say, "been doing this long?"

"Longer than you been alive Blondie."

Ino stabbed her shovel down into the dirt and glared at him, "I do have a name you know."

He copied her posture, glaring at her across the open grave. "And do you expect me to guess it?"

"Ino."

He nodded, pulled up his shovel and continued moving dirt into the hole.

"Am I supposed to guess yours?"

"I have many names."

Ino could feel the muscle under her cheek twitch in irritation. Sociopath or not, this guy was kind of an ass. "Any I would have heard?"

"Oh I know you have heard it, everyone has," he said grinning at her.

"Well do you expect me to guess?"

"Yes."

"That not fair, I told you mine."

"Yea well life isn't fair. I'm sure the dead guys here would agree to that. If you guess right Blondie, I'll give you a prize," he said with an exaggerated wink and a leer that left no question of what prize he wanted to give her.

She sighed heavily thinking over the possibilities. While she wasn't sure she was interested in any "prize" he might offer, she hated the idea of not knowing who he was. Not only did he know where her latest victim was buried, he knew what she looked like. She was even so taken off guard by this whole interaction that she had stupidly given him her real name. That was the sloppy actions of an amateur. She may not have been around as long as him, or even gotten a moniker by the police and media yet, but that didn't mean she could take risks like this. After all, she had no intention of cleaning up her act now. She was seven murders past where she could turn back, and if she was honest she didn't want to.

If someone has asked her two years ago if she wanted to be a serial killer she would have laughed and asked if they were high. Now she couldn't imagine not continuing down this dark path. She knew from a psychoanalytical point of view that she was probably addicted to the rush it gave her, the feeling of being in complete control of something for the first time in her life but that did not bother her. She knew plenty of people addicted to various things. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, sex. This was the same. Only her's was a bit less…legal. And far more rewarding in her opinion.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of dirt on dirt. Her fellow addict had continued shoveling while she had been lost in her own mind.

So who was he? He had given her a big hint, saying she would know his name. A killer she has heard of but hasn't seen a picture of before. She was certain she hadn't seen a photo of him for sure, she would remember his chiseled features, his strong jaw line and most of all the purple eyes watching her with amusement as she thought.

"Fine. You want to play, we can play," she said after a long silence. "Are you Charlie Chop-off?"

"No."

"The Grim Sleeper?"

"Good guess, I met him once but no. Not me."

"The Zodiac Killer?"

"No," he scoffed, making a face like he had tasted something bad, "that dude is such a prick too. I'd love to meet him just to put him in his place. Assholes like him give serial killers like myself a bad rep."

Ino stared at him for a moment, trying to gauge if he was serious or not but apparently he was. Interesting.

"The Moonlight Murderer?"

"No, but you get points for the obscure guess."

"Stoneman?"

Hidan shook his head, "never did care for the whole bludgeoning thing."

Ino set her shovel down, the hole finally filled and gave him an exasperated look, "okay well unless you are Jack the Ripper himself I am running out of guesses here."

He looked up and grinned, all sharp teeth and madness, "bingo."

She laughed. "No. You don't really expect me to believe you are Jack the Ripper, the first and most notorious of all serial killers? The greatest unsolved mystery of all time?"

"Maybe I do."

"That was over 100 years ago! There is no way, like I believe you when you said you are older than me but not that old."

"And why not?" he asked, setting aside his own shovel and walking brazenly over the freshly filled grave to stand in front of her, "is that so hard to believe?"

Her mouth opened to answer, but the sudden closeness had made it a bit harder to think. Her eye lined up perfectly with his muscular chest and she would have berated him for being shirtless in the middle of the night, out in the woods, but really she was hard pressed not to say she was enjoying the view. He grabbed her hand, with far more gentleness than she expected and pressed her hand over his heart.

"Do you feel that?" he asked, his voice lower than before, giving it a husky quality that made forced Ino to suppress a shiver that had nothing to do with the cool air of the night.

She started to ask him what the hell she was supposed to be feeling when he pressed her hand harder against his chest and she realized something that made even her blood chill.

He had no heartbeat.

Wait. What?

She grabbed his sides, pulling him closer and pressing her ear to her chest. His bare skin was slightly warmer where her hand had been before but she barely noticed. She was much too preoccupied by the fact there was no heartbeat in his chest. A large, fit man like himself should have a strong steady beat that she should be able to hear easily in the still quiet of the forest.

But there was nothing.

It was like the first time she killed a man, pressing her head to his chest to see if there was a beat. To see if she had actually killed him. Then her heart was still pounding in her in ears, making it difficult to tell if his had gone silent or hers was simply overpowering it.

Now she was calm, though confused, and her heartbeat was quiet and steady making it easy to tell that nothing was pumping in this man's chest.

He laughed and she heart it, reverberating through his body, and his hands came up to comb through her pony tail. This time she couldn't help but shiver slightly against him. A heavy arm draped around her shoulders, pinning her to him.

"You getting cold Blondie?"

"No," she said, turning her face so he wouldn't see her face flush. "How is this possible? How are you even alive Jack?"

He pulled her face back with her ponytail to meet her gaze. "My name isn't Jack," he all but growled before his continuing in a lighter tone, "some jackass pretending to be me sent those letters. My name is Hidan."

She narrowed her eyes into a soft glare, "that only answers one of my questions Hidan."

He smiled at her. Not the cheeky leering smile he had sent her earlier, nor the predatory one she just knew he could pull off flawlessly. No this smile was soft, almost reverent, like the way people who really, truly believed in god smiled when talking about their faith.

"All is possible through Jashin, Blondie. Gifting me with immortality was only a small taste of his power."

Ino placed her hand on his chest, pushing just hard enough for him to let go of her and let her step backwards. Looking at that angle was giving her a pain in the back of her neck.

"Jashin?"

"My God," he said simply, "he granted me immortality. He is a good god, to those who follow his teachings."

"What kind of god makes a man who butchers people immortal?"

"That's a harsh word for what I do."

Ino shrugged, moving to sit on a tree stump near the edge of the clearing, "I've read the case files about Jack the Ripper Hidan, is there a better word for what you did?"

He nodded. "Tribute."

"Tribute?"

"To Jashin. He is a death god." His tone suggested that was the most natural thing in the world.

"Ah," she said as though that made sense, and she guessed in an odd way it did.

Hidan closed the distance between them and half fell, half flopped himself down on the ground next to her.

"So why haven't I heard about a new femme fatale roaming the streets, killing any poor sod lucky enough to catch her eye. Or," he leaned forward with an eager expression, "was this your first? Did I get to meet you just as you joined the oldest unpaid profession?"

Ino smiled despite herself, she knew he was definitely missing a few screws but there was something almost charming about this strange, self-proclaimed sociopath with no heartbeat. "Sorry no, he's my seventh. Today is the two-year anniversary of my first though."

"Seven in two years?" He laughed, "well that's a little light for me but everyone starts somewhere. And the cops haven't caught on yet?"

She shook her head, blonde hair slipping over her shoulder, "they found my first kill. 'Bout a month after. I guess it spooked me so I've been more careful ever since. If they discovered any of the others I haven't caught wind of it."

"You sound almost disappointed about that."

Ino smiled at him, "well everyone wants recognition for their work."

"You keep this up, maybe up the ante to a larger body toll and they will. Somehow they always figure something out, even if they don't find a corpse. At the very least you could be known as a serial kidnapper whose victims are never found."

"I guess," she said with a small laugh. "Somedays I am not sure I want them to know I am out there, it would make people careful, cautious. Now they are stupid, taking careless risks that make this easy."

"Let me guess," he said, moving onto his knees and putting their eyesight almost level, "you doll yourself up, not too fancy, not too slutty and lurk in a dingy bar until someone strikes your fancy. He thinks he has just hooked the one night stand of his life, blissfully unaware that the bombshell he is planning to brag to everyone he knows about is the real hunter and he just the poor fish, soon to be gasping for breath as you end his poor, sad, little life."

Ino smiled, cocking her head to the side. "That was almost poetic," she said, surprised.

"So?"

"I just didn't see you as the poetic kind of guy Hidan."

He reached out and tugged playfully at a lock of her hair, "you will find I'm full of surprises. So, was I right?"

She nodded, "close enough that I would accuse you of stalking me but I know I would have noticed you tailing me."

The hand that had been in her hair moved, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her closer to him, off the stump. She made a soft sound of surprise, hands reaching out to catch her against his chest. When she looked up, intent on asking him what the hell he was doing, their faces were inches apart and he had an intense expression in his eyes that stopped her angry retort in her throat.

"And why," his said, his voice low and dangerous, his face close enough she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face, "do you say that Ino?"

It was not lost on her that this was the first time her name had passed his lips. She had heard it before, from many different men. Some gasping in pleasure, others in pain, but something about how he said it made it feel more intimate than it had ever been before. He said her name like a challenge, like bait on the end of a hook that he was daring her to reach for and for the first time that night she wondered what kind of person he killed. Did he still limit himself to prostitutes, or was any pretty girl good enough these days? Had he meant it when he asked if she was planning on dying tonight, or was the heated danger she could almost feel coming off him in waves a more carnal need?

She took a deep breath, still unsure which way this was going to go, and answered him.

"Because you move like a predator, like a man who knows his place in the world and no mortal can challenge it but you look," she paused, moving a hand off his chest the trace the line of his jaw, "oh but you look like a wet dream come to life."

He laughed, a low, sensual laugh and the hand holding her head loosened enough that his grip didn't hurt anymore. His other hand, which had been against her back slid lower, towards her waist. "Is that so?"

She nodded, now that her head was free enough for the movement. "And," she added, "you being every bit as dangerous as you look just makes you that much hotter."

Hidan closed the short distance between them, leaning forward to speak against her ear, "how much hotter?"

Ino parted her lips, intent on telling him just how fuckable he was and that she was sure he knew that already, but a sudden, grating, electronic noise cuts her off. He pulled away from her suddenly, leaving her to catch herself before she fell face first on the cold ground. She looked up, her eyes narrowed into an annoyed glare to find him on his phone.

He responded to whoever was on the other side, with a few grunts and an annoyed "fine" that let Ino know that he was as displeased with the interruption as she was. He slipped the phone back into his pocket a moment later and turned his attention back to Ino who had pushed herself to her feet and was brushing dirt off her hands and knees.

Suddenly he was right in front of her, a small blade naked in his hand, and Ino was sure this was it, this was when he added her to his impressive resume. She knew too much to be spared, the answer to a hundred-year-old mystery is not something he can afford to let out. Her name will be scratched into his ledger, between those of Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Mary Jane Kelly, and the possible countless others to meet their end at his hands between 1888 and today. Death was not something Ino was looking for, but she had accepted it was a risk of her "hobby" and if it had to happen, if it had to be tonight, she could think of no way she would rather go than drowning in his cold jewel like eyes.

She held her breath, prepared for the pain, and wondering if this was how her own victims felt when he realized it was the end.

But the pain never came because, instead of sliding the cool steel into her flesh as she expected, he reached behind her and cut a thick lock off the bottom of her pony tail.

He stepped back, running the lock of blonde silk under his nose and smiled at her.

"To remember you by," he said before disappearing into the darkness.

Ino stared into the space before her for a long time, her brain scrambling to process what had happened. She just met Jack the Ripper. Jack the fucking Ripper. And not only did he spare her life, he flirted with her. He let her flirt with him and she would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed it didn't go farther than that.

This encounter had left her with more questions than answers, questions she desperately wanted answers to but had no idea how to get them.

She did know one thing though. Something she could feel down to her bones, something she was willing to risk everything for.

She had to see him again.

A/N: Fun fact, yes all of those monikers are real names given to serial killers who were never caught/identified (at least as far as my research went and no I do not believe the reports from last year that they identified Jack) and I promise I am not a serial killer, I just like researching them and wanted to put that to good use.