With disregard for Hidan words, he lunged to bite at the other's shoulder – exactly where his huge rifle lay. His teeth sank into the rifle, saliva missing Hidan just by inches on his own accord; Kakuzu flung his head back, the rifle soaring through the air and landing through a window, busting it. The glass showered upon them, tinkling on Kakuzu's head and neck, enough to snap him out of the reverie he had been in. He was inches away from Hidan's face, his breath ragged, but all the saliva had been put onto that gun. The rifle, coated in an infectious disease, was no longer safe.

Hidan's eyes widened as Kakuzu stumbled towards him. He hadn't expected him to react so violently to his words. It was a disappointment and a reminder of just what it meant to be Infected. He'd almost forgotten. Without the blood, Kakuzu looked similar to the way he had before. He could ignore all else and talk to him.

"No time..." Hidan realized just then that for a few moments, he'd let his guard down around Kakuzu, had gotten lost in memories and wishes and made a fatal mistake. He heard the sound of Kakuzu's teeth clash against his rifle and the window break above them. The glass that fell on his head only gave him minor cuts, and the pain was nothing.

"I….I almost…" The sentence couldn't be finished. Kakuzu was a very articulate person, yet in this moment he could not think of words to describe his anguish. Biting Hidan could mean they would be together – if he could stop himself shot or killing the man. There were no guarantees. "I'm sorry." It was his turn to apologize.

Although Kakuzu regained himself, Hidan still found himself standing right in front of him, so close to disaster but not quite there. He snapped out of the trance he'd fallen into for just a few seconds, reached into his coat, and pulled out a loaded chrome pistol. In one fluid motion, he had the gun pressed to Kakuzu's forehead. "That was..." Hidan trailed off. He just then noticed he was trembling slightly.

"You scared me, Kakuzu." His lips shifted up into a grin, and his eyes widened considerably. "You seriously scared me, there." Adrenaline was running through his veins again. He adored that feeling. "I love it- I love being this close to death- no, a fate worse than that!" His voice had risen to dangerously high levels. The way the apocalypse had affected him was painfully obvious then; it was a different type of lapse in sanity, but he was still obviously not altogether there.

The cool metal of the gun pressed to his forehead felt calming, and didn't come off as a threat to him at all. If anything, Kakuzu had a sliver of hope that Hidan would pulled the trigger and his life would be over – he'd never have to hurt anyone ever again to get the flesh desire to sink away from his lips. Nor would he pose a threat to Hidan. His eyes lifted from the pavement, smirking at the words that his other half spewed for him. Being so close to death was a rush for him, almost as if the apocalypse was some sort of brain game he cooked up in his sleep, and the Game Over and wake up slap would only come when he was devoured alive. However, no such thing would happen. Hidan would be eaten, and he, Kakuzu would live with the guilt of turning him into a zombie, which was an even bigger thirst than a mere human. A live zombie was a trophy, and the human was the dinky third place medal. First place got him quantity and quality, sedating his thirst for longer – the bigger the zombie, the more he could live off of. Hidan had been right: he little girl was a mere snack, empty calories. It was nothing to live off of.

Hidan calmed himself then and took a step back from Kakuzu, gun still pointed at his forehead. "If being sorry isn't enough to stop you, then maybe the threat of having your brains splattered on the ground will be. You're not going to eat me." After a moment of consideration, he continued. "I still want you, though... I can't just let you go. Maybe I can lock you up, or chain you to the ground..." That wasn't something he'd ever consider doing to Kakuzu normally, but it was the only way they could be together and he himself could still remain human. He was terrified of losing his soul to the infection.

Kakuzu stood at full height, seeing how he was still taller than his comrade. So, he never grew in the past year – not in height. He noticed that his insanity wasn't waned, nor was his sheer brute strength. Combined with the weapon shop he had carrying around with him 24/7, Kakuzu wasn't surprised Hidan was alive after all this time – just as he had hoped. A snort escaped him, visible from blood caked around his nose. "You want to keep me as your pet? Your guard dog to keep you company?" As long as no fluids got onto Hidan, and he was kept on a tight, short leash, there was no loophole that he could see. The thought of being close to Hidan was mind blowing, more so than a bullet going through his brain. He was basically immortal, his own soul locked away, the thirst parasite living on it and making a nest for itself. Kakuzu pondered it, and then nodded. "We need to get out of this street." His eyes never left the gun, but his thirst began to wither away. "I'll stay around you. Do you have any chain on you?"

Another thought crossed his mind of being reduced to a mere slave. Once again, he snorted, the blood still festering around his jawline and nose.

"A pet?" Hidan laughed vibrantly at the mental image that idea produced. He could suddenly imagine Kakuzu, in all his blood-encrusted and zombified glory (meeting him that time had dashed his previous memory image of him), hunched-over and naked in a cage, wearing a collar and dog ears. It made for an altogether humorous picture. "I'll feed you and everything, don't worry." He could spare some of his food as well as a few of the zombie corpses he created on a daily basis.

It was a relief that Kakuzu agreed with his proposition. "Any chain? Nah. I've got some at home, though." Hidan really may as well have been living inside a weapons shop. The chains, however, had been stolen as extra precautions to secure his apartment if the need arose. He'd taken more than he needed for the job, and he had spares. It would evidently come in useful now.

Hidan walked around to the other side of Kakuzu, gun focused on his head the entire time. He trusted the fear of death to keep Kakuzu docile if his human will couldn't. "Start walking. My apartment is about two blocks from here." He commanded. "Turn left at the first intersection you come to and keep walking until you come across a high-rise apartment building with a white banner flying over it. I live there." He'd initially left it to find food across town, but Kakuzu had proved to be far more of a pressing matter.

Kakuzu couldn't keep a smirk on his face with the gun pointing directly to his head, but a sigh of relief escaped his parted lips at the mention of a home. He was going to not have to live in apartment buildings that were infested, nor keep one eye open the whole time through sleeping either. He could knock around Hidan's place, being fed copses the other would bring home, and let viscera and blood seep into his own little corner of the floor. It sounded like heaven. He chuckled."Sounds good to me." Kakuzu's human brain was in full control as he walked down the street, following his directions. Only after a few yards did Kakuzu catch a whiff of a fresh kill; it smelled like a zombie, and his intuition was right. A female zombie was on the ground, her intestines wrapped around her head, and another was gnawing inside her abdominal cavity; he was small dinky, no bigger than five foot four at the most. Kakuzu snarled loudly, the sound ripping through his jawline as he lunged for the male zombie, his thirst already back after a mere minute acquaintance with his human side. The smaller zombie stood no chance as Kakuzu showed off his power; the primal rage of the zombie hat emitted from Kakuzu was akin to that of a territorial animal. A bite to the jugular was all he needed to sedate the other into blackness and, for added measure, he ripped through the entire neck of the zombie, eager to get as his sustenance. The feeling was like no other; to Kakuzu, it was almost as if his mind went blank while devouring the flesh of the zombie, the veins and arteries hugging his face and arms like a security blanket. He didn't have an inkling of thought about Hidan until he ripped the heart right from underneath the breastbone and ate it, the aorta slipping the ground with a resounding thud. Thoroughly winded like a bucking bronco, he stopped so suddenly as if he was programmed on a dime. The female corpse still lay on the asphalt, although her body was trampled in the skirmish. Blood flowed like a river down Kakuzu's mouth and onto his bare chest as he peered over at Hidan. "See what I've become. I'm a monster," he laughed, straightening up. "I've become to this state, this state of being so provincial that any area that other zombies are feeding makes me sick and angry. I just have to have rule of the roost. If not, it makes my thirst even worse." The behavior was no different than his human one – back in the day, Kakuzu loved being in charge.

Hidan had seen the gruesome picture before him, and yet he'd chosen to leave the feeding man alone. He was occupied, after all, with keeping Kakuzu at bay, and his eyes widened in surprise when he darted from his presence. His pistol followed him, keeping a close aim at his head (Hidan's skill at shooting accurately really was impressive when he was thinking clearly), though he didn't plan on killing him. It was no threat to his own safety for his old roommate to devour another Infected; if anything, it might satiate his hunger and leave himself less vulnerable to Kakuzu's instincts.

The scene, which Hidan had witnessed time and time again, suddenly nauseated him. It wasn't the blood or the guts that turned his stomach, it was the very notion that Kakuzu was involved. He looked so mindless in that state, driven to eat by his disease and not his conscious. His eyes remained transfixed on Kakuzu; he couldn't look away from him. He might as well have been in a trance. In the back of his mind, he imagined up the way the male zombie's screams might have sounded if he hadn't been killed so quickly. That was the most appealing part of any second-hand kill, though Hidan couldn't enjoy it himself; to fuck around with the zombies he was destroying would merely mean wasting ammo and compromising his own safety. Thus, he could only safely watch a show when it was started and played out by another. He wasn't afraid to die, but becoming a soulless animal was a different matter.

The hypnotic buzzing in Hidan's ears stopped abruptly when Kakuzu spoke, and he cocked a smirk in his direction. "So you just want to be the best, is that right?" He knew he couldn't allow him that if he was going to tie him up, but he supposed he could take him for walks every once in a while. Just like a pet. And really, it would benefit both of them if Kakuzu assisted him in the extermination of the Infected that roamed the city like roaches.

Kakuzu's feet dug into the zombie's face, and without another word, he continued to walk toward the location of Hidan's apartment. The streets were deserted, and he wasn't surprised – after his atrocious attack and the time of day, most zombies were recovering and cowering to lick their wounds for the next adventure. The banner was visible from the intersection, and Kakuzu smirked. How many times had he been down there? How many times was Hidan in his apartment and Kakuzu looked up at the buildings with no thought involved?

Hidan nodded and followed Kakuzu to his apartment, though he didn't make the mistake of lowering his gun around him again. If Kakuzu hadn't bitten his rifle instead of his flesh the last time, his game would be over. He shoved Kakuzu aside for a moment to open his apartment, but he immediately whirled around to keep the gun focused on him. After performing a quick check of his apartment to make certain they had no unexpected visitors, Hidan led Kakuzu to an unused bedroom and pointed to the corner with the pistol. "Sit there. I'll have you chained up in no time."