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Hidan tilted his head, glancing at Kakuzu. "Aren't you going after them?"
"Why rush? They're dead anyway." Kakuzu shook his head. "Besides, after you perform your ritual, you'll be incapacitated for half an hour. Aren't you afraid someone might take the opportunity to kill you?"
Hidan curled his lip. "Leave this one to me."
Kakuzu waved a hand. "Partnering with you is really comfortable."
"Huh?"
"You can handle things that don't interest me—people without bounties." Kakuzu leaped, landing on a tree branch.
Hidan, meanwhile, pulled out the arrow fragments still lodged in his body and casually shrugged off his cloak, revealing well-defined, muscular arms.
"My target was originally more important people. But since you're so eager to die, I'll oblige," Hidan sneered.
"Less talk." Makoto's hands gradually began to frost over. Soon, a long ice staff formed in her grasp.
She swung the ice staff twice. "Since I became a rebel, life and death have long been secondary."
"Then... you can die!" Hidan suddenly roared, his massive scythe crashing down on the ice staff.
Instantly, the ice staff shattered into fragments.
When Hidan tried to attack Makoto again, he found his feet frozen to the ground.
"That's it?" Hidan raised his scythe, smashing the ice binding his feet. Lifting his head to find Makoto again, he saw the surrounding ground had completely frozen over. Makoto was now gliding across the ice at high speed.
"All these flashy tricks... what's the use!?"
Hidan swung his scythe, smashing it into the ice. The frozen surface instantly fractured into pieces.
He sneered, but after taking just two steps forward, the cracked ice refroze. Caught off guard, he slipped, sliding across the ice until he slammed heavily into a large tree. Then, long ice spears suddenly erupted from all directions, impaling him.
Blood stained the ground, but Makoto didn't dare let her guard down. Over a dozen more ice spears materialized in the air, hurtling towards the fallen Hidan.
In an instant, the already impaled Hidan was struck by the flying ice spears.
Makoto gasped for breath, but her eyes never left Hidan.
Earlier, Hidan had clearly been struck by the arrow yet lived. She couldn't tell if it was due to a ninjutsu or simply because his body was incredibly resilient, enduring the blow.
In any case, until she was certain Hidan was dead, she couldn't afford to be careless.
Sure enough, after about ten seconds, Hidan, now riddled with ice spears like a sieve, moved. He forcefully pulled out the long spears pinning him down, leaned against the tree, and stood up from the icy surface.
"Kakuzu, why don't you go ahead?" Hidan said.
"Why?" Kakuzu was puzzled.
"I'm about to get serious. It might take some time. I'm worried things might get urgent over there."
"Urgent about what?" Kakuzu shook his head. "I don't believe these people can kill two Mizukage. Remember, the Mizukage are under our control. Besides, what if someone takes advantage of your weakened state?"
"..." Hidan frowned. "Do you have so little faith in me?"
"Under your control?" Makoto was startled, then remembered what Mangetsu had mentioned about the Mizukage. She exclaimed in surprise, "You're with the 'Akatsuki'?"
"Whoa. Our reputation must be pretty big if even the isolated Kirigakure knows about us," Hidan chuckled.
"So it seems that ninja, Midorima, was right. The ones controlling the Mizukage are you."
"So what if you know?" Hidan retorted. "You're about to die!"
Hidan kicked off the ground, charging towards Makoto at incredible speed while simultaneously wildly swinging his multi-sectioned scythe, destroying the ice surface.
However, the rate of his destruction couldn't match the speed at which Makoto created new ice.
On the ice, Makoto moved like a nimble butterfly, always maintaining a certain distance from Hidan.
Hidan, meanwhile, resembled a tireless beast, both destroying large sections of ice and trying desperately to close the gap.
After a relentless, continuous assault, Hidan finally closed in on Makoto, swinging his scythe and sending the ice-skating woman flying.
"Why aren't you running now?" Hidan snarled with a grin.
Makoto clutched her abdomen, standing up from the ground.
That last blow had broken her ribs. While not life-threatening, it would definitely affect her subsequent movements.
Large-scale use of her Ice Release had drained her chakra too quickly, making her begin to question her earlier choices.
"But you still won't find it easy to kill me," Makoto managed a strained smile.
"If it were earlier, I'd agree it wouldn't be easy. But now..." Hidan licked the blood off his scythe blade while simultaneously drawing a pattern on the ground with its tip. "Now I just need to consider how you should die. Honestly, with your strength, you don't deserve me using this technique. But right now, I'm furious, and I've lost interest in playing cat and mouse. So..."
Makoto watched Hidan's transformation, stunned.
The previously pale-skinned Hidan suddenly turned as dark as charcoal. If not for the several white stripes now visible on his body, she wouldn't have been able to discern his form.
At that moment, a black long spear appeared in Hidan's hand.
"You were running pretty fast earlier. I want to know if you'll be able to run fast in the future." Hidan drove the black spear into his own calf.
Makoto didn't understand, but in the next instant, her right leg felt as if it had been pierced by a sharp weapon. An excruciating pain shot along her nerves, spreading from the bone throughout her entire body.
Instantly, Makoto dropped to one knee. She gritted her teeth, not making a sound. But then, her left leg was struck by nearly identical pain.
Makoto knelt on the ground, her forehead and back drenched in cold sweat.
"Hurry up and finish her. You'll need to rest for half an hour," Kakuzu urged.
"It's not rest; it's devotion to Lord Jashin," Hidan retorted, then turned back to Makoto. "I only targeted your legs just now. Next time, I'll aim for the heart. The game of cat and mouse ends here."
Makoto closed her eyes, but her mind was in turmoil.
She wasn't afraid of death. But thinking that Hōzuki Mangetsu, Zabuza, and the others might also die just as senselessly filled her with resentment.
'How did things come to this?' Makoto couldn't comprehend it.
"Die!"
Hidan raised the long spear high, preparing to thrust it into his own chest. Suddenly, the ground violently shook as if about to split open. Then, the earth beneath their feet abruptly heaved upwards, shattering in mid-air.
Hidan tumbled down from the air.
"Who's there!?" Hidan roared into the pitch-black surroundings.
Kakuzu also grew alert.
Someone had indeed attacked them just now, and they had no idea who it was.
"No need to be tense. We're all acquaintances here." A voice came from the depths of the darkness.
Kakuzu frowned, watching as two figures emerged from the shadows.
When the appearance of one of them came into his view, he was momentarily stunned, then his eyebrows arched slightly. "Long time no see, Midorima."
'Midorima!? Asachi Midorima?' Makoto's heart jolted. Fighting through the pain, she opened her eyes.