Drawing his blade in one fluid motion, Kakashi channeled his chakra his katana, unleashing the White Fang: White Destruction Slash. A blinding omnidirectional wave of compressed chakra ripped outward from the blade, carving deep trenches into the earth as it expanded.
Trees were reduced to splinters, and boulder faces shattered under the sheer pressure of such arcs. Kakuzu shifted his stance, sidestepping the main horizontal and vertical gashes while hardening his skin with Earth Spear to simply tank and push aside the stray blades of pressurized air that clipped him. The explosion sheared through the landscape, turning a hundred-meter radius of dense forest into a crater of fine dust and floating debris.
The four masks sewn into Kakuzu's back detached, erupting from his cloak and darted into the sky. They hovered in a tight formation around Kakashi, their jaws unhinging in unison.
"Multi-Combination Ninja Art: Deadly Destruction!"
A torrent of fire, a spear of lightning, a crushing gale of wind, and a dense high-pressure jet of water collided simultaneously at Kakashi's position. The synergy created a localized catastrophic storm.
The superheated air pressure atomized the ground, incinerating Kakashi's reanimated body until not a single scrap of flesh or ash remained in the center of the blast.
Yet, as the swirling storm began to dissipate, the dark ash began to pool together nearby, reforming Kakashi out of thin air.
Kakuzu was already moving, understanding that destruction was useless, he opted for the simplest immediate alternative to sealing: total physical restraint.
Before Kakashi's newly formed body could land on the ground, black threads erupted beneath him, wrapping around his wrists and ankles like iron manacles. The tendrils yanked hard, pinning Kakashi spread-eagled to the torn earth. He thrashed against to break free, but the reinforced black threads held firm.
Seeing Kakashi fully immobilized, Muu made his move, pulling a stack of specialized sealing tags as he handed them to his fire mask and made it glide over toward the trapped shinobi.
And made it move with deliberate care, after confirming Kakuzu kept Kakashi pinned long enough... so there was no room for a counterattack, before plastering dozens of sealing tags across Kakashi's torso and face. The black kanji on the tags flared, spreading across Kakashi's body until his movement ceased entirely, his form locked away.
Kakuzu turned away without a word, stepping back toward the helpless Darui.
"Iwa already anticipated the dangers of Reanimation and prepared methods dealing them," Muu mentioned, adjusting his bandages as he watched Kakuzu walk away. "Every unit in Iwa's battalion carries sealing tags in case we encounter targets where standard Earth Style jutsu can't hold them. The surprising part is the sealing tags we have purchased are from Uzushiogakure, they are pretty high quality. Not only that they were offering at 50% discounts."
Kakuzu didn't bother acknowledging the explanation. He pierced into his own chest, his black threads severing his Lightning heart to clear space for a fresh replacement.
Muu stepped forward. "Kakuzu-san, if you are simply going to discard your Lightning heart anyway... may I take it?"
Kakuzu didn't even glance back. He crushed the old heart in his hands, reducing it to ruined tissue before Muu could reach it. Muu stood dumbfounded by the senseless destruction, but Kakuzu offered no explanation for why he'd rather destroy a valuable asset than hand it to his to-be student.
Kakuzu loomed over Darui once more. "Don't worry," Kakuzu murmured, his hand hovering over Darui's blood-stained vest. "It will be over quickly... unless you prefer it slow?"
~~
Time slowed to an agonizing crawl... or maybe Kakuzu was just savoring the moment. Darui couldn't tell. All he knew was that his end was here, and his life was unspooling in a painful flashes.
Regrets were all he could remember as all his blunders flashed. Revealing Kaien's true identity as the Raikage's grandson and master strategist to Minato was a fatal mistake one that got him kidnapped and tortured.
"I'm sorry, Kaien. I should've died on that field instead of you."
Then came the regret of failing his master. Lord Raikage had taken a chance on him, shaping him into a ninja worthy of standing by his side. Dying out here, failing to hold the rear supply lines, failing to protect a single comrade... it was a meaningless end.
"I'm sorry, Raikage-sama. I hope I didn't completely disappoint you. I wish I had done more for keeping your trust in me."
Finally, his thoughts drifted to Yugito. When guilt took over him as Kaien returned mute and had pulled him under, she was the one who dragged him back up. She had been his anchor, his closest friend, pulling him out of his own head when he thought he couldn't go on.
"I'm sorry, Yugito. Looks like I'm stepping out early."
Darui closed his eyes, accepting the stillness and the warm sensation of blood. He could only grunt in agony as Kakuzu's threads plunged straight into his chest cavity. Kakuzu slowly drew the Darui's heart out, his black tendrils immediately wrapping around it like a writhing nest of snakes to assimilate the chakra pathways for his new heart.
Kakuzu paused, his hidden eyes widening beneath his mask as he felt the unique composition of the chakra pulsing within his new possession.
"Well... this is a pleasant surprise," Kakuzu muttered with a note of genuine satisfaction. "He possesses Storm Release, Lightning Release, Water Release, and Wind Release. A quite talented one."
~~
A/N: And just like that Darui meets his end, some story never finish. He never got to say a proper sorry to Kaien and anyone he was close to for that matter, but its okay.
A shinobi is the one who endures and so did he.
Upto 20 Advance chapters available @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0