The first clash between Kisame and Suigetsu made Suigetsu's eyes widen. Suigetsu and Kisame had the same idea, to bite each other, but while Suigetsu thought Kisame would dodge his bite, Kisame let himself be bitten on the shoulder, while Kisame himself took advantage of the moment to bite Suigetsu's arm hard.
At first, Suigetsu thought Kisame wanted to trade wounds for wounds, but the next moment, he felt his chakra being rapidly drained. His eyes widened, and he quickly dissolved into water, reappearing not far from Kisame. His form had already regressed to the first stage of the curse mark.
Kisame, on the other hand, felt that power enveloping him, the chakra in Suigetsu was extremely massive in that form, which made Kisame and Samehada even more excited.
Suigetsu pursed his lips as natural energy began to fill his body again, enough for him to enter the second stage once more, but this time when Kisame charged at him, he ran straight ahead, their movement speed in the water was very similar.
For a moment it became a chase again, but this time, unfortunately, it was Suigetsu who was running.
Suigetsu was thinking quickly about how to turn the tables, he couldn't let Kisame catch him. Samehada's power could still be used in that form, which was a huge problem for him.
Inside Kisame, Samehada also became very excited, Suigetsu's chakra drove it completely crazy, and it wanted to get closer quickly to devour more of that delicious chakra.
//-//
Kakuzu was cursing.
Who exactly? He himself didn't know how many people he had already cursed in just a few minutes, especially the Akatsuki, who had put him in this situation.
He was avoiding Karin as she advanced with clenched fists and chains, trying to capture him and his other hearts.
With the hearts of lightning and wind destroyed, he didn't give Karin a second chance as he formed a three-pointed formation with the fire and water string puppets.
Karin frowned, Kakuzu was completely focused on avoiding confrontation, trying to take her down from a distance.
This frustrated her greatly, but she wasn't without solutions. Making a hand seal, the next moment, ten Karins appeared, shadow clones. The clones and the original body split apart as they advanced toward each of the opponents.
The original body advanced with three clones towards Kakuzu himself, who had already realized what kind of clones they were.
Kakuzu's eyes widened slightly as he dodged some kunai, only for the sealing chains of one of the clones to bind Kakuzu's arm.
Kakuzu felt his chakra become difficult to control for a brief moment, even his control over the hearts being impaired, which caused Karin's shadow clones to quickly destroy the hearts of fire and water.
Kazuku was decisive, his other arm turned black, hardening rapidly as he covered it with chakra. He waved his hand forcefully, but he didn't try to strike the chains. Instead, he hit directly where the stitches were on his bound right arm.
The arm was swiftly severed, the Jiongu threads still trembling with vitality, but Kakuzu didn't look back. He used a move that only the First Hokage had the honor of witnessing, he turned and ran with all his might!
Kakuzu ran as if his life depended on it, and it did.
Karin was briefly stunned by Kakuzu's decisive move, before a furious expression appeared on her face. She was about to give chase when she saw a white snake pierce the ground. The snake hissed, shook its head, and pointed its tail in one direction.
Karin was a little surprised, but nodded before running in the direction the snake had indicated, that was where Jugo was.
The Snake Clone watched Karin walk away, then glanced at the arm still with wires moving, thinking for a moment. His mouth widened as he swallowed the arm, he would send this to Orochimaru, the man would surely be curious about it.
As for Kakuzu? Killing Kakuzu now wasn't his goal, let him go and spread more chaos.
Even Kisame, if possible, he would save, of course, that is if Suigetsu won, the situation there was much more complicated than here.
Itachi, on the other hand... it was better if he died. He could act as a troublemaker, but deep down he was still an agent of Konoha. He could cause real problems if he went free, it was better that he died.
The Snake Clone hissed one last time, looking in the direction Sasuke was, it entered the ground again, heading towards the battle in that location.
//-//
Ranmaru's fight against Obito was at a clear stalemate, Obito couldn't hurt Ranmaru, to be more precise, he could only escape.
Even when he tried to escape through the land, Ranmaru could "see" him relentlessly pursuing him across the land, when he tried to leave the earth and use Kamui to enter his dimension, Ranmaru was already there.
It wasn't that Ranmaru hated Obito, but rather that he thought if he really let Obito go, he would cause problems for Taki's group, although he didn't know that Taki's group had already been approached by Pain and Konan.
Obito felt a deep headache as he stared at his relentless pursuer, Ranmaru.
Thus, a tug-of-war was formed, Obito couldn't escape, he could only concentrate on the senseless fight. They couldn't hurt each other, so Obito could only hope that Ranmaru would tire from such a relentless attack.
Obito could momentarily rematerialize to "reset" the cooldown period of his ability, but the time to enter his dimension was much longer, Ranmaru wouldn't give him that time.
Fortunately, Ranmaru's relentless attacks should tire him out quickly, right?
Unfortunately, Obito didn't know that Ranmaru not only had Jugo's curse mark updated, but also the power of werewolves, Ranmaru could 'last all night'.