"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
Several sharp impacts sounded from the dense woods behind Kakuzu and Sasori. Kunai wrapped in crackling lightning chakra tore through the air, closing in on Kakuzu's back in an instant.
The two, who had been dashing forward, sensed danger the moment the kunai appeared. They stopped in unison and flashed to either side.
The kunai skimmed across Kakuzu's sleeve and then buried itself deep in the earth, the handle disappearing into the soil.
A ragged slit was torn through Kakuzu's cloak where the blade had passed. Feeling the sting in his arm, he glanced down; a thin line of blood oozed from his skin. His face darkened as he turned toward the direction the kunai had come from.
Beside him, Sasori's fingers twitched inside the shell of Hiruko, linking to the hidden mechanisms throughout the puppet's body—ready for battle at a moment's notice.
Their enemy had yet to show himself, but from the power and precision of that kunai alone, they knew this was no ordinary opponent.
"Who's there?"
"Show yourself."
Kakuzu faced the dark forest, anger simmering beneath his low voice.
The answer he received was a dense volley of kunai.
"Shhh—shhh—shhh—"
Shrill whistling cut across the trees. Streaks of cold light shot outward, a storm of lightning-natured kunai raining down toward Kakuzu and Sasori like a falling net.
Both men instinctively tensed. With attacks coming from so many angles at once, even their speed wouldn't allow them to cleanly dodge. Before they had even seen their enemy's face, they were already being forced into a corner.
"…So many lightning-natured kunai—an elite Cloud-nin squad?" Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, making a quick guess as he formed hand seals and leapt backward, trying to create distance.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"
It was a simple earth technique, but it required very few seals and could be cast quickly. Kakuzu didn't expect the mud wall to fully block the lightning barrage—it only needed to buy him a heartbeat to slip outside the area of impact.
While Kakuzu moved to blunt the assault, Sasori acted as well. A scroll fell from Hiruko's sleeve.
He caught it one-handed, hooked the ring, and unfurled it in front of him.
"Bang!"
A plume of white smoke billowed from the opened scroll, and a humanoid puppet materialized in front of him.
It was a large human puppet. By his secret arts, Sasori had preserved some chakra and the kekkei genkai of the original owner—and the puppet that appeared was none other than the long-missing Third Kazekage.
The Third Kazekage puppet raised its hands toward the incoming storm. Iron sand flowed rapidly from its body, surging into a thick shield that formed in front of Sasori and his puppet.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!!!"
Kunai hammered into the iron-sand barrier one after another. The blows rang like metal on metal, and the shockwaves rippled out, rustling the leaves throughout the grove.
Even inside Hiruko, Sasori felt the tremors through his feet. Only after several seconds did the cacophony fade and the shuddering ground grow still.
The iron-sand shield crumbled away, black grains hovering in the air, drifting around Sasori and the Third Kazekage puppet in faint, orbiting bands.
Meanwhile, Kakuzu—who had used Mud Wall to stall—had already broken free of the kunai's coverage area. He scowled as he watched the last of the lightning-charged blades bury themselves in the soil.
Another high-pitched whistle came from above. Alerted, Kakuzu looked up and saw a technique-marked kunai screaming down straight toward him from the sky. Without thinking, he dove forward and rolled aside.
In the split second after he vacated that spot, he caught a glimpse of white from the corner of his eye.
Clad in a white training uniform, Hyuga Satoru materialized wordlessly at Kakuzu's side, kunai in hand, driving it straight for Kakuzu's temple.
All the previous kunai attacks had been feints.
They had successfully forced Sasori to expose his human puppet, but that hadn't been Satoru's main objective.
The field of lightning kunai existed to reshape the battlefield—to turn the ground into a web of Flying Thunder God markers. Infusing them with lightning chakra wasn't to pierce Kakuzu; it was to bury the kunai, conceal the seals, and prepare a killing zone.
The overhead throw that forced Kakuzu to change positions had simply herded him into that zone.
Both waves of attacks served one purpose: to set up this strike.
Through the forbidden technique Earth Grudge Fear, Kakuzu had stolen hearts to gain additional chakra natures. That jutsu extended his life, but also made his body something inhuman.
Besides his original heart, Kakuzu had plundered four others. He wielded four extra elemental affinities and, in practice, had become an "immortal cockroach" with five lives.
Satoru knew Kakuzu's secret. But he didn't believe those "five lives" were truly independent or unkillable.
Kakuzu's body had been completely transformed by Earth Grudge Fear into a mass of black chakra threads; there were no real tenketsu points or normal muscles left. Gentle Fist would be almost useless against that flesh.
Conversely, though he had five hearts, he still had only one brain.
Destroy the brain—extinguish consciousness—and even with five hearts, could he really live on?
He doubted it.
So instead of showing off with flashy ninjutsu, Satoru chose a clean combination—Flying Thunder God and taijutsu—aiming to end Kakuzu in a single blow.
"!"
Just as he'd expected, his sudden appearance left no room to react. Flying Thunder God offered no warning. Even though Kakuzu barely sensed movement at the instant Satoru appeared, it was already too late.
He turned his head with everything he had and only managed to see Satoru's face before the kunai reached his temple.
"No…!"
"What—when did this—"
Even with death inches away, Kakuzu's mind stayed frighteningly clear. His body had no time to react, but his instincts did.
Four hearts tore out from his back.
Just before the kunai pierced his skull, the four hearts burst through his cloak and warped midair into four masked, black creatures. They scattered, surrounding Satoru from four directions.
"Thud!!!"
The kunai punched cleanly through Kakuzu's skull, and the force of the blow flung his body aside.
"Boom!!!"
He crashed into the ground hard enough to gouge out a deep pit, then lay there perfectly still.
Some distance away, Sasori turned to study Satoru. He spared Kakuzu's motionless body only a glance. Hiruko concealed his true form, his expression hidden, but his vigilance rose another notch.
"Failed, huh…"
Satoru's Byakugan tracked the four masked creatures' every move. Kakuzu's core body had clearly been destroyed, but those four manifestations of Earth Grudge Fear still showed no sign of collapsing.
That alone was enough to leave him dissatisfied.
Those four monsters were still capable of unleashing powerful, wide-area ninjutsu. If left unchecked, they would be a serious problem—even for him.
What troubled him most, however, was Kakuzu himself.
If the monsters hadn't vanished, did that mean Kakuzu wasn't truly dead?
Satoru shot a brief glance at Kakuzu's limp form, then turned his attention fully to the four creatures.
"Gurgle—"
A strand of black thread began to rise slowly from beneath the red-masked creature's feet. Satoru's Byakugan could clearly see that this thread carried an unusual concentration of chakra.
When it reached the mask, the creature's once-empty eyes suddenly changed, light flickering in their depths.
"…."
Satoru remained motionless, his gaze narrowing as he watched.
At the same time, several chakra strings shot out from Hiruko, latching onto Kakuzu's corpse. Sasori dragged the body upright and pulled it beside the red-masked creature.
In the next instant, that thread-like monster dove straight back into Kakuzu's body.
Something unnatural occurred.
Kakuzu's twisted skull bulged as the black threads filled it. In mere moments, the man who had been utterly lifeless began to pulse with a powerful heartbeat.
Kakuzu shook his head, a look of irritation twisting his face before he slowly stood up. As the red-masked entity merged fully into his back, its mask shattered into fragments.
"What a surprise."
"Never thought the one going after us would be such a young brat."
"If you were some ordinary shinobi, you really would've killed me just now."
Relief flickered in Kakuzu's eyes as he stared at Satoru—but his gaze was tinged with a cold, killing curiosity.
"You brat… who are you?"
Having one of his precious "lives" stolen so abruptly left Kakuzu seething with murderous intent, but he was also genuinely curious about his attacker.
Satoru wore no headband or insignia. From appearance alone, there was only one clear conclusion: he was dangerous.
Even seeing Satoru's eyes, Kakuzu couldn't be sure of his origin. Those milky-white eyes were clearly a dojutsu, but they looked different from the Hyuga Byakugan he remembered. Over the years, Satoru's eyes had only grown more aberrant; only those who knew him personally would immediately recognize them as a mutated Byakugan.
Satoru had no interest in answering.
As a shinobi, you didn't just stand around explaining your bloodline limit and moveset to your enemies like some loudmouthed protagonist in a cheap story.
He let Kakuzu's question hang in the air and instead flicked a brief glance toward Sasori in the distance.
Puppet chakra threads might be subtle to others, but to the Byakugan, they were as obvious as ropes. Satoru had already seen Sasori quietly manipulating the field. The two of them together were genuinely dangerous.
The human puppet was only one card in Sasori's hand—there was still Hiruko, his real body, the Hundred Puppets, and that third scroll he was rumored to keep for emergencies.
Knowing how powerful his enemies were only made Satoru more focused.
Silently eliminating them without drawing attention was clearly no longer possible.
"Hey, mute? Not going to talk?" Kakuzu sneered.
The three remaining Earth Grudge Fear masks opened their mouths in unison.
Lightning crackled. Wind surged. Flame roared to life. Three different chakra natures coalesced at once, thick killing intent seeping across the battlefield.
A little farther away, Sasori maneuvered the Third Kazekage puppet to maintain distance, seemingly disinclined to rush in himself. From the edge of the clearing, he called out in a low, distorted voice:
"Kakuzu, don't bother wasting breath."
"Can't you see he's targeting us?"
"If you've got questions, take him alive and ask later."
"If he knows he's going to die, he'll talk eventually."
He still hadn't revealed his real voice even to his Akatsuki partners.
Satoru could feel the pressure those two exuded—but even facing two Akatsuki members, he didn't feel the suffocating panic of a man facing certain death.
He understood very well how dangerous they were.
And yet, deep down, he felt… calm.
Maybe it was simple: he was strong too.
He exhaled slowly and made his decision.
If subtlety was no longer an option, then he would crush them head-on.
Eight Gates Released Formation — Sixth Gate: Gate of View…
"Open!"
Satoru pressed his hands together in a seal and let out a low shout. In the next instant, wild chakra erupted from his body like a detonation, blasting outward in all directions and whipping the forest into a howling storm.
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