Chapter 230: The Uchiha Blessed by Fate
"Have they left?"
In a corner of a forest within the Land of Fire, Kakuzu and Hidan paused to regroup.
Ever since dealing with the nobles and monks at the Fire Temple, they'd been under relentless pursuit.
In less than twenty-four hours, they'd already run into three, four, five separate waves of Konoha shinobi.
And, conveniently enough, Kakuzu recognized every single one of them.
Konoha's most renowned elites, all of them.
Mei Terumi. Might Guy. Hatake Kakashi...
"Who knows."
Kakuzu tore off his tattered sleeve, a flicker of weariness crossing his vivid green eyes.
"Leader said to head southeast in the Land of Fire. There'll be a Terracotta Army there to escort us out."
"By the way — what even IS a Terracotta Army?"
"You know, Kakuzu?"
Hidan looked at him, curious.
"How would I know?"
"But if Leader says southeast, then southeast it is."
Kakuzu shot Hidan an irritated glare.
Even having lived nearly a century, he'd never once heard of a Terracotta Army.
But at that moment, his expression sharpened, and he suddenly kicked Hidan bodily out of the way. Hidan yelped in pain, tumbling forward across the ground.
"Kakuzu, what the hell—!"
"Have you LOST it?!"
Before Hidan could continue cursing, a cool, level voice descended from above.
"Not bad running, I suppose."
"But it ends here."
Dark, cold eyes. A Konoha jōnin's flak vest. The Uchiha clan crest emblazoned on his back.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Kakuzu regarded the boy perched in the treetops warily. Behind him, more than twenty Konoha shinobi radiated palpable killing intent.
Every single one at least chūnin level, with several tokubetsu jōnin mixed in.
Difficult.
Kakuzu felt genuine wariness facing this particular organization member's brother — Itachi's own younger brother.
The boy's strength was clearly no less than his own — undeniably one of the prodigies Konoha had produced in these past three years.
He and Hidan had already crossed swords with this boy once before.
Kakuzu knew exactly how dangerous he was, and had no interest whatsoever in engaging him directly.
Because the instant any single Konoha squad spotted them, dozens more reinforcements would arrive within three minutes.
At which point they'd have no chance of fighting back at all.
"No point talking to him. Kakuzu, let's rush him together — take this kid out first, worry about the rest later!"
Hidan swung his scythe, glaring up at the elevated Sasuke with obvious irritation.
Kakuzu's eye twitched at this.
You make it sound like the two of us actually have the numbers advantage here.
"Interesting."
Sasuke's mouth curved into a cold smile at Hidan's obliviousness.
Steel flashed from his sheath in a blur, a bright ring of clashing metal erupting through the air — and the twenty-odd elite shinobi behind him moved as one.
Given Sakura's urgent orders, Sasuke had zero interest in wasting time with these two.
"Righteous Thunder — Sinking Rage Thunder Axe!"
With a low shout, lightning exploded around Sasuke's body, and he descended on both men in a roaring cascade of thunder!
"DAMN IT!"
Seeing Sasuke had no intention of dragging this out, Kakuzu cursed under his breath and immediately raised his hand toward him.
The mask normally on his back was already in his grip.
The mask's mouth snapped wide open, unleashing a violent gale straight at Sasuke!
"Wind Release — Pressure Damage!"
Wind counters Lightning!
Sasuke's entire body was swallowed by the wind assault — but even so, he showed absolutely no sign of stopping.
Years of dedicated training in Lightning Release Chakra Mode had honed Sasuke's mastery to a razor's edge. Facing this Wind Release attack, while he might not quite match the Fourth Raikage of old, he wasn't far off either.
"WHAT?"
Watching this young Konoha jōnin power straight through his Wind Release, Kakuzu's pupils contracted sharply.
But by then, Sasuke had already closed the distance.
Blade raised, a horizontal slash — his body coiling like a striking serpent, the sword darting toward Kakuzu's neck like a venomous fang.
Kakuzu's body turned instantly black. Sasuke's blade struck as though hitting solid granite — nothing more than a shower of skin fragments, nowhere near the decapitation Sasuke had aimed for.
At that moment, Kakuzu's fist rocketed toward Sasuke's abdomen. Expression unchanged, the black-haired boy raised his other palm and caught the punch dead-on.
Simultaneously, Sasuke's foot shot upward, aiming directly at Kakuzu's groin.
Hikaru had once taught him: no matter the opponent, if they were male, a groin strike was extraordinarily effective — sometimes more devastating than a clean sword cut.
Sasuke had no idea whether that logic applied to something as thoroughly modified as Kakuzu, but he committed to the kick without hesitation regardless.
Facing this deeply undignified attack, Kakuzu's expression shifted. He raised his knee, blocking Sasuke's kick with his shin.
This underhanded brat!
Even though Sasuke's gambit hadn't landed, Kakuzu couldn't help a silent curse.
Meanwhile, the surrounding Konoha shinobi had already sprung into action, drawing weapons and closing in on Kakuzu from every direction.
These were shinobi who'd survived the crucible of real war — naturally inclined toward maximizing every advantage.
Eye gouges, throat strikes, kidney shots, strikes to the tailbone — whatever underhanded tactic worked, they used it.
While Kakuzu remained locked with Sasuke, this squad of battle-forged elites showed zero regard for the fact that Kakuzu was pushing a century old.
"Damned Konoha shinobi."
Faced with a coordinated assault on every vulnerable point, Kakuzu's expression darkened considerably.
Crackle...
A faint sound rang out in that instant.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. That sound was—
"Lightning Release!"
Kakuzu growled, and savage lightning surged out from his body!
The Raikage's heart!
This was his trump card.
The Fourth Raikage had been one of Lightning Release's finest practitioners. His heart, transplanted through Chikamatsu's technique, gave Kakuzu effortless access to the same mastery over Lightning Release.
As far as Kakuzu was concerned, this heart's value exceeded even the nanotech insect heart he'd once acquired.
Because this heart granted him substantial frontline combat capability.
But a heart alone, without the associated jutsu, had limited use.
Before, Kakuzu could only combine his own elemental abilities with the properties each captured heart provided.
But now—
"Lightning Plow — Hot Blade!"
The Akatsuki had their own Lightning-Kage courtier in Kumogakure, after all!
"WHAT?!"
Sasuke's eyes contracted sharply.
Watching that familiar bolt of lightning descend on him, he could almost see, superimposed behind Kakuzu, that powerful figure who'd once rampaged across the Land of Frost battlefield three years ago, charging straight at him.
Having lost the initiative, there was no time left to counter with the same technique in kind!
Lightning exploded like a cascading waterfall, thundering through the air!
Even the dozen-odd shinobi grappling with Hidan nearby turned their heads at the sound!
As a figure went flying backward through the air, everyone finally snapped back to alertness.
Kakuzu now stood wreathed in lightning, exactly like the Fourth Raikage of old — proud and unyielding, a thunder god incarnate.
"Heh, kid. Trying to take me down?"
"You're a little too green for that."
Behind his mask, Kakuzu watched the dust cloud where Sasuke had been sent flying, his voice perfectly level.
At the same moment, the shinobi surrounding Kakuzu prepared to deploy Wind Release to counter his Lightning.
But then, from within that settling dust cloud, a voice cut through.
"Stand down."
As the dust cleared, Sasuke reappeared before everyone.
But his current form made Kakuzu's expression freeze.
A white skeletal frame, wreathed in blazing chakra flames, enveloped the black-haired boy!
In this moment, Sasuke's eyes blazed crimson, a seven-pointed Mangekyō slowly spinning within them...
Mangekyō Sharingan — Susano'o!
"This is—"
The same power as Uchiha Madara!
Kakuzu was genuinely shaken.
Having once been dispatched by Takigakure leadership to assassinate Hashirama Senju in his youth, Kakuzu naturally knew of Madara.
That man's Susano'o had been the stuff of nightmares throughout the entire Warring States era!
Sasuke, meanwhile, glanced at the man before him with lingering unease.
If he hadn't used Amatsukami at that exact moment — the instant Kakuzu unleashed Lightning Plow Hot Blade and cracked the ground beneath his feet, shifting Sasuke's body slightly off-balance and buying him just enough time to activate Susano'o — that blow might have ended his combat capability outright.
"That power doesn't belong to you."
Sasuke regarded Kakuzu evenly.
"Heh. Luck is part of skill too."
Wasn't obtaining the Raikage's heart from Zetsu, in its own way, a stroke of luck for Kakuzu as well?
Hearing this, though, Sasuke's mouth curved into a wickedly amused smile.
"Well said. Luck IS part of skill."
"But your luck ends here."
"From this point forward, it's nothing but misfortune for you."
The moment the words left his mouth, the Mangekyō in Sasuke's eyes began spinning—
Kotoamatsukami!
An invisible pulse of ocular power descended upon Kakuzu in that instant!
Kakuzu's expression flickered slightly. Something felt subtly wrong — as though something had just slipped away from him.
But he had no time to dwell on it, because the Uchiha brat before him was already charging, lightning and Susano'o both blazing.
"Heh. What good is that power, even matching Madara's?"
"THIS old man once fought Hashirama Senju himself!"
Kakuzu sneered and charged straight at Sasuke without a shred of fear.
"Lightning Plow — Hot Blade!"
Both men unleashed the exact same technique simultaneously!
But—
At that moment, Kakuzu felt as though the ground beneath his feet had turned to sand — a portion of his body's force dissipating into the soft, yielding earth!
!!
Kakuzu's heart went cold.
The Lightning Release Body Technique was formidable, certainly, but it demanded extreme physical conditioning. Kakuzu could rely on Chikamatsu's tendrils, woven together to form muscle-like structures, but any shinobi — especially a close-combat specialist — required exceptional lower-body stability in actual combat.
Kakuzu had planned to leverage his artificially reinforced muscles to overwhelm this Uchiha brat, whose actual physical durability appeared unremarkable at first glance, using the exact same technique. But with his footing suddenly compromised, who would actually come out on top had become a genuine unknown.
Sasuke's speed didn't slow. Lightning erupted violently across his entire body, and at the exact moment the two collided, a sudden gust of wind swept through — and grit and dust, carried on that breeze, somehow slipped past the shockwave between the two fighters and struck directly into Kakuzu's eyes.
Kakuzu's blood ran cold in that instant.
Almost reflexively, he squeezed his eyes shut, tears welling from the corners.
Seeing this, Sasuke's mouth curved into a smile, his other hand flashing to the hilt at his hip, driving the blade straight toward Kakuzu.
But at that moment, a burst of fire exploded from Kakuzu's shoulder, hurtling toward Sasuke!
Clearly, in that critical moment, Kakuzu had used Chikamatsu's technique to reposition the mask onto his shoulder, unleashing a Fire Release blast at Sasuke.
Sasuke had no choice but to tilt his head slightly to dodge, and Kakuzu used the opening to retreat rapidly.
Rubbing his eyes clear of grit, Kakuzu finally looked back at Sasuke, standing motionless in place.
"Brat..."
Kakuzu's eyes were dark with menace as he regarded Uchiha Sasuke.
"What's wrong?"
"Didn't you say luck was part of skill?"
"Clearly, the luck is with me right now."
Sasuke regarded him with unmistakable mockery.
Kakuzu ignored the taunt, his gaze instead falling to the patch of ground where he'd just been standing.
The soil there was still damp — clearly saturated by yesterday's heavy rain, still not fully dried.
He turned his gaze back to the Uchiha brat before him, and a cold smile crossed his face.
He tore off his tattered black cloak with red clouds, revealing his powerfully built body underneath, along with the mask he'd just used for the Fire Release attack from his shoulder.
He tossed the ruined cloak aside and repositioned the mask back onto his back.
"Heh. Kid, that luck was on your side just now. This time, you won't be so lucky."
Kakuzu cracked his neck, a cruel smile spreading across his face.
"Sure. Who knows?"
Sasuke's blade swept through an elegant arc, and with a long, ringing note of steel, he sheathed it once more.
"What's wrong, kid? Given up already, staring death in the face?"
The moment the words left Kakuzu's mouth, he sensed something was off. He instinctively looked up toward the surrounding treetops.
"Kakuzu. You're finished."
Over a hundred figures had already converged, arriving in a coordinated wave. At the front stood Kakashi, Mei, Guy, Asuma, Kushina, Hayate, along with twenty-four Konoha ANBU and ninety-six elite shinobi!
"IMPOSSIBLE!"
Kakuzu's mind reeled in horror.
He'd carefully calculated Konoha shinobi's response speed — if he could break contact within ten minutes of being spotted by any single squad, escape was fully achievable.
How long had he even been engaged with this Uchiha brat?
Barely five minutes, at most!
"That was fast."
Sasuke swept his gaze over his arriving teammates, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touching his lips.
"A tree fell just now and startled a flock of birds — that's what drew us over to check."
Kushina arrived at Sasuke's side, offering the explanation.
"Hm? Same for me."
Kakashi confirmed, having noticed the same unusual bird activity and come to investigate.
"Same here."
Hayate echoed.
Asuma didn't speak, but his reasoning had been identical.
At this moment, his eyes held nothing but Kakuzu and Hidan — no room for anything else to register at all.
☆☆☆
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