"No wonder that kid's bounty is so high. Beyond the Byakugan, he's a real handful.
"Especially those signs—like the First Hokage in my memory: clap his hands and any jutsu just… happens.
"Ridiculous.
"But… the tougher the prodigy, the sweeter the kill—"
Kakuzu halted midair. He looked down. A ninja blade had punched through his left chest. His thoughts stalled.
Space rippled. Wearing an ANBU mask, Kokugetsu appeared, pressed with his left hand, drew the blade with his right. Kakuzu's "corpse" hit the ground in a spray of dust.
Kokugetsu could have ended him in one go—drain the chakra dry and Kakuzu was finished. But a man who lived purely for money was useful to someone happy to make money by any means.
Have him erase the Hyūga's last main-branch elder? Inconvenient for Kokugetsu to do it; easy for Kakuzu. Pay him, point him, and send him on his way.
Or palming off the annoying, high-difficulty jobs—money could move Kakuzu.
Kokugetsu even admired him. Among all the shinobi who suffered unjust orders or persecution and kept crawling back to their masters, Kakuzu was different.
He broke out of prison and butchered the Takigakure leadership that made him cannon fodder—cleanly, only the top, no collateral.
And he never once regretted it—not the purge, not the betrayal. In a world like this, "if a lord treats a vassal like dirt, the vassal should treat the lord like an enemy" was rare indeed.
Such men are hard to leash—but Kokugetsu was confident. To handle Kakuzu, gold was essential—and so was making him yield.
Simply mugging him with stealth and an absorption seal, leaving him no chance to fight back, wouldn't win his respect.
"Huh… still not dead. Your body's structure is unusual."
He spoke while weaving past lashing black tendrils, light and precise, like a butterfly in flight.
"Brat! You dare come back?" Kakuzu kip-upped, eyes like knives, killing intent gusting hard enough to chill a lesser shinobi's bones. A blue water-mask yawned behind him; wind and fire masks bulged at his shoulders; eight giant black tendrils whipped and writhed, a monstrous sight.
"Oooh… scary. A real monster," Kokugetsu said from a branch, lips pursed.
The mask and his too-handsome face took the sting from the mockery, but somehow it still set Kakuzu off. Six huge black lines blasted forth like hunting serpents.
Crack—crack—crack—
Branches and trunks shattered under the strikes as Kokugetsu slipped between them, reflexes, speed, and agility on full display. Now and then the blade flashed; with wind chakra sharpening the edge, the black cords were hewn in halves.
"Nice, weird attack, well coordinated—but not fast enough," he said, still dodging.
"Who do you think I am, brat?
"When I fought your First Hokage, you weren't even a thought!"
Furious, Kakuzu recalled the cords. The wind and fire masks charged together; a cyclone gathered, flames surged.
(For the record, Kakuzu didn't fling a shuriken from eight hundred ri away. He lost head-on to Wood Release and escaped alive—either Hashirama hadn't cared to finish him, or Kakuzu struck a wood clone, or he met Hashirama after that second, body-breaking fight with Uchiha Madara, when the God of Shinobi was spent and near his end.)
"Die, you little punk!" Kakuzu roared.
Fire Release: Zukokku!
Wind Release: Pressure Damage!
Wind stoked flame, flame swelled wind—orange tides of fire rolled through the forest, towering higher than the tallest trees, turning the mountain wood into a hell-sea.
"Good spectacle."
Kokugetsu smiled, lifted his left hand, and a translucent veil unfurled.
Where the fire struck the veil, its heat and fury vanished, converted into pure chakra and drunk away. Even distant tongues of flame bent inward, dragged to extinction.
Compared to Rinnegan not his own, he could draw out much more of the Absorption Seal's power—but it was still a base ability, with a ceiling.
"…What?"
The blaze hid him from view, but Kakuzu felt it—the jutsu's state was wrong. It was guttering too fast.
Moments later the firestorm was gone. A swath of forest lay charred and smoking, the ground still hot.
"Impossible."
Kakuzu stared at Kokugetsu, standing untouched where he'd been. His face changed.
"Nothing impossible. Your combo's range wasn't wide enough. I stepped out and back," Kokugetsu lied without blinking.
Kakuzu glanced at the nearly unscorched tree under Kokugetsu's feet, and the two on either side a little worse for wear. His mouth twitched. Suspicion cooled him.
Something's off. This boy is weird. Don't underestimate him. Go all in.
One more probe.
Lightning Release: False Darkness!
The lightning-mask spat a spear of light, a thunder lance swift and stone-piercing.
Having topped his chakra back up, Kokugetsu raised both hands. Lightning gathered in his palms, filaments crackling, and a high chorus of birdsong filled the trees.
Twin Chidori.
The thunder lance struck twin lightning talons, and power met power, snuffed each other, and vanished.
"You won't read my hand with that level of testing. Uh… your name?"
"Kakuzu. Remember it. The one who kills you is Kakuzu."
His voice dropped to a growl. His body trembled—and a forest of black cords jetted from within, birthing three free-roaming, twisted masks of lightning, wind, and water.
"Tsk. A monster indeed—your hearts can run on their own."
This time Kokugetsu sounded impressed, but his tone was flat.
Earth Grudge Fear was a fine kinjutsu—but only fine. In truth, the Six Paths of Pain were the state Kakuzu would have loved to reach.
Kakuzu's mouth twitched. Why do I feel you're more of a monster than me?
In all his years, he'd never faced anything so uncanny. Even the First Hokage had been straightforward—overwhelming force, not this strangeness.
Let's see what you really are. Once I know, I can kill you.
The wind–fire masks took one flank, Kakuzu and the lightning mask the other. They launched in a pincer attack…
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