Chapter 17: The Curse of Jashin
Kakuzu looked down at Hidan, who had fallen to the ground after the single, decisive blow, his expression full of disdain. "What? Is that all?" He couldn't help but glance over at Uchiha Naoki, his tone laced with regret. "My apologies. It seems I've wasted your expectations."
He assumed Hidan was dead.
But then…
"It hurts, you bastard!!"
Hidan, lying in a expanding pool of his own blood, suddenly pushed himself upright. His face was a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. "Divine punishment upon you!" he shrieked.
While yelling, he used his foot to smear the blood on the ground, quickly drawing a pattern of a circle with a triangle inside it. "Prepare for the ritual—"
Before he could finish, Kakuzu's detachable fist, connected by black tendrils, shot out from a distance and punched straight through Hidan's chest once more.
Being interrupted mid-ritual only infuriated Hidan further. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the black tendril and yanked it out of the wound, simultaneously managing to smear a bit of Kakuzu's blood from the tendril onto his hand. "A good performance deserves a grand finale, you bastard!" he spat. "Next is my special show! Your everything is now in my hands!"
The corner of his mouth twisted into a smug, manic grin. "The ceremony… begins!"
As he said this, he licked the blood from his hand and swallowed it. His body instantly turned jet-black, with stark white, bone-like markings appearing all over his skin, making him look like a true avatar of death.
At this spectacle, everyone except Uchiha Naoki, who remained impassive, showed varying degrees of shock and surprise. "What is this…?" someone murmured.
Suddenly, a sharp, black rod manifested in Hidan's hand. While everyone watched in amazed bewilderment, he drove it directly into his own lower abdomen.
Shunk!
It was Hidan who had stabbed himself, but simultaneously, an identical, bleeding wound appeared on the exact same spot on Kakuzu's body. Kakuzu grunted in severe pain, doubling over and clutching his stomach.
"Hahaha! See how powerful this is now, you bastard?!" Hidan roared, reveling in the disbelief in Kakuzu's eyes and the stunned gazes of the onlookers. "Continue to feel the pain!"
Stab! Stab! Stab!
He proceeded to brutally pierce his own limbs, palms, and the soles of his feet, seemingly feeling no pain himself. In stark contrast, Kakuzu let out continuous grunts of agony, corresponding wounds opening up on his own body with each of Hidan's self-inflicted strikes. Finally, Kakuzu lost the strength to stand, collapsing to the ground in a growing pool of his own blood, breathing in ragged, heavy gasps.
"Hey, you should be thanking me, old-timer," Hidan said, looking down at the grievously wounded Kakuzu with immense satisfaction. "If I'd pierced my heart with that first strike, you'd be dead already!"
Seeing that Kakuzu was now incapacitated and bleeding profusely, the complacent Hidan willed the black and white markings to recede from his body, ending the ritual.
"This is… the ability of the Jashin cultists? 'Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood'?" Sasori murmured, genuinely taken aback. "To be able to instantly kill an enemy with just a sample of their blood… What a terrifying ability. No wonder even Naoki was so wary of it." For shinobi like them, who only had one life, this power was nothing short of horrifying.
"The ritual requires the enemy's blood and that specific cursed circle to be drawn," Uchiha Itachi analyzed calmly, suppressing his own shock. "So, if Hidan is not standing within that circle, the ability should be nullified." He filed this potential counter away for future reference.
Konan couldn't help but voice her admiration. "It's practically the ultimate weapon against a Jinchuriki." Immortality combined with a guaranteed one-hit-kill ability was the perfect counter to a Tailed Beast host. No matter how powerful the Jinchuriki, they still only had one life.
Her gaze drifted to Uchiha Naoki, a question forming in her mind. "How did he know about Hidan's ability during their first encounter? Does he possess some form of prophetic ability?" (It was Akatsuki protocol for members to debrief their missions, so Konan knew that Uchiha Naoki had been aware of Hidan's trump card from the outset.) She felt Uchiha Naoki was an ever-deepening mystery. Not only did he possess a strange, non-Uchiha Kekkei Genkai, and monstrous power for his age, coupled with surprising social grace, but now this. It was as if he knew everything about the shinobi world. He hadn't been surprised to hear the name 'Akatsuki' for the first time, almost as if he'd known of them long before. And now, knowing a complete stranger's ultimate technique upon first meeting… Wasn't that the hallmark of a prophet?
"This old man has truly seen something new today!" Kakuzu's body suddenly began to squirm unnaturally. Black tendrils writhed under his skin, visibly stitching his internal and external wounds back together. Within moments, he pushed himself up from the ground, his eyes narrowed as he regarded the smug Hidan. "Very good. I approve of you as a partner. Especially that immortal body of yours." It seemed he could finally unleash his full power in future missions without worrying about accidentally obliterating a fragile teammate.
"Hmph! You'd better keep up, old man," Hidan retorted, puffing out his chest with pride under the weight of Kakuzu's acknowledgment and the impressed looks from the others.
"Without a doubt," Kakuzu replied, a calculating glint in his eyes.
The immortal duo is officially formed, Uchiha Naoki thought, a slightly wicked smile touching his lips as he watched the two 'bond.'
"Now, the next step is to wait for news on Orochimaru." While the snake Sannin had defected, there was no specific intelligence on his whereabouts yet. A rash pursuit was impossible. They would have to wait for the organization's intelligence specialists to provide a lead.
"I'll use this opportunity to increase my own strength." Amegakure, with its abundant rivers and waterworks, was a perfect training ground for him. The water pressure was ideal for honing his Magma Fruit abilities and tempering his physical stamina.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Sound
Somewhere hidden within the nascent country, Orochimaru flicked his tongue out, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I wonder who the 'Akatsuki' will send to hunt me down?" The image of a face with pronounced tear-troughs appeared in his mind, and a flicker of genuine fear crossed his features. "Uchiha Itachi… now he is a troublesome one." Thinking of Itachi inevitably led his thoughts to the other Uchiha. "Uchiha Naoki… is no simple individual, either." His eyes hardened. "Even if the Scarlet Sand Scorpion hadn't intervened that day, I would have had to be prepared to pay a significant price to capture him. And the fact that he managed to hide such power within the Uchiha clan until the very night of the massacre… his cunning is perhaps even more terrifying than Uchiha Itachi's. If he is allowed to mature, he will undoubtedly become a monumental figure." He licked his lips again, a slow smile spreading. "The wind is finally beginning to stir the stagnant waters of the shinobi world."
Of course, recognizing that both Uchihas were formidable, especially in the art of genjutsu—their clan's specialty—Orochimaru felt it was necessary to bolster his own defenses in that area. Next time we meet, I cannot allow myself to be instantly neutralized by Uchiha Naoki's illusions. That would be utterly shameful.
Amegakure - Beneath a Thunderous Waterfall
Uchiha Naoki, his body covered in glowing, red-hot magma, sat cross-legged on a massive boulder in the center of the pounding downpour. He used the immense pressure and cooling effect of the waterfall on his molten form to constantly push the temperature of his magma higher. For him, temperature was directly proportional to destructive power.
"At the moment, making a huge leap in my fruit abilities is difficult," he mused, steam hissing violently around him. "The other areas where I can improve right now are precise chakra and strength control, and the development of my genjutsu."
The more precise his control, the more condensed and potent his magma attacks would become. Simultaneously, his reflexes, speed, and overall efficiency in combat would see complementary improvements. It was a path of refinement, and he was just getting started.