The Two-Tomoe Sharingan in Naraku's eyes almost spun into afterimages, fixated on Kakuzu's every move, reacting the moment he was about to swing his arm.
Clang—!
The thrusting Earth Spear struck Naraku's blade. Even holding the hilt with one hand and bracing the side of the blade with the other, Naraku was forced back a considerable distance by Kakuzu's immense strength, his feet plowing two deep furrows in the ground.
Kakuzu quickly changed his move; the hand that had formed the Earth Spear dispelled the Earth Release, grabbing Naraku's blade and pulling him closer, while his other hand moved to gouge out his eyes.
Naraku tilted his head to dodge, then glared, unleashing a powerful genjutsu at Kakuzu, temporarily disrupting his movements.
Kakashi seized the opportunity while Naraku blocked the Earth Spear, forming hand signs from behind Kakuzu to unleash his strongest Lightning Release: Lightning Cutter.
He had only barely mastered this technique, and it was uncertain if he could even use it, but now there was no other choice.
Fortunately, under such immense pressure of a life-or-death crisis, Kakashi pushed himself beyond his limits, successfully transforming his chakra blade into a brilliant and massive lightning blade. Taking advantage of Kakuzu being under genjutsu, he struck him hard on his right shoulder.
This strike almost pierced through Kakuzu's shoulder and half his spine, but strangely, there was no blood in the wound. Instead, it was filled with surging black tendrils that quickly reconnected his body.
Naraku was unwilling to lose the opportunity like this, forming a hand sign and aiming a wire at where a heart might be. Orange-red flames quickly spread along the wire, shooting directly towards Kakuzu.
Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!
Kakuzu dispelled the genjutsu at the last moment, turning his body to let the line of fire enter the wound Minato had just pierced. There was no heart there, so it didn't matter if it was attacked.
At the same time, he quickly used Water Release: Water Formation Wall, knocking away Kakashi and Naraku, who were already at their limits.
"To be able to use such ninjutsu, you are indeed qualified to be my hearts."
His left and right hands suddenly flew off from his forearms, connected by black threads, each attacking Kakashi's and Naraku's chests.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Two kunai, each carrying several exploding tags, struck the threads connecting Kakuzu's arms, causing him to temporarily lose control of his hands.
"Konoha Strong Fist: Severe Hurricane!"
Might Duy's right foot, carrying a fierce wind, struck Kakuzu's back with an enraged blow, directly shattering half of the water-attribute mask. The corresponding heart was also severely wounded.
Afterward, Might Duy moved to protect Naraku and Kakashi.
If the battle continued, even if he had to open the Sixth Gate or Seventh Gate, he would keep fighting Kakuzu. He couldn't let this monster harm his comrades again.
Kakuzu retracted his hands and sensed his fire and wind attribute clones. The fire clone, which had been marked, had almost exhausted its chakra, while the wind clone was trapped by some sealing technique. If he delayed any longer, it would be completely sealed.
He silently extended several tendrils from his feet into the ground, quickly reaching the wind clone that was about to be sealed, allowing the clone to escape using the tendrils and return to him from underground.
The fire clone, on the other hand, shook off Ishikawa and Kazama, transforming into a black shadow and scurrying back across the ground.
Returning with these two clones were also Minato, Kazama, and Ishikawa, and all of them were already forming hand signs, preparing to continue the battle.
Kakuzu glanced at Naraku, especially his Two-Tomoe Sharingan, then let the wind clone return to his body, leaving the fire clone to activate its self-destruct technique.
The clone rapidly expanded and grew, changing from black to orange-red, with dazzling light emanating from several slightly cracked fissures.
"He's going to self-destruct! Retreat quickly!"
Minato, Kazama, and Ishikawa quickly retreated, while Might Duy grabbed Naraku and Kakashi and also sprinted away.
After a roaring sound, a massive fireball expanded from the clone's center, like the sun falling to the ground. It continued to expand, the scorching heat waves covering half the sky and dyeing the night an orange-red.
The ground also vibrated violently under the impact of the shockwave, continuously churning as if the entire world was shaking.
Only after engulfing this forest did the fireball finally stop.
When the flames extinguished, everything inside had been completely incinerated, leaving only a massive, smoking crater and a scorched landscape.
The group found a place to regroup, confirming that everyone was out of mortal danger, though Naraku and Kakashi were quite seriously injured and needed timely rest.
By this time, Naraku had already returned his eyes to black, but Might Duy, Minato, Kazama... and even Ishikawa, the hired ninja, had all seen those blood-red eyes with two spinning tomoe.
There are no secrets that time does not reveal.
He couldn't persuade these few people to keep strict secrecy and conceal the mission details from Konoha; for them, it would be putting them in a difficult position.
Even if these people agreed not to speak out of courtesy, given Kakuzu's miserly nature, he would sell the information on the black market.
Sooner or later, all of Konoha would know.
The fact that he had awakened his eyes had been exposed... He had a bad feeling about it.
Naraku half-closed his eyes weakly, silently allowing Minato to cut off his clothes and bandage his wounds.
While he was at it, Minato also reset his ribs.
Snap—
"Ah!"
Naraku, who was still lost in thought, was pulled back to his senses by the pain, instinctively letting out a cry of agony.
To cover up why he reacted so strongly, he blinked, squeezing out a little moisture, and pouted, feigning grievance. "Minato-senpai, you should have told me first."