Pieces of the building were still crashing to the ground. Sharp cracks of electricity snapped randomly through the settling dust. Shisui kept his eyes locked on the wreckage, his body tense and ready.
"Noa, what are you sensing?" he asked.
He is alive," I replied grimly. "I also sense four different chakra signatures active inside his body."
"What do you mean?" Shisui asked in disbelief. He almost turned to look at me, but years of ANBU training kept his eyes focused on the target.
"I am not sure, but even if he appears dead, do not believe it until every single one of those chakra signatures is completely gone."
He clearly had his doubts. One man possessing four active chakra signatures inside one body was impossible. However, he trusted my sensing abilities enough to take the warning to heart.
A deep, muffled voice suddenly spoke from beneath the heavy rocks. "A sensor... and such a powerful one. How inconvenient."
Instantly, an explosion rocked the rubble. It was not a random blast, but a calculated move. Kakuzu used the rocks burying him as a weapon. He launched the massive chunks of stone and small debris outward like a deadly shotgun spread, designed to force Shisui back and create space for himself.
Shisui's Sharingan immediately predicted the path of the flying rocks. He flickered backward, easily moving out of range of the big chunks while evading the smaller debris with fluid motion as he retreated.
Kakuzu pushed aside a huge, cracked stone pillar and finally stood up, glaring at us with cold, calculated anger. The blast from my spear had wrecked his clothes. The top half of his heavy black cloak was almost completely blown apart, leaving burned, smoking pieces hanging loosely from his broad shoulders.
Under the ruined fabric, his unnatural gray skin was exposed to the cold air. My spear, which I had already summoned back into my storage seal, had left a terrible, charred hole in the dead center of his chest, right where his heart should be. It was a strike that would have likely killed a normal shinobi. But in Kakuzu's case, thick black threads and tendrils were already squirming inside the wound, violently stitching the burned flesh back together.
Shisui's eyes widened. His Sharingan spun as he watched what was happening. He spoke with a horrified tone I had never heard from him before.
"What are you?"
Kakuzu replied with cold eyes. "Tsk. My secret was revealed that fast because I got reckless." He rolled his shoulders, his voice absolute. "Looks like I have gone soft. It is your bad luck then. No one who has seen this should be left alive."
Suddenly, the thick black threads inside his body surged. A huge mass of them erupted from his back, tearing away the rest of his ruined cloak. The dark threads pulled away from his spine and completely separated from his main body. They twisted together to form three large figures made entirely of black thread. At the top of each entity sat a thick, bone-white mask.
One mask shot into the air right away, staying high and out of Shisui's range. It opened its mouth, and wind bullets rained from the sky. I flickered immediately, appearing next to Shisui a moment before the area I had just been standing in exploded under the powerful attack.
Shisui started to speak. "Noa..." Before he could finish, the fire mask moved from behind Kakuzu and cast a wide-range flame technique. At the same time, the wind mask above cast a huge gust that amplified the fire.
Shisui cursed as he wove hand seals. He blew a massive fireball that collided with the incoming inferno. It forced him to spend a large amount of chakra just to counter the combined assault.
The lightning mask moved extremely fast to our side and shot a powerful bolt toward us. However, a crackling lightning spear appeared on my lightning-coated arm. It created a rail, and then the coating injected into the spear, igniting it further. It exploded forward, shattering the lightning mask's attack before hitting its body. The creature protected itself by using its threads as a shield, though my jutsu still burned through some of them.
Shisui was starting to get overwhelmed by the combination jutsu, which only increased in power. His perfect chakra control and Sharingan could not easily compete with almost 100 years of combat experience. He stopped his jutsu and then flickered to the side, and I followed. However, wind bullets came from above, tracking us and keeping us on a defensive retreat. Meanwhile, the other masks started to reposition themselves as Kakuzu himself rushed straight toward Shisui.
I wanted to help, but the lightning mask moved too fast, appearing between us. It shot another bolt at me. I tilted my body, dodging the violent strike while easily enduring the residual electricity that arced toward me without taking any real damage. I flickered next to the mask, intending to punch right through it. However, the moment I appeared, a huge wind slash was already moving to cut my extended arm.
I immediately stopped my strike as the slice tore up the ground right in front of me. The lightning mask shot another bolt almost at point-blank range, but I used my already extended arm to concentrate my own chakra into a single finger. I fired a lightning bolt at the mask. My jutsu was faster, striking it hard and sending it flying backward from the impact. I shot another blast, hitting it a second time before I had to flicker away to dodge a wide-range wind jutsu.
I appeared a bit further away, just in time to see Shisui flying through the air. He skidded across the ground close to me, shaking his arm in pain.
"This guy's taijutsu is something else," he muttered.
Kakuzu eyed his lightning mask. It had lost a decent volume of threads, making it smaller in size. He looked at me, greed clear in his eyes. "You have an incredible affinity for lightning."
He did not continue, but I knew exactly what he was implying, and I gulped in panic. The mercenary seemed to enjoy my reaction. His masks moved behind him, and he spoke. "Time to collect the biggest bounty of my life."
Wind started to move erratically around the flying mask, electricity exploded outwards violently from the other, and the fire mask heated up. Kakuzu was about to weave hand seals when he stopped.
An ANBU team flickered next to us. Their leader, Swine, waved at Shisui and me, completely ignoring Kakuzu. The immortal missing-nin eyed the new arrivals with caution as she placed a storage seal on the ground and injected chakra into it. A moment later, Gato's lifeless body appeared on the ground, a small but lethal hole punched straight through his chest and heart. Next to him, a few Chunin guards lay dead in a much worse state.
Kakuzu noticed this immediately. He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Shisui spoke up. "Sorry to break it to you, but your ward is dead. So, the contract and whatever money he hasn't paid you yet are voided."
The mercenary kept his greedy eyes on Shisui. "That is all the more reason to take your head. It will compensate for the losses and earn much more from your bounty."
Shisui shrugged. "Sure, but are you certain you will be able to survive this fight?"
Kakuzu knew he was facing an S-rank Sharingan user, and those were a nightmare to deal with. He had also noticed the Sharingan on one of the ANBU members.
Noticing the uncertainty on his opponent's face, Shisui continued. "I am sure you have seen it, but you are up against two Sharingan users and multiple powerful combatants." He gestured toward Swine. "And then there is her. She is an ANBU captain, and I assure you, her abilities are nothing short of nightmarish."
Swine waved her hand cutely at Kakuzu. She winked, sent a flying kiss, and asked in a coy tone, "So, can those masks do other things besides fighting? And are those threads multi-use?"
Kakuzu, a legendary and brutal fighter from the time of the First Hokage, felt fear for a moment and actually shivered.
"You are not included in our mission," Shisui finished. "We already got our target, so we can just leave each other be. A good proposition, don't you think?"
Kakuzu's green, pupilless eyes focused on the five of us for a few seconds. He considered the four hearts he still had before clicking his tongue, turning around, and speaking in a powerful voice. "Next time, you won't be so lucky to have so many allies around you. I will have your head then. That's a promise."
The lightning and fire masks moved behind him, while the wind mask stayed in the air to observe us. Kakuzu's body vanished, and his creations followed shortly after.