The fog rolled in fast, and it cleared even faster.
On the boundless deep blue sea, gale winds whipped up wave after wave. Three figures advanced in a straight line, charging toward the shoreline where Konome Taketori and the others waited, like they were sprinting toward their own execution.
And sure, let's call the two freaks behind Momochi Zabuza "people" for now.
There was an old saying: distance makes everything look better.
As the trio drew closer, Kakashi and the others finally got a clear look at the so called Immortal Duo, and their expressions instantly turned as if they'd swallowed a dead fly.
The black and white monster with the scythe no longer even had a recognizable face. His body was nothing but scars and holes, like a human shaped lump of butchered dice. Behind him, the tentacled thing was covered in "hair," reduced to a single mouth and two legs, with four pus sac lumps embedded in its chest and masks of different shapes hanging from it.
It was offensively ugly.
No wonder Zabuza had been too scared to peek out. Seeing those two in the middle of the night would give anyone nightmares.
"Let me give you a quick rundown of the enemy."
A cool female voice sounded beside them. Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke turned toward Konome Taketori. Her pale skin, brimming with life, still carried a porcelain sheen even under the gloomy rain clouds.
After being assaulted by the Immortal Duo's appearance, their eyes felt cleaner just looking at her, like their sanity meter had skyrocketed in some tabletop game.
Watching Kakashi and the others suddenly sprout "delight" over their heads, Konome Taketori looked faintly suspicious.
They were this happy?
Did they actually like those two zombies?
She nodded in approval anyway. Her friends had taste, after all.
The Immortal Duo's research value was absurd. Compared to a pair of red eyes or a Lightning blade, she liked these two bodies far more.
Kakuzu's abilities were bizarre. The man was basically a giant Earth Grudge Fear. Absorb chakra, generate tendrils. Add in the ability to rip out hearts, and he was a super low budget version of Hashirama cells. Hidan's body, meanwhile, carried terrifying immortality. Even with his brain or heart destroyed, he could still move.
That was something even her, someone who possessed both the Shikotsumyaku and an "immortal body" grade physique, couldn't pull off.
If she could figure out why they didn't die, then transcribe it into a seal and carve it onto her true body… wonderful.
Her Perfect Body 2.0 only had four jutsu carved into it so far. There was still plenty of space. If she could haul these two back to Konoha for the main body, the main body would be thrilled.
Just imagining those sparkling eyes, the "Genin Konome Taketori" smiled too.
The Yang Release version of Konome Taketori was indeed incredible at Bloodline Fusion. The successful reversal of the Eight Gates had been largely thanks to her.
But Konome wasn't dead weight either.
"See the black and white guy with the slicked back hair up front? His name is Hidan. As long as you don't let him step onto land, all he can use is taijutsu."
"Only taijutsu?" Naruto's face tightened. "Then his taijutsu must be crazy strong!"
"The same as Guy," Konome Taketori said.
"What!?" All three of them jolted.
"Guy without opening the Eight Gates."
"Hah…" Kakashi and the others exhaled in relief all at once. Naruto was the loudest in this disrespectful "teacher slander" category. If Guy heard that, he'd definitely drag Naruto off for a brutal training session.
"It's not that simple. He's truly immortal. Even if you rip out his heart, he won't die. Only severing his neck will make him lose mobility for a while."
Konome Taketori warned them carefully.
"And listen. You absolutely cannot let him reach the shore. If he does, Zabuza is dead. If any of you get injured, you'll probably die too."
She didn't explain further, but "instant death" cursed techniques were never something you joked about. If she wasn't mistaken, the evil god Hidan worshiped was similar in nature to the Shinigami of the Reaper Death Seal.
One targeted the soul, the other targeted the body.
His Death Possession Blood curse might even be on the same level as the Reaper Death Seal.
"Understood!"
Even if they didn't know what would happen after Hidan made landfall, the immortality alone was enough for Kakashi and the others to grasp how serious it was.
"What about the hair guy?" Naruto asked.
No one questioned where her intel came from. Naruto had long since developed complete trust. His brain relaxed and the question slipped out automatically.
"That one is Kakuzu. You don't need to know his details. Once he steps onto shore, I'll handle him."
Sasuke frowned. "You're not going into the sea?"
"I'm not very good at fighting on water," Konome Taketori said, looking a little awkward, like Sun Wukong staring at a nine headed monster.
Sasuke's eyes flicked toward the ground under her ninja sandals. The chakra there glittered with unmistakable Earth Release traces, and he and Kakashi immediately understood.
Shinobi fought on water by using chakra to cling to the surface and manipulate buoyancy. But Konome Taketori's body weight was comparable to a medium cargo ship. Just standing on the surface would drain enormous chakra, and if she started fighting, she'd likely lose stability.
Worse still, she was dense and compact. Even a tiny amount of displacement produced too little buoyant force. One mistake and she'd sink straight down. Without Water Release support, she probably couldn't even swim.
"Haha, Konome Taketori, you're…" Naruto started, about to say something suicidal.
Kakashi and Sasuke reacted instantly, clapping hands over his mouth and basically throwing themselves off the shoreline. They moved fast enough to avoid the rotating floating cannons turning toward them.
Clearly, Naruto still hadn't been humbled enough.
Konome Taketori's eyes narrowed, danger flashing across them.
She decided that once they got back to Konoha, Guy should double Naruto's training load. With that kind of body, he wouldn't die anyway.
Tap tap tap.
While they were still finalizing tactics, the deliveryman Zabuza arrived, dragging the two zombies right behind him.
His breathing was ragged and heavy, his blood soaked chest and back heaving like bellows.
From far away, he'd already seen Kakashi and the other two lined up across the sea surface, and Konome Taketori standing alone on the shore with six strange long "spindles" behind her, all aimed in this direction. One look and he knew exactly where the air bullets had been coming from.
She wasn't going into the sea?
With just those three, could they really stop the two monsters behind him?
Zabuza didn't understand, but he still sprinted toward Konome Taketori.
"I see the one launching the jutsu. It's just a kid!" Hidan's mouth and throat had already healed. His right eye hadn't finished recovering, but his left locked onto the girl on the shore, killing intent pouring out.
Kakuzu's black tendrils probed like he was "looking" for something. A moment later, the mouth only monster gave his report, and it was exactly the kind of report only he could give.
"I can't detect the chakra fluctuations of the girl on the shore. The twin blades behind her are the Mist's Lightning Release blade, the Thunder Swords Kiba, worth forty two million."
His voice grew hotter with every line, the dead calm tone somehow burning with greed.
"The orange clothed one has absurd chakra and a Uzumaki crest. Possibly a rare Uzushiogakure shinobi. Corpse price: fifty seven million. Alive? Priceless."
He paused.
"Tch. No, wait."
"The black haired red eyed one carries the Uchiha crest. The Uchiha are extinct."
"And the white haired broom head… if I'm not mistaken, it's Copy Ninja Kakashi. A Three Tomoe Sharingan plus his head…"
Kakuzu's excitement climbed until the anger from losing a heart earlier practically vanished.
The Thunder Swords Kiba were in a completely different league from the Executioner's Blade. For any Lightning Release shinobi, that kind of weapon was priceless.
And Uzumaki and Uchiha bloodlines were already extinct. A transplantable Sharingan had been bid up to sky high prices. Now three of them had appeared all at once.
Plus Zabuza as extra profit.
Without realizing it, their "main target" had already been downgraded into a bonus.
"Enough." Hidan clicked his tongue. "Stitch my arm back on. I'm going to sacrifice that shore brat to the evil god. You can have the expensive ones."
He couldn't stand this money obsessed miser, but his arm wasn't attached yet. With the sniper barrage paused, he urged Kakuzu to hurry up.
Earth Grudge Fear worked fast.
Black tendrils threaded through flesh, leaving rows of crude stitches. In front of Konome Taketori, a master of limb reattachment, it was sloppy work. But Hidan still let out a satisfied huff.
"I'll drag the one worth one hundred ninety seven million. You go kill the forty million one first." Kakuzu sounded reluctant, but he made a rational combat split.
That air bullet jutsu was too dangerous. It had to be removed first.
He was better at large scale ninjutsu and had more flexible combat options. He was the best one to kill the shore target. If Hidan tried to charge the air bullets head on without Zabuza acting as a meat shield, he'd be delivering himself as a gift.
Once Kakuzu removed the long range threat, the harvest would begin.
Hidan knew he wasn't smart. He trusted Kakuzu's judgment, even if he didn't like it, and nodded.
On both sides, they assigned targets.
And both sides made the same choice.
Bzz bzz.
Zabuza was only a few hundred meters from land when Konome Taketori's gaze sharpened. The spindles behind her spun faster.
"Zabuza, get down!"
Zabuza didn't hesitate.
The instant he heard her voice, he collapsed like someone had yanked a rope from under his feet, falling toward the sea.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
Before his hands even touched the water, high speed vacuum sniper rounds tore past his scalp and streaked straight into the Immortal Duo behind him.
No time to react. No way to see them.
The instant Zabuza stopped being their human shield, the bullets found their true targets.
It should have been a death sentence.
But Kakuzu and Hidan heard the warning too.
With battlefield experience and undead bodies as insurance, they moved preemptively.
A furious demon faced mask shifted to Kakuzu's left shoulder. A pure white mask slid to his right.
No hand seals.
Two mouths opened at once.
"Fire Release: Searing Migraine."
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage."
"Compound Style: Scorching Wind Turbulence!"
Kakuzu unleashed a killing move right away, venting all the rage he'd been bottling.
Whoooooom.
Wind and fire fused into a torrent so wide it seemed broader than the sea itself, a devastating orange tide that would burn everything in front of it into ash.
Hidan, Zabuza, Kakashi, even Konome Taketori on the shore were all within its reach.
Hidan was closest. He was swallowed first.
Flames devoured his flesh and his screams ripped through the air.
Whoosh whoosh.
Boom.
The vacuum rounds, after countless layers of shape transformation, were still Wind Release at their core. The moment they touched the inferno, they ignited, their chakra catching fire.
Yet the rounds didn't disperse. The sheer momentum punched countless holes through the sea of flame. Transparent wind became blazing points of orange red as the shots slammed into Kakuzu's body.
Ting ting…
Under extreme heat, the rounds warped and their power dropped.
The flaming "sniper shots" blasted crater like scorch marks into Kakuzu's body, even through his Earth Spear hardened flesh, before dissolving into flickers of ember.
But the inferno kept coming.
Splash.
Zabuza, already falling, drove straight into the water and dove down without stopping.
The flames swallowed the surface above him.
"Fall back!" Kakashi snapped, hands flying through seals as he stayed calm and directed Naruto and Sasuke, who were still stunned by the enemy's terrifying technique.
The two young hawks snapped awake. Shame could wait. Their sandals kicked off the sea surface and they retreated in two blurs.
Before the firestorm arrived, Kakashi finished his jutsu. He slammed a palm to the sea and poured nearly a third of his chakra into the water.
"Water Release: Water Encampment Wall!"
Rumble.
The sea swelled like a rising hill.
A water wall surged up from the ocean, massive enough to blot out the sky. The wave easily reached a hundred meters, its width stretching beyond what anyone could even see. In the distance, even the great bridge seemed tiny.
Boom.
A tidal barrier met the firestorm head on.
Water and fire collided. Blue and red crushed against each other, hissing violently.
For a moment, it felt like the sea itself was boiling. Bubbles churned. Scalding steam erupted, filling the air with thick white mist and destroying visibility all over again.
"So strong, Kakashi sensei!" Naruto blurted, staring at Kakashi's tall, steady back behind the towering wall.
He was embarrassed at how badly he'd frozen, but the sight still made Kakashi look suddenly larger than life.
"It wasn't me," Kakashi said.
"It wasn't him," Sasuke added instantly, Sharingan blazing.
Both of them turned toward the shore at the same time.
Silver hair fluttered at her forehead.
Surrounded by floating cannons, Konome Taketori stood calm and unmoved. The porcelain smooth face was lit orange by the flames. From the pale red barrier around her, a tide of violet chakra continued to flow.
She opened her hand toward empty air.
On the hundred meter wall of water, a slender hand rose from the wave itself and clamped down on the sea of fire.
The overwhelming blaze was seized like a toy, trapped inside her grip, as though she were holding a red billiard ball.
Five years ago on Mount Raikō, Kisame Hoshigaki, the so called tailless tailed beast, had summoned a tsunami with a casual gesture under heavy rain, crushing the will to fight out of a Root squad.
Now, with her immortal body nearing its third stage, Konome Taketori could do the same.
"But she said she wasn't good at fighting on water…" Naruto mumbled, eyes vacant.
Even after years together, this "sea god" version of her still blew past anything he could imagine.
Sasuke's crimson eyes flickered with a storm of emotion, envy and hatred twisting together.
"She just can't use her full power on the water. That doesn't mean she's weak out there."
He swallowed hard.
"Actually, her control over Water Release is terrifying. One unit of her chakra can move a hundred times more water than a normal shinobi."
"If her weight wasn't a limit, the ocean would be her territory."
Kakashi stared up at the water wall that seemed to connect sea and sky, dazed.
In those tens of thousands of tons of water, how much of it was truly "his" power?
One thousandth?
One ten thousandth?
"We're too far behind her…"
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