The Sage Mode markings stood out sharply on the young man's face.
Kisame had no time to think, let alone react. Enhanced by senjutsu, Shinichi's speed far surpassed the heavily injured Akatsuki member's limits. He crossed the distance in a flash.
A fist encased in pitch-black Iron Sand barreled toward him. Shinichi didn't even bother with a Rasengan; he relied on pure, condensed kinetic power. Fueled by Sage Mode, the punch tore through the air and slammed dead center into Kisame's chest.
Thud! Crack!
The heavy impact and the sickening crunch of bone echoed at the same time.
"Gah—!" Kisame coughed up a violent spray of blood and organ fragments. His chest caved in, and the sheer force launched him backward like a ragdoll.
But before he could fly far, Shinichi caught up. Twisting in mid-air, he delivered a devastating kick to the exact same spot on Kisame's shattered chest.
Bang!
The blow pierced straight through, leaving a massive, gaping hole. Kisame's scream caught in his throat. His eyes bulged. Blood spurted from his mouth, tracing a dark arc in the air. The fatal impacts forced his fingers to loosen.
Splat!
Samehada slipped from his grasp, spinning before crashing into the distant mud. Meanwhile, Kisame's momentum carried him hard into a giant tree—a remnant of Shinichi's Wood Release.
Shinichi landed gracefully. Gazing at the swordsman embedded in the trunk, he brought his hands together in a final seal. Thick roots burst from the soil beneath Kisame, rapidly coiling around his limbs, torso, and neck.
On the brink of death, Kisame's mind drifted between agonizing pain and heavy lethargy. The wood wrapped around him layer by layer, constricting tighter and tighter. As his vision dimmed, a final thought surfaced.
'A pity...' His sight blurred as darkness encroached. 'In the end... I couldn't see it. The Eye of the Moon Plan... That real world... without falsehoods, without betrayal... where everything goes as you wish...'
Before the thought could fully settle—
Crack! Crack-crack!
The wood contracted with a terrifying, crushing force...Tightening...Twisting.
Splatter!
Amidst the sickening sound of tearing flesh, Kisame's body was completely obliterated. The strangulating Wood Release left only his severed head behind. Torrents of blood sprayed violently through the twisting branches.
Kisame Hoshigaki was dead.
Poof!
At the edge of the distant forest, a face emerged from a large tree trunk. Half-white, half-black, and framed by pitcher-plant leaves, Zetsu stared at the scene in absolute shock.
"Whoa?!" White Zetsu cried out in horror. "What do we do... what do we do? Kisame actually... died?! He was completely outmatched! That Tejima Shinichi is even more monstrous than the intel said!"
Unlike his panicked half, Black Zetsu remained entirely grim. Staring at Kisame's severed head, deep anxiety surged within him.
Orochimaru's defection and capture was already a major, unplanned flaw. Fortunately, the snake Sannin didn't know much about the Akatsuki or the Eye of the Moon Plan. But Kisame was different. If no remains were left, it wouldn't matter. But Shinichi had intentionally preserved the head!
If Shinichi—this new 'Ashura'—extracted the intel locked within that brain, the consequences would be catastrophic. The Akatsuki's existence, the Tailed Beast collection, and the ultimate goal of the Eye of the Moon Plan would be exposed to the Five Great Nations. The combined might of the shinobi world would turn against them. The plan would be crippled.
More importantly... the newly reincarnated Ashura had already grown far too powerful.
"What a terrifying variable," Black Zetsu muttered. His gaze shifted away from Shinichi, turning toward Uchiha Itachi's distant location.
Black Zetsu narrowed his single yellow eye. He had to act immediately. That Leaf shinobi could not be allowed to return with an intact head. Zetsu sank into the ground, traveling rapidly through the earth before emerging from a tree's shadow beside Itachi.
He quickly took in the scene. Among the trees, Itachi stood quietly over Sasuke, who lay unconscious on the ground.
Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan spun slowly as he glanced at the creature beside him.
'As expected... you were lurking nearby.'
Zetsu's arrival made Itachi's heart sink. He had only just felt a fleeting sense of relief after revealing his true intentions to Sasuke within the Tsukuyomi space.
For a brief moment, the anxious Black Zetsu's gaze lingered on the older Uchiha.
"Hmm?"
Zetsu wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but Itachi's aura felt... different. The heavy gloom and oppressive atmosphere that usually surrounded him had thinned. But Black Zetsu had no time to dwell on subtle changes. He dismissed the thought and spoke hastily...
"Itachi, something terrible has happened. Kisame is dead!"
Itachi's breath hitched. A flash of genuine shock breached his calm facade.
Kisame... dead? The 'Tailless Tailed Beast'? The man whose raw power ranked among the absolute highest in the Akatsuki? Just moments ago, they had been infiltrating the village side-by-side. And in the blink of an eye... he was dead?
After the shock came a quiet, rapidly escalating horror. Itachi knew Kisame's strength better than anyone. Even if Water Release was naturally suppressed by Wood Release, and even if their intel on the opponent was lacking ... to fall so quickly meant only one thing...Tejima Shinichi was vastly stronger than Itachi had predicted.
"Now is not the time to space out, Itachi!" Seeing his silence, Black Zetsu stepped forward."
"Kisame's head is still in Shinichi's hands! You must destroy it before he takes it back to Konoha! If the Leaf's interrogation unit reads that head, the organization's secrets will be entirely exposed. You cannot afford that consequence...and neither can I!"
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