Seeing the destruction he had wrought, Jie Uchiha felt a sharp ache in his chest and let out a dry, frustrated groan.
Konoha was destined to belong to the Uchiha clan in the future, and every crack and crater in the village right now felt like someone was plucking hairs straight from his own head.
"This is all your fault! You just had to show up at the worst possible time!" he yelled. "If I don't squeeze every last drop of profit out of you today to make up for this, my surname isn't Uchiha!"
Dropping his previously indifferent demeanor, Jie stared at the Akatsuki members like a starving wolf. It was as if he were calculating exactly where to carve the best cuts of meat from their body.
Seeing that predatory gaze, a collective chill ran through the hearts of the Akatsuki members.
"What should we do now?" Kisame Hoshigaki asked, glancing pointedly at Kakuzu.
Though his small, shark-like eyes made reading his expression difficult, Kakuzu surprisingly understood every meaning behind Kisame's look.
"Do everything you can to inflict a single wound on him, and let Hidan finish him off with his secret jutsu," Kakuzu ordered, pointing toward the still-mangled Hidan before fixing his gaze on Jie. He then shot a complex, calculating look at Kisame.
'Does Kakuzu mean we should use Hidan to bait his attention while we make a run for it?' Kisame nodded in silent understanding. Leave it to Kakuzu; his very first thought in a life-or-death situation was always self-preservation.
As for Sasori of the Red Sand, even if he was the most powerful puppet master in the ninja world, expecting a wooden puppet to perform such complex, silent eye-communication was asking a bit too much.
"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"
With his Third Kazekage puppet obliterated, Sasori immediately pulled out another scroll. In an instant, hundreds of human puppets clad in red cloaks sprang forth from the parchment.
Chakra threads shot out from Sasori's core of living flesh, latching onto each puppet. Suddenly, it was as if every single one had its own soul. They brandished an array of weapons and surged forward at Jie Uchiha like a tidal wave.
'So many puppets. If I pack these up and sell them back to Sunagakure, they'll definitely fetch a fortune,' Jie thought as he watched the crimson horde approach.
These were human puppets personally crafted by Sasori, far superior to the basic Crow, Black Ant, and Salamander models. Even the so-called 'Mother' and 'Father' puppets modified by Elder Chiyo paled in comparison to the sheer strength and precision of Sasori's creations.
With dollar signs practically flashing in his eyes, Jie shifted his tactics. As the crimson puppets surged forward, he didn't bother engaging them directly—instead, he aimed his strikes at severing the chakra threads linking them back to Sasori's core.
After all, with their sluggish movements, even a massive swarm posed almost no threat while his Lightning Release Chakra Mode was active. In truth, even standing perfectly still, their crude weapons would be utterly incapable of piercing his dense, Lightning Release armor.
The rest was simple. Sever the threads, wait for the puppets to lose power, and immediately seal them away into a storage scroll. Cut one, store one—he was having an absolute blast.
'Charging Sunagakure a cool one hundred million ryo for a Jonin-level puppet made by Sasori isn't too outrageous, right?' Jie pondered as he collected another one. 'Or is that a bit too cheap? As expected, an honest guy like me just isn't cut out for the ruthless world of business.'
"Earth Grudge Fear: Combination Ninjutsu: Final Shooting!"
Kakuzu had originally planned to use Hidan to distract Jie, intending to secretly reattach the immortal's head using his black threads. He hadn't expected Sasori to step up and become the perfect distraction himself. Normally, Kakuzu grumbled about spending his hard-earned bounty money on Sasori's puppets—but this time, he silently admitted it was money well spent.
Seizing the opening created by Jie's focus on the crimson puppets, Kakuzu acted without hesitation. A third mask suddenly erupted from his shoulder.
After a brief second of charging, a terrifying, concentrated chakra blast erupted from the three Earth Grudge Fear masks, hurtling straight toward Jie.
"Uchiha Style Kenjutsu: Flash Cut!"
The blinding beam of chakra streaked through Jie's afterimage, striking straight into the heart of Sasori's puppet horde and unleashing a massive, devastating explosion.
Watching the human puppets—already claimed as his personal property—shatter into splinters in a single strike, Jie's rage surged like a tidal wave.
Wrecking Konoha's infrastructure was bad enough, but destroying his merchandise? Didn't this fool realize that cutting off a man's path to wealth was akin to murdering him?!
In a fraction of a second, the blade in Jie's hand flashed in a blinding flurry. His Body Flicker Technique and kenjutsu were pushed to their absolute limits, leaving Kakuzu with zero time to react.
Slash! In an instant, all three masks on Kakuzu's shoulders were shattered. Even the primary heart inside his main body took a deep, fatal gash, rendering it useless.
'How is this possible?!' Kakuzu's eyes widened in horror. 'He actually knows my weakness! And in that brief instant, he destroyed four of my hearts?!'
'I can't keep fighting him. I didn't survive Hashirama Senju just to die at the hands of this brat!' Several thoughts collided in Kakuzu's mind, cementing his decision: escape. He had to flee Konoha immediately. Even with only one heart remaining, as long as he survived, fresh hearts were easy to harvest.
Without a moment's hesitation, Kakuzu retracted his remaining black threads, spun on his heel, and bolted toward the outskirts of the village.
"Trying to run?" Jie sneered, raising his blade to deliver the final strike and finish Kakuzu once and for all.
But at that very moment, a sharp, tearing whistle of wind sliced through the air from behind. Instinctively, Jie sidestepped just in time.
A black spear brushed past him, leaving a shallow scrape against his chakra armor.
Jie glanced back and saw that, at some unknown moment, Kakuzu had flawlessly reattached Hidan's severed head with his black threads, fully restoring the zealot's mobility.
Hidan's eyes caught a few tiny drops of red blood glinting on the tip of his black spear. A chilling, manic laugh escaped his lips.
"Brat, your doom has arrived!"
Unable to wait a second longer, Hidan eagerly licked the blood from his spear. Almost instantly, skeletal black and white markings rapidly spread across his skin.
Seeing Hidan's transformation, Jie's heart skipped a beat. His current Sage Body wasn't strong enough to rapidly regenerate a violently pierced heart.
Hidan's 'Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood' was still a massive threat to him.
However, Jie quickly patted himself down. He couldn't find a single wound on his body, let alone any trace of fresh blood.
'Wait... then whose blood did Hidan just ingest?'
Realizing he was perfectly safe, Jie relaxed immediately, crossing his arms as he casually observed the fanatic's performance.
Hidan hastily drew the Jashin symbol on the ground with his own blood, stepping into the center of the circle with a sinister cackle.
"Brat! After you die, I'm going to use your corpse as a sacrifice! I'll drain every last drop of your blood as an offering to Lord Jashin! Now...die!"
Laughing maniacally, Hidan gripped the black spear with both hands and drove it ruthlessly into his own chest, his crazed eyes locked on Jie, eager to witness the Uchihar collapse in agonizing pain.
But to Hidan's utter bewilderment, as the spear pierced his heart, Jie just stood there, completely unaffected.
Instead, a miserable howl echoed from a short distance away.
Kakuzu convulsed violently, a massive tangle of black Earth Grudge Fear threads bursting from his mouth, his eyes rolling back as he collapsed helplessly into the dirt.
"What... what is going on?" Hidan muttered, entirely forgetting the searing pain in his own chest as he stared at his fallen partner in utter disbelief.
Jie, however, had already pieced together the punchline to this dark comedy.
When his Kusanagi Sword had slashed through Kakuzu's hearts earlier, the blade must have carried a few stray drops of the treasurer's blood. As Jie moved, those drops had flung off and happened to land perfectly on Hidan's black spear. Reckless as ever, Hidan had naturally assumed it was Jie's blood.
The result? An absurdly ironic climax: Hidan executing his ultimate curse technique… only to ruthlessly obliterate Kakuzu's last surviving heart.
"Killing your own teammate…" Jie couldn't help but chuckle as he started a slow, deliberate clap. "Now that's a truly spectacular performance."
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