Smoke drifted across the ruined battlefield like tattered shrouds. Rubble crumbled from shattered towers. The air was thick with chakra residue and the faint, nauseating tang of scorched flesh. Lightning still crackled from the remnants of Kakuzu's attack, dancing across a cratered wall where it had failed to even singe the man it was ant to kill.
Kakuzu stood still, arms crossed, as his glowing lightning mask hissed and cooled behind him.
His eyes swept the battlefield like a hawk asuring terrain before a kill.
The damage was… extensive.
Obito, the one the Akatsuki called "Tobi," their supposed joke of a subordinate, lay severed clean in half. One limp arm still twitched a few ters from the remains of his torso, while his legs, disturbingly upright, remained standing as if unaware of their own death. Blood pooled like ink, staining the floor.
Not far, Konan knelt beside a skeletal, red-haired figure, wings of paper wrapped protectively around them both. That red-haired man's eyes were sunken and closed. Whoever he was, he didn't matter to Kakuzu. He didn't recognize the man, and if he didn't know you, your bounty likely wasn't worth collecting.
But the floating moon above?
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at the massive orb of stone still suspended in the sky, no, not floating. Held. The gravity of it still tugged faintly at his cloak and hair. So kind of jutsu. A monstrous one. The sheer scale was unnatural.
And at the center of all of it, standing amidst the wreckage untouched, was the man Kakuzu had just tried to kill.
Haji.
His armor glead faintly in the dying firelight, grey-silver, marked with faint celestial etchings. But what drew Kakuzu's eye most, it was the Armor. The Huge Steel Armor that cover his whole body.
This was not so random Shinobi or Samurai elite. Kakuzu knew that face from more than one bounty board. Haji, Tsunade's so-called apprentice. High-threat, special class, black market bounty: 70 million yen.
"Seventy million," Kakuzu muttered under his breath. "Looks like the market was underestimating you."
He had barely finished the thought when the idiot beside him moved.
"GRAAAHHH!" Hidan roared, his tattered cloak billowing as he rushed straight at Haji, red scythe raised high like a reaper hungry for a soul.
Kakuzu didn't stop him.
He didn't even try.
Hidan was chaos on legs, useful sotis, but rarely smart.
The scythe slashed down, sharp, jagged teeth aiming for Haji's neck.
Haji didn't move.
He raised one hand and caught the blade mid-swing.
CLANG.
The weapon stopped cold in his palm.
Then
CRACK!
Haji's armored fist smashed into Hidan's skull like a falling teor. The impact echoed like thunder. Hidan's head twisted around his neck a full circle with a sickening snap, and his body flew backward, rolling in the dirt like a ragdoll.
He lay there for a mont, limbs twitching.
Then laughter.
"…Heheheh… haha… HAH!" Hidan's body jolted, still mangled. "You bastard! You think that hurts?! I'm immortal!"
His broken neck slowly twisted back into place with a crunch. "You'll pay for that. I'll offer your blood to Jashin-sama with glee!"
Hidan grabbed his scythe again and lunged, screaming curses and holy threats.
This ti, Haji moved.
The halberd in his hand blurred into motion.
A single slash.
SHRRRKKK
Blood sprayed.
Hidan was cut straight through the waist. His torso hit the ground, hissing in rage. "YOU!"
But the mont his body hit the dirt, two elental blasts tore through the battlefield.
BOOM, BOOOOM!
Kakuzu's wind and fire masks unleashed a violent, explosive fusion, like a storm cannon detonating. From the other side, a roar of water surged. Kisa's shark-infused jutsu rushed in like a tidal wave, crashing toward Haji from behind.
The blasts t at the center.
An inferno and a flood.
The earth trembled, and dust swallowed the entire chamber.
For a mont, silence.
Then
From within the smoke, a flare of radiant light.
Haji walked forward.
The fire parted around his form. The water hissed and stead off his halo, which had expanded outward in a protective field. His armor was untouched. His stride was calm.
Like a god walking through mortal chaos.
Above, on the far side of the chamber, Uchiha Itachi watched with narrowed eyes.
He hadn't moved during the exchange, but his mind raced.
His Sharingan spun, capturing every detail. The Uchiha Madara (Obito) was dead, or nearly so. His body was beyond salvaging. The fool had underestimated his own arrogance. Still Itachi was surprised that Madara was killed as he also have a mangekyo sharingan, especially it was a Space Technique.
Konan remained defensively positioned beside a man Itachi don't recognized.
And the man who cut them all down now… was Tsunade's apprentice?
Not just an apprentice. He was sothing else entirely.
Not just power.
Precision.
Foresight.
Control.
Itachi watched as Haji's shield absorbed all attacks. And then, he made his decision.
He moved.
Just as Hidan's body began twitching and reattaching with Kakuzu Help again, Itachi stepped forward, and flas erupted in his eyes.
"Amaterasu."
The black fire ignited Hidan's chest.
"AAAAAAAGHHHHHH!! WHAT THE?!"
Hidan writhed as the cursed flas latched onto him, impossible to extinguish. He threw himself into a muddy pool to smother the fire, but it clung to him, eating through his flesh.
"ITACHI! YOU SON OF A! I'LL KILL YOU!!"
Kakuzu turned sharply. "Itachi? What are you"
The Mangekyou spun.
Kakuzu's instincts flared. He backed away instantly, abandoning Hidan.
"No ti to argue," Kakuzu muttered. "That fire doesn't go out."
He didn't care if Hidan lived or burned. He wasn't going to be next.
Hidan, half on fire, staggered upright again, screaming, enraged beyond logic.
"YOU TRAITOR!" he bellowed, black flas crawling up his arms. "I'LL SACRIFICE YOU TOO, YOU SHARINGAN BASTARD!!"
He charged Itachi, still burning.
Itachi didn't move.
He watched Haji through the flas, through the chaos, calculating his next move.
Haji stood still, his gaze slowly turning toward Itachi.
For a mont, their eyes t.
And in that instant, no words passed. but understanding did.
The battlefield was changing.
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