Swish!
Hidan's scythe swung wildly, but instead of cutting down enemies, he ended up destroying Kakuzu's three remaining masks. Even the black thread monster that Kakuzu had placed on Hidan's back was run through by Hidan's own black spear as he stabbed himself.
"What is happening to my body?!"
Hidan was utterly bewildered, feeling his limbs move against his will. Not only was he unable to target the Konoha ninjas, but he had just effectively "killed" Kakuzu. His partner's body had been hacked into pieces.
"Hehe, it's simple: you fell into my trap, Mr. Jashinist."
Tonbo Tobitake walked out from behind him, smiling calmly. His hands were subtly moving, controlling Hidan's soul via chakra threads.
The "Tonbo" that Kakuzu had hit earlier was rely a substitution. With his years of research and training, taking down two enemies whose abilities he already knew was child's play, even using relatively standard ninjutsu. It felt good to move; he hadn't had a proper fight in years.
"Dammit! Let go and fight fair and square!" Hidan's face was twisted with rage.
Tonbo shrugged. "For a ninja, fighting 'fairly' ans using every ans at your disposal to win. Did you think I was a Samurai? Anyway, from this mont on, you're my research subject. Feel honored, hehe!"
"What are you babbling about? Research subject?!" Hidan's expression darkened. Years ago, he had joined the Jashin Cult only to be experinted on by them. He thought he had escaped to kill in the na of his god, only to end up back on an operating table.
"You don't need to understand, little brother from Akatsuki."
A long roll of bandages flew out from Tonbo's ninja tool pouch, wrapping Hidan's body completely until he looked like a mummy. A sealing talisman was slapped onto the bandages. Done.
"Tonbo-Sensei, that was amazing!"
"Senior Tonbo, you're the GOAT!"
"Tonbo... you really have beco incredibly strong."
"Uncle Tonbo, I didn't know you were this cool! I heard you used to idolize my dad—does that an my dad was this strong too?"
Ino, Choji, and the others rushed forward, seeing the battle concluded. Everyone breathed a massive sigh of relief.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Movent echoed from the distance as another team approached. Ino sensed them and waved. "Hey! Captain Asuma! Shikamaru! Tonbo-Sensei already took care of the two Akatsuki guys!"
It was Asuma's squad. As they took in the surroundings, their faces filled with shock. Not a single inch of the terrain was intact. It was obvious a cataclysmic battle had taken place; the ground looked as if it had been plowed several feet deep. In front of Tonbo's position, a trench three ters deep stretched out for hundreds of ters—a clear scar from so devastating ninjutsu.
"Looking at these marks, the battle must have been intense. But Tonbo-Sensei handled it. As expected of a forr Acting Hokage," Shikamaru noted, instantly analyzing the scene. Given that no one on the Konoha side was injured or killed, the sheer gap in power was easy to deduce.
"Classic Tonbo! Besides beating us all to the altar by getting married first, he's left us in the dust in terms of strength too!" Asuma remarked with a sigh of admiration. Back when he was a rebellious youth traveling to the capital with Chiriku, he could already tell Tonbo was becoming formidable. Now, Tonbo was reaching heights that were becoming hard to even fathom.
Yamashiro Aoba chuckled. "Yeah, I rember back in the Academy, his grades weren't even as good as mine. Now he's leading the way in everything. So, Asuma, when are you finally going to hold your wedding?" He teased, sensing the danger had passed.
"What are you talking about? What wedding?" Asuma's face suddenly flushed bright red.
Tonbo chid in: "What are you acting for? Everyone knows about you and Kurenai. Did you think we were all in the dark?"
"Hahaha! Captain Asuma is blushing! He's shy!" Ino laughed. Even Shikamaru had a smirk on his face. The tense atmosphere of facing the Akatsuki vanished in an instant, replaced by a sense of lighthearted camaraderie.
"Alright, take the Akatsuki corpse. Let's head back and turn in the mission. Notify the other squads," Tonbo commanded, naturally taking charge as the senior officer.
"Yes, sir!" Aoba processed the corpse and summoned a flock of crows. After attaching coded ssages to them, he sent them flying in all directions to recall the other teams.
An Underground Cave.
"It appears Hidan and Kakuzu are dead. Let us begin."
Pain spoke to the other Akatsuki mbers via the Rinnegan's telepathic link. After receiving no response for an extended period, he knew the duo had fallen. In front of them, Yugito Nii, the Two-Tails Jinchuriki, lay unconscious on the ritual platform, her clothes torn and her body showing signs of brutal mistreatnt.
"Oh dear, oh dear! Two more dead so soon after Senior Sasori? What a pain! I'm going to have to work overti. Do I get overti pay? Also, can I have a few spare uniforms? If I only have one, I'm afraid I'll start to sll... wait... wasn't Mr. Kakuzu the one in charge of the money? Now that he's dead, where did all his money go...?"
A masked man babbled incessantly like a child.
"Tobi, shut up! You're annoying!" Deidara roared, pointing at him.
"But Senior Deidara, I'm talking about urgent matters—"
"Tobi, enough. Begin." At Pain's command, everyone wove hand signs. The massive Gedo Mazo statue opened its many eyes, and chakra dragons erupted from its mouth, coiling around Yugito.
Konoha Intelligence/Corpse Processing Division.
"Hokage-sama, the subject's brain is not normal. I could only extract physical data and a few fragnted mories. Most of the snippets are of the Bounty Station and an underground cave. Their leader possesses the Rinnegan, but these fragnts didn't provide much more than that."
Tonbo withdrew his hand from Kakuzu's head, looking rather disappointed. It seed that extracting the soul had affected the brain's data integrity, and since Kakuzu's entire body had been modified, his brain was no longer truly human. Despite Tonbo's vast knowledge, he couldn't get the full picture.
He was particularly disappointed that he didn't find the mory of the legendary "I threw a kunai at the First Hokage from 800 miles away and then ran" mont. He really wanted to see how that fight actually went down. I'll have to pull Kakuzu's soul out of the talisman and ask him directly when I have ti, he thought.
Tsunade nodded. Her own dical examination of the body confird it was fundantally different from a normal human. "What about the other one you sealed? Can we read his mories?"
"Of course. That Jashinist is easier to deal with. We can release him whenever we want. Since he can't die, we don't have to worry about his brain getting damaged during the process," Tonbo replied.
Support on Patreon: spatreon/c/MistaQuartz
On Patreon, you can explore Extra Chapters in advance!
Reviews
All reviews (0)