A Shinobi From Takigakure

by Yonaka no Kageha

A 7 chapters long fanficton about Kakuzu's backgroung.

Prologue – The Second Ninja World War

This story starts 60 years before the Naruto series, in the year of 704 AS. Again has the world been thrown into war, as The Land of Earth, Tsuchi no Kuni, has wanted to conquer the lands to the east.

A ninja named Takimaru from a small shinobi clan in the area used the chance to make his own village a few years after the war had begun, and allied himself with a newly formed country. The village was called Takigakure, The village hidden in the Waterfall in the newly established Taki no Kuni, The Land of the Waterfall. The country was now in the middle of the war between Konoha, Iwa and Suna, and was currently allied with Konoha against Suna and Iwa. But the country was at the brink of destruction, facing a long and hard war. Thus they could barely manage to make any mistakes.

One of Takigakure's most skilled shinobis at this time was known as Kakuzu.

Chapter 1 – The Failed Mission

It was a cold day in the low mountains of the Land of the Waterfall. Rain was falling from the sky. It was beginning to get dark. Three shinobis were walking slowly down the mountainside. They were all wearing heavy black cloaks. From their headbands, one could see that they were from Takigakure, The village hidden in the Waterfall. The shinobis were wearing mostly dark blue clothes, so they were difficult to spot in the terrain.

One of them had long bright hair down her back. She had dark blue eyes, and was tall for her age, 22. Under her cloak, she hid a special battle fan. One of the others was shorter, but much more muscular. He was 27 years old, and he had short, spiky dark red hair and had black eyes. He had two oversized, but short swords on his back, though one could not see them because of his cloak. The last shinobi, who was walking a few meters behind the two others, was very tall, almost two meters, and had dark green eyes and shoulder-long black hair. He was 23 years old.

"We're getting closer", the spiky-haired shinobi said.

"Do you really think we would forget what this are looks like, Hayato?", the bright-haired shinobi said with a clearly irritated voice.

"There should be about 40 minutes left", the one addressed as Hayato said, without caring much about the bright haired ninja.

"And you think that's a positive thing," the female ninja said. "I don't think many will be happy for our return." The weather was clearly affecting her mood.

"Hoya-san, Hayato-san, why can't you two just agree," the third shinobi said. "After all, the outfall was not our fault."

"Shut up, Kakuzu!", Hoya said.

For the next few minutes, no one said anything. The landshape was getting more flat, they got into a thick forest and begun to follow a river.

"See, this is going to work out nice", Hayato said.

"Do you think so? You should known Suimaru better than that", Hoya said.

"Anyway, we don't have any choice", said Kakuzu.

For the rest of the trip, no one said anything. Soon they got to a gigantic waterfall. They walked down besides it, until they got to a certain point. There they went through a small opening besides the waterfall and got into a tunnel which led them to a valley which was only accessible from the opening they had went through. A river ran through the valley, and ended in the big waterfall. On both sides of the river there were build wooden houses, most of them pretty small. The sky was mostly hidden be leaves, so that the village couldn't be seen from above, except if you knew it was there.

In the tunnel, the team met a couple of ninjas guarding the entrance. "So you have finally returned...?", one of the guards said while they got into the room.

"Ohayo", Hayato said as they were passing them in a low voice.

"But where are the rest of the member?" the guard asked. He was clearly surprised to see that there were only three of them. "Are they coming soon...?" Hayato, Kakuzu and Hoya went straight past them into the village without saying any more.

"Let's just get it done", Hayato said to the others while they were in the tunnel.

"I agree", said Kakuzu. Hoya was silent.

When they got out of the tunnel and into the village, they got straight to the administrative building, the largest building in the village. Since it still rained, they could see few people in the village, and no one were there to greet them. They walked into the building and into the shinobigashira's, the village leader's, office.

The shinobigashira was sitting there busy with some paperwork. Three other elite shinobis were also sitting in the room. The shinobigashira had short brown hair, brown eyes, were kind of short, and he was 30 years old. He was wearing a brown and grey kimono, along with his sword. He was the son of Takimaru, and got the position as village leader after Takimaru died six months ago. Though he was also re-known as the most powerful and skilled shinobi in the region.

"The 4th attack squad has come to report, Suimaru-dono", Hayato said.

"Let me hear the report", Suimaru, the shinobigashira, said. Hayato, which was regarded as the team's leader, though that was not his original position, but he got it after the previous team leader got killed since he had the most experience, begun to explain how the mission had gone.

He explained that their assault on the Iwa shinobi-group in the north-eastern part of the country had ended in a disaster, due to the Iwanins, which had a perfectly counterattack, and also a much larger force (the attack was in a rocky place without any water, which gave a huge advantage to the Iwanins). After fighting for about an hour, the group decided to retreat, but they were hunted down by new Iwanins, and most of the team was killed, since they had been given a clear order to not surrender under any circumstances. Out of the original 15 ninjas, only three were left and managed to get back to the village; Hoya, Hayato and Kakuzu.

"Are you aware that we [Ido not have[/I the capacity to lose those shinobis, Hayato-san?", Suimari asked them.

"Hai, Suimaru-dono", they answered. Though Hoya greatly disagreed to this, she knew that she had to.

"Still I do not know what to do with you, and I've other things to do," Suimaru said. "Return here at 1 A.M. tomorrow." Kakuzu, Hoya and Hayato walked out of the room.

"That could have gone worse", Hayato said.

"That is true...", said Kakuzu. "And Suimaru-sama cannot take us out of missions", he said. "As he says, he cannot affort to lose any more shinobis."

Now they all headed to their homes. Kakuzu lived alone, since he had been picked up by Takimaru at the beginning of the First Ninja Word War, in which both his parents had died right after he was born. After that he had been trained as a shinobi in the village, while Takimaru had taken care of him. Over time he had become friends with Hayato, along with other shinobis in the village, and he would not claim that he had had an unhappy childhood.

About nine months ago, he had met Ayakou, who had moved to the village along with her family, since they though that they would be in greater danger outside the village, since they all were trained as shinobis. Over that time he had come to know her greatly, and he eventually started a relationship with her, and she had greatly helped him through the loss of Takimaru, who had taken care of him, but died some months ago. Though he had not seen her (or had the time) after he returned to the village.

Suddenly, Hayato entered the house. "I wondered if you had heard...", he said.

"What is it?", Kakuzu asked.

"So you haven't heard? About Ayakou-chan?", Hayato said.

"What??", Kakuzu said.

"While we were on the mission...Ayakou-chan disappeared somehow", he said. "I really can't say more, but she was the only one, and we haven't been attacked or anything", he continued. "Just though I had to tell you."

"Thank you", Kakuzu said, though he was sad to get the news. Especially after the failed mission. Hayato decided to leave Kakuzu alone for a while and left the house. Kakuzu begun thinking, but he couldn't find any reason why Ayakou would leave.

He also became irritated, over that damned Suimaru, and over this damned village...

[hr

Ratings and comments please.

I can't say when the next chapter will come, but I fear there may go some weeks.

Chapter 2 – What do I Have Here?

The next morning, Kakuzu didn't get up until late, since he was tired, and also wounded after the battles. After he had got up and had eaten breakfast, he met Hayato out in the village. "Good morning", Hayato said.

"Yo", Kakuzu said.

"We will have to go to Suimaru-sama soon…", Hayato said.

"I know…"

For the next few hours, they mostly rested and talked. When they finally begun to head towards Suimaru's office, they met Hoya walking the same way. It didn't look like her mood was any better. They shared few words, and quickly got into the office. After a few minutes, Suimaru also entered the room. At first he blamed them for the failed mission, but after some time he announced their next mission, which was to start after four more days.

Then they got out again, Hayato went to train, but Kakuzu hurt from his wound, and felt that he wouldn't be able to train much. Thus he headed back to his house.

When he got back, he started to read a book about the history of ninjutsu, since he had little he should have done, and wanted to get his thoughts away from that mission and Ayakou. Though he was quite unsuccesfull in doing so.

About fifteen minutes later, Kakuzu could see a small bird sitting quietly in his window. But he didn't care much for it. When he noticed it was still there after five minutes, he noticed that it was carrying a small note on its right leg. Kakuzu hurried and removed the note from the bird's leg. The note contained five downwards lines of writing written as a poem. Somehow, he recognized the writing as Ayakou's:

Easy will you search not be,

An ability you will have to find,

Before you reach something you cannot see,

To find the truth, you must be kind,

Towards the one your heart will reach.

At the moment, he could not figure out what the poem meant, but he thought that Ayakou had meant that that he was to search after something. This certainly got him out of his previous thoughts, but he could not see why Ayakou would send such a letter to him. Luckily, he knew Ayakou quite well, and figured she would have meant it as a riddle which he would have to solve to help him in the "search". He thought that maybe someone had sneaked into the village to kidnap Ayakou, and she had sent this note to get help from him...

For quite some hours, he tried to figure out the riddle, but he didn't come much further that day. Instead, he spent much time talking to Hayato.

The following day, he first tried to solve the riddle, but did not manage to get any further, except that he realized that he would have to make an excuse to leave the village to look after something. After thinking for some hours, he thought that it perhaps would be best if he did the day's training first, and thought that he could try to solve the riddle after the training.

He got down to the training ground in one of the ends of the valley, near the waterfall, where he met Hayato, Hoya and other shinobis. Since he had missed training for several weeks, he had decided to master the Dai mizu hakainami no jutsu (Water destruction wave) during that day.

First he got through his taijutsu training, but he was seriously displeased with himself. He could not get through his strength training program at first, since he got tired very early, and his wounds also hurt him. Then he fought against another waterfall shinobi, named Zen, but was not able to defeat him even once. This irritated him both because he was regarded as the best taijutsu user in the village, and because Zen also was several years younger than him. He was barley able to concentrate during the fights.

After a short break, he began his ninjutsu training. First he got through all his mastered jutsus, though not without problems, as he now quickly used up his chakra. Then he begun training at the [IDai mizu hakainami[/I, but was not able to master it at all, not even to get as far as he had done before he went out on the mission. Since he quickly used up his chakra, his training took a huge amout of time, since he frequently had to regain it.

After about 7 hours at the training ground, Kakuzu requested premision to leave the village to train, but since Suimaru still was quite irritated at him, he did not get the premission. Kakuzu felt that he didn't have to capacity to train the way he wanted inside of the village. This made him quite angry, and he headed to his house instead. He got himself some food, and then tried to solve the riddle again.

But neither here was he able to concentrate for a very long time. After few minutes he began to lose concentration, and he begun to think. "For what reason should I really stay in this village?", he asked himself. He knew that they had taken care about him and protected him, but he had already risked his life for his village many times. And now they had treated him badly, and it was not like he had willingly joined the village in the beginning, was it. For most of his life, he had dreamed about being the country's strongest shinobi, or even the world's greatest shinobi. When he got to his early teens, he gradually begun to follow another dream; to repay Takimaru for taking care of him, doing that by useful to his village. But also then he would have to be a strong shinobi. But now Takimaru was dead, he didn't live in the village that had saved his life and helped him anymore. That village was gone already. It did not exist anymore. His dream had failed already. And in the place he lived in now, how could he possibly become stronger? He was not able to answer that now, when neither Takimaru nor Ayakou was there to help him.

But he did not really want to leave the village, after all. Everyone he knew lived in this village, and he realized he needed a place to live, at least during this war.

Now he tried to concentrate harder than ever. He though about Ayakou's previous riddles, and figured that she possibly wanted him to find a word, a clue, from the poem. But currently he couldn't find anyone.

Hours later, he had made a list of main words from each line, since he though that was what Ayakou had meant him to do. He also did this, since he though that he would have to rearrange the words to get the meaning, that would also be Ayakou's style. The list was as following:

Line 1: Easy, Search

Line 2: Ability, Have, Find

Line 3: Before, Reach, Something, Cannot, See

Line 4: Find, Truth, Must, Kind

Line 5: Towards, One, Heart, Reach

The rest of that evening he used to try to rearrange the words, but couldn't get any closer to a solution. After only a few hours, he fell asleep.

The next morning, he woke up late. He saw that someone had left a message about a meeting in a few hours. Now he didn't feel like using the time to train or trying to solve the code. Instead he used the time thinking. When the time was getting there, he decided that he wouldn't need to go to the meeting, since he didn't want to see Suimaru, and he thought that he wouldn't hear anything important or interesting anyway, so it did not really matter at all.

Since Kakuzu thought that it wouldn't really be a point in training anymore, he found the riddle again. He tried to rearrange the words, but could not make them show one clear meaning. But he also understood that his method was to complex. He didn't think Ayakou would make the riddle so advanced, so he begun to think over it from the beginning again. What about using one letter from each line to form a word?

But then he was interrupted. Someone knocked at his door. He opened it, and found two ninjas waiting for him outside. "Why weren't you on the meeting", one of them asked.

"Do you have a valid reason for not coming?", the other ninja asked.

"Do you care?", Kakuzu asked. "Well…I didn't feel like coming. The two ninjas begun discussing with each other, but Kakuzu was unable to hear it. Finally, one of them said

"Be sure to be there the next time. If not Suimaru will get angry at us." The two ninjas then leaved him alone again.

"That damned Suimaru again", he thought. But then he started to try to solve the letter again. But again he though the solution would be too advanced.

The next two days, Kakuzu totally isolated himself. Hayato and others did try to get him out to train and such, but it was hopeless. He did not even meet up for his next mission. Hayato clearly became worried about him, but few others seemed to care about him, least of all Suimaru. During these days, Kakuzu tried desperately to solve the riddle from Ayakou. But he also developed hatred for the village even more. He began to see even less reasons for him to stay there.

Suddenly, while Kakuzu went into his sleeping room and watched the letter yet another time, he saw the solution, or at least a possible solution. Though that didn't say much, and it was also way to simple, wasn't it. Kakuzu used the first letter in the first word of the first line, E, then the first letter from the second word of the third, A, line and so one. The letters he got was E-A-R-T-H. Earth. As in Tsuchi no Kuni, The Land of Earth. Wouldn't that actually make sense? Though it wouldn't direct him much, it was certainly better than nothing. Kakuzu made his final decision; he decided to leave the village and search for Ayakou. He decided to leave that night, in other words as soon as possible.

Some time after midnight, Kakuzu left his house and headed out of the village. No one noticed him before he got to the passage out of the village. There were currently two guards there, but Kakuzu knew exactly what he should do; he sneak himself near them, and with two perfectly timed hits, he knocked them both out at the same time. He continued out of the village.

Now he hurried away from the village, he headed east, since his goal was to get to The Land of Earth. After running about 20 minutes, he came to a small valley, which was impossible to escape from except for the ends. But now he could hear that someone was getting closer. "Hunter-nins…", he thought. He was expecting that someone would coma after him, so he prepared for a battle…

Looks like I manage to finish the chapter. But now I can say for certain that I won't update for at least a week. Sorry about the language again.

Chapter 3 – A nukenin?

Takigakure village, Suimaru's office, 00.35.

"Suimaru-sama", a shinobi who had just entered the room.

"What is it?", Suimaru answered.

"Sir, I'm hear to deliver a report. Taji claimed he saw Kakuzu leaving the village."

"Is that reliable?", Suimaru asked.

"I think so", the shinobi answered.

"Then we have to act quickly! Do we have any ninja teams ready?"

"Team 17 should be ready", said a shinobi sitting in a corner of the room.

"Yosh! Send team 17 after Kakuzu immediately, and prepare two teams for backup as soon as possible", Suimaru said.

"Hai, Suimaru-sama", the shinobi said, as he hurried out of the room.

Team Jushichi: specialized tracking team.

A shinobi hurried into the small dark room where three shinobis was sitting. All were wearing black shinobi cloths and colored masks. "The Shinobigashira has an urgent mission for you", he said.

"We're ready, what's the mission?", one of the shinobis said. He was tall and had long dark-brown hair. His face was hidden behind his mask, which represented a bird.

"You are to track down and bring back, dead or alive, the shinobi known as Kakuzu. He has just left our village. We'll send backup for you as soon as possible, though you should be able to handle this alone", the first shinobi said.

"We're on our way", the team leader said. He and his team hurried out of the small room.

Team Jushichi left the village and continued into the woods as fast as they could, without speaking to each other at all. They had little problems with finding Kakuzu's way. Suddenly, one of the shinobi spoke.

"Did I get it right, are we really hunting down Kakuzu?" The shinobi was short, and had short bright hair. He was carrying several small scrolls on his back.

"You must pay better attention, Ren, we are indeed tracking down Kakuzu", the leader said.

"But I though Kakuzu was one of the most respected shinobis in our village. Why would he leave?", the shinobi addressed as Ren said.

"There is no way for me to know that. I'm surprised as well. But that is out mission", the leader said.

"But can we take him down? Knowing Suimaru we can't count on the backup", Ren said.

"We absolutely should be able to, he won't know about us, and we can surround him. I don't think there's any reason to worry", the leader said.

"An-sama, we need to hurry up", the third shinobi said. He had long, dirty black hair down his back, and was very tall.

"You are absolutely right, Yû", the shinobi addressed as An said. "We need to hurry up".

And so they did. After about 20 minutes, they came to a small rocky valley with very high walls. Yû could now say for certain that they were closing in, they could encounter Kakuzu any moment now. An ordered Ren and Yû to climb each their wall, so that they could attack Kakuzu from them, gaining an advantage. An himself ran through the valley.

After less than three minutes, he could see a large shinobi running slowly forward. An waited until he was less than 15 meters away from the huge shinobi before he gave his teammates the signal. "Now", he screamed. The shinobi turned around. Even in the bad light, An could identify him as Kakuzu. An ran towards him and found a kunai on the way, from both sides, Ren and Yû jumped towards Kakuzu…

"So here they come…", Kakuzu thought, keeping himself calm. It was impossible for him to identify the shinobis, even if he tried. He just managed to see them all, so that he could survive their first attack. First Kakuzu jumped back, so that he could evade Yû's attack. Then he quickly jumped up in the air, and kicked Ren away. Then he hurried forth, and hit An, so that he flew backwards. Now Yû tried to stab him, but before he could, Kakuzu had caught his arm and thrown him into the wall.

Kakuzu knew he wasn't done, and that he didn't have much time, since the village probably had sent another team to catch him. He begun to do the handseals to the [IDai mizu hakainami no jutsu[/I (water destruction wave). The hunter-nins got up, and prepared to another attack. He thought he could hear one of them say "This is not going to be easy". Before they could attempt another attack, Kakuzu launched his jutsu. First he created water in some kind of ball in front of his hands. Then he launched a small ray of water with much power from the ball. He aimed for Ren, but Ren managed to evade it, and the water instead crushed a big part of the wall.

Now An gave his team a signal, showing that they should start their second attack. Ren opened the attack by jumping up in the air, grabbing one of his scrolls and begun to summon large kunais. He then threw the kunais down towards Kakuzu to create enough confusion for the others to attack. An used the time to use a [ITeppoudama[/I (water bullet). Meanwhile, Yû had gotten some distance away from the battle, and was now preparing some advanced ninjutsu.

"This shouldn't be too difficult…", Kakuzu thought, though he still concentrated on staying calm. He easily evaded the summoned kunais that Ren had thrown against him. Kakuzu quickly jumped away from the spot, and barely evaded An's Teppoudama, which splashed against the wall. He now landed and ran towards An, who was standing five meters away from him. But before he could reach him, he felt that he couldn't really move. He felt like his body was about ten times heavier, and he was totally unable to move. He could see that some stones nearby him were nearly floating in the air. What the h was going on?

"How do you like my Yûryoku shihai no jutsu (gravity control)?", Yû asked him. Even if he had wanted, Kakuzu was totally unable to move, and even less answer Yû. He knew he had little time, and had to break the jutsu, but how? He could see that An and Ren both prepared new attacks. He tried as good as he could to concentrate and direct his chakra. The seconds felt like hours, and it was still time he couldn't afford to lose. He needed to get away!

Suddenly, unknown how, he got free. All his three enemies were confused, and none of them attacked him at the moment. Kakuzu tried to keep himself calm, but couldn't anymore. He used the confusion to find a kunai and stab it through Yû several times, clearly leaving him dead. But An and Ren had not completely wasted their time, suddenly, large kunais were flying all around Kakuzu, cornering him. At the same time, An released a huge suiton towards him. There was no time to doge, so Kakuzu got it right in his face. The cold water flew past him and pushed him hardly into the wall. Now both An and Ren attacked him using kunais before he even could get up again. However, that was a mistake. The anger had not left Kakuzu yet, and he charged the two hunter-nins. They were completely overwhelmed, and quickly defeated and killed, even though Kakuzu got quite some wounds doing so.

Kakuzu had no time to stand there and watch them. He hurried away, since he knew that new hunter-nins could arrive every moment. He had not expected this battle to take so long time, even if it was still a short battle.

After running for a few minutes, Kakuzu begun to think. Was it right to kill those ninjas, as they were from his own country, and the country was far from strong enough to affort such losses. He had not though a second about that during the battle, there they had just been some random ninjas for him. As he was running through the night, he had huge problems settling with this problem, but after many hours, he settled with the fact that Suimaru and his underlings deserved what they got, and that he had done the right thing. Early in the morning, he found himself a hiding place to sleep, and hoped that the hunter-nins had lost track of him and given up, especially if they saw what had happened to their fellow ninjas.

The next day, Kakuzu found his map and begun walking towards the Tsuchi no Kuni. On the way he stole some food from some peasants. He tried to continue to think that he had done the right thing, but it was not easy, and he tried to not think of it. After a few day, he was sure that no ninjas currently were looking for him. Now the woods disappeared, and the area became more and more rocky. Now he had to climb over the mountain rage, which symbolized the border to the Tsuchi no Kuni, The Land of Earth. Would he find Ayakou there…?

Chapter 4 – What am I?

For days now, Kakuzu had been walking in the mountains of the Tsuchi no Kuni. Now he had reached the country, but had no idea of where to go next, as Ayakou's clue did not tell him so. Now he had reached his goal, but where was he meant to go. He wondered if he perhaps had solved the riddle wrong, and he tried to find a better solution to it, but he couldn't. But what was he supposed to do now? He had more than enough food and water, so that was not a problem. Now he was walking down on the other side of the mountains, as he thought he should head towards a city or something.

It was late on the day, Kakuzu was hoping he could find somewhere to spend the night, as the night in these mountains could get pretty cold, but he did not believe he would. He was now very tired and sleepy. Kakuzu was almost about to camp right where he stood, when he saw a small valley a few meters down to his right. He could as well camp there to avoid the wind, so he walked down to it. But the small valley turned out to be longer than he'd expected, and in the end, he could see a small cave entrance. Kakuzu thought he was lucky, as he hadn't fount any place free of wind to sleep in for days now. Thus he moved into the entrance, he didn't believe that the cave would be big, but anything was better than sleeping outside.

But the cave turned out to be larger than he ever could have guessed. After following a small corridor for a few meters, he came into a large cave. As it was totally dark there, Kakuzu found a torch from his backpack, and lit it with a small katon. He found that the cave was as big as a large hall, but a dark lake was covering most of it. Kakuzu was trained to be able to survive without much water, but he though that he anyway should use this chance to fill up his bottles, as water were very rare in these mountains. He had not even seen one river or lake at this side of them.

Kakuzu found all his water bottles, and started to fill one of them up, but as his fingers touched the water, he was…surprised. One thing was clear: this was not water. His fingers instead touched some kind of dark and slimy liquid. Kakuzu wondered what this could be, he had never heard of anything like this before. He turned the bottle around, and spilled the liquid. Kakuzu continued to wonder what the h this could be, but this was still a perfect place to spend the night, and Kakuzu was still very tired.

But as he was withdrawing his hand from the liquid lake, the liquid somehow tried to draw him into the water. He resisted, and almost got his hand out, but now the liquid left the lake, it grabbed Kakuzu, and tried to pull him under in some way. Even though he was an experienced shinobi, Kakuzu was now terrified and completely awake. He used all his remaining strength to try to keep his head over the surface. After a few seconds where Kakuzu fought against the liquid, it became silent again. Kakuzu stood up in the liquid lake, the liquid now reached his waist. He was totally terrified, and could barely move. He wanted to get away already. Kakuzu tried to move his left hand, but as he did, he could feel the liquid move again, and he knew he wouldn't manage to get away now.

Kakuzu couldn't believe his own eyes. Now it looked like a part of the liquid moved up from the water. It looked like a high and thin shadow, even higher than Kakuzu. From it's head flew several balls of fire, they flew into the air, and was somehow kept there, so that they lighted up the cave. Kakuzu could now for the first time see the whole cave, and he could see the creature standing in front of him. It was not looking very slippery, but rather lumpy. It had the form of a misshaped fat human, and it had a mask in red and white covering the front of its head. Kakuzu thought the mask looked similar to those of the shinobi hunter he had killed. From other places in the lake, several similar creatures emerged. One was taller than the other, probably over three meters high, and it almost looked like it had wings in addition to its arms. It had a yellow and white mask. Another creature was much lower than the others, barely one meter high. It looked like it was walking on four legs, and like the other creature, it had some kind of wings on its back. Its mask was blue and white. The final creature looked much like the first, but its arms were much longer than the first's. The creature's mask was white and brown. Kakuzu was totally terrified to see this, and he did not even notice that the lake had almost disappeared, like it had been consumed by these creatures. Kakuzu understood that the situation was dangerous, and he did not dare to move.

"Why have you come into our hiding?", the creature with the red mask asked in a deep voice.

Kakuzu did not dare to lie to them, and what would be the point in that. "I've come here to search for something", he said.

"What do you search here?", the same creature asked.

Kakuzu explained the entire story. Neither he nor any of the creatures moved an inch.

"What you search will not be found here…", the creature said, but Kakuzu interrupted him.

"What are you?", he asked them, without thinking about what he did.

"I believe I was once called a shinobi", the creature said. "But that was so far ago that your years cannot tell. But the least thing we can do is to introduce ourselves. I am the Kayûrei, though I was once called Hijin".

"I am the Fûyûrei, and I was once called Umokaze", the creature with the blue mask said.

"I am the Doyûrei, and I was once called Ôdokami", the creature with the brown mask said.

"I am the Raiyûrei, and I was once called Shinrai", the final creature, the one with the yellow mask, said.

"And I am Kakuzu of the Takigakure no Sato", Kakuzu said, still terrified. Without thinking much, he said "But if you are shinobis, how did you end up like this?"

"That is a long story to tell", the creature which addressed itself as the Kayûrei said. "And we do not wish to us much time on you. But I shall still try to explain to you. We fell in a war which was fought so long ago that your years do not reach. Then we were buried here, in this cursed place. In a way we cannot tell, we were transformed to the things that we are today. But now I have talked long enough, it is time for you to join us…", the Kayûrei said.

Kakuzu did not know what to do. He knew that he didn't stand a chance of fighting these creatures or escape in any way. The ghosts slowly moved against him. Without thinking clearly, he forced himself to attack the closest of them, the Fûyûrei, with the little strength he had left. Kakuzu was never able to explain what happened. He threw himself forward, through the Fûyûrei. He continued fighting them for some seconds, but he quickly fainted out of exhaustion.

When he woke up, he wondered what had happened. He was lying on the bottom of the lake, but there were no liquid there. The cave was now lit by sunlight from the entrance. Kakuzu wondered where the creatures had gone, but did not want to stay in this cave much longer, so he quickly got his stuff, and walked out.

When he begun walking further down, he heard the Kayûrei's voice, but couldn't tell where it came from. "So now we finally got a chance to leave that place", the voice said. "Yes…", one of the other ghosts said. Kakuzu got terrified again, he though he begun to understand what had happened.

"Are you inside of me?", he asked into the air.

"So you figured it out…Good", the Kayûrei said. Kakuzu did not know what to do or think, though he understood the situation was bad.

"What are you going to do?", he asked the ghosts.

"Only get away from that place. I believe we now have no choice but to stay with you now, as you got us out of that cave", the Kayûrei said.

"You mean you will become a part of me?", Kakuzu asked, clearly surprised and shocked.

"That is indeed what I mean", said the Kayûrei. "At least until we find a way to get some for ourselves…".

"But what do you need?", Kakuzu asked them.

"Each of us need a source of chakra to be able to live for ourselves. We were able to survive in that cursed cave because there was a special cursed crystal there, which had a huge amount of chakra sealed in it. But we could not have survived long outside of the cave.", the Raiyûrei said.

"But what could work as a chakra source for you?", Kakuzu asked.

"I believe only the chakra system of a living shinobi would be able to produce enough chakra." , the Raiyûrei said."Currently we are using your chakra as our source", it said.

"That means you have to hurry", the Kayûrei said. "Because if your chakra get used up, all of us will die here. I believe we only have one day left on your chakra alone". Kakuzu did not know what to believe, but he wouldn't take any chance. But that meant he had to kill another human.

"But I cannot get you a chakra system without using chakra", Kakuzu told them.

"You only need to worry about finding us some chakra. We will do the rest", the Raiyûrei said.

Kakuzu did not know what to do. But he knew that he would soon need more food, and begun walking towards the nearest city. He did not want this to stop his at his search for Ayakou. Neither he nor the ghosts talked on the way. After walking for several hours, he met a shinobi. The shinobi was wearing a dark brown flack jacket and black pants, along with an Iwagakure hiat-ate.

"I am Itsuki of the Iwagakure", the shinobi said. "And since I see that you are from the Takigakure village (Kakuzu was still wearing his hitai-ate), I will have to kill you." Kakuzu did not speak to him or attack him. Instead he talked to the ghosts.

"Here's your chakra…", Kakuzu said.

"Very good", the Kayûrei said.

"Doton – Retsudo tenshou no jutsu" (Revolving split earth palm), the Iwanin said. Now the Iwanin begun to move some of the nearby stones to attack Kakuzu, who still did not move. Before he even could tell, the yûreis had moved out of his body in some unexplained way, and they quickly moved towards Itskui, who tried to get away, but was unsuccessful. Kakuzu watched, as they literally ripped up Itsuki. After a few seconds, they moved back into his body. From one of them, he thought he could hear some sound, kind of like a heartbeat.

"So, now you don't need me anymore", Kakuzu said.

"If you believe so, you are mistaken", the Fûyûrei said. "We have only gotten one chakra core, one heart, we will need at least four. This single heart will barely allow us to live, and only if we stay together". Kakuzu didn't say anything. He now understood that the ghosts had taken Itsuki's hearth, something he found disgusting, and he wanted to get them away already.

He continued towards the town without talking to the ghosts. That night, he could not sleep at all, but was thinking about what had happened that day. After several hours, he heard the Kayûrei speak in a low voice. I think we may have made a mistake…", it said.

"What do you mean?", the Raiyûrei asked.

"With our new chakra source living in this shinobi's body, connected to this shinobi's own chakra system, he should potentially be able to control our chakra source, and even stopping it, if he is skilled enough. However, it should be OK, if he does not figure this out, said the Kayûrei.

"But what else could we have done?", asked the Doyûrei.

"That is our problem. There was no other way for us to escape that cave", said the Raiyûrei.

"I know. We simply have to accept our fate and live with this shinobi until he dies", said the Kayûrei.

"I heard that", said Kakuzu. He was surprised by this information, but did not know how he should use it. "And I don't have any use for you, and I can assure you that I am skilled in controlling chakra."

"How about making a deal with us?", said the Kayûrei.

"And what would that be?", said Kakuzu, who now listened interested.

"We will help you find this Ayakou if you let us live. We may even let you use our powers", the yûrei said.

"I agree", Kakuzu said. Now he didn't find these ghost so scary anymore, and though that they perhaps could be useful to him. "What do your powers do?"

"In addition to what you already have seen, we have to power to reform any chakra given to us into the quality of our original chakra", the Kayûrei said. "That means you will be able to control all the five elements, seeing as your own chakra element is water."

After a few days, Kakuzu arrived at the first town. He had decided to try to come along with the ghosts, and they had told him to hide his body, so that other people wouldn't be able to see them. He had also hidden his hitai-ate, as his country still was at war with Earth. Kakuzu was again decided on searching for Ayakou, and accepted whatever the yûreis would give him. At the town, he first stocked up his supplies. Then he got to the local inn to get a room for the nigh. But as he entered, a person spoke to him. "Are you Kakuzu from the Taki no Kuni?", he asked. "Do not worry, I find this war meaningless."

"Yes, I am", Kakuzu answered.

"I thought you would be. Not many persons fit your description. A woman was here some days ago, and she told me to give you a message", he said. "It's quite simple: You need to travel south-east, to where the rice grows"

"Thanks", Kakuzu said. He was sure this was a message from Ayakou, even though it was pretty simple. And there was quite obviously where he had to go next…

Notes:

Don't blame me alone for this being totally weird, since I had to do it in some way.

Yûrei – Japanese ghosts.

I'm sorry that it takes so much time to update, but for once I do have a good reason. I'll post next chapter within a week.

Chapter 5 – Where Have You Gone?

Thus Kakuzu began his journey to the Ta no Kuni, The Land of Rice Fields. The journey was difficult for him, because it was difficult for him to find get any food or drink, and the terrain was difficult to move in. After using several days to cross the mountain rage, he again got to the Taki no Kuni. He still had problems accepting the fact the yûreis had become a part of him, though they rarely talked to him, so it was not too difficult to forget that they were there. However, Kakuzu though that when he first had got to this, he could try to make it his advantage by using their powers to fight.

After going south for a few days, he turned east, as he knew that that was the way to the Ta no Kuni. After walking for a few days through the forests of the Taki no Kuni, avoiding roads and cities to not be recognized, Kakuzu was found by a small ninja patrol from Takigakure. The ninjas quickly identified him as a nukenin, and attacked.

Kakuzu prepared himself to battle, but before he could council with the ghosts, they had already left his body to attack. Kakuzu could barely see what was going on. The Takinins jumped forward to attack with kunais and taijutsu, but were never able to get past the ghosts. The Raiyûrei opened its mouth to meet them with a ray of lightening, but before the ninjas could evade it, the Kayûrei had got beside them, and shot a wall of fire from it's mouth, who imedientely killed the ninjas. Three of the yûreis now moved to the bodies to remove their hearts, and then they all moved back to Kakuzu's body.

"Now that we have been able to regain a little of our chakra, you can see a small fragment of our powers", the Kayûrei said. "Now surely you want to use them. As we agreed about, we will help you find this Ayakou."

"I'd rather used my own powers to fight", Kakuzu said. "But I will accept your offer."

"That is very wise of you," the Kayûrei said.

Now Kakuzu continued walking eastwards through the forests, still trying to not think about the ghosts, and also trying to figure out where Ayakou could be. Kakuzu knew very little about the Ta no Kuni, since it was a weak country without a shinobi village. He could not figure it out, but he thought that since she had known where he was in the Tsuchi no Kuni, she certainly would be able to find her. But what were her motives? He had not thought much about that, he had mostly been thinking about how he should find her.

After walking a few days, he got to the Kinzoku no Kuni, The Land of Metal, and after a week, he first entered the Ta no Kuni, The Land of Rice Fields. The journey through the Kinzoku no Kuni had been easy. The country didn't have any shinobi clans, and it also was a neutral country in the war, so he could freely travel there.

Shortly after entering the Ta no Kuni, Kakuzu was encountered by three persons. None of them wore hitai-ates, but he could still see that they were shinobis. All three were wearing a decorative red and grey kimono. One of them was tall and muscular, and he had short spiky black hair and small black eyes. The second shinobi was almost as tall, but very skinny compared to the first. He had long silver-grey hair and dark blue eyes, and in his belt, he was wearing several small circular boxes. The last shinobi was quite short. She had a long red hair, and blue eyes.

"We are shinobis loyal to this country", the shinobi with the silver grey hair said. "I am Renta of the Ta no Kuni, and this is Kanon and Yuina. What do you want in this country?"

"I'm just traveling through it. I'm not your enemy," Kakuzu said.

"Don't try to fool us! We can see that you are a shinobi of another nation," Renta said.

Kakuzu doubted that they would let him through, and he thought that he could defeat them anyway, so he decided to answer them. "I am….looking for someone," he said.

"And who would that be?", Renta asked, but was interrupted by Yuina whispering to him. "It's him!", she said.

"I agree," Kanon said, in a rough voice.

"All right, let's do it", Renta said.

Suddenly the three Rice Field ninjas split up. Kanon ran to the left, while Renta ran backwards, so that he got higher up and Yuina ran to the right. "Now I could need your help," Kakuzu said in a low voice.

"Accepted," he heard the Kayûrei said.

"Yurenami no jutsu" (Vibration wave), Kanon shouted, and created a huge amount of vibrations going towards Kakuzu.

"Now!", Kakuzu shouted, though he was barely able to hear it. His ears hurt him greatly because of Kanon's sound attack.

"We have already heard you," the Raiyûrei said.

From a distance up the nearby hill, Renta had now found several senbons from his boxes. "Mienai senbonarashi no jutsu" (Invisible needle storm), he said. Firstly he created a weak suiton attack to come towards Kakuzu in many small and harmless drops. Then he threw his needles, clearly with great a skill. But before the needles had reached the battleground, the yûreis had left Kakuzu's body, and the Doyûrei moved so that it stood between Kakuzu and the needles. When they it, they glanced of, as if the yûrei was made of stone.

From the right, he could hear Yuina shout her jutsu's name. "Beikoku kasui no jutsu" (Rice stream). The jutsu summoned a huge amount of rice flowing towards Kakuzu and the yûreis. Kakuzu and the ghosts jumped away, but before he could get far, Kakuzu was stopped by Kanon. Kakuzu tried to punch him, but Kanon blocked and attacked back. Kakuzu and Kanon continued to exchange blows. It was clearly that Kanon was at least as good as Kakuzu in taijutsu, and Kakuzu was slowly pushed back.

Meanwhile, Renta continued to launch needle attack against them, but they were successfully avoided by wind blows created by the Fûyûrei. Yuina still summoned more rice, and directed it towards the battle, trying to use it to crush Kakuzu, but the Doyûrei had moved to protect Kakuzu, and successfully hold of most of the rice. The Kayûrei stood still for some seconds, but then moved away from the battle, so that it came to the left side of Renta, who still tried his needle attacks, who now were getting harder to avoid. Kakuzu had already been hit twice.

Renta reacted fast, before the Kayûrei had build up its chakra for its attack. He threw tens of senbons towards the Kayûrei, which was totally ineffective, as it didn't his its heart. Renta then moved back and launched another failed needle attack, but before he could launch a third attack, the Kayûrei had launched a huge fireball towards Renta, which killed him within a few seconds.

Kakuzu still fought against Kanon, who still had the upped hand and slowly pushed Kakuzu backwards. Now the Fûyûrei didn't need to defend Kakuzu against needles, and it prepared for a fûton attack against Yuina. Yuina had understood that the battle didn't go in the right direction, and understood that her Beikoku kasui was not enough to reach Kakuzu, and that she had very little time. She quickly did some handseals, and gathered her rice in the air in front of her. Yuina made the rice take the form of a dragon, and was now going to use all her remaining strength to try to break the Doyûrei's defense. Then she launched the attack. The combined strength of the Doyûrei and the Fûyûrei managed to hold most of it of, but Kakuzu and Kanon almost become covered in rice.

Kakuzu and Kanon quickly jumped out of the rice to continue their battle. Now Yuina ran towards the forest, and the Kayûrei and the Raiyûrei followed her. Even though he now was left alone, Kanon still kept himself focused on the battle, but was now losing the upper hand. Shortly after, he was hit in the head by a killing blow from Kakuzu.

From the forest, Kakuzu could hear a flash of lightning, symbolizing that Yuina had been killed. Without a word, all the ghosts now returned to Kakuzu's body.

Kakuzu had only got few scratches from the battle, a few needles had hit him, and he had been hit by a couple of Kanon's punches. He also concluded that the yûreis couldn't have been wounded in the battle. But still, he couldn't manage to move on, but stood silent for a while. Suddenly, he could see the bird that had delivered him the first clue from Ayakou. It landed on his shoulder, and he could see that it was carrying a small note on its leg. He removed it, and the bird flew away again. With Ayakou's writing, there was written a short message:

Fuyuyama shrine

- Ayakou

At least this message was clear. But he could not help wondering about what Ayakou's role in this was. How was she involved? The ninjas that had attacked him, had certainly known about him. After thinking about this for some time, with the yûreis still being completely silent, he found his map, and found the way the Fuyuyama. It was not very far away, and he became excited about what he would meet there.

Kakuzu walked towards the shrine for several hours. It was beginning to get dark when he came to a small road leading up a mountain. After walking on the road for about half an hour, he could see the small shrine, and some meters in front of him a signpost confirmed that this was the shrine. As he got closer to it, he could see that someone opened the front door and went out. She slowly turned towards him, so that he could see her. There was no doubt, this was indeed Itoguchi no Ayakou…

Chapter 6 – The Sorrowful Reunion

Now he could see her clearly, Itoguchi no Ayakou, three years younger than him, standing there with her long shiny black hair and her dark mysterious eyes, as beautiful as always. Itoguchi Ayakou was quite short, way below Kakuzu. She was wearing a very decorative red kimono with a blue belt, which suited her nicely. Ayakou could often appear as a very cold and mysterious person, but she was always very kind and helpful to people he needed her help. Even though she had only been in Takigakure for less than a year, Ayakou was recognized as one of the countries finest shinobis, though Kakuzu did not know her strength, since he had never fought against her. And fighting was not Ayakou's only skill, she was also highly intelligent, and had always managed to find a solution to the problems that she had met on she her missions.

"Kakuzu?", she asked in a low voice.

"Ayakou-chan?", he answered.

"Why are you here?", she asked, in a higher voice. Kakuzu was unable to think clearly, and thus answered her.

"I came to find you", he said.

"That was not a very wise thing to do", she said, lowering her voice.

"But I had to find you!", Kakuzu said. "You lead me here."

"I understand", Ayakou said. "And yes, I did lead you here, all according to our plan." Kakuzu became excited by hearing these words.

"What plan?", he asked.

"Surely you would not know of it," she said. "And I have to admit, it is a pity."

"What is this plan?", Kakuzu asked again.

"You have never asked me about why my family came to your village," she said. "As the current situation is, I can now tell you why."

"Your family came to Takigakure because you were a shinobi family and did not want to get attacked," Kakuzu said. "You came there for protection."

"No, that's a lie," Ayakou said. "But listen now, and I will tell you." Kakuzu could not see how this was relevant in the current situation, but he did not tell Ayakou.

"As you know, my family moved to Takigakure about ten months ago", she begun, while Kakuzu listened interested. "After a little time, we had been fully accepted as shinobis of your village, and carried out many missions. But our real intentions were not to help your village survive the war." Kakuzu was now concentrating on getting the full story, and did not interrupt Ayakou.

"As you may remember, my family, the Itoguchi, were originally from this country, The Land of Rice Fields. We lived far away from the other shinobi clans of the country, near the border to the Taki no Kuni. The place where we stand now, is the headquarter of our clan, local the shrine of Shinkami. But my clan's loyalty were still to the Ta no Kuni, who, as you probably know, consider you country, the Taki no Kuni, to be the greatest threat to their survival. My family was ordered by the government and the daimyô to weaken your country. So we decided to infiltrate your village, by becoming your shinobis, and as long as you only fight the Stone, your war does not hurt us. My mission was to get close to you, probably your country's finest shinobi, so that I could finish you of later. It was much easier than expected for us to trick you to leave your village, and at the same time weaken your country by killing their hunter-nins. It was also easy to lead you here, even though we had some causalities, the shinobis we set up to kill you were obviously not enough. That means I will have to finish you of myself."

Kakuzu, who had listened interested to Ayakou's story, could not believe his own ears, as he was very surprised by her last words. "That is right, Kakuzu, I will now have to kill you, though I do admit it is a pity to have to kill you. Now come at me!", she said to him.

Neither Ayakou or Kakuzu moved for several seconds, and neither of said anything. Though it was not Ayakou's intention to wait for Kakuzu. Suddenly, she ran towards him, going to attack him with taijutsu. Kakuzu reacted quickly, and jumped backwards, but before he could counterattack, Ayakou attacked again, and almost landed a kick in Kakuzu's face. Ayakou was, after all, considered one of Taki's best taijutsu users, among her other skills. Kakuzu was again forced to move back towards the road, but as Ayakou's second attack missed, he got a chance to attack, and punched against her stomach. Ayakou was now forced to move aside, and Kakuzu could attack again.

"We are on our way, so do not worry," he heard the Kayûrei say from his body. Kakuzu was distracted, he had not thought of getting help from the ghosts, and was hit by Ayakou in his belly. Kakuzu wanted to defeat Ayakou himself, but he did not tell them to go back, and remained silent. Kakuzu now blocked an attack from Ayakou, while the ghosts left his body. It was clear that Ayakou was surprised by seeing them, and she quickly moved away from the fight, and back to the entrance of the shrine.

Kakuzu did not use the chance to attack, but was standing there, thinking. The yûreis on the other hand, was already building up their chakra for long range attacks. But it seemed clear that Ayakou had a backup plan, even though she could never have imagined the yûreis. She was now standing on the small staircase leading to the shrine entrance, and had begun to do an advanced handseal combination in a rapid speed. After only a few seconds, she was done.

"Genjutsu – Nazonoyona – Sekai" (Illusionary technique – Mysterious world), she said in her low voice, before Kakuzu or any of the yûreis had any chance to attack her. All of them were immediately caught in her genjutsu. Kakuzu had entirely forgotten that Ayakou's second skill, and her most famous one, was illusionary techniques, genjutsu. The world around them gradually changed. After about a minute, he was standing in the middle of the daimyô's room in a highly decorative castle. From the low platform in the end of the room, he could see a woman who resembled Ayakou standing there in a white dress, however, he could not see any of the ghosts. "Now how do you like my world, Kakuzu? Do not try to escape, it will not be possible for you," the woman said with Ayakou's voice.

After thinking for a few seconds, Kakuzu begun to control his chakra, so that he could stop the chakra flow, it was not the area he was best at, but as a high-jônin-leveled ninja, he could of course break a genjutsu. He concluded that it must have affected him through his eyes, and begun to channel his chakra to break it, but he was distracted by Ayakou. "Do not try to break my jutsu, as I say you cannot escape," she said. "Nazonoyona – Tsurugi" (Mysterious sword). From nowhere, about ten straight, double edged swords appeared around Kakuzu, and they immediately attacked him. Even the world most skilled shinobi would have been forced to break his concentration by the impact.

The pain was intense, even though Kakuzu was trained to withstand it, as he knew it only was an illusion. Ayakou stood silent, watching him. After several seconds, he managed to regain so much concentration that he could pull out the swords, one by one. Getting rid of the swords did not ease his pain much. Kakuzu ran right, for no real reason, and tried to concentrate his chakra again. But as he stopped running, Ayakou created another bunch of swords, and he ran backwards to avoid them. "Why are you running, Kakuzu? You know you can't escape me,", she said. He did not answer her. After Ayakou had lifted the swords again to attack Kakuzu, and he had avoided her attacks several times, she stopped the swords and begun to do handseals again. After a very few seconds, she was done.

"Nazonoyona – Ke" (Mysterious hair), she said, and long hairs begun appearing in different places in the room, moving against Kakuzu. Even though he still felt a lot pain, he managed to avoid the hair for several seconds, but as he was moving, he could not concentrate long enough to stop his chakra flow. Finally, he became too tired, and was caught by the hair, which appeared to be as strong as wire.

"Come on, concentrate!", he though, again trying to stop his chakra flow, even though the hair him unable to move. Ayakou was again doing a short handseal sequence, and after a few seconds she was done. "Now you cannot escape! Nazonoyona – Tsurugi" (Mysterious sword). She manipulated all the swords against him at a great speed, while Kakuzu was concentrating as hard as he could to stop his charka system.

It appeared that Ayakou had given Kakuzu too much time. The swords pierced him again, but he had already stopped his chakra and broken the genjutsu. Within a few seconds, he was again standing in front of the small shrine, with Ayakou standing perhaps ten meters in front of him. He quickly ran to the yûreis and transferred chakra to them, so that they could break free from the genjutsu. In front of him, Ayakou opened her eyes again, and stared at him with a cold stare. "So you was too strong for my genjutsu? Or I gave you too much time? Well it doesn't matter, you're still as good as dead," she said.

"Well, I am not yet," he said, his first words since the battle had started.

"No, but you will be," she said in a cold voice. He did not answer her. The ghosts stayed completely silent, though they prepared again to battle.

Ayakou attacked him again with taijutsu, and she quickly got the upper hand and forced him backwards. Kakuzu was completely unable to attack, and took several hits. But now the ghosts were finally ready. The Fûyûrei launched a wind attack that forced Ayakou backwards and away from Kakuzu, who found a kunai and was getting ready to attack her when he got a chance. After avoiding a raiton attack, Ayakou was burned by the Kayûrei's fire, and Kakuzu used the chance. Using the kunai, he pierced her stomach, leaving a huge wound.

Ayakou fell towards the ground, but was caught by Kakuzu's arms. The yûreis seemed to understand, and did not attack. "So I could not beat you all, after all…", she said.

"No…", was the only thing he managed to say.

"Well, but it doesn't matter, does it," she managed to said, even though she was in pain.

"What do you mean," Kakuzu asked her.

"You have got nothing left. You cannot return to Taki. You have nowhere to go. Wherever you appear, you will be hunted down. Your village was weakened, and my country will survive. So I win, Kakuzu. I have completed my mission." Those were her final words. Slowly Kakuzu put her to the ground.

Kakuzu did not leave the area, but was again left thinking. The yûreis remained silent, and returned to his body. Ayakou was right, what should he do now? What was his reason to live? She was right, he could not return to the village, even though he once had sworn to Takimaru that he would protect it his entire life. What was there left to live for? Should he commit suicide? Was there an answer…?

Kakuzu was not able to find an answer to that question that day. He begun wandering around the world, trying to avoid the hunter-nins. Since they were still unable to kill him, he was given an S-ranking in the Bingo Book when his power became known to his village. After hiding for several months, he found his answer: money, since "even in hell, money makes a difference". Now his wanderings had a purpose, getting money.

The Hidden Waterfall village survived the war against Sand and Stone. But many years later, the village was again threatened by a much stronger enemy. This time Suimaru saved the village by using the village's most secret weapon, the Hero Water, and sacrificed himself to save his village.

In the year of 705, about half a year after Kakuzu had started wandering, he met someone he'd never expected to see: Konoha Takeo, Shodai Hokage of Konohagakure. During the time he had been wandering, he had not only looked for money, but had also developed his new powers, and could now use them on a much higher level. As he was a high-ranked criminal, Shodai tried to kill him. The fight went on for a long time, but in the end, Kakuzu was unable to beat Shodai. However, he managed to escape, and was not found again by the Konohanins, so Kakuzu could continue his search for money.

Eventually, Kakuzu found out that now that the yûreis had become a part of him, merging their chakra systems to his, he could take a new chakra system from one of the yûreis if his own became damaged, and thus one could say that he almost attained immortality. He first found out about this when fighting a group of hunter nins from Suna, and one of them managed to destroy his heart. The ghosts transferred one of their chakra systems to him, so that they could go on living. However, living like that, he had to find new chakra systems many times, as the old ones got old or destroyed, so that he had to kill many shinobis.

Using the yûreis' powers, Kakuzu could now use all different chakra elements with full effect. After many years of training, he became one of the world's strongest shinobis, stronger than a Kage. But he mainly used his power to attain more money, who still was his reason to continue to live. His personality gradually changed, he became more and more greedy and hot tempered.

After wandering for more than 40 years, he joined a criminal organization of Kage-leveled shinobis created by some former Amenins in the year of 751. This organization was called the Akatsuki. Kakuzu's work for the organization was mainly to get money for it, but after some years, he was assigned another mission, to hunt down a couple of jinchûrikis, one of them in the Kumo no Kuni. However, he was never able to finish the mission.

After working alone in Akatsuki for several years, he was assigned a partner. But as his early partners did not accept his ways, he ended up killing them all. Finally, he was assigned a fellow "immortal," Hidan of the Jashin cult, as his partner. For several years he worked with Hidan, it was not true that Kakuzu liked him better than any of his previous partners, he rather liked him less, but he was simply unable to kill him. His fighting style also worked perfectly together with Hidan's.

In the year of 767, while Kakuzu and Hidan was searching for a jinchûriki in the Hi no Kuni, he was encountered by a team of Konoha shinobis, but was unable to finish the fight. However, as he came back to finish, he was killed along Hidan by the united effort of Uzumaki Naruto, Akimichi Chouji, Tenzou, his partner, Hidan and Hatake Kakashi, who was the one to finish him of.

The End