There was a heavy silence in the air. Mori was frozen in place up in his tree, unable to move or to look away from Kakuzu's lumbering shape. In real life the man looked far more imposing than any illustration could ever hope to capture. Everything from his height to his stance exuded confidence and power.
"There's no use in hiding," Kakuzu said. "Drawing this out will only make me lose my patience."
His words were yet again met by silence. Haruka wasn't one to foolishly rush in to meet anyone's demands. No, she wouldn't go for a straightforward fight unless there was no other option.
They needed to run. Mori didn't remember all the details of Kakuzu's abilities, but he recalled enough to know they didn't have a chance against him.
Mori forced his body into action. He clamped down on his chakra and moved quietly through the trees. If they could avoid detection, maybe they could make it. He hoped that Haruka could see him and signed for her to run as well. If he could, he'd warn her about everything he knew about the man. But if he opened his mouth, he'd give away his position.
He didn't get very far before he felt the earth quake, shaking the very foundation of the forest. Kakuzu was pushing the earth upwards, uprooting every tree in a circle around their camp. They fell like dominos, smashing into each other on their way down. The noise was unlike anything he'd ever heard before. It was as if the forest was screaming in uproar as its trees were torn from the earth that had once supported them. Dust and debris rose into great clouds.
It was like a storm without wind.
Mori threw himself away just in time to avoid being hit by a falling tree and while he tumbled through the air, he rushed through the hand seals to swap places with a rock further away from the chaos.
There was no time to breathe. No time to form a plan. Mori hid behind a bush and looked at the massacred forest around him. Trees were still falling, the chaos spreading outwards in a chain reaction. He saw Haruka rise from the ground where she'd landed, a kunai grasped in her hand. He could only see her back, but she didn't appear to be injured. She was facing Kakuzu, who stood calmly in the eye of the carnage. They were too close to each other for her to make a clean escape. Even at a distance, Mori could feel the killing intent oozing from the masked man, stifling the air as the dust began to settle around them.
Each beat of his frantic heart was like a hammer forcing a nail deep into his body. Why wasn't she running? They were supposed to be running.
"You said I was hard to find," Haruka's voice rang out. "How did you?"
"Tch. I have no reason to tell you that, kunoichi."
"Fair enough. But tell me this, at least. Who's paying for my bounty?"
"Iwagakure," Kakuzu stated, sounding bored of their conversation.
"The last time I saw their bingo book, I wasn't in it. How did a lowly bounty hunter like you even know to look for little old me?"
"I was hired directly."
"They must be at their wits end if they hired a missing-nin to go after me."
"I grow tired of your stalling. Words won't help you against me." Kakuzu said.
Black threads emerged from his right wrist, coiling together to form thick tendrils. They extended out from his body, detaching his hand from his body. Mori looked on in horror as the tendrils shot through the air toward Haruka, lashing out at her like a whip before the hand made a grab for her. She dodged, then shunshined away into the decimated forest. Kakuzu was just as quick to follow.
They were moving so fast that Mori's eyes couldn't follow their fight, but he could hear every crash and thud as they clashed among the fallen trees.
They were getting further and further away from him. Almost as if Haruka was leading them that way on purpose. To give him time to get away. But no, it couldn't be. It was the two of them against the world. They were supposed to run together.
Mori ran. But not in the direction he was supposed to.
He wasn't going to let her sacrifice herself for him. Maybe she intended to get away once she'd given Mori a head start, but the odds were against her. She didn't know what she was up against.
He had almost caught up with them when an explosion erupted, its shockwaves throwing him backwards through the air. Mori rolled with the violent motion and landed crouched on the ground. He recovered quickly and found a new vantage point in one of the few trees that still stood. Once the smoke cleared, he saw Kakuzu standing in the middle of a crater. The bounty hunter shrugged off his scorched cloak and cast it aside. Smoke was rising from his exposed arms, but his skin remained unmarred.
A quick array of senbon rained down on him from behind. Kakuzu twisted around to bat the needles away with his forearms as if they were nothing but a nuisance.
Once again, the seams in his skin unstitched themselves, revealing the mass of tendrils that lived underneath. They crept out from the space between his arms and his wrists like tentacles. As if his skin was only a suit to wear and could be cast aside at any moment, just like his cloak. In one fluid motion, Kakuzu advanced on Haruka's last position, his tendrils lashing out with enough force to whip the trees aside.
But Haruka was no longer there.
Kakuzu stood as if dumbstruck for a few seconds before shouting "Kai!" and rushing forward again. Mori followed him at a distance. He didn't know how to help without disrupting Haruka's focus from the battle. None of his techniques would put a dent in Kakuzu. All he could do was to stay hidden and look for a window of opportunity. For the moment where he could make a difference in the fight.
There was a shout as Kakuzu found Haruka again and got a hit in before she managed to evade his onslaught of blows. He was forcing a close-quarters fight, slowly driving her out from her cover and out into the open. When he couldn't reach her, his tendrils extended outwards to outright destroy everything she might be hiding behind. She switched places with debris and body flickered out of range only for Kakuzu to catch up and ensnare her again. Only her agility and speed were keeping her alive. But she wouldn't be able to keep it up forever. After that huge explosion, Mori suspected her chakra was waning. Soon, she'd be depleted and weak.
Mori raised his senbon, but they were moving too quickly for him to take proper aim without running the risk of hitting Haruka.
It wasn't long before Kakuzu had driven her back toward the crater. Their fight was no longer a game of cat and mouse, but an outright battle. They exchanged blows in a frenzy unlike anything Mori had witnessed before. Haruka's Sharingan eyes shone blood red. She evaded most of Kakuzu's attacks, but none of her own did any damage when they connected. His skin hardened when struck with kunai no matter how many vital points she hit. Hers was already covered in deep gashes from where the threads had struck her.
She couldn't disengage from the battle now that Kakuzu had her trapped within reach of the monstrous tendrils. More of them were emerging from his body, bursting out from beneath seams in his legs and his torso.
Haruka was flagging. When she dodged a kick, the threads were waiting for her. Mori gasped in horror as they constricted around her body and raised her into the air. She struggled against their hold, kicking and screaming as they edged upwards toward her throat.
Mori let his chakra surge free again. He ran his trembling hands through a number of seals and cast a genjutsu that caused nausea, confusion and body tremors. It was the only thing he could think to do.
Kakuzu stumbled forward. For a moment, his grip around Haruka loosened and she broke free. She didn't stop to breathe once she hit the ground. Instead, she lunged forward and buried her kunai to the hilt inside his chest.
Mori released a shallow breath that he hadn't known he was holding. But he knew the fight was far from over.
"That won't kill him! Run!" he shouted.
But she didn't seem to hear him. Haruka screamed out in rage and ripped out her weapon from where it was lodged in his chest to stab Kakuzu again. But before it connected, a hand shot out from beneath the ground and caught her wrist. Kakuzu twisted his grip around her. With a gasp of pain, she lost her hold around the kunai as the bones snapped under the pressure. It clattered uselessly to the ground.
"Kai," Kakuzu grunted through gritted teeth.
The tendrils connected to his detached hand reached back toward the ones emerging from his arm and they coiled around each other like snakes until they were one long mass of threads again. Kakuzu pulled his limb back to his body, dragging Haruka closer until the hand was reattached and they were face to face.
"It takes more than that to kill me," he said.
Haruka spat in his face.
Kakuzu released his grip around her broken wrist and grabbed her by the throat. He held her up with one hand and squeezed. Haruka's legs kicked out as she struggled for breath.
Mori cast another genjutsu, but before it had the chance to take hold, Kakuzu shook it off with another "Kai."
The battle was lost.
There was a crisp clarity to his vision as Mori rushed forward. As if his eyes wanted to capture as much as they could of the world, in case they'd never get to see it again after this. He ran his hands through the horse and tiger seals and grasped desperately for any fire that resided within him.
The great fireball burst from his mouth in a blaze of glory.
Before he knew if it had struck its target, there was a lash of pain across the side of his face and Mori fell to the ground. His skin split where the thread had struck. He crawled forward, not caring as blood rushed down his face and blurred his vision.
He needed to get to Haruka.
"So, the child lives," Kakuzu said. "That's a 10 million bonus."
"Don't you dare touch him!" Haruka snarled.
Mori's legs trembled as he got to his feet. Haruka's voice was proof that she still lived. He needed to get to her and give her enough time to run before it was too late. Mori wiped the blood from his eyes, then almost fell to the ground again when a cutting, throbbing pain bloomed in his side. But his distraction had worked and Haruka had broken free again. She was once again locked into combat, exchanging blows with Kakuzu with renewed fervor, despite her injuries. The mask on his face was torn on one side, revealing one half of his Glasgow smile.
"Run, Mori! This is my fight. Run and stay alive!" Haruka shouted.
"I can't leave you!" he cried.
"Please! I'm your mother, I can't let you die for me! Run and don't you dare stop running!"
She threw herself sideways to avoid Kakuzu's tendrils lashing out at her. Mori stood dazed, his hand grasping at his side to stop the flow of blood. Then, for a moment his eyes locked with Haruka's and time seemed to freeze.
There was a desperate fear in them he'd never seen before, not even when she spoke of Orochimaru through clipped words. Not even when she woke up gasping from nightmares of a place she still couldn't speak of without pain.
"Run!" she shouted.
Mori ran.
…
Haruka grasped for the last of her chakra and threw everything she had into one final burst of fire. The resulting explosion shook the ground, sending debris flying. But as before, the monstrous man stepped out through the clouds of dust and smoke unharmed. He ripped off the remains of his torn mask and stared at her with eyes that reeked of anger. The rest of his scarred face was expressionless. He looked all the more alien for it.
She steadied herself and prepared to fight. If his only motivation was money, he'd stay on the target that paid the most. She only had to last long enough for Mori to get away. The explosion had given him the opportunity to escape the reach of the damned threads. Every minute she could keep going increased his chances of outrunning the bounty hunter.
Mori was a smart kid. He'd make it on his own. If only he hadn't been foolish enough to try to save her, he'd already be safe. She'd be dead, but that was happening regardless now. The abomination before her was not someone she could defeat.
"I underestimated you," the man spoke. "I thought you unworthy of the price on your head. But you took one of my hearts. I'll have to take another now. Maybe Iwagakure will let me have yours once they're done with your corpse."
"You'll have to catch me first," Haruka said.
"Oh, I will. And that brat of yours won't make it far either."
The man smiled. The fabric of his scorched shirt ripped apart, as something started bulging its way out of his back. He shrugged the torn remains of his shirt off and threw it aside. Three monstrous shapes that looked too large to have ever fit within his body tore their way out of his skin and stepped out to face her. Their bodies were made up of threads, coiling densely around each other. Stitched to their faces were painted masks.
The man put his hands together to rapidly form a series of seals. The mouths of one of the monsters opened and spat out flames. Haruka threw herself aside just in time to only be singed by the blast.
The chase was on again. Only this time, she had four opponents instead of one.
Haruka forced her broken wrist to work and quickly made the seals to switch places with a decimated tree at the edge of the crater.
When he'd spoken of his hearts, was this what he'd meant?
She'd destroyed one, even if it had been just a fluke. If she destroyed all of them, maybe the man would fall. But Haruka knew that she didn't have the strength to last that long. Only sheer determination was keeping her upright. Soon, she'd be tapping into the chakra that kept her vital organs running.
How far could the monsters stray from their hosts? She'd thought she'd given Mori a way out, but if only one of the monsters left to search for him, he'd end up dead too. The only way to give him a chance to survive was to keep all of them occupied at once.
Haruka steeled herself and re-entered the fray. Her original plan was still the only valid one. She had to make herself a target to cover Mori's escape. Nothing else mattered.
Before she stepped out into the open, she cast a genjutsu. So far, it was the only tool she had at her disposal that seemed to faze the man, if only for a few seconds. But at this point, buying more time was all she could do.
She couldn't change the outcome of the battle, but she could prolong it.
The second she was within his sight again, two of the man's monsters merged together into one demonic beast and released a barrage of fire and wind, sweeping around the edges of the crater in a circle to target all of the clones that the man thought were there.
Haruka had to dodge too, but it was easier to evade his attacks while he was occupied with several illusory targets, unable to determine which one was real. The monsters were just as affected, suggesting that they couldn't act independently from their host. Not separate entities then, but parts of his monstrous whole. She layered another genjutsu on top of the first one to slant his reality so that everything appeared to be slightly further to the left than it actually was, throwing off his aim.
She'd used it before during the fight, but the effect was subtle enough that hopefully he wouldn't notice it right away.
While evading both his tendrils and more searing bursts of wind and flame, Haruka slowly edged closer to the third and final monster that had yet to reveal its nature. Without the impervious skin of its host to deflect her blows, there was a chance it could be harmed. Before making her attempt, Haruka reinforced her first genjutsu to rally more clones into action, as many of them would have already burst into smoke when Kakuzu thought he'd hit them.
As she made to stab it, the monster released a tidal wave through its beaked mask. The water surged toward her and Haruka leaped above it, then had to switch places with a piece of debris behind it as the man's tendrils whipped through the air to strike her. Once she landed behind the monster, she buried her kunai in its back before it could intercept her.
But the beast remained standing. One strike wasn't enough to get rid of it. What it did reveal was a pulsing knot of threads deep inside its body, as she pulled her kunai loose from its body. The threads around it slithered together to cover up the wound before the creature snapped around to lunge at her.
Haruka leaped away, but her actions had singled her out from her illusions and the man was now aiming all of his power at her. He didn't give her a moment's reprieve to take advantage of the vulnerability she'd exposed, but kept her on the run, his tendrils forcing her to dodge and flip through the air to avoid being pierced or struck.
While in constant motion there was no time for her to think. To perform any jutsu she could scrape up the chakra for. The energy was draining from her body, faster and faster with each breath she took. The tomoe of the Sharingan still spun in her eyes, but she could barely keep them open any longer.
She had bought all the time she could.
But that didn't mean Haruka was going to let the man win. She wasn't going to give him a body to turn in for his bounty. Iwagakure wasn't going to receive a single cell of her body to use against her country. Through gritted teeth, she forced her breaking body to gather the final sparks of energy that were keeping it alive, as fuel for one last jutsu.
This time, she would be the one standing in the epicenter of an explosion.
Haruka formed the seals and closed her eyes. She said goodbye to her son, though he wasn't there to hear any words she wished to say to him. But he would live. Above all things, she'd taught him to be a survivor. She wished she could stick around to see him come out of his shell and thrive, but she was grateful to have had seven years with him. It was seven years that she'd never expected to have, seven years of living on borrowed time. Every second of it had been worth it. Before Mori, she'd never been truly loved by anyone. The strange family they had built together had given her something worth living for. Now that she was dying to protect it, it felt all the more valuable.
Haruka took one last shaky breath. It was time. She let go and released everything she had into her final act of rebellion.
But she didn't go out in a blaze of glory.
Before she could envelop herself in flame, her arms were caught and torn aside by slithering tendrils. They wrapped around her limbs and forced them close to her sides. A scream of rage escaped her throat, before a mass of threads filled it, gagging her. She choked around them and tried to spit them out, to no avail. Haruka could feel the energy she'd gathered disperse, seeping back into her damaged body. She called upon it again, but there was nothing left to respond to any signals she sent. The tendrils cocooned around her entire body and reeled her in to their source.
She looked helplessly into the red sclera of the abomination's eyes as he wrapped another thread around her neck. The scars at each side of his mouth tightened as he gave a triumphant smile and constricted the threads around her throat, choking her both from within and without. It was the last thing she saw before her vision went black.
