Chapter Thirty-Seven: Divided We Fail
The large red scythe came down with an enormous smash. Despite how Hidan claimed he was a slow attacker, he sure seemed pretty fast to the Rokubi-jinchuuriki. He had just barely gotten Shuuko out of harms way, in fact, he had just barely gotten himself out of the way. Panting, black eyes scanned over Hidan's weapon of choice. The silver-haired man was leaning casually against the hilt. He was acting as if swinging that thing was easy!
Landing like a cat on his feet, Ritsuki threw Shuuko on the ground beside him. And the green-haired girl couldn't help but feel like a simple sack of rice-- or better yet, a rag doll. "Focus." Ritsuki lectured her, his tone deadpan. "H-He took me by surprise... that's all." Shuuko stammered defensively. In all honesty, she didn't even sense Hidan's chakra, and that was bad, even for a genin. Ignoring her excuse, Ritsuki whipped out a kunai and attacked the Jashinist head-on.
Again, Hidan lifted his scythe up using no effort whatsoever. He laid the weapon on his shoulder, for he held it like a baseball bat getting ready to swing. Once Ritsuki got within three mere inches of the man, he swung hard, completely knocking the surprised shinobi off his feet. Midway to the ground (which was not that far underneath him, I might add), Ritsuki made a strange U-turn, landing roughly in the dirt. That caused Hidan to roll uncontrollably with laughter, taking both Shuuko and Ritsuki by surprise.
Hidan even had the audacity to begin to point and laugh. Extending his index finger, he jabbed at Ritsuki, practically choking on his own breath. "W-What's so funny?!" The celadon-haired girl hadn't intended on stammering, but she couldn't help but feel... weak and pathetic against the man that had killed Yugito. "Y-You can.... barely... stand!" Hidan gasped between immense breaths of laughter. "And what is so funny about that?!" Shuuko retorted. In a second, she wished she had kept her mouth shut. Rose-colored eyes fell on her, and Hidan tweaked an eyebrow. "You seem to have more chakra than your friend here, why don't you fight me instead?"
Shuuko hesitated at first, then jumped at the idea. Her hands hovered over the red pack on her back, and she whipped it off and slammed it against the ground. With a strange squeal, Hidan charged straight for the girl, the blades of the scythe gave one quick shine, and the two made impact.
The red-haired jonin was anything but happy about leaping from tree to tree through the dark forest. Not only was it hard to see, but despite the impromptu burst of chakra, courtesy of his soldier pill, he was tired. The sad thing was, he wasn't exactly sure it was due to the fact that he had been running on empty for more than twenty-four hours, or it was just because he was old. He was older than fifty.
Mental sighing and leaving that fact behind, Roushi took an abrupt U-turn, using one of trees using it as a trampoline. Chakra seared off of it as he continued leaping from tree to tree.
He had only gotten to notice the chakra for about two seconds before a giant dropped in front of him, shaking the tree violently. In the blink of an eye, Roushi had withdrawn a kunai, rearing backwards and preparing for Kakuzu's assault. When Kakuzu didn't move, Roushi took the first move. He lunged at the masked-nin, kunai in a stabbing notion. Kakuzu shot his detachable arm straight for the marron-haired man's neck, the tendrils oscillating as if they were alive.
When the limb attached to the shinobi's neck, it immediately popped into smoke--nothing short of what the Akatsuki-nin had expected. From above, heat began accumulating atop the scruff of the taller ninja's neck. Looking up, Kakuzu saw his opponent looming, hand seals being created rapidly.
From the man's mouth, there came a large red fireball (it was more like a lavaball). Surprisingly Kakuzu stood completely still. At the last minute his Suiton mask jumped into the scene. Heaving, the weapon blasted the element ball into harmless smoke. Roushi, --who was still in the air--, landing in a strange side-ways kick to Kakuzu's side. Kakuzu dodged using both arms as if they were a shield. From the impact of the kick, the two rev back a bit, and almost completely fall from the tree.
A masked-nin and his tanned team member jumped through the trees, and finally, Hidan and Kakuzu's chakra finally registered in their brains. Gouta took his time to stop and tell Killer Bee this as well: "Kakuzu and Hidan have already begun attacking."
Killer Bee sighed and slapped his forehead. "Roushi's an idiot." Gouta gave him a look to explain his position. "Roushi split us up, again. If we all stayed together, we would have a greater advantage against Akatsuki." Gouta nodded a bit, still a little lost.
"Dumbing it down even further," Killer Bee responded, grousing, "Divided, we fail, but together, we would have the advantage of five against two." Gouta blinked regarding that for a while. "I guess so." The masked shinobi nodded and the two continued.
Questions:
Elemental Dragon Swordman: Why does it feel as if the Jinchuuriki are gonna get captured in the future chapters?
Answer: Ha ha ha, you read me like a book! Not completely though. Rikuto didn't exactly get captured. . . But that's pretty much what's going to happen. (But not completely)
Elemental Dragon Swordman: Does Shuuko like Ritsuki or something like that?
Answer: Again, correct. Too bad Ritsuki doesn't feel the same way. :P And sadly, they never get together. Oh well...