I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
White Zetsu's voice.
Black Zetsu's voice.
Taken
Ryuu scanned the trees as Fu flew. He knew what he had seen. He wouldn't say it in front of the others, including Fu, but he knew. He had seen a face sticking out of the tree. A face with half of it white and the other black. But then he had blinked and it was gone. And there had been no chakra at all. The creature's words from before returned to him. He had thanked him, and yet he hadn't done anything. He had essentially thanked him for nothing. But that didn't make sense. What had he done? And why hadn't Ryuu seen him again since?
Suddenly, a massive dragon made of blue flames shot out of the trees at them, Fu flipping out of the way, allowing Ryuu to blast it with a Water Style jutsu, extinguishing it before they both flew to the ground, knowing exactly who they'd find. Sure enough, Mhao was waiting for them. As they landed, Ryuu drew his tanto, Mhao grinning.
"You'll need more than your usual tricks for this," Mhao grinned as the ground beside him began to rise, forming into a figure that Ryuu instantly recognized.
"Fu, leave, now," Ryuu growled, stepping in front of her.
"What?" Fu blinked. "Why?"
"You're not allowed to be a part of this," Ryuu said as the same creature from the Valley of the End finished forming, still connected to the ground at the ankles.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Fu demanded.
"That creature is an Akatsuki member!" Ryuu snarled, Fu freezing. "We can't beat him. Go home right now and get as many Jonin as you can. Tell Tsunade that the Akatsuki has surfaced, and that I'm fighting one of their members. One who wields Wood Style Ninjutsu."
Fu nodded, turning to leave.
"Fu," Ryuu said. "I love you."
Tears began to run down Fu's cheeks as she formed her wings. "I love you too." She released her gravity seals entirely and exploded off of the ground, streaking away from them.
Ryuu watched the creature as it made no move to follow her. "Hey you, freak-"
"Zetsu," the creature's deeper, gruffer voice said.
"Zetsu," Ryuu said. "Why'd you let her go?"
"We're not ready to begin gathering Jinchuriki," Zetsu's higher voice said. "We're still years away from being ready. By the way, most people differentiate between me and him by saying White Zetsu or Black Zetsu."
"You mean you're two different people?" Ryuu asked.
"That's right," Zetsu said. "But that's not important right now. Right now, you should be focusing on trying to survive for the three hours it'll take your reinforcements to arrive."
"I'll be just fine," Ryuu said, undoing his own gravity seals.
Mhao shot toward him, slashing, and Ryuu flipped over him, smashing his feet down on top of Mhao, blasting him into the ground before vanishing just ahead of one of the creature's vines. The creature turned, finding Ryuu standing behind him by about a hundred feet, watching him carefully with his Sharingan. The creature turned to him before shrugging, his Akatsuki robe falling to the ground. Ryuu narrowed his eyes.
"You're a monster," Ryuu said, watching as the venus flytrap piece, which he could now see was actually extending up from the ground inside the cloak, began to open, separating into a dozen thick roots sticking out of Zetsu's waist, the rest sinking into Zetsu's legs as he separated from the ground. "What the hell are you?"
"Me?" Zetsu asked, Mhao standing behind him. "Well, I'm just a tool for the Akatsuki to use. And right now, they've ordered me to kill you."
Ryuu crouched, then leapt to the side as roots burst out of the ground, trying to impale him. Mhao shot forward and Ryuu spun, blasting him at point blank range with a Pressure Damage, sending him flying away. Then, he flipped backward, landing on the side of a tree and vanishing, spikes bursting out of the tree then sinking back into it. Ryuu appeared in front of Zetsu, kicking at him and Zetsu blocked it. Ryuu flipped, slashing with his tanto and Zetsu blocked his forearm. Ryuu's trench knife flashed around and Zetsu leaned back out of the way then flipped, slamming a kick into Ryuu, launching him away. Ryuu flipped, landing on his feet and the hand holding the trench knife, skidding to a stop before leaping away from another tree, spikes once again bursting out of it. Finally, he growled in rage, leaping into the air and spinning, forming hand seals.
"Fire Style, Searing Migraine!" Ryuu shouted, exhaling flame in a spiraling vortex, the flames rapidly spreading into the trees, burning them away to ash as they spread.
He landed on his feet, blocking Mhao's sword with his trench knife and spinning, slashing at Mhao with his tanto, missing but blasting him with an arc of flames. He spun, firing several at Zetsu, but a wall of roots blocked it. Then, a half dozen misshapen clones of Zetsu leapt over the roots, sprinting at Ryuu, who leapt away, the clones rapidly gaining. He set his feet on the ground and vanished, reappearing in front of one of the clones, decapitating it. Then, he leapt away, wooden spikes erupting out of the clone, one of them tearing a gash in the side of his thigh. He landed heavily, forming hand seals as the other clones charged.
"Fire Style, Dragon Flame Caterwaul!" Ryuu shouted, exhaling several dragon-head-shaped fireballs, blasting all of the clones, killing two.
He quickly healed his leg, finishing just in time to turn sideways, a root driving itself through the space he had occupied a moment before. He slashed the root, then kicked the end of it, sending it drilling through one of the clones, then leapt into the air as the other two passed under him. Both leapt at him and he flipped, placing repulsion seals on the bottoms of his feet before kicking both, sending them blasting into Mhao. The seals faded and Ryuu landed off to the side of Zetsu, breathing hard. Zetsu clapped slowly.
"Very impressive," Zetsu said. "You're fast."
"And you're as much a monster as I thought you were," Ryuu said as Mhao stepped up beside Zetsu again. "I'm getting really tired of this."
He sheathed his tanto and knife, forming repulsion seals on his fists. Then, he crouched, readying himself. Mhao attacked first, streaking forward and slashing at him. Ryuu dodged sideways out of the way of the blade and slammed a fist into Mhao's chest, Mhao instantly shooting backward, blasting through the ground in a massive trench before stopping, unconscious but alive.
"My my," Zetsu grinned. "Those are quite dangerous. I might actually have to get serious now."
"What fun," Ryuu growled. "I'm so excited."
Zetsu grinned as the roots around his waits extended, driving themselves down into the ground. A moment later, much, much larger versions exploded out of the ground between Zetsu and Ryuu, shooting toward Ryuu. Ryuu instantly drew his tanto, leaping over them massive roots, all of which wrapped around toward him instantly. He exhaled a Vacuum Blade onto his tanto and slashed the roots as they reached him, flipping and landing on the roots, punching downward with his free hand, the roots exploding into pieces. He landed on the ground, turning and punching the remaining bits between himself and Zetsu, making those explode as well, massive chunks of wood flying past where Zetsu had been. Ryuu blinked, looking around then up, seeing Zetsu above him, arms pulled back over his head. He swung them forward, massive roots exploding out of his hands and forearms, shooting down at Ryuu as over a dozen massive spikes. Ryuu shot to the side, zipping around and around between the spikes as they crashed into the ground. He jumped as one spike in front of him extended more out of the side, then flipped, slashing rapidly and shredding a spike heading at him from above. He flipped, landing against a root and sprinting up it at Zetsu. Zetsu flipped, detaching himself and leaping off of the roots, only for Ryuu to appear behind him, splitting him in half the long way.
Ryuu flipped, landing on his feet as Zetsu's halves crashed to the ground, melting away into goo as the clones had earlier, the goo sinking into the ground. Then, Ryuu spun, using the flat side of his Vacuum Blade to block a root before it could impale him, twisting and shoving off the spike's side, throwing himself away from it. He looked to where the root came from, seeing Zetsu standing there.
"You're pretty good," Zetsu said, Ryuu panting now.
Mhao stepped past Ryuu, making him leap away again, but Mhao simply walked over to Zetsu, stopping beside him and resting his sword on his shoulder.
"We're out of time," Mhao said. "Looks like the Jinchuriki grabbed someone and flew them back, since she's faster that way."
"Who was it?" Zetsu asked.
"Kakashi Hatake," Mhao said.
"Hm, that could be dangerous," Zetsu said. "Alright. I'll deal with him now then."
Suddenly, Ryuu felt like he couldn't breath. White growth sprouted all over his body, growing rapidly until there were three Zetsus growing out of him. He slashed at them but his Vacuum Blade was absorbed and his tanto blade cut through them only for them to reform instantly. He felt what little chakra he had left dropping rapidly. He turned, hurling his tanto and trench knife away from Zetsu and Mhao, Mhao laughing.
"You think we want those?" Mhao scoffed. "In case you didn't notice, I have my own blade and Zetsu doesn't need one."
Ryuu fell to his knees, vision blurring and beginning to darken rapidly, breath coming in panicked, wheezing gasps. He ripped his necklace off, hurling it to the weapons, none of them actually having gone that far, then stood, staggering back toward Zetsu and Mhao, forming hand seals with shaking hands.
"Can he attack?" Mhao asked.
"Not at all," Zetsu smiled. "He's simply fed me the last of his chakra himself."
Ryuu collapsed, struggling to breathe but unconscious.
"Wait, don't kill him," Mhao said.
"But my orders," Zetsu said.
"The Akatsuki wants him out of the way, right?" Mhao asked. "Well, if we hand him over to my master, he will be. And then I won't be punished for killing him."
"I see," Zetsu nodded. "Okay."
The other versions of him left Ryuu's body, leaving him clinging to life, and returned to Zetsu, sinking into him. Mhao handed Zetsu his sword and walked over, dragging Ryuu to Zetsu as well.
"Take him to the Valley of the End," Mhao said. "I'll be waiting there to meet you."
"Oh?" Zetsu asked. "How're you going to accomplish that? Not only am I vastly faster than you, but you're also about to die here."
"Just trust me," Mhao said.
Zetsu nodded, picking up Ryuu and sinking into the ground. A moment later, Fu landed beside Ryuu's weapons and necklace, sensing a tiny bit of his chakra in them. She picked them up, staring at them, before looking to Mhao, who was grinning, twirling a kunai in one hand and holding one in the other hand in reverse grip at his side.
"Where is he?" Fu snarled, boiling red chakra forming over her entire body instantly.
"Dead," Mhao said. "Zetsu took his body back to the others in the Akatsuki. I think he said something about Itachi wanting his eyes. Anyway, yeah, you're boyfriend's history."
Fu screamed in rage, then sank to her knees, sobbing.
"Fu, calm down," Kakashi said. "We don't know that he's dead yet. There's no proof. And he wouldn't have left chakra in his necklace and weapons so you could find them if he was dead, right?"
Fu stared up at him before nodding, standing as Mhao chuckled.
"Whatever you think Kakashi of the Sharingan," Mhao said. "So, shall we see if your Sharingan's any better than that wimp's were?"
"Who exactly is this?" Kakashi asked.
"He's some freak that Ryuu and I have killed three separate times who always comes back to torment us," Fu said. "I'll make sure he can't come back ever again this time."
"Wait," Kakashi said. "Don't destroy the body. Maybe Tsunade and Shizune can learn something by studying it. Like where he came from."
Fu nodded, shooting forward. Mhao flipped over her first slash with Ryuu's tanto, only for the tail behind her to flip up, slamming into him and extending, smashing him into the ground before her. Then, as he stood, she passed, decapitating him. Fu let the chakra fade from her body and fell to her knees again, sobbing anew as Kakashi walked forward to collect the body.
Zetsu rose out of the ground, dropping Ryuu and raining an eyebrow. The clouds drifted out from in front of the moon, illuminating the pale figure in front of Zetsu.
"You actually were waiting," Zetsu said. "Impressive. Here's your sword and your friend."
Mhao took his sword, smiling as blue flames roared along the blade for a moment before settling down. Then, Mhao scooped Ryuu up onto his shoulder. "You have my thanks. I hope all goes well for you and the rest of the Akatsuki."
Zetsu nodded. "And for your master too. Well I hope we kill his master soon. Aw, be nice. Although, him fighting Lord Pein again would certainly be fun to watch. Well anyway, goodbye Mhao! Don't let our paths cross again."
Then, he sank into the ground and Mhao turned, walking away with his prize.
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