Chapter 95
"The nins that went to investigate aren't back yet. It's either they are still searching for the one who killed Asuma or they had seen him and…" Choji pauses, "…they're dead."
"Hidan still needs to know who and find Konoha's Jinchuriki," Shikamaru utters with certainty, "He's still here somewhere."
"How are we going to find him?" asks Kakashi.
"First, we need to find his trail." Shikamaru looks up at the sky as a bird, flying free, dots the expansive blue. "We'll go with that."
Kakashi, Choji then Ino follow Kamaru's gaze. One by one, they nod their heads in understanding.
—o0o—
The bird circles the sky, looking for a shinobi with a scythe slung on his back. It doesn't take long for it to locate its target.
Ino, passed out leaning on a tree trunk, slowly opens her eyes as she comes back to her own body. "I know where he is. About an hour from here."
"Okay. Let's hurry," Kakashi orders.
Shikamaru, looking towards the direction indicated by Ino, mumbles, "Remember the plan."
"Yes," answers Choji.
"Okay," replies Ino.
Kakashi nods his head…although he doesn't agree one hundred percent, he understands. The plan is too risky but then this mission is about revenge and about redemption.
—o0o—
On their way, Ino takes them to a short detour. They encounter the lifeless bodies of the three nins sent by the Hokage in search of Asuma's killer. The nins look like they were tortured for information before they were inevitably killed.
"Hidan must know who the jinchuriki by now," Shikamaru says quietly.
Kakashi shakes his head. "These are Konoha shinobis. They would protect the name of the jinchuriki like they would protect their honor."
Shikamaru glances at the three unknown shinobis. "Tch, what a waste." He never knew them but the team in which he is part right now will surely come back later to retrieve their bodies.
—o0o—
Kakashi, Choji and Ino hide behind the trunk of one of the several gigantic trees doting the area. There are no grasses, no other plant life forms except for the trees that towers for several hundred meters and are so thick they span a couple of meters wide. But even the trees seems dull and lifeless for they have no leaves.
At a couple of hundred meters away from them, sitting on a log, Hidan tears off with his canine the head of a small lizard he must have found skulking in the area then chews it.
"Eww, gross," whispers Ino.
"As an immortal—I think his taste as well as his tolerance to pain have become blunted," Choji whispers back. "He couldn't possibly enjoy food the same way as I do."
"Shhh," Kakashi warns. "Kamaru's on the move. Choji."
"Hai." Choji's arms grow big. He hits the trunk of the tree, pulverizing the upper bark into dust.
Hidan jerks up, immediately moving backwards away from the explosion. His guts telling him that the Suna brat is back with his invisible jutsu. He then jumps around randomly, looking out for Kamaru, shouting to his surroundings, "Are you ready to join your friend?!" He then follows his taunt with a sickening laughter.
Still hidden, Shikamaru observes. Hidan indeed saw the tree exploding and deduced from it that it is him using his Invisible Shadow Thread Jutsu. Now, the bastard is moving in the direction he predicted, well away from the tree where Kakashi, Ino and Choji are hiding.
With a trench knife bearing an explosive tag, Shikamaru then attacks from his hideout.
The knife misses its target.
"Aw you miss," Hidan jeers.
Shikamaru throws another one but it only lands on Hidan's shadow.
"You really should practice on your aim—omph I can't move!"
"Shadow Possession Shuriken Jutsu…a success," Shikamaru mutters to himself as he finally shows himself to Hidan.
Hidan glances at the trench knife pinning his shadow to the ground, belatedly recognizing that it isn't the invisible jutsu holding him. "You bastard. What is this, this time?!"
"The thing I threw is a chakra blade made from a special metal that absorbs the user's chakra characteristics," Shikamaru drawls, "Right now, I'm the one wielding it. It's exhibiting power based on my jutsu but… I don't own it. That chakra blade is Asuma's, the man you killed!"
Fighting against the hold, Hidan can only glower at his captor.
Shikamaru shouts loudly, "Now, Choji!"
Choji performs the seal for Spiky Human Boulder, turning himself into a huge round ball with spikes. He then rolls fast from where he's hiding behind the remains of the giant tree to where Hidan stands.
Choji, like a balling ball, strikes Hidan, embedding him to a nearby humongous tree trunk.
The dust clouds produce cover the entire area and when it clears, Choji, with his jutsu dispelled, asks, "Did it work? Did we get him?"
Kakashi also appears beside Choji and Kamaru, done sliding the forehead protector back to cover his eye. He has seen with his sharingan that the trench knife is dislodged when Choji hit Hidan. "I don't think—"
Hidan then comes out, coughing from the dust. "Oi oi that was close!" he scowls at Kamaru when he notices the fat shinobi and the shinobi with a forehead protector slanted over an eye with him. Both of whom from Konoha. "You brought more new friends."
Kamaru, Choji and Kakashi face their enemy.
Hidan chuckles at their expression. "Lord Jashin-sama, watch me," he utters as he looks skyward. "I'm going to get serious! I'll rip out their hearts."
He then faces Kamaru and the fat nin called Choji, "I'm sure you guys are intent on revenge but you guys are too weak for that."
Choji clenches his fists.
"I guess you were his students, huh? Well, with scum like him as your teacher, you won't amount to much."
Choji scowls, "Don't insult Asuma-sensei!"
Shikamaru grabs his team mate's arm, restraining him. "Choji."
"Beautiful loving bonds between student and teacher, huh?" mocks Hidan. "How stupid!"
"You jerk!" screams Choji while Kamaru's arms are still around him, detaining him from moving forward.
"What's so great about an idiot like that, fatty?"
Choji turns red in the face, then shaking off the arms restraining him, he runs in a rage towards Hidan. His arms and hands start to grow enormous as he comes closer for an attack.
Hidan also runs towards Choji, his scythe at a ready to strike.
Kicking the ground to stir up the dirt, Kamaru makes a seal for the Invisible Shadow Thread Jutsu. The unseen thread of shadow halts Choji's movements preventing him from being hit by the scythe. But missing the first one, Hidan swings again his weapon and this time Choji will be hit for sure.
Kakashi appears suddenly, his kunai locking with one of the scythe's blade preventing its descent.
Hidan transfers his attention from Choji, attacking Kakashi instead with glee. Kakashi defends himself with the kunai but with the scythe having a longer reach and knowing what it means to be wounded even slightly, he can only retreat.
Choji retreats too, returning to Kamaru's side. Ino finally joins the two, glaring at Choji. "You idiot! What's the point of getting stirred up by such an obvious trick?!"
Choji whispers, "I-I'm sorry."
Hidan continues to attack Kakashi.
Kakashi climbs another giant leafless tree eluding Hidan and dodging the scythe.
But then the unthinkable happens, Kakashi is hit.
Both Ino and Choji watch with a gasp as the scythe's blades embed on Kakashi's back. But before Hidan can cry with victory, Kakashi turns into a log.
Hidan pouts angrily as his opponent disappears.
Kakashi reappears near his team.
"I'll capture him by myself and—" states Shikamaru, "—I'll fulfill that role."
Kakashi can only nod his head. "Got it. I'll leave it to you, Kamaru."
"One more time, Choji," orders Shikamaru as he moves forward, doing a series of hand seals.
Choji rolls into a ball and smashes into a nearby tree. The dry trunk splinters into millions and millions of pieces and floats in the air creating tiny, mobile shadows.
Shikamaru's Invisible Shadow Thread Jutsu elongates towards Hidan. Hidan tries to see where the jutsu will attack, he retreats, climbing the trunk of the huge tree with chakra on his feet. Seeing Kamaru about to throw his trench knife to pin again his shadow, Hidan jumps downwards then stops his fall by stabbing the blade of his scythe on the tree bark.
But Shikamaru is only using the trench knife as a distraction. With Hidan stationary for an instant his Invisible Shadow Thread Jutsu is able to make contact.
Hidan, feeling something grips him, smirks. "This won't hold me for long."
"Choji!" Shikamaru shouts again and the other nin does his bidding. The area is then enveloped by a thick cloud of dust as another tree is brought down. But Shikamaru doesn't utilize the dust to feed his invisible jutsu but instead he uses it to camouflage his Shadow Possession Jutsu as he run away from where his team is, taking his hostage with him.
As they run towards the woods, Shikamaru opens his palm and Hidan mimics his actions, dropping his scythe.
Hidan snarls, "You jerk!"
Shikamaru just runs deeper and deeper into the woods with Hidan, an unwilling follower.
—o0o—
"Should we follow him, Kakashi-sensei?" Ino asks, gazing anxiously to where Kamaru and his hostage disappear into once the dust settles.
Kakashi shakes his head. "Let's stick to the plan."
Choji frowns, also staring at the area in the woods where Kamaru and Hidan went in. "But—"
Kakashi interrupts, "Right now, this is Kamaru's sole mission."
"I don't understand," says Choji.
"Perhaps later you will," Kakashi utters.
Kamaru has created the plan to make sure the real form of his jutsu remains hidden from his team so he, Kakashi, has also made sure that the boy won't see his sharingan.
Right from the start they both are handicapped in this fight, not able to use their full ability…It's not because he mistrust Kamaru and is hiding his trump card. It's actually the opposite. It's because he's willing to trust the boy that's he's holding back.
And chances are Kamaru already knows that he knows but is also playing this game of let's pretend.
The status quo must stay the same as before.
Kamaru's jutsu—with a bloodline limit—and all that it entails should remain a secret even to those close to him. The less people that knows, the more hush hush everything seems to be, the more time they have to unlock the Kazekage's plan before all hell breaks loose.
—o0o—
Shikamaru finally stops running deep into the woods. He starts throwing kunai upon kunai everywhere—on the trees and into the ground in crisscrossing pattern. All the kunais have strings attached to them and from the lines produced hang explosive tags.
At first, Hidan strains against the shadow hold but then after a while, stops. "This shadow technique only lasts about five minutes, right?"
"Tch." Shikamaru's shadow visibly strengthens and coils around Hidan, twisting around his body and arms.
"You idiot!" Hidan guffaws, then he grits his teeth as he strains to fight against the shadow that bounds him. It isn't long that he feels the shadow weaken as little by little he overcomes it. "Now, it's just the two of us." With his one hand able to move with an effort, Hidan takes out his other weapon concealed inside his robe—a retractable spear.
Shikamaru tries to reinforce his jutsu but he's too late.
Abruptly, Hidan moves fast and goes for attack. Kamaru tries to block the elongated weapon but then he stumbles from an unseen twig. In an instant, he is cut across the cheek, with blood trickling.
Hidan smirks then raising his blade, his tongue flicks out and tastes the blood from the tip. He then starts to transform. His body changes—his skin turns dark and over it, tattooed, the skeletons. His face also resembles a skull.
Shikamaru, having fallen backward on the ground, looks scared as sweat starts to appear on his left temple.
Hidan pierces his own hand with his weapon. Blood drips from the wound down to the forest floor and with his sandaled foot he starts to use the red liquid to draw his circular mark on the ground, finishing it with a triangle on the center.
"Everything's ready," Hidan says as he's done creating Jashin's symbol with his blood, breaking the eerie silence that has settled, before flipping his weapon, pointing the tip towards himself. "I've waited for this."
Shikamaru's sweat glides slowly down his cheek. He looks up towards Hidan, frozen, unable to move and can only seem to follow with his gaze the weapon's descent.
Hidan shouts, "Die," as he stabs the weapon towards his own heart.
Suddenly, Shikamaru, clutching his chest, drops facedown to the ground. As soon as his body makes contact with the solid earth, he stops exhibiting any signs of life.
—o0o—
"What if he dies, sensei?" Ino asks, voicing her and Choji's doubt.
"Then he would have cleared his name and win the people of Konoha's support. In the event that we need to go to war with Suna…" Kakashi too looks at the direction where Kamaru is battling with Hidan. "…his death will still be beneficial."
TBC
—o0o—
~11 17, 18 14AF P11 23 14~
A/N: Almost there…
Yep, if you guys have any questions, clarifications feel free to ask…concrits are also appreciated. Thanks guys.