A/N: Righto, lads and lasses. If you are upset at me for not showing you any fluff in the early chapters, then I understand. It will all come eventually, I promise you. For now, let us have a bit more fun with the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Since I included it in my summary, I wanted to be sure and get at least four good, long chapters of action, which I am sure in the actual show, there were a lot more. Read on, viewers; I hope you are not ready to call it quits on my story just yet!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 4: The Two-Sided Skirmish
Birds took to their branches, and started singing their signature tunes. The worst was over with; the birds reveled in the afternoon tranquility of their wide forestry home. It was nice and dark under the canopy, perfect for resting. It had an almost safe feeling. Water droplets dripped off of the tip of leaves in the background, signifying that it had probably rained just a day ago.
Then suddenly, something jet through the branches, causing them to all flutter away frantically. Someone was making their way through the canopy – someone fast. Several of the birds were almost forcefully knocked off of their perches, had they not cleared away a second sooner. It was clear that whoever this was is in a hurry, and nothing was going to get in the way between him and his destination.
Feathers of blue and white drifted ever slowly as two more jets of black shot after the previous one, causing great turbulence to them, and further more altered their destinations toward the ground because of the tremendous speed.
Kimimaro continued to leap through the high trees, branch after branch without making any sign of slowing down. In his arm, he held the cylindrical container of one of the last of the Uchiha clan, whom his master viewed as a new vessel, one group viewed as a friend, and another viewed as bait for a certain tailed beast. Kimimaro quickly looked back to see if the anonymous foes were still keeping up with him – which they were. He quickly turned his head back, and looked on, his emerald eyes shone brightly next to two small, red spots decorating the center of his forehead. Effortlessly picking up the pace, he shot through the dark under layer of the forest.
He was running out of time…
Behind him, the two missing nins were keeping close watch on the Sound shinobi, making sure he didn't try anything funny. They weren't actually trying to catch him; not just yet. They both agreed that it was best to let the chase go on a bit longer, before they came to a large, open area, convenient for fighting, prior to their current area, closed in with suffocating branches. There was no real urgency, since the Sound village was still half a day away, assuming you chose to sprint rapidly the whole time.
As if to answer the circumstances, a greater light started to seep out through the trees in their destined direction, and as they sped forward, the darkened forest began to illuminate itself. Then, the two saw their target leap out through the bright clearing of trees, and into the open.
The two simultaneously nodded slowly to each other, and then resumed facing forward.
The light was blinding, and to some extent, overpowering. Having spent the entire day on a wild chase through dark passages over and under the tree branches, the sudden intake of light was not very keen on their eyes, mainly Itachi's, for that matter. His partner had constantly warned him not keep his Sharingan activated for such extensive periods of time, due to the ever so convenient blinding symptom of overuse that it comes with. He had once believed that he could use the limitless supply of power that the Mangekyo had to offer without consequence, but he supposed that was a lousy theory on his part. Lord knows, he was going blind. He had thought that it was only a rumor, but experienced quite differently as he started bumping into things more and more often. Ultimate weapon of the Uchiha clan? What a load of shit.
Delving onto the last branch before the clearing, Itachi and Kakuzu focused extra chakra under their feet, preparing to cover as much land as possible with one last jump.
Using their weight to their advantage, they timed the release of the jump just right, and with a final, hard push off of the last branch, they shot head-first through the opening…
…and found themselves in a lush, green, wide open field.
How many meters of distance that they covered, neither of them knew. But they went far. As they made their landing, they both squinted up to find that they were only a few good meters away from their opponent – and they would have it no other way. This place was perfect for a fight, no matter what jutsu you would use.
Kimimaro had suddenly stopped dashing, and gracefully set down Sasuke's barrel. He realized that he need go no further – if he wanted to clean up any persistent trash, now was the time and place.
With only the elegance of a Kayuga clansman, he turned towards his two mystery opponents. He took a quick look over their apparel. Interesting…he had no idea what village or faction wore those dangerous colors. Their headbands bore long, ugly scars, so it was little wonder that two villages out there were missing some of their shinobi. One village he recognized instantly, on Itachi's forehead. The symbol of a leaf.
Kimimaro turned towards Itachi.
"Hmph." He scoffed slightly yet in an obviously mocking way. "So you're a missing ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves as well, are you? Well if you are no longer affiliated with Leaf activities, then what do you care for this boy so much?"
Itachi paused a while before answering.
"It's not that boy that we're after. Just the prize that follows him." Itachi stated simply.
"Prize?" Kimimaro responded. "This is Lord Orochimaru's prize. He will never allow such filth as you to achieve it. You may as well go home, right now."
Itachi said nothing. Nor did he need to. He usually let his rather intimidating eyes hold a conversation for him – mostly the arguments. Quite often, a person was quick to shut up after given a short glance from his crimson eyes…unless of course they were completely stupid. Believe it or not, the world had a few of those. May they rest in pieces.
Kakuzu, on the other hand, did not take being shooed away quite as well. He turned his concealed head slightly towards his temporary partner and impatiently peered over at him.
"Itachi…" He inquired.
"Yeah. I know." He heard his teammate respond out through his uniform's neckband.
Green met red as Kimimaro stared him in the eyes long and hard. He was amazed at how equally calm Itachi's expression was, yet still able to give off that same terrifying aura of hostility the same as he was. For several minutes, those eyes continued to pierce into each other, never once blinking; never once backing down from the other.
"You still don't understand…" Itachi finally said without breaking eye-contact. "…so I won't make you understand. You don't need to understand. For misguided fools such as you, I just say that it's best to let them do all the talking for themselves. I find it difficult to argue with one who will not listen to reason."
He and Kakuzu both heard a sneer from across. "What bold words. So far, the only ones who have proven themselves fools have been the Leaf's genin…" he lightly shifted his eye from Itachi to Kakuzu. "…and yours truly." He finished with eyes on him earning a well-deserved glare from two opaque, lifeless eyes.
Itachi heard Kakuzu grumble under his mask from where he was at. As Itachi glanced at him from the corner of his eye, he watched as his teammate made a threatening step forward, towards Kimimaro. Itachi then proceeded to close his eyes calmly, as he often did to concentrate, or to remain patient with the other members.
"It's good to see you again…" he said suddenly, earning a confused look from his teammate.
"…Naruto." He finished as he opened his eyes again and looked straight on, not bothering even to turn his head. He sensed that there was another person with him, but paid him little heed.
Kakuzu knew that this was the time to look back. And sure enough, as he turned himself around, a bright-orange jumpsuit instantly caught his dead eye.
"Haaaaah? You know this brat, Itachi?"
Naruto growled loudly at the snide 'brat' comment. He tightened his hand into a fist, preparing to deck the person that would call him that.
Itachi closed his eyes in response to his teammate's question.
"That…" he started, pausing before he finished. "Would be our Nine-Tailed Fox."
Kakuzu shifted his hollowed eyes to his partner, and then back at the younger ninja. "What? This kid??"
He turned back to get a closer look at his objective target's appearance. He had golden blond hair, and…what the hell, were those whiskers on his face, or scars?
Kakuzu squinted to look more accurately. It didn't help the fact that his eyes were getting far too old to use anymore. Most of his body was now nothing better than a pile of lace, stitches, and used ragwear. Almost all of his vital processes have gone to shit, and save for the five hearts that kept him alive and the chakra flow that came with it that enabled his body to move, he would have no better promises for Akatsuki than as a practice dummy, or a scarecrow. He grudged at the remembrance of how frail and inferior his body was getting. Thank whoever runs the God business for his slow decomposition rate, but still, maybe its high-time that he learned how to transplant organs other than just hearts.
Kakuzu closed his eyes with anger and bitterness as he realized something…shadows of his memories. It was all because of them.
They did this to him.
They made him become the thing that he was…
A walking corpse.
A half-life.
He would never forget what they had put him through. Back in that damned village...in that damned facility they called a hospital. Hospitals. Hospitals are meant to help their patients, fix people!
He...is not...'fixed'.
Kakuzu's glare softened a little, but only a little.
There was also...her.
She was so beautiful. How could she have...how could she have abandoned him? Was she not happy? Was there something he did wrong? How could it happen like it did?! Kakuzu asked himself these questions as he watched his plentiful amount of lifetimes fade away, and he still does not yet have an answer for any of them. It just didn't make sense. But no matter how much it hurt his body, no matter how much it scratched his mind, no matter how much it prolonged the here-after, he will find all of those answers before he dies!
But his work is far from finished. As long as at least one of his hearts still beat true, he would hunt down every single one of them. Yes, hunt them all down…and kill them. Destroy them. Make them struggle for their measly little lives. And he would enjoy doing this, too, all the while, not letting them escape out of their lives that easy. All the way down to the bittersweet end, and he would revel in it. He would never forget what they had done to him.
Never.
Kakuzu clenched his fist so tight, that Itachi could hear the seams that kept his knuckles sewn together strain from where he was at. And what was laid in Kakuzu's eyes…was bitter hatred. His eyes glazed with it, and his forehead around them crinkled up from glaring so furiously. And the unfortunate person, who he was facing while he bore that look, was Uzumaki Naruto. Kakuzu wasn't upset with him in particular, but he sure was setting himself up for that perspective.
Naruto froze like a frightened deer as he stared at him with sheer terror written all over his face. That look was about enough to freak anybody out.
Shikamaru, who stood adjacent to Naruto, blinked a few times in surprise from the heated glare that his teammate was getting.
"Whoa. Man, Naruto. What did you say to this guy to get him so ticked?" He whispered to him.
Naruto snapped his head to face Shikamaru, and flailed his arms around in a comical fashion. "I-I dunno, Shikamaru!! I-I've never seen this guy before in my life!!" He shouted with a comical expression, waving his arms around frantically.
Shikamaru gave him a slightly surprised look, before turning back to face the complete strangers. He knew from past experiences that if a person greets a complete stranger with a face that evil, then their background life must be very troublesome.
Itachi turned his head towards Kakuzu, who kept glaring on non-responsively. Then he closed his eyes and sighed. He really hated it when things like this would happen at such awkward times. And as if he could read his mind, Itachi knew what all the fuss was about. He patiently tried to think up something to say to get his teammate out of the mood he was in. No avail; go with Approach 1: call their name.
"Kakuzu." He said sternly to his far-off teammate.
As if a hex had been torn away, he jolted slightly in response, snapping his head towards Itachi.
"What? What happened?" He quickly asked, rubbing his eye as if he had just been interrupted from a slumber.
"Nothing." Itachi replied simply, turning away.
"Oh, okay." Kakuzu said with relief.
"…Apart from you having scared the hell out of our tailed beast." He calmly finished.
Kakuzu looked as if he had just been struck by a lightning jutsu.
"Did I seriously…?"
"Yep."
Just another day in Akatsuki: some member going off to randomly scare someone else. Tobi would blab on to the Leader about it, but all that Leader said about it was that if people didn't like how his subordinates acted, that they could just cram all of their complaints up their…
"Cracks the others up every time you do that to someone…a shame that it had to be me with you this time…" Itachi added bitterly.
"Wh-what was THAT all about? What did I do?!" Naruto asked, still shaken up from the ever-fearsome death ray.
Itachi calmly turned his head to look at his objective again. Hellish red eyes met sky blue, as Itachi waited to give him his answer.
"Relax, child." He told him, trying to sound polite. "He wasn't angry at you…he was merely having a flashback."
"Ohhhhh." Naruto responded as if the situation was completely natural.
"So then…does he normally use that facial expression?" Shikamaru asked.
Itachi closed his eyes. "…Only during a flashback." He replied simply.
Suddenly, Itachi didn't feel like answering anymore questions. He was losing sight of the mission. What was he doing…? Before another conversation could form, Itachi decided to get to the real point.
"Naruto, I would like you to come with us…" Itachi said calmly, using the same approach he had last time they met, back at Konoha, with his partner, Kisame. They would have had him by now, if not for the legendary Toad Sannin interfering with their plan.
To Itachi's chagrin, the kid was not all that dense as he looked. Naruto firmly shook his head, with his arms crossed.
"No way! I don't know who that guy is…" He shouted as he pointed an obnoxious finger at Kakuzu, who glared at him for real reasons this time.
"…but I know who you are! You beat the crap out of Sasuke and fought with Pervy Sage!!"
Itachi gave him a rarely used confused look. "…pervy…sage…?" He questioned quietly. Did he mean the Toad Sage, Jiraiya? Well whatever he meant, Itachi could care less. But refusing was a poor, poor decision to make on the Fox's part. Time to exploit that.
"Well, if you're not going to come with us on your own…" Itachi slightly turned his head back to his teammate. "Kakuzu…"
"Yeah, I'm on it." He replied blatantly as he pulled out one of his masks. "Is that other bastard still watching us?"
Itachi turned around to find the source of the answer still standing next to his brother's hollow case.
"Yeah." Itachi replied, without turning away from Kimimaro. "It's amazing that he hasn't tailed off yet…" He muttered. "Remember," he added one last time, as he turned his head back to his tag team partner. "Leader wants the Bijuu alive."
"Hey, I know that better than my idiot partner does, okay?" Kakuzu responded irritably.
Itachi nodded slightly. It was true. There were worse people to be stuck fighting alongside with, and Hidan would count as one of them – more of a nuisance than an actual ally that you could count on.
"Cover me."
"Alright."
"…no more flashbacks."
"ALRIGHT!"
With that, Itachi did a quick cross finger as he conjured up a shadow replica of himself.
As it dashed up to Kimimaro, Naruto was using the exact same technique. He quickly mimicked the same cross fingers sign that Itachi did, preparing to activate his signature move.
"Naruto." Shikamaru interrupted him.
Naruto turned and looked at him with puzzle in his eye. "What, Shikamaru?!" He asked impatiently.
"Be careful." Shikamaru finished. "We have no idea what these guys are capable of, and we barely even made it past the Sound nins. Don't lose your head."
Naruto nodded hesitantly, before turning back to what he was doing.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Need I really translate what that means?)"
In an instant, an entire mass of shadow clones were created in Naruto's image. Kakuzu barely had enough time to count fifteen of them as they charged up at him, yelling loudly and obnoxiously.
Thinking quickly, he held his mask up with both hands to the first wave of oncoming shadow clones. The eyes of the face started to glow with a bright red, as the mouth slowly cracked open, all on its own.
"Out of the frying pan…" he began. He waited until he was up with the first one to finish his cliché line. The mask finally clicked in reaction, almost as if it knew where the enemy was.
"…AND INTO THE FIRE!"
A titanic streak of fire blew out of the mouthpiece and into the clones. It was like Sasuke's Fireball Jutsu, but without the lame handsigns. As the jet stream tore through the gigantic group of unsuspecting shadow clones, Shikamaru tried to find a way close enough to the enemy without getting deep-fried himself.
But the old ninja was very much aware, as he had to pay little attention for an attack with such a large radius. Shrugging slightly, Kakuzu calmly reached into his body for his second mask. When he pulled it lose, he aimed it at Shikamaru, while his other arm supported the mask that was currently being used to obliterate pesky shadow clones in the other direction.
Shikamaru, who was down in his hand position to get ready for a shadow-user jutsu, looked up at the mask being held to him, and noticed that prior to the first one, this mask had blue ceremonial markings painted on its face. Before he could extend his shadow to his foe, the masks eyes began to glow with a steel blue, and the mouth shot open.
"Oh, this is bad!" Shikamaru thought out loud.
Seconds later, ice poured out of the mouth as a great, freezing blue beam spat out and rushed towards him. Knowing that this was a bad time to be lazy, Shikamaru jumped away from the beam as it ran across the perimeter of the area, freezing the trees in the background in a long, gigantic sweep.
To the genin and chunin, this was Hell.
To Kakuzu, this was good, clean, ass-kicking fun.
A few meters away-
Itachi, who had remained stationary since the fighting started, had been continuously flanking Kimimaro with single shadow duplicates, and upon impact, those duplicates would explode against him. Only so far, all that it has done was knock him back, and give him immense third degree burns, only to have the tissue heal immediately after. So much for Deidara's approach on things. It didn't take a genius out of Itachi to know when someone had some special blood limit.
As the fight started, Itachi had the happy privilege of watching his enemy pull a bone out of his shoulder and hold it up like a sword to threaten him. A fun fact to completely ignore and defy the laws of biology. Since his movements were not impeded from the instant loss of a bone, and a big one at that, it was obvious to Itachi that this foe had some apparent regenerative capability. That's why explosions won't cut it.
Itachi and Kimimaro both snapped their heads in the same direction on time to catch glimpse of the gigantic blue beam that was coming towards them from off to the side. Thinking quickly, both of them ducked their heads to avoid getting frozen. Itachi shot a brief glare at his teammate for his crappy aim before turning his thoughts back to his opponent.
Itachi took a deep, exasperated sigh, knowing full well that he may have to go to some extent to damage his eyes further with the more powerful eye techniques. But those would have to be for last resort. This guy was unique, but since he serves under Orochimaru, then he's obviously weaker than Orochimaru, and Itachi recalled a rather amusing time when he kicked Orochimaru's ass.
No…eye techniques won't be necessary for this fight.
Kimimaro saw that Itachi's thinking was biding him time that he was anticipating, so he decided to let loose another bone, this time out from the palm of his hand. He now had two sharp, durable swords.
"Alright…let me warm up first with my most basic technique, the Camellia Dance."
Itachi was unclear as to what this meant, but he was quick to act on the defensive for a close-range attack as Kimimaro dashed at him with his bones in hand. When Kimimaro neared him in the distance of five meters, he swiftly lifted one of his swords, and proceeded to begin his combo. With a streak of lightning-quick speed, he made quick cuts and thrusts at Itachi, who swiftly dodged each one as if it were child's play.
Finally deciding to act on the offensive, Itachi drew a kunai, and made a quick, horizontal slice at Kimimaro, who in return, easily parried it with his second sword.
Still holding his knife pressed against the sword, Itachi automatically gathered that the bones were not normal. An average human bone would have been sliced in half from the force that Itachi used, even though he himself was more about the genjutsu than the taijutsu.
"Interesting." Itachi said, not losing his calm tone as he faced Kimimaro up close. "You seem to have increased the density of your own bones."
"You mean you haven't heard of the Kaguya clan? Of how we are able to manipulate the source of calcium concentration in our bones?" Kimimaro hinted. "These bones are stronger than steel. We can rapidly increase the density of each of our bones, and even multiply the number. For instance…"
He briefly cut off as he and Itachi both pushed each other away off of their weapons with great force, each fighter sliding back ten feet, and kicking up a sizeable mound of dirt as they stopped.
Kimimaro continued. "The amount of bones in an average human is two-hundred and six. But with my blood limit ability, that number easily means nothing. If I need a bone, I simply make one. This…" Sharp, curved bones shot out of Kimimaro's chest and all around his body as he spread his arms out wide. "…is Shikotsumyaku, my Kekkei Genkai."
Itachi looked dully at him. He had, in fact heard of the infamous Kaguya clan, which enjoyed killing and slaughter for their own entertainment. It was a clan that was thought to have met in with extinction. Yet here he was, standing right in front of a member.
"No wonder…" Itachi started, as Kimimaro's external bones sank back into his body from the display. "You're a member of the fabled Kaguya clan that was recently, up until now, believed to be gone."
"I am the last of my clan, and as such, this ability is mine alone." Kimimaro stated.
"Hmph." Itachi sneered softly. "A barbaric, shallow clan that chose its own demise before it could even come up for air. Your bloodline is nearly dead, and by the end of today, I will have seen to the end of the last member before anyone else has even realized that it still had somehow survived up to this point. Prepare to join those other fools."
Kimimaro scowled deeply at these remarks.
"You, who speak of such trifle things as barbarianism…I know who you are. The man who is said to have slaughtered his own kin and brethren." Kimimaro leaned forward to exercise his words. "Uchiha Itachi. Clanslayer."
Itachi leered at the bone shinobi…long and hard. He wanted to see in his eyes for certain that he was as bold as he was letting himself on to be. And indeed he was.
"Let me guess…your master told you about me. But did he also speak of the time when I so easily dispatched him?"
Kimimaro did indeed hear from Orochimaru about the man who conquered his entire clan single-handedly. But he brought up no such mention of losing to him in battle.
Despite this, Kimimaro grimaced. It did not look like this guy was attempting a lie.
"I see. Well then…if that's what you're asking for, then I'll show you the Larch Dance." He spoke harshly. Two more bones shot out of each of his shoulders, giving him a total of six blades to use to his advantage.
"Come…" Itachi motioned him forward with his hand. "Your destiny has arrived…"
Kimimaro, with his blades, proceeded to dash at Itachi, who calmly stood his ground.
Meanwhile-
The masks continued to wry their destruction upon the two struggling genin. Bright red and blue beamed two different directions as Kakuzu held them up to place. Occasionally, he would wave the masks' assigned directions around slightly to intensify the radius of his elementals and spread the butter.
While Naruto continued to batter alongside the brightly colored fires with his shadow clones, Shikamaru struggled to think straight while constantly moving around to avoid becoming a Snow nin, literally.
Kakuzu too had remained stationary since the battle began, not having to move much, since his masks did all the work for him from where he was at. They were loyal little toys, each created by him in different design to house their separate hearts and use their given element properly. He curiously wondered how long it would take these children to realize that he wasn't even trying. If he was really trying, he'd have all five hearts out and ready to go. Watching them jump around frantically was funny and he had his fill.
But now he was getting bored. Bored. Bored.
If the village wanted their Uchiha runt back so badly, they should have sent their jounin to fetch him themselves. Has the Hokage's method of thinking been spoiled over the ages? That's exactly why he disapproves of monarchy – you never know when the bloodline will yield someone who can't run their village right.
His right mask instantly stopped spouting fire, and Kakuzu turned his head to see that there were no more shadow clones to char. There was only one very annoying tailed beast standing a good distance away. So he went ahead and ceased fire with his second mask, cutting Shikamaru loose. After re-attaching his masks to his torso, he let his arms drop to the side in that calm pose that only an Akatsuki member could pull off.
'Time to get this over with.' Kakuzu announced to himself impatiently.
"I'm done messing with you brats. First off, I don't even know what you two were thinking, challenging someone like me. I have experience that neither of you will ever gain."
Shikamaru was currently catching his breath on the far left side of the Akatsuki, but attempted to respond anyways.
"Please… Just…how old…could ya possibly be…?" He asked in between breaths.
Kakuzu turned his lifeless eyes over to him. "Older than you, kid…older than you."
A loud growl caught his attention. He turned his head to look back at Naruto.
Call his eyesight crappy, but he thought the Jinchuuriki looked…different. His hair looked more feral, and his scars were much more noticeable now. His canine teeth looked much sharper than they had been last, and his pupils were blood-red.
"Like we care…" He basically growled through his words. "This is your last chance – get out of our way!"
Kakuzu set a responsive glare in Naruto's direction.
"So you are the Nine-Tailed Fox. I never thought that I would have the pleasure of seizing the most powerful tailed beast, but I guess today I was destined by the Hand of Fate to face you. A shame that the vessel had to be such a ranting runt." Kakuzu taunted.
Naruto clenched his new fangs together so tight, that his entire mouth was shaking at the effort.
"Had you been older and more experienced with Kyuubi's power, the battle would have in the very least been the more epic and exciting battle that I would have anticipated."
"Naruto, don't listen to him!" Shikamaru interrupted him. "Don't you see what he's doing? He's playing you like a card! Like a Shogi piece! Don't listen to him!"
"Well I never caught on to Shogi, but I'm one hell of a card dealer." Kakuzu added, completely twisting Shikamaru's words.
"We came for Sasuke," Naruto started, his voice coarse with hostility. "…and if you're gonna get in the way of that, I'll grind you into the dirt!!"
Naruto did his cross fingers ninjutsu pose again. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Five shadow clones formed around him.
'…Shadow clones again?' Kakuzu complained to himself.
The clones shot at Kakuzu with such surprising speed prior to before, that Kakuzu didn't even have enough time to pull out his next mask by the time that the first one rounded him in the chest, kicking him high up into the air.
'What?! This…this is different.' Kakuzu barely had the time to process this information as another clone slammed into him in mid air, followed by another, with each hit came a syllable.
"U!" "Zu!" "Ma!" "Ki!"
The real Naruto flipped into the air behind the unsuspected ninja. "Naruto Rendan!"
He threw a splitting final kick downward into Kakuzu's face, causing him to fall hard to the ground, and create a descent sized crater on impact.
-Boom!-
Naruto and Shikamaru stared side-by-side at the gigantic dust cloud that rose up as a result from the ungraceful landing. That had to hurt.
"Great job, Naruto." Shikamaru complemented his teammate.
Naruto grinned triumphantly at his achievement.
The dust cloud started to clear away…
Clearing…
…Yep…
…Still clearing…
…Any day now…
Their eyes widened in disbelief as a stitched arm reached out of the huge crater, trembling slightly from the trauma. Slowly, the rest of his body followed it out.
Naruto and Shikamaru both had their jaws dropped; no way could an ordinary rank take a licking like that and recover so fast. As they stared and watched, Kakuzu dusted off his uniform.
"Wow." Kakuzu held his hand up to one of his eyes, which the open still glazed with amusement at what just happened. "That really was different."
'How…how did he…' Even Shikamaru couldn't solve that puzzle.
Kakuzu instantly read their faces. "What? Did you really think that was it? I may be a little old, but my body doesn't break that easily."
Then it dawned on Shikamaru. Of course the old corpse couldn't keep stitched together by himself - he needed some passive-effective jutsu to keep up and going. "He must have some jutsu that involves hardening his body."
"Great, so now what?" Naruto asked, obviously annoyed that one of his signature moves didn't cut it.
"Oh, come on now, don't fuss." Kakuzu cut into their self-planning. "You were doing so well – did you think that I would get damaged from such a weak, insufficient, measly…"
Something made Kakuzu drag off his speech. He stuck his hand into his coat and began shuffling around inside of it, looking for something. He finally touched it – and the texture didn't make him too happy. He pulled it out to look at it, and his eyes widened with anger.
Thick, inky substance oozed out of the object as he held it to the Leaf genin.
"What is this? Can either of you tell me what this is?!" Kakuzu asked, his deep voice increasing in volume at them.
Shikamaru grinned seeing the item that he held up; cracks completely disfigured the surface, the face no longer recognizable. "Your mask…appears to be broken, huh?"
"Does the mask look happy? Does it look happy??" Kakuzu was outraged as he continued to hold his ruined possession up to them.
The two slowly shook their heads, smiling. They certainly looked happy.
"It's not the mask," Kakuzu corrected, venom dripping from his words. "The masks are reconstructable – easy to replace! I want you to take a damn closer look!"
Naruto and Shikamaru squinted into the big, gushing gash that covered the center. The mask was far away and the fluid was dark, so they could just barely make out the vital organ on the inside that was now smashed beyond recognition.
Shikamaru, being the first to correctly identify it, looked a little disgusted at what the sight was telling him.
"It's…a heart?"
"A heart? Eeeeewwww, gross!" Naruto added immaturely, crossing his arms like a child and sticking his tongue out in repulse.
"A heart? Yes a heart… YOU LITTLE BASTARDS JUST DID IN ONE OF MY PRECIOUS HEARTS!! HOW DARE YOU!!" He shouted as hard as his decrepit voice would allow. Surprisingly loud.
Naruto shot up in surprise, while Shikamaru calmly closed his eyes and held a finger in one of his ears.
"Getting yelled at is soooooo troublesome…"
"I'm gonna mess you two up so bad, that they'll never even find all of your pieces! I'll strew your body parts all over this field!!" He finished zealously.
"Kakuzu, don't do anything that you'll regret later." He heard Itachi's voice in the distance.
He quickly turned in his direction. "Well can I eviscerate?"
"No." The voice called back.
"Amputate?"
"No."
"Concuss?"
"No."
"Not even do some slight, slight permanent damage?"
"The vessel must remain perfectly intact. We don't want to do anything to disrupt the flow of the chakra when we extract the Bijuu."
"Fine," Kakuzu turned his body back towards the two Leaf nins. "...But I will hurt him a little." He finished quickly.
He heard an annoyed sigh in the background as he turned his head menacingly to his foes, giving them his undivided attention.
"I had no real reason to be angry with you before, Fox brat." He pointed out. "But now I'm really pissed off! And if you thought that I looked scary before, you ain't seen nothing yet!!"
Naruto gave him a defiant fox glare in response, bearing his sharp teeth, once again.
Kakuzu moved his hand in to detach another mask from his torso. This one had eye sockets that glowed with a silverish color. Its mouth latched open as it prepared to shoot, and Naruto and Shikamaru saw static build up all around it. It rumbled like a miniature powerhouse as Kakuzu connected it to his chest, using his main chakra source to fuel the energy.
When it was fully charged, Kakuzu held the mask up higher to them.
"NOW TAKE THIS!!"
On cue, a long streak of lightning crackled out and reached swiftly towards them.
As sudden as the bolt emerged, however, a green blotch shot out of nowhere before the lightning could even reach the two and the surge was cut off abruptly as the mask was kicked out of the attacker's hand. As it went spiraling through the air, Kakuzu closed one of his glassy eyes shut in a wince, anticipating the sound of another of his prize possessions shattering. But he heard nothing. As he looked back, he saw that his mask had landed on the plush grass without any damage.
Kakuzu jumped back a ways distance on instinct, dodging another spin kick, and all the while, glaring his eyes at the disrupter.
"And who might you be?" He snarled angrily at the green figure.
"It is I…" A voice familiar to Naruto and Shikamaru began. A voice that they were happy to hear.
"The Leaf Village's Handsome Devil…" The figure struck a taijutsu pose, but Kakuzu could just barely catch half of his face, underneath a patch of rounded, shining black hair. The most noticeable of his features alongside a bushy eyebrow, an eye brimming with confidence among it.
"…Rock Lee!"