Amidst the chaotic situation he found himself in, Kakuzu found something bothersome he only just noticed.
It wouldn't be unexpected to be anxious and panic under the current circumstances.
No, rather, normal person would instead be expected not to keep a clear mind. Yet he felt like he was in a situation akin to everyday occurence to him. His head was clear. Maybe a little too much, even.
Kakuzu decided to shook of the pointless thoughts and move.
Timeline was already fucked up by just his exististence alone. He only hoped changes wouldn't snowball out of his control. The butterfly effect was one of the last things he needed.
"Hmm... well, Naruto's not type to give up just because some things went wrong. I'm sure he'll be fine. I'll just worry about myself for now."
As he was contemplating on what he would do exactly, he noticed the lack of noise coming from outside.
"Things are too quiet… ah right, there was a moment when Hidan to get caught by Shikamaru's shadow. The fight probably has already stopped."
With that, Kakuzu ran out of the building.
The first thing he saw was Hidan who was incapacitated by shadow possession jutsu.
Kakuzu moved towards the member of Nara clan. Concluding that there was no need for drastic measures, he decided to stay in character and just go with the flow.
If the fight was prolonged for just a minute more, Pain would be contacting them for bijuu extraction. And then he would just drag Hidan with him and leave.
It would help him avoid some trouble. Since killing Asuma and having Shikamaru after him wasn't the ideal outcome, he decided against letting battle end in the same way.
He didn't need to interfere much here to accomplish his goal, though. There would be few chances for him to drag the fight out. In it's essence, this was more of a low-stakes fight.
If Asuma died, and he was unable to prevent it from occuring, he would simply adjust his plans accordingly. While there would be bothersome consequences, it wouldn't be a major challenge.
Bringing his attention back to present, Kakuzu concentrated chakra in his legs and dashed forward, appearing behind Shikamaru and swinging his arm towards him.
He tried to control his force and, while he didn't move fast enough for Shikamaru to get hit, the punch connected with the roof and collapsed it. He still had not gotten used to the new body, so he sighed in relief when he managed to jump down and land on the ground without losing control.
With that, Shikamaru's jutsu disconnected and Asuma appeared between them.
Kakuzu eyed the shinobi in front of him attentively.
Asuma was among best of the jonin in Leaf and possessed formidable combat power and experience. Kakuzu, on the other hand, was not yet used to the chakra - something that he only gotten few minutes ago.
His move earlier was mostly due to an instinct. It was more of a muscle memory, ingrained deeply into the body.
Although he knew how the chakra worked, he couldn't consciously mold it fast enough in combat, rendering him unable to properly use more than half of the body's true potential.
And he still, without much effort, was keeping up with Asuma's speed.
"Kotetsu! Izumu! Retreat!" Asuma issued orders to his team.
Looking at them, he felt surreal as the scene from the fiction came to life before him. He still had hard time accepting it as reality.
"Kakuzu stay out from this, I want them for my ritual."
Hadan's voice woke Kakuzu up from his thoughts.
He concentrated on Konoha shinobi in front of him. Losing sense of surrounding wasn't a habit he could afford during the battle.
'Just have to delay things for a while before Pain contacts us for the meeting. All I really need to do is to be patient.'
"Fine... just be careful or you'll die"
"I keep tellin'ya… will you quit it already? I wish someone would kill me already! But it's not possible… eh?!"
Hidan said as he started to draw circle on the ground with his blood.
Hidan finished drawing a blood circle and glanced at Asuma.
Kakuzu could feel how tension gradually rose among Konoba sihinobi.
Simultaneously, Asuma and Hidan started moving towards each other. They clashed against one another with a fierce speed and power.
Hidan dodged Shikamaru's shadow stitches and threw scythe at Asuma.
Asuma unfortunately was late to react and block the the attack. The weapon managed to scratch him.
With a sadistic smile Hidan pulled his weapon back. Then he licked the blood with ominous expression.
Asuma immediately trew up his blades in air and followed up with the fire style jutsu - breathing out gunpowder composed of ash and setting it aflame - resulting in a powerful explosion.
"How many times do I have to tell you...? It hurts!"
Hidan's scream echoed throughout the place.
"Judgment has been passed. I have already cursed you... and the ritual shall now begin..."
Team Asuma was shaken by such turn of events.
Asuma was the one who attacked the enemy, yet how come he was the one hurt? Question like this and so on went through their head.
"Well then!!" Hidan's scream was acompanied with a frenzied laughter. "Let's experience the ultimate pain together, SHALL WE!!!"
Frankly, Kakuzu had always found Hidan's voice exhausting and his foolish remarks annoying. A sentiment that hadn't been changed by the new soul inhibitng the body.
He looked dawn at his hand that was holding the briefcase, filled with the money he got from bounty.
It was quite the sum. And there could be another 35 million Ryo in the bag if he killed Asuma…
Oh well, he already had enough money for now. If needed more, he could just find other ways to get it. It was not worth the trouble.
He shook of the foolish thought and brought his attention back on the fight.
Asuma clutched his hand, part of his face was burned off along with it.
Hidan pulled out retractable spear and started laughing like a madman.
Meanwhile, Kakuzu kept close eye on Hidan.
He might interfere if things took turn to the worse. Preferably, in a way that would be subtle enough to not be acused of treason.
He just had to come up with some random excuse later if it came to that.
"All the preparations are done! Now we shall share in the ultimate pain!" Hidan announced with a sick excitement and stabbed his leg.
With that, Asuma, who was running toward to him fell to the ground.
"Or would you like to end it already?! EH?!"
Hiddan was, without a doubt, having too much fun with the ritual. Problem was, he wasn't taking Konoha shinobi seriously.
Unfortunately for him, underestimating Shikamaru was a choice only someone blessed with overwhelming power could make.
Hidan wasn't blessed with overwhelming power. He was just a zombie.
Konoha shinobi were alarmed by their leader's mysterious defeat.
After talking back and forth between each other and hastly discussing plan of action however, Shikamaru's face took a determined look.
He had realised the gravity of the situation. And it was on him to come up with a strategy that would turn the tides of the battle.
"I'm already on it!"
And sure enough, Shikamaru managed to deduce oponents ability in matter of seconds and constructed a plan around it.
As Hidan was about to impale himself in the chest Shikamaru stopped him with his shadow possession jutsu. If he was just a second later and Asuma would have been dead.
Tension rose in the air.
"You are dragging this out Hidan, are you sure you don't want my help?" Kakuzu asked.
Surprisingly, imitating Kakuzu wasn't as hard as he thought. Well, he guessed that those memories might have helped with that a little.
"I told you to stay out of it, didn't I?!"
Meanwhile, the prideful nature of Hidan made things much easier for Kakuzu.
"I'm fine by myself!"
Although he said that, Hidan's body started to move against his will, leaving the blood circle.
"…You brat…" Hidan hissed.
"Not my fault…" Shikamaru said with ragged breath. It seemded that battle took a considerable toll on him "… You talk too much"
The moment Hidan left the circle Asuma threw shuriken at him and cut his ear. Making sure that the ability lost the effect.
Shikamaru used shadow stitching on Hidan to further restrict his movements.
At the same time Asuma stood up, pointing the blade at Hidan.
"Don't just stand there Kakuzu!!" Hidan shouted.
"Now you want my help huh, idiot..."
"Help me! quick!!!"
Following that shout, Hidan's head went flying.
Kakuzu eyed the falling head, following it's path. He felt sick feeling rising from his guts.
He was vaguely aware that his emotions were dulled throughout the battle, but It seemed they resurfaced after seeing something this gory.
"If you wanted my help Hidan, you could've asked sooner."
Kakuzu said as he looked at angry, yelling head, his emotions calming gradually. Past Kakuzu had seen much worse things and was nonchalant about them. Although it was helpful, the thought that his mind was affected directly wasn't pleasant.
"YOUR'E THE SLOW ONE, KAKUZU! IT WAS ON PURPOSE WASN'T IT?!" Hidan screamed once again.
"Do you think you are in position to complain right now? you were the one who said to stay out of it at the start, Hidan."
Hearing Kakuzu's response, Hidan was quick to change his tone in fear of being left unnatended.
"… heh heh... all right. So, I did tell you not to butt in... but not out of disrespect."
"Anyway Kakuzu... would you mind bringing my body over here for me?" He asked.
Kakuzu was slowly starting to lose patience as he was waiting for Pain.
"C'mon Kakuzu, would you please bring my body back to my head, pretty please?"
"...Fine" Kakuzu said as he passed Hidan's head.
Abandoning the organization wasn't an option at this moment. But staying and doing missions had no benefit either.
Members were about to die one after another and he was sure he would share similar fate if he stayed.
Therefore, he would attend the meeting and assist Pain in the sealing tree tails. And would fake being loyal for time being.
Disappearing right now could cause him quite the trouble. He didn't want Akatsuki immediately on his tail.
"Since you've asked for my help, I'm giving it. Whether you like it or not."
He approached Hidan's body while Asuma was glancing at him with a frustrated look.
He concentrated chakra on his legs and sent a kick towards Asuma. Then picked up Hidan's body and threw it at the talking head.
"Hey! Be careful with it!" Hidan hissed.
Kakuzu slowly approached the head.
The extraction of bijuu would take approximately six days. He would come up with some kind of plan and decide what to do about Hidan during the process.
He turned his attention to the task at hand and started to slowly stich the head to the body.
Controlling threads came naturally to him. It was like having an extra set of arms. But it still took some time to not make any error with the process. Though it was no problem as it helped him prolong the battle. Rather he went on with it with even slower speed.
"Oww... all right... finally..."
Hidan cracked his neck as he stood up.
"Don't move it too much yet or it'll come right off" Kakuzu said as he looked back at Asuma.
"I'll deal with him, get rid of others."
"Wait a second Kakuzu! I already started the ritual, let me deal with him alright?"
Hidan's said it like his favorite toy was about to be taken from him.
Kakuzu was about to come up with random excuse to stall a while longer when he noticed that there was no need for it.
"Fine, just be quick about it."
The moment he finished the sentence dozens of crows surrounded them, obstructing his vision.
Hidan was attacked by shinobi with ebony blade while Choji appeared next to Asuma, helping him up and immediately retreating.
Hidan blocked the blade with scythe and both him and swordsman stepped back.
"Take Asuma and run, Shikamaru! We'll keep these two busy." Ebisu shouted.
As Hidan was about to say something in response, Pain's voice echoed through both of their minds, ordering them to return.
"Sir... I only need a little more time. We're just about get to the good part..."
The hesitation and frustartion was apparent in Hidan's voice. Kakuzu almost felt bad for him.
"We're sealing three tails... come in right away. This is top priority."
Pain rejected immediately, not bothering to listen for more.
"But, sir... can't you give us just a few more minutes?!"
"Enough Hidan. We're leaving." Kakuzu interjected.
Things were going smoothly so far, all that was left was to get out from the battlefield.
"That darn leader! One of those days I'm going to put a curse on him!" Hidan cursed. He was pissed off for cutting the ritual halfway.
"You stay put until we get back!"
As Hidan said that, they both disappeared from the scene. The duo left Konoha shinobi behind, heading towards somewhere without disturbance, in order to extract tailed beasts from the jinchuriki.
Time for the Akatsuki meeting was slowly drawing closer.