The fire the Leaf ninja thought Onsen City free of was being replaced before them. For a brief moment, it seemed like the conflict was over. Such hope was revealed as only that when another enemy appeared. None knew what to do. He was beyond even their teachers, who both teams combined still couldn't take. Death reared its head once again.

Kakuzu, thinking the major threats incapacitated, emerged from the ground. His masked creations rejoined his body, threads sticking out and writhing over his form as a living shroud. Catching sight of his mostly-intact arm, he sent threads from his stump to retrieve it. Lightning ran through him and explosion tags ate some of his threads just when he reattached the limb. He twitched and glared up at the three young shinobi.

"Nothing!?" Sasuke's eyes widened at the masks by his head opening. "Dammit!" He grabbed Dosu by the shoulder and led him in running up the palace wall alongside Tenten.

Wind and fire again swirled into a blazing inferno. None could outrun the flames in time and jumping off would've left them open in the air. Before they could be burnt to a crisp, the space between them distorted. The fire swirled into a void that remained until the masks stop spewing. Kakuzu put together what happened in an instant.

Barely keeping himself up by a hand on the parapet, Kakashi's Sharingan eye ached. He could've killed Kakuzu while he was preoccupied, but he couldn't allow his students to die. The man fell back under before he could use his Mangekyo on him. It was exactly as he suspected, albeit still frustrating.

Sasuke made out the floating blobs of chakra in the clouded sky with his Sharingan. "Bubbles?!"

"You didn't see them wash the fire out?!" Tenten asked.

"Where are the bubbles when you need them?" Dosu stopped, noticing the heat and light were gone. "What the?"

Utakata noticed the same thing. The corrosive properties of his bubbles would've eaten away at Kakuzu's body, but what he could sense as fire chakra enhanced by wind chakra would've incinerated them before they could, protecting and alerting him of his presence. He was neither against nor for the unknown shinobi dying, though it was good for him they didn't. While he was curious of the uniquely rotten chakra fleeing from the palace, his focus could not shift from the greater threat. An element of surprise and an opening was what he needed.

Grumbling, Kakuzu had all three remaining masks leave his body with their own threads. Kakashi needed to die by any means necessary, even if it might cost him his bounty. The strange threaded beings scanned their surroundings, ignoring explosive tags detonating by them, as before and picked his head sticking out over the bulwark. Each soared to his position, stopped overhead in different positions so he couldn't escape, and opened their mouths.

Sasuke, Chidori already in his hand, stared. His sensei was about to actually die. Once again, he was too weak to protect and stop anyone. The expanse between him and them was just as it was for Naruto and Itachi. Blood oozed from his left eye as it erupted in pain.

That exact instant, Sasuke was in the air right by the deformed mask. He drove his lightning fist through it without a thought, shaped the lightning into a blade, and swept through towards the others. Both survivors scattered while turning their attention to him. Each already channeled their chakra type into their mouths. Only the wind connected, the fire mask being launched away by a fierce green kick, and made a crater in the wall walkway with his body.

Lee used the push-back of his flying kick to swipe through the wind mask with Sakura's blade. The material covering the bare metal of the grip was almost completely ash, leaving only flesh-burning steel behind. Not saving a comrade would hurt more. He would've thrown it where the other landed before it dug between corpses back into the earth if not for the metal being fused to his hands.

"Th-Thanks," Sasuke managed out as he landed.

"Your movement was…" Lee drifted off at the sight of his star flower-like eye. "Is that?"

He knew it couldn't be anything else. "..The Mangekyo." Groaning, he tried to look toward his sensei, recalling their conversation about the Sharingan developing. "Did he know?"

Kakuzu shook in anger when reunited with his remaining heart, its chakra relaying what happened. He clearly had his enemies outmatched, but they had tricks up their sleeves that even all his experience couldn't account for. There was nothing more infuriating. It reminded him of the worst moment in his life. For all his power and skill, Hashirama was a sage.

"Can you stand?" Lee asked, ripping a hand away from the burning hilt.

Sasuke eyed the blood spurting from his palm and shook his head. "Who's with the daimyo?" He didn't have to see to know the previous one's widow was glaring at his comrade.

"Guy-sensei." He looked out to the distant figures of his teacher placing a burned, albeit firm, hand on the frozen lord's shoulder. "Though he is in need of immediate medical aid."

"He's ali–" A cold hand gripped the back of his neck and would've crushed his spine in a second if he hadn't used his Mangekyo to move himself several dozen feet up.

Lee, hearing their enemy growl and seeing his comrade gone, rushed over and slashed down into the wall with both hands, splitting his one. "What have you done with Sakura?!"

Kakuzu scoffed at the outrage on his face. "Pathetic." His other hand, extended by threads, emerged from another side of the wall and grabbed the burning grip of the blade. "She's worth a lot of money, like that Uchiha but unlike you."

"People cannot be measured in wealth!" He struggled to keep the sword in his hold.

"Then why does that regal puppet live while so many peasants lay dead?"

Lee faltered for a moment, unintentionally giving his enemy the opening he needed to wrest it away. He leaned out of a hasty swing and saw Sasuke still falling from above. With a single jump, he caught him before he could gather more velocity. They landed not far off from the daimyo's position, but only Lee could move, so he set him down.

Kakashi did not take his Sharingan off Kakuzu's chakra. Instead of going for him, he retreated deeper into the wall and back to the earth, knowing he'd see him coming or have moved his position. While they didn't have him on the ropes, they were putting up far more of a fight than he anticipated. The masked beings were clearly part of him, but their chakra, despite being similar, carried a different signature when not latched to his body. It disturbed and interested him just how he attained that state, recalling Hashirama's record of the fight with a seemingly ordinary yet powerful Waterfall shinobi.

"I've never felt so useless," Dosu lamented, watching from the palace wall.

Tenten sighed. "You get used to it." At the very least, she disabled his use of conventional jutsu for a time. "Oh crap." Her eyes drifted down to the flames emerging from the palace entrance. "Kiba."

Restitched hands in the snake seal, Kakuzu channeled his chakra into the structures he knew they were and nearly everywhere else they could go. There was a chance he'd ruin whatever profit he could turn from the Sharingan users, but they angered him. He managed to at least secure one major source of wealth. It was something he could live with, although losing the other surviving Uchiha would haunt him after he calmed down.

"Oh no." Kakashi's eyes widened at the rapidly spreading chakra. "Everyone jump!" He dove and grabbed Hitomi, sinking into the palace wall with her.

Those that could hear, having avoided two giant large-scale elemental jutsu, knew what was about to happen. Lee picked up Sasuke again, Guy grabbed Minoru, and Tenten reluctantly embraced Dosu from behind. All leapt. In the fraction of a second, the material where they were erupted into long, thick spikes. Every inch of grounded space near them was spikes, from the side of the palace wall Tenten and Dosu were to the surrounding field of corpses.

A chill ran down Tenten's spine at the cold tip of one grazing her back. She looked down at the spikes awaiting them and gulped. There was nothing in her scrolls that could absorb the fall, and she had no ninjutsu. While they could try grabbing the sides of the spikes, the force of their bodies would likely slam into the surrounding ones. Ninjutsu, even if she could use any, didn't typically account for lethal heights either.

"What th–" Dosu's eyes widened at their scenery. "Shit!" His hands began forming signs. "Whatever you do, don't let go of me!"

"Huh?!" Tenten's face scrunched when he tilted them towards the ground.

Finishing the seals, he took a deep breath and blew a powerful wind with the Great Breakthrough Jutsu. They rose from the sheer force crashing into the earth and crushing the spikes. He concentrated on gradually lessening its strength, steadily bringing them down. Both sighed in relief when their feet touched the blunted dirt.

Lee was not in the least worried. As soon as the spikes were in his range, he flipped and swept his heel through their sides. He landed the second after. Guy was giving him a red thumbs up not far away the moment he turned his head to check, having done the exact same maneuver.

Kakuzu rose from the earth, Sakura's sword in one hand, and twitched at the sight of the two still standing shinobi. "You are the most irritating pests I have ever come across!"

Dosu couldn't hear him but figured he was saying something on account of not engaging them. "Fuck you," he spat.

His sword arm extended from the elbow. Then he burned. From his head to his toes, he was covered in corrosive droplets. Smoke from the earlier fire and the darkness of night hid them from his sight. Anger and greed drove his mind away from who he was originally after.

Another pop resounded for those that could hear, revealing Utakata floating in a bubble. He looked down at the melting man fleeing into the ground once more. "No." Odd slime emerged from his skin. "This is where you die." Other bubbles expanded from his one, forming the shape of an irregular slug's head. Its mouth opened and a mass of glowing purple bubbles grew inside. When it was just the right size to annihilate only his enemy, it spat. "Fright Bubbles!"

Tenten stared straight into the majestic explosion. "Maybe I could seal and use jutsu like that?"

"I was not ready for today." Dosu laughed.

Kakuzu, rearranging the placement of his organs to avoid crippling and death, darted through the earth, aiming to displace the acid with other material, before being caught in the blast. He was already more of a bundle of threads than a human when it consumed a good portion of him. The corpse-like skin he had was eaten away by the acid. As quick as he reacted, he could not salvage one of his eyes and the other was nearly blind. What was left of him kept going to escape, seething all the way.

Utakata scowled at what he sensed as his survival. He knew he wasn't normal, but the vast majority of shinobi would be dead, nearing death, or at the very least unconscious. It likely wouldn't be the last time he saw him. As much as that concerned him, he was relieved it was over for the time being. A yawn and a sigh blended into one while he descended.

"You're a jinchuriki, aren't you?" Despite not being a sensor ninja, she could feel his chakra in that moment, just like in the Chunin Exams arena. "Why are you here?" Tenten watched his bubble pop, eroding the spiked ground he'd land on to a relatively flat surface in a second.

"Do you know where the living quarters in the palace are?"

She blinked. "Huh?" Her eyes widened. "Wait, Sakura!" She looked to the area she was abducted.

"Oh, she's fine. Directions to the living quarters, please."

"There's another fi–" She stared at him blowing into the pipe in his hand, conjuring a bubble dragon.

Dosu groaned. "Dammit, scroll girl."

"You…" Tenten shook her head as the dragon rammed into the entrance they got out of. "Deaf idiot."

Utakata sighed before leaping over to their safe area. "I'll find it myself." He jumped once more into the palace.

"...What?" Dosu asked, face scrunched in confusion.

Kakashi emerged with the dowager lady with a similar look when he saw them standing around with their enemy nowhere in sight. Guy and Lee jumped to the other two and set their damsels down before retrieving them. On the opposite side of the palace, the surviving guards were led out by Kiba and Akamaru away from the growing fire they didn't know was extinguished. Utakata found the guard's quarters, walked to a bed, and dropped unconscious on to it. The night of horrors finally ended for what was left of Onsen City.

Nothing went right or as planned for any faction in Orochimaru's headquarters. Each was thrashed by a different one but weren't defeated yet. As powerful as the Akatsuki were, the team couldn't fully account for the unique abilities of their enemies. Orochimaru's 'servants' and the Root agents, whether intentionally or not, attacked in tandem. The girl that spiraled after their main combatant could drain his chakra and sever its stream.

Sasori reached for the sealing scroll on his back and stopped, realizing his collection of puppets could easily be cut off from him. "Deidara!" He swept his rent body away on iron sand into the halls as if it were a wave. "We're leaving."

"Then I'm gonna bl–" He nearly bit his tongue when he was swept along with him.

Hinata's lion fists dissipated. "His chakra doesn't look like he's retreating."

Groaning, Suigetsu liquefied on to his feet. "Where…." He squinted at the space where his enemy was. "The hell did that ginger bitch go?!"

"Your girlfriend is still hiding underground," Anko quipped.

"Fuck you." He turned to his twitching and heaving comrade. "What happened?"

Kabuto stood. "W-We need to join her right now."

Anko stopped him before he could step forward. "Not until we get what we want." Grinning, she streamed lightning chakra through him.

Karin, blushing, emerged from the floor and pointed accusingly. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Huh?" Suigetsu's face scrunched at the look on hers.

"Do you want a go?" Anko asked, knowing she could sense the stirring in her chakra. "I don't do gentle." She giggled at her face turning red.

He nearly stepped back. "Whoa!"

"W-We're going to die, you idiots!" Kabuto yelled.

"They're nearly outside," Hinata said. "The only thing they can do...is fill this place with explosives."

Sinking out of the torture enthusiast's grasp, he nearly sighed. "Exactly."

"Oh no!" Karin shot her chains around her remaining allies, tugged them toward her, and sunk beneath the ground with them.

Anko grabbed Hinata and did the same. Sai was already down with Torune when the words left Kabuto's lips. They all sunk as deep as they could just to be safe. It was the wisest course of action, even though it distanced both from their objectives.

Back in the forest, Sasori lifted the remains of himself and Deidara back on to their clay dragon ride. It took off with a simple gesture from its creator. They looked down at the distant hideout before sharing a look. Nothing needed to be said. Deidara reached into his clay pouch, chewed it into an odd sculpture with his mouth hands, took the explosive out, dropped it, and watched his creation expand.

The blast towered over everything else. Whatever life dwelled in the immediate vicinity was obliterated. Its force was so great the trees near the explosion but not caught in it fell over, and the shock wave only kept traveling. People far from where they were could see it illuminate the night. A crater would remain for dozens of lifetimes after.

It was beautiful.

All in Mori Town heard an explosion. It was the closest settlement to the blast, so it was nearly impossible for them not to. Men rose, women awoke with gasps, and babies cried. The shinobi, on the other hand, mobilized while the ones already awake stared. Within the Uzumaki Residence, the shinobi lord held his quivering maiden.

"I need to check the area," Naruto said, stroking her head. "I won't go far."

Rika nodded as best she could. "R-R-Right." She held herself when free from his embrace.

He ran out to the open center of his domicile, went up the pillar, and made out the black mushroom cloud in the distance. "What the hell?!"

"We must go," Orochimaru, standing some ways away, said.

"I know you're not going to tell me anything, so I don't need to tell you t–"

"To go fuck myself, yes." He stared out into the night sky and saw an inkling of what he was wary of. "Have you been practicing your Wind Style?"

Naruto shot him a look. "You've seen me kill people with a flick of my fingers."

"Do you think you can redirect a falling object with the size and width of a tower?"

"...What are you talking about?" He squinted when he began to notice the approaching distant figure where the cloud was.

Kuro flickered on to the roof in a kneeling position. "Lord Holy Roy–"

He held up a hand. "Keep everyone inside." They were too fast for them to evacuate anyway.

Sasori was staring at Deidara. Both had yet to say a word. He knew he was rethinking his opinion on him for getting them into that predicament, and what he was about to do for the sake of making himself feel better was a bit much. Destroying random settlements was also a hobby of his. On the other hand, there was the slightest chance Orochimaru decided to stay there until they were dealt with.

"I'm gonna do it, hmm!"

"And if you destroy the ring?"

Deidara scoffed. "If The Sage of Six Paths really made it, would my art destroy it?" He blinked and put his hands in his clay pouch. "I'm doing it, hmm!"

"You're a fool."

"And you're the top half of a puppet, Sasori my man, but I don't hold that against you." Finishing his latest sculpture, he took it out.

"He's not going to like it, if he's not voicing it already."

He shook his head. "Trying to be cautious is why you almost died, hmm. Besides, he's not."

Sasori shrugged, not really caring. "Go ahead then." He watched the bomb drop.

"Just look." Deidara held up his hands in glee. "Art is a blast!"

Naruto's eyes widened as it did. "What the?!" He jumped, tilted his body toward the ground, and channeled concentrated wind chakra from his working hand to send himself up. "Why didn't you just?!" Clucking his tongue, he repeated the process until he was close.

"Uh, do you see that guy?" He asked, scoped eye zooming in on the soaring young man.

Sasori blinked. "I do."

"How did h–"

Naruto tapped it. A gale with the strength of several storms emerged from his hand and rocketed the sculpture away. He watched the massive clay bomb land on another spot of the forest. Once more, a flash lit up the night, hurting his eyes. The shock wave sent his falling form back somewhat, though not enough to send him spinning.

"...Son of a bitch." Deidara chewed clay into flying birds with his mouth hands. "Who the hell are you?!"

"He can't hear you," Sasori deadpanned.

Twitching, he threw them at his new enemy. "I know, hmm!"

Squinting, Naruto could make out the flying sculptures in the distance. He aimed more wind chakra at the ground to regain some altitude, held out his hand, and concentrated swirling fire chakra at its center. Whirling fire erupted from his palm, growing and consuming all before they could reach him. Changing fire to wind, countless blades whirled into a Rasengan. A twisting flick of his wrist sent it soaring through the still burning vortex.

Fire and wind blended into one. The whirling blades became the feeding core to searing flame. It shot out the other side of the fire whirl and spiraled through the air, growing bigger as it flew. By the time it neared the dragon, it dwarfed them in size. Deidara was already maneuvering away from ball of death but couldn't stop it from incinerating one of the clay wings.

Naruto brought his hands together and twitched when only his working hand could form its half of the Shadow Clone Jutsu sign. "Dammit!" He glared at the dragon spinning down and away from his range. "Lucky bastard."

Deidara attached himself to his creation with chakra to stop himself from falling off. Sasori covered it and himself with his iron sand, ensuring he and his puppet would endure minimal damage. They crashed through some trees and into the forest floor. Neither was hurt, but both were annoyed.

"I'm going to kill that whiskered little shit, hmm!" He reached into his clay pouch again before iron sand swept over his side, careful not to mix with his open wound.

Sasori swept himself over and raised himself with the grains to look him straight on. "Blond hair? Blue eyes?"

"Uh, I know what I look like, my man."

"You saw whiskers?"

"Why are...you…" Drifting off, he came to the conclusion his partner already had. "Out here near Orochimaru's main base?"

"The Leaf has been taking up whatever work it can get as of late."

"Don't we have some top spy who lives there? How the hell did he miss the jinchuriki going rogue?"

"Better question is why we weren't informed." Sasori murmured. "Or if our leader even knows." He looked to the direction of the nearest Akatsuki hideout.

Deidara struggled to free himself to no avail. "Can you let me go, hmm?"

"You're going to repair this, and we're going to leave." He was unfazed by his disbelieving face. "If you think you have a chance of winning after what he did to your bomb, you're worse than a fool: you're an idiot."

"Come on, Sasori my man, don't be like that!"

"We're going, and that's final."

He sighed. "...Fine, you're right." Relaxing, the iron sand moved off him. "But when we finally move on the jinchuriki, we're the first to bring one back, hmm."

"That will probably be Kakuzu."

"Why is he even with us?" He set his hands on his crippled creation and began chewing with them.

"Likely for our bounties." Sasori shot him a glance. "I know you don't believe in our goal."

Nodding, he scoffed. "I just want to practice my art, same as you." Killing Itachi was a personal bonus.

Naruto was back on his rooftop by the time they started their repairs. He stared at the one other person of note on it. Really, he wanted to slice him open, but that would've been pointless. What he really needed was an explanation.

"That was Deidara of the Akatsuki," Orochimaru elaborated. "Sasori of the Red Sand was with him and is also a member of the Akatsuki." He could see the gears turning in his protege's head.

"You were setting them up before we were followed."

He nodded. "Did you manage to kill one?"

"Probably not."

"Then we should go." He stepped in the exact opposite direction of his headquarters.

"What about…" Drifting off, Naruto realized where the original smoke cloud was. "Oh." His heart ached for a moment. "...Why?"

"They may have recognized you, and they would still come back after what you did even if they didn't. If you were to fight several S-Rank criminals here, more than a few civilians would be killed in a crossfire."

"Good point." He looked down and frowned.

"You don't need anyone anymore. Soon, you will be powerful enough on your own."

Without a word, he followed Orochimaru. Kuro stood by in silence, knowing he couldn't do anything. Saying goodbye to Rika, as much as he wanted to, didn't feel right. Those words were meant for someone else, and it would be wrong of him to give them to her. He'd proven unworthy of giving such sentiments already.

An explosion, however powerful, still was limited in range depending on its material. Granted, the fuel for Deidara's was far more than the common explosion's. The two new desolate craters could attest to that. Everything laying on the surface and some ways beneath was gone. Creatures far underneath still lived, albeit shaken from what they could feel.

Suigetsu, pressed against an unconscious Jugo in a ball of chakra chains, groaned. "Can you let go now?"

"Hold on." Lowering the protective dome to just one tying them, Karin shot another out through the ground around Kabuto's limp form. "There we go."

"Uh, hell–" He bit through his watery tongue when she dug upward, dragging them along with her.

She took a deep breath of air the moment she reached the surface before pulling the others out. "How do you weigh so much?! You're water!"

He floated on to his feet after the chain around him disappeared. "Not really." There was also the matter of the giant sword on his back. Eyes widening, he looked at their barren surroundings. "Damn!"

"Those two weirdos are gone." She looked to the unconscious group of anbu still beneath the earth, having endured the shock wave with little protection. "The others are alive." She squinted at him when she felt the relief in his chakra.

"What? …What?"

"Pervert." She adjusted her earthy glasses.

He scoffed. "I was surprised!"

"Sh-Shut up," Kabuto wheezed. He tried to push himself up but collapsed. "I just had to come back." Turning on to his back, he looked up to the sky. "...Mother."

"Oh right, you're poisoned."

"Too late…for...removal." His focus on enhancing his immune system was broken during his brief torture, and he just barely managed to maintain consciousness after enduring the force of the explosion.

Sighing, Karin walked over to him and pulled down her sleeve. "Here."

"Uh?" Suigetsu tilted his head in confusion.

Kabuto's blurring vision could barely make out her bite-mark ridden arm. "Huh?" He knew what they meant from times he assisted with Orochimaru's experiments, but he was surprised she was offering it to him.

"You're the only somewhat normal person here."

Suigetsu shot her a look. "Hey!"

"That's...sad." Kabuto bit into her forearm, connecting his body to hers. "Hng?!" More potent chakra than his body was familiar with surging through him, he jumped on to his feet. "So this is what it feels like." He focused his healing sensory on his body. "Antibodies already, but the parasites still live."

"Can you get them out?!" Karin asked.

"First, we get out of here." He looked at their unfamiliar surroundings. "We can't go back to Mori Town with these Aburame parasites." Running, he shifted his gaze to the high trees in the distance.

Suigetsu followed alongside Karin, who dragged Jugo's limp body along in another ball of chains. "Why not just kill him?!"

"Because I'm unfamiliar with this Aburame strain! They're only seeping poison into our blood! It could be they can tear apart our internal organs and are operating off their last given command! If their host is killed and more parasites of the same breed enter us relaying the information, they may go berserk!"

"Why not the others then?!" He caught up.

"It's complicated."

"…You know who that girl is, don't you?"

Kabuto's masked face turned to him. "Do you?"

"Something to do with Naruto." He frowned when he returned his focus ahead. "Are you really going to be like that?"

"Don't tell him."

His frown worsened. "Why the hell not?!"

"Because the best thing that will happen is him returning to the Leaf Village." Root was an organization he was more than familiar with, and Orochimaru enlightened him of Anko's sadism long before he experienced it. "And the worst thing is…" He struggled to imagine all the horrid things that'd spawn from an even more unhinged Naruto. "If you think he's bad now, you'll think that was him at his best."

"Can you at least tell me what happened?" Suigetsu stared out into the greenery as they left the crater. "All of this shit is going on, and I haven't been told so much as to fucking why."

"You know Na–"

"Naruto's a jinchuriki, yeah. I mean, why is he here? What is he doing all this for? And who are these people?"

Kabuto murmured, still not knowing the second question himself. "I'll answer what I can."

To his left, Karin kept pace despite their unconscious ally's weight. She wondered the same thing, but she could never get an answer from him. He kept them close yet only seemed attached to Jugo, who didn't really care what he was after as long as he was near him. Kitsune-Mask despised them personally despite having never met beforehand. Longing and love sprung from her chakra when she asked where he was.

"...No," she whispered to herself.

Kabuto eventually stopped at a tree, climbed it, and ran back down. Aware of where they were heading, he adjusted their course somewhat. They were leaving tracks, but he knew more than a few ways how to eliminate them. Getting the parasites out of them would be painful and the only real difficulty. It would be some time before they could regroup with Naruto.

AN: Did you know plastic explosives can't be detonated by fire? Storm is also a gale name/measurement. Those were curious facts I learned looking into them. Plastic explosives need a shock wave, i.e another preferably smaller explosion, to set off the reaction. Not trying to be realistic here since it's ninja magic, but it didn't feel right for fire to set off Deidara's clay bombs either.

I could not justify Kakuzu's super skin being resistant to super acid. Just seemed like too much to give him as is. He took a Rasenshuriken point blank and still survived. If Kakashi didn't have the Mangekyo in canon, he'd die in a 1v1. The only reason everyone survived in this is they lasted long enough to unintentionally make an opening for Utakata.

Sasuke is now Awakening Mangekyo Sasuke. His ocular jutsu are different because we all know what happened to Amaterasu: it was so strong it had to be regulated into a fodder ability for it not to win every encounter. Plus, it's just boring. Fire but black.

I've got the next two arcs more or less plotted out at this point. I'll admit this dragged on a bit, especially with the buildup leading into non-stop complications and action. This is a giant inciting incident. Canonical part 2 just headed straight into things, and it felt so rushed to me. We didn't get to see most of the Akatsuki members for more than a single arc either.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the form of a review or PM.