Everything was as Kakuzu suspected it'd be: survivors were in shock, the guardsmen were exhausted, and a field of corpses surrounded the palace. The daimyo was under threat or something extremely valuable in his possession was the target. A Leaf forehead protector he could make out on the Uchiha-looking kid told him a foreign detail was protecting him, meaning the aggressor was suspected to be a Steam ninja or obviously beyond their abilities. He burrowed underneath the ground a few seconds after the clone turned into smoke, seeking to minimize his potential enemies as well as check for escape tunnels, and practically swam through the dirt. If they somehow identified him, they would run or attempt to hide, so it was the best course of action.

Dosu gulped as the disturbing chorus disappeared. "Guys, I can't hear him: he went into the ground."

"I thought sound traveled better through solids," Tenten said.

"Sound is vibrations and the human ear processes wind vibrations best; my sound chakra enhances it drastically. If I knew how to hear through solids, we wouldn't have needed the Sharingan to check for Earth Style users."

"We still need to improve your chakra control." Inventing jutsu with an element he never heard of and couldn't use was an interesting challenge to Kakashi but arguably a misplaced priority. "If I concentrated only on that, who knows what you could do."

"Again?!" He shot him a glance. "Are you really going to say it right now?!" If he died, at least he'd never have to hear him repeat the spiel.

Kakashi looked onward to the ruined city instead. "Just focus, Dosu." His eyes widened alongside Sasuke's at the fast-moving mass of chakra below.

Hidan laughed. "This is why I ne–" The earth uprooting before them made him grin.

Kakuzu's eyes didn't shift an inch from the center of their group, as if seeing through them. "You're Sakumo's child." He hummed. "And you are an Uchiha, making you Itachi's little brother." Various estimates and calculations flew through his mind. "Looks like this was worth my time."

They moved the instant he stopped talking. Guy and Lee set down the royals, activated the Fifth Gate, and sprung at him from opposite sides. Kakashi, Tenten, and Sasuke drew kunai to throw at his joints. Sakura took a deep breath before grabbing the handle of her sword. Kiba, not as fast as the bowl-cut duo quite yet and holding a prisoner, waited alongside Akamaru over accidentally entering the line of fire. Dosu began forming hand signs.

He blocked both of the green beast's shock wave inducing kicks with his arms. "I felt that." The ninja tools briefly pierced his cloak but bounced off his hardened skin.

Before he could counteract, Sakura alone was before him, Guy and Lee bouncing back to evade whatever he had planned. She altered the properties of her blade after she figured out how to and never changed them. It was drawn into a slash like a bolt of lightning. His flesh, reinforced as it was, may as well have been air. A hand grabbing the hilt stopped her from getting further than his shoulder though.

"Neither wind, water, fire, nor lightning." For the first time since he met their leader, he was surprised. "You altered the properties with earth rather than reinforcing them." He lifted the blade out of him, shifted his grip to her wrist, and twisted her into a choke-hold within a second. "I found a fortune."

"You!" Sasuke stomped toward him but his sensei's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

The tomoe of Kakashi's Sharingan whirled into a pinwheel. "I'll do it."

"Actually." Dosu finished his signs and clapped his hands. "I did."

Kakuzu wavered for a moment and only one, using the still-conscious girl to steady himself. "Sound?" Threads emerged from his calves and steadied him with the ground. "Not auditory genjutsu." As he said those words, he saw the tomoe and pinwheel whirl. "The Uchiha were always so reliant on that little trick." He focused on the latter as Sakura went limp, dropping her sword. "A tranplantee that can activate the Mangekyo." He lifted her body to guard his vitals. "Your name and bounty suit you, Hatake." The scowl on his face confirmed his suspicions. "So it's either the black fire or some other offensive jutsu."

"Itachi," Kakashi hissed.

Reading lips was something he learned ages ago. "He has it then." He scoffed at the two Sharingan-users' confusion. "Neither of you are special."

Kiba and Akamru could only gawk. "What the fuck?"

"The man fought Hashirama; I'm surprised you're all still breathing!" Hidan chuckled.

"I assume you're the one who bombed the city," Kakuzu said, noticing his condition and lack of commonality with the others. "No bounty on you."

He laughed harder. "Not a ryo!" A smack to his face made him twitch. "Since we're talking, can you help me out here?" He sighed at another. "I'm a big fan of your work, but I know you're not one for sentiment, so I'll trade my freedom for what's left of my ninja days stash. Just take the kunai out of my neck."

Minoru, shaking, stepped forward. "I-I have a counter offer!" He gulped as everyone focused on him. "I give you whatever you want in exchange for the lives of everyone here."

Hitomi scowled. "Minoru!"

"A puppet's words are as worthless as they are." Kakuzu's upper arm shot out, extended by threads; grabbed the kunai in Hidan's neck, and tore it free before they could break out of their shock to react. "You are in no position to bargain regardless."

Sasuke reached into his pouch. "Kiba!"

"Right!" He prepared to move toward him before the freed kunai nearly slashed his eyes, making him fall back for Akamaru to catch.

Tenten's gaze couldn't leave the embedded blade that did what her team's best failed at. "Lee!" Her lack of visual recognition told him all he needed to know.

Kakuzu noticed the boy in green disappearing from his line of sight. Predicting his next action and wary of possible tricks, he sunk into the ground. A sweeping leg missed him in favor of a sword hilt, letting him know their ability to wound him was still limited. It ripped through the earth and was sent flying toward the other girl. Sasuke, seeing an opening, moved toward Kiba but his extended arm swiping forced him back.

Leaning out of its edge's path, she caught it by the hilt. "Damn." Her hands shifted into a proper grip before she launched herself at his disembodied one and severed it from the rest of him while his attention was divided. "Double-edged, perfect balance, thick blade, and somehow no warping."

"I'm going to kill all of you." He sunk completely into the ground with his captive in his good hand, attached threads retreating after him.

"Sakura!" Sasuke nearly turned to their own sinking sensei before he noticed the massive shift in their enemy's chakra. "Everyone move!"

The urgency in his voice spurred those who couldn't see to follow his advice. Lee and Guy grabbed their majesties before jumping toward the palace's defensive walls. Kiba, being the farthest back, fled into the palace interior with Akamaru. Sasuke, Dosu, and Tenten ran up the palace's actual walls. Kakashi just sunk deeper, aiming to catch their enemy by surprise and rescue his student.

Where Kakuzu's severed arm once was, a mass of threads bared a deformed mask. Its mouth opened with sparks that would've sprinkled if not for their cramped environment. A torrent of lightning followed. Those who saw it from far away would've thought lightning struck the earth rather than the sky in succession. Had they remained, all would've been crispy but not completely unharvestable or unrecognizable.

"It's Kimimaro all over again!" Tenten scoffed at the scarred ground. "Except this guy could probably kill him."

Dosu couldn't hear her or anything save a loud droning. "Ah…fuck."

"That was something to beat out a firework show!" Minoru would've laughed in wonder if it wasn't done in an attempt to kill him. "Did everyone see?" He turned and widened his eyes at the countless bodies.

Back inside the palace halls, Kiba grit his teeth at the damage he could see. "Why didn't I pick up any ninjutsu?"

Hidan, spine healed, set his elbow right by pressing it against the boy's back. "Powerful." Shifting, he locked him into a rear naked choke. "But every jutsu is just a means to an end." He tried to use him as a shield against Akamaru, but he was too slow to maneuver in time, getting knocked away from the sheer force.

"Try!" He rushed and punched with Akamaru only for him to catch their fists. "This?"

He bit his lip, spat blood into their eyes, swerved around the real Kiba in their confusion, and managed to swipe a kunai from his pouch before getting elbowed in the face. Together, they pummeled him toward the wall. Streaming wind chakra enhanced the edge of the kunai into something that could cut through normal metal, but he was too off-balance from the elbow-strike to slash any vitals. Physically outmatching them wasn't possible. Ramming the ninja tool into his own mouth bought him the second he needed to infuse it with his breath.

"The he–" Kiba caught his wrist before he could swing the forming wind scimitar.

Akamaru working his gut didn't faze him. "Wanna see something cool?" He streamed fire chakra through the wind blade, creating a massive gout of flame that set whatever it touched alight.

Kakashi managed to circle around Kakuzu's position in the time it took him to launch the lightning. Using the ability of his eye could kill him in an instant, but it could also take Sakura with him if he wasn't accurate enough or his enemy moved like Orochimaru did. The first blow had to be swift and decisive or at the very least crippling. He shifted to his back as quickly yet as quietly as he could. When he was in range, the crackling of lightning could only be heard after his hand pierced through where his spine should've been and heart, careful not to go any farther.

The beaked masks sowed to his back opened as he grunted. "Pest." Concentrated water tore through his lung before air blasted him up and away alongside his cloak.

"What?!" His own back smashed against a remnant of the palace's perimeter wall.

"You should have gone for the head." One of the masks broke. "Now I need a replacement." The organ contained within wriggled through his jigsaw body and found its place in his chest.

Guy jumped down, picked his eternal rival up, and leaped back on to the battlement. "Are you alright, Kakashi?!"

"H-Help Sakura. Watch out for something on his back." His feet were placed evenly on the ground, but he fell back into his arms. "Don't do what you're thinking of. Just...use her sword; have Sasuke and Dosu support you with lightning from range once she's clear."

"Right!" He set him down against the parapet. "Don't worry." Glancing at the annoyed dowager lady, he bent his knees. "I'll be back, your majesty."

Tenten and Sasuke stood unfazed while Dosu nearly fell off at him rocketing to their position, forming a small crater with his landing. "Sword, right?" She nearly pouted as she handed it over.

"Sakura can probably get you one like this." He turned away from his beaming student to his rival's. "You are both to assist me with your lightning after I free her."

Dosu blinked. "What?"

Sasuke's eyes widened at a correct conclusion brought about by wrong assumptions. "He must have been reinforcing his body with earth chakra!" The lasting puzzled look on his teammate's face matched the droning in his ears. "Oh, you can't hear me."

"I can't hear you!"

He created sparks between his hands and pointed down. "Thunderbolt Jutsu." He went through the hand signs without kneading his chakra and pointed at himself.

"Fry him when you do." Dosu nodded as he did affirmatively.

Kiba and Akamaru backed away before the entire hall was in flames. "You're insane!"

"Enlightened!" Hidan threw the kunai so it wouldn't fuse with his hand and clucked his tongue when it, other than lacking the effect he wanted, missed. "If I just had my scythe, you'd be dead right now." The fire engulfed his body, not that he cared. "I'll admit it: you're strong. But you're still lacking."

His face scrunched in confusion and his sheer absurdity. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He stepped back as he stepped forward with the fire growing around him.

Grey hairs on his head burned to ash. "Me?" He scoffed. "You're the one running away."

"You're on fire!"

"So whaaaat?!" He shook his head. "This is exactly what I meant when I said you didn't beat me." Frowning, he glared at him. "You don't have the balls."

Kiba growled at the memory of the last person who denied his agency before squinting. "You're just goading me."

"Well duh, but you know I'm right."

"Asshole." He took out a kunai with a tied explosive tag from his other pouch and threw it.

Hidan blinked when he managed to make the tag out with his fire-clouded, eye-boiling vision. "Oh shi–" The fire detonated the explosive before it could reach him, but it still took a good bit of his face and chest as it sent him back.

Deeper within the earth, Kakuzu dropped the girl. She made a good hostage, but using her as a shield would jeopardize the wealth he'd gain from selling weapons she altered with her chakra. There was more than a small chance some of the others survived. Her blade could still hurt him, and it was dangerous if either of the shinobi in green were around to wield it, so holding back in any way wasn't an option. His flesh split and threads shifted until nothing about him could be recognized as human.

"He's coming!" Sasuke pointed to where his twisted form was rising.

Two masks on threaded masses emerged from the earth, each looking in opposite directions. A moment after, they spiraled, blowing fire and wind into a burning vortex that threatened to reach them. Guy launched himself into the fray regardless. Their swirling forms joined to blast him back with a wind-amplified burst of fire. He moved away before it could burn him completely but was still scorched.

Both of their strongest were grievously wounded. They only had two methods of harming him, and just four of them could with Sakura captured. If he were at least showing himself, they'd have a chance, but the abominations made of him had no observable weaknesses. He was out of their league, even with their combined abilities and joint tactics. Overhead, bubbles floated once more with their caster, uncertain of his own effectiveness against such a foe, rushing toward them.

Seven conscious shinobi watched the entrance of the chamber and each other. The Leaf shinobi, ironically including the pretending spy, didn't trust the opposing side in the least. Naruto's minions trusted them as long as they had a common enemy, unaware of their particular sub-faction. Lucky for them, their enemies were heading the right way. Both knew something was off though.

"No traps," Deidara said.

Grumbling, Sasori stared at the light ahead. "We're not alone or this place is about to come down on us."

Suigetsu, hearing their movements, stepped into the entrance's line of sight. His finger was already pointed. A slight adjustment downward levied it at his head. Just as he finished, water shot from his fingertip through what seemed to be his skull. The smirk on his face died when he realized he wasn't bleeding.

"A Hozuki?!" Deidara put a hand over an oozing hole inches away from his heart and spine before fleeing back into the hall.

"Interesting." Sasori carried on regardless. "I wonder if it's possible to make a puppet out of you."

Jumping back in case of any surprises, Suigetsu frowned. "What?"

He held out his left arm, a bulky capsule-like appendage with rods containing poisoned needles. Several spikes of earth shot out from underneath him and shattered against his body as he launched them. Preferring to be cautious, he watched how they reacted rather than follow up. The Hozuki liquefied, the orange-headed young man's skin hardened, the last two on their side sank, and the others did nothing with the kitsune-masked girl raising a halting hand. When the needles exploded, not a single one so much as grazed their skin.

Suigetsu scoffed. "Aren't you supposed to be some legendary badass?" He glanced at their previous opponents and rightfully assumed the Hyuga girl's chakra emissions redirected anything that could've striked them.

"Deidara, support." Clay centipedes and spiders skittered across the floor with those words.

Hinata, seeing them coming and how chakra constructed them, emitted lightning from her aligning tenketsu to detonate them right next to him. "Enough obstacles." Her hands clenched into fists, seeing his shell withstood them through the smoke. "I've waited too long." One on her shoulder calmed her down and halted her from further action.

"The hell, hmm!?" Deidara's voice echoed.

"Your explosives are a detriment." The smoke cleared to reveal the demon mask shell of the puppet. "I'll handle this alone."

"Cocky son of a bitch." Suigetsu blew another hole in its body. "Where's the real you?" He looked to Jugo, who was focusing on the girl, before looking at the rest. "Are you guys going to do anything?"

The Ankos shrugged. "You're doing well enough." They were still enemies, and they only needed one of them alive to divulge Naruto's location.

Hinata could see the Uzumaki weaving her chains through the ground to create an inescapable trap for him and the false anbu taking a moment to breathe. "The red-haired woman is about to act."

A segmented, bladed tail shot from the mask's open mouth. It, like the needles, was coated in the same fatal poison. Jugo was too distracted to stop it from piercing him but the rush of adrenaline let him keep the point in place. With a grunt, he lifted Sasori up by the tail and flung him into the wall to his right. The others had to move before he slammed him into the one by them. He didn't stop.

"I keep forgetting how strong you are." Suigetsu ducked before the puppet could slam into him, not wanting to lose more of his water content. "Maybe bring it home already?" He flinched at his guttural roar.

"His attacks are ineffective." Hinata could see barely any damage in the puppet's material. "The red-haired woman no longer has a clear opening."

Anko hummed. "What about the other Akatsuki?"

"Deidara is following Sasori's orders and keeping clear." She looked through the wall in his direction. "His explosives are dangerous yet ineffective in this environment, especially against skilled applications of Lightning Style."

Enduring the latest throttling with ease, Sasori was beyond sure his poison wasn't effective. He slaughtered hundreds in the Third Shinobi World War thanks to its debilitating effects. An ordinary shinobi would be laying still in agonizing pain, not throwing him around like a rag-doll. Eliminating them required a more active touch. Neither side was really giving it their all yet too, seeing as how the other half of the ambush group did little.

Jugo, tired of batting him around, threw him up into the ceiling, aiming to finish him with his yet-to-be-named chakra cannon while he was in the air. Chains emerged from floor, walls, and the ceiling before he could. They wrapped around the puppet, suspending him in the air. A second after, it was torn apart. The red-headed young man that dropped out was only recognizable to three of them.

Sasori took a scroll labeled 'three' out of his pocket. "Well then," his voice was softer yet far colder as he opened it. "Let's get serious."

"Oh shut up!" Suigetsu fired relentlessly into the smoke. "You're the biggest disappointment since D-rank hell!"

"That was uncalled for." The cloud dispersed, revealing countless grains of black composing a dented ball.

"What the?"

Growling, Jugo pointed his warped hand at it. "Die!"

Sasori, having been graciously warned he had something more damaging than his ally's jutsu, moved along the black sand out of the beam's path. The chains still present went down to envelop him, but the odd sand spiked between their gaps, crippling their maneuverability. With the dome turning into a series of spikes, they could see his hidden weapon. Only two recognized it. An answer to a long standing mystery was right in front of them.

"That's...the Third Kazekage!" Anko couldn't help but laugh.

Hinata recognized the black grains as iron infused with structured and concentrated chakra yet was unsure what to make of it. "He can use the jutsu and kekkei genkai of those he turns into puppets."

Suigetsu's eyes widened at them. "Really?" He turned to their enemy. "You turned him into a ninja tool?"

"Yes," Sasori deadpanned, sending iron sand after him and Jugo.

"...Hardcore, man." He scoffed at the black pooling around his feet. "And that's not going to work."

The sand stopped as Sasori put his hand on the sand. "Fool." Lightning chakra powerful enough to kill most people streamed from his body through the extremely conductive material, shocking him and Karin into unconsciousness.

Jugo blasted at the sand going after him, but it was too late. More dug beneath the ground toward him than there was crawling in the chamber. They rose and skewered him. Shifting, the sand spread out within, spreading poison and rupturing his internal organs. He dropped from shock as well as the damage to his spine.

Sasori turned to the remaining group while the chakra chains dissipated. "Are you going to do anything?" He blinked, noticing their appearances were distinct from the others. "I've walked into something completely unrelated to what I came here for."

"Tell me about it," the Ankos said in unison.

"I assume you're here for Orochimaru, which makes you either anbu from the Leaf village or another of the Great Shinobi Villages." His face was as still as their masks. "Fact you remained neutral through this encounter means my organization and I could be of some interest. I could hardly care about killing any of you, so I propose we join forces to find Orochimaru." The puppet shocked Suigetsu again, seeing he was stirring and didn't let up.

She laughed. "Don't think you're enough for him?"

"Rather I have something and not need it than need it and not have it."

"He all you're after?" Her clone asked.

"So you're here for his research." He put together his spy either was outed or betrayed him when he walked into that room. "You won't find anything here, seeing as how the initial ambush was meant for me and my partner." He looked to the lightning-conductor Hozuki. "One of them likely knows Orochimaru's location, which is most likely where he's keeping all his valuables."

The Root agents shared looks with each other. Whatever the Akatsuki was there for, it wasn't Naruto, at least not yet. He single-handedly dispatched their previous opponents without much effort, so fighting him would be bloody. Fighting him was also inevitable, but they'd have the element of surprise on their hand if they temporarily joined forces. All they needed was the location.

"Alright." She focused on the puddle man too. "But I don't think we can get anything from him."

Hinata looked down at Kabuto's faltering form. "The masked man is still conscious and poisoned." Jugo, somehow still alive and healing, was too unstable while the Uzumaki woman was out cold.

"There, huh." Sasori sent his black sand through the ground over. "You." It coiled around him and lifted him to the surface, forming spikes aimed at vital areas. "Where is Orochimaru?" He didn't need to tell him what he'd do if he resisted.

Kabuto laughed at how much he underestimated the puppeteer's abilities. "Do you really think I know?"

Anko stepped toward him before he could experience the excruciating sensation of what was essentially sand paper grinding against his internal organs. "This your first time?" She dispelled her clone and beckoned her trainee over. "He'd die of shock if you do that." Sparks danced between her gloved fingers.

"In my experience, the pain is enough to get them to talk before they do," Sasori said. "Everyone breaks."

Hinata, feeling phantom zaps in her most affected spots, made a spark between her own fingers by her teacher's side. "He will."

"Not the best position for a sneak attack," Kabuto whispered loud enough only for them to hear. "If I tell him what you're after, you can kiss that goodbye." He smirked behind his mask at the glares he knew were behind theirs. "Shock me until the others wake u–" Them doing exactly that cut him off and killed Sasori's growing suspicion.

Resistance to interrogation, RTI, was practiced in depth within just the blackest anbu circles. Suicide capsules and cursed seals were the only surefire method of ensuring silence. Human beings were limited by their forms, and the body was bonded closely to the mind. In truth, he would've told them under any other circumstance, but he was already broken. Naruto was the same, recognized it in him, and didn't want him to be alone, which is why he couldn't.

At first, Hinata didn't know what to make of inflicting the same pain she endured on another person. It was stressful to even think about what she experienced, and those thoughts shifted to the loving aftercare she received. The awkwardness she felt faded after more than a few shocks. Catharsis gradually set in with the growing realization she wasn't the victim, at least not then. She felt so free she almost giggled, but she couldn't be anymore bound.

Several minutes passed before Karin stirred. The electrocution session half of what she had for friends were going through was immediately noticeable. Both female torturers shared, not counting the unique qualities each chakra carried, nearly the same signature, only one's enjoyment was too indulgent. Crushing with her chains didn't work, so she was grateful Suigetsu was too scattered to make remarks. Her chakra constructed more chains and whipped over binding.

Hinata shifted her body by Anko's and emitted concentrated chakra from the tenketsu along her side to cut apart the chain-whip before it could do the same to them. Sasori, lacking the Byakugan's vision, was severed from the lower and middle sections of his puppet body. Realizing the danger to his core, he swept along the black sand back, sending more digging down to eliminate his enemy. Anko planted a foot on the iron mass and streamed lightning chakra through it, driving Hinata to do the same. Sai's ink giants blindsided the still-moving puppet-man to complete the ambush.

While Sasori still had enough control to move himself away, his iron sand wasn't nearly as fast. Their fists made cracks in his wooden flesh, lacking the same durability as his Hiruko shell. Karin, seeing the chakra moving the iron and ignorant of his weakness, fled deeper down in panic. He held his chakra-stringed hands out at each giant and shot fire sealed in a scroll on his back through specialized pipes jutting out his palms. The iron sand by the women shocking him raised in the form of spikes.

Chakra emissions broke them apart and rended the section from the rest, severing the stream of magnet chakra flowing from the collective grain. Hinata, emitting far more concentrated chakra, lunged spinning at him. Neither his fire nor his iron sand could penetrate her barrier of unimaginably sharp blades. At least free from being electrocuted, he raised the iron between them before pushing himself back with it. She could see through his jutsu and knew how to kill him.

Kabuto stared, on his knees and still twitching from his torture session, at the familiar spiral around the girl, putting two and two together. "...You have to be fucking kidding me."

"Jealous?" Anko shot him a glance. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Th-There is no way in hell I'm telling you anything." He knew who she was and was disappointed in himself that he didn't see it sooner with how different they were from actual Root agents.

"Oh, you all say that."

Sasori hadn't used himself in combat since he joined the Akatsuki, and it'd been even longer since he was pressed as he was. They would've all made fine material to work with. As much as he wanted to stay to procure them as such, things were not looking good for him. Not even his objective was in reach anymore, and Deidara's art, as usual, was subpar. His next move he wasn't feeling all that into needed to work or else he had to flee.

Karin stopped sinking when the iron sand went back up to protect its user from another dangerous enemy. Suigetsu was finally getting his bearings and looking forward to enacting vengeance. Jugo, still out, was at least almost healed. While the damage Kabuto suffered was superficial, he was still failing to fight off an extremely potent poison he rendered the only man with an antidote to unconscious. Their thoughts aligned with their pain of an enemy.

Hinata manifested the lion fists as soon as she stopped spinning and launched them at him, sapping the chakra from his iron. She didn't stop. Naruto was so close, and they dared want to take what she sacrificed everything for. They needed to die for the threat they posed to the Shinobi World in general, but she wanted them to for getting in her way. If she had the opportunity, she'd kill the other opposing group for the same.

Daybreak was still hours away for all.

AN: I've suffered from a lack of motivation to do anything as of late. And I mean anything. Even playing video games. I chalk it up to getting off caffeine. Believe it or not, caffeine withdrawal is real. I slept for the better part of a day after going without. Crazy shit. Brain is adjusting, I guess.

Deidara and Hidan have to be the squishiest of the squishy among the Akatsuki, but Deidara takes the prize. Hidan is at least immortal. Deidara? The second I started writing that fight, I realized Deidara would die if I had him involved in any real capacity. He's just not that guy. Designated jobber Akatsuki really. Poor bastard. Even on his bird and them falling for his tricks, early part 2 Kakashi and Naruto were beating his ass. In all his fights when alive, he nearly or does blow himself up.

Kakuzu, on the other hand, is one of the toughest. I was tempted to give him kekkei genkai hearts, but that'd just be overkill. Besides, if he had those, it seems like something he'd keep for special occasions. Kekkei genkai are well protected after all, so obtaining them in event one heart gets damaged would be a major pain.

Sasori is another case of Kimimaro in the story. As in both died because of plot. Specifically, Sasori only died because he wanted to at the end of his fight. His skillset is the most interesting to work with, and he took down Hebi/Taka/Orochimaru's Bastards momentarily because of his favorite puppet. The ability to use other people's abilities after turning them into puppets is absurdly broken as is his poisons. Were his opponents most of the other cast, he'd win. Just one of those things. Power isn't straightforward and so on.

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