If you asked Nao how she would be spending her one free day of the week, she would have said by herself. Having tea, an afternoon nap, and maybe reading a good book next to her fireplace.
Instead, she was now trudging through the cold snow, playing reluctant guide to a dangerous shinobi named Kakuzu. Despite giving him an accurate description of Fuyuta's pharmacy, he commanded her to come along and refused to explain why.
"Pick up the pace", Kakuzu warned. They were cutting it close and couldn't afford to dawdle. If he missed the pharmacist, there was no telling what or who he would annihilate.
Detecting Kakuzu's no-nonsense tone, Nao hastily picked up the pace. In her sleep-deprived state, it was a struggle to keep up with this mountain of a man. Her earlier nap hardly counted, it was filled with constant tossing and turning. Hell, Nao's subconscious knew that she was in pretty deep shit and couldn't let her sleep soundly.
Also, anyone could see how much shorter her legs were in comparison! Could he really fault her for not keeping up?
They finally arrived a couple of minutes before closing time. Nao was going to head straight inside, but a brown, outstretched hand stopped her abruptly. Any later and she would have had a bruised chest. She shot Kakuzu a confused look. He, on the other hand, cared very little for her perplexed expression.
"There isn't anyone inside but him", Nao started. She didn't detect any other chakra signatures in the shop, besides Fuyuta. It felt like they were standing around for no reason.
"Wait".
A world-class communicator, she sighed to herself. And so, they waited.
It was slightly past four when Fuyuta flipped the sign on the door to "closed". Once satisfied that no one was nearby, Kakuzu grabbed Nao's arm without warning and body flickered to the entrance. He opened the door and allowed her to stumble inside first. He followed and quickly closed the shop's door behind him.
"I'm sorry, but we are clos-", Fuyuta began. "Oh, it's you Nao-san. Do you…or your friend need something?"
Fuyuta was an older, pale-skinned man in his late-fifties with a full head of grey hair. His back was slightly hunched after years of toiling away in the shop, to the point that Nao and he were almost the same height. They had known each other for over ten years. When Nao first moved to the area, she ran errands in town for her mentor. Some of their herbal teas came directly from Fuyuta's shop.
"G-good evening-g, Fuyuta-san", she stuttered from the suddenness of their entry. "I'm sorry to disturb you this late but one of my travellers needs, um, supplies for his journey".
"Ah, welcome. H-how can I help you?" Fuyuta asked, slightly unnerved by Kakuzu's towering stature in his quaint shop.
"I need a specific chakra storage device; do you carry this?" Kakuzu asked, passing Fuyuta an object. Fuyuta held the item up with his fingertips and squinted.
As he did so, Nao recognised it as the same metallic fragment pulled from the deceased woman's stomach. Why the hell would Fuyuta have that? She thought to herself. He was a simple pharmacist in a civilian village, with little reason to carry advanced shinobi equipment.
Contrary to her expectations, Fuyuta's eyes widened with disbelief as his face contorted with rage. "N-no, of course not!" He spat out, much too harshly for someone who claimed to know nothing.
Bingo. Kakuzu could tell that the pharmacist was lying. When he first asked, the pharmacist's instinctual reaction was to glance to his right at a large apothecary cabinet. Armed with this knowledge, Kakuzu approached the cabinet. There were over sixty compartments; checking them one by one would be foolish and a waste of time.
Multiple threads emerged from Kakuzu's sleeves, each pulling open a drawer and investigating its contents. This terrifying display of threads intimidated Fuyuta, who was rendered mute. Kakuzu's first search yielded nothing, but these cabinets were notorious for holding hidden compartments. With a little more prodding, he finally found a hidden panel on the second row, third box from his left.
Sliding it open, he found a heavy metal box. On closer inspection, Kakuzu saw intricate seal markings on the exterior - seals that were capable of heavily masking the box and its contents. He was willing to wager that even the Uchiha brat's Sharingan couldn't penetrate it.
A high level of skill was needed to make these seals. And he highly doubted that this meek villager could have conjured up these seals. Once again, confirming that Kakuzu was up against at least A-rank missing-nin. They were skilled, highly evasive, and intelligent. Not willing to take any more chances, Kakuzu was determined to extract every last bit of information from this pharmacist.
And then dispose of him.
The seals were designed to make the contents undetectable, but the box itself was hardly invulnerable. After hardening his skin, Kakuzu effortlessly crushed it into smaller pieces.
Surprise, surprise. Inside were only two of the same metal balls, each hardly exceeding the size of a fingernail. As the last of his threads receded into his sleeves, Kakuzu tauntingly held up the balls in his palm and approached Fuyuta.
"Where are they?" Kakuzu eerily resembled a predator cornering its prey, his baritone voice made his approach even more terrifying.
Fuyuta unconsciously stepped back, turning as white as a sheet. "What-!" Before Fuyuta could finish his sentence, a tanned hand grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground.
"Last. Chance." Kakuzu warned.
"No, I c-can't! They'll kill me!"
After Nao's own close encounter with death, she recognized that Fuyuta was in grave danger unless he answered Kakuzu's questions. "Fuyuta-san, please! Tell him what you know!" She yelled at him in desperation.
Fuyuta's nervous eyes darted between Nao's pleading eyes and Kakuzu's murderous look. His dire predicament was slowly dawning on him, "Months ago, a man came here and paid me to distribute those devices in my medicine. Please understand, my shop was struggling and I needed the-"
"I don't care", Kakuzu growled, the pharmacist's remorse held no significance for his mission. "When did you see him last?"
"Umm, very early this morning. He came to my home and paid me double to rush the last box." Fuyuta suddenly turned to Nao with a pleading look, "He promised that our village will be safe after today!"
"How many people did they want for today?" Kakuzu interrupted.
Fuyuta gulped, well-aware that the masked man was going to be livid. "They wanted twelve women and children, six each. But I could only manage to get ten. They should be r-recruited tonight".
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed as he began grinding his teeth. Great. As if this mission wasn't tedious enough.
"Who is he working with?" Kakuzu snarled through clenched teeth.
"I swear, I don't know! I only saw him and no one else. That's all I know, now let me go!"
With that final plea, Kakuzu lost his temper.
Crack.
Fuyuta's body suddenly went limp as his head awkwardly lopped to the side. Watching this gruesome scene unfold, Nao's face contorted as a scream was working its way up. As if sensing her anguish, Kakuzu dropped the body and cast a lethal look at her. He was a man of few words, but his eyes conveyed his fury. If she didn't keep her composure, Nao would be the other lifeless corpse next to Fuyuta.
The scream died in her throat as Nao sunk to the floor. She clenched her hands into tight fists in front of her face, fingernails digging into the skin of her palms. It hurt. A lot. But it was better than winding up with a crushed windpipe.
Effortlessly picking up Fuyuta's body, Kakuzu roughly tossed him into the packed storage room. He couldn't waste any time, his mission deadline had moved up to this evening. If he didn't finish off the missing-nin, the mission would be listed an abject failure. More than anything, Kakuzu refused to become a laughing stock in the Akatsuki. Losing out to the brats was not an option.
It was evident that the missing-nin were cutting their losses and making a run. Fortunately, the pharmacist wasn't entirely useless. He gave Kakuzu's new, personal tracker something substantial to track. Paying no heed to Nao's inner turmoil, Kakuzu brusquely asked, "Can you track this?"
"W-what?" Nao glared at him while furiously trying to blink away the tears in her eyes. "Track. This", he bit out impatiently while holding the two metal balls in his outstretched hand.
She tentatively reached for them and stared. It was humming with the same chakra. Except, this signature was much brighter, fresher, and far colder this time. When Nao looked up at Kakuzu, he could see some of her helplessness dissipating. She was onto something.
"Where?"
"In the forest, towards the mountain," she mumbled despondently.
"Get up, you need to find them before tonight's summoning." Nao didn't object, she heard first-hand how many lives were at stake. Right now, she needed to forget about Fuyuta and his lifeless figure stowed away in the backroom.
They were trekking through the forest for nearly an hour. The target, who Nao informally called Girishi, was crafty. He left misleading footprints and frequently doubled back. No doubt to confuse anyone who tried to use conventional methods of tracking.
Fortunately, Nao was not so easily fooled. While Girishi's footprints would have led them through the large clearing, that trail was older and probably a ruse to ambush them. Girishi was careless, failing to conceal his chakra which led deeper into the forest.
Kakuzu was fairly sure that no one was hunting them. The group probably assumed that he was dead after the avalanche. If not, they would be busy with preparing for tonight's arrivals. Either way, it worked greatly in his favour. The forest was silent, barring some noise from its smaller inhabitants. The quiet suited Kakuzu well enough as being a lone bounty hunter meant weeks on end of silence. But of course, he was not alone at the moment, so it would be short-lived.
"You already suspected him, even before we left my house", Nao said quietly, her tone was rife with accusation. As hard as she tried, she couldn't shake off what happened in the pharmacy. Fuyuta's words and then the snapping of his neck was stubbornly imprinted in her mind.
"I had my suspicions", Kakuzu replied frankly.
"But how?" The question left Nao's lips before she could stop herself. She was well aware that he could kill her at any moment, but she couldn't let it go. You could pin it down to her stubbornness.
Kakuzu glanced briefly at her. He didn't need to engage her, but her determination and boldness amused him slightly. "Those metal balls are deceptively tiny but powerful. They can induce severe hallucinations and help the user control people. They can also be easily hidden within food...and medicine". Nao sharply looked at him with disbelief.
Kakuzu found her disbelieving stare annoyingly naïve. He knew better than anyone that betrayal was the nature of the world. Human bonds were fragile, weak, and prone to corruption. In the end, only money mattered. The case of the purchasable pharmacist proved his point.
"He may have done it for money, but you didn't have to kill him", Nao whispered, partly hoping that Kakuzu didn't hear her.
Kakuzu of course heard her and cocked an eyebrow. "Are you pleading the case of a man who sold your women and children?" He asked with a measure of incredulity.
Nao sighed. "No, he did a terrible thing. But he needed to answer for his crimes and to the families."
Kakuzu snorted in derision. "An apology would be pointless; the families would have demanded money. It was likely that he already spent it to keep his shop running".
"You don't know what the families wanted-" Nao stopped abruptly, staring at the ground. That doesn't make sense.
"Why are we stopping?" Kakuzu inquired gruffly.
Nao was at a loss for words and began wrecking her brain for an explanation. "Um, it goes into the ground now".
"There isn't a cave here", Kakuzu answered in a deadpan voice.
Duh, I'm not an idiot, Nao thought with irritation, but knew better that to utter those exact words.
"The trail is as strong as before, it just...went into the ground", Nao finished awkwardly.
With a significant dose of skepticism, Kakuzu went down on one knee and placed both hands on the ground. Fortunately, the innkeeper wasn't wrong. The ground below had been hollowed out, perhaps for an underground tunnel. Normally, one would need specific seals or a command to open such entrances. Kakuzu had neither at hand, but he could force his way through with an Earth-style jutsu.
"Stand back", he commanded.
Nao hastily left her captor's side and hid behind a tree. She peered from behind the thick trunk, her eyes held a mixture of curiosity and caution over Kakuzu's next move. With a quick flurry of hand signs, Kakuzu slammed his palms onto the snow-covered ground.
"Doton: Chidōkaku!"
The ground shook violently for a brief second before it sunk in. His technique breached the existing structure below and provided access to the secret tunnels.
With a nod, he signalled that it was safe to approach. "Woah", Nao breathed in amazement. Civilian bafflement at the simplest of techniques usually drew a snide remark from Kakuzu. But, for the moment he resisted the urge to take a dig at Nao. "Can you track him now?"
Nao nodded. "Yes, it is clear again".
"Don't scream", he commanded. Without giving her time to react, Kakuzu roughly hoisted Nao over his shoulder and jumped down into the pitch-dark hole.
Hiroyuki paced back and forth, his posture and gait riddled with anxiety. Today was a monumental day in his career, it promised the biggest pay-out his crew had in years. After his and his brother's dishonourable discharge from the Frost Daimyō's guard, they survived on meagre earnings from low-level, unsanctioned missions. This was before they discovered the lucrative market of human trafficking. It paid extremely well and bore far fewer risks; it even allowed the brothers to recruit two more for their crew.
That was until last night. The man in the red-and-black cloak pretty much pissed all over their plans. Nori and Setsu were convinced that they killed him in the avalanche. Toshiyuki, Hiroyuki's younger brother, was much more prudent. He wanted to immediately make a run for it. If the man had allies, they would notice his disappearance and hunt them down. But Hiroyuki was not so easily dissuaded. He somehow convinced his brother to stay for one last cash haul.
Of course, this new plan demanded extensive preparations. Hiroyuki journeyed early in the morning to meet with the pharmacist while Toshiyuki spent the entire day conserving his chakra. He needed every ounce to assist his brother in casting the large-scale genjustu. Nori and Setsu were busy preparing restraints for the prisoners and their departure.
Things were going smoothly until Hiroyuki detected a slight tremor. If he were to hazard a guess, it was somewhere near the Southern entrance. "Nori! Setsu! Go and check that out", he barked at the two men.
"Boss, it is probably a residual quake from last night's avalanche", Setsu feebly argued while Nori nodded in agreement.
Hiroyuki harshly rebuked the dissenting duo, "The last I checked you both weren't in-charge. Quit arguing and check out the Southern tunnels".
Neither Setsu nor Nori were in any position to argue with the stronger shinobi. As they made haste to investigate the tunnels, Hiroyuki resumed his impatient pacing. Nothing could go wrong today, and he was determined to see this mission through. No matter what.
It was at least a twenty-meter drop. The distance was child's play for a shinobi and Kakuzu landed without any incident. He abruptly let go of Nao who fell unceremoniously to the ground from his shoulder. It was the second time that she landed on her behind today. She bit back an acidic retort and chose to dust herself off. As Nao was finding her bearings, Kakuzu pulled out a small flare from his bag to light the way.
The tunnels were intricate, boasting an array of different paths. One wrong turn and who knows where you could end up. She could only see Girishi's trail so far, so it was safe to say that he was the only one who used this specific tunnel today. It stayed that way for five minutes, until Nao noticed two more potent figures headed straight towards them. She quickly whipped around to warn Kakuzu who was shadowing her.
"There are two people coming our way", she whispered in a panicked voice.
Kakuzu promptly snuffed out the flare and reached for Nao. One hand grabbed her shoulder, while the other covered her mouth. She let out a muffled gasp and momentarily struggled against his grip, but to little avail.
"Quit it", he muttered under his breath. As much as Nao resented the invasion of her personal space, she knew that it was fruitless to fight against Kakuzu's iron grip. A few seconds later, Kakuzu's ears picked up movement and voices.
"There is no way that someone found us", one voice boisterously proclaimed.
Unless you have a nosy, chakra-sniffing innkeeper, Kakuzu snidely remarked to himself.
"Hiro is paranoid. When he's like that, it's just easier to do what he wants", the second voice reasoned.
In stark contrast to Kakuzu's calm and stoic posture, Nao was riddled with worry. Her heart rate was rapidly ascending as the voices became louder and clearer. They were only a corner away from discovered. Kakuzu was not ignorant to Nao's panic, he could feel her heart thumping against his chest and her warm, quickened breath against his calloused hand. It was slightly absurd that she was this frightened, especially since these two goons weren't the real targets.
B-rank at best, he affirmed to himself.
The moment before the two men stumbled upon them, Kakuzu attacked.
Starting with the closer one of the duo, Kakuzu planted his foot on the target's knee. There was a sickening crunch, indicating that he successfully broke it. Before the target could yell, Kakuzu grabbed his throat and slammed him into the ground. He ended his first assault with a fist through the man's chest and quickly crushed his still-beating heart. He moved with such deadly speed and precision that Nao's untrained eyes barely registered the movement.
"Nori!" The second target exclaimed as his team member was finished off. He wasted no time in unsheathing his katana and making a dash towards Kakuzu. The second target was fast, but not fast enough. Kakuzu evaded the attack and tried to take him out with a hardened fist. Setsu ducked and narrowly avoided the attack, causing Kakuzu's fist to hit the wall. The acute pressure blasted a hole through it and caused some debris to scatter.
Setsu used the obscured field to reposition his blade and aimed for his opponent's head. Before his blade could make a cut, Kakuzu kicked the sword away causing it to become embedded in the ground. Without a weapon, Setsu was defenceless and couldn't avoid Kakuzu gut-punching him. Several of his internal organs ruptured immediately upon impact, making him as good as dead.
But Kakuzu was unsatisfied from the bout as the two men hardly put up a fight. He was hoping that the next opponent would provide a more thrilling match. Meanwhile, Nao stared at the dire aftermath of Kakuzu's attack and failed to stop a passing thought.
Good riddance. She loathed these men and didn't mourn their deaths at Kakuzu's hand. But why did she accept death as a form of punishment for these two men and not Fuyuta? The crime was the same. Was it because she knew Fuyuta and not these men? Yes, maybe that was the reason...
"Hurry up, you still have work to do", Kakuzu broke Nao's train of thought.
Forming her lip into a terse line, she nodded with determination. It was time to run and not walk.
They were lucky as the two (now-deceased) men left a very fresh trail for Nao. Kakuzu was certain that it would lead them straight to the rest of the crew. "Those thugs earlier weren't our real opponents. Once you know, tell me how many and then stay out of my way", Kakuzu commanded.
Nao knew what the last sentence meant. Stay out of my way or I'll kill you too. Understood, she swallowed.
A ball of anxiety formed in her stomach. She sensed another presence, bearing profound similarities to Girishi. Strong, harsh, and freezing.
"There are two in total. They are very nearby, a hundred metres straight ahead", Nao informed.
With that, a large hand grasped her left shoulder and halted her movement. Nao looked up in confusion over their sudden stop. Without returning her gaze, Kakuzu passed her the small flare.
"Stay here, you'll be fine". Before she could voice any sort of protest, he took off.
Nao stared blankly after him, her hands clutching the flare. A minute must have passed before she retreated to a wall. Sliding down it, she deeply exhaled. The ball of anxiousness and adrenaline gradually deflated.
Was this the feeling of relief or disappointment? She decided that it should be relief over missing the battle ahead. He was strong enough and didn't need a glorified bloodhound with little to no combat skills. This was finally over.
...Wasn't it?
Bloodlust coursed through Kakuzu's veins. He harboured a great deal of pent-up rage and was more than ready to exterminate his targets.
There was a deadend straight ahead, but Kakuzu knew that it was another disguised entrance. Sensing that it was pointless to disguise his presence any longer, Kakuzu unleashed his wind mask.
"Fuuton: Atsugai!"
The wall was blasted open. Once the dust settled, it revealed a dimly lit room. It seemed like there was no one inside, but the bastards must have been hiding.
"Are you any good or just a waste of my time?" Kakuzu roared. It was an open invitation to fight him, and it was quickly answered.
"Hyōton: Hyōken no Jutsu!"
'Typical', Kakuzu scoffed and dodged it with ease. It was the same technique as before and it bored him.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" Another voice cried out. A massive water dragon formed and was headed straight towards Kakuzu. This was much harder to dodge and Kakuzu decided that he wasn't going to. He hardened his entire body into an impenetrable shield. The dragon hit him head-on; the pressure was immense but Kakuzu stood firm.
Once the dragon dissipated, Kakuzu could finally see his true target. It was a young man in his twenties with short, blue hair. His headband was tied around his neck, it once bore the symbol of Shimogakure but that was now scratched out. Without missing a beat, Kakuzu launched forward. His target had quick reflexes and whipped out a kunai to block Kakuzu's hardened fist.
Kakuzu smirked, The brat has some skill. He released the jutsu and allowed his body to return to normal. Keeping the armour activated would have slowed him down otherwise. They exchanged a series of well-executed blows, making it a decent spar. Ultimately, the brat was outmatched as Kakuzu knocked the kunai out of his hand.
"Toshi!"
Ah, the other one has decided to join the fray, Kakuzu mused.
"Hai!" Toshiyuki dodged Kakuzu's fist and attempted to jump above them.
"Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishō!" Hiroyuki formed a thousand long needles from the water pooled at Kakuzu's feet. The needles completely surrounded Kakuzu on all sides, except above. Instead of trying to leap out of the way, Kakuzu had another plan in mind.
Pulling up his right sleeve, Kakuzu detached his right hand and sent it flying towards the brat named Toshiyuki. He grabbed the entirely surprised brat by the throat and dragged him down to become Kakuzu's human shield. Two birds, one stone.
"No!" The other one cried out. It was too late to cancel the jutsu and Toshiyuki couldn't evade the incoming barrage of needles.
Toshiyuki's body bore the brunt of the water needles and his bloodied body collapsed. Kakuzu was left mostly unscathed, save for a few needles that were embedded into his cloak. Shockingly, the brat was still alive but just barely. But Kakuzu wasn't going to take any chances and prepared the finishing blow.
"Run...Ni-san", Toshiyuki cried out weakly before Kakuzu snapped his neck. Hiroyuki let out an enraged scream before unleashing several kunai with explosive tags against Kakuzu.
The attack was a temporary distraction, but it was enough to let Hiroyuki get away from Kakuzu... and escape right down the tunnel where the innkeeper was waiting.
Shit.
A/N:
Doton: Chidōkaku - Earth Release: Moving Earth Core
Fuuton: Atsugai - Wind Release: Pressure Damage
Hyōton: Hyōken no Jutsu - Ice Release: Ice Sword Technique
Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu - Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique
Shimogakure - Village Hidden in Frost
Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishō - Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death
Hi, apologies that this took over three months to write. I kept re-writing the scene with Fuyuta for over a month! I also took longer because I kept wondering if my writing was any good. If you liked this chapter or have some constructive feedback, please write a review :) I would greatly appreciate it. Anyhow, hopefully the next chapter will take less time to write.