Crack!
A sudden, flowing earthen wall rose up inside the ramen shop, bursting the entire establishment apart.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
In an instant, terrifyingly high-pressure wind spheres tore through most of the earthen wall, flinging mud everywhere in a massive spray.
Ding!
Sasori's scroll had already fallen open. A brand-new humanoid puppet with black, iron-sand–forged arms blocked the scythe's strike.
With his other hand outstretched, the sigils for Summoning Jutsu glimmered; several kunai fitted with explosive tags shot out.
"Whoosh!"
Hidan's triple-bladed scythe brushed past Sasori's arm, cutting through his sleeve and slicing part of the limb, exposing an empty interior. Faced with kunai rigged to explode, he had no choice but to yank on his scythe chain and backflip away. While evading the kunai mid-air, he released the scythe, letting it spin around on its own.
"Tap!"
The moment he landed, he perfectly caught the scythe again, warding off the puppet's stabbing blade.
"Damn it! Kakuzu, this guy is the one I hate the most!" he roared, gripping the scythe with both hands and trying to overpower the puppet. "Hurry and finish off that brat!"
"Still got time to talk?" Sasori's fingers twitched, and from a corner sprang a lion-shaped puppet placed there beforehand. Its large jaws of razor teeth snapped shut with a violent chomp—
Crunch!
Fresh blood spattered, severing Hidan's torso at the chest and abdomen in one bite.
"So noisy."
The arm Sasori had gotten cut dangled loosely. He opened his other hand; threads of chakra connected five puppets. He glanced to the side of the battlefield.
Because his body needed to be a human puppet in order for him to operate puppet arts and Summoning Jutsu, he couldn't simply rebuild himself from iron sand like his newer puppets.
In truth, because Sasori was obsessed with human puppets, his actual combat power declined compared to his past self. While it's true that human puppets could replicate the jutsu the person had in life, they sacrificed the puppet's durability. Moreover, a human puppet was limited by its original body's capabilities, restricting how much it could be modified—excessive structural changes would ruin its original jutsu.
That was why, after leaving Sunagakure, beyond the Third Kazekage puppet and himself, Sasori practically had no noteworthy "works" anymore. In the orthodox puppet route—like Chiyo's style of controlling puppets with ninjutsu tools, seals, scroll-based weapons—Sasori's single-minded focus on the deceased subject's abilities was effectively a "corrupt path" for puppet masters.
Now that he'd taken up iron-sand puppets again, he'd lost an assortment of peculiar jutsu but had also regained much of the raw power he had before becoming a puppet.
"...."
Kakuzu's clothes were already torn, exposing all the stitches crisscrossing his body. Four differently shaped masks, enshrouded by black tendrils, stood on either side of him. He threw a glance Hidan's way, apparently unconcerned about his partner being dismembered.
"Glurp."
The ground suddenly split open; black threads dragged Hidan—cut into two—underground. Moments later, he reemerged intact at some distant spot, apparently revived.
[So he really is immortal…]
Sasori watched impassively.
"You jerk, you're just—" Hidan, looking completely disheveled, was about to spew curses when Kakuzu kicked him away.
Up in midair, several explosive tags attached to Hidan's back began to burn rapidly.
"Boom!!"
Amid swirling smoke and flying chunks of flesh, half an arm fell at Kakuzu's feet. Black threads lurking underground stealthily collected the torn limb.
"I told you not to let your guard down. If you charge recklessly against these two, you'll get yourself killed."
Kakuzu spoke while gazing seriously at a rapidly morphing earthen wall.
"Damn it all!"
Hidan's head landed askew in the distance. Black threads dragged it back like hauling garbage, and he still frothed with futile rage.
His Jashin secret ritual was near useless against puppet bodies that had no actual flesh or blood.
"Grrr!"
"Akatsuki… every single one of you…"
Link's calm voice sounded alongside fierce winds and beastly roars. In an instant, swirling dust was blown away; he spread his arms wide, towering overhead—
"…You're pissing me off."
Before he even finished speaking, Kakuzu's expression changed. With his four masked creatures, he sprang aside, shouting, "Watch out for the Shadows!"
Countless Shadows were already creeping in under cover of the swirling dust, launching simultaneous attacks in sync with Link's words.
Hidan, barely reassembled, was half a beat slow and swiftly swallowed up by the throng of Shadows. Especially the five specialized "Eight Gates Shadows," who moved even faster than him. As the slowest member in Akatsuki—merely "speed 7" overall—he couldn't contend with these "speed 8" eight-gates clones. In one blow, he was kicked flying.
Although Hidan's taijutsu was strong and his chakra huge, the "Jashin" technique lethal, no standard close-combat skill could withstand five enemies faster than you, fearless of pain, injury, or genjutsu.
On top of that, dozens—if not hundreds—of slightly slower regular Shadows swarmed in. The body Hidan had just gotten stitched together was torn apart once again in less than a second. Only his head and ring-bearing hand ended up in the grip of an Eight Gates Shadow perched on a rooftop.
Gaara, Kankurō, and Temari once had a taste of that same feeling.
[Doesn't look good…]
Kakuzu stood on another rooftop, eyeing the Mountain Drake now rising into the air, plus Link overhead. Then he focused on the horde of Shadows all around.
"Clack—"
The masks of Fire Release and Wind Release both opened their mouths simultaneously.
"Boom!"
"Strange Mask Exploding Flame!"
"Such strong chakra signals—?!"
Not far away, the Sunagakure jōnin "Mukade" led his three subordinates and their client away to safety. He himself leaped onto a nearby building, heading straight for the commercial street that had just erupted in blasts. Even though only a few days ago he'd informed Sasori-sama about Link's location, the idea that a fight might break out so soon made him tense. He hadn't yet forgotten how easily he'd been beaten in an instant. If Sasori-sama and Link were truly at odds, there might be no choice but for him to sacrifice himself.
The war-torn area was full of fleeing civilians, several collapsed buildings now billowing dense smoke.
Mukade hurried over, seeing the colossal throng of Shadows on the street. His heart sank at once. Then he noticed some bizarre figure with seams all over its body, standing among them, and his spirits nosedived yet again.
Before he could study the matter in more detail—nor find Sasori—he saw that monster's masked creatures suddenly open two masks in unison, and from them came the most explosive chakra reaction he'd ever witnessed. A terrifying high-pressure wind sphere, fused with an ocean-like blaze, almost entirely enveloped half of Nikkō Inn Town.
[This is bad!]
At his greatest speed, he formed hand seals to flee.
"Gurgle…"
Suddenly… countless bubbles rose from the ground, enclosing the firestorm and howling wind, all bursting midair.
"Boom!!"
~~~
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