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The canyon's floor was painted in copper hues by the rising sun, but the air was dry and brittle, too cold for comfort, too empty for peace. A weak wind dragged dust across the rocks in long sighs. This region, halfway between the merchant-heavy Fire Country corridor and the colder, iron-clad trade roads of Tetsu no Kuni, rarely saw battle... but it smelled like aftermath.
Neji moved with the precision of a blade too dull to cut but still sharp enough to threaten. Every breath felt like glass in his throat. His hands were scorched from the explosive tags he'd used to kill the Uchiha. The bones were likely fractured. The skin was raw beneath the bandages. His right hand was useless, the left barely more than an aching weight. His head pulsed in slow waves from chakra depletion, and his dry tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.
The soldier pill had kept him upright, but it couldn't restore him. It gave him enough stamina... enough to think, barely enough to survive.
His cloak hid the worst of the damage. Blood had soaked through the side of his robes from the shoulder wound, and his bangs hung heavy and matted with sweat, covering his bandaged forehead... and the seal beneath it. Even if someone stared straight at him, they'd see a near-dead boy, not a Branch Hyūga.
He didn't expect company. Certainly not here.
He didn't register the approaching figure until it was too late to hide. He appeared in the 15 minutes span between activating and deactivating.
--
Kakuzu was in no mood to waste time.
He had followed whispers and corpse trails from the edge of Mugen Company's checkpoint to this godforsaken ridge. The last bounty had cost him a heart. Even the money had been cut in half.
Useless.
He needed a replacement. Soon.
His steps didn't echo, but his presence filled the canyon like a slow-moving pressure wave—dense, unnatural. He hadn't slept in days, didn't need to, but even immortals got irritated. His hands twitched, not from fatigue but sheer, burning impatience.
He caught the scent of old battle... not just blood. Chakra residue clung to the air, faint, very dilute, but distinct. Someone had cleaned up the site. Someone decent. Quick.
He noticed a odd shaped rise on the ground. He uprooted the ground with a single earth-release spike. A body surfaced like driftwood.
Still warm.
He crouched beside the corpse.
A gaping hole in the chest. He didn't bother with the heart. Not worth it. He needed a heart still full of chakra and fear.
Eye sockets strained. Must be some kekkei genkai user. Internal bleeding. The mouth frozen in the shock of an instant kill. Chakra burns along the ribs... residual tag signatures. Old-fashioned, but effective.
He plucked both eyes cleanly, one after the other. Stored them in a sealed jar. Not for pleasure. Just profit.
Then he noticed very faint footprints near the tomb that the body was buried.
Small. Narrow.
Not short... young.
And the faint blood trail, nearly wiped by the wind. He followed it purely out of curiosity.
An Hour Later
And there it was. A figure huddled beneath a redstone outcrop. Not hiding. Not resting. Just… suspended. Half-slumped. Half-aware. Like a doll that hadn't been told whether to collapse or fight.
Thin. Cloaked. Bloodstained.
White eyes.
Kakuzu froze.
"Byakugan," he muttered.
Not activated... flickering. Like a candle burning from both ends. The left eye blinked slowly. The right dimmed out entirely, the veins receding. The chakra flow stuttered, then failed.
The boy was almost done. Barely breathing. Skin pale. Lips split. Hands bandaged in blood and dirt. Cloak dried in red.
He except some young genius who could have killed a chunin level shinobi. ALl he saw was a devastated boy who barely survived.
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes.
"...Tch." He clicked his tongue as if he was disappointed.
--
Neji couldn't speak. His throat had closed hours ago. Every swallow was a slow-bleeding wound. He couldn't raise a kunai. Couldn't lift a hand to strike. Couldn't channel chakra into his feet if his life depended on it—which, apparently, it now did.
The man wore a village symbol that looked like it is not from the main hidden village. Didn't carry any obvious weapons. He had a suitcase in his hand. But Neji had never seen a shinobi feel this wrong. Controlled. Focused. Like the world moved around him—not the other way around.
Enemy.
Kakuzu crouched a few meters away. Casual. Like he was checking the market price on a half-rotten vegetable.
"Hyūga," he said. Not a question. "No headband. No squad. Burned hands. Broken body."
He tilted his head slightly. Not with curiosity. With accounting.
"You're the one who killed that chunin and buried in the ground? It seems you have not done a good job it led me here."
No answer. Just the soft wheeze of Neji trying not to pass out in front of him.
"You don't look worth the effort and seeing you not having a headband you are not even a shinobi or lost your headband which ever it is," Kakuzu said, almost to himself. "Your clan might pay to get you back. Or maybe I just take the Byakugan and sell them to the right collector. I should verify if you are from branch or main family. Either way, your body should be worth something."
"Usually I would have not bothered to care about a kid. I am currently in a very bad mood. Your lucky is not very good kid. For you to die so young."
Still no response.
Not defiance. Just nothing left to give.
Kakuzu stood.
He flickered forward, fast and clean, with a sharpness that made the air flinch. One hand outstretched, already brimming with threads beneath the skin.
Then it happened.
Neji's body jerked forward. Not to fight. Not to run.
To kneel. He was losing consciousness. He couldn't register what he was saying. He knew that he is about to die.
I wish I'd spent more time with my brother. Hopefully, he won't be given the Caged Bird Seal. Father is still under pressure from the main family elders. Mother… I should've listened to you and taken things slower. Hinata, I'm sorry. You have such potential... greater than my own. I just hope she can cope with my death.
Haa… I promised Hanabi I'd buy her a three-colored dango.
--
A/N: Kakuzu encountered neji before itachi.