The two figures he had chosen were not the Sannin or his teammates. Against a Kage-level threat like Kakuzu, their current strength would be a hindrance, not a help.
His first and only choice from the start had been a fellow Root agent, a veteran jonin from his own Shimura clan, codenamed 'Inu.' He'd long forgotten the man's real name.
He had thought Inu would be his sole backup, but the mission parameters had shifted, granting him two additional shadows.
Their uniforms marked them as Anbu. While the attire was similar, the aura was different; Root operatives, creatures of the dark, carried a unique, chilling gloom that regular Anbu lacked.
Yet, Yuta's gaze was drawn to one of them—the one with a shock of white hair peeking from under his mask, standing barely taller than Yuta himself, with a sword strapped to his back. The combination was familiar.
A pity about the fox-faced mask hiding his face.
"You've all reviewed the target's profile," Yuta's voice echoed, filtered and authoritative from behind his own mask. "Your mission is to assist in the elimination of this high-value rogue shinobi from Takigakure." He let the weight of the words settle. "Our intelligence is superior. I will accept no casualties."
Behind his own mask, Sakumo Hatake's eyes flickered with interest.
Yes.
The white-haired Anbu was none other than the future White Fang of Konoha. For now, he was just a promising newcomer, two years into his Anbu service, playing a supporting role in this operation.
—
'But the target… a man with five hearts, capable of stealing organs and chakra natures of others… He sounded less like a man and more like a monster.'
What intrigued Sakumo more was the intelligence itself. Details this critical had eluded even the Anbu's networks, yet Root possessed them.
'Did Lord Danzo's organization truly have a more sophisticated intelligence network than the Hokage's own?'
A troubling thought.
—
—
Kakuzu stepped out from the underground exchange, the heavy door groaning shut behind him. He tilted his head, his eyes narrowing to slits against the sun's relentless glare, before letting his gaze fall again.
'Another transaction complete. Another thirteen million ryo secured.'
'Money,' he thought with a grim, internal satisfaction. 'The only companion that never betrays you.'
As a notorious rogue shinobi from Takigakure, a prized name on Konoha's bingo books, Kakuzu felt no need to skulk in the shadows.
The ambush eight years ago was a faded receipt from a minor transaction, long since filed away and forgotten.
His absence from the Land of Fire in the intervening years was mere happenstance, a result of taking contracts across the wider shinobi world—not a flight from consequence.
Concealed within the forest's embrace, Yuta watched the man swagger through the clearing below, his gaze a shard of ice.
'Arrogant. No concept of being hunted, walking through the Land of Fire as if on a holiday tour.'
'Good. It would make this easier.'
He would repay Kakuzu in kind, using the same brutal ambush tactics the man had used on his father.
Now, he would end it with the Sage Arts, a power he had yet to fully make his own.
Sage Mode… Now.
In the space between one heartbeat and the next, Yuta vanished.
From his hidden vantage point, Sakumo Hatake felt his pupils contract in disbelief.
The Hatake clan was a small but old clan, its lineage stretching back into the fog of the Warring States Period. They possessed their own secret arts. "Sword-Ninjutsu," a seamless fusion of blade work and chakra manipulation, was their inheritance, a style that demanded a physique honed to its absolute peak.
Sakumo knew his own body was a finely-tuned instrument, yet the speed Yuta had just displayed was terrifying.
'So this is the target of the mission…' Sakumo remained perfectly still, his every sense focused on the scene about to unfold below.
"Who's there?!"
Kakuzu's reaction was a testament to a lifetime of survival. His body moved on pure instinct, a hair's breadth ahead of his conscious mind.
His skin darkened, taking on the texture and sheen of polished obsidian in a fraction of a second.
Earth Release: Earth Spear!
'You think that will save you?'
'How naive.'
Yuta materialized as if from nowhere, angled to Kakuzu's flank. A sphere of violently churning blue energy was already roaring to life in his palm.
Sage Art: Rasengan!
"Impossible!" Kakuzu shouted.
The shock that lanced through Kakuzu was visceral. He, the master of ambush, had been caught completely off-guard! And his attacker showed no hesitation, his first move a killing strike!
The blue sphere of compressed chaos slammed into Kakuzu's hardened torso.
The world detonated in a BOOM. Kakuzu was swallowed by the violent release of energy, his form obliterated in the concussive blast.
A thick plume of dust and debris mushroomed outward, obscuring the point of impact.
Yuta landed softly in the settling grit, his posture relaxed, his expression behind the mask unreadable and calm.
'He's used that trick to fake his death countless times. But your bag of tricks is empty before me. This illusion won't work.'
"You damn brat!!"
The roar of pure rage erupted from the heart of the dust cloud. Kakuzu's true, monstrous form was unveiled as his body tore itself apart, revealing the horrifying truth of the Earth Grudge Fear.
Four grotesque, mask-like entities burst from his back, monstrous parasites connected by thick, black tendrils.
The Sage Art: Rasengan had already claimed one victim—his Earth Release mask was gone, pulverized.
The loss was an infuriating wound. But the greater insult was the anonymity. He didn't even know who had struck him!
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
From the mask marked with the sigil of Lightning Release, a spear of pure, crackling electricity lanced through the choking dust, a dense, killing current aimed with lethal precision.
"Lightning Release?"
"A shame. I know that one, too."
Yuta's response was instantaneous. Lightning chakra, wild and searing, coalesced in his own hand. It writhed and shrieked, the sound of a thousand birds crying out for blood.
Then, in a display of immense control, the sound was snuffed out, compressed into a dead silence that was somehow more menacing.
All that remained was the lightning itself, focused into a blade of blinding incandescence.
Sage Art: Lightning Blade!
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